Al Gore has many admirers and critics, but on Friday the spotlight was on him again as the Nobel Peace Prize committee showered him with praise for his work promoting climate awareness and climate research. "[The IPCC] creates an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. [The IPCC] lays the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract [climate] change," said the committee about the IPCC. It cited that a major justification for awarding this prize to the IPCC and Gore was to bring more attention to the increased risks of wars and violent conflicts that are posed as our climate changes. In Washington D.C., Gore greeted the announcement by first praising the IPCC and how "tirelessly and selflessly they have worked for many years." Gore added, "We face a true planetary emergency. It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity." Gore will donate half of his $1.5 million dollars in Nobel Prize money to Alliance for Climate Protection. James M. Taylor, senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute, blasted Gore for his work on The Inconvenient Truth. "The British High Court properly recognized that Al Gore's movie is nine parts political propaganda and one part science. Virtually every assertion that Gore makes in the movie has been strongly contradicted by sound science."
l Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on climate change just won the Nobel
The Nobel Peace Prize was not the first award received by Al Gore, 59, for his environmental work, but it was certainly the largest. Al Gore had previously won an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which was a surprising box office hit.
Gore shares the Peace Prize with the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), found in 1988, which is widely considered by scientists and governments worldwide as the top authority on global warming and climate change.
The IPCC has over 2,000 leading climate change scientists and experts that conduct research into climate change and collate data and information from research papers of thousands of other scientists worldwide.
The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee praised Gore as "Probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri was overwhelmed by the awarded. The India-native told his cheering supporters outside his Delhi office that he hopes the award will help further awareness and a greater sense of urgency about climate change. Rajendra Pachauri's full reaction is documented on the IPCC website (PDF).
Gore's work has had a major effect on the technology industry. With his help, public sentiment has shifted as people realize that oil dependence will only last so many years. This shift in turn has led to all the major car companies heavily pursuing, promoting, and investing in hybrid vehicles, many of which have been featured at DailyTech.
While his efforts to promote global warming research have often overshadowed his other environmental initiatives, Gore has also been a strong promoter of equally controversial rainforest protection, toxic waste control, and National Park System expansion initiatives.
The news follows the announcementsthat a British court declared An Inconvenient Truth unfit for British schools, as it has nine alleged factual inaccuracies. Michael Asher elaborates more in his DailyTech blog.
10/13/07
Al Gore Announced Corecipient of Nobel Peace Prize
Apple, AT&T Sued for iBricking, Monopolistic Behavior
Cupertino-based Apple Inc. has been busy writing firmware to lock the iPhones and iPod Touches from third party applications and unlocking. Now after trying to put out one literal iFire, as predicted in a previous DailyTech article, Apple Inc. has found itself the target of not one, but two separate lawsuits seeking class action status. One lawsuit was filed at the state level by Saratoga attorney Damian Fernandez, who is representing California resident Timothy Smith. The suit demands a jury trial. It asks the court to issue an order to Apple to unlock iPhones and support hacked iPhones. Finally, it is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
The consumers are bringing the fight to Apple Inc.
Apparently Apple's answer to owners of frozen iPhones that they should “buy a new phone” did not go over well.
The federal suit was filed by the offices of Hoffman & Lazear in Oakland and Folkenflik & McGerity in New York, on behalf of two individuals Paul Holman and Lucy Rivello; both iPhone owners.
The federal case accuses Apple of unfair business practices, violations of antitrust laws, violations of telecommunications laws and violations of warranty laws. It states that by disallowing user modification of phones to work on other networks, Apple and AT&T willfully and knowingly intended from the initiation of their partnership to maintain a monopoly.
The suit further points to Apple's actions with its latest firmware update which unlawfully restrict consumer choice by preventing people from "unlocking" their iPhones, locking out third party applications from its file system and disabling unlocked iPhones turning them into "iBricks."
The suit officially stated that it did not know how large the effective class would be, but filed it under 100 or more. The firms are predicting big though -- they stated that they think the "there will be millions" who will join the class action.
Part of the dilemma is in knowing how many unlocked iPhones there are. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the unlocking software have been sold or downloaded. Adding in the numbers of people who performed hardware hacks and the number of unlocked iPhone owners may be 100,000 or more. This would be significant portion of the iPhone population, which currently numbers around 1.3 million.
The civil suit accused Apple and AT&T of similar violations, only on a state level in California. It says Apple and AT&T willfully violated many state laws in engaging in its monopolistic and malicious behavior.
Damian Fernadez, the attorney who filed the state suit explains in court documents what Apple is accused of: Apple punished consumers for exercising their rights to unlock their iPhones. Apple issued a software update that 'bricked' or otherwise caused iPhone malfunctions for consumers who unlocked their phones and installed the update. Apple's unlawful trust with AT&T substantially lessens competition and tends to create a monopoly in trade and commerce throughout the entire United States.
Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren and AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel both declined to speak to the media, despite request on Wednesday.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has in the past compared Apple's war against unlockers to a game of cat and mouse. His comparison now seems to border on comedy as it appears that after being battered and hunted, the "mouse" has turned and is now attacking "the cat."
When Apple Inc. and AT&T's actions drew the companies into the spotlight, it seemed inevitable that a class action suit would be on the way. Now as user anger has erupted at Apple and AT&T, they face not one but two class actions suits. Likely more damaging than any possible outcome will be the negative light that the coverage of these cases will cast on both companies. Apple Inc., which regained leadership as a mainstream tech firm by portraying an rebellious outsider image, will now have to face unpleasant comparisons to its corporate rivals, whom it once poked fun at.
RIAA Case Juror Speaks: 2 Jurors Wanted $3.6M Fine
It turns out that Jammie Thomas could have been worse off
The tech news industry has been buzzing with news of the $222,000 verdict in the precedent setting civil case Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas, the first instance of an RIAA complaint going to a trial by jury.
Now a juror from the case has opened up and discussed their feelings about the case and what went on inside the courtroom.
While some may feel the $9,250 per song fine levied against Thomas was extreme and unreasonable, she could have been far worse off, if a couple of the jurors had their way.
In an interview with THREAT LEVEL on Tuesday, Michael Hegg, one of the jurors from the case, reported that two jurors had tried to sway the other jurors to adopt the maximum fine per violation, $150,000 per piece of copyrighted material.
As Thomas was found guilty of 24 such violations, this would have resulted in a $3.6 million fine.
Another juror, according to Hegg, was insistent on making the fine as low as possible. The minimum amount per violation, by law is $750. This would have led to a far lesser fine of $18,000, still a significant sum, but over $200,000 less than the $222,000 jury decision.
Hegg, a 38-year-old steelworker from Duluth, Minnesota who had just returned home from a 14 hour shift when the interview took place, was unsympathetic at Thomas's plight.
He elaborated, "She's a liar. She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars. Spoofing? We're thinking, 'Oh my God, you got to be kidding.' [The verdict was] a compromise, yes, we wanted to send a message that you don't do this, that you have been warned."
Hegg felt that the fact that Thomas turned a different hard drive over to investigators than the original was particularly damning. He repeated his feelings that she was being deceptive. "She lied. There was no defense. Her defense sucked," he elaborated.
Hegg is a married father of two and says his wife is an "Internet guru," but admits to not knowing much about technology issues.
Hegg said his opinion and that of the jury was swayed by a number of pieces of evidence presented by the RIAA. One exhibit, viewed multiple times showed that there were 2 million users on Kazaa, the network Thomas was accused of using, on the night RIAA investigators found Thomas's alleged folder. Also, Thomas's use of the name "Terreastarr" on other online accounts, the same as the name on the Kazaa account, helped convince them. Then there was the fact that the RIAA's technical experts matched the IP and MAC address to her computer. Expert testimony had revealed that Thomas had not used a wireless router, casting further doubt on her claims that she was hacked.
Hegg seemed almost enraged at Thomas as he concluded the interview by saying, "I think she thought a jury from Duluth would be naïve. We're not that stupid up here. I don't know what the f**k she was thinking, to tell you the truth."
Hegg's statements echo the Bush administration's statement earlier this week, that the punishment fit the crime and serves as a good warning to potential violators.
The RIAA has a strong ally in the current U.S. administration, which has made major efforts to police copyright infringement and raise the fines for violators, including championing and signing into law the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. This law mandated that possession of even a single copy of a film unreleased on dvd could subject the owner to a stay in prison. The law included no provisions for currently unreleased or untranslated foreign films, but so far the motion picture industry has been slightly less zealous in prosecuting infringers than the RIAA. Recent reports put the RIAA settlements at nearly 36,000 individual settlements, by certain estimates.
Still there are many around the country who feel that she got off too lightly or was fined too heavily or unjustly. Even the jury seems to have mirrored this same split. One wanted to just fine her the minimum amount, others wanted to fine her the maximum amount $3.6 million dollars.
somehow succeeds. Meanwhile the RIAA can rest content with their victory as they ponder their The end result is still the same though: Thomas is going to have to pay, unless her appealnext plan of attack in their colorful battle against copyright infringement.
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Windows XP SP3 Specifics Revealed
News on Microsoft's aging Windows XP operating system has surprisingly been coming in at a steady pace over the past few weeks. Although Windows Vista is Microsoft's current bread-and-butter consumer operating system, there is still much love to go around for Windows XP. In late September, DailyTech reported that Microsoft is providing XP downgrades for unhappy Vista customers. Microsoft followed up on that news a few days later with the announcement that Windows XP sales would be extended to June 30, 2008. The company followed up with a new build of Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP that doesn't require product activation and released a Service Pack 3 (SP3) beta for a select group of testers. The latest SP3 beta is labeled as build 3205 and is a rather small 334.92 MB download. The bloggers over at NeoSmart have gotten a hold of the new SP3 release and have detailed many of the new features and bugfixes with the software update. According to NeoSmart, SP3 contains 1,073 hotfixes and patches; 114 of which are security related. SP3 also adds four major features to the Windows XP operating systems. The first is a new activation scheme which will not require a product key during installation. The second feature is a new Network Access Protection Module first featured in Windows Vista. Other new items include a Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module and a Black Hole Router detection algorithm. The release of SP3 coupled with the announcement that XP will be available to businesses and consumers for a longer period of time could breathe new life into the venerable operating system. Many gamers have stuck by the operating system and OEMs like HP and Dell still offer XP on brand new systems.
NeoSmart goes over SP3's new features
10/11/07
Samsung SPH-P9200 UMPC Details Surface
Information on Samsung’s latest Ultra Mobile PC is surfacing today: the SPH-P9200. This device uses a folding keyboard that gives the device what appears to be a nearly full-size QWERTY keyboard. Specifications for the SPH-P9200 reported by SlashGear show that it will feature a VIA C7-M processor, 512MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive. The operating system is Windows XP Home, the standard battery is a 20Whr battery good for up to 2.5 hours of runtime and the extended battery will provide up to 5 hours of work time. A 1.3-megapixel camera is built-in as well. Perhaps the best feature of the device is the multiple connectivity options that include WiFi, WiBro and HSDPA. Samsung also included a SIM card slot, a 15-pin accessory port assumed by SlashGear to be for accessories like headsets or dongles and a port replicator. The screen is a 5-inch 800x480 display that reportedly can do higher resolutions via interpolation. Samsung includes MyPen software and an optical joystick with mouse buttons is included. Samsung has declined to comment on pricing or availability. The Samsung user’s manual for the SPH-P9200 can be seen on the Samsung website (PDF). Power users may be more inclined to use a UMPC with more performance, which in this case could be systems like the ASUS Eee PC that is now shipping.
Samsung SPH-P9200 details surface boasting great connectivity options
