However, they do have all right to do this in some respects. They are putting up crap on a P2P network, just like any other idiot. Still, what gets to me is the system in general. When a lone hacker writes a virus, he gets jail time. When a corporation writes a virus...
But then, what should P2P users do? If they're so serious about P2P, they'll either take the risk or find a new way of sharing files that finds the trojans and whatnot.
Although really, I'm suprised the government isn't stepping in right abou... Wait, nevermind.
On that note, why not just ban menstruation as well? Every time a woman decides to have her period and not have sex, she is kind of destroying life... But naturally. And as a result, I have to clean up the tampon bags at the grocery store where I work. Thus, it has given me a very firm belief that women should get pregnant as much as possible, or get those things removed for stem cell research. Really, those tampon bags are pretty disgusting.
Still, at times I wonder if I could pawn off those tampon bags, telling them some BS about unfertilized stem cells. I wonder what the going price is?
Oh, and while we're banning things, let's ban wet dreams too. Those destroy life like nothing else. And you have to waste money cleaning sheets too.
While it is very important to support the manga industry, it's also very beneficial to download manga. My usual method of acquiring new manga is downloading it, then if it's any good, buying it. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. The manga industry is being outsourced. I don't know much about this, but it might be a good idea to keep an eye on this issue.
2. Manga on the internet is often fan-translated. This is usually a good thing, as often the fans have more respect for a direct translation, rather than throwing out any cultural jokes that wouldn't apply overseas.
3. Try to get manga for a good price. Manga is sold at ridiculously inflated prices in the U.S., so if you can, try to get a better deal.
That being said, it's also a lot of fun to actually buy the manga. There's something quite charismatic about sitting on the bus with a thick little comic book.
Still, if one walks into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, they'll find a large section devoted to manga, so the good thing is it's becoming more available.
Oh, and I would like to second the honorable mention of Naruto. I'm currently reading it, and it's a really great series, both the anime and the manga. I highly suggest it.
A beautiful mind is not a good portrayal of schizophrenia. Just know that.
Schizophrenia is really dependant on the person, the type of schizophrenia, and a lot of other factors. I have a friend who is currently diagnosed with it, and while she is paranoid and somewhat emotionally void, she is capable of doing most things on her own.
As for hope on the long term, well, there are drugs, but it's best to do some background work on the drugs and get multiple sources. Some drugs can cause severe neurological damage, other drugs can work wonders. New drugs are coming out all the time, so read up as much as you can on these new treatments, just in case the doctors haven't.
In the end, just be as kind as you can be. It's a hard thing to deal with, but with the right combination of drugs and attention, they can do alright.
Schizophrenia doesn't spell doom for a person's life. It is a painful disease to see someone have, but remember that deep inside that the person is still your loved one, and it isn't their fault that they're acting the way they are. There's always hope that things will work out, and if you take care of them correctly, with the right combination of things, they can resume a position in society. Just keep an eye on them, and don't abandon them.
While this is interesting, it doesn't really mean much in the long run just yet. The implications for the future, though, are pretty big. Imagine a MMORPG, somewhat like the matrix mixed with.hack, in the future, as a solution to overpopulation. Too many people? that's alright, we have 40% of our population living, working, and communicating in a fake reality. But still, will false items in this fake world account for anything in the real world? Will anyone care? Just my $.02.
Music is shared. The industry finds way to block it, but in doing so pisses people off. New P2P app. Random corporate ups ante, finds new way to find out identity of P2P user. New P2P program that blocks ID. People post about it on slashdot. People make funny comments, and get modded up. Piracy increases, RIAA makes new blocking program. Cowboy Oneal finally decides that he's sick of it all and declares a ban on P2P relating articles.
Anyways, down to real business: The more people try to stop people from downloading files, the more it becomes damaging to themselves. Not only are they blowing money on quick fix solutions that do nothing but piss people off and force them to resort to other methods, but in the end their problem is that people are going to download their crap no matter what. If they stop them from downloading, they sure as hell won't buy it, so they might as well let them be.
Now, I'm not saying that's the right solution, or there is a solution, but I think trying to stop it and potentially messing people up all over the board is just a haphazard and dangerous way of doing things. Go back to the drawing board... And as much as I hate to admit it, but I feel by the time they solve P2P, Mac will be in control of the market, we'll be insectoid alien slaves, and Elvis will have returned, and will have posted a story on the truth about aliens here.
But then again, every church is different. IMOHO, if Jesus came back, I believe he would be hanging out with people in their houses, instead of going to churches. Churches are full of believers and people who are less sinful than others. If you remember, Jesus dined with Tax collectors and whores. Plus, while Jesus, if he returned, may make appearences at some churches, other churches seem more like they are run by the Pharisees who wanted to destroy him. I guess a lot of it depends on the people.
But then again, who am I to say what Jesus would be doing today if he came back? For all I know, he might be sitting back on some beach in florida, sipping a martini, and enjoying the good life.
Anyways, this is all offtopic. Back to the point of people worshipping online: There are a vast amount of christian websites out there, if one is willing to look. Does it have to be put into a videogame for people to pay attention to it?
Yet in other ways, it could be an effective means of spreading the good news: outreach through gaming. I've heard of christian groups that use D&D (ancient christianity campaigns) to do outreach. Let's just hope pop ups for Tele-evangelist... err... e-vangelists start appearing.
On the other side of things, one could argue that this is trivilizing god to an extent, but that can be argued about most things today.
In any scenario, we will have to see how this all turns out. If it helps people find religion, more power to them. Frankly, I know a lot of people who would find going to church online to be a much easier activity.
Still, what next? Ragnarok online churches? The clerics of Everquest online band together and form a union of priests that have the right to preach? As I mentioned earlier, e-vangelists?
My mom is actually involved with the surguries where they implant this type of thing. Pretty much she has this to say about them:
-They're effective as all hell
-They work best for movement disorders, such as Parkinsons, as well as Chronic pain
-The surgury itself is pretty drastic; you have to literally drill holes in people's heads... And the patient has to be consious. Numbed up, but consious.
-There are some side effects if it isn't done properly.
Some of her cases include one guy who had the electrode too deep, which caused a deep depression as it was stimulating too much area. They moved it a notch up, and the depression faded instantly. Another case included a cop that would have to leave his job if he kept on having this chronic pain that kept him from working, but he is not back on the job and loving it.
One thing she we have talked about is that it would be interesting to use them for psychiatric disorders, but with doctors perscribing ritalin and prozak at the drop of a hat, it's not a good thing to suddenly have holes drilled into kids heads.
Also, I asked about replacing ECT with Deep brain stimulation for depression, but apparently ECT is much cheaper. Pity.
Still, this is a LONG way away from stuff like the Matrix and Ghost in a Shell. Currently it just controls overactive areas of the brain that cause neurological diseases, nothing more, nothing less. Don't get your hopes up quite yet.
and throw a server on your database admin's back, hook it up with eyetap, and suddenly not is he just the database admin, he IS the database.
This could be the next step in wearable computing, if you think about it. While it would be hard to sit down with a bunch of hardware on your back, you could walk around with your computer with you, interacting with it through Eyetap and voice commands, or something... Although it might not be necessary, as computers are getting so damn small...
It sort of reminds me of the cyber junkie from S.E. Lain.
What I meant to ask is... Well, I don't like coding. (Well, Perl is okay, but not Java.) and frankly I'm more interested in an informatics type deal where instead of programming I'm managing data systems, or doing things with graphics, so what I want is a way to get past the programming so I can get into the program (informatics) that allows me to do what I want to do, or is it all folly and I should just give up on my dream and go back to my old dream of wanting to be superman?
I talked a bit and programmed a bit last night, and I discovered a few things:
I'm not bad at working with visual stuff. We were coding an iterator for importing graphics, then building graphics. I actually enjoyed it. While it was rather tedious, but I thought it was pretty fun. Maybe it was just that it was a simple assignment, but it was one of the few things I've enjoyed.
Also, I thought back on the midterm that made me write this. I got a 19/40 after spending an entire weekend cramming, going to study sessions (including one on one with the TA), and other stuff. I realized that A: I looked into the questions too much and wasted time trying to make iterators and arraylists where they didn't belong (the prof big on Arrays and Iterators, almost to the point of being mind numbing), and I thought everything was a trick question. At one point, I think I had a minor panic/spaz attack for some reason. (I have a lot of math anxiety issues from bad experiences early in life, and it was sort of like that.)
Anyways, I'm going to try some of the things you people suggested, and thanks a lot for your input. I just hope other people who have the same problem will read this and get something out of it. Thanks again.
Good point. Truth being told, I don't want to be a programmer, I just want to get enough skill and knowledge (and connections) to be something like either a web designer, or a consultant, or even a tech writer.
That is actually one of the things that interests me, human interfaces, and how people interact with computers (one of the big parts of Informatics, or so I'm told...)
Odd thing is I did some Perl and a little VB before this class, and I did just fine. It's just that with Java I hit a brick wall.
I'm actually thinking of doing that. Have you heard of deep brain stimulation? That's a fascinating field, and I've been taking a lot of classes in psychology/neuroanatomy in hopes of getting into it.
I'd see something to the effect of...
A: Lego Army men
B: Lego Star trek (yeah, ok, they'd need copyright stuff, but I know that there'd be a proliferation of lego comic things... And I'd buy them just to take pictures of the red shirted ensign pieces getting killed in various ways.)
C: Lego Warhammer 40k (finally, a cheap and fun way to play warhammer! Of course this would be directed at the younger crowd...)
D: Lego D&D (Miniatures take too damn long to paint.)
E: Lego Half life
F: Lego programming department (so the/. people are appeased.)
Or at least a dorm where they shoved 3 people where there was only meant for there to be two. The thing is we don't really have problems with power outlets as we all have a lot of surge strips, but it's the Lan ports that run short.
Still, I find that there's usually enough power running around when I activate the human power cells installed in our beds. (Become a human battery, pay for college.)
I guess we won't be seeing any more of Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) as well. Pity. And the whole shire razing thing won't be around either, that's a given.
So now we use our little friends, virii, to kill cancer. What next, replacing the immune system altogether with genetically altered virii that hunt down and kill infection?
Wait a sec... If you could create virii to kill off cancer cells, couldn't you also breed them to kill off HIV infected cells?
What next, Google-RIAA search; 'enter a kazaa username and google will give you the IP address, personal information, credit card number, and home address of the user!'
or, using google-patriot act search, type in a person's name, and you get all the secret cameras in their home, their entire geneology, pictures from their past, and other weird things that only the conspiracy theorists know...
Or, even better, using google for moms, a google that scans the computer for cookies to find out what site her kid has been visiting via a cookie scan or something.
I dunno, but eventually it's going to seem like an invasion of privacy with these search engines, but then again, once you put something online without any protection, it *is* public domain.
*newscast* "Canada has been overrun by tech fans from all over the country. Many claim that they have 'slashdotted' Canada."
Canadian authorities are praying that their infastructure doesn't collapse, like all those other victims (servers, mostly) of slashdotting.
Still, this is just like Earth station 5, out of palistine. They can't do anything, and it is totally legal. All the RIAA can do is... Really support Israel? What next, the RIAA starts hosting anti canadian sentiments? Hilary Rosen runs for public office? (Gov. of California, most likely.)
the 'logic' of P2P being a vehicle of child porn, Candy is equal to kidnapping, Because of a few potential cases of strangers getting little kids with candy.
And cars are equal to date rape, because date rape happens a lot in cars.
And Dungeons and Dragons leads to witchcraft. And Marylin Manson leads to killing. And watching Arnold Shwartzengovernor movies turns you into a carrot. And masturbating leads to killing kittens. And being a catholic leads to pedophilia. And using linux leads to never having sex. Ever. And watching too much anime leads to a sudden fascination with schoolgirls and tenticles.
Wait, the last one was true...
Still, what I see this as is a final act of desperation. The lawsuits are just giving them a bad name, and finally they realized instead of letting the internet badmouth them, they should badmouth the P2P services. What next, badmouth Sean Fanning?
Still, the scary thing is what I see here is a potential legion of child porn pics being uploaded onto the networks by the RIAA, with the titles 'michaeljacksonsfacemelting.jpg, madonna.jpg, coolpic.jpg, or tatugirlskissing.jpg,' then they'd somehow (using secret RIAA black magic) track these files, and turn the hapless bastard who downloads them into the authorities. That way they'd save money on lawsuits...
So people are not downloading music, and yet they aren't buying it? Radio? Or maybe people are just boycotting music altogether until IT STOPS SUCKING!!! Gyah.
Seriously, the stuff that is produced today isn't worth a lawsuit, but it isn't worth 17 (or 12) bucks either. Five bucks is okay.
Still, free is better, and intimidation only goes so far. Eventually they'll realize that they've got bigger fish to fry, and hopefully stop suing poor college students.
Here's what I'm wondering: If the RIAA is complaining about losses in CD sales, and blaming P2P, then that must mean they're running short on money. If such is the case, THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY WASTING MONEY ON LAWSUITS? Okay, so you sue a poor college student for 2 million bucks or something like that. Do you think he'll actually pay it off? They'll fight it, and if a settlement is actually reached, it's more likely that they've wasted more money of the lawyers than they're actually getting out of the settlement... And then there are the people who can't pay any money, and either go to jail or kill themselves, then you've got a bad situation on your hands...
Still, lawyers have to be a lot cheaper to contract than musicians these days, so maybe the RIAA will stop making music and start employing lawyers to randomly sue college students (because they're ALL guilty of P2P, right? RIGHT...?) to make their profits...
Infernal RIAA, don't they realize that what's hurting them the most is foreign CD piracy,(Insert previous/. article here) not some poor college student pirating in his dorm room (where s/he naturally doesn't have any money to buy CDs...)
It's time they stopped using college students as scape goats.
Still, this makes me want to do some detective/conspiracy theorist work, and link the RIAA and Hilary Rosen to Al Quida, then tell the patriot act and watch the fireworks... (Well, I consider evil corporations like the RIAA, GM, Nike, the tobacco industries, and Boeing to be a much larger threat than terrorists...)
Yes, Mr. Rummsfield/Patriot act agent, I saw Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain sitting in a green stationwagen, and driving it was Hilary Rosen!
Also, who says college students don't fight back? I'm just waiting for someone to post Hilary Rosen's personal address, or any of the other RIAA execs addresses on the web, then watch the fireworks. It'll be just like the shit sent to the spammer, but worse hopefully. Seriously, they need to wake up and smell the asphalt: Their little world and the way it works isn't going to work just because they have massive amounts of money... The reason they have money is people support them, but if they actually start suing people, they'll start losing money. (What college student could pay that much? If I were sued like that, I'd take a gun to my head. Plus, after a while, the boycotts would kill them.)
Slashdot Mirror
However, they do have all right to do this in some respects. They are putting up crap on a P2P network, just like any other idiot. Still, what gets to me is the system in general. When a lone hacker writes a virus, he gets jail time. When a corporation writes a virus...
But then, what should P2P users do? If they're so serious about P2P, they'll either take the risk or find a new way of sharing files that finds the trojans and whatnot.
Although really, I'm suprised the government isn't stepping in right abou... Wait, nevermind.
Still, at times I wonder if I could pawn off those tampon bags, telling them some BS about unfertilized stem cells. I wonder what the going price is?
Oh, and while we're banning things, let's ban wet dreams too. Those destroy life like nothing else. And you have to waste money cleaning sheets too.
1. The manga industry is being outsourced. I don't know much about this, but it might be a good idea to keep an eye on this issue.
2. Manga on the internet is often fan-translated. This is usually a good thing, as often the fans have more respect for a direct translation, rather than throwing out any cultural jokes that wouldn't apply overseas.
3. Try to get manga for a good price. Manga is sold at ridiculously inflated prices in the U.S., so if you can, try to get a better deal.
That being said, it's also a lot of fun to actually buy the manga. There's something quite charismatic about sitting on the bus with a thick little comic book.
Still, if one walks into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, they'll find a large section devoted to manga, so the good thing is it's becoming more available.
Oh, and I would like to second the honorable mention of Naruto. I'm currently reading it, and it's a really great series, both the anime and the manga. I highly suggest it.
Schizophrenia is really dependant on the person, the type of schizophrenia, and a lot of other factors. I have a friend who is currently diagnosed with it, and while she is paranoid and somewhat emotionally void, she is capable of doing most things on her own.
As for hope on the long term, well, there are drugs, but it's best to do some background work on the drugs and get multiple sources. Some drugs can cause severe neurological damage, other drugs can work wonders. New drugs are coming out all the time, so read up as much as you can on these new treatments, just in case the doctors haven't.
In the end, just be as kind as you can be. It's a hard thing to deal with, but with the right combination of drugs and attention, they can do alright.
Schizophrenia doesn't spell doom for a person's life. It is a painful disease to see someone have, but remember that deep inside that the person is still your loved one, and it isn't their fault that they're acting the way they are. There's always hope that things will work out, and if you take care of them correctly, with the right combination of things, they can resume a position in society. Just keep an eye on them, and don't abandon them.
I don't know if this will help, but good luck.
While this is interesting, it doesn't really mean much in the long run just yet. The implications for the future, though, are pretty big. Imagine a MMORPG, somewhat like the matrix mixed with .hack, in the future, as a solution to overpopulation. Too many people? that's alright, we have 40% of our population living, working, and communicating in a fake reality. But still, will false items in this fake world account for anything in the real world? Will anyone care? Just my $.02.
Music is shared. The industry finds way to block it, but in doing so pisses people off. New P2P app. Random corporate ups ante, finds new way to find out identity of P2P user. New P2P program that blocks ID. People post about it on slashdot. People make funny comments, and get modded up. Piracy increases, RIAA makes new blocking program. Cowboy Oneal finally decides that he's sick of it all and declares a ban on P2P relating articles.
Anyways, down to real business: The more people try to stop people from downloading files, the more it becomes damaging to themselves. Not only are they blowing money on quick fix solutions that do nothing but piss people off and force them to resort to other methods, but in the end their problem is that people are going to download their crap no matter what. If they stop them from downloading, they sure as hell won't buy it, so they might as well let them be.
Now, I'm not saying that's the right solution, or there is a solution, but I think trying to stop it and potentially messing people up all over the board is just a haphazard and dangerous way of doing things. Go back to the drawing board... And as much as I hate to admit it, but I feel by the time they solve P2P, Mac will be in control of the market, we'll be insectoid alien slaves, and Elvis will have returned, and will have posted a story on the truth about aliens here.
But then again, who am I to say what Jesus would be doing today if he came back? For all I know, he might be sitting back on some beach in florida, sipping a martini, and enjoying the good life.
Anyways, this is all offtopic. Back to the point of people worshipping online: There are a vast amount of christian websites out there, if one is willing to look. Does it have to be put into a videogame for people to pay attention to it?
Yet in other ways, it could be an effective means of spreading the good news: outreach through gaming. I've heard of christian groups that use D&D (ancient christianity campaigns) to do outreach. Let's just hope pop ups for Tele-evangelist... err... e-vangelists start appearing.
On the other side of things, one could argue that this is trivilizing god to an extent, but that can be argued about most things today.
In any scenario, we will have to see how this all turns out. If it helps people find religion, more power to them. Frankly, I know a lot of people who would find going to church online to be a much easier activity.
Still, what next? Ragnarok online churches? The clerics of Everquest online band together and form a union of priests that have the right to preach? As I mentioned earlier, e-vangelists?
Who knows. But frankly, I can't wait to see.
-They're effective as all hell
-They work best for movement disorders, such as Parkinsons, as well as Chronic pain
-The surgury itself is pretty drastic; you have to literally drill holes in people's heads... And the patient has to be consious. Numbed up, but consious.
-There are some side effects if it isn't done properly.
Some of her cases include one guy who had the electrode too deep, which caused a deep depression as it was stimulating too much area. They moved it a notch up, and the depression faded instantly. Another case included a cop that would have to leave his job if he kept on having this chronic pain that kept him from working, but he is not back on the job and loving it.
One thing she we have talked about is that it would be interesting to use them for psychiatric disorders, but with doctors perscribing ritalin and prozak at the drop of a hat, it's not a good thing to suddenly have holes drilled into kids heads.
Also, I asked about replacing ECT with Deep brain stimulation for depression, but apparently ECT is much cheaper. Pity.
Still, this is a LONG way away from stuff like the Matrix and Ghost in a Shell. Currently it just controls overactive areas of the brain that cause neurological diseases, nothing more, nothing less. Don't get your hopes up quite yet.
This could be the next step in wearable computing, if you think about it. While it would be hard to sit down with a bunch of hardware on your back, you could walk around with your computer with you, interacting with it through Eyetap and voice commands, or something... Although it might not be necessary, as computers are getting so damn small...
It sort of reminds me of the cyber junkie from S.E. Lain.
Informatics, actually. It's more the sociology and human side of the coding. I guess you could call it CS for liberal arts types.
What I meant to ask is... Well, I don't like coding. (Well, Perl is okay, but not Java.) and frankly I'm more interested in an informatics type deal where instead of programming I'm managing data systems, or doing things with graphics, so what I want is a way to get past the programming so I can get into the program (informatics) that allows me to do what I want to do, or is it all folly and I should just give up on my dream and go back to my old dream of wanting to be superman?
I talked a bit and programmed a bit last night, and I discovered a few things: I'm not bad at working with visual stuff. We were coding an iterator for importing graphics, then building graphics. I actually enjoyed it. While it was rather tedious, but I thought it was pretty fun. Maybe it was just that it was a simple assignment, but it was one of the few things I've enjoyed. Also, I thought back on the midterm that made me write this. I got a 19/40 after spending an entire weekend cramming, going to study sessions (including one on one with the TA), and other stuff. I realized that A: I looked into the questions too much and wasted time trying to make iterators and arraylists where they didn't belong (the prof big on Arrays and Iterators, almost to the point of being mind numbing), and I thought everything was a trick question. At one point, I think I had a minor panic/spaz attack for some reason. (I have a lot of math anxiety issues from bad experiences early in life, and it was sort of like that.) Anyways, I'm going to try some of the things you people suggested, and thanks a lot for your input. I just hope other people who have the same problem will read this and get something out of it. Thanks again.
Good point. Truth being told, I don't want to be a programmer, I just want to get enough skill and knowledge (and connections) to be something like either a web designer, or a consultant, or even a tech writer.
That is actually one of the things that interests me, human interfaces, and how people interact with computers (one of the big parts of Informatics, or so I'm told...) Odd thing is I did some Perl and a little VB before this class, and I did just fine. It's just that with Java I hit a brick wall.
I'm actually thinking of doing that. Have you heard of deep brain stimulation? That's a fascinating field, and I've been taking a lot of classes in psychology/neuroanatomy in hopes of getting into it.
A: Lego Army men
B: Lego Star trek (yeah, ok, they'd need copyright stuff, but I know that there'd be a proliferation of lego comic things... And I'd buy them just to take pictures of the red shirted ensign pieces getting killed in various ways.)
C: Lego Warhammer 40k (finally, a cheap and fun way to play warhammer! Of course this would be directed at the younger crowd...)
D: Lego D&D (Miniatures take too damn long to paint.)
E: Lego Half life
F: Lego programming department (so the
Too bad they'd never get the copyright stuff...
Or at least a dorm where they shoved 3 people where there was only meant for there to be two. The thing is we don't really have problems with power outlets as we all have a lot of surge strips, but it's the Lan ports that run short. Still, I find that there's usually enough power running around when I activate the human power cells installed in our beds. (Become a human battery, pay for college.)
I guess we won't be seeing any more of Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) as well. Pity. And the whole shire razing thing won't be around either, that's a given.
Wait a sec... If you could create virii to kill off cancer cells, couldn't you also breed them to kill off HIV infected cells?
Tom Baker is just saying that because he's bitter that they told him the only part he'd be getting was that of Davros...
or, using google-patriot act search, type in a person's name, and you get all the secret cameras in their home, their entire geneology, pictures from their past, and other weird things that only the conspiracy theorists know...
Or, even better, using google for moms, a google that scans the computer for cookies to find out what site her kid has been visiting via a cookie scan or something.
I dunno, but eventually it's going to seem like an invasion of privacy with these search engines, but then again, once you put something online without any protection, it *is* public domain.
*newscast* "Canada has been overrun by tech fans from all over the country. Many claim that they have 'slashdotted' Canada."
Canadian authorities are praying that their infastructure doesn't collapse, like all those other victims (servers, mostly) of slashdotting.
Still, this is just like Earth station 5, out of palistine. They can't do anything, and it is totally legal. All the RIAA can do is... Really support Israel? What next, the RIAA starts hosting anti canadian sentiments? Hilary Rosen runs for public office? (Gov. of California, most likely.)
And cars are equal to date rape, because date rape happens a lot in cars.
And Dungeons and Dragons leads to witchcraft. And Marylin Manson leads to killing. And watching Arnold Shwartzengovernor movies turns you into a carrot. And masturbating leads to killing kittens. And being a catholic leads to pedophilia. And using linux leads to never having sex. Ever. And watching too much anime leads to a sudden fascination with schoolgirls and tenticles.
Wait, the last one was true...
Still, what I see this as is a final act of desperation. The lawsuits are just giving them a bad name, and finally they realized instead of letting the internet badmouth them, they should badmouth the P2P services. What next, badmouth Sean Fanning?
Still, the scary thing is what I see here is a potential legion of child porn pics being uploaded onto the networks by the RIAA, with the titles 'michaeljacksonsfacemelting.jpg, madonna.jpg, coolpic.jpg, or tatugirlskissing.jpg,' then they'd somehow (using secret RIAA black magic) track these files, and turn the hapless bastard who downloads them into the authorities. That way they'd save money on lawsuits...
Seriously, the stuff that is produced today isn't worth a lawsuit, but it isn't worth 17 (or 12) bucks either. Five bucks is okay.
Still, free is better, and intimidation only goes so far. Eventually they'll realize that they've got bigger fish to fry, and hopefully stop suing poor college students.
Here's what I'm wondering: If the RIAA is complaining about losses in CD sales, and blaming P2P, then that must mean they're running short on money. If such is the case, THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY WASTING MONEY ON LAWSUITS? Okay, so you sue a poor college student for 2 million bucks or something like that. Do you think he'll actually pay it off? They'll fight it, and if a settlement is actually reached, it's more likely that they've wasted more money of the lawyers than they're actually getting out of the settlement... And then there are the people who can't pay any money, and either go to jail or kill themselves, then you've got a bad situation on your hands...
Still, lawyers have to be a lot cheaper to contract than musicians these days, so maybe the RIAA will stop making music and start employing lawyers to randomly sue college students (because they're ALL guilty of P2P, right? RIGHT...?) to make their profits...
It's time they stopped using college students as scape goats.
Still, this makes me want to do some detective/conspiracy theorist work, and link the RIAA and Hilary Rosen to Al Quida, then tell the patriot act and watch the fireworks... (Well, I consider evil corporations like the RIAA, GM, Nike, the tobacco industries, and Boeing to be a much larger threat than terrorists...)
Yes, Mr. Rummsfield/Patriot act agent, I saw Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain sitting in a green stationwagen, and driving it was Hilary Rosen!
Also, who says college students don't fight back? I'm just waiting for someone to post Hilary Rosen's personal address, or any of the other RIAA execs addresses on the web, then watch the fireworks. It'll be just like the shit sent to the spammer, but worse hopefully. Seriously, they need to wake up and smell the asphalt: Their little world and the way it works isn't going to work just because they have massive amounts of money... The reason they have money is people support them, but if they actually start suing people, they'll start losing money. (What college student could pay that much? If I were sued like that, I'd take a gun to my head. Plus, after a while, the boycotts would kill them.)