You would think any Government official who backed up that $18 million loan on the state pension fund should be sitting in prison right now.
1. It is not their money.
2. It is to be invested in sound profit making ventures.
3. There is simply no profit to be made in backing up someone else's loan. Therefore gross mismanagement and fraud.
Disney is not some cute fluffy company. History has well demonstrated they prefer to resolve their disputes through litigation. Screw over a bunch of pensioners? Sure they would... and have.
Jail the government bastard who agreed that one. You know I am right,
Hollywood loves anti-circumvention laws so they can always be the gatekeeper to your digital content. It is no matter if every Court in the land approves your fair-use when they just punish you for cracking their lock instead.
Then lets recall once they have this law in place that little app you like using to crack your BluRay then becomes unlawful and the FBI/CIA get to hunt down the people who wrote it including long jail terms.
All a battle for control where politicians just sit twiddling their thumbs when no one has paid them to fix this right.
Well what can I say to that one but an online confession to drugs, car theft and the one that will send her away for very many years... armed bank robbery.
When she waved that $61xx on camera was a classic moment. Hey I robbed a bank and here is the stolen cash! I am sure this video will appear in Police shows for years to come.
She will be sorry to find out that her "the government made me do it" excuse won't win much appeal with the Judge when it was a purely selfish motive.
It is of course not nice to hear they took away her baby but it is easy to fill in the blanks here. She is a drug user with an obvious history and they charged her with that crime for drug use while she was pregnant. They took the baby into care because she is still a drug user and it is obvious her life contains much more bad stuff. So it was done in the best interests of the child and instead of cleaning up her act to appeal for reconsideration even now she proves to all she could not be a responsible mother.
Indeed now she will only make someone a nice blonde prison bitch with having strange things stuck in her various holes.
It was the best day of her life she said and she smiled so broadly as she held up that stolen money. Unfortunately for her life always has rules and it will be her worst day as she is sentenced for her crimes.
I would normally say if one needs to break the law to never tell anyone but in this case she clearly wanted to confess her various crimes to the world.
GEMA is out to destroy the music world in their ignorance.
Web services won't deal with them due to their unreasonable prices so of course GEMA is losing a lot of money. GEMA then compensates for this loss by jacking up the prices in their other income areas causing much more damage in the process.
Then the Government instead of reigning in this monster and forcing them down to some EU average instead lets this clown-headed monopoly have their way.
There are not many about in the music world who are not pissed at GEMA when even the CEOs of record labels actually want GEMA to cut deals so their music appears on YouTube and such.
I can only believe if GEMA keeps this up that the whole music world in Germany will strike until GEMA gives in. One day a week would be a suitable start.
You overlook that TOR when used by the majority is for nothing unlawful when most of them connect to a TOR entry node and leave by a TOR exit node simply to do some anonymous web browsing.
Indeed anyone who values their privacy and anonymity these days is recommended to use both TOR and VPN. If you see how everyone tracks what you do these days then it is scary. So what is wrong with people taking up their rights to privacy and anonymity?
Then here you are saying that the whole TOR network should be destroyed simply because a few criminals hide in the one place law enforcement cant catch them. Indeed conduct their whole business out in the open for all to see.
In the end if you have seen what I have seen with the Government spying on everything you do including going through your email then a peaceful life under Tor does seem better even with the black market. They pushed and we pushed back.
It is stupid to seize Tor exit nodes when this is like ripping out the cables of the Internet or taking down a whole ISP in the name of CP moving over its network.
Naturally all data over Tor is hard encrypted and so no exit node owner can know what lawful or unlawful data is passed over the network. That is the very application of Tor created by the US Government for untracked communication.
The charges against him are clearly misplaced and only an idiot would lay false charges on an innocent person. Also to seize his Cable TV receiver and XBox 360 shows supreme technical incompetence where I could pick out a 10 year old who can identify valid hardware better. As I am sure the seizure order did not include unrelated consumer electronics then they should ensure the return of those falsely seized items as a matter of priority.
I always find it a shame these days that these people don't do their homework on what Tor is. Or how about nipping around his house saying "We have a few concerns can I come in to discuss these?" Two simple acts to save the victim a whole lot of problems.
Well it is certainly true that Core servers within Tor host child porn, guns, drugs and even hitmen but the Police are of course not attacking these sources. Neither is it possible in any easy way to do so due to constant hard encryption along with the multiple onion layers.
This does make you wonder if Governments would want the complete closer of the Tor network? It does represent complete anonymity, privacy and unrestricted speech and actions.
The only thing that surprises me about Tor is that this is all individuals and you don't see say major drug lords starting up a mail order service.
Tor though does have many lawful uses and it is hard to see any area of the law which could take down the whole network so in that regard there is only bullying and false raids like this one.
I think passing the Senate is a positive sign and they did indeed strike down that awful amendment.
There is a long way to go yet but I would believe most Members of Congress do recognize that the power of the Administration does need to be restricted and applied carefully.
No US Citizen can be happy that any number of Government agencies can spy into their bedrooms and bathrooms without any sign of a Court order. Sure as Hell is it unlawful but they just don't care when these unlawful acts cannot be punished.
These days large parts of the US Government are on a huge data grab from connections, websites, email, cell phone towers and much more. This should be for people not US Citizens but again they care none.
Even forcing them to get Court orders helps little when on a one sided story any Government agent can easily bullshit a Court judge 99.99999% of the time. You could say there is a record at least but of course Obama's secret Government locks up most things under seal to avoid being accountable.
So all this ECPA is would be one small step in the right direction to keep this monster under some control.
Now that was a bad idea for any person or company to try and censor TechDirt when it would only end in failure and ridicule.
With that said I did spot one small mistake. The reply claimed Fair Use but then said they did not infringe their copyright. This ignores the one fact that Fair Use is correctly known as "lawful infringement". So it is correct to claim the Fair Use exception but it should have said this is not "unlawful infringement".
I just see that if someone wants to be an expert on copyright law that they should get the concepts correct.
I had a quick check on latest news and as expected NASA did think the WFIRST plan as crazy pointing out no big project like that will begin until 2018.
So it seems NASA still seeks some mission for one these and their problem is thanks to JWST their astrophysics budget has no funds spare. Even now NASA go loopy and think maybe one other section of NASA has the spare budget and desire.
What I think is true is that NASA needs some outside help and most importantly cash input. So maybe over at ESA they can come up with a plan and desire. Three super high quality 2.4 meter main mirrors better than Hubble is something no space scientist or technician can ignore. To turn this fully into an international project is best to spread the budget pain and you never know when Congress may even squeeze out a little more to put expensive hardware into use.
I cannot see those two NRO satellites as major gifts when on the technology level these are like Hubble+ systems. This was good technology for the 90s but on the technology front both the NRO and NASA have long moved on.
What we can bet is that the NRO had a fleet of these Hubble+ satellites launching during the 90s and 00s where they could well be many in orbit now.
We can also rest assured that this is old technology to the NRO and they already have better satellites already in production and a couple in orbit. On the technology front you are talking Webb class systems. So while NASA workers muck around with their JWST the NRO are already laughing at them with their "look what I got".
The NRO have about the same sized budget as NASA and while NASA spent a fortune of the Shuttle, the ISS and to diversify funds between lots of science projects then the NRO is better focused to knock out an entire fleet of spy satellites. So these Hubble+ systems are the end units of the military class production line that have simply been hanging around too long before they became obsolete. If not for NASA these two may have been chopped up and tossed in the bin.
What to do with them then I am sure the NRO have already cut out the cool stuff like the missiles and lazer defense system. Well it is certainly the main mirrors have NASA has most use for and the NRO has 3 of them spare.
These NASA workers are joking though if they will take these satellites worth $250 million each and spend $1.6 billion to make use of just the first. They should well remember why NASA did not fund their WFIRST project due to the high cost and questionable science return. So these degree class jokers now think the NASA administrator would spend even more on the same project? Get real.
Had I been the head of NASA I would say you jokers have a $500 million budget to turn one of these satellites into something we can use and let me worry about the extra cost to launch it. Around 2018 there would be many lower cost launch options. Then if they moan about the $500 million point out the NRO have already spent $250 million making a fully functional satellite and you can't spend twice that simply to upgrade it?
NASA these days have too much to do and an ever decreasing budget to do it within. The bloated JWST on its own eats up almost all of the science budget for satellites. So any project NASA does between now and 2020 has to be very cost efficient with good science return.
In that regard it is nice for the NRO to gift wrap two Hubble+ systems during their hard time but NASA still need to find a cost efficient use for them. It is a shame though NASA sent along a dreamer still dreaming of his WFIRST and desired Noble.
Well it is sad when I am sure many of us wish the NRO were reassigned to be NASA satellite builders and their goal was changed to look outwards instead of inwards. Like a whole fleet of Kepler satellites would be very popular. No chance there of course but maybe in 10 or 15 years time the NRO may gift wrap NASA one or two of their Webb+ satellites.
To finish up then I find it funny the NRO would ban NASA to point these at Earth. There is nothing in the NASA mandate banning them peering at Earth and even people should they have some scientifically valid reason to do so. I guess that is an NRO "Don't touch our stuff" warning.
Then despite this Ofcom report they are still moving full speed ahead with the DEA in order to... attack their best customers! You can only wonder what way their sales would change and I would expect bad news myself.
Even most rights holders class the DEA as the wrong response when there are better options but it seems the Government wishes to spend all £5.8 million on the DEA only to see this doomed scheme crash and burn the hard way.
I think the people need to ask the UK Government some hard question here seeing that this is public money that they are spending on protection of commercial groups. The Government has told us that this £5.8 million of public money would be recovered as rights holders use the DEA. However in France their Hapodi is having issues when the French Government is tired of supporting the scheme and plans to cut their funding. Then in NZ they only moan at the price and make no realistic effort to pay the actually cost of the scheme while the entire RIAA ignore this NZ system and have not even sent out one single notice.
So what is this lunacy? Most of them don't want to use it and don't want to pay for it. So does that mean that UK public tax funds is to be used to provide regular prop-up support funds for the DEA? We sure as Hell won't get our £5.8 million investment back.
Here is an idea when the Government should make them pay 100%. They after all are the ones who wanted the DEA and so they should also now pay for it. Should they not do that then the DEA should be allowed to die.
Then all this hassle is being done to attack their best customers. Politics = Lunatics.
I can only think parents need to let this kids loose in Dubai wearing these Guy Fawkes "V for Vendetta" masks. Would police really arrest a group of kids with no political motivation beyond enjoying wearing a mask?
The ironic part of all this is that political protesters can easily pick another mask to wear while running rampant with their anarchy. It is true that people enjoy the mask and see it as a symbol of anti-Government protests but of course the mask is not reflective of the person behind it.
They seem to overlook that our history is filled with masks, when a person simply wants to be someone else or unknown for the evening, from the state ballroom to the darkest back alleys.
I found that RSC report the most beautiful political document that I have ever seen. It even brought a tear to my eye after reading how extremely well balanced and thoughtful it was. In all it was a good reflection of the voice of the people but then it was crushed and silenced in under a day.
If we want to talk about real copyright reform and the Internet then we should bring all voices to the tables. Since there is an on-going Copyright War a in battle for control then it helps none to silence one side making these copyright cartels the only voice in town. Well they can't hide forever when the current problems are known and good idea tend to spread.
As to property rights then I have always classed copyright in terms that they may own the media but they do not own the market in which it is distributed. This is a bit like a self-replicating vase which once released in the marketplace gets passed from hand to hand to be examined. People in the market then decide if their stall should host this vase through a replicated copy. The vase creator has no voice where this vase ends up, even in people's homes, but when there is a sale the the creator gets paid.
Copyright as it stands aims to control the market with exclusive rights to host the vase. It can only appear through stalls A to J. Stalls by the gate are forced charge more for the vase. Examination time of the vase is limited to 30 seconds where tickets can be purchased for longer viewing. Then if anyone buys the vase they are banned using the self-replication feature and where no more than 5 people are allowed to view the vase at anyone time.
So it a common mistake they make, when we are not after their media but for the public to control the market it lives within, namely an open free trade market far removed from these monopolies.
It could well be about 2 years before TPP(A) is at the stage that ACTA was at during the start of this year.
We would welcome those people working on TPP(A) to show some sense and to work on some real copyright reform but we do need to see their official end release first before we know how much danger TPP(A) will be.
CETA should be our first target and at least they are working on making it more acceptable.
Those in Poland should be rightly proud of their strong show against ACTA. It was certainly them that showed to the rest of Europe that united we could take down ACTA.
The failure of SOPA and PIPA did of course fuel this fire but I even thought myself that action against ACTA would be too little and too late. After all ACTA had already been shipped into Europe disguised as a "fish" and where member countries were already doing the formal signing. So all that remained was for the European Parliament to pass ACTA and they have a long history of rubber stamping what the European Commission wants.
A key point in this protest was when the Polish representative signed ACTA while in Japan. The locals in Poland really blew a fuse and when she saw their anger she backed down saying that her signing was a mistake and she did not realise what she was signing. It was not long following that the Polish Government suspended the ratification of ACTA pending the EP vote.
This showed to the rest of Europe that we could take out ACTA where soon we began to do so. Since those in Poland were out in large numbers in sub-zero temperatures then it is not like we had an excuse to stay at home.
There were certainly demonstrations in most European cities and Germany put out a very strong showing. The Pirate Party had handled the organization. These whole demonstrations to me were reflected in one photo of a young Swedish woman who was so mad at ACTA that she had obviously left her computer behind to pull a bamboo bean cane out of her garden to make her own sign and then she went out on the streets for the first time in her life to do some political activism.
People should be rightly proud of what was achieved, when ACTA now lies dead in the EU, but it is just a shame that bad legislation that both harms the Internet and our sharing culture is an unending fight. We can only hope politicians soon learn to handle the Internet gently and to do so based on facts and on real damage.
I would have to agree with you. Anyone who wants to reign in Government power and to make it accountable sure would then NOT add a clause for 22 agencies to spy on everyone freely.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt would be nice when it has not been proposed officially yet. This still looks highly dodgy and seems like the classic switcheroo in that he offers something the public welcomes but at the last moment switches it for something quite nasty.
Let the true colours fly, so we will never wonder why, where you shall live and die.
On the post: Michigan Bets The State Pension Fund On Hollywood Success, Ends Up Stuck With The Tab
Clear as day
1. It is not their money.
2. It is to be invested in sound profit making ventures.
3. There is simply no profit to be made in backing up someone else's loan. Therefore gross mismanagement and fraud.
Disney is not some cute fluffy company. History has well demonstrated they prefer to resolve their disputes through litigation. Screw over a bunch of pensioners? Sure they would... and have.
Jail the government bastard who agreed that one. You know I am right,
On the post: Project Launched To Fix The Anti-Circumvention Clause Of The DMCA
Control
Then lets recall once they have this law in place that little app you like using to crack your BluRay then becomes unlawful and the FBI/CIA get to hunt down the people who wrote it including long jail terms.
All a battle for control where politicians just sit twiddling their thumbs when no one has paid them to fix this right.
On the post: Over 400 Groups, Representing 15 Million People, Demand 'New Direction' From USTR In TPP Negotiations
Balls
I am not sure what will become of this when Congress has really done nothing to hold ACTA to account but as least this should wake them up.
On the post: Protip: After Successfully Stealing A Car And Robbing A Bank... Don't Brag About It On YouTube
Blonde
When she waved that $61xx on camera was a classic moment. Hey I robbed a bank and here is the stolen cash! I am sure this video will appear in Police shows for years to come.
She will be sorry to find out that her "the government made me do it" excuse won't win much appeal with the Judge when it was a purely selfish motive.
It is of course not nice to hear they took away her baby but it is easy to fill in the blanks here. She is a drug user with an obvious history and they charged her with that crime for drug use while she was pregnant. They took the baby into care because she is still a drug user and it is obvious her life contains much more bad stuff. So it was done in the best interests of the child and instead of cleaning up her act to appeal for reconsideration even now she proves to all she could not be a responsible mother.
Indeed now she will only make someone a nice blonde prison bitch with having strange things stuck in her various holes.
It was the best day of her life she said and she smiled so broadly as she held up that stolen money. Unfortunately for her life always has rules and it will be her worst day as she is sentenced for her crimes.
I would normally say if one needs to break the law to never tell anyone but in this case she clearly wanted to confess her various crimes to the world.
On the post: GEMA Feels It Isn't Killing German Nightclubs Fast Enough, Moves Towards Charging DJs Per MP3 On Their Laptops
The Destroyer
Web services won't deal with them due to their unreasonable prices so of course GEMA is losing a lot of money. GEMA then compensates for this loss by jacking up the prices in their other income areas causing much more damage in the process.
Then the Government instead of reigning in this monster and forcing them down to some EU average instead lets this clown-headed monopoly have their way.
There are not many about in the music world who are not pissed at GEMA when even the CEOs of record labels actually want GEMA to cut deals so their music appears on YouTube and such.
I can only believe if GEMA keeps this up that the whole music world in Germany will strike until GEMA gives in. One day a week would be a suitable start.
On the post: Tor Exit Node Operator Charged With Distributing Child Porn
Re: Lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
Indeed anyone who values their privacy and anonymity these days is recommended to use both TOR and VPN. If you see how everyone tracks what you do these days then it is scary. So what is wrong with people taking up their rights to privacy and anonymity?
Then here you are saying that the whole TOR network should be destroyed simply because a few criminals hide in the one place law enforcement cant catch them. Indeed conduct their whole business out in the open for all to see.
In the end if you have seen what I have seen with the Government spying on everything you do including going through your email then a peaceful life under Tor does seem better even with the black market. They pushed and we pushed back.
On the post: Tor Exit Node Operator Charged With Distributing Child Porn
Tor versus Idiots
Naturally all data over Tor is hard encrypted and so no exit node owner can know what lawful or unlawful data is passed over the network. That is the very application of Tor created by the US Government for untracked communication.
The charges against him are clearly misplaced and only an idiot would lay false charges on an innocent person. Also to seize his Cable TV receiver and XBox 360 shows supreme technical incompetence where I could pick out a 10 year old who can identify valid hardware better. As I am sure the seizure order did not include unrelated consumer electronics then they should ensure the return of those falsely seized items as a matter of priority.
I always find it a shame these days that these people don't do their homework on what Tor is. Or how about nipping around his house saying "We have a few concerns can I come in to discuss these?" Two simple acts to save the victim a whole lot of problems.
Well it is certainly true that Core servers within Tor host child porn, guns, drugs and even hitmen but the Police are of course not attacking these sources. Neither is it possible in any easy way to do so due to constant hard encryption along with the multiple onion layers.
This does make you wonder if Governments would want the complete closer of the Tor network? It does represent complete anonymity, privacy and unrestricted speech and actions.
The only thing that surprises me about Tor is that this is all individuals and you don't see say major drug lords starting up a mail order service.
Tor though does have many lawful uses and it is hard to see any area of the law which could take down the whole network so in that regard there is only bullying and false raids like this one.
On the post: Senate Committee Approves ECPA Reform That Requires Warrants; But Will It Ever Become Law?
ECPA
There is a long way to go yet but I would believe most Members of Congress do recognize that the power of the Administration does need to be restricted and applied carefully.
No US Citizen can be happy that any number of Government agencies can spy into their bedrooms and bathrooms without any sign of a Court order. Sure as Hell is it unlawful but they just don't care when these unlawful acts cannot be punished.
These days large parts of the US Government are on a huge data grab from connections, websites, email, cell phone towers and much more. This should be for people not US Citizens but again they care none.
Even forcing them to get Court orders helps little when on a one sided story any Government agent can easily bullshit a Court judge 99.99999% of the time. You could say there is a record at least but of course Obama's secret Government locks up most things under seal to avoid being accountable.
So all this ECPA is would be one small step in the right direction to keep this monster under some control.
On the post: Open Letter To Human Synergistics International In Response To Your Accusation That Techdirt Is Infringing
Fair use is...
With that said I did spot one small mistake. The reply claimed Fair Use but then said they did not infringe their copyright. This ignores the one fact that Fair Use is correctly known as "lawful infringement". So it is correct to claim the Fair Use exception but it should have said this is not "unlawful infringement".
I just see that if someone wants to be an expert on copyright law that they should get the concepts correct.
On the post: DailyDirt: Cool Telescopes
Re: NRO vs. NASA
So it seems NASA still seeks some mission for one these and their problem is thanks to JWST their astrophysics budget has no funds spare. Even now NASA go loopy and think maybe one other section of NASA has the spare budget and desire.
What I think is true is that NASA needs some outside help and most importantly cash input. So maybe over at ESA they can come up with a plan and desire. Three super high quality 2.4 meter main mirrors better than Hubble is something no space scientist or technician can ignore. To turn this fully into an international project is best to spread the budget pain and you never know when Congress may even squeeze out a little more to put expensive hardware into use.
On the post: DailyDirt: Cool Telescopes
NRO vs. NASA
What we can bet is that the NRO had a fleet of these Hubble+ satellites launching during the 90s and 00s where they could well be many in orbit now.
We can also rest assured that this is old technology to the NRO and they already have better satellites already in production and a couple in orbit. On the technology front you are talking Webb class systems. So while NASA workers muck around with their JWST the NRO are already laughing at them with their "look what I got".
The NRO have about the same sized budget as NASA and while NASA spent a fortune of the Shuttle, the ISS and to diversify funds between lots of science projects then the NRO is better focused to knock out an entire fleet of spy satellites. So these Hubble+ systems are the end units of the military class production line that have simply been hanging around too long before they became obsolete. If not for NASA these two may have been chopped up and tossed in the bin.
What to do with them then I am sure the NRO have already cut out the cool stuff like the missiles and lazer defense system. Well it is certainly the main mirrors have NASA has most use for and the NRO has 3 of them spare.
These NASA workers are joking though if they will take these satellites worth $250 million each and spend $1.6 billion to make use of just the first. They should well remember why NASA did not fund their WFIRST project due to the high cost and questionable science return. So these degree class jokers now think the NASA administrator would spend even more on the same project? Get real.
Had I been the head of NASA I would say you jokers have a $500 million budget to turn one of these satellites into something we can use and let me worry about the extra cost to launch it. Around 2018 there would be many lower cost launch options. Then if they moan about the $500 million point out the NRO have already spent $250 million making a fully functional satellite and you can't spend twice that simply to upgrade it?
NASA these days have too much to do and an ever decreasing budget to do it within. The bloated JWST on its own eats up almost all of the science budget for satellites. So any project NASA does between now and 2020 has to be very cost efficient with good science return.
In that regard it is nice for the NRO to gift wrap two Hubble+ systems during their hard time but NASA still need to find a cost efficient use for them. It is a shame though NASA sent along a dreamer still dreaming of his WFIRST and desired Noble.
Well it is sad when I am sure many of us wish the NRO were reassigned to be NASA satellite builders and their goal was changed to look outwards instead of inwards. Like a whole fleet of Kepler satellites would be very popular. No chance there of course but maybe in 10 or 15 years time the NRO may gift wrap NASA one or two of their Webb+ satellites.
To finish up then I find it funny the NRO would ban NASA to point these at Earth. There is nothing in the NASA mandate banning them peering at Earth and even people should they have some scientifically valid reason to do so. I guess that is an NRO "Don't touch our stuff" warning.
On the post: Dear RIAA: Pirates Buy More. Full Stop. Deal With It.
DEA
Even most rights holders class the DEA as the wrong response when there are better options but it seems the Government wishes to spend all £5.8 million on the DEA only to see this doomed scheme crash and burn the hard way.
I think the people need to ask the UK Government some hard question here seeing that this is public money that they are spending on protection of commercial groups. The Government has told us that this £5.8 million of public money would be recovered as rights holders use the DEA. However in France their Hapodi is having issues when the French Government is tired of supporting the scheme and plans to cut their funding. Then in NZ they only moan at the price and make no realistic effort to pay the actually cost of the scheme while the entire RIAA ignore this NZ system and have not even sent out one single notice.
So what is this lunacy? Most of them don't want to use it and don't want to pay for it. So does that mean that UK public tax funds is to be used to provide regular prop-up support funds for the DEA? We sure as Hell won't get our £5.8 million investment back.
Here is an idea when the Government should make them pay 100%. They after all are the ones who wanted the DEA and so they should also now pay for it. Should they not do that then the DEA should be allowed to die.
Then all this hassle is being done to attack their best customers. Politics = Lunatics.
On the post: Wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes Masks Declared Illegal In Dubai
The Future
On the post: Wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes Masks Declared Illegal In Dubai
The Future
On the post: Wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes Masks Declared Illegal In Dubai
Re: Re: Masks of Mayhem
On the post: Wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes Masks Declared Illegal In Dubai
Masks of Mayhem
The ironic part of all this is that political protesters can easily pick another mask to wear while running rampant with their anarchy. It is true that people enjoy the mask and see it as a symbol of anti-Government protests but of course the mask is not reflective of the person behind it.
They seem to overlook that our history is filled with masks, when a person simply wants to be someone else or unknown for the evening, from the state ballroom to the darkest back alleys.
On the post: Copyright Maximalists Attempt To Downplay Significance Of RSC Report By Chanting Their Mantra: Copyright Is Property
Crazyville
If we want to talk about real copyright reform and the Internet then we should bring all voices to the tables. Since there is an on-going Copyright War a in battle for control then it helps none to silence one side making these copyright cartels the only voice in town. Well they can't hide forever when the current problems are known and good idea tend to spread.
As to property rights then I have always classed copyright in terms that they may own the media but they do not own the market in which it is distributed. This is a bit like a self-replicating vase which once released in the marketplace gets passed from hand to hand to be examined. People in the market then decide if their stall should host this vase through a replicated copy. The vase creator has no voice where this vase ends up, even in people's homes, but when there is a sale the the creator gets paid.
Copyright as it stands aims to control the market with exclusive rights to host the vase. It can only appear through stalls A to J. Stalls by the gate are forced charge more for the vase. Examination time of the vase is limited to 30 seconds where tickets can be purchased for longer viewing. Then if anyone buys the vase they are banned using the self-replication feature and where no more than 5 people are allowed to view the vase at anyone time.
So it a common mistake they make, when we are not after their media but for the public to control the market it lives within, namely an open free trade market far removed from these monopolies.
On the post: Why Was It Poland That Led The European Revolt Against ACTA?
Re: Nice chronology
We would welcome those people working on TPP(A) to show some sense and to work on some real copyright reform but we do need to see their official end release first before we know how much danger TPP(A) will be.
CETA should be our first target and at least they are working on making it more acceptable.
On the post: Why Was It Poland That Led The European Revolt Against ACTA?
Pride
The failure of SOPA and PIPA did of course fuel this fire but I even thought myself that action against ACTA would be too little and too late. After all ACTA had already been shipped into Europe disguised as a "fish" and where member countries were already doing the formal signing. So all that remained was for the European Parliament to pass ACTA and they have a long history of rubber stamping what the European Commission wants.
A key point in this protest was when the Polish representative signed ACTA while in Japan. The locals in Poland really blew a fuse and when she saw their anger she backed down saying that her signing was a mistake and she did not realise what she was signing. It was not long following that the Polish Government suspended the ratification of ACTA pending the EP vote.
This showed to the rest of Europe that we could take out ACTA where soon we began to do so. Since those in Poland were out in large numbers in sub-zero temperatures then it is not like we had an excuse to stay at home.
There were certainly demonstrations in most European cities and Germany put out a very strong showing. The Pirate Party had handled the organization. These whole demonstrations to me were reflected in one photo of a young Swedish woman who was so mad at ACTA that she had obviously left her computer behind to pull a bamboo bean cane out of her garden to make her own sign and then she went out on the streets for the first time in her life to do some political activism.
People should be rightly proud of what was achieved, when ACTA now lies dead in the EU, but it is just a shame that bad legislation that both harms the Internet and our sharing culture is an unending fight. We can only hope politicians soon learn to handle the Internet gently and to do so based on facts and on real damage.
On the post: Patrick Leahy Ready To Cave To Law Enforcement: Has ECPA Reform Amendment To Include Loopholes For Warrantless Spying
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Giving him the benefit of the doubt would be nice when it has not been proposed officially yet. This still looks highly dodgy and seems like the classic switcheroo in that he offers something the public welcomes but at the last moment switches it for something quite nasty.
Let the true colours fly, so we will never wonder why, where you shall live and die.
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