I agree with NewYorkCounty lawyer's comments above when he thought the award was reduced to preserve the judicial record; exactly what I was thinking too. Less chance for an appeal, given the major setback in fees.
I'd be surprised if the defendant would pay anything, as her attorneys would most likely reduce their billing, to reflect the judge's decision. That, or their fees could be taxed (checked for reasonableness by a taxing court, or whatever they use in Oklahoma), and would undoubtedly be reduced to the award amount.
I'm not sure if this helps, but to add to this comment, I'd point out that what may be illegal in the US, may not be illegal in other countries. They can keep trying to say uploading and downloading is copyright infringement in Canada for instance, but downloading clearly isn't under the Copyright Act, and uploading would be copyright infringement ONLY if it is "distribution".
"The Court denied the order based in part on its opinion that file sharing did not infringe Canadian copyright laws. It held that downloading a song for personal use was not an infringement because private copying sections of the Copyright Act expressly permitted the making of such copies. Furthermore, the Court found that simply placing those copies onto shared directories, which other computer users could access through a P2P service, did not amount to authorizing infringement. There was no evidence that these individuals took any positive step to facilitate further distribution of the copies, such as sending out further copies or advertising that the files were available for copying. Relying on the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in CCH v. The Law Society of Upper Canada, the Federal Court found that merely providing facilities for copying (i.e. the shared directories) did not amount to an authorization to make infringing copies any more than providing a photocopier, which could be used to make illegal copies, was an authorization to infringe in the Law Society case."
On appeal, while the court found lower court should not have commented on the infringement issue, but that doesn't make the comments in the least inaccurate.
I'm quite sure Canada isn't the only country where file sharing is legal or where the issue hasn't been decided.
Agreed - I refuse to vote any longer as it is a complete waste of time, and I encourage others to protest by not voting, contrary to the Much/MTV Get Out the Vote Campaigns. Until there is proportional representation, boycott and tell them that their election is in no way a reflection of how a democracy should work.
The theatre owners actually don't make much from ticket sales, so their real incentive to feel you up is to check your bags for snacks (where the margins are 500%). Their nice little sign is totally non-effective. Just say "NO" to searches. At worst you'll get your money back, or an opportunity to make their life painful (and win) by taking them to small claims court for breach of contract.
Since Cineplex seems to be so stupid about these things, I think this could be fun.
Their tickets don't limit damages, and I know that a sign in the lobby is far less legally binding than even a click through EULA is.
"They can give licenses away, but its either purchased or not"
Sorry, but that isn't "quite" the case. If they are selling an upgrade coupon for inclusion with all DELL computers, they can claim that they sold Vista, but what they actually sold was XP with a VISTA upgrade coupon included.
These coupons aren't "giveaways" for accounting purposes as they were bought in combination with another product like XP so they allocate sales dollars between the two products. So while you are correct that there was a sale and a purchase, the product actually purchased by the consumer wasn't Vista, but XP.
The Lenovo Thinkpad I got in February came with XP that came with a Vista upgrade coupon. Think I bought it for Vista? Nope. Not installed and may never be installed. It came with the package. Its technically a sale, but I'm not sure it was a purchase
The truth lies in the revenue dollars generated. It is the only reliable Vista metric.
Yes, I still remember Scientologists being convicted in Canada
From an article by Glen McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2005
"Scientology is also the only religious group ever to be criminally convicted in Canada. It was found guilty on two counts of breach of the public trust related to a 1982 conspiracy to break into government offices. The criminal charges lead to a precedent-setting defamation case, known as Hill vs. Church of Scientology of Toronto, brought by a Crown prosecutor whom the church's lawyer had accused of criminal contempt. The Supreme Court in 1995 upheld the finding against the church, which became the largest libel award in Canadian history."
The solution is obvious... class action suit for not notifying consumers that their copy protection crap may render their product useless. Humph - eat it again Sony!
I'd like to convert my wife and her mother to Ubuntu, since they don't play heavy duty games like I do, and it would cut my having to support screwed up machines.
The Problem: There doesn't seem to be a good MSN with video capability that they can use, as mother-in-law is in former Yugoslavia (not to mention all their friends are on MSN)
I keep thinking of the fun that Wii could be with classic games like Sundog or Dungeonmaster, updated for the Wii. I can see it now, using the Nunchunck and Wiimote to check dungeon walls or flying the Sundog.
Now.. if someone will just update classics like these for the Wii.
As a Canadian I was ABSOLUTELY APALLED by the manner in which he was treated. After politely explaining the situation as he did, I'd have told them all to fuck off in no uncertain terms long before I got to this cutoms jerk. The routine should be... amd I under arrest.. what is the charge.. get me a lawyer... or go screw yourselves.
The questions were completely irrelevant, uncalled for, and he was under no obligation to answer such crap. I'm terribly upset at the pompous security asses and my government... god help them if its ever me... I've told customs to go take a hike before, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
"Its obvious he was obstructing Justice and to have a son on weapons charges will bring many police into the picture"
I was with you up until this line. Now mind you, I'm Canadian so things may run differently, but how is refusing to tell police what you know and/or not supplying information, without there being a court order, obstruction?
You have my curiousity piqued; where does obstruction of justice start, and an individual's rights end?
I can only hope this is causing a huge scandal s Sweden as stated by the article. Can any Swedish readers provides us a synopsis of some of the reports on tv and in the newspaper?
Actually my gut reaction to Freenet was fantastic - I don't want anyone monitoring my communications, other than the intended recipients.
I don't care to let them know what I'm reading, doing, looking at, or thinking. I don't want them to know who my friends, associates or business partners are.
Here in Canada we have the RCMP, CSIS and others. I don't worry about them in the Canadian legal context, but I do in an international legal context. There have been recent cases of the rendition of Canadians to some not so nice places, which appears to be as a result of helpful Canadian intelligence/police agencies notifying US counterparts that a traveller needed questioning because of someone they had met in passing - and off to Syria they were shipped.
Maybe it won't happen to you, but how well do you know your friends of friends of friends?
If I could browse, email, send and view files completely anonymously, I'd personally feel much safer.
Just my gut reaction, but I can appreciate yours as well.
Thank you for saying that. I'm more or less a noob, and recently tried to install Badger on my fairly new Toshiba laptop. I figured it was safe since it has an Nvidia card, and I'd tried the Live CD first - wrong!
This is not for noobs - hopefully Dapper will be.
First, the instructions with respect to paritioning, were misleading. I don't recall where exactly, but the wording certainly left me with the impression that I was going to fry my windows parition.
Second - I couldn't get root. Ohh yes, I could use Sudo (after I learned about it) but I wanted to edit the Grub menu. How to do that? Okay.. not important - I'll eventually get it figured out... then
Third - I couldn't get my Intel 2915 ABG wireless connection to work. I tried multiple things, tried reading how-tos on NDS wrapper, downloading drivers, copying drivers until.....
I gave up!
A system without connection is pretty much useless. Trying to get information by booting up Windows - then going back to Linux, was hopeless. So I hope that they polish a bit more and make it easier for us noobs.
There has been lots of history around the Enigma machine, but little surrounding the Allies use of codes?
Is that because the Allies didn't use sophisticated coding, or its still classified, or it just isn't as interesting?
I'm curious!
I tend to agree. I had/have OS/2 v4 and maybe I'll get around to adding it to Grub, but its really a legacy system at this point.
What I would like to see, is for OS/2 to be open sourced. I'm sure IBM wouldn't care, but I suspect there may be some legacy MS component lurking in the background, as it was orignally a joint MS/IBM venture.
Who knows - an open sourcing of API's could help. Even MS might benefit if they really thought about it, as its old technology and, as they view open source as a competitor, better that open source spend time on the old, rather than the new.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with NewYorkCounty lawyer's comments above when he thought the award was reduced to preserve the judicial record; exactly what I was thinking too. Less chance for an appeal, given the major setback in fees.
I'd be surprised if the defendant would pay anything, as her attorneys would most likely reduce their billing, to reflect the judge's decision. That, or their fees could be taxed (checked for reasonableness by a taxing court, or whatever they use in Oklahoma), and would undoubtedly be reduced to the award amount.
I'm not sure if this helps, but to add to this comment, I'd point out that what may be illegal in the US, may not be illegal in other countries. They can keep trying to say uploading and downloading is copyright infringement in Canada for instance, but downloading clearly isn't under the Copyright Act, and uploading would be copyright infringement ONLY if it is "distribution".
"The Court denied the order based in part on its opinion that file sharing did not infringe Canadian copyright laws. It held that downloading a song for personal use was not an infringement because private copying sections of the Copyright Act expressly permitted the making of such copies. Furthermore, the Court found that simply placing those copies onto shared directories, which other computer users could access through a P2P service, did not amount to authorizing infringement. There was no evidence that these individuals took any positive step to facilitate further distribution of the copies, such as sending out further copies or advertising that the files were available for copying. Relying on the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in CCH v. The Law Society of Upper Canada, the Federal Court found that merely providing facilities for copying (i.e. the shared directories) did not amount to an authorization to make infringing copies any more than providing a photocopier, which could be used to make illegal copies, was an authorization to infringe in the Law Society case."
On appeal, while the court found lower court should not have commented on the infringement issue, but that doesn't make the comments in the least inaccurate.
I'm quite sure Canada isn't the only country where file sharing is legal or where the issue hasn't been decided.
I wish I had mod points to mod this comment up, MechaBlue
"Democracy is dead."
Agreed - I refuse to vote any longer as it is a complete waste of time, and I encourage others to protest by not voting, contrary to the Much/MTV Get Out the Vote Campaigns. Until there is proportional representation, boycott and tell them that their election is in no way a reflection of how a democracy should work.
For those interested in a fairer system:
www.fairvotecanada.org
The theatre owners actually don't make much from ticket sales, so their real incentive to feel you up is to check your bags for snacks (where the margins are 500%). Their nice little sign is totally non-effective. Just say "NO" to searches. At worst you'll get your money back, or an opportunity to make their life painful (and win) by taking them to small claims court for breach of contract. Since Cineplex seems to be so stupid about these things, I think this could be fun. Their tickets don't limit damages, and I know that a sign in the lobby is far less legally binding than even a click through EULA is.
"They can give licenses away, but its either purchased or not"
Sorry, but that isn't "quite" the case. If they are selling an upgrade coupon for inclusion with all DELL computers, they can claim that they sold Vista, but what they actually sold was XP with a VISTA upgrade coupon included.
These coupons aren't "giveaways" for accounting purposes as they were bought in combination with another product like XP so they allocate sales dollars between the two products. So while you are correct that there was a sale and a purchase, the product actually purchased by the consumer wasn't Vista, but XP.
The Lenovo Thinkpad I got in February came with XP that came with a Vista upgrade coupon. Think I bought it for Vista? Nope. Not installed and may never be installed. It came with the package. Its technically a sale, but I'm not sure it was a purchase
The truth lies in the revenue dollars generated. It is the only reliable Vista metric.
From an article by Glen McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2005
"Scientology is also the only religious group ever to be criminally convicted in Canada. It was found guilty on two counts of breach of the public trust related to a 1982 conspiracy to break into government offices. The criminal charges lead to a precedent-setting defamation case, known as Hill vs. Church of Scientology of Toronto, brought by a Crown prosecutor whom the church's lawyer had accused of criminal contempt. The Supreme Court in 1995 upheld the finding against the church, which became the largest libel award in Canadian history."
"Yeah, thanks for Vietnam, cock." If I'm not mistaken, Vietnam was Kennedy's doing, wasn't it?
The solution is obvious ... class action suit for not notifying consumers that their copy protection crap may render their product useless. Humph - eat it again Sony!
I'd like to convert my wife and her mother to Ubuntu, since they don't play heavy duty games like I do, and it would cut my having to support screwed up machines.
The Problem: There doesn't seem to be a good MSN with video capability that they can use, as mother-in-law is in former Yugoslavia (not to mention all their friends are on MSN)
Suggestions? Anyone?!
I keep thinking of the fun that Wii could be with classic games like Sundog or Dungeonmaster, updated for the Wii. I can see it now, using the Nunchunck and Wiimote to check dungeon walls or flying the Sundog.
.. if someone will just update classics like these for the Wii.
Now
As a Canadian I was ABSOLUTELY APALLED by the manner in which he was treated. After politely explaining the situation as he did, I'd have told them all to fuck off in no uncertain terms long before I got to this cutoms jerk. The routine should be ... amd I under arrest .. what is the charge .. get me a lawyer ... or go screw yourselves.
... god help them if its ever me ... I've told customs to go take a hike before, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
The questions were completely irrelevant, uncalled for, and he was under no obligation to answer such crap. I'm terribly upset at the pompous security asses and my government
Grrrrr.
"Its obvious he was obstructing Justice and to have a son on weapons charges will bring many police into the picture"
I was with you up until this line. Now mind you, I'm Canadian so things may run differently, but how is refusing to tell police what you know and/or not supplying information, without there being a court order, obstruction?
You have my curiousity piqued; where does obstruction of justice start, and an individual's rights end?
Mind telling us about the demonstration, size, etc?
I can only hope this is causing a huge scandal s Sweden as stated by the article. Can any Swedish readers provides us a synopsis of some of the reports on tv and in the newspaper?
I thought the link was a joke ... and then I looked ... ok, well, I guess maybe it is a joke after all?
Actually my gut reaction to Freenet was fantastic - I don't want anyone monitoring my communications, other than the intended recipients.
I don't care to let them know what I'm reading, doing, looking at, or thinking. I don't want them to know who my friends, associates or business partners are.
Here in Canada we have the RCMP, CSIS and others. I don't worry about them in the Canadian legal context, but I do in an international legal context. There have been recent cases of the rendition of Canadians to some not so nice places, which appears to be as a result of helpful Canadian intelligence/police agencies notifying US counterparts that a traveller needed questioning because of someone they had met in passing - and off to Syria they were shipped.
Maybe it won't happen to you, but how well do you know your friends of friends of friends?
If I could browse, email, send and view files completely anonymously, I'd personally feel much safer.
Just my gut reaction, but I can appreciate yours as well.
"Yes, my ears are spoiled by high quality ogg and who rips in that but me?" Actually, AllofMP3.com rips in that for you! :)
Thank you for saying that. I'm more or less a noob, and recently tried to install Badger on my fairly new Toshiba laptop. I figured it was safe since it has an Nvidia card, and I'd tried the Live CD first - wrong!
.. not important - I'll eventually get it figured out ... then
.....
This is not for noobs - hopefully Dapper will be.
First, the instructions with respect to paritioning, were misleading. I don't recall where exactly, but the wording certainly left me with the impression that I was going to fry my windows parition.
Second - I couldn't get root. Ohh yes, I could use Sudo (after I learned about it) but I wanted to edit the Grub menu. How to do that? Okay
Third - I couldn't get my Intel 2915 ABG wireless connection to work. I tried multiple things, tried reading how-tos on NDS wrapper, downloading drivers, copying drivers until
I gave up!
A system without connection is pretty much useless. Trying to get information by booting up Windows - then going back to Linux, was hopeless. So I hope that they polish a bit more and make it easier for us noobs.
Just my $0.02 worth.
I'm not an American, but even I know that:
1) The United States is not at war (Congress has that perogative), irrespective of what Mr. Bush says; and
2) Spying on your fellow Americans is quite different than spying on a foreign power.
Michael Geist's page seems to be slashdotted - can anyone post?
You're joking, right?
There has been lots of history around the Enigma machine, but little surrounding the Allies use of codes? Is that because the Allies didn't use sophisticated coding, or its still classified, or it just isn't as interesting? I'm curious!
I tend to agree. I had/have OS/2 v4 and maybe I'll get around to adding it to Grub, but its really a legacy system at this point. What I would like to see, is for OS/2 to be open sourced. I'm sure IBM wouldn't care, but I suspect there may be some legacy MS component lurking in the background, as it was orignally a joint MS/IBM venture. Who knows - an open sourcing of API's could help. Even MS might benefit if they really thought about it, as its old technology and, as they view open source as a competitor, better that open source spend time on the old, rather than the new.