I should start by saying that IANAL, however, as Duke University's DMCA agent, I've looked into the law very carefully. The fact of the matter is that you can't sue the ISP. Okay, you can sue the ISP but you won't win.
The DMCA has an explicit provision (section 512(g)(1) stating that if an ISP, in good faith, takes down or blocks access to material for which a notice of infringement was received, the ISP can not be held liable for the action. There are some caveats, but I think you would be hard pressed to prove that they had violated these very liberal caveats.
The interesting piece is that ISPs are responding to claims of infringement by taking advantage of the 512(c) safe harbor. A better safe harbor, for the ISP, would be to invoke section 512(a) which limits an ISP's liability for conduit activities, i.e. when the material is not on a computer they do now own (e.g. a gnutella client on your home machine). Presumably if an ISP invoked 512(a), the MPAA/RIAA/SBA would have to go after the user individually. Whether this is a better or worse solution for the end user is a matter for debate:)
most of the places I've worked at or seen do something like the following:
person on call gets a fixed amount per week (or weekend) usually around $100 flat.
for any calls received, the person gets paid at basically contractor rates for a minimum number of hours. I've often heard $75-$100 per hour for a minimum of 2 to 4 hours.
that said, it's been a few years since i've been on call personally.
As it seems unlikely that bacterium are equipped with the ability to break radioactive materials into stable elements. The only way I can see this would be useful would be if the bacteria injested the radioactive materials, locking them into a form that was not as likely to spread. For example, one of the biggest concerns in the U.S. Superfund sites is the contamination of ground water. If the bacteria could injest radioactive materials in water and then upon dying keep the contaminates locked in a solid, this would be a Good Thing.
Considering the recent well publicized security problems with Hotmail and the less well-publicized security problems with the Internet Information Server and Microsoft's ODBC; how much faith should people have in Microsoft's ability to protect their confidential financial information in the Passport(tm) system?
It took almost 5 years in grad school to learn to write a sentance that long:-)
2010 - NASA probes will discover that the liquid water beneath the surface of Europa does harbor life. Not mearly bacterium, but also larger heterotrophs feeding off of them.
The discovery of life not on Earth will drive many antiquated religous sects to despair causing mass suicides, stopping only when it is finally understood that the Earth is not the center of the universe.
I've had this edition of Computer magazine for a week now and have been seriously planning to write the editors regarding this article. Now I've got someplace to point them in addition to my own gripes.
Slashdot Mirror
I should start by saying that IANAL, however, as Duke University's DMCA agent, I've looked into the law very carefully. The fact of the matter is that you can't sue the ISP. Okay, you can sue the ISP but you won't win.
:)
The DMCA has an explicit provision (section 512(g)(1) stating that if an ISP, in good faith, takes down or blocks access to material for which a notice of infringement was received, the ISP can not be held liable for the action. There are some caveats, but I think you would be hard pressed to prove that they had violated these very liberal caveats.
The interesting piece is that ISPs are responding to claims of infringement by taking advantage of the 512(c) safe harbor. A better safe harbor, for the ISP, would be to invoke section 512(a) which limits an ISP's liability for conduit activities, i.e. when the material is not on a computer they do now own (e.g. a gnutella client on your home machine). Presumably if an ISP invoked 512(a), the MPAA/RIAA/SBA would have to go after the user individually. Whether this is a better or worse solution for the end user is a matter for debate
most of the places I've worked at or seen do something like the following:
person on call gets a fixed amount per week (or weekend) usually around $100 flat.
for any calls received, the person gets paid at basically contractor rates for a minimum number of hours. I've often heard $75-$100 per hour for a minimum of 2 to 4 hours.
that said, it's been a few years since i've been on call personally.
-chris
As it seems unlikely that bacterium are equipped with the ability to break radioactive materials into stable elements. The only way I can see this would be useful would be if the bacteria injested the radioactive materials, locking them into a form that was not as likely to spread. For example, one of the biggest concerns in the U.S. Superfund sites is the contamination of ground water. If the bacteria could injest radioactive materials in water and then upon dying keep the contaminates locked in a solid, this would be a Good Thing.
-Chris
Considering the recent well publicized security problems with Hotmail and the less well-publicized security problems with the Internet Information Server and Microsoft's ODBC; how much faith should people have in Microsoft's ability to protect their confidential financial information in the Passport(tm) system?
It took almost 5 years in grad school to learn to write a sentance that long
-Chris
2010 - NASA probes will discover that the liquid water beneath the surface of Europa does harbor life. Not mearly bacterium, but also larger heterotrophs feeding off of them.
The discovery of life not on Earth will drive many antiquated religous sects to despair causing mass suicides, stopping only when it is finally understood that the Earth is not the center of the universe.
I've had this edition of Computer magazine for a week now and have been seriously planning to write the editors regarding this article. Now I've got someplace to point them in addition to my own gripes.
Way to go.
-Chris