Copyright infringement != theft. If you think it is, your understanding of American (and other) law is insufficient for you to make any useful statement on the subject.
What the hell are you talking about, Willis? Are you sure you weren't aiming for room 12B or something?
Survival is when you're out in the middle of the Sahara, trying to find some water, food and shade while trying to fight off the local wildlife that sees you as food.
Funny, that's exactly how I think of Manhattan. Yes, that's a joke, but Ha! Ha! Only serious.
There are no significant threats other than from other people.
If you can think of a more serious threat, you're a better man than I am.
Your idealism is based on certain cultural concepts which may not be reflected by reality. Reality always wins, because it doesn't give a flying fuck about your idealism.
The world is not London or San Jose (places which can, in the first place, only exist by virtue of fairly large wage disparities).
Try some examination of reality. Strip down to your skivvies and wander off into the woods for a couple of weeks. See how you do by refusing to work more than 40 hours. If you are of the American middle class you might well be surprised to discover that it is not possible for you to maintain your current "lifestyle" without a small herd above you to provide you with things, but also a fairly large herd below you, making a fraction of what you do, to labor for your needs.
There are places in the world where life isn't really all that hard and society is on something approaching an even economic footing, but you likely think of those places as "poor." The former is the result of the latter.
"Personal noncommercial use" was not defined. It does not imply that distribution is legal, which remains verboten under the copyright code itself. "Personal" means "you."
It was amended by the No Electronic Theft Act which defined "receipt" as "financial gain," and thus prohibited, so even if by some twisted logic giving it to your friend is legal, his taking it is not.
A crime is what you can be prosecuted for by the state and do jail time for. Something found in the criminal code.
What if copying a CD were a civil violation, between private interested parties? Something could be illegal and yet not be a crime. What a crazy world that would be, huh? If only.
KFG:) Or, "Just another schmuck with an internet account."
How do you find time to post so often?
Self unemployment and 48 hour days. I also read and post, really, really fast. Although I do "dissappear" now and again for anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. I'm afraid I go out in the big, blue room now and again. If it weren't for that big ball of fire in the sky it would be, well, dark and cold actually.
It's only since companies like Microsoft have started asserting that you paid $XXX for nothing other than the right to click on a 'Yeah, I sell you my soul' button . ..
I've posted about; and gotten shit over it, that issue before. I remember the world before that happened. I remember the first "Save Mickey Bill" as well.
However, even before we "saved" Mickey you owned a book, but you did you not own the book's text. That is specifically what is protected by copyright.
Books and CDs are property. You buy it; you own it. "Content" has certain rights associated with it. Do not license rights. Buy property. Used property is cheaper and doesn't support the RIAA, although you run the risk of being considered a pirate statistically.
If you purchased a CD you own the CD. Period. You may or may not have certain fair use rights to the works on that CD.
If you purchased a file license you own nothing. You have been granted limited rights. Period.
If you purchase the copyright you actually "own" the song (weeeeeeeeeell, you have certain monopoly rights with regard to the song; defined by law).
However, as for the idea of the RIAA suing you for possession, I dealt with that issue in another post. They're rapacious assholes, but even they decided to "temporarily suspend the productive settlement discussions" with a dead guy, although I suppose they could still come back claiming that he's being unresponsive.
This is one of those nights where I'm posting while my attention is actually hard on other things, so I screwed up. I neglected that there are actually two rights payments to make, one for rights to the song and one for rights to the recording.
So make it less than twenty bucks, which is less than the filing fee for small claims court in most places (although loser pays that). And of course paying a small claims judgement borders on a voluntary act. There's no court ordered enforcement.
You could try to put a twenty dollar lein on their house or something I suppose.
In any case you can see how much of your "purchase" price is actually going to something other than simply paying for the rights. Somebody is getting seventy five cents on the dollar (after bandwidth charges) "extra" money.
Thats why I deflat my tires to 3 psi. them I can pick lift one side up with only a few fingers
I just went out to the 4 door Accord in the parking lot. I was able to lift the front (heaviest) corner by about an inch with only three fingers.
Because. ..the only force I have to apply is that required to compress the diagonally opposite spring. Go try it yourself. You do not have to lift the car against gravity, the tires and springs are doing that. You only have to rotate the car around its center of mass.
Then go get yourself an RC10, a box of different springs and four postal scales. You'll find it's perfectly easy to set up a car that it would only apply a pressure of a few pounds per square inch on a run over thumbdrive.
Got a bicycle? Make sure the tires are pumped up to recommended rate. No deform the tire by pinching it between your thumb and finger. That is how much force the tire can apply. Now deflate it to half pressure and pinch again. That is how much force the can apply now. Notice how much easier it is to pinch it now?
It ain't rocket science, it's . ..well, spring science. If you compress a spring with rate of 100 lbs per inch one inch, it is exerting an opposing force of 100 pounds.
Ever notice that bigger cars have bigger tires, or that skinny road racing bike tires run at higher pressures?
To support the weight of the vehicle you either need to add more square inches or increase the spring rate by adding pressure, or the tires will not exert enough force to hold the vehicle off the ground.
Close enough. I presume the questioner is really talking about digital music files on some sort of "consumer" controlled media, like a home computer or an iPod.
The reason he can't find a good answer is because you don't own them. You possess them. You own a car, or a CD. If if the music is your original work you own the rights legally associated. These all have a legally definable title.
A digital file does not, so you cannot prove you have one.
I do wonder, however, why he thinks anyone actually would be hauled into court, or, having been so, feel he would be compelled to demonstrate legal possession. The accuser must present evidence that you do not legally possess them, and you only need argue to refute the evidence. Proof of legal possession is certainly an affirmative defense, but hardly the only one, especially if the claim is weak to nonexistant.
If found liable the damages would be on the order of a buck a CDs worth. The huge claims for damages by the RIAA in their p2p cases are for distribution, per copy per song, which could be many thousands of instances per song, not just one, plus whatever criminal fines apply to exceeding certain limits of ditribution value.
A hundred songs would run you less than ten bucks in actual damages. Who do you figure is taking you to small claims court over that?
Believe it or not some people actually have a conscience. ..
That would be me, however, unlike most of the people with a conscience in the recyling business I also have a modicum of understanding.
As per my other post in this thread, however, understanding is very, very "bad for the economy," so unless you learn to think these issues out, very hard, on your own, you aren't likely to hear about it.
People who "have a conscience" are selling plastics now as being "good for the environment," and make a damned fine living at it.
The trick to recycling is to do so in an economic manner.
The trick to dealing with waste is; don't. Perhaps you've heard an aphorism that begins with that word, but as such you are the only one who makes money on the deal (there's another aphorism that deals with pennies), so you'll never hear the concept advertised.
Read Brave New World for the argumentum ad adsurdum.
In that case, according to your 'basic grade school' math/physics. ..
Which is correct. A tire is a spring. When a car drives over something small all the something feels is the force required to depress the spring, because the opposing force is all it is applying to the tire. The weight of the car is actually borne by the rest of the contact patch of the tire with the ground, because the tire deforms around the something.
Softer tire, less force on the drive, which can never be more than the spring rate of the tire at its contact point with the drive. For the sake of argument let's say 50 lbs./in. How thick is a drive? What is its area? That's the pressure on the drive.
What happens if you put a softer spring on one wheel of a car? That corner of the car weighs less (and so does the diagonally opposite corner). You can test this yourself with a couple of postal scales and an R/C car. Or just sit on a stool with one short leg and think very hard about what you are experiencing.
. ..the amount of pressure between the tire and the road would be the inflation pressure of the tire (120psi) a 14lb road bike would exert about 240 pounds of pressure on the thumb drive!
Now you're being silly, but a bike with a rider on it would exert a much higher pressure on the drive, yes. Higher spring rate, less deformation around the drive, thus more of the weight of the bike/rider being borne by the drive, but never exceeding the spring rate until the tire is crushed against the rim.
. . . with nearly solid rubber tires inflated at 5psi. ..
A nearly solid rubber tire has a high spring rate of its own.
. ..we could make cars nearly float off the road
The very point of using pnuematic tires in the first place. With a nondeformable solid tire the drive exerts a force on the car equal to the weight of the car on that tire. Thus the drive lifts the corner of the car that distance. With a pnuematic tire the tire deforms around the drive, the drive only exerts a lifting force on the car equal to the spring rate of the tire, and feels an equal and opposite force, and the car remains firmly planted on the road.
KFG
Re:Nice feature, but that isn't the weak point
on
Flash Drives Go To Work
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
If they could make the link between the USB adapter and the drive itself a little more rob
Ever change the crystal on a radio device? These things only have two little wire pins sticking out of them. Very delicate.
The crystal inserts fully into the radio and has a plastic "cloth" pull tab stuck onto it to get it out again. Simple, elegant, bullet proof once installed.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not an entirely unreasonable argument. Did you pay the tariff on your recording device and media?
And, as always, the judge will have the final say.
KFG
Copyright infringement != theft. If you think it is, your understanding of American (and other) law is insufficient for you to make any useful statement on the subject.
What the hell are you talking about, Willis? Are you sure you weren't aiming for room 12B or something?
KFG
Survival is when you're out in the middle of the Sahara, trying to find some water, food and shade while trying to fight off the local wildlife that sees you as food.
.sweatshops. . .
.extended working hours.
Funny, that's exactly how I think of Manhattan. Yes, that's a joke, but Ha! Ha! Only serious.
There are no significant threats other than from other people.
If you can think of a more serious threat, you're a better man than I am.
. .
Are immoral.
. .
May be necessary.
KFG
Q.E.D.
Your idealism is based on certain cultural concepts which may not be reflected by reality. Reality always wins, because it doesn't give a flying fuck about your idealism.
The world is not London or San Jose (places which can, in the first place, only exist by virtue of fairly large wage disparities).
Try some examination of reality. Strip down to your skivvies and wander off into the woods for a couple of weeks. See how you do by refusing to work more than 40 hours. If you are of the American middle class you might well be surprised to discover that it is not possible for you to maintain your current "lifestyle" without a small herd above you to provide you with things, but also a fairly large herd below you, making a fraction of what you do, to labor for your needs.
There are places in the world where life isn't really all that hard and society is on something approaching an even economic footing, but you likely think of those places as "poor." The former is the result of the latter.
KFG
Copyright is not the text itself. It is a right with respect to the text.
Copyright is a right; an abstract concept, to a monopoly on the text; another abstract concept.
Which is why I may owe a royalty for speaking it. Speech is an instance of the text.
KFG
. . . please don't have people starve for the sake of your armchair idealism either.
It's the new White Man's Burden, borne stoicly by people who have never had to actually fend for themselves a single day in their lives.
KFG
Is it moral? No.
What is immoral about survival?
KFG
What you don't own is the right to distribute copies of the text you own.
Because you do not own the text. That is why you have to pay royalties to stage a play.
KFG
The US government makes a lot off of taxing copyrighted material.
.
.have their rights protected? That's the way you meant to phrase it, right? Among these has always been a mechanism for redress of civil grievance.
There's a simple way to fix that.
It is in the government's best intrest t0o make sure that people . .
. .
KFG
"Personal noncommercial use" was not defined. It does not imply that distribution is legal, which remains verboten under the copyright code itself. "Personal" means "you."
It was amended by the No Electronic Theft Act which defined "receipt" as "financial gain," and thus prohibited, so even if by some twisted logic giving it to your friend is legal, his taking it is not.
KFG
You want to know what is a crime?
It would certainly be a help, given the topic.
A crime is what you can be prosecuted for by the state and do jail time for. Something found in the criminal code.
What if copying a CD were a civil violation, between private interested parties? Something could be illegal and yet not be a crime. What a crazy world that would be, huh? If only.
KFG
. . .often wonder who you are IRL. . .
:) Or, "Just another schmuck with an internet account."
KFG
How do you find time to post so often?
Self unemployment and 48 hour days. I also read and post, really, really fast. Although I do "dissappear" now and again for anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. I'm afraid I go out in the big, blue room now and again. If it weren't for that big ball of fire in the sky it would be, well, dark and cold actually.
Nevermind.
KFG
It's only since companies like Microsoft have started asserting that you paid $XXX for nothing other than the right to click on a 'Yeah, I sell you my soul' button . . .
I've posted about; and gotten shit over it, that issue before. I remember the world before that happened. I remember the first "Save Mickey Bill" as well.
However, even before we "saved" Mickey you owned a book, but you did you not own the book's text. That is specifically what is protected by copyright.
Books and CDs are property. You buy it; you own it. "Content" has certain rights associated with it. Do not license rights. Buy property. Used property is cheaper and doesn't support the RIAA, although you run the risk of being considered a pirate statistically.
KFG
One year later. . .
Who the hell are you to tell us what we can do with our network?
KFG
You own the copy.
If you purchased a CD you own the CD. Period. You may or may not have certain fair use rights to the works on that CD.
If you purchased a file license you own nothing. You have been granted limited rights. Period.
If you purchase the copyright you actually "own" the song (weeeeeeeeeell, you have certain monopoly rights with regard to the song; defined by law).
However, as for the idea of the RIAA suing you for possession, I dealt with that issue in another post. They're rapacious assholes, but even they decided to "temporarily suspend the productive settlement discussions" with a dead guy, although I suppose they could still come back claiming that he's being unresponsive.
KFG
. . .way cheaper than itunes! =D
This is one of those nights where I'm posting while my attention is actually hard on other things, so I screwed up. I neglected that there are actually two rights payments to make, one for rights to the song and one for rights to the recording.
So make it less than twenty bucks, which is less than the filing fee for small claims court in most places (although loser pays that). And of course paying a small claims judgement borders on a voluntary act. There's no court ordered enforcement.
You could try to put a twenty dollar lein on their house or something I suppose.
In any case you can see how much of your "purchase" price is actually going to something other than simply paying for the rights. Somebody is getting seventy five cents on the dollar (after bandwidth charges) "extra" money.
KFG
Thats why I deflat my tires to 3 psi. them I can pick lift one side up with only a few fingers
.the only force I have to apply is that required to compress the diagonally opposite spring. Go try it yourself. You do not have to lift the car against gravity, the tires and springs are doing that. You only have to rotate the car around its center of mass.
.well, spring science. If you compress a spring with rate of 100 lbs per inch one inch, it is exerting an opposing force of 100 pounds.
I just went out to the 4 door Accord in the parking lot. I was able to lift the front (heaviest) corner by about an inch with only three fingers.
Because. .
Then go get yourself an RC10, a box of different springs and four postal scales. You'll find it's perfectly easy to set up a car that it would only apply a pressure of a few pounds per square inch on a run over thumbdrive.
Got a bicycle? Make sure the tires are pumped up to recommended rate. No deform the tire by pinching it between your thumb and finger. That is how much force the tire can apply. Now deflate it to half pressure and pinch again. That is how much force the can apply now. Notice how much easier it is to pinch it now?
It ain't rocket science, it's . .
Ever notice that bigger cars have bigger tires, or that skinny road racing bike tires run at higher pressures?
To support the weight of the vehicle you either need to add more square inches or increase the spring rate by adding pressure, or the tires will not exert enough force to hold the vehicle off the ground.
KFG
. . .it would seem to me that once you purchase a work it is yours.
And that is why Michael Jackson owns Yesterday and Paul McCartney owns Tomorrow. Sorry, but I get a bit of a kick out of that one.
The rest of us, however, have to purchase copies on physical media, and we then own that media, or license copies of files.
KFG
Close enough. I presume the questioner is really talking about digital music files on some sort of "consumer" controlled media, like a home computer or an iPod.
The reason he can't find a good answer is because you don't own them. You possess them. You own a car, or a CD. If if the music is your original work you own the rights legally associated. These all have a legally definable title.
A digital file does not, so you cannot prove you have one.
I do wonder, however, why he thinks anyone actually would be hauled into court, or, having been so, feel he would be compelled to demonstrate legal possession. The accuser must present evidence that you do not legally possess them, and you only need argue to refute the evidence. Proof of legal possession is certainly an affirmative defense, but hardly the only one, especially if the claim is weak to nonexistant.
If found liable the damages would be on the order of a buck a CDs worth. The huge claims for damages by the RIAA in their p2p cases are for distribution, per copy per song, which could be many thousands of instances per song, not just one, plus whatever criminal fines apply to exceeding certain limits of ditribution value.
A hundred songs would run you less than ten bucks in actual damages. Who do you figure is taking you to small claims court over that?
KFG
I find smacking the user is more effective than smacking the computer.
Ditto. If only I were a masochist that would work out just fine.
KFG
Believe it or not some people actually have a conscience. . .
That would be me, however, unlike most of the people with a conscience in the recyling business I also have a modicum of understanding.
As per my other post in this thread, however, understanding is very, very "bad for the economy," so unless you learn to think these issues out, very hard, on your own, you aren't likely to hear about it.
People who "have a conscience" are selling plastics now as being "good for the environment," and make a damned fine living at it.
KFG
All this is is people finding a way to make money.
At your expense; and, generally speaking, that of the environment as well.
KFG
The trick to recycling is to do so in an economic manner.
The trick to dealing with waste is; don't. Perhaps you've heard an aphorism that begins with that word, but as such you are the only one who makes money on the deal (there's another aphorism that deals with pennies), so you'll never hear the concept advertised.
Read Brave New World for the argumentum ad adsurdum.
KFG
In that case, according to your 'basic grade school' math/physics. . .
.the amount of pressure between the tire and the road would be the inflation pressure of the tire (120psi) a 14lb road bike would exert about 240 pounds of pressure on the thumb drive!
.
.we could make cars nearly float off the road
Which is correct. A tire is a spring. When a car drives over something small all the something feels is the force required to depress the spring, because the opposing force is all it is applying to the tire. The weight of the car is actually borne by the rest of the contact patch of the tire with the ground, because the tire deforms around the something.
Softer tire, less force on the drive, which can never be more than the spring rate of the tire at its contact point with the drive. For the sake of argument let's say 50 lbs./in. How thick is a drive? What is its area? That's the pressure on the drive.
What happens if you put a softer spring on one wheel of a car? That corner of the car weighs less (and so does the diagonally opposite corner). You can test this yourself with a couple of postal scales and an R/C car. Or just sit on a stool with one short leg and think very hard about what you are experiencing.
. .
Now you're being silly, but a bike with a rider on it would exert a much higher pressure on the drive, yes. Higher spring rate, less deformation around the drive, thus more of the weight of the bike/rider being borne by the drive, but never exceeding the spring rate until the tire is crushed against the rim.
. . . with nearly solid rubber tires inflated at 5psi. .
A nearly solid rubber tire has a high spring rate of its own.
. .
The very point of using pnuematic tires in the first place. With a nondeformable solid tire the drive exerts a force on the car equal to the weight of the car on that tire. Thus the drive lifts the corner of the car that distance. With a pnuematic tire the tire deforms around the drive, the drive only exerts a lifting force on the car equal to the spring rate of the tire, and feels an equal and opposite force, and the car remains firmly planted on the road.
KFG
If they could make the link between the USB adapter and the drive itself a little more rob
Ever change the crystal on a radio device? These things only have two little wire pins sticking out of them. Very delicate.
The crystal inserts fully into the radio and has a plastic "cloth" pull tab stuck onto it to get it out again. Simple, elegant, bullet proof once installed.
KFG