In Canada, Telus, Telus Mobility, and Microcell (Fido) automatically (and I do mean automatically) call thier customers every six months and let them know that, based on the customers usage, they are on the best cell plan/long distance plan/whatever. And if they are not, will recommend one that fits more into thier usage patterns.
I think it's the whole cupon strategy, if clients think thier saving $0.10, they'll spend an extra dollar. I wonder how it's worked out for them, personally, I appreicate it.
I've just read the whole thing and have set up appointments with my MLA, and intend on going to Ottawa for the hearings, this is just WRONG. Not only does it violate the spirit of fair use laws, but it has questionable legal grounds to begin with. The board (IMHO After reading the document) has demonstrated it has no clue as to what it's talking about as is evidenced in the tariff amounts themselves.
A 40min tape, which at best is 40megs of mp3 info, is $0.60, yet cd media over 100meg is $0.59cents.
Any mp3 player is to be subject to $0.021/mb or $21/gb, forgetting of course there are 1024mg in 1gb, which should make the tariff either $21.50 or $0.0205078125 ($0.0205 for simplicities sake) depending on how you view it.
This tariff would also apply to Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards, SmartMedia cards, and Secure Digital cards, IBM MicroDrives (and competition) and Backup Tapes, many of which are in no way used for music piracy.
Forget that it would double the cost of CD-R Media, and put the cost of Mp3 players even further out of reach of most people, it plain doesn't make sense.
Why should we be taxed so the government can take money and give it to RIAA member companies, who suffered a NEGATIVE Billion dollar loss last year thanks to p2p and cd-r/w. If anything p2p and cd-r/cd-rw media is of BENEFIT not harm to the motion picture and sound recording industries.
As a small business owner, we rely on cd-rw media quite heavily, for offsite back-ups and transporting files and software to our clients. Why should I (we) have to pay a tax to an un-related industry? If piracy is the big deal, then why aren't organizations (and their member companies) like CAAST (www.caast.org) getting some of that money either? More people steal software then they do music via cd.
As musician, as are some of my friends, do you realize such a tariff would mean that we are paying the competition to put us out of business? Being self produced, as many bands are starting up their own labels, this means we will be paying companies like Sony, BMG, Universal, the competition, to make it even harder to compete. (Less money for us, more money for them, and what did they do to deserve it?)
By paying such a tariff the government is declaring you guilty of violating copyright law before you even have. Forget the idea of innocent until proven guilty, you will now be forced to pay a fine before you committed the crime, just cause you "might" or "most likely will" do it.
It is still legal under fair use laws to make a back-up copy of your cd's. With this new tariff, you'll be forced to pay twice for the same music (granted, not the same amount, but that is hardly the point).
Does no one else see a problem with this?
PrairieBoi
Re:Disinformation might need a WARNING label
on
Disinformation.com
·
· Score: 1
While I may be amongst the first to say that just because something isn't understood or widely believed should mean it's automatically labelled ludicrous or dangerous, I have to question my attitude of "anything's possible" when put against the situation you have encountered.
I don't believe yours is a call for legislative reform in regards to the net, for three reasons:
1. The Internet has this nice little feature to it, a kind of hyper peer review process, where the good stuff stays up, and the crap drifts to the gutters, most of the time.
2. Regulation is so against the spirit of the Internet that it would destroy the online community as we know it, even if it were minutely possible to enforce.
3. I know you too well.
I feel sorry for what's happened, I wonder if it's not time that schools start teaching such things as critical thinking skills, scepticism, common sense and plain ol' research skills, if not for the betterment of society, then to keep our loony bin populations under control.
Just a thought.
I'm sure your friend is brilliant and quite able to think for himself, but I have to wonder how things like this can be prevented, and at which point it becomes a personal problem worthy of intervention by those who care, if not a societal problem.
Unfortunately (or not) it is this type of human behaviour which is largely responsible for the successes in our economy, the willingness to believe and the desire for a simple answer, or a quick fix. At what point did consumerism replace enlightenment as a societal value?
But should I really be surprised? This is after all, the information age, not the age of reason.
I've been a loyal Shaw@Home subscriber for years, it was about three years ago they started building their networks and such, last year they were trying to weasel out of their contract with @Home because of various issues, but excite wouldn't budge. It's market forces that's done this. @Home was way to power hungry and inflexible for their isps. The Shaw cable.net service has been up and runny for over a year, over the last three years they've sunk over $100 million into Calgary alone (which is where their NOC is located).
I say good riddens to them. @Home was a great idea, a good way to brand, and an awesome way to unify, but when you stifle your providers and are extremely rigid, what do you think is gonna happen? I'll take my @shaw.ca e-mail and thank god that a company that cares about service and quality is finally running the entire show. Because no matter what you say about the stability and consistency of cable modems providers, since Shaw has migrated to their own networks, I have not had a single problem, and even before hand, their service and support is second to none.
IMHO anyway.
http://www.hotlingo.com/ for all great slperlz out there.
Make it web-based. I would love nothing more than to be able to find out what's going on while I'm sitting in LAX for three hours. In all seriousness though, having full funcitionality via web would be very important.
Have booking confirmations. If I schedule someone to show up on site on thursday, I want to know they know to be there.
SMS functionality. Would be nice to be paged 10 minutes - 10 days before I was supposed to be somewhere or have something done. I don't remember anything unless there is an alarm associated with it.
I'm being fined because I COULD use a piece of equipment to commit a crime?
So does that mean that by paying this fine, I can then commit the crime without any fear of further punitive damages?
Does this make sense people? So much for pro-active action.
What's next? "Well sir, there's a $5000 tax on this car, because statistically, drunk driving costs $5000 per car out there, so they'll just get ya now."
Gimme a break.
ps. I wish they would have put "Where as we is founded on the concepts of common sense and logic.." was in the constitution.
I'm assuming you didn't want an answer, but here's one anyway.
Some of us appreciate local programing like say, NEWS, weather, sports, traffic, and what not. Not to mention community events bulletins and LOCAL advertising. How many times have you been watching fox thinking that you really should switch over to MCI, even though you can't.
I don't agree with content restrictions, but local branding is a nice feature, IMNSO.
"Canada is lucky in that for the most part our politions DON'T ignore those pieces of paper. Not because they'd get thrown out(not many people would notice if they broke a small law, after all), but rather they wouldn't ignore it because to do so would be wrong"
I'll just refrain from mentioning Sgt. Pepper and the opec incident.
We as Canadians are not nearly as free as we like to think we are. That being said, neither are the Americians.
I think the question is, do YOU need internet welfare? Some people do. Many companies and governments are recognizing the importance of Internet Accsess in regards to thier customers/citizens. A local broadcaster in town offers "free" internet accsess. Not the best going I admit, but for those who can't afford it, it's a godsend. As for countries being connected, if I remember correctly, Canada has something like %50 of it's population on-line, with internet accsess avaliable in all librairies, schools, and community centres (or soon to be) in the country, with our city, being a big place for telecom in the country, riding at almost 70% of the populice online, over 20% of that with broadband service. People are starting to get the message. Get on-line or don't survive. No country can afford to let Internet Access become the tool with which the classes are seperated. Information is power. That's why libraries were created. Think about it.
Exactly. I spent (checking quicken) bout $400 on cd's last year... bout $200 more then normal. Only because of mp3's. <P> It's so cool when you can use a program like <a href="http://www.napster.com">napster</a> and download your favorite songs to listen to them. I still use my cd player, because I haven't come across an mp3 player I like... and the fact I can turn my computer into a 4000+ song jukebox, why the hell not? If anything these mp3's are doing thier dirty work for them. <P> Though I suppose if they laid of on the fear mongering, people wouldn't geel quite the need to go out and but cd's. Not like the majority of us believe in supporting what we like. <P> God, I hate being a cheapskate.
Slashdot Mirror
In Canada, Telus, Telus Mobility, and Microcell (Fido) automatically (and I do mean automatically) call thier customers every six months and let them know that, based on the customers usage, they are on the best cell plan/long distance plan/whatever. And if they are not, will recommend one that fits more into thier usage patterns.
I think it's the whole cupon strategy, if clients think thier saving $0.10, they'll spend an extra dollar. I wonder how it's worked out for them, personally, I appreicate it.
I've just read the whole thing and have set up appointments with my MLA, and
intend on going to Ottawa for the hearings, this is just WRONG. Not only
does it violate the spirit of fair use laws, but it has questionable legal
grounds to begin with. The board (IMHO After reading the document) has
demonstrated it has no clue as to what it's talking about as is evidenced in
the tariff amounts themselves.
A 40min tape, which at best is 40megs of mp3 info, is $0.60, yet cd media
over 100meg is $0.59cents.
Any mp3 player is to be subject to $0.021/mb or $21/gb, forgetting of course
there are 1024mg in 1gb, which should make the tariff either $21.50 or
$0.0205078125 ($0.0205 for simplicities sake) depending on how you view it.
This tariff would also apply to Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards,
SmartMedia cards, and Secure Digital cards, IBM MicroDrives (and
competition) and Backup Tapes, many of which are in no way used for music
piracy.
Forget that it would double the cost of CD-R Media, and put the cost of Mp3
players even further out of reach of most people, it plain doesn't make
sense.
Why should we be taxed so the government can take money and give it to RIAA
member companies, who suffered a NEGATIVE Billion dollar loss last year
thanks to p2p and cd-r/w. If anything p2p and cd-r/cd-rw media is of BENEFIT
not harm to the motion picture and sound recording industries.
As a small business owner, we rely on cd-rw media quite heavily, for offsite
back-ups and transporting files and software to our clients. Why should I
(we) have to pay a tax to an un-related industry? If piracy is the big deal,
then why aren't organizations (and their member companies) like CAAST
(www.caast.org) getting some of that money either? More people steal
software then they do music via cd.
As musician, as are some of my friends, do you realize such a tariff would
mean that we are paying the competition to put us out of business? Being
self produced, as many bands are starting up their own labels, this means we
will be paying companies like Sony, BMG, Universal, the competition, to make
it even harder to compete. (Less money for us, more money for them, and what
did they do to deserve it?)
By paying such a tariff the government is declaring you guilty of violating
copyright law before you even have. Forget the idea of innocent until proven
guilty, you will now be forced to pay a fine before you committed the crime,
just cause you "might" or "most likely will" do it.
It is still legal under fair use laws to make a back-up copy of your cd's.
With this new tariff, you'll be forced to pay twice for the same music
(granted, not the same amount, but that is hardly the point).
Does no one else see a problem with this?
PrairieBoi
While I may be amongst the first to say that just because something isn't understood or widely believed should mean it's automatically labelled ludicrous or dangerous, I have to question my attitude of "anything's possible" when put against the situation you have encountered.
I don't believe yours is a call for legislative reform in regards to the net, for three reasons:
1. The Internet has this nice little feature to it, a kind of hyper peer review process, where the good stuff stays up, and the crap drifts to the gutters, most of the time.
2. Regulation is so against the spirit of the Internet that it would destroy the online community as we know it, even if it were minutely possible to enforce.
3. I know you too well.
I feel sorry for what's happened, I wonder if it's not time that schools start teaching such things as critical thinking skills, scepticism, common sense and plain ol' research skills, if not for the betterment of society, then to keep our loony bin populations under control.
Just a thought.
I'm sure your friend is brilliant and quite able to think for himself, but I have to wonder how things like this can be prevented, and at which point it becomes a personal problem worthy of intervention by those who care, if not a societal problem.
Unfortunately (or not) it is this type of human behaviour which is largely responsible for the successes in our economy, the willingness to believe and the desire for a simple answer, or a quick fix. At what point did consumerism replace enlightenment as a societal value?
But should I really be surprised? This is after all, the information age, not the age of reason.
I've been a loyal Shaw@Home subscriber for years, it was about three years ago they started building their networks and such, last year they were trying to weasel out of their contract with @Home because of various issues, but excite wouldn't budge. It's market forces that's done this. @Home was way to power hungry and inflexible for their isps. The Shaw cable.net service has been up and runny for over a year, over the last three years they've sunk over $100 million into Calgary alone (which is where their NOC is located).
I say good riddens to them. @Home was a great idea, a good way to brand, and an awesome way to unify, but when you stifle your providers and are extremely rigid, what do you think is gonna happen? I'll take my @shaw.ca e-mail and thank god that a company that cares about service and quality is finally running the entire show. Because no matter what you say about the stability and consistency of cable modems providers, since Shaw has migrated to their own networks, I have not had a single problem, and even before hand, their service and support is second to none.
IMHO anyway.
http://www.hotlingo.com/ for all great slperlz out there.
Your delusional.
Make it web-based. I would love nothing more than to be able to find out what's going on while I'm sitting in LAX for three hours. In all seriousness though, having full funcitionality via web would be very important.
Have booking confirmations. If I schedule someone to show up on site on thursday, I want to know they know to be there.
SMS functionality. Would be nice to be paged 10 minutes - 10 days before I was supposed to be somewhere or have something done. I don't remember anything unless there is an alarm associated with it.
I'm being fined because I COULD use a piece of equipment to commit a crime?
So does that mean that by paying this fine, I can then commit the crime without any fear of further punitive damages?
Does this make sense people? So much for pro-active action.
What's next? "Well sir, there's a $5000 tax on this car, because statistically, drunk driving costs $5000 per car out there, so they'll just get ya now."
Gimme a break.
ps. I wish they would have put "Where as we is founded on the concepts of common sense and logic.." was in the constitution.
I'm assuming you didn't want an answer, but here's one anyway.
Some of us appreciate local programing like say, NEWS, weather, sports, traffic, and what not. Not to mention community events bulletins and LOCAL advertising. How many times have you been watching fox thinking that you really should switch over to MCI, even though you can't.
I don't agree with content restrictions, but local branding is a nice feature, IMNSO.
"Canada is lucky in that for the most part our politions DON'T ignore those pieces of paper. Not because they'd get thrown out(not many people would notice if they broke a small law, after all), but rather they wouldn't ignore it because to do so would be wrong"
I'll just refrain from mentioning Sgt. Pepper and the opec incident.
We as Canadians are not nearly as free as we like to think we are. That being said, neither are the Americians.
Your statement prods my memory for a common saying that should be engraved into the foreheads of the ignorant...
"They made a law to take away all the guns, but I didn't say anything, because I didn't own a gun..."
I liked thier old one better
I think the question is, do YOU need internet welfare? Some people do. Many companies and governments are recognizing the importance of Internet Accsess in regards to thier customers/citizens. A local broadcaster in town offers "free" internet accsess. Not the best going I admit, but for those who can't afford it, it's a godsend. As for countries being connected, if I remember correctly, Canada has something like %50 of it's population on-line, with internet accsess avaliable in all librairies, schools, and community centres (or soon to be) in the country, with our city, being a big place for telecom in the country, riding at almost 70% of the populice online, over 20% of that with broadband service. People are starting to get the message. Get on-line or don't survive. No country can afford to let Internet Access become the tool with which the classes are seperated. Information is power. That's why libraries were created. Think about it.
Exactly. I spent (checking quicken) bout $400 on cd's last year... bout $200 more then normal. Only because of mp3's.
<P>
It's so cool when you can use a program like <a href="http://www.napster.com">napster</a> and download your favorite songs to listen to them. I still use my cd player, because I haven't come across an mp3 player I like... and the fact I can turn my computer into a 4000+ song jukebox, why the hell not? If anything these mp3's are doing thier dirty work for them.
<P>
Though I suppose if they laid of on the fear mongering, people wouldn't geel quite the need to go out and but cd's. Not like the majority of us believe in supporting what we like.
<P>
God, I hate being a cheapskate.
I have to admit some ignorance here. what does snr mean?