This is not the fault of the US, its the fault of a bunch of greedy bastards in the US.
Why not blame the Spanish government for accepting large bribes from US lobbyists?
The internet has declared war on all the old gatekeepers and now they are fighting back against technology and human nature. I suspect that the IP rights people will end "infringement", the same way that the Catholic Church ended premarital sex, and the US won its wars on Drugs and Terrorism.
It is annoying the way the US is overreacting to Wikileaks. I hate to bash Obama, because he was left a huge mess by the incompetent that had the job before him, but he ran on a platform of "transparency" in the government.
The same way Bush used executive orders to bypass the Constitution, Obama can do the same and end things like this Wikileaks witch hunt.
As for the rape charges. I think most people with a brain could figure out there was a lot more to this story. It seemed that every law enforcement agency around the globe was doing a very poor job of finding and arresting one of the most high profile rapists in the world. Why? Because if they arrest him, he'll be fined for sex without a condom and then the story goes away and the media has to accept he's not a rapist.
The whole thing is just a circus, and the Streisand Effect is full on. When will the media figure out that all publicity is good publicity when you are trying to squash information?
Since this guy made money, hundreds of other people have exploited this "loophole" in the law. I would love to see her try to extort money through the courts from someone for their use of Sol.
Extremely silly lawsuit. Yes a moron in a hurry can tell the difference. Ive been eating Reese's cups for decades and there is no way I would ever confuse the packaging with the Dove cups. Ummmm Brown vs Orange? Who the hell is confusing them?
If Hershey's wins this it will be on a settlement to reduce legal costs, but in all fairness, MARS should have enough cash to suffer through this one and hopefully file a countersuit for frivolous litigation.
The greater issue is that the masses do not care. The reason for that has already been stated. As long as people receive a regular paycheck and can live an average life, they don't care about liberties being stripped away, nor do they care about corruption in their government.
The Bush administration was party to overt criminal activity unlike any other administration. Coercing data from the telcos in violation of the 4th Amendment and treason in outing an active CIA director in the field. No one cares that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove were involved in treason but Scooter Libby takes the fall; and Congress has already retroactively granted amnesty for the telco debacle.
The worst part is that all of these things were reported in the news and still no one cared.
Now we have the TSA and ICE. It's all staring us in the face and still the masses do not care.
While I may not agree with the seizure of the domains, I can easily see how warrants were issued. Most of the sites in question were supposedly trafficking in counterfeit goods from what I've read. There was the torrent finder that appears to be nothing more than a search engine, but that is the only one that seemed to be completely innocent of any criminal or infringing activity.
The thing that I find more interesting, is that Homeland Security is involved. I would have thought that all of this would be under the jurisdiction of the FBI. Whenever I see the copyright warning at the beginning of a DVD its from the FBI.
It just seems to me that Homeland Security has become an "anything goes" agency. All politicians have to do now is imply that something is a terrorist threat and then Homeland Security can do whatever it likes and if you have questions, then its national security and classified.
And you wonder why the US doesn't like Wikileaks????? The sheeple might actually look up from their grazing.
Everyone involved in this movie should just relax and get over themselves. The Hurt Locker somehow beat out AVATAR at the Academy Awards and that is the only reason that people began downloading it.
Let's think about this? Everyone wants their money from this movie that no one really watched when it was released. Hmmmmm. If someone had been thinking and streamed the movie over the web as soon as they found out they were nominated, or a few weeks before the Academy Awards; that may have been enough to drive some business through Netflix or Amazon or even pay per view.
Now let's be realistic. You win a HUGE frickin' award against the biggest baddest movie of the year and you were not prepared with an immediate re-release into theaters???? Where did you think ppl would go to view the movie??? If I were accepting that award, I would have plugged a website where you can find the movie for a small fee, during the acceptance speech. Then just let the news media do all my advertising for the next few days.
I suppose since the box office numbers on this movie were so dismal, suing people may actually make more money.
Personally I watched it streamed over the web and Im really glad I didn't pay for it once. I can tell anyone who is receiving a lawsuit for DL'ing the Hurt Locker, they should counter sue for being subjected to a crappy movie.
There is a slight flaw in your logic. Any long term tests on radiation exposure should have been done BEFORE the scanners were put into use. If they are so safe then as mentioned earlier someone should be able to tell us the exact mA/kVP and duration of the average scan.
All the safety issues aside, the TSA claims that these scanners are used on 1% - 2% of passengers that are randomly chosen. Maybe I'm just too stupid to understand national security, but how is the airplane safer if we are randomly superscreening a small percentage of people for no good reason? Wouldn't it be more effective to scan or grope EVERYONE?
Just to be clear, I think the whole thing violates the 4th Amendment, but Im just trying to make sense of the small percentage of random screening method.
While I will not disagree that file sharing has definitely had a negative impact on the sales of CDs, I think that Whitney Harpers defense is very interesting, in that it shows a definite shift in thinking among younger people.
She thought file sharing was like listening to the radio. That statement should send chills down the spines of everyone in the RIAA. That one statement says much more than she is an innocent infringer.
If the thought is that file sharing is like listening to the radio, that just says that as consumers, we prefer to have some choice in how we listen to music and we now see the net as a channel for getting that music. We do not see file sharing as piracy and we do not see ourselves as criminals.
If file sharing is perceived as listening to the radio, then that means that most of those "pirates" out there are still viable consumers for the music industry, since I don't remember radio killing the music industry with all it's free music. They just won't buy as many CDs. So the RIAA can go on attacking the file sharers ( who are potentially customers ) and file sharing sites (in their attempt to censor the net), but just like the US and its idiotic War on Terrorism, the RIAA is waging a war on a shift in thinking and the technology that enables it.
One last point. I know the War on Terrorism remark is gunna piss some people off, but I do have an alternative plan. Im thinking the US and it's allies would be much safer if they waged a War on Poverty.
WTF is wrong with the politicians in this country????? During the Bush administration someone figure out the magic word "terrorism" leads to the equally magical phrase "national security" and when the two are combined, all laws can be ignored and you can do anything you want to do. New formula for TechDirt T+NS = FtitC (Freedom to ignore the Constitution)
Obama may have run on a platform of change, but Pandora's box is already open and no one in Washington DC wants to give up the power of "terrorism" + "national security". It's amazing the way the sheep accept that Wikileaks is suddenly a terrorist organization. Why? Because it publishes dirty secrets that embarrass people. There is very little threat to national security, if any, from the stuff published by Wikileaks.
Parody of Sir-Mix-A- Lot without the express permission of the artist will result in fines of no less than $18,000 per incident. This is your one and only warning and we will be requesting that the host of this site remove the infringing content immediately.
Sincerely,
The RIAA
And because we know you were thinking about putting this parody on youtube, don't.
Re: Re: A good point and one that I have been pointing out
There are so many things wrong with your post that I don't even know where to start.
Of course, the Japanese manage to do it. The Chinese manage to do it. Students who go to school in India manage to do it. Calculus. Physics. Latin, for Christ's sake.
I won't even tackle the fact that Christianity isn't the main religion in any of those countries (in case you were looking for commonalities), but I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. That those countries are superior to the US in terms of scholastic achievement? That they are culturally superior? That the kids are smarter and work harder? Im just wondering why you didn't pick other countries as an example. Could it be some stereotype? Did you ever think that most of the Asian languages interpret numbers in sets of ones and tens that make math an easier concept at a younger age.
Let children learn only what they want, and you'll end up with a generation of video game junkies and ex-high school football player wannabes that will fight tooth and nail for the next opening at Wal-Mart. They're CHILDREN. They have no clue what they're going to need later on in life.
Now while I do agree that children do need some structure, the point of the article was not that children should be able to only learn what they want, it was about the timeframe and how they should be learning. Adults as well as children learn faster and try harder when they are interested in something whether it's fun or not. Children may not know what they need later in life, but that doesn't mean they should be forced to do something they are poor at when they could excel at something they are interested in that has just as much value.
Maybe if society didn't place such a high value on professions like LAW and POLITICS, we would see a cultural shift.
Oh and for Christ's sake, there are groups that want to teach the Bible version of creation in SCIENCE classes. How's that for a step forward? Don't look to physics or calculus for answers that are already in your Bible.
I don't know the answers to improving education, but Im not ready to claim any group of people is too stupid or too lazy based on their nationality. On a positive note I do agree that everyone should learn to read and write and learn math to the level of algebra, because with those tools you can go in just about any direction you like.
This whole security thing is a sham. It's already been said by the TSA that they are only backscanning a tiny fraction of the people passing through airports and they say that fraction is chosen randomly.
How am I more secure by using that method? Should police randomly arrest 2% of the population and ask if they are planning to murder someone and hope someone confesses?
Since 9/11, I would like to say just the Bush administration, but now its the Obama administration ( big change ), has been using "National Security" as the catch all for "I know I shouldn't do this but if I tell you why then you will know it's illegal".
Personally Im sick of all the national security that involves things like banning online gambling and telling the telcos to give the NSA access to everything. Im sick of the hearing the word lobbying, which means bribery. If copyright infringement is "theft" then its about time the RIAA and MPAA stop "bribing" congress. (sorry about the separate rant but it had to be said somewhere).
I don't think New Corp understands demographics or trends. All they know is that the iPad is hot and a lot of people bought them. It seems they have no idea who those users are or how they use their iPads.
Early adopters were most likely affluent middle agers and may have actually been a target market for News Corp, but the playing field has changed since those first few months. Personally I don't know anyone who pays for news anymore. I have no idea what the solution is for the newspapers in the digital age, but I know paywalls for news are not a smart bet.
If Rupert wants to sink $30million into this, he would be better off just giving $20million to charity (Im assuming he will actually get a return of $10 million before the whole thing dies).
Google and Comcast did fail the customer by complying with the subpoenas without alerting the customer, but what they did wasn't wrong. These companies were complying with a valid court order.
The State and City and Church all seem to be guilty of criminal activity.
The funniest bit in all of this seems to be that church reacted by declaring the blogger a sinner, and banning him from the church. The cop/deacon who abused his authority and opened a bogus investigation and then destroyed evidence is still in the church. It seems the God in this church only thinks sinners are people who do not agree with the pastor.
The new scanners and most of the new security since 9/11 is just a waste of time and money. Good on the TSA for employing a ton of people, as that is about the only benefit from this mess.
Now will someone in Congress please please please wake the hell up and realize how many more murders are committed in the the US by US citizens vs the amount of casualties caused by terrorism against the US in the past 10 years.
In other words, the police are not allowed to violate our civil rights to "make us safer". The TSA is just setting a trend that may expand if its accepted without a fight.
For most of us Beatles fans, we've already paid for this music at least twice and for some of us three or four or more times ( vinyl, cassette, 8 track, CD). I don't see any reason to pay for this music one more time.
As far as the format changes were concerned the record companies could always say they had to charge for materials. If I buy the mp3, what material am I paying for???? DRM software?
As far as Im concerned, Im not "stealing" or "pirating" this music at all. I'm getting something Ive paid for a few times for free from P2P networks. The gravy train of format change is over. The record companies should be HAPPY it lasted as long as it did. Now they have to actually work and think of new ways to screw their employees and customers, because Im done being robbed by format changes.
All I have to say about "Deal with it!", is the guy's entire argument is based on the possibility of saving lives.
Exactly how many bombs have been smuggled on planes before 9/11/2001 vs after 9/11/2001?
Because I actually think Ive heard more news reports about people smuggling explosives on planes AFTER /911. Seems the increased security has had the opposite effect.
The Bill of Rights is in the Constitution for a reason. Those are some basic freedoms that need to be protected. I served my time in the military to defend those rights and I feel entitled to them. So Zane you can deal with it. The rest of us are ok would just be happy with our pass through the metal detector and getting on with business as usual.
To be honest they miss my lighter 8 out of 10 times. Good job TSA. Wonder how much other stuff they miss. Maybe if I kept the lighter in my underwear they would catch it.
I hear a lot about the demise of the old media companies in this blog, but I just don't see it happening. I'm sure that the business models will be forced to evolve with technology, even if they fight against evolution all the way, but they will not just die, as they are just too large and politically entrenched.
TV, journalism, music, movies; they all face changes that will reshape the way their business is conducted, but the large companies that control them now will evolve over time.
The good thing about all this is that while the big guys are evolving there is a lot of room for the little guys to enter previously closed markets and begin competing. Personally Im looking forward to innovation in all the places where it was previously blocked by gatekeepers.
On the post: No Surprise: Wikileaks Leak Shows US Entertainment Industry Wrote Spain's New Copyright Law
Why blame the US???
Why not blame the Spanish government for accepting large bribes from US lobbyists?
The internet has declared war on all the old gatekeepers and now they are fighting back against technology and human nature. I suspect that the IP rights people will end "infringement", the same way that the Catholic Church ended premarital sex, and the US won its wars on Drugs and Terrorism.
On the post: PayPal Latest To Cut Off Wikileaks
Re: Somehow related articles
The same way Bush used executive orders to bypass the Constitution, Obama can do the same and end things like this Wikileaks witch hunt.
As for the rape charges. I think most people with a brain could figure out there was a lot more to this story. It seemed that every law enforcement agency around the globe was doing a very poor job of finding and arresting one of the most high profile rapists in the world. Why? Because if they arrest him, he'll be fined for sex without a condom and then the story goes away and the media has to accept he's not a rapist.
The whole thing is just a circus, and the Streisand Effect is full on. When will the media figure out that all publicity is good publicity when you are trying to squash information?
On the post: Woman Claims Legal Loophole Means She Now Owns The Sun... And She Wants You To Pay Up
This is really old news
She the first to think of this??? Tell that to Dennis Hope, who has been selling off world real estate since 1980.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/location-location-location
Since this guy made money, hundreds of other people have exploited this "loophole" in the law. I would love to see her try to extort money through the courts from someone for their use of Sol.
On the post: More Extremely Silly Trademark Lawsuits: Mars vs. Hershey Over Totally Different Looking Wrappers
The title says it all
If Hershey's wins this it will be on a settlement to reduce legal costs, but in all fairness, MARS should have enough cash to suffer through this one and hopefully file a countersuit for frivolous litigation.
On the post: Mainstream Press Seems To Think Fighting For Civil Liberties Is Childish
The larger issue... Apathy
The Bush administration was party to overt criminal activity unlike any other administration. Coercing data from the telcos in violation of the 4th Amendment and treason in outing an active CIA director in the field. No one cares that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove were involved in treason but Scooter Libby takes the fall; and Congress has already retroactively granted amnesty for the telco debacle.
The worst part is that all of these things were reported in the news and still no one cared.
Now we have the TSA and ICE. It's all staring us in the face and still the masses do not care.
On the post: Homeland Security Admits That It's The Private Police Force Of The Entertainment Industry
Im just not sure
The thing that I find more interesting, is that Homeland Security is involved. I would have thought that all of this would be under the jurisdiction of the FBI. Whenever I see the copyright warning at the beginning of a DVD its from the FBI.
It just seems to me that Homeland Security has become an "anything goes" agency. All politicians have to do now is imply that something is a terrorist threat and then Homeland Security can do whatever it likes and if you have questions, then its national security and classified.
And you wonder why the US doesn't like Wikileaks????? The sheeple might actually look up from their grazing.
On the post: Hurt Locker Producers Demand Sanctions Against Lawyer Offering DIY Legal Kits
The Hurt Locker
Let's think about this? Everyone wants their money from this movie that no one really watched when it was released. Hmmmmm. If someone had been thinking and streamed the movie over the web as soon as they found out they were nominated, or a few weeks before the Academy Awards; that may have been enough to drive some business through Netflix or Amazon or even pay per view.
Now let's be realistic. You win a HUGE frickin' award against the biggest baddest movie of the year and you were not prepared with an immediate re-release into theaters???? Where did you think ppl would go to view the movie??? If I were accepting that award, I would have plugged a website where you can find the movie for a small fee, during the acceptance speech. Then just let the news media do all my advertising for the next few days.
I suppose since the box office numbers on this movie were so dismal, suing people may actually make more money.
Personally I watched it streamed over the web and Im really glad I didn't pay for it once. I can tell anyone who is receiving a lawsuit for DL'ing the Hurt Locker, they should counter sue for being subjected to a crappy movie.
On the post: Molecular Biologist Highlights Serious Safety Concerns Over TSA Scanners
Re: Re: Re: Why not TLDs?
All the safety issues aside, the TSA claims that these scanners are used on 1% - 2% of passengers that are randomly chosen. Maybe I'm just too stupid to understand national security, but how is the airplane safer if we are randomly superscreening a small percentage of people for no good reason? Wouldn't it be more effective to scan or grope EVERYONE?
Just to be clear, I think the whole thing violates the 4th Amendment, but Im just trying to make sense of the small percentage of random screening method.
On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Innocent Infringer Case, Though Alito Thinks It Should
There is more to this...
She thought file sharing was like listening to the radio. That statement should send chills down the spines of everyone in the RIAA. That one statement says much more than she is an innocent infringer.
If the thought is that file sharing is like listening to the radio, that just says that as consumers, we prefer to have some choice in how we listen to music and we now see the net as a channel for getting that music. We do not see file sharing as piracy and we do not see ourselves as criminals.
If file sharing is perceived as listening to the radio, then that means that most of those "pirates" out there are still viable consumers for the music industry, since I don't remember radio killing the music industry with all it's free music. They just won't buy as many CDs. So the RIAA can go on attacking the file sharers ( who are potentially customers ) and file sharing sites (in their attempt to censor the net), but just like the US and its idiotic War on Terrorism, the RIAA is waging a war on a shift in thinking and the technology that enables it.
One last point. I know the War on Terrorism remark is gunna piss some people off, but I do have an alternative plan. Im thinking the US and it's allies would be much safer if they waged a War on Poverty.
On the post: Obama 'Considering Legal Action' Against Wikileaks
SCARY
Obama may have run on a platform of change, but Pandora's box is already open and no one in Washington DC wants to give up the power of "terrorism" + "national security". It's amazing the way the sheep accept that Wikileaks is suddenly a terrorist organization. Why? Because it publishes dirty secrets that embarrass people. There is very little threat to national security, if any, from the stuff published by Wikileaks.
On the post: Kuwait Bans Cameras With Big Lenses -- Because People Might Get Worried [Updated]
RIAA perimeter breach
Sincerely,
The RIAA
And because we know you were thinking about putting this parody on youtube, don't.
Sincerely
The MPAA
On the post: What If We Gave Toddlers An 'F' In Walking?
Re: Re: A good point and one that I have been pointing out
Of course, the Japanese manage to do it. The Chinese manage to do it. Students who go to school in India manage to do it. Calculus. Physics. Latin, for Christ's sake.
I won't even tackle the fact that Christianity isn't the main religion in any of those countries (in case you were looking for commonalities), but I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. That those countries are superior to the US in terms of scholastic achievement? That they are culturally superior? That the kids are smarter and work harder? Im just wondering why you didn't pick other countries as an example. Could it be some stereotype? Did you ever think that most of the Asian languages interpret numbers in sets of ones and tens that make math an easier concept at a younger age.
Let children learn only what they want, and you'll end up with a generation of video game junkies and ex-high school football player wannabes that will fight tooth and nail for the next opening at Wal-Mart. They're CHILDREN. They have no clue what they're going to need later on in life.
Now while I do agree that children do need some structure, the point of the article was not that children should be able to only learn what they want, it was about the timeframe and how they should be learning. Adults as well as children learn faster and try harder when they are interested in something whether it's fun or not. Children may not know what they need later in life, but that doesn't mean they should be forced to do something they are poor at when they could excel at something they are interested in that has just as much value.
Maybe if society didn't place such a high value on professions like LAW and POLITICS, we would see a cultural shift.
Oh and for Christ's sake, there are groups that want to teach the Bible version of creation in SCIENCE classes. How's that for a step forward? Don't look to physics or calculus for answers that are already in your Bible.
I don't know the answers to improving education, but Im not ready to claim any group of people is too stupid or too lazy based on their nationality. On a positive note I do agree that everyone should learn to read and write and learn math to the level of algebra, because with those tools you can go in just about any direction you like.
On the post: Newspapers Say: Shut Up And Get Scanned And Groped
Its just plain stupid
How am I more secure by using that method? Should police randomly arrest 2% of the population and ask if they are planning to murder someone and hope someone confesses?
Since 9/11, I would like to say just the Bush administration, but now its the Obama administration ( big change ), has been using "National Security" as the catch all for "I know I shouldn't do this but if I tell you why then you will know it's illegal".
Personally Im sick of all the national security that involves things like banning online gambling and telling the telcos to give the NSA access to everything. Im sick of the hearing the word lobbying, which means bribery. If copyright infringement is "theft" then its about time the RIAA and MPAA stop "bribing" congress. (sorry about the separate rant but it had to be said somewhere).
On the post: Why Murdoch's iPad-Only Newspaper Misses The Point
Maybe Rupert doesn't know
Early adopters were most likely affluent middle agers and may have actually been a target market for News Corp, but the playing field has changed since those first few months. Personally I don't know anyone who pays for news anymore. I have no idea what the solution is for the newspapers in the digital age, but I know paywalls for news are not a smart bet.
If Rupert wants to sink $30million into this, he would be better off just giving $20million to charity (Im assuming he will actually get a return of $10 million before the whole thing dies).
On the post: UK Lawyers Who Originated 'Pay Up Or We'll Sue' Knew They Were Threatening Innocents
Re: Know the law much Mike ?? ?
Did you notice that during the course of your rant, you made Mike's point?
It was your analogy about the car search. It seems these lawyers were sending out threatening notices WITHOUT probable cause to some people.
You were doing well on the semantics up until that point.
On the post: Why Didn't Google Or Comcast Protect The Identity Of Anonymous Church Blogger Who Was Outed?
Epic Fail at the TOP
The State and City and Church all seem to be guilty of criminal activity.
The funniest bit in all of this seems to be that church reacted by declaring the blogger a sinner, and banning him from the church. The cop/deacon who abused his authority and opened a bogus investigation and then destroyed evidence is still in the church. It seems the God in this church only thinks sinners are people who do not agree with the pastor.
On the post:
BackscatterMillimeter Wave Naked Scanners Confused By Folds In ClothingWAKE UP ALREADY
Now will someone in Congress please please please wake the hell up and realize how many more murders are committed in the the US by US citizens vs the amount of casualties caused by terrorism against the US in the past 10 years.
In other words, the police are not allowed to violate our civil rights to "make us safer". The TSA is just setting a trend that may expand if its accepted without a fight.
On the post: Beatles & Apple Finally Going To Let You Pay Money For The Beatles Songs You've Been Pirating For Years
Complete BS
As far as the format changes were concerned the record companies could always say they had to charge for materials. If I buy the mp3, what material am I paying for???? DRM software?
As far as Im concerned, Im not "stealing" or "pirating" this music at all. I'm getting something Ive paid for a few times for free from P2P networks. The gravy train of format change is over. The record companies should be HAPPY it lasted as long as it did. Now they have to actually work and think of new ways to screw their employees and customers, because Im done being robbed by format changes.
On the post: TSA Threatens To Sue Guy For Not Agreeing To Having His Groin Touched By TSA Agents
We can do this all night...
Exactly how many bombs have been smuggled on planes before 9/11/2001 vs after 9/11/2001?
Because I actually think Ive heard more news reports about people smuggling explosives on planes AFTER /911. Seems the increased security has had the opposite effect.
The Bill of Rights is in the Constitution for a reason. Those are some basic freedoms that need to be protected. I served my time in the military to defend those rights and I feel entitled to them. So Zane you can deal with it. The rest of us are ok would just be happy with our pass through the metal detector and getting on with business as usual.
To be honest they miss my lighter 8 out of 10 times. Good job TSA. Wonder how much other stuff they miss. Maybe if I kept the lighter in my underwear they would catch it.
On the post: Odd That TV Networks Would Block Their Own Ads From Being Shown To Users Who Want To Watch
I don't think so...
TV, journalism, music, movies; they all face changes that will reshape the way their business is conducted, but the large companies that control them now will evolve over time.
The good thing about all this is that while the big guys are evolving there is a lot of room for the little guys to enter previously closed markets and begin competing. Personally Im looking forward to innovation in all the places where it was previously blocked by gatekeepers.
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