A "red herring" and "wag the dog" can have very similar meanings. But they're not exclusive. The concept of a secondary part controlling the whole is what gives "wag the dog" meaning. But focusing on that is missing the significance of the concept. To "wag the dog" does, in fact, mean to create an event to distract from another event. The concept differs somewhat form a red herring in so far as it implies action while a red herring could be misinformation or undue attention to a minor detail.

As it is, this story about the RIAA might be better described as a red herring; they're focusing attention on social deviants rather than the issue of copyright enforcement. If the RIAA were wagging the dog, they would be hiring someone to pose as social deviants to generate some news with the intent of drawing media attention away from stories that the RIAA's data on the impact of copyright infringement is largely manufactured.

Thanks for showing us just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

No - Wag the Dog is when you generate an event to distract from another event. Have you actually seen the movie?

I can see why people like to toss around phrases like "false flag" and "wag the dog". They're emotionally charged statements that invoke a lot of passion without much requirement to actually understand the concept, much less think about the application thereof. One can invoke "false flag" and get a lot of riders to jump on your bandwagon even though this situation has absolutely nothing to do with a "false flag" tactic. Kind of like what the RIAA is doing in invoking lulzsec, et al. Wait a second. I see what you did there...

Are you or are you not putting forward the claim that lulzsec and anonymous are false-flag operations? You don't get to have it both ways.

I find it amazing that people keep wanting to push around the "false flag" meme. Can't the RIAA simply be opportunistic parasites taking advantage of other's activities? You know. Like record executives.

And there's a difference between an amateur who portrays himself as a lawyer and one who portrays themselves as a doctor? The "well informed" amateur may still do just as much damage no matter how well intended (or uncaring). The issue is whether someone really does understand the risk or not. The law is there to make it very plain that someone lacks the qualifications that would otherwise suggest less risk.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use tools like home medical guides to handle simple ailments / first-aid. In that light, I'm not saying that guides / software that help you go through basic decision paths to generate uncomplicated legal documents is a bad thing. But just because some litigious ass is hell-bent on confusing the tool with the intent to practice the trade doesn't mean we should toss out laws that limit the damage done by other charlatans.

Like most get-rich-quick industries, this just means its become more profitable to get out of the game and sell people kits to spam their way to fabulous over-night wealth. Not that its anything new in itself; that scam has been going on almost as long as spam itself.

No kidding. It's all a scam. It's like those big pharmaceutical companies. They're all in it to stop honest snake-oil peddlers from exposing the healthcare industry secrets and costing them millions.

Or... you know... maybe some pursuits require a minimal amount of preparation and licensing to show that you've managed at least that minimum less you do serious damage to someone's life by merit of fast talking alone.

I would be a bit skeptical. When the last expansion hit, you had players who had play-tested the beta and hit the ground running to go from 80 - 85 in ~5hrs. 1 - 80 in ~19hrs might be possible. But in any case - we're talking experienced players running a strategy as efficiently as possible.

When I run new characters for fun, I hit 10 in about an hour. Usually hit 20s on the 2nd day. But I've been playing since the start. I understand the mechanics of the game. And occasionally, I gift my lowbies with gear. I would expect casual players just starting out to get a good several days if not weeks of poking around before they hit the cap. More so if they try out different character classes.

As for advertisements - bah. You might not have noticed, but occasionally /. talks about games and has been talking about WoW in various ways since before it was first released. Arguably, before it was even WoW.

Amazing. We've gone from general purpose computing with hundreds of thousands of stores all providing software to if it's not in one location, it doesn't exist. All within a generation.

I suspect those who know what a torrent is and how to use it will have no problem changing a setting and checking a bookmark.

Most Android environments do not require the Market to install apps (I say most because inevitably someone's customized Android environment will force you to use their market).