Soap Box

It's Better to Rob Peter than Download Paul... Or something

Michael Cook — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 04:17:00 GMT

Karl Wagenfuehr points out the laughably disproportionate penalties for downloading movies versus actually stealing them:

For stealing the DVD you could face no more than up to 1 year imprisonment and up to a $100,000 fine; for downloading the same material you could face statutory damages of up to $3,300,000, costs and attorney's fees (ie: the other guy's attorneys), as well as up to 1 year imprisonment, and up to a $100,000 fine...Am I alone in thinking there is something really, really wrong here?

No, no you're not.

Snoozer Bowl

Michael Cook — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 11:44:00 GMT

This year's SuperBowl HalfTime show was easily the least memorable in history. When you remove the absolute possibility of anything exciting happening you get dry, boring, entertainment free television. Nothing, absolutely nothing unexpected happened, no Ringo, no special guest stars. Hell I wouldn't have minded Britney Spears butchering some Wings, at least it would have been interesting. It's like they didn't even try.

Nothing against Paul McCartney mind you, he's a great musician and seems like a great guy, but a 12 minute excerpt of a P.M. concert with 20 years old songs is not SuperBowl worthy TV, it's not even PrimeTime TV. It's something I would expect to see on a Time-Life infomercial at 3AM. Lame.

I'll take Janet Jackson's left breast over Paul McCartney every time (sorry Paul). Perhaps you'll offend a few people who's sense of reality can be shattered by a partially clothed black woman, but it's worth it for great Television. You can't go wrong with tits.

"I'm surrounded by Assholes" - Dark Helmet

Michael Cook — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:48:00 GMT

Well don't I feel special, I've officially been blogging long enough to get comment spam! Yaaaay! I mean Boooo! Hopefully the next version of .Text will address this issue (here's hoping), I already have plenty of viagra and penis enlargement pills.

Required Reading

Michael Cook — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 00:59:00 GMT

Cory Doctorow from the EFF has put up a transcription from a talk on DRM he recently presented at Microsoft. It is a very eloquent explanation of exactly why DRM (Digital Rights Management) is bad for artists, publishers, software makers, society as a whole, and why it plain won't work.