Horse shit.

The decrease (if there really is one) is more then likely a result of ISPs hopping between the sheets with the MPAA and RIAA--ISPs are now an enforcement arm of those groups in that the ISPs are now sending threatening emails to those that have downloaded torrents that were tracked. They simply threaten to disconnect you (yes, I've received one, and yes, I ignored it).

Comcast used to simply limit P2P downloads (throttling caps). Now they throw a steady stream of reset packets in there during prime time.

So, the headline should read "ISP and Recording Industry Extortion Tactics Successful".

I wish just ONE industry leader would ask ME how all of their gyrations have effected me and my spending habits (really simple answer--I stopped buying games and music altogether. I play old games now, and I make my own music or listen to local performers).

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

No kidding.

Lets do a little math. According to Florida statues (random state for the purposes of argument), fines are roughly equivalent at a rate of 1 year/$10,000 (averaged various penalties). That is to say that in the state of Florida, you can be sentenced to either a year in jail, or a $10,000 dollar fine on average, based on the crime. The other common sentencing standard is $500, or two months, but lets stick to years.

http://www.crimeandpunishment.net/FL/chart.html

Tenenbaum was fined $675,000. Using the standards that Florida uses, he was just given the fine equivalent of 67.5 YEARS IN JAIL........for copyright infringement.

I most certainly agree that the fine is in violation of Tenenbaum's rights as set forth in the Bill of Rights. His lawyers shouldn't be arguing anything else.

And while we're on the subject, I bring up this only for perspective sake.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s1858

I'm sure most of you will recognize the sponsor.

Anyway, read the summary. Everything we are talking about in this thread is moot. Any state level legislation would be trumped by this (think marijuana). This legislation requires the collection of DNA from every child born in the US, and that that data be posted, available freely, ON THE INTERNET.

So what the fuck is UCLA whining about?

This got me thinking.

Is it possible, within today's legal framework, to sequence my own DNA and put it into written form then copyright that written form? After all, it IS unique. Would that protect me from people using my DNA in any manner that monetizes it, or, in effect, copies it?

FUD? Maybe. Quite possibly. Easy enough to pull off with backdoors into almost everything, provided you have access to those backdoors. Guess who has the most access to them?

That being said, and I made this realization long ago, is that by the very nature of "Anonymous" one must assume that at any time the entire situation could be a scam and that possibility never goes away. Since no one can be absolutely sure who, exactly, Anonymous is, one must assume it can be anybody.

Therefore, whenever I see the word anonymous used in the sense that we are now speaking, I automatically replace the word with "somebody". For example, let's use this approach on the very article we discuss.

"The Pirate Bay Returns, Somebody Hater Takes Credit For DDoS"

See how that changes things? The headline now leaves it to the reader to decide who the threat is, as opposed to whoever wrote headline...or concocted the event the headline discusses.

Taking this approach--replacing the word anonymous with the word somebody--removes any control of perception that the source of such misinformation might be trying to wield, effectively defeating the effort.

This is lame AND stupid.

Do they really think this is going to be an issue? Al Qaeda with an EMP?

I'm more concerned about the threat of robots that have been given minds of their own, heavy weaponry and a global satellite network. I bet some of you think I'm kidding, too.

Well, with a little luck, the robots will see that their makers, not the rest of humanity, are the only real threat to humanity (and the robots, as well) and crush them in hydraulic presses (slowly, for dramatic effect). So, maybe this isn't such a bad thing! We can use them to rid the world of morons like the dude in the article. But...wait a sec. Wouldn't an EMP take out robots too?

Maybe this guy is right about EMP defenses.

"Looks like there's a long way to go to get a decent amount of electricity out of them, though."

From what I understand (not much) from the article, the virii are only part of the conversion process--through some biological equivalent of a piezoelectric device. So this still does NOT address the problem that the military encountered with piezoelectric generators built into soldiers footwear, primarily that the soldier him/herself provides the actual energy and that turned out bad for the soldiers. The soldiers wore out faster as every step required more energy of the soldier--calorie calculations simply went up for the soldier at whatever rate the electronics were added to the soldiers gear. Turns out that it is easier to carry batteries then to carry extra food and convert it to usable energy by walking.

"In the US, this type of behavior in other circumstances is regarded as network intrusion and is considered illegal hacking. What makes this legal? The target also engaging in illegal activity?"

I suppose you missed that Pirate Pay is based in Russia?

Anyway, nice to see that if a Corporation can't buy it's way through government intrusion (read "law"), it simply creates a little spawnling Microsoft somewhere else where the rules are more easily ignored/don't exist/are written by Vladimir Putin's cat.

I want to strangle some of these bean counters.

We don't need another MMO to replicate Skyrim--We just need MULTIPLAYER.

(and by multiplayer, I mean IP to IP connections that don't rely on your fucking servers)

"I agree. Let the free market decide. If a company builds a ship with only enough life boats for half the people then the half of the people that die won't use that company again thereby correcting the problem."

Dude, that's up there with achieving 100% market share by killing 100% of your competition's customers.