"That hardly disproves the point--if Kazaa sudenly went off the air, the rate of piracy (stupid word, I admit) would drop--even if only until the next enabler came along."
Think about what you just said. Yeah, it would drop, a new solution would have to be settled upon.
" This should be sufficient to show that the rate of piracy is not neutral to Kazaa's presence. That it could be replaced is hardly the point. "
It is very much the point. Did the fall of Napster cause the numbers to go down?
" First of all the "demand" isn't a problem at all. It is an indication that the system is not properly configured to the will of the people. If everyone is a thief, then its the law that is wrong. "
Well, the law's a different discussion all together. You're right, the laws in this case are not respected. People want what they want, and the *AA isn't supplying what they want. All that's really left is civil disobedience. So yes, demand is very much at issue here. As long as people want Mp3s, for example, then it won't matter if Kazaa's around or not. The only way to really prevent those files from flying around is to shut down the net all together.
I'll concede, though, that the harder it is to get the files, the less interesting piracy will be. There are only so many hoops one will jump through before the cost of a CD doesn't seem so big. However, that's not something Kazaa has control over. If Kazaa is stopped in such a way that only more difficult processes will work, then yes, you would be right. However, I have a seriously difficult time imagining how that would happen.
" But you can't argue that the Kazaa service has a neutral effect on piracy."
I think I can. If Kazaa disappeared, would it keep going? You betcha. People'd move on to whatever technology they can get their hands on to get what they want.
The demand is the problem, not the means. The RIAA and the MPAA both would do a world of good for themselves to realize this.
"Talk about a Rube Goldberg way of doing something. There are news stations on the radio, just listen to them! How hard is this? "
You mean the news that happens every 10 minutes? That's great except it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work. I get the news like 2 days out of the week because of this.
There's a little thing us modern people like to call 'on-demand'. That's why devices like TiVo are popular.
"Sounds to me like they are shooting themselves in the foot. "
They did worse than that. They shot themselves in the foot, then took a number of steps backwards. By using the DMCA to smack down Kazaalite, they've drawn attention to it. Any publicity is good publicity, right? KazaaLite will see a surge in activity before long. (assuming this story goes anywhere)
A few months ago I read about how a San Fran newspaper was providing an audio CD so you can listen in the car. I like that idea.
Taking that idea a step further, I wish Avant-Go would do something like that. I'd like to synch my PocketPC in the morning, then plug it into my car's audio so I can listen to fresh news on the way in.
"If that's what you want, why not trundle of and use the Google News tech section? It's not like anyones forcing you to stay. "
Slashdot lets you discuss, Google does not. It's not about forcing, it's about niether side being perfect. Slashdot's got a great discussion forum going, Google has more interesting nerd news without the Anti-MS, disgustingly pro-Mozilla bias.
"What they fail to realize is that if linux had the same market share as Windows, all the goddamn script-kiddies and black hats would concentrate on linux instead of the MS Windows."
Lots of people, usually Linux zealots, respond to this by saying that Linux has a more secure foundation, yadda yadda yadda, and they quickly dismiss this possibility. What they fail to see is that for Linux to be ready for mass consumption, it has to have a lot more features than it has today. Every feature is an exploit waiting to happen.
Linux will see its share of embarrasment. Dismissing it and saying 'bah' is a guarantee that it will happen.
Yeah, damn Microsoft for putting Netscape into a position where they'd have to compete by making the product better. Imagine if other IM producers had to make their software better too. Oh the horror.
If the XBOX has shown us anything, its that MS can't make a monopoly out of everything if the market chooses a better alternative.
"I don't understand the big deal here. The MSN Messenger servers are Microsoft property. If they want to charge 3rd party clients to use them, that's their prerogative."
Interesingly enough, if licenses are being sold, MS has a fire lit under them to a.) keep it up and running and b.) to keep it working.
I don't see the BFD about licenses either. I'd rather read that MS wants money to log in than to read that MS is constantly mutating to keep people off, not unlike another monopoly Slashdot hates.
Ah well, it's about MS, there's no such thing as the silver lining.
" Now that a company is actually doing it, it's suddenly a bad idea."
Um, the situation's a little more complex than that.
In the case of deep linking, the company is using a technology that is commonly used for making information out in the open, and then crying foul when people use it simply so they can force people to see ads. It doesn't occur to them to use password protection, or url referrals, etc. They don't need to go to court over it and risk breaking the net in the process.
In this case, AOL's blocking of Live Journal is overreaching and also has established technical solutions that don't just leave everybody in the cold.
The dispute isn't over using or not using referer header, it's about enactment of harsh policies. What AOL (and the previous companies... I think TicketMaster was the previous...) is doing is kind of like fishing with a stick of dynamite.
I useta take paper airplanes and write "S.C.U.D. Don't worry, it probably wasn't meant for you!" on them. Then, I'd throw them in a random direction from my cube and see how many would come back. Then my boss brought one back. Evidentally, doing something like that more than once is a problem.
Lesson learned: Only fire one SCUD from your cube.
I reside in the Engineering cubes. We like to pretend we're on the Enterprise by tapping our chest and shouting the name of whoever we wanna talk to. Couldn't do that when we had offices.
"Computers are a fairly new thing, and we really don't know to what extent there is a cause-effect going here."
Video games have been around for 30 years. Believe me, if there were a way to make them addictive to the point of ppl neglecting their kids, that game would have been out long ago.
Part of me wonders if Lawnmower Man had something to do with this paranoia about people getting addicted to games.
I bought a Replay a few months ago with a $50 rebate. I placed the receipt and form on my desk at the office so when I could find a minute I'd fill it out. When I finally got around to it, I noticed something very bizarre about the receipt. There was no text on it! Puzzled, I moved the stack of papers and discovered a half eaten cookie I thought I was going to finsih the week before.
Dammit! The oil from the cookie soaked through the receipt making it, I shit you not, transparent. Remember that episode of the Simpsons where they were at Krusty Burger and somebody rubbed the to-go bag on the wall making it transparent, and then a bird flew into it? It was just like that! Well okay a bird didn't fly into it, but I guarantee you a bird was flying when I realized I couldn't get my rebate.
Yep, that cookie cost me $50. Didn't even finish the damn thing.
And the Playstation 2, despite what the 'Facts of Gord' says. I think it was Next Generation that published an article on that. Sony needed to be selling 3-4 games per console in Japan when it launched, but instead people bought the machines to use as a DVD player. The launch games sucked and there was concern that Sony was going to find itself in trouble.
"No. Modems stopped increasing in baud at 2400, and then used various encoding methods (trellis, QAM, etc.) to squeeze more than 1 bit/baud."
A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine living on the opposite side of the country had a problem with his dialup ISP. I dialed his number (on the East Coast) from here on the West Coast. To my surprise, that was THE fastest dialup connection I had ever made. Sorry, the numbers have faded from memory, but it was very quick and responsive, much more so than the 56k modem I had merely 2 years ago.
Frankly, I was stunned. I expected that considering how far the signal had to go and how many hops it had to make that it'd be degraded. Wasn't like that at all.
I must ask, why? Why was I getting such a good signal this far away?
"well, i've got a good excuse. my native language is not english:p "
Too bad nobody ever considers this possibility when somebody makes a grammatical error.
Off-topic, I know. Just bothers me that others who have taken the time to learn English can get shit on by people who are overly obsessed with speaking it the way some old book defines.
Slashdot Mirror
"That hardly disproves the point--if Kazaa sudenly went off the air, the rate of piracy (stupid word, I admit) would drop--even if only until the next enabler came along."
Think about what you just said. Yeah, it would drop, a new solution would have to be settled upon.
" This should be sufficient to show that the rate of piracy is not neutral to Kazaa's presence. That it could be replaced is hardly the point. "
It is very much the point. Did the fall of Napster cause the numbers to go down?
" First of all the "demand" isn't a problem at all. It is an indication that the system is not properly configured to the will of the people. If everyone is a thief, then its the law that is wrong. "
Well, the law's a different discussion all together. You're right, the laws in this case are not respected. People want what they want, and the *AA isn't supplying what they want. All that's really left is civil disobedience. So yes, demand is very much at issue here. As long as people want Mp3s, for example, then it won't matter if Kazaa's around or not. The only way to really prevent those files from flying around is to shut down the net all together.
I'll concede, though, that the harder it is to get the files, the less interesting piracy will be. There are only so many hoops one will jump through before the cost of a CD doesn't seem so big. However, that's not something Kazaa has control over. If Kazaa is stopped in such a way that only more difficult processes will work, then yes, you would be right. However, I have a seriously difficult time imagining how that would happen.
I don't think our views are all that dissimilar.
" But you can't argue that the Kazaa service has a neutral effect on piracy."
I think I can. If Kazaa disappeared, would it keep going? You betcha. People'd move on to whatever technology they can get their hands on to get what they want.
The demand is the problem, not the means. The RIAA and the MPAA both would do a world of good for themselves to realize this.
"Geez. Seriously, how do you get through life? " ...said the close minded guy posting anonymously.
"Talk about a Rube Goldberg way of doing something. There are news stations on the radio, just listen to them! How hard is this? "
You mean the news that happens every 10 minutes? That's great except it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work. I get the news like 2 days out of the week because of this.
There's a little thing us modern people like to call 'on-demand'. That's why devices like TiVo are popular.
"Sounds to me like they are shooting themselves in the foot. "
They did worse than that. They shot themselves in the foot, then took a number of steps backwards. By using the DMCA to smack down Kazaalite, they've drawn attention to it. Any publicity is good publicity, right? KazaaLite will see a surge in activity before long. (assuming this story goes anywhere)
All I have to say about Kazaa is "numbnuts".
A few months ago I read about how a San Fran newspaper was providing an audio CD so you can listen in the car. I like that idea.
Taking that idea a step further, I wish Avant-Go would do something like that. I'd like to synch my PocketPC in the morning, then plug it into my car's audio so I can listen to fresh news on the way in.
"If that's what you want, why not trundle of and use the Google News tech section? It's not like anyones forcing you to stay. "
Slashdot lets you discuss, Google does not. It's not about forcing, it's about niether side being perfect. Slashdot's got a great discussion forum going, Google has more interesting nerd news without the Anti-MS, disgustingly pro-Mozilla bias.
"Kazaa, which enables (or at least egenders) rampant piracy (or at least unauthorized distribution)..."
Technically it's the users enabling the rampant piracy. Kazaa doesn't really care much what you put on it.
"What they fail to realize is that if linux had the same market share as Windows, all the goddamn script-kiddies and black hats would concentrate on linux instead of the MS Windows."
Lots of people, usually Linux zealots, respond to this by saying that Linux has a more secure foundation, yadda yadda yadda, and they quickly dismiss this possibility. What they fail to see is that for Linux to be ready for mass consumption, it has to have a lot more features than it has today. Every feature is an exploit waiting to happen.
Linux will see its share of embarrasment. Dismissing it and saying 'bah' is a guarantee that it will happen.
"That move was aimed at killing off Netscape"
Yeah, damn Microsoft for putting Netscape into a position where they'd have to compete by making the product better. Imagine if other IM producers had to make their software better too. Oh the horror.
If the XBOX has shown us anything, its that MS can't make a monopoly out of everything if the market chooses a better alternative.
"I don't understand the big deal here. The MSN Messenger servers are Microsoft property. If they want to charge 3rd party clients to use them, that's their prerogative."
Interesingly enough, if licenses are being sold, MS has a fire lit under them to a.) keep it up and running and b.) to keep it working.
I don't see the BFD about licenses either. I'd rather read that MS wants money to log in than to read that MS is constantly mutating to keep people off, not unlike another monopoly Slashdot hates.
Ah well, it's about MS, there's no such thing as the silver lining.
" Now that a company is actually doing it, it's suddenly a bad idea."
Um, the situation's a little more complex than that.
In the case of deep linking, the company is using a technology that is commonly used for making information out in the open, and then crying foul when people use it simply so they can force people to see ads. It doesn't occur to them to use password protection, or url referrals, etc. They don't need to go to court over it and risk breaking the net in the process.
In this case, AOL's blocking of Live Journal is overreaching and also has established technical solutions that don't just leave everybody in the cold.
The dispute isn't over using or not using referer header, it's about enactment of harsh policies. What AOL (and the previous companies... I think TicketMaster was the previous...) is doing is kind of like fishing with a stick of dynamite.
"Gotta love Opera :) "
;)
If you had said Mozilla, you'd be at +5 instead of +3.
"Call Of Duty Demo Gets Universal Release"
Suddenly, Omicron Persiae 8 doesn't feel far away enough.
"In case the site is slow, here is a mirror."
Here's a google mirror.
"Linux runs on smart vibrators?"
Didn't realize Linux finally has a joystick driver!
I useta take paper airplanes and write "S.C.U.D. Don't worry, it probably wasn't meant for you!" on them. Then, I'd throw them in a random direction from my cube and see how many would come back. Then my boss brought one back. Evidentally, doing something like that more than once is a problem.
Lesson learned: Only fire one SCUD from your cube.
I reside in the Engineering cubes. We like to pretend we're on the Enterprise by tapping our chest and shouting the name of whoever we wanna talk to. Couldn't do that when we had offices.
(Note: I'm not really being sarcastic here.)
"Computers are a fairly new thing, and we really don't know to what extent there is a cause-effect going here."
Video games have been around for 30 years. Believe me, if there were a way to make them addictive to the point of ppl neglecting their kids, that game would have been out long ago.
Part of me wonders if Lawnmower Man had something to do with this paranoia about people getting addicted to games.
I bought a Replay a few months ago with a $50 rebate. I placed the receipt and form on my desk at the office so when I could find a minute I'd fill it out. When I finally got around to it, I noticed something very bizarre about the receipt. There was no text on it! Puzzled, I moved the stack of papers and discovered a half eaten cookie I thought I was going to finsih the week before.
Dammit! The oil from the cookie soaked through the receipt making it, I shit you not, transparent. Remember that episode of the Simpsons where they were at Krusty Burger and somebody rubbed the to-go bag on the wall making it transparent, and then a bird flew into it? It was just like that! Well okay a bird didn't fly into it, but I guarantee you a bird was flying when I realized I couldn't get my rebate.
Yep, that cookie cost me $50. Didn't even finish the damn thing.
And the Playstation 2, despite what the 'Facts of Gord' says. I think it was Next Generation that published an article on that. Sony needed to be selling 3-4 games per console in Japan when it launched, but instead people bought the machines to use as a DVD player. The launch games sucked and there was concern that Sony was going to find itself in trouble.
"You just described the standing state of Shoot 'em Up Games(tm) for the past two years. "
And 3/4ths of the games made for the original Playstation.
"No. Modems stopped increasing in baud at 2400, and then used various encoding methods (trellis, QAM, etc.) to squeeze more than 1 bit/baud."
A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine living on the opposite side of the country had a problem with his dialup ISP. I dialed his number (on the East Coast) from here on the West Coast. To my surprise, that was THE fastest dialup connection I had ever made. Sorry, the numbers have faded from memory, but it was very quick and responsive, much more so than the 56k modem I had merely 2 years ago.
Frankly, I was stunned. I expected that considering how far the signal had to go and how many hops it had to make that it'd be degraded. Wasn't like that at all.
I must ask, why? Why was I getting such a good signal this far away?
"well, i've got a good excuse. my native language is not english :p "
Too bad nobody ever considers this possibility when somebody makes a grammatical error.
Off-topic, I know. Just bothers me that others who have taken the time to learn English can get shit on by people who are overly obsessed with speaking it the way some old book defines.
"Anyone who needs to point out someone elses political leanings in order to denigrate them generally has a soft spot for Chairman Mao."
Heh I read that as "...generally has a soft spot for Charmin".
Maybe I just don't have enough caffeiene in my system right now, but that made for an amusing interpretation.