Although the RIAA is issuing Civil Suits at this point, the Net Act could allow the RIAA to issue Criminal suits if they wished. It could be argued that by sharing mp3's, they were in fact hoping to receive mp3's in downloading. That is trading, and that is what the Net Act has defined as "commercial gain".
Go ahead and put words in my mouth, to make YOUR B.s. comment. A teacher should never make personal, political, religious feelings over the students' right to a fair education that they paid for.
Riiiight. They aren't tracking IRC. Who's the stupid one now?
There's plenty of articles out there to read right now about undercover software employees, tracking companies, and others patrolling IRC at this minute. Just because it's not in the news yet, doesn't mean it's safe. You think these are big headlines, just wait til they nab a few traders fserving up 50,000 files.
You might think the execs at the RIAA/MPAA/BSA are stupid. But they have the money to hire non-stupid people.
You should do a search on google about "release groups". It's a fascinating read. You'll see that all it takes is one "supplier". Examples of suppliers are reviewers, artists themselves, bob's secretary, jim the engineer at the marketing studio who got an advance copy, or if worse comes to work, your local Best Buy employee who gets the CD the week before the Tuesday it is officially released.
All it takes is one copy, then it's ripped, encoded, checked, and then uploaded to a number of FTP sites that trickle down to other FTP sites, then IRC, then Newsgroups, then P2P, then Little Jane's shared folder.
I find the software scene a little more impressive, considering the cracking abilities needed to circumvent the keys, and in a timely manner.
So the security is pretty hopeless for the media companies. All it takes is one leak. As as we all know about company theft: Employee theft outnumbers shoplifters. Think there are any disgruntled employees in the Media companies?:)
You'll be hard pressed to find any U.S. law that states downloading is illegal, also. Everything listed revolves around "distribution of copyrighted works". That is why all the cease & desist letters, subpoenas and the 261 lawsuits revolves around those that shared.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll purchase the rest of the laws as soon as they can. They just haven't yet. Not that I want to go to court and find out!
Guess you learned a sad lesson: Why @#$@in bother, eh? One thing that chaps me is that the professors forget that *we* are paying *their* salaries. I guess after a while living inside a glass bubble, they think they're getting paid to listen to themselves talk.
Pay-per-view sattelite, digital cable, netflix, etc. Those are all other options. The point is, the RIAA and MPAA want to make money on their distribution monopoly. Downloading free P2P files outside their monopoly cuts them out, and they just can't have that.
I am sure you are also in the minority with your purchasing habits after viewing free P2P. Many are willing ot keep it for free.
I think it's because of procedure. It's already been mentioned that in Civil suits, you only have to show probable evidence. And that the defendant must prove his/her innocence. In the case of Criminal Suits, you are innocent until proven guilty. To be convicted, there has to be "beyond a doubt" that you are guilty. Much more work on the prosecutors side.
Not only that, but in a criminal suit, if you are unable to afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you. In a civil suit.... you must pay!
Also, as pointed out by the Department of Justice slashdot article last month, for the DOJ to get involved, there are a long list of things that must incur. I do not believe that simple, non-profit file sharing has been proven to be criminal in court yet.
Supposedly the RIAA was investigating each likely candidate to sue. Nothing official that I know of, but references were made to private investigators being used.
Other articles pointed out that with over 1,600 subpoenas out there (and now only 260 being sued) has allowed the RIAA to pick and choose who they want to sue. It's been mentioned they don't want to sue the sympathetic. They want to sue people who will not envoke much sympathy. However, at the same time, I feel like they RIAA will want to nab at least a few 'normal' candidates, since the purpose of thise whole charade is to prove to EVERYONE that ANYONE can and will be sued if the RIAA wants to.
What do you think the subpoenas were for? They know where these people live. And supposedly even had private investigators check out who the best candidates were to sue.
Oops, sorry. I mispoke when I slipped in the "evil" part. I meant the good & lame Xander episode that Krypto mentioned. You've got to love an actor that can expose their weaknesses so brilliantly and shamelessly. (Not that I want to see another Erkel mind you)
My favorite line of all time is when the lame Xander gets up to speed and starts being a smart ass too. The other characters look at him quizically, and he shrugs and says: "Hey, I guess I'm a bad influence on myself!"
LOL.
I agree with what you're saying. I guess I could have finished my tirade with, "and so all that leaves us with is Firefly's great plots and great characters". Which I didn't feel was even close to being true with Firefly.
I'm not a Trek nut, but the few 50 eps I've seen over the years usually revolve around an asteroid, interdimensional wizbang, Data's character, etc, etc. Not to mention a pretty memorable cast. And Star Wars, while not a show... definately immerses me in a sci-fi glow almost the whole time.
Firefly on the other hand... spends 3 minutes flying around, and then lands in some backwater shithole planet. Where they save the miners. Save a desert town. Or shoot up a bar with their 6-shooters. Snore. Like I said: A space western. Emphasis on western.
One of the coolest things for me about good sci-fi and fantasy book/movie/show is getting your mind to go, "what if?".
What if I could live forever as an immortal cutting heads off with swords, or was an immortal vampire, or was a cyborg but thought I was human, or caused a time paradox when I chaged my past, or couldn't figure out if a T1 robot was my friend or foe this time, or was a short green jedi master, or got to ask: Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters!)
The only "what if" I got from Firefly was, "What if I change the channel?"
The reason I didn't like it was because it was a space western.
I mean, just because they can fly around in a space ship, and then land on any random planet with a random technology timeline (6 shooters, etc) and do a random plot (that could happen in 1999 on Earth in my backyard) doesn't mean it feels like sci-fi to me.
To me, it was a drama. Thinly disguised with sci-fi elements. And there are already a million shows like that. That being said, I can't explain why I enjoy Sliders more. But basically it's the same thing... slide to another planet, and watch a 40 minute drama about...... Russia in Amerika! Males having babies! Dinosaurs chase me! Asteroid landing in T minus 5 minutes! Kari Wurher has big boobs!
Ooh, ooh, another example: The very below average Tremors series. This time it's "in the water". That time its a "cloud of gas", let's suck it up with a vacuum cleaner!!!
I would imagine that the singing musical episode was not his idea then.:)
Did Whedon go on to do the splinter, "Angel"? Maybe it's my age, but I enjoyed that show much more, and actually quit watching Buffy. Spike is the only character left that is enjoyable to me, (occasionally Xander, like in the "evil Xander" ep) while the better characters got to grow on Angel, including Angel and Wesley. Not to mention Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) is much more my style!
Actually, though, I'm not even sure those were Fox. Very annoying to watch shows disappear so quickly though. And what's up with these 6 ep wonders like "Kingpin" and "NipTuck"? It's like a teaser season, with absolutely zero promise of a return.
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Yea, but think how much money the RIAA could have made during those 150 years! You gotta think of the .... artists! and Set producers!
I didn't know there were 100 million acts of vandalism done every day.
Although the RIAA is issuing Civil Suits at this point, the Net Act could allow the RIAA to issue Criminal suits if they wished. It could be argued that by sharing mp3's, they were in fact hoping to receive mp3's in downloading. That is trading, and that is what the Net Act has defined as "commercial gain".
Under the laws that the RIAA/MPAA have passed, they can do exactly that. (NET ACT, extended copyright laws, DMCA)
Go ahead and put words in my mouth, to make YOUR B.s. comment. A teacher should never make personal, political, religious feelings over the students' right to a fair education that they paid for.
When you download, the person that has the 'original' is making the copy for you. He/She is the infringer.
There's plenty of articles out there to read right now about undercover software employees, tracking companies, and others patrolling IRC at this minute. Just because it's not in the news yet, doesn't mean it's safe. You think these are big headlines, just wait til they nab a few traders fserving up 50,000 files.
You might think the execs at the RIAA/MPAA/BSA are stupid. But they have the money to hire non-stupid people.
All it takes is one copy, then it's ripped, encoded, checked, and then uploaded to a number of FTP sites that trickle down to other FTP sites, then IRC, then Newsgroups, then P2P, then Little Jane's shared folder.
I find the software scene a little more impressive, considering the cracking abilities needed to circumvent the keys, and in a timely manner.
So the security is pretty hopeless for the media companies. All it takes is one leak. As as we all know about company theft: Employee theft outnumbers shoplifters. Think there are any disgruntled employees in the Media companies? :)
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll purchase the rest of the laws as soon as they can. They just haven't yet. Not that I want to go to court and find out!
"notary" isn't some kind Dutch translation for hashish is it?
Guess you learned a sad lesson: Why @#$@in bother, eh? One thing that chaps me is that the professors forget that *we* are paying *their* salaries. I guess after a while living inside a glass bubble, they think they're getting paid to listen to themselves talk.
I am sure you are also in the minority with your purchasing habits after viewing free P2P. Many are willing ot keep it for free.
In today's headlines (such as Columbine H.S.) I seriously think that this could happen if the RIAA ruined the wrong person's life.
Not only that, but in a criminal suit, if you are unable to afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you. In a civil suit.... you must pay!
Also, as pointed out by the Department of Justice slashdot article last month, for the DOJ to get involved, there are a long list of things that must incur. I do not believe that simple, non-profit file sharing has been proven to be criminal in court yet.
Other articles pointed out that with over 1,600 subpoenas out there (and now only 260 being sued) has allowed the RIAA to pick and choose who they want to sue. It's been mentioned they don't want to sue the sympathetic. They want to sue people who will not envoke much sympathy. However, at the same time, I feel like they RIAA will want to nab at least a few 'normal' candidates, since the purpose of thise whole charade is to prove to EVERYONE that ANYONE can and will be sued if the RIAA wants to.
What do you think the subpoenas were for? They know where these people live. And supposedly even had private investigators check out who the best candidates were to sue.
And yet they could subpoena /. to get your IP (anon or not!)
Oh definately
Good comment about the shades of grey. That's why Kurosawa's movies will never die :)
4". Get it right.
My favorite line of all time is when the lame Xander gets up to speed and starts being a smart ass too. The other characters look at him quizically, and he shrugs and says: "Hey, I guess I'm a bad influence on myself!"
LOL.
I'm not a Trek nut, but the few 50 eps I've seen over the years usually revolve around an asteroid, interdimensional wizbang, Data's character, etc, etc. Not to mention a pretty memorable cast. And Star Wars, while not a show... definately immerses me in a sci-fi glow almost the whole time.
Firefly on the other hand... spends 3 minutes flying around, and then lands in some backwater shithole planet. Where they save the miners. Save a desert town. Or shoot up a bar with their 6-shooters. Snore. Like I said: A space western. Emphasis on western.
One of the coolest things for me about good sci-fi and fantasy book/movie/show is getting your mind to go, "what if?".
What if I could live forever as an immortal cutting heads off with swords, or was an immortal vampire, or was a cyborg but thought I was human, or caused a time paradox when I chaged my past, or couldn't figure out if a T1 robot was my friend or foe this time, or was a short green jedi master, or got to ask: Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters!)
The only "what if" I got from Firefly was, "What if I change the channel?"
I mean, just because they can fly around in a space ship, and then land on any random planet with a random technology timeline (6 shooters, etc) and do a random plot (that could happen in 1999 on Earth in my backyard) doesn't mean it feels like sci-fi to me.
To me, it was a drama. Thinly disguised with sci-fi elements. And there are already a million shows like that. That being said, I can't explain why I enjoy Sliders more. But basically it's the same thing... slide to another planet, and watch a 40 minute drama about...... Russia in Amerika! Males having babies! Dinosaurs chase me! Asteroid landing in T minus 5 minutes! Kari Wurher has big boobs!
Ooh, ooh, another example: The very below average Tremors series. This time it's "in the water". That time its a "cloud of gas", let's suck it up with a vacuum cleaner!!!
The A-Team was ahead of its time I guess.
Did Whedon go on to do the splinter, "Angel"? Maybe it's my age, but I enjoyed that show much more, and actually quit watching Buffy. Spike is the only character left that is enjoyable to me, (occasionally Xander, like in the "evil Xander" ep) while the better characters got to grow on Angel, including Angel and Wesley. Not to mention Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) is much more my style!
Actually, though, I'm not even sure those were Fox. Very annoying to watch shows disappear so quickly though. And what's up with these 6 ep wonders like "Kingpin" and "NipTuck"? It's like a teaser season, with absolutely zero promise of a return.
Actually, I've been thinking about the effectiveness of standing outside of Best Buy, preaching and handing out anti-RIAA flyers.