The Man throws another election

A candidate in a disputed Florida election has realized that electronic voting machines are vulnerable to fraud and other hijinks (see earlier posts) and has asked to view the source code for the closed-source machines. Unfortunately, a judge ruled that she has no right to do this despite strong evidence that the machines botched at least some of the ballots. People with a financial interest in the machines and backers of the winner say that the anomalies were probably due to "bad ballot design." That doesn't sound like the only thing that was badly designed in these elections...

Reading your email might not be a privacy invasion

A peddler of male-enhancement formulas and similar goods is of no help to anyone in society (for those not stupid enough to buy them, your suspicions are confirmed -- the products do not work). However, he still has rights, and among those a right to privacy. Too bad the government doesn't think so. Government investigators looked at the aforementioned businessman's email without the blessing of a search warrant, arguing that email is akin to postcards, which apparently can be looked at without opening anything and are therefore privacy-less. Strange reasoning, but if anyone can get away with it, it's the government.

Funny, I don't view my email, through which I send 90% of my correspondence to distant (and near) friends/family/associates/etc., as something that can be treated as a billboard...

But... you... just... released... ?????

Bill Gates has just told a bunch of "influential bloggers" that DRM is too complex for the consumer.

This statement is quite strange, coming on the heels of the release of the Zune and Vista, both of which are heavily loaded with DRM. So what does this statement signify? The easy interpretation is the hypocrisy of Microsoft, saying one thing and then doing another. A second, more interesting, interpretation is that Bill Gates is drifting further from Microsoft. As he becomes less Microsoft executive and more charity-donating social-welfare-promoting all-round good guy, he is starting to take positions that don't necessarily reflect Microsoft's corporate interest. Therefore, the idealism of his statements conflict with the reality of Microsoft's product offerings.

Let's hope Microsoft listens to Bill Gates on this issue -- they certainly could use a little guidance.

This administration and science do not mix

You know something is going wrong when ten thousand researchers (including, by the way, 52 Nobel Laureates) in one country shed light on an issue. That issue is the current administration's manipulation and misrepresentation of scientific findings in order to forward their policy initiatives. The arrogance that Bush and his cronies exhibit is nothing short of appalling -- they believe that science is just another puppet in their show than can be toyed with as they see fit. Who can forget, for example the attempt of Bush's right hand man at NASA to insert the word "theory" before every mention of the Big Bang?

The administration has demoted the authority of science such that it has virtually no relevance in major policy decisions anymore. Not only that, but it appears that Bush is attempting eradicate the influence of science wherever he can find it, not just in Washington. His advocacy of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in schools is testament to this shameful state of affairs. Thankfully, the Union of Concerned Scientists have created a helpful little table to help us recognize the administration's often not-too-subtle interference in science's role of informing the public and government.

Hopefully, things will change soon.

Embrace fanatacism, score five points!

Christian evangelists are employing a new tactic in their never-ending quest to brainwash society's youth -- video games. Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is a game in which you have the objective of either converting or killing non-believers. The game also has a number of other delightful features:

Players can command the army of good - the Tribulation Force - against the anti-Christ's Global Community... When players successfully complete a level of the real-time strategy game, "you get a vignette that has some kind of Biblical truth and a find-out-more button", he says.

That leads players to a website where they can discuss issues, say a prayer and "become a believer", Mr Frichner [one of the game's creators] says.

Some rational people are criticizing the message of the game which they say encourages dehumanization of all non-evangelical Christians. The co-founder of the games' production company, has a different take on things:

The game's makers reject criticism, saying their detractors "have a clear hatred of Biblical Christianity".

To add to the madness, some pastors are even recommending the game, which is based on a series of best-selling books, to their congregation. I'm scared, are you?

But we represent starving recording artists!

If anyone was doubting that the RIAA does not have as its first priority the artists that it claims to represent, today's news might just convince you beyond a shadow of a doubt. As crazy as it sounds, the RIAA is petitioning a judge to actually LOWER the percentage of a song sale that goes to an artist! The article puts it quite nicely:

At best the RIAA is kicking artists when they're down via this action, and at worst has fully revealed that despite repeated claims that artists need to be protected from piracy, the organization is very much the tool of the major labels and publishers who have famously never really cared about the artists in the first place.

The article continues...

Tactics like this raise serious concerns for the future of interoperable DRMs and any trend towards more rapid acceptance of new technology and the demands it imposes upon the music distribution industry. If the RIAA is nothing but a litigious arm of the stodgy business men in the music industry who can't see past a perceived necessity of protecting established revenue streams rather than pursuing innovation and listening consumers' demands, it seems doubtful that the litany of complications currently facing consumers who demand flexibility in managing their legally acquired digital content will be resolved anytime soon.

Hear, hear.

This education funded by laundered money

This might be a bit off topic for this blog, but I just had to throw it in...

Organized crime is now paying for some youngsters' tech degrees because the gangs lack technical know-how. It's a shame that law enforcement is so hard on the mob... don't the feds know what a valuable contribution these "illegal" organizations are making to our youth's education and training? What a great benefit to society!

EMI: first step towards a non-DRMed distribution? Probably not.

Looks like record label EMI is doing some experimenting with their distribution formats, finally figuring out that 1) DRM is not good for the consumer and 2) DRM sucks if you're anyone but Apple, who, having the dominant hardware and software in the market, can lock in the consumers to their products. So EMI is distributing non-DRMed music files for 99 cents on Yahoo! Music.

However, this decision only affects a very limited number of artists and was done with "general resistance" from the executives at EMI. Don't expect this to be the first few cracks in the dam before it explodes...

MPAA exec's kid gets a talking to, you get sued into oblivion

Guess who is pirating copyrighted content and immorally depriving hard-working artists of their hard-earned money? Why, none other than the child of Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman. Rest assured, folks, the head of one of the MPAA members is no hypocrite when it comes to discipline: he gave his kids a stern talking-to!

Hey Edgar, why don't you hold your kids to the same standard as you hold all of those grandmothers, deceased persons, and red-blooded Americans? Looks like your kids just got a memorable lesson in favoritism and hypocrisy. I'm sure they'll always remember that one.

MPAA copies movies, then tells you not to

About a year ago, the MPAA admitted to copying a movie that they were specifically told not to copy by the owner. The article shoves the the-MPAA-are-hypocrites line down your throat, so I don't have to. Not that it shouldn't be obvious anyway.

Your cellphone is listening... even when it's off

The FBI is pulling some sweet new tricks on mob bosses. Cell phones can be made to listen in on conversations even when they are turned off. This is just another reminder, however, of how easy it is for law enforcement to monitor us with today's technology. Let's hope that mob bosses are the only ones that they choose to monitor, and not deploy it on a much wider, illegal scale...

Saddam's botched trial

There's a great article in today's New York Times Magazine (distributed weekly with the Sunday edition of the newspaper) about how Saddam was convicted for the wrong things at a convenient time, and that the whole thing ultimately failed to introduce any kind of closure to the Iraq situation, something that the war's supporters hoped the trial would do. Human Rights Watch, Saddam's lawyer and the UN's condemnation of the trial show that the trial does not have any legitimacy in the international community's eyes.

There is a 6.5% chance that you are a terrorist

According to CNN, every American and person travelling through America gets assigned a score when travelling corresponding to how likely they are to be a terrorist. Never mind that it's a massive privacy invasion, of questionable value to law enforcement, and according to an EFF lawyer " probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected"... at least people will now have something to talk about at airports: threat score comparison! Mine is a .072, what's yours?

Our hero, the MPAA, opposes a ban on fraud

An anti-pretexting bill in the California legislature was defeated earlier this year due to the strong influence of the MPAA. The MPAA claimed that a ban on pretexting would interfere with their "anti-piracy" efforts.

You may remember "pretexting" as doublespeak for gaining personal information under false pretenses. The most recent and infamous use of this tactic was the HP Board Scandal.

At least someone is fighting the good fight, however. From the Wired article:

Ira Rothken, a prominent technology lawyer defending download search engine TorrentSpy against a movie industry copyright suit, says he didn't know about the lobbying, but can guess why the MPAA got involved. Rothken is suing (.pdf) the MPAA for allegedly paying a hacker $15,000 to hack into TorrentSpy's e-mail accounts.

"It doesn't surprise me that the MPAA would be against bills that protect privacy, and the MPAA has shown that they are willing to pay lots of money to intrude on privacy," Rothken said. "I do think there needs to be better laws in place that would deter such conduct and think that it would probably be useful if our elected officials would not be intimidated by the MPAA when trying to pass laws to protect privacy."

Greed knows no borders

The RIAA isn't just a terror in the United States; it also seems to have found it's way all the way to Moscow. Russia has just agreed to shut down AllOfMp3.com, a site that came under RIAA scrutiny for allowing cheap, legitimate (according to Russian law) downloads. The RIAA wasn't happy because they weren't getting a cut of the money (this sounds familiar) and thus pressured the US government to put it as a major item on the US-Russian agenda. Looks like they got their way. Lobbyists are quite effective, aren't they?

Don't just blackmail the little guy, do it to the big guy too!

Universal is considering negotiating a deal with Apple to get a cut of the profits from each iPod sold. Sound improbable that Apple would just choose to hand out money? Think again... Microsoft already does this with the Zune, as the article points out. Another classic case of the big media companies' most famous extortion trick: "Nice product... you wouldn't want a lawsuit to go with it, would you?" Except an RIAA member isn't suing a dead person or grandmother or ten-year-old this time... it is extorting a major multinational corporation.

What reason would any judge rule in Universal's favor in a case like this (besides their proven track record of incompetence on intellectual property issues)? Because of all that illegal music on your ipod, you criminal! At least, that is what Universal would surely argue: since all of the music on iPods is illegally pirated (possible, but highly unlikely and certainly not provable, and what responsibility does Apple have for the actions of its cusomers, anyway?), Universal deserves a share of the profits from the iPod to feed the poor, starving artists it represents. Anyone that buys this argument is need of a reality check: not only are large record companies certainly not on the side of the artists, they are a purely profit-motivated organization that cares not at all for freedoms of fair use.

As much as I hope that Apple sides with all freedom-loving Americans and tells Universal to take their deal and shove it, Apple has a history of dabbling in compromises with the record labels (the result of which is annoying DRM on the iTunes store). Still, I'm rooting for the little guy... er, I mean the multinational corporation. The one that sells computers, that is.

Is free speech terrorism?

Well, Newt Gingrich thinks so. He believes that re-examining our ideas about free speech will enable us to stay ahead of the terrorists. The irony of all of this is that he was speaking at an event that honored those that stood up for first amendment rights. I'm exercising my right to freedom of speech -- I guess that makes me a terrorist. Leaving the country keeps sounding better and better...

Great anti-RIAA blogs

The Recording Industry vs the People

"A blog devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people."

Boycott-riaa.com

"Take a stand against the RIAA"

RAC -- Recording Artists Coalition

Not explicitly anti-RIAA, but close: "a non-profit, nonpartisan coalition formed to represent the interests of recording artists with regard to legislative issues in which corporate and artists' interests conflict, and to address other public policy debates that come before the music industry."

Defective By Design

Anti-DRM blog. Of course, anti-RIAA and anti-DRM are related issues.

Don't think the election is being thrown? Think again.

Need proof that elections that use Diebold electronic voting machines are a piece of cake to manipulate? Here's a video by some Princeton professors that show how easy it is to tip an election in someone's favor by hacking a Diebold machine.



In case you needed more proof, here's the full HBO documentary,"Hacking Democracy," on the subject:

At least the Aussies have some sense

Sounds like things over there aren't so much different from over here... the music lobby lies and cajoles in order to get its way and is always in bed with the government. Super lame. At least the Aussies have the sense to cut through this bullshit... some of the time.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20713160%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Article snippet:

Piracy statistics are labelled "self-serving hyperbole" in a draft government report.

A confidential briefing for the Attorney-General's Department, prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology, lashes the music and software sectors.

The draft of the institute's intellectual property crime report, sighted by The Australian shows that copyright owners "failed to explain" how they reached financial loss statistics used in lobbying activities and court cases.

Figures for 2005 from the global Business Software Association showing $361 million a year of lost sales in Australia are "unverified and epistemologically unreliable", the report says.

BSAA chairman Jim Macnamara said the figure was an extrapolation, but other studies had supported it.

"They're entitled to say they're not convinced, but not necessarily entitled to say it's unverified," he said.

The study, which says some of the statistics used by copyright owners are "absurd", will be redrafted after senior researchers disagreed with its conclusions.

Painting a picture of an industry seething with competitive jealousies, the report describes how "well-connected Canberra-based lobbyists" fight for government attention and police time on piracy.

Suspension of Habeas corpus

Watch the video, and be amazed at how our liberties have just been signed away by the current president. And then, how he frames his action as a noble effort. And then, how no one does anything about it. Very sad.



From the YouTube video summary:

Today, 135 years to the day after the last American President suspended habeus corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At it's worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone -- US citizen or not -- an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the founding fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed today with the stroke of a pen.

George Washington University Constitutional Law professor, Jonathan Turley, joins Keith to talk about the law that Senator Feingold said would be seen as "a stain on our nations history.

Pentagon creates Internet news correction division

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6100906.stm

Well, yet another sad step towards total government control. The Pentagon thinks that some may be manipulating the media, especially on the Internet, to their own ends. Therefore, it's the Pentagon's job to 'correct messages' and 'respond to inaccurate statements.'

To me, this seems more like an effect to clamp down on free speech on the Internet and to skew it towards a favorable view of the U.S. government. Sorry, Rummy, but it appears that world and domestic public opinion is against you. Being unpopular is not an excuse to intimidate people in order to make them change their opinions, which I'm sure is what this new department intends to do, ever so insidiously.

1984, here we come.

First Post

This blog will be dedicated to covering all abuses of power by those that have it, focusing especially on the U.S. government, powerful lobbying/political groups, and powerful industry associations. Our rights as American citizens are being eroded right under our collective nose. Wake up -- it's happening, and unless we stop it, we might continue along this despicable course, turning back the clock to an oppressive dictatorship or the like. Our society already bears some disturbing resemblances to terrible regimes of times past. Let us hope that we never become that evil, but I'm pessimistic...

The name of this blog is taken from the Rage Against the Machine song "Bullet in the Head."

This time the bullet cold rocked ya
A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika
Nothin' proper about ya propaganda
Fools follow rules when the set commands ya
Said it was blue
When ya blood was read
That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head

Blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head

I give a shout out to the living dead
Who stood and watched as the feds cold centralized
So serene on the screen
You were mesmerised
Cellular phones soundin' a death tone
Corporations cold
Turn ya to stone before ya realise
They load the clip in omnicolour
Said they pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Run it!

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Checka, checka, check it out
They load the clip in omnicolour
Said they pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again jack and then rewind the tape
And then play it again and again and again
Until ya mind is locked in
Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya
Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya
They say jump and ya say how high
Ya brain-dead
Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in ya head

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Uggh! Yeah! Yea!

Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Ya bowin' down to the flag
Ya gotta bullet in ya head

Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Ya bowin' down to the flag
Ya gotta bullet in ya head

A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
A bullet in ya head!
Ya gotta bullet in ya fuckin' head!