Teksavvy, if you are monitoring this article, I want you to know that the way you stand up to copyright trolls, especially the Voltage Pictures situation, is THE reason I switched to your service. I'm not a hacker or a pirate, but I respect businesses that care about my privacy.
I know you spend hundreds of thousands to fight for what is right, which is why I am loyal to your service.
I'm certainly no fan of Microsoft, but the key issue that seems to be overlooked here is that Microsoft looked at the emails of a Microsoft Employee.
It is exceptionally common for one's Conditions of Employment to indicate very clearly that any and all emails sent and received through the employer's facilities will be monitored.
The moment the video became about selling a product and not about making social commentary, fair use went out the window.
This is very simple. Using someone else's copyrighted work in a commercial is not fair use.
Also, knowing the Beastie Boys, any money they make from this will go to a worthy charity, probably something MCA was passionate about such as Tibetan freedom or childhood cancer.
The ACLU just needs to starts sending emails with terrorist threats in them. When the nice men in black come for a visit, they will be able to prove to the DOJ that their "metadata" was accessed and used.
Could someone please translate the headline "Spanish Anti-piracy Firm Ares Rights History Of Censorship By Copyright For Ecuador & Argentina" into english for me?
I understand they have spent $190,000 so far fighting this troll. If they wanted to add $5 a month to my bill to continue taking the high road I would be happy to pay it.
As Anonymous Coward mentioned above, the numbers people are throwing around work out to about $1500 per household for a fibre install. That's what most of us pay for TWO years of crappy/capped/slow Internet service, not to mention that fibre can handle our TV and phone as well.
If the telcos can convince us to take a "free" iPhone by agreeing to a THREE year contract, why can't fibre work the same way???
I would gladly pay $100 per month or more for fast, high-bandwidth fibre! And (for the first time in my life) I would happily pay a set-up fee to get that precious light pipe into my home.
The incumbent telcos won't acknowledge this reality until people catch on that they are being gouged, and that speed and bandwidth are basically free once the infrastructure is in place. Remember when you paid $75 per month for a pager that could only beep when you had a message? Remember paying $$ a minute for cell phone service?
Telcos will price the ones and zeroes as high as they can until someone like Google comes along and shows everyone that bandwidth is a commodity just like electricity, gas and water. Have you ever thought about your monthly water bill when 'downloading' a glass of water? Has your tap ever slowed to a trickle because your neighbor was washing clothes? Has the water co ever 'fined' you by quadrupling your monthly bill because you watered your lawn too much?
Bandwidth is the new water. The infrastructure for both is similar in logistics and cost. Water treatment plants, buried pipes, maintenance, quality control, repairs, billing - how are the ones and zeroes flowing into your home any different?
It is my understanding that service providers such as Twitter are protected from a lot of bad things by the DMCA's "Safe Harbour" provisions, specifically because they are simply the conduit of the information and exercise no editorial control.
If Twitter has started proactively censoring posts, wouldn't that mean that they are now legally and financially responsible for what their users publish?
People seem to forget that Paypal isn't a bank. It is a private business that has no federal oversight, no deposit insurance, no requirement to adhere to any sort of banking laws, and NO way to speak to a human when they screw you over.
Of course Paypal can arbitrarily freeze your funds indefinitely without recourse - it's in the contract you agreed to when you signed up. You DID read it, right?
I remember short years ago thinking Lycos was the be-all, end-all. Artificial Intelligence had been achieved. All of mankind's knowledge was now available. There was nothing more to invent. Period.
The Googorola deal is about Google building smartphones to compete with Apple, set-top boxes to bring YouTube into everyone's living rooms, and owning the chip foundry and manufacturing to make it happen. The patent portfolio is nice, but it is NOT the biggest part of the deal.
Anyone who thinks Google bought Motorola to help out their Android partners just doesn't get it.
Theoretically(*) Apple only has to store one copy of each song. Your personal cloud won't contain a physical copy of your music, it will have a database of what songs you are allowed to play.
(*of course they will store multiple copies of each song for maximum availability, scalability and geographical distribution, but you get the idea.)
They would have to build their schools inside huge faraday cages with no electricity. Either that or ban: TV, radio, cel phones, police radios, microwave ovens, etc.
OK. I have been well and soundly spanked by other commenters. Nice work.
Here in Canada no one can carry a pistol, so I was unaware that only felony convictions can take away that right in the US.
The action of the cops was reprehensible. I only mentioned that Fiorino had a record to indicate what may have set them off after a random license plate check or something.
Perhaps running a recorder all the time is an advisable activity in the new police state. I was just surprised that someone, with no supposed agenda, had done that.
Broken?
What does that mean? None of the words are clickable.
Also, the login process is unclear. It is a Techdirt site, so why can't I log in with my Techdirt account? This could be made more clear.
...but they gained a customer
I know you spend hundreds of thousands to fight for what is right, which is why I am loyal to your service.
?
(untitled comment)
I have never felt "right" about using DropBox and this was the last straw.
Employment Contract
It is exceptionally common for one's Conditions of Employment to indicate very clearly that any and all emails sent and received through the employer's facilities will be monitored.
There is no story here.
Obvious
This is very simple. Using someone else's copyrighted work in a commercial is not fair use.
Also, knowing the Beastie Boys, any money they make from this will go to a worthy charity, probably something MCA was passionate about such as Tibetan freedom or childhood cancer.
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
20 years ahead
How powerful was your computer in 1993 compared to now?
1200 baud modem, no internet, 40 megabyte hard drive (if any), 640K RAM, a few thousand operations per second.
(untitled comment)
If the purpose was to hide the info, you might wish to fix the docs.
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
I understand they have spent $190,000 so far fighting this troll. If they wanted to add $5 a month to my bill to continue taking the high road I would be happy to pay it.
Just use the cellphone business model!
If the telcos can convince us to take a "free" iPhone by agreeing to a THREE year contract, why can't fibre work the same way???
I would gladly pay $100 per month or more for fast, high-bandwidth fibre! And (for the first time in my life) I would happily pay a set-up fee to get that precious light pipe into my home.
The incumbent telcos won't acknowledge this reality until people catch on that they are being gouged, and that speed and bandwidth are basically free once the infrastructure is in place. Remember when you paid $75 per month for a pager that could only beep when you had a message? Remember paying $$ a minute for cell phone service?
Telcos will price the ones and zeroes as high as they can until someone like Google comes along and shows everyone that bandwidth is a commodity just like electricity, gas and water. Have you ever thought about your monthly water bill when 'downloading' a glass of water? Has your tap ever slowed to a trickle because your neighbor was washing clothes? Has the water co ever 'fined' you by quadrupling your monthly bill because you watered your lawn too much?
Bandwidth is the new water. The infrastructure for both is similar in logistics and cost. Water treatment plants, buried pipes, maintenance, quality control, repairs, billing - how are the ones and zeroes flowing into your home any different?
(untitled comment)
If Twitter has started proactively censoring posts, wouldn't that mean that they are now legally and financially responsible for what their users publish?
(untitled comment)
Of course Paypal can arbitrarily freeze your funds indefinitely without recourse - it's in the contract you agreed to when you signed up. You DID read it, right?
Google who?
Then Alta Vista came along...
Who is this Google of which you speak??!
(untitled comment)
Anyone who thinks Google bought Motorola to help out their Android partners just doesn't get it.
(untitled comment)
(*of course they will store multiple copies of each song for maximum availability, scalability and geographical distribution, but you get the idea.)
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
Here in Canada no one can carry a pistol, so I was unaware that only felony convictions can take away that right in the US.
The action of the cops was reprehensible. I only mentioned that Fiorino had a record to indicate what may have set them off after a random license plate check or something.
Perhaps running a recorder all the time is an advisable activity in the new police state. I was just surprised that someone, with no supposed agenda, had done that.
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