What's happening in India is great, and I'm happy to see such a poor country starting to pick itself up. However, I'm amazed that American companies are getting in line to setup shop there. Sure, the savings is a huge incentive, but at the same time you are allowing them to soak up all your IP, all your American business methods, essentially training them how to run a successful company.
Welcome to the New, New Economy. A lot of management types are judged on short-term success over long-term success. So, they ultimately don't care what happens, as long as they get their cut (which we all know has increased at ludicrous rates the past several years). What you need are more companies with direct ownership with concern over long-term success, rather than shareholders and quarterly profits.
That's great until the day that Indians realize that there's nothing stopping them from setting up their own companies to compete direct against the American ones. I'm actually surprised it hasn't started happening already.
This is already happening. There are several Indian companies set up to handle customer service. Employees use English-sounding names and have access to popular shows like "Friends" or "Monday Night Football," to have some cultural references they can throw in during a call. Owned by Indian folks with Fortune 500 companies who they refuse to name because of the sake of confidentiality. How much do you want to bet that it's because these companies fear a public backlash rather than fear their competitors will follow suit? It's just a matter of time before these Indian-owned companies begin expanding to other areas.
However, this (in addition to a weakening dollar) will eventually lead to equilibrium and a return of jobs as manufacturing is able to afford more workers locally.
Ain't going to happen. All of the people who are either currently or potentially going to lose their jobs overseas like to point out all of the hidden costs of moving your operations, training, etc. I'd say chances are good that the PHBs will learn from their current mistake but never bring the jobs back. They'll think to themselves that they'll be saving on all of these hidden costs they learned about the first time around, and then wonder why no one has the money to buy their crappy software.
Look at it this way, off-shoring is the hot thing right now (as a side note, I saw one magazine refer to it as "best-shoring," which made me sick). If and when bad things arise from it, it'll be taught at all of the business schools, so maybe the flow of jobs will slow, but I have very little faith the jobs will come back, as they fear the short-term costs of moving everything back.
Can you post some more info on the set that you purchased? You mentioned that they are imported from Taiwan, so that makes me wonder if they are, in fact, bootlegs. There are some legitimate Taiwanese releases, so I don't want to make a huge assumption, but this idea of forcing someone to re-purchase the entire series just to get the ending doesn't sound quite right to me. I could possibly understand if this was done and two different sets had different extras, but restricting access to the shows itself sounds a bit odd...
Another thing I am seeing more and more are dishonest retailers. I recently bought some CDs which I thought were legitimate Japanese releases. It turns out that the discs were CDRs with really bad laser printer silk screens. The retailer went through the effort of making copies of all of the inserts, even the obis (paper sleeve). I've never heard of any bootleg quite like this. The kicker is that a lot of these CDR CDs were for out of print releases, and this retailer was even selling them at normal import prices (as opposed to the "normal" bootleg prices. The proverbial double-whammy. Anyway, the retailer was Digital Discs Anime. They lost their domain recently, but they still go to conventions. My advice to avoid them, since they are (in one way or the other) lying to their customers. Er, to get back on topic, my main point is that the guy selling you your DVDs might just be feeding you a line, trying to absolve himself of any guilt/responsibility.
...when we're going to get past this dubbing thing and see some subs.
I'm not sure if they'd made any progress on this, but I believe ADV has at least tossed the idea around a bit for their Anime Channel. It'd have to use a combination of closed captioning and SAP, but it's not impossible. Just have to figure out if the demand is high enough and what the related costs are. I feel that, for the most part, the US anime industry has a much better connection with their fans than a lot of more mainstream entertainment entities (RIAA, MPAA, etc).
When is somebody going to stand up and say enough is enough? A better question is, who CAN stand up to this? I don't know enough about how laws like this get passed without consent from the citizens of this country, so I would simply like to know who I can write and bitch to so this doesn't happen.
I'm not sure how politically active you are, but for the sake of argument, I'll assume you're not very active.;) Anyway, why not make sure you vote in the future at the local, state, and federal levels? Ultimately, that's the best way to express your opinion. Well, that and trying to "spread the word" as to why one candidate is bad and why another is good (or perhaps just less bad).
I've traditionally been a non-participant in government elections, but I'm starting to see that I really should. I admit, part of it is based on the fact that I've started to be exposed to people with somewhat ridiculous political beliefs and I just want to offset them, but another is to try to play a more active role in government (as a citizen, not as a career politician). Remember, if you didn't vote, although you still have the right to complain (the US still has a lot more freedoms than a lot of the world), everyone really thinks you should STFU.
this is a very interesting side-effect of the 'net. i don't know if this can be remedied, but it does imply that children now have accept the possibility of total transparency in their lives. as hard as it is to swallow, maybe this is how the new culture begins...
We'll see. No real facts to back up this opinion, but I have a feeling that the popular kids won't be targeted as strongly as kids that are traditionally picked on. While there might be some level of hidden anymosity and actions taken against those who are higher on the social totem pole, those on the lower rungs will alwasys be targeted.
Take a look at it this way, some kids might get picked on because they are fat. Suddenly, someone takes a picture of them online and posts it, adding the insightful comment, "This guy is so fat!" Then, you have some of his bonehead friends adding comments, just to look cool. Etc, etc.
Looks like it's suddenly become a lot harder to be a kid. Glad I didn't have to go through anything like this (although I was relatively free of verbal and physical abuse in my school days).
From another perspective, compare this to the dot-com boom. People tried to put everything on the web, and it failed. Certain things just didn't make sense. Now, the web is catching on, because traditional business models are making their way online, and processes are being streamlined. Same thing is happening with this teasing. It's becoming more efficient. And while you might have some blips of more popular people being teased, for the most part, the biggest targets will be the traditional ones.
Heh, I just had this horrible image of someone taking the time to create an templated, automatic bully-site. You could include pictures, etc. It would be kind of like Scott Pakin's automatic complaint generator, but I think not really in a spirit of fun, but with more ill will.
Geez, I'm suddenly wishing technology would start slowing down a bit... the medical field constantly faces ethicial issues and dilemmas... I'm starting to see it more and more in the tech field...
You know, I was thinking something similar to this. Not that I want to add to my pile of bills, but what about something like computer insurance? We've already toyed with the idea of people requiring a license to use computers (grr, can't find the original story)...
Or I could be a jerk who is trying to figure out ways to scare more of the idiots to go offline.:)
Anyway, it might not make as much sense for home users, but I think something like this might be useful for corporate entities. Someone would probably be more willing to sue a rich, faceless company than they are to sue another person without bottomless pockets of wealth. The insurance could also come in handy for data, which can be viewed as property with significant value. "Our data is worth $1 million, and we lost it!" And least you get a nice check. It could make a handy signing bonus for your replacement staff.;)
Laws are really needed to help protect people conducting security research and find problems and reporting them without doing anything malicious.
While I agree with you in general, just to play Devil's Advocate, what qualifies as "research?" Does the person need to be tied to some type of educational institution or company? What about individuals doing research? And the worst-case scenario, a malicious attacker hiding behind the shield of "research."
And then at the bottom of this rant, the author saysWhile not ideal for some niche activities, it's still hands down the best-designed MP3 player in the world.
What gives? Is this guy totally out to lunch?
I get the impression it's an article simply meant to point out some of the flaws of a very good product, especially since the iPod and iTunes have been the centers of some major love-fests, especially in the press. I don't think it hurts to acknowledge that a good product may have some negatives. It's something that future versions of the product could try to improve upon.
If something only has positive attributes, then that make my BS detector go off. Once in a while, you'll find that rare gem which really is all positive. But I think being able to consider a product's drawbacks gives a more accurate impression of it, and can in the long run give a better perception of the product.
Anyway, would you rather see another "me too" article about how great iTunes and iPod are, or a slightly different take on all of the buzz around them (although I'm sure C|NET probably has plenty of "me too" articles, as well)?
Yeah, I wish he put these out in a more timely manner, but his official reason is that he didn't have the time to spend on them that he wanted. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for a second...
I remember back when the original trilogy was being put out on VHS, it was made very clear that you could get the original trilogy, "one last time." Now, I remember thinking about buying them, but then I decided not to. Not because I thought they'd actually put them out on another format (although I'm sure plenty of folks did), but just because I wasn't interested enough.
Anyway, I imagine there'd be quite a few people upset if the originals came out on DVD, complaining that they were told that the originals were going to be available only "one last time."
One final comment. I decided to finally read the Lord of the Rings books before the movies came out. In the introduction, it's mentioned how many revisions the book went through. Edits by Tolkien and then later by his son. Now, I understand that printed literature is a different medium than cinema, but I've personally never heard anyone complain about Tolkien making edits to his story, to fit closer to his creative vision.
Sys Admins and Webmasters make those decisions and I'm betting the ones running the Democrat candidate websites have to worry about where they spend money. Thus they us OSS software.
Oh please. I'd be willing to bet that both political parties have more money than they can figure out how to spend. It always irks me when I see DemocRATS;) try to say that they are so much better than Republicans. I think a lot of people from both major parties in the political machine are corrupt and getting wealthy off of the people they are supposed to be representing. Anyone who thinks Democrats are angels are as ignorant as the conservatives they like to criticise.
In all honesty, it seems that lots of geeks lean towards the left, for whatever reason (please don't say "because they actually think!"). So, that might explain the stats. But just because you prefer the MS solution does not disqualify you from being a tech geek. You're just speculating based on gross generalizations.
I agree, and the fansubs are better in quality and content than the commercial/licensed offerings. I suppose this is kinda like open source vs closed source (commercial). Projects where amatures do something for the pure love of it is done differently than something with a commercial agenda.
You know, I really hate this attitude. Just because you've seen it by fansubbers first, or they are doing it "for love," doesn't mean it's always better. I have seen fansub with atrocious spelling errors and mistranslations. I have also seen commercial releases with problems. In the past, you might have had a lot of folks doing fansubbing for the love of anime and to spread it, but these days, you have more and more groups who are fansubbing to gain notoriety. It's a real shame to see the anime community going this route.
Anyway, commercial releases offer quite a bit more for collectors than fansubs (or digisubs). First, there is the physical item. Yes, some will say I am living in the past, but collectors really like having a physical thing, at times. This is the same reason why some people still like buying albums instead of just downloading stuff.
Although the anime digisubs are getting larger and of higher quality, they still do not compare to DVD, IMO. I enjoy watching my DVDs on a nice home theater system, sitting in a comfortable couch. I don't want to be at my computer. Yes, I can run a line from the computer, but you also lose out on some of the extra control, etc (FF, rewind).
DVDs also offer things such as additional language tracks, optional subtitles, etc. Plenty of companies are releasing liner notes, and there are some extras that are obtainable only via direct interaction with the original licesne-holder.
I also think that your comparison to open source software is off. The only similarity fansubs have to open source is that they are both (generally) free. If they were the same thing, you're basically calling open source a bunch of pirates/hackers/crackers/whatever. A more accurate comparison would be if you found an example of someone creating their own anime and offering it for free.
Please note, I'm not saying all fansubbing is bad, but anyone who knows the "ethics" of fansubbing will know that there are quite a few people who are in clear violation of it.
Not everything in the world should be free. And I think if you have the attitude that everything should be free, you're either deluding yourself or just trying to ease your conscience for not paying for stuff you use.
Dreamworks To Distribute Ghost In The Shell II In Spring Of 2004
August 14, 2003 Screen Daily reports that Dreamworks SKG has formed a specialty distribution arm, Go Fish, which will distribute its first film, Satoshi Kon's Millenium Actress, on September 12 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Dreamworks set up Go Fish just after Warner Bros. announced the launch of Warner Independent Pictures, which will release films from independents and small production companies. While Go Fish will undoubtedly release its share of indie films, the second film announced by Dreamworks was Ghost In The Shell II: Innocence, the follow-up to the extremely successful science fiction anime feature, Ghost In The Shell, which was directed by Mamoru Oshii and based on the manga series by Masamune Shirow (published in the U.S by Dark Horse). It should be interesting to see if Dreamworks primarily uses Go Fish to compete with Warners for indie films or to gain a beachhead for anime feature films in the rough and tumble arena of theatrical exhibition.
Ghost in the Shell II is in the final stages of production in Japan, and Go Fish plans to release the feature film late in the first half of 2004. Back in 1996 the original Ghost In the Shell film made a major impact in the U.S. and launched a plethora of successful tie-in products including posters, statues, art books, manga, and action figures. With a Ghost in the Shell TV series (see "Bandai Gets Ghost In the Shell TV Series") set to debut in the U.S. and the merchandising potential of a second Ghost In The Shell movie (see "New Ghost In The Shell Movie"), this property is poised to take off once again.
There is also a leather-bound collector's edition. Rather than have people paranoid about a hidden referral link, just look for it yourself.:) The title is "The Complete Far Side Leather - Bound Edition." $750.00 List Price!!
I highly doubt these would appear on the DVDs. The only way they would benefit from having this on the DVDs would be to have unique patterns on every DVD, and then have some way to match the DVD to whoever bought it. The scale of doing this on individual DVDs would be pretty incredible compared to doing it for theater prints. Not to mention there would really be no way for them to match these up to individuals (Conspiracy theorist - YET!).
The only way I could see this appearing on commercial DVDs would be via a goof, and you would hope the studio would take the responsibility to do a recall/replacement program (they've done them before).
You're talking to a group of people that does most of their shopping online. What do you think?
Actually, there are more benefits to shopping online than merely convenience. A lot of online stores are cheaper than brick-and-mortar stores, even when you factor in shipping prices (and remember a lot of online stores are starting to have free shipping options). So, this service would definitely not make sense for people looking to save some money on their entertainment spending.
What?!? You mean large corportations want us to spend more on entertainment?;)
Miss Bede and the family of Aaron Hamel plan to sue Take-Two Interactive Software, which publishes Grand Theft Auto, for liability in a wrongful death lawsuit. Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, which is based in Edinburgh and designed the first version of the game in 1997. Sony will also be named in the lawsuit, because Grand Theft Auto was made exclusively for its Play- Station consoles. Sony declined to comment on the case.
The lawsuit is being filed by one victim and the family of the other victim. The morons doing the shooting aren't involved in this aspect of it (unless they are asked to testify that the video game made them do it, which we all know is just stupid).
My favorite quote from the article:
In a letter to victims and their families, Joshua said: "I did not mean to hurt anyone. I hate that it happened. This will stick with me for the rest of my life."
It's nice to see that this guy is a complete moron, and this isn't just an isolated incident. What does he expect when he fires a rifle at people? They'll just respawn or something? Sad...
hehe, I'll have to agree with you. I definitely have issues with the RIAA's policy, but I think I'd have more issue if they were being selective based on race, income, whatever on who they are suing. The reality is, very few people will be able to absorb the legal fees and fines the RIAA is dishing out. Does being a white male with a white-collar job mean that it's more acceptable to be attacked by the RIAA? For the record, I don't fit the description above.
I feel a bit cold-hearted, but I know if I were accused of illegally trading files, I'd have nothing to use as a shield. Yet another instance of me wishing I were a 12-year-old girl!;)
My own response to the RIAA crackdown was to get a Netflix account, get into fansubs, and swear off CD purchases for life.
Can I ask how the fansubs come into the mix? I'm assuming you're talking about anime fansubs. Domestic (US) anime companies generally have nothing to do with the MPAA or RIAA (AFAIK). In fact, most anime companies have a very positive relationship with the fanbase, something the RIAA could learn from.
I hope that you're going to support domestic releases rather that simply leaching. If you're going to just leach, then all you're doing is stealing from a more fan-friendly (and smaller) industry, rather than stealing from a bunch of greedy, corporate jerks.
This was mentioned by a few other posters, but the original idea behind fansubs was to promote a show without profit. Once a show was licensed, if you watched the fansubs, there was a responsibility to buy the actual release. There's no real gray area with fansubbing. It's illegal. Some companies have been more willing to look the other way than others.
Slashdot was compromised back a few years ago. The maintainers were very quick to notify everyone and recommend changing passwords immediately. If only other businesses were as forthcoming!
And there weren't any credit card numbers involved!
First of all, it's definitely commendable for Slashdot to notify it's userbase. However, the fact that there's no financial data involved makes it less of a bad thing. If you have an account where basically all someone can do is troll with the account, BFD. It's definitely a pain, but no major damage.
Now, take an account that has money tied to it, and people will be a lot more pissed and concerned. So, it's still embarrassing for Slashdot, but it doesn't carry the weight of some of these other sites being broken into.
Ultimately, though, I think sites owe it to their users to be honest and straighforward.
If they go after enough people, those people will probably organize and be able to put together a decent defense, unlike the lone college students they've been harrassing to date.
At the very least, if this happens, the RIAA could be stuck with a significant legal bill...
1) The defendants really have very little legal ground. And, it's a cliche from law dramas, but "the RIAA is not on trial here." You can try aruging that your illegal action was justified because of someone else's (supposedly) illegal actions, but I'm not sure how far that'll get you (I'm sure it works sometimes, though:P )
2) Anyone that they take to court (or any group of people) will not have enough money to fight them. If these people had that much money, they wouldn't be downloading music.;) The RIAA will go after people they can intimidate and outspend.
If you are using Open Source software to fulfill your contract, your client is getting the benefit of someone else's free work.
If you are fixing a bug to help the client, they are getting the value out of your time. If you give the bug fix to others, in return for use of the Open Source code, why should your employer care?
You don't read much Dilbert, do you?;)
Everything you say makes sense and is logical, but the problem is that the world is messed up. We're in a world where everyone wants to take, but very few want to give (or give back).
Just look at some of the things that are happening in the world today. Crazy patents. Companies using scare-tactics on their customers. I'm not saying it's all bad, but chances are that you will have a hard time convincing someone with tunnel-vision how contributing helps them out.
Me skeptical? Yeah, I won't argue that. I used to be a very optimistic guy, but having to work has shown me that most people are just selfish. If you can find place where people really want to work together, cherish that.:)
(the worst part is that I've adopted this attitude, and I'm still in my 20's!)
What's the problem here if you are paid for your time?
Just bill for the time you put in on submitting patches to GPL/Open Source software.
It's a reasonable expense and you offer a more "standard" industry solution than a near worthless one man spagetti job of code that has no community or testing infrastructure (i.e. many eyeballs)
Try explaining to a client how you just charged them to add some functionality to something that will be used by others for free. It's great karma, but most suits aren't too interested in karma...
Another problem is that most people are more interested in short-term costs. Look at all the publicly-traded companies that will lay off people in order to boost their stocks in the short-term. The only people that really care about long-terms costs are either people in direct ownership or people with some level of perspective. Most grunts these days are probably figuring they won't be around at a specific company for long (whether it's their choice or the choice of someone else). And the best way to look good quickly is lowering short-term costs...
It's entirely possible that the increased sales for TurboTax were because more people wanted to do their taxes online this year, and TurboTax would make it "easier."
So, I think it's premature to look at the DRM as the only reason for increased volume in sales.
Slashdot Mirror
Welcome to the New, New Economy. A lot of management types are judged on short-term success over long-term success. So, they ultimately don't care what happens, as long as they get their cut (which we all know has increased at ludicrous rates the past several years). What you need are more companies with direct ownership with concern over long-term success, rather than shareholders and quarterly profits.
This is already happening. There are several Indian companies set up to handle customer service. Employees use English-sounding names and have access to popular shows like "Friends" or "Monday Night Football," to have some cultural references they can throw in during a call. Owned by Indian folks with Fortune 500 companies who they refuse to name because of the sake of confidentiality. How much do you want to bet that it's because these companies fear a public backlash rather than fear their competitors will follow suit? It's just a matter of time before these Indian-owned companies begin expanding to other areas.
Ain't going to happen. All of the people who are either currently or potentially going to lose their jobs overseas like to point out all of the hidden costs of moving your operations, training, etc. I'd say chances are good that the PHBs will learn from their current mistake but never bring the jobs back. They'll think to themselves that they'll be saving on all of these hidden costs they learned about the first time around, and then wonder why no one has the money to buy their crappy software.
Look at it this way, off-shoring is the hot thing right now (as a side note, I saw one magazine refer to it as "best-shoring," which made me sick). If and when bad things arise from it, it'll be taught at all of the business schools, so maybe the flow of jobs will slow, but I have very little faith the jobs will come back, as they fear the short-term costs of moving everything back.
Can you post some more info on the set that you purchased? You mentioned that they are imported from Taiwan, so that makes me wonder if they are, in fact, bootlegs. There are some legitimate Taiwanese releases, so I don't want to make a huge assumption, but this idea of forcing someone to re-purchase the entire series just to get the ending doesn't sound quite right to me. I could possibly understand if this was done and two different sets had different extras, but restricting access to the shows itself sounds a bit odd...
Another thing I am seeing more and more are dishonest retailers. I recently bought some CDs which I thought were legitimate Japanese releases. It turns out that the discs were CDRs with really bad laser printer silk screens. The retailer went through the effort of making copies of all of the inserts, even the obis (paper sleeve). I've never heard of any bootleg quite like this. The kicker is that a lot of these CDR CDs were for out of print releases, and this retailer was even selling them at normal import prices (as opposed to the "normal" bootleg prices. The proverbial double-whammy. Anyway, the retailer was Digital Discs Anime. They lost their domain recently, but they still go to conventions. My advice to avoid them, since they are (in one way or the other) lying to their customers. Er, to get back on topic, my main point is that the guy selling you your DVDs might just be feeding you a line, trying to absolve himself of any guilt/responsibility.
Anyway, here's the Pirate Anime FAQ, just in case.
I'm not sure if they'd made any progress on this, but I believe ADV has at least tossed the idea around a bit for their Anime Channel. It'd have to use a combination of closed captioning and SAP, but it's not impossible. Just have to figure out if the demand is high enough and what the related costs are. I feel that, for the most part, the US anime industry has a much better connection with their fans than a lot of more mainstream entertainment entities (RIAA, MPAA, etc).
I'm not sure how politically active you are, but for the sake of argument, I'll assume you're not very active. ;) Anyway, why not make sure you vote in the future at the local, state, and federal levels? Ultimately, that's the best way to express your opinion. Well, that and trying to "spread the word" as to why one candidate is bad and why another is good (or perhaps just less bad).
I've traditionally been a non-participant in government elections, but I'm starting to see that I really should. I admit, part of it is based on the fact that I've started to be exposed to people with somewhat ridiculous political beliefs and I just want to offset them, but another is to try to play a more active role in government (as a citizen, not as a career politician). Remember, if you didn't vote, although you still have the right to complain (the US still has a lot more freedoms than a lot of the world), everyone really thinks you should STFU.
Cryptedenay Onephays!
We'll see. No real facts to back up this opinion, but I have a feeling that the popular kids won't be targeted as strongly as kids that are traditionally picked on. While there might be some level of hidden anymosity and actions taken against those who are higher on the social totem pole, those on the lower rungs will alwasys be targeted.
Take a look at it this way, some kids might get picked on because they are fat. Suddenly, someone takes a picture of them online and posts it, adding the insightful comment, "This guy is so fat!" Then, you have some of his bonehead friends adding comments, just to look cool. Etc, etc.
Looks like it's suddenly become a lot harder to be a kid. Glad I didn't have to go through anything like this (although I was relatively free of verbal and physical abuse in my school days).
From another perspective, compare this to the dot-com boom. People tried to put everything on the web, and it failed. Certain things just didn't make sense. Now, the web is catching on, because traditional business models are making their way online, and processes are being streamlined. Same thing is happening with this teasing. It's becoming more efficient. And while you might have some blips of more popular people being teased, for the most part, the biggest targets will be the traditional ones.
Heh, I just had this horrible image of someone taking the time to create an templated, automatic bully-site. You could include pictures, etc. It would be kind of like Scott Pakin's automatic complaint generator, but I think not really in a spirit of fun, but with more ill will.
Geez, I'm suddenly wishing technology would start slowing down a bit... the medical field constantly faces ethicial issues and dilemmas... I'm starting to see it more and more in the tech field...
You know, I was thinking something similar to this. Not that I want to add to my pile of bills, but what about something like computer insurance? We've already toyed with the idea of people requiring a license to use computers (grr, can't find the original story)...
Or I could be a jerk who is trying to figure out ways to scare more of the idiots to go offline. :)
Anyway, it might not make as much sense for home users, but I think something like this might be useful for corporate entities. Someone would probably be more willing to sue a rich, faceless company than they are to sue another person without bottomless pockets of wealth. The insurance could also come in handy for data, which can be viewed as property with significant value. "Our data is worth $1 million, and we lost it!" And least you get a nice check. It could make a handy signing bonus for your replacement staff. ;)
While I agree with you in general, just to play Devil's Advocate, what qualifies as "research?" Does the person need to be tied to some type of educational institution or company? What about individuals doing research? And the worst-case scenario, a malicious attacker hiding behind the shield of "research."
I get the impression it's an article simply meant to point out some of the flaws of a very good product, especially since the iPod and iTunes have been the centers of some major love-fests, especially in the press. I don't think it hurts to acknowledge that a good product may have some negatives. It's something that future versions of the product could try to improve upon.
If something only has positive attributes, then that make my BS detector go off. Once in a while, you'll find that rare gem which really is all positive. But I think being able to consider a product's drawbacks gives a more accurate impression of it, and can in the long run give a better perception of the product.
Anyway, would you rather see another "me too" article about how great iTunes and iPod are, or a slightly different take on all of the buzz around them (although I'm sure C|NET probably has plenty of "me too" articles, as well)?
Yeah, I wish he put these out in a more timely manner, but his official reason is that he didn't have the time to spend on them that he wanted. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for a second...
I remember back when the original trilogy was being put out on VHS, it was made very clear that you could get the original trilogy, "one last time." Now, I remember thinking about buying them, but then I decided not to. Not because I thought they'd actually put them out on another format (although I'm sure plenty of folks did), but just because I wasn't interested enough.
Anyway, I imagine there'd be quite a few people upset if the originals came out on DVD, complaining that they were told that the originals were going to be available only "one last time."
One final comment. I decided to finally read the Lord of the Rings books before the movies came out. In the introduction, it's mentioned how many revisions the book went through. Edits by Tolkien and then later by his son. Now, I understand that printed literature is a different medium than cinema, but I've personally never heard anyone complain about Tolkien making edits to his story, to fit closer to his creative vision.
Ah well. It's only entertainment. :)
Oh please. I'd be willing to bet that both political parties have more money than they can figure out how to spend. It always irks me when I see DemocRATS ;) try to say that they are so much better than Republicans. I think a lot of people from both major parties in the political machine are corrupt and getting wealthy off of the people they are supposed to be representing. Anyone who thinks Democrats are angels are as ignorant as the conservatives they like to criticise.
In all honesty, it seems that lots of geeks lean towards the left, for whatever reason (please don't say "because they actually think!"). So, that might explain the stats. But just because you prefer the MS solution does not disqualify you from being a tech geek. You're just speculating based on gross generalizations.
You know, I really hate this attitude. Just because you've seen it by fansubbers first, or they are doing it "for love," doesn't mean it's always better. I have seen fansub with atrocious spelling errors and mistranslations. I have also seen commercial releases with problems. In the past, you might have had a lot of folks doing fansubbing for the love of anime and to spread it, but these days, you have more and more groups who are fansubbing to gain notoriety. It's a real shame to see the anime community going this route.
Anyway, commercial releases offer quite a bit more for collectors than fansubs (or digisubs). First, there is the physical item. Yes, some will say I am living in the past, but collectors really like having a physical thing, at times. This is the same reason why some people still like buying albums instead of just downloading stuff.
Although the anime digisubs are getting larger and of higher quality, they still do not compare to DVD, IMO. I enjoy watching my DVDs on a nice home theater system, sitting in a comfortable couch. I don't want to be at my computer. Yes, I can run a line from the computer, but you also lose out on some of the extra control, etc (FF, rewind).
DVDs also offer things such as additional language tracks, optional subtitles, etc. Plenty of companies are releasing liner notes, and there are some extras that are obtainable only via direct interaction with the original licesne-holder.
I also think that your comparison to open source software is off. The only similarity fansubs have to open source is that they are both (generally) free. If they were the same thing, you're basically calling open source a bunch of pirates/hackers/crackers/whatever. A more accurate comparison would be if you found an example of someone creating their own anime and offering it for free.
Please note, I'm not saying all fansubbing is bad, but anyone who knows the "ethics" of fansubbing will know that there are quite a few people who are in clear violation of it.
Not everything in the world should be free. And I think if you have the attitude that everything should be free, you're either deluding yourself or just trying to ease your conscience for not paying for stuff you use.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/3341.html
Dreamworks To Distribute Ghost In The Shell II
In Spring Of 2004
August 14, 2003
Screen Daily reports that Dreamworks SKG has formed a specialty distribution arm, Go Fish, which will distribute its first film, Satoshi Kon's Millenium Actress, on September 12 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Dreamworks set up Go Fish just after Warner Bros. announced the launch of Warner Independent Pictures, which will release films from independents and small production companies. While Go Fish will undoubtedly release its share of indie films, the second film announced by Dreamworks was Ghost In The Shell II: Innocence, the follow-up to the extremely successful science fiction anime feature, Ghost In The Shell, which was directed by Mamoru Oshii and based on the manga series by Masamune Shirow (published in the U.S by Dark Horse). It should be interesting to see if Dreamworks primarily uses Go Fish to compete with Warners for indie films or to gain a beachhead for anime feature films in the rough and tumble arena of theatrical exhibition.
Ghost in the Shell II is in the final stages of production in Japan, and Go Fish plans to release the feature film late in the first half of 2004. Back in 1996 the original Ghost In the Shell film made a major impact in the U.S. and launched a plethora of successful tie-in products including posters, statues, art books, manga, and action figures. With a Ghost in the Shell TV series (see "Bandai Gets Ghost In the Shell TV Series") set to debut in the U.S. and the merchandising potential of a second Ghost In The Shell movie (see "New Ghost In The Shell Movie"), this property is poised to take off once again.
There is also a leather-bound collector's edition. Rather than have people paranoid about a hidden referral link, just look for it yourself. :) The title is "The Complete Far Side Leather - Bound Edition." $750.00 List Price !!
I highly doubt these would appear on the DVDs. The only way they would benefit from having this on the DVDs would be to have unique patterns on every DVD, and then have some way to match the DVD to whoever bought it. The scale of doing this on individual DVDs would be pretty incredible compared to doing it for theater prints. Not to mention there would really be no way for them to match these up to individuals (Conspiracy theorist - YET!).
The only way I could see this appearing on commercial DVDs would be via a goof, and you would hope the studio would take the responsibility to do a recall/replacement program (they've done them before).
Actually, there are more benefits to shopping online than merely convenience. A lot of online stores are cheaper than brick-and-mortar stores, even when you factor in shipping prices (and remember a lot of online stores are starting to have free shipping options). So, this service would definitely not make sense for people looking to save some money on their entertainment spending.
What?!? You mean large corportations want us to spend more on entertainment? ;)
The lawsuit is being filed by one victim and the family of the other victim. The morons doing the shooting aren't involved in this aspect of it (unless they are asked to testify that the video game made them do it, which we all know is just stupid).
My favorite quote from the article:
It's nice to see that this guy is a complete moron, and this isn't just an isolated incident. What does he expect when he fires a rifle at people? They'll just respawn or something? Sad...
hehe, I'll have to agree with you. I definitely have issues with the RIAA's policy, but I think I'd have more issue if they were being selective based on race, income, whatever on who they are suing. The reality is, very few people will be able to absorb the legal fees and fines the RIAA is dishing out. Does being a white male with a white-collar job mean that it's more acceptable to be attacked by the RIAA? For the record, I don't fit the description above.
I feel a bit cold-hearted, but I know if I were accused of illegally trading files, I'd have nothing to use as a shield. Yet another instance of me wishing I were a 12-year-old girl! ;)
My own response to the RIAA crackdown was to get a Netflix account, get into fansubs, and swear off CD purchases for life.
Can I ask how the fansubs come into the mix? I'm assuming you're talking about anime fansubs. Domestic (US) anime companies generally have nothing to do with the MPAA or RIAA (AFAIK). In fact, most anime companies have a very positive relationship with the fanbase, something the RIAA could learn from.
I hope that you're going to support domestic releases rather that simply leaching. If you're going to just leach, then all you're doing is stealing from a more fan-friendly (and smaller) industry, rather than stealing from a bunch of greedy, corporate jerks.
This was mentioned by a few other posters, but the original idea behind fansubs was to promote a show without profit. Once a show was licensed, if you watched the fansubs, there was a responsibility to buy the actual release. There's no real gray area with fansubbing. It's illegal. Some companies have been more willing to look the other way than others.
First of all, it's definitely commendable for Slashdot to notify it's userbase. However, the fact that there's no financial data involved makes it less of a bad thing. If you have an account where basically all someone can do is troll with the account, BFD. It's definitely a pain, but no major damage.
Now, take an account that has money tied to it, and people will be a lot more pissed and concerned. So, it's still embarrassing for Slashdot, but it doesn't carry the weight of some of these other sites being broken into.
Ultimately, though, I think sites owe it to their users to be honest and straighforward.
1) The defendants really have very little legal ground. And, it's a cliche from law dramas, but "the RIAA is not on trial here." You can try aruging that your illegal action was justified because of someone else's (supposedly) illegal actions, but I'm not sure how far that'll get you (I'm sure it works sometimes, though :P )
2) Anyone that they take to court (or any group of people) will not have enough money to fight them. If these people had that much money, they wouldn't be downloading music. ;) The RIAA will go after people they can intimidate and outspend.
You don't read much Dilbert, do you? ;)
Everything you say makes sense and is logical, but the problem is that the world is messed up. We're in a world where everyone wants to take, but very few want to give (or give back).
Just look at some of the things that are happening in the world today. Crazy patents. Companies using scare-tactics on their customers. I'm not saying it's all bad, but chances are that you will have a hard time convincing someone with tunnel-vision how contributing helps them out.
Me skeptical? Yeah, I won't argue that. I used to be a very optimistic guy, but having to work has shown me that most people are just selfish. If you can find place where people really want to work together, cherish that. :)
(the worst part is that I've adopted this attitude, and I'm still in my 20's!)
Try explaining to a client how you just charged them to add some functionality to something that will be used by others for free. It's great karma, but most suits aren't too interested in karma...
Another problem is that most people are more interested in short-term costs. Look at all the publicly-traded companies that will lay off people in order to boost their stocks in the short-term. The only people that really care about long-terms costs are either people in direct ownership or people with some level of perspective. Most grunts these days are probably figuring they won't be around at a specific company for long (whether it's their choice or the choice of someone else). And the best way to look good quickly is lowering short-term costs...
So, I think it's premature to look at the DRM as the only reason for increased volume in sales.