I use gnutella and other peer-to-peer systems to distribute many homemade mp3s that I compose, perform, and record myself. I am not a member of the RIAA. On my peer-to-peer systems I don't serve a single mp3 that is under the authority of the RIAA.
If I see any evidence that the RIAA is disrupting my ability to distribute my own songs, they are going to be bitch-slapped with a lawsuit so quickly...
The problem is in striking the perfect balance between the two--and this is something that may never be found. This goverment is about always tweaking to provide for the times. Look at amendments to the constitution, that allows for the goverment to make a small change that was not anticipated at the signing in 1787 without having to trash the whole thing every few years.
I could see a scenario where pubilc libraries could be charged a small license fee for each patron that views an eBook (or other electronic recording, such as music or movie). being a public service, patrons wouldn't be responsible for the charges, the city would. This would put an economic strain on many already suffering library systems.
Furthermore, libraries might then be forced into paying for a license for only popular works. For example, a mass distributor could license Steven King or an Encyclopedia for 10 cents per viewing, while the small-press distributor with a more obscure sci-fi book or specific non-fiction book would cost 20 cents. Libraries would be more likely to cary only what's popular. What's missing then?
This is especially sad when it comes to the children's department. When I was a kid I learned what makes up the world from books in the library. The first book I can remember picking up was a computer book when I was 10. If that book hadn't been in the library, I probably wouldn't be a highly skilled software engineer right now. I feel bad for children that might face a library with a very limited book selection.
The problem of course lies in the flawed Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which (thanks to millions of dollars worth of lobbyting power) confuses copyright with copyprotection.
Knee-jerk/.'ers, ask yourself: Once you've realized what a cool thing this is, and understand that hard work went into making it happen, are you then going to demand they make it "Open" and "Free" and not patent it, because Patents Are Bad and Sharing Intellectual Property is the Right of All Mankind? Or will you realize that they have a right to benefit from their hard work and wish them luck?
Good post. I agree with you, and naturally disagree with the "we must share all advances for the good of the people" attitude. Communism isn't counter-culture, anti-establishment, nor is it cool. It just plain sucks.
Interesting that you automatically assumed that I was implying windows. I actually work with Solaris 60% of the time, 20% windows and 20% linux. Regardless, it would be pointless and retarded for me to argue performance, latency and resource hogging since all comparisons are subjective to individual projects. Which was exactly my point to begin with -- that often you have to look well beyond performance to the point of even making sacrifices in a business environment.
i.e.: I would like to use the linux RPM system for software deployment, but need to make a rational decision to go with the standard Solaris Package system since my 20 system admins refuse to learn anything new. Again, these are real world realities beyond the academic/hobbyist/startup environment.
As a systems architect at a very large (non dot-com company I might add), when considering platforms and technology for adoption, speed of certain aspects of an os are usually pretty low on my list of priorities. Tops are:
- Available human resources: do we have developers that know x technology. If not, how available are they?
- Business: are there any benefits to adopting a certain technology, such as existing or potential partnerships? i.e.: existing support contracts, brand name recognition
- Liability: is there someone to blame when things go wrong? (like it or not)
- Scalability: can the adoption of a technology come with a guarantee that some aspect of performance doesn't hit a brick wall?
Musicians and record labels have had a good run, but perhaps it's time to give up. With few exceptions, I don't think any popular major-label musician is talented enough to earn what they make from their music. The money they make is a result of the recording industry's ability to promote.
Consider the hundreds of thousands of musical artists that aren't signed to a major label. What separates them from their signed counterparts? Promotion. The money the signed artists receive isn't based on their talent, but their management's ability to drive up demand for their art through many marketing techniques. Of course one entity controlling both the supply and demand of something is a dangerous situation.
I wonder some times if the RIAA is really afraid of peer-to-peer file sharing, or something deeper. It may be that they're not just losing their ability to control the supply, but losing control of demand as well. When I found songs I likes on Napster, I would always view other songs that that user was sharing, and inevitably find more songs I liked. In many cases these songs were not artists under RIAA-member managers. Could this be what RIAA is afraid of?
A publisher might allow you to download a copy of a book that would only work for the two day period after the download. This would allow you to sample the book before buying a 'full rights' version.
/sarcasm on/
yeah, that sure worked for divx (divx as in the failed dvd rental biz, not the streaming video codec)
i wouldn't mind this either, as long as the web designer made it clear that i was reading an ad page.. that way you can just click right through imediately. of course it's going to really suck when they realize they can use javascript to delay the display of the 'continue to the content' link by x amount of seconds..
too much time is being spent thinking about the technical aspects of enforcement and use of 'backdoors'. what everyone's failing to realize is that the technical aspects of crypto laws are irrelevent. it's how they will be used htat's important. if any cyrpto laws are passed, they'll be used in prosecution and trial rather than proactively enforced.
picture this scenario: you are a criminal who has been sending encrypted mesages to someone else. you're busted, and on trial you are asked to decrypt the messages. you refuse. you are then thrown in jail for not complying with the crypto laws.
again, i'm not a lawyer, but it seems that if crypto laws will work in this manner, we are throwing away our 5th ammendment right to refuse to incriminate ourself.
Microsoft Research should be figuring out how to improve the performance of NT's Microkernel architecture, improve virtual memory management on multi-media machines and a host of other useful technologies. But they don't. Go figure.
It's not very surprising that they're not tinking with the kernel too much, since 80% of today's applications are bottlenecked by slow hardware 80% of the time.
Has anyone thought of filing a complaint with the MPAA's ISP, and telling them you have found evidence that there are copyrighted materials being pirated from their IP address? Create a dinky little mp3 song, then send a screenshoot of a text-based gnutella session saying it's being offered on x.x.x.x. Hell, why even stop at MPAA.. How would WB feel if they were down for a week? Or Disney? Or your congressman's web site?
Then you'd get a ticket or even arrested for tamering with law enforcment equipment. Or worse yet, get busted under the DCMA for circumventing encrypted copyrighted data (since I'm sure they've copyrighted the GPS streams from the satalites..)
If it took a minute for your car to start, and car manufacturers had the ability to display a "Welcome to Toyota.. car initializing" message on your display (er, windshield), they would. Hell, they'd probably sell advertising space. (Shit, I should patent that)
If audio can be converted into an analog stream (i.e. sound) that we can hear, it can be caputured...
Although one form of protection being considered is encryption to the presentation device (with audio meaning the speakers, with video the actual monitor). For example: the secure stream is sent directly across the USB bus to the speaker.
A few thoughts come to mind:
would I own the hardware, or just have it as a temporary license
will tampering with the hardware violate livensing agreements?
anyone know how much of a hard drive hog this thing is going to be
Does it really matter any more? With affordable hard drives available in th 25-75gig range, it really wouldn't even matter if the icons are 128x128, 24 bit uncompressed animated tiffs..
Slashdot Mirror
Oh look -- another witty joke about a hypothetical future product running windows crashing. How original.
I use gnutella and other peer-to-peer systems to distribute many homemade mp3s that I compose, perform, and record myself. I am not a member of the RIAA. On my peer-to-peer systems I don't serve a single mp3 that is under the authority of the RIAA.
If I see any evidence that the RIAA is disrupting my ability to distribute my own songs, they are going to be bitch-slapped with a lawsuit so quickly...
it would probably take a few million dollars to spend on lobbyists.
agreed. good post.
I could see a scenario where pubilc libraries could be charged a small license fee for each patron that views an eBook (or other electronic recording, such as music or movie). being a public service, patrons wouldn't be responsible for the charges, the city would. This would put an economic strain on many already suffering library systems.
Furthermore, libraries might then be forced into paying for a license for only popular works. For example, a mass distributor could license Steven King or an Encyclopedia for 10 cents per viewing, while the small-press distributor with a more obscure sci-fi book or specific non-fiction book would cost 20 cents. Libraries would be more likely to cary only what's popular. What's missing then?
This is especially sad when it comes to the children's department. When I was a kid I learned what makes up the world from books in the library. The first book I can remember picking up was a computer book when I was 10. If that book hadn't been in the library, I probably wouldn't be a highly skilled software engineer right now. I feel bad for children that might face a library with a very limited book selection.
The problem of course lies in the flawed Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which (thanks to millions of dollars worth of lobbyting power) confuses copyright with copyprotection.
Good post. I agree with you, and naturally disagree with the "we must share all advances for the good of the people" attitude. Communism isn't counter-culture, anti-establishment, nor is it cool. It just plain sucks.
Interesting that you automatically assumed that I was implying windows. I actually work with Solaris 60% of the time, 20% windows and 20% linux. Regardless, it would be pointless and retarded for me to argue performance, latency and resource hogging since all comparisons are subjective to individual projects. Which was exactly my point to begin with -- that often you have to look well beyond performance to the point of even making sacrifices in a business environment.
i.e.: I would like to use the linux RPM system for software deployment, but need to make a rational decision to go with the standard Solaris Package system since my 20 system admins refuse to learn anything new. Again, these are real world realities beyond the academic/hobbyist/startup environment.
that's what they teach the stockholders.
As a systems architect at a very large (non dot-com company I might add), when considering platforms and technology for adoption, speed of certain aspects of an os are usually pretty low on my list of priorities. Tops are:
- Available human resources: do we have developers that know x technology. If not, how available are they?
- Business: are there any benefits to adopting a certain technology, such as existing or potential partnerships? i.e.: existing support contracts, brand name recognition
- Liability: is there someone to blame when things go wrong? (like it or not)
- Scalability: can the adoption of a technology come with a guarantee that some aspect of performance doesn't hit a brick wall?
Among others.
Musicians and record labels have had a good run, but perhaps it's time to give up. With few exceptions, I don't think any popular major-label musician is talented enough to earn what they make from their music. The money they make is a result of the recording industry's ability to promote.
Consider the hundreds of thousands of musical artists that aren't signed to a major label. What separates them from their signed counterparts? Promotion. The money the signed artists receive isn't based on their talent, but their management's ability to drive up demand for their art through many marketing techniques. Of course one entity controlling both the supply and demand of something is a dangerous situation.
I wonder some times if the RIAA is really afraid of peer-to-peer file sharing, or something deeper. It may be that they're not just losing their ability to control the supply, but losing control of demand as well. When I found songs I likes on Napster, I would always view other songs that that user was sharing, and inevitably find more songs I liked. In many cases these songs were not artists under RIAA-member managers. Could this be what RIAA is afraid of?
/sarcasm on/
yeah, that sure worked for divx (divx as in the failed dvd rental biz, not the streaming video codec)
i wouldn't mind this either, as long as the web designer made it clear that i was reading an ad page.. that way you can just click right through imediately. of course it's going to really suck when they realize they can use javascript to delay the display of the 'continue to the content' link by x amount of seconds..
first, i'm not a lawyer.
too much time is being spent thinking about the technical aspects of enforcement and use of 'backdoors'. what everyone's failing to realize is that the technical aspects of crypto laws are irrelevent. it's how they will be used htat's important. if any cyrpto laws are passed, they'll be used in prosecution and trial rather than proactively enforced.
picture this scenario: you are a criminal who has been sending encrypted mesages to someone else. you're busted, and on trial you are asked to decrypt the messages. you refuse. you are then thrown in jail for not complying with the crypto laws.
again, i'm not a lawyer, but it seems that if crypto laws will work in this manner, we are throwing away our 5th ammendment right to refuse to incriminate ourself.
It's good to see that the people at The Naked News have the good taste to suspend programming in light of today's tragedy.
It's not very surprising that they're not tinking with the kernel too much, since 80% of today's applications are bottlenecked by slow hardware 80% of the time.
Has anyone thought of filing a complaint with the MPAA's ISP, and telling them you have found evidence that there are copyrighted materials being pirated from their IP address? Create a dinky little mp3 song, then send a screenshoot of a text-based gnutella session saying it's being offered on x.x.x.x. Hell, why even stop at MPAA.. How would WB feel if they were down for a week? Or Disney? Or your congressman's web site?
Then you'd get a ticket or even arrested for tamering with law enforcment equipment. Or worse yet, get busted under the DCMA for circumventing encrypted copyrighted data (since I'm sure they've copyrighted the GPS streams from the satalites..)
If it took a minute for your car to start, and car manufacturers had the ability to display a "Welcome to Toyota.. car initializing" message on your display (er, windshield), they would. Hell, they'd probably sell advertising space. (Shit, I should patent that)
This kind of stuff annoys the hell out of me.
Which stuff annoys the hell out of you? The nazi stuff or the censorship stuff?
Dude, I haven't laughed at something on SlashDot in such a long time.. Thanks for restoring my faith in the humor of the people who hang here!
Although one form of protection being considered is encryption to the presentation device (with audio meaning the speakers, with video the actual monitor). For example: the secure stream is sent directly across the USB bus to the speaker.
A few thoughts come to mind:
- would I own the hardware, or just have it as a temporary license
- will tampering with the hardware violate livensing agreements?
- will tampering with the hardware violate DMCA?
- will linux drivers be available?
etc...anyone know how much of a hard drive hog this thing is going to be
Does it really matter any more? With affordable hard drives available in th 25-75gig range, it really wouldn't even matter if the icons are 128x128, 24 bit uncompressed animated tiffs..
as well as reaganomics