Steinbring Inc.

I had this service once upon a time.  In never seemed to work right.  I can not say that I’m surprised they went under.

SunRocket, one of the largest start-up companies offering Internet phone service, has ceased operation and is moving its customers to one or more other companies, a person briefed on its status said yesterday.

A message on SunRocket’s customer service line said the company was “no longer taking customer service or sales calls.” Executives of SunRocket, which is based in Vienna, Va., and had 200,000 subscribers as of April, could not be reached for comment.

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According to estimates from TeleGeography Research, SunRocket is the second-largest Internet phone start-up, after Vonage, with a 2 percent market share.

Link [ Via UneasySilence ]

This guy makes his peers at Enron, Tyco, etc look like boy scouts.  The $3 million lawsuit involves drug abuse, prostitution, abuse, death threats, and spiking Broadcom clients’ drinks with drugs.  To top that, he is currently “being investigated in relation to one of the stock options probes now so familiar to Silicon Valley companies” and he is currently in a divorce-based feud with his wife over more than $1bn in Broadcom stock.  I miss the good old days of embezzlement and fraud.

A copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Register shows Kato accusing Nicholas of carrying a concealed weapon with him at all times, performing Judo chops while standing close to others, threatening people like an angry drill sergeant and vowing to “make people disappear” using contacts formed through work with the Defense Department.

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According to Kato’s lawsuit, Nicholas used to stroll into Kato’s bedroom at 3 a.m. “holding a plate with a pile of cocaine or other drug, and demanding that he ‘party’ with him because ‘he was bored and lonely.’” Nicholas also made Kato entertain him like a court jester and demanded that Kato take drugs, the lawsuit said.

Nicholas forced Kato to keep a large supply of drugs on hand at all times as well, to “look the other way” when Nicholas spiked clients’ drinks with drugs and to bring prostitutes around for clients’ entertainment, according to the lawsuit. 

Link

Well, it had to happen some day.  The Zune DRM Stripper removes the DRM from music squirted to you and music you bought at the Zune Marketplace.

Link, Download Link [ Via /. ]

A court in Belgium has ruled that an Internet Service Provider bears the responsibility for stopping illegal file-sharing on its network. Although the ruling was made in Belgium, it relies on the E.U. copyright directive and may set precedent for the entire Union according to IFPI, an organization that represents the recording industry world wide.
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The suit was brought by a group representing Belgian authors an composers (SABAM) against ISP Scarlet, formerly Tiscali. In 2004, the SABAM received an injuction against the ISP, which assigned an expert whose investigation provided 11 ways to prevent infringement across the network. The judge agreed and Scarlet has 6 months to enact anti-piracy measure or face fines of up to $4,300 per day.

Hmm.  The MPAA seems to be getting kinda desperate to catch people.  They are putting up traps.

A new video download site busts you for illegally downloading video content as well as offers the ability to download video content using a custom client which scans your PC to see if the you have already downloaded copyrighted files.