Mail 386 October 31 - November 6, 2005 (original) (raw)
Friday, November 4, 2005
Subject: Re: Regarding the recent MPAA comment
Much appreciated. Your site is the only place I can think of where one can read a reasoned argument of both sides of a complicated topic without wading through a morass of uninformed opinion and rude comments.
On a technical note, I'd like to correct Mr. Hamit on a point of law. Copyright registration is not compulsory for filing a copyright lawsuit, though it must be completed within 60 days of such a lawsuit being filed.
The question of electronic rights is -really- thorny. Many times, dealing with various Japanese animation series at work, the various rights packages had been parceled out to different companies, and then resold to other companies, who then went bankrupt and were bought out by other companies who eventually went bankrupt - more than once, a neat project had to be cancelled simply because nobody could figure out from whom we needed permission! To say nothing of rights issues affecting the music, which is a topic of much horror, though probably little general interest.
On balance, Amazon is probably going to get burned quite badly, simply because it's a big corporate target and thus can pay a big judgment in a fairly easy to prove case. Rather, it's very unlikely to come to fruition, because the legal liability will greatly exceed any profits from the venture... and for once, rightly so!
At least we can be somewhat cheered by the rise of BitTorrent as a distribution mechanism. It's vastly superior to competing architecture in terms of transfer efficiency, but it requires a big, dumb, absolutely-not-anonymous tracker to function, making a relatively easy target in cases of infringement. (And efforts to distribute the tracker function would make the system vulnerable to efforts to "pollute the file"... replacing bits of the requested file with admonitions not to commit piracy would be a fun challenge, anyway!)
Andy Kent
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Read, mark, comprehend, hear, and believe:
Subject: Sophisticated PhishingRed Alert
Jerry, you should read this link, then post it for readers:
http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/alerts/alert.php?AlertID=329
The executable installed by the phishing email modifies the DNS server settings so that you're using an owned DNS server, instead of your ISP's. Then when you type in www.paypal.com, the bad-guy dns server directs you to the Phishing server for you to put in all of your important data!
Needless to say, Paypal (and banks and ...) are NOT going to send you an email with a link to a download for security purposes. Not gonna happen.
*** Side Note ***
It may be a Friends of Papa Darwin thing, but you know, if we let phishing go on unhindered, then the people who fall for phishing attacks will soon be too poor to afford Internet access. Then they'll be offline, not buying viagra from spammers, nor putting their windows 98 box right on the DSL modem, to become a spam zombie some 15 minutes later. So phishing is (a) self-correcting and (b) making the 'Net smarter (on average). Hmmm.
best,
.brian
Thanks. Be careful out there.
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From another conference:
Subject: The Beginning of the French Civil War
All,
Sarkozy will eventually win and his political colleagues will eventually lose. How many citizen's cars will be torched before the army is sent in is unknown, though.
It's cool that the blogosphere is spreading the word when the mainstream media will not.
Jim
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/429
Ramadan Rioting in Europe's No-Go Areas
From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2005-11-02 21:12
This is from Sweden:
"'If we park our car it will be damaged - so we have to go very often in two vehicles, one just to protect the other vehicle,' said Rolf Landgren, a Malmo police officer. Fear of violence has changed the way police, firemen and emergency workers do their jobs. There are some neighborhoods Swedish ambulance drivers will not go to without a police escort. Angry crowds have threatened them, telling them which patient to take and which ones to leave behind."
This is from France:
"Sarkozy says that violence in French suburbs is a daily fact of life. Since the start of the year, 9,000 police cars have been stoned and, each night, 20 to 40 cars are torched."
This is from Brussels:
"The police has been told [by the Mayor] that it is 'not expedient' to patrol [in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek] and officers are not allowed to drink coffee or eat a sandwich in the street during ramadan."
This is from Denmark (and it is hot news relating to the Muhammad cartoons):
"For several nights in a row Rosenh�j Mall has been the scene of the worst riots in �rhus for years. 'This area belongs to us', the youths proclaimed. [...] 'The police have to stay away. This is our area. We decide what goes on down here'. [...] Falck, a Danish private emergency service, sent a group of fire engines under police escort to the Kj�rslund nursery on S�ndervangs All�, right across the street from Rosenh�j Mall. A window had been shattered at the back of the house, and the fire had been blazing, apparently caused by gasoline poured onto the floor and lit. Falck stopped on Viby Square, a couple of kilometers from the site of the arson attack, waiting for the police to turn up so they could be escorted to the nursery."
The Nightmare of Permanent Conflict
If you want to know what is the matter with those that are described by the mainstream media as rioting "youths," read Theodore Dalrymple's poignant analysis in the latest issue of City Journal. We are just witnessing the beginning of Europe's problems: "The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict."
Our mainstream media, in attempts to preserve the Left's chimera of "universal cultural compatibility," hardly write about all this. Nevertheless, for some years now West European city folk and police officers have been familiar with the reality that certain areas of major European cities are no-go areas, especially at night and certainly if you are white or wearing a uniform. Three years ago, a French friend who had his car stolen learned that the thieves had parked the car in a particular suburb. When he went to the police he was told that the police did not operate in that neighbourhood and consequently would not be able to retrieve his car. This is Western Europe in the early 21st century.
Nicolas Sarkozy became France's most popular politician by promising to restore law and order in the whole of France, including in the areas abandoned by previous governments. Since Sarkozy became Interior Minister he has insisted on more police presence in Muslim neighbourhoods. This triggered last week's riots in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, when policemen went in to investigate a robbery and two teenagers stupidly got themselves electrocuted while hiding from the police in an electricity sub station. Many French politicians now probably regret that the police had the audacity to investigate a robbery in Clichy. The result of the incident so far has been six consecutive nights of rioting that is now engulfing the entire Paris suburban area and might soon affect other parts of the country. Last night at least 69 vehicles were torched in nine suburbs across the Paris region. Officials say that small, mobile gangs are harassing police, sometimes even shooting at them. The gangs are setting vehicles, police stations and schools on fire throughout the region.
Though the world is taking no notice, the same is currently happening in certain parts of Denmark.
Bring in the Army
Sarkozy has referred to those whom the media call "troublesome youths" as scum and rabble. "I speak with real words," the minister says. "When you fire real bullets at police, you're not a 'youth,' you're a thug." Unfortunately, it looks as if Clichy-sous-Bois might become Nicolas Sarkozy's Waterloo because he seems to be losing the support of his colleagues in the government. Moreover, Sarkozy does not even seem to have the means necessary to fight the "youths."
The riots in France have been going on for a week now. During the second night of street fighting in Clichy, police officers already warned that they are not up to the task Sarkozy has set them. "There's a civil war underway," one officer declared. "We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting." If there is, indeed, a war going on, Sarkozy cannot win it with troops that are mere policemen and fire fighters. As Irwin Stelzer pointed out last July when discussing the British reaction to the London bombings: In a war, use the army, rather than police. The latter, however, is unlikely to happen. If the politicians bring in the army they are acknowledging what the policemen, the fire fighters and the ambulance drivers know but what the political and media establishment wants to hide from the people: that there is civil war brewing and that Europe is in for a long period of armed conflict. This is the last thing appeasing politicians want to do and so they have begun to criticise Sarkozy.
The appeasers are found not only in the opposition parties but also within Sarkozy's own party, where Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who envies him his popularity, is eager to bring his rival down. Apart from political intra-party rivalry, however, there are two reasons why most politicians seem to be of the appeasing kind.
The first one is that the Muslim population in Western Europe has become so large that politicians fear what it might be capable of. Commenting on the situation in Britain, Theodore Dalrymple wrote in City Journal: "Surveys suggest that between 6 and 13 percent of British Muslims - that is, between 98,000 and 208,000 people - are sympathetic toward Islamic terrorists and their efforts. Theoretical sympathy expressed in a survey is not the same thing as active support or a wish to emulate the 'martyrs' in person, of course. But it is nevertheless a sufficient proportion and absolute number of sympathizers to make suspicion and hostility toward Muslims by the rest of society not entirely irrational, though such suspicion and hostility could easily increase support for extremism. This is the tightrope that the British state and population will now have to walk for the foreseeable future." It applies to all West European nations. Where, however, is the boundary between carefully walking the tightrope and falling victim to the Stockholm syndrome? The latter would mean that Western politicians act as hostages of the Muslim extremists.
A second reason why some politicians try to appease the Muslims is that these are now a substantial segment of the voting population. Demographics are deciding the fate of Europe's democracy. Time is running out. If Sarkozy cannot win the battle today, it is unlikely that he or anyone else will be able to do so tomorrow. If Clichy turns out to be Sarkozy's Waterloo, it will be a catastrophe not just for France.
Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/trackback/429
L'Intifada
from Don Surber on Fri, 2005-11-04 02:21
As Paris burns, as l'intifada expands beyond the suburbs, as his nation is under siege, one wonders if Jacques Chirac does not want to reconsider his decision not to fight al-Qaeda on Iraqi land instead of France.
Riots in Paris show that the situation in Europe..
from Tel-Chai Nation on Fri, 2005-11-04 01:55
And all because jelly-spined leaders cannot bring themselves to stand up and take a hard-lined position against these Muslim monsters who're committing the crimes. Even Denmark is now having problems with Arab/Muslim immigrants rioting and causing on...
De rokende puinhopen van de multiculturele samenleving
from De blog van Evert on Thu, 2005-11-03 23:09
De nacht van 2 op 3 november was de zevende rellennacht op rij in een twintigtal voorsteden van Parijs. Het ging er bijzonder onrustig aan toe. 315 auto's werden in brand gestoken. Op vier verschillende plaatsen is geschoten op agenten
The fighting around Paris continues
from Posse Incitatus on Thu, 2005-11-03 19:50
As the French riots enter their seventh day, the Posse is reminded of this eerily prescient article from 2002 by Theodore Dalrymple:The average visitor gives not a moment's thought to these Cit�s of Darkness as he speeds from the airport
Nightly rioting continues in France
from The Glittering Eye on Thu, 2005-11-03 18:51
If you get your news from network television news, you may not have heard of this ongoing story. Rioting in the suburbs of Paris has continued for the seventh consecutive night: AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (AP) - France's government faced mountin...
Ramadan Riots
from camedwards.com on Thu, 2005-11-03 16:57
Well, here's an underreported story from Europe. Sarkozy says that violence in French suburbs is a daily fact of life. Since the start of the year, 9,000 police cars have been stoned and, each night, 20 to 40 cars are...
Paris Riots: Coming to an American Street Near You
from La Shawn Barber's Corner on Thu, 2005-11-03 16:42
Paris is reaping what it's sown, and if we don't heed the warnings (as if the murder of thousands and destruction of two buildings in New York City weren't enough), we can expect the same. Lax immigration policies, prostration to t...
Is Paris Secretly Burning?
from Shenzhen Ren on Thu, 2005-11-03 11:38
Ah, the suburbs! The smell of smoke, the sound of gunfire, and the leisure activity of.....uh....."youths":
......
SO: have we any bets on when Paris will have to call in the Paratroops? Shall we start a pool? And how long before we have similar situations in these United States?
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Subject: Riots in Europe
Actually, Dr. Pournelle, I found the information about which I congratulated you in an earlier email (Heinlein Society BOD and award) while looking for information about Heinlein's book "I will Fear No Evil" as the society depicted therein seems to be where the world is headed.
http://www.wegrokit.com/i_will_fear_no_evil.htm
"...there is another powerful aspect to the book: the glimpses one gets of the society Johann Smith has barricaded himself against. Johann's turn-of-the-millenium America has grown into a sprawling urban wasteland throughout which the have-nots wage gun battles in lawless Abandoned Areas. The haves venture out into this war-torn turf only in armored cars with armed guards riding shotgun, and return home to fortified enclaves. It is an America which has dismissed Horace Mann's dream and routinely shunts poor students into "illit" tracks in its public schools, and in which children can be prostituted in the aforementioned abandoned areas. It is an America held spellbound by television and sensational news headlines--classic "Crazy Years" items. Does all that sound a little familiar?"
This is one instance where I wish Heinlein's "finger on the pulse of the future" had been less sensitive.
In that alternate universe, I suspect the "Oath of Fealty" infrastructure is beginning to develop.
Charles Brumbelow
You are shocked, of course.
I have said this before. Remember this useful phrase, you will need it again and again: "Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide."
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Subject: Estonian database spidering for fun and profit.
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2005-155.htm
- Roland Dobbins
I post this largely because Estonia always triggers recognition and memory for me. I have a medal from the old Estonian government in exile (it wasn't technically that: it was the diplomatic corps of the Estonian Republic; when the USSR incorporated Estonia into the Soviet Union, the US did not recognize that incorporation, and until the Treaty of Leningrad ended all that, the US had Captive Nations Week and various events to commemorate the Captive Nations held by the USSR). I've even worn it on occasion.
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Subject: I don't *think* it's April First
A couple of slashdot stories:
Patents being issued for plots: <http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/04/0239221&tid=155&tid=17>
I thought this was resolved with the Betamax case:
<http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl? sid=05/11/04/0535231&tid=188&tid=126&tid=17>
-- "The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is." (Tom Vogl) Harry Erwin
I tend to avoid slashdot, lest I become enmired. What happens there is perhaps the main reason I do not allow people to post here until I have read what they want to say, and perhaps comment on it. That takes up time I don't have, but that's as nothing compared to the time it would take to go through and eliminate the 'me too' and 'you're a jerk', 'am not' messages not to mention the sheer nonsense.
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Subject: Purpose of Microsoft Live
Dr. Pournelle,
MS Live serves a couple of purposes, but it is mostly aimed at convincing MS Office users not to abandon that cash cow. The threats to Office are from the freeware OpenOffice, and from coming online Office-like apps being offered by Google, Yahoo and others. (These offerings also present the additional threat that they are platform independent -- O/S is irrelevant.)
MS Live will be hooked into a user's copy of MS Office on their computer, with the promise of some value-added features. MS Live will also generate ad revenue for Microsoft. And the entire model will move user's toward acceptance of the idea that you no longer purchase software, but rather pay a recurring fee for its use. Forever.
Me? I like my software and my content on my computer where I can keep an eye on it. I don't imagine I'm alone in this.
Don -- Donald W. McArthur
Thanks for the view.
I am preparing a section of the upcoming column on this.
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From another discussion forum: An educated French correspondent on the riots:
What will happen next?
Depending on the level of organization of the Djihadists, these riots will last, or not. I would believe that it is not yet the "Grand Soir", and that these riots will stop soon, or just continue at a very low level as background noise. In this case, this will have been a repetition, a training for a next real Intifada.
What is sure:
- Government will give new advantages to Muslim rioters, money will be given, new laws created, etc.
- At one moment, Djihadists will require the power in France: there is more than 10% of Muslims in French population, and it is an Islamic obligation to take power in this situation (Sourate IX).
My opinion: Intifada Al Aqsa could be such a success only because of the help of western media on the visit of Sharon and Mohamed Al Dura affair. In this case in France, there is nothing like that: until rioters are able to stage their own Al-Dura affair, and have it accepted worldwide by media, they will be in a delicate situation. More propaganda is needed.
P
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Francis Fukuyama: History in the Remaking
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/11/02/AR2005110203304_pf.htmlBy Philip Kennicott Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 3, 2005; C04
Francis Fukuyama knows how to toss out an idea that, like a baby rattle, is big enough for small minds to hold onto. And in the past three years, ever since he broke with his fellow neoconservatives and opposed the war in Iraq, he has emerged as one of the most devastating and prescient critics of the Bush administration. So the stars were in alignment for a little drama last night when Fukuyama delivered the National Endowment for Democracy's second annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture at the Canadian Embassy.
Perhaps a few told-you-so's, a little salt in the wounds of his fellow travelers who pushed the United States into a war that has lost the support of the people?
But no. Fukuyama, author of the best-selling 1992 book "The End of History and the Last Man," is an academic and intellectual, not a politician, and he's moved on to a new preoccupation: the problem of Islamic terror in Western society. He spoke about it for almost an hour, without lobbing any sound bites or suggesting anything that would make a good book title. If there was a bold statement, it was that the real problem of Islamic terrorism isn't over there, in the Middle East, but in Europe, in the heart of the Western, liberal democratic world, which is producing the very young men who are attacking it -- in London last summer, and in the Netherlands a year ago, when a Dutch filmmaker was brutally murdered by a Dutch-born Muslim.
If Western society is based on tolerance, openness and democratic values, how should it respond to people within its own compass who do not share these values? The problem is particularly disturbing for Fukuyama because in "The End of History," his most widely read book, he argued that the world was coming to consensus about basic, liberal, democratic values. The Soviet Union, which looked invincible, fell apart; so did authoritarian governments in Portugal and Spain and Greece, and throughout Latin America. If history is a struggle for the right kind of society -- liberal democracy -- that struggle was ending. Or so it seemed. But now something is brewing within liberal democracy that threatens to unsettle not just riders of the London underground, but also Fukuyama's own (perhaps overly optimistic) grand thesis.
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Subject: Copyright enforcement - a heretical view
Hi Jerry,
A heretical comment, given that you and many of your readers earn your living by producing copyrighted works. However, I forge fearlessly ahead:
The world has changed dramatically from when copyright law was formulated. We are now in a situation where the vast tracts of the population is technically in violation of the law - in many cases without even realizing it, because copying (be it with a photocopier, a scanner, a CD or a DVD) is so easy.
When large parts of the population are in violation of a law, I submit that the law is wrong. Copyright holders - particularly the big companies, but indeed all of them - must needs find new ways of selling and profiting from their works. Copy protection and enforcement is not the way.
As an example, you may have read about the recent discovery of the Sony "root kits". It turns out that, in a bid to control their music, Sony audio CDs played on a computer install special low-level drivers that monitor your computer activity. The slightest error in their software, or indeed an attempt to remove this software will disable your computer - because, among other things, your computer will no longer be able to find the driver for its CD drive. For the original article, see http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html.
This is beyond the pale, but the entire situation is beyond control. For example, does it bother no one that we all pay a fine - in advance - on every device that can be used for copying? It is assumed that we are all guilty of copyright infringement - and it's not far from true!
The existing copyright (and patent!) laws should be entirely abolished, and something very different put in their place...
Cheers,
Brad
Ain't your ox that was gored, right?
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On the riots in Europe:
Jerry,
Interesting discussion about the Muslim "occupied territories" in France and Sweden. As a Frenchman, I am only moderately surprised at the current outburst of urban jihad, but the similarity with the situation in Sweden had escaped me. Such is the power of self-censorship of the media in Europe. Many a town in France has had its burning cars nights for a decade, but these politically incorrect things are never mentioned unless the damage and amplitude of the violence become completely impossible to ignore. That's an application of an old Leninism principle: make the discontents believe that they are alone and that their unhappiness is abnormal.
The article you quote from http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/429 ("Ramadan Rioting in Europe's No-Go Areas") suggest that since the French police force is obviously overwhelmed, untrained and unequipped against a street jihad, the French PM should send in the army to stop the riots. One little detail: about 23% of the French recruits are Muslims, mostly of North-African descent (2nd or 3rd generation). Career officers are increasingly clashing with rebellious privates who want the pay, the nice uniform (works wonder on girls), but not the orders from a roumi. Cultural and religious clashes now permeate the French barrack life.
I don't think it would be wise to rely on these troublemakers to keep roumis safe from other Muslims. The French authorities know it, even if they don't dare write it in the watered down slop that passes for a free press in Paris. So nope, no army, sorry Monsieur, and the police can't protect you, so your car will burn, the buses won't circulate, stay home.
I'd like to be able to promise some hope to my fellow Frenchmen. Hope that, for instance, when the Mullahs will finally establish a Muslim regime ruled by the Shariah, the French will be safe and simply have to convert in order to avoid violence. Unfortunately, the atrocities that followed the end of the Algerian war in 1962, and resulted in a mass exodus of both French and Arabs, show that even this meager hope could be denied.
(Name deleted for obvious reasons)
Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide. Remember this useful phrase. You will need it again and again.