As far as I know, it is illegal to to this... In movie theaters and on broadcast TV. I know that the practice was stopped in the 50s... but, of course, there were no videotapes in the fifties.
Their reaction time to the next drive slaming on the breaks due to a deer crossing the road is nil.
I don't feel very secure about this... I mean, can "Klaus" tell the difference between a deer in the road or a big paper bag/empty cardboard box? What about driving in areas that have poor road conditions? Or in my area, where during the rainy season, it is not uncommon have visibilty drop down to five feet or less, either due to rain or morning fog?
I think the mythical "computer controlled" highway is just that... a myth. Maybe this will happen after we're all so old that we have to have computer controlled cars to drive, but in the next fifty years... Forget it.
At least in America... I don't know anything about Europe so I can't comment, but here in the USI see lots old cars on the road, ones that are 20 to 30 years old. These cars will ruin the "networked highway" for everyone else. Not to mention, America's driving ethic will keep resistance to this idea high. I remeber a scene in a movie, I believe "Singles" where the main character is extolling the virtues of public transportation to his girlfriend and she says something like: "Yeah, you're right... But I love my car. I love to drive."
This is the average, non technical, non geek American. They love their cars. They bitch about how cars used to be better and how they "watched their Dad fix his car when they were kids and why do they have to make things so damn complicated these days." This is what will delay the networked highway. And I'm one of them... It's about a 30-40 minute drive to my work. And I love it, It like meditation to me. I would buy an networkable car for the cool factor, but turn it off.
I seriously doubt the "start-up software" for the PSX2 is either a CD or DVD. It would be a new low for consoles to require a separate "start-up disc" when you turn it on. Plus, if the "start-up software" drives the reading of DVDs, how could it be on a DVD?
It's on a disc (I don't know if it's a CD or DVD). The way it works is, you load the DVD drivers from the disc onto your memory card. That's why they were running into problems before... Some games were erasing the drivers (I guess they were writing their save games over them). I have no idea why Sony set it up this way. I guess they thought if they loaded the drivers off disc, they could easily fix bugs and upgrade if they needed to. Which, in retrospect, they have.
If you want, I'll bet anyone $10 that there will be Net taxes (not on ISPs, but on sales and e-commerce) for municipal, county, and states, in existence by 2010.
I don't really get the push towards net taxes. If you own a business and you sell a product, you owe taxes to both the US government and your state government. It doesn't matter if you sell your product in the mall or over the internet. Uncle Sam and your state are already getting a cut.
Now, you aren't paying state sales taxes if you buy over the internet (as long as you buy from a different state), but you don't pay sales tax on mail order catalog purchases, either. So why add a net sales tax? And who would get the sales tax? The state that the business is in or the state the customer is in, or both? If there are "municipal, county, and state" taxes, it's even more complicated...
If they do add a net sales tax, will they add a mail order tax as well? If not, I'll bet a lot of sites will offer a "Call our 800 number to order with no net tax" option, which means they will most likely add a mail order sales tax as well...
I think they should just tax the companies, as they already do, instead of adding a whole new type of tax. Why make the system even more complex? Plus, it's already expensive for small business to sell on the net, do they really want to make it moreso?
the original poster was talking about PHYSICALLY inspecting the items, which would be the only way to tell if it was illegal merchandise.
No, really, it's not. These auctions are obviously for copies of games. They say things like "backup version" and "you are bidding on a cd-r". So Yahoo could tell just from the description these are illegal items.
I mean, if someone had an auction for "One Hundred Pounds of Bolivian Heroin" would you expect Yahoo to PHYSICALLY inspect the heroin to make sure it was real, before ending the auction?
Actually, from what the article said, it seems like they alerted Yahoo to the sale of illegal and infringing items and Yahoo did nothing about them. The article implies this happened many times, not just once or twice.
The companies see how easy it is for eBay to stop these types of auctions and won't stand for Yahoo just ignoring them. And eBay does... A friend of mine was selling Rare CDs, still in the shrink wrap, with cd-rs of the same cds (so that you wouldn't have to open the shrink wrap) and they cancelled his auctions, even though he was selling the cd-r with the original cd. So eBay manages to keep on top of illegal auctions pretty well and the game companies expect Yahoo to the same.
There really is no confusion here- the companies are well within their rights to try and put a stop to this. I mean, I don't really think they care that much about the high school kids who copy each other's games (not to mention those sort of "pirates" are impossible to catch), but if you are copying someone else's work and selling it... That's just wrong.
He purchased an Internet appliance that comes with its own connectivity arrangement. He knew when he bought it that he was buying an ISP subscription. He's just bitter because the ISP subscription used to begin the moment the device was connected and dialed up. He was counting on the fact that since he was going to scrap the OS first, that he wouldn't even have to begin the ISP service and wouldn't have to pay the charges.
Actually, from what the article says, he bought it as a gift for his brother and asked the i-opener salesperson if he could buy it on his card, then have his brother sign up for the service on his own.
"I called netpliance to verify that I could order the unit on my card, without service, and that my brother could subsequently sign up for services on his card. they said sure, no problem."
The problem here is that, if i-opener was going to charge his card for the service, they should have told him. In fact, by law, they HAD to tell him. But they told him that they were not going to. Then they did. He is completely within his rights, and the law, to contest those charges. It's the same thing as if he bought it as a store, saw the receipt for $100 and then discovered on his monthly statement that they charged him more. It is not allowed.
What does this mean for Apple? Lots of Mac users will buy PCs and get MacOS for it. Apple won't be able to sell enough Macs anymore and they'll go bankrut...
I sincerely doubt Apple will go bankrupt any time soon. I also doubt that they will sell MacOS for PCs, but wouldn't it be great if they did? So many people are getting fed up with Windoze, but are not technical enough to install or maintain Linux (like my parents). I'll bet Apple could actually bring this to market successfully... The only problem is, as someone pointed out, Apple likes the fact its a company with "Magic" and "Myth" and don't wanna water that down... oh well.
The U overreacted, as Us often do. Many people posting talking about THEFT and STEALING seem to be as well. From what I've read of this, the students did not have ethernet in their room and were allowed & encouraged to use the port... It's just that the port was downstairs. So this was not a matter of avoiding a fee. A 300 foot Ethernet Cable cost them more than $24
This is just a misuse of a dorm privilage and should have been handled as such: the same as filling up the floor fridge with all of your food, staying on the hall phone for 6 hours, or some such nonsense. The RAs or Dorm Manager should have given them a stern talking to, with no publicity, no black mark on records, etc... It would be different, perhaps, if they had been forbidden to use the port entirely, but they were not..
This should have been handled by the dorm, but was mostly likely blown out of proportion because everything that has to do with the internet is blown out of proportion lately.
I just picked one up.. It's great! Better than my ($400) Panasonic in every respect... AND it has DTS and Zoom (a feature I'll never use, but cool to have anyway). It's more responsive as well, with a better remote. Not to mention all the loopholes. No jukebox lightshow when playing music, though... That would have been perfection. I'm selling my old one and keeping this one, definitely.
One question, though... it has a PAL/NTSC switching function. I imagine it's wishful thinking that this allows you to watch PAL discs on a NTSC TV? I don't have any PAL discs, so I can't verify this.
MS is not going to be competing against the hardcore gamer market with this thing... So it doesn't matter if its specs are outdated by the time of it's release. The X-Box is going to be a combo WebTV/cheap PC/DVD player.
Think about it- They already have MSN. With their capitol, they can get MSN ready for broadband in 18 months. They sell these things at a cut rate compared to the PS2 and Dolphin, take a loss on the hardware, hook a few million parents into buying it for their kids, then MS gets that $30 a month access fee for the new MSN ASDL Service. Not to mention $10 a month for their new online game, Asheron's Call X. I'll bet MS even gives discounts on the x-box if you agree to sign up for "MSN-ADSL". Get the parents in a 2 or 3 year contract, who cares if the system is cutting edge or not?
The games really don't matter... As long as they have a lot of ports and a lot of "Wal-Mart" style cheap games, the parents will be happy. For, say, $200 they bought their kid a dvd player that plays some games and lets them get on the net and keeps them from messing up Dad's computer... This is the market MS is aiming for with the X-Box, and I'm sure they will succeed. I sincerely doubt it will affect any of us, or hurt quality game development in any way.
X-Box is going to be the AOL of game consoles... A lot of people will have it, but the people who are "in the know" will look down on it and the really cool stuff will happen elsewhere.
Between this MP3 thievery and "cracking" copy-protected software to release it under the "GPL" (at least it's not "shareware", where the crackers want you to pay them),
For gods sake! Home many times does this have to be explained? The GPL is a licensing structure that is used by CREATORS of ORIGINAL software, who wish for their software to be free. It has NOTHING to do with cracked, copyrighted software.
So, for example, if I wrote a program to keep track of my record collection and wanted other people to use it, I could release it to the internet as GPL software. Then others would be free to use my source code, to improve the program. (Which is a good thing because I am not a good programmer)
Shareware is NOT someone cracking software and then charging for it. It is when I write my record collection organizer, and allow people to download it, with a warning that says "If you use this software, send me $5, if you don't you can't use it". True, this involves an honor system, but, hey- I wrote the program for myself, if even one person sends me the $5 thats more than I would have made had I not made it shareware.
Please, people, before you flame the evil GPL crackers, do a little research and realize GPL and cracking are completely unrelated.
[shrug] Somebody claimed that they distributed cracked software, a.k.a. "GPL" or "freeware", on their site.
GPL means GNU General Public License. If software is written under this license it is freely distributable. It is not cracked. Free ware is a term that means software that is available for free, with no charge. It is also not cracked. Cracked software is commercial software that has been illegally modified to no longer have copy protection, or demo software that has been modified to function as it was a full version. GPL and Freeware do not fall under the catagory "cracked".
If the black market has reduced the market value of music to the point where musicians must give away their work for free, I would hardly say that mp3.com should be applauded for doing the damage.
Most of the MP3s that are being traded in the "black market" are ones my famous major label acts. These acts still sell their cds by the millions, so I don't think music has been "devalued" just yet. The acts on MP3.com are generally unknown, unsigned acts. My friend has made his music available on MP3.com, under the name Amphibian, simply so that others can hear his music. To him music is a hobby he doesn't expect to get paid for. The internet allows him to reach a much larger potential number of people than he could by playing his songs to people who come over to his house. Many other bands have similar ideas about uploading their songs to MP3.com, or they feel that maybe if someone hears one song of their CD, then thet\y might buy the whole thing. This has been going on for years, in the form of cd and tapes of lesser-known bands included with CMJ and other music magazines. The internet is just a better channel for distribution, that's all. It's not like these musicians are worthless because of mp3 technology. Some of the music on mp3.com may be worthless with or without mp3s, but thats beside the point...
And, yes, this domain name squatting is reprehesible, but a lot of companies use reprehensible business tactics. I'm not defending them, either- it is our duty to call them on it when we discover it and I'm glad the got caught. I just am trying to point out the misunderstandings about "freeware" software and the devaluation of the music market.
I notice that you also mention that they distribute "freeware", a.k.a. cracked ("GPL") software. This also is theft, and if it's worth downloading, even your pathetic low-quality excuse doesn't wash.
Actually, as anyone who has been using the internet for any length of time at all knows, freeware means software that the creator(s) have allowed to be distributed for free. Internet Explorer and Netscape Comminicator are both examples of freeware, as is most MP3 players, all available for download at MP3.com. Considering the fact that MP3.com is a public company, who has a vested interest in keeping their stock price high, I really doubt they would ever distribute "cracked" software on their site.
Stealing bad music is still theft. BZZZT. Thanks for playing.
It seems like you aren't very knowledgable about which you speak. All mp3s on MP3.com are their because the artist put them there for people to download. Most of these artists are unknown and willing to give away music in the hopes people will like it and buy their album. How is this stealing?
It appears to me that you have committed multiple felonies. Are you quite sure that you should be discussing this in public?
You should ask yourself this question next time you post, if you don't want to come off looking like a fool. Oh wait... you posted anonymously. I guess you must have had your lack of knowledge pointed out to you before...
The thing about the x-box, graphics-wise, is that its going to be running NVidia's next generation technology... One imagines this will equal (at least) the upcoming 3dfx cards, which are said to perform significantly better than the PS2 (in numbers at least). Also, the x-box is coming out a year after the PS2. In general, newer consoles have better graphics. So I don't doubt the x-box will look better than the PS2. Of course, this means the DOlphin probably will as well. I do doubt MicroSoft's ability to put out a stable platform... still, who knows?
An opening gaming standard? Hmm. I don't know if that's such a good idea... The cool thing about all the different consoles is they have different "personalities"... And little things that look and act different on each one. I'm all for the companies having open source and maybe even open development, but if all games worked on all consoles, what would be the difference between them? You would end up with several consoles that had the exact same features and there would be no incentive to add new features. No to mention, if you added a new feature to your console, games using that feature would then be unplayable on the other consoles... Which means... it's not a universal standard after all. I think it would also lead to the same "backwards-compatiblity limiting forward progress" that exists in the PC market. Just some thoughts.
>>Yes but can your DVD player outperform all PC's on the market like the PSX2 does? No, but it (the Apex 600) can ignore regional coding on DVDs.. something the PS2 cannot. Also, several sites have reported playback issues with DVDs on the PS2... Hopefully this will be fixed by the American rollout. I don't care, I already have 2 dvd players... I will be buying a PS2 but for games only... Not because I think it's going to be as amazing as the hype (it's not) but because, darn it, it's a game system and I should have all of them.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I know, it is illegal to to this... In movie theaters and on broadcast TV. I know that the practice was stopped in the 50s... but, of course, there were no videotapes in the fifties.
Josh Sisk
Their reaction time to the next drive slaming on the breaks due to a deer crossing the road is nil.
I don't feel very secure about this... I mean, can "Klaus" tell the difference between a deer in the road or a big paper bag/empty cardboard box? What about driving in areas that have poor road conditions? Or in my area, where during the rainy season, it is not uncommon have visibilty drop down to five feet or less, either due to rain or morning fog?
I think the mythical "computer controlled" highway is just that... a myth. Maybe this will happen after we're all so old that we have to have computer controlled cars to drive, but in the next fifty years... Forget it.
At least in America... I don't know anything about Europe so I can't comment, but here in the USI see lots old cars on the road, ones that are 20 to 30 years old. These cars will ruin the "networked highway" for everyone else. Not to mention, America's driving ethic will keep resistance to this idea high. I remeber a scene in a movie, I believe "Singles" where the main character is extolling the virtues of public transportation to his girlfriend and she says something like: "Yeah, you're right... But I love my car. I love to drive."
This is the average, non technical, non geek American. They love their cars. They bitch about how cars used to be better and how they "watched their Dad fix his car when they were kids and why do they have to make things so damn complicated these days." This is what will delay the networked highway. And I'm one of them... It's about a 30-40 minute drive to my work. And I love it, It like meditation to me. I would buy an networkable car for the cool factor, but turn it off.
Josh Sisk
I'm guessing that if *I* can buy CD-R's for pennies apiece, SONY can print these and eat the cost without being all that damaged.
I think it will hurt their reputation and their stock value more than anything else.
Also, the more bugs in their launch, the better the competitor's systems will look...
Josh Sisk
I seriously doubt the "start-up software" for the PSX2 is either a CD or DVD. It would be a new low for consoles to require a separate "start-up disc" when you turn it on. Plus, if the "start-up software" drives the reading of DVDs, how could it be on a DVD?
It's on a disc (I don't know if it's a CD or DVD). The way it works is, you load the DVD drivers from the disc onto your memory card. That's why they were running into problems before... Some games were erasing the drivers (I guess they were writing their save games over them). I have no idea why Sony set it up this way. I guess they thought if they loaded the drivers off disc, they could easily fix bugs and upgrade if they needed to. Which, in retrospect, they have.
Josh Sisk
If you want, I'll bet anyone $10 that there will be Net taxes (not on ISPs, but on sales and e-commerce) for municipal, county, and states, in existence by 2010.
I don't really get the push towards net taxes. If you own a business and you sell a product, you owe taxes to both the US government and your state government. It doesn't matter if you sell your product in the mall or over the internet. Uncle Sam and your state are already getting a cut.
Now, you aren't paying state sales taxes if you buy over the internet (as long as you buy from a different state), but you don't pay sales tax on mail order catalog purchases, either. So why add a net sales tax? And who would get the sales tax? The state that the business is in or the state the customer is in, or both? If there are "municipal, county, and state" taxes, it's even more complicated...
If they do add a net sales tax, will they add a mail order tax as well? If not, I'll bet a lot of sites will offer a "Call our 800 number to order with no net tax" option, which means they will most likely add a mail order sales tax as well...
I think they should just tax the companies, as they already do, instead of adding a whole new type of tax. Why make the system even more complex? Plus, it's already expensive for small business to sell on the net, do they really want to make it moreso?
Josh Sisk
the original poster was talking about PHYSICALLY inspecting the items, which would be the only way to tell if it was illegal merchandise.
No, really, it's not. These auctions are obviously for copies of games. They say things like "backup version" and "you are bidding on a cd-r". So Yahoo could tell just from the description these are illegal items.
I mean, if someone had an auction for "One Hundred Pounds of Bolivian Heroin" would you expect Yahoo to PHYSICALLY inspect the heroin to make sure it was real, before ending the auction?
Josh Sisk
Actually, from what the article said, it seems like they alerted Yahoo to the sale of illegal and infringing items and Yahoo did nothing about them. The article implies this happened many times, not just once or twice.
The companies see how easy it is for eBay to stop these types of auctions and won't stand for Yahoo just ignoring them. And eBay does... A friend of mine was selling Rare CDs, still in the shrink wrap, with cd-rs of the same cds (so that you wouldn't have to open the shrink wrap) and they cancelled his auctions, even though he was selling the cd-r with the original cd. So eBay manages to keep on top of illegal auctions pretty well and the game companies expect Yahoo to the same.
There really is no confusion here- the companies are well within their rights to try and put a stop to this. I mean, I don't really think they care that much about the high school kids who copy each other's games (not to mention those sort of "pirates" are impossible to catch), but if you are copying someone else's work and selling it... That's just wrong.
josh sisk
He purchased an Internet appliance that comes with its own connectivity arrangement. He knew when he bought it that he was buying an ISP subscription. He's just bitter because the ISP subscription used to begin the moment the device was connected and dialed up. He was counting on the fact that since he was going to scrap the OS first, that he wouldn't even have to begin the ISP service and wouldn't have to pay the charges.
Actually, from what the article says, he bought it as a gift for his brother and asked the i-opener salesperson if he could buy it on his card, then have his brother sign up for the service on his own.
"I called netpliance to verify that I could order the unit on my card, without service, and that my brother could subsequently sign up for services on his card. they said sure, no problem."
The problem here is that, if i-opener was going to charge his card for the service, they should have told him. In fact, by law, they HAD to tell him. But they told him that they were not going to. Then they did. He is completely within his rights, and the law, to contest those charges. It's the same thing as if he bought it as a store, saw the receipt for $100 and then discovered on his monthly statement that they charged him more. It is not allowed.
What does this mean for Apple? Lots of Mac users will buy PCs and get MacOS for it. Apple won't be able to sell enough Macs anymore and they'll go bankrut ...
I sincerely doubt Apple will go bankrupt any time soon. I also doubt that they will sell MacOS for PCs, but wouldn't it be great if they did? So many people are getting fed up with Windoze, but are not technical enough to install or maintain Linux (like my parents). I'll bet Apple could actually bring this to market successfully... The only problem is, as someone pointed out, Apple likes the fact its a company with "Magic" and "Myth" and don't wanna water that down... oh well.
Josh Sisk
The U overreacted, as Us often do. Many people posting talking about THEFT and STEALING seem to be as well. From what I've read of this, the students did not have ethernet in their room and were allowed & encouraged to use the port... It's just that the port was downstairs. So this was not a matter of avoiding a fee. A 300 foot Ethernet Cable cost them more than $24
This is just a misuse of a dorm privilage and should have been handled as such: the same as filling up the floor fridge with all of your food, staying on the hall phone for 6 hours, or some such nonsense. The RAs or Dorm Manager should have given them a stern talking to, with no publicity, no black mark on records, etc... It would be different, perhaps, if they had been forbidden to use the port entirely, but they were not..
This should have been handled by the dorm, but was mostly likely blown out of proportion because everything that has to do with the internet is blown out of proportion lately.
Josh Sisk
I just picked one up.. It's great! Better than my ($400) Panasonic in every respect... AND it has DTS and Zoom (a feature I'll never use, but cool to have anyway). It's more responsive as well, with a better remote. Not to mention all the loopholes. No jukebox lightshow when playing music, though... That would have been perfection. I'm selling my old one and keeping this one, definitely.
One question, though... it has a PAL/NTSC switching function. I imagine it's wishful thinking that this allows you to watch PAL discs on a NTSC TV? I don't have any PAL discs, so I can't verify this.
Josh Sisk
MS is not going to be competing against the hardcore gamer market with this thing... So it doesn't matter if its specs are outdated by the time of it's release. The X-Box is going to be a combo WebTV/cheap PC/DVD player.
Think about it- They already have MSN. With their capitol, they can get MSN ready for broadband in 18 months. They sell these things at a cut rate compared to the PS2 and Dolphin, take a loss on the hardware, hook a few million parents into buying it for their kids, then MS gets that $30 a month access fee for the new MSN ASDL Service. Not to mention $10 a month for their new online game, Asheron's Call X. I'll bet MS even gives discounts on the x-box if you agree to sign up for "MSN-ADSL". Get the parents in a 2 or 3 year contract, who cares if the system is cutting edge or not?
The games really don't matter... As long as they have a lot of ports and a lot of "Wal-Mart" style cheap games, the parents will be happy. For, say, $200 they bought their kid a dvd player that plays some games and lets them get on the net and keeps them from messing up Dad's computer... This is the market MS is aiming for with the X-Box, and I'm sure they will succeed. I sincerely doubt it will affect any of us, or hurt quality game development in any way.
X-Box is going to be the AOL of game consoles... A lot of people will have it, but the people who are "in the know" will look down on it and the really cool stuff will happen elsewhere.
Josh Sisk
Between this MP3 thievery and "cracking" copy-protected software to release it under the "GPL" (at least it's not "shareware", where the crackers want you to pay them),
For gods sake! Home many times does this have to be explained? The GPL is a licensing structure that is used by CREATORS of ORIGINAL software, who wish for their software to be free. It has NOTHING to do with cracked, copyrighted software.
So, for example, if I wrote a program to keep track of my record collection and wanted other people to use it, I could release it to the internet as GPL software. Then others would be free to use my source code, to improve the program. (Which is a good thing because I am not a good programmer)
Shareware is NOT someone cracking software and then charging for it. It is when I write my record collection organizer, and allow people to download it, with a warning that says "If you use this software, send me $5, if you don't you can't use it". True, this involves an honor system, but, hey- I wrote the program for myself, if even one person sends me the $5 thats more than I would have made had I not made it shareware.
Please, people, before you flame the evil GPL crackers, do a little research and realize GPL and cracking are completely unrelated.
[shrug] Somebody claimed that they distributed cracked software, a.k.a. "GPL" or "freeware", on their site.
GPL means GNU General Public License. If software is written under this license it is freely distributable. It is not cracked. Free ware is a term that means software that is available for free, with no charge. It is also not cracked. Cracked software is commercial software that has been illegally modified to no longer have copy protection, or demo software that has been modified to function as it was a full version. GPL and Freeware do not fall under the catagory "cracked".
If the black market has reduced the market value of music to the point where musicians must give away their work for free, I would hardly say that mp3.com should be applauded for doing the damage.
Most of the MP3s that are being traded in the "black market" are ones my famous major label acts. These acts still sell their cds by the millions, so I don't think music has been "devalued" just yet. The acts on MP3.com are generally unknown, unsigned acts. My friend has made his music available on MP3.com, under the name Amphibian, simply so that others can hear his music. To him music is a hobby he doesn't expect to get paid for. The internet allows him to reach a much larger potential number of people than he could by playing his songs to people who come over to his house. Many other bands have similar ideas about uploading their songs to MP3.com, or they feel that maybe if someone hears one song of their CD, then thet\y might buy the whole thing. This has been going on for years, in the form of cd and tapes of lesser-known bands included with CMJ and other music magazines. The internet is just a better channel for distribution, that's all. It's not like these musicians are worthless because of mp3 technology. Some of the music on mp3.com may be worthless with or without mp3s, but thats beside the point...
And, yes, this domain name squatting is reprehesible, but a lot of companies use reprehensible business tactics. I'm not defending them, either- it is our duty to call them on it when we discover it and I'm glad the got caught. I just am trying to point out the misunderstandings about "freeware" software and the devaluation of the music market.
josh
I notice that you also mention that they distribute "freeware", a.k.a. cracked ("GPL") software. This also is theft, and if it's worth downloading, even your pathetic low-quality excuse doesn't wash.
Actually, as anyone who has been using the internet for any length of time at all knows, freeware means software that the creator(s) have allowed to be distributed for free. Internet Explorer and Netscape Comminicator are both examples of freeware, as is most MP3 players, all available for download at MP3.com. Considering the fact that MP3.com is a public company, who has a vested interest in keeping their stock price high, I really doubt they would ever distribute "cracked" software on their site.
Stealing bad music is still theft. BZZZT. Thanks for playing.
It seems like you aren't very knowledgable about which you speak. All mp3s on MP3.com are their because the artist put them there for people to download. Most of these artists are unknown and willing to give away music in the hopes people will like it and buy their album. How is this stealing?
It appears to me that you have committed multiple felonies. Are you quite sure that you should be discussing this in public?
You should ask yourself this question next time you post, if you don't want to come off looking like a fool. Oh wait... you posted anonymously. I guess you must have had your lack of knowledge pointed out to you before...
The thing about the x-box, graphics-wise, is that its going to be running NVidia's next generation technology... One imagines this will equal (at least) the upcoming 3dfx cards, which are said to perform significantly better than the PS2 (in numbers at least). Also, the x-box is coming out a year after the PS2. In general, newer consoles have better graphics. So I don't doubt the x-box will look better than the PS2. Of course, this means the DOlphin probably will as well. I do doubt MicroSoft's ability to put out a stable platform... still, who knows?
An opening gaming standard? Hmm. I don't know if that's such a good idea... The cool thing about all the different consoles is they have different "personalities"... And little things that look and act different on each one. I'm all for the companies having open source and maybe even open development, but if all games worked on all consoles, what would be the difference between them? You would end up with several consoles that had the exact same features and there would be no incentive to add new features. No to mention, if you added a new feature to your console, games using that feature would then be unplayable on the other consoles... Which means... it's not a universal standard after all. I think it would also lead to the same "backwards-compatiblity limiting forward progress" that exists in the PC market. Just some thoughts.
>>Yes but can your DVD player outperform all PC's on the market like the PSX2 does? No, but it (the Apex 600) can ignore regional coding on DVDs.. something the PS2 cannot. Also, several sites have reported playback issues with DVDs on the PS2... Hopefully this will be fixed by the American rollout. I don't care, I already have 2 dvd players... I will be buying a PS2 but for games only... Not because I think it's going to be as amazing as the hype (it's not) but because, darn it, it's a game system and I should have all of them.
Actually, if you have a decent job with benefits, you don't have to pay anything, or at least not much.
Josh Sisk