Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 27th Nov 2010 10:46 UTC
The US is really ramping up its war on intellectual property infringement, a war which I'm sure will be just as successful, cheap and supported by the people as the wars on drugs and terrorism. The US has started seizing the domain names of various websites through ICANN - not because owners of these sites were convicted of anything, but merely because complaints have been filed against them. Anyone want to take a guess how long it will be before the US government blocks WikiLeaks? Update: The blocks function outside of the US too. In other words, the US is forcing its views upon the rest of the world once again.
Thread beginning with comment 451295
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-29
People are pissed because they got cut off from stolen goods? Color me devastated.
1) It might be illegal in the US to download illegally uploaded content, but it's not illegal in many European countries.
2) Many of these sites do not do anything that should be even remotely illegal, just as much as informing someone you can buy weed in the college district (bloody obvious) should not be illegal.
3) Most importantly, I see that you take the "guilty until proven otherwise"-approach to justice.
Good luck with that.
Edited 2010-11-27 14:42 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
"People are pissed because they got cut off from stolen goods? Color me devastated.
3) Most importantly, I see that you take the "guilty until proven otherwise"-approach to justice.
Good luck with that. "
Thom, I've noticed in this and ore comments that you know a lot less about the law than you like to pretend. Your position has been made indefensible by several facts listed by some posters, and now you want to throw out charges of guilty until proven otherwise? Do you know what a seizure warrant implies? Do you know how it's obtained? Do you know what reasonable cause means?
I'm reminded of another thread where you screamed about censorship in the US but clearly didn't know that obscenity has never been considered protected speech. (Or perhaos you knew and you pretended not to, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
I agree with another poster that your comments can make a story more lively, but at least try to inform yourself before making them. Otherwise you do no one any favors.
Member since:2005-11-11
1) It might be illegal in the US to download illegally uploaded content, but it's not illegal in many European countries.
so what. The authorities in this case aren't going after people "download(ing) illegally uploaded content" are they? (as though you could separate downloading and uploading when dealing with torrents anyway).
To quote you again: "illegally uploaded content". welp. I don't feel bad for people being deprived of this content even if it is legal for them to download it. By your own admission it shouldn't have been uploaded in the first place.
A lot of the law needs to change, but you missed the boat with that bit
Member since:2009-08-05
I completely agree with you. It's amazing how people here will defend to the death their alleged inalienable right to STEAL. Now, of course, you have the Black Helicopter Gang saying, "Oh...now WikiLeaks is next..." and other nonsense, completely ignoring the fact that copyright infringement is not the same as free speech issues. If they were, WikiLeaks and jihadist websites would have been blocked already.
So...why throw up these canards about WikiLeaks, free speech, etc...? How else can they rationalize their thievery.
Edited 2010-11-27 15:13 UTC
Member since:2007-04-25
In criminal law, "theft" is defined as "the dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of depriving the owner permanently of its possession" (free dictionary) and "the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it" (Webster's).
This just doesn't sound like what's happening here; Big Media is not being deprived of any personal property a'tall. IANAL, but I believe you meant to criticize "copyright infringement", which is a very different thing.
Copyright (in the USA) is a privilege granted to an author by constitutional authority for a limited time for the explicit purpose of promoting science and the useful arts. Property rights, by contrast, are considered God-given and inalienable and cannot be legally removed except by due process under the law; they never expire (for example).
Copyright infringement is still wrong, of course, but it isn't theft, no matter how many times Big Media repeats the big lie. And yes, the difference matters - if copyrighted material is "property" and violating copyright is "theft", then control of the material can only be removed after due process - which is, of course, the goal of Big Media. Tried watching "Steamboat Willie" lately? ;-)
Member since:2009-03-17
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2010-11-27
First I'd like to point out that if you look at the website graphic, a seizure warrant was issued by the courts and they are not required to tell you before seizing your stuff. In a practical sense it prevents things like drug dealers flushing their stash prior to thepolice showing up. Anyway, you are right, but the domain, for that one example anyway, is still held by GoDaddy within the US. If they shut down a website completely unrelated to the US at all then I'll change my tune. Frankly, a more accurate anology would be that the Justice Department stopped the flow of downstream toxic waste; not starting it. People are pissed because they got cut off from stolen goods? Color me devastated.