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eWeek Newsbreak, November 3, 2008

Mac users who are also Netflix subscribers, can now watch videos and TV shows online. The company just rolled out its second generation media player, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight player to stream video online. Unlike Apple iTunes Store, which enables users to download videos and transfer them to an iPhone or iPod or view them on a television using Apple TV, Netflixs service streams content to a Mac only theres no way to transfer the video to another device. IBM is suing former CEO, Mark Papermaster, to prevent him from accepting a position at Apple. Papermaster is the former vice president of IBM's Blade Development unit and has been with the company for 26 years. IBM says Papermaster's move goes against a noncompete agreement. In the suit filed at the United States District Court in Manhattan, IBM said Papermaster was one of its top 300 managers and had access to a wide range of the company's intellectual property and trade secrets. IBM and Sun Microsystems have made good on a promise to make open source code from the OpenSolaris operating system- available on IBM System z mainframes. Last week, NASA awarded a $206.5 million dollar contract to longtime contractor, United Space Alliance. The contract will provide mission and flight crew logistics, training, and flight support for the International Space Station and subsequent space exploration activities after the space shuttle program is ended in 2010. - Video Content....

Selling used CDs is still legal in America

The record industry lost a landmark battle last spring, when a court said that merely printing "not for resale" on an unsolicited promo CD does not prevent you from reselling it -- and certainly does not prevent me from buying it. The judgement establishes that "first sale" -- the legal doctrine that says that once you buy something, it's yours -- is still alive and well. This The Legality article unpacks it all for you: Once again, the music industry overestimated the level of control they should be allowed to maintain over their copyrighted works. Just as when Sony invaded its consumers? privacy by embedding software in CDs and when the five largest music distribution companies illegally corroborated to fix the price of CDs, the music industry has again violated the law. The United States District Court for the Central District of California concluded, via summary judgment, that the purported EULA included by UMG did not create a ?license,? nor does it allow UMG to retain any control over the promotional CD. UMG gave away these CDs, and those who receive them are free to dispose of them as they see fit. Therefore, the court found, as the legal owner of the CDs in question, Mr. Augusto and Roast Beast Music broke no laws in selling these recordings, and may continue to do so. At least we can still sell our old CDs? Right? It depends. While Mr. Augusto enjoys the right to sell his legally owned CDs, questions arise in a number of states as to who can purchase them. The music industry, it seems, is foregoing lawsuits in favor of promoting preventative legislation. Recent legislation in Florida, Utah, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island has made it more difficult to sell used CDs in those states than it is to get a driver?s license. In Florida, for example, anyone attempting to sell used CDs to a retailer must present identification and be fingerprinted, and any retailer looking to sell those same CDs must apply for a permit and submit a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Human Services. Thankfully, those restrictions do not apply to online or person-to-person sales. ?Damn The Man!? The Ability To Sell Second-Hand CDs (Thanks, Steve!)...