Category Archives: Pedantry

Dangerous States

peace

Let’s take a look at a few key indicators of how dangerous the Islamic Republic of Iran is compared to more responsible, civilized, and democratic states in the world. We’ll take this back to 1979, as nobody seriously thinks the current Iranian regime bears any responsibility for anything the Shah did.

Criterium Canada Iran U.S.A.
Lets women vote Yes Yes Yes
Invaded Grenada No No Yes
Invaded Panama No No Yes
Invaded Iraq Yes Yes* Yes
Bombed Yugoslavia Yes No Yes
Invaded Afghanistan Yes No Yes
Invaded Iraq (again) Yes No Yes
# of wars 4 1 6
Has nuclear weapons No Maybe Oh hell yes

I didn’t count United Nations peacekeeping missions as wars for this table. Iran’s invasion of Iraq gets an asterisk for what should be a fairly obvious reason: it was part of a war that started with Iran getting invaded, not the other way around. Compared to many of the more globally-influential powers in the world, Iran has pretty much kept it in their pants for the past thirty years.

More fun with the DMCA

It falls on me, as part of my job, to field DMCA complaints from time to time on behalf of customers that may or may not have been using their connections to download and share pirated software, videos, and such. While I totally understand that intellectual property is Serious Business, but when you’re hiring a firm to protect your rights to Young Tight Latinas 12, wouldn’t they look more credible if they weren’t based in a town named Cream Ridge?

Infringement Source: eDonkey
Infringement Timestamp: 2009-06-09 03:50:00 PST
Infringers IP Address: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
Infringers Port: 33241
Infringement Title: Young Tight Latinas 12
Infringement Filename: Young.Tight.Latinas.12.CD2.[XXX].[Latinas].[Sexoypelis.COM].avi
Infringement Hash: 3E554F0E5EB855AD9C6FF1A344220A77

You were informed in the notice that your infringing activity violated the U.S.
Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 106, and that, as a result of the infringement, you may be
held liable for monetary damages, attorney's fees and court costs incurred as a result
of any action that is commenced against you. You also were offered the opportunity
to settle the matter but, as of the original transmission date of this correspondence,
you have failed to do so.

Therefore, this correspondence shall serve as our second and final notice to you in
regards to your infringement of the copyright referenced above, and shall incorporate
all the information contained in our original notice to you.

You have ten (10) calendar days from the date of this correspondence to access the
settlement offer listed below and settle online. If you fail to respond or settle within
the prescribed time period, we will refer this matter to our attorneys for legal action.
At that point the original settlement will no longer be an option and the amount will
increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys.

Nothing contained or omitted from this correspondence is, or shall be deemed to be
either a full statement of the facts or applicable law, an admission of any fact, or
waiver or limitation of any of the RLD DISTRIBUTION LLC's rights or remedies, all of
which are specifically retained and reserved.

The information in this notice is accurate. We have a good faith belief that use of the
material in the manner complained of herein is not authorized by the copyright owner,
its agent, or by operation of law. We swear under penalty of perjury, that we are
authorized to act on behalf of RLD DISTRIBUTION LLC.

To access your settlement offer please copy and paste the address below into a
browser and follow the instructions:

https://www.videoprotectionalliance.com/?n_id=AB-XXXXXX
Password: XXXXXX

Regards,

Bonnie Gadsby
Copyright Enforcement Agent

Video Protection Alliance Services, LLC
PO Box 322
Cream Ridge, NJ 08514-0322
United States
+1-866-251-2631

Then again, maybe folks in New Jersey just have a healthier sense of humor than I do.

A simple admonition

Dear, phishermen trying to fleece the webmail passwords off of a credulous population, do not send your crap to addresses starting with “abuse” or “support” or “helpdesk,” or anything else that would clearly indicate that you are sending to people who both know better than to fall for your oh-so-clever scam and are probably in a position to prevent others using their mail server to actually reply to you with their passwords. This is stupid. You should feel stupid for having done it.

From somers@pei.sympatico.ca  Sat Aug 29 04:13:33 2009
Return-Path: 
X-Spam-Checker-Version: REDACTED (REDACTED) on d.spam.sonic.net
X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.5 required=20.0 tests=SONIC_WEBMAIL_PHISH,
 SPF_HELO_PASS autolearn=disabled version=3.2.5
Received: from b.mx.sonic.net (b.mx.sonic.net [209.204.159.4]) 	by
 REDACTED.sonic.net (8.13.8.Beta0-Sonic/8.13.7) with ESMTP id n7TBDXvF009196
 for ; Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:13:33 -0700
Received: from omta.toronto.rmgopenwave.com (omta.toronto.rmgopenwave.com
 [4.59.182.110]) 	by b.mx.sonic.net (8.13.8.Beta0-Sonic/8.13.7) with ESMTP
 id n7TBDTf1016489; 	Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:13:32 -0700
Received: from torspm04.toronto.rmgopenwave.com ([192.168.66.139])  by
 tormtz04.toronto.rmgopenwave.com           (InterMail vM.8.00.01.00
 201-2244-105-20090324) with ESMTP           id
 <20090829111329.GBEP21989.tormtz04.toronto.rmgopenwave.com@torspm04.toront
      .rmgopenwave.com>;
 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:13:29 -0400
Received: from tormtz05 ([192.168.66.139])           by
 torspm04.toronto.rmgopenwave.com with ESMTP           id
 <20090829111329.NDPV6760.torspm04.toronto.rmgopenwave.com@tormtz05>;
 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:13:29 -0400
Message-ID: <20090829071329.I9AMA.9327.root@tormtz05>
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 8:13:29 -0300
From: "sonic.net" 
Reply-To: upgradteam6@aol.com
To: user@sonic.net
Subject: Warning Notice!!!
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Sensitivity: Normal
X-Originating-Ip: from 99.253.132.92 by webmail.bellaliant.net; Sat, 29
 Aug 2009 7:13:29 -0400
X-Sonic-SB-Ip-RBLS: IP RBLs .
X-Sontec-Pragma: force-group tech
A DGTFX virus has been detected in your folders
Your email account has to be upgraded to our new
Secured DGTFX anti-virus 2009 version to prevent
damages to our webmail log and your important
files.

Click your reply tab, Fill the columns below and
send back or your email account will be terminated
immediately to avoid spread of the virus.

USERNAME:
PASSWORD:
PHONE NUMBER:
DATE OF BIRTH:

webmail.sonic.net - Webmail Technical Team


Note that your password will be encrypted with
1024-bit RSA keys for your password safety to
avoid any unauthorized user.

Assholes.