As I understand it, theft involves taking an 'thing' that is not owned. So, for example copying a recent book (also protected by copyright law) in its entirety simply violates the copyright. Taking a book from a store without paying for it is theft.
I also think copyright violations are a 'civil' offence, not criminal. This is very distinct from IP law which treats 'know-how' and other knowledge as private property, and hence is covered by criminal law.
Please don't presume all the suits are stupid (tho' of course many are, and it can be easier to get to be a senior suit by politics than techier jobs).
Presume instead that their agenda is different. For many companies, the customer is not the product-purchaser, but the stockmarket attitude to the company, because that's where the shareholder value is influenced the most. Producing a perfect product is very usually not a necessary means to that end. the exception is when a bad product involves returns/recall costs (eg my maxtor 120Gb, your Firestone tyres). For software, there is practically no reject recourse to the customer.
Actually, a lot of laws are put in place just to protect stupid people from sneaky people. For example, a lot of financial products are covered by disclosure and right to cancel laws for exactly this reason... and I expect more people are financially 'stupid' than technically stupid.
See http://www.usdc.org/technical/downloads/Web_Report _0101/sld027.htm which is a Philips slide saying a 640x480 display will draw 28W. Not for my laptop, thanks. This is why all the bigger displays are 1 off demos for hype, and only the very small ones (about 2" diagonal max) are in production.
The other big problem is phosphor life which varies with colour (blue is worst) and getting 10k hours is very difficult unless temperature is kept moderate.
However, these displays look very good, although maybe too good for reasonable privacy because the viewing angle is TOO wide to my mind.
IMHO, you won't these even competing with TFTs until 2007.
Ebay saves all search requests also, which could be very useful in profiling a 'suspect'. To me, the ability to pass that across to is the privacy invasion; the sales/buys are public domain anyway for 3 months.
Can't do that in U.K. because of data protection act. If keep of personal info changes Ts & Cs or privacy policy significantly (eg can now distribute personal data they couldn't before), they must delete the old data and start afresh under the new conditions.
"BigPond public affairs manager Stuart Gray deined that Telstra sold email lists."
Whoopy do. There are many ways of circulating a list to 3rd parties without "selling" it. Magazines, for example, rent their lists by becoming mailing houses so the rentee can't see and therefore reuse the names. Charities swap lists.
Many site privacy policies use similar language which sounds like they will never pass on their list, but in fact they are just defining a narrow range of circumstances under which they won't. Could be clumsy English... but then I expect lawyers write these things, so maybe not.
FWIW, after 2 years of Yahoo account, used a lot, I get NO spam. Admittedly my email address will fail to succumb to a dictionary attack, but it does mean that Yahoo is not passing it on AND the traders etc (inc. Ebay) aren't either.
if the current bill was advising to try proprietary software before open source you'd think it was ridiculous so why isn't the reverse true?
There is a difference. Open Source is free (usually) which makes a difference is all else is equal. When all else is not equal, Open Source can be modified to suit, which in itself if a powerful benefit, particularly if Gov wants to install a few thousand seats - amortising a mod may be easy.
The problem with Tivo still remains that although they make 'anonymity' noises now, they can de-anonymize any time they choose. Right now, the user base is ramping up, and so Tivo is very careful not to upset people. When the user base is steady, the situation is likely to be different.
I will only belive Tivo's privacy posture if the data is stored anonymously as opposed to simply used anonymously. The only reason they can possibly have to store user data now is because they are effectively reserving the right to de-anonymize later for business purposes.
There is much info on Tivo privacy; one link is http://www.privacyfoundation.org/privacywatch/prin t.asp?id=62&type=0
As a last point, the UK Data Protection Act insists the people-data databases declare data use on forming. If the data use is changed (eg info can now be sold, before not so) then the historical data must be scrapped. That theoretically protects against data misuse by collecting under false pretenses, or complete about turns on privacy statements that have happening in USA.
I have done the same. Outlook Express doesn't show, and Fax can't be unchecked. Nor can COM+. Maybe these can only be uninstalled (ie configured by running them the first time) but the installation files can't be removed.
Right. But Outlook Express which comes with Win 2k cannot be permanently deleted, even if you've never started it up and gone through the config. process.
Torvalds did not make commercial use of Unix. Any individual may use any patented technique for personal use, but cannot commercially exploit a patent without a license. Torvalds didn't sell anything (did he?), so suit will fail because a suit must hinge on measuring monetary damage.
If you buy something - anything without a signed contract (or DMCA) deeming otherwise - you can disassemble, modify, reverse engineer and so on.
What you normally can't do is make COMMERCIAL USE of any IP you have uncovered. Same goes for patents. Anyone can make personal use of a patent. So, publishing info (free, like on a web page) on how to modify a something is fine. Selling a mod chip is commercial use, and can be attacked.
The bring-to-reality example I like is cars. Think about what info and 3rd party commercial exploitation exists for modifying cars and their components. The car manufacturers don't file suits to prevent it.
If something like this had happened in Florida during the last U.S. Presidential election, people would have gone to jail, even if they had been completely honest and just "doing their job".
See Greg Palast's site http://gregpalast.com/ It's in his book and you can download the relevant chapter CHAPTER 1. JIM CROW IN CYBERSPACE: The Unreported Story of How They Fixed the Vote in Florida at http://www.gregpalast.com/bestdemocracymoneycanbuy chapter1.pdf
His conclusions? The polititions are lining up to do the same for the 2004 elections, and there's little you can do about it.
"It amazes me that a book such as this could be banned, yet car service manuals can be sold in most bookstores."
Not really. The Haynes manual for my Chevy Malibu does not even admit there's a harness for the seatbelt alarm (and other alarms), so I can't disable it without trial and error.
But... he was still guilty of the accusation!
on
The Virus Did It
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Guy was accused of having pornographic pictures of kids on his computer, right? Well he did! It's purely mitigation that it wasn't his fault - but legally it was still his responsibility, if the law was written that way. Bit like receiving stolen goods law.
Now if the burden of proof becomes the presecutor's to PROVE the defendant knowingly downloaded the material (as opposed to reasonable likelyhood),then we're going to get a lot of ISP log requests to differentiate between an upload by nastyware and a download by user.
behind the NAT, all with the same serial number (but different network card IDs of course), then can the machines be distinguished? After all, it's perfectly legit to use the same serial number on multiple machines, s'long as you have actually bought the multiple copies.
When I left UK 2 1/2 years ago, few UK high street banks offered internet banking. Only HSBC didn't say 'any transaction on your account is your responsibility even if you can prove it wasn't you', and a few wouldn't even permit internet account access outside the UK (!!). So of course I went with HSBC. Wonder if the situation has improved since...
I have no problems with Vivendi, or the emusic offering. I'm also sure the signup etc will be as secure as they can make it.
HOWEVER I do have a problem when service providers absolve themselves of ANY responsibility for fraud by contracting that any bad behaviour is the customer's fault, and the customer agrees that it cannot have been caused by either internal fraud/misuse or a security lapse. Remember phantom debit card withdrawals? Clearly Emusics's lawyers have fear and uncertainty about these issues, or the contract would not be worded so.
If someone misuses your account, it's your fault even though they acknowledge that the login procedure isn't secure. Similarly your CC transactions. And see www.emusic.com/help/privacy_policy.html for details how they'll let every spam the **** out of you, and sell you info to anyone. And they can change any of the conditions by posting the changes on a non-front-page of the site, without guaranteeing to email customers these changes. However they are prepared to let 'partners' spam you. Thanks Vivendi, but no thanks. Just a BIT loaded your way...
Nothing to stop anyone collecting the old games themselves, archiving them themselves, but not distributing them on the internet. Even if you knew no-one with any games, it wouldn't take much money to slowly buy them on Ebay, archive (copy tape into PC via sound card, scan insert), then sell the tapes again on Ebay.
getting more than a few thousand hours (operation before half-life) out of the blue is a problem at the moment. And a year is 8760 hours.
PDPs have similar problems with phospor lifetimes differing for RGB, which is why any unused portions of a PDP are sent the average of the rest of the screen's intensity so it all wears evenly.
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As I understand it, theft involves taking an 'thing' that is not owned. So, for example copying a recent book (also protected by copyright law) in its entirety simply violates the copyright. Taking a book from a store without paying for it is theft.
I also think copyright violations are a 'civil' offence, not criminal. This is very distinct from IP law which treats 'know-how' and other knowledge as private property, and hence is covered by criminal law.
Please clarify the above.
Please don't presume all the suits are stupid (tho' of course many are, and it can be easier to get to be a senior suit by politics than techier jobs).
Presume instead that their agenda is different. For many companies, the customer is not the product-purchaser, but the stockmarket attitude to the company, because that's where the shareholder value is influenced the most. Producing a perfect product is very usually not a necessary means to that end. the exception is when a bad product involves returns/recall costs (eg my maxtor 120Gb, your Firestone tyres). For software, there is practically no reject recourse to the customer.
Actually, a lot of laws are put in place just to protect stupid people from sneaky people. For example, a lot of financial products are covered by disclosure and right to cancel laws for exactly this reason... and I expect more people are financially 'stupid' than technically stupid.
See http://www.usdc.org/technical/downloads/Web_Report _0101/sld027.htm which is a Philips slide saying a 640x480 display will draw 28W. Not for my laptop, thanks. This is why all the bigger displays are 1 off demos for hype, and only the very small ones (about 2" diagonal max) are in production.
The other big problem is phosphor life which varies with colour (blue is worst) and getting 10k hours is very difficult unless temperature is kept moderate.
However, these displays look very good, although maybe too good for reasonable privacy because the viewing angle is TOO wide to my mind.
IMHO, you won't these even competing with TFTs until 2007.
Ebay saves all search requests also, which could be very useful in profiling a 'suspect'. To me, the ability to pass that across to is the privacy invasion; the sales/buys are public domain anyway for 3 months.
Can't do that in U.K. because of data protection act. If keep of personal info changes Ts & Cs or privacy policy significantly (eg can now distribute personal data they couldn't before), they must delete the old data and start afresh under the new conditions.
"BigPond public affairs manager Stuart Gray deined that Telstra sold email lists."
Whoopy do. There are many ways of circulating a list to 3rd parties without "selling" it. Magazines, for example, rent their lists by becoming mailing houses so the rentee can't see and therefore reuse the names. Charities swap lists.
Many site privacy policies use similar language which sounds like they will never pass on their list, but in fact they are just defining a narrow range of circumstances under which they won't. Could be clumsy English... but then I expect lawyers write these things, so maybe not.
FWIW, after 2 years of Yahoo account, used a lot, I get NO spam. Admittedly my email address will fail to succumb to a dictionary attack, but it does mean that Yahoo is not passing it on AND the traders etc (inc. Ebay) aren't either.
...wasn't on the short list of audio formats supported by this version of WMP. Hmm.
There is a difference. Open Source is free (usually) which makes a difference is all else is equal. When all else is not equal, Open Source can be modified to suit, which in itself if a powerful benefit, particularly if Gov wants to install a few thousand seats - amortising a mod may be easy.
Payment per message simply legitimises the spam.
Also, nothing to stop a provider doing deal to pass the spam for free for institutions such as CC providers in return for some benefit.
If you're going to something postive, insist that the recipient cannot be charged for receiving SMS.
The problem with Tivo still remains that although they make 'anonymity' noises now, they can de-anonymize any time they choose. Right now, the user base is ramping up, and so Tivo is very careful not to upset people. When the user base is steady, the situation is likely to be different.
n t.asp?id=62&type=0
I will only belive Tivo's privacy posture if the data is stored anonymously as opposed to simply used anonymously. The only reason they can possibly have to store user data now is because they are effectively reserving the right to de-anonymize later for business purposes.
There is much info on Tivo privacy; one link is http://www.privacyfoundation.org/privacywatch/pri
As a last point, the UK Data Protection Act insists the people-data databases declare data use on forming. If the data use is changed (eg info can now be sold, before not so) then the historical data must be scrapped. That theoretically protects against data misuse by collecting under false pretenses, or complete about turns on privacy statements that have happening in USA.
I have done the same. Outlook Express doesn't show, and Fax can't be unchecked. Nor can COM+. Maybe these can only be uninstalled (ie configured by running them the first time) but the installation files can't be removed.
Right. But Outlook Express which comes with Win 2k cannot be permanently deleted, even if you've never started it up and gone through the config. process.
Torvalds did not make commercial use of Unix. Any individual may use any patented technique for personal use, but cannot commercially exploit a patent without a license. Torvalds didn't sell anything (did he?), so suit will fail because a suit must hinge on measuring monetary damage.
If you buy something - anything without a signed contract (or DMCA) deeming otherwise - you can disassemble, modify, reverse engineer and so on.
What you normally can't do is make COMMERCIAL USE of any IP you have uncovered. Same goes for patents. Anyone can make personal use of a patent. So, publishing info (free, like on a web page) on how to modify a something is fine. Selling a mod chip is commercial use, and can be attacked.
The bring-to-reality example I like is cars. Think about what info and 3rd party commercial exploitation exists for modifying cars and their components. The car manufacturers don't file suits to prevent it.
See Greg Palast's site http://gregpalast.com/ It's in his book and you can download the relevant chapter CHAPTER 1. JIM CROW IN CYBERSPACE: The Unreported Story of How They Fixed the Vote in Florida at http://www.gregpalast.com/bestdemocracymoneycanbuy chapter1.pdf
His conclusions? The polititions are lining up to do the same for the 2004 elections, and there's little you can do about it.
"It amazes me that a book such as this could be banned, yet car service manuals can be sold in most bookstores."
Not really. The Haynes manual for my Chevy Malibu does not even admit there's a harness for the seatbelt alarm (and other alarms), so I can't disable it without trial and error.
Guy was accused of having pornographic pictures of kids on his computer, right? Well he did! It's purely mitigation that it wasn't his fault - but legally it was still his responsibility, if the law was written that way. Bit like receiving stolen goods law.
Now if the burden of proof becomes the presecutor's to PROVE the defendant knowingly downloaded the material (as opposed to reasonable likelyhood),then we're going to get a lot of ISP log requests to differentiate between an upload by nastyware and a download by user.
behind the NAT, all with the same serial number (but different network card IDs of course), then can the machines be distinguished? After all, it's perfectly legit to use the same serial number on multiple machines, s'long as you have actually bought the multiple copies.
When I left UK 2 1/2 years ago, few UK high street banks offered internet banking. Only HSBC didn't say 'any transaction on your account is your responsibility even if you can prove it wasn't you', and a few wouldn't even permit internet account access outside the UK (!!). So of course I went with HSBC. Wonder if the situation has improved since...
I have no problems with Vivendi, or the emusic offering. I'm also sure the signup etc will be as secure as they can make it.
HOWEVER I do have a problem when service providers absolve themselves of ANY responsibility for fraud by contracting that any bad behaviour is the customer's fault, and the customer agrees that it cannot have been caused by either internal fraud/misuse or a security lapse. Remember phantom debit card withdrawals? Clearly Emusics's lawyers have fear and uncertainty about these issues, or the contract would not be worded so.
See www.emusic.com/bem/new_signup/terms.html
If someone misuses your account, it's your fault even though they acknowledge that the login procedure isn't secure. Similarly your CC transactions. And see www.emusic.com/help/privacy_policy.html for details how they'll let every spam the **** out of you, and sell you info to anyone. And they can change any of the conditions by posting the changes on a non-front-page of the site, without guaranteeing to email customers these changes. However they are prepared to let 'partners' spam you. Thanks Vivendi, but no thanks. Just a BIT loaded your way...
Nothing to stop anyone collecting the old games themselves, archiving them themselves, but not distributing them on the internet. Even if you knew no-one with any games, it wouldn't take much money to slowly buy them on Ebay, archive (copy tape into PC via sound card, scan insert), then sell the tapes again on Ebay.
getting more than a few thousand hours (operation before half-life) out of the blue is a problem at the moment. And a year is 8760 hours.
PDPs have similar problems with phospor lifetimes differing for RGB, which is why any unused portions of a PDP are sent the average of the rest of the screen's intensity so it all wears evenly.
I sit corrected! So... which of federal and state has first claim on loyalty, i.e. bearing arms in defence? In law, that is.