I have a solution that even the Poor could afford. Take the numbers of songs uploaded, time the costs, and then doubled. So for Jamie Thomas:
Seed ratio (or best estimate-say 10:1) times 24 songs times $2 == $480.
Of course this means RIAA wouldn't bother with such a trivial crime..... as it should be. Let them go after the REAL pirates who upload thousands/millions of songs, instead of average people doing the modern equivalent of tape trading (sharing a few songs among friends).
If that dying mother was justone story, I'd agree but there are lots of these stories where the UK Government Monopoly Care rejected patients. Like the elderly man who died in a waiting room on a gurney. The hospital claimed "not our fault" because he was "never admitted" even though he was on a bed in their lobby.
Or the 20 year British girl who wanted a PAP smear because both her grandmother and mother developed cervical cancer. In the US you just hand-over the cash and get it done, but this young lady was denied sefvice by the government monopoly. And again at age 21, 22, and 23. At 24 she developed cancer and died a short while later.
"Healthcare in the US will necessarily require rationing and withholding of procedures." - the new Health "Czar"
>>>But when medicare starts to cover US citizens at age 65, suddenly US citizens have a much better outlook.
That's not what the article says. It says upto age 65 the US and UK have equal death rates/ outlook. .
>>>US citizens lucky enough to survive until age 65 and receive medicare coverage
Only 7.5 million americans are not insured by medicare, or SSI, or SCHIP, or a private plan. The others are covered, so if there's a sudden jump at 65, then there's some other reason than "because they weren't covered before".
One way for a lawyer to demonstrate to ignorant juries is to take their photo, add bits-and-pieces to make the jury appear to be smoking dope, and then show the "before" and "after" photos the next day. That would demonstrate "reasonable doubt" that the employee is not guilty, but a victim of a modified image.
>>>The burden of proof actually is on the person who is in the picture in reality.
False. If an employee brought an "unjustified dismissal" case to court, says the photo is a computer-generated image, and the employer can not prove that the photo is a real event of Employee X smoking dope, the employer would face criminal fines. Probably civil damages too (in a separate case).
>>>So 'improvement' is not a good reason for change?
Of course it is. But this is not an improvement. This new program is a change simply for change's sake, and is no better than the old program.
As for VCR to DVD, I still consider the VCR better because it's recordable, and the Super VHS can hold upto 12 hours of dvd-quality video for capturing television shows. The DVD-R cannot. The DVD-R also has a bad habit of self-erasing (the dye fades) where a tape can last for decades. .
>>>would really hate to see what your ideal world would look like.
It would look a lot like this one, but thing's would not be changed simply to change them. For example Microsoft Office would still have its original dropdown menu system, rather than that damnable ribbon shit.
Precisely. I gave Gnome, KDE, and other variants of Ubuntu a try in 2008 and again in 2010, but I think I'm done now. I hate change when the change happens for no good reason (look at my name, or my TV with a VCR still attached to it). Anybody want to buy a shiny Lubuntu 10.0 CD? Hmmm. Maybe I'll put it on ebay.....
He may be "confident" we'll be able to retain the ability to run X applications in a compatibility mode, but I'm not. MY PS3 doesn't run a whole host of PS1 or PS2 games even though Sony claimed it would. (So I bought a space PS2 instead.) Windows Vista and Seven doesn't run old 3.1 or 95/98 apps. Mac OS X doesn't do well with classic PPC or 68000 apps.
False. When I was growing-up I had no way of publishing a photo to the whole world. I know because I tried it a couple times, but there was nothing like facebook, and the internet was still limited to just a few thousand college professors & computer hobbyists. Only the mass media corporations had the resources to distribute to the entire globe. - Not until ~2000 did the WWW reach greater than 50% of the population, and allow them to could share photos to the whole world. SO YES facebook, myspace, and other services have changed the level of distribution. .
>>>those sorts of HR department investigations are (in most civilised countries) completely 100% inaccurate and completely 100% illegal
You saying the US is uncivilized? We are a different culture from the UK, that's true, but that doesn't mean we're not civilized. We have rule of law just like you do, and without a pesky queen to overrule it, or the will of the people. Anyway:
Here it's perfectly okay for HR departments to run background checks on their employees, including contacting the Social Security (SS) department to retrieve your employment history, and online postings/websites. And I suspect even in the EU, if it's illegal, it's still performed by the human resources employees in secret. (Like in the movie GATTACA where it was illegal to sample people's genes, and yet employers did it anyway.)
Maybe you'll understand better after you become a victim yourself. I used to think like you, that nothing would ever happen, until I became scammed a few times, and 2 employers stole my wages.
A photo taken in a public park is not "owned" by anyone. The light bouncing off your body is the common property of all.
Now if your photo was in somebody's home, then they'd certainly have the right to request you stop pasting photos of their furniture/friends online, because that's (1) private and (2) enticing to thieves and potentially dangerous.
>>>Please stop thinking that the existence of Facebook in particular changes ANYTHING with regards personal privacy.
It does. It changes the level of distribution for your Drunken Party Photo from "a few friends" to "the entire globe". Which unfortunately includes your current employer, or the HR department of the new company you're trying to join.
That's a good point. If for example a teacher is discovered drinking beer on her former dormmate's Facebook, and the government tries to fire her for "setting a poor example", she can simply claim, "That is me, but I never did that. The photo is a fake and that event never happened." She can then sue the government for improper dismissal, and it's incumbent upon them to prove guilt (which they cannot do).
Same goes for any other worker who might be fired for photos online. "That is me but I was never drinking, or smoking weed. It's a fake." Innocent until proven guilty.
After reading all these new rights the EU is approving, maybe I should move there. Anybody need an english-speaking engineer? Or maybe a German-to-English translator of written works? (Maybe the market's no better in the EU than the US?)
>>>However, if the legal system has become utterly corrupt, and you can't get justice with it, and instead it's being used for oppression, resorting to violence is the natural alternative
Precisely.
>>>cause the people to force change to the legal system
Over 75% of Americans were against the Banker Bailout Bill of 2008. But the leaders shoved it through anyway. So a democratic solution really isn't going to work, since the representatives have stopped representing.
In this case the RIAA CEO is the criminal, and deserves execution, just as Hitler and Mussolini and Nero and Napoleon and Robespierre and Nicolae Ceausescu deserved death (via uprising or assassination). The ideal would be for the government to kill/imprison the tyrant, but if that's not possible then the People have to step up and perform the task themselves: "From time to time the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of brave Patriots and oppressive Tyrants. It is freedom's natural fertilizaer." - Thomas Jefferson, author of the declaration of independence, "rebel scum" against the UK Empire
"All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper."
Most of the 50 Sovereign States have similar clauses. This one is from the Union Member State of Pennsylvania.
I'm sure someone will be duped. "4G is better than 3G! Buy, buy, buy!"
Having worked with customers, they aren't too bright. About two years ago I was shopping, and I heard a couple arguing to find a TV to connect to Comcast cable, so I offered my advice. The wife wanted the CRT because it was only $100 or so, and the guy swore up-and-down that they HAD to have the flat panel because of the "analog shutoff", and the CRT would be worthless. I was honest and told them the $100 CRT would be good, but the guy refused to listen and spent ~$300 for the flat panel.
Basically he had been duped by all the "your television will stop working!" ads being run by the corporations, and thought the CRTs would be worthless. Likewise I'm sure someone will be duped by the 4G advertising too.
>>>the punishment is grossly out of proportion with the crime itself?
Ya think???;-) This ruling is ridiculous and equivalent to Indentured Servitude with a life sentence, because that's how long it will take Miss Thomas to earn the 1.5 million (plus interest) and pay it to her new Master: RIAA. The crime committed is not worthy of that heavy level of punishment. I mean - it's not as if she killed somebody. She just shared 24*4 == ~100 minutes worth of music.
Miss Bachmann, like her favorite founding father Thomas Jefferson, considers copyright a bad idea. He said: "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."
He also wrote to James Madison, author of the Constitution:
"I like the declaration of rights as far as it goes, but I should have been for going further. For instance, the following alterations and additions would have pleased me... Article 9. Monopolies may be allowed to persons for their own productions in literature, and their own inventions in the arts, for a term not exceeding ___ years, but for no longer term, and for no other purpose." Jefferson's preference for the term of copyright was submitted to Madison a few days afterward. The proposed term was that of 19 years, based on the average author's lifespan after publication. Today that length would be 35 years, and nowhere near the current 150 granted to Disney and others non-humans.
The Canadian version of RIAA (CRIA) owes *billions* to various singers for music that was used in greatest hits CDs, or TV ads, but never compensated. You see stealing is a-okay if you are the Masters. But not for us Serfs or Artists... we just get screwed.
I still think a bullet to the head of the RIAA CEO would do a world of good. And if he gets replaced, remove him too. And again and again until these idiots stop turning Our citizens into slaves via outrageous 1.5 million dollar/life sentences. Death to tyrants whether they be government leaders (Saddam) or corporate XOs.
I would expect the SAFARI browser to be highest, since there's a near-1 probability it's a Mac User and they are used to paying ~$1000 for a bottom line computer where a PC user (like me) only needs to pay $200 or so. Therefore the Mac user is like to not mind overpaying on the interest rate too.
Bah da dum.
Thank ye! Thank ye! I'll be here same time next week.
This ruling is ridiculous and equivalent to life sentence, because that's how long it will take Miss Thomas to earn the money (plus interest) and pay the 1.5 million dollar fine.
The crime committed is not worthy of that heavy level of punishment. I mean - it's not as if she killed somebody, and now she's sentenced to Lifelong Indentured servitude. She just shared 24*4 == ~100 minutes worth of music. Big. Frakkin'. Deal.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a solution that even the Poor could afford. Take the numbers of songs uploaded, time the costs, and then doubled. So for Jamie Thomas:
Seed ratio (or best estimate-say 10:1) times 24 songs times $2 == $480.
Of course this means RIAA wouldn't bother with such a trivial crime..... as it should be. Let them go after the REAL pirates who upload thousands/millions of songs, instead of average people doing the modern equivalent of tape trading (sharing a few songs among friends).
If that dying mother was justone story, I'd agree but there are lots of these stories where the UK Government Monopoly Care rejected patients. Like the elderly man who died in a waiting room on a gurney. The hospital claimed "not our fault" because he was "never admitted" even though he was on a bed in their lobby.
Or the 20 year British girl who wanted a PAP smear because both her grandmother and mother developed cervical cancer. In the US you just hand-over the cash and get it done, but this young lady was denied sefvice by the government monopoly. And again at age 21, 22, and 23. At 24 she developed cancer and died a short while later.
"Healthcare in the US will necessarily require rationing and withholding of procedures." - the new Health "Czar"
>>>But when medicare starts to cover US citizens at age 65, suddenly US citizens have a much better outlook.
That's not what the article says. It says upto age 65 the US and UK have equal death rates/ outlook.
.
>>>US citizens lucky enough to survive until age 65 and receive medicare coverage
Only 7.5 million americans are not insured by medicare, or SSI, or SCHIP, or a private plan. The others are covered, so if there's a sudden jump at 65, then there's some other reason than "because they weren't covered before".
P.S.
One way for a lawyer to demonstrate to ignorant juries is to take their photo, add bits-and-pieces to make the jury appear to be smoking dope, and then show the "before" and "after" photos the next day. That would demonstrate "reasonable doubt" that the employee is not guilty, but a victim of a modified image.
>>>The burden of proof actually is on the person who is in the picture in reality.
False. If an employee brought an "unjustified dismissal" case to court, says the photo is a computer-generated image, and the employer can not prove that the photo is a real event of Employee X smoking dope, the employer would face criminal fines. Probably civil damages too (in a separate case).
(Joe Q Public) - "Not a clue what that buddy's talking about. WM? I'll just windows like everyone else."
>>>So 'improvement' is not a good reason for change?
Of course it is. But this is not an improvement. This new program is a change simply for change's sake, and is no better than the old program.
As for VCR to DVD, I still consider the VCR better because it's recordable, and the Super VHS can hold upto 12 hours of dvd-quality video for capturing television shows. The DVD-R cannot. The DVD-R also has a bad habit of self-erasing (the dye fades) where a tape can last for decades.
.
>>>would really hate to see what your ideal world would look like.
It would look a lot like this one, but thing's would not be changed simply to change them. For example Microsoft Office would still have its original dropdown menu system, rather than that damnable ribbon shit.
>>>doesn't mean everyone else follow their lead
Precisely. I gave Gnome, KDE, and other variants of Ubuntu a try in 2008 and again in 2010, but I think I'm done now. I hate change when the change happens for no good reason (look at my name, or my TV with a VCR still attached to it). Anybody want to buy a shiny Lubuntu 10.0 CD? Hmmm. Maybe I'll put it on ebay.....
He may be "confident" we'll be able to retain the ability to run X applications in a compatibility mode, but I'm not. MY PS3 doesn't run a whole host of PS1 or PS2 games even though Sony claimed it would. (So I bought a space PS2 instead.) Windows Vista and Seven doesn't run old 3.1 or 95/98 apps. Mac OS X doesn't do well with classic PPC or 68000 apps.
Nope. Not confident at all.
Or maybe an F#*$!
>>>They've always been able to do that.
False. When I was growing-up I had no way of publishing a photo to the whole world. I know because I tried it a couple times, but there was nothing like facebook, and the internet was still limited to just a few thousand college professors & computer hobbyists. Only the mass media corporations had the resources to distribute to the entire globe. - Not until ~2000 did the WWW reach greater than 50% of the population, and allow them to could share photos to the whole world. SO YES facebook, myspace, and other services have changed the level of distribution.
.
>>>those sorts of HR department investigations are (in most civilised countries) completely 100% inaccurate and completely 100% illegal
You saying the US is uncivilized? We are a different culture from the UK, that's true, but that doesn't mean we're not civilized. We have rule of law just like you do, and without a pesky queen to overrule it, or the will of the people. Anyway:
Here it's perfectly okay for HR departments to run background checks on their employees, including contacting the Social Security (SS) department to retrieve your employment history, and online postings/websites. And I suspect even in the EU, if it's illegal, it's still performed by the human resources employees in secret. (Like in the movie GATTACA where it was illegal to sample people's genes, and yet employers did it anyway.)
Maybe you'll understand better after you become a victim yourself.
I used to think like you, that nothing would ever happen,
until I became scammed a few times, and 2 employers stole my wages.
A photo taken in a public park is not "owned" by anyone. The light bouncing off your body is the common property of all.
Now if your photo was in somebody's home, then they'd certainly have the right to request you stop pasting photos of their furniture/friends online, because that's (1) private and (2) enticing to thieves and potentially dangerous.
>>>Please stop thinking that the existence of Facebook in particular changes ANYTHING with regards personal privacy.
It does. It changes the level of distribution for your Drunken Party Photo from "a few friends" to "the entire globe". Which unfortunately includes your current employer, or the HR department of the new company you're trying to join.
>>>Then Facebook is the same as a photoshop.
That's a good point. If for example a teacher is discovered drinking beer on her former dormmate's Facebook, and the government tries to fire her for "setting a poor example", she can simply claim, "That is me, but I never did that. The photo is a fake and that event never happened." She can then sue the government for improper dismissal, and it's incumbent upon them to prove guilt (which they cannot do).
Same goes for any other worker who might be fired for photos online. "That is me but I was never drinking, or smoking weed. It's a fake." Innocent until proven guilty.
After reading all these new rights the EU is approving, maybe I should move there.
Anybody need an english-speaking engineer? Or maybe a German-to-English translator of written works?
(Maybe the market's no better in the EU than the US?)
>>>However, if the legal system has become utterly corrupt, and you can't get justice with it, and instead it's being used for oppression, resorting to violence is the natural alternative
Precisely.
>>>cause the people to force change to the legal system
Over 75% of Americans were against the Banker Bailout Bill of 2008. But the leaders shoved it through anyway. So a democratic solution really isn't going to work, since the representatives have stopped representing.
In this case the RIAA CEO is the criminal, and deserves execution, just as Hitler and Mussolini and Nero and Napoleon and Robespierre and Nicolae Ceausescu deserved death (via uprising or assassination). The ideal would be for the government to kill/imprison the tyrant, but if that's not possible then the People have to step up and perform the task themselves: "From time to time the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of brave Patriots and oppressive Tyrants. It is freedom's natural fertilizaer." - Thomas Jefferson, author of the declaration of independence, "rebel scum" against the UK Empire
"All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper."
Most of the 50 Sovereign States have similar clauses.
This one is from the Union Member State of Pennsylvania.
His wife knew all they needed was the cheap CRT.
He just was ignoring her.
I'm sure someone will be duped. "4G is better than 3G! Buy, buy, buy!"
Having worked with customers, they aren't too bright. About two years ago I was shopping, and I heard a couple arguing to find a TV to connect to Comcast cable, so I offered my advice. The wife wanted the CRT because it was only $100 or so, and the guy swore up-and-down that they HAD to have the flat panel because of the "analog shutoff", and the CRT would be worthless. I was honest and told them the $100 CRT would be good, but the guy refused to listen and spent ~$300 for the flat panel.
Basically he had been duped by all the "your television will stop working!" ads being run by the corporations, and thought the CRTs would be worthless. Likewise I'm sure someone will be duped by the 4G advertising too.
>>>the punishment is grossly out of proportion with the crime itself?
Ya think??? ;-) This ruling is ridiculous and equivalent to Indentured Servitude with a life sentence, because that's how long it will take Miss Thomas to earn the 1.5 million (plus interest) and pay it to her new Master: RIAA. The crime committed is not worthy of that heavy level of punishment. I mean - it's not as if she killed somebody. She just shared 24*4 == ~100 minutes worth of music.
Big.
Frakkin'
Deal.
Miss Bachmann, like her favorite founding father Thomas Jefferson, considers copyright a bad idea. He said: "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."
He also wrote to James Madison, author of the Constitution:
"I like the declaration of rights as far as it goes, but I should have been for going further. For instance, the following alterations and additions would have pleased me... Article 9. Monopolies may be allowed to persons for their own productions in literature, and their own inventions in the arts, for a term not exceeding ___ years, but for no longer term, and for no other purpose." Jefferson's preference for the term of copyright was submitted to Madison a few days afterward. The proposed term was that of 19 years, based on the average author's lifespan after publication. Today that length would be 35 years, and nowhere near the current 150 granted to Disney and others non-humans.
P.S.
The Canadian version of RIAA (CRIA) owes *billions* to various singers for music that was used in greatest hits CDs, or TV ads, but never compensated. You see stealing is a-okay if you are the Masters. But not for us Serfs or Artists... we just get screwed.
>>>Dope-smoking MafiAA accountants.
I still think a bullet to the head of the RIAA CEO would do a world of good. And if he gets replaced, remove him too. And again and again until these idiots stop turning Our citizens into slaves via outrageous 1.5 million dollar/life sentences. Death to tyrants whether they be government leaders (Saddam) or corporate XOs.
I would expect the SAFARI browser to be highest, since there's a near-1 probability it's a Mac User and they are used to paying ~$1000 for a bottom line computer where a PC user (like me) only needs to pay $200 or so. Therefore the Mac user is like to not mind overpaying on the interest rate too.
Bah da dum.
Thank ye! Thank ye! I'll be here same time next week.
This ruling is ridiculous and equivalent to life sentence, because that's how long it will take Miss Thomas to earn the money (plus interest) and pay the 1.5 million dollar fine.
The crime committed is not worthy of that heavy level of punishment.
I mean - it's not as if she killed somebody, and now she's sentenced to Lifelong Indentured servitude.
She just shared 24*4 == ~100 minutes worth of music. Big. Frakkin'. Deal.