(Photo Courtesy of Wired)

When I was growing up, I watched many of my peers obtain music through Napster.  Napster seemed to be a great thing for the masses of high school kids who couldn’t afford to pay for their music (or they just want something for free).  However it did cut holes in the bottom line for the recording industry.  12 years later, finally it seems that alliances of companies now actually have the teeth to end or at least curb digital piracy.  How?  By working with your internet service provider (ISP).  You already are bound to the terms of service of your internet service provider which either already gives them or will give them should they modify there terms of use the power to monitor your activities.   Working with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other trade groups, the major ISPs can actually take action against you.  It is said to have a “graduated response” that will first educate you about legalities before finally taking you to court.  The escalation process I have been told may look something like this:

Level One:  These kind of copyright infringement letters are just written warnings sent to you via email to let you know that you might have someone that is downloading copyrighted material using your IP. They are just generic letters sent by an automation email sender by your ISP.

Level Two: These copyright infringement letters are very similar to the Level One letters except that they usually contain warnings to get you to cease further infringement, and warn you that your ISP may shut off your internet service if you continue to violate copyright laws.

Level Three: These letters are never sent via email. If you get an email letter that is claiming to be level three from an ISP then I would consider it to be a level one or two letter. At this stage your ISP may shut off your internet service at some point. I would recommend that you contact your ISP claim that the files in question were deleted, and that it will never happen again.

Level Four: At this point the letter is threatening to cut off your internet service off due to a breach of the TOS (Terms of Service) agreement with your ISP, or is explaining that your service has already been suspended due to the same. In many cases the letters will be sent by an Anti-P2P organization requesting a settlement of some sort regarding the copyright violations.

Level Five: At this level the copyright infringement letter is sent via a mail service, peace officer, or court appointed official. Usually the letter is in the form of a subpoena to either invite you to court and/or let you know that the litigation process has started. At this point its time to hire a lawyer, and fight it out.

This could potentially stop people as hefty criminal charges could be brought to bear.  For those hell bent on continuing with torrents and other forms of digital piracy, they could always lease and use a seedbox located in a country which does not allow monitoring of traffic.  What boggles my mind is that in order to do something like this, they will actually pay money to maintain their illegal activities.  For most, their is nothing to hide or fear as they are on the proper side of the law.  But beware, evildoers, big brother is watching!

Your Turn:  Where do we draw the line on protecting businesses while privacy is lost?  What should be done to people who abuse the freedom of privacy?

I recently ran into an interesting problem.  Running an iOS game caused it to just crash back into the home screen.  What was the problem?  It turned out that I was running too many applications at once.  Beginning with iOS 4 with multitasking, apps don’t automatically close.  You can force an app to close according to Apple’s website by:

Follow these steps to force an app to close:

1. From the Home screen, click the Home button twice.
2. Tap and hold on the app.
3. When it starts to jiggle, tap the to close it.

Repeat this process until you have closed out of all other apps.  (You also have the choice of restarting your iDevice).  Now go ahead and try opening up that that troublesome app.  Chances are it will now be happy to run and not crash on you.  YAY!

According to Trefis, Verizon is following after the heels of AT&T.  After AT&T upped its activation fee from $18 to $36 for phone upgrades recently, Verizon now is following suite with a $30 fee for all phone upgrades beginning April 22.  Carriers are doing this for relief on phone subsidies.  With this coming into effect soon, and if you were thinking about upgrading your phone, now may potentially be the best time to upgrade to save a few bucks.

After the research I did about 4G pricing, I bought an aftermarket Clear USB Modem today.  I had previously tried clear when signal strength was considered weak in my area a couple of years ago back when Micro Center was still selling it.  This time, the signal still appeared weak unless I sat underneath a skylight or was near a window.  When I tried to activate the device however, that’s when some trouble began.  The Clear self activation page refused to take the MAC address of my Clear device.  Using ipconfig –all, the Clear rep. knew what to do to get a MAC address…however he decided to use the MAC address not of my WiMax device, but that of my WiFi card!  He said that the MAC address validated.

tjchan:  Which mac should I try again?
Martin:  00-21-00-8C-FF-A3
tjchan:  But that’s my wifi card and not the clear device.
Martin:  That is how it is working out for me.
tjchan:  Because if I just type something random and stupid for a mac address it seems to take it.
Martin:  It shouldn’t
tjchan:  Try it… DEADBEEFCAFE
Martin:  Lol I will try
tjchan:  It says that is actually validated.
tjchan:  Which doesn’t make any sense.
Martin:  Wow, your right.

As funny as it sounds, Clear’s lack of webpage MAC validation isn’t really a big deal as there are many Clear devices out there and they simply care about the bottom-line….he who has the adapter and is willing to pay for service gets service.  So their check only makes sure that the MAC address is a possible one rather than an actual one of their own devices.  After signing up with sales, a quick call to a technician in the Philippines got me up and running within 10 minutes.  Both people I spoke with were kind and courteous.  I’m excited to give Clear a test drive.  Online Trading Academy here in Dallas uses Clear as a backup internet service so that alone speaks well for this service.  Only more testing will tell whether Clear is a good choice for me  – and whether or not I’ll be using it past my 15 day trial.

Yes!  It’s that time again folks to stock up on iTunes credit.  Now, you can get gift cards for a whopping 20% off at Best Buy!  I love these offers as I’m able to buy my apps at a discount.  Why pay retail anyway? 

So how would you maximize your savings?

• Buy using your custom link through from eBates or FatWallet for 1-3.6% additional savings. 
• Be a part of Best Buy’s rewards program called Reward Zone.  You’ll earn points for purchases.
• Lastly, use a rewards type credit card.

That’s it!  Now you’re getting your apps and not breaking the bank.