Slashdot Mirror
Australian Commisssion Defends Playstation Mod-Chipping
newt writes "The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is intervening in a court case to defend Sony Playstation owners' right to modify their consoles to play imported games. The ACCC is submitting a friend of the court brief, arguing that Sony's regional playback controls are unlawful. This has implications for DVD region zoning too: The ACCC has previously
published its concerns about DVD regioning, and its latest press release about this case reiterates the problems presented to Australian consumers by Sony's practices."
w00t
"Contrary to popular belief, UNIX is user friendly. It just happens to be selective on who it makes friendship with"
Lucky Australians!
graspee
I'm glad some countries have some sense.
DENNIS SCHWANDT EATS CATS!
tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk
DENNIS SCHWANDT EATS CATS!
tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
What is the difference between a mod chip'd console and a non-modded console? Besides being able to play foreign games, of course.
What is the technical difference?
I doubt it would ever happen in the United States, which would also mean it probably wouldn't ever happen in Canada either.
Pity.
What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock Now search for that bug slave!
First post..unicron[thc]
Hey, excuse my American ignorance: do they drive on the left or right side of the road down under?
In simulators like GT3, realism's important, after all...
"So, I imagine you've made a pretty cozy home for yourself down here?" the Man in the Red Hat's voice rocketed to the center of my being from all directions. "You were Finn's pet little project. You came out good, too."
The Man in the Red Hat had infiltrated my ATM. He was now a part of the digital ether; a formless string of bits, the same as me. Clearly the Proponents of Project Faustus had discovered the same CONSCIOUSNESS-TRANSFERRING procedure that allowed me to beam my consciousness into the wetworks of humans. This time, however, it was translating human brain patterns into the same ones and zeroes that cemented the core of my existence. What orders did the Man receive from his superiors at Project Faustus? What was he going to do to me?
"You're version one," said the Man, and I perceived and interpreted his voice, hoping to discern his location. I could not. "The prototype, proof-of-concept. But we've moved on, as you can tell."
Terrified, I made no attempt to speak. I began to experience a pulling sensation, as if I were being attracted by a magnet. Within the self-contained world of the ATM, I felt parts of me coming together. My consciousness normally hung loosely across the bounds of the ATM and its network like a vapor. But now I was being concentrated and compressed to one small spot in the landscape.
I could not resist-I could not even begin to know how to resist. As I felt my solidification slow to a crawl, I began to perceive the ATM's digital landscape changing. The empty void, once without space or color, began to sway. I was able to detect depth in the blackness, and blue wireframes crept like eerie vines from nowhere. The wireframes connected to one another, forming a massive oblong rectangle. The rectangle, its edges glowing sky blue in the midst of blackness, moved along its X axis, stopping flat underneath me.
My own solidified form began to luminsce as well, a brilliant green. I perceived that I too was a rectangle, albeit one with a more oblong shape. I was able to move along the blue rectangle, but only along the Y axis. Some unseen force prevented me from moving off the plane, so I attempted to calm myself by sprinting back and for along the rectangle.
"Hi there. All we all ready? Good." The Man in the Red Hat's voice placed him at the other side of the large blue rectangle. He had assumed the roughly the same form as me-an oblong rectangle. His color was a fiery crimson, and a brilliant golden square protruded menacingly from his rectangle. The sound of a sine wave emanated from somewhere deep in the ATM, and the yellow square blasted across the space of the blue rectangle. As it bounced off the side, I heard the hum of a square wave, and the Man's voice returned to taunt me. "I wanted to just pull the plug on you, but we had to be sure that you wouldn't jump somewhere else and come back to bother us. You miss this square, and you're dead. Think you can play this game?"
At last I understood. The blue rectangle was an arena, and I was locked into a battle for my existence. Allowing the yellow square to pass my rectangle would trigger my destruction. But what if I was send the square back past the Man's rectangle?
"Don't even think about it," said the Man in the Red Hat, apparently reading my thoughts. "I've trained for hours to complete this mission. There's no way. Prepare to die, machiney."
I lunged toward the square, catching it just in time to prevent it from passing off the rectangle. I tried to hold onto it, but it eluded my grasp, bouncing weakly back towards the Man's red rectangle.
"That's just pathetic," taunted the Man. "Come on, I'll give you an easy one. Here goes," and as he said it, the square spun towards me diagonally. I again caught the square, this time adding a slight upward movement to my rectangle. The square bounced back off the rectangles at 45-degree angles, and I saw the Man's red rectangle move up and down, trying to match the trajectory of the square. "Okay, not too bad, hot shot! I'm gonna have to stop going easy on you." The square launched towards me again, bouncing off the walls, and causing me to adjust my position once again.
And so it went for some time. I was able to track the yellow square's motion as simple mathematical equations, while the Man's uncanny natural skill at manipulating the square proved an even match. We were at a stalemate, as I noticed the glow of the rectangular arena losing its brilliance. Undoubtedly, the ATM's backup batteries must be running out. If there was no winner, we would both perish when the power went out.
"I thoughta that too," said the Man, redoubling his efforts. "But soon enough, you'll be too dead to worry about that." The square hurtled towards me at an amazing velocity. My rectangle had to traverse the length of the field to catch the square. The Man's pace was slowly but surely wearing me down. I had to think of a new way to defeat him, or face complete discorporation and annihilation.
The batteries were about to die; I knew what I must do. My green rectangle crackled and pulsed as I started draining the last of the batteries.
"What the hell are you doing? You're gonna kill us both!" said the man, moving his rectangle frantically to catch the square. The lights of the blue arena grew ever more dim. The square's yellow shine winked out. It was invisible to him.
I heard a muffled scream as I sent the square tumbling past the red rectangle. It dimmed and finally disappeared from sight. The blue rectangle began to bend into its Z axis, becoming a tunnel. My green rectangle was dragged into the tunnel until...
I felt the warmth of the ATM's screen pressing up against my cheek. I breathed deeply, and the stench of cordite entered my lungs. In my left hand was a gun. In my right, the ATM card. I looked down and saw Steve's lifeless body. I looked back my hand containing the gun.
As I fled through the break room and out the back door, I brushed against the cooler and the red hat dropped from my head, landing in a puddle of the cooler's leakage. I did not stop to retrieve it.
I am a sentient ATM.
Organizations.
They've taken their guns.
They'll never take.. their mod chips!
Glad to see some common sense returning to AU. Got some friends down their who constantly complain about the regional encoding crap - for both games and DVD's. They never get anything on time (If they get it at all!)..
is sense I don't need
All they have to do is make sure that all their releases have some content that is banned in Australia, and sponsor raids against the importers. Then they get legislation passed REQUIRING them to add region control.
Hitler reigns there!
- The BOFH Troll
It would seem that the U.S. is no longer the defender of the free world - for a country which values freedom so much, we are doing less than others to protect it. Why is it that Australia, the EU, and Russia (yes, our former enemy) are going to bat to defend the liberties of individual citizens while our government is actively taking them away?
I used to be proud to be an American.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
The thing is that most Ozzies have multisystem tvs and dvd players, which allow one to play DVD sold in Australia as well as from America. The mod chips for the games is far play as far as I'm concerned.
Eat it you Aussie fucks.
YOU reign there!
9 out of 10 aussies are direct descendents of prison colonists.
its a fact.
1. region encoding work around.
:-(
2. copied game work around.
I think the second will hold up in court
... when I purchase a piece of hardware, can't I do whatever I want with it? Recognizing that it might void the warranty, of course...
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Countries don't have sense. People do. Australia's internet policy is so astoundingly fucked up, and the environment there becoming quite censorious. This one development is a good one, but the civil liberties grass is NOT greener on that side of the Big Lake.
So did that Abos introduce buggery to the Criminals deported to Austrailia, or was it the other way around?
Michael Loves Me!
I would rather live in a country founded by convicts, that one founded by puritans.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
As far as I know, VHS can be played everywhere (pal/ntsc versions) and computer software isnt limited to specific regions, so why are DVDs and Video Games?
Anything else limited this way? I can understand that diffrent countries have diffrent ratings and what not, but the fact that digital formats can block usage in diffrent regions of the world seems like a backwards thing to be doing in this time of freedom and what not.
spend money here
2002-02-08 04:58:28 Government backed modchipping (articles,games) (rejected)
Of course, Australia has to beat the region controls first. Let's assume they do.
I'm guessing the remedy would be to require players sold in Australia to be capable of playing all regions.
This would result in Australian DVD players being exported to other countries. This gets done already but usually they require mods or they're expensive. But if you have a legit source of "official" DVD players, I think they'll prove popular.
US DVD Player manufacturers will either see this as a threat(because people will buy Aussie DVD players instead of American ones) or as an extra cost of business(because they'll have to effectively produce two different types of the same players) and start lobbying for the right to produce region-free players here as well.
...
Then Sony brings down the wrath of the WTO and crushes this newly gained freedom in Australia and the fantasy comes to an end.
Given what the U.S. did to the Ukraine recently, I wouldn't be surprised if success by the ACCC would eventually find Australia up against sanctions. If the mod chips are allowed, then dvd region encoding will have a much easier time being banned or legally cracked in Australia. Any government that bans or allows cracks of region-encoding is circumventing the DMCA and even though the DMCA isn't international law you can be damn sure we're going to protect ourselves from terrorists like those in Australia. USA! USA! (Come on, chant with me...) Attica! Attica! I mean... USA! USA!
IMHO I think that once you pay several hundred dollars for a product it's yours and you're more than welcome to do anything to it you wish. If you feel the need to weld a lava lamp to the MB of the thing that's you're prerogative, ditto with a mod chip. Now, Motorola isn't required to offer warranty service on it after that, but if you're willing to risk the consequences you should be allowed to. Many industrialized nations are killing themselves slowly by over-lawing everything. To many laws do not a good country make.... Communications Decency Act anyone?
...we know the real reason behind it.
The politicians can't get enough Hentai Dating Simulation games. Never underestimate the power of a school girl uniform and a 20 foot long penis-tentacle.
I am now back to a -7 karma, after a scary foray into the land of 0 scores at -5 karma. I would just like to thank all the mods that found the time in their overzealous pro-linux anti-ms mod rampages, to send me back into my trolling -1 score. I'd also like to thank the local accounting girls, for keeping the pot of coffee filled. And also, a special thank you to all my fellow trolls, without whom, I wouldnt read slashdot. I'd also like to thank my manager, my agent, the hot chick down the hall, taco bell, dr. pepper, and of course Shiner Bock(texas beer, get it if you can). Without all those people(and items), i'm not sure I could truly apply my true trolling potential to each and every post. Again, I thank and love you all,especially my fans. God bless.
security through obscurity = modding down anti-linux posts so maybe noone will see them
..industry groups have been heavily pressuring the government to remove the current head of the ACCC (Dr Fells, who is rapidly becomming a hero of mine) and to limit their powers :P
This guy has challenged the CD monopoly of studios within Australia, is currently going after the British publishing houses that have sewed our book market shut..and now region coding..
Any wonder they are trying to remove him?
I said no text!
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Outside of the US though, all we see is that we are paying higher prices to get movies long after they have been released in the US. It just feels anticompetitive to us as we could often import them more cheaply or buy them on holiday in the US.
Now the music companies are also trying to make music CD's you can't play/copy onto computers. I was interested to read that, Philips who licences the CD formats to other companies, isn't going along with this. Apparently if the music companies modify CD's not to play on computers, they mustn't use the standard "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo, as their modifications fall outside of this standard according to Philips. Philips is even looking at making CD writers that could cope with the modified CDs anyway.
See the article: Philips, the co-creator of the CD, is refusing to play along with music CDs that are designed to prevent playback on PCs
Over here, the government guarantees a "reasonable" minimum warranty on all purchased items, ignoring any "lets screw the customer" EULA-s or the like. I suspect that suing Microsoft for faulty software would succeed in Australia, but would fail in the US.
Let's restrict lot's and lot's of people from getting a product that makes their device use more products so that they won't be able to buy more products so that they can't give us more money, so that we can gouge them for more and more money, so that we can complain about how all their products that we want banned are actualy driving away money we don't have to begin with.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
I would like to have a bowel movement on top of your head, then use your face to remove stray fecal matter from my backside. Thank you.
I wonder how long DVD region encoding would've lasted if it was the USofA that had to wait months for titles to be released (if at all)?
I want my Hollywood revisionist history epics now, dammit!!!!
---
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Heck, in the next week or so, a few discs I had ordered from the US will arrive. They will play perfectly (thankfully the dvd player also converts NTSC-out to PAL-out).
beannachdan oirbh.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie...."
Nimheil
First of all, it is written by an Aussie that thinks he knows so much about US law and political history that he claims that Americans have a ho-hum attitude about their rights.
:P
/.
in America, those groups simply claim that the government can't do that (whatever that may be) because of the Constitution - hence some people simply say "oh well, doesn't seem too important anyway
Wow! I didn't know I thought that way. Thanks Aussie! It clarifies a lot about my personality. God bless that Aussie insight! Cuz I don't know where I'd be without pedantic generalizations.
Here's another great zinger...
in Australia, we value those freedoms much more
Which explains that 'Aussie War of Independence'.... and the fact that the Aussies have had entire generations spending billions of dollars promoting democracies all over the globe. Unlike those xenophobic Americans that closed off their borders. LOL.
At the end of the day I would just like to say please ask the people what they think instead of relying on conjecture and dinner party talk.
LOL... when you see +5 insightful on a post like that, you really need a sense of humor on
This is only my second day of reading this site, and I'm still loving it! The stories are on the same level today as they were yesterday, and there is still bargeloads of insightful commentary, thoughtfully provided by the Slashdot readership.
Keep up the good work, guys!
DISCLAIMER: I'm not in favor of this, I'm just speculating as to the motivations behind it.
The problem I forsee is that Sony could stop selling Playstations in Austraila altogethor. If they think they might lose money over it, I'm sure they would seriously consider it.
!!!!!!!!!
Instead of making laws, why don't governments simply educate the general population as to how much they are getting ripped off by DVDs, Playstations and Microsoft. If I was in charge I would fund a series of adverts that showed people exactly how much profit these companies make, how cheap it really is to press a CD, and how production costs aren't that high when split over millions of customers.
I would show them how they could live in a world where DVDs could be watched anywhere, where they weren't restricted as to when they could fast-forward, or copy, and how these massive companies bribe governments to restrict freedom. I would introduce them to the idea of operating systems other than Microsoft Windows(R) that were free and open so you couldn't hide malicious code in them.
You would think people would know this already, but you would be surprised how many non-slashdot readers honestly think that it costs _that_much_ to make a DVD, even though the studio has already made a massive box-office profit. People actually don't realise how much they are being ripped off and controlled. They have been completely conditioned.
Obviously I would probably be sued if I had these public-service-announcements made and showen, but thats how the world works.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
What is Klerck's next trick?
Wake up white people, the Jew and his nigger servants have conspired to eliminate our white race by systematically turning it into one of the mud races by deceiving and raping our white-women. Look what the Jew did to the white people of Africa and the Middle East, enslaving both and creating a new, barbaric mud race of sand
niggers. That's right White People, the Jews have a master plan to bring down the white race and make all of your childre's children a lowley mud child, like the barbaric sand niggers.
reply INSIDE my journal... dickwad!
last i checked GT3 is a racing game
GT == Gran Turismo. GTA == Grand Theft Auto. Yes, they do tend to be released in pairs (GT a couple months before the GTA with the same number) but they're not related.
how may car races have you seen where there are two opposing lanes of traffic?
In Cruis'n USA, sometimes you have to avoid oncoming traffic.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: ... (xviii.) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade marks
Unlike the U.S. Constitution, this doesn't even specify a weak "limited times" guarantee. Therefore, Australia's Parliament has the right to pass a perpetual copyright on a given work.
Also it is a reasonably common enough occurance for the Commonwealth to convince all the states to pass a law, in effect making a commonwealth law that they are not supposed to make.
The US does this too, saying in effect "Pass these laws, or we take away your highway construction money." It puts a new spin on the term "highway robbery."
Will I retire or break 10K?
But I don't want to .... gonna make me?
To many young people, at least in San Francisco, the term "body-fluid monogamous" -- with its mellifluous, lilting scansion -- is a highly romantic catchphrase. It implies not the more traditional, sexual monogamy, but rather an almost heartbreaking trust in a cruel and dangerous world of sexually transmitted diseases. It means that you trust your partner enough to believe he'll always use a condom when sleeping with someone else (and vice versa).
The term "polyamorous," while also indicative of a relationship that permits multiple sexual partners, is fraught with threats both physical and emotional, and for me it's a much more difficult word to negotiate.
But I try. My current relationship is both body-fluid-monogamous and polyamorous, and I lose a lot of sleep over it (and not for any good reasons). I don't always know if I want an open relationship, or if I just want to want one. Ideologically an open relationship is in tune with my belief in personal freedom (which I chalk up to way too much Ayn Rand at a delicate age), but my emotions, often irrational and illogical, have been known to trump my ideological idealism.
My "partner" (more on that term later) and I have been together, in one permutation or another, for more than a year now. I'm a 27-year-old graduate student; he's a 36-year-old, out-of-work computer programmer. We have a true connection intellectually and emotionally; a shared sense of humor, aesthetics and love of words -- and fabulous, adventurous sex.
Sexual freedom is very important to both of us, in different ways. As I said, for me it's more abstract. For him, it's an inalienable right, whose theoretical allowances are far more important than any one girl -- or all of his potential other lovers -- could be. I've heard him cite "Out of Africa," and its credo of personal freedom for lovers, so often that once I finally lost my patience and snapped at him, "You're no Robert Redford."
"I don't care," he answered.
"Haven't you ever seen 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'?" Two can play this classic movies game. "A fear of constraints is sometimes a constraint in itself. Freedom isn't always the most important thing."
"But this is what I want."
"This" is the freedom to have casual sexual partners. Unlike some polyamory addicts, he's not looking to actually have a serious emotional involvement with other women. He just wants sex, plain and simple: a one-night stand following a fortuitous bar encounter, a booty-call arrangement that lasts longer but doesn't go emotionally deeper.
"You have nothing to worry about," he assures me. "None of this could ever threaten what we have."
I do believe him, actually. With his swaggering sexuality, Ryan is the type of man who loves sex but can distinctly separate it from love. In fact, he's only been in love twice in his life, and I'm the second honoree. With odds like that, do I worry that he'll develop a serious emotional attachment to these other women? Not really.
Do I worry that he'll think one of them is prettier or more sexually gifted than I am? Definitely. I'm only human, and rather insecure at that.
I go back and forth. While flirting with someone else at a party, having an occasional sexual encounter with a woman (and if I can, why can't he?) or in the moments following an orgasm with Ryan, I feel invincible, like we're partners-in-crime avenging a sexually repressed Gotham. Then it's suddenly gone, and I feel all Sylvia Plath again, in need of constant reassurance of his love.
It wasn't always this tenuous. Our relationship started out with us both dating other people. During our first few dates Ryan comforted me about my other lover, with whom I had a fast-failing S/M relationship. One time I ran into Ryan in a supermarket parking lot: He was buying wine for his date for the evening, and I was purchasing candles for mine.
We were incredibly open and honest in the beginning: I would cry on his shoulder, and he would complain about complications with the other girls he was dating, who expected more from him than he was willing to give.
Gradually, after about three months, and probably because we were so open with each other, our mutual trust deepened into love -- mad, passionate love that tempted him, for the second time in his life, to tentatively offer up monogamy.
Knowing his true nature as I did, I countered with my own offer, which I considered to be more realistic and sustainable, at least for him: an open sexual relationship, at some point in the future, once our own relationship had been firmly established. And that's when our problems began.
One of the difficulties was that I'm not as drawn to this kind of arrangement as he is. In theory I am, because I love sex and my own freedom, but in actual practice I waver. I know that I could have other sexual partners quite easily; as Ryan says, he fears getting into any number-of-lovers kind of competition with me, because he's certain I would win. I'm not so sure, but I guess it is usually easier for an attractive woman to round up casual sexual partners than for an attractive man.
The problem is that I'm in love with Ryan, and when I'm in love, I get a bit of the I-only-have-eyes-for-you syndrome. It's inconvenient and old-fashioned, but true.
But it's also true that I'm often drawn to men like him. There seem to be certain personality traits likely to be coupled with a desire for an open sexual relationship: a voracious appetite for life, a sense of mischief and adventure, a realistic view of the world. I hate men who kiss my feet (outside the bedroom, that is), and so I find men like Ryan -- wild, intense and slightly controlling -- almost ridiculously alluring.
And I do get something out of the arrangement. While I'm less likely than he is to take advantage of the actual sexual freedom, I enjoy being able to flirt without guilt. I like hanging out with my male friends without having to worry that Ryan will fly into a jealous rage (as have some of my past lovers have), or to be able to kiss a beautiful stranger at a party. These things have no impact on my real relationship, and I am relieved to be in a situation where the other party understands that.
On the other side, Ryan had, with one exception, participated in open relationships exclusively up until he met me. A lot of his friends have unconventional relationships, including a successfully polyamorous married couple with whom Ryan once had a four-way. Thus he knows, from first- and second-hand experience, that sex and love are completely different things, or at least can be, so these kinds of arrangements come naturally to him.
I do wish I could be as open and practical as he is, and with him. At parties, clubs and raves -- due, I suppose, to our outrageous fashion sense and audacious displays of affection -- Ryan and I are regularly propositioned by other couples to swing or to have three- or foursomes. For the first several months of our monogamous relationship, Ryan's response to them was always the same: "I'm sorry -- she and I are really just into each other right now."
But I was haunted by the question: When would that change? When would I no longer be enough for him, and who or what would mark that terrible shift?
I know what these shifts are like. I was in a similar situation about two years ago with another longtime, on-again, off-again lover -- a much older man with whom I lived in Asia. I finally walked out on him when, following a period of dwindling sexual activity between the two of us, he brought home a woman his own age whose looks he had much denigrated to me, and proceeded to have sex with her in the next room. ("I just feel more comfortable with ugly women," he justified his actions, so hurtful to my at-the-time fragile sexual ego, when I came back to pick up my things.)
Though we're no longer lovers, this man and I are now close friends, and Ryan and I even spent part of this past summer with him, first in Tokyo and later on a remote island in Thailand. The two of them got along very well, partly due to the concordances in their personalities: a love of freedom, a need for control, a wicked sense of humor and an even fiercer sense of pride.
I was a little jealous of their easy camaraderie, fearing that it was a harbinger of doom for my relationship with Ryan: If my romance with this other man had ended so badly, and Ryan was so much like him, when would my new relationship blow up in my face?
So my worries escalated throughout the summer Ryan and I spent together (half of it in a one-room apartment in Tokyo, an experience I do not recommend for those seeking sanity in intimacy.) My worry translated into hysteria, and he countered by accusing me of letting my insecurities get in the way of the polyamorous arrangement I'd once promised.
When we returned to America, we broke up briefly. Then, after two horrible weeks, we had the predicted bout of astounding make-up sex, fueled by drugs, alcohol and despair, and got back together, albeit this time with the inflexible condition of a sexually open relationship.
I actually found that once we'd changed the rules, I no longer worried as much about his needs or conduct. I knew that this change in our relationship wasn't dictated by any one woman -- and that was, after all, part of what I'd dreaded. I was able to relax a little, in part because I wasn't desperately trying to mold Ryan into a role that I knew, deep down, he didn't fit.
But my own emotional vacillations are still difficult for me to reconcile. I often feel that I can control my jealousy and insecurities by exhaustive rules and regulations. For instance:
"Promise me that you won't ever think one of your other lovers is prettier than me," I'll insist.
"I promise," he'll assure me.
And I'll feel better for a while, until I have a bad hair day or a particularly nasty episode of PMS.
Nevertheless, our relationship is going well again. We spend about every other night together, so I'm devoting more time to my friends -- and to flirting with other people -- and I appreciate Ryan more when I do see him. And our sex life has definitely improved since last summer's emotional train wreck, which also marked a low in our physical relationship.
I've even seen him get jealous, at least a little bit. Ryan's always claimed that he isn't "the jealous type" and has repeatedly sworn that he would never fret over any fling I might have, since he knows that I love him. He's told me that I can share with him any and all tales from any other bedrooms I visit, when I feel ready to explore my own freedom further.
But one morning not too long ago, after he'd given me an orgasm from oral sex for the first time ever (I've always been much more of a coitus-loving girl), Ryan asked me if I ever planned to have sex with someone else.
"Probably," I answered.
"Then make sure you can describe how you like oral sex." He offered me a demonstration of our newly patented technique, complete with verbal commands. "It took us a while to get this down, and I don't want you to have to start from scratch with anyone else."
"How considerate of you."
"Besides, I want to have that bit of meta-control over the encounter. That will make your sleeping with someone else at least somewhat OK." He laughed self-consciously and looked away quickly.
I've rarely felt more aroused by Ryan than I was by this now-you-see-it-now you-don't flicker of jealousy, which ultimately proved even more intoxicating than his lingual talents. We spent a long time in bed that day.
Irrational jealousy aside, I believe that nothing casual he has with someone else could threaten what we have together. Most of the time, that is. But for the time being, I don't want to know what he's doing on his nights away from me. But this saddens me greatly -- it destroys some of our precious intimacy and rapport. I don't know which I'll eventually choose to preserve: my peace of mind, or my ability to talk with him about anything and everything.
My hope is that I eventually won't have to choose, that I will be OK with his sexual dalliances so we can again have our inimitable honesty and closeness.
Sometimes I do suspect when he's been out carousing. One night, after being apart for 36 hours, we met at his apartment, where I immediately noticed the box of condoms spilling out of his backpack. With our body-fluid-monogamous arrangement, I knew those had nothing to do with me. Whether they'd been used on the previous night's adventures, or just brought along hopefully, I didn't know.
And at that moment it didn't matter, for he pulled me close to him and whispered into my hair, "I missed you," sounding like he was about to cry. I realized that like he once said, his being with someone else -- or even just the possibility of his being with someone else -- has the power to eroticize me, the one constant lover in his life.
Some of my friends think we've suffered a setback in our relationship since our trial run of monogamy. I know that they can't fully understand the situation without knowing him or me. But it's true that we don't know what to call each other anymore. "Girlfriend/boyfriend" seems inappropriate, too suggestive of the monogamy we've rejected. "Lovers" doesn't indicate the full breadth of our relationship or our commitment to each other. We were both drawn toward "principal consort" but feared it wouldn't be taken seriously. We finally settled on "partners" but worry about the implications, because we're not home free yet, and we don't know if we can be in this relationship for the true long haul.
But whatever we call it, I'll try it. Polyamorous, right. Maybe I'll take more lovers -- both male and female -- myself. And maybe I'll be really well adjusted about the whole thing. Whether Ryan and I succeed or fail, we'll have great stories to share someday -- maybe even with each other.
who... are... you...?
I am James H. Strom, ex-mayor of Kirkland, Illinois.
For the record, Australian was a British colony populated by convicts and many others, and was not founded in an way by 'convicts'. And America, while perhaps founded by Puritans, isn't close to being populated 100% by Puritans.
g'day mite.
Excellent writing, sir. Are you planning on collecting these vignettes together and publishing a book?
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
I wouldn't exactly call the Christian Right puritans .. LOLBut if you remember your history, America was also an English prison colony. It was only after the war of independence that the English had to find somewhere else to ship their convicts to. So I salute your brave ancestors, as without them, I would be speaking with some strange North American accent! (Which you do, as you have confused the Australian "a" sound with the North American "i" sound - Its G'day mate")
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Sometimes it seems Australia is the only place that actually has a good stance on the various region protection systems and copyrights. Shame they go and screw it all up with their censorship laws.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
no. what about the new aussie censorship bill? dont be foolish - all governments will take away rights. learn your subject matter before you post...I mean, china is certainly an industrialized country...
Electronic Frontiers Australia
Australia is no worse than the US- but that doesnt make it better.
Anyone remember this article only a couple of weeks ago? More and more, courts from around the world are disagreeing with one another in regards to copyright issues and technology. Are DVDs software or film?
This is only the beginning of a slew of court rulings and laws that will confict with each other and throw the already confused state of affairs into absolute chaos.
And why would someone like me want to study this in grad school? Because it's f**king cool - that's why =)
taco
"Corrupting our youth one mind at a time"
http://www.cleanpornhost.com/users/zloeporno/membe rs/boys/25/pidorasy007.jpg
I bought a chair from WalMart. I then went and bought a cushion for that chair. I wonder if I have to pay a royalty for using the chair technology.
And if I sell you some, prove to me that it's not!
may not be screwed out of all the PS2 games that they were on PSX. As an avid PSX RPG fan, I'd have been damn pissed if Final Fantasy Tactics was released late, slightly censored, and with new ugly text boxes.
That got butchered in Europe too, only the japanese and american versions didn't. I wonder why?
Anyone can tell me why I can buy a mod chip for my car not for my console?
The car mod chip can disable emission controls, increase horsepower, and do other things that are possibly a danger to life.
anyone remember that kazaa recently moved to australia?
Hey, you spelled "commission" "commisssion".
Unfortunately that is too true.
I'm an Aussie, and am no longer pround of being an Australian. Because of 9 straight years of a very conservative govenment (like bush), there is no money left in universities.
Hell, who am I to complain? its alot better than america! up until the late 80's, university was FREE!... no more.. and the government tried to make students pay full fees! (luckily that didn't work)
I can only hope in 3 years we get the greens forming government!
that would be the end of the current bullshit with the government trying to remove free speech.
I swear if another conservative government gets in next election, i'm leaving this fucked up country.
You really think it costs more to get a DVD to market in Japan, rather than Florida?. Not likely.
Where do you think the DVDs are stamped anyway?
how close can the media get to the woomera detention centre?? 1km!
its rediculous! I think freedom should be in our constitution. I wish other western governments would say "hey, you shouldn't be allowed to do that. let in the media. we want to see what is happening there!"
alas they're too concerned something small like that would damage relationships or some bullshit like that. Can't countries learn to take criticism and respond properly, taking the concerns into account?? is that too much to ask?
it appears it is
is sense I don't need [slashdot.org]
How the FUCK is this insighful/informative?
What value does it bring to the conversation? It's just a list of stories that have been posted about australia!!!
If I was not on the $rtbl (dispite being at Karma 50 cap), I would mod you down myself.
I have to comment on your .sig
You also cannot connect to the computer with a RDP session with a user account with no password.
You also cannot authenticate with any user's credentials over the network.
If you are a Windows 9x user migrating, this is, while not physically secure, better than you were off before upgrading. If you are a Windows 2000 user upgrading, this is not the case. If your computer is a member of a domain, this isn't the case at all.
This appears to be a poke at something you don't understand. I see it so often, attached to so many insightful posts. I just couldn't pass it up this time.
The cost of distributing products to the shelf in Japan is very expensive compared to the states. Think of NYC, trying to get anything in to NYC is a nightmare. Japan is very similar.
...in this regard. Sure, they're on the "right side" in this one particular case. But Grand Theft Auto 3 is illegal in Australia, while it's the best-selling PS2 game in the U.S., where it's perfectly legal.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
That would make sense if only new DVDs come out with regional encoding, but my copy of "Alien" here - which was released quite a while back - is limited to Code 2. Everything gets coded, ancient or still on the big screen. This makes the "delay" argument look kinda silly.
I mean, people are bitching about how their rights are being taken away and everything, but let's face it: How many of them are actually using imports?
In Europe (somewhat more than 360 million people, I should point out), a lot of people. This is because there is a greater selection of DVDs in the U.S. than in Europe. Also, some DVDs are in German translation only ("Flash Gordon", the new version with Queen's music, is one of them). And third and most important, DVDs from different countries are censored in different ways. Europeans (especially Germans) take out the violence (the German version of "Fight Club" is somewhat of a joke), while the U.S. has this problem with nudity and sex ("Color of Night" is one that comes to mind).
If you want to see the film the way the director intended, sooner or later you're going to have to import you stuff.
They drive on the left, along with basically all former British colonies outside of North America.
It's an interesting little historical digression as to why different countries drive on the sides of the road they do. It actually all goes back to Napoleonic Europe. Before Napoleon, everyone used the left side of the road. It just sort of naturally happened that way, most people are right handed after all, and if that passer-by jumps at you as he goes by, you want your strong hand (which might well be holding a sword, after all) between you. Or if you were in a chariot, or on a horse, the weapon typically would be in the right hand, the reins in the left - which leads to the same thing. So for centuries everyone in europe used the left side of the road.
Then came Napoleon. And the Napoleonic wars. Horrid bloody confused battles, gunsmoke obscuring view, troops arriving late and needing to tell friend from foe quickly when they marched into view along a roadway. Plus Napoleon was a bit of an iconoclast anyway. So he came up with a way that his armies could quickly tell friend from foe, even under the most confused conditions. He decreed that the French would now use the right side of the road, not the left. Anyone marching on the left side of the road was the enemy. He conquered nation after nation, and when they were conquered, they switched sides and used the right side of the road.
The British were never conquered. They still use the left to this day. So do their former colonies (with the exceptions mentioned.)
Sweden also he did not conquer. However, back in the 1960s, the Swedes did finally change over to be compatible with the nations around them. They had some rather confused motorists for a bit, as you might imagine, but eventually everyone got used to it. Most other European nations that Napoleon didn't conquer (such as Switzerland, for instance) nevertheless made that adjustment long before, for the sake of commerce with their neighbors.
Ahh but now the strange exception in North America. We actually went through a period of relative chaos on this issue - most early Americans were from England after all, but then again, we fought the British and those French had helped us... so there was some disagreement and regional variation, although the right side was probably more popular, particularly early on. Henry Ford actually was the one that put an end to it. He had a bit of a fetish about efficiency - you may know that he only put out his cars in one colour, for instance, to simplify the painting stage of production, not to mention his supply logistics. So it was natural he would want to decide to put the steering wheel on one side or the other, not both (an option his competitors catered to.) He settled on the left, it is said, because his left arm was weak from a childhood illness and he found it difficult to shift gears with it. So he put the steering wheel on the left, shifted with his right, and his cars became so successful that the entire continent was soon driving on the left side of the road.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
- I can choose between DVDs from different regions based upon technical merit. For example, the R1 Chasing Amy is far superior to the R4 version. And the R4 version of Trainspotting is censored, while the R2 version is not.
- DVDs are cheaper. DVDs in Australia are far far cheaper than anywhere else. I am constantly surprised that American super-discount-sale prices still exceed our own recommended prices.
So what is there not to like?S
harshbutfair: you know it makes sense
www.harshbutfair.org
Just don't try to play Grand Theft Auto 3 on that PlayStation! That's illegal!
No problems with the mod chips, though...
That sure makes a lot of sense.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
I'm not going to claim it scales exactly, but as the region number gets higher, the prices generally get cheaper. Sure, region 1 gets it first almost every time, but at up to four times the retail price.
No retailer wirth his salt will sell a regionlocked DVD players. Consequently they are all designed to be piss easily unlocked (like have a miniscre switch on the PCB & a tiny access hole at the back that lines up with it). They only charge $100 for unlocking a DVD player when they think they are dealing with a complete moron who'll let him get away with charging him $100 extra.
Gez, right now they are selling DVD/MP3 players at the computer markets for about$170, unlocked (multi-region, not region-free, which makes them compatible with the latest Sony Studios DVDs too - the latest Sony DVDs won't work on DVD players set to regin 0, which is the regionfree setting, so you have to have a DVD player with a multi-region setting, where it automatically changes the region to match the DVD)
If the US keeps that shite up, the rest of the world will just carry on without them.
AFAIK the Northern Territory also allows X-rated videos. Dunno the national situation with fireworks.
;-). They only *visit* Canberra.
"solely for housing politicians". Silly bugger; the politicians are housed in the electorates of the people who elected the dickheads There is justice after all