We have the most expensive internet when you can even get it. I manage internet connection contracts for 60+ locations at our company and I have the joy of occasionally having the local monopoly internet provider just not care. Below is an actual email I've received when asking about getting an internet connection installed into a building we own where I knew I would probably need to pay a fee to get services trenched in. Another fun note with this address is according to the FCC broadband map this location meets their definition of serviced by that ISP.
"This location currently is unserviceable by [ISP]. However, it’s very close to a few locations that are serviceable. At the moment we are unable to do a survey to verify what would be needed/ costs to trench and bring the lines to this location, due to the distance from the nearest tap."
One question that I have thought about in these cases is that if someone wanted to and had the resources to fight these take downs do people think that Lenz v. Universal (dancing baby) case could be used as precedent to great effect?
Thinking about the facts. A recording in public of a police officer which the courts have ruled is protected a first amendment right. Purpose of the 'work'/recording is is for government accountability. You'd have a hard time convincing me the recording damages the potential market for the song. And finally that copyright claimants must consider fair use via the Lenz v. Universal decision. All that considered I think courts should weigh heavily on fair use in these cases.
If enough people counter-sue over these types of take downs you could possibly get the major records who would be losing money in court and lawyer fees pissed at cops too for wasting their money.
Fun seeing North Dakota getting some notice for its decent internet.
For perspective I was born raised and live in North Dakota. I am currently a network admin and manage sites for a company that has locations in 16 different states. My company originally started in ND and has since expanded over the past 14 years.
I grew up where our local coop phone company made the announcement in the late 90s that it would stop installing copper and they would be upgrading everything to fiber and any new installations would be fiber. My parents live on a farm in one of the least populated areas of the US outside of a town with a population of 150 and they have a better fiber internet connection for less money that I can get any connection in many states across the 16 state region my company has locations.
I was used to internet being cheap, good, and quickly able to get installed and then when we started expanding and I had to start dealing with national providers I was completely shocked at how bad and expensive they were. And to be honest I seem to keep coming across new ways they are bad every month.
Now I'm getting long winded, but I will also say each time an article comes up about US ISP terribleness here I have always thought I should send a submission laying out how ND has been an outlier but I always seem to get busy so instead you can have this comment.
I'm guessing that the increased cost to consumers for that 90% increase in speed was probably only an 85% increase on their bills so I'm sure and ISPs will say that is an amazing deal for the consumer.
I recently had a lovely conversation with someone trying to 'give' me one of those. I live on a small very narrow street and it would have looked directly across the street at my neighbors house. My state also has a anti peeping Tom law that has this wording: "Uses a fixed optical device that enhances or records a visual occurrence to view through any window of another person's property"
I told him that any doorbell camera would be illegal on my street since every house on it has another on the opposite side with windows facing the street.
It was pretty fun seeing him react to being told his entire product was illegal on my street and if any of my neighbors installed one I would do everything in my power to make sure he was held accountable as an accomplice.
I should note that the reason I know about this law and have had lawyers counsel me on it is because I install cameras and security systems professionally.
Kenneth Jarecke took a photograph during the gulf war of an Iraqi soldier who burned to death after his vehicle was hit by an airstrike. He was questioned why he would photograph something like that and he answered "...if I don’t take pictures like these, people like my mom will think war is what they see in movies.”
I sometimes hate how we hide from the terrible events that happen around us. Photographs from these events remind us of the true human costs of our actions in society and we sometimes need to be reminded of them if we are ever going to change.
I tried to do some research and never found anything, but was there never any legal precedent set for someone being forced to give up a code word or cipher prior to consumer electronics?
It seems like it would have been common for people who knew a call might be recorded to use code words for certain activities. Has a court ever ruled that a defendant must give up their private definition to a code word?
Cryptography and other methods to obfuscate information has existed long before personal computing and I find it difficult to believe there isn't any legal precedent, but I can't find any.
When I first heard of this video I started doing research on the copyright because I was interested. Now I am not a copyright lawyer so I don't know if this is all 100%.
In 1967 you had to register your copyright within 28 years, which was what you had for your first registration length. You could then renew the copyright at the end of 28 years for additional time. The 1976 copyright act removed the need to renew your copyright registration and extended the length of time for recordings from 1967, but left the original requirement to be registered within 28 years of creation. So the question becomes did somebody register the copyright of the recording between 1967 and 1995?
I started looking through scanned copyright registrations with 1967 and made it through a few years before I just gave up, but I never did find any registration in those first few years.
If anybody wants to dig through scanned images from 1967-1978 and then search through the digitized records from 1978-1995 here is the link:http://www.copyright.gov/records/
It has been years since I took any law course and I never completed any law degree or become a lawyer, but I do remember some part about rules against perpetuities. I think it was 21 years after the death of the original contract holder or something like that.
So the requirement could be valid against the estate and holders of that property for 21 years, but he died in '85 and it has gone through a secondary estate so I don't think they have any valid claim, but I could always be wrong.
But ignoring those facts it is still ridiculous in my opinion that they are trying to force this type of an issue and make this woman fight them in court over an award they gave to a man over 60 years ago.
I work for mid-sized business with 12 physical locations across three states so I get to deal with a number of providers and $20,000 seems to be a pretty common price.
In one city there was a local provider that had a franchise agreement with the town so nobody could provide cable but them. I wanted to replace our existing T1 for $950/month with something faster and cheaper. The local cable company with wanted $23,000 and a five year agreement to provide service.
The interesting part about their price is a different ISP that was in the neighboring town was willing to dig us private dedicated fiber for $21,100 and a five year contract.
I have many stories about annoying ISPs and only a few stories about ISPs I like to deal with and don't seem to be trying to rip you off.
Under Illinois law perjury is a Class 3 Felony punishable by two to five years in prison. If I lived in the area this happened I know I would be writing to every politician and local official demanding that the officers be put on trial and held to the same laws as everyone else.
The only way a police force can maintain any credibility in my mind is that when a situation like this happens is to immediately have the perpetrators face prosecution for their crimes. Unfortunately most police departments in the US have developed an 'Us' vs 'The Public' attitude. They have to realize that they are citizens themselves and we are their peers with equal rights.
I am actually surprised that OnStar hasn't been mentioned in any of the recent NSA scandals recently. They collect a lot of data on your driving and location and in the past they sold it to third parties so I'm sure they would be giving it to the government.
Maybe that insider document is just in the backlog of Snowden files.
It is a simple idea that Senators should be treated the same as other citizens. All people should have the same lack of privacy when it comes down to it.
Shy should we treat congressmen differently by the government than any other person?
I know how this can be solved by the NSA, it's easy.
National Geographic is an outside group of people, so they are probably scooping up all the metadata on every National Geographic email address. All you have to do is 'query' the system for emails that were between National Geographic and NSA agents then search those individual email accounts.
(I can also guarantee you that if they thought somebody was leaking classified information to them they would know every employee that has ever emailed them ever within hours)
You would think that somebody that would look at their own numbers before trying to piss of a group of customers.
The most recent numbers I could find show that Microsoft has moved over 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and that there are over 40 million Xbox Live users. That means that over one third of their customers don't want or use the online features of the console.
Now I know that Microsoft has crazy amounts of cash, but I am guessing even they don't want to lose over one third of their customer base. And those numbers don't even count the people like myself that do have a Live subscription but are concerned about always online requirements to use something I have purchased.
I can understand the frustration required to put up a site like this after my most recent encounter with a cable company that just happened today.
I work for a company that has locations spread across a decent sized region and one of the things I do is managing our communications (phones & internet). Because of this I have dealt with providers that range from the single town telephone coop to the big guys like Comcast, Verizon, and CenturyLink. I thought I had seen crazy after doing this for years but just today I have a new definition of crazy.
I have a new location that is in a city that signed an exclusive franchise agreement with a cable provider years ago. Somehow, even though they are the only provider allowed in city limits, they don't have cable in the ground near our building. If I want them to bury a cable I have to pay 100% of the trenching fee. That price estimate came in at $98,000. I almost laughed in the salespersons face when I was told that price.
I have never understood why something 'needs to be done'. Compare the growth of the internet to our last major communications development, the telephone network.
The telephone was developed in 1870, and by 1900 had started to take off. The most recent number I have heard is 6 of the world's 7 billion people have access to a phone line (land or cell). Almost 100 years to reach that type of penetration. The internet by contrast was developed in the 1960s and commercialized in the early 90s. It has already reached over 2 billion people. (If anyone could find penetration rates over time to compare that would be awesome)
Now I do believe that governments can have a role in helping the internet grow, but the governments I see pushing for ITU control don't appear (to me) to have the goal in mind.
When you can get internet
We have the most expensive internet when you can even get it. I manage internet connection contracts for 60+ locations at our company and I have the joy of occasionally having the local monopoly internet provider just not care. Below is an actual email I've received when asking about getting an internet connection installed into a building we own where I knew I would probably need to pay a fee to get services trenched in. Another fun note with this address is according to the FCC broadband map this location meets their definition of serviced by that ISP.
"This location currently is unserviceable by [ISP]. However, it’s very close to a few locations that are serviceable. At the moment we are unable to do a survey to verify what would be needed/ costs to trench and bring the lines to this location, due to the distance from the nearest tap."
Fair use and Lenz v. Universal
One question that I have thought about in these cases is that if someone wanted to and had the resources to fight these take downs do people think that Lenz v. Universal (dancing baby) case could be used as precedent to great effect?
Thinking about the facts. A recording in public of a police officer which the courts have ruled is protected a first amendment right. Purpose of the 'work'/recording is is for government accountability. You'd have a hard time convincing me the recording damages the potential market for the song. And finally that copyright claimants must consider fair use via the Lenz v. Universal decision. All that considered I think courts should weigh heavily on fair use in these cases.
If enough people counter-sue over these types of take downs you could possibly get the major records who would be losing money in court and lawyer fees pissed at cops too for wasting their money.
ND native perspective
Fun seeing North Dakota getting some notice for its decent internet.
For perspective I was born raised and live in North Dakota. I am currently a network admin and manage sites for a company that has locations in 16 different states. My company originally started in ND and has since expanded over the past 14 years.
I grew up where our local coop phone company made the announcement in the late 90s that it would stop installing copper and they would be upgrading everything to fiber and any new installations would be fiber. My parents live on a farm in one of the least populated areas of the US outside of a town with a population of 150 and they have a better fiber internet connection for less money that I can get any connection in many states across the 16 state region my company has locations.
I was used to internet being cheap, good, and quickly able to get installed and then when we started expanding and I had to start dealing with national providers I was completely shocked at how bad and expensive they were. And to be honest I seem to keep coming across new ways they are bad every month.
Now I'm getting long winded, but I will also say each time an article comes up about US ISP terribleness here I have always thought I should send a submission laying out how ND has been an outlier but I always seem to get busy so instead you can have this comment.
ISP Profits
I'm guessing that the increased cost to consumers for that 90% increase in speed was probably only an 85% increase on their bills so I'm sure and ISPs will say that is an amazing deal for the consumer.
Forgetting the true victims
You forgot to mention one of the biggest groups victimized by this scam, the insurance companies!
Just think of all those poor insurance companies who had customers blow past their deductibles on scam procedures and were forced to pay out money.
Re: Re: Not legal in my state
North Dakota
CHAPTER 12.1-31
Not legal in my state
I recently had a lovely conversation with someone trying to 'give' me one of those. I live on a small very narrow street and it would have looked directly across the street at my neighbors house. My state also has a anti peeping Tom law that has this wording: "Uses a fixed optical device that enhances or records a visual occurrence to view through any window of another person's property"
I told him that any doorbell camera would be illegal on my street since every house on it has another on the opposite side with windows facing the street.
It was pretty fun seeing him react to being told his entire product was illegal on my street and if any of my neighbors installed one I would do everything in my power to make sure he was held accountable as an accomplice.
I should note that the reason I know about this law and have had lawyers counsel me on it is because I install cameras and security systems professionally.
Remembering the human cost of these events
Kenneth Jarecke took a photograph during the gulf war of an Iraqi soldier who burned to death after his vehicle was hit by an airstrike. He was questioned why he would photograph something like that and he answered "...if I don’t take pictures like these, people like my mom will think war is what they see in movies.”
I sometimes hate how we hide from the terrible events that happen around us. Photographs from these events remind us of the true human costs of our actions in society and we sometimes need to be reminded of them if we are ever going to change.
Code words and ciphers pre-consumer electronics
It seems like it would have been common for people who knew a call might be recorded to use code words for certain activities. Has a court ever ruled that a defendant must give up their private definition to a code word?
Cryptography and other methods to obfuscate information has existed long before personal computing and I find it difficult to believe there isn't any legal precedent, but I can't find any.
Valid Copyright
In 1967 you had to register your copyright within 28 years, which was what you had for your first registration length. You could then renew the copyright at the end of 28 years for additional time. The 1976 copyright act removed the need to renew your copyright registration and extended the length of time for recordings from 1967, but left the original requirement to be registered within 28 years of creation. So the question becomes did somebody register the copyright of the recording between 1967 and 1995?
I started looking through scanned copyright registrations with 1967 and made it through a few years before I just gave up, but I never did find any registration in those first few years.
If anybody wants to dig through scanned images from 1967-1978 and then search through the digitized records from 1978-1995 here is the link:http://www.copyright.gov/records/
Re: Succession - imposing obligations
So the requirement could be valid against the estate and holders of that property for 21 years, but he died in '85 and it has gone through a secondary estate so I don't think they have any valid claim, but I could always be wrong.
But ignoring those facts it is still ridiculous in my opinion that they are trying to force this type of an issue and make this woman fight them in court over an award they gave to a man over 60 years ago.
Seems 20K is a normal price
In one city there was a local provider that had a franchise agreement with the town so nobody could provide cable but them. I wanted to replace our existing T1 for $950/month with something faster and cheaper. The local cable company with wanted $23,000 and a five year agreement to provide service.
The interesting part about their price is a different ISP that was in the neighboring town was willing to dig us private dedicated fiber for $21,100 and a five year contract.
I have many stories about annoying ISPs and only a few stories about ISPs I like to deal with and don't seem to be trying to rip you off.
Felony Charges
The only way a police force can maintain any credibility in my mind is that when a situation like this happens is to immediately have the perpetrators face prosecution for their crimes. Unfortunately most police departments in the US have developed an 'Us' vs 'The Public' attitude. They have to realize that they are citizens themselves and we are their peers with equal rights.
OnStar
Maybe that insider document is just in the backlog of Snowden files.
A Modest Proposal
Shy should we treat congressmen differently by the government than any other person?
The NSA Defence
You weren't trying to hit the other car in the parking garage. That's OK, use the NSA Defence.
You didn't mean to start a forest fire by not putting out your campfire. That's OK, use the NSA Defence.
If the government can use it, why can't everyone else?
Think outside the box
National Geographic is an outside group of people, so they are probably scooping up all the metadata on every National Geographic email address. All you have to do is 'query' the system for emails that were between National Geographic and NSA agents then search those individual email accounts.
(I can also guarantee you that if they thought somebody was leaking classified information to them they would know every employee that has ever emailed them ever within hours)
He should research before he speaks.
The most recent numbers I could find show that Microsoft has moved over 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and that there are over 40 million Xbox Live users. That means that over one third of their customers don't want or use the online features of the console.
Now I know that Microsoft has crazy amounts of cash, but I am guessing even they don't want to lose over one third of their customer base. And those numbers don't even count the people like myself that do have a Live subscription but are concerned about always online requirements to use something I have purchased.
Source of numbers are from 2012 so they are a little old: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/01/10/ces-microsoft-reveals-xbox-360-sales-to-date
I Understand Cable Frustration
I work for a company that has locations spread across a decent sized region and one of the things I do is managing our communications (phones & internet). Because of this I have dealt with providers that range from the single town telephone coop to the big guys like Comcast, Verizon, and CenturyLink. I thought I had seen crazy after doing this for years but just today I have a new definition of crazy.
I have a new location that is in a city that signed an exclusive franchise agreement with a cable provider years ago. Somehow, even though they are the only provider allowed in city limits, they don't have cable in the ground near our building. If I want them to bury a cable I have to pay 100% of the trenching fee. That price estimate came in at $98,000. I almost laughed in the salespersons face when I was told that price.
Fast Internet Growth
The telephone was developed in 1870, and by 1900 had started to take off. The most recent number I have heard is 6 of the world's 7 billion people have access to a phone line (land or cell). Almost 100 years to reach that type of penetration. The internet by contrast was developed in the 1960s and commercialized in the early 90s. It has already reached over 2 billion people. (If anyone could find penetration rates over time to compare that would be awesome)
Now I do believe that governments can have a role in helping the internet grow, but the governments I see pushing for ITU control don't appear (to me) to have the goal in mind.
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