That may be very true. The upcoming extension of the EU to the east may very well paralyse the European commission for a few years, until a European constitution has been passed. The initiation will increase the number of heads in the commossion and could make them unable to take any decisive action until Europe has decided how solve these issues.
If Microsoft times it just right, they can still emerge unscaved.
Also, we have just seen - in their positions towards the Iraque conflict - how willing the eastern European states are to follow any directions from the U.S.-government.
I'm German, sorry if I do not know the correct economic terms in English.
Essentially, the record companies have a monopoly on each of their artists. If there were a working market - in theory - a price will be reached, that gives the greatest total benefit for both the consumer and the enterprises. In a monopoly situation, the price will produce the greatest benefit to the company holding the monopoly.
Even if they are luxury items CDs should be priced so that the total benefit is greatest.
And this means that record companies should be watched closely.
By the way, is anyone examining territorial lockouts for video games?
American culture is the only one in history that seems nearly completely copyrighted. Simply because it is so new.
While Goethe could not enforce his copyright on Faust today and we would laugh if his heirs would try to stop anyone from using his work, the RIAA _will_ make sure that they are able to enforce Madonna's copyrights in a hundred years from now, just as Disney does with Mickey Mouse.
The only reason why the Maori case seems so silly to us is because nobody knows exactly which person invented which part of their culture.
I'm no fan of IP law at all, especially with all the whining of poor artists and companies being deprived of the fruits of their hard work. But in the context of what goes on with Napster, the GPL vs. Microsoft etc. I think the Maori claims are only too understandable.
The Trek universe wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't this bully-everybody-else-with-your-moral-standards-but -throw-them-out-of-the-window-whenever-they-don't- suit-your-current-needs-attitude shining through all the time. (which
btw. is very typical american in my opinion)
And this my most important reason why we would be better off without Trek:
It prevents new and innovative series from being developed and produced. JMS said more than once that when trying to sell B5 he was always told there was no room for another deep space sf-series in main stream TV.
Instead after a B5 rip-off (DS9), we will now get a Crusade rip-off.
I suspect it is set in the 22nd century to at least get rid of that incredibly stupid prime directive.
I'm really fed up with the talk about the rights of the record companies being damaged.
Finally somebody is coming out with an idea that goes into the right direction. After all, intellectual property rights are some kind of artificial monopoly granted to the inventor. From the view of society, there should also be an obligation connected with it.
In my opinion, anybody who claims the rights to some intellectual proporty should be obliged to make his work accessible by the public. For example, music that is out of print should be allowed to be copied freely. Also, it should be no problem to swap abandoned video and computer games over the internet. It does not really hurt the copyright owners, if his work is copied, when he does not sell it himself.
While I don't like the administrative overhead implied by compulsory licenses, at least somebody starts to think about the responsibilities of rights owners.
Peter
Slashdot Mirror
If Microsoft times it just right, they can still emerge unscaved.
Also, we have just seen - in their positions towards the Iraque conflict - how willing the eastern European states are to follow any directions from the U.S.-government.
Also, I use LiteSwitch X. It's a free app that allows you to switch between apps using Alt-Tab.
It works not as well as Alt-Tab under WIndows, but I like it better than Command-Tab.
Essentially, the record companies have a monopoly on each of their artists. If there were a working market - in theory - a price will be reached, that gives the greatest total benefit for both the consumer and the enterprises. In a monopoly situation, the price will produce the greatest benefit to the company holding the monopoly.
Even if they are luxury items CDs should be priced so that the total benefit is greatest.
And this means that record companies should be watched closely.
By the way, is anyone examining territorial lockouts for video games?
While Goethe could not enforce his copyright on Faust today and we would laugh if his heirs would try to stop anyone from using his work, the RIAA _will_ make sure that they are able to enforce Madonna's copyrights in a hundred years from now, just as Disney does with Mickey Mouse.
The only reason why the Maori case seems so silly to us is because nobody knows exactly which person invented which part of their culture.
I'm no fan of IP law at all, especially with all the whining of poor artists and companies being deprived of the fruits of their hard work. But in the context of what goes on with Napster, the GPL vs. Microsoft etc. I think the Maori claims are only too understandable.
And this my most important reason why we would be better off without Trek:
It prevents new and innovative series from being developed and produced. JMS said more than once that when trying to sell B5 he was always told there was no room for another deep space sf-series in main stream TV.
Instead after a B5 rip-off (DS9), we will now get a Crusade rip-off. I suspect it is set in the 22nd century to at least get rid of that incredibly stupid prime directive.
I'm really fed up with the talk about the rights of the record companies being damaged.
Finally somebody is coming out with an idea that goes into the right direction. After all, intellectual property rights are some kind of artificial monopoly granted to the inventor. From the view of society, there should also be an obligation connected with it.
In my opinion, anybody who claims the rights to some intellectual proporty should be obliged to make his work accessible by the public. For example, music that is out of print should be allowed to be copied freely. Also, it should be no problem to swap abandoned video and computer games over the internet. It does not really hurt the copyright owners, if his work is copied, when he does not sell it himself.
While I don't like the administrative overhead implied by compulsory licenses, at least somebody starts to think about the responsibilities of rights owners.
Peter