Seriously, did you close your eyes when you clicked the link, assuming you took that bold step?
"Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.
Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music."
There are so many things that is wrong with the BSA's decision, and you picked one that isn't even legitimate? Where does it say in there the requirement is "to keep a log of their online activies that show that they never downloaded any movie or music"?
>Putting the fair use argument aside for a moment, who thinks it's a good idea to reward people for what they should be doing anyway. Should I expect to be rewarded because I didn't shoplift today or commit murder?
Overrated much? I can't think of one merit badge, including whatever wording that they will place on this one, that says "You will earn this merit badge if you do NOT do something." The badge requirements will be to learn about something, just like many of the other badge requirements are. Whether or not you like what they're learning about (you know, the law) is up to you. And I don't mean whether you like the ideas, I mean the actual discussion and teaching is done by parents, who are the counselors.
> So do you think there should be a merit badge about not-breaking every law, or just the most important ones (murder/rape/filesharing)?
Last time I checked you could get the First Aid merit badge even if you've never made an actual tourniquet in an actual situation where someone's lower leg was completely severed. While some merit badges are done showing you've completed something (Swimming requires you to swim a certain distance, Cycling requires a number of rides at different lengths), I believe a majority are done by showing that you've learned something, in many cases by actually doing it.
That being said, I think that any time you want to talk about any media, there should be a discussion about rights. Hopefully the Merit Badge Counselors will make this discussion fair and balanced and not entirely built on corperate FUD.
This is pretty absurd. No doubt I have a new reason to write to the BSA.
Luckily, the people that make these decisions are not the people that are leading individual troops. My Assistant Scoutmaster was a liberal radio columnist, far from the socialist "join the army" stereotype portrayed by some, and my actual Scoutmaster was often heard saying "I don't care what the requirements say". He'd rather the kids learn the material than blindly worship the step-by-step process if it meant skipping the crap so as to learn the meaty stuff. Of the three weekends spent doing the Computers merit badge, we might of discussed the "Is it permissible to accept a free copy of a computer game or program from a friend? Why or why not?" requirement for a total of three minutes.
I'm strongly going to urge any sons I have in the future to join scouting, not only because it's where I met some of my best friends and was my first chance at taking a leadership position, but because it was just plain fun. However, I will also be the parent that attends the meeting, make sure that I agree with the way it's being run, and if not check out another troop. There are plenty around that one will "do it right", by my standards, and not by the book.
"After the court session concluded, Jack Thompson told Ars Technica that the proceedings were a travesty. He characterized the judge's viewing of footage as nothing more than a couple of "Take Two operatives" showing the judge everything in the game they wanted him to see. "I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine. But there's such a thing as due process," said Thompson. "And I was denied due process in court today."
I originally typed "buy it" in the subject line, but remembering back to slate's article http://www.slate.com/id/2149694/ on this very same topic, decided it wasn't necessary. One of the examples given there was Kuma\War, which is a free to download FPS based on current events in the Middle East. I haven't played it, so can't vouch for it, but it seems to be doing pretty well, and although I admit that the screenshots are pretty lame compared to the average FPS, I've read that in March the company signed a deal to work on Valve's source engine http://www.kumawar.com/PressReleases/03-22-2006.ph p for upcoming titles using the same episodic ideas. But all other politics and nonsense aside...
A.) It's free, B.) It releases new "episodes" typically coming out about every three weeks, and they are also free.
>Not entirely so. It's true if you ignore the class system that the US has: if people were completely equal, then this wouldn't be such an issue. >However, as everyone knows, not everyone is wealthy in the US. In short this is to help avoid the sentence "Sorry, Mommy can't read to >you tonight, she needs to whore to get money for the heating." If prostituion were legal, the poor would be forced to whore.
I even thought about this while writing, but chose to think of it this way:
While the aspects of prostitution may be dangerous in a bad economic state (your walking-the-street hooker, if you will), so are many other jobs that low-income families might be "forced" to take. Take Coal Mining, for example. It's dangerous, but some people, especially in the past, have had very little choice, so they do it anyway. What can the US government do to help this situation, especially if, like in the past, mine managers took to profits over worker safety? Well, rather than make it illegal, they can make laws to make those who run coal mines to attempt to make their workers more safe.
Of course, the analogy is not perfect, since the process of making prostitution illegal was not due to it's unsafe working conditions, but rather due to the reforming powers of lobbying groups trying to purify the American culture, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. But the idea that making something dangerous legal shouldn't be a standalone action. On the contrary, the legalization of the the industry could provide a gateway to helping make more safe the entire notion of prostitution, meaning even if someone felt that they were "forced" into prostitution for economic reasons, they'd at least have laws as safegaurds for their safety rather than none at all.
Will this happen in the US? Well, probably not anytime soon.
>Trying not to comment on the grammatical murder that this is - "sometimes they're >content is not, but in the end they're legal"... The second they're is OK. The first >is not.
I agree. I especially enjoy how they try to treat the problem, not through banning the game, but rather getting people to boycott. There's a huge difference.
From their web site:
"Censorship is a blight on the freedoms we hold dear but we wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes."
Of all the people saying "We need to keep this game out of the hands of children", they finally got it right by trying to inform potentially unaware parents (sad, but there are still some out there) of the dangers that may be present in allowing young children to play it. Too bad it's an organization whose root cause will surely make it's message be taken so light-heartedly.
No, it's not. And if you read their website, you'd see why it's not. For one thing, they have a goal for the decriminaliztion for the consensual sex industry, among other things (such as laws to help protect prostitutes). What more they outline their motives in a clear way, showing that through reform prostitutes can be helped rather than left to fend for themselves.
It's an intersting debate for where to draw the line between what laws are considered ethical. It's common for playing video games to be ethical, although sometimes they're content is not, but in the end they're legal. Murder is considered unethical, so it's illegal. Prostitiution is a strange one: prostitutes give their consent, so realistically they are not being harmed since they have the option of avoiding the situation if proper precautions are taken. Someone might argue that by consenting they are harming themselves, which is another matter all together, but you can say the same for tobacco.
Their members have a different set of morals, and believe that their freedoms as citizens are being restricted by the morals of others. You don't have to agree with them, but at least they're being logical about it.
Although I do see the humor in the irony in trying to get parents who probably view them as the lowest human lifeform to join their cause against the game. That's just silly.
>The formatting uses a font size that is somewhat larger than other book. This seemingly serves to achieve a high page count.
>Is this a security book or a term paper?
With the larger print and the higher amount of pages, this book has ensured that less script kiddies will read it. With the smaller population that know about its obscure secrets, more companies can use it's advice with success.
Hey, wait. You listed THREE things. Obviously there are nuts out there who take the blurry photos of the TWO obvious choices, but must we bring the Bigfoot believers into this?
Ok, try this quiz. I give you how they described the e-mail in their "find out why it was a fraud/legit e-mail" section, and you guess if they were talking about a fraud or legit e-mail.
"The content of this e-mail introduces privacy policies, so it's good, right? But the e-mail is not personalized and some of the links go to bankofamerica1.com, which might be bad"
Legit or Fraud?
"But, the e-mail provides links to login to your account-which could be abused by fishers."
Legit or Fraud?
"These links seem legitimate as the URL displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the email appears to go to the legitimate Network Solution domain, but always remember that this display can be faked."
Legit or Fraud?
What I'm getting at here, is the idea that telling people that they should weed out the good and bads is silly, because even the goods show characterstics of the bads. Just plain don't click on the links. Don't think of emails to be your little gateway to the www, but rather as just a way to get and send messages. Read the message about your bank account, then open up your browser and get to the account yourself or call up the bank.
I actually worked in Lego's packaging plant in Enfield, Conn. USA for awhile. Apparently, the summer I was working there someone was stealing a bunch of new Star Wars sets off of the line and selling them on ebay. They found out soon after, of course, because he was using an ebay account with his home phone number.
The Acceptable Use Policy at my college didn't have anything that states that use of the network for downloading using bittorrent specifically for legal purposes weren't allowed, even though they have the ports for that specific protocol, along with kazaa, morpheus, etc., throttled so low that no one uses them. However, they'd probably counter anything with this one bullet that include actions that are prohibited in the AUP:
"Use of the College's technical resources in a manner that causes degradation, incapacitates, compromises, or in anyway jeopardizes the teaching, learning and business missions of the College for students, faculty, and administration."
So, you could be "chewing up bandwidth" downloading some linux iso's, which compromises the available bandwidth for someone who is trying to access their online classroom.
Slashdot Mirror
Consider yourself surprised.
Ugh, why did I waste my ability to mod parent up by arguing with all those taking cheap shots at the BSA. Hopefully a better person will come along...
Seriously, did you close your eyes when you clicked the link, assuming you took that bold step?
"Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.
Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music."
There are so many things that is wrong with the BSA's decision, and you picked one that isn't even legitimate? Where does it say in there the requirement is "to keep a log of their online activies that show that they never downloaded any movie or music"?
>Putting the fair use argument aside for a moment, who thinks it's a good idea to reward people for what they should be doing anyway. Should I expect to be rewarded because I didn't shoplift today or commit murder?
Overrated much? I can't think of one merit badge, including whatever wording that they will place on this one, that says "You will earn this merit badge if you do NOT do something." The badge requirements will be to learn about something, just like many of the other badge requirements are. Whether or not you like what they're learning about (you know, the law) is up to you. And I don't mean whether you like the ideas, I mean the actual discussion and teaching is done by parents, who are the counselors.
> So do you think there should be a merit badge about not-breaking every law, or just the most important ones (murder/rape/filesharing)?
Last time I checked you could get the First Aid merit badge even if you've never made an actual tourniquet in an actual situation where someone's lower leg was completely severed. While some merit badges are done showing you've completed something (Swimming requires you to swim a certain distance, Cycling requires a number of rides at different lengths), I believe a majority are done by showing that you've learned something, in many cases by actually doing it.
That being said, I think that any time you want to talk about any media, there should be a discussion about rights. Hopefully the Merit Badge Counselors will make this discussion fair and balanced and not entirely built on corperate FUD.
This is pretty absurd. No doubt I have a new reason to write to the BSA.
Luckily, the people that make these decisions are not the people that are leading individual troops. My Assistant Scoutmaster was a liberal radio columnist, far from the socialist "join the army" stereotype portrayed by some, and my actual Scoutmaster was often heard saying "I don't care what the requirements say". He'd rather the kids learn the material than blindly worship the step-by-step process if it meant skipping the crap so as to learn the meaty stuff. Of the three weekends spent doing the Computers merit badge, we might of discussed the "Is it permissible to accept a free copy of a computer game or program from a friend? Why or why not?" requirement for a total of three minutes.
I'm strongly going to urge any sons I have in the future to join scouting, not only because it's where I met some of my best friends and was my first chance at taking a leadership position, but because it was just plain fun. However, I will also be the parent that attends the meeting, make sure that I agree with the way it's being run, and if not check out another troop. There are plenty around that one will "do it right", by my standards, and not by the book.
"After the court session concluded, Jack Thompson told Ars Technica that the proceedings were a travesty. He characterized the judge's viewing of footage as nothing more than a couple of "Take Two operatives" showing the judge everything in the game they wanted him to see. "I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine. But there's such a thing as due process," said Thompson. "And I was denied due process in court today."
I originally typed "buy it" in the subject line, but remembering back to slate's article http://www.slate.com/id/2149694/ on this very same topic, decided it wasn't necessary. One of the examples given there was Kuma\War, which is a free to download FPS based on current events in the Middle East. I haven't played it, so can't vouch for it, but it seems to be doing pretty well, and although I admit that the screenshots are pretty lame compared to the average FPS, I've read that in March the company signed a deal to work on Valve's source engine http://www.kumawar.com/PressReleases/03-22-2006.ph p for upcoming titles using the same episodic ideas. But all other politics and nonsense aside...
A.) It's free,
B.) It releases new "episodes" typically coming out about every three weeks, and they are also free.
...only 10 hours?
>Not entirely so. It's true if you ignore the class system that the US has: if people were completely equal, then this wouldn't be such an issue. >However, as everyone knows, not everyone is wealthy in the US. In short this is to help avoid the sentence "Sorry, Mommy can't read to >you tonight, she needs to whore to get money for the heating." If prostituion were legal, the poor would be forced to whore.
I even thought about this while writing, but chose to think of it this way:
While the aspects of prostitution may be dangerous in a bad economic state (your walking-the-street hooker, if you will), so are many other jobs that low-income families might be "forced" to take. Take Coal Mining, for example. It's dangerous, but some people, especially in the past, have had very little choice, so they do it anyway. What can the US government do to help this situation, especially if, like in the past, mine managers took to profits over worker safety? Well, rather than make it illegal, they can make laws to make those who run coal mines to attempt to make their workers more safe.
Of course, the analogy is not perfect, since the process of making prostitution illegal was not due to it's unsafe working conditions, but rather due to the reforming powers of lobbying groups trying to purify the American culture, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. But the idea that making something dangerous legal shouldn't be a standalone action. On the contrary, the legalization of the the industry could provide a gateway to helping make more safe the entire notion of prostitution, meaning even if someone felt that they were "forced" into prostitution for economic reasons, they'd at least have laws as safegaurds for their safety rather than none at all.
Will this happen in the US? Well, probably not anytime soon.
>Trying not to comment on the grammatical murder that this is - "sometimes they're >content is not, but in the end they're legal"... The second they're is OK. The first >is not.
>Guess I failed on that not commenting thing...
Yup. 'Guess you did.
I agree. I especially enjoy how they try to treat the problem, not through banning the game, but rather getting people to boycott. There's a huge difference. From their web site: "Censorship is a blight on the freedoms we hold dear but we wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes." Of all the people saying "We need to keep this game out of the hands of children", they finally got it right by trying to inform potentially unaware parents (sad, but there are still some out there) of the dangers that may be present in allowing young children to play it. Too bad it's an organization whose root cause will surely make it's message be taken so light-heartedly.
> Is this a joke? Sex Workers Outreach Project?!?
No, it's not. And if you read their website, you'd see why it's not. For one thing, they have a goal for the decriminaliztion for the consensual sex industry, among other things (such as laws to help protect prostitutes). What more they outline their motives in a clear way, showing that through reform prostitutes can be helped rather than left to fend for themselves.
It's an intersting debate for where to draw the line between what laws are considered ethical. It's common for playing video games to be ethical, although sometimes they're content is not, but in the end they're legal. Murder is considered unethical, so it's illegal. Prostitiution is a strange one: prostitutes give their consent, so realistically they are not being harmed since they have the option of avoiding the situation if proper precautions are taken. Someone might argue that by consenting they are harming themselves, which is another matter all together, but you can say the same for tobacco.
Their members have a different set of morals, and believe that their freedoms as citizens are being restricted by the morals of others. You don't have to agree with them, but at least they're being logical about it.
Although I do see the humor in the irony in trying to get parents who probably view them as the lowest human lifeform to join their cause against the game. That's just silly.
> ...will be for mood rings that give you finger cancer.
I think that's going to be easily outsold. From TFA:
> The concept could also lead to a portable x-ray generator, according to Danon
Obviously, the big seller is going to be x-ray glasses.
> I see this being apply to video games as the next Lens Flare fad!
And of course, the Playstation 4, XBox 720 and Nintendo Counter-revolution will all contain a PCPU (Phase Change Processing Unit).
> http://lake.stark.k12.oh.us/hs/
> this one?
Wow, those kids hitting F5 must've really done a number on that server! It's still down!
There is, but you don't have to worry about it as long as you're wearing a tinfoil hat.
>The formatting uses a font size that is somewhat larger than other book. This seemingly serves to achieve a high page count.
>Is this a security book or a term paper?
With the larger print and the higher amount of pages, this book has ensured that less script kiddies will read it. With the smaller population that know about its obscure secrets, more companies can use it's advice with success.
>Bigfoot, UFO's, Beagle Probes
>What do those two things have in common?
>Horrible photos (usually blurry)
Hey, wait. You listed THREE things. Obviously there are nuts out there who take the blurry photos of the TWO obvious choices, but must we bring the Bigfoot believers into this?
I thought the same thing when reading the readme, then I saw this screenshot: http://process-of-elimination.net/wiki/Image:Gaim_ Preferences_Away.png
Don't think there's much to worry about.
> ...now all I need is an air mic for the shower and I can start my album
Just whatever you do, don't release a music video.
"The content of this e-mail introduces privacy policies, so it's good, right? But the e-mail is not personalized and some of the links go to bankofamerica1.com, which might be bad" Legit or Fraud?
"But, the e-mail provides links to login to your account-which could be abused by fishers." Legit or Fraud?
"These links seem legitimate as the URL displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the email appears to go to the legitimate Network Solution domain, but always remember that this display can be faked." Legit or Fraud?
What I'm getting at here, is the idea that telling people that they should weed out the good and bads is silly, because even the goods show characterstics of the bads. Just plain don't click on the links. Don't think of emails to be your little gateway to the www, but rather as just a way to get and send messages. Read the message about your bank account, then open up your browser and get to the account yourself or call up the bank.
I actually worked in Lego's packaging plant in Enfield, Conn. USA for awhile. Apparently, the summer I was working there someone was stealing a bunch of new Star Wars sets off of the line and selling them on ebay. They found out soon after, of course, because he was using an ebay account with his home phone number.
Why the hell would that be a good idea?!
Step 3: Profit?
The Acceptable Use Policy at my college didn't have anything that states that use of the network for downloading using bittorrent specifically for legal purposes weren't allowed, even though they have the ports for that specific protocol, along with kazaa, morpheus, etc., throttled so low that no one uses them. However, they'd probably counter anything with this one bullet that include actions that are prohibited in the AUP:
"Use of the College's technical resources in a manner that causes degradation, incapacitates, compromises, or in anyway jeopardizes the teaching, learning and business missions of the College for students, faculty, and administration."
So, you could be "chewing up bandwidth" downloading some linux iso's, which compromises the available bandwidth for someone who is trying to access their online classroom.