I don't think the idea of timeshifting and using TiVo will die in 2006.
I'm expecting that the rollout will be similar to digital cable services - there will be a 'band' of old style analog channels that will not have the broadcast flag, and can be fully timeshifted onto the standard VCR or Tivo. These channels will not broadcast HD content, and you will still be able to watch them just as you do now with a regular television.
These channels will gradually lose the ability to provide much in the way of Hollywood sponsored content (movies and first-run popular shows), as Hollywood moves towards protected media. They get protection, we get HD, so consumers will think it's a fair trade. Non HD services will evolve to eventually have only news and local programming, or re-runs of content that's been available in HD for a long time.
The next tier will be the digital HDTV channels, for which you will need a receiver that can recognize the broadcast flag. Only those devices which can read this flag will be able to view or hear the content.
HD Tivos and any other devices that are capable of receiving or recording HD content (DVD recorders/VCR's, etc.) will be able to interpret the flag, but output will be locked down, so that you will need an HDTV that has HDCP installed in order to view any content that has this flag.
The machine that records the content would have to embed its own unique code with the content, so that the data can't be transmitted from a different machine, only the one that recorded it.
This would allow timeshifting, but not space-shifting, unless home users could somehow link certain players using the same cable connection together with the same unique code. This will most likely happen at the cable co. end, like they do now when they update firmware on STB's.
I may be able to record episodes of the Sopranos to a DVD or even watch them on my PC if it is connected via cable, but if I send them to you, you won't be able to watch them without my code, which you can't get without connecting your device to my cable net.
Another interesting fallout from that, is that cable suddely gets a feature that makes it more attractive for internet services than DSL, since you will be able to use your computers to watch content which you won't be able to do if you're not on the cable network.
"Increased security (e.g. stronger DRM systems) may act as a disincentive to legal commerce," they suggest, by driving would-be customers to underground sources, such as peer-to-peer file trading networks, that provide media in unrestricted forms. No existing security technology can prevent copying in every case, so protected recordings will inevitably become available from these so-called "darknet" sources. Biddle concludes that for content producers to effectively compete against illicit distribution, they must work to provide "convenience and low cost rather than additional security."
Exactly - it's my opinion that if a media product is broken by DRM restrictions, the products protected by the DRM become less valuable, and therefore, people will be less, not more, likely to seek out a legal method of acquisition. The music file trading underground won't be ended until proper unencumbered mp3's are made available legally for a small cost.
I'm not a huge Mac expert, but can you tell me if iTunes files can be used in third party apps that don't have DRM built in to them? Can you use a third party application that doesn't recognize DRM to say, copy the file into an unrestricted MP3 or something?
My point being, that the iTunes system was designed to be a closed system - if you want to do anything with one of your music files, you have to go through a DRM enabled application.
In the Windows environment, there are many other players and apps that handle WMA audio files - this patch is meant to close that hole and ensure that all apps that use protected media respect the parameters set by the DRM in the file.
when the new Itunes for Windows service comes out before Christmas, that this patch will be required if you want to use the media you purchase through the store.
Then, when everyone decides "to hell with DRM" and continues to download free songs on P2P, they will be able to convince legislators to shut down Kazaa, Gnutella, etc.
All files that are shared on P2P are copies of copies, as the original owner would have had to make a "personal use" copy to put in their Shared folder. IANAL, but I believe that the Canadian Copyright Act only protects the original owner of the CD, if they lend the original physical CD (not a copy). Those who share 2nd...nth generation copies would not be protected, and could be considered to be distributing copyrighted material without permission.
Still, I don't forsee in the near future that Canadians will be at risk of lawsuits for filesharing. Firstly, there is no legal requirement as in the U.S. for an ISP to provide user information to the CRIA (Canadian version of RIAA). Secondly, the political will to implement such a law, or to do anything for that matter isn't there.
In November, the Liberal Party will be appointing Paul Martin as new leader, but Jean Cretin will not be stepping down as PM until Feb 2004. Basically the government will be at a standstill until Martin takes over power. That gives the government about 1 year to prepare for re-election, surely they aren't going to piss off a large percentage of the population right before an election.
It will probably be mid to late 2005 before anything similar to the DMCA is established here in Canada. Until then, the chance that Canadians will receive lawsuits like the ones in the U.S. is quite low. A good ISP that doesn't have any conflicts of interest with a media firm, will probably not disclose their customers' information to anyone who can try a lawsuit which for all intents and purposes would be unproven in Canadian law.
I can accept the fact that the sale or transfer of ITunes music files is not possible. However, Apple must accept the fact that the "product" they are selling holds less value to me, the end customer, than a CD does. Therefore, as a value-seeking individual, I would obviously pay less for a digital media file encumbered by these restrictions than what I would pay for media that I have the rights of ownership to.
With a CD, I have the ability to transfer ownership, either by giving it away, selling it to a third party, passing it on to my estate, or using the property as a means of satisfying my debts to my creditors.
This will be one of the key battlegrounds in the digital media industry - transferability of licence rights. These rights have a tangible value . If a company goes bankrupt, or a person dies, and they "own" these licences, does that licence cease to exist when their owner does? Or is that licence an asset with real value that can be realized by one's creditors or heirs. If a licence to use a media file can be "stolen", than it can also have a life beyond the life of the person who first purchases theis licence.
With the cost of software continuously climbing into the almost ridiculous (i.e. $699 for a copy of Microsoft Office), the terms of the licence to use the product become even more important.
If I acquire a company that has 1000 employees using this software, without transferability, something which that company "owns" with a value of $699,000 will suddenly ceast to exist. That waste of resources would be staggering when looked at across an entire economy.
This will set a landmark precedent as to the validity or worth of digital data, in addition to anly "licenced" copyrighted media (e.g. software, movies, etc.)
If one does not have the right to sell or transfer the product freely, that product is far less valuable.
For instance, if a wealthy person spends hundreds of thousands of dollars amassing a collection of digital media, do they have the right to the right to transfer that media to their heirs on their death? Why not - if it's "property" that has substantial value. What about if they buy a new computer? What if Apple goes bankrupt - does the licence to use the songs lapse?
If the answer to these questions is that the rights are non-transferrable, the value of digital media to consumers will have to be far lower than that of a physical product (i.e. CD's or DVD's) that can be transferred from person to person legally. Therefore, prices should reflect the lower value as well.
It would make sense that if a corporation can "own" the copyright and consider it an asset that can be transferred, than the consumer purchasing the media should have the same ability to transfer their ownership as well.
What's most interesting here is not the price of CD's, (which at $14.95CAD is about $11 US), but that they plan to offer Canadian downloads in October for 99 cents (Canadian) a song!
It's too early to say whether any of the other labels will participate, and what kind of restrictions are going to be put on the media. Still, it looks like the Canadian industry has taken a much more concilaitory approach to the problem of filesharing, by giving up on the price, and offering additional share of downloaded fees to artists as well - so at least they're trying to adress some of the complaints on this and other forums.
Simple - just release more songs (a greater variety) more frequently and for a shorter duration.
Who said that "singles" had to have a run of 6 months up and down the Top 40. Put the song in your playlist for a month, and then slowly decrease its availability. Then next month, issue another song from the same album.
People then won't have an excuse - if I have heard and like 5 or 6 songs off an album, I'd be far more likely to purchase it, instead of downloading that one single.
One of the biggest complaints about the industry today is the lack of variety. Every day, the same 30 songs get repeated over and over on most stations. It's gotten to the point where you can almost set your watch by the time that Linkin Park is going to be on the air.
I remember a game for the Commodore PET - I think it was called 'Fur Trader' or something like that - you had to navigate rivers and drop off furs in various ports in the Canadian North, which was represented by those line & sqiggle graphics on a green/black screen.
I remember learning about canoes and portages, and all of the small Northern outposts from the game like Fort Saskatchewan, Rocky Mtn. House, etc.
Not only that, but many programs (Windows Media Player, Microsoft Outlook for instance) interact with IE, and accept system level instructions to launch external programs and websites with no option on the part of the user to disregard them. And a firewall would not prevent access, since most users don't set firewalls to deny access to IE or port 80.
Internet functions should not be used by any other programs BUT the browser, unless the user has the ability to permit the application to access the internet.
Aferall, through my mutual funds, I and millions of others own shares of Microsoft. Does that mean by default, I then own Windows and have the ability to use its products without paying for the licence under fair use rights? C'mon now.
At least not for the home user - how much would it cost to set up a "dedicated connection"?
Maybe in high-end gaming establishments - arcades, etc. But then, why use a PC-like platform?
I could see this working something line the NTN game consoles that are in bars, where everyone across multiple locations can compete all at once. Still, setting up completely dedicated connections without using public networks makes this a huge undertaking and probably not worth the cost.
And if it did use public networks - well who would want this, why not just buy a PC?
All kids should play games. It doesn't even have to be computer games. Think of how much kids learn playing games like Monopoly, Scrabble, RPG's, even simple card games like Crazy 8's or Memory.
Understanding rules, developing long-term (strategic) thinking, co-operating and competing with other 'gamers' are all highly valuable skills which can't be overlooked. More complex games, such as those on computers give even better insight into game theory/payoff matrices that can translate into success down the road.
I would say games provide a far better learning experience than the mindless repetition and memorization used in most classrooms.
Computer games give the added bonus of encouraging the child to take command of the computer in an active way, providing confidence in using the machine to accomplish a goal. It's not much of a stretch to apply the lessons learned from operating and naviging games to other software packages (like word processors and spreadsheets and databases for example) which can provide a big payoff in the workforce.
You wouldn't believe how many things are cheaper in Canada than in the U.S. Cars and prescription drugs especially come to mind - cars because Canadian incomes are mostly lower - we save anywhere from $2 to $5K on the price of a new car, and drugs because of government regulations that require them to be at the same price for everyone - government sponsored drug plan or not.
American visitors can even get their sales taxes (8% PST & 7% GST) rebated on their way back home across the border.
I'm surprised you Americans aren't all up here shopping all the time. $14.99 - $18.99 CAD is a common price (and has been for most of the last 10 years or so) for the most popular new CD releases.
New model for the recording industry
on
RIAA vs The Economy
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· Score: 3, Interesting
There's been so much talk that the old business model - sell a CD at 18 dollars a pop, is dead.
What I'd like to see discussed is how the recording industry actually stands to make more from net-based services than they ever could have from the old way.
Think of a central server, similar to what Apple has set up, but with the following features:
extensive back catalogs of all of the major labels, going back as far as recorded history can go. (MP3 downloads arent killing the Top 40 artists nearly as much as they're affecting catalog and "Best Of" compilation sales.)
$10 annual "membership fee". That fee gets you access to the system, and software that allows you to set up playlists, etc. that the RIAA can use the data from to aggrgeate stats on most popular tunes played and burned (with respect for individual privacy, of course). You also get powerful search software that can search by artist, song name, lyrics (so you can list every song that goes "...all of my love..."), year, and whatever other search types you can think of.
$0.75 per song, 128 kb MP3 downloads. All files have the proper artist & track name in the ID3 tag. Correcting misspelled, and incorrectly labelled p2p download file & track names is just such a pain in the $$hole. It sounds cheap - but your average 12 track LP would be $9.00 USD.
special "premium fan content" - if you're a fan of a particular artist, you might be more than happy to pay $2.00 or even more for a rare, out of circulation B-side tune, or an MPEG concert video, even tracks played on tour or even whole concerts can be recorded (as cheaply as possible) and sold track by track to the hardcore fans that want more. If the Grateful Dead could do it, why not every other band out there? We could follow our favourite artists across the country like the Deadheads from the comfort of our living rooms! If I want to have 15 different versions of "Satisfaction", why not just sell them to me and make some money! Get this stuff out in the public.
no restrictions on copying, burning to CD or DVD, or encoding in a different format. I'm sure many would scoff and say "if someone shares the stuff on P2P we'll be pirated". If you make the economics (time + low cost + low user base) work, P2P will die naturally. Yes, a few people will still pirate stuff, but at least it will be out of the mainstream.
powerful servers that allow fast downloading, and reconnect at no charge if the server went down in the middle of a transfer. This kind of raw power would leave Gnutella, Kazaa, etc. with few users who are willing to waste time searching through scads of crap files and downloading at 2KB/sec. Fewer users for P2P services = fewer available files, and more customers willing to pay.
since the product is somewhat inferior, you still want to recommend to your customers purchasing the actual CD's. Provide links to allow purchase, make it visible but not annoying to the individual who is content to download.
add to the premium content by selling liner notes, CD cover art (for those who are willing to print the CD cover) so that the total price of a 12 song CD is about $10.00. Add to that the cost of making, distributing and retailing the CD, and subtract the cost of the server infrastructure & staffing - the profit margin is roughly equal.
Now, granted, the record retailers and the people at K-Tel would suffer if this kind of a service were available, but the music industry as a whole would survive and grow under such a plan.
Re:A $0.18 coin?
on
Making Change
·
· Score: 2, Funny
A Canadian quarter is worth about 18 cents. Just use those.
I think Canada was a victim of poor timing on this one - almost all of the confirmed cases could be traced to a single individual visiting Canada from the far east, which occured before any warnings about travellers from those areas were ever made public.
Some of our political leaders and media overreacted, and as a result, the crisis was made to be worse than it really ought to have been. Toronto was not quarantined - just a few of the hospitals. I work downtown, and some precautionary moves had to be made - mostly to prevent a situation where a whole department would be taken out for 10 days due to a precautionary quarantine. Life went on, business as usual, except for the tourism and convention business which were hurt badly by the fearmongering.
I've often suspected some deliberate economic motivation behind the WHO's advisory on travel to Toronto - given that the Canadian economy has seriously ourperformed the U.S. for the last 6-12 months. First the softwood lumber, and now the Durum Wheat fiasco, the U.S. has been hitting us hard economically, yet we still seem to be doing incredibly well despite the headwinds. Americans only seem to believe in free trade when it benefits them.
Wasn't it researchers in Vancouver, BC who completed the mapping of the genomic sequence for the SARS virus, about 48 hours before the American CDC were able to complete their mapping.
The Canadian health care system is equally advanced, at least scientifically. It just lacks the ability to attract the best nurses and doctors away from private facilities in the big U.S. urban centres that can pay substantially more to the best practitioners.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm expecting that the rollout will be similar to digital cable services - there will be a 'band' of old style analog channels that will not have the broadcast flag, and can be fully timeshifted onto the standard VCR or Tivo. These channels will not broadcast HD content, and you will still be able to watch them just as you do now with a regular television.
These channels will gradually lose the ability to provide much in the way of Hollywood sponsored content (movies and first-run popular shows), as Hollywood moves towards protected media. They get protection, we get HD, so consumers will think it's a fair trade. Non HD services will evolve to eventually have only news and local programming, or re-runs of content that's been available in HD for a long time.
The next tier will be the digital HDTV channels, for which you will need a receiver that can recognize the broadcast flag. Only those devices which can read this flag will be able to view or hear the content.
HD Tivos and any other devices that are capable of receiving or recording HD content (DVD recorders/VCR's, etc.) will be able to interpret the flag, but output will be locked down, so that you will need an HDTV that has HDCP installed in order to view any content that has this flag.
The machine that records the content would have to embed its own unique code with the content, so that the data can't be transmitted from a different machine, only the one that recorded it.
This would allow timeshifting, but not space-shifting, unless home users could somehow link certain players using the same cable connection together with the same unique code. This will most likely happen at the cable co. end, like they do now when they update firmware on STB's.
I may be able to record episodes of the Sopranos to a DVD or even watch them on my PC if it is connected via cable, but if I send them to you, you won't be able to watch them without my code, which you can't get without connecting your device to my cable net.
Another interesting fallout from that, is that cable suddely gets a feature that makes it more attractive for internet services than DSL, since you will be able to use your computers to watch content which you won't be able to do if you're not on the cable network.
Exactly - it's my opinion that if a media product is broken by DRM restrictions, the products protected by the DRM become less valuable, and therefore, people will be less, not more, likely to seek out a legal method of acquisition. The music file trading underground won't be ended until proper unencumbered mp3's are made available legally for a small cost.
My point being, that the iTunes system was designed to be a closed system - if you want to do anything with one of your music files, you have to go through a DRM enabled application.
In the Windows environment, there are many other players and apps that handle WMA audio files - this patch is meant to close that hole and ensure that all apps that use protected media respect the parameters set by the DRM in the file.
when the new Itunes for Windows service comes out before Christmas, that this patch will be required if you want to use the media you purchase through the store. Then, when everyone decides "to hell with DRM" and continues to download free songs on P2P, they will be able to convince legislators to shut down Kazaa, Gnutella, etc.
Still, I don't forsee in the near future that Canadians will be at risk of lawsuits for filesharing. Firstly, there is no legal requirement as in the U.S. for an ISP to provide user information to the CRIA (Canadian version of RIAA). Secondly, the political will to implement such a law, or to do anything for that matter isn't there.
In November, the Liberal Party will be appointing Paul Martin as new leader, but Jean Cretin will not be stepping down as PM until Feb 2004. Basically the government will be at a standstill until Martin takes over power. That gives the government about 1 year to prepare for re-election, surely they aren't going to piss off a large percentage of the population right before an election.
It will probably be mid to late 2005 before anything similar to the DMCA is established here in Canada. Until then, the chance that Canadians will receive lawsuits like the ones in the U.S. is quite low. A good ISP that doesn't have any conflicts of interest with a media firm, will probably not disclose their customers' information to anyone who can try a lawsuit which for all intents and purposes would be unproven in Canadian law.
Yes, we can create a moon unit to help explore Mars! The moon unit could then be divided into two divisions: Moon Unit Alpha and Moon Unit Zappa!
With a CD, I have the ability to transfer ownership, either by giving it away, selling it to a third party, passing it on to my estate, or using the property as a means of satisfying my debts to my creditors.
This will be one of the key battlegrounds in the digital media industry - transferability of licence rights. These rights have a tangible value . If a company goes bankrupt, or a person dies, and they "own" these licences, does that licence cease to exist when their owner does? Or is that licence an asset with real value that can be realized by one's creditors or heirs. If a licence to use a media file can be "stolen", than it can also have a life beyond the life of the person who first purchases theis licence. With the cost of software continuously climbing into the almost ridiculous (i.e. $699 for a copy of Microsoft Office), the terms of the licence to use the product become even more important.
If I acquire a company that has 1000 employees using this software, without transferability, something which that company "owns" with a value of $699,000 will suddenly ceast to exist. That waste of resources would be staggering when looked at across an entire economy.
2. CIA makes a discrete phone call to SCO.
3. SCO sends an army of lawyers over to Iraq to sue anyone with "ammo".
4. ???
5. Profit!
If one does not have the right to sell or transfer the product freely, that product is far less valuable.
For instance, if a wealthy person spends hundreds of thousands of dollars amassing a collection of digital media, do they have the right to the right to transfer that media to their heirs on their death? Why not - if it's "property" that has substantial value. What about if they buy a new computer? What if Apple goes bankrupt - does the licence to use the songs lapse?
If the answer to these questions is that the rights are non-transferrable, the value of digital media to consumers will have to be far lower than that of a physical product (i.e. CD's or DVD's) that can be transferred from person to person legally. Therefore, prices should reflect the lower value as well.
It would make sense that if a corporation can "own" the copyright and consider it an asset that can be transferred, than the consumer purchasing the media should have the same ability to transfer their ownership as well.
Universal Music cuts CD Prices
What's most interesting here is not the price of CD's, (which at $14.95CAD is about $11 US), but that they plan to offer Canadian downloads in October for 99 cents (Canadian) a song!
It's too early to say whether any of the other labels will participate, and what kind of restrictions are going to be put on the media. Still, it looks like the Canadian industry has taken a much more concilaitory approach to the problem of filesharing, by giving up on the price, and offering additional share of downloaded fees to artists as well - so at least they're trying to adress some of the complaints on this and other forums.
Simple - just release more songs (a greater variety) more frequently and for a shorter duration. Who said that "singles" had to have a run of 6 months up and down the Top 40. Put the song in your playlist for a month, and then slowly decrease its availability. Then next month, issue another song from the same album. People then won't have an excuse - if I have heard and like 5 or 6 songs off an album, I'd be far more likely to purchase it, instead of downloading that one single. One of the biggest complaints about the industry today is the lack of variety. Every day, the same 30 songs get repeated over and over on most stations. It's gotten to the point where you can almost set your watch by the time that Linkin Park is going to be on the air.
I remember a game for the Commodore PET - I think it was called 'Fur Trader' or something like that - you had to navigate rivers and drop off furs in various ports in the Canadian North, which was represented by those line & sqiggle graphics on a green/black screen. I remember learning about canoes and portages, and all of the small Northern outposts from the game like Fort Saskatchewan, Rocky Mtn. House, etc.
Not only that, but many programs (Windows Media Player, Microsoft Outlook for instance) interact with IE, and accept system level instructions to launch external programs and websites with no option on the part of the user to disregard them. And a firewall would not prevent access, since most users don't set firewalls to deny access to IE or port 80. Internet functions should not be used by any other programs BUT the browser, unless the user has the ability to permit the application to access the internet.
Aferall, through my mutual funds, I and millions of others own shares of Microsoft. Does that mean by default, I then own Windows and have the ability to use its products without paying for the licence under fair use rights? C'mon now.
results in 62 cookies being blocked by my browser. Seems these guys have a lot of work to do to comply with the new law :)
Maybe in high-end gaming establishments - arcades, etc. But then, why use a PC-like platform?
I could see this working something line the NTN game consoles that are in bars, where everyone across multiple locations can compete all at once. Still, setting up completely dedicated connections without using public networks makes this a huge undertaking and probably not worth the cost.
And if it did use public networks - well who would want this, why not just buy a PC?
Understanding rules, developing long-term (strategic) thinking, co-operating and competing with other 'gamers' are all highly valuable skills which can't be overlooked. More complex games, such as those on computers give even better insight into game theory/payoff matrices that can translate into success down the road.
I would say games provide a far better learning experience than the mindless repetition and memorization used in most classrooms.
Computer games give the added bonus of encouraging the child to take command of the computer in an active way, providing confidence in using the machine to accomplish a goal. It's not much of a stretch to apply the lessons learned from operating and naviging games to other software packages (like word processors and spreadsheets and databases for example) which can provide a big payoff in the workforce.
American visitors can even get their sales taxes (8% PST & 7% GST) rebated on their way back home across the border.
I'm surprised you Americans aren't all up here shopping all the time. $14.99 - $18.99 CAD is a common price (and has been for most of the last 10 years or so) for the most popular new CD releases.
What I'd like to see discussed is how the recording industry actually stands to make more from net-based services than they ever could have from the old way.
Think of a central server, similar to what Apple has set up, but with the following features:
extensive back catalogs of all of the major labels, going back as far as recorded history can go. (MP3 downloads arent killing the Top 40 artists nearly as much as they're affecting catalog and "Best Of" compilation sales.)
$10 annual "membership fee". That fee gets you access to the system, and software that allows you to set up playlists, etc. that the RIAA can use the data from to aggrgeate stats on most popular tunes played and burned (with respect for individual privacy, of course). You also get powerful search software that can search by artist, song name, lyrics (so you can list every song that goes "...all of my love..."), year, and whatever other search types you can think of.
$0.75 per song, 128 kb MP3 downloads. All files have the proper artist & track name in the ID3 tag. Correcting misspelled, and incorrectly labelled p2p download file & track names is just such a pain in the $$hole. It sounds cheap - but your average 12 track LP would be $9.00 USD.
special "premium fan content" - if you're a fan of a particular artist, you might be more than happy to pay $2.00 or even more for a rare, out of circulation B-side tune, or an MPEG concert video, even tracks played on tour or even whole concerts can be recorded (as cheaply as possible) and sold track by track to the hardcore fans that want more. If the Grateful Dead could do it, why not every other band out there? We could follow our favourite artists across the country like the Deadheads from the comfort of our living rooms! If I want to have 15 different versions of "Satisfaction", why not just sell them to me and make some money! Get this stuff out in the public.
no restrictions on copying, burning to CD or DVD, or encoding in a different format. I'm sure many would scoff and say "if someone shares the stuff on P2P we'll be pirated". If you make the economics (time + low cost + low user base) work, P2P will die naturally. Yes, a few people will still pirate stuff, but at least it will be out of the mainstream.
powerful servers that allow fast downloading, and reconnect at no charge if the server went down in the middle of a transfer. This kind of raw power would leave Gnutella, Kazaa, etc. with few users who are willing to waste time searching through scads of crap files and downloading at 2KB/sec. Fewer users for P2P services = fewer available files, and more customers willing to pay.
since the product is somewhat inferior, you still want to recommend to your customers purchasing the actual CD's. Provide links to allow purchase, make it visible but not annoying to the individual who is content to download.
add to the premium content by selling liner notes, CD cover art (for those who are willing to print the CD cover) so that the total price of a 12 song CD is about $10.00. Add to that the cost of making, distributing and retailing the CD, and subtract the cost of the server infrastructure & staffing - the profit margin is roughly equal.
Now, granted, the record retailers and the people at K-Tel would suffer if this kind of a service were available, but the music industry as a whole would survive and grow under such a plan.
A Canadian quarter is worth about 18 cents. Just use those.
Some of our political leaders and media overreacted, and as a result, the crisis was made to be worse than it really ought to have been. Toronto was not quarantined - just a few of the hospitals. I work downtown, and some precautionary moves had to be made - mostly to prevent a situation where a whole department would be taken out for 10 days due to a precautionary quarantine. Life went on, business as usual, except for the tourism and convention business which were hurt badly by the fearmongering.
I've often suspected some deliberate economic motivation behind the WHO's advisory on travel to Toronto - given that the Canadian economy has seriously ourperformed the U.S. for the last 6-12 months. First the softwood lumber, and now the Durum Wheat fiasco, the U.S. has been hitting us hard economically, yet we still seem to be doing incredibly well despite the headwinds. Americans only seem to believe in free trade when it benefits them.
The Canadian health care system is equally advanced, at least scientifically. It just lacks the ability to attract the best nurses and doctors away from private facilities in the big U.S. urban centres that can pay substantially more to the best practitioners.
are criticizing other countries for caring "too much about civil liberties" Is this some kind of weird parallel world we live in?
the Weekly World News is the only media that citizens are allowed to read. And it's referred to as... "the paper"!