Month: June 2005

Soros wants to ruin baseball

This is a very shocking story: Major League Baseball hasn’t narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league’s antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros , an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, … Continue reading “Soros wants to ruin baseball”

This is a very shocking story:

Major League Baseball hasn’t narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league’s antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros , an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, buys the team.

Rather than mess with baseball, I suggest extraditing Soros to Malaysia so he can be prosecuted for currency manipulation; upon his release from the Malaysian prison, he can be sent to the UK for a similar reckoning. But don’t mess with baseball on account of this feckless weasel, it’s unseemly.

If you want to be married for the rest of your life

The key to successful marriage is sexual orientation and gender. gay men have it going on: In Denmark, where homosexuals have been legally able to get hitched (and unhitched) since 1989, it’s a modern reality. But despite stereotypes of gay relationships as short-lived, the divorce rate among Danish homosexuals is only 17 percent, compared to … Continue reading “If you want to be married for the rest of your life”

The key to successful marriage is sexual orientation and gender. gay men have it going on:

In Denmark, where homosexuals have been legally able to get hitched (and unhitched) since 1989, it’s a modern reality. But despite stereotypes of gay relationships as short-lived, the divorce rate among Danish homosexuals is only 17 percent, compared to 46 percent for heterosexuals. Can gay Danes teach us something about lasting marital bliss?…

The vast majority of gay marriages in Denmark are male-male, and only 14 percent of these end in divorce, compared to 23 percent of female marriages. The higher rate for lesbians is consistent with data showing that women initiate most of the heterosexual divorces in Denmark. (In the United States, women request about two-thirds of divorces.)

Gay men know that divorce leads to alimony, and that sucks, so to speak.

Grokster behind the times

The Grokster web site still highlights the Ninth Circuit decision on their service that the SCOTUS reversed today: GROKSTER WINS! THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT IN THE CASE OF MGM vs GROKSTER AFFIRMED THE DISTRICT COURT’S PREVIOUS RULING. Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed … Continue reading “Grokster behind the times”

The Grokster web site still highlights the Ninth Circuit decision on their service that the SCOTUS reversed today:

GROKSTER WINS!

THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT IN THE CASE OF MGM vs GROKSTER AFFIRMED THE DISTRICT COURT’S PREVIOUS RULING.

Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the previous District Court ruling denying the motion picture and recording industries request to shut Grokster down.

This is an important ruling for the technology community as a whole not merely the peer-to-peer community. This ruling clarified four important points, as presented by Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Click here for more on MGM v. Grokster Ruling.

When they get around to updating, I doubt the new ruling will be so prominently displayed.

Grantsmen at Ground Zero

Mickey Kaus wasn’t impressed by the NY Times’ editorial plea for an anti-American museum at the Trade Center site. New York grantsmen don’t need any more nurturing: But this isn’t an institution we need in the first place. Do the 9/11 attacks have to become the occasion for the creation of yet another well-upholsetered non-profit … Continue reading “Grantsmen at Ground Zero”

Mickey Kaus wasn’t impressed by the NY Times’ editorial plea for an anti-American museum at the Trade Center site. New York grantsmen don’t need any more nurturing:

But this isn’t an institution we need in the first place. Do the 9/11 attacks have to become the occasion for the creation of yet another well-upholsetered non-profit boondoggle for public intellectuals and granstmen, and the NYT culture critics who write about them? There are already plenty of institutions in Manhattan where the “vital impulses represented by the arts” can and do express themselves. The hollow, pompous rhetoric already generated by the Freedom Center’s defenders–“nurture a global conversation about freedom in our world today”–demonstrates that it is a highly unpromising venue for this expression.

He’s right and the Times is wrong. And pretentious.

Jeff Jarvis is also right.

Visual Guide to Today’s Rulings

This is a very interesting summary of the votes on today’s Supreme Court decisions. Before you look at it, guess which justices were most frequently in the minority and which were most frequently in the majority. That tells you who the radical justices are.

This is a very interesting summary of the votes on today’s Supreme Court decisions. Before you look at it, guess which justices were most frequently in the minority and which were most frequently in the majority. That tells you who the radical justices are.

Grokster

Sure enough, the flower-power people are stompin’ mad over the Grokster deal, calling it “thought crime” and the end of the world: “Today the Supreme Court has unleashed a new era of legal uncertainty on America’s innovators,” said Fred von Lohmann, EFF’s senior intellectual property attorney. “The newly announced inducement theory of copyright liability will … Continue reading “Grokster”

Sure enough, the flower-power people are stompin’ mad over the Grokster deal, calling it “thought crime” and the end of the world:

“Today the Supreme Court has unleashed a new era of legal uncertainty on America’s innovators,” said Fred von Lohmann, EFF’s senior intellectual property attorney. “The newly announced inducement theory of copyright liability will fuel a new generation of entertainment industry lawsuits against technology companies. Perhaps more important, the threat of legal costs may lead technology companies to modify their products to please Hollywood instead of consumers.”

The thing is, the consumer isn’t locked in to some death battle with Hollywood; as long as Hollywood has reasonable protections, they’ll release lots of programming in MPEG format, and if they don’t they won’t. So we all benefit from the balance struck by the court in their unanimous Grokster decision. Here’s the way Cardozo law professor Susan Crawford put it:

Today’s Grokster opinion is a victory for content AND for technology. I was afraid that Sony would be undermined — and it wasn’t. The content guys were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to go after bad guys — and they’ve been given ammunition. What we’ve got is an opinion that is balanced and middle-of-the-road. It leaves Sony’s “substantial noninfringing use” standard alone (yes, the concurring Justices snipe back and forth about what that standard means, but that doesn’t matter), it doesn’t adopt any formless Aimster balancing test, and it says strongly that you can’t impute intent to technology. A good day for innovation. And a good day for Congressional staff, who won’t have to deal with some request for Induce legislation — we’re done.

And if you don’t think the whole purpose of Grokster was theft, I want some of what you’re smoking.

Here are a few relevant links:

* Wall St. Journal rountable
* Copyfight
* How Appealing
* SCOTUSblog, and here‘s their Grokster post.
* Ernest Miller’s blog, where you’ll find several posts:

I can’t stress enough that a unanimous Supreme Court issued a victory for the rule of law. The other parties in this case created systems that were made for the purpose of facilitating copyright infringment, the taking of music and movies. Taking from the people who put their sweat into making things we enjoy. The constitution protects this, It is in the constitution because they knew we needed this incentive to create something that we might all enjoy. This is a ruling that everyone who creates music, books are entitled to protection under the Constitution. When people create a product to help people take this content, they will be liable for it. All nine justices agree with this principle.

* Freedom to Tinker
The full text of the Supreme Court’s Grokster ruling (PDF, 55 pages).

No comment yet from Lessig, but Gillmor and Blankenhorn are miserable. Here’s Gillmor:

The Supreme Court has given the entertainment cartel and emerging broadband duopoly just what they wanted. You, and innovation, lost.

The high court said that Grokster and other file-sharing companies can be sued if their products are designed for copyright infringement and don’t have safeguards to protect copyrighted material.

And here’s Blankenhorn:

With this decision — a unanimous decision as opposed to the 6-3 Betamax ruling — I guarantee you the industry’s lawyers will try and turn this into open season on the Internet.

So it’s either the dawn of a new era of innovation, or the end of the world. Or maybe it’s just same-old, same-old.

10 Commandments

Scrappleface cracks me up: (2005-06-27) — In a pair of rulings on the constitutionality of the 10 Commandments on government property, the Supreme Court today said the commandments may be displayed on public land if that property has been seized from private owners for ‘public purposes’ under eminent domain. Hah.

Scrappleface cracks me up:

(2005-06-27) — In a pair of rulings on the constitutionality of the 10 Commandments on government property, the Supreme Court today said the commandments may be displayed on public land if that property has been seized from private owners for ‘public purposes’ under eminent domain.

Hah.

The Internet’s falling apart

It’s not just China that’s whacking the Internet, its under constant attack by hackers and spammers and mis-configured routers. See this insightful article in the Washington Post quoting the people who know: “The Internet is stuck in the flower-power days of the ’60s during which people thought the world would be beautiful if you are … Continue reading “The Internet’s falling apart”

It’s not just China that’s whacking the Internet, its under constant attack by hackers and spammers and mis-configured routers. See this insightful article in the Washington Post quoting the people who know:

“The Internet is stuck in the flower-power days of the ’60s during which people thought the world would be beautiful if you are just nice,” said Karl Auerbach, a former Cisco Systems Inc. computer scientist who volunteers with several engineering groups trying to improve the Internet…

“The problem with the Internet is that anything you do with it now is worth a lot of money. It’s not just about science anymore. It’s about who gets to reap the rewards to bringing safe technologies to people,” said Daniel C. Lynch, 63, who as an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute and at the University of Southern California in the 1970s helped develop the Internet’s framework…

“All this was an experiment. We were trying to figure out whether this technology would work. We weren’t anticipating this would become the telecommunications network of the 21st century,” said Vinton G. Cerf, 62, who with fellow scientist Robert T. Kahn, 66, helped draft the blueprints for the network while it was still a Defense Department research project.

Even as he marveled at the wonders of instant messaging, Napster and other revolutionary tools that would not have been possible without the Internet, Leonard Kleinrock, 71, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who is credited with sending the first message — “lo,” for “log on” — from one computer to another in 1969, began to see the Internet’s dark side. “Right now the Internet is running amok and we are in a very difficult period,” Kleinrock said.

Consequently, an effort is underway to engineer a more robust and resilient Internet2.

Meanwhile back in Flower-Power land, the ersatz civil libertarians and misguided idealists insist all is well. If only they knew the half of it.

Crazy talk

Regarding recent incidents of crazy talk involving Dick Durbin and Karl Rove, we here at Mossback Culture don’t endorse the current trend of calling for apologies and resignations on the basis of insensitive remarks. We believe that all Americans have an obligation to toughen-up a little and not take words as if they were actual, … Continue reading “Crazy talk”

Regarding recent incidents of crazy talk involving Dick Durbin and Karl Rove, we here at Mossback Culture don’t endorse the current trend of calling for apologies and resignations on the basis of insensitive remarks. We believe that all Americans have an obligation to toughen-up a little and not take words as if they were actual, you know, bombs or something.

If you don’t like what these bastards say, vote them (or in Rove’s case, their boss) out of office. But don’t tell me how freaking “offended” you were by some asshole’s “insensitivity” in a time of war or I’ll kick your ass.

Now if you want to complain about beheadings, I’m with you.

How Kinky has fallen

This is a crying shame. Kinky is a Plan II alumnus from UT who’s fallen so low he appeared on TV with skanky Malkin. I don’t know what that boy was thinking. OK, actually I do: Kinky never was one to look down his nose at a skank…that doesn’t sound right. He never was one … Continue reading “How Kinky has fallen”

This is a crying shame. Kinky is a Plan II alumnus from UT who’s fallen so low he appeared on TV with skanky Malkin. I don’t know what that boy was thinking.

OK, actually I do: Kinky never was one to look down his nose at a skank…that doesn’t sound right. He never was one to put on airs around the common people…no, that’s not it either. We’ll have to go all the way back to his sarong-wearing Peace Corps period to make sense of this, for sure. Sigrid would understand.