The American equivalent is the FTC, Federal Trade Commission.

You can complete a complaint form at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

Not sure the best address to use on the form, but here is one of them:

Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.
919 E Hillsdale Blvd 2nd Floor
Foster City Ca 94404-4247

Appropriately, the PS3 blog considers FTC to be a swear word.

Complaining to the BBB is pointless. SCEA already has an F... I don't think they can get an F-.

IANAL

The FTC needs to step into this. I filed a complaint with the FTC earlier this week, it only takes a few minutes, so please do the same if you are a PS3 FAT owner unless you enjoy losing features you paid for. Judging that any post I make on the playstation blog containing the word FTC is instantly censored by string matching, I believe this is what Sony is afraid of.

From the FTC statement on unfairness, "To justify a finding of unfairness the injury must satisfy three tests."
source: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/policystmt/ad-unfair.htm

1. must be substantial - otheros was #2 reason why I purchased the PS3. #1 was bluray. Launch games for the PS3 pretty much sucked. I wanted an all-in-one media box. I figured if media didn't work well in PS3 os, Linux was my backup plan.

2. not be outweighed by other benefits - Prior to firmware 3.21, I could run Linux and connect to PSN. Today I cannot connect to PSN, play Warhawk, or be assured that future BD's or games will work. No benefits were added with firmware 3.21, much less benefits that would outweigh the loss of otheros. System security as a benefit is hypothetical. Hotz created a proof of concept, not a mod chip or a virus.

3. could not be avoided - Due to Sony's use of DRM, I cannot avoid losing features... either otheros or the use of current and future software and BDs. (I am still running 3.20, by the way.)

For more recent FTC statements regarding DRM....

"Mary Engle, an FTC Acting Deputy Director, .... referenced the Sony BMG rootkit debacle, saying that "sellers who use DRM technology to enforce the terms of bargains with consumers need to be particularly careful to disclose in advance" what those bargains are.

And just stuffing the disclosure into the fine print of an End User License Agreement (EULA) isn't good enough. "If your advertising giveth and your EULA taketh away," she said, "don't be surprised if the FTC comes calling."

She stressed that it was not permissible for companies to play Lucy to consumers' Charlie Brown, holding the football and promising that this time she won't yank it away at the last minute. "

source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/ftc-well-come-calling-about-deceptive-drm.ars

Citation needed.

The teacher called in sick and then showed up on the Howard Stern show. She also wasn't fired. She resigned or "was forced to resign", as she claims. In other words, she didn't call their bluff. If she had, she could have spent a couple of years playing solitaire in a rubber room with a full salary until the issue was resolved one way or another. Instead, she was an idiot twice over.

It's easier to proxy before yahoo pipes then after yahoo pipes. Hence skipping to the end. Nevermind, too tired to think and answered my own question.

Last time I tried to use Yahoo Pipes (on InstantWatcher.com), I couldn't build a pipe because Yahoo obeyed the robots.txt file. Redirecting based on referer seems like overkill when they can just change their robots.txt.

That's why I don't think this is the case. Netflix has said that they had help from Sony, so I think it is more likely a PS3 application and not a BD-Live Java application.

According to this article, it was an analyst who believed that the implementation was BD-Live, rather than citing some inside source. I'm still hoping for some more interesting BD-Live Java homebrew....

from http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/26/netflix-ps3-disc-must-remain-in-system-until-2010-update/

Joystiq: Was the PS3 application developed internally by Netflix?

Netflix: Yes, with the help of the Sony team.

Can the Netflix application be installed to the PS3 hard dive from the disc? Or must the disc be inserted every time a user wants to access Netflix?

Yes, the Netflix disc has to be inserted every time to access the Netflix service.

Why not distribute the application via PSN download or firmware update, and then embed it into the XMB?

Again, the instant streaming disc represented the fastest and easiest way to let PS3 enthusiasts get Netflix on the PS3. Late next year we expect to have an embedded solution available for PS3s via a system software update slated for release through the PlayStation Network.

There are three on this list that may or may not meet your criteria.

Funny that you mention Somalia. The rise of Somali piracy is said to be a response to the dumping of toxic waste and overfishing in Somali territorial waters by foreigners and multinationals. The problem with any anarchic community is that its property is considered forfeit by sovereign countries. The threat to these and libertarian communities (such as the seasteading movement) will come from those who refuse to recognize their sovereignty.

The state owns the airwaves, so packet radio wouldn't count by that same reasoning.

Communications companies are heavily regulated because they make use of eminent domain and state granted monopolies. Many of these monopolies are granted as the result of rent seeking and corruption. For a recent example, look at Rudy Giuliani and Fox.

What are you arguing, that the completion of a large expensive venture is only possible with the overhead of government coercion and graft?

Don't tell Burt Rutan, or the next private flight into space might suddenly stop in place and fall to the earth like Wiley Coyote belatedly realizing that he has run off the edge of a cliff.

I was referring to the GGP who had insisted that you had previously bested your future self, but while neglecting to give your previous self the proper credit.

I don't think it matters how many times or how well you express your opinion with so many people blinded by the duopoly. Amazing, that we can have tons of choices for *nix, but all politics has to be left or right.

That said, I think you are spot on.

A free and public international computer network could never have existed without government sponsorship. /sarcasm

Well said.

If people are truly free, they are free create whatever kind of associations they wish, whether it is a commune or a utopian Georgist experiment like Arden, Delaware.

Someone who believes in the authority of the state doesn't want to see these kinds of experiments, like Trotsky believing socialism could only succeed if everyone was forced to be socialist.

Am I missing something?

The CATO article you linked and the posted article linked above are written by the same person. Look at the authors.

Who knows... maybe the guy doesn't get around to reading his own stuff.

Having worked in IT for 9 years at a college, this kind of thing is a nightmare.

One application we used for tracking students allowed a student to enter their SSN, which would then be replaced by their benign student ID and display their name. Even something like this is pretty dangerous.

If I know that most students at the college are going to be residents of a certain, I can limit myself to searching just for SSNs assigned to that state by looking at the first three numbers. The next two numbers are the assignment group, which will vary based on when the SSN was assigned.

But, being from the same area, it was even easier than that. I could assume that there is a good chance that someone might be born in my state and assigned an SSN in the same group as me, which means I only have to guess the last four numbers, starting with the same five numbers that I have. (As a DBA, I had access to all of this information anyways.)

Starting with my SSN, I began incrementing by one. It only took six increments to reach another persons SSN. By using this application, I could type in my variations of a known SSN and find new SSNs, along with the name of the person who belongs to that SSN.

Out of curiosity, I did a 'group by' query on the first five numbers of all the SSNs in the database (roughly 60k SSNs) and found that in the most populous grouping, you would have a 1 in 20 chance of getting an SSN just by guessing the last four numbers of this group.

Exactly.

Bioshock (PS3), which came out last October, is new on Amazon.com for $27.99 with free shipping, while the best price right now through Amazon marketplace for a used copy is $23.19 + $4 shipping. If companies lowered their prices, people would buy the games new. I've never paid $60 for a game, and I never plan to. I'll buy used or wait for a price drop or use Gamefly, if I have the free time to make it worthwhile.