Slashdot Mirror
IsoNews Ostensibly Shut Down By The DOJ
According to Yahoo News and also Cyber Crime The longest running news site for Piracy has been turned over to the Department of Justice. Stating David Rocci AKA krazy8, has recently plead guilty to selling modchips via his website http://www.isonews.com with profit of $48,000. Now the domain has been linked to the Cybercrime Site warning all pirates all there that modchipping is not a game. [chrisd] In case you needed a reminder...you don't own your hardware. Eff? That said, this is not 100% positive, and there are rumors of the old site floating around on other ip addresses out there.
In related DOJ web hijinks..joemite writes "Cannabis News released this article about how the DEA is seeking to redirect indicted businesses that sell glass bongs and pipes to the DEA's website. "If the court orders the sites to be redirected, Ashcroft said, they will point to a DEA.gov Web page that says: "By application of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania pursuant to Title 21, United States Code, Section 853 (e)(1)(a)."" Also check out an analysis of the entire situation by Richard Cowan"
They're going to make an example out of David Rocci.
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Check out my blackbox styles
Let's change this law. I think I DO own my hardware, no matter how many lobbyists some corp, or the entertainment industry has.
I thought you guys (people living in the USA) could buy radar detectors to scan for speed traps, but some guy sells mod-chips for Xbox and he's done for it?! (I'm not familiar with this aspect of US law)
Seems to me that this is quite unfair - in what way does the mod chip help pirates? I thought it:
A) Allowed Linux to boot and run
or
B) Allowed to machine to play games from another region.
I see no piracy on either count here. Have I got this wrong? (Help me out - I don't own an Xbox so I'm a little lost)
"Cannabis News released this article about how the DEA is seeking to redirect indicted businesses that sell glass bongs and pipes to the DEA's website."
At first, I thought this was sarcastic. Doesn't sound like it is. Is it illegal to have a bong? Can they really do that?
This comment really bothered me:
"In effect, the defunct Web sites become electronic flypaper for those looking for illegal drug paraphernalia, reporters covering the story, and people who have trouble spelling in Google."
There's absolutely no way that they know anybody's intentions when they go to a site like that. The internet is a source of INFORMATION. At some point, information's going to be accessed. It's not like you can call me a pirate just for visiting a site about piracy. Heck, you can't even call me a pirate if I download an ISO. How do they know I'm not replacing a scratched disk?
Blah blah blah I know, it's all been said before by lots of people. The difference for me today is that I now understand why privacy nuts are so fanatical about it. Out of context, data can be used in horrible ways.
Modchips are illegal. Yes, illegal. No matter how much we want to bitch and moan about how "I bought the boxen, I want to run Plan9 on it, wahhH!!!". The reasons companies do this goes much farther than that.
Now, reverse-engineering a console and using it in the comfort of your own basement - that's another thing. But selling them? Well, expect to pay the consecuences.
Now, people who for some reason need a modchip can be pissed off, and that's OK. So don't buy the console, right? Buy a PC and do whatever you want with it. Vote with your money. If Sony (PS2) or Microsoft (XBox) won't let you be 1337 with their consoles, don't buy them. period.
Sorry, but that's how the real world works. It has nothing to do with privacy or human rights or global warming or the habitat of the monitor lizard.
With each passing day, I'm loath being an American citizen more and more.
Land of the free? PFFT!
My ass.
More like land of the fucked (thanks bush)
it's all about $$ and not about the people.
the fact that you cant buy smoking apparatus doesnt bother me at all, it's the fact that the government thinks that is going to somehow curb the use of marijuna.
That's just plain ignorance.
Aside from everything else that you can make a bong or pipe from, how about TABACCO related products, such as the infamous blunt, and rolling papers aplenty.
But the government is more than happy to reap the benefits (profits) from tabacco sales. Think they realize that nicotine is more addictive than heroin? I'm sure they do, and they count on that.
Maybe that's what is keeping them from legalizing pot...it doesn't have the same addictive properties as tabacco, so they dont view it as a viable revenue generator
Somewhat along the lines of alcohol. It's addictive, causes cancer, kills brain cells, destroys families and takes lives.
I'm really fed up with this shit.
>I mean, poor american taxpayers, how much are
>you paying a year now to try and keep those
>dangerous stoners from running amok?
Eleven Billion Dollars.
I've decided that no "legalization" or "decriminialization" effort will ever work.
So I am seeking support for an effort to have Alcohol classified as a Schedule II narcotic, and Tobacco as Schedule I (tobacco has no known medical uses), and placed under DEA authority as Federally controlled substances.
Our society does not tolerate the use of dangerous drugs. Federal enforcement of drug control regulations is a success. Alcohol is a dangerous drug, and the people have consistently shown an inability to use it without causing death and destruction. If you have a medical reason for using alcohol, then you should be able to get a prescription for it. Otherwise, possession and sale should be treated exactly like the other dangerous drugs.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
well i think that could explain pretty well why some people don't like usa and say they don't like them because they bully around the rest of the world.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
That said, I agree that modchips aren't (or at least shouldn't be) illegal.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
ok, it might look fakes, but the authorative server for isonews.com is now listed as ns22.usdoj.gov, and that server has an A record for www.isonews.com which points to 149.101.1.91, which is in a USDOJ netblock, so it seems to be pretty real.
-- free as in swatantryam - not soujanyam.
Kind of like, you can't fight us. This belongs to us now. Don't even try to oppose us... Of course, that's the point of doing it, isn't it :S ...
Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).
People will always mod their systems. People want to play import games that they would otherwise not be able to play. People want to watch divx movies on their Xboxes. and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, some of us do want to legitimately back up the games we purchased. PS2 discs do scratch easily, little brothers arent always careful with that shiny new $50 piece of plastic. Oh, by the way, shutting down websites will not stop piracy.
Doesn't this seem like the biggest waste of DOJ time? There are people out there guilty of *actual crimes* like murder, assault, carjacking etc, and they seem to be just as happy to track down and stop the sale of bloody XBox mod-chips, which to be frank probably has very little effect on Microsoft's sales figures, as they are finding the real baddies.
Let's face it, if anything, Microsoft will be making more money out of modchips than anything else - it's not like they've got an original brand Microsoft mod-chip for sale, is it? What damn difference does it make to them if I'm also choosing to run Linux as well as Tony Hawk 4?
Plus, how many more Slashdotters are likely to buy an XBox on the grounds of mod-chip, and thus Linux, support? Quite a few, I'd guess.
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
I'd like to take a step back from the specifics of who was selling mod chips for which game system and look at the big picture of what's happening here.
Microsoft doesn't want mod-chips to be sold for probably one basic reason: they lose money on the sale of the X-Box unit itself. If someone uses a mod-chip to use the box to run, for example, Linux, then they get a very cheap PC and Microsoft doesn't make any money back on game sales. If someone uses the mod chip to play pirated/burned games, then, again, they lose money on pirated game sales. This is *why* they don't want people using mod-chips. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just giving their motivation.
If all anyone ever did with mod chips was to run linux, then I doubt Microsoft/DoJ would really care; the small number of people that do this wouldn't make it worth their time to track them down.
However, probably the majority of people using mod chips are also playing pirated games, and this is worth Microsoft/DoJ trying to stop. Everyone knows that it's really not possible to do this. Someone overseas can sell the mod chips and there's not much that Microsoft/DoJ can do about it.
In the long run, I think most games are going to move to more a subscription-based architechture (like Everquest or something similar) where you pay a small fee (or nothing at all) to get the game itself, but you have to pay to actually play it by connecting to a company's servers. I think this is actually a good model because it would encourage companies to constantly provide new content (new quests in role-playing games, new race tracks in racing games, new landscape flight games, etc.). It would also save consumers from paying $70 for the latest uber-game only to play it for 10 hours and put it aside, never to be touched again. If you got bored with a game, you could just cancel your subscription.
This is actually a trend caused by software/music/movie piracy in general. When all music becomes trivial to copy for free, then the producers of music will have to charge for services (i.e. rock concerts). Movie producers will have to provide movie theatres with large screens and great sound systems (they already do this). Game producers will have to provide a live and changing gamescape.
The yahoo article is little more than fluff, with the Cybercrime getting to the meat of what was occuring. I normally don't believe that selling mod chips is a crime, but the way that it seems that he was marketing his product he intent on sell those mod-chips who were intending to commit crimes, ie. play pirated games.
I mean, really what could he have expected. If I was advertising and selling the "date rape" drug, they would have strung me up. Yeah, I did not commit the crime but I certainly helped someone else do so and presented it as doing such. This is the same thing.
... they were ostensible about it. I hate when people don't have the common decency to show ostension towards others.
I hope that you are joking. Please tell me when, in the history of the United States (or any other nation), has prohibition served it's intended purpose (if it's true intended purpose is to dramatically reduce or elliminate the trade and use of the given subject of prohibition)?a guardi .htm
Fiorella H. LaGuardia begs to differ with you:
http://prohibition.history.ohio-state.edu/l
People didn't start sticking needles in their arms until Heroin became illegal in 1914 thanks to The Harrison Narcotic Act. Once it was hard to get, and therefore much more expensive, people who were addicted to heroin needed to make the most of what they could get.
Prohibition only makes a bad situation worse. I don't think that any good comes out of the abuse of 'drugs/alcohol', however I think we should take heed of the lessons of history, instead of continually repeating them (at the expense of billions of dollars, not to mention the untold human suffering).
The addicts and their families aren't the only one's who suffer. The misery generated by the illegal drug traffic business touches all of our lives in some way. That doesn't begin to address the incredible horrors instigated in the countries of origin and trade of the prohibited materials. (Seen Columbia in the headlines lately?)
However noble your intentions might be, you ignore the element of greed (a sad element of human nature) at everyone's peril. If there is a demand for something, someone will find a way to supply it, priced according to the risks involved and the availabilty of the material in question.
I really can't believe anyone would advocate prohibition. You really must be joking. Right?
That's so cool. Here we only get water, and it's sort of chlorine-y at that. I'm moving to wherever YOU live.
btw, the poster you replied to was being ironic in order to make a point. You know, about the hypocrisy of stigmatising and prosecuting for marijuana to the point where certain art glass is probably illegal to make or own, while leaving other more harmful drugs alone. Next time read it twice and perhaps we'll be spared your pointless rant.
Yea, we don't need no stinking "Due Process" Its theirs now, huh?
You are kidding, right? You think in the post-9/11 world that anybody gives a rats ass about anachronistic political concepts like due process? Fuck no. We have Republicans in charge now. If there is one thing Republicans pride themselves on it is about getting criminals, getting them fast, and respecting "rights" later. Rights are what liberals complain about. Conservatives fucking take care of business.
You can whine all you want. Don't worry. There's a war coming. The boost in approval ratings will surely carry through '04. All your base, etc., etc.
Why are mod chips even illegal? They give equipment owners the ability to play whatever the hell they want on their machines. Go after the "pirates" not the guys who sell you the means to control your device. The game industry, along with the content industry, expect you to buy the equipment and the games/music but consider backing up the software or music to be a crime and thanks to the DMCA it is.
Sure, the mod chips can be used to play games that aren't officially released yet (overseas releases) just like multi-region DVD players and they let you play a copied game if you choose. They have legitimate uses and hell this is my equipment I'll do as I please with it. It blows my mind that this 22 year old will be in debt for the rest of his days to pay off his legal fees on his deal AND the fine he's going to get AND serve time in prison (probably) because hardware manufacturers don't want you touching the inside of their magic black boxes.
On top of it all, they're seizing domain names (who game then that right?) to point to their absurd pro-industry propaganda. Lets sum up their message.
1. Piracy is copying/selling stuff you dont own.
2. Mod chips let you do anything you want with your machine.
These things have nothing in common but an easy to arrest 22 year old.
scripsit bnenning:
There's a (perhaps subtle, but nonetheless real) difference between cowardice in the face of evil and the active propagation of evil.
In principio creauit Linus Linucem.
The honeymoon is over, people. Unfortunately, I am coming to the realization that the battle is lost already. I now understand that I will never again enjoy privacy on the Net. Mega-corporations have got there first, and the piecemeal approach of fire walls, anonymizers, proxy server kludges, and spam eliminators is just not going to protect me.
... particularly the enhancement that the Justice Department is planning to shortly introduce to the Patriot Act.
I foresee that I have to plan for the fact that I will not be able to use the Internet ever again unrestrictedly, and have been preparing for a complete break of private Internet use for about a year now. Shortly, I will be discontinuing my cable modem service forever, and will only use the Internet in a public forum such as at work, in a college, or in a Cybercafe, wherein I will obey every single law applicable (and will refrain from doing ANYTHING that may potentially break some law). However paranoid that may make me, it is worth it. We haven't even seen the beginning of how savage the witch hunts are about to become.
Yes, this is a boycot. Boycotting the Internet in this fashion may sound extreme, but then again I think the Patriot Act is a bit extreme
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/home.asp
Look for the icon the reads, "Patriot Act II"
One way to fight such rabid facism is to disconnect from the system. (This works because the Internet is a closed system. Without Internet users, there will be no commercial use for the Interent and no inherent need for vigorous policing of it.) I believe alternative networks will spring up out of the void so created, and, if those information avenues appears safe, I will surely take advantage of them. In the meantime, I plan to concentrate on fully utilizing the plentiful software already available which computing has afforded me.
I was a fairly well-paid computer professional from 1994 through 2000. But a sickness overtook the computer industry. It is a sickness imposed by forces which during the same time period tried to impose similar types of maladies on the health care and legal professions. Unfortunately, the computer industry (being in its infancy) was more susceptible than the others. Without strong professional organization and fraught by endemic sabotage by mega-corporations from within, the computer industry was doomed to succumb.
Currently, I am enrolled in a mathematics course of study which will degree me in Statistics, and am changing my profession out of the computer technology field altogether. For those still brave enough to tough it out under the current conditions:
May God have mercy on your souls.
Have we become so corrupt, so blinded, and so degraded by the pursuit of avarice that we must punish our fellow Man for innovation? For creativity? Or for simply posting information? Do we value an increased profit margin more than the lives of countless individuals? Just how far are we willing to go to protect our exclusive, absolute, and non-expiring right to "intellectual property?"
This blatant abuse of power does not affect the Mod-Chip community. Nor does it affect Slashdotters. It does affect the free world, and the meaning of freedom as we know it.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied-- chains us all, irrevocably" (Captain Picard, The Drumhead).
We have lost control of our internet. It was once a free community, one of the freest to be found. It was subject to no outside control, no censorship. Now look at us. We can't even keep the DNS system we designed from the control of tyrants, nor can we evade the constant digital surveillance we are each under.
At our school, we don't earn a degree when we graduate—we earn pi/180 radians
While at it, they should shutdown any store that sells blank cd's, video tapes or casettes since they can also be used for illegal purposes. I'm just glad they leave the head shops,online gambling and online porn places alone since they are so moral and legal....
Once again, we have closed down a business because it offered a product that COULD be used for illegal purposes. Napster had similiar problems (how was it illegal for a company to allow users to share music? they simply offered a means to share music. music that was open to share or not could be posted on napster..even songs written by "home artists" - the USERS were the ones breaking the law. Does that mean that if someone uses a Bicycle to flee from a crime that all bike shops should be shut down?)
This is truly a sad sad sad day for America! Hopefully over time we will grow up and realize that the world is changing.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"It seems obvious to me that if alcohol were classified as Schedule II, restrictions on all drugs in that category would have to be reduced to avoid riots."
We have a winner! You saw right through my argument and came back from the other side.
I believe if my case could be made more thorougly, with sufficient logos, even the staunchest conservative would see there is
really no future for the current strategy.
So many people are arguing directly for reform, but they run up against the status quo, and an enormous problem of cognitive dissonance -- we spent $8 billion last year basically trying to stop people from smoking marijuana, and, somewhat collaterally managed to stop a relative few from using cocaine and heroin. This year we are spending $11 billion to accomplish the same goal.
It is precisely because we have so much invested in the strategy that the very idea of changing it will be rejected. Rejected so vehemently that even State laws are being ignored by Federal prosecutors. And protected so forcefully that the affected States do not even pretend to stand up for their authority.
A direct argument for reform will only be met with an even stricter interpretation of the current policy!
I propose that if by allowing the Federal government to strengthen the policy to its logical extent, simply by applying consistent reasoning to it, people will finally see that the direction the government has taken does not represent their interests or their will. I believe that will engender enormous changes for the greater good.
Despite what the millions in prison would say, the current government still manages to only oppress and disemfranchise a small fringe element. But if the erosion of rights represented in issues such as the "drug war" were applied to other areas that affected less of a minority, less of a fringe, the process of reform will gain the momentum it needs.
I believe it takes a minimum of 12 years for such changes to truly come about under the American system. Unfortunately, the American people lose interest in anything that does not render instant gratification.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I've decided that no "legalization" or "decriminialization" effort will ever work.
Why not? Because the people don't want it, or because the Imperial Federal Government won't allow it?
Our society does not tolerate the use of dangerous drugs.
False! Alcohol use and abuse is tolerated. Furthermore, marijuana is not a dangerous drug.
Federal enforcement of drug control regulations is a success.
False! The government can't keep drugs out of prisons. What makes you think they do a good job keeping it out of the hands of non-inamtes?
Alcohol is a dangerous drug, and the people have consistently shown an inability to use it without causing death and destruction.
True for some people. I'll point out here that "the people" have consistently shown a stellar ability to use marijuana with no ill side effects.
If you have a medical reason for using alcohol, then you should be able to get a prescription for it. Otherwise, possession and sale should be treated exactly like the other dangerous drugs.
The purpose of this is to persecute people who use alcohol and tobacco, for there is no evidence that anything outside of education is any more than marginally effective at getting people to not use some drugs.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
Last I checked, you don't have the RIGHT to buy ANYTHING.
You are given the choice of buying something under the terms and conditions of the individual or company selling the item. If you do not agree to the conditions, the individual or company does not have to allow you to purchase the product.
Conversely, the company or individual doing the selling does not have the right to force you to buy the product.
That's the way capitalism works. It's about contracts and consent. If you don't like it, don't agree to the terms of the deal, and don't purchase the product.
It has absolutely nothing to do with liberty, or freedom, or any of that baloney you people throw about so "freely".
>Nobody puts the smack down like Cecil.
Actually, he substantiates the most important fact of the claim. He diminishes the importance, but:
Saith the Cecil:
"The central charge against Prescott Bush has a basis in fact. In 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act, the U.S. government seized several companies in which he had an interest."
Why did it take an act of Congress to stop an American from trading with Germans a year after we entered the war? I fail to see how this is so easy to downplay or dismiss. Of course, I also fail to see how the grandson is responsible.
I have the perfect solution, don't buy hardware that needs mod chips in the first place.
Everyone here knows that you can't legally make backup copies, so why would you buy something that restricts your fair use rights.
DVDs and CDs are fragile items, and unless I can make copies of them, I don't buy them.
So I still buy CDs as I can make copies and mp3 them for my car stereo, but I don't purchase dvds, dvd players or any other copy controlled media , I do own a dvd-rom for my SuSE installation, I will probably purchase a DVD burner for backups soon and a dv cam to try my hand at video editing, but not if it's copy controlled.
Please, really think about it, do you need the stuff? Is it necessary?
A night out on the town is always a whole lot more fun. Imagine actually interacting with other human beings instead of vegging out on the couch.
How about "I just legally acquired X and it won't play in my system because of a region lockout, thereby denying me the use of a legally owned item. "
Too bad, you go to jail now
I can't believe you just made a racial thing out of that...
Take a look at those arrest records on those urban black males you state are frivolously arrested. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that there'd be a variety of different crimes, including a few violent felonies, not just BS speeding tickets based on 100-year-old laws.
Now, I'm not implying that crime is genetic in black males or any of that National Alliance racist crap... it has a lot to do with being young urban males, making poor choices (as we all tend to do when young and stupid), and being surrounded by criminal subcultures, which young people tend to emulate. For instance, the "Gansta" style of dress... that whole thing simply escapes me. Why would anyone emulate a bunch of thugs, who largely prey on their own people? Boggles the mind...
OK... sorry, end of tangent. What I was trying to say is that people often get arrest records BECAUSE they commit crimes, not because "the man" is keeping them down.
I can see your point if we are simply talking about public nuisance-type crimes... but an armed robbery rap usually requires active participation.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I agree with your analysis about the motivations behind this move. I also mostly agree on the subscription model for games. I am still mulling over the movie and music thing mostly because I believe that subscriptions lessen the incentive to produce quality content instead of just new content, but that is another discussion.
The problem I have with the whole thing is simple.
I don't like being treated like a 5 year old kid. It is totally ok to know how to pick locks, copy media and modify hardware. What one does with that information has consequences of course, but the sharing of this type of knowledge is not the source of the problems.
As a kid, I was shown how locks worked and was given some old locks to open for a challenge. The intent at the time was to keep an eager brain busy and learn some basic mechanical skills at the same time, plus it was fun!
Later I took apart almost everything I have ever owned. Why? To understand how it worked and to learn how it could work better for me. The good karma I have earned from this is hard not to notice. Opening locked cars, fixing broken electronics, building creative solutions to solve problems all have earned me many favors in return. Who have I harmed exactly? Maybe a few local locksmiths have lost some revenue along with the electronics shops, but the people I helped sure found something to do with their money. Maybe they purchased a coupla more movies and music titles. heh heh...
The technology I sell and service today benefits those who produce it. Maybe a few schools lost some revenue because I actually bothered to pick up a book and learn something without having someone hold my hand. Isn't this what we are supposed to be doing anyway? Helping ourselves as much as possible?
80 percent of what I know today comes from this sort of learning. Those that mentored me early on were also teaching right from wrong. It also happens to be how I continue to make my living.
Today, my very nature is being slowly criminalized for no good reason and I resent it! This is wrong no matter what the motivation and everyone here knows it. It is also not good for society in general. Don't you want to see what the upcoming talent will create in their garage when you get old. Wouldn't it be nice to say, "Wow! Nobody saw that coming!" The way things are now, you can plot your future on the corporate roadmaps.
What we don't know is what to do about it (yet).
IsoNews is a source of a lot of hard to find information that can be put to as many good uses as bad. There are many other sites that provide the same forum. Will Asscroft shut them all down? Why?
I can understand the legal reason why some mod chips are illegal along with distributing pirated media, but I cannot understand the action against this site in general because it does not address the problem.
The problem is behaviour, not knowing how or why one would bother to use or construct modchips or copy media. These things are legal and ethical no matter what anyone says. If you cannot learn how, who does that really benefit?
The problem, as I see it, is the combination of education and maturity being modeled by many technically inclined people today. I can't say I blame them. It sucks to know you are being wronged.
Understanding this is a part of the big picture that also needs to be considered if we are ever to come to any sort of humane solutions.
Back to when I was young for a moment. Hacking things was encouraged! You could go to the supermarket and get magazines that actually documented this process in some detail. Teachers encouraged the activity as well. I remember a group of us changing one of the instructional disks to tell jokes. We learned a lot and harmed nobody because THE SCHOOL COULD EASILY MAKE BACKUPS! Know what the teacher did? He had us pick something we wanted to do and helped us do it. Guess what? WE LEARNED A LOT MORE!
Having an opinion was valued and encouraged. Many a teacher challenged me as to why I believed something instead of just telling me it was not politically correct. Some of these same teachers had the freedom to nurture and channel this into good constructive growth.
I might add that the schools had more flexibility in how they dealt with problem kids and a lot fewer lawyers. Maybe this was not as bad as we make it out to be today.
I had considerable freedom in school provided that I towed the line on the basics; namely, maturity, ethics and citizenship.
Today, things are very different. We are encouraged to know what to buy to solve our problems. I know that is a very general statement, but look around. You will see it in just about everything. In my state (oregon) education is being standardized and achievment is valued over creativity. Schools are sharply limited in what they can do to correct and control kids. They also exert far more subtle control than they used to because of this.
At the same time, that standardized education does not include strong citizenship and ethics material probably because of the additional lawyers on staff today combined with their strain on the budget and the stiff education requirements leave little room. Of course the lawyers will say this material just might offend somebody as well. (Too f-ing bad I say.) Could the state find a generation of task oriented citizens easier to control as well? Hmmm...
A lot of the technical education I see my kids getting is focused on performing tasks within the technology. Big mistake because understanding the ideas behind the tech is where the better tech comes from.
Kids today have less freedom and higher demands all at the same time while teachers have less room to do what they should be doing; namely, building society one kid at a time.
The level of control our society is experiencing is at an all time high. Is it any wonder that people are acting out?
Consider our precious Xbox. (Other products have similar problems, I just want to use the Xbox as an example.) The money god says make as much as you can. That means keeping people paying which means control and limited device function designed to facillitate payment. Instead of paying a ton of lawyers, who consume a fair chunk of the profit themselves, why not actually understand what people want to do and encourage it?
They could try marketing the Xbox Plus pack. Bundle it with a free game and code book! Sell the imports at a premium to those that want them. Funny, the 'Imports' are actually made here in Microsofts case so they just get to make more money.
Go ahead and run Linux, but pay 50.00 first and remember that you still can play all the online games with no worries.
Seems to me lots of kids would enjoy a home computer that could also play hot games. Why not let them do it? You just might find your next game developer that way.
Dump some of those legal dollars into some marketing designed to distinguish and reward the right kinds of creativity from blatent self-serving piracy.
Use the law to bust those doing real damage.
Sure the hardcore crowd will see all of that for what it is and will continue to go against the business model, but lots of people will just buy the thing because it does what they want. Price it right and mix in a couple of nice features and you can make money off the whole thing and look reasonably cool at the same time.
The rest of them will be numbered too small to worry about. Besides, you can spend what you want and the hardcore crowd will still do what they want. You just make less that way.
As it stands now, the stigma of the Xbox is so great for me, I will never ever own one and I make sure and tell others why. Wonder how much annuity revenue that will end up costing?
The core of the problem here is control. Here in the land of the free, we are increasingly under the thumb of large corporations driven by shareholder demand to make money every single quarter or cease to exist. Our free market has taught us the fewer options people have, the easier it is to make money. This same market makes it hard for companies to actually try new things. Invest in a new business model, but lose money for a quarter or two? Watch your stock become worthless. Better to not even try it, it is cheaper to pay the lawyers to beat away your potential competition while limiting your customers options in ways that maximize revenue.
Is this really American? Is this sort of power what our founders intended? Will these actions and others like them really benefit society, or will they benefit governments and corporations who seek control?
I for one see this for what it is. A lame attempt to drive information underground because it does not align well with some business model and that sucks and is wrong.
For anyone that actually gets to the bottom of this comment, take note this year and next of who does what and why. Remember that when it comes time to buy something, or vote. Be sure and tell them why and tell them often.
It matters.
Blogging because I can...
The all your base thing ceased to be funny on its own about 2 years ago...
Yeah, that's why a new need has arisen at slashdot...
-1 cliche
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
but I couldn't disagree more with Chris' statement. You -do- own your own hardware and you can paint it blue and throw it against the wall if that's your gig. As a matter of fact, you could probably make your own mod chip, install it, run it, and call the DoJ to tell them that you did. The guy who got arrested was the one making a profit off of selling the chips, not a chip user. As a matter of fact, I have a chip that I made in between typing this and slamming my console against the wall, so... if the DoJ asks slashdot for my user info, please feel free to give it to them, because I don't intend on selling it.
-- http://www.criticalassets.com
So all cops and all white people are racist... Is that it? You accuse me of over-generalizing about social character of black males in an urban area, and then you tar all cops and all white people with an even broader brush? I never said that all black males were violent criminals, simply that some are, and that not all criminal charges are a result of racism. You seem to believe otherwise, based on your N=1 night in jail.
This is a comprehensive demonstration on how to misread what someone else has written. If I didn't think that you genuinely meant what you said, I'd call this a troll.
So it'll still take about 20 years or so before "All your base" is hip again.
Just another justification for -1 (Wrong)
Sure, you can find the guys who will put a high-performance exhaust system on a Civic, and get another 10 horsepower
Heh, those 'fart cannon' exhaust systems you see on econoboxes won't even get you 10 HP, at least not without other modifications. Maybe 2 or 3 horsepower, tops. In fact a lot of them actually lose torque compared to the stock system, especially on the bottom end. And no, a K&N filter won't get you 10 HP either, especially not if you run it bare instead of with the factory outside cool air ducts. A lot of the 'high performance' intake systems I've seen advertised for the small cars look cool, but actually lose power compared to stock. The people who put ridiculously oversized mufflers and exhaust tips on do it only for looks. It isn't for sound, because they sound exactly like my brothers POS Corolla did when the muffler fell off due to rust. And believe me, that car certainly wasn't fast even with no muffler at all. Frankly I haven't heard many 4 cylinders that didn't sound like crap that weren't on a motorcycle.