] The LKP is a feature that allows users to run standard
] Linux applications along with standard Unix applications
] on a single system using the UnixWare kernel.
]
] "During that project we often came across sections of
] code that looked very similar, in fact we wondered why
] even variable names were identical. It looked very much
] like both codes had the same origin, but that was good as
] the implementation of 95 percent of all Linux system
] calls on the Unix kernel turned out to be literally
] 'one-liners'," the source said.
]
] Only a handful of system calls - socketcall, ipc and
] clone—were fairly difficult to implement as they involved
] the obvious differentiators between Linux and Unix:
] networking, inter-process communication and kernel
] threads, the source said.

Did SCO Violate the GPL?

] "They agreed to allow Jesse to deny their allegations.
] They agreed to dismiss the case and all allegations
] against him," the father said. "Basically they agreed
] that he didn't do anything wrong, but [they're] taking
] his 12 grand."
]
] Weiss says the RIAA wanted to send a deterrent message
] others who had similar services up on their college
] campuses. "Nobody is above the law," she said. "And that
] is the important thing to remember here."

The RIAA and the MPAA scare the shit out of me. All they have to do is decide that what you are working on is "Napster like", and you are pretty much screwed. They are attacking anyone who dosen't look like they'd be able to put up a fight.. They are out of control, and apparently above the law.

I fully agree with Dagmar, this has all the style of a mob shakedown.

] "The people who run these Napster networks know full well
] what they are doing: Operating a sophisticated network
] designed to enable widespread music thievery," RIAA
] President Cary Sherman said in a statement issued April 3.

Non-infringing uses be damned.. Search engines are now akin to dual-use facilities, for the development of TMP, Tools of Mass Piracy.

Justice needs to be more affordable.

ABCNEWS.com : Record Industry Targets Teen Programmer

] When people ask us from where we draw our opinions on
] everything from free music to fee music, we tell them
] look at the past to see what precedents prior media and
] its relationship with the consumer created. We then to
] compare the similarities and differences between the
] contemporary struggles digital media is faced today.
] George Ziemann's latest articles looks back to the
] earliest days of film and record industries and finds
] some amazing (though not surprising) parallels.

Memeing for later reading.. First of four parts.

Thomas Edison, Intellectual Property and the Recording Industry

] A conservative Republican lawmaker is expected to
] announce a bill next week that would dramatically scale
] back the ability of record labels, movie studios and
] others to use anticopying technology, according to a
] source familiar with the proposal.

Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican.

] If the Brownback proposal were enacted, the Federal Trade
] Commission would have the power to ban DRM systems that
] limit a consumer's right to resell any "digital media
] product," a category that includes everything from
] computer software and e-books to copy-protected CDs and
] movies. It also says that companies selling such products
] must offer "clear and conspicuous notice or a label on
] the product" indicating the presence of anticopying
] techology that follows FTC regulations, starting one year
] after the law's enactment, unless the FTC determines that
] industry groups have created reasonable "voluntary"
] guidelines of their own.

] • Says the Federal Communications Commission may not
] force companies that create or sell PCs or digital video
] products to include specific copy-protection technology
] in them.
]
] • Requires the FTC to create an advisory committee to
] describe "the ways in which access control technology
] and redistribution control technology may affect consumer,
] educational institution and library use of digital media
] products based on their legal and customary uses of such
] products."
]
] • Says the FTC must prepare a report two years after the
] bill is enacted into law. The report would include
] information about how prevalent DRM technologies are, if
] they allow "consumers, educational institutions and
] libraries to engage in all lawful uses of the product,"
] and how often copyright holders have tried to glean
] subscriber information from Internet service providers.

Senator wants limits on copy protection | CNET News.com

] However, this USL decision is not the final word for SCO.
] Other (newer) parts of the Unix code may still be
] protected by copyright because software is like a
] copyright "layer" cake with each new version being
] protected by a separate copyright. This problem may
] partially explain SCO's approach of avoiding copyright
] claims, but the Novell announcement suggests even more
] serious problems for SCO. SCO's approach is almost a
] textbook example of how not to enforce intellectual
] property rights. First, don't check the scope of your
] rights, so you must keep changing your public position.
] Second, sue on your weakest and most difficult to prove
] rights. Third, keep the "infringements" secret to further
] lower your credibility. Fourth, threaten to sue everyone
] in the known universe before you have a decision
] enforcing your rights. Fifth, trumpet your successful
] license to the major competitor for the targeted product
] (Microsoft) who obviously has other motives for executing
] such a license. Sixth, irritate the other potential
] owners of the rights so that they go public with their
] version of events.

SCO & UNIX: A Comedy of Errors :: AlwaysOn

] In the wake of a firestorm of outrage from Tennessee
] techies, the controversial telecommunications theft
] legislation has been heavily amended, and its backers
] finally agreed late last week to postpone action to give
] interested parties time for further debate. But
] meanwhile, members of the local technological community
] are predicting all kinds of digital doomsdays if the bill
] becomes law. They regard it as a stealth attack on their
] technological freedom by big entertainment and big cable,
] the industries that wrote and heavily lobbied the
] Tennessee bill and have pushed for similar laws across
] the nation.

] "As originally worded, the bill was so broad and vague
] that every citizen who legally used a communications
] service would've been in violation of the law," says
] Scott Kozicki, chairman of the Tennessee Digital Freedom
] Network (www.tndf.net), an ad hoc group formed to fight
] the legislation.

Scott is a MemeStreams user:

http://www.memestreams.net/users/flynn23/

Nashville Scene | Surfers vs. Big Entertainment

] A new all-you-can-eat music download service that claims
] to take advantage of a loophole in Spanish copyright law
] will launch on Tuesday and piggyback on a popular
] file-swapping network for distribution.
] Learn more about file swapping
]
] The new Madrid-based company, called Puretunes, is the
] second Spanish Web service to try offering access to a
] vast and otherwise unavailable catalog of music online
] without directly securing the record labels' permission.

] By the standards of most paid music sites, Puretunes is
] a good deal indeed, at least for the music buyer. The
] company offers customers unlimited downloads that can be
] done over specified periods of time. Eight hours of
] unlimited downloading will cost $3.99, 48 hours will cost
] $9.99, and a month will cost $24.99, for example. Longer
] periods of time are also available.

¡Guárdese! ¡Los malvados vendrán con sus tratados y lawers!

Spanish site offers music-file fiesta | CNET News.com

] This model predicted the CD sales of RIAA members to
] within thirty million dollars (less than one-quarter of
] one percent) given the performance of the economy in
] 2002, as a function of nineteen other similarly-sized
] corporate sales, and the performance of the RIAA three
] previous years.

In other words, piracy is not impacting sales. (Note: This is extremely unlikely to be a conspiracy theory. The people that run these companies do NOT get this.)

Analysis of RIAA revenue figures versus overall economy

From Lawerence Lessig's blog:

] About a month ago, I started sounding optimistic about
] getting a bill introduced into Congress to help right the
] wrong of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. I
] was optimistic because we had found a congressperson who
] was willing to introduce the bill. But after pressure
] from lobbyists, that is no longer clear. And so we need
] help to counter that pressure, and to find a sponsor.
]
] The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has
] been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1
] maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee,
] then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay
] the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on
] historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works
] would pass into the public domain after just 50 years.
] They could keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them.
] But we would get a public domain.
]
] The need for even this tiny compromise is becoming
] clearer each day. Stanford's library, for example, has
] announced a digitization project to digitize books. They
] have technology that can scan 1,000 pages an hour. They
] are chafing for the opportunity to scan books that are
] no longer commercially available, but that under current
] law remain under copyright. If this proposal passed, 98%
] of books just 50 years old could be scanned and posted
] for free on the Internet.
]
] Stanford is not alone. This has long been a passion of
] Brewster Kahle and his Internet Archive, as well as many
] others. Yet because of current copyright regulation,
] these projects — that would lower the cost of libraries
] dramatically, and spread knowledge broadly — cannot go
] forward. The costs of clearing the rights to makes these
] works available is extraordinarily high.
]
] Yet the lobbyists are fighting even this tiny compromise.
] The public domain is competition for them. They will fight
] this competition. And so long as they have the lobbyists,
] and the rest of the world remains silent, they will win.
]
] We need to your help to resist this now. At this stage,
] all that we need is one congressperson to introduce the
] proposal. Whether you call it the Copyright Term
] Deregulation Act, or the Public Domain Enhancement Act,
] doesn’t matter. What matters is finding a sponsor, so we
] can begin to show the world just how extreme this debate
] has become: They have already gotten a 20 year extension
] of all copyrights just so 2% can benefit; and now they
] object to paying just $1 for that benefit, so that no one
] else might compete with them.
]
] If you believe this is wrong, here are two things you
] can do: (1) Write your Representative and Senator, and
] ask them to be the first to introduce this statute; point
] them to the website http://eldred.cc, and ask them to
] respond. And even more importantly, (2) blog this request,
] so that others who think about these issues can get
] involved in the conversation.
]
] I have given this movement as much as I can over the past
] four years, and I will not stop until we have reclaimed
] the public domain. Stay tuned for more litigation, and
] more ideas from Creative Commons. But please take these
] two steps now.

This could happen. Its a completely reasonable bill. Write your Representative and Senator, I will be.

Update: Snail mail has been sent..

Lawrence Lessig | We need your help

Oh, yeah, this was such a GREAT idea the first time around when it was called DIVX.

The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser.

You get a week from most rental places. I don't see what the consumer appeal is going to be with these. They are not going to sell.

Oh, wait, I know.. You can buy them, take them home, and copy them with the DVD burners that are starting to become cheap..

Yahoo! News - Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs