I could see a jury being persuaded to ignore the law, though. Given a random set of 12 people, how many of them do you think have engaged in file sharing themselves?
Jury nullification is unlikely to work. Prosecutors and many judges dismiss potential jurors who believe in jury nullification. Judges even instruct jurors that they are required to decide the facts, was a law broken, and not to judge the law. In 1895 the US Supreme Court case Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51, 102 the justices rejected jury nullification.
If he can prove that electronic distribution of copyrighted works is covered under Fair Use, then it makes a strong case that Fair Use has overstepped its intended bounds.
Or it can go the other way and show copyright terms are overly broad and too long. I hope this is how it goes but I don't entertain it as a likely outcome.
Cutting the cost of seeing a movie from a few bucks (or a couple days with something like Netflix) to download it would, I suspect, become the death knell for most theaters.
For some downloads may be a death knell but not to all. I love going to the theatre. Because even a big screen TV doesn't match a theatre screen and because I get away for a little bit. And not everyone could afford one of those TVs. Even a 42" TV can cost more than a $1000, I know because I've been looking at them.
This would set an ugly precedent...electroncally shared media would be 'Fair Use'. While the media industry is in major need of reform, I don't feel we should be able to have anything we want for free. It does cost someone money to produce this stuff, after all.
Ah but P2P does have fair uses, not everything shared is copyright infringement.
It doesn't sound like Rackable is paying much for SGI's assets; but, they are picking up SGI's considerable debt, several hundred million dollars, in the deal.
No, Rackable isn't picking up all of SGI's debt. TFA says Rackable is assuming certain liabilities relating to the assets.
The Apple switch to Intel was more about logistics than anything else. Apple realized that they were constantly at the mercy of their CPU supplier (IBM, Motorola) for a custom chip.
This may be part of the reason for the Intel switch. But another reason was that IBM and Freescale didn't have a low power G5 processor for laptops. I waited for more than a year after the G5 came out for one to be put into a laptop. Apple couldn't get one to run cool enough. As it is after the switch many people complained the MacBook/MacBook Pro ran too hot. There were a lot of comments about how you could cook food on one.
If you have read the original Slashdot story about that bridge, there were a couple of comments from the locals (who aren't MS employees) who admitted that the bridge would indeed be very helpful to them (not the least because it would divert a lot of traffic, removing the congestions elsewhere).
Question, if Microsoft wasn't there would traffic be bad? If it wouldn't be then MS gets a break on property tax.
Setting free those who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses then many will become tax paying employees...
Um, and these jobs are coming from where?
Legally selling drugs for one thing. People could, and did, farm hemp aka marijuana. During World War II the US government made the movie "Hemp for Victory" to encourage farmers to grow it. Hemp was grown and or used by many of the USA's Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson was a big supporter of hemp, at one point he even said farmers should be required to grow it. Of course he never did propose such a law because he knew it would deny farmers the right to grow what they wanted. TJ made even have written the "Declaration of Independence" on hemp. An MIT study concluded an acre of hemp could produce as much paper as 3 acres of forest. Henry Ford designed and built a car that used hemp for parts such as the dash. It was also fueled with hemp, he made alcohol from hemp. One of the fuels the designer of the diesel engine, Rudolph Diesel, used to power it was hemp oil. Hemp can also be used as a feedstock for plastic, bioplastic. Actually originally plastics, such as cellophane was made from plants. It wasn't until DuPont received a patent for making plastics from petroleum before petrol was used for this.
Have you tried to find a job with a felony conviction on your record lately? We've got people with Masters degrees slinging coffee at Starbucks, and I don't mean just the MFAs.
That's because drugs are illegal. If drugs hadn't been illegal they never would have been convicted of a crime.
The sort of jobs these people could hold no longer exist in our economy.
Sure there are. People with all sorts of jobs and at all levels of education, including those with PhDs use, or would use if legal, drugs. Before hemp was made illegal via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 when congress was debating the act Dr James Woodward, who was a lawyer as well as a doctor, testified before congress for the AMA that hemp was a medically useful plant. He said the AMA didn't find out what drug was being made illegal until just before the congressional debate, otherwise the they would have spoken out in support of hemp earlier.
But don't think that closing the War on Drugs is going to be the end of the problem.
Legalized drugs will end some of the problems we have now, unfortunately like legal alcohol there will be other problems. Those problems can be dealt with the same way alcohol problems are dealt with. Even though marijuana is legal in the Netherlands they have a lower rate of it's use than the US does. If legal it could be taxed, then if someone addicted to it wanted therapy for the addiction they could go and ask for it. The tax would pay for it.
What you're forgetting, however, is that the people who control the media and upper echelons of government are not the recipients of this new money. They are the recipients of drug trade money.
It's not just media, government, and the others you mention that would be against drug legalization. Those gangs and organized crime syndicates that profit from illegal drugs would be against it as well. Legal drugs would mean almost anyone could get into the act, of making and or selling drugs. And at lower prices. Take hemp, er marijuana, it is real easy to grow. While the THC content wouldn't be as high as professionally grown marijuana many people could still grow it with higher THC levels.
FX!32 didn't work all that well. I bought the PC because all the reviews I read said it worked real good. But the only commercial app I was able to install with FX!32 was Borland C++ Powerbuilder. Luckily I bought a laptop I could install all the software I bought on as well, well not all because it didn't have enough RAM. What I found ironic was that I couldn't install a lot of the software I did buy I was able to install some open source and shareware programs.
I even called customer support for the software after trying to install the software but in every case I was told they didn't support the software on Alpha PCs. Searching the net the only suggestion I found was to update FX!32. Which I did but it didn't help. I then found one webpage that said it only worked with 32 bit software but some of my software was only 16 bit. Still, the 32 bit software I bought should have worked.
However even running software in emulation the software I was able to install did run a good deal faster than it ran on my laptop.
One of the most sensible British judges, Pickles J, once commented in dismissing a case that there are many things that people do which are annoying, stupid etc., but so long as they do no harm to other people the law should never get involved.
The US had a similar judge, Judge Learned Hand. He once said a person has the right to punch someone else but that right ends where the other person's nose begins.
On the internet. (Yes, Myspace is part of the internet, unfortunately.) It may as well have been the whole world. She needs a lesson in keeping shit off the internet IMO, not a threat of kiddie porn charges.
As long as she knows what's she's doing why should anyone tell her she can't? It's not like she's going out robbing or shooting people and photographing that for release.
When I was a child and growing up, seems like everybody had pictures of the kids in the tub or whatever, and it was fairly common to see a neighbor's 2-year-old running around naked. There was absolutely nothing sexual about it and nobody even thought twice about it.
Not only did we run around naked when I was growing up but we also played Doctor. Even today, and I'm middle aged, I don't have a problem with naturalism.
I think the real perverts are the people who have turned this into something naughty and sick.
Its like explaining to a narcotics officer the problems with prohibition. He will tell you about the dangers of drugs, the way they have no quality control, the dangerous ways they are produced, house fires, stuff thats too pure killing people, stuff thats adulturated killing people....
Yet never once can you expect acknowledgement that if it was legal and regulated, then phizer, phillip morris, and glaxco-smith-kline would produce standard product, at known purity, at reasonable prices.... and solve ALL of those problems, leaving behind the medical issue of addiction, thats really one for the doctors.
CNN has been going on about the War on Drugs and what's happening along the Texas border with Mexico. Every tyme I see something about it I think it wouldn't be a problem if drugs were not made illegal. Legalizing drugs would cut down on crime. And practically empty the prisons in the US, the US has the largest prison population in the world and half of the prisoners are there for drug offenses. Setting free those who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses then many will become tax paying employees and would help with the budget deficit. As would taxing drugs.
Slashdot Mirror
we're at a point where computational power is considered to be sufficient or in excess for normal, non-power users
Saying that is like saying "Nobody will ever need more than 640 kB RAM". In 2 years software will require more power.
Falcon
I could see a jury being persuaded to ignore the law, though. Given a random set of 12 people, how many of them do you think have engaged in file sharing themselves?
Jury nullification is unlikely to work. Prosecutors and many judges dismiss potential jurors who believe in jury nullification. Judges even instruct jurors that they are required to decide the facts, was a law broken, and not to judge the law. In 1895 the US Supreme Court case Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51, 102 the justices rejected jury nullification.
Falcon
If he can prove that electronic distribution of copyrighted works is covered under Fair Use, then it makes a strong case that Fair Use has overstepped its intended bounds.
Or it can go the other way and show copyright terms are overly broad and too long. I hope this is how it goes but I don't entertain it as a likely outcome.
Falcon
Cutting the cost of seeing a movie from a few bucks (or a couple days with something like Netflix) to download it would, I suspect, become the death knell for most theaters.
For some downloads may be a death knell but not to all. I love going to the theatre. Because even a big screen TV doesn't match a theatre screen and because I get away for a little bit. And not everyone could afford one of those TVs. Even a 42" TV can cost more than a $1000, I know because I've been looking at them.
Falcon
This would set an ugly precedent...electroncally shared media would be 'Fair Use'. While the media industry is in major need of reform, I don't feel we should be able to have anything we want for free. It does cost someone money to produce this stuff, after all.
Ah but P2P does have fair uses, not everything shared is copyright infringement.
Falcon
It doesn't sound like Rackable is paying much for SGI's assets; but, they are picking up SGI's considerable debt, several hundred million dollars, in the deal.
No, Rackable isn't picking up all of SGI's debt. TFA says Rackable is assuming certain liabilities relating to the assets.
Falcon
Neither did I but Kodak does have patents on some technology in Sun's Java.
Falcon
The Apple switch to Intel was more about logistics than anything else. Apple realized that they were constantly at the mercy of their CPU supplier (IBM, Motorola) for a custom chip.
This may be part of the reason for the Intel switch. But another reason was that IBM and Freescale didn't have a low power G5 processor for laptops. I waited for more than a year after the G5 came out for one to be put into a laptop. Apple couldn't get one to run cool enough. As it is after the switch many people complained the MacBook/MacBook Pro ran too hot. There were a lot of comments about how you could cook food on one.
Falcon
It probably wouldn't, but presumably they're paying all the local taxes that should cover this use of public resources already.
Ah, their taxes aren't high enough then. Property and fuel taxes should be high enough to pay for infrastructure.
Falcon
If you have read the original Slashdot story about that bridge, there were a couple of comments from the locals (who aren't MS employees) who admitted that the bridge would indeed be very helpful to them (not the least because it would divert a lot of traffic, removing the congestions elsewhere).
Question, if Microsoft wasn't there would traffic be bad? If it wouldn't be then MS gets a break on property tax.
Falcon
There's a huge difference between naturalism and naturism.
Yea there's a difference, one has an "l" and the other does not.
Falcon
this is
I didn't say how common it was, or that it was common. I only said it happens.
Falcon
Oh, there it is. So, we can reduce the number of murderers in prison by making murder no longer illegal.
Yeap, the above certainly is a straw man.
Falcon
Setting free those who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses then many will become tax paying employees...
Um, and these jobs are coming from where?
Legally selling drugs for one thing. People could, and did, farm hemp aka marijuana. During World War II the US government made the movie "Hemp for Victory" to encourage farmers to grow it. Hemp was grown and or used by many of the USA's Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson was a big supporter of hemp, at one point he even said farmers should be required to grow it. Of course he never did propose such a law because he knew it would deny farmers the right to grow what they wanted. TJ made even have written the "Declaration of Independence" on hemp. An MIT study concluded an acre of hemp could produce as much paper as 3 acres of forest. Henry Ford designed and built a car that used hemp for parts such as the dash. It was also fueled with hemp, he made alcohol from hemp. One of the fuels the designer of the diesel engine, Rudolph Diesel, used to power it was hemp oil. Hemp can also be used as a feedstock for plastic, bioplastic. Actually originally plastics, such as cellophane was made from plants. It wasn't until DuPont received a patent for making plastics from petroleum before petrol was used for this.
Have you tried to find a job with a felony conviction on your record lately? We've got people with Masters degrees slinging coffee at Starbucks, and I don't mean just the MFAs.
That's because drugs are illegal. If drugs hadn't been illegal they never would have been convicted of a crime.
The sort of jobs these people could hold no longer exist in our economy.
Sure there are. People with all sorts of jobs and at all levels of education, including those with PhDs use, or would use if legal, drugs. Before hemp was made illegal via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 when congress was debating the act Dr James Woodward, who was a lawyer as well as a doctor, testified before congress for the AMA that hemp was a medically useful plant. He said the AMA didn't find out what drug was being made illegal until just before the congressional debate, otherwise the they would have spoken out in support of hemp earlier.
But don't think that closing the War on Drugs is going to be the end of the problem.
Legalized drugs will end some of the problems we have now, unfortunately like legal alcohol there will be other problems. Those problems can be dealt with the same way alcohol problems are dealt with. Even though marijuana is legal in the Netherlands they have a lower rate of it's use than the US does. If legal it could be taxed, then if someone addicted to it wanted therapy for the addiction they could go and ask for it. The tax would pay for it.
Falcon
What you're forgetting, however, is that the people who control the media and upper echelons of government are not the recipients of this new money. They are the recipients of drug trade money.
It's not just media, government, and the others you mention that would be against drug legalization. Those gangs and organized crime syndicates that profit from illegal drugs would be against it as well. Legal drugs would mean almost anyone could get into the act, of making and or selling drugs. And at lower prices. Take hemp, er marijuana, it is real easy to grow. While the THC content wouldn't be as high as professionally grown marijuana many people could still grow it with higher THC levels.
Falcon
FX!32 didn't work all that well. I bought the PC because all the reviews I read said it worked real good. But the only commercial app I was able to install with FX!32 was Borland C++ Powerbuilder. Luckily I bought a laptop I could install all the software I bought on as well, well not all because it didn't have enough RAM. What I found ironic was that I couldn't install a lot of the software I did buy I was able to install some open source and shareware programs.
I even called customer support for the software after trying to install the software but in every case I was told they didn't support the software on Alpha PCs. Searching the net the only suggestion I found was to update FX!32. Which I did but it didn't help. I then found one webpage that said it only worked with 32 bit software but some of my software was only 16 bit. Still, the 32 bit software I bought should have worked.
However even running software in emulation the software I was able to install did run a good deal faster than it ran on my laptop.
Falcon
And whose fault is it that the project was cancelled?
Government!
I provided a link to back up my position which you then denigrate without providing anything to back up your position.
Falcon
One of the most sensible British judges, Pickles J, once commented in dismissing a case that there are many things that people do which are annoying, stupid etc., but so long as they do no harm to other people the law should never get involved.
The US had a similar judge, Judge Learned Hand. He once said a person has the right to punch someone else but that right ends where the other person's nose begins.
Falcon
Should the government really just be completely hands free in this?
Not just yes but Hell Yes! This girl did not go out and rob or shoot someone or cause any other harm to someone else.
Falcon
.. what IS the best way to do it? Especially from the position of a district attorney or other government law enforcement agent.
The best thing to do is to do nothing. The girl willingly photographed herself. If her parents have a problem with it them they can talk to her.
Falcon
Because their lifestyle is based on something (child porn) that harms other human beings during production?
Who is harmed? The one taking the photos of themselves?
Falcon
On the internet. (Yes, Myspace is part of the internet, unfortunately.) It may as well have been the whole world. She needs a lesson in keeping shit off the internet IMO, not a threat of kiddie porn charges.
As long as she knows what's she's doing why should anyone tell her she can't? It's not like she's going out robbing or shooting people and photographing that for release.
Falcon
They called the police and what? Your story stops dead there, and I bet I can guess why.
The person was arrested and had to hire a lawyer.
See these:
Falcon
When I was a child and growing up, seems like everybody had pictures of the kids in the tub or whatever, and it was fairly common to see a neighbor's 2-year-old running around naked. There was absolutely nothing sexual about it and nobody even thought twice about it.
Not only did we run around naked when I was growing up but we also played Doctor. Even today, and I'm middle aged, I don't have a problem with naturalism.
I think the real perverts are the people who have turned this into something naughty and sick.
You hit the nail right on the head.
Falcon
Its like explaining to a narcotics officer the problems with prohibition. He will tell you about the dangers of drugs, the way they have no quality control, the dangerous ways they are produced, house fires, stuff thats too pure killing people, stuff thats adulturated killing people....
I saw something in the news earlier on this, the tide may be turning: "New York to ease its landmark tough drug laws".
Yet never once can you expect acknowledgement that if it was legal and regulated, then phizer, phillip morris, and glaxco-smith-kline would produce standard product, at known purity, at reasonable prices.... and solve ALL of those problems, leaving behind the medical issue of addiction, thats really one for the doctors.
CNN has been going on about the War on Drugs and what's happening along the Texas border with Mexico. Every tyme I see something about it I think it wouldn't be a problem if drugs were not made illegal. Legalizing drugs would cut down on crime. And practically empty the prisons in the US, the US has the largest prison population in the world and half of the prisoners are there for drug offenses. Setting free those who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses then many will become tax paying employees and would help with the budget deficit. As would taxing drugs.
Falcon