] There are two ways to play along while
] watching the Banzai TV show. You can
] either log on to fox.com/banzai and play
] along on a computer, or you can play along
] on your wireless phone.

OK, this is one of the most fucked up TV shows that I have ever seen.

Japaneese men with baddly exaggerated accents host a program in which viewers are asked to bet on silly games of chance.

For example, six "automatically extending style" umbrellas are placed upright on a rotating table. 5 of the six unbrellas have had their springs disabled. There are two contestants. Viewers are asked to pick one. Then the contestants take turns picking up an umbrella, pointing it at their face, and pressing the button. The one that gets faced looses.

Whack.

BANZAI!

] Joseph Haggerty may own the most expensive garbage can in
] America.
]
] Because he kept it in the front yard, not the back, his
] homeowners association took him to court for violating
] community rules. After a four-year standoff over whether
] neighbors could see it behind a shrub, he lost and was
] ordered to pay $11,978.75 in fines and legal fees.

Homeowner Boards Blur Line of Who Rules Roost

] MADRID, Spain, July 22 %u2014 For a glimpse of
] Europe%u2019s young generation on the move and the future
] of the borderless continent, head to the late-partying
] Spanish capital, drink a strong shot of coffee and try to
] keep up with Stina Lunden, a 25-year-old Swedish
] transplant.

A generation on the move in Europe

Music Industry Wins 871 Subpoenas Against Internet Users.

...and they are not just going after people offering large amounts of mp3s either...

Notice the slightly conflicting statements:

" The trade group for the largest music labels, the Washington-based RIAA, previously indicated its lawyers would target Internet users who offer substantial collections of MP3 song files but declined to say how many songs might qualify for a lawsuit."

"We are identifying substantial infringers and we're going to whatever entity is providing (Internet) service for that potential infringer,"

[Brain21]So from these statements we think that, as the RIAA said a few weeks ago, they are only going after people who have huge mp3 collections online. However, other statements in the article show that this may not be true:

"In some cases, subpoenas cite as few as five songs as "representative recordings" of music files available for downloading from these users."

"the RIAA asked Depaul on July 2 to track down a user known as "anon39023" who was allegedly offering at least eight songs."

FOXNews.com

This is an amazing story. Apparently Direct-TV is requiring everyone who ever bought a smart card reader from a company that sells D-TV priate equipment to pay then $3,500 or be sued. The problem is there are many people who bought smart card readers from these firms for legitimate reasons and can't afford to defend themselves.

This is the third example in the last few weeks of innocent people being forced to comply with unreasonable demands from large corporations because they can't defend themselves in court.

Direct-TV involved in widespread extortion; RIAA like tactics

Jeremy wrote:
] Decius wrote:
] ]] Internet audience measurement service Nielsen Net Ratings
] ]] said traffic on Kazaa, the leading filesharing platform,
] ]] fell 15 percent in the week ended July 6 from the
] ]] previous week.
]
] This couldn't possibly have anything to do with the
] fact that it's summertime in the Northern hemisphere,
] could it? I would imagine that most teenagers think of KaZaA
] as more of an indoor sport.

Summertime has traditionally been slow for online services, going back to the BBS days. However, the last week of June is just as much summer as the first week in July. It could be argued that the 4th of July holiday would have an additional impact.

I wish MemeStreams statistics offered some insight, but unfortunately we seem to be impacted by the wax and wane of particular google searches as much as internet interest in general. For the record, the last week in June was the best week in June. The first week of July was about the same. The second week was better the first.

Having said these things, I think that it is realistic that some people will back off in face of suits. However, that will only last until P2P systems mutate into more anonymous systems, at which point they will begin to approach the sort of eternity services we were thinking about in school; capable of supporting full service data havens which charge by the kilobyte hour and as they mature will become secure against all but the most determined attackers.

Censorship is the tactic of the past. Spin is the tactic of the future.

RE: CNN.com - Traffic to filesharing sites drops - Jul. 14, 2003

] Internet audience measurement service Nielsen Net Ratings
] said traffic on Kazaa, the leading filesharing platform,
] fell 15 percent in the week ended July 6 from the
] previous week.

CNN.com - Traffic to filesharing sites drops - Jul. 14, 2003

] The fully-grown flies, as doctors described the
] parasites, have been emerging out of Chandan Goswami's
] genitals and flying off for more than two weeks now.

OMG!, this is a nightmare come true...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Fly boy' continues to suffer as doctors struggle

Lynksys has released the source for the software in one of their more recent 802.11g AP/Router models.

Linksys: GPL Code for WRT54G AP/Router

] Regrettably the aggressiveness, independence, and perhaps
] effectiveness of my approach has provoked a powerful political
] backlash from some who would prefer a less forceful Privacy
] Commissioner. For the past two weeks, I have been the target of
] an extraordinary and unprecedented assault on my character,
] reputation and credibility.

Canadian Privacy Commissioner accuses system of running him out in his fairwell statement, which was prompty removed from their website by his replacement.

Politech: Canada's privacy commissioner's farewell statement vanishes