I love this news (from C|Net's News.com site): Court rejects RIAA's 'making available' piracy argument
Originally Posted by C|Net's news.com blog by Steven Musil
The recording industry's music piracy fight was dealt a setback Tuesday when a federal judge rejected the RIAA's "making available" argument in a lawsuit against a husband and wife accused of copyright infringement.
In Atlantic v. Howell, Judge Neil V. Wake denied the labels' motion for summary judgment in a 17-page decision (PDF), allowing the suit to proceed to trial. The argument--that merely the act of making music files available for download constituted copyright infringement--has been the basis for the Recording Industry Association of America's legal battle against online music piracy.
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"The court agrees with the great weight of authority that section 106(3) is not violated unless the defendant has actually distributed an unauthorized copy of the work to a member of the public," wrote the judge in his order. "Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution."
EFF staff attorney Fred von Lohmann called the order the "most decisive rejection yet of the recording industry's 'making available' theory of infringement."
The order is a bit of an oddity in that it's a reversal of an order Wake issued in August, in which he granted the RIAA's summary judgment and fined the Howells $40,850 in penalties and court costs. However, the Howells appealed and the judgment was later vacated.
So the PC that I use as my 'media center' system died over the last several weeks, resulting in my 'need' to replace the guts of the box. That meant getting a new motherboard at a minimum, and possibly upgrading to a faster CPU while I was at it.
I went online, did a little research about the current AMD dual core CPUs and what type of socket I'd need for same and came up with a motherboard and CPU combo that was offered at TigerDirect.com at what I considered a pretty reasonable price....
Argh. Over the last few days I've had my 'media center' pc take a dump on me compliments of a crappy little chipset fan that apparently just couldn't keep up with the load on same, only to wind up ordering a replacement motherboard and cpu (and RAM) that unfortunately looks like it is going to be forcing me to do yet more upgrading since it doesn't have 2 IDE controllers/connectors on it (one and only one ) and I had been continuing to rock on with two fairly good sized IDE drives plus tw...
The question in the subject line is inspired by a Ms. Manners column where someone wrote in concerned about guests that come to their home and instantly want to use their computer when they see it.
I'm curious what everyone's stance is on letting guests use their home computer(s)?
I'll add my thoughts later.
I can't help but snicker at this news: Microsoft Excel {2007} Fails Math Test.
So Microsoft is pulling an Intel (remember the Pentium math processing issues?) and putting out software that can't do simple math?
A display error. Hmmm, nice to know that Microsoft may be the cause for overbillings to the tune of approx. $35,000 because of a display error related to multiplaction in Excel. I hope they get it fixed soon and in the meantime am glad I don't rely on Excel to run a business (but t...
Argh, administering Linux systems is really not supposed to be this tough, but I swear that there are too many times when, in working with Linux, the answers that should be shared for everyone (Linux is 'open source' isn't it?!??) just aren't.
Sorry to break out the broad brush again, but I'm about to paint a lot of Linux guru's and publishers with that broad brush.
I remember years ago asking questions about to do things in Linux that I was easily able to do in SCO Unix. SCO, the en...
Want to know why computer support (and Information Technology support) keeps getting $$$ signs associated with it and why service that used to be free isn't any more? How about why IT support jobs that used to be done in the U.S.A. are being increasingly outsourced to India and other countries where call centers can be run -- relatively speaking -- for pennies on the dollar?
Look no farther than the replies in this recent article: RANT: I don't want the freakin' toolbar!
Many of the ...
I'm so tired of installing applications and plug-ins on computer systems that all ask me -- and default to assuming yes -- would I like to install extra toolbars and (for me) useless utilities on the computers I am working on.
NO, I DO NOT WANT {insert add-on application/toolbar name here} ON THESE SYSTEMS. If I did want that toolbar/application I know exactly how to go get it, where to place it for easy and convenient access to get it loaded on to systems that I'm working on, and need ...
Without giving away too many details about my regular place of employ, some recent work there has reminded me of the joys of dealing with IT (Information Technology) users that box themselves into corners by letting themselves be bound to legacy computer systems.
What am I talking about? There are many systems around my work place, or in other areas within the larger organization, that can't be replaced and/or retired and wind up pretty much frozen in time because some amount of work wa...
I've known for years that Microsoft is in a giant conspiracy with the hardware manufacturers -- especially CPU builder Intel -- to help sell more, faster and bigger, hardware. Without Microsoft's continued bloated builds of operating systems, it is not unimaginable that computers today could be running systems that provide the same basic functionality many times faster than they do.
Of course Microsoft isn't the only company guilty of this, as just about all operating system companies h...
What's that I smell? Could it be the waft of dirty laundry that could come out about the PC World publishing business, and other similar organizations?
CNet news has an article (headline below is linked to it) on the resignation of the editor for PC World magazine who resigned because he was being pressured over negative reviews and comments about advertisers of the magazine.
PC World editor resigns over apparent ad pressure
Award-winning Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken of PC ...
I'm looking to upgrade my Windows Media Center 2005 box to Vista. Specifically to Vista Home Premium (the package that includes the MCE functions). But which one? 32 bit or 64 bit?
Here's why I ask -- I have an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 chip in my box. With that CPU am I capable of running 64 bit? Should I?
I would think that longer term that 64 bit is the right choice, but will I find some things work and some things don't with 64 bit versus 32 bit OS?
In my c...
Is Microsoft up to old tricks, or did they just start to make a simple mistake in trying to setup exclusive deals in the music market?
Read and decide, or at least read and learn about the latest tricks that Bill G., Steve B. and their minions at Microsoft are up to. Apparently even with the big slaps by the Euros and the little slaps by the Bush administration, Microsoft is still making some of the same hostile (to their competitors and to consumers) agreements that they were found guilty of...
Big fat warning in advance to anyone that ever considers purchasing a Belkin product -- DON'T DO IT.
Most especially don't do it if you aren't prepared to find that their so called "lifetime warranty" on their product is anything but.
Why am I attacking what should be a fine company that stands behind their products? Because they don't, or should I say, won't stand behind their product.
Recently I purchased a used/like-new Belkin Bluetooth adapter via eBay. There-in lies the problem. ...
Looking for opinions - if you have a computer system that is struck with a virus, do you clean it by using a tool supplied by an anti-virus company or say Microsoft via their new Malware Removal Tool and then go back to using it without concern, or do you take the system and wipe it out completely, reload the operating system, the patches, etc., and then finally go back to using it?
I'll hold back my own opinion for now, but am curious what others think of either approach and why they favor ...