Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Windows 7 makes me laugh

  This is a Linux Compiz video. It has been on YouTube for two years. I don’t think it has had many hits since then. Technology has improved, new and better effects are available. It’s quite a lengthy video without any loud trumpets, so I guess you’ll all be asleep before it ends. But it’s neat, flashy and has very subtle background music.

• One XO Learning Laptop Per South Carolinian School Child

  Last year, One Laptop Per Child/South Carolina launched a XO laptop pilot project at Britton’s Neck Elementary in Marion School District Seven and Rains Centenary Early Childhood Center in Mullins, with 500 computers and an over-riding goal: one XO learning laptop per South Carolinian school child.

• Kongoni GNU/Linux 1.12.2 alpha released

  South Africa’s newest GNU/Linux distribution, Kongoni, yesterday released its first alpha release for the upcoming 1.12.2 release. Kongoni – the Shona word for Gnu – is a desktop-focused distribution with significant inspiration from BSD-Unix systems. Codenamed Sophocles, Kongoni 1.12.2 is based on Slackware 12.2 with the latest upstream patches and also features KDE 4.2.2 as well as the latest stable releases of most common desktop applications such as OpenOffice.org.

• Linux Talks, Windows Walks

  In the meantime, Dell redesigns Ubuntu LTS interface in their Mini, adds a tweaked Network Manager and put together a angry little 1o” beast that can kick a 1,366 x 768 resolution right in your face. 32 and 64 GB SSDs will be also available, sadly only to Linux customers as – like previously noted – Windows imposes limits.

• iPlayer uncovered: What powers the BBC’s epic creation?

  We had to be on Mac, PC and Linux, so we spent a lot of time analysing solutions that we could use, including what I call ‘speed dating’ companies that offer solutions in this area. But ultimately we chose Adobe Air for two key reasons: number one, it had a system that allowed our seven-day or 30-day playback to be enabled and controlled on PC, Mac and Linux. That’s a requirement of a DRM, not that we want to use DRM, but we’re forced to because we make content available for download. It’s part of our rights framework.

• IBM: Why the Mainframe Will Never Die, Part II

  Q: What has open-source software meant for the mainframe? Do you even play there?

  A: There is a lot of open-source software already available for z/OS. For example, the IBM Ported Tools for z/OS is a non-priced program that delivers tools and applications for the z/OS platform. These applications have been modified to operate within the z/OS environment. The URL is http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/ported/.

  The mainframe is a hotbed for business applications—with more than 5,000 unique applications available on the System z platform. Nearly 2,500 of these unique applications are Linux-based.

• AMD Releases R600/700 Programming Guide

  This 43 page document that is entitled “Radeon R6xx/R7xx Acceleration” provides a basic overview of the ASIC architecture and a small programming guide. This document also covers the packet definitions and information concerning synchronization and cache flushing for these newest graphics processors. Explained in detail is the second generation Superscalar Unified Shader Architecture, technical changes between the R600 and R670, technical changes between the R670 and R700 series, the R600/700 3D pipeline, and various other topics that excite graphics driver developers.

• Applications/Games

  • 8 Beautiful Conky Desktop Monitor Setup

    Conky is a highly customizable desktop monitor for X Window System. Think of it as KDE4 desktop widgets on crack. Conky, a fork of torsmo, has been around for a long time but new Linux users usually stay away from it because customizing it requires editing the scripted configuration file, which can be a bit intimidating for new users.

  • LGP Prepares For Massive 24-Hour Linux Sale

    Our friends at Linux Game Publishing are preparing for a massive 24-hour sale with their web-store of games they have ported to Linux. This sale begins at midnight (UK time) and during that time each game will be priced at just 9 pounds! For the Americans, that is about $13~14 USD per native Linux title.

• Desktop Environments

  • How I became an Openbox fanatic

    Prior to buying my new eee pc, I thought I’d finally gotten the ol’ Linux thing figured out. I liked having a desktop chock full of bells and whistles and visual effects and nautilus-integrated apps. I used Mint with the AWN dock and a truckload of Compiz Fusion effects on my enormous, relatively-powerful laptop, and it did every single thing I could think of for it to do.

  • How to Get The Most Out Of KDE4’s Folderview Widget

    The uses and features of Folderview are only limited by the uses and features of KDE. As KDE 4 continues to mature, Folderview will continue to grow into a useful and powerful desktop tool.

  • Get to know Linux: Window Maker

    Continuing with our introduction to old-school Linux window managers, I would like to bring to you Window Maker. The Window Maker window manager was designed to look and feel like the old NeXT GUI (which was spearheaded by Steve Jobs after he was forced out of Apple.) Window Maker is another entry in the long list of lightweight, snappy window managers that can bring new life to old computers. Window Maker is a very stable desktop for the Linux operating system and is often considered one of the most universal and useful window managers available.

• Distributions

  • Sabayon 4.1 – A Linux monster (cute one)

    Sabayon 4.1 is an incredible, unique distro. The fact it is Gentoo underneath defies common sense. Gentoo usually takes a pint of virgin blood to get going.

  • Review: Linux Mint 6 KDE

    Overall, despite it’s late arrival (blame that on KDE, since the Devs were waiting for the release of KDE 4.2 before they shipped the final version, which IMHO was a wise choice), Mint 6 KDE is once again an excellent distribution.

    Admittedly it requires slightly beefier hardware than previous releases, but given the natural life cycle of the vast majority of systems, this shouldn’t be an issue at all, as it’ll work on all of the most common systems and hardware specs.

    And I am still going to say that Mint 6 KDE is user friendly, even though KDE4 has a slightly larger learning curve than 3.5 did, and is still on the upward swing towards full maturity. But even so, the entire system is well worth checking out and using.

  • Red Hat

    • Red Hat targets ‘cloud computing’ market, CEO says

      Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) will be a big player in the fast-growing “cloud computing” market, according to Chief Executive Officer Jim Whitehurst.

  • Ubuntu

    • Living with Ubunut 9.04 “The Jaunty Jackalope” (Full Review!)

      Overall, I can honestly say that this is best Ubuntu release ever, and I believe every part of the community and dev teams are to be commended. Ubuntu 9.04 “The Jaunty Jackalope” is sleeker, faster, and more intuitive that any of its predecessors–and continues to provide what I think is the one of the most productive operating systems around.

    • Running Ubuntu 9.04 With Older Hardware

      Ubuntu 9.04 had booted significantly faster than Ubuntu 8.10, but when it came to the desktop performance with this VIA Nehemiah system with 512MB of system memory, the performance was close between the two most recent Ubuntu releases. In several tests Ubuntu 8.10 was faster than Ubuntu 9.04, but the leads were very small and would likely go unnoticed by the desktop user. At least though the Ubuntu 9.04 desktop remains usable when using this antiquated hardware. The only tests where there was a noticeable difference was when testing the disk with IOzone, where Ubuntu 9.04 had delivered better read and write performance.

    • I Had a Dell Recall Battery? An Ubuntu 9.04 Feature Told Me So.

      This might be another good reason to install Ubuntu 9.04:

      Information from Ubuntu that My Battery is under recall

      I looked at the battery, then called up the Dell recall list. Sure enough – that battery was listed. Interestingly enough, I’ve had this D600 for a while now and there has been no problems up until a week ago when the battery wouldn’t take a charge. Since I usually have this machine plugged in, I never thought twice about it.

    • Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty – Terminal velocity

      Wrapping up: if something isn’t mentioned in the regular Ubuntu forums, isn’t in its repos, or not referenced by the Ubuntu community, better don’t install that. There always are alternatives. Have a good weekend full of fast Terminal fun and don’t come and tell me that you didn’t know it was that simple, like my wife said… Right-click the pictures to view them enlarged.

    • Ubuntu 9.04 CD covers, a game changer.

      So what the hell does any of this have to do with CD covers? Plenty. I have to give all those new graphic designers at Canonical a real slap on the back, they kept it simple and it looks like for the first time a real viable commercial product. That might just be the one thing Ubuntu has been missing all these years. It’s still they same great Operating System, but now it’s wrapped in a nice crisp professional looking package. A package the average consumer will look at in a different light.

  • New Releases

    • Kiwi 9.04

    • Clonezilla 1.2.2-9

    • Tiny Core 1.4.1

    • Slax 6.2.0

    • BSDanywhere 4.5

    • paldo 1.18

    • LinHES 6.00.08

• Devices/Embedded

  • Routers use Linux for proximity marketing

    Libelium is shipping two Linux-based WiFi and Bluetooth routers that deliver proximity marketing services. The outdoor-mountable “N-Vio” and indoors-only “N-Vio Lite” devices offer public WiFi access, as well as Bluetooth or WiFi-based interactive marketing services, says the Zaragoza Spain-based company.

  • Service offers a “jump-start” embedded Linux platform

    Swedish telecom software firm Enea announced a services-based Linux development platform to jump-start development of embedded Linux projects. The Enea Embedded Linux Project Framework (ELPF) offers “core components, tools, and services common to virtually all embedded Linux projects in a single, one-stop package,” says the company.

  • Linux development tools rev’d for multi-core SoCs

    Tilera Corp. released version 2.0 of its Eclipse- and Linux-based Multicore Development Environment (MDE) supporting its massively multi-core MIPS/ RISC system-on-chips (SoCs). MDE 2.0 offers support for both its Tile64- and newer TilePro-family processors, for development of scalable, multi-threaded, shared-memory applications, says the company.

  • Linux-ready network appliance targets SOHO market

    Axiomtek announced a 1U-height network appliance for the small and home office (SOHO) market. The NA-812A runs Red Hat Linux on an Intel Core2 Duo, offers up to 4GB of memory, and is equipped with six gigabit Ethernet ports, says the company.

  • Linux SOHO NAS offers iSCSI

    Qnap Systems announced a network-attached storage (NAS) device, aimed at SMB/SOHO users, that supports two 2TB hard drives. The Linux-based TS-239 Pro Turbo NAS is notable for its iSCSI (Internet SCSI) target service, enabling the NAS to be configured for expansion or backup for other servers.

  • Verizon Launches MiFi Hotspot Without Subscription

    When we first heard about the MiFi last December, Novatel pointed out that the router is actually a tiny Linux PC, capable of running its own software. The router could check e-mail and store messages on a memory card without a PC, in theory. But Verizon’s version looks like it’s just a Wi-Fi router – for now, at least.

  • BlackArmor NAS: A polished storage server with an open source heart

    Unlike a great number of NAS offerings on the market, the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 is more than just a small Linux box with Webadmin slapped onto it.

  • Phones/Android

    • Leaked Image of G3 aka HTC Hero Surfaced

      An anonymous reader sent us these photos of the G3, aka as the HTC Hero, that will be released probably in Q3 this year.

    • Cupcake party: Android 1.5 update coming to T-Mobile G1 owners next week

      Finally, the moment all T-Mobile G1 owners have been waiting for! T-Mobile announced on Wednesday that it will start rolling out the official Android 1.5 (aka “Cupcake”) update to G1 users starting at the end of next week. The update will be delivered over the air in random batches over the next several weeks, and T-Mobile expects to reach all G1 customers by the end of May.

    • HTC Smartphones with Google Android Heading North to Canada

      The Google Android operating system will make an appearance on smartphones launched in Canada in summer 2009, according to Rogers Wireless, one of the largest wireless carriers in Canada. Rogers plans to release the HTC Dream smartphone and the HTC Magic smartphone, both of which use the Linux-based Android operating system, in the coming months.

  • Sub-notebooks

    • The Android Netbooks Cometh

      Thanks to netbooks, 2009 will be “The Year of GNU/Linux,” says blogger Robert Pogson. A netbook running Android has been spotted in the wild — the Skytone Alpha 680. Though its specs may be somewhat anemic and its price may be somewhat high, it’s stirring up a lot of excitement in the Linux community as the harbinger of netbooks to come.

    • Bsquare Announces Flash for Dell’s Android-Powered Netbook– Wha???

      Fresh off the news that HTC and T-Mobile may be working on a Google Android netbook, Bsquare (a software solutions provider for embedded devices) tossed its hat into the ring with a rather bold announcement: It’s porting Adobe Flash Lite 3.17 onto Dell netbooks powered by the Android platform. That’s right, Android on a Dell netbook.

    • Dell Studies Google’s Android for Future Products

      Dell Inc. is studying Google Inc.’s Android operating system for possible use in future products, people familiar with the situation said.

    • Ubuntu Now Available for Mini 10 Customers in the United States and Canada

      Over the last few weeks. we’ve been adding more features and options to the Inspiron Mini 10, which will allow folks to personalize the popular companion device even more like a 720p HD edge-to-edge display, a bigger battery option and five Design Studio choices from Tristan Eaton. For customers in the United States and Canada, today we’ve added Ubuntu as an OS option (starting price of $399) with additional hard drive options..

    • Dell Mini 10v on the horizon; Ubuntu & SSD options appear for Mini 10

      A number of upgrades to Dells Mini 10 netbook have been on the agenda since an internal roadmap was leaked last month. We have already seen Dell add options for a higher resolution display and 6-cell battery and it now looks like it will be releasing a refresh, dubbed the Mini 10v.

    • Dell Mini 10 Netbook Available with Ubuntu and SSD Option

      Dell’s Mini 10 netbook hasn’t been on the market very long, but it has proven to be a popular machine for the computer maker. Dell has announced that it will now be offering new options on the netbook including an SSD and Ubuntu OS.

Free Software/Open Source

• Theora Ahead of H.264 In Objective PSNR Quality

  Xiph hackers have been hard at work improving the Theora codec over the past year, with the latest versions gaining on and passing h.264 in objective PSNR quality measurements.

• Open source video codec Ogg Theora hot on the heels of H.264

  For this reason, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and members of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WhatWG) proposed the open source Ogg codecs Theora (video) and Vorbis (audio), developed by the Xiph Foundation, as the standard for the planned video and audio elements in the “W3C Editor’s Draft” for HTML 5.

• continued theora improvements

  Monty posted another update on the work that’s been going on to improve the Theora encoder. It’s worth re-posting here because I think that it includes some compelling images and graphs that show you improvements. So I would suggest that people wander over and have a look at his update.

• Interview with Edward Hervey about the PiTiVI video editor

  My name’s Edward Hervey I’m a half-french, half-scot living in Barcelona and am one of the founding partners of Collabora Multimedia. I have been using Linux and Free Software since around 1995 but only started contributing in 2003 when I finally had enough programming skills to start working on PiTiVi. For several years I concentrated mostly on the GStreamer multimedia framework and plugins in order to get them to a decent level for video-editing and am still actively doing that.

• Firefox Could Be the Real Facebook Challenger

  Firefox doesn’t keep track of the number of users it has but Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s director of community development, said today that the company estimates that there are 270 million people using the browser. That’s 35% more users than Facebook has signed up for accounts (200 million), and almost triple the number of people Facebook says log in to the social network every day (100 million).

• UC Berkeley Extension Offers Open Source Fundamentals Course

  UC Berkeley Extension will start offering a course (1 credit) titled “Open Source Fundamentals and Strategies”. LJ contributing editor Ibrahim Haddad developed the course for UCB and will be teaching it.

• Prize for open source mobile technology software that’s reinventing healthcare in developing countries

  Officially established as an electronic data collection standard by the World Health Organization, Selanikio’s EpiSurveyor is now the most widely adopted open source mobile health software in the world.

• Develop Next Generation Mobile Applications And Services: Open Source Middleware On Its Way

  “MUSIC uses Eclipse, Maven and SVN, which need at least Java 1.5, but we recommend Java 1.6. MUSIC applies the LGPL licence (GNU Lesser General Public License. The LGPL licence which does not apply their restrictions to the resulting software, so that it can be exploited under any chosen form”.

  [...]

  A Tutorial on MUSIC will be presented at the 5th International Conference on Open Source Systems on the 3rd of June 2009, in Stockholm, Sweden. The tutorial will provide an overview of the main results of the MUSIC project todate.

• Philosophy

  • On Libraries: Every Open Source Developer Is Both An Author And A Librarian

    I am running for election to the Board of Directors of the Library in Chappaqua, New York, where I have lived for almost twenty-two years.

    I will carry out my campaign mainly via this blog. I have written many posts in the past about libraries and librarians, and will try to focus on this topic for at least the next few days.

  • The Open Source Philosophy

    The Open Source Definition arose out of the ambiguity of the word “free” in “Free Software,” as defined by the Free Software Foundation.” In the English language, “free” is a loaded term that has two meanings: “freedom”, and “costing nothing.” It was created to get rid of some of the emotional baggage that came with the intense philosophical point of view of the FSF, but just because the OSD is more “business-friendly” does not mean that it doesn’t have the philosophy and intent of openness behind it.

  • The Open Source Philosophy (Continued)

    That said, that philosophy drives me to support the companies that I think are doing it “right.” I work for OpenNMS not just because I think the software’s great, but also because I love that we can compete with “the big guys” by having a better community.

  • How do open source projects develop?

    I am sure you all know that the open source model is vastly different to the closed source model. Sure there are many similarities, especially for large projects, however there are very important differences. The main one being that the source code is open to all

• Business

  • Ming Guang Yong, CEO, Voiceroute

    Yours Truly recently spoke with Ming Guang Yong, CEO of Voiceroute.

  • Interview with Stefano Fornari – CTO – Funambol

    In this interview we talk with Stefano the CTO of Funambol. In specific, we talk about:

    * Defining synchronization as a core technology for the future of mobile computing
    * The protocols underlying synchronization scenarios
    * Various mechanisms used to initiate synchronization
    * Characteristics of the open source community specific to mobility
    * Conventions that govern contributors and contributions
    * Core technical problems in synchronization

• Sun

  • Oracle Will Stay in the Hardware Business, Ellison Says

    Ellison’s comments confirm Oracle’s intention to maintain and grow Sun’s hardware business, which were outlined in general terms in an April 20 document that discussed Oracle’s plans for Sun.

  • Q+A-What are Larry Ellison’s plans for Sun Micro?

    A. No. Our primary reason for designing our own chips is to build computers with the very best performance, reliability and security available in the market. Some system features work much better if they are implemented in silicon rather than software. Once we own Sun, we’ll be able to plan and synchronize new features from silicon to software, just like IBM and the other big system suppliers. We want to work with Fujitsu to design advanced features into the SPARC microprocessor aimed at improving Oracle database performance. In my opinion, this will enable SPARC Solaris open-system mainframes and servers to challenge IBM’s dominance in the data center. Sun was very successful for a very long time selling computer systems based on the SPARC chip and the Solaris operating system. Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think they can be again.

  • Fresh Wind at Work: OpenOffice 3.1

    Cute but astute: the new minor version of OpenOffice can do more than ever, such as cast shadows, position chart axes and provide structured conversations through comments.

  • Why Do I Use OpenOffice?

    In addition, using OpenDocument Format as the default file format helps future-proof my documents. After the current producers of “office software” all move on to something else, will you have the right to create a program to read and manipulate your data in the formats it was saved in? Will you be forced to buy a license from someone? Or perhaps be required to use a particular operating system?

  • OpenOffice.org 3.1 arrives, improves user interface

    The first major release of the 3.0 series of open source office suite OpenOffice.org, version 3.1, is now available with big improvements in usability and the user interface.

  • OpenOffice.org 3.1: Looking Sharp

    The updated free office software suite includes more than 20 major changes to its five core applications. Perhaps the most striking new feature, however, is its use of anti-aliasing to render sharper charts, line art, and other graphical elements.

  • OpenOffice 3.1 Gets a Makeover

    With 60 million downloads of its last version, open source office software aims to look better.

  • OpenOffice 3.1: The new features

    Compared to its predecessors, OpenOffice 3.1 offers a whole range of new features. Instant eye catchers are the improved anti-aliasing for graphics, better chart functionality, and the new text highlighting in Writer. However, inconspicuous new features like custom document property fields and the OpenOffice User Feedback Program are just as interesting.

• FSF/GNU

  • FSF launches new free software activist internship program

    Thursday, May 7, 2009 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced a new internship program for free software activists, inviting students to apply for its first round of openings by Monday, May 25th.

  • FSF launches internship for free software activists

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched a new internship programme for free software activists and has opened applications for its first round of openings which close on May 25.

• Government

  • Where Open Source, Open Data and government meet

    The Obama administration recently excited the world of open source software by choosing to launch recovery.gov on Drupal. Their choice of a free, open source platform over any proprietary system is as hopeful and promising as the purpose of the website they built, which is to lend transparency to the spending of the $800 billion dollar economic stimulus money. We should be happy both that the U.S. government is embracing open software, and that it is promoting Open Data.

    [...]

    To achieve these goals, and help governments transition into an era of open, linked data, Drupal has some growing to do. As mentioned earlier, we are organizing code sprints that aim to make Drupal 7 a more powerful tool for managing RDF data.

  • SITA pushes open source adoption

    Pumeza Ceza, manager of Foss advocacy at SITA, says the agency has prioritised assisting the government with its drive towards using open sourced software and fostering greater acceptance and use of free and open source software.

• CMS

  • Will Open Source ‘Kill’ Vignette?

    Ten years ago, Vignette was the brand name for web content management in many respects, plenty of sites (including more than a few that I was associated with) were users and customers. Though Vignette with a valuation of some $310 million is hardly ‘dead’, I also suspect that at many levels of the CMS space, open source solutions, be it Mambo/Joomla, Drupal, Zope or higher up the stack with an Alfresco have displaced Vignette over the years.

    Today I spend most of my time writing about technology as opposed to building it, but I’ve also seen more than my fair share of home grown (usually basic LAMP) solutions displace Vignette as well.

  • Taking Joomla! to new heights

    For someone who heads a project that develops the most widely used open source content management system, Andrew Eddie tends to be somewhat low-key. One could even call him bashful.

  • A Powerful Open Source Content Management System – Drupal

    Large and Friendly Community – With so many major sites using Drupal, it’s not going away soon. For an idea of the size of the developer community, take a look at the long list of community-contributed modules.

  • Open source goes back to school

    The Shuttleworth Foundation is releasing an open source school information management system worldwide.

  • SilverStripe CMS Goes (more) International, Launches Partner Network

    Perhaps most well known for powering the US Democratic Party’s National Convention website, streaming live speeches by Barak Obama and serving 3.2 billion pageviews over 96 hours, SilverStripe was also the winner of the 2008 Packtpub Open Source CMS awards in the Most Promising CMS category. SilverStripe also recently became only the second vendor that is an official Mollom partner.

• Programming

  • First beta of Python 3.1

    The Python developers have released the first beta of Python 3.1. The new version of the free scripting language is a development version, not for production use. The developers plan this as the only beta and aim to release the final Python 3.1 in June.

Leftovers

• No bottom to worse at Elsevier?

  The latest development, though, strikes me as something that should be shouted from every available rooftop: Elsevier simply must answer the questions raised.

  Via Dorothea: Jonathan Rochkind has done a little “forensic librarianship” and raised astonishing questions about the entire imprint, Excerpta Medica, which published the fake journal that started all of this.

  Go read Jonathan, but the bottom line is this: Excerpta Medica does not provide a straightforward list of its own publications or make clear which are, ahem, “industry-sponsored”.

• Censorship/Web Abuse

  • Is Internet access a ‘fundamental right’?

    Or how about a right to get The Wall Street Journal? It provides useful commentary on my government’s actions and how they affect my wallet. But then, I’d also need The New York Times so that I could develop a balanced view on important political matters.

    None of which will matter if the government doesn’t force upon me the right to education! And not just any education, but an education that makes me fully capable of making intelligent voting decisions and filling out endless forms.

  • Web designer opposes France’s “3 strikes” law, loses job

    An employee of French broadcaster TF1 was fired after privately expressing opposition to the new “graduated response” bill moving through the National Assembly. He e-mailed his MP, who forwarded the message to the Ministry of Culture, which passed it to TF1.

  • Aussie censors implement six degrees of separation policy

    The Australian Government yesterday broke new records for web censorship by requiring the takedown not just of a page containing harmful content, nor even a page linking to harmful content, but a page linking to a link to allegedly harmful content.

  • European Parliament rejects Telecoms Package

    Telecoms Package surprise result as European Parliament makes a vote for democracy and civil liberties on the Internet. But it is not clear how much of a win it is.

  • Malcolm Harbour Doesn’t Get Net Neutrality

    The questioner is wrong to frame this in terms of blocking *sites*: it’s about blocking *services*, particularly ones based on new protocols piggy-backing on TCP/IP. The Telecoms Package gives telecoms companies the possibility of blocking anything it doesn’t like at this level – killing net neutrality – provided they tell people what they are doing.

• Copyrights

  • MPAA Shows How Teachers Should Record Movies By Camcording Their TVs

    But, of course, the process also has some requests in the other direction as well… The entertainment industry, for example, would like fewer examples. Kevin alerts us to some video of a recent hearing, where the MPAA actually (you have to see it to believe it) demonstrates how to use a camcorder to videotape a movie off a TV…

  • MPAA Proof of Concept: Copy DVDs by Pointing Camera at Screen

    It’s hard to believe that this video is real, but apparently it is. What you are seeing is the official, MPAA sanctioned method for teachers to make copies of DVDs for educational purposes. Are you ready? To make a copy you play the DVD and aim a camera at the TV screen. I told you it was hard to swallow.

  • RIAA Sues Even More File-Sharers

    Targets 3 more in the New York area alone.

  • Facebook’s E-mail Censorship is Legally Dubious, Experts Say

    When The Pirate Bay released new Facebook features last month, the popular social networking site took evasive action, blocking its members from distributing file-sharing links through its service.

  • Pirate Party 3rd Largest Political Party in Sweden

    Support for the Swedish Pirate Party surged following the Pirate Bay verdict and today it became the third largest political party in the country. When they are elected for the European Parliament next month, the party hopes to end the abuse of copyright by multi-billion dollar corporations.

  • The Culture of Sharing: Why Releasing Copyright Will Be the Smartest Thing You Do

    Last year I Uncopyrighted my blog, Zen Habits, and my ebook, Zen To Done, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. People have used my articles in blogs, newsletters, magazines, ebooks, books and more. And yes, they’ve made profits off me without me getting any of that money … but at the same time, I’ve benefitted: my ideas have spread, my name and brand have spread, and my readership has grown and grown. Since I Uncopyrighted the blog, it has grown from about 30K subscribers to 113K.

    You can Uncopyright your blog, your ebooks, and even your print books. And I can almost guarantee you: it’ll be the best thing you can do as a writer.

  • Steal this archive: Image curator warns of public domain loss, urges greater access

    “If the Google book deal is approved without any changes, we could soon lose 100 million books that society doesn’t know what to do with,” said Prelinger, referring to “orphan works,” or works under copyright, but whose owner is not known.

  • Google Italy explains how Google is different from The Pirate Bay

    Someone at Google is pissing their pants.

    * the file format thing can be said of The Pirate Bay as well
    * The Pirate Bay has not the financial means to create a removal workflow like Google
    * The Pirate Bay removes the contents, it just does when Police asks, as it should be. It doesn’t take the right to judge. Exactly as it should be.
    * the quote of Mazza is just a black on white judgement, without any argument supporting his claims.
    * everyone knows YouTube mades his fortune closing a eye on illegal content, until it really was forced to remove it.
    * misuse of google is easily done, and I can’t see Google be willing to stop that anytime. Now, mr Kennedy try to type Coldplay there. What do you get ? Or type coldplay torrent in google.

    Differences may exist. But you seem not to know those.