Daily Archives: June 26, 2003

This is Too Much

This entry was posted in Privacy on by

Take a look at this photo:
capt.1056584283.see_through_security_bbp108.jpg
(courtesy of Yahoo) and read this article and tell me whether you think this just might be going a bit too far???!! I do.

Via Silflay Hraka who poses this astute question:

More importantly, given that the machines are used to detect plastic, how long before people start using plastic tape to leave messages to the screeners on their torso?

Thinking about this some more, the backscatter image is a pretty good depiction of Susan Hallowell, director of the Transportation Security Administration’s security laboratory (image from above linked CNN article):
Susan%20Hallowell.ap.jpg

Update (5/23/07): Fixed link to the images; made them embedded instead of popups and and modified the text slightly to reflect this. Also note that the CNN link is broken. Here is a link to an alternate story CBS from the same time.

It’s still Stealing

This entry was posted in Law on by

The Net Pirate says

I know what I am doing is illegal, but I feel it is no more illegal or threatening to the music industry, than my videotaping of programmes from TV is threatening to broadcasters.

You know, though, it is illegal and it is theft. Perhaps if you stuck with copying mix tapes onto your CD from the radio you could say that you are analogous to the timeshifting folks do with vidotaped tv programs (which is not illegal).

This person is right that the industry is changing, that the recording industry wants to maintain control, etc. And, yes, the industry needs to come up with new models to sell the product. Still, I can’t quite figure out any reason why he shouldn’t be fined or go to jail for theft.

Oh, many performers approve the recording and trading of their live performances. This is legal. What the pirate is doing is not no matter how broken the distribution model.

On a related note, the RIAA, better get busy making the changes to their business model. There are some things on the horizon that will make their lives even more interesting:

An international team set new Internet2 Land Speed Records using next generation Internet Protocols (IPv6) by achieving 983 megabits-per-second with a single IPv6 stream for more than an hour across a distance of 7,067 kilometers (more than 4,000 miles) from Geneva, Switzerland to Chicago, Ill. The record is comparative to transferring the equivalent of approximately one feature-length DVD-quality movie every 36 seconds, or more than 3,500 times faster than the typical home broadband connection.

36 seconds to download a movie!! Wahooooo!! Well, almost. It will be a while before many of us get true broadband at our homes (and I certainly don’t consider the definition used above, 280 Kilobits-per-second, to be broadband).

Foreign Investment in US Declines

This entry was posted in Economics on by

The Progressive Policy Institute (related to New Democrats Online) sends out interesting stuff (irrespective of their politics) from time to time.

Their most recent Newsletter provides the following data on foreign investment in the US and worldwide(in billions):

US World Wide
2000 $314 $1500
2001 $144 ?
2002 $30 $530

It is not a surprise that both figures have declined. But note that foreign investment in the US has declined from about 20% to less then 6% of the world wide total. Here are PPI’s suggested reasons:

(1) slow global growth and thus a smaller global FDI
pool;

(2) weak technology investment levels;

(3) falling confidence in long-term U.S. growth prospects, as perceptions of terrorist threats grow and structural budget deficits re-emerge after recent tax bills; and

(4) higher dollar values relative to the euro in 2001 and 2002, raising the price of acquisitions here.

You might come up with one or two more on your own.