The laws on the books are fine, it's the interpretation of damages that is ridiculous. If the fine was actually in keeping with the tort/crime then it would be ok.
Violate the copyright on 50 songs? $1 per song = $50 fine, plus legal fees.
Don't want to go to court? Pay the $50 fine and closed case (treat it like a traffic ticket is treated).
Get held liable 3 times? Fines increase exponentially, and "points" are applied to your record, which fall off your record after a certain amount of time (3 years?).
Accrue enough "points", and your ability to access the internet is revoked (that would be similar to getting to the point where your license is revoked... very serious, indeed, and not a frivolous thing to do to someone). This, like the points, would wear off over time.
I'm technically inclined enough to set up IMAP and POP3, but I intend to use this feature. Why? Because I like the Gmail interface. I already use Google Docs and Spreadsheets in offline mode, and love it (there are, of course, some rough edges, but MS Word wasn't initially without a number of rough edges either - some would say it still has rough edges).
IMAP is great, but since I already have gears, why should I worry about setting up yet another application? I like the simplicity of Getting Things Done with just Google Apps in Firefox, and adding yet another interface just doesn't make sense.
I actually do have a nuclear reactor practically in my back yard (see it every day on my way to work). Doesn't bother me one bit (they really are a safe form of energy, and much much greener than burning coal).
Actually, if it's going to blow, I want to be closest to it to ensure I don't survive with horrible burns and die of radiation poisoning later.
It's rather difficult to code with 100% correct code when the developer is expected to be the project manager, the software architect, the QA team, and the production migration team all on his or her own, and to get it done in 1/2 the time that he or she knows is the minimum amount of time needed to get the job done right.
Add to that hundreds of different pieces of the core code being designed by different teams with little to no overlap in communications, testing, etc., and you get a nightmare - it's impossible to craft perfect code in this manner.
Some companies are better at it than others, and break out the responsibilities, but without the entire team effectively being a borg collective, there are going to be lines of code in one developer's project that will break another line of code in a separate project. It's not a question of if, but of when, and how much are you willing to spend to get it fixed.
At some point, the cost of perfection is so high that the customer would never be willing to pay the price needed for the company to still make profit.
Ever think of what a newspaper could be like if it was simply a large, foldable, flexible screen on which you download your daily news? Just think - get a "newspaper" delivered once per week. It downloads the most recent news constantly via wifi or some type of cell adapter (think Minority Report).
Now the failing newspaper companies suddenly have a way to bring back the morning paper, and now, they can sell unlimited pages of ads and fill it with unlimited content, all accessible via page flip buttons, and if they can figure out how to use capacitance sense pad tech with this, imagine touching a hyperlink with your finger on a page to read more about an article. Imagine the newspapers simply fitting everything as they want it with a "more" link at the bottom of each article.
Now do you see how this could be used?
Thank you so much for posting this, as I fall into category 3 mostly:
I believe God created everything... the how is not so clear, so let's posit ideas and hypotheses, discuss, reason logically with the facts presented, and come to our own conclusions.
I also partially fall into your #2 category: believe that it is possible that God decided to "start" the universe already old, with billions of years of history that never really happened.
Problem is, there is no way scientifically differentiate between "The universe is billions of years old" and "The universe appears billions of years old because God created it that way" and it is really a moot point - it's not important in the grand scheme of things, and certainly not a central argument point for anyone who truly understands the scripture about preaching "Christ and Him crucified" and sticking to the core pieces by not arguing about the little things (read the scriptures - we're told clearly not to sweat the details).
Anyways, I love reading about these discoveries... what's more cool to think about - that everything that exists was just put that way, or that God played with the universe like we make sand castles, and use a runnaway nuclear explosion to create the moon?
Hey, maybe God likes to play with explosives, ever though maybe that's why there are so many burning balls of gas out there?
Well, the 100 or 200 or 1000 undo savings effectively are the "save every character" type of save... what's the issue with simply saving the undo data, along with each revision (a revision being a human initiated save, or a save due to shutdown, or the last undo piece saved just prior to a system dump - document recovery as an example).
With the above system, you could have an "always saved" method that would not be insane to handle. Open the latest revision, decide the last 12 changes you made you didn't want? Undo them.
If you save the file as a base record for each revision and a transactional record for each undo step saved between revisions, you have an economical method of file storage that does not require the user to do any sort of "saving" manually.
Video explains it in detail. They request a login username and password to view your information. You authorize them. You have full control over which items appear to which people you've authorized.
Their plan (which they were actively implementing) was to sell desktops with legitimate copies of OSX. The only thing they did that was "wrong" was challenged the validity of that small piece of the EULA that states that you agree to only install the software on Apple hardware. Psystar's contention was that Apple's EULA stifled competition, and effectively was a monopoly in the OSX industry. This was shot down in court (I believe) as Psystar's definition of "industry" was deemed too narrow.
Personally, I believe that the spirit of the anti-monopoly laws is being violated by Apple, but the letter of the law allows for it, sadly.
So, there was nothing illegal about the OSX distribution, only the "pre-installed" part. Psystar still seems to be selling the machines, only their called Open with Mac OSX (instead of OpenMac).
Re:I haven't followed the whole Android business,
on
T-Mobile G1 Rooted
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Pay attention to his post. He said the cracked game was one that was paid for and that a ridiculous clause of the DMCA makes that cracked copy of an application that he legally paid for and attempted to use in a use that falls under fair use, illegal. Two conflicting laws exist, making it impossible to truly know if you are breaking the law or not, or how it will play out in court - Fair Use Rights and DMCA.
Fair Use explicitly lays out when and how you can use the products you have bought. DMCA limits these rights without having gone through the required process of reforming the original law.
His point was that you should not be afraid of the government. You should not have to fear that having a photo on your laptop of your darling baby boy taking a bath will mean that you will spend years and years in jail for child pornography. His point is you should not have to fear that someone will just burst into your home and search through your entire house, hard drive, etc., without following due process of law. Whether or not the recipient of this illegal search is guilty of something or not is not the issue.
If you want to get angry at someone, get angry at the cops for not following the law and not receiving a warrant to search prior to running the search on this hard drive. It is their fault that this man is now free. It is their fault for not following the letter of the law.
It is better for a hundred criminals to go free and retain our rights to not having unreasonable search and seizure* than for a single innocent man to be placed in jail.
Sounds ridiculous until you are that innocent man.
The Fourth Amendment, for reference: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Simple solution to exercise and the ability to "run around the neighborhood" is to have a running ring that has artificial gravity created by centripetal force. That way, instead of limited exercise, you have an actual "gravity" room to run and exercise in. Not sure if the physics work, but it seemed like a simple solution.
Or they could simply do the work to get a McDonalds TLD, and then the only official McDonalds sites are blah.blah.blah.McDonalds
So they could have Toys.McDonalds, Menus.McDonalds, and they could have their homepage actually be McDonalds (without any subdomain)
I don't "need" religion. I truly believe based on the facts that are available to me by both experience and objective study that my faith (not the current version of that religion, necessarily) is a true faith, and that without it, my life is meaningless.
I sincerely believe that there is a spiritual law to the universe that cannot be defined by science (just as faith cannot define science - science is about the how, faith is about the why). Just as gravity is a law of this universe, and to ignore it is to come to harm, so is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself" a spiritual law, and to ignore it will cause one to come to harm.
So, in response to your comment "look at the subject matter rather than rely on hearsay" - I do not rely on hearsay, I rely on firsthand accounts and historical data. The bible has many first hand witnesses recording the facts, corroborated by archeological digs and other historical documents, and is considered by historians to be a more accurately passed down document than the Iliad and the Odyssey (which are considered to be very accurate transcriptions of the original oral poetry) because much of the bible was written within one generation of the historical occurrence, whereas the time between the oral origination of both the Iliad and the Odyssey and when the written versions were transcribed is much greater.
So, in my case, your statement is clearly false. It is because I have reviewed the subject matter that I believe my faith to be the truth, and therefore "need" it (or more accurately, want it, and choose to rely on it).
How so? It's simple, before commenting on any topic, you should be somewhat familiar with the subject matter. I cannot comment on the Satanic Bible because I've never read it. I can comment on the Christian Bible (3 or 4 translations), the Mormon Bible, the Qur'an, and many other religious texts because I've read them. Anything else is just spouting off stereotypes that were picked up from somewhere else without any basis in facts.
Slashdot Mirror
The laws on the books are fine, it's the interpretation of damages that is ridiculous. If the fine was actually in keeping with the tort/crime then it would be ok.
Violate the copyright on 50 songs? $1 per song = $50 fine, plus legal fees.
Don't want to go to court? Pay the $50 fine and closed case (treat it like a traffic ticket is treated).
Get held liable 3 times? Fines increase exponentially, and "points" are applied to your record, which fall off your record after a certain amount of time (3 years?).
Accrue enough "points", and your ability to access the internet is revoked (that would be similar to getting to the point where your license is revoked... very serious, indeed, and not a frivolous thing to do to someone). This, like the points, would wear off over time.
The punishment should really fit the crime.
I'm technically inclined enough to set up IMAP and POP3, but I intend to use this feature. Why? Because I like the Gmail interface. I already use Google Docs and Spreadsheets in offline mode, and love it (there are, of course, some rough edges, but MS Word wasn't initially without a number of rough edges either - some would say it still has rough edges).
IMAP is great, but since I already have gears, why should I worry about setting up yet another application? I like the simplicity of Getting Things Done with just Google Apps in Firefox, and adding yet another interface just doesn't make sense.
I actually do have a nuclear reactor practically in my back yard (see it every day on my way to work). Doesn't bother me one bit (they really are a safe form of energy, and much much greener than burning coal).
Actually, if it's going to blow, I want to be closest to it to ensure I don't survive with horrible burns and die of radiation poisoning later.
It's rather difficult to code with 100% correct code when the developer is expected to be the project manager, the software architect, the QA team, and the production migration team all on his or her own, and to get it done in 1/2 the time that he or she knows is the minimum amount of time needed to get the job done right.
Add to that hundreds of different pieces of the core code being designed by different teams with little to no overlap in communications, testing, etc., and you get a nightmare - it's impossible to craft perfect code in this manner.
Some companies are better at it than others, and break out the responsibilities, but without the entire team effectively being a borg collective, there are going to be lines of code in one developer's project that will break another line of code in a separate project. It's not a question of if, but of when, and how much are you willing to spend to get it fixed.
At some point, the cost of perfection is so high that the customer would never be willing to pay the price needed for the company to still make profit.
As long as the "pork" is spent fairly among states and doesn't bankrupt us
Except for the fact that if our nation was a business, it would be so bankrupt, it's ridiculous:
Debt Clock
Ever think of what a newspaper could be like if it was simply a large, foldable, flexible screen on which you download your daily news? Just think - get a "newspaper" delivered once per week. It downloads the most recent news constantly via wifi or some type of cell adapter (think Minority Report). Now the failing newspaper companies suddenly have a way to bring back the morning paper, and now, they can sell unlimited pages of ads and fill it with unlimited content, all accessible via page flip buttons, and if they can figure out how to use capacitance sense pad tech with this, imagine touching a hyperlink with your finger on a page to read more about an article. Imagine the newspapers simply fitting everything as they want it with a "more" link at the bottom of each article. Now do you see how this could be used?
Thank you so much for posting this, as I fall into category 3 mostly:
I believe God created everything... the how is not so clear, so let's posit ideas and hypotheses, discuss, reason logically with the facts presented, and come to our own conclusions.
I also partially fall into your #2 category: believe that it is possible that God decided to "start" the universe already old, with billions of years of history that never really happened.
Problem is, there is no way scientifically differentiate between "The universe is billions of years old" and "The universe appears billions of years old because God created it that way" and it is really a moot point - it's not important in the grand scheme of things, and certainly not a central argument point for anyone who truly understands the scripture about preaching "Christ and Him crucified" and sticking to the core pieces by not arguing about the little things (read the scriptures - we're told clearly not to sweat the details).
Anyways, I love reading about these discoveries... what's more cool to think about - that everything that exists was just put that way, or that God played with the universe like we make sand castles, and use a runnaway nuclear explosion to create the moon?
Hey, maybe God likes to play with explosives, ever though maybe that's why there are so many burning balls of gas out there?
Well, the 100 or 200 or 1000 undo savings effectively are the "save every character" type of save... what's the issue with simply saving the undo data, along with each revision (a revision being a human initiated save, or a save due to shutdown, or the last undo piece saved just prior to a system dump - document recovery as an example).
With the above system, you could have an "always saved" method that would not be insane to handle. Open the latest revision, decide the last 12 changes you made you didn't want? Undo them.
If you save the file as a base record for each revision and a transactional record for each undo step saved between revisions, you have an economical method of file storage that does not require the user to do any sort of "saving" manually.
http://www.telnic.org/individual-discover2.html
Video explains it in detail. They request a login username and password to view your information. You authorize them. You have full control over which items appear to which people you've authorized.
It's still crap, but it's there.
Um... read a bit about it - there is a privacy feature.
Their plan (which they were actively implementing) was to sell desktops with legitimate copies of OSX. The only thing they did that was "wrong" was challenged the validity of that small piece of the EULA that states that you agree to only install the software on Apple hardware. Psystar's contention was that Apple's EULA stifled competition, and effectively was a monopoly in the OSX industry. This was shot down in court (I believe) as Psystar's definition of "industry" was deemed too narrow.
Personally, I believe that the spirit of the anti-monopoly laws is being violated by Apple, but the letter of the law allows for it, sadly.
So, there was nothing illegal about the OSX distribution, only the "pre-installed" part. Psystar still seems to be selling the machines, only their called Open with Mac OSX (instead of OpenMac).
Yes. Microsoft is working on that one: http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/licenses.mspx
Re: jbeaupre sig.
Wow, I just violated the DMCA with my mind. The mind boggles.
Fine, fine:
/. elitist would munge one's own grammar in such a fashion."
"No
Shouldn't that be: /. elitist would munge his or her grammar in such a fashion."
"No
Couldn't you tell by the 1.3 million userID? :-P
Well, a poodle can mate with a greyhound, and they are different species, right?
The asterisk was supposed to link to the Fourth Amendment comment at the bottom... I've really got to proofread my own stuff more often.
Pay attention to his post. He said the cracked game was one that was paid for and that a ridiculous clause of the DMCA makes that cracked copy of an application that he legally paid for and attempted to use in a use that falls under fair use, illegal. Two conflicting laws exist, making it impossible to truly know if you are breaking the law or not, or how it will play out in court - Fair Use Rights and DMCA.
Fair Use explicitly lays out when and how you can use the products you have bought. DMCA limits these rights without having gone through the required process of reforming the original law.
His point was that you should not be afraid of the government. You should not have to fear that having a photo on your laptop of your darling baby boy taking a bath will mean that you will spend years and years in jail for child pornography. His point is you should not have to fear that someone will just burst into your home and search through your entire house, hard drive, etc., without following due process of law. Whether or not the recipient of this illegal search is guilty of something or not is not the issue.
If you want to get angry at someone, get angry at the cops for not following the law and not receiving a warrant to search prior to running the search on this hard drive. It is their fault that this man is now free. It is their fault for not following the letter of the law.
It is better for a hundred criminals to go free and retain our rights to not having unreasonable search and seizure* than for a single innocent man to be placed in jail.
Sounds ridiculous until you are that innocent man.
The Fourth Amendment, for reference: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Wow... a Godwin's Law Nazi - What will they think of next?
Ever heard of Cowboy BeBop?
Simple solution to exercise and the ability to "run around the neighborhood" is to have a running ring that has artificial gravity created by centripetal force. That way, instead of limited exercise, you have an actual "gravity" room to run and exercise in. Not sure if the physics work, but it seemed like a simple solution.
Or they could simply do the work to get a McDonalds TLD, and then the only official McDonalds sites are blah.blah.blah.McDonalds So they could have Toys.McDonalds, Menus.McDonalds, and they could have their homepage actually be McDonalds (without any subdomain)
I don't "need" religion. I truly believe based on the facts that are available to me by both experience and objective study that my faith (not the current version of that religion, necessarily) is a true faith, and that without it, my life is meaningless.
I sincerely believe that there is a spiritual law to the universe that cannot be defined by science (just as faith cannot define science - science is about the how, faith is about the why). Just as gravity is a law of this universe, and to ignore it is to come to harm, so is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself" a spiritual law, and to ignore it will cause one to come to harm.
So, in response to your comment "look at the subject matter rather than rely on hearsay" - I do not rely on hearsay, I rely on firsthand accounts and historical data. The bible has many first hand witnesses recording the facts, corroborated by archeological digs and other historical documents, and is considered by historians to be a more accurately passed down document than the Iliad and the Odyssey (which are considered to be very accurate transcriptions of the original oral poetry) because much of the bible was written within one generation of the historical occurrence, whereas the time between the oral origination of both the Iliad and the Odyssey and when the written versions were transcribed is much greater.
So, in my case, your statement is clearly false. It is because I have reviewed the subject matter that I believe my faith to be the truth, and therefore "need" it (or more accurately, want it, and choose to rely on it).
How so? It's simple, before commenting on any topic, you should be somewhat familiar with the subject matter. I cannot comment on the Satanic Bible because I've never read it. I can comment on the Christian Bible (3 or 4 translations), the Mormon Bible, the Qur'an, and many other religious texts because I've read them. Anything else is just spouting off stereotypes that were picked up from somewhere else without any basis in facts.
Translating.