Oh look, it's an election year again. Yes, it's only a mideterm election but it's still time for those up for re-election(again) to bring up the "sensitive"/"controversial" issues again. It doesn't matter if it passes or not or if the rest of the country agrees with it(or not) just that the 1%(senate) or less than 1/4 of 1%(house) of the country that put/keeps them in office agrees with how they voted. It's not about keeping the kids safe, only keeping their seat in congress safe for another 2 or 6 years.
I've never sold off or threw out or RMAed any of my hard drives. I give them a few good software whipes and use as paperweights or get an external case and there's another backup drive. HDDs are around 50 cents or less per GB. Except those people who do their hardware shopping at BestBuy and arn't reading this. If you really have to get it replaced look for someone who will let you keep the platters and just send back some of it. If they exist, have to keep the "refurbished" industry in business.
Being from NJ I'm outraged about this, and I though Plainfield was one of those rich towns where the kids always got what they wanted and no one ever got more than a day detention, maybe that's South Plainfield.
What's up with schools and a fear of anything electronic these days? Force the kids into ibooks/laptops and expel/charge with computer trespass the ones who take the time to "explore" them. During a recent multi-day "field trip" my sister's class was banned from having anything electronic, but only 15 or so years ago I remember being encouraged to bring my GameBoy, even the teacher took part in our lunch time Tetris gaming. And anyone who used a "computer" to type their report got an automatic A, A+ if you added clipart/pictures.
Yes, electronic toys are much more common now and there should some limits on their use, can't be used all the time. Those of us in our mid 20s grew up with our games and were mostly able to impose our own limits and balance how long we played(weekend) and how much time we spent on work(non-weekend). Have kids these days lost that ability?
I once heard that there are two types of people who get involved in the administration of schools(not the teachers), those who really care about the kids and and those on a power trip(who would never be taken seriously by us rational adults)
Sure, another guestimate of what they think their losses are based on what they would like to think they're really making. The real reason I don't belive a word of it is they think they're only losing 244mill in China.
And they claim $529mill in losses in the US because consumers are using their fair use rights to make a backup copy so they don't have to go out and rebuy movies every time a disk gets scratched because the MPAA is too cheap to use scratch resistant disks.
How long until they blame Netflix and Blockbuster because people are renting movies at a prepaid monthly rate instead of buying them.
If you're dumb enough to post incriminating material on the internets you deserve to get caught.
Next time in the land of the SIMs...I mean MySpace. yes, there should be and probably will be more than enough investigation into tips/leads found there BUT you know there will be enough bored teenagers and even some others trying to "frame" the more/less popular kids and school yard rivals, that whole libel/slander/romour mill thing.
Sure there's a chance of a good hit once in a while, just watch out for the false positive. Especially all those energetic prosecutors wanting to make a name for themselves even at the cost of a questionable guilty verdict and an innocent kid's freedom.
"However, they don't force you to buy a Clemson laptop" You were lucky to have had the choice of which laptop to get. My sister was unlucky enough to have been forced to get some crapy overpriced Dell which she has never had a use for in class. Could have gotten one with at least double the performance for a few hundred less or a desktop for less than 1/3.
Now with all the electronic resources available to students it's nice that schools encourage students to have a PC of their own. Unfortunately some schools see a laptop "requirement" as a way to PROFIT. Get a big bulk purchase discount, throw in some "custom school apps" and that $900 laptop is suddenly $2000. I'm not against a school "requiring" students to have a computer, I'm very much against schools forcing everyone to get the same one, no the option to upgrade the hdd/RAM/DVD+/-R doesn't count as different. What about those who want a gaming machine(gets boring on the weekends)? or those who want an ultra-lite 10"? and what about those raised as MAC people? They're suddenly forced to be like everyone else and learn to use Windows.
I wonder if there are any studies showing any connection between forced laptop purchasing and increased campus crime, mostly laptop theft. With everyone carrying around identical laptops it gets easier to walk by an unattended one grab it and keep walking. It's probably loaded with school security software, wireless card reports its location whenever it's turned on so yo might want to pull the battery and take it away from the campus before you turn it on again. Or remove the sesily resellable parts, anyone need a 2.5" hdd or more memory or a Pentium M?
So it might be easier on the Helpdesk since all they'll have is the simple monkey work of reimaging reguardless of the problem, so what if all they really needed to do is install spybot. But it's going to be worse on some.
Who said it had to be intentional? Maybe someone's cat walked across the keyboard or someone sat on the keyboard or the operator was drunk and forgot how to type or someone set it wrong and sent a useless message, shortly being transfered to the Russian front. Well we won't know until these are cracked. What!? no Win2k version, D'oh, must use XP instructions.
Don't bet a box of doughnuts, use the box of doughnuts. Guard: hey, what's that? Random employee: It's a box of doughnuts. Guard: OK, go right in/you're free to leave.
What they didn't know is within that innocently looking box of cream filled pastries could have been a 300+GB hdd or even a smaller 128mb flash drive.
At least where I work the nice people at the security/info desk are there as formality to keep unauthorized people, not devices, out.
The only way to completely restrict data would be to have full searches of everyone, never know where someone might try to hide a small usb drive, entering and exiting the building or secure area and have one of those flashy things from MiB just to be sure they didn't try to memorize any sensitive documents and so they don't remember the searches.
This is the same as if Sony BMG suddenly said its CDs are only for use on Sony CD players.
That is guessing that OS X for intel is available for purchase. I don't care much for Macs and havn't bothered to check if it is sold seperately from a new mac. If it is, people can(should be able to) do whatever they want with they buy, with the exception of distributing copies for free or for profit. If someone wants to go and spend $129 for OS X and wants run it on a PC then they should be allowed to do so. If it crashes as lot that's their problem and Apple doen't have to provide support. If there are no restrictions on what software can be run on a Mac then there shouldn't be any restrictions on the hardware that the software can be run on. If I go and buy an Intel Mac I should get the hardware and an OSX disk with a single user license. If I do that then I should be allowed to use that single user license on the machine of my choosing. I could choose to run Linux or even Windows, if someone's fould a way to do that, on the Mac and install OSX on generic PC hardware.
Unlike in their paranoid delusions, everyone doesn't "pirate" their crap, I mean content, no I really mean crap. There has to be something more than blind greed here. I've been saying they want to use DRM to turn everything into a pay-per-view box. Pay to record or buy(I mean rent a limited license change/revokable at any time for any or no reason with no chance of a refund), then pay to watch and continue to pay to rewatch everytime you want play it again. And they'll probably want to ability to remotely delete any or all of your recordings. Will they ever learn that everyone don't download everything that's not free for free. Like most(I hope) people I pay for the content I have. I got a cheap usb tv card, after about an hour of recording the audio gets noticably off, fine when I'm also watching an can stop and restart the recording during the commercials and combine later. I've legaly recorded many dozens of TV eps this way. My DVD collection is over 150 disks, of course I'm inflating the number by including bonus disks and counting TV seasons by number of disks. Compared to my small pile of 19 CDs so you can see where my interest lies. I'm considering getting a TiVo to aid in the inital recording and for shows I'll want to watch once then delete, the re-encoding/compressing (yes I have a legal copy of DivX) can wait.
Instead of trying to ban all the fun new toys before they've been fully developed maybe they should encourage their developement so the price drops and everyone has one and downloading will stop because everyone can legally record things for their own personal time-shifting use. But that's just for stuff on tv.
I don't think that's a phrase you should say around the RIAA, they might.
I do like the last section, DRM is misunderstood and flexible. Of course it is, or not. I think "legal" sales of digital music would increase if it was sold in the form of unrestricted 320kbps mp3 for 99cents. That way the paying customers, or 'criminals' to the RIAA, can do whatever they want with it. I don't give away things I paid for. If for some reason I ever purchased a song in some digital format, even un DRMed, I would not simply give it away and I like to think that's the same with most people.
I guess the RIAA just realized PCs can store more than 100MB and have processors faster than 33MHz and can easily play audio files. If they had earlier and taken advantage of the new market we'd all be able to cheaply buy high quality un-DRMed songs, there might even be a few good ones. But they fought it and lost and make up, or have someone else make up, stats to make their obsession look like a noble crusade against "piracy"
At least for now RFID credit cards and other things that could contain financial information are still optional. My rail pass still relies on the shiney hologram for the fare checkers to see. It has what appears to be a magnetic strip, but I paid cash for it so the only way to trace it back to me would be to check the serial numbers on the bills I used to pay, that is if ticket vending machines and ATMs record the serial numbers on the bills they accept/pay out. Limited range? Wasn't there are article posted here a couple months ago showing that with enough power the range could be increased from 4" to 70'? All someone whould have to do is rig the transmitter to accept a car battery instead of a AAA or watch battery.
So who's unlazy enough to want to start one of those grass-roots movements to keep bar codes and magnetic strips and let RFID die off? Of course there are some people who stand to gain lots of spare cash by the widespread adoption of RFID, but what's the real benefit for the rest of us? I have nothing against having to physically swipe my credit/bank card through the reader instead of just holding it a few inches away.
If that's the case, it sounds a lot like the garage door opener and Lexmark ink cartrige arguements, both rejected. You can only use our remote with our door opener, you can only use our ink cartriges with our printers. Both tried to "encrypt" the devices to claim protection under the DMCA(anti-napster act) to stop the generic device makers and both failed. Now it seems Apple could be trying to prevent the use if its software on generic PC hardware. To challenge this in court, assuming you've legally purchased the software and have all the receipts and paperwork all should have to do is use "to use on generic hardware" in the right places and make it look like Apple is trying some anti-competition practices.
"So they want to be paid by both the broadcasters and the listeners? Paid twice for the same product?"
Not just twice, they want to be paid by the broadcasters and then the listeners for the "privlage" of recording their content and then paid for every time the listener replays it. And paid by the maunfacturer of the recorder and have a "listening tax"/blank media tax just like the one our friends up in America Jr have to deal with added to the purchase price of the recorder and 99% of the digital and/or satellite radio subscription. They want to get paid at least half a dozen times for the same product.
DELETE THE ACCOUNT DELETE THE ACCOUNT DELETE THE ACCOUNT did I mention delete the account?
Sorry about the excessive use of caps but the solution seems so very painfully obvious. Deleting the person's account when they leave protects both parties. The employee will not be able to do what that guy did and loging when they get home and do lots of damage, not that a sysadmin shouldn't make backups, and it prevents someone from changing the pword of the person who just left and connecting from an open access point, possibly outside/near some coffee shop with 'free wi-fi' where the are no cameras, using a randomly generated mac addr and logging in as the person who just left and doing lots of damage. Then all 'evidence' points to the person who just left, assuming the person remebers to delete all records of the pwrod change. Or someone puts out their no longer needed logins&pwords and SecurID card out in the trash together and is found by someone and sold to someone else who des the damage. Yes, this guy confessed, but it could just as easily been someone else.
I'll agree that at one point it was true, after the iPod and before iTunes existed. I knew more than enough people with iPods full of songs only "found" on the Internet. But that was back in college when most people didn't have much money, or at least not enough for a $15-$20 CD once a month. But now with the iTunes store and the 99c song, most people who paid a few hundred for their iPod and accessories are willing to buy a song over something to eat from the 99c or dollar menu. I hope he wasn't confusing "stealing" with "not buying new CDs and giving the RIAA money" as it also states "29 per cent of them also regularly buy CDs on eBay" since most CDs found on eBay are used.
It already exists in the form of all the hand helds out there, only difference is the scale, few hundred MHz instead of 2+GHz and storage in a few hundred MB instead of GB. My Zaurus(206MHz, 32MB ram, ~1GB storage(SD card) is running faster than my old laptop 366MHz, 320MB ram 12GB HDD. It suspends/restores in 2s and reboots in 1-2min while the laptop only takes a few minutes more. It's not going to replace the power of the desktop used for gaming or A/V editing, but it will improve the small, light and portable laptop/notebook.
I'll go with both, I either read about a combo flash/hdd drive somewhere or said it would be a good idea somewhere. I also prefer the use of HDDs for storage of important data, but there's no reason flash can't also be used, for 'less important' data, say the partition containing the Windows and apps installations, around 4GB on my PC. I'd have no problem with having windows and apps on a fast 6-8GB flash drive that I can backup once a month/week/day or whenever I install new software or make any major changes. That way if the flash drive fails all you'd have to do is RMA it or get a new one, restore the backup to the new one and carry on as usual. I'm sure there are people who would risk total loss of data, as if they make backups, to have the boot time cut for minutes to seconds and have fifteen hours(so claims the article) of battery life per charge of their notebook.
I believe I also got that one, a whole 1GB and I've had it for over a year. For now the USB storage integrated into other things are less useful gimics unless you're willing to spend $100+ for a decent amount of storage. I got the Edgetech 32MB pen and 128MB dress watch for $3 and $20 after rebates. They're far less useful than the 1GB PQI iStick with wallet holder, I still use the "traditional" usb stick case, the SwissCard is in my wallet.
"Keep those things in mind and I'd bet money that this disc scratching issue goes away."
How about more durable disks? TDK developed a nearly scratch proof disk coating. Yes, more expensive but prices drop as demand and production increase I might be willing to pay a few dollars more, 5, on a $50+ game if there was nearly no chance if it ever scratching. I am very careful with my DVDs and have never scratched one, but a little insurance can't hurt.
I have received your claim alleging my Xbox 360 has damaged a game I have recently rented and returned. Please return the disk in question or provide high resolution pictures or scans of the disk in question so I can verify your claim. Or immediately restore all the Xbox 360 games to my GameQ. I own and have rented several Xbox 360 games and none have been damaged in any way and I am prepared to challenge your claim and state that my Xbox 360 has never damaged any disks played on it.
Signed, Guy who doesn't even have an XBOX 360 123 Fake Street Springfield, KY 609906
PS: did I forget to mention my good friend and neighbor is a high priced lawyer?
"Hell, even Blockbuster discs - rentals that people treat terribly - have been remarkably free of user-caused defects."
I don't know about Game Fly, but BlockbusterOnline gives you the option to report disks scratched damaged or unplayable. Which someone could use to cover up any damage their 360 caused to the disk. If GameFly doesn't test the disks when returned then it's possible the damaged disk reporter, not the last person who used it is the "guilty party." Or maybe GameFly didn't realize the risks of sending expensive new game disks through the mail in nothing more than glossy paper sleeves and envelopes, at least that's what Blockbuster and NetFlix do. It's possible they're pulling an RIAA, blame the paying customer. If a disk is broken during shipping, I've gotten my share with Blockbuster, instead of finding a way to write off the cost they may be trying to pass off the cost to their customers like cell phone providers and all the additional "taxes."
Chances are the majority of accused John Does are guilty but there's always the chance of a false positive(Mythbusters drug test), incorrect data reporting, creative accounting practices, wait that was Enron, I mean creative data reporting, MediaSentry: if we add to this big list of shared songs to the small one we just found the RIAA will may us more money. I don't recall hearing the results of any challenge to their data mining, but if they go with the closed source/proprietary code/industry secret response I hope it results in all their "evidence" being tossed.
unfortunately the pdf link is broken or has been slashdoted
"And America was founded by puritans. Australians are forever grateful that we got the better deal."
Fortunately only New England was founded by the puritans and their witch hunts, then they moved south and founded the bible belt and rejected Darwin. Can't forget the Virginia colony founded by your average folk just trying to make a quick fortune through the sale of tobacco and exploitation of the local native population. It's completely off topic but I'm just trying to distance myself form those Darwin rejecting ultra-religous fok'l.
Case 3: you buy and rip some CDs to mp3 for use with your MP3 player
And one of them happens to be a rootkited SonyBMG disk and then your PC gets infected by one of the viruses exploiting it and turned into a zombie for someone else's filesharing. How long unti someone tries the "I didn't do it, it was the Sony virus" defence?
Slashdot Mirror
Oh look, it's an election year again. Yes, it's only a mideterm election but it's still time for those up for re-election(again) to bring up the "sensitive"/"controversial" issues again. It doesn't matter if it passes or not or if the rest of the country agrees with it(or not) just that the 1%(senate) or less than 1/4 of 1%(house) of the country that put/keeps them in office agrees with how they voted. It's not about keeping the kids safe, only keeping their seat in congress safe for another 2 or 6 years.
No, I didn't even bother to look at the article.
I've never sold off or threw out or RMAed any of my hard drives. I give them a few good software whipes and use as paperweights or get an external case and there's another backup drive.
HDDs are around 50 cents or less per GB. Except those people who do their hardware shopping at BestBuy and arn't reading this.
If you really have to get it replaced look for someone who will let you keep the platters and just send back some of it. If they exist, have to keep the "refurbished" industry in business.
Being from NJ I'm outraged about this, and I though Plainfield was one of those rich towns where the kids always got what they wanted and no one ever got more than a day detention, maybe that's South Plainfield.
What's up with schools and a fear of anything electronic these days?
Force the kids into ibooks/laptops and expel/charge with computer trespass the ones who take the time to "explore" them. During a recent multi-day "field trip" my sister's class was banned from having anything electronic, but only 15 or so years ago I remember being encouraged to bring my GameBoy, even the teacher took part in our lunch time Tetris gaming. And anyone who used a "computer" to type their report got an automatic A, A+ if you added clipart/pictures.
Yes, electronic toys are much more common now and there should some limits on their use, can't be used all the time. Those of us in our mid 20s grew up with our games and were mostly able to impose our own limits and balance how long we played(weekend) and how much time we spent on work(non-weekend). Have kids these days lost that ability?
I once heard that there are two types of people who get involved in the administration of schools(not the teachers), those who really care about the kids and and those on a power trip(who would never be taken seriously by us rational adults)
If you mess with the 1st Amendment you will lose.
Sure, another guestimate of what they think their losses are based on what they would like to think they're really making.
The real reason I don't belive a word of it is they think they're only losing 244mill in China.
And they claim $529mill in losses in the US because consumers are using their fair use rights to make a backup copy so they don't have to go out and rebuy movies every time a disk gets scratched because the MPAA is too cheap to use scratch resistant disks.
How long until they blame Netflix and Blockbuster because people are renting movies at a prepaid monthly rate instead of buying them.
If you're dumb enough to post incriminating material on the internets you deserve to get caught.
Next time in the land of the SIMs...I mean MySpace.
yes, there should be and probably will be more than enough investigation into tips/leads found there BUT you know there will be enough bored teenagers and even some others trying to "frame" the more/less popular kids and school yard rivals, that whole libel/slander/romour mill thing.
Sure there's a chance of a good hit once in a while, just watch out for the false positive. Especially all those energetic prosecutors wanting to make a name for themselves even at the cost of a questionable guilty verdict and an innocent kid's freedom.
Near worst case, but possible
"However, they don't force you to buy a Clemson laptop"
You were lucky to have had the choice of which laptop to get. My sister was unlucky enough to have been forced to get some crapy overpriced Dell which she has never had a use for in class. Could have gotten one with at least double the performance for a few hundred less or a desktop for less than 1/3.
Now with all the electronic resources available to students it's nice that schools encourage students to have a PC of their own. Unfortunately some schools see a laptop "requirement" as a way to PROFIT. Get a big bulk purchase discount, throw in some "custom school apps" and that $900 laptop is suddenly $2000. I'm not against a school "requiring" students to have a computer, I'm very much against schools forcing everyone to get the same one, no the option to upgrade the hdd/RAM/DVD+/-R doesn't count as different. What about those who want a gaming machine(gets boring on the weekends)? or those who want an ultra-lite 10"? and what about those raised as MAC people? They're suddenly forced to be like everyone else and learn to use Windows.
I wonder if there are any studies showing any connection between forced laptop purchasing and increased campus crime, mostly laptop theft. With everyone carrying around identical laptops it gets easier to walk by an unattended one grab it and keep walking. It's probably loaded with school security software, wireless card reports its location whenever it's turned on so yo might want to pull the battery and take it away from the campus before you turn it on again. Or remove the sesily resellable parts, anyone need a 2.5" hdd or more memory or a Pentium M?
So it might be easier on the Helpdesk since all they'll have is the simple monkey work of reimaging reguardless of the problem, so what if all they really needed to do is install spybot. But it's going to be worse on some.
Who said it had to be intentional?
Maybe someone's cat walked across the keyboard or someone sat on the keyboard or the operator was drunk and forgot how to type or someone set it wrong and sent a useless message, shortly being transfered to the Russian front.
Well we won't know until these are cracked. What!? no Win2k version, D'oh, must use XP instructions.
Don't bet a box of doughnuts, use the box of doughnuts.
Guard: hey, what's that?
Random employee: It's a box of doughnuts.
Guard: OK, go right in/you're free to leave.
What they didn't know is within that innocently looking box of cream filled pastries could have been a 300+GB hdd or even a smaller 128mb flash drive.
At least where I work the nice people at the security/info desk are there as formality to keep unauthorized people, not devices, out.
The only way to completely restrict data would be to have full searches of everyone, never know where someone might try to hide a small usb drive, entering and exiting the building or secure area and have one of those flashy things from MiB just to be sure they didn't try to memorize any sensitive documents and so they don't remember the searches.
This is the same as if Sony BMG suddenly said its CDs are only for use on Sony CD players.
That is guessing that OS X for intel is available for purchase. I don't care much for Macs and havn't bothered to check if it is sold seperately from a new mac. If it is, people can(should be able to) do whatever they want with they buy, with the exception of distributing copies for free or for profit. If someone wants to go and spend $129 for OS X and wants run it on a PC then they should be allowed to do so. If it crashes as lot that's their problem and Apple doen't have to provide support. If there are no restrictions on what software can be run on a Mac then there shouldn't be any restrictions on the hardware that the software can be run on. If I go and buy an Intel Mac I should get the hardware and an OSX disk with a single user license. If I do that then I should be allowed to use that single user license on the machine of my choosing. I could choose to run Linux or even Windows, if someone's fould a way to do that, on the Mac and install OSX on generic PC hardware.
Unlike in their paranoid delusions, everyone doesn't "pirate" their crap, I mean content, no I really mean crap. There has to be something more than blind greed here. I've been saying they want to use DRM to turn everything into a pay-per-view box. Pay to record or buy(I mean rent a limited license change/revokable at any time for any or no reason with no chance of a refund), then pay to watch and continue to pay to rewatch everytime you want play it again. And they'll probably want to ability to remotely delete any or all of your recordings. Will they ever learn that everyone don't download everything that's not free for free. Like most(I hope) people I pay for the content I have. I got a cheap usb tv card, after about an hour of recording the audio gets noticably off, fine when I'm also watching an can stop and restart the recording during the commercials and combine later. I've legaly recorded many dozens of TV eps this way. My DVD collection is over 150 disks, of course I'm inflating the number by including bonus disks and counting TV seasons by number of disks. Compared to my small pile of 19 CDs so you can see where my interest lies. I'm considering getting a TiVo to aid in the inital recording and for shows I'll want to watch once then delete, the re-encoding/compressing (yes I have a legal copy of DivX) can wait.
Instead of trying to ban all the fun new toys before they've been fully developed maybe they should encourage their developement so the price drops and everyone has one and downloading will stop because everyone can legally record things for their own personal time-shifting use. But that's just for stuff on tv.
"Sue me."
I don't think that's a phrase you should say around the RIAA, they might.
I do like the last section, DRM is misunderstood and flexible. Of course it is, or not. I think "legal" sales of digital music would increase if it was sold in the form of unrestricted 320kbps mp3 for 99cents. That way the paying customers, or 'criminals' to the RIAA, can do whatever they want with it. I don't give away things I paid for. If for some reason I ever purchased a song in some digital format, even un DRMed, I would not simply give it away and I like to think that's the same with most people.
I guess the RIAA just realized PCs can store more than 100MB and have processors faster than 33MHz and can easily play audio files. If they had earlier and taken advantage of the new market we'd all be able to cheaply buy high quality un-DRMed songs, there might even be a few good ones. But they fought it and lost and make up, or have someone else make up, stats to make their obsession look like a noble crusade against "piracy"
At least for now RFID credit cards and other things that could contain financial information are still optional. My rail pass still relies on the shiney hologram for the fare checkers to see. It has what appears to be a magnetic strip, but I paid cash for it so the only way to trace it back to me would be to check the serial numbers on the bills I used to pay, that is if ticket vending machines and ATMs record the serial numbers on the bills they accept/pay out.
Limited range? Wasn't there are article posted here a couple months ago showing that with enough power the range could be increased from 4" to 70'? All someone whould have to do is rig the transmitter to accept a car battery instead of a AAA or watch battery.
So who's unlazy enough to want to start one of those grass-roots movements to keep bar codes and magnetic strips and let RFID die off? Of course there are some people who stand to gain lots of spare cash by the widespread adoption of RFID, but what's the real benefit for the rest of us? I have nothing against having to physically swipe my credit/bank card through the reader instead of just holding it a few inches away.
If that's the case, it sounds a lot like the garage door opener and Lexmark ink cartrige arguements, both rejected. You can only use our remote with our door opener, you can only use our ink cartriges with our printers. Both tried to "encrypt" the devices to claim protection under the DMCA(anti-napster act) to stop the generic device makers and both failed. Now it seems Apple could be trying to prevent the use if its software on generic PC hardware. To challenge this in court, assuming you've legally purchased the software and have all the receipts and paperwork all should have to do is use "to use on generic hardware" in the right places and make it look like Apple is trying some anti-competition practices.
"So they want to be paid by both the broadcasters and the listeners? Paid twice for the same product?"
Not just twice, they want to be paid by the broadcasters and then the listeners for the "privlage" of recording their content and then paid for every time the listener replays it. And paid by the maunfacturer of the recorder and have a "listening tax"/blank media tax just like the one our friends up in America Jr have to deal with added to the purchase price of the recorder and 99% of the digital and/or satellite radio subscription. They want to get paid at least half a dozen times for the same product.
DELETE THE ACCOUNT DELETE THE ACCOUNT DELETE THE ACCOUNT
did I mention delete the account?
Sorry about the excessive use of caps but the solution seems so very painfully obvious. Deleting the person's account when they leave protects both parties. The employee will not be able to do what that guy did and loging when they get home and do lots of damage, not that a sysadmin shouldn't make backups, and it prevents someone from changing the pword of the person who just left and connecting from an open access point, possibly outside/near some coffee shop with 'free wi-fi' where the are no cameras, using a randomly generated mac addr and logging in as the person who just left and doing lots of damage. Then all 'evidence' points to the person who just left, assuming the person remebers to delete all records of the pwrod change. Or someone puts out their no longer needed logins&pwords and SecurID card out in the trash together and is found by someone and sold to someone else who des the damage. Yes, this guy confessed, but it could just as easily been someone else.
I'll agree that at one point it was true, after the iPod and before iTunes existed. I knew more than enough people with iPods full of songs only "found" on the Internet. But that was back in college when most people didn't have much money, or at least not enough for a $15-$20 CD once a month. But now with the iTunes store and the 99c song, most people who paid a few hundred for their iPod and accessories are willing to buy a song over something to eat from the 99c or dollar menu.
I hope he wasn't confusing "stealing" with "not buying new CDs and giving the RIAA money" as it also states "29 per cent of them also regularly buy CDs on eBay" since most CDs found on eBay are used.
It already exists in the form of all the hand helds out there, only difference is the scale, few hundred MHz instead of 2+GHz and storage in a few hundred MB instead of GB. My Zaurus(206MHz, 32MB ram, ~1GB storage(SD card) is running faster than my old laptop 366MHz, 320MB ram 12GB HDD. It suspends/restores in 2s and reboots in 1-2min while the laptop only takes a few minutes more. It's not going to replace the power of the desktop used for gaming or A/V editing, but it will improve the small, light and portable laptop/notebook.
I'll go with both, I either read about a combo flash/hdd drive somewhere or said it would be a good idea somewhere. I also prefer the use of HDDs for storage of important data, but there's no reason flash can't also be used, for 'less important' data, say the partition containing the Windows and apps installations, around 4GB on my PC. I'd have no problem with having windows and apps on a fast 6-8GB flash drive that I can backup once a month/week/day or whenever I install new software or make any major changes. That way if the flash drive fails all you'd have to do is RMA it or get a new one, restore the backup to the new one and carry on as usual. I'm sure there are people who would risk total loss of data, as if they make backups, to have the boot time cut for minutes to seconds and have fifteen hours(so claims the article) of battery life per charge of their notebook.
I believe I also got that one, a whole 1GB and I've had it for over a year. For now the USB storage integrated into other things are less useful gimics unless you're willing to spend $100+ for a decent amount of storage. I got the Edgetech 32MB pen and 128MB dress watch for $3 and $20 after rebates. They're far less useful than the 1GB PQI iStick with wallet holder, I still use the "traditional" usb stick case, the SwissCard is in my wallet.
"Keep those things in mind and I'd bet money that this disc scratching issue goes away."
How about more durable disks? TDK developed a nearly scratch proof disk coating. Yes, more expensive but prices drop as demand and production increase I might be willing to pay a few dollars more, 5, on a $50+ game if there was nearly no chance if it ever scratching. I am very careful with my DVDs and have never scratched one, but a little insurance can't hurt.
To: Game FLy
RE: Damaged XBOX 360 game disk
I have received your claim alleging my Xbox 360 has damaged a game I have recently rented and returned. Please return the disk in question or provide high resolution pictures or scans of the disk in question so I can verify your claim. Or immediately restore all the Xbox 360 games to my GameQ. I own and have rented several Xbox 360 games and none have been damaged in any way and I am prepared to challenge your claim and state that my Xbox 360 has never damaged any disks played on it.
Signed,
Guy who doesn't even have an XBOX 360
123 Fake Street
Springfield, KY 609906
PS: did I forget to mention my good friend and neighbor is a high priced lawyer?
"Hell, even Blockbuster discs - rentals that people treat terribly - have been remarkably free of user-caused defects."
I don't know about Game Fly, but BlockbusterOnline gives you the option to report disks scratched damaged or unplayable. Which someone could use to cover up any damage their 360 caused to the disk. If GameFly doesn't test the disks when returned then it's possible the damaged disk reporter, not the last person who used it is the "guilty party."
Or maybe GameFly didn't realize the risks of sending expensive new game disks through the mail in nothing more than glossy paper sleeves and envelopes, at least that's what Blockbuster and NetFlix do. It's possible they're pulling an RIAA, blame the paying customer. If a disk is broken during shipping, I've gotten my share with Blockbuster, instead of finding a way to write off the cost they may be trying to pass off the cost to their customers like cell phone providers and all the additional "taxes."
"or someone in the gov't"
like good olde Senator Hatch?
Chances are the majority of accused John Does are guilty but there's always the chance of a false positive(Mythbusters drug test), incorrect data reporting, creative accounting practices, wait that was Enron, I mean creative data reporting, MediaSentry: if we add to this big list of shared songs to the small one we just found the RIAA will may us more money.
I don't recall hearing the results of any challenge to their data mining, but if they go with the closed source/proprietary code/industry secret response I hope it results in all their "evidence" being tossed.
unfortunately the pdf link is broken or has been slashdoted
"And America was founded by puritans. Australians are forever grateful that we got the better deal."
Fortunately only New England was founded by the puritans and their witch hunts, then they moved south and founded the bible belt and rejected Darwin. Can't forget the Virginia colony founded by your average folk just trying to make a quick fortune through the sale of tobacco and exploitation of the local native population. It's completely off topic but I'm just trying to distance myself form those Darwin rejecting ultra-religous fok'l.
Case 3: you buy and rip some CDs to mp3 for use with your MP3 player
And one of them happens to be a rootkited SonyBMG disk and then your PC gets infected by one of the viruses exploiting it and turned into a zombie for someone else's filesharing. How long unti someone tries the "I didn't do it, it was the Sony virus" defence?