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You had a good idea, then you went all a-kilter there at the end.

Corporations are amoral. Their only purpose is to maximize shareholder value, i.e. sales and profits. If they act in a way that reduces their shareholder value, e.g. by acting "morally responsible", they can even be sued by their shareholders under certain circumstances.

This is true, insofar as it goes. A corporation can act in a moral way, if the corporation is set up that way, i.e. the board or CEO has decision-making powers of some latitude. If the shareholders don't like the decisions made by the board and/or CEO (e.g. they don't mind kids stiching Nikes is Absurdistan; or they are appalled at the thought).

But then you lose it altogether:
That's why corporations need to be regulated. You just can't expect them to do the right thing, that would not only be idiotically naive, it would be fatal.

Speaking of idiotic naivité, assuming that the government can or will regulate a corporation any better than a corporation can regulate itself is pretty farfetched. The government can't even regulate itself, much less manhandle thousands of corporations in any sane or reasonable manner.

If you think "but we can elect representatives to enact the regulations we think are best", you're engaging in the worst form of blind faith. If you couldn't convince a few thousand shareholders to vote out a morally bankrupt CEO, what makes you think you can convice some 30 million citizens to vote for representatives that will do the "right thing"?

Luckily in the US of A, we have the protected right of free speech, and you can protest a corporation's actions in a TV or radio or newspaper ad. Though, if this is any indication, that may change at any time.

Per my (IANAL) reading of 18 USC 842(p) they would have to prove his intent and or knowledge in publishing the information; that can be tricky to prove in court and may be part of why they dropped the charges.

(2) Prohibition. - It shall be unlawful for any person -

(A) to teach or demonstrate the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence; or

(B) to teach or demonstrate to any person the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute to any person, by any means, information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, knowing that such person intends to use the teaching, demonstration, or information for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence.

It's always interesting to read the actual law when it gets cited in cases like this -- it really strips away the media bullshit. http://uscode.house.gov/usc.htm is a good online resource...

The end may not be near after all. I look at it this way. With BT jumping the Atlantic pond and asking American companies for money, legislator's may just take notice. If the cash is just moving from one American oligopoly to another, then fine, but when it flows out of this country, then those in power (might/will) take notice. There hasn't been a better time to write your congress person and vent.

Really though, there will come a point when the absolute frivoulus nature of these suits hits a nerve, where those with the power to do something are finally pushed to change the system. Perhaps this SightSound lawsuit, or maybe Microsoft suing the President for using their patented decison making process. It will happen sooner if we (/.'ers who want to make a diff) make some noise. I sent a mail to Senator Fitzgerald about the SSSCA and even though I just got a response a couple of weeks ago, it was in fact hand signed (the letter was laser printed, but you can tell the sig was done with one of those 10 cent bic pens).

My point is, there is a wall to which these lawsuits are running. How far we have to go depends on how greedy those on top are (go Enron), and how diligent those with some knowledge on the subject can be. Write your senator! Write your Representative!

The Washington Post has this article about how Rep. Ed Markey is looking into Comcast's collection of personal internet usage info. Hey, this guy must read SlashDot!!

Markey, D-Mass., in a letter to Comcast President Brian Roberts, wrote that he was concerned about "the nature and extent of any transgressions of the law that may have resulted in consumer privacy being compromised."

Also, Comcast has a new press release in response to the fracas.

Don't bother waiting to contact your representatives until the record industry makes its move; it's already done it, and their position is quite clear: they do not intend for us to have unlimited duplication rights or probably even limited duplication rights for -any- reason, including Fair Use, in the next generation of music media (DVD-Audio and the rest), and they would clearly enjoy stamping out duplication rights in the current generation (CDs). If this disturbs you, contact your representatives now with a simple explanation of the situation, your problem with it, and a copy of Boucher's letter to the RIAA.

Which they don't. The "greedy fucks" you are so fond of demonizing earned about 15% of the national income and payed 30% of the taxes (source here). The top 5% earn 29% and pay 49%. Your welfare programs couldn't exist without the evil and greedy people who fund most of them.

are earning money as a biproduct of a desire to help the people around them

No, in general they're helping people as a byproduct of earning money. The only legitimate way for a capitalist to make a profit is to offer products or services at a price people will voluntarily pay. Of course there are some, such as the RIAA and MPAA thugs, who prefer to use government force to secure their profits, but that is a failing of excessive government power, not capitalism.

greedy fucks that should be taxed more and should stop trying to sell useless bullshit to people who have more important things to try and focus on

I guarantee you that the computer you typed this rant on was produced by a company whose leaders fall into that group. Apparently you don't find all their products to be completely useless. Perhaps you should make a list of which products are beneficial to society and whose sale should be permitted, and which should not. Worked great for the USSR.

if freeloading is so wonderful, why not do it? Maybe cause you feel you're doing things you dont want to do in order to live the life you're living

Or maybe some of us feel it is fundamentally immoral to survive off of resources forcibly taken from those who worked for them, if we have the ability not to.

if they did help themselves, you might not have to give up taxes, but you would have to give up some of the inequality of your salary and opportunities, which, when you claim money is your primary motivator, is pretty much exactly the same thing.

Classic socialist fallacy. The economy is not a zero-sum game. If you have more, that does not mean that someone else must have less. Republicans very much want poor people to become richer. After all, if Republicans are the party of the rich and Democrats the party of the poor, which of them has a vested interest in maintaining poverty?

Pay less taxes, and watch your salary drop.

Funny, I did pay less taxes this year, as did most Americans, and yet my salary didn't drop. Are you also going to claim that tax increases raise salaries?

You`re right, the ways to affect change are built in to the Consitution.
Article 2 of the Amendments to the Constitution house.gov provides for the uninfringed existence of an armed militia, such a body "being necessary to the security of a free State".

The drafters of these Amendments didnt throw terms around lightly, it seems to me that this Amendment provides for, and insures the possibility of, the violent overthrow of a repressive Government.

Never before has the US Govt. had the ability, desire (be it their own desire, or desire on behalf of Corporate America), and need to repress criticism of their system.

Before any of you spout any comments about "reform through legislation ! Write To Your Congress(man|woman|being)(TM)", stop and think.

Your congressperson may be a fine, upstanding person, driven by ideals of free speech etc etc, but the collective US Govt. is not.
It is corrupt, it is irresponsible (in the sense that it answers to no-one), it is unrepresentative (perhaps in a demographic sense it is representative, but it fails to represent the political and social structure of the Country, and it certainly fails to represent the underlying mood of the nation), and it is UNDEMOCRATIC.

Not that being undemocratic is a Bad Thing(TM). What is a Bad Thing, however, is hiding behind the cunningly rendered illusion of "Democracy" and using its mass-appeal (lets face it, everyone in America wants democracy, dont they ?) to herd the American Public into ignorant servitude - another Amendment of our sacred US Consitution violated.

If more people were to understand the term "democracy", realise its implications, study both it, and the bastard-child the US has spawned, and see with unbiased, impartial eyes how frail a system democracy has shown itself to be, fewer people would want it, and more effort would be put in to change.

Which leads me back to the Second Amendment. The reason that the provision for an unrestricted militia was drafted was because the people charged with the task of drawing up the Constitution realised, nay *knew*, that a repressive Government will not surrender its power willingly.

Yes, use Violence as a last resort, but certainly dont be afraid of using it against a corrupt system which is no longer "by the people, of the people, for the people".

Here endeth todays lesson.

That you all can take the time to petition for stupid TV shows to keep them from being cancelled, yet most of you can't seem to be arsed to write your representatives whenever terrible bills such as the PATRIOT act, DMCA, and SSSCA are in the process of being made into law. I would say our freedom is a bit more important than a stupid television show.

Seems that Qwest is learning some other things from MS as well

This post deserves every mod point and more. Microsoft is a problem, but combine their aggressiveness with Qwest's (former US West) pure evil monopoly attitude and you get something I'm not sure we've had to deal with since Standard Oil. Remember that you heard it here on /. - back when Qwest's raw power was kept under control.

In the mid 1990s, US West (now Qwest) ruthlessly attempted to preserve its monopoly by directing US West Interprise installers to attack ISP operations through numerous means. Articles in the papers of Minneapolis, Des Moines, Omaha, Denver and other markets highlighted the recurring instances of the incumbant getting caught in its overt assault against Internet competition - everything from intentional "misconfiguring" of active dedicated circuits to poaching of dedicated customers when private line quotes were processed.

CLEC services were another target in the mid to late 90s, with clever tricks utilized by the company that included filling up cold central office locations with administrative personnel (literally moving desks into the CO) so that CLECs could be denied the ability to cross connect. "Sorry, we're all out of space" was the favorite response by US West management.

US West did an even better job damaging DSL CLEC operations, simply dragging its feet like a pro. Having learned how difficult digital service was through its failed interactive video and ISDN offerings, the incumbant simply stalled... and won.

Now that it's metamorphized with the Qwest entity, it's aggressive and hungry - the worst possible combination. And now it's learning lessons on how to ruthlessly dominate the consumer market from Microsoft.

Watch out. With Bubba Billy Tauzin's LEC Givaway bill (no, contrary to his website, he's not a foreign national invading our US Congress - apparently he just doesn't like the US language much), Qwest will suck a few hundred million from taxpayer dollars and have regulatory constraints removed.

*scoove*

but i'll say it again..

If you're going to bitch,

bitch productively!

If you put the same effort you do here, into legit politics (wow. now *THATS* an oxymoron), the least that's going to happen is you're voice will be heard. The most? The sky's the limit.

Just do yourself a favor. When writing your congressperson or representative:
1) Don't troll
2) Don't flame
3) Don't mention your /. karma. They won't care.
4) Don't start with "I didn't vote..", or, especially, "I didn't vote for you, but..."
5) Above all, write intelligently.

P.S. Inconspicuously hinting that your wealthy father could make a sizable donation to the rep's campaign wouldn't hurt.

...the Selective Service Act is still on the law books...what makes you think that we'll ever get rid of national identity cards once they're introduced..?

The draft ended in 1973 and was replaced by an all volunteer army. A new act was passed in 1980 that required registration but there was no draft. The fact that selective service laws are periodically re-evaluated is evidence that national ID cards, should they ever be introduced, would receive similar periodic review.

The hard, cold fact is that, in government as well as in systems, preventing bad things from happening is far more effective than trying to undo the mistakes later.

That principal would be an argument in favor of national id cards, which are supposed to aid in preventing terrorist attacks, which are especially hard to undo later.

For one thing, many of the most draconian provisions are ineffective...

You've shifted the argument to whether Draconian methods are effective. Obviously, if the methods are ineffective they should be not be implemented, Draconian or not. The real debate begins once you've decided a measure is effective but infringes customary freedoms. For instance, if national id cards would have prevented the events of 9/11, would they then be reasonable price to pay? Serious-minded people often disagree and fortunately democracy provides a peaceful way of resolving the dispute.

At first glance, one might attribute that statement to a computer-illiterate senator or to an incompetent journalist. You may be surprised, then, to find that this quote was from Ken Thompson in 1995. Yes, one of our own - a creator of the UNIX system and the command line we use every single day - condemned the antisocial activities of malicious computer users. Which leads me to ask: why aren't we listening, and where is our moral compass?

A few years ago, it was all the media's fault: the media gave much attention to antisocial criminals who happened to use computers. Nowadays, computer crime is rarely front-page news, especially in light of the recent terrorist attacks caused by the usual suspects. So what kind of notoriety, then, are these criminally insane geeks seeking? The fact of the matter is that the open source community here on Slashdot is not only tolerating illicit behavior; it is encouraging it. We are partially responsible for every Brian West, Eric Corley, Dmitri Skylarov, Ted Felten, Randal Schwartz,, and DrinkOrDie member. We are harboring criminals because we are glorifying their acts and lauding them for "civil disobedience." We are not unlike the Arabs who cheered as they watched the Twin Towers collapse on their (banned) TV sets. And like those ungrateful Arabs, we owe our prosperity to the American government and the capitalist society that so many users here seem to despise. We have become our own enemy.

We, as a community, need to stop tolerating this behavior. Instead of encouraging people like Jon Johansen by sending money to the EFF to help them keep these ingrates' lilly white asses out of jail, we need to send a strong message that computer crime is not consistent with our ethical standards. We need to lead by example - log off of Gnutella, start paying for software (even Windows), stop cracking your DVDs and eBooks "for fun," and start acting like an upstanding citizen. It is only then that the powers that be will start taking us seriously and repeal the DMCA/SSSCA/PATRIOT legislation, and start giving us our rights back. It is crystal clear that we will not get our rights back a moment before we get out of the business of producing criminals, and the first step is to stop empathizing with them.

freebsd guy

Rep. Boucher who was rerferred to by John Perry Barlow as "The only person in Congress who gets it." (at the O'Reilly Conference)has some ideas on Fair Use that are well worth reading. As a VA resident who has met and discussed DMCA and fair use with Congressman Boucher, he needs your support in helping to correct many of the problems with the DMCA as it exists, by letting YOUR Congressperson know that you, as a constituent, want them to support the changes. They need your vote, without being elected, they don't get the lobby dollars that the copyright industry scatters around DC like confetti on New Years Eve. Point out to them they work for you not Disney, not Vivendi, etc., etc, not Hilary Rosen or Jack Valenti. They will get the point.

Boucher's Email

WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE

2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-3861

DISTRICT OFFICES

188 East Main Street
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
540-628-1145

112 North Washington Avenue
Pulaski, Virginia 24301
540-980-4310

1 Cloverleaf Square, Suite C-1
Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219
540-523-5450

P.S. I couldn't find his address. If someone could post it, that would be great

Details are here

For those too lazy to click above...(grin)

WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE

2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-3861

DISTRICT OFFICES

188 East Main Street
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
540-628-1145

112 North Washington Avenue
Pulaski, Virginia 24301
540-980-4310

1 Cloverleaf Square, Suite C-1
Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219
540-523-5450

his e-mail address is Ninthnet@mail.house.gov

P.S. I couldn't find his address. If someone could post it, that would be great

Details are here

For those too lazy to click above...(grin)

WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE

2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-3861

DISTRICT OFFICES

188 East Main Street
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
540-628-1145

112 North Washington Avenue
Pulaski, Virginia 24301
540-980-4310

1 Cloverleaf Square, Suite C-1
Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219
540-523-5450

his e-mail address is Ninthnet@mail.house.gov

Rep. Boucher has a brilliant idea here. Send him a note of support, especially if you live in the 9th district of Virginia: Rep. Rick Boucher jeff

if all of the US citizens spending all of their time bitching here on Slashdot took their intelligent comments, empassioned remarks, and valid concerns and started flooding the offices of the people here and here who actually can do something.
Democracy only works when the people speak up.

You mean the one that murdered the men, women and children at Waco and Ruby Ridge? Or the one that shot down twa flight 800 and covered it up? Or maybe the one that still arrests people for marijuana possesion in states that have decriminalized/legalized it for medical use? Umm, maybe you mean the one that invented the "incident" in the Gulf of Tonkin to drag us into the vietnam war? Or the one that let the FBI infiltrate protest groups in the '60s, subverting their rights to free speach? Wait, you mean the government that setup this phony war in Afghanistan, so we can build an oil pipline?

You talk about the loss of rights under the constitution. You must not have read the PATRIOT act, which schreds what little there was left of the bill of rights. With its passage you lose the right to trial by jury, the right to be free from illegal searches and seisures, the right to confront your accusor in court, and the right to criticize the government.

Heres an idea for you, turn off MSNBC/CNN/Fox News and look at some news sources that aren't run by and for the government propaganda machine.

Personally, I hope to be ready when the rest of America wakes up and decides its time to throw off the chains we've put ourselves in.

What's very interesting is many of these companies own the means to connect to the Internet

and obtained that exclusive ownership through rather nefarious means. A former Southworstern Bell friend used to brag about how the entire provisioning platform for CLEC/DSL providers to issue orders thru SWBell was a single fax machine (set on the slowest receive speed, and frequently out of paper for days).

No phone orders. No electronic order system. No email requests. One crummy fax machine that was usually down. "Golly Mrs. Jones, I can't understand why your CLEC DSL provider can't get you service. Southworstern Bell would gladly get it for you in a few days if you'd switch your order!"

On my home turf, USWorst beat the colocation orders by stuffing hundreds of desk job folks into recently relocated quarters inside the central office. Imagine freezing your butt off next to a 5ESS switch just so some higher up exec can keep the CLECs out of town. "Sorry, no space left in the central office... wish we could help ya!"

Top that off with their hit squad that serviced cities like Minneapolis, Des Moines, Omaha, etc. that "oopsed" on ISP dedicated lines. "Gosh, did you say that T1 you've been runnin was supposed to be ESF/B8ZS? Golly... looks like it's AMI/D4 now. Guess you'll have to reorder your uplink connection... should be about 35 days by the time we get to fixin it. I could flip the little switch on the CSU/DSU, but hey, I'd be breakin the rules!" (Apparently payola is expected or else it's 'company policy' for you)

I had everything from lost orders (more than 50%), competitive poaching (request a quote to a customer location and discover USWorst sales people getting the lead passed on), intentional interference with hunt groups (killing hunt #2 out of 200+ lines), fraudulant billing putting companies from other states onto my bill (and being told if I didn't pay it by 5 PM, I'd be shut down), etc.

Only the city's top law firm, vicious attorneys and nonstop publicity about their illegal aggression kept us above water. Our competitors who couldn't afford $50K/month for legal fees to combat the LEC? They didn't last long at all.

Combine that with oversight from our elected officials like Louisiana's Tauzin (an EFF watchlist critter and highly effective open Internet killer), and there should be no surprise. We've demanded a spam-favoring Baby Bell monopoly Internet through our votes.

Don't like it? Don't elect this funny speakin' Bell lacky crap.

*scoove*

Great article. Hmm. For some reason I doubt my congressmen read Slash.

I am going to mail a copy of it with a short intro from yours truly to all my congressmen/representitives. I encourage all of you, even those not in the US to do the same. This article does a lot better in their hands than ours. For those in the US that are lazy here is a list of your House members and Senate members that has their adresses and such.

Here is testimony presented in house hearings this topic. Some of the testimony is rather interesting: like Dr. Wakefield's graphs that show the rise in autism in the UK delayed the US by 10 years, eventhough the same criteria is used in both countries.

Here is testimony presented in house hearings this topic. Some of the testimony is rather interesting: like Dr. Wakefield's graphs that show the rise in autism in the UK delayed the US by 10 years, eventhough the same criteria is used in both countries.

You aren't very bright, are you? I'm sorry to break this to you, since you obviously love to be a red-baiting idiot, but being a liberal does not mean that a person is a socialist. Furthermore, given that socialists run the gamut from Marxist state socialists to anarcho-syndicalists who are more opposed to strong government than even the most ardent Libretardian idiot, given that capitalism also runs the gamut from fascism to anarcho-capitalism, being pro-government also does not a socialist make. Your stupidity is especially amusing given that socialism is an economic philosophy whereas liberalism describes a range of political philosophies. May I suggest that you actually try learning something about socialism before you make yourself look even more uninformed than you've already managed to?

Finally, should you manage to stop spewing hot gas long enough to actually read the Constitution, you'll discover that it does, in fact, contain both terms.

Natural monopolies, as long as there's oversight and consumer protection, can work.

In that case, you should ask your Congressperson to oppose Tauzin-Dingell. One of its provisions is that neither the FCC nor state governments would be allowed to regulate broadband -- Verizon and friends would be answerable solely to Congress.

At least, that's according to a few of their opponents.

Natural monopolies, as long as there's oversight and consumer protection, can work.

In that case, you should ask your Congressperson to oppose Tauzin-Dingell. One of its provisions is that neither the FCC nor state governments would be allowed to regulate broadband -- Verizon and friends would be answerable solely to Congress.

At least, that's according to a few of their opponents.

The US Code can be found here.

Since the link to the bill is dead, here are some links to pdf copies of it:

Digimedia.org pdf

house.gov pdf

A summary of the bill here at house.gov

And the google cached version here

There if you can Slashdot all of those, we deserve a collective cookie.

Since the link to the bill is dead, here are some links to pdf copies of it:

Digimedia.org pdf

house.gov pdf

A summary of the bill here at house.gov

And the google cached version here

There if you can Slashdot all of those, we deserve a collective cookie.

Too bad the link to the bill is already broken, I would have liked to have read it.

OK I did a search and found a PDF copy of the bill HERE. Also found a site to organize support for the bill, it has a form to send your representative an email. Since Cannon is mine, I guess I'm already OK on that one. However, I have been pretty unhappy on his stance on several issues in the past, hopefully he won't drop the ball on this one under the intense politial pressure of the RIAA.

• Wikipedia article to which I contributed
• Everything 2 article that I wrote
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, a lawsuit to overturn the Bono Act
• House directory and Senate directory: whom to fax if you want this law repealed. Yes, fax. E-mail is assumed to be spam, while paper mail is assumed to carry anthrax.

Thought some people might wanna see one of the many related links I have scattered around from rejected stories and junk:

Rep. Ed Markey's letter to John Ashcroft (pdf) in opposition to the settlement.

The best descriptive analysis I've read so far of the whole mess can be found here

In another news article yesterday (for which I lost the URL) I understand the FCC, which has jurisdiction, is moving quickly to extend their regulation of RF-Coax cable networks to bring cable service providers into congruity with DSL providers as far as their responsibilities to customers are concerned.

I hope so. Just spent a miserable weekend babysitting the glowlight on my cablemodem waiting to see if my Comcast connection would drop.

Even looking back over business history to before the era of the robber barons, I can't think of a single example of a corporation treating it's customers to such a squalid clownact.

Congressional oversight of the cable industry, and the FCC itself is provided by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and The Internet Those of you who agree might consider writing to these guys and letting them know that holding 4.1 million customers hostage is something that should never be allowed to ever happen again. I'm expecting a serious investigation in due course, as there should be.

On a more positive note, my connection here remained constant through the whole episode, and services are normal. I suppose to be fair I should also congratulate the negotiators from Comcast and the other cablecos and Excite for reaching an agreement rapidly under brutally difficult conditions.

Folks, get over yourself. America is at war, really at war, not just scratching an itch. For the first time since 1945.

Technically speaking, we are not at war. We don't have war unless Congress declares it, as per Article 1, Section 8 of this silly thing. So call it whatever you like; just don't call it a war. We haven't had one of those in quite a while.

Peacekeeping would be a better description of America's actions in other countries. Because we definately do not have wars.

• The House of Representatives
  
• Thomas at the Library of Congress
  
• The US Postal Service
  
• The Securities and Exchange Commission
  
• The Federal Trade Commission
  
• (FWIW: i.e. not much) The Internal Revenue Service This is one of the poorer examples, but at least you can download forms in PDF.
  
• The White House
  
• The US Dept of Justice Not as useful as the others...
  

Or the "no, you shouldn't know about security holes in your operating systems" that MS is using the current scare to push?

Trusting people in power to "just do the right thing" without any oversight is incredibly foolish. Even if the current people are as pure as the driven snow, all it takes is one bad guy in a position of authority, and we're screwed.

No more, no less; no sooner, no later.

This is the vulnerability of our Nuclear Piles

This is where you can cross the border undetected

This is how to make a Fake ID?

Well maybe I didn't say every single tiny little syllable but basically I said em, basicly.

The agreement only covers the royalties collected under the "statutory license" and not the "interactive licenses". In other words, if you can pick and chose your music, the artists royalties still go through the labels. By making the statutory licenses as narrow as possible to those wanting to "webcast", the RIAA has pretty effectively assured that those who chose to cater to the consumers and public wants with interactive webcasts must seek the interactive licenses (which are negotiated on a case by case basis and cost much more), thus assuring it is business as usual. (and thus bypassing this agreement). SoundExchange does not collect royalties for uses of music directly licensed by labels (or interactive uses), such as the Echo Networks and Warner deal earlier this week.

This still doesn't address the fact that the RIAA and SoundExchange are NOT paying the webcasting royalties this year, even though they were due to be paid in July. This they announced in May. CNet ran an article

According to Webnoize (subscription required) article, The $5.2 Million payment they made on October 15 represents only income from the cable, satellite and Muzak licenses collected from Feb 1996 to March 2000. They do not include any payment for webcasting that they have collected since 1999. Ina ddition their administrative fee is 20% meaning the RIAA collected $1.3 Million for that distribution.

Its a step in the right direction, but its only a baby step. One interesting side note: the payment directly to artists is one thing that is contained in the Music Online Competition Act (MOCA) introduced on Aug 3rd by Rick Boucher and Chris Cannon, that the RIAA has condemned in no uncertain terms.

I found the results from last year here. It's interesting that it was released on September 11 2000.

With out shilling too much here, may I recommend this document, Anatomy of a sellout on our website.

You can tell from the title what our take on the settlement was. We are also planning on putting up more documents by weeks end including a primer on the tunney act and how it relates to this case. Also, expect a real nice re-design of the page by the end of this week or early next week. If anyone wants some documents right away to draft their comments, email me. My name is Gabe and you can easily get my addy off the contact us link. I am just hesitant for spam reasons to put it here.

As to questions of if this will make a difference: while it is clear the DoJ sold out, (and I can refer you to specific articles here, or read Rep. Coyners letter that discusses some of that) these comments will be used for the Judge to determine if the agreement is in the public interest. The Judge is not biased one way or the other, and a strong showing of letters, esp. from tech sophisticated people will help prove to her that the agreement is in ffact not in the public interest.

The line that best summerizes what happened here was "James had been acting real tough until now," said Robert Lande, a University of Baltimore professor of antitrust law who followed the case closely. "But when it comes down to it, Microsoft broke open the champagne when Bush was elected."

Before negotiations even get anywhere the Justice Department announces they will not seek a structural remedy. They bought a get out of jail free card because we talk to each other instead of our representatives.

Now the terms are such that MS need only hold out five years before they are no longer supervised and they can do as they please again. Who will form a business with a five year life span against MS?

Let's say you are willing to. And now MS does not release the information on interfaces as promoised? What will you do? Sue them? Go ahead, can you outlast them in court? They do not need to win they just need to delay and delay and delay. That is how they got this deal.

We can whine and complain and bitch and moan, but the fact is they have $46 billion in cash and a PR machine telling eveyone the economy is doomed if you don't settle now and it is those "technical people" like slashdot readers who are responsible for all the virus and email problems we are seeing today.

Once again, using paper and an a real envelope (or these days a post card or FAX is probably better) Senate Address Lookup and House of Representative Address Lookup

Ask the simple question of why we would accept less now than what was being offered months ago? This is a plea bargin for robbery where we agree to do 3 years in jail and at the hearing are asked to promise we won't do it again instead.

It is time to put up or recognize these are the things that will make future open source development nearly impossible. Disagree? Let's go back to passport and hailstorm. Then the presumption sold to our representatives by the MS PR machine and many of the vendors selling security software: closed source is more secure than open source.

Now DMCA stops reverse engineering and Microsoft provides an interface (but not the one they use) which is slower and convoluted. And they change is every quarter, because "their customer's demand innovation". And they release the new version as they announce the changes. Do you think "mom and dad" are going to use open source if they have issues at all?

Microsoft doeso not need to bring out the big guns, they just need to bleed us slowly one change at a time. From their side it is the best of all possible results because they are complying with the courts and are protected from further attacks.

Umm... Check your facts. Congress Ron Paul voted >NO

Link here.

DOH!

When you vote for a politician, you get anti-constitutional politics.

There is only one party that wants to get rid of all the unconstitutional anti-privacy anti-consumer anti-freedom laws, all of them: The Libertarian Party.

Why are we so surprised it passed? This post is NOT flamebait, its a wake-up call to those of you who think lobbying a democrat or republican is going to make a difference -- its not. The ONLY Libertarian in Congress, Rep. Ron Paul has an exemplery voting record. Looking up his campaign donations on OpenSecrets.org shows that big business doesn't bother lobbying him because he will not vote YES on any bill that is against the Constitution. They call him Dr. No in Congress.

We need more guys like him. Even if you think the LP goes too far in reducing Government, the only salvation to the 50%+ we all pay in taxes of all sorts, to the privacy we've lost, to the endless harassment of so-called "Big Business" is to vote libertarian, and only libertarian. Your vote is not wasted: our party received over 1.7 million congressional votes in 2000. No third party in history has ever received even 1 million (not even the Greens).

Don't point the finger at Congress -- you and all of your little friends have allowed these attrocities to continue. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican, you're not voting for the lesser of two evils, you're saying "YES" to each and every unconstitutional bill they turn into law.

Hey, whaddya know-- the law agrees with you! Terrorism-- or, more precisely, "international terrorism"-- is defined in U.S. Code Title 18 Section 2331. Part of the definition is:

(1) the term ''international terrorism'' means activities that...

(B) appear to be intended -

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping

How about a fax? That's how I make my views known to my senators and representative.

How can you easily determine one of their fax numbers? The following links will likely work, although you may have to call the listed voice number to ask for the fax number.

For the Senate, start at http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cf m.

For the House, start at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html.

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"

You might wanna read it sometime.

Please take the following statement as a mantra, and pass it along to your local CongressGoon:

Internet commerce should be taxed exactly the same as phone sales and mail orders.

No more, no less; no sooner, no later.

If you are pressed for time, at least contact:
Hon. Sherwood L. Boehlert, New York

Chairman Boehlert's homepage is here.
His email address is Rep.Boehlert@mail.house.gov.

Contact information:
10 Broad Street
Utica, NY, 13501
315-793-8146
315-798-4099 (fax)
Toll-Free in NYS: 800-235-2525

2246 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3223
202-225-3665
202-225-1891 (fax)

If you are pressed for time, at least contact:
Hon. Sherwood L. Boehlert, New York

Chairman Boehlert's homepage is here.
His email address is Rep.Boehlert@mail.house.gov.

Contact information:
10 Broad Street
Utica, NY, 13501
315-793-8146
315-798-4099 (fax)
Toll-Free in NYS: 800-235-2525

2246 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3223
202-225-3665
202-225-1891 (fax)