Actually, the most offensive (and, unfortunatley, not uncommon) vibe in your post has to with your sense of ownership over the "system."
You say you are willing to crack open an employee's mailbox at the first hint of something bad. Well, geez louise, Mr. Ness, I'm guessing that, unless you work in a three-man college boutique Web design shop, you're not really in any official position to determine when it's time to drop the hammer on someone who has "crossed the line."
The best thing is to establish your view of things up front Sorry, Tex, the best thing is to have e-mail policies defined in an employee handbook which the new perp, er, I mean, worker signs. If you, as a sysAdmin, want to contribute to Fighting for Truth and Justice, put the six-shooter down and research your state's and the federal guidelines for how these things are legally handled, and back-stop your HR department by ensuring your company's policies are at least as stringent as the law.
Never open another employee's e-mail, unless instructed to do so by your supervisor (or your CEO. Duh.) The policy every where I have seen regarding ex-employees' files, electronic or otherwise, was to ensure they were promptly turned over to that ex-employee's former supervisor. But made privy to a sysAdmin? You gotta be kidding!
letting your coworkers know your stance on these things can be beneficial It's not Your stance, Linus. It's the company's policy. That's how you need to represent it to "your" users. If your company does not have an official stance on these mattters (not uncommon five years ago but hard to imagine today), find the right person (Hint: He ain't in the IT Group) and offer to assist in writing it. Ultimately, if your "stance" discreps with the policy of the company, expect to part ways.
I got fired for doing that a few weeks ago. errm, that may have been the reason they cited, but I'm guessing the gun's been cocked and loaded for a while.
I share your pain, friend, but you're in the wrong forum to complain about it. Remember, this is the place where, back in July, they interviewed Piers Anthony with a specific mind to quiz him about the word processor he uses to write his novels.
I'm still cleaning the coffee off my monitor from the spit-take I did on that one.
If you're going to insist on participating in the conversation, jyx, do please try to follow along.
The poster to whom I was responding asked the question, in essence, "since when do companies own art?" I reminded him that it is not unusual, indeed it is the norm, for artists to sign away their copyright to these companies in exchange for, among other things, money up front.
time limited monopoly... ten years Huh? What does monopoly have to do with anything? It sounds like you're getting your SlashDot anti-corporate buzzwords mixed up.
A fun toy, but their advertising strategy cannot be condoned.
I've pasted the WSJ article you cite below.
Personally, I think it's a hoot! Nothing more than any new restaurant or bar in downtown Manhattan has done for years. (If it wasn't for a never-ending parade of SoHo eatery openings, some of my actor friends would never eat...)
My favorite line: The complaint that the company is not creating an "honest buzz."
FROM THE WSJ: Sony Ericsson Campaign Uses Actors To Push Camera-Phone in Real Life
By SUZANNE VRANICA Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In a campaign set to start Thursday, the U.S. arm of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. will take "guerrilla" marketing to a new level. Its goal: to get consumers to pay attention to the new T68i, a mobile phone that can double as a digital camera.
In one initiative, dubbed Fake Tourist, 60 trained actors and actresses will haunt tourist attractions such as the Empire State Building in New York and the Space Needle in Seattle. Working in teams of two or three and behaving as if they were actual tourists, the actors and actresses will ask unsuspecting passersby to take their pictures. [Sony Ericsson's T68i] Sony Ericsson's T68i
Presto: instant product demonstrations.
A second stunt will involve the use of "leaners" -- 60 actresses and female models with extensive training in the phone's features who will frequent trendy lounges and bars without telling the establishments what they're up to. The women are getting scripted scenarios designed to help them engage strangers in conversation. One involves having an actress's phone ring while she's in the bar -- and having the caller's picture pop up on the screen. In another scenario, two women sit at opposite ends of the bar playing an interactive version of the Battleship game on their phones.
So far, so good. But do the actors then identify themselves as working on behalf of Sony Ericsson? Not if they can help it. The idea is to have onlookers think they've stumbled onto a hot new product. Sony Ericsson, which plans to spend $5 million on the 60-day marketing campaign, says it's all in good fun and just an effort to get people talking.
Consumer activists, though, aren't amused. "It's deceptive," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, when told about the campaign. "People will be fooled into thinking this is honest buzz."
Even marketing executives disapprove. "It is reprehensible and desperate," says Paul MacFarlane, co-owner of the Experiment, a small ad firm in St. Louis, that has done work for Southwestern Bell and Anheuser-Busch. "They are trying to fabricate something that should be natural."
Sony Ericsson responds that most consumers won't be offended. "How many times do people that you don't know come up to you and talk to you?" asks Jon Maron, director of marketing communications at Sony Ericsson, which is a joint venture of Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Corp. of Japan.
"It's very natural, especially in a club or restaurant." He adds that the actors will confess that they work for the company if they are asked directly.
Peter Groome, president of Omnicom Group Inc.'s Fathom Communications, the marketing firm that created the plan, also defends the tactics. He insists that the campaign isn't "undercover" selling because the actors will simply demonstrate the product, not give a sales pitch.
Still, the company has gone to great lengths to train its actors to avoid detection. "If you put them in a Sony Ericsson shirt, then people are going to be less likely to listen to them in a bar," Mr. Groome says.
Other components of the promotional campaign are more commonly used buzz initiatives. One involves "Phone Finds," in which the company will place dummy phones around cities so that consumers can accidentally stumble on them. The screen on the phone will direct the finders to a special Web site, where they will be able to enter a contest to win a free phone. The new phone with camera attachment, priced between $300 and $400, will hit stores next week.
Less covert buzz marketing strategies have been around for years, but their use surged during the dot-com boom. Many companies that couldn't afford expensive TV ads hired young marketing firms to convey their messages in attention-getting ways.
As concepts became more elaborate and intrusive, they began to be referred to as guerrilla marketing or stealth marketing.
Among the companies that have used such buzz marketing: Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Jim Beam Brands Worldwide Inc. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, for its Mini car.
Faced with the ad recession, some traditional agencies have also embraced the concept. For instance, Young & Rubicam, a unit of London's WPP Group PLC, opened a U.S. division called Brand Buzz and is rolling out the unit to its European offices.
But there are limits. Veteran marketers warn that advertisers who are trying to generate positive word-of-mouth about a brand or a new product will do better in the long run if they are honest with consumers.
David Lubars, president and executive creative director at Publicis Groupe SA's Fallon Worldwide, says promotional campaigns that are perceived as dishonest could backfire. "If the consumer finds out after the encounter, they are going to be mad," he says.
When did companies earn the priviledge to own copywrite?
At the point when the artist signs it over to them, in exchange for an advance and/or global distribution and promotion facilities. Or at the point when he signs a "work-for-hire" agreement, and gets a steady paycheck in exchange for a little less pressure.
When the fifes stop tweeting, the drums stop rum-tumming, and all the clenched fists make their collective way out of the air and back into blue-jeaned pockets, small children still need new shoes, and the writers, artists, and musicians who are their moms and dads have to buy them.
When you save, the program will nag you to save it as [a proprietary format] file and warn you that it "may" contain advanced features that will be lost if you don't.
Yeah, well, so does OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet. Probably because the warnings -- from both MS and OO.o -- are valid. MS does a lot of bullying, but I would hardly call this an example of it.
Granted, those "advanced features" are probably only used by less than 5% of either Excel or Calc users, and the developers could arguably write code smart enough to check your spreadsheet to see if it contained one of the freakazoid special features, but... overall not worth worrying about.
Every time I see the term "productivity suite" associated with Microsoft Office, I almost loose control of my bladder.
See a doctor.
There is nothing comparable (as a PIM) to Outlook in Windows. Symbian's Evolution approaches it for Linux (albeit lacking PocketPC synch support), but this is about Gateway's Win boxes.
ACT! comes close, but it is skewed too strongly towards Sales and Marketing executives.
Intro of an Outlook-free office suite is going to bring the hammer down on a lot of IT guys from various corner offices. And MS, of course, no dummies they, recognize and continue to play to this strength.
I write and business model professionally, and find OO.o's Write and Calc more than satisfactory; it ain't about the word processors and the spreadsheets. It's the PIM: how it handes and/or integrates with the e-mail client, how friendly it plays with both Palm and PocketPC PDA's, and how easy it is to mirror at the exec's home box.
...and on a semi-related note, does anyone here remember Ecco? Now, That was a PIM! Or how about that Ur-PIM, borne of forgotten technology from the days before the oceans swallowed Atlantis, Lotus' Agenda?
I'm open to recommendations in this area, but I've looked around enough not to be hopeful.
Bought one over a Tivo specifically for the "commercial advance" feature. It's brilliant! But, uh, yeah, I can see the advertisers and the networks who take the advertisers' money getting their noses out of joint. (Note to SonicBlue: This feature works approx. 90% of the time. I'm guessing it looks for a 7.5 IRE black signal which it recognizes as the start of a break. Some cartoons, and a few of the more arty/Gothic shows (e.g., Buffy) seem to incorporate this pure black into some transitions.)
Interestingly, the purchase of the Box caused me to order more channels from DirecTV. Prior to owning one, "there was never anything good on" when I watched TV (which was usually when I was feeding a child or performing some other paternal act). Now -- a veritable virtual library of programs culled from the recently ordered History International, Discovery Science, DIY -- all the next-tier networks I thought sounded "cool" before but that I knew I would never have time to watch.
PVR's will simply crush the market for pre-school tape vids from networks like Noggin, 'Toon, and PBSKids. I got my own (Commercial Free!) kids channel now.
Seriously thinking of getting another box for the bedroom and/or office...
No, I'm not a SonicBlue employee or affiliated with them in anyway, but, I am enjoying being able to sing a product's praises for once instead of ripping it to shreds.
Does Walmart sell Penthouse / Playboy / Hustler? No?
Do they sell Time / Field & Stream / Sports Illustrated? Yes?
Then why isn't everyone here getting their panties in a bunch over _that_ bias? Why would not the clear policy they have for which print media they retail carry across into the electronic media they stock? Why should a retailer like Walmart make an exception for a one-trick pony console game? Hey, Mr. Magazine Man! Yeah, you! You're selling House & Garden, but I don't see no Juggs! What kind of friggin' hypocrite are you? Don't you know this is America, Land of the Free, and I gotta right to buy what I want where I want to? [spit]
[sigh] Sometimes it seems everybody is spoilin' for a fight, but all these Walmart guys are doing is looking to make a living and not piss off their core clientele. Seems to me they're behaving sensibly.
This may be a good time to mention that I just picked up the latest in David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series, published by Baen, War of Honor. It includes on CD the entire back-catalog of the Honor books, with the encouragement to distribute freely!
Actually, I do. So much that I have the original Hard Bound Copies (and the paper ones in the box that preceeded them, as well). Got them back circa '78 when I was a senior in High School. Been playing 'em in one form or another ever since.
But when you used your possession of digital copies of D&D Books as evidence that print piracy is alive and kicking, well, it was just a bit too perfect and I just couldn't resist.
So, take it easy, guy, we're on the same team. My apologies.
You're assuming a viral distribution of the text file, in the manner of MP3's, and that's not happening. Books are not making their way onto the P2P networks (thankfully!), and there simply is no impulsive copying of books going on, in the way that CD's or even video tapes (in their day) were copied. Yeah, there may be a couple, or even a hundred sociopaths with time on their hands who are making an effort to digitize the King canon, but the efforts of their work are not being disseminated (again, I say "thankfully").
Are books just not as in demand as music and video? (well, Duh...!) Or is there something preferable about the tactile sense of holding a book that we don't get from a computer screen or PDA?
>> Better to support sucky local bands than to give money to the RIAA so they can pay their freedom-stealing lawyers.
Her: "So where we going tonight, honey?"
Me: "Well, Needledick & The Butt-Fuckers are playing down at the Paramount, and I thought we..."
Her:Needledick? But you hate that band! The last time we saw them, you made a citizen's arrest of the sound technician and then got punched out by a waitress when you took a beer off her tray to throw at the rhythm guitarist!"
Me: "Yeah, well, let's just suck it up, okay? It's only a two-hour show, and we'll be screwing the RIAA and some lawyers over good."
Her: "Really?? Hey, count me in! Boy, you really know how to treat a girl!" [smooch]
Which reminds me, it's prolly not a bad idea to provide the Harlan KICK link here. Amidst the din created by the RIAA, MPAA, college kids and Linux SysAdmins, it doesn't hurt to hear the perspective of an artist periodically, particularly since, as far as ranting goes, Mr. Ellison holds a black belt
How do you figure? It's easier to copy the latest Stephen King bestseller than it is to copy the latest Britany bestseller? I can rip a 65-minute CD in seconds; a 500 page book in... hours, maybe? And that's upstream of any OCR, which is the only thing that would make it compressed and portable enough to be of any enduring use.
The text and images that Amazon et.al. use are teasers and promos, not complete copies by any means.
Piracy is an issue for the RIAA (as has been stated so many times on this board, it should be on a FAQ somewhere...) because CD burning and file-sharing programs made it easy for the average consumer to copy and distribute the media.
Text piracy has not taken off yet because it is a bitch to digitize the original paper. Video piracy is only now on the cusp of being a problem for the studios because, up until now, the average consumer was surfing a mere dial-up connection unsuitable for the larger filesizes.
Do they LIKE copying? It gets them attention that their music never could!
Yeah, but hasn't it been pretty well established here that all the silly dollar-sign-for-esses posts and virulent Anti-MS vitriol here is coming from the high school kids/L33t HAXX0rs? You're not gonna get that crowd to change merely by talking sense. For them, MS is like some comic-book super-villain.
As far as the whole quid-pro-pro thing goes, you gotta figure that there is probably very little you could do to some teen who gets so worked up over a computer operating system that their better-adjusted classmates haven't already done to them, in spades.
Are you following along on this thread? Or is everyone typing too quickly...?
The gentleman to whom I was responding expressed some dismay regarding a right-wing president nominating right-wing candidates for the FCC. I was pointing out how this should not be viewed as all that unusual, this country being a republic and all.
I've a question for you: Why do you post as Anonymous Coward? Don't you feel you lose almost all credibility when you do that?
Um, d00d, that's the way it works. The president is elected, and he nominates the people who represent his way of thinking. It would not work if, upon being elected, a president made decisions and nominations that ran counter to the philosophies he represented he stood for during his election.
Does it bother anyone else that he runs the country?
I'm certain it does, although I'll guess not as many people on this board as you think.
Content creators, owners, aggregators, and distributors.
What are you? Oh, "Anonymous Coward." Gotcha.
Seriously, what did you expect them to do? They are in the business of creating and locking down for distribution as much entertainment property as they can, as cost effectively as they can.
You may not like the American Entertainment Industry (please try to remember that when you are queuing up to see the latest Tolkien or Star Trek flick this Fall), but they are, as a business, generally speaking, brilliant at what they do, Disney especially. Brilliant and ruthless.
But "assholes?" No. And everyone who favors a change in the copyright extension laws would do well to remember that.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the most offensive (and, unfortunatley, not uncommon) vibe in your post has to with your sense of ownership over the "system."
You say you are willing to crack open an employee's mailbox at the first hint of something bad. Well, geez louise, Mr. Ness, I'm guessing that, unless you work in a three-man college boutique Web design shop, you're not really in any official position to determine when it's time to drop the hammer on someone who has "crossed the line."
The best thing is to establish your view of things up front
Sorry, Tex, the best thing is to have e-mail policies defined in an employee handbook which the new perp, er, I mean, worker signs. If you, as a sysAdmin, want to contribute to Fighting for Truth and Justice, put the six-shooter down and research your state's and the federal guidelines for how these things are legally handled, and back-stop your HR department by ensuring your company's policies are at least as stringent as the law.
Never open another employee's e-mail, unless instructed to do so by your supervisor (or your CEO. Duh.) The policy every where I have seen regarding ex-employees' files, electronic or otherwise, was to ensure they were promptly turned over to that ex-employee's former supervisor. But made privy to a sysAdmin? You gotta be kidding!
letting your coworkers know your stance on these things can be beneficial
It's not Your stance, Linus. It's the company's policy. That's how you need to represent it to "your" users. If your company does not have an official stance on these mattters (not uncommon five years ago but hard to imagine today), find the right person (Hint: He ain't in the IT Group) and offer to assist in writing it. Ultimately, if your "stance" discreps with the policy of the company, expect to part ways.
I got fired for doing that a few weeks ago.
errm, that may have been the reason they cited, but I'm guessing the gun's been cocked and loaded for a while.
I share your pain, friend, but you're in the wrong forum to complain about it. Remember, this is the place where, back in July, they interviewed Piers Anthony with a specific mind to quiz him about the word processor he uses to write his novels.
I'm still cleaning the coffee off my monitor from the spit-take I did on that one.
If you're going to insist on participating in the conversation, jyx, do please try to follow along.
The poster to whom I was responding asked the question, in essence, "since when do companies own art?" I reminded him that it is not unusual, indeed it is the norm, for artists to sign away their copyright to these companies in exchange for, among other things, money up front.
time limited monopoly... ten years
Huh? What does monopoly have to do with anything? It sounds like you're getting your SlashDot anti-corporate buzzwords mixed up.
A fun toy, but their advertising strategy cannot be condoned.
I've pasted the WSJ article you cite below.
Personally, I think it's a hoot! Nothing more than any new restaurant or bar in downtown Manhattan has done for years. (If it wasn't for a never-ending parade of SoHo eatery openings, some of my actor friends would never eat...)
My favorite line: The complaint that the company is not creating an "honest buzz."
FROM THE WSJ:
Sony Ericsson Campaign Uses Actors
To Push Camera-Phone in Real Life
By SUZANNE VRANICA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In a campaign set to start Thursday, the U.S. arm of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. will take "guerrilla" marketing to a new level. Its goal: to get consumers to pay attention to the new T68i, a mobile phone that can double as a digital camera.
In one initiative, dubbed Fake Tourist, 60 trained actors and actresses will haunt tourist attractions such as the Empire State Building in New York and the Space Needle in Seattle. Working in teams of two or three and behaving as if they were actual tourists, the actors and actresses will ask unsuspecting passersby to take their pictures.
[Sony Ericsson's T68i]
Sony Ericsson's T68i
Presto: instant product demonstrations.
A second stunt will involve the use of "leaners" -- 60 actresses and female models with extensive training in the phone's features who will frequent trendy lounges and bars without telling the establishments what they're up to. The women are getting scripted scenarios designed to help them engage strangers in conversation. One involves having an actress's phone ring while she's in the bar -- and having the caller's picture pop up on the screen. In another scenario, two women sit at opposite ends of the bar playing an interactive version of the Battleship game on their phones.
So far, so good. But do the actors then identify themselves as working on behalf of Sony Ericsson? Not if they can help it. The idea is to have onlookers think they've stumbled onto a hot new product. Sony Ericsson, which plans to spend $5 million on the 60-day marketing campaign, says it's all in good fun and just an effort to get people talking.
Consumer activists, though, aren't amused. "It's deceptive," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, when told about the campaign. "People will be fooled into thinking this is honest buzz."
Even marketing executives disapprove. "It is reprehensible and desperate," says Paul MacFarlane, co-owner of the Experiment, a small ad firm in St. Louis, that has done work for Southwestern Bell and Anheuser-Busch. "They are trying to fabricate something that should be natural."
Sony Ericsson responds that most consumers won't be offended. "How many times do people that you don't know come up to you and talk to you?" asks Jon Maron, director of marketing communications at Sony Ericsson, which is a joint venture of Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Corp. of Japan.
"It's very natural, especially in a club or restaurant." He adds that the actors will confess that they work for the company if they are asked directly.
Peter Groome, president of Omnicom Group Inc.'s Fathom Communications, the marketing firm that created the plan, also defends the tactics. He insists that the campaign isn't "undercover" selling because the actors will simply demonstrate the product, not give a sales pitch.
Still, the company has gone to great lengths to train its actors to avoid detection. "If you put them in a Sony Ericsson shirt, then people are going to be less likely to listen to them in a bar," Mr. Groome says.
Other components of the promotional campaign are more commonly used buzz initiatives. One involves "Phone Finds," in which the company will place dummy phones around cities so that consumers can accidentally stumble on them. The screen on the phone will direct the finders to a special Web site, where they will be able to enter a contest to win a free phone. The new phone with camera attachment, priced between $300 and $400, will hit stores next week.
Less covert buzz marketing strategies have been around for years, but their use surged during the dot-com boom. Many companies that couldn't afford expensive TV ads hired young marketing firms to convey their messages in attention-getting ways.
As concepts became more elaborate and intrusive, they began to be referred to as guerrilla marketing or stealth marketing.
Among the companies that have used such buzz marketing: Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Jim Beam Brands Worldwide Inc. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, for its Mini car.
Faced with the ad recession, some traditional agencies have also embraced the concept. For instance, Young & Rubicam, a unit of London's WPP Group PLC, opened a U.S. division called Brand Buzz and is rolling out the unit to its European offices.
But there are limits. Veteran marketers warn that advertisers who are trying to generate positive word-of-mouth about a brand or a new product will do better in the long run if they are honest with consumers.
David Lubars, president and executive creative director at Publicis Groupe SA's Fallon Worldwide, says promotional campaigns that are perceived as dishonest could backfire. "If the consumer finds out after the encounter, they are going to be mad," he says.
When did companies earn the priviledge to own copywrite?
At the point when the artist signs it over to them, in exchange for an advance and/or global distribution and promotion facilities. Or at the point when he signs a "work-for-hire" agreement, and gets a steady paycheck in exchange for a little less pressure.
When the fifes stop tweeting, the drums stop rum-tumming, and all the clenched fists make their collective way out of the air and back into blue-jeaned pockets, small children still need new shoes, and the writers, artists, and musicians who are their moms and dads have to buy them.
Yup. I'm the guy in the pinstripe thong with the pocket-protector draped provocatively over my crotch. It was a three-page spread in Business 2.0.
When you save, the program will nag you to save it as [a proprietary format] file and warn you that it "may" contain advanced features that will be lost if you don't.
Yeah, well, so does OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet. Probably because the warnings -- from both MS and OO.o -- are valid. MS does a lot of bullying, but I would hardly call this an example of it.
Granted, those "advanced features" are probably only used by less than 5% of either Excel or Calc users, and the developers could arguably write code smart enough to check your spreadsheet to see if it contained one of the freakazoid special features, but... overall not worth worrying about.
See a doctor.
There is nothing comparable (as a PIM) to Outlook in Windows. Symbian's Evolution approaches it for Linux (albeit lacking PocketPC synch support), but this is about Gateway's Win boxes.
ACT! comes close, but it is skewed too strongly towards Sales and Marketing executives.
Intro of an Outlook-free office suite is going to bring the hammer down on a lot of IT guys from various corner offices. And MS, of course, no dummies they, recognize and continue to play to this strength.
I write and business model professionally, and find OO.o's Write and Calc more than satisfactory; it ain't about the word processors and the spreadsheets. It's the PIM: how it handes and/or integrates with the e-mail client, how friendly it plays with both Palm and PocketPC PDA's, and how easy it is to mirror at the exec's home box.
I'm open to recommendations in this area, but I've looked around enough not to be hopeful.
Bought one over a Tivo specifically for the "commercial advance" feature. It's brilliant! But, uh, yeah, I can see the advertisers and the networks who take the advertisers' money getting their noses out of joint. (Note to SonicBlue: This feature works approx. 90% of the time. I'm guessing it looks for a 7.5 IRE black signal which it recognizes as the start of a break. Some cartoons, and a few of the more arty/Gothic shows (e.g., Buffy) seem to incorporate this pure black into some transitions.)
Interestingly, the purchase of the Box caused me to order more channels from DirecTV. Prior to owning one, "there was never anything good on" when I watched TV (which was usually when I was feeding a child or performing some other paternal act). Now -- a veritable virtual library of programs culled from the recently ordered History International, Discovery Science, DIY -- all the next-tier networks I thought sounded "cool" before but that I knew I would never have time to watch.
PVR's will simply crush the market for pre-school tape vids from networks like Noggin, 'Toon, and PBSKids. I got my own (Commercial Free!) kids channel now.
Seriously thinking of getting another box for the bedroom and/or office...
No, I'm not a SonicBlue employee or affiliated with them in anyway, but, I am enjoying being able to sing a product's praises for once instead of ripping it to shreds.
Does Walmart sell Penthouse / Playboy / Hustler? No?
Do they sell Time / Field & Stream / Sports Illustrated? Yes?
Then why isn't everyone here getting their panties in a bunch over _that_ bias? Why would not the clear policy they have for which print media they retail carry across into the electronic media they stock? Why should a retailer like Walmart make an exception for a one-trick pony console game?
Hey, Mr. Magazine Man! Yeah, you! You're selling House & Garden, but I don't see no Juggs! What kind of friggin' hypocrite are you? Don't you know this is America, Land of the Free, and I gotta right to buy what I want where I want to? [spit]
[sigh]
Sometimes it seems everybody is spoilin' for a fight, but all these Walmart guys are doing is looking to make a living and not piss off their core clientele. Seems to me they're behaving sensibly.
Yeah, I'm sure lots of Microsoft employees (or any self-respecting computer scientist, for that matter) read this site.
Oddly enough (and the dude in the middle is admittedly odd), the technology section in
today's Times would beg to differ with you.
>Baen
This may be a good time to mention that I just picked up the latest in David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series, published by Baen, War of Honor. It includes on CD the entire back-catalog of the Honor books, with the encouragement to distribute freely!
Anomaly, or wave of the future?
well of course you wouldn't appreciate that.
Actually, I do. So much that I have the original Hard Bound Copies (and the paper ones in the box that preceeded them, as well). Got them back circa '78 when I was a senior in High School. Been playing 'em in one form or another ever since.
But when you used your possession of digital copies of D&D Books as evidence that print piracy is alive and kicking, well, it was just a bit too perfect and I just couldn't resist.
So, take it easy, guy, we're on the same team.
My apologies.
It's cool i have PDF scans of all the first edition dungeons and dragons adventure modules.
Why am I not surprised?
You're assuming a viral distribution of the text file, in the manner of MP3's, and that's not happening. Books are not making their way onto the P2P networks (thankfully!), and there simply is no impulsive copying of books going on, in the way that CD's or even video tapes (in their day) were copied. Yeah, there may be a couple, or even a hundred sociopaths with time on their hands who are making an effort to digitize the King canon, but the efforts of their work are not being disseminated (again, I say "thankfully").
Are books just not as in demand as music and video? (well, Duh...!) Or is there something preferable about the tactile sense of holding a book that we don't get from a computer screen or PDA?
>> Better to support sucky local bands than to give money to the RIAA so they can pay their freedom-stealing lawyers.
Her: "So where we going tonight, honey?"
Me: "Well, Needledick & The Butt-Fuckers are playing down at the Paramount, and I thought we..."
Her: Needledick? But you hate that band! The last time we saw them, you made a citizen's arrest of the sound technician and then got punched out by a waitress when you took a beer off her tray to throw at the rhythm guitarist!"
Me: "Yeah, well, let's just suck it up, okay? It's only a two-hour show, and we'll be screwing the RIAA and some lawyers over good."
Her: "Really?? Hey, count me in! Boy, you really know how to treat a girl!" [smooch]
Which reminds me, it's prolly not a bad idea to provide the Harlan KICK link here. Amidst the din created by the RIAA, MPAA, college kids and Linux SysAdmins, it doesn't hurt to hear the perspective of an artist periodically, particularly since, as far as ranting goes, Mr. Ellison holds a black belt
Easy for you to say.
My local bands suck.
because text is the most easily copyable data.
How do you figure? It's easier to copy the latest Stephen King bestseller than it is to copy the latest Britany bestseller? I can rip a 65-minute CD in seconds; a 500 page book in... hours, maybe? And that's upstream of any OCR, which is the only thing that would make it compressed and portable enough to be of any enduring use.
The text and images that Amazon et.al. use are teasers and promos, not complete copies by any means.
Piracy is an issue for the RIAA (as has been stated so many times on this board, it should be on a FAQ somewhere...) because CD burning and file-sharing programs made it easy for the average consumer to copy and distribute the media.
Text piracy has not taken off yet because it is a bitch to digitize the original paper. Video piracy is only now on the cusp of being a problem for the studios because, up until now, the average consumer was surfing a mere dial-up connection unsuitable for the larger filesizes.
Do they LIKE copying? It gets them attention that their music never could!
Huh? Wha...?
What, you don't smuggle food in under your coat?
Maybe he's a grown-up?
"We've all read stories about extra-solar planets being found by gravitational wobbles...
I think that's why I keep coming back to SlashDot; only here does a story begin like that and nobody blinks an eye...
God luv yuz...
Yeah, but hasn't it been pretty well established here that all the silly dollar-sign-for-esses posts and virulent Anti-MS vitriol here is coming from the high school kids/L33t HAXX0rs? You're not gonna get that crowd to change merely by talking sense. For them, MS is like some comic-book super-villain.
As far as the whole quid-pro-pro thing goes, you gotta figure that there is probably very little you could do to some teen who gets so worked up over a computer operating system that their better-adjusted classmates haven't already done to them, in spades.
Are you following along on this thread? Or is everyone typing too quickly...?
The gentleman to whom I was responding expressed some dismay regarding a right-wing president nominating right-wing candidates for the FCC. I was pointing out how this should not be viewed as all that unusual, this country being a republic and all.
I've a question for you: Why do you post as Anonymous Coward? Don't you feel you lose almost all credibility when you do that?
Um, d00d, that's the way it works. The president is elected, and he nominates the people who represent his way of thinking. It would not work if, upon being elected, a president made decisions and nominations that ran counter to the philosophies he represented he stood for during his election.
Does it bother anyone else that he runs the country?
I'm certain it does, although I'll guess not as many people on this board as you think.
Assholes
Businessmen.
Capitalists.
Content creators, owners, aggregators, and distributors.
What are you? Oh, "Anonymous Coward." Gotcha.
Seriously, what did you expect them to do? They are in the business of creating and locking down for distribution as much entertainment property as they can, as cost effectively as they can.
You may not like the American Entertainment Industry (please try to remember that when you are queuing up to see the latest Tolkien or Star Trek flick this Fall), but they are, as a business, generally speaking, brilliant at what they do, Disney especially. Brilliant and ruthless.
But "assholes?" No. And everyone who favors a change in the copyright extension laws would do well to remember that.