That is pretty much what they do in Rymans, where I generally get my ink cartridges. They are £1 cheaper there than in Staples where they are left out on the shelf. I wonder why that is? Most other things are more expensive in Rymans than Staples.
The other claim however it makes is that you get 10 years in prison for copying a movie without their permission. That is almost certainly not true, even if you do start selling them in a market stall.
When Friedman said this, he was talking about corporations in the context of a capitalist economy, where there is competition between lots of small corporations, and none of them are able to influence the market.
What we have here is not really a capitalist system. It is more like a feudalist system where the overlords control everything for their own benefit and prevent anyone else from competing with them.
We can, if it is originally printed with OCR in mind. Bar codes are pretty reliable, and the bank's computers can read the numbers at the bottom of a cheque pretty reliably.
Selling things on credit is a method of carrying on business, and so shouldn't be patented. That is certainly the case in Europe. Likewise, making things on a production line, though some of the specific items of machinery used might be patentable.
As for the cure for cancer, it will depend what the cure is. Treatment methods are not patentable in europe, however chemicals and equipent used in the treatment can potentially be patentable. Some drug companies in the US have patents for things like looking at particular types of cancer cells under the microscope to see what happens when you apply chemicals of any sort to them. That ought to be prevented by the obviousness rules.
As far as I'm aware, nuclear related stuff is not patentable in the US for public policy reasons. The kid who made his own reactor managed it because he looked at how other reactors were made. It probably wasn't obvious to the likes of Marie Curie when she first discovered it though.
The concept of copyright didn't exist in those days. Back then, most things were either passed around by memorising them and repeating them, or getting a slave to write it out by hand on a roll of papyrus. Authors made their money by by giving speaches, not from royalties on their books.
Copyright came into being after the printing press was reinvented in the 17th Century, to encourage people to invest in them so they could mass produce copies of books.
Well Britain (or more specifically England) has survived in more or less its current form since 1066, and I don't think it is about to collapse any time soon. Part of the reason is that it is flexible enough to evolve with the times, but not so flexable that it self destructs.
Switzerland hasn't been around for quite so long, about 800 years, but has probably been more stable in that time, and if you look at some of the Cantons that came together to form Switzerland, you probably have political stability going back further than that. Britain came into being in 1707 when England joined with Scotland.
Of course, I don't think you'll find many 10 lane wide boulevards in Europe. The widest I've seen is the M42 / M6 / M6(toll) junction outside Birmingham, which is 7 lanes. You are unlikely to see more than 2 lanes in a city centre.
If you read the bill itself, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/ cmbills/119/06119.27-33.html#j383 it talks about an "unauthorised" act carried out with "intent", so if you put Zonealarm on your ex employer's server without their permission and configure it to block all requests from the LAN, then you are in trouble. However, if you put it on your own computer to help prevent attacks, then that is permitted.
Of course, the former would be illegal anyway as an unauthorised modification to your ex employer's computer.
There are lots of ways to bring down a computer system, and most of them haven't been discovered yet. The law needs to be flexible enough to stop all of them, which can't happen if it spells out in precise detail what a DOS attack is.
The very volatility of Wikipedia, even the vandalism that takes place, is exactly what historians will be looking at to get an insight into what we are like.
For example, the most vandalised articles are about the most controversial people, and this is much better evidence of contoversy than the paragraph in the article that says he is a bit controversial and some people don't like him.
But what sort of area do your newspapers cover? Presumably it isn't the whole country. We have "national" newspapers which ostensibly cover the whole of the UK. But Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own editions of these papers which take most of the news from the national version, and replace some stories with others which are of more interest to people within that part of the UK. Also, these three countries have their own newspapers which tend to be more popular than the national papers. London has papers like the Evening Standard which cover things happening in Londong, and there are lots of local papers covering a particular area.
Something like a fifth of all retail spending goes through Tesco tills. They are by far the largest food retailer, and one of the largest electrical retailers.
The WTO rules are supposed to mean that you treat foreign companies in the same way that you treat your own.
If you don't allow american companies to do online gambling, and as a sovereign government, you should be allowed to make that decision, then it is perfectly reasonable not to allow offshore companies to do it either.
You can't empty someone's bank account just with their account number. The nigerian scam involves them asking you to send them money on various pretexes. Giving them your bank account number has nothing to do with it.
My complaint is that I have chosen not to own a TV. This doesn't stop TV Licencing from harassing me. They simply won't take no for an answer.
Now, I return all mail from them unopened, and when they arrive at my door, I inform them that I am withdrawing their implied licence to stand on my door step, and that unless they have a court warrant, they should leave immediately. There is no point in being nice to them.
Slashdot Mirror
That is pretty much what they do in Rymans, where I generally get my ink cartridges. They are £1 cheaper there than in Staples where they are left out on the shelf. I wonder why that is? Most other things are more expensive in Rymans than Staples.
They are active in Northern Ireland, which despite some catholic desire not to be so, is part of Britain.
.org.uk in my URL should be a clue that I am from Britain.
For any geographically challenged yanks out there, the
Indeed they are - http://www.sinnfein.ie/
Though not the same republican party as in the US.
The other claim however it makes is that you get 10 years in prison for copying a movie without their permission. That is almost certainly not true, even if you do start selling them in a market stall.
When Friedman said this, he was talking about corporations in the context of a capitalist economy, where there is competition between lots of small corporations, and none of them are able to influence the market.
What we have here is not really a capitalist system. It is more like a feudalist system where the overlords control everything for their own benefit and prevent anyone else from competing with them.
However, the law has recently been changed to clarify that you do need a licence for streaming media in these circumstances.
We can, if it is originally printed with OCR in mind. Bar codes are pretty reliable, and the bank's computers can read the numbers at the bottom of a cheque pretty reliably.
Taking some of your points in turn -
Henry Ford's car
Selling things on credit is a method of carrying on business, and so shouldn't be patented. That is certainly the case in Europe. Likewise, making things on a production line, though some of the specific items of machinery used might be patentable.
As for the cure for cancer, it will depend what the cure is. Treatment methods are not patentable in europe, however chemicals and equipent used in the treatment can potentially be patentable. Some drug companies in the US have patents for things like looking at particular types of cancer cells under the microscope to see what happens when you apply chemicals of any sort to them. That ought to be prevented by the obviousness rules.
As far as I'm aware, nuclear related stuff is not patentable in the US for public policy reasons. The kid who made his own reactor managed it because he looked at how other reactors were made. It probably wasn't obvious to the likes of Marie Curie when she first discovered it though.
Or, Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Eurasia are our allies.
The concept of copyright didn't exist in those days. Back then, most things were either passed around by memorising them and repeating them, or getting a slave to write it out by hand on a roll of papyrus. Authors made their money by by giving speaches, not from royalties on their books.
Copyright came into being after the printing press was reinvented in the 17th Century, to encourage people to invest in them so they could mass produce copies of books.
Well Britain (or more specifically England) has survived in more or less its current form since 1066, and I don't think it is about to collapse any time soon. Part of the reason is that it is flexible enough to evolve with the times, but not so flexable that it self destructs.
Switzerland hasn't been around for quite so long, about 800 years, but has probably been more stable in that time, and if you look at some of the Cantons that came together to form Switzerland, you probably have political stability going back further than that. Britain came into being in 1707 when England joined with Scotland.
Of course, I don't think you'll find many 10 lane wide boulevards in Europe. The widest I've seen is the M42 / M6 / M6(toll) junction outside Birmingham, which is 7 lanes. You are unlikely to see more than 2 lanes in a city centre.
If you read the bill itself, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/ cmbills/119/06119.27-33.html#j383
it talks about an "unauthorised" act carried out with "intent", so if you put Zonealarm on your ex employer's server without their permission and configure it to block all requests from the LAN, then you are in trouble. However, if you put it on your own computer to help prevent attacks, then that is permitted.
Of course, the former would be illegal anyway as an unauthorised modification to your ex employer's computer.
I don't agree.
There are lots of ways to bring down a computer system, and most of them haven't been discovered yet. The law needs to be flexible enough to stop all of them, which can't happen if it spells out in precise detail what a DOS attack is.
No, an unconditional discharge is the minimum.
The very volatility of Wikipedia, even the vandalism that takes place, is exactly what historians will be looking at to get an insight into what we are like.
For example, the most vandalised articles are about the most controversial people, and this is much better evidence of contoversy than the paragraph in the article that says he is a bit controversial and some people don't like him.
In the UK, they are illegal unless you have previously given permission to the spammer to make these calls. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19992093.htm#22
But what sort of area do your newspapers cover? Presumably it isn't the whole country. We have "national" newspapers which ostensibly cover the whole of the UK. But Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own editions of these papers which take most of the news from the national version, and replace some stories with others which are of more interest to people within that part of the UK. Also, these three countries have their own newspapers which tend to be more popular than the national papers. London has papers like the Evening Standard which cover things happening in Londong, and there are lots of local papers covering a particular area.
They certainly make the news in local papers. The 5% or so you are talking about are the ones that make it to the national papers.
One type of electronic book that is very successful is the encyclopaedia.
I can pick up a copy of Britannica from my local Staples for about £10. The paper version costs something like £800.
And at £10, it isn't really worth anyone's while making their own copies of it.
Something like a fifth of all retail spending goes through Tesco tills. They are by far the largest food retailer, and one of the largest electrical retailers.
The WTO rules are supposed to mean that you treat foreign companies in the same way that you treat your own.
If you don't allow american companies to do online gambling, and as a sovereign government, you should be allowed to make that decision, then it is perfectly reasonable not to allow offshore companies to do it either.
Natwest used to offer a similar service in the UK called Fastpay. But they stopped it because they couldn't make money out of it.
You can't empty someone's bank account just with their account number. The nigerian scam involves them asking you to send them money on various pretexes. Giving them your bank account number has nothing to do with it.
My complaint is that I have chosen not to own a TV. This doesn't stop TV Licencing from harassing me. They simply won't take no for an answer.
Now, I return all mail from them unopened, and when they arrive at my door, I inform them that I am withdrawing their implied licence to stand on my door step, and that unless they have a court warrant, they should leave immediately. There is no point in being nice to them.