The problem is that people are much more tolerant of oppression than they are murder, but it makes it no less vile in the sense of the human spirit. People casually wave off the however many years of czarist rule when they can point at Stalin's purges, when in fact each was no less damaging to the human condition. I suppose you mileage may vary though, personally I find the idea of being enslaved in some fashion to be a fate worse than actual death. Whether someone enslaves me all at once with shackles or does it slowly by writ of law makes no difference, if the essential element of freedom is gone then it is all the same. Death, at least, is beyond those concerns unless you're thinking in fairly literally hell'n'brimstone type terms.
Okay, I've seen all the first posts about how crimes against humanity only applying to crazed mad dictators with axes to grind...but really, isn't the current trend of law just prelimenary for more of the same? People dismiss speeding laws as irrelevant almost every day, lives are lost, but how many people seriously consider abdicating their ability to excede those limits every day? Most of us probably don't know anyone who even might be a terrorist, but we'd probably put our foot down if the government decided to screen each and everyone in the country "just in case". The same applies to any law, maybe especially intellectual property laws because they're restricting the loose quality of ideas. Fair use, public domain, censorship...I suppose they're not exactly in league of mass murder. Swing them on a rope enough though, and you've got a dandy oppression.
Stealing music by making mp3s is like saying we're all stealing from Webster because we're using words.
Politicians seem to make a pretty good living competing with all the other assholes that just give their opinions and tell people how to live away for free, why not musicians? They're better marketers probably...
I suppose it is possible that Al Gore invented the internet too, but I doubt that anything involving so many people can be claimed by a single person as well. Simply put, I don't think Bush was or is smart enough to engineer the sort of machiavellian x-files junta that could result in such a serious fuck up as happened in Florida. The man isn't even smart enough to pick his own cabinet or vice president, he probably called up his dad and asked him. Seriously, the man makes Dan Quayle look like a political Yoda.
Now the worst thing about all of this is that apparently all of Congress is just as smart as the President. It makes me wish for Reagan, who for all of his other faults usually inspired a "he's a bastard, but he's our bastard" sort of sense from a lot of us. Now I think the pressing problem with politics seems to be that the only people being elected are politicians.
Of course the real reason that scientists might make more discoveries at advanced age than in past times is simple. Viagra. What's more inspiring than getting some tail?
Not even then, storing the lyrics on carbon-based storage media is still infringement. I've been laying low, just in case the RIAA finds out and sends me the C&D for remembering old Pink Floyd lyrics or from Lucasfilm for not getting rid of all those forbidden Star Wars quotes I can still remember without constant perusal of the source material.
Its also a reason why the Patriot Act is a bad idea, because ALL people make mistakes and having access to information doesn't automatically make people informed. Checks and balances for all sorts of things are being thrown away in this country or legislated away in the interest of fighting "the war on piracy" or "the war on terror" and it just isn't a good idea. Accountability and review are GOOD things, the RIAA should have checked things BEFORE they sent a letter.
As the government becomes more and more intrusive and present in our daily lives I often wonder what sort of countries might exist beyond our borders that might be willing to accept a civil liberty expatriot from the States? The cost of doing business in the US is already high enough that we're driving away business to places like China and India, it seems to me that this should just encourage more of the same. Yay.
Come on now, how many people have spent more time playing D&D during high school than any computer game ever simply because you can pass around a book easier than a keyboard?
It's a good thing too. If it carried a payload then the good citizens of the US Justice department would undoubtedly send the marines into whatever country of residence the gentleman lives in, kill his neighbors as collateral damage, hold him without a lawyer indefinitely, and maybe even parade him as a war criminal with a bag over his head before they pulled out the hot lightbulbs and tweezers at Guantanamo.
Horseshit. Half of the top ten songs on the charts at most times are attached to a movie nowadays. Unless the movie producers are screwing the music industry over in the unsavory way the music industry tends to try to screw its own consumers over, top ten records do indeed have theatrical runs.
Now, outside of the top ten songs I think it would be worth the record label's time to see what they could do to promote a "theatrical run" beyond the touring mainstay. Especially since the FIRST reaction to "we're not making enough money on first runs" by the industry would probably be "lets charge more for touring to the artists". Since the people responsible for the music are the ones that benefit least from making it already, I think thats most definitely a bad idea.
SBC actually stands for Syrian Biologicalweapons Command, a terrorist organization. They also have plotted to kill Ashcroft's dad, made deals to sell their nuclear frames technology to Osama Bin Laden, and are behind recent cat disappearances in Des Moines. Boy, I'm sure glad the Patriot Act is in effect. I bet in a few hours those guys will fall off the map forever without a trial.
So, the solution for privacy rights is for us all to get into the business of providing wiretaps for the feds, unionize, and then inflate costs and engage in teamsters type practices against unauthorized decryption folks...like the NSA and FBI. Whoo hoo! We'll make millions!
Re:Hmm.. and possible help against racial profilin
on
Using GPS to Hail Cabs
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Of course the government and law enforcement would probably use any of this technology in a malicious way eventually too. How long until passive GPS/cell signal is built into driver's licences and ID cards in the interest of "improving infrastructure" somehow and then turned into a vast monitoring system?
And if it is all privatized, so much the better. Private companies are allowed to do things as citizens that the government wouldn't dream of.
I don't know exactly what point I'm trying to make but it just seems like we're all screaming "foul" on this and maybe we should re-examine the whole situation. Escalating this to an epic battle of theft, rights infringement, lawsuit, counter lawsuit, destruction of an industry just doesn't seem like the only option.
The usenet isn't completely useless but it has serious flaws such as lack of administrative control that render it completely useless on a large scale.
Jesus...and I thought lack of administrative control was what made it appealing. I mean, if no one is controlling it doesn't it mean that it's less likely to victimized by online legislation?
Of course the same logic allows the government to set precedent for sniffing out unsecure networks just about everywhere, since it leaves the burden onto the owner. How secure is secure "enough" when its possibly your privacy that's concerned? While it may make a certain sense that "if you're not encrypted, you're wide open", I'd rather not set any sort of legal justification for the government to start data mining ANY sort of private network. This might not be the case here, but attaching a legalism to the whole issue might lead to broader implications.
Narrowly-defined legislation? Too bad that no matter how limited, it will find an application or loophole that will probably be served to limit free speech in an unintended fashion. Corporate culture has a record in legislation like Germany has records in peace initiatives. Does AOL really just need a little more "elbow room"?
Seriously though, do we really need a law for this written by the geniuses over at AOL-TW?
Given that the users are more than likely 13-24 year old kids, slapping them with multi-billion dollar lawsuits and threatening jail time isn't going to sit well with parents eventually. Parents, and the adults those children turn into, will eventually force the industry to turn the other cheek as long as the courts squash any legislative/corporate browbeating of the 1st Amendment. Because so many people DO filetrading at least on some level, it's only adding to the sense of insanity that the XXAA's have had any success so far at all. This ruling, given the way US law relies on the sentiment of precedent, is indeed landmark since it shows a clear demarcation of what the courts will and won't consider a malicious tool for copyright infringement. Next step for the P2P crowd, of course, is embedded encryption and blind transfers I suppose. Then, Verizon rulings regardless, users will be able to do what they will and the XXAA's will have to rely on traditional law enforcement ideas instead of corporate trampling of the 4th Amendment.
Of course, for a more permanent solution I suppose you could etch a minor planetoid like the moon with your financial records and then enclose it in a durable 1 km deep sandy, impact resistant cap. Then you'd create a race of monstrous reptiles called dinosaurs to protect the planetoid, because everyone knows those things are unkillable.
Then killing a large number of boneheaded politicians would make a dent in the weird laws that cropped up each year. This might be true, but if the French and American revolution are any guides then I doubt it. ON the other hand, for short term effect I suppose the Nuremberg trials and WW2 worked ok if you discount the staggering amount of power those politicians that were left had.
Lesson? Kill off the criminals and you just get fewer, more powerful criminals.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that people are much more tolerant of oppression than they are murder, but it makes it no less vile in the sense of the human spirit. People casually wave off the however many years of czarist rule when they can point at Stalin's purges, when in fact each was no less damaging to the human condition. I suppose you mileage may vary though, personally I find the idea of being enslaved in some fashion to be a fate worse than actual death. Whether someone enslaves me all at once with shackles or does it slowly by writ of law makes no difference, if the essential element of freedom is gone then it is all the same. Death, at least, is beyond those concerns unless you're thinking in fairly literally hell'n'brimstone type terms.
Okay, I've seen all the first posts about how crimes against humanity only applying to crazed mad dictators with axes to grind...but really, isn't the current trend of law just prelimenary for more of the same? People dismiss speeding laws as irrelevant almost every day, lives are lost, but how many people seriously consider abdicating their ability to excede those limits every day? Most of us probably don't know anyone who even might be a terrorist, but we'd probably put our foot down if the government decided to screen each and everyone in the country "just in case". The same applies to any law, maybe especially intellectual property laws because they're restricting the loose quality of ideas. Fair use, public domain, censorship...I suppose they're not exactly in league of mass murder. Swing them on a rope enough though, and you've got a dandy oppression.
Stealing music by making mp3s is like saying we're all stealing from Webster because we're using words.
Politicians seem to make a pretty good living competing with all the other assholes that just give their opinions and tell people how to live away for free, why not musicians? They're better marketers probably...
I suppose it is possible that Al Gore invented the internet too, but I doubt that anything involving so many people can be claimed by a single person as well. Simply put, I don't think Bush was or is smart enough to engineer the sort of machiavellian x-files junta that could result in such a serious fuck up as happened in Florida. The man isn't even smart enough to pick his own cabinet or vice president, he probably called up his dad and asked him. Seriously, the man makes Dan Quayle look like a political Yoda.
Now the worst thing about all of this is that apparently all of Congress is just as smart as the President. It makes me wish for Reagan, who for all of his other faults usually inspired a "he's a bastard, but he's our bastard" sort of sense from a lot of us. Now I think the pressing problem with politics seems to be that the only people being elected are politicians.
I bet if I patent my unique and viable sperm then I can finally enter into contract agreements for use with my spouse....
Of course the real reason that scientists might make more discoveries at advanced age than in past times is simple. Viagra. What's more inspiring than getting some tail?
People use Windows to create valuable documents each day and store them. What we need is more people like that interested in space travel.
Not even then, storing the lyrics on carbon-based storage media is still infringement. I've been laying low, just in case the RIAA finds out and sends me the C&D for remembering old Pink Floyd lyrics or from Lucasfilm for not getting rid of all those forbidden Star Wars quotes I can still remember without constant perusal of the source material.
Its also a reason why the Patriot Act is a bad idea, because ALL people make mistakes and having access to information doesn't automatically make people informed. Checks and balances for all sorts of things are being thrown away in this country or legislated away in the interest of fighting "the war on piracy" or "the war on terror" and it just isn't a good idea. Accountability and review are GOOD things, the RIAA should have checked things BEFORE they sent a letter.
As the government becomes more and more intrusive and present in our daily lives I often wonder what sort of countries might exist beyond our borders that might be willing to accept a civil liberty expatriot from the States? The cost of doing business in the US is already high enough that we're driving away business to places like China and India, it seems to me that this should just encourage more of the same. Yay.
Come on now, how many people have spent more time playing D&D during high school than any computer game ever simply because you can pass around a book easier than a keyboard?
What terrorist threat? The US has had how many instances in how many years?
It's a good thing too. If it carried a payload then the good citizens of the US Justice department would undoubtedly send the marines into whatever country of residence the gentleman lives in, kill his neighbors as collateral damage, hold him without a lawyer indefinitely, and maybe even parade him as a war criminal with a bag over his head before they pulled out the hot lightbulbs and tweezers at Guantanamo.
Horseshit. Half of the top ten songs on the charts at most times are attached to a movie nowadays. Unless the movie producers are screwing the music industry over in the unsavory way the music industry tends to try to screw its own consumers over, top ten records do indeed have theatrical runs. Now, outside of the top ten songs I think it would be worth the record label's time to see what they could do to promote a "theatrical run" beyond the touring mainstay. Especially since the FIRST reaction to "we're not making enough money on first runs" by the industry would probably be "lets charge more for touring to the artists". Since the people responsible for the music are the ones that benefit least from making it already, I think thats most definitely a bad idea.
Great, now Ashcroft can geek out homeland surveillance and violate my rights...updated real time onto NSA.blog.com or something...Sheesh
SBC actually stands for Syrian Biologicalweapons Command, a terrorist organization. They also have plotted to kill Ashcroft's dad, made deals to sell their nuclear frames technology to Osama Bin Laden, and are behind recent cat disappearances in Des Moines. Boy, I'm sure glad the Patriot Act is in effect. I bet in a few hours those guys will fall off the map forever without a trial.
So, the solution for privacy rights is for us all to get into the business of providing wiretaps for the feds, unionize, and then inflate costs and engage in teamsters type practices against unauthorized decryption folks...like the NSA and FBI. Whoo hoo! We'll make millions!
Of course the government and law enforcement would probably use any of this technology in a malicious way eventually too. How long until passive GPS/cell signal is built into driver's licences and ID cards in the interest of "improving infrastructure" somehow and then turned into a vast monitoring system?
And if it is all privatized, so much the better. Private companies are allowed to do things as citizens that the government wouldn't dream of.
It's like the Wild West of the internet, huzzah!
Of course the same logic allows the government to set precedent for sniffing out unsecure networks just about everywhere, since it leaves the burden onto the owner. How secure is secure "enough" when its possibly your privacy that's concerned? While it may make a certain sense that "if you're not encrypted, you're wide open", I'd rather not set any sort of legal justification for the government to start data mining ANY sort of private network. This might not be the case here, but attaching a legalism to the whole issue might lead to broader implications.
Narrowly-defined legislation? Too bad that no matter how limited, it will find an application or loophole that will probably be served to limit free speech in an unintended fashion. Corporate culture has a record in legislation like Germany has records in peace initiatives. Does AOL really just need a little more "elbow room"?
Seriously though, do we really need a law for this written by the geniuses over at AOL-TW?
Given that the users are more than likely 13-24 year old kids, slapping them with multi-billion dollar lawsuits and threatening jail time isn't going to sit well with parents eventually. Parents, and the adults those children turn into, will eventually force the industry to turn the other cheek as long as the courts squash any legislative/corporate browbeating of the 1st Amendment. Because so many people DO filetrading at least on some level, it's only adding to the sense of insanity that the XXAA's have had any success so far at all. This ruling, given the way US law relies on the sentiment of precedent, is indeed landmark since it shows a clear demarcation of what the courts will and won't consider a malicious tool for copyright infringement. Next step for the P2P crowd, of course, is embedded encryption and blind transfers I suppose. Then, Verizon rulings regardless, users will be able to do what they will and the XXAA's will have to rely on traditional law enforcement ideas instead of corporate trampling of the 4th Amendment.
Of course, for a more permanent solution I suppose you could etch a minor planetoid like the moon with your financial records and then enclose it in a durable 1 km deep sandy, impact resistant cap. Then you'd create a race of monstrous reptiles called dinosaurs to protect the planetoid, because everyone knows those things are unkillable.
Then killing a large number of boneheaded politicians would make a dent in the weird laws that cropped up each year. This might be true, but if the French and American revolution are any guides then I doubt it. ON the other hand, for short term effect I suppose the Nuremberg trials and WW2 worked ok if you discount the staggering amount of power those politicians that were left had.
Lesson? Kill off the criminals and you just get fewer, more powerful criminals.