AT&T stomps on Americans right to free speech September 29, 2007
“5.1 Suspension/Termination. Your Service may be suspended or terminated if your payment is past due and such……..[edit] for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.“
I’m an AT&T subscriber thanks to their acquisition of Cingular and I think their behavior is deplorable. Not to mention Un-American. This new policy also violates their own terms of service. It makes them look worse than any customer could ever hope to. I guess it’s time to pull the plug on AT&T. More coverage here and here.
No Lending! September 27, 2007
The internet is abuzz with news about Amazon’s DRM free MP3 store. Early reports are positive. High bit rate MP3’s at or below iTunes prices with the top 100 songs costing only $0.89. There is even support for Linux in the works.
On the down side you can’t re-download tracks you buy so you need to back up your music. Also, you can’t lend your music to friends like you can with a physical CD. That is understandable given that the tracks are digital files as opposed to a CD.
Amazon’s “no lending” policy reminded me about a scan of a physical CD label that a reader sent me a while back (click on image to read the copyright notice). Two things caught my attention about the label on this 2-track UK release of the most excellent band Maroon 5. First, the copyright notice got way more ink on the label then the actual artists. That speaks volumes about how high the entertainment industry regards the “artist”. Second, the copyright notice forbids “lending”. I guess you can lend someone almost anything you own, except CD’s from the UK.
Cable Lobbying Group Crushes Consumer Choice, again September 22, 2007
I was elated when I heard the EPB (Electric Power Board) In Chattanooga announce their Fiber to the Home initiative. But there was a dark cloud looming overhead from the very moment I heard the news. I knew the powerful cable and telephone lobby groups would never let an alternative to their broadband services see the light of day if they could prevent it. They have attacked every attempt ever made to drag America out of the digital ghetto.
So this morning when I read on the Irresponsible Journalism blog about this article in the Times Free Press titled “Cable TV group files lawsuit against EPB plan” I was not surprised. I was furious, pissed off beyond belief, but not surprised.
The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (TCTA) filed suit in Chancery Court of Davidson County Friday. They want us to know “EPB Chattannoga’s FTTH is NOT a Good Idea“. I looked briefly at some of their material and it absolutely reeks of the same spin they feed congress. According to the TCTA’s “facts” “There is plenty of competition..” and “Fiber to the home offers no additional services to Chattanooga“. I tend to think of a 100mb Internet connection as a new service I would like to have! Apparently the TCTA thinks keeping up with the rest of the world is a bad idea. You can read the grounds for the suit from the article but it makes no difference. A legal roadblock was as inevitable as the sunrise.
Many people in the UK have dozens of Internet Service Providers to chose from and hundreds of different service plans as reported in this post on Public Knowledge. If you want to make yourself sick look at the spreadsheet mentioned in that PK piece, and that was in 2004! The more up to date figures are truly soul crushing if you live in the US. In Japan many people have 100mb connections for less than half of what Comcast charges for “Up-to” 1.5mb.
Those cute little turtles on Comcast’s TV commercials don’t represent DSL. They represent the USA. Our giant cable and telephone corporations are a disgrace to the nation. They are incapable of providing the same level of service and low cost enjoyed by the people of 15 or 20 other nations around the world and refuse to allow anyone else to pick up their slack. So screw you, TCTA, for screwing the people of Chattannooga.
Arrrrr! Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! September 19, 2007
Ahoy me maties. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! If you are trying to find something fun to do on TLAPD check out some of these awesome links.
Learn how to talk like a pirate in English and German.
Generate a pirate name for yourself.
Translate any text into pirate speak.
Read an interview with Cap’n Slappy on TorrentFreak.
YouTube search results for TLAPD are an endless source of pleasure.
BoingBoing posted about a free font for Mac and PC from Skull-a-Day.
And who can forget our salty coverage last year! simply brilliant.
Fair Use industries add $4.5 trillion to economy September 16, 2007
We hear about the millions of dollars the entertainment industry claims to lose due to unauthorised use of copyrighted material all the time. But how much does fair use contribute to the economy? A lot, that’s how much! A new study commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) found that fair use enabled industries to add 4.5 trillion dollars to our economy in 2006.
“With more than $4.5 trillion in revenue generated by fair use dependent industries in 2006, a 31% increase since 2002, fair use industries are directly responsible for more than 18% of U.S. economic growth and nearly 11 million American jobs. In fact, nearly one out of every eight American jobs is in an industry that benefits from current limitations on copyright.”
That’s a good deal more then the measly $819 billion “core copyright industries” generated in 2005. It stands to reason that strengthening fair use rights will generate more jobs, more money, and lead to a stronger economy. Head over to the CCIA web site to read the full press release. There’s more (and better) coverage at Ars, BoingBoing, and the Defend Fair Use web site launched by the CCIA.
MediaDefender Busted September 15, 2007
Our friends over at torrentfreak recently discovered a huge cache of internal emails that were made public from MediaDefender. The sole purpose of MediaDefender’s “Miivi” site was to trick people into uploading copyrighted material, and bust them for it. These emails discuss everything from Miivi to fake torrents.
From the TorrentFreak article:
“When TorrentFreak reported that Media Defender (MD) was behind the video site MiiVi, they cast doubt on us. Now, in what is surely the biggest BitTorrent leak ever, nearly 700mb of MD’s emails have gone public. When MD’s Randy Saaf found out we rumbled MiiVi he said, “This is really f***ed.” This is too, but much more so.”
So give it a read, it’s very enlightening stuff.
Free downloads 12, this time games!
Continuing our free downloads series here is a new one that has some slightly different content from our usual links. Abandonia Reloaded is a site dedicated to remakes, freeware, and opensource games. The site has games spanning every genre so there is just about something for everyone there. So if your looking to waste some time give it a look.
