I have ultra-high quality CAT5-e RJ45 cables for sale as well. For only $100 per meter, you can achieve up to 1 GIGABIT PER SECOND!!!!! That's 1 billion bits in 1 second! You can stream MP3s through these cables with unprecedented quality. Your streaming digital audio and video will be crisper than ever before. Not only are these cables made out of expensive COPPER, they are shielded by the high tech plastics.
1. It wouldn't be a "so called monopoly" it would be a monopoly. There would be only one company in the satelite radio sector. That is the very definition of a monopoly.
This is like saying that your local cable company has a monopoly on delivering TV channels over cable. Sure, you're technically correct, but that fact is completely irrelevant. Consumers still have a choice. They can choose to get satellite TV, or just settle with UHF/VHF.
1a. Yes, satelite radio competes with other free services. They fact that they are having problems charging for what others are giving away for free, is shocking. They can't compete because they can't convince people to pay for something they're getting for free. It's a structural problem with their buisness model, and they deserve to go out of buisness. This "loss" of choice is specious, because it's an option that demonstorably no one is taking. It's like arguing that removing rusty nails and broken glass burritos from a menu is a loss of choice. Technically that's true, but not all choices are equal.
Don't you think it's in the best interest of the consumer to help keep satellite radio alive? Or are you satisfied with the shit on regular shitty radio? I'm only for the merger because it will eventually force terrestrial radio to be less shitty.
2. Your hypothetical prices are absurd. XM is $10/mo. A 500% increase is beyond absurd, and it doesn't dignify a response.
The example is absurd, but it demonstrates that a XM/Sirius merger wouldn't be a monopoly, because consumers still have a choice: terrestrial radio.
3. If they don't merge, and they both fail, it's because the market spoke and they provided a service no one wanted. It happens all the time. That's the invisible hand. Who cares? But they won't fail simultaneously. Companies never do. Sirius will fail first, and if their customers really want satelite radio, they'll migrate to XM, and if the sector is viable, then XM will survive. That's the invisible hand.
Agreed.
The FCC and FTC has no buisness in helping prop up any failing sector. Their only purpose is to maintain competition in the sector.
By rejecting the merger, the FCC will inevitably be propping up terrestrial radio, by keeping their competition weak.
4. The fact that the sports channels are split evenly between the services is a sign of good competition in the sector. Neither dominates enough to sweep the other up. This is a Good Thing(tm) for the market. It's a sign of equilibrium. This holds prices down.
What's holding prices down is their competition: terrestrial radio.
Lets suppose that they do merge, and they obtain this so-called monopoly you claim. Sirus/XM raises their prices to $50/mo and reduces programming by 50%. What will happen? Their 12 million listeners will dwindle down to less than a million, and people would go back to listening to terrestrial radio and iPods. You fail to realize that satellite radio competes with terrestrial radio, Internet radio, portable music players (like the iPod). Sirius/XM will still have to keep their prices low and maintain good programming to keep their listeners. What's even better is that there will be one service where you can get all the sports channels (NFL, NBA, MLB, Nascar, etc).
Now lets suppose that they aren't allowed to merge, and both companies fail (This is a very likely scenario). Now the consumer has less choice because satellite radio is no longer available to anyone.
Re:business and government are run by aliens?
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GAO Report Slams FCC
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I agree with what you're saying in principle, but I think the problem with the lobbies is that the most powerful lobbies, who represent a very specific group, have a very large influence on policy. It's the government's job to balance special interests with the interests which are for the good of the people.
A perfect example, the merger between XM and Sirius. The NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) is heavily lobbying against this merger, because that would mean a stronger competitor. And the result? The merger has been debated for months, and it's still going on. In the meantime, other huge mergers have been approved within a week.
"Additionally, overhearing music also translates to lost CD sales. Thus we recommend everyone to cover their ears and scream loudly to prevent accidental theft."
So you would rather have the illusion that you're paying $20/mo but actually pay $27/mo? The whole point of the lawsuit is that there's this hidden fee that all mobile providers charge, which the consumer doesn't know about until they get their bill. I remember one time when I inquired about $25/mo plan, and I asked the representative what my monthly bill would be, and I was told $25/mo. Sure enough, it was $32/mo. That's total bullshit. And this "system access fee" keeps increasing when profits start sagging. It used to be $4, but now it's like $7.
He's right though, CD prices are still too high. An extreme example is in Malaysia, a I looked at some CDs, and they costed 45 ringit, which is about $15. Normal price for an American. But if you consider that an average Malaysians make 3 times less than an American, then a 45 ringit CD to a Malaysian is like $45 to an American. Now, who the hell is going to pay $45 for a CD????
The music industry really baffles me. First of all, what average consumer really knows which label their favorite bands are with? I'm sure most people are like me, and really don't care which band is with who. And when these labels start fragmenting how consumers are able to get music, it will just confuse the consumer, and just push them towards piracy.
Judging by the recent actions by the NAB, they are against anything that is competition to terrestrial radio. They are fiercely against the merger of XM and Sirius and have spent $4 million to lobby against the XM/Sirius merger. The NAB is hoping to block the Sirius/XM merger, in hopes that they will both go under (both are taking heavy losses). This new "whitespace" is a potential problem to terrestrial radio because people would be able to Internet radio over the airwaves: additional competition. Lets face it, regular radio is very repetitive, full of ads, and not very entertaining. We need MORE competition.
For some reason, I don't think we're getting the full story here. Usually, there's at least some sort of somewhat-logical reasoning behind something like this. Anyone know the full story? Or is this an example of the rampant corruption that plaguing the US government?
Suppose you're raising two kids, and you need job stability. And your company says that you have to get an RFID chip implanted, or else you're fired. Do you leave your job with a chance that your kids might starve, since you can't get unemployment insurance because you left "voluntarily"? Or do you accept that you have to get tagged like an animal? Although, I can agree for some positions where security is of the utmost importance (perhaps if you have access to nuclear material or something), and the terms are agreed upon before hand...
Exactly. This idea is completely retarded. They're basically trying to make a currency out of something where supply increases exponentially, ie - hyperinflation. Wow. What a great idea... I don't see a flock of investors running to Zimbabwe to get a piece of their currency. I would say it's analogous to making DRAM a currency. The 1GB of DRAM you buy today will be worth half it's value next year. Yay!
This performance problems shouldn't be there in the first place. There's no reason why playing MP3's and using the Internet should be eating up your CPU cycles. Either it's extremely poor quality software, or there's some shenanigans going on inside Vista. I would imagine it's the latter.
I think a better measure would be just to look at the drop in music sales over each year. There's no doubt that people are buying music less, but it's still a stretch to correlate that drop entirely to piracy. I wonder how much of that drop is due to high CD prices due to price fixing, people getting pissed for the RIAA suing the American public, and the lack of creative new music. Of course Congress will only see this number. If you counted every song ever pirated as a sales loss, it would probably be bigger than America's GDP, which would mean America should be in a severe depression now.
There's something seriously wrong with America. How is it that Janet Jackson's booby during the super-bowl caught an incredible amount political attention? Why is it that parents are quick to blame video game violence and Marilyn Manson when some troubled kids shoot up a school? It must be the nudity on TV and violence in video games that's causing these kids to do such horrific things! I'm in Germany temporarily right now, and the same violent video games and the same violent movies are here. Oh, and nudity isn't exactly scarce here. Oh, and the drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for harder liquor. And guess what, Germany is far more civilized than the US. There's barely any gun violence, or violence of any kind at all. Hell, I haven't seen a single bar fight here. I don't have to wonder if some dude is carrying a gun and might shoot me if I accidentally piss him off. I think the US really needs to put a serious effort into studying other countries to find out the real reasons behind the huge amounts of violence that plagues America. Of course there's really no political will to do this. I remember Senator Hilary Clinton's valiant effort to legislate the violence in video games away a few years ago, it's what gets people's attention.
That's because the money is being used to fund a war that should have never happened in the first place. I remember when I was in grade 9, I really knew nothing about careers. It wasn't until my 3rd year of university, I finally understood this whole career thing.
It will be interesting how the movie companies are going to fight the laws of economics. I have been boycotting HD technology, and I will for a long time, until they abandon DRM. To the average consumer, HD isn't really much of an improvement over DVD, so I don't see how they can possibly think that they can ram HD down our throats, especially with all the shenanigans that the customer has to go through just to watch a movie.
I beg to differ. You're telling me that the "Buy Now" button should be patentable? In my opinion, that's a really obvious idea, and the patent should not have been granted in the first place. IANAL, but doesn't the patent cover the specific implementation, not the general concept? Anyway, it seems to be that the current system is to allow all these ridiculous patents, then just battle it out in court later if a dispute arises. Not to say that the litigation system isn't broken...
I agree that this is a very dangerous step for the US. For the past few years, all the actions that the US government has taken against its people has really turned me off to the possibility of living in the US. Currently, I'm in Germany, where I feel much freer than I do in the US.
I applaud this effort. I really really wish there were more women in tech. It would have made my university life more enjoyable. And work would be more fun too....
I really don't understand Elton John's issue with the internet here. Is he complaining that musicians choose to communicate via the Internet (whether it be e-mail, blogs, etc) and there's less personal contact between musicians? It sounds like he has an issue with musicians, not the Internet.
In 100 years, every American is going to be forced to give up 50% of their income to the Department of Media, which will be the department created by VIACOM, who will buy up every media company and become a mega-monopoly. The only movies that will made would be "Speed x", "Rush Hour y", and "Rocky z", where x, y, z are integers > 0. Anyone who refuses to pay will be put to death. To me, this is the direction I see America going.
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I have ultra-high quality CAT5-e RJ45 cables for sale as well. For only $100 per meter, you can achieve up to 1 GIGABIT PER SECOND!!!!! That's 1 billion bits in 1 second! You can stream MP3s through these cables with unprecedented quality. Your streaming digital audio and video will be crisper than ever before. Not only are these cables made out of expensive COPPER, they are shielded by the high tech plastics.
This is like saying that your local cable company has a monopoly on delivering TV channels over cable. Sure, you're technically correct, but that fact is completely irrelevant. Consumers still have a choice. They can choose to get satellite TV, or just settle with UHF/VHF.
1a. Yes, satelite radio competes with other free services. They fact that they are having problems charging for what others are giving away for free, is shocking. They can't compete because they can't convince people to pay for something they're getting for free. It's a structural problem with their buisness model, and they deserve to go out of buisness. This "loss" of choice is specious, because it's an option that demonstorably no one is taking. It's like arguing that removing rusty nails and broken glass burritos from a menu is a loss of choice. Technically that's true, but not all choices are equal.Don't you think it's in the best interest of the consumer to help keep satellite radio alive? Or are you satisfied with the shit on regular shitty radio? I'm only for the merger because it will eventually force terrestrial radio to be less shitty.
2. Your hypothetical prices are absurd. XM is $10/mo. A 500% increase is beyond absurd, and it doesn't dignify a response.The example is absurd, but it demonstrates that a XM/Sirius merger wouldn't be a monopoly, because consumers still have a choice: terrestrial radio.
3. If they don't merge, and they both fail, it's because the market spoke and they provided a service no one wanted. It happens all the time. That's the invisible hand. Who cares? But they won't fail simultaneously. Companies never do. Sirius will fail first, and if their customers really want satelite radio, they'll migrate to XM, and if the sector is viable, then XM will survive. That's the invisible hand.Agreed.
The FCC and FTC has no buisness in helping prop up any failing sector. Their only purpose is to maintain competition in the sector.By rejecting the merger, the FCC will inevitably be propping up terrestrial radio, by keeping their competition weak.
4. The fact that the sports channels are split evenly between the services is a sign of good competition in the sector. Neither dominates enough to sweep the other up. This is a Good Thing(tm) for the market. It's a sign of equilibrium. This holds prices down.What's holding prices down is their competition: terrestrial radio.
Lets suppose that they do merge, and they obtain this so-called monopoly you claim. Sirus/XM raises their prices to $50/mo and reduces programming by 50%. What will happen? Their 12 million listeners will dwindle down to less than a million, and people would go back to listening to terrestrial radio and iPods. You fail to realize that satellite radio competes with terrestrial radio, Internet radio, portable music players (like the iPod). Sirius/XM will still have to keep their prices low and maintain good programming to keep their listeners. What's even better is that there will be one service where you can get all the sports channels (NFL, NBA, MLB, Nascar, etc).
Now lets suppose that they aren't allowed to merge, and both companies fail (This is a very likely scenario). Now the consumer has less choice because satellite radio is no longer available to anyone.
I agree with what you're saying in principle, but I think the problem with the lobbies is that the most powerful lobbies, who represent a very specific group, have a very large influence on policy. It's the government's job to balance special interests with the interests which are for the good of the people.
A perfect example, the merger between XM and Sirius. The NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) is heavily lobbying against this merger, because that would mean a stronger competitor. And the result? The merger has been debated for months, and it's still going on. In the meantime, other huge mergers have been approved within a week.
"Additionally, overhearing music also translates to lost CD sales. Thus we recommend everyone to cover their ears and scream loudly to prevent accidental theft."
So you would rather have the illusion that you're paying $20/mo but actually pay $27/mo? The whole point of the lawsuit is that there's this hidden fee that all mobile providers charge, which the consumer doesn't know about until they get their bill. I remember one time when I inquired about $25/mo plan, and I asked the representative what my monthly bill would be, and I was told $25/mo. Sure enough, it was $32/mo. That's total bullshit. And this "system access fee" keeps increasing when profits start sagging. It used to be $4, but now it's like $7.
He's right though, CD prices are still too high. An extreme example is in Malaysia, a I looked at some CDs, and they costed 45 ringit, which is about $15. Normal price for an American. But if you consider that an average Malaysians make 3 times less than an American, then a 45 ringit CD to a Malaysian is like $45 to an American. Now, who the hell is going to pay $45 for a CD????
The music industry really baffles me. First of all, what average consumer really knows which label their favorite bands are with? I'm sure most people are like me, and really don't care which band is with who. And when these labels start fragmenting how consumers are able to get music, it will just confuse the consumer, and just push them towards piracy.
Judging by the recent actions by the NAB, they are against anything that is competition to terrestrial radio. They are fiercely against the merger of XM and Sirius and have spent $4 million to lobby against the XM/Sirius merger. The NAB is hoping to block the Sirius/XM merger, in hopes that they will both go under (both are taking heavy losses). This new "whitespace" is a potential problem to terrestrial radio because people would be able to Internet radio over the airwaves: additional competition. Lets face it, regular radio is very repetitive, full of ads, and not very entertaining. We need MORE competition.
For some reason, I don't think we're getting the full story here. Usually, there's at least some sort of somewhat-logical reasoning behind something like this. Anyone know the full story? Or is this an example of the rampant corruption that plaguing the US government?
Suppose you're raising two kids, and you need job stability. And your company says that you have to get an RFID chip implanted, or else you're fired. Do you leave your job with a chance that your kids might starve, since you can't get unemployment insurance because you left "voluntarily"? Or do you accept that you have to get tagged like an animal? Although, I can agree for some positions where security is of the utmost importance (perhaps if you have access to nuclear material or something), and the terms are agreed upon before hand...
Exactly. This idea is completely retarded. They're basically trying to make a currency out of something where supply increases exponentially, ie - hyperinflation. Wow. What a great idea... I don't see a flock of investors running to Zimbabwe to get a piece of their currency. I would say it's analogous to making DRAM a currency. The 1GB of DRAM you buy today will be worth half it's value next year. Yay!
This performance problems shouldn't be there in the first place. There's no reason why playing MP3's and using the Internet should be eating up your CPU cycles. Either it's extremely poor quality software, or there's some shenanigans going on inside Vista. I would imagine it's the latter.
I think a better measure would be just to look at the drop in music sales over each year. There's no doubt that people are buying music less, but it's still a stretch to correlate that drop entirely to piracy. I wonder how much of that drop is due to high CD prices due to price fixing, people getting pissed for the RIAA suing the American public, and the lack of creative new music. Of course Congress will only see this number. If you counted every song ever pirated as a sales loss, it would probably be bigger than America's GDP, which would mean America should be in a severe depression now.
Think of this database as a cat. It has nine lives, and loves to hide.
There's something seriously wrong with America. How is it that Janet Jackson's booby during the super-bowl caught an incredible amount political attention? Why is it that parents are quick to blame video game violence and Marilyn Manson when some troubled kids shoot up a school? It must be the nudity on TV and violence in video games that's causing these kids to do such horrific things! I'm in Germany temporarily right now, and the same violent video games and the same violent movies are here. Oh, and nudity isn't exactly scarce here. Oh, and the drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for harder liquor. And guess what, Germany is far more civilized than the US. There's barely any gun violence, or violence of any kind at all. Hell, I haven't seen a single bar fight here. I don't have to wonder if some dude is carrying a gun and might shoot me if I accidentally piss him off. I think the US really needs to put a serious effort into studying other countries to find out the real reasons behind the huge amounts of violence that plagues America. Of course there's really no political will to do this. I remember Senator Hilary Clinton's valiant effort to legislate the violence in video games away a few years ago, it's what gets people's attention.
That's because the money is being used to fund a war that should have never happened in the first place. I remember when I was in grade 9, I really knew nothing about careers. It wasn't until my 3rd year of university, I finally understood this whole career thing.
It will be interesting how the movie companies are going to fight the laws of economics. I have been boycotting HD technology, and I will for a long time, until they abandon DRM. To the average consumer, HD isn't really much of an improvement over DVD, so I don't see how they can possibly think that they can ram HD down our throats, especially with all the shenanigans that the customer has to go through just to watch a movie.
I beg to differ. You're telling me that the "Buy Now" button should be patentable? In my opinion, that's a really obvious idea, and the patent should not have been granted in the first place. IANAL, but doesn't the patent cover the specific implementation, not the general concept? Anyway, it seems to be that the current system is to allow all these ridiculous patents, then just battle it out in court later if a dispute arises. Not to say that the litigation system isn't broken...
Apple should be rejoicing, since they claim that the patent system is running perfectly.
I agree that this is a very dangerous step for the US. For the past few years, all the actions that the US government has taken against its people has really turned me off to the possibility of living in the US. Currently, I'm in Germany, where I feel much freer than I do in the US.
I applaud this effort. I really really wish there were more women in tech. It would have made my university life more enjoyable. And work would be more fun too....
I really don't understand Elton John's issue with the internet here. Is he complaining that musicians choose to communicate via the Internet (whether it be e-mail, blogs, etc) and there's less personal contact between musicians? It sounds like he has an issue with musicians, not the Internet.
In 100 years, every American is going to be forced to give up 50% of their income to the Department of Media, which will be the department created by VIACOM, who will buy up every media company and become a mega-monopoly. The only movies that will made would be "Speed x", "Rush Hour y", and "Rocky z", where x, y, z are integers > 0. Anyone who refuses to pay will be put to death. To me, this is the direction I see America going.