Mac 101: Preparing your old Mac for sale or recycling

It happens to all of us eventually (except for the Mac collectors). At some point, we decide that it’s time to take that old Mac that we’ve just replaced and try to get a few bucks out of it. Some of us donate our machines to schools or other worthwhile organizations, and if we have really old equipment, we may just recycle it. In any case, there are some things you’ll want to do to prepare the Mac for sale or recycling — via The Unofficial Apple Weblog

New 4chan DDoS Targets Hated Anti-Piracy Law Firm

After all-out assaults on the web presences of the MPAA, RIAA and later the BPI, last night a new company was targeted in a new 4chan DDoS attack. Anti-piracy lawyers ACS:Law, one of the most despised and complained about law firms in Britain, had their website taken offline last night and it remains down “Account Suspended” this morning. TorrentFreak has spoken to one of the key figures in Operation Payback for the lowdown — via redwolf.newsvine.com

MPAA Wants To Know If ACTA Can Be Used To Block Wikileaks?

The folks over at Open Acta Mexico sent over their report on an open information meeting at the Ministry of the Economy in Mexico about ACTA last week. There were two oddities that they called attention to. The first is that there was an MPAA representative at the meeting, who apparently asked whether or not ACTA could be used to block access to damaging sites like Wikileaks. As the Open Acta Mexico people asked, what does Wikileaks have to do with movies? It seems like an interesting question, though, and I’m assuming that the MPAA is using Wikileaks as an example of a site they deem “dangerous” to get the idea across, so that later when they designate other sites (say… The Pirate Bay….) as dangerous, they can use this to make the — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Woman Trademarks Her Name, Says No One Can Use It Without Her Permission

It’s no secret that many people are quite confused about how patents, trademark and copyright law work at times. In fact, we’ve frequently pointed out that it’s rather unfair to lump trademarks in with copyright and patents, because trademarks are so different. Whereas copyright and patents are all about a right to exclude via a monopoly privilege, trademark is about consumer protection, and is under an entirely different part of the constitution. Unfortunately, those who favor the “intellectual property” terminology have lumped the three together, leading many people to falsely believe that trademarks are effectively similar to patents and copyright — especially with respect to the right to demand no one else can use a trademark in any way without permission. As folks like Leo Stoller have learned the hard way, that’s simply not true.

However, it doesn’t stop some of the more amusing claims from folks who do think that they have extreme control over a trademarked term. Reader darus67 points us to the the website of one Dr. Ann De Wees Allen, who makes it quite clear she has a trademark on her name, and anyone using it without permission will be in trouble — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Castle Wolfenstein Source Code Released

Almost nine years ago, I played Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a classic 3D shoot-em-up with Nazis and supernatural horrors and completed it. I also played the multi-player online. Particularly memorable were the flame thrower and the big climactic battle against the resurrected Knight.

ID Software has released the source code to the game and the add-on, ie along with Wolfenstein – Enemy Territory, Return to Castle Wolfenstein single player and Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer under the GPL license. These aren’t just for Windows, but include Unix and MacOSX code as well — via redwolf.newsvine.com