How long will it take before the uncontrollable throng of adolescent geniuses that big business hates and fears comes up with something better than Napster? About three months probably. Maybe less.
Which is rather ironic if you think about it. Teenagers are the demographic to which the RIAA companies most rabidly market. Why? They are the ones that will purchase 1.1 million copies of the new N'Stink album in the first week.
Who the fuck moderated this up to +4: Insightful??? This false analogy has already been refuted a hundred times over in older Napster discussions (and several asute people already did it in this discussion).
Would someone please meta-mod this down to the -1: Troll that it deserves??
Good rant! While I didn't see the PBS show you were talking about, I did spend a couple of hours this evening reading a fascinating book related to that same topic (and others closely related) - Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn. It is an amazing read, as much a manifesto as it is an expose of the erosion of our culture, society, and minds through advertising and media saturation.
Kalle Lasn is the editor for Adbusters magazine - another counter-culture mag with stories and insights you definitely will not find in the mainstream media.
The end result of this crackdown on piracy would be lower costs for those of us who obtain our software through legitimate channels.
Hmmm. Let's think about this from an executive's perspective for a moment:
Through our support for hardware/software that "protects" our IP (at the expense of consumer rights) we are projected to increase profits by 25% at the end of this quarter. Should we
Pass on the savings to our customers and reduce our net margin?
Keep prices steady and give the Board of Directors a reason to increase our salary for boosting profits?
If you honestly think you'll see any savings, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you...
Heck, I remember the American Way as doing everything for yourself with your own two hands, even to the point of making your own tools, working in communities in a few projects and not relying on companies for your survival.
Unfortunately, what you've described is the old American way. Perhaps Jim Allchin is right and Microsoft is the embodiment of the The New American Way(TM) - stand on the shoulders of someone else, strong-arm the competition if you have the monopoly power (or litigate them if you don't) and feed consumers substandard products while spreading FUD to keep them complacent.
And Amazon takes a hefty chunk of each payment in processing fees.
Yes, Amazon will hose you at every available opportunity. I use their Marketplace feature to sell a lot of my used CD's, movies, and books (the whole "I have one to sell!" thing). In addition to skimming about 15% off of my sale price they skim over 30% off of my shipping allowance! If they charge the buyer $3.49 in shipping, they only provide me with $2.20 and keep the rest as a "shipping commission". I gave up trying to figure out how they can justify a shipping commission when I pay for the packaging and postage and do all the work.
... they outta just call it a You'll-take-it-up-the-arse-and-like-it commission...
But when the big media companies decide that in order to squeeze every conceivable penny out of the people that they can, by buying laws that restrict our freedoms and conspiring to introduce hardware that restricts our abilities to do WHAT WE PLEASE with THINGS WE PAID FOR, THEN I get upset and angry.
Very true - but the absolute worst aspect of this that many people do not realize is that the majority of costs associated w/ media (specifically music and movies) go to the marketing of said media. The costs to market movies often equal or surpass the costs of actually producing the movie! If the movie studios only make boozillion dollars this year instead of bamboozillion dollars perhaps they should slow down their relentless marketing machines instead of attempting to rob us of our rights.
... that you're bashing his "compilation of foolish communist theory" but you're ready to embrace the 21st century fascism the MPAA/RIAA are spearheading.
The issue is no longer about the legality/illegality of copying or saving the corrupt middlemen industries that are selling out our civil liberties to increase their already obscene profits. The issue is how do you compensate authors for the work they do. Trying to clamp down copying and "illegal" distribution of digital media will be about as successful as the American Drug War. (And I don't use that comparison lightly - Media has become a drug in this country)
the character defect that led to that behaviour is probably still present.
As present as the defect in your character that would lead to such an arrogant and condescending opinion?
Apparently you believe that you are beyond reproach and everyone else is beyond reform. Have you ever been grounded? Admonished? Criticized? If so, then you have probably made a mistake in your life. Some mistakes are larger than others but the bottom line is, what did you learn from it?
Fortunately, most people are able to reflect on past actions and grow from those experiences. Not all 16 year-olds are created equal and some take longer to acquire the wisdom to learn what responsibility is. To deny that people are capable of and willing to change as they grow older is untrue and unfair. Besides, he repaid his debt to society. Should he be punished repeatedly throughout his life for the same crime?
Why don't you reflect on your assinine attitude and see if you are capable of change. It would be a unfortunate if you still held such an adolescent attitude on the day that you suck your last breath.
Very true. And what amazes me is the prices advertisers pay when there is enormous evidence to suggest that people are not even seeing the advertisements. People channel surf during network TV commercials, the fast-forward through them on VCRs and TiVos, and virtually ignore anything on the web that is rectangular and flashing.
It makes me wonder if corporations and advertisers have their collective heads in the sand with respect to the effectiveness of advertising. How do you ascertain whether or not your TV spot is effective or a colossal waste of money? With the web, they can at least use click-through rates (which shows them to be *completely* ineffective).
It seems that a law exists that prohibits employers from reading the private communications of employees on stored information system (websites?) however its penalties are less severe than the law prohibiting them from listening in on private telephone conversations.
Actually, I don't think it has anything to do with what companies can and cannot legally do. Assuming that the guy did not host the website on company computers, the nature of the site is irrelevant. Whether it is Playboy.com or this guy's site, you cannot gain entry to a protected site using a stolen password.
As such, unless the VP was acting under company orders or gaining illegal access on company computers, I cannot see how his employer could be help liable.
I've been wondering how the CPRM is going to relate to the SDMI. The SDMI will work on watermarking/encrypting music files themselves. Is it even necessary given that CPRM will give content providers control over replication no matter what the media is?
As cool as this service is, it will not protect against the "low-tech" methods IT departments can use to snoop their employees - history and cache checking.
I cannot tell you how many times we have discovered people in my company to be browsing porn at work simply by checking their browser cache remotely (Senior VPs more often than not!).
If you use this service remember to set your history to 0 days and your cache to something small (< 10 Mb). And clear them both often!
As someone pointed out in an earlier post, Gnome runs on a lot of OSs besides Linux. There is no way to tell that it is Linux by looking at those grainy screenshots.
Plus, how many of the "vacant" Windows/Mac audience would know what Gnome and Linux is, even if they do see it in the movie. I can't see this helping Linux at all. It'll just be something that the small minority of users who run Gnome will either groan or cheer about.
I did learn some things and it may have rekindled a passing interest in astronomy I have
I think this was exactly Dr. Sagan's purpose. The series was not so much about the bleeding edge of cosmology but cutting to the heart of what drives scientists - discovery of the unknown. Sagan was most successful as a popularizer of science. To most people who are educated in the sciences, popularized treatments come off as shallow and, as you said, a little boring. But he was aiming the series the great masses of the world who are not educated in the sciences.
This time I could plainly see how he stressed the wonder and amazement of all we don't know as opposed to telling me a bunch of interesting and exciting stuff we (humans) do know.
I also think part of the point was to fire your interest in the great mysterious Universe and then send you off on your own to find the answers yourself. He was, in effect, using the series to set a whole new generation of future scientists on their way.
every DVD that you buy puts money in the pockets of the MPAA
The Cosmos DVD set is produced and distributed by Cosmos Studios, Inc and from what I can tell is not related to any of the major motion picture studios that make up the MPAA. Maybe you can explain how purchasing these DVDs will support the MPAA?
Besides that the set is Region 0 encoded, meaning it will play on any DVD player from any region. Very cool and definitely holds true to one of the main themes of the series - We are one world.
While buying this will not put money in the pockets of the MPAA, it will put money in the pockets of Cosmos Studios, which is committed to producing quality science programs, that can educate and excite the layperson. And 10% of the sales from carlsagan.com will go to the Carl Sagan Foundation.
This isn't about blaming the victim and it certainly wasn't a mistake made out of ignorance. Had that kid simply cracked the software on his own I'd be inclined to agree. But that teacher openly incited that kid to crack it. He needs to share in that blame, even though he is a "victim".
Think about it. If my 140 lb, white ass was walking around in South Central LA, screaming "Die, Nigger, die" at the top of my lungs would you not place some of the blame on me if I got my ass kicked?
Ironically, a page that only prints the URL will be completely legal. Look at the DeCSS page at 2600. This is the future of illegal links. Judges such as Kaplan may not see the free speech issues involved with linking but he certainly does with printing. These rulings will accomplish nothing except cause more people to right-click and copy and paste.
It's still not out of the legal woods - there is a civil lawsuit from teh shareholders who argue that because mp3.com knew what they were doing was illegal when they started Beam-It(bearing in mind that myplay.com was already operating a similar service *legally*) they are responsible for the financial losses as a result of plummeting share prices.
The truly absurd thing about the whole lawsuit fiasco is the question between "my bits" and "their bits". The only true place that "my bits" are kept when I purchase a CD is on the CD itself. Whether I use "their bits" stored on MP3.com's servers or copy "my bits" and store them in my MyPlay locker, I'm not using the original bits. I would always be streaming copied bits. I think this is the biggest failing of the courts thus far, to not recognize that their is no distinction between "their bits" and "my bits". There are only "bits".
And this obviously begs the question of what's to stop me from ripping a friend's CD and then uploading those MP3s to my MyPlay locker? How does actually uploading MP3s prove ownership any more or less than using the Beam-It techonology. The bottom line is that neither company has "proof" that I truly own the music that I want to access. Yet one method is legal and the other is not. "My bits" vs. "their bits".
For these reasons, I cannot honestly believe that MP3.com was consciously committing copyright infringement, as the record companies maintain. They had a business model that made it legitimately easier for the user to use their service. I use both and would much rather "beam" my CDs than rip, encode, and upload.
But more often than not, Republicans vote to give more freedom and take away government power, and Democrats vote to consolidate power and take away freedom.
Don't give the Republicans a halo just yet. Maybe they are hands off concerning economic freedom but let's not forget who sponsers the bills for mandatory internet filters in schools and libraries, prayer in schools, flag-burning amendments, and bans on pornography. Each of the major parties advocates some form of socialism - the Democrats want economic socialism and the Republicans want cultural socialism. The Libertarians are the only ones who want true freedoms across the board.
US Government: "Hey, Holland! Shut down all the porn and pro-marijuana sites that end in.nl!"
Dutch: "You're fooking kidding, right?"
True, but I just read this. So much for the idea that American laws hold no water in other countries. Our corporate government will find any way to push itself on other countries when money is involved, it seems...
We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent. There ought to be filters in public libraries, and filters in public schools, so that if kids get on the Internet, there's not going to be pornography or violence coming in.
(.......)
I just--ours is a great land. And one of the reasons why, is because we're free. And so, I don't support censorship.
Bush: "I want the American people to know that I do not have dissociative identity disorder. And neither do I."
But seriously, I'm amazed the man's head doesn't melt from the cognitive dissonance of believing that Internet filters in public libraries is not censorship.
Jack Warner, vice chancellor of the Board of Higher Education, said that about 70 percent of students at four-year colleges now have their own computers and that the proportion is smaller at community colleges.
If 70 percent of the students already have a computer why in the hell are they being required to shell out an additional $1200 - $2000 to purchase another one?????????
The only benefit of a laptop over a desktop is being able to tote it to class. Is this what the Universities are requiring? A $2000 note-taking device?
Slashdot Mirror
Which is rather ironic if you think about it. Teenagers are the demographic to which the RIAA companies most rabidly market. Why? They are the ones that will purchase 1.1 million copies of the new N'Stink album in the first week.
You live by the teen, you die by the teen.
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Would someone please meta-mod this down to the -1: Troll that it deserves??
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Kalle Lasn is the editor for Adbusters magazine - another counter-culture mag with stories and insights you definitely will not find in the mainstream media.
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Hmmm. Let's think about this from an executive's perspective for a moment:
If you honestly think you'll see any savings, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you...
-------
Unfortunately, what you've described is the old American way. Perhaps Jim Allchin is right and Microsoft is the embodiment of the The New American Way(TM) - stand on the shoulders of someone else, strong-arm the competition if you have the monopoly power (or litigate them if you don't) and feed consumers substandard products while spreading FUD to keep them complacent.
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Web proxy, here I come!
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Yes, Amazon will hose you at every available opportunity. I use their Marketplace feature to sell a lot of my used CD's, movies, and books (the whole "I have one to sell!" thing). In addition to skimming about 15% off of my sale price they skim over 30% off of my shipping allowance! If they charge the buyer $3.49 in shipping, they only provide me with $2.20 and keep the rest as a "shipping commission". I gave up trying to figure out how they can justify a shipping commission when I pay for the packaging and postage and do all the work.
-------
Very true - but the absolute worst aspect of this that many people do not realize is that the majority of costs associated w/ media (specifically music and movies) go to the marketing of said media. The costs to market movies often equal or surpass the costs of actually producing the movie! If the movie studios only make boozillion dollars this year instead of bamboozillion dollars perhaps they should slow down their relentless marketing machines instead of attempting to rob us of our rights.
-------
The issue is no longer about the legality/illegality of copying or saving the corrupt middlemen industries that are selling out our civil liberties to increase their already obscene profits. The issue is how do you compensate authors for the work they do. Trying to clamp down copying and "illegal" distribution of digital media will be about as successful as the American Drug War. (And I don't use that comparison lightly - Media has become a drug in this country)
-------
As present as the defect in your character that would lead to such an arrogant and condescending opinion?
Apparently you believe that you are beyond reproach and everyone else is beyond reform. Have you ever been grounded? Admonished? Criticized? If so, then you have probably made a mistake in your life. Some mistakes are larger than others but the bottom line is, what did you learn from it?
Fortunately, most people are able to reflect on past actions and grow from those experiences. Not all 16 year-olds are created equal and some take longer to acquire the wisdom to learn what responsibility is. To deny that people are capable of and willing to change as they grow older is untrue and unfair. Besides, he repaid his debt to society. Should he be punished repeatedly throughout his life for the same crime?
Why don't you reflect on your assinine attitude and see if you are capable of change. It would be a unfortunate if you still held such an adolescent attitude on the day that you suck your last breath.
-------
It makes me wonder if corporations and advertisers have their collective heads in the sand with respect to the effectiveness of advertising. How do you ascertain whether or not your TV spot is effective or a colossal waste of money? With the web, they can at least use click-through rates (which shows them to be *completely* ineffective).
-------
Actually, I don't think it has anything to do with what companies can and cannot legally do. Assuming that the guy did not host the website on company computers, the nature of the site is irrelevant. Whether it is Playboy.com or this guy's site, you cannot gain entry to a protected site using a stolen password.
As such, unless the VP was acting under company orders or gaining illegal access on company computers, I cannot see how his employer could be help liable.
-------
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I cannot tell you how many times we have discovered people in my company to be browsing porn at work simply by checking their browser cache remotely (Senior VPs more often than not!).
If you use this service remember to set your history to 0 days and your cache to something small (< 10 Mb). And clear them both often!
-------
Plus, how many of the "vacant" Windows/Mac audience would know what Gnome and Linux is, even if they do see it in the movie. I can't see this helping Linux at all. It'll just be something that the small minority of users who run Gnome will either groan or cheer about.
-------
I think this was exactly Dr. Sagan's purpose. The series was not so much about the bleeding edge of cosmology but cutting to the heart of what drives scientists - discovery of the unknown. Sagan was most successful as a popularizer of science. To most people who are educated in the sciences, popularized treatments come off as shallow and, as you said, a little boring. But he was aiming the series the great masses of the world who are not educated in the sciences.
This time I could plainly see how he stressed the wonder and amazement of all we don't know as opposed to telling me a bunch of interesting and exciting stuff we (humans) do know.
I also think part of the point was to fire your interest in the great mysterious Universe and then send you off on your own to find the answers yourself. He was, in effect, using the series to set a whole new generation of future scientists on their way.
-------
The Cosmos DVD set is produced and distributed by Cosmos Studios, Inc and from what I can tell is not related to any of the major motion picture studios that make up the MPAA. Maybe you can explain how purchasing these DVDs will support the MPAA?
Besides that the set is Region 0 encoded, meaning it will play on any DVD player from any region. Very cool and definitely holds true to one of the main themes of the series - We are one world.
While buying this will not put money in the pockets of the MPAA, it will put money in the pockets of Cosmos Studios, which is committed to producing quality science programs, that can educate and excite the layperson. And 10% of the sales from carlsagan.com will go to the Carl Sagan Foundation.
-------
Think about it. If my 140 lb, white ass was walking around in South Central LA, screaming "Die, Nigger, die" at the top of my lungs would you not place some of the blame on me if I got my ass kicked?
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The truly absurd thing about the whole lawsuit fiasco is the question between "my bits" and "their bits". The only true place that "my bits" are kept when I purchase a CD is on the CD itself. Whether I use "their bits" stored on MP3.com's servers or copy "my bits" and store them in my MyPlay locker, I'm not using the original bits. I would always be streaming copied bits. I think this is the biggest failing of the courts thus far, to not recognize that their is no distinction between "their bits" and "my bits". There are only "bits".
And this obviously begs the question of what's to stop me from ripping a friend's CD and then uploading those MP3s to my MyPlay locker? How does actually uploading MP3s prove ownership any more or less than using the Beam-It techonology. The bottom line is that neither company has "proof" that I truly own the music that I want to access. Yet one method is legal and the other is not. "My bits" vs. "their bits".
For these reasons, I cannot honestly believe that MP3.com was consciously committing copyright infringement, as the record companies maintain. They had a business model that made it legitimately easier for the user to use their service. I use both and would much rather "beam" my CDs than rip, encode, and upload.
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Don't give the Republicans a halo just yet. Maybe they are hands off concerning economic freedom but let's not forget who sponsers the bills for mandatory internet filters in schools and libraries, prayer in schools, flag-burning amendments, and bans on pornography. Each of the major parties advocates some form of socialism - the Democrats want economic socialism and the Republicans want cultural socialism. The Libertarians are the only ones who want true freedoms across the board.
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Dutch: "You're fooking kidding, right?"
True, but I just read this. So much for the idea that American laws hold no water in other countries. Our corporate government will find any way to push itself on other countries when money is involved, it seems...
Shameless plug: That's why I'm voting Nader!
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(.......)
I just--ours is a great land. And one of the reasons why, is because we're free. And so, I don't support censorship.
Bush: "I want the American people to know that I do not have dissociative identity disorder. And neither do I."
But seriously, I'm amazed the man's head doesn't melt from the cognitive dissonance of believing that Internet filters in public libraries is not censorship.
-------
If 70 percent of the students already have a computer why in the hell are they being required to shell out an additional $1200 - $2000 to purchase another one?????????
The only benefit of a laptop over a desktop is being able to tote it to class. Is this what the Universities are requiring? A $2000 note-taking device?
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So am I - that's why I'm voting Nader on November 7th.
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