The solution is all you people who want laws, throw your money into a corporation, and COMPETE.
Um, isn't that what the ink cart resellers are trying to do? That is, until the printer manufacturers unfairly subsume the ink cart market by eliminating the possibility of competition. (by including "killer" chips, etc.)
When corporations are able to dictate the terms of a market, it ceases to be free, and can therefore not correct itself.
Laws that prevent these controlling actions serve, ironically, to protect the libertarian ideal of a "free market," where consumers remain free to determine market leaders based upon quality and price. (As opposed to having the market artificially regulated on price by different government laws, or artificially eliminated altogether by corporations.)
...loans it to thousands of people which allows them to further their economic goals, purchasing cars and houses...The banking system permits wealth creation, not interest.
So the more money you owe, the wealthier you are?
Paying an interest premium to borrow someone else's money to buy depreciating (most) cars does not equate to "wealth creation" for the car buyer.
If you are an American taxpayer, you pay for those government institutions. So, MS is, in essence, auditing you.
I can understand not feeling sorry for yourself, and taking responsibility for your actions, but most people I know don't enjoy getting audited in order to make that happen.
This might be a tough race to run. Remember, this is the group that spends a ton of money having their legions buy Hubbard's book, in order to keep it perpetually on the best seller lists. I suspect they take the same approach with their web presence.
In order for this analogy to work, the vending machine would have to be sold to individuals, as hardware or copy-protected media would be. In this case, I, as an individual, don't care if a vending machine is hard to get into; In fact, I'll probably buy one that is not so hard to receive product from (e.g. a refrigerator, if the product is soda).
What the content companies are trying to do is make it illegal for an individual to buy a refrigerator (non DRM hardware), or for someone to build and sell one.
If the content companies want to market their own steel-caged vending machines for the home (DRM hardware) themselves, I say let 'em; If they want to sell code-activated soda cans (copy-protected media), let 'em. Just don't make it illegal to buy or sell alternatives.
Personally, I think this issue is simple enough that analogies are not needed, as they are doomed to be flawed or incomplete. How do you copy a candy bar anyway?
Regardless, commentary was made on the modus operandi of the RIAA et al., not the current success rate of said method.
Gnutella is a protocol, not a company, and
the fact that FastTrack and companies using its own proprietary protocol are embroiled in continued litigation only shows the process at work.
Do you expect the recording industry to give up trying to shut these companies down, ever?
I personally wish the p2p companies all the luck in the world in their continued defenses.
Key word being 'continued'.
Actually, this is a textbook example of 'trickle-down' enforcement. Shut down the companies basing their business on swapping, then, shut down companies permitting swapping. When the time comes to prosecute individual people, any incumbent mindset or mechanism for owners' (not consumers) rights will have already been broken down, leaving little momentum or resolve to combat the proceedings.
More than likely, the RIAA et al. are hoping that prosecution of individual people will become unnecessary, save for a couple good example-setters.
When you get bored trying to help us find alien life with SETI@home, why don't you help us get rid of the life already here, with nuclearannihilation@home.
Are there any states that have great PUCs from the point of view of the consumer?
Great? No. But the PUCs are often the most effective resource a consumer has for ensuring quality service. They have the teeth to quickly (relatively) levy fines or requirements upon offending corps. On the other hand, the FCC, as a national policy making agency, is not very responsive to regional service issues, and its current management has a heavily laissez-faire attitude.
The telcos offering DSL know this, and that is why they have consistently argued that the PUCs have no authority to regulate online service, seeking to distinguish it from a utility such as normal telephone.
I am personally glad that the PUC in my state (MN) decided to extend its reach and require Qwest to quit its deceptive MSN transfer policy.
Any resource that a customer can employ to help in untenable service situations is currently a Good Thing, since the monopolistic telcos have felt no incentive to provide decent service.
This lack of incentive is due to the failure of deregulation to spurn competition. It has only served to provide temporarily higher profit margins (or rather, lower losses) for the already incumbent monopolies, who spend every last dime trying to build up entry barriers to their market.
Watching this movie, I got the feeling that the Budget rent-a-car marketing people got in a room and thought up the story for this...
"Ok. Let's stick Blade in some foreign country, where everyone looks like they could possibly be a vampire hybrid mistake anyway. Then, we gotta make sure he has all his gear, including his muscle car. We should probably stick in some young rebel/hacker type assistant, in order for the audience to identify with somebody. "
"What's that you say? Kris Kristofferson still works cheap? Not many movie deals coming his way? OK, let's bring him back then, too. We can make 'em believe that after he lost all his blood and shot himself, and after Blade spent all day making silver bullets in the same warehouse, that Deacon Frost's guys came and picked him up, even though they were all waiting at headquarters to be mowed down by Blade."
"We have to make it look like there is a reason he came back, though. Alright, let's have him test out that cure that the hematologist thought up, then, we'll keep the audience in suspense as to whether it worked or not... throughout the entire movie...never to be revealed."
"Then, let's make a team for Blade to be involved with, just like in Predator! Identifiable people getting killed is always more interesting. Hey, it's worked for the first nine Friday the 13ths... We have to make them the weakest vampires ever though, and kill them off quickly, or else there will be too many loose ends at the close of the movie."
"Hey, Snipes is on the phone. He says he wants another million... Why don't we lose the well-timed quality techno music, and just blow our wad on CGI. We'll stick it everywhere! People liked the Street Fighter arcade game, we'll make the movie look like it!"
"Dammit, since we hired the 'team', now we've gotta pay all those character actors. Guess we'll have to skip the continuity check. Maybe we can add some cool posturing (like the fist-pump after nailing Donal Logue to the wall, or the pre-fight sword circle motion in Blade I)."
"Nah, that's not a good idea. Let's just spend more on some weak-ass CGI. Oh, and fire the cinematographer."
This movie is watchable, but the things that made the original great are missing.
Merchants can and do build in the costs of estimated fraud into the cost of their products or services. Consumers have no such recourse with PayPal or otherwise when they get screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
The solution is all you people who want laws, throw your money into a corporation, and COMPETE.
Um, isn't that what the ink cart resellers are trying to do? That is, until the printer manufacturers unfairly subsume the ink cart market by eliminating the possibility of competition. (by including "killer" chips, etc.)
When corporations are able to dictate the terms of a market, it ceases to be free, and can therefore not correct itself.
Laws that prevent these controlling actions serve, ironically, to protect the libertarian ideal of a "free market," where consumers remain free to determine market leaders based upon quality and price. (As opposed to having the market artificially regulated on price by different government laws, or artificially eliminated altogether by corporations.)
So the more money you owe, the wealthier you are?
Paying an interest premium to borrow someone else's money to buy depreciating (most) cars does not equate to "wealth creation" for the car buyer.
they would lose the competitive advantage they gained from free promotion
It is possible that every single band employing free promotion would benefit, based solely on increased exposure. There need not be any competition.
I don't feel sorry for any of them.
Them?
If you are an American taxpayer, you pay for those government institutions. So, MS is, in essence, auditing you.
I can understand not feeling sorry for yourself, and taking responsibility for your actions, but most people I know don't enjoy getting audited in order to make that happen.
maybe it can be pushed up to 1st :-)
This might be a tough race to run. Remember, this is the group that spends a ton of money having their legions buy Hubbard's book, in order to keep it perpetually on the best seller lists. I suspect they take the same approach with their web presence.
In order for this analogy to work, the vending machine would have to be sold to individuals, as hardware or copy-protected media would be. In this case, I, as an individual, don't care if a vending machine is hard to get into; In fact, I'll probably buy one that is not so hard to receive product from (e.g. a refrigerator, if the product is soda).
What the content companies are trying to do is make it illegal for an individual to buy a refrigerator (non DRM hardware), or for someone to build and sell one.
If the content companies want to market their own steel-caged vending machines for the home (DRM hardware) themselves, I say let 'em; If they want to sell code-activated soda cans (copy-protected media), let 'em. Just don't make it illegal to buy or sell alternatives.
Personally, I think this issue is simple enough that analogies are not needed, as they are doomed to be flawed or incomplete. How do you copy a candy bar anyway?
It seems like a mighty small trickle to me.
Agreed, for now. But the water supply is ample.
Regardless, commentary was made on the modus operandi of the RIAA et al., not the current success rate of said method.
Gnutella is a protocol, not a company, and the fact that FastTrack and companies using its own proprietary protocol are embroiled in continued litigation only shows the process at work.
Do you expect the recording industry to give up trying to shut these companies down, ever? I personally wish the p2p companies all the luck in the world in their continued defenses. Key word being 'continued'.
Actually, this is a textbook example of 'trickle-down' enforcement. Shut down the companies basing their business on swapping, then, shut down companies permitting swapping. When the time comes to prosecute individual people, any incumbent mindset or mechanism for owners' (not consumers) rights will have already been broken down, leaving little momentum or resolve to combat the proceedings.
More than likely, the RIAA et al. are hoping that prosecution of individual people will become unnecessary, save for a couple good example-setters.
When you get bored trying to help us find alien life with SETI@home, why don't you help us get rid of the life already here, with nuclearannihilation@home.
Some Net users have complained of receiving downloads containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites....
...But those horror stories are the exception. More typically, software makers are simply using the downloads to distribute legitimate products.
Wrong. They're all virii. No use trying to launder mud.
Key2Audio is a product of Sony DADC, a 100% affiliate of Sony Corp of America headquartered in Austria.
...and doesn't Japan have something to do with Sony as well?
Consumers are a nuisance for a company this large, and will be treated as such.
Are there any states that have great PUCs from the point of view of the consumer?
Great? No. But the PUCs are often the most effective resource a consumer has for ensuring quality service. They have the teeth to quickly (relatively) levy fines or requirements upon offending corps. On the other hand, the FCC, as a national policy making agency, is not very responsive to regional service issues, and its current management has a heavily laissez-faire attitude.
The telcos offering DSL know this, and that is why they have consistently argued that the PUCs have no authority to regulate online service, seeking to distinguish it from a utility such as normal telephone.
I am personally glad that the PUC in my state (MN) decided to extend its reach and require Qwest to quit its deceptive MSN transfer policy.
Any resource that a customer can employ to help in untenable service situations is currently a Good Thing, since the monopolistic telcos have felt no incentive to provide decent service.
This lack of incentive is due to the failure of deregulation to spurn competition. It has only served to provide temporarily higher profit margins (or rather, lower losses) for the already incumbent monopolies, who spend every last dime trying to build up entry barriers to their market.
Watching this movie, I got the feeling that the Budget rent-a-car marketing people got in a room and thought up the story for this...
"Ok. Let's stick Blade in some foreign country, where everyone looks like they could possibly be a vampire hybrid mistake anyway. Then, we gotta make sure he has all his gear, including his muscle car. We should probably stick in some young rebel/hacker type assistant, in order for the audience to identify with somebody. "
"What's that you say? Kris Kristofferson still works cheap? Not many movie deals coming his way? OK, let's bring him back then, too. We can make 'em believe that after he lost all his blood and shot himself, and after Blade spent all day making silver bullets in the same warehouse, that Deacon Frost's guys came and picked him up, even though they were all waiting at headquarters to be mowed down by Blade."
"We have to make it look like there is a reason he came back, though. Alright, let's have him test out that cure that the hematologist thought up, then, we'll keep the audience in suspense as to whether it worked or not... throughout the entire movie...never to be revealed."
"Then, let's make a team for Blade to be involved with, just like in Predator! Identifiable people getting killed is always more interesting. Hey, it's worked for the first nine Friday the 13ths... We have to make them the weakest vampires ever though, and kill them off quickly, or else there will be too many loose ends at the close of the movie."
"Hey, Snipes is on the phone. He says he wants another million... Why don't we lose the well-timed quality techno music, and just blow our wad on CGI. We'll stick it everywhere! People liked the Street Fighter arcade game, we'll make the movie look like it!"
"Dammit, since we hired the 'team', now we've gotta pay all those character actors. Guess we'll have to skip the continuity check. Maybe we can add some cool posturing (like the fist-pump after nailing Donal Logue to the wall, or the pre-fight sword circle motion in Blade I)."
"Nah, that's not a good idea. Let's just spend more on some weak-ass CGI. Oh, and fire the cinematographer."
This movie is watchable, but the things that made the original great are missing.
Merchants can and do build in the costs of estimated fraud into the cost of their products or services. Consumers have no such recourse with PayPal or otherwise when they get screwed.