TheMailMan78I grew up poor. Very poor. No reason to be poor. If you can't make it then where the hell do you expect to and when does it become an individuals responsibility? Not everyone can be an astronaut. Someones gotta clean toilets. Government handouts are slavery.

3870x2Wish I didn't have to pay out that much. Atleast with my two kids, I won't have to pay anything in at the beginning of the year. Might even get something back, who knows.

You can still be working and be poor. you would have to work 70 hours a week to pay rent, insurance (health and car) and food at minimum wage.

That being said, Florida requiring drug tests before they get goverment handouts are a huge step forward.

"If we are going to give you free money, just dont spend it on illegal drugs"
So far, only florida though.

TheMailMan78Yeah and that law is being fought tooth and nail here also. Its madness. Less taxes and smaller less powerful government is the only answer. Problem is people in power will never let it go. So they keep handing out entitlements to keep the masses happy. Whoever robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Pauls vote in the election. Hell some states requested the waiver to remove the work requirement from welfare. That just set us back 40 years. Gotta keep the hand outs commin. lol

3870x2I work between 45-55 hours a week as an IT analyst. Sometimes I think of it as working an extra 10 hours a week for someone else who is on welfare.

Sometimes I wish we could skip the middle man (the Gov't) and give our money directly to the people on welfare. Then atleast we can look at them in the eye when they take our money. If they had any self respect, we might see a decrease in the amount of checks given out.

TheGuruStudYou sillies act like welfare for the poor actually requires a large budget (and is useless).
Corporate welfare is in the trillions. Where's the crying about that?

I know it's the cool thing to hate on poor people whether they work hard or not, but you've just fallen into the govt's trap. That's what they want you to do (distraction - like left vs right). Congratulations. You just supported the system you claim to despise.

Think of it this way: Poor people don't ruin the world. The ultra-wealthy exist by making/keeping people poor. They're the one's ruining everything. They want more for themselves and less for everyone else. Our social, educational, and judicial systems all prove this. They are now designed to make sure that it's extremely difficult to get ahead in life.

Now, on topic, this is why this law was created. Billionaires are not pleased with their fortunes and want more. They could care less how this affects anyone except themselves. It's the easiest and cheapest route, as they see it, for gain. Why create quality content? Or ask a reasonable price for their product? Or allow easier methods of acquisition for consumers? Nah, that might relinquish control and potentially abate profits (even though it's proven to do the opposite, see MPAA history). It's better for them to just bribe politicians. No risk, no frills, no work, just ruin lives for petty gain. They're vacuous dinosaurs with insatiable greed. A failing economic system that they support means nothing to them, except potential for more green. They don't care if the consumers have no money to buy their product in the future - they'll be dead or rich beyond comprehension.

TheMailMan78I want a small less powerful government. Congratulations on thinking large centralized governments can solve your problems. I don't wanna pay taxes for ANY welfare. Corporate or Social. Also if you can't get ahead its no ones fault but your own.

TheGuruStudWho said a small govt can't provide social services that benefit a country as a whole? The govt should be razed to the ground and 99% of the politicians executed. I have no love for any large govt.

TheGuruStudThat last line is incredibly ignorant. That's something people that have been wealthy all their life say b/c they don't know jack.

TheMailMan78Social services is slavery. People will vote for who ever give them the most stuff.

TheGuruStudYou have it the wrong way around. Education is being degraded to allow this kind of thinking/voting.
An educated society would not care about such things on a personal level, but only realize that it's needed for a healthy society.
But, now, we're way out there. Voting does not matter in the US, anymore.

The countries with the highest standards of living in the world prove your assumptions false. :)

tacosRcoolwho's to say whats legal or illegal?

ShiBDiBI've always wondered if it was legal to torrent tv shows.. I could watch them on tv or I can watch them at my convenience.. either way I'm paying for cable.

AquinusGot to love what greed does to people. :ohwell:

wickermanWouldn't the smartest move be not to target the downloaders, but to get more aggressive with the torrent sites? Go after the scene groups that release the content, and take out as many of the big server farms as you can?

Japan’s law banning unauthorised downloads or ripping of copyrighted material came into effect on the 1st of October, with a maximum prison sentence of 2 years awaiting the vast majority of Japan’s Internet users if they are unfortunate enough to be caught downloading music and videos.

Illegal downloads of music and videos now attract up to 2 years in prison and 2 million yen in fines. Previously such downloads were both a civil offence and a criminal offence with no actual penalty.

The law has already been widely criticised for being hugely vague and ambiguous as to what actually constitutes an offence – in the usual tradition of Japanese lawmaking (prostitution and obscenity laws being the most stunning examples), it seems the law will be sweeping and draconian on paper, allowing police plenty of leeway to pick and choose which parts they decide to enforce, whilst allowing them maximum freedom to crack down should they so wish.

Authorities do say illegally downloaded files which are cached will not be subject to prosecution, but the law itself contains only vague provisions (although it does exempt “unknowingly” downloaded material and material copied by way of “efficient data processing mechanisms”), apparently largely leaving the matter up to police and prosecutors.

Whether viewing an infringing movie on YouTube constitutes a crime is still undetermined – the movie would be downloaded and remain cached on the user’s PC, possibly constituting a crime, and the government has said it will not be prosecuting such offences.

They do however say viewing such videos is “undesirable,” none too subtly hinting that this may be a temporary exemption at best.

There is also vagueness as to how the law applies to anime and other TV broadcasts – it applies only to “paid” distribution, so freely aired TV broadcasts are said to be exempt.

However, videos distributed on DVD, or as PPV or paid downloads, are covered, and the government has stated that it has decided that all downloads of broadcasts which are later released in this form will become subject to the law, muddying the waters even further.

Oddly, the law seems to entirely omit certain categories of content, such as printed content (manga) and software – the bill’s creators apparently not having been paid off by these industries – instead concentrating exclusively on audiovisual recordings.

Unauthorised distribution (as opposed to downloading) of copyrighted material has been criminalised for some time, and is unaffected by the new law.

The other major aspect of the law has been to indiscriminately ban “ripping” – all format shifting of protected content is now a crime, in a much belated rerun of the original DMCA’s most criticised and dated element.

A side effect of the new law some critics have also mentioned is that now it is likely that, should they be so minded, police will be able to arrest virtually anyone whose PC they may happen to get a look at (as even those without any downloaded porn will surely have some YouTube videos or similar in their cache) – handily allowing them to ensure virtually any search of a suspect’s home or belongings results in an offence they can easily prosecute.

The most enthusiastic proponent of the law, which passed into law with barely any debate or opposition from lawmakers (only the communists bothered to oppose it), were Japan’s notorious record industry mafia bodies JASRAC and the RIAJ – they have been following through on their triumph by plastering schools with posters denouncing the scourge of free music, as part of a public awareness campaign centred on schoolchildren.

Although the music industry religiously believes its CD sales will skyrocket if it can only somehow ban the Internet, Japan’s anime industry in particular may be wondering whether the law will gut its free promotion machine – as even government studies have seemingly demonstrated, piracy appears to actually increase its sales.