Google Alleges That Viacom !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;Secretly Uploaded Its Content to YouTube, Even While Publicly Complaining About Its Presence There' Daring Fireball (2010-03-25):

Zahavah Levine, chief counsel for YouTube in its litigation with Viacom: For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up"…

“For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its contentto YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site.” You could read this as a story about the hypocrisy and unmitigated gall of the copyright monopolists. I prefer to read it as a story about how a flourishing countereconomy gives even the aggressive sort of ideological statists a positive incentive to work towards promoting the free world in practice. Not even a massive copyright monopolist like Viacom can afford to abstain from the anti-copyright countereconomy. Not because they agree with it politically, but for reasons of business, pure and simple.

shelleypowers: Happy Ada Lovelace Day to the women who kick butt in technology AND to the men who respect and appreciate us. Twitter / shelleypowers (2010-03-25).

(Observed 24 March 2010.)

gruber: .@ceolaf Why not movie plots too? Should Hitchcock have been awarded patent for "Innocent Protagonist Accused of Crime He Didn't Commit"? Twitter / gruber (2010-03-25).

View tweets tagged “Don’t Give Them Any Ideas” …

Domestic Abuse. Daily Brickbats (2010-03-24):

In Canada, Yaowei Wu says Vancouver police dragged him from his home and beat him without provocation. The police were investigating a domestic abuse report but had gone to the wrong address. Police originally claimed he resisted arrest but later said that wasn’t true.

You got served and protected. (Cont’d.)

!!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;No Dashes or Spaces' Hall of Shame. Daring Fireball (2010-03-24):

Calling out sites that force you to enter, say, credit card numbers, in a precise format, even though removing things like spaces and dashes is programmatically trivial. (Via Sarah Harrison.)  â˜… 

There is no reason ever to force your user to remove spaces or dashes from a credit card number or a phone number. Not being able to s/[^0-9]+// is sheer barbarism.