This is pretty much how the legal system works in all aspects, not just patent law. If you really really want something and continue to find ways to ram it through the courts, you'll eventually succeed. It's just a matter of how much time you have and how much you can afford to spend on lawyers.
As a graduate of a public university in the US, I can tell you that there are a number of "professors" that do exactly this. Some professors are more ambitious and come up with their own material. Most of my profs that taught straight out of the book actually wrote the book. However you do have the lazy ones that are just holding on until retirement and can't be bothered to introduce material that isn't in the textbook.
That may be, but in any case they bought licenses that they did not really need as a way of funneling money into the SCO extortion scam. Considering how much the scam benefitted Microsoft, it would be pretty hard to deny that this was their intention.
This is the exact reason why Microsoft bought those SCO "Linux licenses". It funded a 2 year FUD campaign much more powerful than anything Microsoft could have done under their own name, and no doubt scared litigation-conscious companies away from Linux and into the safe arms of Microsoft. I think they have now lost all credibility and will be filing Chapter 11 within a year, but it was great publicity for Microsoft while it lasted.
That wouldn't necessarily work, because people would just spam under a corporate name and then bankrupt the company when caught. Even if the penalty applied to them personally, it would be hard to collect and bankruptcy would probably get rid of it. For serious cases of spamming, especially if the spam is fraudulent or sent via stolen internet access, jail time must be a possibility.
If I recall correctly, they do have a patent that pretty much covers renting DVDs via the internet. Expect to see them suing Amazon soon. Then again, Amazon could probably hit back with some patents of their own, so maybe they won't sue. Still, Netflix is as patent crazy as most other businesses now.
What do you think "Ask Slashdot" is for? I'll give you a hint, it's to ask questions. So readers can post their own experiences solving a similar problem. In other words, an idea exchange. What a concept! If this bothers you, I suggest disabling this section in your preferences so you don't have to see it. If someone has no clue how to do their job and is relying on Slashdot readers to do it for them, they'll be found out soon enough and canned.
How this is a troll, I have no idea. It is always important to budget for software support and the inevitable upgrades, whether proprietary or open source software. In business, there is no such thing as free software, since a paid employee must install and support it.
Sony is running on fumes. That is why their stock price has been shooting down. They make crap, sell it at a high price, and refuse to support it. This is all possible because the Sony name once stood for quality. I suspect they have licensed the name out to cheap third world manufacturers and allowed them to stamp it on poorly built garbage just because the name will increase sales. I along with many people will never buy another Sony product unless they drastically turn themselves around.
Why must every advice book for geeks have the work "Hacking" in the title? Instead of calling it a career advice book like they would for any other profession, it's "career hacking". Wasn't there some topic on Slashdot about "car hacking"? Maybe somebody can publish a cookbook with foods that appeal to geeks and call it "Food hacking". Maybe I should go register that trademark right now...
I don't believe anyone ever really thought of Darl as anything but a harmless troll. Even in a worst case scenario regarding the IBM lawsuit, SCO would never have every Linux user paying them $699. It was just a stock scam all along.
Of course there was once a time when nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM. It seems like people feel comfortable buying what they know other companies are buying, since that must mean it's good. Only when they have a very compelling reason to switch do they usually do so. When IBM became too bloated and expensive compared to their competitors, people switched. Microsoft would do well to take notice of this and make sure they don't repeat IBM's mistakes, or Linux will suddenly look a lot more appealing to the CxO types.
You're right about how they used to be more than a marketing gimmick. I still have an HP inkjet from 1997 (722 model) and I will keep it until it dies. It cost over $300 at the time, which says something about how they used to be built. No modern inkjet at any price is as good as this one, and it's print quality is still pretty decent. For the extremely low volume that I print, it would be hard to justify a laser.
Cisco has been careful to make Linksys products shitty enough so as to not cannibalize sales of the more profitable Cisco name brand. Those sales would suffer if Linksys were high quality enough to be enterprise grade equipment, since it pretty much includes all the features most people need.
Continental is a large corporation. However, they will likely not be able to interfere with the revenue stream of the Boston politicians. Boston has legendary political corruption and those who don't pay don't get to play.
Tell her to complain to the state and federal regulatory boards. Banks are heavily regulated and this one probably violated some regulations in the course of these events. In fact, simply telling the bank manager that she will notify the boards will probably be enough to get the bank to take care of things on their own, since they really don't want any more regulatory red tape than they already have. And of course, filing a local police report will help to document the theft and make it more likely the bank will take it seriously. She will unfortunately have to do a lot of the leg work herself, since banks aren't especially motivated to go out of their way to help people in cases like this.
On the contrary, it is the use of a national ID number (social security number) that makes identity theft so easy and common. If more than one number were required to prove identity, thieves would have to work a lot harder to pull it off and would be more likely to trip up and get caught. With so many banks and stores ready to hand out instant credit to anyone who comes along with an SSN and some minimal form of ID, it's no wonder that criminals are taking advantage of the system.
Even a "non-biased" site will do what they have to do in order to retain advertisers. I would never expect a company to allow criticism of an advertiser on their site, for obvious reasons. This is why buyers need to research product information on multiple sites before deciding to buy something. Anyone can throw up a fake review site with glowing user testimonials, kind of like the ones you see on infomercials. A general rule of thumb should be to not believe everything you read on the internet, but if you're seeing the same type of comments from different people in different situations, there's probably some truth to it.
Find an example of an employer claiming they have the right to do this (or even anything similar to this) and I'll give you my answer. Claiming that you have a right is one thing, actually having it is another.
Since when does the constitution provide the right to require the government to help you deliver an unlimited amount of commercial advertising? For the last time, SPAM IS NOT A FREE SPEECH ISSUE! Popular message or not, no mail administrator is required to deliver mail. The spammer is not being restricted from sending mail at all. Free speech does not entitle the speaker to a free platform.
Forming a union is against company policy anyway (the unwritten policy, that is). It will require a lot of struggle and the violation of some silly rules such as this. Anyone suspected by management of unionization activities will no doubt be fired for one reason or another anyway, so this type of policy will make little difference. Legally, employees can unionize, but realistically it's pretty hard to do.
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This is pretty much how the legal system works in all aspects, not just patent law. If you really really want something and continue to find ways to ram it through the courts, you'll eventually succeed. It's just a matter of how much time you have and how much you can afford to spend on lawyers.
As a graduate of a public university in the US, I can tell you that there are a number of "professors" that do exactly this. Some professors are more ambitious and come up with their own material. Most of my profs that taught straight out of the book actually wrote the book. However you do have the lazy ones that are just holding on until retirement and can't be bothered to introduce material that isn't in the textbook.
That may be, but in any case they bought licenses that they did not really need as a way of funneling money into the SCO extortion scam. Considering how much the scam benefitted Microsoft, it would be pretty hard to deny that this was their intention.
This is the exact reason why Microsoft bought those SCO "Linux licenses". It funded a 2 year FUD campaign much more powerful than anything Microsoft could have done under their own name, and no doubt scared litigation-conscious companies away from Linux and into the safe arms of Microsoft. I think they have now lost all credibility and will be filing Chapter 11 within a year, but it was great publicity for Microsoft while it lasted.
That wouldn't necessarily work, because people would just spam under a corporate name and then bankrupt the company when caught. Even if the penalty applied to them personally, it would be hard to collect and bankruptcy would probably get rid of it. For serious cases of spamming, especially if the spam is fraudulent or sent via stolen internet access, jail time must be a possibility.
If I recall correctly, they do have a patent that pretty much covers renting DVDs via the internet. Expect to see them suing Amazon soon. Then again, Amazon could probably hit back with some patents of their own, so maybe they won't sue. Still, Netflix is as patent crazy as most other businesses now.
If it weren't for cell phone sales, I think they would die. And good riddance, not like they sell anything useful anymore.
I thought you would tell them to sod off?
What do you think "Ask Slashdot" is for? I'll give you a hint, it's to ask questions. So readers can post their own experiences solving a similar problem. In other words, an idea exchange. What a concept! If this bothers you, I suggest disabling this section in your preferences so you don't have to see it. If someone has no clue how to do their job and is relying on Slashdot readers to do it for them, they'll be found out soon enough and canned.
How this is a troll, I have no idea. It is always important to budget for software support and the inevitable upgrades, whether proprietary or open source software. In business, there is no such thing as free software, since a paid employee must install and support it.
Sony is running on fumes. That is why their stock price has been shooting down. They make crap, sell it at a high price, and refuse to support it. This is all possible because the Sony name once stood for quality. I suspect they have licensed the name out to cheap third world manufacturers and allowed them to stamp it on poorly built garbage just because the name will increase sales. I along with many people will never buy another Sony product unless they drastically turn themselves around.
Why must every advice book for geeks have the work "Hacking" in the title? Instead of calling it a career advice book like they would for any other profession, it's "career hacking". Wasn't there some topic on Slashdot about "car hacking"? Maybe somebody can publish a cookbook with foods that appeal to geeks and call it "Food hacking". Maybe I should go register that trademark right now...
For best results, tell them to do it to protect the children from terrorists.
I don't believe anyone ever really thought of Darl as anything but a harmless troll. Even in a worst case scenario regarding the IBM lawsuit, SCO would never have every Linux user paying them $699. It was just a stock scam all along.
Of course there was once a time when nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM. It seems like people feel comfortable buying what they know other companies are buying, since that must mean it's good. Only when they have a very compelling reason to switch do they usually do so. When IBM became too bloated and expensive compared to their competitors, people switched. Microsoft would do well to take notice of this and make sure they don't repeat IBM's mistakes, or Linux will suddenly look a lot more appealing to the CxO types.
You're right about how they used to be more than a marketing gimmick. I still have an HP inkjet from 1997 (722 model) and I will keep it until it dies. It cost over $300 at the time, which says something about how they used to be built. No modern inkjet at any price is as good as this one, and it's print quality is still pretty decent. For the extremely low volume that I print, it would be hard to justify a laser.
Cisco has been careful to make Linksys products shitty enough so as to not cannibalize sales of the more profitable Cisco name brand. Those sales would suffer if Linksys were high quality enough to be enterprise grade equipment, since it pretty much includes all the features most people need.
Yay for security by obscurity. Like some terrorist couldn't get that information anyway if they really wanted it.
Continental is a large corporation. However, they will likely not be able to interfere with the revenue stream of the Boston politicians. Boston has legendary political corruption and those who don't pay don't get to play.
Tell her to complain to the state and federal regulatory boards. Banks are heavily regulated and this one probably violated some regulations in the course of these events. In fact, simply telling the bank manager that she will notify the boards will probably be enough to get the bank to take care of things on their own, since they really don't want any more regulatory red tape than they already have. And of course, filing a local police report will help to document the theft and make it more likely the bank will take it seriously. She will unfortunately have to do a lot of the leg work herself, since banks aren't especially motivated to go out of their way to help people in cases like this.
On the contrary, it is the use of a national ID number (social security number) that makes identity theft so easy and common. If more than one number were required to prove identity, thieves would have to work a lot harder to pull it off and would be more likely to trip up and get caught. With so many banks and stores ready to hand out instant credit to anyone who comes along with an SSN and some minimal form of ID, it's no wonder that criminals are taking advantage of the system.
Even a "non-biased" site will do what they have to do in order to retain advertisers. I would never expect a company to allow criticism of an advertiser on their site, for obvious reasons. This is why buyers need to research product information on multiple sites before deciding to buy something. Anyone can throw up a fake review site with glowing user testimonials, kind of like the ones you see on infomercials. A general rule of thumb should be to not believe everything you read on the internet, but if you're seeing the same type of comments from different people in different situations, there's probably some truth to it.
Find an example of an employer claiming they have the right to do this (or even anything similar to this) and I'll give you my answer. Claiming that you have a right is one thing, actually having it is another.
Since when does the constitution provide the right to require the government to help you deliver an unlimited amount of commercial advertising? For the last time, SPAM IS NOT A FREE SPEECH ISSUE! Popular message or not, no mail administrator is required to deliver mail. The spammer is not being restricted from sending mail at all. Free speech does not entitle the speaker to a free platform.
Forming a union is against company policy anyway (the unwritten policy, that is). It will require a lot of struggle and the violation of some silly rules such as this. Anyone suspected by management of unionization activities will no doubt be fired for one reason or another anyway, so this type of policy will make little difference. Legally, employees can unionize, but realistically it's pretty hard to do.