1. EDITOR'S CORNER
   • Are Your Backups Illegal?
2. HINTS, TIPS, TRICKS & TWEAKS
   • Protect your files on a shared computer
   • Can Microsoft include anti-malware programs in their operating systems?
   • Newsletter Content: Here's what you said
   • Anonymity: the topic that won't die
   • Great Rebate Debate, Revisited (Again)
3. HOW TO'S: ALL THE NEW XP FEATURES
   • How to View Hidden Devices
   • How to optimize disk space for recording to CD
4. WXP SECURITY: UPDATES & PATCHES
   • Get Ready for a Busy Patch Tuesday
5. WXP QUESTION CORNER
   • Media Center 2005 can't be a domain member - except when it can
   • How do I stop startup programs?
6. WXP CONFIGURING & TROUBLESHOOTING
   • Playing DirectX Games on the Network
   • Ipconfig command shows an IP address of 0.0.0.0
   • Intermittent connectivity when using NAT-T
7. FAVE LINKS
   • This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
8. PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
   • iPod Access: The premier application for copying songs from an iPod to a Windows PC

• Improved spyware scanning and removal
• New scanning options
• A number of additional enhancements

Are Your Backups Illegal?

We technology types are always telling computer users that it's important to back up your important digital data. But what if that includes copyrighted, copy protected materials that you've legally purchased? To the consumer, buying movies or music albums at an average of twenty dollars a pop represents a major investment.

I have thousands of dollars worth of DVD movies in my collection, and I know many people who have huge collections of music CDs. Seeing as how the media is somewhat fragile, common sense says it's smart to make copies of all that digital video and audio in case of loss, scratches, etc. But is it legal to do so?

That depends on which laws you're looking at. U.S. copyright laws generally prohibit making copies of creative works without the permission of the author (or other copyright holder, if the copyright has been transferred - for instance, to the company that published the work). But copyright laws also include exceptions, one of which is known as "fair use." And many people and organizations argue that making a backup copy for your own personal use, of material that you purchased, constitutes fair use.

Others - primarily the movie studios, music companies and organizations like RIAA - contend that fair use doesn't include the right to make a second copy of digital material you buy. In fact, they argue that you have no more right to a backup copy of your music or movies than you to have to get a backup lawnmower when you purchase the first one.

But the copyright laws themselves may not even matter if the material has technological copy protection mechanisms, because the Digital Millenium Copyright Act makes it illegal under federal law to circumvent such technologies. It's the circumvention of the technology that's illegal under the DMCA, even if the copy itself falls under the fair use exceptions in the copyright laws. For instance, if you use a stabilizer/decoder device to remove Macrovision protection from your VHS movies to copy them to DVD so they'll last longer, or use computer software (DeCSS) to circumvent Content Scramble System (CSS) that's used to protect DVD movies, you're breaking the law.

This is a civil matter (the copyright holder can sue you) unless you do it for "private or commercial financial gain," in which case it becomes a criminal offense subject to five years' imprisonment and a fine up to $500,000 for the first offense, 10 years/$1 million for subsequent offenses. The question is what constitutes "private financial gain?" Can prosecutors argue that by making the copy instead of buying a second copy to serve as your backup, you have private financial gain? Don't laugh - stranger arguments have been made in criminal cases.

It's been quite a while since we've discussed the DCMA. It was passed in 1998 (you can read the text here: http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011ED-DCMA). In 2002, 2003 and again in March of this year, versions of a Digital Media Consumer Rights Act have been introduced in Congress, which would help to correct this problem and give consumers the right to make backup copies. However, none of these have passed into law. The Hollywood and music lobbies are strong ones. On the other side, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) and others are working to make the laws regarding copying of digital material more consumer-friendly.

What about the courts? Well, in 2004 the District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that consumers don't have the right to make backup copies of DVDs they purchased. The suit was actually brought by the makers of a popular DVD copying software (DVD X Copy), in an attempt to establish a legal precedent in favor of fair use. Instead, the major motion picture companies won. A month later, a New York federal judge also ruled against the software company (321 Studios) with an almost identical decision. In August of last year, the company was shut down, although the "pre ban" software is still available on the Internet.

What are the laws in other countries? Well, the DMCA actually came about because of a treaty the U.S. signed that was created by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). The treaty required signatory countries to enforce particular rights of intellectual property owners in their national laws. This is by no means the only WIPO treaty that can have far-reaching implications for consumers. A draft of a treaty for the protection of broadcasting organizations submitted to a WIPO committee last year contained language that could effectively make computers and even televisions illegal (see http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011ED-WIPO). WIPO treaties have over 150 signatory countries.

On the other hand, in April of this year, a French court declared copy protection of DVDs to be a violation of the French copyright law, which allows consumers to make copies for themselves and family members:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011ED-DRM

What's the future of copyright protection and how will it affect you? Does Hollywood's argument that copying should be prohibited because there's no way for the techonology to distinguish between legal and illegal copying hold water? How far should the fair use doctrine go? Should you be allowed to make copies for family members, as you are under French law, or only for your own personal use? If copying is allowed, should the movie and music companies raise prices to compensate for the lost sales? Let us know your opinions at feedback@wxpnews.com.

Followup: The Name Game
Last week, I asked what readers think about the importance of product names, and how you feel about Microsoft's habit of "playing it safe" in the name game with somewhat generic names instead of going with "cuter" or more interesting names like those used by open source programmers and for their code names of pre-beta products.

Many of you came out in favor of clear descriptive names. While you agree that whimsical names are more interesting, you dislike names that give no clue as to what the software does. Others said the conservative names are more "professional."

On the other hand, some of you said you'd be more inclined to buy Windows Vista if it were named Longhorn. Several said memorability is the key; in fact, more than one said Google is a dumb name but easy to remember and you think that is a factor in its success.

A surprising number said you don't care what it's called, as long as the program works as advertised, doesn't contain spyware or viruses, doesn't crash, and is sold at a reasonable cost. Or maybe that's actually not so surprising after all.

Quote of the Week:
My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there. -- Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)

Protect your files on a shared computer

Reader David B. wrote that his son deletes files created under his dad's account, and asked if there's a way to hide his files and/or protect them from being deleted when the son is logged on under a limited user account. There are a few options. If you're running XP Pro, you can use file level permissions (right click the file or folder you want to protect, click Sharing and Security, click the Security tab and select the groups or user names you want to set permissions for. You can specifically deny permissions to the son's user account). Another option with XP Pro is to use EFS to encrypt the files (right click the file or folder, click Properties, click the Advanced button and click Encrypt contents to secure data). Both of these options require that your drives be formatted in NTFS.

If you're using XP Home, or Pro on a FAT-formatted drive, your options are more limited. You can buy third party software that will let you password protect your files and folders, and hide them from others, such as Folder Guard (http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011TI-FolderGuard) or Hide Folders XP2 (http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011TI-HideFoldersXP). The latter has a free version.

If you have multiple drives/partitions, you can use Microsoft's free Shared Computer Toolkit to restrict access to a data partition where you put your personal data.
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011TI-SharedAccess

Can Microsoft include anti-malware programs in their operating systems?

Many computer users want Microsoft to build anti-spyware and anti-virus functionality into Windows so they won't have to buy third party programs. But will the governments that fought Microsoft over including the Internet Explorer browser as part of the operating system again try to stop them from bundling? There's talk that the EU anti-trust people may be planning to do just that. Read more here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011TI-Anti-Trust

Newsletter Content: Here's what you said

Last week, we asked readers to let us know if they had favorite sections or features of the newsletter, and if you would prefer we have more or less content in certain categories. Almost all of the responses said you felt the content mix was about right. Of those who did want to see changes, most of the requests were for more Q&A, so we're going to start addressing at least two reader questions each week in the Q&A section instead of one. Thanks for your responses!

Anonymity: the topic that won't die

A couple of readers responded to our Anonymity on the 'Net editorial with the comment that my invitation to reply "anonymously or not" was misleading because e-mail leaves no choice. Actually, it's fairly easy to send email anonymously. There are anonymizer services that you can go through and products that will shield your identity by disguising your source IP address. If you don't need to go that far, the easiest way to send mail anonymously is to go to a public computer (such as a library or Internet café) and create a free Web mail account, using a false name to sign up.

What won't disguise your identity from any but the most unsophisticated recipient is merely changing to "from" field in your e-mail client program. It doesn't take much digging in the headers to reveal your email address when you do that.

Also in regard to the anonymity issue, Valerie B. sent us news of this court decision in Delaware that reversed a lower court decision and protected the identity of an anonymous blogger who had been accused of defaming a local elected official. Details here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011TI-Anonymity

Great Rebate Debate, Revisited (Again)

How to View Hidden Devices

Device Manager, by default, hides two types of devices: non-Plug and Play printers and drivers, and devices that were previously attached to the computer but have been disconnected (non-present devices). Here's how to view these:

1. To view non-PnP devices, open Device Manager, click the View menu and select Show hidden devices.
2. To see a list of previously attached devices, click Start | Run, type cmd to open the command windows, and type Devmgmtmsc set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1, then select Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager.

1. Click Control Panel | Performance and Maintenance | System
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click Environment Variables.
4. In the User Variables box (if you want the change to only apply to the logged on user account) or the System Variables box (if you want the change to apply to all users), click New.
5. In the New User Variable or New System Variable dialog box, in the Variable Name field, type DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
6. In the Variable Value box, enter 1.
7. Click OK, and then OK again to apply the change and close the dialog boxes.

How to optimize disk space for recording to CD

For best performance when burning data to a CD or DVD, you should configure your computer to use a drive other than the one on which Windows is installed for temporary storage of the files during the write process. This requires that you have multiple disks or partitions available on the computer. Here's how to select a different drive or partition on which to store the temp files:

1. Click Start | My Computer.
2. Right click the drive icon that represents the CD recording device.
3. Click Properties.
4. Click the Recording tab.
5. In the drop down box, select a drive that has at least 700 MB of free space.
6. Click Apply and OK.

Get Ready for a Busy Patch Tuesday

Media Center 2005 can't be a domain member - except when it can

QUESTION:
I bought a Media Center PC and, although I realize it won't effect a lot of people, I found much to my dismay that I can't connect it to a domain. You indicate in your article that Media Center does everything XP Pro does. Is there a way to connect a media center PC to a domain? Thanks. - Phill I.

ANSWER:
Last week, we addressed a reader's question regarding the differences between different editions of Windows XP by saying that Media Center Edition is a superset of Windows XP Professional. Robert K. and Phill I. correctly pointed out that that's true if you're talking about MCE 2004 and previous, but MCE 2005 removed the ability to join a Windows domain, which is an important difference between XP Pro and Home. We understand the reason this feature was removed was because Media Center Extenders, which are supported by MCE 2005, won't work in domains. MCE 2005 does, however, still include features such as Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System (EFS) that are missing from Home Edition. And you can still access domain resources (files, printers) as long as the resource isn't set to require domain membership for access. To do so, you need to set the workgroup name on the MCE computer to be the same as the domain name.

There are a couple of other factors here, which might make it more accurate to say MCE 2005 can't be a domain member - except when it can. If you were running MCE 2004 and had joined the domain, then you upgraded to MCE 2005, the computer stays a domain member unless/until you remove it from the domain (after which it won't be able to rejoin). Also, if you install MCE 2005 from scratch, you apparently can join a domain during installation, but the option is grayed out later if you didn't do so then.

Finally, there's a workaround (NOT supported by Microsoft) that will allow you to join your MCE 2005 computer to a domain. You can find it here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011QC-Join_Domain

Note that we have not tried this ourselves, but others have reported success. Try it at your own risk.

How do I stop startup programs?

QUESTION:
How do I stop certain programs from loading everytime I reboot my computer? I know I have done this, I just can't remember how.Thanks. - Geri M.

Playing DirectX Games on the Network

What do you need to do to play DirectX multiplayer games through a network firewall, proxy server, router, Network Address Translation (NAT) device or Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) connection? Did your DirectX games stop working when you installed Windows XP service pack 2? The problem may be with the Windows firewall, and you might need to modify the settings on the firewall before the games will work. For more info, see KB article 240429 here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011CO-KB_240429

Ipconfig command shows an IP address of 0.0.0.0

You can use the ipconfig command at the command line to view or renew your computer's IP address and other configuration information. If you try to renew the address and it's shown as 0.0.0.0 with the same shown as the subnet mask, you'll need to turn off the Windows firewall and any other host based firewall you have installed and do some troubleshooting. For a guide to resolving this problem, see KB article 822123 at:
http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011CO-KB_822123

Intermittent connectivity when using NAT-T

This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff

• War of the Worlds in 30 Seconds (with bunnies)
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-WOW
• Kick the ball
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-Kick
• Corporate Culture Cartoon
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-Cartoon
• Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-Amiyumi
• Make your own road signs (Java applet)
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-Sign_Maker
• Handheld games museum
  http://www.wxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=051011FA-Museum

iPod Access: The premier application for copying songs from an iPod to a Windows PC

The Nano is out. Here’s a great program for Windows Users to use this trimmed down version as well as the original. iPod Access for Windows brings to Windows users what Mac users have been have been raving about: the ability to freely transfer files from an iPod back to a computer. Need to move songs from one computer to another? Lost all your iTunes music due to a computer failure? iPod Access is the answer. Unlike some other iPod applications on the market today iPod Access utilizes the iPod database to display song information. Using this database enables song listings to be displayed instantly, playlist data to be viewed, and songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store to be displayed properly. Download the trial version here:

INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.