Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain 680
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What a schmuck. (Score:1, Informative)
Nor is it what happened.
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:3, Informative)
"Citation needed."
ha ha ha, and correct.
From what I've seen, stock car fans/crowds are generally better behaved than those at other major events.
Re:Was the guy speeding? (Score:3, Informative)
The U.S. Department of transportation's Federal Highway Administration review research on traffic speed in 1998.[19] The summary states:
* That the evidence shows that the risk of having a crash is increased both for vehicles traveling slower than the average speed, and for those traveling above the average speed.
* That the risk of being injured increases exponentially with speeds much faster than the median speed.
* That the severity of a crash depends on the vehicle speed change at impact.
* That there is limited evidence that suggests that lower speed limits result in lower speeds on a system wide basis.
* That most crashes related to speed involve speed too fast for the conditions.
* That more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of traffic calming.
http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/speed/speed.htm [tfhrc.gov]
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What a schmuck. (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't domain hijacking. Hijacking is when you impersonate the legitimate owner to have the domain transferred, use some sort of DNS poisoning attack to redirect the traffic to an alternate site or use some other nefarious method to deprive the legitimate owner of the use of the domain. The domain owner allowed the domain to expire. McCrary purchased it legally and legitimately. No high jacking involved.
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:5, Informative)
Having been to Bluff City and the Bristol race for many years now,
I can assure you that during race weekend a car goes anything but fast. The traffic in and out of the track is brutal, starting Friday and going well into Monday. 6+ hours before the race, traffic is already backed up for several miles, in both directions. After the race, it can take several hours to get out of Bluff City and be on your way. There are about 500 police officers (local, county and state) and a squad car about every 500 feet for a good mile in each direction because the pedestrian traffic is so heavy. I've arrived at the track 6 hours prior to the green flag and have parked 2+ miles away and walked, just because the traffic so obnoxious.
These camera's in Bluff City have very little to do with Nascar, and I would imagine speeding tickets on race weekend generate but a tiny fraction of the revenue these cameras otherwise generate.
jeff
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:3, Informative)
The reason why they have speed cameras is because they get lots of racing fans because the town is located just south of Bristol Motor Speedway. Nascar racing fans have a general disregard for speed limits and I bet that on a big race weekend one police car could not write tickets fast enough.
Have you ever tried to leave a large sporting event or concert? It doesn't matter how fast you *want* to go -- you're stuck going as fast as the repeated failures to merge/yield allow you to go. That is - about 5 mph. This continues onto the highway as well when we're talking 60k + people in a mass exodus.
NMA (Score:4, Informative)
Make driving laws about safety and engineering, not revenue creation.
Join the NMA [motorists.org].
Re:Was the guy speeding? (Score:4, Informative)
Except that red-light cameras do not have any effect on driver safety, but they do cause a *large* numbers of rear-end collisions. (I've seen claims that they increase the chances of a rear end collision anywhere between 200% and 800%). See this [motorists.org] for an explanation of how camera proponents lie with statistics.
Re:What a schmuck. (Score:1, Informative)
Someone please mod this down. That's not domain hijacking. From Wiki:
"Domain hijacking or domain theft is the process by which registration of a currently registered domain name is transferred without the permission of its original registrant, generally by exploiting a vulnerability in the domain name registration system."
He got the domain free and clear when it wasn't renewed and can do whatever he wants with it.
If the police department really wanted to keep the domain they could have simply paid the $8 to renew it. Otherwise it's fair game.
Re:Was the guy speeding? (Score:1, Informative)
You're missing the point.
I (and many other people) don't want to be policed by computers. Plus, the vast majority of speed cameras are strictly used as revenue enhancement devices and NOT out of a concern for public safety.
Re:Can't... (Score:3, Informative)
Speeding
Jaywalking
Murder
Failure to signal before turning
Public intoxication
Re:What a schmuck. (Score:3, Informative)
He didn't hijack a domain, he bought one when ii became legitimately availably. He didn't pretend to be the owner and get the details change.
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:5, Informative)
Let's do a check of your facts...
Find me a report that says increases in speed limits increase actual speeds. According to the US DOT, they did a study that found increasing the speed limit did NOT affect the average speed of traffic. http://www.motorists.org/speedlimits/home/effects-raising-and-lowering-the-speed-limit/ [motorists.org]
Next, I would trust traffic engineers too, unfortunately, there IS probably some anonymous guy in Texas setting the speed limit.. A politician. Engineers don't set speed limits.
Re:Use ads (Score:5, Informative)
Why towns and governments keep using .Com domains is beyond me.. there is state.us (like il.us) and .gov domains for this purpose.
Re:How come... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What a schmuck. (Score:3, Informative)
It isn't hijacking if the previous owners let it lapse, it's just recycling.
Re:Institutionalized reckless driving, my favorite (Score:1, Informative)
Speeding doesnt cause accidents. Accidents are caused by the stupidity of drivers. Whether someone fails to look at their mirrors before lane changing, or they're too busy putting their make up to pay attention. Speeding only increases the severity of the accident but not the frequency. The problem though is that there is not strict enough punishment to prevent accidents. If you get into an accident you are given a ticket and you go on your way. If you start imposing stricter punishments then you will see better drivers.
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:3, Informative)
You haven't driven in Oregon, have you? They will give you a ticket for 2-3 over.
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:3, Informative)
Liar. [mcclatchydc.com]
Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway (Score:5, Informative)
Or you're in Arizona and you don't have your passport on you to prove your citizenship and the judge won't accept the birth certificate your sister managed to convince the county to release to her (since it's not like they're going to let some illegal out on bail and leave the state to pick up their birth certificate) and you nearly get deported to Russia before a Senator steps in and convinces the judge to accept the certificate and release you.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/01/24/25392/immigration-officials-detaining.html [mcclatchydc.com]
All it takes to fuck you over is a cop willing to claim he "suspected" you were Russian. Or Canadian. Or British, or whatever other country white people come from. Obviously you picked up the southern accent while you were here trying to blend in.
Re:How come... (Score:1, Informative)
Because they told you that in your driver's ed' class and they were sure to emphasize the point, right? Up until the 1950s the term used was "driving rights".
Re:How come... (Score:2, Informative)
I have a right not to be recorded by cameras posted all over the city all the time.
I have a right to deal with a human being and when I'm accused of a crime, and if you've ever tried to contest a parking ticket, you'll realize you get form letters instead.
And no matter how inconsiderate anybody in my city, including I, might be, I have a right for my safety laws to be enforced for safety and not as another way to fill the coffers.
No, I don't like increases in taxes, but if that's what it takes, city officials need to suck it up and break the bad news to everyone. I'd rather hear "we're increasing taxes because the city need revenue" than "we installing cameras to trap people because the city need revenue."
I'd love a little honesty and openess from my politicians, but maybe that's expecting too much.