Agreed. Consumers need to be protected, virtually no matter what it is you're buying.
Here in the US of A, many of those protections have been stripped, and you can see what is beginning to happen over here. Actually I'm in the UK, and we have reasonable consumer protection laws, an example being that if I buy faulty goods over £100 on credit card, not only is the retailer liable, so is the credit card company. We also have strict laws governing advertising. I'm unfamiliar with the situation in the USA, but here most shops will allow me return goods for almost any reason (in addition to any statutory protections). Not only is this good for the consumer, it also makes commercial sense as it doesn't cost much, but builds up good will.
TFA talks about the The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman, then goes on to say "Many other EU member countries". Norway is, however, in the EEA so may implements much EU regulation anyway, but get your facts right, please./rant
back on topic, this is a good thing, just because I buy something online doesn't mean I should have lees consumer protection than if I buy it physically.
jay-walkers Yeah, I'd say that criminalising pedestrians for crossing the road, where and when they feel like it is absurd. In fact, they are exactly
just people doing what comes natural And thank god my government agrees. Say what you like about the UK government, but at least they haven't yet legislated to stop me using my brain to decide where to cross the street whenever it's convenient.
This is exactly the same, it's a stupid law that imposes a stupid restriction on the majority (pedestrians\citizens), for the sake of a minority(drivers\corporations).
Because it once had more than one type of legal human person So did Germany (well they had more than one type of person, but it wasn't really legal to be one), but as the GP said they manage. I'm not entirely familiar about corporate law here in the UK, but we can certainly distinguish between them and "normal" people. US law in this area is just screwed up, albeit for good historical reasons (I'm not US bashing, we've got many screwed up laws here in the UK as well).
There was a great documentary on UK TV last night by Jeremey Clarkson about America. His conclusion was that Americans often mate with vegtables, carry guns, are stupid and that no one should visit if they can help it.
One particular incident in Alabama where they encountered rock throwing sub-humans in a petrol ( or as they call it 'gas' ) station who didn't agree with them that "Country & Western music is rubbish, Nascar sucks and that Man Love Rules OK" is probably indicative of the moronic level of most American citizens. I seriously hope you realise that Top Gear is light entertainment, not a documentary. But yes, I watched it last night as well, and it was hilarious.
Actually all EU countries are signatories to the European convention on human rights. article 10 states;
Article 10 - Freedom of expression
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary. http://www.echr.info/
So our rights to free speech although not as unrestricted as in the USA are guaranteed to some extent (bare in mind that the above was written in 1950, so reflects the attitudes of that time).
Everything... open to everyone... all the time. If that includes the actions of those at the top. i.e. if I can monitor the actions of the Prime Minister and various top members of military and "intelligence" services; I'm not sure how much I'd mind, as in a population of 60mn how likely is it that I'm being monitored compared with those who are in the public eye (in other words those with power)? That would be real accountability.
Well they're already one better than the proposed UK ID database. What's the world coming to when China is giving public oversight to a huge ID scheme, and here in the UK the government won't even release it's proposed spending plans on it?
As I said to someone above, Indonesia can deny Visas to the employees of said pharma companies. It's not easy to get a US or UK Visa, why should it be easy to get an Indonesian one, especially if you're there to undermine the Indonesian governments policies?
Religions have come about because people are afraid of their own deaths. That's why most religions revolve around some kind of immortality......reincarnation. At least in my religion, Hinduism, the whole point of reincarnation that we are trying to break free of it. Admittedly the whole basis of the train of thought is an immortal soul, so it's not the reincarnation part that you should consider "selfish", rather the concept of the soul; interestingly a concept contained within most religions in one way or another.
Mods on crack! Read the link, parent is not a troll, off-topic*, yes, but not troll; I think he was going for funny, and it made me laugh. But read before you mod people (either up or down).
*as is this post, feel free to waste mod points to mod it down, but at least mark it correctly.
I think it's an Americanism, I'm a Brit, and the only place I ever see that phrase is here on slashdot. Here in the UK, "I couldn't care less" is the way the saying goes.
I think the big wake up call should be the fact that Big Pharma is spending more on marketing their drugs than on developing them in the first place. Well, thankfully here in the UK they are banned from advertising perscription medication to the public; they have to do that to the doctors, afterall it's a doctors job to know what drug I need, I can then go and research it but at least it doesn't encourage hypocondria.
Over the counter medicines, however are advertised here with as much vigour as anywhere else, so all those cough and cold remidies that are basically just paracetamol each get their own advert.
not exactly the ideal in a democratic republic (or whatever Britain is). For future reference we're considered a constitutional monarchy or a constitutional democratic monarchy along with the other Commonwealth countries who retain the Queen as head of state such as Australia and Canada. I believe that Japan, Spain and the Netherlands among others are also considered constitutional monarchies (basically any country that has a hereditary monarch as head of state, not necessarily a king or Queen Japan, for example has an Emperor, and Luxembourg has a reigning Grand Duke).
Well, this is the bit I was going from:
This requires the BBC to develop an alternative DRM framework to enable users of other technology, for example, Apple and Linux, sounds specific, and quite self explanatory to me: the BBC is going to try and develop some form of cross platform DRM. Combined with Question 5
How important is it that the proposed seven-day catch-up service over the internet is available to consumers who are not using Microsoft software? It sounds ominous for Linux users; perhaps even "Linux DRM, or no product".
it'd be cheap at twice the price. Due to the current strength of the dollar, it *is* twice the price for you. Yes, I'm a smug Brit who has been buying cheap stuff from the states, hell it almost (but not quite) makes the PS3 affordable... But thank god for think geek; the UPS "brokerage" charges+import taxes are about the same price as the the stuff I'm buying.
I've done that already, also, just before this story was posted, I submitted a story with the title: "BBC proposing DRM for Linux", and both the links from my post in it. There's not a huge amount more I can do, short of writing to my, electronically illiterate, elected representatives that is, and they have no power over the BBC anyway; they can only bring moral pressure to bear.
Unlike their audio streaming (which can use Real, WMP, or QT streaming), they'd have to create a new video format & player to handle time-limited DRM. They can't just buy it from Real/MS/Apple. That's what their Press release suggests:
The Trust will require the BBC Executive to adopt a platform-agnostic approach within a reasonable timeframe. This requires the BBC to develop an alternative DRM framework to enable users of other technology, for example, Apple and Linux, to access the on-demand services. (emphsis mine) So, yes it seems they are going to create "BBC DRM", and not only that but "BBC DRM for Linux" as well.
No, there's a public consultation, and a here's link direct to the press releasehere's the bit about DRM
This requires the BBC to develop an alternative DRM framework to enable users of other technology, for example, Apple and Linux, to access the on-demand services. So not only are they keeping DRM, they are going to try and create a DRM for Linux
Slashdot Mirror
Here in the US of A, many of those protections have been stripped, and you can see what is beginning to happen over here. Actually I'm in the UK, and we have reasonable consumer protection laws, an example being that if I buy faulty goods over £100 on credit card, not only is the retailer liable, so is the credit card company. We also have strict laws governing advertising. I'm unfamiliar with the situation in the USA, but here most shops will allow me return goods for almost any reason (in addition to any statutory protections). Not only is this good for the consumer, it also makes commercial sense as it doesn't cost much, but builds up good will.
TFA talks about the The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman, then goes on to say "Many other EU member countries". Norway is, however, in the EEA so may implements much EU regulation anyway, but get your facts right, please. /rant
back on topic, this is a good thing, just because I buy something online doesn't mean I should have lees consumer protection than if I buy it physically.
This is exactly the same, it's a stupid law that imposes a stupid restriction on the majority (pedestrians\citizens), for the sake of a minority(drivers\corporations).
One particular incident in Alabama where they encountered rock throwing sub-humans in a petrol ( or as they call it 'gas' ) station who didn't agree with them that "Country & Western music is rubbish, Nascar sucks and that Man Love Rules OK" is probably indicative of the moronic level of most American citizens. I seriously hope you realise that Top Gear is light entertainment, not a documentary. But yes, I watched it last night as well, and it was hilarious.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary. http://www.echr.info/
So our rights to free speech although not as unrestricted as in the USA are guaranteed to some extent (bare in mind that the above was written in 1950, so reflects the attitudes of that time).
If that includes the actions of those at the top. i.e. if I can monitor the actions of the Prime Minister and various top members of military and "intelligence" services; I'm not sure how much I'd mind, as in a population of 60mn how likely is it that I'm being monitored compared with those who are in the public eye (in other words those with power)? That would be real accountability.
Well they're already one better than the proposed UK ID database. What's the world coming to when China is giving public oversight to a huge ID scheme, and here in the UK the government won't even release it's proposed spending plans on it?
No idea, but I expect you'll find the answer somewhere here: http://www.debian.org/
As I said to someone above, Indonesia can deny Visas to the employees of said pharma companies. It's not easy to get a US or UK Visa, why should it be easy to get an Indonesian one, especially if you're there to undermine the Indonesian governments policies?
And if Indonesia denies them Visas?
Clicking on that link from here in the UK, need for an SMS isn't mentioned.
I'm not the GP, but My house is much larger than a 2x2 image.
Well, it's not actually my house, but another in the same city, but you get the point.
http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,25
Mods on crack!
Read the link, parent is not a troll, off-topic*, yes, but not troll; I think he was going for funny, and it made me laugh. But read before you mod people (either up or down).
*as is this post, feel free to waste mod points to mod it down, but at least mark it correctly.
I think it's an Americanism, I'm a Brit, and the only place I ever see that phrase is here on slashdot. Here in the UK, "I couldn't care less" is the way the saying goes.
Over the counter medicines, however are advertised here with as much vigour as anywhere else, so all those cough and cold remidies that are basically just paracetamol each get their own advert.
For future reference we're considered a constitutional monarchy or a constitutional democratic monarchy along with the other Commonwealth countries who retain the Queen as head of state such as Australia and Canada. I believe that Japan, Spain and the Netherlands among others are also considered constitutional monarchies (basically any country that has a hereditary monarch as head of state, not necessarily a king or Queen Japan, for example has an Emperor, and Luxembourg has a reigning Grand Duke).
I've done that already, also, just before this story was posted, I submitted a story with the title: "BBC proposing DRM for Linux", and both the links from my post in it. There's not a huge amount more I can do, short of writing to my, electronically illiterate, elected representatives that is, and they have no power over the BBC anyway; they can only bring moral pressure to bear.
At which point the BBC will point to the fact that it's interactive (hence the i) and online services have been called BBCi since 2001.