"It's an amusing story, but it doesn't really show anything other than that actions of one person. If he wasn't in law enforcement, he might have used his car to try to run the other guy over. Perhaps we should use that as a reason to slam the auto industry too?"
When the FBI is known for cheating (of the non marital kind) and we promote stupidity, it's time to call a spade a spade. Yes, this EPA agent made one man's life a living hell. But it's indicative of a system and a set of rules that are liable for abuse.
Perhaps, if we are to hold the police to a higher standard, the agents of the FBI, EPA, CIA, DoJ, and any other bureaucratic entity in our government, should be held to the rigorous rights granted by the Constitution.
"Such vertical integration leads to the creation of monopolies."
Can you explain please? In my view, it seems that Amazon is forcing others to compete in the marketplace and introduce more efficient models of business than currently presented.
This actually reminds me of the philosophical debates any of the great Greek/Roman philosophers. You had a common area where men of different stations could come to discuss the various governances of the day. From Socrates, we understand the issues of ethics and sophistry in how he came quested for one truth. But one thing understood in the the times of these philosophers was the fact that they had areas of dialogue for all involved. Now think about how sectioned off we have most of the United States and the massive disconnects of people.
I really think there should be a place for people to go and physically BE in the same area to discuss these topics. Topics of how the law works, how there are quasi government officials such as the FBI or CIA, places for the common man to actually meet these mysterious judges instead of holding them to some type of special status.
Don't get me wrong, the internet is great. But we section off parts of it based on our needs. The thought of an amphitheater where everyone is allowed to discuss their concerns in civilized discourse, their background taking a backseat to the debate at hand.
Would it work? Dunno, but it's similar to the public space that you bring forth.
" Professional translators are fairly expensive. Limited runs to print the things in other languages is equally expensive. The market? Nobody can be sure, but it doesn't appear to be that large."
Professional translations take the "flavor" out of some of the mangas. I follow One Piece. Looking at what happened to the 4Kids translation versus what the "amateurs" did makes you realize that there's a ton of difference between the two.
For brevity, I'll point you to why there is editing to Japanese anime here. Then, you look at what fansubbers do by ignoring all of that, using the Japanese DVDs for anime and how much goes uncensored in the manga books. Fansubs trump the official versions in tons of circumstances.
The manga and anime have also been licensed by Tokyopop for an English release. The company decided to change the names of the characters in the anime edition. In addition, starting with Volume 2, the company changed the names of the characters in the manga to match the name changes in the anime. The company changed names of characters. For instance, the main character, Takumi, became Tak, and his best friend Itsuki became Iggy. Some characters, such as Takumi's father, Bunta, retained their original names. These name changes were to reflect the name changes that Sega implemented into the western releases of the Initial D A Stage video games {see below} due to name length limits.
...
The company also changed the music from the series' staple eurobeat tracks to originally developed tracks of rap and hip-hop via Stu Levy (DJ Milky), the Tokyopop CEO and an in-house musician. The massive editing has been attributed to rumors that Tokyopop was hoping to cash in on the growing Import Scene brought about by The Fast and the Furious with edits that would conform to American broadcasting standards on TV
To someone like me, who is used to a certain name, then has to readjust an anime using a nickname, it was hard to adjust to. And looking at how Tokyopop also put in "special effects" for NO reason other than to compete with Fast and the Furious, the only other option was to get an "official" translation from somewhere other than America. Which I did. I paid $50 for the entire Initial D set, coming from China, while the Tokyopop version was selling their DVD, with their edits for $10 each. I got the extra movies and each season (there were 4 when I bought it) for less than it cost to get the series in the US (which still wasn't finished). To get the series in the US, when it was done, would have cost $100+ dollars (3 episodes per DVD, $10 each, one season = ~4 DVDs), and was CLEARLY an inferior product.
So, to answer your next phrase:
If there was money to be made, someone would be making it. If it is only functional with piracy and labor of love workers, than you have your answer why it isn't being done.
There is money to be made. But overpriced crap is not going to be bought much in this day and age.
Sony got hacked.
Sony decided to not attend the Congressional Hearing into the matter.
Sony used a text file to try and shift the blame to a 3rd party not involved the the data theft.
Sony was not using anything remotely close to established security procedures.
Sony was aware for a very long time their systems were insecure, and these were posts made publicly.
Do we have new data protection laws on the books?
Do we have an overreaching law telling you you at minimum need to do x?
We we instead offered extensions of data retention by ISPs, filters, and laws to get "the bad people" as defined by corporations.
There is one glaring reason why Sony was able to softball the privacy issue from their PS3.
Don't forget that now, the DoJ wants to make people go to prison or placate them for streaming links that they decide are bad. So now there's a chance they'll try to put people in jail for copyright infringement.
Aren't they doing this already? And the fact remains that the reckoning of depriving so many people of their rights will cause a significant backlash.
One reason that OWS seems to be gaining momentum is because there's no place for people to discuss the justice system and point out its flaws to their elected officials. This is among the other inherent flaws of our system. Perhaps there should be more dialogue on how to change the system before it becomes even more violent.
"The Protect IP Act is going to be passed and life for most everyone will be unchanged."
With so much of an uproar about this, you're still adamant it won't change a thing? As if the DMCA didn't change life for most people? Come on, pull my other leg while you insist that copyright law isn't being used to control regular people it isn't supposed to control.
"That rule governs all of civil jurisprudence in the United States and seems to be well-tested for fairness."
*snicker* And the FBI doesn't try to bully Wikipedia or Mozilla, nor does it make mistakes. Funny, I heard the same insistence about the ACTA. It was conforming to existing law even though it doesn't. And the FBI is filled with more liars and cheaters than the ones in prison. Fairness isn't the issue here, it's the ones holding the badge that can't be trusted. And the fact that they are twisting all the copyright laws to convict people for criminal copyright infringement doesn't bode well for people if the AG is getting involved.
" The others are egg-sucking apologists as well."
Paul Vixie? The guy that helped to create the internet from DARPA? You don't know him?
Nor Joe Karaganis, who lead a team of researchers into piracy, doing your job for you in figuring out how piracy worked in the US, Brazil, India, Canada, South Africa, and quite a few other countries?
Who also found out there were no links to terrorism and piracy nor did it cause a 1:1 loss from a download?
That's an apologist to you? Someone you can't begin to comprehend their work because you get paid to pass laws that have been proven fruitless?
"How about kiddie porn, is that OK too as long as it doesn't violate the laws of the ass-backwards third world shithole country the website is registered in?"
Or maybe we should punish those that smoke weed by putting them in jail for 10 years for a small dosage. Oh wait, we do that in the US already. And it's failed miserably.
Or perhaps you should consider the laws before saying that you can follow them.
The reasoning is simple and straightforward. Once you have established that someone who is in a position to censor other people’s communication has a responsibility to do so, the floodgates open and those middlemen can be politically charged with filtering anything that somebody objects to being distributed.
...
But more emotionally, we turn to a German group named Mogis. It is a support group for adult people who were abused as children, and is the only one of its kind. They are very outspoken and adamant on the issue of censoring child pornography.
Censorship hides the problem and causes more children to be abused, they say. Don’t close your eyes, but see reality and act on it. As hard as it is to force oneself to be confronted emotionally with this statement, it is rationally understandable that a problem can’t be addressed by hiding it. One of their slogans is “Crimes should be punished and not hidden”.
This puts the copyright industry’s efforts in perspective. In this context they don’t care in the slightest about children, only about their control over distribution channels.
Odd... Why would you respond to an AC about something from me?
From all sources, it seems that people won't be able to talk about any type of sports or entertainment. If so, it's liable for infringement.
Notice how a stream of an NHL show is likely to get the DoJ involved: Link
The same story repeats over and over. Movies - the entire Ninjavideo fiasco. Music - shutdown of Napster.
It seems to never be about what actual fans want in making it easier to find music or games or whatever. It's about some made up number to potential losses.
I'm sure the fans were communicating about the Dallas Stars hockey game. With the DoJ threat, they have to go elsewhere to talk about the game. Which makes no sense. For movies, the takedown of the TVShack domain entailed a whirlwind of people that had to go elsewhere for material. And here's where it's weird...
The links are still up to the content. All the DoJ does is take down ONE site instead of going to take down the content itself. So yes, there are free speech concerns here. They were never explored with the NV case, nor currently are they explored with the TVShack case with a bogus extradition beforehand.
But with all of this, there were thousands of people that have had their forums taken down to discuss new shows or old ones on all of the TVShack forums. Hell, what about all the people that discussed the artwork or the community based decisions on NV? How about the people saying that Dallas sucks from the streaming? All of those are free speech concerns that are impeded with the takedowns.
So, as I would implore. If the government is going to takedown a site, there is no need to run around as if these are drug sites (which is essentially what John Morton is trying to use to confuse these situations). The domain seizures in no way relate to drug seizures, where the government is racing against an invisible clock to take down a website because something might change. The content would probably still be there. Hell, they could take pictures and tell the people NOT to takedown content as they went to an adversarial hearing. There's even the DMCA takedown request for IP holders. Making this into a criminal act for an AG or private party is similar to the flamethrower for trying to hammer a nail. It still won't work, and there's a huge chance that the collateral damage from it is nothing, if not massive.
"Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", was a British soldier who fought throughout World War II armed with a longbow, arrows and a claymore. He once said "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."
... Wait, what?
Back in England, he was the first man to ride the River Severn’s five-foot tidal bore and designed his own board. In retirement, however, his eccentricity continued. He startled train conductors and passenger by throwing his attaché case out of the train window each day on the ride home. He later explained that he was tossing his case into his own backyard so he wouldn’t have to carry it from the station
... I was going to make a Chuck Norris joke, but damn...
This entire time I've been showing how piracy is basically unmet demand. Once you sit down and think about the reasons people pirate then stop giving people reasons and try to make money, the actual work is academic. No one has apologized for piracy. People have just learned to adapt and find new ways in entertainment to adapt to digital technology.
Gaming - Notice that WoW, the most prolific MMO for some time, has actually gone Free to Play like most other MMOs. You've had more people at the very least try out WoW nowadays than pay for a subscription (it's free to level 20).
Music - Soundcloud, Youtube, Grooveshark, Turntable. Free music can be had in a number of places. Without downloading. Just streaming and having internet access.
Movies - What's entirely amazing about the entire enforcement angle is how shortsighted it really is in a nutshell. Does Universal have a website? Can they stream? Have they streamed? Quite frankly if the MPAA and its affiliates stopped trying to police the rest of the world and focused on what they were doing, you would have a legal option for streaming. The MPAA and affiliates. They could license out movies to Hulu and Netflix at reasonable rates. Theaters would have better options than the high rents they have to pay now for movies. And there would be far more options in the movie theaters than popcorn and overpriced soda.
""it could be you next!" (all you need is the 50s style announcer and the "duh-duh-duh" music... all of which I am sure you have pirated in the past!)."
On the post: Federal Agent Manufactured Case Against Guy... For The Purpose Of Spending More Time With His Mistress
Re:
When the FBI is known for cheating (of the non marital kind) and we promote stupidity, it's time to call a spade a spade. Yes, this EPA agent made one man's life a living hell. But it's indicative of a system and a set of rules that are liable for abuse.
Perhaps, if we are to hold the police to a higher standard, the agents of the FBI, EPA, CIA, DoJ, and any other bureaucratic entity in our government, should be held to the rigorous rights granted by the Constitution.
On the post: Does Amazon Want to Monopolize The Entire Publishing Chain?
Re: I have wondered why this hasnt happend sooner
That wasn't in the job description.
On the post: Does Amazon Want to Monopolize The Entire Publishing Chain?
Re: Interesting
Can you explain please? In my view, it seems that Amazon is forcing others to compete in the marketplace and introduce more efficient models of business than currently presented.
On the post: Different Treatment For Tech Related Law-Breaking Depending On Whether Or Not You Have Power
Re: Re: Re: Re: Cake
I really think there should be a place for people to go and physically BE in the same area to discuss these topics. Topics of how the law works, how there are quasi government officials such as the FBI or CIA, places for the common man to actually meet these mysterious judges instead of holding them to some type of special status.
Don't get me wrong, the internet is great. But we section off parts of it based on our needs. The thought of an amphitheater where everyone is allowed to discuss their concerns in civilized discourse, their background taking a backseat to the debate at hand.
Would it work? Dunno, but it's similar to the public space that you bring forth.
On the post: WIPO Article About Manga Piracy Describes Publishers' Failure To Meet Demand In Graphic Detail
Re:
Professional translations take the "flavor" out of some of the mangas. I follow One Piece. Looking at what happened to the 4Kids translation versus what the "amateurs" did makes you realize that there's a ton of difference between the two.
For brevity, I'll point you to why there is editing to Japanese anime here. Then, you look at what fansubbers do by ignoring all of that, using the Japanese DVDs for anime and how much goes uncensored in the manga books. Fansubs trump the official versions in tons of circumstances.
Sometimes, those edits are just stupid like in the Initial D series:
The manga and anime have also been licensed by Tokyopop for an English release. The company decided to change the names of the characters in the anime edition. In addition, starting with Volume 2, the company changed the names of the characters in the manga to match the name changes in the anime. The company changed names of characters. For instance, the main character, Takumi, became Tak, and his best friend Itsuki became Iggy. Some characters, such as Takumi's father, Bunta, retained their original names. These name changes were to reflect the name changes that Sega implemented into the western releases of the Initial D A Stage video games {see below} due to name length limits.
...
The company also changed the music from the series' staple eurobeat tracks to originally developed tracks of rap and hip-hop via Stu Levy (DJ Milky), the Tokyopop CEO and an in-house musician. The massive editing has been attributed to rumors that Tokyopop was hoping to cash in on the growing Import Scene brought about by The Fast and the Furious with edits that would conform to American broadcasting standards on TV
To someone like me, who is used to a certain name, then has to readjust an anime using a nickname, it was hard to adjust to. And looking at how Tokyopop also put in "special effects" for NO reason other than to compete with Fast and the Furious, the only other option was to get an "official" translation from somewhere other than America. Which I did. I paid $50 for the entire Initial D set, coming from China, while the Tokyopop version was selling their DVD, with their edits for $10 each. I got the extra movies and each season (there were 4 when I bought it) for less than it cost to get the series in the US (which still wasn't finished). To get the series in the US, when it was done, would have cost $100+ dollars (3 episodes per DVD, $10 each, one season = ~4 DVDs), and was CLEARLY an inferior product.
So, to answer your next phrase:
If there was money to be made, someone would be making it. If it is only functional with piracy and labor of love workers, than you have your answer why it isn't being done.
There is money to be made. But overpriced crap is not going to be bought much in this day and age.
On the post: Senator Wyden Asks President Obama: Isn't Congress Required To Approve ACTA?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Read the foreign affairs manual
The better question here is why would Obama do this than get the rubber stamp from Congress?
On the post: Different Treatment For Tech Related Law-Breaking Depending On Whether Or Not You Have Power
Re:
Sony decided to not attend the Congressional Hearing into the matter.
Sony used a text file to try and shift the blame to a 3rd party not involved the the data theft.
Sony was not using anything remotely close to established security procedures.
Sony was aware for a very long time their systems were insecure, and these were posts made publicly.
Do we have new data protection laws on the books?
Do we have an overreaching law telling you you at minimum need to do x?
We we instead offered extensions of data retention by ISPs, filters, and laws to get "the bad people" as defined by corporations.
There is one glaring reason why Sony was able to softball the privacy issue from their PS3.
On the post: Different Treatment For Tech Related Law-Breaking Depending On Whether Or Not You Have Power
Re:
On the post: Different Treatment For Tech Related Law-Breaking Depending On Whether Or Not You Have Power
Re: Cake
One reason that OWS seems to be gaining momentum is because there's no place for people to discuss the justice system and point out its flaws to their elected officials. This is among the other inherent flaws of our system. Perhaps there should be more dialogue on how to change the system before it becomes even more violent.
On the post: Members of Germany's Main Political Parties Start 'Fair Copyright Initiative'
Re:
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
With so much of an uproar about this, you're still adamant it won't change a thing? As if the DMCA didn't change life for most people? Come on, pull my other leg while you insist that copyright law isn't being used to control regular people it isn't supposed to control.
"That rule governs all of civil jurisprudence in the United States and seems to be well-tested for fairness."
*snicker* And the FBI doesn't try to bully Wikipedia or Mozilla, nor does it make mistakes. Funny, I heard the same insistence about the ACTA. It was conforming to existing law even though it doesn't. And the FBI is filled with more liars and cheaters than the ones in prison. Fairness isn't the issue here, it's the ones holding the badge that can't be trusted. And the fact that they are twisting all the copyright laws to convict people for criminal copyright infringement doesn't bode well for people if the AG is getting involved.
" The others are egg-sucking apologists as well."
Paul Vixie? The guy that helped to create the internet from DARPA? You don't know him?
Nor Joe Karaganis, who lead a team of researchers into piracy, doing your job for you in figuring out how piracy worked in the US, Brazil, India, Canada, South Africa, and quite a few other countries?
Who also found out there were no links to terrorism and piracy nor did it cause a 1:1 loss from a download?
That's an apologist to you? Someone you can't begin to comprehend their work because you get paid to pass laws that have been proven fruitless?
You have my pity.
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Amazing. Maybe it should be lawful for a security guard to marry 9 year old girls.
Or maybe we should punish those that smoke weed by putting them in jail for 10 years for a small dosage. Oh wait, we do that in the US already. And it's failed miserably.
Or perhaps you should consider the laws before saying that you can follow them.
Meanwhile, you're making it that much harder for actual victims of child pornography to be protected.
The reasoning is simple and straightforward. Once you have established that someone who is in a position to censor other people’s communication has a responsibility to do so, the floodgates open and those middlemen can be politically charged with filtering anything that somebody objects to being distributed.
...
But more emotionally, we turn to a German group named Mogis. It is a support group for adult people who were abused as children, and is the only one of its kind. They are very outspoken and adamant on the issue of censoring child pornography.
Censorship hides the problem and causes more children to be abused, they say. Don’t close your eyes, but see reality and act on it. As hard as it is to force oneself to be confronted emotionally with this statement, it is rationally understandable that a problem can’t be addressed by hiding it. One of their slogans is “Crimes should be punished and not hidden”.
This puts the copyright industry’s efforts in perspective. In this context they don’t care in the slightest about children, only about their control over distribution channels.
So, still want to bring it up?
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
From all sources, it seems that people won't be able to talk about any type of sports or entertainment. If so, it's liable for infringement.
Notice how a stream of an NHL show is likely to get the DoJ involved: Link
The same story repeats over and over. Movies - the entire Ninjavideo fiasco. Music - shutdown of Napster.
It seems to never be about what actual fans want in making it easier to find music or games or whatever. It's about some made up number to potential losses.
I'm sure the fans were communicating about the Dallas Stars hockey game. With the DoJ threat, they have to go elsewhere to talk about the game. Which makes no sense. For movies, the takedown of the TVShack domain entailed a whirlwind of people that had to go elsewhere for material. And here's where it's weird...
The links are still up to the content. All the DoJ does is take down ONE site instead of going to take down the content itself. So yes, there are free speech concerns here. They were never explored with the NV case, nor currently are they explored with the TVShack case with a bogus extradition beforehand.
But with all of this, there were thousands of people that have had their forums taken down to discuss new shows or old ones on all of the TVShack forums. Hell, what about all the people that discussed the artwork or the community based decisions on NV? How about the people saying that Dallas sucks from the streaming? All of those are free speech concerns that are impeded with the takedowns.
So, as I would implore. If the government is going to takedown a site, there is no need to run around as if these are drug sites (which is essentially what John Morton is trying to use to confuse these situations). The domain seizures in no way relate to drug seizures, where the government is racing against an invisible clock to take down a website because something might change. The content would probably still be there. Hell, they could take pictures and tell the people NOT to takedown content as they went to an adversarial hearing. There's even the DMCA takedown request for IP holders. Making this into a criminal act for an AG or private party is similar to the flamethrower for trying to hammer a nail. It still won't work, and there's a huge chance that the collateral damage from it is nothing, if not massive.
On the post: Announcing Step2 -- Our New Platform For Helping Creators Succeed
Re: Re: Re: Re:
... Wait, what?
Back in England, he was the first man to ride the River Severn’s five-foot tidal bore and designed his own board. In retirement, however, his eccentricity continued. He startled train conductors and passenger by throwing his attaché case out of the train window each day on the ride home. He later explained that he was tossing his case into his own backyard so he wouldn’t have to carry it from the station
... I was going to make a Chuck Norris joke, but damn...
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Senator Wyden Asks President Obama: Isn't Congress Required To Approve ACTA?
Re: How long before Wyden is called a racist?
Calling it now.
On the post: Should We Pass A Law To Stop Yelp From Harming Chain Restaurants?
Re:
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Gaming - Notice that WoW, the most prolific MMO for some time, has actually gone Free to Play like most other MMOs. You've had more people at the very least try out WoW nowadays than pay for a subscription (it's free to level 20).
Music - Soundcloud, Youtube, Grooveshark, Turntable. Free music can be had in a number of places. Without downloading. Just streaming and having internet access.
Movies - What's entirely amazing about the entire enforcement angle is how shortsighted it really is in a nutshell. Does Universal have a website? Can they stream? Have they streamed? Quite frankly if the MPAA and its affiliates stopped trying to police the rest of the world and focused on what they were doing, you would have a legal option for streaming. The MPAA and affiliates. They could license out movies to Hulu and Netflix at reasonable rates. Theaters would have better options than the high rents they have to pay now for movies. And there would be far more options in the movie theaters than popcorn and overpriced soda.
On the post: The Only Way To Stop File Sharing Is To Stop Private Communications
Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, good luck with that. This is going to have an opposite effect. You just keep right on living in dreamland.
On the post: As Expected, Alternative DNS Systems Sprouting Up To Ignore US Censorship
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
*gasp*
"Melodramatic much?"
You're right!
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