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Comment Re:This is good. (Score 1) 490

Actually, those 'unreliable' wind generators are being improved upon. In northern Michigan they are developing hybrid wind/natural gas plants - both which are available in great supply. When the wind dies down, the gas plant turns on to supplement the supply. I think the first setup will be about a 10 Megawatt plant with 10-20 wind turbines towering 250 feet above the farms. It also happens to be at a natural gas pipeline junction for the area.

Comment Re:Not right (Score 1) 341

It's not constitutional and will never withstand a court case challenging it.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and Warrants shall not be issued, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Comment Re:In Summary (Score 1) 170

Ok, apparently you just don't get it. Just because she lost the case based on her fair use defense does not mean she did so because she 'downloaded' the files. Also, basing your opinion on a link to a Wikipedia article that only discusses the Appellate court decision, but not the lower court case is far fetched. It seems odd that the wiki article does not link to the lower court decision actually. Wikipedia can also be manipulated - I'm fairly sure the RIAA actively does so too.
In fact if you read the actual full appellate decision, it is filled with inaccuracies and an obvious RIAA slant. Since there really has not been many cases where the RIAA has actually won beyond an out of court sealed settlements, considering the trillions of cases of downloading - you can hardly consider this proof that downloading is illegal. It's merely an opinion that is partially valid in the 7th circuit when based on a fair use defense.
It states things like Music sales are down 30%. They're not - it's RIAA propaganda, albeit it could be true that the sales of RIAA music may be down or CD sales are down, considering the crap coming out of the RIAA based music industry these days - overall music sales have been increasing steadily every year.
It states: "Licensed Internet sellers, such as the iTunes Music Store, offer samples—but again they pay authors a fee for the right to do so, and the teasers are just a portion of the original." This is also untrue - iTunes does not pay me one dime for letting people listen to 30 second samples of my music and they don't pay the record labels for this either. (Yes, I have music on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, emusic and many other stores - I understand what they pay for very well). STREAMS are paid though (a pitiful 1 cent or less per stream), but iTunes does not offer streaming.
There still is no LAW making downloading illegal. Distributing copies is the only illegal issue that is stated in the law. If it was illegal, would the RIAA not also be breaking the law merely catching these supposed infringers? They are, after all, downloading a piece of a an unauthorized copy of a file right in order to obtain 'evidence'?
Copying is also still legal btw - as I can still copy my CDs to my MP3 player with zero fear of breaking a law.
Music fans have an ever increasing appetite for more music. It’s just that they consume it differently than in years past. Rather than buying a CD at the local music store, fans now look for a different consumption experience. They go to MySpace to directly connect with artists they love, watch videos on YouTube, purchase a few tracks on Amazon, build streaming radio stations to find similar tunes at Pandora, and more.
According to IFPI and Neilsen more music is being sold.

Here's some Neilsen stats...

NIELSEN INFO
2006
US Music Purchases exceed 1 billion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 19%
Digital sales increase 65% from 2005
2007
US Music Purchases exceed 1.4 billion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 14%
Digital music sales account for 23% of music purchases
2008
US Music purchases exceed 1.5 bilion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 10%
Digital music sales account for 32% of music purchases
2009
US Music Purchases up 2.1% over 2008. Music sales exceeded 1.5 billion for the second consecutive year.
Digital music sales account for 40% of total US purchases.
Consider also the simultaneous increasing revenues from live music, now considered an artist's primary revenue source - but that's just getting farther off topic.

Comment Re:In Summary (Score 1) 170

Based on your link:

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and

(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

Notice nowhere in the law does it say that RECEIVING a copy is illegal - only making the copy. The person hosting the torrent is the one making the copy you download - not you.
Now with the mere fact that once you download it and SHARE it, you become a distributor - that's where you are breaking the law.
Remove the P2P aspect where you download it from a link or an FTP server - you are legally safe. The person hosting the file though is still breaking the law.

Comment Re:In Summary (Score 1) 170

You're right - it is not black and white. But the fact remains, there still is no law making it illegal to download a file. The RIAA does not nail you for downloading a file from them or anyone else. They nail you when they download a piece of the file FROM your torrent on your PC. They catch you 'distributing' a copy. That's the difference, otherwise it would be illegal for the RIAA to download that piece of the file from your torrent. It's not illegal to hit 'copy' on a Xerox - in fact you can copy anything you want on the Xerox at the library. They won't stop you and you won't get arrested for it. The illegal act is distribution - that is the only law being broken - making a copy and giving it away or distributing it to others.

Comment Re:In Summary (Score 2, Insightful) 170

Actually - it IS NOT illegal to download anything. Stop trying to distort the truth. It does not say that anywhere in this judgement and it does not say that anywhere in the law. The issue is distribution - not downloading. The only illegal issue is the 'unauthorized distribution' as in uploading or sharing copyrighted files with others without authorization from the copyright owners. There is nothing wrong with downloading a file to check it out. It is no different than opening a magazine to see if you want to buy it at the store. You are not stealing the magazine, you're just looking at it. Photocopying the magazine AND giving it to someone else would be illegal though - get it?

Comment Re:Not Really (Score 1) 349

I'd have to agree completely with this statement. It does feel snappier, and to know it's using 17% less power is making me smile too. It's justification enough right there to upgrade the other 3 PCs in my house. That alone will save me $15-$20 a month on the electric bill.

Comment Re:CDBaby (Score 2, Informative) 291

Tunecore only charges you 99 cents to add iTunes distribution for an album. It's only 99 cents per store actually and you can also put it into Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, Amazon MP3 and a half dozen other digital distribution stores. The $31 charge is actually comprised of a $20 flat setup fee for the album per year, plus 99 cents per track (10 tracks avg) and 99 cents for the digital distribution store. Tunecore does not keep a dime of what you earn from the online stores, after you pay the initial fee, unlike CDBaby which takes a percentage of all digital sales on top of their setup fees. iTunes pays 70 cents per track sold to the artist who uses Tunecore to distribute their music.

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