I am fairly concerned about possible changes to Canadian fair-use laws. I consider myself a patron of the arts, and one of the music industry's best customers. As a modern, technology-savy citizen, I primarily listen to the music CDs I purchase on my portable iPod, or on my PC. Changes to fair use laws would make the act of "ripping" these songs to my computer, illegal. I consider myself an ethical consumer, and I don't see how in any way this activity harms the music industry. I suppose one could argue that, should this law come into effect, I could purchase my music online and therefore no "illegal" copying from CD would take place. However, these downloadable files (by way of the iTunes music store, for example) already defeat fair-use by restricting your ability to move them to new devices, new PCs etc.
In short, this law will punish good consumers, like me. Unethical consumers of music are already breaking the law by downloading pirated music, so this law will not affect them. If such legal changes are made, in order to continue listening to music in the manner I have been for years, I will probably opt to simply break the law - as I expect will the majority of iPod-owning Canadians. I will also seriously question whether or not such an industry should be supported financially by my hard-earned paycheques.
Well, Nickleback is definitely uncool, but indie rock is huge right now. Dancy indie rock in particular.
And we're not talking about NOW now, we're talking about the last 30 years. You're telling me the innovations of Sonic Youth, Joy Division/New Order, Pixies, Jane's Addiction, Pearl Jam, Radiohead etc. are dwarfed by the innovations in Rap? Such as?
Public Enemy was pretty cool, yeah... its time to move on though.
Because CDs are mastered so badly these days, I'd love to rip DVD-Audio discs (which are usually well-mastered, for marketting reasons) to my iPod. DRM prevents this, which irritates me.
CD copy protection irritates me on an almost daily basis while I perform the above. Some discs I can't rip bit-perfectly because of the broken C2 information on recently-mangled discs. These ones are also very easy to scratch.
Lots of DRM doesn't bother me (installation keys, licenses etc) since I don't steal software, and I'm convinced it could be mostly transparent if done right. But right now, most of it is super invasive.
Uhm, birth control? Were you aware that in this day and age it is possible to be both a) promiscuous, and b) against over population, without being a hypocrite?
My understanding is a lot of sports networks use 720p because its better for fast movement. I neither have HDTV (well, I have the TV but not the HD broadcasts) nor do I live in the US though, so... not sure.
Microsoft announced in their keynote that 80% of the Windows PCs sold this year were Media Center Edition boxes. If even half that number are actually using them as such, that's a pretty solid userbase.
I'm also using it (and a 360 as a media extender in the TV room) which is honestly a pretty sweet freaking setup.
I think gears is a great game, and i've had a ton of fun playing it through on each difficulty level (I'm not done yet though - just not that good!).
However, I agree that it isn't "fully fleshed out". It feels more episodic. The plot and single-player campaign both feel unfinished... but I'm okay with this. It means sequels, and leaves me wanting more, but with a sense of accomplishment. Compare that with a game you got bored with and never finished... I think short, polished games are the way to go.
But that's like saying "look, there isn't a problem with guns, its with gun owners." Lets just accept the fact that people are morons, and give them the tools to minimize the damage they can do (ie Java - bad coders will write slow clunky code rather than exploity code).
Whatever, it was a quickie in the water, in public! There's nothing to be embarrassed about here, and nothing to get all riled up about either, frankly.
Re:Joe McCarthy would be proud
on
Wikinomics
·
· Score: 1
so legislated = violent? As in the law against murder could be described as a "violent law against violence"?
I'm picking at the choice of an unfairly loaded term here, because it skews the argument.
The XBOX360 at least (and, I assume the PS3) has a parental control feature that, when activated, prevents minors from playing games games with certain ratings. Of course this makes raising children the responsibility of parents, instead of Jack Thompson.
Re:Joe McCarthy would be proud
on
Wikinomics
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
What is government though (in essence) if not people collaborating and sharing? That the people organizing this sharing organization often get corrupted by power is beside the point - the essence of communistm isn't "violent taxation", its sharing.
Will they drop to 0? Because $0 is all some people can afford to pay for an unplanned hospital stay. Or I guess the homeless should just die on the streets because they're too "lazy" to get jobs, right?
The ability for you Americans to oversimplify complex issues for idealist reasons is absolutely incredible (and frightening).
THANK YOU! I've been telling this to people forever... MS didn't add any DRM "features" that I know of that will prevent us from doing current things, they added DRM so we could do the things we might WANT to do in the future that hollywood and the recording industry demand DRM for.
Geez guys, MS is actually sort of on our side for this one! So is Apple! They're providing us with the tools they are allowed to provide us with, and including the restrictions they are required by law (unfortunately) to provide. You can still rip a freaking CD, or download a DiVX copy of last week's Battlestar in Vista just as easily as you can in XP.
Yeah - one tenth the population, and even those are mostly concentrated along the US border. But we still manage to get our votes in by 10pm from remote places like Baffin Island, for chrissake.
I also don't understand why you guys can't hold a simple pencil/paper vote and have the results in by midnight.
I torrent some of them, and use media center to record the others.
Here in Canada, Season 2 was aired several weeks later than in the US, so we pretty much HAD to download if we didn't want some asshole at work to spoil it for us! Things are a little better now, but they still aren't getting any advertising into me thanks to media center:)
Pardon me, I misunderstood. Was under the impression that you thought it was just doing the standard reset every few minutes, not crashing per se. My bad.
Slashdot Mirror
First, go here to find your representative:
n MPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E
y right-canada.html
http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/Mai
then, email them the following (just a suggestion):
Hi [representative],
This is my first time writing to you, as a new constituent. I am writing concerning an article I read today on CBC.ca. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/11/cop
I am fairly concerned about possible changes to Canadian fair-use laws. I consider myself a patron of the arts, and one of the music industry's best customers. As a modern, technology-savy citizen, I primarily listen to the music CDs I purchase on my portable iPod, or on my PC. Changes to fair use laws would make the act of "ripping" these songs to my computer, illegal. I consider myself an ethical consumer, and I don't see how in any way this activity harms the music industry. I suppose one could argue that, should this law come into effect, I could purchase my music online and therefore no "illegal" copying from CD would take place. However, these downloadable files (by way of the iTunes music store, for example) already defeat fair-use by restricting your ability to move them to new devices, new PCs etc.
In short, this law will punish good consumers, like me. Unethical consumers of music are already breaking the law by downloading pirated music, so this law will not affect them. If such legal changes are made, in order to continue listening to music in the manner I have been for years, I will probably opt to simply break the law - as I expect will the majority of iPod-owning Canadians. I will also seriously question whether or not such an industry should be supported financially by my hard-earned paycheques.
Thank you for listening,
[insert name here]
Ooohhh, them's fightin' words.
Nelly Furtado's a freaking Portugese CANADIAN. Where did they get Australian from?? /Canadian
Well, Nickleback is definitely uncool, but indie rock is huge right now. Dancy indie rock in particular.
And we're not talking about NOW now, we're talking about the last 30 years. You're telling me the innovations of Sonic Youth, Joy Division/New Order, Pixies, Jane's Addiction, Pearl Jam, Radiohead etc. are dwarfed by the innovations in Rap? Such as?
Public Enemy was pretty cool, yeah... its time to move on though.
Christian fundamentalists are significantly better funded, and significantly better armed. Otherwise yeah; the same.
Because CDs are mastered so badly these days, I'd love to rip DVD-Audio discs (which are usually well-mastered, for marketting reasons) to my iPod. DRM prevents this, which irritates me.
CD copy protection irritates me on an almost daily basis while I perform the above. Some discs I can't rip bit-perfectly because of the broken C2 information on recently-mangled discs. These ones are also very easy to scratch.
Lots of DRM doesn't bother me (installation keys, licenses etc) since I don't steal software, and I'm convinced it could be mostly transparent if done right. But right now, most of it is super invasive.
Uhm, birth control? Were you aware that in this day and age it is possible to be both a) promiscuous, and b) against over population, without being a hypocrite?
Sheesh.
My understanding is a lot of sports networks use 720p because its better for fast movement. I neither have HDTV (well, I have the TV but not the HD broadcasts) nor do I live in the US though, so... not sure.
Yeah, you're right... i think they said "Consumer PCs". My bad. Still a lot of boxes.
Microsoft announced in their keynote that 80% of the Windows PCs sold this year were Media Center Edition boxes. If even half that number are actually using them as such, that's a pretty solid userbase.
I'm also using it (and a 360 as a media extender in the TV room) which is honestly a pretty sweet freaking setup.
I think gears is a great game, and i've had a ton of fun playing it through on each difficulty level (I'm not done yet though - just not that good!).
However, I agree that it isn't "fully fleshed out". It feels more episodic. The plot and single-player campaign both feel unfinished... but I'm okay with this. It means sequels, and leaves me wanting more, but with a sense of accomplishment. Compare that with a game you got bored with and never finished... I think short, polished games are the way to go.
Yes, because we're going to be stabbing 9-month pregnant, unwitting mothers with long needles. *rolls eyes*
But that's like saying "look, there isn't a problem with guns, its with gun owners." Lets just accept the fact that people are morons, and give them the tools to minimize the damage they can do (ie Java - bad coders will write slow clunky code rather than exploity code).
Right. Like Homer Simpson says, "bah, you can use facts to prove anything".
Whatever, it was a quickie in the water, in public! There's nothing to be embarrassed about here, and nothing to get all riled up about either, frankly.
so legislated = violent? As in the law against murder could be described as a "violent law against violence"?
I'm picking at the choice of an unfairly loaded term here, because it skews the argument.
Uhm, you might want to read up on what "fair use" means. It doesn't mean stealing.
The XBOX360 at least (and, I assume the PS3) has a parental control feature that, when activated, prevents minors from playing games games with certain ratings. Of course this makes raising children the responsibility of parents, instead of Jack Thompson.
What is government though (in essence) if not people collaborating and sharing? That the people organizing this sharing organization often get corrupted by power is beside the point - the essence of communistm isn't "violent taxation", its sharing.
Will they drop to 0? Because $0 is all some people can afford to pay for an unplanned hospital stay. Or I guess the homeless should just die on the streets because they're too "lazy" to get jobs, right?
The ability for you Americans to oversimplify complex issues for idealist reasons is absolutely incredible (and frightening).
THANK YOU! I've been telling this to people forever... MS didn't add any DRM "features" that I know of that will prevent us from doing current things, they added DRM so we could do the things we might WANT to do in the future that hollywood and the recording industry demand DRM for.
Geez guys, MS is actually sort of on our side for this one! So is Apple! They're providing us with the tools they are allowed to provide us with, and including the restrictions they are required by law (unfortunately) to provide. You can still rip a freaking CD, or download a DiVX copy of last week's Battlestar in Vista just as easily as you can in XP.
Yeah - one tenth the population, and even those are mostly concentrated along the US border. But we still manage to get our votes in by 10pm from remote places like Baffin Island, for chrissake.
I also don't understand why you guys can't hold a simple pencil/paper vote and have the results in by midnight.
I torrent some of them, and use media center to record the others.
:)
Here in Canada, Season 2 was aired several weeks later than in the US, so we pretty much HAD to download if we didn't want some asshole at work to spoil it for us! Things are a little better now, but they still aren't getting any advertising into me thanks to media center
Pardon me, I misunderstood. Was under the impression that you thought it was just doing the standard reset every few minutes, not crashing per se. My bad.
RTFA. The consoles are freezing, requiring a hard reset. (Clerk has to open the kiosk).