I don't believe that is true. If I remember correctly, Microsoft told Dell that they would not be allowed to offer other operating systems on the same machines as Windows was being "offered", or it would possibly go as far as to revoke all existing Dell CD keys, if not at least loose its OEM discount. Either option would have been disastrous. In looking over the various machines from Dell, there are hardly comparable models between Windows and Ubuntu/FreeDOS.
Though honestly, I am not sure I would trust another prebuilt machine with all the tweaks they make to the firmware and sacrifices they make to cut costs on features few people know about. Maybe would feel different if I needed an ultra-low-cost PC, but the markup on a high end pc is just crazy.
I recently rebuilt a computer at work with windows, and my home computer with Linux. The work computer was a Dell prebuild with Windows. The only windows cd I had came with SP2, so the CD key on the machine was invalid. The work around there was quick and easy. Most major drivers were missing. Start up to Ubuntu LIVE DVD, shrink partition to leave room for a place to backup drivers needed to download. Grabbed the driver bundles necessary and hunted around for all the software I needed. OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Blender, Avast, Spybot S&D, Firefox, Flash, Java, Python GTK, Gimp, Hydrogen, Audacity, Quicktime, and vlc. Run each application setup, configure windizupdate, turn off unnecessary services, turn off unnecessary startups, setup users, configure group policy, and good to go. Some internet connectivity problems / slowdowns were in part to blame for slow downloads, but whole thing was setup for use in about 6 work days. Not sure exactly how many actual hours of work it was because I was multitasking, and a lot of it was clicking and restarting.
For the home computer, I removed unnecessary files from my home directory, and moved them to a new partition after, shrinking my present install, for backup. By the time that was finished, I had downloaded Hardy DVD via torrent. Clean install. Everything worked and enabled restricted Nvidia driver. Added wine and Medibuntu repository via copy and paste from the respective web site howto. Copied by home backup to the new home directory while poking through synaptic to select MS Fonts, vlc player, DVD support, Adobe Reader, ssh, Inkscape, Blender, Audacity, Hydrogen, Wine, Flash, and Java. Also Marked All Updates, and clicked Apply. Everything downloaded in Both machines work well now for their purpose. But another note, the windows machine was DEAD / virtual instant freezing after startup even in safe mode when it needed to be rebuilt. The home machine was working fine other than a few weird cosmetic issues I think were fall outs from dist-upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 to 8.04. Not to mention I switched keyboard layouts, but couldn't get the new layout to work for the GDM or Grub.
And lastly a reason for a clean install was an old dead windows install I had not needed for nearly 6 months.
I am forever grateful for the time, energy, and sanity saved by "just saying no" to M$ garbage and unnecessary hassle.
Given the hassle of the refund and the great expense of dealing with these refunds, I think (playing devils advocate) it sends a stronger message when you buy what you want and exercise your consumer rights by making the necessary effort. Not to sound too elitist, but the machines offered by Dell with Ubuntu are fairly weak for their price. Hours on the phone with a CSR and possible small claims judgments against them can either be damaging, or encouraging to offer real options to the small subset of unhappy customers.
M$ plays hardball to sell their OEM VLK's. I would not be surprised if Ballmer wasn't lying when he said "Vista has been a great success" because the way M$ does business doesn't require people to actually buy it or use it. Think Dell got any "discount" or paid any less across the cost of all their machines because of a few (even potentially a million) Ubuntu computers? I bet not. M$ effectively collects a direct tax. They already have the money.
If it is playing nice, or going to small claims court, either Dell/HP is going to get screwed from both ends, or they are going to start taking money back from M$ by whatever means is necessary for them.
As long as I am making it as dramatic as possible, I have heard (at least from The Great Escape) that your primary duty as a Prisoner of War is to make it as expensive as possible for your captors to hold you. It isn't just pro-Linux, it is Anti-OS Bundling! How different would it be from all computers coming bundled with all the latest and greatest games for your computer because it is cheaper than fighting piracy. Even better, all those games are bundled at 5-10% of the retail price. I think most people would say "hurray, what a deal!". Cheap games, preloading saves time, defeats piracy (cause who needs to steal what they already have), and game developers get their fair share. Nothing about economics would have anything negative to say about this, so what is with all these elitist slashdotters coumplaining about?*
virtually anyone with an internet connection can DO WHAT DISNEY DOES! No they can't, I've watched a few independent internet made movies and they are shit. Ok, think some context was missed. When I say that today people today can make stuff like Disney can, I wasn't talking about huge, multi-million dollar studio productions (which obviously have value), it is the ability to take other's work for which they did not acquire permission, and mix it up with their own creative style. I am a big supporter of trademark protection because it protects consumers and producers, but the fact that you can't watch a movie or read a book and produce your own fan fiction unless the work is up to more than 120 years old is ridiculous. 14 years makes a lot of sense! These very harsh protections companies have bought from our legal system I could agree with, and would even argue that they may need to be harsher IF it was even within the realm of a reasonable period of time. "The Long Tail" makes a good argument with evidence that a 4 year copyright term makes the most sense in this day and age, and that anything longer than 7 is ridiculous if the purpose of copyright protection is to ensure profit for the artist.
Also, I just see culture as something something beautiful that evolves between all of us, and sharing a movie in many respects (Not all) is like sharing a rainbow. People don't 'create' great great ideas like you build a road or grow a field of corn; you observe them. In literature, you can't write too creatively; you need to express observations and insights that are going to resonate with your audience.
Yes, I know it is hard to produce a great movie, and sorry if you disagree, but I don't think Disney does it very often at all. Too much is nauseatingly unoriginal, and painfully uncontroversial. It is hard to produce music of quality that people will actually want to listen to, even as a free street performer hoping for enough tips to replace a broken guitar string, but life + 70 or 95/120 for corporations?? Insanity! It isn't THAT hard, and at very least, it isn't that important. If in 7 years you can't come up with another descent song or screenplay, maybe it is time for you to get a real job. Is there any other profession where you can take 6 months of work and demand that as a result neither your children nor their children should ever need to work? Hell no.
Nobel prize winners don't get that, and recipients of a congressional medal
don't get that. Pro Athletes can only hope to make more than the lifetime costs of their medical needs, so there is some justification for a big salary.
As another article reminded me today, in economics infinite supply = $0 value. The rest is artificial inflation. Internet has killed the market for packaged data transmission. Artists have historically made their money in concerts. bootleg CDs, and even legit CDs have no comparison to a live concert, but more music sharing is music promotion. Does everyone have or know a friend with a system == to a theater? If so, maybe movie theaters could do a little more to not suck so much. Can't we use the fact that copyright requires SO MUCH government intervention at least some evidence to the degree at which it is fighting contrary to market forces?
I'm just saying people who think all copyright should be outlawed are wrong. I am not anti-copyright law, I just think it either need to loosen its unnecessary strangle of either enforcement or term length, and preferably the latter.
a criminal taking of the property or services of another without consent. Criminal is what is in question, and the taken was the debate. If I wear a funny shirt, and you laugh at it, should I force you to pay a royalty? What if I 'caught' you telling some hot chick about my funny shirt before I had a chance to show it to her and possibly woo her (stranger things have happened), have you denied me the value of my humor services for which I can hold you liable? What about the moral argument?
Dowling didn't copy published works or even pre-release works. He worked to collect lost recordings of unpublished and improvisational works of Elvis. He was a huge Elvis fan with a unique vision. He put together these lost works from all over the country he spent years compiling, and just as it had started to pay off for him, not only is he completely discredited for his work, but they take all his hard earned money.
Morally, the record company, a non-artist entity that managed to get the rights from Elvis's family that included the transfer of possession everything that may or may not actually exist (imaginary imaginary property rights?!?) should have had to pay Dowling a royalty for his "unique creative expression". Further, I think a (young, sober) Elvis would have been flattered that someone like Dowling actually cared enough to do the work he did.
There would be, as is, major harm done to artists and the public because the parties in this case could not come to a more agreeable solution. But don't worry, I know well the above proposition is an idealism well outside the scope of reality.
This whole business isn't about copy protection any more than Norton gives a crap about viruses (Remember the article recently from Cisco?) This chip doesn't have to even do anything, and probably all the better anyway because it would be a waste of time (as mentioned repeatedly).
1) Atari freaks over their crappy games not selling well. 2) Blame piracy 3) Blame Dell, Lenovo, HP, gateway, for not being proactive. 4) Convince every OEM that your very inexpensive HALB Device (hardware accelerated Loop Back) will take the heat off of them. 5) Profit!!!
Just another piece of FUD like the war on terror: You either follow our stupid, ill-conceived plan to nowhere, or YOU MUST BE A TERRORIST!!! (and too many other examples than can be listed.
It isn't illegal for them to say, just to stick to it. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act says, among other things, that in order for an after market modification to void a warranty, they (the company) must prove that the modification was the direct cause of the damage. For example, opening a hard drive to tweak the speed (or whatever) can void a warranty when the dust you let in damages the heads. Putting Linux on your computer, and then the screen cracks because of a faulty hinge can not void your warranty. This whole argument started big time when HP said printer warranties would be void if you used non-HP ink. HP (mostly) lost that case.
A different issue though is that if you are using a mod chip to cheat in an Xbox live game, they can kick you for being disruptive to their service, but that is more closely related to copyright violation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-Moss_Warranty_Act
Those things have all been struck down. Water is provided subsidized by the city. The city owns the water and if you want the city's water, you must follow their rules. Part of those rules are providing water to anyone end everyone that requests it. If that is going to kill your bottom line, maybe you shouldn't be in the restaurant business, IMHO. And in general, cities don't like companies that try to work around rules, particularly when what you are messing with is something the city gives away practically free.
It is like going around and collecting money for a charity, then spending it all to reward yourself for the hard work.
Ok, I don't know how that was off topic if you knew what tkid was talking about. Were you there? I am wearing the shirt right now as a matter of fact and it is clear what tkid meant. (Ok, not actually wearing the shirt right now, but I do have the shirt and remember what it says, so I was telling the truth because I'll wear it tomorrow and claim time lapse doctrine applies)
...you would have a better chance benefiting from throwing the money off a high building and hoping someone good will catch it.
More seriously, I think the best thing to help everybody would be either:
1. Electronic Frontier Foundation They help protect and promote F/OSS in the community and in the courts. Helping EFF helps everybody fight THE MAN.
2. Mozilla Foundation I would love to hear some arguments AGAINST, but in my observation they appear to be one of the biggest donors to F/OSS project, and likely do a lot of homework helping to answer the very question you are asking.
I am curious what others think of these observations, as I have been thinking a lot about this same question.
I am still a little dumbfounded by this the
it's OK to download a file illegally It is either illegal and legally wrong, or it is OK and NOT ILLEGAL. If people are going to say "it is legal to do something illegal", that statement should really be clarified.
Am I to assume that is what you meant by
cannot make a rational contribution to this discussion in part? With double negatives? By contrast, one of my favorite quotes of recent is "You cannot question the government unless you are willing to listen to the answer". Lobbyists have a lot of power through money. I feel or hope to believe that congress works in the best interest of the people, and they do listen. It is just very hard for them to hear over all the voices of the lobbyists; their voices quickly drown out those of the American that can't spend their life up on Capitol Hill. Big media has a lot of money to drown out our voice, not to mention I think that while people may not be deterred from downloading from this oppressive regime, it may stop us from publicly voicing our opinion, and from the looks of it, even voicing our opinion anonymously as this would outlaw things like Tor. One thing is sitting at home, encrypting and re-routing your traffic through proxies to circumvent a bad law, it is another to get out there and yell to the police and lawmakers that you are breaking a bad law that should be changed.
Would you vote if you knew that who ever got elected would execute all those that voted against them? Amnesty to those who didn't vote. What if you were pretty sure your candidate could not win?
What is the moral thing to do? Risk your family, your life, take amnesty, or vote for the worst thing that couldn't be avoided?
...that simply doesn't seem to be the case in my history.
0. "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Article I, Section 8, US Constitution.
1. Dowling v. United States 473 U.S. 207 was ruled in 1985 Copyright infringement is NOT theft!
2. United States v. LaMacchia 871 F. Supp. 535 was ruled in 1994. Copyright infringement must have financial motivation.
3. No Electronic Theft Act, 105th Congress, 1997 "Financial Gain...[means] receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works."
4. Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998 "Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication"
5. Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) "As long as the [copyright term] limit is not 'forever', any limit set by Congress can be deemed constitutional."
The major fines are very recent as well. This bull is recent and funded by an organization that knows they are out dated and working on a business model of the past. P2P is the future, and not a future where companies like Disney, Sony, and Universal can control people and their culture. They know they are dead in the water, but they are going to spend every last penny on a war to slow their death. Disney made their money "stealing" (by their definition) popular works of the times and remixing them Disney style, quickly making them a powerful empire. The problem is that Walt is dead and now virtually anyone with an internet connection can DO WHAT DISNEY DOES!
They are fighting like a cat in a wet pillow case. They will use all their money to damage as many lives they possibly can, and wage war against every country that won't acknowledge their rule. This is not old, this is new and it has all started in our lifetime. Please follow the link in my signature if you question the MPAA regime. This is one of the most important things I think we can be doing to save our culture from these dying Monarchs. Also, for something short and cute, search "Fair Use" on YouTube for a great explanation of copyright law / fair use through a remix of quite a few Disney clips.
There is a good wiki article on him, not to mention Free Culture, where I read about this history, is licensed under creative commons; it is free to read online/PDF, though 30 pages in, I bought a copy.:) http://www.free-culture.cc/
IMHO, Lessig is a really amazing person. Not to spam, but his "Last Lecture" on Free Culture at Stanford University is about Eldred v. United States, among other things which I would bet you would enjoy if you are into this kind of history. Also a CC work:) http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal
However, we're yet to see a solution to the third, critical aspect required: promotion/marketing. I couldn't disagree more, and that was my whole point. Yes, it is very difficult to make a break into music hall of fame, but it is no longer so much a matter of paying off the right people to let you into the exclusive club. Diversity in music is growing rapidly, not that you would see it so much in the US, but Samwell is an amazing example of a virtual overnight star that could have only happened in this era. He paid off nobody to get his hit big, despite whatever anyone here might think of his music/song.
Artists that never sold out are really starting to see the benefits of free music, which is the important part. The trip from garage band to small time successful touring is still rough, but it is a lot shorter, and can be paved much more independently.
AM radio was a big and powerful medium long before tv, but there were some serious drawbacks (like that annoying perpetual humming in the background). Edwin Armstrong, scientist, was commissioned to improve on AM radio on the promise that big media would license it. Mind you they held all the patents for all the technology and the power to control the future technology in many ways money can.
What was totally unexpected was Edwin went on to develop FM radio, something beating all the problems of AM, and totally outside the scope of big media control. Just as Edison tried to do to Tesla with AC power, Edwin was discredited and sued into oblivion, and during all the distractions of a European war, big media managed to buy protection from congress to ensure FM would have to stay within a narrow band of frequencies and transmission power, despite the fact FM was and is superior in every way. Note:limiting transmission power was necessary to ban it from being usable by the government or telecoms which would have required the kind of power that was only legal for AM, for trans-American and transatlantic broadcast. Edwin, eventually old and ruined, seeing what he knew was great destroyed, went on to blow his brains out.
And today we have a strong and thriving AM radio industry, a towering zombie icon to political corruption and an eternal symbol for the power of money!
Ok, while I still stick to my previous argument, I see no reason not to have serious consequences for people that are careless with their guns, and no problem with extensive gun ownership classes being mandatory before gun purchase; just in case you were curious.
I am very anti-violence, but I also don't believe it is good policy to only allow the government to have all the guns. There must be a reasonable common ground.
As with each of the above issues and others, people in the US need to have the right to break the law, and the government the right to prosecute those people that do. Restraining people from breaking laws would restrain the law from evolving.
but if the video rental place looses money on that, it isn't like you are liable for their loss. Also, why not just give them the video under contract that you will get some percent of the sale? They don't have to make the risky investment, and you get money. Best for everyone. What they can't do is buy only one copy of your video and make copies to rent. I worked at a video rental place for some time long ago and they were always loosing money on videos that usually got damaged or stolen or no one even wanted to rent before they even got the cost of the movie back, but they had to buy all these movies because rental places must have variety if for no other reason than to advertise the number of titles they carry.
Not meaning to troll, but do you think there is a greater value in owning your DVD than renting it for a few weeks? If so, believe in it.
I really hate companies that operate on the basis of "we will stomp the rights of every customer that doesn't sue us" policy. Lots of places seem to be like this. Some often just break the law till you point it out to them, then they change it... for you, and will keep screwing the person right next to you. I actually got into an argument with a McDonald's manager that refused to give a 6 year old kid a free cup of water (he bought a lot of food for himself and his friends at the same time). The manager said that the only water they had was the bottled water, and it was $1.50. I informed the manager that I knew they were lying and knew the law, and I would be more than happy to call the Health Department if they didn't get the kid his cup of water... in so many words. In California, at least, restaurant, for a variety of reasons, must provide water with no charges or restrictions, other than there is no regulation on cup size, customer or not. Kid got his water, and he thanked me.
Shame on them picking on a little kid for not knowing his rights. Now I think they just try to convince adults that anything but bottled water is poisoned or that only poor people drink water. Idiots!
I think a very valid argument is being made, and people have been saying this for awhile. People share and lend books to friends all the time. Yes, it is difficult to get a break in the book market, but the real advantage in movies and music (fir the producers) is barriers to market. As Lawerence Lessig argues (in part) in his book Free Culture, movie companies don't care about piracy, what they worry about is a reduction in the barriers to market. P2P enables anyone with a $200 camera and a $1500 computer to be a movie producer and seen by anyone almost instantly with no restrictions to geographic region. This terrifies the big movie companies. It has been easy for them to make lots of bad movies because there are not a lot of alternatives when it previously required millions of dollars and the studios permission to get in on the game.
As for CD's? It is as dead as AM radio (AM Radio has a dirty history, read Free Culture)
Agreed. Restricting access to alternatives is a "good" way to force customers to buy more than they need. I once went to a club/resort place and was informed that membership was some $500 initiation and $1800 per year, or there was an upgrade for some $600+$2000/yr. Quite a bit more than anticipating, but after investigating and looking through the contract, turned out they had a $50+$30/month ($360/yr) student package and a "standard" package that wasn't much more. They had been trying to sell me their premium and platinum packages that had amenities that I didn't even want.
I think I have heard of some OS company doing some stuff to hurt competition in their favor too.:)
Isn't that the same (fallacious) argument for gun control where they justify taking guns away from law abiding citizens because criminals use guns too? Or blocking all p2p traffic because sometimes people use p2p to transmit copyrighted material outside the copyright holders intended desires?
And people actually make fun of Singapore for their anti-gun laws?
Companies and consumers are going to find ways to break the law, that doesn't mean their rights to do legal business should be changed in unnecessary ways. How do you justify that?
I know there are a lot of performance tweaks for windows kernel, both server and for workstation, but tweaks for security? Applications must opt-in to kernel protection, and even then the kernel only provides access controls for the Windows API.
If there is some control panel or registry key option to change that, I would love to know.
I was talking about a very particular vulnerability that I personally think makes a big difference in malicious developers ability to write viruses in the first place. I agree things like 'disable guest account' is a good idea, and having it off by default is a good move. But what if you want guest enabled? Why are you forced to give them so much control over your computer?
But with the rat analogy, at what point do you acknowledge a slum lord and rat breeding exterminator? There are good front doors, then there is the body guard that will beat you up if you don't pay for his protection.
All successful companies have fought hard to get to the top of their industry, but some have done it a little more ruthlessly and underhandedly to get where they are. I really wish everyone would read the complaint by Novel that was recently accepted by the courts. It really covers so much more than the "bundling stifles competition" arguments. Novel has worked WITH Microsoft for a long time, and look where it has gotten them.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't believe that is true. If I remember correctly, Microsoft told Dell that they would not be allowed to offer other operating systems on the same machines as Windows was being "offered", or it would possibly go as far as to revoke all existing Dell CD keys, if not at least loose its OEM discount. Either option would have been disastrous. In looking over the various machines from Dell, there are hardly comparable models between Windows and Ubuntu/FreeDOS.
Though honestly, I am not sure I would trust another prebuilt machine with all the tweaks they make to the firmware and sacrifices they make to cut costs on features few people know about. Maybe would feel different if I needed an ultra-low-cost PC, but the markup on a high end pc is just crazy.
I recently rebuilt a computer at work with windows, and my home computer with Linux. The work computer was a Dell prebuild with Windows. The only windows cd I had came with SP2, so the CD key on the machine was invalid. The work around there was quick and easy. Most major drivers were missing. Start up to Ubuntu LIVE DVD, shrink partition to leave room for a place to backup drivers needed to download. Grabbed the driver bundles necessary and hunted around for all the software I needed. OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Blender, Avast, Spybot S&D, Firefox, Flash, Java, Python GTK, Gimp, Hydrogen, Audacity, Quicktime, and vlc. Run each application setup, configure windizupdate, turn off unnecessary services, turn off unnecessary startups, setup users, configure group policy, and good to go. Some internet connectivity problems / slowdowns were in part to blame for slow downloads, but whole thing was setup for use in about 6 work days. Not sure exactly how many actual hours of work it was because I was multitasking, and a lot of it was clicking and restarting.
For the home computer, I removed unnecessary files from my home directory, and moved them to a new partition after, shrinking my present install, for backup. By the time that was finished, I had downloaded Hardy DVD via torrent. Clean install. Everything worked and enabled restricted Nvidia driver. Added wine and Medibuntu repository via copy and paste from the respective web site howto. Copied by home backup to the new home directory while poking through synaptic to select MS Fonts, vlc player, DVD support, Adobe Reader, ssh, Inkscape, Blender, Audacity, Hydrogen, Wine, Flash, and Java. Also Marked All Updates, and clicked Apply. Everything downloaded in
Both machines work well now for their purpose. But another note, the windows machine was DEAD / virtual instant freezing after startup even in safe mode when it needed to be rebuilt. The home machine was working fine other than a few weird cosmetic issues I think were fall outs from dist-upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 to 8.04. Not to mention I switched keyboard layouts, but couldn't get the new layout to work for the GDM or Grub.
And lastly a reason for a clean install was an old dead windows install I had not needed for nearly 6 months.
I am forever grateful for the time, energy, and sanity saved by "just saying no" to M$ garbage and unnecessary hassle.
Given the hassle of the refund and the great expense of dealing with these refunds, I think (playing devils advocate) it sends a stronger message when you buy what you want and exercise your consumer rights by making the necessary effort. Not to sound too elitist, but the machines offered by Dell with Ubuntu are fairly weak for their price. Hours on the phone with a CSR and possible small claims judgments against them can either be damaging, or encouraging to offer real options to the small subset of unhappy customers.
M$ plays hardball to sell their OEM VLK's. I would not be surprised if Ballmer wasn't lying when he said "Vista has been a great success" because the way M$ does business doesn't require people to actually buy it or use it. Think Dell got any "discount" or paid any less across the cost of all their machines because of a few (even potentially a million) Ubuntu computers? I bet not. M$ effectively collects a direct tax. They already have the money.
If it is playing nice, or going to small claims court, either Dell/HP is going to get screwed from both ends, or they are going to start taking money back from M$ by whatever means is necessary for them.
As long as I am making it as dramatic as possible, I have heard (at least from The Great Escape) that your primary duty as a Prisoner of War is to make it as expensive as possible for your captors to hold you. It isn't just pro-Linux, it is Anti-OS Bundling! How different would it be from all computers coming bundled with all the latest and greatest games for your computer because it is cheaper than fighting piracy. Even better, all those games are bundled at 5-10% of the retail price. I think most people would say "hurray, what a deal!". Cheap games, preloading saves time, defeats piracy (cause who needs to steal what they already have), and game developers get their fair share. Nothing about economics would have anything negative to say about this, so what is with all these elitist slashdotters coumplaining about?*
*-sarcasm
Also, I just see culture as something something beautiful that evolves between all of us, and sharing a movie in many respects (Not all) is like sharing a rainbow. People don't 'create' great great ideas like you build a road or grow a field of corn; you observe them. In literature, you can't write too creatively; you need to express observations and insights that are going to resonate with your audience.
Yes, I know it is hard to produce a great movie, and sorry if you disagree, but I don't think Disney does it very often at all. Too much is nauseatingly unoriginal, and painfully uncontroversial. It is hard to produce music of quality that people will actually want to listen to, even as a free street performer hoping for enough tips to replace a broken guitar string, but life + 70 or 95/120 for corporations?? Insanity! It isn't THAT hard, and at very least, it isn't that important. If in 7 years you can't come up with another descent song or screenplay, maybe it is time for you to get a real job. Is there any other profession where you can take 6 months of work and demand that as a result neither your children nor their children should ever need to work? Hell no.
Nobel prize winners don't get that, and recipients of a congressional medal don't get that. Pro Athletes can only hope to make more than the lifetime costs of their medical needs, so there is some justification for a big salary.
As another article reminded me today, in economics infinite supply = $0 value. The rest is artificial inflation. Internet has killed the market for packaged data transmission. Artists have historically made their money in concerts. bootleg CDs, and even legit CDs have no comparison to a live concert, but more music sharing is music promotion. Does everyone have or know a friend with a system == to a theater? If so, maybe movie theaters could do a little more to not suck so much. Can't we use the fact that copyright requires SO MUCH government intervention at least some evidence to the degree at which it is fighting contrary to market forces?
I'm just saying people who think all copyright should be outlawed are wrong. I am not anti-copyright law, I just think it either need to loosen its unnecessary strangle of either enforcement or term length, and preferably the latter.
Dowling didn't copy published works or even pre-release works. He worked to collect lost recordings of unpublished and improvisational works of Elvis. He was a huge Elvis fan with a unique vision. He put together these lost works from all over the country he spent years compiling, and just as it had started to pay off for him, not only is he completely discredited for his work, but they take all his hard earned money.
Morally, the record company, a non-artist entity that managed to get the rights from Elvis's family that included the transfer of possession everything that may or may not actually exist (imaginary imaginary property rights?!?) should have had to pay Dowling a royalty for his "unique creative expression". Further, I think a (young, sober) Elvis would have been flattered that someone like Dowling actually cared enough to do the work he did.
There would be, as is, major harm done to artists and the public because the parties in this case could not come to a more agreeable solution. But don't worry, I know well the above proposition is an idealism well outside the scope of reality.
This whole business isn't about copy protection any more than Norton gives a crap about viruses (Remember the article recently from Cisco?) This chip doesn't have to even do anything, and probably all the better anyway because it would be a waste of time (as mentioned repeatedly).
1) Atari freaks over their crappy games not selling well.
2) Blame piracy
3) Blame Dell, Lenovo, HP, gateway, for not being proactive.
4) Convince every OEM that your very inexpensive HALB Device (hardware accelerated Loop Back) will take the heat off of them.
5) Profit!!!
Just another piece of FUD like the war on terror: You either follow our stupid, ill-conceived plan to nowhere, or YOU MUST BE A TERRORIST!!! (and too many other examples than can be listed.
It isn't illegal for them to say, just to stick to it. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act says, among other things, that in order for an after market modification to void a warranty, they (the company) must prove that the modification was the direct cause of the damage. For example, opening a hard drive to tweak the speed (or whatever) can void a warranty when the dust you let in damages the heads. Putting Linux on your computer, and then the screen cracks because of a faulty hinge can not void your warranty. This whole argument started big time when HP said printer warranties would be void if you used non-HP ink. HP (mostly) lost that case.
A different issue though is that if you are using a mod chip to cheat in an Xbox live game, they can kick you for being disruptive to their service, but that is more closely related to copyright violation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-Moss_Warranty_Act
Those things have all been struck down. Water is provided subsidized by the city. The city owns the water and if you want the city's water, you must follow their rules. Part of those rules are providing water to anyone end everyone that requests it. If that is going to kill your bottom line, maybe you shouldn't be in the restaurant business, IMHO. And in general, cities don't like companies that try to work around rules, particularly when what you are messing with is something the city gives away practically free.
It is like going around and collecting money for a charity, then spending it all to reward yourself for the hard work.
Now that is what a good troll looks like. Thank you for a better example.
Sorry drinkypoo (153816), couldn't help it.
Ok, I don't know how that was off topic if you knew what tkid was talking about. Were you there? I am wearing the shirt right now as a matter of fact and it is clear what tkid meant. (Ok, not actually wearing the shirt right now, but I do have the shirt and remember what it says, so I was telling the truth because I'll wear it tomorrow and claim time lapse doctrine applies)
troll! j/k
...you would have a better chance benefiting from throwing the money off a high building and hoping someone good will catch it.
More seriously, I think the best thing to help everybody would be either:
1. Electronic Frontier Foundation
They help protect and promote F/OSS in the community and in the courts. Helping EFF helps everybody fight THE MAN.
2. Mozilla Foundation
I would love to hear some arguments AGAINST, but in my observation they appear to be one of the biggest donors to F/OSS project, and likely do a lot of homework helping to answer the very question you are asking.
I am curious what others think of these observations, as I have been thinking a lot about this same question.
Am I to assume that is what you meant by cannot make a rational contribution to this discussion in part? With double negatives? By contrast, one of my favorite quotes of recent is "You cannot question the government unless you are willing to listen to the answer". Lobbyists have a lot of power through money. I feel or hope to believe that congress works in the best interest of the people, and they do listen. It is just very hard for them to hear over all the voices of the lobbyists; their voices quickly drown out those of the American that can't spend their life up on Capitol Hill. Big media has a lot of money to drown out our voice, not to mention I think that while people may not be deterred from downloading from this oppressive regime, it may stop us from publicly voicing our opinion, and from the looks of it, even voicing our opinion anonymously as this would outlaw things like Tor. One thing is sitting at home, encrypting and re-routing your traffic through proxies to circumvent a bad law, it is another to get out there and yell to the police and lawmakers that you are breaking a bad law that should be changed.
Would you vote if you knew that who ever got elected would execute all those that voted against them? Amnesty to those who didn't vote. What if you were pretty sure your candidate could not win?
What is the moral thing to do? Risk your family, your life, take amnesty, or vote for the worst thing that couldn't be avoided?
...that simply doesn't seem to be the case in my history.
...[means] receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works."
0. "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Article I, Section 8, US Constitution.
1. Dowling v. United States 473 U.S. 207 was ruled in 1985
Copyright infringement is NOT theft!
2. United States v. LaMacchia 871 F. Supp. 535 was ruled in 1994.
Copyright infringement must have financial motivation.
3. No Electronic Theft Act, 105th Congress, 1997
"Financial Gain
4. Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998
"Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication"
5. Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003)
"As long as the [copyright term] limit is not 'forever', any limit set by Congress can be deemed constitutional."
The major fines are very recent as well. This bull is recent and funded by an organization that knows they are out dated and working on a business model of the past. P2P is the future, and not a future where companies like Disney, Sony, and Universal can control people and their culture. They know they are dead in the water, but they are going to spend every last penny on a war to slow their death. Disney made their money "stealing" (by their definition) popular works of the times and remixing them Disney style, quickly making them a powerful empire. The problem is that Walt is dead and now virtually anyone with an internet connection can DO WHAT DISNEY DOES!
They are fighting like a cat in a wet pillow case. They will use all their money to damage as many lives they possibly can, and wage war against every country that won't acknowledge their rule. This is not old, this is new and it has all started in our lifetime. Please follow the link in my signature if you question the MPAA regime. This is one of the most important things I think we can be doing to save our culture from these dying Monarchs. Also, for something short and cute, search "Fair Use" on YouTube for a great explanation of copyright law / fair use through a remix of quite a few Disney clips.
Ok, i'll fix my sig in a sec, but here is the link: http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal
There is a good wiki article on him, not to mention Free Culture, where I read about this history, is licensed under creative commons; it is free to read online/PDF, though 30 pages in, I bought a copy. :)
:)
http://www.free-culture.cc/
IMHO, Lessig is a really amazing person. Not to spam, but his "Last Lecture" on Free Culture at Stanford University is about Eldred v. United States, among other things which I would bet you would enjoy if you are into this kind of history. Also a CC work
http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal
I couldn't disagree more, and that was my whole point. Yes, it is very difficult to make a break into music hall of fame, but it is no longer so much a matter of paying off the right people to let you into the exclusive club. Diversity in music is growing rapidly, not that you would see it so much in the US, but Samwell is an amazing example of a virtual overnight star that could have only happened in this era. He paid off nobody to get his hit big, despite whatever anyone here might think of his music/song.
Artists that never sold out are really starting to see the benefits of free music, which is the important part. The trip from garage band to small time successful touring is still rough, but it is a lot shorter, and can be paved much more independently.
I knew that would be a bit of an inside joke.
:)
AM radio was a big and powerful medium long before tv, but there were some serious drawbacks (like that annoying perpetual humming in the background). Edwin Armstrong, scientist, was commissioned to improve on AM radio on the promise that big media would license it. Mind you they held all the patents for all the technology and the power to control the future technology in many ways money can.
What was totally unexpected was Edwin went on to develop FM radio, something beating all the problems of AM, and totally outside the scope of big media control. Just as Edison tried to do to Tesla with AC power, Edwin was discredited and sued into oblivion, and during all the distractions of a European war, big media managed to buy protection from congress to ensure FM would have to stay within a narrow band of frequencies and transmission power, despite the fact FM was and is superior in every way. Note:limiting transmission power was necessary to ban it from being usable by the government or telecoms which would have required the kind of power that was only legal for AM, for trans-American and transatlantic broadcast. Edwin, eventually old and ruined, seeing what he knew was great destroyed, went on to blow his brains out.
And today we have a strong and thriving AM radio industry, a towering zombie icon to political corruption and an eternal symbol for the power of money!
So as I said, their dead like AM radio
Ok, while I still stick to my previous argument, I see no reason not to have serious consequences for people that are careless with their guns, and no problem with extensive gun ownership classes being mandatory before gun purchase; just in case you were curious.
I am very anti-violence, but I also don't believe it is good policy to only allow the government to have all the guns. There must be a reasonable common ground.
As with each of the above issues and others, people in the US need to have the right to break the law, and the government the right to prosecute those people that do. Restraining people from breaking laws would restrain the law from evolving.
but if the video rental place looses money on that, it isn't like you are liable for their loss. Also, why not just give them the video under contract that you will get some percent of the sale? They don't have to make the risky investment, and you get money. Best for everyone. What they can't do is buy only one copy of your video and make copies to rent. I worked at a video rental place for some time long ago and they were always loosing money on videos that usually got damaged or stolen or no one even wanted to rent before they even got the cost of the movie back, but they had to buy all these movies because rental places must have variety if for no other reason than to advertise the number of titles they carry.
Not meaning to troll, but do you think there is a greater value in owning your DVD than renting it for a few weeks? If so, believe in it.
I really hate companies that operate on the basis of "we will stomp the rights of every customer that doesn't sue us" policy. Lots of places seem to be like this. Some often just break the law till you point it out to them, then they change it... for you, and will keep screwing the person right next to you. I actually got into an argument with a McDonald's manager that refused to give a 6 year old kid a free cup of water (he bought a lot of food for himself and his friends at the same time). The manager said that the only water they had was the bottled water, and it was $1.50. I informed the manager that I knew they were lying and knew the law, and I would be more than happy to call the Health Department if they didn't get the kid his cup of water... in so many words. In California, at least, restaurant, for a variety of reasons, must provide water with no charges or restrictions, other than there is no regulation on cup size, customer or not. Kid got his water, and he thanked me.
Shame on them picking on a little kid for not knowing his rights. Now I think they just try to convince adults that anything but bottled water is poisoned or that only poor people drink water.
Idiots!
I think a very valid argument is being made, and people have been saying this for awhile. People share and lend books to friends all the time. Yes, it is difficult to get a break in the book market, but the real advantage in movies and music (fir the producers) is barriers to market. As Lawerence Lessig argues (in part) in his book Free Culture, movie companies don't care about piracy, what they worry about is a reduction in the barriers to market. P2P enables anyone with a $200 camera and a $1500 computer to be a movie producer and seen by anyone almost instantly with no restrictions to geographic region. This terrifies the big movie companies. It has been easy for them to make lots of bad movies because there are not a lot of alternatives when it previously required millions of dollars and the studios permission to get in on the game.
As for CD's? It is as dead as AM radio (AM Radio has a dirty history, read Free Culture)
Agreed. Restricting access to alternatives is a "good" way to force customers to buy more than they need. I once went to a club/resort place and was informed that membership was some $500 initiation and $1800 per year, or there was an upgrade for some $600+$2000/yr. Quite a bit more than anticipating, but after investigating and looking through the contract, turned out they had a $50+$30/month ($360/yr) student package and a "standard" package that wasn't much more. They had been trying to sell me their premium and platinum packages that had amenities that I didn't even want.
:)
I think I have heard of some OS company doing some stuff to hurt competition in their favor too.
Isn't that the same (fallacious) argument for gun control where they justify taking guns away from law abiding citizens because criminals use guns too? Or blocking all p2p traffic because sometimes people use p2p to transmit copyrighted material outside the copyright holders intended desires?
And people actually make fun of Singapore for their anti-gun laws?
Companies and consumers are going to find ways to break the law, that doesn't mean their rights to do legal business should be changed in unnecessary ways. How do you justify that?
I know there are a lot of performance tweaks for windows kernel, both server and for workstation, but tweaks for security? Applications must opt-in to kernel protection, and even then the kernel only provides access controls for the Windows API.
If there is some control panel or registry key option to change that, I would love to know.
I was talking about a very particular vulnerability that I personally think makes a big difference in malicious developers ability to write viruses in the first place. I agree things like 'disable guest account' is a good idea, and having it off by default is a good move. But what if you want guest enabled? Why are you forced to give them so much control over your computer?
But with the rat analogy, at what point do you acknowledge a slum lord and rat breeding exterminator? There are good front doors, then there is the body guard that will beat you up if you don't pay for his protection.
All successful companies have fought hard to get to the top of their industry, but some have done it a little more ruthlessly and underhandedly to get where they are. I really wish everyone would read the complaint by Novel that was recently accepted by the courts. It really covers so much more than the "bundling stifles competition" arguments. Novel has worked WITH Microsoft for a long time, and look where it has gotten them.