There are many lobbies in the world. Some for car companies, some Jewish lobbies, some anti-smoking lobbies. These are all powerful lobbies, but there is one lobby that is by far the most powerful lobby on the planet. This lobby is one that does not reside in Washington, or any other center of power in the world. But the power that this lobby wields is nearly absolute. This lobby can do nearly anything (very probably even steal political office!). Why has this lobby not taken over the world you ask? It's because the lobby is not monolithic. It has very diverse opinions on many many issues. But on some narrow issues, this lobby very well might rise up and force their decision on everyone. But even on these issues it may not, because this is the laziest lobby on the planet. I am speaking, of course, of the Nerd Lobby.
The Nerd Lobby is not an official lobby, but a conglomeration of all the techies, hackers, gamers, and general know-it-alls of the planet, and you don't want to piss them off. The lobby has no leader. No one to control the masses, no head to cut off if it gets out of control. You must tread carefully around the Nerd Lobby. If you somehow do piss off the Nerd Lobby (god help you), it is quite likely that you will find your company's website replaced with pornographic material, your phone lines will go down because of the mass amounts of fake calls being placed. You also might find that you cannot get your mail because of the 200,000 other blank letters sent to you by members of the nerd lobby. Not to mention it's very likely that even the respectable media outlets will sling veiled insults at you. And once you've done something to sufficiently anger the Nerd Lobby, all it takes is a suggestion from 4chan, the blogosphere, or any of an unlimited amount of Nerd Lobby havens for the madness to start.
Right now there are some poor souls that are trying their very best to anger the Nerd Lobby. Thepiratebay.com is a website that hosts torrent trackers. And it is trying to be sued by "the man." If you know anything about the Nerd Lobby and torrent file sharing, you know the only possible headline that could be posted in the newspaper is
Pirate Bay is sued in Swedish court
Hilarity ensues.
Hilarity ensues.
First of all, there is no way that, if the court actually adheres to the current laws, thepiratebay.com could be convicted of anything. It is technically not doing anything illegal. Let me explain briefly how .torrent files work.
Torrents work in this way: A file is broken up into hundreds of little pieces (called 'bits'), and a file called a torrent file is created to tell computers how to arrange these bits back into a movie or song file or what have you. The creator of this torrent file then "seeds" the torrent, which means they put it on the web for other people to download. Thousands (even millions) of people can use the torrent file simultaneously, each downloading bits at the same time that they are seeding the bits they have already downloaded to other people, which creates a "swarm" or "torrent" of people exchanging bits (which is where the file type gets its name).
So you can see how a torrent website is nearly invulnerable to the law (providing the laws are actually abided by). The website does not actually host any copyrighted material, the material is hosted on the user's machines. And the argument that the website gives access to torrent files is bogus as well. If this was really against the law, you would have to shut down google, yahoo, and any search engine. Prove this to yourself by googling "beatles torrent". The only way to shut down a torrent operation is to eliminate every one of it's users (which is laughably impossible).
So if you want to see some good jokes, tune in to the Pirate Bay trial, being followed all over the internet. You'll find hacked corporate websites, mass flower mailings, attempted practical jokes being played on the prosection lawyers in restaurants, and a general mockery being made of a legal system which is obviously far far out of its league when it attacks the Nerd Lobby.
Torrents work in this way: A file is broken up into hundreds of little pieces (called 'bits'), and a file called a torrent file is created to tell computers how to arrange these bits back into a movie or song file or what have you. The creator of this torrent file then "seeds" the torrent, which means they put it on the web for other people to download. Thousands (even millions) of people can use the torrent file simultaneously, each downloading bits at the same time that they are seeding the bits they have already downloaded to other people, which creates a "swarm" or "torrent" of people exchanging bits (which is where the file type gets its name).
So you can see how a torrent website is nearly invulnerable to the law (providing the laws are actually abided by). The website does not actually host any copyrighted material, the material is hosted on the user's machines. And the argument that the website gives access to torrent files is bogus as well. If this was really against the law, you would have to shut down google, yahoo, and any search engine. Prove this to yourself by googling "beatles torrent". The only way to shut down a torrent operation is to eliminate every one of it's users (which is laughably impossible).
So if you want to see some good jokes, tune in to the Pirate Bay trial, being followed all over the internet. You'll find hacked corporate websites, mass flower mailings, attempted practical jokes being played on the prosection lawyers in restaurants, and a general mockery being made of a legal system which is obviously far far out of its league when it attacks the Nerd Lobby.
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