GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 36, 10-2-08

Thu Oct 2 20:54:06 EDT 2008

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Vol. 8, No. 36                 

10-2-08

1 MPAA hijinx        

2 Goodbye  

3 iPhone Flash, House goes down, pop-up scams, Wal-Mart screws you again

4 Dual pane file manager

5 Insight AV 

In my dotage I seem to be slipping.  It appears there exists an entire realm of "DVD-ripping" servers that will copy a DVD (even encrypted commercial movies) to a computer that allows the movies to be played from the hard drive or piped to other PCs/DVRs on an internal network.  Software programs like Kaleidescape and RealNetwork's RealDVD bring the same functionality to everyday PCs.

As you can imagine, the MPAA is not happy.

The issue revolves around the ever-popular DMCA and the license agreement for a program called the Content Scramble System (CSS), which basically encrypts the movies and other features of commercial DVDs.

The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses CSS, sued Kaleidescape last year for violating the license agreement.  The CCA lost.

This time it's the MPAA suing RealNetworks for a program that does virtually the same thing.  The allegation?  Violation of the DMCA.

There's a huge problem with this suit, though.  It appears that the program does NOT violate the Act.  In complying with the CSS agreement, RealDVD doesn't circumvent the encryption.  Instead it "shifts" it to a single PC, with the copy prevention measures wholly intact.

As a matter of fact, you can't even move it around on your internal network without purchasing RealDVD licenses for each computer.  This insures you can't make illegal copies.  Ergo, it doesn't violate the DMCA.  Of course, I'm not a lawyer so there could be some vagary of the Act that I misunderstand, but this looks pretty cut and dried.

Apparently RealNetworks see the problem as well and, instead of fighting the MPAA suit they counter sued, asking a District Court to rule that they comply with the CSS license as per the precedence of the earlier Kaleidescape case.

I must admit it's been many years since I had any use for, or even trusted, RealNetworks.  RealPlayer seemingly materializes out of whole cloth on my PC occasionally, hijacking all my media file associations without warning.  The whole time I'm tediously re-associating file types with the correct programs I'm muttering curses upon the company.

This action on their part doesn't wholly restore any trust in the company on my part, but I will pay a little more attention to them from here on.  Maybe they've turned over a new leaf.

Regardless, I wish them luck in their battle against this nonsense.

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

Is Flash coming to an iPhone near you?  Signs point to "yup":

http://tinyurl.com/3hs6x3  

Warning to Congress Critters:  we're paying attention.  So many people hit the House of Representatives' website to sound off that voters now have to "come back later":

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/bailout-bill-ov.html

WARNING: YOUR COMPUTER IS VULNERABLE! CLICK HERE TO PROTECT YOURSELF!  Ever seen a message like that? It probably looked just like any other pop-up your PC gives you when something isn't working right. But, as many have found out the hard way, such pop-ups are nothing but scams:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/106286

Wal-Mart has decided to stop issuing keys for its digital rights management software.  That leaves current customers out in the cold.  Will Wal-Mart back down?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10053857-93.html    

Matthew Dattilo

thepcgurus at gmail.com 

www.mattstodayinhistory.com

Download of the Week

If you're tired of the limitations of Windows Explorer you'd do well to try this free file manager, which significantly improves on Microsoft's underpowered one. For a start it has a two-paned interface, which makes it simple to move and copy files between folders, either on the same PC or over a network. Windows Explorer, by contrast, has only a single pane, and this often requires that you open two instances of it to perform the simplest of tasks. There are also a slew of other features, including hot keys for renaming, copying and moving files among other tasks. In fact, NexusFile makes just about any kind of file operation a breeze. Want to copy only the path of a file to the clipboard? It'll do that. It also makes it easy to archive files, add files to archives and to extract files out of archives. Another useful feature is a built-in simple FTP applet. If you've been frustrated by Windows Explorer, NexusFile may solve your problems. And given that it's free, there's no reason not to give it a try:

 http://tinyurl.com/3jyvu5  

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  Insight is offering a free internet security program in it flyer with the bills. I was wondering if you had any info as to the advantages of installing this program and what about the program I am running now. I am using ADG now. Thanks for the help.

A:  Probably CA's AV. Stay away from it. Use AVG or www.avast.com. 

Johnathan P. Durbin

jpdurbin at jpdurbin.net

Contact info and legal stuff

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