Anything can be made a crime if you pay some group to pass a law to make it one [see also: marijuana laws];
After all, some evil corporation paid the government to make it illegal to distribute someone's works so that they don't get paid for their efforts. Right.
After all, nobody but an evil corporation would think people should be paid for their work. Let's pirate the fuck out of everything instead so there's no incentive anymore to make a living.
Are you, by chance, a college student? Just curious...
I will not spend money for garbage I'm merely curious about.
Ah, the bullshit "sampling" argument. I'm sure those millions of Kazaa users just love "sampling" all that "free advertising" on the network.
Meanwhile, when you finally get a job and put out a product, I want to see the look on your face when an eMule search brings up 487 sources. I'm sure it will be classic..."buddy."
I certianly have the RIGHT to have the crack and keygen to any software I legally own.
But he said "rip and crack." He's talking about ripping a game to put online and sticking in a crack so others can play it.
I, too, use NoCD cracks. A lot of game developers actually don't care all that much. Publishers make them put copy protection in. Can you blame them? They figure that any little positive thing they can do to battle the rampant piracy going on is a step in the right direction.
I don't think people here realize how much of a cultural upheaval this is going to be--a negative one. There won't BE another id Software in our lifetimes if we keep pirating the hell out of everything.
What happens when everybody suddenly has Internet2 and can download your game in 30 seconds after installing a quick app (eMule 2.3 or something)?
You think you're still going to be selling 5M+ then?
Everybody around here purposely ignores the inevitable conclusion of a file-sharing network designed to trade massive files, but with no enforcement of what is traded--nobody making money on anything that can be copied.
I'm a musician. Sorry, but I don't want my stuff going around in a damn.RAR file for people to just leech from my hard work. Music sales are going down, PC sales are going down (hence the flocking to consoles), and eventually movie sales will be going down though the only thing really keeping them alive is the fact that you can't have a home viewing system as good as big theater's.
This attitude of "piracy is okay" sickens me. Just because you claim to have sold a lot of games still doesn't give piraters the right to pretend the copyright of a product magically transferred over to them.
But, it's not surprising that mentality pervades this place considering that recent Slashdot poll showing that the majority of Slashdotters are either college students or unemployed......
How is busting people breaking the law not enforcing copyright? Watching people dance around this is hysterical.
I love the hypocrisy of a website that expects companies to follow the copyright of the GPL while suddenly becoming passive toward the enforcement of copyright when it comes to warez, mp3s, or anything else we damn well know takes up 99% of the traffic on Kazaa and eMule. Double-standards suck.
Ashcroft is an ass. Terrorism wasn't a priority before 9/11 and it still isn't important enough to preclude this errand-boy stuff?
What's that got to do with some computer investigation agents busting piracy? Why are you distracting the issue toward friggin' Ashcroft? Are you saying it's okay to pirate warez?
You: Get the FBI defending your interests re: computer crime if
1) you are a big campaign contributer
Never mind the fact you don't offer any proof, you don't think it's the job of our government to protect corporations from piracy rings? You don't think busting piracy rings helps business both large and small? Are you just trying to justify your piracy endeavors or something?
Seriously, nobody here has ever legally or morally justified pirating someone else's works on Slashdot. Not even the "abuses" of the RIAA justify ripping off an artist. Sorry.
Chasing warez d00dz for copywrite violation is a staggering misallocation of resources that may get people killed.
This "staggering misallocation" is what FBI computer investigators do. I hate to break it to you. I don't even want to ask how chasing warez rings will get people killed, or how you can think the FBI is this rag-tag small group of agents who can't afford to allocate resources to multiple investigations. Guess what, it's not a one-track organization!
Sorry to burst your anti-Bush/Ashcroft, pro-piracy bubble, though. Next.
Ever since it was passed into law that a corporation has the rights of a person. When's the last time you took a basic high school social studies class?
Why do people always assume that an organization is only running on one track? Because they go after pirates, suddenly that means 100% of the entire organization's resources are spent going after those pirates, and the hunting of "higher priority criminals" has suddenly ceased?
Do you honestly believe that's how it works? Every single time some ignorant moron says something like this, I shake my head. "They should be devoting their resources to [INSERT RANDOM HIGHER PRIORITY THING HERE]." Uh, who said they don't? Because one small faction of their organization also happened to be doing something else? When Slashdot changes the way your comments are listed, does that mean 100% of the Slashdot crew was devoted to working on it? When a virtual memory scheme is worked on for the Linux kernel, does that mean 100% of all kernel development was devoted to that?
Give me a break. It's a faulty argument and you know it. This was probably the computer division composed of agents who specialize in computer crimes. God, you people amaze me sometimes.
A.) Participate in piracy, so this pisses you off. B.) Have a beef against Ashcroft, so it just ruffles your panties to see him cracking down on illegal software piracy.
There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with the government cracking down on this. Slashdot wants to pretend it's some sort of miniscule, "gray area" problem, but it's millions of users all trading warez and making it harder to sell software.
Why the hell do you think PC sales are so low, and so game companies are turning to consoles? Don't give me the "games were better in the olden days" spin, because we've got everything from Far Cry to Invisible War to SimCity 4 to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to...you get the picture.
"Copyright Enforcement Militia"...this is such propaganda bullshit that I can't believe--no wait, I CAN believe it got modded up. A post bitching about the emotive use of the word "syndicate" yet emotively using "militia." Nice!
Let's all pirate the fuck out of Doom 3, shall we? I'm sure John Carmack won't mind. Will he?
Actually, the term "organized crime" isn't that far-off...P2P is pretty organized (Sharereactor/connecter/provider, anyone?), and the illegal downloads ARE a crime. It's organized crime, just in a different high-tech way.
Gee, I could have sworn it was illegal to pirate someone's copyrighted works.
Somehow you've turned the "real crime" over to Congress for extending some copyrights. What does that have to do with P2P, and how does it give pirates the right to infringe on artists' rights?
You know what really hurts? The gut-laugh I have over seeing a community that cries up in arms over any sort of GPL copyright violation and expects all companies and legal systems to respect the copyright of the GPL...then goes to great lengths to call the music industry evil for pursuing infringers of its copyright and spends paragraphs justifying violating every copyright under the sun.
You can't expect everyone to respect the copyright of the GPL and then justify violating it when it's someone else's.
Slippery slope argument. All people who download music do not also download movies or games.
It's the same freaking thing. Copyright infringement by people who think they have the right to download everything under the sun just because it's there.
But then again, reasoning with asshats like you never works, so that's why I'm psting anonymously-- so I can forget I ever wasted my time trying to "justify" my actions to someone who doesn't understand that it's none of their fucking business what I download or why I do it.
Then, suddenly you get defensive and call a total stranger an "asshat" because they dared bring up the fact that infringement is self-serving.
Guess what? It's my fucking business what you download and why because I happen to make material that has ended up on p2p. Guess what? I wasn't too happy about it either. But go right ahead and pretend you have some sort of right to privacy when it comes to illegal and immoral activity.
It's not that the fact it doesn't support basic features of other databases that bothers me, it's the fact that the developers openly discourage the need for those procedures, thereby pigeonholing you into coding their way and removing your choices.
What if I want to use stored procedures, even if they think I don't need them? You can implement them and still tell me they're bad (we're ignoring the fact that such an opinion is laughable), while still giving me the CHOICE to use them if I want to. They're friggin' standard SQL.
If a feature's not implemented because you haven't gotten to it yet, that's fine--I can understand that. It's free software. But don't sit there with a thumb up your ass telling me I don't need it when I say I do.
My god, you can't even do subqueries? What the hell? No views?!
Visit MySQL Gotchas for a list of the stuff you don't hear about mySQL around here.
MySQL is popular because it's easy to learn because it doesn't have all those "complicated" advanced features real databases have, so people who learn MySQL suddenly think they've become DB admin experts. Then they try Oracle or PostgreSQL or one of the other big boys, get confused and overwhelmed, and fall back on MySQL because it's easier for them despite having reduced functionality, often without them knowing that if they learned a real database they could do some incredibly powerful things with the braindead SQL they write to get MySQL to work. I've had to translate some Oracle single queries into as many as four for MySQL (!).
When's the last time you had the feeling that any of the editors listened to any of the needs/concerns of their readers?
Outright falsehoods often get posted, with no corrections. But it doensn't matter because, despite professing to be a news site, somehow it's "not really" because it's Taco's hobby site. But why call it a tech news site? Isn't that ignoring the fact that a very, very large chunk of geek population TREATS this site like hard news? A lot of people form their worldviews because of the headlines here, which is the cause for a lot of silly opinions, anti-"M$" lies, etc.
...I thought getting paid for your work is bad! Your products should all be put online for "free advertising" purposes, so that people can "sample" them.
Nobody should be compensated for their work. Because, like, people who download something are magically going to run out and buy it. Not me, of course...but "somebody else" will.
Wow, the guy wants to offer some of the extensions at his business up for discussion. How evil is that! Discussion!
I wonder how many other guys on that committee also work for corporations. It's not like being on a standards committee is a paying, full-time job or anything...
Slashdot Mirror
Anything can be made a crime if you pay some group to pass a law to make it one [see also: marijuana laws];
After all, some evil corporation paid the government to make it illegal to distribute someone's works so that they don't get paid for their efforts. Right.
After all, nobody but an evil corporation would think people should be paid for their work. Let's pirate the fuck out of everything instead so there's no incentive anymore to make a living.
Are you, by chance, a college student? Just curious...
I will not spend money for garbage I'm merely curious about.
Ah, the bullshit "sampling" argument. I'm sure those millions of Kazaa users just love "sampling" all that "free advertising" on the network.
Meanwhile, when you finally get a job and put out a product, I want to see the look on your face when an eMule search brings up 487 sources. I'm sure it will be classic..."buddy."
Why should ANY of my tax dollars be defending someone else's "potential profits"?
Because that someone else ALSO pays tax dollars and expects morons like you not to violate their rights. Stop being a selfish asshole.
Next.
I certianly have the RIGHT to have the crack and keygen to any software I legally own.
But he said "rip and crack." He's talking about ripping a game to put online and sticking in a crack so others can play it.
I, too, use NoCD cracks. A lot of game developers actually don't care all that much. Publishers make them put copy protection in. Can you blame them? They figure that any little positive thing they can do to battle the rampant piracy going on is a step in the right direction.
I don't think people here realize how much of a cultural upheaval this is going to be--a negative one. There won't BE another id Software in our lifetimes if we keep pirating the hell out of everything.
Because, after all, a group as huge as the FBI doesn't conduct multiple investigations using multiple divisions, thereboy enforcing all laws.
What's the point of having laws if you're not going to enforce them all?
Just because they go after some warez kids doesn't mean the other 98% of the organization magically shuts down. Stop with this goofy argument.
Yes, piracy does affect many companies bottom lines, but blaming it for your not getting paid a few bucks extra is just moronic.
Why? It's common logic that the more piracy becomes prevalent, the more sales will be affected.
And it's downright human nature to want to get something for free instead of paying for it.
Feel free to ignore both if you'd like, but it weakens your position.
What happens when everybody suddenly has Internet2 and can download your game in 30 seconds after installing a quick app (eMule 2.3 or something)?
.RAR file for people to just leech from my hard work. Music sales are going down, PC sales are going down (hence the flocking to consoles), and eventually movie sales will be going down though the only thing really keeping them alive is the fact that you can't have a home viewing system as good as big theater's.
You think you're still going to be selling 5M+ then?
Everybody around here purposely ignores the inevitable conclusion of a file-sharing network designed to trade massive files, but with no enforcement of what is traded--nobody making money on anything that can be copied.
I'm a musician. Sorry, but I don't want my stuff going around in a damn
This attitude of "piracy is okay" sickens me. Just because you claim to have sold a lot of games still doesn't give piraters the right to pretend the copyright of a product magically transferred over to them.
But, it's not surprising that mentality pervades this place considering that recent Slashdot poll showing that the majority of Slashdotters are either college students or unemployed......
How is busting people breaking the law not enforcing copyright? Watching people dance around this is hysterical.
I love the hypocrisy of a website that expects companies to follow the copyright of the GPL while suddenly becoming passive toward the enforcement of copyright when it comes to warez, mp3s, or anything else we damn well know takes up 99% of the traffic on Kazaa and eMule. Double-standards suck.
Yeah, real bummer.
I'm sure John Carmack will appreciate your obvious enthusiasm for legally purchasing the next product he puts out. Cough.
The world we live in is going down the tubes. Eventually nobody will be able to make money on anything. But "it's all good."
Ashcroft is an ass. Terrorism wasn't a priority before 9/11 and it still isn't important enough to preclude this errand-boy stuff?
What's that got to do with some computer investigation agents busting piracy? Why are you distracting the issue toward friggin' Ashcroft? Are you saying it's okay to pirate warez?
You: Get the FBI defending your interests re: computer crime if
1) you are a big campaign contributer
Never mind the fact you don't offer any proof, you don't think it's the job of our government to protect corporations from piracy rings? You don't think busting piracy rings helps business both large and small? Are you just trying to justify your piracy endeavors or something?
Seriously, nobody here has ever legally or morally justified pirating someone else's works on Slashdot. Not even the "abuses" of the RIAA justify ripping off an artist. Sorry.
Chasing warez d00dz for copywrite violation is a staggering misallocation of resources that may get people killed.
This "staggering misallocation" is what FBI computer investigators do. I hate to break it to you. I don't even want to ask how chasing warez rings will get people killed, or how you can think the FBI is this rag-tag small group of agents who can't afford to allocate resources to multiple investigations. Guess what, it's not a one-track organization!
Sorry to burst your anti-Bush/Ashcroft, pro-piracy bubble, though. Next.
Since when is a Corporation a Citizen?
Ever since it was passed into law that a corporation has the rights of a person. When's the last time you took a basic high school social studies class?
Why do people always assume that an organization is only running on one track? Because they go after pirates, suddenly that means 100% of the entire organization's resources are spent going after those pirates, and the hunting of "higher priority criminals" has suddenly ceased?
Do you honestly believe that's how it works? Every single time some ignorant moron says something like this, I shake my head. "They should be devoting their resources to [INSERT RANDOM HIGHER PRIORITY THING HERE]." Uh, who said they don't? Because one small faction of their organization also happened to be doing something else? When Slashdot changes the way your comments are listed, does that mean 100% of the Slashdot crew was devoted to working on it? When a virtual memory scheme is worked on for the Linux kernel, does that mean 100% of all kernel development was devoted to that?
Give me a break. It's a faulty argument and you know it. This was probably the computer division composed of agents who specialize in computer crimes. God, you people amaze me sometimes.
You:
A.) Participate in piracy, so this pisses you off.
B.) Have a beef against Ashcroft, so it just ruffles your panties to see him cracking down on illegal software piracy.
There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with the government cracking down on this. Slashdot wants to pretend it's some sort of miniscule, "gray area" problem, but it's millions of users all trading warez and making it harder to sell software.
Why the hell do you think PC sales are so low, and so game companies are turning to consoles? Don't give me the "games were better in the olden days" spin, because we've got everything from Far Cry to Invisible War to SimCity 4 to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to...you get the picture.
"Copyright Enforcement Militia"...this is such propaganda bullshit that I can't believe--no wait, I CAN believe it got modded up. A post bitching about the emotive use of the word "syndicate" yet emotively using "militia." Nice!
Let's all pirate the fuck out of Doom 3, shall we? I'm sure John Carmack won't mind. Will he?
I didn't read anything in the article that said the FBI was looking for pirated music and movies.
Actually, the term "organized crime" isn't that far-off...P2P is pretty organized (Sharereactor/connecter/provider, anyone?), and the illegal downloads ARE a crime. It's organized crime, just in a different high-tech way.
Gee, I could have sworn it was illegal to pirate someone's copyrighted works.
Somehow you've turned the "real crime" over to Congress for extending some copyrights. What does that have to do with P2P, and how does it give pirates the right to infringe on artists' rights?
I won't hold my breath for an answer.
As users continue to try fending off the ever more litigious music industry
Should read:
As music pirates continue to try fending off the ever more litigious music industry
What will be interesting is if this gets modded up or down...considering it's the truth.
You know what really hurts? The gut-laugh I have over seeing a community that cries up in arms over any sort of GPL copyright violation and expects all companies and legal systems to respect the copyright of the GPL...then goes to great lengths to call the music industry evil for pursuing infringers of its copyright and spends paragraphs justifying violating every copyright under the sun.
You can't expect everyone to respect the copyright of the GPL and then justify violating it when it's someone else's.
Slippery slope argument. All people who download music do not also download movies or games.
It's the same freaking thing. Copyright infringement by people who think they have the right to download everything under the sun just because it's there.
But then again, reasoning with asshats like you never works, so that's why I'm psting anonymously-- so I can forget I ever wasted my time trying to "justify" my actions to someone who doesn't understand that it's none of their fucking business what I download or why I do it.
Then, suddenly you get defensive and call a total stranger an "asshat" because they dared bring up the fact that infringement is self-serving.
Guess what? It's my fucking business what you download and why because I happen to make material that has ended up on p2p. Guess what? I wasn't too happy about it either. But go right ahead and pretend you have some sort of right to privacy when it comes to illegal and immoral activity.
It's not that the fact it doesn't support basic features of other databases that bothers me, it's the fact that the developers openly discourage the need for those procedures, thereby pigeonholing you into coding their way and removing your choices.
What if I want to use stored procedures, even if they think I don't need them? You can implement them and still tell me they're bad (we're ignoring the fact that such an opinion is laughable), while still giving me the CHOICE to use them if I want to. They're friggin' standard SQL.
If a feature's not implemented because you haven't gotten to it yet, that's fine--I can understand that. It's free software. But don't sit there with a thumb up your ass telling me I don't need it when I say I do.
My god, you can't even do subqueries? What the hell? No views?!
Visit MySQL Gotchas for a list of the stuff you don't hear about mySQL around here.
MySQL is popular because it's easy to learn because it doesn't have all those "complicated" advanced features real databases have, so people who learn MySQL suddenly think they've become DB admin experts. Then they try Oracle or PostgreSQL or one of the other big boys, get confused and overwhelmed, and fall back on MySQL because it's easier for them despite having reduced functionality, often without them knowing that if they learned a real database they could do some incredibly powerful things with the braindead SQL they write to get MySQL to work. I've had to translate some Oracle single queries into as many as four for MySQL (!).
Seriously, that's why.
When's the last time you had the feeling that any of the editors listened to any of the needs/concerns of their readers?
Outright falsehoods often get posted, with no corrections. But it doensn't matter because, despite professing to be a news site, somehow it's "not really" because it's Taco's hobby site. But why call it a tech news site? Isn't that ignoring the fact that a very, very large chunk of geek population TREATS this site like hard news? A lot of people form their worldviews because of the headlines here, which is the cause for a lot of silly opinions, anti-"M$" lies, etc.
...I thought getting paid for your work is bad! Your products should all be put online for "free advertising" purposes, so that people can "sample" them.
Nobody should be compensated for their work. Because, like, people who download something are magically going to run out and buy it. Not me, of course...but "somebody else" will.
KDE bound Konquerer pretty tight into its desktop environment.
Oh, I forgot, we're pointlessly bashing "M$" for putting features into their product, like web browsing. Silly me.
Wow, the guy wants to offer some of the extensions at his business up for discussion. How evil is that! Discussion!
I wonder how many other guys on that committee also work for corporations. It's not like being on a standards committee is a paying, full-time job or anything...