In testimony before the House Government Reform Committee May 15, Center For Democracy and Technology Associate Director Alan Davidson raised concerns about the privacy and security of popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks: P2P programs such as Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus are among the most downloaded computer software today. P2P …
Read More »Science and Technology
“Star Wars Kid” Booty Up Over $3K
The Internet, and now the NY Times, dig on the sometimes deft, but more often lurching light saber action of a 15-year-old chunky kid from Quebec, known as Ghyslain: In the video, Ghyslain brandishes a golf ball retriever in a series of maneuvers that are both painfully awkward and unmistakably …
Read More »P2P and Porn
New study says more searches for porn than for music on P2P networks: While much has been reported about the billions of free music and Hollywood movie files on the file-sharing services, there’s been far less attention paid to the abundance of pornography available for download. According to a study …
Read More »“Napster” Returning from the Pet Sematary
We mentioned a couple of days ago that Roxio might buy Pressplay – it’s happening: Software maker Roxio Inc., the new owner of Napster, has acquired the music service pressplay — laying the groundwork for a competitive Windows-based offering against Apple Computer Inc.’s online music store. Roxio, best known for …
Read More »Verizon Has Friends
School librarians side with Verizon in their court case against the RIAA: Academic-library groups have joined 33 other organizations in filing a legal brief in support of Verizon Communications. The company is trying to conceal from the recording industry the names of music fans who have used Verizon telephone lines …
Read More »Mad Xbox Hacking
My son has an Xbox – he likes it already, but with this information he may end up REALLY liking it: Microsoft’s strategy of selling the Xbox, its video game console, at a loss has wrought an unforeseen consequence. Some users increasingly view the Xbox as a cheap appliance easily …
Read More »Blogcritics on NBC
Major Media Figure, cool guy, Detroit Free Press tech writer, and Blogcritic Mike Wendland is featuring Blogcritics on his NBC-TV High Tech Talk segment that goes out to all 215 affiliates tomorrow! The segment will be running at various times throughout the week on local newscasts. Here’s part of the …
Read More »Pew Broadband Study
Broadband usage up 50% in the last year, but cost and availability may slow growth: Roughly 31 million Americans — about 31 percent of whom use the Web at home — access the Internet through cable modems, digital subscriber lines (DSL) or satellite dishes, according to the study, which surveyed …
Read More »Dangerous Chat in China
Chinese government censors chat and persecutes anti-government chatters: The extent of Chinese Government censorship of what its people say in online chat rooms has been exposed by Reporters Without Borders. Messages critical of the Chinese Government either never appear or are purged from popular chat rooms, a study by the …
Read More »Grokster Attorney
Michael Page beat the RIAA because he was able to spoonfeed the judge the distinction between centralized and decentralized P2P service: Late last month, however, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles ruled that Grokster and Streamcast Networks Inc., which distributes Morpheus file-sharing software, didn’t violate the studios’ …
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