Need To Know 2002-02-15

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"His larger fear is that the best job of his life - writing for The Spot - is behind him, and his career will be a string of boring jobs..." - ZDNET fondly remembers the "good old days" http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-832615.html ...and they say there's no justice in the world >> HARD NEWS << LL's not cool After months deliberating exactly how much illegal content a newsgroup should have before it's banned [NTK 2000-11-17], the INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION has, suddenly, taken a brand new tack. At a board meeting this week, chair Roger Darlington cut through the waffle, and proposed that any newsgroup whose very name *sounded* illicit should be removed. He refused any debate on this policy, pressed for a vote, and won. And so, to celebrate the IWF's fifth birthday, an unknown set of newsgroups, whose crime is not to harbour illicit content but merely give the impression they *might*, are dissappearing from British spools. A little ironic birthday present for the IWF, an organisation that was founded to stop a similiar blanket blacklisting by the Metropolitan police back in 1997. As if by magic, IWF's board members are disappearing too. Malcolm Hutty, of the Campaign against Censorship of the Internet in Britain, quit in protest at the meeting. He joins Demon's representative, Clive Feather, who resigned in December saying - like Hutty - that he felt that proper scrutiny was being perceived as unhelpful by the organisation. Ruth Dixon, the deputy Chief Executive and one of the original founders, handed her notice this week too. Left on board are the new IWF: a bloc of child protection experts (including John Carr, no stranger to NTK readers), Peter Robbins - a new CEO who is an ex-Met ex-obscene publications squad copper himself - and a very nervous set of ISP representatives, facing a coup in their own industry body. The new IWF, in a rather pointed press release, says it's seeking to increase its powers, and will be "repositioning" as "a body which protects children as well as ISPs". But what did the old IWF do? Its hotline uncovered thousands of illegal images, and gave the police a valuable data trail to track their origins - unlike the new system, whose bans risk simply hiding the traffic elsewhere. And when the transformation is complete and the newly censorious IWF considers banning all newsgroups containing the word "anime" - as one sub-committee proposal suggested, before Hutty squelched it - who will be around to say no? Who watches the Watch Foundation these days? http://www.iwf.org.uk/about/members.htm - bulletin board http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02000-06-23&l=50#l - - John Carr in full flow http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02000-11-17&l=22#l - the old IWF takes it slowly http://www.liberty.org.uk/cacib/iwfresignation.htm - that resignation note in full http://www.theinquirer.net/15020203.htm - the even longer story So what *would* a Usenet tyranny run by distant overlords who disdainfully smack down their vassal slaves be like, exactly? Well, look no further than uk.people.gothic. Let's start again. Such behaviour *is* perfectly acceptable in u.p.g if performed in moderation in a well-kept village graveyard, but one recent case has proved to be controversially non-consensual. Worse, it involves the dreaded intercession of [thunderclap on soundtrack] the UK.* USENET COMMITTEE. Seems some yukster noticed that the goths are lacking a committee-approved newsgroup charter, set about organising a vote to install one, as required by uk.* Usenet committee rules. Unfortunately, since uk.people.gothic precedes the creation of the omnipotent committee by some years, negotiating whose rules have primacy in the gothosphere means... well, as usual on Usenet, a massive flamewar. You might want to check this one out, given that it involves committee matters of procedure, the genteel senior citizens of u.p.g. attacking the "young rebellious upstart newcommers" of the committee, legalistic time-travel, Goth Rights, and the everpresent unspoken threat of Control, the uk.* Usenet committee's splendid seven foot high robot master. It also shows what Usenet governance is *supposed* to look like. Anarchic, pedantic, transparent and - ultimately, despite the worries - more consensual than you'd guess. Or, possibly, can stand. http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=3c693418.756897644%40news.demon.co.uk - the trusty slippers of fair play We do have a government-mandated weekly limit on headachey civil liberty stories, so we're going to bounce our eagerly awaited analysis of the EUCD, Europe's DMCA, until next week. But don't forget - there's an informal seminar on the EUCD's legal implications and vulnerabilities, organised by those Campaign for Digital Rights troublemakers, taking place next Saturday afternoon 2001-02-23 in Cambridge (to be followed by a national tour - well, London and Edinburgh, at least). Open source enthusiasts, music fans, and anyone with an interest in opposing EU legal directives will be more than welcome - although, due to the "white hat" nature of the proceedings, delegates are politely reminded that they should not swap warez and VCDs - or indeed mod-chip any PlayStations - while attending the (currently undisclosed) venue. http://uk.eurorights.org/miniconf/ - please RSVP in advance, specifying favourite real ale http://www.actionaid.org/ourpriorities/foodrights/foodrights.shtml - chipping: the clampdown continues >> ANTI-NEWS << berating the obvious EDS' gardening skills to give Jaguar team "competitive hedge": http://www.itv-f1.com/news/news_story/9144 ... just the sort of free-spirited education the NEW STATESMAN is looking for: http://www.consider.net/nominate2002.php3?Action=Specific&URN=http:// ... top of the Enterprise-wide Risk Management "case studies": http://www.business-minds.com/detail.asp?item=100000000012954 ... BBC reveals hitherto-unsuspected Republican sympathies: http://www.ntk.net/2002/02/15/dohlife.png ... GUARDIAN goes all pro-war: http://www.ntk.net/2002/02/15/dohgo.png ... don't forget all those DOS users: http://news.bbc.co.uk/tmp.txt ... http://www.totalise.net/ small print forbids "downloading and printing out any web pages"; http://www.sitescope.co.uk/ generously permits you to "make one electronically stored, transient copy of the Content solely for the purpose of viewing it"... The Case Of The *Double* Missing Millions: http://www.ntk.net/2002/02/15/dohpound.png ... taste my breadcrumbs!: http://www.ntk.net/2002/02/15/dohbread.png ... what part of "Must have previous experience" don't you understand?: http://www.apexcr.com/en/1/advertdisplay.mxs?3304 ... cracks appear in glorious old VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM facade: http://www2.vam.ac.uk/ ... inappropriate google ad: http://www.google.com/search?q=controlled+flight+into+terrain ... glossing over recent cutbacks, BA place leading questions in market research: http://www.ntk.net/2002/02/15/dohba.png ... >> EVENT QUEUE << goto's considered non-harmful You've got to credit an event whose two principal panels are called "Money: Do We Need It?" and "Legality: Could We Be In Trouble?", but still charges $65 and holds itself in that monument to draconian club licensing regulations, JWZ's DNA Lounge, San Francisco. CODECON 2002 - it's a long weekend of P2P cypherpunkitude, working code, heady brainstorming, and all the best bits of the subsequent RSA conference, without that tedious marketing crap. It won't get you a job, but nothing will these days - so you might as well go back to changing the world. http://www.codecon.org/ - social value redeemable only in anonymised pseudo-currency http://www.rsaconference.com/ - opening new windows like a goddamn X10 surveillance STATE! http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2001/12-real.html - home of the real-life doh... >> TRACKING << sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering Okay, so we don't think shaped Microsoft windows are quite as unique as the author thinks they are and the 50,000 lines of C++ sounds like a fib, but the remapping of the mouse pointer, blitting of the HTML rendered pages, and highlight shading are nice hacks, it doesn't install any adware AFAWCS, and you completely forgot about Valentine's didn't you, you idiot? Didn't you? Well, thank goodness there are young men in Bagshot writing mini heart-shaped browsers you can pretend you wrote for your beloved. http://www.banana3.com/ - god i hope this isn't a demo-scene virus or something >> MEMEPOOL << ceci n'est pas une http://www.gagpipe.com/ World Trade Center movie about "two fractured people who found each other late in life and enjoyed a storybook romance": http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/film/newsid_1818000/1818049.stm vs "they kick and scream and fly through the air in an unbelievably cool way": http://www.tachyon-tv.co.uk/news.htm ... http://brunching.com/toys/oralsexdonation.html imitates http://www.mccullagh.org/image/9/blowjobs-for-the-needy.html ... seller "not responsible" for any loss of "immortal souls": http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1702576447 ... or are biologists just more susceptible to urban legends?: http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Chemistry/Original/c00082d.html vs http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Biology/9701/b00701d.html ... FAO Patrick O'Brian fans - before you get press-ganged: http://www.tallshipnewswire.com/jscript/article.php3?id=758 ... http://www.lindkvist.com/digitaldataporn/xxx.html vs new IMAC discovering what CD-ROM tray is for (left-hand pic): http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/newimac.html ... Macs just big "Game Boys": http://www.4bitterguys.com/rants/officegba/ ... deriving general evolutionary principles from failed past relationships: http://magnus.huckvale.net/2002/valentines/ ... dividing the cast lists of every movie you see into "the sexiest, the knight, and the one I'd most likely end up with": http://www.livejournal.com/users/cassieclaire/ ... >> GEEK MEDIA << commemorating the "return" of http://www.tvgohome.com/ TV>> FRASIER (10pm, Fri, C4) swaps "emotional" for "technical" support when Bill Gates guests on the 200th episode... without warning, Zoe Ball returns to our screens in "Friendsreunited Like These" gameshow CLASS OF (9pm, Sat, BBC2), plus regularly bland industry-backslapping event THE BRIT AWARDS (8pm, Thu, ITV) - Dido currently front-runner for Poshest Female Singer With Self-Effacing Regular Diary: http://www.dotcock.com/ ... small-town puritan oppression proves no match for Kevin Bacon "kicking off his Sunday shoes" in FOOTLOOSE (9.45pm, Sat, BBC2) ... comedy fans are ill-served by sub-"Airplane"-style spoof JANE AUSTEN'S MAFIA (11.25pm, Sat, BBC1) and recently remade French time-travel slapstick LES VISITEURS (12.45am, Sat, C4) ... and chances are it'll be the canned-laughter US episodes of M*A*S*H (7pm, daily from Sun, Paramount Comedy Channel) rather than the laughtrack-free ones the BBC used to show... coinciding with the fictitious Fresh Prince's Olympic disappearance from the schedules, BBC2 compensates with a UK- set THE REAL FRESH PRINCE (8pm, Sun, BBC2) - "I got in one little fight and my mom got scared/ she said 'You're movin' with your uncle and auntie in Hertfordshire'"... which handily coincides with BEHIND ENEMY LINES: THE REAL CHARLOTTE GRAYS (8pm, Sun, C4)... and, later in the week, The Real "Law And Order: Special Victims Unit" - SEX CRIME INVESTIGATORS (9pm, Thu, C4)... Michelle "Dawson's Creek" Williams blunders into semi-unironic teen horror HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER (10pm, Sun, C4)... SHOOTING STARS (9.30pm, Mon, BBC2) doesn't seem quite as fresh as it first did all those years ago, and ditto for dullsville El Mariachi remake DESPERADO (10pm, Mon, C4)... though fans of the originals will still enjoy scathingly accurate Wayans-brother ghetto-movie parody DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD (12midnight, Mon, C4)... in the absence of those elusive remaining episodes of "Attachments", MANCHILD (10pm, Tue, BBC2) is like "Sex And The City", but with unattractive middle-aged men instead of women... while YOUR NHS DAY (from 6am, Wed, BBC1) features novel interactive options like viewers being able to vote on which sympathy-evoking patient should receive life-saving surgery, and which underperforming hospitals should be bombed into oblivion... FILM>> it's a remake of one of the few Frank Sinatra movies to feature an EMP weapon, featuring Don "Swordfish" Cheadle (uncredited, following criticism of his Cockney accent?), Joshua "Dawson's Creek" Jackson (as himself), "and introducing Julia Roberts, as Tess" - look out for other big-name stars in inoffensively cheesy grown-up plot-free caper comedy OCEAN'S ELEVEN (http://www.capalert.com/capreports/oceans11.htm : planning crime, extensively; at least 11 counts of successful crime; impersonating police officers, multiple; Elliot Gould [plays] the quintessential potty-mouth in this film... and potty-mouthed he was!)... while Will Smith is convincing, but that "When We Were Kings" documentary is still ultimately more informative than staggered-release heavyweight biographical- epic ALI (http://www.screenit.com/movies/2001/ali.html : Bundini states that he sold Ali's championship belt for $500 that he then put up his arm - possibly referring to heroin; the assassins who shoot and kill Malcolm X and Martin Luther King obviously have extreme cases of bad attitudes; some kids could be inspired to imitate Clay/Ali in and out of the ring, including his verbal but humorous taunting of opponents, and his religious/political stances)... >> SMALL PRINT << Need to Know is a useful and interesting UK digest of things that happened last week or might happen next week. You can read it on Friday afternoon or print it out then take it home if you have nothing better to do. It is compiled by NTK from stuff they get sent. Registered at the Post Office as "that's *100%* better, losers!" http://b4ta.com/chthonic/better.asp?w1=ntk&w2=b4ta NEED TO KNOW THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK. Archive - http://www.ntk.net/ Unsubscribe? Mail ntknow-unsubscribe@lists.ntk.net Subscribe? Mail ntknow-subscribe@lists.ntk.net NTK now is supported by UNFORTU.NET, and by you: http://www.ntkmart.com/ (K) 2002 Special Projects. Copying is fine, but include URL: http://www.ntk.net/ Tips, news and gossip to tips@spesh.com All communication is for publication, unless you beg. Press releases from naive PR people to pr@spesh.com Remember: Your work email may be monitored if sending sensitive material. Sending >500KB attachments is forbidden by the Geneva Convention. Your country may be at risk if you fail to comply.