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Faith-based schools shouldn't have Med schools, that's Science!

Plenty of doctors who got their degrees from Loyola, BC, etc are going to be pretty disappointed. WTF were they thinking?

Do you even read what it is you type? Do you really think that Texas is in some kind of a vacuum? That it resides in its own universe? Or that Texas is some kind of golden boy country just because we happen to have someone from Texas in the White House? And do I really need to list the thousands of GOOGLED court cases that talk about the unusual methods used in our court systems?

Ok, you asked for it. Here are some Texas Jurisprudence instead of out of state stuff

Example #1: Texas courts affecting, or in this case, not affecting other country's courts:For example, in Agar Corp. Inc. v. Multi-Fluid, Inc. a Texas court held that a Norway-based company was not subject to suit in Texas because its products could not be purchased and contractual relations could not be made through its website.
Notes: The thing to notice here is that a Texas court feels it has the power to affect things that are going on in other countries. Especially if money is exchanged. I would have thought that Texas courts could only affect things that went on in Texas or maybe the United States itself - but certainly not in places like Norway.

Example #2:This week's analysis focuses on the offensive use of the Texas Attorney General's concession in Saldano v. Texas that the application of the death penalty in some cases in Texas has been impermissible infected with racial animus.
Notes: Using race to make or apply laws was outlawed years ago yet - here it is!

Example #3:With respect to the sentencing issues, the Court conludes that the state court unreasonably applied Strickland when it concluded that Lowe had not been ineffective when he failed to object to the introduction of lots of prejudicial evidence.
Notes: Usage of laws written outside of Texas by the courts in Texas.

You know - I could go on and on and on but I think you get the picture. Since you don't know what you are talking about I think I'm going to stop posting back. So say what you will but if I were you - I'd do a bit more reading first.

To quote you, go blow smoke up someone's ass, as mine's full of yours.

Tssk - Tssk - you really should take that pipe out of your mouth before you begin blowing smoke. Use some common sense next time. If something is happening in one state - it usually happens in all of the states in varying degrees.

Can you say "lawsuit"?

Of course, as (almost) always, Wright's vision was just a wee bit ahead of the materials science of the day; the whole setup used to leak like crazy. But what the hell -- it sure was gangbusters back in 1939, when the future was invented.

Let's put this into perspective.

Compare this case to previous cases that courts have considered where Ticketmaster has tried to sue people who have *linked* to their web site. The courts have said that links themselves are not copyright infringement because no actual copying occurs. But in their reasoning they have really clearly implied that if these other web sites had copied content from the Ticketmaster web site, that Ticketmaster would have won the Copright Infringement claim.

See

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/headl ines/content/2000040401.html

The DMCA stuff is much more dicey.

But, I think that they actually have a prima facia case of copyright infringement.

IMNAL

Randy

1) There are people that aren't being helped

That's bogus. One could easily make the reverse claim - government social programs don't work because today there are people that aren't being helped. Sounds like a myth of government social programs to me.

2) People (especially the rich) are greedy bastards, how do I know this? According to a report that ran on NPR a few months back, the middle class give 6 times as much to charity per dollar of income than the rich.

Prepare yourself for some cognitive dissonace. Those numbers you heard were misleading. They leave out all households that give nothing to charity. They also had very sparse sampling of upper income households.

When the entire population is accounted for, you find that higher levels of giving (as a percentage of disposable income) are correlated with higher levels of income.

Charitable Giving: How Much, By Whom, To What, and Why."

With taxes those rich bastards are forced to pay their fair share regradless of if they want to or not

Assuming your were right about them not giving more already, just what about the last two centuries leads you to believe that the "rich bastards" won't just have the politicians (whom are universally members of the rich bastard's club) write enough loopholes into the law so that they legally don't have to "pay their fair share" anyway?

Why bother with all the overhead of taxation if the people who most "deserve" to be taxed will just weasle out while everyone else is left with an oppresive burden?

Not sure that's true. This might be relevant - US law regarding the publication of letters sent to reclusive author J.D.Salinger:

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/ salinger.html

Well it is not clearly illegal. While distributing calssified documents is criminal, it is only criminal for people without security clearances if it could reasonably be seen as esponage. I don't think anyone thinks /. is a spy hangout. In addition courts tend to allow infromation released, even unintenionally, to be reported. In http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/ cox.html Cox Broadcasting v Cohn the supreme court found that the first admendment protected the publication of the name of a rape victum, even when state law forbit it, when the name was inculded in a publically available police report. This seems like a similar incident of a falure to redact.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/ hustler.html

• My opinion of Best Buy

1. How bad are they?

• unethical practices

Best Buy wants to take away freedom of speech and they don't respect thier customers at all article

and best buy for being so racist article "Earlier this year, Mr. Anderson apologized in writing to students at a Washington, D.C., school after employees at one store barred a group of black students while admitting a group of white students."

• why i manage with my pc

for hardware problems
I know many hardware and vendor review sites so I can always snag something that won't fail me

Quote: The first sale doctrine states that once a copyright owner sells a copy of his work to another, the copyright owner relinquishes all further rights to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy. The Supreme Court first adopted the first sale doctrine in the case of Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339 (1908). In that case, the Supreme Court held that the exclusive right to sell copyrighted works only applied to the first sale of a copyrighted work. 210 U.S. 339, 349-350. While the copyright owner retained the underlying copyright to the expression fixed in the work, the copyright owner gave up his ability to control the fate of the work once it had been sold.

You wouldn't want the HDAA (cross between hells angels and RIAA) comming after you, would you.

Americans on average are the stupidest population center on this planet.

The following countries have lower average IQs than that of the US (which is 98):

Canada 97 Czech Republic 97 Finland 97 Spain 97 Argentina 96 Russia 96 Slovakia 96 Uruguay 96 Portugal 95 Slovenia 95 Israel 94 Romania 94 Bulgaria 93 Ireland 93 Greece 92 Malaysia 92 Thailand 91 Croatia 90 Peru 90 Turkey 90 Colombia 89 Indonesia 89 Suriname 89 Brazil 87 Iraq 87 Mexico 87 Samoa (Western) 87 Tonga 87 Lebanon 86 Philippines 86 Cuba 85 Morocco 85 Fiji 84 Iran 84 Marshall Islands 84 Puerto Rico 84 Egypt 83 India 81 Ecuador 80 Guatemala 79 Barbados 78 Nepal 78 Qatar 78 Zambia 77 Congo (Brazz) 73 Uganda 73 Jamaica 72 Kenya 72 South Africa 72 Sudan 72 Tanzania 72 Ghana 71 Nigeria 67 Guinea 66 Zimbabwe 66 Congo (Zaire) 65 Sierra Leone 64 Ethiopia 63 Equatorial Guinea 59

You can also see from mathematics tests that the US is not the stupidest population, but above the international average for mathematics achievement as well.

Of course, the US may still be stupid, but it isn't like there are a lot of people less stupid outside of the US.

Some European countries may have higher IQs and Math scores than the US, but they have real problems in understading basic economics ;)

Hi, I worked with a program at Boston College called Eagle Eyes, which is a project that allows people with severe motor disabilities to control a cursor with their eye movements. One of the major problems in designing games for these types of interfaces is that click times are extremely slow, so much so that they almost have to be completely discounted.
The game I built is a 3D downhill skiing game where you control speed by looking up/down, and steer by looking left/right.
If you contact the Eagle Eyes project, I'm sure they can direct you to more games and if you are interested in the skiing game, send me an e-mail at: s u p p o r t @ a l t e r e d v i s t a . c o m and I'll send you a copy. (Unfortunately, the skiing game is Windows only, as it relies upon DirectX.)
Also, there is a movement in the game development community to try to reach out to gamers with disabilities. For more information on that, visit the International Game Developers Association Accessibility SIG
All the best.

You certainly could trademark a case design if it was unique and represented your company. Check out this paper regarding Harley Davidson attempting to patent their sound.

Leo Strauss. This link is a short intro.

The article briefly mentions that Sweden reformed their pension system a few years ago. Annika Sunden, a researcher at Boston College, has written a rundown of the Swedish Experience (I like the sound of that).

In 2000, the new center-right Swedish government passed a law that mandated private pension accounts. Under the law,Swedes pay an 18% pension tax, 16% goes to the pay-as-you-go system (same as in the US) and 2% goes to private individual accounts.

There are over 650 investment funds you can choose to invest in. You can own up to 5 funds. If you don't activly select a fund, your placed in a "default" fund, that's composed of about 75% stocks, and the rest bonds.

When the program was launched, 70% of people in year one made an active choice and picked their own funds. In subsequent years, only 10% activley select a fund. This can be explained by all the media attention the new law caused, and a government marketing campaign in 2000 urging people to pick a fund.

Most accounts have lost money since they began, and people are starting to question private accounts. Shitty timing to start this at the top of the bubble.

A big lesson here is that if you are going to create private accounts, the composition of the default fund is hugely important. It needs to be very low risk and well diversified. (And, I'd be happy to run it for a mere 0.00001% management fee)

I happen to like the Gibbs free energy equation:

delta G = delta H - T(delta S)

This equation balances the contributions of entropy (S) and enthalpy (H) and tells you if a given reaction is energetically favorable. delta H is the total energy in a reaction, while T(delta S) is the energy unavailable for work. A quick rearrangment shows that delta G is the energy available for doing work.

I'm also fond of Shannons juggling theorem.

Rodin has already been there, done that...

Trivial. We have a regime change every four years. We toss the bums out of Congress every two years. We hand our Senators their marching papers every six years.

How many nations throughout history can boast the same power we Americans take for granted? The power to overthrow our government on a regular basis, without violence, without guns, without military might?

Uh... how about the fact that nothing even remotely like that is in the statute?

You're right and I noticed after posting this. Since the german copyright explicitely contains such a provision (par. 53(1) UrhG), I assumed that Americans had the same freedom. Obviously they don't.

Copies, yes. Perfect digital reproductions, no.

Actually, the fair use clause doesn't even guarantee the right to make analog copies. Neither does it explicitely prohibit perfect reproductions so it all boils down to a matter of interpretation.

Yes, that's right: it's a big conspiracy.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. Now that digital broadcasting is gaining momentum, they want legislation to make hometaping technically impossible. The copyright flag is just one step among others. E.g., the DMCA (1201 k) already requires manufacturers of analog recording devices to obey to copy control (i.e. prevention) mechanisms. The ultimate aim is that there will be no way to record a digital TV/radio broadcast if it has the copy control bit set, apart from building your own recorder. Note that the RIAA is lying again: Digital radio is - for bandwidth reasons - far from CD quality[1]. VCRs will go extinct and be replaced with devices like DVD players which aren't capable of any recording, and can be subjected to any DRM scheme from region code over expiring keys to the right to unilaterally terminate your license upon any activity which the MPAA disapproves of (this will probably be used rarely, but not be unheard of). Just take a look at the legislation, the RIAA and MPAA have pushed through in the recent years, and are now trying to establish. Here's an incomplete list:

Succeeded:

• The underestimated NET Act
• DMCA
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (of course this name obscures the involvement of The Walt Disney Company a little)

In progress:

• PIRATE Act
• INDUCE Act

More laws are waiting where these are coming from (well, that would be Hell, I guess). The goal is to give copyright holders (which are only rarely nowadays the actual artists) enormous power even beyond that which they already wield. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are too lazy, gullible or indifferent to defend their freedom.

Nonsense. Macrovision doesn't even come close to meeting the definition of "access control mechanism" given in Title 17. The courts have so held, despite civil suits alleging differently.

You haven't got references? I have.

Before you can "recompress" you must "decompress," which is the same as making a perfect digital copy of the original work.

Yes, that's why even viewing a DVD is illegal. D'oh! Seriously though, at least German courts have ruled that making a transient copy of copyrighted material in order to exercise fair use rights is fair use itself. So of course this is a BS argument.

I am totally ignorant of German law, but is there a German (or EU) principle in copyright similar to the American right of first sale? Basically, in the States, "once a copyright owner sells a copy of his work to another, the copyright owner relinquishes all further rights to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy." Does this not pertain in Europe? When do the copyright owner's rights end? Do they ever? This could be a dangerous precedent, especially if it contradicts the established legal tradition.

let's be honest, this guy kinda knew what he was doing

my ideal office (kinda)

-Mikey P

What? Creationism actually shows up in serious school textbooks?!

Yep! I think Texas is the State where they still teach creationism in school.

Although they still got the International Average in the TIMSS Science test

No, you're absolutely wrong. The person who made the copy FOR you had to agree to the GPL in order to copy the software. But there is absolutely nothing that you must agree to in order to use that copy that was distributed to you. At your option, you can reject the terms of the GPL, and you have the same copying rights that default copyright law gives you - the right to make one backup copy for personal use only.

Sorry, but I think you are wrong here... If a friend of mine burns a copy of Windows XP, he has violated copyright to do so, and MS could pursue him for copyright infringement.

But, under your argument, I might say that I am allowed to use this copy of Windows XP, and make a backup copy.

This is obviously not allowed, here's why:

All of computer software copyright hinges on the concept that copying the software from your permanent storage to your computer memory in order to run it counts as copying the work. Unless you agree to the terms of the GPL, you are not allowed to make this copy, necessary to run the software.

(link) (link) (link) (link)

Speaking of selective enforcement...

The bill of rights was not incorporated untill much after it was passed. meaning that unless it was a federal matter (back then there was not a whole lot that was federal) then you did not enjoy the rights and liberties outlined in the bill of rights. for example:
Freedom of speech 1925 Gitlow v. New York
Freedom of Press 1931 Near v. Minnesota
It is possible that these dicisions by the supreme court could be reversed. Although very unlikely, if any right to privacy which is not outlined in the BoR could very conceiveably get overturned.

I realize that I'm going to be hammered as a right-wing nutjob for this one, but I really can't let this pass.

Professor Buckley, I have a big problem with a person such as yourself pontificating about how horrible privitization is, and how terribly the American government is treating scientists and researchers.

Don't get me wrong: I agree with your line about the mohair subsidies.. and I hope everone here votes out the pork-barrel weasels in their districts.

However, just once, I wish that a chronic academic such as yourself would realize that the government is not a source of money!

Before I wrote this, I took a look at your Vitae and confirmed what I suspected: You have always been payed by taxpayers! I found no private sector experience at all!

Thank you for your service in the Navy! And I don't doubt that your service to your country/state/school/students in your other positions has been admirable. However, from what I have seen on your vitae, you have never:

• Created Goods/Products
• Started a business
• Created a Job
• Laid off an employee
• Generated Revenue (other than for yourself)
• Had to Create/Follow a Budget

In fact, it seems your primary activity for the past few years has been to do research and write papers about other teachers! All of which has been paid for by either land-grant univerisities or our horribly stingy government.

The contention that saving the Hubble is "Basic Science" is ludicrous: it is an incredibly expensive project that is nearing the end of its expected duration anyway. I'm certain there is more we can learn from Hubble, but we are talking about billions of dollars to save it for a few years!

"Billion? With a B?"
"...Yes, with a B."

By the way, Professor, just why are you so bitter about this particular item? Have you ever actually used Hubble data during your search for better School Systems? Or are you just like the rest of us: mesmerized and inspired by the amazing and beautiful pictures.

Professor, the case for saving the Hubble may be strong. I'm not qualified to make that call. However, our elected officials have decided that the massive cost involved in saving it is not something that our tax dollars will be used for. A part of me is delighted! It's the first time in months I've seen them say no to anything! If you have evidence that they're wrong: let's see it.

Personally, I hope that the approach suggested in the article (you did read it, right?) is followed: let those who find this project crucial and needed say so with their pocketbooks. If they do, I (like most /.'ers) will delight in the images and wish them the best.

However, I hope that you remember that there are those of us in the audience (even here at /.) whose blood boils when they read a comment such as yours! We aren't protected in our ivory towers: our jobs will go overseas if we don't bust our asses. We aren't rich, but those tax cuts saved many of us our jobs! They let others save more and helped to put their kids through your classes.

So before you slam the government and therefore your fellow tax-payers, please remember that without them, your resume (oops, I mean Vitae would look pretty bare.

--Bill

I realize that I'm going to be hammered as a right-wing nutjob for this one, but I really can't let this pass.

Professor Buckley, I have a big problem with a person such as yourself pontificating about how horrible privitization is, and how terribly the American government is treating scientists and researchers.

Don't get me wrong: I agree with your line about the mohair subsidies.. and I hope everone here votes out the pork-barrel weasels in their districts.

However, just once, I wish that a chronic academic such as yourself would realize that the government is not a source of money!

Before I wrote this, I took a look at your Vitae and confirmed what I suspected: You have always been payed by taxpayers! I found no private sector experience at all!

Thank you for your service in the Navy! And I don't doubt that your service to your country/state/school/students in your other positions has been admirable. However, from what I have seen on your vitae, you have never:

• Created Goods/Products
• Started a business
• Created a Job
• Laid off an employee
• Generated Revenue (other than for yourself)
• Had to Create/Follow a Budget

In fact, it seems your primary activity for the past few years has been to do research and write papers about other teachers! All of which has been paid for by either land-grant univerisities or our horribly stingy government.

The contention that saving the Hubble is "Basic Science" is ludicrous: it is an incredibly expensive project that is nearing the end of its expected duration anyway. I'm certain there is more we can learn from Hubble, but we are talking about billions of dollars to save it for a few years!

"Billion? With a B?"
"...Yes, with a B."

By the way, Professor, just why are you so bitter about this particular item? Have you ever actually used Hubble data during your search for better School Systems? Or are you just like the rest of us: mesmerized and inspired by the amazing and beautiful pictures.

Professor, the case for saving the Hubble may be strong. I'm not qualified to make that call. However, our elected officials have decided that the massive cost involved in saving it is not something that our tax dollars will be used for. A part of me is delighted! It's the first time in months I've seen them say no to anything! If you have evidence that they're wrong: let's see it.

Personally, I hope that the approach suggested in the article (you did read it, right?) is followed: let those who find this project crucial and needed say so with their pocketbooks. If they do, I (like most /.'ers) will delight in the images and wish them the best.

However, I hope that you remember that there are those of us in the audience (even here at /.) whose blood boils when they read a comment such as yours! We aren't protected in our ivory towers: our jobs will go overseas if we don't bust our asses. We aren't rich, but those tax cuts saved many of us our jobs! They let others save more and helped to put their kids through your classes.

So before you slam the government and therefore your fellow tax-payers, please remember that without them, your resume (oops, I mean Vitae would look pretty bare.

--Bill

As a student at Boston College, our student government, the UGBC has a professor evaluation system that is heavily used. It's all anonymous, but if a teacher sees something untrue or if the review is inappropriate, then it can be signaled for review and removal. I think this helps the education system and I know I've come very close to taking a bad prof until I check their PEPs.

Actually, Power Users can do almost everything an Admin can do. They can't create Admin accounts, and they can install most programs. A nice reference table comparing accounts is at http://www.bc.edu/offices/help/meta-elements/doc/a rticles/html/SW-WinXPUserAccounts.shtml

Fair use is a judicially constructed doctrine, so although parts of the "fair use" standards are codified in 17 USC 107, case law is more relevant. In particular, see the 1984 case Harper and Row v Nation, 471 U.S. 539. In that case, The Nation was found to have infringed copyright for printing around 300 words from Gerald Ford's 200,000 word memoir, A Time to Heal.

It's worth pointing out, however, that The Nation reprinted content focusing on the Nixon pardon--the portions most likely to attract the reading public.

You can compare countries by giving students the same test. That's exactly what the The Third International Math and Science Study (TIMMS) did.

To get around your objection that some countries segregate students after 8th grade, they tested 4th and 8th graders in all the participating countries. Bottom line was that if you are an American who scored in the top 5% on your math tests, you're just a bit above average compared to Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

Wonder why all the IT jobs are going overseas? There's one very good reason.

There is precedent for limitations on free speech. There are a few main reasons that the courts will permit as the reason to sensor. Among the most important is when the censor prevents someone from issuing "fighting words".
Half decent link
Half decent link
Half decent link

Suit yourself, Hanzo. Those elite schools will pass you over for avoiding math much quicker than they will looking at your overall GPA. There is a sure-fire way to avoid that C...HARD WORK. If you aren't good in math, rather than dance around it, get some help! Tutoring and other services are usually available at Community Colleges.

According to the admissions, based on whats on their websites and documentation, a Philosophy or Liberal Arts major is not required to take calculus as a prerequisite, so why should I take it if its not required? Would it really boost me up that much ?

There is a sure-fire way to avoid that C...HARD WORK. If you aren't good in math, rather than dance around it, get some help! Tutoring and other services are usually available at Community Colleges.

I cant get tutoring because I dont have a car yet, and I dont live on campus because its community college, so this isnt an option, when I live on campus then I can get tutoring.

Perhaps you might have an undiagnosed learning disability that prevents you from "grokking" math. Again, find out about resources available to you and use them.

A learning disability is an excuse, the reason I dont get math is because math is useless, to actually suggest that someone has a learning disability because they dont get math is like me claiming anyone who cant use Linux or anyone who doesnt understand C must have a learning disability.

It is utterly impossible to get a degree, anywhere, without math. That is, unless you answer one of those many spams for U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.Y D.E.G.R.E.E.S F.A.S.T. You know the ones...the ones you get in the same batch as the Nigerian Scam and "free porn passwords."

Ok, check out some of these sites, look under "philosophy" as the major, and tell me where it says you need to take calculus to get a degree in philosophy.
http://www.bu.edu/
http://www.northeastern.edu/
http://www.bc.edu/
http://www.tufts.edu/
http://www.hampshire.edu/flash/index.php
http://www.amherst.edu/
http://www.umass.edu/

Math is a prerequisite for SCIENCE degrees only. Show me where it says you MUST take math to be accepted into any of these schools for a philosophy degree? At most I'll need to take an a linear algebra class or a pre calculus class, thats it.

One class is all you must pass in order to get a degree, and I can take this class during the summer and get a C, and get my degree. So tell me why you think it would be a good idea to take it now if none of the schools say its a requirement for acceptance?

If the schools DID say its a required class for acceptance into their philosophy program, I'd take the class, but that would delay me from transfering for another semester so I dont see a point, I think instead i will transfer out of community college into one of the 4 year colleges on the list I showed you, and then take the mathclass, when I actually LIVE on campus and no longer have to worry about traveling for over 2 hours to get to school via public transportation.

Hard work can avoid a C? Actually no it cant, it depends on how good you are at what you are doing. You can work hard and get a C, or you can breeze through a class and get an A, if you are doing something you never were taught in highschool, such as say a student who comes from another country and decided to take a college level english class, theres no way in hell they'd get an A, because they never learned English before, math is the same way, its unrealistic for me to believe I can make up for 12 years of not being taught something, simply by cramming 12 years of work into one semester.

Sure I can pass with a C, but I dont think I'd truely underst

Yup, Boston College doesn't require you to bring a computer. About 85% of students here have their own or puchase one through BC (though the bundles are a total rip, like at any other school). We support both PCs and Macs, and (gasp) Linux machines too! (my roomie's a CS major and uses Mandrake for a lot of his programming projects; Linux is not "officially" supported but a small number of students do use it with success)

I don't like the idea of universities requiring computers either. Shouldn't they just provide some kind of public computer lab open to students? All other things being equal, a computer is still not absolutely essential for surviving college (though computer skills certainly are)...

Boston College Law School.

The army of RIAA lawyers just came up against a juggernaut of loyal Double/Triple Eagle litigators.

Welcome to Stalingrad for the 21st Century, kiddies...

these guys can put up a good fight... It'll keep the second years busy anyway.

Miami, not Miami.

BC, not BC.

Syracuse, not Syracuse.

American Greetings may elect to take Penny Arcade to court, but the legal expenses shouldn't be as extreme as some people might lead others to believe.

I could understand treating international industrial espionage as a criminal matter; I don't think you can get someone extradited to face a suit in civil court, which is where this is normally resolved. But the guy lives in the US. Why isn't a suit good enough? Has disclosing a trade secret been considered criminal until recently?

Reading a (slightly dated) article on the legislation being used to prosecute him, I'm not even convinced that requirements of intent are met in this case. Who was he hoping to provide economic benefit to? Do the satellite hackers sell mod chips?

Actually, Microsoft was ordered by the court to stop filtering spam because they were filtering out competitors' emails.

Sounds like an interesting class, but others have done this before. Boston College, for example, has had a course called Technology in Society for a few years now.

Sounds like an interesting class, but others have done this before. Boston College, for example, has had a course called Technology in Society for a few years now.

She remebers wrong, that was Liza

Actually, region encoding is protected by copyright law. It falls
under the distribution clause as it limits distribution in certain geographical
areas of the world as per the wishes of the copyright holder.

Bzzzt, sorry, thanks for playing. Once I've purchased a piece of
copyrighted material (be it a book, cd, dvd, or something else), I'm free to
distribute the one, original, legal copy I have where I like. I can send it
off to my friend in Europe or Asia to enjoy. I can take it with me for my trip
to South America and watch it there. That's the right
of first sale. Excepting is broken DMCA law, I'm free to disable region
coding.

its very hard to sell the CD without the music that is already on it, which you do not own.

Ehrm, yes, I do.

So says the first sale doctrine.

As far as the Supreme Court goes, I think I agree with the above poster that they will overturn it. The Court has made it pretty clear its activist (though conservative) bent on free speech issues - it will interpret the first amendment broadly when dealing with so-called hate speech (cf. RAV v. St Paul ) and extremely narrowly when dealing with obscenity (cf. Erie v. Pap's AM ). Rather than address the contradiction the Court persists in the myth of content-neutrality (see Scalia's bizarre and brazen construction of the notion in the RAV decision, rightly trounced by White as manufacturing a standard of "underbreadth"). It's likely to see this as protected speech here if past decisions are any clue.

Then again, I could see the argument being made that if we protect this kind of speech we would have to protect a website by terrorist sympathizers listing names and addresses of prominent American Jews (perhaps with the names of WTC victims crossed out) and describing the glory of suicide bombing infidels. I read that O'Connor has publicly warned Americans to expect civil liberties restrictions in the wake of 9-11 so such an argument could be pretty persuasive to the Court.

So if I jokingly say "I'm going to kill you" to a person who cuts in front of me in the lunch line, that's one thing; but if I say the same thing in a dark alley while holding a gun to someone's head and asking for his wallet, that's quite another.

Basically, I read this ruling as essentially saying that the Nuremberg Files web site met the imminence test, given the number of people who were assaulted and/or killed once their personal info got posted on the site. As far as I can see this ruling does not change the Brandenburg standard, which I personally think gets it just about right in striking the balance between threats/harassment/verbal abuse and the First Amendment.

(Of course IANAL, so maybe someone who IAL can correct any mistakes I've made above.)

Boston College, though it lacks a graduate program in CS, is still doing some really interesting work in HCI. The CameraMouse and EagleEyes use computer vision and muscle eletric potential, respectively to control the mouse cursor. While this is mainly a user-assistive technology, they're continuing to develop the technology and at some point one of these could move into the mainstream of HCI.

Boston College, though it lacks a graduate program in CS, is still doing some really interesting work in HCI. The CameraMouse and EagleEyes use computer vision and muscle eletric potential, respectively to control the mouse cursor. While this is mainly a user-assistive technology, they're continuing to develop the technology and at some point one of these could move into the mainstream of HCI.