New Products on the way from Google?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has two new products in the works that would have the Internet giant branching out into two new areas. The first is a home entertainment system that would stream music wirelessly throughout your home, or anywhere else that you decide needs some tunes. The device is expected to be powered by the Android operating system, and could even be used to stream content other than music. More details should come to light as time goes on, and an official unveiling is expected sometime later this year.

The second product is rumored to be a storage solution similar to Dropbox that will be called Drive. Drive will accommodate all types of data, from photos to documents, that will be stored on Google servers and accessible from any Internet connected device. It is expected to be free for personal and some business use, while users who require more storage will likely have to pay for it. The service is expected to be priced competitively with services such as Dropbox, and should be announced within the next few weeks or months.

Amazon Expands Streaming Library

Amazon has announced a new partnership with Viacom Inc. that will bring its television shows to the online streaming service offered by Amazon. Viacom owns networks such as Nickelodeon and MTV and will increase the amount of available content on the service by 15%. The service is part of the Amazon Prime subscription that also offers free two-day shipping, and costs only $79 per year. The increase in content is seen as a necessary move as Amazon tries to compete with Netflix in the video streaming market. Amazon still only spends about one third of what Netflix spends on content licensing deals per year, and many analysts feel that Amazon will need to continue to expand its content offerings to put any pressure on Netflix.

Internet Media Constrained by Brain, not Economy

Researchers have found it is not economic influences that limit the growth of digitally stored information on the Internet, but the human brain. Reported by Springer is the study (pdf) which considered some 633 million files, constituting 675 TB of data. This represents every file there is an outgoing link to from Wikipedia and dmoz. The file types include applications, text, images, audio and video.

The researchers looked at specific characteristics of the files, such as the bit rate, resolution, and length. These data were then plotted by how often they occur for each data type. The graph shows a decline as the axes increase, but is without an exponential tail at the end. If economic factors, such as the cost of hard drives, limited how large or how high of quality a file was, there would be such a tail. Further examination of the graph showed patterns which match the Weber-Fechner law. Basically what this law says is the noticeability of a change is follows a logarithmic curve. For example, increasing the resolution of a low resolution image is more noticeable than increasing the resolution of an already high resolution image.

What this implies is the information on the Internet cannot grow faster than what our brains can handle.

Survey Shows One Quarter of Tweets are Not Worth Reading

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have conducted a survey on Tweets and will be presenting their full study February 13. The goal of this research was to find what characterizes a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Tweet. For example, no one enjoys Tweets about what you are eating right then and other personal details. However, Tweets with questions, information, and even self-promotion were well received. Overall though, only 36% of the 43738 were liked by the 1443 participants in the student, with 25% not worth reading, and the remaining 39% not provoking a strong opinion either way. What that means is only about a third of Tweets are interesting and something people want to read.

The information was collected using the site Who Gives a Tweet. There participants were able to anonymously rate the Tweets of those they already follow. Putting together the ratings and reviews has allowed the researchers to devise nine lessons for improving content (more details at source link):

• Old news is no news
• Contribute to the story
• Keep it short
• Limit Twitter-specific syntax
• Keep it to yourself
• Provide context
• Don't whine
• Be a tease and don’t give away everything; encourage followers to visit the link
• For public figures don’t share personal gossip or everyday details

Improving Password Creation Practices

I have a Steam account, a few email addresses, a Newegg account, Amazon account, Barnes & Noble account, an Apple account, and an OCC account to name just those that come to mind. Each of these requires a password but their requirements can differ greatly. For example, OCC has the singular requirement of a password being between 3 and 32 characters long while passwords for an Apple ID must, "have at least one letter; have at least one capital letter; have at least one number; not contain more than 3 consecutive identical characters; not be the same as the account name; be at least 8 characters." Quite a difference, which has prompted researchers in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society decided to investigate.

Of the 90 popular websites the researchers looked at, more than half failed to provide their requirements before the first attempt at creating a password. An “invalid password” error can be quite frustrating, especially given most people’s tendency to use only a few passwords. For their preferred password to be denied for no immediately apparent reason can be confusing.

As part of the study, the researchers give suggestions for web developers on future best-practices. For example, giving clear and concise instructions for password creation and not placing them in the password entry box. As the researchers point out, reducing frustration can lead to a better user experience and fewer support requests. Increasing user visits while decreasing maintenance costs seems like a good idea.

MegaUpload Data Safe for at Least Two Weeks

As we reported yesterday, the hosting companies for MegaUpload could have begun deletion of the data on their servers as early as Thursday. It was announced today that lawyers for MegaUpload and the hosting companies have reached an agreement that will keep the data safe for at least two more weeks. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked "innocent users" to get in touch with it to pursue legal avenues for retrieving the data. Carpathia Hosting has created a website to throw its support behind the EFF plan, and to encourage users to contact the EFF in an attempt to get their data back. The other hosting company, Cogent, had no comment as of this posting.

MegaUpload Files Could be Deleted, and Soon

The story of MegaUpload has been a roller coaster ride since the site was shut down less than two weeks ago. Several employees were arrested, servers were seized, and all users lost access to their data. There may be further bad news on the horizon, as the data on the MegaUpload servers might be deleted starting this Thursday, February 2. The United States government has examined all the Mega Servers that were seized and has copied data off selected servers. Custody of the servers has been turned over to the hosting companies Cogent and Carpathia, and anyone that wants to access their data will have to do so through these companies. When the site was taken down, the assets of MegaUpload were also frozen, leading to inability to pay for hosting bills. Company attorney Ira Rothken is reported to be working with prosecutors to keep the data for at least 50 million users safe.

Twitter Publishes DMCA Notices

Twitter has decided to publish the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices it has received since November 2010. DMCA notices are filed by copyright holders when there are tweets that happen to link to pirated content. The notices are being published through a partnership with Chilling Effects, a collaboration between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several universities. There are currently 4,411 entries in the database. Twitter is hoping that publishing these notices will help it remain more transparent while not violating the DMCA. According to Twitter, "One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The Tweets must continue to flow."

MegaUpload Users Unhappy About Lost Files, Plan to Sue FBI

One week ago today, the file sharing site MegaUpload was shut down and several high ranking employees were arrested. It was taken down due to accusations of copyright infringement, but there were plenty of users that used the service for perfectly legal and legitimate purposes. These users seem to have gotten the short end of the stick in this, and they aren't happy about it. Pirate Parties around the world have begun to assemble lists of people who have had access to their data taken away from them by the FBI, and they then plan to sue. The groups involved hope that this action will help out those that have used the service for legitimate purposes as the takedown of the site may have helped copyright holders. “This initiative is a starting point for legitimate internet users to help defend themselves from the legal abuses promoted by those wishing to aggressively lock away cultural materials for their own financial gain.” Anyone interested in joining the movement can do so here.

Help Wanted: Monitoring Publicly Available Information

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently released an update on the Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative. As the name suggests, this initiative is to collect information from sites such as Facebook and Twitter to monitor for current or upcoming events. Researchers have previously shown information shared on these sites can tell a lot about a person, even if this is not the intention. The update (PDF) describes what the bureau wants, so private companies wanting to be hired for the job can get started.

Two potential uses for the information is preventative measures and improving operations. If someone posts on Facebook hateful speech and threats to public officials, the proposed monitoring system would alert the FBI. Further analysis of the person’s posts may reveal life-style patterns, such as when the person is at home or is not at home. This information would allow an operation to address the person to be better planned.

Of course, such a tool is potentially dangerous. Being able to collect massive amounts of information on as large a group as Facebook users immediately calls into question a person’s privacy. Not everyone realizes what they post online is viewable by everyone else, and not just friends and family. At least now when you post you can hope no one else is watching; with this tool you can be sure something is.

Google is Condensing Privacy Policy and Terms of service

Google, in an effort to simplify things, is changing the majority of its privacy policies starting March 1st. Currently there are over 70 different policies for the company’s many services, from Gmail to YouTube to Google Docs and more, but in a little more than a month, better than 60 of these policies will be combined into one document. Luckily Google has tried to keep this one policy to rule them all as simple as it can, so anyone with a Google Account can understand it.

The Lord of the Rings reference actually will extend further than just the privacy policies. By having so many of the services under the same policy, information between them can be bound together. An example of this effect is Google alerting you when you may be late to a meeting you have scheduled in Calendar, by getting location information on you and where you are going, along with traffic data for the route you will likely take. Of course this information will be put together in the cloud, and not the darkness.

The new privacy policy and terms of service can be read right now, and Google plans on notifying its users via email and notices.

YouTube Growing by an Hour Per Second

There are 3600 seconds in one hour, so for every second of video you upload to YouTube, there is another 3599 being uploaded at the same time. Google has recently given some numbers about YouTube including that awesome stat. Another stat is that every day, across the globe, there are four billion video views (4,000,000,000). To put this stat into perspective, there are roughly four billion US $1 bills in circulation, it has been approximately four billion years since Mars had liquid water on it, and the Earth itself is only 4.54 billion years old. To put the '1 second is 1 hour' stat into perspective, some Googlers created this video and onehourpersecond.com.

At 45 seconds long, almost two days of video is uploaded to YouTube by the time you finish watching the video.

Entertainment Software Association Drops SOPA Support

By now I am sure you have seen the news that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) votes have been delayed, with both bills possibly even facing cancellation. What you may not have seen is the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has dropped its support of SOPA, which is a huge blow to the bill. Many of the ESA members, like Epic Games, have voiced opposition to SOPA and PIPA, while the ESA remained pretty quiet except to say it still supported both bills. Now, with the votes delayed for the bills, the ESA has changed its tune and has even called on the current White House administration and Congress to come up with a better proposal to combat online piracy.

Without the Entertainment Software Association supporting SOPA, one has to wonder just how many supporters are actually left. As always, remember to do your part to tell Congress why SOPA and PIPA should be outright canceled.

SOPA and PIPA Votes Delayed

This is some incredibly good news for the entire Internet community, but do not celebrate too much because the fight is far from over. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith have announced that both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) would be delayed until further work can be done on the bills. Neither bill will resurface in its present form, and will most likely have an entirely new name once the Senate and House decide to revisit the issue, whenever that will be. This is a huge blow to both "anti-piracy" bills, and just goes to show how members of Congress do listen to the public. This past Wednesday, thousands of websites were blacked out, most notably Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit, which were the largest public protests of SOPA and PIPA yet. Reports also came in saying the offices of representatives and senators were flooded with phone calls and emails, although that has not been confirmed.

While the delayed votes on SOPA and PIPA do not mean the bills are canceled outright, it is looking more and more likely neither one will come to pass. If and when that happens, then the Internet can really celebrate.

MegaUpload Shut Down, Anonymous Responds

The file sharing website MegaUpload has been shut down by United States authorities, and several executives in New Zealand have been taken into custody. Among them is Kim Dotcom, founder of MegaUpload. MegaUpload is accused of causing copyright holders to lose more than $500 million in revenue. The site had over 150 million registered users at the time it was taken down, and featured support from numerous celebrities in the entertainment industry. The site is used to host and transfer files that are too large to send through e-mail, which is a perfectly legitimate business. However, groups such as the MPAA and RIAA feel that the site helped to facilitate large copyright breaches, a claim that MegaUpload feels was "grotesquely overblown." The site was free to use, with subscriptions available to access faster download speeds.

All of this comes the day after the Internet blackout in protest of SOPA and PIPA. These actions weren't well received by Anonymous, and the group wasted no time before starting to take down several websites. Starting with the Justice Department and moving on to the RIAA and MPAA, the websites were taken offline. The hashtag #OpPayBack can be used on Twitter to follow the action. As of the writing of this post, both the RIAA and MPAA websites were still down.

Just how Effective was the SOPA/PIPA Blackout?

For those of you who do not know, yesterday a noticeable portion of the Internet went black in a grand-opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills. (Check out ClayMeow’s editorial on the proposed legislation for more information.) Google, Mozilla, Reddit, Wikipedia, Wired, and Wordpress to name only a few sites joined in the blackout. With such popular websites very publicly voicing their opinions, just how many people were touched by this effort?

Google is reporting 4.5 million people signed its anti-SOPA petition.

Wikipedia states in a Thank You message that over 162 million people saw their blackout message. On its information page it says over 12,000 people commented on its blog post about the blackout, over 8 million visitors learned who their representatives are via the message’s tool, and #wikipediablackout reached 0.93% of all tweets at 4 AM.

At 1 PM #SOPA reached its peak of 3.5% of all tweets, and for the entire 24 hour period, from 12 AM Wednesday morning (EST) to 12 AM Thursday morning, it was above 1%. #PIPA reached a high of 1.01% at Noon on Wednesday.

Of course, Internet activity does not guarantee results in Congress, but it definitely helps. Starting with Senator Marco Rubio on Facebook, members of the United States Congress started publically declaring their opposition to the bills. Rubio had originally co-sponsored the bill, by the way. Many of these announcements were made on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, probably to let the people know quickly, and not because Internet traffic crippled and brought down Congressional websites. For a time, the official Senate website was actually offline. All told, a minimum of 10 senators and almost twice as many representatives declared their opposition during the blackout.

PIPA comes to a vote on the 24th.

June 6, 2012 is World IPv6 Launch Day

Google has announced that it is joining several other major Internet companies to officially launch IPv6 on June 6, 2012. Google was part of a group of companies that had participated in World IPv6 Day in June of last year to confirm that IPv6 wouldn't break the Internet. As part of World IPv6 Launch, Google will be switching its services over to the new standard. Google is encouraging others to join the effort to transition to IPv6 on this date, helping to pave the way into the future. All of this is necessary as all of the available IPv4 addresses were given out as of last year.

Editorial: Why You Should Oppose SOPA/PIPA

First, I would like to note that this is merely one man's opinion and should not be seen as expressing the views of OverclockersClub as a whole. That being said, if any OCC staff members would like to put their name to this as well, I'd gladly do so.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it — piracy is bad. In fact, here at OCC, any mention of piracy gets deleted, with the offending thread often locked. But no amount of legislation is going to put an end to piracy. The black market, bootlegs, and cheap knockoffs have all existed well before the Internet. The best anyone can hope for is a reduction in piracy, but is SOPA/PIPA really the answer? I'm not going to go into all the details of the proposed bills, as you can find that stuff strewn across the web if that's something you want to learn. It probably won't be as bad as some people are suggesting, but it's not going to be good either. And the thing is, if reducing piracy is actually the goal, there are better means to accomplish that. Steam, GOG.com, and others have proven that piracy can be lessened simply by providing good services. Most people are driven to piracy due to two factors: pricing and convenience. Those services have addressed the convenience issue and the various sales have addressed the pricing issue (and the extreme success of such sales have proven this). Before you think me naive, I know piracy of Steam and GOG.com games exist, but certainly to a lesser extent.

The problem with SOPA/PIPA is the language is too vague and probably purposefully so. Piracy won't be thwarted, legitimate sites will be, especially social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. See, under the proposed bills, sites can get in trouble for user content. An innocent machinima creation, for example could result in a heap of trouble for any site hosting or linking to it. Out of fear, it's highly likely that sites will self-police before it even gets to that point, thus reducing content and ruining what we have become to expect from the Internet. Recording and streaming of games will probably take a major hit, even those officially sanctioned by developers like in Team Fortress 2, Starcraft II, and League of Legends. Ever been on a server where someone plays music over their headset or has custom sounds? What happens when the copyright holder of said music threatens the site hosting the recording or streaming a match? eSports has really taken off, thanks in large part to broadcasting competitive matches — do we really want to see that end? If just a couple of complaints are filed against a site, the whole site can be taken down, even if 99% of the posted material is legitimate.

Now I'm fully aware that we get a ton of international visitors to OCC and on the surface, this is a United States issue. But you shouldn't shrug this off just because these are US bills. For one, like it or not, the US controls a lot of the Internet — what happens here can and probably will affect the Internet for everyone. In fact, one section of SOPA permits the US Attorney General the right to take action against foreign sites if "the owner or operator of such Internet site is facilitating the commission of [copyright infringement]." If the site owner responds to prevent this, they will be seen as volunteering to be under US law and thus subject to the US courts. If they chose not to respond, the attorney general can force all US ISPs and search engines to block access to the site, as well as block ad providers and payment providers. It's easy to tell companies to move their servers to other countries, but think about all the revenue sites would lose if US citizens couldn't reach them. There will always be workarounds like VPNs and proxies, but the average user isn't going to utilize them, let alone even understand them. In addition, if something like this passes, other countries can look at it and follow suit. In fact, similar laws have tried to pass in the European Union, but luckily to no avail at this time.

If you're an American and would like to contact your Representatives, you can get contact information by going to this Wikipedia page and entering your zip code. If you'd like to read the full text of the proposed bills, you can find SOPA here and PIPA here.

OCC Staff That Support This View:
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SOPA Markup will Continue in February

It looked like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was dealt a blow this weekend when the White House stepped in. Some may have thought the delay due to some concerns with SOPA meant the bill was gone for good, but that is not the case. House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith, the author of the bill, said markup for SOPA will continue in February, which is not all that long of a delay. Both the Democrats and Republicans have retreats coming up over the next two weeks, and once all the members return, markups will resume in February. Hopefully when everybody gets back to work, SOPA will look pretty different from how it first was, but we just have to see what Congress and the White House decide upon. Chairman Smith is still committed to combating online piracy and saving "American jobs," so let us hope something different than SOPA's past form surfaces next month.

SOPA Vote Stalls for Now

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) hit a snag over the weekend when the White House stepped in to speak out against it. Not long before that happened, both SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) had parts that were being reconsidered, thanks in part to public backlash. PIPA is still up for vote, but SOPA has been stalled for the time being. The White House said it cannot condone any legislation that "reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurtiy risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." The White House has issues with the DNS-blocking provisions in SOPA, which is one of the things being looked at in both it and PIPA. Opposition has been extremely vocal from the Internet communities, with several sites like Reddit, Minecraft, and Firefall going dark on Wednesday the 18th in protest. Even Wikipedia's English version has joined the blackout, which should be extremely problematic for anyone needing to get some information on Wednesday.

PIPA is still under consideration by the Senate, while SOPA will more than likely appear later in a rewritten form.

Zappos Database Hacked

If any of you have purchased footwear from the online retailer Zappos, your information was likely compromised. Zappos has confirmed that its security has been breached, and that roughly 24 million customer records have been accessed. The CEO of the company contacted the customers, stating that "information including names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and encrypted passwords may have been exposed." If it is any consolation, the database housing credit card and payment data wasn't compromised. At this point, the exact method used to obtain the data hasn't been revealed, and until it has, we won't know what Zappos might have done differently to prevent this. The company has reset all user passwords, forcing customers to change them in order to access their accounts again. Anyone that has purchased from Zappos should watch their credit cards and bank statements just to be safe.

Public Outcry Over SOPA and PIPA Causes Congress to Reconsider Some Parts

It looks like the voice of the people is being heard after all, as Congress is now reconsidering some parts of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Facing some incredible public outcry over SOPA and PIPA, Congress is looking over the two bills and removing some provisions of both. The DNS-blocking provisions have been removed from both bills, with Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont removing it from PIPA and Senator Lamar Smith from SOPA. Senator Smith said the DNS provisions will be looked at by the Committee to "further examine the issues" surrounding it. Several GOP senators that served on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone PIPA so they can look at the DNS provisions.

The Judiciary Committee said, "we have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights." This is a huge step in the right direction for SOPA and PIPA, however it is also small because there are other provisions that need to be removed as well. Congress is finally realizing just how poor their stance on piracy is and how much damage they could do to the Internet if SOPA and PIPA pass. The U.S. Congress is voted on by the public, and when enough of their constituents speak out, they do listen.

Protect IP Act to Lose Internet Blacklist Power

You may be feeling overwhelmed with news on SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), but these are two important bills that, if passed, could affect the entire Internet community. The main supporter of PIPA, Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, does not want to give up the DNS-based Internet blacklisting plans, but has recommended to put those on hold for the bill's current form. This means PIPA will lose the Internet blacklist power for now, while Senator Leahy will have more technical studies look it over. Federal judges could still have sites cut off by U.S. payment processors and ad networks, but Internet blacklisting would not happen. DNS blocking still remains in SOPA, which is currently in the House of Representatives, but will be removed from PIPA as the Senate debates over the matter. Currently Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has PIPA on a hold, but Senator Harry Reid of Nevada will try to push it forward anyway on January 24th. Senator Wyden is happy to see the changes to PIPA, but remains committed to keeping it on hold until all issues of the bill are addressed.

Reddit, Minecraft, Firefall Going Dark Next Week; NVIDIA, GOG, Runic, Frozenbyte Oppose SOPA

Some websites will soon be making a point about what the Stop Online Piracy Act will do to the Internet if it does pass. Next Wednesday, Reddit, Minecraft, and Firefall will all be dark for most or all of the day in a sign of protest of SOPA. From 8am to 8pm EST on Wednesday, January 18th, Reddit will be offline, while Red 5 Studios will be taking down its Firefall website for 24 hours on the 18th. Minecraft creator Notch, who has already voiced his opinions on SOPA, will take down Minecraft.net and Mojang.com on the 18th, but did not mention for how long. NVIDIA, Good Old Games, Runic Games, and Frozenbyte are also opposing SOPA, with NVIDIA echoing Red 5 Studios' statement about the ESA supporting SOPA with consulting any of the members. Red 5 and NVIDIA both say SOPA will hurt the games industry, while Good Old Games likens SOPA to DRM and says it will not have an affect on pirates. GOG sells classic video games without any form of DRM, so it is no wonder it opposes the bill. Runic and Frozenbyte are two more developers against SOPA, with Runic going so far as to say the bill will do nothing to deter piracy, similar to GOG's statement.

These companies are just some of the opponents to SOPA. Major League Gaming, 38 Studios, Epic Games, Trion, Riot Games, Nival, and plenty more all oppose SOPA. If you live in the United States, voice your opposition as well by contacting your state representative.

League of Legends Developer, Notch, U.S. Congressman, and More Urge Gamers to Oppose SOPA/PIPA

There are plenty of companies that support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), but there are plenty of companies that do not support it. Recently, Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, has urged fans to publicy object to SOPA and PIPA. If SOPA and PIPA pass in their present forms, Riot Games says it could harm the Leagues of Legends community, be the end of livestreaming, and even the death of sites like DeviantArt and Reddit. One of the supporters of Riot Games objections is U.S. Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado, an avid LoL player. Congressman Polis urges gamers to write their representatives to oppose the bill. Riot Games is supporting the Congressman, and after verifying his identity, gave him a special avatar and title on the League of Legends forum.

Minecraft creator Notch is another person opposing SOPA and PIPA, saying that "no sane person can be for SOPA." If SOPA passes, a film company could sue YouTube for hosting the film even though someone else posted it to the website. If that YouTube link then gets posted to a forum or Reddit, then both the forum owner and Reddit could get sued. This is far worse than the current legislation, which only says the content uploader is liable, and could have huge impacts on the Internet as a whole because the mere accusation of infringement could result in huge swaths of content being pulled. This would be detrimental to the Minecraft and League of Legends communities, Reddit, Google, YouTube, and thousands of other sites.

You can contact your representative by going through the House of Representatives website, use the EFF's letter of protest, and join in on the attorney for Riot Game's discussion on Reddit.

Kopimism: the File-Sharing Religion

This is probably one of those news items you would never have expected to read. (I know it’s one I never expected to be writing.) The Swedish government has recognized Kopimism as a religion. The core belief is all information is value unto itself and sharing the information increases the value. Two of their sacred symbols are CTRL-C and CTRL-V, and the act of copying and sharing information is a religious service.

The religion was founded by a philosophy student who hopes file-sharing will now be given religious protection. The church of Kopimism does not explicitly support piracy but only the open distribution of information to all, and experts do not believe religiously protected file-sharing would stop anti-piracy laws.

Sinde: The Spanish SOPA

While the SOPA and ProtectIP bills are still sitting in the US Congress, Spain has passed the Sinde Anti-Piracy Law. Similar to the American bills, Sinde gives rights holders the power to request legal action against an allegedly pirating website. There are some differences between the bills though. Sinde creates the government commission for the rights holders to turn to while SOPA and ProtectIP use the already established Attorney General’s office. Also the power to take down a site rests with Spanish courts, whereas the US bills give that power to the Attorney General.

There has been great opposition to this bill which has existed for years, it appears. It has been passed now because the ruling party, which just came to power in November, chose to implement it. It is worth mentioning that Spain has a great pirating problem, with as much as 97.8% of music consumption in the country being illegally driven, for just the first six months of 2010. Movie and game pirating were at 77% and 60.7%, respectively, for the same time period.

Do You Make Friends or Do Friends Make You?

How much do you and your friends have in common? Do you play the same games, listen to the same music, read the same books, and listen to the same music? How about your Internet friends? As social networking sites, such as Facebook, allow people to befriend others with wildly different tastes, researchers want to know if these Internet friends influence each others tastes, or if we stay with those already like us.

Researchers at Harvard University, funded by the National Science Foundation, have followed a cohort of college friends for 4 years on Facebook. As everyone was listing their favorite music, movies, and books, it was possible to see how these changed due to the friendships. What the researchers found was that the original interests of the people greatly influenced the friendships they made. Basically, if two people share a taste in music or movies, they are more likely to become friends than if their tastes differ. Curiously, the taste in books did not have an influence like music and movies, but the researchers suggest this could be because people cannot read books together, while they can share the experience of music and movies.

Once friendships are made though, the researchers found tastes did not easily spread among friends. For example, an interest in alternative or independent music would not diffuse, though this could in part be because a taste in such music is valued for differentiating one from their friends. However, classical and jazz music would be shared between people, but such an event is the exception, not the rule.

Massive Amount of Domains Leave Go Daddy Due to SOPA Support

I am sure everyone has heard of Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the effect it will have on the Internet, with sites facing potential censorship of anything the government deems unfit. You may have heard Internet domain site Go Daddy is a supporter of SOPA, and when people found out about that, something happened. Go Daddy lost more than 70,000 domains in a week, with 21,054 just on last Friday alone. One way to protest a company supporting SOPA is to stop giving them your money, and that is exactly what happened to Go Daddy. One of the more noticeable domains no longer part of Go Daddy is Wikipedia, which has been pretty vocal about Go Daddy's stance on SOPA. Even though Go Daddy says it no longer supports SOPA, it has never told Congress its new stance on the bill it helped author. Go Daddy is also exempt from SOPA, which is one of the benefits of writing something. Perhaps the 70,000 lost domains can change Go Daddy's stance officially, but until then, I expect more sites to switch over to another provider.

SOPA Already Affecting the Internet, Thanks to Users

Not long ago the list of supporters of the Stop Online Privacy Act, better known as SOPA, was released, allowing the average Internet user to respond to companies. One such company is Go Daddy, a domain name registrar that boasts 50 million domains for 9 million customers. Shortly after its support was revealed, users of the service publicly stated their intent to move their websites to other services which do not support the bill. At least one of these opponents, Name.com, offered discounts to people transferring content from Go Daddy. Already, the Internet is changing because of a bill just sitting in Congress.

Now Go Daddy has reversed its decision to support SOPA. This move may prevent more customers from changing services, but sites that have already moved, like Wikipedia, may decide to stay where they are.

For those of you against SOPA, take this as a single victory, but remain vigilant and ready for the battles ahead.