Sorry to hear that your son got caught up the RIAA lawsuit tornado.
Well, if you read lots of Slashdot then you know how we (collectively) feel about it.
If you know your son is innocent (big IF for a college student) then you might want to consider fighting it. If however, you know he did do it then your best bet is most certainly to take them up on their settlement offer.
Lastly, if you think the college is actively complicit with the RIAA in it's shady dealing then you might consider having your son transfer to better college who cares about it's students.
Thank you for this idea. It is a very cogent argument as to why there is such apathy in the US.
While it does make sense, I'm not quite convinced it's the only reason.
What I really want to figure out is what we can do to fix the issue (usually you need to know the root cause(s)). Also, we need to find a way to keep people interested 50, 100 years down the line so it doesn't devolve as it has done in recent history.
You can get a better job out of that most of the time.
Sit down and detail what you REALLY DO for the company and how valuable you are. Explain that you would like to get a new job title and pay raise commiserate with your responsibilities. If they don't pay or you think they may fire you then start looking for a new job.
Life's too short to not get paid what you're worth. Plus you can retire earlier.:)
As long as we (collectively and individually) think that there isn't anything can be done then we're screwed. They will keep taking and taking and taking until there is nothing left and we're in as bad as Germany in the 1940's (or "god forbid" worse).
You can look at a current conflict to see what a small minority with minimal firepower can do (see Iraq).
If it comes down to an arms fight, it won't be pretty and a lot of people will die (like those patriots before us) but we can change things for the better.
"The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson
While I'm sure they would live to have that kind of storage (probably what you read). They don't need anything near that to record damn near everything every produced during all of human history. The number that I saw a few years ago (about 5) was 5 exabytes for everything. Now I'm sure that number is ever increasing at even exponential rates considering how much and how fast everyone with a computer can create new information but I doubt we've come anywhere close to 500 exabytes.
I would just like to thank you for this succinct elucidation of what's really going on in this country.
We have to stand up help enlighten other people on why this is such a problem and why they need to care. It can be done but it's an uphill battle that must be fought in the near term or we will end up just like Germany in the 1930's and 40's./Friended
While I agree *in theory* that's a possible scenario, I have yet to see any tangible evidence to back up that is happening on an individual level. I'll agree that it could possibly be done manually today. But for it to be happening as you describe would require MASSIVE cooperation between the government and huge numbers of national and local stores. This would have to be somewhat common knowledge (at least in the tech community since we would be working on these systems).
If you want to provide me links to several reputable sources I might be willing to grant you this is happening but I highly doubt it.
Now, if you want to posit that it may be prevalent in the next 5-15 years if technology develops a little more and we keep sliding down into a Corporatocracy and/or Police State where such things are a requirement of doing business, then I could see it as a realistic possibility.
While I applaud Sohn's effort, I agree that she doesn't go nearly far enough. I agree with most all of what you've said regarding copyright.
Also, before I get to deep into what I think we should do with Copyright in the US, I wanted to thank you for your legal opinions on Slashdot. I thoroughly enjoy almost all your posts. It's nice to have a legal opinion on many of the issues we discuss here and I wish there more people like you willing to give your opinion to legal novices.
Most of the reasonable things you and others have proposed would greatly help balance the pendulum in the US. Here are some of the things I think are reasonable (all copyright lengths are reasonable guesses as to what would be fair without empirical evidence available):
1. Short copyrights based type (and possibly medium, but I won't go into this part). This would primarily be determined by the time 90% of the profits are made (at least for initially figuring a fair time limit). So software, would get a very short copyright of say 5 years (future revisions would each get their own copyright of 5 years) whereas books get 15 years. Also, I can see a possible provision for renewal but generally shorter would be better for us. 1.a. Undefined (read New) types would, by default, get the longest copyright currently allowed for any type (e.g. [new thing to be copyrighted] would get 15 years in the example above where books have the longest copyright). If we find that this period is too long/short then we would add to the laws to include this new thing.
2. Restrictions on DRM. I've heard two ideas I like for this. 2.a. DRM or Copyright protection, choose one. 2.b. Part 1:Users can circumvent copy protections when they are doing so under fair use guidelines. 2.b. Part 2:Companies can sell software that circumvents DRM as long as it's advertised as allowing people to exercise their fair use rights.
3. Create a clearinghouse "agency" for copyright storage and registration (either as part of the Library of Congress or as a separate entity). 3.a. Companies must provide a copy of the work, unrestricted and in it's entirety at the time of publication to the Library of Congress inorder to receive any copyright protections. 3.b. This agency would have a publicly available and free online database where anyone can look for copyrighted works. If the work is not found after an exhaustive search then it can be assumed that it is freely available in the public domain (at least in the US). Ideally, they would be linked to other similar agencies around the world that adopted a similar copyright control method as the US. Also, where possible, they would have notices on anything that was already part of the public domain and furthermore would keep track of ALL registered copyrights and when or if they have entered into the public domain. 3.c. They would be able to provide public domain works for cost (bandwidth, printing etc.). 3.d. Ideally they would be funded by a small fee that is associated with registering a copyright with the agency. We would need to make sure this stays small so that anyone can register.
4. Allow for easy release into the public domain through the clearing house described in #3.
5. Give a reasonable period of time for everyone to adjust to the new system (like say 3-5 years before they are implemented).
6. Ideally I'd like to see it back to where non-commercial uses (all of them) are specifically legal. (This area needs some work)
I think I've covered most of the areas but there may be some that I've missed as this is the first time I've written down what I've been mulling over in my head.
Unless things have changed in the last couple of years since I had a merchant account that's not true plus seems waaay to brutal. The merchant account I had stated that if you had 1% of sales (assuming you got more than a handful of charges per month, like we did) chargeback then you not only would lose your merchant account but they would consider fining you insane amounts of money (like $100k).
While, I admit that some countries may have different rules on what defines libel/slander. In the US, I've never seen evidence that the truth isn't a valid justification.
Furthermore, it doesn't make sense that you could defame someones character by releasing information that is fact. In the example you gave, if you see "Joe Blow" having sex with someone who is not his wife and you post that on a blog you would be covered because you are releasing information that you know is true. The purpose of having libel/slander laws is to make it very hard for people to assassinate your character to your sphere of influence (public and/or circle of friends and family). If you release true information though, then you are not really defaming their character, you are just making other people aware of the person's true character.
Also, I didn't see any evidence on the website you linked to regarding US cases. Can you provide a link to a specific case that at least made it up to the Circuit court level and not just one uninformed low-level judge?
I agree in principle. It would certainly help if we could go back to the idea of a weak federal government and strong state governments. However, it still wouldn't necessarily solve the problem long term.
The only way for us to have a chance at really breaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy would be by coming up with a new form of government. Exactly what it would be I'm not really sure. But at a cursory glance, we could do something like direct democracy with verified Internet Voting on issues (say once a month). You would still need to have someone like a president that handled the day to day operations of the people's will though. You would also, need something somewhat similar to the Court system with various levels of appeals. There are caveats that we have to take into account, things like Tyranny of the Majority, intolerance, racism etc. Several of these things are harder to control if we have go by majority rule.
Obviously my ideas need to fleshed out but they are a start to perhaps creating a new and better form of rule by the people (Yeah, yeah, I know its been said by other philosophers).
Unfortunately, I do think we are heading down hill now as a superpower. It will take a monumental effort, as a nation and with the right leaders at the helm, to steer us back on course. Let's hope that the people wakeup and see what's really going on and that they are willing to force the necessary changes to take place. Otherwise, it's going to be a very hard, destructive road we travel as a nation.
Also, thank you for the Esquire article. Even though I follow what's been happening with the countries in the Middle East, this was a very enlightening read as to what really goes on behind the scenes.
Actually, usually it's pretty easy to skip those if it bothers you. In most games they have simple pointers to the name of the movie sequence to play those logo and intro screens.
All you have to do is go to the movies folder and rename them. Boom, you're at the main game screen after a few seconds.
Sorry, but I call BS on this. I've never even heard of one that blanket blocks UDP. While UDP isn't as popular as TCP it's still used by lots of stuff. I know many VoIP programs use UDP and so do lots of online games. If an ISP blocked UDP they would likely be out of business in a years time.
Unless you can provide links to several major ISPs I can't possibly believe that any ISP would be that stupid.
This bill is at least a step in the right direction.
It at least gives us back some of the fair use we had before the DMCA and explicitly gives us a more than what we had.
Now, if we can take it a step further and say outlaw DRM all together.
Wow, that's really interesting and scary.
Do you have links to more information about this dreaming as an explanation for weird phenomena?
This is the first time I've ever heard about this a melding between dreams and reality in such a vivid fashion. But it is a very plausible explanation.
I don't understand why you have to spend $2,500 every year just to play the latest games... You can easily spend half that and still have an great gaming experience (I doubt you'll really notice a difference, provided you don't obsess over every little detail).
A few suggestions: - Don't game on a 30" display. Limit yourself to a 20" - 22" (This is plenty and doesn't require you to have an SLI or the most expensive card) - Buy one or two steps down from the top of the line card. You can run with almost all the settings turned up.
- Another option that some people do is upgrade their graphics cards every 6 months to a top of the line one but sell their old one on ebay for a loss of $100-$200. - Don't buy the top of the line Extreme or even regular ($300+) CPU. Keep it to the ones that go for $175-$250. - Don't buy the uber motherboard that costs $300+. You don't need it unless you overclock everything and obsess over those last few FPS'. Just stick with a good sold board for around $150. - Don't buy the memory that costs $200+ per stick. It's not worth the extra couple of FPS' you get for the money. Just get good quality that is a step or two above the standard memory. - You don't need to buy new everything when you upgrade. Especially when you're replacing your computer every year. Keep stuff like your hard drive (although if you do other things than gaming you may buy a new one or two every year). Keep your DVD-Burner (they are really cheap and don't need to be replaced but every 3+ years). Power supply and cases can be reused as well.
If you follow my recommendations above you can keep your yearly PC buying to probably under $1200. And if you are really frugal you could get it down as low as $800.
Lastly, if you've got a C2Duo and an 8800 you don't need to upgrade right now!:)
I'd just like to point out that we already have a "child molester" list in most/all states in the US. Almost anyone convicted of a broadly defined "Sex Offense" is put on the list. This can be anything from peeing in the bushes and getting caught all the way up to molesting a child.
In answer to your eventual question, "that's right, in many places they've equated peeing in the bushes with rape and molesting a child". While some lists do specify what the person was convicted of, many don't. Also, most of the restrictions that are put in place to "protect our children" are applied to everyone on the list. Furthermore, they've retroactively put people on the list that were already convicted and released long before these laws were put in place (Ex Post Facto rules in the constitution be damned).
So, it wouldn't surprise me if we have a list for everything as you specified. Just one of many slippery slopes that we're rocketing down to the eventual destruction of our society thanks to the "Think of the Children" crowd./Rant
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry to hear that your son got caught up the RIAA lawsuit tornado.
Well, if you read lots of Slashdot then you know how we (collectively) feel about it.
If you know your son is innocent (big IF for a college student) then you might want to consider fighting it. If however, you know he did do it then your best bet is most certainly to take them up on their settlement offer.
Lastly, if you think the college is actively complicit with the RIAA in it's shady dealing then you might consider having your son transfer to better college who cares about it's students.
Thank you for this idea. It is a very cogent argument as to why there is such apathy in the US.
While it does make sense, I'm not quite convinced it's the only reason.
What I really want to figure out is what we can do to fix the issue (usually you need to know the root cause(s)). Also, we need to find a way to keep people interested 50, 100 years down the line so it doesn't devolve as it has done in recent history.
That's a good point.
The only difference I can think of is that you wouldn't be making money off your doctorate.
You can get a better job out of that most of the time.
:)
Sit down and detail what you REALLY DO for the company and how valuable you are. Explain that you would like to get a new job title and pay raise commiserate with your responsibilities. If they don't pay or you think they may fire you then start looking for a new job.
Life's too short to not get paid what you're worth. Plus you can retire earlier.
As long as we (collectively and individually) think that there isn't anything can be done then we're screwed. They will keep taking and taking and taking until there is nothing left and we're in as bad as Germany in the 1940's (or "god forbid" worse).
You can look at a current conflict to see what a small minority with minimal firepower can do (see Iraq).
If it comes down to an arms fight, it won't be pretty and a lot of people will die (like those patriots before us) but we can change things for the better.
"The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson
While I'm sure they would live to have that kind of storage (probably what you read). They don't need anything near that to record damn near everything every produced during all of human history. The number that I saw a few years ago (about 5) was 5 exabytes for everything. Now I'm sure that number is ever increasing at even exponential rates considering how much and how fast everyone with a computer can create new information but I doubt we've come anywhere close to 500 exabytes.
I would just like to thank you for this succinct elucidation of what's really going on in this country. We have to stand up help enlighten other people on why this is such a problem and why they need to care. It can be done but it's an uphill battle that must be fought in the near term or we will end up just like Germany in the 1930's and 40's. /Friended
While I agree *in theory* that's a possible scenario, I have yet to see any tangible evidence to back up that is happening on an individual level. I'll agree that it could possibly be done manually today. But for it to be happening as you describe would require MASSIVE cooperation between the government and huge numbers of national and local stores. This would have to be somewhat common knowledge (at least in the tech community since we would be working on these systems).
If you want to provide me links to several reputable sources I might be willing to grant you this is happening but I highly doubt it.
Now, if you want to posit that it may be prevalent in the next 5-15 years if technology develops a little more and we keep sliding down into a Corporatocracy and/or Police State where such things are a requirement of doing business, then I could see it as a realistic possibility.
While I applaud Sohn's effort, I agree that she doesn't go nearly far enough. I agree with most all of what you've said regarding copyright.
Also, before I get to deep into what I think we should do with Copyright in the US, I wanted to thank you for your legal opinions on Slashdot. I thoroughly enjoy almost all your posts. It's nice to have a legal opinion on many of the issues we discuss here and I wish there more people like you willing to give your opinion to legal novices.
Most of the reasonable things you and others have proposed would greatly help balance the pendulum in the US. Here are some of the things I think are reasonable (all copyright lengths are reasonable guesses as to what would be fair without empirical evidence available):
1. Short copyrights based type (and possibly medium, but I won't go into this part). This would primarily be determined by the time 90% of the profits are made (at least for initially figuring a fair time limit). So software, would get a very short copyright of say 5 years (future revisions would each get their own copyright of 5 years) whereas books get 15 years. Also, I can see a possible provision for renewal but generally shorter would be better for us.
1.a. Undefined (read New) types would, by default, get the longest copyright currently allowed for any type (e.g. [new thing to be copyrighted] would get 15 years in the example above where books have the longest copyright). If we find that this period is too long/short then we would add to the laws to include this new thing.
2. Restrictions on DRM. I've heard two ideas I like for this.
2.a. DRM or Copyright protection, choose one.
2.b. Part 1:Users can circumvent copy protections when they are doing so under fair use guidelines.
2.b. Part 2:Companies can sell software that circumvents DRM as long as it's advertised as allowing people to exercise their fair use rights.
3. Create a clearinghouse "agency" for copyright storage and registration (either as part of the Library of Congress or as a separate entity).
3.a. Companies must provide a copy of the work, unrestricted and in it's entirety at the time of publication to the Library of Congress inorder to receive any copyright protections.
3.b. This agency would have a publicly available and free online database where anyone can look for copyrighted works. If the work is not found after an exhaustive search then it can be assumed that it is freely available in the public domain (at least in the US). Ideally, they would be linked to other similar agencies around the world that adopted a similar copyright control method as the US. Also, where possible, they would have notices on anything that was already part of the public domain and furthermore would keep track of ALL registered copyrights and when or if they have entered into the public domain.
3.c. They would be able to provide public domain works for cost (bandwidth, printing etc.).
3.d. Ideally they would be funded by a small fee that is associated with registering a copyright with the agency. We would need to make sure this stays small so that anyone can register.
4. Allow for easy release into the public domain through the clearing house described in #3.
5. Give a reasonable period of time for everyone to adjust to the new system (like say 3-5 years before they are implemented).
6. Ideally I'd like to see it back to where non-commercial uses (all of them) are specifically legal. (This area needs some work)
I think I've covered most of the areas but there may be some that I've missed as this is the first time I've written down what I've been mulling over in my head.
If you want to be specific, it's best called a Democratically elected Constitutional Republic.
Citation?
Unless things have changed in the last couple of years since I had a merchant account that's not true plus seems waaay to brutal. The merchant account I had stated that if you had 1% of sales (assuming you got more than a handful of charges per month, like we did) chargeback then you not only would lose your merchant account but they would consider fining you insane amounts of money (like $100k).
While, I admit that some countries may have different rules on what defines libel/slander. In the US, I've never seen evidence that the truth isn't a valid justification.
Furthermore, it doesn't make sense that you could defame someones character by releasing information that is fact. In the example you gave, if you see "Joe Blow" having sex with someone who is not his wife and you post that on a blog you would be covered because you are releasing information that you know is true. The purpose of having libel/slander laws is to make it very hard for people to assassinate your character to your sphere of influence (public and/or circle of friends and family). If you release true information though, then you are not really defaming their character, you are just making other people aware of the person's true character.
Also, I didn't see any evidence on the website you linked to regarding US cases. Can you provide a link to a specific case that at least made it up to the Circuit court level and not just one uninformed low-level judge?
I agree in principle. It would certainly help if we could go back to the idea of a weak federal government and strong state governments. However, it still wouldn't necessarily solve the problem long term.
The only way for us to have a chance at really breaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy would be by coming up with a new form of government. Exactly what it would be I'm not really sure. But at a cursory glance, we could do something like direct democracy with verified Internet Voting on issues (say once a month). You would still need to have someone like a president that handled the day to day operations of the people's will though. You would also, need something somewhat similar to the Court system with various levels of appeals. There are caveats that we have to take into account, things like Tyranny of the Majority, intolerance, racism etc. Several of these things are harder to control if we have go by majority rule.
Obviously my ideas need to fleshed out but they are a start to perhaps creating a new and better form of rule by the people (Yeah, yeah, I know its been said by other philosophers).
Unfortunately, I do think we are heading down hill now as a superpower. It will take a monumental effort, as a nation and with the right leaders at the helm, to steer us back on course. Let's hope that the people wakeup and see what's really going on and that they are willing to force the necessary changes to take place. Otherwise, it's going to be a very hard, destructive road we travel as a nation.
Also, thank you for the Esquire article. Even though I follow what's been happening with the countries in the Middle East, this was a very enlightening read as to what really goes on behind the scenes.
Actually, usually it's pretty easy to skip those if it bothers you. In most games they have simple pointers to the name of the movie sequence to play those logo and intro screens.
All you have to do is go to the movies folder and rename them. Boom, you're at the main game screen after a few seconds.
I'm not familiar with this case. Can you site it or at least point me in the direction of some source material on it?
I'd like to use it to help enlighten some relatives that think there is no news but Fox News...(sad I know)
I'm glad to see someone else who thinks the same as I do about Oblivion. This is exactly how I felt about that game.
Sorry, but I call BS on this. I've never even heard of one that blanket blocks UDP. While UDP isn't as popular as TCP it's still used by lots of stuff. I know many VoIP programs use UDP and so do lots of online games. If an ISP blocked UDP they would likely be out of business in a years time.
Unless you can provide links to several major ISPs I can't possibly believe that any ISP would be that stupid.
I'm probably responsible for about 1% of those. Sorry, I've been busy lately. I'll see if I can't double that 80 million :P
This bill is at least a step in the right direction. It at least gives us back some of the fair use we had before the DMCA and explicitly gives us a more than what we had. Now, if we can take it a step further and say outlaw DRM all together.
Wow, that's really interesting and scary. Do you have links to more information about this dreaming as an explanation for weird phenomena? This is the first time I've ever heard about this a melding between dreams and reality in such a vivid fashion. But it is a very plausible explanation.
I don't understand why you have to spend $2,500 every year just to play the latest games...
:)
You can easily spend half that and still have an great gaming experience (I doubt you'll really notice a difference, provided you don't obsess over every little detail).
A few suggestions:
- Don't game on a 30" display. Limit yourself to a 20" - 22" (This is plenty and doesn't require you to have an SLI or the most expensive card)
- Buy one or two steps down from the top of the line card. You can run with almost all the settings turned up.
- Another option that some people do is upgrade their graphics cards every 6 months to a top of the line one but sell their old one on ebay for a loss of $100-$200.
- Don't buy the top of the line Extreme or even regular ($300+) CPU. Keep it to the ones that go for $175-$250.
- Don't buy the uber motherboard that costs $300+. You don't need it unless you overclock everything and obsess over those last few FPS'. Just stick with a good sold board for around $150.
- Don't buy the memory that costs $200+ per stick. It's not worth the extra couple of FPS' you get for the money. Just get good quality that is a step or two above the standard memory.
- You don't need to buy new everything when you upgrade. Especially when you're replacing your computer every year. Keep stuff like your hard drive (although if you do other things than gaming you may buy a new one or two every year). Keep your DVD-Burner (they are really cheap and don't need to be replaced but every 3+ years). Power supply and cases can be reused as well.
If you follow my recommendations above you can keep your yearly PC buying to probably under $1200. And if you are really frugal you could get it down as low as $800.
Lastly, if you've got a C2Duo and an 8800 you don't need to upgrade right now!
I'd just like to point out that we already have a "child molester" list in most/all states in the US. Almost anyone convicted of a broadly defined "Sex Offense" is put on the list. This can be anything from peeing in the bushes and getting caught all the way up to molesting a child. In answer to your eventual question, "that's right, in many places they've equated peeing in the bushes with rape and molesting a child". While some lists do specify what the person was convicted of, many don't. Also, most of the restrictions that are put in place to "protect our children" are applied to everyone on the list. Furthermore, they've retroactively put people on the list that were already convicted and released long before these laws were put in place (Ex Post Facto rules in the constitution be damned). So, it wouldn't surprise me if we have a list for everything as you specified. Just one of many slippery slopes that we're rocketing down to the eventual destruction of our society thanks to the "Think of the Children" crowd. /Rant
If you're worried about them cutting your copper then just make sure you're there when they do the install. It takes them 3-5 hours for the install.
If you want more information on FiOS check out the forums on http://www.dslreports.com/
Yes, you are right on all counts. They will eventually just have to install a fiber link to your house, just like Verizon is doing now.