I will note, that a quick "IANAL so I googled it" definition of the *legal* definition of Retail Value seems to imply that the law recognizes that to have a retail value something has to be openly for sale. Abandonware would, by definition, have a retail value of $0.
I have over the years seen that come up in cases - examples would be the 'theft' of documents ascribed as arbitrarily high values in the case, then found to be freely downloadable and so on; It generally does not end well for the government in such cases if that is the *sole* crime being prosecuted.
Well, A) He didn't say it was legal, only . . . actually he said nothing even implying anything your response would be apropos to, and B) No, abandonware proponents like to claim that copyright, being instituted (Explicitly in the United States, Implicitly elsewhere) as a means to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" overreaches when it forbids the transmission of information that is fact being closely held and not *allowed* to "promote the progress of science and Useful Arts".
This is both a moral and a practical argument, not a legal one - and I admit I find it compelling in a way I don't necessarily find the "They're greedy and overcharging" oft used against the music cartels ( If, as the proponents of *that* argument claim, piracy actually contributes to demand, then piracy is part of the problem. The answer to which is to reduce demand by . . . not buying *and* not stealing, thus lowering demand.).
But, yes, the inability to acquire something legally at *any* price raises a valid argument even without making statements about the legality of it. Add into that the fact that it's virtually impossible to actually ascertain the copyright status and put in good faith efforts to actually lobby for something to be re-released? It becomes a very strong argument.
As an aside, I found a simple trick for DOSbox games (Obvious in hindsight, but I'm damned if I can find it posted anywhere I didn't post it) from GoG. If you stick "#!/usr/bin/dosbox -conf" (Debian -- Use "whereis dosbox" to verify) as first line of the.conf file and mark it executable, you can doubleclick the file to run. Drop it in '~/bin' and you can run it from the commandline or a shortcut. '.conf' extension not required. Though if you have spaces in the name you'll need to quote "file name" on the command line or any shortcut. moo2 is fine "Master of Orion II" (with quotes) is fine, but Master of Orion II (no quotes) will fail.
For such a simple stupid trick, I was ridiculously pleased with myself - I've actually been trying to get GOG to package DOS games to take advantage of that - I really think they ought to be putting these games in apt directories, but so far they're highly unconvinced, but then I can't convince them to expand into other platforms either - I'd love to get Neuromancer and a C64 emulator packaged, and they are obviously just not into that.
With apologies, no. Nobody is going to 'buy it more' for no DRM. The point is, that *specifically* the DRM'd version was pirated. Yet, despite the existence of a free 'pirate' version, people happily paid a fair price for the non-DRM version.
His logic is not a 'fail' - in point of fact it's not even logic, it's a simple empirical test. The DRM argument is that the DRM saves more money than it costs in customer aggravation - and to all appearances this proves otherwise.
Now please quit using the Internet - As per the "Ayn Rand Aficionado Act of 2012", you are required to use only wiring you have personally laid, and are barred from using any protocols you have not personally reimbursed the creators of.
Receipts must be posted to each authorized user of the internet prior to use. Please remember that until doing so you are barred from using the US. Postal Service or any public system of roads.
Thank you for staying in compliance with the Ayn Rand Aficionado Act of 2012.
We have one carrier that provides non-wireless service - ~$73/month for landline+DSL (~$60 for either by itself) - 756 Down 384 Up (To be slightly more fair, it's closer to 1.5 Down 756 Up in practice). There are alternatives but they are even more expensive -- $120/month range and up.
AT&T actually has the local DSL cell, but won't provide us direct service - as I read the law, this should be illegal, but good luck getting a regulator in Indiana to actually regulate (Or even to explain to the consumer why my reading of the law is wrong).
On some level I'm just glad it's not just me. I feel sorry for the poor thing - it evokes one of those people that have been told they're gorgeous all their life and are just . . . average. Don't tell it I said that though - that'd be mean.
I think it's a hard call between whether the Main Stream Bias is cause or result of the a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window">Overton Window - I think Ron Paul (and for that matter Paul Ryan) is a great indicator of the failure. Ron Paul thinks the Fed is illegal and that we should go to the Gold standard - theories that only seem sane to people that don't know the Constitution and economics because they go completely undebated in the Mainstream. People who believe them collect themselves into echo chambers, little memetic reservoirs that explode and infect the un-vaccinated every 3-6 years.
If people didn't let themselves get spoonfed by the corporate media and moved out of their comfort zones, the Overton windows would let more light in, and the Media Bias would (I think) disappear - it's one of the things that I think the old practice of forcing media to allow dissenting voices to speak helped with.
Sadly, that practice has moved out of the Overton Window. So . . . Yeah . . .
Because Apple is suing over (As nearly as I can tell) design issues, not implementation or trademark issues. This is contrary to all theory of patents. Seriously - When the words 'Rounded Corners' are part of a patent, it's an indication of a problem.
I don't know, as scnell evidently does, how many posts there are explaining why he's young, and idiot et al.
But you can queue this one up as to why he's going to have problems. He thinks he's bloody brilliant and everyone around him is lazy. The entire commentary screams "I'm a self-involved young prick that hasn't noticed what everyone else contributed and doesn't understand why they don't adulate me!". Or, to quote Jeff Foxworthy "I got this ashtray honey, you don't need to worry about it!".
He evidently has plenty of time to run himself into other peoples jobs and explain what they're doing wrong . . . which frankly makes me wonder who's doing the job he's actually paid to do.
xTrashcat -- Open your eyes and look around -- assume your coworkers still have their jobs because they're good at them rather than swooping in like superman and 'saving the day'. My kneejerk reaction is you're not watching your own job.
"Official Organ of Propaganda" here translates as "Single institution with the best long term track record of giving non-partisan long term accurate economic forecasts of the results of laws".
Of course, they tend to use Keynesian models, so mere accuracy doesn't prevent their being skewered by the right on a regular basis, by for instance arguing they're 'changing their numbers' rather than 'updating their number to a new ten year forecast' in which both expenditures and savings are increasing (Saving by more than expenditures -- how odd that wasn't in the previous post.)
The math is sound. The ACA will not save us as much as single payer -- but we're going to save a bundle this way.
Among other things, he's dramatically changed the health care landscape for the better,
I.e., Obama has added more entitlements without addressing the question of cost control in any meaningful way. In different words, the young are getting shafted even more than they already are by the current system.
The Congressional Budget Office begs to disagree with you, with an approximately 7% reduction in healthcare costs compounded over time.
But don't let that influence your thinking -- mathematics is known for its liberal bias.
I love Morrowind, and am actually playing it now in a bid to put off buying Skyrim till it drops a bit (plus run quests I've never actually found before, because 'Why not'), but . . . I just don't see the need for this project.
The brilliance in Morrowind was in the writing and the plot. The engine is 'stable enough' and runs fine, they're neither improving nor planning to improve the graphics . . . I'm just not seeing the return on this.
That's one of those oddly comfortable myths I have to admit I rather fell into before I got into actually studying politics.
As nearly as I can tell the GOP has (at least since the 1880's) consistently been a group of reactionaries that put forward a few socially acceptable charmers as the face of the party. The interesting part is -- everyone *always* thinks the GOP was fine 20-30 years ago, but only today are they a bit loony.
I think it's because it's always perceived that in the old days they had a few loonies that the public face dealt with because they needed support, but were basically okay. But it's always been a public minority supported by conspiracy theorists and reactionaries. In a generation the Tea Party will only be remembered as a minor element, and the 'old Republicans' will be remembered as perfectly sane and reasonable - just Today's Republicans of 2065 . . . These people are nuts!
"Have been taught" here meaning "Have foolishly listened to the historical consensus rather than being the independent thinker I am"
Interestingly enough "Independent Thinker" here means "Person that determinedly ignores the reams of science and historical evidence", so I suppose it all goes round.
Slashdot Mirror
I will note, that a quick "IANAL so I googled it" definition of the *legal* definition of Retail Value seems to imply that the law recognizes that to have a retail value something has to be openly for sale. Abandonware would, by definition, have a retail value of $0.
I have over the years seen that come up in cases - examples would be the 'theft' of documents ascribed as arbitrarily high values in the case, then found to be freely downloadable and so on; It generally does not end well for the government in such cases if that is the *sole* crime being prosecuted.
Pug
Well,
A) He didn't say it was legal, only . . . actually he said nothing even implying anything your response would be apropos to, and
B) No, abandonware proponents like to claim that copyright, being instituted (Explicitly in the United States, Implicitly elsewhere) as a means to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" overreaches when it forbids the transmission of information that is fact being closely held and not *allowed* to "promote the progress of science and Useful Arts".
This is both a moral and a practical argument, not a legal one - and I admit I find it compelling in a way I don't necessarily find the "They're greedy and overcharging" oft used against the music cartels ( If, as the proponents of *that* argument claim, piracy actually contributes to demand, then piracy is part of the problem. The answer to which is to reduce demand by . . . not buying *and* not stealing, thus lowering demand.).
But, yes, the inability to acquire something legally at *any* price raises a valid argument even without making statements about the legality of it. Add into that the fact that it's virtually impossible to actually ascertain the copyright status and put in good faith efforts to actually lobby for something to be re-released? It becomes a very strong argument.
Pug
(Intended to be logged in)
Wow - making fun of Ayn Rand hypocrisy get's you marked 'Troll' now?
I did not get that memo!
As an aside, I found a simple trick for DOSbox games (Obvious in hindsight, but I'm damned if I can find it posted anywhere I didn't post it) from GoG. .conf file and mark it executable, you can doubleclick the file to run. Drop it in '~/bin' and you can run it from the commandline or a shortcut. '.conf' extension not required. Though if you have spaces in the name you'll need to quote "file name" on the command line or any shortcut. moo2 is fine "Master of Orion II" (with quotes) is fine, but Master of Orion II (no quotes) will fail.
If you stick "#!/usr/bin/dosbox -conf" (Debian -- Use "whereis dosbox" to verify) as first line of the
For such a simple stupid trick, I was ridiculously pleased with myself - I've actually been trying to get GOG to package DOS games to take advantage of that - I really think they ought to be putting these games in apt directories, but so far they're highly unconvinced, but then I can't convince them to expand into other platforms either - I'd love to get Neuromancer and a C64 emulator packaged, and they are obviously just not into that.
Pug
With apologies, no. Nobody is going to 'buy it more' for no DRM. The point is, that *specifically* the DRM'd version was pirated. Yet, despite the existence of a free 'pirate' version, people happily paid a fair price for the non-DRM version.
His logic is not a 'fail' - in point of fact it's not even logic, it's a simple empirical test. The DRM argument is that the DRM saves more money than it costs in customer aggravation - and to all appearances this proves otherwise.
Pug
Thank you!
Now please quit using the Internet - As per the "Ayn Rand Aficionado Act of 2012", you are required to use only wiring you have personally laid, and are barred from using any protocols you have not personally reimbursed the creators of.
Receipts must be posted to each authorized user of the internet prior to use. Please remember that until doing so you are barred from using the US. Postal Service or any public system of roads.
Thank you for staying in compliance with the Ayn Rand Aficionado Act of 2012.
We have one carrier that provides non-wireless service - ~$73/month for landline+DSL (~$60 for either by itself) - 756 Down 384 Up (To be slightly more fair, it's closer to 1.5 Down 756 Up in practice). There are alternatives but they are even more expensive -- $120/month range and up.
AT&T actually has the local DSL cell, but won't provide us direct service - as I read the law, this should be illegal, but good luck getting a regulator in Indiana to actually regulate (Or even to explain to the consumer why my reading of the law is wrong).
Pug
On some level I'm just glad it's not just me.
I feel sorry for the poor thing - it evokes one of those people that have been told they're gorgeous all their life and are just . . . average.
Don't tell it I said that though - that'd be mean.
Pug
I think it's a hard call between whether the Main Stream Bias is cause or result of the a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window">Overton Window - I think Ron Paul (and for that matter Paul Ryan) is a great indicator of the failure. Ron Paul thinks the Fed is illegal and that we should go to the Gold standard - theories that only seem sane to people that don't know the Constitution and economics because they go completely undebated in the Mainstream. People who believe them collect themselves into echo chambers, little memetic reservoirs that explode and infect the un-vaccinated every 3-6 years.
If people didn't let themselves get spoonfed by the corporate media and moved out of their comfort zones, the Overton windows would let more light in, and the Media Bias would (I think) disappear - it's one of the things that I think the old practice of forcing media to allow dissenting voices to speak helped with.
Sadly, that practice has moved out of the Overton Window. So . . . Yeah . . .
Pug
If Bob April made it into Canon, by God Joanna should - {G}.
No, the TARDIS actually does the low level operations in digitally manipulated planck time units
The analog interface does have a discrepancy of +- 10^102nd, but this has no practical effect on the operations and can be ignored by the end user.
Neverwinter nights DLC was what changed my feelings on DRM that phones home from "Philosophically opposed" to "screw that - never again"
And I loved that game (At least after the first, please let me kill myself this is so depressing, campaign - {G}).
Pug
Grey Ooze, being capable of Psionic Combat, is *obviously* more sentient and thus capable of evil than the Black Pudding.
The most evil module of course remains S1 - "Tomb of Horrors"
Kids these days.
Pug.
You would think Brain Worms could find their way around. Of course Bladder Worms might not be that smart.
Pug
Because Apple is suing over (As nearly as I can tell) design issues, not implementation or trademark issues. This is contrary to all theory of patents.
Seriously - When the words 'Rounded Corners' are part of a patent, it's an indication of a problem.
Pug
A buddy of mine in 'nam was killed by a personal anecdote.
Scotty and The Doctor have taught Me -- Reversing the Polarity *Always* helps!
I don't know, as scnell evidently does, how many posts there are explaining why he's young, and idiot et al.
But you can queue this one up as to why he's going to have problems. He thinks he's bloody brilliant and everyone around him is lazy. The entire commentary screams "I'm a self-involved young prick that hasn't noticed what everyone else contributed and doesn't understand why they don't adulate me!". Or, to quote Jeff Foxworthy "I got this ashtray honey, you don't need to worry about it!".
He evidently has plenty of time to run himself into other peoples jobs and explain what they're doing wrong . . . which frankly makes me wonder who's doing the job he's actually paid to do.
xTrashcat -- Open your eyes and look around -- assume your coworkers still have their jobs because they're good at them rather than swooping in like superman and 'saving the day'. My kneejerk reaction is you're not watching your own job.
Pug
Be Vewy Vewy Kwy-it - - I'm hunting libatarians . . . .
hehehehehehe
"Official Organ of Propaganda" here translates as "Single institution with the best long term track record of giving non-partisan long term accurate economic forecasts of the results of laws".
Of course, they tend to use Keynesian models, so mere accuracy doesn't prevent their being skewered by the right on a regular basis, by for instance arguing they're 'changing their numbers' rather than 'updating their number to a new ten year forecast' in which both expenditures and savings are increasing (Saving by more than expenditures -- how odd that wasn't in the previous post.)
The math is sound. The ACA will not save us as much as single payer -- but we're going to save a bundle this way.
Pug
I.e., Obama has added more entitlements without addressing the question of cost control in any meaningful way. In different words, the young are getting shafted even more than they already are by the current system.
The Congressional Budget Office begs to disagree with you, with an approximately 7% reduction in healthcare costs compounded over time.
But don't let that influence your thinking -- mathematics is known for its liberal bias.
Ron Paul for Internet Freedom.
It's like having Elmer Fudd as spokesperson for the second amendment.
I love Morrowind, and am actually playing it now in a bid to put off buying Skyrim till it drops a bit (plus run quests I've never actually found before, because 'Why not'), but . . . I just don't see the need for this project.
The brilliance in Morrowind was in the writing and the plot. The engine is 'stable enough' and runs fine, they're neither improving nor planning to improve the graphics . . . I'm just not seeing the return on this.
Pug
That's one of those oddly comfortable myths I have to admit I rather fell into before I got into actually studying politics.
As nearly as I can tell the GOP has (at least since the 1880's) consistently been a group of reactionaries that put forward a few socially acceptable charmers as the face of the party. The interesting part is -- everyone *always* thinks the GOP was fine 20-30 years ago, but only today are they a bit loony.
I think it's because it's always perceived that in the old days they had a few loonies that the public face dealt with because they needed support, but were basically okay. But it's always been a public minority supported by conspiracy theorists and reactionaries. In a generation the Tea Party will only be remembered as a minor element, and the 'old Republicans' will be remembered as perfectly sane and reasonable - just Today's Republicans of 2065 . . . These people are nuts!
Pug
"Have been taught" here meaning "Have foolishly listened to the historical consensus rather than being the independent thinker I am"
Interestingly enough "Independent Thinker" here means "Person that determinedly ignores the reams of science and historical evidence", so I suppose it all goes round.
Pug