At least until Blair and Clarke finish butchering the law to suit their own agenda, this sort of incident occuring in Europe would be almost impossible. The Data Protection Act would prevent ChoicePoint from allowing anyone other than you (besides law enforcement, with warrent) access to your personal information without your explicit consent. For example, when I graduated last summer, I had to sign a DPA waiver so that the University were permitted to release my grades to any potential employers who wanted to look at them in the course of a job application. Of course, all the new government databases in the UK that tie in with our glorious proposed national ID card scheme will be exempt from the DPA, but everyone else in the EU is still bound by it.
No, the majority in the EU Parliament were, and are, *against* software patents - largely because their constituants made such a fuss about them - however, the EU Council of Ministers (Currently lead by the Dutch) decided that they were being paid too much money by business interests to allow such a democratic decision to stand, so they've been trying for the last 6 months to force the legislation through regardless.
It's been widely seen as one of the least democratic actions ever taken by the council of ministers, which is quite a statement given its record.
But if Offical downloads are fast and less obnoxious and easily available to everyone regardless of where in the world they live, then the TCD (Total cost of downloading) for Offical downloads approaches and perhaps even beats unoffical downloads.
At that point, the only people who will still download all their TV shows illegally are those who either can't afford the legal option or object to paying to watch TV that they want to see, for whatever twisted reasons they want to come up with.
The MEPs are against software patents in the majority. They actually started listening after all their constituants wrote to them and told them how bad software patents would be.
The vote went against patents in the European Parliament but despite that, thanks to ample pressure from big, largely US based, business interests, the European council of ministers seems determined to force the legislation through.
This is one of the reasons that it's actually had some level of mainstream media coverage, because it's widely seen as being such an undemocratic decision if it goes through.
"Unpatched" Windows 2000 SP4 system. Clean install. In the time it took me to download the latest definitions for my antivirus software (less than 5 minutes) I'd already acquired 3 worms/trojans.
My firewall logs are full of worm hits trying to infect my machine.
It's not an urban legend, it's a fact of internet life.
theres something wrong with society when society is breaking laws at such an extent that it requires an automated process to identify and punish those offenders
No, there's something wrong with the laws when society is breaking them to such an extent that it requires and automated process to identify and punish those offenders.
Re:Particulates vs greenhouse gases
on
BBC on Global Dimming
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The premise is this:
We have global dimming, caused by particulate pollution, the world is getting less light than it used to. Despite this, we have global warming, caused by greenhouse gases, the world is getting hotter.
Therefore, if we clean up the particulate pollution without tackling the greenhouse gas problem, then the global warming could become more pronounced because of the increased sunlight reaching us.
If you RTFA, you will see that the court actually stated that, to their knowledge, "[the RIAA] has never prevailed in any infringement actions brought against individual downloaders."
Everyone who has "lost" a case so far has settled out of court for a large wad of cash and some propoganda PR work - so there aren't any convictions to overturn or judgements to reverse.
But in the good old days there were only 6 people on the internet and they all knew what they were doing.
Now there are around 1 billion people online and the vast majority will click on anything that flashes and give anyone their personal information if it looks even vaguely legit.
Not really, it tends to run something along the lines of:
MPAA contact foreign law enforcement and demand action be taken to protect their razor-thin profit margins. Agency efuses. MPAA threaten the government with restricted/revoked movie/DVD distribution in the country if they don't do something. Government convinces/forces law enforcement to take up the case.
But the point is that in some of these cases, at least, no laws were being broken - not in the country of operation no, most likely in the US (although it's getting pretty tough not to break any laws there these days).
The MPAA et al are getting foreign law enforcement agencies to arrest people will little or no evidence that they've actually committed a crime in the coutry that they're being arrested.
That's like me ringing up the French police and demanding that they raid someone in France that I think might have some involvement in the unauthorised distribution of my "IP". I'd be laughed off the phone.
Slashdot Mirror
At least until Blair and Clarke finish butchering the law to suit their own agenda, this sort of incident occuring in Europe would be almost impossible. The Data Protection Act would prevent ChoicePoint from allowing anyone other than you (besides law enforcement, with warrent) access to your personal information without your explicit consent. For example, when I graduated last summer, I had to sign a DPA waiver so that the University were permitted to release my grades to any potential employers who wanted to look at them in the course of a job application. Of course, all the new government databases in the UK that tie in with our glorious proposed national ID card scheme will be exempt from the DPA, but everyone else in the EU is still bound by it.
You mean like MPC at 1.3Mb?
Or maybe you meant BSPlayer at 2.5Mb?
Or perhaps Winamp at 4.5Mb?
Could even have been VLC at 6.5Mb?
Or perhaps you just meant WMP, which clocks in at 11Mb - still hardly excessive on todays connections.
No, the majority in the EU Parliament were, and are, *against* software patents - largely because their constituants made such a fuss about them - however, the EU Council of Ministers (Currently lead by the Dutch) decided that they were being paid too much money by business interests to allow such a democratic decision to stand, so they've been trying for the last 6 months to force the legislation through regardless.
It's been widely seen as one of the least democratic actions ever taken by the council of ministers, which is quite a statement given its record.
Lost productivity + Time & effort into blocking/filtering + anti-spam purchases + wasted bandwidth
When you're getting billions of spam emails generated every month, it soon adds up.
BitTorrent=Free. Slow and obnoxious, but free.
TV Downloads official=Not free.
But if Offical downloads are fast and less obnoxious and easily available to everyone regardless of where in the world they live, then the TCD (Total cost of downloading) for Offical downloads approaches and perhaps even beats unoffical downloads.
At that point, the only people who will still download all their TV shows illegally are those who either can't afford the legal option or object to paying to watch TV that they want to see, for whatever twisted reasons they want to come up with.
Only on Slashdot could instructions for the use of a Babel fish be modded Informative.
The MEPs are against software patents in the majority. They actually started listening after all their constituants wrote to them and told them how bad software patents would be.
The vote went against patents in the European Parliament but despite that, thanks to ample pressure from big, largely US based, business interests, the European council of ministers seems determined to force the legislation through.
This is one of the reasons that it's actually had some level of mainstream media coverage, because it's widely seen as being such an undemocratic decision if it goes through.
You think you're so smart, just wait until everyone's using IPv6.
"Unpatched" Windows 2000 SP4 system.
Clean install.
In the time it took me to download the latest definitions for my antivirus software (less than 5 minutes) I'd already acquired 3 worms/trojans.
My firewall logs are full of worm hits trying to infect my machine.
It's not an urban legend, it's a fact of internet life.
theres something wrong with society when society is breaking laws at such an extent that it requires an automated process to identify and punish those offenders
No, there's something wrong with the laws when society is breaking them to such an extent that it requires and automated process to identify and punish those offenders.
The premise is this:
We have global dimming, caused by particulate pollution, the world is getting less light than it used to.
Despite this, we have global warming, caused by greenhouse gases, the world is getting hotter.
Therefore, if we clean up the particulate pollution without tackling the greenhouse gas problem, then the global warming could become more pronounced because of the increased sunlight reaching us.
I didn't RTFA but I did WTFP (Watch the program).
All the Axis cams also run an MJPEG stream which will work in ActiveX-free browsers.
As they probably spent New Years Eve shredding all the relevant documents anyway, it's most likely a moot point.
Under current law the level of illegality is totally different.
Sharing copyrighted material for free is a civil offence and could land you a fine.
Sharing copyrighted material for profit is a criminal offence and could land you in jail.
Aside from the minor issue that Apple doesn't have a monopoly on either online music stores or digital music players.
They just happen to have a good online music store and a good digital media player.
If you RTFA, you will see that the court actually stated that, to their knowledge, "[the RIAA] has never prevailed in any infringement actions brought against individual downloaders."
Everyone who has "lost" a case so far has settled out of court for a large wad of cash and some propoganda PR work - so there aren't any convictions to overturn or judgements to reverse.
Yes, but you have to do something to achieve it. Most users won't do anything, so they remain vulnerable.
There are still IE exploits that allow you to spoof the status bar - not to mention that a line of Javascript will also do it.
But in the good old days there were only 6 people on the internet and they all knew what they were doing.
Now there are around 1 billion people online and the vast majority will click on anything that flashes and give anyone their personal information if it looks even vaguely legit.
It's not trying to send email, it's trying to connect to another client on port 25, which just happens to be used for SMTP as well.
eMule/Overnet used to do it all the time until I chucked ZA for being more annoying than useful.
All of the AnalogX tools.
Personally, I use the Atomic Time Sync (NTP), MaxMem (RAM Scrubber) & SuperShredder (Secure deletion tool), but there are countless others.
I was particularly impressed with the comedy fight scene.
:)
That's not a snide comment, I really was - one of the reasons I like SG-1 is because unlike Star Trek (for example) it has a sense of humour
understand that in the movie, Zaphod's second head is inside his nostril
And let me guess, his 3rd arm is actually on his foot. And he wears his sunglasses on his knees.
There's artistic license and then there's just taking the piss.
Not really, it tends to run something along the lines of:
MPAA contact foreign law enforcement and demand action be taken to protect their razor-thin profit margins.
Agency efuses.
MPAA threaten the government with restricted/revoked movie/DVD distribution in the country if they don't do something.
Government convinces/forces law enforcement to take up the case.
But the point is that in some of these cases, at least, no laws were being broken - not in the country of operation no, most likely in the US (although it's getting pretty tough not to break any laws there these days).
The MPAA et al are getting foreign law enforcement agencies to arrest people will little or no evidence that they've actually committed a crime in the coutry that they're being arrested.
That's like me ringing up the French police and demanding that they raid someone in France that I think might have some involvement in the unauthorised distribution of my "IP". I'd be laughed off the phone.