Wait, is the RIAA going after UW students DOWNloading, or UPloading illegal files? IANAL, but if they were only downloading, then a lawsuit is bullcrap since each song has an established market value of $.99. And uploading, there is no way to statistically prove the statutory damages caused by uploading any one particular file (that I know of).
I saw this on my local news the other night and they said that the quality of the DVDs and CDs were wometimes just burned CDs, and pressed ones from a professional level duplication system. This just proves how intelligent these crooks are, and I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that they also have the smarts to get around any DRM that can be dreamt up. Once again it is another case of "DRM just stops the paying customers, not the pirates." If they wanna get around it bad enough they will. And in the meantime, Joe User gets turned into a criminal because he has to break the encryption to put the DVD on his laptop for his convenience.
I don't smoke weed, I don't know how that got in my car.
How many of us have been in such a situation? Now with little biotech magic, you can calmly and confidently (not to mention truthfully) say that the munchkins did it.
If you don't like LiveJournal censoring your stuff, why don't you just startup your own blogger community. There are umpteenmillion of them already, what's one more. There will always be a demand for them as people continue to want attention.
I have a 1999 Ford Explorer and a 2002 Mercury Cougar that both have chipped keys, and i have had them on top of the microwave, and touching my cellphone in my pocket for years, never had a problem with either one. IANAEY (I am not an engineer, yet.), but I think someone at Nissan tried to reinvent the wheel. Why not just do it the way Ford has done it for years? Or is Nissan too proud to have way overpriced cars that people don't want to drive anymore thanks to the problems with keys malfunctioning?
I live in the dorms at the university I attend, and they also block P2P clients of all types. But there are pretty much no limits otherwise. I can dwonload linux distros and creative commons media by the truckload with no problem. Our network uses a Cisco Clean Access system, so I would assume everyone's net usage can be tracked back to the network ID account, which is static for the user. I've never had a reason to do so, but I'll bet I could get an exception for bittorrent (for legal purposes only, of course) applied to my ID.
Although the IT policies are lax, it is only because their official policies are unenforcabel without major backlash from students. The IT policiy basically says internet resources on campus are for academic use only to complete assignments and courses. 95% of what most students do on the net does not fit this at all. The reason they don't enforce this is because it would eliminate personal email, all personal web traffic (including slashdot, GASP!), all internet radio (often needed to keep students in good mental health), and basically anything else. It would be cutting off the students from the outside world except for phone. The reason I mention this is because sometimes the wrong IT person will look at your network usage and compare it to this outdated, draconian policy and shut off your net for arbitrary reasons such as using internet radio (which is perfectly legal), or viewing pornography (which, ironically, is not expressly prohibited by the IT policies, and I would assume is legal in the US if you are over the age of 18, which I am.) My dorm neighbors have had to deal with IT on these issues on a couple of occasions, and they turned thier net back on when they pointed out the implications of enforcing their outdated policies and the legality of their activities.
So in a way, blocking P2P is basically a small step toward enforcing their own rules, but in a way, it's breaking their rules by cutting off students and preventing free speech, or any kind of speech at all.
...third-party cookie blocking please! This option was removed in FireFox 2.0 for whatever reason, and although this is not unique to the mac version, it would be nice to have it back, as it majorly prevents advertising cookies and gives me just that much more peace of mind when I surf the net.
The 9/11 hijackers used Flight Simulator to train themselves to fly a commercial airliner. I imagine this could be a similar situation, if, in fact, that is what these people are up to.
Does this mean that hardware vendors that sell WAPs (Linksys, D-Link, NetGear, etc.) can be held responsible if their instructions are geared more toward just getting Joe User online wirelessly with minimum hassle (read minimum security)? I mean, do they now have to put in actual Joe-User-comprehensible instructions on how to lock them down and what all the acronym soup means? (WPA, WPA2, PSK, TKIP, WEP, etc?)
I'll get Blu-Ray when I actually care less about the CONTENT of the movie and, God forbid, its production values, and care more about seeing if I can find a pimple on Bond's perfect, sexy, desireable, face, and...*breaks down sobbing*...why are people in movies always so beautiful!?!?
In any case, I care more about content than quality in the case of most things media.
In any case, if you put yourself out there in the world, cyber or otherwise, and develop a following, there is always going to be an asshole or two or three that want to harm you because they have nothing else better to do. Why do you think George W Bush has bodyguards?
Are the border guards on both sides actually gonna check these RFID chips? I mean, the few times I have driven into and out of Canada over the Blaine border crossing north of Seattle, the Canadian, yes, Canadian border guards grill you worse than the American ones. The last time I went into Canada in October 2006, I gave the guard my passport, and he asked me where I was going, for how long, and asked me to recite some of my passport information from memory.
Two days later, when I came back (in the middle of border rush hour) I gave my passport to the American border guard and he asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to x-town. He didn't even care that x-town was not anywhere near where my residential address was. (going to college in a different area of the state).
Makes me wonder if the guards have the scanners for the chips in hand rather than a gian car-size one, if they will even care if any information is mismatched.
"preventing or hindering access to a program or data held on a computer, or impairing the operation of any program or data held on a computer"
Watch out, Gates, Windows is going to be illegal now. The EU has its revenge!
Just think of how fast the virtual memory would be on one of those things, it could really help the linked site overcome the/. effect that has smacked it.
I used windows since 3.1 through XP. I made the mac switch two years ago and I won't go back. I think XP is a good OS, but the mac interface definitely is more efficient in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
Wait, is the RIAA going after UW students DOWNloading, or UPloading illegal files? IANAL, but if they were only downloading, then a lawsuit is bullcrap since each song has an established market value of $.99. And uploading, there is no way to statistically prove the statutory damages caused by uploading any one particular file (that I know of).
I saw this on my local news the other night and they said that the quality of the DVDs and CDs were wometimes just burned CDs, and pressed ones from a professional level duplication system. This just proves how intelligent these crooks are, and I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that they also have the smarts to get around any DRM that can be dreamt up. Once again it is another case of "DRM just stops the paying customers, not the pirates." If they wanna get around it bad enough they will. And in the meantime, Joe User gets turned into a criminal because he has to break the encryption to put the DVD on his laptop for his convenience.
I don't smoke weed, I don't know how that got in my car. How many of us have been in such a situation? Now with little biotech magic, you can calmly and confidently (not to mention truthfully) say that the munchkins did it.
If you don't like LiveJournal censoring your stuff, why don't you just startup your own blogger community. There are umpteenmillion of them already, what's one more. There will always be a demand for them as people continue to want attention.
I have a 1999 Ford Explorer and a 2002 Mercury Cougar that both have chipped keys, and i have had them on top of the microwave, and touching my cellphone in my pocket for years, never had a problem with either one. IANAEY (I am not an engineer, yet.), but I think someone at Nissan tried to reinvent the wheel. Why not just do it the way Ford has done it for years? Or is Nissan too proud to have way overpriced cars that people don't want to drive anymore thanks to the problems with keys malfunctioning?
If terrestrial radio falls, we will be left with nothing but talk radio. Paul Harvey all day!? NOOOOOO!!!
But, but, Professor Farnsworth's boxes are the gateways to other universes!
I live in the dorms at the university I attend, and they also block P2P clients of all types. But there are pretty much no limits otherwise. I can dwonload linux distros and creative commons media by the truckload with no problem. Our network uses a Cisco Clean Access system, so I would assume everyone's net usage can be tracked back to the network ID account, which is static for the user. I've never had a reason to do so, but I'll bet I could get an exception for bittorrent (for legal purposes only, of course) applied to my ID. Although the IT policies are lax, it is only because their official policies are unenforcabel without major backlash from students. The IT policiy basically says internet resources on campus are for academic use only to complete assignments and courses. 95% of what most students do on the net does not fit this at all. The reason they don't enforce this is because it would eliminate personal email, all personal web traffic (including slashdot, GASP!), all internet radio (often needed to keep students in good mental health), and basically anything else. It would be cutting off the students from the outside world except for phone. The reason I mention this is because sometimes the wrong IT person will look at your network usage and compare it to this outdated, draconian policy and shut off your net for arbitrary reasons such as using internet radio (which is perfectly legal), or viewing pornography (which, ironically, is not expressly prohibited by the IT policies, and I would assume is legal in the US if you are over the age of 18, which I am.) My dorm neighbors have had to deal with IT on these issues on a couple of occasions, and they turned thier net back on when they pointed out the implications of enforcing their outdated policies and the legality of their activities. So in a way, blocking P2P is basically a small step toward enforcing their own rules, but in a way, it's breaking their rules by cutting off students and preventing free speech, or any kind of speech at all.
I'm violet, da ba dee da ba dye!
I wonder if the climate over the year of this planet (13 days) is anything like the last two weeks' weather in the northeast US.
...third-party cookie blocking please! This option was removed in FireFox 2.0 for whatever reason, and although this is not unique to the mac version, it would be nice to have it back, as it majorly prevents advertising cookies and gives me just that much more peace of mind when I surf the net.
The 9/11 hijackers used Flight Simulator to train themselves to fly a commercial airliner. I imagine this could be a similar situation, if, in fact, that is what these people are up to.
"Public hotspot ahead! Better check your WoW!"
In Soviet Canada, ISP screws YOU!
Does this mean that hardware vendors that sell WAPs (Linksys, D-Link, NetGear, etc.) can be held responsible if their instructions are geared more toward just getting Joe User online wirelessly with minimum hassle (read minimum security)? I mean, do they now have to put in actual Joe-User-comprehensible instructions on how to lock them down and what all the acronym soup means? (WPA, WPA2, PSK, TKIP, WEP, etc?)
I'll get Blu-Ray when I actually care less about the CONTENT of the movie and, God forbid, its production values, and care more about seeing if I can find a pimple on Bond's perfect, sexy, desireable, face, and...*breaks down sobbing*...why are people in movies always so beautiful!?!? In any case, I care more about content than quality in the case of most things media.
In any case, if you put yourself out there in the world, cyber or otherwise, and develop a following, there is always going to be an asshole or two or three that want to harm you because they have nothing else better to do. Why do you think George W Bush has bodyguards?
Are the border guards on both sides actually gonna check these RFID chips? I mean, the few times I have driven into and out of Canada over the Blaine border crossing north of Seattle, the Canadian, yes, Canadian border guards grill you worse than the American ones. The last time I went into Canada in October 2006, I gave the guard my passport, and he asked me where I was going, for how long, and asked me to recite some of my passport information from memory.
Two days later, when I came back (in the middle of border rush hour) I gave my passport to the American border guard and he asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to x-town. He didn't even care that x-town was not anywhere near where my residential address was. (going to college in a different area of the state).
Makes me wonder if the guards have the scanners for the chips in hand rather than a gian car-size one, if they will even care if any information is mismatched.
Just send a fake name, like John C. Dvorak, and you'll get no Martian spam!
"preventing or hindering access to a program or data held on a computer, or impairing the operation of any program or data held on a computer" Watch out, Gates, Windows is going to be illegal now. The EU has its revenge!
Just think of how fast the virtual memory would be on one of those things, it could really help the linked site overcome the /. effect that has smacked it.
or perhaps you are just afraid to go out and screw someone else.
Wrong again. By implied definition, you are screwing yourself.
I used windows since 3.1 through XP. I made the mac switch two years ago and I won't go back. I think XP is a good OS, but the mac interface definitely is more efficient in my opinion.