it's just another medium for the record industry publishers to ciphon money off of the populace, and rest assured virtually none of it will reach the artists.
napster has always said it was in it for the profit, and now it has lived up to that promise. those interested in busting up current copyright laws or the way they're enforced have nothing to celebrate here. napster is, or very shortly will be, another cog in the industry's machine, polished and working properly. in fact, napster has probably turned the tide irreversibly against the idea that people should get music for free. already, they are convincing the mainstream that it's fair to pay a fee for this content. i'm not saying they're wrong, i'm just saying that is what they are currently doing. the revolution has been defused.
anyway, as a musician in a band that, when not touring, still plays 7 times a month, i must say i am SORRY to see so many other musicians happy that the status quo will be maintained. my bandmates and i are wholeheartedly in it for the music and for the fun. if there was NO money to be made in this business (and trust me it ain't far from the case, for a real live band), it would not affect our schedule in the least.
the whole POINT is that there's a PHYSICAL distance between the computers, so no possible bug could allow unauthorized access...
sheesh, it's like that douglas addams book Mostly Harmless where, in order to get around all the inconveniences of tight security, people carry around small credit cards with their mothers maiden name, fingerprints, retinal prints, dna pattern, etc etc holographically encoded.
but what's next? i sure haven't seen anything REMOTELY as easy to use as Napster.. i'm not saying Gnutella or OpenNap are terrible for Slashdot readers, but the vast majority of Napster's customers are casual-to-moderate computer users who would never put up with the idiosynchracies of gnutella and its ilk.
i expect many people will stop downloading MP3s altogether, after being briefly frustrated by the alternatives suggested by their nerdy friend, and many will subscribe to Napster's sellout pay service.
today marks a significant shift in the balance of power here folks. we no longer have the software and money on our side.
ok sorry yes i still have to make sure and not get run over, yeah, is there a word for being immune to old age? as for the religion thing.. well, if everyone lives more or less forever, what purpose does it serve? for all its' telling you how to live in the present, really what it's about is what happens to you when you die. if we don't care about THAT anymore, i can't see us caring too much about heaven, hell, stuff like that.
either Verner Vinge's Singularity or this stem cell research... either way, it looks like i've got a decent shot at immortality. cool. this whole religion thing may become deprecated yet.
at what point, do you think, Coke or Microsoft would be satisfied with their customer base, and decide, "oh we don't really need more customers, so let's just stop all the tricky marketing and underhanded stuff we pull." yeah right. i think they would acheive 100% market share, then beginning cloning new consumers before they decided they had ENOUGH CUSTOMERS. hah.
because we're not travelling anywhere near a useful velocity. how about hi-rez real-time 3d environments? people in 3d computer games still look like painted cardboard boxes to me. the rendered cut scenes aren't even up to the standards that we will eventually see the actual gameplay at.
i'm not saying i want this, im' saying this WILL happen.
didn't the telecommunicatios act of 1996(?) make it illegal to send someone unsolicited email without a way to be removed from a mailing list? or something like that?
are we just gonna say the Almighty Free Market and law of supply and demand will balance this out on its own? sit back and relax, the corporations know what's best? i mean i KNOW people are probably already typing that AS i'm typing this.
i think it's becoming more and more obvious that corporations will tample individuals' rights and desires as much as they can legally get away with. they say the tendency over time of any power structure is to become more constrictive, and that's basically why revolution ocurs, to start over. well... i ain't suggesting we overthrow the government or anything... but not all revolutions are violent bloody things...
no way. we are just scratching the surface of computing power potential. it's a very immature industry. car horsepower has stabilized, creeping upward and downward over the last 30 years. CPU power is still stridently upwards and will be for a long time to come.
computers still have a long long way to go speed-wise. it's as if you're in 1904 saying "why would a car ever need to go faster than 25 miles per hour?"
besides, people will always be drawn to the faster machine, both by internal competitive drive and by marketing pressure.
For instance, if you want to own a gun, it's hard to beat the US.
the right to murder, yes, very important to me.
If you wish to practice Scientology, stay away from Germany.
if you wish to practice Islam, Hinduism, Wicca, Atheism, or any other non-Christian religion, better stay away from the whole middle and southern US.
I hear Canada has strange porn laws, you can probably find harder porn in the US (I'm talking dead tree porn here).
of course you can't hear or see anything that might piss off the puritans on TV or radio in the US, even at 3 o'clock in the morning. and just try buying any music or video that's remotely controversial.. hope you live in a major metropolis which has more than the major chains, otherwise you're out of luck
If you're a woman (I know, only about 5% of Slashdot) there are a lot of countries that are less enlightened about women's rights than the US.
i guess, but i can't think of a country who sells more cultural sex than the US.
If you will obviously stick out as a foreigner, there are other countries you may want to stay away from.
yes but you are welcome to come here and pump our gas or clean our toilets.
If you desire sexual freedom, stay away from highly religious countries,
what like the US? virginia still has laws prohibiting oral sex, sex before marriage, and any kind of sex other than standard missionary position. hope you're not a homosexual, too, cuz for some dumb reason we like to herrangue them about their sexual promiscuity then prevent them from legally binding themselves to a single permanent partner. i just don't get why 85% of americans are against gay marriage.
well i guess it's official, everyone is now entitled to their million dollars at the expense of everyone else. the joy of creation (be it music, words, or whatever) is now not in the thing itself, but the fat f*cking paycheck the creator "deserves". screw 'em, if they will only write or play cuz they think they can make a quick buck, then get out of the business! the BEST ones will be driven, they'll HAVE to create, they won't be able to help it. it would weed out the worst 90% of our culture if we stopped paying our artists, musicians, and writers.
for not reading the article, for posting nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times before, and for being completely predictable and boring. I'm glad no brain power was actually wasted THINKING about anything he wrote, otherwise it might just require a response that contained something more than status-quo cynicism and lame "jon katz is gay" jokes. does ANYONE have anything interesting to say anymore?
i've got comcast and they've been promising cable modem service "soon" for the last YEAR, with no change in status.. i'm dying here on my dial up.. too far in the boonies of manassas for DSL too.. ackkk *expires while waiting for/. to load*
Slashdot Mirror
hopefully.
or perhaps more accurately .. removing its sheep costume.
napster has always said it was in it for the profit, and now it has lived up to that promise. those interested in busting up current copyright laws or the way they're enforced have nothing to celebrate here. napster is, or very shortly will be, another cog in the industry's machine, polished and working properly. in fact, napster has probably turned the tide irreversibly against the idea that people should get music for free. already, they are convincing the mainstream that it's fair to pay a fee for this content. i'm not saying they're wrong, i'm just saying that is what they are currently doing. the revolution has been defused.
anyway, as a musician in a band that, when not touring, still plays 7 times a month, i must say i am SORRY to see so many other musicians happy that the status quo will be maintained. my bandmates and i are wholeheartedly in it for the music and for the fun. if there was NO money to be made in this business (and trust me it ain't far from the case, for a real live band), it would not affect our schedule in the least.
2) "I have been mistaken in the past for being gay, as a result of these idiotic sterotypes."
so uh what you're saying is you have a big chip on your shoulder...?
sheesh, it's like that douglas addams book Mostly Harmless where, in order to get around all the inconveniences of tight security, people carry around small credit cards with their mothers maiden name, fingerprints, retinal prints, dna pattern, etc etc holographically encoded.
i expect many people will stop downloading MP3s altogether, after being briefly frustrated by the alternatives suggested by their nerdy friend, and many will subscribe to Napster's sellout pay service.
today marks a significant shift in the balance of power here folks. we no longer have the software and money on our side.
maybe he's still using an 80086 (kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK "bad command or file name")
ok sorry yes i still have to make sure and not get run over, yeah, is there a word for being immune to old age? as for the religion thing .. well, if everyone lives more or less forever, what purpose does it serve? for all its' telling you how to live in the present, really what it's about is what happens to you when you die. if we don't care about THAT anymore, i can't see us caring too much about heaven, hell, stuff like that.
either Verner Vinge's Singularity or this stem cell research ... either way, it looks like i've got a decent shot at immortality. cool. this whole religion thing may become deprecated yet.
isn't the internet clogged enough as it is, without everyone having to download their apllications via modem??? sheesh.
at what point, do you think, Coke or Microsoft would be satisfied with their customer base, and decide, "oh we don't really need more customers, so let's just stop all the tricky marketing and underhanded stuff we pull." yeah right. i think they would acheive 100% market share, then beginning cloning new consumers before they decided they had ENOUGH CUSTOMERS. hah.
geeks are such nerds.
because we're not travelling anywhere near a useful velocity. how about hi-rez real-time 3d environments? people in 3d computer games still look like painted cardboard boxes to me. the rendered cut scenes aren't even up to the standards that we will eventually see the actual gameplay at. i'm not saying i want this, im' saying this WILL happen.
didn't the telecommunicatios act of 1996(?) make it illegal to send someone unsolicited email without a way to be removed from a mailing list? or something like that?
i think it's becoming more and more obvious that corporations will tample individuals' rights and desires as much as they can legally get away with. they say the tendency over time of any power structure is to become more constrictive, and that's basically why revolution ocurs, to start over. well ... i ain't suggesting we overthrow the government or anything ... but not all revolutions are violent bloody things ...
that might mean something to me if i wasn't an atheist. darn.
no way. we are just scratching the surface of computing power potential. it's a very immature industry. car horsepower has stabilized, creeping upward and downward over the last 30 years. CPU power is still stridently upwards and will be for a long time to come.
besides, people will always be drawn to the faster machine, both by internal competitive drive and by marketing pressure.
the right to murder, yes, very important to me.
If you wish to practice Scientology, stay away from Germany.
if you wish to practice Islam, Hinduism, Wicca, Atheism, or any other non-Christian religion, better stay away from the whole middle and southern US.
I hear Canada has strange porn laws, you can probably find harder porn in the US (I'm talking dead tree porn here).
of course you can't hear or see anything that might piss off the puritans on TV or radio in the US, even at 3 o'clock in the morning. and just try buying any music or video that's remotely controversial .. hope you live in a major metropolis which has more than the major chains, otherwise you're out of luck
If you're a woman (I know, only about 5% of Slashdot) there are a lot of countries that are less enlightened about women's rights than the US.
i guess, but i can't think of a country who sells more cultural sex than the US.
If you will obviously stick out as a foreigner, there are other countries you may want to stay away from.
yes but you are welcome to come here and pump our gas or clean our toilets.
If you desire sexual freedom, stay away from highly religious countries,
what like the US? virginia still has laws prohibiting oral sex, sex before marriage, and any kind of sex other than standard missionary position. hope you're not a homosexual, too, cuz for some dumb reason we like to herrangue them about their sexual promiscuity then prevent them from legally binding themselves to a single permanent partner. i just don't get why 85% of americans are against gay marriage.
as if we just found them, on a remote island somewhere? gravity was discovered, computers were invented.
dude, how about some links??
i guess that makes me the typical /. user...
well i guess it's official, everyone is now entitled to their million dollars at the expense of everyone else. the joy of creation (be it music, words, or whatever) is now not in the thing itself, but the fat f*cking paycheck the creator "deserves". screw 'em, if they will only write or play cuz they think they can make a quick buck, then get out of the business! the BEST ones will be driven, they'll HAVE to create, they won't be able to help it. it would weed out the worst 90% of our culture if we stopped paying our artists, musicians, and writers.
for not reading the article, for posting nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times before, and for being completely predictable and boring. I'm glad no brain power was actually wasted THINKING about anything he wrote, otherwise it might just require a response that contained something more than status-quo cynicism and lame "jon katz is gay" jokes. does ANYONE have anything interesting to say anymore?
i've got comcast and they've been promising cable modem service "soon" for the last YEAR, with no change in status .. i'm dying here on my dial up .. too far in the boonies of manassas for DSL too .. ackkk *expires while waiting for /. to load*