U.S. court nixes Net music subpoenas
Friday, December 19, 2003

(Reuters) -- In a surprise setback for the recording industry, a U.S. appeals court said Friday its methods for tracking down those who copy its music over the Internet are not authorized by law.


Why is this so suprising? What The RIAA basically was doing to Verizon and it's subscribers is accessing information from them without filing a formal complaint. It would be the equivalent of the US gov't searching your home without so much as a search warrant. It so reminds me of the SouthPark episode with the record company guy who keeps saying " I AM ABOVE THE LAW!" It's about time some level headed judges stepped in and stopped this absolute breach of privacy. Regardless of their intent the RIAA previously had freewill access to the surfing habits of anyone they choose. Hmmmm.

Hasta

JC

Before you jump on the so-called economic recovery bandwagon and say that the economy is once again booming (Laughable at best, maybe the upturn in the economy in the past month was all those people who Bush made even more wealthy, deciding their wallets were a little too heavy, or perhaps they may have been a little edgy at keeping all of that money horded, for fear of investigation) Read this report:

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading of consumer sentiment dropped to 89.6 in December from November's final reading of 93.7, leaving financial markets waiting for a result of 96.0 flat footed. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&e=3&u=/nm/20031212/bs_nm/economy_dc)

Lets see, Hmmm spending was up, yet peoples confidence was down? As I said above, who was actually doing the spending? Seems that everyone I know is cutting way back on Christmas spending this year, and a few have lowered down to their first "Welfare Christmas". For myself, I hardly spent anything last year, and this year I'm spending less than last year. I'm sure like most people at this time last year, I thought it couldn't get much worse. I was wrong.


Just a quick question for my republican friends. How come if Democrats are tax-and -spenders, is the budget deficit highest that it has ever been under Bush, yet Under Dem. Clinton, we had a surplus, without raising taxes??? It's a mystery to me. Seems that Bush Sr and Reagan all had big budget deficits. I guess back then you could blame those Damn Dems in the house and the senate. Who're ya gonna blame this time??? You got the White House, you got the senate, and you got the House. Actually what you got is a whole lotta trouble come the next election if things arent any better.

Hasta
Jaycee JC

I actually took the time to read through some of my old rants today, from years ago. Talk about a maturing process, and what A change I've been through! Most of the things I wrote back then were poetry, prose, and opinions on life. Lately all I seem to write about is football and GWBush! Strange how life leads us down a different path. From the time I started this until today, my whole life has undergone a total transition. Then, I was a young adult, who had made the life altering decision to quit a decent job I had in order to finish my education at Illinois State University. I had endured the last in a series of extremely devastating breakups with long term girlfriends. I suppose I was frightened, yet optimistic of what the future would hold. Today, I am a college graduate, a father, and husband. Although my life makes more sense to me now, and I've found those things that I had searched so long for, I still reflect on the lyric I wrote almost 5 years ago, from John Lennon- "How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?" I suppose I have a much better idea of where I'm going now, I'm just not sure how I get there from here.

In other news- Great organization "Locks Of Love" through donations provides hairpieces for children in financial need, who have lost their hair due to disease, or chemotherapy. Donate hair or money at www.locksoflove.com

I'm so tired, It's monday, thats all I got.

Hasta

JC

In other news, In a move that I admit suprised me just slightly, yetis way overdue, The NFL fined a referee half of his paycheck for a mistake he made that lead to Seattle's loss on Sunday in OT.

From Excite.com:NEW YORK (AP) - Referee Tom White was fined $2,600 for failing to restart the clock at the end of the Seattle-Baltimore game, a mistake that contributed to the Seahawks' 44-41 overtime loss.
The fine represented half of White's game check, supervisor of officials Mike Pereira said Wednesday.

The entire crew was reprimanded for its performance during the Nov. 23 game, presumably hurting its chances to officiate in the playoffs. Crews are assigned to the postseason based on their regular-season ratings.



Heres the link: http://sports.excite.com/news/12032003/v0833.html

Now, as anyone who reads this knows, I am one of the harshest critics of the Zebras, and their related species in other sports. And I have said at times that an official should be held accountable for every call that they make incorrectly, possibly in the form of fines or reprimands. I also believe that the NFL should have people view footage of every game to make sure that the Officials are making the right calls. But While i doubt that will ever happen, I think the actions by the NFL are a step in the right direction. When you have an official blatantly not following the rules of the game, and forgetting to restart the game clock, I mean thats just inexcusable. I think this is a great thing, and I believe that these fines should be continued. Maybe the NFL should institute a three strikes policy, where if you make three bad decisions that directly affect the outcome of a game you're immediately terminated. Anyone interested in starting a "Zebra Watch" website that documents each bd call by each official? :)

Ahlrightie! Thats all my bitchin for now.

Hasta La Pasta

JC

It's been a little while since I blogged, and I suppose now I have a lot to say. BTW that devastatin Dave thing, It's the actual music from that e-mail of the worst album covers of all time. If you haven't seen it just do a google search for devastatin dave, and you'll find it, really funny stuff.


I am so pissed at the way things are happening lately. First of all my watch battery is dead, so like I'm all askew in my bearings now. I hate looking at the clock. Secondly, I'm browsing the internet as usual at work when I come across 2 things at the Classicgaming.com website. First, an announcement that they are closing their ROM vault. For those not in the know, these are the game codes for classic game systems as well as arcade games. Most of these games had not been produced or marketed for years, yet for some reason, Manufacturers seem to want to close down any efforts to preserve these games. I wasn't sure why until i saw an earlier post on the same website. Atari Releases a 80 in 1 cd of games featuring a few arcade classics as well as some repackaged Atari 2600 games. Hmmm. Does anyone really think that people will buy a collection of 2600 games to play on PS2 or X-box? I mean really. So it dawns on me that they release these games just to keep people from distributing the roms. It makes the game availible to the public and makes the OOP rom suddenly highly illegal. Pure greed in my opinion, but alas, I guess I'll have to find somewhere else to get my "Legal" roms, Which actually are legal since I own most of the games that I have roms for. More to come later...