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Piracy

Submission + - Major Australian ISPs Propose Piracy Education Not (commsalliance.com.au)

xav_jones writes: The ABC is reporting that "Australia's five major ISPs have revealed their plans to crack down on online piracy by sending warning notices to suspected illegal downloaders while assisting rights holders to pursue serial offenders through the courts." The idea is that "[d]uring an 18-month trial, rights holders would send copyright infringement notices, including evidence of copyright infringement and the IP address involved, to ISPs who would then send "educational notices" to the internet users concerned." Further action would entail that "[u]sers who are suspected of further copyright breaches would then receive up to three warning notices before rights holders are able to pursue court action."

This seems a gentler approach than other countries. Will it prove more effective and/or cost efficient?

Comment Re:A comment from a recent repatriated Canberran (Score 1) 154

The actual incident that triggered the request for UAVs was the death in Fyshwick earlier this year - where a serial car thief who delighted in baiting police (because the courts kept letting him off) hit and killed some of his friends after calling them to help escape the police pursuit.

Really? Because the article is a report on minutes from a meeting held in June 2010.

Comment Re:A comment from a recent repatriated Canberran (Score 1) 154

Thanks for the back story since the article obviously didn't mention any of that. Using speed camera pictures in court seems like a perfectly reasonable idea but was never mentioned -- so that's extra information you bring to the table. Thanks for calling me a moron even though you didn't address a single point I raised. Again, Canberran roads are the safest in the world and measures that have been discussed, as mentioned in the article, are an over-reaction to a non-existent problem.

Comment A comment from a recent repatriated Canberran (Score 1) 154

I returned to Canberra 8 months ago after 6 years overseas, living in both Germany and the US (well, California!). Some things we are very glad to be back to and some leave me with a slack jaw. This is one of them. Here is the comment I --usually politically apathetic, like most Australians -- posted to the article linked to in the summary.

Irrespective of whether we can trust the AFP, the installation of point-to-point speed cameras which have "relatively low infringement rates" seems like a gross over-reaction to a non-existent problem. The data --crazy I know to look at it when considering emotionally driven issues -- does not bear out the expense http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/D18CA4EA930FF0D2CA25773700169CE5?opendocument

Suggesting that reducing tolerances to increase infringements (in this case, I see no other reason than for revenue) to pay for a system that is not needed is abusive. Will it reduce deaths?

The short of the data is that the ACT has about half the traffic accident-related fatalities of the western world, including those countries noted for above-average driving abilities. Indeed, one might argue that Canberra has the safest roads in the world. It makes one ask the question, what is the target death rate? Zero? As always the last 10% takes 90% of the effort and in this case, I believe, such a low rate can be accepted as part of the inherent risk of driving.

Comment Re:Canucks & kiwis get price gouged as well. (Score 1) 440

You are, of course, correct -- it just made it hard to make the statement dramatic :) And I thank you for being a thinking American. Since I was living there at the time (SoCal), I noticed a difference in my commute time as well. The reactions from other people over the 'horrendous' cost of gasoline only made me smirk and point out how incredibly cheap it was to obtain, refine and burn dead dinosaurs.

Comment Re:Canucks & kiwis get price gouged as well. (Score 5, Insightful) 440

Part of the problem is that they are small markets and as such have less competition. All the people erroneously claiming shipping costs, government taxes and consumer protection laws just don't seem to have a clue about how companies fix their pricing based on what the market will bear (i.e. what they can get away with). And of course, this is the essence of capitalism. In the case of Australia, since the market is smaller there is less competition and some companies -- I'm looking at you Canon -- go to great lengths to keep their fat profit margins that they cannot sustain in other markets.

Case in point, "the average price of a movie ticket in Australia for 2010 was AUD$12.98. In the United States, though, the average ticket cost just $US7.89 (approximately AUD$7.40)" [1]

Having said all that, I don't mind the government looking out for it's people who are being priced gouged.

Oh, and any American who thinks this kind of complaint seems a bit whiny (and are under the delusion that there is much a consumer can do about it) you all squealed like stuck pigs when your gasoline hit $4 a gallon for goodness sakes.

[1] http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/money/shopping-and-legal/shopping/cinema-rip-offs/page/do-the-math.aspx

Comment Re:Follow the data! (Score 2) 954

Computer models were based on the data. Apparently, they were based on insufficient data.

There is input, output and logic. Input, in this case was the collected data from weather stations, satellites, ice cores, tree rings, etc. The model is a computer simulation program. It is a set of logic rules (algorithms) we feed the input to produce the output. The output is the climate prediction.

The output, or the global warming prediction is flawed because the logic (the model) is flawed.

Of course, there are many that will challenge the data (input) as well (weather stations located inside an active volcano, etc).

It appears as though it is not so much the logic as the magnitude of one of the input variables of the model looks to be incorrect. In this case, the incorrect input is the size of the Earth's energy loss. I believe the new data will allow for a correction on this input magnitude.

Comment Re:What about other needs? (Score 1) 950

However, your comments on tort reform are dead on. As a resident of Illinois (one of the worse states for medical malpractice insurance), I completely agree that the first step toward fixing any healthcare system in our country is malpractice tort reform. I feel that an acquaintance of mine put it best: "You expect a bunch of lawyers to fix tort law to make it harder to sue? Ha!"

All I know about the benefit of tort reform came from two US doctors -- both familiar with their industry -- who both said it would not amount to much difference, money-wise. I am all for tort reform on a matter of principle but I don't think it will fix the myriad of problems that is the US health care 'system'.

Comment Re:You already can (Score 1) 266

I have a HDHomeRun located upstairs with no real way to get the network signal down to a proposed MythTV box next to the television. A friend suggested HomePlug for ethernet over the electrical wires. The HD HomeRun (dual tuner) states 100Mbps network connection for its specification. HomePlug is 85MBps I believe and should be sufficient. A single HD stream is roughly 19Mbps I believe so all should be good. Note: all theoretical at this stage but perhaps worth looking into for yourself.

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