Support the FAIR USE Act of 2007

Support the FAIR USE Act of 2007

Reps. Rick Boucher and John Doolittle's FAIR USE Act would remove some of the entertainment industry's most draconian anti-innovation weapons and chip away at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) broad restrictions on fair use. Use the form below and tell Congress to help restore balance in copyright now.

Technology companies play a game of Russian roulette whenever they create products with both infringing and non-infringing uses. Current "secondary liability" standards don't provide enough certainty, and if innovators guess wrong, they can be hit with statutory damages as high as $30,000 per work infringed. When it comes to mass-market products like the iPod or TiVo, damages could run into the trillions of dollars -- more than enough to bankrupt anyone from the smallest start-ups to the biggest companies. Unlike in other areas, the private assets of corporate officers, directors and investors are not shielded from liability in copyright cases.

The FAIR USE Act would limit the availability of statutory damages for secondary liability and allow innovators to make more reasonable business decisions about manageable levels of legal risk. Meanwhile, copyright owners could still get injunctions and actual damages for harm suffered, putting them in no worse a position than civil litigants in most other areas.

The bill would also codify the Supreme Court's "Betamax doctrine" as it pertains to hardware devices, making clear that manufacturers cannot be held liable based on the design of technologies with substantial non-infringing uses.

Finally, the bill would loosen the grip of the DMCA, which restricts circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions even for lawful uses. The FAIR Use Act adds 12 exemptions, including the ability to circumvent for classic fair use purposes like news reporting, research, commentary, and criticism.

Broader DMCA and copyright reform remains absolutely necessary, but, if passed, this bill would be a big first step in the right direction. Take action to support it now.

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5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006!

Talk about missing the mark, Newly released or should i saw obtained by the freedom of information act. The government planed to only have 5,000 troops in Iraq by December of last year, Here are some of the highlights.

• A provisional government would be in place by 'D-Day ( Looks like someone didn't study there history)
  
• the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere 'months ( still going strong)
  
• November 2001, President Bush asked Rumsfeld about the status of plans for war with Iraq. He asked for an updated approach, but did not want to attract attention ( hum wonder why could it be he should have been going after Bin Laden instead of Saddam?)
• In the end, Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President Bush that the U.S. needed to go to the U.N. to try to legitimize the invasion ( Bush didn't even want to go to the UN, No wonder he gave a half assed effort)

There is to much good stuff, I advise everyone to see what there fearless leaders have been up to. Link

Any doubts about the housing bubble.

If there is any doubts that housing is on the way down. Nothing is more simple the a chart. from thebubblebuster.com link

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

You would think with billions spent developing Advanced Access Content System (the new DRM software for HD-DVD and Blueray disk) That it would take more then a couple months for hackers to find a way to hack it, or in this case just finding the master key. Not really a hack but when you have the master key to all disk who needs a hack. When will the MPAA learn from the mistakes of the RIAA. Copy protected disc are soooo 1999, the future is content downloaded or streamed online. If you chose to live in the past at least allow me to make a copy of the dora the explorer disk i just bought and own...

Same old from the NAVY

I am often surprised by Humans lack of compassion for the planet and it's inhabitants. We tend to live for or own needs with little respect for future generations. So when the California Coastal Commission found that current NAVY sonar use endangered marine animals especially wales and dolphins, they voted to limit the use, and lower the decimal levels. Of course the Navy wasn't happy, and there response was

"The sonar training, which is just one part of the overall exercise, uses the same basic sonar training the Navy has used without incident for the last 30 years in the ocean off Southern California, where the number of marine mammals has been increasing," the Navy's statement declared.

Despite the mountain of evidence to prove otherwise, They Basically said F U to the Coastal commission and all residents of California, I understand the need to protect our coast but at what cost. Link

Sex vs Clothes and the winner is?

We all know that women prefer many things more then Sex, Like

Sour apple rings or peach,
The Tyra Banks show
cold sores
mushy bananas
etc

Well according to a reuters poll, "Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel", yep you heard right 15 months! just for clothes, but it gets worse. "with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds" Three Years without sex for some gap jeans! WTF

furthermore "Sixty-one percent of women polled said it would be worse to lose their favorite article of clothing than give up sex for a month."
Men obviously your doing something wrong, Do some research, experiment on your women, because we need to turn this around. If women are happy sexually, it's a double plus for us, one we get more sex and two the women spend less on clothes. Link

King of the throne

As a man that looks at my toilet as more then a toilet. The toilet is my escape, it's where i collect my thoughts and contemplate the meaning of life. And it seems this love of toilets crosses all gender lines because i often find my wife just sitting on the toilet, reading a book (magazine) or doing homework. Well it seems roto rooter created the ultimate "Pimped Out John". The unit comes equipped with a LCD TV, Laptop, iPod music player and speakers, Xbox video game console, and refrigerator filled with an assortment of goodness. Best of all you can win this, one lucky contestant will have this in there home. I already entered and you can too. Link

Congrats Al

Looks like (President) Al Gore has been nominated for the noble peace prize for his work promoting, and educating the public about Global Warming. Congrats Al you have my vote for 2008.

" OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday."
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