Thursday Tech News

Some representative schmuck in NJ wants to make it illegal for companies to do some business in China. You can't make doing business in another country illegal for any reason (unless it is a human rights issue). This is not an issue about human rights because no one says that the internet is everyone's right. It isn't, tough. This bill also makes more bureaucracy in an already bloated government. There is another problem, bureaucracy. The DHS is a stupid bureaucracy. The FBI and the CIA did things fine as well as FEMA. You put EVEN MORE bureaucracy on top of them and they get NOTHING done. Hmm, what does this organization need? MORE organizational bureaucracy!

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For instance, the draft bill would require Internet companies to provide the U.S. government with lists of all content and sites it has been forced to block by restrictive governments. "Now that puts the companies exactly where they don't want to be, which is in a fight between the U.S. government and the other governments," O'Brien said.

RIAA infringes on Fair-Use once again. This organization is one of the worst things to happen to entertainment. They want to BLEED every consumer dry even after paying for a CD. Why doesn't the government step in on this stuff?

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As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs: "Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use."

Microsoft screws up with Office 12. Multiple versions that can't differentiate from each other like Windows Vista. Should I get the Home Lite or the Home Pro?

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The Redmond, Washington-based company will also offer a consumer version with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. There is also a basic offering that is preloaded onto some PCs, a version for small businesses and a standard suite of products.