---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <D186BB4A-BFB8-4882-9733-02426137DA7A@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2018 23:59:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: E-waste recycler Eric Lundgren loses appeal on computer restore disks E-waste recycler Eric Lundgren loses appeal on computer restore disks, must serve 15-month prison term A plan to provide 'restore discs' to computer users equaled copyright infringement, according to Microsoft and the government, even though the software was available for free online. A California man who built a sizable business out of recycling electronic waste is headed to federal prison for 15 months after a federal appeals court in Miami rejected his claim that the "restore disks" he made to extend the lives of computers had no financial value, instead ruling that he had infringed Microsoft's products to the tune of $700,000. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/24/recycling-innovator-eric-lundgren-loses-appeal-on-computer-restore-discs-must-serve-15-month-prison-term/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** I call "BS". As this article notes, use of these restore disks required the purchasor to have a valid license from Microsoft, and as such, I think they were no different than the recovery images sent with most PCs. If a computer owner doesn't know how, or that (s)he can, or that (s)he should, burn a DVD with the Windows recovery image on it, *before* the machine's disk crashes, that's not, IMHO, a reason to extort so much as another penny from them. They already paid for the license: the lack of physical media - obviously a cost-saving move by both Microsoft and the computer makers - does not change the fact that the license still exists. Quoting from the story: Glenn Weadock, a former expert witness for the government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, was asked, "In your opinion, without a code, either product key or COA [Certificate of Authenticity], what is the value of these reinstallation disks?" "Zero or near zero," Weadock said. I had to reinstall Windows on my wife's computer a few weeks ago, but the recovery image wasn't on the disk that came with it. The /partition/ was there, and the BIOS would try to boot from that partition if I pushed the appropriate key, but there was nothing there to boot. Since this was a second-hand machine, which I had bought from a computer store with a Microsoft license tag on it, I would have been entitled to use a DVD to recovery the OS, if one had come with the machine or if I had been able to make one when I first used it. Dell has a web page that purports to offer free recovery images to Dell customers, but the page returned a message saying that it didn't have an image for my machine (thanks, Michael!) - so I had to pay them $22 for a disk that reinstalled Windows without reinstalling the OS image recovery files or cleaning up the "Emergency" partition. This kind of behavior seems to be the norm now: make folks who've just shelled out hundreds or thousands of dollers burn their recovery media themselves, and then screw them if they don't, or if their machine is second-hand, or if some corporate functionary thinks it's a good way to bump his/her stats. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <C6BA253E-6DC2-403E-B5C5-A705B281B033@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2018 23:17:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Zelle, the Banks' Answer to Venmo, Proves Vulnerable to Fraud Zelle, the Banks' Answer to Venmo, Proves Vulnerable to Fraud The personal payment platform Zelle is flourishing. But so are fraudsters, who are exploiting weaknesses in the banks' security. ... the same features that make Zelle so useful for customers, its speed and ubiquity, have made it irresistible to thieves. Hackers and con artists have used the system to steal from victims - some of whom had never used Zelle or even heard of it until someone used it to clean out their bank accounts. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/business/zelle-banks-fraud.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <00255718-025E-4A73-8B06-74E2CCADA9EE@roscom.com> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2018 23:54:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Key government witness clashes with AT&T lawyer in Time Warner case Key government witness clashes with AT&T lawyer in Time Warner case The government's economist clashed with AT&T's lawyer over projected price increases to TV service. The AT&T-Time Warner merger could end up costing consumers less money than what some earlier estimates suggested, the government's star witness said in federal court Tuesday as he clashed repeatedly with company lawyers over key figures in his economic analysis of the deal. Instead of paying a minimum of 27 cents more per month on their bills as a result of the deal, TV subscribers could conceivably pay a smaller premium of at least 13 cents a month more - a downward revision in the projections of Carl Shapiro, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley. Toward the other end of the range, the government has said consumers could collectively pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year, or 45 cents more per month on each of their bills. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/24/key-government-witness-admits-error-in-att-time-warner-case/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <97701BC1-035A-4985-9830-7E92468D14B2@roscom.com> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:26:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Comcast's $31 Billion Bid For U.K. Sky News Complicates Murdoch Plans Every time Rupert Murdoch gets closer to control of the British-based entertainment and TV giant Sky, new obstacles arise. The latest challenge could shatter his plans - or make him a richer man. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/25/605649012/comcasts-31-billion-bid-for-u-k-based-sky-complicates-murdoch-plans ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sat, 28 Apr 2018