Re: Re: This may not be the popular opinion here...
Right. Which is why the NSA needs to stick strictly to its mission of being a foreign intelligence agency. The NSA should never spy on domestic communications, and they should never share that information with law enforcement unless it relates to a foreign/ terror threat.
It is unclear if the NSA, as an organization, is capable of sticking to their assigned mission.
See, this is a good example to use to explain why I am personally torn on some of these matters. And also reveal how some of the more extreme NSA actions have put "good" parts of the program in trouble.
Personally and in theory (because the practice have proven the theory moot), I don't have a problem with the NSA having the capability of digging into any communications. My issue with the NSA has been how they have been exercising that capability-- with no oversight, no accountability, not even auditing. Storing vasts amounts of data, and using even the most tenuous excuse to collect & store more data even when a plain reading of the lie makes it clear that the NSA is spying on those they're prohibited from spying upon.
There are good reasons for the NSA to have this capability, and if properly used could be properly employed to find the bad guys. Instead, we see the NSA abusing this power (which may, I concede, be an inevitable outcome of the program) to simply enlarge the haystack. As a consequence, the NSA ability to dig into any & all communications will be hurt, even as the haystack grows in other ways. Meanwhile, all the needles will have moved elsewhere.
If the NSA wasn't so broadly overreaching elsewhere, I'm not sure that leaking this information *alone* would serve any purpose other than to harm the NSA's ability to perform its mission. However, we know how far beyond its mission the NSA has crept, and this simply provides more evidence that the NSA can crack just about any data on the internet.
The program is brilliant in a way, and if they were just using it to narrowly target foreign or terrorist agents acting against the US, as a citizen I would support the program. In light of the whole mess, it's just more evidence that the NSA wants to vacuum up everything. Laws be damned.
but I think we're all witnessing the ongoing mental breakdown of Edward Snowden. From joining an NSA contractor with the goal of stealing state secrets, to his half-planned attempt to flee, to his embracing of Russian autocrats and Wikileaks provocateurs, it looks like the progression of someone who is having difficulty staying sane. His self-created situation has only exacerbated and accelerated the process.
How long before the University of Michigan chimes in with a trademark claim? Gosh, all we're missing is a patent attorney and we'd have the grand slam of intellectual property: copyright, trademark, patent & publicity.
Not exactly a Venn diagram that would contain a lot of smart listeners."
It's juvenile & insulting. Bad enough that it got voted funniest comment of the week. It's downright pathetic that it got voted most insightful, given the high level of insight Techdirt commenters come up with week after week. As someone who has been following Techdirt for the better part of a decade, it's clear to me that while the audience has grown considerably, the level of reason among the average contributor (commenter) has fallen notably. The best stuff is still there.
If you think I'm just being curmudgeonly, how well would the comment have been received if there were a couple small changes?
"Hardly surprising, given:
A) It's Baltimore, and
B) It's a Rap station.
Not exactly a Venn diagram that would contain a lot of smart listeners."
Either way it's juvenile, factually incorrect, intolerant and elitist.
musicFirst is an organization founded by a group of co-aligned cartels. Collectively, they have not earned profits by competing on the basis of creating better products. Rather, they conspire amongst each other to maintain high prices in order to extract monopoly profits. When even that fails as the market routes around a broken business model, they resort to Plan B.
Plan B, of course, has been spectacularly successful. Essentially they compensate (via lobbying jobs, campaign contributions, and movie cameos) elected officials to pass laws that guarantee these dieing businesses a certain level of revenue. They enlist the FBI & other law enforcement personnel to act as their private police force against the interests of the citizens they are supposed to serve & protect. And finally, public prosecutors serve as their personnel law firm, pursuing average citizens and imprisoning them for what are, at worst, minor torts.
Given the massive sense of entitlement that these failed industries have come to expect, it's no wonder that they have no idea how real businesses work. As the RIAA continues to fail financially, there only recourse is to enlist the state to increase their legally mandated compensation. So, of course they expect Pandora and other businesses to do the same. Not making enough money? Just tell people to give you more! Maybe Pandora should follow the RIAA playbook and begin bribing (because that's what it is) government officials to force advertisers to spend a minimum amount advertising on Pandora each year.
Of course! That's the real solution. Let's make Apple & GM & Coca-Cola support the lazy, unethical RIAA executives by forcing them to each spend $100 Million/ Year on Pandora so that Pandora can continue to pay government-mandated monopoly rents to 4 failing businesses. Or maybe it's 3. I dunno, but pretty sure it will be zero eventually, then maybe we can move past all this. Once the rent-seekers are removed from the equation, I suspect revenue will increase at a greater pace and artist income will likely double or triple as the inefficiencies of the dieing record labels are eliminated and the middlemen found themselves out of a job.
The studios & TV companies have been giving away DVDs for years with the purchase of new televisions and DVD players. I think it's more a case of saving the $1 it costs to print each disk rather than a real attempt to push the New Crappy DRM.
This shouldn't need to be said. But the price itself is obviously part of an art project. It's an exploration, the price is supposed to elicit deep thoughts from the reader, not compel them to buy. If Mr. Cushing got the point of the pricing, he certainly failed to convey his understanding in the article.
Totally disagree with the summary statement, "good to see France apparently realizing that punishing the public is even worse."
While 3 strikes is anticonsumer and a mess as implemented, at least (in theory, if not in practice) its effect was limited to users that were infringing. The new approach would be 10x worse, with the government attempting to insert themselves into the decisions of every company on the internet. One step closer to governments legislating the results of search queries. One step closer to destroying revolutionary communications platforms like Flickr & YouTube. One step closer to chilling business innovation.
This is one tiny step forward, and two huge steps backwards.
Thanks for picking up the story. The good news part of this story is that since Flickr reformed their take down process, fraudulent notices now only result in temporary removal of the images. Still a lot of misconceptions in the Flickr community that Flickr "must" immediately comply with a takedown notice, as if there are automatic penalties for inquiring with the subject first or evaluating the validity of the notice themselves.
How is this insightful? Listen what B&N did is crappy. But nothing was deleted off the device. The customer was simply not allowed to download copies of books he already bought. That's a shitty policy. But it's not at all the same thing as remotely deleting content from a device.
On the post: NSA & GCHQ Covertly Took Over Security Standards, Recruited Telco Employees To Insert Backdoors
Re: Re: This may not be the popular opinion here...
It is unclear if the NSA, as an organization, is capable of sticking to their assigned mission.
On the post: NSA & GCHQ Covertly Took Over Security Standards, Recruited Telco Employees To Insert Backdoors
This may not be the popular opinion here...
Personally and in theory (because the practice have proven the theory moot), I don't have a problem with the NSA having the capability of digging into any communications. My issue with the NSA has been how they have been exercising that capability-- with no oversight, no accountability, not even auditing. Storing vasts amounts of data, and using even the most tenuous excuse to collect & store more data even when a plain reading of the lie makes it clear that the NSA is spying on those they're prohibited from spying upon.
There are good reasons for the NSA to have this capability, and if properly used could be properly employed to find the bad guys. Instead, we see the NSA abusing this power (which may, I concede, be an inevitable outcome of the program) to simply enlarge the haystack. As a consequence, the NSA ability to dig into any & all communications will be hurt, even as the haystack grows in other ways. Meanwhile, all the needles will have moved elsewhere.
If the NSA wasn't so broadly overreaching elsewhere, I'm not sure that leaking this information *alone* would serve any purpose other than to harm the NSA's ability to perform its mission. However, we know how far beyond its mission the NSA has crept, and this simply provides more evidence that the NSA can crack just about any data on the internet.
The program is brilliant in a way, and if they were just using it to narrowly target foreign or terrorist agents acting against the US, as a citizen I would support the program. In light of the whole mess, it's just more evidence that the NSA wants to vacuum up everything. Laws be damned.
On the post: If You're Going To Compare The Old Music Biz Model With The New Music Biz Model, At Least Make Some Sense
Re: Re: digeridiot.
On the post: Did Ed Snowden Actually Write His Latest 'Statement'?
This is going to sound like a cheap shot
On the post: Photographer Sues Desmond Howard For Infringement; Howard Counters With 'Publicity Rights'
Countdown...
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: To Paraphrase:
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: The top comment is shit
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
The top comment is shit
A) It's Florida, and
B) It's a Country station.
Not exactly a Venn diagram that would contain a lot of smart listeners."
It's juvenile & insulting. Bad enough that it got voted funniest comment of the week. It's downright pathetic that it got voted most insightful, given the high level of insight Techdirt commenters come up with week after week. As someone who has been following Techdirt for the better part of a decade, it's clear to me that while the audience has grown considerably, the level of reason among the average contributor (commenter) has fallen notably. The best stuff is still there.
If you think I'm just being curmudgeonly, how well would the comment have been received if there were a couple small changes?
"Hardly surprising, given:
A) It's Baltimore, and
B) It's a Rap station.
Not exactly a Venn diagram that would contain a lot of smart listeners."
Either way it's juvenile, factually incorrect, intolerant and elitist.
On the post: Recording Industry Lobbyists Accuse Pandora Of Deliberately Not Selling Ads To Plead Poverty To Congress
musicFirst isn't a business
Plan B, of course, has been spectacularly successful. Essentially they compensate (via lobbying jobs, campaign contributions, and movie cameos) elected officials to pass laws that guarantee these dieing businesses a certain level of revenue. They enlist the FBI & other law enforcement personnel to act as their private police force against the interests of the citizens they are supposed to serve & protect. And finally, public prosecutors serve as their personnel law firm, pursuing average citizens and imprisoning them for what are, at worst, minor torts.
Given the massive sense of entitlement that these failed industries have come to expect, it's no wonder that they have no idea how real businesses work. As the RIAA continues to fail financially, there only recourse is to enlist the state to increase their legally mandated compensation. So, of course they expect Pandora and other businesses to do the same. Not making enough money? Just tell people to give you more! Maybe Pandora should follow the RIAA playbook and begin bribing (because that's what it is) government officials to force advertisers to spend a minimum amount advertising on Pandora each year.
Of course! That's the real solution. Let's make Apple & GM & Coca-Cola support the lazy, unethical RIAA executives by forcing them to each spend $100 Million/ Year on Pandora so that Pandora can continue to pay government-mandated monopoly rents to 4 failing businesses. Or maybe it's 3. I dunno, but pretty sure it will be zero eventually, then maybe we can move past all this. Once the rent-seekers are removed from the equation, I suspect revenue will increase at a greater pace and artist income will likely double or triple as the inefficiencies of the dieing record labels are eliminated and the middlemen found themselves out of a job.
On the post: Teri Buhl Responds To Our Story; Still Confused About The Internet And The Law
Can someone get Ms. Buhl a shovel?
On the post: Police Chief Deploys Officers With Assault Rifles To Stop & ID Everyone; Says Local Crime Stats Give Him Probable Cause
Re: Re: Even with the Onion stories
On the post: Anonymous Launches White House Petition Saying DDoS Should Be Recognized As A Valid Form Of Protest
Re: Re:
On the post: To Boost Its New Crappy DRM, Hollywood Tries Giving Away Free Movies
This is nothing new
On the post: Confusing Value And Price, Choir Demands £3000 Per Download
Re:
On the post: Police Chief Deploys Officers With Assault Rifles To Stop & ID Everyone; Says Local Crime Stats Give Him Probable Cause
Even with the Onion stories
On the post: French Hadopi Scheme Gutted; Other Bad Ideas To Be Introduced Instead
Getting worse, not better
While 3 strikes is anticonsumer and a mess as implemented, at least (in theory, if not in practice) its effect was limited to users that were infringing. The new approach would be 10x worse, with the government attempting to insert themselves into the decisions of every company on the internet. One step closer to governments legislating the results of search queries. One step closer to destroying revolutionary communications platforms like Flickr & YouTube. One step closer to chilling business innovation.
This is one tiny step forward, and two huge steps backwards.
On the post: Barnes & Noble Decides That Purchased Ebooks Are Only Yours Until Your Credit Card Expires
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Open Letter To Human Synergistics International In Response To Your Accusation That Techdirt Is Infringing
He passes to the man...
Well said, Mr. Masnick.
On the post: North Face Continues To File Questionable Legal Claims Against Parodies
Sweet!
But hey, one step at a time.
On the post: Barnes & Noble Decides That Purchased Ebooks Are Only Yours Until Your Credit Card Expires
Re:
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