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September 1, 2009 11:50 AM PDT

BOL 1054: Violating terms of service is not a crime

by Tom Merritt
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A judge has determined that violating terms of service is bad, but it's not tantamount to unauthorized access of a computer system. Good news for jailbreakers and hackintosh perpetrators. Also Opera 10 is out. I know. I know. But some of you really do care.

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EPISODE 1054

Confirmed: eBay has a deal to sell Skype
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10322833-94.html
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/09/a_new_chapter.html
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090901005931&newsLang=en

TOS violations not a crime in teen suicide case
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/judge-says-tos-violations-arent-a-crime-acquits-lori-drew.ars

Opera 10 faster with new features
http://arstechnica.com/software/reviews/2009/09/first-look-opera-10-faster-with-new-features.ars
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10320478-12.html

Sony to ship Vaios with Chrome installed
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10013661o-2000331777b,00.htm

IE tumbles, Firefox regains market share mojo
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137358/IE_tumbles_Firefox_regains_market_share_mojo

Windows phones are coming on October 6
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/09/01/windows-phones-are-coming-on-october-6th.aspx
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10322007-56.html

Qualcomm forbidden to use “smartbook” by order of German court
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/qualcomm-forbidden-to-use-smartbook-by-order-of-german-court/

TomTom’s new direction takes shape: Deal with Fiat
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS90227+31-Aug-2009+BW20090831

Internet’s first domain name registered sold
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31/2233246/Internets-First-Registered-Domain-Name-Sold

Woman fired for using uppercase in e-mail
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31/1515239/Woman-Fired-For-Using-Uppercase-In-Email

VOICE MAIL
James the field engineer on how cops can check texting

Jesse from San Francisco on a better way to protect iPhone

E-MAIL
A friend whose spouse works warranty repairs for a large electronics retail outlet, some say the BEST retail electronics outlet, that does warranty repairs for Apple products reports the receipt of a repair manual for an Apple tablet! The look is similar to the one on Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/326468/apple-touchscreen-tablet-contest-winner-and-gallery
The spouse reports it is 10 inches and runs OS X with a Cocoa layer on top like the iPod. Check your own sources at your local BIG retail store to confirm this.

Stephen B. Swan
Retired Guy

**********

Cameron from Buena Vista, Virginia

I was watching episode 1053 and when I saw the dancing iPod girl I
noticed that she was dangerously off balance. She wasn’t dancing, she
was falling! Then new ipod whatever must have some sort of life alert
built in to it. Apple is obviously trying to make in-roads into the
highly desirable geriatric market segment.

Anyways, just a thought :-)

The show is alright… Just kidding- LOVE… the… show…

Cameron Berry

**********

Yo Bolers,

I’m the kind of guy who gives credit where it’s due, and this time, I gotta give credit to Jason for his post-podcast reminder to visit CNET Live and see the web exclusive video. A) I really like the reminder part and B) that was buy far the funniest 6 minutes of my long BOL career. So thanks Jason, for making my day. Nay, my whole week.

Ben the Industrial Engineer Grad Student from Arkansas

p.s. Love the show

**********

Here is the Tweet from All Songs Considered re: Beatles: Starting my download of the Beatles Catalog. (protected site ) public release 9/9/09 – Vance

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by zacksdad September 1, 2009 8:03 PM PDT
Tom's rejection of Cooley's logical explanation of the Terms of Service argument reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer, upon seeing a lengthy contract which required his signature, complained, "I'm not signing this thing until I read it, or someone gives me the gist of it."

If you don't think you would not hire the best lawyers you could afford to pore over legal documentation if you were a defendant in a liability lawsuit, then you are fooling yourself. It was Jack Nicholson who once said, ?You need me on that wall,? and it bodes similarly that you need that legal documentation for basic protection. If you deserve it, why doesn't Corporation X or Y, then?

Look, until someone introduces global tort reform, the universe we live in has liability laws. Terms of service explain those things, and they indirectly acknowledge that we have the right to make personal decisions. We arrive at those decisions based upon what we're willing to give up compared to what is being offered to us. This is why Terms of Service don?t come with a kill ray should you decide not to sign them. You can simply tell myspace where to stick it if you don't like the information you read.

And, Natali, I'm sure if legal departments could find a cartoonish way (per your Virgin analogy) of explaining its jargon, they would. It would be hilarious during a deposition to watch Donald Duck explain a Terms of Service agreement as a point of order in regards to what the plaintiff originally agreed to when signing up at Disney.com.

Peace.

Zack's Dad
Yukon, Oklahoma
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by JasonInTexas September 4, 2009 11:20 AM PDT
I would like to take a moment to respond to your comments surrounding Windows Mobile. You said in this podcast and I quote, "They would know when they were using Windows because of how bad it sucks." This is my first problem. I have heard a lot of these types of comments, and I often wonder if the people who are saying these comments actually use Windows Mobile. My company uses Windows Mobile Smartphones to connect our company resources together due to an increased need to be mobile and still do business. I don't know of any other platform that is out today that can give me all that Windows Mobile offers on a single device without installing 25 different applications. I can create, edit, save, email, publish, etc. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and Powerpoint presentations to wide range of people all from the Windows Mobile platform on the phone. In addition, I use Windows Mobile to route the scheduling process through an exchange server which coordinates everyone's calendars simultaneously and almost instantly.

I'm sorry sir, I fail to see how this "sucks."

Also, you said that people purchased Windows Mobile phones because they can't afford anything better. This too is incorrect. I had the decision of going with a Blackberry solution, but I chose to go with Windows Mobile because of the seamless integration with Outlook and Exchange. While the Blackberry solution was a little cheaper (which contradicts your Windows Mobile is cheap assumption) it didn't offer the flexibility or scalability that Windows Mobile offered.

I think we need to remember that it was Windows Mobile that pioneered this current "Smartphone" era that we are so comfortably living in. It is true that the market share right now belongs to the iPhone, but in the "real" business world that is outside the California bubble where everyone wants to be Steve Jobs, and in the everyday business market more and more executives are turning to the highly customizable, readily scalable Windows Mobile platform.

Believe whatever you like about Windows Mobile, but to perpetuate your opinion on the rest of the listening audience with such a broad ranging assumption without the research to validate your comments is irresponsible and will likely cost you listeners.

Thanks!

Jason in Texas
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by bitogre September 18, 2009 12:02 PM PDT
There is a huge difference between Terms of Service and a License Agreement. It sounds like the judge's ruling that 'Violating terms of service is not a crime" would not apply to Hackintosh and Jailbreaking.

The Mac OS X is only licensed to run on Apple computers and requires some level of Hacking and/or reverse engineering (a violation of the DCMA) to get to run on PCs. When you buy a copy of Mac OS X without an Apple Computer, it is always clearly marked as an Upgrade so you clearly are not buying a full copy legal to run on a PC.

Jailbreaking also requires hacking and/or reverse engineering (a violation of the DCMA) to get past code Apple puts on iPhones to prevent people from installing their own applications.
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Buzz Out Loud features Tom Merritt, producer Jason Howell, and a rotating roundtable of CNET's top tech experts reviewing the day's tech news. Each episode, five times a week, the crew analyzes, interprets, and argues about what all this technology means and what it's doing to us. Fans can join in the show by calling 1-800-616-2638, e-mailing at buzz@cnet.com, or commenting on the blog.


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