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Copyright Trolls Rightscorp Are Teetering On The Verge Of Bankruptcy (arstechnica.com)
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Rightscorp, the copyright trolls whose business model was convincing ISPs to freeze their customers' Internet access in response to unsubstantiated copyright accusations, and then ransom those connections back for $20 each, will be out of money by the end of this quarter. Despite a massive courtroom win against Cox Cable in 2015 (and a counterbalancing gigantic fine for its robocalls), the company couldn't win a technology cat-and-mouse game against its prey -- the wily file-sharers who switched to VPNs and other anonymizing technologies. For the moment, the company is teetering on the brink of financial collapse. It raised $500,000 on February 22, the company reported, but it needs another $1 million to stay afloat. It has only enough cash on hand to continue "into the second quarter of 2016," according to the company's latest financial report.
No, I don't think I have a violin small enough for this.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
And nothing of value was lost.
Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
I'm sure part of that is trackers adding random ip's to the peer list.
Afaik they aren't verifying data is actually available.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
I live in downtown Seattle and don't have DSL available so I use ISDN. I wasn't even connected at the time when CenturyLink sent a DMCA from CEG TEK. They know it since they bill per minute. Telco billing is well known for being very accurate.
Too many secrets
Party at my place when they finally go under. :)
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
*downloads the Simpsons from KAT*
*Plays loops of Nelson saying "HA HA" to them via robocall.*
Is this the case that Seattle, of all places, has Internet connections straight out of the 1990s? Christ, the ISP I was working at in the dark ages switched from ISDN to a T1 back around 1999, and I'm a few hundred miles north in BC.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Isdn is still around? How about frame relay, do people still use that?
"And, try programming without access to stackoverflow."
You mean, you didn't learn how to program on a single non-connected machine?
No wonder today's programmers are fucking useless. Plus, ISDN? Get a cable modem and VOIP.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Are their cellphone Towers?
I'd think for reference, a tablet, or tethered phone with unlimited data would be fine.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Seattle.
True. It keeps getting doled out at extortionate prices every time there's a drought. Holding your breath gets you higher than smoking that ditch filler does.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
You mean, you didn't learn how to program on a single non-connected machine?
I did. But I am still at least 3 times as productive with access to Stackoverflow and online API docs. When the internet is down, I go for a run, or go out for lunch. Anything but trying to code.
Christ, the ISP I was working at in the dark ages switched from ISDN to a T1 back around 1999, and I'm a few hundred miles north in BC.
My company got a T1 in 1993. I didn't even know that ISDN still existed.
In the good old days when I was a lad working with IBM mainframes (ok they weren't good but they were old) there was this crazy idea that error messages were documented with reasons why they occur. In this brave new world this is too much trouble and you either have to spend hours to days figuring out what some cryptic phrase means or you can Google it and see if someone else has had the problem. I'm guessing you either get as much time as you need on your projects or else have been working on the same technology for a long time.
Because that's the only thing that makes sense with their underhanded practices. Anyone with half a clue would never put his money or personal affects behind something like that, because these scammers are basically setting themselves up for a huge lawsuit. What they do is fling poop and see what sticks and how far they can take it before they get slapped left and right. And surprisingly enough, so far there has been rather little slapping.
I fully expect this to be some kind of test balloon, with the rights holder themselves surprised it stayed afloat this long. The idea was to create a shell that goes about and violates any and all limitations of copyright law to see what can be done before someone cries bloody murder. Once the company gets countersued and there is a judge with enough sanity left to actually dock them the fine they deserve, the shell goes 'poof' and the next one emerges.
That's likely also why nobody ever bothered to drag them to court over their practices, knowing that it is futile, even if you win you'll be left with the expenses and nothing to compensate it. That shell has no money whatsoever. Never had, never will. Any money they actually make (aside of the 20 bucks pebbles) will instantly leave that husk.
Such constructs are very useful when you want to ignore laws, to say the least...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The ISDN equivalent of a T1 is called an E1 or a PRI (Prime Rate Interface) connection. It spurs 30 B channels and one D channel at 64 kbit/s each.
I accept the possibility that they are performing an important service, protecting IP rights, but the manner in which they have done so is appalling; stomping on rights and IPs.
Let's get together and finish pushing them over that cliff...
That's why upgrade projects exist, to upgrade. It's also why the telecoms were given billions to upgrade their networks by the government, instead we got the telecom fueled tech bubble. Take a look around, very few telecoms left, their profits have plummeted (the giveaways ended) But wow were times good in the 90s, and we got very little for the billions invested.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
The thing is the patents and copyrights these companies hold don't go away when the company dies. Like Bilbo's ring these things just go to the next person that finds them irresistible and the cycle starts over. Even if some large company, say microsoft, scoops them up in the name of protecting themselves, eventually it becomes a cudgel again.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Which is why I'm getting paid $50/hr for global consultation work right now, also own several mines, and more!
Keep being jealous.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
" You need to know how to research anytime you are dealing with something new."
Funny you say that when, lo and behold, I've been a research director.
You seem to know nothing about me. Try again when you actually do. I consult on everything from programming (when I'm not making my own game) to mining (when I'm not working the four mines I own) to horticultural consultation (when I'm not growing the best medicinal cannabis in SoCal) to remote development (again, when I'm not programming my own game.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
In the US most ISDN service was terminated to an PRI T1. That hooked into a modem bank that would answer both ISDN and 56K calls. By that point the ISDN modems where smart enough to be able to use both 64K channels as a pair bond. It would utilize two modems at the NOC.
It was also pretty common for us to order channelized T1s for 56K applications. You could get one extra modem per T1, but we would lose the ability to get real time ANI data and ISDN.
Eventually we started having the NOC/POPs configured with a T3 and them demux it into a variety of T1s and fractional T3. For instance for a mid size POP we could have a single T3 handle both the incoming phones and the upstream data. I.e. We wanted to drop a crap ton of modems into the back room of a rural shopping mall because that was the most cost effective location based on LATA lines and what was considered the "local calling area".
A lot of the times people would claim MSN or AOL or whatever was the best service. In reality in most parts of the US all the main national services would terminate to the same place and run on the same equipment. We'd just route it differently based on the number you called.
...some lawyers say gifts of copyrights to the public domain aren't valid in the US...
Yes, lawyers certainly do have like to have fun with the words "yours" and "ours". Isn't it great how words mean whatever we want, whenever we want?
vegetarian, gluten-free dick
Cucumber? Or is it a banana? Does it depend whether you're posting instagram pictures in China?
I haven't, I was (erroneously) assuming that since Seattle is a city, it'd have similar amenities to the more remote areas where I live.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Which incidentally, no one is being forced to live in Seattle, there are other places on this planet where people can program for a living.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
He was responding to APK, it can be forgiven that Khyber calls him such names, as he is a very difficult person stuck in his incorrect beliefs.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Early adopter? I think you have failed in your understanding of that term.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
And, try programming without access to stackoverflow.
That would be like... programming.
Tore me apart? You have YET to actually prove me wrong on anything. What is your malfunction? What makes you think you ever are right when everyone around you comments about how wrong you always are?
You will notice, in that link you kindly provide that not a single one of your points actually hit home. I have refuted every one of them, and you have yet to actually come up with a single issue with something I have said. Keep tilting at those windmills Quixote.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?