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."