I'm well aware of bnetd. That wasn't a mod of a game, that was emulation of Battle.net.
Although I think things like bnetd are fine, Blizzard argued that without a check for CD Keys (which only they had), pirated copies could be played over bnetd. Disregarding the ridiculously overreaching EULA (as all EULAs are wont to be), nothing about bnetd in and of itself was illegal as far as I'm concerned. But Blizzard used the piracy angle to essentially wipe out a competitor.
Mods require that you own the original software because a mod, at the very least, uses the game's engine and some of the code. Many make use of in-game assets as well. They're legally protected for the most part because they're distributed and created for free.
The modding community and the bnetd situation are like apples and bowling balls.
All jokes aside, there's plenty of jobs that involving stuff that isn't healthy or safe for you. Working on tall buildings, dealing with toxic chemicals, etc.
OSHA's job is to make them safe. Wouldn't a comfortable chair make sitting safer? d:
Actually, knowing government bureaucracy, they'd probably make a chair that forces you to stand up every 15 minutes.
What can labels & conglomerates provide that can't be provided by other already-existing companies or persons?
Studio time isn't necessarily done by the labels; there's tons of independent and in-home studios out there. Ditto on mixing.
Marketing? There's tons of marketing agencies.
Advertising? See above.
Pressing CDs? Although the technology will likely be obsolete in the next 20 years, all the labels do is make the order and pay for it. I don't doubt an artist with sufficient money could make the order themselves.
Music videos? Look at the work, say, Monty Oum does by himself on his free time. Imagine what a single man employed in that field (or a small company) could do.
In short, there's nothing labels do that artist couldn't contract out themselves. Labels will collapse under their own weight soon enough, I'm sure.
There were plenty of games back in the day that didn't have mod tools available for them. They got modded anyway by inventive programmers. It'll happen with MW2 soon enough.
I wonder how "unauthorized" modding of a AAA title will stand up in the modern era.
No, no, think of the greater good. Let the papers slide. Maybe OSHA will read them and require having comfy recliners on every job site as a safety requirement.
Only on/. would an above comment be marked Flamebait (when it is essentially correct with one of the major problems in Linux) and this comment can slide.
As far as difficulty and problems go, Windows has been at the bottom of the list. Unless the hardware or CD/DVD is damaged it works fine. Windows 7 was the fastest, cleanest install I've ever done on a friend's computer and worked pretty great compared to older Windows OS stock installs.
I don't have a spare rig to try to learn how to toy around with any of the major flavors of Linux, but even assuming if the install is as easy as installing Windows there's the issues we all know about. This particular model of video card has glitchy drivers, this particular printer doesn't work at all, etc. At least you don't see that happen as often with Windows.
We have plenty of virtual currency floating around out there without even talking about games. See things like bank runs.
For instance, I don't believe any bank anywhere has the cash on hand for all its customers. Casinos aren't required to have enough money to cover all of the chips they have on the floor.
On the other hand, the digital copy didn't require paper, bindings/glue, or a cover. It didn't require ink. It doesn't have to be shipped out somewhere. The costs of it (on the material basis) are much, much lower.
I sometimes wonder how copyright law would have been written if the Founding Fathers had anticipated something like the Internet.
Firefox is currently using about 430MB on my rig, but I have something like 50 tabs open. 3.0, I remember it going over a gig, but that hasn't happened lately. I'm pretty light on the extensions as far as they go; I have less than a dozen.
Yes, but this lets people track players outside of the game.
Perhaps you were home sick with the flu, and you (or someone in your family) plays one of your characters. If your boss were to see that, they might think you're slacking.
Let's not forget all of the options for stalking here.
Or how about burglary? A friend of mine had a lot of his possessions stolen by a close friend of many years. If you know someone's character, you could see what times they're online and playing. Not playing might translate into not home.
Blizzard has typically been pretty decent with privacy as far as I've seen and I don't doubt that they will get an opt-out up at sometime soon. Any kind of tracking stuff like this should always be opt-out. Facebook featured a similar outcry with their recent privacy changes, and they don't have to worry about paying customers leaving.
Thank you. That's actually quite relieving to hear. I was never really worried about China bankrupting us, but I was rather worried about hearing people keep repeating that same inane argument. Many thanks for the knowledge!
I'm sure that in the actor's contracts there's some sort of clause to use their image in any related film promotion or even future works (i.e. a flashback in the second movie with a scene from the first movie, and the actor does not appear in the second movie otherwise). Such a clause could probably be shoehorned into being used in this manner. Legal battle would ensue and that's where the policy on this sort of thing would ultimately be decided.
I'm sure if China didn't buy them, someone else would.
I wonder, are securities issued in a limited lot or something? Like, "500 30-year securities at $10,000 apiece are available, first come, first served" or can someone just buy 'em anytime they want?
If it's the former situation, then if China doesn't snap 'em up I'm sure someone else will. If it's the latter situation, then I suppose we'd have to tighten our belts (perhaps around our necks..).
There's no money to be made in Zimbabwe, so there's no lobbyists who will pressure Congresscritters to send in troops because there's nothing they want.
A lot of people like to pretend the episodes including the Soul Society Rescue arc and following after that don't exist. If you look at the series just like that, it's Samurai Ghostbusters and its great like that. Now it's essentially turned into Dragonball Z with swords.
That's not to say I'm not fond of it, but I can understand how some people would have liked the current state of Bleach to never have happened.
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I'm well aware of bnetd. That wasn't a mod of a game, that was emulation of Battle.net.
Although I think things like bnetd are fine, Blizzard argued that without a check for CD Keys (which only they had), pirated copies could be played over bnetd. Disregarding the ridiculously overreaching EULA (as all EULAs are wont to be), nothing about bnetd in and of itself was illegal as far as I'm concerned. But Blizzard used the piracy angle to essentially wipe out a competitor.
Mods require that you own the original software because a mod, at the very least, uses the game's engine and some of the code. Many make use of in-game assets as well. They're legally protected for the most part because they're distributed and created for free.
The modding community and the bnetd situation are like apples and bowling balls.
All jokes aside, there's plenty of jobs that involving stuff that isn't healthy or safe for you. Working on tall buildings, dealing with toxic chemicals, etc.
OSHA's job is to make them safe. Wouldn't a comfortable chair make sitting safer? d:
Actually, knowing government bureaucracy, they'd probably make a chair that forces you to stand up every 15 minutes.
What can labels & conglomerates provide that can't be provided by other already-existing companies or persons?
Studio time isn't necessarily done by the labels; there's tons of independent and in-home studios out there. Ditto on mixing.
Marketing? There's tons of marketing agencies.
Advertising? See above.
Pressing CDs? Although the technology will likely be obsolete in the next 20 years, all the labels do is make the order and pay for it. I don't doubt an artist with sufficient money could make the order themselves.
Music videos? Look at the work, say, Monty Oum does by himself on his free time. Imagine what a single man employed in that field (or a small company) could do.
In short, there's nothing labels do that artist couldn't contract out themselves. Labels will collapse under their own weight soon enough, I'm sure.
There were plenty of games back in the day that didn't have mod tools available for them. They got modded anyway by inventive programmers. It'll happen with MW2 soon enough.
I wonder how "unauthorized" modding of a AAA title will stand up in the modern era.
No, no, think of the greater good. Let the papers slide. Maybe OSHA will read them and require having comfy recliners on every job site as a safety requirement.
And all of these are predated by the 0.27.452a Alpha version of D&D, commonly known as Chess.
It's the only way to win.
Only on /. would an above comment be marked Flamebait (when it is essentially correct with one of the major problems in Linux) and this comment can slide.
As far as difficulty and problems go, Windows has been at the bottom of the list. Unless the hardware or CD/DVD is damaged it works fine. Windows 7 was the fastest, cleanest install I've ever done on a friend's computer and worked pretty great compared to older Windows OS stock installs.
I don't have a spare rig to try to learn how to toy around with any of the major flavors of Linux, but even assuming if the install is as easy as installing Windows there's the issues we all know about. This particular model of video card has glitchy drivers, this particular printer doesn't work at all, etc. At least you don't see that happen as often with Windows.
Running Mac to avoid Bloat is like eating pizza to lose weight.
That's assuming these ridiculous laws, much less America, are around in 50-100 years.
The difficult thing about being a quantum comedian is that your jokes are both funny and unfunny at the same time.
We have plenty of virtual currency floating around out there without even talking about games. See things like bank runs.
For instance, I don't believe any bank anywhere has the cash on hand for all its customers. Casinos aren't required to have enough money to cover all of the chips they have on the floor.
On the other hand, the digital copy didn't require paper, bindings/glue, or a cover. It didn't require ink. It doesn't have to be shipped out somewhere. The costs of it (on the material basis) are much, much lower.
I sometimes wonder how copyright law would have been written if the Founding Fathers had anticipated something like the Internet.
Firefox is currently using about 430MB on my rig, but I have something like 50 tabs open. 3.0, I remember it going over a gig, but that hasn't happened lately. I'm pretty light on the extensions as far as they go; I have less than a dozen.
Yes, but this lets people track players outside of the game.
Perhaps you were home sick with the flu, and you (or someone in your family) plays one of your characters. If your boss were to see that, they might think you're slacking.
Let's not forget all of the options for stalking here.
Or how about burglary? A friend of mine had a lot of his possessions stolen by a close friend of many years. If you know someone's character, you could see what times they're online and playing. Not playing might translate into not home.
Blizzard has typically been pretty decent with privacy as far as I've seen and I don't doubt that they will get an opt-out up at sometime soon. Any kind of tracking stuff like this should always be opt-out. Facebook featured a similar outcry with their recent privacy changes, and they don't have to worry about paying customers leaving.
Yeah, Microsoft isn't that bad...
Thank you. That's actually quite relieving to hear. I was never really worried about China bankrupting us, but I was rather worried about hearing people keep repeating that same inane argument. Many thanks for the knowledge!
I imagine it would look something like this.
I'm sure that in the actor's contracts there's some sort of clause to use their image in any related film promotion or even future works (i.e. a flashback in the second movie with a scene from the first movie, and the actor does not appear in the second movie otherwise). Such a clause could probably be shoehorned into being used in this manner. Legal battle would ensue and that's where the policy on this sort of thing would ultimately be decided.
I'm sure if China didn't buy them, someone else would.
I wonder, are securities issued in a limited lot or something? Like, "500 30-year securities at $10,000 apiece are available, first come, first served" or can someone just buy 'em anytime they want?
If it's the former situation, then if China doesn't snap 'em up I'm sure someone else will. If it's the latter situation, then I suppose we'd have to tighten our belts (perhaps around our necks..).
And just to be safe, they ran it through ROT13 a few times, as well as a revolutionary new version of that encryption called ROT39.
Until they do something like shut down a (extremely vulnerable) power grid and people die as a result. It starts somewhere.
Not exactly what you're looking for, but check out Eternal Silence.
And what about Zimbabwe?
There's no money to be made in Zimbabwe, so there's no lobbyists who will pressure Congresscritters to send in troops because there's nothing they want.
A lot of people like to pretend the episodes including the Soul Society Rescue arc and following after that don't exist. If you look at the series just like that, it's Samurai Ghostbusters and its great like that. Now it's essentially turned into Dragonball Z with swords.
That's not to say I'm not fond of it, but I can understand how some people would have liked the current state of Bleach to never have happened.