cable cuts. what the hell do we know?

I'd like to take a moment to go on record and say this about the underwater cables in the news recently:
I'm not totally convinced there is anything nefarious going on, but it's not for the same reasons that a lot of the commenters I've read think. I've seen a great number of people saying that the 'terrorists' wouldn't cut off there own communications, but only a few rebut that with such a statement as "the terrorists don't care about the internet; would rather not have it coming in anyway..." etc. Without a doubt the terrorists who would be behind this do not like the fact that the internet brings such a global presence to their countries. That is an influence that over the past few years has been growing at an alarming rate. For the terrorists this is a scary proposition. More knowledge means more power. Once people begin to look at, and talk about, the outside world, they'll be less likely to care about their parent's religion. All over the world secularism is on the rise. Greater numbers of young people (and old too,) are looking less to God to solve their problems an more to their friends, family, and professionals outside of the clergy. This is definitely a trend that the Islamofacists need to stop to succeed in their mission. Cutting those cables is just one way to buy some time, and do some research on the outcome.
Now, do I think that scenario is the one playing out? I'm not sure. That's a cop-out way of saying I don't have enough information. Cable breaks have happened before, they'll happen again. Murphy's Law dictates that. Are these cable breaks close enough together not to rule out natural phenomenon? It seems that there is enough distance between them that a natural occurrence would register on someone's seismic or volcanic equipment. Almost certainly there would be some facility with warning bells and whistles going off in the region. Hells, we were able to detect an earthquake thousands of miles out, and hundreds of meters below the nearest coast. twice that distance from and modern monitoring equipment. So, no, I'm not too sure that this is 100 per cent natural.
As for the theory of Isral or the U.S. attempting to tap the lines, or deliberately breaking them to disrupt communications? Who knows? Both sides of this conflict know that the first weakness to create against an enemy is to destroy his ability to communicate effectively. And if that option is as simple as cutting a few underwater cables... Then by all means, it sure is a hell of a cost effective way to get the job done.

DEA and RIAA

This Techdirt entry opened a thought up to me. The article's last lines ask why the RIAA keeps suing company after company that is clearly protected by safe harbor laws within the DCMA. An it brought to mind the 'War on Drugs.' Both the RIAA and the U.S. government love to draw as much attention to themselves each time they make a minor movement forward in their own little personal war. In both situations, nothing ever changes. Drugs and ripped music continue to be freely available. The personal vendettas that the DEA and the RIAA have against their perceived threat serves only to hurt the people they claim to protect, and continue to highlight the continued existance of the items that they are trying to abolish. In either case the only result is a waste of time, manpower, and money. *sigh*

On anime and the industry part 2.

For the anime industry, the Internet changed everything. It was truly a golden ticket for fans and the industry alike. It took not time at all for fans of anime to begin setting up websites and begin talking to each other about their favorite hobby. Soon the internet was awash in sites devoted to specific programs, specific characters, theme music, magazines, toys, voice actors and more. The fans were hungry for anything they could get from Japan, and eager to share what they had. This was the early to mid 90's. The boom was tremendous. A few anime companies had been around for quite some time, and they were reaping the benefits of the communities growing interest and heightened awareness to their products. Many new companies jumped into the space to offer their unique-from-Japan-products. Meanwhile, in the background, the groups who were subtitling their own copies of their favorite programs, the fansubbers, began broadcasting their works on the web.
For anime fans there was no need for a software tool such as Napster to popularize their sharing. Fansubbers had discovered Usenet, FTP, and simple posting of files to webpages. Also unlike Napster, there was no swift and relentless backlash from the industry. Technology was also blooming that allowed the fansubbers to obtain and subtitle very clean-looking source programs. The quality of these rivaled the quality of the products coming out form the major studios. The majors didn't take notice at first because the fansubbers generally stayed away from the shows that the majors were bringing to the states. Eventually, however, the hunger of the fansubbers took over the the ability, or desire, of the industry to provide for them. In the end, the fansubbers simply stood up and left the table.
Today, there are tools like bittorrent; websites like Youtube, and other places on the internet where almost every anime serives is available. The anime industry has began to recognize the threat, but it's almost too late. Already a few companies have collapsed, and more are to follow. Some have compared the situation to what is happening to the music industry, but again, there is a large difference. If the music industry collapsed a band would have to find a way to get its music played on radio stations, release CDs and promote their shows. There are already artists doing this, and doing it successfully. Imagine though, if they all had to do that. If there was less than a year between the beginning and the end of the collapse of that industry? The same could happen to the anime industry in the U.S. but there would be no effect to the fansubbers. There would be only a small effect to even the mainstreme consumer.
The problem with the industry in the U.S. is that it is entirely dependant on Japan. The down side to the situation is that the industry and the fansubbers have access to the same material. The industry and the fansubbers are in the same business. The difference is that the fansubbers have almost no overhead. They are giving away the same thing that the anime industry is selling. High quality, English translated Japanese animation. If the final nail is put in the coffin of the U.S. anime industry the fansubbers, unlike music traders, won't need to skip a beat. They won't have to wait for a group of artists to recover and start producing again. Anime may disappear from TV and stores, but it will stay on the internet as long as the Japanese keep making it.