Summary: GotoMeeting Hold your meetings online for just $49/mo. Try GoToMeeting FREE for 30 days. Get Great Web Hosting at GoDaddy.com and save 10% Use Promo Code: pod168 DRM Madness * Ubisoft rolls out an "uncrackable" DRM on two new games that gets cracked in less than 24 hours * RealNetworks settles lawsuit about their DVD copying software RealDVD * President Obama sides with the RIAA/MPAA lobby and backs the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement More Google Talk * Who will win in Google v. China? * Facebook tops Google as the most visited website in the U.S. for the week ending on March 13 What Not to Swallow * Man swallows a flash drive while being raided by the Secret Service Get Your Science Fix * Entire archives of Popular Science magazine now available online for free Show Notes Digital Rights Management? Shouldn't they call it Digital Restrictions Management? http://www.infoaddict.com/ubisofts-new-drm-cracked-in-under-25-hours * Ubisoft's two newest games, Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5, come with a VERY restrictive DRM * The DRM requires "all legitimate users to have a permanent Internet connection that continuously authenticates a copy of the game. Additionally, save game files are now stored on UbiSoft servers." * Lose your Internet connection, you can't play the game until the connection comes back. Ubisoft goes out of business, you can't play the game ever. * The cracking group Skid-Row cracked the DRM in less than 24 hours http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/09/when-realnetworks-se.html * RealNetworks just settled a lawsuit over its DVD copying software making it virtually illegal to ever copy a DVD, even onto your own computer for personal use. * RealDVD would copy the DVD onto your machine and lock it up with tighter encryption then the DVD originally had. * This, of course, was not acceptable to the movie studios. * There is essentially no "fair use" of DVDs. Is it illegal to invite friends over to watch a movie with you? http://www.osnews.com/story/23002/Obama_Sides_with_RIAA_MPAA_Backs_ACTA * Obama has sided squarely with the RIAA/MPAA lobby, and backs ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement * This is a big disappointment to us young people that thought this president would be different * Luckily, the European Union is extremely against this agreement, which means it will probably never come to be Google owns the world. If we don't mention them every show they break one of our fingers. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/16/google-likely-to-shut-down-china-engine/ * Google is back to not censoring their search results * Supposedly they are 99.9% sure they will be leaving China, according to sources * Who will come out the "winner" of this debate * According to Walt & Nate, if Google leaves then Google wins. If they drag their feet and the Chinese kick them out then China wins. * Stay tuned... http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/16/report-facebook-tops-google-mostvisited-us-site * For the week ending March 13, Facebook was the most visited website in the United States * It overtook Google, who held the top weekly spot for a good long while I Fought the Law and the Doctor Had to Remove Evidence From My Small Intestine... and the Law Won http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0302101flash1.html * Dude swallows a flash drive in front of Secret Service agents * Couldn't pass it, so it had to be removed by a doctor * Can flash drives be destroyed by stomach acid? Science and History Lovers Now Have a Place to Go http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/popular-science-puts-entire-scanned-archive-online-free/ * Popular Science magazine have scanned their entire archives and put them online for free * Done in conjunction with Google Books * Now you can see what people in the 1950s thought the 1980s would be like!
