He should be grateful most sysadmins are too cynical, moral, smart and busy to go to Law School and become judges. I would imagine "All rise for presiding Judge Simon Travaglia [wikipedia.org] would strike abject terror into the heart of any spammer. This one simple thought made my entire week.
Does that make this an "August Fool" joke?
No, not funny, just sad. But it's just another attack on the video game industry. By now, you'd think we'd be tired of blaming video games for all the world's evils. Nope, someone managed to figure a new and disturbing twist. What's worse is the fact that this time they are invoking "terrorists" to try to scare more people against games.
I'm going home and grinding my fishing skill up to 300....
"Hello? Tech Support?..."
And I can just see this taking 3 days and 4 calls just to get them to send out a tech to say that it's not the car, it's the software...
Thank you for bringing up that very specific point. This is the line that, if it isn't crossed, makes this a VERY GOOD IDEA. Yes, it's easy to see the potential for abuse. But potential for abuse alone is not a reason for protest. The ACLU here is way off base, and this is becoming habit for them. Every time they see the potential for some agency to step out of line, they get all up in arms about it and make a big scene, completely obliterating the facts. I used to hold the ACLU in high regard, but lately I cannot. They're becoming more radical, more reactionary, and less credible to me. They're not all a bunch of crackpots, but they seem to have more working in front of the media lately.
I can understand that some people have problems with their local sys-admins. But the rest of us bust it every day, and a lot of times work weird hours so that we can get things done and not affect the developers work time. So, please don't crap on all of us just because your own personal admins aren't worth the chemicals they're made of.
At least someone out there still remembers we have a Constitution out there. And we do more than harm minors. We harm everyone. Are consenting adults to be punished because parents out there aren't doing their job? All this sort of thing does is drive people underground. In the long run, it's going to do more harm than good. The best protection for kids is their parents.
First?
First to what?
First to side with the cable company?
No, I think "Last" is probably more accurate.
I have Comcast for cable. We're right at the end of last CO on the block. We barely get enough signal to have consistent connections. It took us over a year of yelling at Comcast to get them to take of the TV filter. Why? Because we've had DirecTV since the we bought the house, but Comcast is afraid we're going to steal their TV signal.
Before anyone chimes in, no, we don't have a DSL option, Verizon doesn't provide anything worth buying in our area yet, and we're 2-3 years before FIOS is going to be run. No, we don't live out in the middle of "nowhere", just in the middle between 2 "somewheres".
But your entire argument hinges on one simple fact, that the player owns the character. They do not, Blizzard does. The only thing you receive for your monthy fee is the "right to access their systems". You don't own the character. You don't own the gear on the character. You don't own the gold the character has amassed. Therefore, you don't have the right to "sell" anything for real world money. The data is intellectual property, owned by Blizzard. Selling this data for real money by anyone other than an authorized Blizzard representative is violating copyright laws pertaining to said intellectual property. I don't care how you argue "rights", it's still wrong.
Re:Protected by the Constitution?
on
The Privacy of Email
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Our Founding Fathers (and Mothers too), IMO, did not intend for the protections under the Constitution to be limited to "a select few". The words "ALL MEN" appear in this document for a reason. Therefore, not only should it apply to US Citizens, those here with Green Cards, foreign visitors, and even those here illegally, but it has to apply to everyone worldwide. Either they apply to everyone, or they apply to no one.
Um, actually it did to me. I do government contract work. I was working about 3 blocks from the US Capital building on that day. Ok, maybe some won't consider that a direct connection, but it's hitting very close. Everyone is affected because it's makes them think about such things. As a friend of mine put it, the terrorists have already won, we now live in a constant state of fear.
Actually, Attack of the Clones has NO CHANCE AT ALL of outdoing SpiderMan, and the movie itself has nothing to do with it at all.
George Lucas has told any theater that is not "THX Blessed" that they are NOT going to get AotC to show in their houses. Reason being, Lucas wants the audience to get the full effect of all the music, sound, and visual effects in his movie. How can he do this? Because he owns it all, and has enough control of everything to be able to make that demand.
All hail the Overlord of the Sith!
It took me about 3 months to finally get Earthink to cancel my account, and about 3 YEARS for AOL. From now on, I only deal with small ISPs that don't want to keep hearing from me because they don't have the staff to keep handing me off.
Slashdot Mirror
Does that make this an "August Fool" joke? No, not funny, just sad. But it's just another attack on the video game industry. By now, you'd think we'd be tired of blaming video games for all the world's evils. Nope, someone managed to figure a new and disturbing twist. What's worse is the fact that this time they are invoking "terrorists" to try to scare more people against games. I'm going home and grinding my fishing skill up to 300....
"Hello? Tech Support?..." And I can just see this taking 3 days and 4 calls just to get them to send out a tech to say that it's not the car, it's the software...
Thank you for bringing up that very specific point. This is the line that, if it isn't crossed, makes this a VERY GOOD IDEA. Yes, it's easy to see the potential for abuse. But potential for abuse alone is not a reason for protest. The ACLU here is way off base, and this is becoming habit for them. Every time they see the potential for some agency to step out of line, they get all up in arms about it and make a big scene, completely obliterating the facts. I used to hold the ACLU in high regard, but lately I cannot. They're becoming more radical, more reactionary, and less credible to me. They're not all a bunch of crackpots, but they seem to have more working in front of the media lately.
I can understand that some people have problems with their local sys-admins. But the rest of us bust it every day, and a lot of times work weird hours so that we can get things done and not affect the developers work time. So, please don't crap on all of us just because your own personal admins aren't worth the chemicals they're made of.
At least someone out there still remembers we have a Constitution out there. And we do more than harm minors. We harm everyone. Are consenting adults to be punished because parents out there aren't doing their job? All this sort of thing does is drive people underground. In the long run, it's going to do more harm than good. The best protection for kids is their parents.
First? First to what? First to side with the cable company? No, I think "Last" is probably more accurate. I have Comcast for cable. We're right at the end of last CO on the block. We barely get enough signal to have consistent connections. It took us over a year of yelling at Comcast to get them to take of the TV filter. Why? Because we've had DirecTV since the we bought the house, but Comcast is afraid we're going to steal their TV signal. Before anyone chimes in, no, we don't have a DSL option, Verizon doesn't provide anything worth buying in our area yet, and we're 2-3 years before FIOS is going to be run. No, we don't live out in the middle of "nowhere", just in the middle between 2 "somewheres".
Klaatu barada nikto!
But your entire argument hinges on one simple fact, that the player owns the character. They do not, Blizzard does. The only thing you receive for your monthy fee is the "right to access their systems". You don't own the character. You don't own the gear on the character. You don't own the gold the character has amassed. Therefore, you don't have the right to "sell" anything for real world money. The data is intellectual property, owned by Blizzard. Selling this data for real money by anyone other than an authorized Blizzard representative is violating copyright laws pertaining to said intellectual property. I don't care how you argue "rights", it's still wrong.
Our Founding Fathers (and Mothers too), IMO, did not intend for the protections under the Constitution to be limited to "a select few". The words "ALL MEN" appear in this document for a reason. Therefore, not only should it apply to US Citizens, those here with Green Cards, foreign visitors, and even those here illegally, but it has to apply to everyone worldwide. Either they apply to everyone, or they apply to no one.
Of course, if it falls from the sky it won't MATTER any more.
Um, actually it did to me.
I do government contract work.
I was working about 3 blocks from the US Capital building on that day. Ok, maybe some won't consider that a direct connection, but it's hitting very close. Everyone is affected because it's makes them think about such things. As a friend of mine put it, the terrorists have already won, we now live in a constant state of fear.
Actually, Attack of the Clones has NO CHANCE AT ALL of outdoing SpiderMan, and the movie itself has nothing to do with it at all. George Lucas has told any theater that is not "THX Blessed" that they are NOT going to get AotC to show in their houses. Reason being, Lucas wants the audience to get the full effect of all the music, sound, and visual effects in his movie. How can he do this? Because he owns it all, and has enough control of everything to be able to make that demand. All hail the Overlord of the Sith!
It took me about 3 months to finally get Earthink to cancel my account, and about 3 YEARS for AOL.
From now on, I only deal with small ISPs that don't want to keep hearing from me because they don't have the staff to keep handing me off.