oh, fewer words

parislemon:

Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman of Freakonomics discuss the claims that piracy leads to $250 billion a year in loses and 750,000 American jobs lost:

The good news is that the numbers are wrong — as this post by the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez explains. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.” 

And:

So what’s the real number? At this point, we simply don’t know. And this leads us to a second problem: one which is not so much about data, as about actual economic effects.  There are certainly a lot of people who download music and movies without paying. It’s clear that, at least in some cases, piracy substitutes for a legitimate transaction — for example, a person who would have bought the DVD of the new Kate Beckinsale vampire film (who is that, actually?) but instead downloads it for free on Bit Torrent. In other cases, the person pirating the movie or song would never have bought it. This is especially true if the consumer lives in a relatively poor country, like China, and is simply unable to afford to pay for the films and music he downloads.  

Do we count this latter category of downloads as “lost sales”?  Not if we’re honest. 

ohfortheloveofsagan:

ARTICLE FOUND HERE

This post was originally written on January 21, 2011 to commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision to legalize abortion in the United States. To honor Roe, and to honor the groups, practitioners, nurses, staff, and…

(via encourageinferiority)

dirtyredsdirtymind:

SOPA Emergency IP list:         

So if these [folks] in DC decide to ruin the internet, here’s how to access your favorite sites

in the event of a DNS takedown

        tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
        wikipedia.org 208.80.152.201

        # News
        bbc.co.uk 212.58.241.131
        aljazeera.com 198.78.201.252

        # Social media
        reddit.com 72.247.244.88
        imgur.com 173.231.140.219
        google.com 74.125.157.99
        youtube.com 74.125.65.91
        yahoo.com 98.137.149.56
        hotmail.com 65.55.72.135
        bing.com 65.55.175.254
        digg.com 64.191.203.30
        theonion.com 97.107.137.164
        hush.com 65.39.178.43
        gamespot.com 216.239.113.172
        ign.com 69.10.25.46
        cracked.com 98.124.248.77
        sidereel.com 144.198.29.112
        github.com 207.97.227.239

        # Torrent sites
        thepiratebay.org 194.71.107.15
        mininova.com 80.94.76.5
        btjunkie.com 93.158.65.211
        demonoid.com 62.149.24.66
        demonoid.me 62.149.24.67

        # Social networking
        facebook.com 69.171.224.11
        twitter.com 199.59.149.230
        tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
        livejournal.com  209.200.154.225
        dreamwidth.org  69.174.244.50

        # Live Streaming Content
        stickam.com 67.201.54.151
        blogtv.com 84.22.170.149
        justin.tv 199.9.249.21
        chatroulette.com 184.173.141.231
        omegle.com 97.107.132.144
        own3d.tv 208.94.146.80 
        megavideo.com 174.140.154.32

        # Television
        gorillavid.com 178.17.165.74
        videoweed.com 91.220.176.248
        novamov.com 91.220.176.248
        tvlinks.com 208.223.219.206
        1channel.com 208.87.33.151

        # Shopping
        amazon.com 72.21.211.176
        newegg.com 216.52.208.187
        frys.com 209.31.22.39

        # File Sharing
        mediafire.com 205.196.120.13
        megaupload.com 174.140.154.20
        fileshare.com 208.87.33.151
        multiupload.com 95.211.149.7
        uploading.com 195.191.207.40
        warez-bb.org 31.7.57.13
        hotfile.com 199.7.177.218
        gamespy.com 69.10.25.46
        what.cd 67.21.232.223
        warez.ag 178.162.238.136
        putlocker.com 89.238.130.247
        uploaded.to 95.211.143.200
        dropbox.com 199.47.217.179
        pastebin.com 69.65.13.216

Here’s a tip for the do-it-yourself crowd: 
Go to your computer’s Start menu, and either go to
 “run” or just search for “cmd.” 
Open it up, and type in “ping [website address],” 


Once you have the IP for a website, all you really 
need to do is enter it like you would 
a normal URL nd hit enter/press go. Typing in
 “208.85.240.231” 
should bring you to the front page of AO3,
 for example, just as typing “174.121.194.34/dashboard” 
should bring you straight to your Tumblr dashboard. 
Since we’re obviously bracing for the worst case scenario 
which would involve you not being 
able to access the internet regularly, you should,
 save this list.

Dear Tumblr-ers, -ites, ettes, and whatever other things you may prefer,

Please reblog the crap out of this. Add to it if you feel there is stuff necessary but missing.

P.S. Thank you to the lovely who wrote this up.

(via daysihadwithyou)