I've got a suggestion. Don't read your rental agreement and don't pay your rent. When they evict you, you can explain you never read the contract. See what happens.
True, but then every rental agreement that I know of has to be signed. I have never rented a place or bought a house where "by putting your key in the lock, you agree to the following rental agreement/morgage agreement. Your presence in the dwelling indicates legal agreement to this contract."
You don't pay your rent or your mortage, the Landlord or Bank has legal, signed documents that they can use to kick your ass out. A EULA doesn't (yet) have that level of validity in most States/Provinces/Countries.
This shows the problem with Windows pricing -- the SRP of Windows is too expense in relation to the cost of the equipment -- in this case, $280. Even with all new equipment and a bigger HD, a new PC can be home built for $300 - $500, depending on options, even a higher end gamer machine can be home-built for under a grand with a little planning.
Now add $99 (XP home upgrade / assumes one has an older Windows) to $299 for XP Professional (full, no upgrade) and the cost of the PC almost doubles (or more than doubles, if your neighbor would have bought a full version of XP Professional).
Microsoft office priced themselves out of reach of my budget in the same way. When I built my first PC, I installed a copy of MS Office 97 from work (a pirate installation). Today, My latest PC, my laptop, and my Daughter's laptop have copies of Open Office on them. I do have XP on systems, but this will be the last time a go and buy a MS operating system for a homebuilt system -- Linux is much more budget friendly and is much more of a viable alternative nowadays.
Microsoft has kept their monopoly on Windows only because there has been no direct competition (by direct competion I mean competion like in Linux -- if you don't like Red Hat, you can always pick another distro, or even roll your own, but all are still Linux). The closest MS ever came to direct competition was back in the DOS days when DR DOS was available. OS/2 at one point could have been direct competition for Win 3.1, but then WIN 95 came out.
Of course with Longhorn on the horizon and all of the progress Linux has made on the desktop, Microsoft may just make it where Linux is the easier and better OS to choose for both the average Joe and a business environment. As MS adds hoops that one must jump through to use their OS, Linux is just as busy removing them. I'm just waiting for the day the tide turns...
Overall, I was impressed with the DVD set, although at times Lucas is trying too much to link them to the first three movies.
Good things:
Most of the changes that were from the 1997 releases were good IMHO, such as making Mos Eisley look bigger and "more alive", making the Cloud City a little less claustrophobic, and making the Death Star and Alderaan explosions a little more impressive. I also liked Jabba's new band in Ep-6, it seemed the kind of excess a crime lord like Jabba would have.
The changes I didn't care much for includes changing the Han/Greedo shooting scene (again - that should have been left alone), changes in the shooting scene in the Prison Block (Imperial Personnel are no longer obviously shot), the new Anakin Skywalker ghost at the end of EP6 along with all of the firework scenes from various locations (actually, I have mixed feeling on this one -- I know that the Emperor was killed, but would the Empire crumble that quickly? We are talking about hours to a day or so from the destruction of the Death Star II to Vader's funeral pyre.
There are other changes (both 1997 vintage and new to this set), but they are for the most part do not affect the movie one way or the other, at least in my opinion.
The 3 movies are still fun to watch, so as far as I'm concerned, the purchase was worth it. It would be nice to be able to get the original movies on DVD, too.
You don't need access to WAP, or even the central database to pull this off. Most retailers have their cards in an assigned BIN range, which is a range of 16 or 19 digit (can be other lengths, but 16 or 19 is typical). If you can figure out what the range is (easy -- just buy one or more cards), get a card number generator program, use the 800 AVR (Automated Voice Response) number, and keep trying until you hit a card number with value. Fix up your card, and you're in business.
These guys may get away with this for awhile, but most Retailers get fraud reports which they can use to analyse this kind of thing. Once they figure out the pattern, they can wait for the criminal(s) to make a mistake.
It is not easy to prove fraud since gift cards are not linked to a customer, so they must catch the criminal with an altered card, or prove there is no way that a card bought at store A could be used at store B in a given time frame.
At least he has family that cares. My Wife worked at an Alzheimer's facility (basically a nursing home for Alzheimer's patients) and there were people there who almost never had visitors. Yes, Alzheimers can be hard on the family, especially once the person no longer recognizes anyone, but I would hate to die alone, even if I didn't know it.
Jim is still in the early stages, so perhaps with a little luck and some breakthroughs in Alzheimer's treatment, he will not have to suffer too much. Scotty was always pulling a miracle out of his hat, so perhaps there is one more left in real life. Good luck, and thanks for all the memories.
Not to discount you, but the only other explanation I could see is that Cheney was hustled off because they knew that hijacked planes were heading towards Washington DC. There were no planes hijacked in the Florida area, so he was not in as great of danger. Once what was going on became clear, they hustled Bush onto Air Force One, then were vague about his whereabouts.
One interesting thing though, if they knew where the planes were going, why move Chaney out unless he was near one of the intended targets? If they knew what the targets were ahead of time, why wasn't Cheney out of Washington, too. They didn't know for sure what the target of the plane that eventually crashed in PA was supposed to be, just that it was heading towards DC. It would make sense to hustle Cheney out of there if they did not know what was going to be hit next.
I think Bush and Co. took advantage of 9/11 (Patriot Act, Iraq, etc.), but I do not think that they were involved with the attack.
I agree. In fact, I am able to use 802.11b at my sister-in-laws at the same time she is on the phone. The phone is a fairly new 2.4 GHz cordless -- so perhaps that is why it works. BTW I am on channel 6 on the wireless -- not sure of the exact frequency of the phone.
I've actually read/. from my Parent's basement too...my Dad's office is in the basement.
The rest of the story is -- my Parent's basement is in a different state (Illinois) from where my house is (Kentucky), so I guess that doesn't really count.
I have also read/. from the Children's Museum in Indianapolis (great place to go if you have Kids) from the Library (not very strange), and at the Mall (a few years ago, the Jefferson Mall in Louisville, KY had these internet terminals set up to advertise someones DSL service).
I work in this industry, so maybe I can shed some light on the situation.
When one purchases a gift card from XYZ store, say for $50.00, the card has no link to the customer. This means there is no name or other personal data stored on the system for that card number. We store the card number, date of issuance, location of issuance, and amount of issuance for each card.
When XYZ takes the money for that gift card, it is not counted as revenue, since no good or service has been purchased. In the normal life of a card, purchases are made, and eventually the value of the card goes to zero. In the mean time, XYZ stores the funds in an account and makes interest off of the money.
When gift cards were first issued, part of the "agreement" was that after 24 months of non-usage (the clock begins again after a purchase, refund, addition of funds, or a balance inquiry (for some clients). After the 24 months, a dormancy fee of (say) $2.00/month kicks in back to the last time the card was used. This means now our $50.00 gift card has $2.00 ($50 - ($2.00 * 24)) left on it. After month 25, the value would be zero.
Dormancy is used not only to remove old cards off of the system, but to move funds to the retailer in the form of a service charge. All was well and good (from the retailer's point of view) until a case was brought forward in California. The arguement was that these are customer's funds and the Company has no right to claim them because no goods or services were exchanged. The case was won, but a new problem was presented -- who gets the funds?
Remember, no personal data is attached to the card number, so there is no way XYZ can go back to the purchaser and say hey -- you have $50 you forgot about!
Enter, the state. The law already states that a bank has to turn over dormant accounts to the State or Federal government (depending if the Bank is State of Federal) after a period of time (7 years if I remember correctly). States are seeing these Gift Card funds as a easy source of revenue. Although all one has to do to claim the money is produce the gift card to the State, the likelyhood of this happening is small. This basicly means low risk funds coming into the State that although technically remains on the books as unclaimed funds, can be used to help cover state budgets.
This is a simplified version of the issue, but this for the most part what is happening. More States are looking into this as it appears friendly to the consumer while moving funds into state coffers.
I was actually wondering the same thing at times. Such a scheme would actually not be a half bad idea to get copyright and DMCA issues out to the typical Wal-Mart shopper (I say Wal-Mart because that is where I saw the original 3-2-1 DVD ripper package sold when the court ruling came out).
The Slashdot crowd only has so much pull, but if you get get Joe Wal-Mart pissed off, there will be a lot more noise made, and hopefully action taken.
Now they are looking to get the Gamers to join the party. I don't know if this is what 3-2-1 is intending to do or not, but if it is, it actually isn't a bad plan.
There is good indie music out there - it just takes more work to find the Gems. There are groups out there that sound horrid, others that are so-so, and even others that are just good, that you want to listen to once in awhile, but not that often.
Then you find the rare gem -- a group with a bunch of songs that make you want to download -- or better yet, buy their CD. Finding a group like that makes the search worthwhile. One such group that I found is Fitehouse, a rock band out of Baltimore.
There's lots of music out there, in many different genres. Looking for good music may take some work, but it beats most of the stuff that the RIAA is pushing these days.
If you buy a car (much more of an investment, and very likely to break in time) and it breaks, even without any fault on your part, you have to buy a new one.
Where I live, we have these guys and gals in funny overalls called mechanics. If my car breaks (or doesn't brake), I take it to the shop and have it fixed, and I don't have to use "original GM parts" if I don't want to. I don't just throw it away and get a new car. Of course, when I buy a car, I am buying a physical object, which (assuming it is paid off) I can do anything I want to. The State may determine if my changes make the car "street legal" or not, but the manufacturer has no say.
What is being said here as far as CDs, DVDs, etc. is if I am buying a physical object, fine. If it breaks and can not be repaired, then I need to buy a new one. However, then I should have the right to back it up for personal use as many times as needed. There are already laws against distribution (copyright), so no DMCA should be needed.
If I am buying a license to view a movie, listen to an album, run software, etc., then IMHO the provider should be required to provide replacement copies of the media that it is provided on for the cost of that media, plus shipping. They can require that I send back the original media (or pieces thereof) to prevent me from "losing" the media so that I can get another copy. If DRM is used (in the case of i-tunes, etc.), then the DRM scheme should be sufficient to "prove" loss.
The bottom line is that big Media needs to go one way or the other -- the shouldn't be allowed to have their cake and eat it too.
And before anyone nitpicks this one, historically candidates very rarely lose their home state.
The biggest irony about the 2000 Election is that Al Gore lost in his home state, Tennessee. If he would have won there, Florida would not have been an issue. Gore would have had enough electoral votes even with Florida going to Bush.
As far as staying on topic, I feel it is bad form to resign because the Military is using Linux. Even if he believes that invading Iraq is wrong, our Soldiers deserve the best equipment possible. After all, it's not G.W.'s ass that is getting fragged over there, it is the the Men and Women that are in uniform that face the bombs and ambushes.
It seems to me that the DMCA is not working the way that the Media big boys thought it would. Back when DeCSS was released, the MPAA took all kinds of legal action under the DMCA and won, at least in court. Even though the MPAA "won", they lost in the end. I can find DeCSS (and newer programs that were developed from it) all over the Net. The legal action gave DeCSS all of the publicity it would ever need -- and not just in the Geek community.
We are seeing the same thing now with Playfair. What will Apple invoking the DMCA accomplish? It has just given Playfair a big publicity boost that it would not have otherwise had. I'm not saying that Playfair would have remained obscure if Apple had remained quiet, but the end result is lots of publicity not only for Playfair, but also for Sarovar. Even if Sarovar eventually takes down the Playfair site, the Playfair program will be available all over the Internet. It is time to get rid of the DMCA and any other DMCA time laws. All they do is create more "crimes" instead of solving any copyright problems that big Media think they have. Programs like DeCSS and Playfair have legitimate uses that do not constitute a copyright violation under fair use and there are already laws that cover copyright infringement.
I completely reject your assertion that people could do without music.
I think in this case "music" refers to the commercial music recording industry. If all five major labels were to collapse tomorrow and all recorded music were to disapear, people would go back to making their own music at home, at church, or around the campfire, just like they did before recorded music was invented. People may be used to background music in their lives, but we can live without it.
And you do know that DJ Danger Mouse pressed 3000 CDs, yes?
From what I understand, 3000 CDs were pressed, and a number of these were sold on Ebay. As long as DJ Danger Mouse did not sell them (he had no arrangement with the Beatles or Jay-Z) he is okay (not making a profit), but the resale of these CDs (in this case, there is no "first sale" ) is not okay. That would be the same as if I took my mp3 copy and created a CD version and sold it -- not okay.
I'm not sure if DJ Dangermouse personally sold any of the CDs, or if the sales were all second party, but IMHO, no money should change hands at any point for these CDs.
Disclaimer: I am using okay/not okay because according to current copyright law (the "real world"), the whole Grey Album project was illegal. Okay / not okay only pertains to my current opinion on how copyright (IMHO) should work, not how it actually works. That's why I support Lessig -- he has thought of things that I'm sure I have never thought of as far as how copyright law should work fairly for all parties.
"Should the law give DJ Danger Mouse the right to remix without permission? I think so, though I understand how others find the matter a bit more grey."
"Should the law give DJ Danger Mouse a compulsory right to remix? That is, the right, conditioned upon his paying a small fee per sale? Again, I think so, and again, you might find this a bit less grey."
Personally, I think DJ Danger Mouse should have the right to remix without permission and distribute it as long as no profit is made. Now, If DJ Danger Mouse wants to make money with/off of the work, then permission needs to be given and royalities paid to The Beatles and Jay Z. Of course, if we still had the original 14 year (or even 28 year) maximum copyrights, then the Beatles would be public domain.
I think non-profit remixes (in the case of music) or fan fiction (in the case of Books, Movies, and TV) should always be legal and permitted. Once something is released, it becomes part of our common experience, and perhaps our culture.
Great group out of Baltimore. For $18 (including shipping) I bought both their CD and their EP. I ripped both and the songs live on my laptop and my home server (not on the 'net). Definately a well spent $18 -- the money went directly to the group and not a cent to the RIAA. The best part is that you can download their MP3s and see if you like their music, then support them if you like what you hear.
No Copyright or Patent laws may be bad, but going too far the other way is just as bad. I can understand the *AAs wanting to make money on their products, but today's copyright law is about maintaining control (in practical terms) forever.
P2P sharing is just a small part of the picture, technically all fan fiction is illegal without permission from the copyright holder, yet fan fiction is one of the results of "content" becoming part of our culture. Why should (not for profit) fan fiction and fan web sites be illegal? That is why original copyright law was limited to 14 years -- it allowed the creator to profit from his or her work while allowing for the work to be freely used by everyone after a period time.
We should go back to a reasonable (14 year) copyright. Why should works such as D.J. DangerMouse's "Grey Album" be considered "illegal art" or projects such as Star Trek: New Voyages have to exist as long as Paramount doesn't mind (I'm not sure what their arrangement is with Paramount, but 5YM is not for profit).
Businesses and creators can make a reasonable profit without having to own our culture forever. I'm sure the Beatles have made a ton of money on their music in the 30 plus years that it has been around, and I'm sure Paramount has made a load of money off of Kirk, Spock, and the original Enterprise.
How would you have heard of these bands if it wasn't for the RIAA promoting them via albums?
That's the beauty of the Internet and P2P. I am constantly following links from/. and other web sites to independent musicians. Some I like, some are okay, and some are not my cup of tea. The fun is in the exploring.
Yes it takes work to look for oneself instead of letting the RIAA tell you what is "good", but the results are worth the effort. I have discovered groups such as Fitehouse (Go check 'em out if you like Rock). You can download some mp3s for free, and buy the CD directly from them. I have 2 Fitehouse CDs at home, cost me around $18 shipped, all $ to the artists, none to the RIAA. I ripped the tracks and have them on my laptop for my listening pleasure.
With the RIAA being so boneheaded, it looks like that this is the future for me, at least for now. There's plenty out there, it just takes a little work.
Maybe, in this case either an American was involved somehow, or perhaps the FBI was called in because they are used to working across juristictions and/or have expertise with kidknapping cases.
I would say that the U.S. might have tactical plans, but would never use them without an Allie's permission, but in the age of Ashcroft and G.W. Bush, I can no longer say that.
Why does going to Open Source software have to be a all or nothing proposition? In this case I would do the following:
1. Test the spreadsheet in Open Office. Run a few month's data through if you can, or at least create a formal test plan. If it works, then Open Office can be considered for those who work with the spreadsheet. If not, keep them on MS Office.
2. Consider giving MS Office to those who regularly send complex documents outside the company.
For example, we bid on State and Federal Government projects. If the bid is required to be in.doc format, then we want to be sure that there are no problems (losing a bid due to document problems would NOT be good), and MS Office would be required in this case. On the other hand, if a worker is only going to create or access documents that are only prepared/used in-house, then Open Office would be fine for his or her workstation.
3. If the total support cost of maintaining OO and MS Office (if both are required) is less than the cost of MS Office licenses that would be required, then recommend OO be added to the company's list of approved software, otherwise stick with MS Office if it is needed or convert completely to Open Office if it meets all of your needs.
The same process can be used for any open source application or OS. One nice thing about open source there are no costs in checking out an application beyond equipment and tesing man-hours. This is not always the case with commercial software.
I'd love something like that! It would be great to explore how the everyday Joe lives in the Federation. I think the closest they came to that was when Picard visited his brother in France. It would be great to see stories about life on Earth, Vulcan, on a colony, etc.
I was hoping that Enterprise would more be about the first steps leading to the Federation and Kirk's time, but so far I have been disappointed for the most part.
Do you live on (or better yet) did you use a U.S. Military Base internet connection when you purchased your music through iTunes? I believe that (at least for legal purposes) U.S. Military bases are considered U.S. soil. If so, then your IP address would be reported as a U.S. location, otherwise they truly go by credit card.
Slashdot Mirror
I've got a suggestion. Don't read your rental agreement and don't pay your rent. When they evict you, you can explain you never read the contract. See what happens.
True, but then every rental agreement that I know of has to be signed. I have never rented a place or bought a house where "by putting your key in the lock, you agree to the following rental agreement/morgage agreement. Your presence in the dwelling indicates legal agreement to this contract."
You don't pay your rent or your mortage, the Landlord or Bank has legal, signed documents that they can use to kick your ass out. A EULA doesn't (yet) have that level of validity in most States/Provinces/Countries.
This shows the problem with Windows pricing -- the SRP of Windows is too expense in relation to the cost of the equipment -- in this case, $280. Even with all new equipment and a bigger HD, a new PC can be home built for $300 - $500, depending on options, even a higher end gamer machine can be home-built for under a grand with a little planning.
Now add $99 (XP home upgrade / assumes one has an older Windows) to $299 for XP Professional (full, no upgrade) and the cost of the PC almost doubles (or more than doubles, if your neighbor would have bought a full version of XP Professional).
Microsoft office priced themselves out of reach of my budget in the same way. When I built my first PC, I installed a copy of MS Office 97 from work (a pirate installation). Today, My latest PC, my laptop, and my Daughter's laptop have copies of Open Office on them. I do have XP on systems, but this will be the last time a go and buy a MS operating system for a homebuilt system -- Linux is much more budget friendly and is much more of a viable alternative nowadays.
Microsoft has kept their monopoly on Windows only because there has been no direct competition (by direct competion I mean competion like in Linux -- if you don't like Red Hat, you can always pick another distro, or even roll your own, but all are still Linux). The closest MS ever came to direct competition was back in the DOS days when DR DOS was available. OS/2 at one point could have been direct competition for Win 3.1, but then WIN 95 came out.
Of course with Longhorn on the horizon and all of the progress Linux has made on the desktop, Microsoft may just make it where Linux is the easier and better OS to choose for both the average Joe and a business environment. As MS adds hoops that one must jump through to use their OS, Linux is just as busy removing them. I'm just waiting for the day the tide turns...
Overall, I was impressed with the DVD set, although at times Lucas is trying too much to link them to the first three movies.
Good things:
Most of the changes that were from the 1997 releases were good IMHO, such as making Mos Eisley look bigger and "more alive", making the Cloud City a little less claustrophobic, and making the Death Star and Alderaan explosions a little more impressive. I also liked Jabba's new band in Ep-6, it seemed the kind of excess a crime lord like Jabba would have.
The changes I didn't care much for includes changing the Han/Greedo shooting scene (again - that should have been left alone), changes in the shooting scene in the Prison Block (Imperial Personnel are no longer obviously shot), the new Anakin Skywalker ghost at the end of EP6 along with all of the firework scenes from various locations (actually, I have mixed feeling on this one -- I know that the Emperor was killed, but would the Empire crumble that quickly? We are talking about hours to a day or so from the destruction of the Death Star II to Vader's funeral pyre.
There are other changes (both 1997 vintage and new to this set), but they are for the most part do not affect the movie one way or the other, at least in my opinion.
The 3 movies are still fun to watch, so as far as I'm concerned, the purchase was worth it. It would be nice to be able to get the original movies on DVD, too.
You don't need access to WAP, or even the central database to pull this off. Most retailers have their cards in an assigned BIN range, which is a range of 16 or 19 digit (can be other lengths, but 16 or 19 is typical). If you can figure out what the range is (easy -- just buy one or more cards), get a card number generator program, use the 800 AVR (Automated Voice Response) number, and keep trying until you hit a card number with value. Fix up your card, and you're in business.
These guys may get away with this for awhile, but most Retailers get fraud reports which they can use to analyse this kind of thing. Once they figure out the pattern, they can wait for the criminal(s) to make a mistake.
It is not easy to prove fraud since gift cards are not linked to a customer, so they must catch the criminal with an altered card, or prove there is no way that a card bought at store A could be used at store B in a given time frame.
At least he has family that cares. My Wife worked at an Alzheimer's facility (basically a nursing home for Alzheimer's patients) and there were people there who almost never had visitors. Yes, Alzheimers can be hard on the family, especially once the person no longer recognizes anyone, but I would hate to die alone, even if I didn't know it.
Jim is still in the early stages, so perhaps with a little luck and some breakthroughs in Alzheimer's treatment, he will not have to suffer too much. Scotty was always pulling a miracle out of his hat, so perhaps there is one more left in real life. Good luck, and thanks for all the memories.
Not to discount you, but the only other explanation I could see is that Cheney was hustled off because they knew that hijacked planes were heading towards Washington DC. There were no planes hijacked in the Florida area, so he was not in as great of danger. Once what was going on became clear, they hustled Bush onto Air Force One, then were vague about his whereabouts.
One interesting thing though, if they knew where the planes were going, why move Chaney out unless he was near one of the intended targets? If they knew what the targets were ahead of time, why wasn't Cheney out of Washington, too. They didn't know for sure what the target of the plane that eventually crashed in PA was supposed to be, just that it was heading towards DC. It would make sense to hustle Cheney out of there if they did not know what was going to be hit next.
I think Bush and Co. took advantage of 9/11 (Patriot Act, Iraq, etc.), but I do not think that they were involved with the attack.
I agree. In fact, I am able to use 802.11b at my sister-in-laws at the same time she is on the phone. The phone is a fairly new 2.4 GHz cordless -- so perhaps that is why it works. BTW I am on channel 6 on the wireless -- not sure of the exact frequency of the phone.
I've actually read /. from my Parent's basement too...my Dad's office is in the basement.
/. from the Children's Museum in Indianapolis (great place to go if you have Kids) from the Library (not very strange), and at the Mall (a few years ago, the Jefferson Mall in Louisville, KY had these internet terminals set up to advertise someones DSL service).
The rest of the story is -- my Parent's basement is in a different state (Illinois) from where my house is (Kentucky), so I guess that doesn't really count.
I have also read
I work in this industry, so maybe I can shed some light on the situation.
When one purchases a gift card from XYZ store, say for $50.00, the card has no link to the customer. This means there is no name or other personal data stored on the system for that card number. We store the card number, date of issuance, location of issuance, and amount of issuance for each card.
When XYZ takes the money for that gift card, it is not counted as revenue, since no good or service has been purchased. In the normal life of a card, purchases are made, and eventually the value of the card goes to zero. In the mean time, XYZ stores the funds in an account and makes interest off of the money.
When gift cards were first issued, part of the "agreement" was that after 24 months of non-usage (the clock begins again after a purchase, refund, addition of funds, or a balance inquiry (for some clients). After the 24 months, a dormancy fee of (say) $2.00/month kicks in back to the last time the card was used. This means now our $50.00 gift card has $2.00 ($50 - ($2.00 * 24)) left on it. After month 25, the value would be zero.
Dormancy is used not only to remove old cards off of the system, but to move funds to the retailer in the form of a service charge. All was well and good (from the retailer's point of view) until a case was brought forward in California. The arguement was that these are customer's funds and the Company has no right to claim them because no goods or services were exchanged. The case was won, but a new problem was presented -- who gets the funds?
Remember, no personal data is attached to the card number, so there is no way XYZ can go back to the purchaser and say hey -- you have $50 you forgot about!
Enter, the state. The law already states that a bank has to turn over dormant accounts to the State or Federal government (depending if the Bank is State of Federal) after a period of time (7 years if I remember correctly). States are seeing these Gift Card funds as a easy source of revenue. Although all one has to do to claim the money is produce the gift card to the State, the likelyhood of this happening is small. This basicly means low risk funds coming into the State that although technically remains on the books as unclaimed funds, can be used to help cover state budgets.
This is a simplified version of the issue, but this for the most part what is happening. More States are looking into this as it appears friendly to the consumer while moving funds into state coffers.
I was actually wondering the same thing at times. Such a scheme would actually not be a half bad idea to get copyright and DMCA issues out to the typical Wal-Mart shopper (I say Wal-Mart because that is where I saw the original 3-2-1 DVD ripper package sold when the court ruling came out).
The Slashdot crowd only has so much pull, but if you get get Joe Wal-Mart pissed off, there will be a lot more noise made, and hopefully action taken.
Now they are looking to get the Gamers to join the party. I don't know if this is what 3-2-1 is intending to do or not, but if it is, it actually isn't a bad plan.
There is good indie music out there - it just takes more work to find the Gems. There are groups out there that sound horrid, others that are so-so, and even others that are just good, that you want to listen to once in awhile, but not that often.
Then you find the rare gem -- a group with a bunch of songs that make you want to download -- or better yet, buy their CD. Finding a group like that makes the search worthwhile. One such group that I found is Fitehouse, a rock band out of Baltimore.
There's lots of music out there, in many different genres. Looking for good music may take some work, but it beats most of the stuff that the RIAA is pushing these days.
If you buy a car (much more of an investment, and very likely to break in time) and it breaks, even without any fault on your part, you have to buy a new one.
Where I live, we have these guys and gals in funny overalls called mechanics. If my car breaks (or doesn't brake), I take it to the shop and have it fixed, and I don't have to use "original GM parts" if I don't want to. I don't just throw it away and get a new car. Of course, when I buy a car, I am buying a physical object, which (assuming it is paid off) I can do anything I want to. The State may determine if my changes make the car "street legal" or not, but the manufacturer has no say.
What is being said here as far as CDs, DVDs, etc. is if I am buying a physical object, fine. If it breaks and can not be repaired, then I need to buy a new one. However, then I should have the right to back it up for personal use as many times as needed. There are already laws against distribution (copyright), so no DMCA should be needed.
If I am buying a license to view a movie, listen to an album, run software, etc., then IMHO the provider should be required to provide replacement copies of the media that it is provided on for the cost of that media, plus shipping. They can require that I send back the original media (or pieces thereof) to prevent me from "losing" the media so that I can get another copy. If DRM is used (in the case of i-tunes, etc.), then the DRM scheme should be sufficient to "prove" loss.
The bottom line is that big Media needs to go one way or the other -- the shouldn't be allowed to have their cake and eat it too.
And before anyone nitpicks this one, historically candidates very rarely lose their home state.
The biggest irony about the 2000 Election is that Al Gore lost in his home state, Tennessee. If he would have won there, Florida would not have been an issue. Gore would have had enough electoral votes even with Florida going to Bush.
As far as staying on topic, I feel it is bad form to resign because the Military is using Linux. Even if he believes that invading Iraq is wrong, our Soldiers deserve the best equipment possible. After all, it's not G.W.'s ass that is getting fragged over there, it is the the Men and Women that are in uniform that face the bombs and ambushes.
It seems to me that the DMCA is not working the way that the Media big boys thought it would. Back when DeCSS was released, the MPAA took all kinds of legal action under the DMCA and won, at least in court. Even though the MPAA "won", they lost in the end. I can find DeCSS (and newer programs that were developed from it) all over the Net. The legal action gave DeCSS all of the publicity it would ever need -- and not just in the Geek community.
We are seeing the same thing now with Playfair. What will Apple invoking the DMCA accomplish? It has just given Playfair a big publicity boost that it would not have otherwise had. I'm not saying that Playfair would have remained obscure if Apple had remained quiet, but the end result is lots of publicity not only for Playfair, but also for Sarovar. Even if Sarovar eventually takes down the Playfair site, the Playfair program will be available all over the Internet.
It is time to get rid of the DMCA and any other DMCA time laws. All they do is create more "crimes" instead of solving any copyright problems that big Media think they have. Programs like DeCSS and Playfair have legitimate uses that do not constitute a copyright violation under fair use and there are already laws that cover copyright infringement.
Time for a coffee break! First time I read that as Jerry Lewis! Not a pretty mental picture...
I completely reject your assertion that people could do without music.
I think in this case "music" refers to the commercial music recording industry. If all five major labels were to collapse tomorrow and all recorded music were to disapear, people would go back to making their own music at home, at church, or around the campfire, just like they did before recorded music was invented. People may be used to background music in their lives, but we can live without it.
And you do know that DJ Danger Mouse pressed 3000 CDs, yes?
From what I understand, 3000 CDs were pressed, and a number of these were sold on Ebay. As long as DJ Danger Mouse did not sell them (he had no arrangement with the Beatles or Jay-Z) he is okay (not making a profit), but the resale of these CDs (in this case, there is no "first sale" ) is not okay. That would be the same as if I took my mp3 copy and created a CD version and sold it -- not okay.
I'm not sure if DJ Dangermouse personally sold any of the CDs, or if the sales were all second party, but IMHO, no money should change hands at any point for these CDs.
Disclaimer: I am using okay/not okay because according to current copyright law (the "real world"), the whole Grey Album project was illegal. Okay / not okay only pertains to my current opinion on how copyright (IMHO) should work, not how it actually works. That's why I support Lessig -- he has thought of things that I'm sure I have never thought of as far as how copyright law should work fairly for all parties.
"Should the law give DJ Danger Mouse a compulsory right to remix? That is, the right, conditioned upon his paying a small fee per sale? Again, I think so, and again, you might find this a bit less grey."
Personally, I think DJ Danger Mouse should have the right to remix without permission and distribute it as long as no profit is made. Now, If DJ Danger Mouse wants to make money with/off of the work, then permission needs to be given and royalities paid to The Beatles and Jay Z. Of course, if we still had the original 14 year (or even 28 year) maximum copyrights, then the Beatles would be public domain.
I think non-profit remixes (in the case of music) or fan fiction (in the case of Books, Movies, and TV) should always be legal and permitted. Once something is released, it becomes part of our common experience, and perhaps our culture.
Just my 2 cents.
Great group out of Baltimore. For $18 (including shipping) I bought both their CD and their EP. I ripped both and the songs live on my laptop and my home server (not on the 'net). Definately a well spent $18 -- the money went directly to the group and not a cent to the RIAA. The best part is that you can download their MP3s and see if you like their music, then support them if you like what you hear.
No Copyright or Patent laws may be bad, but going too far the other way is just as bad. I can understand the *AAs wanting to make money on their products, but today's copyright law is about maintaining control (in practical terms) forever.
P2P sharing is just a small part of the picture, technically all fan fiction is illegal without permission from the copyright holder, yet fan fiction is one of the results of "content" becoming part of our culture. Why should (not for profit) fan fiction and fan web sites be illegal? That is why original copyright law was limited to 14 years -- it allowed the creator to profit from his or her work while allowing for the work to be freely used by everyone after a period time.
We should go back to a reasonable (14 year) copyright. Why should works such as D.J. DangerMouse's "Grey Album" be considered "illegal art" or projects such as Star Trek: New Voyages have to exist as long as Paramount doesn't mind (I'm not sure what their arrangement is with Paramount, but 5YM is not for profit).
Businesses and creators can make a reasonable profit without having to own our culture forever. I'm sure the Beatles have made a ton of money on their music in the 30 plus years that it has been around, and I'm sure Paramount has made a load of money off of Kirk, Spock, and the original Enterprise.
It is time to bring "IP" law back to reality.
How would you have heard of these bands if it wasn't for the RIAA promoting them via albums?
That's the beauty of the Internet and P2P. I am constantly following links from /. and other web sites to independent musicians. Some I like, some are okay, and some are not my cup of tea. The fun is in the exploring.
Yes it takes work to look for oneself instead of letting the RIAA tell you what is "good", but the results are worth the effort. I have discovered groups such as Fitehouse (Go check 'em out if you like Rock). You can download some mp3s for free, and buy the CD directly from them. I have 2 Fitehouse CDs at home, cost me around $18 shipped, all $ to the artists, none to the RIAA. I ripped the tracks and have them on my laptop for my listening pleasure.
With the RIAA being so boneheaded, it looks like that this is the future for me, at least for now. There's plenty out there, it just takes a little work.
Maybe, in this case either an American was involved somehow, or perhaps the FBI was called in because they are used to working across juristictions and/or have expertise with kidknapping cases.
I would say that the U.S. might have tactical plans, but would never use them without an Allie's permission, but in the age of Ashcroft and G.W. Bush, I can no longer say that.
Why does going to Open Source software have to be a all or nothing proposition? In this case I would do the following :
.doc format, then we want to be sure that there are no problems (losing a bid due to document problems would NOT be good), and MS Office would be required in this case. On the other hand, if a worker is only going to create or access documents that are only prepared/used in-house, then Open Office would be fine for his or her workstation.
1. Test the spreadsheet in Open Office. Run a few month's data through if you can, or at least create a formal test plan. If it works, then Open Office can be considered for those who work with the spreadsheet. If not, keep them on MS Office.
2. Consider giving MS Office to those who regularly send complex documents outside the company.
For example, we bid on State and Federal Government projects. If the bid is required to be in
3. If the total support cost of maintaining OO and MS Office (if both are required) is less than the cost of MS Office licenses that would be required, then recommend OO be added to the company's list of approved software, otherwise stick with MS Office if it is needed or convert completely to Open Office if it meets all of your needs.
The same process can be used for any open source application or OS. One nice thing about open source there are no costs in checking out an application beyond equipment and tesing man-hours. This is not always the case with commercial software.
I'd love something like that! It would be great to explore how the everyday Joe lives in the Federation. I think the closest they came to that was when Picard visited his brother in France. It would be great to see stories about life on Earth, Vulcan, on a colony, etc.
I was hoping that Enterprise would more be about the first steps leading to the Federation and Kirk's time, but so far I have been disappointed for the most part.
Do you live on (or better yet) did you use a U.S. Military Base internet connection when you purchased your music through iTunes? I believe that (at least for legal purposes) U.S. Military bases are considered U.S. soil. If so, then your IP address would be reported as a U.S. location, otherwise they truly go by credit card.