So your argument is: corporations should be able choke off new works and withhold old works, because it could benefit their image ? I'm sorry, I would benefit by clubbing you to death and taking your money, so maybe that's not a good principle to base society on.
Users are greedy bastards who never want to pay for content, and are prepared to use all kinds of dubious logical machinations, hippie philosophy, and references to the constitution to justify IP infringement.
I consider withholding works from the public domain to be theft. Certainly, it's a hell of a lot closer to theft than "copyright infringement". The question is, if they steal from me, am I entitled to steal back from them (I'm not talking about copying new works here) ?
You are exactly correct. The public domain is competition, and brutal competition at that. That's the problem with recording music, making movies, etc. At the beginning, people can't get enough of it. But the recordings never go away, and after a while there is so much great stuff available that people are not tempted to buy new works (unless they are really, really good).
It won't have any impact at all. The fact is, our current system is broken. The media companies have all the money and power, and they can buy whatever laws they want. They will lobby, spend, and do whatever it takes to extend and broaden copyright without limit. People are correct in believing that this will choke creativity and kill culture, but the media companies actually benefit. You see, people will put up with garbage, as long as they have nothing better to compare it to. Marketing will ensure that everybody only hears about the "hot new thing", and they can recycle the same ten or twenty movies, at minimal cost and zero risk, until the end of time.
We're not going to win that war, all of the decisive battles have already been lost, and our legal options are locked up. Either we admit defeat, and give in to a steady stream of Julia Roberts' movies and their ilk, or we fight on in a different arena. I propose that we build a digital library of all recorded works: music, films, books, etc. and put it on Freenet. There is really no other option available to us, and I think that this will be the endgame. Let's do it before technology becomes illegal too.
And how is inventing a character but not allowing just any person to do anything they want with it, without permission, "Screwing the American public?" How? In what way?
Nice troll. Surely you realize that virtually every artistic work borrows (often heavily) from other (usually popular) works. Shakespear wouldn't have been able to write many of his best plays under the current copyright regime. I believe he copied Romeo and Juliet from The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577). This page also mentioned that he borrowed from a (then current) translation of Plutarch's Lives. In short, Shakespear was clearly a criminal, along with just about everyone else who has ever created anything great.
I recompile my kernel all the time. I try lots of different kernels and patchsets, with many differnt options. I've only been using Linux for about a year, so I've got a ways to go before I reach guru status (ie: contibuting kernel patchs, etc), but I'm working on it. By the way, how did my parent post get modded "troll" ? Give me a break.
I don't consider it a flaw, and I'm not particularily interested in a "fix". For things like hardware configuration, etc, which don't come up very often I prefer the flexibility of doing things manually. For things that come up all the time, like installing/testing new software, etc, I want that to be fairly painless and automatic, with the option to easily resort to the manual method if something goes wrong. Now, can you guess what distro I'm running ?
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. I run Linux on my home computer, but as the resident computer geek I've been called in to install Windows XP twice in the last two weeks. Whether anyone wants to hear it or not, when it comes to an average user's needs Microsoft has really got it nailed down. Installing new hardware and getting it to work is very easy, wheras Linux seems to be in a "pre-Windows 95" state. This is probably Linux's biggest weakness, but at the same time, it's a source of strength. Allow me to illustrate with a recent example.
Last night, I added a second hard drive to my computer. If I used Windows, the system would have booted up and the drive letters for my cdroms would have all been changed, and I'd probably have to fix a few programs. (tip: re-assign all cdrom drives to drive X or Y when you first install Windows to prevent this)
On Linux I partitioned and formatted, then I edited my/etc/fstab file to automatically mount the partitions at boot. However I accidentally put a space between the comma and a second mount option. I rebooted (to check that I did everything right), and the system choked and mounted the root filesystem read-only. I managed to remount the file system as writable (mount -w -n -o/dev/hdbX) and I fixed the problem.
So what point does that serve to illustrate ? Well, in Windows most things like are automatic, and it's very unlikely that something will go wrong. However, there's a lot of machinery involved, so in the unlikely event that something does go terribly wrong you may be left with no recourse. In Linux it's easy to fuck things up, but you always have options. It's a "do it yourself" kind of system. And I hope it stays that way.
I find the image of feet and the letter "G" offensive, that's why I use KDE.
Re:Well, in the real world...
on
To Kill An Avatar
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
On one hand if you make virtual worlds which are similar to the real world, who would want to play ? I thought the whole "fun" in having a virtual world was the fact that you didn't need to abide by all the conventions of the real world. If I could have a pet dragon for real, I would have one, etc. On the other hand, there is the fairly large problem of "griefers", people who play these games specifically trying to ruin it for everyone else. Most people would like to see this stopped, but can you even reconcile these two ideas ? Maybe the ultimate "MMORPG" is simply the player interacting with thousands of highly intelligent NPCs, which behave how the player wants them to behave.
I don't think you could copyright a format... yet. But with the existing extortio- I mean patent system you could probably patent one. I'm going to patent encoding letters of the english alphabet as binary numbers.
You're right, the "real world" doesn't care. They're too busy watching American Idol. Now if there's one area where competition-choking patents would produce a net benefit to society, it is so-called "reality television".
You have to understand how freenet works. It is extremely costly (in computational time) to trace things back to a host. Furthermore, people who connect to freenet have only a large encrypted cache on their hard drive. They have no idea what they are contributing to the network, and therefore any infringement traced back to their computer is plausibly deniable. In order to prosecute anyone, you would essentially have to make the entire network illegal, and I don't think any court would be willing to do that. Furthermore, in order to STOP people from using the network, you would have to knock out at least 30% of the nodes. So long as we have the freedom to run a freenet client, nobody is going to be able to stop this.
I think the RIAA is in over its head, again. "At the end of the day, we believe we can find infringers regardless of what network they use to try to cloak their illegal activity." HA HA HA HA HA.
Slashdot Mirror
So your argument is: corporations should be able choke off new works and withhold old works, because it could benefit their image ? I'm sorry, I would benefit by clubbing you to death and taking your money, so maybe that's not a good principle to base society on.
And it hardly makes sense to claim that extending terms on existing works encourages their creation, unless you have access to a time machine.
Well, now you know what the court case was all about.
Money : 1
Reason : 0
Users are greedy bastards who never want to pay for content, and are prepared to use all kinds of dubious logical machinations, hippie philosophy, and references to the constitution to justify IP infringement.
I consider withholding works from the public domain to be theft. Certainly, it's a hell of a lot closer to theft than "copyright infringement". The question is, if they steal from me, am I entitled to steal back from them (I'm not talking about copying new works here) ?
You are exactly correct. The public domain is competition, and brutal competition at that. That's the problem with recording music, making movies, etc. At the beginning, people can't get enough of it. But the recordings never go away, and after a while there is so much great stuff available that people are not tempted to buy new works (unless they are really, really good).
It won't have any impact at all. The fact is, our current system is broken. The media companies have all the money and power, and they can buy whatever laws they want. They will lobby, spend, and do whatever it takes to extend and broaden copyright without limit. People are correct in believing that this will choke creativity and kill culture, but the media companies actually benefit. You see, people will put up with garbage, as long as they have nothing better to compare it to. Marketing will ensure that everybody only hears about the "hot new thing", and they can recycle the same ten or twenty movies, at minimal cost and zero risk, until the end of time.
We're not going to win that war, all of the decisive battles have already been lost, and our legal options are locked up. Either we admit defeat, and give in to a steady stream of Julia Roberts' movies and their ilk, or we fight on in a different arena. I propose that we build a digital library of all recorded works: music, films, books, etc. and put it on Freenet. There is really no other option available to us, and I think that this will be the endgame. Let's do it before technology becomes illegal too.
And how is inventing a character but not allowing just any person to do anything they want with it, without permission, "Screwing the American public?" How? In what way?
Nice troll. Surely you realize that virtually every artistic work borrows (often heavily) from other (usually popular) works. Shakespear wouldn't have been able to write many of his best plays under the current copyright regime. I believe he copied Romeo and Juliet from The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577). This page also mentioned that he borrowed from a (then current) translation of Plutarch's Lives. In short, Shakespear was clearly a criminal, along with just about everyone else who has ever created anything great.
I recently switched to Gentoo from Debian.
We should name it Strom Thurmondia
Use MAME, or any number of emulators. A google search for choplifter brought up the rom as well.
I recompile my kernel all the time. I try lots of different kernels and patchsets, with many differnt options. I've only been using Linux for about a year, so I've got a ways to go before I reach guru status (ie: contibuting kernel patchs, etc), but I'm working on it. By the way, how did my parent post get modded "troll" ? Give me a break.
I don't consider it a flaw, and I'm not particularily interested in a "fix". For things like hardware configuration, etc, which don't come up very often I prefer the flexibility of doing things manually. For things that come up all the time, like installing/testing new software, etc, I want that to be fairly painless and automatic, with the option to easily resort to the manual method if something goes wrong. Now, can you guess what distro I'm running ?
Quick, contact the American Association Against Acronym Abuse !
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. I run Linux on my home computer, but as the resident computer geek I've been called in to install Windows XP twice in the last two weeks. Whether anyone wants to hear it or not, when it comes to an average user's needs Microsoft has really got it nailed down. Installing new hardware and getting it to work is very easy, wheras Linux seems to be in a "pre-Windows 95" state. This is probably Linux's biggest weakness, but at the same time, it's a source of strength. Allow me to illustrate with a recent example.
/etc/fstab file to automatically mount the partitions at boot. However I accidentally put a space between the comma and a second mount option. I rebooted (to check that I did everything right), and the system choked and mounted the root filesystem read-only. I managed to remount the file system as writable (mount -w -n -o /dev/hdbX) and I fixed the problem.
Last night, I added a second hard drive to my computer. If I used Windows, the system would have booted up and the drive letters for my cdroms would have all been changed, and I'd probably have to fix a few programs. (tip: re-assign all cdrom drives to drive X or Y when you first install Windows to prevent this)
On Linux I partitioned and formatted, then I edited my
So what point does that serve to illustrate ? Well, in Windows most things like are automatic, and it's very unlikely that something will go wrong. However, there's a lot of machinery involved, so in the unlikely event that something does go terribly wrong you may be left with no recourse. In Linux it's easy to fuck things up, but you always have options. It's a "do it yourself" kind of system. And I hope it stays that way.
I find the image of feet and the letter "G" offensive, that's why I use KDE.
On one hand if you make virtual worlds which are similar to the real world, who would want to play ? I thought the whole "fun" in having a virtual world was the fact that you didn't need to abide by all the conventions of the real world. If I could have a pet dragon for real, I would have one, etc. On the other hand, there is the fairly large problem of "griefers", people who play these games specifically trying to ruin it for everyone else. Most people would like to see this stopped, but can you even reconcile these two ideas ? Maybe the ultimate "MMORPG" is simply the player interacting with thousands of highly intelligent NPCs, which behave how the player wants them to behave.
I don't think you could copyright a format... yet. But with the existing extortio- I mean patent system you could probably patent one. I'm going to patent encoding letters of the english alphabet as binary numbers.
You're right, the "real world" doesn't care. They're too busy watching American Idol. Now if there's one area where competition-choking patents would produce a net benefit to society, it is so-called "reality television".
And I forgot to add, let's give the old producers of energy complete creative control over all new energy ventures, "to promote progress" of course.
If energy became free, we would have to set up a regulatory framework with fees and royalties on enery use, to compensate the artists.
50% Troll, 50% Tripe, 50% opinion.
100% slashdot math.
You have to understand how freenet works. It is extremely costly (in computational time) to trace things back to a host. Furthermore, people who connect to freenet have only a large encrypted cache on their hard drive. They have no idea what they are contributing to the network, and therefore any infringement traced back to their computer is plausibly deniable. In order to prosecute anyone, you would essentially have to make the entire network illegal, and I don't think any court would be willing to do that. Furthermore, in order to STOP people from using the network, you would have to knock out at least 30% of the nodes. So long as we have the freedom to run a freenet client, nobody is going to be able to stop this.
Actually I don't trade music, but I happen to know a bit about cryptography and freenet.
But if you have a couple GB of PC133 ram, like I do, it's worth considering.
Freenets trade Adobe software.
I think the RIAA is in over its head, again. "At the end of the day, we believe we can find infringers regardless of what network they use to try to cloak their illegal activity." HA HA HA HA HA.