Congress can sell them the right to transmit all day long. I am recieving their transmissions with my body. Unless you are the worst kind of DMCA whore, you will recognize my right to recieve their transmissions with electronics as well, so that I can at least get some entertainment value out of the fact that my body is forced to be an EMP sink.
When I can opt out of being hit with their radiation, I'll recognize their right to charge for it. Until then, they're only charging for the convenience, not the right.
There is nothing wrong with their trying to stop theft, and I salute their style. What I have not totally accepted, though, is that it constitutes theft to have the balls to recieve a signal that is being beamed at me. Police scanners and *gasp* radar detectors (which arguably have no legal purpose) are not only legal, but mainstream.
What I really resent, though, is that it is just fine for them (MPAA+RIAA, too) to have baseless lawsuits as a part of their business model. What can be illegal about posting factual information on the web? Yahoo has already buckled under to the French. Let's show a little more support for the first amendment.
Is it corporate BS? If maintaining the satellites costs more than they can earn, they have to offload the whole setup. Where (outside the DOD) are you going to find a buyer for a money sink like that.
Abandonment is stupid and irresponsible. Who can "claim" them? Anyone who can successfully hack them? If you want the satellite, you also get the responsibility. All orbits degenerate, and no company can accept the liability of having a satellite of theirs crash in New York just because they didn't want to bother with de-orbiting their equipment properly. If they could have done it safely, but didn't, it all falls into their laps.
It's got to be. A lightweight, pre-made commo network, and they can pretend to be good guys for grabbing it. It shouldn't take too much development work to use it with the security that they want, either. I'll bet that work has been going on for a while.
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When I can opt out of being hit with their radiation, I'll recognize their right to charge for it. Until then, they're only charging for the convenience, not the right.
I wonder how long it'll take the good folks at the FBI to crack it.
1) http://www.aclu.org
2) "join the ACLU"
3) "read our privacy policy"
What I really resent, though, is that it is just fine for them (MPAA+RIAA, too) to have baseless lawsuits as a part of their business model. What can be illegal about posting factual information on the web? Yahoo has already buckled under to the French. Let's show a little more support for the first amendment.
Abandonment is stupid and irresponsible. Who can "claim" them? Anyone who can successfully hack them? If you want the satellite, you also get the responsibility. All orbits degenerate, and no company can accept the liability of having a satellite of theirs crash in New York just because they didn't want to bother with de-orbiting their equipment properly. If they could have done it safely, but didn't, it all falls into their laps.
It's got to be. A lightweight, pre-made commo network, and they can pretend to be good guys for grabbing it. It shouldn't take too much development work to use it with the security that they want, either. I'll bet that work has been going on for a while.
A few of these AOL CDs under a leg should make my end table steadier than the AOL floppies did.
The British intelligence and law enforcement types have volunteered, methinks.