the real problem with SVG is that it's a "kitchen sink" Committee made spec. When Adobe didn't own Flash, they wanted a spec that was a "flash killer" so threw all sorts of garbage in SVG that doesn't belong there. We're in the situation where most browsers support "most" SVG, but they're all at different stages of unique implementations and don't do the SAME things right in the SAME way. I like how another poster mentioned SVG tiny and that's probably what should have been done first to make the tool usable on as many platforms as possible and to make pages compatible between browsers.
Even with HTML5 the big companies like Apple and Google are pushing how THEY want things done and have them already done, versus the guys like Opera and Firefox that want clean specs first, then implementation.
The sooner we get all the other parties supporting things is when web developers can just start ignoring IE, especially at non-work sites where people should be accessing pages from home. When people start using HTML5 at home.. then it will push into workplaces.
but now Dell can legally add Firefox, Opera, or Chrome right to the desktop and Microsoft can't sanction them for it! That's the REAL winner, because you are correct, people tend to use what's working and OEMS are basically banned from including anything pre-installed and on the desktop except IE.
For example my Acer Aspire One shipped with the full dock of Google apps preinstalled... Desktop, Gadgets, Earth, Picassa but under Microsoft's current iron fist they can't include Chrome without backlash. In another example IBM seems to like Opera for many of it's Linux/workstation machines as it's cross-architecture/platform embedded reader... again, they could "encourage" Leneovo to add that to thinkpads for their in-house teams. HP has pretty good ties with Apple still, they could ship PCs with iTunes/Safari ready to go and connect to their home servers for backup, etc, etc.
slashdot knows more than most IP lawyers. You have to remember, lawyering is essentially about either telling you what case law precedent has established (like don't rob banks), or arguing for your side, not about "truth" or "right and wrong". Most lawyers are more the type that will take the money, then figure out how to argue the way you want... they don't do good with "advice" not tied to rulings in court. Ask the right question and you'll pay the lawyers a bunch less money... nobody wants THAT!
In regards to the question, he's looking to pull government funded data out of a program. Considering most countries in Europe allow the state to charge for everything it can and that they have "database aggregation" "copyrights". His plan would probably get him sued.
So now that most of slashdot would agree on that outcome.... what other resources are available to obtain his desired outcome. This is where the slashdot crowd helps because they're in different countries and chances are pretty good somebody will know what government or research office he should talk to... There are still huge chunks of government services that aren't documented anywhere on the internet. Corporations that know who has the info freely available love to keep their sources opaque so the industry has to go thru them to get free information, and in many cases that means "handshake" deals so key offices never have time to get their web pages posted properly. You'd be surprised how many government services are still known only by the posting outside the office door (in the basement just above the beware of leopard sign) or maybe the phone book if you're lucky.
historically, well-to-do states self-limit the birth rate because of economic selfishness. Look at Japan or Scandinavia... They have just 1-2 children (from 2 adults) so that's negative growth. They live a long time, and the children are highly schooled, and well cared for... unlike in India where you have to have 4-5 kids just to make sure a few live to be productive adults so they can take care of you. Also, the strong social programs (medical care, pensions, etc) reduce the need to have kids as economic "insurance", so they're actually a liability in terms of costs to feed, clothe, school, free time, social calender, etc. Rich people have fewer children because it distracts from making money and doing what they want!
Even in the US, the birth rate from non-immigrant citizens is already negative. Growth comes mostly from all the students and workers we import that still have the old views of children for economic reasons.
This will apply in countries that strictly limit their immigration and are already declining in population..think Japan and Scandinavia. They are riding the curve perfectly so "menial" laborers will be few enough that they'll all be "robot repairmen". As the productivity burden combine with the top heavy portion of retirees will require workers to support 3-4 other families from the value of their labor. But it only works when immigration is tightly controlled.
It won't work in the US because we allow lots of off the books immigration that reduces the need for "labor saving devices" when we can have non-citizens (non-rights holders) do the work for cheaper.
Valuing people only by their economic worth is something communists do... it was one of the reasons capitalism won while communist workers were unmotivated and non-productive.
You hit on good points except they're slightly wrong.
First, "software" under copyright is now the "shiny disc" not the source code. It's been that way since at least the late 70's. That means that "example video game" is published in a proprietary medium but the source code and media is retained in a vault as "trade secret". So while FOSS is playing by the rules and losing their rights in 5 years "game company" is not losing their work because it's not "published".
Next, at the enterprise level much code (or things like ERP or HR systems) is "leased" to corporate IT departments, not sold. In some of the code I've seen the programs are under private copyright, and have contractual terms that the code given to the company is "unreleased trade secrets" therefore it won't ever fall under regular copyright rules because it's not "published" publicly, it's kept as a "work in progress". I can see that extended to EULAs quite easily, especially for things like downloadable content... you're just "borrowing".
Lastly, "Public Domain" isn't something that legally exists. The granted term of "copyright" expires, but courts and the legislatures will not codify items as "non-owned". In capitalist countries everything must have an owner.. there's no legal concept or protection for something not to be "owned". As soon as somebody picks up the code, fixes it up a bit, it's now "their" code... the academic idea of "plagiarism" we all learned in school has no legal basis in the real world... if something can't be proved owned (i.e. serial numbered and registered) then it belongs to whoever is holding it now.
Those laws only apply to the Human Species.. not to our new robot overlord species. The creators are assuming they'll always be in control of what the robots choose to eat... they made a movie about that I think? heck we can't even control police dogs and they're "man's best friend". Forget robots being as smart as people.. when they get as smart as dogs we'll start having problems.
correction: It also doesn't say who exactly is LEFT to ENFORCE the conventions if SOMETHING EATS them.
Except the company needs YOU because it's ten million dollars worth of income that would be easier with YOUR help. Once the project is done, they're just going to cut you lose again (business is business), so it's not really your problem right now (they fired you) so how much is it worth to make it your problem?
look at it this way, they got canned from one job they did very well and now the boss wants them back. It's obviously only going to be one season maybe two tops. While they get royalties, it's really just one paycheck, one time and it means moving across the country for several months only to not have a job when you're done, and possibly giving up other career-building NEW work. The studio gets to keep selling episodes and collecting ads for years to come.
I used to think one had to install windows from scratch every year too.. then I grew up.
Get the free Virus scanner and malware scanner, get a good registry cleaner, use a safe browser like Firefox and hide the "blue e", and most importantly, don't download every app from a cracker-jack box "just to try it out".. download and install only what you NEED to do useful things. Oh, don't buy games not made by Id, Blizzard or Stardock!!!
I haven't installed windows on a PC in several years, my main home desktop is over 4 years and still plays older games reasonably. My work computer was "recycled" after 3 years and I got a new one before it started causing trouble.
The problem with Windows is Windows software publishers that think they have right to "own" your box and play petty incompatibility games to get you to buy more and spy on you and break the "other guys" stuff.
Besides that the royalties and performance fees are government mandated if you run a radio station or web streaming service. Even if you played only stuff from yourself and your buddies... you'd still have to pay the fees to the radio nazis. The only way you'd get the fees BACK is to sign up with a label big enough to pay the registration fees required by the royalty boards... hence, you wouldn't see a penny.
This is why NPR in many shows plays little to no music and why most of the former NPR classical music radio has become all "talk" because they have to pay fees for everything even silly background music on shows like Prairie Home Companion.
Why? Pandora has already paid up. If the rules change, they don't get back any of their money. Sure, it was unfair to have to pay the fees but that's over and done, Radio didn't back THEM up and made sure to cut its own deal for an exception. Congress decided there would be pay for performance fees and the courts made Pandora pay.. now Pandora wants others to pay their "fair" share too and close the loophole. It's "eye for an eye" baby!
but that's the point, it's THEIR name, you're just a reseller. Many "luxury" brands choose not to have an online retail presence because they want to reward the boutique shops that are their main base of high profit customers.
If their terms are so bad, why have you not switched to selling the "other guys" stuff?
Google is doing something the case law doesn't quite cover. They're SELLING references to Trademarked terms, that's the key point here. This isn't just Google hitting on pages by the term that competitors use, they're actually selling ads against specifically that name.
Back to the retail store analogy, it would be like a store having an official agreement for clerks to pull out "Coke" every time a customer specifically asked for "Pepsi". Such an agreement in a retail situation would certainly cause problems for interfering with fair sales if somebody like Walmart was doing it.
They have those for RPG that translate the code into Java...and keep the original RPG as comments for reference. I'd guess they have those for Cobol too.
The problem I see is that companies still don't have time to refactor that Java into something useful... so it's just "beginner" level java, copying the code. Also, those languages have little things that are direct data structures and processing modes that were emulations of old hardware and have no equivalent representation in a language like Java without recreating crazy objects.
what about house burglars and car thieves? Generally, they sneak around in the night and just "borrow" stuff you're not using "non-violently", just like him. What if the mailman stole your paychecks from the mail, or your company just stopped paying your salary? What about the bank manager that pockets $20k because she can't pay her mortgage? Nobody was "hurt" when it was taken, right.
Like others, he probably didn't plan to swindle people, he just got swept up and figured he'd "fix" the books later, when business got better. It's harder to admit total failure at your business, that you'll die broke and out of work, and that you honestly lost billions than to hide it and hope nobody notices. Same thing happens at the DMV when the middle management is worried about unions and benefits and break time than just getting their job done... he just screwed more people.
But we have accounting laws to make people ACCOUNTABLE for others money... honest companies work hard to build investor confidence and to follow the law... if there's not consequences for breaking the law then ALL the money is at risk, everywhere.
as a financial adviser it's legally required to keep those records and that they're accurate.... it was HIS job to keep that straight, not the job of prosecutors to figure out what he did or didn't do right after the fact.
Honest companies spend big bucks to keep their numbers straight. Another corner he cut to make a buck.
he got less time per dollar stole than most people in prison... Typically you get 10-15 for robbery of $500-$1000. Times how much he stole, from how many separate victims, he made out quite well compared to your local 7-11 robber.
but it's the idea of paying "late" fees and interest fees for "missing" payments after they stop you from paying that will draw the courts ire.
Say you stop playing and max out the card so the account doesn't clear. In most games like WoW, they run the card a few days early and if it doesn't clear before your time runs out you're cut off until you fix the payment info. After all, you don't sign a lease or contract for a full year of subscription payments (most MMORGs are always Pre-paid, you pay up FIRST then play).. most MMORGs are "pay as you go" with no strings beyond you continuing to put the money in.
Late fees and interest only apply to thing you sign some kind of official contract, like to Gyms or the Columbia Record Club and they continue to provide services when you are "late". You can't put those kinds of things in a pre-paid month-to-month EULA "click-thru" agreement. The company is offering month-to-month pre-paid play... there's no expectation given they'll do something after you stop playing, so they should get their money up front like everybody else.
The question in court is how the "contract" was presented... I'd venture it was presented like any other pre-paid MMORG account until they started deducting extra fees from players beyond the monthly fees and pointed to the fine print. That's something nobody else running MMORGs does, why would people expect to look for it if it's not on the "front page" before you click OK to sign up? Seems like pretty important non-standard terms somebody should know about, hum? Courts aren't friendly to "contracts" that take a $15 per month pre-payment from a million people then start tacking on 100%+ fees in the "fine print" and taking it electronically without prior notice... it's about who has the upper hand and the company controls the account, the user access and the payment application... just because you "clicked OK".
that's a recurring charge... you still have to tell them to stop taking the money. They don't know you stopped PLAYING. This is about you Choosing not to pay and being assessed a late fee for staring back up again.
It sounds like the FF guys are charging you late fees if for some reason you don't renew your payment schedule on time. This would like paying with the WoW time cards and taking 2 months off by not buying one. Then having to pay extra to "make up" time you choose not to pay for even though they turned you off when your 60 day card expired. That's a big change to how MMORGs are charged.
it's not reasonable for the industry. When you sign up for any other MMORG it's pretty much pay-as-you-go... if you stop paying them , you stop going. Nice and simple. They're adding late fees and paying for the time you missed (if they disconnect you for a month you STILL pay for it!) in order to KEEP playing your account and not have your account deleted.. that's not something anybody signing up for an MMORG would expect.
I paid for Wow with cards for a long time and had 3 month gaps because I had other things to do with my money that month and they never charged a "fee" to turn the game back on, or to pay for the months I didn't play. I paid money and played my days... if they want me back they'll keep the tiny amount of space my character takes online to be ready for my bucks when I pay.
What other MMORG charges AFTER you stop paying? That's the issue. Most games operate on gamecards as well as subscriptions. If you miss adding the new card on time, you get turned off.. no hard feelings... When you pay up your new card starts THAT DAY.. no some pro-rated, late fee crap. That's what's new here.
In other words the game is $15 per month but if you take a month off by stopping payments... you STILL PAY for the month off you didn't pay for to get turned back on. That's nasty as you don't sign any kind of contract to pay them for any length of time... if you stop paying, you stop paying.. that's how it works everywhere else.
That's the first I've heard of such credit-card like terms.
Blizzard is very cool with the subscriptions. I used to buy the cards for the longest time and they counted exactly 30 days every time. When you enter a new key card you get the whole 30 more days from whatever day you enter it....
I've had to turn off the subscription fees (and not play the game) a few times as well, and they just stop it and start it when you pay... they don't do stupid crap like late fees or interest on a pay-per-time account.
These people deserve to be sued. You don't have a contract to keep paying on a timed account. If you don't pay you "quit" by default.. what a way to keep customers.
Slashdot Mirror
the real problem with SVG is that it's a "kitchen sink" Committee made spec. When Adobe didn't own Flash, they wanted a spec that was a "flash killer" so threw all sorts of garbage in SVG that doesn't belong there. We're in the situation where most browsers support "most" SVG, but they're all at different stages of unique implementations and don't do the SAME things right in the SAME way. I like how another poster mentioned SVG tiny and that's probably what should have been done first to make the tool usable on as many platforms as possible and to make pages compatible between browsers.
Even with HTML5 the big companies like Apple and Google are pushing how THEY want things done and have them already done, versus the guys like Opera and Firefox that want clean specs first, then implementation.
The sooner we get all the other parties supporting things is when web developers can just start ignoring IE, especially at non-work sites where people should be accessing pages from home. When people start using HTML5 at home.. then it will push into workplaces.
but now Dell can legally add Firefox, Opera, or Chrome right to the desktop and Microsoft can't sanction them for it! That's the REAL winner, because you are correct, people tend to use what's working and OEMS are basically banned from including anything pre-installed and on the desktop except IE.
For example my Acer Aspire One shipped with the full dock of Google apps preinstalled... Desktop, Gadgets, Earth, Picassa but under Microsoft's current iron fist they can't include Chrome without backlash. In another example IBM seems to like Opera for many of it's Linux/workstation machines as it's cross-architecture/platform embedded reader... again, they could "encourage" Leneovo to add that to thinkpads for their in-house teams. HP has pretty good ties with Apple still, they could ship PCs with iTunes/Safari ready to go and connect to their home servers for backup, etc, etc.
slashdot knows more than most IP lawyers. You have to remember, lawyering is essentially about either telling you what case law precedent has established (like don't rob banks), or arguing for your side, not about "truth" or "right and wrong". Most lawyers are more the type that will take the money, then figure out how to argue the way you want... they don't do good with "advice" not tied to rulings in court. Ask the right question and you'll pay the lawyers a bunch less money... nobody wants THAT!
In regards to the question, he's looking to pull government funded data out of a program. Considering most countries in Europe allow the state to charge for everything it can and that they have "database aggregation" "copyrights". His plan would probably get him sued.
So now that most of slashdot would agree on that outcome.... what other resources are available to obtain his desired outcome. This is where the slashdot crowd helps because they're in different countries and chances are pretty good somebody will know what government or research office he should talk to... There are still huge chunks of government services that aren't documented anywhere on the internet. Corporations that know who has the info freely available love to keep their sources opaque so the industry has to go thru them to get free information, and in many cases that means "handshake" deals so key offices never have time to get their web pages posted properly. You'd be surprised how many government services are still known only by the posting outside the office door (in the basement just above the beware of leopard sign) or maybe the phone book if you're lucky.
historically, well-to-do states self-limit the birth rate because of economic selfishness. Look at Japan or Scandinavia... They have just 1-2 children (from 2 adults) so that's negative growth. They live a long time, and the children are highly schooled, and well cared for... unlike in India where you have to have 4-5 kids just to make sure a few live to be productive adults so they can take care of you. Also, the strong social programs (medical care, pensions, etc) reduce the need to have kids as economic "insurance", so they're actually a liability in terms of costs to feed, clothe, school, free time, social calender, etc. Rich people have fewer children because it distracts from making money and doing what they want!
Even in the US, the birth rate from non-immigrant citizens is already negative. Growth comes mostly from all the students and workers we import that still have the old views of children for economic reasons.
This will apply in countries that strictly limit their immigration and are already declining in population. .think Japan and Scandinavia. They are riding the curve perfectly so "menial" laborers will be few enough that they'll all be "robot repairmen". As the productivity burden combine with the top heavy portion of retirees will require workers to support 3-4 other families from the value of their labor. But it only works when immigration is tightly controlled.
It won't work in the US because we allow lots of off the books immigration that reduces the need for "labor saving devices" when we can have non-citizens (non-rights holders) do the work for cheaper.
Valuing people only by their economic worth is something communists do... it was one of the reasons capitalism won while communist workers were unmotivated and non-productive.
You hit on good points except they're slightly wrong.
First, "software" under copyright is now the "shiny disc" not the source code. It's been that way since at least the late 70's. That means that "example video game" is published in a proprietary medium but the source code and media is retained in a vault as "trade secret". So while FOSS is playing by the rules and losing their rights in 5 years "game company" is not losing their work because it's not "published".
Next, at the enterprise level much code (or things like ERP or HR systems) is "leased" to corporate IT departments, not sold. In some of the code I've seen the programs are under private copyright, and have contractual terms that the code given to the company is "unreleased trade secrets" therefore it won't ever fall under regular copyright rules because it's not "published" publicly, it's kept as a "work in progress". I can see that extended to EULAs quite easily, especially for things like downloadable content... you're just "borrowing".
Lastly, "Public Domain" isn't something that legally exists. The granted term of "copyright" expires, but courts and the legislatures will not codify items as "non-owned". In capitalist countries everything must have an owner.. there's no legal concept or protection for something not to be "owned". As soon as somebody picks up the code, fixes it up a bit, it's now "their" code... the academic idea of "plagiarism" we all learned in school has no legal basis in the real world... if something can't be proved owned (i.e. serial numbered and registered) then it belongs to whoever is holding it now.
Those laws only apply to the Human Species.. not to our new robot overlord species. The creators are assuming they'll always be in control of what the robots choose to eat... they made a movie about that I think? heck we can't even control police dogs and they're "man's best friend". Forget robots being as smart as people.. when they get as smart as dogs we'll start having problems.
correction:
It also doesn't say who exactly is LEFT to ENFORCE the conventions if SOMETHING EATS them.
Except the company needs YOU because it's ten million dollars worth of income that would be easier with YOUR help. Once the project is done, they're just going to cut you lose again (business is business), so it's not really your problem right now (they fired you) so how much is it worth to make it your problem?
look at it this way, they got canned from one job they did very well and now the boss wants them back. It's obviously only going to be one season maybe two tops. While they get royalties, it's really just one paycheck, one time and it means moving across the country for several months only to not have a job when you're done, and possibly giving up other career-building NEW work. The studio gets to keep selling episodes and collecting ads for years to come.
I used to think one had to install windows from scratch every year too.. then I grew up.
Get the free Virus scanner and malware scanner, get a good registry cleaner, use a safe browser like Firefox and hide the "blue e", and most importantly, don't download every app from a cracker-jack box "just to try it out".. download and install only what you NEED to do useful things. Oh, don't buy games not made by Id, Blizzard or Stardock!!!
I haven't installed windows on a PC in several years, my main home desktop is over 4 years and still plays older games reasonably. My work computer was "recycled" after 3 years and I got a new one before it started causing trouble.
The problem with Windows is Windows software publishers that think they have right to "own" your box and play petty incompatibility games to get you to buy more and spy on you and break the "other guys" stuff.
Besides that the royalties and performance fees are government mandated if you run a radio station or web streaming service. Even if you played only stuff from yourself and your buddies... you'd still have to pay the fees to the radio nazis. The only way you'd get the fees BACK is to sign up with a label big enough to pay the registration fees required by the royalty boards... hence, you wouldn't see a penny.
This is why NPR in many shows plays little to no music and why most of the former NPR classical music radio has become all "talk" because they have to pay fees for everything even silly background music on shows like Prairie Home Companion.
Why? Pandora has already paid up. If the rules change, they don't get back any of their money. Sure, it was unfair to have to pay the fees but that's over and done, Radio didn't back THEM up and made sure to cut its own deal for an exception. Congress decided there would be pay for performance fees and the courts made Pandora pay.. now Pandora wants others to pay their "fair" share too and close the loophole. It's "eye for an eye" baby!
but that's the point, it's THEIR name, you're just a reseller. Many "luxury" brands choose not to have an online retail presence because they want to reward the boutique shops that are their main base of high profit customers.
If their terms are so bad, why have you not switched to selling the "other guys" stuff?
Google is doing something the case law doesn't quite cover. They're SELLING references to Trademarked terms, that's the key point here. This isn't just Google hitting on pages by the term that competitors use, they're actually selling ads against specifically that name.
Back to the retail store analogy, it would be like a store having an official agreement for clerks to pull out "Coke" every time a customer specifically asked for "Pepsi". Such an agreement in a retail situation would certainly cause problems for interfering with fair sales if somebody like Walmart was doing it.
They have those for RPG that translate the code into Java...and keep the original RPG as comments for reference. I'd guess they have those for Cobol too.
The problem I see is that companies still don't have time to refactor that Java into something useful... so it's just "beginner" level java, copying the code. Also, those languages have little things that are direct data structures and processing modes that were emulations of old hardware and have no equivalent representation in a language like Java without recreating crazy objects.
he's got plenty of spare time to catch up now!
what about house burglars and car thieves? Generally, they sneak around in the night and just "borrow" stuff you're not using "non-violently", just like him. What if the mailman stole your paychecks from the mail, or your company just stopped paying your salary? What about the bank manager that pockets $20k because she can't pay her mortgage? Nobody was "hurt" when it was taken, right.
Like others, he probably didn't plan to swindle people, he just got swept up and figured he'd "fix" the books later, when business got better. It's harder to admit total failure at your business, that you'll die broke and out of work, and that you honestly lost billions than to hide it and hope nobody notices. Same thing happens at the DMV when the middle management is worried about unions and benefits and break time than just getting their job done... he just screwed more people.
But we have accounting laws to make people ACCOUNTABLE for others money... honest companies work hard to build investor confidence and to follow the law... if there's not consequences for breaking the law then ALL the money is at risk, everywhere.
as a financial adviser it's legally required to keep those records and that they're accurate.... it was HIS job to keep that straight, not the job of prosecutors to figure out what he did or didn't do right after the fact.
Honest companies spend big bucks to keep their numbers straight. Another corner he cut to make a buck.
he got less time per dollar stole than most people in prison... Typically you get 10-15 for robbery of $500-$1000. Times how much he stole, from how many separate victims, he made out quite well compared to your local 7-11 robber.
but it's the idea of paying "late" fees and interest fees for "missing" payments after they stop you from paying that will draw the courts ire.
Say you stop playing and max out the card so the account doesn't clear. In most games like WoW, they run the card a few days early and if it doesn't clear before your time runs out you're cut off until you fix the payment info. After all, you don't sign a lease or contract for a full year of subscription payments (most MMORGs are always Pre-paid, you pay up FIRST then play).. most MMORGs are "pay as you go" with no strings beyond you continuing to put the money in.
Late fees and interest only apply to thing you sign some kind of official contract, like to Gyms or the Columbia Record Club and they continue to provide services when you are "late". You can't put those kinds of things in a pre-paid month-to-month EULA "click-thru" agreement. The company is offering month-to-month pre-paid play... there's no expectation given they'll do something after you stop playing, so they should get their money up front like everybody else.
The question in court is how the "contract" was presented... I'd venture it was presented like any other pre-paid MMORG account until they started deducting extra fees from players beyond the monthly fees and pointed to the fine print. That's something nobody else running MMORGs does, why would people expect to look for it if it's not on the "front page" before you click OK to sign up? Seems like pretty important non-standard terms somebody should know about, hum? Courts aren't friendly to "contracts" that take a $15 per month pre-payment from a million people then start tacking on 100%+ fees in the "fine print" and taking it electronically without prior notice... it's about who has the upper hand and the company controls the account, the user access and the payment application... just because you "clicked OK".
that's a recurring charge... you still have to tell them to stop taking the money. They don't know you stopped PLAYING. This is about you Choosing not to pay and being assessed a late fee for staring back up again.
It sounds like the FF guys are charging you late fees if for some reason you don't renew your payment schedule on time. This would like paying with the WoW time cards and taking 2 months off by not buying one. Then having to pay extra to "make up" time you choose not to pay for even though they turned you off when your 60 day card expired. That's a big change to how MMORGs are charged.
it's not reasonable for the industry. When you sign up for any other MMORG it's pretty much pay-as-you-go... if you stop paying them , you stop going. Nice and simple. They're adding late fees and paying for the time you missed (if they disconnect you for a month you STILL pay for it!) in order to KEEP playing your account and not have your account deleted.. that's not something anybody signing up for an MMORG would expect.
I paid for Wow with cards for a long time and had 3 month gaps because I had other things to do with my money that month and they never charged a "fee" to turn the game back on, or to pay for the months I didn't play. I paid money and played my days... if they want me back they'll keep the tiny amount of space my character takes online to be ready for my bucks when I pay.
What other MMORG charges AFTER you stop paying? That's the issue. Most games operate on gamecards as well as subscriptions. If you miss adding the new card on time, you get turned off.. no hard feelings... When you pay up your new card starts THAT DAY.. no some pro-rated, late fee crap. That's what's new here.
In other words the game is $15 per month but if you take a month off by stopping payments... you STILL PAY for the month off you didn't pay for to get turned back on. That's nasty as you don't sign any kind of contract to pay them for any length of time... if you stop paying, you stop paying.. that's how it works everywhere else.
That's the first I've heard of such credit-card like terms.
Blizzard is very cool with the subscriptions. I used to buy the cards for the longest time and they counted exactly 30 days every time. When you enter a new key card you get the whole 30 more days from whatever day you enter it....
I've had to turn off the subscription fees (and not play the game) a few times as well, and they just stop it and start it when you pay... they don't do stupid crap like late fees or interest on a pay-per-time account.
These people deserve to be sued. You don't have a contract to keep paying on a timed account. If you don't pay you "quit" by default.. what a way to keep customers.
ha! I can type comments with mouth closed! :|