Symantec is telling users of its pcAnywhere to disable or uninstall the remote-access software until it can fix an unknown number of bugs. Stolen source code for the program may have fallen into the hands of the hacking group Anonymous, making it unsafe to use.

Symantec warns users to disable pcAnywhere

Here is the actual quote

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd told Fox News. "Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

Into this world steps the perfect super villain in Kim Dotcom. The founder of Megaupload even looks like Kingpin. Dotcom is facing up to 50 years for piracy. Think about that though, 50 years for piracy. We give rapists and murderers less time than that.

This is the world in which we now live, now think about this, by posting this, we are going to be monitored by homeland security as well. Yes that’s right, Homeland Security has permission to collect and retain personal information from journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.” This data is then shared with both private sector businesses such as the RIAA an MPAA and international third parties according to RT.

So by posting this link into our Facebook and Twitter feeds we are now on the Homeland Security list.

That’s the legal system here in the United States circa 2012.

This was possibly the best of what the internet has to offer on display as interests from all over the net came together to stop this madness. The fight is not won yet, but this battle definitely goes to us.

The public learned a lot more about the bills over the last few days, but you can bet that the MPAA and the RIAA are not done with legislation yet. We can all agree that piracy is a bad thing, but how you stop it is something that has to be looked at a lot closer. Here are the main problems I have with the approach these bills took.

1. It is no more the governments job to limit my access to web sites any more than they can tell me what to read. This is first and foremost a First Amendment issue.

2. It’s  a worthless law to begin with, blocking sites will not stop pirates, but drive them further underground. IP addresses will change hands and people who want to find pirated info can.

Here is an example from a simple whois lookup for Thepiratebay. That or you can just download Tor which the US State Department helps fund to aid foreign citizens under “repressive regimes” Kind of ironic don’t you think.

Thepiratebay.org Server Details
IP address: 194.71.107.15
Server Location: Germany
ISP: Resilans AB

3. We have laws already in place to combat these and they work pretty well, just ask Megaupload.

The last reason may be the most damning as you must only make laws that solve a problem that are as draconian as the problem itself.

Forget the free speech issues or prior restraint, these bills are the equivalent of trying to stop speeding by putting random brick walls in place on freeways. Would that work, Certainly it would, but the damage caused by the fix is greater than the problem.

First it was Dan Wineman pointing out how bad the EULA was in a post where he pointed out the audacity of the new license agreement.

“Apple, in this EULA, is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty.”

It gets even more confusing as the EULA becomes a complete nightmare for content creators when it conflicts with the OS licenses for things like 2D Collada models. If you use Collada to make a 3D model and put it into an iBook you are done. Actually you just cannot do it and if you do you are now in violation of the GPL.

Generally the way Apple is doing this just doesn’t seem very well thought out.

Now Ed Bott of ZDNet is going even further with a story headline that calls Apple out

“Apple’s mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement”

That is the headline on a major review site today.  Not a good start for the post Jobs era.

Here is a sample of the tech world’s response to Apple. It should be interesting to see how they respond.

Apple Embroiled in eBook Publishing Controversy

Minyanville.com 
And a boon to the author, the e-books can be published directly from the app into Apple’s iBookstore. According to iBook Author’s end user license agreement, if an author wishes to charge a fee for a work created in the app, he is restricted to Apple’s …

iBooks2: Not a silver bullet for publishers

Forbes 
When Bott says, “I have never seen a EULA as mind-bogglingly greedy and evil as Apple’s EULA for its new ebook authoring program,” he means it. You may not sell your iBooks Author-created ebook in any other store. For their part, Apple do not guarantee …

Apple unmasks the Death Star: iBooks Author

ExtremeTech 
Well, Apple’s finally done it. It must only have been a matter of time before the evil would show through. It was like trying to hold your breath indefinitely — you have to breathe at some point. …

5. Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Ultrabook

This is coming late this year with Windows 8 and the Yoga is a look into the future of computing. The Yoga designation refers to its infinitely adjustable screen with its myriad of settings allowing the Yoga to be a laptop, a pad on a stand, or a tablet with the screen all the way back. The touchscreen features ten point touch and the Windows 8 loaded on it was fantastic. When it’s flipped and used as a tablet, the keyboard deactivates, so it can be placed on a flat surface or used on the go without worrying about hitting a key. The problem lies in its $1200 price tag as it is going to have to compete with two devices at that price and its unclear whether having one device is going to make it worth it.

4. Swiss Army Knife 1TB USB Drive

It’s pretty useless, but still very cool to fit a terabyte into a flash drive along with hardware and software encryption. Not only that its got a blade, scissors and a nail file. For traveling it also comes with a case without the implements. The catch… It comes with a price tag of 3 grand.

3. Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

Maybe the coolest thing we saw the entire show this 300.00 helicopter with its 720p video camcorder is the thing we want now. Thankfully it will be available in the second quarter. With its Android and iOS apps to control it we can envision some fantastic shots and video from 15 feet up.

2. Everything Vizio

Vizio got our pick for the best company at the show as they showed off beautiful new laptops, desktops, and a 10 inch tablet. Vizio worked directly with Microsoft on development and these things look like something out of Cupertino, not a budget television maker. The screens look fantastic with all but the smallest notebook boasting 1080p screens and the desktops have a HDMI pass-through so they can be used as a HDTV when the computer is off. Talk about the perfect dorm room setup. Prices are not released yet, but said to be unbelievably low

The 14 inch laptop won PCWorlds best laptop award even and for a new maker that is an amazing achievement.

1. OLED TV’s from Samsung and LG

It’s hard to explain just how good this technology looks in person. These things are razor thin, like iPhone thin in a 55 inch screen and the color saturation and unlimited contrast make an unbelievable difference from today’s technology. It is literally like looking out a window. The rumored price point is around 8-10,000.00 for the 55 inch versions which although out of price range today, expect these prices to drop precipitously over the next 2 years.

Samsung probably was the most talked about manufacturer across the board as they brought out the Galaxy note, app controlled appliances and some amazing TV’s. The one thing noticed most. Chrome was nowhere to be found and its awfully quiet out at Google so far.

Here are some of todays highlights and video from the floor from TWIT

Ballmer delivers Microsoft’s last CES keynote

USA TODAY
“We really have a chance to raise our game this year,” Ballmer said at the start of the keynote, the last Microsoft will deliver at CES.

Samsung bringing super-size smartphone to US

Economic Times
In an announcement on the eve of the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Samsung said it will partner with AT&T to sell the Galaxy Note in the United States and it will run on the US telecom carrier’s 4G network.

IdeaTab ‘transformer’ turns tablet into a laptop

Christian Science Monitor
The IdeaTab S2 and IdeaTab K2, a pair of tablets showcased at CES 2012, are both set for 2012 release

Nokia Determined To Battle In America With Lumia 900

paidContent.org
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) CEO Stephen Elop was long on the military metaphors during his company’s press conference at CES 2012, speaking of the need to “establish a beachhead” in the US with his company’s new Windows Phone strategy

So Where Are All The New Google Chrome Devices At CES? (GOOG)

?San Francisco Chronicle
There’s no mention of Chrome or Chromebooks on the official Google blog about CES. And the Chrome blog doesn’t mention CES at all.

And last night Seagate, in a filing with the SEC, said it expects that total industry HDD shipments this quarter will be limited to 110 to 120 million units, far less than the 180 million units forecasted before the flood. That’s even worse than the predictions I heard earlier this week.

Again, many of the hard drives for PCs destined to be sold this quarter have already been manufactured. Still, the flooding will certainly reduce the number of PCs available significantly, both this quarter and into the next….more on Forward Thinking