In addition to throttling, another thing to watch out for is multiplexing. Years ago I proved this was happening with a DNS provider. Now, I often suspect Verizon FIOS of multiplexing my home connection and Verizon wireless of doing the same to my 4G.
It might be time to invent a new phrase: QR hacking. Simply cause a commotion at one end of the mall. Then when all the security is busy over there, paste up a slight "modification" to the QR code. What fun!
What Hollywood doesn't like is your ability to watch the same DVD in any room in your house. They want you to buy a new copy of the DVD for each room. Then they will make it illegal for you to move your DVDs from room to room. Then they will require interlocks between your doors and your DVD players so people can't watch a DVD playing in one room from outside that room. Then pirates will install Dutch doors, so Hollywood will pay politicians to pass legislation making it illegal to circumvent the anti-DVD-room-sharing door interlocks. People who manufacture or even publish schematics for Dutch doors will be jailed. But people who love freedom will still find ways to room-share.
He's got a legitimate beef against the people in his own organization or associated entities that leaked the music before it was done. There's really no excuse for that sort of corruption, regardless of the number of people who may be clamoring for the dude's music. But if you can't even control that, what chance do you have of controlling the rest of the world?
It's like the war on drugs. People do drugs in prison. How do they get drugs in prison? I have my thoughts about that but the larger point is: How are you going to keep drugs out of America? Turn the whole country into a prison? Even if you did you still couldn't keep them out. Authorities know this and so the war on drugs is just an excuse to turn America into a prison.
The same goes for file sharing. Regardless of the morality of file sharing, the attacks on file sharing are really just an excuse to turn the internet into a prison.
NFL tried a ticket exchange service where you could buy and sell tickets at face value. Guess what? There were never any tickets to buy there. Any tickets that were posted were immediately snapped up by scalpers for resale. Soon, no one posted tickets there because they felt like chumps. Now, NFLTicketExchange points to a StubHub-like ticketmaster domain where the free market sets prices and scalpers get no more or less advantage than anyone else. No one likes a market where speculators dominate but some speculation is often necessary to create a liquid market.
The line between human-created and automated is very vague and I wouldn't be too quick to hang any policy on it. For example, if I use Photoshop to create a new piece of art and I use the spray-paint or air brush tool, there is automation in the selection of which pixels get which color. The use of auto-tune that is prevalent in pop music these days also obviously has a strong algorithmic component. CGI effects in movies also come to mind. I'm sure in a few minutes anyone could come up with dozens more examples of such mixed human/automated creations.
If Points and Rewards and Awards were a good deal for the consumer they wouldn't exist, which is why I avoid them whenever possible. Of course the cost for such things is baked into the price of what you're buying, so you'd want to try to collect them, but the time and aggravation are still not worth it.
If Curtis is such a UX genius how come the response is in such an unreadable combination of text and background colors? I had to highlight the text to read it. But we digress...
It's great to see electronic voting articles on TechDirt. Please do more! Electronic voting has some of the dirtiest technology dirt around. Further reading:
1. Due to the loss of information that occurs when you separate the voters' names from their ballots, there can never be a perfectly auditable or verifiable election.
2. You also have to protect the election from the people who are running it. There is very little defense against a corrupt admin. Measures that would purport to do so likely make the system unusable. The same is true for paper ballots.
On the post: AT&T Threatens To Cut Off Phone Service For Guy Who Beat Them In Small Claims Court Over Throttling
Re: Re:
On the post: ISPs Will Start Acting As Hollywood's Private Online Security Guards By July
Re: Re:
On the post: AT&T Threatens To Cut Off Phone Service For Guy Who Beat Them In Small Claims Court Over Throttling
On the post: Since The RIAA & MPAA Say That A Copy Is Just As Valuable As The Original, Send Them A Copy Of Money
Re: Re: Ugh. There's a reason that Counterfeiting is illegal
On the post: Does Anyone Who Develops New Products In Hollywood Ask 'Would I Ever Actually Use This?'
Re: Re:
http://hackaday.com/2011/08/09/hacking-qr-codes-for-fun-and-profit/
On the post: Does Anyone Who Develops New Products In Hollywood Ask 'Would I Ever Actually Use This?'
On the post: Holocaust History Preserver Shoah Foundation's Patents Being Used To Sue Google, Facebook, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon
On the post: Why Anti-Circumvention Laws Are Evil: Hollywood Gets To Veto DVD Jukebox, Despite Complete Lack Of Infringement
On the post: Whatever Copyrights Righthaven Might Actually Have Owned Now Transferred To Receiver For Auction
Re:
On the post: Guess What? Copying Still Isn't Stealing
It's like the war on drugs. People do drugs in prison. How do they get drugs in prison? I have my thoughts about that but the larger point is: How are you going to keep drugs out of America? Turn the whole country into a prison? Even if you did you still couldn't keep them out. Authorities know this and so the war on drugs is just an excuse to turn America into a prison.
The same goes for file sharing. Regardless of the morality of file sharing, the attacks on file sharing are really just an excuse to turn the internet into a prison.
On the post: State Appeals Court Says Stubhub Isn't Responsible For Actions Of Its Users
Re:
On the post: Columnist Accuses EA Of 'Identity Theft' For Using Player Likenesses
Re:
On the post: Can A Company Be An 'Author' For The Purpose Of Copyright?
On the post: American Airlines Making Life Worse For Most Loyal Customers By Killing Useful Mile-Tracking Browser Plugin
On the post: American Airlines Making Life Worse For Most Loyal Customers By Killing Useful Mile-Tracking Browser Plugin
Re: Another story
On the post: The Details On How To Elect Futurama's Bender To Whatever Election Is Using Online Voting
http://siis.cse.psu.edu/everest.html
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://people.csai l.mit.edu/rivest/voting/
http://rangevoting.org/
On the post: The Details On How To Elect Futurama's Bender To Whatever Election Is Using Online Voting
Re: Re: Open Source the Design and Test Test Test
1. Due to the loss of information that occurs when you separate the voters' names from their ballots, there can never be a perfectly auditable or verifiable election.
2. You also have to protect the election from the people who are running it. There is very little defense against a corrupt admin. Measures that would purport to do so likely make the system unusable. The same is true for paper ballots.
On the post: Louis Vuitton's International Tour Of Trademark Bullying Runs Smack Dab Into UPenn Law School Who Explains Trademark Law In Return
http://www.louisvuitton.com/front/#/eng_US/Contact-us
On the post: Too Bad: SXSW Shuts Down Useful App For Finding New Bands You'd Like
On the post: UK Government Pressuring Search Engines To Censor Results In Favor Of Copyright Industries
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