even when providers try to build "green" sources they are fought in courts by one group or another
This reminds me of Trempealeau county in Wisconsin where they have all but outlawed windmills. Trempealeau county is a rural community with lots of available wind. But due to someone's lobbying efforts the county board has decided windmills are too loud and cast dangerous shadows! In particular the lobbyist has convinced the board that the rhythmic nature of the shadows and sound will cause health effects in children. So now windmills constructed in Trempealeau county must be at least one mile from the nearest house. You can not draw a circle two miles in diameter in Trempealeau county without overlapping a house.
Her lawyer's fees were barely covered with $17,000 of donations. At typical lawyer fees of $200 per hour that's two weeks of work. This was a precedent setting case. How could he possibly have been ready with two weeks of work? Perhaps that's why he made egregious errors such as:
Arguing that someone could have hacked into her wi-fi...if she had wi-fi! That argument made it look like she had no case and was instead grasping at straws.
Failing to explain how someone else could have used her login name (such as the neighbor stealing internet access under her name and using the same name to log into Kazaa; or a trojan that logged into Kazaa with the login name on her machine). As far as I'm concerned this was the single biggest issue presented at trial and all the defense could do was make vague references to identity theft?
Failed to explain how someone else could have used her IP number (such as the neighbor stealing internet access or a trojan taking over her machine).
Failure to present evidence showing the prevalence of trojans, worms, viruses, etc.
Failed to address the amount of time it would take to cause the damage the RIAA was claiming. To upload 3.7 million copies of the songs she would have had to start before she was born. And 222,000 copies would have taken a couple years.
ISPs, in particular her ISP Comcast, keep track of how much bandwidth their customers use. I'm sure the RIAA would have presented it as evidence if it favored their side. The fact that we never heard any numbers tells me Thomas' lawyer just wasn't knowledgeable enough to ask.
Failed to point out the blatant misrepresentation of the RIAA's expert witness when he claimed copying one song every 20-30 seconds means it must have come from another hard drive (hint: the math works out perfect for a CD-ROM and an order of magnitude too long for a hard drive). Instead they presented some pathetic theatrics that an uninformed jury no doubt dismissed.
Failed to challenge the credentials and methods of the RIAA's expert witness.
Many of these were tied to the lack of an expert witness. Nevertheless her lawyer should have addressed the last issue at a minimum.
I am not a lawyer. If you are acting as an Internet Service Provider and follow the rules laid out in the DMCA you are not responsible for the actions of the people you are serving. However you will be sued anyway. There is a safe harbor provision in the DMCA to get such a suit tossed. To fall under the safe harbor provision you need to register with the copyright office, notify users of your policies, etc. More details are available at Chilling Effects.
The Computer Decency Act has a similar provision related to other issues (i.e. transfer of child porn mentioned by another poster, libel, fraud, etc).
I am curious what the significance of a license is. I assume a licensed investigator has to take a test and possibly be bonded. How does that affect their ability to collect evidence or impact their credibility in court? One would expect most states to have similar licensing requirements. If MediaSentry is licensed in some states certainly they must follow the general guidelines that Texas requires of licensed investigators. Also, since copyright infringement is a federal issue why does it matter what Texas law says?
Um, why does that link not work? Is this a legitimate document?
Obviously something went wrong with the way I posted it. I think I know what went wrong (I used spaces instead of %20). Let me try again. If that doesn't work, I copied the link from another response to your post (actually a response to a response). ntk responded to the first response to your post so you can find the link there.
Note that the point is, Google isn't getting sued to see -who- DaTruthSquad is. Google is getting sued to reveal if the guy is the former mayor.
As another respondant mentioned, the subpoena asks for a lot more than Google's affirmation that the blogger is/isn't the former mayor. It specifically requests the blogger's:
Account holder name
mailing address
email address
telephone number
URL
IP address
browser type and language
and any and all account information including account settings and profile information.
Copies of weblog posts and comments, including drafts
Any and all email received by Google from the account holder
Any and all emails sent on Google's server by the account holder
...
and any other information associated with this account
At one point lawmakers are gonna put their foot down and make sure this comes to an end, and that it can never happen again, right?...........right?
Have you ever paid attention to all of those 10,000 page "free trade" treaties we keep signing? Almost every treaty has a provision regarding copyright. Generally each treaty requires stronger and stronger copyright provisions. If congress actually did come to their senses and balance copyright law, we would be in violation of tons of treaties and subject to massive economic sanctions.
Balanced copyrights will require a worldwide effort and support from the heads of state of dozens of countries...just to get started.
Is it just me or is there a ridiculous number of exhibits and motions in this Lindor case? I count 239 links on Ray's blog just for this one case. I noticed this link from December 14, 2006--a year ago--in which the plaintiffs appear to be stalling on this very issue. The letter makes reference to a hearing from August of 2006. Has this one issue really been going on that long?
who appointed Ray Beckerman the primary RIAA gestapo?
As far as I know, Ray Beckerman volunteered to help the cause. And it is indeed volunteering: he goes well beyond the normal call of duty for his pay/occupation. He pursues his cases with a diligence and excellence that is remarkable.
What about having a disinterested party as the fund adviser?
I understand the need for transparency, but if Ray is willing to undertake the task (and it will no doubt involve some tedious paperwork and such), then that's great. He is in a position to make informed choices, and to use this money to greatest effect.
Moreover it's not like he is a rogue agent here. The FSF will of course have a say in what happens. So, to the extent you trust the FSF and Ray, this is a good choice. Since both of them have proven track records of protecting individual rights, I'd say that donating to this cause is a good idea. (And, in the unlikely event that either does something to undermine their reputation, we can all donate our money elsewhere.)
Ray, you're the only person on Slashdot to write so eloquently, and without any spelling errors.
I don't think parole works that way. Conditions of parole will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Regardless, if someone violates parole they, at worst, are sent back for the remainder of their term. The term does not start over. In practice if someone violates parole they go back to prison only for part of their remaining time, if at all. Convicts are occasionally ordered to pay restitution but I believe that is unrelated to parole.
The machine could have hardware that computes a cryptographic hash on the data on disk and displays it on the front of the machine. That can be circumvented, but it would be much more difficult. Having the source code (to the whole system) you can compile according to prepared instructions and compute your own checksum to verify they are the same.
In response to your question, "Is there really a concern that some competing software vendor will copy their 'tally up the votes' routine", we here at Diebold take great pride in the quality of our product. Our "tally up the votes"TM routine is a prized trade secret developed through extensive research and experimentation. If our competitors could simply copy our unique technique for counting votes they could develop the same product without incurring the significant costs of researching how to count.
I'm sure you can appreciate the sensitive technical know-how at the core of our product. Only a few vendors have discovered the secret to counting votes. If this knowledge became public anyone could count see how we count votes which would take away our incentive to create a much valued product which serves to protect democracy.
God Bless America, Tom Swidarski CEO of Diebold, Inc.
I suspect the parent post was referring to the BGH lawsuit. It was actually a FOX affiliate that was sued, but IIRC the whistleblowers were fired at the behest of the station's corporate parent. The station lost in a jury trial. The ruling was overturned on appeal on the basis that Florida's whistleblower law applied to violations of laws, rules, and regulations. The court concluded the FCC only has a 'policy' against falsifying news (interestingly that argument was rejected on three separate occasions before the trial). To add insult to injury, the plaintiffs were ordered to pay FOX's $1.7 million in legal fees.
In their legal filings FOX argued that they had the right to fill their news with outright lies. That's a little bit different than what the court ruled so instead of citing the ruling many reports say something to the effect of, "FOX won a lawsuit by arguing they could tell outright lies in the news."
The background on the story is somewhat interesting. The reporters investigated a story about rBGH. They had it all ready to air when Monsanto found out about it. Monsanto contacted FOX and threatened to pull their ads if the story went forth. FOX responded by ordering the reporters to effectively report the opposite of the truth. The reporters refused and threatened to report the station to the FCC. The station responded by firing them.
The plaintiffs used to have a web site up detailing the issue but I can't find it right now (they may have taken it down). IIRC, FOX went ahead and aired the fake story anyway (which was unrelated to the lawsuit).
They control the ODF technical committee, and their patent license allows them to stop the ODF TC if the ODF TC goes in a direction Sun does not like.
OpenOffice.org is licensed under the LGPL. They can not license it under the LGPL unless they allow all associated patents to be used in any LGPL code including LGPL'd code to support competing document formats.
Hi,
I don't agree with a lot of (most of?) what you have to say. Nevertheless I found your site quite interesting. Unfortunately it has been off line for a couple years. What happened?
I don't know of anything else that can get as much weight to orbit as the shuttle.
At 21,000 kg to LEO, the Ariane 5 ECA comes pretty close. And it does a lot better than the shuttle to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The Delta IV does slightly better than the shuttle at 25,800kg to LEO versus the shuttle's 24,400kg.
The Saturn V could put them all to shame. Although the planned Ares V can carry even more than the Saturn V.
So what you're saying is we need to set up an annual day of remembrance so no one will forget that the internet is here to make sure we can communicate our retaliation plans when we're struck by a Nuclear attack.
Obviously ISO needs to revise their rules to prevent vote tampering, as obviously happened with the OOXML vote.
I think that was actually vote buying. And yes, ISO should change their rules to impose substantial financial penalties on any member caught selling their vote.
I trot out this old quote from the postal museum in Washington, D.C.
At the beginning of the new America, nearly all the news came by mail. When the Constitution was signed, it was rushed by post riders to every town that had a printing press. And that's how the newspapers were able to bring the resounding news of how we were to govern ourselves. The newspapers knew of it first by mail.
In England, for centuries, the mail was frequently scrutinized by agents of the Crown or of the Parliament. It could be worth your life to write a letter that might be seen as having the seeds of treason. This did not happen here. From the beginning, by and large, the U.S. mails have been free of eyes other than our own and those of the sender.
To the framers of the Constitution, the mail made the engine of democracy run--along with the newspapers. And newspapers then printed a good deal of correspondence. Rufus Putnam, a key military figure in the Revolutionary War, said, "The knowledge diffused among the people by newspapers, by correspondence between friends" was crucial to the future of the nation. "Nothing can be more fatal to a republican government than ignorance among its citizens."
As a journalist, I have sometimes been asked where my leads for stories come from. Much of the time, they come from opening the mail. Readers from all over the country send personal stories, newspaper clippings, local court decisions, and student newspaper editorials arguing for the First Amendment rights of students. There is no other way I would have known about these stories except through the mail. It is through letters that I often receive highly confidential stories about unfairness in the justice system from people who would not trust any other form of communication.
The framers of the Constitution knew how vital the mail would be when Article I was written to protect privacy of communication through the mail.
Nat Hentoff is a columnist for the Washington Post and the Village Voice, and the author of Free Speech for Me, but Not for Thee. How the Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other.
I'm trying to understand this. Although it is painted as a marketing arrangement, does this provide them the immunity (going forward) that Congree would not grant retroactively?
I doubt it. The information they are sharing (who you called, when, and for how long) is basically the same information the police can get from a pen register. The Supreme Court decided long ago that pen registers do not require a warrant.
The immunity the telcos are seeking relates to allowing the NSA to evesdrop on calls. On the other hand, I believe there is a data mining component to the alleged collusion.
WHY do we care if uncle sam knows? Why is privacy such a big deal?
Mike was going to blow the whistle. He had it all planned out. He was set to meet the reporter at 3:30 in the coffee shop. In just a few hours the world would see video of the county Sheriff hanging a black man. All he had left to do was register with the police department to let them know where he would be. That's fine. Privacy is no big deal. Why would he care if Uncle Sam knows where he is?
The fact is you can't have anonymous speech if you don't have anonymity. Anonymous speech is a key constitutional right that has been crucial to the betterment of our civilization. The Federalist Papers were written anonymously. Shortly before the civil war a newspaper publisher in Ohio (a free state) was murdered after publishing a story critical of slavery. Had his identity remained a secret he would have been fine. Even today reporters routinely take leads from anonymous sources and use those leads to further their investigations.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the judge did grant a permanent injunction against the defendant which bars him from making DNS requests on Sierra host names:
This reminds me of Trempealeau county in Wisconsin where they have all but outlawed windmills. Trempealeau county is a rural community with lots of available wind. But due to someone's lobbying efforts the county board has decided windmills are too loud and cast dangerous shadows! In particular the lobbyist has convinced the board that the rhythmic nature of the shadows and sound will cause health effects in children. So now windmills constructed in Trempealeau county must be at least one mile from the nearest house. You can not draw a circle two miles in diameter in Trempealeau county without overlapping a house.
Many of these were tied to the lack of an expert witness. Nevertheless her lawyer should have addressed the last issue at a minimum.
I think you're off by a factor of 1000. I get $3.5 million. That's far more practical. You're numbers come out to $50/kWh.
The Computer Decency Act has a similar provision related to other issues (i.e. transfer of child porn mentioned by another poster, libel, fraud, etc).
I am curious what the significance of a license is. I assume a licensed investigator has to take a test and possibly be bonded. How does that affect their ability to collect evidence or impact their credibility in court? One would expect most states to have similar licensing requirements. If MediaSentry is licensed in some states certainly they must follow the general guidelines that Texas requires of licensed investigators. Also, since copyright infringement is a federal issue why does it matter what Texas law says?
Obviously something went wrong with the way I posted it. I think I know what went wrong (I used spaces instead of %20). Let me try again. If that doesn't work, I copied the link from another response to your post (actually a response to a response). ntk responded to the first response to your post so you can find the link there.
Yes, that is much better. Thanks!
That is a fantastic quote, but the only place it can be found on the web is Slashdot which makes me think Ghandi never said it.
As another respondant mentioned, the subpoena asks for a lot more than Google's affirmation that the blogger is/isn't the former mayor. It specifically requests the blogger's:
Have you ever paid attention to all of those 10,000 page "free trade" treaties we keep signing? Almost every treaty has a provision regarding copyright. Generally each treaty requires stronger and stronger copyright provisions. If congress actually did come to their senses and balance copyright law, we would be in violation of tons of treaties and subject to massive economic sanctions.
Balanced copyrights will require a worldwide effort and support from the heads of state of dozens of countries...just to get started.
Is it just me or is there a ridiculous number of exhibits and motions in this Lindor case? I count 239 links on Ray's blog just for this one case. I noticed this link from December 14, 2006--a year ago--in which the plaintiffs appear to be stalling on this very issue. The letter makes reference to a hearing from August of 2006. Has this one issue really been going on that long?
I don't think parole works that way. Conditions of parole will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Regardless, if someone violates parole they, at worst, are sent back for the remainder of their term. The term does not start over. In practice if someone violates parole they go back to prison only for part of their remaining time, if at all. Convicts are occasionally ordered to pay restitution but I believe that is unrelated to parole.
The machine could have hardware that computes a cryptographic hash on the data on disk and displays it on the front of the machine. That can be circumvented, but it would be much more difficult. Having the source code (to the whole system) you can compile according to prepared instructions and compute your own checksum to verify they are the same.
Dear grahamsz,
In response to your question, "Is there really a concern that some competing software vendor will copy their 'tally up the votes' routine", we here at Diebold take great pride in the quality of our product. Our "tally up the votes"TM routine is a prized trade secret developed through extensive research and experimentation. If our competitors could simply copy our unique technique for counting votes they could develop the same product without incurring the significant costs of researching how to count.
I'm sure you can appreciate the sensitive technical know-how at the core of our product. Only a few vendors have discovered the secret to counting votes. If this knowledge became public anyone could count see how we count votes which would take away our incentive to create a much valued product which serves to protect democracy.
God Bless America,
Tom Swidarski
CEO of Diebold, Inc.
In their legal filings FOX argued that they had the right to fill their news with outright lies. That's a little bit different than what the court ruled so instead of citing the ruling many reports say something to the effect of, "FOX won a lawsuit by arguing they could tell outright lies in the news."
The background on the story is somewhat interesting. The reporters investigated a story about rBGH. They had it all ready to air when Monsanto found out about it. Monsanto contacted FOX and threatened to pull their ads if the story went forth. FOX responded by ordering the reporters to effectively report the opposite of the truth. The reporters refused and threatened to report the station to the FCC. The station responded by firing them.
The plaintiffs used to have a web site up detailing the issue but I can't find it right now (they may have taken it down). IIRC, FOX went ahead and aired the fake story anyway (which was unrelated to the lawsuit).
OpenOffice.org is licensed under the LGPL. They can not license it under the LGPL unless they allow all associated patents to be used in any LGPL code including LGPL'd code to support competing document formats.
Hi, I don't agree with a lot of (most of?) what you have to say. Nevertheless I found your site quite interesting. Unfortunately it has been off line for a couple years. What happened?
At 21,000 kg to LEO, the Ariane 5 ECA comes pretty close. And it does a lot better than the shuttle to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The Delta IV does slightly better than the shuttle at 25,800kg to LEO versus the shuttle's 24,400kg.
The Saturn V could put them all to shame. Although the planned Ares V can carry even more than the Saturn V.
So what you're saying is we need to set up an annual day of remembrance so no one will forget that the internet is here to make sure we can communicate our retaliation plans when we're struck by a Nuclear attack.
I think that was actually vote buying. And yes, ISO should change their rules to impose substantial financial penalties on any member caught selling their vote.
I doubt it. The information they are sharing (who you called, when, and for how long) is basically the same information the police can get from a pen register. The Supreme Court decided long ago that pen registers do not require a warrant.
The immunity the telcos are seeking relates to allowing the NSA to evesdrop on calls. On the other hand, I believe there is a data mining component to the alleged collusion.
Mike was going to blow the whistle. He had it all planned out. He was set to meet the reporter at 3:30 in the coffee shop. In just a few hours the world would see video of the county Sheriff hanging a black man. All he had left to do was register with the police department to let them know where he would be. That's fine. Privacy is no big deal. Why would he care if Uncle Sam knows where he is?
The fact is you can't have anonymous speech if you don't have anonymity. Anonymous speech is a key constitutional right that has been crucial to the betterment of our civilization. The Federalist Papers were written anonymously. Shortly before the civil war a newspaper publisher in Ohio (a free state) was murdered after publishing a story critical of slavery. Had his identity remained a secret he would have been fine. Even today reporters routinely take leads from anonymous sources and use those leads to further their investigations.