You shouldn't have to pay them to put code on your own box.
Now, mind you, I *would* be ok with them only allowing signed games to get onto XBL. They could very easily do that without outright refusing to run the games at all though.
Unfortunately, telling a pirated game apart from a homebrew game is not easy, and it's clearly in in MS's business interest to treat them both the same.
I'm curious if apple even has the legal right to restrict installation to apple hardware.
If it's presented after purchase, then you are not obliged to agree to it.
Yet if the store you're supposed to return it to says "all sales final" then wouldn't apple be on the hook for handling refunds of the "refused to consent to the EULA" variety?
Sounds like the same way attempts to fight spam went.
Blue Security was doing a damn fine job...until one of the spammers got pissed off and stabbed them with a DDoS.
It's obvious that the bad guys have too much firepower.
A better solution would be to deal aggressively with pirates. Put them down, clap them in irons, and stamp it out with all your might. After a while, pirates will realize that crime doesn't pay. And above all the navies of the world need to make a stand against piracy.
Besides, if we simply look the other way and offer NO challenge to piracy, they'll get brave and grow until eventually they turn into an ocean mafia rivaling our own navy.
In Sicily around 80 percent of businesses pay protection money to Cosa Nostra. How do you think they got that big? Not getting flak from the law. They now have friends in high places protecting them. If the police were more aggressive against the mafiosi, they'd lash out at first and there'd be some damage, but eventually they'd get worn down and give up...that is if their gunpoint held political masters didn't call them off first.
If you want to have a clean garden, you get rid of the weeds. And weeds are much easier to be gotten rid of if they haven't had time to firm up and dig in.
Joe jobs, for one. Sending spam advertising someone without their consent is a pretty damning smear tactic.
I'd say to go after anyone that profits from spam. Considering how big a business it is (enough to have 95 percent of all emails be spam), there's probably quite a few stakeholders getting a piece of the pie.
I say to give all those stakeholders some laxative and make them disgorge their ill-gotten dirty money.
At the top of the list, ISPs that sign pink contracts and, in exchange for whopping payments, look the other way when their users spam.
Also there's a jurisdictional challenge involved in dealing with spam outside the country you are policing.
How much of it actually passes an integrity/authorization check like dkim or spf?
Maybe if those were made more widespread we could do a good bit better job tracing and jailing these bastards......or blacklisting accomplice ISPs that don't give a rat's arse about the spam they are sending.
Whoopdedoo, now we have high tech learning how to take hostages.
Don't negotiate with terrorists.
I hear that abductions in china (by non government entities at least) are rare because the chinese authorities are ruthless and give no quarter, so the bad guys know they can't win just by taking a hostage.
Many pirate simply because they are cheapskates, and many more as of late do it simply out of spite/revenge against the RIAA. It's cheating. As wikipedia calls it, it's "getting more for less"
Bottom line is that pirates are willfully defying the law. Someone with a "devil may care" attitude like that almost certainly isn't going to have clean hands, so to speak, when his true motivations are put under a microscope.
Both sides are sleazy. Big Content indeed has its ethical problems.
But any pirate who says they deserve what they get, rightly or not, is just a pot calling a kettle black.
Those of you who know what the hell I'm talking about, you will understand that criminalizing people over something they have no control over is ludicrous.
There are people who are griefers IRL (aka "assholes") that have nothing better to do than get someone else's life ruined. People frame and plant all the time.
Slashdot Mirror
And that right there is why MS is evil.
You shouldn't have to pay them to put code on your own box.
Now, mind you, I *would* be ok with them only allowing signed games to get onto XBL. They could very easily do that without outright refusing to run the games at all though.
Unfortunately, telling a pirated game apart from a homebrew game is not easy, and it's clearly in in MS's business interest to treat them both the same.
Those aren't letters.
/ and . are two CHARACTERS.
I'm curious if apple even has the legal right to restrict installation to apple hardware.
If it's presented after purchase, then you are not obliged to agree to it.
Yet if the store you're supposed to return it to says "all sales final" then wouldn't apple be on the hook for handling refunds of the "refused to consent to the EULA" variety?
They already do, it's called giving the executioner a salary.
Indeed.
In this case, refusing to pay means you don't get any more power. Which is ok since the power wasn't yours until you actually bought it.
But in the case of piracy, you're forced to pay to KEEP something you already own.
Sounds like the same way attempts to fight spam went.
Blue Security was doing a damn fine job...until one of the spammers got pissed off and stabbed them with a DDoS.
It's obvious that the bad guys have too much firepower.
A better solution would be to deal aggressively with pirates. Put them down, clap them in irons, and stamp it out with all your might. After a while, pirates will realize that crime doesn't pay. And above all the navies of the world need to make a stand against piracy.
Besides, if we simply look the other way and offer NO challenge to piracy, they'll get brave and grow until eventually they turn into an ocean mafia rivaling our own navy.
In Sicily around 80 percent of businesses pay protection money to Cosa Nostra. How do you think they got that big? Not getting flak from the law. They now have friends in high places protecting them. If the police were more aggressive against the mafiosi, they'd lash out at first and there'd be some damage, but eventually they'd get worn down and give up...that is if their gunpoint held political masters didn't call them off first.
If you want to have a clean garden, you get rid of the weeds. And weeds are much easier to be gotten rid of if they haven't had time to firm up and dig in.
Not supporting Atom is one thing.
Deliberately crashing them is another.
This is almost like the iphone brickage of a while ago.
Most chemical reactions can be run in reverse in some manner.
How about we use our solar energy to mop up all the CO2 and turn it back into fuel?
Oh wait, we already have that. It's called photosynthesis.
slashdot has 6 letters?
Joe jobs, for one. Sending spam advertising someone without their consent is a pretty damning smear tactic.
I'd say to go after anyone that profits from spam. Considering how big a business it is (enough to have 95 percent of all emails be spam), there's probably quite a few stakeholders getting a piece of the pie.
I say to give all those stakeholders some laxative and make them disgorge their ill-gotten dirty money.
At the top of the list, ISPs that sign pink contracts and, in exchange for whopping payments, look the other way when their users spam.
Also there's a jurisdictional challenge involved in dealing with spam outside the country you are policing.
Sounds also like a damn good reason why it's futile trying to rely solely on US law enforcement to take these bad boys down.
I bet several of them are hosted in countries that don't give a flying fuck about the US.
Iran being one of them.
I wouldn't be surprised if some governments even look the other way on purpose just to spite the west.
Especially if they have a mccolo type back door to run away through.
How much of it actually passes an integrity/authorization check like dkim or spf?
Maybe if those were made more widespread we could do a good bit better job tracing and jailing these bastards... ...or blacklisting accomplice ISPs that don't give a rat's arse about the spam they are sending.
Forgery allows spammers to operate anonymously.
Whoopdedoo, now we have high tech learning how to take hostages.
Don't negotiate with terrorists.
I hear that abductions in china (by non government entities at least) are rare because the chinese authorities are ruthless and give no quarter, so the bad guys know they can't win just by taking a hostage.
Yes, a net gain for society was the spirit of copyright. Unfortunately, it's been possessed by evil corporations.
I think world of goo or something like that did a "pay what you want" promotion recently, and it was a big hit.
The difference though is that in that case it happened with the publisher's full consent.
Which is exactly the whole point about having a bargain. It's a BI-lateral transaction.
Not all pirates are plain shit broke.
Many pirate simply because they are cheapskates, and many more as of late do it simply out of spite/revenge against the RIAA. It's cheating. As wikipedia calls it, it's "getting more for less"
Bottom line is that pirates are willfully defying the law. Someone with a "devil may care" attitude like that almost certainly isn't going to have clean hands, so to speak, when his true motivations are put under a microscope.
Both sides are sleazy. Big Content indeed has its ethical problems.
But any pirate who says they deserve what they get, rightly or not, is just a pot calling a kettle black.
And this is surprising how?
Big guys bullying little guys is a common thread in ALL fields, not just patents.
Might makes right no matter what the arena.
And that's why we hate monopolies.
When they act badly, the market can't punish them. So they keep acting badly.
Cuz that makes the targeted sites miss out on ad revenue?
Kinda like how spammers reap enormous profits in spite of the resources they waste for free.
One may as well make it illegal to...
LOSE THE GAME!!!!
Those of you who know what the hell I'm talking about, you will understand that criminalizing people over something they have no control over is ludicrous.
It's a game of cat and mouse.
There are people who are griefers IRL (aka "assholes") that have nothing better to do than get someone else's life ruined. People frame and plant all the time.
It's all about the lulz.
Thanks very much in whole to a political squabble about whose format would reign supreme.
I HATE it when politics get in the way of a standard.
Not always.
Especially if your non-refundable purchase of DRMed material gets nuked because the company doesn't feel like holding up their end of the bargain.
You can't really "shop around" much if you've already been milked and burned.
Doubly so if they have a big enough army of lawyers to squash you like a bug if you try to complain.