Slashback: Railing, Blocking, Scoffing

Slashback tonight brings you more information on homemade railguns, the future history of SCO (seen from the past), one website's response to alleged RIAA mendacity, a legal victory for famous web jerk Tucker Max, and more -- read on for the details.

Please don't point that thing at me. BoomZilla writes "If you thought that the recent Gauss Gun article on Slashdot was spiffy, check out Jengel & Fatro's Rail Gun Page. Everything you need to know about the physics behind building your very own rail gun. Ever used the Quake rail gun and lusted after the real thing? Here's your opportunity."

Telepathic telegrams work as well as ever, though. markgo2k writes "After the web site experienced 'an unusually high number of visitors,' the White House modified the contact page and added a prominent link to president@whitehouse.gov. Here's the latest NYT story (once again, reprinted here in the non-subscription Seattle PI). Of course, the White House is still confused on the difference between the New York Times effect and the Slashdot effect. It's not mentioned in the story, but there is also now a feedback link to submit comments to the 'White House Web Development Team,' if you want to drop them a line..."

It's half-Greek to me. In response to the recent story on perpendicular data storage in next-generation hard drives, Anonymous Coward writes "Here is a better overview of Perpendicular HDD technology. Here is a real detailed scientific article that seems to be written in Greek."

They're off my Christmas card list, too. Techfocus ran an interview with Fred von Lohmann earlier this year. Now, an anonymous reader points to an update on their site: "Effective immediately, the RIAA and MPAA will need to find another way to get to Techfocus. In response to their legal targeting of individual file-swappers, access from their known networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site."

Techfocus cites three reasons for the denial, the top one being that the RIAA took advantage of the interview with von Lohmann, "quoting him out of context in a manner which could lead readers of their materials to believe that we supported their efforts. This could not be further from the truth."

The secret is to predict enough things. An anonymous reader points out this article from early 2000 citing Gartner analyst Al Hilwa's prediction that Linux is "probably going to kill SCO UnixWare," writing "As you can read, SCO's end was predicted near perfectly." I think "hinted at" is more accurate, since SCO is still alive and at least making a good show of kicking, but it's interesting to revisit a story about SCO which mentions that "industry observers thought that the company would be Linux's first victim," back when Project Monterey was a going concern.

A victory for discourteous boors everywhere. aeaas writes "The beauty queen Katy Johnson dropped her suit against Tucker Max over the posting of stories from their relationship on his website. This story was first brought up in the context that he was forced to take down stories relating to her without holding a hearing or notifying Max prior to it. This is unusual in American law."

A quarter mil is a lot of suffering, even in Canadian money. Skippy321 writes "Justified or not, Ghyslain Raza--better known as the Star Wars Kid--is suing the four students who posted his homemade video of himself doing acrobatic "sword-fighting stunts" on the Internet for $250,000. He claims that he has suffered harassment and persecution. It's also interesting how the article states that he quit high school due to this video, at only 15 years of age. Although things aren't so bad for him -- here's a petition for him to get a role in Episode III."

Comments

oh no...

[Anonymous Coward]

a star wars kid ep3 petition on slashdot? i'll bet he gets the part...

Re:oh no...

[Anonymous Coward]

Raza the Hutt?

Re:oh no...

[m4ximusprim3]

ill pay extra to see him kick the shit out of jar jar ;)

Re:oh no...

[shish]

ill pay extra to see him kick the shit out of SCO ;)

Note to self

[John Paul Jones]

Sell SCO short.

Re:Note to self

[beacher]

Second note to self: This is the forge that will make Linux either extremeley hard and brittle or strong and flexible with the ability to stay sharp. As much as I hate hearing SCO stories, I am glad that the threat is a light-weight that spews out so many lies that their story is hardly credible. Hopefully everyone will analyze what they are doing and some preventive measures can be put in place for tougher future challengers when IBM isn't taking up the defense.

I really hate MCBride and SCO, but I think this is a good thing for us in the long run. Please remember that we all have to concentrate on making Linux just right for us. If other people/corporations appreciate Linux, then it will be on merit alone. Corporate backing is great and it makes other corporations look towards supporting hardware for Linux, but we're not selling to corporations, we're selling Linux to ourselves - and I think I'm my own worst customer.

-B

Re:Note to self

[MrLint]

"John Fisher, SCO's Canadian manager, disagreed, saying so far there's no evidence Linux is to blame for what he call the 'sharp" drop in sales in this country."

Well in the context of SCO's claims that linux couldn't have reached enterprise level without code 'from' SCO, we have an admission that Linux played no part in their revenue loss (in 2000).

The question is.. what is the sale drop for SCO products in 01, 02, and 03 as compared to 99-00?

wow, cool

[Trelane, the Squire]

3. The RIAA is choosing to devote their resources to target individuals, rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method (see iTunes).

It's nice to see this presented somewhere other than slashdot.

but then, I don't get out much, so I don't know how prevalent this viewpont is ;)

Re:wow, cool

[Anonymous Coward]

rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method (see iTunes).

Don't you just hate it when someone destroys their entire argument by using an example.

"I'm going to rob this bank because you people were stupid enough not to arm yourselves with guns, like the guns I see in your pockets"

"You idiot! You could have solved a lot of time with this spreadsheet if you'd just used a computer, what did you say you made this in again? Oh, Excel? Yeah, if you'd done it in Excel"

"You'd find a hell of a lot more information if you just used web browser! Now click here to leave this page and go to where you can download one."

"If the recording industry provided a downloadable music service, they'd make everyone happier, but no, they're not prepared to create something like iTunes".

Re:wow, cool

[Kris_J]

I think now that the RIAA is suing grandparents and the girl next door, braindead consumers of mainstream media are finally able to form an opinion.

Re:wow, cool

[ynohoo]

I doubt it is within RIAA remit to create "... a feasible distribution method". They are a wathdog organisation to potect the rights of the recording industry.

It is up to individual record companies,the artists and/or their management to do that.

Re:wow, cool

[Anonymous Coward]

The methods of the RIAA presage the methods of the Department of Homeland Security. Minor violations will be raised to the level of national crimes and eventually any use of technology by anyone will break some legal trapdoor somewhere thus making any user of any technology a state criminal. The 60's people were right: Turn off, Tune out and drop out. Unplug your phones, disconnect your DSL, trash your TV, crush your cell phones. Get free of all of the hitech crap which really are links in a giant mesh that will enslave your life. We are a tiny step from the government requireing embeddment of rf tags in your arm in the interest of national security and of course anybody apposed to that is obviously a terrorist.

Remember the 3 R's of the new Constitution: Rights, Responsibility and Revolution!

Petition

[Adam9]

It's currently at 17,085 signatures. Can Slashdot get it to at least 20,000?

Re:Petition

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> here's a petition for him to get a role in Episode III

With this kid's luck, he'll get some sort of Jar-Jaresque character to play, and people will hate him too.

Re:Petition

[n9hmg]

people will hate him too
That brings me to the point I wanted to make. Until he sued, I didn't think badly of him. He got access to a camera and wanted to see if his moves were as smooth as he imagined. Frankly, they weren't completely clumsy.
The whole point of the story was that we've all done things that aren't "cool", and it's funny to see someone else acting silly. Now, the point is that he's a pussy who can't laugh at himself. Let the taunting begin.

Re:Petition

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that petitiononline.com is a complete joke? Here is one to god http://www.petitiononline.com/stopgod/petition.htm l

Re:Petition

[Jason_says]

now its at 17463

Re:Petition

[/dev/trash]

sure. Let me create some sneakemail addresses.

Re:Petition

[NanoGator]

"It's currently at 17,085 signatures. Can Slashdot get it to at least 20,000?"

I think Slashdot rolled it back a bit. It says 404 now.

Re:Petition

[Anonymous Coward]

you're a true piece of garbage.. do you understand the scope of this shit? he's fucking 15 and millions of people mocked him for months online.. oh yes, all in good fun I guess.. but how do you think things go in Trois-Rivières where there is a few thousand people?

Re:Petition

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't file the suit. His parents did.

Re:Petition

[jdvernon1976]

last count @ 19355

Re:Petition

[Anonymous Coward]

do you understand the scope of this shit? he's fucking 15 and millions of people mocked him for months online..

Boo friggin hoo. Let him commit suicide like every other fat teenage geek did after getting humiliated in high school. If you're too lame to deal with shit like that then don't get into humiliating situations. Making a god damn video of yourself and letting it leak out is a stupid thing to do. Same reason my wife won't let me video tape her naked! ;-)

Re:Petition

[AndyMouse GoHard]

Dude, he's a kid in highschool. Easy to encourage him to laugh at himself but this thing is pretty big. How would you *really* react if it was you when you were (I assume) younger? Cut him some slack and eventually he'll see it's not so bad. It is funny, more in the "I would have done that too" way.

Bill

Re:Petition

[FurryFeet]

the point is that he's a pussy who can't laugh at himself

And you've never been a 15 year old geek in high school, right?
It's easy to be jaded as an adult. But I remember adolescence. The fact that he hasn't attempted suicide is already notable.

Re:Petition

[Zeinfeld]

That brings me to the point I wanted to make. Until he sued, I didn't think badly of him. He got access to a camera and wanted to see if his moves were as smooth as he imagined. Frankly, they weren't completely clumsy.

No No! what should happen at this point is that the kids send the video of Cartman in to the America's stupidest video program so they can win the $10,000 that Cartman needs for the DNA tests to find out who his father is. Then Cartman sends in the video of Kenny getting run over by a truck instead.

I don't remember anything in the script about a lawsuit over the video. Thats not till a later episode when Cartman's mum sues to try to get a 54th trimester abortion (or something like that).

Re:Petition

[n9hmg]

I'm borderline autistic, didn't know anyone my own age until kindergarten, and graduated from a rural high school in the early 1980s. Absolute conformity was so highly-valued that I was spanked on a kindergarten field drip for refusing to eat a hot dog with mustard on it. I remember that I turned the bun inside out and used it to wipe the dog off, ate the dog, and wadded the bun up in the napkin. The principal had come along on the trip, and when I threw my napkin into the trash, he pulled it back out and showed the class that I hadn't eaten the bun, then spanked me.
I used to get detention for getting hit by the big kids, on the grounds that since it happened so often, I must be doing something to provoke it. In first grade, I asked my father for permission to carry a pistol, because I was unable to defend myself against overwhelming force, and the bus driver told me to handle it myself. At least the schedule during the school day exposed me to only those one year ahead and behind, so I could at least fight back.
If he's really that awkward, he should learn to avoid all social interaction, defend himself when necessary, and above all, not lose it over good-natured teasing.

$250,000 is a lot of $ for kids to pay

[hashish]

Hope he is suing someone worth suing, then again some people do stupider things to try and get famous; he should be so lucky. Think Tempation Is, Survivor, Fear Factor, Fifth Wheel etc...........

Re:$250,000 is a lot of $ for kids to pay

[Hnidan]

At least it isn't $250,000,000 like it would be in one of your American courts.

Here in Canada they're going to have a hard time triing to get any money for Psychological damages. Our judges like to see receipts.

Re:$250,000 is a lot of $ for kids to pay

[Zeinfeld]

Here in Canada they're going to have a hard time triing to get any money for Psychological damages. Our judges like to see receipts.

The rule for costs in Canada is loser pays. So a frivolous lawsuit is a pretty risky proposition.

I don't know if they still have jury trials for civil actions. I can't see a judge awarding a jackpot payout for this type of damages.

The Star Wars Kids Videos

[pgrote]

Here is the original and remix videos
of the kid. Pretty funny stuff.

I guess this will teach him to leave his tapes laying around. Good lesson to learn in case he actually gets out of puberty and starts taping his girlfriends.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[seinman]

Girlfriends? Have you seen the kid?

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Lead Butthead]

Err, he has a girl friend?

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Chmarr]

RTFA: Having them stolen from a locked school locker is not 'leaving them around'.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[y77]

why don't we hook the star wars kid... He own an iPod now...he must be hell. I haven't seen the video, so I can't comment on how stupid he looks on it, but still, being morbidly embarrassed is nothing to sue his parents for feeding him so damn much, that might cut back on some of the tunnel. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may not be too bright, a glimmer [no matter how faint] is still there.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Anonymous Coward]

Where in the article does it say the filing cabinet was locked?
Maybe you should take your own advice.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Cyno01]

it wasn't a locker, it was an unlocked filing cabinet in the a/v room

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[clambake]

RTFA: Having them stolen from a locked school locker is not 'leaving them around'.

Depends on your definition of "leaving around"... Now help me jimmy this car door, I can see somone "left around" a CD player in thier front seat.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[secolactico]

Yeesh... ok, so he's acting like a doofus, but it's not like he did a Libby whatever... (you know... the girl whose "private" strip act for her boyfriend is all over the internet now).

Kids do things far more embarrasing to their "friends" and usually don't even end in detention... such as pulling your pants down in public... or shave *one* eyebrow when you are passed out drunk... (must... repress... memory...).

It's a pretty funny video, and cool in a geeky sort of way. He shouldn't feel demeaned for it. Plus he's fifteen, for god's sake. At that age, that is a way of making an ass out of yourself in a socially aceptable way.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[genka]

I can see somone "left around" a CD player in thier front seat
Yeah! And let sucker be served with a suit for sharing that CD from the player!

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[IvyMike]

but it's not like he did a Libby whatever... (you know... the girl whose "private" strip act for her boyfriend is all over the internet now).

How did this get rated up without having a link?

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah.. he's a fat, geeky, 15 year old kid.. I'm sure this video made him fucking captain of the football team

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Phroggy]

He shouldn't feel demeaned for it. Plus he's fifteen, for god's sake. At that age, that is a way of making an ass out of yourself in a socially aceptable way.

It's socially acceptible to 20-yr-olds, not to 15-yr-olds.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[IamTheRealMike]

And if I remember rightly, didn't he get enough donations to by like 5 iPods or something crazy? Pretty harsh to be trying to get more money now.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Anonymous Coward]

but it's not like he did a Libby whatever... (you know... the girl whose "private" strip act for her boyfriend is all over the internet now).

Got a link? All I can find for Libby Hoeler is links to porn sites or 404 errors. WTF has the Internet become when searching for a simple thing like an amateur strip tease photo shoot ends up with nothing but porn ads? The Internet sucks.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[secolactico]

It's socially acceptible to 20-yr-olds, not to 15-yr-olds.

Different cultures, I guess...

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[nadadogg]

Libby Hoeler, you can get the full collection off kazaa/your favorite filesharing program. Ah, sweet, sweet libby, she kept me company many a night before i managed to snag a female...

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on your definition of "leaving around"... Now help me jimmy this car door, I can see somone "left around" a CD player in thier front seat.

Look at this car, they "left around" a CD player in plain sight in their dashboard.

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't he own it, no matter where he leaves it?

Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos

[mfrank]

In four or five years, saying he's the star wars kid will be a good way to start a conversation with a girl. If he can laugh about it by then. The only thing better than money is celebrity.

Ghyslain Raza

[Anonymous Coward]

it should be noted that even though embarrased, he actually wasnt/isnt angry at the people who posted it. simply; he has greedy parents...

shame, i think they are doing more damage to him by teaching him to be greedy versus 'taking' the joke.

Re:Ghyslain Raza

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently he was a little more than embarrassed. I have read in one news article, that he had to drop out of school and seek counselling for psychological trauma.

Re:Ghyslain Raza

[NanoGator]

"shame, i think they are doing more damage to him by teaching him to be greedy versus 'taking' the joke."

You're absolutely right. He should have just taken it in stride. He is, afterall, a celebrity now.

Re:Ghyslain Raza

[moosesocks]

While his parents are probably pushing for a lawsuit, there are certainly other valid reasons. Becasue of that video, he will never recieve a normal education.

Being humiliated into quitting high school isn't exactly a trivial issue.

Re:Ghyslain Raza

[CritterNYC]

Yeah, he didn't seem very angry in that interview that he did online. And the site that interviewed him was sending him an iPod, which is cool. But the kids that broke into the locker, stole the video, digitzed it, put it online and invited people to make fun of it sound like asses. The last line of the article includes this gem: "In the excerpts from Internet chats filed in court, the four appear to be plotting ways to get the gifts sent to another address so they can keep the iPod for themselves."

Pay him!

[sebi]

I can feel for that Star Wars kid. Being an outsider in school is hard enough when you are only mocked by those that you see every day. But suddenly being laughed at by a global audience must be hell. I haven't seen the video, so I can't comment on how stupid he looks on it, but that is beside the point. He clearly did not intend it to be seen by anyone. High school bullying is good fun, until one of the victims decides to shoot some classmates. Then it is newsworthy. When they drop out, or even kill themselves then nobody cares. This case can send the right message if you ask me (which you really shouldn't)

Re:Pay him!

[El]

If he didn't intend for anybody else to see it, then how did 4 students that didn't like him get a copy of it to post to the net?

Re:Pay him!

[RestiffBard]

oh come off it. Everyone either gets laughed at or thinks they're being laughed at. The kid got his fifteen minutes of fame. now, he's trying to extend it and get a payday. Boo on him. If he was half a man he would just shut up an be happy. 20 years from now he can pull out the video and show his kids, "see kids that's embarrassing. what happened to you is not embarrassment."

So big deal if he gets laughed at in high school. who didnt? dropping out is dumb. tough it out. don't let a society tell you you should be coddled cause someone hurt your feelings. grow up. In a year he wouldn't even know the people that are laughing at him now. If you can name one person that made fun of you, or bullied you in high school 5 years after graduation you need to seek a shrink's help cause you don't know how to let go. trust me, the bully doesn't remember you.

I understand a vast majority of /.ers are on the "picked on and made fun of" rung of the high school hierarchy ladder but take my word for it, from one geek to another, you'll get over it. Oh, and yes, someday you will get laid. I promise. Not by me, but someone will like you.

Re:Pay him!

[dacetone]

The article says: "They say the four stole the video from a school filing cabinet where Ghyslain had stored a video camera he was using for a student project."

Re:Pay him!

[fermion]

I agree that being an outsider is high school is hard, and being mocked is hard, but i think what this kid needs is counseling. Dropping out of school for this is a bit much.

I guess what i really feel bad about is that he has to go to a substandard school where the kids don't think the movie was cool. Any real geek knows that the clip is cool, and would respect it. In my public high school, I would have had any number of people coming up to me telling me how cool it was. I would have had teachers coming up to me telling me how impressive it was. Sure he looks stupid, but he is high school. He is supposed to look stupid.

As far as feeling sorry for him, and thinking he should get money, I just can't. If a crime has been committed, then arrest the people who did it. If he doesn't want the clip out, send cease and desist orders. Otherwise let it go. Yesterday he was just a kid, now he is a celebrity.

The fact is there are kids with real problems out there. Kids who don't get enough food. Kids who change clothes before getting on the bus to go home so they don't get beat up for looking like a dork. Kids who ride the bus for over an hour to get a good education. This incident just seems like a good lesson that if you film yourself, then it might get out. Just ask Pamela Anderson.

Re:Pay him!

[sebi]

If he didn't intend for anybody else to see it, then how did 4 students that didn't like him get a copy of it to post to the net?

Let me quote TFA:
They say the four stole the video from a school filing cabinet where Ghyslain had stored a video camera he was using for a student project.

Even if this is not true and he just left the tape lying around, or even forgot it in the camera, common decency (who am I kidding? There is no such thing anymore) should have led to any other course of action than posting the clip on the internet.

Re:Pay him!

[metalhed77]

High school bullying is good fun, until one of the victims decides to shoot some classmates.

Never mind the extreme personal hell inflcited in the one being bullied. Guns or words, either one can ruin a life.

Re:Pay him!

[222]

This is actually very interesting to read, as i remember an interview with him in which he seemed indifferent, if not amused by the video. Back then he seemed to have a great attitude towards the whole thing, its sad to see the effect that his peers seem to have had on him. Then again, kids can be so cruel. (no sarcasm intended)

Re:Pay him!

[benjamindees]

Look, I just downloaded the video and I don't think he looks stupid at all. It's obvious that he spent a little time working out the choreography of his performance and that's commendable considering it's something he just did for fun.

The people who spent the time to add sound and video effects obviously felt his work was worth adding to, otherwise they wouldn't have done it.

I'll admit, it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, but that shouldn't make it embarrassing for him. Lots of people make a good living doing seemingly foolish things. Lots of people did nerdy stuff like this in highschool just for the experience and that has turned out to benefit them later in life.

I feel like an ass whenever I'm on camera mostly because I don't have the ability to entertain people. This kid seems to have attracted a large audience and a lot of attention. He should take that as a sign that he's doing something right.

Re:Pay him!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just downloaded "Star Wars Kid 2.0 DivX.wmv" off Kazaa. It has the ends of the stick converted to look like a double bladed lightsaber and has him blocking lasers beams. Star Wars music plays in the background. It's very good.

Re:Pay him!

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that in one of the cases, if you learn to suck it up and ignore the losers, you get over it.... as many of us have.

Not so much the other one.

Re:Pay him!

[sebi]

I'll admit, it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, but that shouldn't make it embarrassing for him.

The funniest thing I have seen in a long time was Steve Ballmer's demented dance act. I have no problem laughing at people who set themselves up for it, but when events are forced into the public my problems start. Jackass can be really funny, hidden camera style humour can't. There is a line that many people don't seem to respect--the border between public and private. Ultimately the kid should have been the one to decide, whether or not the video was to be seen by an audience. The four others took that decision out of his hands. This might not be a crime, but it should be. I don't know if the Canadian legal system recognises the right of ones own image, but if it does then Ghyslain Raza would have enough grounds for litigation even without resorting to psychiatry.

Re:Pay him!

[benjamindees]

I knew someone would mention Jackass. That's not what I meant by "people doing seemingly foolish things". I meant that entertainment itself is foolish, when you think about it, yet it is a highly valued skill in almost every society.

The kid is obviously pretty good at entertaining, if only because lots of us have thought about doing something like that and that's probably what most of us would look like doing so. Normal people who have the guts to live out their normal lives and be themselves while letting everyone watch make great entertainers.

It wouldn't be funny if it weren't true. Ballmer's dance was hilarious and embarrassing because that's not the way one would expect a corporate CEO to behave. This, otoh, is exactly how everyone who walked out of 'Episode I' wanted to behave and I'll bet quite a few more actually did. It isn't "stupid" or "embarrassing" at all. It's normal.

Re:Pay him!

[Renli]

If you can name one person that made fun of you, or bullied you in high school 5 years after graduation you need to seek a shrink's help cause you don't know how to let go. trust me, the bully doesn't remember you.

I can name everyone in my graduating class. First and usually last name. It's about 4 years now since grad. Your shrink comment is utter bull. Here's two reasons why you may remember someone who picked on you: small class and a good memory. Neither means you need a shrink.

Re:Pay him!

[sebi]

I knew someone would mention Jackass. That's not what I meant by "people doing seemingly foolish things". I meant that entertainment itself is foolish, when you think about it, yet it is a highly valued skill in almost every society.

I agree, that the skill to entertain is justifiably highly valued. I do, however, not agree, that entertainment in itself is foolish. The ability to be entertained is one of the things that make life worth living.

Context matters. Context and intention. Normal people who have the guts to live out their normal lives and be themselves while letting everyone watch make great entertainers. Letting and watch are the keywords in that sentence. Had the guy released the video himself that would be a completely different matter. Re-enacting scenes with friends is a lot of fun. You laugh, they laugh, everyone is happy. Taping yourself doing stupid things can be fun. You laugh at yourself, which definitely is a healthy thing to do. And if you want to share that, that is fine, but the decision should be yours and yours alone. The video was always presented along the lines of "look at that dork," thus I never watched.

You were not supposed to reflect upon yourself, admire his guts or his natural showmanship. You were supposed to laugh at the pathetic kid. Schadenfreude pure and simple. It's cynical and cold-hearted humour and that is something that I don't like (I am aware, that I might be in the minority with this opinion, but that doesn't make it any less valid from where I am sitting). Sure--he got his fifteen minutes, but not everybody wants fame or a place in the spotlight.

I am not denying the fact, that the video might be comedic gold. I am lamenting the fact, that Ghyslain was forced into a position he might not have wanted to occupy. Maybe it isn't stupid. Maybe it isn't embarrassing, it might even be normal. It definitely is not something I would want to happen to me. I choose my audience, when making a fool of myself and that is the way I would like to keep it.

Re:Pay him!

[pi_rules]

I say we start making a list of stupid things that we've done.

I submit: this mp3. Granted, I posted this as a one-off thing for a buddy so he'd get a laugh out of it and after such a postive response from him (and former coworkers) kept it online.

If I had a video if the dumb-assed look on my face as I had a half Stevie Wonder half 'Timmmay!' (South Park) look to me it'd be even funnier.

For a football game where the women played football and the men cheerleaded in high school I signed up. Twice, although the first was accidental. I got pressured by some friends who signed up to be part of the halftime show. We were all wrestlers, me being a lightweight so I was litterally -tossed- between groups for the show. Not safe, but a skinny guy going "gaaaahhaha!" through the air is hugely entertaining I guess.

The next year I signed up and got some buddies to do it with me. We all dressed up in something stupid -- I picked a wrestling signlet. A small one... cut like briefs... in 40 degree weather... can you say "turtle effect"? I hadn't counted on that one. Shoulda brought an extra sock. Or two. I've never said "Oh shutup -- it's cold" so many times in a night in my life.

I wore a 3 foot tall foam Guiness top had during a short stroll from my buddie's house to the beer store downtown in a decent sized town once. Somebody stuck their head out the window doing 25 to express their feelings with the word "Shithead" rather loudly. Not a fan of Guiness I guess.

Ventured out onto my balcony once to watch a thunderstorm. Chilled ou there for about a half an hour reveling in how insignificant I really am in comparsion with the One that can make stuff like that happen on command. I go to open the slider door and realize how insignificant I really am as the door has locked itself behind me. With my keys inside. With my cellphone. Oh, and I'm on the 2nd story -- and it's still raining. A 20 foot fall into some mushy ground and 20 minutes of walking later I'm using somebody's phone (who thankfully I knew) to call maintence and get back into my apartment.

Of course, standing around with a group of guys in high school chit chatting and interjecting, "yeah, I noticed that X has a huge friggen crank. Wouldn't have thought that" and then being informed that you completey misunderstood about 4 of the 6 words out of the last guys sentence really puts a crimp in our style. Hey, I'm not the smartest peanut in the turd. Try explaining -THAT- one off!

Got on a mechanical bull once drunk... well, three times in a night. 'Nuff said there.

My first jump out of a plane I was informed that me yelling "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" can be heard 3500 feet below. I've probably watched 100 people dump so far and I've never heard somebody yell loud enough to hear them. I think I got a record there.

Hopefully the 'Star Wars Kid', if he's reading this, doesn't feel so bad now. Personally, if he had developed a little more flexibility in his legs he coulda looked a whole lot cooler in some of those shots.

Re:Pay him!

[Planesdragon]

Never mind the extreme personal hell inflcited in the one being bullied. Guns or words, either one can ruin a life.

Bull

Shit.

Everyone I consider a friend was an outsider for at least one significant stretch of their life. Most of them suffered the kind of school-age ostracizing that fits the geek stereotypes--and those that didn't went through social problems just as hard and painful.

Being bullied isn't an "exterme personal hell." It's a fact of life, for every last person in this country. The only variable is when the bullying happens. (Think that you're in a "personal hell?" Go to a holocaust museum, or a drug recovery clinic. THOSE deserve the name "hell". School does not.)

A geek who can't figure out how to adapt to social quandaries isn't intelligent--he's just a rude, wierd bastard. Adapting to either influence the crowd or hardening to keep the crowd from bothering you is part of how you define who we are--it's not a unique trial that only the geeky go through.

Oh, and no one ever got killed by a word. Not even "kill him." Bullets, now--bullets kill and maim and almost always end their users' lives (try getting a job with "assault with a deadly weapon" on your record). Being mocked and belittled at every turn is just practice for marriage--I mean, the meeting your spouse's family part. ;)

Re:Pay him!

[sjames]

Unless he put it in a place designated for shared taped or handed it to them saying it was a gift, the four comitted theft by taking at least.

If obeying the law wasn't a good enough reason, I agree, common decency should also have sufficed.

Re:Pay him!

[bigsmelly]

dude! yet another reason for children not to have guns!

Seriously, he can now capitalise on his fame, and make a mint presenting and acting.

American style lawsuits ( yes i know this is Canada) are a complete joke. Why can the parents bring a suit?? In the UK recently a bloke who had suffered brain damage during birth because the doctors thought he was stillborn brought a suit only after he turned eighteen!

For exampe people who bring suits complaining that they were not warned about the coffee being hot or the hamburgers making you fat etcetera, should, if they win the court case be put in a special retirement home for the terminally stupid.

Re:Pay him!

[Anonymous Coward]

dude you should see the video! lol

Re:Pay him!

[AKnightCowboy]

Unless he put it in a place designated for shared taped or handed it to them saying it was a gift, the four comitted theft by taking at least.

I guess the Star Wars Kid is working under MPAA/RIAA copyright infringement law. Normally the kids would've gotten suspended for a few days for stealing, but in the modern world you get $100,000 fines per infringement and jail time.

Re:Pay him!

[AKnightCowboy]

I'll admit, it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, but that shouldn't make it embarrassing for him. Lots of people make a good living doing seemingly foolish things.

He could be the next Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler! OK, probably not.

Re:Pay him!

[sjames]

I guess the Star Wars Kid is working under MPAA/RIAA copyright infringement law.

Actually, the case is a bit different. He's not upset about copyright infringement of something he wanted to publish, he's upset because he feels deeply embarrassed by it's publication against his will.

It is reasonable that this would go beyond simple theft since in addition to owing him restitution for his lost physical property and for the commision of theft by taking, they also owe him for deliberatly and with malice holding him up to public ridicule.

It really doesn't matter if he SHOULD be embarrassed or not, that was for him to decide. The invitation to make derisive comments about it shows that the 4 intended to bring public ridicule and the kid's reaction shows that they succeeded in causing that damage. For all of that, they are only seeking $62,500 each rather than $100,000 and jail time each.

File sharing lacks theft by taking as well as malice. It is not a deliberate infliction of emotional pain. While the RIAA members SHOULD be deeply embarrassed by many of their published works as well, apparently they're not.

The amount may or may not be fair (looks like the court will determine that), but it is certainly not as grossly unfair as the RIAA which asks for far more for far less.

Re:Pay him!

[RestiffBard]

splitting hairs.

Re:Pay him!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the main damage isnt that kids taunted him (I'm sure they did and as I recall it hurt) but that since it was blown all over the net and god knows where else, he probably gets openly ridiculed in public everywhere he goes by people who have seen the video (or more spcifically the "re-mixes").

I think I would be pretty screwed up if I had to face the outside world knowing that any number of everyone around me, had been shown one of my most personal/embarassing moments.

Now... what we really need to figure out how to do

[miketang16]

Is how to ban the RIAA from accessing the Internet.

The real question

[pcgamez]

...is if Slashdot has the balls to ban the RIAA.

Re:The real question

[miketang16]

I don't see the balls in this. It's their server, they're allowed to ban anyone they see fit.

Re:The real question

[Luigi30]

Slashdot has balls? Since when? I didn't know websites had balls.

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe someone could start a site to generate broader support for the idea of blocking the riaa from websites, perhaps with a little tech how-to for barely scraping by webmasters and that kind of stuff. I'll bet it could really take off.

Re:The real question

[Myuu]

They wouldnt do that, remember /. is completely objective and neutral :)

Re:The real question

[minion]

They should just setup a fake slashdot page, so whenever someone from an RIAA IP block goes to slashdot, it shows them articles on how much we love paying for music, and feel guilty that we use free operating systems.

Re:The real question

[pcgamez]

of course it is neutral!

*GO LINUX, WOOHOO, HEHE, HOHO, WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

The sad thing is, I never meant for that comment to be moderated well, I am trying to keep all my posts at 1

damn, I have failed

Re:The real question

[Alsee]

See sig

-

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

But pipedot seems kinda close to smokedot.

great

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm really glad they restored the president@whitehouse.gov address. Now we can really tell him what we think... You first!

if he's feeling litigious...

[Anonymous Coward]

That Star Wars kid ought to sue his parents for feeding him so damn much, that might cut back on some of the ridicule.

Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[RedLeg]

"In response to their legal targeting of individual file-swappers, access from their known networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site."

So, this site's admin has put in place a technical measure to prevent or limit certain persons from accessing his site. Wouldn't attempts by those persons to circumvent that access control technology constitute a violation of the DMCA?

Where's the FBI and a Federal Prosecutor when you need one?

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[Anonymous Coward]

the government only works for the rich, or for
those causes that might enrich the rich .. this is
just a fact of life

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[Fareq]

only if that website can prove, in a court of law, that their methods are "effective" which should be easy to do.

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[digidave]

The problem is that the RIAA used the Von Lohmann quote before the technical measures were put in place, so your argument is only good if they decide to grab another quote. Even then, some RIAA lawyer working from home or a separate office could easily view the site.

The bigger picture is the fallout.

boycott-riaa.com has covered Techfocus' efforts, as has several other web sites. There seems to be quite an underground movement supporting Techfocus. I am a moderator for the Techfocus forum on this subject. Check it out and help if you can.

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[Arker]

Probably not since they would just have to use an IP that is not being blocked - an IP that is allowed thus.

What techfocus, slashdot, and everyone else should really do is put up one of those porno-style front pages where you have a disclaimer that says by entering the site, you are attesting that you are not an employee or associate of the RIAA, and you have to press 'agree' to enter. That might make them a little shy of quoting us out of context...

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[Phroggy]

The DMCA is a copyright law; the anti-circumvention stuff only applies if you're circumventing something that was designed to prevent you from copying the content. Downloading HTML in your browser has been ruled not to qualify as copying, I believe (even if it gets copied to your cache on disk). I could very well be mistaken about that; IANAL so somebody correct me.

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[JamesP]

To the Star Wars Kid case? I mean, he can say his "work" is copyrighted and that every pirated copy meant (dunno) $100 in lost sales!

Now, that would be worth seeing.

Re:Wouldn't the DMCA apply?

[Sloppy]

the anti-circumvention stuff only applies if you're circumventing something that was designed to prevent you from copying the content.

No. If that's what DMCA said, DMCA would have been a lot less controversial. The text talks about "access" and doesn't say anything at all about copying.

No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
...
a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

The problem is that filtering on an address range is never going to be "effectively limiting access." If Jack Valenti goes home and reads the page through his DSL line, or the MPAA/RIAA after getting sick of DoS attacks, asks their ISP to give them a different range, or they change ISPs because theirs goes out of business or charges too much, or whatever, how are you going to say that their subsequent web access isn't "ordinary course of operation"?

Address range filtering may be pragmatic in a quantitative sense (e.g. blocking spam) but it's hopeless if you really need to be rigorous.

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[Trelane, the Squire]

That is actually what the website supports...

In a perfect world this wouldn't be an act we'd want to take - but we've had it with the RIAA and MPAA. Their contribution to the internet is stifling programming creativity (see the DMCA, etc), and they are acting in bad faith. As such, they can find their opposition information elsewhere. While we are sure that these actions are not going to stop the RIAA and MPAA from acting against individuals, we hope that other sites take a similar approach. If you are a website owner or content creator, drop us a note and we'll provide you with the file - it would be a powerful statement if webmasters around the net just shut them out.

Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Anonymous Coward]

John Carmack does

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[n_jed]

That's not even remotely funny, whoever modded this as funny should have their modding ability revoked.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah stfu n00b i'll frag your ass...i guarantee that will be M2ed funny.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Durandal64]

Oh lighten up.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ain't America great! A place where assholes who wish to impose there views on other because the didn't get enough dick can deem some word "un-funny."

You would make a good inspector for the RIAA.

Leave the guy alone, I think geeks are harder on each other that a Jock is to a Geek.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Moryath]

No, the Jocks are definitely harder. Ever been stuffed into a locker? Ever had your bag shredded? Ever had to try to explain to a teacher that these pieces of paper *were* your report, until the captain of the football team got ahold of them, and watch as the dumb fuck gets off with just a warning because your school needs him around to win games? The worst of it is: do not EVER, EVER let your kid get pushed ahead a grade in public schools. I guarantee, any kid pushed ahead, will STILL be bright enough to break the grading curve in his/her new grade. Plus, they'll be smaller, so the all-important things (gym class, how hard you can hit a baseball, if you can so much as lift a finger to fight back) will be against them. If you ever have that chance, put the kid into a private school pronto, where the teachers at least give a fuck about the students' welfare.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[holt]

Whatever. I skipped a grade ahead and was fine. I had some troubles during middle school, but who doesn't? You're right about the curve breaking but if you teach the kid some social skills then they'll probably be alright.

You can't make sweeping generalizations about something like that. Each case is different.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Moryath]

Well no, there are two MAJOR differences between public and private schools. #1, Private schools have the authority to kick out and/or punish the troublemakers. Being ahead of the curve is actually encouraged, and the teachers who are there have (and tend to exercise) the power to adequately stop any harassment. This includes kicking out the worst. #2, The parents of the children in a private school, not always but with a much better tendency, have managed to impress on their kids the importance of education, and have taken something of an active hand in raising said children. Compare these with the public institution; teachers have no enforcement power, if they so much as send a kid off for detention they risk getting sued; the guidance counselors are more interested in punishing the victims, telling them it's all their fault for "attracting attention"; the parents of the bullies and harassers likely don't give a shit or aren't around. Yes, I was pushed ahead. I actually had a guidance counselor suggest that I deliberately get lower grades than I could on some tests, so that my name wasn't always at the top of the grading list and thus attracting attention. Rather than punish or correct the bullying students, they were focused on "what can we do to stop them noticing him as a target." This is the effect of letting liberals run the schools. My middle school VP actually said "there is no such thing as a bully." So, when there was a fight, it didn't matter if one student was attacked by three others, and had a broken nose and black eyes while the three had not so much as a scratch; all four got detention. The bullies didn't care, their grades were crap anyways -- the one they attacked had to miss tests and class time. The worst part is that his opinion was commonplace. Everyone wants to "understand" the bullies, make them "respect" the other students, make them "see that the other students are worthwhile individuals too." My parents had to threaten to sue the school district when they kept throwing one boy into study groups with my sister, despite the fact that he'd attacked her twice. "But if you teach the kid some social skills they'll probably be alright." BULLCRAP. The type of bullies that exist there don't have social skills to start with. All they have is brute force. Why do you think they made us all read Lord of the Flies? It was an allegory for the kind of crap that went on at recess or in the halls. When the entirety of your social structure is based on who can beat up who, no amount of "teach social skills" is gonna protect the kid. If you skipped a grade and were fine, you either were pushed ahead in the 60s when schools still had disciplinary control, OR you were in a rich neighborhood to begin with that had well-paid teachers and lots of money to throw in to the school system, not to mention a low ratio of bused-in inner city brats whose parents didn't care what they did. The solution is a certain modicum of force. You can reason with a college age student. The brains of the vast majority of students at grade/middle school level, on the other hand, haven't and may not ever evolve past "might makes right."

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Moryath]

Reposting with proper formatting -- why the hell "HTML Formatted" keeps popping up as default I'll never know. Doubly so why the hell "HTML Formatted" strips out basic end-of-line characters.

Anyhow:
Well no, there are two MAJOR differences between public and private schools.

#1, Private schools have the authority to kick out and/or punish the troublemakers. Being ahead of the curve is actually encouraged, and the teachers who are there have (and tend to exercise) the power to adequately stop any harassment. This includes kicking out the worst.

#2, The parents of the children in a private school, not always but with a much better tendency, have managed to impress on their kids the importance of education, and have taken something of an active hand in raising said children.

Compare these with the public institution; teachers have no enforcement power, if they so much as send a kid off for detention they risk getting sued; the guidance counselors are more interested in punishing the victims, telling them it's all their fault for "attracting attention"; the parents of the bullies and harassers likely don't give a shit or aren't around.

Yes, I was pushed ahead. I actually had a guidance counselor suggest that I deliberately get lower grades than I could on some tests, so that my name wasn't always at the top of the grading list and thus attracting attention.

Rather than punish or correct the bullying students, they were focused on "what can we do to stop them noticing him as a target." This is the effect of letting liberals run the schools. My middle school VP actually said "there is no such thing as a bully." So, when there was a fight, it didn't matter if one student was attacked by three others, and had a broken nose and black eyes while the three had not so much as a scratch; all four got detention. The bullies didn't care, their grades were crap anyways -- the one they attacked had to miss tests and class time. The worst part is that his opinion was commonplace. Everyone wants to "understand" the bullies, make them "respect" the other students, make them "see that the other students are worthwhile individuals too."

My parents had to threaten to sue the school district when they kept throwing one boy into study groups with my sister, despite the fact that he'd attacked her twice.

"But if you teach the kid some social skills they'll probably be alright."

BULLCRAP.

The type of bullies that exist there don't have social skills to start with. All they have is brute force. Why do you think they made us all read Lord of the Flies? It was an allegory for the kind of crap that went on at recess or in the halls. When the entirety of your social structure is based on who can beat up who, no amount of "teach social skills" is gonna protect the kid.

If you skipped a grade and were fine, you either were pushed ahead in the 60s when schools still had disciplinary control, OR you were in a rich neighborhood to begin with that had well-paid teachers and lots of money to throw in to the school system, not to mention a low ratio of bused-in inner city brats whose parents didn't care what they did.

The solution is a certain modicum of force. You can reason with a college age student. The brains of the vast majority of students at grade/middle school level, on the other hand, haven't and may not ever evolve past "might makes right."

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Chrontius]

Private schools can suck quite hard too - especially combined middle/high schools. Think "12th grader picks 6th grader up by throat" here, folks.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Chrontius]

While this got a "funny" moderation, the sad fact of the matter is that a significant percentage of america believes this joke.

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[holt]

If you skipped a grade and were fine, you either were pushed ahead in the 60s when schools still had disciplinary control, OR you were in a rich neighborhood to begin with that had well-paid teachers and lots of money to throw in to the school system, not to mention a low ratio of bused-in inner city brats whose parents didn't care what they did.

Ha. I went to a rural public school which was pretty much dirt poor. Oh, and I'm a junior in college (University of Illinois), which means I was pushed ahead in 1989 (I skipped first grade) and was in high school from 1998-2001.

Obviously I had a low ratio of bussed in inner-city kids, but that doesn't mean the parents in my area cared what their kids did. Some did, of course, but there were a lot of people who were seriously messed up.

The social dynamic in my school was not really based on who could beat up whom. I was lucky in that I'm a pretty big guy. However, when you're a big freshman there are still bigger seniors. You just have to be able to win their respect somehow.

I'm not trying to say that some people don't have bad experiences. I am, however, saying that you shouldn't just give up on public schools, and you shouldn't generalize and say "it can't be done, go somewhere else."

Re:Bullying doesn't cause school shootings...

[Moryath]

You are the exception that proves the statistical rule. As a statistical rule, if a kid is gonna be pushed ahead, keep the public schools the hell away from him/her.

Star Wars Kid

[Keebler71]

Here is the link to a "Star Wars Kid" Parody site. I didn't want to post it till I watched the videos for fear of slashdoting depriving me of nearly wetting myself it was so funny.

Re:Star Wars Kid

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a version that doesn't require selling your soul to the devil by downloading a current wmv codec?

Re:Star Wars Kid

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have to sell your soul to the devil. You just have to sell him a soul. I sold him yours, my bad.

Re:Star Wars Kid

[moosesocks]

Funny, eh?

Would it be funny if that was YOU in that video?

Didn't think so.

He forgot to say thank you

[DennisZeMenace]

Ghyslain/Star-Wars-Kid forgot to say thank you for the $3250 he received from the Internet community. I wonder whether it's him or his parents pushing for the lawsuit...

-DZM

Re:He forgot to say thank you

[Tyler Eaves]

Well considering he's currently in a mental hospital I think he got the short end of the stick personally.

Re:He forgot to say thank you

[Sabalon]

Wonder if he got contacted by the RIAA as the only reason to have an iPod is to obviously pirate music from the net for it.

Re:He forgot to say thank you

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but $250,000 isn't much. Remember, it's Canadian money, so it's only $0.05 USD. ;-)

For those wishing to block RIAA/MPAA:

[bivaughn]

12.150.191.0 - 12.150.191.255 | RECORDIN50-191 | RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOC OF AMERICA | RIAA | 1330 CONNECTICUT AVENUE NW SUITE 300 - WASHINGTON US | 2001-08-11 | reassignment | ARIN

12.29.112.0 - 12.29.112.15 | MPLC-112-0 | Motion Picture Licensing Corp | MPLC | 5455 Centinela Ave. - LA - CA - 90066 - US | US | 1999-07-29 | reassignment | ARIN

208.49.164.0 - 208.49.164.255 | GBX-REQ000000015136 | MPAA/Motion Picture Association | C00282131 | 15503 Venture Blvd - Encino - CA - 91436 - US | US | 2002-03-07 | reassignment | ARIN

198.70.114.0 - 198.70.114.255 | NET-MPA-1 | Motion Picture Association | C00012562 | 15503 Ventura Boulevard - Encino - CA - 91436 - US | US | 1998-03-04 | reassignment | ARIN

63.199.57.120 - 63.199.57.127 | SBCIS68048 | Motion Picture Assoc. | C00048959 | 15503 Ventura Boulevard - Encino - CA - 91436 - US | US | 1999-12-08 | reassignment | ARIN

208.50.66.224 - 208.50.66.255 | GBX-REQ000000012662 | MPAA | C00194717 | 15503 Venture Blvd - Encino - CA - 91436 - US | US | 2001-06-26 | reassignment | ARIN

Re:For those wishing to block RIAA/MPAA:

[potsmaster]

i've never once downloaded a tune (nor anything else) from a so-called illegal filesharing system. years ago i checked out napster but was concerned about the security of their code and never tried running it. thus i'm not one of the "blackhats" the riaa is pursuing.

so why am i so offended by their heavy-handed tactics? so much so that i'm instituting a block of their ip's on my webservers...

by the way, thanks for the info, /.

Re:For those wishing to block RIAA/MPAA:

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would they care that they can't access bloodnok.net?

Re:For those wishing to block RIAA/MPAA:

[silvaran]

I'm really, really confused about netmask calculations (the networks I've set up haven't been very complex). What are the corresponding netmasks for the above blocks? I've tried the following:

12.150.191.0/24
12.29.112.15/28
208.49.164.0/2 4
198.70.114.0/24
63.199.57.127/27
208.50.66.25 5/29

But it blocks too many... I think I have the bounds mixed up on the sub-netblocks (like .120 - .127) ...??

Re:For those wishing to block RIAA/MPAA:

[silvaran]

I got it... for the subblocks you specify the first IP address in the block, then subtract the number of bits (from 32) required to address the entire block. So the 2nd, 5th and 6th are wrong:

12.150.191.0/24
* 12.29.112.0/28 (need 4 bits, or 32-4=28)
208.49.164.0/24
198.70.114.0/24
* 63.199.57.120/29 (need 3 bits, or 32-3=29)
* 208.50.66.224/27 (need 5 bits, or 32-5=27)

Great... that does a whole lot of nothing :).

*yawn*

[Anonymous Coward]

That would have been funny 5 years ago.
You fail it.

Star Wars Kid?

[mshomphe]

Jesus, it's about a bunch of Quebecois! Who cares? Nuke 'em all, let God sort em out.

Re:Star Wars Kid?

[Anonymous Coward]

The troll alert is beeping like crazy Batman.

Re:Star Wars Kid?

[Anonymous Coward]

How the fuck did this get modded insightful?

Re:Star Wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Click here to see me naked.

Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[Noksagt]

Didn't we already help buy him an ipod?

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[josh crawley]

He's not suing the people who bought him an Ipod, he's suing the people who held him up for global ridicule and ruined his life. If I beat the shit out of you, and someone else comes along and gives you a teddy bear to comfort you, does that mean you shouldn't take action against me?

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[AEton]

If you read the linked article about the lawsuit, one of the claims made in the suit (bolstered by a series of supposed chat logs between the four defendants) is that the four children named wanted to misdirect the sympathy money/iPod he was sent. Whether or not that claim holds any water will, no doubt, be determined in court.

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ruined his life? Cry me a fucking river fat boy.

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[wass]

Global ridicule and ruining his life? I thought the video was funny, but I was NOT laughing AT the kid, but at the situation of some people taking a random kid acting out a light-saber battle and turning into a full-blown production-style piece of work.

Of course the kid looked goofy, but anybody other than either a practiced martial artist or having learned choreographed routine will look just as goofy.

What the hell is there to be embarrased over? If they put up a movie of him pissing himself during a high school presentation, or a private erotic video of him with his girlfriend, then that's one thing. But the star wars video "ruining his life"? Come on.

As Yoda would say, beating the shit out of someone this is not.

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[Maul]

Ruining his life? Only if he keeps treating this as a huge embarassment. People put far less entertaining things online featuring THEMSELVES regularly. He has the wrong attitude. He should have taken advantage of it.

First of all there was no damage.

I probably wouldn't even recognize the kid if he was walking down the street. I'd reckon that most internet users got their 30 second laugh about it and then forgot about it. Potential long term damage is next to nil.

Second of all, he has more to gain than lose out of it.

1. He got a friggin iPod for his stunts actually showing up online. I'm surprised the other kids at his school didn't start trying to copycat him.

2. He can milk his little appearance for all it is worth. He could train himself to be the next Chris Farley, and who knows? He might show up in Episode 3 (doubtful, but maybe it'll happen).

Re:Greedy Star Wars Kid!

[Noksagt]

It isn't greed when you claim your life is ruined, when people do thing like buy an ipod or gift certificates for you or try to give you a few minutes of international fame?

This kid didn't have the shit beaten out of him. He had his likeness promoted on the internet. If you released a video I made in high school on the inernet & I got a teddy bear (let alone thousands of dollars and an ounce of fame), I wouldn't take action against you...I'd hire you as my @#$@#ing agent.

lucky the Star Wars kid's canadian...

[Anonymous Coward]

otherwise whatever money he might be awarded would no doubt be seized by the MPAA and handed straight to George Lucas.....

Re:lucky the Star Wars kid's canadian...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now instead it will be seized by the federal government and 80% will just be added to the general coffers and the other 20% given to Canada's recording industry to compensate them for people pirating US music. He own an iPod now...he must be a pirate; it's the Canadian way.

Ghyslain in Episode III

[LMariachi]

Wouldn't that just compound his humiliation?

Re:Ghyslain in Episode III

[pixel_bc]

> Wouldn't that just compound his humiliation?

Only if Yoda whips his French ass.

Otherwise, he be da man.

Re:Ghyslain in Episode III

[Anonymous Coward]

He could play palpatine's lackey.

Re:Ghyslain in Episode III

[EverDense]

He could play palpatine's lackey.

or a smallish Hutt.

Re:Ghyslain in Episode III

[Anonymous Coward]

Not if he gets to play the guy that kills Jar Jar

Re:Cocksuckers.

[tarquin_fim_bim]

You would then have strong grounds for legal action, have cosidered offering /. a licence to continue using this story?

Re:Star Wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Here.

Personally I don't know if it's justified or not, but I can see how someone could be ostracized by their peers if something like that made its way into wide distribution on the Internet.

heheh

[Anonymous Coward]

why don't we hook the star wars kid up with that
blair whorenstein chick that sued to be sole
valedictorian?

people, people .. just take the lumps as they come.
nobody promised you Anything

Popular News Coverage

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a story on CTV newsnet (one of the major canadian news agencies) about the lawsuit. They actually played a good chunk of the video.

Re:Popular News Coverage

[Adam9]

They should've showed this one

Re:Popular News Coverage

[M.C. Hampster]

Here, here. This is definately the best version out there.

Star Wars...

[httpamphibio.us]

They wouldn't even have to make up a name for his character in Star Wars... maybe Lucas could the extra creativity he'd be saving to actually write some decent dialog.

Poor kid

[Rhinobird]

That poor star wars kid...

This reminds me of this one Bloom County comic:
Opus the penguin was listening to headphones and playing air guitar. There he was twirling and spinning and sut in general jamming. Then he turns around and ALL the other charachters are watching him and the rabbit has a lighter lit up in mock praise of the performance.

This is a bit more than his friends seeing it, but still, being morbidly embarrassed is nothing to sue over.

Re:Poor kid

[Skater]

There was another one, a Sunday edition, where Steve Dallas was singing "Billie Jean" in the bathroom, and going all out. In the last frame, you see him as he really is, instead of as he's imagining it: he's wearing only a towel, dancing on a stool, and the microphone is a hairbrush. The other Bloom County residents are peering in the door and applauding. (The funniest part is Steve's thoughts, of course. He's thinking, "Okay, take it easy, every star has to know his...", then in the last frame, "...uh, limitations.")

It's similar to the one you described, so I wondered if it was what you were thinking of.

--RJ

Re:Poor kid

[Anonymous Coward]

Both were cartoons. It seems Mr. Breathed occassionally recycled gags. :)

What I'm interested in...

[shr3k]

Slashback tonight brings you more information on homemade railguns, the future history of SCO (seen from the past),

Hey, speaking of which, I know a great place you can test out those railguns:

355 South 520 West
Suite 100
Lindon, Utah 84042 USA

Re:What I'm interested in...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not this address?? Maybe the RIAA will try to ban rail guns too?

330 CONNECTICUT AVENUE NW SUITE 300
WASHINGTON US

Do they know something I don't?

[bopo]

"The connection was refused when attempting to contact techfocus.org"

Either this is the result of a good slashdotting, or I've been brainwashed into an *IAA agent. Stand back, I don't know what I'll do next!!

Re:Do they know something I don't?

[mmurphy000]

I always figured the transformation was Matrix-style: the *AA agent would just kinda take over your body from the inside. You'll know when this happens to you by the world getting darker quickly, on account of the sunglasses.

Re:Do they know something I don't?

[digidave]

Actually, blocking innocent bystandards is a major drawback to this. Techfocus is up and not too slow at the moment, but if you still can't get on drop me an email at shakin [at] opdl [dot] org with your IP and I'll make sure to remove it from the block list after doing a friendly reverse lookup on it.

She dropped her suit

[N8w8]

The beauty queen Katy Johnson dropped her suit

She dropped her suit! Did anyone take any pictures? Where are the pictures?

Re:She dropped her suit

[Gherald]

Protected under the DMCA. She proved in court that her suit was an "effective method" for avoiding public scrutiny of her privates.

Hahaha

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought it was fucking hilarious

Re:Hahaha

[Anonymous Coward]

likewise

Re:It slashdotted. Heres a mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

ROFL. Worst ASCII art ever...

Stop with the damn lawsuits

[MalleusEBHC]

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked anymore about the kind of lawsuits that get filed, but there are two in this Slashback that did so.

First, I am happy that Tucker Max won his case. While he seems like an arrogrant asshole on his website, he does have the right to be one. I'm just afraid about what kind of precedent may have been set by the judge who ordered him to take down the story in the first place. IANAL, but if the lawsuit had been seen through to the end, wouldn't that have undone the precedent in a way? As it stands now, it seems like the moronic judge has put a bit of legal validation (however wrong it may be) on his actions.

Second, the kid in the Star Wars video needs to get over it. We all have videos floating around of stupid things we have done, although some of us are at least lucky enough to have the excuse of being drunk. Sure the kids who stole the tape should get in a bit of trouble, but suing for $250,000 apiece won't make things any different for Star Wars Kid. All it will do is financially crippled the parents of the other children.

Re:Stop with the damn lawsuits

[sebi]

Second, the kid in the Star Wars video needs to get over it. We all have videos floating around of stupid things we have done, although some of us are at least lucky enough to have the excuse of being drunk.

Are you talking about the kind of videos that were made by other people in your presence while you were drunk? With the video camera someone held and pointed at you? Or do you usually film yourself when pissed?

Sure the kids who stole the tape should get in a bit of trouble, but suing for $250,000 apiece won't make things any different for Star Wars Kid. All it will do is financially crippled the parents of the other children.

Financially crippling parents that should have taught their kids to respect others. That should have taught them that other people have feelings and that hurting those feelings is not a nice thing to do? That should have taught them some sense of perspective? If the message is: "Don't raise arseholes, or you might have to pay" then I'm all for it.

Re:Stop with the damn lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

if nobody raised arseholes, at least ninety percent of /. readers wouldn't exist.

Re:Stop with the damn lawsuits

[Anonymous Coward]

and you say this without a fraction of a clue what this kid could be going through. You sound like the average happy/ignorant person whos "understanding" is read from a book and cares only so far as to be polite (where necessary).
I don't like the fact that they're sueing for restitution (like its going to help in the slightest.), but even more so I don't like the idea of a tormented soul. especially one so young.. at that age somthing like this could change you forever

Re:Stop with the damn lawsuits

[FreemanPatrickHenry]

We all have videos floating around of stupid things we have done,

Yes. Next we're going to see esr's Quick Draw McGraw routine...

Re:Stop with the damn lawsuits

[Chrontius]

err, I think I should point out that it's $250,000 canadian, or about $160,000 USD. And it's split four ways between the ones who posted the video. My money's on none of them being given a car for graduation.

Re:It slashdotted. Heres a mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a hint

Re:It slashdotted. -- Linus, is that YOU?

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like Linux wearing a Linux shirt.

My thoughts on the Issue

[Anonymous Coward]

i totally disagree with all of you, quite frankly if things were more like they used to be, this kind of shit wouldnt happen.

it all used to be better, you cant argue with that.

HTTP://B3NZ.COM

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[Esion Modnar]

In some cultures, if a person persists in making a rude obnoxious ass of himself, the community shuns him. Won't speak to him, pretends he does not exist. It would be very nice if one by one, then in groups, sites all across the net shut these obnoxious a-holes out.

Make the net a very lonely place to be for them.

ATTENTION

[Anonymous Coward]

I am posting this message using KNOPPIX. I am an elite LINUX dude!

Oh, btw, you're just gonna lose money if you sell SCO short. The fact that you said SCO and not SCOX proves you haven't been following the stock. You'll lose money if you sell SCOX short as well. But go ahead, what else are you going to do with all that cash other than lose it?

Bruce Perens's second cousin's roomate on SCO!

[gatesh8r]

"Yeah I think SCO is in it for the money and they'll go bankrupt." -- ONLY ON SLASHDOT!

(Yes yes I know, it should of been "father's second cousin's roommate", just like in Spaceballs. The subject box isn't that big...)

Slashdot?

[Lord_Dweomer]

We slashdotted the Whitehouse? Whitehouse.gov right? I sure as hell hope it wasn't Whitehouse.com

Starwars Kid

[Lord_Dweomer]

Hey, ya know what, I gotta be honest, if I was in his situation, I'd be milking this for all its worth too. Once you're on the news, especially for something that has potential to pull heartstrings like this......you can make some big bucks. Especially for a 15 year old kid. Nothing says revenge like letting kids at school see you drive around in your new Ferrari the second you turn 16.

Ahem!

[Myuu]

"they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site"

And if they use a different provider to bypass my .htacess file blocking them, wouldn't that constitute a DMCA voilation by circumventing an access control?

Re:Ahem!

[Squidgee]

Why yes, I believe it would!

I sense a countersuit!

Re:Star Wars

[ZorMonkey]

Okay. Parents file lawsuit over Star Wars video

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[arf_barf]

For starters, lets add all RIAA related domains (incl. those of lawfirms that work for them) to known spam lists :-)

SCO Grows Second Head. Still No Brainwave Activity

[powerlord]

From the article (Gartner report from 2000)

But while Linux may have caused SCO to stumble, the blow won't likely be fatal, he said. Novell Inc. has been battling Windows for years and didn't die. Instead, it adapted, moving into directory services. SCO, he said, will have to evolve as well.

I guess we all can guess how SCO adapted, eh?

Tucker Max

[El]

Er, if you make a habit of bragging on the net about what sluts the girls you used to date are, doesn't it make it a little difficult to get a date? Tucker must be more interested in impressing the guys in the locker room then of ever scoring with an attractive woman again! Seems like pretty self-defeating behaviour to me... on the bright side, it does decrease the chances that the jerk will breed!

Re:Tucker Max

[Concerned Onlooker]

I doubt it. If Mike Tyson can get a date I'm sure this Tucker Max character can get one, too. There are plenty of women out there who are perfectly willing to go out with men who have personality disorders. Keep in mind, I'm not saying Tucker Max has a personality disorder, just that if there are women who will go out with those types of men then he too should have no trouble. He'll probably even get an attractive one. Quality, however, is another issue.

Re:Tucker Max

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why can't I get a date with an attractive woman, low quality or not? Do you think perhaps my wife and baby are scaring them away?

Re:Tucker Max

[MalleusEBHC]

Heh, only on Slashdot could a geek call out a guy who nailed Miss Vermont for his luck with the ladies.

Re:Tucker Max

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, if you make a habit of bragging on the net about what sluts the girls you used to date are, doesn't it make it a little difficult to get a date?

Well, when you consider the fact that letters from female admirers are apparently pouring in for probable wife-and-unborn-son-murderer Scott Peterson*, I sincerely doubt that Tucker Max merely bragging online about babes he bagged will keep him from finding more willing women.

*The only conclusion that I can draw from this fact is that women are complete fucking idiots. I can kinda see Tyson and O.J. still being able to get dates, because they had fame before what they did. But this Peterson dude is a nobody who offed his pregnant wife, and women are lining up to spread their legs for him.

Re:Tucker Max

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but killing your girl is nothing compared to embarrasing her in public!

Re:Tucker Max

[Oswald]

Absolutely not. Women love married men--it's like a Seal of Approval from the women's union. My personal estimate: not one woman in 10 would turn down a proposition from a man she was interested in just because he was married.

Of course, for men it's more like 1 in 500.

Re:Tucker Max

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, a frightening glimpse of the holes in their reality

Re:Tucker Max

[Oswald]

It's not a troll, you stupid motherfucker. It's offtopic. It also happens to be perfectly true.

Get a life.

Re:Tucker Max

[Anonymous Coward]

Ain't it so. If I were willing to be unfaithful, I could be getting more trim than a barbershop floor. Modpoint coming your way, bro.

~~~

Re:Tucker Max

[ljheidel]

The brutal irony is that all of the rightous indignation here isn't fueled by the inherent respect of women harbored by all of geekdom, but jealousy. The Slashdot crowd sits on their fattening rear ends, playing Evercrack and wondering why all of these beatiful, intelligent girls would want to be with Tucker Max and his ilk, because they are CLEARLY smarter, nicer, and funnier than Max.

I pose to you:

1. Who is really smarter? You or Max? Oh, that's right, you can write 10,000 characters of obfuscated C code that compile into a perfect replica of HAL, but you haven't kissed a girl since 1994. Which skill would you rather have?

2. What did nice ever have to do with anything? The Polish were nice, circa 1939, and look what those big, bad evil Germans did.

Tucker Max has used his intelligence (and it is considerable) to figure out how the system really works. I suggest that the /. crowd stop complaining about him being a bad man and start asking themselves why that jar labeled "phone numbers of hot chicks" on the desk is empty.

I want a teddy bear

[Anonymous Coward]

:(

what about riaa.org and mpaa.org?

[nyet]

$ host riaa.org
riaa.org A 146.82.174.13
riaa.org A 68.163.90.13
$ host mpaa.org
mpaa.org A 66.252.129.188

neither appear in those netblocks...

Also, somebody should put up a nice iptables script for those of us too lazy to figure them out for ourselves

Re:what about riaa.org and mpaa.org?

[j3110]

I was on it already...
According to the .htaccess that is on that site, this should cover them... I didn't test the IP's, so if anyone has additions or subtractions, modify this post and continue until we have a good one, because it's going on every box I have root on :) If any calls me on it, then I'll know I've helped send a signal to those bastards. When they pay artists more, charge less, or stop fighting their customers, I'll remove the ban.

iptables -A INPUT -s 12.150.191.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 63.199.57.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 64.166.187.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 64.241.31.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 65.244.101.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 66.252.128.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 67.112.252.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 67.125.49.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 81.4.78.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 146.82.174.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 198.70.114.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.192.0.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.209.2.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.225.90.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.229.253.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.49.164.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 208.50.66.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 212.241.48.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited
iptables -A INPUT -s 217.228.123.0/24 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-net-prohibited

Anyone see anything wrong with the script off the top of their head? Cross check any IP's? Are you on the list?

Re:what about riaa.org and mpaa.org?

[geekd]

they have an htaccess file available for download. read the freaking link.

Re:what about riaa.org and mpaa.org?

[bivaughn]

Why bother blocking access from web-hosted servers that don't have users behind them?

WOULD YOU LET THIS MAN INTO YOUR HOME?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think so!

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[heli0]

"- it would be a powerful statement if webmasters around the net just shut them out."

Wouldn't it be a more powerful message if sites were to stop providing them with free advertising via media attention as well as not viewing their movies?

I suppose that might actually require some sacrifice though.

And why do that when we can post away in obscurity instead?

Downfall of the Internet

[bobthemuse]

Good idea, let's start blocking people we don't like [entire blocks of addresses] from accessing certain resources. My neighbor pisses me off, maybe I should slip in a few firewall rules at work. Next an ISP will decide it doesn't like what I see, block my favorite sites.

The net works because everything is available to all. Let's not change that, even if the **AA is screwing everyone.

Re:Downfall of the Internet

[Dr Reducto]

I respectfully disagree. If a group is not following the rules of the internet, then simply cut them off. The **AA insists on cutting off information, so don't let them get any information from you. If a group gets shunned from the internet, it wil make them think hard about whatthey have done..

Re:Slashdot? - try whitehouse.org

[AaronW]

I actually prefer whitehouse.org.

$3000 for an iPod???

[Anonymous Coward]

"One group collected more than $3,000 (U.S.), which they used to buy him an Apple iPod portable music player"

Who ripped that group off? $3000 for an iPod???

Lightsaber boy!

[Valar]

No, lightsaber boy! You don't understand, we love you! You are a hero! You are a rockstar, even! Go lightsaber boy, go!

Black helicopters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anybody else even read that rail gun page they linked? Page last updated 4/24/02 Makes you wonder if Jengel and Fatro got picked up by the FEDS or something.

Right On

[hayesjaj]

I agree completely. The kid, embarrassed as he may be, had a choice with this one: 1) be a total idiot, lose faith in himself, believe what other people say about him and drop out of high school(which, mind you, is about the DUMBEST thing a person could ever do, aside from making a guest appearance on Jack@ss...then the sky is the limit). Or, 2, he could have taken the opportunity to learn some grace, humility, and made a whole bunch of other friends by laughing at himself and gaining some self confidence. He may get a few bucks from some poor idiots in the school, but he will definately lose in the long run on this one.

Re:Right On

[suricatta]

The thing you have to take into account here though is that it takes a certain amount of maturity and life experience to be able to laugh at yourself like that, especially when you've got the whole world's attention and are subject to their ridicule.

I remember back when I was in high school. You can laugh at yourself to a point, but eventually the continued taunting starts to leave emotional scars. Yeah I got over it, but back then it was hell. It's not difficult to imagine that a high school kid, especially one who probably has been bullied quite a bit throughout the years, is getting effected by this sort of attention in a very major sort of way.

I agree with what you're saying, he could laugh at himself and gain some self confidence, and it would be the best thing for him to do. But given the world-wide scale of this, and the fact that he might not have that maturity and life experience I mentioned earlier, I'd frankly be very surprised if he was actually able to shrug it off, laugh at himself and gain that self confidence.

All that I know is that if I ever see this kid IRL, I'm going to shake his hand and not make him feel bad about this is any way.

Re:Right On

[stephenbooth]

Or 3) Get some well muscled friends, abduct the 4 kids who stole the tape in the first place, strip them naked, insert their head into well used and unflush toilets then flush; then dump them still naked a few miles outside of town. Video all of the above and post the resuting video on the internet. Turnabout is fair play, sometimes.

Everyone does things in private that are never meant to be seen by outsiders. Broadcasting them is an invasion of privacy. Had this guy released the tape himself then that would be fine, taking away his choice in the matter is an abuse.

Stephen

Where?

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of us fortunate enough *not* to live in the States, could you enlighten us as to the significance of these addresses?

Re:Where?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Is there some sort of clue-shortage outside the States? Or is context not enough for you?

Re:Where?

[uberdave]

Well,

355 South 520 West
Suite 100
Lindon, Utah 84042 USA

is SCO's head office.

1330 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 300
Washington, D.C.

is RIAA's head office.

I have no idea what is at 330 Connecticut ave.

Re:Where?

[raju1kabir]

I have no idea what is at 330 Connecticut ave.

There is no 330 Connecticut Ave here in DC.

Your an idiot!

[DigiShaman]

Get real! If he kills someone, it's his own damn fault. And I don't care if the devil made him do it. As for sueing...good luck. Parody is perfectly legal. So fuck the little squirt.

Re:Your an idiot!

[Renli]

How is stealing his personal property and posting it to the net so untold numbers of people can laugh at him....how pray tell, is that parody?

What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[jamesh]

Would that make it go faster, or at least reach the theoritical limit faster? You have a rail to the left and a rail to the right of your projectile, now add a rail above and a rail below, on a separate power supply isolated from the first. Add more rails and power supplies.

Can anyone comment on if this would work or not?

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[Dr Reducto]

You obviously dont understand railguns. Go to 4hv.org, and go to the electronic weapons thread. Or go to railgun.com. A railgun works via a high voltage pulse going through the side rails, which causes eddy currents in the rail behind the projectile. These eddy currents make the the rails repel, but the side rails can't move, so only the rail in the center gets moved, violently. Im am pretty sure that is what it is, but I could be wrong.

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does gold have to do with weaponary??

Golf Balls do not conduct electricity!!

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[veltyen]

There are a couple of different effects taking place. One is that a circut carrying current wants to expand and occupy a larger 2 dimensional space. If you hold the rails and power supply in place then the only moving part becomes the projectile body which lies accross the rails, it moves outward to expand the circut.

The other effect is casued by the combination of the two right hand rules. The first right hand rule creates a magnetic flux arround the rails, and because the current is going in opposite directions in either rail the flux reinforces itself. The second right hand rule implies a force dependant on the magnetic flux created by the rails, the current flowing through the body and the force that projects the body forward. As far as I am aware the second is the 'greater' force in most rail guns, but the first effect is not insignificant in most cases.

These forces are related. The reason the circut want to expand is related to the magnetic flux flowing through the circut.

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the two currents would be orthogonal, I think this should work.

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously don't understand railguns either.

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[Chrontius]

No, however, using a series of short rails seperated by teflon spacers - each with an independant power supply - would allow them to fire in serial, each rail providing an additional kick of velocity to the slug.

Re:What if i added more rails to my railgun?

[marko123]

mod parent up!!!

Actually, I just wanted to say hi, veltyen. Do you get replies emailed?

Re:uh, yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

No it isn't, moron!

yep. and this is it.

[Anonymous Coward]

order allow,deny
deny from 12.150.191
deny from 63.199.57
deny from 64.166.187
deny from 64.241.31
deny from 65.244.101
deny from 66.252.128
deny from 67.112.252
deny from 67.125.49
deny from 81.4.78
deny from 146.82.174
deny from 198.70.114
deny from 208.192.0
deny from 208.209.2
deny from 208.225.90
deny from 208.229.253
deny from 208.49.164
deny from 208.50.66
deny from 212.241.48
deny from 217.228.123

ErrorDocument 403 "<center><h1>No Freakin' Way</h1></center><br><br>Your IP appears to be managed by the RIAA or MPAA, and thus you are not welcome.<br><br> If you believe you have received this in error or wish to argue about it, contact the site owner.<br><br>Alternatively, you can go back to <a href="http://www.riaa.com">where you came from.</a>
allow from all

Re:yep. and this is it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Been in my ACL for a while now. I just block them at the perimeter router.

Ruined?

[David Wong]

That may be too strong a word. The kid is famous... hell, when I first saw it I thought he was doing a Chris Farley impersonation... and that he was a rather gifted physical comic.

But from a legal sense... how can he show a quarter million in damages? Is that how much his counseling bills will be? Is that what it cost him to change schools? Has he lost future income?

Come on... he'll claim emotional distress but how do you quantify that?

This case will be thrown out very fast if they don't settle first...

Re:Ruined?

[bigjocker]

As a lot of people has pointed out already, he currently is in a mental institution, has quit high school and has had his social life destroyed. He is in his right to sue, and deserves a huge compensation.

Re:Ruined?

[LittleGuy]

As a lot of people has pointed out already, he currently is in a mental institution, has quit high school and has had his social life destroyed. He is in his right to sue, and deserves a huge compensation.

And just think, if he was American, he'd just march to his high school, kill a few kids, be convicted as an adult and sentenced to death, a new wave of hypersensitive administrators would expel kids for having even a Han Solo collectable doll, George Lucus would be the new Face of Evil, and Jon Katz would have a week's worth of /. articles.

Re:Ruined?

[wing03]

And just think, if he was American, he'd just march to his high school, kill a few kids, be convicted as an adult and sentenced to death, a new wave of hypersensitive administrators would expel kids for having even a Han Solo collectable doll, George Lucus would be the new Face of Evil, and Jon Katz would have a week's worth of /. articles

Already happened.... well something of the sorts already happened in that province a decade ago. Only it was mysogynist and not the downtroden geek.

Click Here for article

Re:Ruined?

[LMariachi]

He chose (or more likely his parents chose for him) to drop out of school and go to a mental hospital. He wasn't expelled, he wasn't forcibly institutionalized, and it doesn't look like he had much of a social life to destroy. Most people are humiliated at some point during adolescence. (True, not as an internet celebrity, but try telling that to the kid that just got pantsed in front of the entire cheerleading squad -- "Hey, at least it wasn't on the internet!") And most people learn to deal with it.

We own our feelings. No one makes us feel anything. We decide, consciously or not, how to feel in reaction to emotional stimuli. Learning this is part of growing up. Too bad Ghyslain's parents seem bent on preventing him from doing that. Maybe should be suing them.

Whith a name like that...

[Iron Monkey]

It struck me that with a name like Ghyslain Raza, they wouldn't even have to come up with a Star Wars Name for the kid... He fits right in!

Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[geekee]

"3. The RIAA is choosing to devote their resources to target individuals, rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method (see iTunes). We will not allow this website to be used as a resource with which they could utilize user statements or comments against them. While this has not happened, we are pre-emptively moving to avoid this."

You just mentioned iTunes in the same sentence where you claim the recording industry is not creating a feasible ditribution method for music online. iTumes is one of their feasible distribution methods. The stupidity of some people just amazes me.

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[alecto]

Can you get every song from iTunes? Every piece of every RIAA (jackbooted thugs that they are) member artist's back catalog? With no requirements to buy a whole album to get the one good song?

No, you can't. It's not feasible.

Besides, even iTunes contributes to the RIAA members' coffers, and I thus have stopped buying from them in addition to my previous boycott of new CDs (used only has been my policy since Napster).

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[geekee]

" Can you get every song from iTunes? Every piece of every RIAA (jackbooted thugs that they are) member artist's back catalog? With no requirements to buy a whole album to get the one good song?"

What does this have to do with anything. Techfocus claimed the recording industry wasn't working on methods of distributing over the internet, but instead just suing people. In reality, they're doing both, as techfocus alluded to themselves by mentioning iTunes. But Techfocus is too stupid to realize that. The fact that you can't get everything online yet wasn't the issue. The issue was whether they were making an effort, which they clearly are based on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[MrLint]

Umm the RIAA didnt make the itunes music store happen, Steve Jobs did. The reasoning is quite sound. The members of the RIAA have no outlet for digital music that meets the demand of the customers. They've had years t wrk something out. They have not. The amount of money that could be made selling out of print music for download at a dime a pop of the entire riaa catalog is enormous. Why hasnt it been done? because its not about money, or paying the artists their share, its about holding on to the last breath to an outmoded racketeering scheme.

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[acceleriter]

The problem is that their effort is too little, too late, and is accompanied by fan-antagonizing threats and lawsuits. They've literally had decades to work on this, and have just started. And what they've come up with is terribly limited compared to what it will take to stop the widespred infringement that, thanks to ease of use and their projected attitude, has become socially acceptable.

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[geekee]

" Umm the RIAA didnt make the itunes music store happen, Steve Jobs did. The reasoning is quite sound. The members of the RIAA have no outlet for digital music that meets the demand of the customers. "

Record labels distribute music. Stores like Tower Records sell the music. Apple is just 1 more store the record labels use to sell music. iTunes is an outlet for RIAA members to sell music online, so your statement is incorrect, just like techfocus' statement. They are the copyright holders, not Apple.

Re:Techfocus need work on their reasoning skills

[MrLint]

3. The RIAA is choosing to devote their resources to target individuals, rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method "

You just mentioned iTunes in the same sentence where you claim the recording industry is not creating a feasible ditribution method for music online. iTumes is one of their feasible distribution methods. The stupidity of some people just amazes me.

Record labels distribute music. Stores like Tower Records sell the music. Apple is just 1 more store the record labels use to sell music.

The RIAA still didnt create the ITMS.

typo in mpaa org, and one of the riaa.org ones is

[nyet]

mpaa.org A 66.252.129.188
vs
66.252.128

riaa.org A 68.163.90.13
is missing

Insightful? Fucking morons!

[Chuck Chunder]

Using and IP address that is permitted access to the site would be roughly equivalent to using a DVD player that is permitted access to DVDs.

Nothing is being circumvented, you are just using a device that has been permitted access.

here is mine, but 66.252.129 is still missing

[nyet]

is it a typo? their htaccess lists 66.252.128

# Generated by iptables-save v1.2.8 on Thu Jul 24 18:52:32 2003
*filter :INPUT ACCEPT [251238:18127669] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [147443:28849496]
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 12.29.112.0/255.255.255.240 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 63.199.57.120/255.255.255.248 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 198.70.114.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.49.164.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.50.66.224/255.255.255.224 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 64.166.187.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 64.241.31.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 65.244.101.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 66.252.128.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 67.112.252.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 67.125.49.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 81.4.78.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 146.82.174.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.192.0.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.209.2.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.225.90.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.229.253.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.49.164.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 212.241.48.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
[0:0] -A INPUT -s 217.228.123.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
COMMIT
# Completed on Thu Jul 24 18:52:32 2003

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[SubtleNuance]

could it be possible to refuse to route RIAA/MPAA traffic? If you run a router on the net, just setup your router to send everything from their subnet to /dev/null

f'em.

i agree

[Anonymous Coward]

these guys must be held accountable for their actions. it maybe have been funny, but it doesnt make it right.

Re:i agree

[mink]

I saw a little bit of this and frankly didnt think making fun of the guy or posting it to the net was funny.
I walked away as it wasnt my computer playing it. At the time I didnt know it was stolen ot I would have aske dthem to stop showing it and delete it.

look, that's just bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

they didnt do this cause he thought he was cool or talented of funny, they wanted to make fun of a dork caught off guard making a fool of himself. dont delude yourself with fancy notions, these 4 punks wanted to harrass and humiliate this guy for their own amusement and *mostly* to gain noteriaty: "look, we made the next big meme! we're so cool"

Re:look, that's just bullshit

[RighteousFunby]

The guy did not deserve this.

From the jedimasters.net page:

?Some of the comments were really positive. People were writing things like, ?I was like him in high school,?? Baio said. ?But a lot of them ? a disturbing number ? were incredibly mean-spirited. It made me mad. All of these people calling him ?fat-ass? or ?loser,? and it's completely hypocritical ? I mean, all the traffic was coming from technology sites, videogame sites, and ?Star Wars? and ?Star Trek? sites.

I mean, come on. If you laugh at this guy because you found the link here, take a fucking look in a mirror.

You are reading SLASHDOT.
You read stories about LINUX and STAR WARS and SCIFI.

I can't laugh at Ghyslain. I have the same build as him. The whole thing smacks of "Now how can we ruin this guys life in the most devastating way possible?".

Oh, and BTW, the 4 teens tried to Steal his iPod/a.

Cunts, all four of them. They should be hung.

I wouldn't be suprised

[Anonymous Coward]

If he just pulled out a gun or something on them if he doesn't get his 250k

Don't stop with suing..prosecute!

[Travoltus]

They stole the kid's video. That's called theft.

I assume Canada has laws against theft, right?

I'm amazed at how the RIAA can claim theft on the non-theft of virtual items, but the real life stealing of someone's stuff isn't defined as theft if it's done by kids to other kids.

Of course, if a kid went in and stole something from a convenience store, he'd go down for shoplifting.

Again, not so for stealing from another kid.

DOES CANADA (and the US) HAVE FUCKED UP CRIMINAL LAWS?

YES, THEY DO!!!

Re:Don't stop with suing..prosecute!

[WNight]

I have to agree with this. If we're going to bother enforcing laws, shouldn't we enforce them fairly and consistently?

There's a lot more to be damaged than simple someone's wallet.

I think punative damages should be scaled to people's ability to pay. If a fine is supposed to be a deterrant, charge enough to make the person think twice. That means a large fine for me would maybe to $50 for a kid, and $2.5M for Bill Gates.

In that sense, these kids should be charged with theft and punished in such a way as to demonstrate that laws aren't optional. That you can't get away with murder as long as it's a fat funny-looking kid.

Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

They stole his video. That's theft, my man.
Do you believe theft should be illegal or not?

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

They stole his video. That's theft, my man. Do you believe theft should be illegal or not?

Sure, it's theft, but that's of no consequence. The "thieves" were what, 14? No chance they'd be prosecuted. Plus the value of a videotape is about $5.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
If a 14 year old steals a $5 video tape from a store, is that of no consequence? Why is it not the same thing when you steal from a person?

And why then does the RIAA get to send people to prison and sue them for up to $750,000 for stealing a $0 mp3?

I'd like to limit this to just the most gaping inconsistencies that a class M star can pass through, so I'll stop now.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

If a 14 year old steals a $5 video tape from a store, is that of no consequence?

That's right, unless he makes a habit of it.

Why is it not the same thing when you steal from a person?

It is: Unless they make a habit of it, it's of no consequence.

Look, I don't think adults (or even kids) should go around stealing things. But thankfully the system has at least a modicum of perspective on this.

And why then does the RIAA get to send people to prison and sue them for up to $750,000 for stealing a $0 mp3?

They don't get to send people to prison for copying an MP3. And they won't succeed in collecting damages from any 14-year-olds.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

Okay, I dare you to put your theory to the test. Go to Wal Mart and slip one blank videotape into your coat and walk out, and see if they look at it as "no consequence".

If, for some insane and boneheaded reason, they arrest you, be sure to argue in court "It's of no consequence unless I make a habit of it."

I'm sure the system will have some sense of perspective, eh?

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

Okay, I dare you to put your theory to the test. Go to Wal Mart and slip one blank videotape into your coat and walk out, and see if they look at it as "no consequence".

It's a deal. I'll do it as soon as you invent a magic time-reversal ray gun that makes me 14 again.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

Weak. You know full well that if you were to steal a video tape from a store, you'd have to answer to the cops.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

Weak. You know full well that if you were to steal a video tape from a store, you'd have to answer to the cops.

Probably. However, I was never arguing that. I was talking about the case of some little kids who stole something valued under $5 from another kid. You keep trying to maneuver it to some other random softball hypothetical that isn't analogous to what actually happened, and in a moment of weakness I indulged you.

So you can go on arguing that the sky is blue, or that the sun is hot, or that 2+2=4, or whatever you like. Feel free to award yourself as many points as you feel you deserve; I'll sign off on it.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

Whatever. You people are so abysmally stupid that I have to draw a diagram for you.

Stealing a $5 tape from a store = shoplifting
Stealing a $5 tape from a kid = ?

Either people have rights or they don't.

This is not maneuvering. You have no argument except that kids do not have rights, but everyone else does. The analogy is exactly similar and there are no differences.

You either have property rights, or you don't. Does anyone have an argument against that?
a) Was this tape not his property?
b) Was it not taken without his consent?
c) What is the definition of taking something from someone without their consent?

I really HATE people like you who deny the facts until your face turns blue. You're more obtuse than the Creationists!

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

Stealing a $5 tape from a store = shoplifting
Stealing a $5 tape from a kid = ?

First of all, as I have explained several times, the core issue here is not that the victim is a store vs a kid, but that the perpetrators are kids vs adults.

Anyway, that aside, there is a difference between kids stealing things from each other and kids stealing things from stores, yes. Kids steal things from each other all the time. It's part of socialization and growing up and learning boundaries. Is it to be encouraged? No. Should they be disciplined? Yes. But should they be prosecuted, when the thing stolen is worth $5? No.

I recognize that, and more importantly, society recognizes that. You don't recognize that. But that's okay; you're not the D.A.

You either have property rights, or you don't. Does anyone have an argument against that?

Nobody's trying that hard to argue against that, because it's moot.

a) Was this tape not his property?

Yes. I mean no. I mean yes. Whose property? There are two "hims" involved. And why the double-negative?

b) Was it not taken without his consent?

The property was taken without the owner's consent, as far as we know. Nobody is arguing against this.

c) What is the definition of taking something from someone without their consent?

Depends on the circumstance.

I really HATE people like you who deny the facts until your face turns blue. You're more obtuse than the Creationists!

Don't be so dramatic. Consider the possibility that either you're not making your point very well (witness (a) above) or you're failing to grasp your interlocutor's point. A worldview based on your own intellectual infallibility is going to lead you to a lot of frustration when you grow up.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

You have basically argued that children do not have property rights, and this is exactly why America has the juvenile disciplinary problems we have today.

You either have property rights, or you don't. You're arguing the utterly unstable "some of the time" point of view.

It's the mentality of people like you that is responsible for kids getting completely out of control in school with theft, assault and battery, and even sexual assault. Because "boys will be boys".

The heyday of that ignorance pretty much jumped the shark after Columbine, didn't it? I bet you forgot that nowadays, American schools have begun to adopt a Zero Tolerance policy that calls for suspension, and expulsion, for this kind of behavior. Which is a good thing. Stop making excuses, and start hanging 'em by their balls. Okay, so hanging by the balls is unconstitutional - but if they want to start out a life of crime early on, then let's introduce them to the proper punishments for crime.

If we started punishing these thieves as thieves, instead of "kids", at an early age, they will learn right quick to stop, or they'll be Darwinized. Furthermore, allowing their parents to be held liable the same way as when kids steal from stores.

After reading all your excuses, all I can say is, "Thank God for zero tolerance laws."

I say we need more crackdowns. Lock those schools down, hard. We'll send YOUR kids to the "boys will be boys" school districts, and when your kid winds up pummeled to death by boys who are being boys, don't come crying to me.

My kids will grow up in a school that concentrates hard on personal safety and property rights, instead of coddling the thieves and thugs that contribute to America having the highest crime rate in the industrialized world.

Oh yeah, and at least I did grow up. I don't think your kids will survive.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[raju1kabir]

You have basically argued that children do not have property rights, and this is exactly why America has the juvenile disciplinary problems we have today.

No, I'm arguing that children are not adults. As to whether they have property rights, well, the law is all over the map on that. In general their parents exercise the rights.

If we started punishing these thieves as thieves, instead of "kids", at an early age, they will learn right quick to stop, or they'll be Darwinized.

Get some perspective. It's a videotape stolen out of another kid's locker for a prank. They were not violent (rather, it was a fairly innovative high-tech prank), and there is no evidence they have made a habit of it.

I say we need more crackdowns. Lock those schools down, hard. We'll send YOUR kids to the "boys will be boys" school districts, and when your kid winds up pummeled to death by boys who are being boys, don't come crying to me. My kids will grow up in a school that concentrates hard on personal safety and property rights, instead of coddling the thieves and thugs that contribute to America having the highest crime rate in the industrialized world.

Sorry dude, no chance my kids are growing up here. The US is an interesting place to work but the zero-tolerance attitudes have created one of the most violent societies on earth, and I would never involuntarily subject my loved ones to that - when they're old enough, they can make the choice on their own if they want. Where I come from, tolerance is the watchword, and the violent crime rate it is a tiny fraction of what it is here.

Re:Do you believe theft should be illegal?

[Travoltus]

There's just one small problem with your reasoning: crime in schools has dropped dramatically in the wake of zero tolerance laws. Kids are no longer allowed to steal or beat each other up.

I wouldn't trade that kind of protection for anything in the world.

Um, What Store are They Shopping At?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Globe and Mail story on Star Wars Kid:

"While the video of Ghyslain's antics generated some derisive Internet comments, others felt bad and started raising money for him. One group collected more than $3,000 (U.S.), which they used to buy him an Apple iPod portable music player."
What, did they buy him the 10 Terabyte version?

Now THAT's an iPod.

[bbc22405]

While the video of Ghyslain's antics generated some derisive Internet comments, others felt bad and started raising money for him. One group collected more than $3,000 (U.S.), which they used to buy him an Apple iPod portable music player.

$3000? That would be for the special edition iPod, the one with the terabyte disk and platinum housing?

Ghyslain Woods...?

[GatorMan]

Afterall, he's twirling one of those long golf ball retreival sticks pretty handily (heh). Or maybe the return of Chi-Chi Rodriguez?

SWK kid took the wrong angle --

[toganet]

He should have acted like he _intended_ to look like an idiot -- instead of being laughed AT, he could have been the next Chris Farley!

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[NanoGator]

"Is how to ban the RIAA from accessing the Internet. "

Slashdot them.

Wait just a second.

[jensend]

Attempts to target individual file swappers? Isn't this what they ought to be doing (though they admittedly ought to be working to make these criminal, not civil, cases)? People who break the law ought to be prosecuted. The problem is when the RIAA etc try to go after computer corporations for making devices which don't guarantee that their users can't use them to break the law, search engines which auto-index pages which happen to link to illegal files, people using the devices they bought and the CDs they bought in ways not normally illegal but not allowed because the device's built in copy protection device didn't anticipate those uses, etc.

The RIAA and MPAA have been thoroughly and justly criticised for trying to punish people who make tools which can be (ab)used to break the law or for using schemes which try to make any illegal use of their products impossible but not only fail miserably but prevent plenty of legal uses. Their insistency on being able to control everything the user can do with bought merchandise has justly been lampooned. However, I have no sympathy for those who think actual copyright violations should be ignored and copyright law should disappear.

Re:Wait just a second.

[Maul]

Problem, however, is that they are suing people for sharing as few as eight MP3s (at least from what I've seen). These people aren't the "pirates" who are really hurting their business.

This seems rather petty of them, don't you think? There are bigger fish to go after.

Why aren't they targeting professional bootlegers? The ones making fake CDs and then SELLING them.

The RIAA is trying to SCARE people out of using alternate distribution mediums. They are trying to scare people into believing that there will be cops at their door if they so much as log into a P2P network (for whatever reason).

Re:Wait just a second.

[alizard]

However, I have no sympathy for those who think actual copyright violations should be ignored and copyright law should disappear.

I have no sympathy for people who parrot RIAA propaganda as if it were true and believe that you should disappear.

The only legal difference between "fair use" analog taping and swapping of broadcast-quality music and digital recording and fileswapping is that the RIAA paid off certain politicians to make updating of common use illegal.

The purpose is to make it impossible to distribute non-RIAA content through the Internet because people fear that your thug RIAA buddies will show up with subpoenas if they log onto a P2P network.

The musicians who upload songs to P2P hoping to get the word out about their music don't want copyright to go away, just the RIAA thugs and "useful fools" like you who make excuses for their anti-social activities.

It was $3,000 CANADIAN.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because...

[Anonymous Coward]

A majority of the P2P users are not very smart, they actually believe that banning IPs will protect them from being caught by the RIAA.

I don't quite understand how they know that an IP belongs to the RIAA, it's not like there is a big sign that says "I AM A RIAA COP!" Plus even if you find out, all the RIAA has to do is get a new IP address, and can even do this from dial in accounts.

Then again, all this does is end up helping the RIAA even more. First its a few IP addresses, then it is IP ranges, and eventually whole ISPs. Of course by doing this you start killing off a lot of potential file sources. To make things even worse, there is also the problem most of your "peers" changing to leechers.

Why you should sign the SW kid petition!!

[Maul]

This kid should be milking this for all its worth, but either way...

Being put into a cameo role in Episode 3 would be the dream of any young Star Wars fan. IMO, this kid is a common portrait of a Star Wars fan, and it would be great to see something like that happen!

It'd also be a great way to "get back" at the guys who tried to make fun of him by putting his tape online.

SW Kid Rocks!

Re:Why you should sign the SW kid petition!!

[richardk66]

Why you shouldn't! 1: He or his parents have managed to turn this around by trying to become a victim, instead of a celebrity. 2: Why reward him for doing something stupid? Everyone else has to suffer, and he doesn't have the balls to accept that. 3: He won't fit in a stormtrooper outfit. Seriously, whilst the idea of a cameo part or even a big role seems like a nice reward for his pisstaking on the net, the way that he and his parents have handled this is crazy. He shouldn't need therapy as a result of this, and I can only assume he was already a fairly defective human being to start off with if being made famous /and/ given stuff has pushed him into therapy. I suspect he was /always/ teased at school, and his parents are using this as an excuse. He has learned nothing! Apart from anything else, he'll probably end up screwing up being in Episode III, trying to get off with Amidala or whoever, and prove to be a generally unpleasant kid.

How long before....

[ziggy_zero]

you see a lot of attempts at DOSing those RIAA/MPAA IP ranges?

Re:How long before....

[Anonymous Coward]

a buddy of mine always wondered why crackers tend to go after relatively benign entities rather than target, say, the KKK or any of the thousands of hate groups out there.

Libby

[Anonymous Coward]

Does posting without a link qualify as a strip tease?

Here is some info about the name.

[ratfynk]

For your info Ghyslain is a French Canadian name, (the pronunciation is GISlane) I believe the masculine equivelent of Chryslain, (pronounced CRISlane) I have seen both with different spellings like many French names that got miss spelled by da hinglish. This is common because the Canadian/British government of about 1790 did not care too much how they spelled names, the census takers, though literate were in a hell of a hurry. They usually did not speak French and it was a long way between towns and farms. The individuals just changed their names to that spelling over the centuries. Much of the same thing happened in the US with European name spellings. This same change in spelling happened to my last name, as it has happened to many North Americans. My family has been in North America since the 1760s, so we have seen alot of these things happen.

Re:Here is some info about the name.

[Iron Monkey]

I knew that, actually (I'm originally from Montreal), but I still think that the name will fit right in with the SW series. I wasn't trying to take a shot at the name at all... actually it's kinda cool.

250 grand, my ass.

[Squeamish Ossifrage]

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only slashdot reader who got picked on while going through the school system. And I'm sorry, as much as being picked on sucks, it doesn't suck $250,000 worth. That's like 20 years' worth of savings, depending on how one's employed.

There's just no way that one embarrassing incident and the subsequent mockery is worth more than half a lifetime of hard work. Besides which, he's not even suing the people who actually mocked him. He's suing people who did something that may have induced the actual guilty parties to mock him. What's the accusation, contributory mockery?

Re:250 grand, my ass.

[ctxspy]

Hehehe... good one

All the idiots who say that 'they should be held responsible' fail to realize that this is not the question.. The question IS, wether or not they should face penalties of 1/4 million dollars... Obviously 'stealing' a movie out of a semi-public A/V-room filing cabinet is not of the same magnitude.

Then again, he could sue for copyright infringement :)

The idea

[phorm]

Now somebody needs to start a host server for it, and a project. We've got spam RBL's... so why not an RIAA block-list? Anybody subscribing could get a list of daily entries, and a modified apache could display appropriate websites to RIAA-originating requests (maybe a forward to goatse, wouldn't that be great) or perhaps just drop/ignore their packets entirely via firewalling.

Me, I'm for something that randomizes between goatse and tubgirl, etc... with a regularly update block-list of RIAA-friendly IP's to enjoy it. Hell, they likely may check for FTP/HTTP sites on heavy kazaa-use addresses, or subnets. Let's give 'em something fun to look at.

no, YOU need work on your reasoning skills

[alizard]

You just mentioned iTunes in the same sentence where you claim the recording industry is not creating a feasible ditribution method for music online. iTumes is one of their feasible distribution methods. The stupidity of some people just amazes me.

i-T-u-n-e-s (note your mini-spellng lesson) was created by APPLE CORPORATION. You know, those guys who make MacIntosh personal computers. The guys who are also giving independent artists access to iTunes through CDBaby, which is hardly anything that the RIAA would either do or want anyone else to.

Yes, the stupidity of some people amazes me, and you are a prime example.

Thought of changing your handle to pencilneck? (there's a song Pencilneck Geek by Fred Blassie that reminds me of you.)

Re:no, YOU need work on your reasoning skills

[TragicallyMisunderst]

i-T-u-n-e-s (note your mini-spellng lesson)

Ah, there's nothing like seeing the universal law of spelling flames obeyed...

Re:no, YOU need work on your reasoning skills

[geekee]

" i-T-u-n-e-s (note your mini-spellng lesson) was created by APPLE CORPORATION. You know, those guys who make MacIntosh personal computers. The guys who are also giving independent artists access to iTunes through CDBaby, which is hardly anything that the RIAA would either do or want anyone else to. Yes, the stupidity of some people amazes me, and you are a prime example. "

Tower Music wasn't formed by the RIAA members, but guess what, they sell music distributed by the RIAA. Apple does the same. It's not Apple's music. They can't sell it without permission from RIAA members. Therefore iTunes is a means for the RIAA to distribute music online, which is logical, and contradicts your irrational thought process. The fact that Apple also supports non-RIAA members is irrelevant. Maybe I don't type well but at least I can think.

Anonymous Coward

[m1kesm1th]

The Star Wars Kid was just goofing off at school. Now he finds his private performance downloaded by Internet users across the world.
The Star Wars Kid is a 15-year-old from Quebec known only as Ghyslain -- his parents are keeping his last name secret to protect his identity. Back in November 2002, Ghyslain was goofing off at a school video studio and recorded himself fighting a mock battle with a broomstick lightsaber. Over two minutes, the video shows the lone, overweight teenager twirling his mock lightsaber ever faster while making his own accompanying sound effects.

The Globe and Mail: "MONTREAL: The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars character..."

Slashdot: "Skippy321 writes "Justified or not, Ghyslain Raza--better known as the Star Wars Kid..."

Right On Again

[mpthompson]

I also agree. Life may of handed this kid a lemon, but he had the perfect opportunity to turn it into lemonade. Instead, he seems to be blowing it big time. He may feel embarassed for what he feels other people did to him by placing the video on the Internet, but he will feel much worse the day he realizes what he is doing to himself and the opportunity he is throwing away.

SW Kid

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the previous film, Episode 3 will be completely digital.

Lucas could have the Star Wars kid inserted into a battle scene background somewhere without too much trouble, IMO.

Re:It slashdotted. Heres a mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

If you squint, it looks like Ho Chi Min.

Hello, Troll.

[Inoshiro]

"I haven't seen the video, so I can't comment on how stupid he looks on it, but that is beside the point. "

You seem to forget thi interview, and the followup where he had enough money donated to him by Star Wars fans to buy several iPods.

You probably missed that while you were busy not watching the video, and making snap posts to /. without all the facts.

Chances are, either his parents are pushing him to be greedy, or he has been drawn to the dark side by the lure of money.

Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to

[JamesP]

Do you mean, the list of those who get spam??

I KISS YOU!

[woodsnick]

Bring back Mahir!! Maybe we can get Lucas to include a light saber duel between our favorite turk and our new friend the Star Wars Kid!

Hostsfile minor DDoS?

[Entropius]

I'm sure many people use a custom hosts-file for ad blocking, with various popup/banner sites redirected to 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0.

Why not redirect them to 68.163.90.12 (www.riaa.org) instead? Same effect, and you're doing a good deed (costing some scumbags a wee bit of bandwidth and CPU) in the meantime.

What are the legal ramifications of this?

hmm...

[atheist666]

Now, is someone could produce a video of McBride pretending to be Darth Maul...

Nice attitude

[gosand]

That brings me to the point I wanted to make. Until he sued, I didn't think badly of him. He got access to a camera and wanted to see if his moves were as smooth as he imagined. Frankly, they weren't completely clumsy.

You must have watched a different video. His moves weren't choreographed at all, and they were clumsy as hell. Did you miss the part where he almost fell over? What made it completely hilarious was that he looked ridiculous, and he was completely serious about it. If he had been laughing, or been trying to do some choreographed moves, it wouldn't have been as funny.

The whole point of the story was that we've all done things that aren't "cool", and it's funny to see someone else acting silly. Now, the point is that he's a pussy who can't laugh at himself. Let the taunting begin.

Hey, I laughed my ASS off at him. If I would have met him in person, I would have told him it was hilarious, and I really enjoyed it. There is no reason to taunt him. Why can't people make that distinction? I wish he could laugh at himself, but I am sure it would have been much easier if people were a little cooler about it and weren't such asswipes about it, as you are. "Yeah, he had to drop out of school and is getting pshchotherapy. haha. What a loser." Because of that attitude, I almost hope he wins his suit. He shouldn't have to file it (actually it's his parents) but it seems like it is almost deserved. Maybe the amount can be disputed. Hey, it was his private property, and it was stolen and distributed without his consent. And it was done maliciously. Yeah, I still thought it was hilarious, but that is beside the point. I could have lived my life normally if it was never released, but he can't live a normal life now that it has been. 15 is a tough age, and his life was instantly made 1000x tougher. I sympathize with him.

NYT effect

[poot_rootbeer]

Of course, the White House is still confused on the difference between the New York Times effect and the Slashdot effect.

Lose the hubris. Unless you're webmaster@whitehouse.gov, you don't have access to the referer logs for the site, and that means there's no proof for your assertion that the traffic increase was from /. and not from the NYT.

Grand ass, you are.

[twitter]

There's just no way that one embarrassing incident and the subsequent mockery is worth [250,000] Besides which, he's not even suing the people who actually mocked him. He's suing people who [posted his video]. What's the accusation, contributory mockery?

Cotributory mockery, that's good. That's sort of what it is, using a press to make fun of someone. You need to think a little about the consequenses of it before you brush it off as trivial.

It's prety well established that private people own their visage. Coke can't take your picture and use it without your permission. It's not simply because they might owe you money, it's because you have the right to portray yourself to the world as you want and not be portrayed by others as something you are not.

The people who published that tape violated the life and privacy of the Star Wars Kid. He will be recognized by Universities he would attend, prospective employers, as well as many people he meets. All of them will have a strange preconception of him because a odd moment from his childhood has been into a public joke. Showing the tape to a few friends is one thing. Putting it up on the internet with blanket permission to copy and distribute is another. Had the victim been proud of his performance and posted it himself, that would be another thing too, but he was not and did not and the world should respect his choice.

Would you like to be the star of my movie? If you had any imagination and initiative, you might have made a video that's different enough to make people laugh. We can cut it up and put it online too. I don't think you qualify, because you have neither imagination, initiative nor sympathy.

$250,000 might be a life savings to one person. Split four ways it's equivalent to buying him a nice car. As our good kid may never get a job as a good corporate drone over this, it's a fitting punishment.

Re:Grand ass, you are.

[Squeamish Ossifrage]

Oh, come off it. You feel qualified to say that I "have neiter imagination, initiative, or sympathy" because I think that's an excessive dollar ammount? Someone who talks about sympathy shouldn't be so quick to condemn, I think.

I'm not saying that what was done is acceptable on a personal level, or legal on a privacy or IP level. Of course it shouldn't have been posted and the world should respect his choice. I know a bit about how being mocked can hurt. I'm just saying that a quarter million dollars is an obscenely large amount of money for something that is unfortunate but not devastating. It's an internet meme - nobody's going to care or even remember, and more importantly, nobody with an emotional age over about 13 would hold it against him. So he did something silly - but totally ok - when he was 15. That's not going to make anyone worth impressing think any less of him. Hell, I did the same things (without the videotaping).

This is not going to be albetross that ruins his education and career. I've been a corporate recruiter and a college admissions interviewer and I'll tell you straight up - that movie wouldn't lower my opinion of him in the least. It might even raise it. This is not a career-limiting event, it's just being made fun of. Not good, but not $250,000 bad. Like I said, that's at least half a life's savings, or about 10-15 nice cars by my definition (over 100 of the nicest car *I've* ever owned), and it's way too much to hold against a handfull of kids who just did something immature.

You could *probably* get them with the DMCA

[Peter Eckersley]

IANAL either, but let's have a look at the relevant legislation:

Within 17 USC 1201, we find:

(a) 1 (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. (snip)

(a) 3 (A) to ''circumvent a technological measure'' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(a) 3 (B) a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

Suppose that all of the info-liberated Internet started blocking the MPAA/IFPI/BSA/Disney/friends' IP addesses, and placed licenses on their sites allowing access/reproduction only by individiuals not associated with these organisations.

Now imagine that Jack "forever less one day" Valenti, who needs his daily dose of slashdot, organises a proxy server to hide his IP address. This is certainly "avoid or bypass" under 1201 (a) 3 (A).

But does an IP address filter "effectively control access to a work" (Thomson-Reed-Elsevier would certainly hope so :)? A court would have to read "application of information, or a process or a treatment" broadly, to include an IP address transmitted over the net. I imagine there is a good, but not 100%, chance that this would fly.

If you were to add a click-through wrapper page, which says "you must certify that you're not from one of these organisations...", then you've got a slam dunk case for both DMCA violation and copyright infringement.

In order to win any real damages in a case like that, I believe you need to register your works with the US Copyright Office, so that you can apply for statutory damages. In that case, the defendant must pay at least $750 per work for wilful, or at least $200 per work for unintentional, copyright infringement. A /. article would certainly be a work, but getting them to the Copyright Office fast enough would be hard.

But all the readers need to do now is convince CmdrTaco to block the MPAA. One infringing proxy server and Hollywood could save us from banner ads for a few years! :)

Re:You could *probably* get them with the DMCA

[Phroggy]

...access to a work protected under this title.

Is Slashdot protected in this way?

Re:You could *probably* get them with the DMCA

[Peter Eckersley]

Is Slashdot protected in this way?

Yeah, "this title" is a reference to Title 17 of the US Code, which is the entirety of US copyright law. Slashdot articles copyrightable, so that covers them.

Only story?

[carlos_benj]

Was the StarWars kid the only story in this slashback?

SHOULD people who break the law be prosecuted?

[jonskerr]

According to pretty much everyone who has thought about it at ALL, everyone in the United States is a lawbreaker. The pervasiveness and invasiveness and huge bewildering variety of laws makes it completely impossible to not break some laws sometimes. Go see the ACLU website.

And not only that, but breaking the law is an important means of gaining/maintaining our freedoms, dumbass. Would you have preferred those Boston Teaparty vandals to be hanged as the law allowed then? Should civil rights protesters have simply been locked up for trespassing?

Common code in Linux and Unixware released !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who copied who?
Here is the "common code":

Linux kernel release 2.4.xx

These are the release notes for Linux version 2.4. Read them carefully,
as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the
kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong.

WHAT IS LINUX?

Linux is a Unix clone written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with
assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net.
It aims towards POSIX compliance.

It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged
Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries,
demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory
management and TCP/IP networking.

It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
accompanying COPYING file for more details.

ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN?

Linux was first developed for 386/486-based PCs. These days it also
runs on ARMs, DEC Alphas, SUN Sparcs, M68000 machines (like Atari and
Amiga), MIPS and PowerPC, and others.
etc...

McBride can see my proof, if he will sign my NDA!

Re:SCO Grows Second Head. Still No Brainwave Activ

[mink]

"I guess we all can guess how SCO adapted, eh?"

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile. We are the Borg.