Category: Rants

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

February 16, 2006

Computer/ Tech Related, Rants

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The RIAA argues in a DMCA rule-making filing that copying for personal use (to an iPod) is not fair-use.

This is complete bullshit. If you buy a CD, as far as I’m concerned, you have the license for personal use. Whether you listen to it on a CD or on an mp3 player makes no difference. You paid for the CD so now you can do whatever you want with it. It’s not like you downloaded it for free. Now they’re targeting people who pay for music. What next? The RIAA doesn’t understand that CDs are a dying technology. They’re assuming that online music stores like Apple’s iTunes music store and others that sell mp3s/other formats of music will be harmed if you rip music off CDs. It’s been proven many times that the movie industry and music industry is not losing money because of downloading. So the fact that someone can’t buy a CD and listen to it on an mp3 player is complete nonsense.

This just enrages people and encourages more piracy. It’s no solution to the problem. The RIAA/MPAA and other retarded organizations need to grow up. They’ve being doing this since the 80s with recording TV and radio onto VHS and cassette tapes.

read more | digg story (#1 story of the week of 2/12)

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

January 12, 2006

Rants

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It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

And an excerpt from the bill:

“Whoever…utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet… without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person…who receives the communications…shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Whatever happened to freedom of speech in this country? As a matter of fact I’ll violate this stupid ass law right now. Watch…

Dear Congress and other retarded government officials (especially Senator F. James Sensenbrenner Jr, a hick from Wisconsin who sponsored this bill), Thank you for passing a very retarded law that is pointless. You suck. Spend more time worrying about illegal immigrants and soldiers getting killed in Iraq instead of stupid people posting useless things on the internet. Scratch your asses. Signed, Portfolioso (which is not my real name, so arrest me)

Oh no! I just annoyed and harassed Senator Moron on the internet without disclosing my identity. This is a felony. As you can see, by ranting about the government, I clearly violated the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, without mentioning one woman’s name.

Attention everyone: do not follow this law. Law Professor Orin Kerr says that “if speech is protected by the First Amendment, the statute is unconstitutional as applied and the indictment must be dismissed…”
Read the article here

Unsecured Wifi May Be Outlawed in New York

November 7, 2005

Computer/ Tech Related, Rants

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According to a new proposal being considered in Westchester County, any business or home office with an open wireless connection but no separate server to fend off Internet attacks would be violating the law.

This is absolute nonsense. Anyone who votes in favor of this bill needs to get run over by a car. First of all 75% of people who buy wifi routers are n00bs who have no idea how to secure their network. It would be unfair to pass a law that punishes them. It is not possible to enforce this because so many people have unsecured networks and would be a waste of money. Second off, if people are too dumb to read the documentation and learn how to secure their wireless networks, then they deserve to have others access their network. Let’s make a simple analogy: If you were in the middle of the South Bronx, would you leave your car door open with the key in the ignition? Obviously no, because that’s just asking for some person to walk in and drive away with your car. Same thing goes for wireless – if it’s left vulnerable, you shouldn’t complain if people access it. Any open wireless access point should be considered public.

Politicians in Westchester County are urging adoption of the law–which appears to be the first such legislation in the U.S.–because without it, “somebody parked in the street or sitting in a neighboring building could hack into the network and steal your most confidential data,” County Executive Andy Spano said in a statement.

Andy Spano – resign immediately you ignorant fool. You obviously don’t know anything about computers so don’t make retarded ass statements, you nüb. If a wifi access point is unsecured, someone sitting in the street or in a neighboring building is not HACKING into the network and stealing confidential data. Because it’s unsecured, that means anyone can access it – you don’t have to be a hacker to get onto an open network. That’s like walking into CVS during store hours and getting arrested for burglary. You’re not breaking into the store, but rather shopping in the store. Second off, once you connect to someone’s wifi, chances are they’re too dumb to set up file sharing, so you probably would not be able to get their “most confidential data.” Most likely, you’re just using their Internet. Besides, anyone sophisticated enough to set up file sharing on a network would be smart enough to know that the wifi should be protected.

I’m not done with you asshole politicians in this dumbass county. Stop worrying about people’s wifi and start spending more time prosecuting sick ass online predators who attack and kill children. Worry about people selling crack in Mt. Vernon, worry about securing Indian Point. If I hop onto someone’s network, you’re basically saying I’m a criminal.

Also, Windows XP tends to connect to the strongest available network. So why should some noob be punished if their computer connects to some other person’s network without their knowledge. Smart people would check the XP wireless connection, but noobs would say “LYK ZOMGZ!!11one Teh internet is lyk working. I’m teh computer expert”

If I ever read another news story like again… I don’t even know what I’ll do. That’s how insane it is. This nonsense completely outrages me.

More Ignorance

October 16, 2005

Rants

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I HATE STUPIDITY.

I was enraged when I read the following bulletin that was posted on Myspace. How ignorant can people be? Read this nonsense:

Subject: Under age users

Hi Folks,
As you may have noticed, many myspaces have been deleted. This is due to the underage users that abuse the privileges of myspace. I understand that there are many memories from myspace that are irreplaceable so i lowered the age to 14. Please pass this on because we have attached a !!special tracking device!!. If you repost this, you will be safe from being deleted. If you don’t repost this, you will be tracked and your myspace will be searched throughly for underage users. Repost this message saying “Underage Users”. Thank you

Myspace Creator,
Tom

First of all, some moron writes something claiming to be Tom and everyone believes it. This is why phishing is so successful – people believe everything and give away their info. First of all, explain to me how can a !!special tracking device!! can be attached to a stupid website? There’s no such thing as a special tracking device. Even if there was one, how would it get your age? The only way people get their myspaces deleted are by RATS that report them. Otherwise, they don’t know if you’re 12, 18 or a 59 year old pedophile. Secondly, whats with the special !!exclamation points before and after!! the word tracking device? I don’t know what language you speak, but in English, one exclamation point goes after the sentence. But I’m sure that in dumbass-lish, it probably translates to “ZOMG this needs to lyk stand out. lyk OMGZs its lik 1300% true iffff notytt I’ll lyk dyyyyyEEEE” (Yeah that wasn’t supposed to make sense).

Anyway this rant is a follow up to my chain letter rant, because nothing pisses me off more than ignorant people who fall for internet rumors and keep reposting chain letters. Maybe if I got this once I’d let it slide, but when 30 people repost the same thing, it shows me that morons really believe that it’s true. The U.S. really need to make a law that bans these morons from the internet.

I hate Myspace. It’s corrupting people.

Ignorant People

August 31, 2005

Rants

1 Comment

99% of computer users are completely ignorant. I got a forwarded email message warning me “LYK OMGZ lyk da WOrsT ViRuSSz eVA!!!”

Out of the 400 people it was emailed to, you think someone would realize that this is complete bullshit. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a virus to physically destroy your hardrive. Yes, it can mess up your software and make you lose data, but it will not destroy the actual piece of hardware. Even if this was a real virus (it probably isn’t), a fresh reinstall of windows and format would solve everything. So stop sending this crappy email around and don’t waste your time or mine! And only morons/n00bs get computer viruses by doing stupid things and not knowing the basics of security. I don’t have any anti-virus software and you don’t see me with a virus.

Check out how retarded this is:

WORST VIRUS EVER —CNN ANNOUNCED
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST !!

A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee and no vaccine has yet been developed. This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the hard disk, where vital information for its functioning are stored.

This virus acts in the following manner:
It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with the title:
“A Card for You”.

As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer freezes so that the user has to reboot . When the ctrl+alt+delkeys or the reset button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just a few hours this virus caused panic in New York, according to news broadcast by CNN.

This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself.
So don’t open any mails with subject: “A Virtual Card for You.” As soon as you get the mail, delete it!! Even if you know the sender !!!

Please ! pass this mail to all of your friends.

Forward this to everyone in your address book. I’m sure most people, like myself, would rather receive this notice 25 times than not at All

HAHAH!!! First off, “No vaccine has been developed.” I didn’t know you can inject your computer with a needle to get rid of computer viruses. Secondly, sector zero is the most phony made up BS I’ve ever heard of – only noobs would fall for something like that. Anyone who believes this completely bogus email DESERVES a virus and should be banned from computers for life. And the ignoramus who made this crap up can’t even get the source straight – first it’s CNN then Microsoft then McAffee. Go back to 7th grade and take a creative writing course – I’ve heard five year olds make up better stories. And finally, “I’m sure most people, like myself, would rather receive this notice 25 times than not at All” – I will strangle someone if this gets sent back to me. It probably originated from some ignorant AOL user nüb.

And now as Stong Bad would say: “DELETED!!!”