These days, for every digital format and technology that crops up there's some evil m shameless marketer hiding under some rock (or crack rock) just waiting to say "Hey I got this *GREAT* idea. Let's make it [insert said technology or digital format] usable only once so that if people want to use [insert said technology digital format] they have to BUY IT AGAIN." Thats right. Sell more Stuff that we don't need because [insert token big corporation] isn't seeing sufficient profit margin and the reason *must* be because of [insert token group of "underground" computer geeks or technophiles who like to swap shit]. Somehow, a company's fears of copyright infringement are allayed if Joe Q. Hax0r can't rip a copy of Antitrust if it's only played once (For the record, I never saw that movie).
With that in mind, I'm quite amazed they just haven't totally run with this business concept of selling things that cease to work after x number of tries in the name of software and digital content copyright. Other industries should take note; let's not just stop at music and movies. We could make GIF and JPG images non-viewable after 10 views or so (the porn industry could make a killing!) We could make DVD players which stop playing and explode/disintegrate after 100 movies (I think some of those are availabe now). We could make furniture that you could only sit on a few dozen times (the "ultra-leather" could just dissolve or something). How about about cars that cease to run after 30,000 miles, probably right when you are in the middle of your road trip to Fairbanks, AK. We could make *kids* that cease to function after 12-18 months, because hey, babies are cute and no one wants to deal with your little brats anyways when they turn two years of age.
Somehow, I fear the notion of "what's good for one industry is good for everyone else" is going to get taken to extremes. The software industry applies limited use technology (i.e. software evaluations, etc.) in a reasonably responsible manner (not all applications, but most). You evaluate the software for free, and if it doesn't suck, then you actually buy or license it; it doesnt cease to install on your machine after so many tries. Software is abstract code that continually faces revision; licensing it seems like a logical idea. A copy of The Matrix is not going to change 5 years from now; why would you want to pay for a subscription or limited use fee? The business model that worked so well with software is not going to work with couches, cars, kids, or even "non-variable" digital content such as movies and music.
The only way businesses will understand this is the hard way, of course; view-once DVD technology is clearly no exception. . .
know too much??!! BHHAHAHAHHAAH. Now that is some serious delusion right there. *nix weenies are somehow endowed with this theory that because they know all of the *nix Flavours of the Week (linux included) they can pass for elites and echelons of their industry. Linux in of itself is agreeably easy to set up and maintain. It's usability is stifled because of a particular developer mentality that GUI's are for morons and console screens are only for "special elite people who are oh so intelligent and we should feed their egos and kneel before them" that is almost entirely isolated to *nix and many of it's followers. it's almost like a southern baptist congregation, only change "piety" to "technical prowess" (or what people purport to be technical prowess) good day.:)
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With that in mind, I'm quite amazed they just haven't totally run with this business concept of selling things that cease to work after x number of tries in the name of software and digital content copyright. Other industries should take note; let's not just stop at music and movies. We could make GIF and JPG images non-viewable after 10 views or so (the porn industry could make a killing!) We could make DVD players which stop playing and explode/disintegrate after 100 movies (I think some of those are availabe now). We could make furniture that you could only sit on a few dozen times (the "ultra-leather" could just dissolve or something). How about about cars that cease to run after 30,000 miles, probably right when you are in the middle of your road trip to Fairbanks, AK. We could make *kids* that cease to function after 12-18 months, because hey, babies are cute and no one wants to deal with your little brats anyways when they turn two years of age.
Somehow, I fear the notion of "what's good for one industry is good for everyone else" is going to get taken to extremes. The software industry applies limited use technology (i.e. software evaluations, etc.) in a reasonably responsible manner (not all applications, but most). You evaluate the software for free, and if it doesn't suck, then you actually buy or license it; it doesnt cease to install on your machine after so many tries. Software is abstract code that continually faces revision; licensing it seems like a logical idea. A copy of The Matrix is not going to change 5 years from now; why would you want to pay for a subscription or limited use fee? The business model that worked so well with software is not going to work with couches, cars, kids, or even "non-variable" digital content such as movies and music. The only way businesses will understand this is the hard way, of course; view-once DVD technology is clearly no exception. . .
know too much??!! BHHAHAHAHHAAH. Now that is some serious delusion right there. *nix weenies are somehow endowed with this theory that because they know all of the *nix Flavours of the Week (linux included) they can pass for elites and echelons of their industry. Linux in of itself is agreeably easy to set up and maintain. It's usability is stifled because of a particular developer mentality that GUI's are for morons and console screens are only for "special elite people who are oh so intelligent and we should feed their egos and kneel before them" that is almost entirely isolated to *nix and many of it's followers. it's almost like a southern baptist congregation, only change "piety" to "technical prowess" (or what people purport to be technical prowess) good day. :)