Let's see some ordinances passed in cities around the nation that require City Council members to pay the attorney's fees for civil cases that the Council brings which lose. I'm betting that there would be a 99% reduction in said civil cases.
Surely it's only fair that generic manufacturers cannot piggy-back on the work of the original drug companies? (/rhetorical question)
No, it's not fair. The manufacturer was paid for that work, among other things, by the patent that they were granted. If they don't want that data used by other companies, don't file for a patent.
The fine was 1.2 *billion*. I'm sure that this was taken into account somehow - that's pretty much the only way you get a number that high.
Yet this was a settlement. There's a natural tendency to assume that they settled for a fine lower than what they actually made. The only other alternative seems to be that they saw a slam-dunk case in the making, so they scrambled to settle before receiving a verdict that may be even worse. This case seems unlikely to be that clear-cut, at least in a courtroom.
Copyright system supporters insist that copyright is like a form of welfare: a right to earn money.
What a great phrase! Let's rewrite the debate: start calling Copyright "Authors' Welfare" or "Publishers' Welfare". The term "welfare" has negative connotations to much of the American public, so if we can reshape the debate with these terms we can perhaps shift public sentiment against these insane copyright terms.
We can state something like, "It just makes sense to reduce the time that authors and, especially, publishers are feeding at the Welfare trough of excessive Copyright at the public's expense." There, you've insulted Copyright by equating it to Welfare and made it clear that these excessive Copyright terms are stealing from the public by taking Public Domain works away from them.
If RECAP winds up with a more-comprehensive database than PACER, PACER will gradually (or rapidly?) be abandoned in favor of RECAP. Competition in action ...
Re: Re: Re: More apologies and misdirection to protect GOOG
If you don't accept their terms, you're out of YouTube.
Baloney. You can post whatever you want, for free. YouTube won't interfere with that. Or, you can sign up for their Subscriber program. However, the Ad-Sense program is going away, so if you only post your videos there, they'll go away when that program goes away.
Someday, years from now, one of the main developers of ME3, who by that time will no longer be working for EA or Bioware, will come out and reveal how the ending of ME3 was messed up so badly. I am impatiently waiting for the day.
My guess is sheer arrogance of the lead developer, possibly aggravated by time pressure. However, I could readily be off.
I am concerned about the massive database that the NSA (and others) are compiling, because despite the fact that "I have never done anything wrong," I understand perfectly that I am, along with almost everyone else in the US, technically a felon due to the proliferation of laws. I now, or soon, will live at the sufferance of those with access to this database.
I am more concerned because the same database can and will be used to influence and/or control our elected representatives through blackmail. If it hasn't happened yet, it will - always in the name of patriotism, of course - and I then begin to wonder why there are so few representatives who are up in arms about the deceitfulness of the NSA. I'd think that the reps would be more paranoid, and more worried about what that database might eventually contain on them ... unless they already know, and are keeping quiet as a result.
Before Snowden I'd have dismissed this notion as a laughable conspiracy theory. I'm not laughing anymore.
what they wanted initially was known as a 'pen register', and amounted to giving the NSA access to monitor who a person was contacting/possible content monitoring. However, because that data stream being monitored is encrypted, the pen register told them nothing.
That's not what I recall. As I recall, Lavabit refused to comply with the pen register order. That's when the NSA went to court to force Lavabit to comply. Things escalated from there.
Clearly, Lavabit didn't implement a "proper" PGP system, with encryption/decryption happening at the client *only*, or handing over the SSL key wouldn't have granted access to users' emails (which seems to be what's being argued). I'm not sure how Lavabit did provide its secure email services, though.
I wonder how a judge would react if, in court (a la the Lavabit hearings), the judge ordered that the company turn over their cert and the company rep responded that, sure, they'd do so, but that they were then contractually bound to notify the CA that the cert had been compromised, which would lead to the revocation of the cert? Can a judge order a company to willfully violate a contract like this?
Re: Re: Re: This is supporting evidence that root CA is pwned
Sorry, AC, this is not nonsense. MITM certificates is exactly what we're talking about here, and it is the mostly likely method used to achieve this "FLYING PIG" operation. I myself can think of 3 ways that the NSA could acquire MITM certificates, and there are probably more:
1) Issue an NSL (or equivalent) to a medium-sized CA demanding an MITM cert. Even a large CA would be reluctant to challenge such a thing, and a medium-sized CA wouldn't have the corporate courage nor the resources to do so. They'd roll over quickly.
2) Get a mole into any given CA and have them supply an MITM cert at need. We have already seen that the NSA does, indeed, seek to plant moles in various companies. CAs would be a prime target.
3) Steal a CA's private authentication key so that the NSA could sign their own MITM keys at need. Pre-Snowden, this would be laughed off. Now, it looks quite likely. Again, this would be a prime target for the NSA to acquire if it could, and it has billions to spend to achieve that.
On the post: No, Inglewood Cannot Claim Copyright On City Council Meetings And Sue A Critic For Commenting On Them
Make 'em pay
On the post: Why TPP Threatens To Undermine One Of The Fundamental Principles Of Science
It was paid for, so it should be available
No, it's not fair. The manufacturer was paid for that work, among other things, by the patent that they were granted. If they don't want that data used by other companies, don't file for a patent.
On the post: FTC Gets $1.2 Billion From Drug Company Over 'Pay For Delay' Patent Scam
Re: Fine
Yet this was a settlement. There's a natural tendency to assume that they settled for a fine lower than what they actually made. The only other alternative seems to be that they saw a slam-dunk case in the making, so they scrambled to settle before receiving a verdict that may be even worse. This case seems unlikely to be that clear-cut, at least in a courtroom.
On the post: UK Green Party Speculates On Idea To Shorten Copyright To 14 Years... Leading To Mass Freakout
A Form of Welfare
What a great phrase! Let's rewrite the debate: start calling Copyright "Authors' Welfare" or "Publishers' Welfare". The term "welfare" has negative connotations to much of the American public, so if we can reshape the debate with these terms we can perhaps shift public sentiment against these insane copyright terms.
We can state something like, "It just makes sense to reduce the time that authors and, especially, publishers are feeding at the Welfare trough of excessive Copyright at the public's expense." There, you've insulted Copyright by equating it to Welfare and made it clear that these excessive Copyright terms are stealing from the public by taking Public Domain works away from them.
On the post: Baltimore PD Has Deployed Stingray Devices Over 4,300 Times, Instructed By FBI To Withhold Info From Courts
Re: "It wasn't a request"
On the post: School Principal Contacts FBI After Student Throws American Flag Out A Window
Obligatory Princess Bride quote
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
On the post: PACER Officials Give Weak, Nonsensical Excuse For Why PACER Deleted Tons Of Public Court Records With No Notice
Perhaps this will be a good thing
On the post: That Story You've Read About YouTube 'Blocking' Indie Artists... Yeah, That's Not Accurate
Re: Re: Re: More apologies and misdirection to protect GOOG
Baloney. You can post whatever you want, for free. YouTube won't interfere with that. Or, you can sign up for their Subscriber program. However, the Ad-Sense program is going away, so if you only post your videos there, they'll go away when that program goes away.
On the post: Video Games Do Cause Aggression... If They Suck Out Loud
Re: ME3 ending
My guess is sheer arrogance of the lead developer, possibly aggravated by time pressure. However, I could readily be off.
On the post: If You Don't Care About The NSA Because You 'Haven't Done Anything Wrong,' You're Wrong
Bad and Worse
I am more concerned because the same database can and will be used to influence and/or control our elected representatives through blackmail. If it hasn't happened yet, it will - always in the name of patriotism, of course - and I then begin to wonder why there are so few representatives who are up in arms about the deceitfulness of the NSA. I'd think that the reps would be more paranoid, and more worried about what that database might eventually contain on them ... unless they already know, and are keeping quiet as a result.
Before Snowden I'd have dismissed this notion as a laughable conspiracy theory. I'm not laughing anymore.
On the post: Lavabit Case Shows Why We Need Tech Literate Judges
Re: Re: Re:
That's not what I recall. As I recall, Lavabit refused to comply with the pen register order. That's when the NSA went to court to force Lavabit to comply. Things escalated from there.
Clearly, Lavabit didn't implement a "proper" PGP system, with encryption/decryption happening at the client *only*, or handing over the SSL key wouldn't have granted access to users' emails (which seems to be what's being argued). I'm not sure how Lavabit did provide its secure email services, though.
On the post: GoDaddy Revokes Lavabit's Security Certificate After Reading About How The Feds Got It
Re: Possible out
On the post: FLYING PIG: The NSA Is Running Man In The Middle Attacks Imitating Google's Servers
Re: Re: Re: This is supporting evidence that root CA is pwned
1) Issue an NSL (or equivalent) to a medium-sized CA demanding an MITM cert. Even a large CA would be reluctant to challenge such a thing, and a medium-sized CA wouldn't have the corporate courage nor the resources to do so. They'd roll over quickly.
2) Get a mole into any given CA and have them supply an MITM cert at need. We have already seen that the NSA does, indeed, seek to plant moles in various companies. CAs would be a prime target.
3) Steal a CA's private authentication key so that the NSA could sign their own MITM keys at need. Pre-Snowden, this would be laughed off. Now, it looks quite likely. Again, this would be a prime target for the NSA to acquire if it could, and it has billions to spend to achieve that.
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