5) You commit to not distribute nor make available in any way, any of the information contained in this Web site to all persons living outside of France or to "US Persons"
So are there legal rammifacations in this forum for all the people distrubting info on the page cause god knows I'm a US person and I can read this forum? Seems like a stupid stipulation to have on a page publically available on the web and written in english and not the native language of the country that the IPO is directed at (as was mentioned earlier in a different post).
I what is going on here is that many browser sub functions are VERY useful in other applications. So useful in fact that they were included as functions in the OS as part of the many and numerous other modules that are part of the OS.
For instance the httpRequest module. It used to be that the only software that needed to make httpRequests was the web browser and so just making those functions a part a stand alone application was all good. MS however noticed that you could use http as a perfectly valid protocol for many other network requests (often that would have proprietary modules to make) and so made a module that could make those requests and because it was useful to all applications (including IE) they put that module in the OS instead of a separate distribution. Again the same thing happens with the html parser/renderer, it works great for help files and documentation for a vast host of applications, so useful in fact that they write it into its own module and include that with the OS so all other applications can use that functionality for free. Same happens for many other modules that can be used for multiple applications but started as functions of IE.
Now we go back to IE and look at what it needs, something to make network requests, something to render the content it recieves, other things that are not available as modules in the OS. So MS writes a wrapper (which turns out to be like 500k or something silly and small like that) that hosts all those controls and makes calls between them and whoa its a web browser.
If an OS were to have made all those functions (httpRequests, html rendering, ftp requests, menue options) part of the API before ever having written a web browser noone would argue that they were just trying to give benifit to as many applications as possible. Noone would say they are trying to corner the browser market would they? They would be touting the ease of application development on that platform because of all the neat high level modules that are included.
Granted MS stole ALL the code for these modules from the IE project. I will give you that they DID try to become the dominant browser by including that wrapper in thier OS so that people could have a web browser with out downloading a single thing. I think they big mistake they made is by saying IE couldn't be removed, they should have maintained from the VERY BEGINNING that sure it can be taken out and shown people how to delete the icons and wrapper DLL and then everyone would be happy at this point.
Now back to the commingling charges, if the modules in suspect (which just have to be the httpRequest and html parser/renderer) were ONLY useful to IE and were not use in ANY other programs by ANY other manufacturers then there would be a great argument that MS only moved them to the OS for the benifit of IE. I maintain however that there are MANY programs that use the modules and some of them are not even web browsing applications and so it should be apparant that these modules are of value to an OS that wants easy development to be possible.
Its sad that what is arguably the largest monopoly case in history could well have been never started (they would have come with another reason to go after MS I'm sure) if MS would have let people delete less than 1 meg of files from there system.
It would have been great if MS would have just added the modules to the OS and then advertised worlds smallest web browser, only 500 or 600k total installed:)
The biggest problem I've run into with analog rips (and yes on some of them you can REALLY tell) is that they are recorded at too low of a level so they sound really quiet which forces me to push the sound card (at the time I didn't have a stereo or amplifed speakers) or stereo into a volume range where it distorts just to hear the music. The next biggest problem is a terrible signal to noise ratio, the music is filled with static.
Problem 1 can be fixed by properly setting your input level to take into account the strange impedance and expected level that many sound cards expect. Also use a high quality sound card and not the $15 or the nutty one thats built into your motherboard (packed on the same chip with your drive controllers and pci master heh).
Secondly use shielded high quality low impedance cables so that static is not added to the music. Make those cables SHORT and make sure they don't run past the power cable to your computer because the inductance will add static and buzz to the signal. Last do not record from the cd drive in your computer to the sound card unless you spent way more money on the cd-analog cable than the place that built my computer did.
Problem is certain other OS's work almost as easily as a nintendo. That makes it extra hard on linux and actually makes it hard on those OS's becasue if there is a complex issue the user expects it to be resolved as easily as plugging in a new game in a console.
I use Windows as well, but I am far from being scared of linux. I hate to say it but windows is comfortable and that counts for a lot of potatoes in my book.
In an OS I look for something that does my job at an adaquate level with the least effort on my part. Unfortunately (and this fact is rapidly changing) linux is not the least effort path. In fact its not even the ramp up time to learn linux that bothers me but the little things it has that slow me down all the time.
Maybe linux is more stable, maybe it is better as a server, maybe it costs less, but it doesn't do what I want the way I want and so I don't use it. I don't need a computer that stays up for more than a few hours at a time, I don't do anything but the most basic of web serving and file sharing so windows point at a folder and tell it to share to the web interface is very nice for me, and hell I only buy an OS once every few years (when I used linux for 3 years to do development and as a firewall I only upgraded the kernel once) so cost just isn't an issue.
Basically what I'm saying is if you can get me to my chat program, web browser, and image editor/viewer fast and easy without new learning or strange menu use (which I have encountered over and over in linux when I used it, I got around faster on the command line than in any gui interface that was available) that I am very happy. I think in that regard I am saying the same thing that a majority of users in the world are saying.
Again on the stability note (because stability seems to be a MAJOR selling point for linux) most of the instability that I see in friends and families windows systems is #1 bad drivers and hardware incompatibilities and #2 poorly written programs. Linux solves problem number one by either not supporting the hardware at all or making it so hard to install the module and inferface to the hardware that no mere mortal is up to the task (yes that is a cut at linux and a big one). It solves the second problem by actually being superior in OS design. Programs are forced to play nice (94% of the time anyways) by the OS and if they start to get rowdy they go away and the os ticks on like a clock. This really doesn't solve the initial instability of the software (seg fault core dump is just as bad as the bsod if you just lost your 57 page document on bat eyelashes) it just makes it so you don't have to reboot to try and get burned again. Also when something does go south in linux (which happens like once a millenium or something like that) you are truely and seriously f***ed because again no mere mortal can recover the damage. In windows I've seen about 3/4 of the serious problems recovered from. Worst of all with linux right now is if your system goes south you have to search the globe for help instead of being able to just ask your neighbor.
So yes I cut linux, and yes I believe that it is a good long way from being a mainstream desktop OS, but I have reasons based on experiences and facts in the OS. Solve the problems listed above and make it impossibly easy for me to change and you will have a zealot. Until then I will continue to use windows because it does the job at a very capable level.
The key I think is not ever making passport or the other "free" services ever cost. Nor will they probably ever put wierd restrictions on them. The idea is to get everyone using passport and other free services and then lure them to other extra services for a fee.
I guess the idea is that if you are already using a bunch of services if they say for $10 a month you get some extra things that enough people will bite, especially businesses.
Yes and every person that posts an article puts accurate and correct information in thier post? I read the actual article that was linked and it DID NOT mention whether the experiment broke even or not, it just implied that it did in a paragraph heading. I still would like to see numbers of energy in compared to energy out.
I think you are correct in assuming that MS believes they are helping themselves as much or more than Ximian, but I think you reason is incorrect.
This is an adoption trick and nothing else. MS knows that unless like EVERYONE uses.NET then it will end up just like java (which while doing quite well just didn't have the oomph that everyone wanted, especially sun). MS knows that if linux users are able to write.NET stuff as well as windows users that they have thier core technology on ALL the major systems. Now they just show that.NET on windows works better for a few reasons and you have big businesses migrate back to MS.
The second reason does sort of play in to your argument that they want to collect for all transactions a bit. MS wants as many services provided by.NET as possible so that using.NET services from both the server and client side is more valuable for everyone. If its more valuable to everyone to use.NET services then people will pay for them. Thats not evil, thats the way software works and it will benifit everyone in the process because it will allow new ways to use computers and other devices. Granted MS will control it but I can't say thats all bad. MS controlled the desktop OS evolution in many ways and I have to say that it was a benifit to people. Never before in history have more people been using computers and a part of that is due to MS.
Its nice that the article failed to tell us if they even broke even in the amount of energy put in vs the amount of energy that they took out. I must say the idea looks very promising but I am dissapointed that they did not mention the energy input vs output so I could compare to past progress.
Not to defend the record companies here because I have plenty of beefs with them as well. Also not to defend copyright holders at all because some can do good with thier works and some just don't.
I think its right that we teach children not to steal. Thats what copying tapes or software is, its stealing. Using as an argument that stealing is ok if the person already makes enough money, or if you think the price for the product is too high, or you don't support ther persons beliefs is just WRONG. You would be upset if someone did the same to you.
I commend the schools for teaching that theft is wrong. I must say I am quite upset that the parents of those children hadn't already taught thier kids that idea before the schools were required to though.
Both radio and live performance are advertising for the final product, the album so you need to get things the right way around. Most concert tours actually COST money in the end, if they are very lucky and and very successful they break even or make a tiny bit of profit.
I think you are right that the recording companies need to stop gouging consumers and ripping off artists. I would gladly pay $4 to $8 for a cd album if I knew that everything except the cost of the media and the recording (which seems to figure to maybe $1 at most) went to the artists.
As it is I look for small bands that are on thier own labels or at least on small labels. MP3.com is like one of those small labels in a lot of ways. They really are just for promoting the author and the amount of money that gets through to the artist is significant.
I really wonder what good "rules of war" are in the first place? I mean its a lot of political posturing that you know damn good and well would be forgotten when a real war hit and someone wanted to defend themselves.
Granted its nice to say that I will be nice to my enemies and all that but when push comes to shove you know that we or any other group will do anything possible not to lose.
Um, since when has Apple supported more total hardware than the PC world? It wasn't very long ago that you were limted to a bunch of super proprietary hardware solutions provided by apple and its minions. Not that you ever needed more than that but claiming that Apple has more support is wierd to hear.
There is a way to plug 100% of the holes and still allow trading. Have an accepted songs list and only allow those songs on the list to be traded (sucks in that people with new legal songs would have to submit to napster to allow the song on the accepted list.)
I've seen benchmarks of the T-bird chips done in the tyan board with the 760mp. As far as I've ever read they are pin compatible. I think this is a case of "it will work but we don't support it". There are also some huge benifits of the MP chips vs the t-bird chips when it comes to multiprocessing because of the cache improvements in the MP chips.
Um, nothing I've seen in XP forces you to use anything that wasn't in win2k. All the fancy photo thing seems to be is a twain client in the OS. That means that adobe and all that crap still works. If you want to use the wizard then you are limited to what the OS provides that I agree with, but if you use the existing technology (which windows would be commiting suicide to get rid of because its too big of a standard) then you have whatever capabilities you want.
You might want to start actually READING articles before posting. All MS said they were going to allow is people to remove ICONS!!! They are allowing a number of icons to be removed from the desktop and the start menu by OEM's and for icons to be added to the start menu and desktop by OEM's. Thats all this is about:)
IE will still be in windows and will be as easy to get to as typing: <window-r> iexplore.exe <enter>
When the assesor put a value on my parents business in Montana they included in that value all tools and equipment (including business vehicles) that belonged to the business. Yes these are all things that were purchased with money after income tax was charged. Yes its nutty but there are MANY places that do this.
BTW in Montana you also pay property tax for personal vehicles every time you license them as well as a slew of other taxes. Its amazing how well hidden this is from normal people and its a further reason I hate property tax.
And they should be paid appropriatly based on supply and demand. I am a person that doesn't believe all people are equal (which if you think about it is an absurd idea) but that they deserve equal opportunity (meaning everyone plays by the same rules, which happen to favor some people more than others, but thats the way it is) and equal treatment before the law (a lofty goal that we certainly don't mean unfortunately but if billyg steals a cookie he should have the same penalty as if joe schmoe steals a similar cookie). Any more than this is nuts. People aren't all entitled to the same amount of money or other goods and they are not all entitled to the same job or wage or any of that.
Life is a game to play and as long as the game has the same rules for every person then thats the equality that our founding fathers (if you are from the US) spoke about.
The bottom line here is this wouldn't be news if it wasn't Microsoft. Hardware fails (think back to the/. failure a short while ago) and sometimes it takes a while to get it going again.
I think the notes to be examined here are the lack of PR and customer support on the issue and the extended length of time of the outage. You can bet that the issue is being examined very closely by MS and will not happen the same in the future. I guess what I'm saying is that yelling and pointing doesn't fix anything and that the same could happen to you so learn from the down side of the whole thing.
Availability is a very hard problem to solve for any service. I think MSN did well to keep as many people connected as they did (I for instance did not lose service).
Unfortunately this, like the./ outage, was a hardware issue and things that should have worked (and probably worked hundreds of times when tested) did not work.
That shows a failure for you in understanding.Net and hailstorm. Both are distributed services that are on lots of different machines and networks. All that is being done by these initiatives is making a single interface to the data (software interface I mean) so that it can all be accessed in the same way. When.Net and hailstorm go live if a failure like the MSN failure were to happen you would lose access to a small portion of your data, for instance your contact list.
Further, the whole idea of humans causing Global Warming is unfounded and rather arrogant. A single small (in comparison to those in history) volcanic eruption changed the temperature of the planet more than humans think they have in the last 100 years. There is also the fact that we are quite recently (in gelogical terms) out of the last ice age. We also have proof that the earth was much warmer in the past than it is right now. That leads me to believe that we are on a natural climate upswing that is part of a very old cycle that humans had nothign to do with.
The earth is like 4 billion years old and has had life on it for nearly 1billion of those years (I might not have my timelines straight in my head sorry). The populations have been larger in the past (I think dinosaurs really outnumbered humans). The earth will continue to have life in the future as well and whether we live or die we humans have very little control over. At best we can conserve and manage to keep ourselves here a bit longer.
Peter's analysis of the current climate of global warming in world politics I think is correct. Its an economic agreement and quite likely has other motives than just keeping the planet cool. My advice is DON'T FREAK OUT OVER GLOBAL WARMING. That said I'm all for conservation and using envorinmentially friendly things but NOT at the cost of our economy. If you like all of the wonderful things that grace your life like the computers you use to read and post here on slashdot, then you have to support our economy. If you give all that up and go to living with none of those benifits then by all means you can condemn those of us that still use them.
Nearly all porn sites seem to have a pay for content structure and they seem highly profitable. Maybe we should be asking them how to get the job done?
I don't think we have to ask to know the reason though, they have a product that people want and can't get elsewhere for free (free high quality porn is not terribly easy to find). The rest of the web will move to this model and its not horrible. People just need to get it out of thier mind that the web is to be free (as in beer) because there is no reason it should be.
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So are there legal rammifacations in this forum for all the people distrubting info on the page cause god knows I'm a US person and I can read this forum? Seems like a stupid stipulation to have on a page publically available on the web and written in english and not the native language of the country that the IPO is directed at (as was mentioned earlier in a different post).
For instance the httpRequest module. It used to be that the only software that needed to make httpRequests was the web browser and so just making those functions a part a stand alone application was all good. MS however noticed that you could use http as a perfectly valid protocol for many other network requests (often that would have proprietary modules to make) and so made a module that could make those requests and because it was useful to all applications (including IE) they put that module in the OS instead of a separate distribution. Again the same thing happens with the html parser/renderer, it works great for help files and documentation for a vast host of applications, so useful in fact that they write it into its own module and include that with the OS so all other applications can use that functionality for free. Same happens for many other modules that can be used for multiple applications but started as functions of IE.
Now we go back to IE and look at what it needs, something to make network requests, something to render the content it recieves, other things that are not available as modules in the OS. So MS writes a wrapper (which turns out to be like 500k or something silly and small like that) that hosts all those controls and makes calls between them and whoa its a web browser.
If an OS were to have made all those functions (httpRequests, html rendering, ftp requests, menue options) part of the API before ever having written a web browser noone would argue that they were just trying to give benifit to as many applications as possible. Noone would say they are trying to corner the browser market would they? They would be touting the ease of application development on that platform because of all the neat high level modules that are included.
Granted MS stole ALL the code for these modules from the IE project. I will give you that they DID try to become the dominant browser by including that wrapper in thier OS so that people could have a web browser with out downloading a single thing. I think they big mistake they made is by saying IE couldn't be removed, they should have maintained from the VERY BEGINNING that sure it can be taken out and shown people how to delete the icons and wrapper DLL and then everyone would be happy at this point.
Now back to the commingling charges, if the modules in suspect (which just have to be the httpRequest and html parser/renderer) were ONLY useful to IE and were not use in ANY other programs by ANY other manufacturers then there would be a great argument that MS only moved them to the OS for the benifit of IE. I maintain however that there are MANY programs that use the modules and some of them are not even web browsing applications and so it should be apparant that these modules are of value to an OS that wants easy development to be possible.
Its sad that what is arguably the largest monopoly case in history could well have been never started (they would have come with another reason to go after MS I'm sure) if MS would have let people delete less than 1 meg of files from there system.
It would have been great if MS would have just added the modules to the OS and then advertised worlds smallest web browser, only 500 or 600k total installed :)
Problem 1 can be fixed by properly setting your input level to take into account the strange impedance and expected level that many sound cards expect. Also use a high quality sound card and not the $15 or the nutty one thats built into your motherboard (packed on the same chip with your drive controllers and pci master heh).
Secondly use shielded high quality low impedance cables so that static is not added to the music. Make those cables SHORT and make sure they don't run past the power cable to your computer because the inductance will add static and buzz to the signal. Last do not record from the cd drive in your computer to the sound card unless you spent way more money on the cd-analog cable than the place that built my computer did.
Problem is certain other OS's work almost as easily as a nintendo. That makes it extra hard on linux and actually makes it hard on those OS's becasue if there is a complex issue the user expects it to be resolved as easily as plugging in a new game in a console.
In an OS I look for something that does my job at an adaquate level with the least effort on my part. Unfortunately (and this fact is rapidly changing) linux is not the least effort path. In fact its not even the ramp up time to learn linux that bothers me but the little things it has that slow me down all the time.
Maybe linux is more stable, maybe it is better as a server, maybe it costs less, but it doesn't do what I want the way I want and so I don't use it. I don't need a computer that stays up for more than a few hours at a time, I don't do anything but the most basic of web serving and file sharing so windows point at a folder and tell it to share to the web interface is very nice for me, and hell I only buy an OS once every few years (when I used linux for 3 years to do development and as a firewall I only upgraded the kernel once) so cost just isn't an issue.
Basically what I'm saying is if you can get me to my chat program, web browser, and image editor/viewer fast and easy without new learning or strange menu use (which I have encountered over and over in linux when I used it, I got around faster on the command line than in any gui interface that was available) that I am very happy. I think in that regard I am saying the same thing that a majority of users in the world are saying.
Again on the stability note (because stability seems to be a MAJOR selling point for linux) most of the instability that I see in friends and families windows systems is #1 bad drivers and hardware incompatibilities and #2 poorly written programs. Linux solves problem number one by either not supporting the hardware at all or making it so hard to install the module and inferface to the hardware that no mere mortal is up to the task (yes that is a cut at linux and a big one). It solves the second problem by actually being superior in OS design. Programs are forced to play nice (94% of the time anyways) by the OS and if they start to get rowdy they go away and the os ticks on like a clock. This really doesn't solve the initial instability of the software (seg fault core dump is just as bad as the bsod if you just lost your 57 page document on bat eyelashes) it just makes it so you don't have to reboot to try and get burned again. Also when something does go south in linux (which happens like once a millenium or something like that) you are truely and seriously f***ed because again no mere mortal can recover the damage. In windows I've seen about 3/4 of the serious problems recovered from. Worst of all with linux right now is if your system goes south you have to search the globe for help instead of being able to just ask your neighbor.
So yes I cut linux, and yes I believe that it is a good long way from being a mainstream desktop OS, but I have reasons based on experiences and facts in the OS. Solve the problems listed above and make it impossibly easy for me to change and you will have a zealot. Until then I will continue to use windows because it does the job at a very capable level.
I guess the idea is that if you are already using a bunch of services if they say for $10 a month you get some extra things that enough people will bite, especially businesses.
Yes and every person that posts an article puts accurate and correct information in thier post? I read the actual article that was linked and it DID NOT mention whether the experiment broke even or not, it just implied that it did in a paragraph heading. I still would like to see numbers of energy in compared to energy out.
Sounds like we will need to start using analog rips. Not a huge deal, sound cards are pretty good at the recording, it will just go slower.
This is an adoption trick and nothing else. MS knows that unless like EVERYONE uses .NET then it will end up just like java (which while doing quite well just didn't have the oomph that everyone wanted, especially sun). MS knows that if linux users are able to write .NET stuff as well as windows users that they have thier core technology on ALL the major systems. Now they just show that .NET on windows works better for a few reasons and you have big businesses migrate back to MS.
The second reason does sort of play in to your argument that they want to collect for all transactions a bit. MS wants as many services provided by .NET as possible so that using .NET services from both the server and client side is more valuable for everyone. If its more valuable to everyone to use .NET services then people will pay for them. Thats not evil, thats the way software works and it will benifit everyone in the process because it will allow new ways to use computers and other devices. Granted MS will control it but I can't say thats all bad. MS controlled the desktop OS evolution in many ways and I have to say that it was a benifit to people. Never before in history have more people been using computers and a part of that is due to MS.
Its nice that the article failed to tell us if they even broke even in the amount of energy put in vs the amount of energy that they took out. I must say the idea looks very promising but I am dissapointed that they did not mention the energy input vs output so I could compare to past progress.
I think its right that we teach children not to steal. Thats what copying tapes or software is, its stealing. Using as an argument that stealing is ok if the person already makes enough money, or if you think the price for the product is too high, or you don't support ther persons beliefs is just WRONG. You would be upset if someone did the same to you.
I commend the schools for teaching that theft is wrong. I must say I am quite upset that the parents of those children hadn't already taught thier kids that idea before the schools were required to though.
I think you are right that the recording companies need to stop gouging consumers and ripping off artists. I would gladly pay $4 to $8 for a cd album if I knew that everything except the cost of the media and the recording (which seems to figure to maybe $1 at most) went to the artists.
As it is I look for small bands that are on thier own labels or at least on small labels. MP3.com is like one of those small labels in a lot of ways. They really are just for promoting the author and the amount of money that gets through to the artist is significant.
I would rather piracy be called exactly what it is, THEFT!
Granted its nice to say that I will be nice to my enemies and all that but when push comes to shove you know that we or any other group will do anything possible not to lose.
Um, since when has Apple supported more total hardware than the PC world? It wasn't very long ago that you were limted to a bunch of super proprietary hardware solutions provided by apple and its minions. Not that you ever needed more than that but claiming that Apple has more support is wierd to hear.
There is a way to plug 100% of the holes and still allow trading. Have an accepted songs list and only allow those songs on the list to be traded (sucks in that people with new legal songs would have to submit to napster to allow the song on the accepted list.)
I've seen benchmarks of the T-bird chips done in the tyan board with the 760mp. As far as I've ever read they are pin compatible. I think this is a case of "it will work but we don't support it". There are also some huge benifits of the MP chips vs the t-bird chips when it comes to multiprocessing because of the cache improvements in the MP chips.
Um, nothing I've seen in XP forces you to use anything that wasn't in win2k. All the fancy photo thing seems to be is a twain client in the OS. That means that adobe and all that crap still works. If you want to use the wizard then you are limited to what the OS provides that I agree with, but if you use the existing technology (which windows would be commiting suicide to get rid of because its too big of a standard) then you have whatever capabilities you want.
IE will still be in windows and will be as easy to get to as typing: <window-r> iexplore.exe <enter>
BTW in Montana you also pay property tax for personal vehicles every time you license them as well as a slew of other taxes. Its amazing how well hidden this is from normal people and its a further reason I hate property tax.
Life is a game to play and as long as the game has the same rules for every person then thats the equality that our founding fathers (if you are from the US) spoke about.
I think the notes to be examined here are the lack of PR and customer support on the issue and the extended length of time of the outage. You can bet that the issue is being examined very closely by MS and will not happen the same in the future. I guess what I'm saying is that yelling and pointing doesn't fix anything and that the same could happen to you so learn from the down side of the whole thing.
Availability is a very hard problem to solve for any service. I think MSN did well to keep as many people connected as they did (I for instance did not lose service).
Unfortunately this, like the ./ outage, was a hardware issue and things that should have worked (and probably worked hundreds of times when tested) did not work.
That shows a failure for you in understanding .Net and hailstorm. Both are distributed services that are on lots of different machines and networks. All that is being done by these initiatives is making a single interface to the data (software interface I mean) so that it can all be accessed in the same way. When .Net and hailstorm go live if a failure like the MSN failure were to happen you would lose access to a small portion of your data, for instance your contact list.
The earth is like 4 billion years old and has had life on it for nearly 1billion of those years (I might not have my timelines straight in my head sorry). The populations have been larger in the past (I think dinosaurs really outnumbered humans). The earth will continue to have life in the future as well and whether we live or die we humans have very little control over. At best we can conserve and manage to keep ourselves here a bit longer.
Peter's analysis of the current climate of global warming in world politics I think is correct. Its an economic agreement and quite likely has other motives than just keeping the planet cool. My advice is DON'T FREAK OUT OVER GLOBAL WARMING. That said I'm all for conservation and using envorinmentially friendly things but NOT at the cost of our economy. If you like all of the wonderful things that grace your life like the computers you use to read and post here on slashdot, then you have to support our economy. If you give all that up and go to living with none of those benifits then by all means you can condemn those of us that still use them.
I don't think we have to ask to know the reason though, they have a product that people want and can't get elsewhere for free (free high quality porn is not terribly easy to find). The rest of the web will move to this model and its not horrible. People just need to get it out of thier mind that the web is to be free (as in beer) because there is no reason it should be.