California has filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony and a second one may be filed today in New York. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 1 in Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles by Vernon, CA. It asks the court to prevent Sony from selling additional CDs protected by the anti-piracy software, and seeks monetary damages for California consumers who purchased them. The suit alleges that Sony’s software violates at least three California statutes, including the “Consumer Legal Remedies Act,” which governs unfair and/or deceptive trade acts; and the “Consumer Protection against Computer Spyware Act,” which prohibits — among other things — software that takes control over the user’s computer or misrepresents the user’s ability or right to uninstall the program. The suit also alleges that Sony’s actions violate the California Unfair Competition law, which allows public prosecutors and private citizens to file lawsuits to protect businesses and consumers from unfair business practices. EFF has released a list of rootkit affected CD’s and Slashdot user xtracto also has a list.”
Monthly Archives: November 2005
Microsoft’s Memos
Via Dave Winer. Microsoft discusses fundamentally altering their business to compete in the internet era. Microsoft has for years been fighting the net. They killed Netscape and let their browser die (Internet Explorer has not been updated for years. It will be in 2007 largely due to the rise of the superior, free, open source mozilla firefox browser). Cringely has more.
Learning From Failure
Embracing failure as a teacher in the school of hard knocks was the theme of last week’s “Ideas to Profits” conference at UW-Whitewater, where the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center marked its 25th year of helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
Three successful Wisconsin entrepreneurs told their stories to conference participants during a panel discussion that illustrated how most – if not all – innovators have overcome obstacles along the road to growing profitable businesses. About 200 people attended the two-day conference organized by Dr. Deb Malewicki, UW-Whitewater’s director of business outreach services.
RIAA vs. The People: 2 Years Later
EFF:
It’s been two years since the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) started suing music fans who share songs online. Thousands of Americans have been hit by lawsuits, but both peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and the litigation continue unabated.
In a report released Thursday, “RIAA v. The People: Two Years Later,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that the lawsuits are singling out only a select few fans for retribution, and many of them can’t afford either to settle the case or defend themselves. EFF’s report cites the case of a single mother in Minnesota who faces $500,000 in penalties for her daughter’s alleged downloading, as well as the case of a disabled veteran who was targeted for downloading songs she already owned.
Flexible Working: Half of All Women Want to Pack it All in For An Easier Life
More than half of female workers have already left or are seriously considering escaping conventional nine-to-five working in a bid to invent their own working patterns, according to a new report.
The survey by recruitment and HR consultancy Hudson of more than 1,000 UK employees and 500 employers has found the majority (84 per cent) of professional women believe the nine-to-five routine is being spurned by their gender.
They are instead preferring to follow a career path offering flexibility and professional autonomy rather than fit in with the demands of the corporate world
All the King’s Media
Heroic truth-tellers in the Watergate saga, the established media are now in disrepute, scandalized by unreliable “news” and over-intimate attachments to powerful court insiders. The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king’s twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of “news” failed democracy on monumental matters. In fact, the contemporary system looks a lot more like the ancien régime than its practitioners realize. Control is top-down and centralized. Information is shaped (and tainted) by the proximity of leading news-gatherers to the royal court and by their great distance from people and ordinary experience.
This is largely why I emailed Tammy Baldwin regarding her vote against free speech. Via Dan
Knutsen’s City Council Coverage
Kristian Knutsen continues to impress with his City Council commentary and live blogging.
More on Sony’s DRM Phoning Home from Your Computer
First point: Sysinternals discovered that the DRM unisntaller requires you to put in all your specs and then gives you a “unique ID” to download the uninstaller. Then the uninstaller doesn’t run unless you shut down the DRM and you can’t shut down the DRM until you run the uninstaller. Ay! Lucy!
Second point: In an NPR interview:
Thomas Hesse, President of Sony’s Global Digital Business, literally says: “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
So malicious intent and active contempt. Way to keep the faith.
Freedom of Expression on the Internet
Twenty-five investment groups, representing about $21 billion in assets in the United States, Europe and Australia, are signatories to a “joint investor statement on freedom of expression and the internet,” an initiative spearheaded by the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
The statement comes after several instances in which technology companies have been criticized for cooperating with governments, notably China, in order to secure strong market positions.
“As shareholders, we need to feel confident that our companies are not complicit in human rights abuses, directly or indirectly, and that they’re not collaborating to effectively quell internet traffic, to harm their own good reputations and to reduce their long-term growth opportunities,” said Dawn Wolfe, social research and advocacy analyst for Boston Common Asset Management, one of the participating investment funds.
Although China and other countries have come under fire for limiting what their citizens can see or post on the web, China also is a particularly sought-after market, for the potential its vast population offers.
Microsoft and Google have been accused of helping the government there censor news sites and blogs. And in a recent case, Reporters Without Borders criticized Yahoo for allegedly helping the Chinese government trace the private e-mail account of a Chinese journalist who was later imprisoned for providing state secrets to foreigners. Yahoo has defended its move, saying it is obliged to comply with Chinese regulations.
Midwest Foliage Information
The Foliage Network provides “accurate foliage information for various locations across the United States. During the months of September, October, and November, The Foliage Network collects data from our foliage spotters twice a week”.