Grow a spine? The links are available one click away in the copy of the C&D letter that's on display. To me that looks like Google raising their middle finger at the request while simultaneously complying with it.
You've apparently never heard of this quiet subculture that uses things called "dildos."
Heh, there was even something at http://www.cyberdildonics.com/ a while back, though I'm too lazy to see if it's still up. The website, that is.
I reckon the prevalence of the wang-chung on our carbon-fiber hero is more attributable to the IMpossibility of reproduction from his, shall we say, deep sea fishing.
Paper? Porn mags. The phone? Phone sex lines. Internet? persiankitty Cyborgs? Unrestricted, unsimulated hooch-making.
Psha, that's silly. If they get to that point, they won't sue. It'll cost too much. Instead they'll buy out a few congressmen and senators at bargain prices to criminalize the whole affair and hand over enforcement duties (and costs) to government agencies.
There's a pretty big difference between law enforcement enforcing criminal laws and corporations suing civilly to protect marketshare.
The way I see it, filesharing is a tremendous expression of the Market's belief that most music product has no value, or at least not the value that the studios allege. People are voting with their pocketbooks, and since we live in a retail rather than a bartering (or, truly, market) world, it's a zero-sum situation: either the consumer loses by paying more for product than he otherwise would, or the producer loses through the disappearance of revenue as people refuse to buy. It's likewise interesting that you don't see as much classical and jazz on filesharing services, both because fewer people listen to those genres and because people who do listen are probably more willing to spend the money to get the recordings they want.
These lawsuits are the ultimate in frivolity. And this is coming from someone who will be a lawyer soon. Yes, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property must be protected. But those protections cannot extend to the propping up of broken industries which seek to extract obscene prices that do not reflect the creativity, novelty, or utility of the product they're peddling. Intellectual property protection is supposed to encourage innovation, not ossification and stagnation. It's supposed to DISCOVER markets, not PROTECT them.
If you get sued for this garbage, find me, and I'll try to get you a good lawyer.
And in a civil case, you just have to show liability ("guilt") by a preponderance of the evidence, which means, roughly, a better than 50/50 chance that your side is right.
Actually, you might not be guilty of the criminal act of murder, but you might very well be civilly liable for negligent supervision or some other negligence with respect to control and operation of the firearm.
Torts primer:
All torts have five elements, a duty owed, a breach of the duty, causation between duty and harm, any harm caused, and any defenses.
A parent who owns a computer might have a duty to supervise her children to ensure that the child doesn't cause a harm (copyright infringement, harassment, etc.), in the same way that a parent who owns a gun might have a duty to superviser her children to ensure that they don't shoot someone in the face.
Now, where things get screwy is in the damages caused. If the negligently supervised kid shoots someone in the face, the survivors ("heirs", though that's not the right term) of the deceased might be able to sue for that negligence. Maybe they'd win $1,000,000 out of the negligent parent's homeowners insurance policy, or something of the sort. The problem is that even if you can show that the parent has a duty to the RIAA to ensure that the child doesn't use the instrumentality (computer) to cause harm, that the parent failed to do so, and that the failure to supervise then CAUSED (very important word) some quantifiable harm to the company/organization, it's hard for me to understand the dollar amounts attached to these lawsuits.
But that argument's been rehashed a thousand times. I just wanted to give a little primer on how the parents could be implicated in the wrongful acts of their children.
Marketing: We got one, sir. PHB: Very good, Igor, very good. Marketing: Shall I go for another? PHB: They will come to you in time. Marketing: What's that sound? PHB: It's the sound of thousands of mid-level product managers from struggling PC sellers banging on your cubicle wall, young Igor. Marketing: *cries*
That said, I'm excited about PCIExpress. Perhaps not as much as Daath, but excited nonetheless. 'Course, this just means that the GeForce4 I bought 6 months ago will look about as quaint as Combat! on an Atari does today. *sigh Where do I swipe my credit card? It's time for me to be milked.
blame it on grade inflation. nobody is ever taught how to fail gracefully.
lord. I can't believe I just brought grade inflation into a conversation about Wile E. Coyote.
Of course, I just spent four hours watching a videotape (what's that? oh, yeh, the plastic mechanical thingie) about ethics in the legal profession...
Oooo, now a woman can buy me a new car to propose instead of me buying a damn ring... Finally a way to get THEM to do some of the proposing work without sticking us with the awkward decision of whether to wear an engagement ring.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm a law student. So, while I couldn't offer any valid legal advice, I could self-promote and get my name out to the masses so that you'd all be suckers for my services when I can actually work for a living.:)
Which, coincidentally, was said to a friend of mine in a bar a few nights ago as he introduced himself to a young co-ed's breasts.
Kinda reminded me of watching the first episode of "Enterprise", now that I think about it... (note how I deftly stay on topic AND bring everything full circle at once)
Declaring file-sharing programs illegal because they are used to share unlicensed MP3s is, in effect, equivalent to making camcorders illegal because they can be used to shoot videos of terrorist targets. *sigh* apologies for the melodrama.
Slashdot Mirror
Grow a spine? The links are available one click away in the copy of the C&D letter that's on display. To me that looks like Google raising their middle finger at the request while simultaneously complying with it.
For God's sake, don't put the rabbit tags on them or they'll start reproducing even FASTER...
(here endeth the sarcasm)
zen...
That does, however, put a disturbing new spin on the age-old question: "Do robots dream of electric sheep?"
You've apparently never heard of this quiet subculture that uses things called "dildos."
Heh, there was even something at http://www.cyberdildonics.com/ a while back, though I'm too lazy to see if it's still up. The website, that is.
I reckon the prevalence of the wang-chung on our carbon-fiber hero is more attributable to the IMpossibility of reproduction from his, shall we say, deep sea fishing.
Paper? Porn mags.
The phone? Phone sex lines.
Internet? persiankitty
Cyborgs? Unrestricted, unsimulated hooch-making.
It's the future, welcome to it.
Psha, that's silly. If they get to that point, they won't sue. It'll cost too much. Instead they'll buy out a few congressmen and senators at bargain prices to criminalize the whole affair and hand over enforcement duties (and costs) to government agencies.
Oh wait, they're trying to do exactly that.
There's a pretty big difference between law enforcement enforcing criminal laws and corporations suing civilly to protect marketshare.
The way I see it, filesharing is a tremendous expression of the Market's belief that most music product has no value, or at least not the value that the studios allege. People are voting with their pocketbooks, and since we live in a retail rather than a bartering (or, truly, market) world, it's a zero-sum situation: either the consumer loses by paying more for product than he otherwise would, or the producer loses through the disappearance of revenue as people refuse to buy. It's likewise interesting that you don't see as much classical and jazz on filesharing services, both because fewer people listen to those genres and because people who do listen are probably more willing to spend the money to get the recordings they want.
These lawsuits are the ultimate in frivolity. And this is coming from someone who will be a lawyer soon. Yes, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property must be protected. But those protections cannot extend to the propping up of broken industries which seek to extract obscene prices that do not reflect the creativity, novelty, or utility of the product they're peddling. Intellectual property protection is supposed to encourage innovation, not ossification and stagnation. It's supposed to DISCOVER markets, not PROTECT them.
If you get sued for this garbage, find me, and I'll try to get you a good lawyer.
Thus the quotes around "guilt." I didn't want to get into semantics with /.ers. :)
And in a civil case, you just have to show liability ("guilt") by a preponderance of the evidence, which means, roughly, a better than 50/50 chance that your side is right.
Actually, you might not be guilty of the criminal act of murder, but you might very well be civilly liable for negligent supervision or some other negligence with respect to control and operation of the firearm.
Torts primer:
All torts have five elements, a duty owed, a breach of the duty, causation between duty and harm, any harm caused, and any defenses.
A parent who owns a computer might have a duty to supervise her children to ensure that the child doesn't cause a harm (copyright infringement, harassment, etc.), in the same way that a parent who owns a gun might have a duty to superviser her children to ensure that they don't shoot someone in the face.
Now, where things get screwy is in the damages caused. If the negligently supervised kid shoots someone in the face, the survivors ("heirs", though that's not the right term) of the deceased might be able to sue for that negligence. Maybe they'd win $1,000,000 out of the negligent parent's homeowners insurance policy, or something of the sort. The problem is that even if you can show that the parent has a duty to the RIAA to ensure that the child doesn't use the instrumentality (computer) to cause harm, that the parent failed to do so, and that the failure to supervise then CAUSED (very important word) some quantifiable harm to the company/organization, it's hard for me to understand the dollar amounts attached to these lawsuits.
But that argument's been rehashed a thousand times. I just wanted to give a little primer on how the parents could be implicated in the wrongful acts of their children.
(IANAL...Y) (figure it out)
Oh yeh, almost forgot: Way, way OT.
Forgot something else.. You need to get that spiffy little IE-only bottom navigation bar to work in Moz.
And I want a red bike.
And a teddy bear.
And a Red Ryder BB gun.
Jesus, the caffiene high wore off quick this afternoon.
You work for LexisNexis? *shudder* I live in fear of overbilling clients from a misspelled search term. :)
On the other hand, the tech support/suggestion box response is great. AND they know what Mozilla is. I was shocked.
"they" == "you" by any chance?
They could pack Strom Thurmond in it until they're ready to bring him back from the dead!! /me watches karma wither away.
Marketing: We got one, sir.
PHB: Very good, Igor, very good.
Marketing: Shall I go for another?
PHB: They will come to you in time.
Marketing: What's that sound?
PHB: It's the sound of thousands of mid-level product managers from struggling PC sellers banging on your cubicle wall, young Igor.
Marketing: *cries*
That said, I'm excited about PCIExpress. Perhaps not as much as Daath, but excited nonetheless. 'Course, this just means that the GeForce4 I bought 6 months ago will look about as quaint as Combat! on an Atari does today. *sigh Where do I swipe my credit card? It's time for me to be milked.
What if Apple made black holes? The iHole. *snicker* Of course that's pretty much what buying a Mac is, huh?
Or Thunderdome. (would that make Mel Gibson into Hawking Radiation? oh nevermind...)
blame it on grade inflation. nobody is ever taught how to fail gracefully. lord. I can't believe I just brought grade inflation into a conversation about Wile E. Coyote. Of course, I just spent four hours watching a videotape (what's that? oh, yeh, the plastic mechanical thingie) about ethics in the legal profession...
Oooo, now a woman can buy me a new car to propose instead of me buying a damn ring... Finally a way to get THEM to do some of the proposing work without sticking us with the awkward decision of whether to wear an engagement ring.
Why the F#*&ING HELL does slashcode put "translation please..." as my default subject line in every F$(*ING comment I make? *growl....
oh, and, erm... I'd be happy to help however I can... :-/ (seriously.. the previous was a joke...)
Better get me before I take my professional responsibility course in two weeks and find out what I'm not allowed to do until I have a law degree.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm a law student. So, while I couldn't offer any valid legal advice, I could self-promote and get my name out to the masses so that you'd all be suckers for my services when I can actually work for a living. :)
Bah, you're ignoring the insatiable need to be witty and deprecating on Slashdot. You might call it the, ahem, Prime Directive. :)
But, you're right... I didn't check... I didn't RTFT (Read the effing timestamp).
Pizzle.
Yeh, look up about 8 inches... :)
Which, coincidentally, was said to a friend of mine in a bar a few nights ago as he introduced himself to a young co-ed's breasts.
Kinda reminded me of watching the first episode of "Enterprise", now that I think about it... (note how I deftly stay on topic AND bring everything full circle at once)
Declaring file-sharing programs illegal because they are used to share unlicensed MP3s is, in effect, equivalent to making camcorders illegal because they can be used to shoot videos of terrorist targets. *sigh* apologies for the melodrama.
I parsed the negatives and came up with "this is a subtle attempt at pro-windows propaganda."
I was about to type that I parsed the negatives and found Jesus, but I thought I'd get modded troll.
(Pardon me, I'm in the middle of exams, so I'm not entirely in charge of myself.)