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Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

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111–120 of 188 posts

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#111
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty surprising. Given the industry standard with mining similar communications I'm surprised that Apple gave up a gigantic pool of user information like that.

Follow the money. Collecting user information is (in most cases) a distraction for Apple that could blow up in their face and lead to a serious PR fallout. See locationgate. See Path's address book shenanigans. It's in their best interest not only not to secretly collect user information, they also want to show that they care about stuff like that (because then they can point their finger at others). Apple cares abou…

> iAds might matter, but it seems to be a flop and Apple isn't exactly heavily invested in it.

Even further, iMessage accounts are tied to existing Apple IDs, which in most cases are tied to the user's iPhone and iTunes Store account. If Apple wanted to profile users of their iMessage system, they don't need to scan private communications, they'll just recommend albums, books and movies based on previous purchase history. It's more relevant to their business domain than trying to gleam whether or not Alice and Bob are in a relationship and expecting a child soon.

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#112
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty surprising. Given the industry standard with mining similar communications I'm surprised that Apple gave up a gigantic pool of user information like that.

Follow the money. Collecting user information is (in most cases) a distraction for Apple that could blow up in their face and lead to a serious PR fallout. See locationgate. See Path's address book shenanigans. It's in their best interest not only not to secretly collect user information, they also want to show that they care about stuff like that (because then they can point their finger at others). Apple cares abou…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#113
post #49
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you use the word property doesn't make intellectual monopolies property.

If you don't like the words, good, go look at the moral foundation that underlies the idea. It is a fact of reality that it is morally right to give people ownership rights for things they produce (besides, again, being the basis of society). And why not? Paying for something rather than stealing it (or changing the law so it's not officially "stealing" anymore), just isn't that big of a deal.

I'm not sure I've seen anything like the phrase, "fact of reality that it is morally right" outside of a religious context.

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#114
post #89
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People expect something that was not intentionally sent by their friends to be actively intercepted. While making the technical distinction may sometimes be tricky, the emotional distinction is fairly straight forward.

You're right, it's an emotional distinction. Let me illustrate. A man operates a gay rights message board that includes private messages. He tolerates alternate viewpoints, but after a particularly bad flamefest he uses a plugin to ban linking to a hate speech site that is especially contrary to the aims of the forum that he pays for out of his own pocket. It extends to PMs. He explains that if you want to trade such…

> He tolerates alternate viewpoints, but after a particularly bad flamefest he uses a plugin to ban linking to a hate speech

So he doesn't actually tolerate alternate viewpoints, the problem is in the framing. If the discussion board was supposed to facilitate discussion of opposing viewpoints (like IM network is supposed to facilitate private messaging) then it's not reasonable to ban one side's resources.

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#115
post #108
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until someone can prove a negative impact of piracy on the copyright holders all you say is rubbish and plain wrong. No company should be allowed to hinder my free speech. And no worries, I do not use any Microsoft products, but I can IM people who do use live messenger from Linux IM apps. I am guessing I will be censored anyway, which is just horrible and outrageous.

No company should be allowed to hinder my free speech. We've already established why your use of the words "free speech" is invalid, and rather than addressing that, you're just making arbitrary assertions (which, because they are arbitrary, should be ignored). Until someone can prove a negative impact of piracy on the copyright holders It's been proven, and is also quite obvious, but again, you're just going on emot…

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-governmen...

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#116
post #108
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until someone can prove a negative impact of piracy on the copyright holders all you say is rubbish and plain wrong. No company should be allowed to hinder my free speech. And no worries, I do not use any Microsoft products, but I can IM people who do use live messenger from Linux IM apps. I am guessing I will be censored anyway, which is just horrible and outrageous.

No company should be allowed to hinder my free speech. We've already established why your use of the words "free speech" is invalid, and rather than addressing that, you're just making arbitrary assertions (which, because they are arbitrary, should be ignored). Until someone can prove a negative impact of piracy on the copyright holders It's been proven, and is also quite obvious, but again, you're just going on emot…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#117
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, because I just can't stand to pay an enormous amount like $10 or $20 for that book or album I really have to have. I think it's unreasonable to expect people who make things to be able to profit from them for more than 5 years. Hell, why don't we make all property expire after 5 or 10 years? Please don't take the sarcasm personally; it was just the best way to illustrate my point.

Most property has value without artificial legal limitations. I agree that 5-10 years is probably too short of a period for intellectual property to be protected. Honestly, putting an arbitrary span of time on the duration is a suboptimal way of accomplishing the goals of copyright law. Why not protect an artist’s creation as long as he or she is alive, and then release it into the public domain upon his or her death…

One of the main problems with the current system is that corporations (e.g. Disney) can monopolize culturally-significant works for decades after their creator’s death.

So? How is it a problem that Disney has a monopoly on Pocahontas or Aladdin?

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#118
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Follow the money. Collecting user information is (in most cases) a distraction for Apple that could blow up in their face and lead to a serious PR fallout. See locationgate. See Path's address book shenanigans. It's in their best interest not only not to secretly collect user information, they also want to show that they care about stuff like that (because then they can point their finger at others). Apple cares abou…

locationgate is actually what gave me the impression that this would be relevant to them. You make persuasive points though. Incidentally, I'm not so convinced that collecting user information leads to as big of a PR fallout as HN often suggests. I think it's more likely that the level to which our community -- which is small compared to the general UB -- gets upset makes it easy for us to overestimate public reactio…

I'm not sure about that. I saw articles about that on the front page of big news websites. Apple is a big deal, the press will report on them. Even worse: They will report about the scandal but likely not about steps someone takes to mitigate the problem or things that explain the problem. That way we here on HN might know very well every little detail about a scandal (including things that make the scandal less of a big deal) but the general public might not.

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#119
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm disappointed to see the destruction of property rights (intellectual or otherwise) being lauded on HN. The RIAA and MPAA make deals with artists to distribute their music, and you want to interfere and just steal it instead. It's dishonest, it's juvenile, and it's eroding at the basis of society (equality under the law, property rights, basic respect and goodwill towards others, etc.).

Has it occurred to you that to many people the issue may not be piracy? I don't use the pirate bay, nor do I endorse copyright infringement, but this development nevertheless greatly concerns me. No, I suspect it has not.

I was responding to the parent of my comment, not to the article. Anyway, thanks for being a dick!

Re: Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship is never the right solution, though. That would be education.

I don't disagree, but how would you implement this? Results trump ideals every time.

If this is really a serious problem, then they should send an informative email to every user, say once every week about spamming, phising, passwords, etc. Of course, it should be easy opt out.

Moreover, when I last used Windows (XP, 2008), executables could still masquerading as .doc files. This would be easy enough to solve for MS, I think.

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