I get the impression that people will be entirely up in arms about this. I am all for protecting personal rights but, it is really hard to condemn a case like this, where a man has been brought to justice as a result.
Here's the most troubling scenario.
Gov't agent or agency wants to frame you. They get a small amount of material from you containing DNA somehow, and plant that at the scene of the crime. A police officer or FBI agent finds the material, and requests a match. You show up in the database. Whammo, you're the prime suspect. This scenario can only unfold if there's a DNA registry with you in it.
In this case, how do you *know* the DNA at the crime scene wasn't planted? Everyone on/. assumes it is legit pretty much without question.
Hiring an attorney to respond to the letter can convince them that suing you is not a good idea.
Right. If you did nothing wrong -- you didn't use your smartcard for getting DirecTV services illegally -- it's a pretty good payoff to pay a lawyer to try and get them to back down. It'll probably cost in the $250-$500 range to get a lawyer to do so, and could save you $3500, so there's a pretty good upside.
Of course they will get your credit card number in those raids too and your bank will have your billing address...
Except that COD stands for "Cash On Delivery", and somehow I think anyone smart enough to have it shipped this way will pay actual cash. UPS might have some sort of subpeonable record, however.
Explain to me how a man who thinks that it is the government's job to give everyone healthcare paid for by the government from my pocket and who is an avowed socialist is GOOD for the economy.
Explain to me how, given how much we're spending on Medicaid and Medicare, we don't already have an inefficient equivalent of this already? At least with baseline health care for all, people wouldn't have a disincentive to work because they'd lose their Medicaid benefits.
Admittedly this is from National Review (ugh) but facts are facts:
Except that was pre-Iraq War, and the deficit has ballooned ~50% since then. Clinton inherited big deficits and reduced them; Bush inherited surpluses and led us to massive deficits. Remember when the Republicans were touting the balanced budget?
Dems are tax and spend, Republicans are borrow and spend. Might as well judge 'em on what they're spending on.
What bugs me is that people assume they have to vote for one of the major parties. Why?
Because the other guys never get heard of and always lose? (I voted for Browne, BTW.)
Aren't juries supposed to decide whether a person is guilty or innoscent of breaking a law not pass judgement on the law itself?
A jury can do what it damned well pleases, and there is no consequence unless you took bribes or something.
As a person, you are obligated by God (if you believe in one) or conscience (if not) to behave in a conscientious fashion. If that means ignoring the law when it will ruin a person's life for sharing a song, then so be it.
Just to extend this a bit, the unreleased material, live tracks, stuff that didn't make the album, rough tracks from the upcomming album, remixes, instrumental tracks etc. could be considered as the focus of web sales. A minor remix of a song isn't worth publishing as a CD, but the lower overhead of website publishing means you can make less-polished, less mass-market stuff available for your most devoted fans, and it should have no effect on normal CD sales.
Who decides how many people and other resources the DOJ devotes to a particular task (such as IP enforcement), and what process do they use to make that decision?
Did I say $400 million? I meant ~$400 billion. (I promise to preview next time...) Though a look at Google news only came up with $165 billion -- but that's a similar number to the annual tax cut amount.
Against Bush's tax plan? Then explain to me why people who don't pay income tax deserve a tax refund/credit.
Because the deficit is going up again by $400 million this year, which means the tax cuts are placing an extra burden on the young, not "giving us our money back." To do the latter they'd actually have to cut spending, but we know that's not nearly so popular. Americans are already too good at building up debt on their credit cards, stop borrowing in their name and then say you're giving them something.
If Linux were in the mainstream, everyone and their mom would be logged in as root, like Windows users are with administrative accounts anyway.
I've tried using Windows XP's administrator like I would a Linux root. But so many Windows programs simply don't get it, they expect 100% machine access. And while you can select "Run as..." and provide your admin user and password, there's no equivalent to setuid that I've found to make that last. So Microsoft still doesn't get it, and they've been so lax Windows developers don't get it either.
I also think that you will have a very difficult time finding EVEN ONE that would be described as successful by any reasonable person and has survived until today.
How about the Israeli Kibbutzim? Some are ~100 years old...
The good thing is that eventually SCOTUS will kill anti-spam laws as unconstitutional, as they clearly are.
Nonsense. Spam is commercial speech, and as such is denied first amendment protections. Moreover, it is not the content of the message that is the issue, it is the method of delivery that is being regulated. I cannot stand by your window with a bullhorn and shout my (otherwise protected) political opinions if you do not want me to; it is prefectly legal to restrict the way a message is presented.
A superlative observation, sir, with just two minor flaws. One: the original message didn't specify the iTunes store, and Two: the original message didn't specify the iTunes store. Now, I realise that, technically speaking, that's only one flaw, but I thought that it was such a big one it was worth mentioning twice.
Slashdot Mirror
I get the impression that people will be entirely up in arms about this. I am all for protecting personal rights but, it is really hard to condemn a case like this, where a man has been brought to justice as a result.
/. assumes it is legit pretty much without question.
Here's the most troubling scenario.
Gov't agent or agency wants to frame you. They get a small amount of material from you containing DNA somehow, and plant that at the scene of the crime. A police officer or FBI agent finds the material, and requests a match. You show up in the database. Whammo, you're the prime suspect. This scenario can only unfold if there's a DNA registry with you in it.
In this case, how do you *know* the DNA at the crime scene wasn't planted? Everyone on
Hiring an attorney to respond to the letter can convince them that suing you is not a good idea.
Right. If you did nothing wrong -- you didn't use your smartcard for getting DirecTV services illegally -- it's a pretty good payoff to pay a lawyer to try and get them to back down. It'll probably cost in the $250-$500 range to get a lawyer to do so, and could save you $3500, so there's a pretty good upside.
Of course they will get your credit card number in those raids too and your bank will have your billing address...
Except that COD stands for "Cash On Delivery", and somehow I think anyone smart enough to have it shipped this way will pay actual cash. UPS might have some sort of subpeonable record, however.
Talking to a wireless engineer at Sony, they are really interested in finding a way of having ubiquitous 802.11 access everywhere.
With the built-in microphone, it could even work as a VoIP phone, making for a replacement cellphone in a pinch.
Explain to me how a man who thinks that it is the government's job to give everyone healthcare paid for by the government from my pocket and who is an avowed socialist is GOOD for the economy.
Explain to me how, given how much we're spending on Medicaid and Medicare, we don't already have an inefficient equivalent of this already? At least with baseline health care for all, people wouldn't have a disincentive to work because they'd lose their Medicaid benefits.
Admittedly this is from National Review (ugh) but facts are facts:
Except that was pre-Iraq War, and the deficit has ballooned ~50% since then. Clinton inherited big deficits and reduced them; Bush inherited surpluses and led us to massive deficits. Remember when the Republicans were touting the balanced budget?
Dems are tax and spend, Republicans are borrow and spend. Might as well judge 'em on what they're spending on.
What bugs me is that people assume they have to vote for one of the major parties. Why?
Because the other guys never get heard of and always lose? (I voted for Browne, BTW.)
it really doesn't matter because judges can set aside verdicts if the jury ruling is counter to existing laws whether just or not.
I believe judges can only set aside guilty verdicts or judgements in civil proceedings; anything else and you're hitting double jeopardy provisions.
Aren't juries supposed to decide whether a person is guilty or innoscent of breaking a law not pass judgement on the law itself?
A jury can do what it damned well pleases, and there is no consequence unless you took bribes or something.
As a person, you are obligated by God (if you believe in one) or conscience (if not) to behave in a conscientious fashion. If that means ignoring the law when it will ruin a person's life for sharing a song, then so be it.
You can record anything EXCEPT for the Video-On-Demand channel
How do they prevent that via the analog output (it has to get to the TV, after all)? Is it the only time they generate Macrovision?
How much does this cost monthly, BTW? (I have non-digital Comcast & Comcast@Home.)
Especially in regards to pop-up blocking, remember that AOL/TW depends on advertising in many areas of its corporate structure.
Yes, but those are THEIR pop-ups, not generic ones from websites for which they get nothing, and which cost them bandwidth to transfer.
1) Microsoft changes default browser back to IE.
For those who are confused, I b'leeve he means AOL here, not Microsoft.
Just to extend this a bit, the unreleased material, live tracks, stuff that didn't make the album, rough tracks from the upcomming album, remixes, instrumental tracks etc. could be considered as the focus of web sales. A minor remix of a song isn't worth publishing as a CD, but the lower overhead of website publishing means you can make less-polished, less mass-market stuff available for your most devoted fans, and it should have no effect on normal CD sales.
Now convince your 60 year old father who runs a home office that he should do this to 3,000+ of his archived documents
Convert to PDF via PrintToPDF or the like. If they're an archive, he doesn't need an editable format, just a viewable one.
Torvalds: The biggest effect by far has just been a lot of time wasted on discussion.
/. !
Think where Linux could be if there wasn't a
Who decides how many people and other resources the DOJ devotes to a particular task (such as IP enforcement), and what process do they use to make that decision?
Did I say $400 million? I meant ~$400 billion. (I promise to preview next time...) Though a look at Google news only came up with $165 billion -- but that's a similar number to the annual tax cut amount.
Against Bush's tax plan? Then explain to me why people who don't pay income tax deserve a tax refund/credit.
Because the deficit is going up again by $400 million this year, which means the tax cuts are placing an extra burden on the young, not "giving us our money back." To do the latter they'd actually have to cut spending, but we know that's not nearly so popular. Americans are already too good at building up debt on their credit cards, stop borrowing in their name and then say you're giving them something.
Wow! You've worked at companies where techies have influence over tech purchases?
Sure! Why, I bought a firewire cable just the other day!
If Linux were in the mainstream, everyone and their mom would be logged in as root, like Windows users are with administrative accounts anyway.
I've tried using Windows XP's administrator like I would a Linux root. But so many Windows programs simply don't get it, they expect 100% machine access. And while you can select "Run as..." and provide your admin user and password, there's no equivalent to setuid that I've found to make that last. So Microsoft still doesn't get it, and they've been so lax Windows developers don't get it either.
This is terrible.
They put all that porn on my computer, and I don't even get to see it?
I also think that you will have a very difficult time finding EVEN ONE that would be described as successful by any reasonable person and has survived until today.
How about the Israeli Kibbutzim? Some are ~100 years old...
The good thing is that eventually SCOTUS will kill anti-spam laws as unconstitutional, as they clearly are.
Nonsense. Spam is commercial speech, and as such is denied first amendment protections. Moreover, it is not the content of the message that is the issue, it is the method of delivery that is being regulated. I cannot stand by your window with a bullhorn and shout my (otherwise protected) political opinions if you do not want me to; it is prefectly legal to restrict the way a message is presented.
Either pay up, stop violating the patent(s), or move to a non-fatally-fucked-up country where such asinine patents remain illegal.
Well this particular issue is going on in New Zealand; we're starting to run out of places. Is Canada the only remaining option?
Godsdamn. When bleeding-edge PDAs have as much memory as your laptop, I guess it's time to consider upgrading, huh?
For much of last year, my mid-range digital camera had more memory than my desktop.
The iTunes store sells AACs, not MP3s.
A superlative observation, sir, with just two minor flaws. One: the original message didn't specify the iTunes store, and Two: the original message didn't specify the iTunes store. Now, I realise that, technically speaking, that's only one flaw, but I thought that it was such a big one it was worth mentioning twice.