Taken from: http://xkcd.com/627/

I don’t even pity the people who fall for tricks like this, they should just wake up and look/read before pressing trade/buy etc. although I do think that the people trying to scam still should be punished somehow by the Game Masters, because World of Warcraft is really too poor a community that blacklisting a person would ever work.

[13:49:52] [General] <Makaria>: any1 wanna help me kill a nub hunter?
[13:50:20] <70:Makaria>: Level 70 Undead Warlock <Makaria owns> – Shadowmoon Valley
[13:50:26] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: If the hunter is so “nub” then why do you need help killing him?
[13:50:34] [General] <70:Makaria>: cuz he killed me while i was afk
[13:50:46] [General] <70:Makaria>: and now i cant ress cuz of him
[13:50:49] [General] <Redmeat>: Lol kill him back then.. hehe
[13:50:55] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Still.. Why do you need help killing him if he’s nub?
[13:50:59] [General] <70:Makaria>: i cant with half hp and mana
[13:51:12] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: rez, fly, eat/drink, fly back
[13:51:14] [General] <70:Makaria>: cuz i cantwithout pet and half hp and mana -.-
[13:51:25] [General] <70:Makaria>: i cant he is camping me -.-
[13:51:28] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Sure
[13:51:41] [General] <70:Makaria>: tard
[13:51:43] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Takes more time for him to find and target you due to lag etc. than it takes to mount up
[13:51:55] [General] <70:Makaria>: no it doesnt -.-
[13:51:56] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: So I guess you’re the “nub” and the “tard”
[13:52:16] [General] <70:Makaria>: i dont argue with tards so sry Kagmoo
[13:52:56] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: I love arguing with tards, hence I argue with you. Because you show how mentally incapacitated you really are
[13:53:21] [General] <70:Makaria>: yeah if its easier for u to believe in that.. if it makes u feel better
[13:54:08] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: I feel rather good, thank you for asking
[13:55:05] [General] <70:Makaria>: i bet u are a 14 year old kid that hates the whole world because he has no life
[13:56:07] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Heh, and the guild name really shows how much of a noob tard you really are, not to mention that you’re a warlock who are so noob he can’t even win against a hunter
[13:56:19] [W From] <70:Makaria>: grow up tard
[13:56:27] [W From] <70:Makaria>: this is my alt anyways
[13:56:52] [W From] <70:Makaria>: and locks is strongest and best thought class in wow so
[13:57:13] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You just keep showing just how noob you are
[13:57:30] [W From] <70:Makaria>: i played wow while u didnt even know what it is tard
[13:57:40] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You claim your class is the strongest and best, yet you can’t figure out how to mount up?
[13:57:48] [W From] <70:Makaria>: ARE U RETARDED?
[13:57:58] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Aha, that’s good for you. Means you’ve played since early beta
[13:57:59] [W From] <70:Makaria>: I CANT MOUNT UP WHEN HE HAS HIS PET ON 1 SIDE
[13:58:05] [W From] <70:Makaria>: tard
[13:58:55] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Lol, damn you are ridicilously retarded at this game then, if yoiu can’t figure out how to avoid his pet and him while mounting
[13:59:06] [W From] <70:Makaria>: get a life loser
[13:59:24] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Indeed you should, because you obviously can’t figure out how to play the game
[13:59:45] [W From] <70:Makaria>: haha i have a life ask my bf Alucardd who will probably start pwning u now
[14:00:02] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Damn I pity her
[14:00:09] [W From] <70:Makaria>: -.-
[14:00:28] [W From] <70:Makaria>: get a life moron
[14:00:32] [W To] <70:Makaria>: If someone is with a noobtard like you, I really do feel sorry for them
[14:00:44] [W From] <70:Makaria>: duel my main and then say so tard
[14:01:20] [W To] <70:Makaria>: I wouldn’t wanna embarras you in front of your “girl friend” whatever his name is
[14:01:30] [W From] <70:Makaria>: -.- tard
[14:01:39] [W From] <70:Makaria>: grow up and get a life
[14:01:42] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You sure do like that word, don’t you?
[14:01:55] [W From] <70:Makaria>: well yeah it is perfect word for u
[14:02:20] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You must hear it a lot every day in kindergarden, I guess that’s why you’re so fond of the word
[14:02:20] Makaria is ignoring you.

It takes 3 seconds to summon a mount and at level 70 everyone should have a flying mount. Due to lag (the server and client needs to synchronize) it will take about 1 second (maybe less, maybe more depending on how much lag) from you resurrect until you’ll actually be visible to the people around you. That leaves only approximately 2 seconds for the opponent to spot you, target you and get you in combat so you can’t mount up. If you’re smart you find a spot where the opponent can’t see you, or just as far from the opponent as it’s possible, then resurrect while spamming the mount button and you’re 9 out of 10 mounted and flying before the opponent can get you in combat.

I guess what I found most amusing is the fact the guy acknowledged that Warlocks are probably the strongest class in World of Warcraft, especially in PvP, yet still seeking assistance to kill the Hunter. Sure a Beastmaster Hunter could win if the cooldown is off The Beast Within (which is 2 minutes), but in many cases would still be hard pressed against a decent geared Demonoligy Warlock.

Normally I just click “Decline” and ignore it, sometimes I send a “polite” whisper to the offender. With group invites these usually goes ignored (and I usually don’t send anywhispers to those) because they’re often from random_spambot_11237. Anyways, this time the offender responded, and follows here (I’ve cut and pasted it, so that irrelevant background chatter isn’t there):

In response to that article I’ll write my own Top 20 list. I’ll also tag each extension as either “must-have” (MH) or “nice-to-have” (NtH). MH extensions are extensions that will/should benefit everyone and NtH extensions are those that really depend on each persons individual needs.

1. Adblock Plus – MH
   This extension is without doubt the most important of them all. It increases effectiveness because you don’t have to be distracted all the time by annoying ads on every webpage. Sure, I’ve heard people say they don’t even notice the ads when they’re browsing in Internet Explorer, but give them a week without ads and they’ll never want to go back.
2. Adblock Filterset.G Updater – MH
   This is an extension to the Adblock/Adblock Plus extensions. It uses a central filter list so you don’t have to update and add filters for adblocking yourself all the time.
   Edit: I was contacted by the author of Adblock Plus, who pointed me to this post that explains why Adblock Filterset.G Updater shouldn’t be used. Thanks Wladimir
3. Download Statusbar – MH
   Firefox’s built-in download handling just isn’t that great in my opinion. That centralized download window that pops up just isn’t all what it’s crached up to be. Now this is definitely one of the extensions that’s worth having, gives a nice overview of your downloads, and easy access to them as well while browsing.
4. Image Zoom – MH
   This is one of those that might be a Must Have on a personal level, but I still think it’s very useful for everyone. It adds the ability to right click any image on the web page an either zoom in or out. Very useful if you’re reading a forum where someone posted some super big image that just destroys the readability for all posts on that page.
5. Tab Mix Plus – NtH
   This one is definitly not a “must-have”, this is a personal choice for me over ChromaTabs and Colorful Tabs. It adds some other session features than what is built-in to Firefox 2, and also adds some very nice Tab features, such as locking a Tab. Adding close tab buttons to all tabs, regardless of number and much more.
6. IE Tab – MH
   I guess this could be classified more as a “Nice-to-Have” than a “Must-Have”, but I decided that this extension helps people be more efficient because they don’t need to have 2 browsers open just to be able to browse a site that isn’t developed properly.
7. FaviconizeTab – NtH
   This is one of those nice extensions that doesn’t do much, but what it does helps a lot. I tend to have tons and tons of tabs open at once, this unfortunately lessens the overview of the tabs which can degrade efficiency. Some of all these tabs however, is easily recognizable by it’s Favicon, so why not have the tab take up no more room than the Favicon?
8. Google Toolbar for Firefox – NtH
   I don’t think this needs any introduction, I do however think some of it’s features are overlooked. To begin with I didn’t like this plugin because it took up room, it added an extra toolbar which I didn’t really use. Now, just let Google Toolbar take over the Firefox built-in toolbar and you have one less toolbar to take up room. Then simply use Firefox’s built-in Toolbar customization to add Google functionality anywhere on the other toolbars, especially the highlight/find search words is a near-must-have.
9. DownThemAll – NtH
   I rarely use this one, except if I’m going to download larger files. Being able to resume with this is gold, also being able to use multiple threads increases the speed quite a lot if the server supports it.
10. RSS Ticker – NtH
    If you like to keep up to date on news while browsing, this is a nice addition. Keep a nice overview on the latest while browsing your favorite sites.
11. PDF Download – NtH
    Don’t you just hate when you click a link to a PDF document, and Adobe Reader opens up inside the browser, thereby removing your from the site you were reading? This will help you.
12. MinimizeToTray – NtH
    Sometimes I just have way too many windows open, and aren’t really using the browser (Firefox), in these cases it’s nice to make some room by minimizing the window to the Tray instead of the Taskbar.
13. Tabs Menu – NtH
    This is something I only installed because of Tab Mix Plus. The standard way Firefox 2 handles tabs, is that it makes the tab bar scrollable when too many tabs are open. It also adds a drop-down list of what tabs are open. Unfortunately Tab Mix Plus removes the drop-down feature, this is why this extensions becomes so handy, it adds a new menu entry with the list of open tabs.
14. TinyUrl Creator – NtH
    If you tend to paste a lot of long links, this will make it less of an eye-sore to those that have to see it, just right click the page you wish to get the link for and click “Create TinyUrl for this page”.
15. Favicon Picker 2 – NtH
    This isn’t that great really, more of a cosmetic addition. I like to have Favicons added to my bookmark entries since it gives a better overview, some sites unfortunately haven’t figured out that there exists such a thing as Favicons. This is where Favicon Picker comes in.
16. ColorZilla – NtH
    Wonder what exact color is used in some part of the screen? Just click the eyedropper and select the color. Only really useful for Web Developers and Designers.
17. Web Developer – NtH
    Adds a ton of features that is very helpful to any person who creates websites.
18. Firebug – NtH
    Adds some of the same features as Web Developer, but the real benefit to this baby is that debugging websites just becamse so much easier.
19. Auto Copy – NtH
    This can be both a boon and a bane. If you’re used to Linux Console style copying, or mIRC style copying, then this will certainly be useful. The downside is that sometimes it copies text that shouldn’t have been copied, especially in some Rich Text editing environments such as TinyMCE.
20. Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper – NtH
    I haven’t had a chance to use this, yet, but it sounded promising

Computerworld has an article which goes more in-depth of this case.
Addition: BetaNews.com article.

It’s the Internet Service Provider, who has the responsibility for what the users are doing on the net – that’s the courts decision in the case about the users access to the website Allofmp3.com, where the service provider Tele2 was up against the musicindustry IFPI.

I’m more and more glad that I live in Sweden now instead of Denmark. Apparently control of the internet should be privaticed, for that is what APG is, a private organisation. No one should control the internet in such a way, that tells people what they’re should or should not browse.

The Danish Anti Piracy Group, who handles the music- and filmindustry interests in matters regarding illegal copying of copyrighted material, have today applied for an injunction against the ISP Tele2. This is done as part of APG’s endeavour stop the illegal, russian website AllofMP3’s activities in Denmark.

They’re surely growing balls, or are they?

Looking at the statistics for 2005 it shows that there are 31 ISP’s offering xDSL services in Denmark. The statistics also show that the biggest by far is TDC with a whooping 72% of all xDSL subscribers in Denmark, 2nd. comes Cybercity with 13%, 3rd. is Tele2 with 10% and then the last 5% is spread over the remaining 28 ISP’s offering xDSL services.

I would think that if APG really wanted AllofMP3 blocked and was so sure that it would happen as they seem to think, they would have gone after TDC right away, this would certainly block the biggest amound of connections. But I guess APG is just grasping for straws as always.

Addition:

Tele2 have made a response to APG’s injunction:

It’s impossible to close the access to the russian site AllofMP3.com, states Tele2, after The Anti Piracy Group applied for an injuction against the site. “The only way to do this is to close all access to the Internet”, states Tele2.

From my basic knowledge on how the TCP/IP protocol works, the following methods would be how to block a specifik site, and the drawbacks of those methods.

• Using packet inspection/transparent proxy.
  This method is a simple way to check all trafic from the users, checking if it’s directed toward AllofMP3.com.
  The drawbacks to this are
  • Ressources.
    Running a transparent proxy takes a great deal of CPU and Memory, which in turn drains more power, which in turn cost more money. I somehow doubt APG are willing to pay for the extra expenses they’re forcing on the ISP’s.
  • Encryption.
    It’s really easy to set up an encrypted tunnel, where the packet contents can’t be read. That way anyone can get around this method, and the only way to avoid it is, as Tele2 stated, to close all access to the Internet.
• Blocking IP/IP-ranges.
  Changing the A record on the DNS for AllofMP3 is easy and takes a very short amount of time. Once again the only certain way is to block, if not all the Internet, then all IP’s assigned to Russia.

I wonder when APG stops this nonsense.