If the music industry agrees to label all copy-protected CDs as such, he'll still be happy.
But, that's still a Good Thing (TM)!!
If the discs are CLEARLY labeled (I mean something other than a message in a 4pt font on the rear bottom of the CD jewel case), consumers will hopefully think twice about buying them. This is where education by people in-the-know comes into play.
If we inform people to avoid these CDs, because they won't play properly, but the record companies are forced to label them, it will be easy for people to avoid buying them.
I realize that if EVERY CD had this, that wouldn't work then, but we can nip this in the proverbial bud while only a few discs have this garbage on them.
A large part of the problem is that the shows on Toonami were originally made for an older age group than the group they are marketed for here in the US.
Take for example a popular Toonami show, Dragonball Z. When it was originally aired in Japan back in the early 90s, it was primarily for 13 & 14 year olds. But here in the US, it's marketed towards 9 & 10 year olds. So, the cartoon has to be largely censored to meet the new age group. Indeed, when DBZ is aired on the international channel in Japanese, it is rated for 14+, IIRC. (P.S., its been a few years since I've seen that show on TV, so if any of this has changed, correct me!)
Another large part of the problem is the cultural background difference. In Japan, what gets aired for their younger children is far less censored for the same children here in the states. What happens is you wind up with matter being heavily censored in the import to the US. When Midnight Run used to air Gundam Wing, they would air the uncut version of the episode they played earlier that day. It's a shame every episode couldn't be aired like that, it was far more enjoyable.
Jesse Berst first began talking about the ICANN and the.XXX domain proposal back in the spring & summer of 99. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, that is a great idea, I wonder why no one thought of it before."
And yet, nothing came of it. Moving adult content to a.XXX server would be ideal for so many reasons, I fail to see why they wouldn't do anything with it. Is there any way to get that movement started back up?
If anything, this will encourage peaceful protests and deter harmful ones.
Oh, if only that were true...
However, your comment is filled with naivety. This won't be limited to use on violent protestors/rioters, it will be used on ALL protestors. Watch footage from the WTO protests in Seattle, or the Republican National Convention protests in Philadelphia; peaceful protestors, those who were doing SIT-INS, and who had PERMITS to be there, were beaten by police, maced, & tear-gased. In the case of the RNC, Philadelphia police arrested hundreds of the PEACEFUL protestors, and held them for days without just cause. (Btw, the city is now facing dozens of lawsuits for that. My best friend was one of the peaceful protestors locked up.)
All of these new "crowd-control" devices, crowd foam, slippery slime, and the microwave-gun developed at Quantico last year (Which can give a person 3rd-degree burns in a matter of seconds), are going to be used on peaceful protestors, who have a right to protest. These aren't black-bloc anarchists, these are regular people who are trying to make a difference through nonviolence.
What exactly is the problem under this law if I want to run Linux instead of Windows XP? I hear a lot of people saying that this will kill Open Source, but I'm not convinced. Could someone explain this to me?
It's very simple, really.
The SSSCA requires every digital device to have copy protection measures in it, referred to as Digital Rights Management. Guess who now holds a patent on a Digital Rights Management Operating System? Microsoft.
And guess what OSes would become illegal if the SSSCA passed? Anything but Windows. Do you think Microsoft would license their patent to Linux? Do you think Linux distros could afford to buy it?? No. MS would become a government-mandated monopoly as the only OS legally allowed by federal law.
Yes, the SSSCA *IS* that far-reaching. This isn't just about our eroding fair-use rights, its about MS/Disney/MPAA/RIAA putting open-source out of business. If you hack code for Linux for a living, enjoy OSS, or just don't want to use Windows for the rest of your life, I HIGHLY suggest you tell as many people as possible about this.
Why does it have to be affordable? I can't just fiddle with a $50,000 Sun box because I'm curious (unless I happen to have legitimate access to one or went out and cracked into or simply stole one). I'd like to drive a Porshe, but I drive a Honda instead since that's what I can afford.
The difference is that your next job probably won't rely on you driving a Porsche in the past or not. However, Photoshop skills are marketable, and could land you a job. It's the old catch 22; you can't get a job without knowing the software, and you can't afford the software without a job.
Although Photoshop is priced for businesses, Adobe would be smart to offer a cheaper version for non-commercial use; if it makes people only use Adobe products, then they win in the end.
I read the article, and I'm not convinced otherwise. Flash is nothing more than a gimmick, and I personally don't want it used at all, let alone having entire pages done in it. The only places I ever see Flash used are on websites that offer no real information, or "Beat Up Osama" movies.
Face facts about Flash:
1) It's hard to keep up to date. Until you can make Flash that updates itself from SQL, it's worthless for any real data.
2) It's not backwards-compatible with older browsers, nor is it friendly to text-only browsers such as Lynx. The flash content doesn't have an alternate of plain HTML & text for those without the plugin (although you can do an elaborate detection scheme which only works 50% of the time)
3) It breaks the standard web paradigm; once you in a flash movie, the back button on your browser doesn't take you back a page, it starts the movie over again! ARGH!
To top this off, recently a lot of ad designers have started using Flash in their ads. Which means animation, sound, a lot of stuff that makes me IGNORE the advertisement and want to DISABLE Flash in the first place.
Also, the only real benefit of Flash, vector graphics, are completely lost in the mix of horrible effects, processor-killing animation, and canned sounds. If you want good vector graphics, use Adobe SVG instead.
On a semi-related rant, I personally am tired of companies trying to treat the web like Television. Even in this article, they mention how they can make web pages like TV. It's a completely wrong approach; the WWW is supposed to be interactive! I don't want animations forced on me, I don't want excessive loading times so I can have glowing scrollbars, I want the information I'm looking for! The web is not meant to mindlessly entertain you for 30 minutes at a time with ads snuck in, it's meant to exchange information. No one can force us to look at ads online, and the more they try, the more we are going to block those tools. If I see one more ad with Flash on it, I'm going to completely remove it from my system.
When I was in college, MS gave out 500 free, full copies of Visual Studio 6, in an attempt to get the CS students hooked on it.
What happened?? The kids who really knew nothing about computers, and had never programmed before, they used it. But the kids who all knew programming, etc., before joining the CS program, which was about 65% or so, they all sold their copies on Ebay. (This was before MS started shutting down ebay auctions of their software) If they needed to use the software, they would just burn a copy of the lab's install discs. I mean, it was just C++ code, you don't need Visual Studio to compile that!
So, in the end, MS's plan didn't totally work. Hell, half the kids in the CS program weren't running Windows anyway.
Unfortunately, this is not the best example of SLAPP suits; it could be argued that someone in the process is simply lying about the certified mail.
A much better example would be a few years back when a woman found out a business in her area was dumping waste behind a school. She notified the state agency to confirm it, and as a resident of that school's district, had a right to be on the property. As a result, she was SLAPP'ed, by the contractor who was hiding the waste. Now THAT is scary. What possible right could that contractor have for suing her, when he WAS guilty?? She was nothing more than a whistle-blower, I don't think any of us would argue with that.
Suing someone over a troll-like post on a messageboard is childlike, and shows a company to be immature. Suing because someone exposed you for poisoning the planet is just downright low, even lower than dumping waste materials behind an elementary school in the first place.
Does anyone really want a dub of this?? I would rather have it properly subtitled, and shown with the original voices & music. Dubs almost never capture the mood of the scene, or the subtleties of the dialogue correctly.
Then again, perhaps I'm just bitter because of the horrible dubs made my companies like Funimation to some of my favorite pieces of Anime. Bad translations, awful voice work, and horrible replacement music. Let's hope the same doesn't happen with Sen to Chihiro.
...is that under this model, those who contribute to slashdot the most, and make the site what it is, are forced to pay the most.
I think there should possibly be a "positive-discussion" discount, where if you post modded-up comments, you get more allowed page views. After all, you are helping the/. community.
I see the need for the system, I know you guys need to stay open, and I do understand that people like myself use up a lot of bandwidth on here, but I personally would really like to see some sort of reward for positively contributing to the site.
believe (IANAL) that this means that anyone with old software/hardware that does not protect/honor the copyright protections and is connected to a network is automatically commiting a felony.
There is a grandfather clause on the original proposal which allows older hardware to be somewhat immune. Doesn't make the bill any better, but it does at least give a "grace period", if you will.
Also, is anyone else completely shocked and outraged at the idea that ripping a DVD could get you more jail time than rape or murder??
Bipartisanship could actually save us.
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
There is one important thing to remember here in this situation: Republicans are not a fan of Hollings. And that especially includes the President, who Hollings has been publically criticizing heavily for his involvement with Enron.
Sure, our government is largely corrupt, and IMHO, neither Hollings or Bush should be in office. But if Hollings does introduce this bill, and it passes through Congress, there would be a good chance of Bush vetoing it. Of course, since the Senate is so closely split with Republicans & Democrats, I'm hoping that with the right pressure placed by us geeks, this bill won't pass in the first place.
On every PC where at @Home software install was done, the home page was set up to a custom, VERY high-bandwidth portal site. It had daily movies, ridiculously sized graphics, and tons of customization. And no one ever used it fully!! It was difficult to navigate, and had an ugly interface.
So every time a person opened up their browser, poof, they were force-fed a ton of high-bandwidth info that they didn't want. Combine the delivery costs with the costs of maintaining that content, and you have millions of dollars down the drain. Those millions could have saved them in the long run, IMHO.
I guess that kid hit puberty early...
on
iWarez
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
...because he sure has some huge balls to just walk up to a demo computer and try that!!
It's interesting to note that the article mentions Disk On Key. A few weeks ago, my friend's place of business had a meeting, and basically the whole premise was that any visitors to the company had to have their keychains checked for such devices, as they were worried about people coming in to visit, and leaving with a copy of a database. I wouldn't be surprised if other companies start adopting a policy of searching for those types of devices either.
i live in south carolina so this fucker is supposedly representing me. last time i checked digital encryption was not on my to do list... south carolina is still 49th in education, the little shit needs his priorities adjusted... all in favor of removing him from office say i. (south carolina high school student skipping school today)
Unfortunately, Senator Hollings has been bought out by corporate interests for some time now. He is basically now the elected Disney representative. He has received almost $300,000 since 1995 in "donations" from large corporations, including AOL/TW, Disney, News Corp (Fox), Viacom (CBS), and NBC. Check out this article on The Register for more info.
If you are a resident of South Carolina, then you are a constituent of Sen. Hollings. PLEASE, contact a rep at any of his offices, and tell them you are a constituent who is AGAINST the SSSCA. Be polite, be firm, give your address, make sure they know you are a citizen & a voter. Only activism by us geeks is going to get these types of things stopped.
Oh, by the way, one company in that mix controls the majority of concert promotions too (Clear Channel Communications).
Clear Channel controls a lot more than just concert promotions. Check out a list of all the Radio Stations, TV Stations, and other things they own here: http://www.cjr.org/owners/clearchannel.asp.
It's really quite scary. No wonder smaller artists cant get played on the majority of radio stations...
It's the first two words in the subject line that makes censorship on the web difficult. It transcends state and country boundaries. You can access content from servers almost anywhere in the world from the comfort of your home or office.
Unfortunately, governments still keep trying. For example, Shannon Laratt, the owner of BMEZine received a letter from the German government stating that BME was effectively banned in Germany.
Your statement might be true under certain situations, but not all. Also, lets not forget that the comfort of an office usually means business-related content only. I would go on BMEzine to look for that letter from the German govt., so I could link it here, but I'm blocked from BME on my company's internet connection.
E-mail advertising, which is relatively inexpensive, is one of the few forms of Internet advertising that is thriving, and has become a key area of focus at DoubleClick.
I love the spin they put on this. They make spam out to sound like the latest & greatest form of advertising. It's SPAM. Not advertising, SPAM. Just because it is "thriving" does not give them the right to spam us.
In addition to helping advertisers segment their customer data to launch more targeted ads, DartMail 3.5 also helps track customer transactions in more detail, recording such information as the value of a given purchase and whether it was made in direct response to an e-mail transaction.
Invasion of Privacy becomes "Track Customer Transactions in Detail". Amazing.
After all, that's JUST what we want...for people to be able to track us even more. When did invading our privacy become a good thing??
The internet is NOT Television, and these marketers need to stop trying to treat it like that. They can NOT force us to look at ads, no matter what they do. And dumping unsolicited emails on us isn't the solution.
Until these guys get it, I suggest 2 things:
1) Block doubleclick (wildcarded, of course) on your router/firewall.
2) Make use of SpamCop.net.
Slashdot Mirror
Go here:w ww.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/arts/music/07POPL.html To view the article without registration.
http://college.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://
I'm not karma-whoring, I've already hit the cap.
If the music industry agrees to label all copy-protected CDs as such, he'll still be happy.
But, that's still a Good Thing (TM)!!
If the discs are CLEARLY labeled (I mean something other than a message in a 4pt font on the rear bottom of the CD jewel case), consumers will hopefully think twice about buying them. This is where education by people in-the-know comes into play.
If we inform people to avoid these CDs, because they won't play properly, but the record companies are forced to label them, it will be easy for people to avoid buying them.
I realize that if EVERY CD had this, that wouldn't work then, but we can nip this in the proverbial bud while only a few discs have this garbage on them.
A large part of the problem is that the shows on Toonami were originally made for an older age group than the group they are marketed for here in the US.
Take for example a popular Toonami show, Dragonball Z. When it was originally aired in Japan back in the early 90s, it was primarily for 13 & 14 year olds. But here in the US, it's marketed towards 9 & 10 year olds. So, the cartoon has to be largely censored to meet the new age group. Indeed, when DBZ is aired on the international channel in Japanese, it is rated for 14+, IIRC. (P.S., its been a few years since I've seen that show on TV, so if any of this has changed, correct me!)
Another large part of the problem is the cultural background difference. In Japan, what gets aired for their younger children is far less censored for the same children here in the states. What happens is you wind up with matter being heavily censored in the import to the US. When Midnight Run used to air Gundam Wing, they would air the uncut version of the episode they played earlier that day. It's a shame every episode couldn't be aired like that, it was far more enjoyable.
Hear, hear!
.XXX domain proposal back in the spring & summer of 99. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, that is a great idea, I wonder why no one thought of it before."
.XXX server would be ideal for so many reasons, I fail to see why they wouldn't do anything with it. Is there any way to get that movement started back up?
Jesse Berst first began talking about the ICANN and the
And yet, nothing came of it. Moving adult content to a
That game already exists, in a way.
Do a search on Google for the Columbine Mod for Half-Life, you'll find it.
If anything, this will encourage peaceful protests and deter harmful ones.
Oh, if only that were true...
However, your comment is filled with naivety. This won't be limited to use on violent protestors/rioters, it will be used on ALL protestors. Watch footage from the WTO protests in Seattle, or the Republican National Convention protests in Philadelphia; peaceful protestors, those who were doing SIT-INS, and who had PERMITS to be there, were beaten by police, maced, & tear-gased. In the case of the RNC, Philadelphia police arrested hundreds of the PEACEFUL protestors, and held them for days without just cause. (Btw, the city is now facing dozens of lawsuits for that. My best friend was one of the peaceful protestors locked up.)
All of these new "crowd-control" devices, crowd foam, slippery slime, and the microwave-gun developed at Quantico last year (Which can give a person 3rd-degree burns in a matter of seconds), are going to be used on peaceful protestors, who have a right to protest. These aren't black-bloc anarchists, these are regular people who are trying to make a difference through nonviolence.
What exactly is the problem under this law if I want to run Linux instead of Windows XP? I hear a lot of people saying that this will kill Open Source, but I'm not convinced. Could someone explain this to me?
It's very simple, really.
The SSSCA requires every digital device to have copy protection measures in it, referred to as Digital Rights Management. Guess who now holds a patent on a Digital Rights Management Operating System? Microsoft.
And guess what OSes would become illegal if the SSSCA passed? Anything but Windows. Do you think Microsoft would license their patent to Linux? Do you think Linux distros could afford to buy it?? No. MS would become a government-mandated monopoly as the only OS legally allowed by federal law.
Yes, the SSSCA *IS* that far-reaching. This isn't just about our eroding fair-use rights, its about MS/Disney/MPAA/RIAA putting open-source out of business. If you hack code for Linux for a living, enjoy OSS, or just don't want to use Windows for the rest of your life, I HIGHLY suggest you tell as many people as possible about this.
Why does it have to be affordable? I can't just fiddle with a $50,000 Sun box because I'm curious (unless I happen to have legitimate access to one or went out and cracked into or simply stole one). I'd like to drive a Porshe, but I drive a Honda instead since that's what I can afford.
The difference is that your next job probably won't rely on you driving a Porsche in the past or not. However, Photoshop skills are marketable, and could land you a job. It's the old catch 22; you can't get a job without knowing the software, and you can't afford the software without a job.
Although Photoshop is priced for businesses, Adobe would be smart to offer a cheaper version for non-commercial use; if it makes people only use Adobe products, then they win in the end.
I read the article, and I'm not convinced otherwise. Flash is nothing more than a gimmick, and I personally don't want it used at all, let alone having entire pages done in it. The only places I ever see Flash used are on websites that offer no real information, or "Beat Up Osama" movies.
Face facts about Flash:
1) It's hard to keep up to date. Until you can make Flash that updates itself from SQL, it's worthless for any real data.
2) It's not backwards-compatible with older browsers, nor is it friendly to text-only browsers such as Lynx. The flash content doesn't have an alternate of plain HTML & text for those without the plugin (although you can do an elaborate detection scheme which only works 50% of the time)
3) It breaks the standard web paradigm; once you in a flash movie, the back button on your browser doesn't take you back a page, it starts the movie over again! ARGH!
To top this off, recently a lot of ad designers have started using Flash in their ads. Which means animation, sound, a lot of stuff that makes me IGNORE the advertisement and want to DISABLE Flash in the first place.
Also, the only real benefit of Flash, vector graphics, are completely lost in the mix of horrible effects, processor-killing animation, and canned sounds. If you want good vector graphics, use Adobe SVG instead.
On a semi-related rant, I personally am tired of companies trying to treat the web like Television. Even in this article, they mention how they can make web pages like TV. It's a completely wrong approach; the WWW is supposed to be interactive! I don't want animations forced on me, I don't want excessive loading times so I can have glowing scrollbars, I want the information I'm looking for! The web is not meant to mindlessly entertain you for 30 minutes at a time with ads snuck in, it's meant to exchange information. No one can force us to look at ads online, and the more they try, the more we are going to block those tools. If I see one more ad with Flash on it, I'm going to completely remove it from my system.
When I was in college, MS gave out 500 free, full copies of Visual Studio 6, in an attempt to get the CS students hooked on it.
What happened?? The kids who really knew nothing about computers, and had never programmed before, they used it. But the kids who all knew programming, etc., before joining the CS program, which was about 65% or so, they all sold their copies on Ebay. (This was before MS started shutting down ebay auctions of their software) If they needed to use the software, they would just burn a copy of the lab's install discs. I mean, it was just C++ code, you don't need Visual Studio to compile that!
So, in the end, MS's plan didn't totally work. Hell, half the kids in the CS program weren't running Windows anyway.
Unfortunately, this is not the best example of SLAPP suits; it could be argued that someone in the process is simply lying about the certified mail.
A much better example would be a few years back when a woman found out a business in her area was dumping waste behind a school. She notified the state agency to confirm it, and as a resident of that school's district, had a right to be on the property. As a result, she was SLAPP'ed, by the contractor who was hiding the waste. Now THAT is scary. What possible right could that contractor have for suing her, when he WAS guilty?? She was nothing more than a whistle-blower, I don't think any of us would argue with that.
Suing someone over a troll-like post on a messageboard is childlike, and shows a company to be immature. Suing because someone exposed you for poisoning the planet is just downright low, even lower than dumping waste materials behind an elementary school in the first place.
You can read more about SLAPP and that particular lawsuit here at ZeroWasteAmerica.org
Does anyone really want a dub of this?? I would rather have it properly subtitled, and shown with the original voices & music. Dubs almost never capture the mood of the scene, or the subtleties of the dialogue correctly.
Then again, perhaps I'm just bitter because of the horrible dubs made my companies like Funimation to some of my favorite pieces of Anime. Bad translations, awful voice work, and horrible replacement music. Let's hope the same doesn't happen with Sen to Chihiro.
...is that under this model, those who contribute to slashdot the most, and make the site what it is, are forced to pay the most.
/. community.
I think there should possibly be a "positive-discussion" discount, where if you post modded-up comments, you get more allowed page views. After all, you are helping the
I see the need for the system, I know you guys need to stay open, and I do understand that people like myself use up a lot of bandwidth on here, but I personally would really like to see some sort of reward for positively contributing to the site.
It is illegal to murder, illegal to steal. nobody stops.
True, but the SSSCA has harsher punishments than murder, and you can't plead temporary insanity for breaking it either.
believe (IANAL) that this means that anyone with old software/hardware that does not protect/honor the copyright protections and is connected to a network is automatically commiting a felony.
There is a grandfather clause on the original proposal which allows older hardware to be somewhat immune. Doesn't make the bill any better, but it does at least give a "grace period", if you will.
Also, is anyone else completely shocked and outraged at the idea that ripping a DVD could get you more jail time than rape or murder??
There is one important thing to remember here in this situation: Republicans are not a fan of Hollings. And that especially includes the President, who Hollings has been publically criticizing heavily for his involvement with Enron.
Sure, our government is largely corrupt, and IMHO, neither Hollings or Bush should be in office. But if Hollings does introduce this bill, and it passes through Congress, there would be a good chance of Bush vetoing it. Of course, since the Senate is so closely split with Republicans & Democrats, I'm hoping that with the right pressure placed by us geeks, this bill won't pass in the first place.
What really killed @Home was their portal!!
On every PC where at @Home software install was done, the home page was set up to a custom, VERY high-bandwidth portal site. It had daily movies, ridiculously sized graphics, and tons of customization. And no one ever used it fully!! It was difficult to navigate, and had an ugly interface.
So every time a person opened up their browser, poof, they were force-fed a ton of high-bandwidth info that they didn't want. Combine the delivery costs with the costs of maintaining that content, and you have millions of dollars down the drain. Those millions could have saved them in the long run, IMHO.
...because he sure has some huge balls to just walk up to a demo computer and try that!!
It's interesting to note that the article mentions Disk On Key. A few weeks ago, my friend's place of business had a meeting, and basically the whole premise was that any visitors to the company had to have their keychains checked for such devices, as they were worried about people coming in to visit, and leaving with a copy of a database. I wouldn't be surprised if other companies start adopting a policy of searching for those types of devices either.
Right here:w ww.nytimes.com/2002/02/28/technology/28SPAC.html
http://college.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://
I'm not karma-whoring, I've already hit the cap.
Should we be looking at the motives of politicians who sponsor bills?
Yes, we absolutely should. Especially when the politician in question has received almost $300,000 in corporate donations from the worlds largest media companies.
i live in south carolina so this fucker is supposedly representing me. last time i checked digital encryption was not on my to do list... south carolina is still 49th in education, the little shit needs his priorities adjusted... all in favor of removing him from office say i. (south carolina high school student skipping school today)
Unfortunately, Senator Hollings has been bought out by corporate interests for some time now. He is basically now the elected Disney representative. He has received almost $300,000 since 1995 in "donations" from large corporations, including AOL/TW, Disney, News Corp (Fox), Viacom (CBS), and NBC. Check out this article on The Register for more info.
If you are a resident of South Carolina, then you are a constituent of Sen. Hollings. PLEASE, contact a rep at any of his offices, and tell them you are a constituent who is AGAINST the SSSCA. Be polite, be firm, give your address, make sure they know you are a citizen & a voter. Only activism by us geeks is going to get these types of things stopped.
Oh, by the way, one company in that mix controls the majority of concert promotions too (Clear Channel Communications).
Clear Channel controls a lot more than just concert promotions. Check out a list of all the Radio Stations, TV Stations, and other things they own here: http://www.cjr.org/owners/clearchannel.asp.
It's really quite scary. No wonder smaller artists cant get played on the majority of radio stations...
The link is wrong in the post...but somehow it still works??
The link isn't wrong. Com.com is the C|Networks portal, so it's essentially C|Net, which in turn owns ZDNet.
It's the first two words in the subject line that makes censorship on the web difficult. It transcends state and country boundaries. You can access content from servers almost anywhere in the world from the comfort of your home or office.
Unfortunately, governments still keep trying. For example, Shannon Laratt, the owner of BMEZine received a letter from the German government stating that BME was effectively banned in Germany.
Your statement might be true under certain situations, but not all. Also, lets not forget that the comfort of an office usually means business-related content only. I would go on BMEzine to look for that letter from the German govt., so I could link it here, but I'm blocked from BME on my company's internet connection.
E-mail advertising, which is relatively inexpensive, is one of the few forms of Internet advertising that is thriving, and has become a key area of focus at DoubleClick.
I love the spin they put on this. They make spam out to sound like the latest & greatest form of advertising.
It's SPAM. Not advertising, SPAM. Just because it is "thriving" does not give them the right to spam us.
In addition to helping advertisers segment their customer data to launch more targeted ads, DartMail 3.5 also helps track customer transactions in more detail, recording such information as the value of a given purchase and whether it was made in direct response to an e-mail transaction.
Invasion of Privacy becomes "Track Customer Transactions in Detail". Amazing.
After all, that's JUST what we want...for people to be able to track us even more. When did invading our privacy become a good thing??
The internet is NOT Television, and these marketers need to stop trying to treat it like that. They can NOT force us to look at ads, no matter what they do. And dumping unsolicited emails on us isn't the solution.
Until these guys get it, I suggest 2 things:
1) Block doubleclick (wildcarded, of course) on your router/firewall.
2) Make use of SpamCop.net.