Free Speech Costs Exactly $105

Welcome to the latest copyright scam in the U.S. In order to be protected under the DMCA safe harbour law, a web site must register with the U.S Copyright Office. Not all web site owners are even aware that they have to register to be protected. A copyright troll called Righthaven is already taking advantage of this ignorance. Well, at least now we know that free speech costs exactly $105.

This is just so unbelievably broken. Why is there a requirement to register anything in the first place? Apparently, this was done so that the rights holder can find the contact information of the person who handles DMCA requests without too much work. This could have been satisfied a far simpler solution: require that the contact information to be available on a well know URL (e.g. /dmca-contact) for the site to be compliant. But of course, the lawyers making the laws would have no idea that would even be technically possible.

This kind of stupidity just increases my belief that copyright is hopelessly broken and cannot be fixed.

More Twitter OAuth Stupidity

To borrow from Douglas Adams, Twitter is run by "a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Twitter uses the OAuth consumer key to identify client applications. Now they've gone a step further, and are revoking the consumer keys of open source clients that fail to adequately obfuscate the key in the source code. Twidge was disabled yesterday. It was fixed a day later after the developer modified the source to comply with Twitter's requirements. So far, I haven't heard of any other open source clients having problems.

I don't know what Twitter hopes to accomplish with this ridiculous obfuscation requirement. Even if the key is hidden in the source code, it's still available to any one who examines the code. Does the requirement apply to closed source clients? In the above article, the author extracted the consumer key from the binary of the official Twitter Android client. Anyone want to bet it hasn't been fixed?

Book Burning

It's easy to think that we've returned to the dark ages, but unfortunately book burnings (or attempted burnings) are not confined to less enlightened eras. Which proves that ignorance and stupidity will be around until the very last human gasps his or her last gasp.

It bugs me how everyone is focusing on the fact that it's a Qur'an that these ignoramuses are planning to burn. Burning any book is just wrong. It doesn't matter whether it is a Qur'an, a Bible, a science text, or Anne of Green Gables. And yes, I'm sure there is a nutter somewhere in the world that might find Anne of Green Gables offensive.

Makes one glad to be human doesn't it? (/_;)

How Not To Use OAuth

The OAuth protocol avoids the problem of giving your credentials to third party client applications and web sites when you want them to access your data on another site. Twitter is an example of how not to use OAuth.

It seems the genii who run Twitter require client software identify themselves with a consumer secret and key, which has to be embedded in the application somehow. Obviously, this is huge problem for open source applications, since it is impossible to obfuscate anything when people can see the source code.

As the article points out, the OAuth RFC actually recommends against using the consumer key protocol to identify application as Twitter is doing. Isn't it great when companies ignore standards for the sake of their own business goals? ^_^

Another Useless Poll

Apparently, Canadians swear more than Americans and Britons according another useless poll. Who knew? Torontoist's response was rather appropriate. But why was the poll limited to just those three nationalities? What about the Australians? I highly doubt they are more well behaved than we Canucks. Perhaps this was an attempt to disprove the Canadian reputation for being polite. I wonder who commissioned Angus-Reid to do the poll, as the first rule of understanding any poll or study is, "Follow the money."

Links? We Don't Need No Stinking Links!

In the latest example of people who just don't get how the World Wide Web works (WWW-w? ^_^), Japan's Nikkei newspaper now requires that you obtain their approval for any inbound links to their articles. So why do they even bother to publish anything on the WWW?

I wonder how long before they notice the traffic to their site has plummeted. I googled for "japan nikkei newspaper" and didn't get a single result going directly to the newspaper's web site. Makes sense, otherwise Google would have to get permission for any links before it could show them to me.

I'd provide a link to Nikkei newspaper, but... ^_^

Political Distractions

So our lazy, good for nothing Members of Parliment are back at work after our Prime Minister arranged a nice Winter holiday for them back in December. So let us see, what pressing matters are on the agenda? I know! Let's change the Canadian national anthem to be more gender neutral! Politicians are really good at distracting people with stupid junk. Do they take courses for that or is it a natural talent?

The Wackiest Law

This has got to be the wackiest law I ever seen. South Carolina now requires "subversives" to register or face fines!? Yes, it is an actual law, covered here and here. I shall refrain from making any further comment since it may require me to register. ^_^