I followed this exact tutorial on AfterDawn.com, and it sort of worked. But the hex wasn't all the same, and editing the EA bit (it wasn't E2 on mine) resulted in my phone being identified as a v265m instead of a v710m.
Now I can transfer photos off, and midi ringtones on. But I can't get MP3s to play on it. Weird.
The chief lawyer for NTP responded (to Congress's concerns) by saying that, if he and RIM's lawyers couldn't come to a settlement on licensing fees, he won't ask the court to shut down RIM's service until a replacement is ready.
This is how some houses would look if someone like Bill Gates were able to copyright the "Look and Feel" of the house design most of us are used to.
You'd have Steve Jobs with his "alternate" house design layout accounting for a small percentage of the market, but his houses would have an even higher "design fee" than the one Gates charges for his.
People who either hated Gates or didn't want to spend the surcharge would end up living like this, but they'd like it just fine cause they are rebels:)
With the first month being free, it's like you're paying $35 for the game + $15 for the first month. I hope your used copy cost less than $35, or you weren't saving money anyway.
However I suspect you were rooked on purpose, because anyone who's played an MMO before and read their forums should know that no company has ever allowed you to sell your key for use by another person. It's simply not something they do, yet it keeps coming up, people keep complaining about it, etc.
If you bought it on ebay (or similar) I would complain and try to get your money back, since the person may have known they were selling you a useless product. They may even still be playing on their old account, since the CDs are not needed once the game is installed.
The reason they won't delete an old account is because they hope to eventually win that customer back with new expansions and don't want them to feel they have to start from scratch again. At the same time, they usually threaten that they can't guarantee your account will still be there if you leave. However, I played EQ for 4 months when it was still on the first expansion (many years ago) and recently they tried to get me to reactivate my account. My old character was still there after all these years.
Are you kidding? All new games cost minimum $50 here in Sacramento and online at places like EBGames, so don't expect to see HL2 for $40 in the first 6 months of release. People paid up to $55 for Doom 3, they'll pay it for HL2.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a retail price of $54 on HL2, meaning Steam buyers will save a few bucks. Plus, Steam offers the Silver package, which I'm guessing will not be available in stores. There will be Bronze and Gold only in retail packaging, because no marketer wants three versions of a game on shelves. It confuses people.
After playing DDR at a friend's, I thought what a great workout it was, so I got it myself along with a nice thick pad.
The problem? It's pretty high impact when you really get going, even on a 2" thick soft Red Octane, and that's bad for people who aren't used to exercise. Or if you have weak ankles like I appear to. I can't DDR more than once or twice a week if I want to avoid ankle and knee pain.
But it's great for someone who's already in better shape and wants a high-impact aerobic workout. More fun than doing another workout tape, because you can make your own moves.
A number of studies show that children understand the difference between fantasy and reality at a much younger age than most people seem to think. Sorry I don't have any handy, but they aren't that old. You can find it if you can wade through all the other ones that decry video game violence:)
But of course, it's the parent's job to teach the kid a sense of moral responsibility before they give them access to violent video games. I don't have kids but my brother has 4, and I know that before they get to the point of playing video games more controversial then "Reading with Froggy" or whatever, they have a strong understanding of right and wrong.
If this isn't the case, it's the parent's fault, not EA's.
I don't think I've ever played a PC game that was "way too hard", but I've had some PS2 games that were. Most recently come to mind is SSX3. It's pretty easy to start, and the medium levels aren't too bad once you've gotten good.
But the very top-level challenges are excruciatingly hard. I'm talking about things like a 20 minute downhill run (which is cool) that you are going to have to master to an almost perfect degree to beat the gold medal time. Or the trick levels where my highest score is 400k and the gold score is 1M.
I spent probably 4 hours on this one race just to get the silver, and had what I would consider a 90% perfect run. Then I saw the gold time and it was like 2 minutes faster! I gave up then and settled for my second place ribbon. And I'd already mastered SSX1 and 2.
Not to be dense, but is there a way to get an online key other than waiting in line at fileplanet? They usually don't give you a key unless you run their installer these days.
I downloaded the stuff from one of the mirrors right away, but can't play online without a key I assume.
I filled in the form on fileplanet, but didn't get an email within half an hour, so I don't know if they are emailing me one or if it will require the FP installer.
Oh boy, if you buy it now, you can download a SAMPLE video in their proprietary format. Otherwise all the video you get is at $6 a pop and all shite you wouldn't watch anyway.
However, their site says that in a few months, you'll be able to buy a firmware upgrade for a "reasonable price" to allow it to play Mpeg4.
Thanks, I think I'll wait to see if the reasonable price is more than the original cost of the unit before I get into this.
>> people are punished for what they MAY do wrong.
Punished? If you don't actually try to counterfeit, you're not punished. If the printer prints everything else perfectly, what's the problem? If it doesn't print other stuff correctly, you return it as defective.
Your response is a typical knee-jerk liberty-rant. Not allowing you to break the law isn't a punishment if it doesn't infringe on any legal rights.
And this is a company, not the government. HP can't "punish" you because you're free to go buy an Epson.
No real combat, but there are contests for that aspect. It's mostly cooperative gameplay, which chicks dig. And there are moments where you'll find yourself waiting for something to finish crafting or such, which leaves plenty of time to chat via headset.
You will however need the help of other people in the game, so if you don't want to have to interact with anyone but each other, forget it.
The bandwidth requirements aren't terribly high, especially if you both have broadband, so chatting while playing won't affect your kill ratio:)
It depends on the type of game and the player's expectations.
For example, SWG continues to have problems with the database. It's not as bad now, but there was a time when random items might disappear just because you left your house, or moved across server lines, or bought something from a vendor.
This sort of inconsistency resulted in major annoyance to anyone who suffered it because it was so unpredictable and arbitrary. No one was immune, but crafters were the most heavily hit.
The fact that these are bugs doesn't change the effect. People will work around bugs that are consistent (if a certain special attack never works, people won't use it). It's the lack of consistency or logic that annoys everyone the most because it can't as easily be worked around. And when it affect an "economy", it's even worse because we know it's supposed to follow certain rules.
The early development of EQ was seriously harmed by the devs listening to the extremely vocal minority, leading to massive nerf campaigns in the name of "balance".
I think it was partly due to it's being the first really big MMO, and the devs didn't know how to filter the suggestions.
So now they've swung the other way, and the SWG dev team ignores the players too much. I was in Beta for SWG and there were a lot of very important issues that the devs completely ignored the players on. It ended up causing major problems in the first few months of release.
Good stuff. My one concern is that by choosing only top rated games, he's built-in a flattening effect that will reduce any appearance of bias. To be a "top" game, by necessity the numbers are going to average high, which means less variation.
An "average" rate game is more likely to have a wider variety of scores. Examining games with average ratings (around 60-80%) would probably yield a better picture of any bias (if existant).
We had a good time overall. Its similarities to Puerto Rico are pretty major, but the mechanic is different enough to warrant a separate game. For one, it's got the combat, which adds a level of player interaction that PR sorely lacks.
We'll play a few more times and see if it becomes a regular like PR has.
My only gripe is that it seems to reward grunt rushing, just like many RTS games. One of the players was very aggressive and increased their army on the first round. The second round she attacked and decimated my army then ransacked my resource stores. That put me behind for the next few turns and I never quite caught up again. However, spoilage is the great equalizer, and in the end, someone besides her won.
The article says "the internal Hard Disk Drive attaches to the Network Adaptor (Ethernet/modem) (for PlayStation(R)2)". I wonder if this means you have to have their adapter. What of us who bought a third party USB NIC taht works fine with games, but doesn't attach to the expansion port?
For me the line seems to lie somewhere just short of realism, but also consent plays a role. I've never had a problem playing a game where I fragged NOCs, other players, and monsters into tiny bits. In these games, it's kill or be killed, and everyone is a willing participant in the fun.
But then I tried Vice City (the sequel actually). I couldn't finish it. In fact I probably only played an eighth of the way through before I couldn't stomach it anymore. I think the turning point for me was when you had to assassinate a rival mobster using a chainsaw, at his own home. You bust into this guy's place and chase the fat man in a bathing suit around trying to tear him a new one.
There's a line deeply ingrained in me that said "He's unarmed, and he's running away" that makes it not ok to try and dismember the guy. After completing that job my heart just wasnt in it. I prefer to shoot things that shoot back and don't mind that I'm shooting at them in the first place I guess.
I think this point is well made and needs to be taken seriously by the game companies. I've played a lot of MMOs, and even the new SWG title doesn't seem to have improved upon it.
As if they didn't know they'd have 130k subscribers in the first week, the response time for an in-game ticket filed currently runs between 1 & 2 days. Generally the response is "It's a known bug, sorry, can't help you".
Even when you lose items to a known bug, they won't always make it right, opting instead to say "You'll be able to get those items from your vendor when the bug is fixed. Sorry, no ETA".
At least in EQ the "Game Masters" could materialize in front of you and looked sufficiently godlike. In SWG they are just a voice on the chat-channel (when you finally get them).
Despite what some people have said (non-owners of the ionic breeze), the thing moves air without a fan. A filter that relied on natural air movement would be useless in a closed room. But if you hold your hand in front of the thing, you can feel definite air movement all along it. It's not a strong wind, hence the name "breeze".
At the risk of continuing this thread as an ionic breeze ad, I have to say I was skeptical of it too. But I bought one because of my somewhat unique situation. I have pet chinchillas, and they not only shed their extremely fine hairs, but they bathe in a dust bath of volcanic ash. This stuff is super-fine and the resulting dust cloud is crazy. I knew it would kill my pocketbook if I had to buy replacement filters regularly.
So I sprung for it, and man does that thing collect dust! A HEPA filter would likely clear the air more, but I'd go broke buying replacements filters. The breeze moves enough air and traps enough hair and dust that I need to clean it weekly, and all it does is sit in front of the chinchilla cage, blowing fresh air and collecting the what flies around their room.
So all I can contribute is that if you want the dust to go somewhere other than into your computer, an ionic filter will help. It may not be the best solution, but keep in mind it's completely silent and you never buy new filters for it. If that's important, try it out.
The actual text of the law and what it means
on
Cable TV A La Carte?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
OK, here ya go, straight from the Gov (relevant sections only):
CITE
47 USC Sec.543 01/02/01
EXPCITE
TITLE 47 - TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS
CHAPTER 5 - WIRE OR RADIO COMMUNICATION
SUBCHAPTER V-A - CABLE COMMUNICATIONS
Part III - Franchising and Regulation
HEAD
Sec. 543. Regulation of rates
STATUTE (Partial Text)
(7) Components of basic tier subject to rate regulation
(A) Minimum contents
Each cable operator of a cable system shall provide its subscribers a separately available basic service tier to which subscription is required for access to any other tier of service. Such basic service tier shall, at a minimum, consist of the following:
(i) All signals carried in fulfillment of the requirements of sections 534 and 535 of this title.
(ii) Any public, educational, and governmental access programming required by the franchise of the cable system to be provided to subscribers.
(iii) Any signal of any television broadcast station that is provided by the cable operator to any subscriber, except a signal which is secondarily transmitted by a satellite carrier beyond the local service area of such station.
(B) Permitted additions to basic tier
A cable operator may add additional video programming signals or services to the basic service tier. Any such additional signals or services provided on the basic service tier shall be provided to subscribers at rates determined under the regulations prescribed by the Commission under this subsection.
(8) Buy-through of other tiers prohibited
(A) Prohibition A cable operator may not require the subscription to any tier other than the basic service tier required by paragraph (7) as a condition of access to video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis. A cable operator may not discriminate between subscribers to the basic service tier and other subscribers with regard to the rates charged for video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis.
(B) Exception; limitation
The prohibition in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a cable system that, by reason of the lack of addressable converter boxes or other technological limitations, does not permit the operator to offer programming on a per channel or per program basis in the same manner required by subparagraph
(A). This subparagraph shall not be available to any cable operator after -
(i) the technology utilized by the cable system is modified or improved in a way that eliminates such technological limitation; or
(ii) 10 years after October 5, 1992, subject to subparagraph (C).
(C) Waiver: If, in any proceeding initiated at the request of any cable operator, the Commission determines that compliance with the requirements of subparagraph (A) would require the cable operator to increase its rates, the Commission may, to the extent consistent with the public interest, grant such cable operator a waiver from such requirements for such specified period as the Commission determines reasonable and appropriate.
--
Note that this the 1992 "Act" is really only a set of ammendments to the original Title 47 (Telecom act of 1934).
The relevant portion is here:
"A cable operator may not require the subscription to any tier other than the basic service tier required by paragraph (7) as a condition of access to video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis."
This means that it only applies to premium and pay-per-view channels i.e. "offered on a per channel or per program basis."
Paragraph 7 also is vague enough about the "basic" service they have to offer that AT&T (my provider) can use their "Standard" package ($37.50/mo) as the base. I called them and they said "Sure, buy the $37 standard package and we'll sell ya HBO ala carte." But he wouldn't sell me HBO on top of the $12 "Basic" package, which may or may not be legal.
Regardless, this means diddly for me, because I couldn't care less about HBO. I just want Comedy Central and Sci-Fi with my broadcast stations.
> Or else perhaps I should be convicted of being
> able to ride my motorcycle without ahelmet, ot
> being able to rape that woman that just walked
> by my office (afterall, I do have
> the "necissary equipment" to commit the crime)
This is a good point regarding "burglary tools". If a man is convicted of assault on a woman, shouldn't the penalty be stiffer than that for a woman? After all, he has "rape tools". Or perhaps only if he had an erection at the time, which would show "intent" of some sort? Even if no rape was alleged or attempted.
> What I find more distrubing is that the MPAA
> considers its profits as important to protect
> as "people's lives".
Why exactly is this a disturbing view? Are property rights laws less important than personal protection laws? Sure, we override people's property rights in order to protect people's lives. But we aren't concerned about CSS killing anyone are we? There's no direct connection between the two, so no conflict arises to make a comparison relevant. The original analogy was somewhat flawed, but philosophically, I don't see copyright law as any less important than protecting people from murder.
> but a tool cannot be banned if it has a legal
> use.
Actually as Napster has shown us, a tool can be banned if it has a legal use. I belive the criteria is whether or not the "legal" use of the tool constitues a significant portion of the actual use. Otherwise you could make all sorts of things clearly designed solely for crime, as long as you can come up with some bizarre, niche-case use that is legal.
Perhaps a better analogy than a digital crow bar would have been a digital slim-jim.
Slashdot Mirror
I followed this exact tutorial on AfterDawn.com, and it sort of worked. But the hex wasn't all the same, and editing the EA bit (it wasn't E2 on mine) resulted in my phone being identified as a v265m instead of a v710m.
Now I can transfer photos off, and midi ringtones on. But I can't get MP3s to play on it. Weird.
FYI- From a 2003 story on www.brighthand.com:
The chief lawyer for NTP responded (to Congress's concerns) by saying that, if he and RIM's lawyers couldn't come to a settlement on licensing fees, he won't ask the court to shut down RIM's service until a replacement is ready.
This is how some houses would look if someone like Bill Gates were able to copyright the "Look and Feel" of the house design most of us are used to.
:)
You'd have Steve Jobs with his "alternate" house design layout accounting for a small percentage of the market, but his houses would have an even higher "design fee" than the one Gates charges for his.
People who either hated Gates or didn't want to spend the surcharge would end up living like this, but they'd like it just fine cause they are rebels
With the first month being free, it's like you're paying $35 for the game + $15 for the first month. I hope your used copy cost less than $35, or you weren't saving money anyway.
However I suspect you were rooked on purpose, because anyone who's played an MMO before and read their forums should know that no company has ever allowed you to sell your key for use by another person. It's simply not something they do, yet it keeps coming up, people keep complaining about it, etc.
If you bought it on ebay (or similar) I would complain and try to get your money back, since the person may have known they were selling you a useless product. They may even still be playing on their old account, since the CDs are not needed once the game is installed.
The reason they won't delete an old account is because they hope to eventually win that customer back with new expansions and don't want them to feel they have to start from scratch again. At the same time, they usually threaten that they can't guarantee your account will still be there if you leave. However, I played EQ for 4 months when it was still on the first expansion (many years ago) and recently they tried to get me to reactivate my account. My old character was still there after all these years.
Are you kidding? All new games cost minimum $50 here in Sacramento and online at places like EBGames, so don't expect to see HL2 for $40 in the first 6 months of release. People paid up to $55 for Doom 3, they'll pay it for HL2.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a retail price of $54 on HL2, meaning Steam buyers will save a few bucks. Plus, Steam offers the Silver package, which I'm guessing will not be available in stores. There will be Bronze and Gold only in retail packaging, because no marketer wants three versions of a game on shelves. It confuses people.
After playing DDR at a friend's, I thought what a great workout it was, so I got it myself along with a nice thick pad.
The problem? It's pretty high impact when you really get going, even on a 2" thick soft Red Octane, and that's bad for people who aren't used to exercise. Or if you have weak ankles like I appear to. I can't DDR more than once or twice a week if I want to avoid ankle and knee pain.
But it's great for someone who's already in better shape and wants a high-impact aerobic workout. More fun than doing another workout tape, because you can make your own moves.
A number of studies show that children understand the difference between fantasy and reality at a much younger age than most people seem to think. Sorry I don't have any handy, but they aren't that old. You can find it if you can wade through all the other ones that decry video game violence :)
But of course, it's the parent's job to teach the kid a sense of moral responsibility before they give them access to violent video games. I don't have kids but my brother has 4, and I know that before they get to the point of playing video games more controversial then "Reading with Froggy" or whatever, they have a strong understanding of right and wrong.
If this isn't the case, it's the parent's fault, not EA's.
I don't think I've ever played a PC game that was "way too hard", but I've had some PS2 games that were. Most recently come to mind is SSX3. It's pretty easy to start, and the medium levels aren't too bad once you've gotten good.
But the very top-level challenges are excruciatingly hard. I'm talking about things like a 20 minute downhill run (which is cool) that you are going to have to master to an almost perfect degree to beat the gold medal time. Or the trick levels where my highest score is 400k and the gold score is 1M.
I spent probably 4 hours on this one race just to get the silver, and had what I would consider a 90% perfect run. Then I saw the gold time and it was like 2 minutes faster! I gave up then and settled for my second place ribbon. And I'd already mastered SSX1 and 2.
Not to be dense, but is there a way to get an online key other than waiting in line at fileplanet? They usually don't give you a key unless you run their installer these days.
I downloaded the stuff from one of the mirrors right away, but can't play online without a key I assume.
I filled in the form on fileplanet, but didn't get an email within half an hour, so I don't know if they are emailing me one or if it will require the FP installer.
Oh boy, if you buy it now, you can download a SAMPLE video in their proprietary format. Otherwise all the video you get is at $6 a pop and all shite you wouldn't watch anyway.
However, their site says that in a few months, you'll be able to buy a firmware upgrade for a "reasonable price" to allow it to play Mpeg4.
Thanks, I think I'll wait to see if the reasonable price is more than the original cost of the unit before I get into this.
>> people are punished for what they MAY do wrong.
Punished? If you don't actually try to counterfeit, you're not punished. If the printer prints everything else perfectly, what's the problem? If it doesn't print other stuff correctly, you return it as defective.
Your response is a typical knee-jerk liberty-rant. Not allowing you to break the law isn't a punishment if it doesn't infringe on any legal rights.
And this is a company, not the government. HP can't "punish" you because you're free to go buy an Epson.
No real combat, but there are contests for that aspect. It's mostly cooperative gameplay, which chicks dig. And there are moments where you'll find yourself waiting for something to finish crafting or such, which leaves plenty of time to chat via headset.
:)
You will however need the help of other people in the game, so if you don't want to have to interact with anyone but each other, forget it.
The bandwidth requirements aren't terribly high, especially if you both have broadband, so chatting while playing won't affect your kill ratio
It depends on the type of game and the player's expectations.
For example, SWG continues to have problems with the database. It's not as bad now, but there was a time when random items might disappear just because you left your house, or moved across server lines, or bought something from a vendor.
This sort of inconsistency resulted in major annoyance to anyone who suffered it because it was so unpredictable and arbitrary. No one was immune, but crafters were the most heavily hit.
The fact that these are bugs doesn't change the effect. People will work around bugs that are consistent (if a certain special attack never works, people won't use it). It's the lack of consistency or logic that annoys everyone the most because it can't as easily be worked around. And when it affect an "economy", it's even worse because we know it's supposed to follow certain rules.
The early development of EQ was seriously harmed by the devs listening to the extremely vocal minority, leading to massive nerf campaigns in the name of "balance".
I think it was partly due to it's being the first really big MMO, and the devs didn't know how to filter the suggestions.
So now they've swung the other way, and the SWG dev team ignores the players too much. I was in Beta for SWG and there were a lot of very important issues that the devs completely ignored the players on. It ended up causing major problems in the first few months of release.
Good stuff. My one concern is that by choosing only top rated games, he's built-in a flattening effect that will reduce any appearance of bias. To be a "top" game, by necessity the numbers are going to average high, which means less variation.
An "average" rate game is more likely to have a wider variety of scores. Examining games with average ratings (around 60-80%) would probably yield a better picture of any bias (if existant).
We had a good time overall. Its similarities to Puerto Rico are pretty major, but the mechanic is different enough to warrant a separate game. For one, it's got the combat, which adds a level of player interaction that PR sorely lacks.
We'll play a few more times and see if it becomes a regular like PR has.
My only gripe is that it seems to reward grunt rushing, just like many RTS games. One of the players was very aggressive and increased their army on the first round. The second round she attacked and decimated my army then ransacked my resource stores. That put me behind for the next few turns and I never quite caught up again. However, spoilage is the great equalizer, and in the end, someone besides her won.
The article says "the internal Hard Disk Drive attaches to the Network Adaptor (Ethernet/modem) (for PlayStation(R)2)". I wonder if this means you have to have their adapter. What of us who bought a third party USB NIC taht works fine with games, but doesn't attach to the expansion port?
For me the line seems to lie somewhere just short of realism, but also consent plays a role. I've never had a problem playing a game where I fragged NOCs, other players, and monsters into tiny bits. In these games, it's kill or be killed, and everyone is a willing participant in the fun.
But then I tried Vice City (the sequel actually). I couldn't finish it. In fact I probably only played an eighth of the way through before I couldn't stomach it anymore. I think the turning point for me was when you had to assassinate a rival mobster using a chainsaw, at his own home. You bust into this guy's place and chase the fat man in a bathing suit around trying to tear him a new one.
There's a line deeply ingrained in me that said "He's unarmed, and he's running away" that makes it not ok to try and dismember the guy. After completing that job my heart just wasnt in it. I prefer to shoot things that shoot back and don't mind that I'm shooting at them in the first place I guess.
I think this point is well made and needs to be taken seriously by the game companies. I've played a lot of MMOs, and even the new SWG title doesn't seem to have improved upon it.
As if they didn't know they'd have 130k subscribers in the first week, the response time for an in-game ticket filed currently runs between 1 & 2 days. Generally the response is "It's a known bug, sorry, can't help you".
Even when you lose items to a known bug, they won't always make it right, opting instead to say "You'll be able to get those items from your vendor when the bug is fixed. Sorry, no ETA".
At least in EQ the "Game Masters" could materialize in front of you and looked sufficiently godlike. In SWG they are just a voice on the chat-channel (when you finally get them).
Despite what some people have said (non-owners of the ionic breeze), the thing moves air without a fan. A filter that relied on natural air movement would be useless in a closed room. But if you hold your hand in front of the thing, you can feel definite air movement all along it. It's not a strong wind, hence the name "breeze".
At the risk of continuing this thread as an ionic breeze ad, I have to say I was skeptical of it too. But I bought one because of my somewhat unique situation. I have pet chinchillas, and they not only shed their extremely fine hairs, but they bathe in a dust bath of volcanic ash. This stuff is super-fine and the resulting dust cloud is crazy. I knew it would kill my pocketbook if I had to buy replacement filters regularly.
So I sprung for it, and man does that thing collect dust! A HEPA filter would likely clear the air more, but I'd go broke buying replacements filters. The breeze moves enough air and traps enough hair and dust that I need to clean it weekly, and all it does is sit in front of the chinchilla cage, blowing fresh air and collecting the what flies around their room.
So all I can contribute is that if you want the dust to go somewhere other than into your computer, an ionic filter will help. It may not be the best solution, but keep in mind it's completely silent and you never buy new filters for it. If that's important, try it out.
I doubt many will read this, as it's in the thousands now. But I thought I'd post anyway.
8 0/ 002-2585911-0691246
A great article on gun control and how it's worked in the UK:
http://www.reason.com/0211/fe.jm.gun.shtml
An entire book on the topic:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/07615255
OK, here ya go, straight from the Gov (relevant sections only):
CITE
47 USC Sec.543 01/02/01
EXPCITE
TITLE 47 - TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS
CHAPTER 5 - WIRE OR RADIO COMMUNICATION
SUBCHAPTER V-A - CABLE COMMUNICATIONS
Part III - Franchising and Regulation
HEAD
Sec. 543. Regulation of rates
STATUTE (Partial Text)
(7) Components of basic tier subject to rate regulation
(A) Minimum contents
Each cable operator of a cable system shall provide its subscribers a separately available basic service tier to which subscription is required for access to any other tier of service. Such basic service tier shall, at a minimum, consist of the following:
(i) All signals carried in fulfillment of the requirements of sections 534 and 535 of this title.
(ii) Any public, educational, and governmental access programming required by the franchise of the cable system to be provided to subscribers.
(iii) Any signal of any television broadcast station that is provided by the cable operator to any subscriber, except a signal which is secondarily transmitted by a satellite carrier beyond the local service area of such station.
(B) Permitted additions to basic tier
A cable operator may add additional video programming signals or services to the basic service tier. Any such additional signals or services provided on the basic service tier shall be provided to subscribers at rates determined under the regulations prescribed by the Commission under this subsection.
(8) Buy-through of other tiers prohibited
(A) Prohibition A cable operator may not require the subscription to any tier other than the basic service tier required by paragraph (7) as a condition of access to video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis. A cable operator may not discriminate between subscribers to the basic service tier and other subscribers with regard to the rates charged for video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis.
(B) Exception; limitation
The prohibition in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a cable system that, by reason of the lack of addressable converter boxes or other technological limitations, does not permit the operator to offer programming on a per channel or per program basis in the same manner required by subparagraph
(A). This subparagraph shall not be available to any cable operator after -
(i) the technology utilized by the cable system is modified or improved in a way that eliminates such technological limitation; or
(ii) 10 years after October 5, 1992, subject to subparagraph (C).
(C) Waiver: If, in any proceeding initiated at the request of any cable operator, the Commission determines that compliance with the requirements of subparagraph (A) would require the cable operator to increase its rates, the Commission may, to the extent consistent with the public interest, grant such cable operator a waiver from such requirements for such specified period as the Commission determines reasonable and appropriate.
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Note that this the 1992 "Act" is really only a set of ammendments to the original Title 47 (Telecom act of 1934).
The relevant portion is here:
"A cable operator may not require the subscription to any tier other than the basic service tier required by paragraph (7) as a condition of access to video programming offered on a per channel or per program basis."
This means that it only applies to premium and pay-per-view channels i.e. "offered on a per channel or per program basis."
Paragraph 7 also is vague enough about the "basic" service they have to offer that AT&T (my provider) can use their "Standard" package ($37.50/mo) as the base. I called them and they said "Sure, buy the $37 standard package and we'll sell ya HBO ala carte." But he wouldn't sell me HBO on top of the $12 "Basic" package, which may or may not be legal.
Regardless, this means diddly for me, because I couldn't care less about HBO. I just want Comedy Central and Sci-Fi with my broadcast stations.
> Or else perhaps I should be convicted of being > able to ride my motorcycle without ahelmet, ot > being able to rape that woman that just walked > by my office (afterall, I do have > the "necissary equipment" to commit the crime) This is a good point regarding "burglary tools". If a man is convicted of assault on a woman, shouldn't the penalty be stiffer than that for a woman? After all, he has "rape tools". Or perhaps only if he had an erection at the time, which would show "intent" of some sort? Even if no rape was alleged or attempted.
> What I find more distrubing is that the MPAA
> considers its profits as important to protect
> as "people's lives".
Why exactly is this a disturbing view? Are property rights laws less important than personal protection laws? Sure, we override people's property rights in order to protect people's lives. But we aren't concerned about CSS killing anyone are we? There's no direct connection between the two, so no conflict arises to make a comparison relevant. The original analogy was somewhat flawed, but philosophically, I don't see copyright law as any less important than protecting people from murder.
> but a tool cannot be banned if it has a legal
> use.
Actually as Napster has shown us, a tool can be banned if it has a legal use. I belive the criteria is whether or not the "legal" use of the tool constitues a significant portion of the actual use. Otherwise you could make all sorts of things clearly designed solely for crime, as long as you can come up with some bizarre, niche-case use that is legal.
Perhaps a better analogy than a digital crow bar would have been a digital slim-jim.