Copyright 2006 David Maillie
It means we have rights. Rights that many have fought for and given their lives for. Unfortunately in current America there is, for the most part, two separate classes of citizenship, a bipartisanship if you will. You have the poor and then you have the wealthy. Yes, there is a middle class, but the republicans and George Bush are slowly getting rid of this class. Their reason for this is simple. The middle class doesn't like a government that only favors the rich and it has a voice. The middle class also provides a door for many to become rich. The rich and wealthy don't like the poor and don't like to fraternize outside of their class. So, needless to say, if the republicans (the rich and wealthy) have their way there will only be two classes left, the poor and the wealthy.
Basically, this is how it works. In America you have a right to great health care if you are rich or have a great employer sponsored plan. Due to the rising cost of healthcare many employers are limiting or ending these plans for employees. Of course, at the same time, executives are actually getting more benefits than ever. So basically, the reality is you have a right to marginal health care. The great health care George Bush says we have is reserved for the rich.
You also have the right to vote. What you don't know and the government doesn't want you to know is that your votes don't count or matter. Just look at the close election between George Bush and Al Gore. Al Gore really won, but Jeb Bush, George Bush's brother and Governor of Florida played around with Florida's votes and voila George won. This is even though he had fewer votes. If you watched Michael Moore's documentary Farenheit 9/11 you will see that many voters were outraged that their votes were not included. This was especially so with lower class and primarily black or African Americans. None were allowed to have a voice or make a formal complaint because they needed a senator to back them and of course none would speak out against Jeb or George Bush. What happened here is simple, George and Jeb Bush have conspired to great political power. What they did was dig up dirt and such on every political official that might become a problem and let them know what they have so they would just let this happen. This is not a true democracy. It is becoming more like socialist Russia 20 years ago. How can we liberate Iraq when we are not liberated ourselves?
You have the right or responsibility to pay taxes. Yes, only in America do the rich on average pay only 1% or less of their income in taxes while the middle class and lower class pay on average 35% of their income. Only the rich can afford powerful tax attorneys and fancy tax havens. It was recently made known that many of the rich have even set up trusts in childrens names that they don't have. Don't worry, your rich, the government probably won't catch it and if they do you'll get off easy. Its amazing what you can get away with in America if you have money. Look at O.J. Simpson. You can literally kill someone and then hide your assets so no one can touch your money. O.J. claimed he was broke and had no funds. Right. Just look at each presidents outgoing list of pardons when they leave office. All rich and wealthy people looking to escape felonies and similar that would put most Americans behind bars for many years. If you are rich and are facing something awful, just make a donation or two of $500,000 to a presidents library fund or similar and you'll be amazed at what you can get away with.
As citizens we are not guilty until proven innocent. Actually, the poor are basically guilty, and the rich will get out of it, regardless. Actually, the rich don't even get arrested sometimes. Just look at Senator Kennedy. You can drive drunk, hit a concrete barrier, be observed as being drunk by several sworn officers and be driven home. The rest of us would be given the breathalizer and thrown in the drunk tank to await a court date for either DUI or DWUI (as senator Kennedy claimed it was a medication problem). He was drunk or under the influence and could have killed someone.
There are many more rights that we have or don't really have and are actually reserved for the rich and wealthy, but I'll get into those in a later article. I'm busy now reading an article from the Associated Press on how George Bush's wife ran a stop sign when she was 17 and killed someone but she was never charged with any crime. Yes America is a truly great democracy ? if you are rich and wealthy
------
For more great controversial and eye opening information please visit http://www.bestbraindrain.com . You will be glad you did. Again, its http://www.bestbraindrain.com . Go there now and be enlightened to what really goes on in America and elsewhere. You will love this website.
How Phone Verification Fights Identity Theft
Just like anything on Earth modern society has some kind of balance. So on one hand we have a progressive electronic community and on the other hand we have army of internet criminals whose both work and fun consists of so called identity theft.
As the main weapon of a scammer is his anonymity the main purpose of a Site Owner consists in confirmation of Users identity.
There are some methods to verify website user's identity. Confirmation by email is used when it concerns password reminder service; e-merchants use AVS checking to authorize their customers as true cardholders while processing credit cards in e-shops and so on.
But it's not enough. Passwords can be stolen through so called phishing. And Address Verification System is used in US and Canada only and moreover its scheme is rather imperfect.
There should be another solution.
And it does exist.
Telephone verification is a kind of universal method to verify user's identity. It works as follows:
A. A user enters his personal data including phone number at a certain site and presses "submit" button.
B. Phone verification system initiates a call to this number.
C. After greeting a system asks to enter pin-code that a user sees on the screen using a phone keypad.
D. A user enters pin-code and hangs up.
After a call is done system passes a merchant user's country and city by phone number area code, phone number type and matching of pin-code entered and pin-code shown on site. Some companies e.g. Proveout.com provides Geo IP research in addition to telephone verification. This allows to compare IP address data with phone number data (whether country and city identified by IP address matches the ones identified by phone area code).
It is a lot. It is surely enough to define whether a Customer is a person he seems to be - a real website user and a real cardholder.
Optionally system can ask a person to confirm his identity/order by saying something like his name or any other information that is recorded. Afterwards, such recordings can prove that a person had indeed used certain service (ordered certain goods). A Site Owner can download a wav-file with a recorded voice message of a customer at any time as it is saved on server of telephone authorization service provider.
This is telephone verification and how it works.
Where telephone verification is used
1. E-commerce. Identity theft is a serious problem for plenty of merchants. Telephone verification helps to reduce fraudulent transactions. Customer just passes the standard procedure of authorization and proves that he is a true cardholder. Recorded message with Customers voice can afterwards become a proof of ordering a good/service by a certain person.
2. Any website where registration/authorization is required. VoIP telephone verification can be used at the registration stage in order to confirm users' identity (e.g. it's of high importance at different forums, online communities, online financial services etc). Also it can be used in case a user has lost his password. Sending it to a specific email address doesn't guarantee Site Owner cannot be completely sure that password reminder procedure isn't initiated by a scammer with an idea to manage somebody's personal data. Passing telephone verification by user can prove his identity.
3. Sites with free content limiting. Very often different companies carry on advertising campaigns that permit using their online services for free for certain time (trial periods). In order to anticipate multiple signing up (which is a bad experience for a marketing report) each new registration can be verified in order to prove that use hasn't signed up before.
4. Sites offering region limiting services. In some countries it is prohibited to distribute security software to certain countries. Using telephone verification service Site Owner can be sure that his new registered user doesn't live in one of these countries. Phone number area code helps to reveal user's location. This service is even more effective when it is used together with Geo IP research.
VoIP telephone service can be used for automation of webmaster's work by programming scheduled phone calls with a request of certain info or a confirmation of certain info. E.g. you can automatically initiate a call when a new order with shipment requirement is submitted in order to confirm shipment details. In case you're an owner of an internet-catalogue you can initiate a call e.g. once a month to the members of your catalogue in order to confirm that their sites still exist with the same domain names, so to confirm their membership.
You can use VoIP telephone verification as a perfect marketing tool. For example you can supply your Clients with information concerning some changes in their maintenance by phone or automatically play them greeting messages on specific dates.
To sum it up, I'm to say that there is a great variety of variants on how VoIP telephone verification can be used in internet space. You can offer another ways according to your e-business. It gives great opportunities to communicate with your Clients without being bounded by electronic means (email, ICQ).
Alexa Foster is a specialist in web development and internet marketing. Visit http://www.lommeks.co.uk
Determining Ownership of Copyright and Software
A fundamental question that arises in many disputes is the most obvious - who owns the copyright in the software? Legal ownership and legal advice in most cases may be determined by reference to fundamental copyright principles. Determining the first owner of copyright is one of the key steps in determining whether a particular form of work under the Act is qualifies for protection in the United Kingdom. The rationale set out below applies equally to photographs, imagery, multimedia works, graphic designs, authored material, and artistic works.
Copyright Legislation
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act UK, clearly states that the first owner of copyright in a work is the author of the work. Due to the structure of the law, the author of a work is not necessarily the first owner of copyright. The author is the person who created the original protectable elements of the work, or played a non-trivial role in creating the work. Usually this is the person who reduces the idea to a material form, but is not necessarily the case, for instance where a person dictates a letter or other material, which is reduced to writing by a stenographer. Copyright is owned by the person dictating the material.
Ownership is qualified by the factual circumstances in which the work was authored. Where the copyright work is a literary, dramatic, musical, artistic work, or a film, and an employee authored the work in the course of their employment, the employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work subject to a written agreement to the contrary.
So, if the person made the copyright work in the course of their employment, their employer is the first owner of copyright. The next step to determining ownership is whether copyright has been assigned by the first owner to another legal entity. The generally accepted meaning of employment is a relationship where the employee has agreed that in return for some form of payment, they will provide their own work and skill in the performance of their services; they will be subject to another's control of a sufficient degree to constitute an employer; and the other terms of contract are not inconsistent with the type of provisions found in employment contracts. If the contract falls within this description, the work must still have been created in the course of the employment under that contract.
Software Licenses and Assignment of Copyright
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act states that copyright is personal property and is transmissible by assignment, testamentary disposition or operation of law. The law is brutally clear in relation to assignments of copyright:
"An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor."
So, if there is no document assigning the copyright, there is no assignment of the copyright in the vesting work, unless it has been transferred by a testamentary disposition (the first owner of copyright died), or some other circumstance caused the ownership in the software to change - for instance the owner was a company and that company entered liquidation or administrative receivership.
Consequences of Copyright Ownership
Most commercial software is authored by persons working for a software house that has identified a need in the market, and software is written (i.e. authored) to penetrate that market segment. The software house would be the first owner of copyright.
To bring home the significance of this, the corollary from this rationale drawn from the law set out in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is this: if an independent contractor has been engaged to write and supply software for a customer (or any other work protected by copyright), unless the contract is in writing (or there is some other document dealing with copyright), copyright cannot be assigned, and the independent consultant maintains copyright ownership. Any money paid for the software will probably be considered a license fee to use the software, in the same way as when one purchases a book. When one purchases a copy of a book, one purchases the physical copy of the book and not the copyright vesting in it, which would otherwise entitle the purchaser to print the book commercially.
Exclusive Rights of Copyright Ownership
Copyright ownership brings along with it all the benefits of ownership of copyright - the power to prevent others from reproducing the work without the licence of the owner of the copyright.
Legal Advice - Complications and Complexity
Legal advice, legal issues and disputes though are rarely determined on such a simplistic application of the law. Legal advice is complicated by the possibility of joint ownership in copyright works, which is assumed for films under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Indeed beneficial rights may have accrued in equity, such that the person who engaged the software house to write the software may have superior rights. One of the indicia that may displace the first owner of copyright in equity is whether the consultant could reasonably have been expected to exploit the work in their own right. In high value software developments, this is rarely going to be the case. This is but one factor that may be taken into consideration in the assessment of first ownership of copyright. The answer relies on the factual matrix of development project.
Again, other forms of copyright works, namely cable programmes, broadcasts and published editions are treated differently. The sensible advice is to speak to your legal advisor before taking legal action or making wild unsupportable statement as to ownership, as every set of facts is different. Ensure that the surrounding circumstances do not give rise to an equitable right in the software or other copyright work.
Managing Risk in Intellectual Property Transactions
Risk in transfers of intellectual property is by and large managed by contract. Rather than granting what is known as a mere license - which is in effect a licence revocable at will - properly managed transactions with dealings in intellectual property should involve granting a contractual licence, in writing. One of the main purposes of these contractual licenses to avoid the risk of a mere licence being implied - where the licensor may terminate the license at will. Managing legal risk and obtaining legal advice is about minimising risk and maximising legal certainty. Contractual licenses involve entering into a formal, legally binding agreement that satisfies the rudimentary requirements of contract law. Namely, that a reasonably certain offer has been made by one party and accepted by the other; the parties intend to be bound by the contract; consideration (i.e. a promise that has value) moves from both parties. This last requirement in the context of software licenses is usually characterised by the grant of the license by the licensor and the payment of money by the licensee. Such an approach is geared to avoid or narrow the possibility of disputes by the fact that the deal has been enshrined in permanent form and on specific terms. On a final note, the duration of copyright protection is calculated by reference to the author of the copyright work, rather than the first owner.
For more information and obtaining legal advice on technology contracts, contact Leigh Ellis at GIllhams Solicitors. Leigh is specialist information technology and intellectual property lawyer in London. He commenced life as a software engineer after completing an undergraduate degree in computer science.
