Normally, I wouldn't want to see Microsoft take legal action against anyone, but I really think they should ream Verisign a new one for this. Maybe Verisign should learn not to take their job so lightly then.
I agree, but I imagine that if you look closely at Verisign's terms and conditions, there's very likely a disclaimer of liability in there. Now what's that service worth without an assumption of liability? Nothing? You got it. In fact, that was a selling point of Thawte before they were assimilated by Verisign--they did take liability for such an error in their terms.
Or it could be that it was a sweet deal for some campaign contributions to that particular minister's election campaign to Parliament. Any system that relies on client software to protect itself against "garbled data" is asking for the mainframe version of Armageddon.
You got numbers to back that up? I find it hard to believe that the IRS would risk effectively killing a program that saved them so much money by having it get out that they experienced a higher audit rate--and it would get out. It'd be all over Money magazine and others of the ilk, and the IRS would be more buried in paper than ever.
You're going to be mighty busy finding all those IP ranges, particulary for freedom.net, who has numerous server operators under contract that have non freedom.net domain names.
I haven't found a site that tries to deny anonymous access yet that I haven't been able to access anonymously one way or another. And I have yet to come across anyone attempting to block freedom.net, though I'm sure someone has.
I think that if the logs weren't authentic, they wouldn't be mentioning that they were obtained by an "a computer intrusion." (From their threatening email to those who posted or linked to them. I imagine they'll find their way into FreeNet and MojoNation shortly.)
Note that nowhere in the email do they deny the authenticity of the ICQ logs (they do say they "may have been edited, manipulated . .." but not fabricated) or threaten action for libel.
Damn shame about mame.dk, glad I filled out my ROM collection recently.
Even the ones with asshole developers who think that you can't edit the registry in Windows.
Or perhaps nice developers who, while required to disable freedb access, wanted to make it easy for someone with a little skill to point at freedb without the developer having to violate Gracenot's predatory license Diktat?
The seller doesn't have any feedbackat all, so it's unlikely any transaction was ever consummated, at least on eBay (if I bid over $10k for a bunch of games, you can bet I'd leave some feedback either way).
Some nice fonts for coding and other fixed pitch applications: Monospaced Fonts for the Screen are here. Since I use Windows at work, I grabbed MS's Andale Mono for the web here. It's a nice font for coding (at least to me) and doesn't require any license payments.
Those aren't equivalent. An octet greater than 255 is just outright impossible. Someone keying in a non-routable IP address (e.g. 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x) during a flick would be more equivalent to a phone number starting with 555, and less likely to be laughed out loud at:).
You're confusing criminal and civil law. Civil law only requires "preponderance of the evidence," not "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." They should be required to listen to the files first, but they aren't--all a DMCA declaration requires is that they believe "in good faith" that the material is infringing. IANAL, but I've acted like one by saying so as a disclaimer:).
Thanks for the link. And wow! Just from reading the paragraphs on "System Caching," it looks like Google is clearly liable under the DMCA for caching stuff subject to the act--unless there's another out buried in there somewhere.
That's good stuff--thanks. I didn't know about the "copyright protection" equipment provision of the DMCA.
So if no one's a common carrier, and ISP's have to censor/provide copyright protection, is there an internet, or a glorified TV network? One I am willing to pay for. The other . . .
ISP's do have interest in not being liable for everything, though. If they do allow all packets to go through unfettered, they get to claim common carrier status. If they don't, they're liable for what they miss. This is in large part how "premium" Usenet providers, who exist pretty much to provide a nice fat pipe of porn and warez for about US$10/month (no B.S. about reliable text news feeds, please--who we kiddin'). Since they don't filter any content at all, they (so far, with the exception of a negotiated settlement in New York and an asshole Laurence Godfrey in the UK) have escaped liability.
Don't they realize that there are a several programs on the market that allow you to capture ANY sound . ..
This is true at the moment for mainstream operating systems. However, Microsoft in particular is moving towards digitally signed audio drivers so that users won't be able to just pick off the PCM as it's being played a la Winamp.WAV output (which I understand has been removed in current versions), Total Recorder, and similar products.
Sure, people can some can work around that by patching the OS or other cute tricks.
What it comes down to is this: there's soon going to be a "new, improved, audio format" with "cool features" that you've "just gotta have" that's only going to work on operating systems with copy control features like Windows ME/XP. I hope consumers won't swallow it, and what happened to DivX gives me hope, but "trusted clients" is where the industry is headed.
They must have at least one IT professional working for them.
Who should be the first against the wall come the revolution. Damn traitors don't understand that if it weren't for the spirit of free access to information that brought on personal computers, they wouldn't be able to get near a computer, much less be an eye-tee professional.
Any 12 year old that's old enough to rape or kill is old enough to pay an adult penalty--up to and including death. Those cases you're referring to aren't about shoplifting or joyriding a car. Is a tragedy, yes, but there should be no coddling of youthful violent criminals. These aren't kids who erred along the way--they're just plain evil to the bone for whatever reason.
This is similar to the US. As an experiment, I once connected to a free ISP, from registration through use, using *67 to block CLID. It was a regular local number, not a free call. I didn't try to send email, so I don't know if they nullrouted 110 and 25. Clever idea, though I'm surprised they allow any traffic at all if they're worried about it. A persistent spammer could use web-based email:).
If it were an 800-, 888-, or similar toll-free number (just like 0800, 0500 in the UK), then another service, called ANI (automatic number identification) kicks in, and the recipient always gets the called party's number (barring operator assistance or somesuch).
Does a US nickle (five cents, about 2 1/2p) still work as a 20p coin in the payphones in the UK:)?
Slashdot Mirror
I think you might be right :).
I agree, but I imagine that if you look closely at Verisign's terms and conditions, there's very likely a disclaimer of liability in there. Now what's that service worth without an assumption of liability? Nothing? You got it. In fact, that was a selling point of Thawte before they were assimilated by Verisign--they did take liability for such an error in their terms.
Google indexes PDF's. Another reason Google is so cool.
Or it could be that it was a sweet deal for some campaign contributions to that particular minister's election campaign to Parliament. Any system that relies on client software to protect itself against "garbled data" is asking for the mainframe version of Armageddon.
You got numbers to back that up? I find it hard to believe that the IRS would risk effectively killing a program that saved them so much money by having it get out that they experienced a higher audit rate--and it would get out. It'd be all over Money magazine and others of the ilk, and the IRS would be more buried in paper than ever.
I haven't found a site that tries to deny anonymous access yet that I haven't been able to access anonymously one way or another. And I have yet to come across anyone attempting to block freedom.net, though I'm sure someone has.
If you're using a credit card at the grocery store, they can already tie what you buy to your identity, so why worry about it at all?
Note that nowhere in the email do they deny the authenticity of the ICQ logs (they do say they "may have been edited, manipulated . . ." but not fabricated) or threaten action for libel.
Damn shame about mame.dk, glad I filled out my ROM collection recently.
Or perhaps nice developers who, while required to disable freedb access, wanted to make it easy for someone with a little skill to point at freedb without the developer having to violate Gracenot's predatory license Diktat?
The seller doesn't have any feedback at all, so it's unlikely any transaction was ever consummated, at least on eBay (if I bid over $10k for a bunch of games, you can bet I'd leave some feedback either way).
. . . Shortly, the Lamb will open the seventh seal, and heaven will become silent. This will be followed by seven angels and seven trumpets.
Some nice fonts for coding and other fixed pitch applications: Monospaced Fonts for the Screen are here. Since I use Windows at work, I grabbed MS's Andale Mono for the web here. It's a nice font for coding (at least to me) and doesn't require any license payments.
That is wicked cool! Took me a minute to figure out that WebWasher had blocked it at first, though.
Those aren't equivalent. An octet greater than 255 is just outright impossible. Someone keying in a non-routable IP address (e.g. 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x) during a flick would be more equivalent to a phone number starting with 555, and less likely to be laughed out loud at :).
You're confusing criminal and civil law. Civil law only requires "preponderance of the evidence," not "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." They should be required to listen to the files first, but they aren't--all a DMCA declaration requires is that they believe "in good faith" that the material is infringing. IANAL, but I've acted like one by saying so as a disclaimer :).
Thanks for the link. And wow! Just from reading the paragraphs on "System Caching," it looks like Google is clearly liable under the DMCA for caching stuff subject to the act--unless there's another out buried in there somewhere.
So if no one's a common carrier, and ISP's have to censor/provide copyright protection, is there an internet, or a glorified TV network? One I am willing to pay for. The other . . .
ISP's do have interest in not being liable for everything, though. If they do allow all packets to go through unfettered, they get to claim common carrier status. If they don't, they're liable for what they miss. This is in large part how "premium" Usenet providers, who exist pretty much to provide a nice fat pipe of porn and warez for about US$10/month (no B.S. about reliable text news feeds, please--who we kiddin'). Since they don't filter any content at all, they (so far, with the exception of a negotiated settlement in New York and an asshole Laurence Godfrey in the UK) have escaped liability.
Seems that a boycott against Dell is in order, given that they're providing hosting services to these slime.
How truly ironic.
This is true at the moment for mainstream operating systems. However, Microsoft in particular is moving towards digitally signed audio drivers so that users won't be able to just pick off the PCM as it's being played a la Winamp .WAV output (which I understand has been removed in current versions), Total Recorder, and similar products.
Sure, people can some can work around that by patching the OS or other cute tricks.
What it comes down to is this: there's soon going to be a "new, improved, audio format" with "cool features" that you've "just gotta have" that's only going to work on operating systems with copy control features like Windows ME/XP. I hope consumers won't swallow it, and what happened to DivX gives me hope, but "trusted clients" is where the industry is headed.
Who should be the first against the wall come the revolution. Damn traitors don't understand that if it weren't for the spirit of free access to information that brought on personal computers, they wouldn't be able to get near a computer, much less be an eye-tee professional.
You've gotta be trolling. What about the "human rights" of the victim?
Any 12 year old that's old enough to rape or kill is old enough to pay an adult penalty--up to and including death. Those cases you're referring to aren't about shoplifting or joyriding a car. Is a tragedy, yes, but there should be no coddling of youthful violent criminals. These aren't kids who erred along the way--they're just plain evil to the bone for whatever reason.
If it were an 800-, 888-, or similar toll-free number (just like 0800, 0500 in the UK), then another service, called ANI (automatic number identification) kicks in, and the recipient always gets the called party's number (barring operator assistance or somesuch).
Does a US nickle (five cents, about 2 1/2p) still work as a 20p coin in the payphones in the UK :)?