The RIAA/MPAA Strategic Plan for intellectual property enforcement

The Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator is soliciting comments from organizations regarding forming a strategic plan for intellectual property enforcement in the US.

RIAA, MPAA and other organizations have submitted their joint comment.

The EFF is calling out some of the most “interesting” aspects of that comment.

RIAA/MPAA want consumers to install anti-copyright infringement on their home computers. Think of it as a sort of virus scanner, but for illegal files instead.

They also want all network providers to scan their network traffic and prevent copyright infringement happening on their networks. At least they’re only asking for reasonable measures.

They want increased searches on US borders, and add declarations in the US customs forms for intellectual property. What this would mean is that next time you come into the US from abroad, and your iPod has ripped music on it, you’d have to disclose that to the US Customs officers and most likely have the iPod confiscated (and face possible sanctions).

They want the US Government to pressure other Governments to adopt more copyright friendly policies.

And finally they want the DOJ and DHS to hunt down pirates at the tax-payers’ expense.

Fascism is well and alive in our entertainment industry.

-TPP

The War Against WikiLeaks

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com writes about the escalating war against WikiLeaks.org by the United States Government.

WikiLeaks.org is a non-profit organization devoted to exposing Government and corporate corruption around the world. It’s published a number of embarrassing documents about CIA, The Pentagon and other branches of the US Government. As a result they’ve found themselves a target of around the clock surveillance and at least on one occasion a WikiLeaks volunteer, who is underaged, was detained and questioned by (allegedly) US State Department and CIA personnel in Iceland.

You gotta wonder when exactly did the US Government forget the reason the United States was formed.

-TPP

Finally proper sanctions for identity theft

Alberto Gonzales has been sentenced for 20 years in the slammer for stealing credit and debit card information from an unsecured wireless network of T.J. Maxx and then pilfering the accounts for millions of dollars at ATMs around the country.

Hopefully this is a first of many hard sentences against credit card scammers.

-TPP

The Y2Gay Problem

The Y2Gay problem is similar to the Y2K problem; databases have been designed with certain assumptions that no longer hold true.

In this case the databases assume that marriage is between one man and one woman.

The author of the article discusses in a pretty entertaining way on how to design a database that supports other types of marriages (incl. polygamy).

-TPP

Murders at Guantanamo Bay

Harper’s Magazine writes about a cover-up of murders of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners June 9th 2006.

The article convincingly documents how interrogators transferred three prisoners from their prison cells to a “black site” outside of the regular prison compound and tortured and killed them. The commanding officers at Guantanamo Bay then covered up the murders as suicides.

After a whistleblower came forward the Department of Justice also participated in the cover-up.

-TPP

TSA has a new logo

Security expert Bruce Schneier is soliciting ideas for a new TSA logo and motto. The contest is going really well so far.

-TPP

I’m with Coco!

I’m with Coco!

Down with NBC!

-TPP

I think I’m going to hurl

This week’s stats:

1 sick child
4 incidents of projectile vomit per day
3 hours of mopping vomit off the floors per day
6 loads of laundry per day
2 completely exhausted and stressed out parents

Please, for the love of God, Ava, get well, soon.

If anyone’s asking, I had the best vacation ever.

-TPP

AT&T and iPhone, a dysfunctional couple

Consumerist.com is reporting that iPhones are not currently offered to customers of AT&T in New York City (incl. suburbs) due to capacity problems with the AT&T cell network. Several other sources have independently confirmed it.

How fucking awesome is that.

AT&T PR should have a fairly busy day tomorrow trying to spin this. I can’t wait.

Say, Google, what’s the release date of Nexus One again?

-TPP

Iron Chef Morimoto and I

A friend of mine is visiting the US and NYC for the holidays. I took him and his girlfriend over to Morimoto for dinner.

Iron Chef Morimoto was visiting the restaurant and was gracious enough to come and say hi and pose for photos. Awesome! My wife and I watch Iron Chef America all the time!

I took out my iPhone to take some photos, and Mr. Morimoto sees the wallpaper image on my iPhone and asks if that’s my daughter. I say yes, and he shows his iPhone and the wallpaper image of his “baby”. He’s got a picture of his little puppy on his iPhone. I ask him which one is cuter, and he says for him it’s the puppy. Cheeky fella 🙂

The food, btw, was ridiculously good.

-TPP