I honestly have no idea who to report them to, but I do know it i is illegal to require a SS number under many circumstances. The rules get continually laxer, which is probably the 'used to be illegal' you heard about, and now places like colleges and whatnot may be allowed to get them.
However, utilities are certainly not included under the new lax rules, utilities actually have more restrictions about what information they can require, because they are usually monopolies, so even if normal businesses were allowed to require it, which they are not, utilities probably wouldn't anyway.
But, no, it's a myth, normal businesses can't require SSNs. The rule of thumb is usually that anyone involved in money can, and the rest cannot. There are exceptions in both directions, but the default is still that J. Random Company cannot require it.
As for reporting it...um...check out the FTC's web site and see if you can find something. ATTBI should be controlled by the FCC, but I don't think you'll be able to get any information from them, they don't really deal with the public.
I don't think you're exactly right. While including code in a GPL program makes it GPL, writing a program to upload firmware to a device and GPLing the program doesn't make the firmware GPL, anymore than running my latest Great American Novel though 'cat' makes my novel GPL.
Or, to use an actual example, Glade is a GPL program that produces program frameworks that are not GPL. And gcc builds non-GPL works also, even though part of the 'compiler' ends up in the program.The mere output of a work by a GPL program doesn't make it GPL.
In fact, I think there was a specific example of this somewhere that RMS commented on. It is okay to include non-GPL code in a GPL program if the code is not part of the program and merely part of the output.
(This is, of course, ignoring the fact that uploading a driver isn't really 'output' in any meaningful sense.)
You're just have to clearly distinguise between the GPL code and the firmware, which should be easy...the GPL is C source code, and the firmware is a random machine language.
Of course, like I said, all this could be avoided by specifying the firmware file at run time. It's clearly not part of the program if you do that.
Nothing would stop them from still having patented or copyrighted firmware in their drivers. The output of a GPL program is not GPL. It's perfectly possibly to license the firmware under a different licence. Merely including non-GPL text to be output from a GPL program doesn't make the program non-GPL.
Of course, the firmware should actually be in a different file that's not even part of the module, with as restrictive a license as you want, but whatever.
That is completely idiotic. If everyone is using the phone company for internet access, how would the phone company go out of business?
If everyone switched to VoIP, they'd just be using one phone connection, either DSL or analog modem, instead of two...which the phone company managed to survive on for decades. They may not like everyone switching back to one phone line, but I fail to see how it will kill them.
VoIP affects long distance companies, not local companies. Local companies provide the last mile just fine. And long distance companies can just up and die, as far as I care. If they want to run the fiber, they can run the fiber, but that's all we need them for.
Frankly, it's a much saner business model, everyone selling bandwidth to each other, instead of the wackass 'long distance' charges we pay to half a dozen different parties that don't have anything to do with the actual wires.
While it's possible that electors could be picked at random, saying the framers of the constitution didn't plan for the possiblity of direct vote is a bit wacky, as that's pretty much what everyone did from the very start.
People think you're kidding, but you're not. My brother's Toyota was 'stolen' by someone who got in the wrong locked car one night and drove it across campus. (Toyotas have one key for the door and ignition.) Same color, same year, same model...same key. In the light of day, they both reported their cars missing.
Of course, almost any car can be unlocked by a slim jim anyway, so it's not worth worrying about. If you want your car to not be stolen, you need either to disable it (What I do.), or put a lowjack in it.
It's usually not that hard to kept your car from running. If someone tries to steal my car, they'll find the ignition can be hotwired like normal, but for some odd reason it won't shift out of park...and no, I won't tell you why that is.
I was just checking that he wasn't talking about some new weird-ass cut.
The slit down the side is less messy than the old style if you eat it sideways, or at least at an angle.
There wasn't any way to hold the old style with one hand and eat it, either, which is pretty easy with the new style. In fact, that's about the only way to eat it, two handed is just pointless, unless it's two hands in a row.
And I put a lot of stuff on it, too, it's not just meat, of which my perfered sandwich, the BMT, has a lot of. Onions, lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes...
You must have a different cut than I do. At the local Subways, they cut a slice down the side, basically making it like a normal, 'cut in half' sandwich, except that one edge remains intact.
Actually, the expectation is that people can enter houses, or in fact any private property, unless specifically forbidden to.
Now, doors and fences with closed but easy to open gates are pretty much implying that you can't enter. But if your door is standing wide open, yeah, they can legally walk in unless you've got a 'No trespassing' sign up or they have been specifically banned from the propetry.
Trespassing isn't being on someone's land without permission, as many people seem to think. After all, if that was trespassing, all solictors would automatically be trespassing...as would someone walking up to your door asking for permission to be on your land!
Trespassing is being on someone's land against their wishes, which have to have been communicated to you, whether though 'no solicting' signs or yelling 'get off my land' or though locked doors. (unlocked doors being a gray area) If you want to be legally sure they're trespassing, you can 'post' your property with signs at legal intervals, or just put up a fence.
Reuters almost certainly used a substantial part of the information, and therefore required permission.
Information cannot be copyrighted. The fact that a company made X amount of dollars last year is not copyrightable.
And Reuters summerized the rest of the report.
Copyrights cannot protect facts, it can only protect expressions. There's nothing stopping someone from doing an exact scene by scene descrption of a movie, including summerizing what was said.
It would have been faster if you'd just threatened to report them. It is illegal to require an SSN except in certain instances. Your employer, your bank, in fact pretty much anything to do with your money, can get it...but the rest cannot require it, at least in the US. (And I doubt you'd have to worry about business outside the US requiring a SSN.)
Of course, who is allowed to require it keeps growing, but utilities are not, as far as I know, included. (After all, it's not like they'd ever have to track you down...they presumable know where you live.)
In fact, it's hard to see how software on your computer would know the MAC address of the other side of the cable modem anyway, unless there's some special cable modem communication protocol I'm unaware of.
The only real mystery is why Serenity doesn't have at least one hull-mounted machine gun.
That one's obvious...they're illegal.
At least that's the assumption I've been operating under.
While I doubt the Alliance is as evil as the characters presented in the show want to make it out to be (Come on, this is Joss we're talking about.), I seriously doubt they'd let just anyone have hull mounted weapons.
And the Serenity isn't outlaw enough to just do whatever she wants.
The great thing about Stargate is even when they do the cliche sci-fi episodes, they make them funny.
That episode is a 'time loop' episode...not only do they play golf though the stargate, but at one point Jack starts tossing some balls...then cuts to the next day...Jack and Teal'k are both tossing balls up in the air...cut again, and they're juggling perfectly. It's absolutely hilarious.
That episode is one of the all time best...the plot is, basically, that they need to learn an alien language to figure out how to stop the time loop Jack and Teal'k (Actually, the entire planet, and a few other planets are caught in a screwed up time travel experiment, but only Jack, Teal'k, and one other guy know it.) are caught in...but Daniel can't deciper an entire language in the eight hours or so the time loop is over...so Jack and Teal'k have to learn it. Which learns to a great scene where Jack corrects Daniel on some obscure alien language point.
And the straight forward time travel cliche episode was funny, too. it's called '1969', and that should give you some clue as to why it's funny.
Actually, the best thing would be to compile to wine, and then have a Linux binary and a Windows binary, with the Linux binary (statically?) linked to winelib.
Of course, that's just silly, you really should just write to GTK or something cross platform in the first place.
The point about freely downloadable software is interesting...but note it would only apply to agreements entered into before you download software. Once you download it, you have a legal copy of the software, and they can't make you retroactively enter into a contract any more than purchased software can...you are explictedly given the right under copyright law to install and run all copies of software you possess legally. The installer doesn't have to let you past, but you can just grab a minor to 'agree' to the contract if you're that worried.
And, frankly, I find the idea of you, an anonymous downloader, agreeing to a 'contract' with a web site, rather insane. I think one of the barest minimun requirements of a contract is that the two parties know who the hell the other is. What if one of the parties is a minor, or, hell, a computer program? What if one of the parties is not in the US? If they can write the contract though strings of text sent to your computer, can't you modify it by sending text back in the HTTP headers? You can't do blind contracts like that, the whole concept is completely contradictory to contract law.
Much less not have any witnesses, only an eletronic and tamperable recording that first someone was at one web page, then at another, and they must have pushed 'I agree' on the first page to get taken to the second. That would get laughed out of court in a second if the courts weren't so corrupt.
It would be akin to taking a picture of someone standing in a room, then standing in another room, and then showing the picture of the doorway that says they agree to a contract. I'm sorry, but that would never work for a house purchase, and it won't work for EULAs.
You can't prove what you say was on the screen was on the screen, you can't prove the person clicked okay, you can't prove it was that person and not someone else, you can't prove they got the software from you and not someone else who used the doctorine of first sale to 'sale' his single copy to you (Which has an interesting effect for free software...just have a single person sit there and agree to all the horrible stuff hundreds of time, then legal give each single copy of the software out to a single person. Completely legal to transfer ownership like that.), you can't prove a damned thing about this 'contract' having any basis in reality.
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However, utilities are certainly not included under the new lax rules, utilities actually have more restrictions about what information they can require, because they are usually monopolies, so even if normal businesses were allowed to require it, which they are not, utilities probably wouldn't anyway.
But, no, it's a myth, normal businesses can't require SSNs. The rule of thumb is usually that anyone involved in money can, and the rest cannot. There are exceptions in both directions, but the default is still that J. Random Company cannot require it.
As for reporting it...um...check out the FTC's web site and see if you can find something. ATTBI should be controlled by the FCC, but I don't think you'll be able to get any information from them, they don't really deal with the public.
Or, to use an actual example, Glade is a GPL program that produces program frameworks that are not GPL. And gcc builds non-GPL works also, even though part of the 'compiler' ends up in the program.The mere output of a work by a GPL program doesn't make it GPL.
In fact, I think there was a specific example of this somewhere that RMS commented on. It is okay to include non-GPL code in a GPL program if the code is not part of the program and merely part of the output.
(This is, of course, ignoring the fact that uploading a driver isn't really 'output' in any meaningful sense.)
You're just have to clearly distinguise between the GPL code and the firmware, which should be easy...the GPL is C source code, and the firmware is a random machine language.
Of course, like I said, all this could be avoided by specifying the firmware file at run time. It's clearly not part of the program if you do that.
Of course, the firmware should actually be in a different file that's not even part of the module, with as restrictive a license as you want, but whatever.
If everyone switched to VoIP, they'd just be using one phone connection, either DSL or analog modem, instead of two...which the phone company managed to survive on for decades. They may not like everyone switching back to one phone line, but I fail to see how it will kill them.
VoIP affects long distance companies, not local companies. Local companies provide the last mile just fine. And long distance companies can just up and die, as far as I care. If they want to run the fiber, they can run the fiber, but that's all we need them for.
Frankly, it's a much saner business model, everyone selling bandwidth to each other, instead of the wackass 'long distance' charges we pay to half a dozen different parties that don't have anything to do with the actual wires.
Um, but more per person then other states.
While it's possible that electors could be picked at random, saying the framers of the constitution didn't plan for the possiblity of direct vote is a bit wacky, as that's pretty much what everyone did from the very start.
For reference, the majority is more than half of the total vote, not more than what his opponent got.
Heh, no, but now that you mention it, that's probably a good way to stop the casual thief.
Of course, almost any car can be unlocked by a slim jim anyway, so it's not worth worrying about. If you want your car to not be stolen, you need either to disable it (What I do.), or put a lowjack in it.
It's usually not that hard to kept your car from running. If someone tries to steal my car, they'll find the ignition can be hotwired like normal, but for some odd reason it won't shift out of park...and no, I won't tell you why that is.
You need to send it out twice in a row.
So it is in fact your assertation that the Chinese are bound by the US Constitution?
Confusingly, motto number 3 was "Ignore motto number 4", and motto number 4 was "There is no motto number 2".
The slit down the side is less messy than the old style if you eat it sideways, or at least at an angle.
There wasn't any way to hold the old style with one hand and eat it, either, which is pretty easy with the new style. In fact, that's about the only way to eat it, two handed is just pointless, unless it's two hands in a row.
And I put a lot of stuff on it, too, it's not just meat, of which my perfered sandwich, the BMT, has a lot of. Onions, lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes...
You must have a different cut than I do. At the local Subways, they cut a slice down the side, basically making it like a normal, 'cut in half' sandwich, except that one edge remains intact.
Dude, you're supposed to eat the new cut sideways. Sheesh.
Now, doors and fences with closed but easy to open gates are pretty much implying that you can't enter. But if your door is standing wide open, yeah, they can legally walk in unless you've got a 'No trespassing' sign up or they have been specifically banned from the propetry.
Trespassing isn't being on someone's land without permission, as many people seem to think. After all, if that was trespassing, all solictors would automatically be trespassing...as would someone walking up to your door asking for permission to be on your land!
Trespassing is being on someone's land against their wishes, which have to have been communicated to you, whether though 'no solicting' signs or yelling 'get off my land' or though locked doors. (unlocked doors being a gray area) If you want to be legally sure they're trespassing, you can 'post' your property with signs at legal intervals, or just put up a fence.
Information cannot be copyrighted. The fact that a company made X amount of dollars last year is not copyrightable.
And Reuters summerized the rest of the report.
Copyrights cannot protect facts, it can only protect expressions. There's nothing stopping someone from doing an exact scene by scene descrption of a movie, including summerizing what was said.
Tell me, what's the average of 15, 15, 17, 19, 6, and 3?
It's 12.5, in case you can't manage that.
And, look, 2/3rds of the numbers are over it, and 1/3rds are under it. Not half.
Now, guess what 'half' you're in? The stupid 'half' or the smart 'half'?
100 is the average intelligence. It is not the median intelligence.
Of course, who is allowed to require it keeps growing, but utilities are not, as far as I know, included. (After all, it's not like they'd ever have to track you down...they presumable know where you live.)
In fact, it's hard to see how software on your computer would know the MAC address of the other side of the cable modem anyway, unless there's some special cable modem communication protocol I'm unaware of.
...and introducing Kurt Russell as Rupert Giles.
That one's obvious...they're illegal.
At least that's the assumption I've been operating under.
While I doubt the Alliance is as evil as the characters presented in the show want to make it out to be (Come on, this is Joss we're talking about.), I seriously doubt they'd let just anyone have hull mounted weapons.
And the Serenity isn't outlaw enough to just do whatever she wants.
That episode is a 'time loop' episode...not only do they play golf though the stargate, but at one point Jack starts tossing some balls...then cuts to the next day...Jack and Teal'k are both tossing balls up in the air...cut again, and they're juggling perfectly. It's absolutely hilarious.
That episode is one of the all time best...the plot is, basically, that they need to learn an alien language to figure out how to stop the time loop Jack and Teal'k (Actually, the entire planet, and a few other planets are caught in a screwed up time travel experiment, but only Jack, Teal'k, and one other guy know it.) are caught in...but Daniel can't deciper an entire language in the eight hours or so the time loop is over...so Jack and Teal'k have to learn it. Which learns to a great scene where Jack corrects Daniel on some obscure alien language point.
And the straight forward time travel cliche episode was funny, too. it's called '1969', and that should give you some clue as to why it's funny.
Of course, that's just silly, you really should just write to GTK or something cross platform in the first place.
And, frankly, I find the idea of you, an anonymous downloader, agreeing to a 'contract' with a web site, rather insane. I think one of the barest minimun requirements of a contract is that the two parties know who the hell the other is. What if one of the parties is a minor, or, hell, a computer program? What if one of the parties is not in the US? If they can write the contract though strings of text sent to your computer, can't you modify it by sending text back in the HTTP headers? You can't do blind contracts like that, the whole concept is completely contradictory to contract law.
Much less not have any witnesses, only an eletronic and tamperable recording that first someone was at one web page, then at another, and they must have pushed 'I agree' on the first page to get taken to the second. That would get laughed out of court in a second if the courts weren't so corrupt.
It would be akin to taking a picture of someone standing in a room, then standing in another room, and then showing the picture of the doorway that says they agree to a contract. I'm sorry, but that would never work for a house purchase, and it won't work for EULAs.
You can't prove what you say was on the screen was on the screen, you can't prove the person clicked okay, you can't prove it was that person and not someone else, you can't prove they got the software from you and not someone else who used the doctorine of first sale to 'sale' his single copy to you (Which has an interesting effect for free software...just have a single person sit there and agree to all the horrible stuff hundreds of time, then legal give each single copy of the software out to a single person. Completely legal to transfer ownership like that.), you can't prove a damned thing about this 'contract' having any basis in reality.