Instead of wasting time with lawyers, why don't they just come up with a complicated procedure for making links like the government does over at thomas.loc.gov? They could even leave out the instruction manual, making it technically difficult to the point where most people simply wouldn't bother and would instead link to a more user-friendly site...
Just what we need, more propaganda to sweep under the rug in 10 years with all the "We don't need a CLI!" and "Who needs more than one button?" nonsense. People who don't like Macs won't care about this, and people who do like Macs will feel smug for a little while until they too don't care. I guess I just don't see the need for all the back-patting anti-PC rhetoric.
I would like to see a pro-Mac book that actually addresses the shortcomings of Macs instead of pretending that they don't exist. Instead, we get David Pogue saying stuff like "Who needs to be able to encrypt files when your entire computer is password protected?" in his Mac OS X Missing Manual book. Why hasn't anyone addressed the spatial information deficiencies in Mac OS X? Why aren't there any articles about how horrible iPhoto really is (Apple's own discussion board on iPhoto is almost entirely composed of usability complaints, with no comments from Apple staff)?
It gets frustrating seeing the stupid "love it or leave it" mentality used to defend Macs in the absence of a critical but fair analysis of Apple's hardware and software. While I can't imagine using anything but a Mac as a general purpose computer, I don't see why Macs should be exempt from reality.
Why am I suddenly getting the image of George Lucas and Hilary Rosen on a date, discussing how to completely dominate the entertainment industry and control every possible use of the content they produce, complete with evil laughter, creepy background music, and a slow fade to black, followed by narration setting the scene for a rebellion against an all-powerful enemy? Will there be another Star Wars film contest next year?
I haven't gotten a reply yet that actually showed why the CIA needs to exist.
And you never will, because you don't have a need to know. That's the way things work in a representative government - we elect people to make decisions for us, including decisions about issues of national security that are too sensitive to release to the general public. The only way you will ever get proof that the CIA needs to exist is if you get rid of it and bad things happen more frequently. Instead of saying "I don't see why the CIA should exist," you should express your concerns (from an objective viewpoint) to your elected representatives. There's a lot going on in the world that you don't know about, so you really aren't in a position to call for the CIA to be disbanded. If you are concerned that your elected representatives can't be trusted to make responsible decisions, then that is where you should focus.
Using bait cars that can be disabled remotely to catch car thieves is nothing new - video from these cars has been on many of the countless police videos shows that were big before the more recent "reality" shows. The new thing is the use of GPS to track the cars, eliminating the need to keep police officers sitting around watching the car. This frees them up for other things while the car thieves still get caught.
"Even if the pages no longer exist on XS4ALL sites, we want the search engines to remove the link because it still advertises a handbook for destruction. People will start looking for it elsewhere and we don't want that,"
Right, some links on a few search engines are better advertising than numerous news articles describing exactly what the blocked pages contain...
"There is no chance to sue them in the U.S. You are really allowed to put anything on the Internet there,"
Yeah, instructions on hacking railway systems are ok, but you'd better not post instructions describing how to open legally purchased documents "protected" by some form of "encryption."
The commercial offers a free "Sundown" MP3 download on the company's Web site and urges viewers to burn it onto a CD or load it into an MP3 player.
And Hilary Rosen says this:
The Gateway commercial is fun, but their Web site is nothing but a gateway to misinformation,
Now, I'm just a well-educated engineer, but to me, it would seem that Gateway's web site is a gateway to legally downloadable free music. What illogic does it take to see otherwise? Rosen continues:
No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent all digital copying.'
No, just all digital copying not specifically blessed by Ms. Rosen/Fritz Hollings/etc. Some people don't like the idea of being told that they can't copy music they created or others have made freely available.
If Gateway truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they'd be working with us to find a solution to the piracy problem,
Well, either they don't believe that illegal copying hurts the music industry, or they see their efforts to promote music that can be distributed freely as a solution to the "piracy problem," making restricted works less appealing for download (and less likely to be purchased). The "my way or the highway" attitude isn't very polite.
the RIAA has energized its campaign in Congress with a letter to the House Judiciary Committee requesting that legislators further address widespread digital piracy.
Ok, one letter in favor of the Hollings bill, thousands and thousands opposed. That'll win 'em over...
The letter claims piracy has caused "serious damage to those who make and market music."
Right, and the solution is to cause serious damage to those who make and market music without giving over control to the RIAA. Does the RIAA expect us to believe that the RIAA is the only source of music in the world? Or that nobody in the entire world WANTS their music distributed freely? Does anyone even still believe that the issue is piracy and not control over the music industry? Can Ms. Rosen make it any more obvious?
After some intelligent comments, Yankee Group media and entertainment analyst Ryan Jones produced this gem:
Certainly, digital media has hurt the record industry, there's no doubt about that.
Yup, no doubt that digital media is bad for the record industry, those DIGITAL CDs aren't generating any revenue, and nobody would buy a CD when they can hunt around online for songs of questionable quality. And VCRs have killed the movie industry, the internet has killed the publishing industry, etc. Damn technology, why can't you be profitable!
But who knows whether it was the economy, the fact that they weren't putting out hit records, or whether it really was digital downloads," Jones said.
Wow, ya think the lack of hit records and a downswinging economy could hurt record sales? No, couldn't be, people always put crappy music ahead of food and utilities...
The moderators around here never cease to amaze me...
FACT: Even before all of this, Yahoo's site was covered with randomly placed ads and their e-mail accounts attracted spam.
FACT: Yahoo has been cutting off basic features that made their services worth using.
FACT: Yahoo recently changed their privacy policy, requiring users to opt out to prevent from being signed up for special interest spam and having their phone numbers and mailing addresses sold to marketers.
FACT: A lot of people are pissed off at Yahoo as a result.
CONCLUSION: Either Yahoo is run by morons, or they don't want people to use their services. If you have another opinion, why don't you enlighten us with your infinite wisdom?
p.s. you can access a yahoo email account through POP access to pop.mail.yahoo.com, although I hear they plan to change this shortly. Yahoo email addresses get hit by so much spam it's ridiculous.
"Effective April 24, 2002, Yahoo! Mail will no longer provide free POP3 Access or Auto Mail Forwarding to Yahoo! Delivers subscribers."
p.p.s. Yahoo webspaces is (or was, last time I checked) available at ftp.geocities.com, for full FTP access.
"Beginning April 2, 2002, we will no longer provide FTP access as part of our free home page service."
Yahoo was one of the first big companies on the web, and gave out free email, clubs, and chatrooms before most of us even knew what they were. Yahoo may not be the same now, but let's not forget their place in the history of the internet.
Yeah, Yahoo should be history after this...
"We have reset your marketing preferences and, unless you decide to change these preferences, you may begin receiving marketing messages from Yahoo! about ways to enhance your Yahoo! experience, including special offers and new features."
Users have 60 days to go to a page on Yahoo's Web site where they can record a choice not to receive telephone, postal or e-mail messages in various categories.
I did this the day the article ran here, and the amount of spam has been increasing steadily. It was at about 100 total messages since Yahoo pissed on its users as of a couple days ago (the previous spam rate was about one or two per day). So what happens to the people who don't opt out in 60 days? Do they get even more spam? Or is that what they're saving the phone numbers for?
Let's review. With a Yahoo account you get:
Some web space with no FTP access.
An e-mail account that can't be forwarded and can't be accessed except through the web.
A privacy policy that changes whenever they need more money from advertising.
Lots of ads plastered all over their site, with no logical pattern
And lots more useless crap!
Oh well, I didn't need to actually use that account anyway. I'm just going to let the spam pile up until the mail quota is filled (that should take another month or so, maybe less).
What, you expect Hilary Rosen to make sense? Now, unless the commercial I saw last night is atypical of the ad campaign, Gateway is promoting the legal downloading (and subsequent fair use) of music. The more legal copies people make, the less time they have to make illegal copies, helping to "stop illegal downloading," while also helping Gateway to sell more CD burners. Of course, then people will be listening to (and buying) less of the RIAA's music, so I can understand why Ms. Rosen would be upset. Too bad she can't just admit that competition and control over the legal use of content are the real issues here and not the piracy smokescreen she keeps trying to push...
How did the entertainment industry become so powerful? Of everything we buy, entertainment content is the easiest to go without, but certain people in Congress seem to think that it is absolutely essential. The entertainment cartels raise prices, decrease quality, decrease functionality, and then buy laws to boost profits when people stop buying their products. The illegal drug market seems consumer-friendly by comparison.
I can't stand most of the crap out there, so I don't buy it. I don't buy CDs or DVDs anymore, I don't go out to movies or rent them, I don't buy pay-per-view or subscribe to premium cable channels, etc. (and I don't download any of this stuff either). Instead of producing something I would want to buy, the companies that produce this junk complain about piracy, as if I would even take their crap for free. Unfortunately, they have the money and power to make it more difficult to avoid their products (and avoid paying for them).
Despite all of this, I'm not too worried about the future described in the article. It's not that I don't see it as being likely, I just don't see it being impossible to avoid. If I don't pay today's prices for music, I won't pay high subscription fees. If web sites start charging more than they're worth, I'll go elsewhere or just go without. I base my purchasing decisions on quality, and that won't change with electronic services.
Of course, I have one secret weapon to fall back on if I have to abandon all else. Over the past few years, I have accumulated hundreds of books, at an average price of about 5 cents each. When all else fails, I'll just sit down and read (well, read more actually). And yes, Fahrenheit 451 is in there...
I think the best argument they have going for them is that extending the copyright of already created works cannot possibly meet the constitutional requirement that copyright law "promote the progress of science and useful arts".
You're wrong - a person whose father's works entered the public domain (thus cutting off the son's meal ticket) could be inspired to develop a time machine so he could go back and warn his father of the dangers of insufficient copyright terms...
Preserving access to works that would otherwise disappear -- not enter the public domain but disappear -- "promotes Progress" as surely as does stimulating the creation of new works.
This is exactly why we need reasonable copyright terms - so works will enter the public domain before they disappear. Oh, wait, this was arguing against reasonable copyright terms, nevermind...
Now you have "Content Monitors" and you can be sure the regular librarians don't want to have any extra duties. So you have to hire more staff, where does the money come from?
Like it takes extra staff to notice half a dozen kids huddled around a computer screen giggling uncontrollably and mumbling things like "boobies!" every few seconds. Besides, I'm sure if the signs said something like "If you see someone viewing inappropriate material, report this to a staff member," there would be plenty of "concerned parents" monitoring content themselves. After all, if they're concerned enough to try to force their ideals on the rest of us, they should be able to look around when their kids are in the library, right?
Uh, Wesly Crusher couldn't time travel. The 'Traveler' from 'Tau-Alpha-C' could. Did he teach Wes the trick when he helped rescue Bev from the static warp bubble? I must've missed an ep somewhere.
If there are two things you can always count on in Star Trek, they would have to be guest appearances by characters from previous Star Trek shows and time travel. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to see an episode of Enterprise where we learn that Wesley picked up Kes from Voyager and settled down on a remote planet in the Enterprise timeline, only to be called back into action when Khan wakes up sooner than he was supposed to and starts wreaking havoc with the space-time continuum, or some such nonsense.
So now analog should be illegal? I believe audio gurus will still tell you that analog can be better in quality compared to digital. I am not saying digital is bad, as I prefer it, but I know many people who would not want to give up analog audio.
No, analog output will be made illegal, because anyone who wants to actually use the things they buy must be an evil hacker pirate. If it is made available in analog form at any point before it enters your brain, it can be copied, so the obvious solution is not to allow any analog output, thus closing Hollings's "Analog hole." This of course will cause a demand for neural interface devices, which will come with a nifty feature that observes your entertainment habits, suggests content to purchase, and "encourages" you to buy it. Unfortunately, Microsoft will produce the code, and the 2037 "Heart Attack-ack-ack-ack" virus will wipe out about one third of the population of the developed world.
When the new line of G4s came out, I picked up a refurb dual 800 from Smalldog. The first thing I wanted to do was try out X, so once I had it set up, I started it up, selected the X system folder, restarted, and was greeted with a kernel panic. After a few dozen more kernel panics, I called AppleCare and went through the same procedures I had already tried, and they suggested that I take it in for servicing. Figuring that a place called "The Apple Store" would be able to take care of everything, that's where I went.
This was my first trip to an Apple store, and it seemed strange being in such a bright, clean, and open environment inside a mall. I dropped off the G4 in the back and then spent a couple hours with a tech there trying to isolate the problem. One thing I noticed during this visit was that they aren't allowed to do anything inside the computer unless it is officially in for repair. This is probably a good thing, but it was strange hearing "Well, I can show you where the CUDA button is, but I can't push it." Once the possibility of a software problem was eliminated (kind of obvious when you wipe the drive and install from their discs, without success), I had them take it into a back room for servicing, thinking that they could do whatever was necessary.
I was wrong. After over 2 weeks at the Apple Store, they couldn't get it working and suggested replacement as the only option. It turns out that the Apple Store can't do AppleCare replacements - I had to take the system back from Apple in order to give it back to Apple. Ok, the stores are new, so they're probably still testing them out. So I called AppleCare to arrange for a replacement, only to find out that I couldn't do that either - since I bought it through Smalldog, I had to have them go through AppleCare for me (even though I had an Apple warranty). And so it continues...
Now I was back dealing with Smalldog. They couldn't understand Apple's policies either, but at least they wanted to get me a working machine as soon as possible. As luck would have it, they just got a few new dual 800s in stock when I needed a replacement. The price was $200 more than my refurb was, but I could have it sent to me right away. After over a month and a half, I may soon have a working system.
When this story comes to an end and I have X running happily, I will be commenting about my experiences to Apple. My G4 has spent more time in the back seat of my car than all passengers combined, and I still haven't seen what X looks like. In the end I had to rely on a third party despite having an Apple warranty, going to an Apple store, and calling Apple for support on an Apple product. This doesn't seem right.
I see bad things happening with this levy. The higher it gets, the more people will be driven to copy. "Well, I already paid a lot of money for copying music when I backed up my 80GB hard drive, so I might as well copy a few hundred CDs to make up for it." As more people are aware of their right to copy and have an increased desire to make use of it, sales will go down, and there will be proposals for higher rates. Just take a look at the tables on the FAQ page: the rate for CD-Rs was 5.2 cents in 1999-2000, 21 cents in 2000-2001, and is proposed to increase to 59 cents in 2003. Additionally, the scope has broadened from tapes and CDs to DVDs, flash cards, and hard drive based portable audio players. It's almost as if the levy is designed to encourage copying so a higher levy can be proposed...
The computer whiz then asked the court to identify the plaintiff in the case. Ware explained that the United States was the plaintiff, and was represented by assistant U.S. attorney Ross Nadel. Heckenkamp said he wanted to subpoena Nadel's "client" to appear in court, and Ware asked him who, exactly, he wanted to bring into the courtroom.
When Heckenkamp replied, "The United States of America," Ware ordered him taken into custody.
...
Heckenkamp's father, Thomas Heckenkamp, said his son is only trying to protect his rights . "They've overstepped their bounds, and they're keeping him from defending himself," he said.
Right, it's the court keeping this moron from defending himself...
Peter Chernin, president of the News Corporation (news/quote), which owns 20th Century Fox, said in an interview that "without copyright protection we will change our business models and the loser will be the public,"
This is from the company that brought us a boxing match between Tonya Harding and Paula Jones, Temptation Island, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, The Chamber, and loads of other worthless trash, while at the same time doing a poor job of promoting Futurama and Family Guy (and a poor job in general with The Tick). Since when is changing this business model a bad thing? The public is already a loser, it can't get much worse.
Other nice quotes:
"I believe if you say to these people, `You get us a system by Dec. 31 or we'll do it for you,' you'll be surprised at how innovative they'll become," Mr. Eisner told the lawmakers at last month's hearing.
Oh yeah, this really makes Eisner look like the good guy...
Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina and chairman of the Commerce Committee, says that without technological safeguards Hollywood may never offer the kind of high-quality programming for digital television and broadband Internet services that would generate consumer interest and, in turn, economic growth.
Real "high-quality programming" comes from intelligent and creative writing, good acting, and management that lets these things happen - until that happens, it won't matter how many lines the video image has if they are all lines of crap.
"Unfortunately in many cases, fear is paralyzing Hollywood's ability to seize what I believe is an incredible opportunity," said Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer. "We at Apple believe most people want to be honest, and if offered reasonable choices, most people will choose to buy their content."
You know things are bad when Steve Jobs is the least insane person in the room...
A family friend had their Mobil Speedpass stolen last week. It was to their keyring, and they had taken it in to the dealership to have the car serviced. The wife dropped the car off in the morning. She was trying to remove the little speedpass but had a hard time doing so. Since she believed it to be a fairly reputable establishment (one of the only luxury car dealers in town), she thought it'd be safe with the keys.
So many problems here... I didn't think there were people out there who actually handed over the entire keyring when taking a car in to be serviced. No reputable dealership or garage should accept anything more than the key, which should be fairly easy to remove. Also, I don't know about their Speedpass, but mine came with its own little ring to make it easy to remove, and a couple months ago I was sent a couple of little clips to make it even easier to remove (the clips were accompanied by a suggestion to never give someone your Speedpass with your keys).
As for toll-paying devices, it's a bit tough to rack up huge charges with those things unless you live near some really expensive bridges or something (McDonalds doesn't accept them yet, but I'm sure they're working on it). It's still a good idea to remove them, but unless it takes you a long time to notice that there are two empty velcro strips on the inside of your windshield, a thief isn't going to get much (as in less than $5) in exchange for risking the loss of a job and criminal charges (especially considering that to use them you have to go through a tollbooth that probably has a camera that can take a picture of the license plate of someone trying to use a stolen tag).
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of wasting time with lawyers, why don't they just come up with a complicated procedure for making links like the government does over at thomas.loc.gov? They could even leave out the instruction manual, making it technically difficult to the point where most people simply wouldn't bother and would instead link to a more user-friendly site...
I would like to see a pro-Mac book that actually addresses the shortcomings of Macs instead of pretending that they don't exist. Instead, we get David Pogue saying stuff like "Who needs to be able to encrypt files when your entire computer is password protected?" in his Mac OS X Missing Manual book. Why hasn't anyone addressed the spatial information deficiencies in Mac OS X? Why aren't there any articles about how horrible iPhoto really is (Apple's own discussion board on iPhoto is almost entirely composed of usability complaints, with no comments from Apple staff)?
It gets frustrating seeing the stupid "love it or leave it" mentality used to defend Macs in the absence of a critical but fair analysis of Apple's hardware and software. While I can't imagine using anything but a Mac as a general purpose computer, I don't see why Macs should be exempt from reality.
Why am I suddenly getting the image of George Lucas and Hilary Rosen on a date, discussing how to completely dominate the entertainment industry and control every possible use of the content they produce, complete with evil laughter, creepy background music, and a slow fade to black, followed by narration setting the scene for a rebellion against an all-powerful enemy? Will there be another Star Wars film contest next year?
And you never will, because you don't have a need to know. That's the way things work in a representative government - we elect people to make decisions for us, including decisions about issues of national security that are too sensitive to release to the general public. The only way you will ever get proof that the CIA needs to exist is if you get rid of it and bad things happen more frequently. Instead of saying "I don't see why the CIA should exist," you should express your concerns (from an objective viewpoint) to your elected representatives. There's a lot going on in the world that you don't know about, so you really aren't in a position to call for the CIA to be disbanded. If you are concerned that your elected representatives can't be trusted to make responsible decisions, then that is where you should focus.
Using bait cars that can be disabled remotely to catch car thieves is nothing new - video from these cars has been on many of the countless police videos shows that were big before the more recent "reality" shows. The new thing is the use of GPS to track the cars, eliminating the need to keep police officers sitting around watching the car. This frees them up for other things while the car thieves still get caught.
Right, some links on a few search engines are better advertising than numerous news articles describing exactly what the blocked pages contain...
"There is no chance to sue them in the U.S. You are really allowed to put anything on the Internet there,"
Yeah, instructions on hacking railway systems are ok, but you'd better not post instructions describing how to open legally purchased documents "protected" by some form of "encryption."
The commercial offers a free "Sundown" MP3 download on the company's Web site and urges viewers to burn it onto a CD or load it into an MP3 player.
And Hilary Rosen says this:
The Gateway commercial is fun, but their Web site is nothing but a gateway to misinformation,
Now, I'm just a well-educated engineer, but to me, it would seem that Gateway's web site is a gateway to legally downloadable free music. What illogic does it take to see otherwise? Rosen continues:
No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent all digital copying.'
No, just all digital copying not specifically blessed by Ms. Rosen/Fritz Hollings/etc. Some people don't like the idea of being told that they can't copy music they created or others have made freely available.
If Gateway truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they'd be working with us to find a solution to the piracy problem,
Well, either they don't believe that illegal copying hurts the music industry, or they see their efforts to promote music that can be distributed freely as a solution to the "piracy problem," making restricted works less appealing for download (and less likely to be purchased). The "my way or the highway" attitude isn't very polite.
the RIAA has energized its campaign in Congress with a letter to the House Judiciary Committee requesting that legislators further address widespread digital piracy.
Ok, one letter in favor of the Hollings bill, thousands and thousands opposed. That'll win 'em over...
The letter claims piracy has caused "serious damage to those who make and market music."
Right, and the solution is to cause serious damage to those who make and market music without giving over control to the RIAA. Does the RIAA expect us to believe that the RIAA is the only source of music in the world? Or that nobody in the entire world WANTS their music distributed freely? Does anyone even still believe that the issue is piracy and not control over the music industry? Can Ms. Rosen make it any more obvious?
After some intelligent comments, Yankee Group media and entertainment analyst Ryan Jones produced this gem:
Certainly, digital media has hurt the record industry, there's no doubt about that.
Yup, no doubt that digital media is bad for the record industry, those DIGITAL CDs aren't generating any revenue, and nobody would buy a CD when they can hunt around online for songs of questionable quality. And VCRs have killed the movie industry, the internet has killed the publishing industry, etc. Damn technology, why can't you be profitable!
But who knows whether it was the economy, the fact that they weren't putting out hit records, or whether it really was digital downloads," Jones said.
Wow, ya think the lack of hit records and a downswinging economy could hurt record sales? No, couldn't be, people always put crappy music ahead of food and utilities...
FACT: Even before all of this, Yahoo's site was covered with randomly placed ads and their e-mail accounts attracted spam.
FACT: Yahoo has been cutting off basic features that made their services worth using.
FACT: Yahoo recently changed their privacy policy, requiring users to opt out to prevent from being signed up for special interest spam and having their phone numbers and mailing addresses sold to marketers.
FACT: A lot of people are pissed off at Yahoo as a result.
CONCLUSION: Either Yahoo is run by morons, or they don't want people to use their services. If you have another opinion, why don't you enlighten us with your infinite wisdom?
"Effective April 24, 2002, Yahoo! Mail will no longer provide free POP3 Access or Auto Mail Forwarding to Yahoo! Delivers subscribers."
p.p.s. Yahoo webspaces is (or was, last time I checked) available at ftp.geocities.com, for full FTP access.
"Beginning April 2, 2002, we will no longer provide FTP access as part of our free home page service."
Yahoo was one of the first big companies on the web, and gave out free email, clubs, and chatrooms before most of us even knew what they were. Yahoo may not be the same now, but let's not forget their place in the history of the internet.
Yeah, Yahoo should be history after this...
"We have reset your marketing preferences and, unless you decide to change these preferences, you may begin receiving marketing messages from Yahoo! about ways to enhance your Yahoo! experience, including special offers and new features."
Users have 60 days to go to a page on Yahoo's Web site where they can record a choice not to receive telephone, postal or e-mail messages in various categories.
I did this the day the article ran here, and the amount of spam has been increasing steadily. It was at about 100 total messages since Yahoo pissed on its users as of a couple days ago (the previous spam rate was about one or two per day). So what happens to the people who don't opt out in 60 days? Do they get even more spam? Or is that what they're saving the phone numbers for?
Let's review. With a Yahoo account you get:
- Some web space with no FTP access.
- An e-mail account that can't be forwarded and can't be accessed except through the web.
- A privacy policy that changes whenever they need more money from advertising.
- Lots of ads plastered all over their site, with no logical pattern
And lots more useless crap!Oh well, I didn't need to actually use that account anyway. I'm just going to let the spam pile up until the mail quota is filled (that should take another month or so, maybe less).
What, you expect Hilary Rosen to make sense? Now, unless the commercial I saw last night is atypical of the ad campaign, Gateway is promoting the legal downloading (and subsequent fair use) of music. The more legal copies people make, the less time they have to make illegal copies, helping to "stop illegal downloading," while also helping Gateway to sell more CD burners. Of course, then people will be listening to (and buying) less of the RIAA's music, so I can understand why Ms. Rosen would be upset. Too bad she can't just admit that competition and control over the legal use of content are the real issues here and not the piracy smokescreen she keeps trying to push...
I can't stand most of the crap out there, so I don't buy it. I don't buy CDs or DVDs anymore, I don't go out to movies or rent them, I don't buy pay-per-view or subscribe to premium cable channels, etc. (and I don't download any of this stuff either). Instead of producing something I would want to buy, the companies that produce this junk complain about piracy, as if I would even take their crap for free. Unfortunately, they have the money and power to make it more difficult to avoid their products (and avoid paying for them).
Despite all of this, I'm not too worried about the future described in the article. It's not that I don't see it as being likely, I just don't see it being impossible to avoid. If I don't pay today's prices for music, I won't pay high subscription fees. If web sites start charging more than they're worth, I'll go elsewhere or just go without. I base my purchasing decisions on quality, and that won't change with electronic services.
Of course, I have one secret weapon to fall back on if I have to abandon all else. Over the past few years, I have accumulated hundreds of books, at an average price of about 5 cents each. When all else fails, I'll just sit down and read (well, read more actually). And yes, Fahrenheit 451 is in there...
You're wrong - a person whose father's works entered the public domain (thus cutting off the son's meal ticket) could be inspired to develop a time machine so he could go back and warn his father of the dangers of insufficient copyright terms...
This is exactly why we need reasonable copyright terms - so works will enter the public domain before they disappear. Oh, wait, this was arguing against reasonable copyright terms, nevermind...
Like it takes extra staff to notice half a dozen kids huddled around a computer screen giggling uncontrollably and mumbling things like "boobies!" every few seconds. Besides, I'm sure if the signs said something like "If you see someone viewing inappropriate material, report this to a staff member," there would be plenty of "concerned parents" monitoring content themselves. After all, if they're concerned enough to try to force their ideals on the rest of us, they should be able to look around when their kids are in the library, right?
Wrong, correct, no, yes.
Journey's End
And in Star Trek, anyone can time travel...
Who do you think wakes up Khan?
And, for that matter, what is Guynan doing right now, besides wearing Hobbit feet at the Oscars?
Someone has to go fetch Wesley and convince him to save the galaxy, one more time...
If there are two things you can always count on in Star Trek, they would have to be guest appearances by characters from previous Star Trek shows and time travel. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to see an episode of Enterprise where we learn that Wesley picked up Kes from Voyager and settled down on a remote planet in the Enterprise timeline, only to be called back into action when Khan wakes up sooner than he was supposed to and starts wreaking havoc with the space-time continuum, or some such nonsense.
No, analog output will be made illegal, because anyone who wants to actually use the things they buy must be an evil hacker pirate. If it is made available in analog form at any point before it enters your brain, it can be copied, so the obvious solution is not to allow any analog output, thus closing Hollings's "Analog hole." This of course will cause a demand for neural interface devices, which will come with a nifty feature that observes your entertainment habits, suggests content to purchase, and "encourages" you to buy it. Unfortunately, Microsoft will produce the code, and the 2037 "Heart Attack-ack-ack-ack" virus will wipe out about one third of the population of the developed world.
This was my first trip to an Apple store, and it seemed strange being in such a bright, clean, and open environment inside a mall. I dropped off the G4 in the back and then spent a couple hours with a tech there trying to isolate the problem. One thing I noticed during this visit was that they aren't allowed to do anything inside the computer unless it is officially in for repair. This is probably a good thing, but it was strange hearing "Well, I can show you where the CUDA button is, but I can't push it." Once the possibility of a software problem was eliminated (kind of obvious when you wipe the drive and install from their discs, without success), I had them take it into a back room for servicing, thinking that they could do whatever was necessary.
I was wrong. After over 2 weeks at the Apple Store, they couldn't get it working and suggested replacement as the only option. It turns out that the Apple Store can't do AppleCare replacements - I had to take the system back from Apple in order to give it back to Apple. Ok, the stores are new, so they're probably still testing them out. So I called AppleCare to arrange for a replacement, only to find out that I couldn't do that either - since I bought it through Smalldog, I had to have them go through AppleCare for me (even though I had an Apple warranty). And so it continues...
Now I was back dealing with Smalldog. They couldn't understand Apple's policies either, but at least they wanted to get me a working machine as soon as possible. As luck would have it, they just got a few new dual 800s in stock when I needed a replacement. The price was $200 more than my refurb was, but I could have it sent to me right away. After over a month and a half, I may soon have a working system.
When this story comes to an end and I have X running happily, I will be commenting about my experiences to Apple. My G4 has spent more time in the back seat of my car than all passengers combined, and I still haven't seen what X looks like. In the end I had to rely on a third party despite having an Apple warranty, going to an Apple store, and calling Apple for support on an Apple product. This doesn't seem right.
I see bad things happening with this levy. The higher it gets, the more people will be driven to copy. "Well, I already paid a lot of money for copying music when I backed up my 80GB hard drive, so I might as well copy a few hundred CDs to make up for it." As more people are aware of their right to copy and have an increased desire to make use of it, sales will go down, and there will be proposals for higher rates. Just take a look at the tables on the FAQ page: the rate for CD-Rs was 5.2 cents in 1999-2000, 21 cents in 2000-2001, and is proposed to increase to 59 cents in 2003. Additionally, the scope has broadened from tapes and CDs to DVDs, flash cards, and hard drive based portable audio players. It's almost as if the levy is designed to encourage copying so a higher levy can be proposed...
You're off by a couple orders of magnitude there, the actual amount is .8 cents per megabyte.
When Heckenkamp replied, "The United States of America," Ware ordered him taken into custody.
...
Heckenkamp's father, Thomas Heckenkamp, said his son is only trying to protect his rights . "They've overstepped their bounds, and they're keeping him from defending himself," he said.
Right, it's the court keeping this moron from defending himself...
This is from the company that brought us a boxing match between Tonya Harding and Paula Jones, Temptation Island, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, The Chamber, and loads of other worthless trash, while at the same time doing a poor job of promoting Futurama and Family Guy (and a poor job in general with The Tick). Since when is changing this business model a bad thing? The public is already a loser, it can't get much worse.
Other nice quotes:
"I believe if you say to these people, `You get us a system by Dec. 31 or we'll do it for you,' you'll be surprised at how innovative they'll become," Mr. Eisner told the lawmakers at last month's hearing.
Oh yeah, this really makes Eisner look like the good guy...
Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina and chairman of the Commerce Committee, says that without technological safeguards Hollywood may never offer the kind of high-quality programming for digital television and broadband Internet services that would generate consumer interest and, in turn, economic growth.
Real "high-quality programming" comes from intelligent and creative writing, good acting, and management that lets these things happen - until that happens, it won't matter how many lines the video image has if they are all lines of crap.
"Unfortunately in many cases, fear is paralyzing Hollywood's ability to seize what I believe is an incredible opportunity," said Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer. "We at Apple believe most people want to be honest, and if offered reasonable choices, most people will choose to buy their content."
You know things are bad when Steve Jobs is the least insane person in the room...
So many problems here... I didn't think there were people out there who actually handed over the entire keyring when taking a car in to be serviced. No reputable dealership or garage should accept anything more than the key, which should be fairly easy to remove. Also, I don't know about their Speedpass, but mine came with its own little ring to make it easy to remove, and a couple months ago I was sent a couple of little clips to make it even easier to remove (the clips were accompanied by a suggestion to never give someone your Speedpass with your keys).
As for toll-paying devices, it's a bit tough to rack up huge charges with those things unless you live near some really expensive bridges or something (McDonalds doesn't accept them yet, but I'm sure they're working on it). It's still a good idea to remove them, but unless it takes you a long time to notice that there are two empty velcro strips on the inside of your windshield, a thief isn't going to get much (as in less than $5) in exchange for risking the loss of a job and criminal charges (especially considering that to use them you have to go through a tollbooth that probably has a camera that can take a picture of the license plate of someone trying to use a stolen tag).