The Prime Minister is properly addressed by his first name, Sigmundur, not "Gunnlaugsson," which is not surname like we use in English but a patronymic (his father is named Gunnlaug). Icelandic name.

And similarly, 39 digits of pi will let you calculate a sphere the size of the observable universe with an error the width of a single hydrogen atom.

And I'm still seeding the DefDist MegaPack v4.2 and will continue to do so.

These idiots always like coming up with pithy and (in their opinion) appropriate names for their laws, so here's a suggestion for this one: The Send Your Customers Over Seas Act, or SYCOS Act for short. Why? Because this will drive anyone interested in privacy to overseas email providers like Startmail, a company who intentionally set themselves up outside U.S. jurisdiction for reasons exactly like this.

Yeah, because a piece of paper pinched out by the government is going to stop people from sharing information.

3D-printed gun blueprints are on the Pirate Bay (for example). They're hosted on overseas websites. When the first story about the government forcing the author to take down the DefDist package came out, I made copies and posted them to six different domains I own (for example). If this regulation passes, I, and I'm sure plenty of other people, will step up their efforts to spread such files wider and wider.

Vernor Vinge wrote a novel in 1992 that referred to technology like this as dust motes.

...the plot to a really terrible movie.

Cops are hoping to catch people engaging in illegal sales, and who are actually dumb enough to take up the cops on this offer to use the parking lot as a safe haven? (If you think this isn't possible, look around for stories about idiots calling the cops because someone stole their stash, or the idiots with outstanding warrants who get lured to the police station by the PD running a raffle and claiming the person won an item they can pick up at the station.)

Cops have installed spiffy new facial recognition software in their surveillance system, and they want to start keeping track of the cash transactions that take place via CraigsList?

There is simply no way this is actually a good faith attempt to benefit the citizenry here. None.

In other news, the same research group has improved the accuracy of entrail reading by including other internal organs, doubled the accuracy of palm reading by using both hands, and are now hard at work devising ever-larger crystal balls in the hopes of refining their accuracy beyond "total bullshit."

So is the DRM broken yet?

No? I'll check back in 10 minutes...

Headline: Kim Dotcom Regrets Not Taking Copyright Law and MPAA "More Seriously"

Article: "My biggest regret is I didn't take the threat of the copyright law and the MPAA seriously enough," Dotcom said ...

Big difference between taking the law seriously and taking the threat of the law seriously. The headline implies that there's some sort of actual legitimacy to the law and that he's almost apologetic for doing something "wrong." The actual quote however is just a recognition that the government thugs are the thugs they are and the threat they represent is real.

[T]here was no reason for such firms to be willing to cooperate with state agencies over child abuse ...

That sentence ought to end right there.