Slashdot Mirror
Vista a Threat to Internet Freedom?
BBC columnist Bill Thompson warns readers that new DRM technology, especially that found in Vista, is damaging the freedoms that the internet was based on. "The freedom of expression that was once available to users of the Internet Protocol is being stripped away. Our freedom to play, experiment, share and seek inspiration from the creative works of others is increasingly restricted so that large companies can lock our culture down for their own profit. [...] governments and corporations around the world are making a concerted effort to dismantle the open internet and replace it with a regulated and regulable one that will allow them to impose an 'architecture of control.'"
I am anything but a Mac/Jobs-lover, and if you had checked out my posting history instead of making a knee-jerk reaction based on my accusation that Windows DRM was worse than Apple DRM, you might not have been talking complete shit. And of course, my reaction is not a knee-jerk, because you have provided incontrovertible proof that you simply make assumptions instead of just, you know, reading and responding. Try it sometime. You'll be amazed at how much more intelligent people seem when you're not projecting your own stupidity onto their words.
Again, you have no idea what you are talking about. You don't fucking know me! In fact I criticize Apple almost daily on this site, and lose modpoints for it on a regular basis.
How exactly did this become a conversation about consumer electronics applicance? How can you not see that an appliance that the user is never meant to muck with, and a general-purpose computing device that the user is intended to muck with, are just not even the same damned thing? That HD Video Disc player (which, by the way, I don't own and don't plan to own any time soon) is vastly cheaper than a computer in most cases (Blu-Ray players and their low-quantity blue lasers notwithstanding) and it's not necessarily because it costs less to build than your computer. The price point is limited by the fact that it's a consumer device that's not intended to be tweaked.
With that said, I am sad that those players have the same DRM. It's nice to be able to hack and tweak your hardware. But I'm still not sure why you decided to take this conversation in that direction.
You don't need to call me sir. I certainly won't return the favor, because you are decidedly undeserving. Instead I dub thee sirrah, and suggest that you check yourself before you write more ignorant shit like the comment above. Come back when you can handle this basic skill of communication.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You can easily choose to be rich, or choose to be a successful scientist or anything else . It's only a matter of will . Personally I am against both democracy and capitalism , but as long as the system is flexible , anyone can be anything in it .
My Starcraft 2 Blog
How do you come up with this stuff? "Works that do not exist are infinitely scarce"? What does that even mean? Copyright is not bridging anything; it is, at its very best, the way to transfer some of the publishers' profits to the artist. At worst, it creates a publishing cartel supported by the state. In any case, it does not make any sense if there is no profit in publishing, and today we can publish cheaper than any corporation.
And what's wrong with the greatest writers having jobs? And is it even necessary for them to have other jobs? What happened to the supply and demand? Why cannot you pay in advance? And if no one wants to pay in advance for art that would enrich the entire world, then why do we have to encourage the creation of art?
What is wrong with sci-fi movies being produced on lower budgets? And cannot we, as a community of fans, pull together some funds and pay, say, Peter Jackson to make a movie?
Please, please, give me one compelling reason why we need copyright in the world where we do not need publishers. Just one.