Windows Vista copy protection cracked?

Techdirt is reporting that the copy protection on Windows Vista has been cracked:

More than a year after Windows Vista was introduced, hackers have finally developed a clean crack of Windows Vista. There have been a variety of workarounds for Vista’s copy protection before now, but this is the first time someone has figured out a way to install a cracked version that would pass all of Microsoft’s various anti-piracy checks.

Surely the really effective copy protection mechanism on Vista is that it is so crap no-one would want to copy it?

Norwegian state broadcaster puts show on BitTorrent

From Boing Boing:

NRK, the Norwegian state broadcaster, just made one of their most popular TV shows available for free through bittorrent. Without any DRM or restrictions. Free for the planet to watch. Because this is a completely legal download people seems to seed it happily. Making the bittorrent technology work exceptionally well, giving the audience very high download speeds. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation will keep on with experiments like these and try to make more content available through this technology in addition to the more traditional channels of streaming, podcasts and DVD sales.

Now why can’t the BBC do that? (The short answer is: because the government won’t let them).

Open source and utopia

Is open source software a utopia? If so, what kind:

“Open Source Software: There are days when I can’t figure out whether I’m living in a Socialist utopia or a Libertarian one.” — Alex Future Bokov

The decline of the recording industry

The Economist has a good article up about the decline of the recording industry: The music industry from major to minor.

It won’t tell you anything you don’t already know ifyou’ve been following this sage, but it is a good summary.
(Note that I call it the “recording industry” rather than the “music industry” because there are lots of economic activities about music: for example manufacturing, distributing and selling musical instruments, teaching people to play musical instruments, playing music in front of live audiences, being a venue for the above, making and selling clothing with images of bands on it, etc. These industries are not, as far as I am aware, in decline the way the recording indsutry is. Maybe that’s because these industries are based on making something people want whereas the rcording industry is based on rent-seeking.)

Making profit from user-generated content

There are many websites that make a profit from content generated by others, particularly their users — examples being MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. But this practise is not without controversy; in a thoughtful article, Larry Sanger asks:

I mean, really, why should we (Internet volunteers) let the owners of for-profit corporations, which are not directly answerable to us, get rich from our contributions, and without compensating us? Does that make the slightest bit of sense?

Egypt to extend copyright to 5000 years

You might think that the current copyright term applying for many works of life of the author plus 70 years is too long. (It is). But the Egyptian government wants to extend copyright to their antiquities, some up to 5000 years old:

Egypt’s MPs are expected to pass a law requiring royalties be paid whenever copies are made of museum pieces or ancient monuments such as the pyramids.

Zahi Hawass, who chairs Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the BBC the law would apply in all countries. The money was needed to maintain thousands of pharaonic sites, he said. Correspondents say the law will deal a blow to themed resorts across the world where large-scale copies of Egyptian artefacts are a crowd-puller.

I’d like to know how they think they are going to apply this worldwide.