As I understand it, it's illegal to republish or redistribute copyrighted material, even if you aren't charging for it.
So if they take the copyrighted text from the game, even if its something as basic as "You will have to sweeten the deal if you want the {{civ}} to accept, {{civ_leader}}" and redistribute that, it's probably illegal. Even if you are translating it into another language.
I'm not saying I think thats a good law, just that that's the tack the company will take. That it's a copyright violation.
Now, if they changed the text more than just a straight translation, they'd have a better case, probably. Of course, IANAL.
The thing is, they don't even have to take it to court... There is no way the developer can afford to fight this, unless someone like the EFF steps in to help him out. Which is probably their REAL tactic.
Building queues and simultaneous turns are great, but really don't represent evolution.
AFAIK, both these features were in the "Gold" edition of Civ 2, anyway. At least, I KNOW that simultaneous turns were. And Queues were available in SMAC, weren't they?
Not that FreeCiv isn't a cool piece of software- it is, for sure.
I have to admit, though I am playing it, Civ 3 is a disappointment. On many levels, it is inferior to SMAC or even Civ 2. I strongly get the impression they wanted to make it more mass-market friendly by simplifying everything... But it irks me they didn't allow the option of setting it to "Advanced" or something, for people who like more micromanagement.
Another annoying thing about it is they way that SOMETIMES, the game pops up a window to tell you when a city completes construction, and sometimes it just starts the next item for you... This, combined with the fact that only one city can build a wonder at a time, has caused me to lose out on a wonder when I realized that a population 2 city has been trying to build it for 20 turns when I have plenty of larger cities available.
But what they are translating is copyrighted text, isn't it? I mean, you couldn't just translate a novel into another language and distribute it, could you (even if you did it for free)? That seems to be the angle Infogrames is taking on this.
Re:Wil Wheaton, actor, dead at 28
on
Geek Gift Ideas 2001
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
This is offtopic, but that's not funny. Wil is a nice guy. It's pretty pathetic that people care enough about some decade-old TV show to harbor a grudge against a person that played a character they didn't like. Get a life.
They are still selling them at a loss, though. Which is all anyone said. Just like Sony did with the original PSX. It wasn't profitable until after a few million had been sold, they had their factories optimized, etc.
And, of course, MS would NEVER resort to dumping or unfair competition- I wouldn't even think to imply that!
Re:Other Irony
on
MAME On Xbox
·
· Score: 2, Informative
That's standard operating procedure for consoles.
It's a well-documented fact that Sony does this:
"However, the market leader Sony are set to cut the price of their Playstations to £69 in response. This would be a loss leader, but the bulk of Playstation profits come from software." - full story
For a more historical perspective:
"The NES introduced three very important concepts to the video game system industry:
Using a pad controller instead of a joystick
Creating authentic reproductions of arcade video games for the home system
Using the hardware as a loss leader by aggressively pricing it, then making a profit on the games themselves" - full article
It's the way the industry works. Do a little research.
I was under the impression that they had "packs" with several games on each... For example, maybe a "Sports Pack" that emulated a variety of sports games, etc.
There were two demo machines set up at a comic convention yesterday near Baltimore. I played only briefly because I had to help my friend set up his table, but the controller felt pretty good in my hands and the graphics were pretty impressive, I thought. Very smooth. I'd consider buying one. It really depends on what games come out for it. I don't have a PS2 yet, and I really can't see myself getting an Xbox, so maybe I will get a Gamecube.
What? That's crazy. So it's now illegal for drunk high school kids to call their parents to get them from parties? "Mom, I know you're gonna be mad, but..."
Nope. They make more money when you get pulled over for DUI, then they raise your rates. If you get in an accident while driving drunk, I doubt your insurance would cover it, anyway.
2. If the apes evolved from the monkeys that came from the crashed ship (sheesh...I figured that out in the first 10 minutes of the movie. No surprises there!), where did the humans inhabiting the planet come from? Or are these humans 'leftovers' from us destroying the planet?
I assumed they were descendents of the humans on the ship, Marky Mark's crewmates... I figured the apes took over and made the people who were experimenting on them slaves.
You're living in a protect provided by people having semi-automatic weapson in thier homes. If there wasn't a possiablity of having a ten round clip unloaded into a crimal chrest, more people would do the evil on thier minds. Also, we can't keep drugs out of people hands, how are we going to keep gun out thier hands?
Please learn how to spell before any future attempts to make a point.
Arnold and James each wanted too much money, among other things. Plus Cameron kept waffling on what he wanted to do next. Arnold's high asking price has derailed a lot of good projects.
I think most banner ad solutions (such as the ones Slashdot displays) use Javascript, not Java. Javascript will still be in there, since it's part of the browser, not the OS. The companies who use Java will probably use Javascript (or another method) to display Java to those with it installed and the MS solution to those without, if it becomes a problem.
Ads are an annoyance, not a feature (and there a so few java(script) applets that are actually useful (name 3), that this should definitely be considered a feature.
Java isn't the same as Javascript. Javascript will still work, as its a component of the browser, not the OS.
Why would TV stations do that? They'll just stretch it out for as long as possible and broadcast 2 signals.
First of all, don't make the mistake of thinking Digital TV and HDTV are the same thing- thy're not. Do some research.
Secondly, it stands to reason it would be more profitable for them to simply make everyone (who didn't already have a digital ready tv-not the same as and HDTV- or cable) buy a decoder than it would be to maintain double the equipment at double the cost and power. Especially since the people with the old TVs and no cable have the least buying power and are the least attractive demographic for their advertising dollars.
I've heard that the TV stations will sell/give away converter boxes.
In my city, the only cable provider has switched everyone over to Digital Cable. They sent everyone a converter box in the mail, charged them for it on their bill and said "either you rent the box or cancel your subscription, we're going digital". You have to have a box for each TV, even if it's cable ready, which sucks. Everyone was pissed... but 99% kept their subscriptions.
Ask that to all the DirectTV hackers that can't use there DirectTV reciever anymore...
Everyone I know who scams DirectTV now either uses an emulator, or pays the minimum fee. They get their free DirecTV fine. With an emulator, every once and awhile it stops working and they hit reset. But if you pay the cheapest fee, then hack your card to get all the channels, they apparently won't wipe your card (or so I'm told). I don't scam DirecTV myself, because I think it's a bit lame plus I don't really watch much TV. I watch Conan sometimes, but I can get that with my rabbit ears.
Copy Protection keeps honest people honest. No more, no less.
It definitely does more, or can do more. For example: a copy protection scheme that prevents me from making a mix cd or load a song onto an MP3 player is not keeping me honest, it's preventing me doing something that is perfectly legal. I am allowed to make a copy of songs I own, as long as I don't give them to anyone. Why should I have to break a copy protection scheme just to enjoy my music?
Pirates, crackers and script kiddies will always get around any sort of protection scheme. Want proof? You can get on the net right now and find cracked versions of expensive software like Pro Tools, Adobe Photoshop, etc. Why institute a scheme that lowers the quality of the product as well as making things more difficult for many consumers, yet doesn't hurt the real pirates, who will find a way to beat the system, as always?
And, as far as burnt CDs goes, didn't they already add a "tax" to CDRs to help pay off the record labels for "losses" from people copying CDs? I may be wrong about this in the USA, but I know this system exists in some European countries.
The problem is, things like this don't stop pirates- pirates will always get around any methods put in their way. The people who are hurt by all the laws and technological anti-piracy methods are the average consumers. Why should I have to download some illicit software to get around this copy-protection (software which will become available) just to, for example, put the cd on my Diamond MP3 Jukebox? Or make a mix CD for my car?
Another thing is most of these "copy protection" methods don't stop large scale pirates, only consumers and file sharers. CSS only prevents the playing of DVD on an unlicensed machine, for example, it doesn't stop a bootlegger from cranking out 100,000 exact copies using a professional grade DVD manufacturing machine. I'd image this process has the same flaw.
Under the fair use policy, can I make a backup of my car in case the original gets trashed?
I don't think it would be illegal for you to make an exact duplicate of your car (as long as you didn't sell it). However, it might be somewhat time-consuming and expensive. You'd probably find it cheaper just to buy two.
So maybe they should have made her look sad like this::(
My problem with the film was that the digital actors could carry the emotion parts, yet they chose to try and emphasis them... For example, many shots of Aki trying to look sad, etc. If you are weak in an area, you should try to de-emphasis that area, not point it out to everyone and linger on it.
The general wasn't just an asshole, he actually had a reason why he hated the phantoms.
I didn't buy his actions. Halfway through the movie he suddenly becomes a bad guy. The first 2 or 3 scenes with him, I agreed with him, not Dr. Sid... But he was wearing all black, so he has to be a bad guy, I guess.
Slashdot Mirror
As I understand it, it's illegal to republish or redistribute copyrighted material, even if you aren't charging for it.
So if they take the copyrighted text from the game, even if its something as basic as "You will have to sweeten the deal if you want the {{civ}} to accept, {{civ_leader}}" and redistribute that, it's probably illegal. Even if you are translating it into another language.
I'm not saying I think thats a good law, just that that's the tack the company will take. That it's a copyright violation.
Now, if they changed the text more than just a straight translation, they'd have a better case, probably. Of course, IANAL.
The thing is, they don't even have to take it to court... There is no way the developer can afford to fight this, unless someone like the EFF steps in to help him out. Which is probably their REAL tactic.
You could turn of Javascript with Netscape 3.x, as I recall... that's one of the things that kept me using it at the time.
Building queues and simultaneous turns are great, but really don't represent evolution.
AFAIK, both these features were in the "Gold" edition of Civ 2, anyway. At least, I KNOW that simultaneous turns were. And Queues were available in SMAC, weren't they?
Not that FreeCiv isn't a cool piece of software- it is, for sure.
I have to admit, though I am playing it, Civ 3 is a disappointment. On many levels, it is inferior to SMAC or even Civ 2. I strongly get the impression they wanted to make it more mass-market friendly by simplifying everything... But it irks me they didn't allow the option of setting it to "Advanced" or something, for people who like more micromanagement.
Another annoying thing about it is they way that SOMETIMES, the game pops up a window to tell you when a city completes construction, and sometimes it just starts the next item for you... This, combined with the fact that only one city can build a wonder at a time, has caused me to lose out on a wonder when I realized that a population 2 city has been trying to build it for 20 turns when I have plenty of larger cities available.
But what they are translating is copyrighted text, isn't it? I mean, you couldn't just translate a novel into another language and distribute it, could you (even if you did it for free)? That seems to be the angle Infogrames is taking on this.
This is offtopic, but that's not funny. Wil is a nice guy. It's pretty pathetic that people care enough about some decade-old TV show to harbor a grudge against a person that played a character they didn't like. Get a life.
They are still selling them at a loss, though. Which is all anyone said. Just like Sony did with the original PSX. It wasn't profitable until after a few million had been sold, they had their factories optimized, etc.
And, of course, MS would NEVER resort to dumping or unfair competition- I wouldn't even think to imply that!
That's standard operating procedure for consoles.
It's a well-documented fact that Sony does this:
"However, the market leader Sony are set to cut the price of their Playstations to £69 in response. This would be a loss leader, but the bulk of Playstation profits come from software." - full story
For a more historical perspective:
"The NES introduced three very important concepts to the video game system industry:
Using a pad controller instead of a joystick
Creating authentic reproductions of arcade video games for the home system
Using the hardware as a loss leader by aggressively pricing it, then making a profit on the games themselves"
- full article
It's the way the industry works. Do a little research.
I was under the impression that they had "packs" with several games on each... For example, maybe a "Sports Pack" that emulated a variety of sports games, etc.
Could be wrong, though.
There were two demo machines set up at a comic convention yesterday near Baltimore. I played only briefly because I had to help my friend set up his table, but the controller felt pretty good in my hands and the graphics were pretty impressive, I thought. Very smooth. I'd consider buying one. It really depends on what games come out for it. I don't have a PS2 yet, and I really can't see myself getting an Xbox, so maybe I will get a Gamecube.
What? That's crazy. So it's now illegal for drunk high school kids to call their parents to get them from parties? "Mom, I know you're gonna be mad, but..."
Nope. They make more money when you get pulled over for DUI, then they raise your rates. If you get in an accident while driving drunk, I doubt your insurance would cover it, anyway.
2. If the apes evolved from the monkeys that came from the crashed ship (sheesh...I figured that out in the first 10 minutes of the movie. No surprises there!), where did the humans inhabiting the planet come from? Or are these humans 'leftovers' from us destroying the planet?
I assumed they were descendents of the humans on the ship, Marky Mark's crewmates... I figured the apes took over and made the people who were experimenting on them slaves.
Josh Sisk
You're living in a protect provided by people having semi-automatic weapson in thier homes. If there wasn't a possiablity of having a ten round clip unloaded into a crimal chrest, more people would do the evil on thier minds. Also, we can't keep drugs out of people hands, how are we going to keep gun out thier hands?
Please learn how to spell before any future attempts to make a point.
That wasn't a summer movie, though. It came out months and months ago.
Arnold and James each wanted too much money, among other things. Plus Cameron kept waffling on what he wanted to do next. Arnold's high asking price has derailed a lot of good projects.
I think most banner ad solutions (such as the ones Slashdot displays) use Javascript, not Java. Javascript will still be in there, since it's part of the browser, not the OS. The companies who use Java will probably use Javascript (or another method) to display Java to those with it installed and the MS solution to those without, if it becomes a problem.
Ads are an annoyance, not a feature (and there a so few java(script) applets that are actually useful (name 3), that this should definitely be considered a feature.
Java isn't the same as Javascript. Javascript will still work, as its a component of the browser, not the OS.
Why would TV stations do that? They'll just stretch it out for as long as possible and broadcast 2 signals.
First of all, don't make the mistake of thinking Digital TV and HDTV are the same thing- thy're not. Do some research.
Secondly, it stands to reason it would be more profitable for them to simply make everyone (who didn't already have a digital ready tv-not the same as and HDTV- or cable) buy a decoder than it would be to maintain double the equipment at double the cost and power. Especially since the people with the old TVs and no cable have the least buying power and are the least attractive demographic for their advertising dollars.
I've heard that the TV stations will sell/give away converter boxes.
In my city, the only cable provider has switched everyone over to Digital Cable. They sent everyone a converter box in the mail, charged them for it on their bill and said "either you rent the box or cancel your subscription, we're going digital". You have to have a box for each TV, even if it's cable ready, which sucks. Everyone was pissed... but 99% kept their subscriptions.
Ask that to all the DirectTV hackers that can't use there DirectTV reciever anymore...
Everyone I know who scams DirectTV now either uses an emulator, or pays the minimum fee. They get their free DirecTV fine. With an emulator, every once and awhile it stops working and they hit reset. But if you pay the cheapest fee, then hack your card to get all the channels, they apparently won't wipe your card (or so I'm told). I don't scam DirecTV myself, because I think it's a bit lame plus I don't really watch much TV. I watch Conan sometimes, but I can get that with my rabbit ears.
Josh Sisk
Copy Protection keeps honest people honest. No more, no less.
It definitely does more, or can do more. For example: a copy protection scheme that prevents me from making a mix cd or load a song onto an MP3 player is not keeping me honest, it's preventing me doing something that is perfectly legal. I am allowed to make a copy of songs I own, as long as I don't give them to anyone. Why should I have to break a copy protection scheme just to enjoy my music?
Pirates, crackers and script kiddies will always get around any sort of protection scheme. Want proof? You can get on the net right now and find cracked versions of expensive software like Pro Tools, Adobe Photoshop, etc. Why institute a scheme that lowers the quality of the product as well as making things more difficult for many consumers, yet doesn't hurt the real pirates, who will find a way to beat the system, as always?
And, as far as burnt CDs goes, didn't they already add a "tax" to CDRs to help pay off the record labels for "losses" from people copying CDs? I may be wrong about this in the USA, but I know this system exists in some European countries.
The problem is, things like this don't stop pirates- pirates will always get around any methods put in their way. The people who are hurt by all the laws and technological anti-piracy methods are the average consumers. Why should I have to download some illicit software to get around this copy-protection (software which will become available) just to, for example, put the cd on my Diamond MP3 Jukebox? Or make a mix CD for my car?
Another thing is most of these "copy protection" methods don't stop large scale pirates, only consumers and file sharers. CSS only prevents the playing of DVD on an unlicensed machine, for example, it doesn't stop a bootlegger from cranking out 100,000 exact copies using a professional grade DVD manufacturing machine. I'd image this process has the same flaw.
Under the fair use policy, can I make a backup of my car in case the original gets trashed?
I don't think it would be illegal for you to make an exact duplicate of your car (as long as you didn't sell it). However, it might be somewhat time-consuming and expensive. You'd probably find it cheaper just to buy two.
So maybe they should have made her look sad like this: :(
My problem with the film was that the digital actors could carry the emotion parts, yet they chose to try and emphasis them... For example, many shots of Aki trying to look sad, etc. If you are weak in an area, you should try to de-emphasis that area, not point it out to everyone and linger on it.
The general wasn't just an asshole, he actually had a reason why he hated the phantoms.
I didn't buy his actions. Halfway through the movie he suddenly becomes a bad guy. The first 2 or 3 scenes with him, I agreed with him, not Dr. Sid... But he was wearing all black, so he has to be a bad guy, I guess.
Josh Sisk