This one is posted for the comedy value. After just discovering IRC, the New York Times has posted an unintentionally hillarious article touting its apparent evils.
Even as much of the Internet has come to resemble a pleasant, well-policed suburb, a little-known neighborhood known as Internet Relay Chat remains the Wild West. While copyright holders and law enforcement agencies take aim at their adversaries on Web sites and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks like Napster, I.R.C. remains the place where people with something to hide go to do business.
It's the creme de la creme of sensationalist news reporting by clueless journalists. Some of the best quotes include:
Probably no more than 500,000 people are using I.R.C. worldwide at any time, and many of them are engaged in legitimate activities... [SNIP]... It is almost impossible to determine exactly how many people use I.R.C. and what they use it for.
We would like to take this opportunity to solicit our unofficial hangout channel. So if you are truly evil, and have something to hide, #holics on irc.holics.net is the place to go :P
Original article link (
with forced registration and pledge of satanic allegience URI's removed):
http://tinyurl.com/39kf6
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Hybrid Mode
