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Why I’m Suing the US Government

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Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#291

Post by reddytowns »

You know, no one asked you tech people from getting involved in law making. Nowadays, a law maker can't seem to do anything at all without some techie crying foul. Their argument always is some nonsensical technobabble, which the courts can't really understand anyway, often giving in to their demands just to get them to go away.

And it's such a shame, too, since those laws were bought and paid for by lobbyists, and what does it say about the rest of the country if one can't expect to get what one pays for when lobbying at the highest level of government?

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#292

Post by ashitlerferad »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #166
safeignorance wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking on Pearson and other companies that use similarly predatory tactics to extract value from society's most disadvantaged is exactly the sort of "disruption" that the world needs more of. That said, I doubt one could go at it alone with no support or with only a grant -- building up mind share, fighting off BS patent threats, and doing enough sales to break even on these non-development costs aren't the sort of t…

Agree re: disruption. I've thought about this type of thing a lot, and I wish there was a way to fix the root cause instead of what I consider the symptom (dodgy overpriced software for a specific niche, especially when it targets non-technical users and/or has to do with medicine / HELPING HUMANS PHYSICALLY). I came to the conclusion that it's Very Hard to disincentivize greed. Anyone have any ideas for what could b…

Competition from the open source world perhaps.

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#293

Post by ashitlerferad »

comex wrote: post #239
hlandau wrote: post #49

This post about the damage inflicted by 1201 reminded me of another 1201: Halon 1201, banned because it depletes the ozone layer. A serendipitous coincidence, with this post talking about 1201 like an ecological threat. More seriously, the GPLv3 contains an interesting provision. Search for "Anti-Circumvention" in this to find the section: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0-standalone.html The second paragraph is p…

I'm not a lawyer either, but I doubt that clause has much effect, if any. The DMCA defines "effective technological measure" as follows: > [A] technological measure “effectively controls access to a work” if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work. This seems like a…

CSS encryption on DVDs doesn't "effectively control access to a work" because it is easy to crack. That doesn't stop copyright holders and the DMCA from deeming that DeCSS is illegal.

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#294

Post by ashitlerferad »

unabst wrote: post #210

What we need is the legal right to fork any IP. An open licensing model where no one needs permission. They just need to maybe pay an IP tax that trickles up to the previous contributors that helped produce what was forked. IP is completely flawed because it grants a monopoly on the fruits of specific knowledge or a work as if they are static end products, whereas in reality anything that is not evolving is dying. So…

> the legal right to fork any IP

Not really useful without any public source code.

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#295

Post by hueving »

milankragujevic wrote: post #289
hueving wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>permanently modifying the hardware is the more portable solution. it will always work with unmodified software i.e. at a colleague's location. No, as OP mentioned, the software was compiled to match the device ID of the mic it was shipped with. So it would only work with versions of the software that were the same as OP's.

I think you misinterpreted. It's the USB device ID, which contains a unique to the model ID and the vendor ID, so any software would work with any device if it has the same model ID. There isn't a such thing (at least not standardized) as a unique device ID.

I think you misinterpreted, because you repeated what I said.

>So it would only work with versions of the software that were the same as OP's

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#296

Post by thinkMOAR »

noonespecial wrote: post #102
thinkMOAR wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people, citizens. Though i'm curious what kind of laws are rolled back in the US because a citizen decided to sue to government. Do you have any nice examples (preferably of some law effecting many but sued by just one person?)

How about Roe v. Wade? "Roe (P), a pregnant single woman, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of the Texas abortion laws. These laws made it a crime to obtain or attempt an abortion except on medical advice to save the life of the mother."

ah yes that was a great case, thanks for the reminder. I'm not from the US but i have heard about that. But that does kind of shows what i meant, afaik that was a big and hefty case? And all because some people decided what another person could do with (mostly) her body. (hoping to get it undone).

But this one has economic (money) aspects, i fear this might be a bigger struggle (while people may differ about whats more important).

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#297

Post by briandear »

onetwotree wrote: post #100

Good luck! What's kind of cool about this issue is that it attracts support from citizens of all political stripes - whether you're a farmer who just wants to be able to fix his own damn tractor, or a hacker who wants to futz with proprietary hardware, the law is patently bogus. Unfortunately, farmers and hackers have far less political influence than corporations. Hopefully by pursuing this through the courts and wi…

Just as a point of fact, farmers have huge political power. Look at farm subsidies, look at Ethanol mandates.

To be more accurate, I would say the number of farmers that want to work with code/electronics to fix tractors is a small subset of "farmers." Try cutting a farming subsidy and you'll quickly see how powerful farmers really are.

Ted Cruz was the only candidate who dared challenge Ethanol mandates -- while campaigning in Iowa. Most political pundits considered that suicide. He won Iowa despite that, but it does show that farmers actually have disproportional power in national politics. However, the "hack my tractor" crowd is not necessarily exercising that power. Perhaps in the 2020 election, this will become a marquee issue (as ethanol has been in elections past.)

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#298

Post by [deleted] »

onetwotree wrote: post #100

Good luck! What's kind of cool about this issue is that it attracts support from citizens of all political stripes - whether you're a farmer who just wants to be able to fix his own damn tractor, or a hacker who wants to futz with proprietary hardware, the law is patently bogus. Unfortunately, farmers and hackers have far less political influence than corporations. Hopefully by pursuing this through the courts and wi…

[deleted]

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#299

Post by eli »

ashitlerferad wrote: post #293
comex wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a lawyer either, but I doubt that clause has much effect, if any. The DMCA defines "effective technological measure" as follows: > [A] technological measure “effectively controls access to a work” if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work. This seems like a…

CSS encryption on DVDs doesn't "effectively control access to a work" because it is easy to crack. That doesn't stop copyright holders and the DMCA from deeming that DeCSS is illegal.

No, the law means "effective" in the sense of "has the effect of controlling access" not in the sense of "does a great job at it." CSS clearly does have an effect of controlling access to people trying to copy DVDs even if the encryption is weak.

Re: Why I’m Suing the US Government

#300

Post by MertsA »

hueving wrote: post #295
milankragujevic wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misinterpreted. It's the USB device ID, which contains a unique to the model ID and the vendor ID, so any software would work with any device if it has the same model ID. There isn't a such thing (at least not standardized) as a unique device ID.

I think you misinterpreted, because you repeated what I said. >So it would only work with versions of the software that were the same as OP's

What he's saying is that there might be V1, 2 and 3 of the microphone in question. The software is tied to a single version of that microphone so any microphone of the same version is indistinguishable to the software.

>the software was compiled to match the device ID of the mic it was shipped with.

Since there isn't a "device ID", only a "Model ID", there isn't a new compiled version for everything being shipped. There's maybe 3 or 4 versions of the software total and there's probably one version that's more prolific than the others.

He may not have been able to buy one of those USB Microphones off of Amazon that had the same VID and PID but the old model that he repaired is one of the few versions that the manufacturer used so there's a pretty decent chance that the fixed one will work as is with another computer with the software on it.

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