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Comment: Re:totally bogus argument (Score 1) 46

by Marc Madness (#40153799) Attached to: NASA, ASU Team Finds a New Test For Osteoporosis

This is another point against anyone who claims NASA, and going to space in general, is a complete waste of money.

This has always been a totally bogus argument, because you can't do a controlled experiment. Suppose that the US had never engaged in the Cold War propaganda exercise known as the space race. Later, suppose that the US had never gotten into pork-barrel projects such as the space shuttle and the ISS. What would the world have been like? We have no way of figuring out what scientific advances would have been made in this alternate history.

Although your point is true, the argument is that NASA and going to space in general is not a complete waste of money. No one is claiming that investing the money otherwise could not have yielded better results; in which case a controlled experiment would be required.

Ubuntu

Dell's Project Sputnik: Linux Hardware for Human Beings?->

Submitted by jimjimovich
jimjimovich writes "Dell has announced a new project to create an Ultrabook aimed specifically at developers. While that may get some of us excited, is focusing on developers really a good idea or should Dell be focused on the consumer market with their Ubuntu Ultrabook? Will Dell or some other manufacturer finally release some Linux Hardware for Human Beings and help push Ubuntu to the masses?"
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF? - *No for intent* (Score 4, Insightful) 741

by Marc Madness (#38842543) Attached to: Man Who Downloaded Bomb Recipes Jailed For 2 Years
Interesting that later in the article we find the following quote from Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter: "This case has never been about proving an endgame and we may never know what his intentions were". So they admit to not knowing his intentions, how can they in good conscience say they are arresting him for intent?

Comment: Re:Any news? (Score 2, Interesting) 140

by Marc Madness (#38817255) Attached to: Piratbyran Co-Founder Says Stop DDoSing Polish Sites

It's like saying that "Hey, this cop might have shot two innocent people but it's very black and white thinkign to call him a murderer. I mean, he also shot three criminals that sure balances it out isn't it?" .

Whether the victims are criminals or not is irrelevant in ascribing the label of murderer to the police officer. If the officer took a bank robber into a back alley, had him kneel down, then shot him in the back of the head, he would still be considered a murderer. There are your shades of grey, they are hiding in the details.

Similarly, when you're talking about fighting an unjust law by breaking it, that's implicitly a grey area: you have to distinguish between something that is criminal and something that is illegal. To say that you need to be "very black and white" in these situations is, in my opinion, an over simplification of the issues at stake. In the context of ACTA, we can go so far as to ask whether it is criminal for the law to be imposed on the people of Poland the way it is (even though it's not illegal for them to do so AFAIK). Can you then say that a DDoS attack, although illegal, is criminal if it is intended to bring awareness to these shenanigans? (although this is not to say that I agree with the method, it's just to illustrate the shades of grey)

Comment: Re:PIPA/SOPA Backlash (Score 4, Insightful) 592

One part of their duty is to not commit illegal activities that gets them closed down.

At this point, it has not been demonstrated whether Megaupload has committed any illegal activities (remember the presumption of innocence and all that). The problem is that it's not unfathomable for an entity to be taken down in this fashion regardless of whether they actually commited any crime; especially if SOPA/PIPA or any similar legislation ever gets passed.

Music

Megaupload.com shut down, founder charged with pir-> 2

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes "Federal prosecutors in Virginia have shut down notorious file-sharing site Megaupload.com and charged the service’s founder with violating piracy laws. The Associated Press broke the story on Thursday, reporting that the indictment accuses Megaupload.com’s owner with costing copyright holders including record labels and movie studios more than $500 million in lost revenue."
Link to Original Source

Megaupload down, FBI Charges Seven With Online Pir-> 3

Submitted by Syobon
Syobon writes "WASHINGTON – Seven individuals and two corporations have been charged in the United States with running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites, generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI announced today."
Link to Original Source

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