I think there are a lot of us who had a pretty low opinion of the RIAA, well before Mr. Beckerman started posting. That being said, his blog was very enlightening, and if anything showed us how the law worked - or didn't.
The courts should look favorably on any lawyer who helps lay people understand the legal processes. Mr. Beckerman has never had to explain to any of us that the RIAA were/are/continue to be... uhmm.. what did the other person call them..... fuckwits?! We knew that from the start, without any input from Mr. Beckerman; one of those self-evident truths.
"Had the Conservatives been governing under a majority government, this bill would have passed long ago (plus we'd be even more involved militarily). Let's hope the situation stays identical for a long time."
I agree, but hoping is just wishful thinking - right?:)
Why not make it happen. Contribute $100 to your favourite non-conservative party (it only costs you $25 as there is a $75 tax credit) and write to them to tell them why you are doing it. Dion for instance has agreed to hold public consultation.
"It's not so much the number of cells you'd need to power the oven, that's important. It's whether or not one oven load of cells could produce more energy over the entire lifetime of the cells than the energy it took to bake them."
Actually, pizza ovens are generally left on even when not baking pizza, as the oven must be at a certain temperature to bake. So if you really can bake these in a pizza oven (ie. it doesn't contaminate pizza) you aren't losing any energy in the baking process and it is a net gain.
I used to be able to program in COBOL (along with Fortran, APL, PL1, RPG and a number of other now obscure languages) and COBOL's claim to fame was "self-documentation". Only problem is of course is that it is as wordy as hell and a pain to program. Fixing, especially something as commonplace as a payroll program wouldn't be that difficult (if you can program you should be able to generally figure it out), but there are issues that perhaps Slashdotters aren't aware of like:
- you may have to make major modifications in order to deal with deductions for unemployment or social security taxes as the calculation may have been based on them earning a like amount (or higher) throughout the year
- pay scales may by job classification (ie. programmer level 1) so could be hard coded, but I have my doubts
- most important of all, making the changes to all wages for all employees could be a massive input project requiring programming, which might take longer than the pay period (ie. you have 2 weeks till the next pay and can't complete it
I'm not saying the state controller is right, but there are reasons why this response may not be complete BS (just partial BS eg. shouldn't take 6 months)
"Why was the above post moderated "Interesting"? I don't understand. Did its author RTFA? Here was my "comment on the merit of this request", within the constraint of a 3-page page limi"
And it is even dated the 4th of July:)
Now I'd have expected more of Mr. Reynolds as an officer of the court.
Do you ever wonder what type of fee structure is in place, or what client pressure must Mr. Reynolds be feeling to act in what I'd consider to be a completely unprofessional manner. OR is it perhaps just a lack of experience. Really, I am puzzled by the RIAA legal team.
I received almost exactly the same letter from the Minister Prentice's office. I'd never heard of David Sweet before, but I could sure as hell tell he was a Conservative. You think its tightly scripted? I'd bitch like hell if he was my MP that I want action, not more pablum fed from Minister Prentice's office.
To add insult to injury, this IS regulated by the CRTC, inasmuch as it is the last mile. I asked about the last mile and all I get back is "CRTC doesn't regulate internet, we are not responsible bullshit". They sure as hell regulate the phone and cable lines into my home and THAT is what is being traffic shaped.
No offense, but with this letter MP Sweet barely makes it to the level of Conservative flunky
What motherboard manufacturer is going to go for this when enthusiasts and hackers will reject it out of the gate for having this chip on board, not to mention the fact that adding this chip adds to the price of the motherboard, thereby increasing the selling price versus the competitors (don't have the chip) motherboard?
Of all the idiocy. The only way this is going to happen is if it is legislated, and that will take so long that it will become a non-event in the technology world by the time the US (I know who will lead that foolish charge) gets around to it.
Nope - this isn't happening.
Thank you for that clarification, and while that makes sense, I have understood that US Customs could basically hold you as long as they want (I'm sure that isn't completely true), no habeus corpus, etc. My own personal experience is that even looking sideways at a US customs officer was a mistake.
You've obviously never flown into Canada. Their customs agents are distinguishable from US customs agents only by the maple leaf on their uniforms.
Actually, there is a difference. US Customs have far more power and US law says that you aren't subject to the Constitution etc until they clear you. You have NO rights and they are ALL powerful.
In Canada however you are immediately subject to the Charter or Rights and Freedoms and I've used it. I've told them I wasn't answering any more of their stupid questions and while they were welcome to search me (and they did, and officer doing the search realized his subordinate was an idiot) I was leaving as I'd had enough. My mobility rights in the Charter were being interfered with otherwise. In fairness though I'm a Canadian citizen, know my rights and I'm not afraid to tell them where to get off.
I'm not so sure that internet usage isn't a civil right, actually.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lists freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of "thought belief and expression" as a fundamental freedoms in Section 2.
Withdrawal of internet services would severely inhibit a number of fundamental freedoms and I'm not sure it would withstand a court challenge.
and the sooner they pay back the differential between the monopolistic prices they received to subsidize their phone infrastructure for 100 years, and competitive prices, the better.
Those funds can be used to subsidize third party "last mile" networks, if Bell Canada is so suddenly keen on bringing competition to the market! And while we are at it, the cable carriers can do the same thing (albiet for a shorter time period). Lets see how they like it when there is more than a duopoly involved in the "last mile"
It is interesting to hear from someone who is actually in his riding. I'm VERY surprised that even you are receiving these form letters.
Hopefully you'll have a chance to remind him and your neighbors, in the next election, how poorly he has responded to the concerns of his constituency (not to mention thousands of others across the country).
I got that letter, called Rogers, canceled my internet AND my cable (frankly I don't get enough use from cable anyway) and let them know it was because of their policies. Even though I am WAY below their threshold for extra charges, they are traffic shaping, aren't transparent about traffic shaping, and this was just a slap in the face.
I'll be moving to Tek Savvy or Wireless Nomad and move my money to those who will be supporting net neutrality.
Actually I filed a complaint about Rogers with the Competition Bureau for misleading advertising, and while they were very polite and actually did get back, they said that due to the lack complaints (this was a few months back)and their limited resources, they would not be taking it on at that time.
Funny you refer to the Liberals as "spend-spend-spend". They were the ones who brought in balanced budgets for many years (although much credit should go to the PCs for setting the groundwork and taxation (and biting the bullet) on this initially) and the Conservatives have done some of the dumbest things with our money I've seen, for political optics.
Reducing the GST instead of reducing income taxes (everywhere else in the world it is recognized this is a poor move for the economy)is perhaps the dumbest move of all. If anything they should have increased GST and decreased income taxes even further.
What can I say; the Conservative Party make no sense whatsoever. They are just pandering to the lowest common denominator, and I'll vote Liberal or Green (as they are fiscally conservative, or have been) long before I'll support the Conservatives.
Yes, the situation is the same here, except that they are doing traffic shaping on the last mile. Last mile however goes a little further than you state because while the wholesale ISP has infrastructure at a Bell Canada exchange, traffic has to go through copper wires, then through Bell servers to the exchange where the wholesale equipment is located (even if it happens to be at the same exchange, as data off lines is aggregated at a Bell server somewhere).
We can purchase DSL from other ISPs, but they rely on Bell Canada for this last mile, and Bell Canada has taken it upon themselves to traffic shape EVERYTHING. I'd argue that this is primarily to ensure that their own "Sympatico ISP" doesn't suffer a massive loss of customers when people abandon them for third party ISPs, due to traffic shaping restrictions.
Actually, in my business life, I'm part of "big/medium business". My business interests generally align with my personal interests. So far I've seen little evidence that Mr. Prentice has taken my comments seriously, either from a business or a personal perspective, so I wouldn't say it is because he is all for big business.
While I was formerly an active PC member, I have no interest in this Conservative Party. They aren't making friends even in places they should be.
... I already wrote to Prentice (prentice.J@parl.gc.ca) to point out that leaving consumers to face a "last mile" duopoly (Rogers and Bell in my case) is insane. If there were competition on the last mile I wouldn't be nearly as upset.
I'd invite any other Canadian "consumers" who have traffic shaping on their "last mile", to do the same!
The treaty is based on the model treaty of the Organization for Economic Development ("OECD"). Article 7 of OECD treaties says there is no withholding tax on sales, while Article 12 says that there may be up to a 15% withholding tax on royalties.
As much as I might like to say "ha ha, its MS", there is a real question here. Does the customer buy the package software, or the license to use the software?
This issue won't work in India's favour. They may collect more tax but Indian business will be hurt as we would charge extra if there is withholding tax. Also, Indian companies can expect the same treatment when selling their software to other countries, as well.
Why don't all the Creative owners with defective drivers just launch a class action lawsuit? From what I've read it seems that their product doesn't function as they advertised it would - and they knew it wouldn't. In fact I'd think there would be a few Attorneys General interested too?
I didn't think that the Attorney General for the State of Oregon used those words to describe Media Sentry's business (although I stand to be corrected), although they undoubtedly used them quite accurately in describing Media Sentry's conduct.
Is your question is rhetorical or sarcastic; I seriously didn't know how to take it. In answer however, yes I believe that any of the Attorney's General in the US are very capable of making over the top statements. Don't you?:)
I have to say that I loved (though I thought it might be just a "bit" over the top) the description of Media Sentry's business. "Defendant MediaSentry is in the business of conducting illegal, flawed and personally invasive private investigations of private citizens in many states throughout the United State..."
Congratulations to the team that put this together. A wonderful document that I'm sure will keep the judge's interest!!
Now I'm wondering what the settlement might entail, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for middle ground. I think someone has a tiger by the tail:)
"The US government recently had a Canadian arrested on Canadian soil for selling marijuana seeds on the internet (something that's not illegal in Canada). At no time did this person set foot on American soil, nor did he ever break Canadian law."
Sorry, but you are incorrect. It is against the law in Canada, but it just isn't prosecuted. This is why the Americans can extradite. They can't extradite for a crime if it isn't illegal in Canada.
Slashdot Mirror
I think there are a lot of us who had a pretty low opinion of the RIAA, well before Mr. Beckerman started posting. That being said, his blog was very enlightening, and if anything showed us how the law worked - or didn't.
The courts should look favorably on any lawyer who helps lay people understand the legal processes. Mr. Beckerman has never had to explain to any of us that the RIAA were/are/continue to be ... uhmm .. what did the other person call them..... fuckwits?! We knew that from the start, without any input from Mr. Beckerman; one of those self-evident truths.
"Had the Conservatives been governing under a majority government, this bill would have passed long ago (plus we'd be even more involved militarily). Let's hope the situation stays identical for a long time."
I agree, but hoping is just wishful thinking - right? :)
Why not make it happen. Contribute $100 to your favourite non-conservative party (it only costs you $25 as there is a $75 tax credit) and write to them to tell them why you are doing it. Dion for instance has agreed to hold public consultation.
"It's not so much the number of cells you'd need to power the oven, that's important. It's whether or not one oven load of cells could produce more energy over the entire lifetime of the cells than the energy it took to bake them."
Actually, pizza ovens are generally left on even when not baking pizza, as the oven must be at a certain temperature to bake. So if you really can bake these in a pizza oven (ie. it doesn't contaminate pizza) you aren't losing any energy in the baking process and it is a net gain.
I used to be able to program in COBOL (along with Fortran, APL, PL1, RPG and a number of other now obscure languages) and COBOL's claim to fame was "self-documentation". Only problem is of course is that it is as wordy as hell and a pain to program. Fixing, especially something as commonplace as a payroll program wouldn't be that difficult (if you can program you should be able to generally figure it out), but there are issues that perhaps Slashdotters aren't aware of like:
- you may have to make major modifications in order to deal with deductions for unemployment or social security taxes as the calculation may have been based on them earning a like amount (or higher) throughout the year
- pay scales may by job classification (ie. programmer level 1) so could be hard coded, but I have my doubts
- most important of all, making the changes to all wages for all employees could be a massive input project requiring programming, which might take longer than the pay period (ie. you have 2 weeks till the next pay and can't complete it
I'm not saying the state controller is right, but there are reasons why this response may not be complete BS (just partial BS eg. shouldn't take 6 months)
"Why was the above post moderated "Interesting"? I don't understand. Did its author RTFA? Here was my "comment on the merit of this request", within the constraint of a 3-page page limi"
You must be new here ;)
(couldn't resist)
And it is even dated the 4th of July :)
Now I'd have expected more of Mr. Reynolds as an officer of the court.
Do you ever wonder what type of fee structure is in place, or what client pressure must Mr. Reynolds be feeling to act in what I'd consider to be a completely unprofessional manner. OR is it perhaps just a lack of experience. Really, I am puzzled by the RIAA legal team.
I received almost exactly the same letter from the Minister Prentice's office. I'd never heard of David Sweet before, but I could sure as hell tell he was a Conservative. You think its tightly scripted? I'd bitch like hell if he was my MP that I want action, not more pablum fed from Minister Prentice's office.
To add insult to injury, this IS regulated by the CRTC, inasmuch as it is the last mile. I asked about the last mile and all I get back is "CRTC doesn't regulate internet, we are not responsible bullshit". They sure as hell regulate the phone and cable lines into my home and THAT is what is being traffic shaped.
No offense, but with this letter MP Sweet barely makes it to the level of Conservative flunky
What motherboard manufacturer is going to go for this when enthusiasts and hackers will reject it out of the gate for having this chip on board, not to mention the fact that adding this chip adds to the price of the motherboard, thereby increasing the selling price versus the competitors (don't have the chip) motherboard? Of all the idiocy. The only way this is going to happen is if it is legislated, and that will take so long that it will become a non-event in the technology world by the time the US (I know who will lead that foolish charge) gets around to it. Nope - this isn't happening.
Thank you for that clarification, and while that makes sense, I have understood that US Customs could basically hold you as long as they want (I'm sure that isn't completely true), no habeus corpus, etc. My own personal experience is that even looking sideways at a US customs officer was a mistake.
Actually, there is a difference. US Customs have far more power and US law says that you aren't subject to the Constitution etc until they clear you. You have NO rights and they are ALL powerful.
In Canada however you are immediately subject to the Charter or Rights and Freedoms and I've used it. I've told them I wasn't answering any more of their stupid questions and while they were welcome to search me (and they did, and officer doing the search realized his subordinate was an idiot) I was leaving as I'd had enough. My mobility rights in the Charter were being interfered with otherwise. In fairness though I'm a Canadian citizen, know my rights and I'm not afraid to tell them where to get off.
I'm not so sure that internet usage isn't a civil right, actually.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lists freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of "thought belief and expression" as a fundamental freedoms in Section 2.
Withdrawal of internet services would severely inhibit a number of fundamental freedoms and I'm not sure it would withstand a court challenge.
and the sooner they pay back the differential between the monopolistic prices they received to subsidize their phone infrastructure for 100 years, and competitive prices, the better.
Those funds can be used to subsidize third party "last mile" networks, if Bell Canada is so suddenly keen on bringing competition to the market! And while we are at it, the cable carriers can do the same thing (albiet for a shorter time period). Lets see how they like it when there is more than a duopoly involved in the "last mile"
It is interesting to hear from someone who is actually in his riding. I'm VERY surprised that even you are receiving these form letters.
Hopefully you'll have a chance to remind him and your neighbors, in the next election, how poorly he has responded to the concerns of his constituency (not to mention thousands of others across the country).
You missed the point. He said:
"Why should my Hentai torrents be faulted when I am merely using what I paid for?" [Emphasis Added}
Why shouldn't you GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR?!
I got that letter, called Rogers, canceled my internet AND my cable (frankly I don't get enough use from cable anyway) and let them know it was because of their policies. Even though I am WAY below their threshold for extra charges, they are traffic shaping, aren't transparent about traffic shaping, and this was just a slap in the face.
I'll be moving to Tek Savvy or Wireless Nomad and move my money to those who will be supporting net neutrality.
Actually I filed a complaint about Rogers with the Competition Bureau for misleading advertising, and while they were very polite and actually did get back, they said that due to the lack complaints (this was a few months back)and their limited resources, they would not be taking it on at that time.
Funny you refer to the Liberals as "spend-spend-spend". They were the ones who brought in balanced budgets for many years (although much credit should go to the PCs for setting the groundwork and taxation (and biting the bullet) on this initially) and the Conservatives have done some of the dumbest things with our money I've seen, for political optics.
Reducing the GST instead of reducing income taxes (everywhere else in the world it is recognized this is a poor move for the economy)is perhaps the dumbest move of all. If anything they should have increased GST and decreased income taxes even further.
What can I say; the Conservative Party make no sense whatsoever. They are just pandering to the lowest common denominator, and I'll vote Liberal or Green (as they are fiscally conservative, or have been) long before I'll support the Conservatives.
Yes, the situation is the same here, except that they are doing traffic shaping on the last mile. Last mile however goes a little further than you state because while the wholesale ISP has infrastructure at a Bell Canada exchange, traffic has to go through copper wires, then through Bell servers to the exchange where the wholesale equipment is located (even if it happens to be at the same exchange, as data off lines is aggregated at a Bell server somewhere).
We can purchase DSL from other ISPs, but they rely on Bell Canada for this last mile, and Bell Canada has taken it upon themselves to traffic shape EVERYTHING. I'd argue that this is primarily to ensure that their own "Sympatico ISP" doesn't suffer a massive loss of customers when people abandon them for third party ISPs, due to traffic shaping restrictions.
Actually, in my business life, I'm part of "big/medium business". My business interests generally align with my personal interests. So far I've seen little evidence that Mr. Prentice has taken my comments seriously, either from a business or a personal perspective, so I wouldn't say it is because he is all for big business.
While I was formerly an active PC member, I have no interest in this Conservative Party. They aren't making friends even in places they should be.
... I already wrote to Prentice (prentice.J@parl.gc.ca) to point out that leaving consumers to face a "last mile" duopoly (Rogers and Bell in my case) is insane. If there were competition on the last mile I wouldn't be nearly as upset.
I'd invite any other Canadian "consumers" who have traffic shaping on their "last mile", to do the same!
The treaty is based on the model treaty of the Organization for Economic Development ("OECD"). Article 7 of OECD treaties says there is no withholding tax on sales, while Article 12 says that there may be up to a 15% withholding tax on royalties.
As much as I might like to say "ha ha, its MS", there is a real question here. Does the customer buy the package software, or the license to use the software?
This issue won't work in India's favour. They may collect more tax but Indian business will be hurt as we would charge extra if there is withholding tax. Also, Indian companies can expect the same treatment when selling their software to other countries, as well.
Treaties are a two way street.
Why don't all the Creative owners with defective drivers just launch a class action lawsuit? From what I've read it seems that their product doesn't function as they advertised it would - and they knew it wouldn't. In fact I'd think there would be a few Attorneys General interested too?
I didn't think that the Attorney General for the State of Oregon used those words to describe Media Sentry's business (although I stand to be corrected), although they undoubtedly used them quite accurately in describing Media Sentry's conduct.
:)
Is your question is rhetorical or sarcastic; I seriously didn't know how to take it. In answer however, yes I believe that any of the Attorney's General in the US are very capable of making over the top statements. Don't you?
I have to say that I loved (though I thought it might be just a "bit" over the top) the description of Media Sentry's business. "Defendant MediaSentry is in the business of conducting illegal, flawed and personally invasive private investigations of private citizens in many states throughout the United State ..."
Congratulations to the team that put this together. A wonderful document that I'm sure will keep the judge's interest!!
Now I'm wondering what the settlement might entail, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for middle ground. I think someone has a tiger by the tail :)
"The US government recently had a Canadian arrested on Canadian soil for selling marijuana seeds on the internet (something that's not illegal in Canada). At no time did this person set foot on American soil, nor did he ever break Canadian law."
Sorry, but you are incorrect. It is against the law in Canada, but it just isn't prosecuted. This is why the Americans can extradite. They can't extradite for a crime if it isn't illegal in Canada.