Asides

Problems with SOPA

“if you’re not breaking the law, you have nothing to fear from SOPA.”

Really?

Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details…

And this is under the current law, without the additional tools SOPA provides.

Also, check out CloudFlare’s article about how they already have to deal with people sending bogus DMCA complaints in order to get the data needed to launch DDoS attacks. With SOPA, why bother to launch the DDoS, when you can get the law to do your dirty work for you?

Even the pro-copyright-enforcement Heritage Foundation warns about unintended consequences of the law. It doesn’t matter if the law is only intended to go after rogue sites if it’s written in a way that applies to legit sites as well, and it doesn’t matter who’s targeted if the solutions imposed result in major collateral damage.

Consider also that the “techno-elite” you’re referring to are the people and companies who built and run the Internet, and includes companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Mozilla, PayPal and Wikipedia. Not just their users, but the companies. It seems they might know something about how it works, and how this law would affect it.

“I just don’t see opposing intellectual property protection as doing the right thing.”

Again, you’re falling into that second trap, where “something must be done” implies “this thing must be done.” There are other ways to protect IP than by passing SOPA or Protect IP in its current form.

On Reddit

Opposition to SOPA is not all pro-piracy

Opposition to SOPA is not all pro-piracy, no matter what the bill’s sponsors claim. Even the pro-copyright Heritage Foundation, which liked the idea of suing P2P users, is opposed to SOPA because of its unintended consequences.

At least we hope they’re unintended.

Pro-copyright group takes SOPA to task

When defending intellectual property rights, the influential Heritage Foundation often sounds like it’s channeling Hollywood lobbyists. But not when it comes to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Read this…

I’m amazed that Facebook still hasn’t fixed the bug where, when you attach a link…

I’m amazed that Facebook still hasn’t fixed the bug where, when you attach a link to a Blogspot post, it pulls in the first comment instead of the post itself for the summary. Are they waiting for Google to implement OpenGraph? Does it only apply to certain themes and I’m just unlucky about which blogs I read?

Or is it one of those situations where no one’s actually reported it as a bug, because everyone assumes someone must have noticed, like the apocryphal story of the house burning down across the street from the fire station because no one called it in?

That’s some serious wind

Whew. That’s some serious wind. Saw a bright flash off to the north as I parked at TJs. No rain, so I’m guessing instead of lightning, it’s power lines sparking somewhere.

I think these are the first Santa Anas since we moved. In a way, it’s oddly reassuring. I guess after the summer was so different from what I’m used to (even cold at times), it’s nice to know that fall weather is a bit more familiar. October heat wave, November winds, etc.

Why did I just uninstall Shareaholic?

Because the extension added contextual advertising to the PayPal login screen. That means (a) I can’t trust my browsing, even on HTTPS sites, to be private (yeah, I know DNS and Chrome’s anti-malware filter already get this info), and (b) I can’t trust secure sites to not be modified as long as the extension is installed.

Good news: the part that failed is still under warranty. Bad news…

Good news: the part that failed is still under warranty. Bad news: somehow I managed to get nails into both front tires in places that can’t be repaired (but at least haven’t leaked). Good news: The tires are under warranty too. Bad news: That means I have to go to Costco *on* Thanksgiving weekend. Good news: I won’t have to go into the store.