Now that the initial euphoria over the return of my internet has died down, I suppose I should add some legitimate content.

First, I will lay out the course of events that led to the return of my dsl service. It's really quite simple. I was going to call Bell, but instead decided to just randomly plug the modem back in and see if it was working. To my amazement, the little green dsl light turned on - and it stayed on. Hence, I have internet again. Completely unexpectedly too, which makes it that much better.

Now, I'd like to invite everyone to take the computer virus quiz. Below is what I turned out to be, as well as a link to take the test for yourself.

alt="Trojan" border=0 width=200 height=100>

Love the new image, you've come along way since wooden horses, but as popular as ever. Computer virus quiz

Next, I was perusing the Edge website. (102.1 The Edge, that is. A truly great radio station out of Toronto.) I noticed something that I believe my good friend Burton would really appreciate: Dream Theatre is playing at Massey Hall on March 25th. Now go get your ticket B!!

In other (more important?) news, the Federal Court located in Toronto has released the usernames and IP addresses of 29 individuals spread across 5 differnt ISP's. The information, of course, being related to the recent legal actions against users who share too damn many mp3's. According to the court documents CRIA contracted out the data collection to a New York company called MediaSentry Inc. They are the ones who scoured the P2P networks and recorded the info. (By the way, word is I can visit the Federal Court and request all the documents for my own perusal. hmm, I just might do so.)

Apparently, dynamic IP addressing isn't enough to save you either. The CRIA has pointed out that ISP's should have records kept in relation to what IP a user has had at any given time. Whether or not this can actually work can be argued. Let me post the response of one user:

"Say an IP Address is cited as (e.g.) 22.222.22.22 but the ISP only uses that IP address as far as a router? Then the individual who is using that dynamic IP address is connected via an open wireless uplink (e.g. using a commonly used LinkSys or D-Link device). The IP address is then established using Dynamic DHCP from the device and may be like 192.168.1.35. Surely there is no way to connect the IP from the ISP to the end user (who may be a drive-by person using a lap-top looking for a hot-spot). See, it gets more technical, and we are supposed to let legal minds make the decisions?"

What this boils down to, is that simply having a person's IP address, especially on a dynamic IP system, isn't necessarily enough to find them and nail them to the wall. At the same time, are we trying to say here that ISP's themselves can't track their own users by analyzing an IP address? It seems to me that we're trying to argue that ISP's have a serious lack of control over their own networks. But the point is that it isn't easy or even completely trustworthy trying to track down these people with so little information, and that is very important in a legal debate.

Also, the interesting point is that all 29 users are Kazaa users. As it happens, Kazaa is used because companies like MediaSentry are able to set up and download from the big users they're trying to nail, and analyze the data packets to find the information they want. Solution? Use another program. Is there perhaps a reason only Kazaa users are being fingered here and no one from any other P2P networks? Either the others are safer to use, or Kazaa is just being targetted as the largest and most widespread.

Don't get overly worried though, according to the documents, only users sharing in excess of 3000 files were targeted. (Even though a few of the 29 users had considerably less.) So hey, guys like me with only a few files, by-product of a small 20GB hard drive, are quite all right.

Finally, in relation to this whole file sharing issue, I'd like to ask everyone what they think of the violations of their own privacy here. Do any of my esteemed readers feel as though their privacy rights are being disregarded? Or is this what needs to be done to fight piracy? Let me know.

Surprisingly, I think that's just about all I have to say for now. It's great to be back though, I fully expect a quick return to form. Peace.

INotD: Another German entry: Flasche = This one might be lost on non German speakers, but it means bottle. Calling someone a Flasche is like telling them they're as useless as an empty bottle. Not good for anything, not good at anything, and is considered a huge insult. (Pronounced flasha)

~K