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...Can you imagine getting your license suspended because of all the speeding tickets your son got driving your car?

Why not? As a U.S. citizen, that is, as a rights-free subject under a police state, I can imagine being arrested, convicted, and subjected to a decade in jail for a rape and murder that someone else committed. Also, I can imagine being assassinated on my own doorstep by a police department death squad, each of whom later being found "not guilty" of even so much as a misdemeanor.

If you trust the cops, or the courts, or the legislatures, anywhere in this loathsome country even any at all, then shame on you for a fool, you obviously don't read the newspaper carefully enough.

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net

>I'm not trying to be a bigot, but in sports I think it's almost detrimental to be white nowadays.

I don't think you are being a bigot but there are some misconceptions about race in sports. For starters, it's hard to say whether or not it's better to be of any race whatsoever in anything. That's dangerous territory. Modern cultural criticism has shown that racism/sexism/heterosexism, etc is just as damaging to the dominant group as it is to the subordinate group (check out _Gender Trouble_ by Judith Butler and numerous works by Michel Foucault). Furthermore, can you point to one instance where a player experienced reverse discrimination?

As far as owning teams goes the overwhelming majority of teams are owned by white men. In basketball and football this should seem odd since so many of the players are Black. Coaching staffs are usually predominantly white as well, though this is changing.

I am not in a position to say whether or not there is "reverse discrimination" in sports or an advantage to particular races. A very well-written article in The Village Voice actually addresses this issue in the context of Venus and Serena Williams (http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0045/noel.shtm l).

I am, however, in a position to say that people should back up their assumptions and actually investigate them rather than perpetuating these half-truths.

-a

Here's a somewhat interesting article on "corporate flaming" by Nick Mamatas, an Internet columnist and relatively long resident of the net. (http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0036/mamatas.s html)

I don't know what he does on other cases, but this article explains how he addressed his lack of knowledge on this particular issue.

Of course, the above article has been linked by /. before

"We estimate that a worst-case scenario would be 16 percent of all U.S. music sales in 2002 being lost to Web piracy, representing a $985 million loss in U.S. music profitability," reads the analysis, issued last month by the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Investment Research Group.

And the Voice may indeed be a better publication on some level, but you couldn't prove it from this story, which for example, uncritically accepts the idea that encrypted music is going to prevent people from pirating it (when in fact all it would do is force pirates to rip the analog signal rather than working directly with the digital).

Also, the entire slant of this story is from the point of view of the poor-beleagured, multi-million dollar music industry. Nothing at all about the new freedom of people to listen to what they like, even if it's not on a major label... Once upon a time, the Village Voice was a "counterculture" publication, but those days are long gone.

go here

<//-------------//>
"I like /. but you can tell it was designed by programmers..."

2 February 2000

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:13:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Macki <macki@2600.com>
To: dvd@2600.com
Subject: Press release - Anti-MPAA event planned

February 2, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAY OF ACTION PLANNED AGAINST MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION IN 100 CITIES

Members of the hacker and open source communities worldwide, along with various civil liberties groups, are planning a massive leafletting campaign on Friday, February 4 to call attention to the recent attempts by the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down thousands of websites.

Lawsuits have been filed against hundreds of people, as well as an Internet Service Provider and a magazine, for having information the MPAA wants to keep secret.

The controversy centers around a computer program known as DeCSS, thought to be written by a 16 year old in Norway. The program defeats the encryption scheme used by DVD's which prohibits them from being viewed on non-approved machines or computers. It also enables DVD's from one country to be played in another, contrary to the wishes of the movie industry. It does NOT facilitate DVD piracy - in fact, copying DVD's has been possible since their introduction years ago. In its press releases on the subject, the MPAA has claimed that this is a piracy issue and they have subsequently succeeded in getting injunctions against a number of sites that had posted the program in the interests of free speech.

This is in effect a lawsuit against the entire Internet community by extremely powerful corporate interests. The lawsuit and the various actions being planned promise to be a real showdown between two increasingly disparate sides in the technological age. The consequences of losing this case are so serious that civil libertarians, professors, lawyers, and a wide variety of others have already stepped forward to help out.

Friday's action will be coordinated in 74 cities throughout North America and 26 cities in other parts of the world. Leafletting will take place outside theaters and video stores in these cities - all of which participate in a monthly "2600" gathering. 2600 Magazine has been named in two lawsuits regarding the DeCSS program and has joined with the the growing number of people who will fight these actions by the MPAA until the end.

The lawsuit has been filed by the Motion Picture Association of America, Columbia/Tristar, Universal City Studios, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Time Warner Entertainment.

Contact:
Emmanuel Goldstein
(631) 751-2600 ext. 0

See 2600

DVD-DeCSS Report: Fade to Black

Legal Report: DVD Desperadoes

2 February 2000

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:13:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Macki <macki@2600.com>
To: dvd@2600.com
Subject: Press release - Anti-MPAA event planned

February 2, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAY OF ACTION PLANNED AGAINST MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION IN 100 CITIES

Members of the hacker and open source communities worldwide, along with various civil liberties groups, are planning a massive leafletting campaign on Friday, February 4 to call attention to the recent attempts by the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down thousands of websites.

Lawsuits have been filed against hundreds of people, as well as an Internet Service Provider and a magazine, for having information the MPAA wants to keep secret.

The controversy centers around a computer program known as DeCSS, thought to be written by a 16 year old in Norway. The program defeats the encryption scheme used by DVD's which prohibits them from being viewed on non-approved machines or computers. It also enables DVD's from one country to be played in another, contrary to the wishes of the movie industry. It does NOT facilitate DVD piracy - in fact, copying DVD's has been possible since their introduction years ago. In its press releases on the subject, the MPAA has claimed that this is a piracy issue and they have subsequently succeeded in getting injunctions against a number of sites that had posted the program in the interests of free speech.

This is in effect a lawsuit against the entire Internet community by extremely powerful corporate interests. The lawsuit and the various actions being planned promise to be a real showdown between two increasingly disparate sides in the technological age. The consequences of losing this case are so serious that civil libertarians, professors, lawyers, and a wide variety of others have already stepped forward to help out.

Friday's action will be coordinated in 74 cities throughout North America and 26 cities in other parts of the world. Leafletting will take place outside theaters and video stores in these cities - all of which participate in a monthly "2600" gathering. 2600 Magazine has been named in two lawsuits regarding the DeCSS program and has joined with the the growing number of people who will fight these actions by the MPAA until the end.

The lawsuit has been filed by the Motion Picture Association of America, Columbia/Tristar, Universal City Studios, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Time Warner Entertainment.

Contact:
Emmanuel Goldstein
(631) 751-2600 ext. 0

See 2600

DVD-DeCSS Report: Fade to Black

Legal Report: DVD Desperadoes

2 February 2000

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:13:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Macki <macki@2600.com>
To: dvd@2600.com
Subject: Press release - Anti-MPAA event planned

February 2, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAY OF ACTION PLANNED AGAINST MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION IN 100 CITIES

Members of the hacker and open source communities worldwide, along with various civil liberties groups, are planning a massive leafletting campaign on Friday, February 4 to call attention to the recent attempts by the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down thousands of websites.

Lawsuits have been filed against hundreds of people, as well as an Internet Service Provider and a magazine, for having information the MPAA wants to keep secret.

The controversy centers around a computer program known as DeCSS, thought to be written by a 16 year old in Norway. The program defeats the encryption scheme used by DVD's which prohibits them from being viewed on non-approved machines or computers. It also enables DVD's from one country to be played in another, contrary to the wishes of the movie industry. It does NOT facilitate DVD piracy - in fact, copying DVD's has been possible since their introduction years ago. In its press releases on the subject, the MPAA has claimed that this is a piracy issue and they have subsequently succeeded in getting injunctions against a number of sites that had posted the program in the interests of free speech.

This is in effect a lawsuit against the entire Internet community by extremely powerful corporate interests. The lawsuit and the various actions being planned promise to be a real showdown between two increasingly disparate sides in the technological age. The consequences of losing this case are so serious that civil libertarians, professors, lawyers, and a wide variety of others have already stepped forward to help out.

Friday's action will be coordinated in 74 cities throughout North America and 26 cities in other parts of the world. Leafletting will take place outside theaters and video stores in these cities - all of which participate in a monthly "2600" gathering. 2600 Magazine has been named in two lawsuits regarding the DeCSS program and has joined with the the growing number of people who will fight these actions by the MPAA until the end.

The lawsuit has been filed by the Motion Picture Association of America, Columbia/Tristar, Universal City Studios, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Time Warner Entertainment.

Contact:
Emmanuel Goldstein
(631) 751-2600 ext. 0

See 2600

DVD-DeCSS Report: Fade to Black

Legal Report: DVD Desperadoes

2 February 2000

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:13:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Macki <macki@2600.com>
To: dvd@2600.com
Subject: Press release - Anti-MPAA event planned

February 2, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAY OF ACTION PLANNED AGAINST MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION IN 100 CITIES

Members of the hacker and open source communities worldwide, along with various civil liberties groups, are planning a massive leafletting campaign on Friday, February 4 to call attention to the recent attempts by the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down thousands of websites.

Lawsuits have been filed against hundreds of people, as well as an Internet Service Provider and a magazine, for having information the MPAA wants to keep secret.

The controversy centers around a computer program known as DeCSS, thought to be written by a 16 year old in Norway. The program defeats the encryption scheme used by DVD's which prohibits them from being viewed on non-approved machines or computers. It also enables DVD's from one country to be played in another, contrary to the wishes of the movie industry. It does NOT facilitate DVD piracy - in fact, copying DVD's has been possible since their introduction years ago. In its press releases on the subject, the MPAA has claimed that this is a piracy issue and they have subsequently succeeded in getting injunctions against a number of sites that had posted the program in the interests of free speech.

This is in effect a lawsuit against the entire Internet community by extremely powerful corporate interests. The lawsuit and the various actions being planned promise to be a real showdown between two increasingly disparate sides in the technological age. The consequences of losing this case are so serious that civil libertarians, professors, lawyers, and a wide variety of others have already stepped forward to help out.

Friday's action will be coordinated in 74 cities throughout North America and 26 cities in other parts of the world. Leafletting will take place outside theaters and video stores in these cities - all of which participate in a monthly "2600" gathering. 2600 Magazine has been named in two lawsuits regarding the DeCSS program and has joined with the the growing number of people who will fight these actions by the MPAA until the end.

The lawsuit has been filed by the Motion Picture Association of America, Columbia/Tristar, Universal City Studios, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Time Warner Entertainment.

Contact:
Emmanuel Goldstein
(631) 751-2600 ext. 0

See 2600

DVD-DeCSS Report: Fade to Black

Legal Report: DVD Desperadoes

I need some help purchasing a NFL franchise. I think I can win the Superbowl.

What are rules with the NFL that would prohibit these things from participating? I would love to see this blitz some 5 million dollar/year QB .

I immediately started buying any books from places like Barnes & Noble

Erm. So let me get this straight: because you object to Amazon obtaining an admittedly completely bogus patent, you instead go over to a company that's if anything worse? (At least Amazon isn't making a habit of suing anyone who doesn't richly deserve it.)

Or have we all forgotten so soon how Barnes & Noble attempted to torpedo Amazon's IPO by suing them over their *slogan*, for Gopod's sake, the week they went public?

If you want to support good people and unsupport bad ones, all very well, but it seems to me you're out of the frying pan and into the fire here.

When Amazon does something truly evil it will be time enough to boycott them. Slapping a bully around doesn't exactly qualify, for me. Now if, for example, the genuinely evil doings of etoys.com were getting half as much attention here as Amazon's....

It seems to me in any case that the PTO policy (apparent) of ignoring prior art and obviousness on any patent related somehow to computers is a much worse problem deserving of more attention than any single patent, regardless how odious. This isn't going to change until the PTO gets its shit together. How about spending some energy on that?

These claims are discussed in the Village Voice article -- they are pure FUD. "digital hijack" sounds bad but it was the name of a pretty tame demonstration of the innacuracy of search engines. The "shares" were another artistic project which no-one could confuse with etoys stock. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for mud to sling.
-
<SIG>
"I am not trying to prove that I am right... I am only trying to find out whether." -Bertolt Brecht

I'm extremely curious about how it got taken down though. I'm assuming a vhost? What happens if you run your own server (like I do)? Do guys in trenchcoats who talk to their watches show up at your door? (good luck at MY door :P)

If you read the article, you'd know that the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office contacted his host and intimidated them into taking it down.

In your case, they'd probably just intimidate whoever's upstream from you (seems to be Comstar), and get them to deactivate your connection.

FYI this has been done before at the village voice by austin bunn

http://villagevoice.com/features/9846/bunn.shtml

--

Someone moderate this post up! I had the same feeling through Brin's silly puff-piece article. I think his main problem is in categorizing Star Wars as sf, when it's really fantasy, just an escape-tale. He also assumes that we MUST take life lessons from it, or that everyone who sees Star Wars will somehow "see" everything Brin thinks is there and it will turn all of us Americans in monarchists. He's reaching for points that aren't there and just generally making an ass of himself for no reason, much like the Village Voice did in their incredibly stupid "Jar Jar is Gay" article, in which they assume that everyone in America hates gays and use that to explain why people hate Jar Jar, and then use that to prove that everyone in America hates gays. (It's called Circular Reasoning).

He also write s for the Village Voice.

My two cents is that this author is more noise than signal.

My two cents is that this author is more noise than signal.

Dear Sirs:

I just finished reading your feature "Suffer the (White, Middle-Class) Children" (http://www.villagevoice.com/features/9921/dark.sh tml) and I must say I am quite disappointed. Your writer apparently heard stories of suffering and pain, then checked a color bar and saw "white" and "male" and concluded that the pain and suffering weren't real, and that this was just the white, male establishment trying to steal the identity-politics initiative. Hardly the journalistic thoroughness that The Village Voice is known for.

Neither Jon Katz, nor the thousands of kids and adults that wrote him, claimed that they were the only people being punished for being different; all they said was "Hey, it's happening here, too." School *is* Hell; Matt Groening wasn't telling any new tales when he drew that collection of cartoons a decade ago.

I've never been a fan of identity-politics -- I've always felt that the problem was "the system" was taking advantage of individuals, because individuals rarely have any way to fight the system or even of knowing that the system doesn't have to be that way. Black, white, female, male, adult, child: as individuals we are all easily oppressed; only by gathering together can we become strong enough to fight the system.

But there are plenty of special interests that have figured out that they don't have to gather everyone and address all the problems -- all they need is to gather enough people from a single category, and focus on one set of problems -- and they'll have found their own special path to power, and representation within the system, consequently make the system that much worse for the rest of us. Blacks, women, gays, the elderly, the poor, the handicapped -- they all have their special needs and special desires, and their own special advocates who are all just more cogs in the system.

Your writer and your editorial policies indicate to me that The Village Voice is proud of its place within the system, and isn't interested in anyone else upsetting the status quo. Just remember when you send your kids off to school in the morning, you're condemning them to the same daily torture that you once suffered, and remind yourself that you had a chance to say and do something about it -- and decided not to rock the boat. I hope you feel proud of yourselves.