The movie (which contains parts of him following them around) can be used as evidence. It's legal to make copies under those conditions.
Last time I checked, the MPAA were not a Law Enforcement agency.
They made copies of the movie and gave them to their employees. That's very different from handing over the evidence (the original DVD) to the Police, and then the Police making copies.
Since the movie had parts in it about the employees it was copied and given to, there's a good chance it was legal. The DMCA is another matter, but who's going to prosecute them?
What? No.
Show me the bit in the Copyright Act that says "If a copyrighted work mentions you, you get a free copy."
What makes it even sweeter is that the MPAA was one of the organisations pushing for Statutory damages for copyright infringement; which they got as part of the Sonny Bono Copyright Act. Which basically says even if the copying resulted in no financial loss for the rights holder, you must pay a basic amount of damages. I believe it's something like several thousand dollars per unauthorised copy.
This isn't the answer. There's still floppy disks (ugh!), CD drives (lots of PCs come with CD writers nowadays), printing of documents and {screendumping, emailing} of documents.
You're right, it's not. The original article raised the wrong problem - teh 3vil USB, instead of focusing on the actual problem - tracking and controlling access to important data.
The tools to do this have existed for a long time. But to deal with it you need to be aware of the problem (or at least to have done a risk-assessment of the problem), and have the necessary will (management backing, legal necessity, etc) to do something about it.
Or, to put it another way, "Not knowing what you're doing may cause you problems later on."
The reason you won't see a system like that in a major MMO though is because it would be damn near impossible to balance against content or make updates to without throwing the whole thing out of whack. It removes the whole "class" issue, and so long as the game provides viable avenues to play that are rewarding for any profession or combination of professions, it would give probably one of the most dynamic play experiences out there.
Exactly right. Classes exist so that Game Designers can at least *try* to prevent Tank-Mages, because they don't have the time/skill/corporate backing to try anything more evolutionary.
This problem will persist for as long as the main focus of MMO is 'kill things, get XP', and for as long as the primary desire of Designers is to make the players play a game in a specific, controlled manner.
It's been present ever since Windows 2000 - if a company is worried about data loss via USB drives and the like, it's possible to disable access to USB drives using regular Windows security templates.
What the article probably meant to say is that sloppy security practices, combined with increasing personal storage, increases the risk of unknown data loss.
You can lock down a Windows box just fine against casual and accidental leaks if you know what you're doing, and you have a corporate policy to enforce. You can even prevent deliberate attempts at data theft, if you really want to be a hardass.
These process is recommended for people who would die without treatment. It is intended to keep them alive long enough to get them to a trauma center. Lots of people die from accidents, strokes, heart attacks and the like who could be saved if they could be brought to a level I trauma center fast enough.
So given the choice of 100% or a 10% death rate before you even reach the hospital, which would you choose?
Your theory is right, your numbers are off a bit, the result is the same.:)
New game sold for $50, wholesale price from distributor was $36 (this is typical, and is in TFA). Gross $14 to Gamestop/EB.
Current title, used, buyback at $15, if you're lucky. Re-sell at $40. Gross $25 to Gamestop/EB.
Back title, used, buyback at $5 (again, if you're lucky. $3 is common now). Resell at $20. Gross $15 to Gamestop/EB.
Total gross over three cycles (assuming it doesn't get sold back as a back title ad-infinitum) is $54. But the title could be re-sold several more times at backtitle prices, at $15 gross a pop... which is what the article and your OP rightly draw attention to. That's a better gross than selling current titles new.
The lesson to take home from this is distributors are charging too much for their product. It's no wonder the second-hand market is florishing. This is especially true for high-volume console titles.
Really - pretty pages to look at, but someone needs to tell their webmonkies that the web is not print. It took me forever to find the 'next page' button, and I don't like reading web content in three column layout. Even the IHT learned this lesson, and there are many other print-to-web publications out there that show how you can do this without compromising aesthetics.
That's exactly what I think of when I think of Star Wars! Who can forget the pivotal scene in A New Hope where Luke killed the 10,000 TIE Fighters so he'd have the XP to take on the BossStar?
Ms. MacIntyre [SWG Senior Director] said Galaxies had lost "significantly more" than the 3 to 5 percent of players who typically leave any online game every month. She said she expected the game to return to its previous subscriber levels in six months, a process she hoped would be accelerated by the introduction of a new television infomercial hawking Galaxies later this month.
Most guesses placed SWG at around 200,000 subs prior to the NGE, and LucasArts has admitted they've lost "significantly more" than 5% of their base since NGE launch - that's anywhere from 10,000 subs cancelled in the last month. Most likely much more, if they expect it to take up to six months to return to pre-NGE levels. That, to me, hints they've lost about six times the usual monthly churn.
So yeah, folks are cancelling. SOE expects it to take 6 months to return to 200K subs, maybe sooner if the new ads work (and assuming churn stays where it is). It's entirely possible, though, that the new customers, the ones who like the faster gameplay, are also the sorts who don't play games v. long. So I'd expect their churn rate to go up, too.
Your characterization of Gay Marriage detractors is something of a strawman.
Yes, but that was my point - many detractors make the claim that gay marriage undermines their marriage in some fundamental way, as though granting similar rights to other people takes away some of their rights. And that was my point - a pithy jab at one particular (of many) argument used by some people opposed to Gay Marriage. And that argument is a strawman. That's the point. They're the ones raising the strawman.
Hence, some people who opposed tabbed email do so because they believe it takes something away from them, when that is not rationally the case. They are making a strawman argument to underline their irrational opposition to the feature.
Probably too highbrow for a discussion of tabbed emails, I know.:)
[Why the hell am I reading so many whinges about how this is unnecessary?!]
It's like Gay Marriage.
Tabbed emails take nothing away from folks who don't want to use that functionality (it's an option, not a requirement), but there's a certain type of person who can't see beyond "I won't use this, therefore it's stupid/unnecessary/obscene/heresy".
Also, Tabbed emails will destroy their marriages and turn them all into raving assmonkeys.
Well, if HR was doing their job, they'd know that Morale in the company was generally good, and that you, specifically, were happy but were moving to another state, or going to Law School, or got a better offer from another company.
The new x4100 servers look pretty sweet - dual core, dual proc Opteron 252 in a 1U low-power chassis. And N1 will work with RHEL as well, so long as it's on Sun hardware. It lets you do complete bare-metal installs from the OS up over the network and remote firmware patches, as well as the usual centralized patching and management. If you have to manage a bunch of similar machines, that's pretty nifty.
Because they can break labor laws with the Mexicans and pay them less - wages that domestic unskilled labor will not accept.
That's why I don't like it. If US Agri had to pay legal wages, there'd be less need for illegal unskilled workers. Of course, we'd all pay more for food then.
Of course, there's still structural problems with the US unskilled labor market, ranging from a minimum wage that's arguably set too low to unreasonable expectations of entitlement amongst some workers (fueled, in part, by the massive consumerist nature of US society which tells them what they *should* have, not what they can actually afford).
Most countries have a surplus of unskilled labor. Why should they import more? Many countries (including the US) have shortages of some specialties. Medicine comes to mind, but high-end IT is also a problem. The point being the more educated you are, the chances are the less people there are of similiar education. If you happen to be educated in a desireable field, you're welcome pretty much anywhere you want to go.
What gets my goat is the US' attitude towards Mexicans. Legally, they're persona non grata. But the agricultural system depends on illegal workers. Sure, the Mexicans have more freedom than they should have (legally, they shouldn't be here at all) and they're arguably better off working in the US than back in Mexico, but it's a terrible double-standard, and they're still exploited.
You're forgetting that in the EU, you can work anywhere because you're an EU citizen. Just like how a US citizen can work anywhere in the US without restriction. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. I'd say labor mobility was worse in the EU than the US as you don't necessarily speak the same language. I couldn't go get a job in Italy very easily, for example, as I can only swear in Italian (I'm an EU citizen, too).
it's still biased towards rich educated people who speak French
No, just educated people who can order a croissant. You don't have to be rich to have a degree, just reasonably smart.
So I'm not sure how that really differs from a Canadian entering the US looking for work
Immensely.
There's no US visa category that lets you enter the country without a job offer to seek work, whether you get 3 months to do it in or 1 day. Canada has a special deal with the US that doesn't apply to anyone else, no matter what your qualifications.
The Canadians, on the other hand, will let you enter 'on spec' (sure, with limits - that's only fair) no matter where you are from, so long as you meet certain basic criteria.
The UK system, on paper, lies somewhere between the US and Canada. Like the US, you usually must already have a job offer before arriving in-country, and you must apply for (and be granted) the appropriate visa, which is non-trivial but possible with a lawyer. You also, supposedly, must prove that the job isn't taking away from a native. The UK does have 'work-holiday' visas for Commonwealth citizens that lets folks come and work in bars and the like for up to 6 months (lots of Australians do this) which are frequently used to extend stays. The area where the UK differs from the US is it's easier to enter the country then 'go grey' while still claiming benefits from the state. Witness the slightly-xenophobic complaints about asylum seekers... and the ease with which asylum seekers can get into the country and become de-facto residents through inertia and government/EU regulations.
Most paper towel dispensers (not all, but most) are either the 'pull down' type (where you only touch the towel you end up using) or have a level-action which can be used by an elbow.
I'd say door handle contamination from people who don't wash their hands at all is a far bigger infection vector than the folks who try to clean their hands properly.
Slashdot Mirror
The movie (which contains parts of him following them around) can be used as evidence. It's legal to make copies under those conditions.
Last time I checked, the MPAA were not a Law Enforcement agency.
They made copies of the movie and gave them to their employees. That's very different from handing over the evidence (the original DVD) to the Police, and then the Police making copies.
Since the movie had parts in it about the employees it was copied and given to, there's a good chance it was legal. The DMCA is another matter, but who's going to prosecute them?
What? No.
Show me the bit in the Copyright Act that says "If a copyrighted work mentions you, you get a free copy."
What makes it even sweeter is that the MPAA was one of the organisations pushing for Statutory damages for copyright infringement; which they got as part of the Sonny Bono Copyright Act. Which basically says even if the copying resulted in no financial loss for the rights holder, you must pay a basic amount of damages. I believe it's something like several thousand dollars per unauthorised copy.
This isn't the answer. There's still floppy disks (ugh!), CD drives (lots of PCs come with CD writers nowadays), printing of documents and {screendumping, emailing} of documents.
You're right, it's not. The original article raised the wrong problem - teh 3vil USB, instead of focusing on the actual problem - tracking and controlling access to important data.
The tools to do this have existed for a long time. But to deal with it you need to be aware of the problem (or at least to have done a risk-assessment of the problem), and have the necessary will (management backing, legal necessity, etc) to do something about it.
Or, to put it another way, "Not knowing what you're doing may cause you problems later on."
The reason you won't see a system like that in a major MMO though is because it would be damn near impossible to balance against content or make updates to without throwing the whole thing out of whack. It removes the whole "class" issue, and so long as the game provides viable avenues to play that are rewarding for any profession or combination of professions, it would give probably one of the most dynamic play experiences out there.
Exactly right. Classes exist so that Game Designers can at least *try* to prevent Tank-Mages, because they don't have the time/skill/corporate backing to try anything more evolutionary.
This problem will persist for as long as the main focus of MMO is 'kill things, get XP', and for as long as the primary desire of Designers is to make the players play a game in a specific, controlled manner.
It's been present ever since Windows 2000 - if a company is worried about data loss via USB drives and the like, it's possible to disable access to USB drives using regular Windows security templates.
What the article probably meant to say is that sloppy security practices, combined with increasing personal storage, increases the risk of unknown data loss.
You can lock down a Windows box just fine against casual and accidental leaks if you know what you're doing, and you have a corporate policy to enforce. You can even prevent deliberate attempts at data theft, if you really want to be a hardass.
Planetes deals with exactly this problem. Only they didn't see it as being an issue until the 2070s (the series takes place in 2075).
Still, a pretty fun anime, and the manga is even better.
Read the article first.
These process is recommended for people who would die without treatment. It is intended to keep them alive long enough to get them to a trauma center. Lots of people die from accidents, strokes, heart attacks and the like who could be saved if they could be brought to a level I trauma center fast enough.
So given the choice of 100% or a 10% death rate before you even reach the hospital, which would you choose?
Well, you'll have to wait 'til February to get one. :-)
( But yeah, that's one sweet looking laptop that I'd love to violate by installing Windows on it. Dual boot, of course. )
Your theory is right, your numbers are off a bit, the result is the same. :)
... which is what the article and your OP rightly draw attention to. That's a better gross than selling current titles new.
New game sold for $50, wholesale price from distributor was $36 (this is typical, and is in TFA). Gross $14 to Gamestop/EB.
Current title, used, buyback at $15, if you're lucky. Re-sell at $40. Gross $25 to Gamestop/EB.
Back title, used, buyback at $5 (again, if you're lucky. $3 is common now). Resell at $20. Gross $15 to Gamestop/EB.
Total gross over three cycles (assuming it doesn't get sold back as a back title ad-infinitum) is $54. But the title could be re-sold several more times at backtitle prices, at $15 gross a pop
The lesson to take home from this is distributors are charging too much for their product. It's no wonder the second-hand market is florishing. This is especially true for high-volume console titles.
Really - pretty pages to look at, but someone needs to tell their webmonkies that the web is not print. It took me forever to find the 'next page' button, and I don't like reading web content in three column layout. Even the IHT learned this lesson, and there are many other print-to-web publications out there that show how you can do this without compromising aesthetics.
That's exactly what I think of when I think of Star Wars! Who can forget the pivotal scene in A New Hope where Luke killed the 10,000 TIE Fighters so he'd have the XP to take on the BossStar?
Most guesses placed SWG at around 200,000 subs prior to the NGE, and LucasArts has admitted they've lost "significantly more" than 5% of their base since NGE launch - that's anywhere from 10,000 subs cancelled in the last month. Most likely much more, if they expect it to take up to six months to return to pre-NGE levels. That, to me, hints they've lost about six times the usual monthly churn.
So yeah, folks are cancelling. SOE expects it to take 6 months to return to 200K subs, maybe sooner if the new ads work (and assuming churn stays where it is). It's entirely possible, though, that the new customers, the ones who like the faster gameplay, are also the sorts who don't play games v. long. So I'd expect their churn rate to go up, too.
In short, I think SOE just pulled a Sims Online.
Your characterization of Gay Marriage detractors is something of a strawman.
:)
Yes, but that was my point - many detractors make the claim that gay marriage undermines their marriage in some fundamental way, as though granting similar rights to other people takes away some of their rights. And that was my point - a pithy jab at one particular (of many) argument used by some people opposed to Gay Marriage. And that argument is a strawman. That's the point. They're the ones raising the strawman.
Hence, some people who opposed tabbed email do so because they believe it takes something away from them, when that is not rationally the case. They are making a strawman argument to underline their irrational opposition to the feature.
Probably too highbrow for a discussion of tabbed emails, I know.
[Why the hell am I reading so many whinges about how this is unnecessary?!]
It's like Gay Marriage.
Tabbed emails take nothing away from folks who don't want to use that functionality (it's an option, not a requirement), but there's a certain type of person who can't see beyond "I won't use this, therefore it's stupid/unnecessary/obscene/heresy".
Also, Tabbed emails will destroy their marriages and turn them all into raving assmonkeys.
You missed out 3). Put laxatives in the cake. :)
Well, if HR was doing their job, they'd know that Morale in the company was generally good, and that you, specifically, were happy but were moving to another state, or going to Law School, or got a better offer from another company.
The new x4100 servers look pretty sweet - dual core, dual proc Opteron 252 in a 1U low-power chassis. And N1 will work with RHEL as well, so long as it's on Sun hardware. It lets you do complete bare-metal installs from the OS up over the network and remote firmware patches, as well as the usual centralized patching and management. If you have to manage a bunch of similar machines, that's pretty nifty.
If someone spends 4 hours a day watching TV, are they 'addicted to TV'? And is a huge problem that must be cured (tm)?
Because they can break labor laws with the Mexicans and pay them less - wages that domestic unskilled labor will not accept.
That's why I don't like it. If US Agri had to pay legal wages, there'd be less need for illegal unskilled workers. Of course, we'd all pay more for food then.
Of course, there's still structural problems with the US unskilled labor market, ranging from a minimum wage that's arguably set too low to unreasonable expectations of entitlement amongst some workers (fueled, in part, by the massive consumerist nature of US society which tells them what they *should* have, not what they can actually afford).
Well, it's simple economics.
Most countries have a surplus of unskilled labor. Why should they import more? Many countries (including the US) have shortages of some specialties. Medicine comes to mind, but high-end IT is also a problem. The point being the more educated you are, the chances are the less people there are of similiar education. If you happen to be educated in a desireable field, you're welcome pretty much anywhere you want to go.
What gets my goat is the US' attitude towards Mexicans. Legally, they're persona non grata. But the agricultural system depends on illegal workers. Sure, the Mexicans have more freedom than they should have (legally, they shouldn't be here at all) and they're arguably better off working in the US than back in Mexico, but it's a terrible double-standard, and they're still exploited.
You're forgetting that in the EU, you can work anywhere because you're an EU citizen. Just like how a US citizen can work anywhere in the US without restriction. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. I'd say labor mobility was worse in the EU than the US as you don't necessarily speak the same language. I couldn't go get a job in Italy very easily, for example, as I can only swear in Italian (I'm an EU citizen, too).
it's still biased towards rich educated people who speak French
No, just educated people who can order a croissant. You don't have to be rich to have a degree, just reasonably smart.
So I'm not sure how that really differs from a Canadian entering the US looking for work
Immensely.
There's no US visa category that lets you enter the country without a job offer to seek work, whether you get 3 months to do it in or 1 day. Canada has a special deal with the US that doesn't apply to anyone else, no matter what your qualifications.
The Canadians, on the other hand, will let you enter 'on spec' (sure, with limits - that's only fair) no matter where you are from, so long as you meet certain basic criteria.
The UK system, on paper, lies somewhere between the US and Canada. Like the US, you usually must already have a job offer before arriving in-country, and you must apply for (and be granted) the appropriate visa, which is non-trivial but possible with a lawyer. You also, supposedly, must prove that the job isn't taking away from a native. The UK does have 'work-holiday' visas for Commonwealth citizens that lets folks come and work in bars and the like for up to 6 months (lots of Australians do this) which are frequently used to extend stays. The area where the UK differs from the US is it's easier to enter the country then 'go grey' while still claiming benefits from the state. Witness the slightly-xenophobic complaints about asylum seekers... and the ease with which asylum seekers can get into the country and become de-facto residents through inertia and government/EU regulations.
Most paper towel dispensers (not all, but most) are either the 'pull down' type (where you only touch the towel you end up using) or have a level-action which can be used by an elbow.
I'd say door handle contamination from people who don't wash their hands at all is a far bigger infection vector than the folks who try to clean their hands properly.