Here I am minding my own business when I find out that none other than Stevie Case aka KillCreek has been in Playboy! This is weird, because it means that someone who's beaten me in a Quake Tourney (QuakeCon '97, baby!) is in pr0n. That's just f'ed up. I guess it means I have 2 degrees of seperation to Hugh Heffner, though, huh?
Yeah, but that's still a waste of power and money. Maybe/. can afford it now, but if I was running a site like this, I'd use a super-quick threaded web server like Zeus or fhttpd (or even khttpd, the kernel http server, if I wanted to live dangerously!) for serving the images, and Apache for the scripted stuff.
I agree. And then after we get rid of THAT one (come on, the ability to create an immortal entity which is considered a person in the eyes of the law? What kind of right is that!?), next I would abolish copyright law. It seems that the corporations which are so anxious to monitor and control us are all in the information business. Get rid of their corporate-welfware GOVERNMENT granted monopoly on information, and we'll see how things go...
"All things being equal, if more people buy goods through non-taxed transactions, there will be less tax revenue."
And I will have more of MY money. What exactly is the problem here? The government is just trying to take more of what it doesn't deserve in the first place!
Having just finished a programming assignment doing edge detection for my computer vision class, I was thinking the same exact same thing when I read Gailly's comment. I'm not a good enough Go player or programmer to know if it would work, but it would be very interesting to try! The nice thing about looking at the problem this way is you can look at the board as a 20 X 20 image (that's how big the go board is right?) with 3 color-valued pixels: one for white, one for black and one for empty. Then you could convolve various templates in an attempt to find dead formations, which is a fairly quick operation on such a small space. The trick would be to find the templates;)
I used to have this problem when I used Windows (haven't had it in Linux). My solution was to _right click_ on the link which wasn't working, and select "open in new window". That would solve the problem, usually, especially allowing you to go on to the new page.:)
I agree completely. This DeCSS business was the last straw for me; I finally up and joined the EFF. As the above poster notes, the have a very affordable $20 student/low income membership level, which is what I went for. (Think of it as 2 movies!). I am also boycotting the MPAA, and hopefully will be able to help out with the leafletting tomorrow: http://www.2600.org/news/2000/0130.html
Support the EFF. They are representing the defendants in all of the DeCSS cases, and they've done a lot for us in the past.
This is almost exactly the point I was going to make -- where do you draw the line for what is "speech" and what is "code"? If I simply read out the c source code to css-auth, would that be speech? What if I translated it into pseudo-code? How about if I translated it into English ("for variable i goes from 0 to i less than the value of variable k move the index to...") would THAT be speech? If you accept these artificial distinctions between "human" communication and "machine" communication, you throw yourself into a quagmire -- which could go so far as to outlaw specifications to implemnent a system, because it would allow a competent individual to break some copyright. The only way out is to accept that any form of communication created by a human is indeed "speech" in the manner which the First Amendment is SUPPOSED to protect.
(Note: I have no faith in "our" legal/governmental system, for what I feel are obvious reasons.)
*sigh* I hope there's a shred of common sense along the path these cases travel.
The great flaw in your argument, and indeed, everyone in this thread who believes the NSA is "ok", is the amount of damage a lone individual can do versus that a government can do. As paulbd noted, it is small groups of individuals who change the world -- but small groups who control or have access to huge amounts of power and resources.
The issue here is, can a secretive group of individuals create biological weapons? I don't think so (unless they stole them -- from the government(s)). To create weapons of mass destruction requires millions of dollars of resources and, more than that: scientists. Scientists who, unless they are starving, aren't going to be very likely to agree with your warped ideology. (That, of course, is another issue, but it isn't solved by listening in on people -- it's solved by giving scientists real jobs)
I agrue that it would be impossible to create, maintain, and use weapons of mass destruction in secret -- and if you did, it'd be a one time use because the second one would be full-blown war. Furthermore, I will agrue that the cost of allowing small groups to _possibly_ conduct terrorism is _much_ lower than the cost of loosing all our privacy.
The social contract is bullshit, and no modern theorist believes it exists. The state isn't brought together by mutual agreement, it's brought together by POWER. If you disagree, answer me this: when did YOU sign the social contract, or even agree to it? Never. And moreso, even if you agree with, what about me? Why do I have to? What option do I have if I don't? That's right: none.
But with encryption, the balance of power changes -- away from the state, and towards me and you. Now, we can have secrets. And thank god, because we live in a police state (Seattle, anyone?). Power is the root cause of violence, because without power over another, you cannot harm another. Power is most dangerous when concentrated behind one will. Therefore, by diluting power, we duliute the threat to ourselves.
If the NSA went away, I would have more freedom, and that is all.
Wow, this post is amazing. I'm sure it's about to be moderated into oblivion, but I think it's pretty funny. I'm not sure if it's parody or not, which just makes it that much more effective...I love the reference to "conservative Libertarians"!
This is an issue I feel strongly about. I think patents on genes are a much greater threat than those on software, by far. If I'd been in Seattle for the WTO protest, you could have seen me marching with my "No Gene Patents" sign.
Wether you believe in God or evolution, it seems obvious to me that patents should not be allowed for something which already exists. It's the ultimate "prior art". Build a gene from scratch, and maybe you'll have a case, but until then, I think it is clear that these patents should be opposed at all cost
It may also be wise to use these instructions, from some place on www.tinaja.com, but damned if I can find it again...
Don Lancaster's television repair instructions:
1.) Unplug television from wall outlet. 2.) Place wire clippers in preferred hand. 3.) Firmly grasp power cord in other hand. 4.) Clip the plug from the cord.
Your television has now been restored to its best possible operating condition.
RIAA sues FSF over "cp" utility Los Angeles, CA The Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA) filed suit against the Free Software Foundation today in Los Angeles Federal District Court. In the suit, the RIAA, which represents a select cabal of huge multinational record companies, aledges that the FSF's "cp" utility -- which allows users to indiscriminately copy data from one location on their hard drive or other media to another -- is being used as a tool by music pirates. "I simply cannot believe this web site; It's like using a crowbar to pry off copyright locks on files I illegitimately own and hope to make a profit from! I have 2 hungry, bratty kids and a wife I'm pretty sure is having an affair at home, you know!" said Rod Stone, a representitive from artists' agency Gold Mountain Management. The RIAA is seeking $100,000 in damages for each song pirated by the "cp" utility. "Some users even have more than one copy of the same song on their hard drive!" commented one industry executive. The industry filed suit under the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one of the most biased and unfair pieces of legislation ever. Cary Sherman, chief council and vice-president of the RIAA said, "We love the idea of using technology to suck the last possible dollar out of consumers, but 'cp' is not about that -- I understand it is even distributed 'free' -- it is about facilitating piracy and trying to build a business on the backs of huge multinationals." He added, "Not only does the FSF have no chance of besting us monetarily, but with the DMCA, we can now go after copyright 'infringers' arbitarily! Muhuhahahahhaha!"
No music trading actually takes place on computers owned by the FSF, nor does the FSF's "cp" utility monitor to see if users are copying copyrighted files. In fact, there is no restriction as to what kinds of files the "cp" utility can copy. It could be used to copy music, illegally decrypted DVD movies, copyrighted webpages, or child pornography and other illicit material.
In its counter-statement, the FSF pointed out that it did not orginate the "cp" utility. "That honor falls to either Ken Thompson or Dennis Ritche, I'm not sure which," sad Richard Stallman, chief of the FSF. "Of course, my version is better, and isn't encumbered by hoarder's copyrights." The FSF also pointed out that there are legitimate uses for the "cp" utility -- such as copying a data file to a floppy disk for backup. However, the RIAA was quick to jump on that claim. They stated, "How can we be sure the user isn't putting a copy of an emm-pee-three on to that floppy? Our multibillion-dollar-a-year-and-growing industry needs protection from money drains like that!"
A final point made by the FSF, which no one really paid any attention to, was that its "cp" utility doesn't really do anything unique anyway. Stallman commented that a "[competent] programmer could re-write the tool from scratch in less than a day -- it doesn't really do anything special." In fact, according to Stallman, everything the "cp" utility does could be done on a program-by-program basis using pipes and I/O redirection, or if you really wanted to, editing inode tables. "Of course, that would be very inconvient" added Stallman.
The only real time that I can think of would have been when the United States expanded west, but there was really no objection to it on a large scale, even though people knew about it. It would also be difficult to say that this was not a
war, as the people they were fighting did not want to be part of the country.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, you just answered your own question. The expansion westward by America killed a large number of people, all of whom I can assure you very much did NOT want to be killed by "their" government (or at least the government which claimed to rule them). The plight of the American Indians is a cause for great shame in America. At that time, the "will of the people" was with the murderers, but that doesn't do YOU very much good when they put you up against the wall, does it?
A large number of examples can furthermore be cited from history where a government took power with the "will of the people" and then turned bad. (USSR, Maoist China, Iran, etc.). I think the reason you see such fear in America of this happening is because of the origins of the country. America was formed after a successful rebellion against what the people considered an oppressive government. The Articles of Confederation (especially) and the Constitution which followed were created specificly to limit the power of the government, so that another rebellion would not be necessary. Unfortunately, the last 200 years are basically the story of learning how to ignore the Consitution for governmental gain -- the income tax wasn't even legalized until the early part of this century!
So, as you can see, people in America can get very touchy when it comes to government power (not touchy enough for me, though!). Libertarians (who like to think of themselves as the true philosophical descentants of the Founding Fathers) tend to view any amount of government as merely a necessary evil, and would remove as much of it as possible if they could.
I think your misunderstanding comes from a cultural difference derived from the way our two countries were formed.
It seems to me that certain problems are pretty much eternal. "What's wrong with today's children"-type books have been around for centuries, at least.
That's definately true. One of my favorite quotations is:
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.
Not really to defend Bowie (and not to slam Nietzsche -- I like 'em!), but you could make a case for Nietzsche being resposible for the A-Bomb in a round-about way. One of those chains of history kind of things.
The argument could go something like this: Nietzsche wrote his stuff. Pretty cool, shook up the world a bit. His female relations totally owned him (My philosophy teacher in high school liked to say that Nietzsche was the complete opposite of his idea Superman -- a total wuss) and infulenced him into putting a bunch of racist crap in his work. Or maybe he really was a complete racist. It doesn't mater. Then, in the 20th century, the Nazis pick up some misinterpretations of Nietzsche and place it in their own mythos. Nietzsche was essentially the official philosopher of the Third Riech, you know. Anyway, by some more twists of history, the Nazis took power, went to war, and the rest is history. The US built a nuclear bomb so Germany wouldn't get to it first.
Nietzsche -> Nazis -> WWII -> A-Bomb
It can be done, see? As to whether you can really blame Nietzsche for it (I wouldn't), that's another story.
I agree with your observation. Therefore, I think it's time to start investing heavily on personal EM jamming technology. After all, what good are spy cams if they can't broadcast? Nada. Also, bug (hehe, literally!) detectors for the individual will become increasingly important, I think.
After reading what Bruce Schneier, Scott McNeally, and David Brin have to say about privacy in the future (i.e., that it won't exist), it's easy to get depressed, and I do. It is impossible to stop the march of technology, which includes spying technology. But let us not forget that it also includes anti-intelligence technology. So, lets have those jammers, encryption, and bug dectectors, stat!
Oh, one nitpick. I believe the author you are refering to was Foucoult, not Kafka.
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow" was a great book! You really can't go much further than the end of the Universe with a book. Kind of like Poulsen's "Tau Zero" (also a great book).
Ahem. Richard Stallman, anyone? (If you claim to have produced more IP than RMS, I'm going to throw up. I don't think ANYONE has done that!)
Not even the Constitution supports your view of "stealing" IP as "theft". That interpretation is fairly new, and complete BS anyway. I would recommend reading some of the FSF's webpages (http://www.gnu.org). You may find them enlightening.
As for myself, I buy direct from the band when I can, and I buy CDs I really like, and I go to concerts. But I don't feel bad if I download a song or an album that I would have otherwise never bought, or ripping one of my roommate's CDs.
In my opinion, the way artists should make money IS like Phish and the GD -- concerts. Labels rip them off anyway, so why not just give the music away -- at least digitally? Many people (including myself) would choose to buy the album just to have the pretty CD and liner. For example, Static-X has a great relationship with their fans, and right after they made their first "big" album, they put it up on their web page, in it's entirity. I wouldn't know about them otherwise. But guess what? That page isn't there anymore. Big suprise.
Slashdot Mirror
Here I am minding my own business when I find out that none other than Stevie Case aka KillCreek has been in Playboy! This is weird, because it means that someone who's beaten me in a Quake Tourney (QuakeCon '97, baby!) is in pr0n. That's just f'ed up. I guess it means I have 2 degrees of seperation to Hugh Heffner, though, huh?
Luke
aka "Nectarine_Man", the Fruits of War
Yeah, but that's still a waste of power and money. Maybe /. can afford it now, but if I was running a site like this, I'd use a super-quick threaded web server like Zeus or fhttpd (or even khttpd, the kernel http server, if I wanted to live dangerously!) for serving the images, and Apache for the scripted stuff.
Yo, shout outs to my man, atomly! Still trying for that score:5, buddy? ;)
I agree. And then after we get rid of THAT one (come on, the ability to create an immortal entity which is considered a person in the eyes of the law? What kind of right is that!?), next I would abolish copyright law. It seems that the corporations which are so anxious to monitor and control us are all in the information business. Get rid of their corporate-welfware GOVERNMENT granted monopoly on information, and we'll see how things go...
"All things being equal, if more people buy goods through non-taxed transactions, there will be less tax revenue."
And I will have more of MY money. What exactly is the problem here? The government is just trying to take more of what it doesn't deserve in the first place!
Having just finished a programming assignment doing edge detection for my computer vision class, I was thinking the same exact same thing when I read Gailly's comment. I'm not a good enough Go player or programmer to know if it would work, but it would be very interesting to try! The nice thing about looking at the problem this way is you can look at the board as a 20 X 20 image (that's how big the go board is right?) with 3 color-valued pixels: one for white, one for black and one for empty. Then you could convolve various templates in an attempt to find dead formations, which is a fairly quick operation on such a small space. The trick would be to find the templates ;)
Luke
I used to have this problem when I used Windows (haven't had it in Linux). My solution was to _right click_ on the link which wasn't working, and select "open in new window". That would solve the problem, usually, especially allowing you to go on to the new page. :)
I agree completely. This DeCSS business was the last straw for me; I finally up and joined the EFF. As the above poster notes, the have a very affordable $20 student/low income membership level, which is what I went for. (Think of it as 2 movies!). I am also boycotting the MPAA, and hopefully will be able to help out with the leafletting tomorrow:
http://www.2600.org/news/2000/0130.html
Support the EFF. They are representing the defendants in all of the DeCSS cases, and they've done a lot for us in the past.
Luke
This is almost exactly the point I was going to make -- where do you draw the line for what is "speech" and what is "code"? If I simply read out the c source code to css-auth, would that be speech? What if I translated it into pseudo-code? How about if I translated it into English ("for variable i goes from 0 to i less than the value of variable k move the index to...") would THAT be speech? If you accept these artificial distinctions between "human" communication and "machine" communication, you throw yourself into a quagmire -- which could go so far as to outlaw specifications to implemnent a system, because it would allow a competent individual to break some copyright. The only way out is to accept that any form of communication created by a human is indeed "speech" in the manner which the First Amendment is SUPPOSED to protect.
(Note: I have no faith in "our" legal/governmental system, for what I feel are obvious reasons.)
*sigh* I hope there's a shred of common sense along the path these cases travel.
Luke
The great flaw in your argument, and indeed, everyone in this thread who believes the NSA is "ok", is the amount of damage a lone individual can do versus that a government can do. As paulbd noted, it is small groups of individuals who change the world -- but small groups who control or have access to huge amounts of power and resources.
The issue here is, can a secretive group of individuals create biological weapons? I don't think so (unless they stole them -- from the government(s)). To create weapons of mass destruction requires millions of dollars of resources and, more than that: scientists. Scientists who, unless they are starving, aren't going to be very likely to agree with your warped ideology. (That, of course, is another issue, but it isn't solved by listening in on people -- it's solved by giving scientists real jobs)
I agrue that it would be impossible to create, maintain, and use weapons of mass destruction in secret -- and if you did, it'd be a one time use because the second one would be full-blown war. Furthermore, I will agrue that the cost of allowing small groups to _possibly_ conduct terrorism is _much_ lower than the cost of loosing all our privacy.
The social contract is bullshit, and no modern theorist believes it exists. The state isn't brought together by mutual agreement, it's brought together by POWER. If you disagree, answer me this: when did YOU sign the social contract, or even agree to it? Never. And moreso, even if you agree with, what about me? Why do I have to? What option do I have if I don't? That's right: none.
But with encryption, the balance of power changes -- away from the state, and towards me and you. Now, we can have secrets. And thank god, because we live in a police state (Seattle, anyone?). Power is the root cause of violence, because without power over another, you cannot harm another. Power is most dangerous when concentrated behind one will. Therefore, by diluting power, we duliute the threat to ourselves.
If the NSA went away, I would have more freedom, and that is all.
LOL. I don't know who you are, but congradulations. This is very funny. :)
Wow, this post is amazing. I'm sure it's about to be moderated into oblivion, but I think it's pretty funny. I'm not sure if it's parody or not, which just makes it that much more effective...I love the reference to "conservative Libertarians"!
This is an issue I feel strongly about. I think patents on genes are a much greater threat than those on software, by far. If I'd been in Seattle for the WTO protest, you could have seen me marching with my "No Gene Patents" sign.
Wether you believe in God or evolution, it seems obvious to me that patents should not be allowed for something which already exists. It's the ultimate "prior art". Build a gene from scratch, and maybe you'll have a case, but until then, I think it is clear that these patents should be opposed at all cost
It may also be wise to use these instructions, from some place on www.tinaja.com, but damned if I can find it again...
Don Lancaster's television repair instructions:
1.) Unplug television from wall outlet.
2.) Place wire clippers in preferred hand.
3.) Firmly grasp power cord in other hand.
4.) Clip the plug from the cord.
Your television has now been restored to its best possible operating condition.
RIAA sues FSF over "cp" utility
Los Angeles, CA
The Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA) filed suit against the Free Software Foundation today in Los Angeles Federal District Court. In the suit, the RIAA, which represents a select cabal of huge multinational record companies, aledges that the FSF's "cp" utility -- which allows users to indiscriminately copy data from one location on their hard drive or other media to another -- is being used as a tool by music pirates. "I simply cannot believe this web site; It's like using a crowbar to pry off copyright locks on files I illegitimately own and hope to make a profit from! I have 2 hungry, bratty kids and a wife I'm pretty sure is having an affair at home, you know!" said Rod Stone, a representitive from artists' agency Gold Mountain Management. The RIAA is seeking $100,000 in damages for each song pirated by the "cp" utility. "Some users even have more than one copy of the same song on their hard drive!" commented one industry executive. The industry filed suit under the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one of the most biased and unfair pieces of legislation ever. Cary Sherman, chief council and vice-president of the RIAA said, "We love the idea of using technology to suck the last possible dollar out of consumers, but 'cp' is not about that -- I understand it is even distributed 'free' -- it is about facilitating piracy and trying to build a business on the backs of huge multinationals." He added, "Not only does the FSF have no chance of besting us monetarily, but with the DMCA, we can now go after copyright 'infringers' arbitarily! Muhuhahahahhaha!"
No music trading actually takes place on computers owned by the FSF, nor does the FSF's "cp" utility monitor to see if users are copying copyrighted files. In fact, there is no restriction as to what kinds of files the "cp" utility can copy. It could be used to copy music, illegally decrypted DVD movies, copyrighted webpages, or child pornography and other illicit material.
In its counter-statement, the FSF pointed out that it did not orginate the "cp" utility. "That honor falls to either Ken Thompson or Dennis Ritche, I'm not sure which," sad Richard Stallman, chief of the FSF. "Of course, my version is better, and isn't encumbered by hoarder's copyrights." The FSF also pointed out that there are legitimate uses for the "cp" utility -- such as copying a data file to a floppy disk for backup. However, the RIAA was quick to jump on that claim. They stated, "How can we be sure the user isn't putting a copy of an emm-pee-three on to that floppy? Our multibillion-dollar-a-year-and-growing industry needs protection from money drains like that!"
A final point made by the FSF, which no one really paid any attention to, was that its "cp" utility doesn't really do anything unique anyway. Stallman commented that a "[competent] programmer could re-write the tool from scratch in less than a day -- it doesn't really do anything special." In fact, according to Stallman, everything the "cp" utility does could be done on a program-by-program basis using pipes and I/O redirection, or if you really wanted to, editing inode tables. "Of course, that would be very inconvient" added Stallman.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, you just answered your own question. The expansion westward by America killed a large number of people, all of whom I can assure you very much did NOT want to be killed by "their" government (or at least the government which claimed to rule them). The plight of the American Indians is a cause for great shame in America. At that time, the "will of the people" was with the murderers, but that doesn't do YOU very much good when they put you up against the wall, does it?
A large number of examples can furthermore be cited from history where a government took power with the "will of the people" and then turned bad. (USSR, Maoist China, Iran, etc.). I think the reason you see such fear in America of this happening is because of the origins of the country. America was formed after a successful rebellion against what the people considered an oppressive government. The Articles of Confederation (especially) and the Constitution which followed were created specificly to limit the power of the government, so that another rebellion would not be necessary. Unfortunately, the last 200 years are basically the story of learning how to ignore the Consitution for governmental gain -- the income tax wasn't even legalized until the early part of this century!
So, as you can see, people in America can get very touchy when it comes to government power (not touchy enough for me, though!). Libertarians (who like to think of themselves as the true philosophical descentants of the Founding Fathers) tend to view any amount of government as merely a necessary evil, and would remove as much of it as possible if they could.
I think your misunderstanding comes from a cultural difference derived from the way our two countries were formed.
It seems to me that certain problems are pretty much eternal. "What's wrong with today's children"-type books have been around for centuries, at
least.
That's definately true. One of my favorite quotations is:
-- Cicero
Of course, that contrasts with:
-- Ovid
Not really to defend Bowie (and not to slam Nietzsche -- I like 'em!), but you could make a case for Nietzsche being resposible for the A-Bomb in a round-about way. One of those chains of history kind of things.
The argument could go something like this: Nietzsche wrote his stuff. Pretty cool, shook up the world a bit. His female relations totally owned him (My philosophy teacher in high school liked to say that Nietzsche was the complete opposite of his idea Superman -- a total wuss) and infulenced him into putting a bunch of racist crap in his work. Or maybe he really was a complete racist. It doesn't mater. Then, in the 20th century, the Nazis pick up some misinterpretations of Nietzsche and place it in their own mythos. Nietzsche was essentially the official philosopher of the Third Riech, you know. Anyway, by some more twists of history, the Nazis took power, went to war, and the rest is history. The US built a nuclear bomb so Germany wouldn't get to it first.
Nietzsche -> Nazis -> WWII -> A-Bomb
It can be done, see? As to whether you can really blame Nietzsche for it (I wouldn't), that's another story.
Hang on a second. Are you serious? If so, that's pretty f'ing cool, no matter what the backend is.
I agree with your observation. Therefore, I think it's time to start investing heavily on personal EM jamming technology. After all, what good are spy cams if they can't broadcast? Nada. Also, bug (hehe, literally!) detectors for the individual will become increasingly important, I think.
After reading what Bruce Schneier, Scott McNeally, and David Brin have to say about privacy in the future (i.e., that it won't exist), it's easy to get depressed, and I do. It is impossible to stop the march of technology, which includes spying technology. But let us not forget that it also includes anti-intelligence technology. So, lets have those jammers, encryption, and bug dectectors, stat!
Oh, one nitpick. I believe the author you are refering to was Foucoult, not Kafka.
Here's one vote for Minneapolis! ;)
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow" was a great book! You really can't go much further than the end of the Universe with a book. Kind of like Poulsen's "Tau Zero" (also a great book).
That story is by Kurt Vonegut, Jr. And yes, it's really cool.
I'm a "floccinaucinihilipilification" affiliate. It's my favorite word!
Floccinaucinihilipilification! What a great word..."the act of estimating as worthless."
I remember it from a David Brin(?) SF book which I read back in high school. He cited it from OED.
Ahem. Richard Stallman, anyone? (If you claim to have produced more IP than RMS, I'm going to throw up. I don't think ANYONE has done that!)
Not even the Constitution supports your view of "stealing" IP as "theft". That interpretation is fairly new, and complete BS anyway. I would recommend reading some of the FSF's webpages (http://www.gnu.org). You may find them enlightening.
As for myself, I buy direct from the band when I can, and I buy CDs I really like, and I go to concerts. But I don't feel bad if I download a song or an album that I would have otherwise never bought, or ripping one of my roommate's CDs.
In my opinion, the way artists should make money IS like Phish and the GD -- concerts. Labels rip them off anyway, so why not just give the music away -- at least digitally? Many people (including myself) would choose to buy the album just to have the pretty CD and liner. For example, Static-X has a great relationship with their fans, and right after they made their first "big" album, they put it up on their web page, in it's entirity. I wouldn't know about them otherwise. But guess what? That page isn't there anymore. Big suprise.