Are you serious? Watching the same commercial over and over again, sometimes twice during the same commercial break, I find commercials really irritating. More often than not, I tape the shows and fast-forward past the commercials, even if I could technically watch them live. Better to e.g. read Slashdot while the show is running and watch it when it's finished.
They have a HUNDRED SERVERS and you think they're not making money? How naive you are.
Even though around 130 servers were confiscated at the raid, The Pirate Bay had a lot less than that, more like 10-15. This is partly what the fuss is all about in Sweden, that the police took all servers at the web hosting facility, and not just those clearly labelled "The Pirate Bay", putting quite many unrelated companies and private web sites offline.
I have to wonder if that's anywhere near correct, and not more like 50%.
No, I think it's fairly correct. The number might be 10%, but not much more and certainly not 50%. First, these speeds are only available in apartments with ethernet connections, while many landlords only care to install internet-capable cable-tv systems, and some even relies on people using ADSL. Second, ethernet connections are unavailable to all small (one household) houses, at least for reasonable amounts of money.
And I do live in the Stockholm area, in an apartment.
25% VAT (average, some specialty items have lower percentages and some higher).
This is incorrect. The maximum VAT is 25%, but some items have certain extra taxes applied to them. Examples are gasoline, tobacco and alcohol. These taxes are meant to reduce consumption of such wares.
But since we have quite extensive public transportation, you won't be trapped if you don't have a car which you can be in the US (except on the east coast).
Oh come on... the video from the surveillance cameras shows they took their sweet time checking out the server racks. They didn't have to take all the hardware they took (and who the fuck needs to wear camo on a raid of a server room anyway?).
Another very valid question is: Why did the police cover the security cameras during a valid search?
Already there are stories in the media that this raid came after pressure from the US - should there be a hole in the law its likely to be changed quickly.
It is equally likely that if evidence is found that the ministry of justice ordered the police to conduct this raid, the ones in charge (like the secretary of justice) will face prosecution for violating the Swedish constitution. The administration is simply not allowed to tell hired officials (i.e. non-politicians) how they should do their jobs. If this pressure came from a foreign power (i.e. the US), this may severely aggravate the matter, if not in any investigation then in the upcoming election. Nobody want their elected administration to in reality just be a puppet administration for George W. Bush.
I've seen some (definatly incorrect) reports that a total of 200 servers were removed
How can you claim that those reports are "definitely incorrect"? Remember that the whole colocation site, including a range of unrelated websites, was brought offline, and all servers and even unrelated equipment such as monitors and speakers were seized.
My guess is that the MPAA and the Swedish Anti-piracy Bureau want to make The Pirate Bay a pariah that noone will risk hosting, and if someone does, scare away all the other customers of that hoster.
So - the crime was considered serious enough to forcibly extract DNA from the suspected criminals. But it was not considered serious enough to warrant the same suspected criminals the aid of a public defender.
Yep, it is very strange. To sample DNA from a suspect, the suspected crime must lead to a prison sentence of at least two years. But when Mr Svartholm was denied legal representation, a police officer informed him that he is not suspect of any crime that could lead to a prison sentence. It is quite possible though, that DNA has not been sampled from Mr Svartholm, I only heard that the police sampled DNA from the legal representative of The Pirate Bay.
I heard that during the police interrogation, one of them actually claimed to have murdered Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986. This is quite obviously a joke (since those arrested are 20, 24 and 28 years old now, making them 0, 4 and 8 years old at the murder), but I'd say it takes quite some courage to say that to the police even if both they and you know that it's a joke.
It is funny that you mention expressen.se as a reliable source of information. Expressen is a major tabloid newspaper that are known to have made up stories in the past, so it is only fair to question its reliability.
may have been developed in China or even France (or others countries well known for their industrial espionage)
May I remind you that former CIA director James Woolsey has publicly admitted to conducting economic espionage against their European allies. There are also alleged cases where European companies' bids on various contracts were undercut by American companies after receiving information gathered from intelligence networks, e.g. ECHELON.
Your intution has mislead you about the size of even what we call "Low Earth Orbit".
I agree. A very instructive example is to use the space simulator Orbiter to take off from the ground and go to e.g. the international space station. It is harder to find than your intuition tells you. And you still have all instruments and the known orbit of the space station to help you.
This is not really a reply to your post, it is rather a supplement.
but a snap just below GEO could provoke a catastrophe (an aisle of destruction circling twice the earth).
Since the GEO is roughly equivalent to the circumference of the earth, how would you get an aisle of destruction twice around the earth from a breakage point just below GEO?
Do they base this on figures of how many people they caught and then through a random multiplier with a dice roll and say "Here is our loss! Now give us a tax break!"
No, according to several sources they take the number of computers sold and multiplies it with the "average cost of software" on a computer. From this total, they deduct the income from software sales, and voilà, they have an estimate for the income lost to "piracy".
Note that if you buy a computer and use free software on it instead of buying their "average software mix", you are indirectly labeled as a pirate.
What's the difference between civil law and criminal law?
IANAL, but the differences that come to mind are:
In civil cases there is no prosecutor, this role is assumed by the plaintiff (the person or organization that brings the case).
Civil cases are never investigated by the police. The police only handles criminal cases.
Punishments only include monetary damages and/or injunctions against the activity complained about. You cannot be sentenced to jail, death, or fines in civil cases.
I could be wrong, so please correct me if you know better.
Furthermore, Eschelon and others listened to international calls...not internal US call.
I heard that the US government stepped around this rule by letting the UK, Australia and New Zeeland do this for them, while receiving the results of the tapping. This would allow the US government to claim that they didn't tap their own citizens.
Slashdot Mirror
I was under the impression that they gave access to their services for free.
Some people count using banner ads to pay for the servers and network connections as "making money".
Nowadays, you watch the show for the commercials.
Are you serious? Watching the same commercial over and over again, sometimes twice during the same commercial break, I find commercials really irritating. More often than not, I tape the shows and fast-forward past the commercials, even if I could technically watch them live. Better to e.g. read Slashdot while the show is running and watch it when it's finished.
They have a HUNDRED SERVERS and you think they're not making money? How naive you are.
Even though around 130 servers were confiscated at the raid, The Pirate Bay had a lot less than that, more like 10-15. This is partly what the fuss is all about in Sweden, that the police took all servers at the web hosting facility, and not just those clearly labelled "The Pirate Bay", putting quite many unrelated companies and private web sites offline.
I have to wonder if that's anywhere near correct, and not more like 50%.
No, I think it's fairly correct. The number might be 10%, but not much more and certainly not 50%. First, these speeds are only available in apartments with ethernet connections, while many landlords only care to install internet-capable cable-tv systems, and some even relies on people using ADSL. Second, ethernet connections are unavailable to all small (one household) houses, at least for reasonable amounts of money.
And I do live in the Stockholm area, in an apartment.
25% VAT (average, some specialty items have lower percentages and some higher).
This is incorrect. The maximum VAT is 25%, but some items have certain extra taxes applied to them. Examples are gasoline, tobacco and alcohol. These taxes are meant to reduce consumption of such wares.
Gas is quite expensive ~1.7USD / Litre.
But since we have quite extensive public transportation, you won't be trapped if you don't have a car which you can be in the US (except on the east coast).
I haven't seen the video, because "The Police Bay" seemed to have been slashdotted when I checked.
You can find it here.
Oh come on ... the video from the surveillance cameras shows they took their sweet time checking out the server racks. They didn't have to take all the hardware they took (and who the fuck needs to wear camo on a raid of a server room anyway?).
Another very valid question is: Why did the police cover the security cameras during a valid search?
Already there are stories in the media that this raid came after pressure from the US - should there be a hole in the law its likely to be changed quickly.
It is equally likely that if evidence is found that the ministry of justice ordered the police to conduct this raid, the ones in charge (like the secretary of justice) will face prosecution for violating the Swedish constitution. The administration is simply not allowed to tell hired officials (i.e. non-politicians) how they should do their jobs. If this pressure came from a foreign power (i.e. the US), this may severely aggravate the matter, if not in any investigation then in the upcoming election. Nobody want their elected administration to in reality just be a puppet administration for George W. Bush.
I don't recall any mention of catapults, trebeuchets or battering rams.
There are modern siege weapons too, like howitzers and aircraft.
I've seen some (definatly incorrect) reports that a total of 200 servers were removed
How can you claim that those reports are "definitely incorrect"? Remember that the whole colocation site, including a range of unrelated websites, was brought offline, and all servers and even unrelated equipment such as monitors and speakers were seized.
My guess is that the MPAA and the Swedish Anti-piracy Bureau want to make The Pirate Bay a pariah that noone will risk hosting, and if someone does, scare away all the other customers of that hoster.
So - the crime was considered serious enough to forcibly extract DNA from the suspected criminals. But it was not considered serious enough to warrant the same suspected criminals the aid of a public defender.
Yep, it is very strange. To sample DNA from a suspect, the suspected crime must lead to a prison sentence of at least two years. But when Mr Svartholm was denied legal representation, a police officer informed him that he is not suspect of any crime that could lead to a prison sentence. It is quite possible though, that DNA has not been sampled from Mr Svartholm, I only heard that the police sampled DNA from the legal representative of The Pirate Bay.
I am confident this group had prepared statements
I heard that during the police interrogation, one of them actually claimed to have murdered Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986. This is quite obviously a joke (since those arrested are 20, 24 and 28 years old now, making them 0, 4 and 8 years old at the murder), but I'd say it takes quite some courage to say that to the police even if both they and you know that it's a joke.
Check cs.idg.se or expressen.se.
It is funny that you mention expressen.se as a reliable source of information. Expressen is a major tabloid newspaper that are known to have made up stories in the past, so it is only fair to question its reliability.
PC games verifying that the disc is in the tray as it loads the program.
I would hardly call this an advantage over using a pirated version, or a no-disc crack. Would you?
may have been developed in China or even France (or others countries well known for their industrial espionage)
May I remind you that former CIA director James Woolsey has publicly admitted to conducting economic espionage against their European allies. There are also alleged cases where European companies' bids on various contracts were undercut by American companies after receiving information gathered from intelligence networks, e.g. ECHELON.
Another interesting quote:
even the simplest software program consists of hundreds of thousands to millions of parts
Your intution has mislead you about the size of even what we call "Low Earth Orbit".
I agree. A very instructive example is to use the space simulator Orbiter to take off from the ground and go to e.g. the international space station. It is harder to find than your intuition tells you. And you still have all instruments and the known orbit of the space station to help you.
This is not really a reply to your post, it is rather a supplement.
Because it's their software and it's their right to release it the way they want.
Of course it is, I just read your previous post as "The only reason to release closed source software is to make money from it".
but a snap just below GEO could provoke a catastrophe (an aisle of destruction circling twice the earth).
Since the GEO is roughly equivalent to the circumference of the earth, how would you get an aisle of destruction twice around the earth from a breakage point just below GEO?
implies that you are taking my software and somehow making money off it without my authorization (otherwise, why would you need to close it?).
I don't know. Why do people publish closed-source freeware?
Do they base this on figures of how many people they caught and then through a random multiplier with a dice roll and say "Here is our loss! Now give us a tax break!"
No, according to several sources they take the number of computers sold and multiplies it with the "average cost of software" on a computer. From this total, they deduct the income from software sales, and voilà, they have an estimate for the income lost to "piracy".
Note that if you buy a computer and use free software on it instead of buying their "average software mix", you are indirectly labeled as a pirate.
Sorry. But maybe it didn't hit the world news? I'm not in the US...
What's the difference between civil law and criminal law?
IANAL, but the differences that come to mind are:
I could be wrong, so please correct me if you know better.
Furthermore, Eschelon and others listened to international calls...not internal US call.
I heard that the US government stepped around this rule by letting the UK, Australia and New Zeeland do this for them, while receiving the results of the tapping. This would allow the US government to claim that they didn't tap their own citizens.