> > >Any government's primary obligation is to protect and defend its citizens. The failure to do that last week occurred primarily, many terrorism
experts say, because our existing intelligence institutions don't have the human resources
Hmmm. . . "terrorisim experts" . . . not exactly sure what the job description on that is (other than, in many cases, a glorified word for a "talking head" who makes the rounds of T.V. talk shows as a self-proclaimed "expert") . . .
Many security experts I've heard seem to think that proper air-port security in general, & decent doors to the cockpit in particular (which airline pilots have been demanding for years), would have prevented the recent attack from occuring.
The question I'd ask is why has the U.S. Govt. repeatedly ignored (thro' several administrations) the rest of the worlds warnings about our lax air-port security, immigration laws, & the aforementioned "cardboard doors" to the cockpit? Perhaps they were "inviting" such an incident to take place so that "non-essintial" rights to privacy could then be "temporaraly" abridged? Maybe it's just me, but isn't there substaintial evidence that the oft compared "Attack On Pearl Harbor" may have been, let's say, not ENTIRELY a "surprise" attack. Perhaps the similarities in these two attacks on Amercian soil run deeper than we think?
Franklin's quote is indeed as apt today as it was some 200 years ago, & I'd say it could be reasonably argued that he uttered it in anticipation of just such circumstances as we face today. Don't forget, gentle readers - in 1814, Britan basicly burned Washington D.C. to the ground in what was essentially a "terrorist" attack on the U.S. - it's purpose was not so much military as it was to "terrorize" the populace & to discourage the spread of the "radical" ideas emanating from the new Nation (after all, folks, they'd recently had that little "problem" in France . ..not good if THAT "democracy" idea spread all over Eroupe!)
As for laying the the "lack of human intelligence resources" at Clinton's feet - another odd statement, since most evidence I've seen says most of those restrictions were put in place by the Ford administration.
>>>don't get me started on that stupid hockey-puck mouse that Steve just refused to discontinue
No argument that the "hocky-puck" mouse was probably a bad idea (hard to innovate w/o a few mistakes along the way, isn't it?) & probably should have been discontinued earlier, but the iMac my Mom bought nearly a year ago came w/ an oblong, optical mouse, not the discontiued "hocky puck".
BTW - the wife & kids are STILL pissed I replaced the round mouse w/ an optical one as soon as it became avalible w/o purchasing a new machine, which was about Christmas time last year. I assume that was because Apple had to use them to keep up w/ demand for the non-innovative machines they've been selling since Mr. Pepsi was (thankfully) run off?
I have to agree - thank you, NASA, for screwing the public - launching all those darn weather & communications satelites has cost the American public way too much $$$ & given us so little in return. Lets come back to earth - all that useless stuff floating around out there . . ..how dare they scam us by launching it!
>>I "steal" music to evaluate it. If you don't let me "steal" the music first, I will not buy it.
Ah, yes - the excuse all of you who DON'T play, write, or perform music for a living love to sling around. As if there are no legit sites where music can be legally downloaded - I'm a professional musician/songwriter, & the fact of the matter is, it would be almost a full-time job to keep up w/ all the new sites where I can upload music for folks to "evaluate" - music that is MY property. It should rightfully be MY choice as to how and where it's distributed - don't like that? Fine - don't buy it. If music isn't worth paying for to you, that's your business - but please don't try to justify your theft of copyrighted songs w/ this lame as hell excuse because it's bullshit.
Personally, I think the authorities should start busting the individuals who are doing the illegal downloads, & musicians w/ the tech savvy to do so should start "sharing" files w/ a virus that deletes all MP3 files on the hard-drive the file is downloaded to.
>>Don't like it? Tough. I can live without your music WAY longer than you can live without my money.
Fine - that's your choice. All I can say is, if folks keep stealing music (no quotes, bud - it's stealing, period - screw the whole bunch of you who call it "sharing"), then musicians & songwriters with enough talent to produce music WORTH paying for will quit recording. Of course, those of you who are satisfied w/ the crappy sound afforded by MP3 files probably wouldn't know good recording if you heard it, but that's another thread.
Like nearly ALL "unsigned" musicians, I sell the VAST majority of my cd's at live shows. Despite what the "geeks" may think, the reality is that the Internet has been a near TOTAL failure as far as marketing music goes - the oft predicted Internet "revolution" of the music industry has come & gone, folks; like so much in the music biz, it was a lot of hype, very little substance. As for the TINY per centage of folks who get their music primarily from the web - most of us who play & write music for a living can do w/o "your" money just fine if the price for trying to do business on the web is giving away 2 or 3 copies for every one sold. College radio & live performances pay the bills for most "unsigned" bands, NOT the Internet.
Looking for good music from unsigned artists that's available for LEGAL download? Check out http://www.evor.com - just one of the many DOZENS of sites where free, legal downloads by "unknown" bands are available. If you like alt/country, I've got a couple of songs there - http://www.evor.com/mp.html - along w/ links to about a half-dozen other sites where I've got music posted on the web - I could add 2-3 a week if it was worth my time, but since I've found, like most artists, that posting songs on the web results in almost NO sales, what's the point?
>>>Right, they could have signed with some tiny label and thrown their career down the tubes. See, choices are good!
Your ignorance of the realities in the music biz shows here, my friend - Signing w/ an indi label & selling 10,000 or more copies of that release is the SUREST way for a band to further their career & attract major label contract.
Less than 1% of major label releases sell over a thousand copie & the fact is that signing w/ a major label & being in that 99% is the surest way to throw your carrer down the drain.
Re:Some people WANT their stuff downloaded...
on
The End of Innovation?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
You make some excellent points, especially the "no one made them sign w/ a major label" & the "nothing to lose since no one's buying their stuff anyway".
I'm one of those "little guys" - a professional musician w/ a cd released on an indi label (& a good music law attorney). Any one who thinks "fair use" means that ANYONE is free to distribute copyrighted materials by making them available on the net needs to get a grip. The fact is that Napster was facilitating the commision of a FELONY crime - unauthorized distribution of protected music - period. As has been noted in other posts, usage of the site took a nose dive once most of what was available were files by "little guys".
I make some songs of my cd available for free on the web - w/ the permission of the label that released it. To my knowledge, no music of mine was ever available on Napster - had it been, I would have considered it copyright infringment - but as a "little guy", would not have had the resources to go up against the Napster legal team. My income is derived soley from playing & recording music, & I can tell you it's damn hard to turn a profit on an indi release - the last thing any REAL indi artist needs is a vast network allowing the unauthorized distribution of their product w/o compensation.
Sorry, Napster fans, but the view that Napster was somehow a "little guy", or somehow "stood for" the little guy, is bougus - no "little guy" could have afforded that legal team - a team paid for by allowing others to STEAL copyrighted music. I've got a pretty good music law attorney - he wouldn't have gone up against those guys, tho.
As has been noted, useage of Napster took a nose-dive once the "big guys" music was no longer freely available. They never stood for "the little guy". There are more than enough legit sites on the web where artists can offer samples of their music for free download - and the key here is that it's the artist's (or legitimate copyright holders) right to have control over what material is or isn't offered for free.
There is not now, nor was there ever, a "need" for Napster re: the music biz. It was a service that served NO purpose other than to facilitate the illegal, unauthorized distribution of protected materials.
So the "Windows vs Macs" debate now goes to the gaming thing? Sorry, folks - my kids much prefer their Nintendo/Playstation/Dreamcast consoles for gaming - the wife & I didn't buy a home computer to play games on.
As for the "Apple's done a poor job of seeing what people want in their computers" comment - please let me know as soon as ANYONE makes a machine as family-friendly (or one w/ as high a customer satisfaction rate) as the iMac, okay? Believe it or not, that's what a good portion of folks buying new computers are looking for - an esay to use machine for the whole family. I know slash/dot is supposed to be a "techie" board & all, but not everyone who buys a computer is (or wants to be) a geek & tweak w/ their computer all the time - they want it to be a useful, easy to use tool to access the web & an educational aid for the kids. Apple knows this & Steve Jobs has done a great job in bringing such a tool to the marketplace at an affordable price.
jeez, man, there are legitimate things Apple can be faulted for (& lack of availibility of games in the local WalMarts software section may be considered a "fault" by some) - but the accusation that they don't know what's wanted in the marketplace because they don't talior their machine towards "serious gamers"? As another poster said, go on back to collecting your power-ups - you can use my kids Dreamcast system - he's kicking me off the family iMac to check his email - I've gotta move over to our several years old 8600 Mac to get some work done on my band's web-site, touch up some photos, & crunch some MP3 files. . . . just wondering, how many Wintel boxes as old as an 8600 Mac are still being used to accomplish useful tasks for their owners? hmmmm? That's what this Apple customer has been happy w/ their machines for the last 10 years or so - they work, they're easy for my kids to use, & they continue to be useful even when they're "obsolete".
>>>I just wish I could read about Apple without any sense of fanatacism coming into play.
Amen to that - I'm a diehard Apple user, have been for many years - but it sure would be nice to if there were more intelligence & less emotion from both sides.
>>>In the middle, there's Apple; a company that really seems to be holding a niche market by making good products that are pretty, get the basic jobs done, and are generally easy to use.
Perhaps the single most unbiased, factual, & reasonable comment I've EVER seen re: the Apple/Windows debate - & one might note that Apple has managed to surrvive in it's "niche" for many years now, despite repeated claims that the company "is finished".
So . ..thanks for the post, GeekInTraining - after reading many of the posts in this thread, my belief that there might indeed be some intelligent life on this planet had once again been shaken - thanks for restoring it.
BTW - I've followed the boards here at SlashDot for some time, but never posted before - registered & posted just to thank you.
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> > >Any government's primary obligation is to protect and defend its citizens. The failure to do that last week occurred primarily, many terrorism
.not good if THAT "democracy" idea spread all over Eroupe!)
experts say, because our existing intelligence institutions don't have the human resources
Hmmm. . . "terrorisim experts" . . . not exactly sure what the job description on that is (other than, in many cases, a glorified word for a "talking head" who makes the rounds of T.V. talk shows as a self-proclaimed "expert") . . .
Many security experts I've heard seem to think that proper air-port security in general, & decent doors to the cockpit in particular (which airline pilots have been demanding for years), would have prevented the recent attack from occuring.
The question I'd ask is why has the U.S. Govt. repeatedly ignored (thro' several administrations) the rest of the worlds warnings about our lax air-port security, immigration laws, & the aforementioned "cardboard doors" to the cockpit? Perhaps they were "inviting" such an incident to take place so that "non-essintial" rights to privacy could then be "temporaraly" abridged? Maybe it's just me, but isn't there substaintial evidence that the oft compared "Attack On Pearl Harbor" may have been, let's say, not ENTIRELY a "surprise" attack. Perhaps the similarities in these two attacks on Amercian soil run deeper than we think?
Franklin's quote is indeed as apt today as it was some 200 years ago, & I'd say it could be reasonably argued that he uttered it in anticipation of just such circumstances as we face today. Don't forget, gentle readers - in 1814, Britan basicly burned Washington D.C. to the ground in what was essentially a "terrorist" attack on the U.S. - it's purpose was not so much military as it was to "terrorize" the populace & to discourage the spread of the "radical" ideas emanating from the new Nation (after all, folks, they'd recently had that little "problem" in France . .
As for laying the the "lack of human intelligence resources" at Clinton's feet - another odd statement, since most evidence I've seen says most of those restrictions were put in place by the Ford administration.
>>>don't get me started on that stupid hockey-puck mouse that Steve just refused to discontinue No argument that the "hocky-puck" mouse was probably a bad idea (hard to innovate w/o a few mistakes along the way, isn't it?) & probably should have been discontinued earlier, but the iMac my Mom bought nearly a year ago came w/ an oblong, optical mouse, not the discontiued "hocky puck". BTW - the wife & kids are STILL pissed I replaced the round mouse w/ an optical one as soon as it became avalible w/o purchasing a new machine, which was about Christmas time last year. I assume that was because Apple had to use them to keep up w/ demand for the non-innovative machines they've been selling since Mr. Pepsi was (thankfully) run off?
I have to agree - thank you, NASA, for screwing the public - launching all those darn weather & communications satelites has cost the American public way too much $$$ & given us so little in return. Lets come back to earth - all that useless stuff floating around out there . . . .how dare they scam us by launching it!
>>I "steal" music to evaluate it. If you don't let me "steal" the music first, I will not buy it. Ah, yes - the excuse all of you who DON'T play, write, or perform music for a living love to sling around. As if there are no legit sites where music can be legally downloaded - I'm a professional musician/songwriter, & the fact of the matter is, it would be almost a full-time job to keep up w/ all the new sites where I can upload music for folks to "evaluate" - music that is MY property. It should rightfully be MY choice as to how and where it's distributed - don't like that? Fine - don't buy it. If music isn't worth paying for to you, that's your business - but please don't try to justify your theft of copyrighted songs w/ this lame as hell excuse because it's bullshit. Personally, I think the authorities should start busting the individuals who are doing the illegal downloads, & musicians w/ the tech savvy to do so should start "sharing" files w/ a virus that deletes all MP3 files on the hard-drive the file is downloaded to. >>Don't like it? Tough. I can live without your music WAY longer than you can live without my money. Fine - that's your choice. All I can say is, if folks keep stealing music (no quotes, bud - it's stealing, period - screw the whole bunch of you who call it "sharing"), then musicians & songwriters with enough talent to produce music WORTH paying for will quit recording. Of course, those of you who are satisfied w/ the crappy sound afforded by MP3 files probably wouldn't know good recording if you heard it, but that's another thread. Like nearly ALL "unsigned" musicians, I sell the VAST majority of my cd's at live shows. Despite what the "geeks" may think, the reality is that the Internet has been a near TOTAL failure as far as marketing music goes - the oft predicted Internet "revolution" of the music industry has come & gone, folks; like so much in the music biz, it was a lot of hype, very little substance. As for the TINY per centage of folks who get their music primarily from the web - most of us who play & write music for a living can do w/o "your" money just fine if the price for trying to do business on the web is giving away 2 or 3 copies for every one sold. College radio & live performances pay the bills for most "unsigned" bands, NOT the Internet. Looking for good music from unsigned artists that's available for LEGAL download? Check out http://www.evor.com - just one of the many DOZENS of sites where free, legal downloads by "unknown" bands are available. If you like alt/country, I've got a couple of songs there - http://www.evor.com/mp.html - along w/ links to about a half-dozen other sites where I've got music posted on the web - I could add 2-3 a week if it was worth my time, but since I've found, like most artists, that posting songs on the web results in almost NO sales, what's the point?
>>>Right, they could have signed with some tiny label and thrown their career down the tubes. See, choices are good! Your ignorance of the realities in the music biz shows here, my friend - Signing w/ an indi label & selling 10,000 or more copies of that release is the SUREST way for a band to further their career & attract major label contract. Less than 1% of major label releases sell over a thousand copie & the fact is that signing w/ a major label & being in that 99% is the surest way to throw your carrer down the drain.
You make some excellent points, especially the "no one made them sign w/ a major label" & the "nothing to lose since no one's buying their stuff anyway". I'm one of those "little guys" - a professional musician w/ a cd released on an indi label (& a good music law attorney). Any one who thinks "fair use" means that ANYONE is free to distribute copyrighted materials by making them available on the net needs to get a grip. The fact is that Napster was facilitating the commision of a FELONY crime - unauthorized distribution of protected music - period. As has been noted in other posts, usage of the site took a nose dive once most of what was available were files by "little guys". I make some songs of my cd available for free on the web - w/ the permission of the label that released it. To my knowledge, no music of mine was ever available on Napster - had it been, I would have considered it copyright infringment - but as a "little guy", would not have had the resources to go up against the Napster legal team. My income is derived soley from playing & recording music, & I can tell you it's damn hard to turn a profit on an indi release - the last thing any REAL indi artist needs is a vast network allowing the unauthorized distribution of their product w/o compensation. Sorry, Napster fans, but the view that Napster was somehow a "little guy", or somehow "stood for" the little guy, is bougus - no "little guy" could have afforded that legal team - a team paid for by allowing others to STEAL copyrighted music. I've got a pretty good music law attorney - he wouldn't have gone up against those guys, tho. As has been noted, useage of Napster took a nose-dive once the "big guys" music was no longer freely available. They never stood for "the little guy". There are more than enough legit sites on the web where artists can offer samples of their music for free download - and the key here is that it's the artist's (or legitimate copyright holders) right to have control over what material is or isn't offered for free. There is not now, nor was there ever, a "need" for Napster re: the music biz. It was a service that served NO purpose other than to facilitate the illegal, unauthorized distribution of protected materials.
So the "Windows vs Macs" debate now goes to the gaming thing? Sorry, folks - my kids much prefer their Nintendo/Playstation/Dreamcast consoles for gaming - the wife & I didn't buy a home computer to play games on. As for the "Apple's done a poor job of seeing what people want in their computers" comment - please let me know as soon as ANYONE makes a machine as family-friendly (or one w/ as high a customer satisfaction rate) as the iMac, okay? Believe it or not, that's what a good portion of folks buying new computers are looking for - an esay to use machine for the whole family. I know slash/dot is supposed to be a "techie" board & all, but not everyone who buys a computer is (or wants to be) a geek & tweak w/ their computer all the time - they want it to be a useful, easy to use tool to access the web & an educational aid for the kids. Apple knows this & Steve Jobs has done a great job in bringing such a tool to the marketplace at an affordable price. jeez, man, there are legitimate things Apple can be faulted for (& lack of availibility of games in the local WalMarts software section may be considered a "fault" by some) - but the accusation that they don't know what's wanted in the marketplace because they don't talior their machine towards "serious gamers"? As another poster said, go on back to collecting your power-ups - you can use my kids Dreamcast system - he's kicking me off the family iMac to check his email - I've gotta move over to our several years old 8600 Mac to get some work done on my band's web-site, touch up some photos, & crunch some MP3 files. . . . just wondering, how many Wintel boxes as old as an 8600 Mac are still being used to accomplish useful tasks for their owners? hmmmm? That's what this Apple customer has been happy w/ their machines for the last 10 years or so - they work, they're easy for my kids to use, & they continue to be useful even when they're "obsolete".
>>>I just wish I could read about Apple without any sense of fanatacism coming into play. Amen to that - I'm a diehard Apple user, have been for many years - but it sure would be nice to if there were more intelligence & less emotion from both sides. >>>In the middle, there's Apple; a company that really seems to be holding a niche market by making good products that are pretty, get the basic jobs done, and are generally easy to use. Perhaps the single most unbiased, factual, & reasonable comment I've EVER seen re: the Apple/Windows debate - & one might note that Apple has managed to surrvive in it's "niche" for many years now, despite repeated claims that the company "is finished". So . . .thanks for the post, GeekInTraining - after reading many of the posts in this thread, my belief that there might indeed be some intelligent life on this planet had once again been shaken - thanks for restoring it.
BTW - I've followed the boards here at SlashDot for some time, but never posted before - registered & posted just to thank you.