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A trial three years in the making, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled on Monday that making songs available in a Kazaa shared folder is not an act of copyright infringement. However, Judge Karas also denied defendant Denise Barker's motion to dismiss the case against her by the RIAA, and left the door open for the RIAA to continue it's suing spree. How so? Judge Karas wrote "The question before the Court, therefore, is whether the Court should look to the definition of the word 'publication' to construe the meaning of the term 'distribute' in Section 106(3) of the Copyright Act." In short, while placing songs in a Kazaa shared folder doesn't constitute copyright infringement, it might constitute copyright infringement. Legalese 1, sanity 0. If you haven't gone cross-eyed yet, read here and here.
We imagine that must be the mantra surrounding Microsoft's Xbox 360 offices, as rumors of a Blu-ray add-on drive for Redmond's console just refuse to die. The latest speculation sprang from DigiTimes, who while citing un-named sources, claimed Lite-On IT was developing built-in Blu-ray drives for the Xbox 360. Setting the record straight, Microsoft was quick to deny the April Fool's report in no uncertain language, reiterating their stance that "games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles." Aw shucks.
Holy QuickTime Batman, time to download version 7.4.5! Apple's newest update contains no less than 11 patches, fixing a variety of issues to prevent hackers from executing malicious code. Most of the security holes were discovered by TippingPoint and their Zero Day Initiative program, which rewards researchers for finding vulnerabilities. This marks at the least the sixth time since October that Apple has patched QuickTime.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey says yes, claiming that piracy and counterfeiting profits are funding terrorism. But are they? Preston Gralla, a ComputerWorld blogger, says no. Gralla claims that Mukasey is using scare tactics "to push through a controversial piece of legislation that's bad for you.t" Specifically, intellectual property (IP) legislation that Gralla says will increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more. Regardless of who's right, pay for your software; not only does it benefit the developer, but you can tell people you fight terrorism in your spare time.
Take a deep breath - Maximum PC's Windows blogger Mark Soper isn't going anywhere. But Nick White, Microsoft's in-house blogger, is leaving. White covered a variety of topics dealing with Windows Vista, providing key information and news for both journalists and analysts alike. No reason was given for White's departure, instead simply describing the decision as " bittersweet," as he prepares for his new role with BuzzCorps. Christopher Flores, a Director on the Windows Communications team, will take over as Microsoft's lead Vista blogger.
We've heard repeated claims that violent videogames correlate with violent behavior, but a recently published study suggests that gamers feel more relaxed and less angry after playing such titles. Or at least after playing World of Warcraft. Jane Barnett and her colleagues at Middlesex University queried 292 male and female gamers aged 12 to 83 both before and after logging 2 hours with WoW, with questions focusing on anger, aggression, and personality. The results showed that subjects were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing.
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hogkill
April 07, 2008 at 5:46am
Why does everyone go on about teaching kids the right context? I don't recall ever hearing my dad sit me down and explain to me that "shooting people in real life is bad", in fact he used to tell me and my sister bedtime stories about "Jonathan, the boy with the gun", where Jonathan goes around shooting witches and monsters with his magical bullets.
I didn't need the context explained to me, it's built into almost every animal's genetic code that killing another of the same species is wrong. Many carnivores won't do it even if their pack is starving to death.
If you are actually concerned about your kids exposure to fictional violence influencing him in real life then maybe you should look into getting a very late abortion because there's probably no hope for him anyhow.
If all your stupid theories were correct then highschoolers would be killing each other off on a daily basis ( it's 2008 what kid isn't exposed to violence in the media ). Yeah sure this happens in highschools, colleges and malls in the US all the time, but they don't really care about their kids over there anyway which is why they give them handguns and automatic rifles.
Shalbatana
April 04, 2008 at 11:32am
Can people be influenced by games, yes. My 5 year old son sees punching in a video game or tv show, and tries it out.
It is up to me, and everyone else out there to educate them and separate fact from fiction, right from wrong.
Violent games can be a release, I can see where they calm people. I've played many games, violent or not that make me feel calm after. OTOH, I've played tetris, and walked away wanting to bash some brains in. But if you use that as a basis, then I could make the statement that doing the dishes late at night when a person wants to sleep inspires violence.
Do I think a violent video game could help to push a dangerous or unconsciounable person over the edge? Sure... many things can...but then again, should that person really be allowed to play a game like that in the first place???
Do I think it produces violent tendencies in a well-rounded, stable child or person? No, not if they're taught "proper context"...as with all things in life.
These arguments are simply a means to point a finger at a cause... when the REAL cause is that this country (and the world) has turned it's back on providing adequate research, aid, and facilities towards mental health problems, its monitoring and its research.
P.S. I think the "research" (which should have been termed an "informal study") was silly and useless,lacking scope and controls, with an obvious outcome. Part of someone's thesis no doubt.
There's no time like the future.
hogkill
April 04, 2008 at 8:27am
"I don't have any doubt that playing games with useless and lawless violence lead to a callousness in real life."
Well I do. In fact the most violent people I've met have no time for videogames. I've never seen any of my friends who play FPS's, or GTA ever get into fights. I've seen a lot of fights break out at parties between people who are far too concerned with their social status to be playing video games.
I probably watched Terminator 2 every couple weeks as a kid, and I've been shooting things in games since duckhunt, but I can't remember doing anything violent recently. I only got into a few scraps back in school, but that was when I was being hit by bullies who, by the way, I know for a fact did not play any videogames whatsoever.
What causes violence is the person's personality, situation and some real world factors like drugs. I've seen cokeheads get into fights a lot but I've yet to see someone come out of playing GTA looking to shoot some cops or crack some skulls.
Your logic is baseless.
Captain
April 03, 2008 at 10:27pm
Two words come to mind when you said gory games get boring, DEAD RISING, and i mean that game is the funnest, on the edge of your seat, laugh at crazy, game. I could play that all i want and still love chopping a guys arm off, or sticking a shower head into a zombies brain, making it shower blood everywhere, its all awesome,and never gets boring! Oh yea, games do not make ppl more violent. the jackass that brought that up for the first time probably has an ADHD kid that played a violent game and started reenacting parts of it, i have a friend who i "think" has ADD and he is doing that kinda crap all the time, only its world of warcraft crap he does.
Antilogic81
April 03, 2008 at 10:08pm
Trying to get an 83 year old grandma to play GTA?...good luck to you there...I think WoW was picked because they could get people to play for atleast two hours.
GTA?...I can't even play that for 5 minutes before I got sick of the game...that includes every single one of them too.
Games don't make the person behave differently...
I can't see the proof in it...short of someone saying the game made them do it for a shorter jail sentence. And that is positively questionable, because self-preservation would make anyone blame something else.I'm sorry maybe I'm of a far more stable mindset then the rest of America, but I've played plenty of games that were mere gore-fests, the only thing I got from them was that they got old quick...much less any kind of behavior that would be considered overly aggressive.
dustin_wielenga32
April 03, 2008 at 9:15pm
WoW is a horrible indicator of whether or not games instill violence in people. It would be much better to pick a game like GTA, or Manhunt. Even then, the results of the survey will be determined by the questions asked.
I don't have any doubt that playing games with useless and lawless violence lead to a callousness in real life.
