Thursday, January 29, 2004

Big Music's Worst Move Yet The RIAA's newest legal assault on file swappers is pushing them to encrypted networks, where the damage could become catastrophic The music file-swapping masses got a fresh jolt of fear on Jan. 21 when the Recording Industry Association of America filed 532 lawsuits against alleged copyright infringers for downloading or sharing pirated tunes on the Internet. The suits made good on the RIAA's promise in December not to skip a beat in its legal war against music piracy...more [BusinessWeek] A very well written article that nails the matter right on the head. The RIAA is not winning the war, it is simply pushing the users along in a war of escalating technologies. Encrypted networks, and true distributed networks like BitTorrents, only prove that the war will not be won by the RIAA. Now if we could find a way to reward more of the artist for their work, instead of suits and a few superstars..mj 9:46:00 PM

If Comcast limits my bandwidth! if( $provider_caps_unlimited_service ) {     while( $providers_without_caps.length > 1 )     {       switch_providers($providers_without_caps[0]);     } } care of Slashdot...mj 5:21:39 PM

Bush's WMD Lies Continue To Escalate Faced with evidence that no WMD existed in Iraq before the war, President Bush is citing different rationales for going to war. He said this week that the war was justified because "the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein." The president's recent statements, however, are belied by what he's said in the past. A look at the historical record shows President Bush justified an invasion of Iraq by making unequivocal statements that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD that threatened all Americans, even claiming that inspectors had found WMD when they had not. On November 23, 2002, President Bush said a war was justified because there was "an urgent threat posed by Iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands." In early January 2003, President Bush said, "The Iraqi regime is a threat to any American. They not only have weapons of mass destruction, they used weapons of mass destruction...That's why I say Iraq is a threat, a real threat." And in his speech announcing the invasion, President Bush said the war was justified because Americans were "living at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder." None of these assertions have since been substantiated. The president and his advisers had been warned repeatedly in the fall of 2002 by the intelligence community, including the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, that the WMD case was weak. However, ten days after the war began, Secretary Rumsfeld asserted the U.S had pinpointed the location of WMD, saying, "We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Less than two months later, President Bush went on television to claim that WMD had been found, saying, "we found the weapons of mass destruction" - an assertion that was false. Asked a follow-up question, the president again contended they'd been found, saying, "For those who say we haven't found [them], they're wrong, we found them." The statement has not been repeated since by the Administration or supported by the Iraq Survey Group's months-long search for WMD. Independent observers are speaking out about the administration's pre-war assertions on Iraq versus the reality that's emerging. The respected Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote that the administration "systematically misrepresented the threat" from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The Army War College called the war "unnecessary," and the President's own Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board believes the White House was so desperate "to grab onto something affirmative" to demonstrate Iraq's weapons that it ignored intelligence reports undermining that claim. [MisLeader.org] You can run from the lies George, but you can't hide...mj 5:02:53 PM

Pelosi rips GOP on job offer Dem charges 'abuse of power' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called it "inappropriate" for a GOP lawmaker to entertain a job offer from the pharmaceutical industry. The House's top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi of California, strongly criticized a Republican lawmaker Wednesday for his consideration of a lucrative job offer from the pharmaceutical industry -- an offer that came weeks after he helped to negotiate a sweeping Medicare bill that established a prescription drug benefit for America's seniors. Pelosi called it "inappropriate" and an "abuse of power" for Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-Louisiana, to consider the offer from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association (PhRMA), one of the city's most powerful lobbies, to head up the organization. The job would pay him more than $1 million a year, according to sources...more [CNN] If you were wondering how the real "Drug Cartels" managed to pull off the recent prescription drug benefit bill, you need look no further. Republican votes were bought, the old fashioned way. I have said before that this period of Republican power will go down as the most corrupt in American history, and they just keep proving my point...mj 11:52:29 AM

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