Today the guys behind Pirate Bay were sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay not an insignificant amount in damages to various entertainment companies for providing people with a means of illegaly sharing copyrighted material. Where do I start? I could point out that whilst the site can be used to aid illegal file sharing, it can also be used in a perfectly legal and legitimate manner and that this is a dangerous legal precedent to set unless Sweden also plans to start prosecuting gun manufacturers (does Sweden have any gun manufacturers?) for providing people with a means by which to kill someone. I could also point out that there are plenty of other sites that enable users to search out torrents (Google anybody). I think I’ll just settle for the fact that the Pirate Bay lives, an appeal will keep the guys out of prison at least for a while yet, if not permanently and the knowledge that someone somewhere pussied out completely and decided not to prosecute the real criminals, the people actually sharing files illegally.
In contrast to the guys from Pirate Bay, the people at the CIA today discovered that they won’t be prosecuted at all, despite their complicity in the torture of fellow human beings. Nope, they’ve managed to escape completely, despite breaking both American and International laws and wiping their feet on the moral foundations of the “Western world”. Water Boarding, sleep deprivation, Boo boxing (locking someone in a box with bugs, which in this case they didn’t do, they just thought of it), face slapping and wall slamming. Quite a list, isn’t it? You tell me who the biggest douchebag (great word) is, George W Bush for allowing it, the individuals that carried it out, or Barack Obama for simultaneously announcing and denouncing it, whilst also handing out a get-out-of-jail-free card to anyone involved?
Don’t despair though dear reader, this isn’t going to turn into another ranting post about deathbots, no… oh hang on, yes, yes, it is in fact going to turn into another ranting post about deathbots, or Autonomous Rotocraft Sniper Systems (ARSS :-) ) to be exact. Take one unmanned Vigilante helicopter, attach one .338 caliber rifle and use a frankensteined Xbox 360 controller to aim. Nice. At least my dedication to videogames might come in handy!
I suppose that so long as Barack plans to play nice with Cuba and web based companies across the U.K. are telling Phorm to phuck off, some hope remains.
