The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Court blocks some file-trading subpoenas
A Massachusetts court has blocked several recording industry subpoenas that are aimed at college song swappers, saying the universities involved are not immediately required to divulge the alleged file traders' identities. The decision comes after officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College challenged subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), saying the trade group's requests for information had not been legally filed. The judge's decisions give the universities -- and the anonymous students or staff file traders who are the ultimate target of the subpoenas -- some breathing room. The colleges were objecting only on the technical legal grounds that the RIAA had filed the subpoenas in the wrong court, which means the trade group still can revise its requests in order to comply with the judge's order.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5061868.html?tag=fd_top

Sites see big season for fantasy sports
In the 1980s, Glen Waggoner and 11 other baseball fanatics would convene in the back room of Tony's Italian Kitchen in New York to pore through weekly issues of The Sporting News and crunch statistics. Little did they realize that, 23 years later, the Internet would help turn their hobby into a multimillion-dollar business serving 15 million rabid fans. "We had no idea -- not even a glimpse -- that the ball would get as big as it did," said Waggoner, an editor at ESPN: The Magazine, who along with fellow journalist Daniel Okrent, is now considered one of the founding fathers of fantasy baseball. "The transformation brought on by the Internet is like before and after the invention of the wheel." Once considered a closeted hobby for numbers geeks, fantasy sports leagues are booming online, where they've become both a fast-growing business and an unlikely demonstration of Web publishing at its best.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5061351.html?tag=fd_top

Computerized films grow up
Dan Taylor, a special-effects artist at Industrial Light & Magic, readily admits that special effects overshadowed the plot in his early films. "There was no story structure. It was all 'Get the critters on the screen,'" he said during a roundtable discussion last week at Siggraph, an annual computer-graphics conference that took place in San Diego. In his defense, those early films were made when he was 10, and they starred a toy dinosaur rampaging through a forest of plastic trees. His perspective changed in his teens, when the "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" made its debut. "Sergio Leone really drove the technique of storytelling to me," he said. Taylor's moviemaking journey serves as a broad metaphor for the computer animation industry. Ten to 15 years ago, digital effects in movies were fairly obvious.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5060905.html

Making the web pay
The internet is coming close to answering the question creative people have been asking for years. Can an individual with a talent for writing, drawing, photography or music use the internet, not to create millions, but to make enough to live comfortably and do what they want to do professionally? What's more, the answer may well turn out to be a hesitant yes. Six years on from the start of the popular web explosion, people are adjusting to paying for content on the internet. The Wall Street Journal, for example, announced last month that its subscriber base had brought in $80m last year. Revenues for the online wing of the New York Times have grown more than 20% in this past quarter to $21.6m: operating profit increased to a record $4.3m. The Guardian started to charge for some services this month. It goes on. But the real excitement isn't with the large content-producing companies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/sto...013313,00.html

Portable Help For Old Records
Somewhere collecting dust in many homes is a box or neglected shelf stuffed with a record collection. Remember vinyl records -- those big black flat things people used to listen to before the CD came along and changed everything about the experience of buying and listening to music? Now the CD as a commercial medium is starting to fade in the face of digital music files, both illegal and those sanctioned by the industry. Companies like Apple Computers and RealNetworks are finding opportunities in selling songs as digital files downloaded directly to personal computers. But what about the musical legacy tied up in that collection of vinyl? Chances are you've either replaced many records with CDs in the last decade or so -- that is, if those records were ever reissued as CDs. And while your record collection may still be around, what are the chances that you still own a turntable? We recently ran across a rather clever product called Handy Trax, from Japanese producer Vestax: a portable self-contained record turntable.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/08/0...artner=newscom

Game companies line up for pieces of 3DO
Seven video game companies have qualified to bid in the auction for the assets of bankrupt publisher 3DO, according to court papers filed on Thursday. In a notice filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco, 3DO's attorneys said Microsoft, Eidos Interactive, Ubi Soft Entertainment, JoWood Productions, Namco Hometek, Turbine Entertainment Software and Crave Entertainment filed by Wednesday's deadline to bid in the Aug. 14 auction. 3DO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 28 and said it would seek to sell its assets. The company had struggled with weak sales and repeatedly sought financing from its founder and chief executive, longtime video game industry executive Trip Hawkins. The filing did not detail what assets the seven bidders were interested in, or what they were offering to pay.
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-5061354.html?tag=cd_mh

Arcade Addicts Joust With Past
The Electronic Entertainment Expo each May draws upward of 60,000 people to the Los Angeles Convention Center for a glimpse of the gaming industry's future. This weekend's Classic Gaming Expo will bring a comparatively tiny 1,200 people to a downtown Las Vegas hotel to celebrate the industry's past -- everything from old coin-op arcade games such as Joust and Tempest to now-primitive titles played on the Apple II, Amiga, Atari 2600 and Commodore 64. The Classic Gaming Expo comes as close as anything to representing a Museum of Video Games, albeit one that only comes into existence for one weekend each year. Efforts to preserve the medium's history otherwise seem to be lagging, and enjoy little support from the game business itself. That's symptomatic of a young industry that's always looking ahead, perhaps not yet aware of the importance of keeping its past alive.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59948,00.html

Claim: RFID Will Stop Terrorists
Facing increasing resistance and concerns about privacy, the United States' largest food companies and retailers will try to win consumer approval for radio identification devices by portraying the technology as an essential tool for keeping the nation's food supply safe from terrorists. The companies are banding together and through an industry association are lobbying to have the Department of Homeland Security designate radio frequency identification, or RFID, as an antiterrorism technology. In addition, they are asking members of Congress and other influential figures to portray RFID in a favorable light. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and Johnson & Johnson see RFID technology as a godsend. By implanting tiny radio transponders in their product packaging, the companies can instantly track their goods from factory floors all the way to retailers' warehouses.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,59624,00.html

Commerce Drives Virtual World
About once a week, Michelle Valentine visits a favorite online auction site and either places a bid or puts something up for sale. But she's not visiting eBay. In fact, she's not even dealing in physical goods. Valentine is a regular user of the auction feature in There Inc.'s online virtual world, or "metaverse." The feature helps thousands of There members move all manner of virtual goods they've created and is a prime driver in the development of a new and exploding economy. "There's so much out there you can do with the auctions," she says. "There's a lot of creative developers out there doing things that I couldn't do, but I'm willing to buy" what they make. In There, which is in public beta after years in stealth mode, members participate in a social 3-D world with the goal of meeting others, dressing stylishly, setting fashions and riding around in gravity-defying vehicles. They take part in a wide variety of activities, many of which would be popular in the real world if not for the limits of physics. One favorite is flying. Another is trying to make money.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,59941,00.html

Parents liable for kids' P2P downloads
US parents could face full liability if their children are discovered to have illegally downloaded copyrighted MP3 files and stored them on home computers, legal experts have warned. Parents will be held responsible for any consequences arising from their children's downloading of copyrighted music if they know about it and permit it, or if they have the opportunity to prevent it and fail to do so, according to lawyers at US law firm Bricker & Eckler. The lawyers explained that the Recording Industry Association of America's move to identify individuals who have allegedly download and shared copyrighted music by issuing subpoenas to ISPs, means that the issue of responsibility and liability has gone from "a slow simmer to a brisk boil".
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142890

Remote eye to prevent cheating
CALL it a spycam or an electronic invigilator - whatever they end up dubbing it, the University of Newcastle reckons it will stop online cheats. Newcastle has developed a camera that can monitor off-campus students doing exams online so they do not have to go to a supervised location. The camera sits on top of the computer and every 20 seconds sends a low-resolution picture to the university server. It also records sound, which means it can monitor conversations. Dean of the school of graduate studies Scott Holmes said the university moved into online delivery about three years ago and now had about 1000 students enrolled this way. But under the existing system they have to take their exams at a centre with an invigilator. The new camera means they will be able to take them at home.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E15306,00.html

Student died after buying web drugs
The mother of a Durham University student who committed suicide while in a "drug-induced" depression, has spoken out against companies who sell prescription drugs on the Internet. Sue Brackell called on the government to address the problem of unregulated websites selling drugs, after an inquest into the death of her son Liam. The hearing was told the bright, graduate student, from Wanstead, east London, had regularly taken anti-depressants ordered from websites, and by the time of his death had tried 23 types of prescription drugs. The 24-year-old, walked in front of an oncoming train at Manor Park Station, near his home on 7 June.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/3130187.stm

Mathematical twist reveals the agony of back pain
The first comprehensive model of the human spine is challenging our assumptions about the causes of back pain. Contrary to the idea that spinal injuries are caused by a combination of compression, bending, tension and shear forces, the 3D animated model suggests many injuries are the result of quick twists of the vertebrae, making the joints between them rotate. Nick Beagley and Vladimir Ivancevic of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in Edinburgh, South Australia, have spent the past 18 months developing their mathematical model, called the Full Spine Simulator (FSS). Existing models of the spine evaluate forces placed on a single joint, or a simple series of joints, and allow each just a few degrees of freedom. But the FSS represents all 25 movable joints of the spine, and gives each its full six degrees of freedom.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994027

West Nile Virus set for fresh rampage across US
Cases of West Nile Virus in the US have tripled in a week, prompting officials to warn that the 2003 outbreak may well surpass the previous year's record levels. At least 164 people in 16 different states are infected with the deadly virus, compared with 59 a week ago. Seven people have died so far in 2003 from WNV. The virus's spread also appears more extensive this year - by 7 August 2002, there had been 112 human cases in only four states, Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said on Thursday. Gerberding noted that most of the cases in the 2002 WNV season occurred in August and September. "So [the current levels are] very concerning to us.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994040

Wanadoo is not caching your KaZaA
Wanadoo Netherlands has suddenly dropped Joltid's PeerCache, software designed to reduce costs of network traffic by caching frequently traded files within file-swapping system such as KaZaA, saying “it was only an experiment”. It seems that Wanadoo's parent company in Paris became a little too anxious about copyright liability. In a corporate statement describing the experiment a couple of weeks ago, Wanadoo underlined that it didn't want to encourage “infringements on copyrights”. Peercache is built to work for FastTrack, one of the most widely used P2P protocols. Wanadoo's Dutch subsidiary was one of the first ISPs to work with the software. It cached 0.8 terabyte of frequently asked files (albeit not in any recognisable form) on local servers, thereby reducing the volume of international traffic by 25 per cent or more, according to Wanadoo business development manager Lammert van Raan.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32243.html

Linux Community Mounts Fight, SCO Responds
The Linux legal war increased in scope and ferocity this week as IBM coutersued SCO, which had claimed Big Blue wrongfully used SCO Unix source code in Linux. Meanwhile, the open-source community has almost unilaterally aligned against Lindon, Utah-based SCO by supporting the counterclaim. The IBM counterclaim, which asks the courts to stop SCO from "misrepresenting its rights" and accuses SCO of patent infringement , won the support of Novell, according to an IBM e-mail obtained by TechNewsWorld. Despite the open-source community's growing opposition to SCO's claims and call for licenses to use Linux, the company stood firm on its defense of its intellectual property rights and warned again that it might take legal action against commercial Linux users that do not purchase its license.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31301.html

SCO Battle Rooted In Unix History
The SCO Group's attempts to squeeze a revenue stream out of Linux is rooted in the long and tangled history of computer operating systems. Unix is among the oldest and most reliable operating systems. Developed in the late 1960s and early '70s at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, Unix was never seen as a cash cow for Ma Bell. In fact, AT&T liberally licensed it to several companies and shared it with universities for educational purposes. Companies created their own flavors of AT&T's Unix, called System V, and rebranded them with names like IBM's AIX, Hewlett-Packard's UX and Sun Microsystems' Solaris. AT&T granted IBM a Unix license in 1985. Eight years later, Novell acquired AT&T's Unix property. In 1995, Novell sold the rights to the Santa Cruz Operation.
http://www.crn.com/sections/Breaking...rticleID=43802

Families of Columbia crew await shuttle report and want it to make a difference
Seeing the thing that brought down the space shuttle Columbia filled Jon Salton with sadness. His sister, Laurel Clark, was one of the seven astronauts who died when the shuttle shattered on its return to Earth more than six months ago. He viewed the video of the impact test in July that showed a chunk of foam insulation knocking a giant hole in shuttle wing parts. "It's hard to watch that," he said. "It's utterly obvious now that type of impact could cause an orbiter to break apart. "It didn't make me angry. It just made me sad." NASA officials who didn't believe foam could do such damage "really missed the boat," Salton said in a telephone interview from Albuquerque, N.M., where he lives. The breakaway foam that slammed into the shuttle's left wing during Columbia's launch is being blamed for creating a hole that let in hot atmospheric gases that led to its destruction.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ws/6489447.htm

Mars probe 'already malfunctioning'
A ROBOT probe en route to Mars to explore the planet's surface is already showing signs of malfunction, NASA said today. Two Mars space probes, named Spirit and Opportunity, are rocketing toward Mars with an expected arrival time next January. Spirit was launched on June 10, Opportunity, on July 7. They are to land on opposite sides of Mars. Each probe is carrying an all-terrain robotic exploration vehicle called a rover, laden with tools, instruments and electronic gear destined to provide a clearer-than-ever portrait of the red planet's surface. NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been performing routine in-flight tests on the instruments aboard both probes, and has detected a possible malfunction in one.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...5E1702,00.html

That's all for this week

[Copyright Queen]

Hey, WT! Glad to see that you're still alive and posting! The best newspaper boy in the non-biz!