City Laws Only Available Via $200 License 411
MrLint writes "The City of Schenectady has decided that their laws are copyrighted, and that you cannot know them without paying for an 'exclusive license' for $200. This is not a first — Oregon has claimed publishing of laws online is a copyright violation." This case is nuanced. The city has contracted with a private company to convert and encode its laws so they can be made available on the Web for free. While the company works on this project, it considers the electronic versions of the laws its property and offers a CD version, bundled with its software, for $200. The man who requested a copy of the laws plans to appeal.
But (Score:4, Funny)
Re:New form of taxes! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:New form of taxes! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A simple solution (Score:3, Funny)
$35 charge per vote
Are you from Chicago?
Oh, wait, you mean the voters have to pay the politicians?
New business opportunities. (Score:4, Funny)
Dear City Council of Schenectady
I would like to recommend to you an interesting article.
The subject is a result of my study "Location, timer settings and defusing codes of explosive devices located in various public buildings of the City of Schenectady".
I'm convinced you would be very interested in the information contained therein. I am willing to sell you a copy of said article, but considering its literary and informational value, I estimate it to be worth $10mln.
Simultaneously I would like to state I have no connection with manufacturers of these devices nor people who planted them. This is merely an scientific work of an informative study that should be of interest to all citizens of the city.
Faithfully, yours, ...
Re:New form of taxes! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Welcome to government (Score:4, Funny)
I always thought it would be a good idea to do that with comcast. Have a bunch of people call them every single day to check their bandwidth usage. I wonder what the costs of having thousands of people making support calls (preferably all at about the same time of day) to verify the amount of transfer they have left that month compares to getting rid of the limit
Re:But (Score:5, Funny)
Think of the lawyer's children!
Re:But (Score:5, Funny)
I do; that's why I always load hollow-points.
];)
Re:Appeal (Score:3, Funny)
Heh... I honestly like the first go at that sort of spiel better...
Vogons' argument (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New business opportunities. (Score:1, Funny)
$10mln? It's worth a ten-dollar MELON? Dude...