Does anyone know how to go about finding someone you’ve lost contact with? I’ve been trying to find a person who meant a lot to me, and I’m having trouble (not in the phone book, etc). Short of posting the info I do have on here and letting other people do the searching, anyone else have any ideas?

Webcams and copyright - this seems to be one of the big issues online sometimes. Bandwidth thieves, website content stealing, et cetera, these things play a big part in life on the internet; you can hardly visit a webpage without seeing a copyright notice on it (personally, I like Tala’s). If you have a webcam, and you are broadcasting it on your site, then you keep all rights to your image and content, correct? Therefore, should you be posing or “showing” for the camera, then you own the images.

Now, bring in a third-party broadcasting service, such as mplayer.com or webcamnow.com. By broadcasting through them, you are giving up all rights to whatever you say in a chat or do on cam. This includes allowing others viewing you to do whatever they want with this stuff as well…

[from the mplayer.com agreement]“You also grant HearMe the right to authorize the downloading, printing or broadcasting of such material or any portion thereof, by end users for their personal use.“

Got it? Then let’s continue on to webcamnow’s TOS, shall we?

“Webcamnow.com does not claim ownership of any content communicated by users. By placing content on the site, you grant webcamnow a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, fully paid up license, with full rights to grant sub-licenses, to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display and publish the content, in whole or in part, on the site and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.”

Now, if my untrained mind can read this correctly, although webcamnow does not own anything you broadcast, you are giving them the rights to use it if they want to at some point, so you’re essentially allowing them to do what they please, when they please. They have a very short terms of service agreement, and I was not able to find anything that pertained to 3rd parties saving pictures.

What got me thinking about this? I’m on an egroups.com mailing list where people can post captures from webcams, most of which are broadcasting on mplayer’s site. Recently on this list, a young woman’s pictures were posted with her in some… compromising positions. Once she found out, she joined the list to request that her images be removed, which is the one main rule of the list. The list, at last count, has 3215 members who received her image in their mailbox, plus there are countless other people who received it, since the emailing person sent her pics to 3 other mailing lists as well. I myself have her pics residing in my deleted mail folder in Outlook. It’s a bit late to be considering the consequences of her actions, in my opinion.

The question is, since she is broadcasting herself, and by broadcasting agreeing to the terms of service of the site, does she have any rights to the images? Does she have any right to complain? I mean, if you choose to sit naked or “show” for the cam on these sites, and broadcast it through these sites, you must understand that people are watching you. You are not alone.

I went to bed somewhat early last night - 1:30am or so. Of course, I woke up at about 5:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I watched some stupid gardening show (I learned how to make stepping stones for my garden), and then changed the channel and watched “Wargames” until 9am. And then I went back to sleep until about 2pm. And I think I’m going to go to Taco Bell.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and turkey day, I’m going to share what I’m thankful for:

I’m thankful that I live in a decent neighborhood, with a roof over my head. Even though I’m a bit cold until someone comes and lights my pilot light, there are people out there in the world who have no roof. I’m thankful that I have friends, both online and offline. You listen to me whine about my life and my job on nearly a daily basis. You’ve heard me complain about little things like dead goldfish and tadpoles and perverts. You guys were there when I was crying about having to give up my kittens and through all my fights with Chris. But you’ve also been here to hear me excitedly chatter about new computer hardware, how much fun I had when I went to the local bar, and how cute my pets are. Through teh good times and bad, you’ve been there for me, and I will be eternally grateful for your shoulders (virtual and real shoulders) that you’ve allowed me to both laugh and cry on (Captain, ArkAngel, Tala (because I know you read my rants and know how and what I’m thinking!), Scout, and Tony, a very happy days to y’all!!).

I’m thankful that I have family that gives a shit about my well-being, now as well as when I was living at home. Some children aren’t nearly as fortunate to have parents/guardians/family that gave them the guidance to teach them not to play with broken bottles and that fire is not a toy, but still allow them to play in mud puddles and things like a normal kid. Although I may not always call or visit, rest assured that I do love you all, but you’re never home when I am!

I’m thankful that during the 23, almost 24 years I’ve been walking, crawling, or drooling on this planet, I’ve been able to visit many different places, meet many new people. People have come and gone from my life. I’ve formed relationships that I don’t forsee dying anytime soon, and some that I never thought would ever die, but that have. And although it hurts to say it, I’ve learned good things about the way the world works from all of them, even the bad.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Be thankful for what you have, what you’ve learned, and that you still have time to enjoy your life to the fullest

Do you think work would complain if I showed up wearing my Tigger slippers?