Joe Biden is an Internet Idiot

Senator Joe Biden (D-Del) thinks that you can 1) monitor all P2P traffic easily 2) pick out files that are illegal or infringe copyright by looking at their file names. Idiot.

US to have aircraft spy on its citizens

Surveillance isn't just limited to the Internet and the NSA. Looks like the DHS is going to get in on the party as well by using satellites to monitor citizens. Awesome. Slashdot. Post. Also see Naomi Wolf's Ten Steps to Close Down an Open Society.

Monsanto = Evil

Vanity Fair has a lengthly article on Monsanto called Monsanto's Harvest of Fear. The first part discusses how they are using patent law and mafia-like extortion tactics to support their business. Nice. Found via Slashdot.

RIAA trying to institute ISP surcharge

Just like with blank CDs and digital music players, the RIAA is trying to make money off of something that has little to directly do with its business. It is now pressuring ISPs to add a surcharge to internet access fees that would go directly to the music executives' pockets. The rationale, they argue, is that... well, there's really no rationale, just another typical RIAA money-grab justification. Read about it at Wired and Slashdot.

FBI Abusing NSL

The FBI has been found to have been abusing National Security Letters, aka warrants sans judge. Here is the article from Wired and Slashdot. Is anyone surprised that when you give an investigative agency license to investigate anyone at the drop of a hat, it will (a lot)? I guess I just have more foresight than Dick Cheney, et al. Either that or they hate due process and privacy. Probably the latter.

Hack t3h heart

Ghee whiz, the future is here:

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person.

Artists contemplating suing RIAA

So where does all the money from those lawsuits against grandmothers, students and dead people that the RIAA brings go? Not to the artists, apparently. Artists are now contemplating taking legal action against the RIAA for their "fair share" of the winnings.

I don't know whether to cheer because the RIAA might be losing some money, or cry because the artists are just as shortsighted. Anytime you hear a group complaining that the money it receives is not "fair," you know the lobbyists and lawyers can't be far off...

So this is the future of music? Artists suing the RIAA? The RIAA suing everyone else? Everyone bickering over the winnings? And what about all of the other "collection" agencies? How depressing. At least I have isohunt.