humor: September 2007 Archives

Hat tip to Peter Black for blogging about the Family Guy clip that featured at the recent Emmy awards:



It bears some striking similarities to a much earlier Family Guy gag, this time aimed at the FCC:



I'm slightly disappointed they didn't do something a bit more original for the Emmys, but its still great work.

On Saturday I wrote that SCO had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  Today brings news that SCO are asking the bankruptcy court for permission to hire temps because approximately half their finance and accounting department have quit or been fired, including the resignations of two senior staff with over 10 years at the firm each.

It looks like my previous comparison to the Titanic was more accurate than I initially thought!

The ACCC are bringing proceedings against Telstra, alleging contraventions of ss 52 and 53 of the TPA in Telstra's promotion of their "NextG" network.  Specifically, it is alleged that Telstra have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by representing that the NextG network "covers the entire country" and "has coverage everywhere you need it".  The ACCC are seeking interim injunctions against the advertising.

Telstra, true to form, have accused the ACCC of conspiring against them, saying that:

The ACCC is clearly hand in glove with the Government in doing everything it possibly can to undermine the interests of Telstra shareholders.

and that

This is anti-consumer, anti-investment, petty, regulatory garbage when Telstra is building a world's best mobile network with speeds as fast as any equivalent network in the world.

If Telstra dig the hole they're in any deeper, they'll be swimming in magma.

A few months ago, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor blogged as follows:

As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:

The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne's record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).

By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: "It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy."

So... I guess as a reward for being a "true fan" you get ripped off.

This got a lot of media attention, including from Rolling Stone Magazine.

At a live concert in Sydney on 16 September, Reznor had this to say (I've sanitised the not-safe-for-work language):

Last time I was here, I was doing a lot of complaining about the ridiculous prices of CDs down here. And that story got picked up and got carried all around the world and now my record label all around the world hates me, because I yelled at them, I called them out for being greedy [verb]ing [noun]holes.

I didn't get a chance to check, has the price come down at all?

[Chorus of "no!"'s from the crowd]

I see a no, a no, a no... Has anyone seen the price come down?

[Another chorus of "no!"'s from the crowd]

Okay, well, you know what that means - STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or another these [noun]s will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that that's not right.

[Cheers from the crowd]

I probably didn't make any friends by saying that...

Another nail in the coffin of "we're protecting the artists" / "we're acting in the artist's best interests"?  Authorisation of infringement?  Yes on both counts.

A bootleg video from the concert, posted on youtube, is available below.  To the extent that me embedding it constitutes "stealing", Trent Reznor told me to do it.

Groklaw reports that SCO (i.e. "we own linux!  you pay now!") has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, ahead of an inevitable crushing defeat in their ill-fated litigation against Novell.  The trial, which was due to continue on Monday, is now suspended.  Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?  Time will tell.

For your viewing pleasure, I present to you three utterly hilarious parodies of those insanely annoying "you wouldn't steal a car"-type "piracy" warnings that invariably appear on DVDs and in cinemas.  The parodies were produced by /for the University of Sydney law revue 2007, and a big hat-tip to Abi Paramaguru from the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre for bringing them to my notice on their House of Commons blog.

[Update: I originally misidentified the clips as being from the University of NSW law review, instead of University of Sydney.  Apologies to the people at University of Sydney who put them together, and props for their fantastic work.]

Parody 1: You wouldn't deprecate your friend's chose in action



Parody 2: Over-the-top examples -- they're a crime



Parody 3: Finally, some real pirates.

How is the Public Notices section of a newspaper like an End User Licence Agreement?

1. Nobody reads them
2. They're full of legalese
3. Sometimes they descend into mumbo-jumbo
4. Occasionally they're amusing
5. They can both be associated with someone getting royally scammed.

Today, while stuck on public transport and bored out of my skull, I read through the public notices section of an abandoned copy of the Brisbane Courier Mail.  On page 63, there was a notice which I reproduce verbatim below, with the exception of the phone number:

COPYRIGHT: All rights reserved re common-law copyright of tradename / trademark, MARGARET ALTHEA MORRIS, as well as any and all derivatives and variations in the spelling of said tradename / trademark - Common Law Copyright 1975-3000 by Margaret-Althea :Morris.  For terms and conditions of use, call [phone number redacted] and ask for: Margaret-Althea :Morris.

Rrrrrrrrrrrright.