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Dear Shaolin Monks: There Are People On The Internet Who Make Up Stories. Just Ignore Them
If you want to know just how litigious our world has become, all you need to know is that the lawyers for China's famed Shaolin Temple (yes, it has lawyers) are demanding that an anonymous online forum poster apologize for claiming that a group of Shaolin monks had been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja. Apparently, for all their fancy martial arts moves, the Shaolin monks aren't particularly familiar with how internet forums work. Here's a hint: people make stuff up all the time. And no one believes it. And no one pays any attention to it. Of course, now that you're demanding an apology for this "horrible deed" (horrible? really?) all that's done is draw a lot more attention to a story that no one would have read (much less cared about) in the first place.

California State Senator Wants To Save You From RFID
In certain paranoid circles, there's a big fear that at some point, people will be forced to get RFID implants. North Dakota and Wisconsin have already passed laws making it illegal to force somebody to get an RFID implant, and now a California state senator has pushed a similar bill through. This isn't new ground for Joe Simitian, the senator in question. He's sponsored anti-RFID bills in the past, but with little success. The fact remains that few people have any interest in RFID implants, while even the federal government has said that tracking humans with RFID isn't a good idea. Perhaps the bill will assuage the senator's paranoia, but meaningless bans like this won't do much to deal with the real privacy issues surrounding RFID.

Google Finally Hosting News On Its Site: Will Newspapers Get Pissed Off At AP Now?
Earlier this month, we noted that it had been a year since Google had done a deal with the Associated press and there appeared to be nothing to show for it. That led to speculation that the deal really had nothing to do with with some new "news" product, and it was really about paying off the AP so it didn't sue Google for linking to AP stories (the way some other news organizations had done). That seemed strange because it was quite difficult to see what the Associated Press or anyone else had to argue about if Google News was providing their news partners more traffic. However, the snickering over a lack of any real project seems to have kicked Google into action, and they've just announced that they're going to start hosting news content on their own site from the AP and a few other news organizations the company has done deals with. Amusingly, I was unable to find the AP version of this story hosted on Google itself, but did find the Canadian Press version. There don't...

FCC Cracks Down On E911 Violations? Yeah, Right
The FCC has announced that it wants to fine three mobile operators a total of $2.825 million (a staggering figure, we know) for their continued failure to meet E911 standards. The rules said that by the end of 2005, operators had to be able to locate 95% of their subscribers within a certain distance when they called 911, and these operators still haven't met the standard, apparently -- thanks in part to their use of handset-based location technology, and a good number of users who haven't upgraded their phones. Surely the FCC fines will make them move, right? Because all the other meaningless fines the FCC's doled out have really worked. While the FCC tries to look tough by "cracking down" on the operators, plenty of places still don't have 911 call centers that can actually use the location information -- in part because they frittered away the funds that were supposed to pay for call center upgrades on ballpoint pens and winter boots.

A Lesson In Copyright: It Does Not Give You Total Control
A few weeks ago, we wrote about American Airlines was suing Google for trademark infringement due to keyword ads on Google using the phrase "American Airlines" that pointed visitors to competing airline sites or sites that sold American Airlines tickets alongside those of competitors. The history of similar cases suggests that American Airlines is going to have a tough time making its case. First of all, it's not illegal to use the trademarked name of another company in an advertisement as long as there's no indication that the ad is for them (in other words there's no customer confusion). Second, if there is confusion in the ad, then the problem isn't between American Airlines and Google, but American Airlines and the advertiser.It's not clear why, but a week and a half after this story appeared, someone dropped by to add a comment to the story insisting that American Airlines is in the right here, though they don't give any support reasons why. What was odd, though, was...

YouTube Says It's Sorry, Promises Thailand It Won't Do It Again, Gets Unblocked
Back in April, the Thai government gained itself some publicity by blocking YouTube, after it discovered a video on the site making fun of the country's king. Google apparently decided that censoring videos deemed offensive by the Thais was acceptable on its sliding scale of evil, and now that the "program" to block the videos is apparently complete, Thais can once again access YouTube. No word, though, on whether the Thai government still plans to sue YouTube for running the video. Perhaps since the YouTube blocking technology works to the government's satisfaction, Google would be willing to cooperate with the Thais to help them with their other attempts to censor the internet. After all, if blocking some YouTube videos at the government's request doesn't trip the evil scale, it's hard to see why any other type of censorship would.

How Big A Problem Are Unauthorized Downloads In China?
How much unauthorized downloading of music happens in China? According to the IFPI (sort of a global RIAA) nearly 100% of downloads in China are unauthorized. Of course, that could simply be a function of the types of music download services have available, rather than any indication that China is some sort of "problem." Yet, of course, it's much more fun to blame an entire country than recognize that perhaps the people there are trying to send you a message. More important, however, is what the story left out. Even if it's true that 100% of music downloads in China are unauthorized, many Chinese musicians have learned to adapt to the different marketplace -- and thrive. That means encouraging the free spread of their music and using the ensuing attention and fame to make more money -- whether by concerts or more potential sponsors or a variety of other business models that have been popping up. Given that these adaptations have worked out quite well for many Chinese...

iTunes Partners Starting To Get Fidgety
It's no secret that the entertainment companies have been less than thrilled with the power position wielded by Apple with iTunes. They've tried -- and failed -- to force Apple to change its pricing (even though that sounds quite a lot like price fixing) and they generally seem upset that Apple is getting all the credit for revolutionizing the digital music world, while people look on the big entertainment companies as out of step with what Americans want while struggling to hang on to an antiquated business model. With that in mind, it wasn't all that surprising last month to see Universal Music refuse to renew its contract with Apple, preferring to go on the equivalent of a month to month basis. Universal Music also didn't include Apple in its trial of DRM-free downloads -- which is doubly amusing since it was only following the stringent demands of companies like Universal Music that Apple agreed to use DRM. Now it seems that the separate company NBC Universal is following...

Biggest Box Office Summer Ever... And Yet All We Hear About Is Piracy?
With the MPAA constantly screaming about how piracy is killing the movie industry, putting poor stagehands and grips out of work, you'd be hard pressed to see the problem when you hear that the box office take this summer passed $4 billion for the first time ever. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that movies are a social experience. People like going out to the movies if the experience is fun and good. If there are good movies, people will go out and see them, even if they're available as a free download online. Just imagine what would happen if the movie industry stopped freaking out, stopped treating everyone as if they were a criminal and (gasp!) actually made the movie-going experience more enjoyable? It seems quite likely that dumb movie industry policies are costing the industry a hell of a lot more than piracy ever has or ever will have.

Muni WiFi Takes A Beating
Municipal WiFi's been having a rough time lately, as the ridiculous levels of hype that built up around it comes back to bite it in the backside. Things have taken a turn for the worse over the past week: EarthLink's deal with San Francisco (which garnered tons of hype) now looks like it's dead, while its deal in Houston looks like it's dying as the company pulls back from muni WiFi altogether. Meanwhile, city officials in Chicago have dropped their plans to get a vendor to build a citywide network there, after balking at demands that the city become the network's anchor tenant, and guarantee certain payments to the vendors. Elsewhere in Illinois, AT&T has decided not to move forward with plans to build a muni network in Springfield.All in all, it's not been a good week for muni WiFi and its backers. But does all this bad news spell doom for muni WiFi as a whole? Perhaps -- but the idea of municipal wireless in general still could hold some value. Muni WiFi is bound to...