p2pnet World Headlines – April 2, 2009
DOJ letter to Congress seems to contradict DOJ briefs in SONY v. Cloud & SONY v. Tenenbaum Recording Industry vs The People
On September 23, 2008, the US Department of Justice wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that “statutory damages … are similar to punitive damages”. In March, 2009, the US Department of Justice filed at least 2 briefs of which we are aware, one in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Cloud, the other in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, arguing that statutory damages are not like punitive damages. September 23, 2008, letter of US Dept of Justice to Senate Judiciary Committee “Obama DOJ files similar brief defending RIAA statutory damages theory, this time in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Cloud” “Obama’s Justice Department intervenes on side of RIAA in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum”
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Anti-Piracy Law Causes Drop in Swedish Internet Traffic TorrentFreak
A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers came into force in Sweden yesterday. Interestingly, it looks like the IPRED legislation, which will also increase penalties and ultimately criminalize large scale infringement, has already resulted in a major drop in Internet traffic – for now. The controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) has gathered opposition from various sides, most notably half of the Swedsih public. In a response to the new law The Pirate Bay introduced their anonymity service IPREDATOR last week, which is scheduled to open up to the public soon. Now, a day after IPRED came into force, data from the Netnod Internet Exchange shows a significant drop of 30% in Swedish Internet traffic. This impressive figure seems to suggest that the amount of traffic generated by filesharing has dropped even more.
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Miss Universe says Gitmo visit ‘fun’ Associated Press
Miss Universe’s blog posting about having fun at Guantanamo Bay has vanished from the pageant’s website as embarrassed officials try to quash what they call a misunderstanding. A flurry of critical commentary and news stories over the Venezuelan beauty queen’s lighthearted post underscores that the military prison at Guantanamo remains a damaging symbol for the United States. Dayana Mendoza’s now-deleted late-March posting sounded like a note home from a spring breaker. “We hung out with the guys from the East Coast and they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!” Mendoza wrote. (Thanks, Marc)
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Poilievre Changes His Tune on Privacy and Google Street View Michael Geist
Earlier this week, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre attracted considerable attention by raising the privacy concerns associated with Google Street View. Poilievre was quoted asking “is there going to be a mass database of people’s images? What are the benefits to Canada of allowing this to occur?” The original article states that: “Poilievre said he is particularly concerned about the original versions of those images that will be archived by Google. The original versions of the images will not be blurred. He said they could pose a privacy risk for Canadians if they somehow leaked out. He also questioned where the images would be stored and whether privacy laws could protect Canadians if the images were stored on a foreign computer server.” Poilievre appears to have had a change of heart. His concerns are not that Canadian privacy law is too weak to address these issues, but rather that it is too strong. In a National Post op-ed, Poilievre is now concerned that Canadian privacy law might create a barrier to Google Street View.
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Texas senator wants to ban Vista purchases The Register
Windows Vista gets a lot of grief both in tech circles and the general public â but one Texas lawmaker wants to make it a matter of public policy. Democrat Texas state Senator Juan Hinojosa recently added a rider to Texas’ $182bn budget plan that would ban the state’s agencies from purchasing Vista (and all Vista-related technologies) unless they get written permission from the budget board. The rider was added last week in the Texas senate finance committee, in which Hinojosa serves as vice-chairman. The senate’s version of the budget will be up for debate on Wednesday. Hinojosa told San Antonio Express-News: “We have a lot of problems with the Vista program. It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It’s not compatible with other equipment, and it’s supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program that is being used by state agencies, and it’s not.”
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A Buzzkill For Buzz Media: Entertainment Network Lays Off Quarter Of Staff paidContent
Even a fresh influx of cash couldn`t keep online entertainment network Buzz Media (formerly Buzznet) from cutting staff: the company told paidContent that it is laying off more than 20 percent of its team today, leaving it with roughly 75 employees. The layoffs come as Buzz Media puts the brakes on plans to launch new properties, and will primarily affect product developers, engineers, design and editorial. CEO Tyler Goldman said the sales team wasn`t impacted, and that Buzz Media was actually looking to add in that area.
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‘Brain decline’ begins at age 27 BBC
Mental abilities decline at a relatively young age, experts suspect. Mental powers start to dwindle at 27 after peaking at 22, marking the start of old age, US research suggests. Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia found reasoning, spatial visualisation and speed of thought all decline in our late 20s. Therapies designed to stall or reverse the ageing process may need to start much earlier, he said.
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Children’s TV presenter cuts off finger tip on air The LocaL
A Swedish children’s television presenter gave credence to the well-worn phrase “don’t try this at home” when the tip off a finger was sliced off while chopping a potato in the middle of a live programme. The presenter was working on a programme entitled “Andedräktstavlingen” (literally: “breath competition”) in Sveriges Television’s Malmö studio when the unfortunate accident occurred. The presenter was chopping a potato when the knife slipped and went straight through the tip of the middle finger on the left hand, cutting off the nail and part of the pad of the finger.
April, 2009
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April 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
Brain Decline @ 27? Maybe its all that alcohol consumed at uni eh? lol
On that note, I read a story in the US today about a uni or college that had(past tense) an alternative to alcohol – free porn viewing! Which was killed off anyway
@MediaSentry
Itll be MediaBankrupt all round lol
I envy Senator Hinojsa I hate Vista too lol
Is there a youtube video? Heh
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 am
Jon
Senator Conroy how much do you think hes worth? $700?
Someone tried to sell him on eBay lol
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 am
@Brain Decline:
I’m personally really skeptical of all “studies” mentioned (or should we say hyped?) in this way, not least because they feed into an already-existing belief system/prejudice. The “Bell Curve” was the same way — generated vast amounts of hype, but to see any of the counter-argument, you’d have to actually dig around. There’s a lot of issues that are treated like this as regards media coverage, so this isn’t specifically directed at this one article as such.
Another thing to keep in mind is that publishing the results of a study is in many ways the BEGINNING of the process: it’s called “peer review”, and despite the impression given to us, it takes several different “studies” of any given type to actually get anything useful (which is why all of the articles referencing this weasel-word their way out of it by saying the study “suggests” such-and-such.
No single study “proves” anything. I just wish the public-at-large (and our media overlords) would actuallyunderstand that fact: maybe then we wouldn’t constantly be inundated with “news” stories about studies which contradict other studies every few days.
Not impuning the “world headlines” feature either, just being skeptical/paranoid like usual.