I very much doubt that an American CAN move to India or many other places and legally work. Go as a tourist or a student? Almost certainly. Bring a load of cash and start a business hiring locals? Again, almost certainly. Get hired by a local company (which may have to "prove" that whatever the job is cannot be done by a citizen) before moving? Maybe. But just emigrate, get the local equivalent of a Green Card, and start looking for work? I'd bet against that for almost everywhere jobs are currently going. A quick Googling shows me that there are a couple of sites that say it is almost impossible to move to India, but they are short on details. But the *relative* ease with which it is possible to immigrate to and work in the US is very likely exception rather than the rule.
I've worked on a few amateur films (48 Hour Film Project films, so keep in mind that time constraints may be disproportionate in my experience). I'd say whatever camera you're considering, consider getting TWO. It is easier to intercut DV shot from two identical sources, and it is far easier to get identical cameras to look the same. If you're ever going to need two cameras going simultaneously (e.g. one for the two-shot, and one for closeups and coverage) having two that shoot the same will simplify your life. Consider buying a model that you know you can rent a second one.
That said, a lot of the differences between cameras occur in low or excessive light situations, so good lighting is a much less expensive way to improve your footage.
Just because certain special interests and their paid-for legislators feel that Congress must do something doesn't mean that it is true. Why should we offer to be placed in nice, comfortable handcuffs just because it's clear they can't put us in leg irons? (Yet.) You want to offer them an alternative? Tell them that if they manage to harrass the file sharing networks off the Internet, someone will write a wireless P2P program- something that creates an ad-hoc file sharing network with any 802.11b-enabled device in range. Ask them if they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't. Imagine hundreds of consumers (not pirates!) taking their notebooks to the park on a bright spring day, and all coming back with new MP3s and a tan...
I believe that your provision for abandonment lacks any real teeth. Suppose a copyright holder desired to maintain a copyright, but didn't want to keep a no-longer-current CD, book, or software package "in inventory." They could merely set a absurdly high price (e.g. the price to print and bind a one-off book), or require a potential purchaser to buy a "boxed set" of other works he or she might not want. The work would never be "abandoned," and would remain under copyright.
I think the real answer to abandonment is shorten the term of copyright protection, particularly for software, so that works can enter the public domain while they are still relevant.
From Mr. McCullagh's summary, I see that there is a "grandfather" clause for unaltered "digital interactive devices" sold before the law comes into effect. On the hardware side, that might not be such a bad thing. Grandfathered hardware will become more and more precious (and here's one for the zealots: if M$ products continue to bloat, such hardware will tend to run open and/or free software).
But, software explicitly falls under the definition of a "digital interactive device," so providing an operating system or other software, even at no cost, might constitute trafficking in illegal devices. So, one might be prohibited from offering a new distro of Linux (for example) without an approved DRM package, if this ever becomes law.
Again, IANAL, but it seems to me that since "software is speech" this is where the law would be most vulnerable to attack, if it were passed and if someone were arrested for breaking it.
Nevertheless, it is still better to prevent this silly idea from becoming law in the first place. I'll be breaking out the pen and paper to write my Senators. I urge every U.S. citizen to do the same.
Sure, it's a hefty system- it's basically a dressed-up PC with some custom hardware, but its lineage is showing: it has a cooling fan. Cooling fans may be tolerable to many people for traditional computers, but I can't think of any other consumer electronics device that needs one. Imagine spending the big bucks on your home entertainment system, then being required to turn the volume up a notch to drown out the fan. Not in _my_ living room, thanks very much.
Slashdot Mirror
Haven't Democratic campaigns been broken into enough? Republicans choose Windows because it is their turn to get pwned.
I very much doubt that an American CAN move to India or many other places and legally work. Go as a tourist or a student? Almost certainly. Bring a load of cash and start a business hiring locals? Again, almost certainly. Get hired by a local company (which may have to "prove" that whatever the job is cannot be done by a citizen) before moving? Maybe. But just emigrate, get the local equivalent of a Green Card, and start looking for work? I'd bet against that for almost everywhere jobs are currently going.
A quick Googling shows me that there are a couple of sites that say it is almost impossible to move to India, but they are short on details. But the *relative* ease with which it is possible to immigrate to and work in the US is very likely exception rather than the rule.
I've worked on a few amateur films (48 Hour Film Project films, so keep in mind that time constraints may be disproportionate in my experience). I'd say whatever camera you're considering, consider getting TWO. It is easier to intercut DV shot from two identical sources, and it is far easier to get identical cameras to look the same. If you're ever going to need two cameras going simultaneously (e.g. one for the two-shot, and one for closeups and coverage) having two that shoot the same will simplify your life. Consider buying a model that you know you can rent a second one.
That said, a lot of the differences between cameras occur in low or excessive light situations, so good lighting is a much less expensive way to improve your footage.
Just because certain special interests and their paid-for legislators feel that Congress must do something doesn't mean that it is true. Why should we offer to be placed in nice, comfortable handcuffs just because it's clear they can't put us in leg irons? (Yet.) You want to offer them an alternative? Tell them that if they manage to harrass the file sharing networks off the Internet, someone will write a wireless P2P program- something that creates an ad-hoc file sharing network with any 802.11b-enabled device in range. Ask them if they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't.
Imagine hundreds of consumers (not pirates!) taking their notebooks to the park on a bright spring day, and all coming back with new MP3s and a tan...
I believe that your provision for abandonment lacks any real teeth. Suppose a copyright holder desired to maintain a copyright, but didn't want to keep a no-longer-current CD, book, or software package "in inventory." They could merely set a absurdly high price (e.g. the price to print and bind a one-off book), or require a potential purchaser to buy a "boxed set" of other works he or she might not want. The work would never be "abandoned," and would remain under copyright.
I think the real answer to abandonment is shorten the term of copyright protection, particularly for software, so that works can enter the public domain while they are still relevant.
From Mr. McCullagh's summary, I see that there is a "grandfather" clause for unaltered "digital interactive devices" sold before the law comes into effect. On the hardware side, that might not be such a bad thing. Grandfathered hardware will become more and more precious (and here's one for the zealots: if M$ products continue to bloat, such hardware will tend to run open and/or free software).
But, software explicitly falls under the definition of a "digital interactive device," so providing an operating system or other software, even at no cost, might constitute trafficking in illegal devices. So, one might be prohibited from offering a new distro of Linux (for example) without an approved DRM package, if this ever becomes law.
Again, IANAL, but it seems to me that since "software is speech" this is where the law would be most vulnerable to attack, if it were passed and if someone were arrested for breaking it.
Nevertheless, it is still better to prevent this silly idea from becoming law in the first place. I'll be breaking out the pen and paper to write my Senators. I urge every U.S. citizen to do the same.
Sure, it's a hefty system- it's basically a dressed-up PC with some custom hardware, but its lineage is showing: it has a cooling fan. Cooling fans may be tolerable to many people for traditional computers, but I can't think of any other consumer electronics device that needs one. Imagine spending the big bucks on your home entertainment system, then being required to turn the volume up a notch to drown out the fan. Not in _my_ living room, thanks very much.