As one whose livelyhood and fortunes have gone from boom to bust over my lifetime, I can attest that living on the cutting edge of technology can disrupt fortunes and futures. As an individual of modest means, my only choice has been to adapt.
The power of basic computing and open networks has revolutionized and democratized. That has threatened the business of governmental tyranny and the big media oligarchy. They will use brute force to hold onto power rather than adapt to take advantage of new technology. The them, the lions share of a shrinking pie is preferable to a dominant position in a rising tide that lifts all fortunes.
New media author and self publishing pioneer Cory Doctorow presents a bleak reality that can only be overcome by the diligence of the average citizen.
The Usenet is a largely ignored service that is as old as the Internet itself. Most of it’s newsgroups are nothing more than special interest message boards where the legal exchange of information and ideas takes place. In it’s early days, developers made it possible to post binary files to distribute open source code to group members. File sharers soon discovered this feature and began to use it as well.
One upon a time, ISP’s provided Usenet access as part of basic service. Hollywood’s first assault on the Usenet targeted ISP servers. When the case couldn’t be made that the Usenet was a pure piracy tool, Hollywood’s minions used the red herring of child protection as leverage to shut down ISP provided Usenet. Usenet has survived, with a handful of independent providers maintaining the network and providing access. Now laws bought and paid for by Hollywood are being used to shut down the independents.
Two years ago BREIN, representing the movie and music industries, took News-Service.com(NSE) to court.
Although the name NSE might not ring a bell with many people, it is the largest usenet provider in Europe and has many high-profile resellers such as Usenext.
Through the court BREIN demanded that the NSE delete all infringing content from its servers, and six weeks ago the Court of Amsterdam sided with the copyright holders.
In an attempt to keep their service operational, NSE asked the Court to put the execution of the verdict on hold while the Usenet provider appealed its case, but this week that request was denied. As a result NSE was forced to shut down its services.
“This means that we are forced to cease our operations with immediate effect,” NSE said in a statement. (Torrentfreak)
With so much intervention taking place in the Interwebs, the Usenet may be last refuge for truly free flowing information exchange. Attacking Usenet access providers to stop piracy is no different than shuttering a public park because a few drug dealers peddle their wares there. Closing access to a public forum is a direct assault on individual freedom and a free and open internet. Any rational person knows the correct course of action is to prosecute few law breakers while allowing the masses to continue enjoying the park. This sort of sloppy, lazy law enforcement will not stop piracy. Killing Usenet will only send pirates to another medium while making the rest of us a little less free.
Did you think Google and Facebook are the only big creepy entities tracking you? Think again.
HP’s dysfunctional board discovers that dumping it’s PC unit actually is a bad idea. Are you as confused as HP’s management seems to be? Imagine how confused the big corporate buyers of HP products are. How many bullets can this board put in its own feet before it finally falls?
Verisign seeks authorization to become the totalitarian tyrant over all .com and .net TLD’s. When you renew your domain, there will be no additional charge for a good flogging! Actually, if enacted, this will make other TLD’s much more attractive and kill the dominance of .com and .net.
Facebook and Ebay ink deal to try making shopping social. Tired old idea but, with Facebook’s technologically unsophisticated masses, this has a chance to get some traction.
We told you so: Removing DRM curbs piracy. It also removes the music industry’s ability to charge you for a new copy of your media for each device you play it on. That’s what DRM was really all about to begin with.
Sony’s PSN gets hacked again. Maybe it’s time to hire a good security consultant or two?
It’s funny how even the most strict constitutionalists in government lose their standards when Hollywood and big music are involved. One can only surmise that the benefits of ignoring the supreme law to benefit big media must be compelling. As a consequence, our intellectual property laws have devolved into a one sided, unconstitutional mess. Enforcement has also devolved. US ICE has been guilty of wholesale domain seizures without due process. Many of those grabbed have been taken purely on suspicion and seized properties have often been held by parties outside of US jurisdiction.
Along with overstepping it’s authority, the collective federal stupidity acts without any understanding of human will and ingenuity. When government restricts access to something people want, a work around is found. With the ease of setting up alternative DNS servers, the feds will be fighting a battle they can’t win. Left to their own devices, the feds will spend unlimited sums of our money and trounce on more of our freedoms in a futile effort to try.
There always has been and always will be some piracy. The best defense if to make the paid product more attractive to most people. It’s time for the movies and music dinosaurs to get back to the basics of creating and selling value for value instead of buying new laws from corrupt pols. It’s also time to send the corrupt pols on a permanent vacation where they where the will be free to frolic with Hollywood without doing any more harm.
S&P recommends you sell your GoogMoto or is it MotoGoog?
Guess what? Ballmer wanted to make a MicroMoto. Could MicroNokia be it’s next move?
Dell earnings come in short of expectations. Get ready to hear how it’s proof the PC is dead from the tablet heads. The truth is the economy sucks.
Oops! Digital piracy hasn’t killed publishing after all. It’s true, but You won’t hear this reported on the five o’clock news.
The slippery slope to tyranny: Long Beach arresting photographers on completely subjective criteria. If you’re traveling there, don’t bring a camera.
Person to person education site raises $3.1 Million
Game maker shifting emphasis from Consoles to the PC. Wait a minute, I thought the PC was supposed to be dead. Try convincing a hard core gamer to play on an iPad. 
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