Why are we trying to extradite a British citizen from Britain?
Britain is our ally. Don't we trust them to take care of their own?
This whole thing seems ridiculous. If we had captured him on a battlefield, that would be another story, but a computer hacker? Let the British government handle it.
Looks like I jumped the gun here a little bit. The case is in civil court, but his ex employer is alleging that his conduct broken a law in the criminal code.
Since it's still a civil trial, there's no danger of jail time.
I'm not sure how the criminal laws work in a civil case. Probably because IANAL =]
It is a testament to the broken state of our laws (and especially our computer crime laws) that his former employer was able to (convince a DA to) drag him into criminal court for this.
If the guy had hacked into company computers and destroyed data, then sure, he should be prosecuted under criminal laws. But wiping files from a hard drive? If the guy really did do damage to his former employer, or violated a contract with them, then it shouldn't be a criminal case. It should be a civil case.
Sounds like Perfect 10 was able to show economic harm (lost sales to cellphone users). I believe one of the criteria for fair use is that it doesn't cause economic harm.
I don't see how a book search that only shows excerpts causes any economic harm. If anything, it will increase sales.
IANAL.
If I were Google, I would just drop perfect 10 from their search results entirely. I bet this would lose them more sales than thumbnails ever would.
While fair use rights are not specifically in the Constitution, the US Supreme Court has ruled that they are implied. Free speech implies that you have certain fair use rights.
There is a lot of confusion about this, because fair use rights were detailed in the copyright act of 1976. Previous to this however, fair use rights were protected by Supreme Court rulings.
Many thought the market would not support 3 Mainstream consoles when Xbox Came out, but its proven it can, and looks to continue that trend.
Actually, since the first XBox was a money loser for Microsoft, the market *hasn't* proven that it can support 3 major consoles. When they are three *profitable* consoles, then the market will have proven that it can support three.
Super Mario Bros was not a bug free game. I know of three bugs...
1. Lil Spits. While big and fighting Bowser, land on the hammer and be touched by Bowser at the same time. You will complete the level and go down to small size, but the game will be confused and still think you're big. On the next level, hit a mushroom block. It will put out a fire flower (since the game thinks you're big). Grab the fire flower. Now you're still little, but when you hit b, you throw a fireball.
2. The Fabled Minus World. At the pipe at the end of level 2 - 2, stand on the edge of the pipe facing left. Duck, jump up, and move back towards the wall. If you do it exactly right, you will go through the wall, and come out the other side in the warp zone. Immediately go through the first pipe (before the numbers appear). You will be warped to world - 1, which is a copy of world 2 - 3, except that it never ends. The end pipe for the level will take you back to the beginning of the level.
3. Get Stuck. At the end of level 2 - 3, there is a space above the exit pipe. Duck and swim into it. Then let go of the down button. You will get stuck in the wall. There's no way to get out.
All that being said, these bugs didn't interfere with normal gameplay, as usually the only way they showed up was if you were trying to show them to somebody. And even then, they weren't easy to trigger. The third one is the easiest. The other two are a little tricky to pull off.
While true you can still get the data, you need an electron microscope, and it is a very expensive process. In the vast majority of cases, it is simply not worth it. If data has been zeroed out, it is safe from most forensic technicians, most of whom don't have the equipment and probably wouldn't bother even if they did.
If the forensic expert is competent, it won't compromise the machine. I took a cool computer forensics class a few years ago. There's a physical device forensics experts connect to a hard drive through. I forget what it's called, but it physically blocks the write bits from the connector, so that it's impossible for the computer to write to the drive. I can't imagine any competent forensics expert would not use such a device.
I'm hoping for a big jump. As great as SSB and Melee were, Melee was really just an incremental improvement over the original game. The two games are very similar. Hopefully this one will be a big jump, and not SSB v1.3.
As others have pointed out, the article doesn't state that he is under investigation, only that the complaints were forwarded to the disciplinary committee.
Remember this as well, the FBA (as well as all other bar associations), are associations of lawyers. By lawyers, for lawyers. They're not going to disbar Jack unless they find egregious unethical behaviour, and I just don't think there is enough of that in this case.
All the actors in this situation need to be very careful that they do not sink to Jack's level. And sending letters to the FBA asking for Jack to be disbarred is roughly on the same level as Jack sending a letter to the Seattle PD asking for Gabe and Tycho to be arrested.
I used to play Jumpgate, a fun little MMO Space Sim. There are no "skills" per se, your skills piloting your ship are your actual skills piloting the ship. I recommend a good joystick for this one =]
There is a bit of a grind, as you need to level up your experience level and your reputation (with 3 different factions) to buy most equipment.
The physics are somewhat realistic. To stop your ship, you have to turn your ship around and reverse thrust. Docking is a little tricky, and new players sometimes mess up and wreck their ships in the process. I have done this more than once =]
At higher speeds, the physics become unrealistic, as your ship will reach a maximum speed based on how powerful your engine is. When I first started playing, it was frustrating to slowly chug through a sector and have higher level players with faster ships just zoom right by.
All in all, I had a lot of fun when I used to play. Here's the URL:
Yeah. Very true. The whole liberal/conservative thing is an attempt to understand political beliefs along a single line, from far left to far right. In reality, it's just not that cut and dried.
I don't think they necessarily are. I think they are just trying to poke fun at Jack Thompson. They have heard US Conservatives (of the Pat Robertson kind *shudder*) say that liberals are bad, and they think Jack Thompson is a conservative, so they put words in his mouth.
I think the meaning of conservatism has kind of been muddled by republicans in the last 10 years. Conservativism wants to keep the government out of everything, as much as possible. But conservatism recognizes the need for police, a strong military, and other essential government services. Social Security, is something that a true conservative hates. I see civil liberties as a conservative issue just as much as a liberal issue. Civil liberties are, after all, in the original Constitution.
I remember a good quote from a libertarian candidate, I forget exactly who though. It was something like "Just as much as we want to keep the democrats out of our wallets, we want to keep the republicans out of our bedrooms."
Fiscal conservatives shudder at the idea of "reducing the deficit." That's just a code phrase that means "we're going to keep spending more than we bring in." Don't reduce the deficit. Eliminate it. Preferably by reducing spending, not by raising taxes.
Bush and the Republicans are conservative in some ways, but they aren't in probably just as many.
No, the implication I got from it is that Jack Thompson is a conservative of the variety that says that liberals are bad, or whatever. The implication is also that conservatives are the ones trying to outlaw these games.
This is pretty funny, as the vast majority of the people who have been passing and pushing for these "violent game" laws are liberal democrats. But its blamed on conservative republicans, because, you know, its cool to blame everything on conservative republicans nowadays.
Rockstar can kind of be dismissed for this ignorance, as they are a British company, and this idea is so prevalent on the internet (and especially/.) that it is understandable for them to mess it up.
Slashdotters, however, have no excuse. Pretty much everytime a story like this comes up, there is some bill being passed or supported by democrats, and the/. response is "those dirty awful republicans." followed by a few comments saying, no, these are democrats, you morons. Not that it helps, because the same republican bashing goes on everytime the issue comes up again.
I tried to google for Jack Thompson's political affiliation, but I couldn't find it. AfAIK, he has never publicly stated it. Anybody know anything about this?
Slashdot Mirror
Copyright is not a moral right. Copyright is not a natural right. Copyright is not a human right.
Copyright is a capitalist construct that was created to provide an incentive to
create artistic works.
Why are we trying to extradite a British citizen from Britain?
Britain is our ally. Don't we trust them to take care of their own?
This whole thing seems ridiculous. If we had captured him on a battlefield, that would be another story, but a computer hacker? Let the British government handle it.
Now everyone knows what gamers have been saying all along.
Starforce encourages piracy.
Looks like I jumped the gun here a little bit. The case is in civil court, but his ex employer is alleging that his conduct broken a law in the criminal code.
Since it's still a civil trial, there's no danger of jail time.
I'm not sure how the criminal laws work in a civil case. Probably because IANAL =]
This should be a civil matter.
It is a testament to the broken state of our laws (and especially our computer crime laws) that his former employer was able to (convince a DA to) drag him into criminal court for this.
If the guy had hacked into company computers and destroyed data, then sure, he should be prosecuted under criminal laws. But wiping files from a hard drive? If the guy really did do damage to his former employer, or violated a contract with them, then it shouldn't be a criminal case. It should be a civil case.
is coming.
Wait ten years and Verizon will merge with AT&T to form the new Bell Telephone Company.
Sounds like Perfect 10 was able to show economic harm (lost sales to cellphone users). I believe one of the criteria for fair use is that it doesn't cause economic harm.
I don't see how a book search that only shows excerpts causes any economic harm. If anything, it will increase sales.
IANAL.
If I were Google, I would just drop perfect 10 from their search results entirely. I bet this would lose them more sales than thumbnails ever would.
Oh, how I love strawman arguments.
Mr. Coward said that 1 + 1 = 3. Clearly, he is a fool. I just can't believe no one is calling him on it.
While fair use rights are not specifically in the Constitution, the US Supreme Court has ruled that they are implied. Free speech implies that you have certain fair use rights.
There is a lot of confusion about this, because fair use rights were detailed in the copyright act of 1976. Previous to this however, fair use rights were protected by Supreme Court rulings.
IANAL
Many thought the market would not support 3 Mainstream consoles when Xbox Came out, but its proven it can, and looks to continue that trend.
Actually, since the first XBox was a money loser for Microsoft, the market *hasn't* proven that it can support 3 major consoles. When they are three *profitable* consoles, then the market will have proven that it can support three.
It was a bug. At the very least, Nintendo views it this way since it is removed from rereleases of the game.
Super Mario Bros was not a bug free game. I know of three bugs...
1. Lil Spits. While big and fighting Bowser, land on the hammer and be touched by Bowser at the same time. You will complete the level and go down to small size, but the game will be confused and still think you're big. On the next level, hit a mushroom block. It will put out a fire flower (since the game thinks you're big). Grab the fire flower. Now you're still little, but when you hit b, you throw a fireball.
2. The Fabled Minus World. At the pipe at the end of level 2 - 2, stand on the edge of the pipe facing left. Duck, jump up, and move back towards the wall. If you do it exactly right, you will go through the wall, and come out the other side in the warp zone. Immediately go through the first pipe (before the numbers appear). You will be warped to world - 1, which is a copy of world 2 - 3, except that it never ends. The end pipe for the level will take you back to the beginning of the level.
3. Get Stuck. At the end of level 2 - 3, there is a space above the exit pipe. Duck and swim into it. Then let go of the down button. You will get stuck in the wall. There's no way to get out.
All that being said, these bugs didn't interfere with normal gameplay, as usually the only way they showed up was if you were trying to show them to somebody. And even then, they weren't easy to trigger. The third one is the easiest. The other two are a little tricky to pull off.
While true you can still get the data, you need an electron microscope, and it is a very expensive process. In the vast majority of cases, it is simply not worth it. If data has been zeroed out, it is safe from most forensic technicians, most of whom don't have the equipment and probably wouldn't bother even if they did.
If the forensic expert is competent, it won't compromise the machine. I took a cool computer forensics class a few years ago. There's a physical device forensics experts connect to a hard drive through. I forget what it's called, but it physically blocks the write bits from the connector, so that it's impossible for the computer to write to the drive. I can't imagine any competent forensics expert would not use such a device.
I'm hoping for a big jump. As great as SSB and Melee were, Melee was really just an incremental improvement over the original game. The two games are very similar. Hopefully this one will be a big jump, and not SSB v1.3.
Player: Doesn't the computer want me to be happy?
GM: No. The computer *demands* that you be happy.
As others have pointed out, the article doesn't state that he is under investigation, only that the complaints were forwarded to the disciplinary committee.
Remember this as well, the FBA (as well as all other bar associations), are associations of lawyers. By lawyers, for lawyers. They're not going to disbar Jack unless they find egregious unethical behaviour, and I just don't think there is enough of that in this case.
All the actors in this situation need to be very careful that they do not sink to Jack's level. And sending letters to the FBA asking for Jack to be disbarred is roughly on the same level as Jack sending a letter to the Seattle PD asking for Gabe and Tycho to be arrested.
I used to play Jumpgate, a fun little MMO Space Sim. There are no "skills" per se, your skills piloting your ship are your actual skills piloting the ship. I recommend a good joystick for this one =]
There is a bit of a grind, as you need to level up your experience level and your reputation (with 3 different factions) to buy most equipment.
The physics are somewhat realistic. To stop your ship, you have to turn your ship around and reverse thrust. Docking is a little tricky, and new players sometimes mess up and wreck their ships in the process. I have done this more than once =]
At higher speeds, the physics become unrealistic, as your ship will reach a maximum speed based on how powerful your engine is. When I first started playing, it was frustrating to slowly chug through a sector and have higher level players with faster ships just zoom right by.
All in all, I had a lot of fun when I used to play. Here's the URL:
http://www.jossh.com/
Anybody got a torrent for the software?
I have WoW:CE. It did not come in a tin box. It came in a very nice box, but it was not tin.
Yeah. Very true. The whole liberal/conservative thing is an attempt to understand political beliefs along a single line, from far left to far right. In reality, it's just not that cut and dried.
I don't think they necessarily are. I think they are just trying to poke fun at Jack Thompson. They have heard US Conservatives (of the Pat Robertson kind *shudder*) say that liberals are bad, and they think Jack Thompson is a conservative, so they put words in his mouth.
I think the meaning of conservatism has kind of been muddled by republicans in the last 10 years. Conservativism wants to keep the government out of everything, as much as possible. But conservatism recognizes the need for police, a strong military, and other essential government services. Social Security, is something that a true conservative hates. I see civil liberties as a conservative issue just as much as a liberal issue. Civil liberties are, after all, in the original Constitution.
I remember a good quote from a libertarian candidate, I forget exactly who though. It was something like "Just as much as we want to keep the democrats out of our wallets, we want to keep the republicans out of our bedrooms."
Fiscal conservatives shudder at the idea of "reducing the deficit." That's just a code phrase that means "we're going to keep spending more than we bring in." Don't reduce the deficit. Eliminate it. Preferably by reducing spending, not by raising taxes.
Bush and the Republicans are conservative in some ways, but they aren't in probably just as many.
I'm not sure about the personal choice party, but I would consider the libertarian party to be conservative, not liberal.
Greens are definitely liberal though.
Just perused the wikipedia entry for the personal choice party. I think they're conservative too.
True, but that's not how we use the terms these days in the good ole USA =]
Our liberals are quite conservative compared to the liberals of europe. Well, most of them anyway.
No, the implication I got from it is that Jack Thompson is a conservative of the variety that says that liberals are bad, or whatever. The implication is also that conservatives are the ones trying to outlaw these games.
/.) that it is understandable for them to mess it up.
/. response is "those dirty awful republicans." followed by a few comments saying, no, these are democrats, you morons. Not that it helps, because the same republican bashing goes on everytime the issue comes up again.
This is pretty funny, as the vast majority of the people who have been passing and pushing for these "violent game" laws are liberal democrats. But its blamed on conservative republicans, because, you know, its cool to blame everything on conservative republicans nowadays.
Rockstar can kind of be dismissed for this ignorance, as they are a British company, and this idea is so prevalent on the internet (and especially
Slashdotters, however, have no excuse. Pretty much everytime a story like this comes up, there is some bill being passed or supported by democrats, and the
I tried to google for Jack Thompson's political affiliation, but I couldn't find it. AfAIK, he has never publicly stated it. Anybody know anything about this?