Unfortunately GW seem to spend more time putting the legal smack down on fans than they do producing gaming material, I'd say the tabletop battles come in second against the court room battles.
An unfortunate side effect of their popularity has been a sad slide to high prices, less innovation (just the same army's rules regurgitated for the new rule system that wasn't really needed anyway) and rehashing the same figures to try and get the kids to keep buying to stay 'cool'
Personally I'm still gaming with my Rogue Trader era beakie/womble marines I've had for years and only tend to get new staff when once-in-a-blue-moon a new army comes out that seems worth collecting. But I also tend to get my newer stuff off eBay now anyway rather than pay their high street prices!
What happened to the illegal lottery suggestion?
on
.biz Open For Biz
·
· Score: 1
Did anyone actually have a go at legal action for Neulevel operating an illegal lottery?
BTW my registrar confirmed that domains under dispute will neither show as available or taken under WHOIS. This seems bloody stupid as there is no way to know whats going on.
As for the IP claims against show.biz how the hell can you prove thats a trademark!!!!!
The whole TLD thing is a waste of time while we let the companies register their name across all the TLD's - whats the point!
I've read most of the posts and all most of the comments are sound, but I think the problem is this.
While we cant blame Microsoft for the problem not being addressed in a patch, and its probably unreasobale to expect bug free software (although alot less would be nice) isnt the problem that although the patches are available Joe end-user doesnt know anything about them?
To be fair everyone here knows about new patches because they either subscribe to the security mailing lists, or they read it on Tech news sites. Joe E-U doesnt do either of these (and frankly doesnt care) so you could argue its unfair to blame him for not patching his system (you could also argue that if he wants to swim in the web sea he better learn to swim and not use a lifejacket). Yes the fixes are probably in the Windows Update thingy but most users probably dont bother about that either (and a reminder probably wont work either otherwise their AV would be up to date as well)
While I dont think this is fair on the ISP's the only thing I can think of is each ISP mails all its users when patches come out (for any Windows OS, Mac users aside (and I'm not having a dig, I have a mac too) I'd expect people running anything else to have a clue), has them for download on its own web site (coz the MS site is just a jungle) and has their tech support staff able to help install them. Add that these updates are required by the TOS and now there is no excuse for non-patching (and cue increasing ISP charges and lay-off of all the 'script readers' who man the hell desks at the moment and really get on my wick when I'm trying to get to the bottom of a routing problem).
(tangent)
Doesnt it make you mad when you ring up to report a fault and they tell you there arent any reported faults? Duh what the hell am I doing if not reporting a fault, someones got to be the first!
(/tangent)
Its not viable to let MS email all the users because:
a. No one trusts them with their correct contact details (what good is.NET anywhay when we'll all be "A Registered User" working for "A Company" in "Somewhere Road, Somewhereville, Somewhere, S0M3 WH3R3")
b. No one botheres to register anyway (and will only give out the mandatory Coutry info for the WPA crap once they realise thats all they have to)
c. The system would likely be insecure and someone whould hack it for the details and/or send out spam/viruses
d. Did I hear someone say "shitloadsoftraffic":-)
Of course, it'll never happen but I think blocking accounts is the right thing to do (tongue-in-cheek) after all if Steve Gibsons right it'll only get worse when XP comes out(/tongue-in-cheek) Theres no point sending emails, one of my clients had Nimda and you couldnt get out on the web at all through the scanning.
I had the same problem, a half width rack unit. Then answer is to get a rack shelf, these have loads of screw/bolt holes in the plate to fix the kit to and you will get 2 1/2 units side by side on the shelf (pretty obvious really). They can be a bugger to secure the units to - I had to drill a new hole and hammer the plate into an ident to get the bolt to fit. Unfortunately I got mine on holiday in Orlando Florida (Abneys music store I think) but its a common musicians items so they should be easily obtainable
One thought I had?
Can the community interest be sustained at its current (fanatical - dont believe me? check out the discussion boards) level for over 12 months?
Sure when the thing goes public beta and/or some concrete details are released there will probably be reason to whoop and hollow (because the public hasnt seen the multiplayer demo the gaming press got invited too), but given the few screenshots and vague detail thats been released thus far (lots of 'we plan to' and 'hopefully's) I wonder if people wont get burned out and loose interest until almost launch date (especially with Galactic Command Online and Online Universe comming out before it (probably!)).
Dont get me wrong I'm excited, but 12 months (at least) is a long time. In that time we'll see Battlecruiser Millennium (its coming along nicely;-) ), then we'll have GCO and OU (read X-tension goes big!) admittedly the core audiences are different but there is alot of crossover in all 3 online titles (especially with GCO). I just wonder if they 'let the cat out of the bag' a bit early (probably to get user feelings and wish list stuff in right from the word go - having said that they've been going for some time now)
Bad news then bud - Jawa isnt one of the player classes, so you only get to beat up on NPC ones:-)
"Gee look at this cute little guy.... ZZAAAPPP...... OTINEEEEE!, Hey! you shot my brother Billi-bob, I'm gonna smack your ass now... (sound of flying furniture)..... got me one of them sand crawlers now, I'm gonna drive through a gas station!"
(That last part will only be funny to people who remember the film Convoy)
Spaceship stuff is due in an expansion about 6 months after launch (so 2003) and even less details are available for it than the base game at present. I believe before this comes out transport between planets will be instantaneous but can only be done from the planets starport (and I expect you will have to pay for it too)
Nearly all the argumets have been thrashed at this point ut it appears these something missing.
I've been in tech support (as one part of my job) for almost 5 years. A huge part of the problem could be removed if the salesman had a different attitude.
I've worked with one guy who you could ask if the PC will make the tea for you and he would say yes. Why? Because A. they want/need the sale for their commission and B. they wont be the poor bastard installing it, taking the flak because it wont make the tea and then supporting thereafter a guy who aint happy with you.
Salepeople need to explain fully to a customer what a computer will and wont do (preferably after finding out what the customer wants to do with it) and going into detail with the inevitable "yes you can do this but youll need to buy xyz before hand". They also need to explain what is covered under support and what isnt (once you've helped with something you dont support youll always have to do it, especially if the other companys support it pants). The reason they dont is that this takes too much time (in their eyes) and can potentially lose the sale.
I believe resellers get shit on the worst because we are caught between the customer and the supplier/manufacturer. First you get the vague "it doesnt work" story (worse with corporates because they cant make money if they cant work and they really dont want to be speaking to you, they WANT you to drop everything right there and go fix it immediately, let alone you talking them through stuff) but then you get shafted by the manufacturer/supplier. "That'll be a problem with "
The number of times our biggest client has reported email problems, we check the systems and its fine, so we ring Demon Internet. Demon say "No problems on our system" we scratch heads for days, get more flak from the client, pull random bits of the system apart looking for problems, then a few days later, miraculacly it all works, and then you see a little note on the status page of Demons web site saying they have now finished their upgrade. WHAT BLOODY UPGRADE! The other one I like is the "We dont have any problems reported"!!!! So, err, then what am I doing if not reporting one? Makes you wonder how they ever acept that there is a problem.
The other thing I cant get round is how he thinks Dell are good. I have NEVER had a good support experience with Dell (UK). Once I called on behalf of a client (the Dell guy didnt know I was an engineer) the support guy asked me (when diagnosing a memory problem, that I had already run the diags on and found a memory fault, AND told him this) to take SIMMS out of another users PC. If this isnt bad enough, no mention was made about grounding myself or handling the chips by the edges! In 5 years I have no faith in Demon of Dell. This was before we got to the
Dell "download the latest diags from the web
site"
Me: "Err the client doesnt have internet access"
Dell"cant you donwload them from somewhere else?"
Me: "No my office is 80 miles away, whats wrong with the diagnostics the unit shipped with?"
Dell: "They might be out of date now"
Me: "Why would they be, the PC hasnt changed!!!!!"
repeat ad nausium
Well there's a letter from a Nasa engineer up on the register correcting aspects of their story regarding the 'crash'.
The Thinkpads in use are 486's and run Solaris x86, however these are not used for mission critical system, they appear to be simply monitoring devices. Interestingly the guy neglected to say what the mission critical systems were running (which were the ones that went belly up)
Ok couple of things before I start
1. IANAL
2. I do not live in the US
3. I dont even know if this is possible in my own country (UK)
So Ill have a cheeseburger but not a flamegrilled one if I'm way off the mark here:)
Is it not possible for a large collection of music purchasers to take legal action against the industry for the restriction/prevention/infringment of fair use?
Perhaps this is something the EFF would like to get involved in. But (as with everything like this such as DECSS) it needs people to get off their butts and do something rather than just ranting about it (The PFJ in monty pythons life of Brian anyone?)
>Since i'm in England Judge thicko's lack of >judgement can't hurt me
True but it won't stop the MPAA threatening legal action against your ISP (as they did with mine and I'm in the UK). Your ISP is most likely to panic and at best deactivate your site until DeCSS is removed. The only piece of good news is until they do initialte legal action against you your ISP can't release your personal details (address etc) because of the data protection act (and the MPAA will ask).
Check out www.ash-ridley.net and go to my PC page to see the a copy of the email (in the news page)they sent my ISP.
Has anyone sat back and considered the broader ramifications of this ruling?
As with Yahoo in France recently the courts have made a site owner responsible for the content of any site it has links to (anyone who can't see the stupidity in this please explode now)
If this isn't turned around soon, search engines will either have to screen every site linked by their database, or cease to be a search engine (this is of course without considering how search engines would keep track of updates of 'approved' sites)
Now correct me if I'm wrong but some MPAA members own search engines, so in effect they have just put part of themselves out of business! (I think we should email the MPAA and report their member owned search engines for linking to DeCSS - like the good droid consumers they want us to be)
Why dont the search engines get up in arms about this and take action? It would make the legal tussle a little bit less one sided.
This is a much better way of rallying people to the cause as it touches probably every internet user known to man (as opposed to explaining a technical argument involving the words 'hacker' and 'piracy' which 'normal' pople tend to steer clear of).
Having read all the transcripts (and you guys did a great job BTW) I feel that somewhere along the line that the point of this case has gone adrift.
I maybe wrong but wasn't the case to determine if the posting and linking of DeCSS was a crime, rather than anything to do with the program itself? If this is the case then the argument should have gone along these lines (forgive my over simplistic view).
Fred makes shovels (Jon), Mark distributes Fred's shovels (2600). If Paul (DVD Pirate) goes and beats someone to death with a shovel he got through Mark (and then probably uses it to bury the body as well)
Does this mean that:
a. Mark should be convicted for selling a potentially offensive weapon
b. Fred should be convicted for making a potentially offensive weapon
c. Paul should be be convicted for murdering someone, but given credit (or possibly punished further) for original thinking from a weapon point of view
Now if this is the case (I'm from the UK so bear with me) this seems a bit of a no-brainer, but the bottom line is the MPAA can't be bothered to chase the actual pirates (as their ace pirate buster proved on the stand - and don't even get me started on Jacks testimony). Shouldn't the MPAA be thrown out and told to "Come back when you actually have a case".
In actuality the outcome in the US won't matter. The MPAA still managed to frighten my ISP into submission when I mirrored the code with just an email.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately GW seem to spend more time putting the legal smack down on fans than they do producing gaming material, I'd say the tabletop battles come in second against the court room battles.
An unfortunate side effect of their popularity has been a sad slide to high prices, less innovation (just the same army's rules regurgitated for the new rule system that wasn't really needed anyway) and rehashing the same figures to try and get the kids to keep buying to stay 'cool'
Personally I'm still gaming with my Rogue Trader era beakie/womble marines I've had for years and only tend to get new staff when once-in-a-blue-moon a new army comes out that seems worth collecting. But I also tend to get my newer stuff off eBay now anyway rather than pay their high street prices!
Did anyone actually have a go at legal action for Neulevel operating an illegal lottery?
BTW my registrar confirmed that domains under dispute will neither show as available or taken under WHOIS. This seems bloody stupid as there is no way to know whats going on.
As for the IP claims against show.biz how the hell can you prove thats a trademark!!!!!
The whole TLD thing is a waste of time while we let the companies register their name across all the TLD's - whats the point!
I've read most of the posts and all most of the comments are sound, but I think the problem is this.
.NET anywhay when we'll all be "A Registered User" working for "A Company" in "Somewhere Road, Somewhereville, Somewhere, S0M3 WH3R3")
:-)
While we cant blame Microsoft for the problem not being addressed in a patch, and its probably unreasobale to expect bug free software (although alot less would be nice) isnt the problem that although the patches are available Joe end-user doesnt know anything about them?
To be fair everyone here knows about new patches because they either subscribe to the security mailing lists, or they read it on Tech news sites. Joe E-U doesnt do either of these (and frankly doesnt care) so you could argue its unfair to blame him for not patching his system (you could also argue that if he wants to swim in the web sea he better learn to swim and not use a lifejacket). Yes the fixes are probably in the Windows Update thingy but most users probably dont bother about that either (and a reminder probably wont work either otherwise their AV would be up to date as well)
While I dont think this is fair on the ISP's the only thing I can think of is each ISP mails all its users when patches come out (for any Windows OS, Mac users aside (and I'm not having a dig, I have a mac too) I'd expect people running anything else to have a clue), has them for download on its own web site (coz the MS site is just a jungle) and has their tech support staff able to help install them. Add that these updates are required by the TOS and now there is no excuse for non-patching (and cue increasing ISP charges and lay-off of all the 'script readers' who man the hell desks at the moment and really get on my wick when I'm trying to get to the bottom of a routing problem).
(tangent)
Doesnt it make you mad when you ring up to report a fault and they tell you there arent any reported faults? Duh what the hell am I doing if not reporting a fault, someones got to be the first!
(/tangent)
Its not viable to let MS email all the users because:
a. No one trusts them with their correct contact details (what good is
b. No one botheres to register anyway (and will only give out the mandatory Coutry info for the WPA crap once they realise thats all they have to)
c. The system would likely be insecure and someone whould hack it for the details and/or send out spam/viruses
d. Did I hear someone say "shitloadsoftraffic"
Of course, it'll never happen but I think blocking accounts is the right thing to do (tongue-in-cheek) after all if Steve Gibsons right it'll only get worse when XP comes out(/tongue-in-cheek) Theres no point sending emails, one of my clients had Nimda and you couldnt get out on the web at all through the scanning.
Demon are blocking Nimda infected users now, I've just had to go clean up one and get it reactivated.
Its one evil piece of code on a 2K box, espesh when someone then trojans it afterwards.
I had the same problem, a half width rack unit. Then answer is to get a rack shelf, these have loads of screw/bolt holes in the plate to fix the kit to and you will get 2 1/2 units side by side on the shelf (pretty obvious really). They can be a bugger to secure the units to - I had to drill a new hole and hammer the plate into an ident to get the bolt to fit. Unfortunately I got mine on holiday in Orlando Florida (Abneys music store I think) but its a common musicians items so they should be easily obtainable
One thought I had? Can the community interest be sustained at its current (fanatical - dont believe me? check out the discussion boards) level for over 12 months? Sure when the thing goes public beta and/or some concrete details are released there will probably be reason to whoop and hollow (because the public hasnt seen the multiplayer demo the gaming press got invited too), but given the few screenshots and vague detail thats been released thus far (lots of 'we plan to' and 'hopefully's) I wonder if people wont get burned out and loose interest until almost launch date (especially with Galactic Command Online and Online Universe comming out before it (probably!)). Dont get me wrong I'm excited, but 12 months (at least) is a long time. In that time we'll see Battlecruiser Millennium (its coming along nicely ;-) ), then we'll have GCO and OU (read X-tension goes big!) admittedly the core audiences are different but there is alot of crossover in all 3 online titles (especially with GCO). I just wonder if they 'let the cat out of the bag' a bit early (probably to get user feelings and wish list stuff in right from the word go - having said that they've been going for some time now)
Bad news then bud - Jawa isnt one of the player classes, so you only get to beat up on NPC ones :-)
"Gee look at this cute little guy .... ZZAAAPPP ...... OTINEEEEE!, Hey! you shot my brother Billi-bob, I'm gonna smack your ass now ... (sound of flying furniture) ..... got me one of them sand crawlers now, I'm gonna drive through a gas station!"
(That last part will only be funny to people who remember the film Convoy)
Spaceship stuff is due in an expansion about 6 months after launch (so 2003) and even less details are available for it than the base game at present. I believe before this comes out transport between planets will be instantaneous but can only be done from the planets starport (and I expect you will have to pay for it too)
Nearly all the argumets have been thrashed at this point ut it appears these something missing. I've been in tech support (as one part of my job) for almost 5 years. A huge part of the problem could be removed if the salesman had a different attitude. I've worked with one guy who you could ask if the PC will make the tea for you and he would say yes. Why? Because A. they want/need the sale for their commission and B. they wont be the poor bastard installing it, taking the flak because it wont make the tea and then supporting thereafter a guy who aint happy with you. Salepeople need to explain fully to a customer what a computer will and wont do (preferably after finding out what the customer wants to do with it) and going into detail with the inevitable "yes you can do this but youll need to buy xyz before hand". They also need to explain what is covered under support and what isnt (once you've helped with something you dont support youll always have to do it, especially if the other companys support it pants). The reason they dont is that this takes too much time (in their eyes) and can potentially lose the sale. I believe resellers get shit on the worst because we are caught between the customer and the supplier/manufacturer. First you get the vague "it doesnt work" story (worse with corporates because they cant make money if they cant work and they really dont want to be speaking to you, they WANT you to drop everything right there and go fix it immediately, let alone you talking them through stuff) but then you get shafted by the manufacturer/supplier. "That'll be a problem with " The number of times our biggest client has reported email problems, we check the systems and its fine, so we ring Demon Internet. Demon say "No problems on our system" we scratch heads for days, get more flak from the client, pull random bits of the system apart looking for problems, then a few days later, miraculacly it all works, and then you see a little note on the status page of Demons web site saying they have now finished their upgrade. WHAT BLOODY UPGRADE! The other one I like is the "We dont have any problems reported"!!!! So, err, then what am I doing if not reporting one? Makes you wonder how they ever acept that there is a problem. The other thing I cant get round is how he thinks Dell are good. I have NEVER had a good support experience with Dell (UK). Once I called on behalf of a client (the Dell guy didnt know I was an engineer) the support guy asked me (when diagnosing a memory problem, that I had already run the diags on and found a memory fault, AND told him this) to take SIMMS out of another users PC. If this isnt bad enough, no mention was made about grounding myself or handling the chips by the edges! In 5 years I have no faith in Demon of Dell. This was before we got to the Dell "download the latest diags from the web site" Me: "Err the client doesnt have internet access" Dell"cant you donwload them from somewhere else?" Me: "No my office is 80 miles away, whats wrong with the diagnostics the unit shipped with?" Dell: "They might be out of date now" Me: "Why would they be, the PC hasnt changed!!!!!" repeat ad nausium
Well there's a letter from a Nasa engineer up on the register correcting aspects of their story regarding the 'crash'. The Thinkpads in use are 486's and run Solaris x86, however these are not used for mission critical system, they appear to be simply monitoring devices. Interestingly the guy neglected to say what the mission critical systems were running (which were the ones that went belly up)
So Ill have a cheeseburger but not a flamegrilled one if I'm way off the mark here :)
Is it not possible for a large collection of music purchasers to take legal action against the industry for the restriction/prevention/infringment of fair use?
Perhaps this is something the EFF would like to get involved in. But (as with everything like this such as DECSS) it needs people to get off their butts and do something rather than just ranting about it (The PFJ in monty pythons life of Brian anyone?)
>Since i'm in England Judge thicko's lack of >judgement can't hurt me
True but it won't stop the MPAA threatening legal action against your ISP (as they did with mine and I'm in the UK). Your ISP is most likely to panic and at best deactivate your site until DeCSS is removed. The only piece of good news is until they do initialte legal action against you your ISP can't release your personal details (address etc) because of the data protection act (and the MPAA will ask).
Check out www.ash-ridley.net and go to my PC page to see the a copy of the email (in the news page)they sent my ISP.
Has anyone sat back and considered the broader ramifications of this ruling?
As with Yahoo in France recently the courts have made a site owner responsible for the content of any site it has links to (anyone who can't see the stupidity in this please explode now)
If this isn't turned around soon, search engines will either have to screen every site linked by their database, or cease to be a search engine (this is of course without considering how search engines would keep track of updates of 'approved' sites)
Now correct me if I'm wrong but some MPAA members own search engines, so in effect they have just put part of themselves out of business! (I think we should email the MPAA and report their member owned search engines for linking to DeCSS - like the good droid consumers they want us to be)
Why dont the search engines get up in arms about this and take action? It would make the legal tussle a little bit less one sided.
This is a much better way of rallying people to the cause as it touches probably every internet user known to man (as opposed to explaining a technical argument involving the words 'hacker' and 'piracy' which 'normal' pople tend to steer clear of).
Having read all the transcripts (and you guys did a great job BTW) I feel that somewhere along the line that the point of this case has gone adrift.
I maybe wrong but wasn't the case to determine if the posting and linking of DeCSS was a crime, rather than anything to do with the program itself? If this is the case then the argument should have gone along these lines (forgive my over simplistic view).
Fred makes shovels (Jon), Mark distributes Fred's shovels (2600). If Paul (DVD Pirate) goes and beats someone to death with a shovel he got through Mark (and then probably uses it to bury the body as well)
Does this mean that:
a. Mark should be convicted for selling a potentially offensive weapon
b. Fred should be convicted for making a potentially offensive weapon
c. Paul should be be convicted for murdering someone, but given credit (or possibly punished further) for original thinking from a weapon point of view
Now if this is the case (I'm from the UK so bear with me) this seems a bit of a no-brainer, but the bottom line is the MPAA can't be bothered to chase the actual pirates (as their ace pirate buster proved on the stand - and don't even get me started on Jacks testimony). Shouldn't the MPAA be thrown out and told to "Come back when you actually have a case".
In actuality the outcome in the US won't matter. The MPAA still managed to frighten my ISP into submission when I mirrored the code with just an email.
Keep up the fight.
Just my £1 worth (about $1.75 I think)