the EFF's taking up the challenge of opposing the highly-flawed Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). legislation like the SSSCA, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CETA -- in HTML and PDF) represent the erosion of individual free speech rights through the infinite privatization of nearly all intellectual property and the subjugation of public speech to commercial interest.

think of it this way: they're taking away Main Street and replacing it with a mall. do you think the Rent-A-Cop security guards are going to let you march in protest from the FootLocker to Starbuck's? you wouldn't even make it as far as the Cinnabon.

visit the EFF's web site or click here for the EFF's ACTION ALERT.

the Peekabooty project's Joey "AccordionGuy" deVilla takes a good, hard look at Rupert Murdoch's efforts to bring News Corp into the People's Republic of China.

Joey graciously credits me for providing some few links on the topic in a blogaritaville post of my own.

demonstrating a pitiable short-term memory problem, Global Crossing CEO John Legere wants us to know that he is at once "accountable" for "the pain I've caused" yet at the same time assures us that "Nothing that we did was inappropriate."

in an interview with the Associated Press, Legere dismissed comparisons of Global Crossing's troubles with those of Enron, defended his and other executives' compensation in the face of a bankruptcy that has cost employees their jobs, benefits, severance, and pensions, and deemed irrelevant Gary Winnick's side investment in a company controlled by one of the corporations lined up to buy Global Crossing's assets. (via AP)

the merger between eUniverse and L90 has foundered on the rocks of SEC Investigation Island (it's like Survivor, only with your 401k).

eUniverse, a motley collection of web "entertainment" sites designed to suck visitors into a marketing vortex, put the kibosh to its planned merger with struggling internet advertising shop L90 five weeks after the SEC started throwing subpoenas around. since then L90's founder Mark Roah and CEO John Bohan have resigned, and CFO Thomas Sebastian has been "removed".

it's hardly surprising that the Enron collapse has made life difficult for its erstwhile auditors, Arthur Andersen, but now Andersen's situation is so desperate, it's looking at two options: death by a thousand investigations and lawsuits, or falling on its own sword. (via Reuters)

six months ago, i awoke to the worst day of my life.

it started with the sound of an airplane. there was something distinctly wrong with this sound. it was too loud and too fast, but it didn't sound like what i imagined to be the noise of a dying aircraft. nevertheless, something wasn't right about it. i was too sleepy to deal with the contradiction, so i got up.

a little while later, the phone rang -- had i turned on the television? i should turn on the television -- two planes had hit the World Trade Center towers. are we alright? i hadn't turned on the television, hadn't checked my e-mail, hadn't launched my web browser, but now that sound made more sense.

i hung up and went to my wife (who was then still my fiancée -- we were getting married in three weeks). had she heard the noise? she had, and she couldn't understand it either. i told her about the World Trade Center towers. that marked the last time things made sense that day.

welcome to blogaritaville's new home on Movable Type. i'm still setting up shop, but most things should work (more or less).