Although the files are DRM-infested I find paying $1 for a track and not being constrained to buy an entire album is more than acceptable considering I can do most things with the legally-acquired file including burning it to CD from where it can then be MP3'd.
I belive you are entitled to a full , 100% , refund of that months payment. The service you paid for is the show, complete with "offensive content". If the content is tampered with before it is viewable, you just got screwed out of the product you paid for.
That's incorrect. When buying cable or satellite service, the service you are paying the cable/satellite company for is that of providing TV channels as provided by broadcasters, subject to laws of the state/country you live in.
Your provider is not responsible for the content of such channels and is merely a platform for providing content.
Thinking you are entitled to a refund because the TV channel broadcasters have limited the content (by law) is akin to wanting a refund because you can't legally drive that 200mph sports car along the freeway.
I think his point was more to do with the fact that here on Slashdot we're very quick to incorectly refer to identity infringement as identity theft than anything else.
It's funny how I never see a whole bunch of people arguing that the term "identity theft" should really be "identity infringement" whenever there is a thread on that subject, but then I suppose copyright infringement in the sense of illegally copying music etc doesn't generally have the potential to affect the majority of the slashdot community adversely.
This would seem more of a problem with your country's health system than anything else.
With a public health service such as that of the NHS in the UK no matter what the drug involved is, a prescription will only cost you £6.40, and free of charge should you meet certain conditions.
I had no idea that Windows complicated even the most banal task of connecting an iPod.
Yep, along with the various license agreements and installations Apple forces you to enter the serial number of your iPod a number of times before installing the software. Their software also "requires" you to restart, though this would appear to be merely bad design as my iPod worked perfectly without a restart.
To make things clearer, the electoral register is a list of citizens eligible to vote. Voting is not compulsory and is just as private and non-enforced as any good democracy.
It's also a public record and frequently used for credit checking purposes since it's a good and accurate way of cross-checking prospective loanees but, as I said, it's merely one part out of many lenders consider when taking on a risk.
The electoral register is a list of all persons legally allowed to vote within UK elections, and it's one of the ways lenders decide whether you're a worthy risk or not.
I hate businesses that assume that you will buy certain services from them because they deem them 'essential', and when all of a sudden you don't, they jack up the price of the services you still do buy from them...
In this case, tuition will go up because they stop making money on landline sales??? How about my damned cable company (or phone company) that charges me an extra $10 a month because I just want a highspeed internet connection but don't want their cable offerings or long distance plan?
I'm not a business expert by any means, but as far as I understand the idea of business it is to have more income than your expenditure. If increasing prices are the only way of doing this, then so be it.
How can they get away with this BS? It's like those computer stores that 'cash discount' their prices... Play on words to get around rules that prevent them from jacking up the price because you wanna pay by credit card...
Credit card merchant services typically charge around 3% to process a credit card transaction, so retailers must build this cost into the final cost of the product they are selling. Would you prefer no cash discount is offered to customers who want to pay for a particular product using cash?
The Government as with any large organisation is always looking to save money and if those savings come as a result of saving the cost of an Office license over however many seats, then quite correctly they are right to reinvest the money into other Government departments.
A couple of important notes to remember are that:
1. This isn't profit - it's cost savings from a change of supplier. 2. Contrary to popular belief, the Government is not a charity and exists for the people as a whole.
Based on these notes, it would seem far wiser using all these cost savings to help the people as a whole rather than donating money to open source developers.
That's a rather bad analogy unless you're implying that Microsoft are somehow responsible for writing and distributing viruses. Of course, if you are, I'm sure you will have a link to the proof of this.
It's actually a sensible decision by Microsoft if they do charge for it, rather than bundling it with their software free of charge which would have the end result of forcing other competitors out of the antivirus market.
Because XPI are part of Mozilla and Mozilla is open source and by default secure.;-)
In all seriousness however, on my default install of XP Home any ActiveX controls (including WindowsUpdate) have to have my permission before they can run in Internet Explorer and on my default install of FireFox any XPIs asking to be installed must also be authorised.
[Cynicism]
Of course, when the malware writers start to target Mozilla-based products it will all be the malware writers' fault rather than Mozilla Foundation's fault for including an exploitable architecture in their software.
I had an experience once when I bought a cellphone which worked perfectly apart from the display. Having taken the cellphone to my local store they were kind enough to fix it free of charge, however I still left negative feedback for the seller and he responded with something like "it was fixed free in the end so I don't see the problem".
I can understand that a Bank could be held responsible for hijacking of ATMs and the like, but I'm interersted to see how the bank have been negligent and not exercised due care in this case.
Personally, I want a list of my fellow citizens who are willing to spy on each other. Any government that solicts its citzens to spy on each other, IMHO deserves to be changed. That's what this list is about.
That isn't free speech either.
You see, your right to free speech ends right when it infringes upon my right to privacy and if I as a spy want to keep that fact private for whatever reasons be they safety concerns and the like, then so be it.
cost of Anti-Virus software (that slows the system down)
Fair point, though even on Linux I would use AV software to be secure.
cost of anti-spyware solutions. Typically you need two or more cleaners to get the most common ones.
Good group policies and locking down of corporate PCs negate the need for these and the few that do get through can be removed by the company's dedicated IT team.
cost of downtime. Typical desktop PC in a business is down for most of a day many times a year.
I can accept that PCs do have downtime purely because no PC and operating system is perfect, but to state that a typical business PC is down for over 50% of a working day is quite unbelievable.
cost of the forced upgrade cycle.
There isn't necessarily a forced upgrade cycle - my previous employers used mostly Windows NT boxes with Office 97 while my current employer use a mixture of Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
On top of that, Windows comes with NOTHING bundled. Everything costs extra.
Would you rather Windows did come with everything bundled so you could moan about monopolistic practises instead?
Add to this the much bigger probability of data loss and theft, and the Windoze solution does not seem like a solution at all.
Bigger probability of data loss? Hard drives will fail irrespective of what operating system has been installed on them, and any business which does not have proper backup procedures in place do so at their own risk. That surely isn't the fault of Windows?
Legacy crap is what keeps people using Win32, there are no other sane reasons.
Well, apart from the fact that in the eyes of many it is a more user friendly interface and operating environment to work in and of course that a lot of essential corporate applications (customer management systems as merely one example) are written for Windows.
I've seen nothing about this on the BBC News, ITV News, or in any of our daily newspapers. In fact, the only reason I know about the whole software patent issues is because I read Slashdot. I imagine the situation is similar for a lot of my fellow Europeans.
Most of them have an automatic update service you can choose to run on a regular basis.
The thing I find interesting is that during my time in the past as a Linux user the amount of security and bug updates being downloaded was very high compared to the amount of stories listed on Slashdot showing these updates.
Slashdot Mirror
Although the files are DRM-infested I find paying $1 for a track and not being constrained to buy an entire album is more than acceptable considering I can do most things with the legally-acquired file including burning it to CD from where it can then be MP3'd.
That's incorrect. When buying cable or satellite service, the service you are paying the cable/satellite company for is that of providing TV channels as provided by broadcasters, subject to laws of the state/country you live in.
Your provider is not responsible for the content of such channels and is merely a platform for providing content.
Thinking you are entitled to a refund because the TV channel broadcasters have limited the content (by law) is akin to wanting a refund because you can't legally drive that 200mph sports car along the freeway.
If making millions of pounds a year profit is classed as failure, I would love to see your idea of success.
I think his point was more to do with the fact that here on Slashdot we're very quick to incorectly refer to identity infringement as identity theft than anything else.
It's funny how I never see a whole bunch of people arguing that the term "identity theft" should really be "identity infringement" whenever there is a thread on that subject, but then I suppose copyright infringement in the sense of illegally copying music etc doesn't generally have the potential to affect the majority of the slashdot community adversely.
With a public health service such as that of the NHS in the UK no matter what the drug involved is, a prescription will only cost you £6.40, and free of charge should you meet certain conditions.
Perhaps you would be as good as to provide a link to back up this ridiculous claim of yours?
Yep, along with the various license agreements and installations Apple forces you to enter the serial number of your iPod a number of times before installing the software. Their software also "requires" you to restart, though this would appear to be merely bad design as my iPod worked perfectly without a restart.
As there is nothing whatsoever creative about a minute or so of silence, I don't see there as being any copyright to infringe upon.
We use Novell Groupwise Messenger in the office where I work which seems very similar to MSN Messenger, but can only be used internally.
It's also a public record and frequently used for credit checking purposes since it's a good and accurate way of cross-checking prospective loanees but, as I said, it's merely one part out of many lenders consider when taking on a risk.
The electoral register is a list of all persons legally allowed to vote within UK elections, and it's one of the ways lenders decide whether you're a worthy risk or not.
In this case, tuition will go up because they stop making money on landline sales??? How about my damned cable company (or phone company) that charges me an extra $10 a month because I just want a highspeed internet connection but don't want their cable offerings or long distance plan?
I'm not a business expert by any means, but as far as I understand the idea of business it is to have more income than your expenditure. If increasing prices are the only way of doing this, then so be it.
How can they get away with this BS? It's like those computer stores that 'cash discount' their prices... Play on words to get around rules that prevent them from jacking up the price because you wanna pay by credit card...
Credit card merchant services typically charge around 3% to process a credit card transaction, so retailers must build this cost into the final cost of the product they are selling. Would you prefer no cash discount is offered to customers who want to pay for a particular product using cash?
A couple of important notes to remember are that:
1. This isn't profit - it's cost savings from a change of supplier.
2. Contrary to popular belief, the Government is not a charity and exists for the people as a whole.
Based on these notes, it would seem far wiser using all these cost savings to help the people as a whole rather than donating money to open source developers.
It's actually a sensible decision by Microsoft if they do charge for it, rather than bundling it with their software free of charge which would have the end result of forcing other competitors out of the antivirus market.
In all seriousness however, on my default install of XP Home any ActiveX controls (including WindowsUpdate) have to have my permission before they can run in Internet Explorer and on my default install of FireFox any XPIs asking to be installed must also be authorised.
[Cynicism]
Of course, when the malware writers start to target Mozilla-based products it will all be the malware writers' fault rather than Mozilla Foundation's fault for including an exploitable architecture in their software.
[/Cynicism]
I had an experience once when I bought a cellphone which worked perfectly apart from the display. Having taken the cellphone to my local store they were kind enough to fix it free of charge, however I still left negative feedback for the seller and he responded with something like "it was fixed free in the end so I don't see the problem".
I can understand that a Bank could be held responsible for hijacking of ATMs and the like, but I'm interersted to see how the bank have been negligent and not exercised due care in this case.
That isn't free speech either.
You see, your right to free speech ends right when it infringes upon my right to privacy and if I as a spy want to keep that fact private for whatever reasons be they safety concerns and the like, then so be it.
I mean, it's not like there's any double standards on Slashdot, right?
Not saying I agree with this "philosophy" by any means though.
That's kind of a harsh law, sounds akin to making filesharing software illegal because of the actions of its users.
Fair point, though even on Linux I would use AV software to be secure.
cost of anti-spyware solutions. Typically you need two or more cleaners to get the most common ones.
Good group policies and locking down of corporate PCs negate the need for these and the few that do get through can be removed by the company's dedicated IT team.
cost of downtime. Typical desktop PC in a business is down for most of a day many times a year.
I can accept that PCs do have downtime purely because no PC and operating system is perfect, but to state that a typical business PC is down for over 50% of a working day is quite unbelievable.
cost of the forced upgrade cycle.
There isn't necessarily a forced upgrade cycle - my previous employers used mostly Windows NT boxes with Office 97 while my current employer use a mixture of Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
On top of that, Windows comes with NOTHING bundled. Everything costs extra.
Would you rather Windows did come with everything bundled so you could moan about monopolistic practises instead?
Add to this the much bigger probability of data loss and theft, and the Windoze solution does not seem like a solution at all.
Bigger probability of data loss? Hard drives will fail irrespective of what operating system has been installed on them, and any business which does not have proper backup procedures in place do so at their own risk. That surely isn't the fault of Windows?
Legacy crap is what keeps people using Win32, there are no other sane reasons.
Well, apart from the fact that in the eyes of many it is a more user friendly interface and operating environment to work in and of course that a lot of essential corporate applications (customer management systems as merely one example) are written for Windows.
I've seen nothing about this on the BBC News, ITV News, or in any of our daily newspapers. In fact, the only reason I know about the whole software patent issues is because I read Slashdot. I imagine the situation is similar for a lot of my fellow Europeans.
The thing I find interesting is that during my time in the past as a Linux user the amount of security and bug updates being downloaded was very high compared to the amount of stories listed on Slashdot showing these updates.
Hmm, wonder why that would be.