You know, the bottom one can be arranged to say "depoops". That's kind of dirty.

Also, #2 could be a "tad diky." Or a celebration of "Dikt Day".

Hooray for dirty anagrams!

KILLL THEEMMMMMMM!!!

Ex-Floridian.

IANAL, but the question of sequels &c isn't so much a copyright issue as an intellectual property/trademark issue.

Clearly, if I make a fan-fic sequel to Star Wars, I'm not violating copyright, as I'm not using any parts of the actual original work. I am using Lucas' intellectual property, in the form of worlds, characters and whatnot.

That's why I think Rowling hasn't a case in copyright court, but she could argue intellectual property. The existence of the Potter encyclopedia does two things. It potentially prevents her from profiting off her own intellectual property in a similar way. If this thing exists, it will be more difficult for her to create one of her own & sell it. At the very least you can easily argue that she will suffer reduced sales as some people buy the other product.

Second, it's possible that her property is used in a way she doesn't agree with. For example, if the creators of the encyclopedia add their own interpretations and additions that aren't supported by her or by the text. For example, they might say something like "Potter was engaged in a homosexual, pedophilic relationship with Dumbledore." You could argue that this sort of statement reduces the value of her intellectual property.

In any case, I think we need to distinguish between copyright infringement, which is the appropriation of part (or all) of an implementation of a work, and other forms of intellectual property, such as trademark and, well, the concept of intellectual property.

Peter

Is this only available in the UK? Wanhh.
Peter

Can we all just stop flying and put the airlines out of business already?

Then we can start afresh.

Most of you aren't reading the original post. The guy who left the note had his house FORECLOSED. He had NO IDEA who was going to buy it, so he couldn't contact them any other way. But he knew that the greedy bastards who had sold a mold-infested house to him would likely pick it up off the repo market and resell it to another unfortunately naive couple.

So, he left a note, hidden so it wouldn't be destroyed by said greedy bastards. Nicely done, I think. I suppose he could have swung by and told them personally, but he would have to keep an eye on the house for months. I think he did all right.

Of course, the new couple's inspector should have found the hidden room, if he was doing his job properly, I think. On the other hand, if he's inspecting $75,000 homes, he may not the best in the business.

Still, read the whole article. The previous owner isn't the bastard here.

My problem is, whenever I'm in these situations, I get real nervous because I'm afraid I'm going to look nervous and set off some sort of detection mechanism. It's like a weird form of stage-fright.

Now I'm even more nervous.

Peter

Two words: Mood ring.
Cheaper, and you get retro-cool cache'.

Peter

Huh. At first I thought he was offering an Areola Cherry.

The problem is, at this point, whether it actually happened or not, this is totally believable.

If you had come to me and explained this during Carter's presidency or even Reagan's, I'd be disbelieving.

No way, that's crazy talk.

But now, yeah, I consider it completely possible, even probable. And whether or not it actually happened this way, THAT'S a bad place to have gotten to.

Frankly, I thought it was a malapropic version of Tag Team's '93 hit: Whoomp, There It Is! by Tag Team. Even though the name of the song is "Whoomp!", it sounds like they are saying "Whoot! There it is!" and that's what most people I know say when they hear the song.

I always assumed its genesis was from there. Also, I could swear I've heard it used in crunk music since then as well.

I agree that We Own the Other Team is a backronism. I mean, wouldn't that be WPOT! then?

Maybe it's a confused Nine Inch Nails fan.

Hmmm. I was expected trained aqueous mammals.

Bummer.

For the record, my fascination (never having seen the video) is with the fascination. The same way I'm fascinated with snuff-porn like the Saw series (which I've also never seen). I have no intention of ever seeing any of these things, but the question to me is, why ARE people fascinated with it? And that fascinates me.

I don't understand. I have a good friend named Mohammed. And another guy who works here as well.

I mean, they aren't fuzzy cuddly teddy bears, but neither guy is exactly a religious prophet either.

What's the difference? Is it because it's inanimate?

I mean, clearly naming the bear was done as a tribute to the prophet, if anything, not an insult.

I'm confused.

omigod, that's so much more disgusting than a normal roach. Growing up in Florida, roaches give me the willies. I still remember spending the night in an old guest house behind my cousins and being too freaked out to piss from all the skritching noises they made in the middle of the night.

I think the ones at Heathrow airport were pranksters calling in from their cell phones asking to page people with Arabic sounding names, which, when spoken aloud, said funny things, though some of them were kinda xenophobic (like "Miter bin Ismaelli" or something like that).

To whomever, please go ahead and make a CNN Porn snippet. The problem isn't that Fox does this and others don't. The problem is that Fox pretends to be ABOVE or AGAINST this, appealing to their admittedly conservative audience, which also is supposed to be appalled by stuff like this, and yet, they are as base and crass as any other ratings-oriented news entertainment source.

I'd have no problem with Hustler News covering brothels, spring break or Mardi Gras. They'd be honest about their intentions.

The hypocrisy is the problem.

Look, here's the problem in a nutshell.

Just because one person does something wrong doesn't mean it's okay for everyone to do that same thing.

For example, if one coward hides behind civilians and commits terrorist acts and beheads captives on video tape, that doesn't make it okay for everyone (ie: America) to do the same thing.

Just because they do it, and seem to get away with it, doesn't make it okay. It's still wrong.

And, as the supposed "good guys", the guys who stand for truth, justice and the American way, we need to be fighting the good fight. And by running prisons where we abuse prisoners, sanction torture and disregard the rights of potentially innocent civilians, we are reducing ourselves to the level of the bad guy.

Which is wrong. Or, at the very least ineffective, when your whole reason for engaging in the conflict in the first place was the taking of a moral stand against a corrupt dictator and then abusive terrorists.

It makes it very hard to gain the trust of the world that your intentions are noble when you are behaving ignobly.

I've been suggesting this for years. Everytime I pull up to a toll booth, or get too close to the shoulder, and the car starts to hum, I think "You could make this into a tune".

No lie.

I should have patented it while I had the chance.
Peter

This whole retroactive immunity thing is stupid. I just got a speeding ticket for going 38 in a 25. But, it's a big 4-lane road, I honestly thought it was 35. I told the cop, and he told me it's *my* responsibility as a citizen to know the laws.

"I didn't know" just isn't a valid legal defense, and I'm not sure (well, I *am* $$$ure actually) why our elected body is considering defending these entities, which are at best shirkers and are at worse criminals, traitors and/or co-conspriators.

I see. He was such an a-hole that he forced the conference to change their press access policy from something that was probably open and respectful to something that I'm sure was more annoying, both for the conference and the attendees.

We had a guy like him in high school who was constantly high on acid. He always thought he was totally hilarious, but was completely and utterly annoying. But, now I realize that when he stood up on his desk and jumped on top of the other kids in the middle of history class, he wasn't just a f##king nimrod, he was actually a "comedy terrorist".

Tim seems like a real sweetheart. I'm certainly sorry he's dead.

So... The whole thing is written in second person? Very odd.

"You can opt-out of all of these contracts by choosing not to use this company's service."

===

This works only if (a) you have an option. I currently have no other option for high-speed internet than to use my cable provider. And (b) if the other folks aren't doing it as well. Even I did have 2 or (gasp!) even 3 options, chances are their TOS's are all chock full of such Draconian legal jargon. Sure, I could sign up with Slim Picken's ISP and Live Bait, but I'm thinking that's not really going to solve me problem if Slim is hand-forwarding every one of my packets.

Finally, one of the problems mentioned elsewhere is that AT&T handles a lot of trunk lines, so even if I did go with Slim, he probably contracts with AT&T and I'm still skuh-rewed. Potentially.

Dude, I have no mobile and no blackberry. But yesterday I worked from 6:30 until 4:00 then came home and made house from 4:30 to 11:30. With 5 kids and a working wife, what little time I have is precious. If I can off-shore some of my daily headaches to India for 30 bucks a month, and use that time to play a game with my kids or spend a little quality time on myself, it seems like a no-brainer.

Here's the problem. The problem isn't that Bush is fascist. He's just stupid, paranoid and greedy.

The problem is that he's knocked down walls, so that it's easier for a fascist to step in and further their cause.

The problem with losing your rights is, once you've lost them, you no longer have the right to win them back. Once they're gone, they're gone for good, so I like to defend mine early and often to make sure I don't lose that right.

C'mon. I'm sure you guys are familiar with the idea that we fight over there (early) so we don't have to fight over here (later)?

Casa Bonita has some of the worst food I've ever been served in my entire life. We actually had to go somewhere else to eat after eating dinner there, because there was nothing edible.

The show was lame too. I can see how it appeals to kids in the same way that Chuck E Cheese and Showbiz Pizza appeal to kids. CB was staffed by the same bored teenagers that run the rugrat-infested pizza joints, and it had that same dirty-carny, "who-just-peed-in-here?" atmosphere.

I would heartily un-recommend it, unless you're interested in spending the evening reveling in unrepentant disappoinment and mediocrity.
On the other hand, we got a great story out of it.