This wouldn't be a problem if copyrights expired in a relatively 'short' time. 7 or 14 years might be too short, but life plus 50 years is far too long.
Yeah, some sequels might be utter crap, but we wouldn't be shocked that someone *else* might want to write or create a story in someone else's universe.
The problem is that the non-competitive part of copyright has been grossly expanded so that it is unjustly monopolizing those industries. And the recording industries want to keep trumpeting things like this, because its the only way they know how to make money.
But piracy exists because of out of control prices and control. If the movie and recording industries actually tried to lower their prices to match what people feel is the value, they would see more. But they are stuck in their inflated worth and feeling they need more. In fact, they are the ones that 'feel entitled' to more and more money at the expense of their consumers.
Actually, until ads quit infecting my computer, I'm going to be blocking everything I possibly can. My virus/malware infection per month ratio dropped dramatically with the addition of Adblock Plus.
Perhaps the advertisers should be going after the reason most people are blocking ads these days.
They will do probably rather little, other than maybe use some tool to watch what is happening. People that want to farm, fill farm. People that don't will play and create.
As soon as I get a better computer where I don't have lag while typing in, I'll probably work on some story arcs myself.
Another problem is that in most games they are having to rewrite their engine, create all new artwork and figure out new ways to stand out.
It's actually really horrible that every single new game has to just about recreate everything. It would be like every new book requiring that the rebuild presses and typefaces to print them. Sadly, copyright infringements 'threats' are being used to make things harder. You can't use an actual car in a game, so they have to make a car that *looks* similar to the real thing.
Then appy that to basically just about everything. So much needless work being done over and over. So much wastage.
I've actually been advocating the use of nukes if our climate shift truly does get to the point of extinction level heat.
We can easily clear a few mines (or make a pure waterway in Central America) to get enough volcanic-type particulates into the air to drench the world in rain or snow. Radiation fallout would be unpleasant, but better than the extinction of humanity.
I will gladly admit that I will not purchase D&D 4th Edition. Not because I could pirate it, but because it's a POS that was not even properly Beta'ed.
Their entire difficulty scale was wrong in the original printing (as a matter of fact, last I checked some of the spells still required 30+ DCs for rather weak effects). The tag/marking system in combat was asinine and it catered too much to the figure and strategic war-gamers and seriously lacked role-playing support.
If D&D is still around in five years and comes out with a 4.5 that actually fixes the 4e flaws, I might actually drop real money on real books.
But it looks like WotC has totally forgotten everything they learned and earned from 3.0 and 3.5.
You wouldn't believe how many people I've heard of that mentioned, "Yeah, I've got a couple of converter boxes. Just in case my cable TV gets cut off." Or "It's only $10 with the coupon. I'll get an extra one just in case."
My TV is not digital compatible, but I only watch DVDs or play my PS2 (sometimes) on it. It makes no difference.
There is no good reason to not stick to the cut-off. People will adjust or find ways of getting their converter boxes... or remember that you can read books or do other activities at times. And there will probably be many acts of 'kindness' from people that just happen to have a few extra to give to the truly needy.
A lot of stations can't afford to run both signals (they don't have the infrastructure, money, ect.)
So this sounds like a lot Of FUD. They can already request an extension on the deadline (like the poor guys that are waiting for their new digital transmitter and paying to keep a road plowed up into the mountains near where I live.)
I bet, all in all, that when this is over, that this was just designed to allow someone in particular to exploit the system.
Um, the penalties are for illegal profits that they had been making and to make them compete normally, by competing properly and not gouging their customers (in this case, people making devices.)
Raising your costs after a settlement like this would indicate that they had not been scamming their consumers. The prices should go down to a naturally lower level as they have to compete (or they get hit with more anti-trust lawsuits.)
They do realize that they are getting up to the point in cost that they will be driving people *back* DVDs and other media, right? Blue-Ray suddenly sounds like a deal for movies.
And driving away customers to a better paying deal is not a good thing in any market, much less a harsh modern market in the post-speculator market of today.
Idiots. They should be making sure they are making a reasonable profit without shoving off your potential customers.
As many non-profit organizations, CCF is selective in its endorsements or support in order to maintain the integrity of its name and logo. We cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeons and Dragons.
How can you not see this as "D&D is not good" in that context?
It is an opinion, straight up that they don't feel it is a good donation... strictly because of the D&D connection.
This is nothing more than mealy-mouth speak for "we don't want to look bad for dissing on them."
That's the only thing that I can see them really being worried about. Of course, if word got out that they would only charge you 2X or 4X the "real" worth of the purloined materials for non-business transgressions, their whole new business model probably implodes.
But they would have to admit that they are using corporate-punishments on non-corporate people.
Not that his second level support could be in a different state or country (hard to get promoted to that if you aren't willing to move when you are making near poverty wages.) But you immediately look at his level as say "Oh, he must suck. Not that he's trying to get out of that dead end job."
"Everything's good! Mission is a success!" "Crap, send up a shuttle to rescue us!" "Oh, double crap. We just lost 2/3rds of the shuttle fleet in one shot and crapped out the US Space Program!"
They problem Safenet is running into, is that they are illegally searching for 'criminals' outside of their jurisdiction and trying to say that they don't need to abide by local laws. Except when it benefits them.
Really, they are trying to cherry-pick what laws apply and don't apply and they are getting their hands caught in the cookie jar.
Right now, a well built encounter and story-arc can take dozens of hours of work to make, even using very generic 'tile-sets' and pregenerated characters.
A.I. has no capability create interesting, cohesive and *meaningful* stories even if you used dozens and dozens of super-computers. NCSoft is actually going to be doing something very interesting in this arena by allowing players to create their own missions using a mission editor in City of Heroes (maybe in as little time as a few months.)
Essentially, instead of trying to create a tool to do it on its own, empowering your players with (hopefully) well built tools and a voting system to let people's creativity be harnessed in their game.
If it's a traffic ticket, it doesn't get raised if you take it to court and fight it normally. Why have these racketeers not been thrown into prison for this illegality?
Man, have I ever run into this a few times. I do tech support for a nameless company and recently I've actually had customers directed to me a few times to 'reinstall OS files' that are keeping things from working.
Lo and behold after a few minutes of research, I find out that they are looking for WinXP files... on Windows Vista and 'that's why you need to 'fix' the files' even though, yes, your USB port were actually there and functional. Sorry, go back to the Printer manufacturer tech that tried to pawn you off on me.
So, yeah, it really sounds like people aren't actually writing for Windows NT, XP and Vista, they are just sorta-kinda writing for Windows and hoping no one checks their code for compatibility.
And someone who didn't even research this. City of Heroes and City of Villains *has* billboards with fake advertisements. If you opt out of the advertising, those face adverts stay. If you opt in to the advertising, they simply show real advertising.
This really is a win-win for NCSoft this time. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles will become 'more real' to me.
Well, I would voluntarily look at ads to lend City of Heroes a hand. That is, if I hadn't cancelled my account the moment they offered a $10 costume pack.
******
Too bad you did. They plowed that money they earned (which was far more than they were expecting) to getting the Villain Epic Archetypes into the game a full issue earlier.
So their 'gouging marketing practice' actually helped the game measurably.
I can only hope they come out with more optional costume packs.
Slashdot Mirror
This wouldn't be a problem if copyrights expired in a relatively 'short' time. 7 or 14 years might be too short, but life plus 50 years is far too long.
Yeah, some sequels might be utter crap, but we wouldn't be shocked that someone *else* might want to write or create a story in someone else's universe.
The problem is that the non-competitive part of copyright has been grossly expanded so that it is unjustly monopolizing those industries. And the recording industries want to keep trumpeting things like this, because its the only way they know how to make money.
But piracy exists because of out of control prices and control. If the movie and recording industries actually tried to lower their prices to match what people feel is the value, they would see more. But they are stuck in their inflated worth and feeling they need more. In fact, they are the ones that 'feel entitled' to more and more money at the expense of their consumers.
Actually, until ads quit infecting my computer, I'm going to be blocking everything I possibly can. My virus/malware infection per month ratio dropped dramatically with the addition of Adblock Plus.
Perhaps the advertisers should be going after the reason most people are blocking ads these days.
They will do probably rather little, other than maybe use some tool to watch what is happening. People that want to farm, fill farm. People that don't will play and create.
As soon as I get a better computer where I don't have lag while typing in, I'll probably work on some story arcs myself.
Another problem is that in most games they are having to rewrite their engine, create all new artwork and figure out new ways to stand out.
It's actually really horrible that every single new game has to just about recreate everything. It would be like every new book requiring that the rebuild presses and typefaces to print them. Sadly, copyright infringements 'threats' are being used to make things harder. You can't use an actual car in a game, so they have to make a car that *looks* similar to the real thing.
Then appy that to basically just about everything. So much needless work being done over and over. So much wastage.
I've actually been advocating the use of nukes if our climate shift truly does get to the point of extinction level heat.
We can easily clear a few mines (or make a pure waterway in Central America) to get enough volcanic-type particulates into the air to drench the world in rain or snow. Radiation fallout would be unpleasant, but better than the extinction of humanity.
I will gladly admit that I will not purchase D&D 4th Edition. Not because I could pirate it, but because it's a POS that was not even properly Beta'ed.
Their entire difficulty scale was wrong in the original printing (as a matter of fact, last I checked some of the spells still required 30+ DCs for rather weak effects). The tag/marking system in combat was asinine and it catered too much to the figure and strategic war-gamers and seriously lacked role-playing support.
If D&D is still around in five years and comes out with a 4.5 that actually fixes the 4e flaws, I might actually drop real money on real books.
But it looks like WotC has totally forgotten everything they learned and earned from 3.0 and 3.5.
Idiots.
After all, all that 'data' that was so useless for hundreds and hundreds of years was because we didn't have the ability to decode it.
Hmm. Perhaps we need to have a 'new rosetta stone' project that all programs and decoders have to submit to (for hardware and software.)
You wouldn't believe how many people I've heard of that mentioned, "Yeah, I've got a couple of converter boxes. Just in case my cable TV gets cut off." Or "It's only $10 with the coupon. I'll get an extra one just in case."
My TV is not digital compatible, but I only watch DVDs or play my PS2 (sometimes) on it. It makes no difference.
There is no good reason to not stick to the cut-off. People will adjust or find ways of getting their converter boxes... or remember that you can read books or do other activities at times. And there will probably be many acts of 'kindness' from people that just happen to have a few extra to give to the truly needy.
A lot of stations can't afford to run both signals (they don't have the infrastructure, money, ect.)
So this sounds like a lot Of FUD. They can already request an extension on the deadline (like the poor guys that are waiting for their new digital transmitter and paying to keep a road plowed up into the mountains near where I live.)
I bet, all in all, that when this is over, that this was just designed to allow someone in particular to exploit the system.
...with all this detailed, logged and tracked information on our over-priced and bloated money laundering scheme!
He wants his IP back and centuries of fees from everyone on the planet! :P
I mean, how long is it going to be before Evaporator Farms in deserts happen? Really!
Um, the penalties are for illegal profits that they had been making and to make them compete normally, by competing properly and not gouging their customers (in this case, people making devices.)
Raising your costs after a settlement like this would indicate that they had not been scamming their consumers. The prices should go down to a naturally lower level as they have to compete (or they get hit with more anti-trust lawsuits.)
This was insightful?
They do realize that they are getting up to the point in cost that they will be driving people *back* DVDs and other media, right? Blue-Ray suddenly sounds like a deal for movies.
And driving away customers to a better paying deal is not a good thing in any market, much less a harsh modern market in the post-speculator market of today.
Idiots. They should be making sure they are making a reasonable profit without shoving off your potential customers.
As many non-profit organizations, CCF is selective in its endorsements or support in order to maintain the integrity of its name and logo. We cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeons and Dragons.
How can you not see this as "D&D is not good" in that context? It is an opinion, straight up that they don't feel it is a good donation... strictly because of the D&D connection. This is nothing more than mealy-mouth speak for "we don't want to look bad for dissing on them."
That's the only thing that I can see them really being worried about. Of course, if word got out that they would only charge you 2X or 4X the "real" worth of the purloined materials for non-business transgressions, their whole new business model probably implodes.
But they would have to admit that they are using corporate-punishments on non-corporate people.
Somehow, I think that is their worst fear.
Not that his second level support could be in a different state or country (hard to get promoted to that if you aren't willing to move when you are making near poverty wages.) But you immediately look at his level as say "Oh, he must suck. Not that he's trying to get out of that dead end job."
"Everything's good! Mission is a success!"
"Crap, send up a shuttle to rescue us!"
"Oh, double crap. We just lost 2/3rds of the shuttle fleet in one shot and crapped out the US Space Program!"
They problem Safenet is running into, is that they are illegally searching for 'criminals' outside of their jurisdiction and trying to say that they don't need to abide by local laws. Except when it benefits them.
Really, they are trying to cherry-pick what laws apply and don't apply and they are getting their hands caught in the cookie jar.
Right now, a well built encounter and story-arc can take dozens of hours of work to make, even using very generic 'tile-sets' and pregenerated characters.
A.I. has no capability create interesting, cohesive and *meaningful* stories even if you used dozens and dozens of super-computers. NCSoft is actually going to be doing something very interesting in this arena by allowing players to create their own missions using a mission editor in City of Heroes (maybe in as little time as a few months.)
Essentially, instead of trying to create a tool to do it on its own, empowering your players with (hopefully) well built tools and a voting system to let people's creativity be harnessed in their game.
If it's a traffic ticket, it doesn't get raised if you take it to court and fight it normally. Why have these racketeers not been thrown into prison for this illegality?
Man, have I ever run into this a few times. I do tech support for a nameless company and recently I've actually had customers directed to me a few times to 'reinstall OS files' that are keeping things from working.
Lo and behold after a few minutes of research, I find out that they are looking for WinXP files... on Windows Vista and 'that's why you need to 'fix' the files' even though, yes, your USB port were actually there and functional. Sorry, go back to the Printer manufacturer tech that tried to pawn you off on me.
So, yeah, it really sounds like people aren't actually writing for Windows NT, XP and Vista, they are just sorta-kinda writing for Windows and hoping no one checks their code for compatibility.
And someone who didn't even research this. City of Heroes and City of Villains *has* billboards with fake advertisements. If you opt out of the advertising, those face adverts stay. If you opt in to the advertising, they simply show real advertising.
This really is a win-win for NCSoft this time. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles will become 'more real' to me.
Well, I would voluntarily look at ads to lend City of Heroes a hand. That is, if I hadn't cancelled my account the moment they offered a $10 costume pack.
******
Too bad you did. They plowed that money they earned (which was far more than they were expecting) to getting the Villain Epic Archetypes into the game a full issue earlier.
So their 'gouging marketing practice' actually helped the game measurably.
I can only hope they come out with more optional costume packs.