Too many people are using legetimate protest as a cover for hooliganism, and it's a shame.
Yup, I agree. There's civil disobedience, and then there's "let's do illegal stuff and say it's activism". Breaking a storefront window tends to be the latter, IMO. I do hope that it'll go as you say, and that the 10-year penalty will only be awarded to people who did a lot worse than simply having a mask on.
Under Part II of the Canadian Criminal Code (Offences Against Public Order), Unlawful Assemblies and Riots is when the assembly of three or more persons who cause fear and on reasonable grounds disturb peace in the neighborhood.
From what I know, at some point during a protest, police may declare a protest illegal if they believe that it will lead to a disturbance of the peace, for example to a riot. It happens on a pretty regular basis lately here in Montréal, and I've heard that once they declare it as such they go around and tell everyone to disperse and leave, informing them of the fact. Now, if they do so in a way that people have a reasonable chance to understand it and GTFO if they'd rather not get arrested, I can't say - I wasn't at any such protest.
I think this move probably has something to do with the current situation here in Québec, where student protests have led to the formation of less-than-pacific groups of masked protesters roaming the protests and causing havoc in Montréal. I can see the motive behind such legislation - make suspect identification easier if they bolt after throwing a brick through a storefront - but wow, that's a pretty strong penalty for what is a essential victimless crime, if it can even be called a crime in the first place.
Now, will police officers ask for masks to be taken off? I don't think there are enough officers to actually enforce this with any efficiency, nor will it prevent people from putting a mask on just before committing an illegal act - and then running away. Sure sounds like more of a "let's reassure the general public that we're in control here" move than a policy that'll actually have a positive effect, IMO.
They provided the means to circumvent the server lock on the client, thus allowing people to connect to the UMaple servers instead of the official ones. Doing so probably revoked the client's EULA, making its use infringement - usage without a valid license. Now, if all UMaple did was provide the tool and instructions to use it, I think charging them with one count of infringement per user is not fair and that the damages awarded are wildly excessive. However, they did profit from unauthorized use of a copyrighted program so I agree that there/is/ infringement.
Oh, and the game is F2P, too. I forgot to take into account that you might have meant that the users would be avoiding payment of a subscription fee.
There is still the fact that users potentially could access premium content that would normally have to be paid for, which/would/ be payment avoidance. That and the fact that UMaple apparently had their own premium features, which were "rewards" for "donations".
He says that he makes his coffee at 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit), and you counter by saying that McDonalds makes their own "at nearly double the temperature" while your quote says that they make it at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit. You might want to check your unit conversions.
I believe the original rumors were about Windows 8 dropping the 32-bit runtime altogether, forcing all apps to either update to 64-bit or stop working. A quick search didn't reveal any sources, but it's what I remember hearing before the first official preview came out.
And even then, all of those weapons can be obtained as random drops, of which you get a certain number during the week. That was the system before TF2 went F2P, the only difference now being that you can bypass the waiting time and buy the weapons to get them/now/.
My take on this is that yes, technically, a new player who buys all the weapons has more flexibility than a new player who goes purely F2P, and as such might have an edge if he knows what weapon to use in what situation. A few months down the road, though, the latter will have dropped some weapons and gotten others from achievements, making it all even out - skill level being equal. That's another thing, too: even if you had all of the weapons the game offers, they are designed in such a way that - with a couple of exceptions - they only give you/situational/ advantage. Here are a few examples:
- The Backburner, a Flamethrower replacement, hits hard from behind so it's good for ambushes, but then again returning projectiles is more costly, making you more vulnerable to Soldiers and Demomen.
- The Ullapool Caber, a melee replacement for the Demoman, hits and explodes for a tremendous amount of damage, but does so only once before becoming next-to-useless and damages you as a side-effect.
- The Equalizer, a melee replacement for the Soldier, hits very weakly at first, but ramps up in damage and speeds you up as your life points get low. Then again, wielding it prevents Medics from healing you, so you have to watch out for that.
So it's all a game of knowing what weapon works best in what situation, as very few weapons are straight upgrades to the ones you have at first, and that knowledge cannot be bought in the in-game store. Even if it did, IMO it's only a matter of time before F2P newbies catch up and learn to use them, eventually leading to a somewhat even playing field - once again, all skill being equal. I have seen my brother, a one-year player with plenty of weapons and FPS experience, get owned repeatedly over a single game by my F2P girlfriend, back when it had just become free. That was simply because she had dropped/one/ weapon and it so happened that the game mode we were playing made that weapon/class combination very useful.
So yeah. All in all, I think Valve succeeded in finding the balance between Pay-to-Play and Pay-to-Win. If you are F2P, your item storage/is/ smaller, but it's still functional. You can also only receive items in trade, not give them away, sure. Buying any item in the store, the cheapest costing 50 cents, removes all of those restrictions/permanently/, though, and if you ever fill your F2P backpack or really need to trade for that one weapon you want, maybe this game really is worth at least 50 cents.
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Too many people are using legetimate protest as a cover for hooliganism, and it's a shame.
Yup, I agree. There's civil disobedience, and then there's "let's do illegal stuff and say it's activism". Breaking a storefront window tends to be the latter, IMO. I do hope that it'll go as you say, and that the 10-year penalty will only be awarded to people who did a lot worse than simply having a mask on.
From Wikipedia:
Under Part II of the Canadian Criminal Code (Offences Against Public Order), Unlawful Assemblies and Riots is when the assembly of three or more persons who cause fear and on reasonable grounds disturb peace in the neighborhood.
From what I know, at some point during a protest, police may declare a protest illegal if they believe that it will lead to a disturbance of the peace, for example to a riot. It happens on a pretty regular basis lately here in Montréal, and I've heard that once they declare it as such they go around and tell everyone to disperse and leave, informing them of the fact. Now, if they do so in a way that people have a reasonable chance to understand it and GTFO if they'd rather not get arrested, I can't say - I wasn't at any such protest.
I think this move probably has something to do with the current situation here in Québec, where student protests have led to the formation of less-than-pacific groups of masked protesters roaming the protests and causing havoc in Montréal. I can see the motive behind such legislation - make suspect identification easier if they bolt after throwing a brick through a storefront - but wow, that's a pretty strong penalty for what is a essential victimless crime, if it can even be called a crime in the first place.
Now, will police officers ask for masks to be taken off? I don't think there are enough officers to actually enforce this with any efficiency, nor will it prevent people from putting a mask on just before committing an illegal act - and then running away. Sure sounds like more of a "let's reassure the general public that we're in control here" move than a policy that'll actually have a positive effect, IMO.
They used to say that about Macs, too. Be careful. =P
Here you go, I put the article on PasteBin since it's CC-BY-NC-licensed. =)
http://pastebin.com/mptMrYit
They provided the means to circumvent the server lock on the client, thus allowing people to connect to the UMaple servers instead of the official ones. Doing so probably revoked the client's EULA, making its use infringement - usage without a valid license. Now, if all UMaple did was provide the tool and instructions to use it, I think charging them with one count of infringement per user is not fair and that the damages awarded are wildly excessive. However, they did profit from unauthorized use of a copyrighted program so I agree that there /is/ infringement.
What if it's just the same thousand words for every picture?
Heck, what if it's just ONE word, a thousand times?
What if that word is "picture"?
I had not thought about that. It /would/ be an interesting metric. Thanks for the insight! =)
Oh, and the game is F2P, too. I forgot to take into account that you might have meant that the users would be avoiding payment of a subscription fee. There is still the fact that users potentially could access premium content that would normally have to be paid for, which /would/ be payment avoidance. That and the fact that UMaple apparently had their own premium features, which were "rewards" for "donations".
But apparently it doesn't mean 17K users avoiding payment to the rightful owner of the software is just one act.
For what it's worth, the client software is free, although it's normally only able to connect to the official servers.
He says that he makes his coffee at 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit), and you counter by saying that McDonalds makes their own "at nearly double the temperature" while your quote says that they make it at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit. You might want to check your unit conversions.
I believe the original rumors were about Windows 8 dropping the 32-bit runtime altogether, forcing all apps to either update to 64-bit or stop working. A quick search didn't reveal any sources, but it's what I remember hearing before the first official preview came out.
My take on this is that yes, technically, a new player who buys all the weapons has more flexibility than a new player who goes purely F2P, and as such might have an edge if he knows what weapon to use in what situation. A few months down the road, though, the latter will have dropped some weapons and gotten others from achievements, making it all even out - skill level being equal. That's another thing, too: even if you had all of the weapons the game offers, they are designed in such a way that - with a couple of exceptions - they only give you
So it's all a game of knowing what weapon works best in what situation, as very few weapons are straight upgrades to the ones you have at first, and that knowledge cannot be bought in the in-game store. Even if it did, IMO it's only a matter of time before F2P newbies catch up and learn to use them, eventually leading to a somewhat even playing field - once again, all skill being equal. I have seen my brother, a one-year player with plenty of weapons and FPS experience, get owned repeatedly over a single game by my F2P girlfriend, back when it had just become free. That was simply because she had dropped /one/ weapon and it so happened that the game mode we were playing made that weapon/class combination very useful.
/is/ smaller, but it's still functional. You can also only receive items in trade, not give them away, sure. Buying any item in the store, the cheapest costing 50 cents, removes all of those restrictions /permanently/, though, and if you ever fill your F2P backpack or really need to trade for that one weapon you want, maybe this game really is worth at least 50 cents.
So yeah. All in all, I think Valve succeeded in finding the balance between Pay-to-Play and Pay-to-Win. If you are F2P, your item storage
Oh yeah, and also: hats.
Try pressing left until you go off the screen. Wooo, secret level! =D