No more backups, or TiVo?
Think DRM was bad already? Think I was joking when I said the plan was to start with barely tolerable incursions on your rights, then turn the thumbscrews? Welcome to Windows Media Player 11, and the rights get chipped away a lot more. Get used to the feeling, if you buy DRM infected media, you will only have this happen with increasing rapidity.

One of the problems with WiMP11 is licensing and backing it up. If you buy media with DRM infections, you can’t move the files from PC to PC, or at least you can’t and have them play on the new box. If you want the grand privilege of moving that content, you need to get the approval of the content mafia, sign your life away, and use the tools they give you. If you want to do it in other ways, you are either a lawbreaker or following the advice of J Allard. Wait, same thing.

So, in WiMP10, you just backed up your licenses, and stored them in a safe place. Buying DRM infections gets you a bunch of bits and a promise not to sue, but really nothing more. The content mafia will do anything in its power, from buying government to rootkitting you in order to protect those bits, and backing them up leaves a minor loophole while affording the user a whole lot of protection.

Guess which one wins, minor loophole or major consumer rights? Yes, WiMP11 will no longer allow you the privilege of backing up your licenses, they are tied to a single device, and if you lose it, you are really SOL. Remember that feeling I mentioned earlier? This is nothing less than a civil rights coup, and most people are dumb enough to let it happen.
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The Motion Picture Association of America on Thursday unveiled its latest tool in the war on movie piracy: a pair of DVD-sniffing Labrador Retrievers named Lucky and Flo. The MPAA, which represents the major U.S. movie studios in government and legal affairs, claims the illegal copying of movies and television shows on DVDs and other media cost them more than $6.1 billion in lost revenues in 2005.

Of that total, about $2.4 billion was lost to copying movies to videocassettes, DVDs or video CDs. In recent years, the organization has waged a vigorous battle against global piracy. In July, for instance, the MPAA and foreign government officials wrapped up “Operation Red Card,” which resulted in the seizure of some 6.7 million pirated discs in 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. The job for Lucky and Flo will be to sniff out optical discs in luggage or other containers, and stop the discs from getting to manufacturing plants where they can be reproduced.

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Source: Extreme Tech

Thanks to Nitrouz for the submission

Federal Police suspect one of Australia’s biggest ever cocaine busts is linked to a massive international drug importation racket. Authorities seized the $35 million, 135 kilogram cache, which was hidden inside a shipment of computer monitors from Canada.

The second major consignment of illegal drugs intercepted en route from Canada in the past four months, the container of 420 monitors was selected by Customs for X-ray in Brisbane on September 8.

Cocaine was found in 136 sealed packets concealed in 33 of the monitors, with 120,000 ecstasy tablets also discovered, worth an estimated $3.5 million, the Australian Federal Police said.

Five men were arrested in Brisbane on Wednesday after earlier trying to access the shipment at a warehouse. A sixth – allegedly the intended recipient of the importation – was arrested at eastern Sydney’s Darling Point.
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Virus.gr tested quite a few different software companies to see how they would stack up against each other. How did the 147,000+ virus test pan out? Here are the results (the ones in bold are the ones I expected to do good):

1. Kaspersky version 6.0.0.303 – 99.62%
2. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299 – 99.62%
3. F-Secure 2006 version 6.12.90 – 96.86%
4. BitDefender Professional version 9 – 96.63%
5. CyberScrub version 1.0 – 95.98%
6. eScan version 8.0.671.1 – 95.82%
7. BitDefender freeware version 8.0.202 – 95.57%
8. BullGuard version 6.1 – 95.57%
9. AntiVir Premium version 7.01.01.02 – 95.45%
10. Nod32 version 2.51.30 – 95.14%
11. AntiVir Classic version 7.01.01.02 – 94.26%
12. ViruScape 2006 version 1.02.0935.0137 – 93.87%
13. McAfee version 10.0.27 – 93.03%
14. McAfee Enterprise version 8.0.0 – 91.76%
15. F-Prot version 6.0.4.3 beta – 87.88%
16. Avast Professional version 4.7.871 – 87.46%
17. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 – 87.46%
18. Dr. Web version 4.33.2 – 86.03%
19. Norman version 5.90.23 – 85.65%
20. F-Prot version 3.16f – 85.14%
21. ArcaVir 2006 – 83.44%
22. Norton Professional 2006 – 83.18%
23. AVG Professional version 7.1.405 – 82.82%
24. AVG freeware version 7.1.405 – 82.82%
25. Panda 2007 version 2.00.01 – 82.23%
26. Virus Chaser version 5.0a – 81.47%
27. PC-Cillin 2006 version 14.10.1051 – 80.90%
28. VBA32 version 3.11.0 – 79.12%
29. ViRobot Expert version 4.0 – 76.22%
30. UNA version 1.83 – 75.44%

I expected NOD32, Avast, and AVG to perform a little better than they did but NOD32 and AVG definitely fought back at the heuristic testing. Heuristic testing is extremely important because that is what gives an Antivirus the ability to catch a virus even it is not in the database.
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Here is Episode 19 of our weekly PodCast , Apple + Wii!.

The topics covered in this episode are:

- Breaking news Nintendo Wii conference with Release date and pricing!
- See your website in 30+ different ways
- Eco Roadster faces identity crisis
- The Pizza man always rings twice
- Top 10 Game name shockers
- Game prototype with Doom 3 Level graphics is under 100kb!
- New Supercars of 2007

You can subscribe to the PodCast by putting this link into your iTunes / PodCast program: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AustechNews.

Download: Episode 19: Apple + Wii! (48:30, 22.2 mb)
View: AusTech News PodCast Forum

The Creator of the Freenode IRC network, Rob Levin (aka lilo) has passed away. Although there is not much information yet on the subject, this is what fellow Freenode staff member, christel has released:

“On the 12th of September Rob Levin, known to many as Freenode’s lilo, was hit by a car while riding his bike. He suffered head injuries and passed away in hospital on the 16th. He spent his last few days at the neuro trauma ICU at a local hospital where he was in a coma. The news reached us this morning that Rob passed away early today. Rob is survived by wife Debbie and son Benjamin, and we ask that you all respect their privacy at this difficult time. Robs funeral is most likely to be monday afternoon, although we have yet to get confirmation as Debbie is waiting to hear from the MEs office that it can go ahead as planned and for those local, wishing to show their respects at his funeral, we ask that you email staff@freenode.net and we will try direct you as we can.”

Christel also stated that “[It] is Debbie’s wishes that freenode keeps running as close to normal as possible, and we will be working with the PDPC board to ensure that the network keeps running.” Rob’s IRC client is still connected to Freenode. Once it logs off, Robs nicknames will be quarantined to prevent abuse.

More updates will be posted as the story unfolds.

Source: Neowin

DVDs will soon be tracked with embedded radio transmitter chips to prevent copying and piracy, according to the company which makes movie discs for Warner, Disney, Fox and other major studios. The technology, which can also be used for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, will allow movie studios to remotely track individual discs as they travel from factories to retail shelves to consumers’ homes.

Home DVD players will eventually be able to check on the chip embedded in a disc, and refuse to play discs which are copied or played in the ‘wrong’ geographical region, the companies behind the technology expect. “This technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide,” said Gordon Yeh, chief executive of Ritek Corporation. Ritek is the world’s largest DVD maker, and its U-Tech subsidiary will make the discs.

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Source: vnunet

Users of modchipped gaming consoles could face fines of thousands of dollars when new copyright protection laws are introduced this year by the Federal Government.

The new laws, which were released in draft form last week, are being introduced to honour Australia’s free trade agreement obligations with the US, and will effectively prohibit the use of devices and services designed to circumvent copy control technological protection measures (TPMs).

Until now, it has only been illegal to distribute or sell services or devices seeking to disable or override copy control technologies, but now users of such tools will also fall foul of the law once the legislation is introduced later this year.

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Source: SMH

Microsoft plans on Thursday to release an updated test version of Office 2007, in what the company hopes will be the last milestone before finalizing the product later this year. The company said that the free update, a “technical refresh” of the current beta version, will be a free download for existing testers. The software maker said the updated code offers improved performance, tighter integration and general look-and-feel enhancements.

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Source: ZDNet

This news is a bit old, but was requested by one of our members.

Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock has been killed in an accident while taking part in the Targa West rally in Western Australia, motor sport officials have confirmed.

Brock, 61, who had three children, was driving with colleague Mick Hone in a Daytona Coupe when the incident occurred.

West Australian police say the car crashed into a tree at Gidgegannup about 40 kilometres north-east of Perth about 12pm (AEST). No other vehicles were involved, it is understood.

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Source: SMH