As I said, no one is advocating piracy except for the odd kook. What they want is the right to use their media on their iPods, car cd players and computers without having to buy a special version for each. Will some use the tool for piracy. Yes. On the other hand, people are stabbed to death with steak knives and we don't ban their manufacture. Now those things really do hurt people.
Make countries flinch? Now that's lunacy. No one wants a war over something so dumb, but attacking their infrastructure will leave them no choice. And they are not all Iraqs and Afghanistans. Escalation is never a good thing unless you truly mean to follow through and that would be truly stupid. Pressuring them economically is just as foolish when you are running such high deficits. I won't even answer the goofiness that war is justified over something so dumb as IP. Necessary, at times yes, but over true injustice or defence of the realm. IP comes and goes. The free exchange of idea is what got us out of the caves. Get a clue, the EU rejected a constitution and a software patent law that pushed them towards American style capitalism. Get a clue. Most of the world tries to balance between people and business. How many Slashdot links do you want that show the US administration is getting loopy about how it treat business versus people.
Stopping nationalization of middle eastern countries oil supplies in the 50's would have stopped Islamic terrorism? Now that is loopy. Read Leon Uris. The Haj specifically. He actually describes the birth of terrorism in the camps of Palestine just after it was handed over to Israel. Stopping nationalization by force would have galvanized the movement sooner. Terrorism in the middle east started well before the 50's. And that Suez canal thing didn't turn out so hot either.
I could go on, but you need to get off the computer and see a therapist.
Flamebait I see, especially on this site. Immoral? Don't make me laugh. The US trying to jam it's laws, which are designed to protect corporate nabobs not artists, down their throats is immoral. Especially when they piss on other countries laws regularly. Illegal, only in the US and a couple of other countries.
Guess what cowboy? Slashdot is not the only place on the net where this info will be found. You believe Slashdot lives in a vacuum?
Further, to the vast majority of the planet, the US is a foreign government of questionable ethics. You are hard of thinking. Economic sanctions against the rest of the world, with your dependence on foreign oil etc. That's smart.
As for attacking other countries communications infrastructure. I believe that is called an act of war.
Also for the record. People here are not saying that artists should do their work for free. Just that when they buy it, they should be able to use the product on the equipment they own in the way they choose.
The irony is that a lot of the drugs sold in the US are manufactured in Canada to begin with. I live in Winnipeg and just thirty miles southwest of the city is the Biovail plant that makes all the Viagra that's sold in North America. They also make a lot of anti-depressants and other drugs that are sold throughout the continent.
It is all true, and not just in the states. I notice this in Canada as well. It is probably for a number of reasons, and one of the reasons it is most often noticed on the net (and through e-mail) is that more people are probably writing than in the days of pen and ink communication. In business, back in the day, they had secretaries and the like to do the grunt work of written communication. Now, secretaries are an oddity. The answer of course, is to use your spelling and grammar checker, but a lot of people can't be bothered (not to many many are not very accurate). Boards like this one are also the victims, I think, of people doing five things at one on their computer and not paying much attention to any of them.
Add to this that we seem to be dumbing down education in the school system, especially in use of English and you have a real mess. Some of the handouts my kids bring home from school contain some of the goofiest errors. Now that makes me weep.
Vocabulary too, is shrinking. I have been stunned to find that many kids don't know the meaning of many common words. While the hallmark of good communication is the use of plain, simple language, the key to that is to use the right word, not a string of meaningless adjectives and adverbs.
Both parties are to blame here in terms of putting in the judges who ruled to rip away people's homes for business. This is disgusting and whatever commercial enterprise goes up should be shunned by the locals.
Things is, linux will always be behind in the public's eye because Apple and Microsoft are recognized brands. All these distros of linux are just so not what the computer buying public wants. The is no standard linux gui that the public relates to, and the tendency of the linux community to eat its own pretty much ensures none are coming soon.
You can howl all you wants, but the hardware and software makers are going to follow the money trail and that leads to the general public who view computers as on the level of toasters.
I read the other day that Apple's brand was valued at 5.1 billion (much due to the ipod). I have no idea what MS's is worth.
With MS's exemplary record of security, this tech will never fall into the wrong hands. The MPAA and RIAA can sleep well at night knowing that the security of their movies and music is as sound as a dollar.
Really, building this thing is not about the market. They'll build a few. The flights will sell out for the short term, then the novelty will wear off.
Really it's the same reason the Chinese are scratching at space, the Europeans are scanning Saturn, and the US is poking about Mars. The act of doing these things advances your society's science and technology.
The CRIA and RIAA are suffering from the same flawed thinking, that is:
(1) Coerce/buy anti-copying/downloading/sharing rules from the government (2) Consumers will be forced to buy your product (3) Profit!
Well, as DCMA and lawsuits hasn't stopped filesharing in the US, I suspect that any provisions trying to stop it in Canada will have about the same effect. Better and new anonymous methods of downloading will come, and on and on it will go. However, even if they did succeed in stopping sharing etc, the result would more likely be:
(1) Tougher laws brought in (2) Public apathy towards the industry products continues including lack of sales, save the odd star wars type blockbuster (music will always exist, but the days of the mega-star is over) (3) Continued financial decline and disinterest!
The media industries will cry foul over the latest downloading tactic etc, while the public at large continues to not care.
If you think about it, outside of forums like these, the general public hasn't cared about these issues since the napster days. I don't see that changing.
Maybe we are good at economics, and maybe we're not, but you're talking to people who freaked out and demanded their money back at the theatre when they found out that Kill Bill had nothing to do with Mr. Gates.
I don't think anyone is deifying apple. And I think you're right in that most of the major manufacturers will support this in the long run. On the other hand, as long as computing is a two way street in that you can add your own programming, the fight will go on and this too shall be hacked either through custom bios, or some other such thing.
If geeks can get the xbox to run linux, they can certainly wrestle anything that intel's (or anyone else's) monkeys come up with.
As for Apple, they are a business just like any other.
Bad news, most consumers wouldn't know a DRM from a BTU. Not unless they have a geek friend to tell them. There is a reason the Dell sells so many computers loaded with windows and it's the reason this will hit the mass market unimpeded. Most people just want to browse the net and send old jokes and chain letters back and forth with their friends.
We sometimes forget here on slashdot that most of the people on the net don't know the innards of their machine think things like spyware are what James Bond has in his closet.
How can someone be taken by surprise by marketing hype anymore? Be it films, software, hardware, cars or drugs. There is an industry out there who's existence is tied to convincing you to buy someone's crap.
Generally, the more something is hyped, the less likely I am to believe the claims.
Just what do you think legal opinion is? What do you think judging is? Rarely is an case so cut and dried so as to require no opinion. It is up to the judge to examine a case, weigh it in regard to the intent of the law, and render a verdict which is in fact, an opinion. If your lawyer (or yourself) disagrees, you can file an appeal.
If the government passes a law so vague as to give a multitude of interpretations, generally it's a poor law and they revisit and redefine it.
This whole issue becomes problematic very fast. No one here will work for nothing and I think everybody agrees that the artists and the companies that represent them require cash flow to keep them working and providing us with the entertainment we want. It really comes down to what is reasonable.
Certainly the MPAA saying that bitorrent is wrecking Star Wars profitability is ludicrous. People will go to see Star Wars because in their mind, it is worth ponying up the cash and going and seeing it on the big screen. Other movies, well, how many movies have you seen that you have walked away from feeling ripped off? Too many for me. But there are shows that I will pay for and movies I will see. What Women Want starring Mel anyone?
Same goes for music. Motley Crue is suing NBC for lousy record sales. Could it be due to that fact they haven't done anything worth listening to in years? These arguments have been made over and over, but nothing changes.
In the end, criminalizing people for pulling down some songs or shows from the net is rather pointless. The RIAA and MPAA may make few examples of a few sites and people, but end up spawning a new tech that is even harder to track down and block. And like most punishments, after a while, people get inured to it and it loses its effectiveness as a deterrent. Going after big counterfeiters is more difficult no doubt, but really, that is where these organizations should focus their efforts rather than alienating a public that they want to woo. People have swapped tapes of all kinds for ages, and this isn't going to stop anytime soon.
As for activist judges. The reason most countries had the foresight to make the judiciary a separate branch of the government is because government and the law have butted heads for much longer than any of us here have been alive. The notion that the government should be able to force it's will on the courts has been rejected in most civilized countries. It is one of the cornerstones of democracy and people of all political stripes should have that foursquare in their minds when they read stories such as this.
This issue is not going to go away. How many years has it been since Napster?
I RTFA and it was short, short on words and detail. More went on than in those three-four paragraphs.
Anyway, I don't think anybody has to go to bed worrying that the mere presence of PGP will get them charged with anything. Nor will it make much difference in sentencing.
Yes, to post this story on slashdot is to invite vitriol. Slashdot is where Bill Gates is held responsible for all the cybercrime in the world, held responsible for Linux never being able to break beyond it's fringe OS status among the general public, responsible for the Mac never being more than a niche machine. It is also believed in this place that Billy made all his money by stealing the ideas, hopes and dream of countless geeks and using their blood, guts and fat to grease the gears of MS's machinery.
Billy will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
In most jurisdictions, you do need a license to have a concealed weapon and in some you don't. The point was that in most jurisdictions, something legal becomes illegal when you use it in a crime. Did he use it to hide the kiddie porn, fact is we don't exactly know what he encrypted, unless you were at the trial.
Slashdot Mirror
As I said, no one is advocating piracy except for the odd kook. What they want is the right to use their media on their iPods, car cd players and computers without having to buy a special version for each. Will some use the tool for piracy. Yes. On the other hand, people are stabbed to death with steak knives and we don't ban their manufacture. Now those things really do hurt people.
Make countries flinch? Now that's lunacy. No one wants a war over something so dumb, but attacking their infrastructure will leave them no choice. And they are not all Iraqs and Afghanistans. Escalation is never a good thing unless you truly mean to follow through and that would be truly stupid. Pressuring them economically is just as foolish when you are running such high deficits. I won't even answer the goofiness that war is justified over something so dumb as IP. Necessary, at times yes, but over true injustice or defence of the realm. IP comes and goes. The free exchange of idea is what got us out of the caves. Get a clue, the EU rejected a constitution and a software patent law that pushed them towards American style capitalism. Get a clue. Most of the world tries to balance between people and business. How many Slashdot links do you want that show the US administration is getting loopy about how it treat business versus people.
Stopping nationalization of middle eastern countries oil supplies in the 50's would have stopped Islamic terrorism? Now that is loopy. Read Leon Uris. The Haj specifically. He actually describes the birth of terrorism in the camps of Palestine just after it was handed over to Israel. Stopping nationalization by force would have galvanized the movement sooner. Terrorism in the middle east started well before the 50's. And that Suez canal thing didn't turn out so hot either.
I could go on, but you need to get off the computer and see a therapist.
Flamebait I see, especially on this site. Immoral? Don't make me laugh. The US trying to jam it's laws, which are designed to protect corporate nabobs not artists, down their throats is immoral. Especially when they piss on other countries laws regularly. Illegal, only in the US and a couple of other countries.
Guess what cowboy? Slashdot is not the only place on the net where this info will be found. You believe Slashdot lives in a vacuum?
Further, to the vast majority of the planet, the US is a foreign government of questionable ethics. You are hard of thinking. Economic sanctions against the rest of the world, with your dependence on foreign oil etc. That's smart.
As for attacking other countries communications infrastructure. I believe that is called an act of war.
Also for the record. People here are not saying that artists should do their work for free. Just that when they buy it, they should be able to use the product on the equipment they own in the way they choose.
Upwind fortunately. There are also a lot of hog farms in that area.
The irony is that a lot of the drugs sold in the US are manufactured in Canada to begin with. I live in Winnipeg and just thirty miles southwest of the city is the Biovail plant that makes all the Viagra that's sold in North America. They also make a lot of anti-depressants and other drugs that are sold throughout the continent.
It is all true, and not just in the states. I notice this in Canada as well. It is probably for a number of reasons, and one of the reasons it is most often noticed on the net (and through e-mail) is that more people are probably writing than in the days of pen and ink communication. In business, back in the day, they had secretaries and the like to do the grunt work of written communication. Now, secretaries are an oddity. The answer of course, is to use your spelling and grammar checker, but a lot of people can't be bothered (not to many many are not very accurate).
Boards like this one are also the victims, I think, of people doing five things at one on their computer and not paying much attention to any of them.
Add to this that we seem to be dumbing down education in the school system, especially in use of English and you have a real mess. Some of the handouts my kids bring home from school contain some of the goofiest errors. Now that makes me weep.
Vocabulary too, is shrinking. I have been stunned to find that many kids don't know the meaning of many common words. While the hallmark of good communication is the use of plain, simple language, the key to that is to use the right word, not a string of meaningless adjectives and adverbs.
Anyway, that's my take though I could go on.
Both parties are to blame here in terms of putting in the judges who ruled to rip away people's homes for business. This is disgusting and whatever commercial enterprise goes up should be shunned by the locals.
Things is, linux will always be behind in the public's eye because Apple and Microsoft are recognized brands. All these distros of linux are just so not what the computer buying public wants. The is no standard linux gui that the public relates to, and the tendency of the linux community to eat its own pretty much ensures none are coming soon.
You can howl all you wants, but the hardware and software makers are going to follow the money trail and that leads to the general public who view computers as on the level of toasters.
I read the other day that Apple's brand was valued at 5.1 billion (much due to the ipod). I have no idea what MS's is worth.
Anyone who watches old sci-fi knows that the aliens with the huge brains are always miles ahead of humanity in the smarts department
With MS's exemplary record of security, this tech will never fall into the wrong hands. The MPAA and RIAA can sleep well at night knowing that the security of their movies and music is as sound as a dollar.
This is the way we hack the code,
hack the code,
hack the code,
This is the way we hack the code,
And pull down all our movies
Thanks Mr. Bill!
Really, building this thing is not about the market. They'll build a few. The flights will sell out for the short term, then the novelty will wear off.
Really it's the same reason the Chinese are scratching at space, the Europeans are scanning Saturn, and the US is poking about Mars. The act of doing these things advances your society's science and technology.
The CRIA and RIAA are suffering from the same flawed thinking, that is:
(1) Coerce/buy anti-copying/downloading/sharing rules from the government
(2) Consumers will be forced to buy your product
(3) Profit!
Well, as DCMA and lawsuits hasn't stopped filesharing in the US, I suspect that any provisions trying to stop it in Canada will have about the same effect. Better and new anonymous methods of downloading will come, and on and on it will go. However, even if they did succeed in stopping sharing etc, the result would more likely be:
(1) Tougher laws brought in
(2) Public apathy towards the industry products continues including lack of sales, save the odd star wars type blockbuster (music will always exist, but the days of the mega-star is over)
(3) Continued financial decline and disinterest!
The media industries will cry foul over the latest downloading tactic etc, while the public at large continues to not care.
If you think about it, outside of forums like these, the general public hasn't cared about these issues since the napster days. I don't see that changing.
The mighty chain gun was born of the the original gatling gun. Ultimately, this will be very scary.
When talkiing about computers, the plural is mouses.
I didn't invent the language.
They also believe Elvis runs a night club with Marilyn Monroe in Topeka.
Maybe we are good at economics, and maybe we're not, but you're talking to people who freaked out and demanded their money back at the theatre when they found out that Kill Bill had nothing to do with Mr. Gates.
I don't think anyone is deifying apple. And I think you're right in that most of the major manufacturers will support this in the long run. On the other hand, as long as computing is a two way street in that you can add your own programming, the fight will go on and this too shall be hacked either through custom bios, or some other such thing. If geeks can get the xbox to run linux, they can certainly wrestle anything that intel's (or anyone else's) monkeys come up with. As for Apple, they are a business just like any other.
Bad news, most consumers wouldn't know a DRM from a BTU. Not unless they have a geek friend to tell them. There is a reason the Dell sells so many computers loaded with windows and it's the reason this will hit the mass market unimpeded. Most people just want to browse the net and send old jokes and chain letters back and forth with their friends.
We sometimes forget here on slashdot that most of the people on the net don't know the innards of their machine think things like spyware are what James Bond has in his closet.
How can someone be taken by surprise by marketing hype anymore? Be it films, software, hardware, cars or drugs. There is an industry out there who's existence is tied to convincing you to buy someone's crap.
Generally, the more something is hyped, the less likely I am to believe the claims.
Just what do you think legal opinion is? What do you think judging is? Rarely is an case so cut and dried so as to require no opinion. It is up to the judge to examine a case, weigh it in regard to the intent of the law, and render a verdict which is in fact, an opinion. If your lawyer (or yourself) disagrees, you can file an appeal.
If the government passes a law so vague as to give a multitude of interpretations, generally it's a poor law and they revisit and redefine it.
This whole issue becomes problematic very fast. No one here will work for nothing and I think everybody agrees that the artists and the companies that represent them require cash flow to keep them working and providing us with the entertainment we want. It really comes down to what is reasonable.
Certainly the MPAA saying that bitorrent is wrecking Star Wars profitability is ludicrous. People will go to see Star Wars because in their mind, it is worth ponying up the cash and going and seeing it on the big screen. Other movies, well, how many movies have you seen that you have walked away from feeling ripped off? Too many for me. But there are shows that I will pay for and movies I will see. What Women Want starring Mel anyone?
Same goes for music. Motley Crue is suing NBC for lousy record sales. Could it be due to that fact they haven't done anything worth listening to in years? These arguments have been made over and over, but nothing changes.
In the end, criminalizing people for pulling down some songs or shows from the net is rather pointless. The RIAA and MPAA may make few examples of a few sites and people, but end up spawning a new tech that is even harder to track down and block. And like most punishments, after a while, people get inured to it and it loses its effectiveness as a deterrent. Going after big counterfeiters is more difficult no doubt, but really, that is where these organizations should focus their efforts rather than alienating a public that they want to woo. People have swapped tapes of all kinds for ages, and this isn't going to stop anytime soon.
As for activist judges. The reason most countries had the foresight to make the judiciary a separate branch of the government is because government and the law have butted heads for much longer than any of us here have been alive. The notion that the government should be able to force it's will on the courts has been rejected in most civilized countries. It is one of the cornerstones of democracy and people of all political stripes should have that foursquare in their minds when they read stories such as this.
This issue is not going to go away. How many years has it been since Napster?
I RTFA and it was short, short on words and detail. More went on than in those three-four paragraphs.
Anyway, I don't think anybody has to go to bed worrying that the mere presence of PGP will get them charged with anything. Nor will it make much difference in sentencing.
Why not? That campaign was wildly successful, wasn't it?
Yes, to post this story on slashdot is to invite vitriol. Slashdot is where Bill Gates is held responsible for all the cybercrime in the world, held responsible for Linux never being able to break beyond it's fringe OS status among the general public, responsible for the Mac never being more than a niche machine. It is also believed in this place that Billy made all his money by stealing the ideas, hopes and dream of countless geeks and using their blood, guts and fat to grease the gears of MS's machinery.
Billy will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
In most jurisdictions, you do need a license to have a concealed weapon and in some you don't. The point was that in most jurisdictions, something legal becomes illegal when you use it in a crime. Did he use it to hide the kiddie porn, fact is we don't exactly know what he encrypted, unless you were at the trial.