I have no comment about this entry except that the situation described within nearly popped a vein in my head. I could rant and rant and rant at the nearly fifty ways that the basic assumptions are so fucked up, but I do not have the strength.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Woman delays flight because she doesn’t want to get her Gucci bag dirty.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Congress Readies New Digital Copyright Bill
CNet (04/23/06) McCullagh, Declan
Despite several years of pressure from technology companies and academics to moderate the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Congress is poised to move in the other direction with an expansion of the bill’s prohibitions against software that evades copy protections.
Major copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America have already voiced support for the draft legislation, which also expands the wiretapping and enforcement powers of federal police.
The proposed legislation, drafted by the Bush administration and supported by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), would create the new federal crime of intentionally bypassing copyright protections that would be punishable, regardless if the piracy was successful or not, by up to 10 years in prison.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Dude. It’s a JOKE. Chill.
*creeist = christ with a minnesotian accent
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Marquette University Student Suspended for Blogging
A dental student at Marquette University has been suspended for the rest of the academic year and ordered to repeat a semester after a committee of professors, administrators and students determined that he violated professional conduct codes when he posted negative comments about unnamed students and professors on a blog.
Scott Taylor, the student’s attorney, said his client, a 22-year-old in Marquette’s School of Dentistry, was brought before the committee for a conduct hearing last week after a classmate complained about his blog, a Web site that contained musings about topics ranging from his education to videogames and drinking.
The focus of the hearing, Taylor said, were half a dozen postings including one describing a professor as “a (expletive) of a teacher” and another that described 20 classmates as having the “intellectual/maturity of a 3-year-old.”
What the hell? This guy was obviously stupid for not doing more to disguise who he was, however, he didn’t name anyone, he’s paying THEM to be there, and it totally sounds like someone had an agenda for pursuing this.
Bleh.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Not only does the DRM software on their CD’s install malicious programs on your computer, but their End User License Agreement makes you their bitch in perpetuity.
1. If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That’s because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.
2. You can’t keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a “personal home computer system owned by you.”
3. If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids “export” outside the country where you reside.
4. You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.
5. Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to “enforce their rights” against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this “self help” crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.
6. The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That’s right, no matter what happens, you can’t even get back what you paid for the CD.
7. If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.
8. You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.
9. Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Why would you do that to your poor dog? Why?!
Also:
Also:
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
This made me laugh and laugh because I could just see the expression on your face and hear the various imminent doom noises coming from your mouth.
Scientology couple John Travolta and Kelly Preston are urging Katie Holmes to have a ’silent birth’ when she delivers fiance Tom Cruise’s baby next year and follow the church’s strict doctrines. Scientologists believe children should be brought into the world without any fuss and be allowed to quietly get used to their surroundings. That means no music, no chatting and no expressions of pain from the mother. Preston explains, “It’s just because everything in moments of pain is really recorded and you want to have that (the birth) peaceful and clear of sort of suggestions or different words that can then affect them (babies) in their future.”
Yeah. You guys are against any kind of drugs (i.e. pain meds) and yet the poor woman is supposed to just sit there in silence during the delivery. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
THE fast-food chain, Burger King, is withdrawing its ice-cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim.
The man claimed the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah, and branded it sacrilegious, threatening a “jihad”.
The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid with backing from The Muslim Council of Britain. It apologised and said: “The design simply represents a spinning ice-cream cone.”
The offending lid was spotted in a branch in Park Royal last week by business development manager Rashad Akhtar, 27, of High Wycombe.
He was not satisfied by the decision to withdraw the cones and has called on Muslims to boycott Burger King. He said: “This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims.”
A Muslim Council spokesman said: “We commend the sensitive and prompt action that Burger King has taken.”
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Brought to you by the LA Times.
| Posted by: Mark the Bowler | Link to this post |
San Francisco trying to regulate bloggers:
Just when you thought the Federal Election Commission had it out for the blogosphere, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took it up a notch and announced yesterday that it will soon vote on a city ordinance that would require local bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission and report all blog-related costs that exceed $1,000 in the aggregate.
Can anyone out there point out a redeeming quality to this plan?
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.
(BugMeNot, BugMeNot Extension for Firefox)
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
Ashcroft resigned, but dont’ worry. We’re all safe.
“The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” Ashcroft wrote …
| Posted by: Kimberly | Link to this post |
