It doesn't matter if he did or did not at this point. Once he's found guilty of doing it, then it's a fact that he did do it, reality be damned. In the one law course I took as an Engineer, we talked about this. Let's say I commit a crime while wearing a red shirt. If all the witnesses said I was wearing a blue shirt and I was convicted, then as far as the law was concerned, that red shirt is, in fact, blue.
Now, legal weirdness notwithstanding, he's got a good point. A $3/4 million dollar fine is all well and good for a huge corporation like Sony or Dell or IHOP, but it's ridiculous to the vast majority of people. Fining someone $675,000 for stealing something with a retail value literally smaller than a chocolate bar ($0.99) is so wholly unreasonable (22k5 times the value) that it should be unlawful.
If it was me, I'd declare bankruptcy, then my next Internet connection would be a business one. If that business gets sued, then fold the company, blame it all on the actions of a few rogue employees, lather, rinse, repeat.
Okay, this guy Tenenbaum, let's call him Mr. T for short, was sharing files. Sony sued him and won a fuckton of cash from him, more than he'll earn in his lifetime.
The argument put forth by Mr. T is that those are fair punishments if the infringer is a business, and that's when those laws were drafted. They didn't think that an individual would be on the business end of commercial copyright theft. (Which by definition they cannot be, since they aren't a commercial entity)
So Mr. T's argument is: come on, now it's $1 a song for an MP3. It's cruel and unusual punishment (thus the constitutionality of it) to subject someone to a lifetime of indebtured service for stealing something that's worth $1. If he stole 500 pies and then burned down the bakery with five people inside, he'd be out of prison in 10 years. For taking a photo of those pies and putting them up on his website so other people could see what those pies looked like, he's being put to financial death.
Well, I've thought that the coroner should have suicide pills. If you want to check out, go for a psych evaluation. If you're sane enough to make the decision, go to the coroner's office, take the black pills, and lie down on a gurney. There's no reason to force someone to stick around through a terrifying illness or cling on to as much life as they can when all their friends and family have died long ago.
What happens if your policies result in lots more people dying, getting seriously hurt, or going bankrupt?
I'm pretty sure I can do better than 3000 people dying of thirst or 15,000 starving to death -- every day. We could do a lot better than the current US (and global) situation, where we have powergamers gaming the system to suck all the wealth out privately and publicizing the risk and forcing millions of foreclosures around the world.
And should you get seriously hurt, hey, that's what the healthcare is for. An ambulance will be by in 10-20 minutes, so try not to die before then.
Products that could be dangerous? Stick a warning label on there and let people buy what they want.
What about illiterate people? People who don't read English? Confused elderly people? (Confused middle-aged and young people?). What about people who simply overlook the instructions? Is it ok for them to suffer injury or disfigurement?
Should a Wall Street con artist be able to push whatever he wants on your grandmother, as long as he sends her the prospectus to read? What about a contest where the fine print says losers forfeit their houses; would that be ok as long as there is a warning? Products that explode when left in the sun?
Two counterpoints: 1. They sell cigarettes, lithium batteries, and handguns.
2. Technically, right now, there isn't even fine print on the stock market. You lose that contest, you lose the house.
Now, those are the general ideas I've got, obviously it would take a lot more work than a simple/. post to figure it all out.
I'm an Engineer. I've thought about getting into politics myself, but there's such a huge mess to clean up I don't even know where I could begin.
I believe in smaller government, but regulations as required to make sure the planet doesn't get destroyed in the pursuit of cashohol.
Your body? Not the government's problem.
Consenting adults? Why should the government care at all?
Products that could be dangerous? Stick a warning label on there and let people buy what they want.
Businesses? They aren't people.
The government should be there to provide services that are too expensive to afford for a single person. Military, fire departments, roads, park and environmental protection, health care, etc. Put taxes on the stuff that pays for the above; gas taxes pay for roads, drug taxes to pay for the police, junk food taxes to pay for health care, etc.
I use my netbook to turn off lift. It makes planes fall out of the sky. I knew that I'd become a terrorist when I ran apt-get install alter-universe-fundamental-forces, I just didn't care.
PLANES! The planes, I reign, fall mainly in the plains. Turbulence, that's me. Fuck all y'all. I do it for the lulz.
I am very sorry, but reading this article made me lose braininess. Next I'll be laughing at Dolan comics.
Yeah, he was one of the best trolls / alts / whatever the fuck he was doing of all time. I saw that thread -- he had some sticky cookie, posted as his real UID, called it a good run, and that was it.
The Russian method, as linked in the article, is one large picture. It's actually a composite of different wavelengths, which is really cool. The rust effect is from the IR reflection of vegetation.
When NASA does it, as in the pictures that aren't this one, they stitch together a composite.
They're the stand-alone batteries and they are quite volatile unless they're protected and spread around like in a shipment of devices. Just because yours haven't exploded doesn't mean they don't explode. There's internal circuitry in your device that keeps the batteries from exploding. Most, but not all, Li and Li-Ion batteries have the circuitry internally. There's no easy way for me to tell (I'm an EE) so there's not a chance that a USPS worker will know.
A D Lithium cell will blow apart a cinderblock once it gets into thermal runaway.
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Well, as this left-ish Canadian would call you, given the chance, my MP.
A wise friend (also a lefty) used to say, "A country is like a bird - it cannot fly with a broken (left|right) wing." I'd vote for your platform...
Wow, thank you. I'm Canadian as well. What riding are you in? Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca here.
It doesn't matter if he did or did not at this point. Once he's found guilty of doing it, then it's a fact that he did do it, reality be damned. In the one law course I took as an Engineer, we talked about this. Let's say I commit a crime while wearing a red shirt. If all the witnesses said I was wearing a blue shirt and I was convicted, then as far as the law was concerned, that red shirt is, in fact, blue.
Now, legal weirdness notwithstanding, he's got a good point. A $3/4 million dollar fine is all well and good for a huge corporation like Sony or Dell or IHOP, but it's ridiculous to the vast majority of people. Fining someone $675,000 for stealing something with a retail value literally smaller than a chocolate bar ($0.99) is so wholly unreasonable (22k5 times the value) that it should be unlawful.
If it was me, I'd declare bankruptcy, then my next Internet connection would be a business one. If that business gets sued, then fold the company, blame it all on the actions of a few rogue employees, lather, rinse, repeat.
Okay, this guy Tenenbaum, let's call him Mr. T for short, was sharing files. Sony sued him and won a fuckton of cash from him, more than he'll earn in his lifetime.
The argument put forth by Mr. T is that those are fair punishments if the infringer is a business, and that's when those laws were drafted. They didn't think that an individual would be on the business end of commercial copyright theft. (Which by definition they cannot be, since they aren't a commercial entity)
So Mr. T's argument is: come on, now it's $1 a song for an MP3. It's cruel and unusual punishment (thus the constitutionality of it) to subject someone to a lifetime of indebtured service for stealing something that's worth $1. If he stole 500 pies and then burned down the bakery with five people inside, he'd be out of prison in 10 years. For taking a photo of those pies and putting them up on his website so other people could see what those pies looked like, he's being put to financial death.
The only reason I'm not a card-carrying (flag flying?) member is I don't want to put myself on a "ooh, ooh, please search my stuff!" registry.
Also, I'm Canadian and the guy in charge is a total dick.
Well, I've thought that the coroner should have suicide pills. If you want to check out, go for a psych evaluation. If you're sane enough to make the decision, go to the coroner's office, take the black pills, and lie down on a gurney. There's no reason to force someone to stick around through a terrifying illness or cling on to as much life as they can when all their friends and family have died long ago.
"Cause of death: suicide pill in office."
What happens if your policies result in lots more people dying, getting seriously hurt, or going bankrupt?
I'm pretty sure I can do better than 3000 people dying of thirst or 15,000 starving to death -- every day. We could do a lot better than the current US (and global) situation, where we have powergamers gaming the system to suck all the wealth out privately and publicizing the risk and forcing millions of foreclosures around the world.
And should you get seriously hurt, hey, that's what the healthcare is for. An ambulance will be by in 10-20 minutes, so try not to die before then.
Products that could be dangerous? Stick a warning label on there and let people buy what they want.
What about illiterate people? People who don't read English? Confused elderly people? (Confused middle-aged and young people?). What about people who simply overlook the instructions? Is it ok for them to suffer injury or disfigurement?
Should a Wall Street con artist be able to push whatever he wants on your grandmother, as long as he sends her the prospectus to read? What about a contest where the fine print says losers forfeit their houses; would that be ok as long as there is a warning? Products that explode when left in the sun?
Two counterpoints:
1. They sell cigarettes, lithium batteries, and handguns.
2. Technically, right now, there isn't even fine print on the stock market. You lose that contest, you lose the house.
Now, those are the general ideas I've got, obviously it would take a lot more work than a simple /. post to figure it all out.
I'm an Engineer. I've thought about getting into politics myself, but there's such a huge mess to clean up I don't even know where I could begin.
I believe in smaller government, but regulations as required to make sure the planet doesn't get destroyed in the pursuit of cashohol.
Your body? Not the government's problem.
Consenting adults? Why should the government care at all?
Products that could be dangerous? Stick a warning label on there and let people buy what they want.
Businesses? They aren't people.
The government should be there to provide services that are too expensive to afford for a single person. Military, fire departments, roads, park and environmental protection, health care, etc. Put taxes on the stuff that pays for the above; gas taxes pay for roads, drug taxes to pay for the police, junk food taxes to pay for health care, etc.
So what does that make me?
You fulfil your programming objectives, same as the meatbots.
Working fine for me in Canada. Today's graphic is a phoenix ship, kind of a cool logo.
Er, I mean, what's Pirate Bay? Never heard of it until just today.
Huh, I call him Stewie the Shithead. I'm hoping that catches on.
I use my netbook to turn off lift. It makes planes fall out of the sky. I knew that I'd become a terrorist when I ran apt-get install alter-universe-fundamental-forces, I just didn't care.
PLANES! The planes, I reign, fall mainly in the plains. Turbulence, that's me. Fuck all y'all. I do it for the lulz.
I am very sorry, but reading this article made me lose braininess. Next I'll be laughing at Dolan comics.
Well, at least they were nice enough to de-regulate rifles.
Economists? Interesting.
Jim Flaherty's first budget in 2006: 468 billion
Today's debt: 584 Billion
That's $116 BILLION in overspending in the last six years.
Conservatives. Discuss and define, please.
Yeah, he was one of the best trolls / alts / whatever the fuck he was doing of all time. I saw that thread -- he had some sticky cookie, posted as his real UID, called it a good run, and that was it.
Yep, you couldn't have Nickelback without nickel, and that's all the proof I need.
If you hate a machine and don't know what to do, throw a monkey wrench at it. At the very least, the grinding of gears will make for a change of pace.
VOTE RON PAUL!
The Russian method, as linked in the article, is one large picture. It's actually a composite of different wavelengths, which is really cool. The rust effect is from the IR reflection of vegetation.
When NASA does it, as in the pictures that aren't this one, they stitch together a composite.
The best part is that is took us three minutes to post all of those messages;
Will the two of you SHUT UP?
No, you get Thursdays. My day is Friday.
Hey, Friday is my day to post.
No, we didn't.
Maybe they've found a potential problem and they're taking a few months to study it and see if it's something they have to take seriously.
Nah, we'll just start protesting in the winter.
It's not a mask, it's a balaclava. It's not a burning police car, I'm just cold.
They're the stand-alone batteries and they are quite volatile unless they're protected and spread around like in a shipment of devices. Just because yours haven't exploded doesn't mean they don't explode. There's internal circuitry in your device that keeps the batteries from exploding. Most, but not all, Li and Li-Ion batteries have the circuitry internally. There's no easy way for me to tell (I'm an EE) so there's not a chance that a USPS worker will know.
A D Lithium cell will blow apart a cinderblock once it gets into thermal runaway.