(we now stand back to watch all of the pirates attempt to rationalize away their theft by calling it other things...)
Despite your rhetoric and the propaganda of the software, entertainment, and other "content industries," infringing a copyright is not and never will be theft, no matter what you say. Theft requires that the victim be deprived of an item. When something is replicated, this clearly does not happen.
Those who call it theft are either:
1. incapable of understanding the difference
or
2.disingenuously propagating a deceptive word (Himmler would be proud).
Congratulations on having seen the light. Every time I install a war3zed copy of Windows for someone (usually someone whose hard disk died or some such, and holds a license morally, even if it isn't sacred in the eyes of Bill) and I have to type that g-d damned twenty-five character code (IIRC, the missiles in Wargames only required six), it reminds me of why I HAVEN'T PAID FOR A MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM SINCE MS-DOS 5.0 AND NEVER WILL AGAIN.
Posted anonymously because I may enter ROTC then the US Army and don't wish to bring possible reprisal on myself, family or friends.
Why would you join the Army if you think they'll do anything to harm you, your family, or your friends because of something you say now as a civilian that hardly approaches sedition?
But yet a strict Libertarian would have no problem with Microsoft introducing an MS dominated digital ID--a (shudder).NET driver's license, if you will. And no problem with businesses requiring that you have one of these ID's to transact business with them--after all, you both have the right to free association, right? If you don't like it, you can take your business elsewhere, right?
Then it's OK to have a society in which one can get along without a Microsoft ID in the same way one can get along without any sort of credit or debit card now--not very darn well, in spades.
It may well come to the point at which, due to that right of free association and the fact that the government can't force private businesses to do otherwise, that "no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark."
Just leave the "power users" to fend for themselves. The policy I adhere to is that if you don't screw up your working environment, don't ask me to fix your machine, and don't piss off your coworkers, you can do whatever you darn well please with your office PC. If I have to mess with it, however, things change immediately for the worse. This tends to separate the real "power users" from the wannabes.
That's a good argument--as a student paying fees for the use of "computing resources," you should have a property right in those resources, nullifying the argument that you used university property to create the work. I like it.
Boy howdy! Now all the active military are counted as employed (lowering the real figure). Those that have given up seeking employment are not counted. And there are a number of other changes, as you pointed out, in the way the Office of the President computes unemployment figures to make them look artificially low.
Wrong again, shithead. Tainted evidence is tainted evidence, and evidence gathered on the basis of that tainted evidence is also tainted. It can't be "cleaned" except proving that the police would have found it anyway, in the normal course of investigation. Sounds simple? It isn't. A $2 attorney could have the case you describe tossed out in fifteen minutes flat.
So you're telling me the police never trawl with illegal means (e.g. infrared scans in helicopters) then arrange for an officer to be in a vicinity of the hot spots to "conveniently" see some probable cause and get a warrant? How touchingly naïve.
Across the board filtering was implemented after "I love you" at my university. Everyone was informed and there was nary a whimper. I think you overestimate the legitimate applications for emailed VB scripts.
The law, as stated above, is businesses cannot force you to give your SSN. However they do not have to provide the service, equipment, etc. if you do not.
So, in other words, a business effectively can force you to give your SSN. For example, your electric utility wants your SSN. They can't force you to give it, but if you don't, they don't have to provide electricity to your home. That's a pretty good hammer they have there. (N.B., my utility companies provided service without an SSN, but required a deposit, on which they paid 8% interest, heh).
The SSN FAQ goes into some detail on the business question, and states that "Private companies aren't
required to follow this law [the Privacy Act], and in general your recourse is to find
another company to do business with if you don't like their policies."
I'm gratified to hear the SSA answered your call quickly and courteously. It's all too uncommon in both enterprise and government anymore.
What I'm saying is that since what regulations there are haven't been adequately enforced, it's not prudent to use it as an authenticator even if you are a bank or the government. IOW, the cat's out of the bag, and we need to just realize that. BTW, your only recourse against a private business that wants your SSN (absent specific state or local law to the contrary) as a condition of doing business is to take your business elsewhere. The Privacy Act of 1974 (federal law) only constrains what government agencies can do. Am I happy with that? No. Can I acknowledge the reality that someone even mildly determined can have my SSN and DOB in under half an hour? Yes.
Thawte was purchased by Verisign awhile back. While I'm not sure whether that helps or hurts our ability to trust them, bear in mind that SSN + DOB aren't exactly state secrets anyway, and the sooner we quit pretending they are, the sooner people (like those at our banks) will quit using them to authenticate us. I've had a certificate for some time, having even gone to the trouble to gather trust points from one Thawte notary. I need to finish the job sometime.
Because of TiVo's deceptive advertising, apparently.
Re:Nobody should use TiVo without the service
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
·
· Score: 2
or ReplayTV that *cannot be purchased* without service built into the price
I don't see what TiVo has over ReplayTV if TiVo's going to make them into doorstops with stealth downgrades if you don't pay. Isn't that essentially the same thing? If anything, ReplayTV gets points for truth in pricing, while TiVo loses points for deceptive marketing.
The instant-record functionality is a bug that will be fixed when TiVo have the time to pay engineers to support the people who just use a TiVo as a fancy TV delaying system.
If you believe that was an unintentional bug, I've got some prime beachfront property in the Everglades that might interest you.
It is not "their stuff." The stuff belongs to the taxpayers of the State of Utah and the U.S. (since the Federal government is more probably partially funding the education of >50% of their students). As a public university, which is a government agency, the school is subject to the First Amendment. If they don't want to allow hosting on university servers, they might be able to pull that off, but there's no basis for criminal charges. I'm looking forward to seeing the ACLU v. Utah in the news soon.
Be even funnier to see them lose their eligibility to process Federal aid over this.
This was exactly the logic I used in choosing DSL over cable: the phone company, despite what anyone might think of it, knows what "common carrier" means.
1. You have to have cash on hand to exercise them. 500,000 options at $1 for a $100 stock do you no good if you don't have half a million on hand.
I admit to not knowing how this works, but I would think that under the circumstances, you would have no trouble getting a bank to lend money for less than a day under those circumstances.
Webwasher has a convenient setting that will allow you to disable pop-up windows without disabling Javascript altogether.
Not open source, but free (as in beer) for personal use and the best and easiest to use that I've found so far. There's even a Linux version.
It doesn't break too many things, and is easily temporarily disabled when it does. Very handy for Geocities, Astalavista (the sites with the cracks and serials always have pr0n popups), Xoom, etc. pages.
It's not a crime at all. I was just pointing up in what I thought might be a gentle way that your post seems to be a bit hostile.
Yes, we both know that Voodoo 1 is only 3D. But the AC could have been speaking about Voodoo Rush, or just have made some less egregious error than it looked like. Even if he were just plain wrong, that probably could have been handled without calling him "dumbass."
Slashdot Mirror
Despite your rhetoric and the propaganda of the software, entertainment, and other "content industries," infringing a copyright is not and never will be theft, no matter what you say. Theft requires that the victim be deprived of an item. When something is replicated, this clearly does not happen.
Those who call it theft are either:
So, which one are you?
Go ahead. I think you might be surprised at how little you're all missed.
(Go ahead, mod me down. I can afford it.)
But he's still a civilian. He's saying that he's worried about saying things now and having repercussions happen later, after he's in the service.
Why would you join the Army if you think they'll do anything to harm you, your family, or your friends because of something you say now as a civilian that hardly approaches sedition?
Then it's OK to have a society in which one can get along without a Microsoft ID in the same way one can get along without any sort of credit or debit card now--not very darn well, in spades.
It may well come to the point at which, due to that right of free association and the fact that the government can't force private businesses to do otherwise, that "no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark."
Perhaps Bill Gates is the Antichrist.
Just leave the "power users" to fend for themselves. The policy I adhere to is that if you don't screw up your working environment, don't ask me to fix your machine, and don't piss off your coworkers, you can do whatever you darn well please with your office PC. If I have to mess with it, however, things change immediately for the worse. This tends to separate the real "power users" from the wannabes.
That's a good argument--as a student paying fees for the use of "computing resources," you should have a property right in those resources, nullifying the argument that you used university property to create the work. I like it.
Boy howdy! Now all the active military are counted as employed (lowering the real figure). Those that have given up seeking employment are not counted. And there are a number of other changes, as you pointed out, in the way the Office of the President computes unemployment figures to make them look artificially low.
So you're telling me the police never trawl with illegal means (e.g. infrared scans in helicopters) then arrange for an officer to be in a vicinity of the hot spots to "conveniently" see some probable cause and get a warrant? How touchingly naïve.
Across the board filtering was implemented after "I love you" at my university. Everyone was informed and there was nary a whimper. I think you overestimate the legitimate applications for emailed VB scripts.
So, in other words, a business effectively can force you to give your SSN. For example, your electric utility wants your SSN. They can't force you to give it, but if you don't, they don't have to provide electricity to your home. That's a pretty good hammer they have there. (N.B., my utility companies provided service without an SSN, but required a deposit, on which they paid 8% interest, heh).
The SSN FAQ goes into some detail on the business question, and states that "Private companies aren't required to follow this law [the Privacy Act], and in general your recourse is to find another company to do business with if you don't like their policies."
I'm gratified to hear the SSA answered your call quickly and courteously. It's all too uncommon in both enterprise and government anymore.
What I'm saying is that since what regulations there are haven't been adequately enforced, it's not prudent to use it as an authenticator even if you are a bank or the government. IOW, the cat's out of the bag, and we need to just realize that. BTW, your only recourse against a private business that wants your SSN (absent specific state or local law to the contrary) as a condition of doing business is to take your business elsewhere. The Privacy Act of 1974 (federal law) only constrains what government agencies can do. Am I happy with that? No. Can I acknowledge the reality that someone even mildly determined can have my SSN and DOB in under half an hour? Yes.
Thawte was purchased by Verisign awhile back. While I'm not sure whether that helps or hurts our ability to trust them, bear in mind that SSN + DOB aren't exactly state secrets anyway, and the sooner we quit pretending they are, the sooner people (like those at our banks) will quit using them to authenticate us. I've had a certificate for some time, having even gone to the trouble to gather trust points from one Thawte notary. I need to finish the job sometime.
Because of TiVo's deceptive advertising, apparently.
I don't see what TiVo has over ReplayTV if TiVo's going to make them into doorstops with stealth downgrades if you don't pay. Isn't that essentially the same thing? If anything, ReplayTV gets points for truth in pricing, while TiVo loses points for deceptive marketing.
If you believe that was an unintentional bug, I've got some prime beachfront property in the Everglades that might interest you.
That would kick! Get it? :)
I realized that after I submitted--I saw "their stuff" and reacted, then repeated most of your post :).
It is not "their stuff." The stuff belongs to the taxpayers of the State of Utah and the U.S. (since the Federal government is more probably partially funding the education of >50% of their students). As a public university, which is a government agency, the school is subject to the First Amendment. If they don't want to allow hosting on university servers, they might be able to pull that off, but there's no basis for criminal charges. I'm looking forward to seeing the ACLU v. Utah in the news soon.
Be even funnier to see them lose their eligibility to process Federal aid over this.
This was exactly the logic I used in choosing DSL over cable: the phone company, despite what anyone might think of it, knows what "common carrier" means.
I'd like to see them name me one record store that will accept CD's with the shirnk wrap off for a refund.
I admit to not knowing how this works, but I would think that under the circumstances, you would have no trouble getting a bank to lend money for less than a day under those circumstances.
Not open source, but free (as in beer) for personal use and the best and easiest to use that I've found so far. There's even a Linux version.
It doesn't break too many things, and is easily temporarily disabled when it does. Very handy for Geocities, Astalavista (the sites with the cracks and serials always have pr0n popups), Xoom, etc. pages.
Yes, we both know that Voodoo 1 is only 3D. But the AC could have been speaking about Voodoo Rush, or just have made some less egregious error than it looked like. Even if he were just plain wrong, that probably could have been handled without calling him "dumbass."