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Ars Premier now available in $5 month-to-month subscriptions
Last week was an important waypoint here at Ars. It has been just over six months since we launched version 2.0 of our Ars Premier Subscriptions . There’s been a steady stream of new subscribers each day, and the program is outperforming our wildest expectations.
Continue reading »RIAA Rejects Reduced File-Sharing Judgment
After having offered to settle the case with Jammie Thomas for as little as $25,000, down from the $1.92 million original verdict, and from the most recent $54,000 judgment reduction on appeal. Last Friday the case of accused file-sharer Jammie Thomas grew more complex after Judge Davis of the United States District Court lowered the original $1.92 million verdict against Jammie Thomas, the first person convicted of illegal file-sharing in the US, from $80,000 per song to $2,250 per song, saying “statutory damages must still bear some relation to actual damages.” If you recall, back in June 2009, the jury awarded the recording industry $1.92 million in statutory damages as a punishment for using the KaZaA file-sharing program to download 24 songs which amounted to $80,000 per song. “The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music,” reads the ruling .
Continue reading »Arrests made in massive, $390/hour Video Relay Service scam
Dealing with some technology is challenging enough for the hearing-impaired without scammers taking advantage of federal dollars meant to help them. That’s exactly what has happened with the Federal Communications Commission’s Video Relay Service (VRS), however, and 26 people were arrested Thursday for scheming to steal “tens of millions of dollars” from the program. VRS was first launched in Texas in the mid-90s as a way for the deaf to communicate via telephone.
Continue reading »Lawsuit Accuses Facebook of Conspiring to Break Video-Privacy Law
A Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, claiming the company conspired with Blockbuster to violate a federal law protecting customer video-rental and sale records. The suit, filed by Cathryn Harris in U.S. District Court in Dallas, accuses Facebook of working with Blockbuster in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, after the film rental company entered into an agreement with Facebook to supply it with information about movies users rented or purchased from Blockbuster.com.
Continue reading »‘Ah, the good old days …’
When not hiring comedians to narrate documentaries, jumping on the reality/game show bandwagon, or commissioning terrible unnecessary remakes of classic sitcoms and serials, the BBC has never passed up the opportunity to roll out the red carpet for nostalgia. The past week saw a repeat of a special on the best and worst of Hogmanay tv shows, and the start of a light-hearted three-part documentary on technology through the past several decades. “Electric Dreams”, part of the current “Electric Revolution” strand, sees a well-to-do family (Dad, the accountant; Mom, the “Senior NHS Executive”; and their four incredibly spoiled pre-pubescent children) deal with daily life of 1970’s-1990’s Britain.
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