Usage based billing for Canadian internet - Off-topic

So i'm not sure how many canadian users we have here, but basically canada is officially screwed for internet access as of march 1'st. The CRTC (canadian regulatory body) has ruled that bell(large incumbent) has the right to force indie ISP's to offer the same packages/price they offer while allowing metered internet billing. Packages start at 25gb's per/month, throttled as well as charging overage fees ranging from 2-4 dollars p/gig.
If you guys can help spread the word of this travesty of a ruling I would personally appreciate it. I dont post much on these forums and as such it wont let me put up a post with links, but if you google canada ubb and such or strombo ubb on youtube it will be easier to see what im talking about.
-Matt

Many of us who get service through smaller ISPs who bulk-buy bandwidth from Bell were really shocked this weekend when our monthly caps dropped to 25G per month. (Mine had previously been 200G) Rogers is following with caps later this spring.
At my own ISP, 50% of 30,000 subscribers regularly exceed that 25G cap. This has meant a weekend of figuring out what the new bill will be (about $100 per month for anyone who does even a marginal amount of downloading/P2P/streaming/gaming). But moreover, it has really forced many households to reconsider how they use the Internet. In my own (where our typical use is about 70G per month) it is now going to pretty well be ruled out for anything but serious research, email, web browsing. Traffic monitors and script blockers went on every machine in the house this weekend as a first step, with router monitoring as soon as I can figure it out.

no more internet for u haha ...
time to get that high-gain antennae from ebay and go yogi bearin' in your neighborhood

Sounds like its time to go packet hunting.
souljaboy said:
no more internet for u haha ...
time to get that high-gain antennae from ebay and go yogi bearin' in your neighborhood
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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

how come you are surviving in canada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coldskiesfullofblue said:
Sounds like its time to go packet hunting.
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I love aircrack-ng.

cajunflavoredbob said:
I love aircrack-ng.
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lol and after ur done with that , be sure to download blu ray movies 24/7
who needs 200mb a month what would prolly go unnoticed ??? give em hell and possibly urself a lawsuit

just an update, our canadian government is shutting this down. The CRTC said they want to review the decision, the government has said regardless of what they do any form of UBB will be shut down.
The head of the CRTC was also called before an industry committee and it is scary how inept he is. He has no concept of how the internet works, and he is setting digital policy for this country.
If you'd like to see him getting grilled its here
edit; is there anyway to get a mod to allow me to post links? I have no intention of spamming these forums.

mattp2182 said:
just an update, our canadian government is shutting this down. The CRTC said they want to review the decision, the government has said regardless of what they do any form of UBB will be shut down.
The head of the CRTC was also called before an industry committee and it is scary how inept he is. He has no concept of how the internet works, and he is setting digital policy for this country.
If you'd like to see him getting grilled its here
edit; is there anyway to get a mod to allow me to post links? I have no intention of spamming these forums.
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just use the formula youtube[dot]com .. along those lines u should be able to do it

ah the problem is its not youtube, its from the government website which is quite a long string.
parlvu(dot)parl(dot)gc(dot)ca/ParlVu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=7245
hey it worked, thanks souljaboy

mattp2182 said:
ah the problem is its not youtube, its from the government website which is quite a long string.
http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/ParlVu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=7245
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You get link-posting privileges once you hit 15 posts or something around there. It has nothing to do with mod approval, regardless of what the error messages tell you. You could also simply add a space or two in the links. That's what most people do.

man that website looks scary ... so dark , complicated and unfriendly

Related

What happened to PPC Geeks?

I've been getting 404s for the last hour. Are they maxed out? Down?
we don't know yet.
same here it must be internal, maybe an update but they didnt announce it as far as i can tell or maybe they have a disgruntled admin LOL
They were given a DMCA letter from Sprint lawyers for posting the 3.16 leaked firmware for the Sprint Mogul. They took the site down to clear out any and all of the dozens of links to the firmware.
Of course, that is purely speculation.
muyoso said:
They were given a DMCA letter from Sprint lawyers for posting the 3.16 leaked firmware for the Sprint Mogul. They took the site down to clear out any and all of the dozens of links to the firmware.
Of course, that is purely speculation.
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Click to collapse
Please do no make speculations like that with absolutely no knowledge of whats going on. I can assure you it is nothing like that. Don't worry folks. We will be back up soon.
according to Big D, we set a record for users online today and I am sure that caused a crash. Mike will fix it
jackschitt28 said:
according to Big D, we set a record for users online today and I am sure that caused a crash. Mike will fix it
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haha, thats at least a good reason to crash. anyone talked to mike yet?
ajk511 said:
haha, thats at least a good reason to crash. anyone talked to mike yet?
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yup we did set a record today! last time i was able to view the page the record was 667 online today! im sure that is why its down.
Running the board with unofficial leaked forum code
jackschitt28 said:
according to Big D, we set a record for users online today and I am sure that caused a crash. Mike will fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am glad it's nothing too serious. I will be in SoCal the next few days so I will not be hogging as much space on the site as I normally do.
When running phpBB these problems were constant, even when there were only 125 or so users on. vBulletin has made a big difference, but the shared hosting is what is killing it. The host kills any db requests when the max memory or processor is hit, so the site gets killed. I'm sure Mike will get it back up soon, but those of us that love that site need to support him with $$$ so he can move to a non-shared host. His hosting service even has a new deal where you can adjust the amount of RAM and proc. you want (increasing and decreasing price accordingly) while staying on shared hosting. At least this way he can alleviate the problems without breaking the bank.
its amazing how addicting this stuff is i fell like i did when demonoid went down but ive just been going over the posts i need while working offline luckily i read through like evry post on the vista cube 2.0
We contacted wideawake yesterday and he says he is working on it, it was a busy day yesterday we hit a couple of high marks and overloaded the host a bit, wideawake wants everyone to know we are trying to get thing going again and PPCGeeks is very sorry for the inconvenience, we will have things up and going soon. My thanks to XDA for letting this thread stay open so we can let people know whats going on.
Dave~
+1
Thanks XDA for letting us use your board to support the comminuty further.
Yeah it was absolutely crazy to see that many people on the site at once, and this was at like 2-3pm in the middle of the day when so many people were on. I was certain we were about to top 700! It was really good to see that much traffic.
And I echo the other posts thanking xda for letting us crash here for a while... it's like ppcgeeks is my flat in manhattan and xda is my summer getaway pad in the hamptons lol.
**Just to prove my point, this is my first post here but i've been a member for almost a year! lol
Excellent networking and development with these two boards Keep up the much appreciated good work!
I'm not to sure if I believe this traffic excuse. I think Mikes dog keeps chewing through the servers power cord. Ha. But I to have to give credit to XDA for its relationship with the Geeks and allowing this tread to stay open So all of us lost souls know its not the end of the world and our home has just been closed up for a few days for (we'll say) pest control. Good lookin out XDA.
NNnnnooooo!!!!
so before ppcgeeks went down i downloaded the new (leaked) rom for my mogul. i ran it and generally liked it, but decided it was to flakely because i kept getting disconected from the net. i was just planing a test drive of it anyway because i finally wanted to try out that kitchen (by doguy i think his name is) and free up some room on my mogul. now though, no ppcgeeks
i guess i'll poke around my other "summer getaway" sites like sprintusers.com and here. THANKS XDA FOR HELPING ME WITH MY GEEK FIX
I'm a little concerned now. Shouldn't take this long unless they are migrating platforms. I hope they didn't lose the database somehow.
the site works randomly.. you gotta hit refresh like a bajillion times just to pull up a page. makes me think something else is going on.

Help make GV/MyFaves piggy backing legit

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=AndroidPlans&thread.id=1785
You know they already know about it, so don't give me crap for "Letting the cat out of the bag"
Bump the thread please and lets try to make this a t-mobile policy.
(probably will never happen, but if we can convince them that this polocy will gain them customers it may)
The post for those too lazy to go and read it
Currently there is a way to add your google voice number to MyFaves and avoid using any minutes for almost any call.
I don't know if this is "Working as intended" or is an unplaned gaff....
Let me tell you why T-Mobile should not only let this happen, but encourage this.
I have a G1, cheapest plans possible. my bill is around 60 bucks a month...
If this MyFaves/GV trick became something i could count on here are the actions i will take with out question.
I will Buy my wife the MyTouch (canceling her current Virgin Mobile pay as u go plan)
I will change my calling plan to a "MyFaves" famlie plan
I will have unlimmited data plans on both phones.
I will cancle my current home phone (Vonage)
My T-mobile monthly bill will go from $60 a month to over $125, and it will become my and my wife's main phone lines.
Also with work/friends i am the known "Android hacker" and people listen to me...
When i tell people about this possiblity they get excited and want in on it.
T-Mobile... be the "Data Pipe" Google wants you to be, you will gain subscribers
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.
ekeefe41 said:
http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=AndroidPlans&thread.id=1785
You know they already know about it, so don't give me crap for "Letting the cat out of the bag"
Bump the thread please and lets try to make this a t-mobile policy.
(probably will never happen, but if we can convince them that this polocy will gain them customers it may)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, they know about it. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to give them the impression that this is a mainstream usage scenario.
Often service providers will tolerate a small percentage (lets say 1-5%) of their customerbase that uses a signficantly larger proportion of bandwidth than average. They may be losing money on these customers, but as long as the loss is lower than the loss that would be incurred due to negative press from terminating those customers, they will let the small percentage slide.
By bumping/posting that thread, you are basically giving T-Mo (and any other carrier with similar pricing) a reason on a silver plate to go and shut the MyFaves "loophole" right now. Kudos.
*Note: I don't have MyFaves, so I could really not care less how it turns out from a personal standpoint.
jashsu said:
Yes, they know about it. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to give them the impression that this is a mainstream usage scenario.
Often service providers will tolerate a small percentage (lets say 1-5%) of their customerbase that uses a signficantly larger proportion of bandwidth than average. They may be losing money on these customers, but as long as the loss is lower than the loss that would be incurred due to negative press from terminating those customers, they will let the small percentage slide.
By bumping/posting that thread, you are basically giving T-Mo (and any other carrier with similar pricing) a reason on a silver plate to go and shut the MyFaves "loophole" right now. Kudos.
*Note: I don't have MyFaves, so I could really not care less how it turns out from a personal standpoint.
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I couldn't have said this all better myself.
To OP: Be happy with the loophole you have now. Make this mainstream and you'll see the loophole closed up nice and quick.
Here is the thing...
I personally will not do the things in my post unless i can confirm it is something i can rely on.
scenario
I buy a 2nd phone for the wife
I cancel my home (Vonage) phone line
I then begin to rely on this piggy backing as a part of my monthly finances...
BOOM
T-mobile closes the loophole.
I am stuck with an extra phone/Plan that i can't get out of....
My bill goes through the roof because these phones are now our only voice option.
Until i get a confirmation from T-Mobile i will push the issue...
If it ruins it for everyone... so be it
When it comes to contracts and my monthly finances, there is no room for guess work.
ekeefe41 said:
If it ruins it for everyone... so be it
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Haha. I like your attitude!
When it comes to contracts and my monthly finances, there is no room for guess work.
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Then... why are you relying on beta services and loopholes for your core telecommunications?
It seems to me that what you need to get is one of those truly unlimited in-region calling (I think MetroPCS has something like that? Also T-Mo has the Unlimited Loyalty Plan.) You can be assured that you'll be billed a flat monthly rate that way regardless of your usage and regardless of whether or not you are routing through GV.
I love the flimsy rationalization going on this thread.
jashsu said:
Haha. I like your attitude!
Then... why are you relying on beta services and loopholes for your core telecommunications?
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Not quite...
I have the G1 $60-month
Wife has a pay as you go $20ish-month
home phone is vonage $30-month
About $110 a month for phone services.
If this loophole/beta service turns to be legit. Then I will make major changes to my phone providers. (like i explained in my T-mobile post)
Oh yea... I am cheap and a control freak when it comes to contracts and bills.
uberingram said:
I love the flimsy rationalization going on this thread.
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Please explain your self.
If i am going to agree to additional contracts, i need to know the scope of what is allowed and what is not for my own protection.
ekeefe41 said:
Please explain your self.
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1) Your life's micromanagement must make you a joy to be around
2) jashsu said it best. You are giving carriers a reason to enforce "Fav" calling to individuals and not blanket numbers. The phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" only applies if annoying customer (e.g. you) is the only one affected. This is not the case here. Especially since Google purchased the 1 million some odd numbers from Level 3.
3) You're using a known buggy service that's very still much in beta as your sole means of telecommunication. For someone so uptight about control that seems oddly, and stupidly, out of character.
4) It's stupid to think that this will actually gain customers. There are a fixed number of Google Voice numbers in existence and I can pretty much assure you they are all spoken for.
Edit: Just to elaborate on #4, Last night I used the call back feature of GV. Do you know how long it took the service to ring my phone? 8 minutes. That's perfectly acceptable for your only means of telecommunication.
ekeefe41 said:
If this loophole/beta service turns to be legit. Then I will make major changes to my phone providers. (like i explained in my T-mobile post)
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I don't know what industry you work in, but let me just put it bluntly and say that generally large multinational corporations don't make potentially significant alterations to their business plan based on whiny posts on their forums. It is questionable whether anyone with the authority to make a declaration of the kind you are hoping for even reads or has a pr secretary that reads that forum on t-mobile.com.
If (and i'm not holding my breath here) they legitimize unlimited calling in some kind of promotion/profit-sharing deal with Google, that was probably planned months in advance by a team of profit-cost analysts and in no way whatsoever did they give two ****s about your petition. I can just about guarantee that.
uberingram said:
1) Your life's micromanagement must make you a joy to be around
2) jashsu said it best. You are giving carriers a reason to enforce "Fav" calling to individuals and not blanket numbers. The phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" only applies if annoying customer (e.g. you) is the only one affected. This is not the case here. Especially since Google purchased the 1 million some odd numbers from Level 3.
3) You're using a known buggy service that's very still much in beta as your sole means of telecommunication. For someone so uptight about control that seems oddly, and stupidly, out of character.
4) It's stupid to think that this will actually gain customers. There are a fixed number of Google Voice numbers in existence and I can pretty much assure you they are all spoken for.
Edit: Just to elaborate on #4, Last night I used the call back feature of GV. Do you know how long it took the service to ring my phone? 8 minutes. That's perfectly acceptable for your only means of telecommunication.
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The only thing i manage like this is my bills....
Wife does not even know the password to our banking acc...
It is not even something we discuss, it is something i just handle..
So in fact, i am a pleasure to be around, because it is something i just do, and never talk about.
But thanks for trying to be insulting.
I have been using GV for almost a week now, no 8 minute, no bugs.
The service has been good enough that i am considering major changes to my service providers. A change that would give me more functionality at almost the same cost...
I am not sure i fully grasp your hostility.
Any contract i am involved with i like to know everything i can.
If that is strange to you... well that's your issue.
ekeefe41 said:
The only thing i manage like this is my bills....
Wife does not even know the password to our banking acc...
It is not even something we discuss, it is something i just handle..
So in fact, i am a pleasure to be around, because it is something i just do, and never talk about.
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I don't want to take this thread too far off-topic, and in no way should this be taken as an insult, but i'd be pretty concerned if my partner opened a joint bank account and didn't share the password. Maybe that's just me though...
Have you perhaps considered the possibility that you just think you're pleasurable to be around?
jashsu said:
I don't know what industry you work in, but let me just put it bluntly and say that generally large multinational corporations don't make potentially significant alterations to their business plan based on whiny posts on their forums. It is questionable whether anyone with the authority to make a declaration of the kind you are hoping for even reads or has a pr secretary that reads that forum on t-mobile.com.
If (and i'm not holding my breath here) they legitimize unlimited calling in some kind of promotion/profit-sharing deal with Google, that was probably planned months in advance by a team of profit-cost analysts and in no way whatsoever did they give two ****s about your petition. I can just about guarantee that.
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I suppose it is less a petition, and more of a wish for clarification.
I know for a fact that google would like ISP's and Tel-Co to be more like a "Pipe" for data. With Google controlling as much content as they can (for advertisement $$)
This Google Voice product is a perfect example of this coming to fruition.
All you need is one TelCo jumping on board and prices come down for everyone.
Thank you for calling my post "whiny"... i was trying to make a point. I must have done a poor job.
ekeefe41 said:
If it ruins it for everyone... so be it
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That is a ****ty attitude and goes against everything this forum stands for. It sounds like a child, if I cant have it then no body will. I just hope you realize your place, you should be thankful you have a FREE Google voice number and that there are ways of saving large amounts of money through minor hacks. If you can use them to your advantage then awesome, if not, then oh well you arent loosing anything. I just think you would get a much better reception if you came into this looking for help and trying to help the community instead of the ultimatum you have presented us with.
jashsu said:
I don't want to take this thread too far off-topic, and in no way should this be taken as an insult, but i'd be pretty concerned if my partner opened a joint bank account and didn't share the password. Maybe that's just me though...
Have you perhaps considered the possibility that you just think you're pleasurable to be around?
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ha ha ha!
I have like a "Quiz" day with her every once in a while.. aka, if i died could you access our bank accounts.
She Fails on a regular basis.
She does not have access to this stuff by my choice, in fact i have given it to her multiple times, multiple ways for her to remember.
She wants nothing to do with it.
It's not that i am a control freak... it's that she is lazy and does not want to concern her self with this stuff.
But yea, we have spiraled way too far in to my personal life, hehe
brandenk said:
That is a ****ty attitude and goes against everything this forum stands for. It sounds like a child, if I cant have it then no body will. I just hope you realize your place, you should be thankful you have a FREE Google voice number and that there are ways of saving large amounts of money through minor hacks. If you can use them to your advantage then awesome, if not, then oh well you arent loosing anything. I just think you would get a much better reception if you came into this looking for help and trying to help the community instead of the ultimatum you have presented us with.
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I am asking people to bump the thread in the t-mobile thread... if they like the idea of this piggybacking.
I myself, for the way i treat bills and contracts, need specific clarification so i will keep pushing regardless.
If you don't agree, then don't bump the t-Mobile thread.
Ugg.... never mind.
It looks like it is official a bug (not intended)
http://devin.reams.me/free-google-voice-calls-with-t-mobile-myfaves/
UPDATE: as mentioned by Josiah in the comments, this violates this statement on T-Mobile’s website: “Your five numbers must be US domestic numbers and must not include … customers’ own numbers; and single numbers allowing access to 500 or more persons.”
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aad4321 said:
yeah but because you wont have free incoming you will have to set the gv number to show on an incoming call and add it to the fav5. long story short u will not know who i calling you unless you have that stupid press 1 to accept thing.
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That would be the big limitation
But with google voice you can listen in on the message before you pick up
yea this needs a lot of clearing up....gvoice isnt widely available
UMA
ekeefe41 said:
Not quite...
I have the G1 $60-month
Wife has a pay as you go $20ish-month
home phone is vonage $30-month
About $110 a month for phone services.
If this loophole/beta service turns to be legit. Then I will make major changes to my phone providers. (like i explained in my T-mobile post)
Oh yea... I am cheap and a control freak when it comes to contracts and bills.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why dont you get a UMA phone form T-mobile, for a few bucks a month and drop your Vonage right there saves u about 25$

[INFO] Megaupload has been shut down and the founders arrested

Thread closed. There is already many threads about this. ~TRM
In case anyone is noticing that megaupload links aren't responding.
Megaupload finished: Feds shut down file-sharing giant without SOPA
MegaUpload Shut Down by the Feds, Founder Arrested
Here's the actual indictment filed in an Alexandria, Virginia, US court;
Mega-Indictment
It doesn't look like the service will back anytime soon, so folks may want to consider utilizing other services for uploads, etc.
Good Luck..
Addendum:
Deleted the reference to SOPA/PIPA in my subject heading because this action has nothing to do with those laws. SOPA/PIPA are designed to implement measures so that "suspected" "piracy" sites can have their DNS entries blocked from US internet users which will frustrate efforts to access those sites, and to take away revenue by stopping credit card companies from doing business with them. IOW these are laws targeting the so-called "end users".
This action against Megaupload was a straight up site takedown and arrest of the founders, which was obviously coordinated with multiple law enforcement agencies from multiple countries. (At least the US and New Zealand were involved). This was action targeting the so-called "suppliers".
Having said that, if you're a US voter you should make sure you let your US Congress representatives know how you feel about SOPA/PIPA. Even if phase one of the web protests are over for now.
Horrible day for humanity....
SGSII
****ing bull****
If I have helped or contributed in*ANY*way please hit the*THANKS*button. It is very much appreciated!!
Current-*Samsung Galaxy S2 (stock)*|*Htc Sensation (rooted w/ XE Dr. Dre Beats Technology)*|*Samsung Galaxy Vibrant (rooted w/ cm7)*|*Mytouch 4g (stock)*|*Mytouch Slide (stock)*|*Htc G1 (stock)
They charged people to see copyrighted content. screw them
messed up, 2012 will be a crazy year, millions of websites will get shutdown, with or without sopa =/
http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike
Anonymous is striking back.
Wow
this getting out of hand.. The gov needs to chill out ... If we continue down this path we will end up like north Korea .. No offense btw
1984 g.o.
Sgsii
What!?
I use icefilms to watch all mt TV and ice uses all MU links...
I had a 2 year sub for MU too...
Their download speeds were the best!
HRodMusic said:
messed up, 2012 will be a crazy year, millions of websites will get shutdown, with or without sopa =/
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Theyre really showing ppl how SOPA/PIPA can hurt him. If this is what they can do WITHOUT it, im afraid to think what kind of rampage theyll go on after.
Im glad there is nothing else wrong with the country, that the goverment has this kind of thing to focus on.
Wow is all i can say.
GreggoryD502 said:
Im glad there is nothing else wrong with the country, that the goverment has this kind of thing to focus on.
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Correct!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Edited OP.
Megaupload should be taken down
and this is a good example that the current laws in the book are good enough if they just enforce them. There is no need for SOPA/PIPA.
Megauploads business model asks for money to see others copyrighted content.
Torrent sites on the other hand dont make any money and are much more complicated legally yet those got taken down before Megaupload. Megaupload should of been the first.
And so began the WAR...
MU business model is unethical. As so many, many copy cats out there such as filesonic, 4shared. It's only matter of time before they get taken down. Megaupload is just an example.
jim93 said:
Megaupload should be taken down
and this is a good example that the current laws in the book are good enough if they just enforce them. There is no need for SOPA/PIPA.
Megauploads business model asks for money to see others copyrighted content.
Torrent sites on the other hand dont make any money and are much more complicated legally yet those got taken down before Megaupload. Megaupload should of been the first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either you're ignorant or your just stupid. MU did not promote copyright material at all, it took down anything that was flagged as infringing. Many many people use MU, doctors sharing cancer cures. Scientists sharing data, teachers sharing work for data, the list goes on. They only charges for premium access which only gave you unlimited download speeds and no limits. With or without you could download copyright material.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
President Obama has taken a stance against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a bill that would allow the justice department to force Internet providers and search engines to block all sites accused of copyright infringement.
For now, it appears that President Obama has stalled the controversial legislation. Read the details according to Forbes.com:
“The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, D.C. – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill.
SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.
Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.”
I foresee prohibition-style shakedowns and takedowns. This issue is going to explode as the two sides engage in strikes and counterstrikes, but I do hope cooler heads prevail.
All respect to other opinions voiced here, but megaupload facilitated a great deal of sketchy shenanigans and did not appear to police its site effectively enough. Of course, a task like that is gargantuan.
I wonder, though, if the g-men will also shut down YouTube and arrest its principals as well? I suspect there is more pirated intellectual property there than on most of the rest of the internet combined. What would make YouTube exempt, and would such an exemption be fair?
"Soup" or no soup, the coming months will prove historic in the life of the internet, an internet that will be forced to grow up beyond the walled garden of its adolescence and thence to play by the rules of the rest of society. You heard it here, folks: The age of internet innocence is over, and sopa/pipa are just early, clumsy practice shots as the media industry and legislators gauge public opinion before launching a more calculated assault.
This is why the retaliatory actions of Anonymous and others cause me great concern. I think they will turn public sentiment against the internet community, paint all opponents of sopa and pipa and similar bad legislation as wildeyed bandits, and thus embolden the powers that be to insist on draconian measures that will force the internet to mature too quickly, severely undermining its usefulness in the process.

My honest opinion on MegaUpload being taken down

MHO the whole SOPA thing and americans' crackdown on piracy aint gonna stop it. Its up to the people themselves to decide whether they pirate or support. No matter how much effort or money the US or other governments waste on trying to stop piracy, its not going to stop. The online community has unlimited possibilites and there's always gonna be somebody that's gonna make a workaround, if you understand what i mean. All SOPA's gonna do is cause unnecessary inconvenience in the online world.
MegaUpload... hmm... i thought at first that it was a stupid move, I mean, there are loads of different file-hosting sites out there, why only take down MegaUpload? I mean sites like FileSonic and others that pay uploaders money for downloads are way more prone to illegitimate uses.
Alright so I read MegaUpload CEO's Kim Dotcom's bio, he does have quite an interesting history... A dual German and Finland citizen, holds permanent residency in both New Zealand and Hong Kong. He has multiple criminal records and has been charged more than twice or so for criminal offenses such as selling hacked telephone cards, credit card fraud, insider trading and embezzlement... in general, being a total smart arse:
WIKIPEDIA: In 2001, Schmitz (Kim) purchased $375,000 worth of shares of the nearly bankrupt company LetsBuyIt.com and subsequently announced his intention to invest EUR 50 million in the company. Unknown to others, Schmitz did not have the funds available to invest, although the announcement caused the share value of LetsBuyIt.com to jump by nearly 300%.Schmitz quickly sold the shares and profited $1.5 million as a result.
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In other words, he was a dirty business man with a bad reputation. I guess his criminal records would be the main reason why he was taken down first. I'm quite confident there are more coming.
As to how it affects me, it does a lot. I have quite a few files I need on MU... I don't have a premium account and would never buy one off them or anyone else, because I don't need it. I sure feel sorry for those who have a prem though...
^^ Again, this is my honest opinion.
Megaupload being taken down really sucks
Sent from my X10a using xda premium
negrobembon said:
Megaupload being taken down really sucks
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Couldn't agree more!
Yeah, it really sucks. Let's hope other file sharing sites don't get the same fate. Rapidshare etc. Not as good as Mega though... Here's my latest post on facebook lol
"Megaupload taken down by the Federal Government. ****ing ridiculous. The company was not EVEN BASED in the US. Is the US government now policing the rest of the world. They got the New Zealand police to arrest the founders, and the company base is in Hong Kong. How can they bring people from another part of the world, not even US citizens, and have them arrested... just adds to the bull**** with SOPA and PIPA. We are going to have a censored internet just like North Korea. **** THE US GOVERNMENT. DAMN. They need to get their priorities straight. Giving people years of jailtime for downloading music or small crimes, yet when someone murders someone you might get a year or two if your lucky. Something I saw someone post, download a Michael Jackson song and get 5 years prison, be the Dr. killing him and you get 1-2. smh.."
The megaupload. Being taken down doesnt surprise me personally. Its like limewire, it was a really blatant piracy hub. There was legitimate business on the site but it was mostly a hotbed for stolen data.
There are plenty of other oprions. Rapidshare, filehippo, dropbox
- Removed -
LordManhattan said:
Here you go: fake link removed
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Please stop posting that IP around. It's not real. The owners of the real MegaUpload have nothing to do with these "New MegaUpload" sites. Now for being stupid I hope you get a virus and have your bank account zeroed.
But seriously, do you really think they would put it back up right after it was closed? Someone just took a cached version to have the layout, put the text in there, and now they are thinking how to infect your computer and steal your money.
(yes, I am copy and pasting that whenever I see those numbers)
Yeah, just saw your reply in the other thread.
You should edit the quote out of your post
We don't need two MU threads....
Well, I don't anyway
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.......

US Estate Laws for a Canadian; long-lost bio father died

OK, I know this is kinda weird, but I live mostly on XDA these days, so thought I'd ask here in OT.
And I see the forum doesn't want me to ask a question in a non Q&A forum, but I see a "Boxers or Briefs ?" question, and this is supposed to be an OT forum, so...
I'm looking for tips or references to websites or lawyers etc.
I check the Social Security Death Index on the net every so often, and just found out my "estranged, biological" father died in November.
No need for consolations as I never knew him. I showed up on his doorstep 11 years ago to meet him for the first time. And he's a jerk for never even bothering to write to me once.
I believe he had some assets, but likely not too, too much in the grand scheme of things. Likely less than a house is worth. Perhaps.
But for all I know, he may have had a will, or there was next to nothing left. I'm sure I can find plenty of local (Canada) lawyers ready to take hundreds of dollars an hour from me, but if anyone has any tips or references to websites or whatever I'm open to suggestions. I'm happy to learn things on my own, but my app and lots of other things need my time too.
For reference, I think he likely died in or near Arizona but most of his assets may have been with a Bank of America branch in the LA, California area. I had some very helpful telephone contact with Bank of America in the past, so I guess I'll call them tomorrow. And he was a veteran of WW II.
And my situation could be complicated by the facts that I was born in the US, and lived there my first year of life, but have been in Canada since then and now have both citizenships.
I hate that the US and the IRS likely still sees me as a potentially taxpaying American. I gave up over a grand worth of with-holding taxes once to avoid getting involved with the IRS. But perhaps this will force my hand...
Any thoughts welcome. No condolences please, other than any mild commiserations offered for the millions of us who were raised in the challenging circumstances of a single parent house-hold.
I would call the SSA or maybe consult a lawyer. (actually, DEFINITELY consult a lawyer) I know you don't wanna do that but estate/inheritance law, is well....extremely complicated.
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i seriously doubt you'll get anything worthwhile
specially when he didn't even give a damn about contacting you
in the even he did make a step bro or sis over there, chances are all whatever little is left has gone to them, If any
remember, you are dealing wit US of A, the IRS are like vultures whenever there's a death, and no will or immediate US of A family member to take care of his business
a chunk of it would probably have gone to taxes and collectors if he had any outstanding debt, the house if any might possibly still be on a mortgage and has landed on default to the bank, heck it might have even been double mortgaged considering how the cost of living is in the US of A
also any medical fees would have probably also come out of it
dude, you have a hard up hill battle to fight to get anything worthwhile back.
good luck on your endeavours
Babydoll25 said:
I would call the SSA or maybe consult a lawyer. (actually, DEFINITELY consult a lawyer) I know you don't wanna do that but estate/inheritance law, is well....extremely complicated.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
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Thanks.
Yeah, I hadn't thought of the Social Security Administration. I'm not sure exactly what they could do for me though.
Today I sent some questions to the Veterans Administration via their web form.
I also had a nice 12 minute chat with somebody in the Bank of America "estate" department, or whatever they call it. They will be sending me some sort of package, perhaps once they figure out what happened with his account.
Yeah, I know the advice is always to get or ask a lawyer. But I'm happy to get the ball rolling myself. I don't need somebody charging me $200+ an hour for making simple phone calls or emails.
As I say, there might have been a will and I'm not a beneficiary, or there may be no assets left to claim, which could easily mean $1,000 spent on a lawyer for nothing, and I can't afford that. But I'll see what I can find out from a lawyer or 2 before I sign any lawyer contract.
AllGamer said:
i seriously doubt you'll get anything worthwhile
...
in the even he did make a step bro or sis over there, chances are all whatever little is left has gone to them, If any
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Thanks, yes, I doubt it too, but I figure it's worth it to spend at least a bit of time trying to find out. In the event of a step-sibling and no will, I presume I should be entitled to a share, but that could require a legal fight, and I don't think I'd start such a fight, unless the assets were worth it and I had a good chance.
I think he didn't own any property, he rented and physical assets were likely a few old cars. But that 68 Camaro he had at one point was worth a few bucks...
Yeah, medical fees, but as a WW II veteran I'd guess he had VA coverage, but I don't know how that works.
AllGamer said:
dude, you have a hard up hill battle to fight to get anything worthwhile back.
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Yeah, I likely won't start any fight, but I'm not going to ignore the possibility that I might have a few hundred grand (at most I'm sure) coming to me. He was a "penny pincher" and many such people can have a surprising amount tucked away.

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