I agree. The next logical step after that would be to post a pre-defined Google search that will result in hits containing the DeCSS source.
Would the MPAA then go after Google and other search engines since they would now be the sites providing the links?
It is bad enough to ban posting the links (which I assume has to be done by magistrates within each jurisdiction according to the laws within that jurisdication) but once you go after links you are essentially declaring US authority over the whole Internet. And last I checked, US magistrate can't regulate what goes on outside the US except maybe in the case of crimes against humanity, and then only with the blessing of the UN.
I stumbled across (this admittedly minimal) site looking to see if there was an official site for MS Windows Millennium Edition. As far as I can tell there still isn't one, but at least I know where to go to find a Window Washing robot for high-rise buildings.
When I started reading this article, looking at the first page, it looks like they may pick CLOS as their choice, I was thinking that's pretty impressive since the distro is only version 1.1 running on an underlying kernel that is only version 2.2.x.
However, peeking ahead at the conclusion page I read the headline and saw they picked MacOS because of its support for 'applications'. Without reading anymore I predicted that when c|net says applications, what they really mean is MS Office. Low and behold, when you read the detailed reason for the decision they specifically cite failure to support MS Office as one of the key reasons behind picking MacOS over CLOS.
Why someone that is trying to select an alternative to Windows, would set MS Office support as a selection factor is totally beyond me. MSOffice IS Windows. Just ask Bill Gates, in his TIME editorial he explained how inextricably linked the two products are. At anytime, MS could shutdown support for a MacOS version of Office, in fact they practically did in the past but eventually conceded to continue the line only with Jobs' promise to bundle MSIE (and therefore even more Windows code) with MacOS.
If you want a Windows free machine, you must also have an MSIE and MSOffice free machine.
I also got the strong impression that the MacOS advocate (Becky) didn't even look at WordPerfect Office. She seems to think that Excel (and aparently every other component of MS Office) is better than Quatro (and every component of WPO2K-L). If she can identify a feature, or usability issue, that Excel has and Quatro doesn't, I would like to know what it is. I expect the only difference is that she is more familiar with Excel.
According to this article Real has just released a new product that bundles RealAudio/Video, RealJukebox, and Netzip (which they have renamed RealDownload) together into a single product called Real Entertainment Center.
Actually it was Al Gore, and the voice was perfect (except there was no detectable lisp). I forgot to check the titles, did anyone notice if Gore did his own voice for the show?
I don't know why they have to be so mean to Steven Hawking, it seemed pretty unnecessary to depict him as so evil.
- I too am a big fan of ZoneAlarm and recommend it to any home users with a 24/7 connection.
- Have you noticed that ZA often warns of traffic on weird ports when you visit SlashDot?
- I really wish ZA would have a better log and better help related to what to do if you are being scanned/pinged/etc.
- Does anyone know if this Netzip Download Demon will still download files if you set ZA to disallow it from acting as a server, but still let it access the Internet as a client. (One of the better features of ZA is the ability to allow programs to run as clients OR servers OR both)
IANAL but . . . Copyrights aren't controlled in the same way patents are. Basically you can copyright anything you want and the government just signs off on it, they have no way of comparing it to every previously copyrighted work to ensure that you really have a unique work.
It is then up to the holders of existing copyrights to go after you if they feel your copyrighted work has infringed on their prior art.
If MS really thinks they have a defendable copyright, then they should have no problem answering the questions posed.
NATURE offering free issue with paper in it
on
Chromosome 21 Mapped
·
· Score: 1
I got the following email from Nature:
Dear Colleague: We are very pleased to offer all users of Nature's electronic services a FREE sample of the May 18th issue of Nature. To request a free print copy containing the Chromosome 21 paper, use the order form at: http://www.nature.com/marketing/freecopy/ These free copies of Nature are produced with support from AppliedBiosystems - http://www.appliedbiosystems.com Forward this e-mail to let your friends and colleagues know about this special offer. Chromosome 21 is the second human chromosome sequence to be documented, encompassing more than 33 million base pairs of DNA, and its publication therefore marks a major scientific milestone. A striking feature of the chromosome is that it contains less than 300 discernible genes. This implies that the whole human genome may contain no more than 40,000 genes, many fewer than previously thought. The chromosome sequence reveals the organisation of a number of genes linked to specific human disorders, and will speed the search for several more disease-linked genes. The availability of this sequence will also provide valuable tools for investigating the basis of Down syndrome, which is caused by the inheritance of three (rather than the normal two) copies ofchromosome 21. Yours sincerelyRichard GallagherBiological Sciences EditorNature
Re:Add Den to list of collapsing sites
on
Boo No More
·
· Score: 1
c|net is reporting that >en. (Digital Entertainment Network) has informed its staff it won't be able to make its payroll. The site has retained an investment banking firm to start looking for a buyer.
How could they possibly have a case against Yahoo!? It sounds like they are suing them for complying with the court orders.
It's also not like users aren't given fair warning (or that it's done as the press release states: "Without notifying the targeted users". Yahoo! has a very detailed Privacy Policy that explicitly states the following:
With whom does Yahoo! share my information? As a general rule, Yahoo! will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it....
Yahoo! may also disclose account information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating Yahoo!'s Terms of Service or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) Yahoo!'s rights or property, other Yahoo! users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. Yahoo! may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.
Based on my reading, they don't even have to wait for a court order as long as someone feels they were harmed.
Another firm, Celestis has a plan to send a portion of your cremated remains to the moon. It will cost about $12,000 to have 7 ounces of ash (about 1/16 of normal human remains) sent up in a lipstick size urn.
What maniac decided that it was a good idea to make it easy for any anonymous person to mail code to you that can rewrite the registry in one, nice, easy-to-use line?
The following three line script saved with the extension.reg can be run with a simple mouse click if attached to email in Outlook.
The ILoveYou virus changed this key in order to have the WIN-BUGSFIX.exe file become the default IE start page. Users opening IE would be prompted to download and install a new Windows patch, that was actually an password grabber.
"The only Turing complete languages I ever run directly as an attachment from mutt are Postscript and PDF."
Well you could certainly embed a link in the PDF file to some other form of active content. So you could use it for the spreading of a virus or trojan.
I don't think this applies to this case, unless consider them stupid for using HotMail in the first place.
The exploit involves clicking on an HTML attachment. If we stop considering HTML as safe the whole web would crumble.
I don't know that I would blaim MS so much either in that HTML and JavaScript are reasonably safe it is just this particular combination of running a javascript that appears to be from hotmail itself, and therefor can access Hotmail cookies. As sugested elsewhere, MS should change the aparent origin of attached email files to be another domain, like test.com.
I collect antique technology like TV's, phones, radios, clocks, etc. This product is just an interim kludge until PC's and TV's are integrated into a spectrum of related devices. (I think there will be boxes more geared to entertainment and others more geared to work and/or surfing, but all of the devices will have some capability at the other functions).
Also, they will all be connected to some sort of home network. Why should you need to print from your TV when your PC uses the same cable to get its Internet access? Why not just put a TV card in your PC and use a monitor for your TV (especially for DTV or HDTV)?
This c|net article says that KODAK is working with Scientific-Atlanta to develop software that will allow cable TV subscribers to send and view photographs through their TVs. You could view pictures sent directly to you on a special cable channel.
As far as I can tell the set-top box would interface with digital cameras, so the proccess may not work with tradional prints.
But this would be a great companion device with the HP printer since you could send pix of the grandkids to Mom & Dad, and they could view and print them without getting a PC or Internet access. Assuming there would be a way to avoid printing the ads supporting the system.
What this implies, (but which is never stated) is that the ISP must have KNOWINGLY distributed the weaker version of the virus.
I think your interpretation is accurate given what is in the article, however, the article doesn't provide all the information.
What Sky Internet was (presumably unknowingly) distributing was copies of the file WIN-BUGFIX.EXE which the ILOVEYOU trojan downloaded to users harddrives AFTER they had run the ILOVEYOU.vbs trojan. The article refers to this second file when it says the trojan "accessed a program that would search out login names and passwords, then mail them back to the Love Bug author." When the article says "that portion of the virus" they mean the second file which only 2000 people downloaded from Sky Internet.
Once Sky Internet was aware someone was using their site to distribute this second piece of software, they yanked the accounts used to host the file.
I don't think Sky Internet wouldn't have had any access to the original trojan (other than anyone else that has received a copy) and wouldn't have edited it out part of it but then forwarded the rest.
I agree to the extent that the writer of the trojan built a tool, and that tool in itself shouldn't be considered illegal, anymore than a kitchen knife which in the wrong hands could be used to kill someone.
I think it comes down to intent. From the CNN article, it appears the intent was (at least partly) to obtain passwords and userids. If the trojan was created and launched with that intent then I think a crime was committed. And at least in the US, with typically find anyone that commited a crime to also be responsible for the unintended damage that resulted from the crime being carried out (such as armed robbers being guilt of murder if they shoot someone while commiting the robbery).
Likewise, MS had to settle with Caldera because of the intent of making Windows incompatible with other versions of DOS.
Tasty Bits Technology Front has an easy kludge fix to disable all VBscript by editing a single Registry key. You could also use a similar approach to disable the running of most "active content" attachments. By saving the fix to a.reg file and you can run it by double-clicking it (such as an attachment to an email). Which brings up the question, how much harm could be done just by changing registry keys. The.vbs trojans accomplish alot of their mischief by simply changing a bunch of registry keys, including changing the default IE start page to the WIN-BUGSFIX.exe secondary trojan. Should we disable Windows ability to automatically install.reg patches?
Here's an AP Article on the essay. It contains this passage (which seems to be broadly paraphrased) regarding preventing future outbreaks of ILOVEYOU type viruses where Gates sounds like an an open source evangelist:
"The front line of defense against such sophisticated viruses is a continually evolving computer operating system that attracts the efforts of eager software developers, Gates said."
The astronomers think the missing matter exists as highly charged hydrogen between galaxies. Since such hydrogen is hard to see, they had to seek indirect evidence by looking at oxygen that had been spewed into space by exploding stars. The hot hydrogen heats the oxygen into an excited state that can be observed.
Astronomers found the oxygen by using the light of a distant quasar to probe the invisible space between the galaxies, like shining a flashlight beam through a fog. Quasars are distant, very energetic, stellar objects that can spew X-rays and visible light equal to the brightness of trillions of stars.
With the Hubble Telescope, the astronomers saw traces of the oxygen in the quasar's light, which had crossed through vast distances of space.
the article says "the program Corley posted was originally one part of an open-source project to develop a movie disc player for the Linux operating system favored by hardcore programmers. Linux supporters saw Hollywood's tactics as a call to arms. They posted thousands of copies of DeCSS throughout the Web as a show of support for Corley.
I know there is a lot of crossover and blurr between the OSS and 2600/warez communities, but I think this statement makes it sound like this is a 2600 issue that has gained support from OSS, not the other way around.
IMHO, its actually the 2600/warez community that has muddied this issue, and gives the MPAA a bright red target to accuse. The OSS community (or at least a significant part of it) is as much against pirating as the MPAA, just try and violate the GPL and see what response you get, even if you do it unintentionally.
While I have no problem with the OSS community getting support from the 2600/warez community, Corley and others shouldn't take the lead claiming they are innocent and have no intentions of using DeCSS for violating copyrights.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. The next logical step after that would be to post a pre-defined Google search that will result in hits containing the DeCSS source.
Would the MPAA then go after Google and other search engines since they would now be the sites providing the links?
It is bad enough to ban posting the links (which I assume has to be done by magistrates within each jurisdiction according to the laws within that jurisdication) but once you go after links you are essentially declaring US authority over the whole Internet. And last I checked, US magistrate can't regulate what goes on outside the US except maybe in the case of crimes against humanity, and then only with the blessing of the UN.
I stumbled across (this admittedly minimal) site looking to see if there was an official site for MS Windows Millennium Edition. As far as I can tell there still isn't one, but at least I know where to go to find a Window Washing robot for high-rise buildings.
When I started reading this article, looking at the first page, it looks like they may pick CLOS as their choice, I was thinking that's pretty impressive since the distro is only version 1.1 running on an underlying kernel that is only version 2.2.x.
However, peeking ahead at the conclusion page I read the headline and saw they picked MacOS because of its support for 'applications'. Without reading anymore I predicted that when c|net says applications, what they really mean is MS Office. Low and behold, when you read the detailed reason for the decision they specifically cite failure to support MS Office as one of the key reasons behind picking MacOS over CLOS.
Why someone that is trying to select an alternative to Windows, would set MS Office support as a selection factor is totally beyond me. MSOffice IS Windows. Just ask Bill Gates, in his TIME editorial he explained how inextricably linked the two products are. At anytime, MS could shutdown support for a MacOS version of Office, in fact they practically did in the past but eventually conceded to continue the line only with Jobs' promise to bundle MSIE (and therefore even more Windows code) with MacOS.
If you want a Windows free machine, you must also have an MSIE and MSOffice free machine.
I also got the strong impression that the MacOS advocate (Becky) didn't even look at WordPerfect Office. She seems to think that Excel (and aparently every other component of MS Office) is better than Quatro (and every component of WPO2K-L). If she can identify a feature, or usability issue, that Excel has and Quatro doesn't, I would like to know what it is. I expect the only difference is that she is more familiar with Excel.
He was doing his own voice. This article talks about the gues voice appearance.
Aparently one of Gore's daughters work for the show.
According to this article Real has just released a new product that bundles RealAudio/Video, RealJukebox, and Netzip (which they have renamed RealDownload) together into a single product called Real Entertainment Center.
Actually it was Al Gore, and the voice was perfect (except there was no detectable lisp). I forgot to check the titles, did anyone notice if Gore did his own voice for the show?
I don't know why they have to be so mean to Steven Hawking, it seemed pretty unnecessary to depict him as so evil.
A couple of Points:
- I too am a big fan of ZoneAlarm and recommend it to any home users with a 24/7 connection.
- Have you noticed that ZA often warns of traffic on weird ports when you visit SlashDot?
- I really wish ZA would have a better log and better help related to what to do if you are being scanned/pinged/etc.
- Does anyone know if this Netzip Download Demon will still download files if you set ZA to disallow it from acting as a server, but still let it access the Internet as a client. (One of the better features of ZA is the ability to allow programs to run as clients OR servers OR both)
IANAL but . . .
Copyrights aren't controlled in the same way patents are. Basically you can copyright anything you want and the government just signs off on it, they have no way of comparing it to every previously copyrighted work to ensure that you really have a unique work.
It is then up to the holders of existing copyrights to go after you if they feel your copyrighted work has infringed on their prior art.
If MS really thinks they have a defendable copyright, then they should have no problem answering the questions posed.
I got the following email from Nature:
Dear Colleague:
We are very pleased to offer all users of Nature's electronic services a
FREE sample of the May 18th issue of Nature. To request a free print copy
containing the Chromosome 21 paper, use the order form at:
http://www.nature.com/marketing/freecopy/
These free copies of Nature are produced with support from AppliedBiosystems -
http://www.appliedbiosystems.com
Forward this e-mail to let your friends and colleagues know about this
special offer.
Chromosome 21 is the second human chromosome sequence to be documented,
encompassing more than 33 million base pairs of DNA, and its publication
therefore marks a major scientific milestone. A striking feature of the
chromosome is that it contains less than 300 discernible genes. This implies
that the whole human genome may contain no more than 40,000 genes, many
fewer than previously thought.
The chromosome sequence reveals the organisation of a number of genes linked
to specific human disorders, and will speed the search for several more
disease-linked genes. The availability of this sequence will also provide
valuable tools for investigating the basis of Down syndrome, which is caused
by the inheritance of three (rather than the normal two) copies ofchromosome 21.
Yours sincerelyRichard GallagherBiological Sciences EditorNature
c|net is reporting that >en. (Digital Entertainment Network) has informed its staff it won't be able to make its payroll. The site has retained an investment banking firm to start looking for a buyer.
It's another site that suffers from over design.
Exactly what certification does "MSFC" stand for?
I think its the M$ FUD Certification that they give to all their lackeys in the press and at certain 'independent' testing and consulting firms.
It's also not like users aren't given fair warning (or that it's done as the press release states: "Without notifying the targeted users". Yahoo! has a very detailed Privacy Policy that explicitly states the following:
Based on my reading, they don't even have to wait for a court order as long as someone feels they were harmed.
Another firm, Celestis has a plan to send a portion of your cremated remains to the moon. It will cost about $12,000 to have 7 ounces of ash (about 1/16 of normal human remains) sent up in a lipstick size urn.
Here are some press articles about the plan:
AP, BBC, Reuters SF Chronicle
The following three line script saved with the extension
The ILoveYou virus changed this key in order to have the WIN-BUGSFIX.exe file become the default IE start page. Users opening IE would be prompted to download and install a new Windows patch, that was actually an password grabber.
"The only Turing complete languages I ever run directly as an attachment from mutt are Postscript and PDF."
Well you could certainly embed a link in the PDF file to some other form of active content. So you could use it for the spreading of a virus or trojan.
I don't think this applies to this case, unless consider them stupid for using HotMail in the first place.
The exploit involves clicking on an HTML attachment. If we stop considering HTML as safe the whole web would crumble.
I don't know that I would blaim MS so much either in that HTML and JavaScript are reasonably safe it is just this particular combination of running a javascript that appears to be from hotmail itself, and therefor can access Hotmail cookies. As sugested elsewhere, MS should change the aparent origin of attached email files to be another domain, like test.com.
I collect antique technology like TV's, phones, radios, clocks, etc. This product is just an interim kludge until PC's and TV's are integrated into a spectrum of related devices. (I think there will be boxes more geared to entertainment and others more geared to work and/or surfing, but all of the devices will have some capability at the other functions).
Also, they will all be connected to some sort of home network. Why should you need to print from your TV when your PC uses the same cable to get its Internet access? Why not just put a TV card in your PC and use a monitor for your TV (especially for DTV or HDTV)?
As indication of things to come, PC's outsold TV's in Japan last year.
This c|net article says that KODAK is working with Scientific-Atlanta to develop software that will allow cable TV subscribers to send and view photographs through their TVs. You could view pictures sent directly to you on a special cable channel.
As far as I can tell the set-top box would interface with digital cameras, so the proccess may not work with tradional prints.
But this would be a great companion device with the HP printer since you could send pix of the grandkids to Mom & Dad, and they could view and print them without getting a PC or Internet access. Assuming there would be a way to avoid printing the ads supporting the system.
What this implies, (but which is never stated) is that the ISP must have KNOWINGLY distributed the weaker version of the virus.
.vbs trojan. The article refers to this second file when it says the trojan "accessed a program that would search out login names and passwords, then mail them back to the Love Bug author." When the article says "that portion of the virus" they mean the second file which only 2000 people downloaded from Sky Internet.
I think your interpretation is accurate given what is in the article, however, the article doesn't provide all the information.
What Sky Internet was (presumably unknowingly) distributing was copies of the file WIN-BUGFIX.EXE which the ILOVEYOU trojan downloaded to users harddrives AFTER they had run the ILOVEYOU
Once Sky Internet was aware someone was using their site to distribute this second piece of software, they yanked the accounts used to host the file.
I don't think Sky Internet wouldn't have had any access to the original trojan (other than anyone else that has received a copy) and wouldn't have edited it out part of it but then forwarded the rest.
I agree to the extent that the writer of the trojan built a tool, and that tool in itself shouldn't be considered illegal, anymore than a kitchen knife which in the wrong hands could be used to kill someone.
I think it comes down to intent. From the CNN article, it appears the intent was (at least partly) to obtain passwords and userids. If the trojan was created and launched with that intent then I think a crime was committed. And at least in the US, with typically find anyone that commited a crime to also be responsible for the unintended damage that resulted from the crime being carried out (such as armed robbers being guilt of murder if they shoot someone while commiting the robbery).
Likewise, MS had to settle with Caldera because of the intent of making Windows incompatible with other versions of DOS.
Tasty Bits Technology Front has an easy kludge fix to disable all VBscript by editing a single Registry key. You could also use a similar approach to disable the running of most "active content" attachments. .reg file and you can run it by double-clicking it (such as an attachment to an email). Which brings up the question, how much harm could be done just by changing registry keys. The .vbs trojans accomplish alot of their mischief by simply changing a bunch of registry keys, including changing the default IE start page to the WIN-BUGSFIX.exe secondary trojan. Should we disable Windows ability to automatically install .reg patches?
By saving the fix to a
TIME has an essay from Bill Gates this week.
Here's an AP Article on the essay. It contains this passage (which seems to be broadly paraphrased) regarding preventing future outbreaks of ILOVEYOU type viruses where Gates sounds like an an open source evangelist:
"The front line of defense against such sophisticated viruses is a continually evolving computer operating system that attracts the efforts of eager software developers, Gates said."
. As usual, Spaceref.com had this posted yesterday, Slashdot is tad slow on the uptake where space science and exploration is concerned.
I don't know what time Spaceref.com posted it, but I know that I posted it here on the already started Hubble Thread yesterday morning at 7:47am.
SlashDot is a community effort, you have to credit the posts to already started threads in addition to new threads announced by Rob & Hemos, et al.
Meanwhile, we now have two new Astronomy threads started this morning, but none on the REAL Astronomical (and Astrological!) story of the day.
Here's a link to the Journal abstract: Intervening O VI Quasar Absorption Systems at Low Redshift: A Significant Baryon Reservoir . (Warning: PhD in Astrophysics required to just to read it)
the article says "the program Corley posted was originally one part of an open-source project to develop a movie disc player for the Linux operating system favored by hardcore programmers. Linux supporters saw Hollywood's tactics as a call to arms. They posted thousands of copies of DeCSS throughout the Web as a show of support for Corley.
I know there is a lot of crossover and blurr between the OSS and 2600/warez communities, but I think this statement makes it sound like this is a 2600 issue that has gained support from OSS, not the other way around.
IMHO, its actually the 2600/warez community that has muddied this issue, and gives the MPAA a bright red target to accuse. The OSS community (or at least a significant part of it) is as much against pirating as the MPAA, just try and violate the GPL and see what response you get, even if you do it unintentionally.
While I have no problem with the OSS community getting support from the 2600/warez community, Corley and others shouldn't take the lead claiming they are innocent and have no intentions of using DeCSS for violating copyrights.