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On January 14, the Christmas Island Internet Administration abruptly disabled everyone's favorite domain, goatse.cx. All joking aside, this action brings up serious questions regarding registrars exercising control over the content of websites they don't host. Goatse's geek appeal as a cult phenomenon is arguably stronger than AYBABTU, and has been an omnipresent icon here at Slashdot for years. There's a petition, as well as a thread at the .cx registrar's forum, supporting the reinstatement of the domain.

Regardless of peoples' feelings about what was hosted at goatse.cx, arbitrary domain suspension due to content has potentially chilling effects. CIIA used a vaguely-worded clause in their registration agreement which allows them to disable any domain for any (or no) reason, even if the domain's operators aren't doing anything wrong and aren't otherwise in violation of the agreement. The suspension was apparently done with neither warning nor notice to the domain's owner.

Nearly all registrars maintain the right to take such action. However, to my knowledge this has never been done before, except in cases where the domain's owner was seriously violating the registration agreement in other ways - spamming, illegal activities, etc. - and even then only on rare occasions. The goatse situation essentially amounts to a web-based joe job, wherein the site's owner had no control over links to the domain or how they were used.

Until this week, I'd always been under the impression that it's a hosting provider's job to stop service to a domain. If a website contained content so controversial as to generate complaints, the hosting provider would make the decision as to whether or not to continue serving the domain. If the host declined, the domain's owner could simply move the site to a more tolerant host. And that's the way it should be.

With CIIA's action, the tables have turned, and a registrar - even if only a small player - has set a precedent for registrars playing the role of content moderator. While this could come in handy (imagine dotster.com, who are running Apache on some sort of Unix, suspending sco.com's registration just for the heck of it), it also makes the process of shutting down potentially controversial sites far too easy. What if the Public Internet Registry decides on a whim to disable landoverbaptist.org because "Landover takes parody too far for our liking," or freenetproject.org because "Freenet can be used for bad purposes," or slashdot.org because "there are too many radical thinkers on that site?"

Domain names are finite resources. If it's widely known that you can be found at example.com, and your webhost shuts you down because they don't approve of the content of your website, you can find another webhost and be back online within a day or so. But if your registrar suspends your domain because they don't approve of your site's content, you can't just go somewhere else and "buy a new copy" of your prime internet real estate. (Oddly enough, it appears that Google has decided to ignore links to goatse.cx; I'd been hoping to use the search results to demonstrate the domain's popularity, but no go.)

The finite nature of domains becomes even more of a problem with many ccTLD operators, who are frequently the sole registrars of their root domain. I should emphasize that goatse.cx was suspended, not deleted; the Christmas Island Internet Administration didn't remove goatse.cx and make it available for someone else to re-register. It's still there, and even paid up through 2005. It's just useless now, and its o

On January 14, the Christmas Island Internet Administration abruptly disabled everyone's favorite domain, goatse.cx. All joking aside, this action brings up serious questions regarding registrars exercising control over the content of websites they don't host. Goatse's geek appeal as a cult phenomenon is arguably stronger than AYBABTU, and has been an omnipresent icon here at Slashdot for years. There's a petition, as well as a thread at the .cx registrar's forum, supporting the reinstatement of the domain.

Regardless of peoples' feelings about what was hosted at goatse.cx, arbitrary domain suspension due to content has potentially chilling effects. CIIA used a vaguely-worded clause in their registration agreement which allows them to disable any domain for any (or no) reason, even if the domain's operators aren't doing anything wrong and aren't otherwise in violation of the agreement. The suspension was apparently done with neither warning nor notice to the domain's owner.

Nearly all registrars maintain the right to take such action. However, to my knowledge this has never been done before, except in cases where the domain's owner was seriously violating the registration agreement in other ways - spamming, illegal activities, etc. - and even then only on rare occasions. The goatse situation essentially amounts to a web-based joe job, wherein the site's owner had no control over links to the domain or how they were used.

Until this week, I'd always been under the impression that it's a hosting provider's job to stop service to a domain. If a website contained content so controversial as to generate complaints, the hosting provider would make the decision as to whether or not to continue serving the domain. If the host declined, the domain's owner could simply move the site to a more tolerant host. And that's the way it should be.

With CIIA's action, the tables have turned, and a registrar - even if only a small player - has set a precedent for registrars playing the role of content moderator. While this could come in handy (imagine dotster.com, who are running Apache on some sort of Unix, suspending sco.com's registration just for the heck of it), it also makes the process of shutting down potentially controversial sites far too easy. What if the Public Internet Registry decides on a whim to disable landoverbaptist.org because "Landover takes parody too far for our liking," or freenetproject.org because "Freenet can be used for bad purposes," or slashdot.org because "there are too many radical thinkers on that site?"

Domain names are finite resources. If it's widely known that you can be found at example.com, and your webhost shuts you down because they don't approve of the content of your website, you can find another webhost and be back online within a day or so. But if your registrar suspends your domain because they don't approve of your site's content, you can't just go somewhere else and "buy a new copy" of your prime internet real estate. (Oddly enough, it appears that Google has decided to ignore links to goatse.cx; I'd been hoping to use the search results to demonstrate the domain's popularity, but no go.)

The finite nature of domains becomes even more of a problem with many ccTLD operators, who are frequently the sole registrars of their root domain. I should emphasize that goatse.cx was suspended, not deleted; the Christmas Island Internet Administration didn't remove goatse.cx and make it available for someone else to re-register. It's still there, and even paid up through 2005. It's just useless now, and its o

On January 14, the Christmas Island Internet Administration abruptly disabled everyone's favorite domain, goatse.cx. All joking aside, this action brings up serious questions regarding registrars exercising control over the content of websites they don't host. Goatse's geek appeal as a cult phenomenon is arguably stronger than AYBABTU, and has been an omnipresent icon here at Slashdot for years. There's a petition, as well as a thread at the .cx registrar's forum, supporting the reinstatement of the domain.

Regardless of peoples' feelings about what was hosted at goatse.cx, arbitrary domain suspension due to content has potentially chilling effects. CIIA used a vaguely-worded clause in their registration agreement which allows them to disable any domain for any (or no) reason, even if the domain's operators aren't doing anything wrong and aren't otherwise in violation of the agreement. The suspension was apparently done with neither warning nor notice to the domain's owner.

Nearly all registrars maintain the right to take such action. However, to my knowledge this has never been done before, except in cases where the domain's owner was seriously violating the registration agreement in other ways - spamming, illegal activities, etc. - and even then only on rare occasions. The goatse situation essentially amounts to a web-based joe job, wherein the site's owner had no control over links to the domain or how they were used.

Until this week, I'd always been under the impression that it's a hosting provider's job to stop service to a domain. If a website contained content so controversial as to generate complaints, the hosting provider would make the decision as to whether or not to continue serving the domain. If the host declined, the domain's owner could simply move the site to a more tolerant host. And that's the way it should be.

With CIIA's action, the tables have turned, and a registrar - even if only a small player - has set a precedent for registrars playing the role of content moderator. While this could come in handy (imagine dotster.com, who are running Apache on some sort of Unix, suspending sco.com's registration just for the heck of it), it also makes the process of shutting down potentially controversial sites far too easy. What if the Public Internet Registry decides on a whim to disable landoverbaptist.org because "Landover takes parody too far for our liking," or freenetproject.org because "Freenet can be used for bad purposes," or slashdot.org because "there are too many radical thinkers on that site?"

Domain names are finite resources. If it's widely known that you can be found at example.com, and your webhost shuts you down because they don't approve of the content of your website, you can find another webhost and be back online within a day or so. But if your registrar suspends your domain because they don't approve of your site's content, you can't just go somewhere else and "buy a new copy" of your prime internet real estate. (Oddly enough, it appears that Google has decided to ignore links to goatse.cx; I'd been hoping to use the search results to demonstrate the domain's popularity, but no go.)

The finite nature of domains becomes even more of a problem with many ccTLD operators, who are frequently the sole registrars of their root domain. I should emphasize that goatse.cx was suspended, not deleted; the Christmas Island Internet Administration didn't remove goatse.cx and make it available for someone else to re-register. It's still there, and even paid up through 2005. It's just useless now, and its o

Nobody cares about that shit, even Jesus has more to do with the Goatse.cx web site which suddenly got unresolved for the sake of some politically correct ASSHAT !

Sign this and save YOUR soul : your Freedom comes at that cost !

Nobody cares about that shit, even Jesus has more to do with the Goatse.cx web site which suddenly got unresolved for the sake of some politically correct ASSHAT !

Sign this and save YOUR soul : your Freedom comes at that cost !

Nobody cares about the BART, even Jesus has more to do with the Goatse.cx web site which suddenly got unresolved for the sake of some politically correct ASSHAT !

Sign this : your Freedom comes at that cost !

Fuck whoever think closing Goatse.cx is a good thing, you are much worse than what my name evokes !

GNAA announces plans to bomb Christmas island
by GNAA Staff
Due to recent AUP policy changes at .cx NIC, one of the key GNAA sponsored websites, http://goatse.cx has been found "in violation of .cx AUP policies". This announcement delivered a huge blow to the GNAA organization.
Without goatse.cx, we lose an important piece of GNAA.
"We will not let this happen", GNAA representative goat-see said to the press. "GNAA will begin planning a terrorist attack on the Christmas Islands."
GNAA currently operates a back-up site, also located at the .cx TLD, http://goat.cx. Users are welcome to use this website while we try to persuade .cx NIC to reinstate goatse.cx domain.
"In the event that our peaceful negotiations will fail, Christmas islands are sure to be gone off the face of this planet", added another GNAA member, penisbird.

If you would like to show support for goatse.cx domain, please visit the following links:
Petition to reinstate goatse.cx (currently down due to attack)
nic.cx feedback forums goatse.cx thread

Thank you!


excerpt from an irc log

@b- The domain goatse.cx has been found in violation of .cx AUP policies, http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.AUP.pdf #5, page 7, and is therefore suspended.
@r- shit, that sucks
*** joey (joey@brodels.gngsta.com) has joined nologin
@s- yea i read, page 7 only talks about payment issues though
@s- nothing about content
@b- ya
@b- im confused too
@s- i dunno what the #5 means
@s- oh i see
@s- Communication publication or distribution of adult or obscene content
@s- or images by way of embedded links in unsolicited email, postings to
@s- news groups, internet forums, notices to instant messaging programs,
@s- where the internet user is not explicitly made aware that by clicking on
@s- the link they would be directly exposed to adult or obscene content.
@b- hah
@b- he'll have to make a splash page
@s- i already put the lawyer warning on there
@p- hah
@b- that amendment to thier AUP
@b- is like 100% goatse
@s- - Over the years we have received numerous complaints of this domain's
@s- - content, but no person filee an AUP violation form against the
@s- - domain. Recently the .cx board met and revised all .cx policies (December
@s- - 2003). One of the .cx policies that has not changed is that each domain
@s- - holder is required to review the policies every thirty days and make sure
@s- - their domain is in compliance (Please read part 1, page 2 of
@s- - http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.registration.agr eement.pdf).
@s- -
@s- - We do not review web sites and cannot ensure every domain holder is in
@s- - compliance. But, if a domain is brought to our attention that fails to
@s- - comply with our policies, we reserve the right to suspend the domain.
@s- -
@s- - I am unclear if you change the content, the suspension might be
@s- - revoked. If you are considering this option, please send a note of inquiry
@s- - to info@nic.cx.
@s- -
@s- - Best Wishes,
@s- -
@s- - Elaine Pruis
This commentary brought to you by a proud GNAA member.

About GNAA
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which
gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a

GNAA announces plans to bomb Christmas island
by GNAA Staff
Due to recent AUP policy changes at .cx NIC, one of the key GNAA sponsored websites, http://goatse.cx has been found "in violation of .cx AUP policies". This announcement delivered a huge blow to the GNAA organization.
Without goatse.cx, we lose an important piece of GNAA.
"We will not let this happen", GNAA representative goat-see said to the press. "GNAA will begin planning a terrorist attack on the Christmas Islands."
GNAA currently operates a back-up site, also located at the .cx TLD, http://goat.cx. Users are welcome to use this website while we try to persuade .cx NIC to reinstate goatse.cx domain.
"In the event that our peaceful negotiations will fail, Christmas islands are sure to be gone off the face of this planet", added another GNAA member, penisbird.

If you would like to show support for goatse.cx domain, please visit the following links:
Petition to reinstate goatse.cx (currently down due to attack)
nic.cx feedback forums goatse.cx thread

Thank you!


excerpt from an irc log

@b- The domain goatse.cx has been found in violation of .cx AUP policies, http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.AUP.pdf #5, page 7, and is therefore suspended.
@r- shit, that sucks
*** joey (joey@brodels.gngsta.com) has joined nologin
@s- yea i read, page 7 only talks about payment issues though
@s- nothing about content
@b- ya
@b- im confused too
@s- i dunno what the #5 means
@s- oh i see
@s- Communication publication or distribution of adult or obscene content
@s- or images by way of embedded links in unsolicited email, postings to
@s- news groups, internet forums, notices to instant messaging programs,
@s- where the internet user is not explicitly made aware that by clicking on
@s- the link they would be directly exposed to adult or obscene content.
@b- hah
@b- he'll have to make a splash page
@s- i already put the lawyer warning on there
@p- hah
@b- that amendment to thier AUP
@b- is like 100% goatse
@s- - Over the years we have received numerous complaints of this domain's
@s- - content, but no person filee an AUP violation form against the
@s- - domain. Recently the .cx board met and revised all .cx policies (December
@s- - 2003). One of the .cx policies that has not changed is that each domain
@s- - holder is required to review the policies every thirty days and make sure
@s- - their domain is in compliance (Please read part 1, page 2 of
@s- - http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.registration.agr eement.pdf).
@s- -
@s- - We do not review web sites and cannot ensure every domain holder is in
@s- - compliance. But, if a domain is brought to our attention that fails to
@s- - comply with our policies, we reserve the right to suspend the domain.
@s- -
@s- - I am unclear if you change the content, the suspension might be
@s- - revoked. If you are considering this option, please send a note of inquiry
@s- - to info@nic.cx.
@s- -
@s- - Best Wishes,
@s- -
@s- - Elaine Pruis
This commentary brought to you by a proud GNAA member.

About GNAA
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which
gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a

GNAA announces plans to bomb Christmas island
by GNAA Staff
Due to recent AUP policy changes at .cx NIC, one of the key GNAA sponsored websites, http://goatse.cx has been found "in violation of .cx AUP policies". This announcement delivered a huge blow to the GNAA organization.
Without goatse.cx, we lose an important piece of GNAA.
"We will not let this happen", GNAA representative goat-see said to the press. "GNAA will begin planning a terrorist attack on the Christmas Islands."
GNAA currently operates a back-up site, also located at the .cx TLD, http://goat.cx. Users are welcome to use this website while we try to persuade .cx NIC to reinstate goatse.cx domain.
"In the event that our peaceful negotiations will fail, Christmas islands are sure to be gone off the face of this planet", added another GNAA member, penisbird.

If you would like to show support for goatse.cx domain, please visit the following links:
Petition to reinstate goatse.cx (currently down due to attack)
nic.cx feedback forums goatse.cx thread

Thank you!


excerpt from an irc log

@b- The domain goatse.cx has been found in violation of .cx AUP policies, http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.AUP.pdf #5, page 7, and is therefore suspended.
@r- shit, that sucks
*** joey (joey@brodels.gngsta.com) has joined nologin
@s- yea i read, page 7 only talks about payment issues though
@s- nothing about content
@b- ya
@b- im confused too
@s- i dunno what the #5 means
@s- oh i see
@s- Communication publication or distribution of adult or obscene content
@s- or images by way of embedded links in unsolicited email, postings to
@s- news groups, internet forums, notices to instant messaging programs,
@s- where the internet user is not explicitly made aware that by clicking on
@s- the link they would be directly exposed to adult or obscene content.
@b- hah
@b- he'll have to make a splash page
@s- i already put the lawyer warning on there
@p- hah
@b- that amendment to thier AUP
@b- is like 100% goatse
@s- - Over the years we have received numerous complaints of this domain's
@s- - content, but no person filee an AUP violation form against the
@s- - domain. Recently the .cx board met and revised all .cx policies (December
@s- - 2003). One of the .cx policies that has not changed is that each domain
@s- - holder is required to review the policies every thirty days and make sure
@s- - their domain is in compliance (Please read part 1, page 2 of
@s- - http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.registration.agr eement.pdf).
@s- -
@s- - We do not review web sites and cannot ensure every domain holder is in
@s- - compliance. But, if a domain is brought to our attention that fails to
@s- - comply with our policies, we reserve the right to suspend the domain.
@s- -
@s- - I am unclear if you change the content, the suspension might be
@s- - revoked. If you are considering this option, please send a note of inquiry
@s- - to info@nic.cx.
@s- -
@s- - Best Wishes,
@s- -
@s- - Elaine Pruis
This commentary brought to you by a proud GNAA member.

About GNAA
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which
gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a

GNAA announces plans to bomb Christmas island
by GNAA Staff
Due to recent AUP policy changes at .cx NIC, one of the key GNAA sponsored websites, http://goatse.cx has been found "in violation of .cx AUP policies". This announcement delivered a huge blow to the GNAA organization.
Without goatse.cx, we lose an important piece of GNAA.
"We will not let this happen", GNAA representative goat-see said to the press. "GNAA will begin planning a terrorist attack on the Christmas Islands."
GNAA currently operates a back-up site, also located at the .cx TLD, http://goat.cx. Users are welcome to use this website while we try to persuade .cx NIC to reinstate goatse.cx domain.
"In the event that our peaceful negotiations will fail, Christmas islands are sure to be gone off the face of this planet", added another GNAA member, penisbird.

If you would like to show support for goatse.cx domain, please visit the following links:
Petition to reinstate goatse.cx
nic.cx feedback forums goatse.cx thread

Thank you!


excerpt from an irc log

@b- The domain goatse.cx has been found in violation of .cx AUP policies, http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.AUP.pdf #5, page 7, and is therefore suspended.
@r- shit, that sucks
*** joey (joey@brodels.gngsta.com) has joined nologin
@s- yea i read, page 7 only talks about payment issues though
@s- nothing about content
@b- ya
@b- im confused too
@s- i dunno what the #5 means
@s- oh i see
@s- Communication publication or distribution of adult or obscene content
@s- or images by way of embedded links in unsolicited email, postings to
@s- news groups, internet forums, notices to instant messaging programs,
@s- where the internet user is not explicitly made aware that by clicking on
@s- the link they would be directly exposed to adult or obscene content.
@b- hah
@b- he'll have to make a splash page
@s- i already put the lawyer warning on there
@p- hah
@b- that amendment to thier AUP
@b- is like 100% goatse
@s- - Over the years we have received numerous complaints of this domain's
@s- - content, but no person filee an AUP violation form against the
@s- - domain. Recently the .cx board met and revised all .cx policies (December
@s- - 2003). One of the .cx policies that has not changed is that each domain
@s- - holder is required to review the policies every thirty days and make sure
@s- - their domain is in compliance (Please read part 1, page 2 of
@s- - http://www.nic.cx/policies/pdf/cx.registration.agr eement.pdf).
@s- -
@s- - We do not review web sites and cannot ensure every domain holder is in
@s- - compliance. But, if a domain is brought to our attention that fails to
@s- - comply with our policies, we reserve the right to suspend the domain.
@s- -
@s- - I am unclear if you change the content, the suspension might be
@s- - revoked. If you are considering this option, please send a note of inquiry
@s- - to info@nic.cx.
@s- -
@s- - Best Wishes,
@s- -
@s- - Elaine Pruis
This commentary brought to you by a proud GNAA member.

About GNAA
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which
gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a

Petition available.

The complaint was filed by on Rhonda Clarke, an Office Manager for the Indian Ocean Group Training Association .

Online petition to reinstate goatse.cx In these dark times, we can still access the internet archive of goatse.cx

I'm sure slashdot'll have numerous dupes of this story in six to ten days...

"The unique traditions of visual storytelling, humor and personality animation on which the Walt Disney Studio had thrived, gave way to politically correct sloganeering, stale one-liners and film seminar formulas to which audiences have refused to respond.

Mr. Eisner's rejection of Walt Disney's heritage has been a colossal failure. Yet this is a man who has been paid over $700 million in compensation since 1996, while the Feature Animation department has been decimated by pink slips.

Now, skilled craftsmen go unemployed while the executive ranks swell. A unique American art form, the Disney cartoon feature, hangs precariously in the balance - - reduced to the production of cheap direct-to-video franchise extensions made by committee.

Without Roy, who will protect the 70-year Disney legacy from becoming no more than a hollow brand?"

SIGN THIS OR SHUT UP !

Sign this or shut up !

ALERT

The CX Registry has shut off the goatse.cxdomain suddenly and without warning. They have cowardly cited a section of their AUP with allows them to remove sites at their discretion. Please e-mail info@nic.cx or the forum (free reg. req.) with your opinion of this matter. You may also sign the petition.

ALERT

The CX Registry has shut off the goatse.cxdomain suddenly and without warning. They have cowardly cited a section of their AUP with allows them to remove sites at their discretion. Please e-mail info@nic.cx or the forum (free reg. req.) with your opinion of this matter. You may also sign the petition.

Sign this or shut up !

ALERT

The CX Registry has shut off the goatse.cx domain suddenly and without warning. They have cowardly cited a section of their AUP with allows them to remove sites at their discretion. Please e-mail info@nic.cx with your
opinion of this matter or sign the petition.

Post to the CIIA feedback forum here (reg requited)

And sign the petition here

goatse.cx has been suspended! You can support this monument of Slashdot culture here: petitiononline

How can Apple sell this mythical ipod device so cheap?

Easy, Apple can sell the unit at cost and make it up in $99 battery sales. If you live in Europe (and are a loyal Apple customer), you can even sign a petition asking them to please lower replacement battery prices. I personally won't buy anything from Apple until I know what the accessories and replacement parts cost.

Elsewhere in this discussion somebody said they wanted to just pay a monthly rate for unlimited downloads. Vivendi is why that's a mistake. People sign up for cable TV mainly because they can get lots of shows that aren't available over the air. These shows used to be spread out over a lot of independent cable channels, but these channels got bought up by various conglomerates, of which Vivendi was probably the biggest. When Vivendi ran short of cash, they started cutting back on their programming. That's why the SciFi channel shows so many reruns of Tales From the Crypt. Of course, viewers didn't get any money back because Vivendi was spending less money to entertain them -- they were locked in.

If cable TV programming allowed you to just pay for what you want to watch, people could vote with their feet and it would be harder to screw them. But when it's an all-or-nothing service, you take what they give you.

Same with flat-rate online music services, like EMusic. Except there's even less competition in that marketplace, so the overall quality is especially low.

Sorry for the broken link, I should really preview before submitting ...

Here is a working link.

Come on nVidia, smell the coffee!

funny... i just rented it.
i mean, i'm only going to watch the special features once, and i'll have already seen the movie twice after i rent it...

so do i really need to -own- the super special movie to have not 'missed out'?

I don't intend on rewatching it often, so I don't see the point in buying this. let alone protesting, this. Maybe you do, and more power to ya. My preferences aren't for everybody, and I wasn't passing judgement. I was just noting irony.

perhaps i should have focused on the merchandising, which is more to the heart of my point. But I was hoping to make my point without having to carefully phrase it to prevent anyone from taking offense.

But feel free to make ad hominem arguments against me, just because I don't see the point in buying a movie I don't plan on watching that often. I recognize that someone else's opinions don't invalidate or represent a threat to my own.

It uses reverse tachyon transcriptase to bipolarize the antibodies. Once the body is cancer-free, the doctors must simply use a modulated graviton beam to hyperstimulate the immune system, thus ridding the body of the modified cold and restoring the immune system to normal activity levels.

sign the petition to abolish the US DMCA. Only 17k+ signatures there so far..

BTW, it does make a big difference if you get a petition with +1m signatures. Every self respecting slashdot reading geek should have a link to these petitions on their website (and a link to something short and concise explaining the logic behind them).

http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html

I don't know if it will really do anything but any bit helps. Of course, getting someone into the patent office who actually has a clue as to how computer software/hardware works would be much more effective. These kinds of patents are akin to a rock band having a patent for a standard rock song chord progression and suing everybody who uses the same chords. Ridiculous.

-- tokengeekgrrl

Everyone please take note of (and sign) the petition for Fallout 3.

Please come over here a while and sign my petition against Norway, it'll help, thanks. Further information is avaible in the link, as usual.

Here it is.

(Note: This link is perfectly safe, go ahead and click the link.)

Any money you send me will go directly to poor Africa, the exact location is: some rich white guy with a lot of nigger slaves in South Africa.

BTW THE MAC SUCKS NERDS!

This just is another step in Intel's ploy to rule the wireless market through cheap and underhanded business practices. Not many people know this, or at least I didn't till I started shopping for a laptop 2 days ago, but all new laptops carrying the Centrino designation have to come with an Intel miniPCI WLAN card preinstalled or they cannot be called Centrino. Which is great except that Intel refuses to support Linux on their stinkin' card. (Yes I could go elsewhere, but for the price, speed, and power consumption, Centrino is far and away the best on the market right now.) If you want to monopolize an entire hardware sector, fine--good luck trying. But don't chain me to a stupid Wintel platform because of it. If Intel had their way they'd be the only supplier of WiFi cards within a few short years--then WTF do we do if we're not on Windows?

arrgh... this petition

I've been on a campaign lately trying to get people to switch from IE. I've been pushing Netscape 7.x instead of Mozilla though, as I find explaining the difference is tedious to say the least. I'd prefer if they used the AOL-brand free version, but Netscape is better than nothing.

There is an online petition for AOL to release the Netscape brand, perhaps some readers of Slashdot should consider signing it.

In the mean time, I suggest any advocacy should be towards Mozilla 1.4.1, which is functionally superior to any current version of IE while being far more stable and having far fewer known vulnerabilities.

I'm definately not watching ROTK. They should be aware that some of us are rooting for evil forces, and cutting Saruman from the movie was a horrible decision.

Outrage!

There's a Petition asking them to fix some of the more important problems before release. I hope they pay attention to the fans.

Nah, petitions don't work. Just take a look at this petition against petition online.

Hoenstly, if SCO is not going to be swayed by the logical, and to date they have not, then perhaps the illogical is worth a shot.

Besides, I'm not sure SCO's customers are enthusiastic. In many cases these folks continue to be SCO customers from inertia, or from the misbegotten perception that the porting process to another platform is prohibitive. While this may have been the case, and certainly kept my employer using their product for far longer than we should, it certainly is not any longer.

In the petition I set up here I do specifically indicate that there are other solutions. I would agree that I should probably have amplified this point, but that can also be handled as a codicil to the petition.

In any case, as I first indicated, I personally have had enough. I also decided that if I felt this strongly about it, I should do more than gripe on /., or poke holes in other peoples ideas. Rather, I decided to do SOMETHING which might or might not have a snowballs chance in hell of working. But, fruitful or not, I could no longer do NOTHING and expect anything to change. So you may question the efficacy of what I suggest, but I am following through on it, which is a damn sight more than my numerous detractors are doing.

Basically I'm saying a similar thing (just in petition-speak.)

I guess since I threw the idea out there, I needed to take the next step.

As an aside, searching SCO for customers does a pretty good job of listing some of the higher profile case studies, which are of course the best targets.

Targets for what you may ask? try: Current SCO Customers Petition

As I speak 4893 or unhappy customers or lost customers.

sign the petition to get him back

Sign this petition to end online petitions!

Sign the petition!

If you want Lee's character back, SIGN THE PETITION!

If this trend continues, Motorola may very well have the PDA killer in its hands.
As now, A760 already has a long list of features: digital camera, IR/Bluetooth/USB connection, PDA capability, Internet access, multimedia player, music/video player, Java platform, etc.

Now, imagine if it comes with bigger screen, an integrated keyboard, upgradeable storage (SD/MMC/etc), while still fits in the pocket - I think, Motorola will be able to boast that they've caused the extinction of PDA. And also will cause many to let go of their laptop.

Do you agree? Then head over to PetitionOnline.com, and sign the petition to convince Motorola that this is the way forward.

have signed the petition!

http://www.petitiononline.com/noftaaip/petition- si gn.html

PETITION

!!@!!

The armaments race created an atmosphere which not only made it difficult to work for the promotion of disarmament and peace but also threatened to muzzle freedom of speech.

Inevitably, the crusade lost impetus and faded away.

But Linus Pauling marched on; for him, retreat was impossible.

I hope that after we determine that we are not going to 100% eliminate the "terror threat" and regain some sense (and abolish some laws), that our excesses are not forgotten.

The brushed metal finder is still there. Yuck!

It's not too late to sign the petition http://www.petitiononline.com/stopugly/

• Lameness filters (It blocks a lot of legitmate posts)
• Unnessary posting delays. Hasnt taco learned to touch type? A lot of posts are typed in less than 20 seconds and it is a ANNOYING DELAY! 2 minute ban? Come on, so some are faster then others, big deal, some people have more to say than others
• Broken moderation system, The whole point is to sort the gems from the crap, yet a lot of posts designed to make a LIVELY DISCUSSION are MODERATED as flamebait! Come on, not everyone likes X, but just because some one bashes it dosent mean its Flamebait. Flame bait is more useful for DIRECT INSULTS and not legitmate discussions.

The "troll" moderation reason is fragmented and broken, why? Because they are trying to use an obsolete usenet term on a realtime discussion, "trolls" can cover a huge blanket of ideas.

• Crapfloods, a meaningless flood of random letters or text, which the lameness filter does a crappy job at trying to stop, besides trolls have written tools using the opensource slashcode to generate crapfloods which bypass the filter
• Links to offensive websites, the most common one is known a http://www.goatse.cx, a awful site which shows a bleeding anus being stretched on the front page. Trolls sneak these links in by posting messages that look legitimate, but infact are sneaky redirects to the site. Common examples include rd.yahoo.com, www.linux-kernel.tk, goatsex.cjb.net, and googles "Im feeling lucky".
• Trying to break slashdot, this is actually a good thing, as it helps test slashdot for bugs. Famous examples include the goatse.cx javascript pop-up, the pagewidening post and the browser crashing post!

Subnet banning, this bans a user unless they email jamie macarthy with their mp5ed ipids. This is unfair, and banning a subnet BLOCKS A WHOLE ISP SOMETIMES, and not that individual user! This can cause chaos! But real trolls use annoymous proxys to get around this so THIS JUST BANS LEGITMATE USERS! Also, they are trying to censor some anoymous proxies, mainly from countrys like africa, so this yet more DISCRIMINATION!

Pink page of Death, This censors people who use legitmate proxys or firewalls.

The Bitchslap! An unethical punishment which is applied to moderators who fight censorship against this site! In addition the Editors use their un-limited mod points to create a communist style censored discussion on slashdot!

But, the issue that concerens us the most, is the COMMENT QUOTA. A discrimatory system that stiffles discussion, cripples the community and will ultimateley destroy slashdot unless it is removed! Annoymous cowards are allowed only 10 posts a day! This is unethical! Users with negative karma only get two! That is DISCRIMINATION! How would you like to only be able to speak once a day, just because of the color of your skin. That would be racism, and slashdot is discrimitating on people just because of a negative number in a database! BOYCOTT SLASHDOT! LET THEM D