1. Source for Einstein coming up with general relativity "in his spare time"? Everything I've read says he was a university teacher at that time. Such academics publish papers as part of their professional obligations, and not in their "spare time". Indeed, according to Wiki he obtained a special contract clause in 1914 that allowed him to spend most of his time researching and writing rather than teaching.
2. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THAT YOU WOULD COMPARE GPL/LINUX TO THE ABOVE, EITHER IN TERMS OF THE INTELLECT REQUIRED TO PRODUCE IT, OR THE BENEFICIAL IMPACT ON THE WORLD
If they stopped to pay attention to the real world, they'd realize this isn't a boycott; it's a protest which they are not entitled to carry out. These kids will be escorted from Sony property, and rightly so. I imagine a significant fraction of them will be unable to maintain their composure and will do something violent and get himself arrested. Unsurprising.
"you should dig a bit deeper."... Wow, you mean like actually reading the featured article, instead of just reading the always-misleading Slashdot headline and coming here to make various uninformed rants?
"The Paypal account was being used to help his defense and now those people can be harassed by Sony"
Funny, I don't remember the court order saying Sony was allowed to do that. Please enlighten us, clever one!
"Sadly in the USA no money means no defense, as I wouldn't let a public pretender defend my dog, and in civil cases you don't even get that."
Can you name some country where you're always entitled to free legal assistance? Sounds pretty stupid to me. I'd hate to be a lawyer in that country, if it exists.
"A few people associated with Wikileaks did what the U.S. could not with the trillions of dollars they've put into their attempts to influence policy in the region."
Gee, you mean all we had to do is say to hell with any concept of international law or diplomatic integrity, lay bare our communications with and knowledge of other countries, and accept that no one would ever talk to us again? I can't believe it's that simple, and I wish you were in charge of the U.S. Government! (The whole dang thing – screw this tripartite federal system thingy.)
That's a fair complaint. Allow me to explain what's gotten me in this grumpy mood.
Any time a story shows up on/. discussing copyright, free speech, or, God forbid, the DMCA itself, the forum is flooded with people who are so utterly certain that the law was written by the spawn of Satan for the express purpose of beginning the slow process of subjugating mankind for all eternity.
I'd say a good 80% of these comments reach a "foaming at the mouth" stage of utter rabidity. Yet apparently 95% or more have never taken the time to read the law, but remain confident their view is correct even where the law's plain language directly contradicts their unshakeable beliefs as to its substance.
It should come as no surprise that fewer still seem to have given serious thought to how an ugly law is often the result of difficult compromises between competing interests, each of which is worthwhile. Further, many seem resolute in the view that the DMCA itself is merely one of a billion examples that demonstrate why laws and lawyers are worthless things. What I think the overwhelming majority of Slashdotters fail to appreciate is the fact that it's an extremely difficult job to craft legal principles which strike an appropriate balance among a diversity of worthwhile interests -- or the fact that even the most finely crafted balance is always going to piss someone off and result in dire complaint.
Imagine you're a project manager in charge of 50+ developers of varying levels of experience. You have 15 years in the industry, including prior management experience, one or two advanced degrees, and a whole raft of certs.
In walks a lawyer who has inexplicably been given some kind of control over this project. Without pausing to say hello, he announces to the entire team that the project is to be completed WITHOUT the use of any private variables, because software should be open and transparent.
You don't even know where to begin about how utterly clueless this man is, and your mind boggles at the amount of training it would take just to get him to realize what an idiotic statement he's just made. But this guy is here, and he's loud, and he won't shut the hell up until he gets what he wants.
This, sir, hopefully begins to explain why you find yourself talking to a Legal Troll on Slashdot.
I apologize for my rudeness and commend you on your level-headed response.
Let's start with the relevant text, with some helpful emphasis. FWIW, this is the section on "TRAFFICKING":
(b) Additional Violations.—
(1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—
(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof.
I don't suppose you could be troubled to actually read and understand the DMCA so that you wouldn't post nonsense like this?
I didn't think so. Enjoy your tenure on/.
OH YOU MEAN ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS HAVE DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHY AND FAR FEWER PEOPLE!
Stfu. You live in flyover country and your comment was utterly irrelevant while mine was not.
If you think ~$90 USD per month entitles you to 100 megabits guaranteed 24/7, it doesn't matter what the advertising signs say and you deserve whatever the fuck you get, faggot. HTFH
There are people here who "would have you believe it would" because this website is a haven for people who wish to make loud and dire complaints that have little or no grounding in reality.
No, it's not a crime to watch Hotz's video. It has never been a crime. It is not in danger of becoming a crime. People's IPs are not being subpoena'd because they are suspected of crimes. Even people who turned around and REDISTRIBUTED HOTZ'S CRACK THEMSELVES have nothing to fear from this subpoena because the information obtained in this way, and for these narrow purposes, can't be used to prove their guilt, if lawsuits were even filed against them.
Hotz is the one with legitimate legal troubles because he did something illegal, made no effort to hide his identity, or obtain Sony's authorization, or otherwise use the fruits of his labor in good faith. He wanted to make a name for himself and he was confident that the loud and vocal nature of his clueless supporters would simply make the things he did NOT ILLEGAL such that they would just magically go away.
Perhaps you could also testify as to how utterly irrelevant the technical merits of anything Hotz has ever done, including the PS3 jailbreak, are utterly irrelevant to the charges against him. The DMCA has big fat exemptions for legitimate encryption research, none of which are available when the defendant acts in bad faith, develops a hack for illegal purposes rather than to advance the state of encryption knowledge, and distributes it with the knowledge and intention that it will be used for those illegal purposes.
You could also testify as to the fact that these subpoenas are being issued for extremely narrow purposes: to prove that Hotz distributed his crack (simply by showing that people used YouTube to access it) and that many of the people he distributed it to live in California, significantly weakening Hotz's attempt to secure a favorable jurisdiction by claiming it's unconstitutional to haul him into court in California.
That is -- you could testify to these things if you weren't just another clueless Slashdot faggot, if your testimony weren't irrelevant to the case, and if there were actually a court somewhere interested in dragging your hyper-uninformed viewpoint into the mix.
In this thread:
500 retarded slashdot faggots fail to realize that this subpoena has nothing whatsoever to do with the users, or coming after them
The subpoena is to prove Hotz distributed the crack to people and that some of those people lived in northern California
But don't let that stop you from mentally masturbating yourself into an idiot frenzy.
The idea of you positioning you and your random C-reel indie-band crap with, gasp, marketing brick-a-brac, as the lone alternative to Britney Spears et al is utterly laughable. Jesus just how did/. ever attract this crowd of people?
"And I can't even vote them off the bench. Some democracy."
The U.S. govt was carefully designed to prevent clueless morons from having this sort of power over the cornerstone of our legal system.
protip: every wild-eyed post also appearing under this parent thread is by a clueless moron.
Why don't you read TFA
"By May 2009, Pala had begun cooperating with federal authorities and was training U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents across the country on how the Trojan downloader scam worked. He was also secretly working on a sting, trying to nail the two men who had introduced him to the scam. But they couldn't be enticed into a meeting, and the feds ultimately pulled the plug on the operation.
At his sentencing, Pala was given a break for his cooperation with the government....
Pala pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in April 2010. In addition to the 82-month sentence, he must pay a $7.9 million fine, along with $2.2 million in back taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Will there be an expensive third-party mod I can use to preserve the traditional GUI scheme that's been working great for me since roughly 1989?
As much fun as a giant re-learning project sounds, I'm a bit busy this decade.
Whenever there are laws I don't agree with or don't like, I simply disagree with them. In my own personal vision of political utopia, cable TV is free of charge and the law does not place restrictions on my desire to punch people I don't like, hard, right in the face.
Billions of people wordlwide agree with me. Welcome to the new reality. Best get yourself a hockey mask, because I don't like you.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Source for Einstein coming up with general relativity "in his spare time"? Everything I've read says he was a university teacher at that time. Such academics publish papers as part of their professional obligations, and not in their "spare time". Indeed, according to Wiki he obtained a special contract clause in 1914 that allowed him to spend most of his time researching and writing rather than teaching. 2. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THAT YOU WOULD COMPARE GPL/LINUX TO THE ABOVE, EITHER IN TERMS OF THE INTELLECT REQUIRED TO PRODUCE IT, OR THE BENEFICIAL IMPACT ON THE WORLD
If they stopped to pay attention to the real world, they'd realize this isn't a boycott; it's a protest which they are not entitled to carry out. These kids will be escorted from Sony property, and rightly so. I imagine a significant fraction of them will be unable to maintain their composure and will do something violent and get himself arrested. Unsurprising.
fairly obvious penis reference
and would like to show you some powerpoint slides explaining why
I've always been suspicious that this line was dreamt up by Ramis and Akroyd as they were taking a piss on the lawn at a barbecue ..
I'm here to tell you that you haven't learned ANYTHING about the law here on /.
and that is probably why your post is so clueless and stupid.
"you should dig a bit deeper." ... Wow, you mean like actually reading the featured article, instead of just reading the always-misleading Slashdot headline and coming here to make various uninformed rants?
"The Paypal account was being used to help his defense and now those people can be harassed by Sony" Funny, I don't remember the court order saying Sony was allowed to do that. Please enlighten us, clever one! "Sadly in the USA no money means no defense, as I wouldn't let a public pretender defend my dog, and in civil cases you don't even get that." Can you name some country where you're always entitled to free legal assistance? Sounds pretty stupid to me. I'd hate to be a lawyer in that country, if it exists.
"A few people associated with Wikileaks did what the U.S. could not with the trillions of dollars they've put into their attempts to influence policy in the region." Gee, you mean all we had to do is say to hell with any concept of international law or diplomatic integrity, lay bare our communications with and knowledge of other countries, and accept that no one would ever talk to us again? I can't believe it's that simple, and I wish you were in charge of the U.S. Government! (The whole dang thing – screw this tripartite federal system thingy.)
I lol'd at this sensible comment and can't bear to read the rabid responses which I'm sure quickly followed.
That's a fair complaint. Allow me to explain what's gotten me in this grumpy mood. Any time a story shows up on /. discussing copyright, free speech, or, God forbid, the DMCA itself, the forum is flooded with people who are so utterly certain that the law was written by the spawn of Satan for the express purpose of beginning the slow process of subjugating mankind for all eternity.
I'd say a good 80% of these comments reach a "foaming at the mouth" stage of utter rabidity. Yet apparently 95% or more have never taken the time to read the law, but remain confident their view is correct even where the law's plain language directly contradicts their unshakeable beliefs as to its substance.
It should come as no surprise that fewer still seem to have given serious thought to how an ugly law is often the result of difficult compromises between competing interests, each of which is worthwhile. Further, many seem resolute in the view that the DMCA itself is merely one of a billion examples that demonstrate why laws and lawyers are worthless things. What I think the overwhelming majority of Slashdotters fail to appreciate is the fact that it's an extremely difficult job to craft legal principles which strike an appropriate balance among a diversity of worthwhile interests -- or the fact that even the most finely crafted balance is always going to piss someone off and result in dire complaint.
Imagine you're a project manager in charge of 50+ developers of varying levels of experience. You have 15 years in the industry, including prior management experience, one or two advanced degrees, and a whole raft of certs.
In walks a lawyer who has inexplicably been given some kind of control over this project. Without pausing to say hello, he announces to the entire team that the project is to be completed WITHOUT the use of any private variables, because software should be open and transparent.
You don't even know where to begin about how utterly clueless this man is, and your mind boggles at the amount of training it would take just to get him to realize what an idiotic statement he's just made. But this guy is here, and he's loud, and he won't shut the hell up until he gets what he wants.
This, sir, hopefully begins to explain why you find yourself talking to a Legal Troll on Slashdot.
I apologize for my rudeness and commend you on your level-headed response.
Let's start with the relevant text, with some helpful emphasis. FWIW, this is the section on "TRAFFICKING": (b) Additional Violations.— (1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that— (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof; (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof; or (C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof.
I don't suppose you could be troubled to actually read and understand the DMCA so that you wouldn't post nonsense like this? I didn't think so. Enjoy your tenure on /.
OH YOU MEAN ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS HAVE DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHY AND FAR FEWER PEOPLE! Stfu. You live in flyover country and your comment was utterly irrelevant while mine was not.
If you think ~$90 USD per month entitles you to 100 megabits guaranteed 24/7, it doesn't matter what the advertising signs say and you deserve whatever the fuck you get, faggot. HTFH
There are people here who "would have you believe it would" because this website is a haven for people who wish to make loud and dire complaints that have little or no grounding in reality. No, it's not a crime to watch Hotz's video. It has never been a crime. It is not in danger of becoming a crime. People's IPs are not being subpoena'd because they are suspected of crimes. Even people who turned around and REDISTRIBUTED HOTZ'S CRACK THEMSELVES have nothing to fear from this subpoena because the information obtained in this way, and for these narrow purposes, can't be used to prove their guilt, if lawsuits were even filed against them. Hotz is the one with legitimate legal troubles because he did something illegal, made no effort to hide his identity, or obtain Sony's authorization, or otherwise use the fruits of his labor in good faith. He wanted to make a name for himself and he was confident that the loud and vocal nature of his clueless supporters would simply make the things he did NOT ILLEGAL such that they would just magically go away.
Perhaps you could also testify as to how utterly irrelevant the technical merits of anything Hotz has ever done, including the PS3 jailbreak, are utterly irrelevant to the charges against him. The DMCA has big fat exemptions for legitimate encryption research, none of which are available when the defendant acts in bad faith, develops a hack for illegal purposes rather than to advance the state of encryption knowledge, and distributes it with the knowledge and intention that it will be used for those illegal purposes. You could also testify as to the fact that these subpoenas are being issued for extremely narrow purposes: to prove that Hotz distributed his crack (simply by showing that people used YouTube to access it) and that many of the people he distributed it to live in California, significantly weakening Hotz's attempt to secure a favorable jurisdiction by claiming it's unconstitutional to haul him into court in California. That is -- you could testify to these things if you weren't just another clueless Slashdot faggot, if your testimony weren't irrelevant to the case, and if there were actually a court somewhere interested in dragging your hyper-uninformed viewpoint into the mix.
In this thread: 500 retarded slashdot faggots fail to realize that this subpoena has nothing whatsoever to do with the users, or coming after them The subpoena is to prove Hotz distributed the crack to people and that some of those people lived in northern California But don't let that stop you from mentally masturbating yourself into an idiot frenzy.
The idea of you positioning you and your random C-reel indie-band crap with, gasp, marketing brick-a-brac, as the lone alternative to Britney Spears et al is utterly laughable. Jesus just how did /. ever attract this crowd of people?
"And I can't even vote them off the bench. Some democracy." The U.S. govt was carefully designed to prevent clueless morons from having this sort of power over the cornerstone of our legal system. protip: every wild-eyed post also appearing under this parent thread is by a clueless moron.
Why don't you read TFA "By May 2009, Pala had begun cooperating with federal authorities and was training U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents across the country on how the Trojan downloader scam worked. He was also secretly working on a sting, trying to nail the two men who had introduced him to the scam. But they couldn't be enticed into a meeting, and the feds ultimately pulled the plug on the operation. At his sentencing, Pala was given a break for his cooperation with the government.... Pala pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in April 2010. In addition to the 82-month sentence, he must pay a $7.9 million fine, along with $2.2 million in back taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Will there be an expensive third-party mod I can use to preserve the traditional GUI scheme that's been working great for me since roughly 1989? As much fun as a giant re-learning project sounds, I'm a bit busy this decade.
*simply disobey them, that is
Whenever there are laws I don't agree with or don't like, I simply disagree with them. In my own personal vision of political utopia, cable TV is free of charge and the law does not place restrictions on my desire to punch people I don't like, hard, right in the face. Billions of people wordlwide agree with me. Welcome to the new reality. Best get yourself a hockey mask, because I don't like you.
I made a widget for my X-10 system YEARS ago that did all this and more.