"Copyright has swung too far from the commons that defined much of what is good about this country. Congress needs to move it back."
Here's the thing.
You and I think so, and yet Congress is convinced for whatever reason that America's properity relies on making sure people don't take our movies and music and making it freely available.
So they're convinced, rightly or wrongly, that if anything, copyright holders need more power, not less.
As a result, people are going to court because if you're a congressman, you have a couple of guys on the internet arguing copyright extensions are bad, and yet lots of businesses and respected professors telling you that that its good, you're probably going to side that seems to be telling you to strengthen copyrights, because there doesn't appear to be a downside as far as theyr'e concerned.
I don't see an obvious solution to the problem yet, because it hasn't hit the public where they can notice.
So my guess is copyright laws will get downright draconian (i.e. "the right to read") before things move back into balance.
What the tech companies are saying is that there is a shortage of programmers with 10 years experience in Java, 10 years experience in e-Commerce, and 10 years experience is Oracle willing to work for $25K a year.
Why bother? I have a Motorola v710, and the picture quality is so poor that I think you'd get better picture quality with a piece of chalk and a slate.
"OTOH, I wonder how many here are old enough to remember buying music before the LP? "
Probably no one. You'd probably be talking about people who are retired at this point.
Now, if you mean, "Who remembers 45/singles?", then I certainly remember that era, but singles were a throwback to the time of jukeboxes, and for many reasons, singles were discontinued.
I remember 45's as being pressed poorly and were usually warped because the vinyl was thinner. In addition, the 45 usually had the short or radio version of a song. But it was a way to get a hit from a one-hit-wonder band without springing the $4-5 for the LP.
And yes, in the early 70's LP's were routinely $4 when they were first released (probably a loss-leader) and then rose to $5 as they came down on the chart.
Those were the days when album art mattered.
I always feel like the record companies fooled us when CD's came out. Sure, they sounded great, but when CD's were new, vinyl LP's were now $7, and the CD was $14-16, with the excuse that "we are capacity constrained, when we get more capacity, prices will be much cheaper, because these things are cheap to make".
That didn't happen, and I cut way back on my music purchases
And now that I can get CD's for $8 (http://www.bmgmusic.com), I'm now buying CD's again. Its really that complicated and that simple.
" this is a cheap alternative to a portable DVD player
It can't play DVD's.
And unlike portable media players, you can't convert videos to a different format and download; you'll have to either buy your movies again in a new format or hope that Sony's new movie format catches on so that you can rent them.
Not terribly appealing, particularly since cheap portable DVD players can be purchased for well under $200 these days.
"Walmart has made themselves based on extraordinarily good pricing."
I like Walmart just fine, but when I've gone into the stores, I don't see this great pricing.
On CD's? Nope, typical pricing that I can get online in a dozen places. On electronics? Not really, I can do better at Costco, or Best Buy. On Clothing?;-) On Legos? Not really. On videogames, they're the same price (apparently strong-arm tactics aren't working in this part of the business) as everyone else.
Now that said, at their superstores, they have a good selection, and its nice to do one-stop. But I find their pricing mediocre.
But really, the FAT file system is 24 years old at this point. How can you patent something you did 24 years ago and you've not complained about it in all that time?
They don't want to sell us FLAC, because a significant profit can be had by changing formats. If they sold us FLAC's, we wouldn't be interested in a new format.
That's why CD's are excellent. Top quality, no DRM, and then can be ripped and moved to a new format with little effort.
Its a case where the existing format is undeniably superior to the new format. And that's killing the record industry.
"The planet is wired with detectors at this point to catch any "anomolous" explosions"
Are any of these detectors in the hands of people or organizations who would admit the truth? I mean, most governments would rather not admit to it, unless N. Korea forces their hand.
Slashdot Mirror
The viewpoint manager never says "You need this tool to view this content. Click here".
Nope, it just installs itself silently.
Now, if you have Webroot Spysweeper, it alerts you that something has changed.
However, something that installs without your permission and then reports aggregated data back to a central server is by definition spyware.
If its not spyware, then why not ask permission ot install? Are they afraid people will say "no"?
"Copyright has swung too far from the commons that defined much of what is good about this country. Congress needs to move it back."
Here's the thing.
You and I think so, and yet Congress is convinced for whatever reason that America's properity relies on making sure people don't take our movies and music and making it freely available.
So they're convinced, rightly or wrongly, that if anything, copyright holders need more power, not less.
As a result, people are going to court because if you're a congressman, you have a couple of guys on the internet arguing copyright extensions are bad, and yet lots of businesses and respected professors telling you that that its good, you're probably going to side that seems to be telling you to strengthen copyrights, because there doesn't appear to be a downside as far as theyr'e concerned.
I don't see an obvious solution to the problem yet, because it hasn't hit the public where they can notice.
So my guess is copyright laws will get downright draconian (i.e. "the right to read") before things move back into balance.
"why has the lack of piracy on the GC not caused them to sell their products for less?"
Because piracy has the effect of lowering prices not raising them.
Look at it this way...if you sell out every game you make at $60, why would you ever price your game lower?
Its comforting to know that a government agency will be responsible for ensuring the MPAA and RIAA are profitable.
And we get to pay for it both on the enforcement and higher prices caused by inefficient distribution systems.
What a warm way to start this holiday.
"They are there to prevent trolls from stretching the width of the page by inserting silly long strings of text that lack breaks."
Since they're just URL links anyway, they could just wrap it anyway, since its a link.
Even "Microsoft Outlook" has figured out how to handle that.
What the tech companies are saying is that there is a shortage of programmers with 10 years experience in Java, 10 years experience in e-Commerce, and 10 years experience is Oracle willing to work for $25K a year.
Why bother? I have a Motorola v710, and the picture quality is so poor that I think you'd get better picture quality with a piece of chalk and a slate.
I think it was invented by a swiss mathemetician.
But its my favorite all-time puzzle.
I paid money for WinAmp 5!
Just kidding. I still like WinAmp. It really kicks the llama's ass.
"OTOH, I wonder how many here are old enough to remember buying music before the LP? "
Probably no one. You'd probably be talking about people who are retired at this point.
Now, if you mean, "Who remembers 45/singles?", then I certainly remember that era, but singles were a throwback to the time of jukeboxes, and for many reasons, singles were discontinued.
I remember 45's as being pressed poorly and were usually warped because the vinyl was thinner. In addition, the 45 usually had the short or radio version of a song. But it was a way to get a hit from a one-hit-wonder band without springing the $4-5 for the LP.
And yes, in the early 70's LP's were routinely $4 when they were first released (probably a loss-leader) and then rose to $5 as they came down on the chart.
Those were the days when album art mattered.
I always feel like the record companies fooled us when CD's came out. Sure, they sounded great, but when CD's were new, vinyl LP's were now $7, and the CD was $14-16, with the excuse that "we are capacity constrained, when we get more capacity, prices will be much cheaper, because these things are cheap to make".
That didn't happen, and I cut way back on my music purchases
And now that I can get CD's for $8 (http://www.bmgmusic.com), I'm now buying CD's again. Its really that complicated and that simple.
Let me just understand...
We're okay exporting jobs in the name of "global competitiveness", but we're not okay getting rid of jobs in the name of protecting the environment?
" this is a cheap alternative to a portable DVD player
It can't play DVD's.
And unlike portable media players, you can't convert videos to a different format and download; you'll have to either buy your movies again in a new format or hope that Sony's new movie format catches on so that you can rent them.
Not terribly appealing, particularly since cheap portable DVD players can be purchased for well under $200 these days.
"If you do not accept thte terms of the License Agreement, you should promptly return the product for a refund."
What happens if you attempt to return the software, but the merchant refuses to accept the return and refund your money?
Superbase (on the Amiga, anyway) wasn't bad as a dBase type clone, but I always found it too buggy to really use for anything non-trivial.
My hat's off to you for getting something useful done with it.
Back in my mainframe days, Rexx was the replacement for EXEC and EXEC2 on IBM's VM system leading us to say:
"REXX is king of the EXEC's"
Thank you thank you. I'll be here all week.
"Walmart has made themselves based on extraordinarily good pricing."
;-) On Legos? Not really. On videogames, they're the same price (apparently strong-arm tactics aren't working in this part of the business) as everyone else.
I like Walmart just fine, but when I've gone into the stores, I don't see this great pricing.
On CD's? Nope, typical pricing that I can get online in a dozen places. On electronics? Not really, I can do better at Costco, or Best Buy. On Clothing?
Now that said, at their superstores, they have a good selection, and its nice to do one-stop. But I find their pricing mediocre.
Can you give me an example of this good pricing?
I've never heard of WMA referred to as an "open standard" before.
Is this now an ISO standard? Or is the person in the article just making stuff up?
This is a fancy way of saying "The guy is lying".
I don't understand. I've never heard of a car with an engine that could overpower the brakes. Certainly no modern car fits into this category.
I smell a rat here.
Seems to me a patent would have run out by now.
o ry
If you look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_file_system#Hist
You'll see a couple landmarks:
FAT12 - 1980
FAT16 - 1983
VFAT - 1995
FAT32 - 1997
But really, the FAT file system is 24 years old at this point. How can you patent something you did 24 years ago and you've not complained about it in all that time?
Is a "war fighter" what used to be called a "soldier"?
I didn't say it was incorrect, merely pointing out that the playing field is level here.
"Linux is not particularly innovative"
By your definition, there have been no innovative operating systems in perhaps 40 years.
They don't want to sell us FLAC, because a significant profit can be had by changing formats. If they sold us FLAC's, we wouldn't be interested in a new format.
That's why CD's are excellent. Top quality, no DRM, and then can be ripped and moved to a new format with little effort.
Its a case where the existing format is undeniably superior to the new format. And that's killing the record industry.
"The planet is wired with detectors at this point to catch any "anomolous" explosions"
Are any of these detectors in the hands of people or organizations who would admit the truth? I mean, most governments would rather not admit to it, unless N. Korea forces their hand.