Limits of intra-EU trade are attacked immediately.
"Immediately" is a very long time when it comes to satellite television. The UK based Sky Television has for years been deactivating cards used by fully paying subscribers for the heinous crime of calling their hotline from outside the UK. The EU turns a blind eye, because its free trade rules supposedly don't apply to copyrights. --
I'm not sure if this has ever been posted before, but if we all really want to kick some RIAA ass while making sure that our favorite artists don't lose out on the process, perhaps this is what we should do:
1) Download all the mp3s you can.
2) For each mp3 that you download, send $0.50 or $1.00 to the artist (via mail) for the mp3.
How about using Fairtunes rather than mail? It's a lot more convenient for both the listener and the artist. --
Something I've always wondered:
I always have to sign my name (though it's usually more of a scribble) when I use my credit card in a physical store, but no such authorization is required for online credit card transactions. Why?
Merchants that for whatever reason don't require signatures have to pay a greater percentage of the transaction to the card company to cover the increased risk of fraud. Online merchants obviously have no choice, but it's in the interest of those that do to require signatures.
Nobody ever bothers to check my signature vs. the on the back of my card in real life, so why are these signatures required in the first place? Is it tradition =) or something?
Obviously that's just sloppiness on the part of the salespeople.
--
If they were to set up a FORM with a text entry field for a URL, and a submit button, which would then redirect you to a mirror site, would that be considered linking?
IANAL and I don't know, however,
this probably would if it had been done by the defendants, but it wasn't. </shameless plug>. --
It's probably too late for this to be read, but I've written a pair of perl scripts to encode a file be reordering the lines of a (different) text file. The scripts are available from the URL above, as is the css-descramble source encoded using the text of the DMCA.
--
Who cares who wins or loses? I know damn well that DeCSS is never going away unless the world explodes in a giant fireball
DeCSS is never going away, but if it's declared illegal it will also never result in the creation of unlicensed commercial players with features that consumers want, rather than Macrovision and region coding. It also means open source players cannot be included in official Linux distributions. --
This player might do PAL->NTSC conversion but does it go the other way round too? (It's not a major concern to me since my TV will do it anyway but not everyone has a nice glitzy 16:9 tv)
If it really is largely identical to the Apex in these respects, then it does. I have a Yamakawa-badged player and it quite happily converts both ways. --
I am simply saying that permanent use and resale licenses to changeable information (software, art, literature, music, movies) which can be traded securely, without loss or duplication, in a public market, is a form of currency.
I would respectfully disagree with this analogy. Currency has to be limited because it is a reflection of the value of tangible goods. Increase the number of currency units by duplication and the ratio of currency units to real goods drops resulting in the devaluation of every unit. However with information such as software, books or movies, their value is not based on any numerical relationship between them and tangible goods, but on usefulness or sentimental (entertainment) value, neither of which is diminished by producing an identical copy. Duplicating currency units affects every other user of that currency. Duplicating software and entertainment does not affect the other users in any way. --
What I'd be interested in is a true combination of the two technologies MP3 and CDs. The combination I'm looking for is a CD player which can also read MP3s like those coming to market, but downloads them into a RAM card. Thus there is no chance of skipping once loaded to the memory
Surely it wouldn't be necessary to load the mp3 files into RAM en masse to avoid skipping. It would be enough to load the one about to be played. --
Let me get this straight: you see an algorithm for compressing audio data as illegal. Would you mind explaining what exactly makes mp3 illegal and, say, JPEG not? Is it that mp3 is being used for illegal activities? Well JPEG is almost certainly used to distribute illegal porn. Does that make the JPEG algorithm or file format illegal as well? --
But that's not all. If I find out some trade secrets and post them online, then I can get sued by the owners of the information.
IANAL, but from what I've heard here and elsewhere this is not the case if you simply "find out" the trade secret rather than "misappropriating" it, say by signing an NDA before being allowed to see it.
However, there are limited legitimate reasons for wanting to copy a DVD to VHS. Not many people have a TV that can't handle Macrovision, and very few people to back up their DVD's to tape. Some people do, but not many.
However there are several reasons for wanting to connect a DVD player to a TV through a VCR without using it to record, such as the TV not having enough inputs. Macrovision usually thwarts such efforts. --
No $#!+? Whereas most other DVD players play the movie whilst it's still encrypted, and let you watch the white noise, I suppose?
This part is a bit misleading. The secret menu allows CSS descrambling to be turned off, so scrambled DVDs won't play. Only really useful for checking if DVDs are scrambled or not. --
Can you buy this player in the UK? If not is there another one that can play mp3?
There is a very similar player available in Germany badged as a Yamakawa. It is available elsewhere under other names. There is an unofficial FAQ at http://start.at/yamakawa, hoever it is in German. --
One thing that gets my goat is that a lot of the 'news for nerds' on slashdot is absolutely USA specific.
I submitted this story and I've never been to the USA in my life. A player very similar to the Apex is available here in Germany under the "Yamakawa" label. Maybe something similar is available in Oz. --
Apparently in France, the equivalent of Comet/Currys/Dixons sell modified DVD players off the shelves, and even sell imported DVD's
I don't know what he situation is in France, but here in Germany imported DVDs are available *everywhere*. I haven't come across anyone selling region-free players over the counter, but companies that openly advertise "chipping" are also everywhere. --
Then how do artist get paid? Simple, taxes. Everyone pays an "art tax" and artist get paid in proportion to how popular their music/movie is. Each time you play a song you increased that artists revenue. Of course barriers to cheating would have to be implemented.
With a system like this there would be no incentive to "cheat", since copying would be perfectly legal and the tax would be as easy or difficult to evade as any other tax. No extra "barriers" would be needed.
Slashdot Mirror
"Immediately" is a very long time when it comes to satellite television. The UK based Sky Television has for years been deactivating cards used by fully paying subscribers for the heinous crime of calling their hotline from outside the UK. The EU turns a blind eye, because its free trade rules supposedly don't apply to copyrights.
--
1) Download all the mp3s you can.
2) For each mp3 that you download, send $0.50 or $1.00 to the artist (via mail) for the mp3.
How about using Fairtunes rather than mail? It's a lot more convenient for both the listener and the artist.
--
Merchants that for whatever reason don't require signatures have to pay a greater percentage of the transaction to the card company to cover the increased risk of fraud. Online merchants obviously have no choice, but it's in the interest of those that do to require signatures.
Nobody ever bothers to check my signature vs. the on the back of my card in real life, so why are these signatures required in the first place? Is it tradition =) or something?
Obviously that's just sloppiness on the part of the salespeople.--
If they were to set up a FORM with a text entry field for a URL, and a submit button, which would then redirect you to a mirror site, would that be considered linking?
IANAL and I don't know, however, this probably would if it had been done by the defendants, but it wasn't. </shameless plug>.
--
It's probably too late for this to be read, but I've written a pair of perl scripts to encode a file be reordering the lines of a (different) text file. The scripts are available from the URL above, as is the css-descramble source encoded using the text of the DMCA.
--
Btw.. did Linus at some point make a list of "official" and "unofficial" distro and I just missed it?
Sorry I should have said "commercial" rather than "official".
--
Who cares who wins or loses? I know damn well that DeCSS is never going away unless the world explodes in a giant fireball
DeCSS is never going away, but if it's declared illegal it will also never result in the creation of unlicensed commercial players with features that consumers want, rather than Macrovision and region coding. It also means open source players cannot be included in official Linux distributions.
--
it is a summons.
Can you cite a source for this?
--
but I don't live in America.
Tell that to Jon Johansen.
--
This player might do PAL->NTSC conversion but does it go the other way round too? (It's not a major concern to me since my TV will do it anyway but not everyone has a nice glitzy 16:9 tv)
If it really is largely identical to the Apex in these respects, then it does. I have a Yamakawa-badged player and it quite happily converts both ways.
--
What's the ad say? 96% of the top 50 e-commerce sites use Oracle? That's 46 of them.
Actually that's 48 of them.
--
I am simply saying that permanent use and resale licenses to changeable information (software, art, literature, music, movies) which can be traded securely, without loss or duplication, in a public market, is a form of currency.
I would respectfully disagree with this analogy. Currency has to be limited because it is a reflection of the value of tangible goods. Increase the number of currency units by duplication and the ratio of currency units to real goods drops resulting in the devaluation of every unit.
However with information such as software, books or movies, their value is not based on any numerical relationship between them and tangible goods, but on usefulness or sentimental (entertainment) value, neither of which is diminished by producing an identical copy. Duplicating currency units affects every other user of that currency. Duplicating software and entertainment does not affect the other users in any way.
--
What I'd be interested in is a true combination of the two technologies MP3 and CDs. The combination I'm looking for is a CD player which can also read MP3s like those coming to market, but downloads them into a RAM card. Thus there is no chance of skipping once loaded to the memory
Surely it wouldn't be necessary to load the mp3 files into RAM en masse to avoid skipping. It would be enough to load the one about to be played.
--
I see mp3 as illegal
Let me get this straight: you see an algorithm for compressing audio data as illegal. Would you mind explaining what exactly makes mp3 illegal and, say, JPEG not?
Is it that mp3 is being used for illegal activities? Well JPEG is almost certainly used to distribute illegal porn. Does that make the JPEG algorithm or file format illegal as well?
--
But that's not all. If I find out some trade secrets and post them online, then I can get sued by the owners of the information.
IANAL, but from what I've heard here and elsewhere this is not the case if you simply "find out" the trade secret rather than "misappropriating" it, say by signing an NDA before being allowed to see it.
--
However, there are limited legitimate reasons for wanting to copy a DVD to VHS. Not many people have a TV that can't handle Macrovision, and very few people to back up their DVD's to tape. Some people do, but not many.
However there are several reasons for wanting to connect a DVD player to a TV through a VCR without using it to record, such as the TV not having enough inputs. Macrovision usually thwarts such efforts.
--
No $#!+? Whereas most other DVD players play the movie whilst it's still encrypted, and let you watch the white noise, I suppose?
This part is a bit misleading. The secret menu allows CSS descrambling to be turned off, so scrambled DVDs won't play. Only really useful for checking if DVDs are scrambled or not.
--
Can you buy this player in the UK? If not is there another one that can play mp3?
There is a very similar player available in Germany badged as a Yamakawa. It is available elsewhere under other names. There is an unofficial FAQ at http://start.at/yamakawa, hoever it is in German.
--
One thing that gets my goat is that a lot of the 'news for nerds' on slashdot is absolutely USA specific.
I submitted this story and I've never been to the USA in my life. A player very similar to the Apex is available here in Germany under the "Yamakawa" label. Maybe something similar is available in Oz.
--
Apparently in France, the equivalent of Comet/Currys/Dixons sell modified DVD players off the shelves, and even sell imported DVD's
I don't know what he situation is in France, but here in Germany imported DVDs are available *everywhere*. I haven't come across anyone selling region-free players over the counter, but companies that openly advertise "chipping" are also everywhere.
--
Then how do artist get paid? Simple, taxes. Everyone pays an "art tax" and artist get paid in proportion to how popular their music/movie is. Each time you play a song you increased that artists revenue. Of course barriers to cheating would have to be implemented.
With a system like this there would be no incentive to "cheat", since copying would be perfectly legal and the tax would be as easy or difficult to evade as any other tax. No extra "barriers" would be needed.
--