Well, as long as you're familiar with Star Trek and Babylon 5, this movie is hilarious. Otherwise you'll probably not get most of the cracks they throw at you. I've been laughing quite often throughout the movie, and I don't speak a word of Finnish (the English subtitles are quite capable of transmitting the spoken humor though).
It has plenty of Babylon 5 factors in it as well. It's basically a Star Trek (Emperor James B. Pirk) vs Babylon 5 (Captain Sherrypie) movie. I found it to be a great movie, with some hilarious cracks and very nice space battles.
A typical case of the tail wagging the dog. Any idea how big the consumer industry is compared to the entertainment industry? I wouldn't be surprised if they push the consumer industry too far some day, and they just decide to buy the whole lot. Heck, the value of most entertainment companies would be peanuts to a company like IBM or Microsoft.
"Finally, I disagree regarding DRM. Even at $5-10M, that's a major investment for someone to make in the pure hope that somebody, somewhere, sometime, might decide to pay them back -- after they've already received the value given. Anderson (long tail) has a point there, in that you probably need just enough to prevent casual copying."
That argument's used over and over again, and it's a false one. The large scale of copyright infringment isn't casual copying; it's copying a copy of which the DRM has already been stripped. DRM simply has no influence whatsoever on copyright infringement. As such: I, as a loyal customer, do not wish to be bothered with DRM that prevents me from using the product I bought in any legal way I choose. If you chose to treat me like a criminal using a protection that mostly affects loyal customers rather than infringers, then I see no reason to be your customer.
1. Those are webpages, simple html to parse. Let's see how Google does that with audio and video. 2. I currently transfer about 150-200 GB per month. Let's say the average broadband customer transfers 1. Multiply that by 3 months retention, and the total amount of internet users in the USA. Any idea of the cost? Any idea how you're going to search through data, possibly encrypted, audio, video, etc for something useful?
This would require protocol interpretation at the ISP level. Otherwise one packet is the same as any other. You could opt to just store the header of every packet i.s.o. the entire packet, but I don't think that's what they're asking for. Any idea how much processing power you need to do protocol interpretation for every packet an ISP has to pass through their servers, and what the associated cost would be?
As storage technology improves, so will network technology, which means that what can be logged now is what can be logged later. Now for why it's too costly: 1. Divide the profit of an avarage large ISP by its amount of customers. 2. Calculate the cost of storing the avarage data throughput of a client per 3 months. 3. Be astonished on how many years of company profits will go into setting up this system. 4. Wonder how on earth you're going to search through such a huge data storage. 5. ? 6. Profit!
Well, my understanding is that they used the following reasoning to come to a levy system: 1. Personal copies of material you bought should be allowed in any case. 2. It's impossible to check if someone owns the original without serious privacy concerns. That makes it next to impossible to uphold the law. 3. A law you can't uphold isn't a good one, so why not drop the law, and impose a levy in stead. Copyright law is highly complicated anyway, and normal customers should not have to deal with it.
As for your second question: I believe that as a company you can be exempt from this levy. The levies are only imposed on normal consumers.
Actually, the borrowing as stated on that site was just an example. The copy you make does not even have to be made from the original or even a legal copy, and it can be downloaded as well. The reason uploading is illegal is because it falls under "publicatie" and/or "distributie", which is not a part of the "thuiskopieregeling".
All this was confirmed last year by the Minister of Justice in the Dutch parliament. If you really want me to, I could dig down in the archives to see where you can get a transscript of that meeting, but I'd rather you'd take my word for it.:)
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 2, Informative
Reread my statement please: since we've already paid for the music through the levies it IS LEGAL in the Netherlands to download anything (audio/video) at will.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 3, Informative
*deep sigh*, maybe it's NOT legal where YOU live, but it IS legal where I live: Almere, the Netherlands. If you are Dutch, just email me, and I'll send you some Dutch references to the involved laws.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 2, Informative
The levy system is already in place. We're just having regular discussions about whether or not a new media should fall under the levy system or not. I've already seen quite a bit of political opposition to these plans, so we'll just have to wait and see if this idea goes anywhere. You are correct that people will just order their iPods elsewhere in Europe if this levy is imposed.
Oh, and it's either The Netherlands (English) or Nederland (Dutch).:)
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 5, Informative
As said: DOWNLOADING of audio/video is legal here. Uploading however is not. Placing stuff on a public webserver would fall under the uploading category.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 3, Informative
We cannot pirate music: it's legal here to make private copies of music and movies, even if you do not own an original. That's the other side of the levy system...
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Please keep in mind that: 1. This is just a proposal, and already heavily critized. 2. It is legal in the Netherlands to make private copies of any audio/video, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT OWN AN ORIGINAL! This means effectively that there's no such thing as illegal downloading of songs/movies in the Netherlands; it's legal. The levy system is the opposed measure set up to make this legal.
That is _exactly_ what they want to do! Please have a look at the BPDG blog at the EFF website if you're interested in this topic.
Re:Boo F*cking Hoo. Get out of my industry.
on
NYT on EA Games
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· Score: 1
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you here. I'm sure Will has a healthy dose of ego, but I see no reason for false modesty either.
I think he makes an excellent point. I've noticed that the extra output you get from working 60+ hours/week for a months is about 0. I think working 80+ hours may well make you end up with fewer work done. Sure, crunching for a few weeks is fine, but your work will suffer if you do 80+ hours for half a year.
Also: with working conditions like this, the overturn of employees is tremendous. This means you'll be left with few experienced programmers on your team. As Will's story is showing: having experienced programmers on board can save you a LOT of time, and will keep your code reusable. Also, the output of experienced programmers is usually a lot higher than that of inexperienced programmers, and of much better quality.
I've been working as an ASIC designer in a highly experienced group for about 6 years now. The output of this group, despite working about 40-45 hours a week has been 2-3 times as much as that of comparable teams elsewhere in the company, even though they often put in as much as 60-72 hours/week. I think EA should have a chat with Will, and perhaps they'll learn something...
I'd love to know where you can get some of these prices, and brands you can buy for that. 250 GB for $125? 20" LCD for $625? What keyboard do you get for $10, and what mouse for $20? Is the 9800 high end still?
Also: where's the case (a nice one please, like the Mac has)? Where's the speakers? How much will you pay for the processor and MB? Now put that on a table, and put the Mac next to it. Does it compare? What's your endprice for both?
I personally still prefer the PC over the Mac, but I think Apple has come a long way in creating a level price field between PC and Mac.
I realise that I'm not an expert at these kind of contracts, but the fact that I receive back a right to USE the works, doesn't sound to me like I could give others a license to distribute this code freely or under any specific license I choose. If that is truly the case, then how about you change the license to 'developer hereby grants a license to use to Ximian'?
It's even worse: if you use that code in another program, you will be limited in how you can license that program. You're not the copyright owner of part of that program, so you cannot just assign a license to it without permission from the copyright owner. The GPL will work, sure, but if you want to use that code with some form of other license, you will be running into trouble.
In other words: Novell will be the only one able to use _your_ code in a program where they get to decide the license. You can use that code in a program of your own, but you can't provide your users with any rights not provided by the licenses used by Novell.
In other words: No way am I going to contribute to such a program!
Erm... MGS is a Konami game, which as far as I know has always been a Japanese company with offices in the US and Europe as well. I can even remember (I'm _that_ old) playing MG on my MSX2 computer.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Well, as long as you're familiar with Star Trek and Babylon 5, this movie is hilarious. Otherwise you'll probably not get most of the cracks they throw at you. I've been laughing quite often throughout the movie, and I don't speak a word of Finnish (the English subtitles are quite capable of transmitting the spoken humor though).
It has plenty of Babylon 5 factors in it as well. It's basically a Star Trek (Emperor James B. Pirk) vs Babylon 5 (Captain Sherrypie) movie. I found it to be a great movie, with some hilarious cracks and very nice space battles.
"Info" is played by Antti Satama.
Exactly! Power steering was not invented by a body builder I bet!
A typical case of the tail wagging the dog. Any idea how big the consumer industry is compared to the entertainment industry? I wouldn't be surprised if they push the consumer industry too far some day, and they just decide to buy the whole lot. Heck, the value of most entertainment companies would be peanuts to a company like IBM or Microsoft.
"Finally, I disagree regarding DRM. Even at $5-10M, that's a major investment for someone to make in the pure hope that somebody, somewhere, sometime, might decide to pay them back -- after they've already received the value given. Anderson (long tail) has a point there, in that you probably need just enough to prevent casual copying."
That argument's used over and over again, and it's a false one. The large scale of copyright infringment isn't casual copying; it's copying a copy of which the DRM has already been stripped. DRM simply has no influence whatsoever on copyright infringement. As such: I, as a loyal customer, do not wish to be bothered with DRM that prevents me from using the product I bought in any legal way I choose. If you chose to treat me like a criminal using a protection that mostly affects loyal customers rather than infringers, then I see no reason to be your customer.
1. Those are webpages, simple html to parse. Let's see how Google does that with audio and video.
2. I currently transfer about 150-200 GB per month. Let's say the average broadband customer transfers 1. Multiply that by 3 months retention, and the total amount of internet users in the USA. Any idea of the cost? Any idea how you're going to search through data, possibly encrypted, audio, video, etc for something useful?
This would require protocol interpretation at the ISP level. Otherwise one packet is the same as any other. You could opt to just store the header of every packet i.s.o. the entire packet, but I don't think that's what they're asking for. Any idea how much processing power you need to do protocol interpretation for every packet an ISP has to pass through their servers, and what the associated cost would be?
As storage technology improves, so will network technology, which means that what can be logged now is what can be logged later. Now for why it's too costly:
1. Divide the profit of an avarage large ISP by its amount of customers.
2. Calculate the cost of storing the avarage data throughput of a client per 3 months.
3. Be astonished on how many years of company profits will go into setting up this system.
4. Wonder how on earth you're going to search through such a huge data storage.
5. ?
6. Profit!
Well, my understanding is that they used the following reasoning to come to a levy system:
1. Personal copies of material you bought should be allowed in any case.
2. It's impossible to check if someone owns the original without serious privacy concerns. That makes it next to impossible to uphold the law.
3. A law you can't uphold isn't a good one, so why not drop the law, and impose a levy in stead. Copyright law is highly complicated anyway, and normal customers should not have to deal with it.
As for your second question: I believe that as a company you can be exempt from this levy. The levies are only imposed on normal consumers.
Using bittorrent to download music would indeed be illegal. Then again: using bittorrent to download music is illegal just about anywhere. :)
Actually, the borrowing as stated on that site was just an example. The copy you make does not even have to be made from the original or even a legal copy, and it can be downloaded as well. The reason uploading is illegal is because it falls under "publicatie" and/or "distributie", which is not a part of the "thuiskopieregeling".
:)
All this was confirmed last year by the Minister of Justice in the Dutch parliament. If you really want me to, I could dig down in the archives to see where you can get a transscript of that meeting, but I'd rather you'd take my word for it.
Reread my statement please: since we've already paid for the music through the levies it IS LEGAL in the Netherlands to download anything (audio/video) at will.
http://www.iusmentis.com/auteursrecht/nl/thuiskopi e/
*deep sigh*, maybe it's NOT legal where YOU live, but it IS legal where I live: Almere, the Netherlands. If you are Dutch, just email me, and I'll send you some Dutch references to the involved laws.
The levy system is already in place. We're just having regular discussions about whether or not a new media should fall under the levy system or not. I've already seen quite a bit of political opposition to these plans, so we'll just have to wait and see if this idea goes anywhere. You are correct that people will just order their iPods elsewhere in Europe if this levy is imposed.
:)
Oh, and it's either The Netherlands (English) or Nederland (Dutch).
As said: DOWNLOADING of audio/video is legal here. Uploading however is not. Placing stuff on a public webserver would fall under the uploading category.
We cannot pirate music: it's legal here to make private copies of music and movies, even if you do not own an original. That's the other side of the levy system...
Please keep in mind that:
1. This is just a proposal, and already heavily critized.
2. It is legal in the Netherlands to make private copies of any audio/video, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT OWN AN ORIGINAL! This means effectively that there's no such thing as illegal downloading of songs/movies in the Netherlands; it's legal. The levy system is the opposed measure set up to make this legal.
That is _exactly_ what they want to do! Please have a look at the BPDG blog at the EFF website if you're interested in this topic.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you here. I'm sure Will has a healthy dose of ego, but I see no reason for false modesty either.
I think he makes an excellent point. I've noticed that the extra output you get from working 60+ hours/week for a months is about 0. I think working 80+ hours may well make you end up with fewer work done. Sure, crunching for a few weeks is fine, but your work will suffer if you do 80+ hours for half a year.
Also: with working conditions like this, the overturn of employees is tremendous. This means you'll be left with few experienced programmers on your team. As Will's story is showing: having experienced programmers on board can save you a LOT of time, and will keep your code reusable. Also, the output of experienced programmers is usually a lot higher than that of inexperienced programmers, and of much better quality.
I've been working as an ASIC designer in a highly experienced group for about 6 years now. The output of this group, despite working about 40-45 hours a week has been 2-3 times as much as that of comparable teams elsewhere in the company, even though they often put in as much as 60-72 hours/week. I think EA should have a chat with Will, and perhaps they'll learn something...
I'd love to know where you can get some of these prices, and brands you can buy for that. 250 GB for $125? 20" LCD for $625? What keyboard do you get for $10, and what mouse for $20? Is the 9800 high end still?
Also: where's the case (a nice one please, like the Mac has)? Where's the speakers? How much will you pay for the processor and MB? Now put that on a table, and put the Mac next to it. Does it compare? What's your endprice for both?
I personally still prefer the PC over the Mac, but I think Apple has come a long way in creating a level price field between PC and Mac.
I realise that I'm not an expert at these kind of contracts, but the fact that I receive back a right to USE the works, doesn't sound to me like I could give others a license to distribute this code freely or under any specific license I choose. If that is truly the case, then how about you change the license to 'developer hereby grants a license to use to Ximian'?
It's even worse: if you use that code in another program, you will be limited in how you can license that program. You're not the copyright owner of part of that program, so you cannot just assign a license to it without permission from the copyright owner. The GPL will work, sure, but if you want to use that code with some form of other license, you will be running into trouble.
In other words: Novell will be the only one able to use _your_ code in a program where they get to decide the license. You can use that code in a program of your own, but you can't provide your users with any rights not provided by the licenses used by Novell.
In other words: No way am I going to contribute to such a program!
Erm... MGS is a Konami game, which as far as I know has always been a Japanese company with offices in the US and Europe as well. I can even remember (I'm _that_ old) playing MG on my MSX2 computer. :)