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Is File Sharing Illegal?

With all the news about illegal downloading, many computer users understandably worry about file sharing using software like Ares Galaxy from the open source Ares software. Specifically, they wonder whether file sharing is legal or illegal. It turns out that there are no laws that prevent people from sharing files, unless, that is, the files are protected by copyright law.

Legal File Sharing

Some forms of file sharing are perfectly legal. For instance, Unix users often modify and share the source codes of software that they use. Since these programs have no copyright protection, internet users can feel free to share them with whomever they please.

This means that file sharing programs are not, in themselves, illegal. uTorrent, Napster and other file sharing programs like aresgalaxy have legitimate uses. You can even sign up for web-based file sharing that allows you to upload large files and distribute them through links. There is nothing illegal about any of this activity.

Illegal File Sharing

Once someone shares copyrighted material, though, the law has been broken. This applies to a wide range of information, including music, books, movies and software. When users share these files, they participate in pirating. Legally, there isn’t much difference between distributing DVDs on the street and distributing them through the Internet.

Sharing or downloading copyrighted files illegal can have harsh consequences, including jail time and fines. If someone catches you sharing their files illegally, then you could face civil and criminal charges. In civil court, the copyright owner can sue you for damages. Depending on the type of file that you share, you could face damages as high as $150,000 per instance. In criminal court, the government can fine guilty parties up to $250,000 and send them to jail for up to five years.

Given the sensitive nature of copyright law, it makes sense to protect yourself from civil and criminal suits by paying attention to the type of files that you share. This will help ensure that you keep your file sharing activities legal.

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Digital Media: 3D TVs

Famicom 3D System, a liquid crystal shutter he...
Image via Wikipedia

As we enter our next decade, advances in the digital era are unfolding at a rapid pace, and some of the more highly advertised recent digital media advancements are 3D televisions. Available across the board in brand, size and quality, 3D TVs can bring 3D worlds to life while offering HDTV in non-3D programming. The advancements behind 3D television are fascinating, so let’s take a look at the story behind 3D TVs.

How Are 3D Programs Made?

The base for 3D programming is dependent upon the filming. To make a 3D program or movie, directors film from two or more different angles, or stereos. These stereos are then combined to make the picture appear to be 3D. Some systems require viewers use 3D glasses to watch the program; without the glasses, the program appears discolored and/or fuzzy. The three techniques that use 3D glasses to project the image are called anaglyphic 3D, polarization 3D and alternate-frame sequencing, and these techniques offer better control in larger formats. TVs that use these techniques may be larger and the images may be sharper than the TVs that do not use 3D glasses.

3D viewing is possible without glasses through autostereoscopic 3D, also known as auto 3D. With auto 3D technology, multiple angles are filmed and combined to produce a 2D image with depth, which is projected from the television as a 3D image. The TV on which these 3D programs can be displayed uses special lenses in the TV to make the program appear to be 3D. However, the autostereoscopic 3D TVs being introduced often offer the best quality image in small-sized TVs.

Although huge advances have been made in 3D TV viewing, the 3D glasses may be around for a while longer. Until advancements in auto 3D allow for high-quality, large-screen autostereoscopic 3D images, the choice between quality, size, and 3D glasses will exist.

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6 Ways to Enhance Your Google Search

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

A lot of people have discovered how great it is to use Google as their search engine. However, there are things that can be done when you are searching to make the search even better. Here are some of the ways that you can search more efficiently on Google.

  • Either/Or – Usually when you search in Google, you’re going to get the pages that contains all of your words that were in the search box. However, if you want to narrow it down, you can use “|” symbol, which is known as the pipe and is found atop the forward slash on your keyboard.
  • Quotes – When you want something specific searched for, such as an exact phrase, you can put the phrase in quotes. This is going to search for that exact phrase whereas not using the quotes is going to give a broader search.
  • Not – If you have a phrase or term that you don’t want included in the search, you can use the “-” symbol. This is going to include the searches that have your other words but not the word that you put after the symbol.
  • Similar – When you use the “~” symbol, you can tell Google to search for terms that are similar. An example would be “~strange car accidents.” This would bring back things like “weird car accidents” and “unusual car accidents.”
  • Advanced Search – For those times when you have trouble remembering these rules, you can simply use the advanced search and it will give you the same options.
  • Define – This is going to give you the definition of the word. For example, “define: chocolate” would give you a list of the definitions of the word chocolate.

These are just a few of the things that you can do with Google search beyond putting your word or phrase in and searching for it. Searching with Google is much more than you expected.

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FAQ

1) I want to set the heading text for the photo album. How can i do this ?

create a “heading.txt” file with the heading you want on the first line and copy to the album folder.

2) I want to change the default image shown on the index page ?

In the heading.txt file, add the filename you want to display as default to the second line. (first line should be the heading)

3) Can I add comments to each picture ?

Yes. To add comments to each picture, create a “pics.txt” file under the album folder. The pics.txt file should look something like this..

pic1.jpg; my comment here for pic 1
pic2.jpg; my comment here for pic 2
pic3.jpg; my comment here for pic 3
pic4.jpg; my comment here for pic 4
pic5.jpg; my comment here for pic 5

The filename followed by a semi colon and the comment you want to add.

Note that the pics.txt file should go on the same directory where you have your pictures. Each folder can have its own pics.txt and heading.txt file.

4) How will I set the picture order displayed in the album ?

To specify the order of pictures, just add the pics.txt like explained above to your album folder. The comment is optional. If you only want to specify the picture order,just specify the filenames in the order you want. (one filename in each line)

pic4.jpg
pic1.jpg
pic3.jpg

From a Dos Command prompt, you can easily create a list of filenames in a directory and pipe the output to a text file by …

c:\ dir /A-D /b > pics.txt

5) What mode are the pictures displayed ?

phpPictureGallery supports three modes.

a) Thumbnail view
b) Film Strip view
c) SlideShow

Note: In the thumbnail mode, the thumbnails are automatically generated and placed under a ‘thumbs’ folder.

6) What image formats does phpPictureGallery support?

Currenly phpPictureGallery supports only .jpg format. (Gif support was removed in GD after 1.5 version)

7) Can I customize the start page so the user is taken to the film strip mode instead of thumbnail view ?

Sure, its easy to do too. By default, when you point to index.php, phpPictureGallery displays your pics in thumbnail mode. To display in filmstrip mode, your url must have filmview set to 1,

For slideshow, use something like below..

when you have multiple directories (with more than one gallery) you have to pass the directory name and filmview.

8) I installed phpPictureGallery, but i’m getting this error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imagecreatefromjpeg() in /images/thumbnail.php on line 63 what should I do ?

You need GD enabled on the server to have image functions work with php. If you’re running on win32, edit the php.ini file and uncomment the line that reads,

extension=php_gd.dll

and make sure you have the extension dir set correctly, see below for example. extension_dir =

If you don’t have GD, get the library from here.

9) I found a bug, what should I do ?

Make sure you have read this FAQ completely before reporting a bug.

Please try to fix the bug if you can. If you fixed a bug, you can check in the code in cvs. or email it to me at . Otherwise, post your bug report in the forum. I will try to reply to your problem asap.

Cheers!

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