| MPAA may let Megaupload users retrieve non-copyrighted files, does it for the Armed Forces Jun 7th 2012, 19:54  Megaupload's still immersed in hot water, but there are signs the legal temperature could be cooling... slightly. Don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet though, as a significant portion of that confiscated cache of cloud-stored files remains somewhat indefinitely under lock and key. A minor reprieve may be on the way, however, owing to a much more "sympathetic" MPAA which has asked the court to consider releasing non-illegally obtained content to previous users. And lest your evil eye be trained too heavily upon the Hollywood group behind the shutdown, the association's made it quite clear that, under the site's TOS, users were never guaranteed continued access to uploaded content anyway. The change of heart comes in response to a motion filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on behalf of a member of the U.S. military, petitioning the return of personal, non-IP infringing files. According to the now-defunct site's founder Kim Dotcom, that group of "legitimate" users comprised nearly 16,000 accounts utilized primarily to share photos and video with far away family and friends. Of course, should this retrieval request be granted, a requisite procedure will need to be put in place to filter out copyrighted media -- a system that's sure to pose countless headaches for those involved. Nothing's yet been decided so, for now, the fate of your lost files rests firmly in the court's hands. Such are the perils of the cloud. MPAA may let Megaupload users retrieve non-copyrighted files, does it for the Armed Forces originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  TorrentFreak | Email this | Comments | | Microsoft patent application could see a touchscreen tabletop that caters to the eye of the beholder Jun 7th 2012, 19:23  It's all about perspective. At least, that's what we've gleaned from a Surface skim (hard wink) of this Microsoft patent application. Filed back in December of 2010, the USPTO doc describes a touchscreen tabletop imbued with a "view-restrictive filter" that, presumably, projects content in an orientation specific to a user's viewing angle, switching between diffuse and transparent states. Unsure of just what that means? Imagine, then, an ordinary-looking glass conference table surrounded by suit-and-tie types that, at the flick of a finger, turns into multiple personal computing displays. Bear in mind, this is all conjecture based on some densely-worded legalese and the IP in question's still lingering in a governmental limbo. That said, there could come a day when the Office of the future (harder wink) could look a lot like this. In the tech industry, nothing's off the table (hardest wink). Microsoft patent application could see a touchscreen tabletop that caters to the eye of the beholder originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | USPTO | Email this | Comments | |
