"The fine seems to have reduced their ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and led them to think of lateness as simply a commodity they could purchase."
Another example is returning a book late to a research library. Given a fine, I think of it as renting the book and pay up. On the other hand, if the library sends me an email claiming that someone else is waiting for the book, then guilt kicks in and I return it pronto
I'm willing to pay for special features, e.g. the New York Times Crossword Puzzles, but it's a yearly subscription. While I'm there at the NYT site, I read the opinion pages for free. If they change that to a subscription, however, I'll stop reading the rest of the paper even though I cannot get the paper where I live.
Thomas Cahill wrote a book of that title in which he pointed out that the Irish monks' copies are often the only copies of manuscripts after many were destroyed during the dark ages.
Many years ago there was a huge battle between the newspapers and the union representing their typesetters; you know, the folks who put little hunks of lead with letters on them into frames to set the type for the newspaper's next edition. The newspapers wanted to switch to lithography and after a long struggle and lots of concessions, they made it. Every single innovative proposal made since has met with the same resistance -- doing something new would eliminate union jobs that had been in place for a long time.
I think that was an important factor in their failure to even consider innovations.
"...it's like saying that breaking into your own house is illegal". If you say it is and a policeman says it's not, the President might buy you a beer.
If all true, a real shame. The Conference Board of Canada is definitely off my list of sources of information. Reminds me a drug company funded drug tests. I don't believe them either.
Seems to me that this rule should apply to mail as well, i.e. the post office refuses to deliver mail to recipients of multiply infringement accusations. To generalize then, if you are accused of using a medium of communication to infringe, you lose access to that medium.
Nova Scotia tried this a few years ago with precisely the expected result: RVs stayed away in droves. Now I see on RVTravel.com (http://www.rvtravel.com/rvforum/viewtopic.php?p=26196) a topic featuring a letter from someone in the government of NS assuring the writer that parking in Walmart parking lots is perfectly legal. Maine, if this legislation passes, will have precisely the same experience. RVers communicate with each other via several forums -- prospective tourists will know to stay away in no time.
Unfortunately, even universities are locked into patenting everything they can find in their ongoing research. Biologists are patenting genes and strains of test animals. Contrary to their beliefs, however, I think there are very few cases in which these patents have earned their holders much money -- they simply aren't developed -- but they do stifle further research by others and have really quenched original research in the USA.
Yet another journalism professor..... How old is this guy?
Perhaps he remembers that for the early steam cars: "a backlash against these large speedy vehicles resulted in passing laws that self-propelled vehicles on public roads in Britain must be proceeded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn." (from the BambooWeb Dictionary)
Economic models share their shortcomings with weather forecasting. Weather is chaotic, i.e. extremely sensitive to initial conditions in the prediction calculation, but nonetheless, weather predictions are worth the effort. Economic models can also be extremely sensitive to initial condition assumptions and can be easily influenced by those assumptions. Unfortunately, most economic predictions don't include the assumptions on which the prediction is based.
The root of the problem is that keepers of on line data don't seem to understand that securing that data is an ongoing problem; they buy or lash together a solution that's adequate briefly but soon yields to more sophisticated probes.
National Cash Register (Now NCR) used to offer generous trade-ins on older units so they could destroy them (my brother worked for them then). That might work; but a terms of use that insists on return of the original to buy a new one seems dumber than dumb -- there's no incentive to do so.
Canadian politicians are like those everywhere -- the like to be perceived as doing something whether it's needed or not. Making camcording movies illegal is a no-brainer; no one will object.
On the post: Weird Priorities: Europeans Want To Digitize Books As Quickly As Possible... Just As Long As It's Not Google Doing It
Re: Job Security
On the post: Dutch Collection Society Looks To Charge Bloggers For Embedding YouTube Videos
On the post: Why Fining People Can Actually Increase That Activity... An Economics Lesson
Another example is returning a book late to a research library. Given a fine, I think of it as renting the book and pay up. On the other hand, if the library sends me an email claiming that someone else is waiting for the book, then guilt kicks in and I return it pronto
On the post: Malaysia Looking To Copyright Food?
Re: European laws..........
On the post: Brill Gets More Delusional: Now Thinks 10 to 15% Of Online Newspaper Readers Will Pay
On the post: The Very First Copyright Trial, In 6th Century Ireland, Sounds Really Familiar
"How The Irish Saved Civilization"
On the post: The Original Sin Of Newspapers: Not Innovating
You're forgetting history
I think that was an important factor in their failure to even consider innovations.
On the post: As Expected, Judge Still Bans Real From Selling RealDVD
Breaking into your own house....
On the post: Former Conference Board Author Explains How Lobbyists Influenced Plagiarized Reports
On the post: More Privacy Laws Don't Mean More Privacy
Privacy as a tool for witholding info
On the post: Why Not Apply A Three Strikes Rule To Everything?
3 Strikes
On the post: Campgrounds In Maine Can't Compete Against Free... So Want It Outlawed
RVs at Walmart
On the post: Suggestion: Engineers Go On A Patent Strike
On the post: Yet Another Journalism Professor Gets Nearly Every Fact Wrong In Saying Google Needs To Pay
Yet another journalism professor..... How old is this guy?
On the post: Every Economic Model Is Wrong... But That Doesn't Mean They're Not Useful
Economies are Chaotic
On the post: Trusted Computing Not So Trustworthy
"Trusted" Computing
On the post: Another Day, Another Big Data Breach
YADL: yet another data leak
On the post: Is Motorola Trying To Ban Reselling Phones?
Common 50 years ago.
On the post: Government-Funded Textbooks: Let's Not And Say We Did
Gov't Funded Textbooks
On the post: So Why Did Canada Need A Special Extra Law For Camcording Movies?
Same Old Reason
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