 |
|
|
Vol. 2, # 30 - Jul 29, 2010 - Issue # 46 |
|
 |
Death of the DMCA by a Thousand Cuts?
|
|
- Editor's Corner
- Death of the DMCA by a Thousand Cuts?
- Follow-up: Toward a more "social" operating system?
- Quotes of the Week
- Cool Tools
- News, Hints, Tips and Tricks
- Add-ons provide "Missing Features"
- Tab Candy: Will it make Firefox a sweeter alternative?
- HTC Win Phone 7 will still have SenseUI
- How to make Office 2010 work the way you want
- How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features
- How to include system files in the search index
- Windows 7 and Vista Security
- Free tool from Sophos addresses unpatched .LNK exploit
- Windows 7 Security Deep Dive Report
- Question Corner
- Where is the administrator account?
- Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting
- Access denied on properties dialog box of network interface (64 bit Windows)
- Windows 7 upgrade failure loop
- Fav Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
|
|
NEW! VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0
VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with
integrated firewall!
VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0
- Does not slow down your PC
- New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall
- Advanced anti-rootkit technology
- Cutting-edge Proactive Protection
- Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail
- Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection
- No automatic credit card charge each year!
Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE!
http://www.win7news.net/100715-VIPRE-Premium
|
|
|
Editor's Corner |
|
Death of the DMCA by a Thousand Cuts?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), based on the 1996 World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, has been a thorn in the side
of U.S. consumers for more than a decade. Computer users have been especially
frustrated by the provision that prohibits circumvention of access control
technologies - even if you don't violate anyone's copyright after circumventing
the technology. For example, in the original law, even though you had the right
to use a copyrighted work under fair use or other provisions of the copyright
law, if that work was protected by copy protection technology, you were in
violation of the law for circumventing the copy protection in order to use the
work that you had the legal right to use. You couldn't even circumvent copy
protection in order to make a backup of a movie DVD or music CD that you
purchased, for your own use and protection.
Luckily, the Librarian of Congress has the authority to issue exemptions. Every
three years, the rules are reviewed and revised. This is one of those years, and
a couple of notable new exemptions were added, one of which has gotten a great
deal of publicity in the tech world. This exempts from the law computer programs
that enable wireless phones to execute software applications that have been
lawfully obtained. What this means is that "jailbreaking" an iPhone so it can
run apps that you get from someplace other than the Apple App Store is no longer
a federal offense. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was instrumental in
lobbying for these changes. You can read more about their efforts here:
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Legal-Protections
Now, before iPhone owners get too excited about this, they need to be aware that
nothing in this new rule prevents Apple from doing what they've always done:
issuing updates that disable such software or removes the "rogue" apps or even
"bricks" your phone. All it means is that you can't be criminally prosecuted for
jailbreaking the phone. While that's no small thing, it's not as if iPhone
jailbreakers had been the target of law enforcement in the past; as far as I can
find out, nobody was ever actually prosecuted for that under the DMCA.
Then why do these exemptions matter? Because they indicate an on-going trend,
which has continued through both Republican and Democratic administrations, in
favor of weakening of the DMCA. And for fans of freedom, that is a very good
thing. The DMCA has been used in some pretty draconian ways. In a high profile
case back in 2001, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested for violation
of the DMCA, for developing software that could be used to remove usage
restriction information from ebooks. Even though it's legal to do that in
Russia, Sklyarov was arrested after presenting a speech at DEFCON in the U.S.
Another example: In August 2009, the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA) filed suit against RealNetworks under the DMCA for selling RealDVD
software, which could be used to copy DVDs to a hard disk. The MPAA won.
Hollywood has taken the position that any "ripping" of a DVD is always a
violation of the DMCA. However, another of the new exemptions specifically says
that creators of non-commercial videos (such as those on YouTube) are not in
violation for circumventing copy protection to use short excerpts from copy
protected DVDs under the fair use provisions of the copyright law.
Needless to say, Apple is not happy about the new ruling, as they want to force
iPhone users to get their apps only from the Apple App Store and having federal
law on their side was a powerful deterrent. Cell phone carriers were already
dealt a blow back in 2006, when the Librarian of Congress issued an exemption
for the unlocking of mobile phones for the purpose of connecting them to another
network (noting that the primary purpose of locking the phones was not to
protect copyright, but to bind customers to their carriers).
So what does all this have to do with Windows? I'm hoping it will have an impact
on all software vendors, including Microsoft. There are already some signs that
the company isn't going to go overboard with the "control freak" route with
Windows Phone 7 (see the News section below). I'm hoping this will influence
them to take a more Android-like approach to their own app store - making it
available as a place to get stable, vetted and tested applications but not
trying to prohibit developers from distributing apps through other channels.
Of course, the anti-piracy mechanisms in Windows have long been a big annoyance
for users. This is especially true if you want to wipe out the OS on an old
computer and install your retail version of Windows on a new one (which is
acceptable under the license terms) or if you replace multiple hardware
components on your system, causing the anti-piracy software to see it as a new
computer.
None of the current DMCA exemptions allow for the circumvention of those anti-piracy
protections. However, the general trend against over-zealous access
controls (exemplified by the fact that vendors such as Amazon have become very
successful by selling their music downloads without the onerous Digital Rights
Management (DRM) could trickle down to software makers, as well. Will Microsoft
make the next version of its operating system Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)
free? Don't count on it. But perhaps the company will take the hint that users
are alienated by copy protection technology that gets too "in your face" (just
as they responded to users' dislike for in-your-face security and modified UAC).
There is, in fact, some evidence that Microsoft already understands this. Vista
originally would turn into "cripple ware" and run in a limited-functionality
mode if WGA found it not to be genuine. After many complaints, Service Pack 1
changed that behavior so that users got a "nag notification" but the
functionality wasn't reduced.
In Windows 7, WGA (which was rebranded as WAT or Windows Activation
Technologies) gives you 30 days after installation to activate/validate the OS.
But you'll start getting a little reminder after three days. After the 27th day,
the harassment level is stepped up, with reminders every four hours, and the
message gets longer, informing you of the consequences of not activating. When
the 30th day is reached, you start getting a notice every hour, with a permanent
"scarlet letter" displayed on your desktop, telling you Windows isn't genuine.
Your desktop background goes black and if you change it, it will change back
after 60 minutes. In addition, you won't be able to install Windows updates.
While all of the above can be highly annoying, it's not nearly as annoying as
having Windows shut down or having some of its functionality removed. In
addition, Microsoft made their last update to WAT (released in February) an
optional update, rather than installing it automatically. This, too, seems to
indicate an awareness on the company's part of the dislike consumers have for
anti-piracy technology - especially when it's pushed on them without their
explicit consent.
Tell us what you think about all this. Do you agree with the exemptions to the
DMCA? Do they go far enough? What other exemptions would you include (or would
you do away with the restriction on circumventing copy protection altogether)?
Will the new ruling make you more likely to jailbreak your iPhone (if you have
one)? Should Microsoft follow Apple's locked-down model or Android's open model
with their new phone platform? Should the next version of Windows do away with
the activation requirement? What would you replace it with, if it's necessary to
have some sort of anti-piracy protection? Or is piracy really a problem at all?
We invite you all to join in this discussion on our forum at
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Forum-Discussion
Follow-up: Toward a more "social" operating system?
In last week's editorial, I asked how readers feel about integrating social
networking into the desktop operating system, as Microsoft has done with its new
phone OS, Windows Phone 7. It seems most of you decided to "just say no" to that
idea. Some of you seem to assume that integration would mean you couldn't
disable the feature, which is highly unlikely - especially considering that in
Windows 7, Microsoft even makes it easy to turn off such long-integrated
applications as IE, Windows Media Player and Windows Search. It's also a pretty
sure thing that IT administrators would be able to use Group Policy to
automatically disable it on all or selected machines if they wanted.
Given that, I'm a little bewildered as to why so many people are so adamantly
opposed to the inclusion of social networking functionality as an optional
element of the OS. Whatever the reason, this subject seemed to have stirred up
some strong emotions. The funny part was the rants about not needing instant
messaging, music players, the ability to play DVDs, etc. - when Windows 7 has
specifically removed so many of the formerly included apps (including Messenger)
and has made it much easier than before to disable those that are still included
(such as Windows Media Player).
A few people wrote to say that I left out a million Facebook users when I said
there were 400 million. Keep in mind that I write these columns a few days
before they're published. In fact, this time Facebook announced its new numbers
the day after I submitted the copy. I hate it when that happens, but the fact
that they're now at 500 million just proves my point even more strongly,
regarding the popularity and rapid growth of social networking.
A few people brought up an interesting issue. If more people use aggregators
such as TweetDeck and the social connector to view their social networking
updates and don't go to the actual web sites, how will that impact the sites'
ability to attract advertisers? Could it actually lead to the demise of the
sites by reducing their funding - or force them to go to a "for pay" model? It's
a good question, and I don't have the answer.
Thanks to all who participated for the great comments this week!
'Til next week,
Deb Shinder, Editor
feedback@win7news.net
PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication for XP users called
WXPnews?
You can subscribe here, and tell your friends:
http://www.win7news.net/100513-WXPNews
And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at
http://www.win7news.net/100513-WserverNews
Look for the Win7News fan page on Facebook!
Quotes of the Week
"Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." - Alan Perlis
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan
"It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your
best." - W. Edwards. Deming
|
|
|
NEW! VIPRE® Antivirus Premium 4.0
VIPRE is the only antivirus software that does not slow down your PC, and now it comes with
integrated firewall!
VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0
- Does not slow down your PC
- New antivirus + antispyware engine with firewall
- Advanced anti-rootkit technology
- Cutting-edge Proactive Protection
- Full email protection: Outlook and Windows Mail
- Ideal for Netbooks that need malware protection
- No automatic credit card charge each year!
Try VIPRE Antivirus Premium now for 30-days FREE!
http://www.win7news.net/100715-VIPRE-Premium
|
|
|
Cool Tools |
|
News, Hints, Tips and Tricks |
|
Add-ons provide "Missing Features"
All of us have, at one time or another, wished Microsoft had built some feature
into the OS that's not there. Often we can get that functionality through third
party add-ons, but how do you hunt them down? This article has gathered twelve
add-on programs that add some of the common "missing features" to Windows 7. I
especially like the clipboard manager, printer switcher, and shutdown timer.
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Missing-Features
Tab Candy: Will it make Firefox a sweeter alternative?
All that shiny Chrome has blinded many folks recently, but will Mozilla out-Fox
Google with its new browser innovations? Jason Hiner writes about "Tab candy,"
something that the Firefox team is working on to make the browser work more like
a multi-tasking OS. Those screenshots, at first glance, look suspiciously
similar to the page of open browser windows on the iPad's Safari, and it also
looks a little like the "Quick Tabs" view in IE 8. However, this goes further,
letting you put tabs into groups and save the groups to look at later. You can
zoom out to see the "big picture," like with Microsoft's Canvas technology. The
part I really like, though, is that you'll be able to sign into the same site
with two different accounts in separate tab groups. No more logging off one of
my Facebook accounts to log into the other. Read more about it and watch the
video here:
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Firefox
HTC Win Phone 7 will still have SenseUI
Well, I don't know about you, but I was excited to read today that HTC will
still be able to put its SenseUI overlay on Windows Phone 7 phones. I've been
telling everybody I know at Microsoft that it would be a mistake to take the
Apple "total control" approach, and maybe this is an indication that they've
decided to handle it in a more Android-like fashion.
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Android-Smartphones
How to make Office 2010 work the way you want
I love the new Office, but the default settings sometimes just don't work for
me. I like to tweak and customize, and in this article I wrote for TechRepublic
earlier this month, I explain how I change configuration settings and install
Add-ins to make the Office 2010 applications work better for me.
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Office-2010
Here's another add-in that many Office users will consider a must: the Classic
Menu for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2010 programs. It's a free download (both 32
and 64 bit versions) for non-commercial use. If you want to get the classic menu
back in Outlook, Access, Visio, Publisher and Project, check out some of the
"for pay" products.
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Classic-Menu
|
|
How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features |
|
How to include system files in the search index
By default, the search index in Windows 7 doesn't include system files - even
when you add the system drive root to the index. This is a good thing for non-power
users, but if you're a techie, you might be looking for those system
files. Here's how to change that behavior and make sure you get the results you
want:
- In Windows Explorer, click Tools | Folder Options
- Click the Search tab
- Click "include system directories" under the section "When searching non-
indexed locations."
- Under "How to Search," check the option "Don't use the index when searching
in file folders for system files (searches might take longer)"
|
|
Windows 7 and Vista Security |
|
Free tool from Sophos addresses unpatched .LNK exploit
The zero day shortcut (.LNK) file vulnerability that we reported on last week
still hasn't yet been patched by Microsoft and some are not happy with the
workaround. Sophos has released a tool designed to address it, which works with
any anti-virus software. The tool runs on Windows 7, Vista or XP and blocks
shortcuts that contain the exploit. When Microsoft releases its own fix, the
Sophos tool can be uninstalled. Find out more about it here:
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Windows-Shortcut-Flaw
Windows 7 Security Deep Dive Report
InfoWorld and Roger Grimes have put together a "deep dive" report that covers
Windows 7's security features and how to best configure them to protect your
systems. It's free, although you do have to fill out a registration form to
download it. Check it out here:
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Security-Deep-Dive
|
|
Question Corner |
|
Where is the administrator account?
QUESTION:
I recently switched to Windows 7 from XP and I have a question. Where is the
built in Administrator account? I always used that on XP when I needed to make
system changes and so forth. - Ari J.
ANSWER:
The built-in Administrator account is a powerful one as it has complete
privileges to do anything on the computer and, in Windows 7, it is not subject
to UAC like other accounts (even those with administrative privileges).
Normally, you can do whatever you need to do with a regular administrative
account (which you will create when you install Windows 7). But the built-in
Administrator account is still there - it's just disabled by default for better
security.
Here's how to enable it: Open an elevated command prompt and type net user
administrator /active:yes and press Enter. Now you will see the
Administrator icon on the logon screen. You can also enable it through Local
Users and Groups in Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate and Enterprise editions. If you
enable the built-in administrator account, be sure to create a strong password
for it. To do this, log on with the account, and in Control Panel, click the
User Accounts icon and click "Create a password for your account." Important:
Do not leave the Administrator account without a password.
|
|
Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting |
|
Access denied on properties dialog box of network interface (64 bit Windows)
If you try to open the properties dialog box for network connection through the
Network Connections window on the 64 bit version of Windows 7 (or Server 2008
R2), you might get an error message telling you that you don't have sufficient
privileges - even if you are logged on with an account that belongs to the
Network Configuration Operators group. There's a hotfix for the problem. Find
out more about it in KB article 2157332 at
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Properties-Dialog
Windows 7 upgrade failure loop
If you attempt to upgrade Vista to Windows 7 and the upgrade fails, you may get
a message that says "this version of Windows could not be installed. Your
previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it."
But you can't - because when you reboot, you just get the same message. The
problem is that Vista has not be reset to be the default operating system. You
can fairly easily fix that. Follow the instructions in KB article 974078 at
http://www.win7news.net/100729-Upgrade-Fail
|
|
Fav Links |
|
This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
Disclaimer: VistaNews does not assume and cannot be
responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of
these linked Web sites.
|
|
|
Copyright © 1996-2010 Sunbelt Media Services. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies
referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.
|
|
|
|
