Politically speaking, though, it's likely not to happen again. Disney is reaching (or has reached) a point where the cost in legal expenses and goodwill is greater than the "harm" of the public domain.
You want a real-world measure of Disney's "goodwill?" Take a look at ticket sales for "Pirates of the Caribbean."
So the endless run of WWII games are M-OK because they use guns and have the occasional sniper scenario?
The World War Two scenario alone provides some distancing. The games focus on the dynamics of small-unit combat, not the thrill of the kill. The classic stealth shooter - the S.W.A.T. series, for example - is not without context. The defense of the innocent. The demands of the law.
I think the retailers and society at large hasn't realized yet that the average gamer is 24 years old
Rockstar has ricocheted from one PR disaster to another without learning that public tolerance for the ultra-violent video game has worn paper-thin. The new catch phrase "torture porn" seems perfectly relevant here. Porn in all its forms is an adolescent obsession. The adult demands something more and something better.
After all, who thinks we'd have the copyright terms we do now if it wasn't for Disney buying off congressmen?
The politician from Houston does not grow up in atmosphere hostile to Big Oil. The Senator from Kansas doesn't have be told take an interest in the market for corn.
The geek wastes his time in talk of bribery - while California puts Hollywood trained actors on the national political stage.
Steamboat Willie on the "Vintage Mickey" DVD is $14 at BestBuy.
Steamboat Willie in the original is one reel of silent era sight gags with synchronized sound linked by a thin narrative thread. Flammable nitrate stock. Sound-on-disk.
Its entry into public domain will not give you the rights to the Mouse of Fantasia. or The Phantom Blot. It will not give you the rights to use Disney's trademarked character designs. It will not give you access to the archieves at MoMA.
Making freedom for Steamboat Willie the perfect political cause for the Geek. Utterly incomprehensible to anyone else.
I've heard that what users care about is applications, and that is why even though Ubuntu is clearly ahead of Windows in many categories, it still hasn't crossed over to mass desktop use. I don't think that is true, because most of the applications people use for basic productivity are loaded on to Ubuntu already.
The productivity tools people using now - today - are in Microsoft Office.
The same tools they have been using for the last ten to fifteen years. OpenOffice has some "brand name" recognition. But, beyond that, there is almost nothing that would ring a bell.
The geek assumes that some functional similarity in an unfamiliar app makes it a practical substitute.
If a woman walked into my workplace and started acting like an air-headed bimbo I'd have a hard time taking her seriously too, even if turns out that she developed a public key encryption method that isn't defeated by quantum computing
With all due respect, it seems like you are pre-disposed to see and hear any woman [and any child] trespassing on your domain as incompetent and irresponsible, which is why you need to construct so elaborate and improbable a scenario:
when you hear them a whole bunch of things you didn't notice before suddenly pop out
That's a very revealing statement, when you look at it closely.
almost no commercial entity has dared support this new and better format.
Ogg-vorbis arrived late to the party. Its alleged superiority is marginal at best. The generic mp3 player is an impulse buy at Walmart. The geek invents conspiracies to explain the ordinary forces at work in the marketplace.
How about understanding that majority opinion has been shown to be full of shit more than once?
The same could be said for the majority opinion on Slashdot.
The truth is that every society has its limits of tolerance, bounds it does not want to see crossed. An open society will debate these issues openly. But it cannot be barred from making a decision --- and sometimes that decision will be "No."
Good god. "Freedom of speech" isn't an "excuse." It's a fucking right!
But freedom of speeech is not an unlimited right and it has no universal definition.
Its roots in the U.S. lie in the ideal of unconstrained political debate among citizens, extending the thought to the protection of artistic expression comes much later.
Very possibly the best game ever! I think my entire floor in the dorms got addicted to this game
Carmageddon 2 is still playable and great fun under Win XP.
In earlier incarnations [Rogue Spear, S.W.A.T] the stealth shooter forced you to think about the ethics of your role and the consequences of your actions. The death of innocents. The demands of the law. When killing becomes too easy - when you win points for "style' or gore alone - what you become is Tony Soprano. I am not convinced that is healthy even in the context of a game.
Well, England is a country that believes firmly that firearms cause murder and that the best way to promote civil rights is to have 100,000 cameras filming the public at all times.
These stats are a bit dated, but still suggestive:
Gun deaths per 100,000 population
US Homicide 4.08 Suicide 6.08 Accidental 0.42 [1999]
UK Homicide 0.12 Suicide 0.25 Accidental 0.01 {1999] [*slightly simplified] Some Facts About Guns
There were 765 homicides in England and Wales in 2005/2006. The numbers are small enough that the work of a single serial killer or a lone terrorist incident can be visible on the charts. 'Homicide' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
Do you have a cell phone? For the 2 hours per year your power is out, you can use that. If that's not enough for you, you can buy a UPS and put your modem, VoIP router, and phone on it. So, now that you have enough clue to realize that availability is a non-argument...
With POTS you don't need the modem, the router, the UPS, the PC or the VoIP phone.
In our particular situation what we must have is 24/7/365 access to local E911 and other emergency services. Because there is a 100% certainty that they will be needed.
But...she's still paying around $1500/year just for TV. I'm absolutely gobsmacked that anyone would pay that much each and every year to watch the box. That's more than I pay towards the fixed costs of a light aircraft!
The Wikipedia estimates the fixed costs of a Cessna
150 at $3-$4,000.
If you are paying full freight for Digital Gold package with PVR, all premium cable content, including music services, it seems fair to assume that you have made a big investment in home video and audio.
It is not like the entertainment alternatives are significantly cheaper.
Try treating a family of five to Mc'Ds and a movie and see how much change you get back from a C-note.
there was an organization of a very similar kind of company called the "Motion Picture Patents Company" in the early 20th century that held all rights to movie recording and projection. They sought to keep audience expectations low, marketing uniformly low-quality and cheap movies.
This is - to put it charitably - and if I were in a mood to be charitable - a very strange way of describing the product of pioneering studios like Edison, Biograph, Essanay, Vitagraph and Pathe.
The work of directors like D.W. Griffith. The first experiments in animation and the newsreel. Comic talents as diverse as Ben Turpin, Wallace Beery and Charlie Chaplin.
The Perils of Pauline. It's a legacy that shouldn't need a defense, even here.
I've been saying for a long time this is how TV should be made. Make a pilot, and put it out for the public to view.
It isn't that easy.
In 1978 "the Galactica bridge was estimated at $850,000. Tektronix donated $3 million worth of high tech computer hardware to dress up the set. Television monitors totaling $35,000 were used. The six-foot long model of the Galactica, which weighed 60 pounds, cost $50,000." Battlestar Galactica FAQ
You have to deliver story, talent and production values up-front to stand any chance at all. Think of all the B5 sequels that sank without a trace. Cardboard sets. No-name casts. Your penny jar is a gimmick, it is not a practical way of doing business.
How about not letting governments borrow at all, except in time of war? Oh wait, that's already in the constitutions of the state and federal govt., but is conveniently ignored, since everything is a "National Emergency".
Absolute nonsense:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Slashdot Mirror
You want a real-world measure of Disney's "goodwill?" Take a look at ticket sales for "Pirates of the Caribbean."
The World War Two scenario alone provides some distancing. The games focus on the dynamics of small-unit combat, not the thrill of the kill. The classic stealth shooter - the S.W.A.T. series, for example - is not without context. The defense of the innocent. The demands of the law.
Rockstar has ricocheted from one PR disaster to another without learning that public tolerance for the ultra-violent video game has worn paper-thin. The new catch phrase "torture porn" seems perfectly relevant here. Porn in all its forms is an adolescent obsession. The adult demands something more and something better.
The key words here are "small" and "adult."
Rockstar can't live on "small."
"Manhunt 2" is "torture porn" for the video game market. "Manhunt 2" is "adult" only in the sense that "Hostel 2" is adult.
Amazon doesn't need the grief.
Rockstar needs the console market - access to big-box retail.
Rockstar doesn't need to see it's website labeled and filtered as adult content.
The local custom build PC market here is doornail-dead and has been for years.
The politician from Houston does not grow up in atmosphere hostile to Big Oil. The Senator from Kansas doesn't have be told take an interest in the market for corn.
The geek wastes his time in talk of bribery - while California puts Hollywood trained actors on the national political stage.
Steamboat Willie on the "Vintage Mickey" DVD is $14 at BestBuy.
Steamboat Willie in the original is one reel of silent era sight gags with synchronized sound linked by a thin narrative thread. Flammable nitrate stock. Sound-on-disk.
Its entry into public domain will not give you the rights to the Mouse of Fantasia. or The Phantom Blot. It will not give you the rights to use Disney's trademarked character designs. It will not give you access to the archieves at MoMA.
Making freedom for Steamboat Willie the perfect political cause for the Geek. Utterly incomprehensible to anyone else.
The productivity tools people using now - today - are in Microsoft Office.
The same tools they have been using for the last ten to fifteen years. OpenOffice has some "brand name" recognition. But, beyond that, there is almost nothing that would ring a bell.
The geek assumes that some functional similarity in an unfamiliar app makes it a practical substitute.
so how do you "picture" the sound of an elf?
With all due respect, it seems like you are pre-disposed to see and hear any woman [and any child] trespassing on your domain as incompetent and irresponsible, which is why you need to construct so elaborate and improbable a scenario:
when you hear them a whole bunch of things you didn't notice before suddenly pop out That's a very revealing statement, when you look at it closely.
It seems to me that if you are uncomfortable talking to an eleven year old boy the problem is with you and not him.
I can't help thinking that all of these futurist projects assume near damn near ideal conditions of road, weather, distance and terrain.
Ogg-vorbis arrived late to the party. Its alleged superiority is marginal at best. The generic mp3 player is an impulse buy at Walmart. The geek invents conspiracies to explain the ordinary forces at work in the marketplace.
This assumes that your phone has hardware support for every feature you might want.
No Kodak camera, no Kodak snapshots. No GPS module, no GPS maps.
The same could be said for the majority opinion on Slashdot.
The truth is that every society has its limits of tolerance, bounds it does not want to see crossed. An open society will debate these issues openly. But it cannot be barred from making a decision --- and sometimes that decision will be "No."
But freedom of speeech is not an unlimited right and it has no universal definition.
Its roots in the U.S. lie in the ideal of unconstrained political debate among citizens, extending the thought to the protection of artistic expression comes much later.
p. It doesn't help the family-friendly image of the Wii either.
Carmageddon 2 is still playable and great fun under Win XP.
In earlier incarnations [Rogue Spear, S.W.A.T] the stealth shooter forced you to think about the ethics of your role and the consequences of your actions. The death of innocents. The demands of the law. When killing becomes too easy - when you win points for "style' or gore alone - what you become is Tony Soprano. I am not convinced that is healthy even in the context of a game.
These stats are a bit dated, but still suggestive:
Gun deaths per 100,000 population
US Homicide 4.08 Suicide 6.08 Accidental 0.42 [1999]
UK Homicide 0.12 Suicide 0.25 Accidental 0.01 {1999] [*slightly simplified] Some Facts About Guns
There were 765 homicides in England and Wales in 2005/2006. The numbers are small enough that the work of a single serial killer or a lone terrorist incident can be visible on the charts. 'Homicide' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
This sounds to me like a good working definition of an urban legend.
With POTS you don't need the modem, the router, the UPS, the PC or the VoIP phone.
In our particular situation what we must have is 24/7/365 access to local E911 and other emergency services. Because there is a 100% certainty that they will be needed.
The Wikipedia estimates the fixed costs of a Cessna 150 at $3-$4,000.
If you are paying full freight for Digital Gold package with PVR, all premium cable content, including music services, it seems fair to assume that you have made a big investment in home video and audio.
It is not like the entertainment alternatives are significantly cheaper.
Try treating a family of five to Mc'Ds and a movie and see how much change you get back from a C-note.
This is - to put it charitably - and if I were in a mood to be charitable - a very strange way of describing the product of pioneering studios like Edison, Biograph, Essanay, Vitagraph and Pathe.
The work of directors like D.W. Griffith. The first experiments in animation and the newsreel. Comic talents as diverse as Ben Turpin, Wallace Beery and Charlie Chaplin.
The Perils of Pauline. It's a legacy that shouldn't need a defense, even here.
Edison: The Invention of the Movies
It isn't that easy.
In 1978 "the Galactica bridge was estimated at $850,000.
Tektronix donated $3 million worth of high tech computer hardware to dress up the set. Television monitors totaling $35,000 were used. The six-foot long model of the Galactica, which weighed 60 pounds, cost $50,000." Battlestar Galactica FAQ
You have to deliver story, talent and production values up-front to stand any chance at all. Think of all the B5 sequels that sank without a trace. Cardboard sets. No-name casts. Your penny jar is a gimmick, it is not a practical way of doing business.
Absolute nonsense:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
U.S. Constitution: Article I