YouTube wants to question Comedy Central comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as part of its defense against claims that the online video-sharing site illegally shows snippets of sports and entertainment videos.

YouTube says it needs depositions from more than 30 people to fight legal challenges that "threaten to silence communications by hundreds of millions of people across the globe who exchange information, news and entertainment" through its Web site.

The company said it also intends to show that the plaintiffs themselves had put their own works on YouTube or permitted others to do the same.

YouTube is also seeking to depose Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, CEO Philippe Dauman, general counsel Michael Fricklas and various executives with MTV, Comedy Central and other Viacom's networks.

YouTube Seeks to Depose Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert

Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of CalTech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses.

Virgil and his Wikipedia IP Scanner have been covered in Wired.

Threat Level is voting on the best self interested Wikipedia edit.

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign

The Department of Homeland Security is hoping to overcome that limitation by automating the identification of individuals whose behavior suggests they pose a threat via a program dubbed "Hostile Intent."

Pretty soon the "Thought Police" will be able to arrest you for a "Thought Crime".

The software is pretty cool. So is the mood driven PONG. [ Video Link ]

But the spectrum of human emotion can not be lumped into a few categories.

Donnie: Life isn't that simple. I mean who cares if Ling Ling returns the wallet and keeps the money? It has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!

Homeland Security tests automated 'Hostile Intent' detector

In the blink of an eye, you could miss it -- that scene in "The Bourne Supremacy" when Jason Bourne delivers a lightning-quick beat-down to a U.S. consulate official in Naples, then grabs the man's PDA, manipulates its micro-motherboard, and drives off listening to the man on this 21st-century wiretap. And in the latest film, "The Bourne Ultimatum," wiretapping is the very deed that drives the frenetic plot.

In these types of adrenaline-pumping portrayals of electronic eavesdropping, reality must step aside so that Bourne (when he's not crashing a car) or "24's" Jack Bauer (when he's not torturing someone) can eavesdrop in real time, real fast. And it's always for the good, you see, because Bourne's gotta find out what sinister spook programmed him to be a stone-cold killer and Bauer's gotta save the world. The ends justify the means. No time for questions.

Because the core of the public discourse about national security and privacy is ... Hollywood?

Sadly, it's probably the case..

Technology, 9/11 and the politics of the war on terror have shifted the paradigm on privacy, for better or worse. Perhaps that is why Americans have not been howling about the possible intrusion of wiretapping into their telephone use.

"You don't necessarily have the sense, when you see Jack Bauer, that it's wrong," says Barry Carter, a Georgetown law professor. Back in the 1970s, Carter investigated widespread NSA phone wiretapping and reading of telegrams as part of the Church Committee's probe of intelligence abuses. (The committee was named for its chairman, Democratic Sen. Frank Church of Idaho.)

Back then, "it was accepted that it was wrong that these things were being done," he says.

The argument eluded, is that we need an event that will humanize the issues surrounding illegitimate wiretaps. Just imagine if we caught the NSA in the act of monitoring Paris Hilton's phone calls without a warrant. Is that the point America would riot? Or do we need someone with more ... credibility?

For my tax dollar, I would be most entertained if the entire IC went after Scientology. Kill two birds with one stone.. Picture Tom Cruise on the cover of Vanity Fair with the tag line "they tapped my phone!" A Waco like fiasco going down in Clearwater.. Juliette Lewis testifying in front of congress. Maybe we could even get a Kristie Alley perp walk..

Who's on the Line These Days, It Could Be Everyone - washingtonpost.com

This is part three of my explanation of how America went from having the fastest and cheapest Internet service in the world to what we have today -- not very fast, not very cheap Internet service that is hurting our ability to compete economically with the rest of the world. Part one detailed expected improvements in U.S. broadband based on emerging competitive factors, yet decried that it was too little too late. Part two explained how U.S. broadband ISPs are different from most overseas ISPs and how those differences make it unlikely that we'll ever regain leadership in this space. And this week's final part explains that this all came about because Americans were deceived and defrauded by many of their telephone companies to the tune of $200 billion -- money that was supposed to have gone to pay for a broadband future we don't -- and never will -- have.

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $200 Billion Rip-Off | PBS

The search engine problem has been fixed.

I can't wait to play with Numbers. I've been waiting for Apple to create a spreadsheet program that doesn't suck for a long time. Excel makes me want to do violent things when I use it.

I like Pages and Keynote.

Apple - iWork - Numbers

The New York Times is poised to stop charging readers for online access to its Op-Ed columnists and other content, The Post has learned.

After much internal debate, Times executives - including publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. - made the decision to end the subscription-only TimesSelect service but have yet to make an official announcement, according to a source briefed on the matter.

The number of Web-only subscribers who pay $7.95 a month or $49.95 a year fell to just over 221,000 in June, down from more than 224,000 in April.

Excellent!

NYT to do away with TimesSelect

If the U.S. Air Force is ever ordered into a cyberwar with a foreign country or computer-savvy terrorist group, the 100-plus citizen cybersoldiers at the Air National Guard's 262nd Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron will boast an advantage other countries can't match: They built the very software and hardware they're attacking.

That's because the 262nd, based at McChord Air Force Base outside Tacoma, Washington, draws weekend warriors from Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Adobe Systems and other tech companies, in a recruitment model that senior military leadership is touting as vital to the Air Force's expanded mission to achieve "dominance in cyberspace."

Air Force Draws Weekend Cyberwarriors From Microsoft, Cisco

How will better matchmaking and collaborative filtering bring you better choices?

Can liars and cheats be made more accountable?

How can the barrage of advertising, spam, events, and interesting ideas be filtered more effectively?

What are effective ways to evaluate products and business partners?

How can higher-quality news media and public discourse be achieved?

Who do you trust? What do you believe?

The Reputation Society