Ninja, you keep talking poorly about the US like it's the only country that this happens in. Wake up. Money makes the courts go round in every country. Tell me about the shining beacon of justice and legality that is the court system of Brazil. Oh wait, it's not. It's more corrupt than the US system. Tell me how the UK is so much better than the US. Oh wait, it's not especially if you're someone famous. Greece, the cradle of democracy? Nope not even close.
I like bashing the US as much as anyone but I've actually lived in several other countries and have visited many, many more so I have some real comparisons other than reading a website. I've dealt with court systems around the world. The US isn't perfect but there are a lot of other countries in the world that aren't close to being as free as the US even with the corruption of our democracy.
The government gets to peer deeper and deeper into our lives, and we're less and less able to even know about it.
And the sheeple of the US are content in letting it happen.
Actually I'll go on a conspiracy tangent for a moment - the people in power, along with mainstream media, are distracting the sheeple from noticing that this is happening.
Either way it's happening and not enough people are fighting it nor is there enough publicity about these types of actions and court rulings in favor of these actions.
I've often thought that the Federal Government should build out the networks and then the telcos get charged a usage fee for all wired and wireless networks. Then the govt. would be in a much better position to:
1. enforce commonality among equipment - no more CDMA or GSM every phone in the US would be one or the other and be able to be used at any provider.
2. enforce common tech upgrades - the govt would determine what the next generation networks would look like and when the upgrade would be completed.
3. determine a fair price for services - the FCC begin to manage the price of service like they do for other utilities because phone service is now at that point where a person has to have it in the modern world. The price would start at a point of a acceptable level of profit above the usage fee charged to the telcos.
4. force telcos to provide service to rural area - the govt would actually be setting up the cell sites and running the fiber so the only the the telcos would need to do is start advertising.
However I also understand that a lot of people would see this set up as the beginnings of socialism in the US or a huge security risk.
One of the things that hard to deal with on the Internet is tone. Everyone that reads an article or a comment adds their own idea of the tone of the message. This is the first article that I have read by Mike where I immediately thought the tone was that he was pissed off by the Globe. I can't wait for the next one!
He accomplished so much, but the really distressing point is how much more all of us expected him to accomplish in the future, and how we will all be worse off without that happening.
I'm going to say something that will be unpopular but I believe it needs to be said. I am upset about Aaron's suicide, less than some, more than others, but we really shouldn't talk about his future. First, even though he had shown the ability to keep himself relevant in the tech field, he might have found other passions as he grew older. It's unlikely but a possibility because I've seen life events like getting married, having kids, getting a serious illness, etc. change a person's outlooks and goals. Second, a lot of what I keep hearing or reading is about other's expectations for Aaron. That's not fair to throw your expectations for another's life into your stories. Even if his closest friends said that he talked about doing this or wanted to work on that, it doesn't actually mean that he would have gotten around to it. Finally, we're not ALL better for his previous work and we certainly won't ALL be worse off for not having his unknown future acts become reality. For instance, everyone talks about his part of RSS and how important that is for the world but in reality only a small portion of a small subset of the population use RSS. So we're not ALL better for it. He's really credited with fighting SOPA but again that fight didn't help ALL of us except in the most roundabout way. We don't know what or if he would have done anything in the future so we can't be worse off for something that we don't know was going to happen.
I just think we need to stop romanticising people and focus on what they did and how their legacy can inspire others to either carry on the work they started or to go after their own goals/dreams. In fact, I'd love to see a story about how Aaron's suicide has focused/refocused Mike and the TechDirt staff and what they would like to do in the future. They're still here with us so it's their expectations for themselves that can still make a difference.
While Mike noted a few instances that Google did not comply with the requests, if you take a look at the numbers they did comply with 90% of the requests either in fully or partially. That's a total of about 7200 of the approximately 7900 requests, and the number of users/accounts those requests encompassed was 16,281. I wonder how many of those are suspected terrorists and/or criminals and how many are requests to stifle speech.
I would have to disagree as well. There's a lot of that article that is nothing more than a pure guess. Plus it points out that Samsung is in a better position than HTC was but then goes on to mention the court lose and the ITC loss. Since lawyer wrote the article I would have expected him to mention that there's still lots of life left in the Samsung/Apple court battle because of appeals and the losses that Apple has suffered everywhere else in the world.
I would disagree. There's just as many Democrats that are business execs as Republicans.
It's your kind of statements that keep America divided because you throw out the word Republican and think that every single person that identifies themselves as a Republican agrees with Fox News or people like Karl Rove. Unfortunately the talking heads of the Republican party are pretty far out there but they don't represent what Republicans feel. There are a lot of moderates, both in the Democrats and Republicans, that don't like what either side is doing but we've let the party leaders become the true rulers of the country instead of our representatives.
The only problem with that statement is that developers will never develop a mobile game that looks and feels as good as a game built for the PC or a console. No one is going to eat up a couple of gigs of their phone's storage for a single game. There's a tool for every job and a phone is not a high-end gaming machine.
On the post: And... Yet Another Regulator Flips Out About Uber, Tries To Kill It
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I like bashing the US as much as anyone but I've actually lived in several other countries and have visited many, many more so I have some real comparisons other than reading a website. I've dealt with court systems around the world. The US isn't perfect but there are a lot of other countries in the world that aren't close to being as free as the US even with the corruption of our democracy.
On the post: Court Again Says It's Okay For The Feds To Snoop Through Your Digital Info Without Telling You
So frustrating...
And the sheeple of the US are content in letting it happen.
Actually I'll go on a conspiracy tangent for a moment - the people in power, along with mainstream media, are distracting the sheeple from noticing that this is happening.
Either way it's happening and not enough people are fighting it nor is there enough publicity about these types of actions and court rulings in favor of these actions.
On the post: Verizon Charging You More, As Bandwidth Costs Them Less
Horrible idea but..
1. enforce commonality among equipment - no more CDMA or GSM every phone in the US would be one or the other and be able to be used at any provider.
2. enforce common tech upgrades - the govt would determine what the next generation networks would look like and when the upgrade would be completed.
3. determine a fair price for services - the FCC begin to manage the price of service like they do for other utilities because phone service is now at that point where a person has to have it in the modern world. The price would start at a point of a acceptable level of profit above the usage fee charged to the telcos.
4. force telcos to provide service to rural area - the govt would actually be setting up the cell sites and running the fiber so the only the the telcos would need to do is start advertising.
However I also understand that a lot of people would see this set up as the beginnings of socialism in the US or a huge security risk.
On the post: Newspaper Editorial Insists Hackers Must Be Punished, While Misunderstanding Nearly Every Detail
Tone
On the post: Obama Tasks CDC With Study Of Video Games And 'Violent Media'
Re:
Did you read the part that said that the President is asking for $150 million for mental healthcare providers in schools?
It's not totally comprehensive but it's a start.
On the post: A Week Later: Reflecting On Aaron Swartz
Future deeds
I'm going to say something that will be unpopular but I believe it needs to be said. I am upset about Aaron's suicide, less than some, more than others, but we really shouldn't talk about his future. First, even though he had shown the ability to keep himself relevant in the tech field, he might have found other passions as he grew older. It's unlikely but a possibility because I've seen life events like getting married, having kids, getting a serious illness, etc. change a person's outlooks and goals. Second, a lot of what I keep hearing or reading is about other's expectations for Aaron. That's not fair to throw your expectations for another's life into your stories. Even if his closest friends said that he talked about doing this or wanted to work on that, it doesn't actually mean that he would have gotten around to it. Finally, we're not ALL better for his previous work and we certainly won't ALL be worse off for not having his unknown future acts become reality. For instance, everyone talks about his part of RSS and how important that is for the world but in reality only a small portion of a small subset of the population use RSS. So we're not ALL better for it. He's really credited with fighting SOPA but again that fight didn't help ALL of us except in the most roundabout way. We don't know what or if he would have done anything in the future so we can't be worse off for something that we don't know was going to happen.
I just think we need to stop romanticising people and focus on what they did and how their legacy can inspire others to either carry on the work they started or to go after their own goals/dreams. In fact, I'd love to see a story about how Aaron's suicide has focused/refocused Mike and the TechDirt staff and what they would like to do in the future. They're still here with us so it's their expectations for themselves that can still make a difference.
On the post: Court Limits Bradley Manning's Ability To Use Whistleblower Defense
Re: There is a legal way (and protected) way to be a whistlebower in the DoD -
On the post: It's Scary How Rapidly Government Requests For Info And Censorship Are Increasing
Compliance
On the post: HTC And Apple Settle Patent Dispute; Perhaps Tim Cook Realizes Patent Fights Are A Waste
Re: Different approach to this story
On the post: Draconian Downloading Law In Japan Goes Into Effect... Music Sales Drop
Re:
It's your kind of statements that keep America divided because you throw out the word Republican and think that every single person that identifies themselves as a Republican agrees with Fox News or people like Karl Rove. Unfortunately the talking heads of the Republican party are pretty far out there but they don't represent what Republicans feel. There are a lot of moderates, both in the Democrats and Republicans, that don't like what either side is doing but we've let the party leaders become the true rulers of the country instead of our representatives.
On the post: Why The Press Is Getting The Wrong Message Out Of The 'Nate Silver Walloped The Pundits' Story
Re: Me, I want to read those 6 comments.
On the post: DailyDirt: Talking Animals Are Real
A think Boston accent?
On the post: The Public Apparently Isn't Interested In Sound Economics
Re:
On the post: The Internet Didn't 'Kill' Carly Rae Jepsen's Career
Hats?
On the post: Windows 8's Arbitrary App Certification Rules Could Block Skyrim And Other Huge Games
Re:
On the post: Studio To Amazon Instant Video Customer: Thanks For The $$$. Enjoy Your Blank Screen.
Re: Re: Just say no.
On the post: Dancing Baby Video Fight Heads Back To Court: Will A Bogus Takedown Finally Get Punished?
Re:
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