Links For 8-5-2008

Why do people care so much about pictures of celebrities' kids? I just don't get it. Shit, most people aren't even that interested in looking at pictures of people they know's kids when they're thrust upon them. So why the supposed fascination with celebrity spawn? Is that just the media pushing them on us and nobody really cares? Right now the big deal is Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's new twins, right? But why would anybody care about looking at them? They look like every other baby out there. If she squeezed out some Siamese Twins or a kid with an extra arm or something, sure, I'm morbidly curious and would wanna look at that. Who wouldn't? Otherwise, not so much. The only interesting thing about celebrity babies are the horribly stupid names celebrities give them. Seriously, they should make some sort of law that forbids celebrities from naming their own kids.

Thailand halts GRAND THEFT AUTO sales after murder. "Video games made me do it," is becoming the hot new criminal defense. Videogames can't 'be blamed for humanity's problems'. People who want to ban video games because of real world violence are dumb. I mean, did we ban Jodie Foster from acting because John Hinckley claimed that he tried to kill President Ronald Reagan to impress her? DId we ban CATCHER IN THE RYE because Hinkley was into is as well, not to mention that whackjob named Mark David Chapman who was carrying the book (he was obsessed with it) when he killed John Lennon? No. Because those things don't make people commit violence. They're crazy to begin with. I used to watch tons of Roadrunner cartoons as a kid, but that doesn't mean I'm going to strap dynamite to some rollerskates and use them as rocket propulsion to try and catch birds. Why? Because I'm neither crazy nor stupid. Or at the very least not dangerously crazy and stupid. Of course that won't stop certain talking heads on TV from pointing to video games, even though some of their books were found in the vehicle of the lunatic who went on a shooting spree in a church, will it?

Copyright expert William Patry shuts down blog, as it's 'too depressing'. You know things are bad when somebody who's mostly in favor of copyright can't believe the nonsense pulled by the corporations these days.

Study suggests music industry embrace piracy. Basically, downloads lead to more concert ticket sales. Bands make more money off of live shows (between the pay from the show itself and selling merchandise) than they do album sales. Really, the title should be, "study suggests musicials embrace piracy", because frankly, the industry part of that is becoming more and more of a greedy, obsolete, and useless middle-man every day.

Sony exec tells frustrated PSP users to get games via BitTorrent. See what happens when you delay putting something out in one region as opposed to others? People don't want to wait. Even executives of the very company that makes money off of those products.

Circuit City rethinks MAD Magazine ban, apologizes. I guess they got shamed by people finding out by their over-reaction.

MPAA: Don't limit our ability to close analog outputs. Why should the MPAA have any say in what devices will work with consumer electronics? They're basing their arguement on limiting what inputs work on your TV on movies being available at home day and date with theaters. Something that the MPAA and theater owners have been vigorously against to begin with? They make my head hurt.

UK Govt invites public to comment on plans to fight P2P. So those of you over there that this has an effect on, you might want to look into this further.