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Comment Re:F? (Score 3, Insightful) 91

Hi, NYCL! I haven't noticed you around here much lately. Is item F even a thing? Since when does the difficulty of enforcing a law allow judicial expansion of the law? I thought that idea had been thoroughly buried a long time ago.

I have to agree with you Jane Q. For 10 years I've been trying to wake the courts up to the fact that they're not supposed to bend the law to help content owners just because the content owners don't know who committed the infringement. Glad to see them coming around.

Comment Re:Victory for common sense! (Score 1) 91

I think that if this troll can prove they have a copyright on the material and the right to enforce it, they will have a good case to appeal this decision and it will likely be overturned.

You also have to prove that the person you're suing actually committed the infringement. It's not enough that they paid the bill for an internet service account that somebody used to commit an infringement.

Submission + - Judge Calls Malibu Media "Troll", Denies Subpoena

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: In what could be the beginning of the end of the Malibu Media litigation wave involving alleged BitTorrent downloads of porn films, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court has denied Malibu Media's request for a subpoena to get the subscriber's name and address from his or her internet service provider. In his 11-page decision (PDF), Judge Hellerstein discussed "copyright trolls" and noted that (a) it is not clear that Malibu Media's porn products are entitled to copyright protection, (b) discussed some of its questionable litigation practices, (c) Malibu's "investigation" leads at best to an IP address rather than to an individual infringer, (d) there is a major risk of misidentification, (e) Malibu has no evidence that the individual John Doe committed any act of infringement, and (f) Malibu's claim that there is no other practical way for it to target infringement was not supported by adequate evidence.

Comment Re:One Must Fall 2097 (Score 1) 107

True enough, but its a short jump to think "Space Aircraft Carrier w/huge gun we don't see much" might mean "Space Battleship w/huge gun we see a lot more".

Especially if its an old memory.

"Star Blazers" (which your friends who know Macross would probably call Space Battleship Yamato), predates Robotech by at least 5 years and for many was the first introduction to Anime in any form.

United States

Proposed Regulation Could Keep 3D-printed Gun Blueprints Offline For Good 423

SonicSpike sends a report on a proposed update to the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations which could shut down the sharing of files for 3D printed gun parts over the internet. "Hidden within the proposal, which restricts what gear, technology, and info can and cannot be exported out of the U.S., is a ban on posting schematics for 3D printed gun parts online." This follows a lawsuit from Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed back in May fighting the federal government's command to remove blueprints for the "Liberator" 3D-printed gun from their website. A senior official at the U.S. State Department said, "By putting up a digital file, that constitutes an export of the data. If it's an executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it."

Comment Re:I quit trying to organize my songs long time ag (Score 1) 360

For certain music genres, third party tags will be flatly incorrect even from an authoritative source. Classical music and Jazz need to use more tags than are typically supplied by download and streaming services and what tags are used are often applied incorrectly. Streaming and online stores ironically make more work for me than just ripping a goddamned CD and typing everything in myself.

Robotics

Volkswagen Factory Worker Killed By a Robot 342

m.alessandrini writes: A worker at a Volkswagen factory in Germany has died, after a robot grabbed him and crushed him against a metal plate. This is perhaps the first severe accident of this kind in a western factory, and is sparking debate about who is responsible for the accident, the man who was servicing the robot beyond its protection cage, or the robot's hardware/software developers who didn't put enough safety checks. Will this distinction be more and more important in the future, when robots will be more widespread?

Comment Re:Not surprised (Score 1) 334

At which point Uber might (I stress the word "might"), just get the appropriate liability insurance as an umbrella covering their "contractors", pay the required operator fees, chip the spent money out of the drivers pockets, claim they were always going to do this if needed to but hadn't realized they were required to, and use the garnished name recognition to take a major stake in the updated business model.

Not sure if they just plan to grow and become a conglomerate middle man, or if they are pursuing a growth phase pre-speculative acquisition, but either way the people in charge there now have show they have no willingness to follow existing laws unless forced to, in their pursuit of the large market share.

Submission + - Venus and Jupiter: Together at Last (skyandtelescope.com)

The Grim Reefer writes: Anyone who pays even cursory attention to the evening sky has surely noticed that the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, have been drawing closer together in the west in the evening twilight. At the beginning of June, the two planets were 20 degrees apart in the sky, about twice the width of your fist held at arm's length. Week by week, Jupiter and the stars behind it have gradually slipped lower in the evening twilight. But Venus, due to its rapid orbital motion around the Sun, has stayed high up.

But now the spectacle is taking an even more dramatic turn — one you just can't miss. For eight nights beginning June 27th, these two bright planets will be within 2 degrees of each other — close enough to cover both with the thumb of an outstretched hand. In the midst of that weeklong run, on June 30th, Venus and Jupiter will appear so close together — just 1/3 of a degree apart — that they'll look like a tight, brilliant double star in the evening sky. You'll be able to cover both with the tip of an outstretched pinky finger.

Comment Re:Why use ISP email? (Score 1) 269

Gmail as a mobile app is something I actually find quite problematic, since it has a lot of really terrible defaults. Users can't turn off threaded messaging and have to take positive action to reply inline, for example. I'd far rather use K9 or Kaiten mail on Android, if only because I don't have to put up with Google's backward default settings.

Comment Re:Not that excited about Fallout (Score 1) 113

I loved the first two Fallout games to death and I even enjoyed Tactics but man oh man do I hate most of Fallout 3, especially the DC ruins and metro stations. The whole thing needs about three times more textures and models than it has. I believe it can be improved with mods, but the game is sufficiently crashy and old that I'd rather just go back and play the games I know are good the way they are.

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