Slashdot Mirror
Singing Cow To Attack CBDTPA
karmawarrior writes "Gateway is launching an advertising campaign against Senator Holling's CBDTPA bill, which, apparently will include its cow mascot encouraging computer users to legally download MP3s and burn their own CDs." Wired also has a story; see Gateway's website for more, as Gateway takes a page from Apple's "Rip-Mix-Burn" playbook.
...take a page from Chik-fil-a. I can see it now, 2 cows on a ladder, painting a billboard to say "Download more Zepplin"
The Hollings bill has drawn the support of major recording companies, who believe fast Internet connections and an array of digital devices such as MP3 players and CD burners, as well as Napster and other file-sharing services, were partly responsible for a decline in album sales last year
Didn't sales go up when napster started and then descreased when RIAA went and shutdown napster?
Hell I know people who used to get Mp3's so they could decide whether to buy an album who now just get them to piss off RIAA.
--"Karma is justice without the satisfaction"
...but for doing this, I now (temporarily) love that Holstein!
Ok i'm all for lobbying against the bill...
but PLLLLLLLLLLEAAAAAAAASE dont show more of that cow!!!!! I hope Steve from Dell eats it! then gets mad cow disease and dies!!
While I think this is good news and all...
Gateway is another large company with an agenda, and ITS agenda happens to coincide with my interests, and so I think it is good news.
But really, what is the online-privacy and free-speech fight really? It is large corporations fighting each other to see which one gets to write the laws. There is a debate going on, but we are not really part of it, except as the Prize. If a divorcing couple fight over who gets to keep the Car, they aren't really worried about what the Car wants.
God is real unless declared integer
Basically, both sides are rallying around a cause in order to drum up support. The recording industry is chanting, "The artists! The artists!" At the same time, tech seems to be saying, "The consumer! The consumer!" But in the end, everyone's just looking out for their own threatened business model.
Open Source advocates may find opposing Hollings bill makes for strange bedfellows. It actually suggests that Microsoft might be our ally (gasp!) because of their recently found devotion to streaming media and peer to peer networking.
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
Following the RIAA's logic, I guess car companies that advertise their wares are really encouraging the breaking of speed limits, reckless driving, and driving too fast for conditions when they show advertisements with the disclaimer "professional driver on closed course".
Do insurance companies then complain that auto manufacturers are behaving irresponsibly? No.
Should the RIAA be complaining about Gateway's ads? No.
I went to the city because I wished to live without deliberation.
As a die-hard Apple user, I've always said that if I *had* to get a Win box, it'd be a Gateway, even if they do have a spokescow now.
:)
They seemed to use decent components, and their products felt like they had a personality, like they weren't just another mass-produced consumer computer. The cow spots added a touch of irreverance that made them feel like less of a corporate tool.
This just increases their chances of getting my business when that dreaded someday comes
Rip. Milk. Burn?
Aww, FSCK!
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Emphasis mine. Way to go, Gateway! Just what we need -- a few more high profile companies to echo this particular line. First Apple, then Gateway. Maybe if the moneybags at IBM and Intel stepped into the game, this war could be considered won. But (sigh!) they're too busy planning copy-protected processors and hard disks to actually think of the consumer
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Tell me the cow's name is Hillary!
Apart from saying they support your right to mix-rip'n'burn, this doesn't really take issue against the CPDB... CPTDB... Bad Law Thingy(TM). (Maybe because it's so hard to remember the acronym, especially since they keep changing it)
This ad doesn't go far enough, or bring home the true horribleness of the law. We need shock tactics, like those highway-safety ads. I want to see the cow standing in the middle of the highway with a big placard, screaming "The CBDTPA SUUUUUCKS!" and then getting run down by a Disney truck, preferably driven by a Senator Hollings impostor.
...when you post something about "launching" and "cows" I picture a certain movie and catipulting bovines?
For those of you keeping score at home, here's another one for the opposition of CBDTPA (or whatever they're calling it today)
This one from eWeek
enjoy
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
On NBC while watching the Great Race. It was funny as hell.
My wife rolled her eyes and it gave me the perfect chance to let her know *why* they were running that commercial.
Now that Gateway has clearly chosen sides, I think we can start selling tickets to the battle royall:
"In this corner weighing in at a puny few billion in stated revenues is MPAA, AOL/Time Warner/CNN, RIAA and the BSA. In the Far corner, weighing in at an incalcuable sum is Gateway, IBM, Sun, Dell, Apple and all the people. This ain't really gonna be a long fight folks so don't blink."
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
anyone catch the link in one of the info windows to emusic?
apparently this is one of gateways 'partners' and a 'good place to download music legally' or something like that.
anyone know anything about them?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From Hollings's Point of View:
"First, they attack you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they moo at you.
Then they win."
Where interests coincide, support. Where conflict, oppose. It's very simple. There are no "good guys" and "bad guys", just different people and groups of people with varied agendas. They do not have to be exactly like you, and insisting that unless they tow your line all the way down the line they are enemies is rather childish.
Hell, I've got about zero respect for Gateway products. They have effectively filled the consumer space crappy OEM PC manufacturer vacated by Packard Bell. But, at least they realize that stringent hardware requirements mandated by the government are not in their best interests. As this conicides with mine, yeah I'll support them by pointing out the issues they are bringing to light to the less tech-savvy. Doesn't mean I'll be recommending their products any time soon.
It shouldn't.
HOWEVER, indirectly, things will trickle out of legislation such as this that will affect legal users-
Maybe ISPs will start filtering for all MP3s due to fear of legal action or the such...
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Because the CBDTPA (is that right?) intends to stop ANY copying, even copying which under fair use precedent would be allowable. That means NO RIPPING, for _any_ reason - even if you just want to load up you computer or MP3 jukebox for some long-play action.
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
Gateway is a struggling PC manufacturer. Why can't a few tech companies with deeper pockets spend money for this quest? I admire what they're doing, hopefully people buy a Cow next time they're buying a pre-built box so their $$ isn't spent without a return.
Apple computer realized this a good while back. Steve Jobs himself even came out and said that the RIAA is wasting its time and money on this as no matter what they do, hard core pirates will find a way to steal music.
:)
Gateway is only following Apple's lead, just the way the rest of the PC industry often follows their lead. Granted this is a good thing this time
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
"If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ... but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it," said Hilary Rosen
<sarcasm>Yes, because all CD burners are sold to make discs full of illegally downloaded music!</sarcasm>
Maybe if the RIAA would price their CDs more reasonably, actually give money to their artists, and stop the overwhelming and unnecessary homogenization of the music which they promote to (read: push on) the public, people wouldn't be so inclined to download music.
is the broad adoption of Jack Valenti's misnomer "piracy" to denote "unauthorized copying." It's an improper usage of an emotionally loaded word and it unfairly biases the audience, albeit in a subtle way, every time it's used, even by journalists and others in support of Fair Use. It's like the popular but WRONG equation of "hacker" with "cracker" - which is also gleefully promoted by all those authoritarian a**holes who would like nothing better than to enslave us all to the RIAA and MPAA.
Real "piracy" is rape, pillage, and murder on the high seas or some remote godforsaken mountain pass or desert wadi. It still happens in the seas around Indonesia and Malaysia, and in the Caribbean, and it still happens on land in places like Africa and continental Asia. To equate sampling a piece of music by MP3 prior to deciding to purchase it with "piracy" is all so over-the-top hysterical that it would be merely comical if it hadn't gotten widespread currency.
Jack Valenti and Hillary Rosen should have their mouths washed out with soap for hammering on this to the point that even their opponents adopted their skewed language.
This is a new one. Hit the video at Gateway's site. Same cow, same Ted, same truck, but a with a different song. The dig at the Holling's bill is new too.
The song itself is available for download as an MP3 too.
Actually, when I first saw the "Whip It" version, I thought Gateway might be trying a "get them while they're still legal" type of thing. But this is way cooler.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
Interesting to see a large corporation take a side and be actively involved in such a debate. I'm sure other companies feel the same but are remaining passive to test the waters first. Businesses tend to choose sides based on what other businesses want first, the consumer usually gets what is left over.
I wonder if Compaq would be so outspoken and in support of consumers rights if one of thier suppliers had a different opinion, like Intel or Microsoft. I would like to believe that a company has a true care to please the the consumer but in the real world, business decisions always come first.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
I love how the Yahoo article explains what the CBDTPA is supposed to do... "a copyright-protection bill that would
prevent computers from playing pirated movies and music." More like "a bill that would prevent technology from eating into the profits of large corporations that are slow to adapt."
Anyhow, the CBDTPA is really just an OLURMATOWIRM (an Overly Long, Unwieldy, Redundant and Misleading Acronym That Obfuscates What It Really Means.)
... "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the w
"If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ... but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
I would like it better if it said:
"If only the RIAA would understand that people want to pay for music they can enjoy anywhere at anytime. We understand that $15.00 for a CD full of crap isn't worth the money, but $1.00 per song is a goldmine."
"If only the music industry would devote a little bit of millions of dollars they're spending on lawyers and buying senators to update their distribution model into the 21st century... but that wouldn't let them fuck the artists as much would it?"
nuff said.
And EAT the Gateway cow? You sadist!
No, head on over to Chick-Fil-A and "Eat mor chikin"
That supports cow rights. (:
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Is there anything more damning to this bill than the fact that now we are seeing political commercials from corporate entities on both sides of the issue?
When this is the case, clearly the issue is not one of laws, and the government should not be involved.
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
(A bit OT, but bear with me)
Don't let them believe its hurting the artists, cd sales were way up during napster's days, and went into a slump shortly after it was shut down.
There's really nothing wrong with cd sales at the moment, the problem for the recording companies is that with that sort of thing going on (napster), they lose a lot of control of what people listen to.
People in general like whatever music they tend to listen to... if all we hear is pop, we come to like pop, if you hear lots of heavy metal, you start to like heavy metal, and so on. As it stands now, the recording industries more or less control what you hear on the radio, and ensure that you're buying music produced by their label.
However, with something like napster available, people could just download songs from whoever, fo free (and frequently did). The recording companies saw this, and they had visions of a future where they had no control, and couldn't suddenly make whoever they felt like popular. So they got scared, and sued the pants off of napster.
Now that they've realised that people are going to swap mp3's even without napster, (and with gnutella, etc, there's nobody to sue), they're paying senators (Hollings) to write laws in the US to force computers not to be able to share copyrigthed material somehow (and I personally can't think of a good way of doing that).
I'm guessing that you and most slashdotters already know most of this story, but the point is, *don't* even say that it may hurt the artists, because it doesn't. It helps independent artists and the small record labels immensely. Its the recording companies it hurts, don't lose sight of that.
We refuse to be COWED
So the content industry should ruminate on this. Find some udder solution. Maybe tipping. Or a place where the grass is greener. And especially no bullshit.
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
The recording industry is chanting, "The artists! The artists!" At the same time, tech seems to be saying, "The consumer! The consumer!"
Yeah, exactly.
The funny thing, I'm an artist (a pianist and composer), and my skin crawls when the RIAA claims to be looking out for me. Eeech.
One of the important points artists out there need to keep making loud and clear is that the RIAA is not representing our interests. Artists and consumers are on the same side of this issue -- limited access to creative work hurts those who create at least as much as those who receive.
Many artists are already speaking out. More need to. If I'm going to be some corporation's rhetorical pawn, I'd like to at least agree with what they're advocating!
i believe its more or less just a marketing gimmick, than a voice of reason.
though they would have you believe otherwise.
gateway only gives a damn cause it might affect their sales on this particular computer model.
the only fact is that everything is an opinion
Maybe they should contact these guys?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Well, that's the problem. After the CDBTPA passes, there will be no non-commercial artists. Most of the tools a an artist would need to record and distribute their music electronically will be contraband. And the software their prospective listeners would need to listen to them will be illegal as well. Same with independant filmmakers. Of course, this is what the powers behind the bill want. It effectively installs the RIAA and MPAA as our entertainment police - they will have the final say on what music we are allowed to listen to and which movies we are allowed to watch.
I think it'd be fair to say that the RIAA and Disney aren't exactly looking out for the interests of the non-commercial artists. If they can reduce the supply of music by, say, pushing DRM to the point that DRM-enabled machines can only run DRM-enabled players which only play DRM-enabled music, then there'll be less competition for them.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Does Gateway actually HAVE an MP3 of this song, rather than an unplayable .ASF? Anyone know of a mirror?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
"If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ... but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
If only the recording industry would spend money on putting out stuff that doesn't suck. If only they didn't piss off their consumers.
"The Gateway commercial is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation," Rosen said. "No one has proposed anything that would prevent all digital copying."
And someone please inform her that this isn't possible.
We're conditioned to think of Holsteins (as opposed to, say, Jerseys) as funny, for some strange reason. Of course, we're also conditioned to eat them...
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
The line in the articel that states "The Hollings bill has drawn the support of major recording companies" should read "The support of major recording companies has drawn the Hollings bill"
------- Assumption is the mother of all f$#@ ups.
"If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ... but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Now let me get this straight? The RIAA, MPAA and others (through the Disney Senator) want to take away many of the rights that hardware manufacturers have in building their systems. And now they want these same companies to spend money to help keep the horrible music system in place? At least movie stars make money. 99% of artist's don't. Read This article [Salon.com] by Courtney Love if you want to know why I personally don't like the RIAA.
I applaud Gateway for this, and I really hope that this helps bring them from the brink of going out of buisness. I plan on supporting them through corporate purchases (which I oversee). I hope supporting companies who endorse (publically) our ideals will win in the long run
Blah Blah Blah.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Just a thought, but has anyone ever considered that maybe we're giving the RIAA too *much* leeway? I think that the transfer of any and all music and video ought to be legal. I want to see an analog of the GPL for music. Sure, the RIAA would crash and burn, but who the hell needs them anyway? Artists can make a fine living doing concerts, and use the Internet to distribute their songs. They'd even sell a lot of CDs to the people who don't have broadband. The RIAA is complaining about how the fact that there is legal downloading makes illegal downloading quite easy. They're right. So instead of doing away with legal downloading, why not do away with illegal downloading?
Since this thread pertains to copy protection, and I haven't seen this anywhere else, I thought I'd post.
/. story it was pointed out the Celine Dion's new CD will not play on PCs and Mac, and would likely crash your system if you tried.
In a recent
Sony claimed that the CD would ship with warning labels on the front and back of the CD, and the cd itself.
I have seen the CD for sale at Border's and Target, and at both sites, no such sticker warnings were present. Since this is the first CD with this new copy protection, I think it's important to follow up.
Has anybody seen this CD, and does it feature the stickers?
I don't care for the Celine Dion, but this CD is an important test for Sony. Depending on what happens, we can expect to see more like it. We should be paying attention.
This is a VERY bright move by Gateway. They wish to establish in the minds of the customer a direct association between their brand-name and a large amount of the usage that Joe Public has for PCs.
At the same time they are implying, "Buy us before it is too late."
The fact that they may actually prevent poor legislation being inacted is waaay down the list of benefits they get from this.
StrutterX
I found a link for a form letter http://www.digitalconsumer.org/fax.html
As a constituent and an ardent consumer of digital media, I write today to urge you to support a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights, and to express my concerns about the recent trend toward allowing one-sided copyright laws to eliminate my Fair Use rights.
Historically, our country has enjoyed a balance between the rights of copyright holders and the rights of citizens who legally acquire copyrighted works. Generally speaking, rights holders have the exclusive right to distribute and profit from artistic works. Consumers like me who legally acquire these works are free to use them in most noncommercial ways. Unfortunately, this balance has shifted dramatically in recent years, much to the detriment of consumers.
To prevent further erosion of my rights, I would like to add my voice to DigitalConsumer.org in calling for a "consumer technology bill of rights". It is simply an attempt to assert positively the public's personal use rights. These rights are not new; they are historic rights granted in previous legislation and court rulings that have over the last four years been whittled away.
Under the guise of "preventing illegal copying" I believe Hollywood is vilifying their customers - people like me - and using the legislative process to create new lines of business at my expense. Their goal is to create a legal system that takes away my long-cherished personal use rights and then to charge me an additional fee to regain those rights!
Copy protection, especially to prevent overseas piracy for illicit sale, is an important issue. But before Congress considers yet another change in the law at the behest of the copyright holders, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to protect my Fair Use rights.
Thank you very much for your attention to this important matter.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
This is funny coming after they killed their cow during job cuts.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
People buy what they want and self-styled cognoscenti always consider it crap. Guess what: most of us wouldn't give two bits for whatever drivel you've got in your music library.
As to how the music companies pay their staff - that's their model, you might as well whine about how car manufacturers are structured financially or yam importers. If it didn't work they'd be OUT OF BUSINESS but they're not.
Yes they're trying to twist laws to their own ends, but that is an entirely separate issue then the others. If you don't like the big labels don't patronize them but don't go whining about Britney Spears.
Guess what: There's ALWAYS some whiner going on about pop culture yada yada yada. You only look like a self-aggrandizing poseur when you take the "if they only listed to *my* obscure taste-du-jour..." line.
Now back to my collection of gay male choral recordings; there's this fine one from the BGMC...
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
"It's up to all of us to make buying music about as easy as stealing it," Williams said.
How come the RIAA doesn't understand this? When has a business model along the lines of "Dont give the customer what they want" ever worked? I only took one semester of economics in High School, but I'm reasonably sure that business model is about as succssful as putting a maze in front of a bathroom and putting up a sign saying 'fun bathrooms!'.
"Derp de derp."
I don't know about the human, but at least they could have hired a decent cow. This one really underperformed.
The only skin on a computer should be porn.
Hilary Rosen is a mixed bag, that's for sure. She has done an incredibly admirable job of keeping the government from censoring artists, but then she turns around and sticks it to the consumer every chance she gets.
Unfortunately, Slashdot doesn't report on the Free Speech Hilary Rosen. They only report on the "fair use must die" Hilary Rosen.
Yes, I watch too much C-Span. It's the only unbiased news channel left.
By rallying behind Gateway (and all their money) are we going to put them into a position to corner the market?
I don't think there's any danger of Gateway cornering anything. They make overpriced, underwhelming mass-market PCs. Most educated users wouldn't buy from them anyway. However, they can stand to benefit from this campaign. As I understand it, the AOL users of the world still buy their computers based on the testimony of bovine corporate representatives.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Try Mplayer. It plays ASF.
"If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading ... but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
I see, it would seem that the RIAA is still of the mindset that the tool maker is responsible for the use of the tool.
There is no way that the tech industry is going to voluntarily cripple its equipment on just the media companies' say so.
Thankfully there has been NO support for the SSSCA/CD...whatever they're calling it today. Not that that means it's dead.
Rosen and company should realize that forced DRM will pan out in one of 2 directions. Either it will be defeated by some 13 year old in a matter of minutes, or it (if *unbreakable* =P )will annihilate the market for new equipment and create a huge aftermarket for pre-DRM equipment.
Both are failures for the media folk, but the second option promises to make an already ugly looking ecomony even worse. And potentially turn millions of people into felons for effectively sitting still.
There are laws already in place to handle every issue they keep bringing up, but appearantly it won't be enough until they can force feed use everything.
If they want to kick the piracy issue I have a suggestion for them. PUT SOME PORDUCTION QUALITY INTO THEIR PRODUCTS! I'm not talking about the quality of the music itself, but everything that goes along with it. Case in point, the soundtrack for "Queen of the Damned". Retailing at the local Walmart for $13.99. I think it a pretty good soundtrack, personally. However, the packaging and liner notes are TERRIBLE! No lyric sheet, tracks aren't even listed in order as they are on the disk, it's just a simple tri-fold. How about a little something more for my $14? Seriously, give me one good reason why I shoud not just d/l the tracks that I want, aside from the (il)legallity issue. There is NOTHING, no added value whatsoever in purchasing the actual CD.
This is primarily their greatest problem, they fail to see that they are selling more than simply music, and until they realize it, 'pirating' (I still hate that term) looks very appealing.
If we weren't intended to eat animals, why are they made out of meat? *ducks*
I think Gateway is trying to get some goodwill among geeks, along with educating the public and of course advertising their wares. I say good for them. We need more tech companies bitching about this insidious bill.
--- Think of it as evolution in action ---
Get the real player version of the commercial here. Here
--- Errr......No I don't need more oral sex thank you, Windows goes down on me all the time.
Vegetarian: Indian word for "bad hunter"
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
Consider what the ad brings to mind:
I've never seen a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one
[and later]
Ah yes, I wrote "The Purple Cow"
I'm Sorry now I wrote it
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!
-- both by Gelett Burgess (orig. 1896)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
The use of an inanimate object was deliberate. A child can protest one parent or another, and the government will take that protest into account.
I do not believe your letter to your Congressman has nearly the weight of MPAA dollars or Gateway dollars.
God is real unless declared integer
Hmm... We have limited rights to enforce our laws on foreign citizens on our military bases subject to the SOFA(Status of Forces Agreement) which outlines jurisdiction for crimes involving US citizens/foreign citizens based on duty status at time of crime, on or off base location, whether it involved only foreigners on base or only US off base, they get complicated and generally only apply when US Military personnell or the dependents are involved as victims or accused, or when the crime takes place on board a military installation.
In general though, I don't think so, though it is entirely possible that some treaty or another apart from the SOFA might give us limited foreign enforcement of our laws.
I've read through most of the comments posted, and many refer to Hilary Rosen as "she," "her," etc.
:-)
I wonder if Mr. Rosen would be upset if he knew that a significant portion of Slashdot readers (and, possibly, the general population) thought he was a woman.
Kinda puts a smile on your face, huh?
Why do people get all hung up on motivation? If someone is doing something Good then it doesn't matter WHY they are doing it, the act is still Good. If someone is doing something Bad, the same applies, even if they have a pure and just motivation the act itself is still Bad.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
...should think about a few things with their ad campaign.
The biggest one is that cows are FEMALE, yet their spokescow has a nice baratone voice.
Transgendered cow, maybe? I wonder how good it would taste after a few hours of grilling.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
So if the Chick-fil-A and Gateway cows did team up, would we see ads like this?
Let's not buy into the propaganda!
Using the word "Piracy" to imply copyright infringement equates the act with robbery
on the high seas, a form of thievery that can include killing of the innocents on the
ship targeted by the pirates. While I don't condone copyright infringement, demonizing
it as "Piracy" seems a bit much. I can define for myself what I will equate with killing
on the high seas. Sharing an MP3 with a friend is NOT one of them.
</General service announcement >
95 was last..
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
You know, the Cult of the Singing Cow.
   
   
   
Ow! Stop hitting me!
It was just a joke. Geeze.
Ow!
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
I don't know if this is authoritative, but it was the first relevant Google hit and my boss is bugging me for a report.
I would have bet on 'toe' anyway because of the connotation of staying in rigid (con)formation. FWIW, YMMV IMNSHO.
GTRacer
- What do you get if you combine Access's flexibility and Crystal's ease of layout?
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Dummy, Ford sells engines over the counter. So does GM, so does Toyota, so do most car manufacturers. In fact GM and Ford will both sell you higher performance versions of many of their engines. Prices are good and in the case of their V8s dyno tested and known to work well. You don't know much about cars do you?
Gateway stores should be selling more than just full on systems if their parts are quality pieces.
Having said that - I had a Gateway that my company had purchased for me. A couple of years after buying it it nearly went up in flames with sparks shooting out the back (!). Called up Gateway, gave them my service number, they shipped me a new one - better model too. I slapped my junk one in the same box and shipped it right back - they had UPS pick it up for free. Cost to me was ZERO and I found their customer service to be excellent. I still use that monitor to this day - it's a decent quality part. A shame Gateway makes it hard to buy them seperate huh? Oddly enough - that's the last remaining part from that computer and it's now at least 4 years old!
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
gateway may be pushing to become a record label.
Buy a gateway computer and get 12 MP3 albums for a penny, cancel your subscription anytime you want. Free streaming broadcasts live from Tokyo, Bucharest, and Melboune to benefit the FSF.
I'd sign with them.
that's how come all the vegans have bottles of bean-o?
In that article, it claims that several Senators are wanting a compromise, including getting rid of parts of the DMCA (although that would probably mean just the parts that wouldn't hold up in court anyway).
My idea is this: They might pass a version of the CBDTPA and at the same time weaken the DMCA. In other words, there would be copy protections but you would be allowed to circumvent them.
"Never, never suspect the dreams within the dreams of dreaming children." ~The Amazon Quartet
I'd much rather prefer to see Man-Eating Cow attacking the CBDTPA.
Actually, I'd rather see Man-Eating Cow eating Fritz Hollings.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
they got my goodwill.
Do you know if I can buy a dual proc (AMD or Intel) 1U rack server from gateway?
Gateway could said, "We're big enough to play the cross-licensing game, we can afford to sit idle and watch this go by". In a world with a few too many greedy bullies, this is a welcome act of rebellion.
Downloading MP3s is lovely, but the real prize is the right to think and innovate. I thank Gateway for speaking out in support of that right.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
I wrote an article that plays off of similar themes as your post: The CBDTPA Is Immune to (Conventional) Criticism.
but a child has the exclusive and final decision over which parent wins custody in a divorce proceeding
that even as I type this I am ripping a CD to MP3. Yes its my CD, I paid for it. Its starting to get pretty beat up, so I want an archivial copy of it before its totally unreadable. The RIAA seems to want to make me think this is illegal. The funny thing is that when I pay for a CD, I am paying for the content, which I have the right to do with however I see fit. The fact that I might do something with the content which breaks a law is completely irrelavant. In actuality, almost all the MP3's I've downloaded are tracks from CDs I've either lost, wrecked, or had stolen. I don't think thats wrong. Yes, I also download other tracks, but mostly this is to broaden my musical tastes, which leads to increased spending on these artists. I don't think any of my uses for MP3 and such are out of line. I don't think my usage hurts the RIAA (much to my chagrin). Anyway maybe my next machine will be a Gateway...
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
I think motives are being scrutinized more than ever because too many times, companies would do something which seemed good, only to have something truly evil come out of it. After letting their guard down and having some joker deliver a jab to the ribs, people are wary of motive because it demonstrates what could happen in the future.
For example: If MS decided to embrace Linux. Sure, by itself, a company embracing Linux would be a good thing. The problem is that we all know Microsoft has motives which include crushing all competitors, even if it means allying with such an enemy first. Many people would be very wary of such a move.
Such paranoia just extends naturally to anything a large, immortal, rich entity who is virtually immune to the law.
It's been a long time.
I seem to remember an MPAA swat team in Norway...
I will admit upon hearing a good CD i never thought i woudl buy on napster (creed) i went out and bought it. Where i work there is a music pool on the server of music thats really music that's been ripped (better quality) I think the reason gateway is doign this is to get support as much as the record companies renounces shared music it's very popular with the common folk, it's basically a better cassette. by supporting it gateway becomes a renagade and gets to sell more peripherals. think about it, i need to get a new computer with a cd burner so i can listen to music so now instead of sitting collecting dust cept when i type up a paper i'm on line listening to my music my way when i want. The polititions who support the RIAA can bite me because the only reason they support them is due to lobbyists
Actually, I think Gateway is trying to raise awareness about an incredibly stupid piece of legislation. If it passes, the "Digital hardware" industry will be hurt really badly. Imagine this; you have razor thin margine across the board, and the government(paid for by Disney) tells you that all your systems need to be redesigned, and every piece of hardware must have expensive new digital rights management built in. All your support staff will need to be retrained at a government certified facility(and replacements found for the employees who don't pass the test and become certified DRM hardware techs), and guess who gets to pay for all this? Even worse, production is halted while this is implemented, because all the hardware manufactered is suddenly illegal because it has no DRM inside.
I'd sure as hell spend the money(a pittiance compared to the huge costs getting in line with federal spec would require) to make the public aware of this farce.
It's been a long time.
So, Sony kept suing and losing until Bleem! went out of business. This was after Bleem! had been explicitely declared legal by the courts.
Companies like Sony operate under a different set of laws than ordinary people need to follow. (I mean, honestly, isn't that what the whole Dmitry Sklyarov case was about?)
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
vegetables: it's what food eats.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Speech given to Senate Government Affairs Committee
RIAA's summation of anti-censorship stuff - obviously biased, but hey
Response to hearings in '98
First-hand account of Senate sub-committee testimony in '97
And while not artist related, there's also that little matter of helping found Rock the Vote
She's also active in gay rights circles, but Google wasn't as helpful in digging up stuff about that.
Certainly, but we SHOULD extend our support to corporations willing to help us fight these battles. Companies like Gateway have deeper pockets, better lawyers, and more Washingon clout than your typical grassroots .org, so I see no reason why we shouldn't be actively enlisting their support.
Conveniently, I was putting together a purchase recommendation for a few departmental file servers this morning when I noticed this article. Although I was originally going to recommend a few HP e800's, I instead called up Gateway and set up a quote on a few 930C's. I made it a point to explain to the sales rep that their support of consumer rights gained them this sale.
Put your money where your mouth is, and support the companies that are willing to support you.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
This may seem like a nitpick, but it isn't. It goes to the heart of RIAA's bogus notion that it has a "right" to make a profit. Well, no it doesn't, and neither does anybody else, because no such "right" exists. (They do, of course, have the right to attempt to make a profit and the right to publish. Both of those are genuine rights, which are unfortunately undermined by association with the counterfeit "right" to a profit.)
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Wintersmute: Why is it that Americans aren't persuaded by the voice of reason, but a talking hamburger really helps you see things straight?
Some Smartass AC: Because America doens't like you. Therefore they exhibit "odd" behavior just to piss YOU off.
It appears that though an improvident use of "you" instead of "us" I seem to have cast myself as some beret-wearing Frog who complains about Eurodisney as the vanguard of cultural imperialism.
Sorry, okay? I'm from New York. I like baseball, motherhood, and apple pie. I just think talking cows are weird, okay?
Now, please excuse me while I clean out my inbox from the National Beef Council's hatemail, and Neosporin these karma burn marks. Man, I hope that don't scar.
It may be cold, but at least it's clear.
And now for some music:
Eat steak, eat steak, eat a big ol' steer
Eat steak, eat steak, do we have one here?
Eat beef, eat beef, it's a mighty good food
It's a grade 'A' meal when I'm in the mood.
-The Reverend Horton Heat
I thought he was referring to those singing plastic fish that were heavily advertised a few Christmases ago.
I didn't think they got much radio airplay, or had much bass for that matter (weren't they trout?), but I stopped listening to Corporate Radio years ago and I've heard weirder things promoted.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I just saw the commercial during Saturday Night Live. I'm surprised the commercial aired the same day as the story appeared on slashdot.
I wonder if it will be posted on the newly rivived Ad Critic, and itself distributed via the web and burned to CD-ROM?
Although I've never really been a fan of Gateway (home of Laptop Support Hell), but I'm glad they're doing this.
"I'm The Bounty Bear. I will find him anywhere. I'm searching."
That's how most of our laws are, right now. Ex post facto -- you break them, you do the punishment. The RIAA/MPAA wants to undermine this situation, and prevent people from breaking the law. We already tried this once.
Ex post facto? After the fact. Why didn't you use some other latin phrase: Quid pro quo, you're wrong.
In law, ex post facto is usually talked about in the following situation:
1) You perform act A.
2) A law is passed that makes act A illegal. In fact the law even says that those people that committed act A before the law was made can be arrested.
3) That is an ex post facto law and is unconstitutional in the US.
To have an Ex Post Facto law in the US you better burn the Constitution or amend it.
Gateway should be congratulated for being smart enough to realize that their interests are as much on the line here as our liberties. They were the first to visibly realize this and positive re-inforcement should be lavished upon them.
Sure, it's their self-interests that motivate this.
Don't kid yourselves. Your own self-interest is what motivates your actions in this matter.
It just so happens that the causes of individual liberty and corporate profits are the same for once.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.