p2pnet roundup: Oct 25, 2007
p2pnet headline roundups | Last of the day …
Starbucks frees up wireless in 1,000 Southern California cafes – OCRegister
Starbucks said it has teamed up with T-Mobile to offer free Internet access at 1,000 cafes in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Imperial, Kern, Riverside, San Luis Obispo and Tulare counties. The Seattle giant normally charges a fee for the T-mobile service — a big gripe for many java lovers. Most coffee houses provide free Internet access to customers. However, Starbucks is lifting fees temporarily so evacuees with laptops can use cafes to reach family members online.
Update: Starbucks said Imperial, Kern, Riverside, San Luis Obispo and Tulare counties are also offering free Internet access.
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Warning to Swedish Facebook users – The Local
A Swedish government IT advisor has warned the country’s estimated 400,000 Facebook users that the networking website’s terms and conditions amount to a “slave contract.” Pär Ström, a member of the government’s IT Council and integrity spokesman at think tank Den Nya Välfärden, says the 13-page contract users agree to when joining Facebook gives the US company rights over their personal information and photographs.
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‘55 ‘Origin of Life’ Paper Is Retracted – New York Times
In January 1955, Homer Jacobson, a chemistry professor at Brooklyn College, published a paper called “Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life” in American Scientist, the journal of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society. In it, Dr. Jacobson speculated on the chemical qualities of earth in Hadean time, billions of years ago when the planet was beginning to cool down to the point where, as Dr. Jacobson put it, “one could imagine a few hardy compounds could survive.” Nobody paid much attention to the paper at the time, he said in a telephone interview from his home in Tarrytown, N.Y. But today it is winning Dr. Jacobson acclaim that he does not want — from creationists who cite it as proof that life could not have emerged on earth without divine intervention. So after 52 years, he has retracted it.
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Three Reasons Microsoft Paid so Little For Facebook – Wired
It’s official — the truth is less profitable than fiction. Facebook has secured the cornerstone of its $15 billion valuation with today’s Microsoft alliance. But at $240 million, that’s only a 1.6% slice of a much larger pie. What happened to the talk of 5% and $750 million? Steve Ballmer (pictured right) talked a good game about how much Microsoft was willing to spend at the Web 2.0 Summit. So why such a small slice of Facebook? Here are three likely culprits: Microsoft Only Needs an Entrenched Position; Microsoft.
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Judge: Educational privacy law not sufficient to block RIAA’s subpoenas – Ars Technica
In August, we reported on a University of Tennessee student targeted by the RIAA for file-sharing who had attempted to quash a subpoena by arguing that the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevented the release of his name, addresses, and phone numbers. The identity of Doe 28 in Virgin v. Does 1-33 will soon be known to the RIAA, as a judge denied the student’s motion to quash the subpoena.
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Comcast quarter profit falls, loses subscribers – Reuters
Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) posted a 54 percent fall in quarterly net profit as the largest U.S. cable TV operator lost more basic video subscribers than analysts had expected, sending shares down about 8 percent.
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[OT] Smacking ban ruled out – The Independent
Ministers ruled out a complete ban on smacking today after a Government review found the majority of parents opposed such a move. Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said the law would stay as it is after officials reviewed the way that new rules were working. Despite calls from many organisations for a ban, Mr Brennan said the evidence was that fewer parents now use smacking to discipline their children.
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Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:29 am
British ISPs are now getting targeted by the music industry: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/25/triesman_isps_music/
The net is relentlessly closing in, isn’t it?
October 26th, 2007 at 3:30 am
How long until individual users get sued, as in America?