I have never seen a Wal-mart that sells gas but here in Northern VA, Costco and other warehouse clubs do. They scope the local market (very local, like a few sq miles) and then price their gas a few cents less then anyone. A few months ago, the lawmakers in VA and MD were questioning this and were attempting to pass laws to set what they could charge for gas. I do not know the results but yesterday their gas was still cheaper then anyone else.
I wonder what I'll be paying for gas when mom and pop aren't market participants (how long do you think that will be)?
Are there any Ma&Pa gas stations left? I dont consider Exxon-Mobile, Shell, Texaco, Sheetz and the others to be small companies. I also do not consider Costco's or Wal-Marts pricing scheme to be any different then the mega oil companies practices. The difference being the retailers have an advantage of getting you to the store for other things. I don't know of many people that browse around a gas station looking for good deals.
What % of the total downloaded data would have to be audio or video to constitute violating this patent? What do they consider audio and video? I have paid for and downloaded games for my computer that had both audio and video in digital format before. What about the tax software I paid for via credit card and downloaded this year? It has both digital audio (wav files) and digital video (advisors and such) included in the download, does that mean they have violated the patent also? IANL so I don't quite understand the legalese of the patent but it seems to be rather vauge. Could CDNow get around this by including some non audio data with the download, like a text file or jpg picture of something? Where do you draw the line?
That must be why we get all those email messages about enlarging your johnson 4-6 inches
That is the problem with "targeted" advertising.
Just because you happen to look at porn all day does not mean you are interested in products that can enlarge your penis, other then maybe the short term arousal related enlargement you may get by viewing the prOn. Some people may get the get the same thrill reading/.
Stange is it not? There are many examples that seem completely unjustified when the words computer/digital/online are swapped with car/house/offline.
I am assuming that you not just trolling but to expand on your car chips from a technical view, there are legal issues involved when you modify an ignition or emmission system..
There are two classes of modifications to vehicle engine and management controls. "Off road" and "On road".
Using your mod chips for car example..
Ones that modify the emmisions system that are not certified by the federal guidelines would have to be classified for "Off-road" use only. Same with H-pipes (a blank pipe that replaces the catalytic convertors), and many intake and ignition systems. Your car may still pass the local smog tests but if its the new parts are emmissions related and not certified you can not use it for "On-road" use.
With a car you have that choice, regardless of % that are ACTUALLY only used off road, you are still allowed to purchase them. I can't say the same for computer/digital/online though.
I use Freesco on a DX2/66 with 16mb (no HD). Remote interface through thttpd, DHCP server, caching DNS, support for DynDns, time server, multiple NIC's and/or diald and dialup, all on a 1.44 floppy. By default, the logging is not very robust but it works fine for what I am doing.
You can do similar with the LRP
Not that the method the story describes is not good, just there are configurable alternatives to balance security and ease of use.
I can see a few ways that someone could still legally review the software and publish the results. What if you have a friend or a guest over for dinner that happens to be a publisher.
Tell your friend exactly how bad it sucks.
Yet your friend use your computer with the software that sucks.
Let your friend look over your shoulder while you are using the software that sucks.
When it is all said and done, YOU are the one that agreed to the EULA, not your friend.
EULA is not a law, it is a contract. Laws may be restated in the body but no new laws are created in an EULA.
Even if you did publish your own results, whats the terms for breaking the contract? Maybe they can take the software back? I am not talking about copying the software and giving it to a friend, that would violate the LAW.
To get the law involved for you publishing results against an EULA wishes, they would have to sue you in court for violating a contract. Only a court can decide if a contract was broken. This is not like a case where you are offering copyrighted software from a leach site (which violates an existing law). In a court, what are the terms going to be? Well I would suggest that yes it looks like I did violate the contract by publishing benchmarks, you win, here is your software back, case closed. Not that easy but why should a software contract be any different then a car lease, rental agreement or service contract. Did you ever get screwed buying a new or used car and try to fight the dealer for violating the contract? I can tell you that calling the police is not going to get you anything.
Imagine an EULA for a new Ford Mustang claiming you are not allowed to race the car at a track, state MPG, top speed, hp, and lateral G's on a skidpad.
I took a tour of the RR facility in Hawaii a few years ago. They had bandwidth usage charts that clearly showed a large reduction in bandwidth used between 12am and 3pm with a few spikes around 7am and lunch time. I assume peoples online times are about the same now so why not limit bandwidth during the peak hours and let the rest be free.
Another small point. Do you pay attantion to the broadband commercials? Do not advertise the advantages of always on, "multimedia" ready bandwidth with nice charts comparing speed to a 28k modem if you are not willing to support it. They sign you up under one assumption and then bill you for something else. If I planned on browsing the web all day I'd stick to my $12/month 56k dialup.
A good page that describes battery theory is here.
Maybe someone with more chemical background then me can show that you could add materials to the battery while it is discharging to "increase" its overall capacity and charge level. I used to live with these equations and drop down for specific gravity readings myself when I was in the Navy but that was a long time ago.
Don't mix lead acid batties and salt water.
I was thinking the same thing but I think you would have to be a little more subtle. Have you ever heard electical contactors shutting in a big controller? That chunk--chunk sound? Have this in another room and make it audible but not obvious. Tell them that you are cycling power to a transmitting antenna via wires traveling through the room at random times. At the same time you cycle the contacts dim the lights ever so slightly in the examining room, turn them back up when you simulate the test being over. Even better would be to simulate the noise that a high power transformer makes under load, the humming/buzzing noise. I do not know how to simulate this though.
I think these would be a true placebo to test with.
You are using a device in a comsumer shared area of bandwidth, this will happen at times and there really is nothing you can do (as others have pointed out with FCC part B which is probably clearly labeled on your headphones and definately in the first few pages of the manual). It is also illegal to knowingly listen to cordless and cellular phones, cellular has extra restrictions imposed in radio scanning hardware, which is yet another corporate funded bill to screw the general mass of people by providing a false sense of security.
Off topic here but 46-49Mhz cordless phones also share with the common baby room monitors. A strong word of advice to parents with those baby monitors... It is common practice to have a newborn stay in the parents room for the first few months, TURN OFF THE BABY MONITOR WHEN YOU GO TO BED because the whole neighborhood has the ability to hear you trying to make more!! I found this out years ago when I could hear my wife talking on our old cordless phone through our baby monitor reciever, after playing around with the phone I could listen the other way to.
For cordless phones you can get a 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz digital spread spectrum (DSS) model, not the cheap analog or plain digital ones. If it is not clearly marked as DSS is probably is not, slightly more expensive but well worth the difference. I have never heard of a 900Mhz DSS interfering with anything and only a few of the 2.4Ghz DSS models causing problems, and they provide an extra level of security to evesdropping. I have two DSS 900Mhz models and they work great together.
hey, it's yahoo, it's premium, it's got to be worth it."
I use Yahoo for many things. Yahoo Messenger to chat with friends, My Yahoo for convienent place for my news and files, Yahoo email account, The GeoCities free homepage, My Mobile for free email messages to my cell phone for sports scores, breaking news, daily weather and closing stock numbers. Custom stored news clipping searches, I store my bookmarks up there for access anywhere, My contacts and address books, Stock watching etc... and yes i have even bought stuff from their shopping partners (under $100 but something at least).
The provide excellent services for NOTHING. But that is the key, NOTHING. If not Yahoo, someone will provide it for free somewhere, At least with Yahoo, its all in one place. For a modest fee I could see where others might agree to pay for all that it offers, I would not.
Portal services (there are enough out there as it is), custom browsers (that they either won't support or require FOR support), and anything that is a useless extension that can be found elsewhere. Don't bloat the bill.
I believe this is where they think they will make the most money. Drive people to their shopping services and their partners. Problem with this is like you state. There is already tons of similiar sites. Kind of like MSN or Microsoft being one of the most hit web sites on the internet, well no shit. It is the default on IE, any new version of IE, first site after running Windows update, Windows default, after leaving Hotmail etc etc etc.. The media providers would like the same to drive some of that potential traffic there way. The traffic that might make a sell. They make no extra money by you getting pr0n and mp3's from P2P or usenet, but would probably start making money if they started putting pr0n on their portals, of course they would have to elude the double edge with that one.
We know that we are being illegally deprived of millions of dollars annually.
How do you just "know" this and how do you know who much or what the extent is? How do you know WHO is doing it and to what extent? Are you going to try to use averages to justify searching everyone?
I'll do everything I can to see you put in jail.
Including searching the business before even knowing that they are running your software?
So how do you know what companies are running your software? Should you just assume every business is and then make them prove they are not?
You are innocent until proven guilty in the US. You can not search without proable cause. You do not get probable cause because you are a business that some company targets software at. Even if past experierence shows 80% of companies searched had some fubar license issues does not give justification to search more. It plainly shows that 20% of your "probable cause" claims are completely false.
Imagine a MLA (Media License Assoc.) Imagine getting a letter in the mail stating a MLA rep will be by your house later in the week to examine ALL of your video tapes, audio cassettes, CD's, players, cable boxes, Macrovision removers, computer HD's, etc for unauthorized media. Would you let him in? After all, they got an anonymous tip stating you copied a Shrek DVD onto VHS so the kids could watch it in the van but they left it playing in the family room when they went for a trip in the van. I bet there is a better chance a consumer would have some form of illegal media then a business has illegal software. Does this simple fact give probable cause to search everyones house?
I have come to one simple thought about any story that has anything to do with RIAA, MP3, DCMA, MPAA, IP, first ownership etc....
Controlling the existing new stream of content is not as bad as controlling WHO can make new content.
There are thousands of bands in the world, thousands of actors in the world, and thousands of things I can do with my time. What makes Britney Spears better then Jane Doe? What makes Metallica better then Joes garage band? Sylvester Stylone then John Doe? They are not better, they are made "better" by the media companies that promote them and considered popular by the shear volume of times you hear or see them. The problem is with the way technology and mergers are going, it going to be harder and harder for someone to get a critical mass behind them to make it themselves without someone to market them. We are being FORCED to watch and listen to what a few companies feel we need to see. By shear lack of choices and mathematics, someone has to be the most watched. Imagine a local radio station that played nothing but bands that were not signed by anyone. Imagine being able to tune to 2.67 Ghz and listen to a local neighborhood band and news stories. These are the things that we are losing. I could care less if Britney Spears never makes a song again, the result would be another media puppet to replace her.
First step for the media giants is to control and squash who they are competing with, then to force you to pay them per view for watching or listening to their media. After all, had you a true choice of media, why would you pay per view for theirs? Soon you will not have a choice but this method.
One thing I see wrong with this..
Will you be able to get the services seperate? Will you be able to get the services unbundled AND at a fair price? Seems to me this is a trap to force you to use everything. Kind of what the cable company does now with tv/internet billing.
I also find it hard to believe that there are millions of people just waiting for the day they can sit down and watch a movie on demand. Really, how much time is in a single day? People only have so much money to spend on entertainment. That money is being spent now, its not like people have all this extra money waiting to spend on movies and cd's but can not find somewhere to spend it. The % of your disposible income you spend now on media (CD's, rentals, DVD's theater etc) is all that your going to spend in the future.
G. Any personal information, as identified in 2.2-3801, which is retained by the Department from an application for the issuance of a special identification card is confidential and shall not be divulged to any person, association, corporation, or organization, public or private, except to the legal guardian or the attorney of the applicant or to a person, association, corporation, or organization nominated in writing by the applicant, his legal guardian, or his attorney. This subsection shall not prevent the Department from furnishing the application or any information thereon to any law-enforcement agency.
The Department of Transportation is NOT considered a law enforcement agency, is it?. I'm sure this can seen differently by others.
There is quite a bit of info online about the uses of SSN's that might clear up some misconceptions about the use of SSN's in drivers licenses numbers, but also raises questions about this "new" use that a drivers license number that happens to be your SSN. Is the new use of the your SSN been expanded and not IAW the 1994 Privacy Act?
Specifically:
The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-579, in section 7), which is the
primary law affecting the use of SSNs, requires that any federal, state,
or local government agency that requests your Social Security Number has
to tell you four things:
1: The authority (whether granted by statute, or by executive order of the President) which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary;
2: The principal purposes for which the information is intended to be used;
3: The routine uses which may be made of the information, as published annually in the Federal Register, and
4: The effects on you, if any, of not providing all or any part of the requested information.
The Act requires state and local agencies which request the SSN to inform the individual of only three things:
1: Whether the disclosure is mandatory or voluntary,
2: By what statutory or other authority the SSN is solicited, and
3: What uses will be made of the number.
If your truely concerned I suggest searching google for SSN (expanded) and pricay statement. There is a SSN faq here
I had a PA which did not use your SSN and now a VA which the SSN is optional.
Had the MS programmers spent that much time and effort on reviewing their own code instead of rigging polls, maybe their next release would not be so unstable and behind schedule.
Some interesting info on Cox communications from the front page of today's Fairfax Journal. Not specific to cable modem but their general lack of concern for their customers and trying to raise rates.
I am about the same distances from the above as you (and using triangulation probably south and west of you). To top it off, I am less then 7 miles from one of AOL's major data centers and I can't get DSL or cable modem. I am over a mile from a central office so DSL is way out. Comcast cable is currently marking and digging directly in front of my property (and I mean like right now at 11pm at night, really *see NOTE1*), all I hear from them is next month, well I've been hearing that for over 24 months, maybe the digging means something this time?
Of course I am not quite in a heavy residential area and have well water and a septic system. I'll probably have public services before a high speed internet connection.
Note 1
Comcast cable has been working in the area for about 2 weeks. The service goes out about every other day. When I call to report the outage they claim that they are unaware of any outages, and there is no work being done in the area, and will send someone out to look at MY cable line. No work in the area? They had three marked crews of guys around here digging holes, climbing poles, pulling lines, and hanging tons of litle orange flags to mark all the underground lines. What do they consider work?
This is exactly what I said when an article similar to this was on slashdot a few ago. All that is left now is for the RIAA to add this format to thier new "copy protected" cd's. The raw audio data will be left on the discs for plain jane audio cd players, the WMA for everything else. Eventually most audio devices will include some form of WMA playing ability and shortly thereafter audio cd's will no longer contain the raw audio.
Of course you could ALWAYS record the audio in real time after it is decoded. Seems like a pain compared to what is available now but thats the way it was done for decades on reel decks, 8-tracks, cassettes and LP's...
All it takes is a patch cable and a refresher on manually setting recording levels.
HAHAHA
I tried several different ways with an 8.5*11 and could not even come close without the paper distorting and forming a roll. I have not tried a newspaper page but I assume it could work.
I ripped the quote from a how things work site for kids.
Putting aside the potential rumor factor, I do not how this would be cost effective for the consumer.
How would the exponential increase in bandwidth demands be met by the high speed internet providers. How does this fit into cable/dsl providers plans to provide tiers of service for different monthly fees? There would have to be some sort of kickback to the providers from the content source to make this cost effective for an end user. Sounds like this will ride down the same road that banner ads and open access is already on.
You can only watch,listen, and tolerate so much media in any given day. In this instance, no one but a monopoly could possibly survive.
I assume this double dip only applies to the "music" cdr's.
How can someone determine exactly what blank data cd's are being used for?
Ask 20 people the same question and you will get 20 completely different breakdowns.
Based on my burning habits, how much should be a per disk gift to the RIAA to cover their simulated paper loses?
If I had a decent vid capture card I would be saving tv shows to cdrom but not yet..
My last hundred burned cd's breakdown to this..
5 Playstation backups
yes I own the originals
5 Dreamcast stuff
not games but emu's, and extra stuff that others have made.
10 Audio cd's of music that I made.
I made - meaning original music. I sequence midi files and record and edit the final product in wav format.
5 computer game discs
yes I own the originals
15 Software discs
Software I have downloaded, like patches, IE updates, MS service packs, plugins, Netscape, driver updates, Star Office etc..
15 Linux distros and software
10 MP3 disks
mp3's that were converted from CD's I own or I created (see above). I use these in my home DVD player and my laptop when on the road.
15 data disks with pictures from my digital camera
5 data disks filled with prOn and car pictures from various usenet groups
5 data backups - various data files that need backed up
3 stuff I do not own..
d/l mp3's, game roms, cracked software etc..
7 coaster - ran into problems copying some of the above.. I could probably make this better but I try disc-disc on the fly first, if that doesnt work I see why (orignal scratched, copy protection that slows reading etc..) and try another method.
Slashdot Mirror
I have never seen a Wal-mart that sells gas but here in Northern VA, Costco and other warehouse clubs do. They scope the local market (very local, like a few sq miles) and then price their gas a few cents less then anyone. A few months ago, the lawmakers in VA and MD were questioning this and were attempting to pass laws to set what they could charge for gas. I do not know the results but yesterday their gas was still cheaper then anyone else.
I wonder what I'll be paying for gas when mom and pop aren't market participants (how long do you think that will be)?
Are there any Ma&Pa gas stations left? I dont consider Exxon-Mobile, Shell, Texaco, Sheetz and the others to be small companies. I also do not consider Costco's or Wal-Marts pricing scheme to be any different then the mega oil companies practices. The difference being the retailers have an advantage of getting you to the store for other things. I don't know of many people that browse around a gas station looking for good deals.
What % of the total downloaded data would have to be audio or video to constitute violating this patent? What do they consider audio and video? I have paid for and downloaded games for my computer that had both audio and video in digital format before. What about the tax software I paid for via credit card and downloaded this year? It has both digital audio (wav files) and digital video (advisors and such) included in the download, does that mean they have violated the patent also? IANL so I don't quite understand the legalese of the patent but it seems to be rather vauge. Could CDNow get around this by including some non audio data with the download, like a text file or jpg picture of something? Where do you draw the line?
That must be why we get all those email messages about enlarging your johnson 4-6 inches
/.
That is the problem with "targeted" advertising.
Just because you happen to look at porn all day does not mean you are interested in products that can enlarge your penis, other then maybe the short term arousal related enlargement you may get by viewing the prOn. Some people may get the get the same thrill reading
Stange is it not? There are many examples that seem completely unjustified when the words computer/digital/online are swapped with car/house/offline.
I am assuming that you not just trolling but to expand on your car chips from a technical view, there are legal issues involved when you modify an ignition or emmission system..
There are two classes of modifications to vehicle engine and management controls. "Off road" and "On road".
Using your mod chips for car example..
Ones that modify the emmisions system that are not certified by the federal guidelines would have to be classified for "Off-road" use only. Same with H-pipes (a blank pipe that replaces the catalytic convertors), and many intake and ignition systems. Your car may still pass the local smog tests but if its the new parts are emmissions related and not certified you can not use it for "On-road" use.
With a car you have that choice, regardless of % that are ACTUALLY only used off road, you are still allowed to purchase them. I can't say the same for computer/digital/online though.
I use Freesco on a DX2/66 with 16mb (no HD). Remote interface through thttpd, DHCP server, caching DNS, support for DynDns, time server, multiple NIC's and/or diald and dialup, all on a 1.44 floppy. By default, the logging is not very robust but it works fine for what I am doing.
You can do similar with the LRP
Not that the method the story describes is not good, just there are configurable alternatives to balance security and ease of use.
I can see a few ways that someone could still legally review the software and publish the results. What if you have a friend or a guest over for dinner that happens to be a publisher.
Tell your friend exactly how bad it sucks.
Yet your friend use your computer with the software that sucks.
Let your friend look over your shoulder while you are using the software that sucks.
When it is all said and done, YOU are the one that agreed to the EULA, not your friend.
EULA is not a law, it is a contract. Laws may be restated in the body but no new laws are created in an EULA.
Even if you did publish your own results, whats the terms for breaking the contract? Maybe they can take the software back? I am not talking about copying the software and giving it to a friend, that would violate the LAW.
To get the law involved for you publishing results against an EULA wishes, they would have to sue you in court for violating a contract. Only a court can decide if a contract was broken. This is not like a case where you are offering copyrighted software from a leach site (which violates an existing law). In a court, what are the terms going to be? Well I would suggest that yes it looks like I did violate the contract by publishing benchmarks, you win, here is your software back, case closed. Not that easy but why should a software contract be any different then a car lease, rental agreement or service contract. Did you ever get screwed buying a new or used car and try to fight the dealer for violating the contract? I can tell you that calling the police is not going to get you anything.
Imagine an EULA for a new Ford Mustang claiming you are not allowed to race the car at a track, state MPG, top speed, hp, and lateral G's on a skidpad.
I took a tour of the RR facility in Hawaii a few years ago. They had bandwidth usage charts that clearly showed a large reduction in bandwidth used between 12am and 3pm with a few spikes around 7am and lunch time. I assume peoples online times are about the same now so why not limit bandwidth during the peak hours and let the rest be free.
Another small point. Do you pay attantion to the broadband commercials? Do not advertise the advantages of always on, "multimedia" ready bandwidth with nice charts comparing speed to a 28k modem if you are not willing to support it. They sign you up under one assumption and then bill you for something else. If I planned on browsing the web all day I'd stick to my $12/month 56k dialup.
A good page that describes battery theory is here.
Maybe someone with more chemical background then me can show that you could add materials to the battery while it is discharging to "increase" its overall capacity and charge level. I used to live with these equations and drop down for specific gravity readings myself when I was in the Navy but that was a long time ago.
Don't mix lead acid batties and salt water.
I was thinking the same thing but I think you would have to be a little more subtle. Have you ever heard electical contactors shutting in a big controller? That chunk--chunk sound? Have this in another room and make it audible but not obvious. Tell them that you are cycling power to a transmitting antenna via wires traveling through the room at random times. At the same time you cycle the contacts dim the lights ever so slightly in the examining room, turn them back up when you simulate the test being over. Even better would be to simulate the noise that a high power transformer makes under load, the humming/buzzing noise. I do not know how to simulate this though.
I think these would be a true placebo to test with.
You are using a device in a comsumer shared area of bandwidth, this will happen at times and there really is nothing you can do (as others have pointed out with FCC part B which is probably clearly labeled on your headphones and definately in the first few pages of the manual). It is also illegal to knowingly listen to cordless and cellular phones, cellular has extra restrictions imposed in radio scanning hardware, which is yet another corporate funded bill to screw the general mass of people by providing a false sense of security.
Off topic here but 46-49Mhz cordless phones also share with the common baby room monitors. A strong word of advice to parents with those baby monitors... It is common practice to have a newborn stay in the parents room for the first few months, TURN OFF THE BABY MONITOR WHEN YOU GO TO BED because the whole neighborhood has the ability to hear you trying to make more!! I found this out years ago when I could hear my wife talking on our old cordless phone through our baby monitor reciever, after playing around with the phone I could listen the other way to.
For cordless phones you can get a 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz digital spread spectrum (DSS) model, not the cheap analog or plain digital ones. If it is not clearly marked as DSS is probably is not, slightly more expensive but well worth the difference. I have never heard of a 900Mhz DSS interfering with anything and only a few of the 2.4Ghz DSS models causing problems, and they provide an extra level of security to evesdropping. I have two DSS 900Mhz models and they work great together.
hey, it's yahoo, it's premium, it's got to be worth it."
I use Yahoo for many things. Yahoo Messenger to chat with friends, My Yahoo for convienent place for my news and files, Yahoo email account, The GeoCities free homepage, My Mobile for free email messages to my cell phone for sports scores, breaking news, daily weather and closing stock numbers. Custom stored news clipping searches, I store my bookmarks up there for access anywhere, My contacts and address books, Stock watching etc... and yes i have even bought stuff from their shopping partners (under $100 but something at least).
The provide excellent services for NOTHING. But that is the key, NOTHING. If not Yahoo, someone will provide it for free somewhere, At least with Yahoo, its all in one place. For a modest fee I could see where others might agree to pay for all that it offers, I would not.
Portal services (there are enough out there as it is), custom browsers (that they either won't support or require FOR support), and anything that is a useless extension that can be found elsewhere. Don't bloat the bill.
I believe this is where they think they will make the most money. Drive people to their shopping services and their partners. Problem with this is like you state. There is already tons of similiar sites. Kind of like MSN or Microsoft being one of the most hit web sites on the internet, well no shit. It is the default on IE, any new version of IE, first site after running Windows update, Windows default, after leaving Hotmail etc etc etc.. The media providers would like the same to drive some of that potential traffic there way. The traffic that might make a sell. They make no extra money by you getting pr0n and mp3's from P2P or usenet, but would probably start making money if they started putting pr0n on their portals, of course they would have to elude the double edge with that one.
We know that we are being illegally deprived of millions of dollars annually.
How do you just "know" this and how do you know who much or what the extent is? How do you know WHO is doing it and to what extent? Are you going to try to use averages to justify searching everyone?
I'll do everything I can to see you put in jail.
Including searching the business before even knowing that they are running your software?
So how do you know what companies are running your software? Should you just assume every business is and then make them prove they are not?
You are innocent until proven guilty in the US. You can not search without proable cause. You do not get probable cause because you are a business that some company targets software at. Even if past experierence shows 80% of companies searched had some fubar license issues does not give justification to search more. It plainly shows that 20% of your "probable cause" claims are completely false.
Imagine a MLA (Media License Assoc.) Imagine getting a letter in the mail stating a MLA rep will be by your house later in the week to examine ALL of your video tapes, audio cassettes, CD's, players, cable boxes, Macrovision removers, computer HD's, etc for unauthorized media. Would you let him in? After all, they got an anonymous tip stating you copied a Shrek DVD onto VHS so the kids could watch it in the van but they left it playing in the family room when they went for a trip in the van. I bet there is a better chance a consumer would have some form of illegal media then a business has illegal software. Does this simple fact give probable cause to search everyones house?
I have come to one simple thought about any story that has anything to do with RIAA, MP3, DCMA, MPAA, IP, first ownership etc....
Controlling the existing new stream of content is not as bad as controlling WHO can make new content.
There are thousands of bands in the world, thousands of actors in the world, and thousands of things I can do with my time. What makes Britney Spears better then Jane Doe? What makes Metallica better then Joes garage band? Sylvester Stylone then John Doe? They are not better, they are made "better" by the media companies that promote them and considered popular by the shear volume of times you hear or see them. The problem is with the way technology and mergers are going, it going to be harder and harder for someone to get a critical mass behind them to make it themselves without someone to market them. We are being FORCED to watch and listen to what a few companies feel we need to see. By shear lack of choices and mathematics, someone has to be the most watched. Imagine a local radio station that played nothing but bands that were not signed by anyone. Imagine being able to tune to 2.67 Ghz and listen to a local neighborhood band and news stories. These are the things that we are losing. I could care less if Britney Spears never makes a song again, the result would be another media puppet to replace her.
First step for the media giants is to control and squash who they are competing with, then to force you to pay them per view for watching or listening to their media. After all, had you a true choice of media, why would you pay per view for theirs? Soon you will not have a choice but this method.
If you enjoy something, why deprive yourself for 45 years for some mythical retirement fund. .
I tell my parents the same thing. They have been putting off a computer purchase since 1994 because the prices are still going down.
One thing I see wrong with this..
Will you be able to get the services seperate? Will you be able to get the services unbundled AND at a fair price? Seems to me this is a trap to force you to use everything. Kind of what the cable company does now with tv/internet billing.
I also find it hard to believe that there are millions of people just waiting for the day they can sit down and watch a movie on demand. Really, how much time is in a single day? People only have so much money to spend on entertainment. That money is being spent now, its not like people have all this extra money waiting to spend on movies and cd's but can not find somewhere to spend it. The % of your disposible income you spend now on media (CD's, rentals, DVD's theater etc) is all that your going to spend in the future.
The more and more I search, the more it looks like at least in VA, this could be somewhat illegal.
The Virginia ID card and drivers license form state:
The information provided on this application is for DMV's record-keeping purposes and may be disseminated in accordance with 46.2-345.
46.2-345 states:
G. Any personal information, as identified in 2.2-3801, which is retained by the Department from an application for the issuance of a special identification card is confidential and shall not be divulged to any person, association, corporation, or organization, public or private, except to the legal guardian or the attorney of the applicant or to a person, association, corporation, or organization nominated in writing by the applicant, his legal guardian, or his attorney. This subsection shall not prevent the Department from furnishing the application or any information thereon to any law-enforcement agency.
The Department of Transportation is NOT considered a law enforcement agency, is it?. I'm sure this can seen differently by others.
If your VA license number is your SSN, it probably violates other information reporting laws also.
There is quite a bit of info online about the uses of SSN's that might clear up some misconceptions about the use of SSN's in drivers licenses numbers, but also raises questions about this "new" use that a drivers license number that happens to be your SSN. Is the new use of the your SSN been expanded and not IAW the 1994 Privacy Act?
Specifically:
The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-579, in section 7), which is the primary law affecting the use of SSNs, requires that any federal, state, or local government agency that requests your Social Security Number has to tell you four things:
1: The authority (whether granted by statute, or by executive order of the President) which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary;
2: The principal purposes for which the information is intended to be used;
3: The routine uses which may be made of the information, as published annually in the Federal Register, and
4: The effects on you, if any, of not providing all or any part of the requested information.
The Act requires state and local agencies which request the SSN to inform the individual of only three things:
1: Whether the disclosure is mandatory or voluntary,
2: By what statutory or other authority the SSN is solicited, and
3: What uses will be made of the number.
If your truely concerned I suggest searching google for SSN (expanded) and pricay statement. There is a SSN faq here
I had a PA which did not use your SSN and now a VA which the SSN is optional.
Had the MS programmers spent that much time and effort on reviewing their own code instead of rigging polls, maybe their next release would not be so unstable and behind schedule.
Some interesting info on Cox communications from the front page of today's Fairfax Journal. Not specific to cable modem but their general lack of concern for their customers and trying to raise rates.
I am about the same distances from the above as you (and using triangulation probably south and west of you). To top it off, I am less then 7 miles from one of AOL's major data centers and I can't get DSL or cable modem. I am over a mile from a central office so DSL is way out. Comcast cable is currently marking and digging directly in front of my property (and I mean like right now at 11pm at night, really *see NOTE1*), all I hear from them is next month, well I've been hearing that for over 24 months, maybe the digging means something this time?
Of course I am not quite in a heavy residential area and have well water and a septic system. I'll probably have public services before a high speed internet connection.
Note 1
Comcast cable has been working in the area for about 2 weeks. The service goes out about every other day. When I call to report the outage they claim that they are unaware of any outages, and there is no work being done in the area, and will send someone out to look at MY cable line. No work in the area? They had three marked crews of guys around here digging holes, climbing poles, pulling lines, and hanging tons of litle orange flags to mark all the underground lines. What do they consider work?
This is exactly what I said when an article similar to this was on slashdot a few ago. All that is left now is for the RIAA to add this format to thier new "copy protected" cd's. The raw audio data will be left on the discs for plain jane audio cd players, the WMA for everything else. Eventually most audio devices will include some form of WMA playing ability and shortly thereafter audio cd's will no longer contain the raw audio.
Of course you could ALWAYS record the audio in real time after it is decoded. Seems like a pain compared to what is available now but thats the way it was done for decades on reel decks, 8-tracks, cassettes and LP's...
All it takes is a patch cable and a refresher on manually setting recording levels.
HAHAHA
I tried several different ways with an 8.5*11 and could not even come close without the paper distorting and forming a roll. I have not tried a newspaper page but I assume it could work.
I ripped the quote from a how things work site for kids.
Putting aside the potential rumor factor, I do not how this would be cost effective for the consumer.
How would the exponential increase in bandwidth demands be met by the high speed internet providers. How does this fit into cable/dsl providers plans to provide tiers of service for different monthly fees? There would have to be some sort of kickback to the providers from the content source to make this cost effective for an end user. Sounds like this will ride down the same road that banner ads and open access is already on.
You can only watch,listen, and tolerate so much media in any given day. In this instance, no one but a monopoly could possibly survive.
I assume this double dip only applies to the "music" cdr's.
How can someone determine exactly what blank data cd's are being used for?
Ask 20 people the same question and you will get 20 completely different breakdowns.
Based on my burning habits, how much should be a per disk gift to the RIAA to cover their simulated paper loses?
If I had a decent vid capture card I would be saving tv shows to cdrom but not yet..
My last hundred burned cd's breakdown to this..
5 Playstation backups
yes I own the originals
5 Dreamcast stuff
not games but emu's, and extra stuff that others have made.
10 Audio cd's of music that I made.
I made - meaning original music. I sequence midi files and record and edit the final product in wav format.
5 computer game discs
yes I own the originals
15 Software discs
Software I have downloaded, like patches, IE updates, MS service packs, plugins, Netscape, driver updates, Star Office etc..
15 Linux distros and software
10 MP3 disks
mp3's that were converted from CD's I own or I created (see above). I use these in my home DVD player and my laptop when on the road.
15 data disks with pictures from my digital camera
5 data disks filled with prOn and car pictures from various usenet groups
5 data backups - various data files that need backed up
3 stuff I do not own..
d/l mp3's, game roms, cracked software etc..
7 coaster - ran into problems copying some of the above.. I could probably make this better but I try disc-disc on the fly first, if that doesnt work I see why (orignal scratched, copy protection that slows reading etc..) and try another method.
Is that 100?