posted 04-05-2008 01:59 AM                    

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By Eric Bangeman | Published: April 03, 2008 - 06:17PM CT

Earlier this week, a decision by the judge presiding over Elektra v. Barker was widely misreported as providing substantial support for the argument that making a song available over a P2P network constitutes copyright infringement. Another decision rendered the same day and just brought to light by the EFF actually does come to that conclusion, and the judge in that case has quashed a subpoena issued by the RIAA to learn the identities of four anonymous Boston University students.

Like the Barker decision, the EFF submitted an amicus curiae brief in London-Sire v. Does 1-4 raising many of the same arguments that it had in Elektra v. Barker and Atlantic v. Howell. The EFF argued that simply making music available on a P2P network did not rise to the level of copyright infringement and that the RIAA needed to demonstrate that someone other than its authorized agent, MediaSentry, downloaded the file. Judge Nancy Gertner agreed.

"Merely because the defendant has 'completed all the steps necessary for distribution' does not necessarily mean that a distribution has actually occurred," wrote Gertner in her order. "As noted above, merely exposing music files to the Internet is not copyright infringement."

Judge Gertner did find another EFF argument unconvincing, however. In this and other cases, the EFF had argued that the Copyright Act mandates that an actually, physical copy change hands in order for infringement to occur. Not so, according to the judge, who ruled that the EFF was relying on an "overly literal" definition of "material object." Whether the distribution takes place electronically or physical makes no difference.

As was the case in Elektra v. Barker, the judge did note that an "offer to distribute" is sufficient basis for a copyright infringement claim, which means that the RIAA can continue to make that allegation in its lawsuits. There is, however, a big difference between having evidence for a copyright infringement claim and showing by a preponderance of evidence that infringement actually took place.

Another issue addressed in the judge's ruling was how far a university should be required to go in order to identify suspected infringers for the RIAA. She notes that IP addresses cannot always be traced to a particular individual with certainty and says that Boston University's coughing up a "long list of possible infringers" would in effect greenlight an RIAA fishing expedition.

While Judge Gertner is throwing out the RIAA's subpoena, she is allowing the labels to refile. Boston University will then need to submit a copy of its terms of service (if it exists) along with the possible identities of those who were using the IP addresses in question when MediaSentry stumbled upon the shared folders. Once that information is in hand, the judge will make a decision on whether or not the data will be disclosed to the RIAA.

The RIAA sees this as only a temporary setback, with a spokesperson telling Ars that it is "confident" that it will get its hands on the identifying information at some point. It also took issue with the judge's decision on the "making available" argument. "We do not believe that the court's findings on this issue—which are at odds with the findings of numerous other courts to have addressed this issue, as well as the United States Copyright Office and Congress itself—are necessary to the court’s decision," the spokesperson said.

The fact that two judges issued such different rulings on the same day shows how much new ground is being covered by the RIAA's lawsuits—in no small part due to defendants that are willing to stand up to the record labels' bullying tactics. Ultimately, the question of what, exactly, needs to happen on a P2P network in order to show infringement is far from a settled issue. As the EFF points out in its press release that the wide variance in rulings so far means that other judges will have to deal with the same issues in other lawsuits brought by the RIAA. So far, there has been only a single trial, while the RIAA has even had some difficulty winning default judgments in cases where the defendants never showed up in court.

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posted 04-06-2008 02:19 AM                    

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From The Sunday Times
April 6, 2008
Coming soon: superfast internet
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high.

This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.

This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”

That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.

One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.

From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.

It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.

Ian Bird, project leader for Cern’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.

“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.

Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded “frozen screen” experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.

The real goal of the grid is, however, to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, the Higgs is supposed to be what gives matter mass.

The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle - but even at optimum performance it will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data will be such a large task that it will keep even the grid’s huge capacity busy for years to come.

Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so.

Additionally, the grid is being made available to dozens of other academic researchers including astronomers and molecular biologists.

It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills 1m people worldwide each year. Researchers used the grid to analyse 140m compounds - a task that would have taken a standard internet-linked PC 420 years.

“Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science,” Doyle said.

“Holographic video conferencing is not that far away. Online gaming could evolve to include many thousands of people, and social networking could become the main way we communicate.

“The history of the internet shows you cannot predict its real impacts but we know they will be huge.”

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posted 04-08-2008 01:14 AM                    

If you're going to speed, don't tell Mr Plod!
Leader Surburban Newspapers Melbourne.
link

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Speeding Youtube video lands hoon in court

07Apr08

A FRANKSTON hoon has been convicted of reckless driving after police found videos he posted on YouTube showing his car hitting speeds of 175km/h.

And the case might not be the last, with police sources telling Leader the world's most popular video sharing site could be scanned more often for gloating lawbreakers.

Have you seen a YouTube video of Melbourne hoonery? If so, post a URL in the story comment field below.
Police charged Robert Edward Read, 21, of Pinehill Drive, over three incidents involving breath-taking speed last year -including two at Tyabb - after they were tipped off about the videos filmed by a friend.

Read pleaded guilty in Frankston Magistrates' Court last Tuesday to reckless driving endangering serious injury (two charges) and driving at a dangerous speed (one).

Police said Read travelled at at least 160km/h at Tyabb's Denham Rd on January 19 and 22 and Hampton's South Rd on June 23.

It is understood the clips have been removed from the site. They were not shown in court.

YouTube potentially allows millions of contributors to disguise themselves with user names while showing the world their home-made clips.

The Victorian Police Force computer crime squad was involved in the Read investigation.

Its media liaison unit said squad members questioned were unaware of a similar YouTube-related prosecution, although unit member Kate Lawson said it was difficult to be sure as collated statistics were not as specific as naming YouTube.

Other police sources were also unaware of such a YouTube case in Victoria. Some saw the site being used more.

Magistrate Ross Betts gave Read a three-month jail term, suspended for two years, and disqualified his driving licence for two years.

Prosecutor Sen-Constable Darryl Hayes told Mr Betts a friend operating a video camera filmed Read's speeding car each time, becoming one of those people put at risk by the recklessness.

He said on June 23 Hastings police arrested Read, who surrendered a camcorder and a computer and made full admissions.

Lawyer Ashley Tickner, for Read, said his client had been into motor racing, particular V8 cars, with other risk-takers.

Read, an apprentice at Hastings, had no previous convictions and had since left the group and the lifestyle with its destructive path, Mr Tickner said.

Mr Betts described Read's behaviour as serious and disgraceful, saying it was fortunate no one had died or been injured.

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posted 04-14-2008 07:29 PM                    

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As DreamWorks Animation, Disney and other studios ramp up production of 3-D films, a newly formed company called D-mented Entertainment has teamed with Ray-Ban maker Luxottica Group and 3-D technological company Kerner Optical to launch a designer line of 3-D eyewear for the masses.
The company is banking on the idea that the public will shell out money for frames that will be higher quality and more stylish than the cardboard tossaways given out free in theaters. The stereoscopically enhanced 3-D glasses will be mounted in Wayfarer frames and should be ready for sale late this year.

The technological production of the glasses will be spearheaded by Kerner Optical founding partner Yuska Siuicki, who thinks designer lenses will eventually become as commonplace as cell phones.

Siuicki predicts consumers will be able to do much more with the lenses than watch the occasional 3-D theatrical release. Videogame makers will begin turning out 3-D games; audiences will watch shows and sports on 3-D television sets; and computer screens will be 3-D capable. Even film library titles will be candidates for 3-D upgrades: Siuicki said Kerner has developed technology to convert 2-D movies and TV shows to 3-D. The conversion cost, $5 million to $7 million for a film, will shrink as demand and technology improve. Kerner is also a partner in SpectonicIQ, one of several 3-D capable TV sets that will hit the retail marketplace this year.

"You will be using these high-end Ray-Ban glasses at home, on your computer and TV, and then you'll stick them in your pocket and take them to the theater," Siuicki said. "They are much more comfortable than what is out there now, and the lenses will soon be available in prescription. This space is exploding."

D-mented, which will spearhead the launch of the lenses into the marketplace, will be run by producer-manager Dave Phillips and live event producer Carter Reese.

Kerner is made up of the physical effects division and operating stages of ILM, which Kerner acquired from George Lucas in 2006.

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posted 04-15-2008 02:51 PM                       

This book is going into my library. I've got a job fair to go to this afternoon. I'll read this on the way and give its suggestions a try. Will let you know how successful I was.

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BOOKS
Make Enemies and Alienate People

A satirical new book serves up a 10-step program on how to be, well - an a--hole
By Brian Braiker | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 14, 2008 | Updated: 10:35 a.m. ET Apr 14, 2008

Are you a swell guy, everyone's sunken-chested doormat? Maybe you're a pushover of a gal, a tad overeager to please at the expense of your own tepid desires? Saps of the world, rejoice: Martin Kihn has written the book just for you.

"I was the nicest guy in the world—and it was killing me," he writes in "A$$hole: How I Got Rich and Happy by Not Giving a Damn About Anyone and How You Can Too," his new mock-help masterpiece. "My life was a dictionary without the word 'no.' If you asked me for a favor—even the kind of favor that required me to go so far out of my way that I needed a map, a translator and an oxygen tank—even if I didn't know you that well, I might hesitate a second, but I'd always say yes."

Until, that is, he realized that he was competing for a promotion with a colleague he refers to as the Nemesis (a text-book a-word). Kihn resolved to "blowtorch away [his] old personality and uncover the rock-hard warrior within." Toward that end he devised a "10-step program to [anus]ism" for anyone wanting to acquaint himself with his inner über-alpha. Kihn, who has written for Spy, the New York Times Magazine and VH1's beloved "Pop-Up Video," calls his hilarious send-up of business culture "office-based satire." Think Dogbert on steroids, munching garlic bagels in public while closing deals on his Bluetooth ear thingy. Kihn recently discussed his new life as a walking, talking sphincter with NEWSWEEK's Brian Braiker. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Your book seems to be a hit in the U.K., where it came out first.
Martin Kihn: It was No. 33 at one point. There's been quite a lot of press.

Well, there are a lot of them in England.
[Laughs] I can't figure it out. They really seem to get it. It's doing well in Germany, also. I think there's a slightly anti-American flavor in Europe. Maybe this is helping the situation for me: "He's an [fill in family-unfriendly word that NEWSWEEK generally avoids]; he's American. This makes sense."

In this book you hire an acting coach and a dog whisperer; you have a nemesis competing for a big client. How much is true?
I would say everything in there happened. It certainly didn't happen in that order. The biggest challenge was the acting coach. He wasn't one person; multiple people were made into one. Also, I have a thing about reimagining. It's not malicious intent, it's just that I can't remember what people say. I'm trying to make it funny, too.

But you actively went out into the world and tried to be an, uh, aggressively un-nice person?
Oh sure, absolutely. It started from a really real place where I was actually very serious in the beginning. I had a performance review and it was implied that I was too nice to ever be in charge. It sort of made me sad, to be honest. So I thought, "Why don't I try this experiment." But the original idea was that this would be a serious book: you have to be an [curse word synonymous with "unbelievable jerk" that begins with the letter A] in America, because it came out of being really bitter and enraged. And then it turned funny. I started doing it, and it became ridiculous.

What did you do out of character that you wouldn't normally have done?
It's amazing what you can do in New York and not get much of a reaction, like giving people a dollar to insult me right outside Rockefeller Center. Thinking about it ahead of time was a lot more painful than doing it. I cut in line at a hot dog stand. I threw it down and I demanded my money back. There was somebody I had offended in line. The guy wasn't saying anything, but there was a look about him that made me back down immediately. I did return things without a receipt.

What's the difference between being an [epithet that begins with the first letter of the alphabet] and just a jerk? Where's the line?
The alpha male is someone like Donald Trump. They're simply decisive, commanding. But they have empathy. And if somebody appeals to them on a human level they'll respond, probably. The [buttocks personified] takes it to the next step: he or she is somebody who literally has no empathy. What I was trying to do in this book was press the point and ask, "How far is too far?" What direction are we going in when we try to out-alpha each other to the extreme? It almost becomes a comical character. It's no longer simple dominance, it's ridiculousness.

It becomes a caricature.
Yeah. And the big insight of the whole thing for me is that I was able to adopt a kind of persona that I didn't have. It wasn't really me, but it was a character. And it let me off the hook, because it wasn't really me. We all do that to a certain extent, we do that at the office.

If Donald Trump is just an alpha male, who are the famous [human derrieres] throughout history?
There are [scatological body part] philosophers. Everyone says Nietzsche, Machiavelli. But my favorite is Ayn Rand. Everyone really likes her, but if you look at her books it's like an [rectal] manifesto. It's a big ego trip: either you're the special person and you can do literally whatever you want—that is the definition of an [a-hole]—or you're not, in which case you're the victim of one of these people. It's a pretty clear [orifice] worldview. She even had a book called "The Virtue of Selfishness." But my perfect role model is a fictional character, Tony Montana [in "Scarface"]. He was over the top; he was not quite real.

But now you have a blog where you cite examples of such behavior in the real world.
Women can be [disagreeable people] too. Heather Mills is a classic. She seems a little unhinged. Everyone thinks of Simon Cowell. Some people have said Rupert Murdoch, but I was on Fox News, so I wouldn't call him an [excretory opening]. There are some timeless [proctological] maneuvers: interrupting, taking credit for everything, claiming every idea you've ever heard as your own—that's the one I like.

I like interrupting the person talking to you just to assert something that makes absolutely no sense.
[Laughs] People do that. Neil Cavuto did that on his [Fox News] show! It was pretty funny. He took out his BlackBerry and started looking and he wasn't listening to me. He said, "Oh, uh, I wasn't listening." He didn't say, "Sorry." He was being an [posterior portal]. See?

What's your take on alternate words, like "a--hat" or "douchebag"?
[Laughs] I like "d---head," because apparently you can say that on the radio.

You can?
That's what I've heard. You can't say [the word we have refrained from printing thus far in this interview] in America, but you can say d---head.

Yeah, I'm still not sure how we're going to print this interview, to be honest.
On TV I can say masspole, so I just say masspole the whole time. Or a-hole is all right, or jerk. By the way, the BBC made a new rule for me. I was allowed to say the word [begins with A, you figure it out] after 10 p.m. So I changed history. Me. I'm so proud.

© 2008

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posted 04-18-2008 11:09 AM                       

quote: Daily Telegraph, 18 April 2008

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Learner bus driver turns double-decker into open-top

By staff and agencies
Last Updated: 8:58am BST 18/04/2008

A learner driver discovered he had no room up top in his bus after smashing it into a low bridge yesterday.

The top deck was ripped off and left on the road after the accident in the village of Four Ashes, near Wolverhampton. The National Express West Midlands driver, who was alongside an instructor and another trainee, had been following a set training route when disaster struck. The firm is now investigating what happened.

Residents in the quiet village described it as an accident waiting to happen, having watched other lorries and large vehicles try to use the route to get to the local Industrial Estate. Mark Westwood, a 41-year-old farmer, said: “I was making myself a cup of coffee in my kitchen when I heard a loud bang, bang, bang. It was an unbelievable sight. Fortunately no-one has been injured.”

Mr Westwood said that last wee part of his garden wall was demolished by a continental truck trying to reverse up his drive. He added that a training bus had been forced to turn around a couple of weeks ago when using the route. “I think some of them think they are in single decker buses,” he said.

Helen Davies, 57, a company secretary, said: “We have all taken photographs of the incident to support our case to stop large vehicles using this road.” The bridge, which carries the main train line to Scotland, is 12ft 3in, but the bus height is 14ft 9in. Trains were running as normal yesterday. Stuart Henry, of National Express West Midlands, said: “We will be conducting an internal investigation.”

Emma Stanley, a spokeswoman for Staffordshire Police, said there was slight damage to two cars that were travelling behind the bus.

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posted 04-22-2008 04:01 PM                       

quote: The Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2008

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A toy manufacturer in the Ukraine has made headlines by announcing it will sell dolls of the former German dictator Adolf Hitler.

The 16in figurine - complete with moveable arms to reproduce Hitler's infamous salute - will first go on sale in the capital Kiev, local media reported.

The owner will be able to choose from a selection of outfits including "early days Adolf" (brown shirts and jodhpurs) and "wartime Adolf" (a grey double breasted tunic, black trousers and simple Iron Cross medal).

The doll will also come with accessories like a miniature Blondi, Hitler's faithful Alsatian whose loyalty was repaid with a cyanide capsule in the Berlin bunker.

Germany's World War Two invasion of the Soviet Union left between two and three million inhabitants in the Ukraine dead, including an estimated 1.5 million Jews.

Most Nazi images are illegal in Ukraine, as are any positive depictions of the Nazi regime. But the former Soviet republic has seen increasing nationalist activism in recent years.

There are also reports of increasing xenophobia and racism, and of some extremists supporting racism similar to that of Nazi Germany under Hitler. Ukraine's Zerkalo Tizhden newspaper reported that the toy manufacturer would release the line of Hitler dolls in the summer.

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