Theft from a provider is no different whether it is IP or physical stock - you are materially affected by the value of the cost of sale. You can still produce more stock at a similar cost to sell and profit.
A good point. I started thinking after my post and realized it is different to steal a car off of GM's manufacturing plant lot than it is to steal one from your driveway.
It's also slightly different stealing one off of the transport truck/ship or stealing it off the retail lot. Each step closer to the consumer makes the car monetarily and percent-of-capital-wise and conveniencewise more valuable to the posessor.
It is interesting to note that lifting a physical product (be it a car or box of Cracker Jacks) from a distributor, retailer or consumer deprives the current owner of the product but not the producer. Copying IP (be it software or music) in your argument (a fair one) deprives the producer but not the current owner/licensee/whatever. So it is still difficult to directly compare the two in terms of loss.
you are materially affected by the value of the cost of sale
That is debatable, and I'm not sure where I fall in that debate. I suppose it really depends on your point of view. I think my view is labor-centric. I think of products in terms of work done to produce it. If I can do the same work myself easily, then I'm much less willing to pay someone else to do it. I'm not very skilled at building a car and don't have the necessary tools to build one right (even if I tried to duplicate an existing car), but I have the tools and knowledge to produce a copy of a program or song. I can tape it off of the radio, download it off the 'net or rip or copy a CD. (Not that I'm saying I've actually copied music/software or built cars before.)
If your view is commerce/investor-centric then your only view is that an opportunity for a sale was lost because somebody broke the rules you're playing under.
If you're view is "I'm broke but want some new tunes/warez" then you might weigh the cost vs. risk vs. availability of your options and decide to install Kazaa and grab some new warez/music until Microsoft and the RIAA start suing individuals.
If you're view is that ideas can't be owned you start a Free Software Foundation or redistribute every copyrighted work you can get your hands on.
And so forth.
I suppose the real debate is which one of these views benefits society or your community the most. And that debate has been going on for a long time.
Afterthought: I couldn't figure out how to fit this in above, so here it is: $30-$250 for software and $15 - $60 for music CDs and DVD movies seem too high to me. I feel I am being ripped off (speaking as an individual consumer for personal use; business consumers have different needs). I know there is a cost in producing the content, but mass distribution is relatively cheap for these products. I'm not sure how software or movie sales are doing, but the RIAA seems to be the most vocal ones now complaining about (IIRC) an 8% drop in sales when the stock market is down 50% off it highs and physical product businesses have lost much more business. It sounds to me like the music business is doing very well right now relative to the rest of the (USA) economy, and to hear them whine and threaten make me resent the music industry.
One more addition: A few years ago I was infatuated with the Bose Acoustimass speaker system. It was about $800 and I wasn't going to spend that much, but I had built simple speakers before and had a book or two on theory and construction. I seriously considered using the book theory and what I could see in the store (some demo units were partially or fully transparent) and building my own copy of a Bose Acoustimass speaker system. From what I understand that is perfectly legal as long as I don't sell one (or construction plans) to someone else. (I may be wrong.) But if I had built that copy, how would that have been different than copying sofwtare or music off of a friend's CD or buying it from a store, copying it and returning it? Have I not materially affected Bose by denying them a sale opportunity by copying their IP? And I have done it without stealing anything physical from anyone. (I didn't build it because I found 240w rms Yamaha speakers on sale for $88. Still have them today.)
One more one more addition: While I currently don't think copying IP should land the perpetrator in jail or get a huge fine, I do think selling pirated software or music to others is wrong and more deserving of harsh punishment. I'm not necessarily firm in that, though, because I haven't pondered it. That's just what I've grown up with.
Ford doesn't donate cars to Chevy neither does McDonalds give Burger King free food, why is this different?
Software is not a physical product!
Please, people: I don't care what your stance on IP is, if one guy steals your car or your McDonald's hamburger and another copies and/or violates the EULA of your BitKeeper or WinXP or Eminem CD they aren't the same action (even if you're the author/IP owner of the above), the loss is not the same.
If you want to punish both the same, fine, that's your opinion and worthy of debate (i.e. does copyright & other IP help/hinder business, personal rights, karma, whatever). But don't say it's no different than stealing your car.
90% of the price you pay for a car, you do not pay for that few kilograms metal and plastics. Neither do you pay it for the look or the name of the brand. You pay it for the astronomic high number of working hours spend by scientists and engineers in labs to figure minimal improvements showing up each year in a new product line of a car maufactor.
No, most of the money you pay for the car goes towards:
1: Salaries and benefits of: the workers who built the car, the workers who transport the car to your town, the workers who sell you the car, and the management and support staff of the above.
2: Taxes, taxes, taxes.
3: Insurance.
Actually I'd bet 90% or more of the cost of the car goes to the above three and not to those poor overworked scientists working "astronomic high number of working hours" to make our lives better.
I won't get into a heavy debate, but I refuse to equate copying music with stealing a car.
Crap, I have to say at least this: If I build a swing for a kid and fashion a seat belt to keep him from falling out, am I stealing from the patent holder of seat belts like you mentioned?
Somehow I seriously doubt that any new adopters of Linux or FreeBSD will be so balzy as to choose to do their first installation on a DC console just because they have one.
installation = insert CD and turn on
Right?
I doubt this will push Linux into world domination, but a newbie somewhat curious about Linux and owning a Dreamcast may get a Linux CD from a friend and drop it in.
What is the number one problem for Linux newbies? I believe it is hard drvie partitioning.
While the average geek knows that booting a live filesystem Linux CD our computers doesn't pose a danger, a newbie might not realize that. But there will be no psychological barrier to putting just another CD into their Dreamcast.
but its a fact that traveling by train is much more fuel efficient than a 767.
Are you sure? I'm not an expert either, but let's say next week a genie builds us a railroad bridge from the US to England and Japan over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Would it be more fuel efficient to take the trip via a 767 full of people by 767 or by a train of the same capacity?
All these people that absolutely depsise the riaa and mpaa still buy [their products] . . . . So if these hardcore haters can't even stop buying this trash for a few weeks then how could a consumers union of the scale you suggest ever work?
That's sort of my point. Sort of.
Individually people aren't upset enough to avoid buying what they want, and even if they are they probbly figure it doesn't make a difference.
But if a small group formed and started demonstrating and pontificating it's possible that enough people will feel the same way and join. Then when you're part of a group there's a better chance of people thinking their not buying something might make a difference. Plus there's a feeling of belonging or elitism by being a part of this group that's trying to make a difference.
The most likely scenario if a group like this formed is that they would be labelled fringe kind of like the FSF or PETA. (First two grass-roots but passionate groups off the top of my head; don't compare and get offended.) But if it did get big it would be a powerful pro-consumer lobby and possibly put some fear into greedy near-monopolies like the RIAA family.
Just a strange idea I had while reading another comment on another/. RIAA story: if the RIAA is succeeding in controling the distribution and sales for vast majority of the music we listen to, what would happen if we formed a "consumer's union" of sorts?
It would be more organized and longer-term than a boycott; think of it as more like a labor union or trade union, but representing consumers instead of manufacturers or distributors.
If the RIAA and other entertainment (and software) interests start using DRM to strictly control how we can use our purchased music then we may benefit from a large union or lobby that has enough support to hurt the RIAA (or whoever) financially with a boycott or even organizing other forms of entertainment to displace what the RIAA is offering.
The union could publish a Consumer Reports style magazine and/or web site with reviews on consumer entertainment hardware and cost versus restrictions and how that compares to what we're used to: tapes and CDs.
In short, if the IP companies are teaming up through producers and distributors, why can't we team up as consumers and tell THEM how we're going to buy music?
Heck, I used the word "lobby" above and just now realized that such a union could lobby against anti-consumer legislation and back up any threats with member voters. Individuals writing in to their legislators saying they'll vote for someone else may catch a lawmaker's notice, but a block of voters belonging to one group saying the same thing in unison really gets their attention.
I haven't really thought this idea through and I'm not a leader, and this will probably sort itself out through market dynamics sooner or later regardless of the law. But there you are. Discuss.
What's really funny (to me) is that some people actually read this. I got some AC flames on my only two journal entries. Took me by suprise that anyone cared to look.
Word, we talk like everyone has the time and the extra machine and/or is willing to reinstall the one they have, like it aint no thing.
Quite a few Slashdotters are like that. I have 5 or 6 usable PCs and try different things on them for experience and learning and goofing off.
I've used a couple of different versions of RedHat and Debian, Turbolinux (it came on a CD with my NIC), and started off with Slackware in 1994. I've been using Debian lately but have fond memories of Slackware, and from what I've heard Gentoo sounds right up my alley.
Of course this is not in a production environment.
And it does sound to me like Gentoo is for the people like me who goof around. (Bleeding edge source-based distros don't sound like what I'd want to administer at work, though.)
My half-Japanese lady friend has one of the water-spraying toilet lids. (An add-on bidet.) It has a wireless remote control to adjust strength and temperature.
I was reluctant to try it at first, but finally did. It gets you cleaner than toilet paper but takes a bit of getting used to.
You mean the MP3's and movies are still out there? Damn my ISP.
Last time I checked those NG's were gone from Ameritech's (=SBC's) newsfeed.
It has started.
If the groups are still there and someone makes a search and download tool it will require a file index somewhere which would have to be centralized, wouldn't it? If it's centralized and categorizes where to download copyrighted works against their licenses then the *IAA's can go after it.
I was wondering when someone would point that out.
Besides, digital projection currently has poorer resolution than 35mm film. I doubt it will overtake 70mm film anytime soon, and I suspect the theaters will have to upgrade projectors frequently as the technology gets better.
Come to think of it, if some piracy is an inside job don't you think someone could modify the projector to get a digital rip? That would be a better pirate movie than a camcorder pointed at a screen could get.
Plus, how do you get every theater in the world to buy new digital projectors? If they figure that out then the stock market will finally recover in the projector manufacturing boom.
Then again, this idea is from the guy who marketed DivX discs when DVD was coming out. Great idea. Sure people want to pay for a movie disc that is pay-per-view.
Re:and how many are single ...
on
The Aging Gamer
·
· Score: 2, Funny
And we had to walk uphill in the snow to flip 8 switches to program our computers. That's right, we programmed in 8-bit machine language, sonny! But damnit, we were GLAD to have those switches! They gave us character. Your generation should try programming with switches, too.
-Ego-stomper boots -"Let's Just Be Friends" Yellow Armor -"But I Don't Want to Risk our Friendship" Red Armor -"I Love You": Invulnerability for 20 minutes -"I Like Nice Men" Invisibility (Actually phase out of reality)
(Sorry these are Quake-centric; I've never played TR)
I moved to Indiana a year ago after living my entire life in DST zones, and I thought not having to worry about DST would be nice.
But it's actually weirder because the rest of the (preceived) world goes on DST.
Sporting events happen at different times, TV shows air at different times (and there is discrepancy between cable & broadcast times), and scheduled work conference calls change times.
If you think forgetting to set one or two of your clocks back is a pain, try having half of your daily schedule change times and keep straight what changes and what doesn't.
As far as the article goes, admins may not need to understand the technical details of what cron does two hours out of every year, but they sure as hell had better know if their backups and periodic maintenance is getting done!
Then again in cases I've worked missing one backup wouldn't be critical.
My idea of a way to fix the system is that we should have the money and item go through ebay. Sure this will add overhead and costs, but it protects both the buyers and the sellers.
Um, yeah, that might work.
Or they could implement some sort of rating system where buyers have the option of choosing from a seller who's well-rated by other buyers or settling for an unrated seller.
Or eBay could just buy a building, set up tables, and let people come in with their products and sell them to people with immeidate personaly delivery.
</sarcasm>
Seriously, what you describe is an escrow transaction, and you can do that through a third party or you can save money and take a chance like most everyone else.
Depending on the price and item I may insist on a highly rated buyer. If it's a decent risk to get a good deal I'll risk $30-$50. I haven't been burned yet, thank goodness.
OT: Hey, I have a "No +1 Bonus checkbox". I've made it! You like me, you really like me! <sniff>
What the heck are you doing in an appartment? You are pissing away your rent every month.
It depends on each person's situation. Who is secure in their job these days? I moved 900 miles from everyone I know for my current job, and I don't know where I'm going to be a year or two from now. Doesn't make much sense for me to buy a house, does it?
If something happens to my job I'm bailing out of the lease and driving back to family and a familiar area. It's harder to abandon a house.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless you are a lawyer--in that case you can sit still inside an outhouse and the dinosaur will knock the building down and eat you anyway.
Theft from a provider is no different whether it is IP or physical stock - you are materially affected by the value of the cost of sale. You can still produce more stock at a similar cost to sell and profit.
A good point. I started thinking after my post and realized it is different to steal a car off of GM's manufacturing plant lot than it is to steal one from your driveway.
It's also slightly different stealing one off of the transport truck/ship or stealing it off the retail lot. Each step closer to the consumer makes the car monetarily and percent-of-capital-wise and conveniencewise more valuable to the posessor.
It is interesting to note that lifting a physical product (be it a car or box of Cracker Jacks) from a distributor, retailer or consumer deprives the current owner of the product but not the producer. Copying IP (be it software or music) in your argument (a fair one) deprives the producer but not the current owner/licensee/whatever. So it is still difficult to directly compare the two in terms of loss.
you are materially affected by the value of the cost of sale
That is debatable, and I'm not sure where I fall in that debate. I suppose it really depends on your point of view. I think my view is labor-centric. I think of products in terms of work done to produce it. If I can do the same work myself easily, then I'm much less willing to pay someone else to do it. I'm not very skilled at building a car and don't have the necessary tools to build one right (even if I tried to duplicate an existing car), but I have the tools and knowledge to produce a copy of a program or song. I can tape it off of the radio, download it off the 'net or rip or copy a CD. (Not that I'm saying I've actually copied music/software or built cars before.)
If your view is commerce/investor-centric then your only view is that an opportunity for a sale was lost because somebody broke the rules you're playing under.
If you're view is "I'm broke but want some new tunes/warez" then you might weigh the cost vs. risk vs. availability of your options and decide to install Kazaa and grab some new warez/music until Microsoft and the RIAA start suing individuals.
If you're view is that ideas can't be owned you start a Free Software Foundation or redistribute every copyrighted work you can get your hands on.
And so forth.
I suppose the real debate is which one of these views benefits society or your community the most. And that debate has been going on for a long time.
Afterthought: I couldn't figure out how to fit this in above, so here it is: $30-$250 for software and $15 - $60 for music CDs and DVD movies seem too high to me. I feel I am being ripped off (speaking as an individual consumer for personal use; business consumers have different needs). I know there is a cost in producing the content, but mass distribution is relatively cheap for these products. I'm not sure how software or movie sales are doing, but the RIAA seems to be the most vocal ones now complaining about (IIRC) an 8% drop in sales when the stock market is down 50% off it highs and physical product businesses have lost much more business. It sounds to me like the music business is doing very well right now relative to the rest of the (USA) economy, and to hear them whine and threaten make me resent the music industry.
One more addition: A few years ago I was infatuated with the Bose Acoustimass speaker system. It was about $800 and I wasn't going to spend that much, but I had built simple speakers before and had a book or two on theory and construction. I seriously considered using the book theory and what I could see in the store (some demo units were partially or fully transparent) and building my own copy of a Bose Acoustimass speaker system. From what I understand that is perfectly legal as long as I don't sell one (or construction plans) to someone else. (I may be wrong.) But if I had built that copy, how would that have been different than copying sofwtare or music off of a friend's CD or buying it from a store, copying it and returning it? Have I not materially affected Bose by denying them a sale opportunity by copying their IP? And I have done it without stealing anything physical from anyone. (I didn't build it because I found 240w rms Yamaha speakers on sale for $88. Still have them today.)
One more one more addition: While I currently don't think copying IP should land the perpetrator in jail or get a huge fine, I do think selling pirated software or music to others is wrong and more deserving of harsh punishment. I'm not necessarily firm in that, though, because I haven't pondered it. That's just what I've grown up with.
Ford doesn't donate cars to Chevy neither does McDonalds give Burger King free food, why is this different?
Software is not a physical product!
Please, people: I don't care what your stance on IP is, if one guy steals your car or your McDonald's hamburger and another copies and/or violates the EULA of your BitKeeper or WinXP or Eminem CD they aren't the same action (even if you're the author/IP owner of the above), the loss is not the same.
If you want to punish both the same, fine, that's your opinion and worthy of debate (i.e. does copyright & other IP help/hinder business, personal rights, karma, whatever). But don't say it's no different than stealing your car.
90% of the price you pay for a car, you do not pay for that few kilograms metal and plastics. Neither do you pay it for the look or the name of the brand. You pay it for the astronomic high number of working hours spend by scientists and engineers in labs to figure minimal improvements showing up each year in a new product line of a car maufactor.
No, most of the money you pay for the car goes towards:
1: Salaries and benefits of: the workers who built the car, the workers who transport the car to your town, the workers who sell you the car, and the management and support staff of the above.
2: Taxes, taxes, taxes.
3: Insurance.
Actually I'd bet 90% or more of the cost of the car goes to the above three and not to those poor overworked scientists working "astronomic high number of working hours" to make our lives better.
I won't get into a heavy debate, but I refuse to equate copying music with stealing a car.
Crap, I have to say at least this: If I build a swing for a kid and fashion a seat belt to keep him from falling out, am I stealing from the patent holder of seat belts like you mentioned?
Somehow I seriously doubt that any new adopters of Linux or FreeBSD will be so balzy as to choose to do their first installation on a DC console just because they have one.
installation = insert CD and turn on
Right?
I doubt this will push Linux into world domination, but a newbie somewhat curious about Linux and owning a Dreamcast may get a Linux CD from a friend and drop it in.
What is the number one problem for Linux newbies? I believe it is hard drvie partitioning.
While the average geek knows that booting a live filesystem Linux CD our computers doesn't pose a danger, a newbie might not realize that. But there will be no psychological barrier to putting just another CD into their Dreamcast.
Um, did he just say "imagine a beowulf cluster of these" (albeit with different wording) and get modded to +4 interesting?
After a stressful day of looking at source code and trying to fix bugs I like to go to the kitchen, grab a beer and start cooking.
Are you looking for a roommate?
but its a fact that traveling by train is much more fuel efficient than a 767.
Are you sure? I'm not an expert either, but let's say next week a genie builds us a railroad bridge from the US to England and Japan over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Would it be more fuel efficient to take the trip via a 767 full of people by 767 or by a train of the same capacity?
All these people that absolutely depsise the riaa and mpaa still buy [their products] . . . . So if these hardcore haters can't even stop buying this trash for a few weeks then how could a consumers union of the scale you suggest ever work?
That's sort of my point. Sort of.
Individually people aren't upset enough to avoid buying what they want, and even if they are they probbly figure it doesn't make a difference.
But if a small group formed and started demonstrating and pontificating it's possible that enough people will feel the same way and join. Then when you're part of a group there's a better chance of people thinking their not buying something might make a difference. Plus there's a feeling of belonging or elitism by being a part of this group that's trying to make a difference.
The most likely scenario if a group like this formed is that they would be labelled fringe kind of like the FSF or PETA. (First two grass-roots but passionate groups off the top of my head; don't compare and get offended.) But if it did get big it would be a powerful pro-consumer lobby and possibly put some fear into greedy near-monopolies like the RIAA family.
"How do I legally use the city's toilet water without breaking the law?"
Read the EULA. It's usually a roll of paper on a spindle near the source.
Just a strange idea I had while reading another comment on another /. RIAA story: if the RIAA is succeeding in controling the distribution and sales for vast majority of the music we listen to, what would happen if we formed a "consumer's union" of sorts?
It would be more organized and longer-term than a boycott; think of it as more like a labor union or trade union, but representing consumers instead of manufacturers or distributors.
If the RIAA and other entertainment (and software) interests start using DRM to strictly control how we can use our purchased music then we may benefit from a large union or lobby that has enough support to hurt the RIAA (or whoever) financially with a boycott or even organizing other forms of entertainment to displace what the RIAA is offering.
The union could publish a Consumer Reports style magazine and/or web site with reviews on consumer entertainment hardware and cost versus restrictions and how that compares to what we're used to: tapes and CDs.
In short, if the IP companies are teaming up through producers and distributors, why can't we team up as consumers and tell THEM how we're going to buy music?
Heck, I used the word "lobby" above and just now realized that such a union could lobby against anti-consumer legislation and back up any threats with member voters. Individuals writing in to their legislators saying they'll vote for someone else may catch a lawmaker's notice, but a block of voters belonging to one group saying the same thing in unison really gets their attention.
I haven't really thought this idea through and I'm not a leader, and this will probably sort itself out through market dynamics sooner or later regardless of the law. But there you are. Discuss.
this has nothing to do with the story whatsoever, but where else can I put this?
In your journal.
What's really funny (to me) is that some people actually read this. I got some AC flames on my only two journal entries. Took me by suprise that anyone cared to look.
i installed using a GRUB boot floppy to netboot a kernel
Oh yeah? Well I hand-weaved a linux 1.2 kernel using only the lint caught in the fan guard and installed from that.
Seriously, GRUB netbooting is cool and I want to try it. Do you TFTP an initrd, too, or do you just grab the kernel and magically make it work?
Word, we talk like everyone has the time and the extra machine and/or is willing to reinstall the one they have, like it aint no thing.
Quite a few Slashdotters are like that. I have 5 or 6 usable PCs and try different things on them for experience and learning and goofing off.
I've used a couple of different versions of RedHat and Debian, Turbolinux (it came on a CD with my NIC), and started off with Slackware in 1994. I've been using Debian lately but have fond memories of Slackware, and from what I've heard Gentoo sounds right up my alley.
Of course this is not in a production environment.
And it does sound to me like Gentoo is for the people like me who goof around. (Bleeding edge source-based distros don't sound like what I'd want to administer at work, though.)
Oh, and by the way: Word!
It reads even better if you play the theme to Star Trek at the same time.
Note that everything said about Microsoft going down hinges on the opening " if Microsoft goes down".
I thought I didn't need to point that out, but this is Slashdot and I'm sure I do need to point that out.
Microsoft will sit in the background. . .
Riiiiiiight.
If Microsoft goes down it will go kicking, screaming and suing all the way. Or in Microsoftese it will go down "emracing and extending" all the way.
Then again they may do something incredibly intelligent and milk their assets and power for all they're worth all the way down.
My half-Japanese lady friend has one of the water-spraying toilet lids. (An add-on bidet.) It has a wireless remote control to adjust strength and temperature.
I was reluctant to try it at first, but finally did. It gets you cleaner than toilet paper but takes a bit of getting used to.
But for about US$300 I'll pass.
You mean the MP3's and movies are still out there? Damn my ISP.
Last time I checked those NG's were gone from Ameritech's (=SBC's) newsfeed.
It has started.
If the groups are still there and someone makes a search and download tool it will require a file index somewhere which would have to be centralized, wouldn't it? If it's centralized and categorizes where to download copyrighted works against their licenses then the *IAA's can go after it.
I was wondering when someone would point that out.
Besides, digital projection currently has poorer resolution than 35mm film. I doubt it will overtake 70mm film anytime soon, and I suspect the theaters will have to upgrade projectors frequently as the technology gets better.
Come to think of it, if some piracy is an inside job don't you think someone could modify the projector to get a digital rip? That would be a better pirate movie than a camcorder pointed at a screen could get.
Plus, how do you get every theater in the world to buy new digital projectors? If they figure that out then the stock market will finally recover in the projector manufacturing boom.
Then again, this idea is from the guy who marketed DivX discs when DVD was coming out. Great idea. Sure people want to pay for a movie disc that is pay-per-view.
And we had to walk uphill in the snow to flip 8 switches to program our computers. That's right, we programmed in 8-bit machine language, sonny! But damnit, we were GLAD to have those switches! They gave us character. Your generation should try programming with switches, too.
Slacker.
Don't forget the power-ups:
-Ego-stomper boots
-"Let's Just Be Friends" Yellow Armor
-"But I Don't Want to Risk our Friendship" Red Armor
-"I Love You": Invulnerability for 20 minutes
-"I Like Nice Men" Invisibility (Actually phase out of reality)
(Sorry these are Quake-centric; I've never played TR)
I moved to Indiana a year ago after living my entire life in DST zones, and I thought not having to worry about DST would be nice.
But it's actually weirder because the rest of the (preceived) world goes on DST.
Sporting events happen at different times, TV shows air at different times (and there is discrepancy between cable & broadcast times), and scheduled work conference calls change times.
If you think forgetting to set one or two of your clocks back is a pain, try having half of your daily schedule change times and keep straight what changes and what doesn't.
As far as the article goes, admins may not need to understand the technical details of what cron does two hours out of every year, but they sure as hell had better know if their backups and periodic maintenance is getting done!
Then again in cases I've worked missing one backup wouldn't be critical.
My idea of a way to fix the system is that we should have the money and item go through ebay. Sure this will add overhead and costs, but it protects both the buyers and the sellers.
Um, yeah, that might work.
Or they could implement some sort of rating system where buyers have the option of choosing from a seller who's well-rated by other buyers or settling for an unrated seller.
Or eBay could just buy a building, set up tables, and let people come in with their products and sell them to people with immeidate personaly delivery.
</sarcasm>
Seriously, what you describe is an escrow transaction, and you can do that through a third party or you can save money and take a chance like most everyone else.
Depending on the price and item I may insist on a highly rated buyer. If it's a decent risk to get a good deal I'll risk $30-$50. I haven't been burned yet, thank goodness.
OT: Hey, I have a "No +1 Bonus checkbox". I've made it! You like me, you really like me! <sniff>
What the heck are you doing in an appartment? You are pissing away your rent every month.
It depends on each person's situation. Who is secure in their job these days? I moved 900 miles from everyone I know for my current job, and I don't know where I'm going to be a year or two from now. Doesn't make much sense for me to buy a house, does it?
If something happens to my job I'm bailing out of the lease and driving back to family and a familiar area. It's harder to abandon a house.