It's the modern-day equivalent of me and my stupid preteen girlfriends trading mix tapes of the latest New Kids on the Block or Tiffany (*shudder*). It didn't stop us from buying the album, the stickers, the posters, the t-shirts or the concert tickets. We didn't put a dent in anybody's profits by making those tapes for each other. If anything, we INCREASED sales for blank tapes.;-)
Yeah, why settle for the tax write-off receipts from Goodwill? You can sell your junk to this guy, and the thousands (I shudder to think, MILLIONS?) like him and make twice the dough!
*sigh* I am all for freedom, and I believe in the purest form of capitalism, and unfortunately spam falls in there. It's just a shame that enough of the population is ignorant to the fact that they are perpetuating a very annoying business model.
The way I see it, copyrights only protect residual income, which pays artists and middlemen to NOT produce new material. Why do people think this is good?
Residuals are good for musicians because under the current system, they make NOTHING up front on their hit songs, because the recording company ties up all the artist's profit in the ridiculous contracts (for example, they will loan the artist money to pay for roadies, which the artist must then pay back, sometimes with INTEREST, at the end of the tour, using money from ticket sales). Residuals and royalties are the only way they see any money from their work.
That said, I think the real issue is the middle-men you mentioned. Artists (like myself) are very much aware that the major labels have nothing to offer anymore, and that the future, somehow, lies online. I want to know how we could revise the copyright laws to continue to protect artists, but at the same time allow for Internet users to have widespread access to music (thereby increasing their popularity and hopefully their bank account).
And if anyone was really getting paid NOT to create new music, why isn't Britney on that system? Does someone need more of my tax money to make that happen? I'll donate!
Elite? Hardly. Not all geeks are millionaires. I do not aspire to some sort of Aryan ideal, nor am I a pedophile. Your generalizations are as bad as you claim mine to be. You wanna talk about blood money going to the Swiss? Is America's war on drugs doing any less damage to folks south of the border? Do me a favor and buy a copy of this book.
I love the America that you represent. Currently we are a minority in our own country. I hope the pendulum does swing back soon, because moving to europe is gonna be a pain.;-)
Well honey, the way things are going, some of us may not be turned off by that.
I have one friend who's been working in switzerland for a few years now, and another who's trying to go over, too. Better job, better wages, better food, better air, hotter men... ahem. When you could live, work and play in the Alps what would you want to come back to a roach-infested apartment in America for?
I'm not trying to start a flame, just offering a different opinion than the Nouveau Patriots with their "WORK & WIN" bumper stickers. *gets off soapbox*
I am currently begin forced to rewrite all our client's websites from the lovely php they are in on our Linux box to run on the new M$ asp box we are getting, so that another piece of software we have can be upgraded. I don't like it any more than you do, but when M$ is used by other software companies as the yardstick for development, web designers' hands like mine are freaking tied. Okay? It sucks. But don't bash all of us just because some people don't know better.
So you don't think Slashdot is any sort of "social" network? I've made quite a few friends here, to the point of having them fly across the country to stay in my house. Granted that's not why we come here initially, but the effect, in a lot of cases, is exactly the same, isn't it?
Of course you can't get a better job than changing toner. One of the laws of the Universe that I have personally observed in action states that those folks who have enough brains/common sense to DO a good job, are the least likely to lower themselves and kiss enough ass to GET that good job.
Just this week I made a presentation at our bi-monthly staff meeting on spam and how to deal with it. Sooooo many people, who otherwise know a lot, still have no clue about spam. So it is up to us geeks to EDUCATE our fellow office workers, relatives, friends and strangers in line at the grocery store, PLEASE don't ever respond to spam, and certainly never send them MONEY. If they continue making billions they will continue sending the crap out.
My friend drew (look him up on the boards at holophrastic.com) once wrote a beautiful essay on how the speed of light can be used to prove the Bible wrong on its creationist timeline. (He concluded by telling all the fundies to give us their toasters and go back to the stone age. It was coarse but intellectual. I love drew.)
Anyway, since there is a big section of Christians who already believe that Genesis is not exactly literal and/or chronological, they could easily fit life on Mars into the story of creation, somehow. The real question is, which of them will WANT to, and which will just add to their belief that science is evil.
Personally, I'd like to see the whole thing blow up. Pat Robertson lives in my neck of the woods, and he is a constant source of entertainment. I would love to tune in one day to something like, "Today on the 700 Club - Life on Mars: Scientific Proof of God's Love, or Evidence of the Location of Hell?" (Mars being the planet of War, ruled by Aries the Ram, a Fire Sign, etc. and so on...)
the current system which can drive sales for groups with no musical talent.
Bingo! Bands like mine have no chance at getting signed by a major label, because #1, we were not poured and shaped in the mold of Britney by the company brass, and #2, there are no more talent scouts. There are scouts, but they don't hear the music, they see T&A or hunk-meat prospects.
And LONG gone are the days when you could buy an album based on how cool its cover was, and have a good shot at liking the music. (But now I would go on a graphic design rant, which would be offtopic...)
The agent that siezed the equipment probably has a boss who expects to see progress, and that progress is probably propagated up the line to the point where the details have been filtered out and it's just a number on a spreadsheet of how many computer crimes have been procecuted in the last however many days. The ulterior motive is to look like he's being productive in order to keep his job.
Ah, there's the rub.
Behind every job is a human being. That job could be something as heroic and altruistic as a fireman, or something as shady and questionable as this FBI guy. What all the folks in the country need to realize is that all the things we bitch about are being done TO us, BY us. If people would refuse to fill jobs that had questionable consquences, things might be different. We will never know that, since we all have bills to pay, and somebody will always take those crappy jobs.
What I find fascinating is that so many of us have jobs where the harmful consequences are so far down the chain that we can't even see how we have contributed. But alas we are all a part of our own mess.
Recently got one of them new-fangled copyguarded CDs, and you know that thing would not play in the stereo, would not play in the DVD player, would not play in the Walkman, would not play in the car...but played just fine in my CD burner. So we made copies of it to listen to in the car, in the Walkman, on the stereo...
You know, I've often wanted that option on our message board myself. (Hey, dethro! How hard would it be to add this option in for the redesign?)
A lot of our boards require that you be logged in to post, but anybody can read them. I can understand wanting to keep out the random troll, but once in a while I wish I could reply to someone without having to explain myself or start a war...not that I don't want to accept responsibility for what I say, but sometimes it helps to be anonymous. People are often more likely to listen to the opinion of an 'unbiased stranger' rather than the same advice from someone they know. Strange but true.
If they want access to a site with adult content, then you have your chance to discuss it and you can approve it if you feel they're ready for it.
Speaking as a former teenager, you're dreaming. If you wait for your kids to come to you with questions about sex you'll be waiting a looooong time. Their friends and peers will tell them way before you get a chance to. And they'll be fed false information - unless they're lucky enough to be friends with Sakura, whose parents are wise enough to have taught her the truth about sex at an early age.
I learned about sex from my friend's stepdad's pr0n video collection. My folks never talked to me about that stuff...oh except when I started my period, my mom talked to me about cramps.:-/
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
If that's the case, let's plant hemp on Mars. Supply enough fuel to unleash a legion of HempCars!
I agree with you though that we seem to be, once again, taking an Americentric view of this. We are not the Undisputed Lords of Earth, folks. What might China or Zimbabwe like to do with our solar system? Never thought to ask them, huh?
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
My ex-hubby and I used to make our own music. We had our own internet radio station and everything. I go see my friends play in bars and brag about them. I happily support bands that fall somewhere outside the mainstream. Ever heard of Bile? Or Expansion Union? Or Cellophane? No? And you won't unless they all suddenly catch MTV's collective eye. *sigh* Good music is out there, in your own backyard! I think it's great that you're taking an active role and feeding the artists who bring you joy.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
Sex, like any other form of exercise, requires precautionary measures. I started having lots of sex without first consulting my family physician, or even doing pre-sex warm-up stretches, and now I've got to have surgery for my hemorrhoids.
But lower back pain? Gone!:-)
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
Slashdot Mirror
There is a campaign underway to address the issue of paper trails for computerized voting machines. Check it out: The Computer Ate My Vote
Well said. I don't have much to add...
;-)
It's the modern-day equivalent of me and my stupid preteen girlfriends trading mix tapes of the latest New Kids on the Block or Tiffany (*shudder*). It didn't stop us from buying the album, the stickers, the posters, the t-shirts or the concert tickets. We didn't put a dent in anybody's profits by making those tapes for each other. If anything, we INCREASED sales for blank tapes.
Yeah, why settle for the tax write-off receipts from Goodwill? You can sell your junk to this guy, and the thousands (I shudder to think, MILLIONS?) like him and make twice the dough!
*sigh* I am all for freedom, and I believe in the purest form of capitalism, and unfortunately spam falls in there. It's just a shame that enough of the population is ignorant to the fact that they are perpetuating a very annoying business model.
The way I see it, copyrights only protect residual income, which pays artists and middlemen to NOT produce new material. Why do people think this is good?
Residuals are good for musicians because under the current system, they make NOTHING up front on their hit songs, because the recording company ties up all the artist's profit in the ridiculous contracts (for example, they will loan the artist money to pay for roadies, which the artist must then pay back, sometimes with INTEREST, at the end of the tour, using money from ticket sales). Residuals and royalties are the only way they see any money from their work.
That said, I think the real issue is the middle-men you mentioned. Artists (like myself) are very much aware that the major labels have nothing to offer anymore, and that the future, somehow, lies online. I want to know how we could revise the copyright laws to continue to protect artists, but at the same time allow for Internet users to have widespread access to music (thereby increasing their popularity and hopefully their bank account).
And if anyone was really getting paid NOT to create new music, why isn't Britney on that system? Does someone need more of my tax money to make that happen? I'll donate!
*sigh* here I go replying to cowards again...my fire burns more brightly than you could ever know from a slashdot comment, baby.
h p
http://holophrastic.com/javascopes/september_02.p
http://holophrastic.com/javascopes/may_03.php
Elite? Hardly. Not all geeks are millionaires. I do not aspire to some sort of Aryan ideal, nor am I a pedophile. Your generalizations are as bad as you claim mine to be. You wanna talk about blood money going to the Swiss? Is America's war on drugs doing any less damage to folks south of the border? Do me a favor and buy a copy of this book.
I love the America that you represent. Currently we are a minority in our own country. I hope the pendulum does swing back soon, because moving to europe is gonna be a pain. ;-)
h p and know that some of us are awake and give a sh*t.
Please read this: http://holophrastic.com/javascopes/september_02.p
Well honey, the way things are going, some of us may not be turned off by that.
I have one friend who's been working in switzerland for a few years now, and another who's trying to go over, too. Better job, better wages, better food, better air, hotter men... ahem. When you could live, work and play in the Alps what would you want to come back to a roach-infested apartment in America for?
I'm not trying to start a flame, just offering a different opinion than the Nouveau Patriots with their "WORK & WIN" bumper stickers. *gets off soapbox*
Listen.
I am currently begin forced to rewrite all our client's websites from the lovely php they are in on our Linux box to run on the new M$ asp box we are getting, so that another piece of software we have can be upgraded. I don't like it any more than you do, but when M$ is used by other software companies as the yardstick for development, web designers' hands like mine are freaking tied. Okay? It sucks. But don't bash all of us just because some people don't know better.
So you don't think Slashdot is any sort of "social" network? I've made quite a few friends here, to the point of having them fly across the country to stay in my house. Granted that's not why we come here initially, but the effect, in a lot of cases, is exactly the same, isn't it?
Of course you can't get a better job than changing toner. One of the laws of the Universe that I have personally observed in action states that those folks who have enough brains/common sense to DO a good job, are the least likely to lower themselves and kiss enough ass to GET that good job.
Right on, man - It all begins with you.
Just this week I made a presentation at our bi-monthly staff meeting on spam and how to deal with it. Sooooo many people, who otherwise know a lot, still have no clue about spam. So it is up to us geeks to EDUCATE our fellow office workers, relatives, friends and strangers in line at the grocery store, PLEASE don't ever respond to spam, and certainly never send them MONEY. If they continue making billions they will continue sending the crap out.
My friend drew (look him up on the boards at holophrastic.com) once wrote a beautiful essay on how the speed of light can be used to prove the Bible wrong on its creationist timeline. (He concluded by telling all the fundies to give us their toasters and go back to the stone age. It was coarse but intellectual. I love drew.)
Anyway, since there is a big section of Christians who already believe that Genesis is not exactly literal and/or chronological, they could easily fit life on Mars into the story of creation, somehow. The real question is, which of them will WANT to, and which will just add to their belief that science is evil.
Personally, I'd like to see the whole thing blow up. Pat Robertson lives in my neck of the woods, and he is a constant source of entertainment. I would love to tune in one day to something like, "Today on the 700 Club - Life on Mars: Scientific Proof of God's Love, or Evidence of the Location of Hell?" (Mars being the planet of War, ruled by Aries the Ram, a Fire Sign, etc. and so on...)
Yes you can, as long as the other person didn't hear this same story on NPR last week.
Of course if it helps catch drug dealers, who then get a life sentence, I am all for it,
PLEASE tell me you are being sarcastic here.
the current system which can drive sales for groups with no musical talent.
Bingo! Bands like mine have no chance at getting signed by a major label, because #1, we were not poured and shaped in the mold of Britney by the company brass, and #2, there are no more talent scouts. There are scouts, but they don't hear the music, they see T&A or hunk-meat prospects.
And LONG gone are the days when you could buy an album based on how cool its cover was, and have a good shot at liking the music. (But now I would go on a graphic design rant, which would be offtopic...)
The agent that siezed the equipment probably has a boss who expects to see progress, and that progress is probably propagated up the line to the point where the details have been filtered out and it's just a number on a spreadsheet of how many computer crimes have been procecuted in the last however many days. The ulterior motive is to look like he's being productive in order to keep his job.
Ah, there's the rub.
Behind every job is a human being. That job could be something as heroic and altruistic as a fireman, or something as shady and questionable as this FBI guy. What all the folks in the country need to realize is that all the things we bitch about are being done TO us, BY us. If people would refuse to fill jobs that had questionable consquences, things might be different. We will never know that, since we all have bills to pay, and somebody will always take those crappy jobs.
What I find fascinating is that so many of us have jobs where the harmful consequences are so far down the chain that we can't even see how we have contributed. But alas we are all a part of our own mess.
Recently got one of them new-fangled copyguarded CDs, and you know that thing would not play in the stereo, would not play in the DVD player, would not play in the Walkman, would not play in the car...but played just fine in my CD burner. So we made copies of it to listen to in the car, in the Walkman, on the stereo...
Very graphic adverts showing the results of drink driving have had a large impact.
This would never work in the U.S. since we thrive on violent imagery. We'd rather our kids see blood and gore than t&a.
You know, I've often wanted that option on our message board myself. (Hey, dethro! How hard would it be to add this option in for the redesign?) A lot of our boards require that you be logged in to post, but anybody can read them. I can understand wanting to keep out the random troll, but once in a while I wish I could reply to someone without having to explain myself or start a war...not that I don't want to accept responsibility for what I say, but sometimes it helps to be anonymous. People are often more likely to listen to the opinion of an 'unbiased stranger' rather than the same advice from someone they know. Strange but true.
If they want access to a site with adult content, then you have your chance to discuss it and you can approve it if you feel they're ready for it.
:-/
Speaking as a former teenager, you're dreaming. If you wait for your kids to come to you with questions about sex you'll be waiting a looooong time. Their friends and peers will tell them way before you get a chance to. And they'll be fed false information - unless they're lucky enough to be friends with Sakura, whose parents are wise enough to have taught her the truth about sex at an early age.
I learned about sex from my friend's stepdad's pr0n video collection. My folks never talked to me about that stuff...oh except when I started my period, my mom talked to me about cramps.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
If that's the case, let's plant hemp on Mars. Supply enough fuel to unleash a legion of HempCars!
I agree with you though that we seem to be, once again, taking an Americentric view of this. We are not the Undisputed Lords of Earth, folks. What might China or Zimbabwe like to do with our solar system? Never thought to ask them, huh?
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
My ex-hubby and I used to make our own music. We had our own internet radio station and everything. I go see my friends play in bars and brag about them. I happily support bands that fall somewhere outside the mainstream. Ever heard of Bile? Or Expansion Union? Or Cellophane? No? And you won't unless they all suddenly catch MTV's collective eye. *sigh* Good music is out there, in your own backyard! I think it's great that you're taking an active role and feeding the artists who bring you joy.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
Sex, like any other form of exercise, requires precautionary measures. I started having lots of sex without first consulting my family physician, or even doing pre-sex warm-up stretches, and now I've got to have surgery for my hemorrhoids. :-)
But lower back pain? Gone!
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
Will there be protesters opposing the strip mining of landfills?
Golly! What will become of our lovely park?
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton