But it is not "the industry" that this is really about. It's Apple. Apple isn't incurring any music production costs, they are just repackaging existing music and selling it, and making a tidy profit in the process.
As far as why the RIAA would want to continue with this, it is 'free' profit as far as they are concerned. They have already spent their money to produce and market the original CDs. They are incurring ZERO in new costs to allow Apple to resell the music (ok, some lawyers probably had to look over the contracts). It's like a whole new planet was discovered, and they just can't get enough of the that funky, funky Barry White. The alien planet is willing to come pick up the music and take it back, leaving behind piles of gold in exchange.
Put in business-school speak, it's another distribution channel with zero marginal cost to enter.
You are confusing REVENUE with PROFIT. I don't know what the admin costs/RIAA cut is either, but using your figures, once you clear out all the costs, that's $30 million in pure profit.
This is pretty low risk (for Apple) too. No expensive factories, storefronts, and probably not very many employees. They are acting as a pure middleman, adding value to the product, passing it on to the consumer, and taking a cut in the process.
Relatively low risk and close to a 60% profit margin (your numbers). Yeah, they should close the doors NOW.
Late Mozilla builds have this (I have 1.2.1, and it works there). You can set your 'Homepage' to be the current 'Group' of tabs. And I do like it a lot; it loads all my favorite pages in their own tabs on startup.
Banners aren't partially disabled. You can disable all banners, it just eats up your subscribed pageviews a lot faster. When you view an ad, it doesn't reduce your subscription balance.
Martha Stewart is sophomoric, trite, and obvious? Martha Stewart + book = Dave Barry? C'mon, admit it, you overheard that "smug literary equivalent" line in a movie and have been just DYING to use it.
Without knowing all the facts involved, its difficult to say if the auditors are at fault. Remember, it is the COMPANY's responsibility to prepare the financial statements, and the auditor's role is to certify that they comply with "generally accepted accounting principles". It is NOT their job to "validate a company's books" in their entirety. Auditing is done via statistical sampling, so, without knowing what their process / samples were, it is difficlut to say whether there was negligence or fraud.
Unlike Enron, in WorldCom's case I think it could have just been an oversight (read "mistake") on the auditor's part. Bad, but not Go To Jail bad.
But doesn't that tinfoil hat get counterbalance things?;-)
Seriously, a relative of mine won't use antiperspirant because it contains aluminum (sulfate?) & that whole aluminum deposits in the brain thing. I hate that drippy feeling, so I go with the antipersperant pit stick.
I see cash here and here at $5.1 billion. Your point is taken (short-term investments+cash is over $38 billion), but I wasn't talking out of my a**, either.
You are confusing owner's equity with market capitalization. In order to buy Ebay, at the current market price, Microsoft would need to pay $16 billion, not $1.5 billion.
Ballpark definitions:
Owner's Equity: Money contribubuted by the owners + the sum of all historical net profit - the sum of all historical dividends.
Market Capitalization: Market price * shares outstanding.
Still within MSFTs purchasing power (what isn't), but at least they couldn't just pay for it out of cash.
PDF is an open format, in that the specification is know and can be implemented by anyone royalty-free. There are several non-Adobe tools for generating PDF files. Apple provides one of them.
I thought everyone on Slashdot hated the RIAA, the MPAA, and Microsoft. Why do you keep hyping CDs, movies, and Windows games?
Big corporations are what they are. They sell us cool stuff with one hand and tighten the screws on our freedoms with the other. We hate them every morning and love them every afternoon, and vice versa. This is part of living in the modern world: you take your yin with your yang and try to figure out how to do what's right the best you can. If you think it has to be all one way or the other, that's cool, share your opinions, but don't expect everyone else to think the same.
See Personal Telco. Its got tons of stuff on FCC regs, example hardware, existing communities, and a really good mailing list.
To answer your question, your neighbors would need to buy or build a Directional Antenna to point at your omni antenna. The FCC says you can't exceed certain output levels, but other than that, it is "unregulated".
Here is a fairly old thread on distributed (Internet) rendering, and why it is very tough to do. Among the more quotable quotes:
Umm, running the renderfarm is exactly such operations -- sysadmin,
network design, load balancing, etc etc etc. And these things are very
closely coupled to the fundamental day-to-day operations of a studio. If
your business model depends upon delivery of X frames at Y quality by no
later than the first of Z, then you'd better believe that outsourcing
render services is a part of the core business.
Imagine if SETI had a deadline. Seti@home would be the first part of the enterprise to be tossed out the window.
*
kb FF LT Supv
Square Pictures
I saw this article outlining a database venture that Red Hat will be introducing. Does anyone have any details to this? I am curious if they will be developing something from scratch or using an existing product (the article tends to lean toward "from scratch", but it isn't really clear).
Slashdot Mirror
As far as why the RIAA would want to continue with this, it is 'free' profit as far as they are concerned. They have already spent their money to produce and market the original CDs. They are incurring ZERO in new costs to allow Apple to resell the music (ok, some lawyers probably had to look over the contracts). It's like a whole new planet was discovered, and they just can't get enough of the that funky, funky Barry White. The alien planet is willing to come pick up the music and take it back, leaving behind piles of gold in exchange.
Put in business-school speak, it's another distribution channel with zero marginal cost to enter.
This is pretty low risk (for Apple) too. No expensive factories, storefronts, and probably not very many employees. They are acting as a pure middleman, adding value to the product, passing it on to the consumer, and taking a cut in the process.
Relatively low risk and close to a 60% profit margin (your numbers). Yeah, they should close the doors NOW.
Click on the "Now Online For Free!!" Not gonna link, cause that's just mean.
It's a reference to Chandler from Friends. I am ashamed that I got the joke, but I did. Feel proud that you didn't.
Late Mozilla builds have this (I have 1.2.1, and it works there). You can set your 'Homepage' to be the current 'Group' of tabs. And I do like it a lot; it loads all my favorite pages in their own tabs on startup.
Banners aren't partially disabled. You can disable all banners, it just eats up your subscribed pageviews a lot faster. When you view an ad, it doesn't reduce your subscription balance.
You are comparing quarterly EPS for Ebay ($0.21) and Microsoft ($0.47) to the full year forecast for Overture. Not exactly apples-to-apples.
Unless we are swimming!
Not that it really matters, but Wyden is the Senior Senator in Oregon. Wyden defeated Smith in 1996 running for Bob Packwood's vacated Senate seat.
Martha Stewart is sophomoric, trite, and obvious? Martha Stewart + book = Dave Barry? C'mon, admit it, you overheard that "smug literary equivalent" line in a movie and have been just DYING to use it.
Oh wait, IHBT.
Well, that's what my Dad would have done.
Unlike Enron, in WorldCom's case I think it could have just been an oversight (read "mistake") on the auditor's part. Bad, but not Go To Jail bad.
WRT your #2 point, WorldCom has been delisted. It is now traded over-the-counter as WCOEQ.PK . See this for more information.
But doesn't that tinfoil hat get counterbalance things? ;-)
Seriously, a relative of mine won't use antiperspirant because it contains aluminum (sulfate?) & that whole aluminum deposits in the brain thing. I hate that drippy feeling, so I go with the antipersperant pit stick.
Too much information, I know.
I see cash here and here at $5.1 billion. Your point is taken (short-term investments+cash is over $38 billion), but I wasn't talking out of my a**, either.
Ballpark definitions:
Owner's Equity: Money contribubuted by the owners + the sum of all historical net profit - the sum of all historical dividends.
Market Capitalization: Market price * shares outstanding.
Still within MSFTs purchasing power (what isn't), but at least they couldn't just pay for it out of cash.
Well, up one directory we have mLife. Maybe it's just an evil AT&T plot.
PDF is an open format, in that the specification is know and can be implemented by anyone royalty-free. There are several non-Adobe tools for generating PDF files. Apple provides one of them.
I thought everyone on Slashdot hated the RIAA, the MPAA, and Microsoft. Why do you keep hyping CDs, movies, and Windows games?
Big corporations are what they are. They sell us cool stuff with one hand and tighten the screws on our freedoms with the other. We hate them every morning and love them every afternoon, and vice versa. This is part of living in the modern world: you take your yin with your yang and try to figure out how to do what's right the best you can. If you think it has to be all one way or the other, that's cool, share your opinions, but don't expect everyone else to think the same.
I dooo feel sorry for the people who think the Simpsons are "clever" (use finger quotes).
Villan to Tick masqurading as a villian: If your so evil, EAT THIS KITTEN!
See Personal Telco. Its got tons of stuff on FCC regs, example hardware, existing communities, and a really good mailing list.
To answer your question, your neighbors would need to buy or build a Directional Antenna to point at your omni antenna. The FCC says you can't exceed certain output levels, but other than that, it is "unregulated".
You might want to check out the Hindsdale howto as well. The other Hack FAQ is a little out of date.
I saw this article outlining a database venture that Red Hat will be introducing. Does anyone have any details to this? I am curious if they will be developing something from scratch or using an existing product (the article tends to lean toward "from scratch", but it isn't really clear).