I have never seen such an explosion in blatant unchecked corruption than at any other time in our nation's history.
You can add blind, bloody-minded stupidity (and/or ignorance) to the mix. They don't understand tech., but that's what they're using to fight. An IP address != an individual. An open WiFi router can be used by the accused and anyone else in the vicinity. Networked printers and septagenarian grandmas have been accused of infringing, the latter never having even heard of Bittorrent.
Meanwhile, our elected reps sell the justice system down the river for campaign finance donations from lobbyists, and the courts fill up with civil lawsuits (maybe) that are starting to look like felony prosecutions. A quarter of a million dollar fine for ripping a DVD? Come on!
A schmoozefest non-profit threatens a volunteer editor of a free on-line encyclopedia for diligently following said encyclopedia's policies? Are they suggesting this is an example of cultural diplomacy? I don't think barratry and bullying qualify as diplomacy, cultural or otherwise.
I see ICD's wikipedia page comes up in search results, so wikipedia's acquiesced to the bullying, sadly. I hope the Streisand Effect slaps them silly for a long time coming.
Simply going "give us all the information you have" means you have even more information to go through to find whatever you're looking for, no matter how it is organized.
That's not how it's done these days. Now, it's slurp down *all* the data, then mine it at your leisure. The NSA even uses this to get around your Fourth (?) Amendment; as long as they haven't looked at it *yet*, they haven't *really* received it.
yes, and the US pharm companies can offset some of the very high cost involved in the development and approval of these drugs, so they can reduce their sale price by increased volume and make sufficient profit to enable them to develop, have approved and sell other drugs for the betterment of mankind.
You appear to be under the mistaken impression that we live in a free market. We don't. Biomedical research is heavily taxpayer funded, and even the results of taxpayer funded research is locked up behind horrifically expensive private paywalls (journal publishers).
Not to mention (ok I will) the effects on employment within the US and the benefits to it's economy.
... along with the astronomical costs associated with healthcare, to the point that even if you have insurance, it's worthless because whatever condition you contract, it's too expensive for them to cover it. USA! :-P
... the public have paid for a new service, but cant really use it for fear of being sued.
That's dependent upon your definition of "use it."
I've no compunction whatsoever wrt ripping copies of stuff I've bought legally, and it would be convenient for those to be available to me wherever I happened to be at any particular moment.
However, if you're telling everyone and their dog where it is and how to get a copy of it, remember "everyone and his dog" includes The MafiAA, and of course they're going to go Medieval on you if they find out. Such is the regime you've allowed your elected reps to put into place. Copyright infringement nowadays, for all intents and purposes, is a felony no matter what we may think of that.
I advocate boycotting them. I've not seen a great deal of stuff coming from them that's worth buying, much less "pirating."
I guess part of the point could be that (affordable) bandwidth hasn't caught up to other technologies ...
That depends where you are. South Korea has no problems with bandwidth at reasonable prices, yet many in the USA do.
The bigger problem with "The Cloud" is you can't expect the providers to remain in business. Google retires services every year leaving their users high and dry. Free services ("lifetime support!") go commercial and expect you to just suck up the new ToS.
The Cloud is just a marketroid's re-jigging of a fifty year old concept; central storage and computing infrastructure in a common datacentre. Add in proprietary formats and difficulties in getting your data out to move it elsewhere, and it's a sucker's bet.
You'd be better off re-purposing an old machine running in your basement, providing storage, centrally administered backups, network enabled with all your other devices, and under your control.
Re: Re: Re: Why shouldn't all laws be proposed and voted by the people directly?
Addressing concerns of voting, well that is what encryption is for, to create unique keys identifying people.
Are you going to pay the multi-$100 fee to *certify* that your rugrats/$significant_other/parents/$somebody_else have their own accounts, can't login as you, and your vote is biometrically provable to only have been cast by you, and that nobody's paid/forced you to vote that way?
My B-in-law has a laptop that has fingerprint biometric enabled logins. I can defeat that just by booting with a live Linux/*BSD CD.
Multiply all of the above by MS-Windows/OSX^^$malware. Are you *sure* your machine's not part of a botnet? How sure?
I'd love to have direct democracy via the Internet, but we're nowhere near what we need to do that technologically nor socially.
Re: Re: Response to: Wally on Mar 15th, 2013 @ 2:56pm
Isn't removing the court from the process pretty much what the Six Strikes are all about ...
Yes, but you accept that arrangement when you accept your ISP's Terms of Service. Whether anyone actually reads ToSs or has any choice in alternative ISPs if they don't accept is another matter.
That anyone could blow through $164 million in less than two years is astonishing. Even with a warehouse full of unsold toys and bored order clerks sitting on their hands, how do you blow through that much cash that fast?
But what's incredible is that this same idea being done in the US on this global scale is a mistake of history.
It's been tried in two World Wars and it always leads to disastrous results. We're about to repeat history for a third time and that scares me.
Exactly what I wanted to say, except that "third time" doesn't really say it. I can imagine Perfidious Albion, the Vikings, and maybe the Mongol Horde working by the same rules. Perhaps even China's Emperor Chi too.
The issue, though, is the expectation of privacy and the level of trust built up between staffers and the university -- and actions like this, even when done narrowly and carefully, can break down that trust in significant ways.
No. Every place I've worked in the past two decades are upright and forthcoming about this. "You may think that's your email account, but it's not." It was his institution email address, not even his personal institution email address. He had no expectation of privacy in that situation. I'm glad it worked out for him/her. Those around them who are up in arms about this are wrong.
Yes, I think it was bungled overhandedly in this case, and I suspect that faculty member is going to want to leave now. Who wants to work for a-holes who treat their assets like this?
He was barred from attempting to practice law in FL. Which made him filing his defamation suit there hysterical as he promised the FL bar he wouldn't even think of player lawyer there.
Is that practicing law (he was his own client, I take it) or just availing himself of using the law to defend himself? Even douchebag lawyers have the right to defend themselves.
BTW, I'm not defending them, exactly. I think this whole charde is just stunningly ridiculous. These bums made it through law school and were accredited by the Bar?!? What's wrong with law schools and the Bar that allows this crap to happen? No accountability on their part, whatsoever? This seems to happen over and over again.
They join the swarm, see an infringing work and alert the IP address. It's not brain surgery.
And if the IP address is that of a Starbucks or McD.'s? There's lots of open WiFi out there, many in residential homes. Who's the infringer? You can't know. An IP address != infringer.
You're trying to use indiscriminate fire to hit your targets. Can you not see how many innocents are getting hit, or how much ammo you're wasting trying hit your bad guys? In combat, this'd be a war crime.
What this article said to me is, countries like PRC or Chile will pay me to go there if I can bring high tech skills with me (which I can). !@#$ emigrating to Nazi Amerika. USA is so !@#$ed up, I don't even want to fly over it on my way out.
Even if they're not corrupt and totally aboveboard, just doing these kinds of things in secret stirs up distrust for everyone involved.
FTFY. Damn, this is stupid of them all to go along with it. What are they all thinking?!? Isn't their jobs to come up with something of value? Who do they think their constituency really is? Their financial benefactors? How'd they get the job if that's how they think?
Following his little rant, Terry Deary has been absolutely blistered in Britain by public comment, by other authors, by members of the media, and yes... by personal hate mail writers.
Good. Educational for all concerned. I hope he can learn learn from the experience.
On the post: Can Commercial VPNs Really Protect Your Privacy?
Plausible deniability.
When the subpoena arrives, rm ...
On the post: Copyright Troll Malibu Media Seeking 'Six Strikes' Info From Verizon In Lawsuit
Re: Re: Re:
You can add blind, bloody-minded stupidity (and/or ignorance) to the mix. They don't understand tech., but that's what they're using to fight. An IP address != an individual. An open WiFi router can be used by the accused and anyone else in the vicinity. Networked printers and septagenarian grandmas have been accused of infringing, the latter never having even heard of Bittorrent.
Meanwhile, our elected reps sell the justice system down the river for campaign finance donations from lobbyists, and the courts fill up with civil lawsuits (maybe) that are starting to look like felony prosecutions. A quarter of a million dollar fine for ripping a DVD? Come on!
On the post: Wikipedia Editor Threatened With Lawsuit For Participating In Discussion Leading To Deletion Of Entry
This is the stupidest story I've seen in a while.
I see ICD's wikipedia page comes up in search results, so wikipedia's acquiesced to the bullying, sadly. I hope the Streisand Effect slaps them silly for a long time coming.
On the post: US Government's Failure To Protect Public Privacy Is Driving Business Overseas
Re: Re:
That's not how it's done these days. Now, it's slurp down *all* the data, then mine it at your leisure. The NSA even uses this to get around your Fourth (?) Amendment; as long as they haven't looked at it *yet*, they haven't *really* received it.
On the post: Aereo Wins Again: Appeals Court Says Its System Is Not Infringing
Re: Re: Re: This is not unlike tax law
What's this say about lawyers and law schools? Obviously, it's a criminal conspiracy, for money, intended to teach people how the law works. RICO?
On the post: UPS Coughs Up $40 Million Because It Delivered Drugs From Rogue Pharmacies
Re: Re: Re:
You appear to be under the mistaken impression that we live in a free market. We don't. Biomedical research is heavily taxpayer funded, and even the results of taxpayer funded research is locked up behind horrifically expensive private paywalls (journal publishers).
... along with the astronomical costs associated with healthcare, to the point that even if you have insurance, it's worthless because whatever condition you contract, it's too expensive for them to cover it. USA! :-P
On the post: This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have
Re:
That's dependent upon your definition of "use it."
I've no compunction whatsoever wrt ripping copies of stuff I've bought legally, and it would be convenient for those to be available to me wherever I happened to be at any particular moment.
However, if you're telling everyone and their dog where it is and how to get a copy of it, remember "everyone and his dog" includes The MafiAA, and of course they're going to go Medieval on you if they find out. Such is the regime you've allowed your elected reps to put into place. Copyright infringement nowadays, for all intents and purposes, is a felony no matter what we may think of that.
I advocate boycotting them. I've not seen a great deal of stuff coming from them that's worth buying, much less "pirating."
On the post: This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have
Re: Re:
That depends where you are. South Korea has no problems with bandwidth at reasonable prices, yet many in the USA do.
The bigger problem with "The Cloud" is you can't expect the providers to remain in business. Google retires services every year leaving their users high and dry. Free services ("lifetime support!") go commercial and expect you to just suck up the new ToS.
The Cloud is just a marketroid's re-jigging of a fifty year old concept; central storage and computing infrastructure in a common datacentre. Add in proprietary formats and difficulties in getting your data out to move it elsewhere, and it's a sucker's bet.
You'd be better off re-purposing an old machine running in your basement, providing storage, centrally administered backups, network enabled with all your other devices, and under your control.
On the post: Why Shouldn't New Legislative Data Flow Directly Into Wikipedia
Re: Re: Re: Why shouldn't all laws be proposed and voted by the people directly?
Are you going to pay the multi-$100 fee to *certify* that your rugrats/$significant_other/parents/$somebody_else have their own accounts, can't login as you, and your vote is biometrically provable to only have been cast by you, and that nobody's paid/forced you to vote that way?
My B-in-law has a laptop that has fingerprint biometric enabled logins. I can defeat that just by booting with a live Linux/*BSD CD.
Multiply all of the above by MS-Windows/OSX^^$malware. Are you *sure* your machine's not part of a botnet? How sure?
I'd love to have direct democracy via the Internet, but we're nowhere near what we need to do that technologically nor socially.
On the post: Shocker: Court Says National Security Letters Are Unconstitutional, Bans Them
Re: Re: Response to: Wally on Mar 15th, 2013 @ 2:56pm
Yes, but you accept that arrangement when you accept your ISP's Terms of Service. Whether anyone actually reads ToSs or has any choice in alternative ISPs if they don't accept is another matter.
On the post: Bankrupt 1990s Internet Toy Company Still Thinks It Was Undervalued
Stunning.
On the post: Prenda Law Tries To Close The Barn Door After The Horse Has Lawyered Up
Re: Re:
Are you speaking of popcorn or boners here?
On the post: Mexico Will Ask To Join US-EU Transatlantic Trade Agreement
Re: Re:
Exactly what I wanted to say, except that "third time" doesn't really say it. I can imagine Perfidious Albion, the Vikings, and maybe the Mongol Horde working by the same rules. Perhaps even China's Emperor Chi too.
On the post: Harvard Searched Email Subject Lines Of Faculty To Sniff Out Leak
No. Every place I've worked in the past two decades are upright and forthcoming about this. "You may think that's your email account, but it's not." It was his institution email address, not even his personal institution email address. He had no expectation of privacy in that situation. I'm glad it worked out for him/her. Those around them who are up in arms about this are wrong.
Yes, I think it was bungled overhandedly in this case, and I suspect that faculty member is going to want to leave now. Who wants to work for a-holes who treat their assets like this?
On the post: Team Prenda Does Not Show Up In Court; Judge Is Not Amused
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Is that practicing law (he was his own client, I take it) or just availing himself of using the law to defend himself? Even douchebag lawyers have the right to defend themselves.
BTW, I'm not defending them, exactly. I think this whole charde is just stunningly ridiculous. These bums made it through law school and were accredited by the Bar?!? What's wrong with law schools and the Bar that allows this crap to happen? No accountability on their part, whatsoever? This seems to happen over and over again.
On the post: System Used By New Six Strikes CAS, Falsely Identifies Game Mods As NBC TV Shows
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
And if the IP address is that of a Starbucks or McD.'s? There's lots of open WiFi out there, many in residential homes. Who's the infringer? You can't know. An IP address != infringer.
You're trying to use indiscriminate fire to hit your targets. Can you not see how many innocents are getting hit, or how much ammo you're wasting trying hit your bad guys? In combat, this'd be a war crime.
On the post: Yet Another Example Of Our Bad Immigrations Laws Hurting Innovation And Jobs
Wow.
On the post: Satan Finally Reveals Himself As A Legal Employer
Re: Embodyments of evil... or... the devil is in the details
There's no such thing as "evil." There is a state of absence of "good." It's the same as hot vs. cold.
Physics is your friend.
On the post: WIPO Negotiations Over Changes To Copyright For Those With Disabilities Once Again Shrouded In Secrecy
FTFY. Damn, this is stupid of them all to go along with it. What are they all thinking?!? Isn't their jobs to come up with something of value? Who do they think their constituency really is? Their financial benefactors? How'd they get the job if that's how they think?
On the post: Bestselling Author Of Children's Books Accuses Public Libraries Of Stealing His Paychecks
Re: Public Opinion
Good. Educational for all concerned. I hope he can learn learn from the experience.