If I had followed my oh-so-compassionate government and not allowed myself to be "exploited", I wouldn't have earned a pretty good pile of money.
Look at the flip-side of that argument. What if you put your time and energy into that company and it either folded or took your work and didn't give you anything in return. You would be pretty pissed off. You would be wondering why there weren't any laws to prevent something like that from happening.
Of course, let's not even get into how many poor people are locked out of any job at all because of minimum wage...
Take, for instance, the current Federal minimum wage of $5.15/hour. A 40-hour work week would net you $10,712 a year. California's $6.75/hour yields $14,040 a year. Its pretty hard to make a living on minimum wage at all.
I don't think that was a design requirement as much as it was just simplier to implement. Most POS (point of sale) systems do not have credit card authorization built in; they're add-ins to the store system. So the main application which is running the checkout service passes the request to process a credit card transaction to the electronic payment application which then tells the checkout service if it was approved or not (and if not, why not). This way, you can use the same electronic payment application on multiple POS systems without needing much changing (and use multiple electronic payment systems on a single POS system). The EPS program doesn't need to "know" anything about what items are in the transaction, just the card number and how much the charge is for.
But as for "tracking" purchases, most stores that have loyalty cards and collect transaction data do so "anonymously" (that is, by card number, not the name associated with that number). Let's say Kellogg's wants to get you to switch to their Corn Flakes from Total Corn Flakes (made by General Mills). They'll usually tell the store that they want to send coupons to customers that have purchased Total Corn Flakes regularly over the past few months. So, either you'll get a coupon in the mail or printed at the register (if the store has coupon printers there).
When you "swipe" a credit card, the POS (point of sale) system reads more than just the card number and expiration date; it gets other "MSR data" that "proves" that the card was in the store for the purchase. The 3 (or 4) digit security code is now being used in place of that extra data read off the magnetic stripe for mail order transactions where the card will never in the store.
Authentication for a credit card transaction requires two things: proof that the card was in the store (either by the MSR data or an imprint of the card) and proof that the cardholder was in the store (the signature). If the merchant doesn't have these two things, they risk losing a chargeback if you contest the transaction.
Asking for the security code and making sure that the products are shipped to the cardholder's address are a precaution for the merchant but not total protection from credit card fraud.
Isn't one of technologies main functions to eliminiate scarcity? Whereas the paradigm of the guilds that run Hollywood is a selfish inclusiveness against ousiders.
Technology has all but eliminated scarcity for autiovisual media. The reproduction costs for a CD or DVD have become so low that significantly less than 10% of your purchase price actually goes to the actual disc. Hollywood's current business model is based upon creating an artifical scarcity where one does not exist so they now need to rely on the government passing laws like the DMCA to make sure that they don't become as obsolite as that old Commodore 64 sitting in your basement.
This case was not against Dmitry Sklyarov, it was against ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. While it is true that a statement that he made to the government could be used against him without him being called to the stand, it is legally questionable that the prosecution could use a video tape in place of actual testimony. According to the Constitution, the accused has the right to face their accuser in court and cross-examine them.
For reference, the Miranda Warning is "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."
Keep in mind a couple of things: the jury found that ElcomSoft did violate the DMCA because the software could be used to break the e-book controls. ElcomSoft was not found guilty because the jury found that they did not intend to break the law. That's why ElcomSoft was not found guilty: their actions lacked intent, which is required for a criminal conviction.
This is not about the right to look at porn. The proponants of this law and filtering in general want you to believe that. However, that is not what this is about. Filters do not just filter porn, they filter unpopular speech, the very speech that needs the most protections from censorship.
Typically legislation will have a clause that states that it supersedes any laws already on the books.
Re:Repeated extension flies in face of limited Tim
on
Eldred vs. Ashcroft
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· Score: 2
The Supreme Court might not have to define what a limited time is, just that the continued extending of copyrights flies in the face of it. The Court can not decide that copyrights can not last more than X years because it is not in their power to decide that; Congress holds that power. The Court can decide that the pattern of extending the duration of copyrights violates them having a "limited time" OR that Congress does not have the power to extend existing copyrights, each of these having a favorable outcome to the plaitiffs.
Congress' pattern of extending copyrights + DMCA + DRM = perpetual copyright. That is the real problem here. Let's say that a work is published and its access is secured by some access control device under the DMCA. The publisher can effectively "lock out" access to that work FOREVER.
Actually, yes it is. The information contained about the domain contained in the WHOIS database is very important and the registrar should make sure that the information is valid.
Here's what I think that should be done to make sure that the information is correct... Build in a clause to the registration agreement that the registrar will verify the information periodically and if any of it changes, the registrant is required to supply the changed. Then, the registrar verifies the information by sending an email to the contact addresses that must be replied to within a certain timeframe. If the email bounces or there is no reply, the domain gets suspended (out of the DNS database until the problem is rectified). Start off with checking the address frequently and then less frequently as the address seems to become more perminant.
Seventy-five cents. Zero and 75/100 Dollars. $0.75US.
Are you saying that you can't afford to pay that for a technology that you obviously use and find value in? You can find that much in between the cushons on your couch or in the street even.
You said that MP3 only gained popluarity because it was available at low-to-no-cost. It might not be no-cost anymore but still is low-cost.
Actually, in the Unites States, it is illegal to make a telemarketing call to a phone were the receiver pays for the call (such as a cell phone). However, political calls are exempt from the law.
Well, let's assume that those movies are both in VCD format and requires two CD each (a typical format). That's a total of 1,300 MB per movie or 2,600 MB for both of them.
(4,000,000 downloads) * (2,600 MB downloaded) = 10,400,000,000 MB downloaded. That's 10.4 Petabytes (Petabytes = 10^15 bytes). To put that into a little bit of perspective, that would take over 47079.4 years to download that much data through a 56kbit dialup modem.
Now, perhapps those movies were encoded in a more space-saving format, such as Divx. That's about 700 MB per movie and 1,400 MB for both. The total downloaded would be 5,600,000,000 MB, or 5.6 Petabytes. That's still a heck of a lot of data.
I seriously doubt that these two movies were downloaded 4 million times during the weekend of their initial release.
You open up the biggest trade opportunity for China since Capone started brewing Beer.
And if you think drugs are hard to stop at the border, try system components.
I know I would pay extra for it.
You would pay extra for smuggled components. As would I and most other geeks. The only problem is that the American people as a whole are sheep. They will follow where they are hearded.
Face reality: John Q. Public won't know the difference, and even if he didn't couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. In fact, J.Q.P. might even enthusiastically support it.
Take a look at what our government is doing with our civil liberties in light of the September 11 attacks. Polls have been taken that show that a majority of Americans actually support the government taking away their freedoms for a false sence of security. Our government is still holding hundreds of foreigners for "immigration violations". They are keeping the names of those being held secret and fighting to keep it that way. This is not how the Unites States is supposted to be run: as a police state operated in secrecy.
The only way to protect our freedoms is to keep pressure on the politicians and spread the word to others. Throwing in the towel and giving up will just give the special interests free reign over Washington.
Ok, here's what this is about. Some people just realized that they have been paying the phone company every month to lease telephone equipment. Over the years, they've paid many times what the phone itself was really worth.
And?
If you've walked into a store anytime in the last 20 years, you would find that you can, in fact, purchase your very own telephone and don't need to continue to rent one from the phone company. And even if you continued to rent the telephone, you're not just renting the particular phone sitting in your house but also buying protection from that phone breaking. If it does break, the phone company will supply you with another one.
This would never work because all of the recording and motion picture industries stances are based on contradictions and they are not likely to give those up.
Your purchase of a video or album gives you a license to the material. But if the media is damaged, you have no recoruse but to buy ANOTHER license to the SAME material.
The industries blow hot steam about copying and how much they lose to copying. Yet they collect a "royalty" on the sale of blank media, regardless of what the purcahser uses that media for. They receive payment for the sale of a product that they had absolutely NO connection to AT ALL. Its free money to them.
Hell, piracy is economically BETTER for the recording industry. If they sell fewer CDs and pay the artists LESS but make up the difference in the "tax" they collect on blank media sales.
Re:Somewhat somplistic, aren't you?
on
More MS EULA Fun
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· Score: 2
The EULA is a contract and like any contract, both parties must agree to it. You are within your rights to propose changes or an alternate agreement. However, don't be shocked if the BSA "police" come knocking at your door for a license audit if you do...
Prodigy tried something like this in the early 90s. For recipients that didn't have a computer with internet access, they would print out your letter and mail it to the recipient. It died rather quickly.
Back to the article... the Postmaster General in 1972 decided that the USPS should NOT be involved in terminal to terminal electronic mail. Otherwise, they probablly would have gone into that field.
Rutgers University asks the applicant to pick a PIN in the application. The prospective student can then check their application's status on the web site using their social security number and PIN to log in.
This is _not_ a sexy issue. It will not be a big attention grabber. The average voter is not going to be the one fighting this, it will be the companies who stand to lose if it happens. VCR makers, TIVO, etc. Joe Sixpack just wants the potholes on his street fixed, a safe school for little Jimmy, and health care thats good enough so he can afford it if he takes ill. Frankly I can't blame him.
You can use that to ge the attention of the average citizen. Write into a local newspaper about how "The government is wasting our tax money to line the pockets of Hollywood while allowing our schools deteriorate" or "Congress warms up to Big Business, Elderly left out in the cold".
This is war and we need to spread our own propaganda and FUD. Hollywood constantly lies, cheats, and steals from the American people to get ahead. But truth is on our side. Its time we used it.
As the computer overheats, it will draw more power from the power supply. If the power supply is properly made, it should blow the fuse when that happens. However, not all are properly made. I have seen some with no fuse at all.
Price collusion is illegal. Plain and simple. The recording companies got together and decided not to reduce some older CDs so that the newer one wouldn't be competing against them for price. That is illegal. This is something that the recording companies do all the time.
The Chip Merchant is a very good retailer from my personal experience. I have purchased a lot of stuff from them without a problem.
Another place to check out is The Computer Geeks if you don't mind not-quite-new parts.
Keep in mind that building your own computer isn't always as easy as it seems. YOU are the tech support. When stuff goes bad, you're the one fixing them. If stuff fails, you've got to track down the manufacturer (not always easy) for warrantee claims.
I may be wrong, but I believe that you do indeed own the music on the cd, or the words on the paper.
I might not have been clear when I said "own". What I meant by "own" is that that words in the book or the music on the CD are that of the author. You can't claim that they are yours, even if you bought the book or the CD. It is hard to use ideas of ownership for ideas. As I said, you can't pick up and hold words or music. They aren't tangible things.
The author of a work does own the rights to the work, for a limited time as defined by copyright laws. Once the copyright expires, the work becomes part of the public domain. Yet, you still don't "own" the work. I am again using "own" as definded above. The words are still those of the author, you can't claim that they are yours. Your use of the work is no longer restricted but you still don't own the work. The public as a whole does.
So, when you buy a book or CD or other work, you own the physical stuff that the work is distributed on. But you don't own what is contained on the physical stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had followed my oh-so-compassionate government and not allowed myself to be "exploited", I wouldn't have earned a pretty good pile of money.
Look at the flip-side of that argument. What if you put your time and energy into that company and it either folded or took your work and didn't give you anything in return. You would be pretty pissed off. You would be wondering why there weren't any laws to prevent something like that from happening.
Of course, let's not even get into how many poor people are locked out of any job at all because of minimum wage...
Take, for instance, the current Federal minimum wage of $5.15/hour. A 40-hour work week would net you $10,712 a year. California's $6.75/hour yields $14,040 a year. Its pretty hard to make a living on minimum wage at all.
I don't think that was a design requirement as much as it was just simplier to implement. Most POS (point of sale) systems do not have credit card authorization built in; they're add-ins to the store system. So the main application which is running the checkout service passes the request to process a credit card transaction to the electronic payment application which then tells the checkout service if it was approved or not (and if not, why not). This way, you can use the same electronic payment application on multiple POS systems without needing much changing (and use multiple electronic payment systems on a single POS system). The EPS program doesn't need to "know" anything about what items are in the transaction, just the card number and how much the charge is for.
But as for "tracking" purchases, most stores that have loyalty cards and collect transaction data do so "anonymously" (that is, by card number, not the name associated with that number). Let's say Kellogg's wants to get you to switch to their Corn Flakes from Total Corn Flakes (made by General Mills). They'll usually tell the store that they want to send coupons to customers that have purchased Total Corn Flakes regularly over the past few months. So, either you'll get a coupon in the mail or printed at the register (if the store has coupon printers there).
When you "swipe" a credit card, the POS (point of sale) system reads more than just the card number and expiration date; it gets other "MSR data" that "proves" that the card was in the store for the purchase. The 3 (or 4) digit security code is now being used in place of that extra data read off the magnetic stripe for mail order transactions where the card will never in the store.
Authentication for a credit card transaction requires two things: proof that the card was in the store (either by the MSR data or an imprint of the card) and proof that the cardholder was in the store (the signature). If the merchant doesn't have these two things, they risk losing a chargeback if you contest the transaction.
Asking for the security code and making sure that the products are shipped to the cardholder's address are a precaution for the merchant but not total protection from credit card fraud.
Isn't one of technologies main functions to eliminiate scarcity? Whereas the paradigm of the guilds that run Hollywood is a selfish inclusiveness against ousiders.
Technology has all but eliminated scarcity for autiovisual media. The reproduction costs for a CD or DVD have become so low that significantly less than 10% of your purchase price actually goes to the actual disc. Hollywood's current business model is based upon creating an artifical scarcity where one does not exist so they now need to rely on the government passing laws like the DMCA to make sure that they don't become as obsolite as that old Commodore 64 sitting in your basement.
This case was not against Dmitry Sklyarov, it was against ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. While it is true that a statement that he made to the government could be used against him without him being called to the stand, it is legally questionable that the prosecution could use a video tape in place of actual testimony. According to the Constitution, the accused has the right to face their accuser in court and cross-examine them.
For reference, the Miranda Warning is "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."
Keep in mind a couple of things: the jury found that ElcomSoft did violate the DMCA because the software could be used to break the e-book controls. ElcomSoft was not found guilty because the jury found that they did not intend to break the law. That's why ElcomSoft was not found guilty: their actions lacked intent, which is required for a criminal conviction.
This is not about the right to look at porn. The proponants of this law and filtering in general want you to believe that. However, that is not what this is about. Filters do not just filter porn, they filter unpopular speech, the very speech that needs the most protections from censorship.
Required 80s movie reference: "I love the Power Glove. Its so bad." -Lucas from The Wizard.
I seem to remember the same argument happening in the early 80s about video tapes. And something about a crazy old man and the Boston strangler...
Typically legislation will have a clause that states that it supersedes any laws already on the books.
The Supreme Court might not have to define what a limited time is, just that the continued extending of copyrights flies in the face of it. The Court can not decide that copyrights can not last more than X years because it is not in their power to decide that; Congress holds that power. The Court can decide that the pattern of extending the duration of copyrights violates them having a "limited time" OR that Congress does not have the power to extend existing copyrights, each of these having a favorable outcome to the plaitiffs.
Congress' pattern of extending copyrights + DMCA + DRM = perpetual copyright. That is the real problem here. Let's say that a work is published and its access is secured by some access control device under the DMCA. The publisher can effectively "lock out" access to that work FOREVER.
Actually, yes it is. The information contained about the domain contained in the WHOIS database is very important and the registrar should make sure that the information is valid.
Here's what I think that should be done to make sure that the information is correct... Build in a clause to the registration agreement that the registrar will verify the information periodically and if any of it changes, the registrant is required to supply the changed. Then, the registrar verifies the information by sending an email to the contact addresses that must be replied to within a certain timeframe. If the email bounces or there is no reply, the domain gets suspended (out of the DNS database until the problem is rectified). Start off with checking the address frequently and then less frequently as the address seems to become more perminant.
Seventy-five cents. Zero and 75/100 Dollars. $0.75US.
Are you saying that you can't afford to pay that for a technology that you obviously use and find value in? You can find that much in between the cushons on your couch or in the street even.
You said that MP3 only gained popluarity because it was available at low-to-no-cost. It might not be no-cost anymore but still is low-cost.
Actually, in the Unites States, it is illegal to make a telemarketing call to a phone were the receiver pays for the call (such as a cell phone). However, political calls are exempt from the law.
4 Million downloads of those two movies, eh?
Well, let's assume that those movies are both in VCD format and requires two CD each (a typical format). That's a total of 1,300 MB per movie or 2,600 MB for both of them.
(4,000,000 downloads) * (2,600 MB downloaded) = 10,400,000,000 MB downloaded. That's 10.4 Petabytes (Petabytes = 10^15 bytes). To put that into a little bit of perspective, that would take over 47079.4 years to download that much data through a 56kbit dialup modem.
Now, perhapps those movies were encoded in a more space-saving format, such as Divx. That's about 700 MB per movie and 1,400 MB for both. The total downloaded would be 5,600,000,000 MB, or 5.6 Petabytes. That's still a heck of a lot of data.
I seriously doubt that these two movies were downloaded 4 million times during the weekend of their initial release.
You open up the biggest trade opportunity for China since Capone started brewing Beer.
And if you think drugs are hard to stop at the border, try system components.
I know I would pay extra for it.
You would pay extra for smuggled components. As would I and most other geeks. The only problem is that the American people as a whole are sheep. They will follow where they are hearded.
Face reality: John Q. Public won't know the difference, and even if he didn't couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. In fact, J.Q.P. might even enthusiastically support it.
Take a look at what our government is doing with our civil liberties in light of the September 11 attacks. Polls have been taken that show that a majority of Americans actually support the government taking away their freedoms for a false sence of security. Our government is still holding hundreds of foreigners for "immigration violations". They are keeping the names of those being held secret and fighting to keep it that way. This is not how the Unites States is supposted to be run: as a police state operated in secrecy.
The only way to protect our freedoms is to keep pressure on the politicians and spread the word to others. Throwing in the towel and giving up will just give the special interests free reign over Washington.
Ok, here's what this is about. Some people just realized that they have been paying the phone company every month to lease telephone equipment. Over the years, they've paid many times what the phone itself was really worth.
And?
If you've walked into a store anytime in the last 20 years, you would find that you can, in fact, purchase your very own telephone and don't need to continue to rent one from the phone company. And even if you continued to rent the telephone, you're not just renting the particular phone sitting in your house but also buying protection from that phone breaking. If it does break, the phone company will supply you with another one.
This should be filed under "Oh, come on!"
This would never work because all of the recording and motion picture industries stances are based on contradictions and they are not likely to give those up.
Your purchase of a video or album gives you a license to the material. But if the media is damaged, you have no recoruse but to buy ANOTHER license to the SAME material.
The industries blow hot steam about copying and how much they lose to copying. Yet they collect a "royalty" on the sale of blank media, regardless of what the purcahser uses that media for. They receive payment for the sale of a product that they had absolutely NO connection to AT ALL. Its free money to them.
Hell, piracy is economically BETTER for the recording industry. If they sell fewer CDs and pay the artists LESS but make up the difference in the "tax" they collect on blank media sales.
The EULA is a contract and like any contract, both parties must agree to it. You are within your rights to propose changes or an alternate agreement. However, don't be shocked if the BSA "police" come knocking at your door for a license audit if you do...
Prodigy tried something like this in the early 90s. For recipients that didn't have a computer with internet access, they would print out your letter and mail it to the recipient. It died rather quickly.
Back to the article... the Postmaster General in 1972 decided that the USPS should NOT be involved in terminal to terminal electronic mail. Otherwise, they probablly would have gone into that field.
Rutgers University asks the applicant to pick a PIN in the application. The prospective student can then check their application's status on the web site using their social security number and PIN to log in.
This is _not_ a sexy issue. It will not be a big attention grabber. The average voter is not going to be the one fighting this, it will be the companies who stand to lose if it happens. VCR makers, TIVO, etc. Joe Sixpack just wants the potholes on his street fixed, a safe school for little Jimmy, and health care thats good enough so he can afford it if he takes ill. Frankly I can't blame him.
You can use that to ge the attention of the average citizen. Write into a local newspaper about how "The government is wasting our tax money to line the pockets of Hollywood while allowing our schools deteriorate" or "Congress warms up to Big Business, Elderly left out in the cold".
This is war and we need to spread our own propaganda and FUD. Hollywood constantly lies, cheats, and steals from the American people to get ahead. But truth is on our side. Its time we used it.
As the computer overheats, it will draw more power from the power supply. If the power supply is properly made, it should blow the fuse when that happens. However, not all are properly made. I have seen some with no fuse at all.
How is this wrong?
Price collusion is illegal. Plain and simple. The recording companies got together and decided not to reduce some older CDs so that the newer one wouldn't be competing against them for price. That is illegal. This is something that the recording companies do all the time.
The Chip Merchant is a very good retailer from my personal experience. I have purchased a lot of stuff from them without a problem.
Another place to check out is The Computer Geeks if you don't mind not-quite-new parts.
Keep in mind that building your own computer isn't always as easy as it seems. YOU are the tech support. When stuff goes bad, you're the one fixing them. If stuff fails, you've got to track down the manufacturer (not always easy) for warrantee claims.
I may be wrong, but I believe that you do indeed own the music on the cd, or the words on the paper.
I might not have been clear when I said "own". What I meant by "own" is that that words in the book or the music on the CD are that of the author. You can't claim that they are yours, even if you bought the book or the CD. It is hard to use ideas of ownership for ideas. As I said, you can't pick up and hold words or music. They aren't tangible things.
The author of a work does own the rights to the work, for a limited time as defined by copyright laws. Once the copyright expires, the work becomes part of the public domain. Yet, you still don't "own" the work. I am again using "own" as definded above. The words are still those of the author, you can't claim that they are yours. Your use of the work is no longer restricted but you still don't own the work. The public as a whole does.
So, when you buy a book or CD or other work, you own the physical stuff that the work is distributed on. But you don't own what is contained on the physical stuff.