Brought to you by the teachers' unions. Your kids are morons. We can't teach them. So no fair blaming us if they can't pass achievement tests. Just give us the raises for warehousing your brats and shut the hell up. And also parents of Bubba The Moron. My boy shouldn't be ranked against his peers. While everyone else is studying, he is winning football trophys for the school. So he deserves the same diploma as all the other kids, with no adverse grades attached.

Most of the rest of the world has figured this out already. Take the high achievers and move them into the fast track. Take the low achievers and send them to trade school. But Bubba doesn't want a diploma from Knuckle Draggers Acadamy when he has to go out and compete in the job market. And no teacher wants to teach there.

I was thinking Boeing. But as they were not on fire, you could be correct.

... police work.

It beats running a drag net on the entire Internet just to see who you can catch doing whatever.

And who funds these various parties? Taking on a for-profit entity that scoops up public domain IP and then chases you off of it isn't going to be cheap.

Defending IP isn't like real property. Where a simple call to the police that your clapped out Honda has been stolen will mobilize police forces willing to expend many times its value and put the general public at risk chasing it down.

Let me know when I can call 911 to report my photos stolen and expect an armed response.

... to be sure.

So how will we know the difference between the Anon. warriors for justice and any other paedophile collecting material?

... who they got to connect the call?

First to file. Not first to invent.

OK, so then who supervises the term of the public domain copyright? Who stops the content theives from downloading your stuff, claiming the rights to it, submitting bogus take-down notices and claiming 'public' IP as their own?

Prommisory estoppel (if I understand it correctly) only obtains an agreement from the creator not to pursue claims. It does nothing to prevent some third party from doing so, unless the creator or an assignee actively defends the public status of the rights.

Wasn't that a scene in this movie where the self destruct timer continued to count down to :01? In spite of the correct code being entered. Because all self destruct timers seen in movies are disabled with only moments to spare for dramatic effect.

I object, your honor. Opposing counsel is clearly trying to prejudice the jury with facts.

... its a matter of pro-actively placing the copyright into the hands of a government entity chartered to hold it for the benefit of the public. Such an entity would have to be carefully created, with clear definitions of 'public benefit' and by-laws written to prevent takeover by special interests. The down side would be the creation of another bureaucracy that would need a funding source to operate. And would eventually leverage itself into a rent-seeking entity to serve its directors and other minions.

Much less power will be needed to spin large blades. The thin Martian atmosphere will produce much less parasitic drag.

Won't someone please answer that fucking phone?!

This.

No mod points left, but I agree. We ae trying everything to get people out of private cars and onto public transportation with little effect. Just pull the licences from the worst drivers and hand them a transit pass. Reduce traffic volume and save money by postponing expansion projects. And do so by getting the crappiest drivers off the road.

Insurance companies don't show up at accident scenes. Cops do and they fill out the reports that insurance companies compile into statistics.