Well, if you think $6000 is a good deal, I've got an even better one: I'll print out some "carbon credit" certificates on my laser printer and mail them to you for only $500. My certificate program does just as much good for the planet as what these scammers are doing, and is a great bargain at less than 1/10th the price! Hurry up, they're going fast and we have so little time to save the environment!

#2 / #8 : I was thinking exactly the same thing, I couldn't believe what my 10 x 6 inch eyes were telling me.

Those of you interested in a legal perspective on the copyright issues might want to have a look at this article published back in March, called Harry Potter and the Deathly Lawsuit.

A sample: "Even if the court concludes that the Lexicon used a significant amount of Rowling’s work, they will question whether the Lexicon uses Rowling’s raw material to create new information, insight, or understanding. If the Lexicon adds value or creates new meaning out of the Harry Potter works, a court will likely deem the Lexicon to be “transformative.” Transformative works are protected under the fair use doctrine, as the new product created from the copyrighted material is seen to add to the “enrichment of society.” "

Disclaimer: written not by lawyers, but by law students at the University of Oregon... and this is shameless self-promotion, because even though I didn't work on this particular article, I've written a bunch of other stuff at the same site.

#20: wish we got more of that here. Might keep the jesus-freaks from trying to take over the school systems.

You still think perjury is a crime? How... quaint.

booooo to the first comment- Spongebob is awesome, and has plenty of sub-cultural references. I'm 31 years old, and I think it's probably the best children's programming on TV. Certainly much better than whatever power rangers derivitave is currently running.

Yes, you should force your kids to watch all of the old 'muppet show' episodes. And you should probably force them to watch all the coyote / road runner 'toons as well- no child's understanding of physics is complete without ACME catapults.

Silly boingboing! Kids don't have rights.

"we would regard it as unthinkable to impose on phone companies a legal obligation to monitor every conversation."

That's right! If we made the phone companies monitor calls, all those poor guys at the NSA would be out of a job...

I am absolutely shocked, shocked that Dick Cheney would tell lies to the American people so that he could steal natural resources, murder innocent civilians, and destroy the sovereignty of an oil-rich nation.

shocked. really. Never saw it coming. I mean, it's not like he has a history of abusing power to further his own interests, or exhibiting poor judgment like driving drunk or working for Richard Nixon.

Nobody could have predicted this.

#13 ken: "One component that was easy to get by screeners is liquid explosives, so now they limit the amount of liquid a single person can carry on the plan in carry-on baggage."

This is a myth. There is no risk from "liquid explosives."

Really, 35 TB? How long would it take to rip and seed all those CDs?

Just for comparison, does anyone know how much music pandora.com claims to have?

hah, sorry Guysmiley, didn't see yours when I submitted mine.

But you gotta admit, they do have a point. I mean, if you let women ref for boys' basketball games, next thing you know they're going to want to vote, or own property, or get a driver's license...

Oh yeah, that's going to go over well.

Living in Kansas: like a visit to the 19th Century