Not necessarily. IBM will only pursue its claims against SCO if there is a financial reason to go after SCO. After bankruptcy, SCO may be judgment-proof for lack of assets.
You urge others to acts of vandalism and criminal harassment because you don't like the way filesharing copyright cases are civilly prosecuted!
The law will work its way around to fairness in the MP3 world. It always does, although it may take some time. Advocating and inciting criminal acts does not help the process and it undermines respect for the rules that govern us all.
If you want the freedom to download without interference from the legal system, go to a country without a legal system and download away. If not, face the fact that you live in a democratic society and must take the good with the bad. Grow up!
You don't need to worry about the production companies. They can be bypassed--if you employ a producer sufficiently talented to meet your needs. The mechanics of production belong to everybody now. That victory is over.
You don't need to worry about manufacturing companies now, either. You can contract with a company to make your CDs with no fuss and no muss. It's just a matter of pressing plastic. Or, you can avoid manufacturing altogether, thanks to the internet.
You don't need to worry about distributing companies now, either. You can distribute your music over the internet, or you can market your own CDs.
Rethink your analysis. You don't need anything! The music industry can be cracked--and they know it. That's why the lawyers are so very desperately involved. Lawyers are DEFINITELY not the first resort of a corporation, because they will relentless bleed the corporation dry, if they can. The lawyers are there in force because the industry is VERY concerned.
The music industry's only hole card is the MAKE IT BIG culture coupled with the industry's awesome distribution networks. If many great artists start small with a scalable promotion and distribution music network that is slanted toward them, the Music Industry is threatened. Alternatively, if consumers stop behaving like herd animals and seek diverse entertainment (I dream), then the Music Industry is threatened.
The digital music culture will evolve a lot in the coming years. Right now it is feeding itself on musical products created by the Music Industry. The Music Industry wants to keep its cash cow alive for as long as it can (time is money) even if it requires very expensive lawyers to do it. But sooner or later (later if the Music Industry has its way), the digital music culture will start feeding on public domain music and independently produced and distributed music, then things will change geometrically.
The most interesting factor in all of this is talent. How rare is talent? How much talent does it take to develop talent? The future may help answer this.
Your talk about owning excrement is disgusting. You already own your own excrement. Your problem is that you want to own somebody else's. That's yucky.
The solution is obvious: Don't buy excrement. Either pick up your excrement free (it's really easy to do, I'm sure) or make your own (equally easy).
Stop whining about other people's excrement. They get to make it the way THEY want. That's freedom, man.
Palin would be quite a disappointment to the Alaskan people after Stevens. There is no way such a mental lightweight could ever deliver the pork like Stevens did.
Life doesn't work that way. Dope dealer after dealer would flock to the complaisant landlord--despite the busting of the previous dealer--just like spam/malware pushers would flock to the complaisant ISP after one got caught.
And spammers are harder than drug dealers to prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If an ISP facilitates trespass on my computer, then the ISP is WRONG and should be stopped. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
A seemingly vague 'reasonableness' standard has been imposed upon the universities. Whoop-de-do! The most important questions are: (a) What coercive power does the Act provide? and (b) Who has the power to coerce?
Nobody would spend big money developing a big game unless they could rely upon copyright protection under the law. If home-copiers didn't kill their business, then companies formed to copy and market their hard work certainly would. No venture capitalist would fund a project that another venture capitalist could easily hijack.
The parent seems to argue that the fact that wholesale copying is not occurring is proof that copyright laws are not needed. If there currently were no copyright laws, then the parent would have a point. Because there currently are copyright laws in place, the parent has only blah . . . blah . . . blah . ...
The word 'brainwash' has always intrigued me. It sounds like it would be a good thing to have your brain washed. It would then be clean, fresh, and ready for its next adventure!
Besides, people with dirty minds probably could use a little brainwashing.
Tricking criminals is wrong, obviously. If a criminal is so smart that he cannot be caught without trickery, then he must remain free because he is too valuable to our society!
Think back to the pre-1930s where power companies refused to provide service to rural communities and small towns because the profit margins were not great enough for them to bother. Only the Great Depression and Roosevelt got public power to those communities.
The "free market" ignored those small communities. People forget real fast and history repeats itself.
I have had to deal with the civil/criminal distinction as it arises in cases involving contempt. Civil contempt must be remedial; if it is not remedial it is punitive; if it punitive, then the accused gets the full panoply of criminal due process.
On the other hand, common-law punitive damages do not offend due process. But punitive damages are usually imposed by juries, based on individualized determinations, and limited by discretion. The copyright provisions are not individualized and provide for no discretion.
Treble damages have also been held not to violate due process.
Adobe picture and movie editing is the major things that keep me tethered to Windows. Fanboys who say Linux provides the equivalent are nonpersuasive. The only other big consideration, for me, is the ability to share MS Office products. This latter consideration is fading very fast.
I'm not much of a programmer, but I think that Linux now has the tools for even me to make stuff that I think is cool. That is why I now dual-boot with Linux and that is the very powerful pull of Linux to me.
I think that most computer users in the huge diverse continent of Africa would probably favor Linux because multimedia and MS Office would be considered less valuable than a stable operating system with the tools to make cool stuff.
If Microsoft gave away complete development suites along with Office and Vista for $45 dollars, then Microsoft could fairly compete with Linux in Africa. Otherwise, Linux ought to grab huge computer-share.
If cheap, useful (solar, wind, water powered?) devices with embedded hardware were effectively marketed in Africa, then that would, I suspect, really speed up the adoption of Linux in Africa. Local ingenuity would soon take over from there.
If the scraping is criminal, then no amount of boss-permission will avoid exposure to criminal liability. Actually, it tends to indicate that the person committed the criminal act, while knowing it was criminal--why else would he have asked for permission.
If the scraping is only a civil wrong, then boss-permission (if provable), ought to insure that your company will indemnify you for any civil liability that you incur. On the other hand, the victim of the scraping can sue both you and your company for the act. In other words, boss-permission does not necessarily avoid a legal wrangle.
Slashdot Mirror
Not necessarily. IBM will only pursue its claims against SCO if there is a financial reason to go after SCO. After bankruptcy, SCO may be judgment-proof for lack of assets.
You urge others to acts of vandalism and criminal harassment because you don't like the way filesharing copyright cases are civilly prosecuted!
The law will work its way around to fairness in the MP3 world. It always does, although it may take some time. Advocating and inciting criminal acts does not help the process and it undermines respect for the rules that govern us all.
If you want the freedom to download without interference from the legal system, go to a country without a legal system and download away. If not, face the fact that you live in a democratic society and must take the good with the bad. Grow up!
You don't need to worry about the production companies. They can be bypassed--if you employ a producer sufficiently talented to meet your needs. The mechanics of production belong to everybody now. That victory is over.
You don't need to worry about manufacturing companies now, either. You can contract with a company to make your CDs with no fuss and no muss. It's just a matter of pressing plastic. Or, you can avoid manufacturing altogether, thanks to the internet.
You don't need to worry about distributing companies now, either. You can distribute your music over the internet, or you can market your own CDs.
Rethink your analysis. You don't need anything! The music industry can be cracked--and they know it. That's why the lawyers are so very desperately involved. Lawyers are DEFINITELY not the first resort of a corporation, because they will relentless bleed the corporation dry, if they can. The lawyers are there in force because the industry is VERY concerned.
The music industry's only hole card is the MAKE IT BIG culture coupled with the industry's awesome distribution networks. If many great artists start small with a scalable promotion and distribution music network that is slanted toward them, the Music Industry is threatened. Alternatively, if consumers stop behaving like herd animals and seek diverse entertainment (I dream), then the Music Industry is threatened.
The digital music culture will evolve a lot in the coming years. Right now it is feeding itself on musical products created by the Music Industry. The Music Industry wants to keep its cash cow alive for as long as it can (time is money) even if it requires very expensive lawyers to do it. But sooner or later (later if the Music Industry has its way), the digital music culture will start feeding on public domain music and independently produced and distributed music, then things will change geometrically.
The most interesting factor in all of this is talent. How rare is talent? How much talent does it take to develop talent? The future may help answer this.
Your talk about owning excrement is disgusting. You already own your own excrement. Your problem is that you want to own somebody else's. That's yucky.
The solution is obvious: Don't buy excrement. Either pick up your excrement free (it's really easy to do, I'm sure) or make your own (equally easy).
Stop whining about other people's excrement. They get to make it the way THEY want. That's freedom, man.
I second that! Mentioning age is EVIDENCE that you are using age as a determinative hiring factor. What you say can (and might) be used against you!
Why paint a little target on your forehead?
Palin would be quite a disappointment to the Alaskan people after Stevens. There is no way such a mental lightweight could ever deliver the pork like Stevens did.
Hey: Republican pork delivery! I like that.
Life doesn't work that way. Dope dealer after dealer would flock to the complaisant landlord--despite the busting of the previous dealer--just like spam/malware pushers would flock to the complaisant ISP after one got caught.
And spammers are harder than drug dealers to prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If an ISP facilitates trespass on my computer, then the ISP is WRONG and should be stopped. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
A seemingly vague 'reasonableness' standard has been imposed upon the universities. Whoop-de-do! The most important questions are: (a) What coercive power does the Act provide? and (b) Who has the power to coerce?
Nobody would spend big money developing a big game unless they could rely upon copyright protection under the law. If home-copiers didn't kill their business, then companies formed to copy and market their hard work certainly would. No venture capitalist would fund a project that another venture capitalist could easily hijack.
The parent seems to argue that the fact that wholesale copying is not occurring is proof that copyright laws are not needed. If there currently were no copyright laws, then the parent would have a point. Because there currently are copyright laws in place, the parent has only blah . . . blah . . . blah . . ..
Totalitarian communists are certainly assholes.
Pure (notice the word "pure") free market capitalists are certainly assholes.
Otherwise, its just a matter of adjustment between people with differing points of view.
What, other than your imagination, is the basis that Slashdot gets paid per plug of the Kindle? I am sincerely interested.
This is what the right to bear arms is all about! I want that laser for self-protection!!
The word 'brainwash' has always intrigued me. It sounds like it would be a good thing to have your brain washed. It would then be clean, fresh, and ready for its next adventure!
Besides, people with dirty minds probably could use a little brainwashing.
Greetings from Stepford!
Tricking criminals is wrong, obviously. If a criminal is so smart that he cannot be caught without trickery, then he must remain free because he is too valuable to our society!
Yeah right, I rose to the flamebait!
The prices were broken and the competitors got together and fixed them. That's a free market success story!
Thank you, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for your authoritative declaration of the way things MUST be!
Think back to the pre-1930s where power companies refused to provide service to rural communities and small towns because the profit margins were not great enough for them to bother. Only the Great Depression and Roosevelt got public power to those communities.
The "free market" ignored those small communities. People forget real fast and history repeats itself.
I'd rephrase it:
Give a man $10 and he's a freeloader; give a man $700 billion and he's a freebooter.
The labeling matters not a bit. The criminal/civil distinction turns entirely on matters of substance, not form. This is noncontroversial.
I have had to deal with the civil/criminal distinction as it arises in cases involving contempt. Civil contempt must be remedial; if it is not remedial it is punitive; if it punitive, then the accused gets the full panoply of criminal due process.
On the other hand, common-law punitive damages do not offend due process. But punitive damages are usually imposed by juries, based on individualized determinations, and limited by discretion. The copyright provisions are not individualized and provide for no discretion.
Treble damages have also been held not to violate due process.
This is a very interesting argument!
You may dislike royalty, but. . . .
God Save the Queen. We mean it MAN!
Sounds like somebody who married a person in medical school, then got dumped when the doctor's practice was established.
Same old story . . .
Adobe picture and movie editing is the major things that keep me tethered to Windows. Fanboys who say Linux provides the equivalent are nonpersuasive. The only other big consideration, for me, is the ability to share MS Office products. This latter consideration is fading very fast.
I'm not much of a programmer, but I think that Linux now has the tools for even me to make stuff that I think is cool. That is why I now dual-boot with Linux and that is the very powerful pull of Linux to me.
I think that most computer users in the huge diverse continent of Africa would probably favor Linux because multimedia and MS Office would be considered less valuable than a stable operating system with the tools to make cool stuff.
If Microsoft gave away complete development suites along with Office and Vista for $45 dollars, then Microsoft could fairly compete with Linux in Africa. Otherwise, Linux ought to grab huge computer-share.
If cheap, useful (solar, wind, water powered?) devices with embedded hardware were effectively marketed in Africa, then that would, I suspect, really speed up the adoption of Linux in Africa. Local ingenuity would soon take over from there.
"Hanging people in the street" is considered insightful on slashdot.
This is a pretty lowbrow crowd.
That advice is problematic.
If the scraping is criminal, then no amount of boss-permission will avoid exposure to criminal liability. Actually, it tends to indicate that the person committed the criminal act, while knowing it was criminal--why else would he have asked for permission.
If the scraping is only a civil wrong, then boss-permission (if provable), ought to insure that your company will indemnify you for any civil liability that you incur. On the other hand, the victim of the scraping can sue both you and your company for the act. In other words, boss-permission does not necessarily avoid a legal wrangle.