Totally off-topic, but as an undergrad I had a date with a girl that was half dot and half feather. I never got a second date, but to this day it still amuses me.
My argument is that copyright protection is a transaction between society and creators. Our payment is a temporary monopoly on distribution, their payment is giving their works to the public domain. One side isn't fulfilling their obligation and my argument really doesn't need to go any further than that.
On a side note...I do own the Venture Bros. DVDs, as well as my other favorite Adult Swim shows. I didn't buy them out of any ethical obligation, but because I wanted the extra content and the physical media. I have plenty of shows on my media server that I did download, but you'll be hard pressed to make me feel guilty since I pay my cable bill every month and I don't see a substantive difference between setting my media server to record these shows as they air and downloading them. Either way, I have made my payment, and like my Tivo using friends, have a large number of shows saved on a hard drive for future perusal.
Nowhere in your rambling did you answer the question of, why should society respect their side of the copyright agreement when the content creators do not? The idea of intellectual property is artificial...one cannot own an idea. It's obvious that content creators need some sort of protection, but the length of copyright is excessive to the extreme. If it hadn't been expanded time and time again I honestly do not believe we'd see such rampant piracy in the music and film industry. I'm a big Buddy Holly fan, the brutha is dead and he cannot benefit from his music anymore. Why is it that I'll not see his work go into the public domain in my lifetime? That is what I rally against. I am fine with copyright, so long as both sides hold up their ends. Until I see ANY work go into the public domain, I refuse to respect copyright.
Car analogy. You buy a shiny new car with an amazing steering wheel warmer, but you live in a warm environment. Because somebody was researching a way to use that steering wheel warmer to do something the company deemed as nefarious, it disabled that feature on every car. You may not have been affected, it may only have bothered a few dozen drivers. But that does not change the fact that an advertised feature was removed from a product. I'm not painting Geohot as a modern Robin Hood, but he didn't pull the trigger...Sony did. I won't even bother responding to your personal attack because to be honest, if you're on this site and see all geeks as basement dwelling loners then you have a lot to learn.
Not the end of your karma, but I'll burn some of mine by saying that your opinion is twisted. Even if Geohot threw the first punch, Sony's reaction was completely over-the-top and illegal. One person attempting to hack your system does not give you the ethical right to screw over your entire customer base. In all fairness to both of us, Sony has burned a lot more karma.
What's wrong with giving back to the public domain from which you borrow from our shared culture to create the media. I will stop downloading the day the media conglomerates start giving back. Copyright is a contract between content creators and society. They haven't lived up to their end by enriching our culture, so why should I live up to my end and honor their state-sponsored monopoly?
Count me in too. My biggest gripe is people who put fliers under windshield wipers. I make it a point, not only to not visit those establishments, but to give negative reviews on Google for the very act.
I would argue that MS (at least the X-Box division) is a bit more consumer friendly in that they never advertised an OtherOS feature or backwards compatibility with the original X-Box. Sony touted those features and removed them (remotely in the former and on a new edition in the latter). I have neither X-Box 360 nor PS3 but it seems to be that Microsoft cheated the customer less than Sony did.
Another problem is buying the thin clients themselves. I can't remember off the top of my head, but the price difference between a client and a new workstation is barely enough to offset the difference in licensing, not to mention user complaints on performance. We toyed with the idea of retrofitting older workstations but supposedly we'd miss out on VMWare's/Teradici's proprietary PCoIP protocol. When it comes down to it, it's cheaper for us to buy more RAM and replace parts as needed on our existing workstations than purchase the needed infrastructure and thin clients to even begin replacing our workstations. I have begun giving some of our secretaries (or whatever the PC term is this week) older workstations with Debian with few complaints and more than one compliment on performance, however our GIS and admins will always need Windows and a beefy graphics card.
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Totally off-topic, but as an undergrad I had a date with a girl that was half dot and half feather. I never got a second date, but to this day it still amuses me.
Frell yeah!
With one hand
Well I know what you're watching with your new plug-in...
My argument is that copyright protection is a transaction between society and creators. Our payment is a temporary monopoly on distribution, their payment is giving their works to the public domain. One side isn't fulfilling their obligation and my argument really doesn't need to go any further than that.
On a side note...I do own the Venture Bros. DVDs, as well as my other favorite Adult Swim shows. I didn't buy them out of any ethical obligation, but because I wanted the extra content and the physical media. I have plenty of shows on my media server that I did download, but you'll be hard pressed to make me feel guilty since I pay my cable bill every month and I don't see a substantive difference between setting my media server to record these shows as they air and downloading them. Either way, I have made my payment, and like my Tivo using friends, have a large number of shows saved on a hard drive for future perusal.
Nowhere in your rambling did you answer the question of, why should society respect their side of the copyright agreement when the content creators do not? The idea of intellectual property is artificial...one cannot own an idea. It's obvious that content creators need some sort of protection, but the length of copyright is excessive to the extreme. If it hadn't been expanded time and time again I honestly do not believe we'd see such rampant piracy in the music and film industry. I'm a big Buddy Holly fan, the brutha is dead and he cannot benefit from his music anymore. Why is it that I'll not see his work go into the public domain in my lifetime? That is what I rally against. I am fine with copyright, so long as both sides hold up their ends. Until I see ANY work go into the public domain, I refuse to respect copyright.
Car analogy. You buy a shiny new car with an amazing steering wheel warmer, but you live in a warm environment. Because somebody was researching a way to use that steering wheel warmer to do something the company deemed as nefarious, it disabled that feature on every car. You may not have been affected, it may only have bothered a few dozen drivers. But that does not change the fact that an advertised feature was removed from a product. I'm not painting Geohot as a modern Robin Hood, but he didn't pull the trigger...Sony did. I won't even bother responding to your personal attack because to be honest, if you're on this site and see all geeks as basement dwelling loners then you have a lot to learn.
Not the end of your karma, but I'll burn some of mine by saying that your opinion is twisted. Even if Geohot threw the first punch, Sony's reaction was completely over-the-top and illegal. One person attempting to hack your system does not give you the ethical right to screw over your entire customer base. In all fairness to both of us, Sony has burned a lot more karma.
What's wrong with giving back to the public domain from which you borrow from our shared culture to create the media. I will stop downloading the day the media conglomerates start giving back. Copyright is a contract between content creators and society. They haven't lived up to their end by enriching our culture, so why should I live up to my end and honor their state-sponsored monopoly?
Count me in too. My biggest gripe is people who put fliers under windshield wipers. I make it a point, not only to not visit those establishments, but to give negative reviews on Google for the very act.
I would argue that MS (at least the X-Box division) is a bit more consumer friendly in that they never advertised an OtherOS feature or backwards compatibility with the original X-Box. Sony touted those features and removed them (remotely in the former and on a new edition in the latter). I have neither X-Box 360 nor PS3 but it seems to be that Microsoft cheated the customer less than Sony did.
SAN people scare easily after all...
That's the exact combination I have on my luggage!
I just did that and now I remember math! Thank you anonymous!
Doubleplus insightful!
Don't forget the mandatory brain wipe when the information is recalled or your license is revoked.
Forget what now?
Oh my. I really hope you have karma to burn.
Is it wrong that I heard George Takei when I read this?
I think you're on the wrong site...
Referring to the mass killings of the various species.
Just so long as we don't let the rest of the galaxy know about the chimps, gorillas, and our other near-sentient blunders. (Love the reference!)
Oooooo! I can't wait! ZuneTv!
Squirting to your living room Summer 2011!
The chin...it isn't jutting enough
That's getting to the brass tacks.
The silver lining is a potential new homebrew community.
You idiot. They patented a software package. Thats all.
Keep repeating your meme and insulting other posters, that'll win people over to your side.
Another problem is buying the thin clients themselves. I can't remember off the top of my head, but the price difference between a client and a new workstation is barely enough to offset the difference in licensing, not to mention user complaints on performance. We toyed with the idea of retrofitting older workstations but supposedly we'd miss out on VMWare's/Teradici's proprietary PCoIP protocol. When it comes down to it, it's cheaper for us to buy more RAM and replace parts as needed on our existing workstations than purchase the needed infrastructure and thin clients to even begin replacing our workstations. I have begun giving some of our secretaries (or whatever the PC term is this week) older workstations with Debian with few complaints and more than one compliment on performance, however our GIS and admins will always need Windows and a beefy graphics card.