Microsoft RickRolls Wi-Fi Network Leechers

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has revealed that it RickRolled users that were killing its TechEd conference Wi-Fi network last year by torrenting large files. Network administrators at the event quickly built a list of all of the top torrent trackers around and got the nod to add them all to the local DNS resolver and point them at a local Web server containing some Rick Roll scripts. According to the admin: 'It killed me that I didn't see anyone getting done by this first hand, but there were hundreds of impressions in the server logs containing the Rick Roll scripts so I did get a fair amount of satisfaction at least. It was the most evil of evil Rick Roll scripts too — worse than any that anyone has used to get me in the past.' Fun and games aside, it looks like the leechers will force quotas and traffic shaping for the first time in the event's history."

Comments

Re:Please tell me...

[ArsenneLupin]

that whoever owns the rights to "Never Gonna Give You Up" is receiving royalties.

Maybe now is the time to gently introduce Micro$oft to the MAFIAA... That bloodshed should be phun to watch...

Re:What surprises me...

[jo42]

At one point in space-time, Messysoft used to farm out their downloads to 3rd parties.
Possibly they've hired enough highly educated idjits to do it themselves by now.

mod parent up

[circletimessquare]

the quote/ bkr1'sr observation is spot on about the problem with those married to the pre-internet model of intellectual property

it's the equivalent of marie antoinette saying "let them eat cake" when told starving parisians don't have bread: the guy is so clueless as to real world labor, he actually and sincerely believes that not being paid for writing a song 23 years ago places him in the same category as modern slavery

off with her head, off with his head

i'm not a hypocrite

[circletimessquare]

what you say is exactly right: movies should only make money in theatres, and should be free online

i could put it on youtube, and get money from advertising clicks. or charge the odd bird who wants it on dvd $10. or i rent a theatre, take out advertising, and sell tickets. in other words, i make my money in theatres, or i make it via ancillary revenue streams. that's it. no enforcement, no policing, no legal force or warping of common sense/ how the internet functions need apply

you say this model doesn't support modern production costs?

oh yeah: how much did avatar cost to produce? and how much money has avatar made in theatres so far? pfffft

you say avatar isn't typical of revenue? ok, so then what are we paying for in the pre-internet model? we're supposed to give corporate welfare to moviemakers who make bad movies nobody wants to see?

howabout this crazy wacky "communist" thinking of mine: if the movie is good, producers recoup their investment in theatres. if the movie sucks, then they lose money. end of fucking story. the point is, what i am advocating is not some techno anarchist bullshit. what i'm advocating for is called PURE CAPITALISM. meanwhile, you are not defending capitalism from "information wants to be free man" technohippies. you are defending oligopolies and monopolies from pure capitalism, which is what i am advocating for. monopolies and oligopolies are just as poisonous to the free market as stalin and mao, friend. so fuck the studios and their crocodile tears over how the itnernet has killed their dvd aftermarket. boo fucking hoo. warner brothers needs to learn how to make movies like the actual warner brothers made movies in the silver screen era

there will be no dearth of movies or culture because of this "new" model... aka, how moviemaking functioned for decades before the age of the vhs tape. the vhs tape/ dvd which the movie industry fought. fought because this CASH COW they thought in the 1980s was going to destroy them: morons then, morons now about the internet

there will just be a dearth of bad movies. i did not know direct-to-dvd was a movie making model worth saving. here's my tiny violin for steven seagal and uwe boll. adios blockbuster video. boo fucking hoo

and you're absolutely right: some aesop's fable is in order here, for you and the mpaa/ riaa/ other ip assholes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dog_and_the_Shadow

"The Dog and the Bone" is a fable ascribed to Aesop. According to the story, a dog was carrying a bone over a bridge. Looking down into the water, the dog saw its own reflection, which looked to him like another dog carrying another bone. Wanting the other dog's bone as well as his own, the dog opened his mouth to bark at the "other" dog it saw, but in doing so, the dog dropped his own bone into the river, where it was gone for good. In some versions the dog falls into the water and struggles to swim to shore, whereupon he loses his grip on the bone and sees it float downstream.

The sad, hungry dog learned the hard lesson that, by being greedy, one risks what one already has.

the world is changing friend. adapt. or die. your choice

no

[circletimessquare]

after TWENTY THREE YEARS, the recording should be open to all by this point as well