Friday , March 29 2024

Culture and Society

Much Worse

Here we were saying that six file sharers had been subpoenaed by the RIAA – try 150: The music industry has demanded that Verizon Communications cough up 150 names in its attempt to find those who are allegedly trading copyrighted songs. The phone company is in the process of complying …

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Dogs and Cats Hating Together

Amidst reports of indifference to anti-Semitic violence in France, comes this odd story of French extremist Jewish and neo-Nazis working together online to incite hatred against Mulims: Members of extreme-right groups were prepared to set aside their anti-Semitic feelings to share Web space and know-how with extremist pro-Israeli campaigners, amid …

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RIAA Snags Two More Students

With the precision of a laser beam, the RIAA last week snagged the four MOST EGREGIOUS FILE SHARERS IN THE WORLD, who all happened to be Bentley College students. Now they have nabbed the fifth and sixth most vicious exchangers of MP3 files, both Loyola of Chicago students: The Big …

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Hovering Head

Some thought-provoking and indelible photos by Nick Kilroy veering between magic realism and the surreal on his site Zabriskie Point. I like the hovering head and the picket fence best – very iconic.

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Wi-Fi Hotspots: Oasis of Anonymity

Neither the RIAA, MPAA, nor any other AA can trace users on public Wi-Fi systems: Early last spring, NYCWireless co-founder Anthony Townsend got a note in the mail saying that someone on his network had been violating copyright laws. This type of note is becoming increasingly common as record companies …

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For All to Hear

Amazing and invaluable project making virtually all Supreme Court oral arguments available on MP3 for free: The Oyez (pronounced o-yay) project has taken the original tapes of such historic cases and is now making them available in MP3 format for free. “Reading a transcript of a spoken event is not …

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Avril on iTunes

The only way to get the new Avril Lavigne live EP is through iTunes: The cuts, “Sk8er Boi,” “Nobody’s Fool,” “Unwanted, “Losing Grip” and a cover of Green Day’s “Basket Case” were recorded on March 23 in Dublin. Fans can purchase individual tracks for 99 cents or the full EP …

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The Grass Is Never Greener

Cleveland’s iconoclastic writer, cartoonist, grump, and now film character, Harvey Pekar has a blog: Right now, I’m being kept busy, mostly by opportunities generated by the movie “American Splendor”. I get these assignments from the various people and companies that advertise “American Splendor” to produce all kinds of things that …

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Hounds Let Loose?

Has the RIAA’s campaign to sue everyone who ever heard the term “P2P” quietly begun? Four students at Massachusetts’ prestigious Bentley College have apparently been subpoenaed by the RIAA in what’s likely to be one of, if not the first, shot of the promised RIAA onslaught. “… it would be …

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Wi-Fi for “Windshield Warriors”

Though lately many have been predicting commercial doom for Wi-Fi, others say it is here to stay and that workers on the road will drive boom: Is the Wi-Fi boom about to bust? Even though that has lately become the fashionable view, the answer is probably no. Critics argue that …

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