There is probably tons of legal precedent wrt a public telephone and who is liable for what happens. As much as using the internet is an incremental technological step from using the telephone to us, it is a gigantic leap in the legal sense.
"competing players CAN legally play apple DRM'd music."
This is news to me. I am aware of a few audio players that support AAC without DRM...in fact the fine print for those products say "will play AAC, but not AAC files purchased from iTunes Music Store"
On this same topic (sort of), has anyone tried stripping out Microsoft's own implementation of file/print sharing from Windows and running Samba instead under Windows? It seems like that would go a long way towards interoperability.
Unfortunately this particular market is not competitive for 2 reasons:
1. Only the copyright holder can sell a particular album (versus how anyone can sell forks and spoons, which all have the same design). Copyright and IP in general are anti-free market by design.
2. Apple and a handful of other companies are the only ones selling music online.
"Paying for an entire CD with 15 songs off of iTunes: $14.85,"
If you download the whole album (instead of one track at a time) it's only $10, or about $0.67 per song. There is a well-known tool for removing Apple's (intentionally) weak DRM, so that's barely an issue anymore.
Jhymn strips the DRM off of music purchased from iTMS. From there, right click a song or group of songs and choose "convert to MP3." As for lossless, if you're only putting OGG and MP3 files on your player, I'm not sure what the point is. Otherwise, there aren't any services offering lossless song files (well, none that aren't likely connected to an ethnic crime organization).
"Seriously, with quality services such as iTunes out there, what legitimate reasons do people have to download mass quantities of music they haven't paid for?
Because not every bit of music is available with iTunes... If you're looking for music from American artists, then you'll probably find it there, but don't try finding more "local" music or you'll be deceived."
Just because something isn't on iTunes doesn't mean you should rip it off of P2P. If you're aware of a particular local musician, you likely have the wherewithal to buy the CD. Even the big chain, Barnes and Noble, has a local music section. Or, email him and ask him to put his stuff on iTunes (CD Baby will act as a label and do this on behalf of musicians, for example).
/me slaps your face. I'm sorry, but Bill Shatner's "The Transformed Man" is one of the greatest concept albums of the 1960s. Picture dramatic readings of Shakespeare contrasted with readings of pop standards of the 1950s and 1960s, while Mancini-esque music is playing in the background.
"how does boiling make the tea any stronger than simply leaving the teabag in for a long while?"
The hotter the water, the more bits of tea that get broken up. Think of it this way...if you can smell something, little bits of it are inside your nose.
"Also, whether the tea goes into the milk or the milk into the tea, shouldn't the result be the same?"
I prefer to add the milk first...then, when I pour in the tea, it basically stirs itself. If the milk goes in last, I have to stir it.
If it's their own news server, then there is no problem, because they can choose what to store on their own system. I've never had an ISP that's maintained a subscription to every single usenet feed. This is somewhat different than blocking individuals from accessing other's servers located elsewhere.
OS X "stabilized" at 10.2. Most software I've seen for OS X requires 10.2. My iBook came with 10.3, but I see no compelling reason to upgrade to 10.4 since my needs are met. Security patches and fixes are still being released. Just because a new version comes out, that doesn't make it a necessary upgrade.
Star Wars Battlefront (based upon BF1942) lets me play my PS2 version against PC and Xbox users. Coming from a strictly PC FPS background, it took some time to get used to aiming; however, that's only because I was so used to the kbd/mouse combo. You just have to be subtle with your finger movements (ladies, back me up here!) and it works great. In fact, it's so easy to use the PS2 controller for aiming, that I absolutely refuse to play on servers with auto-aiming turned on.
Slashdot Mirror
There is probably tons of legal precedent wrt a public telephone and who is liable for what happens. As much as using the internet is an incremental technological step from using the telephone to us, it is a gigantic leap in the legal sense.
"competing players CAN legally play apple DRM'd music."
This is news to me. I am aware of a few audio players that support AAC without DRM...in fact the fine print for those products say "will play AAC, but not AAC files purchased from iTunes Music Store"
On this same topic (sort of), has anyone tried stripping out Microsoft's own implementation of file/print sharing from Windows and running Samba instead under Windows? It seems like that would go a long way towards interoperability.
It's going to be Hillary versus Condi...you just watch. The 2008 presidential race will be known as the "catfight of the century."
Unfortunately this particular market is not competitive for 2 reasons:
1. Only the copyright holder can sell a particular album (versus how anyone can sell forks and spoons, which all have the same design). Copyright and IP in general are anti-free market by design.
2. Apple and a handful of other companies are the only ones selling music online.
"Paying for an entire CD with 15 songs off of iTunes: $14.85,"
If you download the whole album (instead of one track at a time) it's only $10, or about $0.67 per song. There is a well-known tool for removing Apple's (intentionally) weak DRM, so that's barely an issue anymore.
"But who do you think would call it stealing - the artist, or the music companies they're forced to deal with?"
Forced? Who's forced? Aside from Vanilla Ice getting dangled from a hotel balcony, no musician is forced to deal with major labels.
Jhymn strips the DRM off of music purchased from iTMS. From there, right click a song or group of songs and choose "convert to MP3." As for lossless, if you're only putting OGG and MP3 files on your player, I'm not sure what the point is. Otherwise, there aren't any services offering lossless song files (well, none that aren't likely connected to an ethnic crime organization).
"Seriously, with quality services such as iTunes out there, what legitimate reasons do people have to download mass quantities of music they haven't paid for?
Because not every bit of music is available with iTunes... If you're looking for music from American artists, then you'll probably find it there, but don't try finding more "local" music or you'll be deceived."
Just because something isn't on iTunes doesn't mean you should rip it off of P2P. If you're aware of a particular local musician, you likely have the wherewithal to buy the CD. Even the big chain, Barnes and Noble, has a local music section. Or, email him and ask him to put his stuff on iTunes (CD Baby will act as a label and do this on behalf of musicians, for example).
*Did* *they* *have* *a* *sale* *at* *the* ***asterisk*** *store* *today?*
"Ford automobiles are only shipped with firestone tires, right?"
Sure, but they eventually fall off.
/me slaps your face. I'm sorry, but Bill Shatner's "The Transformed Man" is one of the greatest concept albums of the 1960s. Picture dramatic readings of Shakespeare contrasted with readings of pop standards of the 1950s and 1960s, while Mancini-esque music is playing in the background.
I'm not even English and can answer this stuff:
"how does boiling make the tea any stronger than simply leaving the teabag in for a long while?"
The hotter the water, the more bits of tea that get broken up. Think of it this way...if you can smell something, little bits of it are inside your nose.
"Also, whether the tea goes into the milk or the milk into the tea, shouldn't the result be the same?"
I prefer to add the milk first...then, when I pour in the tea, it basically stirs itself. If the milk goes in last, I have to stir it.
"The planet of Saturn has ripped off Man or Astroman."
Make up your mind, which one did it rip off?
Not the original BeOS, but perhaps YellowTab's Zeta distribution, which is a patched-up BeOS that can run on modern hardware.
Games and any proprietary software that is Windows-only.
If it's their own news server, then there is no problem, because they can choose what to store on their own system. I've never had an ISP that's maintained a subscription to every single usenet feed. This is somewhat different than blocking individuals from accessing other's servers located elsewhere.
I was kind of hoping the mods would have gotten the joke, too. Whoever applied the "troll" moderation, please hand in your geek credentials!
OS X "stabilized" at 10.2. Most software I've seen for OS X requires 10.2. My iBook came with 10.3, but I see no compelling reason to upgrade to 10.4 since my needs are met. Security patches and fixes are still being released. Just because a new version comes out, that doesn't make it a necessary upgrade.
"Most OS X users probably don't even know they're running a flavor of Linux"
I think that would be news to everyone, including the OS X developers.
It's pretty much getting to be the same people anymore on both boards.
1. It's a trap!
2. The "HA! HA!" quaker guy from hetemeel.com.
Maybe your grandfather's girlfriend shouldn't have been such whore to have had sex with your cousin.
/me raises hand
Star Wars Battlefront (based upon BF1942) lets me play my PS2 version against PC and Xbox users. Coming from a strictly PC FPS background, it took some time to get used to aiming; however, that's only because I was so used to the kbd/mouse combo. You just have to be subtle with your finger movements (ladies, back me up here!) and it works great. In fact, it's so easy to use the PS2 controller for aiming, that I absolutely refuse to play on servers with auto-aiming turned on.
I think every Trekkie reading that just had a heart attack. So, ummm...good work!