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• For old dos games, you might need Bochs
• Abandonware: Classic Trash
• ,
• theunderdogs.org, abandonware.universal.av7.net,
• arcade emulation: mame.net, mame.dk, mamefans.metropoliglobal.com
• To code new games that run on DOS/Win32/*nx/BeOS, use allegro.

• MPAA
• RIAA
• NAB
• BSA
• IDSA - stoopid anal idsa protecting 15 yr old dos games LOL!!

Sony is evil too

Or am I missing something, SuperTrooper?

(Slightly off topic)

However, movies don't make a lot of money in the box office. From the MPAA's 2000 US Economic review, they state the new high is only $7.66 billion. Videocasette sales, at an average of say (guessing) $20 each, were only $12.4B (rental casettes are charged differently thanks to Blockbuster's efforts.)

Compared to telecom, Internet, autos, pharmecuticals(sp), etc, at $20B this is a *very* small industry. It's simply amazing how much control they wield.

(Slightly off topic)

However, movies don't make a lot of money in the box office. From the MPAA's 2000 US Economic review, they state the new high is only $7.66 billion. Videocasette sales, at an average of say (guessing) $20 each, were only $12.4B (rental casettes are charged differently thanks to Blockbuster's efforts.)

Compared to telecom, Internet, autos, pharmecuticals(sp), etc, at $20B this is a *very* small industry. It's simply amazing how much control they wield.

Oh, you mean like the RIAA or the MPAA? They already exist, and I believe both these organizations will turn to BSA-style tactics in the future.

And when will these ISPs start blocking 6bone because of all the trading that's starting to go on there (as well as other less "official" IPv6 nets)? When will RIAA and MPAA discover the real deep dark underground of the Internet?

On one hand, there's their open-source webserver.

On the other hand, they have disgusting, slimy tentacles (and I don't mean the good kind of tentacles, either), like Cthulhu, but more commercial.

(Offtopic, why the hell does Slashdot add a / after news: when you try to link to a newsgroup? Just plain news: should link to a group on whatever newsfeed you've got handy, and news:// can take you to a group on a different news server (I think), but news:/ doesn't work at all. Oh well. The joke is intact anyway, I guess.)

Jack, crawl back in your hole.

...they're all getting sued. By whom? Guess who.

It's been espoused here and everywhere else that the cat's out of the bag, and the media industry has been changed forever, blah blah blah, so...

summary of the discussion about to ensue:

1. -the times they are a changin

1. -content is no longer tied to recording medium

1. -riaa, mpaa, dmca, etc. sucks

1. -don't take away my fair use rights

1. -linux rules

1. -imagine a beowulf cluster of these things

Her letter reaches an unprecedented low when she starts quoting Jerry Maguire with "Help me, help you."

Hmm... I wonder if the MPAA would be interested in partnering with me to fight against copying and exploitation of movie quotes :) [posted at: Packphour.com]

Too bad we're all going to miss it.

Enterprise is produced by Paramount Pictures. Paramount is on the board of directors of the MPAA. There have been many discussions here on the evils of the MPAA. Those evils include prosecuting people for trying to exercise their fair use rights under U.S. copyright law.

We're not helping our selves if we continue to pump money into corporations who use a portion of their profits to try to take away our legal rights.

If we don't help our selves, we deserve what happens to us.

So are cartels, but that doesn't seem to have stopped anybody.

Make that really huge American companies.
Anyone who messes with them is obviously some sort of evil, communist, hippie anarchist hacker bent on economic terrorism! And I bet they drown puppies and stomp on flowers, too! But don't worry, your friends at AOL/Time Warner/Microsoft/AT&T/Sprint/Verizon/Hewlett Packard Bell will save you!

Quiet, you fool! Don't give Jackbeard any ideas!

Or, do you really want to support one of the seven major members of the MPAA?

Shiver me timbers! If it isn't old Jackbeard hisself!

Why, does everyone here want to spend their money on PS2s?

When you buy a PS2, you give money to Sony, who is both a member of the MPAA and the RIAA.

MPAA:
Sony Pictures Entertainment

RIAA:
Sony Broadway
Sony Class./Sony Music Soundtrax
Sony Classical
Sony Direct
Sony Discos
Sony Masterworks
Sony Music Special Products
Sony Music US (Latin)
Sony Portrait
Sony Wonder

The MPAA, RIAA, and closed source software houses have their customers over a barrel. For many of us, going to the movies, buying or renting a DVD, getting a CD from your favorite band, or buying a computer game is a way of getting a source of entertaiment. Unfortunately, purchasing these products gives companies the ammunition they use to pass laws such as the DMCA. These companies can then use these laws to beat us (the consumers) over the head. Why do we let them continue? What can we, as consumers, do to keep our money from being used against us?

A possible solution is something you can do every day, starting right now. Every DVD you buy, every game you purchase, every visit to a movie theater, every CD you buy, add $5 to the cost. In many cases, this amounts to between 10% (a $50 game) to 50% ($9.99 DVD) of the cost of the item you purchases. Given the way prices work, the original price from the manufacturer is about 50% of the price you pay, so a $50 game is sold initially for about $25. Once you pay licenses, royalties, production, etc. there probably is not much left over that goes to lobbyists or legal. Thus, you are giving a larger amount of money to defeat these laws than you are "giving" to get them enacted.

What do you do with that $5? Donate it to the organization of your choice. Currently, the Electronic Frontier Foundataionis in the forefront of these kinds of issues, but you can choose whomever you like.

What good will your $5 do? Simply put, the EFF needs money. Money to pay for lawyers, money to educate people why these laws are wrong, money to defend those accused of crimes that violate the first amendment of the US Constitution. Since it is effectively increasing the cost of DVDs, CDs, etc., it will also make you think twice about your entertainment choices and maybe even save you money over the long run.

Okay, I have $5. Now what? Save it up. Make a notation somewhere. At the end of the month, end of the quarter, whenever, add up the notations and send the appropriate amount of money to the organization of your choice. In many cases, the money you send is tax-deductible (consult your accontant blah blah)

Not really surprising, though. Quoth the copyright notice:

© 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner Company.

Arrrrr! I like the sound o' that, matey! Strike fear into the hearts of Jackbeard's men! :)

Quote: "It strikes a blow against corporate America," Braun continued. "It might tip the balance too far towards First Amendment rights. Defamation is not protected by the First Amendment."

As if corporate America doesn't violate the rights of American citizens.

It has certain benefits that PCs do not have (locked hardware, unified memory, etc.)

Locked hardware is a benefit?! For whom? Certainly not for the customer. Maybe for those that love control, such as the MPAA and the RIAA, but not us, the customers.

It seems you have already been assimilated into the Borg.

Makes me long for the day when PS2 meant PS/2 and not PlayStation 2. (Maybe we shouldn't abbreviate PlayStation 2 like that, look at CSS, is it Cascading Style Sheets, Content Scrambling System or C Styled Script?).

Anyway, the PS/2 was somewhat of a closed system (IBM had been overly tight-fisted about controlling use of the MCA bus technology - it hurt them and they have learned from their mistake), but it was far more open than the PS2 game machine.

P.S. I am wondering, what benefits can game consoles have over PCs anyway? PCs have TV out for those that want connections to TVs and the frame rates are nowadays faster than human perception and the scan rate of any monitor or TV out there. Please let me know what I am missing. Granted they are cheaper than PCs sometimes, but not by all that much it seems. And anything with a hard drive is getting close to being a PC anyway... Heck, GCC can be made to run on it I heard.

Regional DVD coding was devised to protect the theatrical distribution market for motion pictures in international markets. It is simply impossible with present technologies to supply film prints of a movie to all of the theaters around the world at the same time. Motion pictures released by the major studios are generally released first in the Untied States and subsequently overseas. For this reason, motion pictures are released to theaters in countries in a "staggered" sequence. After the theatrical exhibition of a motion picture in a particular country, it is then released to the pay-per-view, video and television markets. DVDs are regionally coded to prevent them from being imported into countries where the motion picture has not yet completed its theatrical release. Without such protections, motion picture theatrical distributors and exhibitors abroad could lose a significant portion of their audiences to advance DVD viewing. The lost theatrical revenues could result in theater closures, lost jobs, depriving consumers throughout the world from seeing motion pictures on the big screen. A similar impact has occurred in some worldwide markets where illegal imports are unchecked.

That telephone number didn't work for me. Try calling the main office and ask (politely!) for their "Public Affairs Department". from here, I found Main Office Address: Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Motion Picture Association (MPA) 15503 Ventura Blvd. Encino, California 91436 (818) 995-6600

Maybe you're not with the in-crowd on this so I'll fill you in... "Management Partners" is actually a front for a divx group for people who don't check their links before posting bad attempts at humor. And people who click on links posted by people who don't check their links before posting bad attempts at humor... I guess.

that should be this link for divx info.

...may it never reach my house.

Convergence usually implies corporate control

No thanks. Keep my meat well cooked and my hardware open and free.

I don't know that it's legal to share files only with your buddies, per se, but it's certainly harder for the RIAA to track, for the reasons you cite. That's becoming increasingly important, too. Evidently, the MPAA has already started hiring companies to track individual Gnutella users' downloads and proceeded to "re-educate" them, even at places like Harvard, see here.

The RIAA can't be far behind. Bring on Aimster & Freenet!

ie. is it goatsex that is leading the way?
Or is it plain Jane erotica?
Or do people simply not care as long as it's free?

That's the kind of metrics I care about. Maybe we could loosen the religious right's hold on America if we could show that, indeed, most people in this country are depraved lunatics. After all we are a D E M O C R A C Y right?

Steven

The MPAA is composed of all the major American movie studios. Japanese companies and the American companies that distribute anime (such as ADV Films, AnimEigo, etc.) are not members of the MPAA as far as I can tell.

From http://www.mpaa.org/Press/DVD_FAQ.htm:

What is the MPAA and who are the members?
The MPAA is the trade association for the motion picture industry. The members of the MPAA are: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. (The Walt Disney Co., Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films Corp.); Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, United Artists Pictures, Orion Pictures); Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures); Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal Studios, Inc.; and Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.

I don't see a single company that makes or distributes anime in there, unless you count Disney for "Princess Mononoke." If your real beef is with the DVD case, then buy your anime on VHS and be done with it. Don't go casting aspersions on the industry, though.

I'm the president of an anime club at my college, and the commercial companies have been very, very nice to us about letting us show anime to people in our local theatre. Normally, to do a public showing for a movie, you don't contact the studio. They'll blow you off and send you to the distribution houses, such as SWANK or Critereon. Instead, you those distributors $50-200 for a copy of the movie licensed for public showing. Most commercial anime companies, however, are nice enough to grant permission to show their stuff for free. They realize that without fans, they wouldn't have jobs and will treat people right. These guys are the good guys. They aren't in a position to stick it to their customers and will attempt to please them as much as possible.

I'm so sorry, that should be http://www.mpaa.org/about/.

Dot-com vally gets hit, but that has not stopped the revolution - I mean, nobody has ever proofed that internet economy is necesary - it was only assumed. I do not consider the New Economy to be a necesary part of the revolution, and nowadays we get the feeling that internet economy is not feasible - and even this statement could be wrong.

Has the internet failed due to censorship? All gouvernments commit censorship on the internet today, except for certain small European countries. Still, the gouvernments are losing the battle - they should not in all cases.

In my opinion, the problem mankind is dealing with at this moment is the problem of how to classify information. Nobody can explain me what information is, where information begins and where information ends. Promises have not been realized because we simply don't know enough of the phenomena "information". So why would this be a problem? Well, people want to protect:
* their business (patents, CSS, Copyrights etc.) by legal censorship
* their children (violence, sex, etc.) by volunteerial censorship
* their systems (firewalls, anti-virus, passwords) by censorship on system-dataflow via the network

Nobody wants their freedom to be hassled by any form of censorship (censorship is the answer to protect the above points!), so we are afraid of censorship. Censorship is necesary to protect, but the problem with information is that we do not know the borders, let's protect a business model with CSS, censorize it legally, problem is that we censorize far too much. Still, we don't know the the borders of the phenomina 'information', that's the whole problem, we made cars safer, once we understood the problem.

Kiddi3z will always be a nuisance, but my personal feeling is that the parties responsible for the death of the Internet will be a handful companies trying to milk or control it...

(end comment) */ }

--

With the large number of blackhats likely to be in the population of those pissed-off about the way things have been going, I'm surprised that the RIAA and its major members still have intact web prescence. Not that I'm advocating or condoning civil disobedience as a means of political action. Oh, and I'm also surprised to see that the MPAA site is up.

Or maybe car alarms or the "ADT" (IIRC) sticker people put on their house windows to alert the bad people that they have a security system, when they don't.

This is all a bunch of fooey, for the benefit of the RIAA and the stupid users they hope will believe their smoke and mirrors.

"Beware of dog" signs might work for the casual criminal, but are they really going to stop someone who wants to break into your house? (By the way, DeCSS is the tool used to break into your house, did you know that?). They're going to realize real fast that the Beware of Dog sign is a fake, and that if you have a dog, it's been dead a long long time.

Good luck implementing this, Napster. Why don't you bring out your poster child and have him explain how a poor company like Napster is forced to do these horrible things by the RIAA.

"Q. What is the DVD Content Scramble System (CSS) and how does it work?

CSS is the copy protection system adopted by the motion picture industry and consumer electronics manufacturers to provide security to copyrighted content of DVDs and to prevent unauthorized copying of that content. CSS is akin to the lock on your house."

honestly, i wish little faux pas had a legal recourse. do we have anyone in the house who is a lawyer...?

My .02,

"Q. What is the DVD Content Scramble System (CSS) and how does it work?

CSS is the copy protection system adopted by the motion picture industry and consumer electronics manufacturers to provide security to copyrighted content of DVDs and to prevent unauthorized copying of that content. CSS is akin to the lock on your house."

honestly, i wish little faux pas had a legal recourse. do we have anyone in the house who is a lawyer...?

My .02,

I have to believe that most all of the numbers that are floating around out there are based on hypotheticals and conjecture (as well as a little hopefulness [is that a word?] to sway people into thinking that the figure has some sort of real significance).

Or maybe ma bell was telling the truth

That's not "my logic", I was just quoting the MPAA. Sorry for the confusion, I totally agree with you. Sources: http://www.mpaa.org/Press/DVD_FAQ.htm and http://www.mpaa.org/Press/Hyperlink_FAQ.htm

That's not "my logic", I was just quoting the MPAA. Sorry for the confusion, I totally agree with you. Sources: http://www.mpaa.org/Press/DVD_FAQ.htm and http://www.mpaa.org/Press/Hyperlink_FAQ.htm

Here we have a hardware device which does almost exactly the same things that DeCSS does, with the same "feared" effect by the MPAA: being able to record mpeg-2 directly to your hard drive.

This seems like it would be in direct conflict with the MPAA's position on DeCSS... Is it possible that this product's release may cause a stir in the DeCSS case [ MPAA | 2600/Burns ], particularly in the view of copying digial media of which one already has a copy? Seems evident to me - hopefully the same sentiment will creep into the heads of everyone involved in the case.

Slashdot keeps mangling my html. Specifically the closing "/a" tags. Let's try again.

Slashdot didn't "rip" that story. It published a link to that story. You're making the same indistinction that the MPAA and the Hon. Lewis A. Kaplan is guilty of.

And by no means does New Scientist own a copyright on the UNC researchers' results ...

And by no means does New Scientist own a copyright on the UNC researchers' results ...

Warner Brothers is a member of the RIAA as well as the MPAA.

You forget, my friend, that Sony is a major player in the MPAA. And they're in the RIAA, too, for that matter. Stick that in your smarmy pipe and smoke it, eh?

Let the conspiracy theories commence!