Open secret is right. I live about three quarters of a mile from the Naval Observatory and the government had to pay for damage, caused by the blasting, to the foundations of nearby residences (including at least one embassy). The local community governmental organization gathered and disseminated the procedures for getting such payments. Why is this considered news and even in Slashdot?
I fail to see the problem. It is not as if Google is taking away the card catalogs or the inter-library loan system or anything else. It is simply adding to the existing access abilities. The libraries are afraid that Google will charge too much for access? Libraries do not buy the access and can continue to use what they have today.
the US government would snoop on any foreign government's data available to it This is very true. The assumption that the US government obeys its own laws is particularly inapplicable when it comes to the expansions of investigations allowed by the Patriot Act.
The company I work for does hosting both in the US and in Canada. The customers in Canada operate on the simplistic notion that hosting in Canada is good and in the US is bad. Actually, it makes no difference where data is hosted, only who controls access to the data. We had a potential customer that whose database would be of interest to the US Homeland Security Department. They concluded that it made no difference where the database was located (including in house) and that it was most likely already secretly taken.
In other stories we see that the Justice Department is trying to change the laws to require ISP's to keep records for two years of who goes where and does what. The reason given is to trace unloaders and downloaders of child pornography. The other reason given it to fight terrorists. The two year period would allow prosecutors to subpoena the records. It would also allow the RIAA to subpoena this same database and I think that the overwelming majority of subpoenas would be from the private sector and not by public prosecutors. Look for many more lawsuits if this legislation is inacted.
In most states a Sales (and corresponding Use) Tax is applied only to goods that are in tangible form. Thus software that comes on a CD is taxable and software that is downloaded is not. That being said, several states have passed laws making downloaded software subject to the Sales (Use) Tax anyway. More are considering it. Although individuals rarely volunteer to pay the Use Tax, businesses are usually required to do so by their auditors.
Slashdot Mirror
"movies aren't amenable to "disaggregation" seems false. What else is YouTube?
Open secret is right. I live about three quarters of a mile from the Naval Observatory and the government had to pay for damage, caused by the blasting, to the foundations of nearby residences (including at least one embassy). The local community governmental organization gathered and disseminated the procedures for getting such payments. Why is this considered news and even in Slashdot?
I fail to see the problem. It is not as if Google is taking away the card catalogs or the inter-library loan system or anything else. It is simply adding to the existing access abilities. The libraries are afraid that Google will charge too much for access? Libraries do not buy the access and can continue to use what they have today.
In other stories we see that the Justice Department is trying to change the laws to require ISP's to keep records for two years of who goes where and does what. The reason given is to trace unloaders and downloaders of child pornography. The other reason given it to fight terrorists. The two year period would allow prosecutors to subpoena the records. It would also allow the RIAA to subpoena this same database and I think that the overwelming majority of subpoenas would be from the private sector and not by public prosecutors. Look for many more lawsuits if this legislation is inacted.
In most states a Sales (and corresponding Use) Tax is applied only to goods that are in tangible form. Thus software that comes on a CD is taxable and software that is downloaded is not. That being said, several states have passed laws making downloaded software subject to the Sales (Use) Tax anyway. More are considering it. Although individuals rarely volunteer to pay the Use Tax, businesses are usually required to do so by their auditors.