Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 11 Jun 2015 @ 9:03am
Life imitating art
It's kinda worrying when an over-the-top comedy sketch from the 1970s starts looking like behaviour that might be a step in the right direction! Constable Savage At least this guy's boss calls him on it!
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 9 Jun 2015 @ 5:09pm
Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ anyone with 1/2 a brain
To set morality aside is step toward criminality.
Except you already blew that argument yourself by not talking about morality:
Is crystal meth a "gateway" to criminal behavior like robbery / theft?
Taking Crystal meth is not immoral. Stupid, maybe. Illegal, certainly - but arbitrarily illegal. Other recreational drugs are available legally and are often socially accepted, many drugs now illegal were also socially accepted previously (Heroin for example, Opium, E). Clearly drug-taking is not a matter of morality.
Also, much of the problem caused by illegal drug use stems from their very illegality and the crime that surrounds anything declared illegal that people still demand. Look how well prohibition worked out.
Just because you don't like something doesn't make it immoral - even if it's illegal - and making things that are generally normal human behaviour illegal for the same reason usually ends up creating a bigger problem than you started with.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 9 Jun 2015 @ 9:03am
Wow!
That's a truly remarkable graph if you consider the number of amazingly petty and stupid things that have become "offences" since the '90s. The "real" crime rate must have plumeted.
And there, perhaps, lies (if anywhere) a tiny, tiny grain of validity in the "gateway to bigger crimes" argument - If you're going to make blatantly normal human behaviour criminal, it can hardly come as a surprise if those growing up in that environment start finding a certain contempt for laws in general whether they actually break them or not.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 9 Jun 2015 @ 2:04am
Who's Fail?
and that this gives him confidence Netflix will thrive when it launches later this year in Spain -- a country that has traditionally had a high level of piracy
If Netflix fails, it will be little to do with piracy and lots to do with the content lobotomy forced upon it by the studios. Even though I rarely bother to watch the trash Hollywood puts out these days, I'd pay for a service like Netflix if I could watch what I want, whenever, wherever... but I can't so I don't.
It seems pretty likely from the user end, that the studios hate the idea of services like Netflix and are trying to kill them, whether they find piracy useful or not. Of course, the old saying might apply; "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity"
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 6 Jun 2015 @ 2:58am
Is there a better question?
Why is it that grandstanding American politicians always want to blame the platforms for people doing bad stuff on those platforms, even when those platforms appear to provide all sorts of useful information that apparently help law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the military do their jobs?
A fine question, to which the answer is "because morons". Whether it's actually true or not is another good question - probably not since surely they're not quite dumb enough to reveal an effective method of intel gathering? If it is true, though, it strikes me a better question might be: If public social media can produce more actionable intel than, for example, hoovering up every email, phonecall and internet log in the world seems to... Why are you invading everyone's privacy again, Uncle Sam?
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 14 May 2015 @ 10:50am
Recognition of government
So it's official? The US is a plutocracy? It must be if a law so blatantly aimed at preserving the wealth of a very few of Wyoming's 1/2 a million citizens at the expense of the health of the rest can even be contemplated seriously, much less enacted.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 18 Apr 2015 @ 10:12am
Re: 1201 time?
Further, it would be clear that this change would make "ripper" tools entirely legal (ie, they would not be against 1201 because there would be "non-infringing uses"). Yet clearly, people would use these tools to rip stuff and put it on torrents or otherwise "infringe".
One assumes you're in favour of repealing the 2nd amendment then?
The same argument applied even more so to firearms, which people use to kill and indeed are designed primarily for the purpose, or knives... or... well computers in general or really, pretty much anything at a stretch.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 13 Apr 2015 @ 4:50am
Re: Re: Re: Silly article
It's impossible to know who the next person will be that commits an evil act. So as opportunities come up to possibly stop some future act, I support eliminating the threat.
OK, let's pretend for a moment that this argument makes sense....
Where's the bar set? This guy apparently committed no criminal act (since there was in fact no actual bomb involved at any point in the "conspiracy") and it appears that he's pretty much all talk and seems too stupid to actually plan anything on his own.
So, that means it's OK to arrest people who: 1/ Are easily led and might be convinced by someone malicious to commit a violent crime if they happen to meet the wrong person. 2/ Are unthinking and at least borderline sociopathic enough to maybe commit some random act of violence if the right set of circumstances of anger/means/trigger/target happen to come their way at the wrong time.
So that leaves me two questions; Where are you going to put all the people that fall under that definition? How are you going to find enough people who don't to look after them?
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 13 Apr 2015 @ 4:16am
Re: Re:
To me, this is like setting a building on fire and handing some poor person the matches and running off.
No, it's not.... it's like making one of those fake fires with a fan, some silk and a light, handing some poor person a huge, plastic Swan Vesta match that wouldn't burn if you tried... and then having him arrested for killing hundreds of people by burning down a building that doesn't in fact exist.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 2 Apr 2015 @ 4:11pm
Re: Q: "Is Wikileaks Now An Evil Cyberhacker?"
No, Wikileaks has always been an Evil Cyberhacker.
Of course it has! In the "Democracy Dictionary" (Author, Mr. H. Nilats), "Evil Cyberhacker" is defined as "Anyone who shows, or might show, evidence of corruption in the Regime... uh... Democratically Elected Leadership, or anyone who depicts same in an unflattering light while using a computer"
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 25 Mar 2015 @ 8:31am
Oh, god, yes please!
In a sane world, intellectual property rights that a company can't be bothered to find out if they even have shouldn't be rights that can then be sued over.
THIS! This sooooo much!
This is possibly the most broken thing about copyright. It should be the case that you could challenge a copyright and if the challengee can't respond with proof of copyright within a fixed period, they are legally assumed NOT to own the copyright.
It wouldn't make copyright terms any less stupid, but it would make copyright as a whole a lot less the broken shambles it is now.
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 17 Mar 2015 @ 12:45pm
People do this?
Netflix's choice to release seasons all at once is bad because it kills the "water cooler marketing buzz"
Given a choice between getting the whole thing at once and it taking almost a whole year to get round to showing a 20-week season... Well, I think I'd like to watch stuff at my pace, not yours, thanks!
Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 14 Mar 2015 @ 8:13am
It's a competition
If there's one thing the UK is good at in our post-empire decline it's coming up with and following really dumb rules. You thought the US was un-assailable in the top-spot of "democratic police state".. think again. We win! Bwa Ha ha haaaaaa
On the post: Because The 4th Amendment Only Kicks In After The Fact, 'Reasonable Suspicion' Will Always Be Anything But
Life imitating art
Constable Savage
At least this guy's boss calls him on it!
On the post: Torrent Madness: UK Cybercrime Official Argues That File Sharing Is A Gateway Drug To Crime
Re: "File sharing" is not a gateway! -- SEZ anyone with 1/2 a brain
Taking Crystal meth is not immoral. Stupid, maybe. Illegal, certainly - but arbitrarily illegal. Other recreational drugs are available legally and are often socially accepted, many drugs now illegal were also socially accepted previously (Heroin for example, Opium, E). Clearly drug-taking is not a matter of morality.
Also, much of the problem caused by illegal drug use stems from their very illegality and the crime that surrounds anything declared illegal that people still demand. Look how well prohibition worked out.
Just because you don't like something doesn't make it immoral - even if it's illegal - and making things that are generally normal human behaviour illegal for the same reason usually ends up creating a bigger problem than you started with.
On the post: Torrent Madness: UK Cybercrime Official Argues That File Sharing Is A Gateway Drug To Crime
Wow!
And there, perhaps, lies (if anywhere) a tiny, tiny grain of validity in the "gateway to bigger crimes" argument - If you're going to make blatantly normal human behaviour criminal, it can hardly come as a surprise if those growing up in that environment start finding a certain contempt for laws in general whether they actually break them or not.
On the post: Netflix Says Piracy Helped It Succeed In The Netherlands, And Will Help When It Launches In Spain
Who's Fail?
It seems pretty likely from the user end, that the studios hate the idea of services like Netflix and are trying to kill them, whether they find piracy useful or not. Of course, the old saying might apply; "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity"
On the post: Abbott & Costello Heirs Sue Play For Briefly Using 'Who's On First?' Routine
Yep
On the post: If US Is Really Able To Target ISIS Sites Based On Social Media Posts... Why Is It Trying To Stop ISIS From Using Social Media?
Is there a better question?
If public social media can produce more actionable intel than, for example, hoovering up every email, phonecall and internet log in the world seems to... Why are you invading everyone's privacy again, Uncle Sam?
On the post: Wyoming Makes Reporting Environmental Disasters Illegal
Recognition of government
On the post: UK Plans To Do Away With Free Speech... In The Name Of Free Speech
Re: Policing by Consent
On the post: UK Plans To Do Away With Free Speech... In The Name Of Free Speech
If only
Ooops, I think I hear the police at the door for dissing the government!
On the post: Can You Sue For Copyright Infringement Before It's Actually Happened?
Clearly willan been a valid case
They could have got away with it if they'd known about Dr. Dan Streetmentioner...
"Defendents wioll haven be infringing....."
On the post: UK Green Party Speculates On Idea To Shorten Copyright To 14 Years... Leading To Mass Freakout
Re:
On the post: Bill Introduced To Fix Broken DMCA Anti-Circumvention Rules
Re: 1201 time?
The same argument applied even more so to firearms, which people use to kill and indeed are designed primarily for the purpose, or knives... or... well computers in general or really, pretty much anything at a stretch.
On the post: FBI Breaks Up Another Of Its Own 'ISIS' Plots, Where It Supplied Most Of The Planning
Re: Re: Re: Silly article
Where's the bar set?
This guy apparently committed no criminal act (since there was in fact no actual bomb involved at any point in the "conspiracy") and it appears that he's pretty much all talk and seems too stupid to actually plan anything on his own.
So, that means it's OK to arrest people who:
1/ Are easily led and might be convinced by someone malicious to commit a violent crime if they happen to meet the wrong person.
2/ Are unthinking and at least borderline sociopathic enough to maybe commit some random act of violence if the right set of circumstances of anger/means/trigger/target happen to come their way at the wrong time.
So that leaves me two questions;
Where are you going to put all the people that fall under that definition?
How are you going to find enough people who don't to look after them?
On the post: FBI Breaks Up Another Of Its Own 'ISIS' Plots, Where It Supplied Most Of The Planning
Re: Re:
it's like making one of those fake fires with a fan, some silk and a light, handing some poor person a huge, plastic Swan Vesta match that wouldn't burn if you tried... and then having him arrested for killing hundreds of people by burning down a building that doesn't in fact exist.
On the post: State Trooper Disciplined For Taking Photo With Person With 'Well-Known Criminal Background'
Re: Re: Trooper Spears is on the left.
On the post: Under President's New Cybersecurity Executive Order... Is Wikileaks Now An Evil Cyberhacker For Releasing Trade Deal?
Re: Q: "Is Wikileaks Now An Evil Cyberhacker?"
On the post: No Copyright Lives Forever: How The Apathy Of IP Rights Holders About Their Copyrights Killed A Game Re-Release
Oh, god, yes please!
This is possibly the most broken thing about copyright. It should be the case that you could challenge a copyright and if the challengee can't respond with proof of copyright within a fixed period, they are legally assumed NOT to own the copyright.
It wouldn't make copyright terms any less stupid, but it would make copyright as a whole a lot less the broken shambles it is now.
On the post: Why Are Some People So Intent On Making Netflix More Like Traditional TV?
People do this?
On the post: UK ISPs Now Filtering Websites That Simply List BitTorrent Proxy Websites, But Don't Host Any Infringing Content Whatsoever
It's a competition
On the post: Wikimedia Sues NSA Over Its Mass Surveillance Program
Re: Re: Re: Re:
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