Doesn't this just freshly bring DUI checkpoints into question?
I've frequently been stopped at such checkpoints. Far more than most people. I worked long hours and lived in a town with lots of night spots. I had plenty of time to think about the situation while waiting my turn to be subjected to a warrant-less search. I concluded that it was effectively making second-class citizens of people that didn't follow the norms of society.
If you work a 9-to-5 job and go to bed at 10pm, you'll never encounter one of these checkpoints. You won't find them set up in a school zone at 4pm, outside of happy hour at 6pm, or after a Saturday softball game. You can drive around half drunk, with expired registration, no insurance, cracked windshield, and brake lights out and never be pulled over.
But if you don't conform to norms, any of these lapses will get you a ticket, and perhaps even an extra $1K in costs when your car is towed.
On a related note, in some places it is claimed that you voluntarily submit to the search. You supposedly have the right to turn around and avoid the search at the checkpoint. When checkpoints were set up just past my turn, it was almost certain that I would have a police car follow me. They often followed long enough for me to park, but sometimes pulled me over before then.
A question that no one seems to be asking is 'why did San Bernardino, a city in bankruptcy, pay for iPhones for essentially all of their employees?'
That's an expensive perk, one that most private employers don't provide. (It is often taxable, unless the employee works remotely or is frequently on call.)
I'm pretty sure that the answer is that employees really like the perk. They aren't going to give it up willingly. This proposal is going to get zero support from anyone that gets a sweet perk they don't want examined too closely. There will probably be huge blow-back in the form of examining every perk given to Jolly's staff.
At one point there was a claim that the copyright on movies and audio recordings belong to the inventors of the equipment. On that basis Edison calculated that he should be the richest man in the world, and that the lawless land of California let people steal what was rightfully his.
There is a much stronger claim that the people that wrote the firmware for the camera had far more creative input to the photo than the technician that merely crudely positioned the equipment and pressed a button. That view is especially relevant because the sole interesting aspect of this picture is how the color and contrast creates a convincing illusion.
Laptops will be sent through security screening with checked luggage. About half the time it is actually inspected, it will be reassembled wrong so that the screen breaks. About 1% of the time it will be returned with a memory SIMM will be missing.
From reports, the bomb was in a laptop-style bag, not specifically a laptop. And the bag bypassed security and was handed to the passenger inside the secure area. It might well be that the 'terrorist' had no idea what he was carrying.
The phrase that irks me most is "the majority of Americans who can purchase 25 Mbps choose not to".
They are using bogus numbers based on coarse coverage maps. Many of those people don't actually have that choice.
Where I previously lived I supposedly had three or four broadband options. Two wired and one/two wireless.
In reality the sole connectivity was 768K DSL. I could not receive either wireless signal reliably, and only Clearwire (now gone) would have been affordable if I had been able to.
Even that DSL was at risk. If something happened to that copper pair, I would be put on a waiting for another usable pair to become available.. behind a few of my neighbors that were waiting.
Hmmm, I have a thought-provoking interpretation of the situation.
The boy wasn't engaged in child pornography. A nude picture is not necessarily pornography.
The girls *were* engaged in distributing child pornography. There actions were done out of prurient interest. They took a picture that might not have been pornography, and changed it into child pornography. (As absurd as that sounds, it's the viewpoint used to prosecute people with collections of pictures of naked children.)
If there were a consistent approach approach to justice, the boy would be the innocent, offended party and the girls would be given long prison term and punished for life, just like other child pornographers.
Photography has been around for a century and a half, so this shouldn't be a new issue. But somehow it is.
I see this as an example of IP maximalism -- copyright expansion and design patents -- run amok.
Essentially every image is going to have elements that someone will claim to own. The design of a chair, clothing, the shape of a bottle, signs on the wall, right down to the fonts in those signs.
Most or all of those elements are going to be incidental. But who gets to decide that? Who gets to decide that the New York City skyline is a trademark, or can be copyrighted? Who decides if a specific use needs to be licensed? Which tattoo gets to be considered "art" worthy of collecting royalties?
The answer can't be that using an image requires paying ten or a thousand (10,000?) rights holders. Any workable ruling has to be closer to "zero or one".
How many people know that cellphones report their location? How many people know the details?
I would argue that, up to a point, the more sophisticated you are the less you expect that a cell phone is reporting your location.
Anything considered a smartphone has a GPS receiver inside. But it's reasonable to expect that data is solely used internally. Dashboard GPS mapping units didn't transmit anything, and they were able to provide the same functionality as a map application on smartphones.
Previous generation phones, roughly the 'feature phone' generation, did implement E911 location service. But that service was explicitly off for most of the time, wasn't sent with every call, typically had an explicit icon on the screen, and could be disabled.
Even when browsing with a smartphone, most browsers explicitly ask "would you like to share location data..." when a website requests the location.
You have to be pretty sophisticated to know that the cell phone system generates and uses an internal model of the transmitter location in order to handle the details of tower hand-off, transmitter power settings, slot assignments and beam forming. Something like 0.01% of the population has a working understanding of how the system functions.
Imagine a radio station that constantly broadcast commercial messages on the left audio channel of their news and music programming. The average listener would tune to a different station, or at least immediately adjust the balance control.
Imagine if occasionally a TV channel occasionally broadcast an advertisement that blew out the speakers, or left a burnt spot on the screen.
Not only would people never knowingly watch that channel, there would likely be a class-action lawsuit over the damage caused.
Yet websites expect to be insulated from the negative effects of their ads. And advertising brokers expect to be held blameless for any damage done.
Who is this 'Craig' and why has he killed so many people?
Is that why he has so many cars for sale?
While traditional local print media certainly hates Craigslist, I'm pretty sure they would hate a slew of 'vicarious responsibility' lawsuits even more.
It costs well over $50K to operate a small booth at a trade show. In this case, a foreign company with a product demo at CES, it was likely substantially more.
Future Motion crippled a competitor for only a few hours of lawyer time. Even if they lose their $10K bond (not especially likely), it's still a bargain.
For those that doubt the $50K amount, ask anyone that has been in charge of a trade show. They will tell you that $50K might get you the smallest professional-looking booth and pay the expenses for staffing it. Then consider that it's CES, when everything 3x-5x the price if it can be had at all. Flights are at full fare, hotel rooms are at least 3x, rental cars are impossible to get, and services on the show floor are extremely expensive. It often costs more to move a crate from the loading dock to the booth location than getting it halfway around the world to the loading dock in the first place.
To have all of this destroyed, with no notice, by a foreign government must be extremely frustrating. It must really look like protectionism and corruption.
You can have an expectation of privacy, even on public property.
As a trivial example, camping in a national park. Or using the restroom at a playground.
Something that is quite close to this situation is changing into a swimsuit while in your car near a beach. You can't expect privacy if you change out in the open, but you can if you aren't visible from any normal viewing angle. Just like high-mounted windows on a park restroom aren't an invitation for perv pictures, not every window is an invitation to take drone video.
U.S. law might not apply, but it's clearly not eligible for a new copyright
You can't derive the copyright rules from first principles, or even reading legislation. Instead there is a sometimes-conflicting set of precedents and interpretations that make up the actual rules.
In the U.S. there is a strong principle that "sweat of the brow" has no standing. Working really long and hard at something doesn't make it more copyright-able.
That's contrary to most people's expectation. But upon careful reflection, that's the only reasonable approach. Because if the people that worked the longest and hardest got on a specific work got the copyright, I can assure you that the people that wrote the digital camera firmware would hold the copyright on every picture.
Harris isn't an upstart company. I worked for them three decades ago, and they were a large, long-established conservative government contractor back then.
They developed the earliest spread-spectrum and frequency hopping radio systems. They were selling amazing digital communication systems to the military and NASA long before digital cell phones were a consumer product.
A previous poster guessed that at one time the journals had significant expenses such as typesetting.
That must have been a long time ago. When I was first exposed to the system in the mid-1980s, journals expected camera-ready copy. That was only starting to become easy for authors with roff, troff and later TeX. Less technically advanced schools and departments had to pay for their writings to be typeset and printed before submission.
I would hate to be delivering newspapers in the modern age. Under this theory, I could be sued over any story. I was an essential part in delivering it, even if I couldn't possibly evaluate the legal standing of what countless other people wrote.
I'm impressed by this ruling, especially how it doesn't just 're-can the worms'. It directly addresses the underlying issues rather than viewing only this specific instance. For instance, it notes the analysis isn't specific to fictional or fact-centric works, avoiding a repeat of the case with slightly different books.
On the post: John Yoo's Legal Rationale: Warrantless Surveillance Is Basically A DUI Checkpoint, But For Terrorism
I've frequently been stopped at such checkpoints. Far more than most people. I worked long hours and lived in a town with lots of night spots. I had plenty of time to think about the situation while waiting my turn to be subjected to a warrant-less search. I concluded that it was effectively making second-class citizens of people that didn't follow the norms of society.
If you work a 9-to-5 job and go to bed at 10pm, you'll never encounter one of these checkpoints. You won't find them set up in a school zone at 4pm, outside of happy hour at 6pm, or after a Saturday softball game. You can drive around half drunk, with expired registration, no insurance, cracked windshield, and brake lights out and never be pulled over.
But if you don't conform to norms, any of these lapses will get you a ticket, and perhaps even an extra $1K in costs when your car is towed.
On a related note, in some places it is claimed that you voluntarily submit to the search. You supposedly have the right to turn around and avoid the search at the checkpoint. When checkpoints were set up just past my turn, it was almost certain that I would have a police car follow me. They often followed long enough for me to park, but sometimes pulled me over before then.
On the post: Congressman Proposes Law Banning Government From Purchasing Apple Devices
That's an expensive perk, one that most private employers don't provide. (It is often taxable, unless the employee works remotely or is frequently on call.)
I'm pretty sure that the answer is that employees really like the perk. They aren't going to give it up willingly. This proposal is going to get zero support from anyone that gets a sweet perk they don't want examined too closely. There will probably be huge blow-back in the form of examining every perk given to Jolly's staff.
On the post: 'The Dress' A Year Later: The Meme Has Faded, But The Copyright Will Last Forever
Remember the history...
There is a much stronger claim that the people that wrote the firmware for the camera had far more creative input to the photo than the technician that merely crudely positioned the equipment and pressed a button. That view is especially relevant because the sole interesting aspect of this picture is how the color and contrast creates a convincing illusion.
On the post: Techdirt Crowdsourcing: How Will The TSA Idiotically Respond To The Laptop Terror Bomb?
From reports, the bomb was in a laptop-style bag, not specifically a laptop. And the bag bypassed security and was handed to the passenger inside the secure area. It might well be that the 'terrorist' had no idea what he was carrying.
On the post: Congressmen Upton, Walden Latest To Insist Nobody Needs Faster Broadband
They are using bogus numbers based on coarse coverage maps. Many of those people don't actually have that choice.
Where I previously lived I supposedly had three or four broadband options. Two wired and one/two wireless.
In reality the sole connectivity was 768K DSL. I could not receive either wireless signal reliably, and only Clearwire (now gone) would have been affordable if I had been able to.
Even that DSL was at risk. If something happened to that copper pair, I would be put on a waiting for another usable pair to become available.. behind a few of my neighbors that were waiting.
On the post: Another Cop Treats Sexting Teens Like Child Pornographers
The boy wasn't engaged in child pornography. A nude picture is not necessarily pornography.
The girls *were* engaged in distributing child pornography. There actions were done out of prurient interest. They took a picture that might not have been pornography, and changed it into child pornography. (As absurd as that sounds, it's the viewpoint used to prosecute people with collections of pictures of naked children.)
If there were a consistent approach approach to justice, the boy would be the innocent, offended party and the girls would be given long prison term and punished for life, just like other child pornographers.
On the post: Take-Two Software Sued Over Copyright On NBA Players' Tattoos
I see this as an example of IP maximalism -- copyright expansion and design patents -- run amok.
Essentially every image is going to have elements that someone will claim to own. The design of a chair, clothing, the shape of a bottle, signs on the wall, right down to the fonts in those signs.
Most or all of those elements are going to be incidental. But who gets to decide that? Who gets to decide that the New York City skyline is a trademark, or can be copyrighted? Who decides if a specific use needs to be licensed? Which tattoo gets to be considered "art" worthy of collecting royalties?
The answer can't be that using an image requires paying ten or a thousand (10,000?) rights holders. Any workable ruling has to be closer to "zero or one".
On the post: Prosecutors Say Cops Don't Need Warrants For Stingrays Because 'Everyone Knows' Cell Phones Generate Location Data
How many people know that cellphones report their location?
How many people know the details?
I would argue that, up to a point, the more sophisticated you are the less you expect that a cell phone is reporting your location.
Anything considered a smartphone has a GPS receiver inside. But it's reasonable to expect that data is solely used internally. Dashboard GPS mapping units didn't transmit anything, and they were able to provide the same functionality as a map application on smartphones.
Previous generation phones, roughly the 'feature phone' generation, did implement E911 location service. But that service was explicitly off for most of the time, wasn't sent with every call, typically had an explicit icon on the screen, and could be disabled.
Even when browsing with a smartphone, most browsers explicitly ask "would you like to share location data..." when a website requests the location.
You have to be pretty sophisticated to know that the cell phone system generates and uses an internal model of the transmitter location in order to handle the details of tower hand-off, transmitter power settings, slot assignments and beam forming. Something like 0.01% of the population has a working understanding of how the system functions.
On the post: Interactive Advertising Bureau Bars Adblock Plus From Conference, When It Should Be Listening To Them
Imagine if occasionally a TV channel occasionally broadcast an advertisement that blew out the speakers, or left a burnt spot on the screen.
Not only would people never knowingly watch that channel, there would likely be a class-action lawsuit over the damage caused.
Yet websites expect to be insulated from the negative effects of their ads. And advertising brokers expect to be held blameless for any damage done.
On the post: The Unbelievably True Story Of How Craigslist Murdered Over 100 People
Is that why he has so many cars for sale?
While traditional local print media certainly hates Craigslist, I'm pretty sure they would hate a slew of 'vicarious responsibility' lawsuits even more.
On the post: Why Is The Federal Government Shutting Down A CES Booth Over A Patent Dispute?
Future Motion crippled a competitor for only a few hours of lawyer time. Even if they lose their $10K bond (not especially likely), it's still a bargain.
For those that doubt the $50K amount, ask anyone that has been in charge of a trade show. They will tell you that $50K might get you the smallest professional-looking booth and pay the expenses for staffing it. Then consider that it's CES, when everything 3x-5x the price if it can be had at all. Flights are at full fare, hotel rooms are at least 3x, rental cars are impossible to get, and services on the show floor are extremely expensive. It often costs more to move a crate from the loading dock to the booth location than getting it halfway around the world to the loading dock in the first place.
To have all of this destroyed, with no notice, by a foreign government must be extremely frustrating. It must really look like protectionism and corruption.
On the post: Self-Proclaimed 'Vigilante' Instrumental In First Prostitution Bust By Drone
As a trivial example, camping in a national park. Or using the restroom at a playground.
Something that is quite close to this situation is changing into a swimsuit while in your car near a beach. You can't expect privacy if you change out in the open, but you can if you aren't visible from any normal viewing angle. Just like high-mounted windows on a park restroom aren't an invitation for perv pictures, not every window is an invitation to take drone video.
On the post: Can You Defame Someone By
DirectlyCreatively 'Quoting' Them? New York Court Says You Can.On the post: Microsoft Lobbying Group Forces 'Pirate' To Get 200,000 Views On Anti-Piracy Video... Whole Thing Backfires
On the post: German Museum Sues Wikimedia Foundation Over Photos Of Public Domain Works Of Art
U.S. law might not apply, but it's clearly not eligible for a new copyright
In the U.S. there is a strong principle that "sweat of the brow" has no standing. Working really long and hard at something doesn't make it more copyright-able.
That's contrary to most people's expectation. But upon careful reflection, that's the only reasonable approach. Because if the people that worked the longest and hardest got on a specific work got the copyright, I can assure you that the people that wrote the digital camera firmware would hold the copyright on every picture.
On the post: Illinois Magistrate Judge Lays Down Ground Rules For Stingray Device Warrants
Harris isn't an upstart company. I worked for them three decades ago, and they were a large, long-established conservative government contractor back then.
They developed the earliest spread-spectrum and frequency hopping radio systems. They were selling amazing digital communication systems to the military and NASA long before digital cell phones were a consumer product.
On the post: Not Just Academics Fed Up With Elsevier: Entire Editorial Staff Resigns En Masse To Start Open Access Journal
That must have been a long time ago. When I was first exposed to the system in the mid-1980s, journals expected camera-ready copy. That was only starting to become easy for authors with roff, troff and later TeX. Less technically advanced schools and departments had to pay for their writings to be typeset and printed before submission.
On the post: Right To Be Forgotten Now Lives In Australia: Court Says Google Is The 'Publisher' Of Material It Links To
Unlimited liability for newpaper delivery boys?
On the post: Appeals Court Gives Google A Clear And Total Fair Use Win On Book Scanning
On the post: How The Tribune Company And The DOJ Turned A 40 Minute Web Defacement Into $1 Million In 'Damages'
If not, the claim that the "$1000 per hour" should be viewed as a serious suggestion, especially since this is a criminal trial.
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