p2pnet roundup: Nov 5, 2007
p2pnet headline roundups | Last of the day …
DVD licensing group to vote on closing copying loophole – Ars Technica
This week, the DVD Copy Control Association—the group responsible for CSS copy protection—is expected to vote on a Managed Copy Amendment that would close a loophole in the CSS license that allows home media server products like those made by Kaleidescape to legally rip DVDs and store encrypted copies on a hard drive. The DVD CCA’s vote is a belated response to a March ruling in which a judge ruled that Kaleidescape’s home media server products do not violate the CSS license. In an opinion issued after a week-long trial, Judge Leslie C. Nichols found that the 20-page CSS spec was not actually included in the license agreement and that Kaleidescape had made good-faith efforts to ensure it was in full compliance with the license.
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Do Grade Changing Hackers Deserve 20 Years In Jail? – Techdirt
Over the years, we’ve had numerous stories of kids caught changing their grades by hacking into school computer systems. However, is it worth a $250,000 fine and 20 years in jail? That’s apparently what two men face after hacking into California State University’s computer system and changing their grades.
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Oprah launches channel on YouTube – BBC
Behind-the-scenes video footage from her television show and interviews with people who have become famous through YouTube will be shown on the channel.
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Second Life’s killer app is kicking Dilbert in the crotch – Valleywag
Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind Dilbert, has discovered the proper use for Second Life. During a “virtual booksigning,” which seems to defeat the purpose, Adams invited fans to kick him in his virtual crotch, which is what passive-aggressive Second Lifers want to do to famous people anyway. I’m so glad Al Gore invented the Internet. This is going to change everything. Catch the video after the jump.
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Wikipedia cleared in French defamation case – Reuters
A French judge has dismissed a defamation and privacy case against Wikipedia after ruling the free online encyclopedia was not responsible for information introduced onto its Web site. The U.S.-based Wikipedia Foundation, which is behind the popular compendium, was sued by three French nationals over a Wikipedia article that said they were gay activists.
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Plans to improve Africa’s access to the Internet are beginning to take shape – Heise Onlineline is does
Connect Africa, the summit of African politicians, international lenders and leaders of the IT industry in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which lasted until yesterday, opened with a rather depressing report according to which fewer than 4 percent of Africans have an Internet connection. On the last of the summit there was a glimmer of hope that this state of affairs will change in the near future. Thus the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was able to persuade the software behemoth Microsoft to help monitor the progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment in Africa with an online application by the name of Global View, which is based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth but will be hosted by the ITU.
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Britons sending 1bn texts weekly – BBC
Britons are now sending more than one billion text messages per week according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA). The figure is 25% higher than a year ago and is set to shatter forecasts for how many text messages have been sent to and from handsets this year.
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