See, what I don't get is the objective of the MPAA's push for this legislation is to punish copyright violators.
But it seems ridiculous to pass yet *another* law to make something illegal which is already illegal, while at the same time, making legitimate activities illegal as well.
Since they have gone so far to flip over the law from "that which is not forbidden is legal" to "that which is not explicitly allowed is illegal" then why assume they will never do the same for budern of proof?
Better yet, why don't we lobby for legislation to make corporate partnerships at the scale of these "Association of America" thieves illegal?
At their core, they are not really all that different from a monopoly. The only difference is that it's several different "separate" companies all working under the umbrella of another separate ??AA entity.
And really, are these companies competing? Each company has exclusive rights to all of it's content and contracted artists. It's not like an artist working under an RIAA company can just choose which of the companies they want to release their next record through.
Basically I see the RIAA and MPAA as organizations which are exploiting a monopoly loophole.
You can find a verbose analysis, but basically it comes down to:
You may not connect *anything* to a wire in your house without "express consent or express authorization" of your service provider(s).
It will be illegal to share or use any "insructions or plans" for devices which may receive intercept, disrupt, transmit, re-transmit, decrypt, acquire, facilitate, or intercept any communication without the express authorization of the communication service provider.
A good starting point is here, where you can find plenty of links to all of the most relevant information. There is also a chart showing the status of which states have bills pending or passed.
If you live in any of the following states, your participation is especially urgently needed, as they have legislation pending right now:
The sad thing in today's legislative system is that it takes a lobbyist or a lawyer to get your agenda even the least bit of attention. The masses have no real control...all we can do is support organizations that we agree with.
Agreed.
The only two I have found which are large enough to put a dent in the lobbyists's progress is the EFF and ALCU. If anyone knows of any others, I'd be glad to check them out.
Since the only thing our politicians will listen to is lobbyists, we need to form powerful lobbyists groups of our own to protect our interests. The only way we can grant these groups power is to donate our time and/or money to their cause. Since we are far less organized than the ??AA's, so we need all the help we can get.
Which is sad, because in theory, they have no voting rights as a corporation. How can the people who demand the freedom to do what we want with the things we own be overpowered by a band of theives which should theoretically have no political power?
Simple... Good old classic bribery through the "good buddy" system, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, etc...
Why do we put up with this and just let it happen? Especially when we are the ones who lose in the deal?
They won't be satisfied until they can pass legislation to make it illegal to even open the case on your computer, DVD player, television, VCR, Tivo box, etc. And even after that they'll be looking into ways to force people to wear a device which prevents them from perceiving any audio/visual signals which are not authorized by their organizations.
Thank goodness someone brought this issue to light. I tried submitting an article earlier and was rejected.
This DMCA stuff is serious. Together with the USA PATRIOT act, we are *seriously* look at an Orwellian future, people.
It's really time to do something, no more procrastinating.
If you can't go out and do something in person, then at least make a donation to the EFF and the ACLU. They both even have a monthly recurring system where you can have a small charge made to your credit card every month. A monthly contriubtion will make you feel a lot less guilty when going to the movie theater or blockbuster.
Please don't let this pass you by. The ??AA lobbyists are subverting our freedoms to tell us what we are allowed to do with the things we already own!
It's ridiculous that corporations have more political power than the people who actually elect our officials. Can we not read the bribery between the lines? This is offensive on so many levels...
It's time to act, people. How do you want your future to be determined -- by youself or by a corporation?
It's too bad "The Matrix" is a category as it is instead of another word to fit the "living within a simulation" genre. We really don't seem to have a word or title to give to the concept as a whole.
There's a bunch of great papers on the subject as well, including one that proposes that we probably do live within a computer simulation.
I know you're kidding, but it sometimes doesn't seem too far off target.
Did you know the MPAA has been using stealth lobbying efforts to pass laws at the state level to enact a Super DMCA which criminalizes the possession of "unlawful communication and access devices"?
One benefit I see of discovering other intellignce in the universe is perhaps it will improve our solidarity as a species.
It seems to be human nature to group ourselves as "us" versus "them". I think if "we" see "them" as another group separate from ourselves, then perhaps "we" (as a species) will get along a little better with each other than we are now.
Sometimes I figure the reason we don't hear from other advanced civilizations out in space (of which I'm convinced there must be billions) is that our set of physics must have some sort of "trap" in it where we reach a certian point of discovery and we somehow do ourselves in.
Now this could be in one of many ways -- some of which I can think of off the top of my head are:
Nanotechnology gets out of control
Some research on a fundamental force in sub-quantum physics causes a cascading reaction which destroys all of the matter in our planet
One of inventions becomes sentient enough to build a force to "take over" and wipe us out.
We evolve into a state which is no longer relevant to the set of physics which we are currently familiar with, and therefore "leave" this universe.
Or just plain old World War III
Sometimes I think there must be a reason we don't see other life, becuase it is the will of life forms to spread out and populate as wide of a habitat as possible. Eventually, the growth should continue unchecked so we should have seen a trace of some other species as soon as we could be conscious of the possibility of their existance.
Another possibility, although quite remote, is that we are the first life forms to have reached this point in self-awareness to even question the existance of others sentient beings.
Why not?.. Somebody has to be first. And whoever they were (if they arent't us), they must have wondered exactly the same thing: "Where is everybody else?".
I'd bet that Star Wars Galaxies will attract a whole new crowd of people into MMO games who may not have considered them before. SWG puts less emphasis on fighting, since loot from MOBs are less valuable than crafter-built items. A lot of effort has been invested in the game's economy, making activities like harvesting resources, farming, and crafting all full-time activities which can be done exclusively or as a part-time activity in addition to "blowing things up".
Also there are a couple of new classes which I haven't seen in other MMORPGs. There are two "entertainer" classes which heal "mind" wounds. They are dancers, and musicians. People in these classes can even group up to multiply their healing effects.
I can see perhaps some aspects of this game attracting a much broader audience who don't fall into the traditional AD&D/fantasy geek crowd. It should be interesting to note how the gender/age numbers differ between EQ and SWG once SWG has a couple of years on it.
[goes back to checking email to see if he got an SWG beta invite yet]
It's probably catching some keywords like "nudity" or somesuch. What we need is a proxy which deliberately mis-spells words which are likely to be caught by a web filter.
The only other way to get a voice in government that can compete with corporate lobbyists is to join a lobbying group which supports your views.
There aren't many on our side, but the EFF is definitely one worthy of $25 of my income every month. They have a recurring payment system so you can "set it and forget it" (TM) (R) (C) K
It is ridiculous that the non-voting entities are those whom recieve the most favors from our elected officials.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does it take two years to blindly rubber stamp the word "Granted" onto a document?
See, what I don't get is the objective of the MPAA's push for this legislation is to punish copyright violators.
But it seems ridiculous to pass yet *another* law to make something illegal which is already illegal, while at the same time, making legitimate activities illegal as well.
Don't be so certian...
Since they have gone so far to flip over the law from "that which is not forbidden is legal" to "that which is not explicitly allowed is illegal" then why assume they will never do the same for budern of proof?
Better yet, why don't we lobby for legislation to make corporate partnerships at the scale of these "Association of America" thieves illegal?
At their core, they are not really all that different from a monopoly. The only difference is that it's several different "separate" companies all working under the umbrella of another separate ??AA entity.
And really, are these companies competing? Each company has exclusive rights to all of it's content and contracted artists. It's not like an artist working under an RIAA company can just choose which of the companies they want to release their next record through.
Basically I see the RIAA and MPAA as organizations which are exploiting a monopoly loophole.
Time to close the loop.
You can find a verbose analysis, but basically it comes down to: You may not connect *anything* to a wire in your house without "express consent or express authorization" of your service provider(s). It will be illegal to share or use any "insructions or plans" for devices which may receive intercept, disrupt, transmit, re-transmit, decrypt, acquire, facilitate, or intercept any communication without the express authorization of the communication service provider.
Sign up for a monthly contribution to the EFF and your evil sins will be forgiven =)
Agreed.
The only two I have found which are large enough to put a dent in the lobbyists's progress is the EFF and ALCU. If anyone knows of any others, I'd be glad to check them out.
Since the only thing our politicians will listen to is lobbyists, we need to form powerful lobbyists groups of our own to protect our interests. The only way we can grant these groups power is to donate our time and/or money to their cause. Since we are far less organized than the ??AA's, so we need all the help we can get.
The MPAA and RIAA can be very loud.
Which is sad, because in theory, they have no voting rights as a corporation. How can the people who demand the freedom to do what we want with the things we own be overpowered by a band of theives which should theoretically have no political power?
Simple... Good old classic bribery through the "good buddy" system, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, etc...
Why do we put up with this and just let it happen? Especially when we are the ones who lose in the deal?
They won't be satisfied until they can pass legislation to make it illegal to even open the case on your computer, DVD player, television, VCR, Tivo box, etc. And even after that they'll be looking into ways to force people to wear a device which prevents them from perceiving any audio/visual signals which are not authorized by their organizations.
Thank goodness someone brought this issue to light. I tried submitting an article earlier and was rejected.
This DMCA stuff is serious. Together with the USA PATRIOT act, we are *seriously* look at an Orwellian future, people.
It's really time to do something, no more procrastinating.
If you can't go out and do something in person, then at least make a donation to the EFF and the ACLU. They both even have a monthly recurring system where you can have a small charge made to your credit card every month. A monthly contriubtion will make you feel a lot less guilty when going to the movie theater or blockbuster.
Please don't let this pass you by. The ??AA lobbyists are subverting our freedoms to tell us what we are allowed to do with the things we already own!
It's ridiculous that corporations have more political power than the people who actually elect our officials. Can we not read the bribery between the lines? This is offensive on so many levels...
It's time to act, people. How do you want your future to be determined -- by youself or by a corporation?
It's too bad "The Matrix" is a category as it is instead of another word to fit the "living within a simulation" genre. We really don't seem to have a word or title to give to the concept as a whole.
There's a bunch of great papers on the subject as well, including one that proposes that we probably do live within a computer simulation.
Why not just load the whole filesystem into virtual memory? =)
I know you're kidding, but it sometimes doesn't seem too far off target.
Did you know the MPAA has been using stealth lobbying efforts to pass laws at the state level to enact a Super DMCA which criminalizes the possession of "unlawful communication and access devices"?
One benefit I see of discovering other intellignce in the universe is perhaps it will improve our solidarity as a species.
It seems to be human nature to group ourselves as "us" versus "them". I think if "we" see "them" as another group separate from ourselves, then perhaps "we" (as a species) will get along a little better with each other than we are now.
Bah.. good riddance.
Quicktime is crap.
I hate programs which use an overdone GUI to the detrement of performance and usability.
I'm probably wrong, but wasn't this how the layers.library worked on the Amiga?
"Darwinian Economics"
When do we get to start doing awards for these?
Now this could be in one of many ways -- some of which I can think of off the top of my head are:
- Nanotechnology gets out of control
- Some research on a fundamental force in sub-quantum physics causes a cascading reaction which destroys all of the matter in our planet
- One of inventions becomes sentient enough to build a force to "take over" and wipe us out.
- We evolve into a state which is no longer relevant to the set of physics which we are currently familiar with, and therefore "leave" this universe.
- Or just plain old World War III
Sometimes I think there must be a reason we don't see other life, becuase it is the will of life forms to spread out and populate as wide of a habitat as possible. Eventually, the growth should continue unchecked so we should have seen a trace of some other species as soon as we could be conscious of the possibility of their existance.Another possibility, although quite remote, is that we are the first life forms to have reached this point in self-awareness to even question the existance of others sentient beings.
Why not?.. Somebody has to be first. And whoever they were (if they arent't us), they must have wondered exactly the same thing: "Where is everybody else?".
I'd bet that Star Wars Galaxies will attract a whole new crowd of people into MMO games who may not have considered them before. SWG puts less emphasis on fighting, since loot from MOBs are less valuable than crafter-built items. A lot of effort has been invested in the game's economy, making activities like harvesting resources, farming, and crafting all full-time activities which can be done exclusively or as a part-time activity in addition to "blowing things up".
Also there are a couple of new classes which I haven't seen in other MMORPGs. There are two "entertainer" classes which heal "mind" wounds. They are dancers, and musicians. People in these classes can even group up to multiply their healing effects.
I can see perhaps some aspects of this game attracting a much broader audience who don't fall into the traditional AD&D/fantasy geek crowd. It should be interesting to note how the gender/age numbers differ between EQ and SWG once SWG has a couple of years on it.
[goes back to checking email to see if he got an SWG beta invite yet]
Now that would be something to get me to part with some cash in short order. Someone must have one in develompent by now?
- How is nudity so much more evil than violence?
- Why is depicting an act which creates life so much more evil than an act which creates death?
Can anyone please tell me what's going on in the minds of the people who think this?That's because you forgot to capitalize the first letter of each line...
It's probably catching some keywords like "nudity" or somesuch. What we need is a proxy which deliberately mis-spells words which are likely to be caught by a web filter.
The only other way to get a voice in government that can compete with corporate lobbyists is to join a lobbying group which supports your views.
There aren't many on our side, but the EFF is definitely one worthy of $25 of my income every month. They have a recurring payment system so you can "set it and forget it" (TM) (R) (C) K
It is ridiculous that the non-voting entities are those whom recieve the most favors from our elected officials.