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In response to the RIAA and MPAA’s campaign against file-sharing, the University of Kansas has announced a stringent policy for students found sharing copyrighted content on the university network. Students fingered for file-sharing would be kicked off of the residence hall network, although they would still be able to use campus computer labs.

A brief notice on the University of Kansas ResNet site explains the university’s new position very succinctly. “If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever,” reads the notice. “No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.” Presumably, the University is referring to illegally downloaded copyrighted material, as there is plenty of copyrighted material that can be downloaded legally.

There is indeed. Actually, at the bottom of the page with the policy:

Copyright © 2007 by the University of Kansas

So any student reading the policy will be kicked off.

And even if they don’t, how long before somebody sends a copyright infringement claim to all students on campus? No excuses, so “the claim is false” is not a valid way to prevent the college from cutting you off.

I wonder, did anybody actually attempt to think this thing through at any point in time?

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This picture, available in greater detail here, comes to us from Sid on Proudmoore.

Apparently, a certain gold seller got creative when trying to figure out ways to advertise past Blizzard’s spam filter. The gold farmers created hundreds of identical level 1 gnomes, postion-hacked them into mid-air, and let them fall to certain doom in a way that spelled out the web address of their gold-selling site, which I’m not going to name here because I don’t want anyone to get keylogged or anything. Looks like they’ve lost part of their “W”, though. Players on Arthas, Frostmane and Eitrigg have reported the same tactic by different companies.
[..]

What’s next? Raids made of gnomes whose names, read in conjunction, make up an advertisement, kind of like those old Burma Shave signs?

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Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety. This year’s creation — a pair of grassy reproductions of famous woodblock prints from Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji — has begun to appear (above). It will be visible until the rice is harvested in September.

Previous years can be seen at the link…

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Spanish police were ordered to raid newsagents across the country yesterday to remove copies of a satirical magazine deemed to have offended the country’s royal family by publishing a cartoon of the heir to the throne having sex.

The cartoon on the front cover of El Jueves magazine showed Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia in the midst of an ardent session of love-making.

A speech bubble issuing from the prince’s mouth makes a joke about the amount of work done by the royal family and a government decision to give families €2,500 (£1,680) for each new child.

“Do you realise what it will mean if you get pregnant?” the prince asks. “This is going to be the closest thing to work that I’ve ever done.”

Adn to show you that the book burners never seem to get the message that trying to ban something will give it more publicity, here’s the cartoon you would otherwise never have seen or cared about:

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This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.

The voters could elect 59 bandana-wearing revolutionaries into the Senate with a mandate to clean house from top to bottom — and as long as the Republicans maintain voting discipline they can just say “Um, no” and nothing will happen.

Lesson for future leaders: all you need to control the entire American government is 1 President, 5 SC Justices and 26 Senators.

Remember the good old days, when obstructionism was so obviously unconstitutional that it required a nuclear response.

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Gartner released a $95 report last week entitled “iPhone First-Generation Security Is Too Weak for Enterprises”. A DF reader forwarded a copy. It includes gems like:

Client virtual private network (VPN) choices are not mainstream, and e-mail choices are
not business-quality options.

IMAP over SSL is not a “business-quality” option? Jiminy.

Gartner believes that critical malware aimed at the iPhone will appear within weeks of its release;

I will take that bet.

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An open letter to people who wear those Bluetooth headsets that blink:

In case you haven’t noticed, your eyes are actually located in front of your ears.

So that blue light that blinks incessantly can’t actually be seen by you. The rest of us, however, do see it. And it annoys us. Stop.

“But how else will I impress the ladies?” you ask. I suggest purchasing some of those rims that keep on spinning after you stop.