Would you rather pay $150-$200 for a game and not have monthly charges, or pay $40 for a game and $12.95 a month to play it? I think MMORPG's would be more successful, in the terms of user numbers, if they would stop charging by the month. Maybe that's why some people are still playing MUD's and MUCKing around....
I think this method runs into the same problems as unlimited calling plans or all-you-can-eat bandwidth. There are real costs to the running the service which vary with usage. A pricing model which ignores this invites difficulties and "abuse".
From http://www.dvdfllc.co.jp/forms/forms.htm [dvdfllc.co.jp], DVD Video Player Test Specification v1.1, Form 5A 1/3, sections 5-7: The UOP [user operation] is prohibited during the PGC [program chain].
The DVD specs require a DVD player to check for user operation blocking.
You're quoting a player requirement. The disc is not required to use UOP control, as in the original post.
The disk specifications are available, but exact verbage is under NDA. The requirement I referred to is what is required by the DVD FLLC if you are to put the DVD logo on your disk. If you don't mind spending a few thousand smackers, you can get the specification I'm talking about from http://www.dvdfllc.co.jp/ [dvdfllc.co.jp].
The DVDCCA license states that for region-coded disks, there must be one track that cannot be skipped. Most DVD publishers use that track for "required" legal verbage.
That, along with the 40 or so billion in the bank, makes it seem unethical for them to not pay dividends back to their shareholders. Do any other big companies horde their wealth like this?
I think this is typical now for tax reasons. That is, shareholders pay less tax this way. Capital gains versus income, or something.
I really don't think the car market is based on whether or not the code for the fuel-injection chips is open or not.
People buy cars for the look, the comfort, the convenience, the capacity, or the performance. When was the last time you heard anyone ask if the diagnostic computer code was available?
Not specifically, no. But people are aware that maintenance and parts for some cars are more expensive, in a general sort of way.
Only if you have unreasonably high standards. I've put all of Shrek onto one single CD, and the quality is almost indistinguishable from the DVD on my 35" TV except for a few high-motion scenes that show brief pixellation.
I agree that there are many people who find such quality acceptable. But there are enough people who care some the extra information on a DVD, or the industry wouldn't have gone to the trouble of replacing the physical medium of CD.
To get down to 1.5 Mbps or so, you reduced the resolution, right? Had to throw out the multichannel audio? I don't think it's "unreasonable" to care about these things.
No, it doesn't. The problem is explaining the relative difference between moving small objects and large objects.
In the Empire Strikes Back, there's a conversation something like this:
Luke: Master, moving stones around is one thing, but this, this is something entirely different.
Yoda: No, no different. Size matters not. Judge me by my size do you? [Luke shakes his head.] Yoda: And well you should not, because my ally is the force. [Yoda lifts the X-wing out of the swamp.]
(That's not quite right, but it's embarrassingly close.)
In episode II, we see Yoda move his saber effortlessly and then move the bolder with great strain. So Yoda is really full of crap in this respect.
Lucas also reportedly told E! Online that the reason droids C-3P0 and R2-D2 have no memory of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is because their memories have been wiped prior to the beginning of Episode IV, the original Star Wars movie. "[C-3P0's] memory system has been erased, and so has R2's," Lucas told the site. "So they don't remember anything from the first trilogy. I'm telling you something from Episode III, but I shouldn't be telling you that, but I think most of the fans already know that."
That explains a lot. R2 doesn't fly in episodes 4-6 because he forgot he can.
The "subtitle" tracks are not text but actually pictures of text to accomodate any font, but are limited to only four colors (two of which are are black and clear) and only to a certain sector of the screen.
The rest of this post I believe is informative, but this snippet is incorrect.
4 colors, yes. The author often wants clear but there's nothing magic about black and neither are required.
DVD subtitles can appear on any part of the screen. Like you said, they are achieved through a bitmapped image. This image can be sized up to the full NTSC or PAL resolution.
Wrong. Fair use is not protected in any laws. It originated as a judicial precedent in rulings on copyright. That precedent was used to justify the Audio Home Recording Act (which legalized mix tapes, basically), but there is still no one law that protects (or even defines) fair use.
And yet, Congress seems to treat it as such. The text of the DMCA itself specically refers to fair use rights in chapter 12:
`(c) OTHER RIGHTS, ETC., NOT AFFECTED- (1) Nothing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use, under this title.
(See full text of DMCA here.) 2600 argued from this point in their defense, as I recall.
My question is simple... what happens to the company, if it doesn't get approved?
They go out of business. Or find a different market.
They are currently sell only one product... the DVD Copier, and giving away DVD Photo Pro... is that enough to sell and have the company not go away?
If it's ruled that the DVD Copier software is not legal... could that fact actually influence it to be legal, since the DMCA would then effectively put (a) company(ies) out of business?
I sure hope not. There's no right to make money at any given activity. The courts don't exist to protect business plans. It's the same issue we've been talking about with respect to the RIAA, the cue cat, and proprietary software.
Let me first say that I've seen four movies on the "digital screen" (AMC Van Ness in SF): SW:TPM, Final Fantasy: TSW, Akira (2001), and Monsters Inc. All four were projected with Texas Instruments' DLP [dlp.com] technology. Of those four movies, I've seen two with digital projection and with normal film, Monster's and Akira. In both cases, the digital experience was much much better.
First, I'm very pleased to see a comment from someone who's done an actual comparison. But ...
Is is really giving film a fair shot if the source material is originally (relatively low resolution) digital? There's no chance for film to show its higher resolution. Right?
You can't "convert" an item to cash. All you can do is sell it to someone else for cash. Do you claim that, say, Egypt doesn't have an economy because the things produced there are rarely sold for dollars?
Here's an example of his argument: The game produces (via spawns or user manufacture) 10 swords of dragonthwacking per day. Those have an in-game value of 5000 platinum pieces. You can exchange pp for dollars on the open (though technically black) market at around 100:1. Thus, there are $500 worth of SoDs produced every day. Repeat these calculations for every item in the game, and from there you can figure out the GNP of Norrath.
To do any of these calculations, we have to accept someone's evaluation of the worth of the items. So, if we use idiots to evaluate the worth of the items, Norrath has a really big GDP.
Using this same logic, I could give a coworker a penny for his thoughts and then conclude that the GDP of our bathroom is $6,563,487. That's clearly a load of horseshit, because that doesn't represent society's evaluation of the worth of thoughts.
Giving old products away to the general public has certain specific and often harmful tax consequences. Effectively the companies are declaring the value of their goods to be zero, which keeps them from using the standard 20-year depreciation chart to deal with unsold inventory. In a nutshell, this means that there are huge tax benefits to not releasing old software as open source.
Wouldn't the actual physical packaging and media still have value? I mean, does Red Hat's inventory have zero value?
Slashdot Mirror
I think this method runs into the same problems as unlimited calling plans or all-you-can-eat bandwidth. There are real costs to the running the service which vary with usage. A pricing model which ignores this invites difficulties and "abuse".
You're quoting a player requirement. The disc is not required to use UOP control, as in the original post.
I have a copy.
That's horseshit. There's no such requirement.
Moderation Totals: +5 informative, -5 full of shit
It makes people cry? Maybe the hardware makers, I guess.
I think this is typical now for tax reasons. That is, shareholders pay less tax this way. Capital gains versus income, or something.
Not specifically, no. But people are aware that maintenance and parts for some cars are more expensive, in a general sort of way.
Can anyone comment on how the pricing would be determined for a stripped-down windows?
No, do or do not. There is no try.
:-)
I agree that there are many people who find such quality acceptable. But there are enough people who care some the extra information on a DVD, or the industry wouldn't have gone to the trouble of replacing the physical medium of CD.
To get down to 1.5 Mbps or so, you reduced the resolution, right? Had to throw out the multichannel audio? I don't think it's "unreasonable" to care about these things.
In the Empire Strikes Back, there's a conversation something like this:
(That's not quite right, but it's embarrassingly close.)
In episode II, we see Yoda move his saber effortlessly and then move the bolder with great strain. So Yoda is really full of crap in this respect.
Other moral: Make backups.
That explains a lot. R2 doesn't fly in episodes 4-6 because he forgot he can.
The rest of this post I believe is informative, but this snippet is incorrect.
4 colors, yes. The author often wants clear but there's nothing magic about black and neither are required.
DVD subtitles can appear on any part of the screen. Like you said, they are achieved through a bitmapped image. This image can be sized up to the full NTSC or PAL resolution.
Game:
Did you purchase this game legally?
Player:
Yes
Game:
. . . No you didn't. [dials up BSA]
And yet, Congress seems to treat it as such. The text of the DMCA itself specically refers to fair use rights in chapter 12:
They go out of business. Or find a different market.
I sure hope not. There's no right to make money at any given activity. The courts don't exist to protect business plans. It's the same issue we've been talking about with respect to the RIAA, the cue cat, and proprietary software.
I wish I had that luck. My 2-year-old son keeps trying to play DVDs in the VCR.
MPAA, not RIAA
First, I'm very pleased to see a comment from someone who's done an actual comparison. But .
Is is really giving film a fair shot if the source material is originally (relatively low resolution) digital? There's no chance for film to show its higher resolution. Right?
Why's that?
There weren't any Divx-only players. They all played open DVD as well. Perhaps his stopped working?
To do any of these calculations, we have to accept someone's evaluation of the worth of the items. So, if we use idiots to evaluate the worth of the items, Norrath has a really big GDP.
Using this same logic, I could give a coworker a penny for his thoughts and then conclude that the GDP of our bathroom is $6,563,487. That's clearly a load of horseshit, because that doesn't represent society's evaluation of the worth of thoughts.
Wouldn't the actual physical packaging and media still have value? I mean, does Red Hat's inventory have zero value?