"and this year, they become a charity organization, meaning that contributions for US citizens will be tax deductions. Yay, tax deductions!"
Great so now my tax dollars are effectively paying for Gnome, since anyone who deducts their donations is taking money out of the tax pool. Thanks a lot for forcing me to pay for your software. What a bunch of communists.
"Only an ignoramous would claim that the impact of money on our political system in negligable."
I never claimed this. All the money in the world won't help you, however, if no one likes your platform. The fact that the DMCA is law shows that people are for it or don't care, probably the latter. It's political suicide to go against the wishes of your constituents, regardless of how much money you're offered.
I'm sure Hollywood will threaten to pull movies from broadcast if no drm is enabled. I believe the real story involves some smart-card-based SmartRight technology that I read about in a print version of EE times
talk has been on unix for some time as well. The AOL patent talks about a system where you can see who is online, however, and IM them. talk didn't support this.
There was a day when returning anything was a hassle. You had to show it was defective in some way within a reasonable period of time after purchasing it. Just because stores have allowed returns on merchandise doesn't mean they're obligated. If something isn't defective, the store has no obligation to take it back. It's not in a stores best interest to allow people to return media given how easy it is to make a perfect copy of it. So they don't and there's no law that says they must.
This article is a joke. His conclusions are no more sensible than thos of the RIAA. The only thing that is true from the stats is that cd sales are down after 10 years of growth in sales. The reasons are more complicated than either side will admit. Both the economy and piracy are factors. Saying piracy isn't a factor is delusional. Saying piracy is the only reason is equally delusional.
You can protest copyright by violating the law, but you need to accept the consequences if you are caught. In this case, the DMCA, although bad legislation, is the consequence for piracy. Apparently, no one feels sympathy for copyright pirates in congress.
People are so out of touch with reality around here. There is a lot more supply then demand for teachers in the US. Kids who want to learn here have the opportunity. As for elections, they counted the number of votes, not the number of dollars spent, to decide who won.
"You are living in a fantasy world. Did you get that way with medication, or are you just naturally naive?"
If I'm living in a fantas world, why did Clinton serve 2 terms? Companies with deep pockets didn't want him there.
"You're saying that you don't want to be rich, because you'll be punished with higher taxes? Or are you saying that rich people actually have a tougher life than people who are poor, due to taxation? Maybe you're saying... what the fuck are you saying?"
I'm saying I might as well not bother trying to be rich, because the work involved is not worth it given the govt's cut. Might as well just put in my 40 hrs at the factory, since I don't make much less anyway, and it's a lot easier and less time consuming. Of course people will still get rich, but you destroy the incetive. Read Ayn Rand. Wait, get a brain 1st, you asshole.
Who's going to pay the author? You can't make money if you need to pay the author, and the freeloaders are not copying the author. Getting in early gives you maybe a week with today's technology
Yes. To provide another analogy. It is illegal to FAX ads to people with FAX machines. The reason is that the recipient must pay for paper and toner, and is therefore paying for your advertising. Similarly, spam uses ISP network resources and disk space, which is an expense for the ISP that they should not need to deal with. Free speech does not mean you get your venue for free as well.
"So I take the "try my best" approach. I "steal" mp3s from friends or napster rather than give money to RIAA affiliated record companies. I try to go to theatres where I know the owner, so they will let me in without printing a ticket, so none of the money goes to the MPAA companies."
These practices legitimize the RIAA/MPAA position. Of course there will be DRM and the DMCA. It's because of jerks like you.
"You are right on. I would like to comment that if you boycott movies like LoTR, you are letting the MPAA win - they're still taking away your freedom."
Which amendment was the one where you have the right to see a well acted, well directed version of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings? I can't seem to find it in the constitution. I'll bet that's a right in Soviet Russia though.
If your complaint about the RIAA/MPAA is DRM/DMCA related, you might consider that given the rampant copying on Kazaa/Limewire/Morpheus, they have a point. The argument that they are not losing money is irrelevant. They are entitled to copyright by law, and it's being violated. They have a right to choose their business model, whether or not you agree with it. Maybe if we made a concerted effort to reduce piracy on the p2p networks, they'd be able to back down as well. However, slashdotters tend to accept piracy as natural, but then have the gall to call the MPAA/RIAA evil for defending themselves against it. People complain that they're buying legislation. Well, they're doing it with your money and they'f keep the money themselves if they didn't think it was saving them money in the long run.
If you don't like the prices of the MPAA/RIAA, boycott and picketing is the only legal course of action. I usually only buy cds from BMG at about $4 on average, and rarely see movies in theaters.
"It's impossible to educate kids with underpaid teachers, in overcrowded schools, with substandard books and materials, and buildings that are falling apart. Either you spend money to fix all that or you dumb down the kids."
Neither finance nor teacher qualifications are the primary problem. I can teach kids reading and math without a huge budget if they want to learn. If they and their parents aren't interested in learning, all the money in the world isn't going to change that however. I've known at least 1 teacher who can attest to this problem.
""Pretend donations to govt. count more than votes on election day."
What do you mean pretend? Does anybody dispute this?
"
All the money in the world can't legally buy you one single vote on election day. Politicians do what the voters want in the end. Although money influences politics, voting citizens opinions influence politics much more. Otherwise, the tax system in the US wouldn't punish the rich for succeeding, for instance.
"You want to know how to stop illegal immegration? Jail any business owner who hires an illegal."
The internet started out as DARPANET, DARPA standing for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Basically Darpa (i.e. the US govt.) paid to have the initial network developed.
The 1st publisher has to pay all the advertising and promotion costs, plus take all the risk in printing copies, plus any up front money guaranteed to the author. If another publisher can print the same book (looks identical), and not pay these costs, he cAn sell the book cheaper. Same thing in the music industry. Otherwise cds would cost about $2 each.
At whose expense? The Soviet Union and China have tried this experiment. Look at where they are. One went bankrupt. The other is turning to capitalism. There's little incentive to be productive if you can't profit from it.
Slashdot Mirror
"And unlike the Napster guys, this guy's tool's primary purpose and most common use, wasn't copyright infringement. "
I can just see the salesmen now: "you should only use this software to make backup copies, or move the copy to a new machine". wink wink nudge nudge.
"and this year, they become a charity organization, meaning that contributions for US citizens will be tax deductions. Yay, tax deductions!"
Great so now my tax dollars are effectively paying for Gnome, since anyone who deducts their donations is taking money out of the tax pool. Thanks a lot for forcing me to pay for your software. What a bunch of communists.
It doesn't take a lot of money to get some expert consulting, especially after getting burned.
"You clearly don't understand the DMCA, since it has nothing whatsoever to do with napster."
I'm not talking about Napster. I'm talking about copyright law enforcement.
"Bankruptcy. Big deal. Especially since there's about 0% chance I'll get caught."
That's why the DMCA exists, and why we will have DRM. Because jerks like you are ruining it for everyone else.
"Only an ignoramous would claim that the impact of money on our political system in negligable."
I never claimed this. All the money in the world won't help you, however, if no one likes your platform. The fact that the DMCA is law shows that people are for it or don't care, probably the latter. It's political suicide to go against the wishes of your constituents, regardless of how much money you're offered.
Didn't Patterson invent the SPARC risc architecture? I believe Hennessy invented MIPS. A very good book. Hennessy is president of Stanford now too.
I'm sure Hollywood will threaten to pull movies from broadcast if no drm is enabled. I believe the real story involves some smart-card-based SmartRight technology that I read about in a print version of EE times
Did you consider that the RIAA could close the hole once in, but leave themselves a backdoor?
talk has been on unix for some time as well. The AOL patent talks about a system where you can see who is online, however, and IM them. talk didn't support this.
There was a day when returning anything was a hassle. You had to show it was defective in some way within a reasonable period of time after purchasing it. Just because stores have allowed returns on merchandise doesn't mean they're obligated. If something isn't defective, the store has no obligation to take it back. It's not in a stores best interest to allow people to return media given how easy it is to make a perfect copy of it. So they don't and there's no law that says they must.
This article is a joke. His conclusions are no more sensible than thos of the RIAA. The only thing that is true from the stats is that cd sales are down after 10 years of growth in sales. The reasons are more complicated than either side will admit. Both the economy and piracy are factors. Saying piracy isn't a factor is delusional. Saying piracy is the only reason is equally delusional.
You can protest copyright by violating the law, but you need to accept the consequences if you are caught. In this case, the DMCA, although bad legislation, is the consequence for piracy. Apparently, no one feels sympathy for copyright pirates in congress.
People are so out of touch with reality around here. There is a lot more supply then demand for teachers in the US. Kids who want to learn here have the opportunity. As for elections, they counted the number of votes, not the number of dollars spent, to decide who won.
"You are living in a fantasy world. Did you get that way with medication, or are you just naturally naive?"
If I'm living in a fantas world, why did Clinton serve 2 terms? Companies with deep pockets didn't want him there.
"You're saying that you don't want to be rich, because you'll be punished with higher taxes? Or are you saying that rich people actually have a tougher life than people who are poor, due to taxation? Maybe you're saying... what the fuck are you saying?"
I'm saying I might as well not bother trying to be rich, because the work involved is not worth it given the govt's cut. Might as well just put in my 40 hrs at the factory, since I don't make much less anyway, and it's a lot easier and less time consuming. Of course people will still get rich, but you destroy the incetive. Read Ayn Rand. Wait, get a brain 1st, you asshole.
Who's going to pay the author? You can't make money if you need to pay the author, and the freeloaders are not copying the author. Getting in early gives you maybe a week with today's technology
or are they baiting stupid spammers into showing up as well, so they can beat the crap out of them?
Yes. To provide another analogy. It is illegal to FAX ads to people with FAX machines. The reason is that the recipient must pay for paper and toner, and is therefore paying for your advertising. Similarly, spam uses ISP network resources and disk space, which is an expense for the ISP that they should not need to deal with. Free speech does not mean you get your venue for free as well.
"So I take the "try my best" approach. I "steal" mp3s from friends or napster rather than give money to RIAA affiliated record companies. I try to go to theatres where I know the owner, so they will let me in without printing a ticket, so none of the money goes to the MPAA companies."
These practices legitimize the RIAA/MPAA position. Of course there will be DRM and the DMCA. It's because of jerks like you.
"You are right on. I would like to comment that if you boycott movies like LoTR, you are letting the MPAA win - they're still taking away your freedom."
Which amendment was the one where you have the right to see a well acted, well directed version of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings? I can't seem to find it in the constitution. I'll bet that's a right in Soviet Russia though.
If your complaint about the RIAA/MPAA is DRM/DMCA related, you might consider that given the rampant copying on Kazaa/Limewire/Morpheus, they have a point. The argument that they are not losing money is irrelevant. They are entitled to copyright by law, and it's being violated. They have a right to choose their business model, whether or not you agree with it. Maybe if we made a concerted effort to reduce piracy on the p2p networks, they'd be able to back down as well. However, slashdotters tend to accept piracy as natural, but then have the gall to call the MPAA/RIAA evil for defending themselves against it. People complain that they're buying legislation. Well, they're doing it with your money and they'f keep the money themselves if they didn't think it was saving them money in the long run.
If you don't like the prices of the MPAA/RIAA, boycott and picketing is the only legal course of action. I usually only buy cds from BMG at about $4 on average, and rarely see movies in theaters.
If you steal their music, you prove that they are right. Stealing their music is a vote for DRM, encrypted CDs, etc.
"It's impossible to educate kids with underpaid teachers, in overcrowded schools, with substandard books and materials, and buildings that are falling apart. Either you spend money to fix all that or you dumb down the kids."
Neither finance nor teacher qualifications are the primary problem. I can teach kids reading and math without a huge budget if they want to learn. If they and their parents aren't interested in learning, all the money in the world isn't going to change that however. I've known at least 1 teacher who can attest to this problem.
""Pretend donations to govt. count more than votes on election day." What do you mean pretend? Does anybody dispute this? "
All the money in the world can't legally buy you one single vote on election day. Politicians do what the voters want in the end. Although money influences politics, voting citizens opinions influence politics much more. Otherwise, the tax system in the US wouldn't punish the rich for succeeding, for instance.
"You want to know how to stop illegal immegration? Jail any business owner who hires an illegal."
I'm with you on that one.
The internet started out as DARPANET, DARPA standing for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Basically Darpa (i.e. the US govt.) paid to have the initial network developed.
The 1st publisher has to pay all the advertising and promotion costs, plus take all the risk in printing copies, plus any up front money guaranteed to the author. If another publisher can print the same book (looks identical), and not pay these costs, he cAn sell the book cheaper. Same thing in the music industry. Otherwise cds would cost about $2 each.
At whose expense? The Soviet Union and China have tried this experiment. Look at where they are. One went bankrupt. The other is turning to capitalism. There's little incentive to be productive if you can't profit from it.