Maarten

Member since: May 3rd, 2010

Maarten's Latest Comments

Blog Activity

Blog	# of Comments
TUAW.com	9 Comments
Download Squad	7 Comments

Recent Comments:

Google Chrome dev version update brings app sync, more (Download Squad)

Sep 9th 2010 9:13AM According to the Chrome Releases blog, the Mac dev version hasn't been updated. http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2010/09/dev-channel-update.html Yet you seem to have noticed changes on your Mac. Did the Mac dev version jump to 7.0.517.0 for you?

Mozilla Labs Gaming launches, browser-based 'Open Web' games here we come (Download Squad)

Sep 7th 2010 5:59PM May this be the source of many Time Wasters.

Researchers create pixels eight times smaller than the Retina Display (TUAW.com)

Aug 30th 2010 9:27PM Does it do Flash?

PlayOn's HTML5-powered web app brings Hulu, Netflix to the iPhone and iPad (Download Squad)

Aug 2nd 2010 11:21AM Kudos for the Community screenshot! Love that show!

Touration lets you easily create guided tours for a Web page (Download Squad)

Jul 26th 2010 10:18AM Is it too much of a cliché to say that if you have to explain to your users how your website works, then you're not doing your job very well?

Judge rules that circumventing DRM is not illegal (Download Squad)

Jul 26th 2010 9:27AM @Fred: I was thinking about that after I posted my reply. I wasn't sure if the right to backup is actually established through case law, but it definitely fits the fair use analysis. In may European countries, copyright statutes grant you a private copy exception or an explicit grant that allows for one backup copy.

However, in the context of this discussion (DRM) either breaking the copy-protection, or *downloading* a backup copy are both illegal, correct?

Judge rules that circumventing DRM is not illegal (Download Squad)

Jul 26th 2010 8:58AM @Sebastian: :-) Yeah, you would think so... and actually MPAA & RIAA have stopped suing individuals, haven't they?

However, something like that has never been legal in the US. (In some European countries you are allowed to make a personal copy of works for yourself, but uploading (i.e. seeding) is still illegal.)

What you're describing is a straight up violation of plain vanilla copyright: thou shalt not copy another's work. Even if you own a work, you are not allowed to make copies, unfortunately. But again, that's not gonna stop any readers of this blog from changing their evil ways :-)

Judge rules that circumventing DRM is not illegal (Download Squad)

Jul 26th 2010 8:43AM Bear in mind that this is the first court to reach this conclusion. It is by no means certain that other Circuit Courts would go along with this reading of the law.

There are separate provision in the DMCA for fair use and the Librarian of Congress has the authority to create exceptions to the ban on circumvention for specific technologies or purposes. It seems like this ruling would create another exception. The extent of the ruling isn't exactly clear (it seems to revolve around very specific circumstances.) So I'm not sure that you can say that you are now permitted to circumvent DRM to media you own. But I don't think that's gonna stop anyone reading this website from changes their evil ways :-)

Also note that the DMCA has a number of elements to it, on of which is the Anti-Circumvention statute, which is included in accordance with international law. Another part of the DMCA is the notice-and-takedown procedure that you refer to in the article, which was not at issue in this case.

Also in the DMCA? Protection for the shapes of vessel hulls... I kid you not.

iOS 4: Updating woes with iPhone 3G (TUAW.com)

Jun 21st 2010 11:01PM Has anyone had issues with the Google Exchange server? Syncing has been very slow for me. See Apple forum: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2469497&tstart=75

See also Google Mobile Support site: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/search.py?hl=en&forum=1&query=ios4+more:forum

What's new in Safari 5 (TUAW.com)

Jun 8th 2010 5:09PM Tried Safari again first the time in a while... Still crashed almost immediately after I started using it on my unibody MacBook.

Still doesn't hold a candle to Chrome in terms of speed. I'm not just talking Javascript speed, but also new tab and program load times.

I can't shake the feeling that Safari is the IE of the Mac...