" And that's why the USSR had so much success in technology because the government played such a defining role."
They only success the USSR had in technology was in military related technology, because that's what they govt. was interested in. I prefer a society where individuals start companies to meet real demand, then having the govt. run everything and make guesses about what people really want. There's not enough feedback in the system to make it efficient, as the great Soviet experiment proved.
"So that's how the RIAA and MPAA can bring all those lawsuits to bear on US citizens?"
They are rightfully suing law breakers who are stealing their property. The GPL relies on the same copyright laws, BTW. Would you complain if the FSF started suing over GPL violations?
"The only reason there are gutters is for the businesses to dump the little guys when they're done with them. The politicians are standing shoulder to shoulder with the big corps over this, too - that's why US drug prices remain at the highest levels in the western world, and why laws like the DMCA and the INDUCE Act will continue to make their way onto the books."
The US pays the most for prescription drugs because the rest of the world points guns at the industry and force them to price products at the govts. terms with little or no say. Not cooincidentally, the US by far creates the most breakthroughs in prescription drugs since it is the only place in the world where you are rewarded for such a risky venture.
"So long as politicians keep get big $$$ from big business, there's going to be a severe tilt towards serving business interests as opposed to human interests. I'm surprised there haven't been overtures to ban political donations from corporations - I think it would fix a lot of problems."
As long as politicians get $$$s from labor unions and trial lawyers businessmen will be persecuted by govt. regulation restricting their freedoms to benefit other people who didn't earn it. If big business has such an influence over the govt. Why is 95% of taxes paid by the top 50% of the population, and why do the richest 1% pay over 50% in income taxes?
This is bs. Capitalism and free market have existed since 2 people made an agreement 2 exchange goods they though of equivalent worth but didn't have themselves. Capitalism has been under attack since a person had the idea of beating up another person with a club and taking his stuff without exchanging anything for it.
Wrong. Free market means free from government regulations restricting trade and pricing. A free market chose MS in this instance because compatibility is the single most important feature for most users, and MS was one of the first to sell OSs.
You don't have to be for George Bush to realize Kerry is a socialist. However, your point are ridiculous.
1. The Patriot act may have a lot of problems, but saying is prevents you from speaking out against the govt. is stupid.
2. Health care plans are not run by the govt. If you don't like your health care plan, you can complain to your company or take a more expensive plan through them, or pay for your own health care insurance that lets you pick your doctor.
3. The US has hundreds of channels to watch. No one's forcing you to watch FOX.
4. Saying people don't own property in the US is just stupid. Even if the average person carries around debt doesn't mean he has no assets.
5. The govt. telling lies isn't special to any system. In the US we have a free press to catch George Bush in his lies.
Kerry is a socialist because, among other things, he believes in tax brackets to redistribute wealth and he believes in nationalizing health care, and he believes in govt.
You should take a class in logic. You don't seem to understand the first principles. If someone says Kerry is a communist, that doesn't mean they like Bush btter. Also, poor attempts to compare Bush to what communists have done doesn't make sense because you're not showing cause-effect.
"Anyway, fear is fueled by isolation, compasion is fueled by interaction, which helps with empathy. That's why rural places trend towards conservative and urban areas trend towards liberal. It's also why you see weird paradoxes between the two as well, like people who manage to isolate themselves in urban areas. There are other factors, like availability of opportunity, but that should provide some explanation for your observation."
No. Urban people vote democrat because they are largely poor, and want the state to take money from those who earn it and give it to them. Rural and suburban areas are more self sufficient and resent the government playing Robin Hood with their hard earned money.
"In fact it could be argued that most or all major episodes of genocide in humanity's history were perpetrated by people who had successfully inhibited their own ability to empathize with their victims."
Of the 3 biggest killers in history. 2 were socialists and one was a Nazi (another type of socialism differeing from Marxist socialism). Where was their empathy? This article is a load of crap.
The "liberals" who founded this country did not believe in social security, welfare, monopoly regulation, tax brackets, etc. In short they weren't liberal by any modern definition. They were libertarians.
All the 9/11 hijackers entered the US using falsified passports and you see no need to improve the system and conjure up some irrational fear based on a book written against an etirely different threat to justify yourself? Emigrate to north Korea and find out what they authro of 1984 was really talking about
"The point is, the RIAA are using the courts systems to attack and abuse people."
No, people used p2p systems to abuse record labels. The RIAA is going to court to get justice. The people being sued are guilty. They have no defense. If you charged them a dollar per song transfer, the fine would be a lot higher than they're actually paying.
Why is something wrong if done for profit but not wrong if done for personal reasons? You may want to rethink your morality if you think this is rational.
"If it's there, and can be statistically proven, the next step is to tell the media the RIAA is selectively targeting poor people. A good strong piece of evidence, like RIAA plantiffs averageing 20% below median income, deserves a nice simple "National Enquirer" type headline, like "RIAA out to crush the working class", don't you think? Offer the press a chance for one like that, and some of them will bite."
60 Mintues just did a piece on movie swapping using p2p. It didn't cast p2p users or p2p developers in a good light. I don't think there is a lot of sympathy for people who steal music and movies online (and don't bore me with your equivocation about how copyright infringement isn't theft).
"I'm already thinking of hacks... I wonder how hard it would be to spoof GPS signals? Of course, 5 cents worth of aluminum foil over the sensor would work, too. Only if they correlate their measure of distance versus the car's odometer would they know if the system had been duped."
If you hack the box and get in an accident, I doubt the insurance company is going to pay you anything since you got in an accident in a place where you didn't pay to be insured.
"Sez you. I say human nature is cooperation. And, hey, look, I presnted just as much evidence as you did."
Capitalism is as much about cooperation as competition. Just look at how many people must cooperate to produce a computer chip. You have everything from companies that make fab machines, fabs themselves, chip designers, packaging, etc. Capitalism forces cooperation since it's the only way to effectively compete,
Of course, if people stopped stealing copyrighted material on p2p networks, it would become a non-issue, not worth the price of lobbyists or lawyers by either the RIAA or MPAA, and the govt. would leave us alone. But of course, instead of condemning the theives, we condemn the victims on/. 60 Minutes wasn't too sympathetic, and the mainstream will never be until we cleam up our act.
Why do you care what Real does? Why do you want to take a choice away from other people just because it's a choice you don't want to make? Saying Real is a hypocrite is irrational, BTW. Just because they don't support mac doesn't mean they object to supporting mac. They simply may not have the resources at this time.
Yeah, Real making the music they sell directly playable on the most popular portable music player in the world was a horrible decision. What were they thinking? What are the moderators who modded this up thinking?
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" And that's why the USSR had so much success in technology because the government played such a defining role."
They only success the USSR had in technology was in military related technology, because that's what they govt. was interested in. I prefer a society where individuals start companies to meet real demand, then having the govt. run everything and make guesses about what people really want. There's not enough feedback in the system to make it efficient, as the great Soviet experiment proved.
" What about the fact that it doesn't work with the iTunes Music Store?"
If you're not buying an iPod, you're probably not buying music from Apple either.
"So that's how the RIAA and MPAA can bring all those lawsuits to bear on US citizens?"
They are rightfully suing law breakers who are stealing their property. The GPL relies on the same copyright laws, BTW. Would you complain if the FSF started suing over GPL violations?
"The only reason there are gutters is for the businesses to dump the little guys when they're done with them. The politicians are standing shoulder to shoulder with the big corps over this, too - that's why US drug prices remain at the highest levels in the western world, and why laws like the DMCA and the INDUCE Act will continue to make their way onto the books."
The US pays the most for prescription drugs because the rest of the world points guns at the industry and force them to price products at the govts. terms with little or no say. Not cooincidentally, the US by far creates the most breakthroughs in prescription drugs since it is the only place in the world where you are rewarded for such a risky venture.
"So long as politicians keep get big $$$ from big business, there's going to be a severe tilt towards serving business interests as opposed to human interests. I'm surprised there haven't been overtures to ban political donations from corporations - I think it would fix a lot of problems."
As long as politicians get $$$s from labor unions and trial lawyers businessmen will be persecuted by govt. regulation restricting their freedoms to benefit other people who didn't earn it. If big business has such an influence over the govt. Why is 95% of taxes paid by the top 50% of the population, and why do the richest 1% pay over 50% in income taxes?
This is bs. Capitalism and free market have existed since 2 people made an agreement 2 exchange goods they though of equivalent worth but didn't have themselves. Capitalism has been under attack since a person had the idea of beating up another person with a club and taking his stuff without exchanging anything for it.
Wrong. Free market means free from government regulations restricting trade and pricing. A free market chose MS in this instance because compatibility is the single most important feature for most users, and MS was one of the first to sell OSs.
"There aren't many users of MS-DOS 1.0 either, yet one may easily argue that WinXP still carries flaws from that old "OS" today."
No. WinXP is derive fromWinNT, which has nothing to do with MSDOS
Even more reason to improve screening.
You don't have to be for George Bush to realize Kerry is a socialist. However, your point are ridiculous.
1. The Patriot act may have a lot of problems, but saying is prevents you from speaking out against the govt. is stupid.
2. Health care plans are not run by the govt. If you don't like your health care plan, you can complain to your company or take a more expensive plan through them, or pay for your own health care insurance that lets you pick your doctor.
3. The US has hundreds of channels to watch. No one's forcing you to watch FOX.
4. Saying people don't own property in the US is just stupid. Even if the average person carries around debt doesn't mean he has no assets.
5. The govt. telling lies isn't special to any system. In the US we have a free press to catch George Bush in his lies.
Kerry is a socialist because, among other things, he believes in tax brackets to redistribute wealth and he believes in nationalizing health care, and he believes in govt.
You should take a class in logic. You don't seem to understand the first principles. If someone says Kerry is a communist, that doesn't mean they like Bush btter. Also, poor attempts to compare Bush to what communists have done doesn't make sense because you're not showing cause-effect.
"I still maintain that suing your customers, whether your are the RIAA or SCO, can have a chilling effect on sales."
A person who is making hundreds of your songs available for download by anyone in the world is not your customer. He is your competitor.
"Anyway, fear is fueled by isolation, compasion is fueled by interaction, which helps with empathy. That's why rural places trend towards conservative and urban areas trend towards liberal. It's also why you see weird paradoxes between the two as well, like people who manage to isolate themselves in urban areas. There are other factors, like availability of opportunity, but that should provide some explanation for your observation."
No. Urban people vote democrat because they are largely poor, and want the state to take money from those who earn it and give it to them. Rural and suburban areas are more self sufficient and resent the government playing Robin Hood with their hard earned money.
"In fact it could be argued that most or all major episodes of genocide in humanity's history were perpetrated by people who had successfully inhibited their own ability to empathize with their victims."
Of the 3 biggest killers in history. 2 were socialists and one was a Nazi (another type of socialism differeing from Marxist socialism). Where was their empathy? This article is a load of crap.
The "liberals" who founded this country did not believe in social security, welfare, monopoly regulation, tax brackets, etc. In short they weren't liberal by any modern definition. They were libertarians.
"Easy. "Libertarians" aka "Anarchists" don't use their brains for thinking. For them it's a convenient shock absorber and nothing more."
Libertarians are not anarchists. I think I've found one person who doesn't use his brain for thinking though.
All the 9/11 hijackers entered the US using falsified passports and you see no need to improve the system and conjure up some irrational fear based on a book written against an etirely different threat to justify yourself? Emigrate to north Korea and find out what they authro of 1984 was really talking about
rather tha posting a story like this, they prefer to champion nothing stories that advance the editors' agenda.
"The point is, the RIAA are using the courts systems to attack and abuse people."
No, people used p2p systems to abuse record labels. The RIAA is going to court to get justice. The people being sued are guilty. They have no defense. If you charged them a dollar per song transfer, the fine would be a lot higher than they're actually paying.
Why is something wrong if done for profit but not wrong if done for personal reasons? You may want to rethink your morality if you think this is rational.
"If it's there, and can be statistically proven, the next step is to tell the media the RIAA is selectively targeting poor people. A good strong piece of evidence, like RIAA plantiffs averageing 20% below median income, deserves a nice simple "National Enquirer" type headline, like "RIAA out to crush the working class", don't you think? Offer the press a chance for one like that, and some of them will bite."
60 Mintues just did a piece on movie swapping using p2p. It didn't cast p2p users or p2p developers in a good light. I don't think there is a lot of sympathy for people who steal music and movies online (and don't bore me with your equivocation about how copyright infringement isn't theft).
"I'm already thinking of hacks... I wonder how hard it would be to spoof GPS signals? Of course, 5 cents worth of aluminum foil over the sensor would work, too. Only if they correlate their measure of distance versus the car's odometer would they know if the system had been duped."
If you hack the box and get in an accident, I doubt the insurance company is going to pay you anything since you got in an accident in a place where you didn't pay to be insured.
"Sez you.
I say human nature is cooperation. And, hey, look, I presnted just as much evidence as you did."
Capitalism is as much about cooperation as competition. Just look at how many people must cooperate to produce a computer chip. You have everything from companies that make fab machines, fabs themselves, chip designers, packaging, etc. Capitalism forces cooperation since it's the only way to effectively compete,
Of course, if people stopped stealing copyrighted material on p2p networks, it would become a non-issue, not worth the price of lobbyists or lawyers by either the RIAA or MPAA, and the govt. would leave us alone. But of course, instead of condemning the theives, we condemn the victims on /. 60 Minutes wasn't too sympathetic, and the mainstream will never be until we cleam up our act.
"As it stands, however, people have exercised their freedom of choice - and they've chosing the iPod and iTMS."
NO. APPLE has exercised it's freedom of choice. All iPod users will only buy music from iTMS (to the extent we can keep it this way).
Why do you care what Real does? Why do you want to take a choice away from other people just because it's a choice you don't want to make? Saying Real is a hypocrite is irrational, BTW. Just because they don't support mac doesn't mean they object to supporting mac. They simply may not have the resources at this time.
"As such, *that* is the problem people should be focusing on: why Real's management was too inept to make a deal happen."
Same reason the mac clone industry died. Jobs believes in monopolies, and he wants to keep his fairplay AAC monopoly.
Yeah, Real making the music they sell directly playable on the most popular portable music player in the world was a horrible decision. What were they thinking? What are the moderators who modded this up thinking?