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From http://imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes :

[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The Delta Knights already found Archimedes' death ray.

That would be Quest of the Delta Knights. A truly epic film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107910/

What about sex rays?

Yeah, it was Quest of the Delta Knights

If I'm bitter about anything, it's the market manipulation.

No one who's seen 1/10th of the internet can honestly say "the market" wants "family-friendly" content. Maybe you're thinking the market only wants adult content in privacy, not in the BnM world. Then why do studios always make
movies that push the edge of the ratings,
NC-17 films that only make it to R
after a healthy bout of resubmissions,
sometimes without changing a thing?

Besides, if the market really wants content to be produced within these arbitrary boundaries, why do we need centralized ratings at all?

So what could explain this apparent disconnect? Maybe it's because rating boards are supported by nothing more than industry-wide collusion. Collusion makes the baby market cry.

Someone who respected capitalism would prefer an open market of ratings systems that compete fairly with one another, as I advocate, rather than propping up these coersive cartels.

So why not make the "official" ratings system incredibly permissive, and let people who disagree with it consult one of the free alternatives that already exist? All this does is kill the chilling effects of a centralized system. This lets you keep your ratings system for your kids, letting me choose differently for mine. Why is that such a threat? Why do you need everyone else to follow the ratings system you happen to prefer, when it's supported by neither a free market nor democracy?

If I'm bitter about anything, it's the market manipulation.

No one who's seen 1/10th of the internet can honestly say "the market" wants "family-friendly" content. Maybe you're thinking the market only wants adult content in privacy, not in the BnM world. Then why do studios always make
movies that push the edge of the ratings,
NC-17 films that only make it to R
after a healthy bout of resubmissions,
sometimes without changing a thing?

Besides, if the market really wants content to be produced within these arbitrary boundaries, why do we need centralized ratings at all?

So what could explain this apparent disconnect? Maybe it's because rating boards are supported by nothing more than industry-wide collusion. Collusion makes the baby market cry.

Someone who respected capitalism would prefer an open market of ratings systems that compete fairly with one another, as I advocate, rather than propping up these coersive cartels.

So why not make the "official" ratings system incredibly permissive, and let people who disagree with it consult one of the free alternatives that already exist? All this does is kill the chilling effects of a centralized system. This lets you keep your ratings system for your kids, letting me choose differently for mine. Why is that such a threat? Why do you need everyone else to follow the ratings system you happen to prefer, when it's supported by neither a free market nor democracy?

If I'm bitter about anything, it's the market manipulation.

No one who's seen 1/10th of the internet can honestly say "the market" wants "family-friendly" content. Maybe you're thinking the market only wants adult content in privacy, not in the BnM world. Then why do studios always make
movies that push the edge of the ratings,
NC-17 films that only make it to R
after a healthy bout of resubmissions,
sometimes without changing a thing?

Besides, if the market really wants content to be produced within these arbitrary boundaries, why do we need centralized ratings at all?

So what could explain this apparent disconnect? Maybe it's because rating boards are supported by nothing more than industry-wide collusion. Collusion makes the baby market cry.

Someone who respected capitalism would prefer an open market of ratings systems that compete fairly with one another, as I advocate, rather than propping up these coersive cartels.

So why not make the "official" ratings system incredibly permissive, and let people who disagree with it consult one of the free alternatives that already exist? All this does is kill the chilling effects of a centralized system. This lets you keep your ratings system for your kids, letting me choose differently for mine. Why is that such a threat? Why do you need everyone else to follow the ratings system you happen to prefer, when it's supported by neither a free market nor democracy?

If I'm bitter about anything, it's the market manipulation.

No one who's seen 1/10th of the internet can honestly say "the market" wants "family-friendly" content. Maybe you're thinking the market only wants adult content in privacy, not in the BnM world. Then why do studios always make
movies that push the edge of the ratings,
NC-17 films that only make it to R
after a healthy bout of resubmissions,
sometimes without changing a thing?

Besides, if the market really wants content to be produced within these arbitrary boundaries, why do we need centralized ratings at all?

So what could explain this apparent disconnect? Maybe it's because rating boards are supported by nothing more than industry-wide collusion. Collusion makes the baby market cry.

Someone who respected capitalism would prefer an open market of ratings systems that compete fairly with one another, as I advocate, rather than propping up these coersive cartels.

So why not make the "official" ratings system incredibly permissive, and let people who disagree with it consult one of the free alternatives that already exist? All this does is kill the chilling effects of a centralized system. This lets you keep your ratings system for your kids, letting me choose differently for mine. Why is that such a threat? Why do you need everyone else to follow the ratings system you happen to prefer, when it's supported by neither a free market nor democracy?

I dunno, the custard scene in Dead Alive was pretty priceless.

I hear Peter Jackson found a whole town of them there.

Actually Ron Howard found them first.

Come on. Where else are you gonna see a VD infected rabbit, a gun toting love-stricken hippo, and a gorey ending to rival Scarface?

About the whole **AA copyright business, it should now be common knowledge that corporations are functionally the equivalent of psychopathic immortal humans, so quelle surprise when they behave in fixed patterns that act against their own interests if they could only see it. If any of you has had any dealings with geniune psychopaths (and I'm using the medical sense of the word psychopath here), then you'll know that having fixed (and wildly incorrect) ideas is part of the landscape for psychosis.

So who should pay for content if ads shouldn't?

Look, I work in the magazine business. The magazine I work for does not charge for subscriptions. Thus, we get all of our revenue from advertising or some other form of sponsorship. And so therefore, yes, pretty much every penny of my salary comes from ads. Many of those ads are sold on our Web site.

And you know what? I use Firefox and Filterset.G and I wouldn't have it any other way. I block all ads, even Google ads, because I don't want to see ads when I surf the Web, period.

Am I being shortsighted? Am I cutting my own throat? Is my telling you all of this only going to encourage you all to do the same and put my publication out of business that much faster? I'm sorry, but I just can't see it that way.

I don't work in sales and I don't work in marketing. My job is to create content and make it appealing enough that it finds its way out to an audience. As far as I'm concerned, if I've convinced you to read it/look at it/listen to it/whatever, my job is done. Who gives a damn who's going to pay for it? That's what I work for a great big corporation for. Let them figure it out.

Seriously, plenty of people go to school, get degrees, and devote their whole careers to worrying about the question of how content is going to get paid for. From where I sit, they do that so I don't have to.

I look at it this way: If what I do has any value at all, then there will always be a demand for it. That demand ought to be translatable into dollars somehow. For the salespeople out there who bemoan the fact that people want to get rid of ads, here's a little Glengarry Glen Ross moment for you: "Third prize is you're fired." If a given sales technique isn't working and you're not closing sales and you're not bringing in revenue, then you need to think up something else.

But I don't. I just don't like the ads, so I make them go away without even looking at them. Yes, somebody should be giving that some thought. Just not me.

...that quote reminds me somehow remotely of something else...

And to stick it to the man.

I thought that's what rock & roll was for?

These sorts of things can be modified and are fun to learn so they're perfect.

Sure, it all seems like fun and games until the damn things become sentinent.

Well documented in the classified 1964 military proof of concept film The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

They've had this tech for years! Or had henry gone off to play with "lady fish?"

was a fave movie of mine as a kid :D

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058230/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058230/

Townspeople: [gasp]

PC McIntosh: Yeah. Someone arsen' around!

http://imdb.com/title/tt0312004/quotes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/ Hmm...

I believe when they turn this on, it's going to wipe out all life on the planet.

Now we're one step closer to the Broadcast Energy Transmitter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093066/). Better watch out or Cobra-La will use it to deploy spores from space.

I think Eddie Murphy is still looking into it...

Think of Gattaca for ways people could discrimiate.

Haven't you seen the 13th floor?

If they get too close to reality, they'll crash this one! :P

Star Wars was a great movie, but this one is better!

You don't need to click on the first link to find out that I'm talking about Star Wars. If you already know about the movie Spaceballs and don't want to read all its details on IMDB, you wouldn't have to click on the second link if I linked "Spaceballs" instead of "this one".

Star Wars was a great movie, but this one is better!

You don't need to click on the first link to find out that I'm talking about Star Wars. If you already know about the movie Spaceballs and don't want to read all its details on IMDB, you wouldn't have to click on the second link if I linked "Spaceballs" instead of "this one".

at least they weren't headed for the sun by a crazy computer!

bad humour is ultra good!

The maiden flight of the orbital space plane is sabotaged resulting in an explosion. Unlike every explosion to ever go off on a plane in flight the space plane does not fall out of the sky. The passengers are rescued in orbit using a backup plane.

The author probably saw the same movie I did. When I was a kid back in the 80s, it was shown every Christmas Eve on a local station. I never could figure out why.

Everyone who feels like they have a say in this should go and watch "One Hour Photo" before they open their reply windows.

Seriously, you're paying for 1 thing -- privacy. Scratch that, you're also paying for convienence. How much $$ in gas do you burn driving to the store, then driving back to pick it up? That's a distance * 4 cost if you're doing nothing else. What's the time cost involved? Hey, how much do you make an hour vs. how long you spend driving? There are many advantages to home printing.

Plus, if you're into semi-illegal things, you'll know that the photo clerks are required by law to turn you into the cops if you try to get prints of scary pictures. I'd much rather the people with said prints do not set foot near photo equipment I run -- if I was in their position.

Convience is why 4L of milk (which I can get for 3$ at Wal-mart) is 6$ at the corner gas station. Why is it such a surprise that people use home printers? Hell, most people don't have laserjets! Inkjets sure cost a lot more per page, even though the initial cost is lower.

But seriously folks...

Also, fixing dead zones, AFAIK, would require more cell towers. If the lack in some areas was due to municipal zoning issues, how is that reconciled? Does the state bill allow the cell carriers to steamroll city/county planning commissions?

The main question on my mind, though, is would the cell phone carriers offer fewer freebies and worse deals if contracts were limited to one year, or would the competition in the market end up causing Mass. consumers to get deals on one-year contract that the rest of the country only gets on two-year contracts.

- Greg

What if Einstein discovered that the Universe is hourglass shaped?

How about this then? You go to the bank and deposit your money. Some customers are getting extra money free from the bank, you don't. You both used the same service but others got better treatment.

Don't you see why people are annoyed that some are getting free upgrades and some aren't?

What the hell kind of pinko-commie communist nonsense is this? This is America, not Soviet Russia or Che-land. People and machines are *not* all created equal! So somebody got something more than they contracted for... So somebody got lucky(ier) in life than you did... thems the breaks! Life isn't always fair. Property isn't distributed communally, nor is wealth distributed equally.

Think of it this way.... if you are born with a disability (or get a broken Mini), that sucks... and you can curse the Fates if you would like. However, if you're born with everything in the right place and working (the Mini you paid for), then congratulations. DO NOT feel pissed because someone else was born *taller*, *smarter*, or *more beautiful* than you (got better parts than they paid for). Just do the best with what you were given and stop being jealous.

So shut up and go watch The Incredibles...

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that it was sabotaged by those with an interest in the continued used of fossil fuels.

Yes, it's probably the aliens from the The Arrival terraforming earth to suite their conditions who shot it down. We all know they're in bed with the JPL. Seriously, watch the movie, it explains everything.

all I can find here (dvd, cd, games, books) have printed on them in nice friendly letters:
All rights reserved.

Yep. Those are copyrights. They've reserved them. Those words would be meaningless without copyright law behind them.

Just because something is published doesn't mean the owner the owner has put in in public domain.

Until 1978 it worked exactly like that: If a work did not have a copyright notice, it wasn't copyrighted. In 1968 a few prints of Night of the Living Dead were let out without a copyright notice, so the movie is in the public domain. Anybody can copy it and show it on late night TV. There are, or course, some rather nasty entanglements: Once a TV show went out with no notices on it, and a company started selling videotapes of its episodes. The producers successfully sued, because while the show itself wasn't copyrighted, the scripts were, and the show was a derivative work.

Since 1978, a work is automatically copyrighted simply by being created, notice or no. A notice (and registration) certainly help, if you're defending your work, but they are not strictly required.

Look at it this way: If you write a play, and I start producing it on Broadway without your permission and without paying you a dime, you're going to want to sue me, right? Under what statutes do you have legal standing? Copyright isn't an intrensic right of man; it is created and enforced by laws. Laws can be created and destroyed at a whim---what is natural today may be a felony tomorrow, or vice-versa.

A couple of years ago I wrote a short paper (in .doc format) on copyright law. It does a fair job of tracing the history of copyright. You're welcome to read a draft of it.

If you are drunk and bored again tonight, rent this cool
movie (I liked it, anyhow) and it might cheer you up:
"The Arrival" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0115571/

That's true. In fact there are already training manuals available on the Internet.

According to imdb, she's older than me (I'm 23 as of now). And Firefly was on in 2002. Which means that she was at least 20 when Firefly the series aired.

"I have to wonder, if this works to boost revenue for Serenity, what will the MPAA's response be? It only took them, what, ten years to realize the internet can help them?"

What an interesting thing to say. I remember that Strange Days had a rather kick-ass web site for its time... and that was in 1995. Since then, I've lost count of the number of well-executed Internet ad campaigns I've seen for films. I know that many Slashdotters may have only been on the Internet for a few years so this sort of thing may be new to them, but it's an old, old medium to lots of us.

Either way, ad campaigns are put together by studios, not the MPAA. The MPAA is a trade group that represents studios.

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Rome IMDB Entry

Whilst this does not particularly concern me, when the Sopranos return I think there will be plenty of people who are unhappy with this practice. I

I know that here in Australia Channel Nine's patronage of this show is pathetic. Often showing one episode and then breaking for many weeks. Downloads become our only option. This of course after probably close to a year of waiting after its screened in the US (they are really slow).

Misha Borovsky (GNAP) - Hollywood - GNAA President timecop announced at a press conference this morning that the Gay Nigger Association of America is in the midst of a large effort to reduce operating costs and streamline business processes. "Layoffs of approximately fifty percent of the gay workforce are to be expected, as well as a shifting in administrative functions," timecop was quoted as saying. Analysts predict this corporate downsizing was made necessary due to over-investment into the New Orleans area, when it was announced last year that the GNAA would be opening a state-of-the-art branch office on the coast. The building was nearing completion and just opening for business when it was destroyed by hurricane Katrina, which has been recently found to be the responsibility of Jews. As George W. Bush is noted for not caring about black people, FEMA has refused to pay for the repairs, and the project was scrapped.

"We are also making internal changes to the corporate information technology intranet," said supers, CTO for GNAA Worldwide Operations. "Many of our information moving processes were running on the Lunix platform, and this was generating large costs due to system slowness and instability. After a careful usability study, we have found that we will be saving millions of dollars [USD] per year by switching to the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server System".

timecop ended the conference by announcing, "We'll always be there for the gay niggers of the world. With this restructuring of the organization, we are enabled to offer twice the service for a fraction of the cost. It's a new gay universe ahead."

About GNAA:
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it. You can download the movie (~130mb) using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website.
• Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on irc.gnaa.us, and apply for membership.

Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today! Upon submitting your application, you will be required to submit links to your successful First Post, and you will be tested on your knowledge of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is NiggerNET, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us as our official server. Follow this link if you are using an irc client s

Misha Borovsky (GNAP) - Hollywood - GNAA President timecop announced at a press conference this morning that the Gay Nigger Association of America is in the midst of a large effort to reduce operating costs and streamline business processes. "Layoffs of approximately fifty percent of the gay workforce are to be expected, as well as a shifting in administrative functions," timecop was quoted as saying. Analysts predict this corporate downsizing was made necessary due to over-investment into the New Orleans area, when it was announced last year that the GNAA would be opening a state-of-the-art branch office on the coast. The building was nearing completion and just opening for business when it was destroyed by hurricane Katrina, which has been recently found to be the responsibility of Jews. As George W. Bush is noted for not caring about black people, FEMA has refused to pay for the repairs, and the project was scrapped.

"We are also making internal changes to the corporate information technology intranet," said supers, CTO for GNAA Worldwide Operations. "Many of our information moving processes were running on the Lunix platform, and this was generating large costs due to system slowness and instability. After a careful usability study, we have found that we will be saving millions of dollars [USD] per year by switching to the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server System".

timecop ended the conference by announcing, "We'll always be there for the gay niggers of the world. With this restructuring of the organization, we are enabled to offer twice the service for a fraction of the cost. It's a new gay universe ahead."

About GNAA:
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it. You can download the movie (~130mb) using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website.
• Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on irc.gnaa.us, and apply for membership.

Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today! Upon submitting your application, you will be required to submit links to your successful First Post, and you will be tested on your knowledge of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.

If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is NiggerNET, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us as our official server. Follow

It's all about trust, and yes, a war matters here: Waged against international law, and against the wishes of an international community. The US lost much credibility here. In the end, everyone only trusts in bodies he has had a hand in setting up. This is nothing new, but the war in Iraq surly sped things up.

Without getting into an argument about the legitimacy of international law created and interpreted by an intrinsically corrupt body, let me just say that, of all the institutions in existence, I trust the U.S. more than any other to do the right thing most of the time. We have our flaws and more than a little hubris, but people risk their lives to get here for a reason: there's no better place in safeguarding personal freedoms. When people can be arrested and prosecuted for making statements critical of Islam, when governments seem to have an absolute mania for observing and tracking their citizens, I fear that even Europe is becoming an increasingly hostile environment to liberties we've come to assume as fundamental to our cultures. The internet as administered by the US today is a laisse faire environment. I can only conclude that the motivation for the UN/EU taking control would be to end that.

Trust is no longer something that comes naturally to people anymore. In the old days - my old days and I'm only 29 years old - trust was assumed to exist between people. The fall of the Wall in '89 has effectivly put a slow stop to that with the international political and military bullying the US has put into the world (another storie for some other time). Most western countries have adopted a lot of "the american way" including the law-passing spirit. The patent laws are almost just as stupid and non friendly for the consomer as DRM et.al.

It used to be implied what was and what was not illegal in some ares that were gowernd by some very large, broad and non specific law and rules, but now everything has been put into law, and enforced by EOLA's and licenses when a product is bought by a consumer.
It is no longer the consumer that controls the market, it's the big coorporations that are able to push for the most non-liberal and conservative laws that will only help them on the "free market" that they create and control through the money flow to the politicians.

If the implementations of DRM can be cracked then they will and people will do just that, just like everybody runing a pirate version of M$ Windows... which M$ is very aware of, since that particular pirazy, for them, is not hurting them, just the opposite. Perhaps there is one good thing with DRM... it will prevent pirazy of windows and allow non M$ OS'es to be more dominant on the market... perhaps my favorite :-)

When it comes to stupid laws, the US rules. When it comes to what consumers want we will have to wait until consumers get so tired of big coorporatios that civilization will revert to the 1900's and start using the head instead of a keyboard. IMHO that will happen of we will get a world like Brazil, Blade Runner or The Fifth Element... large cooprorations that control the world.

IMHO DRM is evil, just like stupidity, taxes, and religion (in what ever order).

And just FYI, there is a very good and versatile media player (DVD, vmw, mpegN etc.) for non M$ OS'es - it's called mplayer... there is even a DVD-player with mplayer inside - even though they don't comply with mplayer's license, but that is another story, IIRC it's called KISS or something like that.

Trust is no longer something that comes naturally to people anymore. In the old days - my old days and I'm only 29 years old - trust was assumed to exist between people. The fall of the Wall in '89 has effectivly put a slow stop to that with the international political and military bullying the US has put into the world (another storie for some other time). Most western countries have adopted a lot of "the american way" including the law-passing spirit. The patent laws are almost just as stupid and non friendly for the consomer as DRM et.al.

It used to be implied what was and what was not illegal in some ares that were gowernd by some very large, broad and non specific law and rules, but now everything has been put into law, and enforced by EOLA's and licenses when a product is bought by a consumer.
It is no longer the consumer that controls the market, it's the big coorporations that are able to push for the most non-liberal and conservative laws that will only help them on the "free market" that they create and control through the money flow to the politicians.

If the implementations of DRM can be cracked then they will and people will do just that, just like everybody runing a pirate version of M$ Windows... which M$ is very aware of, since that particular pirazy, for them, is not hurting them, just the opposite. Perhaps there is one good thing with DRM... it will prevent pirazy of windows and allow non M$ OS'es to be more dominant on the market... perhaps my favorite :-)

When it comes to stupid laws, the US rules. When it comes to what consumers want we will have to wait until consumers get so tired of big coorporatios that civilization will revert to the 1900's and start using the head instead of a keyboard. IMHO that will happen of we will get a world like Brazil, Blade Runner or The Fifth Element... large cooprorations that control the world.

IMHO DRM is evil, just like stupidity, taxes, and religion (in what ever order).

And just FYI, there is a very good and versatile media player (DVD, vmw, mpegN etc.) for non M$ OS'es - it's called mplayer... there is even a DVD-player with mplayer inside - even though they don't comply with mplayer's license, but that is another story, IIRC it's called KISS or something like that.

Trust is no longer something that comes naturally to people anymore. In the old days - my old days and I'm only 29 years old - trust was assumed to exist between people. The fall of the Wall in '89 has effectivly put a slow stop to that with the international political and military bullying the US has put into the world (another storie for some other time). Most western countries have adopted a lot of "the american way" including the law-passing spirit. The patent laws are almost just as stupid and non friendly for the consomer as DRM et.al.

It used to be implied what was and what was not illegal in some ares that were gowernd by some very large, broad and non specific law and rules, but now everything has been put into law, and enforced by EOLA's and licenses when a product is bought by a consumer.
It is no longer the consumer that controls the market, it's the big coorporations that are able to push for the most non-liberal and conservative laws that will only help them on the "free market" that they create and control through the money flow to the politicians.

If the implementations of DRM can be cracked then they will and people will do just that, just like everybody runing a pirate version of M$ Windows... which M$ is very aware of, since that particular pirazy, for them, is not hurting them, just the opposite. Perhaps there is one good thing with DRM... it will prevent pirazy of windows and allow non M$ OS'es to be more dominant on the market... perhaps my favorite :-)

When it comes to stupid laws, the US rules. When it comes to what consumers want we will have to wait until consumers get so tired of big coorporatios that civilization will revert to the 1900's and start using the head instead of a keyboard. IMHO that will happen of we will get a world like Brazil, Blade Runner or The Fifth Element... large cooprorations that control the world.

IMHO DRM is evil, just like stupidity, taxes, and religion (in what ever order).

And just FYI, there is a very good and versatile media player (DVD, vmw, mpegN etc.) for non M$ OS'es - it's called mplayer... there is even a DVD-player with mplayer inside - even though they don't comply with mplayer's license, but that is another story, IIRC it's called KISS or something like that.

Reading this reminds me of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/Office Space when they transfered dollars instead of cents, "Maybe I put the decimal point in the wrong place".