For years now both the RIAA and the MPAA have been fighting a moronic war against file sharing and those who are involved in it. First they started going after Napster because they were storing tons of copyrighted material on their servers for people to share. Sure, that's fine - completely understand that.

Then software eliminated central servers so the files were only stored on individual computers. So they went after the individual people and bypassed due process and often our civil liberties. Bad PR, bad solution, a lot of mistakes, made me loath them.

Finally they went after software makers themselves who make applications that allow users to share files. The entertainment industry actually claims that making such software is an inducement of copyright infringement and therefore those who make such apps should be held accountable for what those who use their software do.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States found in Hollywood's favor. To sum up, this decision means that if the RIAA or MPAA don't like a device or application that "they feel" makes it easy for users to steal copyrighted material, then they can and will sue and most likely win now that the Supreme Court backs it.

Have we all gone insane? Would you blame Panasonic when a person copies a TV show onto a VCR and sells it on the street? Would you blame Apple for people using the iPod to copy their stolen songs? Why not sue Dell because they make computers that "can" let people store kiddie porn?

It makes no sense. Sure, if the software was ONLY used for such things, but it's not. I download tons of legal content such as syndicated radio shows, free music from artists etc... all through P2P networks and file sharing utilities. But now we'll be lucky if all of our best apps for these purposes survive the coming lawsuits.

I think the RIAA and MPAA are missing "huge" opportunities for online delivery of legally protected content for a price. Instead they try to halt the industry as a whole because they don't understand it.

Anyone remember when Universal sued Sony when BetaMax was released? They said that such technology would destroy their business. Hmmm, I guess they were wrong then and they're wrong now!

Here's where I read about it: ArsTechnica Article

Your thoughts?

Posted by ZeroLogik at 8:23 AM | Permalink

I'm getting kind of tired of the never-ending debate between Windows users and Mac users. My problem is that no one really seems to be objective about the thing. If they were, they'd see Macs are much more appealing :)

There's really only 1 subjective topic when comparing the two systems. You either like the Windows UI better or the Mac UI better and that's completely up to you. I won't argue that point at all cause it's a matter of taste. Albeit bad taste if you like Windows, but taste nonetheless.

People I work with accuse me of being a Microsoft hater and call Macs toys. Yeah, like it's that simple. I loved Windows for years - especially when the alternative was Mac OS 9 or prior (yuck). The basic problem is this... Windows = viruses, worms, malware that you sometimes "cannot" protect yourself against if you're an end user. Mac = ZERO viruses in the wild for OS X, no need to run virus scanners, spyware detectors, etc...

All of my other reasons for switching fall into the subjective realm - and I'm okay with that.

This is just a quick high-level post - not getting into the nitty gritty of the detailed debate. Regardless, my advice to all is to switch to Mac as soon as you can!

Posted by ZeroLogik at 7:19 AM | Permalink

The news started reporting that Apple was planning on switching over from its current PowerPC (IBM) chips to Intel processors on Friday evening. At first I thought it was another rumor circulating, but then CNet reported the story and they reported it as fact, not rumor. Needless to say, that kicked off a slew of articles around the web.

This morning Steve Jobs announced at the WWDC that Apple will in fact make a transition over to Intel chips over the next year.

To me this is nothing short of earth-shattering news. I'm still not quite sure of how this will or could effect overall Apple business or performance, but I know one thing for sure. I'm not going to go out and buy a new Mac until the one I want has been updated with the new Intel chip. That may be a huge problem for Apple. Why would you go out and buy what they have on the market now when it's all going to be outdated in 18 months?

I can't wait to read the hundreds of articles that are sure to come out today. Maybe then I can understand more about implications.

Posted by ZeroLogik at 12:30 PM | Permalink

I don't know about you, but I get at least 20 to 30 emails a day that are pure junk (AKA: Spam). Usually they're all cryptic with a link or a picture or whatever, but today I got one that I didn't quite understand. Here's how the email read:

sandwich mentioned end why speaking commit out whom gym prison

That's it. That's the entire email body. At first I thought to myself, "Self? There's a virus attached and the text was just to get by the spam filters." Nope, there was no attachment of any kind.

So the email now makes no sense to me. Why bother sending this thing out if there's no advertisement that I can understand. I guess I'm just suppose to feel inclined to talk to myself while eating a sandwich on my way to a prison gym?

Posted by ZeroLogik at 1:04 PM | Permalink