11 replies to this topic

[Echo_of_thunder]

Today I mad a Petition for something that I fell should be free and not sold. Weather Alerts. There are some media sites that will sell there services to send you notices of server weather warnings to your computer cell phone and such for a fee. This is public domain and should not be sold at any price being it can be found for free. I urge everyone in the USA to please sign this petition.

Weather alerts should be free

Sorry that this is just for people in the usa only my friends. This Petition will end on 12/31/09 and then be sent to the Department of Commerce in Washington DC. By signing you agree that the sale of such services should be stopped and such services should and shall be free for all, since they are Public Domain. I honestly feel that this needs and must be done. True that these services do provide help in times of need. But should be free for everyone. You can not put a price on a life. Would you pay $$ Amount to get something you could get for free?
edit spelling

Edited by jlhaslip, 02 March 2009 - 12:12 AM.

[bittr]

Echo_of_thunder, on Mar 1 2009, 11:44 PM, said:

Today I mad a Patition for something [...]. I urge everyone in the USA to please sign this patition [...]. This Patition will end on 12/31/09

Ok, no offense intended, but it's petition.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patition
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/petition

http://dictionary.re...browse/patition
http://dictionary.re...browse/petition

Edited by bittr, 01 March 2009 - 10:17 PM.

[Pankyy]

What I'm not sure about is, to the service you're referring here is to the one that sends you the weather alerts only to cells, or some kind of website where you need to pay a fee to watch them?

If you only refer to the cell service, I think the fee might be only because of the costs of sending you the messages or alerts to your cell. Even though it's public domain, such things are usually charged. I don't think you could get away with getting them for free.

[Echo_of_thunder]

Pankyy, on Mar 1 2009, 05:44 PM, said:

What I'm not sure about is, to the service you're referring here is to the one that sends you the weather alerts only to cells, or some kind of website where you need to pay a fee to watch them?

If you only refer to the cell service, I think the fee might be only because of the costs of sending you the messages or alerts to your cell. Even though it's public domain, such things are usually charged. I don't think you could get away with getting them for free.

what I was talking of is. there are some weather services here in the net who shall be nameless, that charge a fee for them to contact you in the event of a weather warning for your area. They will E mail you or Text you. even call your home phone.. I am not saying that isnt a good idea it is. But I have a very big problem with these media outlets charging a fee for this service.

[jlhaslip]

fixed typo

[TheDisturbedOne]

I would sign this, but there are news stations that have these plastered all over when there is a warning. Pplus I could go on weather.com, if I wanted to see alerts.

[Echo_of_thunder]

willielwgg, on Mar 1 2009, 07:15 PM, said:

I would sign this, but there are news stations that have these plastered all over when there is a warning. Pplus I could go on weather.com, if I wanted to see alerts.

that is just what I am talking about willie. a lot of these places charge a fee for this when it is made to the public for free.

[RJM]

OK, I gotchya... Like Emergency Broadcast System.

That's not Public Domain. Public Domain is something that can't be copyrighted. Like the Constitution or chocolate chip cookies.

If your cell-phone carrier doesn't provide the service free, why would a company not offer such a service for a small price? Sounds like a good idea actually.

[TheDisturbedOne]

Actually chocolate chip cookies can have a copyright. Toll House
But I understand what you mean

[buxgoddess]

And think about it as a new venture. If basmati rice of India which is a natural product is patented by the US just because they can sell it globally, there is nothing that can be done. If rice which is not hybrid and is purely natural can meet such fate, then god forbid what is happening.

[zakaluka]

This petition is completely pointless. There is nothing stopping anyone from tuning a radio to any AM news station or the Emergency Broadcast Station to get updates on their area. If you have a cell phone with internet access, you can use your mobile browser to check updates on the US govt's site and weather.com.

If a company is providing an additional service, i.e. sending SMS / text messages to cell phones or even calling your house to warn you, then they should be compensated for that. The fee is not for the information, but for the added convenience of how it is delivered to you.

I doubt you would be complaining that the cell phone company is charging you money to access the internet so you can get weather updates, which is the same exact thing. Otherwise, nothing to do with any so-called "public domain" information could be monetized at all, and this is not the case.

In your petition, you even mention that the information can be obtained for free. So, what do you have against companies that are selling the information as well? Are they stopping you from using your free sources? If not, there is no basis for stopping a company from conducting legitimate business. Are you trying to protect "innocents" from being bilked by them? Then start an education / awareness program in your neighborhood. Just because you don't want to pay someone to call your home in case of a weather alert, doesn't mean your neighbors don't want to either.

I don't mean to sound rude. However, trying to shut down companies providing real added value benefits to free information is a ridiculous demand.

Regards,

z.

[rpgsearcherz]

willielwgg, on Mar 2 2009, 03:36 PM, said:

Actually chocolate chip cookies can have a copyright. Toll House
But I understand what you mean

What about Mrs. whateverhername is..... I don't know her name since I don't eat a lot of cookies but she's pretty common.


As for the idea to make this information "free," I don't see an issue with charging for it. Making it free would be like saying "Blizzard, you should make World of Warcraft free to play because other games like (insert hundreds of free MMORPG's here) are all free to play!"

The reason our technology is as far as it is is because of the money involved, and the profits.

The reason the news stations offer free news is because they are paid by advertisers just for broadcasting because people watch their channel. When they're making hundreds of millions of dollars a month for just broadcasting, they will do things to entice more people to watch them.

As for the paid services, they are *not* being paid just to make you pay attention to them, so they pass on their cost to the users.


Think of it like this:

There are two car companies, A and B.
Car company A gets $50 million a month in advertisement revenue because they have people who are loyal to them and there are so many
Car company B makes $1 million a month in advertisement revenue because car company A already has all the advertisers/people

You then go to rent one of the cars. Car company A can give it to you for free because their benefit is high, not to mention added exposure.
Car company B would be losing money if they were not to charge, because they do not have the same exposure or income.



The same thing happens with the weather.