You've got a good point there. Hopefully, USB flash cards keychains will go the same way as the pocket electronic calculator - so cheap that they can give them away.
This way, there won't be a need to fumble around copying stuff.
Mine downloads at 650Kbytes/sec. However, the torrent will NEVER supply that.
If you're connected for only a few seconds, you'll get almost nothing, as it takes time for the others to see you and start feeding you data. 30 seconds won't get you anything useable on most torrents - certainly not anything you can watch.
As for the rest, most of the world doesn't live in the USA, and we're not covered by USC 17 or any other US law.
Where I live, downloading music has been ruled by the courts to be legal. We pay a levee on blank CDs, which is given to the music industry in compensation.
The 30 seconds of download results in less than a second of video, even on a cable modem - unuseable.
It also cannot be combined with other bits without the help of a tracker. If they're supplying the tracker, they're the ones distributing their copyright material. There is no legislation in place that would allow them to do this, then cry foul.
The police do not have the discretion to enforce civil matters. No matter how much the **AA screams and moans, copyright violations where the product is not resold are not criminal in many jurisdictions (like 95% of the population of the planet who do not live within the purview of the DMCA, PATRIOT, etc.).
I don't know if this would be a problem for the blind, but I think they might have ifficulty putting th cd in right-side-up
So they'll have a friend copy it to a usb flash card keychain. Completely legal to copy under their exemption.
Also, it will be much easier to make multiple copies that way than it would to burn multiple CDs.
And a LOT easier on the environment. The flash card can be rewritten, and people can even customize their list of works on the card. Don't like something, you only delete the part you don't want, and can save the rest.
Trust me - if you've ever dealt with someone who is vision-impaired, especialy if they have other impairments, like motor function. you do NOT want to give them a CD. Even if the CD could survive, your "coffee-cup holder" would get broken. The flash card will survive, even if they step on it or roll a wheelchair over it.
You must be new here - this is slashdot - literacy is optional.
Back on-topic - Forget audio books, I'm still waiting for the swimsuit calanders for the blind (though how they'll fit that on a flash card is beyond me).
I can understand why they want flash cards instead of mini hard drives. Mini hard drive capacity is going up rapidly, so there's no profit to make, say, a 128mb mini hard drive, and a 60gig hard drive is overkill.
Additionally, flash cards are getting dirt cheap. Remember those 8 and 16 meg flash cards? Try to find one - even a 128meg card is dirt cheap, and can only get cheaper.
If they distribute the file to me, they can't say my copy is infringing, as I obtained it from the copyright holder, who gave it to me knowingly.
The command-line client (at least under linux) has lots of options - no need to hack it. Just run the client w/o a response file.
Now, they will know that I've obtained a copy from them (albeit in this case it is now a legit copy). The next problem is for them to prove that I've distributed it to someone else. Kind of difficult, since they can't even watermark the file they've given me without it being different from the file everyone else is getting - so I wouldn't be able to distribute it to an existing torrent even if I wanted to. And neither would they.
So what are they going to do? The only thing they can do is a "honeypot". But then, they're distributing their own copyrighted material, so they can't say I'm violating their copyright in making a copy of something they've offered me a copy of.
The 30 seconds can't be used. Without the rest of the file, or at least a substantial portion of it, it's just random bits, so there is no "manner in which you use it" Can't be played, viewed, etc.:-)
The police would not be smashing down your door. No matter what the **AA says, copyright infringement is copyright infringement, a civil matter, not theft , which is criminal... There's not even a "conspiracy", as there is no "meeting of the minds" necessary to conspire.
??? - Profit (I'm not going to be the one to break/. tradition:-)
they contributed to the uploading... and since they are the copyright owners, and contributed the upload, the part that was contributed is okay to download (same as any code SCO knowingly put in linux)
they didn't get enough data from EACH client to verify that EACH client was leeching enough to make it beyond "fair use".
One of the "problems" with bt is that, if I already have a chunk, I don't get to grab that same chunk again from another source. So, if 10,000 people are sharing, say, a 1-gig file, the average chunk I'll get from any one person is 100 k - or, in the case of a movie, less than a half-second's worth. Hardly proof of substantial infringement. Actually, hardly proof of anything. They certainly cannot state that you have, from a half-seconds' worth of data - data that, btw,
without the rest of the file, is unuseable - copied their movie.
There is only one way to accurately track the use of a file on BitTorrent, and that is to have a complete block of data sent from your BT client to the intellectual property tracking company's BT client. As you start uploading straight away, there is a high probability that your client could send data to the "wrong person".
Since they're also uploading, they'd have a hard time arguing that you're breaking their copyright - they're helping distribute their copyright material...
That's the real problem with going after torrent users. Unless the accuser actually downloads the file from the same torrent, they have no proof that the file is actually what it says. Once they do this, though, they are distributing their material knowingly.
So,
Movie studio downloads file using
bittorrent
Accuses other torrent users of copyright violation.
Defendants show that accuser was sharing the file with them via bittorrent
I opine that the only people who would be effected by this "laptop effect", are people who already have fertility issues, and need to maintain an extreme optimal enivornment to increase their chances of conception.
Sperm counts are down for the general population, and have shown a dramatic drop in the last 35 years. More and more people are going to have fertility issues.
Heck, even the fish are having problems (reduced sperm count) because of estrogen from birth control pills in sewage, as well as estrogen-mimicing pollutants.
I prescribe more porn. It will at least get the laptop off their lap.
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This way, there won't be a need to fumble around copying stuff.
If you're connected for only a few seconds, you'll get almost nothing, as it takes time for the others to see you and start feeding you data. 30 seconds won't get you anything useable on most torrents - certainly not anything you can watch.
As for the rest, most of the world doesn't live in the USA, and we're not covered by USC 17 or any other US law.
Where I live, downloading music has been ruled by the courts to be legal. We pay a levee on blank CDs, which is given to the music industry in compensation.
So try to prosecute me for downloading music.
The police do not have the discretion to enforce civil matters. No matter how much the **AA screams and moans, copyright violations where the product is not resold are not criminal in many jurisdictions (like 95% of the population of the planet who do not live within the purview of the DMCA, PATRIOT, etc.).
Also, it will be much easier to make multiple copies that way than it would to burn multiple CDs.
And a LOT easier on the environment. The flash card can be rewritten, and people can even customize their list of works on the card. Don't like something, you only delete the part you don't want, and can save the rest.
Trust me - if you've ever dealt with someone who is vision-impaired, especialy if they have other impairments, like motor function. you do NOT want to give them a CD. Even if the CD could survive, your "coffee-cup holder" would get broken. The flash card will survive, even if they step on it or roll a wheelchair over it.
Back on-topic - Forget audio books, I'm still waiting for the swimsuit calanders for the blind (though how they'll fit that on a flash card is beyond me).
I can understand why they want flash cards instead of mini hard drives. Mini hard drive capacity is going up rapidly, so there's no profit to make, say, a 128mb mini hard drive, and a 60gig hard drive is overkill.
Additionally, flash cards are getting dirt cheap. Remember those 8 and 16 meg flash cards? Try to find one - even a 128meg card is dirt cheap, and can only get cheaper.
The command-line client (at least under linux) has lots of options - no need to hack it. Just run the client w/o a response file.
Now, they will know that I've obtained a copy from them (albeit in this case it is now a legit copy). The next problem is for them to prove that I've distributed it to someone else. Kind of difficult, since they can't even watermark the file they've given me without it being different from the file everyone else is getting - so I wouldn't be able to distribute it to an existing torrent even if I wanted to. And neither would they.
So what are they going to do? The only thing they can do is a "honeypot". But then, they're distributing their own copyrighted material, so they can't say I'm violating their copyright in making a copy of something they've offered me a copy of.
Of course, YMMV, etc.
After all, maybe you only got 30 seconds worth before YOU disconected/were bumped from the torrent, and the 30 seconds of material came from them.
There's a big difference between a suspicion and proof.
That's the real problem with going after torrent users. Unless the accuser actually downloads the file from the same torrent, they have no proof that the file is actually what it says. Once they do this, though, they are distributing their material knowingly.
So,
Heck, even the fish are having problems (reduced sperm count) because of estrogen from birth control pills in sewage, as well as estrogen-mimicing pollutants.
I prescribe more porn. It will at least get the laptop off their lap.
Security through server meltdown?