The point is that the RIAA wants to scare people that they will get busted if they share MP3s. This would obviously scare off producers and users of legit MP3s...
I hope Gibson's lawyers remembered to get them include a 'broadcast bit' in the protocol so the guitarist can sue under the DMCA anyone who records the output without explicit contractural permission...
Several countries operate a "Public Lending Right" system which pays authors based on estimated public library loans, although I'd guess this is usually small beer compared to what they'd like to get.
This looks lto me like a slap for MS from Sony for muscling in on the PlayStation fanchise. Sony are old hands at milking money with proprietary systems, they probably can't stand it that MS is playing the same game.
Intelligent filtering is going to be a temporary fix too. We're going to end up in an arms race where there'll be (contradiction in terms...) Intelligent Spamming(tm).
I use SpamAssassain, and it's great, but I just know if it were more widely used spammers would soon learn not to put multiple exclamation marks at the end of theiir Subject: lines.
Nobody complains that a decompiler takes a something which was designed at a high level and breaks it down to a low level - that's its job. I'd see postmodernism as essentially a means to the same thing at the culture/language layers.
Thinking about computers (which are essentially modernist devices) in postmodern terms, you immediately see that systems which are inherently designed to do very specific things contain elements which vary from their specifications (or show how poor/limited/shortsighted their specifications were) in numerous ways. Part of the problem is the failure to note that there are no adequate formal techniques to uncover all those failings in a system (beyond formal abstracts like the Universal Turing Machine.) That raises the question - could there ever be an adequate formal system to describe all the different possible failings in a real-lfe complex system? The answer I feel is no, which might disappoint the developers (while keeping us in a job) but might be good news for anybody who fears living in/with a perfect technical system.
The lesson is surely that there can be no ultimate perfect system. Any system must adjust dynamically to social and technical risks, creating a race between competing systems without one overall winner.
I would recommend Mark Poster's book 'The Mode Of Information' as a readable and thought-provoking starting point for a cultural criticism of technology.
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The point is that the RIAA wants to scare people that they will get busted if they share MP3s. This would obviously scare off producers and users of legit MP3s...
I hope Gibson's lawyers remembered to get them include a 'broadcast bit' in the protocol so the guitarist can sue under the DMCA anyone who records the output without explicit contractural permission...
Retailing and distribution is about 50% of the total cost of a retail music CD, so a 100% markup is not totally off the wall...
Shouldn't that be a case of Mecca Cola...
I have numerous DVDs and at least 2 DVD players, but I don't ever remember accepting (or even seeing) any license agreements.
It would seem the only real trade secret here is that CSS is incredibly lame, so I can see how they'd be concerned about that getting out.
Several countries operate a "Public Lending Right" system which pays authors based on estimated public library loans, although I'd guess this is usually small beer compared to what they'd like to get.
This looks lto me like a slap for MS from Sony for muscling in on the PlayStation fanchise. Sony are old hands at milking money with proprietary systems, they probably can't stand it that MS is playing the same game.
Intelligent filtering is going to be a temporary fix too. We're going to end up in an arms race where there'll be (contradiction in terms...) Intelligent Spamming(tm).
I use SpamAssassain, and it's great, but I just know if it were more widely used spammers would soon learn not to put multiple exclamation marks at the end of theiir Subject: lines.
I have been in the reverse situation where the client site had a change in dresscode policy towards relaxed dress.
I was working for an outsourcer my line manager was moaning 'you work for me, you'll wear a tie.'
In the end the customer had a quiet word with my manager... end of problem.
Nobody complains that a decompiler takes a something which was designed at a high level and breaks it down to a low level - that's its job. I'd see postmodernism as essentially a means to the same thing at the culture/language layers.
Thinking about computers (which are essentially modernist devices) in postmodern terms, you immediately see that systems which are inherently designed to do very specific things contain elements which vary from their specifications (or show how poor/limited/shortsighted their specifications were) in numerous ways. Part of the problem is the failure to note that there are no adequate formal techniques to uncover all those failings in a system (beyond formal abstracts like the Universal Turing Machine.) That raises the question - could there ever be an adequate formal system to describe all the different possible failings in a real-lfe complex system? The answer I feel is no, which might disappoint the developers (while keeping us in a job) but might be good news for anybody who fears living in/with a perfect technical system.
The lesson is surely that there can be no ultimate perfect system. Any system must adjust dynamically to social and technical risks, creating a race between competing systems without one overall winner.
I would recommend Mark Poster's book 'The Mode Of Information' as a readable and thought-provoking starting point for a cultural criticism of technology.