No. I'd assumed it must be illegal simply because they weren't doing it, and it's the kind of thing that our consumer-protection laws usually cover. But Somerfield may have found a loophole.
Basically, the supermarkets have decided that unless you become one of the sheep, and carry around their silly cards so they can track your purchases, they won't let you purchase anything on sale.
I really can't understand how you let that one through. It's not legal here (UK) - the cards give you 'points', effectively coupons towards future purchases, but they are not allowed to have different prices for cardholders, or cardholder-only items.
Of course the same applies to the current 4.7GB disks and I can't recall seeing any dual sided versions of those anywhere. They are available. I won't post a link to a commercial site here, mostly because it's a small UK mail-order business and probably wouldn't appreciate a slashdotting, but the disks are made by Ul-Tran and use a dark purple dye (not sure if it's a Ritek dye, but I'm using the single-sided Ul-Tran at the moment with no problems).
Would be no problem at all, people coming in with laptops are not exactly unusual these days. This is all assuming he's smart enough to have it looking used, in a laptop bag, and not bring it home in the box:p
.com has one huge disadvantage over.co.uk when it comes to email addresses - all the stupid American spammers assume that their US-only mortgage and refinancing offers are relevant to anyone with a.com address. Switching to an ISP that gave me a.com address, and also appears to do no server side filtering whatsoever, was quite painful.
No, you see, you've misunderstood... Phillips owns the IP rights to the concept of a "Compact Disc". By a company claiming that they have produced such an object, they provide a certain basic level of guarantee that they have complied with Phillips' specifications.
Unfortunately, Philips seem to have gone over to the dark side. Their response to copy-protected CDs not working in car CD players in the UK was basically along the lines of 'well, that's progress, it's only natural that other people have enhanced the format since we wrote the specification'.
The only copyright violation would be by the developers of KazaaLite
Not true. Remember that any validity in EULAs comes from the ruling that installing and running software both involve making copies, so permission from the copyright holder is required. If that precedent had not been set, groups like the BSA would have no legal support.
I hope that doesn't mean that users of KaZaaLite (another altered version of KaZaa) will be sued for ip infringement too. I'd guess that about 25% of their users are using that altered version.
It means that they could be; KaZaALite quite happily admits that it's illegal when you install it. But going after the RIAA is a bit more of a PR coup than going after individual users.
And I'd guess that (counting all the different flavours of KL) it's probably more like 75% of users.
If WoW has a UK division, tough for them. But if they do their shopping in Hong Kong and send directly to customers in the UK, there's not much the BPI could do about it.
They can lobby for any CD-shaped package from Hong Kong to be seized and destroyed by UK Customs, which seems to be what they are threatening.
That's not what the initiative is about, it's to allow your car to track [i]itself[/i] and other nearby vehicles, as the first step towards self-driving vehicles. Whether that's how it ends up being used, or whether it happens at all, is yet to be seen.
The pharmaceutical industry possibly deserves special treatment (patents or the equivalent) simply because safety regulations require them to divulge the contents of their products, and therefore they can't benefit from trade secrets. In industries where this is not the case, it's not so obvious that patents are necessary or desirable.
I think the only thing that has prevented this so far is PageRank's reliance on links, and the fact that people know about it - if the most popular search engine had still used only content-based ranking, people really would see no need for links. But what we're seeing now is a split between legitimate sites, which aren't bothering so much with links, and affiliate networks which are generating as many as possible. It's already affecting the quality of Google's results.
Adding in a DNS server didn't do it for me - I tried using the Demon one and couldn't get anywhere (sticking with the default, I could still reach The Register for some reason, but nowhere else). The problem seemed to be that the ntlworld.com addresses were not resolving - mail, news, and web proxy - so maybe OpenNIC had them listed and Demon didn't
Not sure if that's possible in this country. The account number alone will not be accepted by the bank to authorise a withdrawal, only a deposit. To my knowledge, the only way to use a current account over the phone/internet is if it has a debit card, and that number is not on the statement (and quite often uses an additional security code in the same way as credit cards).
What stops people now from rummaging through your garbage, finding your bank statements, and draining your bank accounts?
I don't know what kind of information is on your bank statement, but mine and every one I've seen only have enough information to allow you to deposit into the account, not withdraw. Some hacking or social engineering would still be required to get to the point of being able to drain the account.
Academic 'fair use' - quoting small parts of an article (which may be audio or video as well as written) - is very well protected, and is the classic definition of 'fair use' because it is a legitimate reason to republish other people's work. Some of the other things that have been included under 'fair use' in the US - such as personal backups - have no equivalent in English law.
There is nothing specifically in there about preventing the public shifting media for personal use.
Bear in mind that there is no fair use exception in English law, so it has technically always been illegal. This EUCD implementation just makes prosecution more likely.
Yes, NTL has always done this. When you're looking at the Guide, there's a perfectly functional PIP frame, but instead of displaying the channel you were watching, it displays either the NTL promo or Front Row Guide.
It's obviously a programmed option, as very occasionally I can go in and it will show the channel I was watching.
Saddam could have just not invaded Kuwait and the nation never would have been bombed
What, and just let the Kuwaitis go on stealing his country's only major resource? And after being told that the West would consider the invasion justified and would not retaliate?
The original tool (presumably no artistic work involved in the tool itself) was not one of the statutory 'works of authorship' in US copyright law.
Well, this is the question. The jig is basically a template, which puts it somewhere between being functional enough to patent, and artistic enough to copyright. The question is which (if either) the manufacturer actually has on the design.
Slashdot Mirror
No. I'd assumed it must be illegal simply because they weren't doing it, and it's the kind of thing that our consumer-protection laws usually cover. But Somerfield may have found a loophole.
I really can't understand how you let that one through. It's not legal here (UK) - the cards give you 'points', effectively coupons towards future purchases, but they are not allowed to have different prices for cardholders, or cardholder-only items.
Ul-Tran silver top single sided, 0.59
Those are the single disk prices, bulk prices keep about the same ratio.Ul-Tran double sided, 1.59
Of course the same applies to the current 4.7GB disks and I can't recall seeing any dual sided versions of those anywhere. They are available. I won't post a link to a commercial site here, mostly because it's a small UK mail-order business and probably wouldn't appreciate a slashdotting, but the disks are made by Ul-Tran and use a dark purple dye (not sure if it's a Ritek dye, but I'm using the single-sided Ul-Tran at the moment with no problems).
Would be no problem at all, people coming in with laptops are not exactly unusual these days. This is all assuming he's smart enough to have it looking used, in a laptop bag, and not bring it home in the box :p
.com has one huge disadvantage over .co.uk when it comes to email addresses - all the stupid American spammers assume that their US-only mortgage and refinancing offers are relevant to anyone with a .com address. Switching to an ISP that gave me a .com address, and also appears to do no server side filtering whatsoever, was quite painful.
Mod parent down, I misread the quote. Just to confuse the issue, the British Phonographic Industry has a spokesman called Phillips :/
Unfortunately, Philips seem to have gone over to the dark side. Their response to copy-protected CDs not working in car CD players in the UK was basically along the lines of 'well, that's progress, it's only natural that other people have enhanced the format since we wrote the specification'.
And the latest version was released a couple of weeks ago. Didn't stay dead for long.
Not true. Remember that any validity in EULAs comes from the ruling that installing and running software both involve making copies, so permission from the copyright holder is required. If that precedent had not been set, groups like the BSA would have no legal support.
It means that they could be; KaZaALite quite happily admits that it's illegal when you install it. But going after the RIAA is a bit more of a PR coup than going after individual users. And I'd guess that (counting all the different flavours of KL) it's probably more like 75% of users.
They can lobby for any CD-shaped package from Hong Kong to be seized and destroyed by UK Customs, which seems to be what they are threatening.
Okay, so every other site I read uses VBCode and I keep forgetting that Slashdot uses proper HTML. What preview button?
That's not what the initiative is about, it's to allow your car to track [i]itself[/i] and other nearby vehicles, as the first step towards self-driving vehicles. Whether that's how it ends up being used, or whether it happens at all, is yet to be seen.
Don't be silly. Nobody could stretch the key points from a WoT book out to a whole 30 pages.
The pharmaceutical industry possibly deserves special treatment (patents or the equivalent) simply because safety regulations require them to divulge the contents of their products, and therefore they can't benefit from trade secrets. In industries where this is not the case, it's not so obvious that patents are necessary or desirable.
I think the only thing that has prevented this so far is PageRank's reliance on links, and the fact that people know about it - if the most popular search engine had still used only content-based ranking, people really would see no need for links. But what we're seeing now is a split between legitimate sites, which aren't bothering so much with links, and affiliate networks which are generating as many as possible. It's already affecting the quality of Google's results.
Adding in a DNS server didn't do it for me - I tried using the Demon one and couldn't get anywhere (sticking with the default, I could still reach The Register for some reason, but nowhere else). The problem seemed to be that the ntlworld.com addresses were not resolving - mail, news, and web proxy - so maybe OpenNIC had them listed and Demon didn't
Not sure if that's possible in this country. The account number alone will not be accepted by the bank to authorise a withdrawal, only a deposit. To my knowledge, the only way to use a current account over the phone/internet is if it has a debit card, and that number is not on the statement (and quite often uses an additional security code in the same way as credit cards).
I don't know what kind of information is on your bank statement, but mine and every one I've seen only have enough information to allow you to deposit into the account, not withdraw. Some hacking or social engineering would still be required to get to the point of being able to drain the account.
Academic 'fair use' - quoting small parts of an article (which may be audio or video as well as written) - is very well protected, and is the classic definition of 'fair use' because it is a legitimate reason to republish other people's work. Some of the other things that have been included under 'fair use' in the US - such as personal backups - have no equivalent in English law.
There is nothing specifically in there about preventing the public shifting media for personal use. Bear in mind that there is no fair use exception in English law, so it has technically always been illegal. This EUCD implementation just makes prosecution more likely.
It's obviously a programmed option, as very occasionally I can go in and it will show the channel I was watching.
What, and just let the Kuwaitis go on stealing his country's only major resource? And after being told that the West would consider the invasion justified and would not retaliate?
Well, this is the question. The jig is basically a template, which puts it somewhere between being functional enough to patent, and artistic enough to copyright. The question is which (if either) the manufacturer actually has on the design.