] The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald
] that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not
] being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded.
]
] "I don't agree with the copyright laws and I
] don't have a problem with people downloading the
] movie and sharing it with people as long as they're
] not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose
] that," he said.
]
] "I do well enough already and I made this film
] because I want the world, to change. The more people who
] see it the better, so I'm happy this is
] happening."
...
] Defenders of Moore’s position include Pulp Fiction
] director Quentin Tarantino, who earlier this year
] encouraged audiences in countries where his films are
] not legally available to obtain counterfeit copies.
...
] Valenti said: “Nobody can allow their rights to be
] stolen because, if you can’t retrieve your investment,
] you’re out of the movie business,
]
] "I don't think there's really a single
] actor or director in the world who does not believe that
] if you don't combat piracy, it will devour you in
] the future."

Jack Valenti, meet Mr. Moore and Mr. Tarentino. Both had had
movies at the top of the box office charts now, maybe you've
heard of them? While there is a nuance to what you say that
would let you weasel out a defensible position, it doesn't look
good. Moore and Tarentino's views are both influenced based ON
MPAA policies (ratings, getting the word out for the first,
market/region encoding in the second) not because they are
disinterested in money or hate the movie industry.

Moore: pirate my film, no problem - [Sunday Herald]

] "It's extremely impressive," said academy President Frank
] Pierson. "It certainly looked foolproof to us."
...
] The discs, by themselves, cannot be hacked, Roth said.

Doesn't even matter what they are talking about, does it?

My Way News

] It appears that the MPAA runs RespectCopyrights.org
] [respectcopyrights.org], a site designed to explain the
] evils of downloading videos. I noticed that the site
] links to an LA Times article called "Hollywood deals with
] piracy , a wary eye on CDs" [respectcopyrights.org].
] However, although the article's copyright (LA Times) is
] noted, no other citation details are provided. You'd
] expect to find the full publication date, page, month and
] date. More importantly, you'd expect a disclaimer such as
] "Reprinted with permission from the LA Times" or
] "Official reprint: LA Times". I work in marketing and, in
] every case where I've reprinted an article, I've had to
] include such details (and pay a hefty reprint fee). The
] article on the MPAA site doesn't even provide a link to
] the LA Times site, so that users could obtain original
] copies

Slashdot | Besieged Movie Industry Suffers Record Takings

bucy wrote:
] Whatever you think of Cheney,
] he is certainly a skilled and experienced politician --
] probably more so than Edwards.

I don't think probably is the word. He /is/ a more experienced politician, and from that, more skilled. That's why Bush brought him on. Even if the question is of skill in the public market (ie, who will "win" the debates), I think the population is too polarized to matter. The point of Edwards is to make the Kerry ticket more palatable to those who are unsure if they are willing to vote for him. Consider, you've got some on the fence southern voters who still can't see themselves voting for a Northeast Yankee, who have bought into the notion that Bush is Texan... now in good faith they can vote for one of their own without also keeping Bush.

It just makes sense. Now, my question is -- Cabinet post for Clark? For Dean?

RE: Kerry Picks Edwards!

] According to Google's new policy, altered Monday, the Web
] search company prohibits Gmail subscribers from selling,
] trading or transferring the free e-mail accounts "for any
] unauthorized commercial purpose." It also bars people
] from setting up multiple accounts in violation of the
] policy.

I think we are still good in having done out invite giveaway for our non-commercial radio station. I guess we can ask in our upcoming interview with a gmail representative.

Of course people are gmail-username squatting. Huh. Suprised that wasn't obvious, considering the landrush mania to get a username; artificial scarcity brings out the worse in people. In that light, forums like eBay are both powerful mechanisms and inherent in the medium.

Google bans Gmail swaps and sales | CNET News.com

] President Bush and everyone in Washington should screen
] Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit
] 9/11," a group of military and 9/11 families said
] Wednesday.

I would pay to see a documentary based around Bush and his cabinet watching this movie. The pressuring to get them to watch it, the reactions of their faces during the film, and so on.

1010 WINS: Families Call On Bush To See Moore Movie

] The latest Bush-Cheney '04 web video shows the "Faces of
] John Kerry's Democratic Party," and labels them the
] "Coalition of the Wild-Eyed." This is surely the first
] time in his life Dick Gephardt has been labeled
] "wild-eyed" by anyone, and he is joined by Al Gore,
] Howard Dean, Michael Moore, and -- who's that, Adolf
] Hitler?

If only we could invoke Godwin's Law and hand the election to Kerry.

Hitler's back, this time in Bush-Cheney ad

] Computer trade show Comdex, once the biggest event on the
] tech calendar, has been canceled this year, a victim of
] the growing interest in shows emphasizing consumer
] electronics and specialist IT gear.

Organizer cancels Comdex 2004 | CNET News.com

] The Federal Communications Commission decided yesterday
] not to allow educational institutions to sell their
] spectrum licenses, but the agency will allow them to
] continue leasing the valuable airwaves for commercial
] use, and it will move users around to reduce
] interference.

I'm not sure it would have made sense for schools to sell their spectrum at this time anyway. Radio spectrum is one of the absolutely limited resources, and the FCC has done what it can to make that even more true. I am happier with universities leasing their bandwidth rather than the big cell or communication players owning it all.

FCC Won't Let Schools Sell Airwaves (TechNews.com)

Motley Fool calls this a customer disloyalty program (http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04060908.htm), and GM's dumbest move. I'm not sure about dumbest, although given that the entire page is in images not words...

Still, it is the next logical extension to the 24hr testdrive, or those "get $$ to testdrive a car" promotions.

The next obvious move is that they will subsidize your lease terms for a competitors' car. Yeah.

GM - $250 Challenge