pirates

One of the most difficult tasks for companies that sell copyrighted music, movies, or computer software is estimating how much money they lose due to piracy. So they have been known to--how to put this delicately?--exaggerate.

That's the topic that The Pirate Bay trial in Stockholm explored on Wednesday when John Kennedy, the chief executive of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, testified that every MP3 file that is swapped online represents a lost sale. The IFPI is the Recording Industry Association of America's international affiliate.

Kennedy answered "Yes" to Pirate Bay defense attorneys … Read more

Natali opens with some rage against Verizon Fios over a billing problem after she canceled the service. She feels somehow, well...Jason explains it best in the show. We also get a Molly rant over Ireland's new content filtering on the Internet and TechCrunch's reporting that Last.FM was giving data to the RIAA. Which it was not.

Microsoft asks for severance back from laid off employees http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10169119-75.html

Workers ’stealing company data’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7902989.stm

Xbox Live denial … Read more

This is a long one folks. We get a little yelly about online video, The Pirate Bay, and HDTVs in hotels. When we get to the space-based solar array that beams power to Earth by microwave, Rafe suggests turning the state of Arizona into a microwave hot spot. Sorry Arizonans. Enjoy.

Palm Pre no longer features data tethering on Sprint Web site http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/19/palm-pre-no-longer-features-data-tethering-on-sprint-website/ http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/19/sprint-removes-data-tethering-from-palm-pre-feature-list/

Apple snapping up flash memory for new iPhone? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10167926-37.html … Read more

In this episode we find out that Hulu might be getting stomped, the government is spying on you through DTV boxes, and Natali prefers wrestling to cuddling. Seriously. She just doesn't like the word cuddling. But when a wrestling match offers to advertise Buzz Out Loud she's all for it.

Hulu being removed from Boxee http://blog.hulu.com/2009/2/19/doing-hard-things http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10167152-93.html

Judge throws out lawsuit against Google Street View http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/02/judge-throws-out-lawsuit-against-google-street-view.ars

Pirate Bay floats safe … Read more

That and other important questions are answered in today's show, where we're joined by John C. Dvorak in dissecting the new Facebook Terms of Service, the New Zealand blackout over copyright law, and the last-minute saving of SiriusXM. Also, give your boys the violent video games. They need them.

Day one of U.S. TV transition only 114 more to go http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Facebook’s new terms of service: “we can do anything we want with your content. Forever.” http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever

Facebook … Read more

On the first day of the long-awaited criminal trial involving The Pirate Bay file-sharing site, Swedish prosecutors unexpectedly dropped half of the charges against the site's operators.

Prosecutors previously accused the defendants, who have insisted that their Web site is legal under Swedish law, of assisting in the distribution of copyrighted material. The amended charges focus on the act of making the material available.

This represents a preliminary win for defendants Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi, and Carl Lundstorm, who have argued that no infringing content is located on their servers. Instead, The Pirate Bay acts … Read more

The trial against The Pirate Bay site began Monday in Sweden. And while Sweden is depicted by copyright-enforcement groups as piracy's promised land, it is also a nation that experiments with legal music-service alternatives.

The case against the founders of Piratebay.org--one of the world's three major BitTorrent sites--is expected to last 13 days, which would make it Sweden's longest-ever trial dealing with copyright issues. The case is the result of the search and seizure of servers by Swedish police at Pirate Bay's offices in May 2006.

For years, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry … Read more

File swappers are expected to be keeping their eyes on a court in Sweden this week as a landmark copyright-infringement trial gets under way.

The four men behind the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay go on trial Monday in Stockholm, accused of helping millions of Internet users illegally download protected movies, music, and computer games. The defendants--Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundström--face up to two years in prison and a fine of 1.2 million kronor ($143,529) if convicted of being accessories and conspiracy to break Swedish copyright law.

Two of … Read more

Nintendo is smashing the competition in game consoles and Rafe thinks he knows the reason why. The G/D ratio will probably become a new economic leading indicator. We also determine just how long you should wait for Windows 7. And by determine, I mean Rafe and I fight over it and I win. And what do you think of the Microsoft store?

Unix Time stamp generator http://www.timestampgenerator.com/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10163129-235.html

Sources: Windows 7 moving toward 2009 release http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10162609-56.html

New Windows … Read more