It is possible that there are 3 Death Stars, but Lucas is committing himself to a definite timeline at the end of Ep3 with Luke going to Tatooine and Leah going to Alderaan. ANH starts with Luke being 19-21 years old (I use this age range because all of his friends have left and he is still stuck behind helping Uncle Owen run the farm. This means that the Empire only has 20 years to build the Death Star seen in ANH.
Darth Sidious received the plans for the Death Star in Ep2, and had an unfinished frame built by the end of Ep3. Given the time frame (5 to 10 years at most?) between Ep2 and Ep3, it is very possible that we are seeing a prototype if Sidious was able to get that far with the Death Star while having to hide the funding and manpower from the Senate, why would it take 20 years to finish the thing once he had absolute power? The destruction of Alderaan was the first public demonstration of the Death Star, but I'm sure it had been tested before it was unveiled.
If there were 3, then Tarkin was involved with the first 2 because we see him at the end of Ep3 with Vader and Sidious looking at the construction of the first Death Star.
My Nephew (4 yrs old) is Autistic, and was tested for Aspergers, so I have some insight here.
It is not just "in his head" because what he is saying is he had to actually train himself to do what most people learn naturally. He then makes a conscious effort to make sure he is picks up social clues and responds accordingly. This takes work, and I'm sure there are times when it gets tiring, but the result is that instead of being a lonely misfit, he has a life. Make no mistake, his successful social life is the results of a lot of hard work.
No choice either, there are no $1 or $2 bills anymore.
That's about the only way a dollar coin will work in the U.S. As long as the $1 is available, it will be used instead of whatever dollar coin comes out. I'm not so sure about the $2 bill since it has never been that popular, but I don't imagine that it will suddenly become more popular that a $1 coin.
I'm not sure how this would be done now, but the RIAA would have had a much easier time of accomplishing this if they had attempted to be "the good guys" instead of becoming the "Evil Recording Industry" and alienating their customers with their rhetoric and lawsuits.
If the RIAA (and by RIAA, in most cases I mean the labels themselves) would have made the effort to
1. Address customer concerns about how much Artists get by implementing a blanket change of contract giving the Artists a bigger cut of the pie. This could have been done without seriously hurting the label's bottom line while creating goodwill between the Labels, Artists, and Customers.
2. Create easy to use, customer friendly, DRM free, music sites. The sites could have been sponsored by the then existing music stores, and could have even had store outlets for those with slow connections (we are talking back in the days of the original Napster here).
3. Work with Napster 1 to turn it into a legal sharing site.
4. Use (then RIAA president) Hilary Rosen's (then) good relationship with college students back in the days of Rock the Vote (this was before the RIAA became a "four letter word") and get the word out the labels are attempting change, but customers need to support the artists with their purchases.
If done right, the RIAA could have come across as "good guys" that are interested in their Artists and Customers while still making a nice profit. We could have had a much better 2005 than we do now.
The RIAA chose to take the low road, and now we have angry customers, a P2P war, DRM, and lawsuits that just serve to make things worse. On top of it all, we have crappy laws like the DMCA, and Artists are still being screwed by the Labels.
The solution is for that jackass to stop being a jackass, and then we won't need DRM.
From what I have read, the reason that programs like Hymn and PyMusique are popular is that removing the DRM makes it easier to use the purchased music for everyday fair use, not to put on P2P.
Although I personally think $0.99 is a little steep for a song at the quality that iTunes is offering it, the success of iTunes shows that people are willing to purchase music at this price. Avoiding the DRM makes it an even better deal.
I know that this will not happen given the current mindset of the major labels, but I think it is time to get rid of DRM and offer songs for download in different formats. They can vary the cost depending on the quality of the track (more for lossless formats, less for lossy formats). Music on the current P2P networks may be free as in beer, but there is a cost in time and effort. I may have been easier to go this route in the days of the original Napster instead of taking the route they did, but if they make DRM free services with a low enough cost and enough depth of catalog (think a U.S. version of allofmp3.com), it would fly.
There would most likely still be "Jackasses" out there, but they would be of minor consequence. Unfortunately, the RIAA is too busy being a jackass themselves to think outside their little box.
I do tend to buy the CDs, but not because of the service agreement, but because I can rip them into the format I want without any transcoding losses. Unfortunately, DRM is starting to creep into CDs as well. This gives me a couple of choices:
1. Live with the DRM and abide by their "rules"
2. Find a way (either through software or patch cables) to bypass the DRM and create the rips I want.
3. Go through a service such as iTunes and live their rules (as you said), or use a program such as Pymusique or jhymn to bypass the DRM (and ignore the service agreement)
4. Live without RIAA music and either go without any new music, or look for artists that want you to listen to their music.
Given the quality of most of the RIAA's offering these days, it has been real easy to go with option number 4. It has actually been fun looking for new music this way. You can (legally) download the mp3s, listen to them, and decide if the songs are worth keeping. If so, buying the CD is usally easy to do, and often costs less than the prices that the RIAA charges. The best part is that the artist gets to keep most (if not all) of the money, and the RIAA gets squat.
The problem with DRM is that even if it is "innocuous", it still restricts what I can do with something that I purchased. If I spend $0.99 for a song, I want to be able to be able to listen to it from any of the computers I use or in the car (all legal uses) without having to jump through hoops. Now, I have the technical knowledge to work around the DRM, but one shouldn't need to be technically savy just to fairly use a purchase.
In Kentucky, it is a "you say tom-ay-to, I say tom-ah-to" type situation. Mail order and Internet order items are exempt from the 6% sales tax, but are subject to a 6% "use tax" instead. There is a place on the on the Kentucky Income Tax form to fill in the amount of use tax owed. Many other states have the same law.
As for tobacco, we are on the other end of the Tax spectrum. The State Tobacco tax is currently 3.5 cents per pack (the Governor wants to raise it, but thats another story). Needless to say, there are many stores at the state line that sell many cartons of cigarettes to people from out of state. I'm sure that Internet sales are strong, too. The only better deal is found on Indian Reservations, which are exempt from State tax.
No, I'm being serious. If she had any estate of any value, even just a house worth say $50,000 - $100,000 - a claim can be made against the estate. There is a period of time after the death that any claims can be made (usually medical bills, etc.). Once that time period has past, the no claims can be made. That's why lawyers often get involved with Estates, especially if the person that died was well off (and a paid-off house, even if it is of modest value, is worth protecting).
Once the claim is made, the Estate can not be settled until it is settled, even if it takes several years. IMHO, her Daughter was wise respond to the RIAA, otherwise things could end up getting ugly.
My guess is she was probably responsible for taking care her Mom's estate. Not responding to the RIAA would just make things more difficult. She would have to make sure the Estate was represented in court. Worse case scenario, they sue the Estate and end up taking everything (if she had anything left) that should have gone to her family.
I think it would be more like the speed limit law, especially since using "illegal" software would be less noticed then any of those "crimes". It is much easier for the Police to catch someone visiting a prostitute or buying a little pot than for them to catch someone downloading "illegal" software off of some foreign web site. (Yes, it is possible, but you are looking at an effort equal to the "great firewall of China" to attempt to Police this).
Yes, there would be some people who will not use the software because it is "illegal", and there will be some who use it with the intent of making TV programs available on the net, but most people who use the software will just use it because it is convenient and gives them more control over their time.
This is funny, but I don't think I have ever seen a (widely available) version of the "at the curb" or "by the front door" mailbox that had a slot where the mail carrier could put the mail in, but requires a key or combo to retrieve the mail.
The only times I have seen locks on personal mailboxes is at the post office or a "Mailboxes Etc." type place. I have also seen mail slots in doors where the mail drops into a bin or onto the floor inside the house.
Your average, everyday mailbox (at least here in the U.S.) is accessable to everyone. You could put a lock on it, but then...(see the above post)
I imagine auto makers will never have to face this -- the automakers have enough clout in Washington and the "primary purpose" of a vehicle is transportation.
On the other hand, I can see this happening to Gun Makers, and perhaps down the line, fast food Restaurants. Tobacco companies have already been hit with this kind of liability, although the settlements were not enough to totally bankrupt the companies and no one has been put in jail (yet). IMHO the only reason the gun industry hasn't been hit yet is that the NRA still has enough clout in Washington to keep the hammer from falling.
If they criminalize P2P development, they only thing that it will do is drive the development (or at least deployment) of these tools outside of the U.S.
Actually, Grandpa will get pissed, and not buy any more PPV events. I've known enough people (both older and my age) that have the opinion, if this doesn't work they way it is "supposed to" (in this case, Grandpa has recorded off of the cable since he had a VCR), and "they" won't fix it, then "they" won't get any more business from that person.
Moral bounds only work if a majority of the people in Society feel that they are fair, and people tend to ignore (as much as they can) what is unfair. The trend of people ignoring a law that they don't like has had several good examples in the 20th century.
In the 1920's, Prohibition was the law of the land, but many people actively iqnored the law and organized crime was able to flurish. In the 1970's and early 80's we had the national 55 MPH speed limit. Whole industries such as Radar Detectors and CB manufacturers benefited from that. Worse, the speed limit was largely ignored by a majority of the population and Cops would enforce it as they saw fit (some would let 65-70 slide, but others would ticket at 56). Reagan allowed 65 MPH in selected areas in 1986, and Clinton finally returned speed limits to the states in 1995. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by an additional amendment to the Constitution.
In both of these situations, ignoring or actively avoiding the law became the norm. Once one law is ignored, it is easier to ignore other laws. The War on some Drugs has just encourged this.
In the case of "Intellectual Property," you have 2 sides that are very far apart on what is moral and what is wrong. On one side, there are those who believe that any use of any IP without permission is a sin and a crime, and will go to any length to make sure this doesn't happen. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who feel any IP law is evil, or even doen't think of it as a moral issue at all -- it is just cool to see how much "warez" one can accumulate.
The only solution to this mess is to find some compromise that both IP creators, and IP users can live with. One hope is that open source will make this easier -- I used to pirate Microsoft Office on to my computers, but now I put Open Office on my machines.
The hardest part will be convincing IP makers that charging outragous prices, piling on the DRM, and sueing/putting potential customers in jail is stupid, while at the same time convincing IP users that reasonable copyright and reasonable prices for those who wish to sell their products is okay.
The hardest part will be fixing the supply side, there are too many leeches (such as the RIAA) to get rid of quickly. Any fix is going to be painful and take a lot of time, but if done right will be worth it in the end.
Hmm, so if we Americans started charging, say, a burglary tax to everyone we could not ever have to worry about going to jail for burglary. That sounds great, plea bargains before the act is even committed!
Hey, If the burglar comes in with a device that makes an identical copy of all my stuff, then leaves, how am I out anything (assuming we are just talking about "stuff", and not personal papers/documentation, etc.).
File copying (or Copyright Infringement) is not the same as buglary or theft. If I copy one of your CDs, you still have that CD. The only thing that is "taken" is the potential profit from that sale -- profit that won't been seen if I don't buy the CD AND don't copy it, or if I buy the CD used. I'm not saying Copyright Infringement isn't illegal under current law, but it isn't the same as theft or burglary, as much as the *AA's want it to be. Of course, if the Entertainment Industry gets its way, sharing a song will be a much worse "crime" than stealing the CD no matter on which side of the border (or pond) you are.
This thread may have not been on-topic in the strict sense of the word, but DMCA, Drug Law, current Copyright Law (other than DMCA), and current Patent law are all part of the same problem. The USA is currently in a political environment where the trend is to micro-manage people's lives as much as possible while ensuring big corporations can make as much money as possible.
Current Patent law makes it difficult, if not impossible for small businesses to defend against bad patents. Corporations use their patent portfolios to bully smaller companies, and agree to a "Patent Detante" with other bigger companies. The only thing that may change this behavior is the emergence of companies such as PanIP that produce nothing, but just live to collect on dubious patents. The fact that the Microsofts of the world are getting hit by these patent "Hit Men" may lead to changes.
Strict Drug laws only serve to make the Prison industry grow fatter. Non-violent Drug "offenders" not only cost Society when they are in Jail, but continue to cost Society when they cannot find good jobs due to a drug conviction.
DMCA and other copyright law only serve the current Corporate structure, while damaging our culture. If copyright law was rolled back, the media companies would be forced to innovate, and would actually be better off in the long run, while our culture would be better off.
I could go on, but the worse part about all this is that the US Government seems to think that the whole world should be under US type law. The changes coming to Australian copyright law is just one example. As far as Patents (to stay on topic), hopefully the EU will ultimately decide that software patents are crap and not allow them. I am not going to bet on that though..../end of rant
I think he is popular not only because he was on TNG, but he survived being a Child Actor and became a successful Geek. Not many child actors make it through without problems -- some get into trouble with drugs, others just never do well in adult life. There are other exceptions -- Shirley Temple and Ron Howard just to name two. At the other end of the spectrum you have Dana Plato and Jonathan Brandis (Lucas Wolenczak from SeaQuest) who are no longer around.
Wil, on the other hand, has ended up living a fairly normal life -- A Wife, Kids, a house, and well, a life.
They are almost there now. We already have stuff like the Dr Pepper play of the game, the seventh inning stretch brought to you by Viagra...etc. etc. We are not too far from the Pepsi Grand Slam, or as you said, drop the Grand Slam and keep the Pepsi.
That is a problem, and has been a problem for people I know who have moved to Louisville, KY. Even though Louisville does have quite a bit to do (Theatre, Arts, Churchill Downs, the Riverbats, etc.), it still isn't the same to someone who is used to a city the size of New York or L.A.
On the other hand, if you are into outdoor activities and don't care if about not having access to Broadway, a place like Louisville has a lot better cost of living.
There are also places like Southern Illinois, where any sort of business would be welcome. Right now the biggest employers are Southern Illinois University (if you are lucky enough to be in Carbondale, the Federal Prison in Marion (Pete Rose got to stay there for awhile), State Prisons, and the Casino boat in Metropolis. A call center could create a lot jobs, plus for those forced to relocate, St. Louis is only a couple hours away, and Chicago is 5 or 6 hours up I-57.
I assume you mean GE food, unless you buy your food from Pontiac....
Actually, this is great. I don't think I would want to pay $3500 for a Kitty since I'm not allergic to them (plus I already have 4 standard Kitties), but what I would really like to see is a cat or dog that lives 30 - 40 years (quality years, without getting old). The hardest part of having a pet is having to say goodbye after 10-15 years for a dog, 12-20 years for a cat.
It would be worth the extra cost for an (almost) lifetime pet.
(Cut to parade floats collapsing to reveal tanks; cut to Lenin's tomb where his corpse rises)
Okay, time to go to bed. I had a mental picture in my head of the scene in Animal House where Belushi cuts the rope and the Cake float splits to reveal their car which sort of looks like a tank...
More on topic, it looks like the technology divisions of Sony are starting to feel the loss of profits caused by Sony Entertainment their buddies (i.e. RIAA/MPAA equivalent in Japan). This could get interesting -- perhaps the tail will stop wagging the dog...at least one can hope.
Slashdot Mirror
It is possible that there are 3 Death Stars, but Lucas is committing himself to a definite timeline at the end of Ep3 with Luke going to Tatooine and Leah going to Alderaan. ANH starts with Luke being 19-21 years old (I use this age range because all of his friends have left and he is still stuck behind helping Uncle Owen run the farm. This means that the Empire only has 20 years to build the Death Star seen in ANH.
Darth Sidious received the plans for the Death Star in Ep2, and had an unfinished frame built by the end of Ep3. Given the time frame (5 to 10 years at most?) between Ep2 and Ep3, it is very possible that we are seeing a prototype if Sidious was able to get that far with the Death Star while having to hide the funding and manpower from the Senate, why would it take 20 years to finish the thing once he had absolute power? The destruction of Alderaan was the first public demonstration of the Death Star, but I'm sure it had been tested before it was unveiled.
If there were 3, then Tarkin was involved with the first 2 because we see him at the end of Ep3 with Vader and Sidious looking at the construction of the first Death Star.
My Nephew (4 yrs old) is Autistic, and was tested for Aspergers, so I have some insight here.
It is not just "in his head" because what he is saying is he had to actually train himself to do what most people learn naturally. He then makes a conscious effort to make sure he is picks up social clues and responds accordingly. This takes work, and I'm sure there are times when it gets tiring, but the result is that instead of being a lonely misfit, he has a life. Make no mistake, his successful social life is the results of a lot of hard work.
No choice either, there are no $1 or $2 bills anymore.
That's about the only way a dollar coin will work in the U.S. As long as the $1 is available, it will be used instead of whatever dollar coin comes out. I'm not so sure about the $2 bill since it has never been that popular, but I don't imagine that it will suddenly become more popular that a $1 coin.
I'm not sure how this would be done now, but the RIAA would have had a much easier time of accomplishing this if they had attempted to be "the good guys" instead of becoming the "Evil Recording Industry" and alienating their customers with their rhetoric and lawsuits.
If the RIAA (and by RIAA, in most cases I mean the labels themselves) would have made the effort to
1. Address customer concerns about how much Artists get by implementing a blanket change of contract giving the Artists a bigger cut of the pie. This could have been done without seriously hurting the label's bottom line while creating goodwill between the Labels, Artists, and Customers.
2. Create easy to use, customer friendly, DRM free, music sites. The sites could have been sponsored by the then existing music stores, and could have even had store outlets for those with slow connections (we are talking back in the days of the original Napster here).
3. Work with Napster 1 to turn it into a legal sharing site.
4. Use (then RIAA president) Hilary Rosen's (then) good relationship with college students back in the days of Rock the Vote (this was before the RIAA became a "four letter word") and get the word out the labels are attempting change, but customers need to support the artists with their purchases.
If done right, the RIAA could have come across as "good guys" that are interested in their Artists and Customers while still making a nice profit. We could have had a much better 2005 than we do now.
The RIAA chose to take the low road, and now we have angry customers, a P2P war, DRM, and lawsuits that just serve to make things worse. On top of it all, we have crappy laws like the DMCA, and Artists are still being screwed by the Labels.
The solution is for that jackass to stop being a jackass, and then we won't need DRM.
From what I have read, the reason that programs like Hymn and PyMusique are popular is that removing the DRM makes it easier to use the purchased music for everyday fair use, not to put on P2P.
Although I personally think $0.99 is a little steep for a song at the quality that iTunes is offering it, the success of iTunes shows that people are willing to purchase music at this price. Avoiding the DRM makes it an even better deal.
I know that this will not happen given the current mindset of the major labels, but I think it is time to get rid of DRM and offer songs for download in different formats. They can vary the cost depending on the quality of the track (more for lossless formats, less for lossy formats). Music on the current P2P networks may be free as in beer, but there is a cost in time and effort. I may have been easier to go this route in the days of the original Napster instead of taking the route they did, but if they make DRM free services with a low enough cost and enough depth of catalog (think a U.S. version of allofmp3.com), it would fly.
There would most likely still be "Jackasses" out there, but they would be of minor consequence. Unfortunately, the RIAA is too busy being a jackass themselves to think outside their little box.
I do tend to buy the CDs, but not because of the service agreement, but because I can rip them into the format I want without any transcoding losses. Unfortunately, DRM is starting to creep into CDs as well. This gives me a couple of choices:
1. Live with the DRM and abide by their "rules"
2. Find a way (either through software or patch cables) to bypass the DRM and create the rips I want.
3. Go through a service such as iTunes and live their rules (as you said), or use a program such as Pymusique or jhymn to bypass the DRM (and ignore the service agreement)
4. Live without RIAA music and either go without any new music, or look for artists that want you to listen to their music.
Given the quality of most of the RIAA's offering these days, it has been real easy to go with option number 4. It has actually been fun looking for new music this way. You can (legally) download the mp3s, listen to them, and decide if the songs are worth keeping. If so, buying the CD is usally easy to do, and often costs less than the prices that the RIAA charges. The best part is that the artist gets to keep most (if not all) of the money, and the RIAA gets squat.
IMHO it is a win-win all around.
The problem with DRM is that even if it is "innocuous", it still restricts what I can do with something that I purchased. If I spend $0.99 for a song, I want to be able to be able to listen to it from any of the computers I use or in the car (all legal uses) without having to jump through hoops. Now, I have the technical knowledge to work around the DRM, but one shouldn't need to be technically savy just to fairly use a purchase.
In Kentucky, it is a "you say tom-ay-to, I say tom-ah-to" type situation. Mail order and Internet order items are exempt from the 6% sales tax, but are subject to a 6% "use tax" instead. There is a place on the on the Kentucky Income Tax form to fill in the amount of use tax owed. Many other states have the same law.
As for tobacco, we are on the other end of the Tax spectrum. The State Tobacco tax is currently 3.5 cents per pack (the Governor wants to raise it, but thats another story). Needless to say, there are many stores at the state line that sell many cartons of cigarettes to people from out of state. I'm sure that Internet sales are strong, too. The only better deal is found on Indian Reservations, which are exempt from State tax.
Once the claim is made, the Estate can not be settled until it is settled
Doh! Let me clarify that. The Estate cannot be settled (closed and inheritances made) until the claim is settled (either paid or dismissed).
No, I'm being serious. If she had any estate of any value, even just a house worth say $50,000 - $100,000 - a claim can be made against the estate. There is a period of time after the death that any claims can be made (usually medical bills, etc.). Once that time period has past, the no claims can be made. That's why lawyers often get involved with Estates, especially if the person that died was well off (and a paid-off house, even if it is of modest value, is worth protecting).
Once the claim is made, the Estate can not be settled until it is settled, even if it takes several years. IMHO, her Daughter was wise respond to the RIAA, otherwise things could end up getting ugly.
My guess is she was probably responsible for taking care her Mom's estate. Not responding to the RIAA would just make things more difficult. She would have to make sure the Estate was represented in court. Worse case scenario, they sue the Estate and end up taking everything (if she had anything left) that should have gone to her family.
I think it would be more like the speed limit law, especially since using "illegal" software would be less noticed then any of those "crimes". It is much easier for the Police to catch someone visiting a prostitute or buying a little pot than for them to catch someone downloading "illegal" software off of some foreign web site. (Yes, it is possible, but you are looking at an effort equal to the "great firewall of China" to attempt to Police this).
Yes, there would be some people who will not use the software because it is "illegal", and there will be some who use it with the intent of making TV programs available on the net, but most people who use the software will just use it because it is convenient and gives them more control over their time.
Red Hat hackers even have their own version of Linux :)
This is funny, but I don't think I have ever seen a (widely available) version of the "at the curb" or "by the front door" mailbox that had a slot where the mail carrier could put the mail in, but requires a key or combo to retrieve the mail.
The only times I have seen locks on personal mailboxes is at the post office or a "Mailboxes Etc." type place. I have also seen mail slots in doors where the mail drops into a bin or onto the floor inside the house.
Your average, everyday mailbox (at least here in the U.S.) is accessable to everyone. You could put a lock on it, but then...(see the above post)
I imagine auto makers will never have to face this -- the automakers have enough clout in Washington and the "primary purpose" of a vehicle is transportation.
On the other hand, I can see this happening to Gun Makers, and perhaps down the line, fast food Restaurants. Tobacco companies have already been hit with this kind of liability, although the settlements were not enough to totally bankrupt the companies and no one has been put in jail (yet). IMHO the only reason the gun industry hasn't been hit yet is that the NRA still has enough clout in Washington to keep the hammer from falling.
If they criminalize P2P development, they only thing that it will do is drive the development (or at least deployment) of these tools outside of the U.S.
Alcohol kills germs, hense all the beer and other (read stronger) drinks killed anything that might have killed us...
This Pizza box laptop case would be suspicious -- it looks to clean unless you added grease to the box.
Actually, Grandpa will get pissed, and not buy any more PPV events. I've known enough people (both older and my age) that have the opinion, if this doesn't work they way it is "supposed to" (in this case, Grandpa has recorded off of the cable since he had a VCR), and "they" won't fix it, then "they" won't get any more business from that person.
Moral bounds only work if a majority of the people in Society feel that they are fair, and people tend to ignore (as much as they can) what is unfair. The trend of people ignoring a law that they don't like has had several good examples in the 20th century.
In the 1920's, Prohibition was the law of the land, but many people actively iqnored the law and organized crime was able to flurish. In the 1970's and early 80's we had the national 55 MPH speed limit. Whole industries such as Radar Detectors and CB manufacturers benefited from that. Worse, the speed limit was largely ignored by a majority of the population and Cops would enforce it as they saw fit (some would let 65-70 slide, but others would ticket at 56). Reagan allowed 65 MPH in selected areas in 1986, and Clinton finally returned speed limits to the states in 1995. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by an additional amendment to the Constitution.
In both of these situations, ignoring or actively avoiding the law became the norm. Once one law is ignored, it is easier to ignore other laws. The War on some Drugs has just encourged this.
In the case of "Intellectual Property," you have 2 sides that are very far apart on what is moral and what is wrong. On one side, there are those who believe that any use of any IP without permission is a sin and a crime, and will go to any length to make sure this doesn't happen. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who feel any IP law is evil, or even doen't think of it as a moral issue at all -- it is just cool to see how much "warez" one can accumulate.
The only solution to this mess is to find some compromise that both IP creators, and IP users can live with. One hope is that open source will make this easier -- I used to pirate Microsoft Office on to my computers, but now I put Open Office on my machines.
The hardest part will be convincing IP makers that charging outragous prices, piling on the DRM, and sueing/putting potential customers in jail is stupid, while at the same time convincing IP users that reasonable copyright and reasonable prices for those who wish to sell their products is okay.
The hardest part will be fixing the supply side, there are too many leeches (such as the RIAA) to get rid of quickly. Any fix is going to be painful and take a lot of time, but if done right will be worth it in the end.
Hmm, so if we Americans started charging, say, a burglary tax to everyone we could not ever have to worry about going to jail for burglary. That sounds great, plea bargains before the act is even committed!
Hey, If the burglar comes in with a device that makes an identical copy of all my stuff, then leaves, how am I out anything (assuming we are just talking about "stuff", and not personal papers/documentation, etc.).
File copying (or Copyright Infringement) is not the same as buglary or theft. If I copy one of your CDs, you still have that CD. The only thing that is "taken" is the potential profit from that sale -- profit that won't been seen if I don't buy the CD AND don't copy it, or if I buy the CD used. I'm not saying Copyright Infringement isn't illegal under current law, but it isn't the same as theft or burglary, as much as the *AA's want it to be. Of course, if the Entertainment Industry gets its way, sharing a song will be a much worse "crime" than stealing the CD no matter on which side of the border (or pond) you are.
This thread may have not been on-topic in the strict sense of the word, but DMCA, Drug Law, current Copyright Law (other than DMCA), and current Patent law are all part of the same problem. The USA is currently in a political environment where the trend is to micro-manage people's lives as much as possible while ensuring big corporations can make as much money as possible.
/end of rant
Current Patent law makes it difficult, if not impossible for small businesses to defend against bad patents. Corporations use their patent portfolios to bully smaller companies, and agree to a "Patent Detante" with other bigger companies. The only thing that may change this behavior is the emergence of companies such as PanIP that produce nothing, but just live to collect on dubious patents. The fact that the Microsofts of the world are getting hit by these patent "Hit Men" may lead to changes.
Strict Drug laws only serve to make the Prison industry grow fatter. Non-violent Drug "offenders" not only cost Society when they are in Jail, but continue to cost Society when they cannot find good jobs due to a drug conviction.
DMCA and other copyright law only serve the current Corporate structure, while damaging our culture. If copyright law was rolled back, the media companies would be forced to innovate, and would actually be better off in the long run, while our culture would be better off.
I could go on, but the worse part about all this is that the US Government seems to think that the whole world should be under US type law. The changes coming to Australian copyright law is just one example. As far as Patents (to stay on topic), hopefully the EU will ultimately decide that software patents are crap and not allow them. I am not going to bet on that though....
I think he is popular not only because he was on TNG, but he survived being a Child Actor and became a successful Geek. Not many child actors make it through without problems -- some get into trouble with drugs, others just never do well in adult life. There are other exceptions -- Shirley Temple and Ron Howard just to name two. At the other end of the spectrum you have Dana Plato and Jonathan Brandis (Lucas Wolenczak from SeaQuest) who are no longer around.
Wil, on the other hand, has ended up living a fairly normal life -- A Wife, Kids, a house, and well, a life.
They are almost there now. We already have stuff like the Dr Pepper play of the game, the seventh inning stretch brought to you by Viagra...etc. etc. We are not too far from the Pepsi Grand Slam, or as you said, drop the Grand Slam and keep the Pepsi.
That is a problem, and has been a problem for people I know who have moved to Louisville, KY. Even though Louisville does have quite a bit to do (Theatre, Arts, Churchill Downs, the Riverbats, etc.), it still isn't the same to someone who is used to a city the size of New York or L.A.
On the other hand, if you are into outdoor activities and don't care if about not having access to Broadway, a place like Louisville has a lot better cost of living.
There are also places like Southern Illinois, where any sort of business would be welcome. Right now the biggest employers are Southern Illinois University (if you are lucky enough to be in Carbondale, the Federal Prison in Marion (Pete Rose got to stay there for awhile), State Prisons, and the Casino boat in Metropolis. A call center could create a lot jobs, plus for those forced to relocate, St. Louis is only a couple hours away, and Chicago is 5 or 6 hours up I-57.
I assume you mean GE food, unless you buy your food from Pontiac....
Actually, this is great. I don't think I would want to pay $3500 for a Kitty since I'm not allergic to them (plus I already have 4 standard Kitties), but what I would really like to see is a cat or dog that lives 30 - 40 years (quality years, without getting old). The hardest part of having a pet is having to say goodbye after 10-15 years for a dog, 12-20 years for a cat.
It would be worth the extra cost for an (almost) lifetime pet.
(Cut to parade floats collapsing to reveal tanks; cut to Lenin's tomb where
his corpse rises)
Okay, time to go to bed. I had a mental picture in my head of the scene in Animal House where Belushi cuts the rope and the Cake float splits to reveal their car which sort of looks like a tank...
More on topic, it looks like the technology divisions of Sony are starting to feel the loss of profits caused by Sony Entertainment their buddies (i.e. RIAA/MPAA equivalent in Japan). This could get interesting -- perhaps the tail will stop wagging the dog...at least one can hope.