Build Date: Wed May 21 09:30:13 2025 UTC
Any magazine without double penetration is a waste of time.
-- Mr. Bad
Better Go Buy Yourself Some Super-Big Hard Drives
2000-12-22 14:18:52
Y'know, some days it just hurts to be a freedom fighter, man. You wake up thinking that you're just about to turn the corner on FREEDOM, and then some asswipe industry cartel puts a WWF leg-lock on your neck. Fuck, it's depressing.
Case in fucking point: the fabulous Register online magazine reports that a group of unmitigatedly evil bastardos known by the cryptic secret-tong-society name of the 4C Entity have proposed extending the copy protection found in DVDs to hard drives. NOT ONLY would they put this technology into their own stupid hard drives, but it would become part of the ATA standard, so that ALL NEW HARD DRIVES will have copy protection installed!
This means that you would be UNABLE to copy or store files that have been marked as protected -- like music, text, etc. EVEN where such file copying is legal and in your rights as "fair use," such as for making backup archival copies. You'd still be fucking screwed! I mean, the whole thing is such an invasive violation of your rights as a user that it makes my head spin.
Doesn't it just seem kind of strange that companies like this come up with asshole proposals to protect CORPORATE BASTARDOS "intellectual property rights" against YOU, but not to protect YOUR rights against corporate bastardos? Don't forget that Sony-Columbia and NBC are -not- paying for your hard drive. YOU are paying for your hard drive. WHY should you have to plunk down your HARD-EARNED SMASH to get treated like a criminal by your own stupid hardware? FUCK THAT.
I say that HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER should get to CALL THE TUNE. And it's pretty goddamned obvious that the people of the the world are not calling for an encore revival round of "Fuck You and Your Rights, Dipshit Consumer."
My recommendations to everyone who cares about LIBERTY: go buy yourself a goodly amount of hard drives with lots and lots of gigadoodles of space on them, right now! The 4C Entity (I shiver as I write that) says that this copy protection shit will be in new ATA drives by NEXT SUMMER. So you need to bank up on FREE HARDWARE right away. Get a few pre-ban hard drives, put them in your closet, and stretch them out for a few years. It should go without saying that you should avoid any drives from the 4C Entity themselves (IBM, Toshiba, Intel and Matsushita), who are quite obviously running-dog enemies of freedom that don't deserve one teeny-weeny speck of your money. FuX0rs!
Hey, while you're at it: put some Freenet on your machine, too. Now, more than before, we need some goddamned freedom. I dunno how well this copy protection is going to work against Freenet. Maybe not that well.
Oh, and also: go read this article on The Register, and click through on some of their ads. They have done a YEOMAN'S JOB on this excellent exclusive and have proved themselves to be true Professional Journalists. Beaujolais to them! They deserve some click-through cash.
T O P S T O R I E S
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...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (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...)
Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth
Flesh interviews Wayne Kramer of MC5. (More...)
During a magnificent sunny day in a fast receding autumn, the Spock Science Monitor reporters once again blew the playa dust off of their computers and covered the 2002 Burning Man Decompression – held every year just east of Portola Hill in beautiful San Francisco. Both an afternoon and evening issues were released to the unsuspecting crowd of freaks attempting to in some small way experience the euphoria of the playa – if but for a brief afternoon far from the desolation of Northern Nevada. (More...)
Skunk School -- Learn Why Not To Keep Skunks As Pets
There is an alarming trend in pet purchasing habits this fall. People inspired by the WWII film, "Life is Beautiful" -- the one with that annoying Italian guy -- are buying descented skunks by the millions. (More...)
Three Days and 25 Spocktails: A Cautionary Tale
Johnnie Royale picked me up from the dental surgery. I felt warm, safe, cradled in the anathesia's loving embrace. The pharmacy downstairs gave me a bottle of Vicodin and a few instructions: take it with food, don't mix with alcohol, don't operate heavy machinery. I put it in my pocket and we left. "Do you want to go home, or do you want to go to a bar?" asked Johnnie. (More...)
