Yet another case of anti-Wikipedia prejudice. Diebold has been editing the content of Encyclopedia Britannica since at least the 7th edition, but the mainstream press never even bothers to report on *that* kind of thing!
Rural areas don't drive the American economy, and particularly high-speed Internet at the home is not a driving economic force, mostly it's useful for pirating movies. How is lower-quality broadband out in the middle of Bumfuck, Iowa, hurting the American economy?
Let's not forget that this discussion topic is taking place about a cell phone that goes for $500. Obviously even if the majority of China is very poor, there is a substantial percentage of people who are able to afford IP-protected products, but don't, purely for the fact that there's no reason to.
Anyway compare China to India, right next door. It's a very large market, but only 60% the size of China's. People are much, much poorer, believe me it's not like China where every urban motherfucker sports a $200+ cell phone. And yet India, with stronger IP laws than China, has a vibrant film and cultural industry, a fairly large (and rapidly growing) skilled labor pool, and can actually support locally-oriented industries.
Obviously that's a simplified breakdown - but saying "all 1.4 billion Chinese people are poor and could never afford to buy anything that isn't a bootleg" is even simpler, to the point of being nonsense.
Well China is about as close to your utopian IP-free state as possible.
It's basically decimated the local film industry - China should be a huge market, but basically it's ignored even by local filmmakers, who aim themselves at foreign audiences - hence all those lame Westernish Kung-Fu movies from Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. This is also true in Hong Kong, which has a history of excellence and two of the greatest directors in the world, Wong Kar Wai and Johnny To, who now rely on non-Chinese audiences or even have turned to making American movies.
Chinese manufacturers have to aim at the foreign market from day 1. Any successful product will be immediately copied by Chinese cut-rate manufacturers. It is economically infeasible to design a product for the Chinese market.
Imitations also are often of a much lower quality. Bootleg bottled water in Beijing was recently revealed to often be fake, using filtered Beijing tap water (you wouldn't want to drink it).
Local musicians aren't able to sell their CDs. Anything popular from local bands will be sold on the street for maybe fifty cents. There is basically no music scene in China, everything is bootlegged from Hong Kong or Taiwan or the US.
Goods in China are marginally cheaper, but it's at the expense of shoddy products that are often of a lower quality, and of a moribund IP development, and a lack of locally produced culture. There is no motivation to doing work or putting expense into research, if there's no economic reward - and there's no economic reward when your ideas are ripped off immediately.
I'd love to see all these people who are so opposed to IP restrictions actually consider their argument, rather than use it as their rationalization for why it's not stealing to download bootleg copies of "Transformers the Movie."
If the people being injured or killed are people other than the driver, it's no longer a question of being a nanny state, or personal responsibility. It becomes a matter of public interest to stop something very dangerous - isn't that what government's for?
You could make pretty much the exact same lunatic nanny state arguments about speed limits, or speed bumps. And there's other laws, widely accepted, which are a much stronger infringements of personal liberty - seatbelt laws, for instance. Or motorcycle helmet laws, or car safety regulations, or airbag requirements, or "lemon" laws.
There is no fundamental right to drive drunk. If this technology can be implemented successfully, the inventors should win the Nobel prize, the Pulitzer price, and possibly a special Academy Award.
No. If you actually believe piracy is difficult in China then I have a proverbial bridge to cell. The bootleg seizures are a regular propaganda piece, they pop up in Western Media every six months or so. Pirated software and movies are everywhere, everybody knows it, and piracy sites operate freely within the PRC.
Linux in China is the same as the US; nobody uses it except for a few nerds.
Wow, awesome advice on committing fraud, dude! I had a good one yesterday - don't put proper postage on your envelope. But, use the "return address" as the address that you really want to send it to! The mail gets sent for free, it's genius! If you have any more advice on committing fraud please post it to Slashdot.
An interesting theory, if only it were true! As of two years ago, the city's government cited 53% of NYC residents as overweight or obese - which was just about the national average.
Obesity is just an adjective, the parent is entirely correct. However there is such a strong correlation between obesity and health problems, it is safe to say that obese people are in poor health. Not to mention, obese people are disgusting to look at.
Let's be honest here, P2P will continue. Legally or illegally. The only difference is that if it becomes "illegal", only illegal content will be distributed via P2P and distributors
The report talks about colleges enforcing illegal downloading, not P2P technology. It's funny that even a defender would confuse the two.
Or could it be because your post is childish and obnoxious and only makes a point that is both completely obvious and stated elsewhere, numerous times? How old are you? You write like a 14 year old kid, and you seem to take Slashdot moderation personally.
The two months rule wasn't developed until the 70's. At the turn of the century, most American's didn't buy diamond rings to celebrate their marriage - this didn't pick up until Hollywood was paid to glamorize it in the 30s and 40s. No I idea where you got the 10% owned house statistic, that's obvious BS.
Perhaps you're thinking about diamond's company researcher from the 1970's:
Women are in unanimous agreement that they want to be surprised with gifts.... They want, of course, to be surprised for the thrill of it. However, a deeper, more important reason lies behind this desire.... "freedom from guilt." Some of the women pointed out that if their husbands enlisted their help in purchasing a gift (like diamond jewelry), their practical nature would come to the fore and they would be compelled to object to the purchase. -Daniel Yankelovich, Inc. (working for) N.W. Ayer (working for) De Beers
And the observation that people give gifts that are fancier than what people would choose to get themselves is hardly limited to De Beers or engagement rings. What do you think the Christmas shopping season is all about?
Anyway there's no reason to make such angry arguments, when your arguments are based on pulling made-up statistics out of your ass. If you're actually interested in the history of diamond marketing (I suspect you're just interested in being a jerk) there's an interesting (if dated) take in The Atlantic Monthly.
Historically, the attack served no real purpose, and the main victim was Ukrainian POWs. Quoting Wikipedia:
Operation Chastise did not have the military effect that was at the time believed. By 27 June, full water output was restored, thanks to an emergency pumping scheme inaugurated only the previous year, and the electricity grid was again producing power at full capacity. The raid proved to be costly in lives (more than half the lives lost belonging to allied POWs), but in fact no more than a minor inconvenience to the Ruhr's industrial output.
In his book Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer expressed puzzlement at the raids; destruction of one of the dams served no purpose at all, he claimed, and the failure to follow up with additional raids represented a major lost opportunity for the Allies.
Hemp isn't used for paper in China, where I reside, either. Hemp is not cultivated as anything more than a niche item in any country, even though the 1937 law you mentioned only affected the US.
It seems the only people in the US who care about it are people who have a problem with the US's drug policy, and their chief argument centers around an law that doesn't even apply for the vast majority of the world.
But Direct Memory Access doesn't make the video card operate faster, what are you talking about? A lot of DX9 video card drivers didn't even implement direct memory access. I love how of your three examples, two are the same example, and the third is so vague as to possibly also be the same example.
Cry about DMA all you want, but complaining about the DMA hit to video card speed is goofy.
All the purple prose sounds great, but the truth is that he recently signed away his IP rights for a spectacular amount of money. In addition to the money, Columbia did him a huge favor by heavily promoting his album and getting people to actually care about a song he wrote in the last 15 years. Turning around and bundling the CD with a newspaper seems kind of silly, of course the music company executives aren't happy.
If he was just interested in getting many people to freely hear his music as possible, he shouldn't have signed away his IP rights to Columbia. He could have kept on self-releasing albums - I seem to recall he charged for those, though. And that they were all total self-indulgent crap.
Really there's no reason to fault the music executives on this one. I guess you could fault the mere fact that they exist, but if Prince felt that way, why did he (re) sign up with one? He has the means to keep living and recording indefinitely, he basically writes, records, and produces the albums himself. He could just stay in his Purple Palace and release everything he does on bittorrent.
Actually, most states went winner-take-all 50 years later, in a bid to make the state more important in voting. Candidates care more about, say, California (the first state to adopt the policy) when a 45% support rate means 0 electoral votes. Similarly, California recently moved its presidential primary forward, knowing that presidential candidates were more likely to pay attention to a state with early voting.
Abolishing winner-take-all would in no way make it more likely for a third party candidate to become president. It makes no sense. Perhaps you are thinking that if the US constitution recognized political parties and allowed them to assign candidates based on direct voting percentages, then there would be more third parties represented in the Congress. That would take a massive re-write of the Constitution. What you said about Florida gerrymandering was also untrue. Perhaps you should read a newspaper from time to time?
Road building & maintenance is expensive and has to be paid for somehow. A gas tax, even if the current one doesn't fully cover the costs, seems like a fair way to do it. What do you think would be better? And "it should all be free" isn't a valid answer.
Yes! Every single policeman should be involved in nothing but busting drug dealers and burglars. Other crime should get a free ride. Oh, if only a man with your wisdom could get elected into the mayor's office!
I try and avoid buying Chinese produce but this is bloody difficult nowadays being that the seem to make everything.
If you mean this as a small crusade to economically punish the Chinese state into your way of thinking, I'd view it as counter-productive - the state censorship was *strongest* when China had the weakest economy, and when it had the least amount of contact with the outside world. If China's export market crumbled the economy would take a big hit, but that would not mean the censorship would be rescinded or Chinese lives would get better.
I'd argue that here's definitely some relationship (if certainly not one-to-one) between China's economic success, and the growing liberalization of the nation. Additionally, the associated influx of foreigners to China has a small liberalizing effect.
A story which is intended as a meditation on power would be an example of allegory, if you go by the dictionary definition: "The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form."
I don't think many people directly take their opinions on WWII from the Lord of the Rings, nor are the books a primer for a broader understanding of the war. At the same time, it's hard not to notice a certain correlation with the World Wars, just as it's hard not to notice a racist sub-text to his writings. It's one of the many things that lead to a more intense read.
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Yet another case of anti-Wikipedia prejudice. Diebold has been editing the content of Encyclopedia Britannica since at least the 7th edition, but the mainstream press never even bothers to report on *that* kind of thing!
Rural areas don't drive the American economy, and particularly high-speed Internet at the home is not a driving economic force, mostly it's useful for pirating movies. How is lower-quality broadband out in the middle of Bumfuck, Iowa, hurting the American economy?
Anyway compare China to India, right next door. It's a very large market, but only 60% the size of China's. People are much, much poorer, believe me it's not like China where every urban motherfucker sports a $200+ cell phone. And yet India, with stronger IP laws than China, has a vibrant film and cultural industry, a fairly large (and rapidly growing) skilled labor pool, and can actually support locally-oriented industries.
Obviously that's a simplified breakdown - but saying "all 1.4 billion Chinese people are poor and could never afford to buy anything that isn't a bootleg" is even simpler, to the point of being nonsense.
It's basically decimated the local film industry - China should be a huge market, but basically it's ignored even by local filmmakers, who aim themselves at foreign audiences - hence all those lame Westernish Kung-Fu movies from Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. This is also true in Hong Kong, which has a history of excellence and two of the greatest directors in the world, Wong Kar Wai and Johnny To, who now rely on non-Chinese audiences or even have turned to making American movies.
Chinese manufacturers have to aim at the foreign market from day 1. Any successful product will be immediately copied by Chinese cut-rate manufacturers. It is economically infeasible to design a product for the Chinese market.
Imitations also are often of a much lower quality. Bootleg bottled water in Beijing was recently revealed to often be fake, using filtered Beijing tap water (you wouldn't want to drink it).
Local musicians aren't able to sell their CDs. Anything popular from local bands will be sold on the street for maybe fifty cents. There is basically no music scene in China, everything is bootlegged from Hong Kong or Taiwan or the US.
Goods in China are marginally cheaper, but it's at the expense of shoddy products that are often of a lower quality, and of a moribund IP development, and a lack of locally produced culture. There is no motivation to doing work or putting expense into research, if there's no economic reward - and there's no economic reward when your ideas are ripped off immediately.
I'd love to see all these people who are so opposed to IP restrictions actually consider their argument, rather than use it as their rationalization for why it's not stealing to download bootleg copies of "Transformers the Movie."
You could make pretty much the exact same lunatic nanny state arguments about speed limits, or speed bumps. And there's other laws, widely accepted, which are a much stronger infringements of personal liberty - seatbelt laws, for instance. Or motorcycle helmet laws, or car safety regulations, or airbag requirements, or "lemon" laws.
There is no fundamental right to drive drunk. If this technology can be implemented successfully, the inventors should win the Nobel prize, the Pulitzer price, and possibly a special Academy Award.
The obvious question is, so what?
Linux in China is the same as the US; nobody uses it except for a few nerds.
Wow, awesome advice on committing fraud, dude! I had a good one yesterday - don't put proper postage on your envelope. But, use the "return address" as the address that you really want to send it to! The mail gets sent for free, it's genius! If you have any more advice on committing fraud please post it to Slashdot.
An interesting theory, if only it were true! As of two years ago, the city's government cited 53% of NYC residents as overweight or obese - which was just about the national average.
Obesity is just an adjective, the parent is entirely correct. However there is such a strong correlation between obesity and health problems, it is safe to say that obese people are in poor health. Not to mention, obese people are disgusting to look at.
The report talks about colleges enforcing illegal downloading, not P2P technology. It's funny that even a defender would confuse the two.
Or could it be because your post is childish and obnoxious and only makes a point that is both completely obvious and stated elsewhere, numerous times? How old are you? You write like a 14 year old kid, and you seem to take Slashdot moderation personally.
Perhaps you're thinking about diamond's company researcher from the 1970's:
Women are in unanimous agreement that they want to be surprised with gifts.... They want, of course, to be surprised for the thrill of it. However, a deeper, more important reason lies behind this desire.... "freedom from guilt." Some of the women pointed out that if their husbands enlisted their help in purchasing a gift (like diamond jewelry), their practical nature would come to the fore and they would be compelled to object to the purchase. -Daniel Yankelovich, Inc. (working for) N.W. Ayer (working for) De Beers
And the observation that people give gifts that are fancier than what people would choose to get themselves is hardly limited to De Beers or engagement rings. What do you think the Christmas shopping season is all about?
Anyway there's no reason to make such angry arguments, when your arguments are based on pulling made-up statistics out of your ass. If you're actually interested in the history of diamond marketing (I suspect you're just interested in being a jerk) there's an interesting (if dated) take in The Atlantic Monthly.
Operation Chastise did not have the military effect that was at the time believed. By 27 June, full water output was restored, thanks to an emergency pumping scheme inaugurated only the previous year, and the electricity grid was again producing power at full capacity. The raid proved to be costly in lives (more than half the lives lost belonging to allied POWs), but in fact no more than a minor inconvenience to the Ruhr's industrial output.
In his book Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer expressed puzzlement at the raids; destruction of one of the dams served no purpose at all, he claimed, and the failure to follow up with additional raids represented a major lost opportunity for the Allies.
It seems the only people in the US who care about it are people who have a problem with the US's drug policy, and their chief argument centers around an law that doesn't even apply for the vast majority of the world.
Wow, years on Slashdot have obviously help build up your comedic prowess!
But Direct Memory Access doesn't make the video card operate faster, what are you talking about? A lot of DX9 video card drivers didn't even implement direct memory access. I love how of your three examples, two are the same example, and the third is so vague as to possibly also be the same example. Cry about DMA all you want, but complaining about the DMA hit to video card speed is goofy.
If he was just interested in getting many people to freely hear his music as possible, he shouldn't have signed away his IP rights to Columbia. He could have kept on self-releasing albums - I seem to recall he charged for those, though. And that they were all total self-indulgent crap.
Really there's no reason to fault the music executives on this one. I guess you could fault the mere fact that they exist, but if Prince felt that way, why did he (re) sign up with one? He has the means to keep living and recording indefinitely, he basically writes, records, and produces the albums himself. He could just stay in his Purple Palace and release everything he does on bittorrent.
Abolishing winner-take-all would in no way make it more likely for a third party candidate to become president. It makes no sense. Perhaps you are thinking that if the US constitution recognized political parties and allowed them to assign candidates based on direct voting percentages, then there would be more third parties represented in the Congress. That would take a massive re-write of the Constitution. What you said about Florida gerrymandering was also untrue. Perhaps you should read a newspaper from time to time?
Because online gambling sites are on the other side of the Great Firewall of China, and are specifically illegal in the PRC.
Road building & maintenance is expensive and has to be paid for somehow. A gas tax, even if the current one doesn't fully cover the costs, seems like a fair way to do it. What do you think would be better? And "it should all be free" isn't a valid answer.
Yes! Every single policeman should be involved in nothing but busting drug dealers and burglars. Other crime should get a free ride. Oh, if only a man with your wisdom could get elected into the mayor's office!
If you mean this as a small crusade to economically punish the Chinese state into your way of thinking, I'd view it as counter-productive - the state censorship was *strongest* when China had the weakest economy, and when it had the least amount of contact with the outside world. If China's export market crumbled the economy would take a big hit, but that would not mean the censorship would be rescinded or Chinese lives would get better.
I'd argue that here's definitely some relationship (if certainly not one-to-one) between China's economic success, and the growing liberalization of the nation. Additionally, the associated influx of foreigners to China has a small liberalizing effect.
So you're saying music will go the way of the buggy whip?
I don't think many people directly take their opinions on WWII from the Lord of the Rings, nor are the books a primer for a broader understanding of the war. At the same time, it's hard not to notice a certain correlation with the World Wars, just as it's hard not to notice a racist sub-text to his writings. It's one of the many things that lead to a more intense read.