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Comment Re:Protected relationships (Score 1) 385

Why does that need to be a legally protected relationship?

Because if it's not protected, the person won't go to confession and the opportunity to talk him out of it is lost.

For the same reason, if the state will not honor the sanctity of confession (or other pastoral relationships) it puts itself in a position of banning religious practices. It just doesn't look much like freedom of religion if they keep hauling clergy off to jail when they behave as their religion insists that they must.

Note that mandatory reporting for doctors is not without controversy and is not frequently enforced. There are also laws that go the other way. For example, some states have laws providing amnesty from various drug and underage drinking laws if it is discovered in relation to calling 911 for a medical emergency.

Comment Re:It's quite simple really... (Score 3, Interesting) 158

Even keeping Hanlon's razor in mind, there is a point where incompetence rises to such a level that it is indistinguishable from malice. It had to take a lot of work to create the incompatibilities described. Starting with even caring that more than one window is open. Even back in the stupid old days where Netscape users would actually get an error about a site being IE only, it generally would actually work if you simply impersonated IE in the client string.

It can sometimes be hard to make a site look just so in all browsers, but it's equally hard to make it not work at all except in a single browser. Harder still to add a requirement for a particular version of a plugin. I wonder how many tens of percent less work it would have been to do it right or at least passably.

Comment Re:Protected relationships (Score 2) 385

It doesn't establish a religion, it simply respects it's existence.

Make an important practice within a religion illegal and you're banning a religion.

Contrary to how it plays on TV, the same respect is granted to any religion that has a practice of confession or pastoral counselling. Respecting one but not others would actually be establishment of a religion.

Submission + - Another Patent Pool Forms for HEVC (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A new patent pool, dubbed HEVC Advance, has formed for the HEVC video codec. This pool offers separate licensing from the existing MPEG LA HEVC patent pool. In an article for CNET Stephen Shankland writes, "HEVC Advance promises a 'transparent' licensing process, but so far it isn't sharing details except to say it's got 500 patents it describes as essential for using HEVC, that it plans to unveil its license in the third quarter, and that expected licensors include General Electric, Technicolor, Dolby, Philips and Mitsubishi Electric. The group's statement suggested that some patent holders weren't satisfied with the money they'd make through MPEG LA's license. One of HEVC Advance's goals is 'delivering a balanced business model that supports HEVC commercialization'... HEVC Advance and MPEG LA aren't detailing what led to two patent pools, an outcome that undermines MPEG LA's attempt to offer a convenient 'one-stop shop' for companies needing a license." Perhaps this will lead to increased adoption of royalty-free video codecs such as VP9. Monty Montgomery of Xiph has some further commentary.

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