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Ortiz should offer answers | 559 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 16 2013 @ 08:28 AM EST
How can this not be a conspiracy to pervert the course of
justice (with jail time for the sociopaths involved), and
misconduct by the lawyers who tried to carry it out (getting
them struck off)?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

News outlets improperly used photos posted to Twitter: judge
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 16 2013 @ 09:56 AM EST

Quote from the article:

the judge said AFP and Getty would only be liable, at most, for a single statutory damage award per image infringed
It is in a US Court, and it was "for profit" infringement, so I certainly hope the Jury involved ends up issuing damages proportionate to the damages the Jury in the Thomas-Rasset case felt appropriate:
    For infringing 24 songs, $1.92 Million in damages, $80,000 per infringement!
I don't wish that on AFP - they appear to be a non-US entity. And I'm not sure what Getty's connection to The Washington Post is so I don't necessarily wish that fall on them.

But it would be nice that a commercial, for-profit corporation choosing to infringe copyright was found liable for the equivalent amounts that a private individual who infringed for non-profit purposes was found for.

Perhaps if corporate interests who embodied entities like the RIAA started being found for damages that the RIAA pushes - perhaps then, some balance would come back.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Why We’re Raising the Signature Threshold for We the People
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 16 2013 @ 11:39 AM EST
Link

Ah, at last we see "We The People" for what it is: more window dressing for the Obama White House. First they ignore petitions with more than 25,000 signatures, now they raise the threshold to 100,000. Apparently We The People is OK for meaningless drivel, but they don't want any serious issues addressed, like recall petitions for gov't officials. Don't want nothin' but the _appearance_ of democracy goin' on around here. albert, not logged in.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Facebook announces new 'Graph Search' tools in potential challenge to Google
Authored by: TerryC on Wednesday, January 16 2013 @ 02:27 PM EST

Facebook also announced a closer partnership with Microsoft's Bing search engine, which will provide search results from the web to augment searches on Facebook. Microsoft's Bing has struggled to gain traction against Google's search engine, which provides billions of dollars in advertising revenue for Google.

This is a classic case of continuing with the same course of action when it has repeatedly been shown to fail.  Microsoft seems to be convinced that Bing's search capability is at least as good as Google's and they only have to get more 'exposure' for it to take off.

Whereas everyone else knows that Bing does get traction because it doesn't work....

---

Terry

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Issa Investigation
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 16 2013 @ 07:10 PM EST
The HuffPo story directly quotes tweets as Tom Dolan's (Ortiz' husband). However WBUR more cautiously says
But on an unverified Twitter account with her husband’s name, picture and identification as an IBM executive, someone was tweeting in defense of Ortiz ...
If it was Dolan, it's dirty. If it was someone impersonating Dolan it's double dirty. It's also sad that these cases so often descend into muckraking and lose sight of the moral principles at stake?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 05:01 AM EST
Orin Kerr's Part 2: Prosecutorial Discretion picks apart the way the charges could be built, dissing kneejerk reactions like "Aaron's Law". The offensive parts of the law seem to be including Wire Fraud offenses in the CFAA so they can be used as parallel charges; and the provision for two misdemeanours, regardless of triviality, to bootstrap to a felony. This explains a puzzle I had understanding how Swartz the lone offender could aid and abet himself in the commission of his alleged crimes.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Statement of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz
Authored by: argee on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 10:19 AM EST
This is disingenuous at best. The offer of 6 months is
conditioned on Swartz pleading guilty. It does not apply
if it goes to trial.

"Go to trial, lose, and you could get 35 years. Settle
now, plead guilty to these charges, and we drop others and
get 6 months ..."

---
--
argee

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Dutch court rules Galaxy Tab does not infringe on iPad design
Authored by: DannyB on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 10:50 AM EST
Samsung Galaxy tablets do not infringe Apple design: Dutch court
(Reuters) - A Dutch court, citing previous decisions in British courts, has ruled that some Samsung Electronics Galaxy tablets do not infringe an Apple design.

Wednesday's ruling by a district court in The Hague concerned the rounded corners of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and Galaxy Tab 7.7.

"We continue to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners and that the origins of Apple's registered design features can be found in numerous examples," Samsung said in a statement.
Astonishing. A court recognizing that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with rectangular shape and rounded corners? But what about the fact that Apple recently g ot a patent on rectangles with rounded corners? Surely the patent examiners couldn't be wrong.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • Question? - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 06:07 AM EST
Aaron Shwartz Prosecutor
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 03:55 PM EST

There was no way Aaron Shwartz was only going to get 6-months in jail. If the case went to trial, the maximum would be on the table. That's why everyone accepts plea bargains.

Clicky

I'm also struggling with how you can get 6-months for trying to access scholarly research, no matter how annoying you are for the publishers.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Ontario Court Rejects -- Megaupload Servers Seized in CA
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 05:33 PM EST
Just who pays for this?
When someone is on a fishing expedition are the ISP's on the hook for the cost
of making the copies? I had to make an encrypted image for someone last year
and it took several hours to make an 8 gig encrypted disk image, and since it is
encrypted it couldn't be compressed to make it easier to send. Drop box failed
several times so I ended up spending more time to burn it to a DVD and send it
by courier. Since this will be evidence extra precautions will be required to
prove that it i in fact a true copy. The Tech might also need time off to
testify...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

1,100 Jobs Outsourced or Axed at Nokia
Authored by: Gringo_ on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 06:48 PM EST

Elop knows what he is doing. He has to downsize in line with expectations for sales of the Windows Phone. He is a good and wise CEO. In the end he may meet market demand by selling them out of his basement. No need for all that overhead. That would be super efficient.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Still More About The Death Of Aaron Swartz - Esquire
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 07:08 PM EST
United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who still has political ambitions beyond her current station, and her husband, and some unfortunate media enablers, have finally organized a response to the torrent of criticism she and her office have received in regard to her breaking-a-butterfly-on-a-wheel prosecution of activist Aaron Swartz, whom Ortiz's office tried to throw in prison for the crime of stealing stuff the actual owners eventually said that they didn't care that much about.
Charles P. Pierce , Esquire

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Of netbooks, tablets and Linux's revenge by Glyn Moody.
Authored by: SilverWave on Thursday, January 17 2013 @ 11:07 PM EST
Call it Linux's revenge.

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Linus spots the bug
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 01:54 AM EST
News Pick link

don't lie about if afterwards, though. Don't try to claim that the threats were "appropriate". If you use the maximum penalty as a threat (and I agree people do, and it's reality), don't then come out later when people complain that you were over-reacting, and say "oh, but we never meant it".

That's weasel-wording. And it's lying. The words may be "technically true" if you read them in the right light, but they are clearly meant to be misleading to the point of being a lie. 

...(another)...

the lie is how they first make a big deal to journalists and the public how Aaron Swartz faces 35 years in prison. And then come out later with a big statement saying "no, no, we never meant that".

That's a bold-faced lie. You can't first make a big PR splash about how bad something is, and then later (by not using the same exact wording) try to say something completely different.

So yes, it may be "technically true" that in private they never sought the maximum penality, but it is very much lying in public when you put on two such very different faces on the same thing.

I realize that lawyers are brought up (probably from small children) to think that "technically true" is what matters, but when you make public PR statements, they should be more than "technically" true.

They should be honest.

---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What Should We Be Worried About?
Authored by: sciamiko on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 04:49 AM EST
From The Edge Question 2013 there is a piece by Roger Schank near the end which seems almost on topic:
I am worried about stupid. It is all around us. When the Congress debates an issue, both sides appear to be wrong. Worse, our representatives can't seem to make a reasoned argument. Candidate after candidate in this last election said things completely unsupportable by the evidence. Supporters of these candidates can't usually explain in any coherent way what they are really in favor of.
s.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Sony to Sell U.S. Office to Chetrit Group for $1.1 Billion
Authored by: 351-4V on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 09:54 AM EST
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Senator demands answers on Swartz prosecution from Obama's top lawyer
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 05:25 PM EST

Article link.

In a word:

    Nice!
I like the questions asked. Especially the first question. The one asking for the review that determined the conduct was appropriate.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Copyright Unbalanced
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 06:03 PM EST
We might note that CopyrighUnbalanced.epub is just a ZIP of unencrypted files,
including .html files that contain the content.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Experts: Show of emotion won’t save career .
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 06:45 PM EST

From the article:

“There’s lots of blame (in the Swartz case). What’s unwarranted is to put it all on her,” attorney Francis J. DiMento said. “She’s a product of the system. We have to change the system.”
So let me get this straight:
    Ortiz was not allowed to make a judgement call and be less agressive
    In other words: if she had been less agressive, she would have been fired
Ok... if that's really what happened:
    I agree. She's a product of the system and the system needs changed!
Somehow though - I don't think the system was holding her feet to the fire to be as agressive as she was.
Ortiz said, “Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away.”
That doesn't sound like someone who is being forced to follow the line the RIAA/MPAA has been spouting. And of course, there's also the current outstanding questions asked by a Senator (my paraphrasing:
    Please provide the review that found the behavior "appropriate".
Did Ortiz actually perform a review? Or did she merely voice an opinion in a public message that appeared to carry the weight of the office? Was she authorized to voice such an opinion? Or should she publicly admit a review hadn't been done and she only voiced her own opinion?

Many questions to be answered!

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Supreme Court conundrum: How far does a soybean seed patent go?
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 07:09 PM EST
News Pick link

Here is the problem that SCOTUS must address:

If they allow Monsanto to win their argument, then any self-replicating life form that has a patent on part of it's chemical makeup (i.e., the genes), will effectively become an indefinite patent, way exceeding the 20 year patent expiration.

Monsanto only wants farmers to plant Soybean seeds that they (Monsanto) grew themselves, and to never use seeds that other farmers grew, even though at this point in time, almost all Soybean seeds now have the patented gene within them.

In effect, SCOTUS would be telling the farmers, that you always have to pay Monsanto *every* year to grow soybeans. Whether you spray them with glyphosate or not.

SCOTUS needs to be very careful here. The next thing is that all seeds will have the genetic material, and Monsanto would become the plant-tax man forever.

An effective indefinite monopoly controlling life on planet Earth.

Oh, that way madness lies.

---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Ortiz should offer answers
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 19 2013 @ 12:48 AM EST
Am I missing something here. It appears that the DOJ slaps the proverbial wrists
of those that ruin the lives of large groups of people. Yet, pursues with
overzealous enthusiasm individuals whose actions affect a very small group of
people.

By deliberately putting home buyers in compromising financial positions some
mortgage lenders planned to cash in on the resale after the foreclosure. When
too many happened at the same time, the taxpayers have to pay not only for
losses, but also, for the bonuses. The rest of the population has to suffer the
continuing long term recession

The bankers launder money for drug dealers over extended periods, feeding the
growth of international drug cartels, receive what amounts to the equivalent of
a traffic fine for the average citizen.

Voting fraud with intent to push through an agenda against the wishes of the
populace, most likely seeking some form of future financial gain, is only a
misdemeanor.

The system may need to be revised. However, the DOJ needs to do it's primary job
and protect the citizens of the United States, as opposed to a relative few at
the expense of the many.

Corruption also involves a lack of equal justice.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

For the news Picks ? Swartz & wikileaks
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 19 2013 @ 05:12 PM EST
wikileaks discloses??? Swartz as possible connection ?!
read here at theverge

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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