As someone who's recently started operating his own company I'm astounded by how many ways the legal profession has of taking your money without actually providing any benefits. I'm starting to believe that we have a large parasite feeding off of (American) businesses. This is not to say that the entire legal prof is a leech... only that legislation is abused for the sake of acquiring money that isn't legitimately earned. I seems that a lot of patent suits fall into this category. I hope I'm wrong, but my experience makes me believe this is one of the more serious and unnecessary threats to progress here.
I feel like I'm breaking the law in a trivial sense, as if I were going 5 mph over the speed limit. What concerns me more is whether I'm doing something wrong. I'm on the fence about this and do have pangs of guilt at times, but I have a nice rationalization on call for those occasions:
I still contribute to the artists by buying CDs; On the other hand, if I were to completely swear off file-sharing services I might be doing more harm by impeding new and vastly more efficient technology so an industry that has benefited greatly from society (and can easily afford to give something back) does not have to go through the inconvenience of replacing its outdated distribution system (or otherwise exercising its collective gray matter).
Fundamentally I realize this may just be an attempt to justify stealing, but consider that the music industry may now be trying to sell something that should no longer be salable: the unnecessary material distribution of non-material (digital) goods. If you take away the physical component (which is now easily done), is an album still worth $18? Or is it now worth $1, which is something that is unacceptable to the recording industry?
Kinda makes you wonder who's doing the stealing.
Some compelling reasons for me to use a new GUI server/api would be:
1) Easy to use, highly accessible interface. Something easily accessible to Java devs and (don't shoot me) Web Service developers.
2) Emphasis on vector/3d/procedural graphics vs. raster/bitmap graphics.
3) Something with a more context-aware paradigm (desktops and start menus are becoming too monolithic... how about some logical use-based partitioning).
4) Strong emphasis on platform independence. I'd really like to see a better (mainstream) alternative to Web GUIs for multiplatform UI development.
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As someone who's recently started operating his own company I'm astounded by how many ways the legal profession has of taking your money without actually providing any benefits. I'm starting to believe that we have a large parasite feeding off of (American) businesses. This is not to say that the entire legal prof is a leech... only that legislation is abused for the sake of acquiring money that isn't legitimately earned. I seems that a lot of patent suits fall into this category. I hope I'm wrong, but my experience makes me believe this is one of the more serious and unnecessary threats to progress here.
It's also a harmless crime, like punching someone in the appendix.
I feel like I'm breaking the law in a trivial sense, as if I were going 5 mph over the speed limit. What concerns me more is whether I'm doing something wrong. I'm on the fence about this and do have pangs of guilt at times, but I have a nice rationalization on call for those occasions: I still contribute to the artists by buying CDs; On the other hand, if I were to completely swear off file-sharing services I might be doing more harm by impeding new and vastly more efficient technology so an industry that has benefited greatly from society (and can easily afford to give something back) does not have to go through the inconvenience of replacing its outdated distribution system (or otherwise exercising its collective gray matter). Fundamentally I realize this may just be an attempt to justify stealing, but consider that the music industry may now be trying to sell something that should no longer be salable: the unnecessary material distribution of non-material (digital) goods. If you take away the physical component (which is now easily done), is an album still worth $18? Or is it now worth $1, which is something that is unacceptable to the recording industry? Kinda makes you wonder who's doing the stealing.
...I wish I could convince an entire country that not paying for software is just too damn expensive.
Some compelling reasons for me to use a new GUI server/api would be: 1) Easy to use, highly accessible interface. Something easily accessible to Java devs and (don't shoot me) Web Service developers. 2) Emphasis on vector/3d/procedural graphics vs. raster/bitmap graphics. 3) Something with a more context-aware paradigm (desktops and start menus are becoming too monolithic... how about some logical use-based partitioning). 4) Strong emphasis on platform independence. I'd really like to see a better (mainstream) alternative to Web GUIs for multiplatform UI development.