Free Republic

The New York Times reported that six major movie studios sued RealNetworks, over its new $30 software program that allows people to make digital copies of their DVDs. As the opening warning on every DVD indicates, Hollywood has bitterly opposed such copying. The studios have argued that it threatens their emerging business of digital downloads and can motivate buyers to rent, copy and return DVDs instead of buying them. Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, The Walt Disney Company and Sony Corporation are suing RealNetworks in United States District Court in Los Angeles, seeking an...

Excerpt - Microsoft is in a bind. Windows Vista has sold 140 million copies, but it's such a resource hog with unreliable hardware drivers that users keep asking Redmond to extend the support for Windows XP. Many corporations refuse to upgrade their server farms and cubicle-bound desktops at all. It's not often that 140 million copies of a software package that costs hundreds of dollars can be called a disappointment, but this one seems to fit that bill. Vowing to release a new operating system every three years, the company now has about 20 months until the supposed release date...

Does anyone have a copy of last night's second installment of THE PATH TO 9/11?

5/17/2006 - WASHINGTON -- Based on feedback received during visits with Airmen across the Air Force, the Air Force Uniform Board is reviewing several notional concepts that Airmen have suggested regarding the appearance of the service dress uniform. Some of the informal feedback about the current service dress includes Airmen wanting to revamp the service dress to look more military, like the other services. One senior airman said, “the current uniform resembles a cheesy business suit.” Another staff sergeant said, “think world’s most dominating air power, not CEO,” and another described it as a “cheap leisure suit.” Other comments have...

Jerusalem, Apr. 13, 2006 (CNA) - The 13 patriarchs and heads of Christian Churches in Jerusalem launched in their joint Easter message a powerful appeal for reconciliation between Israel and Palestine and called on the international community not to boycott the Palestinian people by stopping aid, reported AsiaNews. The Christian churches in the Holy Land—Orthodox, Armenian, Latin Catholic, Copt, Syriac, Anglican and Lutheran—will celebrate Easter on April 16 or 23. Their leaders call on their faithful to see the proximity in dates as a sign of the need for greater solidarity and shared witness of the resurrection of Jesus. “It...

Sony is apparently borrowing a tactic from hackers for its digital-rights management technology, and some security experts question the practice. Security researchers have identified a rootkit -- software used by hackers to hide their malicious code from anti-virus and anti-spyware defenses -- within the copy protection scheme Sony BMG Music Entertainment uses to prevent music CDs from being copied to computers. The digital rights management (DRM) technology that Sony BMG uses limits the number of times a CD can be "ripped" to a computer. To prevent the DRM software from being easily circumvented, the copy protection's creator -- a U.K.-based...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

I have committed myself deeply to the democratic political processes of our society, because I believe that “su voto es su voz” – your vote is your voice – and that participation in the political process is one of the highest marks of good citizenship. To that end, I have attended every Texas State Democratic Convention since 1974; I have served as Democratic County Chairman for Travis County, I have served as a Democratic Precinct Chair in both Travis and Bexar Counties, and I have served as president of the Northeast Austin Democrats and chairman of the North East Bexar...

Shift key breaks latest CD anti-rip tech - grad student By Tony Smith Posted: 08/10/2003 at 15:53 GMT   A Princeton PhD student has published a paper detailing the music industry's latest CD copy protection scheme - and how the technique can be bypassed by simply holding down the host computer's Shift key when a 'protected' CD is inserted. The copy-protection mechanism in question is SunnComm's MediaMax CD3 system. Launched in September, the company claimed its technology had passed strict testing to Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) copy-protection standards with "flying colours". The "comprehensive test procedures" - SunnComm's...

MP3s Are Not the Devil Since every penny I earn depends on copyright protection, I'm all in favor of reasonable laws to do the job. But there's something kind of sad about the recording industry's indecent passion to punish the "criminals" who are violating their rights. Copyright is a temporary monopoly granted by the government -- it creates the legal fiction that a piece of writing or composing (or, as technologies were created, a recorded performance) is property and can only be sold by those who have been licensed to do so by the copyright holder. Without copyright, once a...

<p>When the recording industry said Wednesday it would sue heavy music sharers, it left one unnerving question unanswered: Just who would they consider a heavy sharer?</p> <p>In a conference call with reporters, the Recording Industry Association of America's President Cary Sherman said the group will begin collecting evidence against those who offer "substantial" amounts of music online to others over peer-to-peer networks, then will file hundreds of copyright-infringement lawsuits beginning in August. But he declined to say specifically what "substantial" means.</p>

Friday in a California courtroom, a small St. Louis software company begins a fight for its life against a phalanx of powerful Hollywood movie studios. The outcome could impact our collective digital future. On one side is 321 Studios (321studios.com), maker of computer programs that allow home users to copy DVD movies they own. On the other is the Motion Picture Association of America, which charges that 321's software circumvents copy protection schemes in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The court proceeding represents a head-on collision between the DMCA and fair use rights of consumers. Since the DMCA's...

<p>SANTA CLARA, California -- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is threatening innovation in Silicon Valley, and it's time for businesses and consumers to mobilize to change the law.</p> <p>That was the message at the Digital Rights Summit here on Wednesday. Intel hosted the event at its Santa Clara headquarters with Digitalconsumer.org, an organization dedicated to protecting consumers' fair-use rights with regard to digital media.</p>

<p>LONDON -- The head of an Internet cafe chain pledged Wednesday to appeal a judge's ruling that the company broke copyright law by letting customers copy music from the Internet.</p> <p>Greek entrepreneur Stelio Haji-Ioannou said Tuesday's court decision against his easyInternetcafe chain had failed to consider that recordings for private and domestic use were exempt from Britain's 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.</p>

<p>Norwegian prosecutors will appeal the acquittal of a Norwegian teenager charged with digital burglary for creating and circulating a program online that cracks the security codes on DVDs.</p> <p>Rune Floisbonn, a prosecutor with Norway's economic crimes police, told the NTB news agency Monday that an appeal would be filed. He did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.</p>

Faulty Genes Explain Why Cloning Is So DifficultMon May 27, 3:07 PM ETCloning may not always completely reprogramme an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which might explain why the process fails more often than it works, experts say. Dolly, the world's first cloned animal, stands in her pen at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in this February 23, 1997, file photo. REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cloning may not always completely reprogram an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which would explain why the process fails so often, researchers reported on Monday. While lawmakers around the world debate...