The 100X figure was plucked out of thin air (the same place the RIAA's piracy loss figures come from), but the general idea would be that fines for non-commercial infringement should be more realistic than $222,000+ for 24 files. That is more than 9,343X.
For the longest time, I've thought that there should be two punishment scales for copyright infringement. Let's call the first "professional infringement." This would involve infringement with a profit motive. An example of this would be the people who sell copies of DVDs on street corners. These people would face the fines currently imposed for copyright infringement.
The second type would be "household infringement." This would involve infringement via a P2P network or other type that didn't involve attempts to make a profit. This type of infringement would take the number of files infringed, multiply them by the market cost per file, and then multiply that number by 100 (to get a "punishment" number that is worse than simply buying the songs outright).
In the case of Jammie Thomas, she was found guilty of infringing 24 songs. Since she wasn't attempting to make a profit, she would fall under household infringement and would be charged 24 * 0.99 (the cost of the songs on iTunes) * 100, or $2,376. This is more than the $150+ that she's looking for, yet a lot less than the $222,000 that she was originally fined for. A $2,000+ verdict isn't going to financially ruin most people, but it will also be enough of a significant amount for most people that it would serve as a deterrent against future incidents.
The problem for them is that, with each iteration, it becomes harder and harder to sell the upgrade. If you're Joe User, why would you switch from XP to Vista? Why would you switch from Office 2003/XP/2K or even Office 97 to the latest version of Office? Joe User really doesn't need to upgrade anymore. Not only that, but Microsoft is beginning to seriously falter in their "convince the users to upgrade" mission. Dell and other computer manufacturers offering users a downgrade path from Vista to XP? Dell demanding that Microsoft keep allowing them to sell XP after Vista went on the shelves? Those two would have been unheard of in prior Windows releases. Microsoft is in serious trouble on many fronts.
Not just from the article. They refuse to say, have been asked to spell it out, and continue to threaten without making any specific claim. After a while you just learn to tune them out.
There's a good reason why they can't give out the list of infringed patents. That list is copyrighted. The name of the list is trademarked. And the licensing terms are a trade secret.
I'd add one more thing. Microsoft has begun to realize that they have a competitor even bigger than Linux/Open Source: Microsoft.
Microsoft released Vista and people didn't come out in droves to upgrade. Instead, they decided to stick with Microsoft's old offering of XP for the time being.
Microsoft released a new version of Office, but how many people are still using the older versions even going back to Office 97?
Sure these people are still using Microsoft products and Microsoft appreciates that, but you can't show appreciation on those quarterly earnings reports that shareholders love so much. These people (and businesses) are sticking with "old Microsoft" instead of buying "bright, shiny, new Microsoft." Microsoft is in competition with itself. And as much as they try to promote their new versions, they don't want to knock their old versions too much (after all, they were Microsoft products). "Old Microsoft" can't be forced out of business or bought out. Sure, "Old Microsoft" users will eventually upgrade, but by the time they do, Open Source alternatives might be even more attractive an option than they are right now. All in all, "Old Microsoft" is a big headache for Microsoft.
I don't see any direct connection between ideology or religion and science.Many good scientific have been religious in some form ot believe in god: Newton, Einstein, Bohr, etc.
Religion, when it comes to impact on Scientific Advancement, seems to have little to no effect so long as there isn't fundamentalism and intolerance. If you get those two in conjunction with religion, then the answer to "How does this happen" ceases to result in theories and experiments. Instead, the answer becomes "Because it says so in The Holy Texts and anyone who questions them must be killed." The more society falls prey to fundamentalism and intolerance, the weaker science gets. Right now, most Islamic countries are highly fundamental in nature. Science there doesn't stand a chance.
Of course, it's not just Islamic fundamentalism that's the problem. Imagine if Christian Fundamentalists got their heart's desire and could pass whatever laws they wanted to in the US. Evolution would be banned in favor of "God did it." The Big Bang would be tossed from classrooms to make room for a story about the 7 Days and Nights of Creation. Questioning the literal "word of God" would result in severe punishments. Science would grind to a halt.
Remove fundamentalism and intolerance, however, and science can easily co-exist with religion. The religious just need to stop being literal about their religious texts. I'm religious (Jewish) and I see no conflict between the first part of Genesis and the Big Bang. That's because I don't see Genesis as being a literal History Of The World. It's a morality lesson. For example, there are actually two stories as to how man was formed. In one, man was formed in God's own image as the crowning achievement of creation. In another, he's made from mud. A great rabbi I once knew described the moral of this story thusly: Every person should walk with two pouches at their side. One should say "The whole world was made for me." The other should say: "I am nothing but dirt." In this manner, a person can strike a balance between being proud of themselves and humility.
Notice nothing in the example above contradicted anything about the Big Bang or Evolution. The stories are just used to tell a lesson in morality, not to tell the literal events of the past. And before someone mentions it, there are passages whose moral lessons collide with modern Western sensibilities. Like views on homosexuality. However, there are vast parts of the bible that aren't followed anymore (all of the sacrifice stuff), so it's not that big of a stretch to claim that those passages don't apply today and just ignore them.
My wife's grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease before we met. When I first met him, he walked with a walker and occasionally froze up, but was otherwise ok. Over the years, he needed more and more help doing every day chores. He couldn't eat by himself. His memory started being affected. (I thought t He also fell over more and more. When he fell, he couldn't help you lift him back up. I don't know how many people here have tried lifting up a man who can't help you out. Imagine trying to lift a 180 pound sack of sand. It's not easy. I hurt my back a few times when I came over to help.
After awhile, Beth's grandmother realized that she couldn't take care of him herself. As painful as it was, we put him in a nursing home. Over the years, he would get worse and then get better. One day he would be talking about things that went on at work "yesterday" (really decades ago), the next he would be completely lucid. He would be hallucinating (likely from his meds) and then he would be crystal clear. Unfortunately, the lucid days got fewer and further in between and his body gave out on him more and more.
He passed away this past April and, while everyone was sad, in a way it was a blessing. His mind and body were all but completely gone and he had been near death quite a few times. We all saw his passing as an end to his suffering. At his funeral, people told stories about him pre-Parkinson's (before I met him). He apparently loved going on the floor to do puzzles with his kids and was pretty active. To see a man as active mentally and physically as that be reduced to a drooling shell of a man is a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Then I'd recommend Amie Street. Amie Street has no monthly fee or download limit. You pay for the songs as you buy them. Songs start out as free and then rise in price (up to 98 cents) as more people buy them. I've spent $10.38 so far and have purchased 123 songs. (Here are sampler versions of the songs I've purchased: http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/what-im-listening-to.php in case you're interested.)
Between eMusic, Amazon's new store, and Amie Street, you should be able to get a lot of great music for much less than you'd pay on iTunes without any DRM.
He isn't a freedom fighter. In fact, he lost one of his own freedoms in the process. Now if the same incident happens again, he can't sue the city.
Checking the PDF version of the release that he uploaded, it specifically mentions that incident. It also includes some vague "anything before this" text. Likely to make sure all legal loopholes are closed. (For example, if Righi claimed that the officer had verbally threatened him with arrest the previous day.) It doesn't, however, say anything about subsequent incidents. Even if the same officer were to arrest him outside of the same Circuit City under similar circumstances in the future, this agreement wouldn't prevent him from suing the city.
Someone, maybe Novell, needs to ask the Bankruptcy Court to deny SCO's filing for Chapter 11 on the grounds that there's no way they can re-organize into a viable operation, and therefore they need to be liquidated. Then the creditors can auction off the honor of kicking Darl out on his ass.
Sure there's a way for them to become a viable operation. You know those dunk booths where you toss a ball at a target and knock someone into the water? Well, SCO can run one of those with Darl. Only instead of a target, you'd throw the ball at Darl, himself. Imagine everyone who would line up to pay for that chance! Investors, Linux enthusiasts, IBM, Novell, Red Hat, etc. Not only would they be viable quickly, but they would be able to pay for Darl's medical care after the repeated ball throws rendered him a vegetable. (Oh, and we would let Ballmer throw a chair at Darl for not taking out Linux.;-) )
I'm a moderately religious Jew. As part of the things that I observe, I don't use the computer on Shabbat (Saturday) or on any Jewish Holiday. Although I may miss it slightly by the end of some of the 3 day stretches (like last week's 2 days of Rosh Hashana + 1 day of Shabbat), I find that I like the downtime to spend more time with my family. Religious or not, I think it's a good idea to dedicate at least one day to non-online tasks and spend time with your parents/significant others/spouses/children (whichever pertain to your particular situation). Don't have any parents, significant others, spouses, or children? Well, spend the day with some friends (offline) or meeting with someone of the opposite sex (or same sex if that's what you prefer). The Internet is great, but don't let it consume your life.
Don't worry. If there was any chance that AT&T would lose it's common carrier status by filtering for the MPAA, I'm sure the NSA would make sure they would retain it. (Of course, the fact of the NSA's intervention would be a National Security Secret.)
I just installed it and tested it against a few WordPro files I had on hand. It seems to work, though there are occasional formatting glitches. I also like the interface.
Unfortunately, there are three things about it that I don't like. Every startup, it tries to add something to my startup routine. Even if I've already told Startup Monitor to allow it previously. It also takes a while to load up with no progress bar or other indicator. Finally, the install automatically makes Symphony your default ODF editor.
Given that it's beta, these aren't huge issues and could easily be fixed. If IBM improves the WordPro importing, I could definitely see recommending this to my company for use.
Why couldn't you match people up based on how well they do in ranked matches? I have no clue as to how Smash Bros' ranking works, so let's just use a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best). If I'm a 5 out of 10 in ranked matches, then I could get opponents ranked anywhere from 3 to 7. If I'm a 1, then I'd get people ranked 1 - 3.
Why not instead start hiring ironworkers and folks who actually know WTF they're doing in high-up construction techniques?
Possibly because "high-up construction techniques" typically involve heights at which gravity is still a major factor and air supply isn't. If you're not careful when building out on the 50th floor, you'll fall to your death rather quickly. You don't typically need anything special to breathe, though.
Much of the building of the ISS takes place on the ground and the space shuttles just deploy the pieces. When the pieces are put together "high-up", the workers don't so much need to worry about falling as they need to worry about suit punctures, navigating in zero-G, drifting away from the site, etc. Stick an iron-worker in a suit in space and he won't know how to connect two pieces of the ISS together. He won't know to be careful of each screw lest it puncture his suit. He won't know half of the things that the astronauts know to stay safe and keep from getting himself killed.
My understanding is that there isn't any documentation for the WordPro format, other than the source code for WordPro.
This is one reason why "Lotus Symphony" gives me hope that there might be a WordPro import filter. Even if it was a proprietary, Symphony-only add-on it would help transition users from the awful WordPro program/format to the much better ODF.
This sounds great. I wonder if they would offer a WordPro import filter. At my company, they use Lotus Smartsuite (which includes WordPro) as the "official" office suite. Some people use Microsoft and a bunch of the IT folks (myself included) use OpenOffice.org. It would be great to get something which was basically OpenOffice.org, had corporate support backing (useful due to a co-worker/boss who thinks all freeware is inferior to payware by default), and could open our old WordPro documents.
Audacity isn't slow on my computer. But if it's slow for you, then by all means replace "Audacity" with the audio editor of your choice. Another time saving tip is something that daddyrief posted below: Encode your ringtones at lower bitrates. Most phones aren't built for great sound quality. "The Muppet Show Theme" (my current default ringtone) doesn't sound much better at 256kbps than it sounds at 96kbps when played by my cell phone.
No thank you, RIAA. I'll just take songs I currently own (either ripped from my purchases CDs or bought from AmieStreet.com) and use Audacity to cut/re-encode them. Then I'll use BitPIM to transfer the files to my phone for use as ringtones.
Cost for the music: Free (raiding old CD collection) or Free to 98 cents (AmieStreet.com) Cost for the ringtone: Free.
(Expected a "priceless" joke here, didn't you?;-) Well, it's the end of a long day and I'm not feeling witty, so I'll leave that to anyone replying to my post.)
Not necessarily. They might have just figured that they could just quietly drop the case (or settle for a tiny figure) if the defendant fought back too much. It's worked in some cases (like the Granny who was accused of downloading rap using a Mac computer when the file sharing program she was accused of running was Windows only), but it might not work here. Unlike what the RIAA would like the think, the courts don't just automatically rubber-stamp approve everything the RIAA wants to do.
Besides which, I don't expect that closing my phone's clamshell will turn it off. If, however, I hit the power button and it's still communicating with the cell tower (whether incurring charges or not, but especially if incurring charges) then something is seriously wrong with the phone's design.
Actually, the original setup was 14 years plus a 14 year optional extension. The copyright holder had to apply for that and be granted.
My proposition (let's call it the Copyright And Public Domain Salvation Act) would be that all works produced from the passing of CAPDSA on would be copyrighted for 14 years plus an additional 14 years if they apply (and pay a nominal fee). After that they become public domain. For the large amount of works currently under copyright, there would be two coprimises.
1: Anything 14 years or younger would be assumed to be automatically renewed for the full 28 year span.
2: For works over 14 years old, a phase in period would be established. After a one year grace period, every year would see 5 years of copyrighted material fall into the Public Domain, starting with 1923 (the earliest year that copyright is still in force) until we were all caught up. So CAPDSA Year Two would free up 1923 - 1928. Year Three would release 1928 - 1933. Year Four would free up 1933 - 1938. And so on. If the law were passed in 2008, then we would only need 15 years to catch up.
Companies would complain, of course, but I'd be willing to bet that business would actually improve. Abandonware would no longer become an issue because companies that vanish into thin air wouldn't be around to renew after 14 years. Other companies would sprout up to take advantage of the newly enlarged public domain. Yes, people would be able to download those works for free, but a lot of people would pay $1-2 for a pressed DVD of some of them. About the only industry it would devastate would be the "Nostalgia Industry." (The folks that make money selling things that are really old to people who like hearing that stuff.)
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The 100X figure was plucked out of thin air (the same place the RIAA's piracy loss figures come from), but the general idea would be that fines for non-commercial infringement should be more realistic than $222,000+ for 24 files. That is more than 9,343X.
For the longest time, I've thought that there should be two punishment scales for copyright infringement. Let's call the first "professional infringement." This would involve infringement with a profit motive. An example of this would be the people who sell copies of DVDs on street corners. These people would face the fines currently imposed for copyright infringement.
The second type would be "household infringement." This would involve infringement via a P2P network or other type that didn't involve attempts to make a profit. This type of infringement would take the number of files infringed, multiply them by the market cost per file, and then multiply that number by 100 (to get a "punishment" number that is worse than simply buying the songs outright).
In the case of Jammie Thomas, she was found guilty of infringing 24 songs. Since she wasn't attempting to make a profit, she would fall under household infringement and would be charged 24 * 0.99 (the cost of the songs on iTunes) * 100, or $2,376. This is more than the $150+ that she's looking for, yet a lot less than the $222,000 that she was originally fined for. A $2,000+ verdict isn't going to financially ruin most people, but it will also be enough of a significant amount for most people that it would serve as a deterrent against future incidents.
The problem for them is that, with each iteration, it becomes harder and harder to sell the upgrade. If you're Joe User, why would you switch from XP to Vista? Why would you switch from Office 2003/XP/2K or even Office 97 to the latest version of Office? Joe User really doesn't need to upgrade anymore. Not only that, but Microsoft is beginning to seriously falter in their "convince the users to upgrade" mission. Dell and other computer manufacturers offering users a downgrade path from Vista to XP? Dell demanding that Microsoft keep allowing them to sell XP after Vista went on the shelves? Those two would have been unheard of in prior Windows releases. Microsoft is in serious trouble on many fronts.
Not just from the article. They refuse to say, have been asked to spell it out, and continue to threaten without making any specific claim. After a while you just learn to tune them out.
There's a good reason why they can't give out the list of infringed patents. That list is copyrighted. The name of the list is trademarked. And the licensing terms are a trade secret.
I'd add one more thing. Microsoft has begun to realize that they have a competitor even bigger than Linux/Open Source: Microsoft.
Microsoft released Vista and people didn't come out in droves to upgrade. Instead, they decided to stick with Microsoft's old offering of XP for the time being.
Microsoft released a new version of Office, but how many people are still using the older versions even going back to Office 97?
Sure these people are still using Microsoft products and Microsoft appreciates that, but you can't show appreciation on those quarterly earnings reports that shareholders love so much. These people (and businesses) are sticking with "old Microsoft" instead of buying "bright, shiny, new Microsoft." Microsoft is in competition with itself. And as much as they try to promote their new versions, they don't want to knock their old versions too much (after all, they were Microsoft products). "Old Microsoft" can't be forced out of business or bought out. Sure, "Old Microsoft" users will eventually upgrade, but by the time they do, Open Source alternatives might be even more attractive an option than they are right now. All in all, "Old Microsoft" is a big headache for Microsoft.
As someone who used Notes, let me just say that God had nothing to do with it's design. You need to look in the other direction.
Religion, when it comes to impact on Scientific Advancement, seems to have little to no effect so long as there isn't fundamentalism and intolerance. If you get those two in conjunction with religion, then the answer to "How does this happen" ceases to result in theories and experiments. Instead, the answer becomes "Because it says so in The Holy Texts and anyone who questions them must be killed." The more society falls prey to fundamentalism and intolerance, the weaker science gets. Right now, most Islamic countries are highly fundamental in nature. Science there doesn't stand a chance.
Of course, it's not just Islamic fundamentalism that's the problem. Imagine if Christian Fundamentalists got their heart's desire and could pass whatever laws they wanted to in the US. Evolution would be banned in favor of "God did it." The Big Bang would be tossed from classrooms to make room for a story about the 7 Days and Nights of Creation. Questioning the literal "word of God" would result in severe punishments. Science would grind to a halt.
Remove fundamentalism and intolerance, however, and science can easily co-exist with religion. The religious just need to stop being literal about their religious texts. I'm religious (Jewish) and I see no conflict between the first part of Genesis and the Big Bang. That's because I don't see Genesis as being a literal History Of The World. It's a morality lesson. For example, there are actually two stories as to how man was formed. In one, man was formed in God's own image as the crowning achievement of creation. In another, he's made from mud. A great rabbi I once knew described the moral of this story thusly: Every person should walk with two pouches at their side. One should say "The whole world was made for me." The other should say: "I am nothing but dirt." In this manner, a person can strike a balance between being proud of themselves and humility.
Notice nothing in the example above contradicted anything about the Big Bang or Evolution. The stories are just used to tell a lesson in morality, not to tell the literal events of the past. And before someone mentions it, there are passages whose moral lessons collide with modern Western sensibilities. Like views on homosexuality. However, there are vast parts of the bible that aren't followed anymore (all of the sacrifice stuff), so it's not that big of a stretch to claim that those passages don't apply today and just ignore them.
Not a story about Alzheimer's, but close:
My wife's grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease before we met. When I first met him, he walked with a walker and occasionally froze up, but was otherwise ok. Over the years, he needed more and more help doing every day chores. He couldn't eat by himself. His memory started being affected. (I thought t He also fell over more and more. When he fell, he couldn't help you lift him back up. I don't know how many people here have tried lifting up a man who can't help you out. Imagine trying to lift a 180 pound sack of sand. It's not easy. I hurt my back a few times when I came over to help.
After awhile, Beth's grandmother realized that she couldn't take care of him herself. As painful as it was, we put him in a nursing home. Over the years, he would get worse and then get better. One day he would be talking about things that went on at work "yesterday" (really decades ago), the next he would be completely lucid. He would be hallucinating (likely from his meds) and then he would be crystal clear. Unfortunately, the lucid days got fewer and further in between and his body gave out on him more and more.
He passed away this past April and, while everyone was sad, in a way it was a blessing. His mind and body were all but completely gone and he had been near death quite a few times. We all saw his passing as an end to his suffering. At his funeral, people told stories about him pre-Parkinson's (before I met him). He apparently loved going on the floor to do puzzles with his kids and was pretty active. To see a man as active mentally and physically as that be reduced to a drooling shell of a man is a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Then I'd recommend Amie Street. Amie Street has no monthly fee or download limit. You pay for the songs as you buy them. Songs start out as free and then rise in price (up to 98 cents) as more people buy them. I've spent $10.38 so far and have purchased 123 songs. (Here are sampler versions of the songs I've purchased: http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/what-im-listening-to.php in case you're interested.)
Between eMusic, Amazon's new store, and Amie Street, you should be able to get a lot of great music for much less than you'd pay on iTunes without any DRM.
Checking the PDF version of the release that he uploaded, it specifically mentions that incident. It also includes some vague "anything before this" text. Likely to make sure all legal loopholes are closed. (For example, if Righi claimed that the officer had verbally threatened him with arrest the previous day.) It doesn't, however, say anything about subsequent incidents. Even if the same officer were to arrest him outside of the same Circuit City under similar circumstances in the future, this agreement wouldn't prevent him from suing the city.
Sure there's a way for them to become a viable operation. You know those dunk booths where you toss a ball at a target and knock someone into the water? Well, SCO can run one of those with Darl. Only instead of a target, you'd throw the ball at Darl, himself. Imagine everyone who would line up to pay for that chance! Investors, Linux enthusiasts, IBM, Novell, Red Hat, etc. Not only would they be viable quickly, but they would be able to pay for Darl's medical care after the repeated ball throws rendered him a vegetable. (Oh, and we would let Ballmer throw a chair at Darl for not taking out Linux.
I'm a moderately religious Jew. As part of the things that I observe, I don't use the computer on Shabbat (Saturday) or on any Jewish Holiday. Although I may miss it slightly by the end of some of the 3 day stretches (like last week's 2 days of Rosh Hashana + 1 day of Shabbat), I find that I like the downtime to spend more time with my family. Religious or not, I think it's a good idea to dedicate at least one day to non-online tasks and spend time with your parents/significant others/spouses/children (whichever pertain to your particular situation). Don't have any parents, significant others, spouses, or children? Well, spend the day with some friends (offline) or meeting with someone of the opposite sex (or same sex if that's what you prefer). The Internet is great, but don't let it consume your life.
Don't worry. If there was any chance that AT&T would lose it's common carrier status by filtering for the MPAA, I'm sure the NSA would make sure they would retain it. (Of course, the fact of the NSA's intervention would be a National Security Secret.)
I just installed it and tested it against a few WordPro files I had on hand. It seems to work, though there are occasional formatting glitches. I also like the interface.
Unfortunately, there are three things about it that I don't like. Every startup, it tries to add something to my startup routine. Even if I've already told Startup Monitor to allow it previously. It also takes a while to load up with no progress bar or other indicator. Finally, the install automatically makes Symphony your default ODF editor.
Given that it's beta, these aren't huge issues and could easily be fixed. If IBM improves the WordPro importing, I could definitely see recommending this to my company for use.
Why couldn't you match people up based on how well they do in ranked matches? I have no clue as to how Smash Bros' ranking works, so let's just use a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best). If I'm a 5 out of 10 in ranked matches, then I could get opponents ranked anywhere from 3 to 7. If I'm a 1, then I'd get people ranked 1 - 3.
Possibly because "high-up construction techniques" typically involve heights at which gravity is still a major factor and air supply isn't. If you're not careful when building out on the 50th floor, you'll fall to your death rather quickly. You don't typically need anything special to breathe, though.
Much of the building of the ISS takes place on the ground and the space shuttles just deploy the pieces. When the pieces are put together "high-up", the workers don't so much need to worry about falling as they need to worry about suit punctures, navigating in zero-G, drifting away from the site, etc. Stick an iron-worker in a suit in space and he won't know how to connect two pieces of the ISS together. He won't know to be careful of each screw lest it puncture his suit. He won't know half of the things that the astronauts know to stay safe and keep from getting himself killed.
I have a few here that I can test when I get some free time.
Quoting from http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/product_faqs_normandy.jspa#3 (emphasis mine):
I definitely have to download this and try it out now.
My understanding is that there isn't any documentation for the WordPro format, other than the source code for WordPro.
This is one reason why "Lotus Symphony" gives me hope that there might be a WordPro import filter. Even if it was a proprietary, Symphony-only add-on it would help transition users from the awful WordPro program/format to the much better ODF.
This sounds great. I wonder if they would offer a WordPro import filter. At my company, they use Lotus Smartsuite (which includes WordPro) as the "official" office suite. Some people use Microsoft and a bunch of the IT folks (myself included) use OpenOffice.org. It would be great to get something which was basically OpenOffice.org, had corporate support backing (useful due to a co-worker/boss who thinks all freeware is inferior to payware by default), and could open our old WordPro documents.
Audacity isn't slow on my computer. But if it's slow for you, then by all means replace "Audacity" with the audio editor of your choice. Another time saving tip is something that daddyrief posted below: Encode your ringtones at lower bitrates. Most phones aren't built for great sound quality. "The Muppet Show Theme" (my current default ringtone) doesn't sound much better at 256kbps than it sounds at 96kbps when played by my cell phone.
No thank you, RIAA. I'll just take songs I currently own (either ripped from my purchases CDs or bought from AmieStreet.com) and use Audacity to cut/re-encode them. Then I'll use BitPIM to transfer the files to my phone for use as ringtones.
;-) Well, it's the end of a long day and I'm not feeling witty, so I'll leave that to anyone replying to my post.)
Cost for the music: Free (raiding old CD collection) or Free to 98 cents (AmieStreet.com)
Cost for the ringtone: Free.
(Expected a "priceless" joke here, didn't you?
Not necessarily. They might have just figured that they could just quietly drop the case (or settle for a tiny figure) if the defendant fought back too much. It's worked in some cases (like the Granny who was accused of downloading rap using a Mac computer when the file sharing program she was accused of running was Windows only), but it might not work here. Unlike what the RIAA would like the think, the courts don't just automatically rubber-stamp approve everything the RIAA wants to do.
Besides which, I don't expect that closing my phone's clamshell will turn it off. If, however, I hit the power button and it's still communicating with the cell tower (whether incurring charges or not, but especially if incurring charges) then something is seriously wrong with the phone's design.
Actually, the original setup was 14 years plus a 14 year optional extension. The copyright holder had to apply for that and be granted.
My proposition (let's call it the Copyright And Public Domain Salvation Act) would be that all works produced from the passing of CAPDSA on would be copyrighted for 14 years plus an additional 14 years if they apply (and pay a nominal fee). After that they become public domain. For the large amount of works currently under copyright, there would be two coprimises.
1: Anything 14 years or younger would be assumed to be automatically renewed for the full 28 year span.
2: For works over 14 years old, a phase in period would be established. After a one year grace period, every year would see 5 years of copyrighted material fall into the Public Domain, starting with 1923 (the earliest year that copyright is still in force) until we were all caught up. So CAPDSA Year Two would free up 1923 - 1928. Year Three would release 1928 - 1933. Year Four would free up 1933 - 1938. And so on. If the law were passed in 2008, then we would only need 15 years to catch up.
Companies would complain, of course, but I'd be willing to bet that business would actually improve. Abandonware would no longer become an issue because companies that vanish into thin air wouldn't be around to renew after 14 years. Other companies would sprout up to take advantage of the newly enlarged public domain. Yes, people would be able to download those works for free, but a lot of people would pay $1-2 for a pressed DVD of some of them. About the only industry it would devastate would be the "Nostalgia Industry." (The folks that make money selling things that are really old to people who like hearing that stuff.)