The US Copyright Registry is a company that sends spammy e-mails to webmasters asking if they want their content copyrighted. The prices are extremely high, about ten times the cost of the actual copyright, and they do very little work. While “Scam” may not be the best way to describe the US Copyright Registry, I think we can all agree charging $350 for a $30 copyright is far past the land of sanity and is way into ridiculous-territory.

The thing to remember is the second you write a post on your blog or create a new web page you hold the copyright on it thanks to a lovely creation called the Berne Convention. The only thing registering in the US gets you is the ability to bring forth a lawsuit over copyright infringement. For most blogs and websites in general this is unneeded. I think the only time registration is helpful is for something like an e-book, a chunk of software, a rare photo, etc. Think about it, if you had to sue someone over a stolen blog post would you? What if they stole a program you sell for $30 a pop. Which would make it easier for you to prove you lost profit? Which would be worth missing work over?

Ah yes, and let’s not forget if you can write your name and address you can register your copyright with the U.S. govt. If I remember correctly registration is only about $40.

For a more in depth look at the US Copyright Registry be sure to check out Plagiarism Today.

It doesn’t take long to find dozens of recent news articles about Internet filtering. Nearly every major ISP has at least talked about the issue, but very few of them have made a firm decision. Sometimes they claim they don’t like filtering, but then they turn around and implement packet shaping, which not only hurts Internet power-users but also annoys those who use services like VoIP.

The idea of filtering the ‘net is flawed from the beginning. If it is implemented at the network level (ISP, routers, etc), all a user needs to do is use SSL connections, use a proxy, etc. In the case of packet shaping/bandwidth throttling all they would get is slower speeds, but their data would still download. If some type of software is required to access the Internet that also serves as a filter, no software pirate with half a brain would install it and a workaround would be quickly made. Plus let’s not forget filtering always causes unintended consequences (such as those I listed above).

I remember back during my days of school the administration felt they needed to put blocks on a handful of websites, some of which were good sources of information (I think MSNBC and CNN were two of them). The first block I remembered them installing could be bypassed by putting “%20″ before the protocol declaration in the URL (http://”). The newer filter (possibly the one they still use) could be bypassed by using a basic web proxy. Their filters were easy to bypass. The same is true for newer ones as well. Back in early February Danish ISP Tele2 was ordered to restrict access to The Pirate Bay. The filter was implemented successfully, but from what I understand a workaround was quickly created.

I’m not saying piracy is good, I’m simply saying filtering is not a good solution to the problem. There are always unintended consequences, and there’s always a workaround.

If you have yet to hear about this news, it was announced that Apple Rumor site Think Secret will no longer be published but its owner will do college and continue studying journalism. They posted one too many rumors after writing about some real products quite a while before release - so Apple sued. They have now settled, and as with most lawsuits both parties have lost. However, the blogging community as a whole may have gained something from all of this.

Apple

Think Secret has been around forever. Anyone who is an Apple fan has undoubtedly visited it at least once or twice - and it had a pretty good following among techies in general. Many Apple rumors were released to them, which were published, and would be quickly republished on sites like Mac Rumors. Apple has now lost what is essentially a huge fan site, and while it won’t hurt them for a super long time it will hurt them for quite a while.

Think Secret

Well, the closure of a web site is rarely a good thing, especially if it is popular. As I said above, it had a pretty good fan base who will now have to find another site to flock around (most likely Mac Rumors), if they have not done so already. Some may view the closure as being bad for that reason - yet others may see it as being good, since the site’s owner can now do the college and journalism thing. Hopefully the closure of Think Secret will help protect other blogs, websites, and people from being targets of future Apple lawsuits.

What Does It Mean For The Future?

For starters - a result of the lawsuit over the release of the “headless iMac” (Mac Mini) and iWork information is that online journalists are protected the same way as offline journalists - that means bloggers are now a bit safer.

What do you think, was this whole Apple v. Does lawsuit good or bad?

Well actually… it isn’t really broken - but it is getting close to going *snap*. We got 2 inches of sleet on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I shoveled a bunch of that heavy junk, then we got a ton of snow and had to shovel again. Then I had to help get snow off of the roof. Oh yes, and did I mention the 7 inches of snow we got last night? Yeah…. my back can’t take any more of this for a few days - so it is time to crawl back into my little cave and get back to what matters more than being able to get out of the driveway - blogging!

Oh yeah, and pictures of the snow mounds are coming soon - it ain’t even winter yet the piles are already over 5.5 feet high!

Anyway… I’ll admit I really haven’t checked my RSS reader in over a week, so I am clueless as to what is going on in the blogosphere these days (chances are it is the same ol’ kill the RIAA/MPAA, global warming will kill us all, Microsoft is evil, Linux and Apple are great, etc). However, today I finally dusted off the RSS reader and opened it up and one Digg post popped up right away, “My ISP gave NBC my packet history, and they’re abusing it.”

Basically the post claims his ISP shared access data with NBC - who is abusing the data and trying to scare him for downloading 2 seconds of a movie.

Thankfully the Digg users are smart enough to realize the poster is either maliciously trying to make their ISP and NBC look bad, or that they are simply foolish. Regardless, the story got marked as inaccurate and all is well. This does make me a bit curious though, and it does bring up a common point of criticism of user-gen content - how do you know something is true? How do you know a post on your favorite blog is truthful? How do you know this chunk of news on Digg or Slashdot isn’t completely false?

Over the next one or two weeks this will be the topic of the posts. It isn’t going to be a formal blog series - but it will have a similar feel. I am hoping when all is said and done you begin to think twice before believing something you hear about online - or anywhere for that matter.

Even the smartest Internet users sometimes forget that anyone can post anything online - regardless of whether it is true or false.

Traffic - OUCH!

Well, November was a pretty miserable month. I didn’t get to do anything I wanted to do with this blog because I simply didn’t have enough time. Oh well. I open December with open arms - there is no way it can be as bad as November was. In a nutshell, traffic dropped by about 50%, but subscription is up by a good 20% (nowhere near my predictions - and it could have been much worse… but still… ick). Hopefully this month I will be finishing up my CMS - getting some of my little projects done - and will finally be able to focus on this blog once again.

Is Your Blog GZipped?

Nusuni Dot Com has been gzip compressed for a while now thanks to a nice hack for WP-Cache. Someone asked me why I did this - and this tool answers that question. It saves me 66% of the bandwidth by compressing it. According to the tool, MacBros could save around 76% if he enabled it, Pelf saves around 71%, etc. While compression can put extra stress on the server - it can save quite a bit of bandwidth if used properly.

Top 10 Sexiest Tech Women

Am I the only one who has only heard of like 2 of them? Maybe I don’t follow tech crap enough or something…

Completely Offtopic: Local Man Only Gets 5 Years For Child Sexual Abuse!

OK, this is just disturbing on so many levels. A local man (I live in upstate NY, near Syracuse) was sentenced to… get this…. only 5 years for sexually abusing his 11 year old son! I hope his “buddies” in jail rip him apart. Back in school we had a substitute who used to be a Prison Guard and once said inmates 100% despise child predators and they often get loose and beat the crap out of them. We can only hope the same happens to this fellow. Seriously, WTF?

Digg-Style Voting For Google?

Google, you have answered my prayers! They are experimenting with Digg-style voting functionality for search results! This is something I have kinda wanted for a while now.

Microsoft Loses In Frivolous Patent Suit

It isn’t any secret that I’m not a big fan of patents - especially software patents. This is yet another example of why.

OS Evolution

Isn’t it amazing how little our systems have changed over the years? Back in the 80s we (well, not me.. I was only born in 89… heh) envisioned 3d desktops and little computer watches. What do we have instead? The same thing they had then - dull little icons, windows… and menu bars. Call me in another 20 or when OSes finally evolve a bit.