While I agree with your sentiment about doctors (after all, their expertise is medical (chemistry, bio), not technical). However, I am betting that your comment about hospital info security is borne from not having worked in such an environment.
Having run the IT side of a hospital's foundation, and having to interface with their network security, I can say that most definitely they are very competent with data security. Now mind you, this is in Canada -- but I doubt the competent sys admins are only born north of the border.
Hospitals (and the several sys admins I have known that run them) are very much on top of their game -- even the the point of being a pain in the ass to work with (which is both good and bad). Many doctors and nurses absolutely hated the arcane network security protocols in place, but they worked, and the hospital network maintained triple-9 uptime.
Take my anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt, but from my experience, hospital networks are QUITE secure.
So often I have heard the internet meme that American soldiers (or soldiers of a western "civilized" country would not turn their weapons on their own people. Indeed, it is hard enough for them to do so to an Iraqi whom they still perceive as "human". However through indoctrination, and a process of dehumanizing the enemy, many Iraqis have died. Well, what happens if the next stage in de-humanizing comes not from propaghanda (which is not infalliable) but from a physical disconnect from targets.
Think about it... It is much easier for a sharp shooter to take out a target at a thousand yards then it is for someone to execute someone at point-blank. It is much easier for a remote drone to drop a bomb than a fighter-pilot to do so.
It is much easier for a robot controlled by a human operator to fire on civilians than an armed soldier, even if the civilian is a thousand yards away....
To those who runs servers periodically, or to those who run servers that are not attached to a web server, what I am suggesting is not aimed at your uses. They are indeed legitimate, and can be used however you want.
However, those that *do* buy out these addresses, and leave them fallow, simply to horde (and let us face it -- many companies do this) they would be the specific target of this.
In the oil-business (and in many other fixed-resource industries, more then likely) there is a particular kind of legislation that would likely work very well in such a situation. It is known as 'fallow field legislation'.
It works like this:
If a company finds (or buys) rights to an oil field, they are given five years to start producing from it. If they do not, cannot, or are otherwise unwilling after those 5 years, the rights are revoked and the government (or governing body) will find someone who will and can.
Fast forward to IPv4 -- any address that isn't being used (and by used I mean that there is no web presence, to use of e-mail, etc.) after a certain time period (perhaps 1-2 year(s)) then the address is revoked and put back into the public pool.
Obviously, the easiest way to get around this little regulation would be to put up a place holder page, or redirect it to the main site. This would be much trickier. Likewise, it would not stop the name squatters (and increasingly the registrars) from putting up those SPAM pages, but like I said, it would fix the problem of people just sitting on a resource without using it.
This is why I have such a dislike of "big business".
Forget for a moment the wasteful philosophy getting people to upgrade for new shiny (and I am by no means saying the 'upgraders' are guilt free).
Dismiss the fact that Microsoft has no desire to "embrace" open source -- quite the opposite, it wants to control the market with it, or rather redefine the market on its terms -- sure, you can use all of our codebase that we provide as open source, but you only get to plug-in our components, using our tools, with our licensing restrictions.
What irks me most is this marketing bullshit that gets thrown into the air. Right now, reading through the PHB technical mags and rags, one can't go an issue without seeing something on "open sourcing" saving money here, or "interoperability" brings new efficacy to the table, or "free software" causing a major paradigm shift breeding synergy in the multi-faceted workplace.
And that is what this is. It has nothing to do with functionality, and certainly if one goes by Microsoft's track record with open source, it has more to do with embrace and extend.
Now, at this point it would be easy to say: "don't condemn them yet, IBM was once seen as Satan too!" (Not withstanding IBMs frivolity in the patent market).
All I can say to that is maybe, and I damn hope them have learned their lesson. The open source community, however, has been burned far too many times with MS' carrot and the stick act.
I remember, many moons ago, when the PhysX cards were gaining some king of industry momentum. I wouldn't call it acceptance, but it definitely wasn't a complete disregard either.
I think one of the big problems here is that between AMD and NVIDIA there are only two major market forces -- both of whom are no where near on a lovey-dovey level, and definitely no where near sharing ideas (read licensing) stuff between them. So if NVIDIA gets this PhysX stuff working from AEGIA, marvelous, but it will be completely ignored by the ATI/AMD crowd. And if the better share of 50% of the marketplace is ignoring this, it is simply not in game designers' best interests to waste development time and money on something.
Really, I could see this type of technology being similar to the PS*2* HDD -- barely ever used.
Granted, Raiders of the Lost Ark had some interesting stories in it, and did at least deal with some research, but I would say the amount of true "research" in Indiana Jones films has been dropping geometrically.
Indeed, The Last Crusade, other then repeating the Romantic-era story about the grail that so many people already knew, gave no new information and instead focused on the relationship between Indy and his father.
And Crystal Skull -- from what people have told me about it is even worse. Dealing with a completely fictional back story that doesn't represent anything presently known about the crystal skulls, nor anything that is written about widely in popular paranormal literature.
No one is saying that Indiana Jones isn't a fabulous example of those serial movies from the 40s and 50s, but I am arguing that the amount of research is mind-numbingly small.
And who here thinks that this statement:
"The franchise really depends on me"
Isn't just a bit egotistical... *cough*Phantom Menace*cough*
While done on a much smaller scale than say San Francisco or New York, Fredericton, New Brunswick (pop. approx. 50,000 people) boasts a nearly ubiquitous WiFi network that blankets the city called Fred-eZone (http://www.fred-ezone.com/). The eZone is free for everyone and is maintained through tax dollars. Now I understand a lot of the constraints in the smaller towns and cities in the United States, especially the remote ones, however anyone who has ever been to New Brunswick will tell you it it probably one of the remotest places you can go that still boasts a full city.
Why is it that they can accomplish this (and their economy, while certainly growing in the last few years has been a small one to be sure) and the same smaller-zed cities in both Canada and the United States cannot?
Why do the words "Stazi", "SS", "Gestapo", and "Praetorian Guard" jump to mind?
It seems that this has happened before in history -- where you give one (or more) "secret police" power over everyone with no true checks and balances. From my understanding (which admittedly may be very flawed), the Department of Homeland Security answers exclusively to the executive branch, and now it also seems to control a (fairly large) group of intelligence officers. Do the words "consolidation of power" mean anything? No?
Well then how about: "this is the dawn of a new Galactic Empire!"?
They wanted that levy in the first place, now they don't. Make up your damned minds!
(and as a note: I don't download copyrighted material at all -- for the most part, it isn't worth it. I am just getting fed up with their have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too philosophy)
What is the cost of this computer with XP/Vista in comparison. We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).
I must applaud both DELL and HP however, for starting to realize that they should offer the customer what they want, and not what some third party dictates them to.
Even after being flung across the solar system, I am sure Captain Janeway will find a way to repolarize the deflector dish to emit a warp bubble that combined with future Borg technology and that from Species 4971, some old fashioned ingenuity, a transwarp generator, a friendly if dull-witted Talaxian, a half-human half-Klingon baby, a group of Maquis rebels, a hot-shot pilot who doesn't give a damn for regulations, and a hot Borg in a skin-tight leotard will be able to make it back, and the ship will probably be in better condition then when it left!
If a party lawfully has in its possession a piece of information, it may share that piece of information (subject to invasion of privacy torts, which would be difficult to find applicable in such a circumstance). While I am venturing off on a tangent, I would argue that this is exactly what we should be afraid of. It should involve various and sundry privacy torts, because there is the possibility (as the RIAA has so kindly demonstrated to us) that they can and do use extra-legal tactics to find this information out. If the information was gathered in an extra-legal way (through malware, spyware, outright invasion by way of cracking of the user's system), why shouldn't that information be regarded as subject to privacy laws? instead, however, even if UMG, in this instance, did that very thing, and was denied by the judge, then all the other participants in the industry group could have access to that information and could attempt other avenues for "discovering" that. Perhaps they then go through all of the user's traffic logs at the ISP 9which UMG may have wanted to do, but was denied the right because of their extra legal means).
It isn't a third party prosecuting these claims, but each party individually is performing its part in a shared legal strategy. Subpoenas, not warrants, are used in civil litigation, and you can always fight to quash a warrant as overly broad. The record labels' demands to have physical possession of your computer are pretty much out of the ordinary, and that's where the information leak comes in to play. Yes, but it is the fact that they WANT physical access to my computer that worries me. I honestly have nothing to hide, but I don't want some guy "accidentally" dropping several thousand song files on my computer and then have an RIAA lawyer show up at my door saying: pay up. I have no control in a situation like that, and really no recourse since they have access to my machine -- which may have been gained in a rather non-standard way.
You make a good point, I will concede that it is not right for any group to collude in a reprehensible manner, however I will challenge your comment that this is no different than people/law enforcement agencies banding together.
The whole point of a law enforcement agency is to catch the bad guys. The whole point of a neighbourhood watch is to catch the bad guys. The whole point of an industry group?
I'll give you a hand: to protect their industry and make a metric arse-load of money in the process, finding any way possible to do so, and without any significant checks and balances. The corporation, and by extension the trade group is a tricky beast. They might be fined by the government, but most can absorb these fines, and especially if a monopoly exists, simply charge their customers for their behavior. The company goes on to do it again and again, knowing full well they can absorb any loses they encounter.
In otherwords, your examples have a strictly defined purpose (I won't go into misuse/abuse of power, because that is a red herring at this point), and that is to protect the public. Not so with a trade group, not so at all.
Many are crying fowl that this sort of behavior is perfectly legal, but I would like to point out one thing (I mentioned this in another posting, but thought it deserved an entire post for I believe it to be a very scary point).
Imagine if you will the beginning of the free market's existence. Individual companies and groups barter for goods and services. If someone steps on the toes of another, the person who is wronged takes that person to court, and the transgressor is perhaps found guilty, irrespective of anything else he may or may not have done or is doing at the present. Fine.
Fast forward to the present. Now, instead if you step on the toes of one company (because so few major companies are one person alone), an industry group comes in with a warrant, and searches your computer. Not only do they find infringing material for the original plaintiff, but they also find about 500 other songs belonging to other members of their trade group. Well, they simply have the warrant expanded to search the rest of your network and proceed to sue your pants off for those 500 songs that they found. This means that the process has become streamlined in favour of the companies. This is not good.
Now, go a little further into the future. Not only are there trade groups, but Super-Trade-Groups. Perhaps ones dedicated to the entire entertainment industry (MPAA-RIAA-Shakespearean Theatre Company AA-ad nauseum AA) or perhaps there is just one big-super group. Think of it as a catch-all group that includes the MPAA-RIAA-Microsoft-Apple-Book Publishers-Knitting Pattern Companies-Recipe authors-TV broadcasters-GE-GM-IBM-and any other acronym in any industry).
Everyone has broken the law in some way or another. Imagine though, if a super-group could walk into your life, find all of those transgressions, and can now say: pay up (in installments of course, and there might even be an interest-only version of the payment schedule). This would mean a guaranteed source of income, and not only that, but it would also assure them that they could treat you like a criminal at any point.
If such behavior became common, it might even pose as a catalyst to lower the requirements for a warrant -- to the point where the super group can simply have a catchall carte blanche that they can use as they see fit to protect America from pirates and terroristas...
I would disagree strongly with your opinion: there are multiple barriers in place to try and enter the market in music. When was the last time you walked into a *major* record store and saw a large selection of local music? I can say (anecdotally) never. I am in them quite frequently, and not just one particular one, but multiple across the country. Some may pander to local artists in an effort to make a good impression on the local community, but for the most part, ask to order an independent label CD and you will be denied. This however, is beside the point.
The main point, I believe, is that doing this gives the RIAA a "legal" advantage that is within the letter of the law, but not within its spirit. The RIAA has every major song title available to it, which means it can persecute in wide swaths, much wider than any other group.
Imagine if you will Microsoft, Sun, and Apple were to get together and begin prosecuting those who infringe on their copyrights (ISOs of Windows, Solaris and OSX). However, it is *not* MS, Apple or Sun prosecuting, it is a thirdparty that was created as an industry group. Well, suppose I have a copy of each operating system that I gained illegally. Normally, each company would have to get a warrant, seach my computer and prosecute me on the findings of such a warrant. This ensures checks and balances. However with an industry group, they can prosecute for all of them, far outstripping my ability to defend myself (imagine this industry group gets a certain judge that they know would be favorable to them to preside over the case. This is far simpler then getting 3 different judges who are sympathetic to their plight).
What truly worries me however, is that I wouldn't find it at all surprising if somewhere down the line, these disparate industry groups (RIAA, MPAA, Computer software manufacturers, knitting alliance against theft of knitting patterns) were to amalgamate, effectively creating a super-group. This one group could then walk into any home, give one warrant, and search that person's life for any transgressions, and extract the money from them without mercy. It could well become a new profit revenue system: this is what happens in Capitalistic systems. Businesses streamline their processes, and can you honestly admit that they would love a guaranteed income stream?
While I agree with some of the sentiment expressed in other posts, especially to the effect that this is similar to a trade group, there seems to be one defining aspect in this case, namely the tying together of separate copyrights to pursue litigation.
While on the surface, it might be argued that the RIAA is nothing more than an aforementioned trade group (something that is both legal and desirable in many cases), tying ones copyrights into a collective pool is a bit more of a sticking issue.
The companies represented by the RIAA represent 99% of the major American labels (the only reason I do not say 100% is there may be one or two, but the majority are). Upon tying their copyrights together, they effectively stifle competition. How so?
Well, to use a (likely flawed) analogy, imagine if Microsoft and Apple decided to pool all of their resources and patents and copyrights. Now suppose a third party (for profit) company tried to get into the market. Apple may not have prosecuted initially since they did not have access to the patent/copyright pool, and probably wouldn't see this interloper as a direct competitor to be worried about. MS, however, would. So they open up the full force of the patent/copyright pool of both companies and cherry pick the most grievous ones. The company is financially sunk. This couldn't happen without the help of Apple's patents/copyrights too.
Now, I know patents != copyrights, but in a way, it is very similar. The RIAA has access to every song in every catalogue to every major artist. This allows them, by default, to prosecute across borders. It isn't BMG, Sony, and Dreamworks each launching separate suits, it is one company that can attack with a full frontal assault. Essentially, the power has been centralized, which gives too much power to the RIAA, and makes it impossible to resist against them reliably.
Essentially, while we are dealing with intellectual property (ugh, I hate that term) theft, and some of these people may well be guilty, the spirit of the law that was enacted was meant to deter those from doing this, not to crush the offenders into oblivion. And I think that last point is quite important, and also something that many have lost sight of. The laws were created as a deterrent, and as a method of punishment, much like the stocks were of yore. The laws were NOT created (in this country) as a method to crush the individual offenders into the ground (at least, save execution... and that is another issue altogether).
Now, surely you jest... I find unplug works very well, and is quite reliable, and is very easy. If you have access to a unix box, you can even issue a simple conversion (or write a simple script):
ffmpeg -i filename.flv filename.mpg (or ogg, or mp3, or...)
If no Linux box is available, then you could always just watch it straight through VLC. And the nice thing about all of this: it is free (as in beer and as in choice). And of course you get to not support a company that has (rightfully) earned the ire of many IT people the world over...
Well, even though my post was marked as flamebait, I'd like to say thank you for clearing that up for me. I thought I remembered the story on Slashdot, but did not remember the update.
While cell phones might not be causing any problems with humans, there is some evidence (although the conclusions are by no means definitive, and may have been refuted since this article) that cellular phones are responsible for the recent bee disappearance (though I have also heard reports of it being linked to a (fungus?).
Slashdot Mirror
While I agree with your sentiment about doctors (after all, their expertise is medical (chemistry, bio), not technical). However, I am betting that your comment about hospital info security is borne from not having worked in such an environment.
Having run the IT side of a hospital's foundation, and having to interface with their network security, I can say that most definitely they are very competent with data security. Now mind you, this is in Canada -- but I doubt the competent sys admins are only born north of the border.
Hospitals (and the several sys admins I have known that run them) are very much on top of their game -- even the the point of being a pain in the ass to work with (which is both good and bad). Many doctors and nurses absolutely hated the arcane network security protocols in place, but they worked, and the hospital network maintained triple-9 uptime.
Take my anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt, but from my experience, hospital networks are QUITE secure.
So often I have heard the internet meme that American soldiers (or soldiers of a western "civilized" country would not turn their weapons on their own people. Indeed, it is hard enough for them to do so to an Iraqi whom they still perceive as "human". However through indoctrination, and a process of dehumanizing the enemy, many Iraqis have died. Well, what happens if the next stage in de-humanizing comes not from propaghanda (which is not infalliable) but from a physical disconnect from targets.
Think about it... It is much easier for a sharp shooter to take out a target at a thousand yards then it is for someone to execute someone at point-blank. It is much easier for a remote drone to drop a bomb than a fighter-pilot to do so.
It is much easier for a robot controlled by a human operator to fire on civilians than an armed soldier, even if the civilian is a thousand yards away....
Someone please tag this 'youhavegottobekiddingme'!
Do these politicians even run this drivel past their kids. Surely a 10 year old could point out the flaws in these bills...
Just to clarify:
To those who runs servers periodically, or to those who run servers that are not attached to a web server, what I am suggesting is not aimed at your uses. They are indeed legitimate, and can be used however you want.
However, those that *do* buy out these addresses, and leave them fallow, simply to horde (and let us face it -- many companies do this) they would be the specific target of this.
Oh great... Who wants to bet the Q-Ray braclet is going to see a resurgence in popularity...
In the oil-business (and in many other fixed-resource industries, more then likely) there is a particular kind of legislation that would likely work very well in such a situation. It is known as 'fallow field legislation'.
It works like this:
If a company finds (or buys) rights to an oil field, they are given five years to start producing from it. If they do not, cannot, or are otherwise unwilling after those 5 years, the rights are revoked and the government (or governing body) will find someone who will and can.
Fast forward to IPv4 -- any address that isn't being used (and by used I mean that there is no web presence, to use of e-mail, etc.) after a certain time period (perhaps 1-2 year(s)) then the address is revoked and put back into the public pool.
Obviously, the easiest way to get around this little regulation would be to put up a place holder page, or redirect it to the main site. This would be much trickier. Likewise, it would not stop the name squatters (and increasingly the registrars) from putting up those SPAM pages, but like I said, it would fix the problem of people just sitting on a resource without using it.
My $0.02
Network security really isn't that hard! It isn't like it's rocket scie... oh... nevermind...
This is why I have such a dislike of "big business".
Forget for a moment the wasteful philosophy getting people to upgrade for new shiny (and I am by no means saying the 'upgraders' are guilt free).
Dismiss the fact that Microsoft has no desire to "embrace" open source -- quite the opposite, it wants to control the market with it, or rather redefine the market on its terms -- sure, you can use all of our codebase that we provide as open source, but you only get to plug-in our components, using our tools, with our licensing restrictions.
What irks me most is this marketing bullshit that gets thrown into the air. Right now, reading through the PHB technical mags and rags, one can't go an issue without seeing something on "open sourcing" saving money here, or "interoperability" brings new efficacy to the table, or "free software" causing a major paradigm shift breeding synergy in the multi-faceted workplace.
And that is what this is. It has nothing to do with functionality, and certainly if one goes by Microsoft's track record with open source, it has more to do with embrace and extend.
Now, at this point it would be easy to say: "don't condemn them yet, IBM was once seen as Satan too!" (Not withstanding IBMs frivolity in the patent market).
All I can say to that is maybe, and I damn hope them have learned their lesson. The open source community, however, has been burned far too many times with MS' carrot and the stick act.
I remember, many moons ago, when the PhysX cards were gaining some king of industry momentum. I wouldn't call it acceptance, but it definitely wasn't a complete disregard either.
I think one of the big problems here is that between AMD and NVIDIA there are only two major market forces -- both of whom are no where near on a lovey-dovey level, and definitely no where near sharing ideas (read licensing) stuff between them. So if NVIDIA gets this PhysX stuff working from AEGIA, marvelous, but it will be completely ignored by the ATI/AMD crowd. And if the better share of 50% of the marketplace is ignoring this, it is simply not in game designers' best interests to waste development time and money on something.
Really, I could see this type of technology being similar to the PS*2* HDD -- barely ever used.
Lucas whining about "research" is laughable.
Granted, Raiders of the Lost Ark had some interesting stories in it, and did at least deal with some research, but I would say the amount of true "research" in Indiana Jones films has been dropping geometrically.
Indeed, The Last Crusade, other then repeating the Romantic-era story about the grail that so many people already knew, gave no new information and instead focused on the relationship between Indy and his father.
And Crystal Skull -- from what people have told me about it is even worse. Dealing with a completely fictional back story that doesn't represent anything presently known about the crystal skulls, nor anything that is written about widely in popular paranormal literature.
No one is saying that Indiana Jones isn't a fabulous example of those serial movies from the 40s and 50s, but I am arguing that the amount of research is mind-numbingly small.
And who here thinks that this statement:
"The franchise really depends on me"
Isn't just a bit egotistical... *cough*Phantom Menace*cough*
While done on a much smaller scale than say San Francisco or New York, Fredericton, New Brunswick (pop. approx. 50,000 people) boasts a nearly ubiquitous WiFi network that blankets the city called Fred-eZone (http://www.fred-ezone.com/). The eZone is free for everyone and is maintained through tax dollars. Now I understand a lot of the constraints in the smaller towns and cities in the United States, especially the remote ones, however anyone who has ever been to New Brunswick will tell you it it probably one of the remotest places you can go that still boasts a full city.
Why is it that they can accomplish this (and their economy, while certainly growing in the last few years has been a small one to be sure) and the same smaller-zed cities in both Canada and the United States cannot?
Why do the words "Stazi", "SS", "Gestapo", and "Praetorian Guard" jump to mind?
It seems that this has happened before in history -- where you give one (or more) "secret police" power over everyone with no true checks and balances. From my understanding (which admittedly may be very flawed), the Department of Homeland Security answers exclusively to the executive branch, and now it also seems to control a (fairly large) group of intelligence officers. Do the words "consolidation of power" mean anything? No?
Well then how about: "this is the dawn of a new Galactic Empire!"?
They wanted that levy in the first place, now they don't. Make up your damned minds!
(and as a note: I don't download copyrighted material at all -- for the most part, it isn't worth it. I am just getting fed up with their have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too philosophy)
What is the cost of this computer with XP/Vista in comparison. We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).
I must applaud both DELL and HP however, for starting to realize that they should offer the customer what they want, and not what some third party dictates them to.
I sent you an e-mail, but here you go:
? p=308192&postcount=11
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showpost.php
Even after being flung across the solar system, I am sure Captain Janeway will find a way to repolarize the deflector dish to emit a warp bubble that combined with future Borg technology and that from Species 4971, some old fashioned ingenuity, a transwarp generator, a friendly if dull-witted Talaxian, a half-human half-Klingon baby, a group of Maquis rebels, a hot-shot pilot who doesn't give a damn for regulations, and a hot Borg in a skin-tight leotard will be able to make it back, and the ship will probably be in better condition then when it left!
I'm sorry... I'm bitter...
You make a good point, I will concede that it is not right for any group to collude in a reprehensible manner, however I will challenge your comment that this is no different than people/law enforcement agencies banding together.
The whole point of a law enforcement agency is to catch the bad guys. The whole point of a neighbourhood watch is to catch the bad guys. The whole point of an industry group?
I'll give you a hand: to protect their industry and make a metric arse-load of money in the process, finding any way possible to do so, and without any significant checks and balances. The corporation, and by extension the trade group is a tricky beast. They might be fined by the government, but most can absorb these fines, and especially if a monopoly exists, simply charge their customers for their behavior. The company goes on to do it again and again, knowing full well they can absorb any loses they encounter.
In otherwords, your examples have a strictly defined purpose (I won't go into misuse/abuse of power, because that is a red herring at this point), and that is to protect the public. Not so with a trade group, not so at all.
Many are crying fowl that this sort of behavior is perfectly legal, but I would like to point out one thing (I mentioned this in another posting, but thought it deserved an entire post for I believe it to be a very scary point).
Imagine if you will the beginning of the free market's existence. Individual companies and groups barter for goods and services. If someone steps on the toes of another, the person who is wronged takes that person to court, and the transgressor is perhaps found guilty, irrespective of anything else he may or may not have done or is doing at the present. Fine.
Fast forward to the present. Now, instead if you step on the toes of one company (because so few major companies are one person alone), an industry group comes in with a warrant, and searches your computer. Not only do they find infringing material for the original plaintiff, but they also find about 500 other songs belonging to other members of their trade group. Well, they simply have the warrant expanded to search the rest of your network and proceed to sue your pants off for those 500 songs that they found. This means that the process has become streamlined in favour of the companies. This is not good.
Now, go a little further into the future. Not only are there trade groups, but Super-Trade-Groups. Perhaps ones dedicated to the entire entertainment industry (MPAA-RIAA-Shakespearean Theatre Company AA-ad nauseum AA) or perhaps there is just one big-super group. Think of it as a catch-all group that includes the MPAA-RIAA-Microsoft-Apple-Book Publishers-Knitting Pattern Companies-Recipe authors-TV broadcasters-GE-GM-IBM-and any other acronym in any industry).
Everyone has broken the law in some way or another. Imagine though, if a super-group could walk into your life, find all of those transgressions, and can now say: pay up (in installments of course, and there might even be an interest-only version of the payment schedule). This would mean a guaranteed source of income, and not only that, but it would also assure them that they could treat you like a criminal at any point.
If such behavior became common, it might even pose as a catalyst to lower the requirements for a warrant -- to the point where the super group can simply have a catchall carte blanche that they can use as they see fit to protect America from pirates and terroristas...
Welcome to 2084, Orwell's sequel.
I would disagree strongly with your opinion: there are multiple barriers in place to try and enter the market in music. When was the last time you walked into a *major* record store and saw a large selection of local music? I can say (anecdotally) never. I am in them quite frequently, and not just one particular one, but multiple across the country. Some may pander to local artists in an effort to make a good impression on the local community, but for the most part, ask to order an independent label CD and you will be denied. This however, is beside the point.
The main point, I believe, is that doing this gives the RIAA a "legal" advantage that is within the letter of the law, but not within its spirit. The RIAA has every major song title available to it, which means it can persecute in wide swaths, much wider than any other group.
Imagine if you will Microsoft, Sun, and Apple were to get together and begin prosecuting those who infringe on their copyrights (ISOs of Windows, Solaris and OSX). However, it is *not* MS, Apple or Sun prosecuting, it is a thirdparty that was created as an industry group. Well, suppose I have a copy of each operating system that I gained illegally. Normally, each company would have to get a warrant, seach my computer and prosecute me on the findings of such a warrant. This ensures checks and balances. However with an industry group, they can prosecute for all of them, far outstripping my ability to defend myself (imagine this industry group gets a certain judge that they know would be favorable to them to preside over the case. This is far simpler then getting 3 different judges who are sympathetic to their plight).
What truly worries me however, is that I wouldn't find it at all surprising if somewhere down the line, these disparate industry groups (RIAA, MPAA, Computer software manufacturers, knitting alliance against theft of knitting patterns) were to amalgamate, effectively creating a super-group. This one group could then walk into any home, give one warrant, and search that person's life for any transgressions, and extract the money from them without mercy. It could well become a new profit revenue system: this is what happens in Capitalistic systems. Businesses streamline their processes, and can you honestly admit that they would love a guaranteed income stream?
While I agree with some of the sentiment expressed in other posts, especially to the effect that this is similar to a trade group, there seems to be one defining aspect in this case, namely the tying together of separate copyrights to pursue litigation.
While on the surface, it might be argued that the RIAA is nothing more than an aforementioned trade group (something that is both legal and desirable in many cases), tying ones copyrights into a collective pool is a bit more of a sticking issue.
The companies represented by the RIAA represent 99% of the major American labels (the only reason I do not say 100% is there may be one or two, but the majority are). Upon tying their copyrights together, they effectively stifle competition. How so?
Well, to use a (likely flawed) analogy, imagine if Microsoft and Apple decided to pool all of their resources and patents and copyrights. Now suppose a third party (for profit) company tried to get into the market. Apple may not have prosecuted initially since they did not have access to the patent/copyright pool, and probably wouldn't see this interloper as a direct competitor to be worried about. MS, however, would. So they open up the full force of the patent/copyright pool of both companies and cherry pick the most grievous ones. The company is financially sunk. This couldn't happen without the help of Apple's patents/copyrights too.
Now, I know patents != copyrights, but in a way, it is very similar. The RIAA has access to every song in every catalogue to every major artist. This allows them, by default, to prosecute across borders. It isn't BMG, Sony, and Dreamworks each launching separate suits, it is one company that can attack with a full frontal assault. Essentially, the power has been centralized, which gives too much power to the RIAA, and makes it impossible to resist against them reliably.
Essentially, while we are dealing with intellectual property (ugh, I hate that term) theft, and some of these people may well be guilty, the spirit of the law that was enacted was meant to deter those from doing this, not to crush the offenders into oblivion. And I think that last point is quite important, and also something that many have lost sight of. The laws were created as a deterrent, and as a method of punishment, much like the stocks were of yore. The laws were NOT created (in this country) as a method to crush the individual offenders into the ground (at least, save execution... and that is another issue altogether).
My 2c
Now, surely you jest... I find unplug works very well, and is quite reliable, and is very easy. If you have access to a unix box, you can even issue a simple conversion (or write a simple script):
ffmpeg -i filename.flv filename.mpg (or ogg, or mp3, or...)
If no Linux box is available, then you could always just watch it straight through VLC. And the nice thing about all of this: it is free (as in beer and as in choice). And of course you get to not support a company that has (rightfully) earned the ire of many IT people the world over...
I for one welcome our hydrogen-peroxide breathing overlords...
Well, even though my post was marked as flamebait, I'd like to say thank you for clearing that up for me. I thought I remembered the story on Slashdot, but did not remember the update.
While cell phones might not be causing any problems with humans, there is some evidence (although the conclusions are by no means definitive, and may have been refuted since this article) that cellular phones are responsible for the recent bee disappearance (though I have also heard reports of it being linked to a (fungus?).