Cav's Place

With all the things going on in the world these days, most notably the Egyptian riots, I should be writing something about such issues. But I can hardly keep any track of them and perhaps post a few links here and there, so I won’t. I hope I’ll manage something next week, though there simply seem to be far too many good fights to fight in this doomed world we have created for ourselves. For now, I’ll just say that it’s a good thing that at least some people are starting to do something about a small number of them and leave it at that…

What I’m going to say is that all I could think about yesterday when I woke up was how much I wanted to take a long walk through the snow, before it’ll melt, with her, till we’ll both be all red and frozen. Proper winter days, with a decent amount of snow on the ground and temperatures below freezing, are the only moments when I actually want to go out, so I’d really like to take advantage of this… But it feels so pointless to go out alone, so I end up wasting the opportunity. Not that there’s much of an opportunity, since I’m alone, as I said…
Either way, that train of thought continued with us making it back in that state, then immediately having a quickie after only throwing our jackets off, unbuttoning or unzipping our pants and moving the underwear out of the way, to warm up a little. Which is something that basically never happened and I’m not even sure I’d actually want it if it was a possibility, but it seemed like the proper way to continue that little scenario. Yet that was only a small interlude, as then we’d go to our room, throw all clothes off, pick up towels and books and go take a bath. Or, more exactly, go soak in warm water while reading for a while, which is what usually happened when we took a bath together and would feel even better after such a walk. Then at some point I’d start playing with her, as it happened whenever she didn’t stop me, and we’d end up doing something, coming out of there perhaps a couple of hours later, clean, satisfied and perhaps a little tired. And each with probably another chapter or two read as well.
Needless to say, that little scenario was still in my mind when I woke up today as well, along with the associated sadness that it’s just a scenario in my mind and impossible in reality for well over five years now. In fact, what made it worse was that I somehow came out of a dream convinced that she was next to me and all I had to do was reach over and hug her, making it even worse when I realized that was just a dream. Been quite some time since the last time that happened. So I’m just moping around and feeling like shit, as always… Only even more so…

Yes, I know what happened yesterday, but today is a new day and the first things I saw on-line after waking up certainly make it look like a really good one. Of course, each of the things that make it a good day so far can still turn out bad and there’s plenty of time for other events, most of them probably very unpleasant, to take place, which is why I’m trying to write this early, before any of that will have a chance to happen. Good things don’t usually last in this world, after all…

You know it’s a great day for activism when you’re greeted by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society announcing that they have found the Nisshin Maru and now plan to “chase them through the frozen gates of hell if need be“. Unfortunately, a whale was just being butchered on the deck at the time, but they will certainly do their best from now on, no matter what the Japanese whalers will try or throw at them.
What will happen next is still uncertain, seeing as the ship that found the Nisshin Maru was the Steve Irwin, which is neither as fast as the Gojira nor as sturdy as the Bob Barker. In fact, the Gojira is currently more or less limping back to Australia for repairs after engine problems were recently discovered and, according to that article, the Bob Barker was close to a day away from the Steve Irwin at the time of first contact. But the Nisshin Maru is noticeably slower than any of the other ships involved, so the Steve Irwin should be able to keep tailing it long enough for the Bob Barker to catch up. Then we can only hope that they’ll manage to prevent any further killings, or at least save the lives of far more whales than during any of the previous seasons.

The next encouraging piece of news is linked to my last post: Law firm ACS: Law has decided to stop chasing illegal file-sharers, citing the “immense hassle” caused by a mix of hacktivism and more direct terrorist threats. Which may of course just be an excuse or, even more likely, a rather desperate attempt to gain public support by painting the file-sharers and their supporters in a vile light, especially since pretty much everything about the case was dubious to begin with, but this is good news nevertheless. And it also supports the notion that such tactics are effective in this battle, or in any others for that matter.
As the ruling is expected soon, it may all still go wrong, so we have to wait and see. And even if this case will go well, it’s unknown what, if any, effects it’ll have on the laws that keep being passed against “piracy” in more and more countries recently. But it’s a good sign that we’re still strong in this battle and can still push them back, no matter what they throw at us. It proves that piling up the pressure is effective, even if, or perhaps especially if, the tactics used are harsh and also quite illegal.

Last but definitely not least, today marks seven years since Opportunity landed on Mars, during which time it functioned without interruption and sent back a huge amount of data. (That article gives the date as January 24 due to time zone differences.) Admittedly, Spirit has been there three weeks longer, but she’s been silent for the past ten months and, though attempts to restore contact will continue at least until March, initial estimates said she should have woken up from hibernation in late October or November if everything was still operational, the continued silence making it more and more likely that she didn’t survive the Martian winter.
Granted that this event is very different from the previous two, as it has nothing to do with activism and in fact doesn’t even imply that anything actually took place today, not to mention that it doesn’t even happen on Earth, but it’s also very important and a very encouraging piece of news. Just knowing that humans were capable of creating a little rover that could keep obtaining data while traveling around another planet, powered entirely by solar panels, for seven whole years without anyone being around to do any maintenance work is utterly amazing! And when you add the fact that her sister also functioned for at least six years and two and a half months, though the original mission was only intended to last for three months… It sure seems that we can do a lot, if we truly want to.
Unfortunately, the future of space exploration doesn’t look particularly good, as this sector has been hit by the current financial crisis about as much as anything else dealing with science, research and development. After all, gaining such knowledge usually doesn’t pay right away, and right now everybody’s just looking for the quickest and safest way to make more money, only thinking of today and of themselves at the expense of tomorrow and the world. Not that this manner of thinking is in any way unusual, in fact it’s the norm for the vast majority of humans, but the current situation makes it that much more obvious and that much more damaging… Which is just why we need to be reminded of such accomplishments even more.

There were probably some other good news today, perhaps even on topics that I’d be interested in, but I’m sure there were lots of bad news as well. So I chose to only focus on these three, because they were the first things that caught my eye after I woke up today. Quite frankly, reading these things made me genuinely happy, at least for a while, and anyone reading this should know how difficult that is. It didn’t last, not even long enough for me to write this post while in such a mood, as other things conspired to return me to a more regular bad mood, but it was nice enough while it lasted… Such news, rare as they are, are proof that there may somehow still be some hope left for us.

A week ago, I was saying that I had another post about “piracy” planned. Once again, had to struggle to get myself to write it, but here it is. Don’t expect anything I haven’t said before, as my views on this are obviously not going to change, but there are a few news pieces that have caught my attention in the last month or so and I had to give my two cents on the issue once again, for what it’s worth. I’m also thinking of putting these posts into their own category, though that may be a little difficult as I didn’t quite intend them to be a separate category so far and therefore some of them don’t focus solely on this issue, but I’ll probably need to write one or two more before there’ll be any point in doing that anyway.
To give you a starting point, here is a news piece which shouldn’t have surprised anyone: Call of Duty: Black Ops was the most “pirated” game of 2010. Still, equally unsurprising, that didn’t stop it from selling copies worth more than one billion dollars! Yes, you read that right: One billion dollars. And it certainly went well over that mark since then, seeing as that article is over a month old.

Electronic goods are bought legally by those who have enough money and the proper means to pay, think the price is, if not necessarily fair, at least acceptable and are interested enough. Everyone else, which includes those who don’t have the money or, even if they would have the money, don’t have the means to pay, those who think the price is unacceptably high, those who don’t particularly care to make use of any of the services that a legal purchase would make available, such as being able to play on official servers, and those who simply aren’t sure if they really are interested and want to try everything out first, rely on “piracy”.
That said, it makes perfect sense for something that sells well to also get “pirated” a lot, because both reveal a high degree of public interest. However, it’s also possible for something to get “pirated” a lot while having poor sales, which means that it’s either too expensive, too difficult to purchase legally or simply not interesting enough to justify buying. This is most noticeable when it comes to games that are rushed to release, ending up on the market in a pretty poor state, as it’s obviously a bad idea to pay money when you’ll end up basically being a beta tester, not even certain that the problems will be fixed through official patches in the near future. And the only ones to blame for such situations are the publishers, who simply shouldn’t allow anything to be released in such a state.

You probably noticed that I keep writing “piracy”. That’s because actual piracy implies stealing something that’s not yours and then using it for your own material gain, mainly by selling it for profit. But anyone who thinks about it for even one moment will realize that none of this can really be considered stealing. Stealing is when someone takes your car: They now have another car and you no longer have one. But when it comes to intellectual property we’re only talking about copies, so nobody takes anything away from the copyright owner, who still retains the original content and the right to keep selling it no matter how many copies others make.
However, something really is wrong when people actually sell illegal copies of software, music, movies or any other such things: While not exactly stealing it, they do make use of others’ work for their own personal gain, which is not acceptable. And it’s equally unacceptable to use “pirated” content in a production environment or in any other way which will earn you money without the copyright owner’s knowledge and consent. These things aren’t exactly what I’d call piracy either, but they’re close enough and shouldn’t be allowed, though people should obviously be allowed to sell software cracks or to charge for modifying hardware in order to accept “pirated” software, as that really is their own work.
Interestingly, file-sharing actually hits just those “pirates” who are selling others’ work for their own personal gain, pretty much throwing them off the market. This means that any efforts to combat file-sharing only result in renewed interest in the services those people offer. As a result, besides harming the end users and not particularly helping the content creators, such efforts actually benefit what could perhaps be called a criminal element. Not that the publishers couldn’t be called a criminal element as well, as they also make money off others’ work and usually only act as a roadblock between the content creators and the end users, but that’s another issue…

Despite all that, the thickheads keep being set in their ways. Or, in fact, some quite smart but extraordinarily selfish individuals keep pressing the issue and the thickheads keep being swayed by their rhetoric. That’s the only possible explanation, since there’s no way that a reasonably intelligent individual who has no direct personal interest in preserving the current copyright laws could possibly support this state of affairs.
But the current situation is still pretty much unchanged, because just those quite smart but extraordinarily selfish individuals are the ones pulling the strings. So you see time and money wasted on official studies about the number of visitors attracted by “piracy” sites, the same old and completely fallacious rants about the losses caused by “piracy”, including the expected pathetic cries of the music industry, and, worst of all, file-sharing sites shut down after being lumped together with those selling counterfeit goods!

While I still plan to someday write a pretty detailed draft for a new copyright law, especially when it comes to electronic goods, that day is probably still far away and I won’t repeat the parts that I have already mentioned before. All I mean to say now is that major changes are in order and they’ll only happen if we, the end users, keep on fighting and pressuring the powers that be, never backing down regardless of what else they’ll throw at us. If we do this, we can hope that, as time passes, more and more content creators will break their alliance with the publishers and join us in creating a new system, one that’ll be better and fairer for both them and us, perhaps culminating with the creation of the Content Creators’ Association, along with the system outlined in that post of mine…

Since cables have once again started being published on the site, it’s certainly time for yet another WikiLeaks update. Admittedly, you can’t say that any shocking things have happened lately that are strictly related to WikiLeaks, but a lot of things did happen, though many flew under the traditional media’s radar. Still, even that media is starting to regain interest in the issue these days, due to the latest developments, some of them not even related to Cablegate anymore, which is one more reason to get this update out of the way now, before I’ll start being flooded with more and more news. Even so, there’s a huge number of issues I need to cover, so once again expect me to jump from one to the other very quickly. Click the links for further details.

While what’s happening on the ground in those countries is beyond the scope of this post, I would like to start by pointing out Anonymous‘ attacks against sites belonging to the governments of Zimbabwe and, more notably, Tunisia, where the campaign was sustained for quite some time.
The WikiLeaks releases were the spark that ignited these fires and some things still happen as a direct result of the cables, but what’s going on now is about so much more than that and, if I may use the term, it fills me with hope to see people from all over the world help each other and fight for such causes together, especially since even more help should be on the way towards those areas. As a result of the leaks, people know more. Or, more exactly, people have the evidence they need in support of theories they were probably already aware of, but couldn’t fully verify until now. That makes them more willing and better prepared to fight, as we can all see. And, while in Europe you usually only see a few minor effects here and there, the impact has obviously been massive in the Arab world and, most encouragingly, it has made some governments actually start working for their people for a change.
Sure, everyone knows that this war is still in its early stages and any who think they have already won are only turning their backs on their very cunning enemies and setting themselves up for a resounding defeat, but there are good signs. There are finally some good signs somewhere… And, perhaps oddly enough, although they have little direct influence in “real life” affairs and pretty much never start or finish anything, only reacting to what is already happening and then relying on others to escalate the situation to the point where things may actually change, the Anonymous legion can be seen as being “responsible” for a significant portion of what’s going on, in the best sense of the term. (As a side note, I wonder if them focusing their resources on these issues has anything to do with the recent drop in spam levels.)

But now it’s time to get back to matters that are strictly related to WikiLeaks. For that purpose, we move on to the United States and see that, while Miss America recently offered one more piece of evidence regarding the intelligence of such contestants by speaking out against WikiLeaks with phrases apparently taken straight out of a brainwashing manual, the White House is trying to come up with strategies to prevent further leaks. As expected, instead of making public as much as they possibly could and ensuring that what needs to stay secret deals with operations that people would be proud of, said strategies involve figuring out who may be unhappy enough with the situation and getting rid of them before they get a chance to act. And, of course, the Republicans prioritize the WikiLeaks investigation and one of them even wants to prohibit people and companies within the US from doing business with WikiLeaks, which spells even more trouble, considering the recent election results over there. Thankfully, there is no basis for that latter demand, but who knows what they’ll come up with next…
However, the most important new development on that front is the demand for personal details from Twitter regarding people connected to WikiLeaks, which has sparked a lot of controversy and has resulted in statements from ACLU, Icelandic politicians and, of course, Anonymous, among others. But this campaign certainly doesn’t stop there, instead being a concerted effort to subdue any such “undesirables” by whatever means are available, as Jacob Appelbaum points out when describing his experience upon returning to the US. Therefore, while it’s obvious that such statements are also carefully planned in order to gain the most support, I really do believe that Julian Assange fears being sentenced to death, and I assume that the flood of murder incitement domain names directed at him does nothing to alleviate such fears.

That should be enough bad news for the moment, so let me now mention that supporters of WikiLeaks and Assange have once again made their voices heard on the streets as well, some rallies taking place on January 8th and a significantly larger number, many of them organized by Anonymous, on January 15th. While some of these rallies were obviously small affairs, some were really successful, proving that the support truly exists down there on the streets as well, despite most of the noticeable activism usually taking place on-line. And this support is very much needed, so if you think you’d want to take part in such a rally, take a look at the list and see if there are any near you. If not, you could always try to organize one yourself, if you have any skills in this area or know someone who does.

Just to prove that this concept is still spreading like wildfire, an updated list of whistleblowing sites may be required, though you are advised to use your own judgment and exercise caution when dealing with them, as some may not be what they appear. On the other hand, for those who want to make the most out of the current releases, there’s also a potentially invaluable list of advanced Cablegate resources.
As for more traditional media, Die Welt has recently also obtained access to the cables through their own means and will likely publish what and how they see fit, as they are under no agreement with WikiLeaks. That will certainly help spread the word even more, but the end result may be either good or bad, depending on how they’ll handle a task of this magnitude and what their true goals actually are. Still, considering the traditional media’s obvious issues, I’m somewhat worried when I see such developments…

Last but not least, I can’t finish this without mentioning something about the man who, if truly the one who sent all these cables to WikiLeaks, is the real hero behind it all and should be regarded as such instead of left to rot in maximum security confinement! I am, of course, talking about Bradley Manning and the kind of treatment he’s being subjected to, which has recently resulted in an open letter from Psychologists for Social Responsibility, adding yet another set of voices to those demanding at the very least fair treatment for him while he’s being detained.
Thankfully, WikiLeaks was also able to partially fulfill the pledge made to support a part of his defense costs, probably quelling certain voices claiming that they just used him and will now let him rot in prison. Sure, $15100 isn’t much and I seem to remember, from other messages released by Cryptome in the past, that their original pledge was for at least $50000, but that was made when they could still easily receive donations and, also according to certain messages I seem to remember reading on that site, as soon as the account specifically opened for donations meant to cover defense costs was frozen, Bradley’s defenders said that they couldn’t blame them in any way for not fulfilling any part of said pledge, as it simply was no longer possible under those circumstances. As I seem to remember them saying at the time that said account contained “about $31000” when it was frozen, I would be inclined to say that it was a slight exaggeration and now Bradley’s defenders were sent exactly half of the $30200 that had actually accumulated in that account by the time it was frozen, which is their fair share, as that account was meant to cover both Bradley Manning’s and Julian Assange’s legal expenses. But that’s just my opinion…

As it keeps happening lately, I once again find myself needing to throw something on here Sunday to stick to my goal of having two posts each week. This time I won’t even try to write a non-personal post, or at least a very serious and lengthy personal one, as I did in the past. It’s quite simply something written because I have to write something and no more than that.
I won’t even mention what happened Thursday night, because there will probably be some more things somehow related to that going on next week and it should all be in a single post. I’ll just say that I still feel like crap in pretty much every way and don’t see how that could change since, although physical matters are currently a significant part of the reason why I feel like this, the real reason is something quite different, which isn’t going to change, as pretty much everyone who could be reading this knows all too well.
So I’m just sitting here, not doing much of anything… Do you know that I didn’t even play anything since the start of the year? Didn’t continue Hordes of the Underdark, didn’t get back to Baldur’s Gate or Gothic II Gold and didn’t start anything new… Should really get to fixing that, but I doubt it’s going to happen while I’m in such a mood.
Anyway, blogging plans for next week really call for another WikiLeaks update, especially since they finally resumed publishing cables, and perhaps also for another post about “piracy”, which I’ve been planning for the past few weeks but, as expected, never got around to writing. Otherwise, I really need to start thinking very seriously about what I’m going to write next month as part of Global Population Speak Out.