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Comment Re:Typical jumping to conclusions (Score 1) 271

Skype for Asterisk is far from a third party hack. It was designed around the Skype Engine API, at a time when Skype was not providing access to that API to the general public (I think they still aren't providing that level of access). In fact, Skype approached Mark Spencer (original programmer of Asterisk), not the other way around. So while the integration was largely written by Digium programmers, the Skype connector has always been a direct project of Skype's.

As far as Google's communication protocols are concerned, they use all freely and openly licensed protocols, and support for them has long been integrated in Asterisk. (Yes, you can use Google Voice with Asterisk.)

Your comparison fails.

Music

Atari Loses Copyright Suit Against RapidShare 198

dotarray writes "Online copyright lawsuits aren't all about music. Video game publisher Atari Europe recently became concerned that copies of its game Alone in the Dark were floating around one-click file-hosting service RapidShare, so it took the hosting company to court. While they won the initial case, the decision was overturned on appeal, finding that RapidShare is doing nothing wrong."

Comment Re:Safe Harbor Limits for Fair Use (Score 3, Insightful) 335

Now lets say you have a huge catalog of songs you'd like to defend. You're a big mega corporation so what you do is you hire developers to analyze songs for fingerprints and -- funny how pedantic algorithms get to be -- submit anything over the 'safe harbor' limit to Control Gate C (that being the legal arm which churns out thousands of take down notices).

If I am the CEO of a mega corporation, then I know the value of good will to generate goodwill and I will put some kind of human at Control Gate C who will put a stopper on the mindless sharks in my legal department who would sully my business' positive reputation by suing dancing toddlers.

As would I, which is probably why neither of us are (or ever will be) CEO of a mega corp.

Actually, there's a very well-known CEO who considers exactly that, and he has been, at one time or another, considered the richest man in the world: Warren Buffett. He famously once said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

Spam

Submission + - Does SPF really work?

Intelopment writes: "My Domain name has recently been used a lot as the REPLY field by some inconsiderate spammer and my ISP has suggested that I consider using the Open SPF service (http://openspf.org/) as a way to stop spammers from using my domain name for their REPLY field. From what I can tell it requires the receiving mail server to actually participate in the SPF service, which is where I get my doubts. Does anyone have any experience with this service? Does it work? Are many ISPs using openSFP?"
Microsoft

Submission + - New Zealand rejects Office for Macs.

An anonymous reader writes: The NZPA is reporting that the New Zealand Ministry of Education has declined to renew a licensing deal for MS Office on 25,000 Macintosh computers in the countries schools. The Education Minister, Steve Maharey, has even gone to suggest schools use free alternative NeoOffice. However a school Principal has spoken out against the decision, claiming the NeoOffice website warned users to expect problems and bugs, saying: "That's not the sort of software we should be expecting kids in New Zealand to be using."
Robotics

Submission + - Robotic Ecologies

Roland Piquepaille writes: "The University of Virginia (UVA) School of Architecture has started a new program about 'robotic ecologies' which wants to answer the question: Will robots take over architecture? As said the program leader, 'This research is not just about architectural machines that move. It is about groups of architectural machines that move with intelligence.' Apparently, buildings tracking our movements and adapting their shape or texture according human presence are not far fetched. Maybe one day, we'll talk to our homes and they'll answer... Read more for additional details and a picture of Super Galaxy, 'a high-rise apartment complex that's constantly in motion and responds to the needs of its inhabitants.'"
The Courts

Submission + - Storing Music for Personal Use Online is Illegal

An anonymous reader writes: In a court case of JASRAC vs. Image City, The Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling that says Image City's MYUTA service is guilty of copyright infringement. MYUTA is an online music storage service that allows users to upload music from their own CDs etc. to a central server from which they can download to their cellphones to listen to. Music uploaded to the central server is accessible only by the user who uploaded it and can only be downloaded to their cellphone. Despite the music only being stored for personal use, the ruling reasoned that the act of uploading music to a central server owned by a company is the equivalent of distributing music to that company. This has implications for other services such as Yahoo! Briefcase which could mean Yahoo! is gulity of copyright infringement if any of its users store music in their account for personal use. Google's translation can have a go at the original Japanese article.

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