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Filed under: Audio, Utilities, News, Freeware

EFF stands up for pearLyrics

pearlyricsIt may be too late to rescue pearLyrics from cease-and-desist doom, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken up the cause of the embattled freeware program, and has sent a letter of its own to Warner/Chappell Music. In the letter, EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann warns Warner/Chappell — which accused pearLyrics of copyright theft, despite the fact that the program just acted as a front-end to search publicly accessible lyric web sites —that the company "making any legal threats similar to those leveled against [pearLyrics developer Walter] Ritter against any U.S. software developers who may develop products similar to pearLyrics." Von Lohmann says in his letter that "personal, noncommercial annotation of legitimately acquired digital music files constitutes a noninfringing fair use, there is nothing unlawful about inducing or encouraging music fans to engage in that activity," and warns Warner/Chappell that the company could be in violation of US laws if it goes after other developers of similar software.
 

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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