That's an insult to humans everywhere, though in all seriousness, it's starting to sound a lot like Animal Farm. Everyone is equal, only some are more equal than others. I mean the RIAA, MPAA, whoever, could take any one of us on here to court, and I guarantee that 99% of us would be found guilty, even if we'd done nothing wrong. Government doesn't have power anymore, coporations do, and that scares the hell out of me.
That the RIAA are clueless bastards:) Do you think they honestly know anything about this routing shit? I mean honestly, they're with a hive mentality. Just like ants, someone has breached their defences and they're reacting the only way they can, by reacting without thinking. If anyone at the RIAA actually got a clue and pulled off this routing tables thing, I will gladly stand naked in Times Square on New Years Eve jumping up and down saying "I'm Mister Lizard" with the 10 top selling CD's of the time taped to my dick...
I live in a small town too. Short drive? To get to the nearest Blockbuster (the only place with a decent selection of games) is a 2 hour drive. One way. So, an 8 hour round trip, spending probably 40 bucks on gas, to rent a game to see if it's worth shelling out 60 on... Yeah, makes sense.
As for point 9, see my comment about www.gamefaqs.com. Works on that exact principle. As for 10, see point 9. It's purely subjective. You may like Tomb Raider and never get around to mentioning that you like it because of Lara's tits. I'm happily married, get to see breasts whenever I want too, and have no interest in that, but from a lot of peoples comments Tomb Raider XXV is a good game... I buy it based on the hormonally challenged responses I get, only to discover it sucks. Doesn't work. (Please note, I don't mean to imply you are hormonally challenged or like Tomb Raider. U. I'm not sure which would be the bigger insult.)
Though there is one thing people never mentioned. Playstation demo CD's like on the official PSX magazine.
That's all very well in the big city, but for people in small towns, this simply isn't an option, plus the fact that those places that DO rent have a very limited selection so even if you find somewhere you may very well not find the game you want.
7. you can barrow it from a friend and see if is suck
Fair enough, I'll give you that one, but say you're in the position of being the FRIEND, you don't have option 7.
8. you can read a review of the game and see if is suck
This is the biggest crock of shit I've ever read. Reviews are pointless, subjective, and ultimately worthless. Most reviews sites lack any real integrity and it's practically impossible to find impartial reviews these days. Those who do write accurate reviews tend to get a kicking from the companies involved and get removed from the reviewers list (I speak from experience). Need proof? Head to www.gamefaqs.com and check out any game, at random, and read the user reviews. For every "This game sucks" you'll find a "this game rules". Plus whose to say you'll like what the majority like? For example UmJammer Lammy got amazing reviews across the board, yet I personally feel it is one of the worst games ever written. Yeah, reading a review really helped me make a decent purchasing decision. Thankfully I managed to return it claiming it didn't work.
So, all your arguments are invalid. Thank you, and have a nice day.
I wish I still had modpoints since whoever modded you as flamebait is a complete dickhead.
Anyhow, there is already a tax on tapes I believe to "offset" the piracy aspect. As for the ratios, I think you're probably right. With tapes though you may have to go back 5 years or so before CDR became popular. I honestly don't know how many people use tapes anymore. I haven't bought any blank audio tapes in well over two years. Conversely I buy blank CD's regularly, though for legitimate uses such as backing up games patches for example so I don't have to re-download them at a later date on my crappy dialup connection.
Point 2 is hugely flawed. Do tapes and vinyl ring any bells? Last time I checked there was no slot on my PC to insert my vinyl and tapes into and have them verified.
I have a lot of stuff in storage in another country due to emmigrating, and can't currently afford to get it shipped here. I use Napster primarily to download MP3's of stuff I already have but can't get at in storage and being a music junkie want to hear again. I would say less than 3% of my Napstering would be deemed illegal since I own practically everything I download already in another country, so I already own, but by your definition I have no need to download it. Flawed logic my friend.
For all those worried by this, head to Freshmeat and grab Junkbuster. I've been running it for over a year now. A select few sites are permitted to set cookies (Slashdot for example), the rest are blocked, as are 99% of the banner ads on all sites. Browsing heaven!
Ying and yang here really. In one half we have Microsoft in deep do-do, and the other we have Napster. Well, hopefully things will stay balanced and if we have to lose Napster, we'll at least lose Microsoft as well.
If you see Billy G. on the streets begging for money, please, show your sympathy, and offer him a Linux CD.
The problem is the clueless bastards at the RIAA have no idea. They think throwing lawyers at anything makes it go away. What they don't realise is they CANNOT stop Napster. Sure, they can shut down Napster itself, but like weeds, where 1 is killed, 3 more spring up... BTW, LOVE that last line. "This is a silly game, they should stop now." Love it...
You'd be screwed. The RIAA will love this since it nicely screws over the unsigned artist. People can't copy your song, despite what you want, thus limiting your exposure, leaving more interest for the crap the record companies ejaculate.
Just a thought, but if you can only play it X times, it must have to write something to itself. Make it read only... Failing that, burn it to CD immediately. When you want to play it, copy it to the hard-drive...
The nightmare that immediately jumped into my mind is that this "protection layer" could come to involve brief advertisements from our favorite corporations, prepended to the beginning of every song.
Not a problem. Activate the "record to wav" plugin or whatever, save it to wav, edit the wav, re-encode to MP3... Would probably take 10 minutes, if that.
Given the amount of users they'll have if they deploy all this, they could run it off a 286 with a 9600 baud modem... Hell, they could probably do without the modem...
There's a program on Freshmeat called "VSound" that sits patiently and records stuff bound for/dev/dsp... I've tested with recording a Realaudio stream and it works flawlessly.
Of course one good use for this would be to save the wait at the hospital. Injured your ankle (like I did a few years ago and couldn't get to the hospital)? Screw waiting 6 hours for a bloody x-ray at the local ER, check with your homemade x-ray machine. VOILA! You can see if you're ankle's broken or not...
Just a shame you can't have kids now after using it...
I don't understand the big deal to be honest. I'm on a 33.6 and have had very few problems playing, for example, Half Life online. I routinely have a ping of 200 and have no real problems. I even used to manage to play on a 21,600 connection. Both Quake and Starcraft played fine over it, no real issues. Sure, a low ping is nice, but dialup, unless you have an absolutely horrendous ISP, is still perfectly viable. I've not found any current games I can't play reliably online. Okay, so the LPB (low ping bastards) sometimes nail me due to a faster connection, but I've won my fair share of games on Quake and Half Life against people with better connections than me.
Slashdot Mirror
Like the sig BTW.
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I can see it now, mass carpet bombings using unwanted N*Sync CD's...
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As for point 9, see my comment about www.gamefaqs.com. Works on that exact principle. As for 10, see point 9. It's purely subjective. You may like Tomb Raider and never get around to mentioning that you like it because of Lara's tits. I'm happily married, get to see breasts whenever I want too, and have no interest in that, but from a lot of peoples comments Tomb Raider XXV is a good game... I buy it based on the hormonally challenged responses I get, only to discover it sucks. Doesn't work. (Please note, I don't mean to imply you are hormonally challenged or like Tomb Raider. U. I'm not sure which would be the bigger insult.)
Though there is one thing people never mentioned. Playstation demo CD's like on the official PSX magazine.
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6. you can rent the game and see if is suck
That's all very well in the big city, but for people in small towns, this simply isn't an option, plus the fact that those places that DO rent have a very limited selection so even if you find somewhere you may very well not find the game you want.
7. you can barrow it from a friend and see if is suck
Fair enough, I'll give you that one, but say you're in the position of being the FRIEND, you don't have option 7.
8. you can read a review of the game and see if is suck
This is the biggest crock of shit I've ever read. Reviews are pointless, subjective, and ultimately worthless. Most reviews sites lack any real integrity and it's practically impossible to find impartial reviews these days. Those who do write accurate reviews tend to get a kicking from the companies involved and get removed from the reviewers list (I speak from experience). Need proof? Head to www.gamefaqs.com and check out any game, at random, and read the user reviews. For every "This game sucks" you'll find a "this game rules". Plus whose to say you'll like what the majority like? For example UmJammer Lammy got amazing reviews across the board, yet I personally feel it is one of the worst games ever written. Yeah, reading a review really helped me make a decent purchasing decision. Thankfully I managed to return it claiming it didn't work.
So, all your arguments are invalid. Thank you, and have a nice day.
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Anyhow, there is already a tax on tapes I believe to "offset" the piracy aspect. As for the ratios, I think you're probably right. With tapes though you may have to go back 5 years or so before CDR became popular. I honestly don't know how many people use tapes anymore. I haven't bought any blank audio tapes in well over two years. Conversely I buy blank CD's regularly, though for legitimate uses such as backing up games patches for example so I don't have to re-download them at a later date on my crappy dialup connection.
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I have a lot of stuff in storage in another country due to emmigrating, and can't currently afford to get it shipped here. I use Napster primarily to download MP3's of stuff I already have but can't get at in storage and being a music junkie want to hear again. I would say less than 3% of my Napstering would be deemed illegal since I own practically everything I download already in another country, so I already own, but by your definition I have no need to download it. Flawed logic my friend.
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If you see Billy G. on the streets begging for money, please, show your sympathy, and offer him a Linux CD.
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Not a problem. Activate the "record to wav" plugin or whatever, save it to wav, edit the wav, re-encode to MP3... Would probably take 10 minutes, if that.
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Just a shame you can't have kids now after using it...
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