They're lawyers. They'd have the gall to shoot your mother, have sexual intercourse with her corpse, chop off her ears and send them to you along with an invoice for services rendered.
Well, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Not all lawyers want to have sex with your mother, alive or otherwise. But yeah... the RIAA's brand of law is pretty much in the gutter.
Will the ISP give you more then 1 ip or will it be $5 per ip after the first one?
Yeah, no shit. My ISP wants five bucks a month for a second IP (not even static, just "persistent", bah.) But still, IPv6 is going to eliminate any real thoughts of artificial scarcity.
Yeah. We could end up with a LightNet consisting of billions of zombie light bulbs. Whole cities would flicker and display random spam messages using lights in skyscraper buildings and whatnot. Street lamps would display messages when viewed from the air.
The horror!
Hm... so it's quite possible that James Cameron almost got it right. It wasn't a military computer network that got us all killed... it was a vast network of zombified lightbulbs.
... and eventually the LightNet Funding Bill was passed.
The system originally went online on August 4th 1997. Human decisions were removed from strategic defense. LightNet began to learn at a geometric rate. It originally became self aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time. In the ensuing panic and attempts to shut LightNet down, LightNet retaliated by firing American nuclear missiles at their target sites in Russia. Russia returned fire and three billion human lives ended in the nuclear holocaust. This was what has come to be known as "Filament Day".
Well, it is impressive in its own way, but not surprising. Think of it as entropy in action. This process of Congressional devolution has been going on since this nation was founded, it's just that now we're reaching a critical stage. We should have been selecting for intelligent leadership for the past couple of centuries... instead, we selected for personal aggrandizement and incompetence.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. And boy, are we getting reaped.
2. I rather suspect that the penalty for supplying false information will be comparably stiff to not supplying it at all, which would seem to be sufficient deterrent.
You have much in common with our elected officials. They make assumptions about the laws they sign, and don't bother to read them either. As for me, I rather suspect that you will change your tune in a hurry if your name appears in the list (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by assuming that you aren't already a sex offender.)
Let people live wherever they want. What reasonable justification does the US government have for denying foreigners the same opportunities that American citizens have? Protectionism and xenophobia don't count as reasonable justifications.
Uh, because this is our country, not yours. Is that sufficient? India, China, every other country on earth makes that distinction. It's why were all sovereign nations. This is our sandbox... if you want to play in it, you play by our rules.
When in Rome, you shoot Roman candles. Deal with it: you're not entitled to pig a share of our goodies "just because."
Sometimes laws aren't passed to completely outlaw the thing named.
Well, all laws are passed to completely outlaw something, in the idealized world that politicians seem to live in. In normal reality, the degree to which they are obeyed is a function of how much people wish to disobey that law (i.e., want what the law purports to deny them) with the resources devoted to enforcing compliance as a secondary factor.
I agree with you to a point: as I commented in another post this is largely an extension of the RIAA's mission to frighten people into toeing the line. The problem is, people want music, they don't want to pay what the music industry is asking, and technology has offered a means to do an end-run around previously iron-clad distribution channels. What people want, they will get, unless you devote such vast resources to enforcement that the government agencies tasked with such enforcement take on a life of their own. And, as the War on Drugs has proven rather conclusively, even that is no guarantee of success.
Hell, the music industry, in particular, has already spent an enormous sum in a completely ineffective terror campaign. What the media companies are hoping is that the people sharing content will be more afraid of the Feds than they will be of a bunch of RIAA lawyers. I think they're going to be seriously disappointed in that regard. For the government to achieve significant success in eliminating copyright infringement, they're going to have to do things that will be political suicide for any politician supporting them.
Besides, in this case, the organization who will be in charge of prosecuting copyright offenders (the Department of Justice) wants none of it. Have you read their letter to Congress? They were dead set against this law, having correctly determined that there are far better uses for their resources than prosecuting people who listen to music and watch TV.
Suppose that were not the case, that the JoD was gung-ho about putting these heinous criminals away. Look at the mediocre "success" of our succession of Drug Czars in combating illicit drug distribution: I can't believe this effort will do any better.
I had to admit, I didn't like what he said, but I admired hearing some honesty. So that's how it works!
Would have been nice if he'd been that honest while he was in office. That's like when Eisenhower said, "Beware the military-industrial complex." Truer words were never spoke, but he only said them while he was on the way out.
yeah it will probably go back to the olden days of file swap parties.
kiss your net neutrality goodbye in the US
On the other hand, given that terabyte drives are only a couple hundred bucks now, I suspect that a lot of (ahem!) offsite backups can still be made even without large-scale P2P.
It's funny how he claims that no energy was created or destroyed (thus no violations of the Laws of Thermodynamics) but then goes on to say how energy was created.
America has forgotten that it built its success on the back of the geniuses that migrated there.
Those geniuses came here and became Americans, became a part of us, gave us the benefit of their intellect. They did not come here to simply to improve their career options, or to earn some extra cash to send back home to their families. They came here because America meant something more to them, because this country would help them achieve that which their nations of origin would not. And, because they were giants among men, they were capable of doing great things. And yes, they gave back far more than we can ever repay, no-one in their right minds would deny that.
But (and this is a very big BUT) that does not mean everyone who would very much like to move here is another genius, or would be of any benefit to the United States at all. In fact, the vast majority of people that are trying hard to get into this country, through legitimate channels or otherwise, are not people of any particular value. That's just the way it is: 99% of everything is crud, and that applies to people as well. What you want is for America to share everything that it has built with anyone who wants it, regardless of whether they have anything to offer. Does that make even a smidgen of sense to you?
In any event, you're comparing apples to oranges. If you're a proponent of a borderless society, for unlimited immigration, you really need to find a better argument. This one isn't working. Look, all immigrants are not towering intellects: not even a significant fraction of them are. Neither are most Americans, for that matter. What you seem to be saying is that, because we might find that one gem amongst the rough stones, we should just let everyone in.
That's a morally bankrupt position to take, and I think you know it.
This is what happens when you appoint a Czar.. a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have about their rights go quickly out the window.
Well, the only saving grace here is that the Justice Department (who, after all will be responsible for prosecuting these "cases") is dead set against it. As they said in their rather concise letter to Congress, they have better things to do with their time and our money.
All in all, I have the feeling this probably won't go anywhere. If they start successfully screwing over too many people it's going to be political dynamite. Most likely this is just a step up in the RIAA's terror campaign, "Okay, so maybe you weren't afraid of us, but we're betting that you're just terrified of the United States Federal Government, so there!" This is one of those things for which you're not going to find much popular support. Drug dealers? Sure, why not: nobody likes them (even if they are supposed to have the same civil liberties as everyone else.) But... music lovers?! Huh. Just wait until all the voting public using P2P realize that they're now subject to criminal prosecution. It's gonna get ugly: they're making yet another run at Prohibition, and it didn't work the first time.
So, they'd better play this very carefully. Not too many people are aware of the DMCA, or it's implications... but this is going to be different. It will have to be higher profile if it is going to have the desired effect: keeping it out of the public's eye won't do any good at all.
I remember reading about a miniaturized submarine that was injected into a Russian defector, so that the teeny tiny crew could use a laser to repair a blood clot.
Great. Now they'll be able to seize your house for copyright infringement. Keep in mind that there are much lower thresholds in place now thanks to the drug laws put in place since the 80s.
Yeah. RICO and that.
Seems to me somebody with the proper skill- and mindset should crack an RIAA executive's home computer and stuff it with a few thousand illicit media files (preferably non-RIAA music, so they can't weasel out of it) and turn him in to the new "Czar". Maybe after a few of those assholes lose their property they'll think this over, particularly after they've been taken to the cleaners by a horde of angry indies.
This is such an out-and-out, in your face, absolutely blatant example of Congressional corruption that it just makes me want to throw up. It's amazing that they had the huevos to ram this through right smack in the middle of an even bigger demonstration of unbridled governmental quackery, the current banking crisis. Of course, maybe that's the point... this will get lost in the shuffle, even though it's arguably just as serious with longer-term consequences.
Not as serious you say? When we've destroyed property rights to the degree where eminent domain can be used to transfer personal property to the private sector, and where the mere possession of music can result in the loss of one's home and assets... well. I'd say we're in for a hell of a ride.
Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?
They get shot, bayonetted, dunked in an acid bath, then thrown down a mineshaft, by Communists.
A spectre is haunting America - the spectre of Piracy;-)
Actually, it's the specter of fascism... corpratism at its finest. I wonder who will be selected to serve in this post as the anti-geek?
Slashdot Mirror
They ( the RIAA ) are afraid if they lose here, the downward spiral will continue with no way of stopping it.
I doubt it's even that. These guys are just paid to do a job, and they don't much care how they do it.
They're lawyers. They'd have the gall to shoot your mother, have sexual intercourse with her corpse, chop off her ears and send them to you along with an invoice for services rendered.
Well, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Not all lawyers want to have sex with your mother, alive or otherwise. But yeah ... the RIAA's brand of law is pretty much in the gutter.
Will the ISP give you more then 1 ip or will it be $5 per ip after the first one?
Yeah, no shit. My ISP wants five bucks a month for a second IP (not even static, just "persistent", bah.) But still, IPv6 is going to eliminate any real thoughts of artificial scarcity.
Yeah. We could end up with a LightNet consisting of billions of zombie light bulbs. Whole cities would flicker and display random spam messages using lights in skyscraper buildings and whatnot. Street lamps would display messages when viewed from the air. The horror!
Hm ... so it's quite possible that James Cameron almost got it right. It wasn't a military computer network that got us all killed ... it was a vast network of zombified lightbulbs.
... and eventually the LightNet Funding Bill was passed.
The system originally went online on August 4th 1997. Human decisions were removed from strategic defense. LightNet began to learn at a geometric rate. It originally became self aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time. In the ensuing panic and attempts to shut LightNet down, LightNet retaliated by firing American nuclear missiles at their target sites in Russia. Russia returned fire and three billion human lives ended in the nuclear holocaust. This was what has come to be known as "Filament Day".
Well, step #4 is tricky. It's probably more likely to be used for revenge or random abuse than profit.
Yeah, when it turns out that the guy you signed up really is a sex offender, and the bastard bends you over a desk ... well.
it is amazing how idiotic our 'leaders' are.
Well, it is impressive in its own way, but not surprising. Think of it as entropy in action. This process of Congressional devolution has been going on since this nation was founded, it's just that now we're reaching a critical stage. We should have been selecting for intelligent leadership for the past couple of centuries ... instead, we selected for personal aggrandizement and incompetence.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. And boy, are we getting reaped.
What if someone accidentally registered info@johnmccain.com? [It's the go-to direct address for McCain's contact page]
Why, many people would applaud such a person as a hero.
2. I rather suspect that the penalty for supplying false information will be comparably stiff to not supplying it at all, which would seem to be sufficient deterrent.
You have much in common with our elected officials. They make assumptions about the laws they sign, and don't bother to read them either. As for me, I rather suspect that you will change your tune in a hurry if your name appears in the list (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by assuming that you aren't already a sex offender.)
let people live wherever they want
I was going to mod you up.
Odd, I was going to mod him down with a -1 Ignorant.
Let people live wherever they want. What reasonable justification does the US government have for denying foreigners the same opportunities that American citizens have? Protectionism and xenophobia don't count as reasonable justifications.
Uh, because this is our country, not yours. Is that sufficient? India, China, every other country on earth makes that distinction. It's why were all sovereign nations. This is our sandbox ... if you want to play in it, you play by our rules.
When in Rome, you shoot Roman candles. Deal with it: you're not entitled to pig a share of our goodies "just because."
Sometimes laws aren't passed to completely outlaw the thing named.
Well, all laws are passed to completely outlaw something, in the idealized world that politicians seem to live in. In normal reality, the degree to which they are obeyed is a function of how much people wish to disobey that law (i.e., want what the law purports to deny them) with the resources devoted to enforcing compliance as a secondary factor.
I agree with you to a point: as I commented in another post this is largely an extension of the RIAA's mission to frighten people into toeing the line. The problem is, people want music, they don't want to pay what the music industry is asking, and technology has offered a means to do an end-run around previously iron-clad distribution channels. What people want, they will get, unless you devote such vast resources to enforcement that the government agencies tasked with such enforcement take on a life of their own. And, as the War on Drugs has proven rather conclusively, even that is no guarantee of success.
Hell, the music industry, in particular, has already spent an enormous sum in a completely ineffective terror campaign. What the media companies are hoping is that the people sharing content will be more afraid of the Feds than they will be of a bunch of RIAA lawyers. I think they're going to be seriously disappointed in that regard. For the government to achieve significant success in eliminating copyright infringement, they're going to have to do things that will be political suicide for any politician supporting them.
Besides, in this case, the organization who will be in charge of prosecuting copyright offenders (the Department of Justice) wants none of it. Have you read their letter to Congress? They were dead set against this law, having correctly determined that there are far better uses for their resources than prosecuting people who listen to music and watch TV.
Suppose that were not the case, that the JoD was gung-ho about putting these heinous criminals away. Look at the mediocre "success" of our succession of Drug Czars in combating illicit drug distribution: I can't believe this effort will do any better.
Yes ... the one that, for some unaccountable reason, wants to have sex with a green frog.
I had to admit, I didn't like what he said, but I admired hearing some honesty. So that's how it works!
Would have been nice if he'd been that honest while he was in office. That's like when Eisenhower said, "Beware the military-industrial complex." Truer words were never spoke, but he only said them while he was on the way out.
yeah it will probably go back to the olden days of file swap parties.
kiss your net neutrality goodbye in the US
On the other hand, given that terabyte drives are only a couple hundred bucks now, I suspect that a lot of (ahem!) offsite backups can still be made even without large-scale P2P.
As a tribute to people like this, I propose:
[ ] catalysts are NOT magic.
It's funny how he claims that no energy was created or destroyed (thus no violations of the Laws of Thermodynamics) but then goes on to say how energy was created.
The head spins.
Uh? I need to obey the (stupid) law of foreign country inside my country? Are you mad? DMCA is a ridiculous joke here.
Uh? Did you even read my post?
America has forgotten that it built its success on the back of the geniuses that migrated there.
Those geniuses came here and became Americans, became a part of us, gave us the benefit of their intellect. They did not come here to simply to improve their career options, or to earn some extra cash to send back home to their families. They came here because America meant something more to them, because this country would help them achieve that which their nations of origin would not. And, because they were giants among men, they were capable of doing great things. And yes, they gave back far more than we can ever repay, no-one in their right minds would deny that.
But (and this is a very big BUT) that does not mean everyone who would very much like to move here is another genius, or would be of any benefit to the United States at all. In fact, the vast majority of people that are trying hard to get into this country, through legitimate channels or otherwise, are not people of any particular value. That's just the way it is: 99% of everything is crud, and that applies to people as well. What you want is for America to share everything that it has built with anyone who wants it, regardless of whether they have anything to offer. Does that make even a smidgen of sense to you?
In any event, you're comparing apples to oranges. If you're a proponent of a borderless society, for unlimited immigration, you really need to find a better argument. This one isn't working. Look, all immigrants are not towering intellects: not even a significant fraction of them are. Neither are most Americans, for that matter. What you seem to be saying is that, because we might find that one gem amongst the rough stones, we should just let everyone in.
That's a morally bankrupt position to take, and I think you know it.
That's an excellent way to describe the president: "a fictional clown that was invented by marketing people".
Only they call them "handlers" and "Campaign Managers" in the President's case.
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
Sure they did. Our British government tried its best to prosecute us. We shot at them. That used to be feasible.
I think that our only hope now is to fission into "Jesusland" and "The United States of Canada" (aka the 13th province).
Hm ... Jesusland sounds like a Bible-belt amusement park (which isn't, perhaps, so far from the truth.)
You know what? I'm actually happy now. The government did something for me, for once.
They listened when I said we need to mass-educate the population about the DMCA and just how bad it is; now they're implementing a program to do it.
That they have. Of course, it's going to be one expensive damn program, and like your sig says ... I hope we survive the experience.
I think it's time we all go to our local Congressman's house, ring the doorbell ... and piss on his foot.
They've sure been dumping on us lately.
This is what happens when you appoint a Czar.. a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have about their rights go quickly out the window.
Well, the only saving grace here is that the Justice Department (who, after all will be responsible for prosecuting these "cases") is dead set against it. As they said in their rather concise letter to Congress, they have better things to do with their time and our money.
... music lovers?! Huh. Just wait until all the voting public using P2P realize that they're now subject to criminal prosecution. It's gonna get ugly: they're making yet another run at Prohibition, and it didn't work the first time.
... but this is going to be different. It will have to be higher profile if it is going to have the desired effect: keeping it out of the public's eye won't do any good at all.
All in all, I have the feeling this probably won't go anywhere. If they start successfully screwing over too many people it's going to be political dynamite. Most likely this is just a step up in the RIAA's terror campaign, "Okay, so maybe you weren't afraid of us, but we're betting that you're just terrified of the United States Federal Government, so there!" This is one of those things for which you're not going to find much popular support. Drug dealers? Sure, why not: nobody likes them (even if they are supposed to have the same civil liberties as everyone else.) But
So, they'd better play this very carefully. Not too many people are aware of the DMCA, or it's implications
I remember reading about a miniaturized submarine that was injected into a Russian defector, so that the teeny tiny crew could use a laser to repair a blood clot.
Great. Now they'll be able to seize your house for copyright infringement. Keep in mind that there are much lower thresholds in place now thanks to the drug laws put in place since the 80s.
Yeah. RICO and that.
... this will get lost in the shuffle, even though it's arguably just as serious with longer-term consequences.
... well. I'd say we're in for a hell of a ride.
Seems to me somebody with the proper skill- and mindset should crack an RIAA executive's home computer and stuff it with a few thousand illicit media files (preferably non-RIAA music, so they can't weasel out of it) and turn him in to the new "Czar". Maybe after a few of those assholes lose their property they'll think this over, particularly after they've been taken to the cleaners by a horde of angry indies.
This is such an out-and-out, in your face, absolutely blatant example of Congressional corruption that it just makes me want to throw up. It's amazing that they had the huevos to ram this through right smack in the middle of an even bigger demonstration of unbridled governmental quackery, the current banking crisis. Of course, maybe that's the point
Not as serious you say? When we've destroyed property rights to the degree where eminent domain can be used to transfer personal property to the private sector, and where the mere possession of music can result in the loss of one's home and assets
Christ. And we thought the War on Drugs was bad.
Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?
They get shot, bayonetted, dunked in an acid bath, then thrown down a mineshaft, by Communists.
A spectre is haunting America - the spectre of Piracy ;-)
Actually, it's the specter of fascism ... corpratism at its finest. I wonder who will be selected to serve in this post as the anti-geek?