A man has been charged with pirating a screener DVD of Walk the Line after the Motion Picture Association of America set up a special server for him to upload it. They caught wind of his intentions after he discussed it in a chat room. The MPAA then set up a fake web site for movie downloads to entrap him. Pretty slimy move. I wonder how much money — coming from the salaries of actors and crew, of course — was used to fund this scheme.
Andrew Sullivan from Time wrote a decent editorial about the cartoon controversy. An excerpt:
The Arab media run cartoons depicting Jews and the symbols of the Jewish faith with imagery indistinguishable from that used in the Third Reich. But I have yet to see Jews or Israelis threaten the lives of Muslims because of it.
In my last post I mentioned that an Iranian newspaper is holding a contest for creating holocaust cartoons. (It should be noted that the newspaper is owned and operated by the city of Tehran in alliance with the holocaust-denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.) This is not an act of revenge which would upset Jews in the way that Muslims are upset now — while the Holocaust certainly makes one think of Jews, it is not a symbol of Judaism in the way that Muhammad is of Islam. Rather, the cartoons will be endorsements of fascism and genocide.
And finally, a topical political cartoon by Tom Toles.
Mirrors: Time editorial, cartoon.
In the past week or so, many Muslims have pushed protesting to insane extremes in response to some cartoons published in European papers, namely Denmark, Norway, and France. The cartoons depicted Muhammad and Allah. At this point several people have died. Let me repeat that: people have died as a result of cartoons being published.
Less serious but also noteworthy:
- The Danish embassy in Beirut was burned down
- Two executives from a Jordanian newspaper which reprinted the cartoons have been arrested
- The 12 cartoonists are currently in hiding with police protection
In a fit of immaturity, an Iranian newspaper is now holding a contest for the best Holocaust cartoon.
Here are the cartoons in question.
Mirrors: AFP article, Reuters article, cartoon gallery
