Under the US Constitution, the people, including in this case corporations, have a right to "petition the government", and that is what these contributions are. They are a way that Comcast makes known to politicians its priorities. People who oppose Comcast's priorities can also contribute and petition the government. Typically, however, those better organized get their way more frequently. The open Internet is over. The Internet has turned into a corporate and profit driven shake-down racket.
Great to see the U.S. government finally using some of its high technology to stop the scourge of drug smuggling and sleazy lawless murdering criminal gangs that have been operating almost without limit along the Southern Border.
The next step: bring in the flying drones to intercept and destroy the shipments.
The same technology can be used to go inside of buildings, such as shopping malls, government offices such as the Driver's License Bureau, courtrooms, or even in public bathrooms, subways, or one's private homes (such as for selling real estate), or on boats, inside museums, and so on. Possibly with similar micro camera, one could go inside a drainage pipe.
The people attacking the Google car probably could be charged with assault under the Common Law.
The best way to handle this is to break up TimeWarner and force them to divest of all internet carrier services. This will separate content from carrier ISP services. These internet services then can be regulated to force them to avoid discrimination against specific information or content providers. It would seem this is analogous to Sherman Anti-Trust Act issues. By throttling the services of competitor information providers, TimeWarner is perhaps engaging in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct interstate trade, a Federal violation. The logical thing to do is for the State of Texas Attorney General Office to file for a permanent injunction against TimeWarner in Texas to prevent discrimination against content services. At the same time, it makes sense to file a class action suit against TimeWarner with recovery being the extra costs forced on consumers by its activities, plus punitive damages because TimeWarner's actions are willful and malicious. Such a class action suit would be filed not only on behalf of the users of iTunes services, but also on behalf of the major record and entertainment studies because this malicious action on the part of TimeWarner is interfering with the contract relationship already established between users and the iTunes store, and between Apple and the studios. The damages to the studios would be measured in terms of the lost sales and profits from users who are "throttled" by TimeWarner. Again, punitive damages should be sought because TimeWarner knows of the existing relationship and willfully is interfering with it.
I found out that the Verizon FIOS service blocks all http traffic, so you can't run a server at your home, or utilize mac web sharing features. How nice of them.
Sue Gillette because its razors will not work with Schick. Sue Canon because it will not take other ink cartridges. Sue Apple because it does not work with proprietary Microsoft technology. What are the damages being shown?
NBC is simply negotiating. It is completely irrational for NBC to stop delivering through iTunes. It's like free money. Once the shows are hosted in iTunes, no more work is necessary -- the money just rolls in. Why cut off this revenue stream? The hot shots at NBC must make a trade off. The trade off is this: Factor 1 is the revenue from iTunes. Factor 2 is the possible extra revenue NBC would get if it could do "jerk me around" pricing. Factor 3 is the probability that iTunes will agree to its demands. Concerning Factor 3, iTunes must consider the possible decrease in revenue from drop off of NBC in comparison to any greater costs that might occur should the entire model start to break down, leading to a re-negotiations of thousands of contracts. The cost of the latter is greater than the cost of losing NBC. Consequently, the highest probability for Factor 3 is that iTunes will not break down. If Factor 3 is a negative for NBC, then it must convince itself that Factor 2 is so great in comparison to Factor 1 that it should continue to bluff, and to lose Factor 1 completely. But if Factor 1 is lost, then it would be impossible to achieve Factor 2 anyway, because there is no other channel for NBC. As a result, it is highly unlikely that NBC in the end will pull its shows. The "genius" executives who worked on this brinkmanship strategy should be fired.
AT&T's best strategy to stop unlocking is to attempt to re-negotiate its deals with overseas carriers so that it can lower international roaming rates to keep them competitive. If AT&T would continually focus on increasing efficiencies and driving down rates for its users, then it would never need to worry about turnover or customers frantically attempting to jigger and unlock their phones to use cheap SIM cards. If's AT&T can't re-negotiate these rates, then why doesn't it acquire its own SIM card dealers overseas so that it can better service its customers. Finally, consumer rates are many times higher than what corporations are given - but why? Another alternative would be for consumers to band together into purchasing consortia to mass-purchase large contracts. For example, if 35,000 iPhone users formed a cooperative and negotiated as a single contract, then they could screw down the rates to what corporations are getting. I am unaware of any law that would prevent consumers from forming these large purchasing cooperatives.
My last T-mobile bill was 135 pages long. According to their records, on June 16th at around 2:30 in the afternoon, I started to call myself 11 times per minute, constantly, for days and days. Eventually, my minutes ran out. At that point, T-Mobile was charging 35 center per call. But since there were 11 calls per minute, then were charging 35 cents for each fractional minute, and thus 35 cents 11 times per minute, for hours and days on end. The bill came to around $1,350 dollars and they are now checking it to "see if the calls are valid." Also, there is a recently published story that an iPhone user who travelled to Europe came back with a $3,000 AT&T bill because the Euro-trash companies were charging.20 cents per kilobyte, which is about $20 per web page to download to the iPhone.
In retrospect, it all seems fairly normal. Our phone companies work about as well as our health insurance companies. Which is to say, they don't work very well, and when they get a chance, they gouge the consumer.
RFM. The U.S. statutes regarding blabbing about sources and means of intelligence gathering are very specific, and communications intelligence has the strongest sanction of all. Not only is it a felony to talk about it, but even if someone else tells you and you report it, you also are a felon, even if you are a reporter.
In today's environment, these sanctions seem harsh. But you need to keep in mind the circumstances under which they were adopted.
During the Second World War, the U.S. was losing more than 1 Liberty ship PER DAY, along with all of the crews, etc. [It's not really "fun" to go down in icy waters of the North Atlantic. Your last thoughts are probably "WTF" as you freeze to death and drown.]
It was crucial that the forerunner of the NSA break the codes of the Enigma cryptographic machine.
Remember, Slashdotters, Alan Turing was there: THIS is where computers came from. From cryptography, from trying to stop people getting killed.
Unfortunately, the nature of communications intelligence is that if the enemy knows you can intercept their communication, then they take counter-measures. Just like the Germans did, and just bin Laden did when the New York Times blabbed about interception of satellite phone traffic. (Thanks guys, now bin Laden is even more difficult to track down.)
For that reason, the "sources and means" of intelligence gathering are covered up by a wall of secrecy. It's simple: this is not an abstract debate; people can get killed, lives are on the line.
I'm wondering if anyone knows how to set up a web server on a small iPod, such as a Nano? I've been looking for a solution like this for years: so small, little energy consumption, no moving parts, inexpensive, etc. If you know of such a solution, please let me know.
The entire process of activation, including number transfer from T-Mobile took about 5 minutes.
Flawless.
Can't imagine what people are talking about.
We had prepared for the worst, so my wife took her old T-Mobile to work, because after reading the horror stories, I assumed the activation would be delayed.
But it wasn't.
Not even near that.
Only "problem" was that SMS did not switch over until the older T-Mobile phone is switched off.
Hmmmm. I'm surprised to hear your complaint. I've had Apples since the early 1980's and never had a problem like this. However, I always use the Apple Care service: they send out a box, I pack up, and they return it fixed. Usually takes a few days. I'm unsure of the situation with local Apple stores. There, one finds somewhat lengthy waiting periods [especially in NYC], and more uncertainty. I tried that once with my wife's laptop, and the waiting and commute to the store took more than 45 minutes, so I reverted back to using the online service and the box-ship-return method. Does anyone have a good understanding of the field support business? These usually are sub-contractors...
I'm an artist and a publisher and DRM is good. It is unfair to work in a legal and technology system that allows people to steal work and not pay for it. If people wish to open source their IP that is fine, and there are many good examples of this including the OpenCourseware project at MIT, Wikipedia, Linux software, and much music, and much writing (Guttenberg) and so on.
But this should be a choice, not forced on the artist. A lot of money goes into making blockbuster movies and it turns economics upside down if organizations such as Apple that have built a technology system that allows artists and the industry that supports them to get paid for their work in turn gets punished in public opinion for their system. For all of you who think artists should not get paid -- Why don't you send in your next paycheck to a charity or something. Screw all of you thiefs. Either support artists and the technology systems that allow them to get paid or crawl into a cave.
I read through the briefs. Intel and Genentech both supplied amicus filings. The principal reason Apple lost is because the court judged it had not exhausted other measures to identify the source of the leak. The details of the case show that the information was definitely a trade secret of Apple deserving protection. The journalists were bloggers, and it appears for the first time, the court has ruled that "bloggers" are "journalists" and therefore are entitled to 1st amendment protections.
It appears that bloggers are able to publish trade secrets of technology companies and hide behind the protection given to the press, even if it is obvious to any reasonable person that the information is stolen and confidential in nature.
Apple is no "worse" than any other company of any type intending to protect its trade secrets.
Does anyone know how to get off of the AOL blocked list? Most services seem to have a method to test one's server, then certify that it is not forwarding spam, etc. But AOL? It's like a giagantic "No Fly" list - no one knows how to get on, no one knows how to get off.
It would REALLY HELP if there was some type of coordination world-wide to stop spamming, and to "certify" or "re-certify" servers that get blocked. In other words, if one does it once, then the "re-certification" would be carried to all services that provide blocking lists.
It would help if there were legislation requiring that all services that provide blocking be held accountable for unjustified blocking.
Isn't Verizon the company that disabled all of the bluetooth features of its phones so that in order to transfer pictures from one's phone to one's computer it was necessary to pay Verizon to use their network?
It will be interesting to see the legal basis of the Norwegian decision. Can Gillette not sell its razor bladed that are linked specifically to its shavers? Can Cannon not sell copy cartridges that are tied specifically with its laser printers and copiers? Does the Norwegian law mean that one may not patent a computer security system? Ultimately, it is up the movie and music companies to stand up for the iTunes store because it is one of the few ways to protect their IP.
Cisco and Apple need to collaborate so that the iPhone will work seamlessly with installed Cisco equipment for handling VoIP connections while a person is inside a corporation [and thus near to Cisco equipment]. Many companies are in need of such a service. Fighting over a trademark is a waste of time when such large business opportunities and synergies are to be had.
There are risks to legislating compatibility. However, in this case, legislation is probably required.
One useful piece of legislation would be to require that all software marketed in the European community be compatible with the open source standard. This would require Microsoft as a matter of law to provide compatibility "save as" with ODF.
Legislation could also require Microsoft to set as its default format ODF.
Finally, should Microsoft fail to comply, it could be subject to "conversion" fines to compensate users for the cost of converting their files to ODF format.
An even better solution would be to place an extra 10% tax on all Microsoft products with that 10% of revenue being targeted for support of European research on ODF type standards.
Another useful idea would be to hold Microsoft liable for the costs and damages of security failures and vulnerabilities in its software if it could be shown that it was negligent in design of its software, e.g. knowingly allowed defective software to be placed on the market.
And one final idea is that software should be treated like pharmaceutical patents: the copyright should be set to expire after a few years, whereupon it becomes legal to "clone" it.
Teaming up with telecos that have been hurt by VoIP telephone services offered by cable, and that are investing heavily to provide fiber to the home or fiber to the curb would be a good strategy, since they do not generally have the expertise to deliver video services, and many appear to be attempting to "copy" the cable TV model (box, fixed channels, etc). Unfortunately, Verizon is working on MPEG-2 technology using Microsofts standard. This is poor quality, poor compression. Also, my understanding is that Verizon has contracted Microsoft to write its interface for users to the television channels. A better strategy might be for Verizon and all telcos to work with Google and Apple ["Gapple"] to deliver the bandwidth for these services. There are plenty of business models that could be used to collect revenue from movie rentals and so on. [home alarm services, health monitors for elderly, air conditioning maintenance?]
In contrast, outside of the US, the penetration of cable is very low and the bulk of the IPTV services will be provided by the telcos [who do not face such competition by cable as an alternative carrier]. Finally, in some countries, Korea, Japan, the bandwidth being delivered is so great that these debates are academic.
Slashdot Mirror
Under the US Constitution, the people, including in this case corporations, have a right to "petition the government", and that is what these contributions are. They are a way that Comcast makes known to politicians its priorities. People who oppose Comcast's priorities can also contribute and petition the government. Typically, however, those better organized get their way more frequently. The open Internet is over. The Internet has turned into a corporate and profit driven shake-down racket.
Great to see the U.S. government finally using some of its high technology to stop the scourge of drug smuggling and sleazy lawless murdering criminal gangs that have been operating almost without limit along the Southern Border.
The next step: bring in the flying drones to intercept and destroy the shipments.
The same technology can be used to go inside of buildings, such as shopping malls, government offices such as the Driver's License Bureau, courtrooms, or even in public bathrooms, subways, or one's private homes (such as for selling real estate), or on boats, inside museums, and so on. Possibly with similar micro camera, one could go inside a drainage pipe.
The people attacking the Google car probably could be charged with assault under the Common Law.
The best way to handle this is to break up TimeWarner and force them to divest of all internet carrier services. This will separate content from carrier ISP services. These internet services then can be regulated to force them to avoid discrimination against specific information or content providers. It would seem this is analogous to Sherman Anti-Trust Act issues. By throttling the services of competitor information providers, TimeWarner is perhaps engaging in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct interstate trade, a Federal violation. The logical thing to do is for the State of Texas Attorney General Office to file for a permanent injunction against TimeWarner in Texas to prevent discrimination against content services. At the same time, it makes sense to file a class action suit against TimeWarner with recovery being the extra costs forced on consumers by its activities, plus punitive damages because TimeWarner's actions are willful and malicious. Such a class action suit would be filed not only on behalf of the users of iTunes services, but also on behalf of the major record and entertainment studies because this malicious action on the part of TimeWarner is interfering with the contract relationship already established between users and the iTunes store, and between Apple and the studios. The damages to the studios would be measured in terms of the lost sales and profits from users who are "throttled" by TimeWarner. Again, punitive damages should be sought because TimeWarner knows of the existing relationship and willfully is interfering with it.
I found out that the Verizon FIOS service blocks all http traffic, so you can't run a server at your home, or utilize mac web sharing features. How nice of them.
Sue Gillette because its razors will not work with Schick. Sue Canon because it will not take other ink cartridges. Sue Apple because it does not work with proprietary Microsoft technology. What are the damages being shown?
NBC is simply negotiating. It is completely irrational for NBC to stop delivering through iTunes. It's like free money. Once the shows are hosted in iTunes, no more work is necessary -- the money just rolls in. Why cut off this revenue stream?
The hot shots at NBC must make a trade off. The trade off is this: Factor 1 is the revenue from iTunes. Factor 2 is the possible extra revenue NBC would get if it could do "jerk me around" pricing. Factor 3 is the probability that iTunes will agree to its demands. Concerning Factor 3, iTunes must consider the possible decrease in revenue from drop off of NBC in comparison to any greater costs that might occur should the entire model start to break down, leading to a re-negotiations of thousands of contracts. The cost of the latter is greater than the cost of losing NBC. Consequently, the highest probability for Factor 3 is that iTunes will not break down.
If Factor 3 is a negative for NBC, then it must convince itself that Factor 2 is so great in comparison to Factor 1 that it should continue to bluff, and to lose Factor 1 completely. But if Factor 1 is lost, then it would be impossible to achieve Factor 2 anyway, because there is no other channel for NBC.
As a result, it is highly unlikely that NBC in the end will pull its shows. The "genius" executives who worked on this brinkmanship strategy should be fired.
AT&T's best strategy to stop unlocking is to attempt to re-negotiate its deals with overseas carriers so that it can lower international roaming rates to keep them competitive. If AT&T would continually focus on increasing efficiencies and driving down rates for its users, then it would never need to worry about turnover or customers frantically attempting to jigger and unlock their phones to use cheap SIM cards. If's AT&T can't re-negotiate these rates, then why doesn't it acquire its own SIM card dealers overseas so that it can better service its customers. Finally, consumer rates are many times higher than what corporations are given - but why? Another alternative would be for consumers to band together into purchasing consortia to mass-purchase large contracts. For example, if 35,000 iPhone users formed a cooperative and negotiated as a single contract, then they could screw down the rates to what corporations are getting. I am unaware of any law that would prevent consumers from forming these large purchasing cooperatives.
Whether Euro or dollars, it was too much.
In retrospect, it all seems fairly normal. Our phone companies work about as well as our health insurance companies. Which is to say, they don't work very well, and when they get a chance, they gouge the consumer.
Lie steal cheat take money from someone else's sweat steal copy cheat take the short cuts and cheat cheat steal criminal scum.
RFM. The U.S. statutes regarding blabbing about sources and means of intelligence gathering are very specific, and communications intelligence has the strongest sanction of all. Not only is it a felony to talk about it, but even if someone else tells you and you report it, you also are a felon, even if you are a reporter.
In today's environment, these sanctions seem harsh. But you need to keep in mind the circumstances under which they were adopted.
During the Second World War, the U.S. was losing more than 1 Liberty ship PER DAY, along with all of the crews, etc. [It's not really "fun" to go down in icy waters of the North Atlantic. Your last thoughts are probably "WTF" as you freeze to death and drown.]
It was crucial that the forerunner of the NSA break the codes of the Enigma cryptographic machine.
Remember, Slashdotters, Alan Turing was there: THIS is where computers came from. From cryptography, from trying to stop people getting killed.
Unfortunately, the nature of communications intelligence is that if the enemy knows you can intercept their communication, then they take counter-measures. Just like the Germans did, and just bin Laden did when the New York Times blabbed about interception of satellite phone traffic.
(Thanks guys, now bin Laden is even more difficult to track down.)
For that reason, the "sources and means" of intelligence gathering are covered up by a wall of secrecy. It's simple: this is not an abstract debate; people can get killed, lives are on the line.
Back off and chill.
I'm wondering if anyone knows how to set up a web server on a small iPod, such as a Nano? I've been looking for a solution like this for years: so small, little energy consumption, no moving parts, inexpensive, etc. If you know of such a solution, please let me know.
Edoko
The entire process of activation, including number transfer from T-Mobile took about 5 minutes.
Flawless.
Can't imagine what people are talking about.
We had prepared for the worst, so my wife took her old T-Mobile to work, because after reading the horror stories, I assumed the activation would be delayed.
But it wasn't.
Not even near that.
Only "problem" was that SMS did not switch over until the older T-Mobile phone is switched off.
Best activation experience ever.
Absolutely tops.
Did anyone patent the book?
Hmmmm. I'm surprised to hear your complaint. I've had Apples since the early 1980's and never had a problem like this. However, I always use the Apple Care service: they send out a box, I pack up, and they return it fixed. Usually takes a few days. I'm unsure of the situation with local Apple stores. There, one finds somewhat lengthy waiting periods [especially in NYC], and more uncertainty. I tried that once with my wife's laptop, and the waiting and commute to the store took more than 45 minutes, so I reverted back to using the online service and the box-ship-return method. Does anyone have a good understanding of the field support business? These usually are sub-contractors...
Microsoft needs Apple if only to maintain the fiction that it is not a monopoly.
But this should be a choice, not forced on the artist. A lot of money goes into making blockbuster movies and it turns economics upside down if organizations such as Apple that have built a technology system that allows artists and the industry that supports them to get paid for their work in turn gets punished in public opinion for their system. For all of you who think artists should not get paid -- Why don't you send in your next paycheck to a charity or something. Screw all of you thiefs. Either support artists and the technology systems that allow them to get paid or crawl into a cave.
It appears that bloggers are able to publish trade secrets of technology companies and hide behind the protection given to the press, even if it is obvious to any reasonable person that the information is stolen and confidential in nature.
Apple is no "worse" than any other company of any type intending to protect its trade secrets.
I've faced this problem over and over.
Does anyone know how to get off of the AOL blocked list? Most services seem to have a method to test one's server, then certify that it is not forwarding spam, etc. But AOL? It's like a giagantic "No Fly" list - no one knows how to get on, no one knows how to get off.
It would REALLY HELP if there was some type of coordination world-wide to stop spamming, and to "certify" or "re-certify" servers that get blocked. In other words, if one does it once, then the "re-certification" would be carried to all services that provide blocking lists.
It would help if there were legislation requiring that all services that provide blocking be held accountable for unjustified blocking.
Isn't Verizon the company that disabled all of the bluetooth features of its phones so that in order to transfer pictures from one's phone to one's computer it was necessary to pay Verizon to use their network?
It will be interesting to see the legal basis of the Norwegian decision. Can Gillette not sell its razor bladed that are linked specifically to its shavers? Can Cannon not sell copy cartridges that are tied specifically with its laser printers and copiers? Does the Norwegian law mean that one may not patent a computer security system? Ultimately, it is up the movie and music companies to stand up for the iTunes store because it is one of the few ways to protect their IP.
Cisco and Apple need to collaborate so that the iPhone will work seamlessly with installed Cisco equipment for handling VoIP connections while a person is inside a corporation [and thus near to Cisco equipment]. Many companies are in need of such a service. Fighting over a trademark is a waste of time when such large business opportunities and synergies are to be had.
There are risks to legislating compatibility. However, in this case, legislation is probably required.
In contrast, outside of the US, the penetration of cable is very low and the bulk of the IPTV services will be provided by the telcos [who do not face such competition by cable as an alternative carrier]. Finally, in some countries, Korea, Japan, the bandwidth being delivered is so great that these debates are academic.