Well, in Argentina voting is mandatory, which means around 15-20 million votes, and they are usually counted in 1-2 days at most, with witnesses of different parties, etc. It's quite simple, really.
Hm, when they say "20 million worth of", they mean 20 million is the real price (as in, the price if you buy it original) of the software, and the profits the companies will claim to have lost because of this guy. While I agree its a crime under current law, and a whole different thing than someone downloading for personal use, etc. I seriously doubt this guy made 'millions' by selling this. In Argentina it's pretty common to find people who sell pirated software for say $10 or $5 (that's argentine pesos.. like $3 or $1,5 dollars) per CD. Also, people who buy from them are perfectly aware that those are illegal copies, but most of them simply refuse to pay dollar price for a copy in a box (Imagine having to pay half your salary to get an original copy of windows XP). Only business and wealthy individuals can pay that price and even then some small and very small business also use pirated copies. Those guys who sell copies, at least the ones I've seen, usually make a living out of it, but they certainly don't swim in gold. They can barely pay services, taxes and keep some pocket cash at the end of the month to go see a movie or something.
disclaimer: not arguing the morality or legality of the matter, just offering a different viewpoint of how and why piracy works in other parts of the world.
Ads on the clothing could be used to reduce the price so people actually wear it...
Ehm.. those already exist, and they actually make the clothes *more expensive*. Like, check out the price of a white T-shirt, then go see the price of a white T-shirt with Nike logo on the front... by wearing it in pubilc, you're freely advertising for Nike.. wait.. not freely.. you PAID for it!
(I know, I know, trademark, status, quality perception. etc etc.. but I still can't stop thinking that when something like this happens, there's something really wrong with this world =P)
I received my GP2X a month ago and I can't stop playing It. All those PS2/PC/whatever 3d super graphics games are OK, but somehow there's something about games like super mario world, SF2, flashback, etc that make them so damn addictive.. I've already finished Super Mario World and now I'm replaying flashback. Man, what a game. This little console is an absolute must for every classic gamer out there.
It's always like that, see the FTA proposed in latin america and other countries. Pseudo-economists get their pants wet saying "oh we will be able to sell our agro products to the US!" but we've already been there. Barriers still remain, nothing gets exported, and we get TONS of stupid dmca-like laws. The same things is done via the IMF and the BID, they loan, they loan, to corrupt politicians not because they help development, or because they think they'll get paid, but because they KNOW they won't get paid, and payment renegotiation gives them the opportunity to force governments into passing certain laws (which of course are specifically thought to facilitate certain big corporate interests).
* WinXX (after Vista) - They built the walls around the doors and windows. * WinYY (after WinXX) - They blocked the chimney * WinZZ (after WinYY) - They rebuilt the walls, this time out of bricks, instead of paper.
Hey, what a good question. According to the RIAA, it's like there were 2 musicians and they were both starving.
Back on the real world, before the phonograph, musicians were paid for specific jobs, and mostly for live performances. Amazingly, It seems this worked for quite a number of centuries... go figure.
While media industries lawfully claim a profit for their work, they don't just sell peanuts. They constantly get on the street different works that end up becoming part and substance of our culture. Now the problem is, we are all, to some (big) extent, defined by our culture, and at some point, the media creators lose some rights to their work (I mean morally, of course, not legally.. at least for now), as people gain some rights to it when these works start influencing the way they live, think, feel, etc. It's not just a question of 'not buying' something.
I agree that you should know the party's complete set of politic viewpoints if you're going to vote them.
I disagree however with the idea that one should only vote for parties that 'have a chance' of winning or anything like that. People should vote for the party that represents them and their interests the better, no matter how important they are right now. Small parties usually are small just because of people thinking that way. If you think something, and believe some party is proposing a good response to your expectations, you should put your vote where your mouth is, and vote them. Otherwise, don't complain when the government does something you don't like, because they will be doing it with your implicit approval (except if they deviate from their own political viewpoint).
MS? same old story. Sony? rootkits et al.. no thanks, no more of my money will go to sony. The Wii looked to me like the only really FUN console of E3. for classic gameplay I can use my brother in law's ps2 or my pc. and besides that, $500/600 is just too damn much.
Some secure fingerprint readers check temperature and skin conductivity, and even for those who don't, a dead finger is usable only for a short period of time. The finger skin stretches pretty quickly after death and the print becomes unusable. You should see what a necrodactilar finger card looks like, they're used for example to identify bodies in accidents or crimes, and it's not at all so easy as identifying a living person. Even if you can use them, it becomes evident when you see the print that the finger was not alive.
Sorry, besides the point that I don't agree with that, what's it got to do with the discussion? I was pointing out that a National ID card doesn't necessarily mean an authoritarian tendency (which doesn't mean such tendency doesn't exist, just that an ID card is not necessarily part of it), and helping my argument using some real-life examples of how a totalitarian state might come to power.
Sorry if it sounded somewhat pedantic, but lately I get quite pissed off when people talk about totalitarian states and dictatorships and bearing arms to fight the oppressive government like uber-expert in the matter or like they were speaking for the opressed people of the world, yet most have never seen or been in such a situation.
"Typically"? really? well it wasn't like that in Argentina. A coup, ('aided' by the usual northern fellas) and zap! military dictatorship, thousands of dissapeared people, half my family fleeing to brazil or elsewere, etc. And again, National IDs didn't matter the slightiest bit.
Well, here in argentina you get a DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), which is mandatory since a few weeks after birth, renewed a few times, etc.
You need it for almost anything from getting a loan, getting a passport, or voting (which is obligatory). However, I disagree completely with your statement that people will "know" that it's genuine. Absolutely nobody here thinks that. The DNI is trivial to fake, and even though we have other, more secure ID cards for different purposes, nobody trusts any of them *completely*. Any ID is fakeable, but it's better to have one difficult to copy, to reduce the chances of that happening, and easier to investigate if it does happen.
And as for the argument that a dictatorship or whatever might use it to persecute the people and shit.. trust me, IDs would be the last of your problems. If police wants to take you in in an authoritatian state, they certainly don't need excuses like that.
I've been using OpenVPN to connect to my server and nat thru it to a client's network :
[home] -(openvpn1)-> [my company network server] -(NAT on openvpn2)-> [client's network].
works perfect, and setup was extra easy on a gentoo server.
check out the howto, especially the quickstart guide to get an idea of how it works. I'm using it alongside Shorewall (in each vpn conf I assign a particular tun device, which I can refer to in the shorewall conf.. this makes traffic rules configuration as trivial as something like "Web/ACCEPT local_net vpn1".
Slashdot Mirror
Well, in Argentina voting is mandatory, which means around 15-20 million votes, and they are usually counted in 1-2 days at most, with witnesses of different parties, etc.
It's quite simple, really.
heh then he should go to jail for ripping off his clients more than for stealing from microsoft ;-)
Hm, when they say "20 million worth of", they mean 20 million is the real price (as in, the price if you buy it original) of the software, and the profits the companies will claim to have lost because of this guy. While I agree its a crime under current law, and a whole different thing than someone downloading for personal use, etc. I seriously doubt this guy made 'millions' by selling this. In Argentina it's pretty common to find people who sell pirated software for say $10 or $5 (that's argentine pesos.. like $3 or $1,5 dollars) per CD. Also, people who buy from them are perfectly aware that those are illegal copies, but most of them simply refuse to pay dollar price for a copy in a box (Imagine having to pay half your salary to get an original copy of windows XP). Only business and wealthy individuals can pay that price and even then some small and very small business also use pirated copies.
Those guys who sell copies, at least the ones I've seen, usually make a living out of it, but they certainly don't swim in gold. They can barely pay services, taxes and keep some pocket cash at the end of the month to go see a movie or something.
disclaimer: not arguing the morality or legality of the matter, just offering a different viewpoint of how and why piracy works in other parts of the world.
you mispelled "downgrade" ;)
Ok, now I'm scared.
Ehm.. those already exist, and they actually make the clothes *more expensive*. Like, check out the price of a white T-shirt, then go see the price of a white T-shirt with Nike logo on the front... by wearing it in pubilc, you're freely advertising for Nike.. wait.. not freely.. you PAID for it!
(I know, I know, trademark, status, quality perception. etc etc.. but I still can't stop thinking that when something like this happens, there's something really wrong with this world =P)
I received my GP2X a month ago and I can't stop playing It. All those PS2/PC/whatever 3d super graphics games are OK, but somehow there's something about games like super mario world, SF2, flashback, etc that make them so damn addictive..
I've already finished Super Mario World and now I'm replaying flashback. Man, what a game.
This little console is an absolute must for every classic gamer out there.
Add to the list Argentina, and I guess also a fair number of other latin american countries ...
Cool! now I can get myself a monokatana!!
It's always like that, see the FTA proposed in latin america and other countries. Pseudo-economists get their pants wet saying "oh we will be able to sell our agro products to the US!" but we've already been there. Barriers still remain, nothing gets exported, and we get TONS of stupid dmca-like laws. The same things is done via the IMF and the BID, they loan, they loan, to corrupt politicians not because they help development, or because they think they'll get paid, but because they KNOW they won't get paid, and payment renegotiation gives them the opportunity to force governments into passing certain laws (which of course are specifically thought to facilitate certain big corporate interests).
It's beek like that for like.. always.
* WinXX (after Vista) - They built the walls around the doors and windows.
* WinYY (after WinXX) - They blocked the chimney
* WinZZ (after WinYY) - They rebuilt the walls, this time out of bricks, instead of paper.
Hey, what a good question. According to the RIAA, it's like there were 2 musicians and they were both starving.
Back on the real world, before the phonograph, musicians were paid for specific jobs, and mostly for live performances. Amazingly, It seems this worked for quite a number of centuries... go figure.
Exactly.
While media industries lawfully claim a profit for their work, they don't just sell peanuts. They constantly get on the street different works that end up becoming part and substance of our culture. Now the problem is, we are all, to some (big) extent, defined by our culture, and at some point, the media creators lose some rights to their work (I mean morally, of course, not legally.. at least for now), as people gain some rights to it when these works start influencing the way they live, think, feel, etc. It's not just a question of 'not buying' something.
I agree that you should know the party's complete set of politic viewpoints if you're going to vote them.
I disagree however with the idea that one should only vote for parties that 'have a chance' of winning or anything like that. People should vote for the party that represents them and their interests the better, no matter how important they are right now. Small parties usually are small just because of people thinking that way. If you think something, and believe some party is proposing a good response to your expectations, you should put your vote where your mouth is, and vote them. Otherwise, don't complain when the government does something you don't like, because they will be doing it with your implicit approval (except if they deviate from their own political viewpoint).
Well, considering I live in Argentina and I can't afford even one, I guess that won't be much of a problem ;)
Same here.
MS? same old story.
Sony? rootkits et al.. no thanks, no more of my money will go to sony.
The Wii looked to me like the only really FUN console of E3. for classic gameplay I can use my brother in law's ps2 or my pc.
and besides that, $500/600 is just too damn much.
Ken sent me.
Some secure fingerprint readers check temperature and skin conductivity, and even for those who don't, a dead finger is usable only for a short period of time. The finger skin stretches pretty quickly after death and the print becomes unusable. You should see what a necrodactilar finger card looks like, they're used for example to identify bodies in accidents or crimes, and it's not at all so easy as identifying a living person. Even if you can use them, it becomes evident when you see the print that the finger was not alive.
You mean kinda like one of these?
Sorry, besides the point that I don't agree with that, what's it got to do with the discussion? I was pointing out that a National ID card doesn't necessarily mean an authoritarian tendency (which doesn't mean such tendency doesn't exist, just that an ID card is not necessarily part of it), and helping my argument using some real-life examples of how a totalitarian state might come to power.
Sorry if it sounded somewhat pedantic, but lately I get quite pissed off when people talk about totalitarian states and dictatorships and bearing arms to fight the oppressive government like uber-expert in the matter or like they were speaking for the opressed people of the world, yet most have never seen or been in such a situation.
"Typically"? really? well it wasn't like that in Argentina. A coup, ('aided' by the usual northern fellas) and zap! military dictatorship, thousands of dissapeared people, half my family fleeing to brazil or elsewere, etc. And again, National IDs didn't matter the slightiest bit.
Well, here in argentina you get a DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad), which is mandatory since a few weeks after birth, renewed a few times, etc.
You need it for almost anything from getting a loan, getting a passport, or voting (which is obligatory).
However, I disagree completely with your statement that people will "know" that it's genuine. Absolutely nobody here thinks that. The DNI is trivial to fake, and even though we have other, more secure ID cards for different purposes, nobody trusts any of them *completely*. Any ID is fakeable, but it's better to have one difficult to copy, to reduce the chances of that happening, and easier to investigate if it does happen.
And as for the argument that a dictatorship or whatever might use it to persecute the people and shit.. trust me, IDs would be the last of your problems. If police wants to take you in in an authoritatian state, they certainly don't need excuses like that.
I've been using OpenVPN to connect to my server and nat thru it to a client's network :
[home] -(openvpn1)-> [my company network server] -(NAT on openvpn2)-> [client's network].
works perfect, and setup was extra easy on a gentoo server.
check out the howto, especially the quickstart guide to get an idea of how it works.
I'm using it alongside Shorewall (in each vpn conf I assign a particular tun device, which I can refer to in the shorewall conf.. this makes traffic rules configuration as trivial as something like "Web/ACCEPT local_net vpn1".
yay!
;)
1) set up torrent site with copyrighted material
2) piss off MPAA/RIAA
3) wait to get bought
4) ???
5) PROFIT!!
If they buy out the pirate bay, I predict gazillions of torrent sites sprouting spontaneously everywhere (or at least in sweden)
Don't forget Pollution!