All of mankinds knowlege in writing will slowly begin to dissapear. Books and print will someday be used as cheap fuel during a future worldwide economic depression. This will seem like a perfectly logical step as all knowledge will be databased and indexed across the internet.
Then, massive solar flares, or perhaps a meteorite, or maybe nuclear war, or even EMP from future unseen WMD, or ??? will wipe out human technology and we will be stuck without any record of past human knowlege. Or is this just a Hollywood scenario?
I have been telling all my friends to short Tivo stock for some time now. There are several reasons:
1. Direct TV will drop Tivo eventually (they announced last week), Tivo loses majority of its subscriber base.
2. There are new competing products, with more functionality, cheaper pricing, and innovative download and subscription services coming out on the market very soon. Will make Tivo look like a silly and overpriced product.
3. Integration and convergence of devices. Look at Xbox 360, PS3, etc. And just wait until your brand new LCD or Plasma TV has built in digital video recorder, and allows you to download or stream movies, music, and alternative content from your PC AND direct from the internet.
4. Tivo won't get mainstream content. The studios hate them! The entire internet delivered audio / video services will change very rapidly over the next 2 years, don't expect Tivo to be a part of it! It just threatens the Tivo business model, and they are not invited.
5. iPod for the living room is coming, including video.
For a good example of how the press distorts the masses mentality, see this chat I had with a very good friend (non tech, but very intelligent):
[18:29:45] last few weeks, one guy was charged and put in the slammer in Hong Kong for ripping with bit torrent. [18:38:24] Bittorrent does not "RIP" [18:38:47] it is a techology that is totally legal, and can be used for legal software, content, etc. as well [18:39:00] article was total brainwash meme [18:40:58] well, tell the guy who is now behind bars... [18:42:07] he was obviously distributing ILLEGAL content [18:42:19] the method is not why he was jailed [18:43:52] that's the point. the press is so distorted even YOU think Bittorrent is somehow illegal [18:44:21] I will not use it in Hong Kong. [18:47:43] it's like saying you won't use a mouse because the guy was also using a mouse on his computer, and he got arressted for distributing illegal copies of movies. [18:48:34] true, but usually and most likely people will use to rip illegal copies, isn't it [18:49:04] you can't use it to RIP illegal copies [18:49:15] you can only use it to DISTRIBUTE software or files [18:49:22] any software or files [18:49:28] not just movies [18:49:56] ah so
In the linked article, notice the sentence, "have been posted to the BitTorrent file-sharing network". Now would not a Reuters journalist take the time to understand that Bittorrent is a technology, and not a "network" operated by some "dark" side of the internet?
It is total brainwash, with the reason to get the public thinking "oh, Bittorrent that illegal dark network". The MPAA will go far to create such fear monguering. Is it possible they themselves would actually post the movie up on the web? Heck I can see a lot of reasons why:
1. Lots of press on lost revenue, etc. for the guys on "the hill" to think about. 2. Lots of press to make technologies seem illegal or "dark" (as they phrase it in the article) in the public's eye. 3. Lots of people seeing a crappy copy does not mean lost revenue in reality, ANY Star Wars fan will see this thing several times, and will demand at least once is in the theater. Let's not even talk about merchandising, games, licensing, blah blah. This movie would be profitable even if the studio released a free download version at viewable resolution for anybody to download worldwide!
I am here at CeBit and have been a bit amazed at a couple of look a like iPod mini's and iPod's as well. Apple will easily stop this in the US under "trade dress" litigation.
I also wondered, what are they (the manufacturers that knock off almost exact copies) thinking!?
Feelings, nothing more than feelings Trying to forget my feelings of love Teardrops rolling down on my face Trying to forget my feelings of love
Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it I wish I've never met you, girl You'll never come again Feeling, whoo-oh-oh feeling Whoo-oh-oh, feel you again in my arms
Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you And feelings like I'll never have you again in my heart Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you And feelings like I'll never have you again in my life
Feelings, whoo-oh-oh feeling it Whoo-oh-oh, feeling again in my arms Feelings Whoo-oh-oh feeling it Whoo-oh-oh feeling it
Copyright 1975 Morris Albert
Albert, ya gotta great song for the response, and I'm sorry I did not pay royalty but I also did not take credit. What's my license fee?????
China blocked the story
on
Press freedom
·
· Score: 1
I'm in China and the story is blocked! I can just guess where China ranking stands from that alone!
1. Net games are the future. Expect subscription models to take over within a decade.
2. DRM and copy protection is not just coming to games, it is coming to your living room, your wallet, your car, your life. The guys in DC have sold your soul, DRM was what you got in exchange.
3. Are'nt we talking about MS operating system here? DRM and copy protection is Redmond's key to future monopolies and revenues. If you use MS OS's you should know better than complain about copy protection, closed source, forced upgrades, proprietary file formats for starters. Do you know how much MS has spent and is spending on "Janus", "WMV", "Trustworthy Computing". You get what you pay for!
I live in Shanghai. You know the town? It has the fastest pasenger train in the world, the "maglev". The whole place feels more modern in many ways than 80% of US cities.
Now China is growing up quickly. I lived in Taiwan for a decade, that country grew up fast. But China is like a weed on steroids, growing rapidly, developing complex domestic markets for everything and anything, and, like Japan in its early stages China is setting its own standards.
Ever wonder why in Japan you can get 3G phones and 3G service? 1.3 megapixel phone with video? Why can't the US consumer buy that? Oh yeah, the US uses its own standards for cell phones. They would never use some "foreign" standard, especially one that is from the Japanese, that would mean royalties. Why not develop your own, hence CDMA.
Heck, I was using my single GSM cell phone number in 1996 in Taiwan, I could roam in Europe, Middle East, Asia using the same number and SIM card, but NOT the USA. GSM only became available in the USA recently.
China is doing the right thing by encouraging local standards and locally developed technology that is not dependent on the rest of the world. It is in the best interest of its people.
Now is it in the best interest of US Citizens that we obliterate sovereign countries and the US go bust doing it? Guess that is OK, China is financing the whole thing anyway buying T-bills! It is a mad world indeed.
True, but then again, I walk to work. I walk to the pub, I live in a concrete jungle because....well....it is a jungle and the suburbs are just "the suburbs". Tuesday night now, and I can walk straight to the disco club pumping with hundreds of women till dawn. When you are in the suburbs on a Tuesday night you have cable TV, Xbox or of course the fast food chain as your choices for the evening's entertainment. Until I am reach 60 years of age, I'll take the jungle.
As an expatriate living in Taiwan and China for 13 years now, I can confirm the fact that most of the big cities here are a big wired mess. Taiwan is perhaps even worse than China, because there are many cable companies and cable is strewn everywhere. I mean it is a mess, and not a very great site to the eye either.
Shanghai is much better than Taiwan, although still needs some improvement. I think the biggest problem is there is concrete everywhere, so unlike the US where they lay cable underground in the mass sprawling suburbs of the cities. It is hard to do that when you have no suburbs and the cities sprawl for a hundred kilometers, all concrete jungle!
Interesting enough, I was way deep in Mainland China near Mongolia a couple years ago, and there were huge tracks where they were laying fiber on the sides of the road. I mean this was in the middle of NOWHERE, only coal mines and steel factories I was trying to figure out why they were laying fiber optic cable there. "If only they did that in the cities", I thought to myself at the time. sheesh.
you are probably correctomundo on the price offerings from IBM, but i was referring to PPC970 power workstation offerings from IBM. for 3D and CAD/CAM, scientific workstation and the like. real power workstations.......
surely would be expensive though, but price/performance may be no more or maybe even less than PPC970 based Macs.
The ARSTechnica article specifically mentions the possiblity that IBM will use PPC970 in poweruser targeted Linux desktops, and no comments here about that yet, which surprises me.
I ran "my first linux" on a DEC Alpha 512mhz 64 bit box that I got fed up running NT 4.0 on. I instantly became addicted, and eventually forced my company to switch to Linux on every computer (causing mass protest in the beginning, then mass praise over the years as we have grown and have no MS Tax on the books).
I now have a Powerbook G4 and love it, except it is a little lagging in punch speed sometimes. And, although I love OS X, now that my company is used to zero license and upgrade costs thanks to GNU/GPL/BSD software, there is no hope of mass migration to OS X and Apple hardware in the company. It just does not make sense after seeing the dollar savings of running Linux on all the desktops.
There is, however, always a need for powerful workstations that run Linux, and IBM might be pulling a rabbit out of its hat with this one. Will be very interesting.
At minimum, I would buy one for that "64 bit memorabilia" value, to bring me sweet memories of my first Linux love, the Alpha that rid me of winbloze forever.........
I have been running an international trading company for over 10 years. There are serious problems with your proposition for the following reasons:
1. If the US decided to implement a software tax, every country around the world would follow suit. I don't know the numbers offhand, but this would hurt the US software economy a lot more than help it as the US is probably one of the top software exporters worldwide, if not the largest (Mr Gates' company's exports are probably higher than at least 70% of non US nations exports, perhaps combined). It would provide a huge insentive for foreign countries to develop thier own software, instead of importing, therefore lowering sales of US software overseas.
2. This would drive more non US computer users to go with open source / free software. While I personally think that would make a better world, but it would not make for a better US software economy, which is what creates US software jobs.
3. I cannot envision how US Customs (which imposes and enforces import duty), would deal with enforcement of internet distributed software either economically or even semi-effectively for that matter. How are you going to police bits?
4. This would further thicken the profits in the pirated software business, and or exagerate the price difference between licensed software and pirated software. You might see pirated software as a percent of non US market share, rise in percentage.
5. WTO agreements that the US has signed and are in place would need to be either ratified to allow for software duties, which means many countries would need to agree. If they could not achieve ratification through the WTO, and went bad on the treaty they have signed, they would risk retaliation from other countries. Retaliation in trade matters usually cross industries, so other nations may retaliate with agriculture, aerospace, steel, textile industries, etc.
6. The world is slowly (some say quickly), heading toward a duty free zone with virtually no tarrifs on the majority of goods and services. To incentivise the politiburos in Washington to make this an agenda issue would take serious corporate money, nothing else motivates the hill.
Like everything else in the world, production will move to the cheapest bidder. Do not expect it to change, but do expect it to destroy the US economy within 2 decades. Take it from me, China is the worlds ever growing production platform, killing off the Asian dragons, then Japan, then Euroland and the USA. It is not limited to any industry, it is every industry. The USA cannot run on a trade deficit close to 500 billion dollars per year and rising for many more years. Something will burst, and save your cash because it will be nasty.
I could not agree more, and you are right (although you did not say it straight out) that is seems hopeless. But telling them what you think is important.
But what should be number one on everybody's list is to make SOFT MONEY ILLLEGAL, and stop corporate intervention in politics. That is the only way to get the senate and the house caring about constituents. Otherwise it will always be about corporate money, and that's it.
I have lived outside the US for almost 12 years now. It amazes me every time I go back, that people will moan about something like this, but not really do anything about it.
1. Did you write your senators and congresspersons? How many of your friends, classmates, coworkers and relatives did?
2. Did anyone you know, or yourself, go out and get petitions signed and sent to appropriate lobby groups, senators, congresspersons?
3. Did you contribute to any anti-copyrite extention lobby groups?
4. Did you, or anyone you know, do any of the above actions with regards to the elimination of SOFT MONEY, which is really the core of the problem with US politics?
Until Soft Money policy is banned in the US, and all CORPORATE ENTITY DONATIONS to politics in general is banned, and people actually get off of their Sunday football couch and cozy lives to do something about something they believe in, nothing will change. Unfortunately, I don't think it ever will, the US will fail as a political system and create a world war destroying our race before the average American actually makes an effort to be heard, make a change, and limit corporate influence in politics.
Kazaa, and all the 'proprietary' applications which are using open peer to peer technology (protocols) that can be used for ligitimate reasons, should counter sue for damages. Yes, it would cost a fortune to fight, but it could be a lawsuit worth millions.
Laurence Lessig, you should start getting on this end of the business, fighting for freedoms through counter suits, because when there is money involved people may actually listen. Otherwise nobody really seems to care about our ever diminishing freedoms.
Why do we all think Microsoft is incorporating DRM (ie: WMP and Paladium) into future OS, because if they don't, in this world they will eventually be sued and lose for providing the software to trade files. So if you can't beat em' join em'. Bill Gates, you really should have stood up to the media co's, bought up all these basket case lawsuit losing companies, and counter sued the RIAA and MPAA and California for that sake.
After all, that is all we are talking about here, PROVIDING SOFTWARE TO TRADE FILES. How that can be construed to be illegal is beyond me. Why can't judges grasp that, or do they and they have some hidden agenda........probably they do but I won't go there.
The articles on the subject (cnet is now for the marginalized masses, only giving white facts), do not even mention gnutella or explain how the P2P programs work. Instead, they focus on the "rogue" activity of these companies undermining the media industry. Further, they do not even argue the legal implications of such bogus precedents. Why? Because the media is being used as scare tactics by the media companies.....DUH!
Unfortunately, probably not one person commenting on this issue on/. wrote thier senator on the issue.
Well, when I go to http://www.microsoft.net/ I get the great words:
"Smart Living See how new and future Microsoft products and technologies showcased at CES will help you have fun, keep in touch, and be entertained."
So, from that, I guess:
1..net is about "smart living", whatever that means, or whatever Gill Gates thinks it means.......damn, gotta get rid of my dumb Linux, freebsd and Apple boxes, and bring back the dead MS boxes i used to run...
2. I will be wearing a Microsoft watch sometime in the future......damn again, i really like my mechanical automatic Officine Panerai Militare...do I really have to have a Microsoft watch in order to live smart and keep in touch and be entertained and have fun?
3. I will need a tablet PC.......damn...I just want the new Powerbook 17" G4, do I really need a table PC running XP? I hate XP...arg. Guess I will have to if i want to keep in touch, have fun and be entertained...
4. My mobile phone will run windows........damn..I really like my Nokia....guess that does not keep me in touch, let me have fun, or entertain me...............
I guess we all need Microsoft to have fun, keep in touch, and be entertained, that is what.net is all about, making everybody need Microsoft......
Slashdot Mirror
All of mankinds knowlege in writing will slowly begin to dissapear. Books and print will someday be used as cheap fuel during a future worldwide economic depression. This will seem like a perfectly logical step as all knowledge will be databased and indexed across the internet.
Then, massive solar flares, or perhaps a meteorite, or maybe nuclear war, or even EMP from future unseen WMD, or ??? will wipe out human technology and we will be stuck without any record of past human knowlege. Or is this just a Hollywood scenario?
I have been telling all my friends to short Tivo stock for some time now. There are several reasons:
1. Direct TV will drop Tivo eventually (they announced last week), Tivo loses majority of its subscriber base.
2. There are new competing products, with more functionality, cheaper pricing, and innovative download and subscription services coming out on the market very soon. Will make Tivo look like a silly and overpriced product.
3. Integration and convergence of devices. Look at Xbox 360, PS3, etc. And just wait until your brand new LCD or Plasma TV has built in digital video recorder, and allows you to download or stream movies, music, and alternative content from your PC AND direct from the internet.
4. Tivo won't get mainstream content. The studios hate them! The entire internet delivered audio / video services will change very rapidly over the next 2 years, don't expect Tivo to be a part of it! It just threatens the Tivo business model, and they are not invited.
5. iPod for the living room is coming, including video.
the list goes on and on and on............
Obviously, Google is the buyer of choice. Give MS a run for the money.
For a good example of how the press distorts the masses mentality, see this chat I had with a very good friend (non tech, but very intelligent):
...
[18:29:45] last few weeks, one guy was charged and put in the slammer in Hong Kong for ripping with bit torrent.
[18:38:24] Bittorrent does not "RIP"
[18:38:47] it is a techology that is totally legal, and can be used for legal software, content, etc. as well
[18:39:00] article was total brainwash meme
[18:40:58] well, tell the guy who is now behind bars
[18:42:07] he was obviously distributing ILLEGAL content
[18:42:19] the method is not why he was jailed
[18:43:52] that's the point. the press is so distorted even YOU think Bittorrent is somehow illegal
[18:44:21] I will not use it in Hong Kong.
[18:47:43] it's like saying you won't use a mouse because the guy was also using a mouse on his computer, and he got arressted for distributing illegal copies of movies.
[18:48:34] true, but usually and most likely people will use to rip illegal copies, isn't it
[18:49:04] you can't use it to RIP illegal copies
[18:49:15] you can only use it to DISTRIBUTE software or files
[18:49:22] any software or files
[18:49:28] not just movies
[18:49:56] ah so
In the linked article, notice the sentence, "have been posted to the BitTorrent file-sharing network". Now would not a Reuters journalist take the time to understand that Bittorrent is a technology, and not a "network" operated by some "dark" side of the internet?
It is total brainwash, with the reason to get the public thinking "oh, Bittorrent that illegal dark network". The MPAA will go far to create such fear monguering. Is it possible they themselves would actually post the movie up on the web? Heck I can see a lot of reasons why:
1. Lots of press on lost revenue, etc. for the guys on "the hill" to think about.
2. Lots of press to make technologies seem illegal or "dark" (as they phrase it in the article) in the public's eye.
3. Lots of people seeing a crappy copy does not mean lost revenue in reality, ANY Star Wars fan will see this thing several times, and will demand at least once is in the theater. Let's not even talk about merchandising, games, licensing, blah blah. This movie would be profitable even if the studio released a free download version at viewable resolution for anybody to download worldwide!
IPTV is NOT on hold, check here XTV
WHAT?
I am here at CeBit and have been a bit amazed at a couple of look a like iPod mini's and iPod's as well. Apple will easily stop this in the US under "trade dress" litigation.
I also wondered, what are they (the manufacturers that knock off almost exact copies) thinking!?
Feelings, nothing more than feelings
Trying to forget my feelings of love
Teardrops rolling down on my face
Trying to forget my feelings of love
Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it
I wish I've never met you, girl
You'll never come again
Feeling, whoo-oh-oh feeling
Whoo-oh-oh, feel you again in my arms
Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you
And feelings like I'll never have you again in my heart
Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it
I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again
Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you
And feelings like I'll never have you again in my life
Feelings, whoo-oh-oh feeling it
Whoo-oh-oh, feeling again in my arms
Feelings
Whoo-oh-oh feeling it
Whoo-oh-oh feeling it
Copyright 1975 Morris Albert
Albert, ya gotta great song for the response, and I'm sorry I did not pay royalty but I also did not take credit. What's my license fee?????
I'm in China and the story is blocked! I can just guess where China ranking stands from that alone!
Pretty boring post because:
1. Net games are the future. Expect subscription models to take over within a decade.
2. DRM and copy protection is not just coming to games, it is coming to your living room, your wallet, your car, your life. The guys in DC have sold your soul, DRM was what you got in exchange.
3. Are'nt we talking about MS operating system here? DRM and copy protection is Redmond's key to future monopolies and revenues. If you use MS OS's you should know better than complain about copy protection, closed source, forced upgrades, proprietary file formats for starters. Do you know how much MS has spent and is spending on "Janus", "WMV", "Trustworthy Computing". You get what you pay for!
Even if multi processor charging is no long possible or inconvenient, other options avail ie: MIPS processing such as Z/OS uses, etc.
I live in Shanghai. You know the town? It has the fastest pasenger train in the world, the "maglev". The whole place feels more modern in many ways than 80% of US cities.
Now China is growing up quickly. I lived in Taiwan for a decade, that country grew up fast. But China is like a weed on steroids, growing rapidly, developing complex domestic markets for everything and anything, and, like Japan in its early stages China is setting its own standards.
Ever wonder why in Japan you can get 3G phones and 3G service? 1.3 megapixel phone with video? Why can't the US consumer buy that? Oh yeah, the US uses its own standards for cell phones. They would never use some "foreign" standard, especially one that is from the Japanese, that would mean royalties. Why not develop your own, hence CDMA.
Heck, I was using my single GSM cell phone number in 1996 in Taiwan, I could roam in Europe, Middle East, Asia using the same number and SIM card, but NOT the USA. GSM only became available in the USA recently.
China is doing the right thing by encouraging local standards and locally developed technology that is not dependent on the rest of the world. It is in the best interest of its people.
Now is it in the best interest of US Citizens that we obliterate sovereign countries and the US go bust doing it? Guess that is OK, China is financing the whole thing anyway buying T-bills! It is a mad world indeed.
True, but then again, I walk to work. I walk to the pub, I live in a concrete jungle because....well....it is a jungle and the suburbs are just "the suburbs". Tuesday night now, and I can walk straight to the disco club pumping with hundreds of women till dawn. When you are in the suburbs on a Tuesday night you have cable TV, Xbox or of course the fast food chain as your choices for the evening's entertainment. Until I am reach 60 years of age, I'll take the jungle.
As an expatriate living in Taiwan and China for 13 years now, I can confirm the fact that most of the big cities here are a big wired mess. Taiwan is perhaps even worse than China, because there are many cable companies and cable is strewn everywhere. I mean it is a mess, and not a very great site to the eye either.
Shanghai is much better than Taiwan, although still needs some improvement. I think the biggest problem is there is concrete everywhere, so unlike the US where they lay cable underground in the mass sprawling suburbs of the cities. It is hard to do that when you have no suburbs and the cities sprawl for a hundred kilometers, all concrete jungle!
Interesting enough, I was way deep in Mainland China near Mongolia a couple years ago, and there were huge tracks where they were laying fiber on the sides of the road. I mean this was in the middle of NOWHERE, only coal mines and steel factories I was trying to figure out why they were laying fiber optic cable there. "If only they did that in the cities", I thought to myself at the time. sheesh.
Have a look at the "Short Interest", and you realize that the financial community is aware of what is going on at SCOX.
Settlement Date | Short Interest | Avg Daily Share Volume | Days to Cover
Nov. 14, 2003 1,616,098 345,608 4.68
Oct. 15, 2003 925,518 376,803 2.46
Sep. 15, 2003 894,777 327,845 2.73
Aug. 15, 2003 458,520 267,924 1.71
Jul. 15, 2003 391,346 204,006 1.92
Jun. 13, 2003 276,810 686,127 1.00
May 15, 2003 33,397 54,870 1.00
Apr. 15, 2003 37,437 55,726 1.00
Mar. 14, 2003 84,150 114,525 1.00
Feb. 14, 2003 35,651 17,187 2.07
Jan. 15, 2003 35,966 14,710 2.45
Dec. 13, 2002 38,677 14,671 2.64
They are headed down the drain in a very rapid manner.
Who is going to write the recommended GNU license the company should switch to! And next thing you know they will invest in SCO!
I guess it is a sign of the times, when the latest Opera versions for Linux are released much sooner then the same release for OS X.
you are probably correctomundo on the price offerings from IBM, but i was referring to PPC970 power workstation offerings from IBM. for 3D and CAD/CAM, scientific workstation and the like. real power workstations.......
surely would be expensive though, but price/performance may be no more or maybe even less than PPC970 based Macs.
The ARSTechnica article specifically mentions the possiblity that IBM will use PPC970 in poweruser targeted Linux desktops, and no comments here about that yet, which surprises me.
I ran "my first linux" on a DEC Alpha 512mhz 64 bit box that I got fed up running NT 4.0 on. I instantly became addicted, and eventually forced my company to switch to Linux on every computer (causing mass protest in the beginning, then mass praise over the years as we have grown and have no MS Tax on the books).
I now have a Powerbook G4 and love it, except it is a little lagging in punch speed sometimes. And, although I love OS X, now that my company is used to zero license and upgrade costs thanks to GNU/GPL/BSD software, there is no hope of mass migration to OS X and Apple hardware in the company. It just does not make sense after seeing the dollar savings of running Linux on all the desktops.
There is, however, always a need for powerful workstations that run Linux, and IBM might be pulling a rabbit out of its hat with this one. Will be very interesting.
At minimum, I would buy one for that "64 bit memorabilia" value, to bring me sweet memories of my first Linux love, the Alpha that rid me of winbloze forever.........
I have been running an international trading company for over 10 years. There are serious problems with your proposition for the following reasons:
1. If the US decided to implement a software tax, every country around the world would follow suit. I don't know the numbers offhand, but this would hurt the US software economy a lot more than help it as the US is probably one of the top software exporters worldwide, if not the largest (Mr Gates' company's exports are probably higher than at least 70% of non US nations exports, perhaps combined). It would provide a huge insentive for foreign countries to develop thier own software, instead of importing, therefore lowering sales of US software overseas.
2. This would drive more non US computer users to go with open source / free software. While I personally think that would make a better world, but it would not make for a better US software economy, which is what creates US software jobs.
3. I cannot envision how US Customs (which imposes and enforces import duty), would deal with enforcement of internet distributed software either economically or even semi-effectively for that matter. How are you going to police bits?
4. This would further thicken the profits in the pirated software business, and or exagerate the price difference between licensed software and pirated software. You might see pirated software as a percent of non US market share, rise in percentage.
5. WTO agreements that the US has signed and are in place would need to be either ratified to allow for software duties, which means many countries would need to agree. If they could not achieve ratification through the WTO, and went bad on the treaty they have signed, they would risk retaliation from other countries. Retaliation in trade matters usually cross industries, so other nations may retaliate with agriculture, aerospace, steel, textile industries, etc.
6. The world is slowly (some say quickly), heading toward a duty free zone with virtually no tarrifs on the majority of goods and services. To incentivise the politiburos in Washington to make this an agenda issue would take serious corporate money, nothing else motivates the hill.
Like everything else in the world, production will move to the cheapest bidder. Do not expect it to change, but do expect it to destroy the US economy within 2 decades. Take it from me, China is the worlds ever growing production platform, killing off the Asian dragons, then Japan, then Euroland and the USA. It is not limited to any industry, it is every industry. The USA cannot run on a trade deficit close to 500 billion dollars per year and rising for many more years. Something will burst, and save your cash because it will be nasty.
I could not agree more, and you are right (although you did not say it straight out) that is seems hopeless. But telling them what you think is important. But what should be number one on everybody's list is to make SOFT MONEY ILLLEGAL, and stop corporate intervention in politics. That is the only way to get the senate and the house caring about constituents. Otherwise it will always be about corporate money, and that's it.
I have lived outside the US for almost 12 years now. It amazes me every time I go back, that people will moan about something like this, but not really do anything about it.
1. Did you write your senators and congresspersons? How many of your friends, classmates, coworkers and relatives did?
2. Did anyone you know, or yourself, go out and get petitions signed and sent to appropriate lobby groups, senators, congresspersons?
3. Did you contribute to any anti-copyrite extention lobby groups?
4. Did you, or anyone you know, do any of the above actions with regards to the elimination of SOFT MONEY, which is really the core of the problem with US politics?
Until Soft Money policy is banned in the US, and all CORPORATE ENTITY DONATIONS to politics in general is banned, and people actually get off of their Sunday football couch and cozy lives to do something about something they believe in, nothing will change. Unfortunately, I don't think it ever will, the US will fail as a political system and create a world war destroying our race before the average American actually makes an effort to be heard, make a change, and limit corporate influence in politics.
Kazaa, and all the 'proprietary' applications which are using open peer to peer technology (protocols) that can be used for ligitimate reasons, should counter sue for damages. Yes, it would cost a fortune to fight, but it could be a lawsuit worth millions.
/. wrote thier senator on the issue.
Laurence Lessig, you should start getting on this end of the business, fighting for freedoms through counter suits, because when there is money involved people may actually listen. Otherwise nobody really seems to care about our ever diminishing freedoms.
Why do we all think Microsoft is incorporating DRM (ie: WMP and Paladium) into future OS, because if they don't, in this world they will eventually be sued and lose for providing the software to trade files. So if you can't beat em' join em'. Bill Gates, you really should have stood up to the media co's, bought up all these basket case lawsuit losing companies, and counter sued the RIAA and MPAA and California for that sake.
After all, that is all we are talking about here, PROVIDING SOFTWARE TO TRADE FILES. How that can be construed to be illegal is beyond me. Why can't judges grasp that, or do they and they have some hidden agenda........probably they do but I won't go there.
The articles on the subject (cnet is now for the marginalized masses, only giving white facts), do not even mention gnutella or explain how the P2P programs work. Instead, they focus on the "rogue" activity of these companies undermining the media industry. Further, they do not even argue the legal implications of such bogus precedents. Why? Because the media is being used as scare tactics by the media companies.....DUH!
Unfortunately, probably not one person commenting on this issue on
Well, when I go to http://www.microsoft.net/ I get the great words:
.net is about "smart living", whatever that means, or whatever Gill Gates thinks it means.......damn, gotta get rid of my dumb Linux, freebsd and Apple boxes, and bring back the dead MS boxes i used to run...
.net is all about, making everybody need Microsoft......
"Smart Living See how new and future Microsoft products and technologies showcased at CES will help you have fun, keep in touch, and be entertained."
So, from that, I guess:
1.
2. I will be wearing a Microsoft watch sometime in the future......damn again, i really like my mechanical automatic Officine Panerai Militare...do I really have to have a Microsoft watch in order to live smart and keep in touch and be entertained and have fun?
3. I will need a tablet PC.......damn...I just want the new Powerbook 17" G4, do I really need a table PC running XP? I hate XP...arg. Guess I will have to if i want to keep in touch, have fun and be entertained...
4. My mobile phone will run windows........damn..I really like my Nokia....guess that does not keep me in touch, let me have fun, or entertain me...............
I guess we all need Microsoft to have fun, keep in touch, and be entertained, that is what