IANAnAnalLawyer, but, as I understand it, if you see something in a contract, you don't like, simply score it out, add whatever re-wording you want and sign the resulting contract.
I did this with a government agency that wanted to have free and unfettered access to my private medical records.
I scored that bit out, and added, that they may only have access upon contacting me first and obtaining my permission, and that I vet the information they can have access to (basically "no you can't have access", but less blunt.)
I signed the re-written contract and heard nothing more about it.
Why, it's almost as if Xtra is asking it's users to protest their grab-fest of their users IP, by deliberately posting fabricated insulting/humiliating images of famous people using their service, and then informing the aforementioned persons of wide recognition, of the digital insult!
"The EU has the most flagerant violations of UN regulations when it comes to arms, so get off your high horse."
What definition of Northern Bloc, are you using? It appears to be a different one to me, which includes all the Western Developed nations.
So, no high-horse from which to dismount.
And while I'm here, you might like to calm down and stop waving your flag quite so vigorously, before you do yourself an injury.
Oh, and go shove it up Rush Limbaugh's arse, while you're at it.;)
Laws enacted, and in the process of being enacted since 9-11, have and are turning America toward police-statehood.
Detention without trial; without access to lawyers. Mass surveillance measures being created. The "Material Witness" laws being subverted...
And America is not alone, The UK is also undergoing it's own particular form of Big Brother transformation.
Just don't kid yourself it's not happening. Little by little, it is.
One of the defining characteristics of a police state (though I'm no expert on the subject, by any means) to my mind, is the mass surveillance, monitoring, cataloging and tracking of the citizenry, for no real good reason.
The Stazi used this means extensively, and the emergence of it in the US, UK, and elsewhere, seems to indicate (to me at least) that the people in charge, are moist in their underwear at the thought of being able to know who you are, where you are, where you've been, where you're going, who you know, who you've associated with, who you've talked to, what you've read/listened to/viewed, who your relatives are, who you care about, what you care about, etc. (the etc. might be a little redundant at this point.)
I don't care what they need it for, whether to stop terrorists/crime/benefit fraud or whtever, on a personal level, that makes anyone who opposes me in any way, in any kind of dispute, whether because I'm fighting the building of houses on allotments, or the re-development of public land, or some bogus council activity, right up to fighting the government in court, a much greater threat than they have any right to be in a society that is not a police state.
That gives them the power to lean on me in ways that they could not, if they minded their own business, and got on with what they are supposed to be doing: representing my own and other common people's interests.
It gives them immense power over the populace that they are supposed to serve.
It isn't fully formed yet, but the Big brother Beast is growing in the womb; limbs and features, already visible. Police State? Maybe not today, but someday, soon, and perhaps for the rest of your life.
On a side note, two things: The US has banned the burning of crosses [in public at least] as constituting racial harassment (the term used was somewhat different, but I forget, just having heard it on the radio.) maybe the Nazi/Jew thing will be dealt with in the same manner, in the future.
And, Pharmboy, you said, "Perhaps if other countries would simply rise up and kill their own butcherous leaders, we wouldnt have to."
I know it's like shooting fish in a barrel, and a pretty easy riposte, but... ...maybe they wouldn't have to rise up, if the US (and other developed, Northern Bloc countries) didn't enable, arm and support their butcherous leaders in the bloody first place!
It wasn't just the Arab journos they fired on, they shot at the Palestine Hotel, (universally recognised as a western media centre) killing an [American?] Reuters cameraman and a Spanish cameraman.
The Google story is quite funny.
In the mainstream news, they often simply regurgitate press releases, and present them as news, with little to no real investigation.
Nice to see Google doing something good by cutting out the middle man! (and you have to admit, it's more honest!)
The FBI were called off their investigations that would have likely prevented 9-11, by Bush (and somewhat less-so, by Clinton) because they were sniffing "dangerously" close to the Saudi Royal family.
If you want to stop things like 9-11 happening, instead of initiating mass surveillance of every time every one of your citizens takes a dump, and what it's consistency is like, you could just stop politicians interfering in criminal and intelligence investigations.
I forget the details, but recently there was an experiment that involved testing people's co-operational versus selfish motives.
It found that even when it would have been more profitable to the person to cheat, (in the terms of the experiment) and take the profit for themselves, rather than face loss as the result of sharing, people overwhelmingly chose to share.
It turns out, the scientists discovered, people feel good when they co-operate with others! Our brains produce lots of lovely good-vibe chemicals and feelings when we share and co-operate with one another, even when it would be more personally advantageous, and safer, to do otherwise. It's biological; inherent to our humanity to share and co-operate.
IANAL, but I wonder about using this as a defence against the RIAA.;)
I agree, but the original post was suggesting the invention of a new device to solve his dilemma. I was merely pointing out that a technology already exists which would have solved his problem...
...if it were introduced to his locale, and he had a suitable receiver.
"There was no DJ break at the time, and by the time there would be one, I would no longer be in the car... so not much chance of finding out who it was."
Well, if you'd had a DAB radio in your car (Digital Audio Broadcast) chances would be that you'd see the name of the artist and track scrolling along the little lcd screen on the front of the radio.
Also, if you had the number for that mobile service... where you dial it up and play in a few bars of the song, that would tell you what it was also.
"Apple lawyers will argue that the marketplace will be confused and consumers will buy iboxes thinking they are apple computers."
But in a way they are Apple computers.
Apple Hardware, Apple OS, just not put together by Apple, in a box designed by Apple.
So he may be warranted in trying to indicate that it is in some way related to an Apple computer by using the "i" prefix.
I'm guessing that perhaps he might buy himself some protection by giving his company a name, and calling it the "Whatever iBox" thus identifying that it is built by a company other than Apple, but is still an "Apple computer."
Maybe he could call his company "False"
or "Glass"
or "Boggle"
or something.
Sue them in the small claims court, for knowingly selling you a defective product:
Sue them for your time, your inconveniance, your fuel costs in transporting the defective item.
Sue them for fraudulently selling you an item as if it were a CD: the crippled disc would likely be included amongst other CDs, looking essentially like a CD, to any reasonable person.
Let the consumer section of your local newspaper know.
Lodge a formal complaint with your local Trading Standards Body, and demand they do something.
Essentially do everything you can to force the RIAA to sell their crippled format in a seperate area of the music stores, to CDs, so there can be no confusion/fraud.
Slashdot Mirror
I did this with a government agency that wanted to have free and unfettered access to my private medical records.
I scored that bit out, and added, that they may only have access upon contacting me first and obtaining my permission, and that I vet the information they can have access to (basically "no you can't have access", but less blunt.)
I signed the re-written contract and heard nothing more about it.
Heaven forefend, such a thing should happen!
What definition of Northern Bloc, are you using? It appears to be a different one to me, which includes all the Western Developed nations.
So, no high-horse from which to dismount.
And while I'm here, you might like to calm down and stop waving your flag quite so vigorously, before you do yourself an injury.
Oh, and go shove it up Rush Limbaugh's arse, while you're at it. ;)
General
Electronic
Environment
Ko-ordinator
?
Err... and what would be your definition of reckless usage?
Millions killed, wounded, poisoned, debilitated, oppressed?
Already happened m8.
Nuclear weapons turned on civillians? Happened.
Chemical weapons.... happened.
Does your definition of a mess up require that all mankind, save a few be-straggeled survivors perhaps, be wiped from the face of the earth???
Dude, you're trying to give this guy credibility by comparing him to Ronald Reagan?????
What is this?
The /. version of friendly fire??!!??
I agree, but it's not about that, it's about "are we moving toward or away from "a democratic state" at any given time.
At the moment, it appears to be, "away from."
Laws enacted, and in the process of being enacted since 9-11, have and are turning America toward police-statehood.
Detention without trial; without access to lawyers. Mass surveillance measures being created. The "Material Witness" laws being subverted...
And America is not alone, The UK is also undergoing it's own particular form of Big Brother transformation.
Just don't kid yourself it's not happening.
Little by little, it is.
One of the defining characteristics of a police state (though I'm no expert on the subject, by any means) to my mind, is the mass surveillance, monitoring, cataloging and tracking of the citizenry, for no real good reason.
The Stazi used this means extensively, and the emergence of it in the US, UK, and elsewhere, seems to indicate (to me at least) that the people in charge, are moist in their underwear at the thought of being able to know who you are, where you are, where you've been, where you're going, who you know, who you've associated with, who you've talked to, what you've read/listened to/viewed, who your relatives are, who you care about, what you care about, etc. (the etc. might be a little redundant at this point.)
I don't care what they need it for, whether to stop terrorists/crime/benefit fraud or whtever, on a personal level, that makes anyone who opposes me in any way, in any kind of dispute, whether because I'm fighting the building of houses on allotments, or the re-development of public land, or some bogus council activity, right up to fighting the government in court, a much greater threat than they have any right to be in a society that is not a police state.
That gives them the power to lean on me in ways that they could not, if they minded their own business, and got on with what they are supposed to be doing: representing my own and other common people's interests.
It gives them immense power over the populace that they are supposed to serve.
It isn't fully formed yet, but the Big brother Beast is growing in the womb; limbs and features, already visible.
Police State?
Maybe not today, but someday, soon, and perhaps for the rest of your life.
On a side note, two things: The US has banned the burning of crosses [in public at least] as constituting racial harassment (the term used was somewhat different, but I forget, just having heard it on the radio.) maybe the Nazi/Jew thing will be dealt with in the same manner, in the future.
And, Pharmboy, you said, "Perhaps if other countries would simply rise up and kill their own butcherous leaders, we wouldnt have to."
I know it's like shooting fish in a barrel, and a pretty easy riposte, but...
...maybe they wouldn't have to rise up, if the US (and other developed, Northern Bloc countries) didn't enable, arm and support their butcherous leaders in the bloody first place!
Here's the BBC News story on the incident.
Are you entirely sure you want to be taking this line, right now?
Back in my day, there used to be "pipe-smoking old farts."
Now they're "coke-sniffing old farts."
How times have changed.
Knowledge is power. Information is power.
[and in keeping with my somewhat cryptic state of mind this evening...]
"When the fear comes from the protector, to whom does one go for protection?"
~sigh.
In the mainstream news, they often simply regurgitate press releases, and present them as news, with little to no real investigation.
Nice to see Google doing something good by cutting out the middle man!
(and you have to admit, it's more honest!)
Greg Palast
"What happens when the fear comes from the protector?"
If you want to stop things like 9-11 happening, instead of initiating mass surveillance of every time every one of your citizens takes a dump, and what it's consistency is like, you could just stop politicians interfering in criminal and intelligence investigations.
Might be a better place to start.
Who the hell is paying her, indeed.
It found that even when it would have been more profitable to the person to cheat, (in the terms of the experiment) and take the profit for themselves, rather than face loss as the result of sharing, people overwhelmingly chose to share.
It turns out, the scientists discovered, people feel good when they co-operate with others! Our brains produce lots of lovely good-vibe chemicals and feelings when we share and co-operate with one another, even when it would be more personally advantageous, and safer, to do otherwise.
It's biological; inherent to our humanity to share and co-operate.
IANAL, but I wonder about using this as a defence against the RIAA. ;)
Nexus?
It's a fsking orgy.
And us?...
We're the fsking lubricant, man... the fsking lubricant.
I agree, but the original post was suggesting the invention of a new device to solve his dilemma. I was merely pointing out that a technology already exists which would have solved his problem...
Well, if you'd had a DAB radio in your car (Digital Audio Broadcast) chances would be that you'd see the name of the artist and track scrolling along the little lcd screen on the front of the radio.
Also, if you had the number for that mobile service... where you dial it up and play in a few bars of the song, that would tell you what it was also.
But in a way they are Apple computers.
Apple Hardware, Apple OS, just not put together by Apple, in a box designed by Apple.
So he may be warranted in trying to indicate that it is in some way related to an Apple computer by using the "i" prefix.
I'm guessing that perhaps he might buy himself some protection by giving his company a name, and calling it the "Whatever iBox" thus identifying that it is built by a company other than Apple, but is still an "Apple computer."
Maybe he could call his company "False"
or "Glass"
or "Boggle"
or something.
Sue them for your time, your inconveniance, your fuel costs in transporting the defective item.
Sue them for fraudulently selling you an item as if it were a CD: the crippled disc would likely be included amongst other CDs, looking essentially like a CD, to any reasonable person.
Let the consumer section of your local newspaper know.
Lodge a formal complaint with your local Trading Standards Body, and demand they do something.
Essentially do everything you can to force the RIAA to sell their crippled format in a seperate area of the music stores, to CDs, so there can be no confusion/fraud.
DRM = Digital Restricted Media