Bottom Of The Barrel

Isn't it ironic...

The MPAA's University Toolkit has been taken offline, due to copyright violations. The software was being offered to universities so that they could monitor students' communications. The problem is the toolkit is based on the GPL-licensed Xubuntu operating system (a flavor of Linux). Under the requirements of a General Public License, anyone who makes a program based on GPL'ed code has to release the source code for their program, hence the name Public License.

The MPAA refused multiple requests to provide the sources for their spyware, which would probably make it useless against all those crafty college computer engineering students. Since they would not respond to repeated requests, an Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAA's ISP and demanded that the material be taken down as license infringement.

I guess that's a wrap on the MPAA's current toolkit and now they will have to come up with a new script for heading off movie piracy on our college campuses.

posted by TheWino @ 11:46 AM