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User: amliebsch

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  1. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1

    I do not find this analogy persuasive. Microsoft cannot prevent me from installing any software I wish on my x86 PC, nor can they prevent me from developing any application I want that doesn't steal their code. I may not be likely to succeed because of the way that the market tends to favor established firms (the network effect), but I don't believe that it justifies nationalization of my competitor's property.

  2. Re:Microsoft *might* be b/w a rock & hard plac on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1

    You are suggesting holding businesses to a standard higher than mere morality; something more like altruism. It is already against the law for companies to kill and steal; you seem to be suggesting something more.

  3. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1
    But there is no real competition in fields dominated by Microsoft.

    You're right. Linux is no competition for Windows. Could it be that it's share is maintained by distributing it alongside a monopoly-product?

    You're begging the question! I never denied that Windows has vastly superior market share to other, perhaps technically better alternatives. But the question is WHY? And the answer is because users like Microsoft products. To criminally punish Microsoft for consumer preferences is asinine.

  4. Re:OJ on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1

    How was his trial unfair? He was acquitted! What do you want, the prosecutors to go to jail?

  5. Re:Publication bans? On events *open to the public on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1

    AS someone who has sat in the prosecutor's seat, let me respond. Ultimately, the jury system will be as competent as the citizenry are willing to make it. I would note that incompetent juries tend to favor defendants, and that's why they often do not elect to waive their right to jury trial and simply try the case to the judge, which is always an option. The jury system does have some quirks, such as selecting against people with special knowledge related to the case. In your example, your doctor g/f. The problem is not that her education was prejudicial, but that her education would giver her undue influence over the other jurors, due to their tendency to defer to experts. That said, I definitely respect - as a prosecutor - the role that juries play in keeping the criminal codes reasonable and understandable, and as a defense "box"* against excessive state power (jury nullification does happen!). I do not think it should be abolished. Defendants who want a more professional fact-finder can try their case to the judge. The state, of course, should be bound to whatever the defendant chooses. * Referring to the colloquialism: "You have four boxes. Use them in the proper order: (1) Soap (2) Ballot (3) Jury (4) Ammunition."

  6. Re:Watch out CmdrTaco! on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    I guarantee you that most Canadians will read what's in their paper, but that's pretty much it.

    Then it really shouldn't be so hard to find a dozen or so people who haven't even done that, should it? Making the whole ban pointless.

  7. Re:How far will the EU go? on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1
    Would the US wage a covert campaign against European leadership? I'm just not sure that would work. So, then what?

    Trade war? Escalating tariffs? Dissolution of NATO (may happen soon anyways, but still...)

  8. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1
    If the EU would take the copyright and stuff from microsoft and develope windows on it's own, It would be for specific reasons and it would be well known why.

    Would they ensure that those stolen products would not be sold in other countries? Would they guarantee that they would not be pirated around the world, replacing legitimate MS products? If not, will the EU compensate MS for its losses?

  9. Re:Microsoft *might* be b/w a rock & hard plac on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1

    Hey, that's business, chief. It gets dirty. But evil? I generally reserve that category for more serious things, like, say, the state-ordered theft of other people's property.

  10. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1
    Funny?

    If it's funny, it's because it's true.

  11. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 2, Insightful
    allow competitors to create compatible alternatives, giving them a fair footing in an open market.

    In other words, something their competitiors failed to earn on merit. Don't patronize me. MS may have an almost universally dominant position on the desktop, but there is nothing - NOTHING - stopping superior alternatives from being adopted, if they are sufficiently better.

  12. Re:The article says "accepts"... on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Madness. It would be the end of the Bern Convention and the start of a cataclysmic trade war - maybe worse. Sheer madness. I don't doubt they would do it though, in their spite, their greed, and their envy.

  13. Re:Apologies for the pun on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 1
    Can you imagine any single one of us, after being found guilty of something, picking and choosing our punishments in a court of law?

    I work in criminal court. We have these funny things called "plea negotiations."

  14. Re:...wtf? on Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands, But Not Over Source · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA. The dispute has to do with licensing Microsoft's proprietary code, and whether or not they were locking open-source projects out of the licensing agreements. MS probably was, out of fear that if their code was incorporated into an open-source project, it would be open-sourced. The EU is not requiring MS to open-source their code.

  15. Re:Publication bans? On events *open to the public on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1

    Spoken like somebody who has no clue what is contained in either document.

  16. Re:The article... on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    Please provide an example of "things you can't say there now."

    Ask and ye shall receive. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/c-46/41491.html

    Advocating Genocide

    Promotion of hatred

  17. Re:Hey! on Vaccine to Prevent Killing Human Beings? · · Score: 1
  18. What version of VB? on Migrating Visual Basic Applications? · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Are you talking about VB 6.0? VBA? VBScript? VB.NET?

    If VB.NET, the best solution is to learn to live with Mono licensing, because unless P/Invoke is used, porting is as simple as compile-->run.

  19. Re:Extreme Plasmonics on A Plasmonic Revolution for Computer Chips? · · Score: 1
    the Extreme Plasmonics SUX-2000.

    Wow! I'd buy that for a dollar!

  20. Re:Oh, no, the sky has fallen, boo frickin' hoo! on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    What difference does it make? I've been repeatedly informed that this information will be made public ANYWAYS. Frankly, I think it would be more of a stigma to have all these accusations out there and never face trial, than to publicly have the state unable to prove its case in a fair trial.

    And as an aside, there is no such thing as a verdict of "innocent," only a verdict of "not guilty."

  21. Re:You have to understand the process... on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    but assuming the majority of people are open minded is a laugh, in any country especially the United States!!! The land of freedom fries??? The home of FOX??

    You seem have a strange definition of "open-minded," which apparently enatails reaching certain conclusions...do you not recognize the fallacy here?

  22. Re:You have to understand the process... on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    Grand Juries are secret

    Yes and no. For federal grand juries, at least, the lawyers and the jurors are sworn to secrecy. The witnesses, however, are not, and may reveal both the questions they were asked and the answers they gave.

    http://www.abanet.org/media/faqjury.html

    Why can a grand jury witness talk about his or her testimony?

    In the federal courts, the witness is not sworn to secrecy, and may disclose whatever he or she wishes to whomever he or she wishes. The witness exemption was adopted in part because it was thought that requiring witness secrecy was unrealistic and unenforceable, and in part to allow the witness to rebut rumors concerning his or her testimony. There is a basic revulsion in the United States about secret testimony.

  23. Re:Never thought... on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    oh shutup!

    There seems to be a lot of this going around lately...

  24. Re:Oh, no, the sky has fallen, boo frickin' hoo! on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1
    but the person on trial has just potentialy had their life ruined

    What?!? Unless something has radically changed in criminal procedure, the result of a mistrial is acquittal (without jeopardy attaching). So if you are a defendant, you want to do everything possible to prevent you from getting a fair trial. Because if a fair trial can't be provided, you win.

  25. Re:At least an American did it in the US on U.S. Blogger Breaches Canadian Publication Ban · · Score: 1

    Your post make no sense. You invent an implausible hypothetical scenario that is self-contradictory (extradition for violating a ban which can't exist?) in order to rationalize an actual scenario.