● 11.06.09

● Links 06/11/2009: Great Mandriva 2010.0 Reviews; Thunderbird 3 RC Comes Soon

Posted in News Roundup at 8:12 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• We have all heard the GNU/Linux naysayers posit that, “No one will use Linux until (insert application name here) runs natively on Linux.” Other than the fact that this is almost pure hyperbole there is some kernel of truth there. This article demonstrates one solution.

• The following are some of the most commonly used MS-DOS commands and its equivalent in Linux.

• Given all the back-log of features to integrate, and the consequent knowledge that the current release of Hugin is short lived and a newer, better one is just around the corner, why put the effort to produce a Windows installer that will be obsolete soon? Of course ideally the installer should track closely the development, but it seems to be too much effort at the moment.

• The bike comes with an onboard computer running the Linux operating system, it has its own IP address and is Wi-Fi enabled with an embedded web server.

• How so? For starters, each machine is fitted with an dash-mounted computer that runs on Linux, comes with its own dedicated IP address, on-board web server and connectivity to wireless networks.

• I’m a geek and I’m proud to say so. Not a putting together my own PC, using Linux and coding my own programs sort of geek, but a technology-loving and appreciating sort of geek.

• “I think we could all be running Microsoft Linux. I sent an e-mail to Steve Ballmer about this and he said he wasn’t interested,” he quipped in a NetworkWorld story. “Microsoft could very easily dominate the Linux market if they wanted to. I don’t think they should release all their source code … nobody would use it.”

• If last month’s Infrastrucuture issue was too “big” for you then try on this month’s Embedded issue. Find out how to use Player for programming mobile robots, build a humidity controller for your root cellar, find out how to reduce the boot time of your embedded system, and if you’re new to embedded systems find out the basics that go into one. You can also read about the Beagle Board, the Mesh Potato and a spate of other interestingly named items. And along with our regular columns don’t miss our new monthly column: Economy Size Geek.

Desktop

• A Boston-based startup named Litl is taking a big risk: they’re betting people will go for a netbook that sports a Linux-based OS and focuses on Web-/network-based productivity (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). The risk is in the pricetag: $700 — almost twice the price of computers that can do twice as much. Is there a market for this?

• With Linux, you’ll have a free, open source system that will never ask for an activation code or lock you out. You’ll have a wonderful desktop environment with thousands of programs and a welcoming and friendly community of users who will help you get up and running.

• This morning we arrived at work and immediately reports of outlook not working and shares are unable to be connected to started flooding in. I tried connecting to the server, I couldn’t. I tried pinging the server, no response. I actually had to get out of my chair (GASP!!!) and physically walk over to the server (a whole five meters) to log in. Can you believe that?!?

• Logging into the server everything looked normal. It reported a healthy network connection. All services looked to be running. Yet…..The server could not communicate with the network at all. Nothing, zip, zilch. Remembering about the approved patches, I manually applied the remaining pending patches and allowed the server to restart (sigh). All the while fielding angry telephone calls from people because they couldn’t get their lolcat emails. After an eternity the server rebooted and everything started working again. I could ping, it could ping and everybody could ping, ping.

• [...]

• For low and stable blood pressure, to reduce workplace tension and prevent stress related diseases, use Linux

• We have all heard the GNU/Linux naysayers posit that, “No one will use Linux until (insert application name here) runs natively on Linux.” Other than the fact that this is almost pure hyperbole there is some kernel of truth there. This article demonstrates one solution.

Server

• The lines between big servers used for general purpose computing and high performance computers are blurring: received wisdom is that the technologies are commoditising and coalescing around x86, Linux clustering and virtualization. But does this chime with reality? To many, Linux clusters are still a black art – is this an opportunity for Johny-come-lately Microsoft. Is it really over for Unix platforms and non x86 chips? Where do IBM mainframes sit?

Kernel Space

• At the end of October X Server 1.7.1 was released and at that time Peter Hutterer had said that the 1.7.2 build should arrive in about five weeks. It hasn’t been five weeks yet, but it looks like he’s still on track to delivering this bug-fix release on time or earlier. Peter has just announced the first pre-1.7.2 development release.

• It was just last week that NVIDIA had finally released a stable 190.xx Linux driver after this driver series had been in beta for months. The 190.xx driver series brought new hardware support, OpenGL 3.2 support, VDPAU improvements, and a fair amount of other changes. However, NVIDIA is now in the process of readying the 195.xx Linux driver series.

• A build of the nouveau video driver for nVidia cards was included in the Ubuntu repositories beginning with Jaunty. I’ve been meaning to test it for a while, and finally found some hardware recently to give it a shot.

• Prominent open source personalities presented a host of information about current and future developments in Linux at the Linux-Kongress 2009 conference. This time, filesystems were discussed in several presentations. Among the topics were the advantages of Ext4 and Btrfs, fast Ext4 filesystem checks, and kernel and userspace tricks for minimising the time-consuming movements of read/write heads, all of which can speed up some tasks by several orders of magnitude!

• The good thing about this version is that a lot of people are reporting that they can get it working on 2.6.30+ kernels. These drivers are lifesaver for people want to keep everything upto date. The corruption around cursor is still present while watching videos or with compiz enabled.

Applications

• Amaya is a quick and neat HTMl editor. I couldn’t find any issues, except that it needs to keep up with the new technologies. For instance, it isn’t made to build smartphones apps, which I saw in other free HTML editors. It also doesn’t support Ajax, which is being used more and more.

• When it comes to features, Amaya is definitely not on par with Dreamweaver, but if you are looking for a free, simple, and useful HTML editor, then Amaya is a good candidate.

Games

• As you can see its a fair size list of games. These are just the ones I play personally there are many more than run just fine under Linux. Check out the Wine Applications Database to see how well others fare with various applications.

Desktop Environments

KDE

• I’ll be honest, I’m surprising myself by not returning to Openbox. I’m still running Chakra with KDE, and I still love it. It needs a couple extra seconds to boot, but afterwards it feels just as fast as Openbox. More specific, applications feel as fast in KDE as they do in Openbox. Of course, Dolphin is slower than Thunar, Kate slower than Leafpad, etc, but Emesene, Firefox, Transmission, and all the other applications I normally use feel just as fast.

• Ever since I began to work on KDE PIM (porting Akregator to Akonadi) as a Google SoC student I’ve wanted to start blogging about it but unfortunately never had the time for it. Now thanks to swine flu I caught recently I can get some rest and look back at the past few years.

• I have been quite quiet on Gwenview front lately, getting a job which does not involve two hours in a train everyday and becoming a father for the second time apparently does not help to find free time to hack (how surprising!)

• This is one of the first developing fruits that developed under the guidance of the Project Timelord roadmap. But before I talk about Kubuntu Notification Helper, I should give a little history about its predecessor, Update Notifier KDE.

Distributions

• Have you searched for Linux distributions that are 100% free? Did you find more than one that suited your needs? Well, here’s a list of nine from which you can choose your favorite. Free means freedom to alter, redistribute, sell or release as a different product with no restrictions on you or your new distribution.

Moblin

• Version 2.1 of Moblin Linux, an operating system tailored for netbooks and nettops with Intel’s low-powered Atom chipset, has been released.

• In an initial test at The H, Moblin 2.1 was, at least visually, much improved over its predecessor, but on a Dell Mini 10v, one of the machines its developers use to test Moblin, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth hardware was either not detected or not functioning, severely limiting the functionality of the mobile operating system.

Mandriva

• Mandriva 2010.0, or “Adelie” if you prefer to use its codename, promises to be snappier than previous versions, including faster boot times. It’s built around the Linux 2.6.31 kernel, which means improved hardware support as well, and the feature-list unrolls from there.

• One of the more interesting features of Mandriva 2010, albeit early days, is the focus on what is being called the “task-orientated desktop”. Mandriva 2010 includes several Nepomuk services which help users to manage tasks across all applications. Using the task widget and the Tasktop application users can group items – such as emails, notes, web pages and so on – together around specific tasks.

• Exploring further, we see the control center has seen some changes and has a nice clean new layout. Another one of Mandriva’s strong suits is there control center and it’s integrated applications. All work very well and make for a nice overall experience for the end user. We quite like the layout and the organization they’ve put into this release.

• Altogether Mandriva seems to have a good interface and a lot going for it beneath the surface. Perhaps the only annoying part about it is it has a very commercial feel and comes with links on the desktop offering Mandriva products.

Red Hat Family

• The bottom line is, the more testing the better; just run F12 code anywhere you can and let us know where it’s broken. Information is always good.

Debian Family

• MEPIS LLC has released SimplyMEPIS 8.0.12, an update to the community edition of MEPIS 8.0. The ISO files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.0.12-rel_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.0.12-rel_64.iso.

• Usually when I’m writing about netbooks in Africa, they are coming from OLPC or a local OEM selling Intel Classmates. Now, however, IBM and Canonical (the company that brings us Ubuntu) are bringing a different strategy to the emerging African market. By using cheap netbooks running Ubuntu, coupled with IBM’s cloud computing platforms, businesses that could not otherwise afford computers for each of their employees will have access to really inexpensive computing.

• It looks and feels a lot like Windows (more or less), but, being very lightweight, it runs very quickly, and – especially if you mainly use the computer to browse the web – it’s a really great way of giving an older machine a new lease of life.

• We thought we’d compile a beginner’s guide to installing it. The main thing is: don’t be afraid. It’s much easier than you think. And the satisfaction once you’ve done it is…well, you be the judge. But we were punching the air for hours.

• Grub2, the new boot menu installed by default with Ubuntu 9.10, can still look pretty old-school ugly if your tastes don’t run with white terminal text on black. You can, however, customize its resolution, images, colors, and other aspects.

Devices/Embedded

• Tonido is a free software that turns your desktop into a personal server and allows you to access and share your files, media, calendar and apps from everywhere. Be it Windows, Mac or Linux, you simply install the software and have your own personal cloud server up and running in no time. Forget all the complicated stuffs you have heard about creating your own server. There are no technical skills required to set up and run Tonido. The best thing is – all the data resides in your own computer and there is no need to worry about security or even data loss (unless your own computer crashes).

• You won’t find a better media center than the open-source XBMC, but most people don’t have the space or desire to plug a noisy PC into their TV. Instead, I converted a cheap nettop into a standalone XBMC set-top box. Here’s how.

• OpenMoko’s WikiReader is a unique gadget with a single function. The simple handheld device stores the text of over 3 million Wikipedia entries, enabling convenient offline access to the popular Internet encyclopedia. We have conducted some hands-on testing with the new product and found it to be surprisingly compelling despite its limitations.

• Digi International announced a Linux-compatible ARM Cortex-A8-based module that supports 802.11n WiFi. Built around a Freescale i.MX51 SoC (system on chip), the ConnectCore Wi-MX51 includes up to 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage, wireless networking, touchscreen support, and a variety of other interfaces, the company says.

Android

• Now that’s what I call an Android phone. Actually, that’s what I call an Android phone that might just kick some iPhone ass.

• The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 social networking phone is Android powered and feature rich. How rich? Well, how does 1GB RAM plus 16Gb of flash storage and a stunning 8.1 megapixel camera that comes complete with a geo-tagging function strike you?

• Some weeks ago I was attending Embedded Linux Conference Europe. My personal highlight at this event was the excellent Android Mythbusters presentation given by Matt Porter.

• As you may know, Matt Porter was heavily involved in the MIPS and PPC ports of Android, so he and his team have seen the lowest levels of Android, more and deeper than even cellphone manufacturers ever have to look into it.

• The slides of his presentation are now available for download. I would personally recommend this as mandatory reading material for everyone who has some interest in Android.

• The presentation explains in detail why Android is not what most people refer to when they say Linux. What most people mean when they say Linux is the GNU/Linux system with it’s standard userspace tools, not only the kernel.

• The ultimate goal – at least for Cerf – is to bring the protocol to our earth’s everyday wireless networks. The protocol, he says, has already been added to Google’s Android open source mobile stack as an application platform – ie it sits on top of the OS.

• Another day, another Android phone. I believe we will soon come to a day when Android phones will be looked at with the same jaundiced eye as, say, the latest LG Chocolate, but since that day hasn’t come, I’ll share a few observations with Verizon’s new $99 Hero-alike, the Eris.

Nokia

• The Nokia N900 looks like being the QWERTY success story of the season, as anticipation for this Maemo 5 handset seems to be almost at fever pitch. While initially intended for an October launch, it looks like the Nokia N900 will be shipping on the 16th November and what’s more, it’ll be cheaper than expected. Find out about the Nokia N900 being priced for 16th November launch after the jump..

• Nokia’s Linux-based N900 looks to be shaping up as the comapny’s real competition in the next generation of smartphones – and it seems like it may be going for the low-price slot.

Sub-notebooks

• UNR represents a solid step forward for netbook users. It provides anyone familiar with Ubuntu the same basic commands and applications you’ll find in the desktop addition. It also makes it a snap to sync your key files between your main machine and a second (or third) painlessly. In contrast, Moblin caters to the mobile user interested in quick access to their favorite applications coupled with a quick boot time. Both do what they do well and should meet the basic needs of most any netbook user.

• What will be critical for Linux is the rise of netbooks that run on ARM processors. As the sales of these increase, Orr predicts Linux will overtake Windows on netbooks by 2013.

• Although I loved the tiny size and the portability, it was a nightmare typing on the cramped keyboard and installing additional programs made the Windows XP grind to a snail’s pace. After six months, half the screen went dead so I unscrewed the display, connected the keyboard to a spare monitor and thus converted my netbook into a nettop! And oh, I recently installed Ubuntu, (an operating system based on Linux) on it and it’s running like a dream.

• Freescale and Pegatron are ushering a new generation of netbooks that will combine excellent battery life, good looks and low cost. The two partners are hoping to bring the ARM-based netbook to market within the next few months under the flagship of a major OEM at a retail price of $199 to $299.

Free Software/Open Source

• Horde is not traditionally marketed as an Exchange alternative but thanks to its extensive base it is perhaps the most feature-rich platform around. Horde is essentially a PHP framework which can do just about anything from email to contact lists, shared calendaring to task lists. The Horde framework provides the basic platform and the various modules add in wanted features.

• Avro is expressive. It’s small. And it’s fast. Under Avro, schema is stored with data but is also factored out of instances. Arbitrary code types can be read and written without generating and loading the code.

• Furthermore, Avro includes a file format, textural encoding for data that handles versioning. An Avro RPC framework, meanwhile, is being build that’ll talk to native languages, so these languages no longer need to converse with Hadoop through Java.

• This news follows the company’s announcement last week that Eucalyptus software is the engine behind the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), a new cloud computing solution packaged in the latest version of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. UEC powered by Eucalyptus will ship with every copy of Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition, which is available now at www.ubuntu.com.

• The open source fault management company Rivermuse have announced the availability of RiverMuse ES, an enterprise supported version of the RiverMuse Core, the GPLv3 licensed free software version. Functionally, Core and ES are the same, but ES offers 8/5 support and indemnification.

• HHS will update its Connect open-source interoperability toolkit to embed features that will help users achieve meaningful use of EMRs, a federal official says. The 2010 release of Connect also is expected to include functionality for states to conform to the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA), the plan for modernizing Medicaid information systems, according to Vish Sakaran, program director of the Federal Health Architecture in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

• Open source specialist, consultant and Harvard fellow David “Doc” Searls writes about why he believes openness has to be the future for mobile.

• Let’s take off the open source glasses. Making science isn’t like making software. Engineering foundations for distribution, for user hacking, for bringing more people into the system, these are the things that allowed open source to emerge in software. Good design choices, like separation of concerns, led us to the world of open source software. Let’s learn from those lessons and build the foundations first, and let the science surprise us with the way it localizes distributed and user driven innovation.

• MIT Media Lab’s Pranab Mistry demonstrated the latest version of his Sixth-Sense wearable gesture interface at the TEDIndia conference on Thursday, where he showed how it could be used to compute using just a piece of paper. Sixthsense was first presented by Mistry at a TED conference in February 2009.

• France 24 is a public 24/7 international news channel broadcast in three languages: French, English and Arabic. Its mission is to cover international current events from a French perspective and to convey French values throughout the world. The channel provides keys to understanding complex events through in-depth analysis. France 24 also puts culture at the forefront of its programming. France24 is part of the AEF (the “Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France” or French foreign media), along with RFI (a radio station) and TV5 (a TV station).

• Baheyeldin began by contrasting the different development models in the Open Source and commercial worlds. Obviously, the Open Source world can be faster and more agile. He also offered another contrast — with Open Source, everyone wins: the customer, the consultant, and the community.

• Jaspersoft, provider of the world’s most widely used business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that it is joining the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) to support its mission of extending the benefits of open source software to government agencies and academic organizations. Paul Loeffler, director of government programs at Jaspersoft, is joining the OSSI Advisory Board.

OpenOffice.org

• Anyone using Linux (or any operating system for that matter) should know about the OpenOffice.org office suite. This suite of tools serve as the open source equivalent to Microsoft Office and does so with ease and full functionality. OpenOffice.org Writer works very similarly to Microsoft Word. If you compare basic features to basic features, you will find little difference in the two pieces of software. But when you really start getting down to business, you will find there are features tucked away in this software that you may not have known existed. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of these lesser known features so that you can begin to employ and enjoy. So, without further adieu, on with the features.

Google

• The internet search giant has now decided to release several of its key Javascript application development tools as open source, including Google Mail, Google Docs and Google Maps, allowing developers to create a new range of powerful web applications.

• Google has decided to release as open source several of its key application development tools, hoping that they will prove useful for external programmers to build faster Web applications.

• Google has opened the source code of the comprehensive JavaScript library that it uses in some of its popular web applications. The search giant has also opened the source of its JavaScript compression tool.

Mozilla

• THE OPEN SOURCE Mozilla Foundation is set to release the first Release Candidate of its email client Thunderbird 3 early next week.

• Big cheeses at Mozzarella say that RC 1 of Thunderbird 3 will be available for download as soon as Monday, with the final version expected later in November.

• Thunderbird 3, an update to the e-mail software that Mozilla hopes will give it some of the advantages its Firefox browser has enjoyed, is due to arrive in near-final form next week.

• The first beta is a bit behind schedule (first beta was scheduled for early September), but it’s looking pretty solid.

• Firefox 3.5.5, which comes only a week after the release of 3.5.4, addressed a start-up crash problem and crashes in the GIF image decoder of the open source browser, among other bugs (as explained here). The flaws create a possible means to crash browser with malformed code on websites but their main importance is as an irritation that impairs users ability to surf the web without irksome browser crashes.

Business

• Software subscription models make it easy to prove the value of software before you make significant investments. They reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating expensive license fees and a whole range of subsequent “gotchas”. It’s simply a better, smarter way to buy, one that finally puts the customer back in charge.

Government

• Under her leadership, that institution has stood in defense of free and open source software (FOSS) and has served to introduce the larger portion of the general public to the existence of FOSS and its (FOSS’) viability as a business model.

• Still on the topic of free software, a major event announcement was made involving global IT giant IBM, Canonical, the company behind the most popular and fastest growing distribution (Ubuntu) of the Linux operating system and other partners. They launched a Cloud- and Linux-based Netbook Software in Africa. Described as a “flexible personal computing software package for netbooks and other thin client devices to help businesses in Africa bridge the digital divide by leapfrogging traditional PCs and proprietary software”, the bundle is the first cloud- and Linux-based offering from IBM and Canonical. The initiative targets the rising market for netbooks.

• Open source software, freely available program code that the public can download and modify, which many agencies avoid because they view it as a security risk, is often more secure than the alternatives that are commercially developed, a top Defense Department official said on Thursday.

• Here are some stunning facts that were published at the end of July in Malaysia:

Programming

• Perl has been around since 1987 and became an early darling of web developers. These days, however, you don’t hear much about Perl. Everyone seems to be talking about trendier languages like PHP, Python and Ruby, with Perl left in the back as a neglected, not-so-hip cousin.

• [...]

• In short, Perl is alive and kicking. A new version, Perl 6, is on its way but still under development. Although Perl may never recapture its glory days of the early Web in the ‘90s, it isn’t dying on us anytime soon. It has become the gray-haired distinguished old gentleman next to the young hotheads like Python and PHP.

Standards/Consortia

• For the last 6 weeks or so, a bunch of us have been working on a really serious issue in SSL. In short, a man-in-the-middle can use SSL renegotiation to inject an arbitrary prefix into any SSL session, undetected by either end.

Leftovers

• IBM Corp.’s failure to protect state information under an $863 million data center consolidation contract has prompted the Texas secretary of state’s office to pull its elections system from the project.

• Prosecutors trying to put you in prison for a crime you didn’t commit can fabricate evidence, coerce witnesses into lying on the stand, and enjoy absolute immunity. They cannot go to prison. They cannot even be sued. They aren’t even likely to get so much as a reprimand from the bar association or from their bosses, even after publicly admitting to framing you.

• A legal row that threatened the existence of Skype has been settled, with the free net phone service’s founders regaining a significant portion of the firm from eBay.

• Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will get 14 per cent of Skype and seats on its board under the deal, announced today.

Finance

• The Vermont Democrat-Socialist unveiled the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act” — which he billed as a succinct remedy for tackling financial risk and avoiding a repeat of the taxpayer-funded bailouts that occurred just one year ago.

• Subsequent to the charges, Bob Moffat, who used to run IBM’s server, storage and chip business, stepped down. As El Reg goes to press, charges have not been filed against Hector Ruiz, the chairman of AMD chip spinout GlobalFoundries who has been rumored to be the unnamed executive who gave out information about the spinout of the chip business and who this week stepped down as chairman of that company.

• Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and other large city employers have started receiving small quantities of swine flu vaccine for high-risk employees

• Thanks to Bloomberg News, we now have a good idea how much of that $13 billion pass-through bailout Goldman Sachs got from AIG last year was pure taxpayer-financed gravy: $5.2 billion, courtesy Tim Geithner.

• [...]

• Then a funny thing happened: The New York Fed opened an $85 billion credit line for AIG, staving off bankruptcy with a massive influx of taxpayer dollars and effectively taking control of the insurer. Habayeb was pushed aside as chief negotiator with Goldman and the other banks on the issue of how much AIG owed for those swaps and replaced by Tim Geithner, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York…

• I didn’t believe this story was true at first — thought it had to be a spoof. But it turns out to be true. The great banks of the world have gone on a p.r. counteroffensive in Europe, and are sending spokescrooks in shiny suits into churches to persuade the masses that Christ would have approved of the latest round of obscene bonuses.

• You know Nomi. The former Goldman Managing Director turned journalist-author is a whistleblower of sorts, who seems to relish spitting in the face of the Vampire Squid. Just who gets busted in this clip? That would be Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Bernanke and Paulson, for starters. This one is enjoyable. We have the transcript and video. Runs 8 minutes.

AstroTurf

• Today, at least 25 of those key players are back, but this time they’re lobbyists, trying to persuade their former colleagues to protect the lucrative system during the health care reform negotiations.

• TPM Muckraker has exposed the fact that Newsweek is teaming up with the American Petroleum Institute (API) to host a “briefing” for Members of Congress on climate and energy policy. The briefing is timed to coincide with, surprise, the Senate getting ready to take up climate and energy policy in advance of next month’s COP15 world conference on global warming policy.

Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

• How important is the net neutrality issue? Put yourself in a world where you were charged more for the amount of data that comes in and out of your system. Now imagine how free and open Linux development would occur in such a world.

• For the last decade or so, Internet service providers have been dealing with requests to block access to pornographic or copyright-infringing Web sites, or in China, ones that dare to criticize the government.

• Michael Scott points us to yet another (yes, another) case of copyfraud, where someone sends a DMCA takedown notice to stop criticism, rather than actual infringement. In this case, the party accused of misusing the DMCA in this manner (which is illegal) is whoever is behind the website PerfectPitch.com, who offers a fee-based training program that is supposed to help people learn to have (surprise, surprise) perfect pitch.

• Crown copyright concerns were raised repeatedly during this summer’s copyright consultation as many groups expressed the view that government works should be treated as public domain. The issue generated some surprise from Industry Minister Tony Clement, who asked for examples about why crown copyright was a problem.

• As the Selectable Output Control (SOC) battle continues here in Washington, Public Knowledge just sent a letter to the FCC pointing out that movie studios are doing some of the best work to show why SOC just doesn’t make sense.

• Want to know why the MPAA got 60 Minutes to run its propaganda piece on movie piracy this week? Because it knew this fight was close to a deciding point, and a little moral panic might help tip it over the edge into Hollywood’s favor.

• For a while, the FCC has pushed back and refused to grant the movie studios an exemption in order to break your TV, but word is coming down that, despite promises to make decisions based on “evidence,” the FCC is ready to give in and let the MPAA break your TV and DVR in order to stop you from recording the movies it releases. Why? There’s no good reason at all, other than the administration’s cozy relationship with Hollywood these days. The industry’s own actions show that this will do nothing to make it easier for it to release movies earlier. The industry’s own claims show that it will do nothing to decrease piracy.

• After months of often bitter debate, European Union lawmakers reached agreement on how to preserve citizen’s rights to Internet access in a meeting that ended in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• Finding the whole thing bizarre, but remembering that I have some Canadian currency from my last trip there, I checked — and, indeed, in tiny print in the lower right-hand corner, there is a copyright notice. And then… bonus. Tucked in with my Canadian cash was a 5 euro bill as well… and it also appears to have a copyright notice on it right at the top in the center (though, it’s tiny). I did a quick search, and indeed, it appears that the design of the euro is also covered by copyright with specific limitations on copying.

• The Defendant allegedly sold answer to the Plaintiff’s engineering and accounting textbooks questions, via the internet. The answer sets were identical to the Plaintiff’s instructor’s solutions manuals. Uneventful simple case of copyright infringement? Such was not the case.

• Lincoln Braun writes “I play an online web game. BATracer which is designed to simulate a number of racing series including Formula 1, LeMans, A1 Grand Prix, Ferrari Challenge, and more. This week, however, the owner of the site received a legal notice from Ferrari, ordering a cease & desist from using Ferrari cars. BATracer has somewhere between 2000 and 3000 active users, most of whom arrived at the site because of Formula 1. The letter by Ferrari has really annoyed many of the most passionate fans and they have lost a lot of goodwill.”

• Michael Geist sez, “According to the official agenda, in a few hours the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks will continue on the Internet provisions and then move into the criminal provisions chapter. It is worth highlighting the ongoing criminal provisions as well. As previously leaked, the U.S. and Japan supplied the initial text for this chapter. Their proposal included extending criminal enforcement to both (1) cases of a commercial nature; and (2) cases involving significant willful copyright and trademark infringement even where there is no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain. In other words, non-commercial infringement could lead to criminal penalties. Plus, jail time for unauthorized camcording of films and even for fake DVD and CD packaging.”

• As ACTA negotiators head into day two of the Seoul, Korea meetings, the global response to the Internet provisions in the chapter (the issue from day one) has been remarkable. Articles and postings from around the world (Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK, New Zealand, the Netherlands, U.S., Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands), coverage from some of the most popular websites (Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, TorrentFreak, BoingBoing, Slashdot), as well as expert commentary (EFF, Electronic Frontier Australia) has been swift and universally concerned with ACTA.

• The IFPI is blasting a recent study showing that P2P users buy more music, but an EU Commissioner and a UK Parliamentary body both blame music labels for “much of the problem” with current P2P usage levels. The major labels couldn’t disagree more.

• Now, I’m all for more tech skills training in universities, but wouldn’t it be nice if Mandelson started by getting some tech skills training himself — including a basic understanding of why an IP address is not an accurate indicator of who is doing something online? Or, perhaps, an understanding of how BitTorrent actually works and a brief primer on encryption technologies….

• The quotes really are quite stunning. Burke basically seems to be saying the focus needs to be on figuring out ways to get consumers to change, rather than changing to match what customers want. A business model based on going against what consumers want doesn’t seem likely to last that long.

• Judging by the number of times it has happened, plenty of accused file-swappers believe they’re better off not showing up to court than even talking to the RIAA—especially if the recording industry doesn’t bother to collect on the default judgments it eventually wins. Unfortunately for the file-swappers, it’s not true.

• Google has come out fighting against Erich Specht who sued the search giant over the Android name, launching a countersuit demanding damages and “disgorgement of ill-gotten gains”.

Virtual Interfaces: When One IP Isn’t EnoughDigital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.