Videos
Podcasts
Blogs
Quizzes
GamesPosts Tagged: ‘piracy’
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the Internet went kind of crazy today. Crazier than usual. On a normal day, crazy means a flame war or two (thousand), a hundred or so cat videos and more content than you can shake a stick at. But today, people and companies across the Internet have tweeted, blogged, posted on Facebook and used every other means to get word out about some controversial legislation under discussion in the U.S. government. The two main targets have been SOPA and PIPA. Here’s a quick rundown on what these are and what they could mean to you if they were passed into law.
There is no question about it – this new anti-piracy ad produced by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau is brilliant: It seems completely right – it seems like the ad presents a bullet-proof, unassailable argument against piracy. But then, if you think about it, you realize that the ad really is completely wrong. [...]
White House Sends Mixed Messages About Online Privacy
by Jonathan Strickland | March 17, 2011
It seems like every other day I write or talk about privacy concerns in relation to the Internet. This week, a pair of stories about how the United States government values online privacy broke and they don’t exactly mesh together. It seems that, at least on the surface, the concern leans more toward corporations than citizens. The more cynical among us might say that this is just the U.S. government following the same course that was set years ago, in which giant corporations influence — or perhaps even dictate — policy.
This week on TechStuff, Chris and I talked about a couple of topics that have been in the news recently. On Monday, we discussed automated cars that take the human driver out of the experience. Recently, Google revealed that the company had been testing self-driving cars on California roads to the tune of about 140,000 miles (225,308 kilometers) so far. But the idea of the self-driving car is much older. Check out the episode to hear more.
You’ve heard of honor among thieves, but are there ethics among pirates? Each year, millions of people illegally download content and software without paying a dime. In this episode, the guys explore ethics (or lack thereof) in digital piracy.
Nicholas Deleon over at CrunchGear reports that a New York court has ordered the LimeWire service to shut down its uploading, downloading and search features. In case you didn’t know, LimeWire is a peer-to-peer network client. You download the client and use it to search the Gnutella and BitTorrent networks for files. Organizations like the RIAA and MPAA target services like LimeWire because many (if not most) of its users engage in pirating content.
Peer-to-peer networks have a nasty stigma. The technology is perfectly legal — it’s an efficient and flexible way to distribute data across networks. But that’s also why software, music, movie and television pirates like it so much. Using peer-to-peer connections, it’s easy to download or distribute content on a wide scale.
Nate Anderson at Ars Technica has written up a great post about the recent Government Accountability Office report on intellectual property and piracy. As Anderson points out, previous reports about piracy made dramatic claims as to the extent of damage done to the economy due to piracy. These claims don’t hold up under scrutiny — it’s just not as simple as the reports would lead you to believe.
While watching the live stream of CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast, I lost the ability to form a coherent sentence for about 10 minutes. That’s when I learned of Ubisoft’s new digital rights management (DRM) strategy for PC games. In case you’re not familiar with the term, DRM refers to any sort of copyright protection designed to prevent piracy. The hosts cited a story in PC Gamer (via Slashdot) about how the new DRM scheme affects Ubisoft PC games.
Although today’s pirates aren’t storming the coast of Florida or other eastern states, piracy is still around in this modern age. Join Josh and Chuck as they look back at the history of piracy — and its successors — in this episode.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Sailing, Takes Me Away…To The Seychelles
- Cute Animal Tuesday: Black Vulture
- Traveling on the Orient Express
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- The Seven Deadlies: Pride Cometh Before the Brain
- Warhammer 40K: 25 Years of Orks in Space
- A Visit to the Tellus Science Museum
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
How-to Stuff
- How to Make the Most of a Gallery Crawl (When You’re on a Shoestring Budget)
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 43: Drag Queens: You Better Work!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 42: Road Trip!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 41: Celebrity Couples
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
