bs0d3 writes "After some litigation; ReDigi, a site where people can sell used MP3's has been found legal in America. One of the key decisions the judge had to make was whether MP3's were material objects or not. 'Material objects' are not subject to the distribution right stipulated in "17 USC 106(3)" which protects the sale of intellectual property copies. If MP3's are material objects than the resale of them is guaranteed legal under the first sale' exception in 17 USC 109. Capitol Records tried to argue that they were material objects under one law and not under the other. Today the judge has sided with the first-sale doctrine, which means he is seeing these as material objects."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First time accepted submitter derekmead writes "A Yale researcher says that culture differences how much money we save, how well we take care of ourselves, and other behavior indicative of taking the long view, are all based on language. His study argues that the way a language's syntax refers to the future (PDF) affects how its speakers perceive the future. For example, English and Greek make strong distinctions between the present and the future, while German doesn't, while English and Greek speakers are statistically poorer and in worse health than Germans. (The study includes a broader swath of languages/nationalities, but that's a start.)"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CheerfulMacFanboy writes "Labor Activist Li Qiang wants you to know that the iPhone 4 in his pocket is not an endorsement of Apple's policies, just an acknowledgment that the company is doing a better job of monitoring factory conditions than its peers. The founder of leading advocacy group China Labor Watch (CLW) told us that, though the Cupertino company does more-thorough inspections than competitors, it is responsible for poor working conditions at its suppliers' factories and needs to invest some of its record-breaking profits in improving them. 'Although I know that the iPhone 4 is made at sweat shop factories in China, I still think that this is the only choice, because Apple is actually one of the best. Actually before I made a decision, I compared Apple with other cell phone companies, such as Nokia,' he said through a translator. 'And the conditions in those factories are worse than the ones of Apple.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

wiedzmin writes "A low-profile Chicago biologist, Michael Doyle, and his company Eola Technologies, who has once won a $521m patent lawsuit against Microsoft, claim that it was actually he and two co-inventors who invented, and patented, the "interactive web" before anyone else, back in 1993. Doyle argues that a program he created to allow doctors to view embryos over the early Internet, was the first program that allowed users to interact with images inside of a web browser window. He is therefore seeking royalties for the use of just about every modern interactive Internet technology, like watching videos or suggesting instant search results. Dozens of lawyers, representing the world's biggest internet companies, including Yahoo, Amazon, Google and YouTube are acting as defendants in the case, which has even seen Tim Berners-Lee testify on Tuesday."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new study reveals close to 466,000 jobs have been created in the "App Economy" in United States — up from zero in 2007. The total number of Apps Economy jobs includes jobs at 'pure' app firms such as Zynga as well as app-related jobs at large companies such as Electronic Arts, Amazon, and AT&T, as well as app 'infrastructure' jobs at core firms such as Google, Apple, and Facebook. In addition, the App Economy total includes employment spillovers to the rest of the economy.

The research [PDF] analyzed detailed information from The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine (HWOL) database as conventional employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were not suitable to track such a phenomenon as this economic ecosystem is so new.

Follow CircleID on Twitter

More under: Mobile, Web

An anonymous reader writes "This report looks at file sharing in the post MegaUpload era. The main finding — file sharing did not go away. It did not even decrease much in North America. Mainly, file sharing became staggeringly less efficient. Instead of terabytes of North America MegaUpload traffic going to US servers, most file sharing traffic now comes from Europe over far more expensive transatlantic links."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

savuporo writes "Well known Boston Dynamics BigDog prototype now has a bigger brother named 'LS3' or Legged Squad Support System. It's intended to carry heavy loads for long treks and have enough autonomy to follow soldiers around, listen to voice commands and navigate autonomously."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

pigrabbitbear writes in with a link about a virtual reality helmet designed to help people deal with medical emergencies in space. "Humans are pretty fragile. A bad break in your hip can mean surgery and months of rehab. That's pretty bad, but what if you fall and break your hip on the Moon, or even Mars? You'd be hundreds of thousands or millions of miles from a fully stocked hospital and a surgeon with steady hands. There's the option of doctor-assisted surgery from Earth — a fellow astronaut performing the surgery with remote assistance from a doctor via video link. But the lengthy communications delay make this a poor option anywhere further than the Moon. Luckily for our Mars-bound descendants, the European Space Agency has a solution: an information-loaded assisted reality helmet that will let anyone identify and perform minor surgery to repair injuries."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New submitter shuttah writes "Robert X. Cringely, author of the 1992 influential book Accidental Empires , will be republishing and updating (including pictures and new chapters) the now twenty year-old book via the launch of a new blog also by the author. Cringeley tells us, 'So next month I'll be starting a second blog with its own URL just for Accidental Empires. I, Cringely will continue right here as ever (no changes at all), but on the book blog I will over several months publish — a chapter or so at a time — the entire 100,000-word book for the world to read, free of charge.' The book was also the basis for Cringley's 1996 TV miniseries Triumph of the Nerds released by PBS."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New submitter HungryMonkey writes "According to the latest EBITDA numbers from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, the subsidies they have to pay Apple in order to carry the iPhone are drastically reducing their profits. From the Article: '"A logical conclusion is that the iPhone is not good for wireless carriers," says Mike McCormack, an analyst at Nomura Securities. "When we look at the direct and indirect economics that Apple has managed to extract from the carriers, the carrier-level value destruction is quite evident."' So one money sucking leech has attached itself to another money sucking leech?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

itwbennett writes "Yahoo's restructuring continued Tuesday with the ouster of 4 board members, including chairman Roy Bostock, according to an IDG News Service report. The move follows the resignation of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in January and gives investors something they'd been calling for, says analyst Greg Sterling: 'Investors have felt for a long time that the board was just rubber stamping what the leadership was doing. They want a reinvigorated board with some independence. People will wait to see what's different but I think this will be seen as a positive.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First time submitter shoutingloudly writes "In a NY Times op-ed today, RIAA chief Cary H. Sherman accuses the opponents of SOPA of having engaged in shady rhetorical tactics. He (wrongly) accuses opponents such as Wikipedia and Google of having disseminated misinformation about the bills. He lashes out at the use of the term 'censorship,' which he calls a 'loaded and inflammatory term.' Most /. readers will get the many unintentional jokes in this inaccurate, hypocritical screed by one of the leaders of the misinformation-and-inflammatory-rhetoric-wielding content industry lobby." A gem: "As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

W związku ze swoją dość emocjonalną reakcją na wieść o atakach na infrastrukturę MKiDN (por. Zainteresowanie ludzi, a "atak" (puszczają mi nerwy)), jak tylko się trochę uspokoiłem i zacząłem oddychać normalnie, zwróciłem się do rzecznika prasowego ABW z uprzejmą prośbą o potwierdzenie, zaprzeczenie, względnie skomentowanie informacji podawanych przez PAP za rzecznikiem MKiDN, a dotyczących ataku na tą infrastrukturę. Jeśli uzyskam odpowiedź - opublikuję ją w serwisie.

czytaj dalej

mikejuk writes "SuperPoke Pets is another casualty of Google's aggressive spring cleanup... But unlike other users of Google's trashed software, Superpoke users have decided to fight back with a class action. The aim is to recover the money they spend on virtual gold used as a currency to buy clothes for their virtual pets. The total 'amount in controversy' exceeds $5,000,000 — a sum that is credible given that there were at least 7,000,000 users. So if you are considering adding a virtual currency to your app you might want to think of the future."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

mdsolar writes "The Washington Post is reporting on the NRC response to the Fukushima disaster. Aspects include an abusive relationship with Steven Chu, a secret database on fuel pool fires that was not shared, and a Washington Two Step on Vermont Yankee. Pretty sordid." The NRC website has a bunch of documents relating to their response and attempts to consult the Japanese government (it might take a few months to work through). On a related note, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists ran a retrospect on the nuclear situation in 2011.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zothecula writes "Two years after BAE Systems was awarded a US$21 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop an advanced Electromagnetic Railgun for the U.S. Navy, the company has delivered the first industry-built prototype demonstrator to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren. The prototype launcher is now being prepared for testing which is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Some readers may wonder why I chose to raise the issue of "trust" now or even ask what it will take for ICANN to repair it. After all, the New gTLDs have been launched; applications have started being received, and all ICANN official announcements are that all is good and going according to plan.

But many other readers and astute observers of this space, domestic and international, would not confuse the public dead silence we are hearing from ICANN and its insider community or the euphoria of the long awaited application submissions we are seeing to mean that all is perfect. The multistakeholder model, ICANN's version of it, the New gTLD program, ICANN's approach on it, and The Single Root and its unique identifiers are all at graver risk than ever and must be saved before it is too late. Only then can we truly claim to be serving the "Global Public Interest" beyond mere words, slogans, and 11th hour band aid patches.

If you question my opinion on this gravity please take note of how Dr Larry Strickling, US Assistant Secretary of Commerce, concluded his letter to ICANN on Jan 3, 2012 stating:"How ICANN manages the new gTLD program will, for many, be a litmus test of the viability of this approach”.

It is understandable why those in the ICANN community who do see many of these grave risks to the multistakeholder model in plain sight chose to remain silent. Some do so in order not to cause any hiccups or possible derailment to the long overdue, but inequitable to emerging markets, New gTLD program that stands to benefit them, their businesses or their plans. Instead they chose to formulate their message to focus on only the opportunities the new gTLDs will bring, and rightly so, but with little or no attention to their local and global risks. After all, serving the Global Public Interest is not their mandate — it is however ICANN's mandate per the Affirmation of Commitments (AOC) agreement with the US Government, to which and to whom at the very least, it should be accountable.

The Global Picture

Internationalized Domain Name gTLDs, also known as IDN gTLDs, will usher the Global Multilingual Internet I have championed and advocated since the late 1990's, at many levels and roles, to serve "The Global Public Interest" that should empower local citizens.

Readers may be aware that I have also, inside and outside the ICANN fora, created great international awareness of the immense positive benefits of the coming Multilingual Internet that will be born thru IDN gTLDs and the new gTLD program. More acutely, I have not shied away from pointing out the grave risks, some of which remain unaddressed and unresolved. Also, the international relationships that I have created with global leaders in their sectors like Deloitte, VeriSign and others that primarily focus on the emerging markets and IDNs should carry some weight, credibility and validity to the voice of concern I raise, for those who care to listen.

But these accolades do not detract me from following my conscience and beliefs, as I have done over the years, to point out the grave risks I see in plain sight regardless of how unpopular this may make me at first glance with colleagues and fellow ICANN community members. Many are aware that I also have placed serving The Global Public Interest that I have always talked about above any possible personal or business interest. I hope that saying my peace may help save the Multistakeholder model, its principles and the single root of unique identifiers, the 10s, maybe 100s of millions of dollars that applicants are investing in applications, and ICANN from failure, and before it is too late.

The Imminent Grave Risks

Imminent grave risks are facing the Multistakeholder model, the single root, and ICANN itself, as well as serving "The Global Public Interest". In brief they are… Click here to continue reading the full Ankabooot editorial.

Written by Khaled Fattal, Group Chairman, The Multilingual Internet Group

Follow CircleID on Twitter

More under: DNS, ICANN, Internet Governance, Multilinguism, Top-Level Domains

An anonymous reader wrote in with news of the latest release of ReactOS, a project to create a complete reimplementation of Windows. The highlights of this release are the integration of a new network stack based upon lwIP, the ability to build using Microsoft's C compiler, and Wifi support. There are a few options for trying it out (emulator image and a livecd amongst others) and source code over at Sourceforge.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "Former Google executive Stafford Masie believes that traditional search is dying because users are choosing to query their friends and followers on services like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Here's the quote from the video: 'The pie of search query volumes in the world – that business is shrinking. Why? Because people are going and doing search queries – search query volumes are moving towards social containers. They're moving away from static pages being searched and they're moving more towards dynamic real-time stream content. Like Twitter. Like Tumblr. Like Facebook. Those things have a better result because the penetration, the personalization associated with it, and the constant freshness of the content. So I believe that Google's search volume – the business Google is in on the search side – that business is shrinking. And they've got to do something about it.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MrSeb writes "Hold onto your hats: Scientists at the University of York, England have completely rewritten the rules of magnetic storage (abstract; full paper paywalled). Instead of switching a magnetic region using a magnetic field (like a hard drive head), the researchers have managed to switch a ferrimagnetic nanoisland using a 60-femtosecond laser. Storing magnetic data using lasers is up to 1,000 times faster than writing to a conventional hard drive (we're talking about gigabytes or terabytes per second) — and the ferrimagnetic nanoislands that store the data are capable of storage densities that are some 15 times greater than existing hard drive platters. Unfortunately the York scientists only detailed writing data with lasers; there's no word on how to read it."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.