Facebook ~ Sucking up to its users?
Once again, after logging into my Facebook account, I was greeted with another message regarding their policies. Apparently they are now seeking input from their members:
Today we announced new opportunities for users to play a meaningful role in determining the policies governing our site. We released the first proposals subject to these procedures – The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that governs Facebook’s operations. Users will have the opportunity to review, comment and vote on these documents over the coming weeks and, if they are approved, other future policy changes. We’ve posted the documents in separate groups and invite you to offer comments and suggestions. For more information and links to the two groups, check out the Facebook Blog.
I suppose they learned their lesson from the enormous amount of bad press they received from their last policy change.
The Pirate Bay Spectrial ~ Day 7: Update
I just checked out the news over at Wired.com (Threat Level) and read a few more details pertaining to the events in today’s court proceedings for the Pirate Bay trial. The prosecution made a slight altercation to the charges that have been filed against the four founders of the BitTorrent site.
Here is part of the original summons:
“The Pirate Bay consists of three sub-components: an index portal in the form of a website with search functionality, a database with related directory containing the torrent files, and a tracker feature. The tracker feature creates a ‘peer-to-peer’ network of users who want to share the same file. All components are necessary for the users of the service to share files between them.”
Prosecutor Roswall has removed the last statement; “All components are necessary for the users of the service to share files between them.” It is the opinion of some legal scholars that the removal of this statement may mean that the prosecution doesn’t believe that they can make all three of the above mentioned points stick.
The Pirate Bay Spectrial ~ Day 7
* Note: Day 6 was a rest day.
Day 7 of the Pirate Bay trial was a short one. After only two hours of testimony the court decided to quit for the day. Most likely this was due to the incredibly inept testimony given by a couple of the witnesses for the prosecution. So far the only “evidence” being brought forth are copies of some screenshots of some downloaded .torrent files.
Magnus Mårtensson, who is a lawyer for the IFPI was first up to testify about his evidence gathering procedure. Here is a bit of the questioning by Gottfrid Svartholm for the defense:
Gottfrid: Before taking the screenshot, did you turn off DHT and Peer Exchange?
Mårtensson: DHT was obviously on. I wanted to be like an average user.
Gottfrid: So in other words, you can’t check if the tracker was used?
Mårtensson: The tracker address was visible on the screen. From that I assumed it was used in some way.
Gottfrid: But since you had DHT on, you have no possibility to state to the court as to whether The Pirate Bay’s tracker was actually used or not?
Mårtensson: No.
The prosecution called another witness who was then similarly shot down by the defense and then that was that. Please visit torrentfreak.com for more details.
The Pirate Bay – A brief timeline & trial summary.
A lot of people are avidly watching the latest in courtroom drama – the infamous Pirate Bay trial currently happening in Sweden. Although, many sites such as Wired.com, torrentfreak.com and Twitter (#spectrial) are following the trial closely with almost minute by minute updates, the American media appear to be ignoring this landmark trial.
Here is a short timeline, highligting some of the events that have occurred up to the trial:
- May of 2006 – Swedish police raid the Pirate Bay.org and confiscate its servers along with all of the other servers being hosted by the same ISP. Even though, many of the servers had no involvement with the Pirate Bay.
- December of 2007 – Police wrap up their investigation into the torrent tracker’s alleged copyright infringement. Over 4,000 pages of legal documents are filed.
- January of 2008 – Swedish prosecutor, Håkan Roswall, announces the names of the individuals being charged; Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström. The plaintiffs in the case include Warner Bros., Colombia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.
- February of 2008 – Swedish courts order the Tele2 ISP to block users’ access to the large bit torrent tracker, the Pirate Bay. This move backfires as Danish traffic to the Pirate Bay increases 12%.
- August of 2008 – The International Olympic Committee asks the Swedish government to stop the file-sharing website from spreading illegal copies of the Olympic ceremonies. The government responds that they cannot look into individual cases. The Pirate Bay changes its name to the Beijing Bay. Also in August, a judge in Italy orders the Italian ISP’s to block access to the Pirate Bay.
- November of 2008 – The Pirate Bay celebrates its 5th birthday. Despite a major lawsuit and looming trial, files continue to be shared on the tracker. Its popularity also increases reaching the 25 million peers mark.
The trial officially got underway on February 16, 2009 and is being held in Sweden where proceedings are quite different than here in the states. Rather than having a jury present, there are five judges. Four of these judges may be anyone and a legal background is not necessary. The fifth judge is an actual judge and can decide the case in the event of a tie. At least this is what I have been able to gather without doing any real research.
Read more
Cryptonomicon ~ Neal Stephenson
It’s a daunting task simply to pick up this book as it is over 1,000 pages in length. One suggestion; do not try to read the mass paperback version it is much too unwieldy. This book is an excellent read and Stephenson keeps everything moving right along. Cryptonimicon is actually four separate stories that slowly become interwoven to create one. The book blends historical fiction from WWII with present day computer technology in a very believable manner. None of the technology is over the top which is why I definitely preferred this Stephenson novel over his earlier work, Snow Crash.
2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
