Even folk-rock singer Suzanne Vega inadvertently played a walk-on role in the creation of MP3. "I know on whose shoulders I stand and who else contributed a lot," says Brandenburg, now director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau, Germany.
Words are cheap. Maybe the MP3 patent holders should share the royalties?:-)
In short, most people behave for two reasons. The first is because it would suck to live in a world where everyone misbehaved. The second is that the penalty for being caught is usually more than the potential gains from betraying. (As a side note, different cultures define "misbehavior" in different ways and have different rules for how much a betrayer loses when caught, which is why you get your hand cut off for stealing in certain countries and a slap on the wrist in others.)
I have to disagree here. Many people that I know of, including myself, have a conscience that guides our behaviour. It's not always listened to everytime, but it's still there. It's not about reasoning through those two scenarios that you mentioned. I never ever consider what it would be like if everyone behaved in a certain manner when making a conscience decision about doing that behaviour myself, or even necessarily about the possiblity being caught and punished. Mostly I think about whether I could live with feelings of guilt if I behaved in a certain manner - even if the possibility of being found out was zero - and even if I try to rationalize the behaviour.
It's an argument, but one that seems to go against hard line monotheism. There are relatively few things that most people worldwide feel guilt and remorse for. I've seen devout christians do things that seemed to be perfectly fine with them, but that I find immoral.
Given that not everyone has the same, or even a similar moral compass, it is either not given to all of us by the same god, or it doesn't start from a god at all.
I think that this guy explains why having a "god" doesn't necessarily result in a change in one's behaviour.
Don't confuse your desires and your wants with sin -- they may be evil, they may be good, but the only way to know is to utilize your conscience (the Holy Spirit, which resides in ALL men including unbelievers!) to discern what is right and what is wrong. No one else can tell you what is right for you or wrong for you -- only you can discover that on your own.
Surely if the entire world have the indwelling Holy Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit in everyone's life would be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Think of how this would radically change the world. Reality check: evil abounds on planet Earth. Look around you, this definitely ain't a New Heaven and a New Earth. Has God wiped away all our tears yet? Is there pain and suffering still? There is still alot of pain and tears in this world.
In your opinion, what is the Great White Throne judgement? Judgement Seat of Christ? The Second Death? When are/were these?
"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? " - Hebrews 10:26-29.
So what about people who were once cleansed by Christ's blood, and then later reject it? You are saying everyone is now clean, but many "clean" people reject Christ's sacrafice! There is no longer a sacrafice for their sin it would seem. Therefore God's judgement is on them. How does your view handle this scripture?
Actually, the common term is preterism, and there is a huge following of Christians who espouse at least a partial-preterist perspective. MOST preterists don't go to a "church" though because we believe that the Church is the entire body of humanity -- those who believe in Christ or not.
Please help me understand this. If the preterist "church" is considered to be the entire body of humanity (including unrepentant rapists, murderers, adulterers, satanists, atheists, etc), if that be the case, then God has a very messed up family. And the violence, perversion and hate is getting worse every day! His body would be getting more corrupt every day it would seem. So are these people all automatically welcomed with open arms into heaven upon their departure from the earth, regardless of the decisions that they have made? Even those who reject/hate God?
Regarding the 70AD completiong of God's programme, in Matthew 28, Jesus states that when the gospel is preached to all nations, then will the end come. This was not the case by AD70 ( although some claim that representatives of each nation were present in Jerusalem at penticost). In reality, there are still many unreached people groups and cultures where the gospel has never been heard. What use is there in preaching the "good news" if all people are already saved and nothing they can do affects their eternity?
Many of the biblical prophecies have their fulfillment in 2 different time periods, especially those in the Old Testament that supposedly combine Christ's death and Kingly reign. Isn't Jesus meant to setup his Kingly throne for a time in Jerusalem? Seen Jerusalem lately?
Jesus' own disciples didn't really believe that He would die, even though He told them plainly. They probably expected Him to take His throne in the physical sense. The OT prophecies would seem to imply this. Perhaps many of the prophecies that were fulfilled in 70AD actually and have their fulfillment in multiple time periods as well.
Ok, so it's clear that they don't trust us. Should we trust them? I don't trust them when their narkware/malware tool forbids me from logging into computer because "A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer". Not even safe mode worked. Each time I logged in, I was immediately was booted out again with that WGA message. The MS solution is to edit the registry - although one cannot even log in! A repair-install was the only solution for me.:-(
Thanks for that. TelstraClear told me last time that I asked, that you couldn't get Cable TV or Broadband Internet without also paying for a landline with them. Maybe they should update their prices. I see that they now have a "PDQ" service that is not listed here.
"However, this is not the case in reality. The whole purpose was to create a scare campaign. You can download, the file linked from the main page, which is now down(the link is still intact here), and check it for yourself. It has been this way since 2/7/07."
- from http://reversecode.com/
Don't forget the crappy 128kbit upstream limit. Some customers didn't get a say, their old plans were discontinued and they were bumped onto the new plan. I lost my 192kbit upstream when I was bumped off my old plan onto the craptastic Go Large.
Funnily enough, just prior to Christmas before all these Go Large problems started, I was getting 3mbit/s nicely. After Christmas I was getting only 700-1500kbit/s with big pauses in traffic. Watching online TV nearly impossible for the last two months! My phonecalls to Xtra regarding slow speeds were futile. When I suggested that I might switch to TelstraClear Cable Internet because of faster upload speeds and a much snappier web experience, the tech said that it was probably a good idea because Telecom has totally screwed their Xtra broadband system. They have been hammered by complains and cannot cope with the sheer volume of them!
In the midst of the trouble, one tech told me:
(a). That traffic management, while ready to go, it had not been implemented/enforced yet, so bandwidth issues were not related to that system.
(b). For some strange reason, other plans were not affected (which seems to conflict with (a)), so he recommended changing to another -more expensive- plan.
BUT, today and yesterday my speed is back up to 3mbit/s and things are snappy again. All this bad publicity might have forced a configuration change on their system? So either they have removed/disabled the traffic management system, fixed some issues at the exchange, or a heap of people have dumped Xtra in my area. Anyways, today I am happy. Refunding customers will serve Telecom right.
I have now deleted downloaded movies from my harddrive. They were proof of concept that bittorrent and divx works on my computer. Since deleting the movies, I now look forward to you dropping your lawsuit against me.
She also was hoping that by being semi-anonymous "people could assume whatever they wanted and just focus on what I said, rather than on who was saying it. For that reason, I chose PJ, because it could be anyone, either sex, any nationality, anyone and no one in particular."
So basically TFA is saying that Pamela Jones is indeed not a real person. SCO has hit the nail on this one.
How many dudes do you know that go by the name "Pamela"?:-)
Now, can an American come here, download a bunch of songs and then go back? I think that would probably be illegal (in the US). You'd be importing infringing material.
Interesting. I see it slightly different to importing MP3s from allofmp3.com (a case where the copyright holders are seething) or buying bootleg CDs while holidaying in countries where copyright infringement is rampant. Seemingly, whilst in Canada the copies are legally 'ok' with the copyright holders - i.e. not infringing in any manner whatsoever.
If I lived in Canada, aquired a heap of music, then moved to the USA or anywhere else, would I be in the crap if I brought my music collection? Afterall, I would've paid levies for years, hypothetically speaking. How is that different from buying from an online CD store offshore? I am not in the US, and in my country we can parallel import pretty much anything that's not contraband.
How is this controlled? I mean do the copies have to be made using media bought in Canada that had the levy? Or can one cross the border from the USA and download as many files onto a USA bought mp3 player and return home with them?
Slashdot Mirror
I think that this guy explains why having a "god" doesn't necessarily result in a change in one's behaviour.
In your opinion, what is the Great White Throne judgement? Judgement Seat of Christ? The Second Death? When are/were these?
"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? " - Hebrews 10:26-29.
So what about people who were once cleansed by Christ's blood, and then later reject it? You are saying everyone is now clean, but many "clean" people reject Christ's sacrafice! There is no longer a sacrafice for their sin it would seem. Therefore God's judgement is on them. How does your view handle this scripture?
Regarding the 70AD completiong of God's programme, in Matthew 28, Jesus states that when the gospel is preached to all nations, then will the end come. This was not the case by AD70 ( although some claim that representatives of each nation were present in Jerusalem at penticost). In reality, there are still many unreached people groups and cultures where the gospel has never been heard. What use is there in preaching the "good news" if all people are already saved and nothing they can do affects their eternity?
Many of the biblical prophecies have their fulfillment in 2 different time periods, especially those in the Old Testament that supposedly combine Christ's death and Kingly reign. Isn't Jesus meant to setup his Kingly throne for a time in Jerusalem? Seen Jerusalem lately?
Jesus' own disciples didn't really believe that He would die, even though He told them plainly. They probably expected Him to take His throne in the physical sense. The OT prophecies would seem to imply this. Perhaps many of the prophecies that were fulfilled in 70AD actually and have their fulfillment in multiple time periods as well.
Excellent post! Very well articulated. I wish that I had mod points. :-)
Ok, so it's clear that they don't trust us. Should we trust them? I don't trust them when their narkware/malware tool forbids me from logging into computer because "A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer". Not even safe mode worked. Each time I logged in, I was immediately was booted out again with that WGA message. The MS solution is to edit the registry - although one cannot even log in! A repair-install was the only solution for me. :-(
Thanks for that. TelstraClear told me last time that I asked, that you couldn't get Cable TV or Broadband Internet without also paying for a landline with them. Maybe they should update their prices. I see that they now have a "PDQ" service that is not listed here.
The NZ Consumer Supreme "I really don't give an ass" Award went to Telecom's Xtra this year.
Xtra have had a history of poor perforance.
Don't forget the crappy 128kbit upstream limit. Some customers didn't get a say, their old plans were discontinued and they were bumped onto the new plan. I lost my 192kbit upstream when I was bumped off my old plan onto the craptastic Go Large.
Funnily enough, just prior to Christmas before all these Go Large problems started, I was getting 3mbit/s nicely. After Christmas I was getting only 700-1500kbit/s with big pauses in traffic. Watching online TV nearly impossible for the last two months! My phonecalls to Xtra regarding slow speeds were futile. When I suggested that I might switch to TelstraClear Cable Internet because of faster upload speeds and a much snappier web experience, the tech said that it was probably a good idea because Telecom has totally screwed their Xtra broadband system. They have been hammered by complains and cannot cope with the sheer volume of them!
In the midst of the trouble, one tech told me:
(a). That traffic management, while ready to go, it had not been implemented/enforced yet, so bandwidth issues were not related to that system.
(b). For some strange reason, other plans were not affected (which seems to conflict with (a)), so he recommended changing to another -more expensive- plan.
BUT, today and yesterday my speed is back up to 3mbit/s and things are snappy again. All this bad publicity might have forced a configuration change on their system? So either they have removed/disabled the traffic management system, fixed some issues at the exchange, or a heap of people have dumped Xtra in my area. Anyways, today I am happy. Refunding customers will serve Telecom right.
"Star Upping" is almost as bad. :-)
Exactly. It's been over a few decades since there has been consistently good music produced.
I for one, welcome our new hypocritical, speeding, scaly reptilian cat overlords!
Dear MPAA,
I have now deleted downloaded movies from my harddrive. They were proof of concept that bittorrent and divx works on my computer. Since deleting the movies, I now look forward to you dropping your lawsuit against me.
Best regards,
Joe Sixpack
Enjoy it while you can I say!! :-)
If I lived in Canada, aquired a heap of music, then moved to the USA or anywhere else, would I be in the crap if I brought my music collection? Afterall, I would've paid levies for years, hypothetically speaking. How is that different from buying from an online CD store offshore? I am not in the US, and in my country we can parallel import pretty much anything that's not contraband.
Excellent post! Thanks dude! :-)
How is this controlled? I mean do the copies have to be made using media bought in Canada that had the levy? Or can one cross the border from the USA and download as many files onto a USA bought mp3 player and return home with them?