ACTA is a trade agreement and treaty between many nations (most except the usual suspects), which seeks to define and redefine the nature of copyright works, distribution, and such. It’s a complex subject, best covered in this article. It has far reaching implications, and the one that has the vocal minority of moochers and file traders upset is provisions for a “3 strikes” or similar structure that would require ISPs to be a little more diligent about what their networks are used for.

In simple terms, the current internet is a wild west scenario. Everyone has a horse, a gun, and a covering over their face so nobody can recognize them, and many choose to use this to steal from others. They will say it isn’t stealing, just “copying”, but in the end, they have something of value without having either paid for it or having the rights to it, which in most people’s worlds is either stealing or receiving stolen property. Either way, there is a small but vocal part of the internet user community that is concerned that ACTA will pull away their masks and leave them exposed, suddenly unable to do all the “free” things they have been doing before.

News flash for the freeloaders: If you cannot do it in the real world, why the heck should you be allowed to do it online? You cannot carry your laptop into Best Buy, open a DVD, and make a copy for yourself and leave, why should you be allowed to do it online? Worse why should you have anonymous protection to do it online, with the ISP standing in the way shielding you? It is insane to think that basic acts which would be illegal in person in the real world should suddenly become legal because you can do it remotely.

Too bad for those who would mooch everything and pay for nothing: The free ride may be coming to an end.

As I mentioned back in April, it was getting clear that it was time for Larry King to Retire. While I am sure that my blog entry made not a wit of difference to the old guy, I think that time and reality have finally caught up to Mr King. He announced this week that he will be retiring from his show after 25 years (about 10 years too many, many people think), and will only appear on the air for special events and whatnot.

The bad news is that, just like that persistant old person fug that must be in the air of his studio, Larry King will linger until November, effectively killing CNN in the rating for another season. Instead of being a gentleman and stepping down before the start of the new broadcast season, he will linger on, much to the delight of Faux News and MSNBC.

Replacement? Well, the one tapped at this point as likely to get the job is Piers Morgan, currently a judge on Americas Got Talent. This of course assumes that CNN will continue to run a 9PM snoozer interview show, forever damning their viewership to drop. I am personally hoping that if they go with another interview / talker show, that they push it later and stack it up against Leno and such, giving us perhaps a more news oriented talk option at 11, and allowing stars like Anderson Cooper to bring their in depth news coverage into prime time where it belongs.

Illegal file sharing fans are in a funk the last little while following the Grokster decision and rulings against major player The Pirate Bay, and now they have more to be concerned about. In a decision handed down in US Federal Court this week, Judge Wood ruled Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition.

This decision is a real key for music and movie industry types who have been fighting mostly a losing battle against torrents, file traders, and sharing sites. The Grokster decision from the US Supreme Court pretty much set the scene for this ruling, making it clear that sites or companies that encourage or induce people to violate copyright are themselves responsible. The LimeWire case goes one step further in a sense, making the founder mark Gorton personally responsible, and not protected by his LLC that actually distributes the software.

This is an interesting case also because it confirmed that the Grokster decision can stand next to the original Betamax Decision, which declared VCRs and similar devices legal because they had signfiicant non-infringing uses. While P2P can be uses for non-infringing activities, such as sharing unix distributions and WoW patches, the reality is that pretty much every torrent or P2P gudie site is packed full of obviously infringing materials.

These rulings may also have an effect long term on the outcome of the Viacom v YouTube case. Clearly, YouTube has claimed their stake on the internet with very lax rules regarding use submitted content, but they have also moved (after other cases) to put in filtering and are fairly prompt to handle DMCA notifications from copyright holders. But many also feel that YouTube grew from nothing to the largest video sharing platform by using copyright violating materials, and items submitted to the court shows that YouTube founders were apparently aware of this and may even have encouraged it to grow the site. The use of clips of popular TV shows like Family Guy and other prime time staples were common in YouTube early years.

With a Surpreme Court ruling and now the LimeWire decision in a Federal Court, it appears that the pendulum is swinging back towards rights holders on these issues. Will it stay that way?

While he is mostly not wrong (such as with the problems of illegal immigration in the US), his last few years have been marked with repeat returns to the same themes, often appearing to fill quiet news days with illegal immigration outrage stories that were often puffed up to make them bigger than they seem. Some people have suggested this has come as CNN has tried harder to compete with Fox news on the “strident shill” level, which is something that more liberal media seems very poor at doing. Instead of coming out as the champion of the average guy, Lou Dobbs started to come across to me more and more as someone with an axe to grind rather than a series of solutions. Certainly, his inferences that President Obama may not be American enough to be President didn’t win him any fans.

Lou Dobbs hasn’t said where is going to next, but he will still be on syndicated radio and is “looking at his options”. Some have suggested that he might end up at Faux News, where a strident axe grinding attitude seems to go over better. Read more of the story here.

It’s almost a traditional thing now, the Tom Cruise dead rumors seem to come up about two or three times a year, more often when he is doing something nutty. Recent stories have peopel from inside his camp reporting on his weeks of trying to use his Scientology powers to dominate door knobs and other inanimate objects. It’s sort of up there with his classic jump around on Oprah thing. Whatever the deal, there is no truth to Tom Cruise having a heart attack, Tom Cruise falling off a building, Tom Cruise falling off a cliff, or Tom Cruise dying in some other manner, at least not yet.

Xenu must wait another day, I guess.

It has sort of made the last 10 days or so a living hell for Cramer, who has had his very confident and very secure exterior covering ripped on in the media, and his appearance on the Daily Show last night has done him no favors. Stewart threw all sorts of slings and arrows, and Cramer got hit with most of them without much of a protest. Running cats and dogs on the screen behind the interview was a nice touch.

Read more about it here.

While there are plenty of implications here politically, it is actually a pretty shrewed move. If Cuba ends up a little more dependant on the US (specifically for food and for business) they might not be quite so likely to lean on Hugo Chavez for support. Chavez is having his own problems with a downturn in the oil market, and it might be the perfect time to move Cuba a little closer politically to the US. It would also be generally a popular move, allowing cuban americans to possibly see family back in Cuba or to help them out financially without having to risk prosecution. For Cuba, it would potentially open up a huge tourist market that has been barred from visiting the island nation. Potentially, oil and gas companies may want to work with Cuba to develop it’s resources.

Read the full story here.

EVI USA is a company that has been working on the whole concept of building delivery trucks that run entirely on electricity, or as mostly electric hybrids. Their smaller trucks look a little like glorified golf carts, but their full size light truck actually looks like it might be practical. The suggested all electric range for these trucks is about 60 miles, which while it doesn’t sound like a big number, is much more than many delivery trucks do in a day as it is. Because of heavy traffic and such, delivery trucks may run most of an 8 hour shift and yet only move 30 or 40 miles total. Shifting these sorts of delivery trucks to electric would eliminate a lot of exhaust gases from the city air, and allow for some very impressive fuel savings. For extended range, they have options for a CNG engine. I am not sure if the truck runs on it or that it powers a generator. It would certainly offer a failsafe for companies that might push the limits of the batteries. While fuel prices are currently lower than they have been, we don’t have to look to far back to find outrageous gas prices.

I am particularly impressed by this setup because this is one of the first times I am seeing a practical use for electric cars that would start a process of moving towards non-oil based transport. It would also help to justify the creation of “filling stations” or other methods to recharge electric cars in the future, and to get those sorts of systems widely installed. Read more about it here.

The most popular site for news was the news.yahoo.com site, followed by the weather channel and cnn. I was unable to spot my blog on the list, but I am sure I am just bubbling under!