Josh the Aspie’s Blog

Many people who want to punish free speech hold up the example of how “You can’t shout Fire in a Crowded Theater,” and according to some of my friends, now many are trying to use this example to impinge upon other rights as well. Well even according to Messrs Justice Douglas, and Justice Black, the speech in which one calls fire, and the resultant acts which descend from one’s speech are inextricably linked, and it is the resultant actions for which the speaker is responsible that he is tried. Yet if there is no resulting action worthy of being tried — perhaps because there was an actual fire, or perhaps because everyone ignores you — there is nothing on which to try the person calling out “Fire!”

Liberty is a two edged sword. One edge is called freedom, the other is called responsibility. For in order to gain and preserve freedom, someone in our society must shoulder the burden of defending our way of life. Those people are the armed forces. Further, anyone who exercises their freedoms needs to own up to the consequences of their action… because if we expect other people to bail us out of our mistakes not only are we demeaning ourselves, but we are trying to remove the freedoms of others.

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Previously I talked about what HDCP is, and how it does what it does; as well as problems With HDCP, and why big media uses it anyway. This time we’re going to talk about what HDCP means for consumers.

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Last time, I explained what HDCP is, and how it works.

This time I’ll be writing about problems with HDCP, and why they haven’t caused HDCP to be scrubbed.

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Today I listened to a fair amount of Fox News while at work, due to them having a much more flexible net newscast than CNN or any other news programs I’m aware of. Here’s my take on just a bit of todays news.

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I’ve previously defined what DRM is, but why does big business want DRM at all?

Big media makes its money off of media content when the consumer buys its products.

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HDCP

1. Officially: High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
2. A form of DRM invented by Digital Content protection LLC, a subsidiary of Intel.
3. Technology used to block people from displaying “HDCP” protected digital content on media described as being insecure. The technology will either completely block, or blur the content, unless all devices in the chain are equipped with HDCP technology. It is purportedly designed as a form of “copy protection” but has wound up becoming a form of “access prevention.”

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DCMA is another abbreviation that I’ve used, and received blank looks about. I’ll be giving what it officially stands for, as well as my definition.

DCMA

1. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
2. The Defrauding Misappropriation Copyright Act of 1998
3. A law passed by congress in 1998, which restricts and inhibits the creation of new ideas and technology by causing copyright law to cover derivative works as well as the original work. The law also criminalizing the unauthorized accessing or copying of materials who’s use or ability to copy has been restricted through any technological means.

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A lot of people I’ve talked to recently are unaware of what DRM is, so I’ll try to fill you all in with what it stands for officially, my definition of the term, and do a basic discussion of the reasons for it’s existence, and the problems with it.

DRM

1. Digital Rights Management
2. A term used to describe any form of technology which is designed to restrict the use, access, or alteration of any form of data or content. This technology is desired primarily by those who create content, and wish to control how that content is used even after they sell a copy of said content. For example, a system of DVD or CD encryption designed to prevent people from ripping their DVD or CD, and then listening to the music they bought on an MP3 player, or watch it on their computer.

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Some of you may remember the post I made a while back regarding the Virginia Tech Shootings. A few of my friends have actually commented on this post on other forums, and one of them, Harsan Ronyo, replied on his own blog. Harson’s focus in the wake of this tragedy is on people that he says pollute the memory of the victims by using the Virginia Tech shootings to justify additional gun control.

Given that there is all this discussion going on about gun control, a subject I feel is an important one, I feel I should weigh in on the subject. While the discussion of gun control these days has been tied inextricably to the latest of the School Shootings. I shall try to be respectful to the diseased and their families, but with school shootings being a rallying point for both sides, I will make mention of them occasionally.

What I will not pull punches on are stupid, deranged murderers, or people that condone them. People who commit suicide are cowards, and those that shoot others, then themselves are worse than cowards, they are deranged murderers who either kill because they don’t want to go alone, or because they want publicity in death that they could not achieve in light. Giving any sympathy or attention to a given coward like that will only encourage them. Anyone seeking attention that way deserves to be buried in an un-marked grave, if at all, and have all record of their name expunged.

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Not only have the students that were killed and injured and their families suffered, but now they are being exploited as well. There is, of course, the exploitation of the media. All you have to do to see this, is turn to CNN or Fox news. But in addition to this, you now have people registering the domain names of the shooter and their family members.

I found out about this through Thor Schrock’s Technology Blog, and Thor found out about it from Garry Conn, a blogger who talks about ways to make money online.

But not only are the domain names of those involved in the shooting being exploited, the disaster as a whole is.

The following domains have also been registered.

VIRGINIATECHLAWSUITS.com
VATECHLAWSUITS.com
VATECHLAWSUIT.com
VATECHLAWSUIT.info
VATECHLAWSUITS.info
VIRGINIATECHLAWSUITS.info