“This week, Blizzard tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with these laws, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from access to Blizzard games and services.
“This also prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts in these countries.”
“I think the average American never thinks of copyright. It has served an important function in the past and should serve an important function in the future.”
Much more:
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/85cdf4ecccb64185b686e54e3eeeec73/US–Film-Copyright-Anniversary
Avi Charkham rounded a bunch of these tricks up over at TechCrunch, and they’re as subtle as they are sketchy.
Some of the changes seem to play on psychology, like swapping out the old pair of “Allow, Don’t Allow” buttons for just one that says “Play game” that you either click, or don’t. Others, are sort of flagrant once you’ve noticed them. One Charkham describes as the “The Tiny Hidden Info Symbol Trick” is of those ones.
Much more:
http://gizmodo.com/5937930/how-facebook-design-is-tricking-you-into-sharing-info
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/25/5-design-tricks-facebook-uses-to-affect-your-privacy-decisions/
Last week the RIAA’s latest tax filing revealed that the music group has lost nearly half of its revenue because the music labels reduced their membership dues.
This downward trend is not limited to the music business – the MPAA isn’t doing any better financially either.
The most recent IRS tax filing of the non-profit movie group covers 2010 and is slightly dated, but it nevertheless shows some noteworthy trends. Like the RIAA, the MPAA’s revenue has been dropping year after year.
In just three years the revenue generated by the anti-piracy outfit reduced from $92.8 million to $49.6 million. The decreased budget is a direct result of the major Hollywood studios cutting back on their MPAA funding. In the same period membership dues dropped from $84.7 million to $41.5 million, more than a 50% decline.
Unlike at the RIAA where there were 40% staff cutbacks, the MPAA managed to keep the number of employees on par. However, they are now working for a lower average salary. In three years the money spent on wages sunk from $29 million to $18.2 million.
Not even former CEO Dan Glickman could avoid a drop in renumeration – his salary fell from $1.65 million to $1.11 million. However, that still made Glickman the best paid MPAA employee, closely followed by President Robert Pisano who resigned in 2011 after earning $1.09 million during his final year in the job.
The MPAA’s lobbying budget remained stable at $4.6 million and despite their dire financial position the group still had enough money available to give some away, such as a $25,000 grant to the Democratic Attorney Generals Association. Yes, that’s the organization of Vice President Joe Biden’s oldest son Beau.
The same Joe Biden who reportedly took down Megaupload.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-budget-cut-in-half-are-they-dying-120825/
See also:
RIAA membership dues from music labels have been cut in half
http://vrritti.com/2012/08/17/riaa-membership-dues-from-music-labels-have-been-cut-in-half/
Pirates were effectively given the green light after the only law firm in the country permitted to monitor file-sharing networks lost its license and were denied a new one.
For more than half a decade the Simonsen law firm has been obtaining licenses from Norway’s data protection office which enabled the company to monitor file-sharers and collect their IP addresses.
There have been difficult periods though, such as in 2009 when the company’s license expired in the midst of a debate over what licensees can and cannot do. Now, three years later, Simonsen face another crisis.
Simonsen, which is home to famous pirate-chaser Espen Tøndel, became unlicensed in March this year after the Privacy Appeals Board rejected the law firm’s appeal against the Data Inspectorate’s decision not to issue a new license on data protection grounds. The effects of that rejection are now being felt.
“As of today no hunting of file-sharers is allowed in Norway,” said Cecilie Rønnevik, senior advisor to the Norwegian Data Inspectorate.
Simonsen, who work on behalf of clients such as the MPAA, says the decision is a blow to rightsholders.
“When no one is authorized to process personal data in order to stop copyright infringement, it weakens licensees’ ability to pursue violations happening online, and thus their ability to protect their interests. We hope and believe that this problem will soon be solved,” the company told TU.NO in an email.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-bonanza-monitoring-file-sharers-forbidden-in-norway-120825/
http://defensedistributed.com/
See also:
http://defensedistributed.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Previously:
Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer – Lord Of War Now Only Needs To Send An E-mail Or Bring A USB Key
http://vrritti.com/2012/07/31/hobbyist-builds-working-assault-rifle-using-3d-printer-lord-of-war-now-only-needs-to-send-an-e-mail-or-bring-a-usb-key/
Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz notes:
What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system.
Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:
What [Iceland's recovery] demonstrated was the … case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses.
Krugman also says:
A funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.
Krugman is right. Letting the banks go bust – instead of perpetually bailing them out – is the right way to go.
More:
http://www.infowars.com/top-economists-iceland-did-it-right-and-everyone-else-is-doing-it-wrong/
Should create one to keep them from being evil ;-)
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5937603/googles-big-brains-think-an-algorithm-will-help-them-with-girl-problems
