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Comment Re:How many? (Score 1) 342

This is a case of a new player using the broadcast signal to provide a pay service without remuneration to the broadcast source. The broadcaster is paying the fees for the content and getting nothing in return.

They are getting the ad revenue, just like they get for everyone else in their area that puts up an antenna.

Comment Re:How many? (Score 1) 342

There actually were a few crazy laws invented mostly to make cars impractical. Some of them never went off the books, they just got ignored so long that nobody even remembers they exist.

For example, at one time, when crossing an intersection, the driver was to stop the car, turn off the engine, get out and yell loudly. If nobody answered, he was to honk a loud horn. If nobody answered, he was to fire a gun into the air. Then, finally he was permitted to restart the car and continue. Supposedly this was to avoid collisions in the intersection.

Comment Re:So? Fix it. (Score 1) 93

And before you rant on about use of this data, I'm saying it is going to be used for EXACTLY THE REASON IT WAS COLLECTED.

And they are willing to back that with a contract where changes in terms are explicitly forbidden, right? Because all I see are vague statements that aren't even promises.

I really don't care if the company has any resale value or not. I'm more concerned that they not collect kids' data under color of government (since school is compulsory) and then change management and sell it to the highest bidder. If they can't make a go of it under that constraint, we're better off without them.

If they would like to not purge the data, they will have to honor the terms the data was collected under.

Comment Re:Parent groups shut this down (Score 2) 93

The problem is who owns the data. The deep secret about your 'permanent record' that principals talk about when you're in school is that once you graduate, they sit on paper in a disused basement until destroyed by floods, fire, or rats. Perhaps these days they sit on tapes that become unreadable even sooner.

The good news is that they don't get sold to credit agencies, insurance companies or other lowlifes. Even if they wanted to sell it, they can't. It's just too hard to retrieve.

The harm of collecting it all under some 3rd party that pinkie swears it won't misuse the data is that it will, sooner or later, be quietly sold to those lowlifes I mentioned.

Comment Re:So? Fix it. (Score 1) 93

They could always purge the data. If the new buyer has any desire to use the data in a way that wasn't part of the deal when the user provided it, it's the only proper thing to do anyway.

Of course, those investors have the money burning a hole in their pocket. If they don't invest it, it will inflate itself away. Everything they might want to invest in is operating under that same law, so they might as well choose the same way they are now.

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