There is one right that can never be taken away from the cutomer not by the rich, the powerful, the courts -- nobody. It is the power not to buy anything not considered of enough value for the price charged.
Copyright as it presently exists was invented at a time when it was fairly difficult to copy and transmit information. Today information is nothing more than a collection of bits that can be easily duplicated and sent at light speed to any number of places around the globe.
Just as the rules and methods for the horse and buggy era cannot be applied to modern transportation systems, so the copyright rules adopted at the time of the horse and buggy no longer work for regulating the information flow.
The reason for copyright in the first place was not so the traders in creative works should get filthy rich, but in order to for the public to be enriched by the creative efforts of true artists.
One reform for copyright could be to restrict it to those who actually do the creative work by not making copyright a transferable or hireable commodity that can be bought, sold and inherited, like is done with tangible goods. Only real live persons, with blood running in their veins should be allowed to excercise the privilege of copyright. When the artist dies, all works by that artist revert to the public. Also, copyright should be renewed from time to time to show that the artist still cares about his/her work.
If all or most of the money for a work went to the artist rather than to the merchants that now get the lion's share, it may be likely that most people would pay enough to allow the best artists to be well off and even the mediocre ones not starve.
The cost of production and distribution of music has dropped dramatically in recent years, no longer justifying the outrageous prices the RIAA monopolies extort. In this regard at least, Hollywood is not nearly as greedy. Making good films is very much more expensive than audio recording, yet a full length feature film on DVD is a real bargain compared to what the music industry charges for a CD that lasts maybe an hour, if that. Even with a fast Internet connction it is still a hassle to download a movie compared to just going to your friendly video store and paying a reasonable fee for a nicely packaged, professionally labled and recorded DVD. I purchased the first two extended "Lord of the Rings" 4 DVD sets ( 8DVDs in all) for less than $28.00 each ($7.00/DVD) and they are excellent. I think that Hollywood is on track to not have to worry unduly about download copying since they sell their product at quite reasonable prices. Taking a family of 4 to the movieshow certainly costs as much or more than the DVD - if you can convince your kids to wait until the DVD comes out.:-)!
I hold against them though the copy protection that prevents me from loading the movie on the hard disk of my lap top and then be able to leave the DVD at home.
Long before anyone ever thought of copyright, there were artists, such as Bach, Beethoven, Rembrandt, Milet etc. They were paid by persons of means who appreciated their skills. Maybe such a system as you are talking about could be worked out, such as is in place in Germany. There, every household owning a TV or Radio is taxed 18 euro each month to pay for broadcasts. Now they want to extend these taxes to PCs as well.
If all society benefits from the work of good artists, then perhaps all of society should pay in some way and all copyright is done away with. The reason for copyright was for the benefit of everybody, not just to enrich a few. If everybody benefits, perhaps everybody should pay. The biggest problem would not be in collecting the money, but figuring out an equitable way to reward the creators in such a way to give them an incentive to continue their creativity. The copyright system was supposed to do this and largely did before the digital age. Now however it is obviously broken and is not working any more. Modern digital technology has made the copyright system unworkable, just as the automobile has supplanted the horse and buggy.
The chance of the honor system working in our society are about as good as you getting all the money in your wallet back that you accidentally left on a transit bus in any big city.
A major strength of Apple is that they builds and tests the whole computer as a system rather relying on properly interpreting the written specs as the PC makers have to. When they allowed clones, some of the same troubles that plagues the x86 world also appeared on those clones. If Apple did switch to x86 I'm sure that NONE of the existing boxes would run their OSX and they's put some other special chips in their Apple branded x86 boxes that would prevent others from making clones.
We inherited two such vintage iMacs and I did indeed mess with them both and installed 512M RAM and a 120G HD in them. They run OSX 10.3.5 and are used for e-mail and browsing the web. On one of them the CD-ROM had to be replaced also. One of them makes a great iTunes music server.
How can you compare an ugly block of a noisy beige box with an elegantly designed, very quiet piece of equipment? That's like comparing a Porsche with a Hyundai. Yes, both have 4 wheels and make it down the highway.
Even if the new iMac ran Windows (with Virtual PC it does) it is a far better machine. OSX is just frosting on the great integrated overall design cake.
Who needs an ugradeable computer (other than RAM) anyway? I upgraded a supposedly unupgradable, all in one purple iMac with a 120G HD and all the RAM it will hold. It still works ok for word processing, e-mail and web-surfing, but iTunes mp3 encoding and even simple graphics editing takes forever.
In a few years, even the most upgraded computer will be hopelessly obsolete and will be replaced if you need/want to run the latest and greatest software, especially games.
Try running the latest games on a tops 2000 vintage computer, whether Mac or x86. Some won't even run, most will be too slow.
In most things of this world you generally get what you pay for. If you want the barest of bones function in your den or workshop, get a cheap workable x86 with windows, but if you care about looks in your living or family room you may want to pay a little extra.
Not having to worry about any of those 70,000+ known malwares out for wintel may also allow you to sleep better and thus because you are healthier, save the extra money a Mac costs by having lower doctor bills. I am being facetious here!
The most important and really ONLY weapon you have is to VOTE. Use this weapon wisely on Nov 2 by learning whether the so-called representatives have or have not represented you as you wish. If not, don't re-elect them.
....US goal since the end of the Cold War of doing what's best for the corporation....
What exactly is a "Corporation"? Is it not owned and controlled by people? Is there any law that forbids *anyone* from buying shares in most big corporations? Even if the average Joe would only buy a few shares, then the millions of average Joes would also benefit from these same corporations. As they say, if you can't lick'em, maybe you can join'em and get some of the same benefits on a smaller scale that the fat rich cats do. Go buy a few shares of a corrupt corporation. If many of us ordinary folks would do that, maybe by voting our shares we could even make the corporation less corrupt. Many of us already own a large slice of shares in these corrupt corporations through retirement plans and life insurance.
Polititians are all people the last time I looked and will do what people have always done since Adam disobeyed God, and that is continue to disobey God. God gave the human race ten simple commandments (not options), one of which is: "thou shalt not covet...." Coveting is greed and polititians, copyright holders and most of us at one time or other, are all people who exibit greed. Until people start obeying the commandments, such as this and others such as: "thou shalt not steal or tell lies..." etc, there is NO hope of ever changing what has not changed since the dawn of history.
The odds are pretty good that the FCC will have their nails trimmed on this. The broadcast flag has nothing to do with TV technology, but with implementing COPYRIGHT restrictions, which are NOT in the FCC domain. Congress would have to extend the FCC jurisdiction to enforce copyrights for the big rich IP owners. Since a considerable number of Congress people are in the pockests of the various copyright owners, there is a good chance that the FCC will get that authority to enforce copyright rules in all communications.
Actually, the best sellers of games are the only ones that DO come out for the Mac eventually. PC's, X-boxes and Playstations are excellent junk filters. Junk games that don't sell much never make it to the Mac, only the good stuff. That means that the games that finally are available for the Mac are the cream of the gaming world.
Do you think anyone who is planning to do something wrong will give out any e-amil address that can be connected to him/her? Maybe they'll use yours! I think such authentication redirects are worthless for preventing or tracing any potential misuse of free wireless access points. If those who use this redirect authentication have to pay royalties for that, they'll probably just forget about redirection in the first place or guard the access with a genuine password login..
I give outfits that ask for our phone number our modem number, which we never answer because it never rings since there is no phone connected to it and it busy whens anyone uses the Internet.
Caller ID together with a good answering machine has totally ELIMINATED us being bothered by telemarketers even though we are not on the do not call list. If the call does not display from someone we like to talk to, then the answering machine takes it. Very few junk callers leave any message and those that do are easily ignored. If someone we do want to talk to whose number is not recognized, we can hear the first 10 seconds of the message they put on the anwering machine, we then pick up the phone (if we are around) and talk as we normally would. Since we instituted this system we have not talked to a single caller we did not wish any communications from. Our answering machine is an old Mac Classic which is used for that and receiving faxes only.
Darn right I want all things just to work. I should not have to know Ohms law to know how to toast bread in my toaster or the ins and outs of fuel injection or gas mixtures to drive a car! I just want the car to get me where I want to go. Why should a computer be different? When cars first appeared, motorists DID have to be somwhat knowledgeale, since there were few service places. I want my computer to just do what I bought it for, no muss, no fuss. When computer hardware and software makers are finally subject to the same kinds of product liability laws that most other consumer goods are, then maybe computers will be more secure. If the legal system would invalidate all those lame EULA's that allow the computer industry to get away with shoddy, insecure, bug infested machinery, then we'd have very few problems with cybersecurity.
The vast majority of citizens still use POTS and the Feds can listen in on anybody's phone after they get a warrant. All this is about is to maintain a capability that existed for years. The new technology of the Internet has to submit to the same laws that the old POTS technology has submitted to for years. Just because the law enforcement has the ability TODAY to listen in to anyone's phone conversation, doesn't mean they have listened wholesale to the average phone line. There are not enough agents in Govt to do that anyway. The Govt. just wants to maintain what they have now in the face of changing technology. If "they" suspect someone of "something bad" today, they can listen to the normal phone and they want to be able to continue to do this. "They" can get a court order to read your postal mail also!
I can't understand why some/.rs are so up in arms about this!
So if Badnarik were elected he'd become supreme dictator of the US? He's still have Congress to deal with, a Supreme Court and that pesky document called "The Constitution"
Yes, of course, if you have deep dark secrets to communicate, then whisper them to the recipient beind the barn. You can also encode your message with the "secret encoder ring" and then send it off by carrier pigeon.
If they did and were taken to court by the Govt, they would likely win, because the commumications act does NOT give the FCC the power to LEGISLATE DRM. That is something Congress would have to do, and will do only if the people don't let them know otherwise.
However, I suspect most manufacturers don't care until the find out their DRM stuff just rots on the store shelf. Either way, the common consumers will vote, either at the ballot box or with their pocketbook.
A friend of mine and I both have Sony recorders and both of them record from and play to a standard TV. I have recorded some clips from my satellite receiver and then imported them into my computer with iMovie, edited the clips, added live footage and then recorded it back into Sony DV. After all that, the movie plays back just fine on any TV.
...They aren't going to care about HDTV broadcast flags...
That depends on what limitations the flag imposes. If the flag prevents the average Joe from doing what is now done with a VCR, there WILL be an outcry and the newfangled DRM'ed electronics will rot on store shelves as soon as the word gets out that you can't use it thay way you want, the way we are all used to doing it with a good oldfashioned VCR.
I agree that the public and after that Congrees will start caring...
When the average Joe cannot do what he wants to do, such as record and watch any TV show, then Congress will get enough feedback from the voters and will throw out a rule the FCC has no right to make in the first place. Since when does the communication act give the FCC the power to enforce DRM regulations? I suspect the courts and/or congress will have to trim their overzealous nails on this. When the FDA tried to regulate and outlaw certain vitamins and herbal preparations about 10 years ago, Congress was deluged with letters and phone calls like never before, and thereupon basically told the FDA they had no jusrisdiction in that area. So today you can still buy 1000mg vitamin C capspules and many other herbs and vitamins which the medical/pharmaceutical lobby wanted to legislate out of existence. Similarly, one of these days, the RIAA/MPAA will overstep their bounds and no amount of money will assuage the wrath of the voters until Congress listens to the voters rather than the money. In the end is still about votes... so be sure to vote!
Meanwhile, I believe equipment manufacturers can safely ignore the invalid FCC rule concerning any mandatory DRM deadline, since the courts and congress will likely do the same thing to this overzealous bureaucratic agency that they did to the FDA. I suspect that if the FCC did try to enforce their rule against a manufacturer who refused to implement the broadcast flag or any other mandatory DRM rule, the court would tell them that DRM legislation was the domain of Congress and the communications act does not give the FCC authority to make entirely new laws.
Re:All I know is...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
....Labor is the true engine of any economy,.....
That's what Hitler said as he changed the basis of the German money and economy from the gold standard, essentially making gold nothing more than another metal commodity. All this was to the chagrin of all the wealthy people in the US and elsewhere, since now the gold they had amassed did not help them to control others any more. Soon after Hitler did this, the rest of the world abandoned gold and now the worth of money is entirely arbitrary, controlled by the bankers of the world. In the US it even became illegal for the citizens to own gold.
What you get paid in dollars, pounds, pesos, euros or whatever is immaterial. What matters is how long you have to work for a loaf of bread or whatever. In the US, the time needed to work for most items is still much less than in many other countries. Today you can buy a pair of shoes for a few hours of labor, but my grandparents in Germany had to work for about a month for a decent pair of shoes. A good suit of clothes took three months wages for an average tradesman. Today, even someone flipping hamburgers in the US, works less time to buy almost everything and can buy those same shoes for a lot less work time than the worker in Indonesia who works in the factory that made those very same shoes.
Compared to generations past, and to the vast majority of people on Earth today, we are spoiled and rather unthankful for what we do have here in the US. If things here really are as bad as some of the posters on this forum complain, then why is it that so many foreigners still clamor to come here, such as some from Mexico risking a horrible death in the deserts of the southwest?
Nobody needs to decrypt the token, only make an exact copy of it. All things digital are nothing more than a long string of ones and zeroes which at some point has to be transferred from device A to device B. If the ALL the bits can be intercepted along the way, then it can be recorded and an identical copy made. Encryption does not prevent copying, only learning what kind of information is carried by the stream of bits. To prevent making a perfect digital copy, some of the bits have to be inaccessible or delivered by a different route. Commonly this is a password or activation key.
Do you really expect grandma to be a computer wiz and make her unsafe computer secure? It is the job of the product MAKER, not the consumer to ensure a product is safe. At least that is how it is with most stuff ordinary folks buy at Walmart and elsewhere.
I can't see why software makers such as MS cannot be held to the same standards of product liability as car makers or the folks who build toasters, washers and other common consumer goods. Why do software makers get away with unsafe products that would land automakers in jail or at least with very expensive lawsuits?
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There is one right that can never be taken away from the cutomer not by the rich, the powerful, the courts -- nobody. It is the power not to buy anything not considered of enough value for the price charged.
Copyright as it presently exists was invented at a time when it was fairly difficult to copy and transmit information. Today information is nothing more than a collection of bits that can be easily duplicated and sent at light speed to any number of places around the globe.
Just as the rules and methods for the horse and buggy era cannot be applied to modern transportation systems, so the copyright rules adopted at the time of the horse and buggy no longer work for regulating the information flow.
The reason for copyright in the first place was not so the traders in creative works should get filthy rich, but in order to for the public to be enriched by the creative efforts of true artists.
One reform for copyright could be to restrict it to those who actually do the creative work by not making copyright a transferable or hireable commodity that can be bought, sold and inherited, like is done with tangible goods. Only real live persons, with blood running in their veins should be allowed to excercise the privilege of copyright. When the artist dies, all works by that artist revert to the public. Also, copyright should be renewed from time to time to show that the artist still cares about his/her work.
If all or most of the money for a work went to the artist rather than to the merchants that now get the lion's share, it may be likely that most people would pay enough to allow the best artists to be well off and even the mediocre ones not starve.
The cost of production and distribution of music has dropped dramatically in recent years, no longer justifying the outrageous prices the RIAA monopolies extort. In this regard at least, Hollywood is not nearly as greedy. Making good films is very much more expensive than audio recording, yet a full length feature film on DVD is a real bargain compared to what the music industry charges for a CD that lasts maybe an hour, if that. Even with a fast Internet connction it is still a hassle to download a movie compared to just going to your friendly video store and paying a reasonable fee for a nicely packaged, professionally labled and recorded DVD. I purchased the first two extended "Lord of the Rings" 4 DVD sets ( 8DVDs in all) for less than $28.00 each ($7.00/DVD) and they are excellent. I think that Hollywood is on track to not have to worry unduly about download copying since they sell their product at quite reasonable prices. Taking a family of 4 to the movieshow certainly costs as much or more than the DVD - if you can convince your kids to wait until the DVD comes out.:-)!
I hold against them though the copy protection that prevents me from loading the movie on the hard disk of my lap top and then be able to leave the DVD at home.
Long before anyone ever thought of copyright, there were artists, such as Bach, Beethoven, Rembrandt, Milet etc. They were paid by persons of means who appreciated their skills. Maybe such a system as you are talking about could be worked out, such as is in place in Germany. There, every household owning a TV or Radio is taxed 18 euro each month to pay for broadcasts. Now they want to extend these taxes to PCs as well.
If all society benefits from the work of good artists, then perhaps all of society should pay in some way and all copyright is done away with. The reason for copyright was for the benefit of everybody, not just to enrich a few. If everybody benefits, perhaps everybody should pay. The biggest problem would not be in collecting the money, but figuring out an equitable way to reward the creators in such a way to give them an incentive to continue their creativity. The copyright system was supposed to do this and largely did before the digital age. Now however it is obviously broken and is not working any more. Modern digital technology has made the copyright system unworkable, just as the automobile has supplanted the horse and buggy.
The chance of the honor system working in our society are about as good as you getting all the money in your wallet back that you accidentally left on a transit bus in any big city.
A major strength of Apple is that they builds and tests the whole computer as a system rather relying on properly interpreting the written specs as the PC makers have to. When they allowed clones, some of the same troubles that plagues the x86 world also appeared on those clones. If Apple did switch to x86 I'm sure that NONE of the existing boxes would run their OSX and they's put some other special chips in their Apple branded x86 boxes that would prevent others from making clones.
We inherited two such vintage iMacs and I did indeed mess with them both and installed 512M RAM and a 120G HD in them. They run OSX 10.3.5 and are used for e-mail and browsing the web. On one of them the CD-ROM had to be replaced also. One of them makes a great iTunes music server.
How can you compare an ugly block of a noisy beige box with an elegantly designed, very quiet piece of equipment? That's like comparing a Porsche with a Hyundai. Yes, both have 4 wheels and make it down the highway.
Even if the new iMac ran Windows (with Virtual PC it does) it is a far better machine. OSX is just frosting on the great integrated overall design cake.
Who needs an ugradeable computer (other than RAM) anyway? I upgraded a supposedly unupgradable, all in one purple iMac with a 120G HD and all the RAM it will hold. It still works ok for word processing, e-mail and web-surfing, but iTunes mp3 encoding and even simple graphics editing takes forever.
In a few years, even the most upgraded computer will be hopelessly obsolete and will be replaced if you need/want to run the latest and greatest software, especially games.
Try running the latest games on a tops 2000 vintage computer, whether Mac or x86. Some won't even run, most will be too slow.
In most things of this world you generally get what you pay for. If you want the barest of bones function in your den or workshop, get a cheap workable x86 with windows, but if you care about looks in your living or family room you may want to pay a little extra.
Not having to worry about any of those 70,000+ known malwares out for wintel may also allow you to sleep better and thus because you are healthier, save the extra money a Mac costs by having lower doctor bills. I am being facetious here!
The most important and really ONLY weapon you have is to VOTE. Use this weapon wisely on Nov 2 by learning whether the so-called representatives have or have not represented you as you wish. If not, don't re-elect them.
....US goal since the end of the Cold War of doing what's best for the corporation....
What exactly is a "Corporation"? Is it not owned and controlled by people? Is there any law that forbids *anyone* from buying shares in most big corporations? Even if the average Joe would only buy a few shares, then the millions of average Joes would also benefit from these same corporations. As they say, if you can't lick'em, maybe you can join'em and get some of the same benefits on a smaller scale that the fat rich cats do. Go buy a few shares of a corrupt corporation. If many of us ordinary folks would do that, maybe by voting our shares we could even make the corporation less corrupt. Many of us already own a large slice of shares in these corrupt corporations through retirement plans and life insurance.
Polititians are all people the last time I looked and will do what people have always done since Adam disobeyed God, and that is continue to disobey God. God gave the human race ten simple commandments (not options), one of which is: "thou shalt not covet...." Coveting is greed and polititians, copyright holders and most of us at one time or other, are all people who exibit greed. Until people start obeying the commandments, such as this and others such as: "thou shalt not steal or tell lies..." etc, there is NO hope of ever changing what has not changed since the dawn of history.
The odds are pretty good that the FCC will have their nails trimmed on this. The broadcast flag has nothing to do with TV technology, but with implementing COPYRIGHT restrictions, which are NOT in the FCC domain. Congress would have to extend the FCC jurisdiction to enforce copyrights for the big rich IP owners. Since a considerable number of Congress people are in the pockests of the various copyright owners, there is a good chance that the FCC will get that authority to enforce copyright rules in all communications.
Actually, the best sellers of games are the only ones that DO come out for the Mac eventually. PC's, X-boxes and Playstations are excellent junk filters. Junk games that don't sell much never make it to the Mac, only the good stuff. That means that the games that finally are available for the Mac are the cream of the gaming world.
Do you think anyone who is planning to do something wrong will give out any e-amil address that can be connected to him/her? Maybe they'll use yours! I think such authentication redirects are worthless for preventing or tracing any potential misuse of free wireless access points. If those who use this redirect authentication have to pay royalties for that, they'll probably just forget about redirection in the first place or guard the access with a genuine password login..
I give outfits that ask for our phone number our modem number, which we never answer because it never rings since there is no phone connected to it and it busy whens anyone uses the Internet.
Caller ID together with a good answering machine has totally ELIMINATED us being bothered by telemarketers even though we are not on the do not call list. If the call does not display from someone we like to talk to, then the answering machine takes it. Very few junk callers leave any message and those that do are easily ignored. If someone we do want to talk to whose number is not recognized, we can hear the first 10 seconds of the message they put on the anwering machine, we then pick up the phone (if we are around) and talk as we normally would. Since we instituted this system we have not talked to a single caller we did not wish any communications from. Our answering machine is an old Mac Classic which is used for that and receiving faxes only.
Darn right I want all things just to work. I should not have to know Ohms law to know how to toast bread in my toaster or the ins and outs of fuel injection or gas mixtures to drive a car! I just want the car to get me where I want to go. Why should a computer be different? When cars first appeared, motorists DID have to be somwhat knowledgeale, since there were few service places. I want my computer to just do what I bought it for, no muss, no fuss. When computer hardware and software makers are finally subject to the same kinds of product liability laws that most other consumer goods are, then maybe computers will be more secure. If the legal system would invalidate all those lame EULA's that allow the computer industry to get away with shoddy, insecure, bug infested machinery, then we'd have very few problems with cybersecurity.
The vast majority of citizens still use POTS and the Feds can listen in on anybody's phone after they get a warrant. All this is about is to maintain a capability that existed for years. The new technology of the Internet has to submit to the same laws that the old POTS technology has submitted to for years. Just because the law enforcement has the ability TODAY to listen in to anyone's phone conversation, doesn't mean they have listened wholesale to the average phone line. There are not enough agents in Govt to do that anyway. The Govt. just wants to maintain what they have now in the face of changing technology. If "they" suspect someone of "something bad" today, they can listen to the normal phone and they want to be able to continue to do this. "They" can get a court order to read your postal mail also!
/.rs are so up in arms about this!
I can't understand why some
So if Badnarik were elected he'd become supreme dictator of the US? He's still have Congress to deal with, a Supreme Court and that pesky document called "The Constitution"
Yes, of course, if you have deep dark secrets to communicate, then whisper them to the recipient beind the barn. You can also encode your message with the "secret encoder ring" and then send it off by carrier pigeon.
...If manufacturers stand up to the FCC...
If they did and were taken to court by the Govt, they would likely win, because the commumications act does NOT give the FCC the power to LEGISLATE DRM. That is something Congress would have to do, and will do only if the people don't let them know otherwise.
However, I suspect most manufacturers don't care until the find out their DRM stuff just rots on the store shelf. Either way, the common consumers will vote, either at the ballot box or with their pocketbook.
A friend of mine and I both have Sony recorders and both of them record from and play to a standard TV. I have recorded some clips from my satellite receiver and then imported them into my computer with iMovie, edited the clips, added live footage and then recorded it back into Sony DV. After all that, the movie plays back just fine on any TV.
...They aren't going to care about HDTV broadcast flags...
That depends on what limitations the flag imposes. If the flag prevents the average Joe from doing what is now done with a VCR, there WILL be an outcry and the newfangled DRM'ed electronics will rot on store shelves as soon as the word gets out that you can't use it thay way you want, the way we are all used to doing it with a good oldfashioned VCR.
I agree that the public and after that Congrees will start caring...
... so be sure to vote!
When the average Joe cannot do what he wants to do, such as record and watch any TV show, then Congress will get enough feedback from the voters and will throw out a rule the FCC has no right to make in the first place. Since when does the communication act give the FCC the power to enforce DRM regulations? I suspect the courts and/or congress will have to trim their overzealous nails on this. When the FDA tried to regulate and outlaw certain vitamins and herbal preparations about 10 years ago, Congress was deluged with letters and phone calls like never before, and thereupon basically told the FDA they had no jusrisdiction in that area. So today you can still buy 1000mg vitamin C capspules and many other herbs and vitamins which the medical/pharmaceutical lobby wanted to legislate out of existence. Similarly, one of these days, the RIAA/MPAA will overstep their bounds and no amount of money will assuage the wrath of the voters until Congress listens to the voters rather than the money. In the end is still about votes
Meanwhile, I believe equipment manufacturers can safely ignore the invalid FCC rule concerning any mandatory DRM deadline, since the courts and congress will likely do the same thing to this overzealous bureaucratic agency that they did to the FDA. I suspect that if the FCC did try to enforce their rule against a manufacturer who refused to implement the broadcast flag or any other mandatory DRM rule, the court would tell them that DRM legislation was the domain of Congress and the communications act does not give the FCC authority to make entirely new laws.
....Labor is the true engine of any economy,.....
That's what Hitler said as he changed the basis of the German money and economy from the gold standard, essentially making gold nothing more than another metal commodity. All this was to the chagrin of all the wealthy people in the US and elsewhere, since now the gold they had amassed did not help them to control others any more. Soon after Hitler did this, the rest of the world abandoned gold and now the worth of money is entirely arbitrary, controlled by the bankers of the world. In the US it even became illegal for the citizens to own gold.
What you get paid in dollars, pounds, pesos, euros or whatever is immaterial. What matters is how long you have to work for a loaf of bread or whatever. In the US, the time needed to work for most items is still much less than in many other countries. Today you can buy a pair of shoes for a few hours of labor, but my grandparents in Germany had to work for about a month for a decent pair of shoes. A good suit of clothes took three months wages for an average tradesman. Today, even someone flipping hamburgers in the US, works less time to buy almost everything and can buy those same shoes for a lot less work time than the worker in Indonesia who works in the factory that made those very same shoes.
Compared to generations past, and to the vast majority of people on Earth today, we are spoiled and rather unthankful for what we do have here in the US. If things here really are as bad as some of the posters on this forum complain, then why is it that so many foreigners still clamor to come here, such as some from Mexico risking a horrible death in the deserts of the southwest?
Nobody needs to decrypt the token, only make an exact copy of it. All things digital are nothing more than a long string of ones and zeroes which at some point has to be transferred from device A to device B. If the ALL the bits can be intercepted along the way, then it can be recorded and an identical copy made. Encryption does not prevent copying, only learning what kind of information is carried by the stream of bits. To prevent making a perfect digital copy, some of the bits have to be inaccessible or delivered by a different route. Commonly this is a password or activation key.
Do you really expect grandma to be a computer wiz and make her unsafe computer secure? It is the job of the product MAKER, not the consumer to ensure a product is safe. At least that is how it is with most stuff ordinary folks buy at Walmart and elsewhere.
I can't see why software makers such as MS cannot be held to the same standards of product liability as car makers or the folks who build toasters, washers and other common consumer goods. Why do software makers get away with unsafe products that would land automakers in jail or at least with very expensive lawsuits?