The point is in a room of 100 people, if you can identify the 97 who are completely innocent, you can spend your time looking at the last 3. Requiring ISPs to keep logs of customer logins, IPs, and simple stuff like that (not actual surfing history) is a step to help you know which of the 100 people are in the 97, and which are the last 3 you need to spend time looking at.
um no. It does not. Knowing that someone connected to the internet, and used a given IP number at the time does not in any way help narrow down who is and is not a criminal. Not unless you're willing to assume that simply connecting to the internet is an indication of criminal activity.
Further, by setting standards by which this data is collected and made available, the law makes the first step much easier on law enforcement, and would let them focus on the potential criminals instead of the truly innocent citizens. One less step to take to court for no reason (as the courts will almost always approve the request), and no more dealing with ISPs with incomplete records or who willfully do not collect such data.
Setting standards does nothing to help when the very data covered by those standards does nothing to help determine whether or not further scrutiny is required.
I cannot see any true expansion of scope, rather an attempt to make ISPs (in Canada) to work in a similar manner, and to make needed information available on a timely basis and in a manner that does not intentionally hide potential criminals.
Giving law enforcement officers additional authority is by definition an expansion of scope. The questions that need to be asked are "Is this expansion needed?" and "will this expansion help?" The number of recent news stories about arrests for online criminal activities would seem to indicate that the police are doing just fine without this extra help. The number of cases of mistaken analysis of the data they already have would seem to indicate that what law enforcement needs is better ability to analyze the data it already has, not more data to make that analysis problem even worse.
Is it any surprise that the TSA is located even lower down that list?
In fact, there are eleven entries in that list that fall under the Department of Homeland Security. All but four of the entries are in the bottom half of the list, and even more worrying, all but two of the entries have gotten worse than they were last year.
Sounds like there should probably be a rethinking of this whole Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement isn't a signed deal, yet. At least not at the University of Toronto. Some of the faculty are raising the point that the way in which the agreement was reached may have violated the university's governance procedures.
First off, I have to say kudos to the FCC for giving LightSquared the chance to try. The fact that the condition was put on the waiver in the first place is a good indication that the FCC didn't think it was possible to avoid interfering, but LS got the opportunity to prove the FCC engineers wrong. The fact that the technology failed to work as planned does not mean LS cannot build their network. They just have to find some other spectrum in which to do it.
Kudos also to the FCC for not allowing that idea to trample all over an existing highly innovative industry. A two inch square module that costs under $50 can provide both location information to within a couple of metres, and a time stamp signal with atomic clock accuracy. What's more, this is available everywhere on the planet with a view of the sky, even when mobile. You've almost certainly seen the explosion of in-car navigation systems over the last few years, but how about some of the hidden uses? There's a huge explosion in infrastructure that makes use of the location information of the GPS units, or the time information. In many cases it's cheaper and easier to hang a GPS unit on a system than it is to add in a real time clock or a connection to a time server.
Overall, which is more beneficial to society, the innovation in the GPS industry, or the increase in innovation in the communications industry? That I can't say, but right now, I'm leaning towards the GPS industry. Who knows, maybe in another few years someone else will come up with a technology that will let the GPS and a terrestrial communications network coexist on adjacent frequency bands.
The government may get smacked down by a court, but only if it ever gets to a court. The government seems to be doing a very good job of delaying things until their victims either give up or run out of money.
That seems difficult to square with reality.
We are talking Hollywood here. Their entire industry is one of creating fantasies, so it should be no surprise to anyone that they are a lot more comfortable in a fantasy world instead of the reality the rest of us live in.
The last three times the government of Canada tried to "modernize" the copyright laws in Canada, the laws were put on hold until they died. Each time it was because the copyright changes threatened to become an election issue that would hurt the government badly.
The Conservative party (more or less equivalent to the Republicans in the USA) won a majority government in the election held last year, so I'm expecting another crack at cramming through some horrible copyright laws shortly. with a majority government, getting a bill passed is pretty much guaranteed, and with the ability to put off an election until October 2015, they may hope that Canadians will forget about anything they do now before the next election.
I doubt that Google's management is involved in this. They have to be well aware of just how badly this would backfire on the company, as well as how certain it is that the story would leak.
It's possible that this is a result of someone trying to embarass Google, but setting up a fake company just to embarass Google seems like a whole lot of effort for relatively little return.
More than likely this is the result of someone being real stupid just to get a few more bucks.
I don't think replacing the critical network infrastructure will help much, that just leads to the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" problem. A better method would be to restructure the network so as to allow for competing services. that way, if one operator no longer meets your needs, you can move to another.
The real trick is going to be arranging for competition in things like DNS and IP number assignments, without also fragmenting the internet.
It's almost a no-brainer to predict that this will cause the secondary art industry to move offshore. Shipping a piece of art to an auction house out of the country would be cheaper than paying the new fees, and once out of the country, the new fees no longer apply.
So, I find a painting that's been stashed in the garage for a couple of decades. I have no idea who created the painting, but this art collector really wants to buy it from me. How am I supposed to figure out who to gets the artist's fees?
keep in mind that Righthaven won't get any of the money from this auction. It's all going to go towards paying the legal bills of one of Righthaven's victims.
If Veoh wants to avoid issues, they would pre-screen their content.
Pre-screen how? Without access to a complete list of all the works covered by copyright, and all the licensing agreements covering those works, it is simply not possible to know if any given copy is infringing.
Possible way for third parties to identify infringement
"Copyright holders know precisely what materials they own, and are thus better able to efficiently identify infringing copies than service providers like Veoh, who cannot readily ascertain what material is copyrighted and what is not."
It might be possible for third parties to identify copyright infringement, but before that can happen, two things have to occur.
1) copyright holders must register all their copyrights in a central repository that's open to anyone to read.
2) copyright holders must register the full text of any and all licensing agreements in that same repository.
I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
Nope, it's a copyright issue. See, Will.I.Am may not be able to consent to being in the video, and all of his work (including what was used in the video) would be by contract copyright to his label
Umm, that would still be a contract issue. You cannot own copyright in your acting, or singing, because those are not fixed. You can own the copyright to a video of your acting, or a recording of your singing, because those are fixed,
the copyright in any such recording belongs to the person or company that makes the recording, not to the person doing the performance. Will.I.Am may have an agreement with UMG not to perform anywhere without approval from UMG, but that's a contract issue between Will.I.Am and UMG. Will.I.Am may have a publicity rights issue with Megaupload, but that's publicity rights, not copyright, so the DMCA does not apply.
Take a wander through The-Numbers.com, a movie industry research site.
Specifically, the section on the
Biggest Combined Gross for All Movies in a Single Weekend
Looks like of the five biggest weekends, two have been in this year. The remaining record weekends were in 2008 and 2009. Then look at the chart below that one, the worst weekends were all from 2000 and 2001.
It certainly doesn't sound to me like the movie industry has any grounds for complaint about the box office revenue this year.
On the post: How New Internet Spying Laws Will Actually ENABLE Stalkers, Spammers, Phishers And, Yes, Pedophiles & Terrorists
Re: Re: Re: Re: But there is no database!
um no. It does not. Knowing that someone connected to the internet, and used a given IP number at the time does not in any way help narrow down who is and is not a criminal. Not unless you're willing to assume that simply connecting to the internet is an indication of criminal activity.
Further, by setting standards by which this data is collected and made available, the law makes the first step much easier on law enforcement, and would let them focus on the potential criminals instead of the truly innocent citizens. One less step to take to court for no reason (as the courts will almost always approve the request), and no more dealing with ISPs with incomplete records or who willfully do not collect such data.
Setting standards does nothing to help when the very data covered by those standards does nothing to help determine whether or not further scrutiny is required.
I cannot see any true expansion of scope, rather an attempt to make ISPs (in Canada) to work in a similar manner, and to make needed information available on a timely basis and in a manner that does not intentionally hide potential criminals.
Giving law enforcement officers additional authority is by definition an expansion of scope. The questions that need to be asked are "Is this expansion needed?" and "will this expansion help?" The number of recent news stories about arrests for online criminal activities would seem to indicate that the police are doing just fine without this extra help. The number of cases of mistaken analysis of the data they already have would seem to indicate that what law enforcement needs is better ability to analyze the data it already has, not more data to make that analysis problem even worse.
On the post: ICE Considered One Of The Worst Places To Work In The Federal Government
In fact, there are eleven entries in that list that fall under the Department of Homeland Security. All but four of the entries are in the bottom half of the list, and even more worrying, all but two of the entries have gotten worse than they were last year.
Sounds like there should probably be a rethinking of this whole Department of Homeland Security.
On the post: Canadian Universities Agree To Ridiculous Copyright Agreement That Says Emailing Hyperlinks Is Equal To Photocopying
UofT Faculty Blog
On the post: Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
Kudos also to the FCC for not allowing that idea to trample all over an existing highly innovative industry. A two inch square module that costs under $50 can provide both location information to within a couple of metres, and a time stamp signal with atomic clock accuracy. What's more, this is available everywhere on the planet with a view of the sky, even when mobile. You've almost certainly seen the explosion of in-car navigation systems over the last few years, but how about some of the hidden uses? There's a huge explosion in infrastructure that makes use of the location information of the GPS units, or the time information. In many cases it's cheaper and easier to hang a GPS unit on a system than it is to add in a real time clock or a connection to a time server.
Overall, which is more beneficial to society, the innovation in the GPS industry, or the increase in innovation in the communications industry? That I can't say, but right now, I'm leaning towards the GPS industry. Who knows, maybe in another few years someone else will come up with a technology that will let the GPS and a terrestrial communications network coexist on adjacent frequency bands.
On the post: US Returns JotForm.com Domain; Still Refuses To Say What Happened
On the post: How Does The Penalty For 'Content Theft' Match Up With Similar 'Crimes'?
We are talking Hollywood here. Their entire industry is one of creating fantasies, so it should be no surprise to anyone that they are a lot more comfortable in a fantasy world instead of the reality the rest of us live in.
On the post: Redbox Won't Cave To Warner Bros. Demands; Will Buy WB DVDs From Other Sources And Rent Them
Re: Re:
Wal-Mart risks less than 1% of their business.
The movie studio risks something like 25% of all DVD sales.
Which do you think will cave first?
On the post: FIFA Orders Brazil To Overturn Ban On Selling Beer At World Cup Matches
Just out of curiosity
On the post: Entertainment Industry Lobbyists Don't Want To Let Canada Into Secret TPP Negotiations Until Canada Passes More Bad Laws
Re:
The Conservative party (more or less equivalent to the Republicans in the USA) won a majority government in the election held last year, so I'm expecting another crack at cramming through some horrible copyright laws shortly. with a majority government, getting a bill passed is pretty much guaranteed, and with the ability to put off an election until October 2015, they may hope that Canadians will forget about anything they do now before the next election.
On the post: Google Contractor Caught Mucking Up Competing Open Street Maps
It's possible that this is a result of someone trying to embarass Google, but setting up a fake company just to embarass Google seems like a whole lot of effort for relatively little return.
More than likely this is the result of someone being real stupid just to get a few more bucks.
On the post: Harry Reid Says He's Concerned PIPA Will Break The Internet, But We Must Move Forward With It, Because Of 'Jobs'
Re:
On the post: Hackers Figuring Out How To Set Up Satellites To Route Around Internet Censorship
The real trick is going to be arranging for competition in things like DNS and IP number assignments, without also fragmenting the internet.
On the post: Lawmakers Propose Resale Right For US Artwork To Harm Young Artist & Help Already Successful Ones
Yet another industry about to move offshore
Next up, export restrictions on artwork.
On the post: Lawmakers Propose Resale Right For US Artwork To Harm Young Artist & Help Already Successful Ones
On the post: Righthaven.com Domain Auction Has Begun
On the post: USTR Puts Out Its 'Rogue Sites' List... Can't Even Find 20
Re:
Mike is complaining that it will be abused, not over used.
this article doesn't show that it will be under-used It shows that SOPA is not needed.
I suppose it's a bit much to ask a troll to understand simple concepts like that.
On the post: Veoh Still Perfectly Legal... But Also Still Dead Due To Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
Re: Re: Re:
Pre-screen how? Without access to a complete list of all the works covered by copyright, and all the licensing agreements covering those works, it is simply not possible to know if any given copy is infringing.
On the post: Veoh Still Perfectly Legal... But Also Still Dead Due To Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
Possible way for third parties to identify infringement
It might be possible for third parties to identify copyright infringement, but before that can happen, two things have to occur.
1) copyright holders must register all their copyrights in a central repository that's open to anyone to read.
2) copyright holders must register the full text of any and all licensing agreements in that same repository.
I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
On the post: Megaupload Sues Universal Over Questionable Video Takedown, As Will.i.am Says He Sent Takedown Too
Re:
Umm, that would still be a contract issue. You cannot own copyright in your acting, or singing, because those are not fixed. You can own the copyright to a video of your acting, or a recording of your singing, because those are fixed,
the copyright in any such recording belongs to the person or company that makes the recording, not to the person doing the performance. Will.I.Am may have an agreement with UMG not to perform anywhere without approval from UMG, but that's a contract issue between Will.I.Am and UMG. Will.I.Am may have a publicity rights issue with Megaupload, but that's publicity rights, not copyright, so the DMCA does not apply.
On the post: Congressional Research Service Shows Hollywood Is Thriving
Re: Well, the AP says otherwise. Who knows?
Specifically, the section on the
Biggest Combined Gross for All Movies in a Single Weekend
Looks like of the five biggest weekends, two have been in this year. The remaining record weekends were in 2008 and 2009. Then look at the chart below that one, the worst weekends were all from 2000 and 2001.
It certainly doesn't sound to me like the movie industry has any grounds for complaint about the box office revenue this year.
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