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TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy
PC Guy writes "TorrentSpy, one of the world's largest BitTorrent sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users. They are asked to keep detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA. Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney responded to the news by stating: 'It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users. If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.'"
Don't be fooled by all the "God" talk in the US. By my observation, not one in 50 Americans lives according to any religious belief. For the vast majority of us, "God" is invoked when buying a lottery ticket or upon learning of a diagnosis of cancer, but little or no effort is made to either learn about the actual moral basis behind their respective religions or to live according to that basis
We have been trained to say that we believe in God, and indeed, given the choice between having our lives end at death and having our personalities continue eternally, we would naturally choose the latter. That's why you get these huge percentages in polls asking Americans whether they believe in God. Don't make the mistake of thinking most Americans are religious. They are not.
Now, the "God" in "One nation under God" is another story entirely. In this context, "God" means "The Way I Want Things To Be". Thus, when you hear a group of yahoos trying to assert that the US is a "Christian" nation, what they are saying is "It's a Nation that should be the way we want it" (generally, one where gays, blacks or immigrants are treated poorly, abortions are only available to their own daughters, and their own immature view of the world is constantly justified). At heart, most of this impulse is a way to try to assert some control over the vagaries of life. For example, if it really was a "Nation Under God", then they'll never get cancer because they consider themselves righteous folk, and God doesn't do that the righteous folk. Of course, when they do end up getting cancer, it's often because either they have done something to anger God, or more frequently, the Blacks, Gays or Jews have done something to anger God. This last also serves to justify their hatreds.
The more I travel through this marvelous country, and the more I listen and learn from fellow Americans, the more sympathetic I am to their religious claims and cries, which to an outsider would seem to be slightly insane. I'm learning to be a little more understanding because, after all, they're just scared, and fear mixed with ignorance is a very destructive combination.
I don't mean to imply that there is no value or truth to religous faith, only that faith and morality have little to do with all the God talk one hears in the USA. A recent example of this phenomenon can be seen in the last few Republican debates, where each candidate did their best to assert their love of God and Christ, while demonstrating very little concern for their fellow man, especially the poor or foreign. A cursory reading of the Gospels will show that this is an extremely contradictory assertion, but one that resonates with the basest of the Republican "base", who share this disconnect between the language of religion and its meaning.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Some vocal Atheists can be judgemental in that they will call all religious individuals naive and dismiss their views out of hand, but in comparison to the rest of the people in the religious world you're barking up the wrong tree if you think Atheism somehow requires you to judge anybody more than another philosophical belief (or lack thereof.) Some religions require that you condemn entire countries of people, even if the reason is hundreds of years old and nobody (except said group) cares any more :)
Either way, I don't think it's fair to call someone judgemental based on their philosophical beliefs until you are sure you actually know what their beliefs are. Someone can call themselves a follower of a particular religious group, but that doesn't mean they believe everything about said group.