First off, Nobody has a god-given right to profit.
Nobody has the god-given right to demand that an artist perform for free, either.
Today (where I live), an album of music costs (in retail) about 2 average-salary work-hours. The cost (for a consumer) of making ONE exact replica of it, is less than a tenth of that
Distribution is not production.
No deposit, no return. You cannot copy what does not exist.
Ratatouille takes four to five years from concept to release. It employs 400 people and has a budget of $100 million dollars.
Pixar continues the Disney tradition of the intense study of the living animal in character animation:
"[Bird] brought a tank of rats for the animators to study for more than a year, in order to analyze the animals' movement of their noses, ears, paws and their tails as they ran." Ratatouille
It is this level of artistry and commitment you are paying for, not the pressing into plastic, when you buy the Blu-Ray disk at Walmart.
Yes and when a group of gun nut buddies start an armed vigilante group they get arrested. So the second amendment was to allow citizens to control a militia rather than the government, so that the government could be kept in its place.
The function of a "well-regulated" militia is to keep the government in place.
The independent military company in the U.S. is historically:
(a) a beer and pretzel marching society
(b) a local volunteer levy with elected or self-appointed officers that is no better prepared for combat
(c) the Fenian Irish of the 1850s or the Castro-Cuban exile of the 1960s
(c) the Nazi bund of the 1930s or the KKK in any era out to impose their new order on the black or the Jew
(d) the 20th century survivalist cult living out its fantasies in an Idaho bunker
Piracy involves vessels moving on the surface of a large body of water, and weapons.
The notion that copyright infringement is a form of theft - of piracy - became current in English thought and language while the Black Flag still flew over the Caribbean. It is not a creation of the RIAA.
One of the consequences of piracy is that it destroys the market for your domestic cultural product. In much the same way that sea-going pirate destroys the market for your domestic manufactures.
1. Their math doesn't add up. and B. Are they saying that the counterfeit stuff is "worth" that much? I figure they'd see it as quite worthless.
The counterfeit $20 bill in your wallet is worthless - but try to pass it off at face value or sell the print run to an undercover cop at a discount and you will be doing hard time.
Cops, like judges and juries, do not "Think Geek."
You seem to be grossly misinformed. While copyright infringement done without the intent to make a profit is indeed a civil matter, copyright infringement for the purpose of making a profit is very much illegal.
The "not for profit" loophole was closed by the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act of 1997-1998.
But it's also SOP for the RIAA to wield genuine officers paid for entirely from citizen taxes as copyright cops. Police were used in an RIAA-inspired raid at two flea markets in Beaverton, Oregon. 'Sgt. Paul Wandell, Beaverton police spokesman, said officers seized more than 50,000 items worth about $758,000,' says The Oregonian.
The threshold for federal prosecution for copyright infringement is $2500. It is well within anyone's rights to ask the police to close down a million-dollar market in counterfeit goods. USDOJ Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section
Here's an idea: Develop a web browser extention that does a random web crawl...
The random noise generated by the geek with the Big Idea is not going to change anything. Except that he just might see his shared connection to the net throttled down to the speed of a 300 baud modem.
"Using internet service is against the terms of your internet service provider's contract"
if you share the connection, you learn to work and play well with others. The rules haven't haven't changed since the days of the party line and the candlestick phone.
By attacking one of the few companies more hated than them, they're trying to re-direct some of their bad karma.
Bad karma? What bad karma?
Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates proved even more appealing than cuddly babies in the eighth-annual Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal ranking of the world's best and worst corporate reputations.
Top-ranked Microsoft managed to beat Johnson & Johnson, whose emotionally appealing baby-products business had kept it in first place for a remarkable seven consecutive years. In the Reputation Quotient survey conducted by market-research firm Harris Interactive Inc., respondents gave Microsoft very high marks for leadership and financial results. But Mr. Gates's personal philanthropy also boosted the public's opinion of Microsoft. How Boss's Deeds Buff A Firm's Reputation
They did no filming within the actual church. They modeled a virtual set on the real church and all activity occurred to and within the virtual copy.
That is not a distinction the church is willing to make. It is a distinction that only the Geek is willing to make. Take the argument one step further and imagine that recognizable 3-D models of the parishioners were created for use as targets.
That you're too daft to understand that the church in the game is a model, or that you are so hypocritical as to use the lords name in vain while making a pro-religious bible thumpin' type argument.
Let me put this in language even you may understand: We did not build our church - our school - as a stage set for your video game. You do not have the legal or the moral right to use this setting without our permission.
I would never use this. I'd rather let the customers get pissed off because they aren't receiving our emails and let them fight it out with their ISP
Chances are good your emails won't be missed and that all your customers will see is an in-box that is a little less cluttered than before. Your competitors are never more than one click away on the web.
What needs to be taken seriously by parents is the duty they have to educate their children in what the difference is between game and reality.
In the real world you ask permission before you draw others into your own dark fantasies. If the Bishop doesn't want his church used as a stage-set in their game then Sony should respect that decision.
But, every adult should be free to choose for themselves if shooting in a church is inappropriate in a game.
You might usefully begin by asking why the Lancaster County Amish tore down the school where their children were murdered. If you want to use a church as a stage-set in your game then build a goddamn model.
There have been 119 million downloads of LimeWire from Download.com. 45 million downloads of BitComet. 15 million downloads of SmartFTP. 1 million downloads of Xnews.
The back corners of the Internet - accessible through software only a Geek could love - are fading from memory. If you ever knew they existed.
If you were to explain Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to them, how they won't have virus and worm problems and porno-popups, and will have fewer updates, and how everything typically just works better together, they might be more inclined to consider a Mac.
Every ISP I could name bundles a security software package for Windows. Updated daily. The scanners run in the background or on timers and I haven't had a significant problem with XP in six years.
The thing is that Free software is not a business. It doesn't matter if Free software is ignored. It doesn't cost more if it is not used. The people who develop it also don't care whether it is used or not.
Unless of course they are being paid by corporate entities like IBM, Sun, or the Moz Foundation. When Big Daddy opens his wallet, Big Daddy expects results.
MRI uses huge magnetic fields that researchers are exposed to on a daily basis and there is no solid data that it causes biologic harm.
The intense fields generated in MRI present more immediate and sometimes less manageable risks than cancer.
An MRI magnet can pull a stray hairpin across the room at 40 miles per hour. Hemostats, scissors, wheelchairs, patient gurneys, intravenous poles, and defibrillators have all been turned into projectiles capable of severe harm. When nonmedical people enter the magnet room, things can get even worse. In one instance, a police officer's gun discharged as it was sucked out of his grip; in another, a firefighter was trapped and nearly suffocated as he was drawn into the bore when the breathing apparatus strapped to his back became magnetized in the MRI room.
The phenomenon by which metal becomes spontaneously magnetized is ferromagnetism, which affects iron, nickel, cobalt, and many other familiar metals and alloys. Although most implants today are made with titanium or other nonferromagnetic metals, it's common knowledge that MRI systems can affect older angio and cerebral clips, bone pins, dental work, and even some tattoo dyes. That's the key reason patients are screened. What's less recognized is how MRI scanners may interfere with devices such as pacemakers, pulse oximeters, automated defibrillators, cardiac monitors, insulin pumps, cochlear implants, and vagus and other neurological stimulators.
Where a CT installation's lead shielding is designed to keep radiation inside, MRI shielding keeps stray radiowaves out. The focus is on protecting the magnet from interference, not the other way around.
Plate steel is the only physical material that can contain an MRI system's magnetic field. The lines of force penetrate brick, wood, concrete, cement--which means that not only people outside the MRI suite but even people and machines outside the building can be affected. Any steel in the building construction reshapes the magnetic fields in the MRI, and MRI magnetizes the steel in the building. So the levels of complexity are several orders of magnitude greater than a CT, even though they may not look all that different on the floor plan. Current designs using plate shielding, however, usually are not equipped to deal with the newest crop of 3 Tesla (3T) commercially available systems--and even higher-powered research magnets.
MRI magnets have been known to affect gamma cameras, nuclear medicine hot labs, PET/CT scanners, and other equipment--even those sited at what seems a reasonable distance. The extraordinary sensitivity of today's [imaging] systems--the same feature that makes them so valuable--makes them vulnerable to such disruptions. You don't want to expose them to anything significantly above normal. Basically, any magnetic force stronger than the one that makes a compass point north can disrupt or degrade some types of this equipment. MRI Facility Safety -- Understanding the Risks of Powerful Attraction
Slashdot Mirror
Nobody has the god-given right to demand that an artist perform for free, either.
Today (where I live), an album of music costs (in retail) about 2 average-salary work-hours. The cost (for a consumer) of making ONE exact replica of it, is less than a tenth of that
Distribution is not production.
No deposit, no return. You cannot copy what does not exist.
Ratatouille takes four to five years from concept to release. It employs 400 people and has a budget of $100 million dollars.
Pixar continues the Disney tradition of the intense study of the living animal in character animation:
"[Bird] brought a tank of rats for the animators to study for more than a year, in order to analyze the animals' movement of their noses, ears, paws and their tails as they ran." Ratatouille
It is this level of artistry and commitment you are paying for, not the pressing into plastic, when you buy the Blu-Ray disk at Walmart.
The function of a "well-regulated" militia is to keep the government in place.
The independent military company in the U.S. is historically:
(a) a beer and pretzel marching society
(b) a local volunteer levy with elected or self-appointed officers that is no better prepared for combat
(c) the Fenian Irish of the 1850s or the Castro-Cuban exile of the 1960s
(c) the Nazi bund of the 1930s or the KKK in any era out to impose their new order on the black or the Jew
(d) the 20th century survivalist cult living out its fantasies in an Idaho bunker
The notion that copyright infringement is a form of theft - of piracy - became current in English thought and language while the Black Flag still flew over the Caribbean. It is not a creation of the RIAA.
One of the consequences of piracy is that it destroys the market for your domestic cultural product. In much the same way that sea-going pirate destroys the market for your domestic manufactures.
Copy Wrong - Internet Piracy and Dickens and Melville
The counterfeit $20 bill in your wallet is worthless - but try to pass it off at face value or sell the print run to an undercover cop at a discount and you will be doing hard time.
Cops, like judges and juries, do not "Think Geek."
The "not for profit" loophole was closed by the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act of 1997-1998.
Justice Department Announces Guilty Plea in Peer-to-Peer Piracy Crackdown This was the first criminal enforcement action against copyright infringement on a P2P network using BitTorrent technology. {September 2006]
Copyright infringement can be - and is being - prosecuted as a felony under U.S. federal law. Cybercrime.gov
The threshold for federal prosecution for copyright infringement is $2500. It is well within anyone's rights to ask the police to close down a million-dollar market in counterfeit goods. USDOJ Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section
The random noise generated by the geek with the Big Idea is not going to change anything. Except that he just might see his shared connection to the net throttled down to the speed of a 300 baud modem.
if you share the connection, you learn to work and play well with others. The rules haven't haven't changed since the days of the party line and the candlestick phone.
But first the would-be pirate should be asking himself whether a watermark can be preserved through the analog to digital transfer.
Is this "great broadband" concentrated in a handful of cities or along narrow [relatively] densely populated service corridors?
Distances in the states, sudden shifts in the shape and scale of urban, suburban, and rural development can be disorienting for a European.
Bad karma? What bad karma?
Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates proved even more appealing than cuddly babies in the eighth-annual Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal ranking of the world's best and worst corporate reputations.
Top-ranked Microsoft managed to beat Johnson & Johnson, whose emotionally appealing baby-products business had kept it in first place for a remarkable seven consecutive years. In the Reputation Quotient survey conducted by market-research firm Harris Interactive Inc., respondents gave Microsoft very high marks for leadership and financial results. But Mr. Gates's personal philanthropy also boosted the public's opinion of Microsoft. How Boss's Deeds Buff A Firm's Reputation
Apple ranked 22nd in the Harris poll.
That is not a distinction the church is willing to make. It is a distinction that only the Geek is willing to make. Take the argument one step further and imagine that recognizable 3-D models of the parishioners were created for use as targets.
Let me put this in language even you may understand: We did not build our church - our school - as a stage set for your video game. You do not have the legal or the moral right to use this setting without our permission.
Chances are good your emails won't be missed and that all your customers will see is an in-box that is a little less cluttered than before. Your competitors are never more than one click away on the web.
in the world beyond Slashdot a signature line like this doesn't inspire confidence in a post defending the first-person shooter.
In the real world you ask permission before you draw others into your own dark fantasies. If the Bishop doesn't want his church used as a stage-set in their game then Sony should respect that decision.
You might usefully begin by asking why the Lancaster County Amish tore down the school where their children were murdered. If you want to use a church as a stage-set in your game then build a goddamn model.
Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for $3 million dollars. What the founders think after the founders are eclipsed really doesn't matter.
There have been 119 million downloads of LimeWire from Download.com. 45 million downloads of BitComet. 15 million downloads of SmartFTP. 1 million downloads of Xnews.
The back corners of the Internet - accessible through software only a Geek could love - are fading from memory. If you ever knew they existed.
you might not. but in the larger market of IM users, how significant is Linux?
The gray market is the penny that sticks to the bubble gum on the heel of your kid's sneakers.
The big box retailer doesn't order product that will never clear customs. The OEM doesn't produce product that will never clear customs.
Every ISP I could name bundles a security software package for Windows. Updated daily. The scanners run in the background or on timers and I haven't had a significant problem with XP in six years.
Unless of course they are being paid by corporate entities like IBM, Sun, or the Moz Foundation. When Big Daddy opens his wallet, Big Daddy expects results.
The intense fields generated in MRI present more immediate and sometimes less manageable risks than cancer.
An MRI magnet can pull a stray hairpin across the room at 40 miles per hour. Hemostats, scissors, wheelchairs, patient gurneys, intravenous poles, and defibrillators have all been turned into projectiles capable of severe harm. When nonmedical people enter the magnet room, things can get even worse. In one instance, a police officer's gun discharged as it was sucked out of his grip; in another, a firefighter was trapped and nearly suffocated as he was drawn into the bore when the breathing apparatus strapped to his back became magnetized in the MRI room.
The phenomenon by which metal becomes spontaneously magnetized is ferromagnetism, which affects iron, nickel, cobalt, and many other familiar metals and alloys. Although most implants today are made with titanium or other nonferromagnetic metals, it's common knowledge that MRI systems can affect older angio and cerebral clips, bone pins, dental work, and even some tattoo dyes. That's the key reason patients are screened. What's less recognized is how MRI scanners may interfere with devices such as pacemakers, pulse oximeters, automated defibrillators, cardiac monitors, insulin pumps, cochlear implants, and vagus and other neurological stimulators.
Where a CT installation's lead shielding is designed to keep radiation inside, MRI shielding keeps stray radiowaves out. The focus is on protecting the magnet from interference, not the other way around.
Plate steel is the only physical material that can contain an MRI system's magnetic field. The lines of force penetrate brick, wood, concrete, cement--which means that not only people outside the MRI suite but even people and machines outside the building can be affected. Any steel in the building construction reshapes the magnetic fields in the MRI, and MRI magnetizes the steel in the building. So the levels of complexity are several orders of magnitude greater than a CT, even though they may not look all that different on the floor plan. Current designs using plate shielding, however, usually are not equipped to deal with the newest crop of 3 Tesla (3T) commercially available systems--and even higher-powered research magnets.
MRI magnets have been known to affect gamma cameras, nuclear medicine hot labs, PET/CT scanners, and other equipment--even those sited at what seems a reasonable distance. The extraordinary sensitivity of today's [imaging] systems--the same feature that makes them so valuable--makes them vulnerable to such disruptions. You don't want to expose them to anything significantly above normal. Basically, any magnetic force stronger than the one that makes a compass point north can disrupt or degrade some types of this equipment. MRI Facility Safety -- Understanding the Risks of Powerful Attraction