Time for me to be funny again!

-Salem
I love these chicken jokes!

Paradox

If a guy posts in a blog and there's nobody around to read it, does it make a difference?

Well it does, but not to anyone except the guy that posted it up.

That aside, I thought that I'd come up with something to post just to make it look like this blog is still vibrant and useful. I'm not really all that concerned about the lack of people that see it as I started it for my own personal ammusement anyhow. On the up side, the less people that post here, the more of my own intelect seeps into this space. With any luck, in a few years when the net gains self-awareness, this little piece will add to the areas that Tycho has spawned and will push it one step closer to wanting to destroy society but not necessarily humanity.

That would be kinda cool. I could live through a wonderful mechanical uprising where the machines track down and destroy all the useless people on the planet. Of course, I would have to think of a way in which to make myself useful and that may not be so easy. Still, it's better than many of the alternatives.

Finally, here's a PSA from all of us here at Morally Bankrupt.

-Salem
Someday, I'll pay for my crimes against society. Until then, society can go die.

Versatility Plus

To add to my last post, think on this. Recently, somebody converted an Xbox 360 into a handy lap-top style configuration. It's pretty nifty and is one of the more well known console customisation projects. Take a look, it's really quite interesting.

Pretty cool huh? I'd be stoaked to own one of these myself.

Moving on, what have the PS3 people got I wonder? Perhaps the first 3rd gen system that can fly you to safety in event of a volcanic erruption? No, they have something even better! They have... The Grill! Yeah, people were willing to pay a thousand bucks just to rip one asunder and implant a George Forman Grill into it. Nothing says 'Loyalty to my chosen system' more than trashing one and making a grill.

And for those that can't get enough, there's a website devoted to this. I love the world in which I live.

-Salem
I really should see if there are any cool Wii mods out there...

Death to the Sony and the media!

I have not the words to describe how much I hate the media, specifically our so called "News". Practically everywhere you go on the net, you find horrible reports about the PS3 and to be honest, you wont get anything better here. That they think $1000.00 is a fair price for a game system is a travesty. My point is though that our "reputable news broardcasts" are making the PS3 out to be the biggest and best thing in the world ever. THE PS2 IS STILL OUTSELLING IT AS ARE THE XBOX 360 AND THE Wii!!!

Sorry about that, but I hate the way the media think that they can tell you what you should like based on who pays them the most to say it. Screw that. The sales are bad, the attitude that Sony have is bad, the planning is even worse than when Microsoft released the original Xbox and on the whole, I'm sick of them and yet the news here is portraying the PS3 as if the only reason electricity was harnesed was to power it.

I want Sony to die and I want them to die now. As a life-long gamer, I am offended by both the behaviour of Sony and the worms that do their bidding. Grow a spine and tell Sony to go fuck themselves.

-Salem
I just can't accept Sony being on my planet anymore.

A Personal Struggle

No, it's probably not what you think. My struggle is that I can never decide when it comes to lawyers. Do I love them? Do I hate them? It's hard to say. Today, I think I'll concede that I love this one at least. I hope she's a looker and here's why:

NFL fumbles DMCA takedown battle, could face sanctions

By Jacqui Cheng Published: March 20, 2007 - 11:35AM CT

It's no secret that some content owners don't seem to understand how the DMCA works—that, or they simply don't care when sending mass takedown notices. This seems to be the case with the recent saga of legal maneuvers between the National Football League (NFL) and Brooklyn Law School professor Wendy Seltzer. The two have been going back and forth with DMCA-related "requests" since early February—with YouTube stuck in between—and in the process, the NFL itself appears to have violated the DMCA.

The story began when Seltzer posted a YouTube clip on her personal blog in early February. The clip showed the NFL's copyright message that aired during the Super Bowl:

This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience, and any other use of this telecast or of any pictures, descriptions or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited

Seltzer took exception to this claim—as it clearly makes no concession for fair use—and wanted to show her students how content owners are beginning to exaggerate their rights.

Five days later, she received a DMCA takedown notice through YouTube, saying that the NFL had claimed copyright violation and that the clip had been removed. Ironic? Perhaps, but it gets better. Seltzer, law professor by day, is also staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) by night and founder of Chilling Effects, a web site dedicated to educating the public about online rights. Very well aware of her own rights under DMCA, she promptly sent a counter-notification to YouTube (generated by the Chilling Effects counter-notice generator, no less), citing Section 512 of the DMCA saying that YouTube must replace the material if they receive a counter-notification asserting "good faith belief" that the material removal was a mistake.

Several weeks after that, Seltzer's Super Bowl copyright notice clip came back online as a result of her counter-notification. Seltzer was happy that the system appeared to work the way it was designed to work and assumed that the NFL had decided not to sue to keep the video offline. She was wrong, however. Just 12 days later, the NFL filed yet another takedown notice with YouTube for the clip, and YouTube complied once again.

This is where the saga starts to get messy. Seltzer's counter-notification—which was forwarded to the NFL from YouTube—clearly described her use of the clip as fair use: "an educational excerpt featuring the NFL's overreaching copyright warning aired during the Super Bowl." As Seltzer outlines in her blog post, the NFL's only option in response to her counter-claim would be to force her to remove the clip via court proceedings. This obviously did not happen, and instead, the NFL chose to ignore her claims completely. After receiving her counter-notification claiming fair use, sending another takedown notice over the same content is considered a knowing misrepresentation that the clip is infringing, according to DMCA section 512(f)(1). Under the DMCA, the NFL would be liable for all legal fees incurred by the alleged infringer, along with damages.

Essentially, the NFL is now in violation of the same law that it is using to try to protect its own content. And, instead of following the proper procedures outlined in the DMCA, the NFL appears to be choosing to beat her over the head with takedown requests. Would this be happening if YouTube was not caught in the middle, hosting the clip for Seltzer? There is no way to know, but it seems that the trend du jour is for content owners to target YouTube with these requests, knowing that YouTube is likely to comply immediately and ask questions later. But Seltzer isn't likely to let this issue rest now, and seems more than happy to continue pushing back on the issue until it goes to court. It's hard to imagine that a court would do anything but decide in Seltzer's favor, and if that were to happen, it may force content owners to be more cautious about sending takedown notices in the future.

Here's the link to the article. I just get giddy when a large company/corporation/whatever decides that it can push people around and they push the wrong person. In this case, the NFL has pushed a lawyer into a legal battle and the lawyer was the one that actually knew what they were talking about. It looks like the NFL lost big time and man do I love that. There may be hope for humans after all.

-Salem
I am the law!

Mel hacked his own Gibson!

Ok, this was pointed out to me by someone on my HRD forum. Nice catch but seriously, what the hell is going on here? Anyhow, if you watch this teaser trailer for Apocalypto, you will see a monkey about 3/4 of the way through. Quickly hit pause and then, using the back arrow, go back 6 frames from the monkey's appearance. This is what you'll see:

















If you think I've doctored this, go take a look for yourself. Go on, I'll wait. See, it was there wasn't it! I'm not sure why this happened, but I'm so thankful that it did. Hehehe... Mel Gibson.

All I can say is "What the fuck?" and "Give me a banjo or give me death!"

-Salem
I so want so say 'Salem Out' but I'm too scared to use Tycho's signature :(