Some much choice, so much flexibility! Let's see, I can pay more for the same thing, or pay the same and get less. Or, of course, I can do a little of both.
...which is rapidly tipping to one side. Traffic laws were written with the assumption that most offenses would never been seen, prosecuted or fined. Fines were high enough to discourage the behavior, but no one expected everyone to be paying them.
Now the surveillance state wants to catch everyone, at everything. That being the case, I think we have to re-think a lot of our laws.
I work for a Chrysler dealer. Yesterday, we had training session on the Uconnect internet-enabled electronics systems in our cars. We were told "People don't buy cars these days. They buy car radios; the rest of the car is just to carry the radio around." Know what wasn't mentioned? Security - at all.
The document doesn't exist. The document never existed. Any evidence it ever existed was fabricated by a dangerous malcontent. Hey, you're not a malcontent are you? Thought not...
There's no such thing as "enough money" - that's basic corporate governance. The question is, do the expenditures to stop "piracy" exceed the losses from that activity? If we can demonstrate the program costs, including campaign contributions, exceed the losses - maybe the stockholders will make them stop.
Claims like this are already unsupported by law. Problem is, the cost of proving it, for the umpteenth time, are so high many defendants back down. What would be ideal is a rapid way for judges to look at one of these, say "bullsh*t" and throw it back, with a finding for costs.
Send this article to the people in government who think their much-wanted "backdoor into everything" will never be abused. They won't understand, but at least you'll have done your due diligence.
It shouldn't be all that hard to determine if this technician processed the samples from a case. If yes, then the prisoner goes free - and hopefully, the prosecutor gets it deducted from his score card. Easy. OR, are they really saying we should accept innocent people being jailed for decades, at taxpayer expense, because it's too hard to let them free?
"This is absolutely horrific...the inhumanity of rights holders refusing to formally acquiesce and declare that making an unauthorized copy of a work is perfectly legal because big, bad meanie gatekeepers have it in for the large number of people who ignore the law and generally get away with their actions without consequence."
Yeah, no. You're missing the point. As military organizations learned millennia ago, the quickest way to undermine your authority is to issue orders you know won't be obeyed. You can only push so far - Prohibition in the USA proved that.
When I was a kid, they warned us if the "commies" won, we would live in a country... very much like America today. (Well, with more lines). Did I miss a world war somewhere along the line? I wasn't paying attention.
Google can't fix this. Google CAN'T fix this. Why are we not shouting from the rooftops that the world's largest (known) server farm has passed beyond human control?!
The company has no procedure for fixing this problem because it's not supposed to happen. AND, their "support" system is so streamlined and efficient (GRIN) that literally no-one has the authority to do something not in the books. So, it gets referred to another department, then another...
Aside from the obvious - destroying evidence of their own thuggery - what was the supposed justification for vandalizing the video equipment? I mean, they must have had SOME legal justification ready, just in case.
Absent the POLICE T-shirts, this looks like a film of a home invasion.
There's no such thing as a false positive. It's been widely demonstrated that everyone commits some kind of crime, every day. Once you divorce searching for YOU from a specific crime they're trying to solve, it's one tiny step from just rounding up people at random. And once you're in custody, they have to justify WHY.
I mean, if they're working THAT HARD to keep it secret, what horrors must they be concealing? The entire nation will be obsessed with speculation about it! ...until some celebrity breaks up with her boyfriend or something.
Really, stalling as long as possible, until everyone loses interest, will work just fine.
"Not enough of us Americans give a shit about the Constitution, none of our politicians or judges give a shit about it, and people here adore our police so much that they smile and thank them as they are being fucked in the ass by them."
It's not that we don't give a shit, and it's not that we adore the police. It's that we are literally powerless before them. The police have guns, the will to use them, and (almost) no repercussions. Resist and you may well die. The courts are no help; they twist and turn the law until whatever they want is legal. The polls? "Lesser of two evils" doesn't work anymore; neither evil is "lesser" enough.
It will reach a point where it boils over, we'll have a new government, and (hopefully) another couple of hundred years of relative freedom until we have to do it again.
Perhaps the message is that reporters should be staying away from terrorist organizations. Don't investigate them, don't report on the efforts against them - lest they be caught up in the net.
On the post: Comcast Users Now Need To Pay A $30 Premium If They Want To Avoid Usage Caps
I'm inspired!
On the post: City of San Jose Looking To Attach Automatic License Plate Readers To Garbage Trucks
The law has always assumed a balance of power...
Now the surveillance state wants to catch everyone, at everything. That being the case, I think we have to re-think a lot of our laws.
On the post: Internet Of Not-So-Smart Things: Samsung's Latest Smart Fridge Can Expose Your Gmail Password
Remember the Jeep Cherokee security hack?
On the post: Police Regularly Use Stingrays Without A Warrant To Find Petty Criminals, Then Try To Hide That Fact
But,but,but...
On the post: Woman Catches Cop Beating Handcuffed Suspect; Police Union First In Line To Shoot The Messenger
Re:
In law, probably. In practice, don't be absurd.
On the post: DOJ Tells Me It Can't Find A Copy Of The Reason.com Gag Order Request It Already Released
On the post: Hollywood Keeps Breaking Box Office Records... While Still Insisting That The Internet Is Killing Movies
non-sequitur concept
On the post: LMFAO, The Band, Sends Cease And Desist Over LMFAO, The Beer
Making a law isn't the solution
On the post: Lenovo Busted For Stealthily Installing Crapware Via BIOS On Fresh Windows Installs
Send this article
On the post: Boston Police Commissioner Wants Cameras Further Away From Cops, Criminal Charges For Not Assisting Officers
On the other hand...
On the post: The Drug War Is Creating Problems Too Big To Fix
I don't see how this is unmanageable
On the post: If The UK Wants People To 'Respect' Copyright, Outlawing Ripping CDs Is Probably Not Helping
Re:
Yeah, no. You're missing the point. As military organizations learned millennia ago, the quickest way to undermine your authority is to issue orders you know won't be obeyed. You can only push so far - Prohibition in the USA proved that.
On the post: Laura Poitras Sues US Government To Find Out Why She Was Detained Every Time She Flew
Remember the Cold War?
On the post: YouTube's Inane Response To Handing Popular YouTuber's Channel To Cosmetics Company: Blame The Algorithms
Can't?
On the post: Post Merger-Failure, Comcast Still Dedicated To Treating Customers Like Shit
Most likely...
On the post: Cops Raid Marijuana Dispensary In Order To Play Darts, Sample Edibles And Offer To Kick Amputee Owner 'In The Nub'
What am I missing?
Absent the POLICE T-shirts, this looks like a film of a home invasion.
On the post: UK Police Carry Out Facial Scans Of 100,000 People Attending Music Festival
Re: Re:
There's no such thing as a false positive. It's been widely demonstrated that everyone commits some kind of crime, every day. Once you divorce searching for YOU from a specific crime they're trying to solve, it's one tiny step from just rounding up people at random. And once you're in custody, they have to justify WHY.
On the post: Court Follows Shutdown Of Jason Leopold's Torture Report FOIA Request By Denying Same To ACLU
We can only assume the worst
Really, stalling as long as possible, until everyone loses interest, will work just fine.
On the post: DEA Takes $16,000 From Train Passenger Because It Can
Re: Re:
It's not that we don't give a shit, and it's not that we adore the police. It's that we are literally powerless before them. The police have guns, the will to use them, and (almost) no repercussions. Resist and you may well die. The courts are no help; they twist and turn the law until whatever they want is legal. The polls? "Lesser of two evils" doesn't work anymore; neither evil is "lesser" enough.
It will reach a point where it boils over, we'll have a new government, and (hopefully) another couple of hundred years of relative freedom until we have to do it again.
On the post: To The NSA, A Reporter Covering Al Qaeda Looks Identical To An Al Qaeda Member
Or...
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