Rubbish. Neither the IRS nor the government are interested in throwing half the population in jail or shaking them down for pennies. That actually costs them money. I'm sure they would much rather go after a few big fish with more money, and try to make a profit out of this new potential revenue stream.
Sure, ok, lie on your tax statements for the next couple years - not by much, just a couple thousand dollars or so (pennies, right?) and we'll see what happens to you...
The government DOES shake people down for pennies. It's how they make money.
yet you keep voting for them... WHEN will America realize that you should start taking a long hard look at some of your OTHER parties and independents?
There's a difference between the letter of the law and common sense. I agree with you that in a perfect world where people blindly obey the letter of the law, then you should be able to leave your car running with the keys inside, and even $5000 in $100 bills on the passenger seat and not have to worry about it. However if you take your head out of the textbook for a second you will realize that a) if you do that, say goodbye to your cash and probably your car and b) YOU ARE A FOOL.
It's like the woman who got all dolled up, wore a tight miniskirt and not much else, who went to the roughest part of town. Then she starting telling everyone "hey guys, I LOVE to fuck". Did she ask to get raped? No. Does it JUSTIFY the rape? NO. But frankly, will you be surprised when you read about it in the paper the next morning? I know I won't.
Law is not equal to reality. Common sense ALWAYS applies. If you post a sign that says FREE, and make your services easily available to everyone - why the HELL do you complain if someone actually uses it in a manner you didn't expect? People are opportunists, after all. It's a survival thing. It's built in.
If a,b,c are independent and there is a certain probability P(a|t), P(b|t), P(c|t) to decrypt each of the schemes within a certain time, when combined the P(a|t)*P(b|t)*P(c|t) can be made reasonable small.
Are you willing to stake the future of your empire on "reasonably small"? The Third Reich did. Remind me again, what was the mortality rate of the U-boat service post when the allies cracked ENIGMA? 90%? 95%?
First of all, you suggest that the OS market is controlled by an oligopoly, and then proceed to discuss it as if it is a monopoly.
It IS a de-facto monopoly. There are other minor players, but Windows has how much market share? 95%? 98%? The other OSes are insignificant - MacOS only works on Macs - very high priced machines which I doubt sell well in India, and linux is free. Does free stuff still obey market rules? So I treat it as a monopoly.
Either you believe in the free market, or you do not
Why - is a monopoly (oh ok linux, Mac OS, yeah yeah oligopoly then) a free market? No, it's not.
Your argument just got refuted. It also proves my point - if there's a monopoly situation and the good is a good that is somewhat necessary then we can expect the following: 1) The price will be the one that favors the monopoly's maximum profit and will NOT be determined by the market 2) that segment of the population that can't afford to pay will simply steal this perceived necessity - because it's a necessity. Because CD's are easily duplicated, they are copying the OS. If they were NOT easily duplicated you could expect to have your house broken into and having this product stolen. Often.
If you don't like the model then either get the hell out of the market, or change the model. You can't really blame them, however. I'm sure Microsoft would sell even more legitimate copies of Windows at $10 a disk. No one would bother pirating it then - might as well pay the extra $8 for a legit copy. But at current prices, the whole third world is pirating AND WILL GO ON DOING SO.
In other words, "We can't afford it, so we should get it for free!"
Funny isn't it how no one is prepared to pay almost a year's income for an OS? Frankly I think Microsoft should wise up and start charging $40K per copy of Vista in the US; 35,000 pounds in the UK; and 300 dollars in India. Hey I know, perhaps they can introduce a region control scheme like they tried to do with DVDs, to make sure everyone coughs up the zone-specific amount. Yep, that will work...
Or are you implying that India should do away with computers (which they can get far cheaper than legitimate copies of the OS) altogether?
If you screw with the market, the market will screw with you. No one in India thinks the OS is worth what Microsoft is asking, so they won't pay. Unfortunately an OS is something easily and cheaply reproduced (funny how they ARE willing to fork out a few bucks for DVD's). Adjust your price if you want to stay in the market, or shut up. Or put all of India (and China and...) in jail, yeah, that will work too.
See there's the problem right there - human greed. There's nothing wrong with WANTING to make a lot of money. The amount you will actually make, however is the quantity the market will let you. However when this is less than the expected greedy "want", drug companies (and others) turn to the government to try and tilt the playing field in their favor. I mean come on, $1500 for 3 doses of HPV vaccine? Get REAL!
someone might steal the drug that you invested a billion dollars in
God I hate that argument. "Oh we only have so many years to recoup our investment whine whine, please extend the patent duration" and "oh we HAVE to charge $50 per pill because we only have so long to recover the billions and billions we invested"... as if drugs suddenly become unprofitable when the patent expires. As if Aspirin is a real money-loser which is why there are a zillion different brands. Everyone wants to lose money it seems.
I need to travel back in time and file the following patents:
"Abstract: A method for generating heat by rubbing two small pieces of wood against one another" "Abstract: A method for gathering food by growing it in a field" "Abstract: A method for easily transporting goods by means of a rounded rock"
Yep, the royalties on those should just about cover what I am going to charge you for using my time travel patent...
Slashdot Mirror
Rubbish. Neither the IRS nor the government are interested in throwing half the population in jail or shaking them down for pennies. That actually costs them money. I'm sure they would much rather go after a few big fish with more money, and try to make a profit out of this new potential revenue stream.
Sure, ok, lie on your tax statements for the next couple years - not by much, just a couple thousand dollars or so (pennies, right?) and we'll see what happens to you...
The government DOES shake people down for pennies. It's how they make money.
yet you keep voting for them... WHEN will America realize that you should start taking a long hard look at some of your OTHER parties and independents?
I'm all for it if they want to only tax spam.
I can't wait for you to find out that your computer is infected with a bot, when you get a $450,000 tax bill...
Is the people need to stop electing idiots.
No, the problem is only idiots run for election.
There's a difference between the letter of the law and common sense. I agree with you that in a perfect world where people blindly obey the letter of the law, then you should be able to leave your car running with the keys inside, and even $5000 in $100 bills on the passenger seat and not have to worry about it. However if you take your head out of the textbook for a second you will realize that a) if you do that, say goodbye to your cash and probably your car and b) YOU ARE A FOOL.
It's like the woman who got all dolled up, wore a tight miniskirt and not much else, who went to the roughest part of town. Then she starting telling everyone "hey guys, I LOVE to fuck". Did she ask to get raped? No. Does it JUSTIFY the rape? NO. But frankly, will you be surprised when you read about it in the paper the next morning? I know I won't.
Law is not equal to reality. Common sense ALWAYS applies. If you post a sign that says FREE, and make your services easily available to everyone - why the HELL do you complain if someone actually uses it in a manner you didn't expect? People are opportunists, after all. It's a survival thing. It's built in.
explaining how leaving your keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked is implicit permission to for them to take your car for a joyride.
Your insurance company sure thinks it is. Ask them if they will pay out under these circumstances?
If a,b,c are independent and there is a certain probability P(a|t), P(b|t), P(c|t) to decrypt each of the schemes within a certain time, when combined the P(a|t)*P(b|t)*P(c|t) can be made reasonable small.
Are you willing to stake the future of your empire on "reasonably small"? The Third Reich did. Remind me again, what was the mortality rate of the U-boat service post when the allies cracked ENIGMA? 90%? 95%?
If they had an A380 (Airbus for teh win ;-)) worth of hard drives installed and ready to tap data, they would not need to move all that data.
I'm sorry, how much is that in Cessna 172's again?
You know with the right sort of particle accelerator you could send messages straight through the Earth and save a heap of latency.
It's called the "Death Star" project, and we've been having a hell of a time with the receiver...
we would already have discovered the Higgs boson 4 or 5 years ago.
Only if it really exists... how can you discover something that you have already discov...gurk too much recursion.
Americans don't need science, the bible tells them everything they need to know.
Americans don't need science, Fox News tells them everything they need to know.
Not to mention this!
Rule 1 and 2, asshole. GB2 gaia
Must. Erase. Image.
Physics locker room.
It's called a chess club.
and heard the sound of one hand clapping put together.
Don't be daft. Everyone here at UU knows that the sound of one hand clapping is 'cl-'
he must have access to a few of those 22 Internets!
I am sure they are being searched for Weapons of Mass Destruction even as we speak.
it will generate 15 petabytes of data per year...
Umm, question. Is this BEFORE or AFTER time stops?
First of all, you suggest that the OS market is controlled by an oligopoly, and then proceed to discuss it as if it is a monopoly.
It IS a de-facto monopoly. There are other minor players, but Windows has how much market share? 95%? 98%? The other OSes are insignificant - MacOS only works on Macs - very high priced machines which I doubt sell well in India, and linux is free. Does free stuff still obey market rules? So I treat it as a monopoly.
Either you believe in the free market, or you do not
Why - is a monopoly (oh ok linux, Mac OS, yeah yeah oligopoly then) a free market? No, it's not.
Your argument just got refuted. It also proves my point - if there's a monopoly situation and the good is a good that is somewhat necessary then we can expect the following: 1) The price will be the one that favors the monopoly's maximum profit and will NOT be determined by the market 2) that segment of the population that can't afford to pay will simply steal this perceived necessity - because it's a necessity. Because CD's are easily duplicated, they are copying the OS. If they were NOT easily duplicated you could expect to have your house broken into and having this product stolen. Often.
If you don't like the model then either get the hell out of the market, or change the model. You can't really blame them, however. I'm sure Microsoft would sell even more legitimate copies of Windows at $10 a disk. No one would bother pirating it then - might as well pay the extra $8 for a legit copy. But at current prices, the whole third world is pirating AND WILL GO ON DOING SO.
In other words, "We can't afford it, so we should get it for free!"
Funny isn't it how no one is prepared to pay almost a year's income for an OS? Frankly I think Microsoft should wise up and start charging $40K per copy of Vista in the US; 35,000 pounds in the UK; and 300 dollars in India. Hey I know, perhaps they can introduce a region control scheme like they tried to do with DVDs, to make sure everyone coughs up the zone-specific amount. Yep, that will work...
Or are you implying that India should do away with computers (which they can get far cheaper than legitimate copies of the OS) altogether?
If you screw with the market, the market will screw with you. No one in India thinks the OS is worth what Microsoft is asking, so they won't pay. Unfortunately an OS is something easily and cheaply reproduced (funny how they ARE willing to fork out a few bucks for DVD's). Adjust your price if you want to stay in the market, or shut up. Or put all of India (and China and...) in jail, yeah, that will work too.
I want to make the max amount of profit I can
See there's the problem right there - human greed. There's nothing wrong with WANTING to make a lot of money. The amount you will actually make, however is the quantity the market will let you. However when this is less than the expected greedy "want", drug companies (and others) turn to the government to try and tilt the playing field in their favor. I mean come on, $1500 for 3 doses of HPV vaccine? Get REAL!
someone might steal the drug that you invested a billion dollars in
God I hate that argument. "Oh we only have so many years to recoup our investment whine whine, please extend the patent duration" and "oh we HAVE to charge $50 per pill because we only have so long to recover the billions and billions we invested"... as if drugs suddenly become unprofitable when the patent expires. As if Aspirin is a real money-loser which is why there are a zillion different brands. Everyone wants to lose money it seems.
I need to travel back in time and file the following patents:
"Abstract: A method for generating heat by rubbing two small pieces of wood against one another"
"Abstract: A method for gathering food by growing it in a field"
"Abstract: A method for easily transporting goods by means of a rounded rock"
Yep, the royalties on those should just about cover what I am going to charge you for using my time travel patent...
That's just basic emergent systems thermodynamics.
Umm actually I think the word you are looking for is "economics"...
just another reason symantech is one product that immediately gets deleted from my computer.
Good lord! And how exactly do you manage THAT? The thing is impossible to delete - at least for the layman...