"...Lamar Seeligson Smith is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 21st congressional district, serving since 1987. The district includes most of the wealthier sections of San Antonio and Austin, as well as nearly all of the Texas Hill Country...."
How does a Texan, Republican, career politician get so cozy with Hollywood. I thought they were the enemy?
"...da·ta·base (dt-bs, dt-) Computer Science
n. also data base
A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. Also called data bank.
tr.v. da·ta·based, da·ta·bas·ing, da·ta·bas·es
To put (data) into a database...."
I think what was "spyed on" is everything that when through a public junction box. They may not even know how many calls. It's more like "If you called or received a call from the following area codes the '102, 103, 104.....' then you conversations was electronically scanned for key words between Jan 1 2002 and today."
The reality is they spied indiscriminately on all Americans. The reality is that they probably don't have a clue how man American's they spied on.
Or maybe the Occupy movement had no singular focus or actionable outcome. What started off as a good bitch-fest ended in tragedy in multiple parts of country.
They weren't fighting for "equal rights" or even "equal treament" they were fighting for corporation to "not be evil". Of course everyone wants this, but there is nothing concrete to be able call a victory.
While it seems outrages on the face of it, if you give it some thought and you can quite easily see why he may be right.
I don't know if this is the way it happens... but it makes sense to me:
If you have algorithms that basically triggers on word patterns over massive amount of streaming data, that streaming data is still "anonymous" until it triggers. Once the trigger happens, then the call is analyzed further and the details (who, who to, what, when, where, voice recognition of caller, voice recognition of receiver, etc) can be databased.
This way you're only tracking calls that matter to you, or at the very least eliminating mundane family chatter that you don't want to waste resources on. If 90% of the stream is ignored, then even though the calls have been "listened in on", it's filtered out - and the NSA doesn't have to waste its resources (which are finite) - and more to the point, what is filtered out is unknown (and mostly the NSA doesn't care about this filtered out "crap").
What you're asking the NSA to do when you want to know how many American's are spyed on, is for the NSA to go back to the stream and re-run it, this time cataloging EVERYTHING. Because the only way to get a count of callers is to know how many distinct callers there are in your stream.
Now you're forcing the NSA to actually database what hadn't been databased before. This not only provides you the number of American's spyed on, but it also has the undesired effect of creating records and tracking US Citizens, there-by violating their privacy.
Because it's not a simple matter of categorizing by phone number (more than one person uses a phone, one person uses multiple phones) there is no simple way to come up with the answer without analyzing what was filtered out.
Short Term Telecos/ISP will continue to tighten, filter, block, reroute, shapen, etc with or with out legal authority and help. Some of it "just makes sense" from a technical perspective. Some of it "only makes sense" from a business model perspective.
But this will only happen while consumers don't care. Eventually Comcast will try to extort money from content providers and eventually content providers will give them the middle finger, and shortly after Comcast won't be able to provide its customers with anything more than a "view" onto the Internet and those customers will jump ship as soon as an alternative is available.
The alternative will be open/low cost mobile/wireless ad-hoc/mesh type network. Eventually there won't be a need for a back-bone ISP because the technology/skill will be affordable at such a low denominator that hardware will just "work" right out of the box without having to specify any specific network connection. Local/private networks will be in software only, and will float on top of the "global net".
What happens? Another democratic seismic shift. ISP/Mobile operates become as relevant as the News-print Industry. We'll experience another 20-30 years of a struggling industry come to terms with it's demise, but not before it tries to prevent or change the inevitable via lawsuits, lawyers, and lobbyist.
-CF
Google still allows (several of) their APIs to be used for free. In fact their free versions don't even require a key.
What requires a key is Google Earth - which is free "to a point" and their mobile api which is much more limited.
This makes sense to me. The free API drive traffic to Google's sites and ad revenue. The pay-for APIs are really targeting the Apples and other large users - and as stated by previous posters - Google doesn't benefit from supporting their largest competitors who are not also driving ad-revenue back to them.
Also, not sure about the rest of the users here.... I'm not seeing the Exodus. Every once in a while I see a Bling map - and that is really it. And no one has an API that is as fast or as polished as Google's (and yes I'm talking about Google's free service) or as supported by such a huge developers community.
Every successful company will have its haters. But it's sad to see hating just because of success. Google's not abusing its power here, and I think they are well aware of where their success comes from - which parallels very closely the values found here on Techdirt.
Sure IP protection is part of it... but maybe it's really about creation. The Internet has become the distribution channel that anyone can utilize for virtually pennies. (probably 100% free if you tried hard enough).
It may not be a truly concerted effort, but listen to how media "controllers" have tried to stem their "members" from using Twitter and keeping reporters from "blogging" (See MLB, NFL, Reuters, AP, etc).
The democratization of publication is the real threat. Performers making (real) money without the need for record contracts or multi-million dollar tours / ad campaigns - wow - if that's not a threat to the recording industry.....
Plus honest reviews, people getting what they want, when they want it - wow again. The media strong hold is really losing control. They can't control the message, the merchandise, nor the content. What is their reason for being? No wonder they are freaked out.
I have an idea that I think would be fun to try. You see everything in digital form is nothing more than numbers. In fact the entire collection of all digital stuff can be boiled down to one single number (albeit a huge number).
But with a little math fun, you can make those number more accessible, and with a the right "player" you can turn those numbers into songs, videos, games, text, etc.
A sight can list Songs (or videos, or games, or stories, or PDF, or word docs or what-ever favorite content type is). And associated with that content will be number. That number can be a hash number.
So this is not linking to content. This is not holding content. This is not a copy of the content. It's simply a hash number of the digital streams of 1 and 0 that make up that content. The thing about hash codes it's that they are not unique. They are "unique enough" to verify content, but you can't simple look at the hash and figure out what the content was..... Unless you know how many iterations to go through.
So beside the hash code is an iteration count. So with three pieces of information: The title, the hash code for the content, and the iteration number of the hash, you could devise a player that could expand a hash-code to it's original content. The three pieces of information could even be spread out among 3 different servers.
My guess is that if this were to take off, new laws would eventually be created to prevent the hashing of copy-righted content. But in the meantime.....
I'm anxious for the day when Apple can't sell any of it's products, Sony can't import Playstation, Artist can't record music for record companies, and drugs can't be made by anyone.
When Fox Searchlight is kept from production because it's getting sued by Disney, when Pixar can't create new rendering techniques to show off in a new movie because they violate software patents, and the NFL can't be broadcasted over the air because it contributes to piracy.
That will be a good day. Because then all these media-moguls and patent abusers die. What will survive? The coming (3d) desktop revolution, indie productions, and direct-to-consumer goods, services, and entertainment.
As soon as as the law favors copy-right holders to the extent that simply thinking that someone is infringing requires a take-down notice, the first thing I'm going to do is write a script to send take-down notices for everything Viacom produces, everything Clear-Channel broadcasts, everything Disney exploits, and everything Fox reports on.
I disagree that it's incompetence. I think they fully know the law and know how to stall. In theory they could have been held in contempt of court....but they haven't been.
This is like watching a dance between the White House and Congress. From the outside it's bewildering. From the inside it's a well orchestrated chess match.
Clearly RightHaven is not going to win, but at this point they are playing not to loose. So all they have left is their king. They'll be moving that sucker all over the board hoping for a stale-mate.
Maybe they would rather go to jail than hand over documents or pay monies. Don't be surprised to find documents "accidentally" destroyed.
I love the show... but I noticed once the "Interns" started doing stuff that their approach to "safety" was much different than Adam's and Jamie's.
In one episode you could see Adam and Jamie seething with anger after "the kids" built a device in some sort of hanger that nearly killed them. After that episode it's been rare to see Adam and Jamie on the set when the "kids" were doing something explosives related.
This is just my impression - maybe wrongly.
**********
I also have a beef with Adam and Jamie. Those who watch and dare I say worship them, are the Makers and Geeks of the DIY / Open Source / Open Hardware / Open Data movement. They seem to be insulated from this fact, and I think it's sad.
Re: "As far as I can tell..." -- Problem is your lack of acuity, then.
"....My take is he wanted to show how LACK of creative people trickles down and eliminates jobs selling their products, while also stating that he thinks there IS a real shortage of creative people..."
Of course this is what Timberg is implying! But why do you agree with this? Amazon's making billions selling creative goods, iTunes is making billions selling creative goods, NetFlix is making billions, despite some very big f*ck ups lately, selling creative goods. And that's just the "creative goods" you and Timberg are focusing on.
Take a moment and branch out a bit. See Makezine, Thingiverse, Etsy, flickr, and YouTube. The world is full of creative people. Many of them are making a buck a two - some are making millions.
They just aren't selling their goods at Tower Records (which was Mike's point) - and THAT trickle down is killing the record shop business.
On the post: Lamar Smith Looking To Sneak Through SOPA In Bits & Pieces, Starting With Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force
How does a Texan, Republican, career politician get so cozy with Hollywood. I thought they were the enemy?
-CF
On the post: NSA: Figuring Out How Many US Citizens We Illegally Spied On Would Violate Their Privacy
Re: Re: If you know data, you know it makes sense
"...da·ta·base (dt-bs, dt-) Computer Science
n. also data base
A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. Also called data bank.
tr.v. da·ta·based, da·ta·bas·ing, da·ta·bas·es
To put (data) into a database...."
On the post: NSA: Figuring Out How Many US Citizens We Illegally Spied On Would Violate Their Privacy
Re: Re: If you know data, you know it makes sense
The reality is they spied indiscriminately on all Americans. The reality is that they probably don't have a clue how man American's they spied on.
-CF
On the post: NSA: Figuring Out How Many US Citizens We Illegally Spied On Would Violate Their Privacy
Re: Re:
They weren't fighting for "equal rights" or even "equal treament" they were fighting for corporation to "not be evil". Of course everyone wants this, but there is nothing concrete to be able call a victory.
It was destined to fail - and it did.
On the post: NSA: Figuring Out How Many US Citizens We Illegally Spied On Would Violate Their Privacy
If you know data, you know it makes sense
I don't know if this is the way it happens... but it makes sense to me:
If you have algorithms that basically triggers on word patterns over massive amount of streaming data, that streaming data is still "anonymous" until it triggers. Once the trigger happens, then the call is analyzed further and the details (who, who to, what, when, where, voice recognition of caller, voice recognition of receiver, etc) can be databased.
This way you're only tracking calls that matter to you, or at the very least eliminating mundane family chatter that you don't want to waste resources on. If 90% of the stream is ignored, then even though the calls have been "listened in on", it's filtered out - and the NSA doesn't have to waste its resources (which are finite) - and more to the point, what is filtered out is unknown (and mostly the NSA doesn't care about this filtered out "crap").
What you're asking the NSA to do when you want to know how many American's are spyed on, is for the NSA to go back to the stream and re-run it, this time cataloging EVERYTHING. Because the only way to get a count of callers is to know how many distinct callers there are in your stream.
Now you're forcing the NSA to actually database what hadn't been databased before. This not only provides you the number of American's spyed on, but it also has the undesired effect of creating records and tracking US Citizens, there-by violating their privacy.
Because it's not a simple matter of categorizing by phone number (more than one person uses a phone, one person uses multiple phones) there is no simple way to come up with the answer without analyzing what was filtered out.
-CF
On the post: The Battle For Net Neutrality Flares Up Again: But Which Countries Still Have It?
short/long term
But this will only happen while consumers don't care. Eventually Comcast will try to extort money from content providers and eventually content providers will give them the middle finger, and shortly after Comcast won't be able to provide its customers with anything more than a "view" onto the Internet and those customers will jump ship as soon as an alternative is available.
The alternative will be open/low cost mobile/wireless ad-hoc/mesh type network. Eventually there won't be a need for a back-bone ISP because the technology/skill will be affordable at such a low denominator that hardware will just "work" right out of the box without having to specify any specific network connection. Local/private networks will be in software only, and will float on top of the "global net".
What happens? Another democratic seismic shift. ISP/Mobile operates become as relevant as the News-print Industry. We'll experience another 20-30 years of a struggling industry come to terms with it's demise, but not before it tries to prevent or change the inevitable via lawsuits, lawyers, and lobbyist.
-CF
On the post: Google Maps Exodus Continues As Wikipedia Mobile Apps Switch To OpenStreetMap
Not so fast....
What requires a key is Google Earth - which is free "to a point" and their mobile api which is much more limited.
This makes sense to me. The free API drive traffic to Google's sites and ad revenue. The pay-for APIs are really targeting the Apples and other large users - and as stated by previous posters - Google doesn't benefit from supporting their largest competitors who are not also driving ad-revenue back to them.
Also, not sure about the rest of the users here.... I'm not seeing the Exodus. Every once in a while I see a Bling map - and that is really it. And no one has an API that is as fast or as polished as Google's (and yes I'm talking about Google's free service) or as supported by such a huge developers community.
Every successful company will have its haters. But it's sad to see hating just because of success. Google's not abusing its power here, and I think they are well aware of where their success comes from - which parallels very closely the values found here on Techdirt.
-CF
On the post: Boxee Ramps Up Its Fight To Stop The FCC From Letting Cable Companies Effectively Break Its Device
You still pay for TV?
-CF
On the post: Public Interest Groups Speak Out About Next Week's Secret Meeting In Hollywood To Negotiate TPP (Think International SOPA)
I wonder if THIS is really it?
Sure IP protection is part of it... but maybe it's really about creation. The Internet has become the distribution channel that anyone can utilize for virtually pennies. (probably 100% free if you tried hard enough).
It may not be a truly concerted effort, but listen to how media "controllers" have tried to stem their "members" from using Twitter and keeping reporters from "blogging" (See MLB, NFL, Reuters, AP, etc).
The democratization of publication is the real threat. Performers making (real) money without the need for record contracts or multi-million dollar tours / ad campaigns - wow - if that's not a threat to the recording industry.....
Plus honest reviews, people getting what they want, when they want it - wow again. The media strong hold is really losing control. They can't control the message, the merchandise, nor the content. What is their reason for being? No wonder they are freaked out.
-CF
On the post: Discussing SOPA/PIPA Over At On The Media
How to outlaw numbers
But with a little math fun, you can make those number more accessible, and with a the right "player" you can turn those numbers into songs, videos, games, text, etc.
A sight can list Songs (or videos, or games, or stories, or PDF, or word docs or what-ever favorite content type is). And associated with that content will be number. That number can be a hash number.
So this is not linking to content. This is not holding content. This is not a copy of the content. It's simply a hash number of the digital streams of 1 and 0 that make up that content. The thing about hash codes it's that they are not unique. They are "unique enough" to verify content, but you can't simple look at the hash and figure out what the content was..... Unless you know how many iterations to go through.
So beside the hash code is an iteration count. So with three pieces of information: The title, the hash code for the content, and the iteration number of the hash, you could devise a player that could expand a hash-code to it's original content. The three pieces of information could even be spread out among 3 different servers.
My guess is that if this were to take off, new laws would eventually be created to prevent the hashing of copy-righted content. But in the meantime.....
-CF
On the post: What Is ACTA And Why Is It A Problem?
Bite in the butt
When Fox Searchlight is kept from production because it's getting sued by Disney, when Pixar can't create new rendering techniques to show off in a new movie because they violate software patents, and the NFL can't be broadcasted over the air because it contributes to piracy.
That will be a good day. Because then all these media-moguls and patent abusers die. What will survive? The coming (3d) desktop revolution, indie productions, and direct-to-consumer goods, services, and entertainment.
As soon as as the law favors copy-right holders to the extent that simply thinking that someone is infringing requires a take-down notice, the first thing I'm going to do is write a script to send take-down notices for everything Viacom produces, everything Clear-Channel broadcasts, everything Disney exploits, and everything Fox reports on.
-CF
On the post: Why Apple Will Not Be Part Of The Real Tablet Revolution
Re: And so history repeats itself
-CF
On the post: Righthaven Fails To Show Up In Court As Ordered... When Confronted Says It Got Confused Over The Date
Re: LLC
On the post: Righthaven Fails To Show Up In Court As Ordered... When Confronted Says It Got Confused Over The Date
It's not incompetence
This is like watching a dance between the White House and Congress. From the outside it's bewildering. From the inside it's a well orchestrated chess match.
Clearly RightHaven is not going to win, but at this point they are playing not to loose. So all they have left is their king. They'll be moving that sucker all over the board hoping for a stale-mate.
Maybe they would rather go to jail than hand over documents or pay monies. Don't be surprised to find documents "accidentally" destroyed.
-CF
On the post: Mythbusters Crew Accidentally Fire Cannonball Through Suburban Neighborhood... Quickly Start Deleting Tweets Of The Evidence
I love Myth Busters.... But....
In one episode you could see Adam and Jamie seething with anger after "the kids" built a device in some sort of hanger that nearly killed them. After that episode it's been rare to see Adam and Jamie on the set when the "kids" were doing something explosives related.
This is just my impression - maybe wrongly.
**********
I also have a beef with Adam and Jamie. Those who watch and dare I say worship them, are the Makers and Geeks of the DIY / Open Source / Open Hardware / Open Data movement. They seem to be insulated from this fact, and I think it's sad.
-CF
On the post: Apparently The Creative Class Is Dead Because No One Works At Tower Records Any More
Re: "As far as I can tell..." -- Problem is your lack of acuity, then.
Of course this is what Timberg is implying! But why do you agree with this? Amazon's making billions selling creative goods, iTunes is making billions selling creative goods, NetFlix is making billions, despite some very big f*ck ups lately, selling creative goods. And that's just the "creative goods" you and Timberg are focusing on.
Take a moment and branch out a bit. See Makezine, Thingiverse, Etsy, flickr, and YouTube. The world is full of creative people. Many of them are making a buck a two - some are making millions.
They just aren't selling their goods at Tower Records (which was Mike's point) - and THAT trickle down is killing the record shop business.
-CF
On the post: Will John Sununu And Harold Ford Jr. Agree To Pay Netflix's Broadband Bill Next Month?
Re: Re:
On the post: Will John Sununu And Harold Ford Jr. Agree To Pay Netflix's Broadband Bill Next Month?
Re: Re: Re: Fight lobby with lobby?
The surest way to piss off the American people is to bilk the American taxpayer for billions of dollars.
The surest way to lose the next election is to leave billions of dollars of federal money on the table.
-CF
On the post: Will John Sununu And Harold Ford Jr. Agree To Pay Netflix's Broadband Bill Next Month?
Just flip the argument
How much should Google, NetFlix, etc, charge the ISP for access to their content?
How dare ISPs connect to all this content and services, web sites, and web apps - FOR FREE!!!???
Content providers should be charging the ISPs by the bitload!
-CF
On the post: Facebook Bans User's Ad Campaigns For Displaying Google+ Ad
Facebook to be come the game platform...for now
1. Google Fan Boys (of which I suppose I am one) joining G+ because it's just like Facebook - but it's not Facebook.
2. Facebook non-apologist who will stick with Facebook because they like the games.
3. Google haters who refuse G+ and will stick with FB until MS gets their Soc Net going....
-CF
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