What a great day!

No, really. For once, I'm being sincere. How has my day been great? Let me count the ways:

1. Music sales, especially CD sales plunge Take that, RIAA! Your demise is imminent!
   
2. News Corp and NBC announce plans for YouTube clone File this under "We're a bit late to the party" and "We don't get this community-driven thing... this service will work, right?"
3. University of Nebraska asks RIAA to pay its processing fees Take that, RIAA! Although they did ask rather politely, don't you think?
4. Child Online Protection Act struck down No censorship in the guise of anti-porn filters! Yay!
5. EFF sues Viacom over DMCA YouTube request The EFF, always fighting the good fight.
6. It's California weather in DC... time to go outside!
   

P2P endangers children and undermines national security? Yeah, right.

The lobbying wizards over at the MPAA and RIAA are at it again, presumably. This time, they have managed to get the US Patent Office to release a statement saying that peer to peer file sharing endangers children and undermines national security. Seriously. I'm not making this up. The only things they fail to include in this are claims that the sky is falling and Armageddon is coming.

You know a business model is in danger when its backers start invoking the "Think of the children! (tm)" and "Terrorists could strike again! (tm)" arguments. Oh, and remember kids...

First audio, then movies... and now TV?

The EFF has just revealed that it has been present while a group of broadcasters plots to lock down TV with DRM. Similar to the vast majority if not all DRM schemes, this "security" translates to a bad deal for the consumer. The Digital Video Broadcasting Project will be able to do a variety of unsavory things to your television (or computer, as the case may be) in order to squeeze every last cent out of you. For instance, the so-called "Content Protection and Copy Management" system could (from the EFF site):

• Enforcing severe home recording and copying limitations. CPCM will allow content providers to apply copy restriction labels to broadcast streams. For example, a program could be marked as "Copy Never." In turn, your DVRs and others devices receiving the signal will have to obey and forbid copying even for home use. A content provider could opt to allow recording but still enforce a multitude of restrictions on copying to other devices.
• Imposing controls on where you watch a program. Even if you are given permission to move a program to your laptop or other portable devices, "geography controls" may kick in and stop playback once you leave home or a particular locale. These restrictions may be enforced using tamper-proof GPS receivers built in to your devices. CPCM can also be used to block sending video to yourself over your own home network or the Internet, among other things.
• Dictating how you get to share shows with your own family. CPCM can be used to examine, for instance, the frequency with which devices are connected to a personal network and determine whether your sharing is within an "Authorized Domain" Absurdly, DVB spent significant time arguing over what happens to a digital video in case of a divorce!
• Breaking compatibility with your devices. You may have already invested in new high definition displays and receivers that rely on component analog connections or unrestricted digital outputs, but CPCM will allow the studios to arbitrarily block these connections. In other words, individual copyright holders can turn your gadgets into oversized paperweights. CPCM- restricted media will also be able to carry blacklists and revoke compatibility with particular devices that don't enforce Hollywood's restrictions sufficiently.

Looks like MPAA/RIAA redux to me... prepare for more suing of grandmothers and the like (oh, in addition to not having your TV work the way you want it to).

Another suprise... Patriot Act Abused!

Well who saw this coming? The Patriot Act, which has given law enforcement sweeping powers to invade citizens' privacy, has been abused by officers overstepping the mandate given to them by that same act. Here's the story from Wired and from Slashdot. Slashdot, as always, has some good comments. Some samples:
"Funny. I seem to recall a lot of screaming about the possibility for abuse and I distinctly recall being told to shut the fuck up, we can *trust* them to do the right thing."
"

"There is no excuse for the mistakes that have been made, and we are going to make things right as quickly as possible," the attorney general said.

And this time, we mean it!"

TIA is back with a new name (suprise!)

Be afraid. Be very afraid. TIA never went away, of course, when congress banned it in 2003. It simply got its name changed. Now it is known as ADVISE -- Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement. Nice doublespeak name. Infowars says it best:

"Shortly after the announcement of TIA, the Pentagon backtracked and told us that TIA was shutting down, but the tools are there waiting to be used, They'll just rename it and start it up again at any given time. The Tools of TIA include "LifeLog" which is described as "a multimedia, digital record of everywhere you go and everything you see, hear, read, say and touch". Another tool is the MATRIX database, A federally funded crime database run by multiple states at once.

<snip>

The National Journal reported that the program is now accessed by, among others: the NSA, the CIA, DIA, CENTCOM, the National Counterterorrism Center, the Guantanamo prison, and Special Operations Command (SOCOM)... Big Brother is most definitely still watching. Enjoy watching your tax dollars at work watching you."