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Slashback Sony Handhelds Hardware Your Rights Online

Slashback: IP Protection, ReligiousDocument, LiPS Savings 193

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the they-wont-catch-us-we're-on-a-mission-from-god dept.
Slashback tonight with updates and clarifications on recent Slashdot stories, including some more fuel for the Sony fire, a closer look at the Intellectual Property Protection Act, ministers jumping on the OpenDocument bandwagon, another spammer gets his due, founding members of the new LiPS board speak out and more - read on for details.

Sony leading a price-fixing cartel? Sheridan writes "Hot on the heels of the SonyBMG XCP rootkit fiasco The Times is reporting that Sony may have been charging online retailers up to 15% more for its products than high street outlets in an attempt to block online bargains from forcing prices down. Perhaps they're trying to recoup some of their losses on the rootkitted CDs, although somebody ought to let them know that most of their loss was to their reputation, which this certainly won't help."

Deconstructing the IP protection act. Brent writes "Ars Technica takes a more in-depth look at the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2005 and shows that some of the original fears of the Act were overstated. The article states that the act is primarily concerned with criminal acts of infringement, namely infringement done for commercial gain or competitive advantage, and not with criminalizing the mere attempt at commonplace infringement. In short, the act is aimed at commercial piracy. The article also ends with an reasonable challenge to the US government, including the call for a referendum on consumer rights and the penalization of the use of any digital rights technology that impedes fair use."

Even the clergy are jumping into the OpenDocument fray. da6d writes "The LXer has an article about clergy joining the fray surrounding Microsoft's refusal to support OpenDocument. From the article: '[they] see Microsoft's stance as intentionally withholding support so that it can turn a technical business decision into a political fight. By refusing to support OpenDocument, Microsoft is ignoring the cross-platform document sharing needs of visually impaired users, not only in Massachusetts, but also in the other 49 states, not to mention the rest of the world. The economically disadvantaged will also suffer from the lack of Opendocument support in Microsoft Office.'"

UK spammer gets his due. delete writes "Notorious UK internet spammer Peter Francis-Macrae, who referred to himself as "weaselboy", has been convicted of fraud. The 23-year-old earned more than £1.5 million through his activities, primarily through spam mails offering the registration of unavailable domain names. Up to £425,000 of his earnings remain unrecovered."

Linux to make smartphones and high end communication devices cheaper. nitinah writes "In an interview with Phonemag, the founders of LiPS comment that mainstream adoption of Linux would make smartphone and high end communication devices more affordable than ever before. Founding members John Ostrem, lead scientist of PalmSource and Michel Gien, EVP of Jaluna also commented that Linux would also extend the economics to not just phones but applications and services."

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Slashback: IP Protection, ReligiousDocument, LiPS Savings More

Slashback: IP Protection, ReligiousDocument, LiPS Savings

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  • OpenDocument (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JoeShmoe950 ( 605274 ) <CrazyNorman@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:02PM (#14048455) Homepage
    I'm in massachussets, and I'm glad massachussets is attempting to make the move. What I wonder is, with the major fight surrounding it, why is there just about 0 press? My history teacher, who knows about just about any current event in massachussets hasn't even heard of it. Why is no information getting to the unnerds?

    • Re:OpenDocument (Score:4, Insightful)

      by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:07PM (#14048478) Homepage Journal
      Becasue it's not interesting to most people? Seriously.

      Yuo need to explain it to them, as well as your nerd bussies. When explaining what it is start with "It's a way to save the taxpayers a bunch of money"

      • Re:OpenDocument (Score:5, Insightful)

        by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:36PM (#14048637) Homepage Journal
        Just tell them:

        "Remember how when you tried to move your assignment from my computer to your computer and it didn't work because I don't have Word?"

        -"Yeah?"

        "Well, OpenDocument means it would have worked."

        -"Oh. Cool."
        • I just accidently sent an .odt file to a friend instead of a Microsoft Word document. His reaction was "What the heck is an odt file?" Hardly "Oh. Cool."

          • Re:OpenDocument (Score:5, Insightful)

            by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @10:39PM (#14049312) Homepage Journal
            The point is, in 5 years, instead of the result you got by accident, more often than not a .odt will work either because everything will save to .odt by default, or the program will at least understand it.

            As it is, even Word isn't compatible with Word. If you try to open a Word 97 file on Word 95, it won't work. If you save to .rtf in Word, it might not look the same when you open it and save it again in Open Office.

            We need one standard, and it's going to be open. It's too bad that Microsoft will have to be burned over the same barrel their closed system has burned people on for over a decade now.

        • "Remember how when you tried to move your assignment from my computer to your computer and it didn't work because I don't have Word?"

          -"Yeah, 'cause you're a weirdo and use a normal computer"

          At least, that's how it's always gone for me... *sigh*

    • Re:OpenDocument (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Stevyn ( 691306 )
      Because the unnerds don't care. Paris Hilton's phone is stolen?? Now that's news. Face it, they don't care and the media doesn't want to waste the time trying when fantasy land entertainment figures are easy to track and report on every time they crap.

    • Re:OpenDocument (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Niten ( 201835 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:11PM (#14048503)

      I don't live in Massachusetts, but I'd guess the lack of press has a lot to do with the general public's tenuous grasp on the concept of file formats, let alone the idea of why any one format should be considered 'better' than another. Until the people's knowledge of such technical issues improves (I have faith that it must, eventually), I'm afraid that issues like this, however important they really are, will never achieve much attention in the mainstream press.

      • Re:OpenDocument (Score:4, Interesting)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) <akaimbatman AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @09:41PM (#14049029) Homepage Journal
        I don't live in Massachusetts, but I'd guess the lack of press has a lot to do with the general public's tenuous grasp on the concept of file formats, let alone the idea of why any one format should be considered 'better' than another.

        That's probably part of it. But part of it also is that this fight is happening mostly online. All the news sources carrying are online, and all the arguments are presented online. Heck, the story listed was RFCed on the Linux4Christians mailing list prior to publishing.

        Journalists are getting better at watching the Internet for stories, but they've still got a long way to go. They're ignoring far too many major events that the Internet is buzzing with.

    • Oh great... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Spy der Mann ( 805235 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `todhsals.nnamredyps'> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:19PM (#14048548) Homepage Journal
      the last thing we need is Britney Spears saying Open Source is cool. *shudder* :-S

    • Re:OpenDocument (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SandiConoverJones ( 821221 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:27PM (#14048596)
      Really, how long do you expect it to take for technical news to hit non techies? Now, right on the news, with the weather report, is the mention of a new virus, worm, phishing scam, or whatever. Most of which a /. reader has known about the vulnerability far longer than reality TV watching morons.

      The media is run by English majors who brag to each other who understands math/science less than the others! Don't expect an English major to understand tech stuff. You wouldn't, perhaps, remember proper gerund useage, would you?
      • You wouldn't, perhaps, remember proper gerund useage, would you?
        $deity willing, I'd rather use the Ablative Absolute.
      • "Every gerund, without exception, ends in -ing. Gerunds are not, however, all that easy to pick out. The problem is that all present participles also end in -ing. What is the difference?

        Gerunds function as nouns. Thus, gerunds will be subjects, subject complements, direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions. Present participles, on the other hand, complete progressive verbs or act as modifiers."

      • You wouldn't, perhaps, remember proper gerund useage, would you?

        You wouldn't, perhaps, remember the proper spelling of usage, would you?

      • I don't argue that non-techies will learn about this soon enough. However, Donald Parris is hardly a non-techie. He wrote Pengiun in the Pew [lulu.com], a pro-Linux book for churches.

        The book has a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0), and I've a copy linked on my GPL Programs [roysdon.net] page.

      • Re:OpenDocument (Score:3, Insightful)

        by LarsWestergren ( 9033 )
        The media is run by English majors who brag to each other who understands math/science less than the others! Don't expect an English major to understand tech stuff.

        I have met a LOT of bright English majors. Many of them, being intellectuals in general, are above the average citizen when it comes to knowledge of science and technology. Not once have I met any person boasting about being ignorant. Your comment is such a fucking troll, and this "us vs them" liberal arts bashing on Slashdot gets more and more t
      • The Sony CD rootkit business has just made it into my daily paper... but right back on page 18 with a mere 5 column inches... The tagline is "Recall for millions of Virus CDs"... and the first para reads "Sony has been forced to recall millions of CDs after it emerged they can wreck home computers".
      • You wouldn't, perhaps, remember proper gerund useage, would you?

        So if I tell them it's a row about the storing of data, that'll help?

        And for my next trick, the gerundive:

        They may tell me to take a running jump!

        <rimshot>

        Justin.

      • Hello. While in my country we use the phrase "English major" to refer to officers of a particular rank and nationality in the British Army, I did read English at university, which I assume is the sense in which you were using the word.

        You will observe that I'm also a techie. The two are not mutually exclusive, whatever you may like to think.
    • Massachussets has issued hundreds of press releases about their change.

      Unfortunately, they were all in OpenDocument format and no one using Office can read them.

    • Re:OpenDocument (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Feneric ( 765069 )

      There's a fair amount written locally about it in Saugus [saugus.net]. You can read the public announcement [saugus.net], see it discussed on the Saugus forums [saugus.net] (in regards to the Teaching American History Grant Project [saugus.ma.us]) or even see the blog entry [livejournal.com] I posted about it on the Saugus blog [livejournal.com]. If you go digging through Saugus.net's search facility [saugus.net] I'm sure you'll find more info about it in Saugus, too.

    • Does your history teacher read the Globe? There were articles on the 25th (about Galvin opposing the decision), 29th (about Senator Pacheco's opposition), and 1st (about Quinn accepting responsibility for not getting buy-in from the disabled). Before that, there were presumably articles about the initial decision and Romney's support for it, but the search thing isn't going that far back. Even ignoring the actual issue entirely, I'm be surprised if a well-informed local wouldn't have noticed the fight over

  • Really? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Trogre ( 513942 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:05PM (#14048469) Homepage
    The economically disadvantaged will also suffer from the lack of Opendocument support in Microsoft Office.

    How would the economically disadvantaged suffer? They'll just use OpenOffice instead. 100% OD support, and zero cost.

    Unless they're already pirating MS Office and hopelessly locked in.

    • You forget these people may need to send or receive documents from the well-to-do people that are using Microsoft Office already. Communication is supposed to be a two-way street, after all.

      Soko

      • [Poor] people may need to send or receive documents from the well-to-do people that are using Microsoft Office already.

        I would imagine that documents exchanged between the nobility and the commoners aren't likely to use macros, heavy dependence on pagination quirks, or other features of .doc or .rtf that OOo 2.0 RC3 doesn't emulate properly.

      • Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by pla ( 258480 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @09:58PM (#14049122) Journal
        You forget these people may need to send or receive documents from the well-to-do people that are using Microsoft Office already. Communication is supposed to be a two-way street, after all.

        The "economically disadvantaged" don't blow $300 to $600 on buying Office, Acrobat, Photoshop, and whatever other crap they need to view "standard" formats.

        They either run Free Software, or they pirate the real thing.

        When you can choose between food for the next two months, and Excel - Well, one of those wins without even a second though. And that winner doesn't start with "M" and end with "T".

        Or, just in case you have no frame of reference for this - Think back to college, to eating nothing but ramen (or worse, the school's "Food" Services chow) between visits to the family. If you came across a $10 bill - Would you put it away towards your student copy of MathCad... Or buy a pizza?

    • Re:Really? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by violent.ed ( 656912 )
      The economically disadvantaged will suffer due to the fact that an OO document wont open in the MSWord processor that their boss/future employer uses to look at resume's. thats just one example.

      The rich ppl might not care to try to use a "free" software for compatibility, they pay for their own MS Office, and dont care. if the poor bastard that cant afford mS office cant write a resume that i can open in my native word processing program, i will skip over that application for someone else who's mommy can
      • I don't think that is a realistic situation. Does anyone send a resume in .doc format? If they do they are stupid since you have no idea if the person receiving it will be able to open it. Even if the potential employer has Word and you have Word it's not guaraanteed to look correct or even open (ie you have Office 2003 and they are still running 97 to save costs).

        I send "important" documents in pdf if formatting is important (ie where plaintext or rtf won't do) and from the amount of pdf's I receive

        • Re:Really? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Jasin Natael ( 14968 )

          My wife, currently looking for work, was required to submit her resume in Word format to about half of the employers she's interviewed with. Monster.com won't accept PDF or any other resume types except for pasted text. There is a lot of very focused discrimination working in favor of MS Office. It was a pain, too.

          Her resume was on a super-professional looking HTML/CSS template that I designed for my own resume, so we had HTML and PDF versions. It renders properly in every CSS-capable browser I've trie

      • The economically disadvantaged will suffer due to the fact that an OO document wont open in the MSWord processor that their boss/future employer uses to look at resume's. thats just one example.

        OpenOffice can save in Word .doc format. Then their boss can open it. (Because lots of economically disadvantaged people have their own computers in the first place, and their boss requires them to submit TPS reports...?!?).
    • The economically disadvantaged will also suffer from the lack of Opendocument support in Microsoft Office.

      How would the economically disadvantaged suffer? They'll just use OpenOffice instead. 100% OD support, and zero cost.

      Well, yeah, that's what they're supposed to do. And then how do they send it to an organization (e.g., a company they're applying to) that has standardized on MS Word? Or once they get that job, how do they get access to those documents at home?

      Yes, OOo has MS .DOC support which works ama
      • You can't guarantee that a given .DOC file will work equally well in Word and OOo. If Word complies to OD, though, you can make that guarantee.

        The same way Word compiles to RTF? :)

      • You can't guarantee that a given .DOC file will work equally well in Word and OOo.

        Hell, you can't even guarantee that a given .DOC will work equally well (or at all) in a recipient's version of Word.

        I recently worked with a company whose big compatibility problem was persuading all their people to upgrade their W95 machines to W98. They also had lots of fun trying to figure out how to handle Word docs sent from a 21st-century version of Windows.

        They really didn't know what to make of our linux and Mac lapto

  • UK spammer gets his due (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oliverthered ( 187439 ) <oliverthered@hotmail. c o m> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:06PM (#14048475) Journal
    Well, it just goes to show we don't need many if any new laws with the word computer in them.
    • He didn't "get his due" for spamming. he wasn't even charged with any offences related to how he sent his messages, as far as I can see.
      Francis-Macrae was found guilty of two counts of fraudulent trading, one of concealing criminal property, two of making threats to kill, one charge of threatening to destroy or damage property and one count of blackmail.

  • Strange... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TedTschopp ( 244839 )
    As a Christian, I see more need to have an opinion on Intelligent Design than on a document standard from a company. One is a discussion on the reality of the world, the other is a stance on the choice of a company to provide a service. Christians should be more concerned about reality and than on the document standard stance of a company.

    Then again I belive the above statements should also hold ture if you replace company with government or political party and document standard with morality.

    • Re:Strange... (Score:4, Funny)

      by hunterx11 ( 778171 ) <hunterx11@g3.1415926mail.com minus pi> on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:12PM (#14048516) Homepage Journal
      One is a discussion on the reality of the world

      I'm pretty sure that's not Intelligent Design you're thinking of there, bud.

    • As a Christian, I see more need to have an opinion on Intelligent Design than on a document standard from a company...

      Then again I belive the above statements should also hold ture if you replace company with government or political party

      I call shenanigans. Intelligent Design is ALL about playing politics and government and has little to do with reality.

  • Sony, OpenDocument, and Linux Telco (Score:4, Interesting)

    by queenb**ch ( 446380 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:11PM (#14048513) Homepage Journal
    Sony BMG - Well, they don't think much about ripping off artists, so why should they be concerned about ripping off consumers?

    OpenDocument - Why would Microsoft support anything that threatens their monopoly? DUH!

    Linux and Communication Devices - Astersik anyone? Your own PBX http://www.asterisk.org/ [asterisk.org]

    2 cents,

    Queen B

  • What losses? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eepok ( 545733 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:17PM (#14048540) Homepage
    Can we seriously STOP calling non-materialized projected profits "LOSSES"? Sony hasn't lost a single dollar on their "rootkit fiasco." At the worst, they could be making less than they expected, but they're not losing any money that was already in their pockets. Their "lost profits" are based on their predictions of how their products would sell given certain predicted factors.

    Yes, this "LOSSES" arguement easily fits into the piracy problem and how the MPAA has "LOST" so much money.

    Stop! Just stop falling for their vocabulary changes.

    • Re:What losses? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:45PM (#14048685) Journal
      Well, lost potential revenues are one thing, LOSSES are another. And actually, it looks like the federal government redefined "loss" in re: fraud cases, here's the proposal (1998), see Appendix A: http://www.ussc.gov/publicat/Lossdefn.pdf [ussc.gov] (pdf)

      The fact of the matter is, though, that the MPAA can use LOSS when discussing these 'ghost' revenues, unless they are on their financial statements and disclosures.

      They can claim they "LOST" sales. They can claim they "LOST" revenues. They can even claim that they "LOST $XXX,XXX,XXX in revenues according totheir calculations. They cannot claim they realized a financial LOSS though, unless they did.

      The problem is not how they use loss -- the problem is that many people don't understand the difference between financial loss and whatever mumbo-jumbo the **AA are spewing.

      Although, semantically, it would be nice if those of us in the know fdid not refer to their phantom revenues as "LOSS" though, since it is a matter of public perception.
      • If anyone's seen the Enron Movie "The Smartest Guys in the Room", the whole thing sounds a lot like the Enron scandal. Enron essentially posted "earnings" which weren't really earnings yet; they were scamming their stockholders into thinking their company was making money by "projecting" future earnings into their current quarterly earnings reports.

        Obviously, this is illegal. It may be hard to imagine why it would be illegal to do the same thing in reverse - i.e., project losses without any actual substanti
        • "Just seems like a very strange practice, projecting ghost earnings or ghost losses to manipulate the market. And also an illegal one."

          That's why the **AA don't include it on their financial statements, shareholder statements, or other financial disclosures. And typically, they'll talk about lost revenue, which they can do.
    • They're losing the faith of the marketplace, industry, and quite possibly their investors. In the end it might cost them more than the few pennies of monentary 'losses' they're current reporting.

  • Sony (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vodkamattvt ( 819309 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:18PM (#14048541) Homepage
    Sony has been racking up the karma lately, all bad it seems. Unfortunately, with the way the content "industry" is these days, Im not sure it will get better before it gets worse. Im sure the lesson here that all the other big media monopolists learned is to be more ... discreet ... when trying to screw Joe Public. Or worse, screw Joe Public by going through Big Brother.

  • Counterargument on price fixing (Score:4, Informative)

    by Michael Woodhams ( 112247 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:24PM (#14048573) Journal
    The summary on Sony price-fixing portrays it as a Bad Thing. Here's a counter-argument.

    If Acme sells the Acme Wizmaster 5000 cheaper to high-street stores than to "e-tailers", it could be because Acme believes that the stores are providing Acme with additional benefits. A potential buyer can go into Gadgets-R-Us and see the Acme Wizmaster, see how big it really is (much more useful than text saying "15 cm diameter"), how solid it feels, what the UI is like etc. There is a shop attendent who can answer questions on the spot. These services make it more likely the shopper will buy the Acme Wizmaster. If Acme doesn't sell at discount to the brick-and-mortar stores, they will go out of business because they can't compete with the web stores, and potential customers won't have anywhere they can go to see an actual Wizmaster. (Or Acme has to set up "demonstration stores", where they demonstrate but don't necessarily sell stuff. The high-street stores save them this expense.)
    • All of which is very nice. Except when you walk into your average music shop, you will find a shrinkwrapped LatestPopStar cd, and possibly a cardboard standup and a TV playing music videos from MTV. The customer can't open the cd and listen to it before buying, the way he can examine the quality of the Acme Wizmaster. Apples to apples, please.
    • ok ... but then circuit city, best buy etc. shouldn't get the discount because it's impossible to find anybody with a clue there.

    • Re:Counterargument on price fixing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by BrynM ( 217883 ) * on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @09:11PM (#14048836) Homepage Journal
      If Acme doesn't sell at discount to the brick-and-mortar stores, they will go out of business because they can't compete with the web stores, and potential customers won't have anywhere they can go to see an actual Wizmaster. (Or Acme has to set up "demonstration stores", where they demonstrate but don't necessarily sell stuff. The high-street stores save them this expense.)
      Your analogy is good except for the advertising involved with music. Consider if Acme had MTV, VH1, BET, E!, Entertainment Tonight and all of the other tv outlets in addition to the godawful amount of people playing the Wiz5K on the radio plus magazines interviewing the makers of the 5K at every opportunity plus the Wiz5K 2005 North American Tour. Hell, you'd have to nearly enter a sensory dep environment to avoid the newest Wizmaster... the public is most likely already dreaming of the 6K and it hasn't even been made yet. The interviewers keep asking about it.

      Gladly, nothing is quite like the modern music intdustry. The amount the big players are saturating us is quite insane already. The only reason to have hard product in the stores for the likes of Sony is to villify anything that isn't a hard product including the sales mechanism. It's their soapbox and they'll be damned if they let you insult it. The only way they'll let that soapbox be ruined is by bashing it over your head, which we are now watching them do. I hope that thing falls apart soon. The headache is killing me.

  • Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr2cents ( 323101 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:24PM (#14048577)
    Sony denies penalising internet shopping sites, arguing that it is rewarding stores that can demonstrate its products.

    Can someone explain me the difference?
    • the difference is in the store, you can actually see the product, pick the box up and read the blurb on it, try it out if it's been set up, and generally play around with it... on tha intarweb, you can't do any of these. It's as bad as mail order, you have to take the page at face value and can't actively check it out without having to order the damned thing. The problem currently facing stores is that savvy web customers are going into stores, checking the items out and then going off and finding it as che

  • Does no one find this comic from last year ironic? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16, 2005 @08:46PM (#14048692)
    http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=2005- 11-04 [ctrlaltdel-online.com]
  • Ok, come on and admit it, chaps: Peter Francis-Macrae is a fool.
    He was caught after earning about 1.5 million pounds ($2.57 million or 2.2 million Euro).

    I mean, heck, I'd have cleared out after a million bucks. At age 23!
    And don't tell me you're not jealous ;)

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