Contact: Rich Taylor or Phuong Yokitis Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) 202/293-1966
Emily Kutner MPAA 818/995-6600
John Stodder Edelman Public Relations 323/857-9100
MPAA's Valenti Hails New York Federal Judge's Ruling Shutting Down DVD Hackers as "Major Victory" in Battle against Digital Piracy
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (January 20, 2000) - In a major victory for copyright protection, the motion picture industry today celebrated a federal judge's ruling that will force a group of New York-based Internet hackers to stop the posting of software that allows illegal copying of DVDs.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York late this afternoon granted a request by the major motion picture studios for a preliminary injunction against operators of Internet sites that posted an unauthorized de-encryption formula on their sites. This software was developed to hack the DVD encryption system.
The judge's order means three New York defendants, Shawn C. Reimerdes, Eric Corley A/K/A "Emmanuel Goldstein" and Roman Kazan, must immediately remove the de-encryption formula from their Internet sites or face contempt of court.
"Judge Kaplan's ruling represents a great victory for creative artists, consumers and copyright owners everywhere. I think this serves as a wake-up call to anyone who contemplates stealing intellectual property," said Jack Valenti, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America. "This ruling also means that when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, it gave the creative community a powerful tool to defend our rights."
Additional information on this case may be found on the MPAA web site at www.mpaa.org.
Was this woman forced to go to McDonald's? Was she forced to buy a coffee? Was she forced to drive a car and drink the coffee at the same time? Certainly not. If she prefered to have coffee her way, then she could've stayed at home and made it herself. The fact is, she took the initiative to buy a coffee, and not the other way around. Since when do people stop taking responsibility for their actions and not try to put the blame on others?
To shoot off into a tangent, the reason the population will be pushing 10 billion is because we are getting better medicine, more health care, and better prevention of diseases. An unfortunate consequence of our technology is that we are saving too many people. I'm all for exploring the universe and any other strange phenomena. However, we also have to solve the problems here at Earth too. Also, the sun won't expand into a red giant for another 5 billion years, so we will have enough time to colonize other planets in our galaxy. I just don't think our main reason for exploring the universe should be to populate it. We should enjoy the information we can extrapolate from it.
I think it is important that we remember that NASA said it wouldn't be totally unexpected if they didn't hear from the MPL after 2 or 3 windows of opportunity. I don't think we can expect everything to go right. However, we should keep an optimistic attitude until pessimism is warranted.
I think we need to keep exploring other worlds and phenomena. It may seem boring or trivial to us, but many scientists, geologists, and others are finding crucial information about Mars that may answer some of our questions concering the Earth's origin and maybe the possibility of life. We shouldn't check our curiosity, rather, we should use it to our advantage. It's too bad, though, that NASA's funding is being cut.
Also, NASA may begin using the Mars Global Surveyor to relay input commands into the Mars Polar Lander. They might also receive info from the MGS that originated from the MPL. As you have said, NASA has plenty of options and there is no reason to worry.
I remember watching an episode of NOVA about time travel on PBS a bit ago. Stephen Hawking said on that program that time travel isn't really probable. He also said if it were possible: "how come there haven't been any time traveling vacationers from the future?" An interesting hyposthesis!
I was watching PBS a bit ago and I saw an episode of NOVA on time travel. Your situation, or a situation like it, was brought up. Kip Thorne answered that by speaking of billiards; more specifically, about how when one hits a ball, that ball may hit another, and then the ball may fall into a pocket. (sorry if that is a tad confusing) Thorne explained that even if, for instance, I went back in time and saved my friend, as in your example, my action would start a chain reaction that would have me go into the past again, or something to that extent.
Another interesting tid-bit about Europa is that it may perhaps contain more water than Earth, enlarging the possibility of oceania life. Hopefully, NASA will send a probe there soon.
At http://www.msnbc.com/news/340436.asp MSNBC has a lot of info on the 6 planets including their mass, period, distance from Earth, and orbital distance.
At http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/29/space.planet s.reut/ there is a great article about this discovery. They actually discovered 6 planets, 5 of which are somewhat hospitable to life.
I was just surfing to look at truste.org when I saw a list of their sponsors on their home page. Lo and behold, Real Networks is a "contributing corporate sponsor." This has to lower TrustE's credibility...
I wonder: if that tunnel was constructed, would there be a problem with the magnets? Would there be any un-for-seen variations within Earth's own magnetosphere that would cause the payload to slow down? I'm definitely not an expert, but I'm just curious about this project.
I'm interested to know how many states have laws forcing teachers to teach about creationism. Does anyone know? I hope it's not beyond New Mexico...
Rajiv Varma
Can the government show self-control?
on
CALEA update
·
· Score: 1
Wire taps are okay in SOME cases, but they do scare me. The problem is, the government doesn't have to answer to anybody. As long as the American economy is doing good, people in general who are not informed about what's happening in the world around them will not care. People who read news on sites such as Slashdot have been informed about these privacy invasions and wiretaps, yet they only make up a small percentage of the population. I guess it's up to the government to regulate itself.... (good luck)
Your point is well taken, but do you really want to live in a world dominated by the military? Life on Earth would be so much better (IMHO) if the military were given a low priority. However, this cannot happen anytime soon because of other countries who are still learning that life is a lot more than money and possessions.
Of course, I didn't mean *cut* the whole military budget. I just meant stop throwing money away funding bigger and heavier ships, airplanes, and subs. As much as people say we need the military, it does not need all the money in the world.
Well, since the Senate passed that $792 billion tax cut, you'd have to think they would have to make up for that in another tax. I just hope it actually goes to something worthy, such as education or the sciences and not to the military. Of course, this tax could confuse some people, therby making e-commerce just a little harder for the computer-illiterate. But realistically, couldn't the government just leave the 'net alone for another decade to keep its progession going? Government interference in these matters can be either good or bad, and it looks like the latter is about to come true. Well, better buy stuff while you still can "tax-free".
I don't know.. I haven't really seen any estimates as to how much money it will cost. However, this *seems* to be just as bad as the impeachment trials in terms of wasting money and time.
The U.S. government's job since the beginning of our fore-fathers has been to oversee the nation as a whole and not interfere in the private actions of its citizens. The U.S. government needs to step back, take a breath, and rethink what they're doing. As many good things the government does, you have to wonder about those times when they do something wrong.
This is so great that technology is coming out with this much storage possibility. I mean this new cdrom makes DVD storage capacity look pretty lame. However, how much of a good thing is this actually? It seems everytime consumers get a great product [i.e. DVD], another new product suprises it from behind a month later, scaring any possible customers from buying DVD [for example]. This penny-sized cdrom is a big deal, I suppose. But, how much money and how much time would it take to deploy to the rest of the world? Anyways, this is a cool invention. I hope to see it [or a similar type] in the near future.
I guess I don't completely understand this situation, but let me try to pick my words correctly: the Fullon3d web site is labeling Seti@Home an enemy, they want optimized software, and they keep saying Seti@Home is trying to stall. Ok...I still don't get it. 1) I guess we could start by saying the Seti@Home Project is not a video game; it is a distributed computing project connecting hundreds of thousands of computers actively working on the same task. All of this optimization stuff doesn't mean a thing for this project and it's goals. Fullon3d is also reporting that the Seti@Home Project has a lot of competition, which is entirely true. And, as a way to curb this growing *obsession* with work units, they propose the following: ----- "Limit the submission of units to one machine per email address. Disallow the transfer of units between accounts. Retire the Top 20 teams and accounts of all categories every 2 months, that will make it less appealing to push so hard to the top." ----- Of course, they want to stigmatize competition, but yet, they want to optimize the client to make processing units faster!! Seems a bit contradicting doesn't it? Also, I'm fine running the client software on my P166 comp with 88mb of memory. IMHO, the project is running fine. What need will making the client run *a little* faster fill? * 2) Everyone has already seen the negative aspects of opening the source, so I don't have to refresh your minds. But, let's think about this situation with some common sense; there is no need to label Seti the enemy. * 3) Oh yeah one more thing: fullon3d was comparing the Seti@Home project to this: ----- "How would you feel building a road to the hungry people of the world with your bare hands while the initiator of the project doesn't want you to have shovels because they didn't think to buy trucks and groceries yet?" ----- What? They are two unrelated situations that deal with different varibles and have no relevance on either of them! The fact is, if you don't want to help Seti, don't download the program.
Hey, I've heard that in a few million years or so, Titan might develop life [i.e. microscopic life]. However, there is that little point about the temperature being -180 C. But, from what it seems, in the future, Titan could be another natural resource depleted by humans. We're almost running on empty on Earth, what's wrong with going after Titan's oil reservoir? [a bit of satire overcame me]
Slashdot Mirror
Found this at www.mpaa.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 20, 2000
Contact:
Rich Taylor or Phuong Yokitis
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
202/293-1966
Emily Kutner
MPAA
818/995-6600
John Stodder
Edelman Public Relations
323/857-9100
MPAA's Valenti Hails New York Federal Judge's Ruling Shutting Down DVD Hackers
as "Major Victory" in Battle against Digital Piracy
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (January 20, 2000) - In a major victory for copyright protection, the motion picture industry today celebrated a federal judge's ruling that will force a group of New York-based Internet hackers to stop the posting of software that allows illegal copying of DVDs.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York late this afternoon granted a request by the major motion picture studios for a preliminary injunction against operators of Internet sites that posted an unauthorized de-encryption formula on their sites. This software was developed to hack the DVD encryption system.
The judge's order means three New York defendants, Shawn C. Reimerdes, Eric Corley A/K/A "Emmanuel Goldstein" and Roman Kazan, must immediately remove the de-encryption formula from their Internet sites or face contempt of court.
"Judge Kaplan's ruling represents a great victory for creative artists, consumers and copyright owners everywhere. I think this serves as a wake-up call to anyone who contemplates stealing intellectual property," said Jack Valenti, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America. "This ruling also means that when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, it gave the creative community a powerful tool to defend our rights."
Additional information on this case may be found on the MPAA web site at www.mpaa.org.
# # #
Copyright Press Releases
----
Rajiv Varma
Was this woman forced to go to McDonald's? Was she forced to buy a coffee? Was she forced to drive a car and drink the coffee at the same time? Certainly not. If she prefered to have coffee her way, then she could've stayed at home and made it herself. The fact is, she took the initiative to buy a coffee, and not the other way around. Since when do people stop taking responsibility for their actions and not try to put the blame on others?
Rajiv Varma
To shoot off into a tangent, the reason the population will be pushing 10 billion is because we are getting better medicine, more health care, and better prevention of diseases. An unfortunate consequence of our technology is that we are saving too many people. I'm all for exploring the universe and any other strange phenomena. However, we also have to solve the problems here at Earth too.
Also, the sun won't expand into a red giant for another 5 billion years, so we will have enough time to colonize other planets in our galaxy. I just don't think our main reason for exploring the universe should be to populate it. We should enjoy the information we can extrapolate from it.
Rajiv Varma
I think it is important that we remember that NASA said it wouldn't be totally unexpected if they didn't hear from the MPL after 2 or 3 windows of opportunity. I don't think we can expect everything to go right. However, we should keep an optimistic attitude until pessimism is warranted.
Rajiv Varma
I think we need to keep exploring other worlds and phenomena. It may seem boring or trivial to us, but many scientists, geologists, and others are finding crucial information about Mars that may answer some of our questions concering the Earth's origin and maybe the possibility of life. We shouldn't check our curiosity, rather, we should use it to our advantage. It's too bad, though, that NASA's funding is being cut.
Rajiv Varma
Also, NASA may begin using the Mars Global Surveyor to relay input commands into the Mars Polar Lander. They might also receive info from the MGS that originated from the MPL. As you have said, NASA has plenty of options and there is no reason to worry.
Rajiv Varma
Hello:
I remember watching an episode of NOVA about time travel on PBS a bit ago. Stephen Hawking said on that program that time travel isn't really probable. He also said if it were possible: "how come there haven't been any time traveling vacationers from the future?" An interesting hyposthesis!
Rajiv Varma
Hello:
I was watching PBS a bit ago and I saw an episode of NOVA on time travel. Your situation, or a situation like it, was brought up. Kip Thorne answered that by speaking of billiards; more specifically, about how when one hits a ball, that ball may hit another, and then the ball may fall into a pocket. (sorry if that is a tad confusing) Thorne explained that even if, for instance, I went back in time and saved my friend, as in your example, my action would start a chain reaction that would have me go into the past again, or something to that extent.
Rajiv Varma
Another interesting tid-bit about Europa is that it may perhaps contain more water than Earth, enlarging the possibility of oceania life. Hopefully, NASA will send a probe there soon.
Rajiv Varma
At http://www.msnbc.com/news/340436.asp MSNBC has a lot of info on the 6 planets including their mass, period, distance from Earth, and orbital distance.
Rajiv Varma
At http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/29/space.planet s.reut/ there is a great article about this discovery. They actually discovered 6 planets, 5 of which are somewhat hospitable to life.
Rajiv Varma
At http://www.msnbc.com/news/339196.asp MSNBC has something on quantum computing.
Rajiv Varma
I was just surfing to look at truste.org when I saw a list of their sponsors on their home page. Lo and behold, Real Networks is a "contributing corporate sponsor." This has to lower TrustE's credibility...
Rajiv Varma
I wonder: if that tunnel was constructed, would there be a problem with the magnets? Would there be any un-for-seen variations within Earth's own magnetosphere that would cause the payload to slow down? I'm definitely not an expert, but I'm just curious about this project.
Rajiv Varma
I'm interested to know how many states have laws forcing teachers to teach about creationism. Does anyone know? I hope it's not beyond New Mexico...
Rajiv Varma
Wire taps are okay in SOME cases, but they do scare me. The problem is, the government doesn't have to answer to anybody. As long as the American economy is doing good, people in general who are not informed about what's happening in the world around them will not care. People who read news on sites such as Slashdot have been informed about these privacy invasions and wiretaps, yet they only make up a small percentage of the population. I guess it's up to the government to regulate itself.... (good luck)
Rajiv Varma
Your point is well taken, but do you really want to live in a world dominated by the military? Life on Earth would be so much better (IMHO) if the military were given a low priority. However, this cannot happen anytime soon because of other countries who are still learning that life is a lot more than money and possessions.
Rajiv Varma
I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. Could you rephrase it for me please?
Rajiv Varma
Of course, I didn't mean *cut* the whole military budget. I just meant stop throwing money away funding bigger and heavier ships, airplanes, and subs. As much as people say we need the military, it does not need all the money in the world.
Rajiv Varma
Well, since the Senate passed that $792 billion tax cut, you'd have to think they would have to make up for that in another tax. I just hope it actually goes to something worthy, such as education or the sciences and not to the military. Of course, this tax could confuse some people, therby making e-commerce just a little harder for the computer-illiterate. But realistically, couldn't the government just leave the 'net alone for another decade to keep its progession going? Government interference in these matters can be either good or bad, and it looks like the latter is about to come true. Well, better buy stuff while you still can "tax-free".
Rajiv Varma
I don't know.. I haven't really seen any estimates as to how much money it will cost. However, this *seems* to be just as bad as the impeachment trials in terms of wasting money and time.
Rajiv Varma
The U.S. government's job since the beginning of our fore-fathers has been to oversee the nation as a whole and not interfere in the private actions of its citizens. The U.S. government needs to step back, take a breath, and rethink what they're doing. As many good things the government does, you have to wonder about those times when they do something wrong.
Rajiv Varma
This is so great that technology is coming out with this much storage possibility. I mean this new cdrom makes DVD storage capacity look pretty lame. However, how much of a good thing is this actually? It seems everytime consumers get a great product [i.e. DVD], another new product suprises it from behind a month later, scaring any possible customers from buying DVD [for example]. This penny-sized cdrom is a big deal, I suppose. But, how much money and how much time would it take to deploy to the rest of the world? Anyways, this is a cool invention. I hope to see it [or a similar type] in the near future.
Rajiv Varma
I guess I don't completely understand this situation, but let me try to pick my words correctly: the Fullon3d web site is labeling Seti@Home an enemy, they want optimized software, and they keep saying Seti@Home is trying to stall. Ok...I still don't get it.
1) I guess we could start by saying the Seti@Home Project is not a video game; it is a distributed computing project connecting hundreds of thousands of computers actively working on the same task. All of this optimization stuff doesn't mean a thing for this project and it's goals. Fullon3d is also reporting that the Seti@Home Project has a lot of competition, which is entirely true. And, as a way to curb this growing *obsession* with work units, they propose the following:
-----
"Limit the submission of units to one machine per email address.
Disallow the transfer of units between accounts.
Retire the Top 20 teams and accounts of all categories every 2 months, that will make it less appealing to push so hard to the top."
-----
Of course, they want to stigmatize competition, but yet, they want to optimize the client to make processing units faster!! Seems a bit contradicting doesn't it? Also, I'm fine running the client software on my P166 comp with 88mb of memory. IMHO, the project is running fine. What need will making the client run *a little* faster fill?
*
2) Everyone has already seen the negative aspects of opening the source, so I don't have to refresh your minds. But, let's think about this situation with some common sense; there is no need to label Seti the enemy.
*
3) Oh yeah one more thing: fullon3d was comparing the Seti@Home project to this:
-----
"How would you feel building a road to the hungry people of the world with your bare hands while the initiator of the project doesn't want you to have shovels because they didn't think to buy trucks and groceries yet?"
-----
What? They are two unrelated situations that deal with different varibles and have no relevance on either of them! The fact is, if you don't want to help Seti, don't download the program.
Rajiv Varma
Hey, I've heard that in a few million years or so, Titan might develop life [i.e. microscopic life]. However, there is that little point about the temperature being -180 C. But, from what it seems, in the future, Titan could be another natural resource depleted by humans. We're almost running on empty on Earth, what's wrong with going after Titan's oil reservoir? [a bit of satire overcame me]
Rajiv Varma