Dear PIPA and ACTA, I Hate You

Piracy is an enormous problem, without a doubt. So I’m just going to jump into things right off the bat and begin by stating something that I haven’t heard anyone say so far regarding PIPA and ACTA: There are numerous other problems that are exponentially worse. Sure, piracy is a crime, but if it gets “omitted,” will that change the world for the better? I can, off of the top of my head, dish out a list of better causes that drops to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

1. Solve world hunger

2. Shelter the homeless

3. Solve global warming issues

4. Stop aids

5. Stop breast cancer

6. Stop any disease

7. Increase literacy rates

8. Stop oil starvation

9. Population control

10. Solve poor/rich distribution of wealth

This, I will not deceive you, is a list conjured from a pile of rubbish I thought up in thirty seconds. Although all of the above can be debated widely, the point is nonetheless clear: THERE ARE NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF GREATER PROBLEMS THAN PIRACY!

Now, let me begin with the comparisons. There is a vast array of countries that prohibit piracy, and America is one of them (obviously). Now, my question to you, the reader, is “what is the only major country that piracy is not frowned upon?” Allow me to give you a hint or two: It’s a world superpower, it’s located in Asia, and over 95% of the goods sold in America derive from there. That’s right, you’ve guessed it! China!

Amazingly, real copies of things are harder to find than burnt ones! If one were to walk into a video store and attempt to browse their selection, you could find any movie without a doubt. Why? Because everything is burned, my good friend! Every movie you could possibly imagine, burned on a previously blank DVD that is now titled with a sharpie. Same goes for video games, programs, and just about any other form of data. What’s more amazing is that if the price is put into equivalent of the United States economy, the average movie would only cost you a whopping fifty cents! That’s right, the latest and greatest for only half of a dollar. Prices vary depending on how big the file is and how difficult it was to burn; still, the most expensive piece of data (if applied to our economy, once again) would be no more than five dollars.

Now, could you even possibly imagine how excellent it would be if you were only asked to dish out fifty cents for the newest blockbuster hit? Well I’d say that you don’t need to pirate whatsoever, because data doesn’t cost ridiculous amounts. Doesn’t it chafe you at least the tiniest bit knowing that a Chinese citizen only spends eight minutes out of his minimum-wage paycheck to purchase the newest release while you work for three plus hours to buy the “original” copy of that same exact movie? I assume it does. And the list doesn’t end there! Xbox 360 games, PS3 games, PC games, all programs, operating systems, and just about anything else you can imagine, all for under five dollars.

China, considered to be one of the most communist and controlled countries on Earth, condones piracy while America, said to be one of the freest and most prosperous countries in the world, does not? My fellow reader, if there is one thing I ask of you it is that you at least consider the possibility of betrayal by the American system and that you will also consider making a stand for yourself.

Long live free-world.

[STD] A Perfect Pirate X-Mas Story

Define STD: STD for The Underground Blog is short for Savvy Tech Dude/Dudette. The STD story is my attempt to share some insight into some of my practices, as well as others as to how they are using technology to make their life better, saving money, or perhaps bettering the environment. (Hopefully, I can find a female contributor… 🙂 )

Frequency of Story: When it feels right.

Personal Comment: I really love the STD idea, and with topics so broad, I can go anywhere with this series. The question is, how far down the rabbit hole do you and I want to go? 😛

In the meantime, I encourage all forms of interaction. Please sound off in comments, I’d appreciate it. If you have an idea, or want me to consider something different, I will. If you want to spread the word, be my guest. As time goes along, I’m asking for people to contribute, or if you want to be interviewed (I’ll protect your identity), then we can dig deeper. Please consider my offer, thanks!

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The Journey To The Next TUG Event

After reading the lack of comments yesterday on the TiT post, I decided to ponder about my journey in search of the next TUG event.  Wait, what is a TUG event?  I know some of you guys have some sick minds out there, as I’m sure TUG could refer to a lot of things like a boat, tug of war, pulling on something, and etc.  🙂

My usage of TUG here is an acronym for The Under Ground, hence the next The Underground Event for writing here on the blog.

Yesterday I thought more about the “Life of a Pirate” series, and decided that it was too forward.  There is a lot of good knowledge out there from honest people who are not pirates, and I did not want to proceed with the image that pirates are evil/good and that I should totally expose the pirate scene apart.

Plus, this blog is not meant as a forum for piracy either and I don’t want to be seen as that too.  In efforts to maintain the clean blog image, I have decided to move onto something that I can live with.

Welcome to what could very well be the “STD Stories”, where STD is Versatile1 acronymn for “Savvy Tech Dude” (or Dudette depending on article content).  I love puns, what can I say.

Breakdown of STD Stories:

• STD stories will try to be posted once a week, but not guaranteed.  Expect it to appear out of nowhere, just like real life STDs.  🙂
• STD stories are real stories about technology and how it is twisted to fit into someone’s life for logical or illogical purposes.
• STD stories may dwell on underground material, but is not meant to be strictly related to it.
• STD stories are meant to be written by The Underground Staff, but the community is highly encouraged to contribute via posts or offline interviews with Versatile1.
• STD stories can either be fictional or truth, and the validity of the story is left up to the writer and for the audience to decide for themselves.
• STD stories are laid-back, and could be a story, but doesn’t have to be.  A tutorial could be thought of as a “story” too in some regards.

I’m sure the list could go on and on.  Does it sound exciting?  It does to me.  We’ll see.  As time goes on, you will see what the flavor of articles is going to be.  Good times!

[TiT] That’s It Tuesday – Issue 28

Hi underground visitors! Welcome to the twenty-eighth issue of TIT, or That’s It Tuesday! Every Tuesday, I, Versatile1, will give you a rant of whats going on in the blog, whats intended for the future, hope, dreams, etc.

I am back in action this week, and I’ve been pondering what to do with future articles. As you can see, every day almost there is a theme I try to adhere too, but after awhile it gets hard trying to pull things out of thin air. Or is it? The internet is full of useful information, right? Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn’t have wankers asking me about modding their consoles or asking how to find porn passwords. As both you and I know, this is useful information apparently.

What if I were to start a series something like “Confessions of a Pirate”, “Into The Mind of a Pirate”, “A Pirate’s Life”, etc where I would find someone to interview to talk about what it takes to be a technological pirate in the year of 2008. No, I’m not talking about pirates in the common sense like Jack Sparrow with parrots and pillaging, but a pirate like someone who:

• Enjoys using the internet to get illegal copies of digital media through bittorrent, usegroups, IRC, Rapidshare, and etc.
• Enjoys saving money and screwing the big time corporations out of their crappy products
• Enjoys exploiting their hardware
• Enjoys “free” software while smirking at those who buy for the same things
• Enjoys living care free despite possible copyright infringement
• Enjoys keeping hard drives full of digital media (CDs, or DVDs) in boxes or binders
• Enjoys ripping DVDs and converting them to avi files or copying DVDs

The list goes on and on and on. Perhaps you want to learn the tactics of the pirate, or you want to understand their mentality. Or perhaps you think pirates are evil, and you want to voice your opinion. Sounds interesting? It does to me.

However, if I were to bring such a series to life, what does that mean for the blog? Will you consider us evil for providing such information? If I said I was a pirate, does that influence your view of me? What if I said I despise pirates? What then? Piracy is a big issue, don’t get me wrong. It requires ethics, and I’m sure a whole slew of other controversial ideas.

There are blogs/websites that specialize in Warez, we will not. Education is what I will strive for, so drawing a fine line between legal and illegal information is hard for me. We’ll see. If you think this is a badass idea, sound off in comments please. Just writing about this makes me excited. Thanks!

President of the United States of America is a dirty stinking music pirate!

You decide.

Ok, so George ‘Dubya’ Bush is a supposed “war criminal” – gotcha

A purported ex coke addict? – Right.

But please, Oh please George, why did you have to become one of those filthy stinking filesharing pirates? The RIAA would have everyone believe that these pirates are the most evil of the evil people on the planet. Hitler was nothing in comparison to someone sharing the latest Britney Spears album.

The following video is an interview done by Fox news.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Wow George, I didn’t realise you could get the Beatles on iTunes.

Oh wait, thats right – you cant, nor can you get them on any legal music downloading platform for that matter.

Also, according to this article by the Washington Post, ripping your own legally purchased CD’s is also against the law.

Guess you can just add that to your list of bad things you’ve done huh?

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from fro.gg