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An open-source digital rights management (DRM) scheme says it’s ready to supplant Apple and Microsoft as the world’s leading copy protection solution.

Marlin, which is backed by companies such as Sony and Samsung, has just announced a new partner program that aims to drive the DRM system into more consumer devices.

The co-chairman of the Marlin Developer Community claims the open-source system is far less oppressive than those from rivals such as Apple and Microsoft, allowing users to share content between any Marlin-enabled device in the home rather than on specific machines. “It works in a way that doesn’t hold consumers hostage,” Talal Shamoon told PC Pro. “It allows you to protect and share content in the home, in a way that people own the content, not the devices.”

The only way to make DRM really invisible for consumers, and make sure it cannot possibly bother your customers, is to have no DRM at all. The whole purpose of DRM is to prevent certain things from happening, so by its very definition people are going to be bothered by it.

And “backed by Sony” translates to “put it on the blacklist” for me.

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Terrorists may be using child pornography websites to exchange data, according to anti-terror experts.

It is thought Islamist extremists are concealing messages in digital images and audio, video or other files.

Police are now investigating the link between terrorists and paedophilia in an attempt to unravel the system.

The perfect combination to get any law you want passed.

Also, a lot of cocaine smugglers are hiding their kilos in bales of marijuana… right?

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Wachovia, which announced a $23.7 billion net loss for the third quarter, has innovated “Listening to Conference Calls Alone.” Instead of holding the usual third-quarter earnings conference call with analysts, Wachovia has created an elaborate kabuki-like “recorded message” that analysts and investors can dial into this morning to hear “third-quarter highlights” from the firm’s top three executives, including CEO Robert Steel. It’s a complete conference call, minus any awkward questions from outraged analysts — who, by the way, did not expect any loss from Wachovia this quarter, let alone a loss bigger than the market caps of Yahoo and Ford put together.

What do you call an $11 per share loss where the shares trade for $5.71?

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A Republican source has confirmed to Election Central that the NRCC is indeed pulling all its advertising for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), whose antics since her McCarthyist rant on Hardball have quickly put this once-safe incumbent in serious danger. Several hundred-thousand dollars worth of TV time had previously been reserved on Bachmann’s behalf, but now it has all been cancelled, as Huffington Post first reported.

Bear in mind that Bachmann was heavily favored to win re-election before this whole mess happened, but since then her Democratic opponent has received $1.3 million in online donations and another $1 million in commitments from the DCCC. The national party is now directing its attention to other races.

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1. Cash-strapped consumers are buying baby formula at the beginning of the month, when they have more money.
2. A double digit decline in the use of credit cards in the second quarter.
3. 80% of consumers surveyed by Walmart say “personal financial security” is their top concern. Formerly, it was the price of gasoline.
4. Purchases of generics have doubled.
5. Shoppers are changing how often they visit the store. Some come more often because they have less money and can only afford small purchases. Some come less often to save gas.
6. Walmart now sees a 2.5% sales increase in the middle of the month, when paychecks are handed out.

If Hamas is fair game, then so is the KKK.

In 1844 Henry Clay’s campaign slogan was: “Who is James K. Polk?” I believe historians refer to him today as “#11″.

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Now, finally — and thankfully — we have a report of voters experiencing votes flipping from the Republican candidate John McCain, to the Democratic candidate Barack Obama in a second TN county. Does this mean someone can actually take some action to get these machines the hell out of service now?!…

Here.

Try to translate “Barack Obama” from English to German

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To this day, Jerry Kennedy only does laundry when it rains. For the first 54 years of his life, he lived without running water, and rainstorms were the only way he could collect enough water to wash his clothes. But Kennedy isn’t from some far-off rural outpost. He was born and raised in the Coal Run neighborhood of Zanesville, Ohio — a former coal-mining center of 25,000 in the eastern part of the state — just a few hundred feet from a municipal water line. Kennedy, now 58, is black. His neighbors, who did not have running water for more than 50 years, are also black. On July 10, the U.S. District Court of Ohio awarded them almost $10.9 million, ruling that they had been denied access to public water because of their race.

[..]

When he built his house in the early 1980s, Kennedy says, his water request was denied. He can’t even remember the number of times he asked the city’s service director for help, only to have nothing happen. Then a house went up next door. A white family moved in, and one day Kennedy saw his new neighbors watering their lawn.

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the US private military contractor embroiled in controversy over its actions in Iraq — has sent a private sector warship equipped with helicopters to the Gulf of Aden, and is offering its services to shipowners concerned with Somali piracy.

The vessel, McArthur, is described as a multipurpose unit designed to support military and law-enforcement training, peace-keeping and stability operations.

The ship and its helicopters have the ability to patrol a commercial vessel’s route, thereby avoiding the need to hire security contractors to ride on board.

So private companies now how their own war ships?