p2pnet World Headlines â Sept 8, 2009
McDonald`s loses eight-year trademark battle against Malaysian restaurant McCurry Canoe
McDonald`s has lost an eight-year trademark battle against the Malaysian restaurant McCurry, which serves Indian food. The country`s highest court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. fast food giant cannot appeal against another court`s verdict that allowed McCurry to use the Mc prefix. The ruling by the Federal Court ends all legal avenues for McDonald`s to protect its name from what it said was a trademark infringement.
Japanese mobile operators shout `Avast` at piracy The Register
The Japanese are considering forcing packet inspection on mobile networks in order to identify, and disconnect, copyright infringing pirates. The news comes from Daily Yomiuri, which reports that the matter is to be discussed next Wednesday by the Recording Industry Association of Japan and the Telecommunications Carriers Association, along with representatives from the Internal Affairs ministry and other affected companies.
Music industry calls for filesharing tax The Inquirer
Everyone will have to pay them THE LATEST CUNNING PLAN of the music industry is to get the government to bring in a tax to pay what it claims to have lost to `pirates`.
Lawsuit Claims WGA Is Spyware Slashdot
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft`s euphemistically named digital restrictions scheme, is the target of another spyware and false advertising lawsuit. `Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP`s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information [daily IP address and other details that could be used to trace information back to a home or user] . The system is built into Vista and Windows 7. [Additional: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/09/04/microsoft.sued.over.wga/ ]
The Copyright Black Hole Swallowing Our Culture Slashdot
James Boyle, professor at Duke Law School, has a piece in the Financial Times in which he argues that a `copyright black hole is swallowing our culture.` He explains some of the issues surrounding Google Books, and makes the point that these issues wouldn`t exist if we had a sane copyright law .
Copyright law threatening Calgary Herald
On Dec. 13, 1981, Poland`s communist government declared martial law to put down the Solidarity movement. Telephone lines went silent across the country, and once service was restored, each time anyone picked up the telephone they were greeted with a voice: Rozmowa Kontrolowana. This conversation is being monitored. That dictatorships treat their citizens this way is no surprise. What is surprising is that democracies are beginning to do the same. It is increasingly apparent that modern copyright law is utterly and completely incompatible with the right to privacy. This is at the core of the Pirate movement in Europe which broke through to elect its first members of the European Parliament this summer, and the Pirate Party of Canada, which is collecting signatures on its website to register as an official political party as we speak. [Comment: Good read]
Bowie gets spider named after him CBC
Singer David Bowie has had a large, yellow, hairy spider from Malaysia named after him. A German spider specialist told the Observer newspaper he named the new species after Bowie â whose album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was a huge hit in 1972 â because he wanted to raise awareness about the discovery. Peter Jaeger, who has found 200 new species of arachnids in a decade, says he`s named it Heteropoda davidbowie.
Capitalism is evil, says new Michael Moore film Reuters
Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie Capitalism: A Love Story, which premieres at the Venice film festival Sunday. Blending his trademark humor with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an all out attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty. Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil, the two-hour movie concludes. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy.
Century 21 Canada does battle with Rogers Financial Post
A legal battle is brewing between one of the country`s largest real estate companies and Rogers Communications Inc., the owner of a new website promoting property listings across Canada. The Financial Post has learned Century 21 Canada is suing Zoocasa Inc., which officially launched last month, for scraping information from sites provided by Century 21 brokers and representatives. Sources indicate privately controlled Zoocasa is nearly 100% owned by Rogers. The move by Rogers, the largest telecommunications company in the country, into the real estate sector could have major repercussions and Century 21`s chief executive Don Lawby says he wants to ensure Zoocasa does not have an unfair competitive advantage.
What the DHS Knows About You Slashdot
Here`s a real copy http://philosecurity.org/2009/09/07/what-does-dhs-know-about-you of an American citizen`s DHS Travel Record, retrieved from the US Customs and Border Patrol`s Automated Targeting System and obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act request. The document reveals that the DHS is storing: the traveler`s credit card number and expiration; IP addresses used to make Web travel reservations; hotel information and itinerary; full airline itinerary including flight numbers and seat numbers; phone numbers including business, home, and cell; and every frequent flyer and hotel number associated with the traveler, even ones not used for the specific reservation.
Egyptian censorship advocate is candidate to be UNESCO director general Reporters without Borders
Reporters Without Borders points out that UNESCO`s mandate includes promoting free expression and press freedom as basic human rights, encouraging media independence and diversity as preconditions for democratisation, and supporting the free flow of information, including on the Internet. President Hosni Mubarak`s culture minister since 1987, Hosni has been one of the leading protagonists of government censorship in the Arab Republic of Egypt during this period, constantly seeking to control both press freedom and his fellow citizens` right to freedom of information.
Lawyers For Guy Charged In Death Of 4 Year Old, Demanding IDs Of 300 Newspaper Commenters TechDirt
The local news organizations in Houston wrote about the case, and the stories generated plenty of comments. So, Coe`s attorneys are demanding the identifying information on approximately 300 commenters. They`re defending the request by saying that the specificity of some comments that made it appear they came from people with personal knowledge of the case. Really? All 300 said stuff so specific that it appeared they had personal knowledge of the case? Or is it just that his lawyers don`t like what people are saying? Trying to find out the identities of anonymous speakers seems like a clear attempt to stifle free speech through intimidation. Luckily, the news organizations are defending their commenters` right to be anonymous.
Feds break Apple’s code of App Store silence The Register
Since the iPhone was released two years ago, watching Apple keep its obsessive vise grip on the device while trying to promote third party application development has been one solid I-didn’t-know-you-could-do-that after another. Battle the recording industry for liberal music licensing terms and build the largest online music store, all the while living out the RIAA’s wet dream by manually approving every bit of code that runs on a computing device? I didn’t know you could do that. Being run by an ex-hippie CEO who used to spike his Oolong tea with LSD, and then carrying on Jerry Falwell’s legacy by protecting the children from iPhone programs that show a bit too much skin? I didn’t know you could do that. Have a board member whose own company makes a device that directly competes with your bread and butter? Well, I knew you could do that in Silicon Valley, because we’re all such good friends. That is, at least, until the old crusties from AT&T show up with their Geritol and single letter ticker symbol. Here in the Valley, we run more at a line-of-blow-off-a-stripper’s-ass speed, so when Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone, everyone suspected that AT&T strong-armed them into kicking the Google to the curb. In fact, the move was so out of character that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – the governmental agency responsible for keeping seven dirty words off the public airwaves – started asking questions. Well, Apple got all butthurt and went on the defensive, posting an open reply to the FCC on their website.
Vietnam police release detained writers Associated Press
Vietnamese authorities have released a blogger and an online journalist more than a week after detaining them for questioning about postings critical of the Communist government’s handling of relations with China. Police took Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes a blog under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, or Wind Trader, into custody for questioning on Aug. 27. Pham Doan Trang, a writer for the popular online newspaper VietnamNet, was detained the day before. “I don’t know why they let me go,” Hieu said by telephone Sunday. “They may have realized that my acts were not serious.”
Post-Vista Windows flaw creates Blue Screen risk The Register
Miscreants have created an exploit capable of crashing Windows boxes and triggering the infamous Blue Screen of Death. The attack relies on exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft`s implementation of SMB2 (Server Message Block), a network protocol involved in the sharing of files and printers on a network. Windows 2000/XP are not affected by the exploit, but newer flavours of Windows 7, Vista and Server 2008 are all at risk. Proof-of-concept code demonstrating the vulnerability was published on Monday.
Marc - p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
September, 2009
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September 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
âCapitalism is evil,â says new Michael Moore film . Humm this coming from a man who has made millions from capitalism. Hey Michael Moore there is a Semi truck load of twinkies jack-knifed on the Hollywood freeway that’s calling you!
September 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
So he is fat and obnoxious, so what.
Watch the RIAA, MPAA, Pharmaceuticals and the Oil companies at work, and tell me he’s wrong ?
September 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
@Gr8oldies:
Give the guy a break, at least he’s able to make people question things! Sure, like Al Gore, he’s not always right, but he’s at least mostly right and trying to make a positive difference. He’s waking people up, which is a good thing! The more people are awake the more the governments will be afraid of their people, instead of the other way around.
Where exactly are these Twinkies? I haven’t had one in at least 5 years!
September 9th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Don’t Copy That 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCyvw4w_yk&feature=channel_page
September 9th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Everyone can’t be rich, but it’s really easy to make everybody poor. Michael Moore should set an example and give away all his wealth except for the modest neccesities, and move to Cuba if capitalism is so evil.
Capitalism is what drives people to do better, and makes people accountable for their own decisions. Yeah, it might not be friendly to people who make poor choices, but all the most safe and comfortable people in the world live in capitalist societies.