There will always be Terms of Service that have the appearance, or even in some cases the effect, of an overbearing, overly invasive limiting intrusion on things the general public consider to be inalienable freedoms...
Some of these scary statements contained within TOS' are generally unenforcable or practically unmanageable. Others may very well be invasive and violating (if they are ever applied).
Companies will ALWAYS stretch the boundaries of the law and general acceptability with their terms, as it is their frontline of defense in the CYA (Cover your arse) battle with lawyers and regulators.
VOIP COs like Vonage have already been forced into capitulating tax monies and other regulations normally only intended for POTS services and Telcos - because the lobbying groups and political machines are hard at work trying to protect the status quo: phone taxes and regulations to generate such taxes are REVENUE. When states, localities, businesses and governments at large stand to lose revenue, they fight tooth and nail.
Back to the TOS issue: It is far easier to accept an agreement, even an unfavorable one, to use services such as VOIP. The same can be said for a lot of different things: credit cards, insurance policies, parking garages (who say they are't responsible if your car gets trashed while you park with them), or those bast*rds at the mobile phone companies (2 years???).
Our main defense as consumers is to boycott products whose Terms we do not agree with -- however that approach is more theoretical than practicable. If that approach worked, who among us would agree in every EULA that the software company wasn't responsible for anything its software did -- And further that their software wasn't guaranteed to do ANYTHING or be fit for any purpose?
I would look to organizations similar in nature to the ACLU and others to eventually have to sue entities or engage in other legal remedies to force a change in the way these agreements are handled.
I have Vonage, and I read the agreement... I doubt I will ever get 'violated', but it sure isnt a great feeling to know I am not by default 'protected'.
NSI et al are the biggest @%^$^%$! in regard to spam.
__All__ of my spam traces back to addresses ONLY found in NSI's database. (with the exception of spam addressed to generic (i.e. postmaster@domain.com) entities at my domains).
I could beat them all day long with a really big stick, and I still wouldn't be satisfied. Or bored.
I am scanned hundreds of times per day from Comcast machines scanning port ranges. At first I was forwarding all scans to non-existant NAT'd IPs - until I found out what they were trying to do.
Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it isn't real.
A number of posts rationalize that Comcast must think as more machines are 'hooked up', then more users will be web browsing, etc. -- and they need to address this 'issue' and charge appropriately for 'extra' work/resources/etc.
Let's call this what it really is. It has very little to do (if anything) with Comcast's cost structure as far as bandwidth, maintenance etc. It is their entire cable-services business model. This is a revenue stream to them, that they use everyday.
Example:
Johnny has 3 TVs, and cable tv service with Comcast. Johnny can not pay for one connection and hook all three TVs up legally (contractually, what have you) without paying extra fees for additional boxes/sets. There is no difference, or one so slight as to be immeasurable, from Comcast's view - other than that their agreement states that they are allowed to generate revenue on a Per Television basis.
I don't know how this discussion got so centered on physical and maintenance costs for Comcast, but that just aint it. Comcast now has a better understanding of how their model for cable tv applies to cable-modem access, and is looking to layer their old model on their new business to generate revenue -- based on a perceived benefit/service offering.
Don't be surprised if on your next cable tv visit, the service guy decides to count how many machines you're connecting. Worse yet, his video signal reader now has a node-scanning somethingorother and now he plugs his device in between the modem and your network - behind your firewall/linksys/etc. to fingerprint your network.
Since value depreciates so rapidly - and used goods worth donating are usually not worth keeping - why bother even trying to loophole a silly little tax write off (for items that you would otherwise hold on to, like some gluttonous pack rat - most of the items I suspect were 'acquired' by dubious means anyway, at $0.00 cost to you)
I had boxes of parts. Dubious and otherwise. I live in a city. Took it all outside, placed it neatly in easily viewed bags, and it was all gone within an hour. "Excuse me, I.R.S... I have a receipt for this video card I donated... it cost me $225 when it was new. It should be worth at least $16 today". Puhleeze.
If you're a larger entity, of course it would be good to have reciepts and stuff. Well, whatever.
I would be very interested to know what actually becomes of these old Petium 100s and such once they are donated. I can not imagine that more than a small percentage actually get reused... do they? I think it would be a herculean effort to have to dismantel, rebuild, test, format, and install these machines - then put them to use.
While I agree with the above statement, I also would point out that many people see paper as proof... or perhaps something to hold on to.
Perhaps some just feel that having a stack of paper on your desk *shows* that you are working, and have produced. If everything was confined to the digital insides of their machines, no one would see how much they have done/are doing. It is a silly notion, but I would bet there is a great deal of truth to it.
They were *zapping* a late-model corvette. It was going nuts. Wintel boxes were hosed by this frequency cannon. The possibilities looked extremely promising.
Slashdot Mirror
There will always be Terms of Service that have the appearance, or even in some cases the effect, of an overbearing, overly invasive limiting intrusion on things the general public consider to be inalienable freedoms...
Some of these scary statements contained within TOS' are generally unenforcable or practically unmanageable. Others may very well be invasive and violating (if they are ever applied).
Companies will ALWAYS stretch the boundaries of the law and general acceptability with their terms, as it is their frontline of defense in the CYA (Cover your arse) battle with lawyers and regulators.
VOIP COs like Vonage have already been forced into capitulating tax monies and other regulations normally only intended for POTS services and Telcos - because the lobbying groups and political machines are hard at work trying to protect the status quo: phone taxes and regulations to generate such taxes are REVENUE. When states, localities, businesses and governments at large stand to lose revenue, they fight tooth and nail.
Back to the TOS issue: It is far easier to accept an agreement, even an unfavorable one, to use services such as VOIP. The same can be said for a lot of different things: credit cards, insurance policies, parking garages (who say they are't responsible if your car gets trashed while you park with them), or those bast*rds at the mobile phone companies (2 years???).
Our main defense as consumers is to boycott products whose Terms we do not agree with -- however that approach is more theoretical than practicable. If that approach worked, who among us would agree in every EULA that the software company wasn't responsible for anything its software did -- And further that their software wasn't guaranteed to do ANYTHING or be fit for any purpose?
I would look to organizations similar in nature to the ACLU and others to eventually have to sue entities or engage in other legal remedies to force a change in the way these agreements are handled.
I have Vonage, and I read the agreement... I doubt I will ever get 'violated', but it sure isnt a great feeling to know I am not by default 'protected'.
Absolutely.
NSI et al are the biggest @%^$^%$! in regard to spam.
__All__ of my spam traces back to addresses ONLY found in NSI's database. (with the exception of spam addressed to generic (i.e. postmaster@domain.com) entities at my domains).
I could beat them all day long with a really big stick, and I still wouldn't be satisfied. Or bored.
I am scanned hundreds of times per day from Comcast machines scanning port ranges. At first I was forwarding all scans to non-existant NAT'd IPs - until I found out what they were trying to do.
Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it isn't real.
bozo.
A number of posts rationalize that Comcast must think as more machines are 'hooked up', then more users will be web browsing, etc. -- and they need to address this 'issue' and charge appropriately for 'extra' work/resources/etc.
Let's call this what it really is. It has very little to do (if anything) with Comcast's cost structure as far as bandwidth, maintenance etc. It is their entire cable-services business model. This is a revenue stream to them, that they use everyday.
Example:
Johnny has 3 TVs, and cable tv service with Comcast. Johnny can not pay for one connection and hook all three TVs up legally (contractually, what have you) without paying extra fees for additional boxes/sets. There is no difference, or one so slight as to be immeasurable, from Comcast's view - other than that their agreement states that they are allowed to generate revenue on a Per Television basis.
I don't know how this discussion got so centered on physical and maintenance costs for Comcast, but that just aint it. Comcast now has a better understanding of how their model for cable tv applies to cable-modem access, and is looking to layer their old model on their new business to generate revenue -- based on a perceived benefit/service offering.
Don't be surprised if on your next cable tv visit, the service guy decides to count how many machines you're connecting. Worse yet, his video signal reader now has a node-scanning somethingorother and now he plugs his device in between the modem and your network - behind your firewall/linksys/etc. to fingerprint your network.
Oy.
--tim
Since value depreciates so rapidly - and used goods worth donating are usually not worth keeping - why bother even trying to loophole a silly little tax write off (for items that you would otherwise hold on to, like some gluttonous pack rat - most of the items I suspect were 'acquired' by dubious means anyway, at $0.00 cost to you)
I had boxes of parts. Dubious and otherwise. I live in a city. Took it all outside, placed it neatly in easily viewed bags, and it was all gone within an hour. "Excuse me, I.R.S... I have a receipt for this video card I donated... it cost me $225 when it was new. It should be worth at least $16 today". Puhleeze.
If you're a larger entity, of course it would be good to have reciepts and stuff. Well, whatever.
I would be very interested to know what actually becomes of these old Petium 100s and such once they are donated. I can not imagine that more than a small percentage actually get reused... do they? I think it would be a herculean effort to have to dismantel, rebuild, test, format, and install these machines - then put them to use.
Alright. I'm done.
Is this really news? Is this something that matters?
While I agree with the above statement, I also would point out that many people see paper as proof... or perhaps something to hold on to.
Perhaps some just feel that having a stack of paper on your desk *shows* that you are working, and have produced. If everything was confined to the digital insides of their machines, no one would see how much they have done/are doing. It is a silly notion, but I would bet there is a great deal of truth to it.
I was flippin channels and came across it on TNT at 3:am EST...
I could never understand the commercials for it after that...
"See it on it's network debut, June 20th, 8pm..."
Odd.
Nothing beats ascii nudies. I saw them long before I ever glimpsed the inside of a Playboy.
They were *zapping* a late-model corvette. It was going nuts. Wintel boxes were hosed by this frequency cannon. The possibilities looked extremely promising.
I only have one question:
Where can I get one??!!
_______________________
The were *zapping* a late-model corvette. It was going nuts. Wintel boxes were hosed by this frequency cannon.
I only have one question: