Not likely. Microsoft employs a lot of people in the state of Washington (this is a state bill), and the taxes that they and their employees pay finance a not insignificant portion of the state's budget. Basically, if Microsoft wants legislation bad enough, all they have to do is threaten to leave the state and they will get it. Boeing has pulled that trick many times.
You'll notice that the First Amendment does not specify direct infringement, therefore if Congress passes a law which indirectly allows those freedoms to be infringed, they have violated the First Amendment.
Tell your wife she's a whore, and expect all your marital benefits to immediately cease.
Until the divorce is finalized, I am entitled to all the legal benefits of marriage. I suspect that you were referring to sex which is not a legal benefit. In-fact, I could be the best husband in the world and my wife would have no legal obligation to even sleep in the same room with me.
The Bill Of Rights is not a universal document...
True, but the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is, and it specifically states my original point: that no government shall allow the rights of its citizens to be infringed by anyone. And just incase you're not a big supporter of international law (and I'm not sure if that particular treaty was ratified by the US), I will point to the Declaration of Independence (considered by the Right to be more important than the Constitution) which refers to our rights as unalienable, meaning that no one can take them away.
Having said all that, I do agree that there are certain types of speech that you should not expect to be free of consequence. If you go around divulging trade secrets or badmouthing your company with statements that are not objectively true you should expect to be fired. Firing an employee for any other type of speech is a violation of their rights weather or not the law technically says so.
"That way the states can start their own mini-IRS's and go ahead with universal healthcare, long term unemployment, low cost broadband, and other progressive/leftist quality of life improvement."
And all the rich people will move to another state so they won't have to pay for it.
"But if it happened to me, and it was because of the kind of "evidence" described here, I wouldn't feel wronged in any way. I would understand that it was a valid mistake.
"
Trust me, when it happens to you, you WILL feel wronged. You see, when they arrest you, they will do it in one of two ways. If you're lucky they'll get you when you're alone, with noone around to witness them brutalizing you. If you're unlucky, they'll get you at work, school, in front of your children, or some other humiliating situation. And when they see you being hauled away in cuffs, crying as most innocent people do when they are arrested, your life will never be the same. And don't even get me started on the ways they can (legaly) psychologically torture you while wait for your trial.
"Agents of the RIAA honestly have a strong belief that a Verizon user downloaded one of their songs (of course they know- they sent it to him over P2P)." emphasis added
Are you serious? Because if the RIAA placed the file on the network, then it wasn't illegal for the guy to download it. It's only piracy if you obtain your copy from an illegitimate source, so unless the RIAA put the file there without the permission of the copyright owner (which would make them guilty of piracy too), downloading the song was perfectly legal.
OK, I'm having a hard time understanding this. The shareholders own the company, right? So if the company is to be sold, the shareholders (the ones with a controlling interest) have to vote on it, right? Now, if the shareholders, who own the company, decide to sell it to another company, who makes the puchase with cash, how can they still own it?
" A good alternative for music distribution and artist promotion."
Well, this looks interesting. It dosen't offer much in the way of promotion, but I think it has potential. When/if I finish my current project I'm signing up.
You don't need to port the GUI. I've been using Pluggo as a VST shell for Digital Performer, and one of the things it can do is strip out the GUI and give you a default interface. It's not pretty, but it works.
I see no reason why Emagic/Apple's toolkit could't do some thing like that.
Re:How would the world react. . .
on
Want Freedom?
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· Score: 1
"Of course, it's highly unlikely that it could happen here..."
I bet the Germans said the same thing in the 1930's, and we all know how that turned out.
So what you're saying is that the right to earn a living is more important than the right to free speach. Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Just hope and pray that your speach never gets in the way of corporate America's profits, and don't expect any sympathy when it does.
So, given the choice, is the freedom of one guy more important than the job security of thousands?
I say YES! Freedom is more important than you, more important than me, and certainly more important than MS. Without freedom, what do we have? Nothing, not a damn thing! If you would sacrefice freedom for job security, you might as well go to Arlington National Cemetery and piss on the graves of every soldier burried there.
A world without freedom is not a world I want to live in. To quote Patrick Henry: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
What you fail to realize is that the government is not one big happy family. There are various factions within the government, like Liberals and Conservatives, that are constantly fighting with each other for control. Likewise, the various branches of government are also constantly fighting with each other. In the case of President Clinton, there actually was a "vast right-wing conspiracy" to remove him from office (it wasn't really that "vast," otherwise it would have succeeded, but it was there). True, this is also a matter of public record, but the only reason this is so is because both sides are equally powerful and were trying to discredit each other.
But now imagine that these factions could put aside their differences in order to reach a common goal. In that case they could pull off a conspiracy, and keep it hidden for a very long time. This kind of bipartisan collaboration doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Under normal circumstances, the PATRIOT Act would never have passed, but Republicans and Democrats were able to come togehter for the common purpose of screwing over the American people (the only thing those two ever agree on).
The other thing that you fail to realize is that there are some government agencies that are capable of keeping secrets: the military and intelligence agencies. After all, if these agencies couldn't keep ANY secrets, our enemies would have destroyed us by now.
Now you might say that there is no evidence of any recent government conspiracies, to which any good conspiracy theorist would say "Of course not. If there was evidence, it means that 'they' failed." Now I agree that using a lack of evidence as proof that your theory is true is pretty ridiculous, but that doesn't mean that conspiracies NEVER happen.
By the way, as an artist, why not make your money selling mp3s?
Because mp3s sound like absolute shit. I'm sorry, but it's true. Mp3 audio has no "dimention," it sounds flat. Shure, if you throw in a n aural exciter and subharmonic synthesizer, you can thicken it up a bit, but it still lacks clarity of a CD (or well preserved vinyl).
Oh, and as an artist myself, I am looking forward to DVD-Audio. 24 bit, 96Khz, 5.1 surround! Oh baby! If you've never had the pleasure of listening to 24/96 audio, you almost can't tell it's digital (ie. much fewer quantization errors than the 16/44.1 audio used on CDs).
Here in Washington, they're is considering putting a small GPS device in all new licence plates (we have to get new plates every few years) so they can tax us for the number of miles we drive.** Talk about potential for abuse.
**The last I heard of this was a year ago, so hopefuly they decided not to do it.
The only problem with anarchy is, how do you enforce it? There will always be a certain number of people who desire power, and in order to obtain that power, they will try to form a government.
So, you need some kind of intelligence gathering agency and millitary force that could detect and prevent a potential outbreak of government. And, of course, you'll need rules for these agencys to follow, so as to protect everyone else from them, and some sort of oversight commity to make shure those rules are followed. And then you'll need a group of people handle the punishment of those who violate the rules, and another set of rules for them to follow to ensure that innocent people are not punished.
You'll also need some meathod of deterring people from lying, stealing, killing, or otherwise abusing eachother. After all, most people aren't very nice. And then you'll need some way of seeing to it that those who do violate the rules of common decency are dealt with, and again, there will need to be a set of rules for how to procede with such matters.
Wow, you were right, anarchy does work. All you have to do is follow these simple guidelines and...
Wait a minute. Oh shit! We've just created a government. Guess we'll have to start over.
The average consumer is not going to care about this. Hell, I don't care about this. This is just a standard, run-of-the-mill copyright infringement suit involving two faceless corporations. There is absolutely nothing special about it, and it's outcome will have no effect whatsoever on the average Joe.
The reason that we only export the crap is because that is our mainstream culture. The truth is, Americans have no appreciation for art, all they want is Mickey Mouse and Britney Spears.
You are correct that we have some excellent writers, artists, and musicians. We also have some pretty good film makers. Unfortunately, all these things are swept under the rug and never become a part of our mainstream culture. In truth, the only real culture we have is counter-culture. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Not likely. Microsoft employs a lot of people in the state of Washington (this is a state bill), and the taxes that they and their employees pay finance a not insignificant portion of the state's budget. Basically, if Microsoft wants legislation bad enough, all they have to do is threaten to leave the state and they will get it. Boeing has pulled that trick many times.
You'll notice that the First Amendment does not specify direct infringement, therefore if Congress passes a law which indirectly allows those freedoms to be infringed, they have violated the First Amendment.
Until the divorce is finalized, I am entitled to all the legal benefits of marriage. I suspect that you were referring to sex which is not a legal benefit. In-fact, I could be the best husband in the world and my wife would have no legal obligation to even sleep in the same room with me.
True, but the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is, and it specifically states my original point: that no government shall allow the rights of its citizens to be infringed by anyone. And just incase you're not a big supporter of international law (and I'm not sure if that particular treaty was ratified by the US), I will point to the Declaration of Independence (considered by the Right to be more important than the Constitution) which refers to our rights as unalienable, meaning that no one can take them away.
Having said all that, I do agree that there are certain types of speech that you should not expect to be free of consequence. If you go around divulging trade secrets or badmouthing your company with statements that are not objectively true you should expect to be fired. Firing an employee for any other type of speech is a violation of their rights weather or not the law technically says so.
And all the rich people will move to another state so they won't have to pay for it.
Trust me, when it happens to you, you WILL feel wronged. You see, when they arrest you, they will do it in one of two ways. If you're lucky they'll get you when you're alone, with noone around to witness them brutalizing you. If you're unlucky, they'll get you at work, school, in front of your children, or some other humiliating situation. And when they see you being hauled away in cuffs, crying as most innocent people do when they are arrested, your life will never be the same. And don't even get me started on the ways they can (legaly) psychologically torture you while wait for your trial.
Here.
Are you serious? Because if the RIAA placed the file on the network, then it wasn't illegal for the guy to download it. It's only piracy if you obtain your copy from an illegitimate source, so unless the RIAA put the file there without the permission of the copyright owner (which would make them guilty of piracy too), downloading the song was perfectly legal.
OK, I'm having a hard time understanding this. The shareholders own the company, right? So if the company is to be sold, the shareholders (the ones with a controlling interest) have to vote on it, right? Now, if the shareholders, who own the company, decide to sell it to another company, who makes the puchase with cash, how can they still own it?
I think that stuffing someone in a bottle would get you more than 3 years.
And how is locking someone in a cage for the rest of their life not revenge?
I agree, you should definitely get out of politics. :)
Well, this looks interesting. It dosen't offer much in the way of promotion, but I think it has potential. When/if I finish my current project I'm signing up.
I see no reason why Emagic/Apple's toolkit could't do some thing like that.
I bet the Germans said the same thing in the 1930's, and we all know how that turned out.
Two Words: product placement.
So what you're saying is that the right to earn a living is more important than the right to free speach. Well, you're entitled to your opinion. Just hope and pray that your speach never gets in the way of corporate America's profits, and don't expect any sympathy when it does.
I say YES! Freedom is more important than you, more important than me, and certainly more important than MS. Without freedom, what do we have? Nothing, not a damn thing! If you would sacrefice freedom for job security, you might as well go to Arlington National Cemetery and piss on the graves of every soldier burried there.
A world without freedom is not a world I want to live in. To quote Patrick Henry: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
But now imagine that these factions could put aside their differences in order to reach a common goal. In that case they could pull off a conspiracy, and keep it hidden for a very long time. This kind of bipartisan collaboration doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Under normal circumstances, the PATRIOT Act would never have passed, but Republicans and Democrats were able to come togehter for the common purpose of screwing over the American people (the only thing those two ever agree on).
The other thing that you fail to realize is that there are some government agencies that are capable of keeping secrets: the military and intelligence agencies. After all, if these agencies couldn't keep ANY secrets, our enemies would have destroyed us by now.
Now you might say that there is no evidence of any recent government conspiracies, to which any good conspiracy theorist would say "Of course not. If there was evidence, it means that 'they' failed." Now I agree that using a lack of evidence as proof that your theory is true is pretty ridiculous, but that doesn't mean that conspiracies NEVER happen.
Need I say more?
Because mp3s sound like absolute shit. I'm sorry, but it's true. Mp3 audio has no "dimention," it sounds flat. Shure, if you throw in a n aural exciter and subharmonic synthesizer, you can thicken it up a bit, but it still lacks clarity of a CD (or well preserved vinyl).
Oh, and as an artist myself, I am looking forward to DVD-Audio. 24 bit, 96Khz, 5.1 surround! Oh baby! If you've never had the pleasure of listening to 24/96 audio, you almost can't tell it's digital (ie. much fewer quantization errors than the 16/44.1 audio used on CDs).
Ever hear of concerts? Every CD purchase that I have made in the past 5 years has been a direct result of seeing a band perform live.
When I saw the headline I thought that they finaly decided to implement my idea of useing the police to deliver pizzas. ;)
**The last I heard of this was a year ago, so hopefuly they decided not to do it.
So, you need some kind of intelligence gathering agency and millitary force that could detect and prevent a potential outbreak of government. And, of course, you'll need rules for these agencys to follow, so as to protect everyone else from them, and some sort of oversight commity to make shure those rules are followed. And then you'll need a group of people handle the punishment of those who violate the rules, and another set of rules for them to follow to ensure that innocent people are not punished.
You'll also need some meathod of deterring people from lying, stealing, killing, or otherwise abusing eachother. After all, most people aren't very nice. And then you'll need some way of seeing to it that those who do violate the rules of common decency are dealt with, and again, there will need to be a set of rules for how to procede with such matters.
Wow, you were right, anarchy does work. All you have to do is follow these simple guidelines and...
Wait a minute. Oh shit! We've just created a government. Guess we'll have to start over.
The average consumer is not going to care about this. Hell, I don't care about this. This is just a standard, run-of-the-mill copyright infringement suit involving two faceless corporations. There is absolutely nothing special about it, and it's outcome will have no effect whatsoever on the average Joe.
You are correct that we have some excellent writers, artists, and musicians. We also have some pretty good film makers. Unfortunately, all these things are swept under the rug and never become a part of our mainstream culture. In truth, the only real culture we have is counter-culture. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny.