home.  tired.

maybe will post tomorrow.

Ahhh… so close to being done.

Just one paper left to write for Comm Theory… and 3 days of going to
class….  and I am done….  and will never have to return
to southeastern again.

I will be home soon.

Quotes of the day (Thanks tobash.org):

<valetine_4_ever> Piracy is wrong

<valetine_4_ever> Cool, but wrong

<Kalen> But it feels oh so right.

<Loony_BoB> It’s not wrong

<Loony_BoB> They just have laws against it
——————-

[Video] I’ve been watching the warez scene for like two months.

[Video] Nothing is worth DOWNLOADING

[Video] That’s sad

[Ouija] i know

[Video] Is that their new anti-piracy technique?

[Video] Release shit no one wants?

Begin post:

So, if anyone is unaware, Revenge of the Sith was available for
download on the day of it’s release.  That’s right, if you so
chose, you could download it and watch it.  I would reccomend you
not though, it’s not very good quality, and there is a counter the
whole time.  I mean, this wasn’t really meant to be watched for
entertainment purposes.  Screenshots of the release can be found

here. 
(Don’t worry, I don’t THINK they consider screenshots to be stealing
yet ;))  Plus, it’s worth the $6 to $10 for a ticket, depending on
what your theater charges…  I went to the theater.  I
enjoyed it.

Apparently, the MPAA released this statement the same day, talking
about how online piracy is an outrage and hurting the entertainment
industry.  Let’s examine their statement, shall we?

(my comments will be found in parentheses, just like this sentance.)

“FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  May 19,
2005

 BitTorrent
Facilitating Illegal File

Swapping
of Star Wars On Day of Opening

Statement
by MPAA President Dan Glickman

Washington,
D.C. – – Responding to news reports today that BitTorrent is
already facilitating the illegal file sharing of the final Star Wars
episode,  Revenge of
the Sith which opens in
theaters today, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA)
President and CEO Dan Glickman made the following statement:

“There
is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for
everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users
with illegal copies of Revenge
of the Sith. The
unfortunate fact is this type of theft happens on a regular basis on
peer to peer networks all over the world.

(That is unfortunate that no better
example exists, because I fail to see how it would dim the magic of
movies for everyone if I were to download Revenge of the Sith.)

“Fans
have been lined up for days to see Revenge
of the Sith. To preserve
the quality of movies for fans like these and so many others, we must
stop these Internet thieves from illegally trading valuable
copyrighted materials on-line.

(To preserve the quality for those
fans?  Please explain how someone downloading a movie online
somehow deteriorates the film that is projected in movie
theaters?  What?  You say you are losing money and so in the
future movies will have lower budgets?  We will examine this
momentarily.)

“If
piracy and those who profit from it are allowed to flourish, they
will erode an engine of economic growth and job creation; undermine
legitimate businesses that strive to unite technology and content in
innovative and legal ways and limit quality and consumer choice.”

(I am not really sure who profits from
piracy.  I have often wondered about this actually, because if I
were to download any movies or tv shows, etc, I would be doing it
absolutely free of charge.  I don’t really think that anyone is
getting rich off of online piracy.)

Glickman
said that the average movie costs $98 million to make and market.
Less than one in ten movies
re-coup their original investment from the domestic box
office and six in ten never recoup
their investment . The
average BitTorrent network has up to 2.5 million users a day. The
movie industry is the only industry with a positive balance of
trade in countries with which it does business. Copyrighted
industries are responsible for an estimated $626 billion of the total
gross domestic product.

(The figures in this paragraph are true,
however, they are completely irrelevant to both bit torrent and file
sharing in general.  The same thing was true before the sharing of
movies online was feasible.  Most movies lose money.  That
has nothing to do with filesharing, despite what the above statement
implies.)

(In addition, let’s look at how much
money Revenge of the Sith lost due to filesharing.  It apparently
lost so much money that it set 2 new records: the biggest opening day
of all time, and the biggest single day of all time.  The first
day in theaters, it pulled in$50,013,859.  Damn those file sharers.  I bet not even one of them paid for a ticket.)

“My
message to illegal file swappers everywhere is plain and simple: You
are stealing, it is wrong and you are not anonymous,” said
Glickman. “In short, you can click, but you can’t hide. There are
lots of ways to legally download our products through companies like
CinemaNow, Movielink, Ruckus and others.”

 (Actually, you are incorrect, Mr.
Glickman.  Illegal file swappers are not stealing.  They
would be stealing if they picked up a DVD and took it from the store,
or if they took the film reel from a theater.  They are actually
doing something called “infringing copyright”, which, while still
technically illegal, is not stealing, and should not be referred to as
such.  If stealing is taking the film reel, infringing copyright
is sneaking into the movie theater.  Understand the
difference?  Besides, people infringe copyright all the
time.  Recording a television show is copyright infringement. 
Also, are scare tactics really neccessary?  Did you know that most
filesharers that I know go to more movies (hence paying for them) and
buy more cds then most non-filesharers that I know?  I doubt that
this is a rarity.)

The
Motion Picture Association is engaged in an all out effort to root
out Internet movie thieves and make them pay the consequences of
illegally downloading and swapping movies on-line. It has hundreds
of investigators looking into these kinds of cases worldwide and has
already been successful in shutting down several BitTorrent type
sites. As part of its anti-piracy effort, the MPAA and its member
companies have brought lawsuits against many Internet movie thieves
across the United States and plan to continue such action.

(Look…
take a lesson from the RIAA.  No matter what you do, filesharing
will continue.  And the fact of the matter is, you should let
it.  Your belief that it hurts you is unfounded, as most evidence
points that that is not the case.  If you want more movies to make
more money, stop making crap.  Don’t blame filesharers for your
own flops.  6 out of 10 movies don’t make all their money
back.  Those are the movies that no one cares about… and
filesharers won’t even download for free.)

So this morning I went over to USF to take the CLAST test….  I
passed it…. so that is good.  Now all I have to do to get that
diploma is pass these classes this session.

One week of college to go.

Go see Revenge of the Sith.  You’ll like it.

Still not up to par with the original trilogy….  better then
episodes 1 and 2, I thought.  Cheesy at times… cool at
times.  Cool lightsaber battles definately make it worth it ;)…

so i just watched tonight’s episode of Family Guy….

funniest episode ever.

so ridiculous 🙂

Anyway, I am going to go do some more comm theory reading before I go to sleep so I can wake up for my class tomorrow.

Nothing much to say….. no….  nothing much at all.

hmmmm… i hate it when i wake up an hour before i wanted too and am unable to fall back asleep.

ah well….

guess i’ll just… eat breakfast and such…

i am back from the cruise… if you didn’t know i was going to be gone
then ummm… yeah… that’s why there were no updates for a week. 
on cruise.  internet too expensive to waste time posting on xanga
😉  I’ll post more later.