Rants

What really grinds my gears or signs that the world is coming to an end

An Open Letter to Dan Glickman

In response to a statement made by MPAA President Dan Glickman (.doc format) regarding the appearance of Revenge of the Sith on BitTorrent:

Dear Mr. Glickman,

You are a bastard. How dare you lodge such complaints against the public without first realizing your own fallacies and the crimes you have committed against the public. You are a menace to society and America and should be tried for treason.

First, you need to realize that BitTorrent is an absolutely ingenious way of transmitting files, no matter what the size or content. You yourself state that piracy will “undermine legitimate businesses that strive to unite technology and content in innovative and legal ways.”

What are you doing to BitTorrent then? BitTorrent is a legitimate business that has strived to unite technology and content in innovative and legal ways. Just because people choose to use a legal and legitimate product for illegal and illegitimate purposes is no reason to ban it or make it illegal. This has been upheld in 1984’s Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios. Where would the movie industry be if the video tape industry never thrived? No where. You, good sir, would be dead.

Your knee-jerk reaction and failure to analyze the long term effect of what you are doing will undoubtedly lead you to your own end. If you wish to be able to make movie content available online, you will need a method of transporting it. Using current methods (BitTorrent-type technology not included), it will literally take days to download just ONE movie. If you embrace the clever ways of BitTorrent, you stand to actually make progress with the general population with regards to providing movies online because such methods will be far faster — an essential requirement in today’s fast paced society.

Second, the MPAA and members of the MPAA are conducting a regime similar to that of Cuba. In fact, you are no better than Fidel Castro himself! Companies such as Disney have used and continue to use their financial strong-arm to gain unlimited control of their content for an unlimited time.
For example, Disney’s Mickey Mouse copyright “was due to expire in 2003.” The obvious implication of this, at least for Disney, was lost revenue. Furthermore, a majority of Mickey’s gang was also due to retire, so to speak, a few years down the road. Even more lost revenue for Disney. But why let this happen? Disney lobbied congress, holding over $6 million in annual Congressional donations over their heads, and the Sonny Bono Term Extension Act was born. This completely rips to shreds existing regulations and was even challenged to be unconstitutional in the Supreme Court, although that attempt failed. Never-the-less, companies that belong the MPAA, RIAA, and organizations of the such are fearing for their lives as they slowly lose control of their product to the public domain. And don’t think people don’t hear about this either. As I see it, “illegally” downloading movies and music is really just a fair trade for what you have done to the public domain. I would have no moral quarrels doing it, if that were what I chose to do. Did I mention you are a cunt, too? Because you are.

Now let me point out something reallyinteresting. What is the original source of the Revenge of the Sith files? What? I can’t hear you! Oh that’s right. Someone from WITHIN the studio leaked them. How ironic. You can’t control your own people so you decided to cry fowl on everyone else. That just makes me sick.
So, let’s recap real quick here. Dan Glickman is both a bastard and a cunt. The MPAA (and RIAA for that matter) like to shoot themselves constantly, and if it weren’t for our court system, they would be dead. The MPAA (and RIAA) have an anxiety separation disorder (can someone prescribe some Paxil for them?) with their beloved content. Then the MPAA can’t find the culprit from within their own organization, they point the finger at everyone else and complain that they started it. And Dan Glickman is a cunt and a bastard…opps, I already said that. Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to say it again. Feel free to respond to this letter in what ever way you feel best, including ignoring me, your client. However, I reserve the right to take your silence as a legally binding confession of guilt. (You like changing the rules, so I thought I might change a few too…kind of annoying isn’t it?) I think I’ll also reserve the right to take your silence as a legally binding confirmation that you are Lucifer as well (see attached picture).

Best Wishes,

Andrew Ferguson

0

RIAA has fit over DR

by Andrew Ferguson

AndrewFerguson.NET

Based on content from:

Reuters and the Associated Press

In what amounts to little more than a surreptitious plot to take over the world, the RIAA has submitted a proposal to the FCC to limit the use and features of Digital Radio. The proposed limits would deny users the opportunity to use several of Digital Radio’s features, including metadata tags and CD quality sound, broadcast over conventional AM, FM, and even satellite radio. The RIAA says the proposals are intended to prevent users from “recording certain songs automatically when they are broadcast, allowing them to build a free library of music they otherwise might pay for and distribute it to millions of others over the Internet.” However, the RIAA’s proposal is simply another way to control content that is based on a 20 plus-year-old standard that provided state of the art sound in late 80’s to mid 90’s. Since then, higher fidelity formats have been developed and implemented, such as SACD and DVD-Audio, however, the RIAA has refused to adopt such formats in masse. So what then does this all boil down to? Many things actually. First and foremost, the RIAA among many other conglomerates are abusing the American Justice system by continuously extending the length of copyrights. In a time not so long ago, copyrights used to last for 14 years, plus the option for a 14 year extension. That was less than 80 years ago. Since then, copyrights can now last well over a century with current laws usually giving the lifetime of the creator plus an additional 70 years. This amounts to complete corporate control over all major songs, books, and cartoon characters. This is a completely ridiculous number and completely circumvents the entire point of copyright laws, which was to offer the creator of the content the initial exclusive rights because they developed the idea, but then to release the content to the general public so that it could be improved upon. This obviously is not happening now…at least not in the legal sense. Second, the RIAA is refusing to recognize that CDs are the millennia’s version of cassette tape. Once mainstream, they are an incredible piece of antiquated technology that should be completely abolished as soon as possible in favor for better formats, such as DVD and the impending Blue Disc standard. Also, incredible research has been conducted on complete solid state memory devices that utilize holographic storage techniques to store data in a 3 dimensional format. The CD is dead and the RIAA needs to figure that out if they don’t want to go bankrupt.

0

Absolutely Ridiculous!

This is absolutely ridiculous! Who would ever want to go to a school like this? All I have to say is that Bob Jones sucks, and I would bet that Bob Dole thinks that Bob Jones sucks and is a disgrace to all people named Bob….or Jones. From Bob Jones University

Residence Hall Life

Residence Hall Life

  • A student must live in one of the University residence halls unless he is living with parents or
    other close relatives (approved by the Dean of Men’s or Dean of Women’s office), is 23 years old or
    older, is married and over the age of 20, or is a graduate student.
  • Freshmen may request a roommate. Other students are allowed one request for a friend to be in their
    prayer group, on their hall, or in their residence hall, but not in their room.
  • For the sake of accountability, students must "check out" when they leave the campus. Students
    gradually acquire more freedom in this area as they become upperclassmen.
  • Each night all students meet for prayer, either as a room or together with several other rooms.
  • Students are required to be in their own rooms and quiet at 11 pm. All lights must be out by midnight.
  • Students are required to keep their rooms clean and neat. Rooms are inspected daily.
  • Facilities and furnishings:
    • Laundry facilities are provided.
    • All rooms are furnished with twin-sized beds, dressers, desks, closets, cupboards, sink,
      telephone, and blinds.
    • Computer network and high-speed Internet access is available in each residence hall room.
  • An email account is provided for each student. Due to the flood of objectionable content coming
    through outside email services, students may use only this filtered campus email system.
  • All wireless access to the Internet is forbidden since all Internet use must go through the
    University’s filtered access.

What to Bring

  • List of what to bring pdf
  • Students may bring automobiles to campus. However, underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) who are under
    21 years old may use their vehicles only to drive home and for extension.
  • Cell phones are permitted. Students will be instructed in cell phone etiquette.

What Not to Bring

  • Posters of movie and music stars and fashion models are not permitted. The subjects of personal photos
    should exhibit the modesty and appropriate physical contact we expect from our students.
  • Music must be compatible with the University’s music standards:
    • New Age, jazz, rock, and country music is not permitted.
    • Contemporary Christian music is not permitted (e.g., Michael W. Smith, Stephen Curtis Chapman,
      WOW Worship, and so forth).
  • Televisions and DVD/videocassette players are not permitted in the residence halls; computer DVD players
    may not be used to view movies.
  • You may not possess or play computer and video games rated T, M, or A or having elements of blood and
    gore, sensual or demonic themes, or featuring suggestive dress, bad language, or rock music.
  • Due to space considerations, appliances such as mini-refrigerators and microwaves are not permitted in
    residence hall rooms. A refrigerator for medical-related needs and microwaves are provided in each
    residence hall.
  • Residence hall students may not watch videos above a G rating when visiting homes in town and may not
    attend movie theaters.
  • All weapons must be turned in for storage. Trigger locks are required for pistols. Fireworks are not
    permitted on campus.

I think I’m going to write a email to query why BJ has this particular stance

0

Let’s try this again…ahem: YOU DON’T GET IT SENS. HATCH AND LEAHY

  • Rants

Nothing pushes my buttons like idiots doing blatenly stupid things, except, perhaps, idiots with power doing blatenly stupid things. Such is the case of Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) who are the sponsers of the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (SB2560). What is so bad about this particular act? Well let’s start with everything. Yes, everything. There is nothing in this bill that should ever be allowed to see the light of day. The Act is designed “stop rampant copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks.” (wired.com, New Induce Act Alarms Foes) However, the scope of the bill goes WAY beyond society defined peer-to-peer networks. The bill would literally end the development of any kind of data sharing programs becuase such a program could be used to illegally transfer music. You have got to be kidding me. I will again default to both the 1984 Betamax Decision and the more recent Federal P2P decision. The ’84 Betamax Decision “ruled that devices with ‘substantial non-infringing uses’ are legal.” (wired.com, Tech Groups Want Induce Hearings). While the August 19th P2P ruling upheld a district courts finding that Peer-to-peer services are legal. Judge Sydney Thomas, one of three judges on the panel overhearing the case noted, “History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player. Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.” Sounds like he get’s it. I vote Judge Thomas for Senate. Any seconds?

0

Homemade Cookies for Dummies

  • Rants

In the words of Alec Trebek on SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy, “We have reached a new low.” Indeed. While at Safeway getting my prescription filled, I came across Homemade Cookies for Dummies. Basically, just add water and you have your own homemade cookies, dummy. What has this world come to? Oh that’s right…lazyness and obese people. If you want to complain about it, walk or run on over.

0

When you speak in a monotone voice, I have no idea what you are saying

I got my Calc 1 test back: 52/100. Not the worst score possible. But this score reinforces a few facts about life. First, no matter how hard a student tries, if the teacher sucks, the student will fail. This brings me to my second point, and title of the blog, if you speak in a monotone voice, I have no idea what you are saying. I didn’t realize how complicated speaking is until I started listening to my calculus teacher drone on and on. The fact of the matter is speach is a very complicated activity. The listener is alerted to specific points about what your talking about based on the inflection of your voice. If you speak monotone the entire freaking time, I CAN NOT DECERN WHAT IS IMPORTANT AND WHAT IS NOT. However, knowing me, there is always a solution to every problem, even when there isn’t a problem…or a solution. In this case, I have both. So I’m going to this other Calc class that meets at the exact same time. I’m going to see if I like it, and if I do, I am going to do everything in my power to transfer into that class. Even if the registrar hates me afterwards. I don’t need to take Calc 1 a third time.

0

iPod Saga Continues

My iPod saga continues as my 20GB 3rd Gen iPod still is not working. I’ve taken it to BestBuy several times now, all with no change and I’m really getting fed up. Tomorrow I’m bribing my apartment mate to take to BestBuy where I hope to convince them that they need to replace my iPod, not “repair it” (read as: send to a lab where they can reformat and reinstall, but not actually fix anything). If that doesn’t work, I plan on finding an Apple store where they should be able to replace it on the spot.

0

Some people just don’t get it

  • Rants

If you’ve known me for any amount of time, you should probably know that I have big issues with copyright laws, specifically the move towards putting power (and money) in he hands of corporate conglomerates and taking it away from the consumer. For those of you who don’t know the basic reasoning behind copyright laws, here’s the basic rundown:

Copyright laws exists to protect a product from duplication for period of time so that the original creator of such item may profit from its development and recoup costs of development (if any). After the period of time has expired, the product become public domain so that others may produce the product (thus making it cheaper to purchase) and to improve upon said product (thus advancing the product).

The latest people to not get this message are Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), sponsors of The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (SB2560). The bill “would hold technology companies liable for encouraging people to infringe copyright.” (wired.com) Among other things, such legislation would put the fear of God in to the minds of many developers of network tools that are designed for multi-user communication. It would also hamper the development of file-sharing programs and programs that including file-sharing features. Not suprisingly, many music labels and Hollywood are in support of this legislation, proving that they too just don’t get it. It also proves that the music and movie industry doesn’t realize that antiquated forms of audio transmission, that is CD’s, just don’t cut it anymore…especially at $15+ a pop. Perhaps even more amazing is the similarity to the “1984 Supreme Court Sony Betamax decision, which found that products capable of substantial non-infringing uses, such as home video recorders, are legal.” (wired.com). The “Sony Betamax doctrine” clearly applies to SB2560.

I think that if a Congressman tries to pass a bill that is in conflict with an outstanding Supreme Court Decision, they should be banned from politics for life and assessed a $5 million dollar fine for the time and money of the American people they have wasted.

0

7B and a Fat Lady

Well, after much fanageling, I finally got on a flight to Denver. Originally, I was going to fly standby, but the flights were pretty much booked solid. So I used some airline points and got a ticket…next to a fat lady. For all those who don’t know, seat 7B on a 737-300 is the center seat on the left side of the plane. On United, it also happens to be an Economy Plus seat with 17″ of width. This lady was obviously larger then that. She easily extended at least 4 inches into my space (reducing it down to 13″). Her thigh was at least one and a half times bigger then my head. Furthermore, I couldn’t put my arm rest down which prevented me from reclining my seat. The list does go on and I have to admit that times I just wanted to “fall asleep” and plop my head on to her gushy arm…and then start drooling and refuse to wake up until we landed. To some of you (perhaps persons with a BMI over 30) might find this cruel. And it would be cruel if fat people could not control their weight. Yes, I know that some of it is genetics; but I’m talking about the REALLY large people who obviously eat $25 dollars worth on the dollar menu. A poll on Forbes.com shows that 51% of people polled think that airlines should “charge the obese full price for every seat they take up.” I couldn’t agree more. Southwest airlines has had a policy like that in place for almost 25 years. Anyways, at least I’m in Colorado now, although the weather is sucking pretty bad right now. I move in on Friday. Oh crap…

0