This week we owe our gratitude to:

Best Answer of the Week – truekolor

1st Runner Up – Richard Carpenter

2nd Runner Up – Ed

Congratulations to the winners!

Great questions can provide great insights. These are the best of the past week:

• How can I create a custom Ubuntu live CD?
• How to remove ‘Your copy of Windows is not genuine’ notification in Windows 7?
• Is it possible to search for multiple files at once using Windows XP?
• What is the best photo management app for iOS?
• How do I keep my PC up to date if I uninstall ASUS Live Update?
• Is there any vertical tabs add-on for Chrome similar to Firefox’s Tree Style add-on?
• How can I turn off my laptop monitor at the hardware level?
• How can I monitor which processes are accessing my hard drive?
• What site is the new MegaUpload?

For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed.

Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers.

Magic: The Gathering is, in my opinion, the single best card game ever created. In many ways, they are the game that popularized collectable card games (or CCGs), and they are still running the show today. Sadly, I have not been able to play much Magic in the past 6 months, and writing this article is reminding me of how much fun that game is. I still have a solid collection of thousands of cards, and I think it might be time to pull them out and get back to playing.

Anyway, the point of this article is not for me to reminisce about the days of playing Magic, it is to tell you about the official Wizards of the Coast application called Magic: The Gathering Toolbox. It is the one stop shop for all things Magic on your iPhone. It takes all the features that some of the Magic apps out there have and combines them. Moreover, because it is the official app, you know all the information contained is valid and accurate.

Life Counter

Any Magic app needs a life counter. When things get intense and you are planning three and four turns ahead, remembering your life can be impossible. Many players use dice to remember their life, but this is 2012, and we have the technology to make life a hell of a lot easier. The life counter in this app is as feature packed as any one I have seen. You can tap settings to set your counter for a standard two player game, a tournament game (just make sure having your phone out is okay with the judges and your opponent) and for commander.

You can also tap on the sword beside each player’s name to add additional features. You can change the background to various colors and even some beautiful card art. You can also roll a d6, flip a coin, roll a d20 and even tap “Who’s First” to have the app tell you who gets to play first.

You can also tap “players” to change the information of the people in the game. Lastly, you can tap “Trackers” to add other counters such as Poison, Deck Size, Times Commander Cast, Commander Damage and storm count. This is the one and only life counter you will need while playing Magic: The Gathering.

Deck Builder

Another awesome feature of this app is the deck builder. You start by choosing the format for the deck. For my example, I choose Legacy. From the deck builder screen you search for the cards you would like to have in your deck, and then click if you want to add them to your main deck, or sideboard.

Once you have completed your deck, you can use the tools in the app to draw a sample hand and analyze the deck. It is a great way to get a feel for how your deck will play. After all the fine tuning and tweaking, you can share your new deck on Facebook or via email.

Card Search

Obviously, Wizards of the Coast has access to the entire database of Magic: The Gathering cards, so it makes sense that they would include a card search in their app. The search is extensive, allowing you to simply type in a cards name, or browse based on all kinds of parameters. You can limit by color, rules, expansion, type, subtype and so many more. It allows you to find the cards you know, and learn about cards that you may not have heard of before.

Other Features

The app also features a quick way to view the latest news from the official Magic: The Gathering blog. It is a cool way to keep up with the latest happenings in the Magic world. You can also use the search function at the top of the blog to find articles about a specific topic. The official blog is great for news, but they also feature some amazing strategy posts that will help new players step up their game.

They also have an events feature that allows hardcore magic players to keep up with the important things happening in the world of Magic. If you are looking to make your way into the high-level magic scene, you can use this feature to find out what is going on.

An added bonus is the store locator. It takes you out of the app and links you to the store locator section of the official Magic: The Gathering website. If you are looking for a place to attend a prerelease or a Friday Night Magic, this is the feature you need to check out.

Conclusion

This app is necessary for Magic: The Gathering players. It has everything a Magic player could want. Best of all, it is free! If you always wanted to have Magic at your fingertips, go download this application. I promise, you will not regret it.

iTunes Link

I would love to hear how you enjoy this application or some great stories from fellow Magic players. Share in the comments!

With this in mind, I set out to find unique and interesting posters and works of art for sale all over the Web. Scroll down for some inspiration, and perhaps you’ll even find one you’ll want to buy.

ThinkGeek

I know, ThinkGeek’s poster section is a bit of an obvious choice, but that’s why I’m starting out with it. This is a large collection of nerdy posters, including posters for fans of Portal 2 (shown above), Battlestar Galactica (these are awesome in real life), and Pac-Man.  Some of the items are not exactly posters in the strictest sense of the word: That Pac-Man art is actually a self-adhesive wall decal (cooler than a poster, some would say).

20×200

20×200 sells artwork, not just posters, and these are certainly not aimed only at geeks, despite the nerdy work I selected for you (Old Phone by artist Todd McLellan). While you can find smaller images in 20×200, you can also focus just on larger pieces if you sort by size (this links shows only 30”x40” art).

Each work is produced in a limited number of copies, and they sometimes sell out. For instance, this gorgeous map of Amsterdam was available as a 10”x8” print for $24, but all of that size has been sold out. You can still get it in larger sizes.

One important note about 20×200: Prices are not cheap. A 40”x30” print goes for $2,400 – a bit crazy.

OMG Posters

OMG Posters! is not a store, but a blog for art lovers. It features amazing works like the one shown above, by artist Mr. Muju. At around £15-£20, this particular screenprint is not expensive. The blog also features works by big-name artists such as Shepard Fairey (the guy who made the Obama poster). If you just like looking at beautiful art, this is a lovely blog to subscribe to.

Better yet, if you’re actually looking to buy something, each of the items contains a link to a website selling it.

Despair, Inc.

Despair, Inc.is a website that requires a unique sense of humor (one I suspect our own James Bruce might appreciate). It’s basically motivational posters, inverted. Above you can see one called Potential, but there are many, many more where that came from. Might not be appropriate for every office (or every temper), but if these don’t actually demotivate you, they can make an interesting choice.

If you find they work too well, though, I would suggest swapping them with something more cheerful.

The Poster List

The Poster List strikes a fine balance – it features actual artwork, but at poster prices. All posters on the site (including the work above, entitled Projector on Wood), go for $10.99. I only wish they added an option for “variants” of a specific poster. Right now, if a poster is offered in several different color schemes, it appears several times in the list, making it unnecessarily long.

Still, if you’re looking for posters that look like art and aren’t overly clever, this is a great place for some affordable finds.

Your Turn

As you can see, I did my best to find some unique places where you can get artwork for your home or workspace. Still, it is very possible I missed one or more great websites. I’m mainly curious to hear about niche sites like those featured above. Do you know of an art site that really deserves a bit more love? Tell me about it in the comments!

Image: Modest Owl

While there are many ways to capture screenshots from video games, recording video footage isn’t quite as simple. There are two main choices. The first is FRAPS – the choice of pro gamers who want to keep a record of the action from their favourite games, FRAPS is quite expensive for anyone who doesn’t plan to use it regularly.

The second is WeGame. A free alternative, WeGame offers the ability to grab screens and video from games, saving it to your hard drive for you to upload to their own servers or somewhere else entirely, such as YouTube.

What Is WeGame?

Part screenshot and video capture tool and part games store and social network, WeGame is an unusual beast. It fulfills some very useful roles but does so in the most frustrating way. First is its insistence on joining your startup items when you boot Windows. There are only so many apps that you should be granting this sort of permission to. WeGame isn’t really something you want to be hanging around and waiting for when you’re starting your PC or laptop in the morning.

WeGame also has its own social aspect, presented through a slick user interface that pretty much wants to be a YouTube for gamers. It’s an admirable aspiration, but we’ll leave it to you to decide whether you want to embrace the community or keep your clips for personal/YouTube use.

Installing and Configuring WeGame Video Captures

To use WeGame, make sure you have either Windows XP, Vista or 7 installed as your operating system.

You will first have to visit the the website and sign up or use the Connect with Facebook option to become a member. Once you have done this find the Download Client link and get your copy of the application downloaded to your computer and installed. Note that one of the installation options is to run WeGame when you start Windows; you might prefer to disable this for a faster boot time.

After you have installed, run the WeGame application and then use the Scan for Games button to find the titles that you have saved on your PC.

You may find that WeGame downloads an update when run for the first time. Once this has been done, log in with your username and password, click Next and set your preferred hotkey for recording clips (you can change this later via Settings > Videos).

All it takes to start recording footage is to leave the software running in the background and open the game you wish to capture from; you’ll spot that WeGame is active via the green square in the corner so simply tap the shortcut key to start.

Should you find that the clips takes up too much space, use the Settings > Video screen where you can find options to disable or enable recording sound, adjusting the FPS, and even choose a recording mode. Also in this screen you can select a location to save your clips to – you would be advised to choose a drive or partition with plenty of free space!

Conclusion

If you want the best tool for the task of capturing video footage from your favourite games then the obvious choice is spending $30 on FRAPS. However, if you’re only planning on capturing action from a single game it is just as well that WeGame exists. While adding your games to the service isn’t the most user-friendly way of encouraging users to start capturing legendary gaming moments, WeGame fills the “free videogame capture” niche perfectly.

Let us know what you think of it. Do you have a preferred alternative?

Personally, I’m not a big fan of anything that is meant to artificially boost your emotions, your sense of worth, your self-esteem, or anything else. Many motivational speakers give off a manipulative vibe, which often detracts from their message – and often times, motivational videos are no better. However, it can be good to listen to something that’s meant to inspire you. Inspiration and motivation can be elusive, and sometimes you need help finding them. Some people look to inspirational quotes while others resort to motivational web sites and services – especially when it comes to fitness motivation. Maybe for you, videos are what you need.

Here are a collection of YouTube videos that will give you the kick-up-the-butt you so desperately need. Even if motivational and inspirational videos aren’t your cup of tea, try watching these videos at least once. They’re short enough that even if you end up disliking them, you won’t feel like you’ve wasted your time.

“Closers”

Warning: NSFW language!

This video is not meant to be an inspirational one, but it sure gets its point across. In this movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin delivers one of the finest acting performances of his entire career. Not only is his acting superb, it tugs at your chest and pulls you into his story.

Even though this clip is 7 minutes long, I highly recommend that everyone watch it. Not that I agree with most of what is said, but this is motivation at its best.

“Life = Risk”

Motivation is often killed by a fear of failure. Are you paralyzed because you’re afraid to fail? Well, this video should give you a much needed boost of confidence.

Spoiler: Failure ain’t a bad thing.

“How Bad Do You Want It?”

The speech in this video was made by Eric Thomas, who is also known as the Hip Hop Preacher. Although the main figure in the video is a running back named Giavanni Ruffin, the message applies to more than just sports.

To quote Thomas, “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”

“Pain Is Temporary”

From Eric Thomas, the Hip Hop Preacher, comes another inspiring message about pain, perseverance, and endurance. It seems appropriate to plug in some of the most clichéd phrases here, such as, “No pain, no gain.” Or even, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

“You’re Better Than That”

Sylvester Stallone delivers a great speech in Rocky VI as Rocky Balboa speaking words of wisdom to his son. What’s his message? Success isn’t determined by how smart or talented or skilled you are; success is determined by how hard you can persevere through challenges.

On an unrelated note, the kinetic typography adds a great touch.

“Life Is a Game of Inches”

Warning: NSFW language!

Another movie makes it onto this list: Any Given Sunday. In this movie, Al Pacino is a football coach who delivers a motivating speech to his falling-apart team. Life is like a football game – or maybe football is like life. Either way, the words here are moving and powerful.

“No Excuses”

Here’s a video from Nike that strikes at one of the most prevalent causes of failure: making excuses. Wait for the twist ending. That one caught me by surprise.

“Go Get It”

In the movie Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith’s character speaks a few words of encouragement to his son with regard to pursuing a goal. This line in particular kills me – “people can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it.”

These are by no means the absolute best motivational videos out there. If you know of any other videos that are worth sharing, please feel free in the comments! If these videos didn’t move you at all, perhaps motivational videos just aren’t your thing – and there’s nothing wrong with that.  In that case, what does motivate you?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

There are many ways to share a piece of information without it appearing in your chat logs and emails. Whether you want to make the message self-destruct, use a password vault or send an encrypted file, we’ve got you covered.

Split The Secret Into Pieces

Sending a username, password and website address together is dangerous because the information has context. If you send each piece of information over a different communication method — say instant messaging, email and text message — you’ll be a lot safer. This doesn’t hide the sensitive information entirely, but it scatters the information around and removes the context, making its use unclear.

You can use the same method even if you only have a single secret to share. For example, you could split a password into three parts and send each via a different communication method.

Exercise some caution when doing this. Send an email to a Gmail account, an instant message over Google Talk and a text message to a Google Voice number and that’s one stop shopping for data thieves.

Send A One-Time Message

Websites like Privnote and One Time Secret allow you to send a message that can only be read once. Just access the website, enter your sensitive information and you’ll get a link you can send to your friend or colleague. After they click the link and access the information, it’ll be immediately deleted from the website. Anyone examining your old emails or chat logs won’t be able to click the link and access the information.

Another alternative is DestructingMessage, which creates messages that self-destruct on a timer. When the other person opens the page, a countdown starts and the message will implode and vanish from their screen when the timer reaches zero.

If you’re worried about trusting the websites themselves, you can use this in combination with the secret-splitting method. Send the username over email and send the password as a self-destructing message — the website will have no idea what that password is for.

We’ve covered Privnote, One Time Secret and DestructingMessage in the directory.

Share With A Password Manager

Password managers like LastPass contain built-in password-sharing features. Share a password with another LastPass user and it’ll appear in their LastPass vault. The same method works for secure notes, so you can use LastPass to share any bit of text in an encrypted form.

Beware the “Password Will Remain a Secret” feature here if you’re using LastPass. LastPass tries to hide the password from the other user, but anyone with a little technical knowledge can get around that and view the password when LastPass autofills it on a webpage.

LastPass isn’t the only password manager that can share passwords; PassPack and others can too.

Send Encrypted Files

Encrypted files are the classic, old-school way to send secrets. Write a simple text file with the information, then encrypt it with a password that only your friend or colleague knows. You’ll want to decide on this password ahead of time, ideally in a face-to-face situation.

The recipient can use a decryption program to decrypt your file and access the sensitive information. As a bonus, this method allows you to send sensitive files as email attachments. It won’t matter that the email attachments sit around because no one can read them without decrypting them.

We’ve covered quite a few ways to send encrypted files in the past.

Go Off the Record

Gmail and many desktop chat clients automatically log every message you send, but they also have an off-the-record mode. All logging is disabled in off-the-record mode, so you can send messages and omit them from your chat logs.

If you’re chatting from Gmail or Google+, you can select the “Go Off the Record” option in the Actions menu and both Gmail accounts will stop logging until you go back on the record. Be careful – if your contact is using a desktop chat client, their chat client may continue to log messages on their computer.

Desktop chat applications also have off-the-record plug-ins. For example, the OTR plug-in for Pidgin provides encryption and deniability for sensitive conversations, but it can also disable logging when you and your contact go off-the-record. (this option isn’t enabled by default, though).

How do you send sensitive information online? Do you have a better method for keeping sensitive information private? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Shutterstock, Shutterstock

In case you don’t know, wget is an incredibly useful command-line tool to download whole webpages, including media and as much link depth as you require. It’s quite powerful and sophisticated and it comes in very handy when you’re trying to make backups – especially since it can be worked into scripts. It doesn’t take a Unix guru to get hold of it and use it, either. It can be yours in a few steps, which are just fiddly enough to warrant writing out.

Get The Wget Binary

This is a cheat method which might not be around forever and may not work for everyone – but it’s quick. A very kind soul called Quentin Stafford-Fraser has made a binary of wget for Mac OS X Leopard. Download the zip file and unzip it. Copy the wget file to /usr/local/bin (and follow the README instructions for the other files also).

If this hasn’t worked for you for some reason, read on.

Get a C/C++ Compiler For Your Mac

If you don’t already have a C/C++ compiler for your Mac, you’re going to need one. The easiest way to get them is to install Xcode from the Mac Developer tools, which is available for free on your OS install disc or for Lion via the Mac App Store.

If none of these are an option, install the appropriate package according to the instructions at hpc.sourceforge.net.

Get XZ Utils For Mac

The wget package comes as a xz compressed file and it’s sad, but true, that this format isn’t supported by the MacOS Unzip utility. So, go grab a copy of XZ Utils for Mac so that you can unzip the wget package when you get it.

Get Wget Package Using HTTP or FTP

Head to the wget page and download the wget package via HTTP or FTP or a mirror site which suits you. Download the most recent version you can find.

Unzip And Install Wget

Open up the Terminal application (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and navigate to wherever the package was downloaded.

cd ~/Downloads

Unzip the file using XZ Utils and tar (replace the name of the file with whichever wget version you have downloaded):

xz -d wget-1.13.tar.xz
tar -xf wget-1.13.tar

Change into the new wget directory and run these commands in order:

cd wget-1.13
./configure
make
sudo make install

Some Ideas For Using Wget

Wget can be used in any instance where you might use DownThemAll to get pictures, music or video in bulk from a website. It can also be used to backup entire websites and perhaps mirror them for preservation.

If you’re still not sure what you might use Wget for, consider using Wget to back up your online photo directories or to grab MP3s from open folders online. Anywhere you know of where there’s a folder full of media or a page which links to or displays media can be downloaded with one command using Wget. Although it’s therefore possible to use Wget for entertainment you probably should have paid for, there are plenty of honourable uses for it.

For instance, if you work for a small company who are not so great with their backups, maybe you could use Wget in a script in order to back up your company website. When the inevitable day comes and the work server crashes, you’ll save the day by being able to pull up a recent backup. The same goes for your favourite community websites or anything run by amateurs: your kid’s footy club, the local drama group or whatever else you’re involved with.

Wget is especially good if everyone’s forgotten the password or if hackers changed your website password. Wget can grab all the important stuff for you and you can start fresh.

Using Wget

Here’s a quick example of a Wget command for creating a mirror all of the HTML and media from a page.

wget -m http://www.makeuseof.com/

It’s simple and effective, although I honestly don’t recommend trying this particular example at home!

Cool Scripts And Downloaders

If you’re into automation and downloading, here’s some more to read:

• Download Entire Websites To Read Offline With WinWSD
• How To Do An Automated Remote Backup Of Your WordPress Blog
• How To Run Linux Style Cron Jobs on Windows
• How To Use RSS Feeds To Download Torrents Automatically
• How To Find Unprotected Website Directories & Get “Interesting” Files

What do you use wget for? Let us know!

Image Credit: Download icon blue glass via Shutterstock, Man in wheat field joying via Shutterstock

Mindjet is the one of the premier tools for mindmapping in the personal and corporate space. Recently, Thinking Space was acquired by Mindjet and combined into Mindjet for Android. The app which is available for free (unlike the earlier Thinking Space Pro and Mindjet’s very own desktop software) is clocking up a lot of downloads.

How handy is the mobile mindmapping solution? Do you prefer carrying it around in your pocket? Let’s count the ticks.

Mindjet for Android – Feature rich or basic?

My first impression of Mindjet for Android veers towards the latter. It is a basic mindmapping tool meant to pull you towards using mindmaps as a collaborative and productivity tool while you are on the go. After playing with the app, I think the Android brainstorming app fulfills its early promise.

Asking it to be as feature rich at information mapping as its desktop variant (Mind Manager Pro) would be a bit too much. It is not even as advanced as Freemind. For instance, you won’t get the variety of visual formats or the more advanced project and task management tools.

What you will get are the essential tools to get your mindmap up and running. Here are a five (among many) key features of Mindjet for Android:

Quickly create topics and subtopics

Mind maps are made up of topics and sub-topics. Mindjet gives you full screen support a vertical menu and a horizontal toolbar to build your map. The mapping and toolbar menu are pretty easy to grasp.

Creating topics and sub-topics is easy as tapping the icons and typing in the labels. To improve the map view, you can easily collapse (or expand) the topics branches. Mindjet also supports gesture inputs to edit your mindmaps.

Add Notes to better describe your topics and sub-topics.

A mindmap is about relationships

Mindjet comes with a few relationship styles. You can basically choose the colors and set the kind of end points you want to connect topics with. You can drag the curve to set its shape too.

Beautify your mindmap with colors and styles

Colors and styles can also be set for formatting topic color, topic shape, and sundry other things like text and background. For instance, you can tap a topic and set its shape and color as shown by the screen below. Also, to apply a topic shape or color to an entire branch, enable the Cascade mode. In this mode, the formatting is applied to the current topic and all its subtopics.

You can easily shave a few seconds from your work flow by selecting from the library of styles that the mobile mindmapping provides. Click the camera icon to save the style as a sort of preset.

Add images and hyperlinks

You can use an existing image in your phone’s image gallery and use it in your mindmap. The other option is to use the phone’s camera and directly insert the image.

The other way to highlight important topics and sub-topics is to use icon markers in your mindmap. Here’s a screen of the entire icon library available to you:

Hyperlinks are vital if you want to link your mindmap to files on your device. Of course, hyperlinks allows you to bring in other media files like sound recordings too. You can also link to other mindmaps on your Android.

Import and export your mindmaps

You can bring in maps from other mindmapping apps like Freemind and XMind. The AutoStyle option (get it from the Applications button on your device) helps you clear the formatting that might not be compatible with Mindjet even though it has basic compatibility with the two apps. I couldn’t find any Export option to send my mobile mindmaps to my PC or any other device, but you can attach it to your Gmail and also sync with your Dropbox account. Any changes you make to the mobile mindmap will get synced with your Dropbox version.

That just about rounds up the key features of Mindjet for Android. Mindjet gives you an easily accessible tool to take down your thoughts if you are on the go and need to get some brainstorming done. It’s free and completely ad-free. Come the opportunity, I would readily use recorded voice memos and align it with my mindmaps. How would you use it as a productivity tool? Tell us…

DMCA

Brought into law in the US right back in 1998 and now a prominent part of any website with user-created content, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act created a legal framework for rights-holders to send “takedown notices” to services found to be serving infringing content, or links to infringing content. Like all of these measures it is widely criticised as having too much power and leaves itself open for abuse.

A study from Google indicated that 57% of all the claims it received were abuse by targeting a competing business, while 37% were simply not valid copyright claims. Dealing with these claims costs businesses working time and money, of course – probably more so than the infringing copyright would have cost the claimant anyway. On more than one occasion I’ve had to deal with DMCA complaints directed at MakeUseOf, some utterly unjustified and some simply because a user pasted something they took from another site into a comment here.

It’s also led to security vulnerabilities being left unpublished because of fears that any crypto-analytic research may violate the DMCA, which is just downright dangerous. Want to know more? Read our previous article explaining the DMCA in more detail.

Having hastily pushed through the DMCA, the RIAA still weren’t satisfied though. Specifically, they could never quite accept the idea of safe harbour - whereby ISPs won’t be held responsible for content their users upload. Now they want ISPs to do their dirty work for them as well.

“You cannot monitor all the infringements on the Internet. It’s simply not possible. We don’t have the ability to search all the places infringing content appears, such as cyberlockers like [file-hosting firm] RapidShare.” (RIAA President Cary Sherman)

Any further legislation will be to address that, turning the ISPs to police and removing any safe harbour loopholes.

SOPA/PIPA

I’m sure you’ve all heard quite enough of SOPA, I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say, it would have given rights holders broad reaching capabilities to shut down entire sites at the DNS level if any piece of infringing material was found – so the internets took action, and the bill was put on hold.  On hold, I emphasise – that doesn’t mean it’s gone away, just that they’ll bring it back (I suggest they rename it POOPA) when you’re off looking at lolcats, and the rest of the nation is being told about an impending attack by insurgents with a weapons of mass distraction  destruction. Make no mistake, the SOPA successor is being drafted as you read this.

ACTA

You thought SOPA was bad? ACTA – The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – bypasses sovereign laws in countries signed up – thats America, Japan, Austraila, Canada, and more recently, the whole of Europe too. ACTA doesn’t just cover copyright infringement, but trademarks too – generic medicines, counterfeit goods, seed patents – that sort of thing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation speculates some of the possible ramifications of the agreement:

• A 3-strikes law, similar to the one currently used in France
• Mandatory deep packet-level filtering by ISPs
• ISPs to remove infringing material on their servers (goes against the safe harbour rule)
• Criminal charges for users crossing borders with a single copyright song on their PC
• Stopping access to generic versions of drugs and medicines (in favour of expensive, branded ones)

As I write this article, the full text of the agreement was only made available this morning – though you’ll need to understand legalese – as well as a document that tries to ease our minds as to some of the myths surrounding ACTA. I expect over the coming weeks for a more fuller and accurate picture of the exact details of ACTA to emerge, but I’m sure it’ll be quite scary stuff.

That’s not the whole story though. Here are a few more bills over the years; and though some never made it, some might still – have you ever heard of them?

• Copyright Extension Act – which added yet another 20 years onto the copyright term to the existing 50 years after the death of the holder. 
  
• Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005 – never made it through, but would have required all analog recording equipment to have a form of secret copy protection in it, as well as only allowing a 90-minute window for watching time shifted content.
• The PIRATE act, 2004 was eventually rejected, but would have opened the door for civil lawsuits (as opposed to criminal ones) against copyright infringers, lowering the burden of proof for prosecutors. It later became the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007, but also failed to pass.
• The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act (PCIPA) is still in deliberation, and along with new data retention laws will all but eradicate any concept of privacy. It would give agencies unparalleled access to information from ISPs on suspicion of any crime and without a warrant. This is all justified under the guise of searching for child pornography, so you’d have to be a real a**hole to oppose that!

I can’t possibly claim to understand all the ins and outs of these various laws and acts – no sane normal citizen possibly can – and that’s kind of the point. I’d love to sit here and say you need to continue fighting against these, but the nihilistic part of me says it’s absolutely futile. The industries are so powerful already – they effectively own our politicians and senators through the legalised corruption we call lobbying. These new laws will continue to be introduced, and slowly but surely we will be worn down into accepting them without protest. What’s your next move going to be, internet?

You know what you could do? You could stop buying records, movies, DVDs, or going to the cinema. Hit them where it really hurts, and let them know that this continued attack on our freedoms will not be tolerated.

Image Credits: ShutterStock; XKCD; Copyright terms through the ages – Tom Bell