http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c260 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:10:39 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c260
Or do you want to be a bigger Luddite?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/01121423439/hollywood-studios-keep-saying-its-employees-must-get-paid-now-may-be-forced-to-pay-its-interns.shtml#c1535 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:06:46 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/01121423439/hollywood-studios-keep-saying-its-employees-must-get-paid-now-may-be-forced-to-pay-its-interns.shtml#c1535 No, I believe that they're the copyright equivalent of Rush Limbaugh "dittoheads." Someone comes up with an idiotic talking point, and they all repeat it.

Oh, you mean like: "SOPA will break the internet"? Or "SOPA will put Justin Bieber in jail"? Something like that?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c774 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:05:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c774
However, in our case, it's probably apathy and indifference.

No time for politics, gotta make my car payment, mortgage payment, get next to the cute blond, take the kids to school...

There are so many excuses.

Then, all of sudden and before you know it:

It's 3 am:
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! BAM!
Don't worry sir, this is for your own protection. Just put your hands behind your back while we put this black hood over your head...
Your family? What family...]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c756 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:01:57 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c756
2. with the exception of search & rescue ops (which should not necessarily be a police/military function), i can ONLY imagine horrific consequences for this technology in the hands of the police-military (difficult to tell apart these days: our mercenaries, oops, military 'police' countries a half a planet away, and our police make war on the citizens here...

3. all we have to do to understand how police-military use of drones within the US, is to see how they are used on the rest of the world... which many legal minds and moral leaders (all four of them!) make an arguable case for the use of drones constituting war crimes...
if its a war crime 'over there', why ain't it a war crime 'over here' ? ? ?

4. lastly, the MOST scary prospect in this inhumane drone usage (and -not coincidentally- 'warrantless wiretapping', 'TIA' shit), is establishing the 'legal/moral principle' (sic), that use of unobtrusive, undetectable surveillance techniques make the 4th amendment obsolete...

*aside* from the mere factoid that 99%+ of our kongresskritters piss on the constitution and bill of rights on *at least* a three-month basis; *aside* from how our modern 'papers and effects' have mutated to a digital world unanticipated, BUT WHICH SHOULD STILL BE COVERED; and *aside* from the dubious value of these insane systems; i am looking in my popular science speculation crystal ball, and it ain't too long out where we have 'nanobots' of various scales...
if we establish the 'principle' that unobtrusive surveillance is 'okay', then what is to stop The They (tm) from putting a nanobot up your butt ? ? ?

nothing but a threadbare pair of tidy whities...

art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c731 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:57:31 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c731
What exactly do they mean? 0.005 percent seems like a reasonable figure for seldom and limited.

If it is just 0.005 percent of the population was watched by a drone then do the math:
300,000,000 X 0.005 = 1500000.

That's 1.5 million people!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c727 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:52:10 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c727 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110601/01524814501/dailydirt-air-hockey-robots.shtml#c59 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:51:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110601/01524814501/dailydirt-air-hockey-robots.shtml#c59 How about a nice game of chess?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c706 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:51:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-americans.shtml#c706 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/12553023511/nsa-boss-asks-congress-legal-immunity-companies-that-help-nsa-spy-everyone.shtml#c698 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:46:20 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/12553023511/nsa-boss-asks-congress-legal-immunity-companies-that-help-nsa-spy-everyone.shtml#c698 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c940 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:43:21 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c940
Remember 'Sweet Billy'? That should have clued them in then, but they didn't listen.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c254 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:36:45 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c254
One, two, the Googleman is coming for you.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c234 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:36:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c234
One, two, the Googleman is coming for you.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/17584023513/new-orleans-cops-set-up-private-company-to-fill-pockets-with-red-light-camera-cash.shtml#c276 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:29:51 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/17584023513/new-orleans-cops-set-up-private-company-to-fill-pockets-with-red-light-camera-cash.shtml#c276
Red light and speed cameras are a dirty business that invite corruption and graft. It is one of many reasons the industry should be banned in every state, as it is in several now.

James C. Walker, Life Member-National Motorists Association]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c918 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:26:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c918
In fact they specifically say that trading, buying used and renting games will all work. This implies no activation per game.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/07515923527/leaseweb-deletes-megauploads-servers-without-warning-destroying-key-evidence.shtml#c1015 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:16:40 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/07515923527/leaseweb-deletes-megauploads-servers-without-warning-destroying-key-evidence.shtml#c1015
People's republic of china

ministry of love

ect]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c223 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:14:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130619/01031623524/more-details-emerge-as-states-attorneys-general-seek-to-hold-back-innovation-internet.shtml#c223 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c901 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:14:35 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c901 and they remove the right to sell or swap or loan downloaded games.

I don't think they really have an option there. If the console isn't checking in routinely, then you can't be sure that only one copy is in use per license. So they're planning to handle digital sales like Steam does; they're permanent and non-transferable, but once you've bought something, you can keep the console offline for extended periods.

If trading/selling is important to you, then you'd want to stick with disc-based versions. Considering how easy they are to get, I don't personally see that as much of an impediment.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/17584023513/new-orleans-cops-set-up-private-company-to-fill-pockets-with-red-light-camera-cash.shtml#c262 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:13:58 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/17584023513/new-orleans-cops-set-up-private-company-to-fill-pockets-with-red-light-camera-cash.shtml#c262 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c894 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:12:56 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/13581923535/microsoft-capitulates-removes-online-drm-xbox-one.shtml#c894 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/11215823532/supreme-court-says-pharmas-pay-delay-agreements-may-violate-antitrust-law.shtml#c77 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:56:40 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/11215823532/supreme-court-says-pharmas-pay-delay-agreements-may-violate-antitrust-law.shtml#c77
You know copyright, one of the few kinds of monopoly you're not only allowed to have but that you claim is a moral right?]]>