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The MPAA's Lobbying-Fu is Stronger Than Yours
georgelazenby writes "The Frisco Chronicle reports: While the music industry has been clumsily bullying its way through the federal government, the movie industry has taken a more subtle -- and more effective -- approach. The MPAA has been lobbying individual state legislatures to pass laws reaching far beyond the original DMCA. The proposed laws would permit cable TV companies to 'limit subscribers to using only certain brands of VCRs and could ban TiVo in favor of their own proprietary PVR technologies.' According to one expert, the bills are 'tremendously open-ended and create theoretical and potential criminal liabilities for just about anybody on the planet.'"
How would something like this be enforced? House inspections?
BOO! TERRO
>According to one expert, the bills
>are 'tremendously open-ended and create
>theoretical and potential criminal liabilities
>for just about anybody on the planet.'"
What planet? Planet America? US laws sure don't reach us in Europe.
Let's encourage them. I'd love to see the MPAA convince some state to ban Tivo's. That will be the end of them, and good riddance.
Interesting dynamic that these two groups are taking.
The RIAA is doing a loud, "hey, look, we're gonna erase files and crash your computer" thing, whereas the MPAA is going around quietly passing bills without any press releases or announcements. Wonder which one will be more successful... from the sounds of it, the MPAA has already had a fair amount of success, having their "super-DMCA" laws passed in 6 states and pending in five more. It certainly seems a more proactive approach than the RIAA, but I don't think either will end up working in the end, since MPAA's plans are basically monopolising (you can ONLY use THESE) and the RIAA's plans are basically hacking (you aren't allowed to have these files! DELETE DELETE DELETE)
[insert witty comment here]
Having a system where everybody is a criminal and anybody can be arrested whenever the government want to is scary beyond imagination.
As unfortunate as it is, many laws that stem from the United States DO carry over to other countries. That's just how things work with the US being such a great superpower in the world. One can only hope that other countries will have more sense than Bush and his cronies.
[insert witty comment here]
Without sounding like I'm supporting the MPAA on this (which I most certainly not), one has to at least appreciate the MPAA's awareness of the future of piracy. The fact of the matter is that widespread piracy of DVDs and movies on the scale of MP3s -- that is, copies of the movies that are of such quality as to be almost indistinguishable from the original, as with MP3s -- just isn't here yet. The average user simply does not have the capacity or ability to simply hop on some p2p network and download and burn DVD-quality full length feature films -- yet. A few years down the road, it might not be such an issue to download say, a 1 gig movie, burn it to DVD-R, and watch it in your DVD player with no appreciable loss of quality. The MPAA isn't so much concerned about the (relatively) low quality movies floating around Kazaa today -- they're concerned about tomorrow. And one at least has to respect, however grudgingly, their foresight and awareness of the future -- contrasted with the "catch-up" that the RIAA is playing right now.
Last I heard, US law didn't apply outside US borders. Officially. After all, that's what makes it necessary to hold small boys - sorry, al Queda terrorists - at Guantanamo Bay, safely outside US jurisdiction.
On a more serious note, this seems part of a trend that will eventually block off access for ordinary people to the unregulated internet. Nice to know that the States are learning from Beijing.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Now do you see why Big Dish subscribers have been telling you for all these years to go big or go home? There's no chance in hell 4DTV would do this. Heck, I doubt even DirecTV or DishNet would stoop this low.
Only YOU can stop giving the cable co's money. Do it now.
And even if you aren't effective, there's still all kinds of free stuff you can watch.
While the music industry has been clumsily bullying its way through the federal government, the movie industry has taken a more subtle -- and more effective -- approach.
If it has taken us this long to figure out that the movie industry is doing this, what's to say the music intustry isn't as well? After all, they BOTH clumsily bullied their way through the government.
First a quote from Dinsdale "DVDs are protected to the hilt," he said "It plays by the rules and ends up being a great consumer experience."
My ass. It makes it a way for me to have to sit through a FBI warning, and as is the case from some of the newer DVD's to have to watch trailers, (read commercials). I dont want that in something I have bought, or rented.
So what can a legal owner or renter of a DVD do? Play it with Linux? Yeah, but then I break the law.
These folks gotta get with the program (pun intended) I want to watch the damn movie!
As an aside: I have not been to a movie theatre in 5 years and I am not about to go anytime soon. When all of them became tiny little multiplexes I just couldn't enjoy it anymore.
Screw you MPAA.
...you can be sure we will have it tomorrow. Look at all the other nasty things going on related to copyright. Just the other day there was an article in the press about increasing the right of copyright holders throughout Europe.
They are f**king things up pretty badly over there. Unfortunately we will taste the foulness in the future.
One acronym: EFF
Check out their State-Level "Super DMCA" Initiatives Archive
~ Ms.G {at} NoitacudE [dot]com "Turn it around..."
While I like the article, it doesn't link to anything for the reader to make their own comparison.
The EFF has a Super-DMCA archive, with analyses, the templates the MPAA gives to state legislatures, and info on the individual states.
The MPAA has an anti-piracy statement, and press releases relating to legislation , but I was unable to find anything specifically discussing these particular laws after a brief search.
Actually, that's just what it will take if media corporations expect to survive.
There are two futures:
1) Corporate IP dies and we move to a gift economy.
2) We have to be able to prove ownership every binary string we control on demand.
I vote for a gift economy.
http://slashdot.org/~mraymer/journal/
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
These lobbying groups have a way of creating the problems that they try to fight.
For example: way back in 97 people were using IRC and Hotline and FTP to trade music, and it was under the radar to the mainstream. Then Napster comes along and the RIAA takes notice, and a staggering number of news stories announces to the public that it's possible to trade music online. The RIAA was the reason for the popularity of napster. And inderectly they are also responsible for the rise in popularity of trading movies on the net because of the migration to morpheus after napster's demise.
Lobbying groups like the RIAA and the MPAA are doing a great service to the cause of piracy.
I wonder why they don't see that.
We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose. We understand that hearing us say this is important to you...
Great! In other news, RIAA proposes a tax on candles stating that, "wax cylinders are are of the earliest recording technoligies, and we are in danger of loosing valuable dollars with this presently unrestricted technology". Also on record, "Candles can be used to create recordings with very low technology, and we can't allow this." This form of piracy has the record companies scared as they tend to burn well destroying all evidence.
RIAA also plans to sue a little girl in Beaverton Oregon for recording, "Mary had a Little Lamb".
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
This is getting ridicilous. What's next, a bill proposed by BSA which allows ISPs ban every computer using non-Intel CPUs and non-MS software?
Twirlip's posts NEVER got moderated off-topic. That guy was a machine or something.
I would like to state for the record that NO ONE who lives here says "frisco". In fact, while we are known for our nice and downright peaceful ways, we will open a huge can of wupass on anyone who dares mention the word inside the greater bay area. Thank you for your time.
That they dont define what constitutes a "communications device" accuratly enough. This leaves a big loophole for the telcos, cable companies etc to exploit.
For example, is the modem on my desk the "origin/destination of the communications"?
Is it the port/motherboard/other hardware in the computer? Is it the drivers, network dll files & TCP/IP stack? Is it the internet clients (like Mozilla or Trillian for example)?
Yet.
The Frisco Chronicle reports
Frisco is a small town in Texas. Boy, was I surprised when I clicked on the link and found that the newspaper in question was actually the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
You can have my TiVo..when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Looks like the MPAA is strengthening their legal tool chest so they can continue their campaign of intellectual terrorism on ordinary citizens, programmers, and researchers of the United States and beyond.
It's a sad truth, but a truth none the less, that in a capitalist state, he with the most money wins the race -- money is power.
"These guys are everywhere," said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights advocacy group in San Francisco. "They're pushing their agenda in places we haven't even begun to look at."
That's irony for you, folks. The EFF, which is just as agenda-laden as any group out there, and moreso than many, is accusing the MPAA of pushing their agenda. If this isn't a pot-kettle situation, I've never heard of one.
hey asshole
only idiots call the city "frisco".
you wouldn't call L.A. "langeles" or N.Y. "Nork", so stop fucking up the name of our city.
you'd get the shit beat out of you if you did that.
what happened to him/her?
I expect we will have an IP crash, after which people will then learn to pay, make their own, live with the sponsored IP or live without it at all.
See this for info about Fiasco!, I can't find it's author but he's Dr Ullrich Hafner now so this helped him pass.d =4367
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?si
I cannot find his current web page, I've not received a response from his email. I was hoping Fiasco! had been released from IntProp limbo.
Quite a while ago I downloaded a program from student in germany that did fractal encoding of video streams. It was quite good but needed some code clean up, some standardised streaming file format with syncronization for and addition of audio.
!
The author pulled the project due to a potential copyright conflict with the college he was a student and worked at. Be warned to keep your GNU stuff seperate.
!
I've used this decoder to shrink several minutes of fair quality video to floppy. Since this needs serious processing power and I do not know if it can be paralleled due to the serial nature of a video stream but it needs something.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
How i could do much worse things than own a pvr such as vandalising the city and get a less severe penalty...
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
Next thing you know two people in suits will be knocking at your door demanding to know what you believe. "Hello. Do you use P2P? Here is the latest edition of Rolling Stone with a special article by Madonna on why you shouldn't share *.mp3's" And I thought that Jehovahs Witnesses were bad.
I cant seem to get on to both. Are they under attack. Some kind of DOS?
how small is infinity?
As with everything in life there are exeptions but as far as the general impression I get from USA these days..I'm simply disgusted.. disgusted in that the american people let Bush steal the election (YEA HE DID!!).. disgusted in how the american government has abused the WTC catastrophy to get all sorts of severely abusive laws in place and how the public has let them.. disgusted at how fucked up the american so called justice system is, they call it justice but it does nothing but fulfill a lot of triggerhappy gunslinging angry revengeful peoples thirst for blood.. America has gone from admireable to just downright disgusting.. I pray and hope that the majority of the American population will see the light soon and DO something about the situation instead of just sitting idly by. I get blased with ppl telling me that the general american population does NOT agree with what the government is doing but until all those who claim to be part of that need to GET OFF THEIR ASSES and DO something about the situation and then you need to come join the rest of the world instead of seeing yourself as superior to everyone else, as history proves over and over and over again.. whenever someone think they're better than anyone else.. there will be revolution. I feat that WTC was just the start of that.
Please dont ruin the world and freedom for the rest of us.
anybody on the planet
WTF: Not everyone lives in America, or is bound by silly laws like this...
Is it a boat?
It is unfortunate that things have to go this way, but until this silliness is brought home-- literally-- the masses can't get behind any effort to put a stop to it.
Does the DMCA make life difficult or inconvenient for your family or non-technical friends? Probably not. Not in a way that they notice or associate with anything in particular. Not being able to rip music CDs may impact a reasonable chunk of the voting public, but no critical mass there.
Wait until your parents want to Tivo their favorite TV show or a movie on a premium station that they pay extra for, but they find out that not only can they not record that show or movie, but in fact the Tivo is not really functional at all anymore... and maybe their VCR doesn't record everything they want, either.
When voters are effected by this stuff, and when they are effected enough so that they get angry, matters like this will suddenly get the attention they deserve. So long as lobbyists and campaign contributors are the only ones making noise, there won't be anything reasonable coming out of our politicians.
At least FCC Chairman Michael Powell likes his Tivo, so maybe there will be some advocacy there. Maybe.
Back in the day, the commoners were only allowed to read the bible. People were persecuted for writing books with "subversive" or "heretical" thoughts and others for reading them. Scientists and scholars alike lived under the yoke of the church.
:)
Fast forward back to today.
We are on the precipace of a technological dark age.
Basic freedoms are being summarily dismissed when it comes to anything "technological" under the guise of "Intellectual Property and Copywrite Protection" as well as "Security Considerations"
Think I'm paranoid?
Maybe, but here's a couple quick comparisons:
1600AD: All one has to do is cry " Witch!!" and the accused was immediately persecuted.
2003AD: All one has to say is "MP3 Pirate!!!" And that person is immediately subject to persecution.
1632AD: Galileo's The Dialogue Concerning the Chief World Systems was printed -- The ideas in this book leads to his arrest/trail/imprisonment
2001AD: Dmitry Sklyarov arrested for writing software that was alleged to violate the DMCA
Ironic ain't it
You know I really couldn't care less what happens in the US, I never intend to visit the place and the more riduculous laws they subject themselves to to, well you 'voted' the guys in, so you have to live with them.
My problem is that now that the US has officially told the rest of the world you do what we say or else (not that it was much different previously, just a bit more hidden), we find that our governments are doing whatever the US wants. Now I didn't vote for the US government so why do they get jurisdiction over me? Perhaps the whole world should vote for the US government and perhaps the world would be a better place.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
get EVERYBODY to NOT pay any money ANYWHERE, what can the govs do if EVERYBODY did it (thats the hard part).
They can do NOTHING absolutely NOTHING, the day the corporate world stood still. Certinally a wake up call to those that think they have power.
Just do it.
Without sounding like I'm supporting the MPAA on this (which I most certainly not), one has to at least appreciate the MPAA's awareness of the future of piracy. The fact of the matter is that widespread piracy of DVDs and movies on the scale of MP3s -- that is, copies of the movies that are of such quality as to be almost indistinguishable from the original, as with MP3s -- just isn't here yet. The average user simply does not have the capacity or ability to simply hop on some p2p network and download and burn DVD-quality full length feature films -- yet. A few years down the road, it might not be such an issue to download say, a 1 gig movie, burn it to DVD-R, and watch it in your DVD player with no appreciable loss of quality. The MPAA isn't so much concerned about the (relatively) Trinity dies at the end of the Matrix Reloaded low quality movies floating around Kazaa today -- they're concerned about tomorrow. And one at least has to respect, however grudgingly, their foresight and awareness of the future -- contrasted with the "catch-up" that the RIAA is playing right now.
I mean, with the utter rubbish that hollywood constantly turns out, why waste bandwidth.
:)
Take for instance the new Italian Job remake....
1) Its been Americanised (which defeats at least 2 plot elements)
2) They use BMW Minis which just wouldn't fit in a normal coach unlike the original bad-ass Austins.
3) The movie appears to take itself seriously where the original was a comedy
4) Apparently, at no point during the film does anyone say "You were only s'posed to blow the bloody doors off!"
5) The original movie had an ending where you didn't know if they got away with it or not; do you think an American ending would be the same?
6) The Minis although painted in red, white and blue use the same colourscheme as the 1969 minis which with the white tops is meant to denote the British union flag.
Now then
What i've been trying to point out here in a very long winded and round-about fashion is that if Hollywood(the Movie industry) doesn't want to give us original ideas in new films but would rather rape older, far superior films, why the hell would I, the consumer want to give them my money. So, if other people think like me, their sales fall
Now a definition IMHO of a good film: Dog Soldiers. It had it all, drama, action, horror, suspense. And all filmed on British and European money. (later bought by fox on realising it was bloody good). British actors and dark British humor make this a film I can watch again and again.
So, until the MPAA pulls it's collective fingers out and starts making a worthwhile product, I'm not giving them the time of day.
Oh, and as for any far-reaching laws, that just has a tendancy to make me very, very upset
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
What it boils down to is that companies who don't want to admit that their methods are outdated and move on to better systems are trying to clamp down on any form of progress, and punish forward-thinking individuals.
Imagine if, in the 1930s, the powers that be decided that car companies were just becoming too big for comfort and decided to put a stop to it. I can see it now:Citizens Face Jail Over Cars
After many years of battling, the MPAA has decided to pressure world governments into stopping the spread of illegal transportation devices known as cars."We tried to go after car manufacturers, but have had no luck, so we are going after car-owing individuals," explains the MPAA representitive we chatted to.
"What people don't realise is that by accepting and using this illegal means of transportation, people are losing their jobs. Horse breeders don't get a cent from these illegal car networks."The jail term for using a car instead of a horse is 5 years.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well so is jailing Divx and MP3 file traders.Do the owners of the infringed material lose it after you "steal" it? Do music/movie owners lose the music/movie after you "steal" it? If not, it's not stealing.
What it boils down to is that companies who don't want to admit that their methods are outdated and move on to better systems are trying to clamp down on any form of progress, and punish forward-thinking individuals.
Imagine if, in the 1930s, the powers that be decided that car companies were just becoming too big for comfort and decided to put a stop to it. I can see it now:
Citizens Face Jail Over CarsAfter many years of battling, the MPAA has decided to pressure world governments into stopping the spread of illegal transportation devices known as cars.
"We tried to go after car manufacturers, but have had no luck, so we are going after car-owing individuals," explains the MPAA representitive we chatted to.
"What people don't realise is that by accepting and using this illegal means of transportation, people are losing their jobs. Horse breeders don't get a cent from these illegal car networks."
The jail term for using a car instead of a horse is 5 years.Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well so is jailing copyright infringers.
could have been by accident, it could be inaccurate, but don't read too far in to it.
It would be nice if people could just stick together and not buy or rent movies and CD's, lets say for a year. But that would also have to include downloading them.
What good would that do, they have the public fooled. All they would have to say is that sales are down cause the nasty thieving consumers are stealing them. Then their would have no problem getting states or feds inacting all kinds of laws and probably even house to house searches.
Seems like companies like these are ruining America!
you know that humor thing you are talking about hits a chord..
i was just thinking that current humor in U.S. movies/television that try to pass for funny is so fucking bad.
subtlety is a lost art. everything has to be spelled out for us. that movie with sandra bullock and hugh grant just sucked because the humor was just stupid & there was no real drama.
"theoretical and potential criminal liabilities for just about anybody on the planet"
I was going to say that as someone in the EU, it wouldn't criminilise me....but then I rememebered how all those bad laws are slowly trickling down to the rest of the world. DCMA->EUCD etc.
Just goes to show what kind of influence you can excert when you spend 40-50% of your national budget on defence^H^H^Hoffense, even when most of your policies aren't well thought out or even just plain wrong.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
put down the coffee, grab a bite to eat, and then try to formulate a more rational screed. 'History" proves exactly what "again and again and again"? While I suspect you will find an audience here mostly supportive of your arguments, you will actually have to make one or two, instead of the usual "America is screwing up the world and Americans are letting it happen..." rant. Flame on !!
So what you are saying is of hollywood would actually put their bucks into talent, in the form of writers, actors, directors, and actually come out with material worth paying for, rather then trying to lobby for more restrictions on how we go for entertainment.
That trick never works --Rocky the flying squirel
Or, are you saying that putting these heavy restrictions on what can only be described as *recording devices* only hurts students of theater/movie production, and that only through experimentation do we have any hope of achieving an inovative idea.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
One thing I really wish the RIAA and MPAA would SERIOUSLY crack down on and even make REWARD laws to police departments is Flea Markets. My local flea markets are FULL of people selling knockoffs and CDRs of both movies and say 50 cent/Eminem. And yes these people ARE different than file sharers because they are PURPOSELY trying to make money off of someone else's work. They are NOT sharing it without financial gain as "napster/kazaa users do".
Rather than privacy intrusive laws like the article mentions and really even as DMCA is, I wish states would consider the battle more local and leave the organizations out of it. Instead, be more concerned for the taxable commerce in their state.
I have always been concerned when the corporate world feels like they have the right to justice on their own without the law. Cable companies, Music companies, Movie companies (most are all 3) are beginning to be able to carry out vigilante justice on the public.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Welcome to the land of the free, and the freedom to choose anything you want-just as long as it is our choice, and just as long as you buy it from our "preferred" retailers. Oh did I forget to mention that if you do anything remotely related to copying, fixing, or modifying this thing you will be sued until your whole family is bankrupt and your first-born child is in foster care. Now just sing here-here, and here. Leave one drop of blood for DNA logging ehhm verification. So what is that you would like to buy? Oh did I forget that if you take this out of the country the federal marshals have the right to shoot you? Sorry I forgot that little part.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
Is that there is little talent left in Hollywood and yet the Industry expects people to pay extortionate ammounts for films a six year old could have written.
:)
:p
I just don't bother watching the majority of what gets churned-out these days. If needs must, I watch an older film
Incidentally, I wonder why my last post got modded as 'Offtopic'? - Is it because it was mildly anti-corporate-america? - Does slashdot now have corporate moderators?
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Ever hear of trickle down?
The freedoms lost here will trickle to other countries that still have them, and similar laws will be passed there..
Once you set a precedent in one place, its easier to do the same ( or worse ) elsewhere.
"one world order" is the goal remember...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
is HTTP 1.1; I doubt it'll be long before XMMS has a client for it.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
..there was no presidential election in 2002. There was a federal election for the house and senate, and a lot of local elections, but our next federal election for pres is in 2004. Dubya is in his first term still.
Why don't we just skip the formalities and put the laws up on ebay. Yay or Nay, highest bid wins.
Myself, not that I do, I won't vote democrate either, its green party for me. Yeah I may be throwing my vote away, but democrates and republicans obiviously need corporations to hold their hand, maybe independents can think for themselves.
Personally, I'd feel OK if hardware was divided into open and closed categories, as long as both were legally and corporately protected, and as long as copyrights were shortened to more realistic lengths. It would mean that movies would only be watchable on "approved", game-console-style devices, and that there would be only streaming, but it would also mean that content on demand would be possible and that copyrighted works would become public domain in a few years or decades. It would also mean that Hollywood would no longer try to outlaw open hardware and software.
I know all these changes would take a huge amount of wrangling and attitude changes, but I think it's what we should have in the end.
The majority of the people in the United States support the current government. Look at the poll numbers (67 percent as of last week). Hell, even 71% of Americans were supporting the way in Iraq. To believe that the majority of Americans do not support the current administration is foolhardy.
That doesn't, of course, mean that they're right about everything. They certainly aren't, but they're also not in the minority. Pretending that they've stolen the popular will, or unfairly snatched an election (the election was too close to call and within the margin of error, neither side would have been able to claim a clear victory, no matter what any court, or any liberal, might want to say) just isn't fair. If you've got a problem with policies, argue the policies. Calling the President names and implying that he's illegitimate isn't practical.
I don't see any more problems in America then I do in the rest of the free world. I've seen enough "human rights" cases going before the EU Court to make me want to retch. I've seen Australians constantly having ridiculous laws passed by their parliament. And hell, don't get me started about the messes in Asia, Africa and South America. I don't think that my country is perfect, but it's damned better off than most countries and will continue to be so as long as we're able to maintain our national charachter.
The MPAA is a red herring. Don't worry about silly DMCA laws quite so much. They're bad, but they're not the end of the world.
--
RumorsDaily
I voted for Gore. Not because I wanted to, but because Bush would provoke and make matters worse. To be truthful,
But when the Gov't gave up on Florida and just said, ok, Bush wins... I gave up on the US election system. Both Democrat and Republican parties seem to have no direction. Screw this "no new taxes". How about bringing back the country to a point of 3% unemployed, or where things actually.. mattered.
All it is now a days, is a popularity contest. Loser usually goes home while the winner gets to fuck the prom queen.
--
"I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo
EFF and EFF-Austin are organizing oppostion to the "super DMCA." If you're interested in opposing the bill in your state, send email to info@effaustin.org.
Jon Lebkowsky jonl@polycot.com http://www.polycot.com
You put the latest James Bond movie in your player, and your player (by law) automatically connects with your bank and credit card accounts. It sees you have made several purchases of Pepsi products in the past year, but no Coca Cola products. Unfortunately, as Coca Cola is a major advertiser^Wsponsor of the movie, you are barred from watching it -- it's required by law that you purchase products associated with "sponsors" in order to "protect the artists" who are making films. A pleasant voiceover says you must make a purchase of at least $45.83 in Coca Cola products to be qualified for the film.
Joking aside, the disrespect these organizations (and their backers) show for their consumers is astounding. This bunker mentality is resulting in an unnecessary war which both the recording/movie industries and consumers will lose. The industries will lose because people will stop buying their products. The consumers will lose due to the laws restricting their legal rights.
Move over government, this is the century of the mega-corp.
-Thomas
After sending forward the EFF's letter, as well as one of my own through physical mail, I got an E-mail message from Rob Briley, the TN House rep supporting the TN law. He said that those who opposed the law hadn't read the amendment, and that terrible amounts of misinformation were being spread about it. (I wrote back telling him that even with his amendment, I really didn't want that law.) In particular, he said that he had never been contacted by the MPAA, and wondered why people thought that.
Given that this TN law is like the others and coming at the same time, I'm suspicious. It's possible that this just happened to come up on its own and be similar. More likely, though, Briley was contacted by somebody trying to get him to push this law. It's possible Briley is just lying to me, but it's also entirely plausible that Briely doesn't even know he's being used as a pawn of the MPAA.
Gotta love this country.
tndigitalfreedom.org has an account of several people showing up at a senate commitee hearing on the law. It was clear that most of the sentaors simply didn't understand the implication of the law... and they were relying on a cable industry guy to interpret it for them. When they learned that perhaps there were other things to worry about, they delayed passing the law out of committee. The alarming thing about this is that even though the senators showed a desire to do the right thing once they learned of worries, it does mean that it would have just rubber stamped through if the tndigitialfreedom people hadn't showed up. In other words, our state legislatures are probably passing laws they don't understand all the time, just because whatever industry lobbyist is interpreting it for them makes them feel all warm and fuzzy about it.
Great, huh?
-Rob
they would need to change current anti-trust laws on the national level first.
just remember in the end it's just a money grab, just like everything you see. it's always, always, and forever driven by money, everything is. it's nothing else no matter what anyone says.
and the only people who ever get any money out of it are executive bigwigs and lawyers. just remember that.
I think more scary than the movie industry thwarting technological and artistic advance for their own financial gain, is the fact that powerful interests can literally sneak bills into law with absolutely zero debate. Not good.
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
I don't own a TV anymore. I got off the channel merry-go-round and have a LIFE now.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Minor niggle, although the British Conservative party seems unaware of this (or anything else), they usually go in front of the European Court of human Rightswhich has nothing to do with the EU courts (European Court of Justice and European Court of auditors), since it includes countries that are not part of the EU although they both were setup to stop WW2 having an encore.
And like the US Supreme Court, the executives are sometimes very slow and reluctant to obey court rulings.
I will laugh my ass off when the first MPAA affiliated person is fined/imprisoned for violation of their own BS laws!
that will be a day to be remembered
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
If this "progress" continues, what it will take to actually make a difference in this for consumers is for the masses to show how this will make a dent in the profits of someone (either someone big, or a lot of little someones) on board with it and using the law to harm consumers.
I have a modest entertainment bill because I want to watch a variety of stuff when I have the time. That time isn't a whole lot, so it would be easy for me to cancel all my subscriptions. Heck, if I needed to, I could drop the broadband and go back to dialup if my broadband probider started abusing the law. There are plenty of other things to do in life that I can get by ok with that scenario.
It would sure be some statement if the month the cable companies and ISPs started getting outrageous with this, even 10% of their subscriber base cancelled. That would send a message. Alas, I don't think the "unwashed masses" will either get it, or care. They just want to sit on the couch and have the content spoon-fed to them while they vegetate.
in behalf of this insanity http://www.local6.com/orlpn/news/stories/news-2177 72320030503-020519.html i agree... can we say police state?
... that would cause me to just cancel cable altogether and go DSL, no matter how badly DSL sucks.
They're shooting themselves in the foot!
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
The solution to this problem is simple--BOYCOTT Quit buying DVD's and music CD's and don't go to the movies for one month. They'll get the idea. I do not trade music files, nor do I download movies, but I strongly object to these media giants' proposals to control what I watch and listen to! Born Angry my blog.
Repeat after me.
Theft is not predicated on deprivation.
Let's say it again.
Theft is not predicated on deprivation.
One more time.
Theft is not predicated on deprivation.
Are you getting it yet? If not, read it over again, because I'm sick of typing it.
Theft means to take something from someone without that person's consent. That's all it means. Yes, we have specific legal definitions that classify various acts of theft as various crimes. That's not important to any of us, because we're not lawyers. We're just ordinary people who use simple language. In simple terms, taking something without the permission of the owner is STEALING, whether there's an element of deprivation involved or not.
DON'T TAKE WHAT'S NOT YOURS.
--an even further analysis shows that at some point "IP" as property is going to be fairly silly. What would a geek really want in his kitchen? A star trek replicator? How would the farmers pay their bills then, once their job and work is outdistanced by available technology?
What this is is an example of the age old rift between protectionism and advances in technology and more open markets. The paradigm of the IP creator being a full time "worker" who garners all his wage with producing those works has always changed over time. At one point only the royals were rich enough to "own" a painting, or to keep a court musician on the payroll, or to have "theater on demand". Only a few owned books, because of the monopoly of the royal religious scribes, who hand copied bibles etc.
Right now we are at a major crossroads again, as the technology already exists to make a large part of "IP" business obsolete. That's why they are pulling out all the stops, they right now can be replaced. So you then have to ask, which parts still require "protectionism".
I find this sort of amusing, moving in political circles where up into about two years ago, white collar workers were sneering at blue collar workers as their jobs got "outsourced" and "made redundant" by advances in technology and the markets. Myself being a blue collar worker noted that is was few and far between that I could see much support (on the web in forums) from much higher paid people than I, working in "still vibrant" economies such as IT/IP. I got laughed at, put down, told to STFU, that my "work" was buggy whip work that modernization and automation and the "free market" made obsolete, so tough luck. Now that THEIR paycheck is threatened, by outsourcing and automation,by improvements in technology, by the skills required to produce this sort of "product" becoming lower and easier, etc, they are crying foul, FOUL they say,they are "wondering how they will feed their families and pay their mortgage".
Well, same thing I kept getting told and keep getting told, at a retirement (or close enough) age, "learn a new skill, perhaps the old one isn't as relevant any more, keep up with the times, pull yourself up with your boot straps" and etc.
SUCKS to get told that doesn't it? Pretty easy to slam it out when it's someone else, isn't it, real easy? But it SUCKS to take it, doesn't it,. sucks to be honest, to actually SEE reality.
"IP" busy-ness and it's related side "jobs" as a full time "job" is rapidly being replaced with automation and ease-of-accomplisment.
GASP, OH NO!!! Geeks who type arcane symbols fall out of chairs all over, "artistes" swoon and get the economic vapors, middle man skimmers get red in the face, demand "laws, we say MORE,MORE, AND MORE LAWS!!! TO PROTECT....." Whatever. Whoops, you are demanding "protectioinism". wow.
It is no different from ANY other industry, nothing special or magical about anyone's "job" there. You never got handed a lifelong job/profit guarantee. Joe Bubba in the factiory doesn't have it, and is losing bigtime, told to "get with the program". Joe Farmer at the family farm is going through it. Where is it carved in stone that programmers and entertainment "artistes" and middle man "trader-skimmers" are guaranteed a full time job that "pays all the bills"?
Soon-perhaps- it will be possible for the end user-the consumer-to "program on demand" applications exactly like they want them. What then? Soon it will be possible to have huge amounts of "entertainments" created-not even copied but CREATED "on demand", cheaply and at the single consumer level. If anyone forgot, it was blacksmiths that "put themselves out of business". The metal workers did it to themselves. today, engineers are putting themselves out of business, as they concentrate on automation-even with their own jobs! When I was a kid, AUTOCAD did NOT exist.
Where do you draw the line on advances in technology? Should we still be paying scribes to hand copy books? At one time it was
I've tried, but I can't think of one ligitimate use for a radar detector other then trying to avoid a speeding ticket. I mean, sure, you could use it to see if your microwave is leaking, but I doubt you have a microwave in your car.
Lower speed limits, less casualties ... no need to start up about causality, it is too damn straightforward for that. They arent 100% effective, nothing ever is, but they are effective.
My mistake. I didn't have the name of the court in front of me.
The reason, I expect, that executives are reluctant to obey this court's rulings is that it's not part of a unified government structure. There's a supernational judicial branch in Europe without an executive branch and with only skeleton legislature. If you're going to have a court that extends beyond national boundaries, then you need to do away with those boundaries altogether. You need to set up a true multi-nation government if you want the court to be functional. Why bother listening to this court since it has no (here comes an American phrase) checks or balances?
--
RumorsDaily
"America has gone from admireable to just downright disgusting"
America has always been disgusting (you can trace social injustices all the way back to the beginning of the nation. Just ask African Americans.) What's happened is that your innocence died...
"Please dont ruin the world and freedom for the rest of us."
but I guess your idealism hasn't.
Remember when Intel wanted to put in personally identifying IDs into their CPUs? Why did that flop? Nobody wanted them, and AMD didn't have them (IMO). Competition "saved" us from that disaster.
With the MPAA, what are our choices, assuming we want to continue to be entertained with motion pictures?
If you've deprived someone of something, you've taken it from them. You seem to be suggesting that you can deprive someone of something without taking it from them.
IANAL but reading through the IL law regarding 720 ILCS 5/16-18, firewalls, SSH & VPNs would all fall into criminal activity. This disturbs me greatly becasue my company "used" to sell those services to IL companies. My attorney advised me not to sell those services to IL companies because of this law. While all we provide are network based services that most corporations (including ALL the RIAA and MPAA members) use on a daily basis for securing networks and traffic with trusted individuals in a company we now have to be VERY careful. How is it that they can use these servcies and not break the law but for the general public to use the same technology it's a Class A Misdemeanor punishable not only by the state but you can also be tried in civil court for the SAME law?!?!? Sounds a lot like double jeapordy to me. But once again IANAL.
Nothing is impossible. It just hasn't been figured out yet.
Its much easier to kill a technology before its been invented than wait until after it is out.
Nowadays, it would be impossible to kill the VCR. But, had they bribed legistlation through congress 20 years ago making it pre-emptively illegal or uneconomical, then we'd never have had VCR's.
Some say that the reason the VCR was ruled legal (by a 5-4 supreme court vote) was because there wasn't existing legistlation that dealt with the situation it. Had there been we wouldn't have it.
So yeah, hats off to the assholes. They've been tieing us down for the rape for two years before we noticed.
Emperor Norton, the Emperor of the United States, banned the use of the word "Frisco" in 1872. Not all old laws are outdated.
Take your pills, please. I can understand that some people see copyright infringement and theft as equally serious crimes. But you deny that there is any difference at all and therefore reject the notion that some people have a reason to differentiate between the two. You don't need to agree with the moral or legal conclusion, but insisting that two things, which are obviously different, must be treated the same just because the difference doesn't matter to YOU is obnoxious and, if you fail to realize what you're doing (which I doubt), a sure sign of stupidity. Many people on this board think that copyright infringement and theft are not only different in a legal context but also from a moral perspective. Now don't be a clueless dick and accept that in order to discuss this matter, it is necessary to have different words for different activities.
"Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Electronics Association claimed the new laws could potentially turn consumers into criminals. But just as alarming for these groups -- which are normally on top of such developments -- was the fact that they hadn't noticed that Hollywood had been pushing the bills since 2001."
Did you really expect the lawyers at eff to be vocal about an issue that threatens their fellow lawyers existance? Why guess what, the "media" was also silent on this issue, what a coincidence! Both lawyers and friends of lawyers are quiet on issues that should be getting a huge amount of attention, because they know, that "cutting the head of the snake is cutting the profit and control out of media's hand."
The following scenarios are why the MPAA and this corporate IP nonsense needs to be stopped.
... transmit, [or] re-transmit" any communication service without the "express authorization" of the communication service provider."[1] The benevolent provider when pushed to find a reason to terminate the user's connectivity - can easily find one. And then the MPAA and RIAA can do as they wish with you.
Your cable provider sends a notice to all of its customers. It says that due to recent changes in local legislation that only Dell GX150 Desktop machines can be used with their cable internet service. All other equipment is no longer authorized to connect to the internet via the cable service. This then qualifies all non Dell GX150 devices that are communicating with the cable network as "unauthorized"[1]. Depending on how the courts interpret the law - this could make all "unauthorized communications devices"[1] (non-GX150), "unlawful access devices"[1]. A user in possession of an unlawful access device could then be prosecuted under this law for using a system that is not a Dell GX150.
Certainly that is an extreme example though not completely implausible under the current stipulations in the law. It would be useful though to examine a more realistic scenario:
The law is passed in your state legislature - but there are no apparent changes in policy with your service provider (the aforementioned cable provider). In the coming months and years after the law is passed, the MPAA and RIAA find out that there is a "malicious" user illegally "swapping" large amounts of "unlicensed" music in the form of MP3's over the cable provider's network. The RIAA and MPAA approach the cable provider about this user and threaten legal action against the cable company if it does not terminate the user's connectivity. The cable company, would have an easy time under this law finding "unauthorized" devices that are connected to their network,. There are provisions that make it a "crime to "receive
The real problem with this law is the broad terminology used and the fact that it can be so easily used to deny ANYONE communications services. The term "communications device" can mean anything. The dictionary definition of the term "device" could be argued to include network protocols as a "device for communicating", or even software that you have written that uses a network provided by someone else. The ambiguous terms defined in most of the versions of this law such as "communications devices" are dangerous for end users because they leave so much open for definition and interpretation. They are designed to target end users, so that the creators and proponents of this bill may engage users in direct or indirect legal action. An area where individuals are not well equipped to defend themselves.
These scenarios listed here are just the beginning - the implications of this facet of the law are not limited to just the Music industry or consumers. They apply to communications everywhere.
The simple matter of it is - this law is an "Exploit". The MPAA and RIAA are implementing the law and variations of it in the state legislatures because they are lower profile areas where legislators are less cognoscente of the implications of this bill. As a result this law will/has already grant the RIAA/MPAA the ability to influence those who do not have significant legal clout to do as they would see fit. Though, the MPAA and RIAA are only the most immediate concerns - the broad and general definitions laid out in this law can be used by any entity to deny communications services to an individual or organization. Fred von Lohmann speaks of transferring law enforcement from public to private hands, this is exactly that. Though, law enforcement is the exclusive domain of the Government. This law bypasses our legal system and allows other parties to prosecute under the guise of a "law". The only reason this can happen is that the state legislators have and insufficient understanding of the implications of s
What the fuck? You have this precisely backwards. The question of whether you have deprived someone of something is completely orthogonal to the question of whether you have taken something or not.
2) You should be able to have it because the GOVERNMENT does NOT own the road (taxpayers do) and they certainly don't own your car. They also do not have the right without warrant (probable cause) to interfere with or search your car. (Just because a police officer isn't searching your car, rather an electronic "detector", it is STILL an illegal search.
3)Most radar I know I of that are sold today also have the emergency alert - a legal reason to own a radar detector.
This goes back to my original post - the recording industry and movie industry have YET to prove TO ME that I am breaking law and have probable cause to search and confiscate things on my computer or things that I own.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
But you deny that there is any difference at all and therefore reject the notion that some people have a reason to differentiate between the two.
No, I didn't. You're either being deliberately obtuse, or you're just not too bright.
Theft: the act of taking something that does not belong to you without the consent of the owner.
Okay? Got that? There are various acts that all qualify as theft: auto theft, larceny, embezzlement, shoplifting, and, yes, the act that so many Slashbots would rather refer to euphemistically as "copyright infringement."
Copyright infringement is not distinct from theft. It's not a separate thing from theft. It's a type of theft.
Many people on this board think that copyright infringement and theft are not only different in a legal context but also from a moral perspective.
They're wrong. Next!
Now don't be a clueless dick and accept that in order to discuss this matter, it is necessary to have different words for different activities.
Let's look at it this way. A fuji is a type of apple. It's a breed, a variety. A grannysmith is another type of apple. You're arguing that fujis and grannysmiths aren't the same thing. You're arguing that fujis are not actually apples, and calling a fuji an apple is "obnoxious."
Sounds pretty fucking stupid when I put it in those terms, doesn't it?
And we all know how 100% truthful poll results are. No chance of those being manipulated, no way. Tell me, were you personally contacted to participate in that poll?
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: "The Lincoln Encyclopedia", Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
The law distinguishes between theft and copyright infringement. You're pulling a "common sense" definition out of your ass to prove that one is a special case of the other. Well, around here common sense is closer to what the law says: that copyright and ownership are disjunctive. I suggest you come up with a common sense term which differentiates what we call theft from what we call copyright infringement, because we're talking about precisely that difference and if you want to talk about why that difference shouldn't matter, then you better start using language that allows you to talk about it, because the difference is not going to go away just because you don't have a word for it.
When Napster was shut down, they had approximately 57 million users. George W. Bush received approximately 50 million votes in the popular election. Sounds like critical mass to me.
when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
The music and entertainment industry for years has overcharged consumers and exploited all but the most successful artists. I agree that in principle, the entertainment companies do have some rights, but they constantly seek to take away fair use rights of consumers. It is the consumers who have the power, not them. Just remember that just because something is a law, doesnt mean that it is morally right. We try in society to match laws to moral principles, but when the public sees the greed and avarice of the Industry, they figure, well when in Rome... Im not saying two wrongs make a right, but if the industry showed more respect throughout the years to the buying public, maybe we wouldnt be in this situation. Also consider too maybe the definition of Intellectual property itself is up for grabs? I agree that if no one bought anything, in principle, no one could sell such goods to make a profit. This same industry which glorifies violence, promiscuous sex, nihilism and the concept that there is no higher value than whetever one desires is now reaping the harvest of their own marketing disaster. Wanna know why kids think its ok to steal thousands of mp3's and laugh about it? Because they can easily imagine their favorite rap artist or movie star in a movie or music video doing the same thing, and laughing about it. I think Hollywood and the entire industry needs to step up and take responsibility for what THEY'VE done over the past 40 years. THEY are responsible for destroying the moral fabric of society and promoting lawlessness. The industry plays a huge role in the shaping of society. From the Roman Empire onwards, it was the Catholic Church that supplied this same moral guidance, now it is the entertainment industry that's become the new Church. Hollywood thinks they're only in it for the profit, and the art of making media, but they inherited a whole lot more than they realized.
People ultimately become what the media tells them they should be. If we've become a society of petty thieves, then its the media industry's own damn fault! You reap what you sow, you reap what you sow. Just remember next time when you see someone on Kazaa downloading warez, they're only acting immoral, hedonistic and greedy like they've been taught to be so their entire lives.
The purpose of the law is not to get convictions, but to have the threat there so that the MPAA/RIAA can bully individuals.
Fight Spammers!
Singled out or not, it's really, really hard to make a radar say that you're driving 73 MPH when you're actually driving 46. There's an easy way to avoid this problem.
2) You should be able to have it because the GOVERNMENT does NOT own the road (taxpayers do) and they certainly don't own your car. They also do not have the right without warrant (probable cause) to interfere with or search your car. (Just because a police officer isn't searching your car, rather an electronic "detector", it is STILL an illegal search.
If you can find even one active statute or court ruling to support your claim here, I'll be extremely impressed.
It's not a search. There's a doctrine in US Constitutional Law called "plain view." That doctrine says that an officer is entitled to take enforcement action based upon any evidence which is in his plain view. Plain view means that he can see it from a place where he has a legal right to be, such as the shoulder of a public road.
And the Fourth Amendment doesn't ban "unwarranted" search. It bans "UNREASONABLE" searches. Exigent circumstances can overcome the warrant requirement, under certain conditions.
Oh, and it's not a search unless your "reasonable expectation of privacy" was invaded. In a moving motor vehicle on a public road, you have very little such expectation.
Besides, we haven't needed to ban radar detectors here in Colorado. I don't write speeding/careless off of radar anyway. Too much paperwork. A good stopwatch or pace is unbeatable in court anyway.
Many Slashbots just refuse to understand it because it invalidates their worldviews.
By downloading their product, you deprive them of a potential sale. If you don't buy it, yet you obtained the product anyway, you stole the money they are owed by depriving it from them. You owe them a sale and are not paying up. You diminish the value of the work.
It's incredibly simple. But so many Slashbots refuse to see it because they are obsessively stuck on the fact that making a copy isn't the same as physically stealing. Which, as we all know, isn't even the point.
"Sufferin' succotash."
1) If you are going faster then the little rectangular white signs with black letters on them you are breaking the law.
2) The goverment is made up of the people. If they people own the road, the goverment owns the road. The radar beam is not searching your car, it is bouncing off the outside of it.
3) You can get emergency alert devices that do not have radar detectors built in.
That is SOME expert ! does this "expert" know than more than 1/2 of the world population hasn't ever seen/used a telephone ? Picture that for a sec.
PLEASE ! what could such a person care about what the MPAA does or says he never saw any movie and he never will.
Let's keep american legislature focused on its impact on the american people, and those countries that seem to follow suit in this laws (uk,autralia)
I'll just go back to books, if they make those hard to get in paper form, I'll write my own and put them under the gnu license.
I could really care less if they make my tivo illegal, I haven't bought an hdtv due to hdcp, and likely won't ever, same with their "special" pvr or a series 2 tivo for that matter. I might go back to hardware hacking, I enjoyed that more than watching their programs anyhow.
If they don't want me to record and store for future enjoyment don't send it to me! I haven't read too much on itunes, but that actually "seems" like a pretty decent deal.
A new punishment announced for movie pirates:
:(
We will take your first born child
I should be saying: "Happy to be living in canada" but I unfortunately don't have the pleasure
"Guns don't kill people, bullets do."
Thanks for the reminder. Kept putting that off. Just signed up now. Proud premium EFF member.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
You can have my Tivo when you take it from my cold, dead hands. Tivo owners are as fanatic about their product as Mac users and we see how well attacks, spin, and rumors have worked against Apple. As Mark Twain said, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
If this was proposed in my state, I would fight it vigorously with mail, email, phone calls and visits to my state legislators, and attempt to organize others.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
According to one expert, the bills are 'tremendously open-ended and create theoretical and potential criminal liabilities for just about anybody on the planet
This may come as a tremendous surprise to lawyers and Americans, but the majority of people on this planet don't get cable and don't have VCRs.
In fact, I would say that the US would be a whole lot better off if fewer people had cable and if fewer people watched junk like Disney, Fox, or CNN.
According to one expert, the bills are 'tremendously open-ended and create theoretical and potential criminal liabilities for just about anybody on the planet.'" ...but only if you're in the USA. Has nobody yet got it through their heads that the rest of the world is not bound by the laws and statutes of the USA? MPAA and RIAA are toothless outside of the US.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
"To believe that the majority of Americans do not support the current administration is foolhardy." That's what the PATRIOT act is all about. Disagree and you're labelled unpatriotic and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
You may not want to buy a movie for $20 today, but might be willing to wait a year and buy it for $2 in the bargain bin.
What if the owner of copyright in the motion picture is not willing to sell me one copy for any price less than $20 billion, the value of the company?
Will I retire or break 10K?
In any event, you're falling for the old "you must justify this behavior" fallacy. In a free state, I shouldn't have to justify to a cop anything I do, it is up to The Powers That Be to convince me (or a jury of my peers) why I shouldn't be allowed to do it. Ignoring this wisdom has lead to such wonderful legislation as Prohibition, the War on Drugs, and anti-sodomy laws that end up telling married couples how they may have sex.
Dyolf Knip
I guess you know you calibrate one with a tuning fork.
The displacement of the tines when struck cause the microwaves ( at around 10GHz ) to exhibit the same doppler shift as, say, a car passing at 60 MPH.
Well, say, you have a car with a plastic grille, and you have metal fan blades spinning. Whose to say that the blades may have been in perfect view of the beam? The stealth aircraft relies on shaping the surfaces such that radar beams do not reflect properly. Whose to say that the frame of the car, at the instant of taking the reading, emitted the reflection recorded, or if the fan blades did?
One more note... the radar detectors I have seen mostly worked in the 10 GHz region and acted as somewhat of a "spectrum analyser"; that is they were continuously scanning the spectrum around 10GHz and looking for any strong carrier. The 10 GHz is usually generated by a solid-state "gunn" diode. Very low power. Microwave ovens are at 2.45 GHz. Generated via Magnetron vacuum tube by a technique strongly reminescent of how an air whistle works.. that is a whistle works by air streams at high velocity across resonant cavities, a magnetron tube works by electron streams, confined by a magnetic field, passing by resonant cavities. Water absorbs strongly at 2.45 GHz, and the cavities are a convienent size. Anyone have comment on whether 2.45 GHz is in use for traffic radar?
Incidentally, you can find 10GHz handheld oscillators for use in tripping off automotive radar detectors. I guess they could be useful in reminding speeders to obey the 70MPh limits when one passes you at 90+...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Ugh, what an asshole!
No, THE GOVERNMENT is The GOVERNMENT - your analogy says we are under Marshall law. The police control the people they are NOT the taxpayer (eventhough they pay taxes) Also, most government officials either get out of tickets or get favors or don't get them at all.
Further, I would disagree with your assumptions. NO REASONABLE eye or even assisted eye (binoculars) can see the average radar detector. Mine is UNDER MY HOOD! They are using a device that SEARCHES YOUR CAR for a radar detector.
Sure you can get other devices, but are you saying NO ONE gets a radar detector for this reason? Please be considerate that not everyone goes the speed limit like you do. It's the same as Mp3's - a lot consider ANY download of a song illegal. I don't consider staying within a REASONABLE range of the speed limit breaking the law. The law is ONLY being broken if you are being a reckless driver. You have the right to be a driver, you do NOT have the right to be a reckless driver.
It is important to remember here that most states imposed term limits on their legislatures in the 1990s. While term limits didn't fly at the Congressional level, they did stick and have been a significant change for many states.
Limits are not the sole cause of the ease with which special interests can slide stuff through, but it's a big help. A large proportion of legislators are always new, many of their staff are new. They haven't had a chance to learn much about policy issues yet. Add to that the fact that they don't have many staff in the first place, and that in many states the legislators are part-time, and the net result is they simply *have* to rely on the expertise of lobbyists or nothing would get done.
A friend interned for a state rep a while back (before term limits, even), and was amazed at what percentage of legislation is essentially written by lobbyists.
On the other hand, sometimes "ignorant" != "corrupt". If they get some information and encouragement from opposing groups, many legislators won't just rubber stamp the industry proposal (though many will). A hearing here in MA went about like the one in TN, for example.
Lesson 1: Helping the EFF hire more staff to do more research and talk to more legislators really can make a difference, even if we can't match industry dollar for dollar.
Lesson 2: Writing letters and attending hearings can make a difference.
By downloading their product, you deprive them of a potential sale.
And by refusing to offer the product for sale, the copyright owner admits that there is no market for the product, possibly triggering a safety valve deep within the fair use law that considers "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hmm... I'm hoping you're not a US citizen, because if you are -- you really slept through civics, didn't you?
No, I'm not. I heard that he got re-elected, and I looked around a little bit to check. One article I read said that Bush gained more power in the 2002 election, so I assumed that it was him who actually faced election, not just Congress.
Oh, well. At least I got some karma for my embarrassment.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Sadly true..
/.'s beginning to buy small jut's in Montana...And getting into
Hell, I wouldent dream of going to the States to visit my firends, its just wayyy to scary for me !
I'd like to see some of the
the whole "Ted K" thing ASAP.
Hurry before it's to late..
You might be a little confused about the creative financing studios use today. In return for 100% financing a studio will relinquish all non-USA rights to a domestic or foreign consortium. That's why a growing number of films are made in foreign locations with a totally USA cast and distributed here (in the US) by a local studio.
Its just that theres nothing wrong with the 1969 version :)
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
The problem is, will voters even realize the root cause? Take the following scenario for example: Mom has Tivo; it works fine, until one day it stops working. Mom says, "Stupid technology -- damn thing don't work." She goes to Best Buy. The Best Buy rep tells her that she needs to buy [insert name of MPAA approved PVR] -- because it "works much better than Tivo". Mom buys MPAA approved product, it works, and she's suddenly happy. She now loves Big Brother, despite the fact that Big Brother was the one who made the problems for her in the first place.
"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." -- Ayn Rand
I'm gonna turn the tables a bit, and appeal for the rest of the world to get off /your/ asses and start a coordinated trade embargo. If you don't like Bush, don't sell him oil. Once the price of gas goes way up, opposition parties in this country will slaughter him at the polls in '04. It may already be too late, though, now he's got his own oil well in the Middle East.
WRONG WRONG WRONG!
When you pay the Levy, you are LEGALLY given the right to make a copy of any audiocd you like.
Ottawa has just, on your behalf, effectively REDUCED the price of AudioCDs (all of them) to Less than $2 making Legal-CD-Audio the cheaper than ANYWHERE else on the planet.
For instance - your buddy buys a copy of the New %Your-Desired-Audio-CD-from-local-retailer% you can take that CD home and MAKE A CD COPY FOR YOURSELF LEGALLY , return the CD to your friend, and Voila(!) you just got a legal copy for less than $2.
For everyone who is decrying the levy, they are missing the point -- Ottawa has just dealt a death-blow to the CD-has-value paradigm that we hate (levereging CDR-drives to remove the 'value-add' from producers) and people whine about the levy?!?
Really, tell your friends and have a "bring your discs and go copy-crazy party" at the local library!
From this page:
To emphasize this point, endnote 4 of an early Copyright Board ruling says:
Section 80 does not legalize (a) copies made for the use of someone other than the person making the copy; and (b) copies of anything else than sound recordings of musical works.It does legalize making a personal copy of a recording owned by someone else.
--long time ago I was in the UAW, before the japanese car invasion. I would argue endlessly with the other guys around the plant that we needed to watch out on this stuff, that we were making seriously good money now and if we didn't watch it we would get hammered by imports. I actually wanted a wage freeze, which of course was utterly ridiculous to everyone else. I was told I was nuts, "no one will ever buy those things". It was simple math and extrapolation to me, when raises were more than the minimum wage, and every time a new contract came around, with no vast increases in productivity and the costs of cars rising, I could see it was unsustainable and would cripple the industry eventually. It was just easy to see. Cars as a percentage of gross average yearly income are very expensive now, they used to be not that costly. What is it up to now, 60 months on a car loan? I think it was only 12 back then, something like that. Anyway, extremely easy to see where it started to go wrong, easy to see back then, too, greed, everyone and their cousin leroy is greedy. it's really that simple. .. yet you saw not much in the way of the learned pundits or the union bosses or corporate management admitting to it or acknowledging it back then. They were at the headwaters of the river de-nial. Most people still are. Everyone piucks numbers out of their nether regions to claim what they are "worth". that might last for awhile,but it SURE isn't going to last when the major political forces just dump the planet wide open. you just are NOT going to "compete" with second and third world nations without BECOMING a second or third world nation. the US IS going to become a second world nation, and soon too, IMO. I am as completely sure of this as I was the japanese grabbing a major slice of the car market in the US, and I thibnk the total economic ramifications will be much worse than that example. Much, much worse, you are seeing the openings of it now in fact. People are enjoying the last of the economic "good old days" in this nation. Job loss, prices rising, pensions and retirements busted, stagflation, government spending just absurd, stock market still a complete sham, yada yada yada. gonna get really ugly. All because of universal *greed* top to bottom, and treating credit as accumulated wealth, whern those are two separate things..
I really have not much use for either the managers/bosses in the various companies or the stewards and hierarchy in the unions, both crook-class goons as far as I am concerned. Both are sellouts and uber greedy and just *bad* when it comes to over-all economics. I tell you I could NOT find one person to agree with me back then. So ya, I'll agree it is *somewhat* the unions fault, but it's also the fault of so called "free trade" that doesn't use a quid pro quo excise tax system with other nations, and that allows "dumping" and tax breaks for moving industries off shore. I'd say unions/management/political foreign policy (basically whichever bribes are the biggest) are equal shares in the job loss market for blue collars in the rust belt. It's now hitting a variety of white and pink collar jobs and I am AMAZED that so many just couldn't see it coming. Like, where was it hidden? It's been blatant and open for years and years now, how could anyone not see the loss of jobs when you move industries overseas and lose customers for those same industries? A major middle class job loss is a major middle class consumer lost as well. It is completely equal. In fact it's worse,if you look at it deeper, because the dollars don't get re spent around the more local economy. Now, along with moving jobs offshore, they also allow in just completely unrealistic numbers of illegal aliens to work, just far and beyond any rational numbers, completely violating the laws. All right when we had vast amounts of free land and just beginning serious industry, now that that isn't true it needs serious controls. When it was just crass stoop labor, no one cared, now it's in all the skilled trades, serious mi
--anything you can do for cash is good, yardsales etc. Tell you something else, this time of year, put in that garden if you haven't done so. Garden saved my sanity and wallet last year, this year it's bigger. I made about squat last month, so low I am medium embarrassed to even quote a figure, it's beyond ridiculous, and no unemployment checks or anything. I still like to *eat* though, I always have had a very extensive pantry and a garden, it just makes sense, costs little to do, and is a direct way to pay yourself in something vital, no "cash" action absolutely needed if you have the piece of dirt to use.
Ya, it's hard to start over, in some cases almost impossible and is a real soul killer depending on your age I guess. Done it several times already, I am not *totally* discouraged, but I will say I am beyond annoyed now. Well beyond it. Don't know about a life of crime, but seeing some ceos and politicians hanging from tress would not terribly upset me at this point. I know they'd just get replaced with similar goons, so oh well....
Here, just working towards a smaller little place we can own outright. Looked last friday at yet again another terribly over priced piece of land, well, seems over priced. I think these property prices will drop soon though, as the economy kicks more and more people hard, they were grossly inflated over the last few years it appears. Once we find one, that's it, paid off as soon as possible, small organic farm action, then sell used widgets on the side and that's it, going to be content with the sheer basics from here on out, I don't see the US economy as lasting much longer, it is just SO skewed towards unrealistic expectations based on greed and insanity that to me it's almost indescribale. I don't know how people think an economy that consists of mostly managers, sales people,middle man skimmers, the entertainment industry and government workers is supposed to remain viable forever. What true industry we have left is only being sustained by the short term profits of yet again moving them off shore, or importing third world workers. There IS going to be a mass tipping over point and a huge snowball effect. I think we are *this close* to it happening.
I try to not inject my personal life when I look at and write on macro policies and effects and events, but being "downsized" several times, it forces you to just LOOK at the over all position, and what I see is that I am just lucky enough to see it coming because it already hit me. People who it hasn't happened to yet are still in denial. Same exact people who thought their stocks at a totally ridiculous profits and earnings ratio were "real", those people. Just can't see it coming, and what's worse, don't WANT to see it so don't look hard enough.
Here's a nice doomer url for you, another economic article:
Mayday, Mayday,Mayday
Rep. Briley is putting his own (cover-his-ass) spin on things. He's the sponsor, he's spoken with the TN Cable industry's lobbyist (Ann Carr, I believe) who brought in Geoffrey Beauchamp (pronounced Jeffrey Beecham) who is the apparent author of the bill and is traceable to MPAA. (you do the tracing (Google works just fine for this type of search), it's pretty interesting to see the guy has no qualms about saying different things to different audiences)
"They" are saying that what all of us (tndigitalfreedom.org related/sympathetic people) say the bill says is "not what the bill is *intended* to do".
The Senate Sponsor (Sen. Person) baldly admitted to a group of 5 of us that he doesn't understand technology (and doesn't appear very interested in understanding technology, to me) but he's "been doing this for 35 [or was it 37?] years" and he's going to push it though unless we (tndigitalfreedom type people) sit down and in a 2 hour meeting with Beauchamp and Carr square it with how we'd like to see it re-written or at least show some flexibility.
The legislators' defense seems to be that the TN legislature is a "part-time" position paying US$16,500/yr so they have to hold their day-job as well as travel to Nashville four days a week.
Some Senators and Representatives are younger or listen to their teenaged kids better. They seem to be more receptive because they haven't been "on the [lobbyists] dole" too long, yet. So, are term limits bad or not? You be the judge. I used to think limits were unopposably bad, now I'm very not sure.
Tennessee Digital Freedom Network
Your complaints about being offended offend me.
Hi, my name is Ben Affleck. I want to make you aware of a very serious crime: Film piracy. You see, some very naughty people think that it is okay to copy movies; sometimes they just want to watch them again and again, sometimes they want to make copies to sell, and sometimes they even post them on that naughty medium, the Internet, for other people to view for FREE.
Doing so can have very serious consequences to those involved in Motion Picture productions. For example, let's say I make $1 million to make a film. I know that's not much, but it's a good round figure. Now that $1 million is a mere fraction of the overall production cost of a film, and must be made up by sales of the movie. Let's say the movie's budget is $10 million, and that they only make $100 million at the theater, and $20 million in DVD sales. But the projected ticket sales were $120 million, and the projected DVD sales were $50 million.
What happened to that other $50 million? Piracy. Piracy robbed the movie of $30 million (plus $20 million of my back-end; but i'm not a big star, so i won't complain), which can affect REAL people. Someone somewhere is going to end up having to ditch their Starbuck's and resort to a paltry cup of Maxwell House because pirates illegally copied the movie. Some investor somewhere may have to hold off construction of their lagoon-like pool in the hills until they make a more sound investment! And, rest assured, it will be a hot summer.
Do you understand? It could be the difference between a Hilfiger sweatsuit and some kind of cheap Target-brand replica! It could lead to the ruination of Hollywood.
[Starts weeping.] I... I can't go on... plleeeeeasse stop the piracy.
... the biggest threat to the food supply is government weather manipulation and international food monopolist GM seeds that cause it so you can't save your own seeds, IMO. We *could* feed ourselves without massive quantities of petroleum products but it would be super rough for several years during a transition period, our entire ag biz is just not set up that way, nor are the people setup in any way to do that, because it's labor intensive. If something happned, I think millions would perish the first few years, inevitable. Just can't see the millions in the cities being able to cope. I remember my older relatives telling me about the great depression, how rough it was then, and we still had 40% or so of the population still living on farms. Now it's less than 2% or something like that. Any major economic crach/depression now will approach *hellish* levels.
I don't have a stock portfolio but I have several years of stored food, and a garden and a large seed supply, just worried that local faked out farmers will plant terminator or some such seeds and make mine unviable. So, I learned a lot of wild plants as well, well, did that since I was growing up actually. I could take care of myself and girlfriend quite easily back in the sticks here, but it wouldn't be comfortable like now, but livable.
As to guns and knowing how to use them, we'll give that a double "yep", I hear ya man. Might come to that what with what is going down all over. I don't know on that, but I am expecting the globalists to push for a world government and total control, once the various global wolf packs sort out who is going to be the top dog.
Ya, wealth is the "stuff" that is produced, it is either grown, mined, or manufactired from what is grown or mined. people just forget that constantly, and get credit digits confused with "wealth". Not my call, lucky enough to be born when real money was in the pocket and a nation was wealthy by what it made, not what it scammed and skimmed. Now....I dunno, sure seems unsustainable though, I can't see the rest of the planet subsisidising the US and using our funny money "petrodollars" once they no longer need our markets. What's in it for them then? Nothing. zilch, just costs them, they gain zero. It's become cliched, but the US is everyday resembling Imperial Rome as much as any other historical example you might look at.