One of the biggest problems with QR codes is, as has already been noted, that no one knows what the hell the blob is. It's something meant to be scanned but what it does, how to scan it and all that stuff is a mystery to most people. Eventually a lot of people just give up.
As for the uses they can be put to so far it seems mostly a mixed bag from useful to downright annoying and people remember the latter, for the most part, not the former.
I'm not sure they'll ever get their chance to prove their utility, at least the utility you feel is in them between the people that have no idea what they are and the people annoyed by what they find too often once they scan them.
Well, at least the agency recognized the possibilities. Too bad they never lived up to the promise and have been so badly abused I don't even see them anymore.
It's funny that ERB are complaining about partial nudity in this when they most certainly didn't complain about a scantily dressed Jane in the TV show of the 50s and even more scantily dressed Jane in the movies of the same period.
As for harming anything, I can't see what unless it's a major attack of prudery. When I was much younger I had a couple of paperbacks of John Carter of Mars one published in the early 60s which hinted at a relationship with the woman depicted on the cover and the other from the 40s where the woman was almost as scantily dressed as in these covers. Judging from what was written on the back cover that edition was published for Allied soldiers, to increase morale, no doubt.
I found John Carter of Mars fascinating when I was 10. By the time I was 15 it was just tripe and I'd moved on to things like Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and more adult stuff.
These would be the same credit card companies that process orders from porn sites, I guess.
You and others are right to say a business is allowed to decide for itself what goods and services to sell but having made that decision to then assume the role of censor (on this hand we have PayPal and on this hand we have credit cards) is a bit much.
As for the married men who ordered the porn on their own just what in ANY credit card agreement allows them to try to argue that the transaction be reversed because the wife found out. The married man still has the files he ordered.
The digital locks provision makes no sense at all as those intent on "piracy" will break them anyway. Those, like me, intent of making archival copies will do so anyway.
As Leigh says only technical amendments are allowed at this stage and things like Access Copyright's demands are not of a technical nature but would significantly change the bill.
It could be lots worse but this is also the same government that is determined that we'll get ACTA'd so I'm not sure it makes all that much difference. We'll have to see what the courts say, I guess.
I'm more optimistic than I was with the previous attempts and the MPs are very away of the SOPA/PIPA backlash as even backbench MPs want to keep their jobs and that makes things harder for the PMO and the government whip to keep them in line should they want to.
By that you must mean the file lockers provided by Amazon and various Linux distros as well. And if you are serious that most of the demand is driven by finding files the "legitimate" gatekeepers don't other wise provide doesn't that tell you that RIAA and MPAA members may be doing something horribly wrong?
Not to speak of Pirate Bay but you did see the that torrent freak there is ranking THE MOST PIRATED not all the other traffic that uses bittorrent. So what, exactly, did you expect to see?
Unless, of course, you want to believe that the bittorrent protocol is used for nothing but piracy. So, in that case the link you provided us is nothing but a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So there's your explanation of that.
And bittorrent is used for much, much more that piracy.
Those can't exist, you know. Anymore than Linux, the Free and Net BSD's don't exist because you'd have to share copyrighted files to do that.
YOU'D BE INFRINGING!!!
Worse, you'd be altering and modifying them you gosh darned thief! PIRATE!!!
Even worse, the Apache Web Server was made that way...by Piracy, theft, infringement!! So it MUST, must MUST encourage piracy!!!
The GPL, Apache and CC licenses encourage and promote piracy so they're guilty too!! The public domain not only encourages it but plainly allows people to make copies and pass them on to others through things like Hotfile!
Yer all a bunch of gosh darned pirates! REAL creative people need to be paid for each and every download, none of this sort of junk!
If it were up to me I'd hang you from the nearest yardarm!!!!
The video could be home made, made by someone who isn't in the hollywood mafia (sorry to insult the mafia there), and who uploaded it themselves for publicity or other purposes.
Just because large video files are uploaded doesn't mean that they were made by MPAA members, that they're automatically infringing or that they are there without the creator being aware of it and approving the upload.
Oh, and just because the content is copyrighted doesn't mean that sharing or downloading is infringing or pirating simply because there are things like Creative Commons, explicitly putting the work in the public domain as Wikipedia does, or one of the GPL licenses or others similar in spirit if not exact language all covered by copyright.
So let's drop the bullshit shall we, AC, without dripping it all over the rest of us here?
Actually the test in civil court is "balance of probabilities". Which is to say that what the MPAA is trying to say is that by that test because Hotfile is popular and because it has affiliates, and because....blah, blah, blah but doesn't draw any examples or evidence of their claims in the filing which amounts to "hey, just believe us!".
The thing is that they don't seem to have any REAL evidence. Until they establish a pattern of behaviour or actual evidence the tendency of both judge and jury is to fall back on innocent until proven guilty. The higher burden of proof still falls on the plaintiff and not the defendant. It's the plaintiff that must establish that there is a "balance of probability" and not just point at Megaupload or other file lockers and yell "Megaupload did it so Hotfile must do it!".
The case MAY hold water but only until the defendant's lawyer starts to poke holes in it.
You just can't set the cynicism bar too high these days. Marketers, TV snooze (news), politicians will always find a way to reach higher because the gods of cynicism keep lifting that brass ring up, inch by bloody inch.
As far as it goes the Old Testament is also known as the Hebrew Bible and what's included in it was made cannoical by a group of rabbi's shortly after the conference at Nicea made to books that are still included in the New Testament.
The people who "own" The Bible then are Jews and Christians. I suspect a lot of people here would be surprised, and, perhaps shocked at how often Jewish and Christian biblical scholars have poured over it over the past 2000 years to in efforts to correct translation errors and mistakes.
We're just a lot better than we used to be. Of course there are mistakes in translation.
As for literalism, the books of The Bible were never intended to be take literally. While a lot is oral history and tradition written down after the fact, in the case of the Old Testament during the exile in Babylon, in the case of the New Testament on oral remembrances, scraps of written material and even complete and now lost Gospels.
Historical facts are included in The Bible which has kept a number of scholars very busy for the past couple of hundred years but overall it is NOT a history, the gospels are NOT biography as we would know either.
As for mistranslating Reed Sea as Red Sea it's a fairly minor mistake even if it might make the escape from the Egyptians much less dramatic it still makes it possible as has been demonstrated there.
And no, to the vast majority of Christians and Jews the mistakes are quite acceptable and often enlightening in that they clarify what may have been confusing before.
Another illustration of your total ignorance of history.
The Gutenberg Bible was in Latin, the Vulgate Bible, the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church of the time. The Authorized (King James) translation had yet to appear.
While the Bible itself, beautiful piece of work that it was and is, it's the movable type press that was introduced to Europe at the time that was revolutionary, the Chinese had had movable type for quite some time by that period. Equally revolutionary was using metal, lead, to cast the letters to that they could be recast, reused and corrected at will.
Without it it's arguable that the Protestant Revolution would have occurred, that the Enlightenment, Renaissance and the science we know would have happened. And certainly not the form in which they did.
The people behind ETEN are not interested in converting everyone, though they are carrying on the apostolic tradition, nor are they forcing anything on anyone. They've found and developed an ingenious way to translate the Bible into different languages using the power of the Internet, the Web, technology and, of course, biblical scholars probably both Christian and Jewish to do this.
I'd ask you to stop being an ignorant idiot but that's pointless so how about you take a vacation in the 11th Century? You'd be happy there.
While you may be right about the language barriers for a large number of Chinese you're forgetting that English is commonly taught from elementary school on in Hong Kong and "mainland" Chinese wanting to get a technical or business degree from university have to be fluent in English to graduate.
So for those Chinese who matter, on issues of reading and investigating American and other patents and copyrights they are more than capable of doing so, if they want to. Then there's the old method of reverse engineering.
And then, like the Japanese and Koreans before them improving on what they find if they feel the need to look.
I agree with the view that there is little or no upside to the Chinese signing on to ACTA or TPP and all downside to it. While Brazil, India and Russia MAY sign on I expect that it will be largely ignored in those countries.
Again, it's a matter of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The Chinese of places like Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities are as cosmopolitan as other big cities on the planet such as, oh, places like New York City and Los Angeles.
Keeping the IP extremists of Europe and the United States and Canada happy isn't anywhere near as important as it was 10 or 15 years ago so why bother?
On the post: Forget Home Taping: Evil Robots Are Killing Music!
Re: Re:
On the post: QR Codes: Ugly, Overused and Doomed
Re:
As for the uses they can be put to so far it seems mostly a mixed bag from useful to downright annoying and people remember the latter, for the most part, not the former.
I'm not sure they'll ever get their chance to prove their utility, at least the utility you feel is in them between the people that have no idea what they are and the people annoyed by what they find too often once they scan them.
On the post: QR Codes: Ugly, Overused and Doomed
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On the post: QR Codes: Ugly, Overused and Doomed
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Death by over exposure.
On the post: Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. Using Trademark Law To Prevent The Use Of Public Domain Stories
As for harming anything, I can't see what unless it's a major attack of prudery. When I was much younger I had a couple of paperbacks of John Carter of Mars one published in the early 60s which hinted at a relationship with the woman depicted on the cover and the other from the 40s where the woman was almost as scantily dressed as in these covers. Judging from what was written on the back cover that edition was published for Allied soldiers, to increase morale, no doubt.
I found John Carter of Mars fascinating when I was 10. By the time I was 15 it was just tripe and I'd moved on to things like Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and more adult stuff.
On the post: Tell Paypal To Stop Playing Morality Cop With Booksellers
Re:
You and others are right to say a business is allowed to decide for itself what goods and services to sell but having made that decision to then assume the role of censor (on this hand we have PayPal and on this hand we have credit cards) is a bit much.
As for the married men who ordered the porn on their own just what in ANY credit card agreement allows them to try to argue that the transaction be reversed because the wife found out. The married man still has the files he ordered.
On the post: Canada's New Copyright Bill: The Good, The Bad and The Undecided
As Leigh says only technical amendments are allowed at this stage and things like Access Copyright's demands are not of a technical nature but would significantly change the bill.
It could be lots worse but this is also the same government that is determined that we'll get ACTA'd so I'm not sure it makes all that much difference. We'll have to see what the courts say, I guess.
I'm more optimistic than I was with the previous attempts and the MPs are very away of the SOPA/PIPA backlash as even backbench MPs want to keep their jobs and that makes things harder for the PMO and the government whip to keep them in line should they want to.
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: duh..
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: Re: Re:
Unless, of course, you want to believe that the bittorrent protocol is used for nothing but piracy. So, in that case the link you provided us is nothing but a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So there's your explanation of that.
And bittorrent is used for much, much more that piracy.
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: Re:
YOU'D BE INFRINGING!!!
Worse, you'd be altering and modifying them you gosh darned thief! PIRATE!!!
Even worse, the Apache Web Server was made that way...by Piracy, theft, infringement!! So it MUST, must MUST encourage piracy!!!
The GPL, Apache and CC licenses encourage and promote piracy so they're guilty too!! The public domain not only encourages it but plainly allows people to make copies and pass them on to others through things like Hotfile!
Yer all a bunch of gosh darned pirates! REAL creative people need to be paid for each and every download, none of this sort of junk!
If it were up to me I'd hang you from the nearest yardarm!!!!
/satire and sarcasm
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: Re:
And if discovery was such a good way to establish a case them why bother with such time consuming nonsense as trials?
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re:
Sure, sounds pretty air tight to me.
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: Re:
Just because large video files are uploaded doesn't mean that they were made by MPAA members, that they're automatically infringing or that they are there without the creator being aware of it and approving the upload.
Oh, and just because the content is copyrighted doesn't mean that sharing or downloading is infringing or pirating simply because there are things like Creative Commons, explicitly putting the work in the public domain as Wikipedia does, or one of the GPL licenses or others similar in spirit if not exact language all covered by copyright.
So let's drop the bullshit shall we, AC, without dripping it all over the rest of us here?
On the post: MPAA's Argument Against Hotfile Assumes Any Popular Content Online Must Be Infringing
Re: Re:
The thing is that they don't seem to have any REAL evidence. Until they establish a pattern of behaviour or actual evidence the tendency of both judge and jury is to fall back on innocent until proven guilty. The higher burden of proof still falls on the plaintiff and not the defendant. It's the plaintiff that must establish that there is a "balance of probability" and not just point at Megaupload or other file lockers and yell "Megaupload did it so Hotfile must do it!".
The case MAY hold water but only until the defendant's lawyer starts to poke holes in it.
On the post: QR Codes: Ugly, Overused and Doomed
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: The Gutenberg eBook: Once Again, The Bible Is At The Forefront Of Publishing Technology
Re: Re: Re: another non-story..
The people who "own" The Bible then are Jews and Christians. I suspect a lot of people here would be surprised, and, perhaps shocked at how often Jewish and Christian biblical scholars have poured over it over the past 2000 years to in efforts to correct translation errors and mistakes.
We're just a lot better than we used to be. Of course there are mistakes in translation.
As for literalism, the books of The Bible were never intended to be take literally. While a lot is oral history and tradition written down after the fact, in the case of the Old Testament during the exile in Babylon, in the case of the New Testament on oral remembrances, scraps of written material and even complete and now lost Gospels.
Historical facts are included in The Bible which has kept a number of scholars very busy for the past couple of hundred years but overall it is NOT a history, the gospels are NOT biography as we would know either.
As for mistranslating Reed Sea as Red Sea it's a fairly minor mistake even if it might make the escape from the Egyptians much less dramatic it still makes it possible as has been demonstrated there.
And no, to the vast majority of Christians and Jews the mistakes are quite acceptable and often enlightening in that they clarify what may have been confusing before.
On the post: The Gutenberg eBook: Once Again, The Bible Is At The Forefront Of Publishing Technology
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: The Gutenberg eBook: Once Again, The Bible Is At The Forefront Of Publishing Technology
Re: another non-comment from darryl..
The Gutenberg Bible was in Latin, the Vulgate Bible, the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church of the time. The Authorized (King James) translation had yet to appear.
While the Bible itself, beautiful piece of work that it was and is, it's the movable type press that was introduced to Europe at the time that was revolutionary, the Chinese had had movable type for quite some time by that period. Equally revolutionary was using metal, lead, to cast the letters to that they could be recast, reused and corrected at will.
Without it it's arguable that the Protestant Revolution would have occurred, that the Enlightenment, Renaissance and the science we know would have happened. And certainly not the form in which they did.
The people behind ETEN are not interested in converting everyone, though they are carrying on the apostolic tradition, nor are they forcing anything on anyone. They've found and developed an ingenious way to translate the Bible into different languages using the power of the Internet, the Web, technology and, of course, biblical scholars probably both Christian and Jewish to do this.
I'd ask you to stop being an ignorant idiot but that's pointless so how about you take a vacation in the 11th Century? You'd be happy there.
On the post: The Gutenberg eBook: Once Again, The Bible Is At The Forefront Of Publishing Technology
Re: Re: Pidgin?
On the post: Why The Chances of China Joining ACTA Or TPP Are Practically Zero
Re: Re: Re: Language Barriers
So for those Chinese who matter, on issues of reading and investigating American and other patents and copyrights they are more than capable of doing so, if they want to. Then there's the old method of reverse engineering.
And then, like the Japanese and Koreans before them improving on what they find if they feel the need to look.
I agree with the view that there is little or no upside to the Chinese signing on to ACTA or TPP and all downside to it. While Brazil, India and Russia MAY sign on I expect that it will be largely ignored in those countries.
Again, it's a matter of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The Chinese of places like Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities are as cosmopolitan as other big cities on the planet such as, oh, places like New York City and Los Angeles.
Keeping the IP extremists of Europe and the United States and Canada happy isn't anywhere near as important as it was 10 or 15 years ago so why bother?
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