Windows IT Pro UPDATE-Special Edition--Ethical Piracy: A Modest Proposal

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1. Commentary--Ethical Piracy: A Modest Proposal

2. What's New in the Latest Issue

April 2006 Issue - Focus: Systems Center: Microsoft's Simple Strategy - Cover Story: Radically Simplify IT - Features - Columns - Products & Reviews - Buyer's Guide - Ask the Experts - Reader to Reader

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==== 1. Commentary: Ethical Piracy: A Modest Proposal ==== by Mark Minasi, senior contributing editor, help@minasi.com

Whenever I write about privacy, anonymity, or copyright infringement, I always get lots of email--last month's commentary (see "The Internet Becomes a Little More Responsible . . . and Respectable" at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2552C:610453 ) was no exception. Thanks to all of you for your feedback; it's wonderful to receive so many great insights! But as sure as death and taxes, a small amount of that mail is from folks who seem ready to burst with rage because they're what I call "misguidedly proud pirates." In case you miss the connection, reducing anonymity on the Internet, which was the topic of last month's commentary, makes stealing copyrighted material over the Internet a bit more risky. I get a lot of mail from these pirates, and most of it contains their justification for stealing someone else's artistic works. My favorite excuse for this theft is NOT that they want to enjoy those works themselves, but instead that this piracy is an act of revolution--and, as a consequence, they're quite proud of their actions. The declared object of the revolution, which ranges from copyright law to Disney, to the recording industry, and beyond, isn't important because the pirates' claimed goal is always the same: to work toward discrediting some group and/or depriving them of income, consigning them to history's ash heap. I'm not convinced that this plan will work, nor do I agree with the goals inasmuch as I pay much of the electric bill with income from copyrighted works, but I have to admire revolutionaries--provided they truly are revolutionaries. The problem with this kind of revolutionary behavior is that no one knows about it; the freedom fighters can't inspire anyone if no one knows about the freedom fighters' good works. Heck, let's face it: Some people will be small-minded enough to suspect that despite all of the rhetoric, the proud pirates are just using the Internet as a way to anonymously steal things that they simply don't feel like paying for, and they don't give a hoot about revolution. So, I have a few thoughts about "methods of ethical piracy" for those pirates who really aren't in it for personal gain, but instead are truly trying to make a better world. I say to the ethical pirate, step out from behind that cloak of anonymity and raise your standard. Blog about your buccaneering adventures so that others can follow your lead. Create a Web site and detail what you've downloaded; dare the establishment to make you a martyr. When they became prominent heads of the American Revolution, heroes such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson knew full well that should their cause fail, they faced not jail time or fines but a hangman's noose. High stakes, yes, but had they remained a few shadowy fellows meeting in taverns and only whispering of freedom, our country's history would be quite different today. If that seems too extreme to the average ethical pirate--I suspect I might not sleep as well, were I to ring the dinner bell for the Feds that loudly--then why not just demonstrate that easy theft isn't the motivation for the downloads? An ethical pirate might keep track of all his or her downloaded movies and music. Then, by figuring that each tune's worth 49 cents (the iTunes price), and each movie is worth about $5--at least, that's what Movielink seems to charge per legally downloaded video, could give that amount of money to a charity (Katrina folks still need a lot of help!), and get a receipt of some kind. Be sure to ask the charity to verify the receipt in case someone questions its veracity. The ethical pirate could post the donated total on his or her Web site with a scan of the receipt. That way, the pirates needn't list the downloaded material on their sites (which might lead to them running afoul of the law) to show that they're not downloading for the sneaky convenience of it. Of course, this suggestion isn't perfect--who'd audit the pirate? Well, presumably an "ethical" pirate would want to tell the truth. Besides, if they were posting donations of a paltry sum like $15 a month, I think that neither the incipiently revolutionary public nor the recording industry would give a hoot. The true believers would be posting verifiable charity donation receipts of hundreds of dollars a month. That would show those people who think that information shouldn't be free--wouldn't it?

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==== 2. What's New in the Latest Issue ====

April 2006 Issue Systems Center: Microsoft's Simple Strategy Find out how Microsoft's company-wide strategy will optimize IT knowledge and reduce complexity in the Windows stack. VP Kirill Tatarinov discusses Microsoft's roadmap for management products and the Dynamic Systems Initiative.

Windows IT Pro subscribers can access the April 2006 issue online at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2552B:610453

Cover Story Radically Simplify IT Microsoft is finally providing a consistent management UI and experience throughout the Windows stack. Karen Forster explores this strategy in an interview with Microsoft's Kirill Tatarinov. --Karen Forster http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25516:610453

Features

Deploy an OS Using SMS The Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack extends Systems Management Server 2003's software-deployment capability to OSs. Learn the key steps for creating and deploying an OS image with this handy tool. --John Savill http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25528:610453

Fight Spam for Free Use built-in Exchange 2003 features to battle spam in 3 stages. --Devin L. Ganger http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25525:610453

Laying a Malware Trap If you want to catch that latest virus that's going around (to learn more about it), here are four methods you can use: port listeners, tarpits, honeypots, and virtual machines. --Roger A. Grimes http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25521:610453

Columns

IT Pro Perspective Procrastination Potpourri Notes about Storage Server, Exchange 12 and Monad, ISAServer, and how to vote in Windows IT Pro upcoming Readers' Choice awards. --Karen Forster http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551B:610453

Hey Microsoft! How Is a File Server Like a Racecar? Readers ask why they should purchase Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, how the product eliminates redundancy in file storage, and what improvements were made in DFS. --Karen Forster http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25510:610453

The Business End The Vital Few and the Trivial Many The 80/20 rule is a well-known management principle. Here's how you can put it to use to reduce and retarget IT resources allocation. --Ben Smith http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551C:610453

Windows Power Tools Don't Forget About Net Share Here's a peek at a unique tool that lets you create a file share, set its permissions, find out who's using it at the moment, and document it-- all from the command line. --Mark Minasi http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25520:610453

Top 10 Hidden Tools in Office 2003 Almost everyone uses Office, yet many of its components remain hidden. Here are 10 features you probably don't know about. --Michael Otey http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25517:610453

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The following product news, reviews, and troubleshooting content are freely available. Check it out at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2552B:610453

Products & Reviews

New & Improved Check out the latest products to hit the marketplace. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Insightix's DID Collector. --Blake Eno http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551D:610453

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Watch out Microsoft--Oracle has become lightweight-database contender. --Michael Otey http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25529:610453

Paul's Picks Keep an eye on IE with Paul's review of IE 7.0 Beta 2. Plus, find out why Windows Live may prove promising for business users as well as consumers. --Paul Thurrott http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25513:610453

Neverfail for SQL Server If you want a high availability solution for SQL Server, check out this Neverfail product. --Michael Otey http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25524:610453

Uniblue WinBackup 2.0 Server This server-backup utility is user-friendly but lacks a few important capabilities. --Trisha Pendley http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25522:610453

Fluentware Move My Printers 3.1.1 This product simplifies the installation of printer drivers and the removal of obsolete drivers. --John Green http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25526:610453

Neon LANsurveyor 9.5 Looking for a networking-monitoring solution? Check out Neon Software's easy-to-use, comprehensive LANsurveyor 9.5. --John Green http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25523:610453

Buyer's Guide iSCSI Storage Arrays iSCSI SAN technology, along with ongoing improvements in the disk capacity, performance, and storage-management capabilities of iSCSI storage arrays, has largely eliminated cost as an obstacle to implementing a SAN. --Anne Grubb http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551F:610453

Vendor Briefings Our editors share insights from their conversations with XOsoft, EMC, Softricity, and Whale Communications. --Editors http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25527:610453

What's Hot Readers highlight favorite products: Stonesoft's StoneGate SG-200, PacketMotion's PacketSentry, and Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy Enterprise. --Blake Eno http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25518:610453

Ask the Experts

Specifying a WSUS Server to Use as the Basis for an MBSA Scan If you specify a WSUS server to use as the basis for an MBSA scan, the scan will report only on updates that you want to roll out. --Randy Franklin Smith http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551E:610453

Understanding the Relationship Between Meeting Requests and Appointments Sue Mosher explains why deleting a meeting request from Sent Items doesn't delete the appointment from the calendar. --Sue Mosher http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25512:610453

Using .NET on SQL Server Learn about two powerful uses of .NET on SQL Server. --William Sheldon http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25515:610453

Limiting Security Risks of Running .NET on SQL Server Learn how to mitigate the risks associated with .NET on SQL Server. --William Sheldon http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2551A:610453

Reader to Reader

Don't Wait Around for the Windows Components Wizard In Windows 2003, the Windows Components Wizard can sometimes take a long time to appear. You can eliminate this delay in six simple steps. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2552A:610453

Start Programs Simultaneously From Batch Files If you want your batch file to launch several programs at the same time, you can use the Start command or the pipe symbol. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2550F:610453 Stop DCOM Error 10021 in 7 Simple Steps If you use DCOM to enable the remote execution of COM objects, you might have encountered DCOM error 10021. Here's how to correct that error. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25519:610453

Instantly Stop Instant Messaging If you use Active Directory in your environment, you can take advantage of Group Policy to stop users from running IM. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25514:610453

Teaching Old Macs New Sharing Tricks Despite their age, you can get pre-Mac OS X clients to share their data with Windows OSs. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25511:610453

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==== Events and Resources ==== (A complete Web and live events directory brought to you by Windows IT Pro: http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25533:610453 )

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