This is one of those things that makes me both sad and angry.
This is going to far. People somehow managed to defend the guy involved before, why did they do this? I don’t know. Maybe they won’t this time, but we shall see. Anyway, doesn’t really matter now, he has gone too far.
LS2k was one of the best ls sites out there by far, along with FPN, ShellFront, Desktopian and ls.net/com, so there has been a hole left in the community.
Anyway, my respect to jalist for all that he has done. I watched ls2k since it started, and what a great site it turned out to be. We run our sites because it is fun and interesting. The occasional mail we get of support keeps things going, but sometimes the bad just outweighs the good and then we see stuff like this. Such is the way of it.
RIP ls2k…
There’s a new version of Opera on the block. Version 6 beta is out, and so far I’ve been very impressed with it. I’ve been running IE6 for a while, then I noticed a post on ShellFront about the new version.
Try it out, even if you have tried Opera before. I used Opera for ages before switching to IE6, and this release is seriously tempting me back.
This is a proper redesign. It conforms to w3c standards, both to the letter and the ideas behind the standards.
It separates the structure of the document from the layout of the page. All the layout is implemented in CSS and the structure of the document is in HTML. Both validate :) Which is good, as we all know. It means also, if you have an older browser, the page may look, well, lame.
But I am lucky I guess because virtually all of the people visiting this site will be ‘power-users’ who have the latest version of their chosen browser! Thank you for allowing me the freedom of being able to create the site I want all those of you with uptodate browsers.
Sorry… I got abit carried away there. :)
Source: The Register.
The Copy Control Association (CCA), which was granted a preliminary injunction against Andrew Bunner and other Webmasters, was handed its head in a California appellate court Thursday.
The trial court had granted the injunction against publishing Jon Johansen’s DeCSS DVD descrambler, but Brunner appealed on First Amendment free-speech grounds.
The CCA scoffed at the notion, claiming that the source code has a mere practical function and no expressive content.
The court saw it differently:
“Like the CSS decryption software, DeCSS is a writing composed of computer source code which describes an alternative method of decrypting CSS-encrypted DVDs. Regardless of who authored the program, DeCSS is a written expression of the author’s ideas and information about decryption of DVDs without CSS. If the source code were compiled to create object code, we would agree that the resulting composition of zeroes and ones would not convey ideas.
“That the source code is capable of such compilation, however, does not destroy the expressive nature of the source code itself. Thus, we conclude that the trial court’s preliminary injunction barring Bunner from disclosing DeCSS can fairly be characterized as a prohibition of pure speech.”
And this, the court reminds us, is presumed unconstitutional unless proven otherwise, and of course the CCA offered no such proof:
“Prior restraints on pure speech are highly disfavored and presumptively unconstitutional. (Hurvitz v. Hoefflin (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 1232, 1241.) ‘In the case of a prior restraint on pure speech, the hurdle is substantially higher [than for an ordinary preliminary injunction]: publication must threaten an interest more fundamental than the First Amendment itself. Indeed, the [US] Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint, even faced with the competing interest of national security or the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.’”
The conclusion was self-evident:
“We hold only that a preliminary injunction cannot be used to restrict Bunner from disclosing DeCSS. The order granting a preliminary injunction is reversed.” And then, for a final twist of the knife, “Defendant Andrew Bunner shall recover his appellate costs.”
Well done. Now break out those old Copyleft t-shirts and celebrate. ®
To make it easier, grab this program, so you don’t have to mess around in DOS :)
Source : Neowin