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Comment Re:DMCA Misrepresentation claim viable (Score 4, Informative) 463

Two sections of Title 17 (Copyrights) are relevant. 17 USC 512 (safe harbor) and 17 USC 1201 (anti-circumvention). The notice is styled as one under 17 USC 512:

It has come to our attention that the web site www.brandonw.net, contains material and/or links to material that violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). This letter is to notify you, in accordance with the provisions of the DMCA, of these unlawful activities. Pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, we request that you remove any whole or partial reproductions of and/or disable links to the following:

...

I hereby confirm that I have a good faith belief that use of the Illegal Material in the manner complained of in this letter is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law, that the information in this letter is accurate, and that, under penalty of perjury, I am authorized to act on behalf of TI, the owner of the exclusive rights in the TI-83 Plus operating system software that are allegedly misappropriated using unlawful methods.

TI appears to be claiming that the copyright in the TI-83 Plus operating system software is infringing. This therefore appears to be a notice under 512(c)(3). Anti-circumvention is a totally different section of the copyright code, 1201. There is no takedown procedure for access control circumvention materials.

But with regards to anti-circumvention claims: It appears that TI is claiming that the signing keys circumvent a "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." This is a term of art.

(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

Are signing keys necessary to gain access to the TI 83 Plus operating system binary? As far as I know, no. My understanding is that they are only used to prepare operating system images for installation onto the calculator.

Comment DMCA Misrepresentation claim viable (Score 5, Informative) 463

It's highly unlikely that the factors of an RSA private key are subject to copyright protection. Therefore the groups may have a viable claim for DMCA misrepresentation under subsection (f):

(f) MISREPRESENTATIONS- Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section--
    (1) that material or activity is infringing, or
    (2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification,
shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner's authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.

Texas Instruments may just have Diebolded itself.

Comment Re:Land Value Tax (Score 1) 913

Because property owners would never increase their rents to cover the high taxes.

Landlords will charge tenants as high of a rent as the market will bear (tenants are willing to pay). They aren't cutting you any breaks. If their expenses go up, their profit goes down. If unemployment goes up, rents go down.

Anyway, property taxes are already everywhere.

The land value tax is not the same as a property tax, because it does not create a disincentive to invest in creating new property. You can build as many units as you want on a piece of land, and the tax remains the same.

Comment Re:Land Value Tax (Score 1) 913

A land value tax does distort market mechanisms.

But then you inadvertently point out how it aids a market mechanism:

The most obvious effect is that if many parcels in an area are improved, the value of the unimproved parcels is likely to go up, often considerably.

That's kind of the point. Unimproved parcels are being used inefficiently. It is better for this unused resource to go to a new, more efficient user. That's a market mechanism that is aided by the imposition of the tax.

Social Networks

Submission + - Ron Paul's use of the Internet in his presidential

tres3 writes: "A recent New York Times article explores some of the success that Ron Paul's presidential campaign has had in using the Internet. The author correctly states that others aren't as successful because their approach led many to micromanage their Web sites. By contrast, [Ms. Teachout] said, the Paul campaign took the opposite lesson that it was about openness and power. He has over 1140 MeetUp Groups in 900 cities (including one in the green zone in Baghdad) that have operated largely independently from the campaign.

For instance the ThisNovember5th site was setup by Trevor Lyman using a video created by James Sugra without even consulting the campaign. That site brought in $4.3M from 37,000 donors in 24 hours. Mr. Paul estimated that the one-day haul had brought $10 million worth of free publicity. Ron said he hadn't even gotten around to thanking them yet. THANKS Guys!! There is a new money bomb web site being prepared now in celebration of the Boston Tea Party

The article goes on to cover the wide variety of supporters that the Paul campaign has attracted. In reality Dr. Paul didn't create these groups; he simply gave them a focal point to rally behind. And he used the Internet to unite them, or more accurately, the users of the Internet found his message and united themselves behind it. I guess that is why the author titled the article 'The Web Finds Ron Paul, and Takes Him for a Ride'."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Punished for Going After Bloggers

inetsee writes: "Apple has been ordered to pay legal fees for two web sites that reported on an in-development Apple project code named 'Asteroid'. According to the article on WebProNews, Apple was ordered by a Santa Clara County court to pay almost $700,000 in legal reimbursement to AppleInsider and PowerPage after the court agreed with the Electronic Frontier Foundation legal team that the web sites 'qualified as legitimate online news sites' engaging in trade journalism. Apple had claimed that it had a right to protect its trade secrets, but the EFF successfully argued that 'Subpoenaing journalist sources is not an acceptable means of discovery.'"
The Internet

Submission + - Search with your voice

An anonymous reader writes: Acccording to this report, Music social networking site midomi.com is showcasing a new search technology that allows you to search for music by singing, whistling or humming a few bars of a song to identify the track. The search engine technology was even able to correctly identify songs sung by the writer, who is says he is a hopeless singer.

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