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Submission + - Friends Swap Twitters, and Frustration

Submitted by

WSJdpatton

on Friday March 16, 2007 @09:41AM

WSJdpatton writes: "The growth of services like Twitter and Dodgeball, which tie together instant messaging, social networking and wireless communication, elicits mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel "too" connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner."

Submission + - Score: IBM - 700,000 / SCO - 326

Submitted by

The Peanut Gallery

on Thursday March 15, 2007 @05:36PM

The Peanut Gallery writes: "After years of litigation to discover what, exactly, SCO was suing about, IBM has finally discovered that SCO's "mountain of code" is only 326 scattered lines. Worse, most of what is allegedly infringing are comments and simple header files, like errno.h, which probably aren't copyrightable for being unoriginal and dictated by externalities, aren't owned by SCO in any event, and which IBM has at least five separate licenses for, including the GPL, even if SCO actually owned those lines of code. In contrast, IBM is able to point out 700,000 lines of code, which they have properly registered copyrights for, which SCO is infringing upon if the Court rules that it has, in fact, repudiated the GPL. If this were a game show, I suspect SCO would be complaining that their buzzer wasn't working right about now."

Submission + - New Fair Use Bill introduced today to change DMCA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @02:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: WashingtonPost.com notes that Reps Boucher(D-Va) and Dolittle(R-Calif) today introduced the FAIR USE Act that updates the DMCA to "make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy." Boucher's statement on the bill says "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use..." Backing the bill is the Consumer Electronics Association, the Home Recording Rights Coalition, the American Library Association and others.

Submission + - Skype asks FCC to open cellular networks

Submitted by Milwaukee's_Best on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @04:13PM

Milwaukee's_Best writes: Skype has just asked the FCC to force wireless phone companies to open their networks to all comers. "Skype essentially wants to turn the wireless phone companies into just another network of the kind currently operated on the ground. This would require carriers to allow any phone to be used on their networks, and for any application. Users would simply purchase a voice or data plan (though these could easily converge into a data plan if VoIP calling is used) and then use the device of their choice to access the network of their choice." Think of it as network neutrality—for cell networks. Given the competition that exists within the industry, is this needed?

Submission + - Truth in Ratings Act reintroduced

Submitted by dropgoal on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @06:19PM

dropgoal writes: Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas (and GOP presidential candidate) has reintroduced the Truth in Ratings Act. Like the previous version that failed to pass last year, Sen. Brownback's bill would make the FTC responsible for overseeing the video game ratings system and possibly result in a unified ratings system for games, movies, and TV. The ESRB would also have to review all game footage before issuing a rating: 'Currently, the ESRB hands out ratings after viewing a reel with representative content prepared by the developers. Sen. Brownback thinks that's not enough: "Video game reviewers should be required to review the entire content of a game to ensure the accuracy of the rating," he said. "The current video game ratings system is not as accurate as it could be because reviewers do not see the full content of games and do not even play the games they rate."'

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