I think whats more telling is where the US sits on that graph. They really pull that line of best fit up!
I'd like to see Mexico on that list. They probably left it off because drug trafficking is likely responsible for a major percentage of Mexico's gun violence, and not video games.
It will make it a hell of a lot easier to take over the US if they don't have to deal with the guns in the hands of private citizens. Take out the military bases and then they can roll right through without any effort. Hasn't anyone seen Red Dawn (either one?)
Not only are the NGO's wrong, they're not even torture experts. So how can anyone take them seriously?
Having been in the Boy Scouts, I know of at least one NGO that is quite familiar with torture. Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed my time in Boy Scouts, but they were really good at things like Survival, Evasion, Avoidance, and Rescue (SEAR). It took me a couple hours to figure out that Snipes weren't real, and that whole starting a fire with kerosene and gunpowder made us think that 15 minutes of rubbing two sticks together was a piece of cake (my stick wasn't doused with kerosene.) And the advancement board was torture in and of itself.
Yeah! This will be all the rage! It's not DRM! It's what all the 'cool' kids want nowadays. How could you possibly not want that??? You'd have to be a terrorist or a communist or something to not want that. And you don't want to be labeled a terrorist now, do you?
Who would have known? My Certified Novell Netware Administrator cert is finally useful again! Thought I'd never be able to use that cert again.
Sadly, 1 person murdered by a traffic collision is a drop in the bucket.
The outrage over this tragedy is understandable but flawed. Every year around 13,000 people die by gun in the US. If gun violence is outrageous then we should be outraged year round.
Sadly, there is no outrage over the 30,000+ killed each year in traffic collisions. Traffic collisions account for the most child deaths in the country. People should be very outraged by traffic collisions and cars should be outlawed.
I agree. Roughing it for me is Holiday Inn without reservations...when I go "camping" it is in an RV so I am cheating already. Gone are the days when I am sleeping in a -20* bag in a tent on the ground, so it is all wrong but I don't think I'll ever be able to fix it at my age.
Sure, there are some techies that really want that speed. But for most people it is about the lower cost.
The only thing keeping me on cable internet right now is the lack of competition for high speed. I was hoping AT&T or Verizon would compete on FIOS, but both have failed to wire my area, and instead are offering DSL (@1mbps) or LTE/WIMAX with a greatly limited bandwidth cap (I use those when camping, and max them out over one weekend.)
If Google wired up my area with a 10mbps connection, I'd jump ship. The only difference between 5mbps cable and a 1mbps DSL line is speed (they both cost the same,) and 10mbps would come with no limits on how to use the connection (which I currently have) and twice the speed for what (if the prices remain the same as what they have in KC,) I currently pay. I don't care about speed as much as I care about unfettered access to the network, though I do care about speed. Cable companies keep complaining about Netflix and HULU eating into their profits and my biggest concern is that they will do something to block or limit access to those services.
From Time Warner's perspective, providing more speed is relatively cheap, especially if the FCC keeps letting them advertise "up to" speeds. Reasonable prices are what really scares the big cable companies.
I agree with your sentiment, but what you said is not an example of that. Running a red light doesn't cost a human life
I never meant it that way. I don't agree with the change in the fine for running a red light, for exactly the reason you state. Certainly I don't agree with it when the fine was raised solely to benefit the government and the contractor who provided the red-light cameras financially.
Red-light cameras are an abomination of justice...especially when the rule of law is the spirit of the law. If the police officer is not there to witness the totality of the event, and only relies on a camera (which can't see everything,) to determine that the spirit of the law has been broken, then it is wrong. Unfortunately, the judges haven't agreed with this.
What I meant by value of life vs. value of download was that we put people in jail for 5 years for murder, but we strap Thomas-Rasset with a fine she will never be able to pay off for making one song available (ok, she made more than one song available, but she didn't kill anyone.)
If that were the case they should just go ahead and jack up speeding tickets to a few hundred grand.
Why not. They did as much in California for running a stoplight when they started putting in red light cameras. Fine for a ticket went from $143 to $490, and then there was the whole commercial enterprise determining guilt thing and the provisions written into the contract with the cities to prevent cities from changing yellow timings (or making them shorter than legal.) The only problem is, unlike this case, jacking up speeding ticket or red light fines isn't arbitrary (well, it is, but it is legally arbitrary.)
The government determines, usually through congress, what the fine will be and there is at least some due process there. Usually there is some expert that determines what the fine should be, and this should, at least theoretically, be based on the law.
In this case, a jury of your peers, based on shoddy instructions from the RIAA/MPAA, determines what the fine will be based on little more than "I feel this is what the fine should be." The punishment should fit the crime, and I think it is absolutely amazing that the value of a human life is far less than the value of a single song shared on Napster/Kazaa/Bittorrent.
I agree. How is this different than walking into 7-11 or pretty much any other building? All the SF DOT has to do is slap a small sticker on the bus window that says "You are being filmed."
Filmed is fine. There is, after all, no expectation of privacy. However, I believe the law is quite a bit more against eavesdropping on conversations.
With filming, you only see what is happening in front of the camera, at that particular time. Unless you are an idiot, it is really difficult to do something that will incriminate yourself. On the other hand, conversations usually have an element to them that may be mistaken without context. It is entirely possible that you can be having a conversation that if taken out of context could incriminate you. ("Man, I killed last night at the bowling alley...")
Damn, makes me want to switch back to T-Mobile now...
They are the cheapest LTE data provider right now (when you can find it.) I spend ~$26 a month for 2GB high speed/unlimited data from them. Far cheaper than what I am paying AT&T and Sprint. If they had better coverage, I'd drop the other two.
However, they are dropping the subsidies, but apparently not the contract. I am still locked into a 2-year contract with them and I brought my own data device. I hope they will drop the two year contract and the "contract termination fees" with this move, but I suspect not.
Works may use ideas taken from works under copyright and works in the public domain, but this most certainly does not mean that the ideas are no longer available for use.
Ideas may not be copyrighted, so it really doesn't matter where they came from. There is no fair use for something not copyrighted, because there is no copyright to require fair use.
Of course, in the permission society copyright maximalists want, ideas would be copyrightable, along with facts, and maybe even inferences and innuendo, because "we need to think of the poor artists who cannot create unless they make $100,000 each time someone thinks of their creation." Meanwhile the only ones getting rich off the back of the artists are the parasites at MPAA/RIAA member organizations.
I suppose if you relegate the term "innovate" to a euphemism for "recycle", I could see your point.
Again, show me something "innovative" that didn't come from something else. Show me something that came from the ether that wasn't directly or indirectly influenced by previous ideas. Copyright maximalists like to think that everything they come up with is brand spanking new, pulled out of the ether, and wasn't influenced by other things. Those folks don't understand humans, and the fact that we all sit on the backs of giants. Everything we think up is based on something that came before. We learn by imitation. We copy what came before, and meld it into something new. MLK's "I have a dream" speech can lead to something new, and it isn't "recycled," just influential.
Also btw, the BSA isn't a litigant here as the first commenter implied. They're just an amici, and anyone can be an amici if they want to file as one.
The first comment was by out_of_their_mind (out_of_the_blue.) Reality and common sense aren't things they have any sort of handle on. Best to ignore them.
This is a familiar snivel amongst you Techdirtbags. Can anyone actually point to an instance where someone from the studios and or a politician was convicted of bribery. Same challenge for a judge which is also a frequent claim.
I am sorry to keep you waiting, but none of us ever said bribery. Last time I checked, Campaign Contributions were not bribery. However, even without being bribery, they are troublesome because they turn political power into who can buy the most votes, not what is best needed for the constituents.
Also, just because there isn't any examples of bribery in this case doesn't mean that it isn't happening. Law enforcement doesn't usually go after these things except in the most grievous of examples, because they are difficult to prove and because it is usually not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you (congress pays for enforcement.)
However, since you are all into challenges at the moment, I challenge you to find a single post I've posted where I accused the studios of bribery. Buying laws, yes, but all you need to do is donate a bunch of money to the campaign to get that.
I lean the other way. Take away the tax breaks for every business, not just Hollywood. Let's totally reinvent the tax code (not going to happen, I know).
Oh, I do too. I'd love to see us go away from tax breaks period, whether for corporations or individuals. If society as a whole values something, then we all should pay for it. Might get folks thinking about all the waste.
I'm not for or against film tax breaks. However, I would like to point out that some communities willingly pay money to support cultural activities. If a state views supporting the film industry as a cultural activity, it may feel the expense is worth it.
I don't have children, but I don't mind paying taxes for education because ultimately it helps us all out in the long run. I don't use public transportation, but I don't mind paying taxes for public transportation because it helps get folks that need it to work on time. I don't have problems paying taxes for culture when culture is owned by the public and everyone may partake in it. Same with fire stations, police, military. Public funds for public service.
The government taking way too much tax and spending it on pet projects that don't benefit the public at large, but instead benefit small "pet" corporations that return campaign donations and kickbacks to the politicians that championed them...I have a real problem with that. Giving Hollywood more money which they can squander away in Hollywood accounting, paying off bribes to their representatives, and not creating jobs or bettering the public as a whole is exactly what I don't want my taxes spent on.
If Hollywood can have their tax breaks then I should get one too. I might even kickback some of my funds to the campaigns I want to see funded (as I currently do even though I still pay taxes.)
All they have to do is shut down, what tens of thousands of more sites and that should be that.
I agree. They should start with any site that ends with .gov as well as any site run by the MAFIAA or their member corporations. /sarc
They enforced the law, the site was shut down and piracy was stopped dead in its tracks.
Wrong, and wrong again. They have not yet been able to even charge anyone with a crime, nor have they said what the law was they enforced, and piracy is very, very much alive.
On the post: IP Diplomat Sob Story: It's Hard To Push The US Agenda When The World Listens To Reason
Re: Re: Re: Not Torture Experts...
Not the ones we were hunting for.
On the post: NRA's Plan: If We Blame Video Games & Movies For Sandy Hook Massacre, Perhaps People Will Stop Blaming Guns
Re: Re: Conversation
I'd like to see Mexico on that list. They probably left it off because drug trafficking is likely responsible for a major percentage of Mexico's gun violence, and not video games.
Oh, and gun control advocates...Mexico has very strict Gun Control laws.
On the post: The TSA's True Focus Isn't 'Safety' - It's Self-Preservation
Re: It's not about self-preservation, it's about controlling the public
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/12/18/China-Demands-US-Citizens-Be-Disarmed
It will make it a hell of a lot easier to take over the US if they don't have to deal with the guns in the hands of private citizens. Take out the military bases and then they can roll right through without any effort. Hasn't anyone seen Red Dawn (either one?)
On the post: IP Diplomat Sob Story: It's Hard To Push The US Agenda When The World Listens To Reason
Re: Not Torture Experts...
Having been in the Boy Scouts, I know of at least one NGO that is quite familiar with torture. Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed my time in Boy Scouts, but they were really good at things like Survival, Evasion, Avoidance, and Rescue (SEAR). It took me a couple hours to figure out that Snipes weren't real, and that whole starting a fire with kerosene and gunpowder made us think that 15 minutes of rubbing two sticks together was a piece of cake (my stick wasn't doused with kerosene.) And the advancement board was torture in and of itself.
On the post: SimCity Developers' Reddit AMA Swiftly Turns Into WTF With The Online-Only DRM?
Re: The next big thing going on here!
Who would have known? My Certified Novell Netware Administrator cert is finally useful again! Thought I'd never be able to use that cert again.
On the post: Pundits And Politicans Very Quick To Blame Video Game & Movie Violence For Newtown
Sadly, 1 person murdered by a traffic collision is a drop in the bucket.
Sadly, there is no outrage over the 30,000+ killed each year in traffic collisions. Traffic collisions account for the most child deaths in the country. People should be very outraged by traffic collisions and cars should be outlawed.
/sarc, if you didn't figure it out.
On the post: Time Warner Cable Doesn't Think There's Demand For Google Fiber
Re: Re: Re:
I agree. Roughing it for me is Holiday Inn without reservations...when I go "camping" it is in an RV so I am cheating already. Gone are the days when I am sleeping in a -20* bag in a tent on the ground, so it is all wrong but I don't think I'll ever be able to fix it at my age.
On the post: Time Warner Cable Doesn't Think There's Demand For Google Fiber
Re:
The only thing keeping me on cable internet right now is the lack of competition for high speed. I was hoping AT&T or Verizon would compete on FIOS, but both have failed to wire my area, and instead are offering DSL (@1mbps) or LTE/WIMAX with a greatly limited bandwidth cap (I use those when camping, and max them out over one weekend.)
If Google wired up my area with a 10mbps connection, I'd jump ship. The only difference between 5mbps cable and a 1mbps DSL line is speed (they both cost the same,) and 10mbps would come with no limits on how to use the connection (which I currently have) and twice the speed for what (if the prices remain the same as what they have in KC,) I currently pay. I don't care about speed as much as I care about unfettered access to the network, though I do care about speed. Cable companies keep complaining about Netflix and HULU eating into their profits and my biggest concern is that they will do something to block or limit access to those services.
From Time Warner's perspective, providing more speed is relatively cheap, especially if the FCC keeps letting them advertise "up to" speeds. Reasonable prices are what really scares the big cable companies.
Nail hit squarely on the head.
On the post: Jammie Thomas Asks Supreme Court: How Much Is Too Much For Copyright Infringement?
Re: Re: Re:
I never meant it that way. I don't agree with the change in the fine for running a red light, for exactly the reason you state. Certainly I don't agree with it when the fine was raised solely to benefit the government and the contractor who provided the red-light cameras financially.
Red-light cameras are an abomination of justice...especially when the rule of law is the spirit of the law. If the police officer is not there to witness the totality of the event, and only relies on a camera (which can't see everything,) to determine that the spirit of the law has been broken, then it is wrong. Unfortunately, the judges haven't agreed with this.
What I meant by value of life vs. value of download was that we put people in jail for 5 years for murder, but we strap Thomas-Rasset with a fine she will never be able to pay off for making one song available (ok, she made more than one song available, but she didn't kill anyone.)
On the post: Jammie Thomas Asks Supreme Court: How Much Is Too Much For Copyright Infringement?
Re:
Why not. They did as much in California for running a stoplight when they started putting in red light cameras. Fine for a ticket went from $143 to $490, and then there was the whole commercial enterprise determining guilt thing and the provisions written into the contract with the cities to prevent cities from changing yellow timings (or making them shorter than legal.) The only problem is, unlike this case, jacking up speeding ticket or red light fines isn't arbitrary (well, it is, but it is legally arbitrary.)
The government determines, usually through congress, what the fine will be and there is at least some due process there. Usually there is some expert that determines what the fine should be, and this should, at least theoretically, be based on the law.
In this case, a jury of your peers, based on shoddy instructions from the RIAA/MPAA, determines what the fine will be based on little more than "I feel this is what the fine should be." The punishment should fit the crime, and I think it is absolutely amazing that the value of a human life is far less than the value of a single song shared on Napster/Kazaa/Bittorrent.
On the post: Homeland Security Pays San Francisco To Buy Surveillance Equipment That Records Video AND Audio On City Buses
Re: Re:
Filmed is fine. There is, after all, no expectation of privacy. However, I believe the law is quite a bit more against eavesdropping on conversations.
With filming, you only see what is happening in front of the camera, at that particular time. Unless you are an idiot, it is really difficult to do something that will incriminate yourself. On the other hand, conversations usually have an element to them that may be mistaken without context. It is entirely possible that you can be having a conversation that if taken out of context could incriminate you. ("Man, I killed last night at the bowling alley...")
On the post: 10 Years Later, T-Mobile Finally Kills Phone Subsidies: And It Doesn't Mean You'll Pay More
Re: Re: Re:
Only data, no voice. As far as I know they are still offering it. The plans with unlimited voice are about twice as much.
On the post: 10 Years Later, T-Mobile Finally Kills Phone Subsidies: And It Doesn't Mean You'll Pay More
Re:
They are the cheapest LTE data provider right now (when you can find it.) I spend ~$26 a month for 2GB high speed/unlimited data from them. Far cheaper than what I am paying AT&T and Sprint. If they had better coverage, I'd drop the other two.
However, they are dropping the subsidies, but apparently not the contract. I am still locked into a 2-year contract with them and I brought my own data device. I hope they will drop the two year contract and the "contract termination fees" with this move, but I suspect not.
On the post: Corruption Laundering: The Art Of Manipulating Regulations To Block Innovation
Re: Re: Re:
Ideas may not be copyrighted, so it really doesn't matter where they came from. There is no fair use for something not copyrighted, because there is no copyright to require fair use.
Of course, in the permission society copyright maximalists want, ideas would be copyrightable, along with facts, and maybe even inferences and innuendo, because "we need to think of the poor artists who cannot create unless they make $100,000 each time someone thinks of their creation." Meanwhile the only ones getting rich off the back of the artists are the parasites at MPAA/RIAA member organizations.
On the post: Corruption Laundering: The Art Of Manipulating Regulations To Block Innovation
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Again, show me something "innovative" that didn't come from something else. Show me something that came from the ether that wasn't directly or indirectly influenced by previous ideas. Copyright maximalists like to think that everything they come up with is brand spanking new, pulled out of the ether, and wasn't influenced by other things. Those folks don't understand humans, and the fact that we all sit on the backs of giants. Everything we think up is based on something that came before. We learn by imitation. We copy what came before, and meld it into something new. MLK's "I have a dream" speech can lead to something new, and it isn't "recycled," just influential.
On the post: Appeals Court Gets Yet Another Shot At Fixing The Software Patent Problem
Re:
The first comment was by out_of_their_mind (out_of_the_blue.) Reality and common sense aren't things they have any sort of handle on. Best to ignore them.
On the post: State Subsidies To Hollywood: Almost Every Program Has Been A Dismal Failure, Costing Taxpayers
Re: Re: Re: Cultural programs
I am sorry to keep you waiting, but none of us ever said bribery. Last time I checked, Campaign Contributions were not bribery. However, even without being bribery, they are troublesome because they turn political power into who can buy the most votes, not what is best needed for the constituents.
Also, just because there isn't any examples of bribery in this case doesn't mean that it isn't happening. Law enforcement doesn't usually go after these things except in the most grievous of examples, because they are difficult to prove and because it is usually not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you (congress pays for enforcement.)
However, since you are all into challenges at the moment, I challenge you to find a single post I've posted where I accused the studios of bribery. Buying laws, yes, but all you need to do is donate a bunch of money to the campaign to get that.
However, there are plenty of examples of congress taking bribes even though they haven't been convicted of bribery, and some examples of them being caught, though not for bribes from the entertainment industry. Judges have been caught too, but again, not for the entertainment industry.
On the post: State Subsidies To Hollywood: Almost Every Program Has Been A Dismal Failure, Costing Taxpayers
Re: Re: Re: Cultural programs
Oh, I do too. I'd love to see us go away from tax breaks period, whether for corporations or individuals. If society as a whole values something, then we all should pay for it. Might get folks thinking about all the waste.
On the post: State Subsidies To Hollywood: Almost Every Program Has Been A Dismal Failure, Costing Taxpayers
Re: Cultural programs
I don't have children, but I don't mind paying taxes for education because ultimately it helps us all out in the long run. I don't use public transportation, but I don't mind paying taxes for public transportation because it helps get folks that need it to work on time. I don't have problems paying taxes for culture when culture is owned by the public and everyone may partake in it. Same with fire stations, police, military. Public funds for public service.
The government taking way too much tax and spending it on pet projects that don't benefit the public at large, but instead benefit small "pet" corporations that return campaign donations and kickbacks to the politicians that championed them...I have a real problem with that. Giving Hollywood more money which they can squander away in Hollywood accounting, paying off bribes to their representatives, and not creating jobs or bettering the public as a whole is exactly what I don't want my taxes spent on.
If Hollywood can have their tax breaks then I should get one too. I might even kickback some of my funds to the campaigns I want to see funded (as I currently do even though I still pay taxes.)
On the post: MPAA To USTR: More Shutdowns Like Megaupload, Please
Re: Re: Re: Re: They're just jealous...
I agree. They should start with any site that ends with .gov as well as any site run by the MAFIAA or their member corporations. /sarc
They enforced the law, the site was shut down and piracy was stopped dead in its tracks.
Wrong, and wrong again. They have not yet been able to even charge anyone with a crime, nor have they said what the law was they enforced, and piracy is very, very much alive.
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