The RIAA says that it's only going after people sharing 1000 or more files. Most people probably only use, at the very most, five BitTorrent streams at once. Let's assume that each instance of BitTorrent is a CD with 20 songs. That's at best comes to a user sharing 100 songs at a time, well below the RIAA's threshold.
Will the RIAA change the number of songs shared before legal action is taken or will BitTorrent users get a free ride?
Microsoft's Product Activation was supposed to eliminate all software sharing and piracy. Anyone with any knowledge of Asia knows that XP didn't put a dent in piracy there. And from the looks of this new campaign, it appears that it didn't put a dent in sharing either.
I can't help but wonder why we were ever scared of Palladium?! Microsoft can't even lock down their own OS, how could they possibly ever lock down an entire computer?!
"Why is it that a campaign commercial doesn't need to be as truthful as a car commercial?"
Because there is a difference between commerical speech and political speech. There is no constitutional right to commerical speech, although the courts have provided some limited rights. One such limitation is that the advertisments must be truthful.
Other than spending limits, there are no limits on politcal speech. We don't really want the government sorting out which poltical beliefs are more truthful. Well, maybe you do, but I sure in heck don't.
Re:What has halloween to do with the world?
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Yeah, kids playing dress up and walking around getting free candy. God, let's hope that kind of frivolity doesn't spread around the world!
You know Gates is hated...
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When even Forbes magazine portrays him as a monster for a laugh!
It makes sense to me. If our financial infrastructure does something so incredibly and obviously stupid, and there is nothing we can do about it, the only thing left to do is gloat when it comes crashing down!
I for one welcome our new beowolf cluster of 4'10" Chinese Predator overlords! (Regardless of how low this thread is being moderated, I'm certainly being entertained!)
I think you're missing the point because you might not be familiar with the problem: The Xbox DVD drive is prone to failure. Warranties are good for covering unexpected problems. But this suit (apparently, because I haven't seen the complaint) alleges that Microsoft knew, or reasonably should have known, about the problem, but continued producing the product regardless. When a company knowingly produces a faulty product you can sue for treble (a fancy pants way of saying triple) damages, regardless of the warranty, because the standard is different.
You might disagree with the law, but the law is what it is.
Today the State Bar Association moved to disbar Attorney Christie Hamilton for conduct unbecoming of an attorney.
A spokesman for the Bar Association was quoted as saying, "Apologize?! If lawyers start giving apologies for simply doing their jobs, our entire legal system will collapse as everyone will simply get along rather than continue pointless and expensive litigation."
That the owner of Rubik's Cube is a huge contributor to the Bush's campaign.
It's also pretty apparent that the Department of Homeland Security is becoming equivalent to SS troops. Carrying out personal vendettas and attacks on the behalf of the president and his party.
I certainly hope this becomes a big story, but I'd bet anything it won't.
That makes no sense. It'd streamline the process, practically eliminate litigation, and will eventually put lawyers out of work. As a lawyer I'm strongly against your approach.
Are you serious?! I could really give a rat's ass about that! A screw driver certainly uses less electricy than my powered drill. But that fact doesn't keep me from using my powered drill when necessary.
And what do you pay each month for your restricted TIVO?! Do you really think I spend any amount near that for electricity for my PVR?!
I'd much rather have the compete freedom of recording shows, being able to edit them (i.e., remove commercials), to burn them or share them versus a proprietary box I have to pay for every month!
Freedom has its price, but in this case, it's MUCH cheaper!
That's where I'm really lucky. There is a small 9x9 foot room right behind my living room. I keep the computer there and run cables underneath the floor to the TV/receiver/USB hub. You don't see or hear anything because it's hidden away.
Still, you could always buy a Shuttle barebones system cheap from newegg.com. You don't need a high end system to run a DVR. Considering they have on-board networking and sound AND are very quiet, one could easily sit in a living room without being unattractive or disruptive.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles 279 F.3d 796 C.A.9 (Cal.),2002
In this case Welles was a former Playmate of the Year. She put that on her website. Playboy sued to force her to take it off (the phrase, not her clothes again!).
The court held that since it was true that Welles was indeed a Playmate of the Year, there is no trademark infringement for her to say it.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringement.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringment.
Oh I would like something smaller. But I do think an iPod sized device could be built with two replaceable AA batteries.
The problem is that manufacturers are hyping battery life in these portable devices. And to achieve better battery life, proprietary batteries are needed.
To analogize with fuel efficiency, it'd be a like a car with great gas mileage, but the car is extremely inconvenient to fill up with gas, i.e., it took hours and you could only do it at a couple of locations. The time and ease of simply changing batteries are more than worth the cost of those batteries. You can always earn more money, but you can never earn time.
I'll say it again: I'm not criticizing the iPod's interface!!!
But there are two reasons why I'd never buy one: First, I can't simply drag and drop music on it like a hard drive. (If I'm wrong about that, let me know.) All I want to do is to put my CDs in subfolders on the drive and hit "shuffle" and have it randomly pay across it.
The second reason I'd never buy an iPod is because of the proprietary battery. I currently use an ancient (by today's standard) Rio RioVolt SP250. I took all my favorite songs and put them on 12 discs. At about 12 hours a disc, I have about 6 days worth of music. The cool thing about the SP250 is when the batteries die, I can simply toss in two AAs and have it work again. I'd much rather have a shorter battery life AND the choice to use standard batteries versus having dead proprietary batteries that last a long time. Dead batteries that last a long time BUT cannot be replaced are pointless to me.
I'll continue to use my SP250 until something comes along which allows me to do the same things I can do now. If that's forever, I can live with it.
I have no idea what the "number one" single is today, but I'm certain of one thing: It's crap. The fact that the iPod sells well means absolutely nothing to me.
I totally agree that the iPod's interface is intuitive.
I have no problem with a proprietary software interface for all of those brainless newbies. I only want a direct approach for those of us with brains.
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The RIAA says that it's only going after people sharing 1000 or more files. Most people probably only use, at the very most, five BitTorrent streams at once. Let's assume that each instance of BitTorrent is a CD with 20 songs. That's at best comes to a user sharing 100 songs at a time, well below the RIAA's threshold.
Will the RIAA change the number of songs shared before legal action is taken or will BitTorrent users get a free ride?
Microsoft's Product Activation was supposed to eliminate all software sharing and piracy. Anyone with any knowledge of Asia knows that XP didn't put a dent in piracy there. And from the looks of this new campaign, it appears that it didn't put a dent in sharing either.
I can't help but wonder why we were ever scared of Palladium?! Microsoft can't even lock down their own OS, how could they possibly ever lock down an entire computer?!
"Why is it that a campaign commercial doesn't need to be as truthful as a car commercial?"
Because there is a difference between commerical speech and political speech. There is no constitutional right to commerical speech, although the courts have provided some limited rights. One such limitation is that the advertisments must be truthful.
Other than spending limits, there are no limits on politcal speech. We don't really want the government sorting out which poltical beliefs are more truthful. Well, maybe you do, but I sure in heck don't.
Yeah, kids playing dress up and walking around getting free candy. God, let's hope that kind of frivolity doesn't spread around the world!
When even Forbes magazine portrays him as a monster for a laugh!
It makes sense to me. If our financial infrastructure does something so incredibly and obviously stupid, and there is nothing we can do about it, the only thing left to do is gloat when it comes crashing down!
I for one welcome our new beowolf cluster of 4'10" Chinese Predator overlords! (Regardless of how low this thread is being moderated, I'm certainly being entertained!)
I think you're missing the point because you might not be familiar with the problem: The Xbox DVD drive is prone to failure. Warranties are good for covering unexpected problems. But this suit (apparently, because I haven't seen the complaint) alleges that Microsoft knew, or reasonably should have known, about the problem, but continued producing the product regardless. When a company knowingly produces a faulty product you can sue for treble (a fancy pants way of saying triple) damages, regardless of the warranty, because the standard is different.
You might disagree with the law, but the law is what it is.
"Is there technical grounds for this lawsuit?"
You answer no. But the answer is maybe. You may be right, the plaintiff may be right. But until a jury decides, we won't know.
I do know one thing for certain, I have quite a few friends who had to spend good money replacing their Xbox DVD drives.
Gee, I was going to make a joke about mating the alien mother with Ashcroft. But yours is MUCH better!
I figured Bush is trying to dig up that buried mother alien to use as his running mate.
Oh never mind, I keep forgetting that no one bothered to see the movie!
Today the State Bar Association moved to disbar Attorney Christie Hamilton for conduct unbecoming of an attorney.
A spokesman for the Bar Association was quoted as saying, "Apologize?! If lawyers start giving apologies for simply doing their jobs, our entire legal system will collapse as everyone will simply get along rather than continue pointless and expensive litigation."
As a lawyer, I applaud such products!
That the owner of Rubik's Cube is a huge contributor to the Bush's campaign.
It's also pretty apparent that the Department of Homeland Security is becoming equivalent to SS troops. Carrying out personal vendettas and attacks on the behalf of the president and his party.
I certainly hope this becomes a big story, but I'd bet anything it won't.
The posting mentions copyrights, trademarks, AND patents?! Despite what most slashdotters think, they are NOT interchangable.
That makes no sense. It'd streamline the process, practically eliminate litigation, and will eventually put lawyers out of work. As a lawyer I'm strongly against your approach.
Are you serious?! I could really give a rat's ass about that! A screw driver certainly uses less electricy than my powered drill. But that fact doesn't keep me from using my powered drill when necessary.
And what do you pay each month for your restricted TIVO?! Do you really think I spend any amount near that for electricity for my PVR?!
I'd much rather have the compete freedom of recording shows, being able to edit them (i.e., remove commercials), to burn them or share them versus a proprietary box I have to pay for every month!
Freedom has its price, but in this case, it's MUCH cheaper!
That's where I'm really lucky. There is a small 9x9 foot room right behind my living room. I keep the computer there and run cables underneath the floor to the TV/receiver/USB hub. You don't see or hear anything because it's hidden away.
Still, you could always buy a Shuttle barebones system cheap from newegg.com. You don't need a high end system to run a DVR. Considering they have on-board networking and sound AND are very quiet, one could easily sit in a living room without being unattractive or disruptive.
I agree. My homebuilt PVR does everything I want without any restrictions. And they're cheap to build and require no monthly fees.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles 279 F.3d 796 C.A.9 (Cal.),2002
In this case Welles was a former Playmate of the Year. She put that on her website. Playboy sued to force her to take it off (the phrase, not her clothes again!).
The court held that since it was true that Welles was indeed a Playmate of the Year, there is no trademark infringement for her to say it.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringement.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringment.
Yeah, you're right. I keep forgeting those things have hard drives, and while they're small, they're not quite that small.
I guess I'll be waiting a long time! Flash drives keep getting bigger and bigger. So maybe I won't have to wait too long. Thanks for your help.
Oh I would like something smaller. But I do think an iPod sized device could be built with two replaceable AA batteries.
The problem is that manufacturers are hyping battery life in these portable devices. And to achieve better battery life, proprietary batteries are needed.
To analogize with fuel efficiency, it'd be a like a car with great gas mileage, but the car is extremely inconvenient to fill up with gas, i.e., it took hours and you could only do it at a couple of locations. The time and ease of simply changing batteries are more than worth the cost of those batteries. You can always earn more money, but you can never earn time.
I'll say it again: I'm not criticizing the iPod's interface!!!
But there are two reasons why I'd never buy one: First, I can't simply drag and drop music on it like a hard drive. (If I'm wrong about that, let me know.) All I want to do is to put my CDs in subfolders on the drive and hit "shuffle" and have it randomly pay across it.
The second reason I'd never buy an iPod is because of the proprietary battery. I currently use an ancient (by today's standard) Rio RioVolt SP250. I took all my favorite songs and put them on 12 discs. At about 12 hours a disc, I have about 6 days worth of music. The cool thing about the SP250 is when the batteries die, I can simply toss in two AAs and have it work again. I'd much rather have a shorter battery life AND the choice to use standard batteries versus having dead proprietary batteries that last a long time. Dead batteries that last a long time BUT cannot be replaced are pointless to me.
I'll continue to use my SP250 until something comes along which allows me to do the same things I can do now. If that's forever, I can live with it.
I have no idea what the "number one" single is today, but I'm certain of one thing: It's crap. The fact that the iPod sells well means absolutely nothing to me.
I totally agree that the iPod's interface is intuitive.
I have no problem with a proprietary software interface for all of those brainless newbies. I only want a direct approach for those of us with brains.