Byte Into It – 11th Jun 08

Swedish Pirate Bureau founder’s essay on copyright for Cato – Boing Boing

“Rasmus Fleischer is a co-founder of The Piracy Bureau, a Swedish group critical of copyright, and the parent organization of BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay. This month he has a new essay up at Cato Unbound, the Cato Institute’s online magazine of ideas. In it, he argues that attempts to impose 20th-century copyright standards on digital media are doomed to failure — indeed, they’re failing already, and threats to privacy and civil liberties are growing: “

Every broken regulation brings a cry for at least one new regulation even more sweepingly worded than the last. Copyright law in the 21st century tends to be less concerned about concrete cases of infringement, and more about criminalizing entire technologies because of their potential uses. This development… will have seriously chilling effects on innovation, as the legal status of new technologies will always be uncertain under ever more invasive rules.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft’s standards bid stalled

Four countries have appealed a decision to fast-track the international standardisation of a Microsoft document format, called OpenXML.

Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela have complained that there was not enough time given to discuss improvements to the format.

The format is used for spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents.

Critics claim it is not fully compatible with other document formats.

The ratification of OpenXML would be an important seal of approval for Microsoft, which has long been held to task for its failure to embrace open standards.

Government bodies would be more likely to adopt the standard if it had an “open” rubber-stamp as many are concerned that storing documents in a proprietary format could cause problems for future archiving.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft grants XP new lifeline

Microsoft has given another lease of life to Windows XP only days before PC makers have to stop selling it.

Windows XP reaches its end of life on 30 June but Microsoft has now said it can continue being sold until June 2010 but only on cheap desktops.

The decision follows one made in April to extend the life of XP on low cost laptops until the same date.

It comes as Dell, HP and Lenovo exploit loopholes in Microsoft’s licensing terms to keep putting XP on machines.

EBay found liable for counterfeit goods – Internet – iTnews Australia

EBay has been hit with a €20,000 fine after being found liable for counterfeit goods sold on its site. The landmark ruling, which is the first in a long line of such lawsuits, may set a precedent that puts liability on eBay for all counterfeit goods sold on its site in the future..

In the latest case a French court found in favour of French luxury group Hermes.

While eBay has consistently honoured takedown requests on counterfeit items, the ruling does not bode well for future lawsuits. EBay is also known to be in the crosshairs of Tiffany and Louis Vuitton, among others.

Portero.com, an online auction marketplace that authenticates branded luxury products, estimates that as much as $15bn, or 10 per cent of the branded luxury goods sold globally, are counterfeit.

Mozilla unleashes Firefox 3 RC2 – Software – iTnews Australia

Mozilla has made available the second release candidate of its upcoming Firefox 3 web browser..

The company hopes that the final version will be available for download in a few weeks, but is waiting for feedback on the new release candidate before confirming a final date.

YouTube: Viacom dumping piranhas in our DMCA safe harbor

The YouTube/Viacom $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit has been bumping along for so long now that many consumers probably suspect the whole thing is about to wrap up. Not so; in fact, the case is only just beginning. On Friday, YouTube at last submitted its reply to Viacom’s complaint, and while 90 percent of the document consists of the words “Defendants deny the allegations of paragraph xx,” the introduction is a hot one. In it, YouTube claims that its service is exactly what Congress intended to shield when it passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, and it goes on to charge that Viacom’s lawsuit “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression.”

Viacom charges that YouTube profited for years (before being acquired by Google) from hosting large amounts of its content on the service. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report used to be YouTube staples, and even though the site has taken down specific clips when notified by the copyright holder, Viacom sees a willful pattern of making money and growing the site on the back of its content.

Featured Windows Download: Baby Smash! Kid-Proofs Your Computer

Windows only: Programmer and dad Scott Hanselman wanted an easy way to let his toddler play on his computer without deleting files or quitting programs, so he put together baby-proofing software, Baby Smash!. Start up Baby Smash! and let the little one go to town on your keyboard.

As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen. Baby Smash will lock out the Windows Key, as well as Ctrl-Esc and Alt-Tab so your baby can’t get out of the application. Pressing ALT-F4 will exit the application and Shift-Ctrl-Alt-O brings up the options dialog.

Similar to previously mentioned BabySplat, Baby Smash! is a free download for Windows only, donations requested.

TomTom announces iPhone GPS app

Reuters reports that Dutch-based TomTom is just about ready with an iPhone version of its software that it plans to sell through the iTunes App Store. A price hasn’t been set yet, and the company was remarkably low on details, but one can imagine that TomTom can bring some GPS functionality to the table that goes beyond the iPhone 3G’s default abilities.

One of the most likely advantages of TomTom’s software could be a local database of maps that users can access and customize even if they don’t have an internet connection (3G/EDGE, Wi-Fi, or otherwise). TomTom can also bring its own custom array of features and services, including real-time traffic reports (that go beyond the ambiguous red/yellow/green color overlays in Google Maps) and instant messaging for a lifeline while traveling. TomTom’s software for other GPS devices can also do things like warn you if you’re speeding; perhaps the iPhone could too.

Safari 4 to include SSB feature and fastest JavaScript ever

According to a report by Mac Rumors, developers are already playing around with early builds of the next major version of Safari.

Safari 4 will include the SquirrelFish JavaScript engine being developed by the WebKit team. Apple is touting SquirrelFish as “the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever.” In addition, Safari 4 will also include a feature to create site-specific browsers, or SSBs, from any webpage. The functionality is not unlike that offered by Mozilla Labs’ Prism project or the highly-regarded Fluid for Mac OS X, which create a desktop app that is basically a browser with minimal UI to directly access a web-based app. And, Safari should incorporate CSS-based graphics improvements by the WebKit team, including CCS-based gradients, masks, and reflections.

These features make perfect sense in relation to not only increased use of Web2.0 apps like Google Mail or Flickr, but with the new MobileMe service that Apple announced yesterday. Given its reliance on JavaScript to mimic desktop app functionality, eking out every bit of performance from the JavaScript engine is a must for reasonable performance.

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