An interface is not a standard. I remember INT 13h. Remember every single graphics card being different and having to write different routines for each one? That's not a standard.
The fine for a bank failing should be the bank failing. The "bailout" should be given to depositors (there was even an existing mechanism for that, the FDIC), not to the institution that lost the funds. But no, apparently we live in an age where mediocrity and incompetence is rewarded and excellence is restricted. Cos you'll just make the rest of us look bad, ya know?
Ok give me your phone number and I will call you repeatedly between 2 and 5 am to offer to sell you things of dubious value. After all, it's just speech and it's my right.
at least from what I've seen, they aren't discounted greatly in poorer countries
You're missing the point completely. If I am accessing Netflix through a VPN I am subscribing as a US user and paying US rates, because the VPN lets Netflix think I am a US customer. It doesn't matter how much Netflix might cost in Burkina Faso. The whole point of this is not to try to save a buck or two on a monthly sub - people in the third world who can afford computers, high speed internet and a VPN service can also afford to pay US rates. It's about content, because what companies like Netflix do when they geo-block is restrict your access to "local" regional content, which means you end up with the same shitty choices you've always had from your local cable provider.
LATIN America, not central/south america. The regions are not strictly geographical. Our rulers believe that a language divide trumps a continental divide in this case. Of course what American CEO's and VP's don't get is that most of "latin" america actually can't STAND Mexicans, and these grudges are over a hundred years old...
if I pay the same as a US subscriber, why should I not have the same access?
And the access problem is a serious one. People who live outside the US probably don't understand it at all. Since I do, I can explain it:
Companies are lazy and stupid and always pick the lowest hanging fruit. Therefore when a company say like Netflix wants to go regional, they say ok, let's divide the world into regions: Europe, Latam & Caribbean, Asia, etc. Then they farm out the work to regional offices. As far as Latam goes, this is usually Mexico. So lo and behold, what does the Mexican office program? Mexican shows. So you get all of Latin America stuck watching the same fucking Chavo del 8 and Eugenio Derbez that they have been watching first on TV then on cable for the past 40 years, and now finally on Netflix: hey look! The same stale boring content. Oh once in a while they will throw in movies: dubbed to (Mexican) Spanish or if you are LUCKY with subtitles and English audio. Not subtitles you can remove with a button press or menu option, subtitles pasted over the video that you are fucking stuck with whether you like them or not.
Let me tell you when you are an English speaking ex-pat living in Latin America you get sick and fucking tired of this shit. I pay cable. I pay for HD content. I can't even get SAP. Some channels I simply have no choice, all the audio is coming in Spanish. The technology exists but these "regional offices" just don't feel like using it. So if Netflix decides it's going to do the same crap that cable companies do, why exactly am I paying for Netflix? I was born in North America. I want North American content. Period.
One day you will wake up - hopefully - and realize that "power" doesn't meant "speed-typing on a keyboard" but "I can take a dump on anyone anytime and get away with it".
No, you see, because I don't have to play their game. They are powerless because I access through a VPN, and they are powerless if they go after Netflix because I switch to torrenting what I want (like I did before). And if they are willing to spend their power trying to convince the entire world's courts and lawyers and cops that downloaders of a "Game of Thrones" or "Gotham" episode need to be thrown in jail then I wish them every success, because at that point I won't be interested in their "content" anymore. There are other things I can do with my free time. Back in the day there was only TV and they were God. Now there are a lot of things someone can do to keep entertained. And to be honest the quality of the "content" they provide is disturbingly poor nowadays.
IP rights are extremely complicated in the entertainment industry
No, it is extremely simple. All the parties you mention are forgetting one thing. The customer is the one who pays. The customer is the boss. I vote with my wallet and my wallet says that if I can't get access to US content then I don't want access. Period. This is entertainment (and bad entertainment nowadays at that), not life support. At some point it becomes far less complicated to read a book or play a computer game instead of struggling for the privilege of watching some show or other.
I would also like to hear the lawyer in a 3rd world country successfully argue how much the plaintiff was "damaged" when you downloaded and viewed content that is not actually available in the region, too.
If you are a TV network that has just paid up big for the rights to a new show, the last thing you want is for people to be able to get it via Netflix USA and kill your revenue
No you do this thing called "work" and you figure out how to adapt to a changed world and a changed economy, and you build that into your price. There is no fucking reason I need to pay another monthly fee to get through Netflix exactly the same shit I already get through my cable company. I don't feel sorry for the TV network who wants to make money a) through advertising AND b) through monthly subscription AND c) through online distribution FOR THE SAME FUCKING CONTENT. I'm not against a guy earning a living. But this is dishonest. At one point I just read a book.
No you are ridiculous. I am a paying Netflix customer. I access Netflix US via a VPN because I live outside the US. I will cancel my Netflix subscription if I find myself blocked. Hollywood has already been paid by Netflix for the rights to distribute the content. When I cancel my sub Hollywood will not lose one penny this quarter. The rub is, I will not be subscribing again. So Netflix is the one that is going to suffer. Hollywood is still going to want their money next quarter, and Netflix will have lost subs. How is this an attack on Hollywood? If anything, it's suicide by Netflix. Online content is just another item in the Hollywood revenue budget, whereas it is almost all of Netflix's revenue (apart from the couple shows they make themselves). Hollywood cannot be attacked by Netflix. Netflix is very much Hollywood's pet, and must do as it's told.
Slashdot Mirror
An interface is not a standard. I remember INT 13h. Remember every single graphics card being different and having to write different routines for each one? That's not a standard.
To be honest, VGA (nor EGA, CGA, XGA etc) was not a "standard". VESA was a standard.
The C:\ prompt is pretty iconic too, but nobody uses it anymore.
It's as if the voices of millions of goats suddenly bleated in terror, and were silenced.
An abacus.
Depends on the company. Some of them get you to do stuff you don't want to do that's really bad for the company, too.
Apparently those billions are not the future of the human race. At least from the author's perspective.
But then how are they going to send copies of everything you print to the mothership/NSA/etc?
She threatened to force them to use Microsoft Bob if they didn't finish their science homework.
The fine for a bank failing should be the bank failing. The "bailout" should be given to depositors (there was even an existing mechanism for that, the FDIC), not to the institution that lost the funds. But no, apparently we live in an age where mediocrity and incompetence is rewarded and excellence is restricted. Cos you'll just make the rest of us look bad, ya know?
Ok give me your phone number and I will call you repeatedly between 2 and 5 am to offer to sell you things of dubious value. After all, it's just speech and it's my right.
It's like a doctor telling you which operation you can have depending on whether you took a bus, a bicycle or a car to his office.
at least from what I've seen, they aren't discounted greatly in poorer countries
You're missing the point completely. If I am accessing Netflix through a VPN I am subscribing as a US user and paying US rates, because the VPN lets Netflix think I am a US customer. It doesn't matter how much Netflix might cost in Burkina Faso. The whole point of this is not to try to save a buck or two on a monthly sub - people in the third world who can afford computers, high speed internet and a VPN service can also afford to pay US rates. It's about content, because what companies like Netflix do when they geo-block is restrict your access to "local" regional content, which means you end up with the same shitty choices you've always had from your local cable provider.
LATIN America, not central/south america. The regions are not strictly geographical. Our rulers believe that a language divide trumps a continental divide in this case. Of course what American CEO's and VP's don't get is that most of "latin" america actually can't STAND Mexicans, and these grudges are over a hundred years old...
Won't work. Politicians are already brain dead.
Thus proving time and time again that mouse biochemistry != human biochemistry. "But it was working fine in the lab!"
if I pay the same as a US subscriber, why should I not have the same access?
And the access problem is a serious one. People who live outside the US probably don't understand it at all. Since I do, I can explain it:
Companies are lazy and stupid and always pick the lowest hanging fruit. Therefore when a company say like Netflix wants to go regional, they say ok, let's divide the world into regions: Europe, Latam & Caribbean, Asia, etc. Then they farm out the work to regional offices. As far as Latam goes, this is usually Mexico. So lo and behold, what does the Mexican office program? Mexican shows. So you get all of Latin America stuck watching the same fucking Chavo del 8 and Eugenio Derbez that they have been watching first on TV then on cable for the past 40 years, and now finally on Netflix: hey look! The same stale boring content. Oh once in a while they will throw in movies: dubbed to (Mexican) Spanish or if you are LUCKY with subtitles and English audio. Not subtitles you can remove with a button press or menu option, subtitles pasted over the video that you are fucking stuck with whether you like them or not.
Let me tell you when you are an English speaking ex-pat living in Latin America you get sick and fucking tired of this shit. I pay cable. I pay for HD content. I can't even get SAP. Some channels I simply have no choice, all the audio is coming in Spanish. The technology exists but these "regional offices" just don't feel like using it. So if Netflix decides it's going to do the same crap that cable companies do, why exactly am I paying for Netflix? I was born in North America. I want North American content. Period.
Straw man.
One day you will wake up - hopefully - and realize that "power" doesn't meant "speed-typing on a keyboard" but "I can take a dump on anyone anytime and get away with it".
No, you see, because I don't have to play their game. They are powerless because I access through a VPN, and they are powerless if they go after Netflix because I switch to torrenting what I want (like I did before). And if they are willing to spend their power trying to convince the entire world's courts and lawyers and cops that downloaders of a "Game of Thrones" or "Gotham" episode need to be thrown in jail then I wish them every success, because at that point I won't be interested in their "content" anymore. There are other things I can do with my free time. Back in the day there was only TV and they were God. Now there are a lot of things someone can do to keep entertained. And to be honest the quality of the "content" they provide is disturbingly poor nowadays.
IP rights are extremely complicated in the entertainment industry
No, it is extremely simple. All the parties you mention are forgetting one thing. The customer is the one who pays. The customer is the boss. I vote with my wallet and my wallet says that if I can't get access to US content then I don't want access. Period. This is entertainment (and bad entertainment nowadays at that), not life support. At some point it becomes far less complicated to read a book or play a computer game instead of struggling for the privilege of watching some show or other.
Hollywood is not giving shows and movies to Netflix for free.
I would also like to hear the lawyer in a 3rd world country successfully argue how much the plaintiff was "damaged" when you downloaded and viewed content that is not actually available in the region, too.
But TPB has been taken down! It's offline! Oh wait...
If you are a TV network that has just paid up big for the rights to a new show, the last thing you want is for people to be able to get it via Netflix USA and kill your revenue
No you do this thing called "work" and you figure out how to adapt to a changed world and a changed economy, and you build that into your price. There is no fucking reason I need to pay another monthly fee to get through Netflix exactly the same shit I already get through my cable company. I don't feel sorry for the TV network who wants to make money a) through advertising AND b) through monthly subscription AND c) through online distribution FOR THE SAME FUCKING CONTENT. I'm not against a guy earning a living. But this is dishonest. At one point I just read a book.
No you are ridiculous. I am a paying Netflix customer. I access Netflix US via a VPN because I live outside the US. I will cancel my Netflix subscription if I find myself blocked. Hollywood has already been paid by Netflix for the rights to distribute the content. When I cancel my sub Hollywood will not lose one penny this quarter. The rub is, I will not be subscribing again. So Netflix is the one that is going to suffer. Hollywood is still going to want their money next quarter, and Netflix will have lost subs. How is this an attack on Hollywood? If anything, it's suicide by Netflix. Online content is just another item in the Hollywood revenue budget, whereas it is almost all of Netflix's revenue (apart from the couple shows they make themselves). Hollywood cannot be attacked by Netflix. Netflix is very much Hollywood's pet, and must do as it's told.