Shift Computer Solutions » Legal Issues

LimeWire Defiant in Face of RIAA Pressure

Mathew — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:54:09 +0000

Despite being ordered to Cease & Desist and then sued by the RIAA, LimeWire is refusing to cave in to industry pressure and is prepared for a long fight. Installed on an amazing one-fifth of desktops worldwide, LimeWire’s popularity has never been greater and in their battle against the RIAA, millions will be cheering them on.

Another copyright lawsuit, and like the Kazaa case, this one is worth watching as we know a lot of our clients have this software installed. In fact, if you have teenagers in the house, you should check, as most of them have downloaded this software.

Its also worth noting that Limewire does some bad things to your computer, so you probably want to avoid it anyway.

read more | digg story

School girls uncover Ribena fraud.

Mathew — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:32:45 +0000

A high school science experiment by two 14-year-old girls has embarrassed the world’s second-largest food and pharmaceutical company.

GlaxoSmithKline will appear in Auckland District Court on Tuesday to face charges alleging 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

GSK Australia this week dobbed itself into the Australian equivalent of the Commerce Commission, admitting it had been misleading in its Ribena claims.

Chances are if we read the pack, it will tell us the product has virtually no Vitamin C, and this is the real problem; Consumers need to read the packaging and ignore the marketing spin.

[Full Story]

Woman dies trying to win a Wii

Mathew — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:37:42 +0000

I’m really starting to wonder if game consoles have become such an addiction that they might need to be banned. In the last few months, you could easily compare the Sony Playstation 3 to a reasonable batch of cocaine; People shooting each other to get it, paying high prices to get some when supply is short. Its truly bizzare.

Things took an even more bizzare turn recently when a radio station in the US launched a competition – Come down to the station, drink bottled water, and hold your wee the longest to win a Nintendo Wii.

28 Year old Jennifer Strange died sometime after leaving the competition empty handed. Her workmates had last heard from her by phone when she complained of bad headaches. Autopsy results released yesterday showed signs of water intoxication, wherein the body’s electrolyte levels are dangerously unbalanced due to a rapid intake of the seemingly harmless liquid.

UPDATE: All 10 staff at the radio station involved with the promotion have been fired, and police have launched a criminal investigation. It turns out that some of the on air personalities were joking about the possibility of death from over consumption of water, and one caller even rang into the show to warn them.

Office pirates beware: Genuine Advantage is coming.

Mathew — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 23:03:35 +0000

Users who have been using a pirate copy of Microsoft Office are soon to find out why that was such a bad idea. Microsoft are shortly going to release an update that will check the licence status of Office and stop users from accessing online resources and updates.

Anyone who thinks they might have a pirated copy and wants to fix it should give our office a call, and we can find the most cost effective licencing solution for you.

read more | digg story

Call for legal copying of own CDs

Mathew — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:26:29 +0000

Copyright laws are “out of date” and must be updated so MP3 player users can make copies of CDs without breaking the law, according to a think tank.

This is certainly something that needs looking at. I’m sure a lot more consumers would buy their music instead of stealing it if they actually had the right to enjoy the music after they purchased it.

Buying music on iTunes is a big gamble. Sure, when you first get it, its all good, and you can put it on your iPod. But then what? What if you want to get rid of your iPod and use something else, like the Microsoft Zune? Too bad! Apple won’t let you. What if you want to move the music to a different PC? What about copying it to a 2nd PC in your home?

While ever the DRM on music and video is so restrictive that people can’t use the content they’ve paid for, its going to be a problem. Get rid of the DRM, and watch the profits soar!

read more | digg story

McDonald’s Puts Trojan Horses in Coke

Mathew — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 04:17:21 +0000

Beware fast food joints flogging MP3 players; McDonalds in Japan has fouled up by giving away a trojan installed on an MP3 Player customers got when buying a coke. The Trojan installs on Windows PC’s and emails the trojans author details of the users passwords and other private information.

Both McDonalds and Coke have plenty of money, so I guess we’ll be reading about the class action lawsuit soon.

read more | digg story

Stalking made easy.

Mathew — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 05:21:46 +0000

From crunchgear - It’s now easier than ever to be a stalker with the new SkyTRX Mini Tracker. This little ditty uses GPS to track your target with accuracy of up to 2.5-meters. That’s pretty good. The case is weather-proof so you can attach it to somebody’s car with the magnet and just go. The 2 AAA batteries that it takes to run the thing work in such a way that it turns off when the car is turned off, which is pretty nifty; and you can check the info using Google Earth. So the next time your girlfriend says she’s going to visit her parents, you can make sure for only $300.

RIAA – Even One Song Can Get You Sued

Mathew — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:44:06 +0000

RIAA spokesperson Jenni Engebretsen was interviewed by phone in connection with a suit filed against a college student over a 600 song collection. Her response: “There is no set threshold, no single number that would trigger a lawsuit. Uploading or downloading even one song is illegal.”

There hasn’t been a lot of action in Australia with regards to this type of lawsuit, but it has happened, and I suspect it may happen a lot more in the future. For those clients with teenage children, its worth checking if they are downloading pirated material, and consider stopping it.

read more | digg story

Nigerian Email Scams still going strong.

Mathew — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:32:07 +0000

A good short read about the continuing success of Nigerian scammers getting their grubby hands on unsuspecting victims hard earned money.

If you get these sorts of offers via email, make sure you click DELETE.

Microsoft admits WGA is broken.

Mathew — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 08:10:42 +0000

Okay, so I was all for the “Windows Genuine Advantage” tool, a tool that Microsoft is deploying to all Windows XP users to check that they have actually bought and are using a legal, licenced copy.

Turns out that its broken. ZDNet are reporting that a Microsoft letter confirms that 20% of authentication failures are false positives – failures on a legitimate licenced copy of Windows XP.

While I don’t yet know how they get it wrong, I will agree that until they can refine it to be more accurate, they should back off.