1. Ideas are not, have not, never will be "property". This is used to describe something tangible, not a legal construct used to protect corporations. I shouldn't even have to explain this one.
2. Those companies whom you describe as needing compensation for their "millions of dollars" in R&D, have already been compensated. Over 80% of *all* big-Pharm R&D (top 7 pharmaceutical companies in the US) is funded by the gov't. Don't whine about all the money "stolen" from these poor multinational corporations, many of whom don't pay taxes (or pay very little).
3. Basic health care (including pharmaceuticals) *is* a human right. "Profit" is not a right, especially when the US corporations are not "losing" anything. They just can't (or choose not to) compete with the other corporations willing to manufacture generic medications. US corporations charge the amounts they do because of the monopolistic protections they receive. No actual "property" is being stolen from them, they're just being undersold.
Another interesting topic is why the same antibiotics sold to humans cost such-and-such/pill, while they are sold at 1-10% of the price when sold to animals.
Water from the Atlantic off the Jersey shore is fundamentally undrinkable. After all the desalinization, distilliation and purification needed to make it fit for human consumption, it would probably run you about $2/gallon.
...and that would fit just fine for those that believe in the "genius" of capitalism, i.e. you'd have to start paying for the water, in addition to the power, the gas, the use of the roads, etc.
Next thing you know they'll be selling clean, purified,all-natural "Spring-Air" to people living in LA, Houston and other heavily polluted cities.
The same problem is occuring in So. Cali as well, with the new developments going up in the Thousand Oaks area, not to mention Glendale, Marina Del Rey, San Bernadino, etc...
The difference between the demands on the water system and the demands on the power system, is that the power system was affected by artificial scarcity (created by out-of-state power generators, Enron, PG&E's parent corp, whathaveyou), while the water scarcity is an actual shortage.
Of course if Enron had had it's way, then they would've been selling us the *water* we drink as well. Good thing I only drink Jolt;)
"Passwords like "mp3" are the common way of saying "share and enjoy" around here, so it was considered public."
Except that you will find no legal precedent for that sort of policy. Password protection, whether easy to crack or not, is still a sign saying "Keep out unless you are authorized to be in here"
It boils down to that CMU's admins still cracked into some of the boxes, thus not only violating their own code of ethics, but also breaking state & federal laws.
If you were to allow for this sort of precedent, then you could logically conclude that it's legal to crack someone's box with even tougher protections.
Example: If I were to run password cracker using a dictionary file against your/etc/password, and managed to grab a few passwords, am I absolved of cracking the box because this was an "obvious password"? I think not. You could extend the argument to using even more intelligent cracking techniques. I digress.
DSD operates under a detailed classified directive approved by Cabinet and known as the Rules on Sigint and Australian Persons.
I don't know what worries me more, the fact that they're spying on us, or that the fact that the list of criteria that they're searching for in their Dictionary is kept classified, so we can't even find out what they're looking for, or where all this information goes to and who's looking at it.
Remember: You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.
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w00t!
Several issues with your statement:
1. Ideas are not, have not, never will be "property". This is used to describe something tangible, not a legal construct used to protect corporations. I shouldn't even have to explain this one.
2. Those companies whom you describe as needing compensation for their "millions of dollars" in R&D, have already been compensated. Over 80% of *all* big-Pharm R&D (top 7 pharmaceutical companies in the US) is funded by the gov't. Don't whine about all the money "stolen" from these poor multinational corporations, many of whom don't pay taxes (or pay very little).
3. Basic health care (including pharmaceuticals) *is* a human right. "Profit" is not a right, especially when the US corporations are not "losing" anything. They just can't (or choose not to) compete with the other corporations willing to manufacture generic medications. US corporations charge the amounts they do because of the monopolistic protections they receive. No actual "property" is being stolen from them, they're just being undersold.
Another interesting topic is why the same antibiotics sold to humans cost such-and-such/pill, while they are sold at 1-10% of the price when sold to animals.
...and that would fit just fine for those that believe in the "genius" of capitalism, i.e. you'd have to start paying for the water, in addition to the power, the gas, the use of the roads, etc.
Next thing you know they'll be selling clean, purified
The same problem is occuring in So. Cali as well, with the new developments going up in the Thousand Oaks area, not to mention Glendale, Marina Del Rey, San Bernadino, etc...
;)
The difference between the demands on the water system and the demands on the power system, is that the power system was affected by artificial scarcity (created by out-of-state power generators, Enron, PG&E's parent corp, whathaveyou), while the water scarcity is an actual shortage.
Of course if Enron had had it's way, then they would've been selling us the *water* we drink as well. Good thing I only drink Jolt
"Passwords like "mp3" are the common way of saying "share and enjoy" around here, so it was considered public."
/etc/password, and managed to grab a few passwords, am I absolved of cracking the box because this was an "obvious password"? I think not. You could extend the argument to using even more intelligent cracking techniques. I digress.
Except that you will find no legal precedent for that sort of policy. Password protection, whether easy to crack or not, is still a sign saying "Keep out unless you are authorized to be in here"
It boils down to that CMU's admins still cracked into some of the boxes, thus not only violating their own code of ethics, but also breaking state & federal laws.
If you were to allow for this sort of precedent, then you could logically conclude that it's legal to crack someone's box with even tougher protections.
Example: If I were to run password cracker using a dictionary file against your
DSD operates under a detailed classified directive approved by Cabinet and known as the Rules on Sigint and Australian Persons.
I don't know what worries me more, the fact that they're spying on us, or that the fact that the list of criteria that they're searching for in their Dictionary is kept classified, so we can't even find out what they're looking for, or where all this information goes to and who's looking at it.
Remember: You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.