15 May 2007
Police condemn 'target culture'

It's somehow gratifying to see that legal insanity is not limited to one side of the Big Pond.

Police officers urge an end to the "target-driven culture" they say leads to "ludicrous" arrests for petty offences.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

21:31 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Lawsuit Invokes DMCA to Force DRM Adoption

I wonder if I could sue people for not buying my eggs?

Forbes.com informs us that the company Media Rights Technologies is suing Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and Real Networks for not using its DRM technology and therefore 'failing to include measures to control access to copyrighted material.' The company alleges that their refusal to use MRT's X1 Recording Control technology constitutes a 'circumvention' of a copyright protection system, which is of course illegal under the Digital Millenium Copryight Act. I would say more, but without controlling access to this paragraph with MRT's products, I fear I have already risked too much ...

(link) [Slashdot]

21:30 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted Copyright Infringement"

Wow. Life in prison for copying a file - 10 years for murder. Civil forfeiture to keep the cops supplied with PC's. They've thought of everything.

Idiots.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement.

(link) [CNET News.com]

21:27 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Rev. Jerry Falwell dies

And whom did Rev. Falwell blame for 9/11:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America," he said. "I point the finger in their face and say 'You helped this happen.'"

Well, Jerry, despite your pandering apology today I have the pleasure of pointing my finger in the general direction of your dead body and saying "I hope you rot in the same Hell to which you were so eager to send others."

The politically influential and sometimes controversial Rev. Jerry Falwell has died. Falwell helped found the Moral Majority which claimed to have helped put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980. The televangelist once described the 9/11 terrorists attacks as a judgment on America for "throwing God out of the public square." He later apologized for those comments.

(link) [CNN.com]

21:23 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Resisting Vista? Here's What You Can Do

The advantages of Vista? Cancel or Continue?

I've had a Vista box in my cube for the past week, and I really can't see any. Cancel or Continue?

About the only thing it's really good at is annoying you. Cancel or Continue?

Despite some bad press, Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, has many advantages over XP, which it's finally replacing after five years. But some consumers would rather stay with the tried-and-true, or just avoid Microsoft altogether.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

21:07 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Must Blog

for those kind readers who've inquired via email about my health (or apparent lack thereof) over the course of the past two weeks. I'm alive, reasonably well, and busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest.

The full time job is really starting to take it's toll - two weeks is by far the longest I've gone without a post here since the inception of this blog in 2003. But, dammit, after coding all day, and coding hard, I might add, the last thing I want to do when I get home is to sit down at the computer and type away.

Additionally, I have been a bit disingenuous about certain things that have been happening in my life - disingenuous in the sense that I've not published every detail. Those who know me and can read betwixt the line will know of what I speak, but for the rest I can only counsel patience, for there are good reasons for my lack of forthrightness.

So I'm going to do some blogging tonight - but if I disappear for a week or two don't be too concerned.

20:59 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link