De Winter has been a thorn in the side of our government as well. As he's been using the dutch FOIA-like laws to get information out in the open: http://www.bigwobber.nl
To the point that the dutch government is looking into limiting our freedom of information. (Yes, the Dutch government prefers secrecy. Sadly, we're no Iceland.)
And he has been going after local government IT-contracts, it's by law that the government has to open IT-bids to also open source companies and software products.
It even resulted in weird statements where a governmental body (basically a group that was formed to protect the interests of municipalities) declared that they weren't part of the government thus didn't fall under the jurisdiction of our FOIA. (again, secrets are apparently better than open information, even though our tax-euros have paid for these reports, and pay these *bleep*s)
When details became clear of TransLinkSystems case against Brenno, a donation drive was set up, to help Brenno pay his legal fees. They reached their goal within hours.
He's a well respected freelance Investigative Journalist (with a capital I and J, as he really does investigate the stuff that he writes about)
The funny thing about our public transit card was that BEFORE they even rolled the system out all manner of leaks and other issues were known and were talked about among security experts and even questions were asked to the minister of public transport at the time. But since it was a prestige project for this minister, it had to continue, and now we have a very flawed system:
- No 2-way tickets possible,
- Trips are actually more expensive,
- anonymous cards that aren't very anonymous,
- record-keeping that's borderline illegal,
- and here's the kicker, we can still travel without paying, which was the biggest reason for rolling out this card.
Napster's failing also had nothing to do with scaling, but with the legal issues that the content industry had with it. But now their shill is advocating the exact same technology that they condemned 10 years ago. I wanna welcome the first shill to the 21st century.
Soon enough, he'll realize that the Internet isn't out to get his masters, but that it can effectively give them a leg up in the world.
The Flat Earth society still believes that the Earth is flat, despite numerous studies and proofs that it's in fact a spheroid.
The religious people still believe in a God, despite that there's been no hard evidence of a God.
From the texts mentioned in your previous posts I fail to see a reason why his contract was ended. I don't see the controversy.
So what if he doesn't believe a plane couldn't crash into an iron-strenghtened highrise building to blow it up.
But I also fail to see the football player's entitlement to the contract. They have a right to drop any one they are giving free* money to.
Sure we heard Bin Laden speak in those videos, but I don't speak Afghan, so I have to rely on a translation.
I can see why someone would have an issue with relying on just a translation. But I do agree that we only hear one side of the stories. This age-old adage is still true, even to this day: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
But this is coming from a non-US viewpoint. I guess being a 9/11 denier (which I don't think Mendenhall is) is about as bad as a holocaust denier in Europe.
"All the time", that's always been YOUR schtick, not ours. But confuse the issue more, why don't you.
Fact is, free stuff brings people to your door. Free stuff can work as advertisement for your for-pay stuff. You know, the scarce stuff, like concert tickets, t-shirts, CDs, DVDs, movie posters, artist's attention, personal engravings, sculptures, paintings.
In the case of paintings is another example of how free samples can drive sales.
Say you have a painting for sale, how do you advertise it, after all Why would anyone buy a painting sight unseen?
Perhaps by selling a digital photo of that painting first? Of course not, why would anyone want buy a photo of a painting sight unseen, if they don't want to buy the painting sight unseen?
So you show that photo for free and shop it around on like-minded sites. And if it's good enough, it'll drive traffic and thus interest.
That's how it works in other artistic markets too. You shop the music/movies around on file sharing networks as a teaser, and if it's good enough people will buy it or go to the cinema to watch it. (for example: Wolverine)
But since the MAFIAA failed the kindergarten exam of sharing (they never learned to share), they don't want to know about all this.
Datacell handled transactions for more organizations than just Wikileaks. And it is Datacell that's gotten blocked, and thus ALL clients of Datacell.
You wanna talk about unethical? Talk about how Visa, Mastercard and Paypal suddenly on the same day decide that 1 company, that they've had dealings with for a longer period of time, was all of a sudden too hot to handle, right around the time that the US was starting to put pressure on companies that had ties, however loosely, with Wikileaks.
Datacell was all above board, have always been above board.
The cynical side of me isn't surprised.
Of course the politicians are willing to bend over backwards for the big media company, because the latter can pay the former.
The people hurt by sex offenders can't.
I just hope that there are some politicians out there, who aren't in it for the money, but actually care about their constituents, but I'm not holding my breath. And yes, I know, I could maybe step into politics myself, but we already have enough one issue and one man parties.
Nah, it's no use, these copyright-maximalists are interested in only one thing. Confusing and conflating the issues, and are only interested in one narrative, namely the one where they are being stolen from by the rest of the world.
On the post: Dutch Journalist In Legal Trouble For Showing How New Transit Card Is Easy To Defraud
To the point that the dutch government is looking into limiting our freedom of information. (Yes, the Dutch government prefers secrecy. Sadly, we're no Iceland.)
And he has been going after local government IT-contracts, it's by law that the government has to open IT-bids to also open source companies and software products.
It even resulted in weird statements where a governmental body (basically a group that was formed to protect the interests of municipalities) declared that they weren't part of the government thus didn't fall under the jurisdiction of our FOIA. (again, secrets are apparently better than open information, even though our tax-euros have paid for these reports, and pay these *bleep*s)
When details became clear of TransLinkSystems case against Brenno, a donation drive was set up, to help Brenno pay his legal fees. They reached their goal within hours.
He's a well respected freelance Investigative Journalist (with a capital I and J, as he really does investigate the stuff that he writes about)
The funny thing about our public transit card was that BEFORE they even rolled the system out all manner of leaks and other issues were known and were talked about among security experts and even questions were asked to the minister of public transport at the time. But since it was a prestige project for this minister, it had to continue, and now we have a very flawed system:
- No 2-way tickets possible,
- Trips are actually more expensive,
- anonymous cards that aren't very anonymous,
- record-keeping that's borderline illegal,
- and here's the kicker, we can still travel without paying, which was the biggest reason for rolling out this card.
On the post: Kings Of Leon Management Issuing Questionable DMCA Takedowns To Stop Clips Of On-Stage Problems?
Re: simply because
step4. Realize you've just alienated your entire fanbase...
On the post: CommonSense's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Copy Protection Does Not Mean More Sales
Re: Simply don't buy
On the post: Copy Protection Does Not Mean More Sales
Re: Just Because Freetards Make More Money ...
I hope that his was sarcasm.
On the post: CommonSense's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re:
Soon enough, he'll realize that the Internet isn't out to get his masters, but that it can effectively give them a leg up in the world.
On the post: CommonSense's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Bittorrent maybe a P2P-system, it isn't P2P itself.
You, sir/madam, fail on reality.
On the post: CommonSense's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Wyden Continues To Press Intelligence Officials About Tracking Americans Under 'Secret' Interpretation Of The Patriot Act
Re: Re: Crystal Ball disappearing act?
I hope it's maintenance. :)
On the post: Wyden Continues To Press Intelligence Officials About Tracking Americans Under 'Secret' Interpretation Of The Patriot Act
Re: Crystal Ball disappearing act?
On the post: Football Player Sues Hanes; Says It Can't Fire Him Over Controversial Things He Said On Twitter
Re: Re: Re: Re: there's more to it, right?
The religious people still believe in a God, despite that there's been no hard evidence of a God.
From the texts mentioned in your previous posts I fail to see a reason why his contract was ended. I don't see the controversy.
So what if he doesn't believe a plane couldn't crash into an iron-strenghtened highrise building to blow it up.
But I also fail to see the football player's entitlement to the contract. They have a right to drop any one they are giving free* money to.
Sure we heard Bin Laden speak in those videos, but I don't speak Afghan, so I have to rely on a translation.
I can see why someone would have an issue with relying on just a translation. But I do agree that we only hear one side of the stories. This age-old adage is still true, even to this day: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
But this is coming from a non-US viewpoint. I guess being a 9/11 denier (which I don't think Mendenhall is) is about as bad as a holocaust denier in Europe.
On the post: 'When Stuff Is Free, We’re More Likely to Buy'
Re:
Fact is, free stuff brings people to your door. Free stuff can work as advertisement for your for-pay stuff. You know, the scarce stuff, like concert tickets, t-shirts, CDs, DVDs, movie posters, artist's attention, personal engravings, sculptures, paintings.
In the case of paintings is another example of how free samples can drive sales.
Say you have a painting for sale, how do you advertise it, after all Why would anyone buy a painting sight unseen?
Perhaps by selling a digital photo of that painting first? Of course not, why would anyone want buy a photo of a painting sight unseen, if they don't want to buy the painting sight unseen?
So you show that photo for free and shop it around on like-minded sites. And if it's good enough, it'll drive traffic and thus interest.
That's how it works in other artistic markets too. You shop the music/movies around on file sharing networks as a teaser, and if it's good enough people will buy it or go to the cinema to watch it. (for example: Wolverine)
But since the MAFIAA failed the kindergarten exam of sharing (they never learned to share), they don't want to know about all this.
On the post: UK: Sex Offenders More Deserving Of Internet Access Than Infringers
Re: Re:
On the post: Propaganda Campaign Against Vigilante Hacking Groups: Gov't Officials Warn That The KGB Could Infiltrate Lulzsec
Re: James Bond 007 could infiltrate LULZSEC
James Bond is hogtied on a metal slab while a deadly laser is slowly burning its way towards his nether region.
Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Anon: No, Mr. Bond, we just do this for teh lulz!
Anon remains where he is, leaving Bond no possible way of escape.
The End.
On the post: Music Industry Wants To Put 'Red Lights' In Google For Sites It Says Support Infringement
Re: that worked out for the catholic church
On the post: PayPal Agrees To Help IFPI Cut Off Funding For Sites IFPI Doesn't Like Without Judicial Oversight
Re: Re: Re:
You wanna talk about unethical? Talk about how Visa, Mastercard and Paypal suddenly on the same day decide that 1 company, that they've had dealings with for a longer period of time, was all of a sudden too hot to handle, right around the time that the US was starting to put pressure on companies that had ties, however loosely, with Wikileaks.
Datacell was all above board, have always been above board.
On the post: UK: Sex Offenders More Deserving Of Internet Access Than Infringers
Of course the politicians are willing to bend over backwards for the big media company, because the latter can pay the former.
The people hurt by sex offenders can't.
I just hope that there are some politicians out there, who aren't in it for the money, but actually care about their constituents, but I'm not holding my breath. And yes, I know, I could maybe step into politics myself, but we already have enough one issue and one man parties.
On the post: Oracle Deletes Jonathan Schwartz's Old Blog; Which Excitedly Celebrated Google's Use Of Java In Android
Re: Re: Oracle acquiring Sun is probably the worst thing to have happened to the open source (and maybe even the technology) community in recent date.
On the post: PayPal Agrees To Help IFPI Cut Off Funding For Sites IFPI Doesn't Like Without Judicial Oversight
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: PayPal Agrees To Help IFPI Cut Off Funding For Sites IFPI Doesn't Like Without Judicial Oversight
Re: Re: PayPal etc.
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