If I'm in a situation where I have no choice but to retain counsel, I sure as hell want an attorney who is going to win on my behalf, not fight fair. Once a matter ends up in the courts, the gloves are off.
I bet you enjoy watching The Practice every Sunday night on television as well.
When Kansas Republicans start lining up with liberal Democrats against your industry, you've got a whole new kind of legal strategy problem.
Excellent quote and article. While nothing seems yet to exist to prevent passage of bad laws, nothing exposes it more quickly as a bad law than a big, well-funded bully using it.
Previous examples include the raft of anti-SLAPP suit legislation.
We were fully aware that the TOS was wrong, the boot sector usage was wrong, but the coders always convienced the administration that it was vital to the lifestream of the company, despite what the actual workers on the floor would say.
While I like what you had to say, and you seemed to be speaking from an informed position, the result comes out sounding like a Dilbert strip. The coders did it!
At no time does the SafeCast software or Intuit communicate personally identifiable user information, Intuit and Macrovision representatives said.
That's a lie, as the DMCA allows and the RIAA has proved. In order to get activation code back over the internet you have just given them, at minimum: your serial number, any registration information you filled in on the registration form, and the time of your transaction. You are just a court clerk away from a subpoena to reveal all the information your ISP has on you.
Dear Court Clerk:
As copyright holders of Intuit products and Turbo-Tax in particular, please sign this subpoena under the provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to require [fill in ISP] to turn over all information regarding the user of [fill in IP address] at [fill in time] whom we believe may have somehow violated our copyright.
Oh, and you think your 800 number call is anonymous? The person paying the bills (i.e. Intuit) gets a log of every number that called their 800 line. Blocking Caller ID doesn't stop this. How often do you register software from the payphone down the road?
It's the very same thing for Microsoft Windows Update. We don't send any personally identifiable information: Except the serial number of your Windows (easily matched to information you provided when you registered the product) and the serial numbers of other products you have installed (easily checked to see if their original registration matches your current one), along with the time and your IP address. Yes there are steps you can take to avoid this, but get real! 99%+ of the population isn't prepared to do so.
The only reason you have any privacy here is because Intuit hasn't bothered to look yet. And that can change tomorrow.
One place I feel the RIAA has been incredibly remiss is that they don't provide any list of what they claim as copyrighted material!
Think about it. How do you know if your song is copyrighted, and by whom? Is there a database where you can query to determine if you are violating the copyright of any RIAA affiliated company? If so, I sure haven't heard about it. Have you?
Kind of like Comcast that says we'll cut you off if you use too much of our "unlimited" internet service, but we won't ever tell you what that limit is so that you can avoid it.
The RIAA is not telling you ahead of time just what songs you shouldn't be trading. Don't tell me they don't know themselves. And don't tell me they don't have a web-site where they could provide this information.
Are they taking lessons from SCO? Enquiring legal minds want to know.
RIAA wants the telcos to report when users download any copyrighted material.
As if the ISPs could even manage real-time content scanning on a reasonable sized pipe.
But seriously folks, the moment ISPs might actually start trying such an exercise -- after being dragged kicking and screaming into it -- does anyone doubt that every P2P would start employing public key strong encryption (e.g. AES) on file transfers?
Why would I want to do this for my house? Why not instead get a square mile of desert land (and there are lots of square miles of desert in the southwest) with a water source and near an existing (preferably unused) natural gas pipeline and use cheap solar cells to produce hydrogen, oxygen, and a bit of heavy water. Everything exists now except for the cheap solar cells.
I'd rather run my house, car, and power plant on hydrogen, and have to change nothing more than the burners in my furnace, water heater, and stove top this way.
anyone on the Gnutella network can frame other users
Not to mention that most home wireless networks are still running on their out-of-the-box (read no security) settings. How many people may have their IP hacked for filesharing through their wireless router?
Even the best security settings on most 802.11b boxes are hackable, often in 24 hours or less.
When your phone rings, it's the equivalent of knocking on the door. So, should knocking on your door be made illegal too?
When it involved tresspass onto your private property, and you have taken the necessary step of posting a "Tresspassers Will Be Proscuted" sign -- Yes.
What the (IMHO idiotic) Denver Judge fails to understand is that my personal telephone is not a public forum. As such, it is not subject to any First Amendment considerations. (Also IMHO airports aren't public forums either, although the court has disagreed.)
If my telephone is a free-speech public forum, then one could easily argue that anyone should be able to knock on my front door and demand to be allowed into my house to make their sales pitch under the U.S. Constitution. They're not -- and neither is my phone.
Btw, I've heard that not only is the Denver judge's office telephone already on the Do Not Call List, but also that large numbers of people are demanding his home phone so that they can exercise their own First Amendment rights.
Two fringe states on the far edges of political and social issues. The difference is that Massachusetts is small enough that we don't have to care about them in any regard -- except for the senators they send the U.S. Senate.
Slashdot Mirror
I bet you enjoy watching The Practice every Sunday night on television as well.
Well, duh! How much innovation is spent on making more expensive and harder to use products?
Windows doesn't count.
Excellent quote and article. While nothing seems yet to exist to prevent passage of bad laws, nothing exposes it more quickly as a bad law than a big, well-funded bully using it.
Previous examples include the raft of anti-SLAPP suit legislation.
While I like what you had to say, and you seemed to be speaking from an informed position, the result comes out sounding like a Dilbert strip. The coders did it!
That's a lie, as the DMCA allows and the RIAA has proved. In order to get activation code back over the internet you have just given them, at minimum: your serial number, any registration information you filled in on the registration form, and the time of your transaction. You are just a court clerk away from a subpoena to reveal all the information your ISP has on you.
Dear Court Clerk:
As copyright holders of Intuit products and Turbo-Tax in particular, please sign this subpoena under the provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to require [fill in ISP] to turn over all information regarding the user of [fill in IP address] at [fill in time] whom we believe may have somehow violated our copyright.
Oh, and you think your 800 number call is anonymous? The person paying the bills (i.e. Intuit) gets a log of every number that called their 800 line. Blocking Caller ID doesn't stop this. How often do you register software from the payphone down the road?
It's the very same thing for Microsoft Windows Update. We don't send any personally identifiable information: Except the serial number of your Windows (easily matched to information you provided when you registered the product) and the serial numbers of other products you have installed (easily checked to see if their original registration matches your current one), along with the time and your IP address. Yes there are steps you can take to avoid this, but get real! 99%+ of the population isn't prepared to do so.
The only reason you have any privacy here is because Intuit hasn't bothered to look yet. And that can change tomorrow.
For some states that is becomming a requirement.
And what about that site (whose name escapes me this late at night) that so helpfully provides d/l's of old software versions?
Love it or loath it, IE isn't going away anytime soon.
But I'd still recommend: get a current download now with the latest SP in the event of temporary availability disruption.
Sounds like the RIAA.
How can I be -Offtopic, when the follow-up is +Funny?
Found the problem. My preferences were messed up. The Earth may now continue in its orbit.
Or maybe I am.
(Horrible Karma to anyone who disagrees!)
Well, I was number 237 visitor to his page. Be interesting to see that number post-/.
We want them going after people they aren't going after now, and stop going after people they are going after now.
Rinse and repeat.
This deserves modded to +6.
I wonder why...? [grin]
Hi-Speed verses Full Speed. [yawn]
Same fraud.
Different day.
Think about it. How do you know if your song is copyrighted, and by whom? Is there a database where you can query to determine if you are violating the copyright of any RIAA affiliated company? If so, I sure haven't heard about it. Have you?
Kind of like Comcast that says we'll cut you off if you use too much of our "unlimited" internet service, but we won't ever tell you what that limit is so that you can avoid it.
The RIAA is not telling you ahead of time just what songs you shouldn't be trading. Don't tell me they don't know themselves. And don't tell me they don't have a web-site where they could provide this information.
Are they taking lessons from SCO? Enquiring legal minds want to know.
As if the ISPs could even manage real-time content scanning on a reasonable sized pipe.
But seriously folks, the moment ISPs might actually start trying such an exercise -- after being dragged kicking and screaming into it -- does anyone doubt that every P2P would start employing public key strong encryption (e.g. AES) on file transfers?
I'd rather run my house, car, and power plant on hydrogen, and have to change nothing more than the burners in my furnace, water heater, and stove top this way.
Not to mention that most home wireless networks are still running on their out-of-the-box (read no security) settings. How many people may have their IP hacked for filesharing through their wireless router?
Even the best security settings on most 802.11b boxes are hackable, often in 24 hours or less.
Your check is in the mail.
Now how about a good story and use for the SysRq key?
When it involved tresspass onto your private property, and you have taken the necessary step of posting a "Tresspassers Will Be Proscuted" sign -- Yes.
If my telephone is a free-speech public forum, then one could easily argue that anyone should be able to knock on my front door and demand to be allowed into my house to make their sales pitch under the U.S. Constitution. They're not -- and neither is my phone.
Btw, I've heard that not only is the Denver judge's office telephone already on the Do Not Call List, but also that large numbers of people are demanding his home phone so that they can exercise their own First Amendment rights.
Two fringe states on the far edges of political and social issues. The difference is that Massachusetts is small enough that we don't have to care about them in any regard -- except for the senators they send the U.S. Senate.