Police make fake MUL site

NYPD have apparently set up a fake MUL website to trap the unwary.

The bogus site is http://www.madeulooknyc.com

ATL SWAT and RIAA bust Atlanta DJs over mixtapes

DJ Drama and Don Cannon Arrested For "Piracy"

The early reports of the bust show so much ignorance of hiphop and racial stereotyping that it's hard to believe. Note that the piracy and counterfeiting referred to is actually normal mix tape CDs like DJs produce everywhere.

I hope some hiphop deeper pockets step up to defend mixtapes and hiphop DJs. Mixing is good for the original artists as well as the DJs who mix it, when original products are available for sale.

The APD are going down for the third time in recent news for outlandish overreaction. First they shot grandma in a botched drug raid, then they roughed up a visiting foreign historian for jaywalking, and now SWATting some DJs as if they were enemies of the State. If they only had a brain.

Stand up for your right to buy, sell and use music so we can put all this RIAA dawn raid crap behind us. The record companies are getting desperate enough to abuse all their customers all the time on top of the abuse they show their recording artists, so why support them anymore? We'd be better off without them now. We need a better way to compensate artists directly for the music they produce. This middle man stuff needs to be history.

Support Electronic Freedom Foundation who are working to end the madness by changing laws and educating folks in the legal system. (See the RIAA and DMCA sections and the action center for more info about what this is and who's getting arrested for what.) Keep up with the copyright madness and DRM news at BoingBoing

SWAT: Machine-gun-toting riot police in armor, intended for use against heavily armed bank robbers, now used anytime for anything.

RIAA: Recording Industry thugs, currently going around busting kids and grandmas for downloading music to create an atmosphere of terror.

DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act - the bad (USA) law that makes all this bad craziness possible. Passed by the sleeping do-nothing-good former Republican-majority Congress. They probably didn't even read it, as usual. Could be re-worked if you pressure your reps.

DRM: Digital Rights Management: technology invented to cripple your use of the music and videos you buy, by locking you into hardware, erasing your music, reporting your activities, and destroying your equipment. Don't buy into handcuffed music players.

WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization - working to handicap broadcasters and websites worldwide.

If you produce or consume media and music, you should get involved now, because these bad laws and unscrutinized enforcement agencies can put you and yours in jail as well as expose you and your fans to unbelievably high fines. Musicians and listeners need to work together to make a better system before the recording industry labels and mainstream broadcasting dinosaurs put everyone else out of business. This is serious stuff and it's starting to look more like the ludicrous and losing drug war every day. What is decided now will likely affect artists and their fans for the rest of our lives and beyond.

Buy music directly from the artists whenever you can. Support independent publishing. It's possible for artists to make money without government and industry thugs spying on everyone, crippling playback devices and raiding DJs and busting kids.

Response to Bush's "Surge" by Olberman

The members of the US Congress are criminally negligent to let Bush grab power and destroy so much and so many. Their feeble complaints are having no effect.

Two Writers Killed by London Underground Train

WISE/WANTS DFC
OZONE SRW

Rest in Peace

Condolences to all those they left behind.

Graffiti is not worth dying for. Please everyone be careful out there.

How many cops does it take to arrest a jaywalker?

They arrest jaywalkers? (Jargon tip: "jaywalking" is simply crossing the street while not at a designated crosswalk.)

Actually, this visiting historian and conference attendee in Atlanta (Georgia) made the common mistake of asking Officer Friendly for his ID while being accosted for jaywalking ... between the Hyatt and Hilton hotels. Maybe the APD were trying to show equal treatment to rich people for once, but still. Dude spent all day in jail before charges were dropped. Safety first! Serve and protect!

Conferences are one of the biggest sources of income for Atlanta too, so go figure why the cops are bothering the cash cows ... or is it the irresistable ticket opportunity? That's penny wise and pound foolish for the city, if so.

Columbus (Ohio) and Oakland (California) police are also obsessed with you crossing at crosswalks, and there are probably many more places that micromanage foot traffic in the USA as well. Fines can be $75-150, and if you complain, that's resisting arrest and generally results in a beating then jail. It's for your own good, kids.

With that kind of tourist outreach plus the fingerprinting at the airports, it's a wonder anyone bothers visiting the US armed camp anymore.

If only all this security theater were making anyone safer.

Idiots paint on petroglyphs

Painting on rocks is so stupid anyway, but to mess up an irreplaceable, ancient, Native American sacred site ... those kids are too dumb to be allowed in college.

11 Spring St NYC - closing party news (Dec 17)

Outside of 11 Spring St on graffiti archaeology
(via Gothamist)

ireallylovecake's Flickr slide show of Dominican Republic walls and gallery (Doze Green and others) and inside 11 Spring St. for the last show.

MOS 2006 Switzerland

Amazing production, interesting web presentation, from Meeting of Styles in Winterthur last summer.

Free courses from Berkeley, on podcasts

Education is its own reward.

MIT will make a whole bunch of courses free online later this year as well.

Swiss man faces 75 yrs in Thai jail for defacing pictures of the king

"BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police are looking to prosecute a Swiss who defaced images of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej during a drunken rampage on the monarch's birthday with five separate acts of lese majeste which could land him in jail for up to 75 years.

Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57 and a long-term resident of the northern province of Chiang Mai, was arrested earlier this month after several portraits of King Bhumibol, whom many Thais regards as semi-divine, were daubed in black paint.

He has been in jail ever since while police investigated an incident which falls under draconian lese majeste laws that carry a penalty of between three and 15 years in jail for any insult to a royal. [...]"

Wow123

Wow123 / Bed SUK has rolled out his fancy new site with his latest work.

RIP KOS

13 year old killed by train after painting near the tracks in Long Island NY.

Words can't express the tragedy of losing someone so young and full of promise. The only thing we can do is to try to learn the hard lessons that each disaster brings us.

Train yards and tracks are way more dangerous than you think they are. Even veterans have trains sneak up on them. Never let your guard down, and watch out for your friends. Don't expect to hear or feel the train first.

Let's all be more careful out there this year.

Rest in peace, KOS ...

Our deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

Alter State Mural

Done recently for a show in San Francisco with Sundance, Sirron Norris,Nate Erlin, Ricardo Richey, Joe Ader, Ezra Li Eismont, Nome, Edonna, Tip, Scatha G. Allison, Peripheral Media Projects and probably others.

JAMES TOP'S GRAFFITI NYC PUBLIC ACCESS TV SHOW (MANHATTAN)

Every late Saturday/early Sunday morning at 1:30 am (NYC time -5:00 UT) on Channel 67 on the MNN network. Watch live on that link if you've got the right plugins. Visit James TOP's myspace page at the top link.

Info courtesy of Tyesha, via Tools of War.

Graffiti videos online

The Graffiti Gate and Guerillaone are serving up videos.

The Disclosure Project - UFO witnesses in US government

Don't miss this. There's more on Google video about Disclosure Project also. I watched a press conference with some of these witnesses for National Press Club dated May 2001, for example, but today is the first time I've heard of it. - Susan Description given: "This 2 hour video is a distillation of over 120 hours of video interviews made by Dr Greer. Dozens of highly credible military and government witnesses discuss UFO events and projects they have worked on, with introductory and overview commentary by Dr. Greer. Sections covered in this video are: * Secrecy Risks: what are the global risks if we do nothing * Human Witness Testimony: dozens of witness testimonies that are real and shouldn't be ignored. * Witness testimony to nuclear weapons that were sent into space and destroyed by UFOs. * Astronaut and Satellite Related Testimonials * Craft and Body Retrieval of Extraterrestrial Origin * Secrecy Examined: how it works through the unacknowledged special access projects and compartmentalization. i.e. How some members of our Governments are kept in the dark. * The Secrecy behind Space Based Weapons: its lethal implications. * Threats and Ridicule: suffered by those wishing to disclose the truth. * Why the Secrecy: and why it is no longer necessary. Video also available here: disclosureproject.org Donations are also very beneficial."