All the things you describe are works for hire, paid for by the beneficiary of the work.
If you pay the salary of an artist or an author for a work, up front, then you can "give away" the music or book they have written for you, and they only get paid once, just like all the other labors you describe.
Except for a few well known artists, who get an advance AND royalties, there are thousands who toil away without pay - until/unless they can sell their work "later". There is a difference between paying for something "now", a sure deal, and taking the risk of getting your money "later". Just because a work is covered by copyright for "a long time" there is no guarantee that it will be worth anything, but without copyright, it FOR SURE will be worth nothing (to the creator).
Almost every copyrighted item that people are bitching about not being "free", is simply "entertainment".
Nobody "needs" to buy mere entertainment, they just "want" it! The very fact that copyrighted material, not counting the media, is an intangible that folks are still willing to pay for argues the very need for a copyright law.
I am not sure what the exact balance WRT copyright law should be, but I am just pointing out there is some need for copyright in the Real World.
If a private individual runs an anonymizing service, is he protected as a "common carrier", on the off chance that someone figures out that illegal traffic was aided and abetted by such service?
Everyone is concerned about birds getting chopped up in Wind Power solutions...
Heh, the Ocean is the perfect place then. Any birds that get chopped up won't be those cute little song birds, just those flying rats, the seagulls, the ill-fated albatross, and some other birds no one cares about.
As a bonus, being over water, there are no carcasses to create an eyesore.
Aside from everything else on the what's-bad-about-this list, coping stuff takes time. As we all know, "time is money."
I think Geek Squad charges fixed-rates for service, so the Geek is not only wasting the customer's time, but defrauding his employer by essentially screwing around while on the clock.
If you have a safety deposit box at a bank, you're entrusting them not to open it while you're away and look at all the sparklies.
Heh, in the people's republic of California, not only do they NOT not look, they give it to the state at the drop of a hat. California has changed the laws over the years, to define "abandoned" down from 15 to 7, and now just 3 years.
"There's nothing so tragic as seeing a family pulled apart by something as simple as a pack of wolves."
You've got to admit, a family of homo sapiens are more advanced than wolves, and yet...
Maybe the aliens weren't expecting to have to deal with someone shooting hypersonic slugs of lead at their craft.
There's a bunch of much better arguments for not believing aliens crashed in Roswell, but dismissing it because you don't think it could have been shot down is begging a much bigger question.
I dunno, I guess I just never cared who was calling. But here is a great excuse to explore the spelling of the word for one who does not tell the truth...
Currently, either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
Under current law, if I had callerID, either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
Under the new law, if I had callerID, and callers weren't allowed to lie about being criminal liars, I'd have to make a decision about answering the phone, even though the callerID might be lying to me anyhow. I guess I would just revert to my previous, pre-callerID rules, and either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
I don't have caller ID! Why would I? If I don't want to answer the phone, I don't. (Actually, my wife probably will answer it anyhow, she is kind of type-A that way. But still, I have no problem putting undesirable callers on hold "forever", I am kind of an A-Hole, that way.)
I have saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years for a feature I could have used maybe, once or twice.
Seems like a bargain to me.
Sheesh, you don't have to buy product offered to you.
I am not a technophobe, I have two land lines and four cell phones. The Cell phones come with caller ID "for free".
Actually, "I don't know" is not very frightening at all. It leaves room for future answers.
What else can you say, but "I don't know", to The Big Question "Why?" (the meaning of life, etc.)
FWIW, am also OK with "I don't know", but many people immediately jump to "oh no, what if the answer is; No reason". Lots of people can't handle that and need to fill the void with some explanation.
Ironically, science may provide the ultimate answer to matters of faith, and it may be "some things are not knowable."
Let's just use up the oil and then we can get on with things.
Environmentally, we are far better off letting Westerners burn up the oil in their clean-burning monster SUVs with catalytic-converters , rather than letting it get burned up in some crappy Chinese car.
Make no mistake, nobody is saving the oil from being burned. If "we" don't do it, someone else will.
All the oil in the world will be burned by someone, as long as it is economically feasible to do so.
generous state and federal programs... which we all know simply pulls the money off trees. The same trees the tree-owners would have like to have harvested, but their crop was taken and given away.
Slashdot Mirror
If you pay the salary of an artist or an author for a work, up front, then you can "give away" the music or book they have written for you, and they only get paid once, just like all the other labors you describe.
Except for a few well known artists, who get an advance AND royalties, there are thousands who toil away without pay - until/unless they can sell their work "later". There is a difference between paying for something "now", a sure deal, and taking the risk of getting your money "later". Just because a work is covered by copyright for "a long time" there is no guarantee that it will be worth anything, but without copyright, it FOR SURE will be worth nothing (to the creator).
Almost every copyrighted item that people are bitching about not being "free", is simply "entertainment".
Nobody "needs" to buy mere entertainment, they just "want" it! The very fact that copyrighted material, not counting the media, is an intangible that folks are still willing to pay for argues the very need for a copyright law.
I am not sure what the exact balance WRT copyright law should be, but I am just pointing out there is some need for copyright in the Real World.
Does anyone have a copy of the EULA for that software?
You imply that gas is too expensive.
However, demand still up. Classic economics would argue it is not too much.
IANAL, I'm just asking...
No, really, it is in our constitution and everything.
When they detect beer on another planet, THEN, we'll be talking!
They just want to know if the media will last, and if you will be able to buy players for it in the future.
It is all about the popularity of the format, for whatever reason.
I thought law was all about exacting language, and that seems pretty vague to me - who knows what future versions will hold?
I also assume the definition of who can create any such "future version" is well defined as well, right?
Heh, the Ocean is the perfect place then. Any birds that get chopped up won't be those cute little song birds, just those flying rats, the seagulls, the ill-fated albatross, and some other birds no one cares about.
As a bonus, being over water, there are no carcasses to create an eyesore.
Plus the local fish eat more.
I think Geek Squad charges fixed-rates for service, so the Geek is not only wasting the customer's time, but defrauding his employer by essentially screwing around while on the clock.
Heh, in the people's republic of California, not only do they NOT not look, they give it to the
state at the drop of a hat. California has changed the laws over the years, to define "abandoned" down from 15 to 7, and now just 3 years.
You've got to admit, a family of homo sapiens are more advanced than wolves, and yet...
Maybe the aliens weren't expecting to have to deal with someone shooting hypersonic slugs of lead at their craft.
There's a bunch of much better arguments for not believing aliens crashed in Roswell, but dismissing it because you don't think it could have been shot down is begging a much bigger question.
Currently, either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
Under current law, if I had callerID, either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
Under the new law, if I had callerID, and callers weren't allowed to lie about being criminal liars, I'd have to make a decision about answering the phone, even though the callerID might be lying to me anyhow. I guess I would just revert to my previous, pre-callerID rules, and either I'd answer the phone, or I wouldn't, depending on my mood.
I have saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years for a feature I could have used maybe, once or twice.
Seems like a bargain to me.
Sheesh, you don't have to buy product offered to you.
I am not a technophobe, I have two land lines and four cell phones. The Cell phones come with caller ID "for free".
I think SOC would SUCK as a product name.
Every hydrocarbon you save can be used somewhere else.
Or so I've heard... but they are so tasty, even their by-products are good!
Slashdot readers included. Too complicated for a smaller percentage, but still.
Check the billboard charts and see.
What else can you say, but "I don't know", to The Big Question "Why?" (the meaning of life, etc.)
FWIW, am also OK with "I don't know", but many people immediately jump to "oh no, what if the answer is; No reason". Lots of people can't handle that and need to fill the void with some explanation.
Ironically, science may provide the ultimate answer to matters of faith, and it may be "some things are not knowable."
Lobbyists are like advertising... nobody would pay for [ads or] lobbyists if they didn't work.
The problem is that "representing the people" has become a game.
Maybe we ought to just "draft" a congress. It probably wouldn't be worse than electing one of folks who want to be politicians.
As for the Senate, maybe we could just draft them too - from the pool of former drafted congress members who pass a post-service vote of confidence.
Gotcha! ;-)
Environmentally, we are far better off letting Westerners burn up the oil in their clean-burning monster SUVs with catalytic-converters , rather than letting it get burned up in some crappy Chinese car.
Make no mistake, nobody is saving the oil from being burned. If "we" don't do it, someone else will.
All the oil in the world will be burned by someone, as long as it is economically feasible to do so.
Politics is not about being effective.
generous state and federal programs... which we all know simply pulls the money off trees. The same trees the tree-owners would have like to have harvested, but their crop was taken and given away.
But, in general, I agree with your shock and horror of picturing a 1500 pound man...