I'm not an anti-social asshole (as some have suggested). In this exact scenario, I want to skip any potential lineup, talk, generalized bullshit, and get to sleep.
I hope I have a great human concierge service, and even just a front desk/bellhop that I can talk to about the area, or any issues I may have. I even love meeting the housekeeper responsible for my room...more towels:)
I guess I came off harsh...I don't want no humans at all, but anything that gets me in my room, comfortable & resting faster is a good thing in my book:)
Imagine for a second I'm a poor bastard that has been travelling for the last 30 hours. Between flights, security, check-in-delays, etc...I'm fucking BEAT.
I just want to get in my fucking hotel room as fast as is humanly possible.
People are (generally) slow. Inefficient. Worse..talkative.
Because some idiots can't be responsible, then those of us who can must suffer having our rights reduced?
Yes.
Look, I'm a gun nut myself. I grew up around guns, I know guns, I have guns, I use guns.
Shit, I'm even smart enough to know that "freedom isn't free" - that our freedoms have been paid throughout history in blood.
But shit...massacre after massacre...children, families, lives ruined...84 gun-related deaths a day. How much blood must be shed? How many innocent people have to die before we realize that our willingness to kill each other is the fucking problem?
You said above you have no problem with an intruder dying. Honestly...think about this for a second. You come home, find someone robbing your home, and shoot the fucker. He's a 15 year old unarmed kid stealing shit. Or a 40-year-old unarmed asshole robbing your place. Yeah, he made some shitty choices obviously, but does he deserve to die? Are you really prepared to live with that choice? What about cases like Zimmerman - regardless of the circumstances and the actual facts surrounding it, he killed an unarmed teenager.
I don't hate guns at all. As I said somewhere in this thread, if its him or me (or my family) about to die, I'll pull the trigger. I'll protect my family, and I'll kill or be killed to see them safe from harm. But honestly, if you see this as anything but a last resort, then you're a part of the problem, not the solution.
OK, I realize this is a slippery slope argument I'm making, but really?
I should have nukes then. The government does! Grenades, flame throwers, unmanned drones, full-auto weapons. Your argument poses no restriction other than "If the government has it, so should I".
Please...rise up against the government. I dares ya.
Your converted.223 to full-auto will hold you out against the US Military for...wait, who the fuck are we kidding? You'd be dead before you saw someone to shoot at.
Realistically, if someone wants you dead....actually dead...its the same thing. One legally-purchased.50 sniper rifle and you're a corpse before you even hear the report of the weapon. Shit, I bust your window, set off your alarm, and wait crouched in the window till I see you. One shot, blam, you're dead without ever laying eyes on your attacker.
And keep in mind that the readily available firearms at the time were single-shot muzzleload rifles. I'd really be curious what the founders would think of the 2nd in the semi-auto hi-cap magazine world we live in today?
I bought a house. 2 weeks in, I'm watching TV with my wife in the basement. We're going up to bed (upstairs, 2nd floor), when on the main floor I find a strange guy in my kitchen.
What. The. Fuck.
Now, seriously, before you continue this story...what do you do? There's a stranger in my house, in my shit. I don't know if he's dangerous. I don't know if he's armed. What DO you do?
If your answer is "There's a fucker in my house, shoot!" - you just killed the former homeowner's 18 year old son. Seems he got all kinds of fucked up at the bar, and walked "home" - forgetting where home now was. The doors were locked, new keys cut, but apparently there was a window that doesn't latch properly that he knew about and he got in that way just thinking he got locked out of his house.
Honestly, in my own opinion, if you're discharging your firearm to kill before your life is actually in danger, you deserve the same punishment as if the guy had actually killed you. You're no better than the fucking criminal...you're just another asshole with a gun.
I guess that's where we have to agree to disagree. Look...if its some asshole who intends me or my family death vs the assholes life, I'll take the asshole's life. But honestly...discharging my weapon at another human being is my absolutle LAST fucking resort. Quite bluntly, I'm VERY bothered by how many gun nuts seem to think that killing some asshat that wants to steal their shit is somehow acceptable.
I have guns....I have kids. I've taught them well...they know the proper safe use of a firearm, they know the rules, etc. And still - all my weapons are in locked gun safes with triggerlocks on the weapons themselves. You know why? Because they're fucking kids, and kids sometimes make stupid fucking decisions.
Its not just us gun owners being good parents...what about the friend fo the kid that comes over to play & finds one of those guns you have stashed in your house? Has he been trained? Is he responsible? Or is he going to play around and accidentially shoot your kid in the face? What about your teenager raiding your booze, getting fucked up, coming accross your stashed guns & being stupid. What about your kid getting bullied at school, getting depressed, taking your "hidden" gun to school and killing 6 of his classmates? What about your autistic adult child that takes that.223 semi-auto rifle under your bed to a shchool and killing 20 Grade 1 students & 6 adults?
That's the problem...WE are responsible people. WE teach our kids gun safety. WE make sure our families know how to use a firearm. WE make sure safety is drilled into their fucking heads. Because WE know just how fucking dangerous guns can be. WE are responsible gun owners.
But WE are not the only gun owners out there. "You can take my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands". Bitch, please do the world a favor and just fucking blow your own brains out with it before you take out an innocent.
On average, 84 people die daily accross the USA in gun-related deaths. Every. Single. Day. This is the blood price of the 2nd Amendment. May god have mercy on our souls.
You want a better way to protect yourself, where nobody will likely die?
Buy a fucking alarm for your house.
Everything else...you're fucking stupid. Your gun doesn't make you safer...if anything, it makes your and anyone in your household's lives more at risk. If you've got your guns properly locked in a safe, then they're worthless "in an emergency"...you'll never get to them in time. If they're not properly stored, than you're opening your family up to one of the thousands of accidential deaths and suicides that happen every year.
Executive pay has gone fucking apeshit in comparison to worker pay. Its fucking pathetic. BUT...executive pay is NOT really a reason why companies fail. In the overall scheme of things, it amounts to dick/year in expenses.
BUT - if management was expecting everyone to eat a 20% pay cut, they should eat the same dick too.
That said, Hostess is a clusterfuck of a company. Their sales are shit, AND they were pillaged by a pair of VC firms to the tune of somewhere around $700 Million. That asspile of debt IS a contributing factor, although bluntly nobody is really buying that processed shit anymore either.
The union...well, their blame is they ended up with 0% of their original pay instead of 80% of it. I can't say I blame the staff for not wanting to take a pay cut, but I'd also rather have a job.
Because this is what the average person does when they buy a driod?
You have to realize...the greatest strength of Andriod is also its greatest failing. Sure, you CAN load a custom firmware...but outside of the tech circles, who the fuck actually DOES it?
I have music I purchased on Amazon. Unlocked MP3, DRM free.
I have music I purchased on iTunes. Unlocked AAC, DRM free, convertable to MP3 in 1 in-program operation.
Audible - fucking IRRELIVANT. 3rd party company. DRM'd to shit. Not applicable to the argument on either side.
Now - WAS Apple always this permissive with music on iTunes? No. Who's fault was that? THE FUCKING MUSIC COMPANIES DEMANDING DRM'D TO FUCKING SHIT MUSIC.
For fuck's sake people...its one thing to be loyal to a product. Its another to be a blind fanatic. And its another entirely to lie your fucking balls off to score a point for "your team".
I'm not sure the 4G LTE patents in question are FRAND-based.
If they are....well then Samsung is just being an asshole, and while their claims would be held up in court, it is of minimal effect to Apple - they just pay the proper FRAND terms.
If they're not....then Apple is going to get faceraped, and justly so.
Honestly...I think if Apple loses on the Motorola patents, they'd almost rather strip out the offending functionality from iOS than cross-license.
Realistically, Siri would be by far the biggest hit to Apple if Moto wins (assuming they win on all). The rest are, well, fairly benign or mandated for FRAND licensing if I recall correctly.
A) You can't. There's nothing you can do. And the RIAA, the associated labels, or even indie labels can't protect you. B) You can't. There's nothing you can do. And the RIAA, the associated labels, or even indie labels can't protect you.
The only thing you can do to prevent yourself from getting sued for infringement is to not release an album. Period, that's it, end of fucking list.
Now, one suggestion I did see above...and IANAL, but form a LLC & release the album under the LLC banner. Worst case, all they can get is your profit to date.
You cannot stop some asshole from suing you, whether they are correct or not in suing you. You cannot prevent a so-called "jury of your peers" and/or a Judge from making an incorrect decision.
There is nothing you can do. Let me drill this again. There is nothing you can do. Nothing.
In reality, if someone wants to try to sue the pants off you, they will. Hell, you could get sued by some asshole that hasn't even released a song yet but can (try to) show that he wrote similar music or lyrics before you did.
There's nothing you can do to protect yourself. NOTHING.
Of course....what the industry doesn't tell you...they can't protect you either against some lunatic asshole that thinks (correct or not) that you ripped off his creation.
So realistically....you're fucked whether you release RIAA or indie. So just don't be that asshole that releases with the RIAA.
Actually, I'd say it is closer to...the RIAA would rather destroy the entire recording industry than modify their business model from that which made them all filthy rich until the last decade or so.
They've fucking lost it. They have absolutly no comprehension or understanding that they don't mean shit anymore. Nobody NEEDS the RIAA or the major labels anymore. Anyone with a few thousand can create a damned good recording studio, cut an album, release it online independently (and to streaming sites), thereby cutting the RIAA entirely out of the equation.
But at the heart, you are correct...the RIAA says a song has a value of x. The world says the same song has a value of x/50. THe RIAA has decided that if they can't get x, they don't want anything.
I'm not saying it doesn't work for anyone. I'm saying that anyone willing to trade their TIME in a greater than 1:1 ratio is a fucking moron. ANY gains you might theoretically get are offet entirely by the "extra" you get forced into.
Its stupid. You are intentionally valuing yourself lower than what the MARKET deems you are worth, in terms of compensation per hour worked. You are intentionally giving away hours you could have used on things for yourself FOR FREE to your employer for some illusion of flexibility.
Honestly, if you're willing to do this, then good for fucking you. I actually have some self respect.
Hourly pay is besides the point, this is only for salaried people, since by definition hourly people are paid 'by the hour' and working more hours means more pay.
Except where management refuses to pay overtime. Many have mentioned in the comments here...."Work >40 hours, put in for 40 hours". Again, we are talking about people putting in extra UNAPID time here.
This is routine in tele-work scenarios. [snip] What does the employer get out of that? Employees that aren't as easily managed or communicated with or worked with, etc. The 'remote' changes the situation, so the employer is within reason asking for a little bit more from the employee to allow them the flexibility to work from home.
What does the employer get?? Really??? Lets see what I can come up with, off the top of my head... 1. The employer gets one less workstation they have to buy (since EVERY telecommuter I know is all BYOD). 2. One less workstation that they need to power. 3. One less body they need to cool the building space from (Air conditioning). 4. A reputation for being an employer that values work-life balance. 5. Employees that routinely are MORE productive in the same timeframe than their at-the-desk coworkers (I'm too lazy to google studies, but I've read them). 6. Claims of being a greener company since commute hours are reduced. 7. Ability to have more employees in less physical space (which carries per sqft leasing savings). 8. Not providing coffee/tea/whatever the employer gives for beverages to staff. 9. If the employer has things like on-site daycare or on-site cafeterias/etc (obviously in BIG companies), then less strain on those resources and lower costs. 10. Happier and less stressed employees.
So yeah....the employer gets nothing out of a telecommuter....obviously we should trade many many hours of our lives for the ability.
I think we can agree that the "norm" is an 8-hour workday, 5 days a week, for FT employment. Yes, salaried means you are paid to "get the job done" not "put in the hours" - but lets be fair here too....depending on juristiction, most salaried employees are not legally considered overtime exempt (I know legally, I am not). So again, in theory, >40/week means time and a half for overtime.
So, lets take that 40 hour per week "norm". Now hey...I like the idea of being home when the kids get home from school as much as the next parent, so I'll run with that. Let us examine what is likely an "average" day for the person that does a standard 8:30-5 type post. Obviously, the commute time is the potential massive variable, but hey...I'll do this as my own life:
6am - wake up, shit/shower/shave 6:15-7:45 - Breakfast, help kids get their shit organized, etc 7:45 - leave for work. Drop off kids at school on the way 8:25 - arrive at work. Work all day (8 hour workday) 5:00 - leave work, drive home 5:45 - arrive home, start prepping supper 6:15 - supper 6:45 - take kid to soccer (or whatever activities happen in your household with the kids) 8:00 - Homework 9:00 - start putting youngest to bed 9:30 - hey look, I actually have 5 minutes to myself! WOOHOO! Relax, work on MY homework, watch some TV, etc 10:30 - fuck wife 11:00 - go to bed 11:00-6am - sleep
Now....lets take that same schedule, but now I'm going to be home at 3 instead of 5. Doing this will also cost me a minimum of 1 extra hour on an average day, for the "flexibility"...
6am - wake up, shit/shower/shave 6:15-7:45 - Breakfast, help kids get their shit organized, etc 7:45 - leave for work. Drop off kids at school on the way 8:25 - arrive at work. Work all day (6 hour workday) 3:00 - leave work, drive home 3:45 - arrive home, kids come home, homework 4:45 - Make up hour of work (now 7 hours on the workday) 5:45 - start prepping supper 6:15 - supper 6:45 - take kid to soccer (or whatever activities happen in your household with the kids) 8:00 - Put in an hour's work (Now at 8 hours total worked) 9:00 - start putting youngest to bed 9:30 - Make up more time at work...the additional hour I still owe (9 hour workday) 10:30 - Fuck wife 11-6am - sleep
So in that schedule I've gained ~ 2 hours of being in the same physical building as my kids, but I've lost all the free time I have to put into myself, whether much-needed relaxation, or self-improvement. Also, to gain those 2 hours in the physical building costs me 3 hours of that time effectively away from my kids doing work anyway! I've also only paid a 1 hour penalty for this flexability - TFA is suggesting a mind-boggling 2 1/2 hours daily, 7 days a week, is the price of that flexibility. So tell me...find me the extra hour and a half in the schedule above that I haven't even accounted for.
Now...would I give up SALARY to leave work at 3pm daily? Possibly. But time is already far too prescious a commonity to even consider giving up. You can't magically make more hours in the day...once that time is used, it is gone forever.
THAT is why I call people that are willing to trade time for flexability morons.
Oh, and your comment on being laughed out of court? Thank god I live in the magical land known as Canada, where there are actual laws that protect workers from being terminated without cause. God I feel for the people who live in at-will employment states.
What's funny in this is we're both arguing the value of our time. But somehow, and I don't know where, the boat left & you aren't on the boat.
My time is the most valuable commonity I posess. I demand a high value for my time, and my work/life experience allows me to command a high value for my time.
I am NEVER willing to give away my time for free to anyone but my family. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen - my employer is not immune in any way to this screw-the-worker attitude of today. But, quite honestly, I've managed to draw a line in the sand & I simply refuse to respond to anything non-emergency outside of my normal working hours. And I'm sure eventually I'll be replaced by someone that will, and assuming that I have nothing in my work record to justify the turfing it will be one hell of a wrongful termination suit when that happens.
I don't necessarily care so much about what my salary is...and I've traded salary for additional vacation time & other benefits in the past. But I care 100% about my time...and 5pm to 8:30am is MY FUCKING TIME. I'm not looking to make more money...I WANT MY GODDAMN TIME. Those 20 hours a week (from TFA) of unpaid time...that's time I could spend with my kids, helping with homework, taking some classes to improve myself....quite frankly, ANYTHING but giving it away to some corporate bastard that only gives a shit about sqeezing every last drop of life from me before tossing me in the dumpster and replacing me with another moron willing to have the life squeezed from him.
Honestly....if you don't value your time enough that you're willing to give it away for nothing to people that don't give a fuck about you or your welfare...then you're an idiot & deserve to have the life sucked out of you. All we are....all we have to give...are the 24 hours in a day we have for whatever duration of life we happen to get.
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And watch the value of bitcoins collapse if/when this goes into effect.
Definitely agreed.
I'm not an anti-social asshole (as some have suggested). In this exact scenario, I want to skip any potential lineup, talk, generalized bullshit, and get to sleep.
I hope I have a great human concierge service, and even just a front desk/bellhop that I can talk to about the area, or any issues I may have. I even love meeting the housekeeper responsible for my room...more towels :)
I guess I came off harsh...I don't want no humans at all, but anything that gets me in my room, comfortable & resting faster is a good thing in my book :)
This really is everything.
Imagine for a second I'm a poor bastard that has been travelling for the last 30 hours. Between flights, security, check-in-delays, etc...I'm fucking BEAT.
I just want to get in my fucking hotel room as fast as is humanly possible.
People are (generally) slow. Inefficient. Worse..talkative.
Bring on the machine!
Because some idiots can't be responsible, then those of us who can must suffer having our rights reduced?
Yes.
Look, I'm a gun nut myself. I grew up around guns, I know guns, I have guns, I use guns.
Shit, I'm even smart enough to know that "freedom isn't free" - that our freedoms have been paid throughout history in blood.
But shit...massacre after massacre...children, families, lives ruined...84 gun-related deaths a day. How much blood must be shed? How many innocent people have to die before we realize that our willingness to kill each other is the fucking problem?
You said above you have no problem with an intruder dying. Honestly...think about this for a second. You come home, find someone robbing your home, and shoot the fucker. He's a 15 year old unarmed kid stealing shit. Or a 40-year-old unarmed asshole robbing your place. Yeah, he made some shitty choices obviously, but does he deserve to die? Are you really prepared to live with that choice? What about cases like Zimmerman - regardless of the circumstances and the actual facts surrounding it, he killed an unarmed teenager.
I don't hate guns at all. As I said somewhere in this thread, if its him or me (or my family) about to die, I'll pull the trigger. I'll protect my family, and I'll kill or be killed to see them safe from harm. But honestly, if you see this as anything but a last resort, then you're a part of the problem, not the solution.
OK, I realize this is a slippery slope argument I'm making, but really?
I should have nukes then. The government does! Grenades, flame throwers, unmanned drones, full-auto weapons. Your argument poses no restriction other than "If the government has it, so should I".
And people think I'm crazy.
This is a fucking retarded argument.
Please...rise up against the government. I dares ya.
Your converted .223 to full-auto will hold you out against the US Military for...wait, who the fuck are we kidding? You'd be dead before you saw someone to shoot at.
Realistically, if someone wants you dead....actually dead...its the same thing. One legally-purchased .50 sniper rifle and you're a corpse before you even hear the report of the weapon. Shit, I bust your window, set off your alarm, and wait crouched in the window till I see you. One shot, blam, you're dead without ever laying eyes on your attacker.
Its as much security theatre as the TSA.
And keep in mind that the readily available firearms at the time were single-shot muzzleload rifles. I'd really be curious what the founders would think of the 2nd in the semi-auto hi-cap magazine world we live in today?
Here, let me tell you a story.
I bought a house. 2 weeks in, I'm watching TV with my wife in the basement. We're going up to bed (upstairs, 2nd floor), when on the main floor I find a strange guy in my kitchen.
What. The. Fuck.
Now, seriously, before you continue this story...what do you do? There's a stranger in my house, in my shit. I don't know if he's dangerous. I don't know if he's armed. What DO you do?
If your answer is "There's a fucker in my house, shoot!" - you just killed the former homeowner's 18 year old son. Seems he got all kinds of fucked up at the bar, and walked "home" - forgetting where home now was. The doors were locked, new keys cut, but apparently there was a window that doesn't latch properly that he knew about and he got in that way just thinking he got locked out of his house.
Honestly, in my own opinion, if you're discharging your firearm to kill before your life is actually in danger, you deserve the same punishment as if the guy had actually killed you. You're no better than the fucking criminal...you're just another asshole with a gun.
I guess that's where we have to agree to disagree. Look...if its some asshole who intends me or my family death vs the assholes life, I'll take the asshole's life. But honestly...discharging my weapon at another human being is my absolutle LAST fucking resort. Quite bluntly, I'm VERY bothered by how many gun nuts seem to think that killing some asshat that wants to steal their shit is somehow acceptable.
I have guns....I have kids. I've taught them well...they know the proper safe use of a firearm, they know the rules, etc. And still - all my weapons are in locked gun safes with triggerlocks on the weapons themselves. You know why? Because they're fucking kids, and kids sometimes make stupid fucking decisions.
Its not just us gun owners being good parents...what about the friend fo the kid that comes over to play & finds one of those guns you have stashed in your house? Has he been trained? Is he responsible? Or is he going to play around and accidentially shoot your kid in the face? What about your teenager raiding your booze, getting fucked up, coming accross your stashed guns & being stupid. What about your kid getting bullied at school, getting depressed, taking your "hidden" gun to school and killing 6 of his classmates? What about your autistic adult child that takes that .223 semi-auto rifle under your bed to a shchool and killing 20 Grade 1 students & 6 adults?
That's the problem...WE are responsible people. WE teach our kids gun safety. WE make sure our families know how to use a firearm. WE make sure safety is drilled into their fucking heads. Because WE know just how fucking dangerous guns can be. WE are responsible gun owners.
But WE are not the only gun owners out there. "You can take my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands". Bitch, please do the world a favor and just fucking blow your own brains out with it before you take out an innocent.
On average, 84 people die daily accross the USA in gun-related deaths. Every. Single. Day. This is the blood price of the 2nd Amendment. May god have mercy on our souls.
You want a better way to protect yourself, where nobody will likely die?
Buy a fucking alarm for your house.
Everything else...you're fucking stupid. Your gun doesn't make you safer...if anything, it makes your and anyone in your household's lives more at risk. If you've got your guns properly locked in a safe, then they're worthless "in an emergency"...you'll never get to them in time. If they're not properly stored, than you're opening your family up to one of the thousands of accidential deaths and suicides that happen every year.
What it comes down to, is you're both right.
Executive pay has gone fucking apeshit in comparison to worker pay. Its fucking pathetic. BUT...executive pay is NOT really a reason why companies fail. In the overall scheme of things, it amounts to dick/year in expenses.
BUT - if management was expecting everyone to eat a 20% pay cut, they should eat the same dick too.
That said, Hostess is a clusterfuck of a company. Their sales are shit, AND they were pillaged by a pair of VC firms to the tune of somewhere around $700 Million. That asspile of debt IS a contributing factor, although bluntly nobody is really buying that processed shit anymore either.
The union...well, their blame is they ended up with 0% of their original pay instead of 80% of it. I can't say I blame the staff for not wanting to take a pay cut, but I'd also rather have a job.
Because this is what the average person does when they buy a driod?
You have to realize...the greatest strength of Andriod is also its greatest failing. Sure, you CAN load a custom firmware...but outside of the tech circles, who the fuck actually DOES it?
What fucking braindead shit is this?
I have music I purchased on Amazon. Unlocked MP3, DRM free.
I have music I purchased on iTunes. Unlocked AAC, DRM free, convertable to MP3 in 1 in-program operation.
Audible - fucking IRRELIVANT. 3rd party company. DRM'd to shit. Not applicable to the argument on either side.
Now - WAS Apple always this permissive with music on iTunes? No. Who's fault was that? THE FUCKING MUSIC COMPANIES DEMANDING DRM'D TO FUCKING SHIT MUSIC.
For fuck's sake people...its one thing to be loyal to a product. Its another to be a blind fanatic. And its another entirely to lie your fucking balls off to score a point for "your team".
I'm not sure the 4G LTE patents in question are FRAND-based.
If they are....well then Samsung is just being an asshole, and while their claims would be held up in court, it is of minimal effect to Apple - they just pay the proper FRAND terms.
If they're not....then Apple is going to get faceraped, and justly so.
You mean like Google+?
We couldn't even move the masses from FB to Google+.
What in the fuck makes these guys think people will move to Diasporia?
Honestly...I think if Apple loses on the Motorola patents, they'd almost rather strip out the offending functionality from iOS than cross-license.
Realistically, Siri would be by far the biggest hit to Apple if Moto wins (assuming they win on all). The rest are, well, fairly benign or mandated for FRAND licensing if I recall correctly.
IIRC, Downgrade Rights only apply on volume licensing.
I do know, 100% for certain, that OEM copies of Windows do NOT have downgrade rights at all.
A) You can't. There's nothing you can do. And the RIAA, the associated labels, or even indie labels can't protect you.
B) You can't. There's nothing you can do. And the RIAA, the associated labels, or even indie labels can't protect you.
The only thing you can do to prevent yourself from getting sued for infringement is to not release an album. Period, that's it, end of fucking list.
Now, one suggestion I did see above...and IANAL, but form a LLC & release the album under the LLC banner. Worst case, all they can get is your profit to date.
You cannot stop some asshole from suing you, whether they are correct or not in suing you. You cannot prevent a so-called "jury of your peers" and/or a Judge from making an incorrect decision.
There is nothing you can do. Let me drill this again. There is nothing you can do. Nothing.
Realistically....you can't do fuck all.
In reality, if someone wants to try to sue the pants off you, they will. Hell, you could get sued by some asshole that hasn't even released a song yet but can (try to) show that he wrote similar music or lyrics before you did.
There's nothing you can do to protect yourself. NOTHING.
Of course....what the industry doesn't tell you...they can't protect you either against some lunatic asshole that thinks (correct or not) that you ripped off his creation.
So realistically....you're fucked whether you release RIAA or indie. So just don't be that asshole that releases with the RIAA.
Actually, I'd say it is closer to...the RIAA would rather destroy the entire recording industry than modify their business model from that which made them all filthy rich until the last decade or so.
They've fucking lost it. They have absolutly no comprehension or understanding that they don't mean shit anymore. Nobody NEEDS the RIAA or the major labels anymore. Anyone with a few thousand can create a damned good recording studio, cut an album, release it online independently (and to streaming sites), thereby cutting the RIAA entirely out of the equation.
But at the heart, you are correct...the RIAA says a song has a value of x. The world says the same song has a value of x/50. THe RIAA has decided that if they can't get x, they don't want anything.
I'm not saying it doesn't work for anyone. I'm saying that anyone willing to trade their TIME in a greater than 1:1 ratio is a fucking moron. ANY gains you might theoretically get are offet entirely by the "extra" you get forced into.
Its stupid. You are intentionally valuing yourself lower than what the MARKET deems you are worth, in terms of compensation per hour worked. You are intentionally giving away hours you could have used on things for yourself FOR FREE to your employer for some illusion of flexibility.
Honestly, if you're willing to do this, then good for fucking you. I actually have some self respect.
Hourly pay is besides the point, this is only for salaried people, since by definition hourly people are paid 'by the hour' and working more hours means more pay.
Except where management refuses to pay overtime. Many have mentioned in the comments here...."Work >40 hours, put in for 40 hours". Again, we are talking about people putting in extra UNAPID time here.
This is routine in tele-work scenarios. [snip] What does the employer get out of that? Employees that aren't as easily managed or communicated with or worked with, etc. The 'remote' changes the situation, so the employer is within reason asking for a little bit more from the employee to allow them the flexibility to work from home.
What does the employer get?? Really??? Lets see what I can come up with, off the top of my head...
1. The employer gets one less workstation they have to buy (since EVERY telecommuter I know is all BYOD).
2. One less workstation that they need to power.
3. One less body they need to cool the building space from (Air conditioning).
4. A reputation for being an employer that values work-life balance.
5. Employees that routinely are MORE productive in the same timeframe than their at-the-desk coworkers (I'm too lazy to google studies, but I've read them).
6. Claims of being a greener company since commute hours are reduced.
7. Ability to have more employees in less physical space (which carries per sqft leasing savings).
8. Not providing coffee/tea/whatever the employer gives for beverages to staff.
9. If the employer has things like on-site daycare or on-site cafeterias/etc (obviously in BIG companies), then less strain on those resources and lower costs.
10. Happier and less stressed employees.
So yeah....the employer gets nothing out of a telecommuter....obviously we should trade many many hours of our lives for the ability.
OK...let me try another angle...
I think we can agree that the "norm" is an 8-hour workday, 5 days a week, for FT employment. Yes, salaried means you are paid to "get the job done" not "put in the hours" - but lets be fair here too....depending on juristiction, most salaried employees are not legally considered overtime exempt (I know legally, I am not). So again, in theory, >40/week means time and a half for overtime.
So, lets take that 40 hour per week "norm". Now hey...I like the idea of being home when the kids get home from school as much as the next parent, so I'll run with that. Let us examine what is likely an "average" day for the person that does a standard 8:30-5 type post. Obviously, the commute time is the potential massive variable, but hey...I'll do this as my own life:
6am - wake up, shit/shower/shave
6:15-7:45 - Breakfast, help kids get their shit organized, etc
7:45 - leave for work. Drop off kids at school on the way
8:25 - arrive at work. Work all day (8 hour workday)
5:00 - leave work, drive home
5:45 - arrive home, start prepping supper
6:15 - supper
6:45 - take kid to soccer (or whatever activities happen in your household with the kids)
8:00 - Homework
9:00 - start putting youngest to bed
9:30 - hey look, I actually have 5 minutes to myself! WOOHOO! Relax, work on MY homework, watch some TV, etc
10:30 - fuck wife
11:00 - go to bed
11:00-6am - sleep
Now....lets take that same schedule, but now I'm going to be home at 3 instead of 5. Doing this will also cost me a minimum of 1 extra hour on an average day, for the "flexibility"...
6am - wake up, shit/shower/shave
6:15-7:45 - Breakfast, help kids get their shit organized, etc
7:45 - leave for work. Drop off kids at school on the way
8:25 - arrive at work. Work all day (6 hour workday)
3:00 - leave work, drive home
3:45 - arrive home, kids come home, homework
4:45 - Make up hour of work (now 7 hours on the workday)
5:45 - start prepping supper
6:15 - supper
6:45 - take kid to soccer (or whatever activities happen in your household with the kids)
8:00 - Put in an hour's work (Now at 8 hours total worked)
9:00 - start putting youngest to bed
9:30 - Make up more time at work...the additional hour I still owe (9 hour workday)
10:30 - Fuck wife
11-6am - sleep
So in that schedule I've gained ~ 2 hours of being in the same physical building as my kids, but I've lost all the free time I have to put into myself, whether much-needed relaxation, or self-improvement. Also, to gain those 2 hours in the physical building costs me 3 hours of that time effectively away from my kids doing work anyway! I've also only paid a 1 hour penalty for this flexability - TFA is suggesting a mind-boggling 2 1/2 hours daily, 7 days a week, is the price of that flexibility. So tell me...find me the extra hour and a half in the schedule above that I haven't even accounted for.
Now...would I give up SALARY to leave work at 3pm daily? Possibly. But time is already far too prescious a commonity to even consider giving up. You can't magically make more hours in the day...once that time is used, it is gone forever.
THAT is why I call people that are willing to trade time for flexability morons.
Oh, and your comment on being laughed out of court? Thank god I live in the magical land known as Canada, where there are actual laws that protect workers from being terminated without cause. God I feel for the people who live in at-will employment states.
What's funny in this is we're both arguing the value of our time. But somehow, and I don't know where, the boat left & you aren't on the boat.
My time is the most valuable commonity I posess. I demand a high value for my time, and my work/life experience allows me to command a high value for my time.
I am NEVER willing to give away my time for free to anyone but my family. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen - my employer is not immune in any way to this screw-the-worker attitude of today. But, quite honestly, I've managed to draw a line in the sand & I simply refuse to respond to anything non-emergency outside of my normal working hours. And I'm sure eventually I'll be replaced by someone that will, and assuming that I have nothing in my work record to justify the turfing it will be one hell of a wrongful termination suit when that happens.
I don't necessarily care so much about what my salary is...and I've traded salary for additional vacation time & other benefits in the past. But I care 100% about my time...and 5pm to 8:30am is MY FUCKING TIME. I'm not looking to make more money...I WANT MY GODDAMN TIME. Those 20 hours a week (from TFA) of unpaid time...that's time I could spend with my kids, helping with homework, taking some classes to improve myself....quite frankly, ANYTHING but giving it away to some corporate bastard that only gives a shit about sqeezing every last drop of life from me before tossing me in the dumpster and replacing me with another moron willing to have the life squeezed from him.
Honestly....if you don't value your time enough that you're willing to give it away for nothing to people that don't give a fuck about you or your welfare...then you're an idiot & deserve to have the life sucked out of you. All we are....all we have to give...are the 24 hours in a day we have for whatever duration of life we happen to get.