The whole âoeitâ(TM)s super dangerousâ thing served two purposes. First, it hyped the product. It must be earth shattering if itâ(TM)s super dangerous. Second, it was a naked play for government regulation to protect them from competition.

The irony of course is that they played up Skynet, the real societal danger was never going be stopped through regulation. The danger I speak of is that of generated content being taken as truth, whether itâ(TM)s propaganda or just lazy danger like putting glue on pizzas or misidentifying mushrooms.

But of course theyâ(TM)re not concerned with that. That makes money, and anyway, it will get better⦠eventually.

Itâ(TM)s âoequid pro quoâ not âoequid pre quoâ. ;)
If you get the money after the act, then itâ(TM)s not a bribe, but merely a thank you gift!

You are correct - it does conflict, and that's my fault - it's 1 month of severance per full year of service -- My brain was not braining when I typed that post. The labour relations act says 1 week/year. Common law precedence in Canada is 4 weeks/1 month per year of service.

100% true. If you come back saying "give me 8 weeks and you'll never see me again" they'll probably come back and you'll settle on 6. As always - get a good employment lawyer to read over the severance agreement. But never sign the first offer. (Unless it's 4 months pay and you've been there under 2 years - but even then - get a lawyer to read over it - it's a contract - we (engineers) no relatively nothing of the intricacies of employment law). If you've been ther for 15 years - you should be getting 15 months of severance.

Let me expand a little bit;

A: GTFO with 4 months severance pay, or
B: GTFO with 2 months of micromanaged hell and no severance pay at the end of those 2 months.

And those 4 months pay are negotiable - especially if you've been there for over 4 years. If you've been there for 2 years, take the money and don't look back.

In Canada the usual severance (common law precedence - not what is written in the Labour relations Act is what really matters) is 4 weeks pay for each full year of service. So if you have been there for 5 full years, you should get 5 weeks of severance (with full pay & benefits during those 5 weeks) - this can be larger if you're older or have other factors that may make it more difficult to get another job (disabilities etc). Always consult a good and experienced employment lawyer (not just some random lawyer) when getting laid off or fired. The initial offer from the company is just that - an initial offer. They will try to pressure you to sign on the spot, or imply that it is not negotiable - take the written document and go to a lawyer - if they don't give you enough time to consult counsel, they will get burned hard.

If you're in Ontario and need an employment lawyer - I have a couple of good friends in the field - I can hook you up.

The Internet is a potato.

So does this mean that pressing play on my keyboard will now launch Spotify instead of Apple Music, or what?

In my experience it takes (on average) somwehere between 10 and 20 thousand (USD) to get a patent applied for and issued (They always come up with some bogus reason for it to not be issued, and you have to go back and forth with the examiner a few times making inconsequential changes before they will issue the patent. Can take anywhere between 5 to 10 years from application to issue.

The fees paid to the patent office are tiny compared to the other costs.

Fair use is for everyone.

This really isnâ(TM)t that hard. Fair use is not â" nor was it ever intended to be â" a backdoor âoepay what you can affordâ.

Undoubtedly there are many in the antigenai and antioligarch crowd are going to be cheering this ruling, but I canâ(TM)t help but think this is going to absolutely gut fair use and just make rent seeking by megacorps become even more pervasive.

Information wants to be free, and we scraping is not a crime.

Just give me the google search of 5 years ago. What they have now is way less useful than it used to be.

AND - No PornHub - the horror! :-)

Don't all theories begin as speculation? Some have more or less observations to support them, some even amass significant bodies of evidence - others do not.

One persons theory is another's speculation.

Are your pink unicorns invisible by chance? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Pink_Unicorn) :-)

And then it's a sport! :-)