There are doubtless some bodies within the UN doing very good work (UNESCO and IAEA probably, for instance), about half the bodies are obviously only there to foster mercantilism, monopolies, prohibtion and surveillance.
I don't buy e-books usually, but I read them. The reason, of course, is DRM. Happens these nefarious schemes don't even work on my platform, so it's much easier to just download the books from somewhere (which is, by the way, legal in my country. It doesn't even matter if somebody put them up illegally).
I'm actually quite astonished that some many people put up with DRM. Seems it's not so much a hassle to most, or more probably, the majority hasn't yet realized what freedoms they give up.
But the real problem is of course that DRM is just a big enabler to enact monopolies, and THAT I cannot condone in any way. It's plain evil, wicked, vicious, nasty, mean, bad, villainous, diabolic and malevolent. It's a destroyer of culture, and a menace which has to be eradicated from earth. Same as patents.
Of course, I totally do not understand why one can initiate and antitrust-investigation while totally ignoring the main reason these monopoly-practices were possible in the first place.
Did I mention that I consider these multiple "Re:"s a sickness?
As are reinstalls.
I can't remember when I last reinstalled my system. Even when I switched to a bigger harddrive, I just rsync'ed it over, ran grub, booted from the new harddisk and continued working. I probably run the same, constantly upgraded, Debian GNU/Linux since 2002. And with Ubuntu it's just the same.
Anyway, yes, wine sometimes needs higher trickery to get a specific game to run, but in the whole, most windows-games just run. Speed is decent, and most speed-related problems I had turned out to be caused by older grafic-cards not supporting the newest features.
Actually, I can pretty much tell how the world works without DMCA, having been there.
Fox would just send out a notice to youtube, "hey someone violates our rights", and youtube would take the respective content down. No lawsuits needed.
They would do the same to warez sites, and if they didn't take the content down _then_ a lawsuit would follow.
On the other hand, nobody would go to google or the piratebay or whatever to demand _references_ to infringing content to be taken down.
Different branches, legislative versus judicative.
It's entirely possible that they're at odds, altough it's usually the judicative branch which keeps the legislative one in check, not the other way round.
Cables in the ground are pretty much a natural monopoly. Of course you can allow everyone to lay their own cables, but as with electricity and water, it doesn't make too much sense to do so, and it's expensive.
And, as with any natural monopoly, it makes sense to let the community control it. The city to control the cables in its ground, the state (or whatever bigger entity) the overland ones. That's not to say you should bar private entities from owning their own cables.
Now the service on these cables is something completely different. Everyone can do it; so there is no natural monopoly, and consequently the government should keep out of it. Some communities might opt to offer a service themselves, but they need to be very careful that they don't start looking at cables+service together as a profit-center, and thus impede service-providers which need to use the same cables. But with that a given, services offered by the community can be an effective competition to services offered by third parties, and thus lead service providers to be at least as competitive as the community-owned services.
The main problem with this setup is, that lobbying can lead to the creation of artificial monopolies. But then again, rent-seeking is a general problem everywhere, and not something that needs to be solved specifically for broadband access.
There are two very simple guidelines:
If there is a natural monoply, the community must hold it
If there is no natural monopoly, the community must do everything to prevent artificial monopolies
(Of course, things like "granting patents" fly totally into the face of the second one, as do a lot of "regulations" which are obviously only drafted to raise the market-barrier)
The sad story is, they've been warned more than 150 years ago.
And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the words of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living. -- Thomas Babington Macauley, A Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the 5th of February, 1841
- The declaration of human rights
- every constitution
Because what we have here is fundamentally incompatible with any state of law.
The proposal is nothing less than the abolishment of the fundamental principles under which any modern state of law is defined. The same as abolishing the right to vote and setting up a hereditary absolutist monarch in a democracy.
Actually, quite a lot of Greens are now in the pirate party, because they actually cared most for freedom and just found the Greens the most freedom-loving of the bunch. Until the Pirate Party came along.
But indeed, the Greens have gotten much more Intellectual Monopoly-unfriendly since the Pirate Parties are on the rise.
First off, I'm a member of the swiss pirate party, and I was candidate in the elections for the national council (however, none of us got elected this time..).
My idea is not so much to "win" as a party, but to have our ideas win. The same which happend to the Greens (which are probably the 4th most powerful party in switzerland): Their ideas got taken up by the other parties. The CVP (christian peoples party), probably our most conservative party (not comparable to the US "conservatives", which would actually compare to the right wing SVP) is actually pushing so many "green" ideas, they would have been labeled a "green" party 30 years ago. Most of our parties have become "green" to some extent. The values of the Greens got internalized, and spread over the whole political spectrum.
And that's what we want to achieve: Our values (liberty, abolition of monopolies, privacy) spread over the whole spectrum, so that in 30 years time, nobody can even mention any ideas as those expressed in SOPA or CISPA (or the patent law) without being booed out of office by the whole population as a "dangerous radical" (which he is ;)). And of course, in the meantime have the patent system abolished, copyright shortend to 14 years, DRM outlawed, and any surveillance-acts repelled.
What Boundless does is of course what everyone in software does. Thousands of open-source programs are just "replacement" copies of closed source program.
What Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Macmillan Higher Education are doing is also a well known practice. It's called anticompetitive trolling. Or alternatively "abuse of process".
Re: That is because Capitalists like Bush only want control of your money
Bush junior? Well, yes, he's maybe a bit less totalitarian. His government however, wasn't. Dick Cheney or Paul Wolfowitz absolutely qualify as fascists.
On the post: New iPhone Connector Port Revealed, Thus Wiping Out Several Generations Of Accessories In One Fell Swoop
MicroUSB
And if Apple decides to do something else, then they need to be pummeled with a heavy object (subjected to the application of a LART).
On the post: The EU Telco Plan To Have The UN 'Tax & Track' Internet Usage Goes Against Fundamental Internet Principles
Re: UN
They're the playing ball of international companies, monopolists, prohibitionists and of course the US government (much more so than the EU).
Behold:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Office_on_Drugs_and_Crime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/World_Intellectual_Property_Organization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunication_Union
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W orld_Bank
There are doubtless some bodies within the UN doing very good work (UNESCO and IAEA probably, for instance), about half the bodies are obviously only there to foster mercantilism, monopolies, prohibtion and surveillance.
On the post: Not Only Can You 'Compete With Free' You Have To If You Don't Want Your Business Overrun By Piracy
despite DRM
I'm actually quite astonished that some many people put up with DRM. Seems it's not so much a hassle to most, or more probably, the majority hasn't yet realized what freedoms they give up.
But the real problem is of course that DRM is just a big enabler to enact monopolies, and THAT I cannot condone in any way. It's plain evil, wicked, vicious, nasty, mean, bad, villainous, diabolic and malevolent. It's a destroyer of culture, and a menace which has to be eradicated from earth. Same as patents.
Of course, I totally do not understand why one can initiate and antitrust-investigation while totally ignoring the main reason these monopoly-practices were possible in the first place.
On the post: Insanity: Apple Rejects Podcatching App Because It Has Flattr Integration
Re: Re: Re: Reinstall
As are reinstalls.
I can't remember when I last reinstalled my system. Even when I switched to a bigger harddrive, I just rsync'ed it over, ran grub, booted from the new harddisk and continued working. I probably run the same, constantly upgraded, Debian GNU/Linux since 2002. And with Ubuntu it's just the same.
Anyway, yes, wine sometimes needs higher trickery to get a specific game to run, but in the whole, most windows-games just run. Speed is decent, and most speed-related problems I had turned out to be caused by older grafic-cards not supporting the newest features.
On the post: CEO Says SOPA & CISPA Are Needed Because A Disgruntled Customer Once Set Up A Parody Site To Mock Him
Re: Let's just get this out of the way now...
On the post: DMCA Notices So Stupid It Hurts
Without DMCA
Fox would just send out a notice to youtube, "hey someone violates our rights", and youtube would take the respective content down. No lawsuits needed.
They would do the same to warez sites, and if they didn't take the content down _then_ a lawsuit would follow.
On the other hand, nobody would go to google or the piratebay or whatever to demand _references_ to infringing content to be taken down.
On the post: Netherlands Pre-Warns EU Parliament That It Will Not Accept ACTA
Judges vs. Parliament
It's entirely possible that they're at odds, altough it's usually the judicative branch which keeps the legislative one in check, not the other way round.
On the post: Broadband In Crisis: Does The US Need Regulation To Force Meaningful Competition?
Monopolies
And, as with any natural monopoly, it makes sense to let the community control it. The city to control the cables in its ground, the state (or whatever bigger entity) the overland ones. That's not to say you should bar private entities from owning their own cables.
Now the service on these cables is something completely different. Everyone can do it; so there is no natural monopoly, and consequently the government should keep out of it. Some communities might opt to offer a service themselves, but they need to be very careful that they don't start looking at cables+service together as a profit-center, and thus impede service-providers which need to use the same cables. But with that a given, services offered by the community can be an effective competition to services offered by third parties, and thus lead service providers to be at least as competitive as the community-owned services.
The main problem with this setup is, that lobbying can lead to the creation of artificial monopolies. But then again, rent-seeking is a general problem everywhere, and not something that needs to be solved specifically for broadband access.
There are two very simple guidelines:
If there is a natural monoply, the community must hold it
If there is no natural monopoly, the community must do everything to prevent artificial monopolies
(Of course, things like "granting patents" fly totally into the face of the second one, as do a lot of "regulations" which are obviously only drafted to raise the market-barrier)
On the post: Apparently The USTR Thinks 'Unprecedented Transparency' Means Hiding TPP Details From 98% Of Congress
What I do not understand...
On the post: How Copyright Extension Undermined Copyright: The Copyright Of Parking (Part I)
Thomas Babington Macauley, 1841
And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the words of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living. -- Thomas Babington Macauley, A Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the 5th of February, 1841
On the post: How TPP Would Put Massive Burdens On Those Accused Of Infringement
Laws to rewrite
- every constitution
Because what we have here is fundamentally incompatible with any state of law.
The proposal is nothing less than the abolishment of the fundamental principles under which any modern state of law is defined. The same as abolishing the right to vote and setting up a hereditary absolutist monarch in a democracy.
On the post: Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth Predicts That Countries Who Limit Patents Will Have More Innovation
Switzerland
Primary sources are either in german or french, here's one against Patents:
http://dlib-pr.mpier.mpg.de/m/kleioc/0010/exec/books/%22160510%22
And here's the state of the swiss patent system when it was enacted:
http://dlib-pr.mpier.mpg.de/m/kleioc/0010/exec/books/%22171854%22
On the post: Now It's Switzerland's Turn To Call ACTA Into Question
The fact that switzerland participated in the ACTA-negotiations (and did not lay open everything to us, it's citizens) says enough.
On the post: Pirate Party Wins Again In Germany
Re: co-opt? WTF? That's bullshit.
But indeed, the Greens have gotten much more Intellectual Monopoly-unfriendly since the Pirate Parties are on the rise.
On the post: After SOPA And ACTA, Now TPP Starts To Fall Apart
The ugly face of Mercantilism
Reinstating of Mercantilism.
It's been going on for decades of course, but these are the newest, most blatant attempts.
On the post: Yahoo Says Facebook's Countersuit Doesn't Count Since Facebook Bought Its Patents
Re:
And how dos that make them promote progress of science and the useful arts?
It rather looks like they're things of value to inhibit progress of science and the useful arts by your competitors..
On the post: Pirate Parties Continue To Grow In Europe As People Get Sick Of Politics As Usual
Pirate Parties Goals
My idea is not so much to "win" as a party, but to have our ideas win. The same which happend to the Greens (which are probably the 4th most powerful party in switzerland): Their ideas got taken up by the other parties. The CVP (christian peoples party), probably our most conservative party (not comparable to the US "conservatives", which would actually compare to the right wing SVP) is actually pushing so many "green" ideas, they would have been labeled a "green" party 30 years ago. Most of our parties have become "green" to some extent. The values of the Greens got internalized, and spread over the whole political spectrum.
And that's what we want to achieve: Our values (liberty, abolition of monopolies, privacy) spread over the whole spectrum, so that in 30 years time, nobody can even mention any ideas as those expressed in SOPA or CISPA (or the patent law) without being booed out of office by the whole population as a "dangerous radical" (which he is ;)). And of course, in the meantime have the patent system abolished, copyright shortend to 14 years, DRM outlawed, and any surveillance-acts repelled.
On the post: Open Textbook Startup Sued For Allegedly Copying 'Distinctive Selection, Arrangement, and Presentation' Of Facts From Existing Titles
Well known practice in software
What Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Macmillan Higher Education are doing is also a well known practice. It's called anticompetitive trolling. Or alternatively "abuse of process".
On the post: Once Again, The Administration Vindictively Charges A Whistleblower As Being A Spy
Re: That is because Capitalists like Bush only want control of your money
On the post: MPAA Stops Picking On 'Bully', Actually Gets Some Good Press For Once
What the Fuck?
Bloody puritan pukes.
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