That's a good point. The sales restrictions would apply to games whether they are produced in California or somewhere else. So it wouldn't matter where the developer happened to be located. I don't understand, then, why this law would cause an exodus of game developers from California. I'm not saying I agree with the law, but the headline here is puzzling.
It's truly egregious how little Facebook cares for the privacy of what we choose to post on their website. Especially when you consider how much we have to pay to use Facebook. Oh, wait...
Just as you have to pay the music industry tax on blank CD-ROMs you use to back up your own data, you also have to pay the book industry tax on photocopies of your own creations.
Are you saying that in Canada, if a professor writes his own textbook from scratch, out of his head, and hands copies out to his students, they still have to pay a license fee even if the professor wants to give it out for free? Wow. And I thought copyright law was bad in the U.S.
Remind me again why we haven't burned DC to the ground yet? How can ANYONE, of ANY political affiliation, see this shit and not be completely outraged?
Because when we drove to DC to burn it to the ground, these X-ray vans found our equipment and we were busted before we got the chance!
I don't even understand why this needs explanation. We all travel forward through time, and no-one needs an explanation of why we don't phase through the planet as time moves forward.
As it happens, there is an explanation. It's called inertia. That's why we travel with the planet. But if we jump through time, our inertia won't guarantee we will end up at the same spot relative to an earth based frame of reference.
in Canada however, it is the responsibilities of the people that expect to profit from that information, or any corporations not to -retain- that data without a waver.
I don't think it was ever alleged that Google was using the information inadvertently obtained (e-mails, passwords, etc.) for profit. Were they caught selling passwords to identity thieves?
Google did not drive around for the purpose of harvesting passwords from unsecured WiFi connections. It inadvertently recorded some data that was broadcast and somewhere buried in it were some e-mail addresses and passwords.
If someone stands at their front door with bullhorn shouting out their social security numbers, salaries, sexual orientation and other private details, it isn't the responsibility of passers-by to cover their ears.
Hmmm, I thought Wordpress was the tool of choice for blogginabout funny pictures of your cat? But I guess I get what you're talking about - thanks!
Just as there is more than one web browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.), more than one operating system (Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris, etc.), more than one word processor (MS Word, OO, etc.), more than one desktop publishing program (InDesign, QuarkXPress, MS Publisher, etc.), there as also more than one CMS, and many have overlapping functionality and overlapping niches.
The big three names in opensource CMS's are WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. They certainly overlap in functionality, and for many simple websites, one could pick any of the three to do the job. For websites with more specialized needs, however, one of the three might stand out as better than the others. WordPress has a reputation of being the simplest of the three to set up, and is ideally suited to personal blog sites. Joomla has a reputation of producing some of the nicest looking websites as many of the contributed themes are developed by artists and designers (think of it as the Macintosh of CMS's). Drupal has a reputation of being the hardest to learn and administer, but the most flexible, especially if you are willing to write your own modules.
Of the three, I've used only Drupal, and I can attest to the steep and long learning curve! But in the end, it did get the job done.
They need to collectively countersue him for legal fees.
Keep in mind though, Canadian law works very differently than U.S. law, particularly in matters of free speech. Truth is not an absolute defense in Canada as it is in the U.S. People can sue for harassment over statements made online even if the statements are true. Also, it isn't so easy to collect legal fees from the losing party in Canada either. So, I'm not sure there'd be a cause of action in a counterclaim.
I guess the real lesson to be learned here is, if you are going to mock someone on Youtube, do not supply real identifying information when you set up your Youtube account. (I have at least three Youtube accounts. One under my real name, one under an alias, and one under an alias that I only log into through Tor.)
There are other legitimate reasons to ban wi-fi in schools besides health concerns, especially at lower grade levels. It is very hard to teach a classroom full of students who are IMing with their friends, checking their e-mail, and updating their Facebook page. Sometimes it is nice to allow students to use computers to work on class assignments or take notes without allowing them access to the global Internet.
Why does everyone always assume the nuttiest reasons for any decision that a school makes?
My home computer is not a institutional computer. It does not carry a burden of trust.
If you mean by "institutional" that the computers are the property of the university, then I suppose they are but do they carry a "burden of trust"? I hardly think so.
I think it's relevant to ask what is the probability that these computers will be storing credit card numbers and personal data. I don't see why a physics professor's research computer would. Should the university also examine the contents of the professors pencil sharpener and coffee pot for state secrets? They are after all "institutional property."
It also affects our reproductive systems. People really need to be aware that the use of plastics containing BPA is harmful and that use of this substance is currently ubiquitous throughout the world.
Given that our world is overpopulated, and the population is growing rapidly, would it really be such a bad thing if our reproductive systems were dampened a little? And I actually am not trying to be funny here. I'm somewhat half serious. Would mankind be better off if we started having fewer babies?
Well, local used-books shops might be accurately pricing their books for the local market, which could differ from the nationwide market on the internet. If the local stores were forced to price to the national market, they might not be able to sell those books to their usual customers, and not even the used-book arbitrage traders would want to buy them. This could, in the long run, significantly reduce the thrift bookstore revenues and drive some out of business.
And like GP pointed out, some of the hidden treasures in the book stores act as sales to draw in customers to the store, who might buy other books as well. If the arbitrage trades come in and snatch up the "sale" items, the stores are forced to eat the discount instead of generating more revenue.
It is very interesting how general attitudes on Slashdot toward various business practices can change radically, depending on whether the business is a small mom and pop shop, or a large chain. When the concept of pricing to a local rather than a global market has been tried by the big guys, people get upset. I remember a story on Slashdot from a few years back where a large chain (I forget which) was pricing things based on the location of the buyer and the general reaction was less favorable, with people suggesting using arbitrage as a solution (i.e. people who get the low price buying things and reselling them in other markets.) The reality is, we live in a global economy, and used bookshops are not immune from that. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. I have frequently been able to find book I want on sites like Abe Books and Alibris, that I have not been able to find at local used books stores, and more often than not, they are cheaper than local options. Often it's the used bookstores themselves that sell through these sites, so I do think a global marketplace for used books is really a good thing for all concerned. And that marketplace wouldn't exist if it weren't for people moving books from a local market to a global one, which you seem to be criticizing.
It's the people who believe they are above these rules that usually end up spilling personal data.
I've taught at a university. I can tell you right now I would definitely audit profs machines.
And to be honest to bad if they are annoyed. Suck it up as they say.
Or another alternative is simply to lock the laptop in a desk drawer and when the IT guy asks if you have a computer in your office, say no.
Seriously though, why would you expect a professor to have credit card numbers or SSNs on a research computer? Would you mind if your home computer were searched to make sure that it isn't storing expunged criminal records from juveniles in Botswana?
I know a lot of scientists who would be quite annoyed if the people from the IT department (who are clueless policy-obsessed wankers at my institution) came in and wanted to search through a bunch of simulation results and LaTeX files looking for SSN's.
As someone who has worked in an academic research group, I can attest to that. If such a program were instituted at my university, myself and others in our group would probably be less than forthcoming about the number and location of computers in our group. We certainly wouldn't relish the idea of giving folks from the IT department root access to all our Unix/Linux boxes which they would probably need to perform the kind of scan they're trying to perform.
I'm guessing, however, that this measure applies to administrative computers and not academic/research. That would only make sense.
True, it does to a certain extent as a side effect of trading. But if you trade for the purpose of manipulating the market, that's illegal, in the U.S. as well as Norway. The only difference is, if this had happened in the U.S., there'd be some heavy duty jail time.
Try this on my property, you WILL get shot. No warrant, not invited, attempting to tamper with something of mine means risking lawful execution by Castle Doctrine law.
Ignore the Constitution by taking some judge's opinion over the written law at your own risk.
Problem is the Castle doctrine arises from State law (eg. Texas, for instance.) If you shoot and kill an FBI officer, you will be charged under FEDERAL law. The Castle Doctrine defense won't help you in federal court.
How can a Canadian court "uphold" a ruling from a US district court? Why do Canadian courts even care unless this guy is going to be extradited?
Because this is a fine rather than a jail sentence, no extradition is necessary. By upholding the ruling, the Canadian court is agreeing to collect the money on behalf of the American court.
If he files bankruptcy, and Facebook doesn't get their billion dollars, can Facebook claim the billion as a 'loss' (a la 'bad debt', 'uncollectable account', etc) and get a tax break out of it?
Read the article! He was fined, not sued. Fines aren't dischargable in bankruptcy.
Or put a reporter in jail for contempt of court for not divulging information about a source. In the US, that can potentially go on for years, though it's quite rare.
That's different, as revealing a source generally isn't incriminating for the reporter. If a circumstance existed in which revealing a source would implicate the reporter in a crime, then he/she definitely could invoke the 5th Amendment, at which point, the reporter might be granted immunity from prosecution of any crime revealed through the testimony. If the reporter subsequently refused to name the source, the reporter could then be held in contempt.
But I don't think it's a problem that the state can, with good reason, compel you to decrypt it. If the police get a search warrant, that overrides your normal right to refuse them entry to your house. What's wrong with something similar for computers? Or is this just rabid, unthinking anti-establishmentism I smell?
No. I think it may be a U.S. vs. European thing. Here in America we have a clause in our Constitution (the 5th Amendment) that protects people from answering questions that may incriminate them (Giving DNA or fingerprints isn't answering a question; uttering a password is.) The U.K. doesn't have such a protection, so perhaps there is nothing wrong with such a law there. But I think what you're seeing on Slashdot is probably more pro-American Constitution thinking than anti-establishment thinking, but I really can't speak for others.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a good point. The sales restrictions would apply to games whether they are produced in California or somewhere else. So it wouldn't matter where the developer happened to be located. I don't understand, then, why this law would cause an exodus of game developers from California. I'm not saying I agree with the law, but the headline here is puzzling.
It's truly egregious how little Facebook cares for the privacy of what we choose to post on their website. Especially when you consider how much we have to pay to use Facebook. Oh, wait...
Just as you have to pay the music industry tax on blank CD-ROMs you use to back up your own data, you also have to pay the book industry tax on photocopies of your own creations.
Are you saying that in Canada, if a professor writes his own textbook from scratch, out of his head, and hands copies out to his students, they still have to pay a license fee even if the professor wants to give it out for free? Wow. And I thought copyright law was bad in the U.S.
The opt-out is piracy, which this move will certainly simplify.
If you read carefully, this "course materials fee" would be folded into the tuition, so you can't opt-out. That's how they fight piracy.
I can't see this working without some opt-out mechanism at the very least.
Working for whom?
Remind me again why we haven't burned DC to the ground yet? How can ANYONE, of ANY political affiliation, see this shit and not be completely outraged?
Because when we drove to DC to burn it to the ground, these X-ray vans found our equipment and we were busted before we got the chance!
I don't even understand why this needs explanation. We all travel forward through time, and no-one needs an explanation of why we don't phase through the planet as time moves forward.
As it happens, there is an explanation. It's called inertia. That's why we travel with the planet. But if we jump through time, our inertia won't guarantee we will end up at the same spot relative to an earth based frame of reference.
in Canada however, it is the responsibilities of the people that expect to profit from that information, or any corporations not to -retain- that data without a waver.
I don't think it was ever alleged that Google was using the information inadvertently obtained (e-mails, passwords, etc.) for profit. Were they caught selling passwords to identity thieves?
Google did not drive around for the purpose of harvesting passwords from unsecured WiFi connections. It inadvertently recorded some data that was broadcast and somewhere buried in it were some e-mail addresses and passwords.
If someone stands at their front door with bullhorn shouting out their social security numbers, salaries, sexual orientation and other private details, it isn't the responsibility of passers-by to cover their ears.
Hmmm, I thought Wordpress was the tool of choice for blogginabout funny pictures of your cat? But I guess I get what you're talking about - thanks!
Just as there is more than one web browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.), more than one operating system (Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris, etc.), more than one word processor (MS Word, OO, etc.), more than one desktop publishing program (InDesign, QuarkXPress, MS Publisher, etc.), there as also more than one CMS, and many have overlapping functionality and overlapping niches.
The big three names in opensource CMS's are WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. They certainly overlap in functionality, and for many simple websites, one could pick any of the three to do the job. For websites with more specialized needs, however, one of the three might stand out as better than the others. WordPress has a reputation of being the simplest of the three to set up, and is ideally suited to personal blog sites. Joomla has a reputation of producing some of the nicest looking websites as many of the contributed themes are developed by artists and designers (think of it as the Macintosh of CMS's). Drupal has a reputation of being the hardest to learn and administer, but the most flexible, especially if you are willing to write your own modules.
Of the three, I've used only Drupal, and I can attest to the steep and long learning curve! But in the end, it did get the job done.
They need to collectively countersue him for legal fees.
Keep in mind though, Canadian law works very differently than U.S. law, particularly in matters of free speech. Truth is not an absolute defense in Canada as it is in the U.S. People can sue for harassment over statements made online even if the statements are true. Also, it isn't so easy to collect legal fees from the losing party in Canada either. So, I'm not sure there'd be a cause of action in a counterclaim.
I guess the real lesson to be learned here is, if you are going to mock someone on Youtube, do not supply real identifying information when you set up your Youtube account. (I have at least three Youtube accounts. One under my real name, one under an alias, and one under an alias that I only log into through Tor.)
There are other legitimate reasons to ban wi-fi in schools besides health concerns, especially at lower grade levels. It is very hard to teach a classroom full of students who are IMing with their friends, checking their e-mail, and updating their Facebook page. Sometimes it is nice to allow students to use computers to work on class assignments or take notes without allowing them access to the global Internet.
Why does everyone always assume the nuttiest reasons for any decision that a school makes?
My home computer is not a institutional computer. It does not carry a burden of trust.
If you mean by "institutional" that the computers are the property of the university, then I suppose they are but do they carry a "burden of trust"? I hardly think so.
I think it's relevant to ask what is the probability that these computers will be storing credit card numbers and personal data. I don't see why a physics professor's research computer would. Should the university also examine the contents of the professors pencil sharpener and coffee pot for state secrets? They are after all "institutional property."
It also affects our reproductive systems. People really need to be aware that the use of plastics containing BPA is harmful and that use of this substance is currently ubiquitous throughout the world.
Given that our world is overpopulated, and the population is growing rapidly, would it really be such a bad thing if our reproductive systems were dampened a little? And I actually am not trying to be funny here. I'm somewhat half serious. Would mankind be better off if we started having fewer babies?
Well, local used-books shops might be accurately pricing their books for the local market, which could differ from the nationwide market on the internet. If the local stores were forced to price to the national market, they might not be able to sell those books to their usual customers, and not even the used-book arbitrage traders would want to buy them. This could, in the long run, significantly reduce the thrift bookstore revenues and drive some out of business.
And like GP pointed out, some of the hidden treasures in the book stores act as sales to draw in customers to the store, who might buy other books as well. If the arbitrage trades come in and snatch up the "sale" items, the stores are forced to eat the discount instead of generating more revenue.
It is very interesting how general attitudes on Slashdot toward various business practices can change radically, depending on whether the business is a small mom and pop shop, or a large chain. When the concept of pricing to a local rather than a global market has been tried by the big guys, people get upset. I remember a story on Slashdot from a few years back where a large chain (I forget which) was pricing things based on the location of the buyer and the general reaction was less favorable, with people suggesting using arbitrage as a solution (i.e. people who get the low price buying things and reselling them in other markets.) The reality is, we live in a global economy, and used bookshops are not immune from that. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. I have frequently been able to find book I want on sites like Abe Books and Alibris, that I have not been able to find at local used books stores, and more often than not, they are cheaper than local options. Often it's the used bookstores themselves that sell through these sites, so I do think a global marketplace for used books is really a good thing for all concerned. And that marketplace wouldn't exist if it weren't for people moving books from a local market to a global one, which you seem to be criticizing.
It absolutely includes profs.
It's the people who believe they are above these rules that usually end up spilling personal data.
I've taught at a university. I can tell you right now I would definitely audit profs machines.
And to be honest to bad if they are annoyed. Suck it up as they say.
Or another alternative is simply to lock the laptop in a desk drawer and when the IT guy asks if you have a computer in your office, say no.
Seriously though, why would you expect a professor to have credit card numbers or SSNs on a research computer? Would you mind if your home computer were searched to make sure that it isn't storing expunged criminal records from juveniles in Botswana?
Does this include professors?
I know a lot of scientists who would be quite annoyed if the people from the IT department (who are clueless policy-obsessed wankers at my institution) came in and wanted to search through a bunch of simulation results and LaTeX files looking for SSN's.
As someone who has worked in an academic research group, I can attest to that. If such a program were instituted at my university, myself and others in our group would probably be less than forthcoming about the number and location of computers in our group. We certainly wouldn't relish the idea of giving folks from the IT department root access to all our Unix/Linux boxes which they would probably need to perform the kind of scan they're trying to perform.
I'm guessing, however, that this measure applies to administrative computers and not academic/research. That would only make sense.
All stock trading changes the market.
True, it does to a certain extent as a side effect of trading. But if you trade for the purpose of manipulating the market, that's illegal, in the U.S. as well as Norway. The only difference is, if this had happened in the U.S., there'd be some heavy duty jail time.
This sounds like an interesting project, but why is this story classified under "Your Rights Online."?
Try this on my property, you WILL get shot. No warrant, not invited, attempting to tamper with something of mine means risking lawful execution by Castle Doctrine law.
Ignore the Constitution by taking some judge's opinion over the written law at your own risk.
Problem is the Castle doctrine arises from State law (eg. Texas, for instance.) If you shoot and kill an FBI officer, you will be charged under FEDERAL law. The Castle Doctrine defense won't help you in federal court.
The obvious risks of copying my buttcheeks? Care to elaborate, 'cause it's not especially obvious to me. Stupid, maybe, but not risky.
How about the fact that many copiers now contain hard drives and keep records of images copied.
How can a Canadian court "uphold" a ruling from a US district court? Why do Canadian courts even care unless this guy is going to be extradited?
Because this is a fine rather than a jail sentence, no extradition is necessary. By upholding the ruling, the Canadian court is agreeing to collect the money on behalf of the American court.
If he files bankruptcy, and Facebook doesn't get their billion dollars, can Facebook claim the billion as a 'loss' (a la 'bad debt', 'uncollectable account', etc) and get a tax break out of it?
Read the article! He was fined, not sued. Fines aren't dischargable in bankruptcy.
Or put a reporter in jail for contempt of court for not divulging information about a source. In the US, that can potentially go on for years, though it's quite rare.
That's different, as revealing a source generally isn't incriminating for the reporter. If a circumstance existed in which revealing a source would implicate the reporter in a crime, then he/she definitely could invoke the 5th Amendment, at which point, the reporter might be granted immunity from prosecution of any crime revealed through the testimony. If the reporter subsequently refused to name the source, the reporter could then be held in contempt.
But I don't think it's a problem that the state can, with good reason, compel you to decrypt it. If the police get a search warrant, that overrides your normal right to refuse them entry to your house. What's wrong with something similar for computers? Or is this just rabid, unthinking anti-establishmentism I smell?
No. I think it may be a U.S. vs. European thing. Here in America we have a clause in our Constitution (the 5th Amendment) that protects people from answering questions that may incriminate them (Giving DNA or fingerprints isn't answering a question; uttering a password is.) The U.K. doesn't have such a protection, so perhaps there is nothing wrong with such a law there. But I think what you're seeing on Slashdot is probably more pro-American Constitution thinking than anti-establishment thinking, but I really can't speak for others.