All the 'free' ISPs in this country died out shortly after starting up. People thought it was a good idea. It wasn't.
Not so. I have four 'free' ISP accounts. They are free in that I pay only telephone charges on my normal bill to access them instead of the monthly subscription model. It is still a good idea for light users who would not normally use £12.99 or whatever in call charges per month, and who can't afford broadband ADSL or cable.
I agree that second hand stores are a great source for a wider range of music, but for how long?
I noticed a disturbing thing when I visited a nearby city last week. This place has a thriving second-hand CD retail sector, but a new store had opened in one of the main streets and was selling back-catalogue CDs for £6 ($10). New CD's, not second-hand. I couldn't figure who the parent company was, but none of the second hand stores could compete price-wise with this. Is this a way for the industry close down the second hand sector? Has this happened in parts of the USA?
In a sense this is already happening. Certain Disney movies aren not for sale right now in the UK and will only be released in several years time. Lion King is an example. By restricting the availability of titles they can cut copying down, wait until technology is available to tie down players, build demand (they think).
By the time this movie is rereleased the FBI warnings and the pre-movie commercials will last longer than the actual movie...
I see all the comments about the East Coast. The tsunami from this would spread out in a roughly circular pattern as per a rock in a pond. The waves would also hit the African, South American and European coasts, and eventually they'd hit La Palma and I suspect trigger the landslip that theoretically will cause a tsunami that...I'll stop now.
Re:The same could be done with worms
on
Ant Farm PC
·
· Score: 1, Funny
And there I was thinking worms were a bad thing to have in your computer...
In the 80's the record manufacturers lowered the quality of vinyl pressings when they were charging top prices for CD's. Next they started
to lower the quality of cassette tape copies of albums to push CD sales.
Now they're trying to persuade us that we should buy Super Audio CD's and junk all our CD's.
At the same time there's a long history of hardware manufacturers responding to demand by producing devices that circumvent copyright. Double cassette decks were once touted as the work of the devil by record companies, yet look at the market in low-end double-deck audio systems! And look at the number of hardware MP3 players and DVD decks that play MP3 CD's!
There appears to be a strategy here. "Consumers are passive. They'll eat any carrot we dangle in front of their faces."
Unfortunately those consumers are increasingly questioning the value of what they're offered. Why buy a big name DVD player when you can buy a
cheap one and turn off M****vision and make it region free? Why buy a CD for 15 pounds or whatever you pay in USA when you can download the
MP3's and burn it?
Making it easier to do with software and hardware has increased the level of "piracy". But I believe the main reason for the current level
of "piracy" is people feeling they're being ripped off, and having the chance to get their own back. And they will as long as they can. I overheard a sales assistant in a clothing store a few days ago planning to download a song a friend identified for her. She was no archetypical nerd, just an ordinary person.
History shows that if one door is closed then another door will open. The more the RIAA fight file-sharing, the more they alienate the very people they expect to pony up all those bucks...
Hmm. Advertising isn't the only way that shows are funded. What about the fact that all your lovely US shows get flogged (translation: sold 8->) all around the world? If it weren't for overseas sales I'm sure my TV Licence fee would be rather higher if it weren't for BBC Enterprises' tireless efforts!
Slashdot Mirror
Obtain Open Office 1.1 Beta 2. It will export your DOC as a PDF, and it is free.
I agree that second hand stores are a great source for a wider range of music, but for how long?
I noticed a disturbing thing when I visited a nearby city last week. This place has a thriving second-hand CD retail sector, but a new store had opened in one of the main streets and was selling back-catalogue CDs for £6 ($10). New CD's, not second-hand. I couldn't figure who the parent company was, but none of the second hand stores could compete price-wise with this. Is this a way for the industry close down the second hand sector? Has this happened in parts of the USA?
In a sense this is already happening. Certain Disney movies aren not for sale right now in the UK and will only be released in several years time. Lion King is an example. By restricting the availability of titles they can cut copying down, wait until technology is available to tie down players, build demand (they think).
By the time this movie is rereleased the FBI warnings and the pre-movie commercials will last longer than the actual movie...
If this were true we'd have died out centuries ago...
I see all the comments about the East Coast. The tsunami from this would spread out in a roughly circular pattern as per a rock in a pond. The waves would also hit the African, South American and European coasts, and eventually they'd hit La Palma and I suspect trigger the landslip that theoretically will cause a tsunami that...I'll stop now.
And there I was thinking worms were a bad thing to have in your computer...
In the 80's the record manufacturers lowered the quality of vinyl pressings when they were charging top prices for CD's. Next they started to lower the quality of cassette tape copies of albums to push CD sales.
Now they're trying to persuade us that we should buy Super Audio CD's and junk all our CD's.
At the same time there's a long history of hardware manufacturers responding to demand by producing devices that circumvent copyright. Double cassette decks were once touted as the work of the devil by record companies, yet look at the market in low-end double-deck audio systems! And look at the number of hardware MP3 players and DVD decks that play MP3 CD's!
There appears to be a strategy here. "Consumers are passive. They'll eat any carrot we dangle in front of their faces."Unfortunately those consumers are increasingly questioning the value of what they're offered. Why buy a big name DVD player when you can buy a cheap one and turn off M****vision and make it region free? Why buy a CD for 15 pounds or whatever you pay in USA when you can download the MP3's and burn it?
Making it easier to do with software and hardware has increased the level of "piracy". But I believe the main reason for the current level of "piracy" is people feeling they're being ripped off, and having the chance to get their own back. And they will as long as they can. I overheard a sales assistant in a clothing store a few days ago planning to download a song a friend identified for her. She was no archetypical nerd, just an ordinary person.
History shows that if one door is closed then another door will open. The more the RIAA fight file-sharing, the more they alienate the very people they expect to pony up all those bucks...
Hmm. Advertising isn't the only way that shows are funded. What about the fact that all your lovely US shows get flogged (translation: sold 8->) all around the world? If it weren't for overseas sales I'm sure my TV Licence fee would be rather higher if it weren't for BBC Enterprises' tireless efforts!