Earth: Mostly Harmless

Lawsuits? We don’t need no stinkin’ lawsuits!

You gotta love the Pirate Bay guys for pure guts and obnoxiousness.

Pirate Bay trying to buy Sealand, offering citizenship:

Cory Doctorow:

The Pirate Bay is raising money to buy the tiny, bankrupt “island” of Sealand. Sealand is the abandoned drilling platform gun battery near the UK that was occupied, declared soveriegn, and turned into a offshore data-center for sensitive information. Sealand’s owners have put the “country” on the block, and the Pirate Bay, Sweden’s gutsy, notorious BitTorrent tracker, is soliciting donations to buy it. They’re even promising citizenship to donors. If they don’t get enough to buy Sealand, they’re promising to buy another island somewhere.

Link

(Via BoingBoing).

Talk Like a Pirate Day

And so it comes round again, international Talk Like A Pirate Day. This year’s a little more special than most, with so much piratey memorabilia available. For starters, Apple is making a contribution thanks to this graphic, and the availability of Piratey (or should that be Richards-ey) movies on the DRM-laden iTunes store.

Piratey translation:

Yarr, it be upon us oncemore, the Daye when landlubbers succumb their wretched Speach t’the way of the Salty Seadog. The riggin be sound on this here Daye - yarr, Davy Jones’ Locker’ll take me now if there ain’t a grand booty on them thar Inter Nette, of Squiffies who be postin’ plunder of Gentlemen o’ Fortune.

Aye, me parrot concurs.

Yes, indeed the Internet has given us some great things: RSS; instant communication across political and cultural boundaries; Chuck Norris facts and more, but it is surely in this area of piratey camp humour in which its faculties as a medium for increasing human understanding truly shine.

Just look at the piratey songs; dictionaries; thesaurus (and wiki) lesson plans; clothing; Flash animations; offical TLAPD songs; movies; online Piratey translator cartoon (one of my faves); Slashdot story; and more the Web has to offer. And if all this Piratese confuses your English-accustomed tongue, see this helpful Pirate grammar how-to video.

Ask not what pirates can do for you; ask what you can do for pirates.

And don’t forget this guy.

BSA disgusted with critiques of their inflammatory piracy loss methodology

The Economist ensures that rationality rules, once again.

BSA disgusted with critiques of their inflammatory piracy loss methodology:

The BSA’s claim were considerable, and they were taken to task for disingenuous tactics. Now they respond with an air of indignation. Oh, Scarlet!

(Via Ars Technica.)

Original Economist article here (day pass or subscription required).