I believe "entrapment" is only when you induce someone to do something they normally wouldn't do. So by a user searching for a file and them providing it, there is no entrapment as the person was already attempting to do the "illegal" action.
When these suits do not eliminate file sharing, the RIAA will buy stiffer and stiffer laws from congress. Eventually there will be jail time for any use whatsoever of file sharing and ISPs will be required to report any such use.
A question for history buffs: Has there ever been a case where an industry has so aggressively gone after their own customers? (I mean *real* companies, so exclude SCO)
We most certainly have NOT done away with Freon. We have changed the formulation of refrigerants (Freon is a brand name) to eliminate chlorine because in the upper atmosphere the chlorine splits off and catalytically destroys ozone. The refrigerants were reformulated to use flourine instead. However, these gases are still harmful as "greenhouse gases" in that they tend to make the atmosphere and earth absorb more heat than is lost through radiation, unbalancing the thermal ecosystem.
Present refrigeration systems rely on phase change, meaning the heat transfer is aided by a phase change of the refrigerant (gas to liquid, liquid to gas). This new system does not require that phase change so it may use an inert gas which is not formulated to have a phase change point near the target cold side temperature. Helium and argon were mentioned as possible gases.
This is new technology and it may end up being possible to create higher efficiency systems than the present phase change systems. I haven't done an analysis of the thermodynamics to see what the limits are but it is certainly interesting to see what comes of this.
To me this is just another "pay for content" site. I had come across it myself and simply moved on and found the information I was looking for on a free site.
If the majority of sites start doing things like this and wanting income from every little bit of IP then it will reduce the usefulness of the net for many people.
I use the net like I used to use libraries, but with all the garbage on the net lately (spam, popups, virii, worms, attacks, more and more pay sites, etc) I am finding myself going back to libraries. I find it relieving that I can go to a local library and read books without having to worry about the copyright police coming after me or having to deal with any of the other net problems. I have also noticed that the libraries are getting more and more crowded and a few people I spoke with told me that the net has whet their appetite for information but in the long run it is easier to use the library for any real work.
I'm all for appropriate compensation for authors and creators of content, but I think that many people have an overinflated idea of what their work is worth. With the current state of IP law, those people have the power to set whatever price they want and they have absolute power. The trouble is that all creative work is built on the shoulders of those who came before and due to this recent dramatic change in IP law these content "creators" are able to get a free ride from previous art yet the next creators are blocked from doing the same. Consider if you had to give every person who contributed to your computer and its software a royalty of a nickel. Doesn't sound like much? Guess what, you wouldn't be able to afford your system!
It is almost as if technology has a self-limiting feature and we are seeing the beginning of a massive slowdown in innovation.
I think you'd have to be pretty good at debating and very well prepared to do much better when up against a guy like that.
However, when asked what "our" side could do to do better he made a very good point when he said that he makes things simple. He turns complex issues into black-and-white bullet points, suitable for politicians dealing with a billion other things. Very simple, very clear-cut, very selective.
This is a classic problem in debates in this country where a commercial interest is on a different side than the general public interest. To be involved in the debate you typically need a lobbyist to explain your side. But lobbyists cost money! Corporations can pay that money but there is no mechanism for the public to do so. Yes, I know, our elected representatives are supposed to represent us, but between the complexities of their job and their lack of understanding of technological issues they need to have things made simple for them and guys like this do that, with results that make industry want to rejoice while the public wonders what the heck happened.
There is a lot of money behind the RIAA and MPAA and this money gets in the way of public policy. Of course the FBI could be put to better use in thousands of other ways, but few if any of those other ways can put nearly so much money into politician's re-election funds.
The politicians seem to never learn that the best course for the country is to stop micromanaging law enforcement and the military.
On it's face this seems like a questionable article, probably part of the Microsoft FUD machine.
HOWEVER!
There IS a problem with Linux support for a lot of hardware devices out there. Personally I have had a hard time with WiFi, DVD read/write and battery status monitoring in a recent vintage laptop. In all cases it will be possible to get going, but will take a level of knowledge and experience WAY beyond most users.
I realize that this is mostly a problem with the manufacturer not providing a driver or even specs and I think this is unacceptable. With IBM and other major corporations and industry leaders embracing Linux it is high time these manufacturers either supply drivers or give out the specs and let someone else do it. Firms that refuse to do either should be made to feel the heat until they realize they will lose future business because of their lack of support.
Google it - these cameras are a big deal. The problem for women is that many lightweight summer clothing items are IR transparent without them knowing it.
The "expectation" is that the clothing is as revealing as it looks to the naked (no pun intended) eye.
As for me "making the perfect case" for banning cameras, well, that logic escapes me. Sorry.
>>...I cringe at the thought I am being watched by someone with NVGs.
>>I have an expectation of some privacy while watching a movie.
>Um... no. No, you don't. You have *no* >expectation of privacy while watching a movie.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that it will lead to zero privacy. How about this: There are camcorders that are quite sensitive to the near IR range and with a filter that blocks visible light, these cameras will "see" through thin clothing remarkably well. Now, the women are in "public" places and so by your line of reasoning they have no expectation of privacy? IIRC, there were some people arrested for making videos of women this way. Another scenario: the newest airport "scanners" will show you right through your clothes. There was a fairly significant public outcry over plans to install these scanners widely. And yet another: police were prohibited from using IR imaging equipment to look through walls of people's houses.
Therefore the issue is not as clear-cut as you say it is. All these situations involve technology to enhance human senses beyond their normal capabilities. While there might indeed be limitations to the expectation of privacy in public areas, that is based on "normal" and not enhanced senses.
I agree with you there. I wasn't too clear, I actually meant to be more broad as to the method of copying. In virtually all cases someone sneaking in a camcorder means some serious copying, and that should be treated as such, but the penalty for copying your brother's videotape for your own personal use should rightfully be less severe.
I think most people basically understand that bringing in a camcorder to make a copy (especially to sell) of a movie is wrong and to be discouraged.
However, the big issue I feel is in the heavy-handed approach to enforcement. I have never considered bringing a camcorder into a movie, but I cringe at the thought I am being watched by someone with NVGs. I have an expectation of some privacy while watching a movie. They want to install metal detectors? The day they do that is the day I completely stop going to movies; enough is enough!
Regarding penalties for unauthorized copying, I understand they want to get maximum publicity and "make examples" of people but let's have some semblence of balance here. There is a big difference between someone making a copy for their own use and someone making a copy so they can then make 10,000 copies to sell on the street, so let's have the penalties be different.
There is a lot of pent-up anger in people these days from the feeling of helplessness they feel against the political power of large industry groups such as the RIAA and MPAA. Politicians seemingly are more interested in protecting big donors than creating legislation that is well thought out and which is fair to both the public and the corporations.
Another fun thing you could do was to disconnect the earpiece shorting contact on the dial. Then when you dialed the last digit (make it a "0") you could hear the relay step through and as it passed stations that were in use you would hear 100 msec of "busy" for those.
A couple of times I came close to getting entire PBX switchrooms (Ma Bell used to abandon them when buildings were to be torn down) but had no place to put/reassemble them.
Well at least I used to build them in. It was so simple many others must have done the same thing. Take a 10-step relay, put a 1 minute reset timer on it, and wire each of the first few steps to a pulse gen anded with one of the incoming lines' ring detect. If the right sequence of incoming calls happened, it connected a separate incoming WATS line to a WATS outgoing line. Viola! Free calls from anywhere to anywhere, and nobody would ever notice if you were careful to only select "unlimited" outgoing WATS lines. We're talking something like 35 years ago here...
Dell, for example, charges sales tax for stuff sold mail order to NY. Perhaps that is because they have a "presence" here.
We haven't bought much else on line, and most certainly did not keep track of what we bought where and what tax was charged.
I have actually been recommending that most people DO NOT make purchases over the net since identity theft has increased to the point where unless an individual is pretty saavy there is too much chance they will be victimized.
Between online crime and tax proposals like this one I wouldn't be the least surprised if we are seeing the beginning of the end of the "internet retail boom." Unfortunately, this is going to directly increase costs to the consumer, another story of state greed killing the golden goose.
Remember that from "The President's Analyst?" That was the chip that TPC (The Phone Company) wanted to implant into everyone to replace phones, and of course, then have a tax paid directly to them and be able to monitor EVERYTHING.
I use it legally. It is a great way to move stuff between machines far apart without having to set up a server, ftp unnecessary things, or deal with reconfiguring firewalls. Anything sensitive (limited, I don't have much that is really sensitive) I password protect in ZIP. I even have automatic output go to certain files for later, remote pickup.
I can't see how they would go after me though, I don't have any MP3 or movies on any of those machines.
Very interesting, thank you. Tracking my phone would be interesting as it might be turned off and in an hour when it is turned on again it might be quite some distance from before. So long as it works (and the new ones seem to be working much better than the older ones) I am a happy camper. I don't know how long the tracking info is kept but I figure it has about the same chance of helping me as being used against me. *shrug* nothing I can do about it anyhow.
Don't be silly, they can't listen to ALL conversations. Obviously they have to target specific numbers based on intelligence and then have a human analyze the conversation. Think of how many conversations go on at one time!
I have a question about that NYT article. In the old cell phones there was a phone ESN and then the subscriber info entered in the NAM. So it was always possible to track a phone no matter what user had it. Now we have these GSM phones with SIM cards and the NYT article is a bit vague but seems to imply that the SIM card was the tracking mechanism and not the phone hardware. My question is, is there an embedded phone ESN in the GSM phone, or is the subscriber info entirely in the SIM card?
The problem is that most people lost faith in the American legal system long ago. The business of tricking the system is far more advanced and overshadoes what is "right" and moral.
Oh my God, that's cheap power
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Con Ed in New York is about 3 times that. The little tables on energy efficient bulbs doesn't even go as high as our electric rates.
Energy efficiency is very important here and would have a great payback period, except that unless you do it entirely yourself the contractors will make you pay through the nose. The state makes various "barriers to entry" such as several layers of licensing so tradespeople's hourly rates for jobs of that kind of size are comparable to lawyers and doctors (I am not kidding).
When it gets hot here it is frequently very humid and this takes even more energy to cool. My worst computer failure was one summer when I was out, the air conditioner tripped off, and the room where I had my system got to 130 degrees. The complete failure and subsequent head crash of the disk was made serious by the failure of the backup system to make usable tapes for the past month.
Look at all that stuff. Games. Gym. More games. Video studio. Audio Studio. Top end furniture. And massive amounts of computer stuff.
Something seems wrong here. I run a small business and we don't throw money around like there is an infinite amount - we are responsible. Why, when it's "other people's money" is it ok to go hog wild? When I was in a dot-com in the boom years they were spending like a drunken sailor also, and when I asked why the response was that the VC people wanted it to look like a winning company, with lavish offices and everything so that they had a good cash out strategy. All the top people knew it was insane but they had to play the game.
Nobody is running jumper leads to multihundred kV transmission lines. That would be outrageoulsy dangerous and difficult to do.
Even attaching to a 7 kV local HT line is beyond what most people could survive doing unless they were EXTREMELY lucky and had a decent amount of knowledge.
STAY AWAY FROM THESE LINES. NEVER NEVER NEVER ATTEMPT TO ATTACH TO THEM. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. SERIOUSLY!
Slashdot Mirror
I believe "entrapment" is only when you induce someone to do something they normally wouldn't do. So by a user searching for a file and them providing it, there is no entrapment as the person was already attempting to do the "illegal" action.
When these suits do not eliminate file sharing, the RIAA will buy stiffer and stiffer laws from congress. Eventually there will be jail time for any use whatsoever of file sharing and ISPs will be required to report any such use.
A question for history buffs: Has there ever been a case where an industry has so aggressively gone after their own customers? (I mean *real* companies, so exclude SCO)
We most certainly have NOT done away with Freon. We have changed the formulation of refrigerants (Freon is a brand name) to eliminate chlorine because in the upper atmosphere the chlorine splits off and catalytically destroys ozone. The refrigerants were reformulated to use flourine instead. However, these gases are still harmful as "greenhouse gases" in that they tend to make the atmosphere and earth absorb more heat than is lost through radiation, unbalancing the thermal ecosystem.
Present refrigeration systems rely on phase change, meaning the heat transfer is aided by a phase change of the refrigerant (gas to liquid, liquid to gas). This new system does not require that phase change so it may use an inert gas which is not formulated to have a phase change point near the target cold side temperature. Helium and argon were mentioned as possible gases.
This is new technology and it may end up being possible to create higher efficiency systems than the present phase change systems. I haven't done an analysis of the thermodynamics to see what the limits are but it is certainly interesting to see what comes of this.
To me this is just another "pay for content" site. I had come across it myself and simply moved on and found the information I was looking for on a free site.
If the majority of sites start doing things like this and wanting income from every little bit of IP then it will reduce the usefulness of the net for many people.
I use the net like I used to use libraries, but with all the garbage on the net lately (spam, popups, virii, worms, attacks, more and more pay sites, etc) I am finding myself going back to libraries. I find it relieving that I can go to a local library and read books without having to worry about the copyright police coming after me or having to deal with any of the other net problems. I have also noticed that the libraries are getting more and more crowded and a few people I spoke with told me that the net has whet their appetite for information but in the long run it is easier to use the library for any real work.
I'm all for appropriate compensation for authors and creators of content, but I think that many people have an overinflated idea of what their work is worth. With the current state of IP law, those people have the power to set whatever price they want and they have absolute power. The trouble is that all creative work is built on the shoulders of those who came before and due to this recent dramatic change in IP law these content "creators" are able to get a free ride from previous art yet the next creators are blocked from doing the same. Consider if you had to give every person who contributed to your computer and its software a royalty of a nickel. Doesn't sound like much? Guess what, you wouldn't be able to afford your system!
It is almost as if technology has a self-limiting feature and we are seeing the beginning of a massive slowdown in innovation.
I think you'd have to be pretty good at debating and very well prepared to do much better when up against a guy like that.
However, when asked what "our" side could do to do better he made a very good point when he said that he makes things simple. He turns complex issues into black-and-white bullet points, suitable for politicians dealing with a billion other things. Very simple, very clear-cut, very selective.
This is a classic problem in debates in this country where a commercial interest is on a different side than the general public interest. To be involved in the debate you typically need a lobbyist to explain your side. But lobbyists cost money! Corporations can pay that money but there is no mechanism for the public to do so. Yes, I know, our elected representatives are supposed to represent us, but between the complexities of their job and their lack of understanding of technological issues they need to have things made simple for them and guys like this do that, with results that make industry want to rejoice while the public wonders what the heck happened.
There is a lot of money behind the RIAA and MPAA and this money gets in the way of public policy. Of course the FBI could be put to better use in thousands of other ways, but few if any of those other ways can put nearly so much money into politician's re-election funds.
The politicians seem to never learn that the best course for the country is to stop micromanaging law enforcement and the military.
On it's face this seems like a questionable article, probably part of the Microsoft FUD machine.
HOWEVER!
There IS a problem with Linux support for a lot of hardware devices out there. Personally I have had a hard time with WiFi, DVD read/write and battery status monitoring in a recent vintage laptop. In all cases it will be possible to get going, but will take a level of knowledge and experience WAY beyond most users.
I realize that this is mostly a problem with the manufacturer not providing a driver or even specs and I think this is unacceptable. With IBM and other major corporations and industry leaders embracing Linux it is high time these manufacturers either supply drivers or give out the specs and let someone else do it. Firms that refuse to do either should be made to feel the heat until they realize they will lose future business because of their lack of support.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!
No, no, not INSIDE the theatre! Outside!!
Google it - these cameras are a big deal. The problem for women is that many lightweight summer clothing items are IR transparent without them knowing it.
The "expectation" is that the clothing is as revealing as it looks to the naked (no pun intended) eye.
As for me "making the perfect case" for banning cameras, well, that logic escapes me. Sorry.
>>...I cringe at the thought I am being watched by someone with NVGs.
>>I have an expectation of some privacy while watching a movie.
>Um... no. No, you don't. You have *no* >expectation of privacy while watching a movie.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that it will lead to zero privacy. How about this: There are camcorders that are quite sensitive to the near IR range and with a filter that blocks visible light, these cameras will "see" through thin clothing remarkably well. Now, the women are in "public" places and so by your line of reasoning they have no expectation of privacy? IIRC, there were some people arrested for making videos of women this way. Another scenario: the newest airport "scanners" will show you right through your clothes. There was a fairly significant public outcry over plans to install these scanners widely. And yet another: police were prohibited from using IR imaging equipment to look through walls of people's houses.
Therefore the issue is not as clear-cut as you say it is. All these situations involve technology to enhance human senses beyond their normal capabilities. While there might indeed be limitations to the expectation of privacy in public areas, that is based on "normal" and not enhanced senses.
I agree with you there. I wasn't too clear, I actually meant to be more broad as to the method of copying. In virtually all cases someone sneaking in a camcorder means some serious copying, and that should be treated as such, but the penalty for copying your brother's videotape for your own personal use should rightfully be less severe.
I think most people basically understand that bringing in a camcorder to make a copy (especially to sell) of a movie is wrong and to be discouraged.
However, the big issue I feel is in the heavy-handed approach to enforcement. I have never considered bringing a camcorder into a movie, but I cringe at the thought I am being watched by someone with NVGs. I have an expectation of some privacy while watching a movie. They want to install metal detectors? The day they do that is the day I completely stop going to movies; enough is enough!
Regarding penalties for unauthorized copying, I understand they want to get maximum publicity and "make examples" of people but let's have some semblence of balance here. There is a big difference between someone making a copy for their own use and someone making a copy so they can then make 10,000 copies to sell on the street, so let's have the penalties be different.
There is a lot of pent-up anger in people these days from the feeling of helplessness they feel against the political power of large industry groups such as the RIAA and MPAA. Politicians seemingly are more interested in protecting big donors than creating legislation that is well thought out and which is fair to both the public and the corporations.
Another fun thing you could do was to disconnect the earpiece shorting contact on the dial. Then when you dialed the last digit (make it a "0") you could hear the relay step through and as it passed stations that were in use you would hear 100 msec of "busy" for those.
A couple of times I came close to getting entire PBX switchrooms (Ma Bell used to abandon them when buildings were to be torn down) but had no place to put/reassemble them.
I fly a Grumman Cheetah.
Well at least I used to build them in. It was so simple many others must have done the same thing. Take a 10-step relay, put a 1 minute reset timer on it, and wire each of the first few steps to a pulse gen anded with one of the incoming lines' ring detect. If the right sequence of incoming calls happened, it connected a separate incoming WATS line to a WATS outgoing line. Viola! Free calls from anywhere to anywhere, and nobody would ever notice if you were careful to only select "unlimited" outgoing WATS lines. We're talking something like 35 years ago here...
Dell, for example, charges sales tax for stuff sold mail order to NY. Perhaps that is because they have a "presence" here.
We haven't bought much else on line, and most certainly did not keep track of what we bought where and what tax was charged.
I have actually been recommending that most people DO NOT make purchases over the net since identity theft has increased to the point where unless an individual is pretty saavy there is too much chance they will be victimized.
Between online crime and tax proposals like this one I wouldn't be the least surprised if we are seeing the beginning of the end of the "internet retail boom." Unfortunately, this is going to directly increase costs to the consumer, another story of state greed killing the golden goose.
Remember that from "The President's Analyst?" That was the chip that TPC (The Phone Company) wanted to implant into everyone to replace phones, and of course, then have a tax paid directly to them and be able to monitor EVERYTHING.
Like I said, not much of a need for security. But, if you have lots of time to waste, BE MY GUEST, HAVE A BALL.
I use it legally. It is a great way to move stuff between machines far apart without having to set up a server, ftp unnecessary things, or deal with reconfiguring firewalls. Anything sensitive (limited, I don't have much that is really sensitive) I password protect in ZIP. I even have automatic output go to certain files for later, remote pickup. I can't see how they would go after me though, I don't have any MP3 or movies on any of those machines.
Now that is a ride I would have loved to go along on. Anybody can go to London or Paris. Should be a required trip for engineering students.
Very interesting, thank you. Tracking my phone would be interesting as it might be turned off and in an hour when it is turned on again it might be quite some distance from before. So long as it works (and the new ones seem to be working much better than the older ones) I am a happy camper. I don't know how long the tracking info is kept but I figure it has about the same chance of helping me as being used against me. *shrug* nothing I can do about it anyhow.
Don't be silly, they can't listen to ALL conversations. Obviously they have to target specific numbers based on intelligence and then have a human analyze the conversation. Think of how many conversations go on at one time!
I have a question about that NYT article. In the old cell phones there was a phone ESN and then the subscriber info entered in the NAM. So it was always possible to track a phone no matter what user had it. Now we have these GSM phones with SIM cards and the NYT article is a bit vague but seems to imply that the SIM card was the tracking mechanism and not the phone hardware. My question is, is there an embedded phone ESN in the GSM phone, or is the subscriber info entirely in the SIM card?
The problem is that most people lost faith in the American legal system long ago. The business of tricking the system is far more advanced and overshadoes what is "right" and moral.
Con Ed in New York is about 3 times that. The little tables on energy efficient bulbs doesn't even go as high as our electric rates.
Energy efficiency is very important here and would have a great payback period, except that unless you do it entirely yourself the contractors will make you pay through the nose. The state makes various "barriers to entry" such as several layers of licensing so tradespeople's hourly rates for jobs of that kind of size are comparable to lawyers and doctors (I am not kidding).
When it gets hot here it is frequently very humid and this takes even more energy to cool. My worst computer failure was one summer when I was out, the air conditioner tripped off, and the room where I had my system got to 130 degrees. The complete failure and subsequent head crash of the disk was made serious by the failure of the backup system to make usable tapes for the past month.
Look at all that stuff. Games. Gym. More games. Video studio. Audio Studio. Top end furniture. And massive amounts of computer stuff.
Something seems wrong here. I run a small business and we don't throw money around like there is an infinite amount - we are responsible. Why, when it's "other people's money" is it ok to go hog wild? When I was in a dot-com in the boom years they were spending like a drunken sailor also, and when I asked why the response was that the VC people wanted it to look like a winning company, with lavish offices and everything so that they had a good cash out strategy. All the top people knew it was insane but they had to play the game.
Nobody is running jumper leads to multihundred kV transmission lines. That would be outrageoulsy dangerous and difficult to do.
Even attaching to a 7 kV local HT line is beyond what most people could survive doing unless they were EXTREMELY lucky and had a decent amount of knowledge.
STAY AWAY FROM THESE LINES. NEVER NEVER NEVER ATTEMPT TO ATTACH TO THEM. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. SERIOUSLY!
Just kidding. The military most certainly have jammers for those bands. And news stories like this give them wonderful feedback on their tests.