Has a case against region locking ever reached a court in any country?
I believe Netflix catalogs about 60,000 Region 1 DVDs, many with multilingual dialogue tracks and captioning. This is the kind of issue that never really gets to the front burner in any major market. Has a case against region locking ever reached a court in any country?
As a person who is bilingual in Japanese and English,
You must know that is difficult to get a game or a movie that plays well to both american and japanese audiences. Culture, localization, are the real barriers to export.
I believe there are only 3 regions for HDDVD/Blu-ray
Another formulation I've seen: North and South America and Asia (but not China); Europe and Africa; and Russia, China and "everywhere else." Perhaps a custom HD-DVD disk format for China.
I don't understand how an Irish court ruling makes any difference to a US company. What other countries' courts exercise legal control over US ISPs and registrars?
It is very, very, tempting to say that, according to Slashdot, "any court that lets you download what you want but can't get at home."
The truth is that the big ISPs probably have sufficient corporate presence and investment abroad that they cannot afford to ignore local law and customs.
The scenes with HAL vs. the two astronauts are some of the most tense that I've ever seen on film, and the silence only enhances that.
In the "The Naked Sun" Asimov's detective is a shrewd observer of a society in which social interaction scarcely exists, a society which is dead but doesn't know it.
The problem here is that while the idea may engage your intellect it is too cold and remote to engage your emotions. Your emotions can't go out to the lobby for a coke and fries while you mind dissects the puzzle.
An interesting twist to all of this is that according to the Communications Decency Act [CC], an ISP, as a publisher, cannot be held responsible or legally liable for what their clients do. So how can GoDaddy justify this censorship?
The Communications Deceny Act is American law. That doesn't insulate you from the law of the U.K.
The CD Act protects ISPs from liability for third-party content. Not from content that the ISP creates or publishes itself. You might want to host MySpace. You might not want to own MySpace.
My most untechnical brother and sister-in-law know. They are smart people, but just not technical geeks. They know because they learned the hard way through DVDs. He travels a lot and she teaches foreign languages.
That's a very select mix.
The reality in the states is that a second DVD player for your anime or Bollywood fix is $30 at Walmart. The need for a region-free player will grow even less as the broader region coding of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray takes hold.
a) you're beholden to the original developers to make changes
b) if the original developer goes belly up you're screwed in terms up updates/changes
c) you can only run the software where they say you can run it ("We can't be bothered to do a Windows/Linux/BSD/SkyOS/64bit etc. etc. port")
d) the software won't necessary survive its useful life, it will only be maintained as long as it is commerically viable for the closed source developer to maintain it.
Unless you have the big bucks to maintain your software in-house, I don't see a hell of a lot of difference here.
>Now, I am a 100% Win fan. I love it; things just work.
How was this not moderated "Score 5, Funny"?
Windows as a client OS is designed for the non-technical end user. The user who is not a Geek, who will never be a Geek, and shares none of the Geek's interests and values.
I am not a Geek, I only play one on Slashdot. In ten years of running Windows at home, five years with XP and broadband, I have made one call to Dell for technical support. I have never paid a dime for support, repairs, or services of any kind.
I have used an recovery disk once to solve a problem on boot. But I haven't found any reason to re-format a drive or re-install Windows.
The system is relatively well hardened against intrusion and malware. The core software and services are provided my cable ISP, no extra charge, and supplemented by a half dozen or so familiar tools like Ad-Aware.
Now and again I'll run an independent online scan as a reality check. But don't think I spend more than five minutes a week on average on any of this stuff. The automated scans work just fine, and nothing they have found has ever cost me any sleep.
This seems to me to be an issue of a transport layer.
I ca't make any sense of this thread whatsoever.
When geeks talk copyleft licensing it has the feel of logicians arguing over "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" It enough to send you back screaming into the arms of the major labels, where at least you know where you stand.
Let's say I "broadcast" CC content over my encrypted WiFi home network. Do I violate the license? And if I do, who the hell is going to know and who the hell is going to care?
As I understand it, the Zune allows users to share content in a limited but still useful way. In most circles, this would be considered a good thing.
And don't give me that 'no DRM, no creation' crap - culture started well before DRM and Gutenberg's press did not ruin it at all, quite the contrary.
From the classical to the modern era you could not write, publish, or perform without a powerful patron. The church. The state, The merchant prince. Shakespeare doesn't go to law. He passes the word along to someone in the Court of King James.
The infringer looks at his cards and folds.
It doesn't matter that Shakespeare borrows freely from others, what matters is that his patron stands closer to the King.
The public domain is no quarantee of creativity. The whining here is that movies and games have become nothing but sequels. Derivatives are safe, derivatives are easy.
We have had forty years of Star Trek. Show me something new.
If I purchase a CD and it is subsequently scratched or broken to the point where it is not playable, can I legally download the songs from that CD from a file-sharing network?
Wow, I always thought this was a fair use issue. I know fair use isn't what it used to be.
When your last car was worn down to rust did you also expect a free replacement from Toyota?
I'm waiting for someone's kid to commit suicide because they're too ashamed to admit to their parents that they got sued for file sharing.
The kid doesn't get the subpoena. The parent gets the subpoena as the owner of the account. If every kid committed suicide who had to be bailed out by his folks, there would few of us left standing.
The NET Act (No Electronic Theft Act) removed the requirement for financial gain or commercial exploitation of any kind. If you choose to gamble on the discretion of the state, its willingness to prosecute, good luck.
If Dell will start installing it on systems (thus knocking $100 buck off the price of a machine), then it can make some serious in-roads, and knock Windows back.
Remember Walmart's big push to mainstream OEM Linux?
The revolving-door of Linux systems and distros that passed through walmart.com?
Dead and buried.
There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the Windows market. Dell's Back-To-School special was a $279 Celeron system. 17" CRT. Word Perfect. One-Year Warranty. Home Delivery.
Linux doesn't knock $100 off the sticker price. You will be lucky if you can manage $20.
Retailers hate maintaining dual inventories and support structures. The OS with a (charitable) 2% share gets cut off at the knees.
The home market won't won't touch and stores won't stock systems that can't play licensed music, videos and games out of the box. Windows delivers aftermaket sales of hardware, software and peripherals.
Free-As-In-Beer Linux is the fantasy. Twenty-five years of MSDOS and Windows in the home and office is the reality.
These days kids learn HTML, then Javascript to make the HTML do interesting things. Then they pick up PHP or Java (or VB if they're unlucky) and from there Perl, Ruby, Python, whatever.
In this neck of the woods, mayybe. In the world beyond Slashdot? In middle school? In junior high? I don't think so. Zip. Nada. Nothing would be closer to the truth.
Slashdot Mirror
Hang around here long enough and you'll stsrt to think the answer is "Yes!"
I believe Netflix catalogs about 60,000 Region 1 DVDs, many with multilingual dialogue tracks and captioning. This is the kind of issue that never really gets to the front burner in any major market. Has a case against region locking ever reached a court in any country?
You must know that is difficult to get a game or a movie that plays well to both american and japanese audiences. Culture, localization, are the real barriers to export.
Another formulation I've seen: North and South America and Asia (but not China); Europe and Africa; and Russia, China and "everywhere else." Perhaps a custom HD-DVD disk format for China.
It's a typo. So sue me.
I don't understand how an Irish court ruling makes any difference to a US company. What other countries' courts exercise legal control over US ISPs and registrars?
It is very, very, tempting to say that, according to Slashdot, "any court that lets you download what you want but can't get at home."
The truth is that the big ISPs probably have sufficient corporate presence and investment abroad that they cannot afford to ignore local law and customs.
In the "The Naked Sun" Asimov's detective is a shrewd observer of a society in which social interaction scarcely exists, a society which is dead but doesn't know it.
The problem here is that while the idea may engage your intellect it is too cold and remote to engage your emotions. Your emotions can't go out to the lobby for a coke and fries while you mind dissects the puzzle.
So find yourself another host. One with pockets so deep they don't have to worry about limiting their exposure. Good luck on that one.
The Communications Deceny Act is American law. That doesn't insulate you from the law of the U.K.
The CD Act protects ISPs from liability for third-party content. Not from content that the ISP creates or publishes itself. You might want to host MySpace. You might not want to own MySpace.
That's a very select mix.
The reality in the states is that a second DVD player for your anime or Bollywood fix is $30 at Walmart. The need for a region-free player will grow even less as the broader region coding of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray takes hold.
b) if the original developer goes belly up you're screwed in terms up updates/changes
c) you can only run the software where they say you can run it ("We can't be bothered to do a Windows/Linux/BSD/SkyOS/64bit etc. etc. port")
d) the software won't necessary survive its useful life, it will only be maintained as long as it is commerically viable for the closed source developer to maintain it.
Unless you have the big bucks to maintain your software in-house, I don't see a hell of a lot of difference here.
How was this not moderated "Score 5, Funny"?
Windows as a client OS is designed for the non-technical end user. The user who is not a Geek, who will never be a Geek, and shares none of the Geek's interests and values.
I am not a Geek, I only play one on Slashdot. In ten years of running Windows at home, five years with XP and broadband, I have made one call to Dell for technical support. I have never paid a dime for support, repairs, or services of any kind.
I have used an recovery disk once to solve a problem on boot. But I haven't found any reason to re-format a drive or re-install Windows.
The system is relatively well hardened against intrusion and malware. The core software and services are provided my cable ISP, no extra charge, and supplemented by a half dozen or so familiar tools like Ad-Aware.
Now and again I'll run an independent online scan as a reality check. But don't think I spend more than five minutes a week on average on any of this stuff. The automated scans work just fine, and nothing they have found has ever cost me any sleep.
Cowboy Bebop grossed $1 million dollars in US theatrical release.
This despite the series receiving careful handling and excellent exposure on a mainstream cable network.
and how many posters here were predicting doom for Apple when iTunes began selling protected content for the iPod?
I ca't make any sense of this thread whatsoever.
When geeks talk copyleft licensing it has the feel of logicians arguing over "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" It enough to send you back screaming into the arms of the major labels, where at least you know where you stand.
Let's say I "broadcast" CC content over my encrypted WiFi home network. Do I violate the license? And if I do, who the hell is going to know and who the hell is going to care?
As I understand it, the Zune allows users to share content in a limited but still useful way. In most circles, this would be considered a good thing.
From the classical to the modern era you could not write, publish, or perform without a powerful patron. The church. The state, The merchant prince. Shakespeare doesn't go to law. He passes the word along to someone in the Court of King James.
The infringer looks at his cards and folds.
It doesn't matter that Shakespeare borrows freely from others, what matters is that his patron stands closer to the King.
The public domain is no quarantee of creativity. The whining here is that movies and games have become nothing but sequels. Derivatives are safe, derivatives are easy.
We have had forty years of Star Trek. Show me something new.
because a good lawyer tells you what you need to know and not what you want to hear
The ISPs with deep pockets are interested in selling or licensing their own branded media services or providing the necessary infrastructure.
Why do you need a broadband account if you're afraid to download media?
I've seen little fear of downloading.
It's the thought that you might actually have to pay for something that sends some posters here into a tailspin.
Wow, I always thought this was a fair use issue. I know fair use isn't what it used to be.
When your last car was worn down to rust did you also expect a free replacement from Toyota?
The kid doesn't get the subpoena. The parent gets the subpoena as the owner of the account. If every kid committed suicide who had to be bailed out by his folks, there would few of us left standing.
The NET Act (No Electronic Theft Act) removed the requirement for financial gain or commercial exploitation of any kind. If you choose to gamble on the discretion of the state, its willingness to prosecute, good luck.
Dear Lord.
Please spare me another tale of how a Geek converted his Mom and Dad, his dear old Granny, and her cat Slyvester to Linux.
I'll be good. I'll even open the door to the Mormons, The Seventh-Day Adventists.
Well, maybe not the Seventh-Day Adventists.
Amen.
Remember Walmart's big push to mainstream OEM Linux?
The revolving-door of Linux systems and distros that passed through walmart.com?
Dead and buried.
There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the Windows market. Dell's Back-To-School special was a $279 Celeron system. 17" CRT. Word Perfect. One-Year Warranty. Home Delivery.
Linux doesn't knock $100 off the sticker price. You will be lucky if you can manage $20.
Retailers hate maintaining dual inventories and support structures. The OS with a (charitable) 2% share gets cut off at the knees.
The home market won't won't touch and stores won't stock systems that can't play licensed music, videos and games out of the box. Windows delivers aftermaket sales of hardware, software and peripherals.
Free-As-In-Beer Linux is the fantasy. Twenty-five years of MSDOS and Windows in the home and office is the reality.
In this neck of the woods, mayybe.
In the world beyond Slashdot? In middle school? In junior high? I don't think so. Zip. Nada. Nothing would be closer to the truth.
a tad harsh, I auspect. but the geek does tend to cling like grim death to his favorite quotes or misquotes. without ever examining them too closely.
Visual Studio Express is free. XNA Game Studio Express is free. Microsoft maintains the handsome Coding4Fun site.
Kid's Programming Language: Missile Command!
Introduction to Programming LEGO MINDSTORMS