Do you think the freeloader mentality on the Internet is ready for change?
This guy is back asswards. Normally to make money, you develop a product and service that people want and need and they are willing to pay an amount that you can profit from. The key is the PRODUCT. How or where it is sold is not the major factor, they are concerned with the product itself. This guys business plan is not based on consistant quaility products that people may or may not want, it is based on recurring monthly payments and viewing X online. I don't think it is as simple as open the door and they will come as the advantages are not clear. Considering it is the WWW, you can already get most of the same information somewhere else for free so why would people even bother? I don't think micropayments are a bad idea and will work where the content is "worth" it. The product has to sell via the payments, not the payments selling the product.
How can they justify taking thousands of peoples code and put a price tag on it. Assuming there is SCO code that some how it is not considered GPL from thier own distribution of it, everyone in the world has the right to have that code indentified and removed if they do not even need that functionality or so it can be rewritten without it and move on, they can not hold all of the previous work hostage. I may be biased because I am a fan of Linux but any judge, jury, and lawyer should be able to see this as painfully obvious what they are trying to do here. In all of my years working with technology, I have never seen or heard of anything as crazy as what they are trying here.
As much as I can't stand MS, I really doubt MS will play this out. I think it would be fairly obvious to anyone in the computing field that these fees and licences are not going to fly. You can not charge someone for something and not tell them what it is. They can play this out all they want but all it will take is one company or person to say "Show me the code, and I'll remove it". Problem is SCO will never let a situation get that far because that will be thier death. Instead they will just let it stay in there and charge for it. Very odd situation.
That exact multiple normally only happens with market caps in the days after a full moon during the chinese "year of the chicken", oddly enough SCO exhibits characteristics of the chicken. Strange coincedence? I don't think so.
The article has lots of numbers but they don't say the same thing.
In just three years, sales of pirate CDs have more than doubled. The IFPI's Commercial Music Piracy 2003 report, produced in early July, reveals pirate CD sales rose 14% in 2002.
That means 100% more sales for pirate CDs in three years. Assuming these are the most recent numbers.. That would mean an average increase of 43% in 2000, 43% in 2001 and only 14% in 2002. Looks to me like pirate CD production is going way DOWN..
Point 2:
Counterfeiters have forced the price of a fake CD down to about $4, which only makes CDs in the music shops look even pricier.
Embarrassingly major record labels and distributors have been fined twice by the US Federal Trade Commission for price fixing their products.
These two statements are not related in any way. The first statement was refering to prices and bootlegging in other countries. The FCC did not fine them for price fixing in other countries. They were fined in the US because of deceptive practices. I would say they got away with it so long because of the lack of other distribution methods including bootleg copies.
Is this shitty reporting or blatent twisting of numbers?
I spent about a week looking at providers and talking to various CSR's from multiple carriers for a three phone package. No one plan from any company was above and beyond the others. My advice is to take what is most important to you and make a weighed scale.
My general comments on Sprint..
Overall, very happy with the phones and the service. Occasional dropouts when driving but not an issue for me.
Pros..
The phones they offer are very good with many gadgets and gizmos and are not expensive to replace.
The Vision plan offers unlimited and unmetered internet access (+$15/month or free with 2000 minute plan). The phones work with many portals including/. (I specifically recommend www.sprintusers.com portal)
Your phones email account is web based accessible from the phone, any web browser, or your favorite email client via POP3 or IMAP. Your email address is selectable and changeable. You get 10digitnumber@sprintpcs.com and pick-one@sprintpcs.com
The Free and Clear America Plan (FCA) (+$10/month) gives you free roaming when off the PCS network. Basically, if you get a signal, the phone will work. If you use more then 50% of your minutes roaming they reserve the right to remove that option to prevent "abuse".
There is no smaller "home" concept area like some of the Cingular plans have.
The phone to phone option (free with 2yr contract or $5month) is unlimited, some carriers charge for this.
The add-a-phone plans (Family Plan) are $20 for each extra phone (the 2000 minute plan offers the second phone free) and it carries the same options as the main plan (Vision + FCA + phone to phone etc..) at no extra cost.
Unlimited N&W, pretty standard but some providers still have limits on the minutes.
Not sure if Sprint specific but there are portals that allow you to download games, pictures, ringers, and upload your own content to the phone with no charge. You can get stuff from Sprint directly but they charge.
Cons:
Although you recieve unlimited messaging and unlimited download, you can not send SMS messages directly from the phone without going "online" first. Basically you have to be on the web to send SMS messages.
Customer service - Touchy issue and really only messured by your own experience. I have had billing issues since day one, the CSR's are friendly and helpful but not very knowledgeable of the billing system. Luck of the draw I guess.
Niether:
Signal quailty - Really depends on the buildout of your area. In Northern VA and Western PA, I have not had issues. I took the coverage maps into consideration with the FCA option when I chose Sprint and dropped Cingular. For me, the overall plans and prices outweighed the potential coverage pitfalls.
YMMV depending on what you plan on doing with the phones.
The reason the government run entity would be better, is that its objective would be the delivery of the service in question (in this case welfare, but this applies to other services as well).
You mean like the lady in front of me in the grocery store today? She had 3 bottles of wine, 2 12 packs of beer, and various prepackaged and precooked items (about 4-6x more expensive then buying unprepared) and I did not see one item that was a store brand product (cheaper) and she was paying some of the bill with food stamps. When I got out of the store, I saw her driving away in a 2003 Nissan Altima. I don't know the whole story and probably should not assume but it looked to me like that government program is not working to efficently. I know this story is not directly related but it was very frustrating.
The magazine Stereo Review tested this exact concept about 10 years ago (and I'm sure others have too). They ran tests using different efficiency speakers (measured as the sound pressure level @ 1Meter with 1W input). They found that 80% responded that the more efficient speaker (the louder one) was "better" sounding with various musical passages. They also tested switching between using the same exact speakers but one was playing at an average level of 1db higher and again, 80% suggested the louder one was better sounding. Different tests (using loudness compensation, boosting certain frequencies etc..) and methods of switching were used but overall, the louder choice won 5 out of 6 times.
I don't know how all of this would fit into a specific cd release though because you are already listening to the thing and not comparing it to a different song in a side by side test.
Lobbying money should not be a replacement or a substitute for a representatives lack of knowledge or asking for the constituents desires on specific issues.
IMHO, you can spin how and why lobby money is spent and the ethics behind it but it IS money being paid to a person that has the direct ability to effect the outcome of a vote. Corporations do not give out money unless they can expect a return, it is not out of kindness. Since it has been happening so long, we appear to be used to it. Try giving money to a policeman or judge to consider your recent speeding ticket.
CDBTPA (We must continue fighting against DRM tech mandates. Technology should solve the problems, government should probably stay out)
This statement seems a little shallow here. I agree that the tech sector should work to get something going here. The down side is a lot of the consumer computing and tech sector industy where DRM will play a major initial role is directly or indirectly controlled by one company, Microsoft. You can not have a DRM solution that involves the users when only one company, looking for thier best interest, has such a major influence on the direction DRM takes.
Verizon was not fighting to prevent giving up the names. Verizon wanted a COURT ORDER by a judge before giving up the names. Big difference.
They were trying to prevent a potential lawsuit from a user for them releasing private information without a court order and did not want to open a can of worms where user information requests were being requested in great numbers by just about anyone who felt a copyright was being violated.
The side effect for us, the end users would be the RIAA having to provide some actual proof (not just a list of file names) that was reviewed by a judge and determined a that a copyright violation was occuring. Remember, these are civil lawsuits, not a criminal case. This is not the police requesting information here, the RIAA is another business.
Imagine that everytime you got port scanned or see someone trying to connect to 135-137 you fired off an email to an ISP demanding to know the user, phone number, and address of that ip address because you want to start a civil case for hacking your computers. The RIAA is doing the same thing with file names they see.
This is not exactly a reply to your specific message, just trying to add my.02.
Or see how the can make even less work between the two. Has MS ever attempted to make it easy for other OS's or helped get something non MS to work with their OS? I can think of a few examples but they are all related to an existing popular application or protocol that could be used and integrated with MS (therefore to keep you from switching, "look, we support that"), this "support" has never rolled over into another OS, just some applications. Take Samba for example. MS barely even acknowledges that Samba even exists and from what I've been reading for years, it appears they actually have an inititive to make it harder for the Samba team. Remember those NDA's they released a few years ago for the protocols, how about the use of GPL software with some of thier SDK's?
Looking at OSS could mean many things. Before you decide to mod as flame, do a search for NDA MS Samba protocol or at least read the links above...Caution, major opinion below...
IMHO, looking at little things MS does individually are not bad, when you start looking at the last 10 years of MS existance big picture like adding up the EULA's, licensing changes, innovation claims, monopoly and court status, bundling the OS and apps, DRM, media player, OEM strong arm tactics, FUD spreading, NDA's, lobbying, buggy software, and many other things not on the top of my head now, it does not look like a nice company that likes to work with others unless forced to. I am only one person and my opinion of MS does not really matter to anyone but it would take huge changes for me to ever automatically consider the good side of an MS action before I think of the negative side.
I bought a digital camera for the convienence of never having to buy and develop film again. Does anyone use a digital camera for the simple fact that it is digital? Seems to me, the cheaper regular disposibles would still be the way to go. Am I missing something here?
If you want to control the distribution of your work, don't publish it for free in a public place. That is your choice. Your reference to usenet is laughable but common. Who should determine how long your posts should stay on a news server? Why does it have to stay on a news server? What if I save all messages I read for ever? What if one news server has a 3 year retention but another only has 3 hours? If you don't want your comments to become publicly availalble then don't post them publically. It is really that easy. You don't have to use x-no-archive, but you don't have to post either.
So please tell me you dont drink coke or pepsi that you drink a cola or pop from a local bottling company that is struggling to survive...
I agree to some exent but I drink Pepsi and Coke because I like them better then the generic brands. The taste is better so I buy it. I like Pepsi's taste over Coke but I will always buy whatever one is cheaper at the time. I will also buy less popular brands if my internal "price to quality" ratio meets some level. The same hold true for generic and brand name breakfast cereal.
You can get sued for anything. Someone being right and wrong is not a prerequiste for a civil case. That being said, your statement is a very big generalization and not the same as dmages with a copyright violation. The amount you have to pay depends on how liable and negligent the court determines you were for the incedent. If you let the dog roam free and have never tied the dog up, you will pay dearly. If someone in the middle of the night cuts the lock to your fence and lets the dog go free, your penalty will be a fraction of the above, if any. It really depends on the judge and the lawyers for both sides.
That is a contract with you ISP that they can drop you for violating X,Y, and Z. That contract does not extend to other companies past the ISP. If you use my phone line to call in a bomb threat, I am not liable. If you borrow my car and proceed to run a light and wipe out a bus of school children, I am not liable for the damages to the injured parties. I will in essence by contract still have to pay the lender for my car but that is a seperate issue all together (insurance, the driver pays me etc..). Why should your internet access be any different?
If someone really wants WinXP but wants a less restrictive license then the "this machine only" OEM version, you could take the refund route and get your $199 and then buy a copy of XP for $199 that you CAN legally move from one PC to another if you choose. That's a lot of work for the potential gain but hell, this is/. !!
I'm sure that $100 was with new activation or through some retention plan offering. However, the 8100 is still only $200 if you bought it outright with no plan (there was a general $50 rebate 2 months ago from RS that worked even without activation). Sprint phones are not as cheap initially but considerably cheaper when bought without a plan upgrade or extension compared to other carriers prices. I just replaced a stolen Sanyo 4900 and it was only $150. Verizon and others typically add at least $200 to every phone they sell if you are not a new subscriber or updating your existing phone through the retention department, kinda sucks paying $229 for a bare bones Nokia or Motorola. I guess if you never loose, break, or want a new phone without signing a new contract, the Verizon method of phone pricing might work for you. Just one of the many differences between the current cellular providers I thought I'd point out.
I don't know about that, there shorthand is also encrypted but with a one time pad from a different generation. I was capturing my daughters IM for a while and also using VNC in view only mode. It was not very effective as I could only make out a few of the words. I had to ask her what everything meant (she knows I monitor it). "POS" does not mean piece of shit. It now means "parent over shoulder, don't say anything right now that will get me in trouble".
I asked her if she knew of any wArEz or if she could get me a 0day and I got a blank stare. What the hell are all these people saying to each other all day then?
Slashdot Mirror
Do you think the freeloader mentality on the Internet is ready for change?
This guy is back asswards. Normally to make money, you develop a product and service that people want and need and they are willing to pay an amount that you can profit from. The key is the PRODUCT. How or where it is sold is not the major factor, they are concerned with the product itself. This guys business plan is not based on consistant quaility products that people may or may not want, it is based on recurring monthly payments and viewing X online. I don't think it is as simple as open the door and they will come as the advantages are not clear. Considering it is the WWW, you can already get most of the same information somewhere else for free so why would people even bother? I don't think micropayments are a bad idea and will work where the content is "worth" it. The product has to sell via the payments, not the payments selling the product.
Big picture but IANAL...
How can they justify taking thousands of peoples code and put a price tag on it. Assuming there is SCO code that some how it is not considered GPL from thier own distribution of it, everyone in the world has the right to have that code indentified and removed if they do not even need that functionality or so it can be rewritten without it and move on, they can not hold all of the previous work hostage. I may be biased because I am a fan of Linux but any judge, jury, and lawyer should be able to see this as painfully obvious what they are trying to do here. In all of my years working with technology, I have never seen or heard of anything as crazy as what they are trying here.
As much as I can't stand MS, I really doubt MS will play this out. I think it would be fairly obvious to anyone in the computing field that these fees and licences are not going to fly. You can not charge someone for something and not tell them what it is. They can play this out all they want but all it will take is one company or person to say "Show me the code, and I'll remove it". Problem is SCO will never let a situation get that far because that will be thier death. Instead they will just let it stay in there and charge for it. Very odd situation.
I replied to a Samba config question on usenet once. Does that count as providing "documentation" ;)
That exact multiple normally only happens with market caps in the days after a full moon during the chinese "year of the chicken", oddly enough SCO exhibits characteristics of the chicken. Strange coincedence? I don't think so.
The article has lots of numbers but they don't say the same thing.
In just three years, sales of pirate CDs have more than doubled.
The IFPI's Commercial Music Piracy 2003 report, produced in early July, reveals pirate CD sales rose 14% in 2002.
That means 100% more sales for pirate CDs in three years. Assuming these are the most recent numbers.. That would mean an average increase of 43% in 2000, 43% in 2001 and only 14% in 2002. Looks to me like pirate CD production is going way DOWN..
Point 2:
Counterfeiters have forced the price of a fake CD down to about $4, which only makes CDs in the music shops look even pricier.
Embarrassingly major record labels and distributors have been fined twice by the US Federal Trade Commission for price fixing their products.
These two statements are not related in any way. The first statement was refering to prices and bootlegging in other countries. The FCC did not fine them for price fixing in other countries. They were fined in the US because of deceptive practices. I would say they got away with it so long because of the lack of other distribution methods including bootleg copies.
Is this shitty reporting or blatent twisting of numbers?
My general comments on Sprint..
Overall, very happy with the phones and the service. Occasional dropouts when driving but not an issue for me.
Pros..
The phones they offer are very good with many gadgets and gizmos and are not expensive to replace.
The Vision plan offers unlimited and unmetered internet access (+$15/month or free with 2000 minute plan). The phones work with many portals including /. (I specifically recommend www.sprintusers.com portal)
Your phones email account is web based accessible from the phone, any web browser, or your favorite email client via POP3 or IMAP. Your email address is selectable and changeable. You get 10digitnumber@sprintpcs.com and pick-one@sprintpcs.com
The Free and Clear America Plan (FCA) (+$10/month) gives you free roaming when off the PCS network. Basically, if you get a signal, the phone will work. If you use more then 50% of your minutes roaming they reserve the right to remove that option to prevent "abuse".
There is no smaller "home" concept area like some of the Cingular plans have.
The phone to phone option (free with 2yr contract or $5month) is unlimited, some carriers charge for this.
The add-a-phone plans (Family Plan) are $20 for each extra phone (the 2000 minute plan offers the second phone free) and it carries the same options as the main plan (Vision + FCA + phone to phone etc..) at no extra cost.
Unlimited N&W, pretty standard but some providers still have limits on the minutes.
Not sure if Sprint specific but there are portals that allow you to download games, pictures, ringers, and upload your own content to the phone with no charge. You can get stuff from Sprint directly but they charge.
Cons:
Although you recieve unlimited messaging and unlimited download, you can not send SMS messages directly from the phone without going "online" first. Basically you have to be on the web to send SMS messages.
Customer service - Touchy issue and really only messured by your own experience. I have had billing issues since day one, the CSR's are friendly and helpful but not very knowledgeable of the billing system. Luck of the draw I guess.
Niether:
Signal quailty - Really depends on the buildout of your area. In Northern VA and Western PA, I have not had issues. I took the coverage maps into consideration with the FCA option when I chose Sprint and dropped Cingular. For me, the overall plans and prices outweighed the potential coverage pitfalls.
YMMV depending on what you plan on doing with the phones.
The reason the government run entity would be better, is that its objective would be the delivery of the service in question (in this case welfare, but this applies to other services as well).
You mean like the lady in front of me in the grocery store today? She had 3 bottles of wine, 2 12 packs of beer, and various prepackaged and precooked items (about 4-6x more expensive then buying unprepared) and I did not see one item that was a store brand product (cheaper) and she was paying some of the bill with food stamps. When I got out of the store, I saw her driving away in a 2003 Nissan Altima. I don't know the whole story and probably should not assume but it looked to me like that government program is not working to efficently. I know this story is not directly related but it was very frustrating.
The magazine Stereo Review tested this exact concept about 10 years ago (and I'm sure others have too). They ran tests using different efficiency speakers (measured as the sound pressure level @ 1Meter with 1W input). They found that 80% responded that the more efficient speaker (the louder one) was "better" sounding with various musical passages. They also tested switching between using the same exact speakers but one was playing at an average level of 1db higher and again, 80% suggested the louder one was better sounding. Different tests (using loudness compensation, boosting certain frequencies etc..) and methods of switching were used but overall, the louder choice won 5 out of 6 times.
I don't know how all of this would fit into a specific cd release though because you are already listening to the thing and not comparing it to a different song in a side by side test.
Lobbying money should not be a replacement or a substitute for a representatives lack of knowledge or asking for the constituents desires on specific issues.
IMHO, you can spin how and why lobby money is spent and the ethics behind it but it IS money being paid to a person that has the direct ability to effect the outcome of a vote. Corporations do not give out money unless they can expect a return, it is not out of kindness. Since it has been happening so long, we appear to be used to it. Try giving money to a policeman or judge to consider your recent speeding ticket.
CDBTPA (We must continue fighting against DRM tech mandates. Technology should solve the problems, government should probably stay out)
This statement seems a little shallow here. I agree that the tech sector should work to get something going here. The down side is a lot of the consumer computing and tech sector industy where DRM will play a major initial role is directly or indirectly controlled by one company, Microsoft. You can not have a DRM solution that involves the users when only one company, looking for thier best interest, has such a major influence on the direction DRM takes.
Verizon was not fighting to prevent giving up the names. Verizon wanted a COURT ORDER by a judge before giving up the names. Big difference.
.02.
They were trying to prevent a potential lawsuit from a user for them releasing private information without a court order and did not want to open a can of worms where user information requests were being requested in great numbers by just about anyone who felt a copyright was being violated.
The side effect for us, the end users would be the RIAA having to provide some actual proof (not just a list of file names) that was reviewed by a judge and determined a that a copyright violation was occuring. Remember, these are civil lawsuits, not a criminal case. This is not the police requesting information here, the RIAA is another business.
Imagine that everytime you got port scanned or see someone trying to connect to 135-137 you fired off an email to an ISP demanding to know the user, phone number, and address of that ip address because you want to start a civil case for hacking your computers. The RIAA is doing the same thing with file names they see.
This is not exactly a reply to your specific message, just trying to add my
Or see how the can make even less work between the two. Has MS ever attempted to make it easy for other OS's or helped get something non MS to work with their OS? I can think of a few examples but they are all related to an existing popular application or protocol that could be used and integrated with MS (therefore to keep you from switching, "look, we support that"), this "support" has never rolled over into another OS, just some applications. Take Samba for example.
..Caution, major opinion below...
MS barely even acknowledges that Samba even exists and from what I've been reading for years, it appears they actually have an inititive to make it harder for the Samba team. Remember those NDA's they released a few years ago for the protocols, how about the use of GPL software with some of thier SDK's?
Looking at OSS could mean many things. Before you decide to mod as flame, do a search for NDA MS Samba protocol or at least read the links above.
IMHO, looking at little things MS does individually are not bad, when you start looking at the last 10 years of MS existance big picture like adding up the EULA's, licensing changes, innovation claims, monopoly and court status, bundling the OS and apps, DRM, media player, OEM strong arm tactics, FUD spreading, NDA's, lobbying, buggy software, and many other things not on the top of my head now, it does not look like a nice company that likes to work with others unless forced to. I am only one person and my opinion of MS does not really matter to anyone but it would take huge changes for me to ever automatically consider the good side of an MS action before I think of the negative side.
If you told me the guy who runs General Electric's desktops found that 50% were running Linux
I would guess that person should not have been running the desktops's in the first place.
AC pretty much summed up your post..
I bought a digital camera for the convienence of never having to buy and develop film again. Does anyone use a digital camera for the simple fact that it is digital? Seems to me, the cheaper regular disposibles would still be the way to go. Am I missing something here?
Why buy from TG when we all know in less then 6 months they are going to be onsale a "overstock" type clothing store with the tag cut.
If you want to control the distribution of your work, don't publish it for free in a public place. That is your choice.
Your reference to usenet is laughable but common. Who should determine how long your posts should stay on a news server? Why does it have to stay on a news server? What if I save all messages I read for ever? What if one news server has a 3 year retention but another only has 3 hours? If you don't want your comments to become publicly availalble then don't post them publically. It is really that easy. You don't have to use x-no-archive, but you don't have to post either.
So please tell me you dont drink coke or pepsi that you drink a cola or pop from a local bottling company that is struggling to survive...
I agree to some exent but I drink Pepsi and Coke because I like them better then the generic brands. The taste is better so I buy it. I like Pepsi's taste over Coke but I will always buy whatever one is cheaper at the time. I will also buy less popular brands if my internal "price to quality" ratio meets some level. The same hold true for generic and brand name breakfast cereal.
You can get sued for anything. Someone being right and wrong is not a prerequiste for a civil case. That being said, your statement is a very big generalization and not the same as dmages with a copyright violation.
The amount you have to pay depends on how liable and negligent the court determines you were for the incedent. If you let the dog roam free and have never tied the dog up, you will pay dearly. If someone in the middle of the night cuts the lock to your fence and lets the dog go free, your penalty will be a fraction of the above, if any. It really depends on the judge and the lawyers for both sides.
That is a contract with you ISP that they can drop you for violating X,Y, and Z. That contract does not extend to other companies past the ISP. If you use my phone line to call in a bomb threat, I am not liable. If you borrow my car and proceed to run a light and wipe out a bus of school children, I am not liable for the damages to the injured parties. I will in essence by contract still have to pay the lender for my car but that is a seperate issue all together (insurance, the driver pays me etc..). Why should your internet access be any different?
I grabbed a mirror before it went down
Try this link "file:///c:/My%20Music"
Odd how many of those same file I have..
If someone really wants WinXP but wants a less restrictive license then the "this machine only" OEM version, you could take the refund route and get your $199 and then buy a copy of XP for $199 that you CAN legally move from one PC to another if you choose. That's a lot of work for the potential gain but hell, this is /. !!
I'm sure that $100 was with new activation or through some retention plan offering. However, the 8100 is still only $200 if you bought it outright with no plan (there was a general $50 rebate 2 months ago from RS that worked even without activation). Sprint phones are not as cheap initially but considerably cheaper when bought without a plan upgrade or extension compared to other carriers prices. I just replaced a stolen Sanyo 4900 and it was only $150. Verizon and others typically add at least $200 to every phone they sell if you are not a new subscriber or updating your existing phone through the retention department, kinda sucks paying $229 for a bare bones Nokia or Motorola. I guess if you never loose, break, or want a new phone without signing a new contract, the Verizon method of phone pricing might work for you. Just one of the many differences between the current cellular providers I thought I'd point out.
I don't know about that, there shorthand is also encrypted but with a one time pad from a different generation. I was capturing my daughters IM for a while and also using VNC in view only mode. It was not very effective as I could only make out a few of the words. I had to ask her what everything meant (she knows I monitor it). "POS" does not mean piece of shit. It now means "parent over shoulder, don't say anything right now that will get me in trouble".
I asked her if she knew of any wArEz or if she could get me a 0day and I got a blank stare. What the hell are all these people saying to each other all day then?
As asked by the Bob's..
What would you say.... you do here at Initech?