Build Date: Tue Sep 29 00:50:31 2026 UTC
"Fritos." "Cheetos." "Doritos." Can't you SEE?!? Wake UP, America!
-- Mr. Bad
Smash the MPAA through DIRECT ACTION!!
2000-02-02 16:37:18
2600 Magazine is taking the fight for SOFTWARE FREEDOM to the streets of America! Striking a blow against the INFORMATION HOARDERS where they live! Beaujolais to that!
Check this: if you don't know the scoop on the DeCSS decryption issue, man, it's time you DID. Here's the deal: a group of brilliante Linux programmers developed a program that would let you play DVD movies on your Linux box. You would think that the DVD people would be, like, "Beaujolais!" to that, since it saved them a lot of trouble. But no!
See, the dipshits who make DVD movies have this lame, trivial encryption on the disks. The Linux DVD player needed to crack this encryption, using reverse-engineering. Which is TOTALLY ILLEGAL in the United States -- but the crazy cracking was done in Norway, which is a slightly more enlightened country for hacking in. But the DVD people -- including the heavy-weight industry group the MPAA -- started FREAKING OUT and running around BLINDLY like wounded moose and SUING everybody they could find.
There have been HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE hackers-rights violations all over the place. Bunches of people who just LINKED ON THEIR WEB PAGE to the DeCSS code have been sued! Just for having a link! Mother fucker! Also, the poor sap who did some of the first hacking on the project, Jon Johansen, was ARRESTED by ICY VIKING THUGS, and all his computers were seized, and even his DAD was thrown in the NORDIC CLINK! Imagine having to go to jail with your DAD, man. That would blow.
The WEIRD thing is that it's ALL about wanting to watch MOVIES on Linux! Watching MOVIES is not a fucking CRIME! It's not even MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE! It's not like people aren't BUYING the fucking DVDs in the first place -- they're just ASKING TO PLAY THEM on a REASONABLE OPERATING SYSTEM. WHAT is so wrong with that!? WHY does Jack Valenti have CAYENNE in his BRIEFS about this? God damn!
Anyways, 2600 Magazine, who are some of the main defendants in this linking bullshit case, are calling on ALL SOFTWARE FREEDOM ADVOCATES to take this battle BACK to the MAN. They want people to hit the movie theaters of America this Friday with DEMONSTRATIONS and FLIERS and just generally be a PAIN in the BUTT. It's one of those AWARENESS-RAISING things that are so crucially important.
The movie industry has set itself up against the SOFTWARE JIHAD, and only ONE group can come out on top here! Go to the movies this Friday and make sure it's US and not THEM!

T O P S T O R I E S
John Dvorak has passed. I’m of mixed emotions. First off I’m more positive about his contribution to the overall technology journalism of the early PC days through the 90s, despite how many things he got wrong. He was a firebrand and commanded attention. (More...)
America's National Recording Registry Inducts Culturally Significant Artist - Weezer!
America's Library of Congress calls them "defining sounds of history and culture" and "audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage." Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Weezer! (More...)
The Crossroads are real and The Blues is a place; The enduring myth of Robert Johnson (More...)
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
My dear and close friend, Porn Maven Shannon Mariemont, sent me a titillating message the other day about her new project: the PornOrchestra. Her desire, at most, is to reinvent the porn soundtrack and, at least, to receive a cease-and-desist order like all her cool friends did last year. (More...)
Australian Troops Set for Days of Debauchery to the Tunes of Kylie Minogue
This weekend Australian troops in East Timor will be able to put their feet up and push all the images of mass graves and charred remains from their minds as they relax to the giddy melodies of Kylie Minogue - including exclusive unplugged performances in the militia-ravaged and blood-spattered border towns of Balibo and Suai. (More...)
What the hell is going on with Sony?
Is anyone else as confused as I am with what's happening with the Sony Playstation network hack? (More...)
Juggler Vain attempts to wrestle with the issues around the KPFA shutdown; Big-time wrestling ensues. (More...)
A Day in the Life of a Beverotologist
It was starting to look like a very boring Saturday, trapped as I was in the suburban wastelands of the outer Bay Area, so I called my Able Assistant (AA) and proposed that we perform some Spocktail field tests. For some time I've been working on creating the quintessential cinematic beverage and even tho' SMRL does most of its testing during nocturnal hours, this seemed an opportune time to roll up the sleeves of our labcoats and get some science done. While the beverotology creation tested this day (The Neurotoxin) must be deemed a success, this article focuses more the journey of the experimenters, rather then the science of beverotology. (More...)
Vacationing from Somnambulant Narrow Realities
So about six months ago, I was chilling in Chang Mai, Thailand with ICBINJ, perursing the Bangkok Times over my banana pancake and Big Chang breakfast when I spotted this article reprinted from the LA Times. It was about some kooks from California (where else?) who were claiming to have been to the front lines in Afgahnistan in mid-December and had recorded the whole feat on their website. "Holy Fuck!" I thought, "Now That's web journalism. Who are these guys!?" (More...)