I hate to tell you this, but your idea has already been implemented. Everyone has a right to a lawyer, and if you cannot afford your own the court will apoint you one. No, it most likely will not be Johnnie Chochran, as you don't have a right to a specific lawyer (that would violate Johnnie Chochran's rights).
I hate to tell you this but the court would rule against him. Owning the CDs does not give you the legal right to give copies out to the rest of the world.
Don't confuse popular opinions on slashdot with the will of the people. There still is widespread support for intellectual property within the general population.
"I suspect that the IOC would come down hard on whomever did that, however, citing "suspicous timing" of the creating of the website. Then again, they might not; there's no way of knowing until somebody tries it."
So far I don't think they have charged anyone on this so it doesn't sound like something they are enforcing that strictly.
"I suspect that pleanty of people involved with the Olympics have set up special weblogs to post about the trials, the training, and the events."
According to their policy that would be ok as it was not set up just for the games. Their trials and training are not covered under NBC's contract.
"Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the IOC make the host country and city pay for things like security? "
I don't know who pays who exactly, but I'm sure a signifigant portion is paid by NBC's television contract.
"My main reason for railing against the IOC is this: what's the harm done if we get a 30-second movie from the perspective of somebody walking in the parade instead of a statium-mounted camera."
One 30 second clip? Nothing. Everyone in Athens with a camcorder uploading their feeds live on the web? Suddenly NBC's contract is worthless. They have to draw the line somewhere.
Not as of now. Plenty of guys out there looking to invent the next pet rock send in applications for patents and after a couple of years, a lucky few get to see their inventions realized in the modern world.
"For every independent inventor who has a great idea and makes his fortune, right now there are at least a dozen independent programmers who have great ideas only to discover that they can't do a thing with them because Microsoft just patented the use of keyboards to type code or whatever."
I don't get it. How does MS having a patent which could never stand up in court stop programmers from writing their own programs?
Then the only ones who could ever get a patent through the USPTO would be large corporations who can hire lawyers to prove it is a valid patent. The independent inventor working in his garage so someone can sell his product in a late night infomercial would never be able to get anything through.
The problem ends up being for the independent inventor who has to wait years for his patent. In that time period he can only refer to his invention as 'patent pending', which can make it difficult to sell to a company so they can market the product. He probably doesn't have the resources to market it himself so the only thing that is worth a penny to him is the intellectual property granted to him by the Patent Office.
It seems to me that unless we can find an efficient way to process the patents correctly, it would be better to just streamline the patent application process so that it officially is nothing more than a rubber stamp. Then it could take weeks instead of years and could let the courts do all the actual work if someone wants to challenge it. If a company wanted assurances that the patent they just bought will stand up in court I'm sure there are more than enough ambulance chas... er, lawyers they could hire to check it out.
"It seems that they can only post text to a personal website that they had set up prior to going to the Olympics... "
It never says anything about when the blog was started, merely its purpose. And are you seriously saying blogs that were not created for a specific event are practically non-existent?
"The IOC is supposed to be a nonprofit organization to keep the "Olympic Movement" alive. If they'd like to turn into a professional sports organization like MLB or the NFL, then by all means do it."
Non-profit doesn't mean they cannot bring in money to pay for the events. All those security guards are not working for free.
I know some places have started banning camera phones in areas like locker rooms because of privacy, this seems to be an even bigger potential problem.
" Do you really believe that their numbers are that far off?"
Well for starters it was never meant to be a scientific poll. Its based on hits on Google's site, which is not representative of the computers in the world.
Besides, how does "other" take up %5?
"When you keep believing in something that all evidence directly points to being false you left the realm of good sense and entered the realm of religion."
Really? So what is it that I'm believing in that all evidence directly points to being false? That unscientific surveys are not generally valid?
Is the existence of trolls on the Internet really newsworthy? I think there is a difference between a few people trolling Apple's petition and Real's movement having the opposite effect than what was intended.
Imagine the response if this were MS, not Real, posting the petition. It would be full of anti-MS trolls. But that wouldn't mean they wouldn't be getting their message out.
Re:Some of the changes (possible spoilers)
on
Star Wars on DVD
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· Score: 1
Or you if you are cheap you can go to your local used DVD store. A lot of people bought the origional ones when they came out and then bought the extended editions a few months later and sold the origional ones. Complete rip offs if you ask me. I don't mind director's cuts, but those were as if they were never cut in the first place.
Its this new technological innovation called a "automobile". You can pack your family in it and drive across the country.
Of course if you want to use another type of technology, such as something that could be easily turned into a guided missile, you may have to sacrifice some degree of privacy for that convienence. Considering their vulnerability, I think it makes perfect sense to be able to find out who exactly was on a plane in case something happens.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice try junior lawyer.
No, groupthink doesn't exist on slashdot...
I hate to tell you this, but your idea has already been implemented. Everyone has a right to a lawyer, and if you cannot afford your own the court will apoint you one. No, it most likely will not be Johnnie Chochran, as you don't have a right to a specific lawyer (that would violate Johnnie Chochran's rights).
I hate to tell you this but the court would rule against him. Owning the CDs does not give you the legal right to give copies out to the rest of the world.
Bring it on mods.
Don't confuse popular opinions on slashdot with the will of the people. There still is widespread support for intellectual property within the general population.
Advising people not to pirate music is modded -1 Troll? Thats just sad mods.
So far I don't think they have charged anyone on this so it doesn't sound like something they are enforcing that strictly.
"I suspect that pleanty of people involved with the Olympics have set up special weblogs to post about the trials, the training, and the events."
According to their policy that would be ok as it was not set up just for the games. Their trials and training are not covered under NBC's contract.
"Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the IOC make the host country and city pay for things like security? "
I don't know who pays who exactly, but I'm sure a signifigant portion is paid by NBC's television contract.
"My main reason for railing against the IOC is this: what's the harm done if we get a 30-second movie from the perspective of somebody walking in the parade instead of a statium-mounted camera."
One 30 second clip? Nothing. Everyone in Athens with a camcorder uploading their feeds live on the web? Suddenly NBC's contract is worthless. They have to draw the line somewhere.
"Seriously, that's pretty much how things are. "
Not as of now. Plenty of guys out there looking to invent the next pet rock send in applications for patents and after a couple of years, a lucky few get to see their inventions realized in the modern world.
"For every independent inventor who has a great idea and makes his fortune, right now there are at least a dozen independent programmers who have great ideas only to discover that they can't do a thing with them because Microsoft just patented the use of keyboards to type code or whatever."
I don't get it. How does MS having a patent which could never stand up in court stop programmers from writing their own programs?
Then the only ones who could ever get a patent through the USPTO would be large corporations who can hire lawyers to prove it is a valid patent. The independent inventor working in his garage so someone can sell his product in a late night infomercial would never be able to get anything through.
It seems to me that unless we can find an efficient way to process the patents correctly, it would be better to just streamline the patent application process so that it officially is nothing more than a rubber stamp. Then it could take weeks instead of years and could let the courts do all the actual work if someone wants to challenge it. If a company wanted assurances that the patent they just bought will stand up in court I'm sure there are more than enough ambulance chas... er, lawyers they could hire to check it out.
It never says anything about when the blog was started, merely its purpose. And are you seriously saying blogs that were not created for a specific event are practically non-existent?
"The IOC is supposed to be a nonprofit organization to keep the "Olympic Movement" alive. If they'd like to turn into a professional sports organization like MLB or the NFL, then by all means do it."
Non-profit doesn't mean they cannot bring in money to pay for the events. All those security guards are not working for free.
Slashdot headline: "Olympians Banned From Blogging"
No, I see no relevant difference between the two, other than that one word they obviously cut to save bandwidth.
Also known as a blog.
What are you implying? That slashdot editors rushed to make a political statement concerning something innocent. I'm shocked.
Well considering MS ripped off Apple who had ripped off Xerox, I see no problem.
I know some places have started banning camera phones in areas like locker rooms because of privacy, this seems to be an even bigger potential problem.
Well thats sort of what they are for.
Thats like me saying I cannot imagine using crutches, ever, though I might consider them if I had broken my leg.
Leave it to /. to make research restoring sight to the blind an issue primarily about turning human beings into a race of cyborgs.
You people have spent to much time watching Star Wars prequels, you have forgotten what real science fiction is like.
Well for starters it was never meant to be a scientific poll. Its based on hits on Google's site, which is not representative of the computers in the world.
Besides, how does "other" take up %5?
"When you keep believing in something that all evidence directly points to being false you left the realm of good sense and entered the realm of religion."
Really? So what is it that I'm believing in that all evidence directly points to being false? That unscientific surveys are not generally valid?
Maybe someplace with halfway accurate stats instead.
No kidding.
Imagine the response if this were MS, not Real, posting the petition. It would be full of anti-MS trolls. But that wouldn't mean they wouldn't be getting their message out.
Or you if you are cheap you can go to your local used DVD store. A lot of people bought the origional ones when they came out and then bought the extended editions a few months later and sold the origional ones. Complete rip offs if you ask me. I don't mind director's cuts, but those were as if they were never cut in the first place.
Of course if you want to use another type of technology, such as something that could be easily turned into a guided missile, you may have to sacrifice some degree of privacy for that convienence. Considering their vulnerability, I think it makes perfect sense to be able to find out who exactly was on a plane in case something happens.