Microsoft created their monopoly by providing a superior product to everybody else and out competing their competition. They then illegally leveraged the monopoly they had built to try and push other products (IE) which were inferior to the competition and to keep others from challenging their position.
Google has created a near search monopoly by providing a superior product and is now using that position to push all kinds of other bullshit (e.g. Buzz) and to keep competitors out.
Same shit, different company. It's just business as usual.
Yes, Google complaining about Microsoft's monopoly while they build their own....oh wait...you meant the other way around, Microsoft complaining about Google's monopoly after trying to defend their own monopoly.
I think there's more than enough irony to go around here.
Yes, I pay my cable company every month for bandwidth and fuck my "fellow gamer", they are not my problem. And this isn't wanting something for nothing, because I simply don't want it under these terms.
Wish I had mod points for you. You're absolutely correct. The only reasonable course of action if you object to the DRM is to ignore the game altogether.
The real issue is people's finite attention, I notice even with recommendation systems on amazon.com there is no way I could ever read everything they recommended to me and still have a life.
I think you're missing the point. The point is to try and sell you stuff. You're not obligated to read (or even buy) something just because Amazon recommended it.
Because the government has no business getting between me and my computer
How are they getting between you and your computer? You can still install P2P programs, just those programs will have to tell you that they are P2P (not a problem for a program that only does P2P, but some other programs use P2P for updates that users might not understand) and tell you what they are sharing.
I agree, this seems to be, in general a good start. A lot of programs have P2P components that people aren't aware of and I don't see the problem with requiring those programs to shout "hey, this is P2P and this is what we are sharing with the world". If you're okay with that, you click okay and away you go. I could easily see a situation were a P2P application (or a component of some other application) is installed and the user ends up burning up their data cap without understanding why.
I was going to try out D&D online when it went free a couple of months ago but didn't because it's installer is apparently a P2P client and as far as I can see there is no option to download the whole thing instead from a single source. Why should I use my bandwidth to help them install their software on other people's computers?
Then good luck playing any high-tier games in the near future.
Everyone will be putting their games out through things like Steam due to the increases in piracy.
And what I don't understand is why people seem to be happy about another (near) monopoly being built?
Agreed. Less free speech than China is clearly hyperbole. Libel laws are a complete mess and need reform but comparing freedom of speech in Britain to (lack of) freedom of speech in China adds nothing to the debate.
Wait a sec - did you just list 3 versions of Windows?
Yes, I did. Please list all distros of Linux and we'll compare the size of the lists shall we?
It doesn't matter how many versions exist. All it matters is that I'm using the version supported. In that regard, Linux is Linux just as much as Windows is Windows.
No, really, by definition homeopathy is just water. It was from day 1. Clearly you don't actually know what homeopathy even is and yet you defend it with such zeal!
If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work.
False! Only if it is maintained and has been tweaked by the producer. You apparently don't use much older software or software not named "Photoshop".
False! You didn't bother to read what I said. If it says on the box that it works with XP/Vista/7 then I can be pretty confident that it does work of XP/Vista/7. If it doesn't say that, if it says Window 95/98, then all bets are off with getting it to run on a later version of Windows. This is versus saying it runs on some random version of Linux that may only be the most recent version for a couple of months and then it may or may not still run.
If you buy something that says windows compatible, thats meaningless without a version, plus often a caveat like dx11, or.net v???, or adobe required... then decent chance it will work on many versions; but no chance it will work on windows mobile 7, and windows 7
Of course, but there are only a handful of versions of Windows versus the countless variations of Linux. And talking about Windows Mobile is just plain ignorant. As for the dependencies, most of those are already installed, included with the installation or easily installed and you don't need to fart about trying to figure out which version of any particular dependency you need to work with your distro.
It's a combinatorial problem with Linux distros that hampers their wider use outside of a highly technical group users.
Except that it isn't. Not at all. The hardware may be different, but Windows is Windows (warts and all). If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work.
Wait a sec - did you just list 3 versions of Windows?
Yes, I did. Please list all distros of Linux and we'll compare the size of the lists shall we?
Except that it isn't. Not at all. The hardware may be different, but Windows is Windows (warts and all). If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work. If I want an app for my generic Linux box, I'm jumping head-long down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out which version will work with my particular distro and what other dependencies I might need and often a good few hours of arsing around trying to configure the thing to work properly with some horribly cryptic config files to edit.
As a swiss I think that ban isn't solving the problem. We still have a conscription army which hands out an assault rifle to every male citizen over the age of 20.
Look at the bright side, this is great news for people who only play single player and only buy used. Used copies of this game willl have to be at least $20 less than new or new would actually be a better deal! Well done Sony, you've just reduced the cost of used games!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm betting not. Activision Blizzard no doubt still hold the rights.
the Microsoft astroturfing on this is crazy.
Yeah, I'm sure Microsoft has nothing better to do that post replies to the foaming at the mouth, tin-foil hat, M$-haters brigade on Slashdot.
Microsoft created their monopoly by providing a superior product to everybody else and out competing their competition. They then illegally leveraged the monopoly they had built to try and push other products (IE) which were inferior to the competition and to keep others from challenging their position.
Google has created a near search monopoly by providing a superior product and is now using that position to push all kinds of other bullshit (e.g. Buzz) and to keep competitors out.
Same shit, different company. It's just business as usual.
Yes, Google complaining about Microsoft's monopoly while they build their own....oh wait...you meant the other way around, Microsoft complaining about Google's monopoly after trying to defend their own monopoly.
I think there's more than enough irony to go around here.
Yes, I pay my cable company every month for bandwidth and fuck my "fellow gamer", they are not my problem. And this isn't wanting something for nothing, because I simply don't want it under these terms.
Wish I had mod points for you. You're absolutely correct. The only reasonable course of action if you object to the DRM is to ignore the game altogether.
You have a strange notion about the power of the law.
Keep rocking that tin-foil hat buddy.
No, there business model is micro payments. I'm not donating my bandwidth to them.
This isn't really that new at all. I've seen several other groups doing something with diversity vs similarity in recommender systems.
The real issue is people's finite attention, I notice even with recommendation systems on amazon.com there is no way I could ever read everything they recommended to me and still have a life.
I think you're missing the point. The point is to try and sell you stuff. You're not obligated to read (or even buy) something just because Amazon recommended it.
How are these bad?
Because the government has no business getting between me and my computer
How are they getting between you and your computer? You can still install P2P programs, just those programs will have to tell you that they are P2P (not a problem for a program that only does P2P, but some other programs use P2P for updates that users might not understand) and tell you what they are sharing.
I agree, this seems to be, in general a good start. A lot of programs have P2P components that people aren't aware of and I don't see the problem with requiring those programs to shout "hey, this is P2P and this is what we are sharing with the world". If you're okay with that, you click okay and away you go. I could easily see a situation were a P2P application (or a component of some other application) is installed and the user ends up burning up their data cap without understanding why.
I was going to try out D&D online when it went free a couple of months ago but didn't because it's installer is apparently a P2P client and as far as I can see there is no option to download the whole thing instead from a single source. Why should I use my bandwidth to help them install their software on other people's computers?
Then good luck playing any high-tier games in the near future. Everyone will be putting their games out through things like Steam due to the increases in piracy.
And what I don't understand is why people seem to be happy about another (near) monopoly being built?
I've read The Code Book as well. A very good read.
Agreed. Less free speech than China is clearly hyperbole. Libel laws are a complete mess and need reform but comparing freedom of speech in Britain to (lack of) freedom of speech in China adds nothing to the debate.
No, but they are considerably less complicated (with the possible exception of video drivers, but I'm not talking about games here).
Wait a sec - did you just list 3 versions of Windows?
Yes, I did. Please list all distros of Linux and we'll compare the size of the lists shall we?
It doesn't matter how many versions exist. All it matters is that I'm using the version supported. In that regard, Linux is Linux just as much as Windows is Windows.
Well you brought it up, not me.
No, really, by definition homeopathy is just water. It was from day 1. Clearly you don't actually know what homeopathy even is and yet you defend it with such zeal!
If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work.
False! Only if it is maintained and has been tweaked by the producer. You apparently don't use much older software or software not named "Photoshop".
False! You didn't bother to read what I said. If it says on the box that it works with XP/Vista/7 then I can be pretty confident that it does work of XP/Vista/7. If it doesn't say that, if it says Window 95/98, then all bets are off with getting it to run on a later version of Windows. This is versus saying it runs on some random version of Linux that may only be the most recent version for a couple of months and then it may or may not still run.
If you buy something that says windows compatible, thats meaningless without a version, plus often a caveat like dx11, or .net v???, or adobe required... then decent chance it will work on many versions; but no chance it will work on windows mobile 7, and windows 7
Of course, but there are only a handful of versions of Windows versus the countless variations of Linux. And talking about Windows Mobile is just plain ignorant. As for the dependencies, most of those are already installed, included with the installation or easily installed and you don't need to fart about trying to figure out which version of any particular dependency you need to work with your distro.
It's a combinatorial problem with Linux distros that hampers their wider use outside of a highly technical group users.
Except that it isn't. Not at all. The hardware may be different, but Windows is Windows (warts and all). If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work.
Wait a sec - did you just list 3 versions of Windows?
Yes, I did. Please list all distros of Linux and we'll compare the size of the lists shall we?
Except that it isn't. Not at all. The hardware may be different, but Windows is Windows (warts and all). If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work. If I want an app for my generic Linux box, I'm jumping head-long down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out which version will work with my particular distro and what other dependencies I might need and often a good few hours of arsing around trying to configure the thing to work properly with some horribly cryptic config files to edit.
As a swiss I think that ban isn't solving the problem. We still have a conscription army which hands out an assault rifle to every male citizen over the age of 20.
And a pen knife.
Look at the bright side, this is great news for people who only play single player and only buy used. Used copies of this game willl have to be at least $20 less than new or new would actually be a better deal! Well done Sony, you've just reduced the cost of used games!