There is literally nothing better than a sexy, badass lady.
CHING MOTHERFUCKING SHIH
This lady was such a badass, I can’t count the ways, but let’s try.
She got married to an already successful pirate, Zheng Yi, and took over when he died. She was crazy strict to keep an iron fist over her fleet of pirates, and the punishments for stepping out of line were brutal. If you stole or looted from a town that provided assistance or tribute to the pirate fleet, Ching would chop your fucking head off with a battle axe and dump your lifeless body in the ocean. If you stole from the pirate treasury, or she thought you were stealing from the pirate treasury, Ching would chop your fucking head off dump your lifeless body in the ocean. Raping any captured female prisoners was punishable by immediate death. Fuck, if you had consensual sex while on duty you got your head chopped off and the woman was chucked off the boat no matter where they were at. Ching wasn’t fucking around, and she wanted to make damn sure you weren’t fucking around when you should have been working.
Two years after she took over, she got so notorious for ransacking towns and taking taxes on them that she pissed off the entire Chinese government, and sent out a massive fleet to bring her in line. Most pirates probably would’ve said this was out of their pay grade and taken off to hide out or ransack some other country.
Ching Shih said fuck that.
She not only faced them head on, she wiped the floor with them, killing hundreds and capturing sixty-something ships from the Imperial Fleet. Prisoners were given the choice of joining up or being executed on the spot. The Admiral of the Chinese navy, Kwo Lang, was so afraid of being captured by her or going back to admit he’d been beaten by her that he committed suicide.
For the next two years, Ching Shih not only kept on pirating, she fought off Chinese forces as well as Dutch and British warships that the navy called in to help. Finally the government gave up and offered her amnesty as well as amnesty for her then SEVENTEEN THOUSAND crewman. Ching Shih got to keep all her plunder, so she retired to the countryside where she opened up a brothel and lived until she was 69.
tldr: I’ve come to terms with the reality that I’ll never be as terrifyingly badass as this woman was.
(via moomoomeep)
Open #WiFi Owner Not Liable For Illegal #FileSharing, Court Rules
May 15, 2012, by enigmax, via @Blonde_Phantom
Dependant on the side they’re representing, lawyers around the world have taken opposing stances when it comes to liability for infringement via open WiFi. When representing plaintiffs they speak of ‘a duty of care’ to rightsholders and when defending Internet users they insist that holding individuals responsible for the actions of others is a step too far. In a landmark case in Finland, a court has just agreed with the latter.
As people’s lives and the Internet became more and more entwined during the last decade, investment in multiple web-enabled devices rocketed.
From simple multiple PC locations to network-enabled storage devices and games consoles, effective home networking – wireless in particular – has gradually become a basic requirement.
In recent years, wireless routers – the now-commonplace devices enabling these networks – have become a conflict ground for lawyers working in file-sharing cases. When unauthorized (or at the least unidentified) people access them in order to engage in copyright infringement online, should their owners be held responsible?
In a landmark ruling yesterday which examined existing EU law, a District Court clarified the position in Finland following a near two-year long file-sharing case.
[…]
Open WiFi Owner Not Liable For Illegal File-Sharing, Court Rules | TorrentFreak
Tor Listens To Authors And Readers And Ditches #DRM
from the ears-wide-open dept, by Zachary Knight, Apr 26th 2012, via @AnonOpsLegion
We have said quite a bit about the perils of DRM and how many in the entertainment industry still insist on its use despite the fact that it is pointless as a deterrent to piracy and only leads to frustration for paying customers. Recently, we spoke about how DRM is bad for book publishersand that their insistent use of DRM was part of the reason they ended up in the DOJ’s sights. Fortunately, it looks like some publishers are learning from these follies. Tor has just announced that it and all its sister companies’ books will be DRM free by July of this year.
Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time. They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.
This is an exciting move for anyone concerned about the future of ebooks. That ability for readers to transfer their books from one device to another will help as technology advances and becomes far better. It is also excellent to hear that not only are readers voicing their dislike of DRM, but authors as well. That is what is really great about this. It often seems like publishers care little about the opinions of authors when it comes to these types of decisions. This news shows that some publishers are listening. Let’s hope that other publishers learn from Tor’s example and begin to listen as well.
TechDirt: Tor Listens To Authors And Readers And Ditches DRM
News Corp accused of sabotaging rivals | AlJazeera #stickingitto Rupert Murdoch
The president of News Corporation has denied allegations that the media giant promoted pirating to damage its satellite television rivals after a series of allegations in Britain and Australia.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned company has been accused of setting up a secret unit via a subsidiary company called NDS which is alleged to have pirated copies of its rivals’ smart cards.
The Australian Financial Review alleged NDS had sabotaged competitors Austar and Optus at a time when News Corp was moving to take control of the Australian pay-TV industry.
The BBC investigative programme Panorama made similar allegations against the company in Britain, where the company is already under fire over a phone-hacking scandal at its newspapers business.
But Chase Carey on Thursday rejected the allegations.
“The BBC’s Panorama programme was a gross misrepresentation of NDS’s role as a high quality and leading provider of technology and services to the pay-TV industry, as are many of the other press accounts that have piled on, if not exaggerated, the BBC’s inaccurate claims,” he said.
“Panorama presented manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations. News Corporation is proud to have worked with NDS and to have supported them in their aggressive fight against piracy and copyright infringement.”
[…]
(by AlJazeeraEnglish)
Why Hollywood's Six Strike Plan Should Be Investigated For Antitrust Violations
by Mike Masnick, Mar 19th 2012, via @TyphonMind
With there being renewed interest in the questionable deal between the RIAA/MPAA and the US’s largest ISPs to set up a “six strikes” graduated response plan to cause trouble for those accused (not convicted) of file sharing, some are beginning to realize that the whole plan deserves serious antitrust scrutiny. After all, you have the representatives of two major industries getting together in a room to collude on a plan that will make internet access more expensive for users.
On top of that, since it’s based on mere accusations (not convictions) — and those accusations will come from a company with a terrible track record for accuracy — you’ll have to pay to challenge a strike and (most ridiculous of all) if you do challenge it, you are limited to just six defenses — significantly less than are allowed under copyright law. That is, if the work is in the public domain, but published after 1923, you have no official defense under the plan. In other words, not only does the plan involve collusion among multiple big industries, but at the outset it assumes guilt before innocence, makes you pay to claim you’re innocent, and won’t even let you use basic defenses afforded to you under existing copyright law.
Can You Be Sued For Simply Watching An Illegal Video Stream?
By enigmax, March 17, 2012, via @TurboKitty
Every single day millions of people watch video streams on the Internet, but while some streaming services provide authorized material, it’s inevitable that others will offer illegal content too. So, when people click then watch a stream of unauthorized material online, are they committing an offense? According to an intriguing announcement this week, some illicit stream viewers may be about to find out.
While the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the absolutely pinnacle of excitement for some, to others its merely two almost-naked men rolling round the floor in a pool of sweat and blood trying to snap each others arms off. But whatever your take, read on, because something the UFC announced this week has the potential to touch everyone who consumes video online.
The UFC has a track record of aggressive anti-piracy action. They’ve threatened countless bars for showing both illicit streams and under-licensed deliveries of their events, and gone after numerous sites, their operators, and uploaders.
American #ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12
If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.
Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 12.
That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.
Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.
The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA’s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers’ conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.
Domain Registrar Confirms New #PirateBay Investigation
By Ernesto, March 14, 2012
Suspicions that the police have started a new criminal investigation into The Pirate Bay were confirmed by the Swedish hosting company Binero today. Police have requested the company to reveal the personal details of the customer who registered The Pirate Bay domain name. Sources say that the new investigation is a renewed attempt to shut the popular BitTorrent site down.
Last week the news leaked that Swedish prosecutors have started a new criminal investigation into The Pirate Bay.
The assumed goal of the new effort is to shut the site down, something the authorities failed to accomplish during the first investigation more than half a decade ago.
Initially, the only source for the new investigation was The Pirate Bay team itself. Today the plans were confirmed by the Swedish hosting company Binero where two of The Pirate Bay’s .se domain names are registered.
“We can confirm that an investigation is underway against the Pirate Bay. We received a letter with questions,” Binero’s marketing manager Erik Arnberg said.
In addition, the hosting company also made it clear that they won’t be complying with the requests unless a proper warrant is served. According to Arnberg this hasn’t happened thus far.
“We will not share any information about our customers until there is a court order, or when a prosecutor can refer to an applicable law. In this case, we have answered the questions with information that’s already available through Whois services.”
[…]
