Boycott the 9News Website please.

I'm asking my friends and family to help me boycott 9news and more specifically, their website.

Not quite a month ago, KUSA-TV's website, 9news.com, implemented a policy where they've inserted a form requesting demographics data into all their links. If you don't fill out the form, you can't read their newsstories.

The form is innocuous enough, all it asks for is zip, age and gender. My problem with their form is that it provides no opt out. You either provide the data, whether accurate or false, or you don't read the story.

There are additional, technical problems with the form as well - it leaves a cookie on your computer. If, for some reason, you are behind a firewall, or have your privacy settings set to block cookies, it will ask you for the data EVERY time.

Right after they implemented this policy, I contacted 9news protesting it. I was told that they implemented this because their advertisers were looking for better demographics data, and that they had been instructed by the coporate powers to implement it. For the next two weeks, I escalated the issue, contacting their corporate master, Gannett (who never bothered to reply), and several of their advertisers, finally culminating with a phone call from Mark Cornetta, 9News' General Manager.

During my phone call, I stressed to Mr. Cornetta that my objection wasn't with them asking for the data themselves, but that they provided for no opt out mechanism. I completely understand wanting demographics info. And the data they want is not really that big of of a deal. But with no opt out mechanism, you are forced to fill out a form that leaves data in a cookie on your computer. While the data itself isn't really personally identifiable, when combined with other cookies on your computer, could help a hacker learn more about you than you care to let them know.

And I actually don't mind providing the data to them. What I'm objecting to is their demand for it. I would voluntarily provide the info in a survey form, or even with an opt out mechanism. I just don't like being forced to make the choice of provide or don't use.

It's now been over a week since my conversation with Mr Cornetta, and nothing has changed. While I've moved on to using other news sites, and mostly watching other channels now, I've decided that I either need to take a stand now, or possibly see the other stations and news outlets in the Denver area try this. At this point, the 9news website is the only Denver TV or Newspaper website that has done this. If it becomes accepted at 9news, how much longer until all the other stations do this as well? And how much longer after that will they require you to register with a name and password on their site, so they can collect even more personally identifiable information?

So I ask my friends and family (and any other readers of this blog) to join me in boycotting the 9news website in particular, and KUSA and Gannett in general.

Digital Rights Management

So about a year ago I paid for and downloaded a bunch of music from
Wal-Mart's online music store. I enjoyed the music for awhile. It was nice,
$0.99 a song, and I got songs I liked without having to buy a whole album.

I will not be doing that any more.

Why?

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, as they like to call it, treats the
common consumer like a thief.

Earlier this year I had to replace my PC - the old one bit the pooch. I
discovered after finishing installing all my software and transfering what
files I could salvage that none of my Wal-Mart downloaded music would work.
Further more, I found that it wouldn't play on my new PDA, either - and
worse, because I resynced my old PDA to the new computer as well, the music
wouldn't play there, either. And Wal-Mart (nor any other online music
service, apparently) won't transfer the license over to my new PC.

It was like buying some CDs, then throwing them in the fireplace.

You know what? I respect intellectual property. I've ripped MP3s from
virtually every CD in my collection, and I play them regularly on my PC or
my PDA. If I want to pop the SD card into my computer at work and listen to
MY music, I can. But if someone asks me for a copy of a song, I tell them
what album they can find it on. I don't copy it for them, I don't make it
available online for peer to peer network sharing.

But with DRM "protected" music, I don't even have the freedom to play the
music where I want to. Nope, DRM assumes that if I put the SD card with the
protected MP3 into another computer that I must be doing something illegal.
It's like telling me that I can only play a CD or Album I bought on certain
pieces of audio equipment.

I am not a thief, and I do not like being treated like one. And most people
are like me - make it easy to be honest, and they will be - treat them like
thieves, and they will be.

I predict that the downloaded music industry and DRM will have a big fallout
once Windows Vista is released. Suddenly you'll have droves of people
upgrading, and who knows whether their DRM protected music will go with the
upgrade or not. And what happens when the millions of iPods start breaking
down?

I recommend that all these greedy music companies and bands look at the
model that Baen Books is using for their eBooks. They are actually giving
away free, yes, FREE, ebooks with no DRM, and they are making money at it.
None of the eBooks they have for sale have DRM either, and, even more
importantly, they are charging _less_ for their ebooks than companies like
Amazon are. I can buy three ebooks w/o DRM from Baen for the cost of one
ebook w/ DRM at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

That's why I don't buy eBooks from anyone else but Baen. They trust me as a
person, and I, in turn, support them with my hard earned $$$. Give me a
music producer that does the same, and I'll do the same for them.

But then, why chouldn't the record companies assume everyone is a thief?
Look what they've been doing to artists for years - stealing from them. Why
else would so many big stars of the 50s and 60s have no money now?

The US a police state?

<sigh>

Our government is slowly turning into a police state. If we, as Americans,
aren't careful, we will be turning our liberties over to a government that
cares for nothing but power.

The sad thing is about it is how freely we are doing this. The Patriot Act
is only the first step, my friends. Have you been paying attention to the
way the government is handling the detainees from Afghanistan down in Cuba?
Dozens of men are still being detained there who have never been charged
with a crime.

"But!" you say "They are terrorists."

To which I say: "Send them to trial." We can not, no, we MUST not deny men
their civil liberities under our laws simply because they are the enemy.
That is yet another step on the road to a police state.

It goes further, and it's right in our own backyards. Home Owner's
Associations, Anti-Smoking Laws, Child seat, and Helmet Laws. Hell, you've
got more rights to fight a murder charge than you do a speeding ticket and
or a charge from your HOA that you left your garbage cans out.

Wake up America!

"But," you say "I'm only one person, how can I stop this?"

One person can't stop this, we have to work together. There are political
parties that want to make sure we don't lose our liberties. And they aren't
the Republicans or Democrats. They are small, but growing parties. Look into
them. If you can't find any, ask me, I'll point a couple out. These people
aren't wacko, or weird. They are dedicated to improving our way of life, and
ensuring our freedoms.

The next presidential election is two years away. If droves of Democratic
and Republican supporters suddenly register to vote as one of these parties,
not only will the smaller parties benefit, but the major parties will stand
up and take notice. You can bet any congressman, democrat or republican who
finds that 12% of his district suddenly registered to vote a third party is
going to modify his views to be a closer match to those of the smaller
party.

Service costs....

If you are a CEO, or CFO, or any type of business manager who is looking at
your service costs, and wondering why they are spiraling out of control, I'd
simply like to suggest that you look at your engineering department for the
answers. In my experience, a good three-fourths of warranty service issues
are directly related to engineering issues. But of course, the service
department is left holding the bag...

Just some random thoughts:

To the president of Iran:

Israel has been a sovereign state longer than you've been alive. What gives
you more right to exist that it does? Shut up and stop worrying about
Israel. We'd have fewer problems in this world if the religious fanatics
(Jewish, Christian and Muslim) would all just shut up and let things be.

The mayor of New Orleans:

Is spending billions of dollars to restore a levy system that ultimately
didn't protect your city really the right thing to do? How about just flat
out condeming the land and returning it to it's natural state? Yeah, I know
some people who lived there would have to be displaced, but the funds being
spent on the levy system could be used to help them out instead. Ultimately
returning a lot of that land to it's natural state would provide more
protection for New Orleans anyway. Quit talking aobut your "Trinity" and
stop spending my money for your political gain.

To Microsoft:

Thanks for the initial problems with your X-Box 360. It's nice to know that
even the big guys can ship products with problems.

To President Bush and the CIA:

If this CIA secret prison scandal is true, it's no wonder the rest of the
world hates us. If it's true, the United States needs to come clean about it
NOW, and EVERYONE involved needs to be fired and/or go to trial.

You cannot set a shining example of morality and justice by violating your
own principles. What happened to the philosophy of innocent before proven
guilty? What happened to freedom and justice? Sure, a few bad guys might get
away if we follow the established extradition procedures, but that makes our
other legal actions in hunting them down more justified.

Boycott Sony Music

In case you haven't heard, Sony really screwed the pooch by trying to hide
some malicous anti-copying software on several of their CDs. See
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php for more exact info.

I'd like to add my two cents to this as well:

Don't buy my music CDs from Sony - you could end up creating some major
problems with your computer if you try and play it there - and open yourself
up to exploitation by hackers.

We also need to teach these big companies that treating the average consumer
like a common thief will hurt them more than the lost sales of a pirated CD.
I do not condone the illegal copying and sharing of music, however, I do
feel I have a right to buy a CD and then distribute it to my various MP3
players and CD players in my cars and house, and/or create custom mix CDs.
This malicous anti-piracy software Sony hid on their CDs not only prevents
me from doing that, it opens up a potential security breach in my computer.
Now how ethical is that?

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/183 - Release Date: 11/25/2005

Complaint: Lack of service and support

To whom it may concern:

I am not happy with Neuron Electronics Inc right now. I am having problems
with your push-pull card reader product, can't get support, and can't even
get my orders filled in a timely fashion.

Phone calls to your California office go unanswered, without call backs when
I leave a message, or when I actually do get to talk to a live person (a
miracle, I might add), I get excuses. Even attempts to contact the very
email address I'm writing right now tend to bounce as undeliverable.

I need status on a purchase order I place in August. My Inventory Clerk is
still waiting for a call back to get some RMA's issued for defective card
readers. She has been trying to get that RMA for two weeks now. NO answers
via email OR phone.

The ONLY reason I am continuing to do business with Neuron is because the
original design engineer specified a MCR930F-2R5001 as the card reader our
teller would use. It's physically configured for your lousy card reader, and
I have a hundred units out there that are still configured for it.

We've already gone and redesigned our newest tellers NOT to use your card
reader. Unfortunately, I'm stuck buying your card reader as long as those
hundred units still exist, or until I can find another push-pull unit that's
physically compatible with yours. So like it or not, we have to do business
with each other. Now, you can step up to the plate and fix what's wrong so I
can get support and product in a timely fashion, or you can continue to get
ranting emails and chewed out every time I actually do get to talk to
someone.

It's your call.