I thought the PC magazine article was about as useful as the Viagra Spam in my Inbox. I use Linux, MacOS X, and Windows XP Pro.
I've had as many BSOD's on my XP (1 so far) as I have for my Mac OS X. I think that they are both useful Systems. BUT, I dread the problems of the Windows world. I just don't have them in the MAC world. Viruses and worms and security breeches seemingly galor.
The tone of the PC mag article was that of a guy bragging about how shitty your new car is because the rear view mirror got knocked off. A minor security hole that could be fixed without a patch by following some instructions provided by Apple. (And yes I read up on the security issue) It wasn't about how the MAC community (there is such a thing?) is in need of an attitude adjustment so much as it was a "HA HA! Looks who's in the shit now!!!" article. It was designed to provoke and it did.
I figured that somebody would calmly and precisely explain to Mr. Pot that, yes the Kettle is black in places too, but that the pot is all black, crusty, in need of an overhaul, and leaks frequently. And from the Cook's point of view, the kettle is in much better shape.
Lordy Lordy! Not more "rewards programs" involving "points" Everybody from the AMWAY corporation on through the whole credit card industry down to the WinnDixie Grocercy store has a friggin rewards program based on points where you can get "cool stuff" (crap I'd never buy at really bad prices) for points-(a point has some "value" associated with it that is rumored to be linked to a currency on a formula basis that when converted to real money is very very small.)
I don't have credit cards with "rewards" systems and I don't shop in stores with "rewards" systems. I want a good deal without having to get permission to participate in advance.
If that is the only way to get music in the future, I'll hum.
I'd wager quite safely that the majority of unliscenced proprietary software is run by folks who don't use any other type of software or have never heard about free/GPL/shareware, and don't care to get a liscense either.
I don't have and IPOD. But I burn my playlist to a CD and it works just fine in my CD players here, in the car, in the office. Works just like my CD collection, except that I don't have to buy the whole friggin album for the one good song. My only gripe is that we don't have all of the recordings known to have ever been made available to us. OLD Napster did have a larger selection, especially some of the old stuff from the BBC.
Odd thing and off topic: I have no trouble with CD, CD-R or CD-RW in my players, but sometimes the DVD's I buy won't play in one or more of the DVD players. ODD, dontcha think?
Does this mean that they will quit sending me email with subjects like: "Get movies for free! Download the latest music for free! subscribe to Kazaa and get free movies like the Matrix Reloaded?"
I can't see how they can claim to be a legitimate service when they are advertising on the illegal use part. Then again, SCO own all unix and unix workalikes.
Pull your head out. Internet explorer sucked ass. Netscape was way better, and IE isn't doing much in the way of getting any better now that it has a monopoly position. How did that obviously inferior program out compete its far superior competitor? Unfair leverage of a monopoly-as determined in a US court of Law.
Unless Microsoft is explicitly prohibited from bundling this software with windows, then Microsoft is going to do to the music download industry what it did to the browser industry.
It is not about who has the better service, but how can we prevent being locked into one service, from one vender. Not really much better than the current price-fixing monopoly that we have now in the RIAA.
And in other news the RIAA and MPAA are filing suit against employees of all of the regional phone carriers. "These employees know of the vast amounts of illegal information flowing through the systems and have remained silent. It is whole sale conspiracy to defaud the artist of the meager rations the subsist upon, not to mention that there are undoubtably the locations of all of the terrorists and WMD secreted in these illegal communcations. And while we realize that most of these employees and employers have hidden their involvement behind a thin veil of legality, we call upon the judiciary to set aside these frivolous laws so that we might bring these criminals to justice, swiftly and profitably."
Ah but then you find that they are outright lying about things like who they are chatting with and for what purpose. Teenagers are inherently poor decision makers. They combine a brain in the middle of being re-wired with a lack of experience and some rather dense assumptions about those strange creatures called parents.
Parents have a right to examine every aspect of their teenagers lives. Privacy assumes that they are responsible for themselves, but if you are the lease holder or the home owner, then ultimately what ever happens in you domicile is your responsibility.
The internet connection allows teenagers to do VoIP, email on multiple accounts, chat on multiple systems, download music and other copyrighted files from multiple sources. All of those wonderful things can be a real pain in the ass to control. Especially when it is necessary to restrict a teenager from associating with people (including peers) that are causing them to get into trouble or who are stalking them.
We have found that the one real solution to the trouble the internet causes is direct, parental control over the internet connection. No longer is it simple to ground the teen from the phone as a form of punishment, now you have to eliminate their internet connection too. And implement security on your own PC as well. Frankly, the social implications of the internet are more annoying than beneficial. It's worse than a teen on the phone all the time. It's a whole crop of teens on the computer until the breakers get shut off onthem.
Please don't forget that the US military is made up of citizens who volunteered for service to defend America. And don't discount the thousands of ex soldiers who are trained and living well armed lives inside the USA. Large scale organization would be difficult, but the US Gov't would not be able to trust its own members much like it was during the US Civil War.
Any such domestic uprising would be a popular one, and as such, only a fool would stand between the American Citizens and their freedoms. That war would be bloody.
Well, there is something positive to be said about a government that spends its military resources and aggression destroying other countries rather than destroying its own civilian populace, or both.
I'm not sure exactly why that's better, but it seems to me that it is progress of a sorts. I mean, look at Iraq: war with Iran, and killed lots of its own civilian populace. Then there are countless dead in central and south america-victims of oppressive governments. China hasn't exactly been nice to the domestic hominids, nor have most of the other Asian countries. And it's taken the European countries a LONG time to stop slaughtering each other internally or externally.
No, I think that the American have a point: it's better to kill them than us. Unless of course you happen to be the "them." Then it really sucks; isn't any better; and probably isn't progress, is it?
But you are forgetting one factor in the American revolution that has not been duplicated in other revolutions. The revolutionaries were, for the most part, idealists who were truly interested in creating a society that was more in the interest of the common man than in the aggradizement of the revolutionary leadership.
I think that it should be clear by now that the solution to the vast social problems of today is the internet. Where else do we have LINKS to Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where else to do we have nudity and violence galor? Were it not for the violation of our public decency caused by the intrusion of this vile satanic entity, the internet, we would be a peaceful people strong and secure in the bliss of ignorance.
Ignorance of the sins of the internet. The porn. The violence. The pedophiles sitting at their glowing screens temping the virginity of the children. Think of the children and the unlimited amount of smut, porn, nudity, violence, and crime that they are exposed to every single moment they are on the internet. The internet is everywhere. In your schools, in your homes, in cafes and parks, and in every businessplace in the world.
Yes, friends, we must petition our legislators to outlaw this vile corruption that has been visited upon us by the very forces of Hades; whose sole purpose is to consume the souls of our children and turn this blissfully ignorant world into a Hell on Earth.
I tell you now, brothers and sisters, that the root of all evil is money. And the internet's most profitable businesses are crimes against humanity: the violation of women and children who are hapless porn victims, the teenagers temped to steal billions from poor, starving musicians because that theft is merely a mouse click away. Click. Click. Click. Another poor musician starves to death.
We must empower the magnificent defenders of our blissful ignorance to protect us from these might forces of iniquity. The RIAA, The MPAA, our brothers in congress--yes children, you know the ones who share the views of our defenders; those tireless public servants who like the dearly departed Mr Sonny Bono-author of the copyright extension act that prevents Mickey Mouse from being turned into a vile star of pornography, crafted the DMCA, the COPA, and other valiant legislation. But we must have more. We must have an end to this internet thingy. Now. Before it is too late for our children.
Thank you and good night. Please donate heavily to our cause to protect our precious children.
Notice to humor impaired: What follows is sarcasm.
What about cars? Have you any idea just how many people are KILLED by cars every single day? Thousands. Even more than guns, people have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with cars. So we need to ban cars.
And then alcohol. Thousands of people are killed and mained every day because alcohol is used. We must ban alcohol.
So no alcohol and no cars. But that doesn't stop the harm caused by LEAVING your house. Thosands of people are killed every day with in miles of there homes. So no more travel. Ever.
But the worst is that the number one cause of murder is people. All murders are caused by people. So that's it. No more cars, alcohol, travel or people.
"Skiba acknowledges that his call on SCO may be taken as heresy in the Linux community, but said it's important to separate the stock from the company. In addition, he argues that the idea of Linux being created by thousands of volunteer programmers is largely myth, given that companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:NYSE - commentary - research) and others have paid thousands of employees to improve the operating system and build a business around it. "
I really like the part where he says "its important to separate the stock from the company." The stock is the company. Basic Finance. And this guy is an analyst? More like stupid marketing troll. I've heard better stock analysis as a sports bar.
Ignorant management? Nope, sounds like they saved a billion dollars, got a nice fat bonus, and probably tossed you a quarter as they passed your over priced a$$ on the street.
Arguing that it is a bad policy is another issue altogether. It IS a bad policy especially if the USA wants to maintain its edge in world technology. Exporting know how has been very costly to countries; the US used to import more know how than export it. GWB&Co appear to have forgotten that they were elected to do what is best for the citizens of the USA, not the rest of the friggin' world.
But since when is a business person who talks the political system into granting them 1 billion dollars in cost reductions an ignorant moron? How about a well connected, persuasive, genious.
RIAA is copyright not patents. MPAA is copyright not patents.
An example of how innovation is incouraged by patents occurs in the chemical industry where catalyst manufacturers make special catalysts for a particular reaction. This is not a general purpose patent, but rather specific. They then liscence their technology to other companies to use. Without the exclusivity provided by the patent, no one would take on the expense of catalyst development - except for very large companies and only for internal use. There are many specialty chemicals made for the coatings/plastics industry that would not be made without catalysts that are a direct result of catalyst patents. The patent process has encouraged the development of chemicals used in the process of making the computer that you are using.
The previous post was about Patents not about Software Patents. Tossing all of the IP laws into one basket is just dumb.
Re:GET REAL! Kazza should take some of the HEAT.
on
RIAA PR Efforts Examined
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I looked at KAzaa for the Mac some time ago and I have been getting email from them about 1/week. These emails are trying to get me to buy Kazaa so that I can get movies and music for free.
So Kazaa is trying to get me to buy the program by advertising it illegal benefits.
Kazaa is in trouble. Just because a technology can be used for non-infringing purposes, does not absolve the vender if they market the product for the infringing purposes. It seems then that if a significant number of common people are mislead by the advertisements of p2p venders (buy our stuff = free music & movies) then Kazaa could be sued by their customers for fraud.
Sorry, but in the US under chapter 7 bankruptcy, student loans are not eraseable. You will come out of bankruptcy with those intact. And they'll raise the interest rate later on as well.
Going after a college student for 50K is pretty brutal. I have a hard time understanding how a single instance of copyright infringement causes a 150,000 USD in damages when the song is on an album for about 20 USD. And the law, as i recall, states that the fines may be upto 150,000USD. Not necessarily 150,000 USD per event.
Besides, Chapter 7 won't preclude you from buying a car, finishing college, buying a house, etc. It just makes it more expensive. If I were a freshman targetted I would fight, maybe lose, and then declare bankruptcy and leave the RIAA with a nice big fat nothing. This is not legal advice, and these tactics would have to be discussed with a lawyer.
Neither winamp not Kazaa is free. Both require money and most of all: time. I have the money to afford the mac, but not the friggin time to search all over hell's creation for exactly the songs I want in the quality I want.
Time right now is more valueable than a few dollars.
Additionally, but following same stupid logic: (1) Napster allowed you to share music. (2) VC's invested in napster (3) sue VC's (3) computer companies made computers that allowed you to log into napster to share music. (4) computers companies must be sued (better yet outlawed or DRM cripled) (5) various companies make PCI boards that allow you to connect your computer to napster (sue them all) Keyboards, mice, and joysticks facilitate copyright infringement by providing the means to connect and search for pirated music. (Sue various makers of this items.) (6) chip makers contribute to making computers which allowed you to log onto Napster and share music. (7) sue chip makers (8) chemical companies provided pure chemicals to the chip makers who make the chips that go into the computers that allowed you to log into napster and share music. (9) sue chemical companies (10) mining companies provided the copper and other raw materials that chemical companies processed into materials that went to chip makers that where turned into chips that went into the computers that allowed you to log into Napster and share music. (11) sue mining companies (12) copper wires and glass fiber networks were built that allowed you to connect to napster and share music. (13) sue ISP's and phone companies. (14) construction equipment was used to build thbe factories that built the infrastructure that allowed computers to connect... Oh hell, file suit. Use phone book of world. Sue ALL people/governments/corporations.
Propose settlement: Ban Internet altogether, end of music sharing!
Advertising costs money. You pay for promotion. You give away copies in the hope that someone wants a higher quality recording. You pay for Radio station air play. You're already giving it away for free, so why are you bitching about file sharing? Treat this as an advertising expense; a cost of doing business. Geez, with 50 million people downloading music, how can you stand there and call it theft? You've got to be stupid. This is the GOLDEN Opportunity for a major transformation of the music industry: Give the customer what he wants.
So here you go:
I don't buy what I haven't heard. 1-2 good songs on a 10 song CD = NO SALE. (Sorry, but I've been burned a few too many times.) The first 30 seconds of a song is not enough to tell if the song is any good--I need the whole song. (Hey, don't you try on those jeans before you buy them? How about shoes?)
Give me MP3's or what ever. Let me hear the music. IF I like it, I'll buy it. But this is what I want (me being a paying customer): A copy of the song(s) at the highest quality provided to me with various things like cover art, cool pictures and the lyrics (if any). I am going to copy the music, rip it to MP3's, and share those with my friends (who are encouraged to buy the songs that they like). I'm going to make my own mixes and burn them on CDR. I'm going to listen to the music in my car, on my walkman, at work, at home, and anywhere else I get the notion. If you think that I will "rent" your song, as in pay per listen, you've smoked to much crack and need to get to the hospital--NOW! Push too hard with the DRM and the copy protection and the "my babies need feeding," and I'll copy your song to my internal memory and hum the F**ker in the shower...and never give you a friggin dime for that.
But here's my dream: One Site. Every song ever recorded. One good search engine. Massive bandwidth, the likes of which even God would find impressive. All the MP3's are average quality and FREE. You pay one low monthly price for unlimited access to the highest quality of music. You can build playlists and mixes that can be burned after download OR you can build your own CDs like in those Create a Card stalls at Wal-mart. I'd pay $20 bucks for a CD with all the songs that I like, with the lyrics, with cool cover art. I'd even be willing to pay a bit more to have it delivered overnight. Or as a gift.
Until then, you music folks are going to suffer just as any business that fails to satisfy the customers. If you don't do it, the pirates will. That is economics 101, folks.
Here's my issue with paying extra to connect computers behind the firewall to the internet: This is just like the phone company asking you how many phones are connected to your single line and adding a standard per phone fee. As far as I know, you don't receive any benefit in increased service for the increased cost. Because everything still flows through the same cable modem and therefore you have the same bandwidth limitations as before. The alleged "service" for extra each month is either an additional email address or another DHCP IP address. Not worth anything to me. I see this as "revenue generator" without any benefit to the customer.
Now if they will come out and trouble shoot my home LAN for seven bucks a month, that might be worth it.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. And yes, I read both articles.
I thought the PC magazine article was about as useful as the Viagra Spam in my Inbox. I use Linux, MacOS X, and Windows XP Pro.
I've had as many BSOD's on my XP (1 so far) as I have for my Mac OS X. I think that they are both useful Systems. BUT, I dread the problems of the Windows world. I just don't have them in the MAC world. Viruses and worms and security breeches seemingly galor.
The tone of the PC mag article was that of a guy bragging about how shitty your new car is because the rear view mirror got knocked off. A minor security hole that could be fixed without a patch by following some instructions provided by Apple. (And yes I read up on the security issue) It wasn't about how the MAC community (there is such a thing?) is in need of an attitude adjustment so much as it was a "HA HA! Looks who's in the shit now!!!" article. It was designed to provoke and it did.
I figured that somebody would calmly and precisely explain to Mr. Pot that, yes the Kettle is black in places too, but that the pot is all black, crusty, in need of an overhaul, and leaks frequently. And from the Cook's point of view, the kettle is in much better shape.
Lordy Lordy! Not more "rewards programs" involving "points" Everybody from the AMWAY corporation on through the whole credit card industry down to the WinnDixie Grocercy store has a friggin rewards program based on points where you can get "cool stuff" (crap I'd never buy at really bad prices) for points-(a point has some "value" associated with it that is rumored to be linked to a currency on a formula basis that when converted to real money is very very small.)
I don't have credit cards with "rewards" systems and I don't shop in stores with "rewards" systems. I want a good deal without having to get permission to participate in advance.
If that is the only way to get music in the future, I'll hum.
I'd wager quite safely that the majority of unliscenced proprietary software is run by folks who don't use any other type of software or have never heard about free/GPL/shareware, and don't care to get a liscense either.
I don't have and IPOD. But I burn my playlist to a CD and it works just fine in my CD players here, in the car, in the office. Works just like my CD collection, except that I don't have to buy the whole friggin album for the one good song. My only gripe is that we don't have all of the recordings known to have ever been made available to us. OLD Napster did have a larger selection, especially some of the old stuff from the BBC.
Odd thing and off topic: I have no trouble with CD, CD-R or CD-RW in my players, but sometimes the DVD's I buy won't play in one or more of the DVD players. ODD, dontcha think?
Does this mean that they will quit sending me email with subjects like: "Get movies for free! Download the latest music for free! subscribe to Kazaa and get free movies like the Matrix Reloaded?"
I can't see how they can claim to be a legitimate service when they are advertising on the illegal use part. Then again, SCO own all unix and unix workalikes.
Pull your head out. Internet explorer sucked ass. Netscape was way better, and IE isn't doing much in the way of getting any better now that it has a monopoly position. How did that obviously inferior program out compete its far superior competitor? Unfair leverage of a monopoly-as determined in a US court of Law.
Unless Microsoft is explicitly prohibited from bundling this software with windows, then Microsoft is going to do to the music download industry what it did to the browser industry.
It is not about who has the better service, but how can we prevent being locked into one service, from one vender. Not really much better than the current price-fixing monopoly that we have now in the RIAA.
And in other news the RIAA and MPAA are filing suit against employees of all of the regional phone carriers. "These employees know of the vast amounts of illegal information flowing through the systems and have remained silent. It is whole sale conspiracy to defaud the artist of the meager rations the subsist upon, not to mention that there are undoubtably the locations of all of the terrorists and WMD secreted in these illegal communcations. And while we realize that most of these employees and employers have hidden their involvement behind a thin veil of legality, we call upon the judiciary to set aside these frivolous laws so that we might bring these criminals to justice, swiftly and profitably."
Ah but then you find that they are outright lying about things like who they are chatting with and for what purpose. Teenagers are inherently poor decision makers. They combine a brain in the middle of being re-wired with a lack of experience and some rather dense assumptions about those strange creatures called parents.
Parents have a right to examine every aspect of their teenagers lives. Privacy assumes that they are responsible for themselves, but if you are the lease holder or the home owner, then ultimately what ever happens in you domicile is your responsibility.
The internet connection allows teenagers to do VoIP, email on multiple accounts, chat on multiple systems, download music and other copyrighted files from multiple sources. All of those wonderful things can be a real pain in the ass to control. Especially when it is necessary to restrict a teenager from associating with people (including peers) that are causing them to get into trouble or who are stalking them.
We have found that the one real solution to the trouble the internet causes is direct, parental control over the internet connection. No longer is it simple to ground the teen from the phone as a form of punishment, now you have to eliminate their internet connection too. And implement security on your own PC as well. Frankly, the social implications of the internet are more annoying than beneficial. It's worse than a teen on the phone all the time. It's a whole crop of teens on the computer until the breakers get shut off onthem.
Alright! Now it's time to stock up on all of the good feature rich tuner cards to sell on ebay after 2005!! Profit!
Please don't forget that the US military is made up of citizens who volunteered for service to defend America. And don't discount the thousands of ex soldiers who are trained and living well armed lives inside the USA. Large scale organization would be difficult, but the US Gov't would not be able to trust its own members much like it was during the US Civil War.
Any such domestic uprising would be a popular one, and as such, only a fool would stand between the American Citizens and their freedoms. That war would be bloody.
Well, there is something positive to be said about a government that spends its military resources and aggression destroying other countries rather than destroying its own civilian populace, or both.
I'm not sure exactly why that's better, but it seems to me that it is progress of a sorts. I mean, look at Iraq: war with Iran, and killed lots of its own civilian populace. Then there are countless dead in central and south america-victims of oppressive governments. China hasn't exactly been nice to the domestic hominids, nor have most of the other Asian countries. And it's taken the European countries a LONG time to stop slaughtering each other internally or externally.
No, I think that the American have a point: it's better to kill them than us. Unless of course you happen to be the "them." Then it really sucks; isn't any better; and probably isn't progress, is it?
But you are forgetting one factor in the American revolution that has not been duplicated in other revolutions. The revolutionaries were, for the most part, idealists who were truly interested in creating a society that was more in the interest of the common man than in the aggradizement of the revolutionary leadership.
Ahem. (Best revival preacher's voice)
I think that it should be clear by now that the solution to the vast social problems of today is the internet. Where else do we have LINKS to Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where else to do we have nudity and violence galor? Were it not for the violation of our public decency caused by the intrusion of this vile satanic entity, the internet, we would be a peaceful people strong and secure in the bliss of ignorance.
Ignorance of the sins of the internet. The porn. The violence. The pedophiles sitting at their glowing screens temping the virginity of the children. Think of the children and the unlimited amount of smut, porn, nudity, violence, and crime that they are exposed to every single moment they are on the internet. The internet is everywhere. In your schools, in your homes, in cafes and parks, and in every businessplace in the world.
Yes, friends, we must petition our legislators to outlaw this vile corruption that has been visited upon us by the very forces of Hades; whose sole purpose is to consume the souls of our children and turn this blissfully ignorant world into a Hell on Earth.
I tell you now, brothers and sisters, that the root of all evil is money. And the internet's most profitable businesses are crimes against humanity: the violation of women and children who are hapless porn victims, the teenagers temped to steal billions from poor, starving musicians because that theft is merely a mouse click away. Click. Click. Click. Another poor musician starves to death.
We must empower the magnificent defenders of our blissful ignorance to protect us from these might forces of iniquity. The RIAA, The MPAA, our brothers in congress--yes children, you know the ones who share the views of our defenders; those tireless public servants who like the dearly departed Mr Sonny Bono-author of the copyright extension act that prevents Mickey Mouse from being turned into a vile star of pornography, crafted the DMCA, the COPA, and other valiant legislation. But we must have more. We must have an end to this internet thingy. Now. Before it is too late for our children.
Thank you and good night. Please donate heavily to our cause to protect our precious children.
Notice to humor impaired: What follows is sarcasm.
What about cars? Have you any idea just how many people are KILLED by cars every single day? Thousands. Even more than guns, people have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with cars. So we need to ban cars.
And then alcohol. Thousands of people are killed and mained every day because alcohol is used. We must ban alcohol.
So no alcohol and no cars. But that doesn't stop the harm caused by LEAVING your house. Thosands of people are killed every day with in miles of there homes. So no more travel. Ever.
But the worst is that the number one cause of murder is people. All murders are caused by people. So that's it. No more cars, alcohol, travel or people.
A peaceful world is just a few laws away.
"Skiba acknowledges that his call on SCO may be taken as heresy in the Linux community, but said it's important to separate the stock from the company. In addition, he argues that the idea of Linux being created by thousands of volunteer programmers is largely myth, given that companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:NYSE - commentary - research) and others have paid thousands of employees to improve the operating system and build a business around it. "
I really like the part where he says "its important to separate the stock from the company." The stock is the company. Basic Finance. And this guy is an analyst? More like stupid marketing troll. I've heard better stock analysis as a sports bar.
Ignorant management? Nope, sounds like they saved a billion dollars, got a nice fat bonus, and probably tossed you a quarter as they passed your over priced a$$ on the street.
Arguing that it is a bad policy is another issue altogether. It IS a bad policy especially if the USA wants to maintain its edge in world technology. Exporting know how has been very costly to countries; the US used to import more know how than export it. GWB&Co appear to have forgotten that they were elected to do what is best for the citizens of the USA, not the rest of the friggin' world.
But since when is a business person who talks the political system into granting them 1 billion dollars in cost reductions an ignorant moron? How about a well connected, persuasive, genious.
You just happen to have gotten screwed.
RIAA is copyright not patents.
MPAA is copyright not patents.
An example of how innovation is incouraged by patents occurs in the chemical industry where catalyst manufacturers make special catalysts for a particular reaction. This is not a general purpose patent, but rather specific. They then liscence their technology to other companies to use. Without the exclusivity provided by the patent, no one would take on the expense of catalyst development - except for very large companies and only for internal use. There are many specialty chemicals made for the coatings/plastics industry that would not be made without catalysts that are a direct result of catalyst patents. The patent process has encouraged the development of chemicals used in the process of making the computer that you are using.
The previous post was about Patents not about Software Patents. Tossing all of the IP laws into one basket is just dumb.
I looked at KAzaa for the Mac some time ago and I have been getting email from them about 1/week. These emails are trying to get me to buy Kazaa so that I can get movies and music for free.
So Kazaa is trying to get me to buy the program by advertising it illegal benefits.
Kazaa is in trouble. Just because a technology can be used for non-infringing purposes, does not absolve the vender if they market the product for the infringing purposes. It seems then that if a significant number of common people are mislead by the advertisements of p2p venders (buy our stuff = free music & movies) then Kazaa could be sued by their customers for fraud.
Sorry, but in the US under chapter 7 bankruptcy, student loans are not eraseable. You will come out of bankruptcy with those intact. And they'll raise the interest rate later on as well.
Going after a college student for 50K is pretty brutal. I have a hard time understanding how a single instance of copyright infringement causes a 150,000 USD in damages when the song is on an album for about 20 USD. And the law, as i recall, states that the fines may be upto 150,000USD. Not necessarily 150,000 USD per event.
Besides, Chapter 7 won't preclude you from buying a car, finishing college, buying a house, etc. It just makes it more expensive. If I were a freshman targetted I would fight, maybe lose, and then declare bankruptcy and leave the RIAA with a nice big fat nothing. This is not legal advice, and these tactics would have to be discussed with a lawyer.
Neither winamp not Kazaa is free. Both require money and most of all: time. I have the money to afford the mac, but not the friggin time to search all over hell's creation for exactly the songs I want in the quality I want.
Time right now is more valueable than a few dollars.
Zoning laws.
Building Codes.
Automobile inspections.
Pet laws (leash and otherwise.
The committee has been around for a while. Where have you been?
Additionally, but following same stupid logic:
(1) Napster allowed you to share music.
(2) VC's invested in napster
(3) sue VC's
(3) computer companies made computers that allowed you to log into napster to share music.
(4) computers companies must be sued (better yet outlawed or DRM cripled)
(5) various companies make PCI boards that allow you to connect your computer to napster (sue them all) Keyboards, mice, and joysticks facilitate copyright infringement by providing the means to connect and search for pirated music. (Sue various makers of this items.)
(6) chip makers contribute to making computers which allowed you to log onto Napster and share music.
(7) sue chip makers
(8) chemical companies provided pure chemicals to the chip makers who make the chips that go into the computers that allowed you to log into napster and share music.
(9) sue chemical companies
(10) mining companies provided the copper and other raw materials that chemical companies processed into materials that went to chip makers that where turned into chips that went into the computers that allowed you to log into Napster and share music.
(11) sue mining companies
(12) copper wires and glass fiber networks were built that allowed you to connect to napster and share music.
(13) sue ISP's and phone companies.
(14) construction equipment was used to build thbe factories that built the infrastructure that allowed computers to connect...
Oh hell, file suit. Use phone book of world. Sue ALL people/governments/corporations.
Propose settlement: Ban Internet altogether, end of music sharing!
Laugh, change career; become lawyer.
Advertising costs money. You pay for promotion. You give away copies in the hope that someone wants a higher quality recording. You pay for Radio station air play. You're already giving it away for free, so why are you bitching about file sharing? Treat this as an advertising expense; a cost of doing business. Geez, with 50 million people downloading music, how can you stand there and call it theft? You've got to be stupid. This is the GOLDEN Opportunity for a major transformation of the music industry: Give the customer what he wants.
So here you go:
I don't buy what I haven't heard. 1-2 good songs on a 10 song CD = NO SALE. (Sorry, but I've been burned a few too many times.) The first 30 seconds of a song is not enough to tell if the song is any good--I need the whole song. (Hey, don't you try on those jeans before you buy them? How about shoes?)
Give me MP3's or what ever. Let me hear the music. IF I like it, I'll buy it. But this is what I want (me being a paying customer): A copy of the song(s) at the highest quality provided to me with various things like cover art, cool pictures and the lyrics (if any). I am going to copy the music, rip it to MP3's, and share those with my friends (who are encouraged to buy the songs that they like). I'm going to make my own mixes and burn them on CDR. I'm going to listen to the music in my car, on my walkman, at work, at home, and anywhere else I get the notion. If you think that I will "rent" your song, as in pay per listen, you've smoked to much crack and need to get to the hospital--NOW! Push too hard with the DRM and the copy protection and the "my babies need feeding," and I'll copy your song to my internal memory and hum the F**ker in the shower...and never give you a friggin dime for that.
But here's my dream: One Site. Every song ever recorded. One good search engine. Massive bandwidth, the likes of which even God would find impressive. All the MP3's are average quality and FREE. You pay one low monthly price for unlimited access to the highest quality of music. You can build playlists and mixes that can be burned after download OR you can build your own CDs like in those Create a Card stalls at Wal-mart. I'd pay $20 bucks for a CD with all the songs that I like, with the lyrics, with cool cover art. I'd even be willing to pay a bit more to have it delivered overnight. Or as a gift.
Until then, you music folks are going to suffer just as any business that fails to satisfy the customers. If you don't do it, the pirates will. That is economics 101, folks.
Here's how you get to that figure:
Population of US (estimated) 240 million.
Average cost of a movie at retail on VHS: $10
Average number of movies "copied" per person each year: 1.5
240,000,000 *1.5 *10 is about 3.5 billion dollars.
Remember that EVERYONE is a pirate to these people.
Here's my issue with paying extra to connect computers behind the firewall to the internet: This is just like the phone company asking you how many phones are connected to your single line and adding a standard per phone fee. As far as I know, you don't receive any benefit in increased service for the increased cost. Because everything still flows through the same cable modem and therefore you have the same bandwidth limitations as before. The alleged "service" for extra each month is either an additional email address or another DHCP IP address. Not worth anything to me. I see this as "revenue generator" without any benefit to the customer.
Now if they will come out and trouble shoot my home LAN for seven bucks a month, that might be worth it.