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Australia-U.S. Trade Agreement Takes First Strike
inflex writes "With the recent AU-US Federal trade ageement coming into force, the first signs of what is to come have started appearing with Sony unleashing a legal bid to clamp down on previously legal mods chips in Australia."
.. spread those checks for the bald eagle.
Those FBI warnings at the start of some movies are now not a joke - a branch office will be opening soon.
Also expect some law suits from Americans about the product you guys sell as "beer".
trying to outlaw technology just because it CAN be used for bad things. Without the mod chip, I wouldn't be able to import games. I don't know how me importing games is bad for Sony.
Great, so these chips themselves don't violate any copyrights, they just allow you to use your console as though it were a computer. Yes you can pirate software on a computer and you pirate software on a modded console--so what? Do the manufacturer's really have a right to say that you can only use content licensed from them on a machine you bought? Hell no. Unless they make you sign a contract and that is a term, then no, this is insane.
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WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
was already given the last time. It was also nothing to do with piracy either. They had seen that SONY were creating an artificial trade barrier, why would the new law change their minds and hand a victory to SONY. Surely it cannot make that much of a difference, not when the original verdict was far more insightful than what SONY was portraying because it had nothing to do with piracy.
Jonathanjk.com
Here's the text:
Sony in push to outflank PS2 mods
Andrew Colley
MARCH 15, 2005
SONY Computer Entertainment Australia is planning a new legal bid to outlaw PlayStation modification chips following recent changes to federal copyright laws.
The devices override copy control mechanisms Sony builds into its consoles to block the use of pirated games and DVDs encoded for players built to operate in other regions.
Launching the Gran Turismo 4 game in Sydney last week, SCEA managing director Michael Ephraim said the company had instructed its lawyers to prepare a new court challenge to the legality of the devices.
The case would be based on amendments to the Copyright Act flowing from the US Free Trade Agreement in January, he said.
Sony's lawyers were preparing the case in anticipation of a High Court appeal overturning a decision in its favour, based on previous laws, handed down by the full bench of the Federal Court in July 2003.
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Mr Ephraim said "the company would take more steps to crack down on street-level piracy in the second half of the year.
"We will wait for the outcome of the Stevens case.
However, Mr Ephraim said, "the world has changed a lot".
"So we will continue our fight against chipping on the PS2."
SCEA has engaged in a long series of legal manoeuvres to outlaw the chips since 2002 when it took legal action against backyard mod chip supplier, Eddy Stevens, in the Federal Court.
Sony asked the court to interpret parts of the Copyright Act outlawing the devices that circumvent copy protection mechanisms to include mod chips that Mr Stevens was selling.
However, Justice Ronald Sackville ruled in favour of Mr Stevens after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in the case.
The competition watchdog argued that Sony was using the copy control mechanism to erect artificial trade barriers between Australian consumers and overseas games and DVD markets.
Sony eventually won its case on appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court in July 2003. However, on February 8 Mr Stevens appealed to the High Court to overturn the decision.
Mr Stevens's legal representative, Gadens Lawyers, said the High Court had not set a date to give its decision.
Do the manufacturer's really have a right to say that you can only use content licensed from them on a machine you bought? Hell no. Unless they make you sign a contract and that is a term, then no, this is insane.
I think you're confusing the way things should be with the way things actually are.
My other first post is car post.
Well, what did you expect? To come and spread the chips themselves?
Modchips are supposed to make PS2s play homebrew software, demos and applications. Like what? The PS2Reality player, whos development was stopped when it managed to play about 60-70% of movies, at low quality and stuttering framerate? That's the best known app requiring a Modchip, and it's not any more developed.
SONY, and all of us, know that modchips are used, as far as PS2 goes, in 99,9% of the cases for piracy. Although, yeah, I've got a modded console -for obvious reasons- we shouldn't hide behind our finger.
From the article:
However, Justice Ronald Sackville ruled in favour of Mr Stevens after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in the case. The competition watchdog argued that Sony was using the copy control mechanism to erect artificial trade barriers between Australian consumers and overseas games and DVD markets.
Really? No kidding? It seems to me like erecting trade barriers has been the only use of the DMCA and related copyright legislation's restriction on copy control mechanisms. DVDs and region coding/CSS, Lexmark and printer cartridges, Sony and modchips. Can someone please give me a valid instance of the DMCA's copy control mechanism clauses being invoked in a case that didn't involve keeping a potential competitor out of a specific market?
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
o/ Advaaaaaance Americstralia Faaaaaaaair
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
they'd have encapsulated the board, chips and all, with an epoxy resin coating as part of the assembly process and then assembled the case so that it breaks when disassembled (ie one way clips) instead of using screws.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
If you don't buy your Sony games locally, you undercut Sony's ability to gouge on local game prices locally. And from what I've heard, video game companies seem to gouge on local game prices in Australia quite a bit.
It's all about protecting corps, such as Sony, from the effects of global capitalism; market forces are bad for profits, so technological and legal barriers to their proper operation must be put in place. Modern corporatism demands that only corporations get to benefit from globalization, never consumers.
I think anyone who's been keeping up to date with international agreements could see this coming a mile away. Australia is just the latest in a series of countries that have signed up for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and received a bonus kick in the nuts to their copyright laws.
As an Australian, however, it's a lot more personal. I read /. I keep up to date on stuff like this. I sent letters to all political parties about this, with little success. My problem is this: I can talk to the politicians, but in an issue such as this, which politician will stand on principles to block the copyright amendments and subject themselves to "blocking Australian jobs" and other, more emotionally-laden epithets?
We know why the copyright amendments are in there; the USA is willing to sacrifice protectionism in a few key markets for a bigger stick on copyright. The USA wins: they get to stop the popular-but-expensive subsidies, while being popular in the electorate for their copyright stance.
The other country, my country, thinks it's getting a good deal, but ends up with an Intellectual property deficit. The politicians don't care - they reap the political benefits now.
Sorry for the rant. I guess it's just sour grapes - one would think that after helping the US with that crazy War on Terror thing, that we'd at least get the courtesy of lube before the big event.
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
Funny how this mutual trade agreement doesn't make those mod chips legal in the U.S too, isn't it?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
This is what you guys get for invading Iraq. Go Canada Go!!!
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
You can tell me what i can do to my legaly purchased goods all you want ,the fact is im not going to listen if it comes into effect where i live , Its called civil disobediance . , . .
. . ,Um cant think of one for guns ... maybe hunt... And Spread butter on your bread.
The fact is people buy products not licenses to use them in this case , mod chips are illegal because they potentialy could enable the use of pirate games.
now lets look at the logic here
If i am going to use an illegaly cloned game i bought at some back street store or got online , do you think i would have any qualms about also getting a modchip sent to me and installing it, the simple awnser is
"Probbaly not ".
Now if i wanted to modify my console to turn it into someform of server , or homebrew test kit for making my own games then i may just think twice
The real reason they dont want people doing this is not the piracy issue as they know that people will pirate anyway and this will only make it a tiny bit more inconveniant
The real reason i belive is that of two things , They profit from Games sales not hardware(thus homebrew is a problem or could potentialy be int he future , and people turning it into something else) and the fact that region encoding is not an anti piracy mesure but a way to make sure people dont benifit from better prices in difrent regions.
TO bring out an old addage i have used many times before , Are Guns illegal as they facillitate murder which is infact the sole purpose of handguns (to kill),In most countrys Yes it is illegal for a person to own a gun but not to mod a console, In America however no
I wont get into the gun ownership debate , but i will say this Please have equal standerds , the same applys to P2P programs , just because they may be used to break the (civil)law , it dosn't mean they should be illegal.
Mod chips , just as guns and Beer and bread knifes may all be used to break the law
They also may all be used to respectivly , Install linux on your xbox or so on
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
' It's no different than trying to ban chewing gum'
Except:
1: it gets very hot and wet in asia, you don't want an insect infestation because someone stuck chewing cum under the desk.
2: You can get it on prescription if you have a medical requirement.
So, it's not really band, and the whole tidy thing is to stop insects. I think you get a fine in some resturants if you ask for more food than you can eat.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Aren't mod chips made and marketed in/from Hong Kong & Taiwan? How does this effect Australia?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
...to be part of your "land of the free".
Sincerely, an Australian.
In other signs of what is to come with the AU-US Federal trade agreement coming into force, actor Paul Hogan of the "Crocodile Dundee" movies has been removed to an undisclosed location and beaten to death with large stones.
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
I'm Australian, but have not lived there in quite a while.
Every time I go back, I'm disgusted by just how corporate-bitch that nation has become. I shouldn't be surprised; Australia has pretty much always been the Gimp Nation of the Western Imperialists, but stories like this just ring the bell even clearer.
Will Australia ever change? I don't think so; I believe it is the model state for what is planned for other formerly-great nations
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
The ACCC should have forced Sony to make a PS2 that had no copy control in it. They should also force the same on Xbox and DVD playing devices. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, our consumer watchdog agency intervened in the PS2 mod chipping case stating that mod chipping must be legal as without it Australians can't by games from overseas to play on our PS2. As most games are released overseas before they are released here and games are often priced hirer here than they are to import, the ACCC ruled this was an artificial trade barrier.
They should have taken a harder stance, now we're gunna get fucked over by the stupid trade agreement.
How we know is more important than what we know.
"Sony will be in a weaker negotiating position when they talk terms with foreign distributors/publishers "
So what?
Really, I can't imagine why this is the general public's concern. I certainly can't imagine why its the job of the Australian government to make sure Sony is in the best negotiating position with local distributors.
I was personally questioned by the french police and my flat was raided 10 years ago when Nintendo France made a lawsuit for the SNES/SFC game copy machines (the nice thing that plugged in the cartridge port and had ram and a floppy drive). So the police searched my flat while I was away, seized around 5 copy machines, about 50 games on floppies, my 2 computers and all they thought was of interest, besides that they emptied the trash in the bathtub and let it like that, it was nice when I came back home from holidays 2 weeks after that... So I had to go to Paris to talk to the police and explain myself, of course I was importing the copy machines from Hong Kong and selling them in France, the only problem for the police was that I was doing this in an "open" way, sending the goos by FEDEX "game copy machine" written on the customs decalaration and paying the customs and VAT tax. First they told me I was questioned for "importation of material being used for illegal copying" but when I showed them the customs paper they changed this to "selling of pirated games" arguing that I HAD to give games when I was selling a unit, at the time we had a pre internet way of coimmunicating in France called minitel, basically a chat BBS with incredible speed (1200/75) and so they had minitel logs of my conversations with buyers, but since I NEVER sold games after 2 hours they had to let me go, give me ALL my stuff back and pay for the damages they had caused in my flat... Bottom line is that since the modchip or device can be used for private copying and so on, it's going to be VERY difficult to put someone who's not selling pirated games in jail, at least in France, and even with the P2P hype, the judges are starting to realise that and the situation is MUCH more calm than it was 6 months ago... Now how is the law and the judges in an hysteric environment such as Fox news-USA and Murdoch land is another question...
its bad enough that we spread crap media and movies to countries like australia, now we give them laws...
I wonder how much longer the ACCC will be around for. They keep getting in the way of the big corporations; they've stopped Telstras' (au phone company) anti-competitive activities many times, they've stopped the big oil companies price manipulation and as seen here they have gotten in the way of Sonys' region locking.
Considering the Australian government gets donations from those big corporation and that the ACCC is funded by the government i simply cant see the organisation lasting.
I'm in Australia too by the way?
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
However, Justice Ronald Sackville ruled in favour of Mr Stevens after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervened in the case.
The competition watchdog argued that Sony was using the copy control mechanism to erect artificial trade barriers between Australian consumers and overseas games and DVD markets.
And the new 'free trade' agreement overrides Australia's Consumer Commission to make these devices illegal.
I was under the impression that once I purchase something (be it a PS2, a torch, a computer, a book, etc) it becomes mine and I can do as I please with it. If I want to tear the book apart, I can do so. If I want to modify the torch or the computer, I can do so. But apparantly that has all changed now: modifying _MY_ PS2, containing hardware that _I_ own is no longer condoned. Does this effectively mean the company still owns the rights to the inside of the PS2? Am I not allowed to create any 'derivative works' of the hardware? I also don't like the fact that the state will assume that I am guilty purely because a corporation says I am.
I've seen something like this coming since they started bragging how good the free-trade agreement will be for Australia. Of course, most politicians here don't comprehend copyright, patents, and the such, since they are concentrating on the now so they get elected into office again in 3 years time. If it makes them look good, they don't care how it will affect us long term.
I had already decided that with the PS3, I would by from Japan, I'm sick of having so many games out of my reach. Such behavior by Sony only strengthens the resolve to learn Japanese.
Sony will get no more impulse buys from me.
I'm just glad I've got a modded XBox.
And the worst part is, we're addicted to it now in Canada. So much of our trade is directly between us and the U.S. that we've become dependent on it, Canada is treated terribly unfair to the expense of Canadian producers and consumers alike, but the sheer amount of business means that the price of breaking off would be prohibitively expensive. It's an abusive relationship we've trapped ourselves in. (Though I feel a bit odd phrasing things the way I do, having dual-citizenship and all . . . the "them" and "us" tend to differ from occasion to occasion for me. I could just as easily rephrase the above as remorse over how abysmally "we" treat "them"). But, yes. The icing on the cake, of course, is that the arbitration in NAFTA invariably falls in favour of the States, so even having binding arbitration wouldn't help Canada much. I've heard it remarked that much of Australia's history is a result of trying to pretend it's part of Europe and the Western countries, while in reality it sits right alonside Asia. This may be a better way to go; ignore free trade with the states, start making use of the fact that they're within sight of Japan and China and so on. Though from all the things I can remember reading about the state of these ideas in Australia, and the current politics, I suppose that isn't all that likely to happen. Oh well. People will realize; probably too late, though. Canada and Australia can go out for drinks and bitch to eachother about how crappy the States treat them, and then cave in again the next time the U.S. comes around.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
For a while I've been building up a list of movies I want to show my girlfriend but that I can never seem to find in the local video shop. Yesterday I did a check, and surprise surprise, almost none of them are available as Region 4 disks. Of course these are obscure titles like Top Hat and The Impostors.
So if I had a PS2, Sony would want to tell me what I could watch or not. Good luck to them. Why on earth governments in Region 4 agreed to this crap in the first place is beyond me, but it would help if they don't enforce these rules.
I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
I just wanted to make a few of things clear for the rest of you just in case you think this kind of thing is too bad to be true:
After all that, US interests are still trying to rewrite the rules so they can dictate our pharmaceutical prices, still trying to enforce MS-only policy in our bureacracy, and still complaining that our agricultural and mining industries are over-protected. Keep an eye on our uranium deposits, for instance...
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
Problem with the idea of playing backups is, by australian copyright law aussies do not have the right to make a backup of anything copyrighted unless they have the owners permission.
Of course common law allows for people to "protect their property" which has been argued, gives us the right to keep one backup copy, but not allowed to use the backup untill the master copy has been destroyed/lost.
...
I don't think you understand: John Howard isn't letting us be screwed over because he is weak: the Liberal Party is the Big Business party - they are screwing us over INTENTIONALLY.
Look at our industrial relations "reform" - who needs silly things like unfair dismissal laws? What we REALLY need is to streamline business processes for maximum profit margins!
Big Business has found Australia with a Liberal Dictatorship (control of both houses) and intends to screw us for all we are worth.
"Crikey! Isn't that President's toight ass a beauty?"
Nice subliminal message (even if you didn't mean it).
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Isnt there some fuss about the Ugg Boot and the american initiative to comform copyright laws? I think there was a slashdot reference to this some time ago.
Have become part of the American Empire with the help of two very bad poieces of shit in the names of Tony "45 minutes" Blair, and Johnny boy "Keep Autralia white" Howard. I've visited both countries, and while both ARE doing well economically, it's not as if they managed to do it on their own. Their corporations look and smell like American corporations. Their media looks like it was all made in the land of the corrupt and most of their products that aren't made in china seem to come from the Empire.
This is why I like feisty little countries like New Zealand with that weird PM of theirs who doesn't hesitate to make the Emperor know what she thinks, or places like Venezuela, with a luny President who basically spends all his time insulting the US and, because he has loads of SUV food, can get away scott free.
welcome to the modern world. :(
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
"It's no different than trying to ban chewing gum just because someone might stick it under a desk."
they did!
in japan for quite some time, as i remember one city is allowing people to buy it with a liscense. there were huge problems keeping the streets clean from the stuff, and it made the whole city look like a mess.
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
If they are such lousy vendors, then you should spend your cash elsewhere. Surely our right to do WTF we want with our stuff is more important than the latest version of Grand Turismo?
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
It's a trademark problem not a copyright isuse. Some company in the US trademarked "UGG" and told to stop using it, but we have been using the term for a long time it would be the same as Aus trademarking "Apple Pie" and telling the US to stop using it.
The transcript is available starting on page 55 of this PDF (called a Hansard, apparently.)
There's now an illustrated version of his opening statement here, but the questions from the senators are much more interesting and you'll find them in the Hansard.
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
Under the guise of CER Australia has blocked a number of NZ products from Australia.
Ice Cream - NZ Ice Cream contains to much Cream and to little air.
Meat Pies - NZ Meat Pies contain to much Meat and to little gravy
Damn us crazy Kiwis for making things that taste to good
Cheers
JoAnywhere
You can't be serious.
I am Serious!
But what they're doing is making it illegal for others to sell you the tools to do so, do the job for you, and perhaps even document for you how to do it yourself.
If you can figure out how to manually mod your PS2 best of luck it's probably still legal, but nobody else will be able to help you with it.
As an American (don't blame me -- nobody I vote for ever gets elected) I can sympathize with the Aussies. I have to buy my mod chips from Switzerland.
This is not the way to get back on top.
Just FYI.
Love,
AC
This post is a WORD FOR WORD ripoff of #10638246 as quoted on anti-slash's front page.
I can't believe how little respect these people have for other people.
Actually, there at least were such chips for PS1 at some point in the past; I don't know if they're still available or if there's a PS2 equivalent.
Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
...doesn't grasp that once you buy the machine, it is yours to use as a doorstop, calculator, whatever you want to do with it that doesn't involve something patently illegal. Anyone think that Mitsubishi should be able to stop people from "modding" their cars?
This would be like Apple trying to stop people from modifying their Mac to work with third party unapproved stuff... (hmmm...) Okay, bad example.
But we would see holy hell raised over this were a motherboard manufacturer to tell you that you were forbidden to do anything with it that they didn't want you to. Or Microsoft try to tell you that you were forbidden from writing any code they didn't want running on Windows. Etc.
BTW, you Aussies have my apologies for ever being exposed to what Americans call beer.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
If you want to go after "guilty" people, fine. But the first consideration of law is that you do not sweep up and imprison innocent people in the process.
If you never needed or wanted to make and use PERFECTLY LEGAL BACKUPS, fine. However you have no right to tell other people they have no need to, and no right to prohibit it. You may never have wanted to modify your own property for any number of PERFECTLY LEGAL purposes, but you have absolutely no right to tell other people they have no need to, and no right to prohibit it.
The conflict here is because you are focusing on the guilty and "we" are focusing on the innocent. We are not objecting to persuing the guilty. Go right ahead. However we are pointing out that you cannot sweep up the innocent in the process.
The original poster never denied that there are people who commit copyright infringment *and* use mod chips. The propblem here is that you are ignoring the reverse. You are pretending there is no legitimate need for mod chips to repair an intentionally defective product. You are saying that just because you don't have any desire to use one that it's OK for you to forbid anyone else from doing so.
I've never rebuilt the engine to my car, but that doesn't mean I should make the tools to do so illegal so that no one else can either. Most people don't go inside and modify their computers, but I do. If I don't like something about my computer's design or wiring, I'll damn well fix it. A console is just another computer. Once I've bought it it is my property and I'll fix it how I like. If I don't use it to do anything illegal then you have no right to say squat about it.
You can't criminialize the innocent in some misguided crusade against the guilty.
The DMCA and related laws are totally fuxored becuase they do not actually have anything to do with commiting any crime. Instead they attempt to remove the ability to commit crime. That sounds like a wonderful solution untill you notice that in the process you are also criminalizing and imprisoning perfectly innocent people for doing absolutely legitimate and legal things. And as if criminalizing innocent peopel and legitimate and legal activities wasn't bad enough, once you remove people's ability to do those legal and legitimat things then you screw up vilattly important natural market forces. You start getting crippled products and things like DVD region coding, and anyone who buys a DVD while in the USA and (sucessfully) watches it on his DVD player at home in Australia becomes A CRIMINAL.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Not only has Singapore partially lifted it's chewing gum ban under pressure from the US, but Ireland, who were thinking of taxing chewing gum, now seems like it won't; and a little bird tells me that the pressure not to do so came from the US Government, apparently the top of the US government (yeah, him). Insane huh?
Most people think that Sony and Nintendo have always sold the consoles at a profit. Of course they still make most of their money on the games, but as far as I know, Microsoft is the only one that people think is losing money selling game consoles.
Anyway, consoles have been protected since the original NES. Prior to that, consoles like the Atari 2600 were unprotected. Anyway, copy protection and protection for the company against unlicensed publishers has existed for a long time. The DMCA, however, for the first time makes it a criminal (not just civil or breach of contract) offense to bypass such copy protection mechanisms.
My other first post is car post.
Australia already comes under US law; no need for a local office. If you as an Australian download copyrighted material without permission then a Grand Jury in Virgina can convict you, and you can be deported to serve your time (5 years or so) in pound-me-in-the-ass US federal prison. A New Zealand lawyer says that probably applies there too.
I ran into an interesting thing. When I was living in California, most times all I could buy at the local supermarket were Australian navel oranges. I thought "Wow! Maybe the trade thing is working out for the Aussies".
When I was back in Australia, yep you guessed it. Only California navel oranges.
Me: "WTF??"
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
the Austrailians are as careless in their voting habits as the Americans. Your legislators won't listen to you? Well them, you should take the problem up with your neighbors. I do believe you can vote out the regulars over there also, right? If they refuse to give up their seat, then I could say the problem is a bit more serious. Election time is a good way to see if you really live in a democracy(representative republic?). Try to actually use your power to see if it really exists. Then we can talk about "evil" corporations and governments.
What?
Um, ok then. What reason would you NEED a box cutter onboard an airplane? I'm pretty damned sure most people don't bring sealed cardboard boxes on board as 'carry-on' luggage. And in the rare cases that you do, why would you need a box cutter if you know the longest flight you'll be on is ~12 hours tops?
Since we're now the fifty-whatevereth state we should at least get the opportunity to vote in your elections. :P
Ugg boots are Australian. Get over it.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
off topic my arse, the same laws that govern the question of mods apply to DVD zoning, dickheads
There was an unknown error in the submission.
However, we can destroy our technological civilization, and watching current trends indicates that this is what's going on.
Google on "Hubbert peak"... or try reading the happy news at to see what's really going on.
If breathing out of gas masks is the worst thing we have to put up with by 2020, we as a species are far luckier than we deserve.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Do you doubt the laws of physics as well? Do you think that George Bush can annul them at will? Do you think Rush Limbaugh can explain them away?
Your ability to boot Windows XP all by yourself doesn't make you a scientist. Or even an intelligent being whose opinions deserve respect.
You're either an idiot or an astroturfer who believes whatever the PR firm whose payroll you're on tells you.
If you're an idiot... I'm sure that a bit of research will show you which PR firms will pay you to spread the disinformation in your posts. There's quite a lot of money in this if you do it right, as a look at TechRepublic will show you... Techrepublic is the blogspace arm of a lobbyist firm.
If you're going to propagandize, you might as well get paid... otherwise you are really a fucking moron.
Tech Public Policy stuff
German bread is extremely underrated. As to beer: there are many outstanding beers. If you found many non-outstanding beers, it's because a) you weren't drinking the good stuff, you cheap fucker; or b) unlike us poor Americans, you aren't so surrounded with pisswater that any decent beer tastes like the Nectar Of Venus.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.