I've looked at cell phone batteries before. I've never seen one cheaper than $40 for any phone I've owned. Where the HECK did the original poster get a $10 battery?
I bought a battery for my first notebook. It cost me $120 and drained in under an hour of use. It drained when it just sat there powered off.
I looked at the cost of getting a second battery for my current notebook. $200+.
And people are complaining about the iPod batteries...
-V
I only got to see two episodes of Firefly. Pity, I did enjoy it. It just wasn't on at a time when I could remember to sit down and watch it, and I still have to build a linux PVR... so it got missed.
How many episodes were made, anyhow? It really was a rather entertaining little show. Perhaps a bit too geek-targeted in some ways for the majority of society, but certainly fun.
First, I find it necessary to say that "music is just audio" sounds a lot (to me) like something someone said to me recently (off slashdot)... "The purest form of racing is who has the fastest quarter mile." (ie, dragging). There's a lot more to racing... who's best at controlling the car, who's best at tweaking the car for the track, etc.
Live performance is a lot like that. There's a whole lot there that you don't get by just listening to a CD. I used to think, "ah, so what? It's all the same stuff." Then I went to a concert.
Music is a communication of ideas and emotions. Audio is one method of communicating that, but there are so many other ways. Posture, facial expression, motion. Even if you close your eyes during the concert and don't watch anything and 'only listen', there is still a... realness to it that you don't get from a CD.
CDs are the same thing every time but a concert is being done there... Right there. Right then. For you. It's someone using their talents specifically to communicate something to you.
A good artist will adjust their performance according to crowd reaction. There's feedback based on the mood of the audience. Subtle changes in the performance. I've heard people talk of this... going to two or three shows of one artist where one audience "didn't get in the groove" and the performance was flat, but another where the audience was attentive and the artist was really speaking to them. A kind of subtle synergy happens there.
It's that second type of show people go to concerts, hoping to see. To get that connection with the performer, the PERSON up on stage. To enter into a kind of dialogue beyond just sitting in a room with speakers reproducing exactly the same thing time and time again.
Now, I'll say I rarely go to concerts. Usually nobody plays this area that I'd ever care to see. But I WOULD go again, if a performer I liked showed up down at the Civic.
Of course, not everyone likes concerts, and that's fine. But you should at least experience something before you decide you don't care for it or find no interest in it.
I bought CDs in Japan. USED CDs went for $15-$20. New were $30+. I've bought Japanese CDs that cost close to $40. Think WE have it bad?
I'm told that it's similar in Belgium (if not all of Europe) - that CDs and DVDs are ridiculously expensive. To the point that most people can't afford to buy ANY of them. Or have much better things to do with their money.
Oooh, yeah. DO that. Reduce yourself to committing mail fraud, just like them.
Set up a real (but single-purpose) email address on hotmail and use a script to send individual, personalized emails to each of these individuals. Not bulk mail, but a whole slew of individual messages. Come up with a whole bunch of subjects and phrases for the body of the message and insert them at random.
If you say "I'll do it as soon as I have time," or something like that, you'll come off as having an attitude. People will soon be saying you're unresponsive and uncaring.
What you need to do is say, "I would love to help you, but I'll need to have my manager prioritize that task into my list." Then get your manager to do just that for you. Every time you go to him, he'll realize that you're not enough resources.
If he suggests that everything is a priority and it all has to be done, stand firm and say, "I can only do eight hours of work in an eight hour day." If he asks for more and you're salaried but not making a respectable amount, you could say, "I would be willing to some extra hours, but I do not feel the pay I am receiving fairly compensates me for that amount of time."
It's a dangerous ploy, sure, but a co-worker of mine had to play that card recently when the boss told him 'Half your time is for outside clients, If you bill more than 20 hours a week externally and put in more than 40 hours for the week, THEN you'll get overtime.' And then went on to ask why on earth so many things in the office weren't getting done. I know he was putting in 40+ hour weeks constantly. He stopped doing it. No more working on weekends unless it was an emergency.
You listen to the radio. The radio station plays songs and advertisements. Advertisers pay money to the radio station for that. The radio station pays money to the RIAA/Labels according to how big their listener base is.
You've just paid for the song. Unless you turn your radio off every time a commercial comes on, at which point you're a "pirate", listening to something you didn't pay for.
You pay with taking a few seconds off the length of your life as you listen to (or probably as likely - ignore) the advert they're playing.
Want a current game (board-game) that makes you think? Pick up one of the Empire Builder series games from Mayfair Games. You've got to plan ahead to do well in those games... risk analysis and the like.
No, a subpoena must be granted by a public official. They are filed for. The previous case where one was denied was because it was filed for in one state while the person it was targetting was in another.
Ah, but here's a question... Should a corporation be able to request a subpoena? Or should only law enforcement be able to request subpoenas? Yes, the subpoenas are being granted by a court of law, but the issue here is that the RIAA is trying to act as a law enforcement agency itself. Or seems to.
Is it right that a corporation can say, "We suspect the person connected to this IP# at this time of trading files illegally. Give us the name so we can prosecute." or would it be better to say, "We suspect the person connected to this IP# at this time of trading files illegally. Please investigate this as we believe this person has caused us harm."
See the difference? The RIAA is trying to act in place of the police or a licensed private investigator. This is kind of like me going down to the court and saying, "I think someone who lives at this address took my rake. I want you to tell that address's owner to give me all the tenant's personal information."
There's a lack of law-enforcement involvement here, and I think that's what's getting people upset. IF I traded files illegally and some company came along and said, "Hah! We found out who you are and you're in big trouble!" I'd be upset. If some police officer (or a legal document from a public offical, really) came along and said, "There was a complaint that you were trading files illegally. We obtained a warrant..." Now, that's a bit different.
I really believe that the issue here is that a private entity seems to be in a position where they are receiving public powers to some extent. And that's why people are upset.
According to the original poster, this program did this:
192.168.0.1
2003-08-21 19:16:01
My Super-Cool Program v2.1
W2K-WRKSTN-05
Guy B. Smith
1f:37:9b:00:a0:32:e2:82
I fail to see how this equates to breaking into someone's house and taking their credit cards, SSN, silverwear, kitchen sink and then commit arson?
It might not be ethical or right or legal, what the program is doing. That's not something I can answer as I'm not a lawyer or ethicist. To make it equivelant, your book would get up and phone you to tell you the name and street address of the person who copied it, what time it was copied and on what copy machine.
Let's compare apples to oranges, shall we? Instead of comparing Apples and AH-64 Apaches? How did this one get "Insightful" in the first place?
Once the MPAA bans texting, they'll ban cell phones outright. Then they'll have to ban mouths.
This move will be followed by banning Ears and Eyes, so you won't be able to experience how bad the movie is and will be willing to go back to not experience it a second or third time.
Slander, noun
1: the utterance of false charges or misrepresntations which defame and damage another's resputation
2: a false and defamatory oral statement about a person
Libel, noun
1 a: a written statement in which a plaintiff in certain courts sets forth the cause of action or the relief sought
1 b archaic: a handbill especially attacking or defaming someone
2 a : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression
2 b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel
It would seem to me that SCO is not speaking about an individual. If they swear to these examples under oath, as testimony, and if these examples turn out to be false then it may turn out to be purjury. But not Lible or Slander as those are against individuals (at least, according to the dictionary definition.)
Diebold is a private company. Diebold makes a closed-source product, much the same as Microsoft. How would you require, by law, that this company expose its source code to the world? Do we make a law that says any software that the Government chooses to use becomes OpenSource? That'd cover all of Microsoft's products. Adobe's products. Corel, Sybase, Oracle... So, basically you'd have to make all software opensource.
Considering that software companies make their money on these products, what would happen if all of a sudden the whole world could compile their products for free? Seems like the kind of thing that would kill a whole industry (software).
So, maybe we limit it to just 'voting machine software'. That means any company that makes voting machines faces having their product open-sourced.
We COULD make a law more like: "All voting machines will have their source code be a matter of public record. Anyone can see it if they want to." Not open-source. Not something you can take and build with yourself. But something you can examine. But now your code is exposed to all your competitors.
How about a law that says any voting machine code will be made available to government-chosen industry specialists for examination and certification? Oops. Then we have to trust that the government picks the right people.
Yes, MS could have shut down Office for Mac. But I seem to recall reading, somewhere, that The Mac Business Unit is one of the few portions of Microsoft that is actually turning a profit.
I believe they were listed as, the Windows division, MS Office division and the Mac Business Unit.
So, yeah. They could have cut off Office for Mac. But they would have also cut off a viable, profitiable part of the company. Perhaps they're evil enough to cut it. Perhaps they're vindictive enough to cut it. But I really don't think they're stupid enough to cut it.
1. That rather depends on whether you take a legal, moral or dictionary definition, doesn't it?
2. It is.
3. Well, they ARE.
4. I'd say this is true, for the most part.
5. I buy CDs when it's music I want.
6. Eh?
The only people I don't get riled at are those that download music which is no longer available through the regular market. I don't even do that, myself. I don't download music at all.
But at least a couple of your 'excuses to justify theft' are true. NOT that they should be used to justify theft.
-T
It's not even an RPG. According to MPOGD.com's short writeup of it, it's a fantasy empire-management game. Poor-man's Warcraft.
Um... Wouldn't this kind of game really inspire a kid not to go out and kill, but to go out and finance a mine, farms, barracks... conscript a bunch of young men into service and send THEM out to do the killing?
Hey, I just recently spent a few days trying to get Linux to run decently on my laptop. And failed thanks to a lack of accelerated video drivers for this model. An hour to troubleshoot a modem sounds like a rather wonderful thing indeed, after that.
It's a similar sport. The hardware is all replicas, not bright neon blue chrome whatnots. Originated in Japan.
It's good on the adrenaline level. Sneaking through the woods, expecting to get shot at any moment... and almost never by random 'lobs'. Airsoft pellets fly a wee bit truer than paintballs.
Piracy isn't theft! I wouldn't have bought that Brittney Spears CD anyhow, so it's not like she lost a sale! It's not theft, I tell you! The DCMA [sic] is keeping me down! Bloody MPAA trying to keep me from... Oh, wait... I don't listen to Brittney. Or downloaded music. Shucks. I can't get my Karma Whore Bonus now... (see above post.;)
I hate to point this out, but this is pretty unrelated to the **AA fights against consumers. I wish this COULD be seen as a precedent to help there, as I don't want to be told when, where and how I can or can't listen to music I bought the rights to listen to, but this is a different matter. An important matter, to be certain, but different.
If their suggested regulation were to go through, from the sound of the original post, then there would be nothing stopping, say, Cox from setting up their proxy to watch for people going to MSNBC.com and redirecting them automatically to their strategic partner CNN.com. (JUST a hypothetical example!)
-V
The tech contracting company I work for had a small outsource development section. We host a few websites and we've been getting these ICLS 'bills' for a while.
Even more disturbing are the numerous pieces of mail we receive that look JUST LIKE Network Solutions' renewal notices except that they refer you to some website that's not affiliated with them.
Several of our clients have received these misleading 'bills' or 'warnings' and have contacted us out of concern that they were about to lose their service or whatever.
XBox DVD player? Actually, I've found the PS2 better. Why? An effect I've noticed a lot while watching Anime and some in other movies as well. It's a similar thing to what I've seen on some PC-based DVD player software.
In several scenes with fast motion, the XBox will update one field with one frame and the other field with the other frame. Which causes a very annoying (to me) 'interlaced' look. I've never but never noticed this on my PS2 or on my dedicated DVD player.
My suspicion is because the XBox is, underneath, a computer, and is pushing frames without proper synchronization to the video signal. While Sony has significant experience with consumer electronics and wouldn't make a mistake like that.
Granted, that's a guess, as I'm not a hardware engineer.
-V
Actually, as I see it... checking the check box is the equivelant of signing your name and saying 'I accept'. And they're hiding these check-boxes which default to being checked in places that a normal, average, everyday user may not even know to look. This is tantamount, really, to giving a buyer three folders and saying "The first one is the contract" but leaving some important information in the third amongst marketing copy.
I agree that it shouldn't be illegal. But it IS unethical. If a company is going to default a choice to "yes, sign me up", that choice should be put out in the open OR say "scroll down for more options". Remember, not everyone knows how to use a scroll-bar. Believe me, I've worked with some of these people.
Slashdot Mirror
I've looked at cell phone batteries before. I've never seen one cheaper than $40 for any phone I've owned. Where the HECK did the original poster get a $10 battery? I bought a battery for my first notebook. It cost me $120 and drained in under an hour of use. It drained when it just sat there powered off. I looked at the cost of getting a second battery for my current notebook. $200+. And people are complaining about the iPod batteries... -V
I only got to see two episodes of Firefly. Pity, I did enjoy it. It just wasn't on at a time when I could remember to sit down and watch it, and I still have to build a linux PVR... so it got missed.
How many episodes were made, anyhow? It really was a rather entertaining little show. Perhaps a bit too geek-targeted in some ways for the majority of society, but certainly fun.
First, I find it necessary to say that "music is just audio" sounds a lot (to me) like something someone said to me recently (off slashdot)... "The purest form of racing is who has the fastest quarter mile." (ie, dragging). There's a lot more to racing... who's best at controlling the car, who's best at tweaking the car for the track, etc.
Live performance is a lot like that. There's a whole lot there that you don't get by just listening to a CD. I used to think, "ah, so what? It's all the same stuff." Then I went to a concert.
Music is a communication of ideas and emotions. Audio is one method of communicating that, but there are so many other ways. Posture, facial expression, motion. Even if you close your eyes during the concert and don't watch anything and 'only listen', there is still a... realness to it that you don't get from a CD.
CDs are the same thing every time but a concert is being done there... Right there. Right then. For you. It's someone using their talents specifically to communicate something to you.
A good artist will adjust their performance according to crowd reaction. There's feedback based on the mood of the audience. Subtle changes in the performance. I've heard people talk of this... going to two or three shows of one artist where one audience "didn't get in the groove" and the performance was flat, but another where the audience was attentive and the artist was really speaking to them. A kind of subtle synergy happens there.
It's that second type of show people go to concerts, hoping to see. To get that connection with the performer, the PERSON up on stage. To enter into a kind of dialogue beyond just sitting in a room with speakers reproducing exactly the same thing time and time again.
Now, I'll say I rarely go to concerts. Usually nobody plays this area that I'd ever care to see. But I WOULD go again, if a performer I liked showed up down at the Civic.
Of course, not everyone likes concerts, and that's fine. But you should at least experience something before you decide you don't care for it or find no interest in it.
I bought CDs in Japan. USED CDs went for $15-$20. New were $30+. I've bought Japanese CDs that cost close to $40. Think WE have it bad?
I'm told that it's similar in Belgium (if not all of Europe) - that CDs and DVDs are ridiculously expensive. To the point that most people can't afford to buy ANY of them. Or have much better things to do with their money.
Oooh, yeah. DO that. Reduce yourself to committing mail fraud, just like them.
Set up a real (but single-purpose) email address on hotmail and use a script to send individual, personalized emails to each of these individuals. Not bulk mail, but a whole slew of individual messages. Come up with a whole bunch of subjects and phrases for the body of the message and insert them at random.
If you say "I'll do it as soon as I have time," or something like that, you'll come off as having an attitude. People will soon be saying you're unresponsive and uncaring.
What you need to do is say, "I would love to help you, but I'll need to have my manager prioritize that task into my list." Then get your manager to do just that for you. Every time you go to him, he'll realize that you're not enough resources.
If he suggests that everything is a priority and it all has to be done, stand firm and say, "I can only do eight hours of work in an eight hour day." If he asks for more and you're salaried but not making a respectable amount, you could say, "I would be willing to some extra hours, but I do not feel the pay I am receiving fairly compensates me for that amount of time."
It's a dangerous ploy, sure, but a co-worker of mine had to play that card recently when the boss told him 'Half your time is for outside clients, If you bill more than 20 hours a week externally and put in more than 40 hours for the week, THEN you'll get overtime.' And then went on to ask why on earth so many things in the office weren't getting done. I know he was putting in 40+ hour weeks constantly. He stopped doing it. No more working on weekends unless it was an emergency.
-V
You do pay for songs on the radio.
You listen to the radio. The radio station plays songs and advertisements. Advertisers pay money to the radio station for that. The radio station pays money to the RIAA/Labels according to how big their listener base is.
You've just paid for the song. Unless you turn your radio off every time a commercial comes on, at which point you're a "pirate", listening to something you didn't pay for.
You pay with taking a few seconds off the length of your life as you listen to (or probably as likely - ignore) the advert they're playing.
Want a current game (board-game) that makes you think? Pick up one of the Empire Builder series games from Mayfair Games. You've got to plan ahead to do well in those games... risk analysis and the like.
-T
No, a subpoena must be granted by a public official. They are filed for. The previous case where one was denied was because it was filed for in one state while the person it was targetting was in another.
Ah, but here's a question... Should a corporation be able to request a subpoena? Or should only law enforcement be able to request subpoenas? Yes, the subpoenas are being granted by a court of law, but the issue here is that the RIAA is trying to act as a law enforcement agency itself. Or seems to.
Is it right that a corporation can say, "We suspect the person connected to this IP# at this time of trading files illegally. Give us the name so we can prosecute." or would it be better to say, "We suspect the person connected to this IP# at this time of trading files illegally. Please investigate this as we believe this person has caused us harm."
See the difference? The RIAA is trying to act in place of the police or a licensed private investigator. This is kind of like me going down to the court and saying, "I think someone who lives at this address took my rake. I want you to tell that address's owner to give me all the tenant's personal information."
There's a lack of law-enforcement involvement here, and I think that's what's getting people upset. IF I traded files illegally and some company came along and said, "Hah! We found out who you are and you're in big trouble!" I'd be upset. If some police officer (or a legal document from a public offical, really) came along and said, "There was a complaint that you were trading files illegally. We obtained a warrant..." Now, that's a bit different.
I really believe that the issue here is that a private entity seems to be in a position where they are receiving public powers to some extent. And that's why people are upset.
According to the original poster, this program did this:
192.168.0.1
2003-08-21 19:16:01
My Super-Cool Program v2.1
W2K-WRKSTN-05
Guy B. Smith
1f:37:9b:00:a0:32:e2:82
I fail to see how this equates to breaking into someone's house and taking their credit cards, SSN, silverwear, kitchen sink and then commit arson?
It might not be ethical or right or legal, what the program is doing. That's not something I can answer as I'm not a lawyer or ethicist. To make it equivelant, your book would get up and phone you to tell you the name and street address of the person who copied it, what time it was copied and on what copy machine.
Let's compare apples to oranges, shall we? Instead of comparing Apples and AH-64 Apaches? How did this one get "Insightful" in the first place?
Once the MPAA bans texting, they'll ban cell phones outright. Then they'll have to ban mouths.
This move will be followed by banning Ears and Eyes, so you won't be able to experience how bad the movie is and will be willing to go back to not experience it a second or third time.
Um...
Slander, noun
1: the utterance of false charges or misrepresntations which defame and damage another's resputation
2: a false and defamatory oral statement about a person
Libel, noun
1 a: a written statement in which a plaintiff in certain courts sets forth the cause of action or the relief sought
1 b archaic: a handbill especially attacking or defaming someone
2 a : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression
2 b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel
Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( http://www.m-w.com )
It would seem to me that SCO is not speaking about an individual. If they swear to these examples under oath, as testimony, and if these examples turn out to be false then it may turn out to be purjury. But not Lible or Slander as those are against individuals (at least, according to the dictionary definition.)
But I'm not married!
... let's hope not.
Sir, the computer states that there is an 89% probability that you are married and lying about it.
I've never been engaged or gone through the ceremony or even met the woman! How could I be married?!?
Computers do not lie, sir.
...
Diebold is a private company. Diebold makes a closed-source product, much the same as Microsoft. How would you require, by law, that this company expose its source code to the world? Do we make a law that says any software that the Government chooses to use becomes OpenSource? That'd cover all of Microsoft's products. Adobe's products. Corel, Sybase, Oracle... So, basically you'd have to make all software opensource.
Considering that software companies make their money on these products, what would happen if all of a sudden the whole world could compile their products for free? Seems like the kind of thing that would kill a whole industry (software).
So, maybe we limit it to just 'voting machine software'. That means any company that makes voting machines faces having their product open-sourced.
We COULD make a law more like: "All voting machines will have their source code be a matter of public record. Anyone can see it if they want to." Not open-source. Not something you can take and build with yourself. But something you can examine. But now your code is exposed to all your competitors.
How about a law that says any voting machine code will be made available to government-chosen industry specialists for examination and certification? Oops. Then we have to trust that the government picks the right people.
Nice, easy topic to think about, isn't it?
Yes, MS could have shut down Office for Mac. But I seem to recall reading, somewhere, that The Mac Business Unit is one of the few portions of Microsoft that is actually turning a profit.
I believe they were listed as, the Windows division, MS Office division and the Mac Business Unit.
So, yeah. They could have cut off Office for Mac. But they would have also cut off a viable, profitiable part of the company. Perhaps they're evil enough to cut it. Perhaps they're vindictive enough to cut it. But I really don't think they're stupid enough to cut it.
1. That rather depends on whether you take a legal, moral or dictionary definition, doesn't it? 2. It is. 3. Well, they ARE. 4. I'd say this is true, for the most part. 5. I buy CDs when it's music I want. 6. Eh? The only people I don't get riled at are those that download music which is no longer available through the regular market. I don't even do that, myself. I don't download music at all. But at least a couple of your 'excuses to justify theft' are true. NOT that they should be used to justify theft. -T
It's not even an RPG. According to MPOGD.com's short writeup of it, it's a fantasy empire-management game. Poor-man's Warcraft.
Um... Wouldn't this kind of game really inspire a kid not to go out and kill, but to go out and finance a mine, farms, barracks... conscript a bunch of young men into service and send THEM out to do the killing?
Hey, I just recently spent a few days trying to get Linux to run decently on my laptop. And failed thanks to a lack of accelerated video drivers for this model. An hour to troubleshoot a modem sounds like a rather wonderful thing indeed, after that.
It's a similar sport. The hardware is all replicas, not bright neon blue chrome whatnots. Originated in Japan.
It's good on the adrenaline level. Sneaking through the woods, expecting to get shot at any moment... and almost never by random 'lobs'. Airsoft pellets fly a wee bit truer than paintballs.
Piracy isn't theft! I wouldn't have bought that Brittney Spears CD anyhow, so it's not like she lost a sale! It's not theft, I tell you! The DCMA [sic] is keeping me down! Bloody MPAA trying to keep me from... Oh, wait... I don't listen to Brittney. Or downloaded music. Shucks. I can't get my Karma Whore Bonus now... (see above post. ;)
-V
I hate to point this out, but this is pretty unrelated to the **AA fights against consumers. I wish this COULD be seen as a precedent to help there, as I don't want to be told when, where and how I can or can't listen to music I bought the rights to listen to, but this is a different matter. An important matter, to be certain, but different. If their suggested regulation were to go through, from the sound of the original post, then there would be nothing stopping, say, Cox from setting up their proxy to watch for people going to MSNBC.com and redirecting them automatically to their strategic partner CNN.com. (JUST a hypothetical example!) -V
The tech contracting company I work for had a small outsource development section. We host a few websites and we've been getting these ICLS 'bills' for a while.
Even more disturbing are the numerous pieces of mail we receive that look JUST LIKE Network Solutions' renewal notices except that they refer you to some website that's not affiliated with them.
Several of our clients have received these misleading 'bills' or 'warnings' and have contacted us out of concern that they were about to lose their service or whatever.
-V
XBox DVD player? Actually, I've found the PS2 better. Why? An effect I've noticed a lot while watching Anime and some in other movies as well. It's a similar thing to what I've seen on some PC-based DVD player software. In several scenes with fast motion, the XBox will update one field with one frame and the other field with the other frame. Which causes a very annoying (to me) 'interlaced' look. I've never but never noticed this on my PS2 or on my dedicated DVD player. My suspicion is because the XBox is, underneath, a computer, and is pushing frames without proper synchronization to the video signal. While Sony has significant experience with consumer electronics and wouldn't make a mistake like that. Granted, that's a guess, as I'm not a hardware engineer. -V
Actually, as I see it... checking the check box is the equivelant of signing your name and saying 'I accept'. And they're hiding these check-boxes which default to being checked in places that a normal, average, everyday user may not even know to look. This is tantamount, really, to giving a buyer three folders and saying "The first one is the contract" but leaving some important information in the third amongst marketing copy.
I agree that it shouldn't be illegal. But it IS unethical. If a company is going to default a choice to "yes, sign me up", that choice should be put out in the open OR say "scroll down for more options". Remember, not everyone knows how to use a scroll-bar. Believe me, I've worked with some of these people.