And so on and so on until we have a dammed economic crash all because the goofballs in Congress wanted to get in 18 holes after work instead of 9!:)
Don't worry, we've got the crash taken care of already. Just wait for the boomers to start cashing in 401Ks for Winnebagos. As for Congress not having enough time for 18 holes because of work... you definitely earned your funny points. We've all seen C-Span. "Next on C-Span: Guy reads to empty room... Again."
Dell, Microsoft, Sony, and Time Warner are among his top 20 contributors who would have a direct stake in the outcome of any government intervention. If you check his PAC contributions, you'll find he also accepted $3000 from the RIAA.
1.) they don't generate tax revenue for the services they are receiving... and what they are paid is woefully inadequate by U.S. standards
Well gee, if you don't pay taxes, then the wage is a lot less inadequate, isn't it? Also keep in mind that a dollar goes a lot further than a peso in Mexico. Hence, illegals will work for less.
In spite of the fact that in those same states, the immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans won't take.
Americans won't take the jobs because the wage is too low. The wage is low because illegals are willing to do the work for less. It's simple supply and demand. With all the bitching about outsourcing on/. it boggles my mind how you got modded insightful.
Subject says it all, and it's pretty much all I want, a automated system where by if I say I don't want to recieve ICMP messages for the next hour, my ISP firewalls them off.
This seems fine if it is only done at your request. But with the system in place, isn't there a central authority that can turn things on and off at their own whim? When I first read about this, it seemed more like a "Great Firewall of China" controlled by American corporations. I hope I am mistaken.
States' rights lost out to strong central government about 140 years ago. Nobody alive today is at fault for that. What you should be complaining about is the large standing army. The founding fathers of this nation were against having a large standing army because of the threat it would pose to our democracy. Keeping a large standing army started with the cold war. Blame "The Greatest Generation" for that. Blame yourself and everyone since for allowing it to persist.
No actually, I believe part of the 1997 settlement between Apple and Microsoft included cross licensing of patents. I think the deal expired after 5 years though, so I would imagine they've licensed it, as they did one-click shopping.
I understand the need for DRM I just think they need to rethink their methodology.
I think that expecting the record companies to stop their price fixing is unrealistic. They've already settled one case out of court for peanuts, so of course they're going to do it again.
Look, I understand these arguments (and have for a long time). But I can't help but consider that your arguments invalidate something else which you no doubt support, which is encryption for your own personal privacy. Why is that "okay", and DRM isn't? And further, why is DRM not okay simply because you have a key embedded in software or a device for playback?
You obviously don't understand the argument. This isn't about whether or not DRM is 'okay'. DRM is fundamentally flawed. It is impossible. You might as well be asking for reverse friction to propel your car instead of those evil fossil fuels.
Has it ever occurred to you that if you consider the entire industry and its artists creatively bankrupt that you don't have to patronize it in any way, shape, or form?
After all, it's the commercial tripe that's on the iTunes Music Store anyway, right?
Wrong again. Meet Brad. Brad is an unsigned, open source musician. All his files are available for free download at his website. Not just the tunes, but source files too. You are encouraged by Brad to download his music and source to remix and share with friends in just about any fashion possible. Not only does Brad lack the RIAA's bad attitude, but Brad has talent. Brad's tunes are also available on iTunes for $0.99 each.
If it's so horrible, it seems that you shouldn't have any problems not using the iTunes Music Store, eh?
You'd rather downloaders go "steal" music rather than pay for the song? You aren't defending artists. You're defending RIAA policy.
c. You agree that your purchase of Products constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to use such Products solely in accordance with the Usage Rules, and that any other use of the Products may constitute a copyright infringement. The security technology is an inseparable part of the Products. The Usage Rules shall govern your rights with respect to the Products, in addition to any other terms or rules that may have been established between you and another party.
Apple reserves the right to modify the Usage Rules at any time.
d. You acknowledge that some aspects of the Service, Products, and administering of the Usage Rules entails the ongoing involvement of Apple. Accordingly, in the event that Apple changes any part of the Service or discontinues the Service, which Apple may do at its election, you acknowledge that you may no longer be able to use Products to the same extent as prior to such change or discontinuation, and that Apple shall have no liability to you in such case
In short... you don't own it. At least, not in the shiny plastic disks kind of way.
Also worth noting: The last update of the iTunes application limits you to five connections per day when sharing playlists. The update previous to that disabled the application's ability to get CD track names on songs ripped with applications other than iTunes.
It's sad that Apple feels the need to hobble one of its finest applications for its core market of home users because the RIAA's panties are in a bunch.
*cring* I'm just guessing here, but you don't really want to run macwrite, right? You have old files in macwrite format that need to be saved? If so, you might find some handy information at Macintouch. That doesn't help you get them off the floppy, but you could just email them from a floppy equipped pc, no?
"Not if you're, like my mom's friend, an average (read: computer-illiterate and rich) mac consumer."
That sounds more like a computer-phobia thing. Once she's settled in though, you'll be glad she has one. No monthly calls for spyware/virus removal.:-)
"Or ir you're, like me (read mac-illiterate and poor) not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of osx"
Stick with it. You'll like it once you get the gist. Want to flip your mom's friend out for a second? Just hold down control-option-apple and press 8. Then say "Oh crap!! I think I broke it!" Repeat the key sequence to return to normal;-)
"much less that quicktime plays CDs..."
Well *it can be done* but I wouldn't recommend it:-) 'Bare bones' meaning it plays the songs like individual sound files. You can hear the tunes, but it's certainly a less than perfect experience. If you just detest iTunes for one reason or another, I'd check into one of the shareware/freeware players available at versiontracker.com. Definitely give iTunes a chance though. It really does everything you could ask of it, and there are no gotchas in the application's EULA for regular use.
"There's no good reason for that."
I believe the main reason iTunes has a separate EULA is that it makes use of services from Kerbango, Gracenote, etc. Rather than force you to agree to those terms with the OS install, it's limited to the only app that makes use of those services. Minor annoyance, sure, but if Gracenote decides to change their license to "All your base are belong to us." then you aren't forced to scrap the system, just iTunes:-)
Not that it would ever happen in the first place, but I think keeping those things out of the main system EULA is a good thing. That same philosophy keeps the DRM clause out of iTunes.app if don't want to buy anything from iTMS. Compare that with Microsoft, who has a DRM clause right there in the Win XP EULA. I will never use Windows, because I cannot agree to their EULA's terms.
Well, I don't remember if it was a TOS agreement, but the name of the window that popped up was "iTunes Music Store", not "iTunes player" or anything.
The only way to arrive at the iTMS TOS agreement is to click on the Music Store icon, click the sign in button, then click the create account button. If I am not mistaken, there is a "Take me to the iTunes Music Store" checkbox on the last panel of the setup assistant, so the window could be named "iTunes Music Store." With all the flashy graphics and album covers though, I doubt you'd mistake that for a license agreement. The license for iTunes.app is presented on launch as part of the setup assistant until you agree to it. If you disagree, the program exits. The license, in my experience, is also presented before each update allowing you to check for changes.
I mean, for all the bitching I do about windows, at least cdplayer.exe doesn't make you click through a EULA just to play a damn CD - that's ridiculous.
As I mentioned earlier, you do not have to agree to the license or use iTunes at all. You don't need to create an iTMS account to use iTunes. The defaults are simple to change. You can use QuickTime Player to get bare bones CD playing, or you can download any number of freeware/shareware apps that will do the job quite nicely. Trash iTunes if you like. Doing so won't affect the operation of your OS.
Just another example of Apple taking advantage of users who don't know any better than to click "OK - OK - I Agree - OK" without reading the fine print.
If you don't mind my asking, what part of the agreement did you find so odious? I saw nothing invasive in it.
You don't have to agree to the iTMS TOS agreement, only the iTunes.app license agreement. There is a difference. The iTMS TOS agreement is separate and you are only required to agree to it when you set up an iTMS account online.
Further, iTunes.app is only the default player for Audio CDs. It is very nice, but it is not required. You may change your default in your "CDs & DVDs" panel in System Preferences.app. You are free to use any application of your choosing.
I guess that I can accept that it's civil disobedience, although it's a stretch. But if that's the case, then you do your civil disobedience, go to your trial and make your statement. But that's not happening here - the disobedience is happening, but when the hammer drops, most of the defendants start making up all sorts of lame-ass excuses about why it was all innocent.
Less than 1 in 4 of the lawsuits have been settled. Do you really think the media conglomerates are going to grandstand for the little guy fighting them on television? Also, after reading multiple variations of the story, you'll note that 17 year old Mr. Dhaliwal was responsible for files valued at 16% of ALL INTERNET MUSIC PIRACY. Read that again, blink, and wonder if anyone buys this shit.
And I'm still trying to figure out exactly what civil right the music industry is violating anyway
US Constitution - Amendment 4:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The RIAA obtained information on Nick Mamatas without the signature of a judge. As his article clearly states, the 8th Circuit Court has already ruled that the RIAA needs more than a court clerk's signature to obtain this information. Congress has looked at this before and the idea of lowlifes getting account information on underage children easily with a DMCA informational subpoena doesn't sit well with them. Therefore, I don't expect the entertainment industry's appeal will get them anywhere. The end result is very clear; Mr. Mamatas had his rights violated.
I would guess it has something to do with personal information about him being illegally obtained by the RIAA which led directly to him losing thousands of dollars. Would you not complain? Guilt or innocence is moot when the police kick in your door without a warrant. Then again, I RTFA. I guess that's too much to expect of some folks though.
Calling downloading "civil disobedience" is an insult to those
Oh look, it's the thief who steals from the public domain. He's crying a river of crocodile tears... Copyright infringement can't be civil disobedience? What do you call this:
If it isn't criminal, then how the hell do they expect to threaten jail time and $150,000 per song? Felony isn't criminal? How can it be civil when it comes to proof and criminal when it comes to damages and punishment? I'd like to know where the heck that starts.
If it is civil, there's nothing that says you can't file a countersuit, no? And the whole preponderance of evidence bit does cut both ways doesn't it? To date, they have sued a dead woman, a Mac using grandmother for downloading hardcore rap on Kazaa, and a college professor for uploading his work on radio-selected quasars to his ftp host. That seems like a pretty good preponderance of evidence that their tracking and logging is sloppy and error prone.
These scams ARE going to severly ruin the internet, and most likely within our lifetime.
And the internet is certainly perfect now, what with all the spam, pop-ups, pop-unders, kick-throughs, doubleclick cookies, spam-dexing, spyware, etc, etc, etc. Frankly, it's all the marketers' fault in the first place for acclimating general users to this sort of communication and abuse. If you had never received a spam email or pop-up from a 'legitimate' business, wouldn't this kind of attack seem just a little bit suspicious? If this sort of thing were to lead to e-commerce's demise as our chicken little GP poster has suggested, it would be karmic justice in my book.
Blame Reagan for the broken Social Security system, since he's the guy that raised the amount taken out of your paycheck to 15% (capped for the wealthy of course). Not only that, blame him and every president since then for loaning the additional $200-300 billion dollars generated by this to the government to be spent elsewhere. Finally, if Bush 43 has his way, you'll be able to blame him for dumping all that extra money into the overvalued stock market. Incidentally, that is just before the baby boomers tap out their mutual fund investments all at once to stagnate/crash the market, thus saving retirement for this generation while screwing the next. Fantastic plan. Boomers: 2 Kids: 0. Any other pearls of wisdom you "fing" interesting? How about this instead: Stop taking my 15% and let me manage my own retirement.
You are pro-low-taxes and pro-war? Then, logically, you are pro-enormous-national-debt. Pardon me for saying so, but I think $7700000000000.00 in debt is enough. That's one hell of a inheritance to leave your kids. I'm burning spent mod points to say this so I might as well speak my mind here; America has spent enough money ousting Saddam to buy a new home for each and every one of the 1.3 million homeless children in America. So, as an American, which do think is most important? Nevermind, I know your duckspeak answer.
He is flamebait. Plain and simple. He flamed Mac users for years before mac sites like MacCentral, MacNN, etc, etc, wised up and stopped linking to his stories. I will not click the link to his story (don't feed the troll) but I would be willing to wager it's a piece of trash article, full of brain dead leaps of logic, surrounded by hundreds of ad links and banners everywhere. Dvorak does not care in the least about credibility or accuracy, because he has learned there is money to be made in flaming die hard OS junkies of one sort or another. Seriously, it's "I was trying to copy a 17 MB file" kind of stuff. Complete and total garbage. Reading anything he says will only make you dumber.
In short, Zonk (new editor?) and gewg_, don't take the bait. All you need to see is the name John C. Dvorak... Move along, nothing to see here.
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Don't worry, we've got the crash taken care of already. Just wait for the boomers to start cashing in 401Ks for Winnebagos. As for Congress not having enough time for 18 holes because of work... you definitely earned your funny points. We've all seen C-Span. "Next on C-Span: Guy reads to empty room... Again."
Dell, Microsoft, Sony, and Time Warner are among his top 20 contributors who would have a direct stake in the outcome of any government intervention. If you check his PAC contributions, you'll find he also accepted $3000 from the RIAA.
Well gee, if you don't pay taxes, then the wage is a lot less inadequate, isn't it? Also keep in mind that a dollar goes a lot further than a peso in Mexico. Hence, illegals will work for less.
In spite of the fact that in those same states, the immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans won't take.
Americans won't take the jobs because the wage is too low. The wage is low because illegals are willing to do the work for less. It's simple supply and demand. With all the bitching about outsourcing on /. it boggles my mind how you got modded insightful.
This seems fine if it is only done at your request. But with the system in place, isn't there a central authority that can turn things on and off at their own whim? When I first read about this, it seemed more like a "Great Firewall of China" controlled by American corporations. I hope I am mistaken.
States' rights lost out to strong central government about 140 years ago. Nobody alive today is at fault for that. What you should be complaining about is the large standing army. The founding fathers of this nation were against having a large standing army because of the threat it would pose to our democracy. Keeping a large standing army started with the cold war. Blame "The Greatest Generation" for that. Blame yourself and everyone since for allowing it to persist.
No actually, I believe part of the 1997 settlement between Apple and Microsoft included cross licensing of patents. I think the deal expired after 5 years though, so I would imagine they've licensed it, as they did one-click shopping.
I think that expecting the record companies to stop their price fixing is unrealistic. They've already settled one case out of court for peanuts, so of course they're going to do it again.
You obviously don't understand the argument. This isn't about whether or not DRM is 'okay'. DRM is fundamentally flawed. It is impossible. You might as well be asking for reverse friction to propel your car instead of those evil fossil fuels.
Has it ever occurred to you that if you consider the entire industry and its artists creatively bankrupt that you don't have to patronize it in any way, shape, or form?
Yep. See iRate and CD Baby for more information.
After all, it's the commercial tripe that's on the iTunes Music Store anyway, right?
Wrong again. Meet Brad. Brad is an unsigned, open source musician. All his files are available for free download at his website. Not just the tunes, but source files too. You are encouraged by Brad to download his music and source to remix and share with friends in just about any fashion possible. Not only does Brad lack the RIAA's bad attitude, but Brad has talent. Brad's tunes are also available on iTunes for $0.99 each.
If it's so horrible, it seems that you shouldn't have any problems not using the iTunes Music Store, eh?
You'd rather downloaders go "steal" music rather than pay for the song? You aren't defending artists. You're defending RIAA policy.
d. You acknowledge that some aspects of the Service, Products, and administering of the Usage Rules entails the ongoing involvement of Apple. Accordingly, in the event that Apple changes any part of the Service or discontinues the Service, which Apple may do at its election, you acknowledge that you may no longer be able to use Products to the same extent as prior to such change or discontinuation, and that Apple shall have no liability to you in such case
In short... you don't own it. At least, not in the shiny plastic disks kind of way.
Also worth noting: The last update of the iTunes application limits you to five connections per day when sharing playlists. The update previous to that disabled the application's ability to get CD track names on songs ripped with applications other than iTunes.
It's sad that Apple feels the need to hobble one of its finest applications for its core market of home users because the RIAA's panties are in a bunch.
"You are either with us or you're with the terrorists." - George W. Bush
*cring* I'm just guessing here, but you don't really want to run macwrite, right? You have old files in macwrite format that need to be saved? If so, you might find some handy information at Macintouch. That doesn't help you get them off the floppy, but you could just email them from a floppy equipped pc, no?
"Not if you're, like my mom's friend, an average (read: computer-illiterate and rich) mac consumer."
That sounds more like a computer-phobia thing. Once she's settled in though, you'll be glad she has one. No monthly calls for spyware/virus removal. :-)
"Or ir you're, like me (read mac-illiterate and poor) not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of osx"
Stick with it. You'll like it once you get the gist. Want to flip your mom's friend out for a second? Just hold down control-option-apple and press 8. Then say "Oh crap!! I think I broke it!" Repeat the key sequence to return to normal ;-)
"much less that quicktime plays CDs..."
Well *it can be done* but I wouldn't recommend it :-) 'Bare bones' meaning it plays the songs like individual sound files. You can hear the tunes, but it's certainly a less than perfect experience. If you just detest iTunes for one reason or another, I'd check into one of the shareware/freeware players available at versiontracker.com. Definitely give iTunes a chance though. It really does everything you could ask of it, and there are no gotchas in the application's EULA for regular use.
"There's no good reason for that."
I believe the main reason iTunes has a separate EULA is that it makes use of services from Kerbango, Gracenote, etc. Rather than force you to agree to those terms with the OS install, it's limited to the only app that makes use of those services. Minor annoyance, sure, but if Gracenote decides to change their license to "All your base are belong to us." then you aren't forced to scrap the system, just iTunes :-)
Not that it would ever happen in the first place, but I think keeping those things out of the main system EULA is a good thing. That same philosophy keeps the DRM clause out of iTunes.app if don't want to buy anything from iTMS. Compare that with Microsoft, who has a DRM clause right there in the Win XP EULA. I will never use Windows, because I cannot agree to their EULA's terms.
The only way to arrive at the iTMS TOS agreement is to click on the Music Store icon, click the sign in button, then click the create account button. If I am not mistaken, there is a "Take me to the iTunes Music Store" checkbox on the last panel of the setup assistant, so the window could be named "iTunes Music Store." With all the flashy graphics and album covers though, I doubt you'd mistake that for a license agreement. The license for iTunes.app is presented on launch as part of the setup assistant until you agree to it. If you disagree, the program exits. The license, in my experience, is also presented before each update allowing you to check for changes.
I mean, for all the bitching I do about windows, at least cdplayer.exe doesn't make you click through a EULA just to play a damn CD - that's ridiculous.
As I mentioned earlier, you do not have to agree to the license or use iTunes at all. You don't need to create an iTMS account to use iTunes. The defaults are simple to change. You can use QuickTime Player to get bare bones CD playing, or you can download any number of freeware/shareware apps that will do the job quite nicely. Trash iTunes if you like. Doing so won't affect the operation of your OS.
Just another example of Apple taking advantage of users who don't know any better than to click "OK - OK - I Agree - OK" without reading the fine print.
If you don't mind my asking, what part of the agreement did you find so odious? I saw nothing invasive in it.
Further, iTunes.app is only the default player for Audio CDs. It is very nice, but it is not required. You may change your default in your "CDs & DVDs" panel in System Preferences.app. You are free to use any application of your choosing.
BTW, welcome to the platform. :-)
Since federal privacy laws don't apply there...
Well, there was that whole civil war thing. You know, that war over states' rights.
Less than 1 in 4 of the lawsuits have been settled. Do you really think the media conglomerates are going to grandstand for the little guy fighting them on television? Also, after reading multiple variations of the story, you'll note that 17 year old Mr. Dhaliwal was responsible for files valued at 16% of ALL INTERNET MUSIC PIRACY. Read that again, blink, and wonder if anyone buys this shit.
And I'm still trying to figure out exactly what civil right the music industry is violating anyway
US Constitution - Amendment 4:
The RIAA obtained information on Nick Mamatas without the signature of a judge. As his article clearly states, the 8th Circuit Court has already ruled that the RIAA needs more than a court clerk's signature to obtain this information. Congress has looked at this before and the idea of lowlifes getting account information on underage children easily with a DMCA informational subpoena doesn't sit well with them. Therefore, I don't expect the entertainment industry's appeal will get them anywhere. The end result is very clear; Mr. Mamatas had his rights violated.
I would guess it has something to do with personal information about him being illegally obtained by the RIAA which led directly to him losing thousands of dollars. Would you not complain? Guilt or innocence is moot when the police kick in your door without a warrant. Then again, I RTFA. I guess that's too much to expect of some folks though.
Calling downloading "civil disobedience" is an insult to those
Oh look, it's the thief who steals from the public domain. He's crying a river of crocodile tears... Copyright infringement can't be civil disobedience? What do you call this:
If it is civil, there's nothing that says you can't file a countersuit, no? And the whole preponderance of evidence bit does cut both ways doesn't it? To date, they have sued a dead woman, a Mac using grandmother for downloading hardcore rap on Kazaa, and a college professor for uploading his work on radio-selected quasars to his ftp host. That seems like a pretty good preponderance of evidence that their tracking and logging is sloppy and error prone.
And the internet is certainly perfect now, what with all the spam, pop-ups, pop-unders, kick-throughs, doubleclick cookies, spam-dexing, spyware, etc, etc, etc. Frankly, it's all the marketers' fault in the first place for acclimating general users to this sort of communication and abuse. If you had never received a spam email or pop-up from a 'legitimate' business, wouldn't this kind of attack seem just a little bit suspicious? If this sort of thing were to lead to e-commerce's demise as our chicken little GP poster has suggested, it would be karmic justice in my book.
Absolutely! By the time of acquittal, the minor is probably 30. The wheels of justice grind quite slowly in this country...
Yeah, I mean, why not just shut down Slashdot, since only 3% of all computer users use linux.... Right? -1 flawed logic
What exactly is cheap enough?
Blame Reagan for the broken Social Security system, since he's the guy that raised the amount taken out of your paycheck to 15% (capped for the wealthy of course). Not only that, blame him and every president since then for loaning the additional $200-300 billion dollars generated by this to the government to be spent elsewhere. Finally, if Bush 43 has his way, you'll be able to blame him for dumping all that extra money into the overvalued stock market. Incidentally, that is just before the baby boomers tap out their mutual fund investments all at once to stagnate/crash the market, thus saving retirement for this generation while screwing the next. Fantastic plan. Boomers: 2 Kids: 0. Any other pearls of wisdom you "fing" interesting? How about this instead: Stop taking my 15% and let me manage my own retirement.
You are pro-low-taxes and pro-war? Then, logically, you are pro-enormous-national-debt. Pardon me for saying so, but I think $7700000000000.00 in debt is enough. That's one hell of a inheritance to leave your kids. I'm burning spent mod points to say this so I might as well speak my mind here; America has spent enough money ousting Saddam to buy a new home for each and every one of the 1.3 million homeless children in America. So, as an American, which do think is most important? Nevermind, I know your duckspeak answer.
In short, Zonk (new editor?) and gewg_, don't take the bait. All you need to see is the name John C. Dvorak... Move along, nothing to see here.