Interz0ne talk censored due to DMCA notice (blogging from the sequestered talk (which is instead a discussion about what occured)).

Interz0ne: Cease and Desist Letter - 20030411

Thats Iraq, and Afghanistan, but who's keeping score? (Well, besides Fox News.)

With parties in the streets of Baghdad and the comment today from Iraq's UN ambassador that "its over," it appears that regardless of what you think about whats happening, it appears to be happening exactly according to plan.

Look for NK to quitely chill out over the course of a few months.
Look for at least a few countries to pursue domestic Al'Q cells with renewed vigor.

] This site is a coalition effort of bloodthirsty hawks and
] ineffectual doves united in admiration for Mohammed Saeed
] al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information (currently on
] administrative leave).

I think any corporation would be happy to employ this man as their spokes person. He is a consumate professional, and damn loyal. Someone get him an offer letter.

We Love the Iraqi Information Minister

] It has been stated by your office that this is "a bump in
] the road" between the RIAA and Michigan Tech, and that we
] will move on from here. It is unfortunate that you choose
] to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a
] bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan
] Technological University.
]
] Taking all of this into consideration, we realize the
] seriousness of the allegations against Mr. Nievelt and
] will cooperate fully in resolving this matter.

This is from a day ago, but I think its really important.

1. The RIAA must be laughing its ass off about this letter. He says "this is not a bump in the road" and then he agrees to cooperate fully. Obviously MTU is either unable or unwilling to create any real pain for the RIAA. I would have provided my legal department for the defense and stopped all the measures that I had taken on their behest.

2. The RIAA has no moral character. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. (People seem have forgotten much of this in the past few years, but trust is the basis of business, and strong moral character is a pre-requisite for trust.) These are not good people, do not trust them.

3. What the RIAA is sueing here are campus SEARCH ENGINES. They are not just for MP3s. They weren't built with MP3s in mind. These are for anyfile. There are lots and lots of non-infringing uses. With the proper legal defense, the RIAA will loose these cases. Much like Felton, they may have stepped on another grenade. (Without proper legal defense it will be ILLEGAL to run a search engine on a campus, which is an intolerable result, frankly.)

Michigan Tech Media Relations Story#95 - President Responds to RIAA Suit

] "There is no plausibly protected constitutional interest
] that...outweighs N2H2's right to protect its copyrighted
] property from an invasive and destructive trespass," U.S.
] District Judge Richard Sterns wrote.

Reverse Engineering is illegal.
DMCA 1 Future of Humanity 0

ACLU loses digital copyright battle | CNET News.com

] Steven Aftergood, a senior intelligence technology
] researcher at the Federation of American Scientists,
] said: "If it was really a 20-year-old system, then one
] has to assume that the encryption is obsolete, that it
] has been penetrated." Other military analysts said it was
] just as likely that the British government would only
] have granted Racal export licences for the radios if it
] had already been satisfied it could break the encryption.

More on Saddam's Crypto Systems. Interestingly enough, this could be a case where crypto export regulations actually worked.

politechbot.com: Should Saddam have been using PGP? Iraqi crypto broken...

"Iraq has a new regime, and that regime is love, baby" "These arms are fo' huggin"

Operation:Iraqi mackin'

] Air France Group said Thursday that it doesn't intend to
] continue operating its Concorde fleet after Oct. 31, the
] last day of its summer schedule, and will be suspending
] flights from May 31.

More regression. No more 3 hour flights from the US to Europe. Not that I could afford them anyway.

Smartmoney.com: Breaking News: Air France, British Airways to Pull Plug on Concorde

] The colonel in charge of the tank that fired said they
] had reacted after seeing enemy "binoculars" being used in
] the hotel.

Oooo... Thats questionable. A lot of people in the military are pissed off about the POW footage. It is pluasable that someone would decide to call in those locations for revenge. I didn't really think that was realistic until I saw the pentagon press conference yesterday, which I felt was rather "spinny." Instead of being matter of fact about it they went to alot of effort to talk about how Americans are really good guys and they avoided directly answering questions about the incident other then to say that "war zones are dangerous." Operation piss off the planet continues.

Straw to seek explanation for press deaths

] Working with the Bush administration, Congressional
] Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the
] sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law
] enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
] officials said today.

Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent