The folks who hack Dish Network DVR receivers to let you read and retrieve the data from them do this exact same thing. They analyzed the hard drives, figured out the file system, figured out the video formatting, and wrote tools to extract, decipher, and transfer to a PC. See the DishRip Yahoo forum for more information.
All of this is absolutely 100% legal because they only touch those Dish Network DVRs that have no data encryption. They are (rightfully so) ruthlessly intollerant of anyone trying to hack the encrypted boxes (i.e. most all of the newer ones), as it could get their forum shut down.
In the case with this article, reverse engineering for compatibility reasons is supposed to be legal. But, if the company is encrypting the data on the disk, you could run into DMCA trouble, even if the "encryption" is very very simple.
(Alternatively, if it is your data that is encrypted, i.e. audio recordings that you created, you might have a legal case for decrypting them. The wording of the DMCA IMO seems to make it pretty clear that the copyright-protection-circumventing laws only apply when the materials being encrypted are protected by copyright. Release your audio into the public domain and crack away.)
Sysadmins? At a public university? What are you talking about?
I built my desktop workstation. There was no one else to do it for me. I was a student assistant and was happy to have a computer at work - even if it was a few-year-old SGI machine that had been stored in a corner until it was given to me.
The university barely could affort enough PC administrators to keep the public lab computers functional.
I think this was your original point: I'd point out that anybody stupid enough to run a server that they have to install software for and not know the implications of installing that software gets what they deserve.
I disagree. People are stupid, but no one deserves any crime to happen to them because they are stupid. The argument otherwise is coarse and uncivilized.
And the theater environment is rapidly losing it's appeal for me -- I'd MUCH rather watch a movie at home on my projector than in a theater with people who can't keep quiet during a movie, can't keep their cellphones off inspite of all the warnings and can't control their bladders for 90 mins.
Seems like a good place to plug the Alamo Drafthouse again as a great place to see a movie. Heck, my wife and I went to the Oscar watching party last night - having the movie theatre experience to watch a television show. And my wife despises regular movie theatres with annoying people with cellphones and smelly kids playing Yu-gi-oh and peeing in the back.
The movie theatre experience, as exhibited by typical big-box theatres, may be as decrepit as the big-box movie. But, like the independent film, the independent theatre will always survive and flourish.
FYI, Monk is several years old now. It's been bounced around various networks, which gives it the appearance of being new.
I meant "new" in that there are new episodes airing. I don't actually watch it "new new", because it is on at the same time as Battlestar Galactica, and my DVR only has one tuner. I just recorded all the episodes on USA's New Year's Day marathon, and finished watching them last night.
Good luck on your changes to planning/zoning ordinances.
Thanks. Of course being on the city planning and zoning commission, and being tasked with developing more pedestrian-friendly codes, makes it more likely someone will listen to me. =p
I would think anyone that bought a house would know the first thing to do is go out and change all the locks, yourself, by hand. You have no idea if the builder or if prevous owners kept keys.
Yet few people do this, because they just don't bother. This nature extends to many other actions. Perhaps it shouldn't but it does. My wireless network at home has the longest access code I could create - long enough that I had to walk it around to each machine on a USB stick because I couldn't accurately retype the numbers. But there are 2-3 other networks available from my house that are completely unprotected. Those people should set that stuff up, but they don't because they just don't know or assume it will be ok.
One of my desktop machines at work during college was an SGI Irix workstation. It turns out that, buried on page 43 of chapter 5 of documentation book 7, there was a list of default accounts (like a printer manager) that are automatically created with no passwords. Who knew? I didn't. But someone did when the rooted my machine. =( Fortunately my machine had nothing on it. Another Irix workstation, the one that was being used to demo a new movie-on-demand system to college kids in the dorms, was also rooted. It's user got in a lot more trouble, since the infiltrator got copies of all the movies.
Right, but you do maintentance on the telescope in the summer, when it is somewhat safe to actually travel there. Anyone who hunkers down with the telescope over the winter, if anyone, would just be there to fix the parts that can't take the cold.
No, you didn't specifically refer to FTP servers without passwords. But you did specifically mention telnet services without passwords. You are splitting hairs in your defense of your original statement.
Without arguing that port scanning should or should not be illegal, most further interactions you might have with those services probably should be illegal, unless the operator has authorized them.
There are exceptions, of course. If you find port 80 open, I would expect that you can see if the server has a home page. That would be the normal intent of an open port 80 - to serve data to the anonymous internet public. Perhaps, as you say, the normal intent of FTP is anonymous file transfer. Then maybe checking to see if the FTP server allows anonymous logons is ok. Maybe. At this point you are getting into the realm where a jury would be trying to decide if what you were doing was intentional, or if you were only looking for the latest Linux distribution when you accidentally downloaded all those credit card numbers.
I was replying to the GP, who stated: If someone does not want me to use their server, it is their responsibility to deny me access.... The same applies to an ftp server with an anonymous login, or a telnet session without a password.
I was replying to the GP, who stated: If someone does not want me to use their server, it is their responsibility to deny me access.... The same applies to an ftp server with an anonymous login, or a telnet session without a password.
Now, to more directly answer your question, I find that I'm actually watching a few new-to-air series this year, which I find quite enjoyable:
Lost Battlestar Galactica Drawn Together Rollergirls Monk
Perhaps I'm wasting all my time doing this. Perhaps. But for the first time in 4-5 years I'm not playing an MMORPG or indeed any PC games (except ones released more than 20 years ago). Maybe watching TV is less stimulating for my brain, but then again I used my "free time" last night while watching TV to research the newest ideas in city zoning, with the idea that I can influence my city's new zoning ordinances to stop suburban sprawl and encourage modern, pedestrian-friendly, town-center styled development.
And I would consider that to be more socially and intellectually stimulating that any computer game I could be playing instead.
Without directly answering your questions (I'm not the OP), I have a few questions for you:
1. Instead of buying CDs, buying MP3s, or even downloading music illegally, do you choose to tape your music on audio cassettes off of AM broadcasts?
2. Assuming the type of music you like is never played on the radio, do you get your music by hand-recording live shows on cassette tapes?
3. Do you prefer the sound of music on record players, because the natural filters and background scratch are how "music is supposed to be heard"?
4. If you do download music illegally, do you mind if you get versions that are 48 kbps, full of compression errors, or are missing one of the sound channels?
Nothing necessarily wrong with you if you do. But many folks don't like dirty, scratchy music. And I will argue that there are people out there who consider all music to be a grand waste of time, when the only real spiritual relaxation is ( enter alternate hobby X ).
Someone who leaves FTP service on with no password might be stupid, but you are still breaking the law if you take their stuff or use the server to hold warez.
That is no different than a stupid person leaving their car windows down with the engine running - you can stash heroin there for safe keeping or to transfer to a buddy, or you could steal the car, but either way you broke the law and are going to jail, and the other person will be cleared when it is certain they were just a stupid, unwilling participant.
A desktop PC is already a $1000+ dedicated gaming machine, because I do all my other activites at home on my laptop.
Except, with my desktop PC, I had to buy the parts, put it together, keep the software running, and deal with hardware issues. And, unless I paid over $2000 to start with, parts of it are obsolete in nine months and won't play the next greatest game, unless I want to put more money into it.*
With a game machine, you are getting a subsidized PC that can play lots of games. And you know that, at least for the 3-4 year lifetime of the console, every developer will be making games that work on your exact machine, with no video driver issues, compatibility bugs, or lag due to the age of your machine.
All that said, I don't own an XBox 360 and won't buy one. My wife bought a PS2, which I've used in the past year only to play Katamari Damacy. But I understand why some people would buy one, for the reasons I've stated.
* Early last year, motherboard replacement because the old one locked up in WoW. Turns out it was bug in the north bridge chip that caused problems during DMA to the AGP slot. I replaced processor and memory at same time, but couldn't afford to upgrade video card. Net result could play WoW, for about $400. Now, my video card is too sucky to play Vanguard. More upgrades ahead, I guess. =(
How are you sure that the definition of "carried" in the law doesn't include the short distance that the 100VAC travels inside the wall-wart or from the outlet through the plug to the wall-wart?
Oh, it does, absolutely...to the wall-wart manufacturer. Wall-warts are completely separate products from completely separate vendors. Electronics companies use them because it means that they - the electronic company - don't have to mess with voltage safety certification.
Your old Nintendo SuperNEDS64, with its 12 VDC input, is completely immune to this ruling. But if you do try to sell it, tell the buyer they have to go down to the store and buy a new wall-wart, because you can't sell them the one that came with the controller originally. Fortunately those things are pretty interchangeable, as the plugs are usually standard and most vendors publish the voltage and current ratings on the product, making it easy to find an exact (but safer) replacement.
As has been pointed out, this only applies to old electronics that connect to MAINS circuits (e.g. wall outlets, which are 100 VAC RMS in Japan IIRC).
Category II circuit, such as MAINS, as defined by IEC and (in the US) Underwriter's Laboratories, must be designed to tolerate overvoltage conditions such as those caused by transformer shorts or relatively distant lightning strikes. From UL 3121-1, a circuit designed with a working voltage of 100 V DC or AC RMS must tolerate a peak impulse voltage of 1360 V for a few microseconds (from table D.10). This doesn't necessarily mean that the product still has to work after such an impulse; it just means that the product must remain safe to the operator for such an impulse. Fuses can blow, chips can be damaged, but no voltage greater than 60 V DC / 42.4 V AC pk can be exposed to the user.
I assume that Japan's old standard, before 2001, was weaker than this. Thus, older electronics can't be sold because they could theoretically kill the users.
This only applies to products that carried MAINS voltages. (Products with wall-warts limit the high voltage to the wall, and are completely unaffected.) Even then, the old products might have been designed above the standard, and therefore could still be sold anyway.
(Disclaimer: I design high voltage hardware products.)
Are you trying to defend the fact that you're twisting their words? My point was that their actual words aren't printed in the article or the slashdot blurb. You seem to have taken what was printed and attacked it as the truth.
The series' 45 episodes ran until December 1974.... Beginning in Spring 2006, PBS stations will be able to introduce a whole new generation to the series when all 47 episodes will be available for broadcast.
Methinks the PBS public relations team should spend more time watching Sesame Street and practicing numbers. =p
Xilinx has been doing better fixing these problems. Many groups at my company use Xilinx parts, and we've had to overcome a lot of issues - and given a lot of feedback to Xilinx, which they've incorportated into a few die changes.
My group tends toward Altera, which (for the lines I've used) have no rail sequencing issues at all. And Altera has come leaps and bounds in the past few years with the Cyclone line.
There are test and measurement applications that require only a uni-directional bus. For example, high-speed digital or analog waveform generation, where the pattern is either does not repeat or depends on other inputs (so that the pattern must stream from the PC, rather than be stored on the generator itself).
With a faster, dedicated bus like AGP, products like this would allow for faster data rates, with the speed not throttled by other devices or instruments in the same PC.
However, these exact same benefits can be realized by PCI Express. And PCI Express is new, getting heavy investment, and will be much, much faster than AGP when fully utilized.
Thus, I don't think you'll find anyone developing new types of products for AGP, when PCIe is bigger, better, faster. You are better served just buying a new motherboard, like this parent suggests.
Sorry, AGP is dead. It has no use but for high-speed video, and high-speed video no longer uses it.
Custom ASICs start at $50k and go up for the die charges. Some companies that make them include IBM, Toshiba, and Oki.
However, you can get results that can be just as good with an FPGA. Consider the Cyclone II or Stratix II lines from Altera, or the Spartan III from Xilinx (be careful of power rail sequencing issues with Xilinx parts!). These will work into the hundreds of megahertz, and will cost you from $6 to $50 each, depending on size, performance, and features.
If your design takes off using a $35 FPGA, you can probably spend $75k on tooling and respin your product to use a $8 ASIC. But that only makes sense when you know you'll sell at least 75k/(35-8) ~= 2800 of them.
Your sentence still includes "finally seen the wisdom" and "even if it did take him longer than the rest of us", which could still be twisted into "though they criticized the fact that it took him so long to change his mind" which would again be reported as "Democrats criticized the flip-flop".
Karl Rove is a criminal. He has been a criminal since he began working in politics. Criminals have no place in society except in jail.
Slashdot Mirror
The folks who hack Dish Network DVR receivers to let you read and retrieve the data from them do this exact same thing. They analyzed the hard drives, figured out the file system, figured out the video formatting, and wrote tools to extract, decipher, and transfer to a PC. See the DishRip Yahoo forum for more information.
All of this is absolutely 100% legal because they only touch those Dish Network DVRs that have no data encryption . They are (rightfully so) ruthlessly intollerant of anyone trying to hack the encrypted boxes (i.e. most all of the newer ones), as it could get their forum shut down.
In the case with this article, reverse engineering for compatibility reasons is supposed to be legal. But, if the company is encrypting the data on the disk, you could run into DMCA trouble, even if the "encryption" is very very simple.
(Alternatively, if it is your data that is encrypted, i.e. audio recordings that you created, you might have a legal case for decrypting them. The wording of the DMCA IMO seems to make it pretty clear that the copyright-protection-circumventing laws only apply when the materials being encrypted are protected by copyright. Release your audio into the public domain and crack away.)
Sysadmins? At a public university? What are you talking about?
I built my desktop workstation. There was no one else to do it for me. I was a student assistant and was happy to have a computer at work - even if it was a few-year-old SGI machine that had been stored in a corner until it was given to me.
The university barely could affort enough PC administrators to keep the public lab computers functional.
I think this was your original point:
I'd point out that anybody stupid enough to run a server that they have to install software for and not know the implications of installing that software gets what they deserve.
I disagree. People are stupid, but no one deserves any crime to happen to them because they are stupid. The argument otherwise is coarse and uncivilized.
And the theater environment is rapidly losing it's appeal for me -- I'd MUCH rather watch a movie at home on my projector than in a theater with people who can't keep quiet during a movie, can't keep their cellphones off inspite of all the warnings and can't control their bladders for 90 mins.
Seems like a good place to plug the Alamo Drafthouse again as a great place to see a movie. Heck, my wife and I went to the Oscar watching party last night - having the movie theatre experience to watch a television show. And my wife despises regular movie theatres with annoying people with cellphones and smelly kids playing Yu-gi-oh and peeing in the back.
The movie theatre experience, as exhibited by typical big-box theatres, may be as decrepit as the big-box movie. But, like the independent film, the independent theatre will always survive and flourish.
Don't you know that most deserted islands are covered with service stations run by geothermal power?
FYI, Monk is several years old now. It's been bounced around various networks, which gives it the appearance of being new.
I meant "new" in that there are new episodes airing. I don't actually watch it "new new", because it is on at the same time as Battlestar Galactica, and my DVR only has one tuner. I just recorded all the episodes on USA's New Year's Day marathon, and finished watching them last night.
Good luck on your changes to planning/zoning ordinances.
Thanks. Of course being on the city planning and zoning commission, and being tasked with developing more pedestrian-friendly codes, makes it more likely someone will listen to me. =p
I would think anyone that bought a house would know the first thing to do is go out and change all the locks, yourself, by hand. You have no idea if the builder or if prevous owners kept keys.
Yet few people do this, because they just don't bother. This nature extends to many other actions. Perhaps it shouldn't but it does. My wireless network at home has the longest access code I could create - long enough that I had to walk it around to each machine on a USB stick because I couldn't accurately retype the numbers. But there are 2-3 other networks available from my house that are completely unprotected. Those people should set that stuff up, but they don't because they just don't know or assume it will be ok.
One of my desktop machines at work during college was an SGI Irix workstation. It turns out that, buried on page 43 of chapter 5 of documentation book 7, there was a list of default accounts (like a printer manager) that are automatically created with no passwords. Who knew? I didn't. But someone did when the rooted my machine. =( Fortunately my machine had nothing on it. Another Irix workstation, the one that was being used to demo a new movie-on-demand system to college kids in the dorms, was also rooted. It's user got in a lot more trouble, since the infiltrator got copies of all the movies.
Right, but you do maintentance on the telescope in the summer, when it is somewhat safe to actually travel there. Anyone who hunkers down with the telescope over the winter, if anyone, would just be there to fix the parts that can't take the cold.
No, you didn't specifically refer to FTP servers without passwords. But you did specifically mention telnet services without passwords. You are splitting hairs in your defense of your original statement.
Without arguing that port scanning should or should not be illegal, most further interactions you might have with those services probably should be illegal, unless the operator has authorized them.
There are exceptions, of course. If you find port 80 open, I would expect that you can see if the server has a home page. That would be the normal intent of an open port 80 - to serve data to the anonymous internet public. Perhaps, as you say, the normal intent of FTP is anonymous file transfer. Then maybe checking to see if the FTP server allows anonymous logons is ok. Maybe. At this point you are getting into the realm where a jury would be trying to decide if what you were doing was intentional, or if you were only looking for the latest Linux distribution when you accidentally downloaded all those credit card numbers.
But that wasn't the assignment.
... The same applies to an ftp server with an anonymous login, or a telnet session without a password.
I was replying to the GP, who stated:
If someone does not want me to use their server, it is their responsibility to deny me access.
He is talking about way more than port scanning.
port scanning is not breaking in (intrusion)
... The same applies to an ftp server with an anonymous login, or a telnet session without a password.
I was replying to the GP, who stated:
If someone does not want me to use their server, it is their responsibility to deny me access.
He is talking about way more than port scanning.
Now, to more directly answer your question, I find that I'm actually watching a few new-to-air series this year, which I find quite enjoyable:
Lost
Battlestar Galactica
Drawn Together
Rollergirls
Monk
Perhaps I'm wasting all my time doing this. Perhaps. But for the first time in 4-5 years I'm not playing an MMORPG or indeed any PC games (except ones released more than 20 years ago). Maybe watching TV is less stimulating for my brain, but then again I used my "free time" last night while watching TV to research the newest ideas in city zoning, with the idea that I can influence my city's new zoning ordinances to stop suburban sprawl and encourage modern, pedestrian-friendly, town-center styled development.
And I would consider that to be more socially and intellectually stimulating that any computer game I could be playing instead.
Without directly answering your questions (I'm not the OP), I have a few questions for you:
1. Instead of buying CDs, buying MP3s, or even downloading music illegally, do you choose to tape your music on audio cassettes off of AM broadcasts?
2. Assuming the type of music you like is never played on the radio, do you get your music by hand-recording live shows on cassette tapes?
3. Do you prefer the sound of music on record players, because the natural filters and background scratch are how "music is supposed to be heard"?
4. If you do download music illegally, do you mind if you get versions that are 48 kbps, full of compression errors, or are missing one of the sound channels?
Nothing necessarily wrong with you if you do. But many folks don't like dirty, scratchy music. And I will argue that there are people out there who consider all music to be a grand waste of time, when the only real spiritual relaxation is ( enter alternate hobby X ).
No, that's not at all how the law works.
Someone who leaves FTP service on with no password might be stupid, but you are still breaking the law if you take their stuff or use the server to hold warez.
That is no different than a stupid person leaving their car windows down with the engine running - you can stash heroin there for safe keeping or to transfer to a buddy, or you could steal the car, but either way you broke the law and are going to jail, and the other person will be cleared when it is certain they were just a stupid, unwilling participant.
Then I think they'll get by with no players.
From what I hear about the combat system, that would be my first expectation anyway.
A desktop PC is already a $1000+ dedicated gaming machine, because I do all my other activites at home on my laptop.
Except, with my desktop PC, I had to buy the parts, put it together, keep the software running, and deal with hardware issues. And, unless I paid over $2000 to start with, parts of it are obsolete in nine months and won't play the next greatest game, unless I want to put more money into it.*
With a game machine, you are getting a subsidized PC that can play lots of games. And you know that, at least for the 3-4 year lifetime of the console, every developer will be making games that work on your exact machine, with no video driver issues, compatibility bugs, or lag due to the age of your machine.
All that said, I don't own an XBox 360 and won't buy one. My wife bought a PS2, which I've used in the past year only to play Katamari Damacy. But I understand why some people would buy one, for the reasons I've stated.
* Early last year, motherboard replacement because the old one locked up in WoW. Turns out it was bug in the north bridge chip that caused problems during DMA to the AGP slot. I replaced processor and memory at same time, but couldn't afford to upgrade video card. Net result could play WoW, for about $400. Now, my video card is too sucky to play Vanguard. More upgrades ahead, I guess. =(
How are you sure that the definition of "carried" in the law doesn't include the short distance that the 100VAC travels inside the wall-wart or from the outlet through the plug to the wall-wart?
Oh, it does, absolutely...to the wall-wart manufacturer. Wall-warts are completely separate products from completely separate vendors. Electronics companies use them because it means that they - the electronic company - don't have to mess with voltage safety certification.
Your old Nintendo SuperNEDS64, with its 12 VDC input, is completely immune to this ruling. But if you do try to sell it, tell the buyer they have to go down to the store and buy a new wall-wart, because you can't sell them the one that came with the controller originally. Fortunately those things are pretty interchangeable, as the plugs are usually standard and most vendors publish the voltage and current ratings on the product, making it easy to find an exact (but safer) replacement.
I think the EQ fans that still play the original game do so mostly for raiding, moving through the content they haven't yet finished.
I would be incredibly surprised if any of them wanted to go back to level one in a game based on a pen & paper RPG that few of them ever played.
I think D&DO will mostly draw younger (age 10-15) MMORPG players, which I consider a good thing for all other MMORPG players in all other games.
As has been pointed out, this only applies to old electronics that connect to MAINS circuits (e.g. wall outlets, which are 100 VAC RMS in Japan IIRC).
Category II circuit, such as MAINS, as defined by IEC and (in the US) Underwriter's Laboratories, must be designed to tolerate overvoltage conditions such as those caused by transformer shorts or relatively distant lightning strikes. From UL 3121-1, a circuit designed with a working voltage of 100 V DC or AC RMS must tolerate a peak impulse voltage of 1360 V for a few microseconds (from table D.10). This doesn't necessarily mean that the product still has to work after such an impulse; it just means that the product must remain safe to the operator for such an impulse. Fuses can blow, chips can be damaged, but no voltage greater than 60 V DC / 42.4 V AC pk can be exposed to the user.
I assume that Japan's old standard, before 2001, was weaker than this. Thus, older electronics can't be sold because they could theoretically kill the users.
This only applies to products that carried MAINS voltages. (Products with wall-warts limit the high voltage to the wall, and are completely unaffected.) Even then, the old products might have been designed above the standard, and therefore could still be sold anyway.
(Disclaimer: I design high voltage hardware products.)
Are you trying to defend the fact that you're twisting their words? My point was that their actual words aren't printed in the article or the slashdot blurb. You seem to have taken what was printed and attacked it as the truth.
The series' 45 episodes ran until December 1974. ... Beginning in Spring 2006, PBS stations will be able to introduce a whole new generation to the series when all 47 episodes will be available for broadcast.
Methinks the PBS public relations team should spend more time watching Sesame Street and practicing numbers. =p
Xilinx has been doing better fixing these problems. Many groups at my company use Xilinx parts, and we've had to overcome a lot of issues - and given a lot of feedback to Xilinx, which they've incorportated into a few die changes.
My group tends toward Altera, which (for the lines I've used) have no rail sequencing issues at all. And Altera has come leaps and bounds in the past few years with the Cyclone line.
There are test and measurement applications that require only a uni-directional bus. For example, high-speed digital or analog waveform generation, where the pattern is either does not repeat or depends on other inputs (so that the pattern must stream from the PC, rather than be stored on the generator itself).
With a faster, dedicated bus like AGP, products like this would allow for faster data rates, with the speed not throttled by other devices or instruments in the same PC.
However, these exact same benefits can be realized by PCI Express. And PCI Express is new, getting heavy investment, and will be much, much faster than AGP when fully utilized.
Thus, I don't think you'll find anyone developing new types of products for AGP, when PCIe is bigger, better, faster. You are better served just buying a new motherboard, like this parent suggests.
Sorry, AGP is dead. It has no use but for high-speed video, and high-speed video no longer uses it.
This is the correct idea.
Custom ASICs start at $50k and go up for the die charges. Some companies that make them include IBM, Toshiba, and Oki.
However, you can get results that can be just as good with an FPGA. Consider the Cyclone II or Stratix II lines from Altera, or the Spartan III from Xilinx (be careful of power rail sequencing issues with Xilinx parts!). These will work into the hundreds of megahertz, and will cost you from $6 to $50 each, depending on size, performance, and features.
If your design takes off using a $35 FPGA, you can probably spend $75k on tooling and respin your product to use a $8 ASIC. But that only makes sense when you know you'll sell at least 75k/(35-8) ~= 2800 of them.
Trying reading the 278 comments when this was last discussed in December 2005:4 9
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/16/01122
Really, that was a good discussion, and this is basically a dupe of that.
Your sentence still includes "finally seen the wisdom" and "even if it did take him longer than the rest of us", which could still be twisted into "though they criticized the fact that it took him so long to change his mind" which would again be reported as "Democrats criticized the flip-flop".
Karl Rove is a criminal. He has been a criminal since he began working in politics. Criminals have no place in society except in jail.