Hmm.. reply to article link is missing. That's weird.
This seems to happen for me when the "I am willing to help test Slashdot's New Discussion System" box is ticked. Untick that, hit "refresh" & you should be able to reply directly to the article.
I found this with both Safari & Firefox on my Macs.
the allegedly illegal Microsoft software that were preloaded on the computers they bought
We all know what happened, here. Was the use of "allegedly" really necessary?
But let's turn that statement around just the tiniest bit: the illegal Microsoft software that was allegedly preloaded on the computers they bought
Makes the whole context seem a little different, doesn't it?
If anything I think it's almost certain that the software was pirated - isn't there the possibility that the teacher himself pirated it, at least as likely as that of him buying it preinstalled?
Really I think we're all convinced of the surface narrative - the teacher did indeed buy the computers with a pirated installation of Windows preinstalled - and that interpretation renders the "allegedly" entirely redundant.
We've been using SQL-Ledger for a couple of years now and while it does a great job, it has a few minor annoying bugs that have lasted through several development cycles and the long-awaited payroll module is still nowhere to be seen. What have your experiences with LedgerSMB been like?
It's kinda early days for L-SMB yet, and I don't think anyone is in a position to insightfully discuss "experiences" with L-SMB - any experiences they've had to date won't really be relevant when taken in context of the next year or two of the project.
But I've been following this reasonably closely, and I think L-SMB is going to rock. For me, SL does all the stuff I really need but if you read Chris Travers' (one of the lead developers) posts to the L-SMB mailing-lists I think you'll find he's very clueful and confidence-inspiring. I wasn't really paying attention when I first read of the vulnerability he discovered in SQL-Ledger, but when that "clicked" and I read of Dieter's (developer of SL) reaction to it (the cause of the fork) I realised the difference between the projects was enormous.
They're behind the Ledger-SMB fork - they've deployed SQL-Ledger widely in the past & they can do custom modules & stuff. I would think they'd be ideal for your adding the stuff you want to L-SMB, depending on the suitability of the base components to your needs.
Usually you can only return an opened product if it is faulty. A digital download is never faulty.
You should read the article. This is talking about Europe, and here we can return for any reason an item bought online or mail order. In fact, we can return it for any reason or no reason at all. In the UK this is covered by the Distance Selling Act, but AFAICT most or all European states have a similar law.
Here you can buy a TV online and if you don't happen to like it when you receive it you can send it back. The colour doesn't quite match your furniture? That's fine, send it back. This saves you arguing with the supplier that it was a different shade of black in the catalogue. Didn't notice that the speakers are ugly? That's fine, send it back - this law saves you arguing that the photo was too small or didn't show them. It doesn't accepting NTSC signals? That's fine, send it back - this saves you arguing with the supplier that this failing should have been mentioned in the description & them arguing that it didn't need to be (because we're PAL over here in Europe, but some of us like to import DVDs or games consoles).
I think a significant influence upon this law is to protect the consumer from impulse buys - whatever you might say about contracts being the same whether made in person or electronically, it feels a lot different going into a store to plonk down your money than it does to process your card with a couple of clicks. I think the period in which you're allowed to change your mind is a couple of weeks and it's referred to in FTA as the "cooling-off period".
I mention the example of a TV because I did buy one today - spent about £900 on it, which is maybe about $1600 in your money. Now I'm familiar with the online shopping process, I'm confident about it and maybe that's why I stopped myself halfway through and went back to the beginning. I just suddenly thought to myself when I was about to enter my credit card details, "hang on - that was too easy. I did choose the right one, didn't I?"
I think for a lot of consumers it would be very easy to select the wrong item or order online & find they received something significantly different from what they expected. This is just the sort of mistake that people make all the time, and these laws protect them from it in a situation where there's no friendly salesman to ask for help.
You might think this is just a free card for people to buy things, open the box & then send them back willy-nilly, but it increases consumer confidence in buying online and so to some extent it's to the benefit of the online stores, too. Certainly, it makes me happy about buying expensive stuff online, yet I've never had to invoke this law.
I guess if you're a republican you might feel that these distance-selling laws are nannying, but since we have them over here there is no reason at all why digital sales should be excluded from them. Someone above gave an example that by mistake they ordered the cover of the song instead of the original artists' version but further with digital sales it is not like the supplier has to deal with restocking a physical item and then sell it at a discounted "opened-box" price - iTunes can simply de-authorise the song and you can't play it again.
I tried to go back to windows XP only to find OEMs no longer include working system reinstall disks, and that essentially if I want to get my system back to the way it was I have to pay the Gateway mafia their payola or download an illegal version of Windows and put my legal key in.
It's not an illegal copy of Windows if you're using it with the license number on the sticker already attached to your PC.
I agree with your comments about a don't-really-own-anything culture - I was amazed to meet geeks recently who actually buy from iTunes, having thought that online MP3 purchases were for impulsive idiots... um, well, for impulse buys, anyway. If you buy a CD it takes only a couple of days to be delivered and you actually have something solid in your hands to feel that you own; to me an iTunes "purchase" buys you nothing, and you might as well just download the songs from BitTorrent if you're happy with such intangible ownership.
I agree with you that it sucks that OEMs don't issue proper Windows CDs when they sell you a PC, and that consumers can easily get caught out & inconvenienced by this.
But if you're posting here then it's disingenuous of you to make a big deal out of downloading a Windows OEM CD - it's all you need to install XP on your PC and you can activate it quite legitimately using the number on the sticker on your PC's case.
People will blindly put their cards in a Chip & Pin machine anyway. I didn't know until I read this article that Chip & Pin readers are supposed to be tamper-proof - all I care about is that the bank will take me seriously if I phone them up & say "hang on a moment - I didn't make this transaction" (and if they don't, it's likely the small claims court will, anyway).
The price of these technologies, and the way they're falling, I'm not sure that I want to make this decision for myself - the money you spend on a TV today will buy twice as much telly in 6 months' time.
I picked up a rear-projection 42" for £320 on eBay last month - sure, it doesn't have HDMI, but it has lots of component inputs for my Wii and at only about 12" deep it's as good as a plasma to me. Doing my research I found lots of reviewers stating it was as good as units twice the price, and this was when it was released 2.5 years ago, retailing at £2000. By the time I want or need HDMI / HDCP / more pixels I'm sure I'll be able to pick something up suitable for the same sort of sum. I don't really care whether that turns out to be TFT or plasma - at these prices I'm able to consider secondhand "old" technology as practically disposable.
I appreciate that there are Slashdotters who want & can appreciate the latest technology - I can myself in many other arenas - but the state of the market this is a great time for those happy to buy secondhand.
Stroller.
Re: Bang & Olufsen
on
Plasma or LCD?
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Yes, except that remote can control nothing but Bang & Olufsen gear, and integration with non Bang & Olufsen equipment is non existant.
But darling! Why would anyone bother buying consumer electronics from any other brand?
That's clearly the market Bang & Olufsen aim at, and as long as they keep up fairly well with technologies their customers (their core market, repeat customers, at least) have no need to buy any other brand. People who buy a 50" Bang & Olufsen telly won't generally go out a Phillips HD-DVD player just because it's a few quid cheaper - they buy B&O for the whole style and "experience" (B&O probably use words like "lifestyle" and "enhancing" in their brochures) and so integration with other B&O products is the only important thing.
If you can muck up an old SGI, those are pretty neat, too
They're not even so expensive these days, either. I saw some Indigos on eBay for free the other week - the guy obviously just wanted the space, for them to go to an enthusiast & thought this would the best way for them to get exposure. IIRC the specialeffects to The Wrath Of Kahn were rendered on a farm of these, so a screen capture or movie playing would help make the exhibit more multi-media and mainstream.
It's not all that hard to get going... I had to do a Snort install on a Windows box in order to work on a project in my Network Security class at Loyola University Chicago.
I'm sure my grandma won't have any problems, then.
It's always nice to see 3rd parties fix the deficiencies inherent in OS X. Namely, that it isn't Windows.
This might be posted by an AC & appear like flamebait, but it might be argued that OS X's only deficiency is that it isn't Windows.
I find OS X to be the most perfect desktop o/s I've used, so for me its only failing is that it won't run Windows programs. I have customers that would love to run Macs - they'd have less hassles & spend less time & money on technical support issues. But they're bound inexorably to one or two bespoke or proprietary apps, only available on Windows. That's the facts of the matter for me - the deficiencies inherent in OS X are that it isn't Windows.
Personally, I find this to be a pretty minor deficiency, but that's me - in particular I have a spare Windows PC around the place if I absolutely need to do something in Windows.
The parent might be a troll (or he might not be), but he has given me food for thought.
This will probably be the first time a large number of customers begins to "get it" in regards to having DRM force-fed down our throats.
I'm seeing otherwise. There's some annoyance in the UK at the moment that a lot of screens without HDMI were sold a couple of years ago as "hi-def ready", but it seems the average consumer just understands that this TV "isn't compatible" with their Sky box or the upcoming movie players. They don't feel the need to apportion blame, either - consumers are just used to electronics things being incompatible with each other.
Sorry. This just seems to be the way of the average consumer.:(
On the upside, I just bought a 42" screen for £320, about 11% of its retail price three years ago.:D
It has plenty of component & RGB scart inputs, and works fine with my Wii.:D
If you're "gamer" enough to have every game on every platform that you could possibly want, then well done to you. Some of us are happy with our compromises.
I'd cry if I was a kid and had to wait six (!) years to get a PS2 while every single one of my friends had one, and would always talk about how much fun they had playing it. Perhaps this tactic would work for someone who's a casual gamer who enjoys the occasional game of Yahoo! Euchre or something, but for the average person, being a cheap bastard and waiting for a generation to die just so you can save a few dollars is not close to being an appealing option.
You're arguing two different cases here - having myself gotten second-hand bicycles for Christmas & birthday presents I can see that to a kid a six-year old console doesn't likely have the appeal of the "latest thing" that all the kewl kids have.
But I'd guess that there are plenty of average people being cheap bastards and buying PS2s for themselves right now, saving a few dollars in the process. This is a different kettle of fish, and lots of gamers are at it - whether they bought all the new titles for the Gamecube at full-price when they came out and now want to try the PS2's back-catalogue, or whether they've got a big collection of PS2 games & now buy Gamecube games to play on their Wii - the difference is that many people right now are buying these consoles, and they're doing so because it is "an appealing option" (for more than just Euchre, whatever that is).
Right now if I go out and spend £100 on last-gen games I can get games (brand new) that would have cost me £400 at launch, all titles that got reviews of 8 & 9 out of 10; for me that is a bargain, and for me is is VERY appealing. I guess there's a difference when it's your own dollar you're spending.
If Tivo did not use GPL Linux then they would have to develop their own operating system to run on their hardware, or buy one from someone else. They have chosen to use Linux because it is cheaper for them to do so and because it gives them an edge in a competitive market.
The whole point of the GPL - see the printer driver story - is that end-users should be able to modify AND USE software released under the license. The deal is "if you use this software in your product, you're expected to give users that right.
Tivo have taken advantage of the benefits of Linux and found a legal loop-hole with which to weasel out of their responsibilities over the code. The cost of using GPL software on your hardware offerings is that users SHOULD be able to replace it on the hardware, regardless of how you feel about that. The Xbox is irrelevant in this case - it's fair enough that Microsoft deny Linux installations on their hardware, because they haven't benefited from the GPL in the first place.
The sum of the software I've released publicly amounts to a few Bash scripts, but if I were a Linux kernel developer who had purchased a Tivo I would be LIVID that my work had been used in this way, preventing me from modifying & using my own code, now resold to me installed on hardware I'd PAID good money for!!
Sure, the GPL v2 permits Tivo to restrict what kernel can be run on their hardware, but it's an unforeseen loophole - certainly against the original spirit of the GPL - and the contract should be changed.
Unfortunately that petition does not seem to have been hugely successful. It has 2230 votes (including the one I just made), whereas the petition to give us the right to slaughter foxes in an inhumane fashion has 11281 votes and the one for Mr Blair to "stand on his head and juggle ice-cream" has 1151 votes (surely likely to exceed the copyright petition by the time it closes in August 2007).
I have insurance and never (ordinarily) carry my driving licence.
Me, too.
This may be unique to the UK, Europe or just non-American states (I'm assuming the "self-evident" GP is in the USA & I have no idea how it is there) but no-one I know carries their documents when they drive. Not my parents, not anybody. All my driving documents stay in a single plastic file at home and if I get pulled for speeding then the nice police office gives me a "producer", a form that requires me to produce my documents at a cop-shop of my choosing within 7 days. I just grab my plastic folder & take the whole lot with me when I'm next going out - the police station is less than a mile from my home.
As you can see this situation is rife for abuse - I give my name, date- and town-of-birth when I'm stopped and the police just seem to assume that that identifies me, as long as there are no outstanding warrants out against that "identity" (if you've never been arrested then I believe that police records will come up blank against that name). But thankfully compulsory ID has not been successful yet in this country, so I can see why coppers want these kinds of measures.
If you don't think that compassion and decency have a place in the law, I feel sorry for you.
Thank you for making this about me, not about the relevance of Ms Schwartz's illness to your case. Now I KNOW what kind of lawyer you are. I didn't mention my "outlook" - doing so would take a lot more time than I have free right now.
I didn't say that compassion and decency don't have a place in the law... I was just pointing out that you didn't answer the question. You replied to TravisW's question about the relevance of Ms. Schwartz's MS, but you did not answer it.
Certainly "very sick woman sued by RIAA" is a better headline than "person sued by RIAA" - it emphasises her fragility & encourages us to side with her - but her illness has no bearing on her guilt or innocence. It is surely true that there are many disabled people who have found the internet to considerably enhance their ability to communicate & enrich their lives; but I am sure that many of them - intentional or naive of violating copyright - are also delighted that they are able to easily obtain bootleg entertainment, too.
Ms Schwartz's illness is surely a hardship, and may have a bearing on a suitable sentence or reparation should she be found guilty. To me, it does imply (as TravisW suggests) that "the RIAA is particularly unscrupulous for bringing a suit against someone with a severe medical condition, and that it should hence be additionally vilified accordingly", but in the context of TravisW's questions your response "It's a case against a woman with Multiple Sclerosis who's never even heard of file sharing until the RIAA came after her" is just waffle.
In my view anyone who doesn't get that it's wrong to persecute helpless people this way isn't my kind of people.
So the helpless & infirm should be immune from the law, then? Is that your opinion?
Neither makes any further mention of her disease or disability, or any mention of how either affects the case, so we're left to guess: Is the implication that the RIAA is particularly unscrupulous for bringing a suit against someone with a severe medical condition, and that it should hence be additionally vilified accordingly? This leaves unanswered the basic question of why her disease should affect our analysis of the situation.
It's a case against a woman with Multiple Sclerosis who's never even heard of file sharing until the RIAA came after her.
I'm sorry - I was unaware that Multiple Sclerosis prevented one from hearing of file-sharing. Is this a common symptom?
Look, I think it's great that you're fighting on the "right side" of these particular legal cases & all, but being a lawyer you must be aware that your profession is sometimes perceived as being weasely. When you - especially since you're supposedly "one of the good lawyers" - weasel out of answering a question in this way you just perpetuate that perception.
Your client may be innocent, she may never have heard of file-sharing, she may be a very lovely lady... but her illness is surely irrelevant to the case, and mentioning it is only bid for sympathy. You're playing upon our perceptions that little old ladies & MS sufferers are less likely to download MP3s than teenagers or twenty-something guys with tattoos and spiky haircuts. You're probably right in that, but it's no more relevant to the case than the colour of her skin.
Slashdot Mirror
My reluctance to believe Reiser's guilt was over how an intelligent guy could possibly have been so stupid.
If you do that they're just resell the original software and continue using pirate cracks / keys.
I found this with both Safari & Firefox on my Macs.
Stroller.
But let's turn that statement around just the tiniest bit:
the illegal Microsoft software that was allegedly preloaded on the computers they bought
Makes the whole context seem a little different, doesn't it?
If anything I think it's almost certain that the software was pirated - isn't there the possibility that the teacher himself pirated it, at least as likely as that of him buying it preinstalled?
Really I think we're all convinced of the surface narrative - the teacher did indeed buy the computers with a pirated installation of Windows preinstalled - and that interpretation renders the "allegedly" entirely redundant.
Stroller.
But I've been following this reasonably closely, and I think L-SMB is going to rock. For me, SL does all the stuff I really need but if you read Chris Travers' (one of the lead developers) posts to the L-SMB mailing-lists I think you'll find he's very clueful and confidence-inspiring. I wasn't really paying attention when I first read of the vulnerability he discovered in SQL-Ledger, but when that "clicked" and I read of Dieter's (developer of SL) reaction to it (the cause of the fork) I realised the difference between the projects was enormous.
Stroller.
They're behind the Ledger-SMB fork - they've deployed SQL-Ledger widely in the past & they can do custom modules & stuff. I would think they'd be ideal for your adding the stuff you want to L-SMB, depending on the suitability of the base components to your needs.
Stroller.
Here you can buy a TV online and if you don't happen to like it when you receive it you can send it back. The colour doesn't quite match your furniture? That's fine, send it back. This saves you arguing with the supplier that it was a different shade of black in the catalogue. Didn't notice that the speakers are ugly? That's fine, send it back - this law saves you arguing that the photo was too small or didn't show them. It doesn't accepting NTSC signals? That's fine, send it back - this saves you arguing with the supplier that this failing should have been mentioned in the description & them arguing that it didn't need to be (because we're PAL over here in Europe, but some of us like to import DVDs or games consoles).
I think a significant influence upon this law is to protect the consumer from impulse buys - whatever you might say about contracts being the same whether made in person or electronically, it feels a lot different going into a store to plonk down your money than it does to process your card with a couple of clicks. I think the period in which you're allowed to change your mind is a couple of weeks and it's referred to in FTA as the "cooling-off period".
I mention the example of a TV because I did buy one today - spent about £900 on it, which is maybe about $1600 in your money. Now I'm familiar with the online shopping process, I'm confident about it and maybe that's why I stopped myself halfway through and went back to the beginning. I just suddenly thought to myself when I was about to enter my credit card details, "hang on - that was too easy. I did choose the right one, didn't I?"
I think for a lot of consumers it would be very easy to select the wrong item or order online & find they received something significantly different from what they expected. This is just the sort of mistake that people make all the time, and these laws protect them from it in a situation where there's no friendly salesman to ask for help.
You might think this is just a free card for people to buy things, open the box & then send them back willy-nilly, but it increases consumer confidence in buying online and so to some extent it's to the benefit of the online stores, too. Certainly, it makes me happy about buying expensive stuff online, yet I've never had to invoke this law.
I guess if you're a republican you might feel that these distance-selling laws are nannying, but since we have them over here there is no reason at all why digital sales should be excluded from them. Someone above gave an example that by mistake they ordered the cover of the song instead of the original artists' version but further with digital sales it is not like the supplier has to deal with restocking a physical item and then sell it at a discounted "opened-box" price - iTunes can simply de-authorise the song and you can't play it again.
Stroller.
I agree with your comments about a don't-really-own-anything culture - I was amazed to meet geeks recently who actually buy from iTunes, having thought that online MP3 purchases were for impulsive idiots... um, well, for impulse buys, anyway. If you buy a CD it takes only a couple of days to be delivered and you actually have something solid in your hands to feel that you own; to me an iTunes "purchase" buys you nothing, and you might as well just download the songs from BitTorrent if you're happy with such intangible ownership.
I agree with you that it sucks that OEMs don't issue proper Windows CDs when they sell you a PC, and that consumers can easily get caught out & inconvenienced by this.
But if you're posting here then it's disingenuous of you to make a big deal out of downloading a Windows OEM CD - it's all you need to install XP on your PC and you can activate it quite legitimately using the number on the sticker on your PC's case.
Stroller
Stroller.
Stroller.
I picked up a rear-projection 42" for £320 on eBay last month - sure, it doesn't have HDMI, but it has lots of component inputs for my Wii and at only about 12" deep it's as good as a plasma to me. Doing my research I found lots of reviewers stating it was as good as units twice the price, and this was when it was released 2.5 years ago, retailing at £2000. By the time I want or need HDMI / HDCP / more pixels I'm sure I'll be able to pick something up suitable for the same sort of sum. I don't really care whether that turns out to be TFT or plasma - at these prices I'm able to consider secondhand "old" technology as practically disposable.
I appreciate that there are Slashdotters who want & can appreciate the latest technology - I can myself in many other arenas - but the state of the market this is a great time for those happy to buy secondhand.
Stroller.
That's clearly the market Bang & Olufsen aim at, and as long as they keep up fairly well with technologies their customers (their core market, repeat customers, at least) have no need to buy any other brand. People who buy a 50" Bang & Olufsen telly won't generally go out a Phillips HD-DVD player just because it's a few quid cheaper - they buy B&O for the whole style and "experience" (B&O probably use words like "lifestyle" and "enhancing" in their brochures) and so integration with other B&O products is the only important thing.
Stroller.
SGIs are also gorgeously good looking. A 16 CPU Origin 2000 went for £620 on last week; I have to say it was quite the temptation.
Stroller.
Stroller.
I find OS X to be the most perfect desktop o/s I've used, so for me its only failing is that it won't run Windows programs. I have customers that would love to run Macs - they'd have less hassles & spend less time & money on technical support issues. But they're bound inexorably to one or two bespoke or proprietary apps, only available on Windows. That's the facts of the matter for me - the deficiencies inherent in OS X are that it isn't Windows.
Personally, I find this to be a pretty minor deficiency, but that's me - in particular I have a spare Windows PC around the place if I absolutely need to do something in Windows.
The parent might be a troll (or he might not be), but he has given me food for thought.
Stroller.
Sorry. This just seems to be the way of the average consumer. :(
On the upside, I just bought a 42" screen for £320, about 11% of its retail price three years ago. :D :D
It has plenty of component & RGB scart inputs, and works fine with my Wii.
Stroller.
Stroller.
But I'd guess that there are plenty of average people being cheap bastards and buying PS2s for themselves right now, saving a few dollars in the process. This is a different kettle of fish, and lots of gamers are at it - whether they bought all the new titles for the Gamecube at full-price when they came out and now want to try the PS2's back-catalogue, or whether they've got a big collection of PS2 games & now buy Gamecube games to play on their Wii - the difference is that many people right now are buying these consoles, and they're doing so because it is "an appealing option" (for more than just Euchre, whatever that is).
Right now if I go out and spend £100 on last-gen games I can get games (brand new) that would have cost me £400 at launch, all titles that got reviews of 8 & 9 out of 10; for me that is a bargain, and for me is is VERY appealing. I guess there's a difference when it's your own dollar you're spending.
Stroller.
"most 18- to 25-year-olds not as hip and trendy as they think". Film at 11.
The whole point of the GPL - see the printer driver story - is that end-users should be able to modify AND USE software released under the license. The deal is "if you use this software in your product, you're expected to give users that right.
Tivo have taken advantage of the benefits of Linux and found a legal loop-hole with which to weasel out of their responsibilities over the code. The cost of using GPL software on your hardware offerings is that users SHOULD be able to replace it on the hardware, regardless of how you feel about that. The Xbox is irrelevant in this case - it's fair enough that Microsoft deny Linux installations on their hardware, because they haven't benefited from the GPL in the first place.
The sum of the software I've released publicly amounts to a few Bash scripts, but if I were a Linux kernel developer who had purchased a Tivo I would be LIVID that my work had been used in this way, preventing me from modifying & using my own code, now resold to me installed on hardware I'd PAID good money for!!
Sure, the GPL v2 permits Tivo to restrict what kernel can be run on their hardware, but it's an unforeseen loophole - certainly against the original spirit of the GPL - and the contract should be changed.
Stroller.
Stroller.
This may be unique to the UK, Europe or just non-American states (I'm assuming the "self-evident" GP is in the USA & I have no idea how it is there) but no-one I know carries their documents when they drive. Not my parents, not anybody. All my driving documents stay in a single plastic file at home and if I get pulled for speeding then the nice police office gives me a "producer", a form that requires me to produce my documents at a cop-shop of my choosing within 7 days. I just grab my plastic folder & take the whole lot with me when I'm next going out - the police station is less than a mile from my home.
As you can see this situation is rife for abuse - I give my name, date- and town-of-birth when I'm stopped and the police just seem to assume that that identifies me, as long as there are no outstanding warrants out against that "identity" (if you've never been arrested then I believe that police records will come up blank against that name). But thankfully compulsory ID has not been successful yet in this country, so I can see why coppers want these kinds of measures.
Stroller.
I didn't say that compassion and decency don't have a place in the law... I was just pointing out that you didn't answer the question. You replied to TravisW's question about the relevance of Ms. Schwartz's MS, but you did not answer it.
Certainly "very sick woman sued by RIAA" is a better headline than "person sued by RIAA" - it emphasises her fragility & encourages us to side with her - but her illness has no bearing on her guilt or innocence. It is surely true that there are many disabled people who have found the internet to considerably enhance their ability to communicate & enrich their lives; but I am sure that many of them - intentional or naive of violating copyright - are also delighted that they are able to easily obtain bootleg entertainment, too.
Ms Schwartz's illness is surely a hardship, and may have a bearing on a suitable sentence or reparation should she be found guilty. To me, it does imply (as TravisW suggests) that "the RIAA is particularly unscrupulous for bringing a suit against someone with a severe medical condition, and that it should hence be additionally vilified accordingly", but in the context of TravisW's questions your response "It's a case against a woman with Multiple Sclerosis who's never even heard of file sharing until the RIAA came after her" is just waffle.
So the helpless & infirm should be immune from the law, then? Is that your opinion?Stroller.
Look, I think it's great that you're fighting on the "right side" of these particular legal cases & all, but being a lawyer you must be aware that your profession is sometimes perceived as being weasely. When you - especially since you're supposedly "one of the good lawyers" - weasel out of answering a question in this way you just perpetuate that perception.
Your client may be innocent, she may never have heard of file-sharing, she may be a very lovely lady... but her illness is surely irrelevant to the case, and mentioning it is only bid for sympathy. You're playing upon our perceptions that little old ladies & MS sufferers are less likely to download MP3s than teenagers or twenty-something guys with tattoos and spiky haircuts. You're probably right in that, but it's no more relevant to the case than the colour of her skin.
Stroller.