Actually, the true test of that attitude will be when somebody actually publishes a crack that lets players save their games locally and never talk to EA.
If they go after that person, they'll either be forced to use the DMCA, which will amount to an admission that always-on IS a DRM scheme, or the lawyers will have to find some very creative grounds for suit.
I'm betting on the lawyers' creativity, to be honest.
Please consider. Hollywood tells you what you may do with your property. Where you may do it. How you may do it. When you may do it. For how long you may do it. And demands draconian punishments for what THEY judge as misbehavior.
People who do that to others have, historically, been addressed as "master."
Given Hollycrud's long history of treating us, their customers, as third-class citizens and only one step above either slaves or indentured servants, there has to be much more than ONE suit seeing the light and a long period of probation before I'll feel at all good about giving them so much as a dime for what little I choose to watch.
Turning customers off, driving them away, getting them into the habit of going elsewhere for whatever they're after is the REAL problem for any business.
EA's suffered from the common attitude of Corporate America: "We own our customers." SimCity 5 is a symptom, attitude is the cause.
I really don't understand why people were insane enough to buy SC5 in the first place, given EA's rep for crappy games and crappier treatment. You can live a couple of weeks without buying a luxury and thereby save yourself the trouble of demanding a refund or taking EA up on their "here's a crappy game to make up for the crappy game you bought" offer.
No. His publisher at the time, Baen Books, had, and still has as far as I know, an iron-bound reputation for dealing openly and fairly with authors.
I cannot verify this of my own knowledge, but the story as I have it from several people is that it was around the time of this exchange Mr. Stirling refused to finish a novel for which he had contracted, claiming to have severe carpal tunnel syndrome. He was unwise enough to mention the OTHER novel he was working on for a different publisher, and made the mention publicly on the Baen's Bar forum.
Mr. Baen took this... poorly. And the incident, when I found out about it, did not improve my opinion of the man.
1. The posting was not a paraphrase. It is word-for-word the contents of the emails.
2. I did not, then or ever, claim any right to download his books without paying for them.
3. At the time of the exchange, there were NO ebook editions of any of Stirling's works. My collection was all paper books, some of which, BTW, he had autographed at Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley during a signing tour.
4. I made NO demands on his behavior. It was his choice to be rude and contemptuous. "Not my circus, not my monkey."
5. I made a promise to myself when "Big deal..." arrived that I would never again support him by purchasing his books in any format, or doing scan-and-proof jobs on his OOP works so they could be reprinted, as I have done for other authors. I'm still keeping that promise.
But to some extent you're going to be forced to do it with any artist. They, like anybody, hold views we will agree with and views we won't.
I agree with that. I've had agreements and disagreements with a lot of authors without them dropping from my list of faves. John Brunner listened politely to me once when I pointed out that I felt that the major character in one of his novels was a flaming hypocrite. He didn't agree with my position, but, as I said, he was polite. Some of his works hold places of honor on my shelves to this day. And there are other examples I can cite.
But an artist who verbally bitch-slaps a fan for the sheer joy of it is poisoning his own well. As for the Emberverse, de gustibus non est disputandum.
"... separating the artist from the art" is excellent in theory, but a collapsium-plated bitch in practice.
I once had an email exchange with S. M. Stirling about piracy wherein the sequence went:
He: "The police should have the right to search everyone's hard drive over the net without a warrant and erase anything they deem suspicious. Anybody who objects to this is a thief or thief wannabe."
Me: "I object to that, and aren't you being rather harsh toward someone who has bought copies of everything you've ever written?"
He: "Big deal. All the royalties I've gotten from you wouldn't even take me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant."
I haven't been able to bring myself to read his stuff since, and the formerly-complete collection became pulp fiction.
As I said, separating the artist from the art sounds simple but isn't.
I tested the upgrade to 6 on an iTouch. Stanza blew out after the upgrade when I tried to change my settings, and locked up so hard I had to power down and up again to get the device back.
I'm in Stanza 90% of the time I'm using my phone and 100% when I'm using the pad. I will NOT upgrade to 6.anything until there's an official release of Stanza that is guaranteed compatible.
And options that blow out key components are WORSE than useless.
Superior right up until the point when an update breaks an application you consider critical to using the gadget and the owner of the program (in this case, Stanza) refuses to allow it to be updated because it's a hundred times better than his precious Kindle.
I'm now two revs behind iOS and don't give a damn.
You have to keep an eye on both the manufacturer *and* the companies that provide applications to make sure they're not letting nose-in-the-air corporate rah-rah get in the way of taking care of their customers.
I use a hearing aid, and it massively irritates the one working ear I have. But a non-surgical bone conduction hearing aid? One that might give me some semblance of binaural hearing without turning my ear canal into a mass of pain?
Where do I sign up and what percentage of my soul do they want?
Think about it a moment. The Hollywood... er... US Government seized all servers and data on a flimsy warrant and trumped-up charges, including the accusation that Megaupload had retained data on its servers even after takedown notice(s). It has since emerged that the government specifically requested that they leave those files up for "investigation." One guy trusted his business data and property to the service and he's *still* fighting to get it back, despite the fact that it was un-shared and 100% his own legal property.
Cloud services effectively died that day. Why trust any service when a third party can cut you off at any time from your own property without let or recourse?
I say that because, with the exception of Baen, publishers clearly still think of their customers as the faceless corptocracies of Wal-Mart, B&N(brick), etc.
I buy from both B&N and Harlequin because they offer easy-to-jailbreak ePubs. All I get back from them, however, are mass-marketing emails. You know the type. It's a big announcement of the new Stephen King, or the new Tom Clancy, or some other blockbuster-wannabe. It's almost gotten to the point where I'm going to blacklist the damned things.
In an age when databases are (almost) trivial to set up, nobody has yet figured out that readers want to know about books from authors they like. Right now, if I want to keep track of Dana Fredsti, or Lisa Shearin, or Katherine Garbera or... I have to search the sites for these authors individually, and do it regularly. That means an enormous investment of time I simply do not have. There is simply no notification service for Buy on Sight lists. Anywhere.
When I can go to B&N(web), or AMZN, or Haralequin and tell them "Notify me when 'Plague Nation' (or any Dana Fredsti) or 'Ready for Her Close-Up' (or any Katherine Garbera) or... [whoever/whatever] is ready for immediate purchase and download." THEN you'll know publishers have finally gotten serious about eBooks.
Slashdot Mirror
So we can deploy Particle Impactors ASAP.
Actually, the true test of that attitude will be when somebody actually publishes a crack that lets players save their games locally and never talk to EA.
If they go after that person, they'll either be forced to use the DMCA, which will amount to an admission that always-on IS a DRM scheme, or the lawyers will have to find some very creative grounds for suit.
I'm betting on the lawyers' creativity, to be honest.
Please consider. Hollywood tells you what you may do with your property. Where you may do it. How you may do it. When you may do it. For how long you may do it. And demands draconian punishments for what THEY judge as misbehavior.
People who do that to others have, historically, been addressed as "master."
Given Hollycrud's long history of treating us, their customers, as third-class citizens and only one step above either slaves or indentured servants, there has to be much more than ONE suit seeing the light and a long period of probation before I'll feel at all good about giving them so much as a dime for what little I choose to watch.
Turning customers off, driving them away, getting them into the habit of going elsewhere for whatever they're after is the REAL problem for any business.
EA's suffered from the common attitude of Corporate America: "We own our customers." SimCity 5 is a symptom, attitude is the cause.
I really don't understand why people were insane enough to buy SC5 in the first place, given EA's rep for crappy games and crappier treatment. You can live a couple of weeks without buying a luxury and thereby save yourself the trouble of demanding a refund or taking EA up on their "here's a crappy game to make up for the crappy game you bought" offer.
No. His publisher at the time, Baen Books, had, and still has as far as I know, an iron-bound reputation for dealing openly and fairly with authors.
I cannot verify this of my own knowledge, but the story as I have it from several people is that it was around the time of this exchange Mr. Stirling refused to finish a novel for which he had contracted, claiming to have severe carpal tunnel syndrome. He was unwise enough to mention the OTHER novel he was working on for a different publisher, and made the mention publicly on the Baen's Bar forum.
Mr. Baen took this ... poorly. And the incident, when I found out about it, did not improve my opinion of the man.
Politicians have had 100% skull replacement for centuries.
1. The posting was not a paraphrase. It is word-for-word the contents of the emails.
2. I did not, then or ever, claim any right to download his books without paying for them.
3. At the time of the exchange, there were NO ebook editions of any of Stirling's works. My collection was all paper books, some of which, BTW, he had autographed at Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley during a signing tour.
4. I made NO demands on his behavior. It was his choice to be rude and contemptuous. "Not my circus, not my monkey."
5. I made a promise to myself when "Big deal..." arrived that I would never again support him by purchasing his books in any format, or doing scan-and-proof jobs on his OOP works so they could be reprinted, as I have done for other authors. I'm still keeping that promise.
But to some extent you're going to be forced to do it with any artist. They, like anybody, hold views we will agree with and views we won't.
I agree with that. I've had agreements and disagreements with a lot of authors without them dropping from my list of faves. John Brunner listened politely to me once when I pointed out that I felt that the major character in one of his novels was a flaming hypocrite. He didn't agree with my position, but, as I said, he was polite. Some of his works hold places of honor on my shelves to this day. And there are other examples I can cite.
But an artist who verbally bitch-slaps a fan for the sheer joy of it is poisoning his own well. As for the Emberverse, de gustibus non est disputandum.
"... separating the artist from the art" is excellent in theory, but a collapsium-plated bitch in practice.
I once had an email exchange with S. M. Stirling about piracy wherein the sequence went:
He: "The police should have the right to search everyone's hard drive over the net without a warrant and erase anything they deem suspicious. Anybody who objects to this is a thief or thief wannabe."
Me: "I object to that, and aren't you being rather harsh toward someone who has bought copies of everything you've ever written?"
He: "Big deal. All the royalties I've gotten from you wouldn't even take me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant."
I haven't been able to bring myself to read his stuff since, and the formerly-complete collection became pulp fiction.
As I said, separating the artist from the art sounds simple but isn't.
This third one is just Van Ordinaire
I seem to recall that the complete genome was published a few years ago. I'll be in my sealed bunker.
I tested the upgrade to 6 on an iTouch. Stanza blew out after the upgrade when I tried to change my settings, and locked up so hard I had to power down and up again to get the device back.
I'm in Stanza 90% of the time I'm using my phone and 100% when I'm using the pad. I will NOT upgrade to 6.anything until there's an official release of Stanza that is guaranteed compatible.
And options that blow out key components are WORSE than useless.
You forget one thing: the carriers want to customize their brands so they can brand their customers.
It doesn't matter whether it's the flying-A, the rocking-S, or the lazy-V, they still want their cattle branded.
Superior right up until the point when an update breaks an application you consider critical to using the gadget and the owner of the program (in this case, Stanza) refuses to allow it to be updated because it's a hundred times better than his precious Kindle.
I'm now two revs behind iOS and don't give a damn.
You have to keep an eye on both the manufacturer *and* the companies that provide applications to make sure they're not letting nose-in-the-air corporate rah-rah get in the way of taking care of their customers.
"Cupertino seems disinclined to answer."
You expect gratitude from a CEO? You'll be expecting truth from politicians and charity from bankers next!
I use a hearing aid, and it massively irritates the one working ear I have. But a non-surgical bone conduction hearing aid? One that might give me some semblance of binaural hearing without turning my ear canal into a mass of pain?
Where do I sign up and what percentage of my soul do they want?
Think about it a moment. The Hollywood ... er ... US Government seized all servers and data on a flimsy warrant and trumped-up charges, including the accusation that Megaupload had retained data on its servers even after takedown notice(s). It has since emerged that the government specifically requested that they leave those files up for "investigation." One guy trusted his business data and property to the service and he's *still* fighting to get it back, despite the fact that it was un-shared and 100% his own legal property.
Cloud services effectively died that day. Why trust any service when a third party can cut you off at any time from your own property without let or recourse?
We'll be able to argue about whether Mickey shot first for decades!
Martin Gardner wrote a number of awesome mathematical short stories. His "No-sided Professor," "The Devil and Simon Flagg" and others remain classics.
Also, Raymond Smullyan's puzzle books can be seen as mathematical/logical "journeys" and you're invited to tag along.
Tried it out on a spare iTouch, given the history. Stanza showed how much it liked the change by locking up on display setting changes.
Yeah, yeah, I know, the Dread Pirate Bezos bought Stanza because it was a serious threat to his precious-piece-of-trash-kindle.
Phooey on Apple and Bezos both.
Just asking.
I say that because, with the exception of Baen, publishers clearly still think of their customers as the faceless corptocracies of Wal-Mart, B&N(brick), etc.
I buy from both B&N and Harlequin because they offer easy-to-jailbreak ePubs. All I get back from them, however, are mass-marketing emails. You know the type. It's a big announcement of the new Stephen King, or the new Tom Clancy, or some other blockbuster-wannabe. It's almost gotten to the point where I'm going to blacklist the damned things.
In an age when databases are (almost) trivial to set up, nobody has yet figured out that readers want to know about books from authors they like. Right now, if I want to keep track of Dana Fredsti, or Lisa Shearin, or Katherine Garbera or ... I have to search the sites for these authors individually, and do it regularly. That means an enormous investment of time I simply do not have. There is simply no notification service for Buy on Sight lists. Anywhere.
When I can go to B&N(web), or AMZN, or Haralequin and tell them "Notify me when 'Plague Nation' (or any Dana Fredsti) or 'Ready for Her Close-Up' (or any Katherine Garbera) or ... [whoever/whatever] is ready for immediate purchase and download." THEN you'll know publishers have finally gotten serious about eBooks.
cf. Asimov, I "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" Astounding Science Fiction, March 1948
Summary Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiotimoline
Revenge is a dish best served cold, after all.