WASHINGTON -- In a victory for TV networks but a setback for efforts to shield children from coarse language, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that broadcasters cannot be penalized for expletives that are considered impromptu.

The three-judge panel in New York repudiated the Federal Communications Commission's recent crackdown on broadcast indecency, calling its efforts "arbitrary and capricious."

My gut reaction is that this will be overturned on appeal, but the ruling makes for VERY interesting reading if you are interested in broadcast free speech (still going through it). Also, the response from the FCC is hillarious.

One important point that is worth making is that this is NOT a reversal of the general rule regarding the use of indecent speech on the air.

Basically, it is not as simple as "you can't say fuck on the air" and it has never been that simple. (For example, can you explain the difference between profanity and indecency? The decision discusses this and its quite interesting.) Since 2003 the FCC has started enforcing a new prohibition on "off the cuff," isolated cursing that didn't exist before. This decision concerns that rule and has nothing to do with prohibitions on general indecency that have existed for decades.

Judges toss FCC rule on cursing | Chicago Tribune

It's over for Ottawa and not just because they suffered a crushing 3-2 defeat against the Anaheim Ducks in Game 4 or that they have to go back to Anaheim trailing the series 3-1.

Bleh. I'm not a big fan of Anaheim.

Anaheim Ducks, Andy McDonald, Anton Volchenkov, Chris Pronger, National Hockey League, Ottawa Senators - CBS SportsLine.com

Best google maps image yet. Sparkn' a pipe...

Mission St & 16th St, San Francisco, CA - Google Maps

Nashville Predators Interest Surveys

Thank you for visiting our web site and taking the time to answer a few questions concerning the Nashville Predators. As you know, the Predators are Nashville's team, and a large coalition of community and business leaders is committed to ensuring that the Predators stay in Nashville. To accomplish that goal, it will be very helpful for us to have a better understanding of the reasons why people support the team, and in some cases, why they do not.

If you are a predators fan, or in particular someone who does business in Nashville who has looked into season tickets, let them know what you think, and pass this on.

Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce - Predators Survey

A classic.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Such is the situation with Apple's new DRM-free music: songs sold without DRM still have a user's full name and account e-mail embedded in them

Apple hides account info in DRM-free music, too

Worthersee wrote:

Please don't support the paranoid rantings of deluded cat fanciers who want to have public data censored to serve their own psychosis.

Is that too big for a bumper sticker? Just like there were nude sunbathers caught with the satellite pictures there will surely be other interesting things found in these pictures. Possibly significant others soliciting prostitutes or drug dealers commencing in their daily business. However all pictures are taken from a public place, and privacy concerns shouldn't out weigh the benefits of the service.

This is at the crux of present privacy battles. Yes, if you walk out of a strip club and your girlfriend is driving by, its not like she was doing anything wrong. She didn't violate your privacy. But if everything you ever do outside is always recorded all of the time, then in a very real sense you've lost something, even though you can't put a finger on the quantum recordings as being inappropriate, or the access to the quantum recordings as being inappropriate. Its the same thing in numerous contexts. You've no 4th amendment right to privacy in regard to the phone numbers you've dialed, because the phone company presumptively knows them, and you have to presume that they might tell the police. However, generally you wouldn't. Generally you'd think the phone company wouldn't tell the police who you are calling unless they suspected you of something. Its possible that the phone companies have been providing every number that everyone ever dials to the NSA. There is a difference. We better get good at recognizing it.

RE: Boing Boing: Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader

Lots of science and engineering lectures from top schools. Much of it available for free. I wish there were more law lectures. In any event, this is an awesome resource.

iTunes U: We live in the future!

Check out this short little psychedelic masterpiece by animator Vincent Collins, commissioned by the U.S. Information Agency (propaganda dispensers from 1953-1999) in 1976 to commemorate the bicentennial.

The only time I've ever seen woodstock featured favorably in official government propaganda.

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: How Vincent Collins made U.S. Propaganda Groovy

There could be even more privacy issues than "they can see my cat." For example, the link provided here shows a car sitting in a driveway, and you can read the car's license plate clearly. I don't know exactly what you could do with that information, but there it is.

Interesting discussion in regard to the new Google Maps feature... Did their van capture any information someone might not want known? What is the next step for this?

Boing Boing: Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader