In my experience, most people who make ridiculous threats and talk about their lawyer:
1) Don't have a lawyer; or
2) Spoke briefly with a lawyer, and them removed all the *if* statements from what the lawyer said (e.g., "if this were the case"), and only used the *then* statements that they liked (e.g. "you would have a claim"). Which as you coders know, results in a fatal error that requires debugging.
My money's on no lawyer at all, unless Gina's reading of blawgs counts.
I don't think there's a "line" -- fuzzy, shifting or not -- between "hacker" and "criminal." The two things are different.
. . . some people don't seem to understand that hacking itself is not criminal . . .
You could replace "hacker" with "Muslim" and "criminal" with "terrorist" and find tons of folks in that camp as well.
But then, what kind of a world would it be if there weren't people everywhere with unfounded beliefs and opinions...
"there should be some mechanism to invalidate (going forward at least) a contract based on an invalid patent"
Settlement agreements almost always have language releasing all claims known or unknown, and express waivers of issues/claims that might arise based on later-discovered facts. Designed to end it for good.
Contracts can sometimes be invalidated for fraud; but in settlement agreements, the facts were disputed in the first place, and the agreement likely would have indicated that. And ... these guys did have a patent with a presumption of validity.
So for the folks who paid, trying to get out would be a just a costly exercise in windmill tilting. I hope someone tries anyway. I'd take that long-shot bet on principal.
I buy all my parts and techy stuff from Newegg already. They ship super fast (at least to me in SoCal). But this helps remind me to keep shopping there. You Rock!
This just continues to piss me off. I went first to cnet for product reviews to avoid wading through the affiliate farticles that otherwise come up on search. You knew you weren't getting some yahoo, but a real review. Grrr. arrgh
Now CNET's the online equivalent of Walmart to me -- use only if absolutely necessary ... like cannibalism.
This is the birthday song my wife and I spontaneously wrote about 12 years ago at a diner (after the diner did their own self-advertising awful birthday song for some patron). It has spread pretty widely through family and friends.
Just clap your hands in time and sing-song a kinda tune of your choice:
It's your birthday, what the heck
Stick a pencil in my neck
Kill me now
Don't care how
Iiiiiiiit's your birthday.
Yo, Tim: Everyone knows Alan Smithee is a bad film director, and US Zip Codes don't have letters in them. You must be a foreign terrorist -- with poor taste in film.
I have been preaching for decades that if a CA Proposition was put on the ballot by anyone other than the legislature, it was by someone with the money to do it, who has an agenda, that is certainly in their best interest, and almost certainly not in the interests of the public. Unless you read every word in the statue itself and understand it and think it through, vote No. Let the folks you elected to make laws make laws, not huge private interests with the kinds of cash proportionate to their willingness to misrepresent.
We've seem it played out again and again. And bad laws passed as often. (Cue the auto insurance prop this time, put on the ballot by Mercury Insurance -- the company whose credo is apparently "every claim is a lie." Think they are trying to help the public?)
This prop was no exception. I didn't even get to the Internet part, as I could find no reason for it to exist in the first play. Now, Yikes!
"Best of Seattle" is a 2F registration in the Principal Register, meaning that they convinced the USPTO that there was secondary meaning, i.e., that the consuming public associates the term "best of" with Village Voice.
Speaking anectodally, meaning me, I sure the heck don't, and apparently neither do some of these commenters. So I'm with the EFF on this one.
Infringing content -- by definition -- was made by someone other than the Megaupload user. It's already out there somewhere else, so infringers don't need to obtain access to their lockers. And wouldn't be asking to get at their infringing content in a Federal Criminal case anyway. Friggin Duh! (Oh, but you know that anyway.)
What? What's not to get? Bear in a mouse hole. Makes perfect sense to me, especially when dealing with horribles. It's just like when you detune the crab pots and there are 50 foot bishops in there and then you make the water black with a dowsing rod and, whoop, there goes Wall Street down to the banana patch. Perfectly straightforward.
That made me laugh so hard I can do nothing but rinse and repeat.
So these kids grew up playing mmorpgs, where they leave their dude swimming in the ocean to up his stamina while studying. Gaming the system. What are they studying? Whatever the standardized test requires of them, because the professor is ... gaming the system. And then they start or work for a company constantly trying to rise above the rest: upping their SEO; creative marketing; new approaches, etc. ... essentially gaming the system. Meanwhile these kids try to present a public social media persona that will help them later in business and life ... i.e., gaming the system.
So, sure, gaming Klout scores can be a great way to learn valuable real life skills of ... gaming the system.
(Or, less cynically, they are learning to work within the construct that has been given them, and finding creative ways to gain some advantage over all the other folks who are trying to do the same thing. Isn't that pretty much business and life?)
On the post: Copyright As Censorship: Birth Blogger Fight Goes Legal Over DMCA Abuse
$5 on NO Lawyer
1) Don't have a lawyer; or
2) Spoke briefly with a lawyer, and them removed all the *if* statements from what the lawyer said (e.g., "if this were the case"), and only used the *then* statements that they liked (e.g. "you would have a claim"). Which as you coders know, results in a fatal error that requires debugging.
My money's on no lawyer at all, unless Gina's reading of blawgs counts.
On the post: Is The Line Between 'Hacker' And 'Criminal' Really That Fuzzy?
. . . some people don't seem to understand that hacking itself is not criminal . . .
You could replace "hacker" with "Muslim" and "criminal" with "terrorist" and find tons of folks in that camp as well.
But then, what kind of a world would it be if there weren't people everywhere with unfounded beliefs and opinions...
On the post: Newegg's 'Screw Patent Trolls!' Strategy Leads To Victory
Re:
Settlement agreements almost always have language releasing all claims known or unknown, and express waivers of issues/claims that might arise based on later-discovered facts. Designed to end it for good.
Contracts can sometimes be invalidated for fraud; but in settlement agreements, the facts were disputed in the first place, and the agreement likely would have indicated that. And ... these guys did have a patent with a presumption of validity.
So for the folks who paid, trying to get out would be a just a costly exercise in windmill tilting. I hope someone tries anyway. I'd take that long-shot bet on principal.
On the post: Newegg's 'Screw Patent Trolls!' Strategy Leads To Victory
Thanks guys!
On the post: CNET: You Can't Trust Our Reviews, But You Can Trust Our News! Honestly!
Now CNET's the online equivalent of Walmart to me -- use only if absolutely necessary ... like cannibalism.
On the post: Kim Dotcom Hires Human Rights Lawyer To Claim MPAA's Chris Dodd Targeted Him In 'Contract Prosecution'
On the post: Law Professor James Grimmelmann Explains How He Probably Violated The Same Laws As Aaron Swartz
On the post: Sony Issues The 'Bob Dylan Copyright Collection Volume' Solely To Extend Copyright On Dylan's Work
Re: Re:
On the post: Sony Issues The 'Bob Dylan Copyright Collection Volume' Solely To Extend Copyright On Dylan's Work
(and since I consume mostly sci-fi, that seems perfectly reasonable).
On the post: It's Time For A New, Copyright-Free Happy Birthday Song, So Help Write One
Our nuclear family song...
Just clap your hands in time and sing-song a kinda tune of your choice:
It's your birthday, what the heck
Stick a pencil in my neck
Kill me now
Don't care how
Iiiiiiiit's your birthday.
On the post: Stuxnet's Infection Of Chevron Shows Why 'Weaponized' Malware Is A Bad Idea
On the post: The DHS And FBI Present: You Might Be A Terrorist If... (Hotel Guest Edition)
Alan Smithee? Red Flag!
On the post: The Cake Copyright Is A Lie; Safeway Just Doesn't Want To Be Mocked
On the post: California Ballot Measure Will Likely Ban Anonymous Speech If You Were Arrested For Urinating In Public
General Rule on CA Props = No
We've seem it played out again and again. And bad laws passed as often. (Cue the auto insurance prop this time, put on the ballot by Mercury Insurance -- the company whose credo is apparently "every claim is a lie." Think they are trying to help the public?)
This prop was no exception. I didn't even get to the Internet part, as I could find no reason for it to exist in the first play. Now, Yikes!
On the post: Can You Take Fact Checking Too Far?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Radiolab controversy is not an example of fact-checking going too far
On the post: Best Of The Trademark Bullies: Village Voice Sues Yelp Over 'Best Of' Lists
Re:
Speaking anectodally, meaning me, I sure the heck don't, and apparently neither do some of these commenters. So I'm with the EFF on this one.
On the post: MPAA & Megaupload Want In On Hearing Over Whether Former User Can Get His Data Back
Re: Re:
On the post: MPAA & Megaupload Want In On Hearing Over Whether Former User Can Get His Data Back
Dear MPAA:
Cue disingenuousity music...
On the post: Supreme Court Justices Worry About 'Parade Of Horribles' If They Agree You Don't Own What You Bought
Re: Re:
That made me laugh so hard I can do nothing but rinse and repeat.
On the post: Bizarre Trend: Journalism Professors Using Klout Scores As Part Of Students' Grades
... and now the cynical viewpoint...
So, sure, gaming Klout scores can be a great way to learn valuable real life skills of ... gaming the system.
(Or, less cynically, they are learning to work within the construct that has been given them, and finding creative ways to gain some advantage over all the other folks who are trying to do the same thing. Isn't that pretty much business and life?)
Next >>