Pagers lack confirmation and retransmission. They also suffer from severe network service "backups" at peak usage without notifying the caller that the message may be delayed for hours.
Also with public phones being torn down in record numbers, there may be no phone for the doctor to use.
>I was rear-ended last week, while sitting at a dead stop at a traffic light. His explanation ? "yeah... I hit ya." Thanks. On my way home from the collision center in the rental car, I was bumped again from behind - AGAIN, sitting at a dead stop in traffic. No damage this time.
Personal experience on what drivers are thinking when they do that... because I've been driving the car doing the bumping more than once, and I've thought about what it is that caused it. I wasn't reading anything, I don't even recall having the stereo loud or even fiddling with it at the time. I wasn't over the speed limit, either (in fact, far under it, as you'll see from the following situations).
Both times involved bad luck and bad decisions.
The first time it was simple physics: Too much speed on an icy hill, where, ahead of me (but not visible to me), a tractor trailer had jacknifed across the intersection and caused a traffic jam. Application of the brakes didn't do enough and caused me to scratch a bumper.
Second time was due to my rushing and not using my mirrors properly. I get through an intersection having been stopped at it a moment earlier and decide to switch lanes a second later. Due to heavy traffic, cars were stopped in my lane, and due to my late decision to look ahead after using the mirror, I didn't have enough room to stop safely. Bought that guy a new bumper.
Rest assured, though, you needn't be angry at those people who hit you -- they're being punished far more severely than you can imagine. For the $500 bumper the first person claimed on insurance (despite my having taken photo evidence to the contrary insurance claims in Ontario against you are next to impossible to dispute), my new insurance company has raised rates approximately $10,000 over the next 5 years for me. And they're only that "low" because I fought the only traffic ticket I've ever had and won, plus I shopped around. My insurance company at that time expected an increase to $37,500 over 5 years (Note: I have talked with insurance agents and the fine for driving without insurance in Ontario is $5,000 -- it may be cheaper to break the law than follow it when insurance companies act like this). No claims at all were entered in the second case, BTW.
As you're probably thinking I'm driving a Ferrari at those rates, I'm not. It's a Toyota Corolla.
Gasoline sells for $1.75 a gallon. 1 gallon of gas weighs about 6 lbs, or 2.7 kg....the manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least 240 kilograms of fossil fuels...
That means the fossil fuels alone cost $155.55 US....and 1,500 kilograms of water.
Water sells for (random city choice by google) $0.84 US per cu.ft., or 62.5 pounds, or 28.3 kg. That means the water alone cost is $44.52 US.
I have no idea of the costs of the unnamed chemicals, so I won't include them.
I find it hard to believe anyone builds a computers where the raw materials themselves are about 50% of the final MSRP (hint: I run a computer store and know items get marked up by 50% between leaving Asia and being placed in the customer's hands). Am I missing something? Are water and gas free in China?
>Actually bad employer references are kind of a thing of the past. Most employers can only say 2 things if they are called about a former employee...
That's why you phrase things properly.
Good reference: "Wait a minute. It'll take me a while to find that file. Never really had to worry about it much. Yup. He worked here for 12 years."
Bad reference: "Oh. *HIM*. Yeah, we had *THAT* guy for 12 years."
That being said, references are useless either way, anyways. If you're staying in the same field, there's a good chance you aren't going to be working for a company that benefits your old company. In that case, the old company will be happy to make sure you get a job and that you never bug them again.
With our current liberal government insisting on cuttingshort Ontario's hydro supply (both nuclear and coal) (and at the same time raising rates), we're going to be screwed awfully quickly.
Expect more. Much more from the next blackout.
Remember Ontario: You elected the government you deserve.
>I once heard the hosts of a Canadian radio program refer to somebody as African-Canadian
I can assure you that would be just a joke. I've definately never heard that term to describe someone who is black (the common term here), however, if someone really needed to be that explicit, "Canadian Born Black [gender]" would suffice.
Anti-Weapon Weapons anyone?
on
Weapons in Space
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Seems to me this would be pointless if any other country launched a weapon-destroying weapon, which, of course, will be the next progression in the arms race. I say stop this now before there's so much exploded space junk up there that we can't launch any more spaceships.
>UNLESS GOOGLE GUARANTEES COMPLETE PRIVACY NOW AND IN FUTURE and no caching of deleted emails and no tracking (seems highly unlikely)...
Just encrypt your files... not difficult. If you're lazy I hear RAR still requires brute force to crack (and it'll split anything into bite size chunks); of course, there's much better, free, methods which I'll leave up to other non-lazy slashdot members to post.
>If you're going into a store to spend as much as a Mac costs, chances are you already know roughly what you want, so a saleperson is more a funny distraction than a real influence.
The odd thing is, I've found exactly the opposite true. The less money a customer has, the more specific their wants are (because they are trying to shave every penny they can off the price, any way they can). The more money they have, the more likely they are to say "Just give me the best one".
The one thing that comes to mind is that people with very little money have a lot of time on their hands to do research, whereas the person with more money makes enough that time spent doing research costs more than a poor buying decision.
Probably, but the modchips are mostly a sideline (although, getting more popular and may end up being my main business). Not to mention I mostly do PS2s, which take a solid 2 hours to do right (I can do them in 45 minutes like everyone else, too, if you want it to work every few boots due to shoddy wiring).
XBOXes, I love seeing those. 25 minutes and she's done (including a nice little header).:-)
That was only so that Ontarians would get the government they deserved. They saw an opportunity to win at least a 15 year term the minute Dalton McGuinty suggested he'd re-implement photo radar to line the government's coffers (and positively not at all for safety, specifically).
If Dalton survives even 2 years, I will be positively amazed. Photo radar will get that man lynched and will again re-implement the only party supporting it's banning (you do remember this being a main election issue the first time for the Tories, right?)
"I have long been a supporter of photo radar," the premier told reporters on his way into a cabinet meeting. "It's a revenue generator, absolutely."
>Unfortunately, they missed their target opportunity as 99% of the world out there isn't gonna hack their Xbox to do this
How true. I sell modchips, and I'm lucky to get 7 customers for them in a week. Most weeks I'll get 1 or 2. I'm the only other shop in this city offering modchips.
I do advertise, but probably not as much as I should.
Summing up: If business continues at this rate, I'd be lucky to mod more than 1% of the city's consoles. REALLY lucky. I believe I'm up to 100 or so right now over the past 8 months. This city has 300,000 people...
Now, as far as what people use the chips for -- I only advertise modchips for backup and custom code usage. I don't ask what they'll be used for -- it's not my business to know. I'd probably be willing to say, though, about 25% of the people buying have kids that play rough with the games, and they wouldn't be getting the modchips if the replacement costs for popular games weren't over $80. The rest aren't talkative. I have turned away stupid customers who insist on telling me how they'll be buying a modchip to pirate Blockbuster games.
Note to game companies: If you want to win back at least 25% of that 1%, just put a card in the manual that explains how the owner can send the shards of broken disc back to your company along with $5 for a replacement disc. Installed mods cost $100+, and if you priced your replacements reasonably, you'd probably manage to drive companies like mine out of business. Think about it.
Re:Get the legal unboxed OEM version
on
PC In An XP Box
·
· Score: 1
>The website says "Must be bought with hardware" and if you look a little more you will see that they spell out that it can be ANY HARDWARE, and they do have some quite inexpensive hardware items (Need an extra patch cable or extension cable?)
Not that we bother in store (didn't sign my name to any crazy OEM agreements), but for eBay we sell Windows XP with a 74LS00 computer "memory" device (ok, ok, so you have to wire it up right... that's your problem buddy;-) )
>I have found that I don't like these newbie-branded distributions because I have expectations for what my UNIX experience should be like. >For me, getting my printers working under Slackware was hard, and both Red Hat and SuSe offered some nice printer config utilities.
See, that's a perfect example of your point. If I were to use CUPS I'd go freaking insane. I added a Laserjet 5si last night. Was lazy and used pico. A few ^K's, a few ^U's, a change here and there, make a directory, and done. I doubt it took more than 30 seconds...
>Did they control for saline content? It was determined that the high saline content of this man (must have been dehydrated) allowed the arc.
Yes and no. As far as the saline content goes, they used their own urine for the test. The test dummy was made from ballistics gel, and they designed a release system which would trip if more than a few milliamps of current passed through the dummy.
They weren't exactly the most controlled experiments, but they had to go to great and unlikely lengths to get the release system to trip. It worked when they drenched the dummy with salt water, IIRC. Sooo, it certainly could be possible in abnormal conditions.:)
>Keep in mind that maximum sentences are not the same thing as sentences actually served. My position is that sentences and punishments should be commensurate with those used for theft and fraud
In that case, you and I agree.
The maximum fine for shoplifting a copy of windows XP or a few Audio CDs (for example) is between $250 - $500, however, on the average, most people receive a fine of about $100. If that's what people were charged with when they pirate it, then I'd be happy to agree.
However, as has been demonstrated, piracy of 1 CD or a dozen, the RIAA wants all your money (I can't imagine that little girl had more than $100).
>They are not thieves, because they pay for the work, though the mechanism is different (and, I would argue, somewhat flawed).
I agree it's a flawed system, but unless Canadians are downloading music from artists that receive compensation, it's legalized piracy. The vast majority of music Canadians download (again, coming from experience of being paid to back up hard drives that are nothing more than MP3 collections) is not even Canadian, never mind even being Canadian music from compensated musicians.
>It's not so much that I think "theft" is the most precise term that motivates me in this discussion as it is my contempt for the fact that pirates are attempting to redefine themselves as something other than common criminals, and I'm not going to let them do that.
Feel free to do so. I don't think any different. However, punishment and labels should fit the crime. 1/4 million dollars and 5 years in jail is not an appropriate judgement when killers have been known to get lighter sentences, yet many advocates of using the word "Theft" rather than Piracy (such as the RIAA and various media companies) believe that a pirate deserves a sentence longer than Charles Manson's.
The fact is your hard work is worth something, but there is no hard work in the world I can think of that is worth condemning a man to 5 years of jail and a 1/4 million dollar fine, if said work is used incorrectly.
You can't use that when the argument is based on a known fact that affects millions of people. Your argument must be strong enough to at least support the general case. If it can't even do that, then it's dead.
In a straw man fallacy the opponents argument is distorted, misrepresented or simply made up. This makes the argument easier to defeat, and can also be used to make opponents look like ignorant extremists.
I didn't distort your argument. You believe all pirates are theives. Canadians are pirates, by law. Does it not therefore follow that Canadians, by your definition are theives? Think this through. Are you willing to start making exceptions where your rule doesn't fit? If so, then where do you draw the line?
Anyways, since you aren't willing to read the dictionary and are willing to falsely state facts, I give up. I won't reply anymore. It's a pointless debate if you insit on using English improperly.
>There are several examples of theft-of-service that do not cause direct and quantifiable losses.
Nope, and those aren't good examples, either. There are different laws to cover your examples, with clear and proper names:
>What about taking a free ride on an almost-empty train ?
Tresspass and loitering on Private Property.
>What about sneaking into a movie theater ?
The same as above, but I am pretty sure there are additional penalties in law for this. Theft isn't one of them. You'll need to speak with a real lawyer to get the exact name of the law -- I don't run a Theatre, I run a computer store.
Which, BTW, gives me far more right to define what piracy really is as far as theft goes, because, when someone pirates, *I* potentially lose a sale. I'm the one who, when it comes down to the wire, could be the one taking the worst of it if piracy were preventing sales.
However, having run a store, there's two types of people (when it comes to software, music is a separate issue from this):
- People who will pirate everything. These people would run MS-DOS if it were the last software they could get for free. I have signs up stating that usage of the FCKGW windows XP key will get them blastered (you can't install SP1) and they say "Ah, who cares? I'll just reformat every time that happens".
- People who pay for what they use. These people will pirate only software they can't get, either because the price is too high (example: Honest students learning SolidWorks), or because the software isn't sold anymore (Old games). Anything that is in their price range (which, for home users, ends at about $149 from my experience), these customers buy -- unless it's actually free.
THAT'S why I argue the difference. It isn't theft if there's no loss.
Also, I argue the difference because I know for a fact that far fewer people would puchase computers if they couldn't/wouldn't pirate. From my experience, I would generously suggest that there would be 50% fewer computers in North American homes in that case. You can rest assured that's not good for anyone.
>It's about a battle for legitimacy, and one place this battle is fought is over language.
If people are going to twist language to fight their battles, then they are using a pawn with no ability to defend itself. It's despicable behaviour and must stop.
>By and large, the pirates are all-too-happy to mislead with their use of language: "information", "sharing", etc. The consistent pattern is that both sides consider the "correct" use of language to be the one that furthers their agenda.
If you don't think the term pirate (one that *has* been successfully co-opted for your personal enjoyment) is good enough, feel free to use the legal term: Copyright Infringement.
>You think that you're better than a common thief, so you don't like being called one. I don't think you're any better, so I'm happy to call you one.
So, the entire nation of Canada are theives to you? That's nice. How about you stay on your side of the border and keep the hell off our land? And Americans wonder why it is that they aren't popular with the rest of the world. It's attitudes like this that are why.
BTW: Your assertion that paying for pirated music (which we do by a levy) is theft is absolutely ludicrous and until you can come up with a good explanation for that, I must say, that is a glaring hole in your logic.
Slashdot Mirror
Since Microsoft operates in so many countries, with any luck if they do integrate a media service it'll be offered outside the USA.
That fact right there may be enough for even a lower quality service to flourish as compared to iTunes.
Pagers lack confirmation and retransmission. They also suffer from severe network service "backups" at peak usage without notifying the caller that the message may be delayed for hours.
Also with public phones being torn down in record numbers, there may be no phone for the doctor to use.
Bad idea.
>I was rear-ended last week, while sitting at a dead stop at a traffic light. His explanation ? "yeah... I hit ya." Thanks. On my way home from the collision center in the rental car, I was bumped again from behind - AGAIN, sitting at a dead stop in traffic. No damage this time.
Personal experience on what drivers are thinking when they do that... because I've been driving the car doing the bumping more than once, and I've thought about what it is that caused it. I wasn't reading anything, I don't even recall having the stereo loud or even fiddling with it at the time. I wasn't over the speed limit, either (in fact, far under it, as you'll see from the following situations).
Both times involved bad luck and bad decisions.
The first time it was simple physics: Too much speed on an icy hill, where, ahead of me (but not visible to me), a tractor trailer had jacknifed across the intersection and caused a traffic jam. Application of the brakes didn't do enough and caused me to scratch a bumper.
Second time was due to my rushing and not using my mirrors properly. I get through an intersection having been stopped at it a moment earlier and decide to switch lanes a second later. Due to heavy traffic, cars were stopped in my lane, and due to my late decision to look ahead after using the mirror, I didn't have enough room to stop safely. Bought that guy a new bumper.
Rest assured, though, you needn't be angry at those people who hit you -- they're being punished far more severely than you can imagine. For the $500 bumper the first person claimed on insurance (despite my having taken photo evidence to the contrary insurance claims in Ontario against you are next to impossible to dispute), my new insurance company has raised rates approximately $10,000 over the next 5 years for me. And they're only that "low" because I fought the only traffic ticket I've ever had and won, plus I shopped around. My insurance company at that time expected an increase to $37,500 over 5 years (Note: I have talked with insurance agents and the fine for driving without insurance in Ontario is $5,000 -- it may be cheaper to break the law than follow it when insurance companies act like this). No claims at all were entered in the second case, BTW.
As you're probably thinking I'm driving a Ferrari at those rates, I'm not. It's a Toyota Corolla.
Oh well. Lessons learned, I suppose.
>For example, if you're driving a certain speed and the street lights or painted lane dividers are spaced apart at the right distance
;-) We don't need no stinkin' street lights.
Street lights?
This is a *Canadian* highway...
That article doesn't make much sense to me.
...the manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least 240 kilograms of fossil fuels...
...and 1,500 kilograms of water.
Gasoline sells for $1.75 a gallon. 1 gallon of gas weighs about 6 lbs, or 2.7 kg.
That means the fossil fuels alone cost $155.55 US.
Water sells for (random city choice by google) $0.84 US per cu.ft., or 62.5 pounds, or 28.3 kg. That means the water alone cost is $44.52 US.
I have no idea of the costs of the unnamed chemicals, so I won't include them.
I find it hard to believe anyone builds a computers where the raw materials themselves are about 50% of the final MSRP (hint: I run a computer store and know items get marked up by 50% between leaving Asia and being placed in the customer's hands). Am I missing something? Are water and gas free in China?
>Actually bad employer references are kind of a thing of the past. Most employers can only say 2 things if they are called about a former employee...
That's why you phrase things properly.
Good reference: "Wait a minute. It'll take me a while to find that file. Never really had to worry about it much. Yup. He worked here for 12 years."
Bad reference: "Oh. *HIM*. Yeah, we had *THAT* guy for 12 years."
That being said, references are useless either way, anyways. If you're staying in the same field, there's a good chance you aren't going to be working for a company that benefits your old company. In that case, the old company will be happy to make sure you get a job and that you never bug them again.
With our current liberal government insisting on cutting short Ontario's hydro supply (both nuclear and coal) (and at the same time raising rates), we're going to be screwed awfully quickly.
Expect more. Much more from the next blackout.
Remember Ontario: You elected the government you deserve.
I bow to your ability to find oddly named restaurants! Good find! :-)
Although, now, that's *is* the first time I've seen the phrase used in Canada.
>I once heard the hosts of a Canadian radio program refer to somebody as African-Canadian
I can assure you that would be just a joke. I've definately never heard that term to describe someone who is black (the common term here), however, if someone really needed to be that explicit, "Canadian Born Black [gender]" would suffice.
Seems to me this would be pointless if any other country launched a weapon-destroying weapon, which, of course, will be the next progression in the arms race. I say stop this now before there's so much exploded space junk up there that we can't launch any more spaceships.
>UNLESS GOOGLE GUARANTEES COMPLETE PRIVACY NOW AND IN FUTURE and no caching of deleted emails and no tracking (seems highly unlikely)...
Just encrypt your files... not difficult. If you're lazy I hear RAR still requires brute force to crack (and it'll split anything into bite size chunks); of course, there's much better, free, methods which I'll leave up to other non-lazy slashdot members to post.
>If you're going into a store to spend as much as a Mac costs, chances are you already know roughly what you want, so a saleperson is more a funny distraction than a real influence.
The odd thing is, I've found exactly the opposite true. The less money a customer has, the more specific their wants are (because they are trying to shave every penny they can off the price, any way they can). The more money they have, the more likely they are to say "Just give me the best one".
The one thing that comes to mind is that people with very little money have a lot of time on their hands to do research, whereas the person with more money makes enough that time spent doing research costs more than a poor buying decision.
>Good point. Excuse me while I go and molest a child, since I can't know it's a bad thing if I haven't seen it ruin someone's life for myself.
If it weren't for the romans, you'd not even take that opinion.
Don't let the fact you know history befuddle your shitty argument, though.
>Christ - you REALLY need to advertise more.
:-)
Probably, but the modchips are mostly a sideline (although, getting more popular and may end up being my main business). Not to mention I mostly do PS2s, which take a solid 2 hours to do right (I can do them in 45 minutes like everyone else, too, if you want it to work every few boots due to shoddy wiring).
XBOXes, I love seeing those. 25 minutes and she's done (including a nice little header).
>Sounds like your Servers are a Prime Target for your servers to be taken for Data recovery..
That's why you make the parition for logs large enough for 5 days, but small enough that every 5 days they're completely overwritten.
That way, by the time they ask you months into the future, you've more entropy there than even the CIA rules require.
That was only so that Ontarians would get the government they deserved. They saw an opportunity to win at least a 15 year term the minute Dalton McGuinty suggested he'd re-implement photo radar to line the government's coffers (and positively not at all for safety, specifically).
If Dalton survives even 2 years, I will be positively amazed. Photo radar will get that man lynched and will again re-implement the only party supporting it's banning (you do remember this being a main election issue the first time for the Tories, right?)
"I have long been a supporter of photo radar," the premier told reporters on his way into a cabinet meeting. "It's a revenue generator, absolutely."
>Unfortunately, they missed their target opportunity as 99% of the world out there isn't gonna hack their Xbox to do this
How true. I sell modchips, and I'm lucky to get 7 customers for them in a week. Most weeks I'll get 1 or 2. I'm the only other shop in this city offering modchips.
I do advertise, but probably not as much as I should.
Summing up: If business continues at this rate, I'd be lucky to mod more than 1% of the city's consoles. REALLY lucky. I believe I'm up to 100 or so right now over the past 8 months. This city has 300,000 people...
Now, as far as what people use the chips for -- I only advertise modchips for backup and custom code usage. I don't ask what they'll be used for -- it's not my business to know. I'd probably be willing to say, though, about 25% of the people buying have kids that play rough with the games, and they wouldn't be getting the modchips if the replacement costs for popular games weren't over $80. The rest aren't talkative. I have turned away stupid customers who insist on telling me how they'll be buying a modchip to pirate Blockbuster games.
Note to game companies: If you want to win back at least 25% of that 1%, just put a card in the manual that explains how the owner can send the shards of broken disc back to your company along with $5 for a replacement disc. Installed mods cost $100+, and if you priced your replacements reasonably, you'd probably manage to drive companies like mine out of business. Think about it.
>The website says "Must be bought with hardware" and if you look a little more you will see that they spell out that it can be ANY HARDWARE, and they do have some quite inexpensive hardware items (Need an extra patch cable or extension cable?)
;-) )
Not that we bother in store (didn't sign my name to any crazy OEM agreements), but for eBay we sell Windows XP with a 74LS00 computer "memory" device (ok, ok, so you have to wire it up right... that's your problem buddy
>I have found that I don't like these newbie-branded distributions because I have expectations for what my UNIX experience should be like.
>For me, getting my printers working under Slackware was hard, and both Red Hat and SuSe offered some nice printer config utilities.
See, that's a perfect example of your point. If I were to use CUPS I'd go freaking insane. I added a Laserjet 5si last night. Was lazy and used pico. A few ^K's, a few ^U's, a change here and there, make a directory, and done. I doubt it took more than 30 seconds...
I love printcap + lprng.
>Did they control for saline content? It was determined that the high saline content of this man (must have been dehydrated) allowed the arc.
:)
Yes and no. As far as the saline content goes, they used their own urine for the test. The test dummy was made from ballistics gel, and they designed a release system which would trip if more than a few milliamps of current passed through the dummy.
They weren't exactly the most controlled experiments, but they had to go to great and unlikely lengths to get the release system to trip. It worked when they drenched the dummy with salt water, IIRC. Sooo, it certainly could be possible in abnormal conditions.
5) Watch Mythbusters
:-)
(FYI: The rail test proved very negative... And their setup more closely resembled an electric fence than anything).
>Keep in mind that maximum sentences are not the same thing as sentences actually served. My position is that sentences and punishments should be commensurate with those used for theft and fraud
In that case, you and I agree.
The maximum fine for shoplifting a copy of windows XP or a few Audio CDs (for example) is between $250 - $500, however, on the average, most people receive a fine of about $100. If that's what people were charged with when they pirate it, then I'd be happy to agree.
However, as has been demonstrated, piracy of 1 CD or a dozen, the RIAA wants all your money (I can't imagine that little girl had more than $100).
>They are not thieves, because they pay for the work, though the mechanism is different (and, I would argue, somewhat flawed).
I agree it's a flawed system, but unless Canadians are downloading music from artists that receive compensation, it's legalized piracy. The vast majority of music Canadians download (again, coming from experience of being paid to back up hard drives that are nothing more than MP3 collections) is not even Canadian, never mind even being Canadian music from compensated musicians.
>It's not so much that I think "theft" is the most precise term that motivates me in this discussion as it is my contempt for the fact that pirates are attempting to redefine themselves as something other than common criminals, and I'm not going to let them do that.
Feel free to do so. I don't think any different. However, punishment and labels should fit the crime. 1/4 million dollars and 5 years in jail is not an appropriate judgement when killers have been known to get lighter sentences, yet many advocates of using the word "Theft" rather than Piracy (such as the RIAA and various media companies) believe that a pirate deserves a sentence longer than Charles Manson's.
The fact is your hard work is worth something, but there is no hard work in the world I can think of that is worth condemning a man to 5 years of jail and a 1/4 million dollar fine, if said work is used incorrectly.
>Straw man.
You can't use that when the argument is based on a known fact that affects millions of people. Your argument must be strong enough to at least support the general case. If it can't even do that, then it's dead.
To quote:
In a straw man fallacy the opponents argument is distorted, misrepresented or simply made up. This makes the argument easier to defeat, and can also be used to make opponents look like ignorant extremists.
I didn't distort your argument. You believe all pirates are theives. Canadians are pirates, by law. Does it not therefore follow that Canadians, by your definition are theives? Think this through. Are you willing to start making exceptions where your rule doesn't fit? If so, then where do you draw the line?
Anyways, since you aren't willing to read the dictionary and are willing to falsely state facts, I give up. I won't reply anymore. It's a pointless debate if you insit on using English improperly.
>There are several examples of theft-of-service that do not cause direct and quantifiable losses.
Nope, and those aren't good examples, either. There are different laws to cover your examples, with clear and proper names:
>What about taking a free ride on an almost-empty train ?
Tresspass and loitering on Private Property.
>What about sneaking into a movie theater ?
The same as above, but I am pretty sure there are additional penalties in law for this. Theft isn't one of them. You'll need to speak with a real lawyer to get the exact name of the law -- I don't run a Theatre, I run a computer store.
Which, BTW, gives me far more right to define what piracy really is as far as theft goes, because, when someone pirates, *I* potentially lose a sale. I'm the one who, when it comes down to the wire, could be the one taking the worst of it if piracy were preventing sales.
However, having run a store, there's two types of people (when it comes to software, music is a separate issue from this):
- People who will pirate everything. These people would run MS-DOS if it were the last software they could get for free. I have signs up stating that usage of the FCKGW windows XP key will get them blastered (you can't install SP1) and they say "Ah, who cares? I'll just reformat every time that happens".
- People who pay for what they use. These people will pirate only software they can't get, either because the price is too high (example: Honest students learning SolidWorks), or because the software isn't sold anymore (Old games). Anything that is in their price range (which, for home users, ends at about $149 from my experience), these customers buy -- unless it's actually free.
THAT'S why I argue the difference. It isn't theft if there's no loss.
Also, I argue the difference because I know for a fact that far fewer people would puchase computers if they couldn't/wouldn't pirate. From my experience, I would generously suggest that there would be 50% fewer computers in North American homes in that case. You can rest assured that's not good for anyone.
>It's about a battle for legitimacy, and one place this battle is fought is over language.
If people are going to twist language to fight their battles, then they are using a pawn with no ability to defend itself. It's despicable behaviour and must stop.
>By and large, the pirates are all-too-happy to mislead with their use of language: "information", "sharing", etc. The consistent pattern is that both sides consider the "correct" use of language to be the one that furthers their agenda.
If you don't think the term pirate (one that *has* been successfully co-opted for your personal enjoyment) is good enough, feel free to use the legal term: Copyright Infringement.
>You think that you're better than a common thief, so you don't like being called one. I don't think you're any better, so I'm happy to call you one.
So, the entire nation of Canada are theives to you? That's nice. How about you stay on your side of the border and keep the hell off our land? And Americans wonder why it is that they aren't popular with the rest of the world. It's attitudes like this that are why.
BTW: Your assertion that paying for pirated music (which we do by a levy) is theft is absolutely ludicrous and until you can come up with a good explanation for that, I must say, that is a glaring hole in your logic.