This really drives me nuts. Every Napster/mp3 article Katz posts mentions how people are now accustomed and have grown up with free music online and now it's too late to turn back.
Where does he get this from?
The mp3 format has only been around for 3, 4 years at best! Every single one of us remembers when we didn't have it! And what's more, lots of us don't have high-speed connections, making downloading mp3s kind of a pain in the ass.
The only people who _might_ be really accustomed to mp3s would have to be 8-to-10 years old, the youngest ages that people could be to not really remember internet-less life. But I doubt these are the people Katz is talking about.
No, I think Katz is talking about the college kids who have downloaded music so long that it's easy for them to deny that they're stealing. But they're certainly damn well intelligent enough to know that it's still stealing.
Now I'm not slamming all college kids; I can't because I am one. But surfing the local dorm network yields gigs and gigs of full albums on the HDs of students who think that risk-free stealing is somewhat less bad than other forms of stealing. It kinda pisses me off.
So, I really want to know. What is Katz' reasoning? Does he think that the college kids don't know that they're stealing from the artists they adore? I doubt it. Denial or selfish rationalization is more the case.
[Disclaimer: Yes, I do hate the RIAA. I am not defending them. But mp3 piracy steals from both the RIAA and the artists, and hurting one does not negate hurting the other.]
Rarely does a statement strike me with the force of what you just said. "Now imagine that he released the first chapter of the next Dark Tower novel." Holy god. I bet that would make the 32 grand seem like peanuts in a much lesser period of time.
Unfortunately, I was looking for something a little less... anchored to a place. As a college student, I won't want jimtheta.east-lansing.mi.us once I graduate and move on outta this town (and I'm not gonna point it at my parent's town). I can understand anchoring the URL to a state, but to a city? Aside from location issues, that just makes the name too darn long!
Maybe when I get married and buy a house I'll do it, but until then, my transient ass can wait (or cough up actual *dough*).
This may sound like a dumb question, but how do I get a.us domain? If they're free, that sounds a hell of a lot better than paying for a.com/net/org whatever, since I'd just like a personal site. I would assume that for a.us domain I don't go through one of those commercial.com/whatever registrars, right? Can you give me web site URL? Thanks -JimTheta jimtheta@beer.com ---
Do you see any Presidential candidates talking about manned space exploration? Nope. People need to start asking their reps what they're going to do to support manned space exploration.
Well, now you hit another matter. I'm not a big proponent of the space program in the first place. I personally thinks it's a big money sink when those dollars could go to better use at the moment.
I'd much rather we spend our money and attention fixing up what we got down here than figuring out ways to leave it.
But this is a debate that won't come to any definitive conclusion, so it's not worth beating on it. (The same opinion I have of theological discussions...:) )
Seriously. We haven't even put real establishment on the moon yet. Why are we jumping forward to hype about a Mars base already?
The moon is umpteen times closer, we know more about it, and more importantly, we've actually been there before. Not to mention, if there's a problem, you're a hell of a lot closer to rescue.
Seems sorta backwards to me that we're ignoring this resource and trying to get straight to Mars instead, but then again I don't know how these things are budgeted. Perhaps there are political reasons for getting th Mars before doing the Moon thing - and after all, politics drive the space program.
Well said. I personally hate the space program. If we're not gonna spend that kind of heavy cash down here where it will do the most good, we should at least work toward useful applications instead of jumping to the next big media event.
"Hey look! We found a new planet! Give us money, attention, and fame!" Shut up, dork, and put a Burger King somewhere we can actually get to. Then get back to me.
Oh gee, that's f***ing great. Now in addition to following some yuppie going 55 in the fast lane talking to his broker, I gotta follow some 23 year-old dorkus playing Nethack.
Hey, Buttwipe! Stop fighting the ice griffin and watch the road!
Yeah, web businesses don't want to have a web tax. But yet, when they are DoS'ed or whatever, who does eBay and Yahoo and Amazon and all those turn to to investigate?
Yeah, they don't want to pay taxes, but they still want the government's services.
Hey, I don't want to pay taxes, but I still want paved roads to drive on and fire fighters and cops, so I deal. It should be no different with these corps.
Thanks for the info. If you ask me, every country has a right to a national tld; in fact, until today, I thought that was the case!
I mean, every country should get a tld to administer however they want. They can give control to a government department, a private company, or sell it to some company who has other plans (like that retarded but unfortunately profitable ".tv" auction thing. God that pisses me off that they can make so much green on something that requires so little actual effort).
But unfortunately, this is only how things would work in JimThetaLand. Realworldland is entirely too petty and greedy. But we all knew that.
Seriously. That usage policy will be laughed off the very same way Napster proponents (well, the very large we-have-the-right-to-free-commercial-music crowd anyway) laugh off copyright. And the mainstream press probably won't give a rat's ass.
Not that I completely disagree, mind you. I agree with the principle of the new program, but it will be a large disservice to those more scrupulous Napster users who just use the service to preview albums, like myself.
On the other hand, I bet there'll be a new version of Napster that will eliminate this in, like, 3 hours or so. And then we will have a war similar to the AOL/MS instant-messaging version battle.
At www.gravitykills.com you can find a number of mp3s (from full-length commercial albums even) free for download for promo purposes. The band members have alluded to maybe putting new tracks from their forthcoming album online, if/when they get permission from TVT.
So (not that this is news to most/.ers) I just want to say that I hope the actions of the company don't reflect on the band. Of course, fans following GK's recent online chats know that GK and TVT might not be on the best of terms right now....
An entire generation has grown up seeing the acquisition of music as a right.
Say what? You yourself say in this article that the mp3 format has exploded in popularity only recently. (Actual quote: MP3 technology -- a format which jumped from obscurity to ubiquity in 1999 -- has turned out to be revolutionary.)
How do you figure a time period of less than two or three years has changed the moral perceptions of an entire generation? Whatever. We all knew what piracy was before mp3 and high speed internet, and we all know what it is now. The 100 people in my dorm building with 6+ Gigs of mp3s make me sick. If you like an artist, and you respect an artist, buy their stuff.
And what's this?:"Millions of people whose access to music was previously limited to radio and CDs suddenly had instant and free access to much of the music recorded in modern times." Huh? What does this even mean? The stuff on the best-selling CDs and pop radio stations is the stuff being pirated the most! People snagging this stuff isn't encouraging freedom of jack spit!
The rich, popular artists (Metallica, Dre) are the ones pissing in the smaller artists/genres pool. But I still don't agree that we should all have the right to download 23 Gigs of free music and keep it indefinitely without the artists getting a cent.
While I do think that the RIAA sucks (and the MPAA while we're at it) and is handling this situation completely wrong, I have no idea why JonKatz's article is so long and full of nonsense statements. I know I'm digressing from the main issue at hand, but JonKatz just pisses me off the way he talks like music should be free for all without regard to artists.
For the record, I am not against mp3s. I do have some (less than 200 megs, mind you), but this is limited to one-hit wonders and artists I don't respect (including Metallica now, for one). They are also wonderful for try-before-you-buy.
I even encourage geeks and nerds, goths and punks to launch a (nation-wide?) pre-emptive strike: if you are in high school, grab a list of all the jocks and football players and denounce them as punks, goths, malcontent, depressed, drug-addicted and violent characters. Throw in a few white-power/aryan nations jerks as well. Rat on your teachers. Report on your class president, on the Prom Queen, on the cheerleaders!!
That is a bad plan. Here's why:
If the school starts receiving scads of reports about its star athletes and popular kids, they're just going to start ignoring the reports that are about these people. The main problem with high school is that the "jocks" and popular kids are allowed to get away with lots of stuff that others aren't, due to their sports status or whatever. It won't be a stretch for school authorities to continue overlooking these people, and they might even be encouraged by these false reports.
Unfortunately, I think the only real solution is to use the WAVE system responsibly. Don't flood WAVE with false reports; only real reports against those who deserve it, with as much real evidence that you can supply.
Are football players picking on the D&D gamers, causing damage to property (ie stealing/defacing books, scattering dice down the hall with a kick) and so forth? Basketball jocks making the heavy girl cry? Report the event in the most complete detail possible. But make sure every event is verifiable or at least undeniably plausable.
We all know who the real problem children are. We have to turn all tools that might target us antisocials against those who have alienated us into fitting the "violent" profile.
Well, most people have forgotten about a widely published, 2,000-4,000 year old book called the Bible. In it, God lays out His plan precisely so that we as humans can understand it.
*Sigh* No. God did lay out His plan in the Bible. Guys relayed their interpretations of His the Bible. Guys who are prone to error, just as God made them.
And what's more, they didn't intend to write The Bible. They wrote to pass the knowledge on, and leave a record of their experiences with Jesus or God or whatever for people to use when they were dead. However, assorted interpretations of these writings caused various Gnostic and heretical sects and teachings to emerge.
The Bible was compiled from these scattered writings. And some were left out, even if they contained possible truth, because they encouraged these splinter groups which already had a little strength. The Church leaders needed a solid foundation of laws and teachings to keep the Christian church centrally strong and organized, else it splinter into nothingness.
As a final note, I must mention that the *printing press* was not invented until at least 1500 years after Christ. Every frickin' copy of the Bible until the printing press was a handwritten copy, translated and retranslated, mostly in the hands of the wealthy (like the Church), who could afford such a product (and control the contents of such a product, in the case of the early Church leaders).
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This really drives me nuts. Every Napster/mp3 article Katz posts mentions how people are now accustomed and have grown up with free music online and now it's too late to turn back.
Where does he get this from?
The mp3 format has only been around for 3, 4 years at best! Every single one of us remembers when we didn't have it! And what's more, lots of us don't have high-speed connections, making downloading mp3s kind of a pain in the ass.
The only people who _might_ be really accustomed to mp3s would have to be 8-to-10 years old, the youngest ages that people could be to not really remember internet-less life. But I doubt these are the people Katz is talking about.
No, I think Katz is talking about the college kids who have downloaded music so long that it's easy for them to deny that they're stealing. But they're certainly damn well intelligent enough to know that it's still stealing.
Now I'm not slamming all college kids; I can't because I am one. But surfing the local dorm network yields gigs and gigs of full albums on the HDs of students who think that risk-free stealing is somewhat less bad than other forms of stealing. It kinda pisses me off.
So, I really want to know. What is Katz' reasoning? Does he think that the college kids don't know that they're stealing from the artists they adore? I doubt it. Denial or selfish rationalization is more the case.
[Disclaimer: Yes, I do hate the RIAA. I am not defending them. But mp3 piracy steals from both the RIAA and the artists, and hurting one does not negate hurting the other.]
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
---
Rarely does a statement strike me with the force of what you just said. "Now imagine that he released the first chapter of the next Dark Tower novel." Holy god. I bet that would make the 32 grand seem like peanuts in a much lesser period of time.
-JimTheta
---
Thanks for the info.
Unfortunately, I was looking for something a little less... anchored to a place. As a college student, I won't want jimtheta.east-lansing.mi.us once I graduate and move on outta this town (and I'm not gonna point it at my parent's town). I can understand anchoring the URL to a state, but to a city? Aside from location issues, that just makes the name too darn long!
Maybe when I get married and buy a house I'll do it, but until then, my transient ass can wait (or cough up actual *dough*).
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
---
This may sound like a dumb question, but how do I get a .us domain? If they're free, that sounds a hell of a lot better than paying for a .com/net/org whatever, since I'd just like a personal site. I would assume that for a .us domain I don't go through one of those commercial .com/whatever registrars, right? Can you give me web site URL? Thanks -JimTheta jimtheta@beer.com
---
Do you see any Presidential candidates talking about manned space exploration? Nope. People need to start asking their reps what they're going to do to support manned space exploration.
Well, now you hit another matter. I'm not a big proponent of the space program in the first place. I personally thinks it's a big money sink when those dollars could go to better use at the moment.
I'd much rather we spend our money and attention fixing up what we got down here than figuring out ways to leave it.
But this is a debate that won't come to any definitive conclusion, so it's not worth beating on it. (The same opinion I have of theological discussions... :) )
JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
Seriously. We haven't even put real establishment on the moon yet. Why are we jumping forward to hype about a Mars base already?
The moon is umpteen times closer, we know more about it, and more importantly, we've actually been there before. Not to mention, if there's a problem, you're a hell of a lot closer to rescue.
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
On a completely unrelated topic (ok, no), do they still make LSL games?
-JimTheta
Seems sorta backwards to me that we're ignoring this resource and trying to get straight to Mars instead, but then again I don't know how these things are budgeted. Perhaps there are political reasons for getting th Mars before doing the Moon thing - and after all, politics drive the space program.
Well said. I personally hate the space program. If we're not gonna spend that kind of heavy cash down here where it will do the most good, we should at least work toward useful applications instead of jumping to the next big media event.
"Hey look! We found a new planet! Give us money, attention, and fame!" Shut up, dork, and put a Burger King somewhere we can actually get to. Then get back to me.
-JimThetaSeriously. Why we so worried about Mars when we ain't done jack on the moon? Where's that moon base I've heard talk about since 4th grade?
Until we get some people doing something productive on the moon for an appreciable length of time, I think we oughta leave Mars on the back burner.
-JimTheta
Like the other guys that responded, I use ZSNES. I've never had a problem with it on my P2/333mHz/64 megs ram PC, and it's very customizable.
It _is_ DOS though.
I haven't tried Mario Kart on it, however. Get it and all kinds of emulator crap at Zophar's Domain.
-JimThetaOh gee, that's f***ing great. Now in addition to following some yuppie going 55 in the fast lane talking to his broker, I gotta follow some 23 year-old dorkus playing Nethack.
Hey, Buttwipe! Stop fighting the ice griffin and watch the road!
-JimThetaIf those pesky French are involved, I want no part of it.
-JimTheta
Yeah, web businesses don't want to have a web tax. But yet, when they are DoS'ed or whatever, who does eBay and Yahoo and Amazon and all those turn to to investigate?
Yeah, they don't want to pay taxes, but they still want the government's services.
Hey, I don't want to pay taxes, but I still want paved roads to drive on and fire fighters and cops, so I deal. It should be no different with these corps.
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
This goes to prove that you don't need bleeding edge (and expensive) hardware to play a great game.
Pff! Duh. I'm still catching up on all the SNES games I never got to. Emulators rock.
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
Thanks for the info. If you ask me, every country has a right to a national tld; in fact, until today, I thought that was the case!
I mean, every country should get a tld to administer however they want. They can give control to a government department, a private company, or sell it to some company who has other plans (like that retarded but unfortunately profitable ".tv" auction thing. God that pisses me off that they can make so much green on something that requires so little actual effort).
But unfortunately, this is only how things would work in JimThetaLand. Realworldland is entirely too petty and greedy. But we all knew that.
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
I don't think the U.S. has a monopoly on audacity.
No, I suppose we don't, but we've arguably got the biggest media industry, and that amplifies it tenfold. :P
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.comYou've got to be kidding me! I can't believe that a group with this kind of authority would presume to charge for country domains!
What are they gonna do? Give ".fr" to someone else?
Maybe I'm just understanding this wrong, but, man. The audacity of some American institutions never ceases to amaze/disgust me. (I am a US citizen)
-JimTheta, jimtheta@beer.com
Seriously. That usage policy will be laughed off the very same way Napster proponents (well, the very large we-have-the-right-to-free-commercial-music crowd anyway) laugh off copyright. And the mainstream press probably won't give a rat's ass.
Not that I completely disagree, mind you. I agree with the principle of the new program, but it will be a large disservice to those more scrupulous Napster users who just use the service to preview albums, like myself.
On the other hand, I bet there'll be a new version of Napster that will eliminate this in, like, 3 hours or so. And then we will have a war similar to the AOL/MS instant-messaging version battle.
-JimTheta
At www.gravitykills.com you can find a number of mp3s (from full-length commercial albums even) free for download for promo purposes. The band members have alluded to maybe putting new tracks from their forthcoming album online, if/when they get permission from TVT.
So (not that this is news to most /.ers) I just want to say that I hope the actions of the company don't reflect on the band. Of course, fans following GK's recent online chats know that GK and TVT might not be on the best of terms right now....
I wonder if TVT's legal/PR people even know...?
-JimTheta, a GK fan a couple of other GK things here
Say what? You yourself say in this article that the mp3 format has exploded in popularity only recently. (Actual quote: MP3 technology -- a format which jumped from obscurity to ubiquity in 1999 -- has turned out to be revolutionary.)
How do you figure a time period of less than two or three years has changed the moral perceptions of an entire generation ? Whatever. We all knew what piracy was before mp3 and high speed internet, and we all know what it is now. The 100 people in my dorm building with 6+ Gigs of mp3s make me sick. If you like an artist, and you respect an artist, buy their stuff.
And what's this?:"Millions of people whose access to music was previously limited to radio and CDs suddenly had instant and free access to much of the music recorded in modern times." Huh? What does this even mean? The stuff on the best-selling CDs and pop radio stations is the stuff being pirated the most! People snagging this stuff isn't encouraging freedom of jack spit!
The rich, popular artists (Metallica, Dre) are the ones pissing in the smaller artists/genres pool. But I still don't agree that we should all have the right to download 23 Gigs of free music and keep it indefinitely without the artists getting a cent.
While I do think that the RIAA sucks (and the MPAA while we're at it) and is handling this situation completely wrong, I have no idea why JonKatz's article is so long and full of nonsense statements. I know I'm digressing from the main issue at hand, but JonKatz just pisses me off the way he talks like music should be free for all without regard to artists.
For the record, I am not against mp3s. I do have some (less than 200 megs, mind you), but this is limited to one-hit wonders and artists I don't respect (including Metallica now, for one). They are also wonderful for try-before-you-buy.
-JimTheta jimtheta@beer.comI even encourage geeks and nerds, goths and punks to launch a (nation-wide?) pre-emptive strike: if you are in high school, grab a list of all the jocks and football players and denounce them as punks, goths, malcontent, depressed, drug-addicted and violent characters. Throw in a few white-power/aryan nations jerks as well. Rat on your teachers. Report on your class president, on the Prom Queen, on the cheerleaders!!
That is a bad plan. Here's why:
If the school starts receiving scads of reports about its star athletes and popular kids, they're just going to start ignoring the reports that are about these people. The main problem with high school is that the "jocks" and popular kids are allowed to get away with lots of stuff that others aren't, due to their sports status or whatever. It won't be a stretch for school authorities to continue overlooking these people, and they might even be encouraged by these false reports.
Unfortunately, I think the only real solution is to use the WAVE system responsibly. Don't flood WAVE with false reports; only real reports against those who deserve it, with as much real evidence that you can supply.
Are football players picking on the D&D gamers, causing damage to property (ie stealing/defacing books, scattering dice down the hall with a kick) and so forth? Basketball jocks making the heavy girl cry? Report the event in the most complete detail possible. But make sure every event is verifiable or at least undeniably plausable.
We all know who the real problem children are. We have to turn all tools that might target us antisocials against those who have alienated us into fitting the "violent" profile.
-JimThetajimtheta@beer.com
These guys are gonna find themselves obsolete really soon... because--
Quick! What country has ".hdtv"?!
-JimThetaDang! The interviewer hinted toward asking, and then let it go.
The question: Why can't we play purchased DVDs on non-MPAA authorized players? That's what this whole debate should be about.
-JimTheta
*Sigh* No. God did lay out His plan in the Bible. Guys relayed their interpretations of His the Bible. Guys who are prone to error, just as God made them.
And what's more, they didn't intend to write The Bible. They wrote to pass the knowledge on, and leave a record of their experiences with Jesus or God or whatever for people to use when they were dead. However, assorted interpretations of these writings caused various Gnostic and heretical sects and teachings to emerge.
The Bible was compiled from these scattered writings. And some were left out, even if they contained possible truth, because they encouraged these splinter groups which already had a little strength. The Church leaders needed a solid foundation of laws and teachings to keep the Christian church centrally strong and organized, else it splinter into nothingness.
As a final note, I must mention that the *printing press* was not invented until at least 1500 years after Christ. Every frickin' copy of the Bible until the printing press was a handwritten copy, translated and retranslated, mostly in the hands of the wealthy (like the Church), who could afford such a product (and control the contents of such a product, in the case of the early Church leaders).
Excuse us all if we reserve suspicion.
-JimTheta