There is no per player DRM. What you all are talking about is HDCP. In its simplest form, it only allows the full resolution output to an HDCP capable device, which is intended to prevent a capture device from grabbing the full picture. If you hook up to a non HDCP HDMI connection, you'll get a scaled down version. So if you shell out a few hundred bucks for a black magic hdmi capture card, you're SOL.
Of course, no one would ever think to crack the encryption and write some software and rip it straight from the disk.
This sort of thing happens all the time. I should sue the idiots who fell for this. Thing is, a lack of response does not justify a bill. I got a free, 3 month subscription for play boy, with the whole, send back a note to cancel. I ignored it, got about 9 issues total, followed by a bill which I happily wrote it is illegal for you to send me a bill for something I did not consent to and guess what, I never heard from them again. Don't quote me that it is illegal, however, there is no way they will litigate for 15 bucks. And if they send it to a collection agency, and you say, I never told them to send it, they wasted their money.
Saddly, I didn't get any more magazines, which did make me rethink my strategy.
I agree with the statement, and have said similar things to justify the whole niether open source or closed is better, but to say it is opensource is ludacris. Think you'll get support when you apply an opensource patch that has been released, will be sucked up by the money grubbing company and eventually issued, but they haven't "fully" tested yet? Granted, companies are getting quicker to release, but it doesn't change the fact.
Once it goes closed source, you have no quality control open to the public to see what changes they've made. It may be a Picasso when they get it, but it could end up mangled into a genital wart by the time it is released to the public.
Granted, security is a lot like art, you can justify any thing as being the best approach, but just because you think that Renesance is better than Impressionism, and can provide valid reasons why, doesn't mean it is.
With that out of the way, I'm not saying a white list is bad, but as with any security methodology, it does impose some down sides.
There is really no way to enforce globally what is a white listed program, as different organizations have different needs. So you are still prone to the jackass not researching what mindfark.vbs is and allowing it to unconditionally run.
Now, media, is a frequently used trojan horse to deliver viruses, in addition to executables. With the billion websites, digital cameras, etc, etc out there, are we going to be able to use this approach efficiently?
The only way for this to accurately work is to keep a lits of names and signatures of allowed to run programs. What happens when there is an update? Now we need to keep track of multiple versions, and the more versions we store, the easier it is to slide things by since signatures are usually not 1 to 1, we are increasing the chance of collisions. There are multitude of scripts that can modify files to create collisions with legitimate files. Only a matter of time for whatever algorithm is used. Only a matter of the right number of noops, incrementing of a worthless variable, or modification of the metadata and other non-viewable information in the media is found to cause a signature collision. Remember, the hacker has all the time in the world to sit in a test enviornment trying to match a signature without ever raising any alert to those they wish to attack.
OSes where never designed well. Viruses were not profitable like they are now, so people didn't look as much. There also was less people using computers/looking for vulnerabilities, and all were doing it by debugging source code or dreaming up ways to break RFCs rather then using automated fuzzing techniques. There was also less need for reams of code that was written faster then it could be QA'd, due to less people using the internet.
Look at the Morris worm in 88. There was no code exploit, or coding mistake. It took advantage of an unauthenticated backdoor to sendmail, which was running as root. This would doubtfully fly today anywhere. Does that mean coders then or now were any better? Nope.
No matter what industry you are in, IT, Car Sales, home improvement, etc., people make more money getting the job done as quick as possible with ease of support, rather then doing it right the first time. This is the American dream: making as much money as you can and let someone else clean up the mess. You just hear about problems more now that the web has made news more accessible, and the fact that a hacker can write a virus that harvests emails out of addressbooks to sell/send spam mail for advertising revenue and cover my tracks well enough not to get caught. Once again, the American dream, make money while someone else cleans up your mess.
There is no such thing as bad business when it limits your revenue without doing something ethically wrong. There is nothing wrong with a parent knowing what their child does with their money, or even approving how they spend it.
I bet this guy gets arrested for beating his kid in walmart for not leaving the displays alone, like every red blooded american should, but can't without hearing, "That's child abuse".
I salute this guy, and give the one fingered salute to game stop.
A big problem you also face is congestion. Think of your wireless router as a hub. If everyone is sending messages, to everyone who gets it, everyone receives it whether it was ment for them. N only has 25 independent channels, if using 20mhz(40mhz = 12 I believe), which is much greater then 11g, with on 3 non-overlapping channels(I know there are 14, but most overlap), however, at the rate people are moving to wireless and using factory default settings, the more garbage a router receives that is not meant for its network.
Switches were not only used for security, but also efficiency. Wired networks will be used for this as well.
Ignoring the politics, this question is kind of similar to a debate of who is better, Van Gogh or Michelangelo.
For every negative/positive you can say about open source/closed source software you can argue something positive/negative in the other direction.
Considering most bugs now adays are found through fuzzing, not code review, it probablly doesn't make a huge difference either way, regardless of whether you are talking commercial or gov defense.
Not to mention, 90% of the software out there is based off of open source technologies or RFCs that are available.
Looks at Microsft's SQLServer. The only way you could get a perl DBI module to work with it was if you used the Sybase module(may be a new MS module, haven't checked in a while), but it wasn't coincident it works, nor is it coincident that half of the commercial SSL/VPN device finger prints smell of Linux and OpenSSL.
Just because it comes with a service contract doesn't mean it is closed source and or secure.
And that attitude is why you are a good parent who isn't raising a future gang member and or star on the Bang Bus website.
Problem is, people want excuses why their kids aren't moral over achievers. They'd rather shake their finger at you saying, "That's child abuse", when out and you give your kid a light swat on the ass for not behaving, rather then paying attention to what they watch and or play, and taking some responsibility for their child's behavior.
When I was a kid, my parents paid enough attention to me to make sure I didn't walk into the room with the beaded curtain in local video stores. You mean they can read the title, look at the screen shots, and read the recommended age on the package while waiting in line to pay? That is a lot easier then keeping an eye on kid(s) in a store at all times.
I thank these games, movies, and music as a sane and moral way to release frustration. Not to say robbing and murdering in Elderscrolls Oblivion is why I don't steal and murder people in real life, but it definitely has had no ill effects.
It's like condemning porn, which is probably the biggest reason we have less people on sex offenders lists. I know it has saved me a number of times from jumping on a willing grenade. I'm sure there are many cases of unwilling.....
And what does that have to do with upconversion? Nothing. You can't get more then what is there. Big deal. Players that don't display everything have nothing to do with upconversion. Yes, they are capable of it, but not all DVDs have it. And even if they do, it isn't scaled down, only 480 of them are displayed, so they really just get cropped. Does seeing more lines show more detail? When it blows it up to 1080p, are you magically going to notice arm hairs, poors in skin, etc? That is what extra detail is, and you won't see it. Even still, we aren't even talking about 1/10 of an increase in lines?
The point is, there are imbeciles out there who think that a DVD up converted to 1080p will look like an HD DVD or BR.
Evidently there are imbeciles out there who need things for them to be spelled out so they don't go off on some worthless tirade.
xbox360 is in the same worse boat as the PS3. It's the boat of no one cares. Roughly 1/3 of the population own hdtvs, those who know what the I and P stand for following 1080 don't understand you are getting the exact same picture definition, just 2 passes instead of 1, meaning, a good deinterlacer like most tv's have now, you'll never known the difference. These same people think their upconverted DVD will magically have more detail.
Like wise, considering this knowledge, how many people are going to plunk down $330 bucks for the cheapest player on the market and one movie? I know they are cheaper online, but do you think these mouth breathers will buy online or locally. And for those HD TVless Add another 1k+ to that price.
Unless you're an educated videophile, for that kind of money you'd expect the sales person to kiss you on the back of the neck while giving you a reach around. This is a big reason why 50gig vs. 30gig, ethernet/ no ethernet port, etc. won't make a difference in the end. Price, big news stories, and slander will. It almost feels like a presidential election.
Who want's to watch porn on a 70+ inch TV. No need to make the average man feel even more inferior. I already get enough erectile disfunction spam as is.
That question is like asking what is better to have, herpes or syphillis. The answer depends solely on your point of view. You can argue one way or the other which is better. Both are more then capable of holding 4+ hours of HD movies. You can start debating 1080i vs 1080p(they both show the same amount of information, just one does it in 2 passes, and most current 1080p TVs do a wonderful job Deinterlacing, and both models now support 1080p), and you can even argue that HD-DVD looks better because it uses VC-1 and BR uses MPEG-2. Yes, it is true that VC-1 looks better(I've seen a 1080i TVs with HD-DVD playing the same movie as a BR 1080p TV setup at CompUSA, and the 1080i blew it away), however, Sony came to the realization that they had to swallow their pride(doesn't happen often) and has started using VC-1, so it is a moot point. You can complain about BR lack of standardization and half their players will be obsolete, which is true, but it won't affect the PS3s, nor any player made after october. Bottomline, both are in their infancy, neither is winning, so wait as long as you can. If you can't wait, pick the format that has the most movies you want to, or find the cheapest player you can, invest in it, and use netflix or BB to rent the movies you want to see. Then, you will only have hardware interest, and not have a worthless movie collection(which always costs more then the hardware). I went with the Xbox add on at the begining of the year, but prices on both are coming more inline, so that option may not be good at this point in time. Refurbs are good options, especially if you aren't sold on a side winning.
Come on, there was a recent article showing how Vista had the least security bugs discovered of most the big Operating systems.
Hmmmm, come to think of it, it may just back up my theory that the most secure OS is the least used.
Nah, that couldn't be true. The biggest motive for malicious code is to score money, and obviously you wouldn't target the most frequently used operating system. That would be like targeting men for male enhancement spam.
If you want to compromise a ton of cars, you'd target a Pinto over a Jetta, right?
I think the big question is, what is the difference between police spyware and the sony root kit? Both have good intentions, but could still be utilized by hackers.
These articles are the stupidest things in the world. Oh, there has to be one thing that is related to the growing obesetiy problem. Own up to the fact that we are eating worse, and getting less exercise. Fructose has nothing to do with it. I have been a diabetic for almost 30 years, and have been eating sugar free stuff sweetened with Fructose for as long as I remember, and have better then 20/20 vision, am not over weight. Before that jackhole Atkins came along and got every manufacturer to switch to sugar alcohols as sweetners, which raise your blood sugar just as much over 8 hours(same break down time as fat for me anyway) as a fructose sweetened product. Slow acting is always harder to manage then quick acting, which is why fast foods can be so devestating to ones blood sugar.
Think back to biology, what happens to excess food, whether carbs or fat, it turns into fat. If you eat nothing but carbs and don't get the exercise to break it down, it will turn to fat. If you don't eat enough, or get more exercise then your calorie intake, you will loose weight.
There is no magical diet that works. It is self control and exercise. There is no new science to Atkins, it works because you cut out high carb, and substitute it for dense items that fill up your stomach, but also causes Ketosis, which isn't good for your body.
Most of his analysis of sugar substitutes are wrong because he did not test blood sugar of patients long after, or if he did, he wasn't taking into account that a slow rise in blood sugar is nearly impossible to track if someone produces insulin on their own. When it comes to food causing weight gain carb is a carb and a fat is a fat, and both will cause weight gain. Aside from sugar rush adictiveness, the length of time it takes to break down a any carb or a any fat is only a matter of semantics for you insulin producers.
I think the basics of what is being said is, using 99% of CPU and starving processes of CPU time are not the same thing. This article is stating that both are happening(not mutually exclusive for you programming geeks).
A simple infinite loop will not starve a process that has a higher priority, and in most cases a lower priority one if a scheduling algorithm that uses aging in adition to priority. It will just use all idle CPU cycles.
Ah yes. Microsoft is so evil for taking advantage of the system. Who is to blame for the woman who got millions in a lawsuit against McDonalds because she intelligently burned herself with hot coffee, the woman, or the system? Did she deserve it, no. Is she an idiot, yes. Is she evil for what she did? Not by the law's standards.
Every monitary transaction is providing something at someone elses expense in some way shape or form. Can these fools be blamed for trying to take advantage of the system? That is the American dream. Not to say its right, or your opinion isn't valid, but as long as the court systems agree, all's fair. If you have a problem, that's what your congressman/elections are for.
The problem with Sony is that they opened up a whole new avenue for hackers to break into system, rather then report the bug that allowed them to hid from AV software. Granted, I know there is the whole MS insecure code debate, but the two are apples and oranges.
Because with Microsoft you have a choice, and, as of yet, no one has found a MS developed trojan. You can always run linux, find a small company using something other then windows(hard to find, but they do exist), etc.
If you want a hard copy of your music, love your album covers, you're kind of SOL.
You have an equal chance of reading an article that is poorly written. Chances for either being lamer then a 1 legged dog are pretty high. Problem is, there are infinitely more Bloggers then legitimate writers.
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There is no per player DRM. What you all are talking about is HDCP. In its simplest form, it only allows the full resolution output to an HDCP capable device, which is intended to prevent a capture device from grabbing the full picture. If you hook up to a non HDCP HDMI connection, you'll get a scaled down version. So if you shell out a few hundred bucks for a black magic hdmi capture card, you're SOL.
Of course, no one would ever think to crack the encryption and write some software and rip it straight from the disk.
Oh yeah, I only read Play Boy for the articles.....
This sort of thing happens all the time. I should sue the idiots who fell for this. Thing is, a lack of response does not justify a bill. I got a free, 3 month subscription for play boy, with the whole, send back a note to cancel. I ignored it, got about 9 issues total, followed by a bill which I happily wrote it is illegal for you to send me a bill for something I did not consent to and guess what, I never heard from them again. Don't quote me that it is illegal, however, there is no way they will litigate for 15 bucks. And if they send it to a collection agency, and you say, I never told them to send it, they wasted their money.
Saddly, I didn't get any more magazines, which did make me rethink my strategy.
I agree with the statement, and have said similar things to justify the whole niether open source or closed is better, but to say it is opensource is ludacris. Think you'll get support when you apply an opensource patch that has been released, will be sucked up by the money grubbing company and eventually issued, but they haven't "fully" tested yet? Granted, companies are getting quicker to release, but it doesn't change the fact.
Once it goes closed source, you have no quality control open to the public to see what changes they've made. It may be a Picasso when they get it, but it could end up mangled into a genital wart by the time it is released to the public.
Granted, security is a lot like art, you can justify any thing as being the best approach, but just because you think that Renesance is better than Impressionism, and can provide valid reasons why, doesn't mean it is.
With that out of the way, I'm not saying a white list is bad, but as with any security methodology, it does impose some down sides.
There is really no way to enforce globally what is a white listed program, as different organizations have different needs. So you are still prone to the jackass not researching what mindfark.vbs is and allowing it to unconditionally run.
Now, media, is a frequently used trojan horse to deliver viruses, in addition to executables. With the billion websites, digital cameras, etc, etc out there, are we going to be able to use this approach efficiently?
The only way for this to accurately work is to keep a lits of names and signatures of allowed to run programs. What happens when there is an update? Now we need to keep track of multiple versions, and the more versions we store, the easier it is to slide things by since signatures are usually not 1 to 1, we are increasing the chance of collisions. There are multitude of scripts that can modify files to create collisions with legitimate files. Only a matter of time for whatever algorithm is used. Only a matter of the right number of noops, incrementing of a worthless variable, or modification of the metadata and other non-viewable information in the media is found to cause a signature collision. Remember, the hacker has all the time in the world to sit in a test enviornment trying to match a signature without ever raising any alert to those they wish to attack.
OSes where never designed well. Viruses were not profitable like they are now, so people didn't look as much. There also was less people using computers/looking for vulnerabilities, and all were doing it by debugging source code or dreaming up ways to break RFCs rather then using automated fuzzing techniques. There was also less need for reams of code that was written faster then it could be QA'd, due to less people using the internet.
Look at the Morris worm in 88. There was no code exploit, or coding mistake. It took advantage of an unauthenticated backdoor to sendmail, which was running as root. This would doubtfully fly today anywhere. Does that mean coders then or now were any better? Nope.
No matter what industry you are in, IT, Car Sales, home improvement, etc., people make more money getting the job done as quick as possible with ease of support, rather then doing it right the first time. This is the American dream: making as much money as you can and let someone else clean up the mess. You just hear about problems more now that the web has made news more accessible, and the fact that a hacker can write a virus that harvests emails out of addressbooks to sell/send spam mail for advertising revenue and cover my tracks well enough not to get caught. Once again, the American dream, make money while someone else cleans up your mess.
There is no such thing as bad business when it limits your revenue without doing something ethically wrong. There is nothing wrong with a parent knowing what their child does with their money, or even approving how they spend it.
I bet this guy gets arrested for beating his kid in walmart for not leaving the displays alone, like every red blooded american should, but can't without hearing, "That's child abuse".
I salute this guy, and give the one fingered salute to game stop.
A big problem you also face is congestion. Think of your wireless router as a hub. If everyone is sending messages, to everyone who gets it, everyone receives it whether it was ment for them. N only has 25 independent channels, if using 20mhz(40mhz = 12 I believe), which is much greater then 11g, with on 3 non-overlapping channels(I know there are 14, but most overlap), however, at the rate people are moving to wireless and using factory default settings, the more garbage a router receives that is not meant for its network.
Switches were not only used for security, but also efficiency. Wired networks will be used for this as well.
Ignoring the politics, this question is kind of similar to a debate of who is better, Van Gogh or Michelangelo.
For every negative/positive you can say about open source/closed source software you can argue something positive/negative in the other direction.
Considering most bugs now adays are found through fuzzing, not code review, it probablly doesn't make a huge difference either way, regardless of whether you are talking commercial or gov defense.
Not to mention, 90% of the software out there is based off of open source technologies or RFCs that are available.
Looks at Microsft's SQLServer. The only way you could get a perl DBI module to work with it was if you used the Sybase module(may be a new MS module, haven't checked in a while), but it wasn't coincident it works, nor is it coincident that half of the commercial SSL/VPN device finger prints smell of Linux and OpenSSL.
Just because it comes with a service contract doesn't mean it is closed source and or secure.
And that attitude is why you are a good parent who isn't raising a future gang member and or star on the Bang Bus website.
Problem is, people want excuses why their kids aren't moral over achievers. They'd rather shake their finger at you saying, "That's child abuse", when out and you give your kid a light swat on the ass for not behaving, rather then paying attention to what they watch and or play, and taking some responsibility for their child's behavior.
When I was a kid, my parents paid enough attention to me to make sure I didn't walk into the room with the beaded curtain in local video stores. You mean they can read the title, look at the screen shots, and read the recommended age on the package while waiting in line to pay? That is a lot easier then keeping an eye on kid(s) in a store at all times.
I thank these games, movies, and music as a sane and moral way to release frustration. Not to say robbing and murdering in Elderscrolls Oblivion is why I don't steal and murder people in real life, but it definitely has had no ill effects.
It's like condemning porn, which is probably the biggest reason we have less people on sex offenders lists. I know it has saved me a number of times from jumping on a willing grenade. I'm sure there are many cases of unwilling.....
And what does that have to do with upconversion? Nothing. You can't get more then what is there. Big deal. Players that don't display everything have nothing to do with upconversion. Yes, they are capable of it, but not all DVDs have it. And even if they do, it isn't scaled down, only 480 of them are displayed, so they really just get cropped. Does seeing more lines show more detail? When it blows it up to 1080p, are you magically going to notice arm hairs, poors in skin, etc? That is what extra detail is, and you won't see it. Even still, we aren't even talking about 1/10 of an increase in lines?
The point is, there are imbeciles out there who think that a DVD up converted to 1080p will look like an HD DVD or BR.
Evidently there are imbeciles out there who need things for them to be spelled out so they don't go off on some worthless tirade.
You can't create something from nothing. It will produce a sharper image, but detail and sharpness are two different things.
xbox360 is in the same worse boat as the PS3. It's the boat of no one cares. Roughly 1/3 of the population own hdtvs, those who know what the I and P stand for following 1080 don't understand you are getting the exact same picture definition, just 2 passes instead of 1, meaning, a good deinterlacer like most tv's have now, you'll never known the difference. These same people think their upconverted DVD will magically have more detail.
Like wise, considering this knowledge, how many people are going to plunk down $330 bucks for the cheapest player on the market and one movie? I know they are cheaper online, but do you think these mouth breathers will buy online or locally. And for those HD TVless Add another 1k+ to that price.
Unless you're an educated videophile, for that kind of money you'd expect the sales person to kiss you on the back of the neck while giving you a reach around. This is a big reason why 50gig vs. 30gig, ethernet/ no ethernet port, etc. won't make a difference in the end. Price, big news stories, and slander will. It almost feels like a presidential election.
Hardly the case. We all have primal urges. Problem is that most of us can't think of the right thing to say without using the backspace key.
Who want's to watch porn on a 70+ inch TV. No need to make the average man feel even more inferior. I already get enough erectile disfunction spam as is.
That question is like asking what is better to have, herpes or syphillis. The answer depends solely on your point of view. You can argue one way or the other which is better. Both are more then capable of holding 4+ hours of HD movies. You can start debating 1080i vs 1080p(they both show the same amount of information, just one does it in 2 passes, and most current 1080p TVs do a wonderful job Deinterlacing, and both models now support 1080p), and you can even argue that HD-DVD looks better because it uses VC-1 and BR uses MPEG-2. Yes, it is true that VC-1 looks better(I've seen a 1080i TVs with HD-DVD playing the same movie as a BR 1080p TV setup at CompUSA, and the 1080i blew it away), however, Sony came to the realization that they had to swallow their pride(doesn't happen often) and has started using VC-1, so it is a moot point. You can complain about BR lack of standardization and half their players will be obsolete, which is true, but it won't affect the PS3s, nor any player made after october. Bottomline, both are in their infancy, neither is winning, so wait as long as you can. If you can't wait, pick the format that has the most movies you want to, or find the cheapest player you can, invest in it, and use netflix or BB to rent the movies you want to see. Then, you will only have hardware interest, and not have a worthless movie collection(which always costs more then the hardware). I went with the Xbox add on at the begining of the year, but prices on both are coming more inline, so that option may not be good at this point in time. Refurbs are good options, especially if you aren't sold on a side winning.
Come on, there's nothing hotter then a butt pimple......
Cisco, The trusted name in security, trusted to be crappy. Their IDSes couldn't find a pitch fork in a bail of hay.
Come on, there was a recent article showing how Vista had the least security bugs discovered of most the big Operating systems.
Hmmmm, come to think of it, it may just back up my theory that the most secure OS is the least used.
Nah, that couldn't be true. The biggest motive for malicious code is to score money, and obviously you wouldn't target the most frequently used operating system. That would be like targeting men for male enhancement spam.
If you want to compromise a ton of cars, you'd target a Pinto over a Jetta, right?
I think the big question is, what is the difference between police spyware and the sony root kit? Both have good intentions, but could still be utilized by hackers.
These articles are the stupidest things in the world. Oh, there has to be one thing that is related to the growing obesetiy problem. Own up to the fact that we are eating worse, and getting less exercise. Fructose has nothing to do with it. I have been a diabetic for almost 30 years, and have been eating sugar free stuff sweetened with Fructose for as long as I remember, and have better then 20/20 vision, am not over weight. Before that jackhole Atkins came along and got every manufacturer to switch to sugar alcohols as sweetners, which raise your blood sugar just as much over 8 hours(same break down time as fat for me anyway) as a fructose sweetened product. Slow acting is always harder to manage then quick acting, which is why fast foods can be so devestating to ones blood sugar.
Think back to biology, what happens to excess food, whether carbs or fat, it turns into fat. If you eat nothing but carbs and don't get the exercise to break it down, it will turn to fat. If you don't eat enough, or get more exercise then your calorie intake, you will loose weight.
There is no magical diet that works. It is self control and exercise. There is no new science to Atkins, it works because you cut out high carb, and substitute it for dense items that fill up your stomach, but also causes Ketosis, which isn't good for your body.
Most of his analysis of sugar substitutes are wrong because he did not test blood sugar of patients long after, or if he did, he wasn't taking into account that a slow rise in blood sugar is nearly impossible to track if someone produces insulin on their own. When it comes to food causing weight gain carb is a carb and a fat is a fat, and both will cause weight gain. Aside from sugar rush adictiveness, the length of time it takes to break down a any carb or a any fat is only a matter of semantics for you insulin producers.
I think the basics of what is being said is, using 99% of CPU and starving processes of CPU time are not the same thing. This article is stating that both are happening(not mutually exclusive for you programming geeks).
A simple infinite loop will not starve a process that has a higher priority, and in most cases a lower priority one if a scheduling algorithm that uses aging in adition to priority. It will just use all idle CPU cycles.
I know we're geeks, but lets KISS it.
Ah yes. Microsoft is so evil for taking advantage of the system. Who is to blame for the woman who got millions in a lawsuit against McDonalds because she intelligently burned herself with hot coffee, the woman, or the system? Did she deserve it, no. Is she an idiot, yes. Is she evil for what she did? Not by the law's standards.
Every monitary transaction is providing something at someone elses expense in some way shape or form. Can these fools be blamed for trying to take advantage of the system? That is the American dream. Not to say its right, or your opinion isn't valid, but as long as the court systems agree, all's fair. If you have a problem, that's what your congressman/elections are for.
The problem with Sony is that they opened up a whole new avenue for hackers to break into system, rather then report the bug that allowed them to hid from AV software. Granted, I know there is the whole MS insecure code debate, but the two are apples and oranges.
Because with Microsoft you have a choice, and, as of yet, no one has found a MS developed trojan. You can always run linux, find a small company using something other then windows(hard to find, but they do exist), etc.
If you want a hard copy of your music, love your album covers, you're kind of SOL.
You have an equal chance of reading an article that is poorly written. Chances for either being lamer then a 1 legged dog are pretty high. Problem is, there are infinitely more Bloggers then legitimate writers.