The Politics of Piracy Emerge in Sweden

John C. Dvorak wrote an article this week in PC Magazine about the new Piracy Party that has formed in Sweden:

Overlooked by the major media is the weird situation in Sweden, where a political party and lobbying organization has cropped up with the sole purpose of overturning the current crop of copyright and patent laws and creating something more modern and realistic: the Pirate Party and the Pro Piracy Lobby. This movement, while unlikely to have any effect in the U.S., could change things so dramatically in parliamentary democracies that we'd feel the aftershock anyway.

...

The U.S. government, after getting a bunch of complaints from Hollywood and the record industry, allegedly threatened Sweden (though some diplomatic channel), telling the country that it would be blacklisted in the World Trade Organization if it didn't shut down the Pirate Bay once and for all. Of course, there would have been a huge fuss in Europe if Sweden was indeed blacklisted, and a trade war would have ensued, so I doubt the threat was serious. After all, the WTO's main purpose is preventing trade wars. And we must have our Volvos. Nonetheless, that's the way the story has been played in the news, and the idle youth of Sweden—and now, perhaps, all of Europe—are politicizing around the issue. Let me tell you something. You do not want youth politicizing. Not that the kids shouldn't take part in politics. You just don't want to get them all jacked up over an issue like this. There are lots of them. They often have a lot of spare time. En masse they can ruin things for the "establishment." Luckily, they tend to be lazy and cynical and seldom take to the streets or the ballot.

...

Well, it looks like the boneheads in Hollywood and the RIAA, along with onerous new copyright laws such as the DMCA and other restrictions, are triggering change. I'd be cautious. Today's youth internationally are not like anything we've seen before. Their view of the world is skewed by the media and new realities. When they see all these restrictions, they see them done on behalf of fat guys who are flying around in private jets with a cabin full of high-class hookers while lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills. They see rappers in limos wearing diamonds and having their teeth removed and replaced with gold for no apparent reason other than to spend the suckers' money. They see mega-yachts and homes that are the size of a small college all bought and sold on the backs of the kids buying music. Indeed, they are seeing a different world than most of us did when we were growing up. It's nuts. It looks unfair or, worse, exploitative. Then they see old ladies arrested for copyright violations because a grandkid downloaded a song. Dead people are indicted in hysterical sweeps. Kids are threatened with ruination for song-swapping. They're not going to put up with it for long, I can assure you. While I think any outrage will fall short of storming the compounds of the rich and burning their homes, once the next-generation youth finally figure out that they can take over at the ballot box, all hell will break loose.

The Swedish Pirate Party homepage.

Dvorak's blog entry on this news item.

Stephen Colbert Causes Chaos on Wikipedia, Gets Blocked from Site

On Monday night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert addressed the online resource Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can read or edit. Colbert praised Wikipedia for "wikiality," the reality that exists if you make something up and enough people agree with you - it becomes reality. Colbert's subsequent examples to prove "wikiality" would cause chaos on the site, and lead an administrator to subsequently block his account.

In the segment, Colbert logs on to the Wikipedia article about his show to find out whether he usually refers to Oregon as "California's Canada or Washington's Mexico." Upon learning that he has referred to Oregon as both, he demonstrates how easy it is to disregard both references and put in a completely new one (Oregon is Idaho's Portugal), declaring it "the opinion I've always held, you can look it up."

Colbert goes on to declare that he doesn't believe George Washington had slaves.

If I want to say he didn't that's my right, and now, thanks to Wikipedia *taps keyboard* it's also a fact.

Here's the fun part - Colbert actually did this. The Wikipedia articles on his show and George Washington were both edited by the user Stephencolbert to reflect the changes he declared on air as he tapped at his computer around 23:35 UTC - which is 6:35pm on the East Coast, during the taping of his show, hours before it aired.

It gets better.

Colbert then urged his audience to find the Wikipedia entry on elephants and create an entry that stated their population had tripled in the last six months, a fact he freely stated to not know if it was "actually true," with his sidebar stating "it isn't." Guess what happened next?

Scores of internet users took Colbert's bait, repeatedly vandalizing approximately 20 articles on elephants before all being placed under a lock. The move also subsequently caused Wikipedia administrator Tawker to block Stephen Colbert from the website, reportedly to verify his identity. Either Tawker is incapable of checking the above log times that corroborate Colbert, or, more likely, he just wants to be mentioned on Stephen's show (as evidenced by his notes on the block and blog entry).

All this trouble over a man who, as his user page noted, is a 'defender of truth.'

Click here to watch the segment courtesy of youtube.

Ric Romero Strikes Again: Discovers Pop Up Ads

There are ads on the internets!

Read here.
Fark comments here.

Tropical Storm Chris update: Prediction models

Sooooo this is why the forecasters have no idea where its going. 1/2 the models have it going south of Hispaniola (thats Cuba & the Dominica for you non-carribbean enlightened) and 1/2 the models have it going north. What is the significance of this you ask? Well one means it would probably remain a tropical storm until it comes out on the other side of Cuba and then turns into a minor cat 1 and slams into texas or mexico. The other means it will be a hurricane within 24 hours, make Key West take one for the team, emerge on the other side of the keys as a cat 1 maybe a 2, then head for louisiana or the pan handle direction. Katrina's little brother maybe? In any case, its way too early to tell but you can see for youself below why hurricane predicting is sooooo hard.

Oh and if you're confused as to what prediction models are....basically various experts on hurricanes from all over the world at various corporations/universites etc etc have come up with various computer simulations that are to show where the hurricanes are to go. Of course none of them are even remotely right all of the time so this is what modern day forecasters do....they average them. If more of them lean one direction they average their paths(remember the suply & demand charts from microeconomics..) and come up with a mean plot. Thats why this particular map is soo iffy...just look at the various paths and where they all may lead. When hurricanes touch land it vastly changes and shapes their course, strength, structure etc etc.

Colbert and Cordry do a god machine battle

Check it out here.

Tropical Storm Chris

Coming to a state(Florida) near you(if you're in Georgia) by Saturday night or Sunday morning!

Tropical storm Chris increased in strength as it approached the northern Leeward Islands earlier this evening. Fortunately, it seems to be dodging most of the northern Leeward Island to the north. Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for Anguilla, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin, and St. Maarten and also for Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Chris will pass to the north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands but could still graze the island with band of heavy rain. Residents across the Bahamas and Florida should monitor the progress of Chris closely as it continues to track WNW.

From the 5:00 am EDT Wed. August 2nd 2006 Forecast Discussion Advisory:

AIR FORCE RESERVE RECON POSITION AND WIND DATA THIS MORNING...ALONG WITH NOAA DOPPLER RADAR DATA FROM SAN JUAN AND SATELLITE IMAGERY... INDICATE CHRIS HAS BECOME MUCH BETTER ORGANIZED DURING THE PAST 6 HOURS. AN UPPER-LEVEL EYE FEATURE HAS BECOME APPARENT IN RADAR IMAGERY...ALTHOUGH IT IS TILTED ABOUT 12 NMI TO THE SOUTHWEST OF THE LOW-LEVEL CENTER. WHILE THE STRUCTURE OF CHRIS HAS IMRPOVED... THIS HAS NOT TRANSLATED INTO AN INCREASE IN INTENSITY...YET. A PASS THROUGH THE CENTER OF CHRIS AROUND 0745Z REVEALED AN ESTIMATED CENTRAL PRESSURE OF 1001 MB AND AN 850 MB FLIGHT-LEVEL WIND OF 62 KT. WHILE THE PRESSURE IS DOWN 2 MB FORM EARLIER FLIGHTS...THE FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS STILL YIELD ONLY A 50-KT SURFACE WIND. UPPER-LEVEL OUTFLOW HAS IMPROVED IN ALL QUADRANTS...AND THE OVERALL CONVECTIVE STRUCTURE AS BECOME MORE SYMMETRICAL. THE MOTION ESTIMATE IS 300/09 KT...ALTHOUGH THE SHORT TERM MOTION FROM THE LAST SEVERAL RECON FIXES YIELDS A MOTION OF 310/11. OVERALL...NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO THE STRENGTH AND POSITION OF THE BERMUDA HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE TO THE NORTH OF CHRIS IS FORECAST BY THE GLOBAL MODELS. THE RIDGE AXIS CURRENTLY EXTENDS WESTWARD ACROSS THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S. AND INTO THE U.S. CENTRAL PLAINS...AND IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN IN ROUGHLY THAT POSITION THROUGHOUT THE FORECAST PERIOD. THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES NOW IN HOW THE MODELS HANDLE THE STRENGTH OF CHRIS. UNLIKE PREVIOUS RUNS OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS...MOST OF THE GLOBAL MODELS...ESPECIALLY NOGAPS...NOW HANG ONTO CHRIS AS A TROPICAL CYCLONE...ALBEIT A SMALL COMPACT ONE. THE GFS...GFS ENSEMBLE...NOGAPS...AND UKMET MODELS HAVE MADE A SIGNIFICANT NORTHWARD SHIFT AND ARE NOW ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE ENVELOPE. THE CANADIAN AND ECMWF MODELS HAVE ALSO SHIFTED NORTHWARD AND NO LONGER TAKE CHRIS ACROSS THE GREATER ANTILLES. THE LONE OUTLIER MODEL APPEARS TO BE THE GFDL...WHICH ALMOST IMMEDIATELY TAKES CHRIS DUE WEST ACROSS THE NORTH COAST OF PUERTO RICO AND INTO HISPANIOLA. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST TRACK IS A LITTLE NORTH OF THE PREVIOUS TRACK...AND MUCH FARTHER NORTH THAN THE MODEL CONSENSUS DUE TO THE GFDL MODEL BEING A LARGE OUTLIER. IT SHOULD BE POINTED OUT THAT THE GFS...GFS ENSEMBLE...UKMET...AND NOGAPS CONSENSUS FORECAST PLACES CHRIS VERY NEAR THE SOUTHERN TIP OF FLORIDA IN 120 HOURS...AND SUBSEQUENT FORECAST TRACKS MAY HAVE TO SHIFTED A LITTLE FARTHER NORTH IF THOSE MODEL TRENDS CONTINUE. THE INTENSITY FORECAST REMAINS PROBLEMATIC. THE GFS-BASED SHIPS INTENSITY MODEL INDICATES THE VERTICAL SHEAR IS EXPECTED TO WEAKEN TO LESS THAN 5-10 KT BY 96 AND 120 HOURS...YET SHOWS LITTLE INTENSIFICATION AND BARELY MAKES CHRIS A HURRICANE...EVEN THOUGH THE CYCLONE WILL BE OVER 29.5C TO 30C SSTS AND BETWEEN TWO UPPER-LEVEL LOWS THAT WILL ENHANCE THE OUTFLOW TO THE WEST AND EAST. GIVEN THAT CHRIS IS A SMALL TROPICAL CYCLONE...WHICH MEANS IT CAN SPIN UP QUICKLY BUT ALSO SPIN DOWN JUST AS QUICKLY...THE INTENSITY FORECAST WILL REMAIN ON THE CONSERVATIVE SIDE AT THIS TIME IN HE LONGER TIME PERIODS...BUT STILL ABOVE THE SHIPS MODEL. TROPICAL STORM WARNINGS REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DUE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF A STRONG RAIN BAND DEVELOPING ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHRIS AND MOVING OVER THOSE AREAS LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT. FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

Sen. Arlon Specter(R) Prepping Bill to Sue Bush

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

"We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.

Specter's announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.

Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, reserving the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," said ABA president Michael Greco. The practice, he added "is harming the separation of powers."

Bush has challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers compiled by Specter's committee. The ABA estimated Bush has issued signing statements on more than 800 statutes, more than all other presidents combined.

Signing statements have been used by presidents, typically for such purposes as instructing agencies how to execute new laws.

But many of Bush's signing statements serve notice that he believes parts of bills he is signing are unconstitutional or might violate national security.

Still, the White House said signing statements are not intended to allow the administration to ignore the law.

"A great many of those signing statements may have little statements about questions about constitutionality," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "It never says, 'We're not going to enact the law.'"

Specter's announcement intensifies his challenge of the administration's use of executive power on a number of policy matters. Of particular interest to him are two signing statements challenging the provisions of the USA Patriot Act renewal, which he wrote, and legislation banning the use of torture on detainees.

Bush is not without congressional allies on the matter. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a former judge, has said that signing statements are nothing more than expressions of presidential opinion that carry no legal weight because federal courts are unlikely to consider them when deciding cases that challenge the same laws.

The Internet Is Not A Truck, Its A Series Of Tubes!

Courtesy of Techdirt:

It's not too often that content around here becomes comedy fodder for The Daily Show, but lately it seems like the writers over there have really been picking up on some of the issues that we like to discuss -- such as blaming violent video games for youth violence. Last week, of course, Jon Stewart took on Senator Stevens and his tubes, while also combining it with the silly anti-gambling legislation. Apparently, that story was a big enough hit (net neutrality? funny?!?) that The Daily Show writers have gone back for more. On last night's episode, Jon Stewart revisited the issue, asking "resident expert" John Hodgman to explain net neutrality. Hodgman, of course, is a well known humorist -- known for his work on NPR's This American Life and his recent book, The Areas of My Expertise. Sometime last year, he also joined The Daily Show as the show's "resident expert," expounding on all sorts of topics over which his knowledge was profoundly confused. However, in the last month or so, he's become a lot more well known outside of these circles as "the PC guy" from the new Apple Mac commercials. Given all that, his explanation of net neutrality is in his usual style, completely silly, but somewhat telling just the same.

Again click here to watch the Daily Show clip from last night.