In the end this service is not unlike others you would get at a university. While I am sure this is not the same for all Universities, the one where I go to school at sells you services such as your phone, your cable, your internet (at least it is high speed) and this is all built into the price.
The reason the prices are the way that they are is bulk pricing. Everyone chips in a little and it does not seem so bad overall. Also, as a member of Residence Hall Council we get to vote and approve such 'manditory fees' for services in the halls, and while i agree it seems rude to force fees on people we can often get services for all at the price of $5.00 per person where to simply leave one person out would raise the price as high as $20.00 per person because it is not 'all'.
When we vote in these fees it is done in the intrest of all students, not just a few. We try to get the best deals we can, and offer the services that are wanted at discouted rates. You accept certain limitations by living in a residence hall, you likly have quite hours, you are reqiured to follow the house rules, and you agree to the manditory fees. It is alot like living in a house that is under the rule of a housing association.
In wrap up this was not written to draw the ire of anyone, just to give another perspective that might not otherwise be viewed.
Doug Morris
I see four problems that would need to be addressed seperatly depending on what you would want to do.
1. Some group/organisation had a deal with the credit card company to collect these applications in exchange for something. IE, they did not do this for free. So, they made money on the submission of your information for processing. Their agreement with the Credit Card company most likly prohibited this action also without consent of the individual. That being said there is a possible action here by both the CC company aginst those who collected the information and by the persons who's information was submitted without authorization. This issue really has nothing at all to do with the app being easily accessable in the trash because you could not just collect information from public sourcees and submit it for such an activity.
2. Theft of Privacy/Information. There are two sides to this fence and I am not sure where trash in a mall or other similar facility would fall. At my house, my trash is my private property and no one is allowed to mess with it up until I take it out to the curb at which point it becomes public property and is accessable by the trash department and anyone else who wants it. In the case of a mall, I would think that the same would apply in that once the application was deposited in the trash can it became the property of the mall and thus that company was stealing from the mall. This could be altered if the trash can was owned by the orginization collection the applications however. This whole topic is a little grey.
3. Running of Credit Check - This is where you would be able to get the credit card company. They ran your credit history without your permission. They had no signature on which to do so. This is damaging to your credit history and people do and have been successful in such lawsuite to get the inquiries removed and to collect damages in the process.
4. Sale of Private Information - Banking laws are very strict on what you can and can not do with customer information . If the bank was the one who sold the information of a customer without that customers concent (hard to do when they sould not be a customer in the first place) they are violating all kinds of laws. I work in a Pawn Shop and we have to obey the same privacy laws the banks do. We are even regulated by the same orginisation so I have seen the regs.
That all being said I believe you have a cause of action aginst the group that collected the information for profitting from the unauthorized sale of your information. I can also see where you would have a cause of action aginst the Credit Card company for pulling your credit report / damage to your credit history without your permission and also for the sale of your personal information for profit.
Let me end all that by saying that I am not a lawyer and all information I stated is based only on my opion and interoration of the laws.
The only downfall of using an 802.11b connection is the limited bandwidth. You put your connection on 802.11b that means you have 11mbps of bandwidth at half duplex, so effectivly 5.5mbps, and that is assuming nothing else is transmitting on the wireless network, and that the frequencies are clean. In some cases that might not be enough to stream a video file to your player. the a and g standards tho might be able to handel it.
This might very well be. But I would think that a company like Microsoft would likly in say 10 years or so release to the wonderful and greatful world, Microsoft Windows 3.1 GPL. hehehe. But seriously, who knows, they might use something like this to help their image, perhaps we might even see government purchases enough to release software under this deal. I mean if I remember correctly it was not that long ago that some major nation bought the source code for windows. I believe it was right after Microsoft stated that the release of their source code would be a threat to National Security... Wonder who's security...
Doug
Slashdot Mirror
In the end this service is not unlike others you would get at a university. While I am sure this is not the same for all Universities, the one where I go to school at sells you services such as your phone, your cable, your internet (at least it is high speed) and this is all built into the price. The reason the prices are the way that they are is bulk pricing. Everyone chips in a little and it does not seem so bad overall. Also, as a member of Residence Hall Council we get to vote and approve such 'manditory fees' for services in the halls, and while i agree it seems rude to force fees on people we can often get services for all at the price of $5.00 per person where to simply leave one person out would raise the price as high as $20.00 per person because it is not 'all'. When we vote in these fees it is done in the intrest of all students, not just a few. We try to get the best deals we can, and offer the services that are wanted at discouted rates. You accept certain limitations by living in a residence hall, you likly have quite hours, you are reqiured to follow the house rules, and you agree to the manditory fees. It is alot like living in a house that is under the rule of a housing association. In wrap up this was not written to draw the ire of anyone, just to give another perspective that might not otherwise be viewed. Doug Morris
I see four problems that would need to be addressed seperatly depending on what you would want to do.
1. Some group/organisation had a deal with the credit card company to collect these applications in exchange for something. IE, they did not do this for free. So, they made money on the submission of your information for processing. Their agreement with the Credit Card company most likly prohibited this action also without consent of the individual. That being said there is a possible action here by both the CC company aginst those who collected the information and by the persons who's information was submitted without authorization. This issue really has nothing at all to do with the app being easily accessable in the trash because you could not just collect information from public sourcees and submit it for such an activity.
2. Theft of Privacy/Information. There are two sides to this fence and I am not sure where trash in a mall or other similar facility would fall. At my house, my trash is my private property and no one is allowed to mess with it up until I take it out to the curb at which point it becomes public property and is accessable by the trash department and anyone else who wants it. In the case of a mall, I would think that the same would apply in that once the application was deposited in the trash can it became the property of the mall and thus that company was stealing from the mall. This could be altered if the trash can was owned by the orginization collection the applications however. This whole topic is a little grey.
3. Running of Credit Check - This is where you would be able to get the credit card company. They ran your credit history without your permission. They had no signature on which to do so. This is damaging to your credit history and people do and have been successful in such lawsuite to get the inquiries removed and to collect damages in the process.
4. Sale of Private Information - Banking laws are very strict on what you can and can not do with customer information . If the bank was the one who sold the information of a customer without that customers concent (hard to do when they sould not be a customer in the first place) they are violating all kinds of laws. I work in a Pawn Shop and we have to obey the same privacy laws the banks do. We are even regulated by the same orginisation so I have seen the regs.
That all being said I believe you have a cause of action aginst the group that collected the information for profitting from the unauthorized sale of your information. I can also see where you would have a cause of action aginst the Credit Card company for pulling your credit report / damage to your credit history without your permission and also for the sale of your personal information for profit.
Let me end all that by saying that I am not a lawyer and all information I stated is based only on my opion and interoration of the laws.
Hope this helps.
Doug
The only downfall of using an 802.11b connection is the limited bandwidth. You put your connection on 802.11b that means you have 11mbps of bandwidth at half duplex, so effectivly 5.5mbps, and that is assuming nothing else is transmitting on the wireless network, and that the frequencies are clean. In some cases that might not be enough to stream a video file to your player. the a and g standards tho might be able to handel it.
This might very well be. But I would think that a company like Microsoft would likly in say 10 years or so release to the wonderful and greatful world, Microsoft Windows 3.1 GPL. hehehe. But seriously, who knows, they might use something like this to help their image, perhaps we might even see government purchases enough to release software under this deal. I mean if I remember correctly it was not that long ago that some major nation bought the source code for windows. I believe it was right after Microsoft stated that the release of their source code would be a threat to National Security... Wonder who's security... Doug