Welcome to the modern police state. Where laws are governed by greedy corporations and your freedom, or lack thereof, is dictated by individuals looking to add another yacht to their collection.
Yes, the RIAA - rather than putting their money and muscle towards making music downloadable and cheap - would rather keep trying to shut d/ling down.
In their mind set, they've had this monopoly and now revenue is down so they blame it on 'theft' instead of shitty music that's badly overpriced. Another reason their revenue is down is the animosity that the RIAA breeds against its very customers. (I am much more likely to buy a CD from someone who has stood up to them then a band that throws its support behind them. I try and take note of bands that support the RIAA in this endeavor and not buy their shit. [*cough* Metallica*cough*])
What they need to do is realize that if they weren't raping everyone, this would be a non-issue. Actually, I'm going to take that back and say the artists need to realize this.
If CDs weren't marked up 1000% or so, their biz wouldn't be hurting. I d/l songs and if I really like what I hear I will actually go buy the CD. When it's on sale. If there was a place where I was guaranteed to get quality at a cheap price AND it was easier to use than Kazaa I would be all over it.
There are lots of tax-free places to put your money, such as tax-free municipal bonds. When he ran in 1992, Ross Perot was criticized for paying only 8% of his income in taxes, but he did it quite legally because most of his income was from his tax-free municipal bonds.
Incidentally, the Bush Administartion is pushing to eliminate tax on stock dividends. How's that for a free giveaway for the rich?
There is no wealth tax in the USA. There is only an income tax. Additionally, it is possible to increase your wealth (such as with the tax-free muni bonds that I mentioned) without getting taxed.
I think the poster two levels up brings up a great point that the income tax is really a shield to make it difficult for hard-working people to join the ranks of the wealthy. (Keep in mind that the income tax is a tax on money earned from work, while dividends and interest are money earned by merely sitting on your butt.)
Let's cut the BS here and now. You don't give a shit whether Kevin is a good hacker or not. You're just hostile to him. It's transparent.
All the self-righteous Markoffs here on/. are sickening. Mitnick didn't hurt anybody and he didn't steal any money. It's fucking ridiculous that he got the same sentence as a bank robber!
I'm sorry, but if companies are paying millions of dollars for a 5 minute CGI email script, and you decide your web design business is only going to charge a few hundred, then I have a hard time deciding who's the bigger fool here: the dotcom, or Philip "I'm an idiot" Kaplan.
Charge what the market will bear and don't leave money on the table. Sales and Marketing 101.
How does a post like that get rated a 4? Serious question.
This is old
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F'd Companies
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· Score: 0, Redundant
I don't mean to be a troll, but this story has whiskers. The book came out a year ago, fer pete's sake!
Alright, bring on the "-1 troll" rating, you rascals!!!
He got caught because his "friends" turned him in. Or so I thought . . . do you have evidence that he got caught some other way?
Re:My rights to my intellectual property
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Ask Kevin Mitnick
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· Score: 1
In that case, it would be considered breaking an entering and/or espionage, and few people would question that you did something unethical.
I don't know what state you live in, but here in Florida a man recently got six years in prison for four bank robberies, which is the total amount of time Mitnick was locked up if you include his jail time.
Kevin Mitnick's crimes don't even come close to the level of bank robbery!
Read the Art of Deception. No matter how strong your technical security is, the glaring weakness is always the people. The weak link of every secure system--from AOL to the CIA--is the people. That's where Mitnick's skill lies.
In other words, who needs to know 0-day exploits when your helpful secretary gives today's access code to the man on the telephone who says he's from your company's IT department?
One of the aspects of your story that few people realize is that you were on the run from the FBI for over two years. The book "The Fugitive Game" by Jonathan Littman has an exciting, and I think objective, view of that saga. My questions are:
- What was life like on the run? How, for example, did you manage to find a place to live and get a job? Also, Littman's book seems to indicate that life on the run became stressful. Because of that, according to the book, you became reckless, allowing you to get caught when your pursuers traced your cell phone calls.
while we're spending billions going to Mars, the press is awash with stories of a prospective $350 billion federal deficit this year. If you include the state governments, the total public debt outstanding has already risen by 13.3%, or $750 billion, in the past nineteen months, a rate of nearly $12 per household per day.
So maybe we should hold off on going to Mars for awhile?
Make no mistake, the only difference between Apple and Microsoft is size. If Apple had the wealth and power of Gates's empire, it would be just as ruthless.
Kazaa has no assets in the USA. Even if they lose the case, the RIAA cannot take anything from them. It's the equivalent of suing a homeless person. Even if you win, you can't collect a dime if the person doesn't have anything.
Instead Kazaa's assets are all in Vanuatu. I wish the RIAA luck if they think they'll ever be able to get Vanuatu, an offshore tax haven that has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, to transfer Kazaa's money to them.
I'm glad to see a person concede a point. It's way too rare on the Internet, where the usual order of the day is to see flamewars and such. Consider me a fan now.:)
Moore's law must be repealed! Technology = Evil
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Moore's Law Disputed
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· Score: 1
Put a halt to technological progress for the good of humanity. Here's why: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/uni/uni.txt
This is GOOD NEWS! I hate flash. If it weren't for flash, I wouldn't have to view so many damn ads in my Mozilla browser.
I've done everything I can to uninstall flash, including deleting every nwswf.dll (or whatever it's called, I forget) file on my computer, deleting the Windows/Macromedia directory, etc. But I still get those damn flash ads.
Please, Micro$oft, remove the cross-browser capability of flash. Then I can surf in peace with Mozilla. (The.001% of the time that I want to view a flash display, I'll use IE for that.)
From the article: ''It might simply be a clerk in a grocery store bagging groceries, goes home that night, gets on the Internet and says, 'you know, I think I saw that person bagging groceries today,''' U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said during a news conference in Boston on Wednesday morning.
Given that Bulger looks like most other balding white men in their 50s, the FBI may get thousands of false leads now. I also feel sorry for American expatriates living in Latin America, who will be faced with having to "prove" they aren't a fugitive.
Bulger, if he's smart (which is probably is), would have radically altered his appearance so that he no longer resembles the wanted poster.
All a criminal investigator really can do is sit back, be patient, and wait for the criminal to make a mistake. If Bulger ever calls his brother or an old friend or girlfriend on Christmas, for example, he's busted.
This wanted poster thing smacks of desperation on the FBI's part, which I'm sorry to see.
Perhaps this is GOOD NEWS that Moore's Law may no longer be valid. To understand why, read The Unabomber's Manifesto. http://www.panix.com/~clays/Una/
Hopefully our "utterly reckless ride into the unknown" (to use the Unabomber's description of technological advancement) will at least slow down.
It is not in the best interest of a freedom-loving people to have the computing power of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness office double every 18 months. It's therefore time for Moore's Law to take a break for awhile.
How does the Netherlands' homicide rate compare with Switzerland? That's a more appropriate comparison.
I'm not trying to take one side or the other, just to point out that comparing the Netherlands with the USA is like comparing apples and oranges.
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Yes, the RIAA - rather than putting their money and muscle towards making music downloadable and cheap - would rather keep trying to shut d/ling down.
In their mind set, they've had this monopoly and now revenue is down so they blame it on 'theft' instead of shitty music that's badly overpriced. Another reason their revenue is down is the animosity that the RIAA breeds against its very customers. (I am much more likely to buy a CD from someone who has stood up to them then a band that throws its support behind them. I try and take note of bands that support the RIAA in this endeavor and not buy their shit. [*cough* Metallica*cough*])
What they need to do is realize that if they weren't raping everyone, this would be a non-issue. Actually, I'm going to take that back and say the artists need to realize this.
If CDs weren't marked up 1000% or so, their biz wouldn't be hurting. I d/l songs and if I really like what I hear I will actually go buy the CD. When it's on sale. If there was a place where I was guaranteed to get quality at a cheap price AND it was easier to use than Kazaa I would be all over it.
I doubt I'm the only one.
Incidentally, the Bush Administartion is pushing to eliminate tax on stock dividends. How's that for a free giveaway for the rich?
There is no wealth tax in the USA. There is only an income tax. Additionally, it is possible to increase your wealth (such as with the tax-free muni bonds that I mentioned) without getting taxed.
I think the poster two levels up brings up a great point that the income tax is really a shield to make it difficult for hard-working people to join the ranks of the wealthy. (Keep in mind that the income tax is a tax on money earned from work, while dividends and interest are money earned by merely sitting on your butt.)
Let's cut the BS here and now. You don't give a shit whether Kevin is a good hacker or not. You're just hostile to him. It's transparent. All the self-righteous Markoffs here on /. are sickening. Mitnick didn't hurt anybody and he didn't steal any money. It's fucking ridiculous that he got the same sentence as a bank robber!
Charge what the market will bear and don't leave money on the table. Sales and Marketing 101.
How does a post like that get rated a 4? Serious question.
Alright, bring on the "-1 troll" rating, you rascals!!!
He got caught because his "friends" turned him in. Or so I thought . . . do you have evidence that he got caught some other way?
I don't know what state you live in, but here in Florida a man recently got six years in prison for four bank robberies, which is the total amount of time Mitnick was locked up if you include his jail time.
Kevin Mitnick's crimes don't even come close to the level of bank robbery!
In other words, who needs to know 0-day exploits when your helpful secretary gives today's access code to the man on the telephone who says he's from your company's IT department?
- What was life like on the run? How, for example, did you manage to find a place to live and get a job? Also, Littman's book seems to indicate that life on the run became stressful. Because of that, according to the book, you became reckless, allowing you to get caught when your pursuers traced your cell phone calls.
- What's your opinion of Littman's book?
So maybe we should hold off on going to Mars for awhile?
Translation: The Vanuatus of the world aren't capable of running their own affairs, so they should give up their sovereignty and submit to the USA.
Make no mistake, the only difference between Apple and Microsoft is size. If Apple had the wealth and power of Gates's empire, it would be just as ruthless.
I was only playing. Geez, you moderators are brutal. :(
Kazaa has no assets in the USA. Even if they lose the case, the RIAA cannot take anything from them. It's the equivalent of suing a homeless person. Even if you win, you can't collect a dime if the person doesn't have anything. Instead Kazaa's assets are all in Vanuatu. I wish the RIAA luck if they think they'll ever be able to get Vanuatu, an offshore tax haven that has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, to transfer Kazaa's money to them.
Pretending on a site like /. to be a feminist is a very LAME way to try to get yourself laid. Sorry, but someone had to say it!
I'm glad to see a person concede a point. It's way too rare on the Internet, where the usual order of the day is to see flamewars and such. Consider me a fan now. :)
Put a halt to technological progress for the good of humanity. Here's why: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/uni/uni.txt
Lucky me, it comes pre-installed in Mozilla and IE. Other than that, great point!
This is GOOD NEWS! I hate flash. If it weren't for flash, I wouldn't have to view so many damn ads in my Mozilla browser. I've done everything I can to uninstall flash, including deleting every nwswf.dll (or whatever it's called, I forget) file on my computer, deleting the Windows/Macromedia directory, etc. But I still get those damn flash ads. Please, Micro$oft, remove the cross-browser capability of flash. Then I can surf in peace with Mozilla. (The .001% of the time that I want to view a flash display, I'll use IE for that.)
Sadly, high intelligence != good morals. Kenneth Lay and John Poindexter are both extremely intelligent but have the morals of a tick.
Given that Bulger looks like most other balding white men in their 50s, the FBI may get thousands of false leads now. I also feel sorry for American expatriates living in Latin America, who will be faced with having to "prove" they aren't a fugitive.
Bulger, if he's smart (which is probably is), would have radically altered his appearance so that he no longer resembles the wanted poster.
All a criminal investigator really can do is sit back, be patient, and wait for the criminal to make a mistake. If Bulger ever calls his brother or an old friend or girlfriend on Christmas, for example, he's busted.
This wanted poster thing smacks of desperation on the FBI's part, which I'm sorry to see.
It is not in the best interest of a freedom-loving people to have the computing power of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness office double every 18 months. It's therefore time for Moore's Law to take a break for awhile.
How does the Netherlands' homicide rate compare with Switzerland? That's a more appropriate comparison. I'm not trying to take one side or the other, just to point out that comparing the Netherlands with the USA is like comparing apples and oranges.