AP - "The Postmaster General has be fined $250,000,000 and sentenced to 578,000,000 years in prison in a landmark IP case. Spokesman for the prosecution, Lars "Asshat" Ulrich, said in a public statement 'He didn't take reasonable percautions to protect my money, and now I'm gonna skullfuck his children!'
Jan 18, 2005: BMG reported today that an unknown hacker has broken into their central computers. While the company would not confirm or deny the intended targets of the attack, industry analysts suggest that the HSS, or Hit Song Selector, programs may have been targetted.
Jan 19, 2005: Tune into your local radio station today to hear the latest single from BMG! Britney Spears' "Badgers Badgers Badgers!"
Unfortunately, this doesn't constitute entrapment.
As much as it sucks, it's "alright" for the *AA to put up a file, wait for someone to download it, then sue them. It's not ethical or just, but they can do it. This is a sting. It's the same as an undercover officer posing as a hooker, then arresting someone who propositions her. In that case, she is there as a law is being wilfully broken by someone.
Unless the officer goes up to someone and says "Do you want to have sex with me for money?". THEN it is entrapment. In that case, the officer is coercing or encouraging someone to break a law, which they may not have done in the first place.
If the *AA were to entrap people, they would have to send you an email saying "I have Daredevil to download, click here to do it.", or something similar. Then they are inviting you to break the "law", and are entraping you.
One could argue that making a file available to download from a P2P is "inviting the law to be broken", but it wouldn't stand up in court. Their lawyers would just argue that the IP-infringer knew what they were doing, because they wilfully typed the name of a copyrighted movie into a search engine, and that search engine exists to allow someone who/wants/ to download something find it.
There's lots of ways to fight one of these lawsuits. Entrapment isn't one of them.
PS: Just to make things clear... screw the *AAs. I am in no way advocating what they are doing is right-- I'm just providing advice on how to kick their butts. =)
As someone who is in the process of doing the exact same thing you are, let me give your some hard earned tips:
1) Typically, how do graduate admissions officials view work experience? Note that I haven't been working as a Computer Engineer but as a Software Engineer.
Usually, they don't. Most universities don't concider work experience to be equivilant to credits. Prior training/certifications might. Colleges, however, tend to look more favorably on work experience.
However, all is not in vain. Most institutes, college or university, have "Prior Learning Assesments", or PLAs. This gives you the oppertunity to show that you have the equivilant knowledge of a course already. It differes institution to institution, but basically, the way it works is:
- You say you want to PLA a course
- You convince the dean that you have the knowledge to do this
- You pay a fee
- You write the final exam
- You get a credit or you don't.
I manage to PLA 1/2 of a 3 year diploma based on prior experience.
3) I'd like to hear from people who've done this, i.e. quit their jobs and gone back to get a higher engineering degree. What problems did you face and what advice do you have?
99% of the students are going to be young whippersnappers. =) Seriously, though, it's tough to get back into learning, but as long as you commit yourself to it, you'll be fine. Going back is a serious pain in the finances. However, you have to look at it as an investment in your future. Short term pain for long term gain.
Also, try to keep the work schedule you are used to. If you worked a 9-5 job, try to stay on campus 9-5. Going to school IS a full time job. (Going to classes is just a part of that job). Don't let yourself fall out of the "40 hours a week of work" attitude.
You RTFA, nerds. At last, those extra pounds will come in handy. No longer is it a beer gut-- it's a new video card. It's not a fat ass-- it's a 200 GB Maxtor hard drive.
The internet goes back to around 1970, but TCP/IP was invented in 1983. This gave us truely scalable routing and a seperate (therefore optional) transfer layer. The internet wouldn't be able to do all the useful things it does now if it still ran NCP.
So, let me get this straight. You think that CNN will actually know the difference between a protocol and the network that utilizes it?
And the sounds coming from your radio are caused by vibrations in the air. Don't believe me? Take your radio into a total vaccuum with you. Have the Spatula Guy let me know how it turns out.
They don't bat an eye at helping yourself to serviettes or sugar but a little juice gets a 'leeching' tag?
Intersting note: On campus, there is a cafe that charges for napkins, cream, water refils-- anything. They "get away with it" because they're the only cafe on campus (it's a small campus).
Of course, the minute they implimented that policy, every resteraunt in a five block radius saw a huge jump in buisness.
Or as the students put it: "You want me to pay $.25 for a napkin? Fuck you, I'm going across the street!" =)
Honestly, if these people are stupid enough to not realize their e-mails can be monitored by their employer (using their employer's servers, blackberries, etc), then thank god they got caught before they could set up an investment firm.
"Sorry we lost all your money. We didn't realize that stocks could go *down*!"
Okay, let me get this straight. Lokitorrent was able to raise $30,000 USD in DONATIONS in, what, four days, to fight the MPAA-- and so rather than opening iMovies, these frog-fkuckers decide to spend their money on trying to make it hard to copy material?
What a marvellous advance this will be! At long last, 128-bit encryption will be broken. And all it will take is the concentrated effort of 10,000 geeks whose Enterprise episodes get encrypted.
Since you're familiar with the law in this area, perhaps you can answer a question that's been bugging me. In the MPAA's bout of "take down" notices to.torrent sites, they keep saying "bring the evidence or we'll levy sanctions against you" (paraphrase).
So, exactly how can a corporation levy "sanctions" against a person for "destroying" evidence in a civil case (assuming some of these cases end up being civil)? What are they going to do, blockade his house?
Is this just an empty threat? Or is it pure stupidity, akin to Police Chief Wiggum telling Homer to bring that evidence to court, or they have no case?
Is copyright infringement a felony offense? I thought it was more of a civil issue and resulted in fines and such?
Copyright infringment is a civil offence unless the accused was profiting off the copyrighting. Then it becomes a criminal offense, and can be prosecuted as such.
Slashdot Mirror
AP - "The Postmaster General has be fined $250,000,000 and sentenced to 578,000,000 years in prison in a landmark IP case. Spokesman for the prosecution, Lars "Asshat" Ulrich, said in a public statement 'He didn't take reasonable percautions to protect my money, and now I'm gonna skullfuck his children!'
Hmm. I'm not touching this one.
Jan 19, 2005: Tune into your local radio station today to hear the latest single from BMG! Britney Spears' "Badgers Badgers Badgers!"
Virus Writers: 1
Masturbators: 0
Eliminating all the problems you speak of is easy: Instead of rebooting into Linux-- just run Linux all the time.
No matter where you go [today], there it is.
Of course, HL2 will be on the Windows partition...
In the real world, sure. But these are *AA lawsuits we're talking about...
As much as it sucks, it's "alright" for the *AA to put up a file, wait for someone to download it, then sue them. It's not ethical or just, but they can do it. This is a sting. It's the same as an undercover officer posing as a hooker, then arresting someone who propositions her. In that case, she is there as a law is being wilfully broken by someone.
Unless the officer goes up to someone and says "Do you want to have sex with me for money?". THEN it is entrapment. In that case, the officer is coercing or encouraging someone to break a law, which they may not have done in the first place.
If the *AA were to entrap people, they would have to send you an email saying "I have Daredevil to download, click here to do it.", or something similar. Then they are inviting you to break the "law", and are entraping you.
One could argue that making a file available to download from a P2P is "inviting the law to be broken", but it wouldn't stand up in court. Their lawyers would just argue that the IP-infringer knew what they were doing, because they wilfully typed the name of a copyrighted movie into a search engine, and that search engine exists to allow someone who /wants/ to download something find it.
There's lots of ways to fight one of these lawsuits. Entrapment isn't one of them.
PS: Just to make things clear... screw the *AAs. I am in no way advocating what they are doing is right-- I'm just providing advice on how to kick their butts. =)
Should they be allowed to instruct humans to bite their shiny, metal asses?
1) Typically, how do graduate admissions officials view work experience? Note that I haven't been working as a Computer Engineer but as a Software Engineer.
Usually, they don't. Most universities don't concider work experience to be equivilant to credits. Prior training/certifications might. Colleges, however, tend to look more favorably on work experience.
However, all is not in vain. Most institutes, college or university, have "Prior Learning Assesments", or PLAs. This gives you the oppertunity to show that you have the equivilant knowledge of a course already. It differes institution to institution, but basically, the way it works is:
- You say you want to PLA a course
- You convince the dean that you have the knowledge to do this
- You pay a fee
- You write the final exam
- You get a credit or you don't.
I manage to PLA 1/2 of a 3 year diploma based on prior experience.
3) I'd like to hear from people who've done this, i.e. quit their jobs and gone back to get a higher engineering degree. What problems did you face and what advice do you have?
99% of the students are going to be young whippersnappers. =) Seriously, though, it's tough to get back into learning, but as long as you commit yourself to it, you'll be fine. Going back is a serious pain in the finances. However, you have to look at it as an investment in your future. Short term pain for long term gain.
Also, try to keep the work schedule you are used to. If you worked a 9-5 job, try to stay on campus 9-5. Going to school IS a full time job. (Going to classes is just a part of that job). Don't let yourself fall out of the "40 hours a week of work" attitude.
On a side note: ew.
Ahhhahahah! hahahaha! hahahaha...ooooo, just shoot me now.
ICE CREAM!!!!
For the first person who physically visits one of these cameras and posts a sign in front of it that reads "FSCK YOU /. VOYERS!"
You're looking for links to girls, right?
Yeah, I thought so.
Oh, how I wish I was joking...
Come on, don't you guys watch Xena? It's always Evil Wizards!
So, let me get this straight. You think that CNN will actually know the difference between a protocol and the network that utilizes it?
Bwhahahahahahahahaha!
And the sounds coming from your radio are caused by vibrations in the air. Don't believe me? Take your radio into a total vaccuum with you. Have the Spatula Guy let me know how it turns out.
If you play music, can the RIAA sue the air for abetting the distribution of copyrighted material?
Intersting note: On campus, there is a cafe that charges for napkins, cream, water refils-- anything. They "get away with it" because they're the only cafe on campus (it's a small campus).
Of course, the minute they implimented that policy, every resteraunt in a five block radius saw a huge jump in buisness.
Or as the students put it: "You want me to pay $.25 for a napkin? Fuck you, I'm going across the street!" =)
"Sorry we lost all your money. We didn't realize that stocks could go *down*!"
Okay, let me get this straight. Lokitorrent was able to raise $30,000 USD in DONATIONS in, what, four days, to fight the MPAA-- and so rather than opening iMovies, these frog-fkuckers decide to spend their money on trying to make it hard to copy material?
What a marvellous advance this will be! At long last, 128-bit encryption will be broken. And all it will take is the concentrated effort of 10,000 geeks whose Enterprise episodes get encrypted.
Since you're familiar with the law in this area, perhaps you can answer a question that's been bugging me. In the MPAA's bout of "take down" notices to .torrent sites, they keep saying "bring the evidence or we'll levy sanctions against you" (paraphrase).
So, exactly how can a corporation levy "sanctions" against a person for "destroying" evidence in a civil case (assuming some of these cases end up being civil)? What are they going to do, blockade his house?
Is this just an empty threat? Or is it pure stupidity, akin to Police Chief Wiggum telling Homer to bring that evidence to court, or they have no case?
Seriously, wtf are they talking about?
And thanks for the info.
Is copyright infringement a felony offense? I thought it was more of a civil issue and resulted in fines and such? Copyright infringment is a civil offence unless the accused was profiting off the copyrighting. Then it becomes a criminal offense, and can be prosecuted as such.