For those of you who don't like long commutes and take the time to throw a pity party every time you encounter someone who doesn't have one, may I recommend a few career alternatives:
I am not seeing the line you are drawing between the credit bureaus and real estate appraisers. Perhaps I am wearing my stupid shoes. Please elaborate on how funny math on real estate has anything to do with credit reporting at one of the bureaus.
I hate it when Slashdot takes an Op-Ed peice and posts it as fact. Even though in this case I actually agree with it.
But I digress.
Basically it should be free (as in beer) to freeze your credit if you would like to. If someone were to need access (freeze/unfreeze) to their credit more than one time per year it is only fair that they should have to pay for said service.
I equate the ability to freeze your credit to the ability to lock your car. We wouldn't even think about creating legislation that would not allow someone to lock their car until after said car was stolen. Besides with a car you either get it back or you don't. Either way you can only lose as much as the value of the car. With your credit you could literally lose your ability to earn a living. So many things are tied to your credit. You can have problems getting jobs, apartments, and forget it when it comes to borrowing money.
I personally have been writing my elected officials trying to get this changed at the federal level in favor of the Consumer. Hopefully we can get something on the books at the federal level before the Credit Industry is able to render the already existing State Laws useless.
Considering that most police agencies (including the FBI) flately refuse to even take a report over less than $50,000, color me a little skeptical about how "serious" these guys are.
(And yes, I've worked in retail management, and above, for all my adult life, and have been directly involved in retreiving those records. A couple of times. In 25 years. The local cops will occasionally have time for such fraud, but they're generally only interested in the shoplifting aspects of it, because it's a far lower amount to qualify for a felony charge that way.)
The FBI is better suited for Counter-Terrorism, Bank Robberies, Crimes against Children, and monitoring of Foreign Intelligence Services on US soil. Here is a link to the FBI webpage which explains the agency's priorities: http://www.fbi.gov/hq.htm
I am sure that the FBI would make a fine addition to the credit card company's army of lackies. However that is not their purpose, the "serious guys" referred to by the above poster was not law enforcement it was the credit card companies. They actually have very large teams of people who will collect evidence and basically hand a District Attorney a case wrapped in ribbon. That way the DA has no real way out. Otherwise the DA could simply say that there is not enough evidence to pursue charges.
If you had that much money riding on some schmuck like me I think you would have your ducks in a row as well.
This is true... However if they have already made a binding agreement (with say, i dunno, VISA) that they will not make ID a requirement for purchase then that takes precedence over there right to refusal of service, they did after all agree that away once the transaction has gotten to that point. Not to say they can't excercise that right at all, they just can't do it for that reason.
The University did not hand over any information to the RIAA. They are simply forwarding the letters to the students. This will provide the students an opportunity to protect their identity from the RIAA, thereby preventing the lawsuit to ever take place. Which is far easier than trying to prove that you as a hobby download 4MB text files named "prince-purple rain.mp3
"
The University did not hand over any information to the RIAA. They are simply forwarding the letters to the students. This will provide the students an opportunity to protect their identity from the RIAA, thereby preventing the lawsuit to ever take place. Which is far easier than trying to prove that you as a hobby download 4MB text files named "prince-purple rain.mp3
"
(*disclaimer: I personally think that the majority of these students are breaking the letter of the law. However I think that the law is wrong in this particular case. I am rooting for anyone who is on the receiving end of these lawsuits, and I am completely against the practices the RIAA employs.)
The problem with the way the RIAA proceeds with these. You do not even know that they are pursuing legal action against you seeking your private information from a third-party. Since at this point you are anonymous the petition is most often granted, simply because you (John/Jane Doe) are not there to defend yourself. The University has offered to hand this information to the Students in question. This will allow students the opportunity to block the motions to discover their identity through the University. Which is much easier than trying to fight the lawsuit once all of the evidence is gathered against you (however weak or strong it is). Everyone is afforded due process in the US legal system, this actually gives the students an opportunity to partake in this right.
Hopefully more of them will fight these actions instead of just paying up or waiting to see what happens.
I applaud the U of W for this very hard decision. If more/.ers would RTFA then they would realize this action is in direct contradiction to what the RIAA wants. Therefore it is a win for those opposed to the RIAA.
I completely DISAGREE 100% with the OP, however parent is spot on for wanting him to be modded up. He is clear and concise with his points and he deserves mod points regardless of the rarity of his opinions in this forum.
Keep in mind that the way the RIAA and the music corporations are setup the RIAA will not make money. They will be operated at a loss. The music companies are the ones awarded the settlements since the hold the copyrights. Besides lawyers are relatively cheap when they are on salary. Consider that once the lawyers are on the books they might as well be suing people so they can bring in some money. So while you are correct that the RIAA is not "making money" that is not their purpose. They are there to make money for the record labels. They even say so on their site "The RIAA is an organization committed to helping the music business thrive." http://www.riaa.com/faq.php
First off. This whole article is just FUD. This is not the tracking of citizenry. This is simply a replacement for the pager.
Why Government Employees Make Less...
1. Pension. Government Employees earn a pension. Basically if you retire after 20 years you make 25%-up of the average of the last three years salaries. This is every year for the rest of your life. This varies greatly based on how long you work before retirement. To figure numbers for yourself take the last three years salaries average them. Take 1% (unless you are over 62 then use 1.1%) of that number and multiply that by your years of service. This is your annual benefit for the the rest of your life. http://www.opm.gov/fers_election/ri_90/f_bbp.htm#r o
2. Job Security. As a government employee your job is extremely stable. I have worked with many a government employee who needed to be fired. Even the supervisors cannot fire. Basically you don't get fired, you might get stuck in a horrible job. But short of commiting a crime your job is safe.
3. Lack of Productivity. This is purely anecdotal, but most government employees are nowhere near as productive as their salary gives them credit for. Now this is not always because the employee is lazy or whatever. It is a systemic problem that allows for the breeding of this kind of laziness and ineptitude. By the way I used to work in this system so I know a few things about it.
I have mod points and I would love to mod that "+1 Friggin' Nasty" but alas, this is another day where/. fails to meet my needs... Oh well I guess I will come back tomorrow.
We are talking about impulse buying. This can be carried over into multiple arenas, it can be initiated by many different methods (casual observation, suggestive advertising, upselling bundles, etc) however the end result is the same. It forces the consumer to make an immediate decision. Of course this also happens online, it also happens in fast food (would you like fries with that?). It happens virtually everywhere that you will spend your money. My point was that in a standard retail setting this vending type machine for movies will hurt the store, because it will inhibit the impulse buying that takes place.
It may scare some portion of 10% of the impulse buyers whos disk is in stock and who managed to get a hold of a salesperson or navigate 20 long isles to find it. It will whoever attract the other 90% of impulse buyers who want to just key in the title and burn any movie ever released. Not to mention the ability to have smaller stores in locations where the space is expensive or simply not available. As for burning at home, this is no doubt the future of legal digital information retail. But 9GB download for a full quality DVD or much more for high-def formats is a bit excessive at the moment.
Impluse buyers do not have to navigate 20 long isles to find what they are looking for. They have seen it and grab it on an impluse, this also means that out of stock is not an issue. The impulse starts on the shelf not at your house. So this print on demand would literally decimate sales that would fall into the impulse category. Now this may in fact increase sales to people who want to be able to key in any title and print it out, but the problem is those customers are not acting on emotion and therefore are not willing to pay as much. So who knows if there would be a net gain or not. My personal opinion is that there would be a loss across the board due to intimidation of technology, lines, time it takes, etc.
However this could work in much the same way as private ATMs do, they could live in gas stations and other places that you would not normally find them because of the lack of security. When I say security I do not mean cameras. I mean that if gas stations did have a rack of movies then how hard would it be for someone to walk in grab a handful and run out to there car that is 10 feet away. I mean they could pull more off the DVD rack then they could out of the till. Yeah they may be on camera but people still rob gas stations pretty frequently.
You are absolutely right! Foreign citizens have absolutely no rights for a trial when they are extradited to the US. But realistically the purpose of extradition was to provide a means of "reacquiring" US citizens who have committed crimes in the US and then fled to the safety of another country.
I do not know much about Drink or Die but based on the article I would assume that they primarily reverse engineered copy protections and what not. If this is the case then I am not even sure how they would come up with an accurate number for damages. I personally believe that while it MAY be wrong to download music or whatever, under no circumstances is it wrong to provide someone with the information in order to do it themselves. Or we should arrest everyone who has ever shared any information that someone else could use for nefarious purposes, here are some examples that I think we should act upon immediately:
1. Scientists - these guys are constantly releasing information about different chemical compounds, not to mention explosives, and nuclear materials. All of which can be used for most evil of plots. 2. Anatomy Book Publishers - these guys release books teaching "students" about vital portions of the body. Now how many serial killers do you know that were never a student? 3. Lawyers - I am not even going to justify this one;) Sorry NewYorkCountryLawyer I really do like you. 4. Mothers/Fathers - When I was a kid my parents gave me the birds and the bees talk (you know the one about sex). Man now that information can be used in some pretty evil ways. It is a good thing that I am on slashdot and therefore am sexual incompetent so I have not been able to utilize this evil knowledge fully.
Actually according to the MSDN license you can only use MSDN software as long as you have the subscription. If you cancel your subscription and continue using the software then you are in violation.
Microsoft sells their software... If you do not want to pay then use free software. Otherwise buckle down and pay which ever dollar amount meets your needs.
Listen, do what ever makes sense for you. If it makes more sense to spend 1697 dollars then do it. If not then spend the extra money on Vista business or you could not develop software for Windows...
If you need to test an app on Vista then presumably you are developing an app for Windows. If this is true then you probably already have a MSDN subscription. This subscription provides you with MSDN versions of M$ software so that you can have test enviroments to vet your software. This MSDN software comes bundled with its own license so this does not apply anyways.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it sure is.
t e.do?catg=638 o yment/Local/index.aspx
For those of you who don't like long commutes and take the time to throw a pity party every time you encounter someone who doesn't have one, may I recommend a few career alternatives:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/work.html
http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/naviga
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/AboutSubway/Empl
See something for everyone.
Feel free to mod -1 "snarky"
I am not seeing the line you are drawing between the credit bureaus and real estate appraisers. Perhaps I am wearing my stupid shoes. Please elaborate on how funny math on real estate has anything to do with credit reporting at one of the bureaus.
I hate it when Slashdot takes an Op-Ed peice and posts it as fact. Even though in this case I actually agree with it.
But I digress.
Basically it should be free (as in beer) to freeze your credit if you would like to. If someone were to need access (freeze/unfreeze) to their credit more than one time per year it is only fair that they should have to pay for said service.
I equate the ability to freeze your credit to the ability to lock your car. We wouldn't even think about creating legislation that would not allow someone to lock their car until after said car was stolen. Besides with a car you either get it back or you don't. Either way you can only lose as much as the value of the car. With your credit you could literally lose your ability to earn a living. So many things are tied to your credit. You can have problems getting jobs, apartments, and forget it when it comes to borrowing money.
I personally have been writing my elected officials trying to get this changed at the federal level in favor of the Consumer. Hopefully we can get something on the books at the federal level before the Credit Industry is able to render the already existing State Laws useless.
(And yes, I've worked in retail management, and above, for all my adult life, and have been directly involved in retreiving those records. A couple of times. In 25 years. The local cops will occasionally have time for such fraud, but they're generally only interested in the shoplifting aspects of it, because it's a far lower amount to qualify for a felony charge that way.)
The FBI is better suited for Counter-Terrorism, Bank Robberies, Crimes against Children, and monitoring of Foreign Intelligence Services on US soil. Here is a link to the FBI webpage which explains the agency's priorities: http://www.fbi.gov/hq.htm
I am sure that the FBI would make a fine addition to the credit card company's army of lackies. However that is not their purpose, the "serious guys" referred to by the above poster was not law enforcement it was the credit card companies. They actually have very large teams of people who will collect evidence and basically hand a District Attorney a case wrapped in ribbon. That way the DA has no real way out. Otherwise the DA could simply say that there is not enough evidence to pursue charges.
If you had that much money riding on some schmuck like me I think you would have your ducks in a row as well.
This is true... However if they have already made a binding agreement (with say, i dunno, VISA) that they will not make ID a requirement for purchase then that takes precedence over there right to refusal of service, they did after all agree that away once the transaction has gotten to that point. Not to say they can't excercise that right at all, they just can't do it for that reason.
When someone calls for support on their brand new IQ PC they will be able to understand them...
I can't wait until all of the other corporations start following Microsofts lead and "offshores" their customer bases.
I for one welcome our IQ-touting overlords...
+1 retarded
Being retarded is a good thing. You can get away with anything. You want to grab a boob? Go ahead.
I meant download and share not simply download.
Well that deserves "+1 retarded"
--
Even "Special Posters" deserve mod points.
The University did not hand over any information to the RIAA. They are simply forwarding the letters to the students. This will provide the students an opportunity to protect their identity from the RIAA, thereby preventing the lawsuit to ever take place. Which is far easier than trying to prove that you as a hobby download 4MB text files named "prince-purple rain.mp3 "
(*disclaimer: I personally think that the majority of these students are breaking the letter of the law. However I think that the law is wrong in this particular case. I am rooting for anyone who is on the receiving end of these lawsuits, and I am completely against the practices the RIAA employs.)
/.ers would RTFA then they would realize this action is in direct contradiction to what the RIAA wants. Therefore it is a win for those opposed to the RIAA.
The problem with the way the RIAA proceeds with these. You do not even know that they are pursuing legal action against you seeking your private information from a third-party. Since at this point you are anonymous the petition is most often granted, simply because you (John/Jane Doe) are not there to defend yourself. The University has offered to hand this information to the Students in question. This will allow students the opportunity to block the motions to discover their identity through the University. Which is much easier than trying to fight the lawsuit once all of the evidence is gathered against you (however weak or strong it is). Everyone is afforded due process in the US legal system, this actually gives the students an opportunity to partake in this right.
Hopefully more of them will fight these actions instead of just paying up or waiting to see what happens.
I applaud the U of W for this very hard decision. If more
I completely DISAGREE 100% with the OP, however parent is spot on for wanting him to be modded up. He is clear and concise with his points and he deserves mod points regardless of the rarity of his opinions in this forum.
Keep in mind that the way the RIAA and the music corporations are setup the RIAA will not make money. They will be operated at a loss. The music companies are the ones awarded the settlements since the hold the copyrights. Besides lawyers are relatively cheap when they are on salary. Consider that once the lawyers are on the books they might as well be suing people so they can bring in some money. So while you are correct that the RIAA is not "making money" that is not their purpose. They are there to make money for the record labels. They even say so on their site "The RIAA is an organization committed to helping the music business thrive." http://www.riaa.com/faq.php
Mod parent up. That is the funniest thing I have heard all week. Although it is early in the week.
Oh so she is using the RIAA's own model against them?
Well without the cloak and dagger stuff that is.
First off. This whole article is just FUD. This is not the tracking of citizenry. This is simply a replacement for the pager.
r o
Why Government Employees Make Less...
1. Pension. Government Employees earn a pension. Basically if you retire after 20 years you make 25%-up of the average of the last three years salaries. This is every year for the rest of your life. This varies greatly based on how long you work before retirement. To figure numbers for yourself take the last three years salaries average them. Take 1% (unless you are over 62 then use 1.1%) of that number and multiply that by your years of service. This is your annual benefit for the the rest of your life. http://www.opm.gov/fers_election/ri_90/f_bbp.htm#
2. Job Security. As a government employee your job is extremely stable. I have worked with many a government employee who needed to be fired. Even the supervisors cannot fire. Basically you don't get fired, you might get stuck in a horrible job. But short of commiting a crime your job is safe.
3. Lack of Productivity. This is purely anecdotal, but most government employees are nowhere near as productive as their salary gives them credit for. Now this is not always because the employee is lazy or whatever. It is a systemic problem that allows for the breeding of this kind of laziness and ineptitude. By the way I used to work in this system so I know a few things about it.
I have mod points and I would love to mod that "+1 Friggin' Nasty" but alas, this is another day where /. fails to meet my needs... Oh well I guess I will come back tomorrow.
It wouldn't be /. if we didn't have 4 different people spouting out 4 different statistics that were rapidly pulled out of entirely different rectums.
Props to packetmon for actually citing his statistic.
We are talking about impulse buying. This can be carried over into multiple arenas, it can be initiated by many different methods (casual observation, suggestive advertising, upselling bundles, etc) however the end result is the same. It forces the consumer to make an immediate decision. Of course this also happens online, it also happens in fast food (would you like fries with that?). It happens virtually everywhere that you will spend your money. My point was that in a standard retail setting this vending type machine for movies will hurt the store, because it will inhibit the impulse buying that takes place.
I like the idea... Except posting the quote on your monitor.
Impluse buyers do not have to navigate 20 long isles to find what they are looking for. They have seen it and grab it on an impluse, this also means that out of stock is not an issue. The impulse starts on the shelf not at your house. So this print on demand would literally decimate sales that would fall into the impulse category. Now this may in fact increase sales to people who want to be able to key in any title and print it out, but the problem is those customers are not acting on emotion and therefore are not willing to pay as much. So who knows if there would be a net gain or not. My personal opinion is that there would be a loss across the board due to intimidation of technology, lines, time it takes, etc.
However this could work in much the same way as private ATMs do, they could live in gas stations and other places that you would not normally find them because of the lack of security. When I say security I do not mean cameras. I mean that if gas stations did have a rack of movies then how hard would it be for someone to walk in grab a handful and run out to there car that is 10 feet away. I mean they could pull more off the DVD rack then they could out of the till. Yeah they may be on camera but people still rob gas stations pretty frequently.
You are absolutely right! Foreign citizens have absolutely no rights for a trial when they are extradited to the US. But realistically the purpose of extradition was to provide a means of "reacquiring" US citizens who have committed crimes in the US and then fled to the safety of another country.
;) Sorry NewYorkCountryLawyer I really do like you.
I do not know much about Drink or Die but based on the article I would assume that they primarily reverse engineered copy protections and what not. If this is the case then I am not even sure how they would come up with an accurate number for damages. I personally believe that while it MAY be wrong to download music or whatever, under no circumstances is it wrong to provide someone with the information in order to do it themselves. Or we should arrest everyone who has ever shared any information that someone else could use for nefarious purposes, here are some examples that I think we should act upon immediately:
1. Scientists - these guys are constantly releasing information about different chemical compounds, not to mention explosives, and nuclear materials. All of which can be used for most evil of plots.
2. Anatomy Book Publishers - these guys release books teaching "students" about vital portions of the body. Now how many serial killers do you know that were never a student?
3. Lawyers - I am not even going to justify this one
4. Mothers/Fathers - When I was a kid my parents gave me the birds and the bees talk (you know the one about sex). Man now that information can be used in some pretty evil ways. It is a good thing that I am on slashdot and therefore am sexual incompetent so I have not been able to utilize this evil knowledge fully.
Actually according to the MSDN license you can only use MSDN software as long as you have the subscription. If you cancel your subscription and continue using the software then you are in violation.
Microsoft sells their software... If you do not want to pay then use free software. Otherwise buckle down and pay which ever dollar amount meets your needs.
Listen, do what ever makes sense for you. If it makes more sense to spend 1697 dollars then do it. If not then spend the extra money on Vista business or you could not develop software for Windows...
If you need to test an app on Vista then presumably you are developing an app for Windows. If this is true then you probably already have a MSDN subscription. This subscription provides you with MSDN versions of M$ software so that you can have test enviroments to vet your software. This MSDN software comes bundled with its own license so this does not apply anyways.