Not to mention that no-one is even considering the abolishment of the Euro: the only thing at issue now is whether or not Greece can stay in the Euro (my opinion is and has always been that it should not have joined, but, now that it is in, we should do all we can do keep it in).
The problem is that patent lawyers, judges, the whole sub-profession all know each other. They are not actually corrupt in the conventional sense (I'm convinced no money exchanged hands), but people get pulled into the same perspective on things if they hang out together too much in congresses, workshops, etc.
The fact that the judge and the lawyer taught in the same course organised by the Dutch Bar Association is not very remarkable, and the fees that the Association receives from participants (€ 925) most probably stays there; I expect the lecturers to get paid by the hour. It should not be considered a commercial operation, certainly not a "business", however much I agree with Mr Falkvinge in general.
However, this judge is known for low-quality judgements and overextending copyright laws: he ruled that downloading was illegal in a certain case, based on some British jurisprudence, which is not at all relevant: downloading is and has always been legal in the Netherlands. So this guy has to go, even though there are no signs of corruption; that's why, knowing this, the Pirates' lawyers did not try to have the judge recused.
As to what will happen, I expect this to be overturned by a higher court, if the Pirates appeal. They really should.
Those may all be factors here; however, most people have *some* sort of a budget, and if they can buy ten times as many books for the same price, they will often buy a whole lot more stuff. So it seems quite likely that price elasticity is somewhat like what Coelho suggests.
Hmm yeah, I must confess I don't really see his point. The False dichotomy does not appear to be his, but I don't get the second part of the post either.
A good book is something that someone took a year to deliberate on, erase and rewrite, and research for. It is a work of art, and in no way comparable to a discussion on Facebook or a newspaper article. So saying that one is good while the other is good is utterly silly. Each fulfils its own function. It is like comparing singing in the shower to the Wiener Philharmoniker: both are fine and should not be confused.
There is widespread outrage, even abroad. And who would be paying Mike? There is no rich lobby with an interest against CISPA. Please provide proof or accept that people will call libel.
I have no problem with reporting interesting things written by others. You're indoctrinated with the "property" mindset about information, while it should be about sharing for the greater good.
So the American government wants to punish sharing when it is the public who do it, but encourage sharing when it's corporations and the government. A paradox: corporations are allowed to do whatever they like, while the people are constricted and criminalised.
Linking to individual files anywhere in your Dropbox has been possible for a long time, perhaps six months. The only thing new is that, where you used to have to download a video file from this link, you can now watch the video on a page provided by Dropbox, streamed. PDFs can now be browsed on a page too. That's nice, but it's not the same thing as what cyberlockers do: Dropbox has been able to do that for a while with individual files, and it has been possible for many years with the Public folder.
Oh my God, you're lucky you only had 8 songs on it, or the thief would have been able to do considerably more damage to the RIAA with the stolen songs.
Not exactly: 1. the ruling was not about these proxies and not against the PP; 2. there is new evidence that BREIN's demands are disproportional (an important issue in Dutch law), because there is strong evidence that blocking the Pirate Bay has not worked at all (it has been blocked by two ISPs for a few months, but not by the others, including mine).
"...making them appear to be unwilling to work within the law..."
In our (Dutch) juridical system, this is not an issue. If you believe you are right, you are allowed to defend yourself without being considered an "enemy of the state". It is great that the Pirate Party is forcing the court to hear both sides and thoroughly explore the ramifications of the law. For example, there is new evidence that the block of the Pirate Bay by two providers did not work at all: that should be a strong argument against BREIN's case.
Oh, don't worry, they are very reasonable. First there is a nominal fee for using the CD at a different location from your own house. Then you need to pay as a fee the price of the CD times the number of people whom you've ever lent your storage key to or whom you wilfully left in the same room as your key while you went to the bathroom. Multiply that by their number of friends on Facebook, because those people might copy the CD. Then multiply that number by the number of friends the average Facebook user has, because the copies could be recopied. Do that seven times, since it is well known that you know every person on earth in seven steps. Let's say the average user has 500 friends (a very modest assumption), so 500^7: now we have about 7.8 million trillion lost sales. Oh, and if you dare show the cover in public when you're on the train, that's twenty years in prison.
"...the long-standing principle that we must construe ambiguous criminal statutes narrowly": yeah, I wish judges stuck to this always, instead of allowing private parties to have them do the opposite, i.e. interpreting copyright and such in increasingly broader terms, and the loss of the DMCA safe harbor too.
Re: Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
One problem is that the MPAA not only wants to combat piracy, or not mainly: restrictive laws and new excuses to sue people and companies make it more difficult for outsider companies to compete with them. If you take down every site that ever has a pirated file on it or contains a user post that links to one, then publishing any free, independent content on the internet will be very difficult.
The infrastructure of independent publishing and advertising is what they are trying to destroy, in order to protect their own monopoly on publishing and advertising. For that is all the MPAA do—not creating the content themselves. If anyone can just advertise and publish his own content cheaply and easily, the MPAA becomes absolete.
On the post: Coming To Plates In Europe: Patented Vegetables, Produced By Conventional Breeding
Re: Re: "time to bring the EPO to heel,"
On the post: Court Goes Censorship Crazy Against Dutch Pirate Party
Re: Re: Re: Same judge as in FTD case
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/66177/ftd-vonnis-is--schokkend--en--onhoudbaar-.html
On the post: Court Goes Censorship Crazy Against Dutch Pirate Party
Re: Re: Same judge as in FTD case
The fact that the judge and the lawyer taught in the same course organised by the Dutch Bar Association is not very remarkable, and the fees that the Association receives from participants (€ 925) most probably stays there; I expect the lecturers to get paid by the hour. It should not be considered a commercial operation, certainly not a "business", however much I agree with Mr Falkvinge in general.
However, this judge is known for low-quality judgements and overextending copyright laws: he ruled that downloading was illegal in a certain case, based on some British jurisprudence, which is not at all relevant: downloading is and has always been legal in the Netherlands. So this guy has to go, even though there are no signs of corruption; that's why, knowing this, the Pirates' lawyers did not try to have the judge recused.
As to what will happen, I expect this to be overturned by a higher court, if the Pirates appeal. They really should.
On the post: Perfect 10 Case Against Google Dismissed (With Prejudice) After Court Asks Perfect 10 To Open Its Books
On the post: Paulo Coelho Ebook Sales Jump Way Up Thanks To $0.99 Sale
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Why Do We Celebrate The 'Solitary' Experience Of Books But Decry The Social Experience Of Online Social Media?
Re: Re:
On the post: Why Do We Celebrate The 'Solitary' Experience Of Books But Decry The Social Experience Of Online Social Media?
On the post: There Is A 'Right Way' To Do Cybersecurity Information Sharing, But CISPA Is Not It
Re:
On the post: There Is A 'Right Way' To Do Cybersecurity Information Sharing, But CISPA Is Not It
Re:
On the post: There Is A 'Right Way' To Do Cybersecurity Information Sharing, But CISPA Is Not It
On the post: Dropbox Adds Key Feature That Supposedly Made Megaupload Illegal: Link To Download
Linking is not new: only the gallery view
On the post: Playmobil Is Upset That Its Pirate Figures Have Been Used To Illustrate The Pirate Party
On the post: Countries In TPP Negotiations Begin To Wonder Why They Should Let The US Push Them Around
Re: If only...
On the post: EU Commissioner Kroes Speaks Out On Internet Openness; Says We Cannot Allow ISP Disconnects
@Masnick: "I don't always agree with her, ..."
On the post: Guess What? Most Cybercrime 'Losses' Are Massively Exaggerated As Well
Re: Re: It's all true
On the post: Dutch Whac-A-Mole Game Against The Pirate Bay Apparently Works Better Without Due Process
Re: Re:
On the post: Dutch Whac-A-Mole Game Against The Pirate Bay Apparently Works Better Without Due Process
Re: Re: Re:
In our (Dutch) juridical system, this is not an issue. If you believe you are right, you are allowed to defend yourself without being considered an "enemy of the state". It is great that the Pirate Party is forcing the court to hear both sides and thoroughly explore the ramifications of the law. For example, there is new evidence that the block of the Pirate Bay by two providers did not work at all: that should be a strong argument against BREIN's case.
On the post: Music Industry Creates New Royalty Rates... But Did They Do So For Systems That Don't Require Royalties?
Re: Physical storage units
On the post: No, Violating Your Employer's Computer Use Policy Is Not Criminal Hacking
Re:
On the post: EU Rapporteur Deals Major Blow To ACTA: Recommends Rejection By European Parliament
Re: Re: Re: The criminals will just find another way
The infrastructure of independent publishing and advertising is what they are trying to destroy, in order to protect their own monopoly on publishing and advertising. For that is all the MPAA do—not creating the content themselves. If anyone can just advertise and publish his own content cheaply and easily, the MPAA becomes absolete.
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