I'm pretty sure writing a self-propogating virus is a felony (harmless or not) if it makes its way onto unsuspecting people's computers. I found the following in the article to be ridiculous statements: "Why We Are Doing Such Crazy Thing
There has been much misinformation publicized recently about a supposed risk to the OS X operating system from virus attacks, with the 'risk' supposedly increasing as Mac computer sales are increasing. As a Mac dedicated business, and as a group of long-term Mac users, we know that these warnings are not true, and that there are a number of fundamental safeguards against virus attacks that keep the OS X operating system without its first in-the-wild virus. The 'small number' of Macs has nothing to do with the lack of virus incidents. It is the architecture of Apple's operating system that protects its users from these bugs. And, we are simply irritated by the near absense of major news outlets who reliably report that fact."
No matter how secure Macs are compared to other OSes the risk of infection definitely increases as more Macs hit the market. The small number of Macs definitely plays a large role in the number of reported virus attacks. There are less people to target with a virus and less reason for virus writers to target them since their goal is normally to infect as many machines as possible.
Anyone that has walked into a gaming shop where there were multiple gamers knows the gamer stench. Unwashed, greasy teenagers are easier for the enemies to detect and that detracts from their soldiering.
Social retardation refers to their inability to function comfortably within societal norms, particulary when interacting with their peers. Being abused by their peers may or may not have contributed to their retardation but its a symptom at best and not the disease.
Video games don't teach kids how to kill. Absent parenting combined with social retardation (as in the case of Columbine)lead kids to kill. Bad parenting or no parenting is behind most if not all teen murderers.
I know exactly what I'm talking about. I do NOT care what anyone in France thinks about the business practices of Google a non-French company. Good troll though:). Kudos sir.
It's not a threat in any way, shape or form to their culture. If you don't want to use Google, don't. For the same reasons I'm not browsing French literature and culture online they can not browse Google for American literature and culture.
My point is people want to use TIVO like a VCR. They don't want want TIVO popping ads up on the screen or keeping track of how many times they backed up to look at Janet Jackson's breasts during last year's super bowl. Selling a digital VCR as a subscription service is stupid, in my opinion. With my PVR I paid a hundred some dollars for it and their is no subscription service associated with it, aside from the fact it works with the Dish Network.
I don't think TIVO is going to stay afloat because it's a flawed business design. I read that TIVO is going to be forcing viewers to view pop up ads in March while they're fast forwarding. My girlfriend has Direct TV and TIVO and loves it. I have Dish Network and a PVR and I love it but hate her TIVO. I don't want an interactive recorder. I want a device that lets me record program X at time Y and then play it back at my convenience.
I don't know if juries are allowed to award punitive damages in a case like this, but I'd punish the hell out of Marvel for appealing iron clad wording like this if I was on a jury.
Giant was one of my favorite spyware removal programs. I guess we can count on it being buggy and opening up security holes in the future for us. Everyone should boycott the Microsoft version of this application.
Ok, I just read the DOJ's link about this and it looks like I'm wrong. Although they have the case "sealed" so you can't see the details of it.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/desirPlea.htm
I doubt he will get 15 years in prison for this unless the judge is an utter ass when he's sentenced. Hopefully this is the government's warning shot fired over the heads of "pirates" and they won't make a scape goat out of this kid. If they do send this kid to prison then its time for America to take a long hard look at the politicians taking money directly from the entertainment industry. If "justice" is being bought and paid for in this country then some politicians need to be brought up on federal charges as well.
How do you know he wasn't charging for membership into this "private group"? It sure sounds like they were charging from the articles I've read. I find it hard to believe the feds wasted time going after someone hard like this for simply filesharing.
Yes, the charged. Its in the article.
The global effort specifically targets so-called "warez" groups, members of which are believed to distribute unauthorized copies of material to previously identified clientele over secure servers. Those files typically end up on an Internet Relay Chat network or a peer-to-peer file-sharing service.
This was not a case of the teenager down the street sharing movies and music for free with others via Kazaa or Bit Torrents. This was a person who was involved in a ring that charged for access to copyrighted materials. I think the time fits the magnitude of the crime.
Most Slashdot readers we'll be long dead by 2029. Most probable causes of death: 1) Cheese fries, 2) Toppings on Leftover pizza gone bad, 3)Heart explodes from extremely high levels of caffeine combined with causes 1 and 2.
Now if only we could come up with different words for good lawyers and bad lawyers. How about Clawyers?
That remind me of a joke. A texas oil billionaire is at a party and he propositions a pretty young woman. "Hello Miss, I'm J.R. Moneybags. Would you like to come back to my mansion for some wild sex?" The woman is appalled and says "No, of course not! I don't even know you!". To this the billionaire replies "Ok, would you sleep with me for ten million dollars then?". The woman ponders this offer for a moment then says "Yes, for ten million dollars I will." The billionaire replies "How about for one hundred dollars then?" To which the woman replies "What kind of woman do you think I am?!" And the billionaire replies "We've already determined that. Now we're negotiating for a price."
There moral here is that there are no good lawyers. Their prices may vary but they've all sold their souls for the greater bad when it comes to make society a better place.
Actually playing could be left up to the laws as well. It would be (and should be) illegal for you to show triple xxx rated movies to your minor children and their friends. A malleable minor shouldn't be spending hours a day playing morally reprehensible games like Manhunter where you get extra points for pulling off particularly gruesome murders. Actually 37 year olds like me shouldn't be playing that one either. Not because I'm malleable but because the game is boring and repetitive but that's another topic.
While I don't have a problem with someone being arrested for selling unlicensed versions of games, as is the case here, I do have a huge problem with laws being in place that make it illegal to do things like view any region DVD, skip the FBI warnings on DVDs, etc. The congressmen that are taking money directly from the entertainment industry as campaign donations (which are nothing more than loosely veiled bribes) need to be brought to task. Someone putting a bigger harddrive in an X-Box should not be a crime unto itself. That's the kind of nonsense you get when you let corrupt companies directly fund corrupt politicians.
Back in the mid to late 90's I was using the Usenet groups a lot to ask about and research programming questions. I found it was a great source of information and it was an invaluable tool for me at work. The last few years I've noticed a trend where find almost everything I'm looking for programming-wise under a normal Google search before I find it in the groups (if I can find it all in the groups). I could be completely wrong about this but it appears from my perspective that Usenet is going the way of BBSes in light of all the specialized message boards with Google indexed content on the web. Maybe Google is just helping put the final nail in the coffin for a dying Usenet instead of actively killing the newsgroups.
I'm not going to shed any tears over the RIAA losing money but to pretend filesharing hasn't had a huge impact on record sales is ludicrous. When I was in college in the mid 80's I bought a lot of music as did a lot of my friends. I run a medium sized message board now and I can tell you the majority of my college-aged posters pay for very little, if any music. They download almost everything they listen to and burn their own mixes from their downloads.
At my first two jobs I had at least 100 hour week at both jobs. What did it accomplish? Customer X needed all the data for Product Y put into our internal formatted and prepared for insertion into our archaic database. It needed to be done and got done properly. At the 2nd job one of our VPs promised (unbeknownst to the programming staff) a client that we'd have a product ready to demo for them to see if they wanted to fund its full development. That was a solo project using VB, Access and Excel. I coded it all at home since I was working 20 hour days, sleeping 4 hours then getting up and showering and repeating. At the end of the week I went with VP to demo the product and the clients bought it so that accomplished something too.
These days I'm a contractor and my current contract forbids me from working over 40 hours in a week. I prefer it this way since I work a lot less hours and make a lot more money than the old days (early 90's are old days for me).
I enjoyed PA's commentaries about about proper etiquette so far. Since you've already addressed the "M$" isssue, any chance you can address the incredibly juvenile practice of people posting Microsoft related messages with a picture of Bill Gates as a borg?
Why would someone give his post a troll modifier? He posted very legitimate concerns about having to move. Who ever handed out the troll modifier is the real troll here. I don't agree with his comments that rural insourcing is a greater threat to America than Indian outsourcing is (I think India outsourcing is a huge threat to the American economy). So on here if someone doesn't agree with your ideas you get a troll modifier?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm pretty sure writing a self-propogating virus is a felony (harmless or not) if it makes its way onto unsuspecting people's computers. I found the following in the article to be ridiculous statements: "Why We Are Doing Such Crazy Thing There has been much misinformation publicized recently about a supposed risk to the OS X operating system from virus attacks, with the 'risk' supposedly increasing as Mac computer sales are increasing. As a Mac dedicated business, and as a group of long-term Mac users, we know that these warnings are not true, and that there are a number of fundamental safeguards against virus attacks that keep the OS X operating system without its first in-the-wild virus. The 'small number' of Macs has nothing to do with the lack of virus incidents. It is the architecture of Apple's operating system that protects its users from these bugs. And, we are simply irritated by the near absense of major news outlets who reliably report that fact." No matter how secure Macs are compared to other OSes the risk of infection definitely increases as more Macs hit the market. The small number of Macs definitely plays a large role in the number of reported virus attacks. There are less people to target with a virus and less reason for virus writers to target them since their goal is normally to infect as many machines as possible.
Anyone that has walked into a gaming shop where there were multiple gamers knows the gamer stench. Unwashed, greasy teenagers are easier for the enemies to detect and that detracts from their soldiering.
Social retardation refers to their inability to function comfortably within societal norms, particulary when interacting with their peers. Being abused by their peers may or may not have contributed to their retardation but its a symptom at best and not the disease.
Video games don't teach kids how to kill. Absent parenting combined with social retardation (as in the case of Columbine)lead kids to kill. Bad parenting or no parenting is behind most if not all teen murderers.
I know exactly what I'm talking about. I do NOT care what anyone in France thinks about the business practices of Google a non-French company. Good troll though :). Kudos sir.
It's not a threat in any way, shape or form to their culture. If you don't want to use Google, don't. For the same reasons I'm not browsing French literature and culture online they can not browse Google for American literature and culture.
Leave the Jesus horses out of this. The earth is only 4,000 years old.
My point is people want to use TIVO like a VCR. They don't want want TIVO popping ads up on the screen or keeping track of how many times they backed up to look at Janet Jackson's breasts during last year's super bowl. Selling a digital VCR as a subscription service is stupid, in my opinion. With my PVR I paid a hundred some dollars for it and their is no subscription service associated with it, aside from the fact it works with the Dish Network.
I don't think TIVO is going to stay afloat because it's a flawed business design. I read that TIVO is going to be forcing viewers to view pop up ads in March while they're fast forwarding. My girlfriend has Direct TV and TIVO and loves it. I have Dish Network and a PVR and I love it but hate her TIVO. I don't want an interactive recorder. I want a device that lets me record program X at time Y and then play it back at my convenience.
I don't know if juries are allowed to award punitive damages in a case like this, but I'd punish the hell out of Marvel for appealing iron clad wording like this if I was on a jury.
Giant was one of my favorite spyware removal programs. I guess we can count on it being buggy and opening up security holes in the future for us. Everyone should boycott the Microsoft version of this application.
Ok, I just read the DOJ's link about this and it looks like I'm wrong. Although they have the case "sealed" so you can't see the details of it. http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/desirPlea .htm
I doubt he will get 15 years in prison for this unless the judge is an utter ass when he's sentenced. Hopefully this is the government's warning shot fired over the heads of "pirates" and they won't make a scape goat out of this kid. If they do send this kid to prison then its time for America to take a long hard look at the politicians taking money directly from the entertainment industry. If "justice" is being bought and paid for in this country then some politicians need to be brought up on federal charges as well.
How do you know he wasn't charging for membership into this "private group"? It sure sounds like they were charging from the articles I've read. I find it hard to believe the feds wasted time going after someone hard like this for simply filesharing.
Yes, the charged. Its in the article. The global effort specifically targets so-called "warez" groups, members of which are believed to distribute unauthorized copies of material to previously identified clientele over secure servers. Those files typically end up on an Internet Relay Chat network or a peer-to-peer file-sharing service.
This was not a case of the teenager down the street sharing movies and music for free with others via Kazaa or Bit Torrents. This was a person who was involved in a ring that charged for access to copyrighted materials. I think the time fits the magnitude of the crime.
Most Slashdot readers we'll be long dead by 2029. Most probable causes of death: 1) Cheese fries, 2) Toppings on Leftover pizza gone bad, 3)Heart explodes from extremely high levels of caffeine combined with causes 1 and 2.
Now if only we could come up with different words for good lawyers and bad lawyers. How about Clawyers?
That remind me of a joke. A texas oil billionaire is at a party and he propositions a pretty young woman. "Hello Miss, I'm J.R. Moneybags. Would you like to come back to my mansion for some wild sex?"
The woman is appalled and says "No, of course not! I don't even know you!".
To this the billionaire replies "Ok, would you sleep with me for ten million dollars then?".
The woman ponders this offer for a moment then says "Yes, for ten million dollars I will."
The billionaire replies "How about for one hundred dollars then?"
To which the woman replies "What kind of woman do you think I am?!"
And the billionaire replies "We've already determined that. Now we're negotiating for a price."
There moral here is that there are no good lawyers. Their prices may vary but they've all sold their souls for the greater bad when it comes to make society a better place.
Actually playing could be left up to the laws as well. It would be (and should be) illegal for you to show triple xxx rated movies to your minor children and their friends. A malleable minor shouldn't be spending hours a day playing morally reprehensible games like Manhunter where you get extra points for pulling off particularly gruesome murders. Actually 37 year olds like me shouldn't be playing that one either. Not because I'm malleable but because the game is boring and repetitive but that's another topic.
Twelve year old kids should not be renting, buying or playing games like GTA or Manhunter.
While I don't have a problem with someone being arrested for selling unlicensed versions of games, as is the case here, I do have a huge problem with laws being in place that make it illegal to do things like view any region DVD, skip the FBI warnings on DVDs, etc. The congressmen that are taking money directly from the entertainment industry as campaign donations (which are nothing more than loosely veiled bribes) need to be brought to task. Someone putting a bigger harddrive in an X-Box should not be a crime unto itself. That's the kind of nonsense you get when you let corrupt companies directly fund corrupt politicians.
Back in the mid to late 90's I was using the Usenet groups a lot to ask about and research programming questions. I found it was a great source of information and it was an invaluable tool for me at work. The last few years I've noticed a trend where find almost everything I'm looking for programming-wise under a normal Google search before I find it in the groups (if I can find it all in the groups). I could be completely wrong about this but it appears from my perspective that Usenet is going the way of BBSes in light of all the specialized message boards with Google indexed content on the web. Maybe Google is just helping put the final nail in the coffin for a dying Usenet instead of actively killing the newsgroups.
I'm not going to shed any tears over the RIAA losing money but to pretend filesharing hasn't had a huge impact on record sales is ludicrous. When I was in college in the mid 80's I bought a lot of music as did a lot of my friends. I run a medium sized message board now and I can tell you the majority of my college-aged posters pay for very little, if any music. They download almost everything they listen to and burn their own mixes from their downloads.
At my first two jobs I had at least 100 hour week at both jobs. What did it accomplish? Customer X needed all the data for Product Y put into our internal formatted and prepared for insertion into our archaic database. It needed to be done and got done properly. At the 2nd job one of our VPs promised (unbeknownst to the programming staff) a client that we'd have a product ready to demo for them to see if they wanted to fund its full development. That was a solo project using VB, Access and Excel. I coded it all at home since I was working 20 hour days, sleeping 4 hours then getting up and showering and repeating. At the end of the week I went with VP to demo the product and the clients bought it so that accomplished something too. These days I'm a contractor and my current contract forbids me from working over 40 hours in a week. I prefer it this way since I work a lot less hours and make a lot more money than the old days (early 90's are old days for me).
I enjoyed PA's commentaries about about proper etiquette so far. Since you've already addressed the "M$" isssue, any chance you can address the incredibly juvenile practice of people posting Microsoft related messages with a picture of Bill Gates as a borg?
Why would someone give his post a troll modifier? He posted very legitimate concerns about having to move. Who ever handed out the troll modifier is the real troll here. I don't agree with his comments that rural insourcing is a greater threat to America than Indian outsourcing is (I think India outsourcing is a huge threat to the American economy). So on here if someone doesn't agree with your ideas you get a troll modifier?