WASHINGTON — A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize.

Canada’s chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections, the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government.

Oh, come on, we’re not that bad!

Source: Globe and Mail

Moments ago hitting the ubuntu-announce-list is word that the upcoming 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” release will not include the closed-source ATI and NVIDIA display drivers by default. There was much controversy behind this decision of whether to include the ATI and NVIDIA binary blobs and enable them by default; so that its users can immediately benefit from Composite and desktop effects. Like existing releases, the proprietary video drivers will be easily available through their repositories, but they will NOT be activated by default.

 

Technorati tags: Linux

Source: Ubuntu Reverts Video Driver Stance

Klik is unique among software installation systems for Linux, in that each package installed through klik is self-contained, isolated from the rest of the operating system. Klik isn’t a package management system; rather it’s an application that lets you download and run software without installing it.

 

Technorati tags: Linux, Software

Source: Klik: the un-packaging system

As the five versions of Microsoft Windows’ new Vista operating system sit on store shelves, current Windows users are taking their time deciding if they will upgrade from Windows XP or buy new computers with Vista installed. The push for buying Windows Vista follows an epidemic of computer viruses, spyware and adware intrusions and carries the promise of a more secure computing environment. However, some computer security experts contend that Windows Vista offers little to make computing more secure.

 

Technorati tags: Security

Source: Linux vs. Vista: How Does Security Stack Up?

If you check the same two, three, four or more Web sites every time you open your browser, why not make them all your home page? Browsers that support tabs make it easy to automatically open multiple sites at startup. Among the many browsers that support tabbed browsing are Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. The first step toward making your home page a set of tabs is to open each site in its own tab in a single window.

 

Technorati tags: Linux, Software, How-To

Source: Free Apps Enhance Browsing and Data Portability

Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman has announced two Ubuntu Technical Board decisions that will affect the upcoming Feisty Fawn release, due out in April of this year. For the Feisty release, proprietary video drivers are out of the default install, and the…

 

Technorati tags: Linux, Software

Source: Ubuntu says no to non-free video drivers for Feisty