How many times have you been in a dark alley trying to hire an escort looking for a contact lens and found yourself without a pocket flashlight?
Well Brite-Strike Technologies has released a new line of military spec flashlights to the market that will service all of your covert op’s needs. The great thing about these flashlights is they can also be used as a defense against all those creatures that go bump in the night.
When set to high, these flashlights emit an extraordinarily brilliant light that can momentarily blind and disorient an attacker. When set to low, these flashlights can be used for regular use without the dark spots of standard flashlights because of its faceted machined aluminum reflector that produces its flawless beam.
The casing of the Brite-Strike is milled from a solid bar of aircraft grade aluminum with a super hard anodized finish that exceeds mil spec class III, which makes it hard as nails. Featuring a specially designed front and rear tri-strike-crown, this flashlight can be used for maximum impact on pressure points while using self defense techniques.
There you have it! A veritable cornucopia of kickassery as well as luminescence. You can snag your MacGuyver copy of this bad boy here.
Viacom came out guns blazing on Tuesday in their public battle with YouTube and its parent company, Google, by filing suit in federal court for copyright infringement. While they haven’t taken to street justice just yet, they are looking to hand YouTube a serious civil beat down. According to the complaint, Viacom is seeking some stiff penalties, including possible actual damages of at least one billion dollars (cue Dr. Evil laugh now). The mega company, which owns Paramount, Dreamworks and several cable stations, is evidently slightly miffed that its copyright protected content continues to pop up on YouTube, despite last month’s demand that over 100,000 pirated clips be removed from the site.
YouTube and Google aren’t just dropping trou and waiting to be spanked though. Google’s attorney claims that YouTube is protected by a safe harbor provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). The key will be whether YouTube knowingly profits on the posting of pirated content. If the case actual reaches a court, the resulting decision could determine whether a Web site is responsible for keeping pirated content off its pages without notice from the copyright holder.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen if other companies will follow Viacom into the legal arena. Will YouTube go the way of the dodo?
The year might not be 1984, but Big Brother plans on spying on you all the same, even if they have to push things back a bit. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for the implementation of its Real ID program from 2008 to 2013. Somewhere Winston Smith breathed a sigh of relief.
Real ID is a digital identification card, which will be required in all 50 states and will effectively replace the state driver’s license. Don’t get too excited, though, it’s not going to wipe that DUI off your record. The purpose of the cards is to create a national database, cataloguing personal information on all 240 million licensed drivers. Seems just like your driver’s license, but on a national scale, right? Well, not quite. Hang on, cause here is where things get a bit totalitarian.
An imbedded barcode will make each ID scanable, purportedly to check it against the database. Never mind that it could essentially be used to keep tabs on where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. An additional concern is that the information contained on the ID will not be encrypted … at all. Scanning it would be all it would take to make a record of your personal information. Yes ladies, that scary bouncer at the bar would no longer have work to quickly commit your address to memory. He’d already have it saved to disc. The cards may also include radio frequency identification technology as well. At the present time though, Homeland Security isn’t quite sure which sort of unsecure data collection they would rather go with.
So far there’s no getting around this either. Under the Real ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, all states are required by law to implement the program. Individual states have until Oct. 7, 2007 to provide their compliance plan to the federal government. However, citing privacy concerns, several rogue states are currently drafting legislation in direct opposition to the Act and its measures. The price for keeping your information private could be costly though. The penalties for noncompliance include disallowing residents of that particular state to use other forms of identification to board planes, enter federal buildings or collect federal financial assistance.
Internet hunting. It’s been around for a couple of years now, and is the sickest thing I can think of this side of kiddie porn or Jack Thompson. Basically, it involves users picking out a harmless animal on a webcam that’s just sitting in a pen, and with a click, someone standing by the pen kills the animal. The original “justification” for the enterprise was to allow disabled hunters to get their murderous rush vicariously. I’m not sure how this even became a reality, but I suppose there are enough weirdos out there that this actually requires the attention of legislators.
Recently, Connecticut finally passed a bill prohibiting such senseless crap. Thank you to all the states that prohibit such things. As a Canadian, I know I have a lot to be ashamed of in this department, but at least we have the balls to kill things ourselves. For anyone who’s considering opening a business like this or patronizing them with real money, go screw yourself. Bambi’s mom will hunt you down and eat your soul.
So here’s the story, a 13 year old poses as an 18 year old (pics or it didn’t happen is a life rule) and meets up with some 19 year old online. Then they meet up in real life and of course this leads to sexual assault on the dude’s part. Big shock. If there’s one lesson I can give to any readers it’s that all people online are scumbags, even me. Moving on.
The family of the girl tried to sue myspace for fraud, negligence and some such nonsense. Fortunately the judge found Myspace not liable because they were third party interactions. Basically, if you dial a random phone number and then meet up with the person and get last night’s pizza beat out of you, it’s not AT&T’s fault. That’s the general idea. People, for the love of all things hot and spicy, take responsibility for your own actions. I’m looking at you, unaware parents.
A 16 year old is being sued by the RIAA. It’s been a while since I last heard of those happening. The notable thing here is that he’s not settling. The charges claim that he downloaded music illegally when he was 11 years old. Not sure what the hold up was with the RIAA. They must’ve been busy overhyping Justin Timberlakes Futuresex album. The following abstract from the original USA Today article elaborates on the details of the defense claims.
…he never sent copyrighted music to others, that the recording companies promoted file sharing before turning against it, that average computer users were never warned that it was illegal, that the statute of limitations has passed, and that all the music claimed to have been downloaded was actually owned by his sister on store-bought CDs.
Not sure that’ll hold up against the big bad RIAA lawyers but I’m personally hoping so. Win one for the team little guy.
With Windows Vista’s imminent arrival tomorrow, the Toronto Star has an article discussing all the legal fine print in the Vista Service Agreement’s terms and conditions. If half of what the author states is true, we’ll all have traveled 23 years back in time, all the way back to 1984. I wish I were making these up, but here are some of the lowlights of what the terms and conditions give Microsoft:
- “… granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user’s knowledge”
- “ … (granting) Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components.” Like when you install that DirectX 10 video card that they want you to own.
- “Windows Defender (Microsoft’s own anti-virus/adware software) will, by default, automatically remove software rated ‘high’ or ’severe,’ even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.”
The article tells of other insidious details. The devil truly is in there. If what John Carmack says is true about DX10, count me out of Vista for a long time.
While Scandinavia has traditionally favored neutrality and peacekeeping in times of conflict, they don’t fül around when it comes to digital rights. Norway’s powerful consumer Ombudsman (yes, that Ombudsman) has declared Apple’s Fairplay DRM scheme illegal. According to the Ombudsman, music that has been purchased legally ought to be playable on any music player; not just Apple’s ubiquitous white dance-coffer (that’s iPod for the kenning impaired).
The legality of Fairplay has been challenged by European legislation before. France’s parliament came within a baguette’s width of banning Fairplay altogether. Germany and Sweden have also declared their solidarity. As the coalition of anti-DRM countries grows, Apple becomes much less likely to simply take their ball and go home. Legal battles will have to be fought, or an open standard for DRM technology will have to be developed that is available to any device manufacturer. If Norway is successful in rallying anti-Fairplay support, could we see the end of the iPod era?
Also: Why can’t Europeans just be content with fine beers, stellar healthcare, beautiful women, and great jeans?
The scandalous rascals that are 20th Century Fox’s lawyers slapped Youtube with a subpoena today. A user by the account name of ECOtotal posted episodes of The Simpsons and 24 before they were released in the states. In a very MPAA, RIAA and even AA move they’re demanding for the user’s information. We all saw this coming.
The current owners of Youtube, Google, will have to either give up the goods or make a stand. Giving in to Fox could possibly lead to a backlash from the online community but not doing so means facing a major studio in the courts. What’s an internet giant to do? Hit the link for the originall iTWire article.
