What exactly does The Constitution have to say about file sharing?
Section 8 1: The Congress shall have Power... 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
I agree the "government is just completely off the rails", but I don't see any constitutional guidance as far as monetary fines go.
In this case it might be better to appeal to an authority higher than the constitution - we the people.
Nobody in their right mind would think this upload cost the RIAA anywhere near a half million dollars.
Anything the RIAA wants over market value per download should be deducted from RIAA-sponsored legislators' campaign accounts.
> Why so little of all that bad !@#$ has any chance of > getting cleaned up in my lifetime is what confuses > me about the US.
Even if we weren't ideologically divided and pitted against each other, they only let us out of our cages to vote once every four years, and even then keep us on a short leash.
Until enough thoughtful people manage to open their cages, nothing can change.
Sure. A hypothetical popular uprising against the US Gov't wouldn't necessarily spread to Canada any more than an uprising in Syria must spread to Turkey.
Nearly all our money originated with fractional reserve loans, making it fictional money. Take the entire US money supply, subtract Fort Knox and the Strategic Oil Reserves, and the difference is all vaporware.
Maybe once you understand simple things like [what rain is made of] you won't depend on your demonstrably limited knowledge of climate to post inane statements on the Internet.
I'm afraid I'll always depend on my limited knowledge for everything I do and say.
If you'd like to do me the favor of educating me, I'll thank you. But your reply has no information in it except that I'm stupid and you don't like my post. Which is kind of an inane post itself, isn't it?
While I have some reservations about pure unbridled capitalism, I don't think you can blame capitalism for inflation.
Inflation is a phenomenon of fiat currency (paper with no intrinsic value) and fractional reserve banking (banks loaning out money they conjure out of thin air).
Google "dollar value chart" and you'll see that this was a well-established fact long before this article was written. The dollar has been approaching zero for a long time.
> Ah but very weak market forces because price discovery > is hard when there's only a tiny number of people in the > market.
Huh?
If your widget costs $5 to make, you try to sell it for $10. If that works, ratchet it up slowly until sales revenue declines, then ratchet down until you're happy again with the revenue.
> our people pretty much always sucked > in terms of moral behaviour
I lived in Brazil for a year and a half and got to know a lot of brasileiros from a lot of backgrounds. I spent time in predios de marmore and favelas. I didn't find individual morality tended any better or worse than in my own USA.
It was a time of hyper-inflation, crime, and change (1st Presidential election ending military rule) but people were still hospitable, generous and friendly. I mentioned crime, but I recall only two minor incidents that I witnessed. The greater crimes I heard about were not that different than what was happening in certain areas of my own home town.
> you do know what competition means right? You do know what exploitation means, right? The difference is in how free the market and population are. In the "third world," governments local and external control both so much that neither the market nor the people can be realistically considered "free."
> That'll help the "problem" even more. Are you sincerely indifferent to whether your neighborhood becomes a war zone?
Slashdot Mirror
What exactly does The Constitution have to say about file sharing?
Section 8 ...
1: The Congress shall have Power
8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
I agree the "government is just completely off the rails", but I don't see any constitutional guidance as far as monetary fines go.
In this case it might be better to appeal to an authority higher than the constitution - we the people.
Nobody in their right mind would think this upload cost the RIAA anywhere near a half million dollars.
Anything the RIAA wants over market value per download should be deducted from RIAA-sponsored legislators' campaign accounts.
> Why so little of all that bad !@#$ has any chance of
> getting cleaned up in my lifetime is what confuses
> me about the US.
Even if we weren't ideologically divided and pitted against each other, they only let us out of our cages to vote once every four years, and even then keep us on a short leash.
Until enough thoughtful people manage to open their cages, nothing can change.
Sure. A hypothetical popular uprising against the US Gov't wouldn't necessarily spread to Canada any more than an uprising in Syria must spread to Turkey.
Introduce the notion of a continuum and you introduce a slippery slope from T/F and multiple-choice to essay questions.
*Shudders.*
> say I'll vote for him if he supports this
You'll give yourself away as a literate, thinking citizen, which is perhaps not his target demographic.
> government jobs likely require a high standard of proof
Or at least a reason that sounds better than "we fired him for being a whistleblower."
Although somehow, "we gps-tracked a whistleblower's car 24/7" doesn't sound much better.
> If no one GOT this money? It never existed.
Nearly all our money originated with fractional reserve loans, making it fictional money. Take the entire US money supply, subtract Fort Knox and the Strategic Oil Reserves, and the difference is all vaporware.
> The ability to talk is incredibly advantageous in a
> world increasingly dominated by people
I'm skeptical that interacting with humans could increase their odds of survival.
> been searching for ... hard numbers ... and found nothing
How does one "do basic math" without numbers?
Probably that same slashdot commenter didn't think about it either.
Two divorces is a pretty good track record, considering the total number of nuns.
Maybe once you understand simple things like [what rain is made of] you won't depend on your demonstrably limited knowledge of climate to post inane statements on the Internet.
I'm afraid I'll always depend on my limited knowledge for everything I do and say.
If you'd like to do me the favor of educating me, I'll thank you. But your reply has no information in it except that I'm stupid and you don't like my post. Which is kind of an inane post itself, isn't it?
My understanding was water vapor was more potent than co2 at trapping heat. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas)
While I have some reservations about pure unbridled capitalism, I don't think you can blame capitalism for inflation.
Inflation is a phenomenon of fiat currency (paper with no intrinsic value) and fractional reserve banking (banks loaning out money they conjure out of thin air).
Google "dollar value chart" and you'll see that this was a well-established fact long before this article was written. The dollar has been approaching zero for a long time.
Technically, the dollar is baseless.
It's the same as software. The first 90% of the code takes 90% of the budget, the final 10% takes the other 90%.
+1 insightful
> it is not determined by the government, and therefore
> defining inflation in terms of the money supply is
> simply pointless.
I don't follow. Why does it matter who inflates the supply?
Either way, supply/demand still works: supply of money goes up, price of money goes down.
> There are really two big classes of loans in
> our society:
I believe you are leaving out the federal debt, which at 14 trillion dollars accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100% of the money supply.
> rampant inflation was just around the corner
The technical definition of inflation is an increase in the money supply. And as it turns out, that was indeed just around the corner.
Rising prices are really just a symptom (money supply goes up, money value goes down, you need more money to buy stuff).
> Ah but very weak market forces because price discovery
> is hard when there's only a tiny number of people in the
> market.
Huh?
If your widget costs $5 to make, you try to sell it for $10. If that works, ratchet it up slowly until sales revenue declines, then ratchet down until you're happy again with the revenue.
Voila, you discovered the price.
> They need not have understood the underlying
> biological cause of the disease at all.
Perhaps not, but they still had to *identify* the disease.
It is a prerequisite, though.
> our people pretty much always sucked
> in terms of moral behaviour
I lived in Brazil for a year and a half and got to know a lot of brasileiros from a lot of backgrounds. I spent time in predios de marmore and favelas. I didn't find individual morality tended any better or worse than in my own USA.
It was a time of hyper-inflation, crime, and change (1st Presidential election ending military rule) but people were still hospitable, generous and friendly. I mentioned crime, but I recall only two minor incidents that I witnessed. The greater crimes I heard about were not that different than what was happening in certain areas of my own home town.
> you do know what competition means right?
You do know what exploitation means, right? The difference is in how free the market and population are. In the "third world," governments local and external control both so much that neither the market nor the people can be realistically considered "free."
> That'll help the "problem" even more.
Are you sincerely indifferent to whether your neighborhood becomes a war zone?