I question if it really takes that much time to build a sustainable business model. If one of the major cell companies dropped all this stupid counting minutes, data, and texts then they would be buried under the new subscribers jumping over from all the other carriers.
Of course this requires them to totally drop ALL their stupid little fees and throttles. Sadly none of them want to stick their neck out and try because they know it will lead to the others attacking them and their network having to handle a surge.
They are charging a fee for the service they offer NOT for the content. So what you are paying for is the work involved in them setting this up for you and for maintaining it.
Well I wouldn't worry too much about this law in that case. I mean after all this is max of 10 years. If you are around the president he could just have you "detained" for however long he likes.
Thing with doing things like this in a gray area is you should only go into gray areas with very good reasons. Obviously they did not have a good reason for each of these 3,000 cases.
It is one thing to have your FBI agent have strong reasons to suspect criminal activity and choose to use GPS to help them track a suspect. It is quite different to toss out 3,000 devices to see what you can maybe find.
If they had not tried to go fishing with the things they never would have had a problem because each case they used it in they would be able to show probable cause justifying their search.
Ok, so your saying because they thought they could get away with it without doing the proper work it was ok?
If they really were tracking such horrible people and were simply taking a shortcut in the process then they would have no problem finding the devices. All they need to do is get a warrant to turn it back on. That should be easy now that they have the data they gathered before they turned it off.
Oh, wait, that would mean they had to be using them on actually criminals not just NORMAL CITIZENS caught in a fishing trip.
Yup piracy is illegal, and so are a ton of other things. How about we worry about getting all the drunk drivers, domestic abusers, rapists, murderers, thieves, drug dealers, arms dealers, human traffickers, and so forth? There are a LOT bigger issues than some people downloading things.
The solution too this problem is not more government meddling. The solution is for the industries to adapt and deal with this on their own and let the government deal with real issues.
Ok, I will take you up on that one. Copyright should be brought back to what it was intended to be. You create something and you get your copyright for 10 years. That is being quite generous. How many 10 year old movies, songs, and so forth are really raking in money?
So copyright gets cut back and now the public will actually have a real public domain that is not getting constantly raped and things taken from it. With that they will make new works that they can have rights to for 10 years.
See how that works? You have to KEEP WORKING if you want to keep getting anything. You don't write one song or one book and then kick back milking that for eternity. It also gives others a chance after a reasonable time to build upon your work.
The other side effect of this is no more stupid going after everyone and their dog for infringement. It will be a lot easier to keep track of what came out in last 10 years then the crazy system we have now.
This is what I believe is at the root of our governments problem. So many things seem like such great ideas when you just look at them by themselves.
The idea that we should protect children from child molesters is a great thing that very few people will ever argue against when the issue is looked at by itself. As a result everyone will agree to a new law to protect the kids. Then a little later a new law is proposed once again to protect the kids.
Each of these laws when looked at by themselves seem like such great and noble things. The problem is so very few bother to take a step back and look at the entire system. Little by little laws were added, each with their own merit but when placed beside all the others we suddenly have a system that is far to complicated to understand, maintain or ever hope to enforce.
It is time for government to do some house cleaning. Take a step back and look at the system as a whole. Take a look at the laws and toss them replacing the 30-40 laws about something into 1 simple law containing the best of all the little laws.
If they were to do this then we would come out with a clear system of government. There would no longer be the rampant cheating of the system. It would close the loopholes and make it possible to actually enforce the things that truly matter.
Or maybe it realized that it is a small percentage of the online culture that enjoy being jerks "for the lulz" kind of like how in high school not everyone was a stupid jock.
I will agree with you for the most part. The only difference is I am proud of what this nation once was and would not trade that for anything. I just think the time is fast approaching for the citizens to take this nation back and restore it to what it once was.
Oh, we already feel the pain. It is our government who thinks it is great fun to run expose us to radiation with their "virtual strip searches" and then as if that was not enough they also have to grope you. All in the name of "security".
There is this funny thing that happens with parodies. That is that they tend to make some people really mad while making others laugh. I'm willing to bet a lot of people over the years have felt upset and insulted by Weird Al.
They just need to put a program in the school system teaching the evils of piracy. You know, kind of like the DARE program they have for drugs. DARE was wonderful, all the kids that didn't know anything about drugs were suddenly told about all these wonderful things along with detailed information on how to use the different drugs. It worked great.
(worked so well that I when I visited a school wearing a DARE shirt I had all the kids asking me for drugs.)
I can tell you there are MANY advantages of using pirated things. Back when I used windows XP I had a bought copy of it but I also had some I had downloaded. The funny thing was that the downloaded version was more stable and gave me less trouble. Turns out the "Filthy Pirates" in removing the stupid DRM actually made the OS more reliable while they were at it.
You cannot really slow piracy down without making it hell for EVERYONE including those who buy the products. For example, I went and figured I would be good and install Linux instead of a pirated OS. So I install Linux on my PC and I get in the mood for a movie so I drop in my purchased BluRay.
What do I find? Even though I paid for all this equipment and bought the bluray I cant play it because the stupid DRM. So I set out looking for the software needed to play it. Turns out the EASY way to play a bluray in Linux is to RIP THE MOVIE to the hard drive.
So here it is their attempt to enforce their copyright made it so that it is EASIER to COPY than to PLAY their movie. This is one of the major causes of piracy. It is EASIER to pirate things than to use PURCHASED products.
You know as hard as it might be for you to picture. There are people in this world who will stand up for what they believe. These people are often labeled terrorists or extremists.
Point is that they have arrested some of those they think are part of "Anonymous". Well Anonymous is not an organization. There are no leaders, no structure, there is not "head of the snake" to be cut off. Anonymous is an Idea and ideas cannot be locked up or killed.
That being said, there are people who do things under the flag of Anonymous who are just punks that need arresting. Those that just want to be "cool". These kids are not really who the government fears, they fear those who are standing up for what they truly believe.
The tighter the government squeezes, the harder they try and control the people, the more and more you will see Anonymous. This is because it is an idea and it is the belief that people should be free from oppressive government. That cannot ever be stopped.
One of these days the government is going to come to the realization that it is impossible to lock up an idea. Until that time I will gleefully laugh at their attempts.
"I greatly object to the idea that consumers should rule the world."
I really hate to break it to you but consumers do kind of rule the world. Piracy is largely a result of the content industry treating people like trash. Sure some pirate because they can but a large number would pay if there were treated right.
Of course your counter argument is that enforcement is just not strong enough. Well here is a news flash for you. Throwing someone in jail will NEVER make you another sale. In fact this drive for more insane enforcement makes me LESS likely to buy anything.
You guys also love to throw around the thing saying that if the evil pirates steal everything then you will have no money to make anything new. Well if you make everyone hate you so only a very few people will buy anything you will not have any money.
So go ahead, fight for all you are worth. In the end you will find that the consumer in the end will always have the final say. They will buy your product or they won't. No amount of enforcement or laws will change that. The simple fact of the matter is that people do not want the product how it is being offered to them.
I don't think you will find much argument here that DMCA is a disaster. I get the impression most people are going to be thinking of different reasons than you are though.
On the post: Mobile Carriers Don't Want To Give Up SMS Without A Fight
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Of course this requires them to totally drop ALL their stupid little fees and throttles. Sadly none of them want to stick their neck out and try because they know it will lead to the others attacking them and their network having to handle a surge.
On the post: TV Networks Gang Up To Sue Aereo; Do Copyright Rules Change Based On The Length Of A Cable?
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On the post: TV Networks Gang Up To Sue Aereo; Do Copyright Rules Change Based On The Length Of A Cable?
Re: Not about the length of the cord
On the post: Chipping Away At The First Amendment: New 'Trespassing' Bill Could Be Used To Criminalize Legitimate Protests
Re: Yikes
On the post: FBI Turns Off About 3,000 GPS Devices Following Supreme Court Ruling
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It is one thing to have your FBI agent have strong reasons to suspect criminal activity and choose to use GPS to help them track a suspect. It is quite different to toss out 3,000 devices to see what you can maybe find.
If they had not tried to go fishing with the things they never would have had a problem because each case they used it in they would be able to show probable cause justifying their search.
On the post: FBI Turns Off About 3,000 GPS Devices Following Supreme Court Ruling
Re:
If they really were tracking such horrible people and were simply taking a shortcut in the process then they would have no problem finding the devices. All they need to do is get a warrant to turn it back on. That should be easy now that they have the data they gathered before they turned it off.
Oh, wait, that would mean they had to be using them on actually criminals not just NORMAL CITIZENS caught in a fishing trip.
On the post: Yes, Online And Offline Rules Are Different... Because Online And Offline Are Different
Re: Re: Re:
The solution too this problem is not more government meddling. The solution is for the industries to adapt and deal with this on their own and let the government deal with real issues.
On the post: Yes, Online And Offline Rules Are Different... Because Online And Offline Are Different
Re: Another line in the sand
Ok, I will take you up on that one. Copyright should be brought back to what it was intended to be. You create something and you get your copyright for 10 years. That is being quite generous. How many 10 year old movies, songs, and so forth are really raking in money?
So copyright gets cut back and now the public will actually have a real public domain that is not getting constantly raped and things taken from it. With that they will make new works that they can have rights to for 10 years.
See how that works? You have to KEEP WORKING if you want to keep getting anything. You don't write one song or one book and then kick back milking that for eternity. It also gives others a chance after a reasonable time to build upon your work.
The other side effect of this is no more stupid going after everyone and their dog for infringement. It will be a lot easier to keep track of what came out in last 10 years then the crazy system we have now.
On the post: Does Guernsey Really Want To Become Famous -- And Ostracized -- For Introducing Image Rights?
Re: Image
This is what I believe is at the root of our governments problem. So many things seem like such great ideas when you just look at them by themselves.
The idea that we should protect children from child molesters is a great thing that very few people will ever argue against when the issue is looked at by itself. As a result everyone will agree to a new law to protect the kids. Then a little later a new law is proposed once again to protect the kids.
Each of these laws when looked at by themselves seem like such great and noble things. The problem is so very few bother to take a step back and look at the entire system. Little by little laws were added, each with their own merit but when placed beside all the others we suddenly have a system that is far to complicated to understand, maintain or ever hope to enforce.
It is time for government to do some house cleaning. Take a step back and look at the system as a whole. Take a look at the laws and toss them replacing the 30-40 laws about something into 1 simple law containing the best of all the little laws.
If they were to do this then we would come out with a clear system of government. There would no longer be the rampant cheating of the system. It would close the loopholes and make it possible to actually enforce the things that truly matter.
On the post: 'We, The Web Kids': Manifesto For An Anti-ACTA Generation
Re:
On the post: EU Parliament Urged To Reject Agreement With The US To Hand Over Passenger Data
Re:
On the post: EU Parliament Urged To Reject Agreement With The US To Hand Over Passenger Data
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: UK Trying To Censor Parody Video About The 2012 Olympics
Re:
On the post: Who Cares If Piracy Is 'Wrong' If Stopping It Is Impossible And Innovating Provides Better Solutions?
Re: Re:
(worked so well that I when I visited a school wearing a DARE shirt I had all the kids asking me for drugs.)
On the post: Who Cares If Piracy Is 'Wrong' If Stopping It Is Impossible And Innovating Provides Better Solutions?
Re: Superior vs illegal
On the post: Who Cares If Piracy Is 'Wrong' If Stopping It Is Impossible And Innovating Provides Better Solutions?
Re:
What do I find? Even though I paid for all this equipment and bought the bluray I cant play it because the stupid DRM. So I set out looking for the software needed to play it. Turns out the EASY way to play a bluray in Linux is to RIP THE MOVIE to the hard drive.
So here it is their attempt to enforce their copyright made it so that it is EASIER to COPY than to PLAY their movie. This is one of the major causes of piracy. It is EASIER to pirate things than to use PURCHASED products.
On the post: How The US Trade Rep Is Trying To Wipe Out Used Goods Sales With Secretive TPP Agreement
Re: Re: Re:
Point is that they have arrested some of those they think are part of "Anonymous". Well Anonymous is not an organization. There are no leaders, no structure, there is not "head of the snake" to be cut off. Anonymous is an Idea and ideas cannot be locked up or killed.
That being said, there are people who do things under the flag of Anonymous who are just punks that need arresting. Those that just want to be "cool". These kids are not really who the government fears, they fear those who are standing up for what they truly believe.
The tighter the government squeezes, the harder they try and control the people, the more and more you will see Anonymous. This is because it is an idea and it is the belief that people should be free from oppressive government. That cannot ever be stopped.
On the post: How The US Trade Rep Is Trying To Wipe Out Used Goods Sales With Secretive TPP Agreement
Re:
On the post: New Platform Launched To Crowdsource Better Internet-Related Regulation... With Expert Help
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I really hate to break it to you but consumers do kind of rule the world. Piracy is largely a result of the content industry treating people like trash. Sure some pirate because they can but a large number would pay if there were treated right.
Of course your counter argument is that enforcement is just not strong enough. Well here is a news flash for you. Throwing someone in jail will NEVER make you another sale. In fact this drive for more insane enforcement makes me LESS likely to buy anything.
You guys also love to throw around the thing saying that if the evil pirates steal everything then you will have no money to make anything new. Well if you make everyone hate you so only a very few people will buy anything you will not have any money.
So go ahead, fight for all you are worth. In the end you will find that the consumer in the end will always have the final say. They will buy your product or they won't. No amount of enforcement or laws will change that. The simple fact of the matter is that people do not want the product how it is being offered to them.
On the post: Company That Issued Bogus Takedown Says It Was All A Mistake, Apologizes
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