Considering how things are going with the internet, 5 years might be practical.
Don't forget, original authors can still make and sell their old works, they just lose the exclusive rights to the content. If there's an important character or image they use throughout their works it can be filed under trademark law.
For example, let's take The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien died years ago, but his family continues to release works, the newer works would fall under copyright as recently released by the family, but the names and images of the fellowship would be protected under trademark law for future properties. At the same time, older books could be distributed freely thus freeing up more work for intellectual property.
As it stands the internet is already working as a quick distribution mechanism, and everything gets loose rather easily, but if you reduce copyright to five years the factor of convenience kicks in. Why bother getting sued? Get things five years old or older.
Also, artists would maintain copyright to things like director tracks, behind the scenes footage and the like by publication date. So by keeping older unreleased material and adding to the old, they can continue to profit as long as they release "new" content. Anyone can distribute the original work, but only the original author has access to the materials used to create it.
I stopped buying music from the RIAA ages ago, but it wont do anything to stop them. You know how they're continuously touting "numbers lost to piracy"? Any loss of profits to them is a loss to piracy, they wont acknowledge that maybe, just maybe millions of people stopped buying music from them because they started buying music from those tiny interesting bands that they like that they downloaded an mp3 from on the internet.
On top of this most people I know are so disgusted by the RIAA that they stopped buying music from them as well, with no mention of this by myself. And by most people I mean my aunts, my mother, my cousins, my friends from college and my little sister. I know maybe three people who still follow the bigger record labels, and I'm not sure about all of them.
The main thing that needs to stop is copyright law needs to be revisited, as it is and is overbloated, lasting too long and causing more trouble than it did years ago. Not being able to get anything unless it's over three generations old is a bit nuts. Even much of the music my grandfather listened too growing up is still under copyright. If you can't walk up to an average person, such as an aunt who knows nothing about the music industry, tell them "this is illegal" and they go "that's stupid" and they look at you like you just told them one of those laws along the lines of "Illegal to go down mainstreet with a duck on your head while carrying a squash", it needs to be fixed.
It has more to do with you being allowed to take apart anything (including a computer program) for educational purposes.
The distinction comes from intent, if you're taking a program apart just to take the data, then it could be construed as a violation of the DMCA. If you're taking a program apart to learn how it works, and possibly to apply the same principle to another program (or to get your own data back from an overzealous program) you're doing it for educational purposes. Now this is only relevant if what you're taking apart is considered a protection schema. In this case it's taking apart a compression algorithm, with no encryption, only to show it's there. Nothing that's being used to protect anything is being bypassed, so it's totally in the clear.
This case isn't like that at all. Regardless of their supposedly transitory nature, post-its are a formal written record. You wrote it down on a piece of paper, so there is a record of the transaction. It's probably a messy scrambled record, but a written record regardless.
In contrast computer ram is closer to writing your financial records in sand, then scrambling to get it written on a laptop. As soon as the next wave washes in the evidence will be destroyed. Are you willingly destroying evidence? No, you're just using a highly volatile medium for temporary information, but the court thinks that information must be stored in full as well instead of as a transient copy. I personally think that electronic archiving laws are ridiculous, and in the long run the massive volume of data will be mostly static and hard to actually use.
Also considering the large amount of data that's sent through ram as a computer processes information the costs to do this by any means will be gigantic. And the ruling rather silly.
I type around 110 wpm but still use team speak when I can. The downside to typing is that you have to pause to switch from controlling your character to "typing mode" which can last even a second or three, but that time is better spent just focusing on the game. Generally outside group content I can type fast enough for everything to work pretty well, but it's horrid when I have to stop that just to explain something or give warning when I could be focusing ingame.
And then we get "cat-you-cockactrice-you-cockatrice-kobold-ant-far mer-rat-imp-cockatrice-floatingeye.
Wouldn't that be c @ c @ c k a @ r i c e? (Not totally sure what a far mer would be... I'm guessing another @, given the context a t, but that's a trapper)
The comp usa nearby, which is going out of buisness so cutting prices horribly (mostly junk, but I'm wondering about a few things every so often) has Vista on a 50% discount, and falling... They still have dozens of copies left, and they don't seem to be going away. Meanwhile, people are more people are interested in buying worn out fixtures than Vista. It's rather sad.
Basically the idea is that you're entirely automated, and outside initial character generation you get no input whatsoever into the game. In fact the game is designed to minimize character interaction as much as possible.
Originally there was much cheating my editing character stats and that sort of thing (strength is ideal, as it allows you to carry more and you spend less time in town "selling", as you sell in large batch at once, 1000 snots is better than 100 snots per trip) as well as hacking character levels. Normal players are added to the Hall of fame; however, hackers and cheaters are found and added to the Hall of Infamy. It works rather well, and if you cheat, you get to join the "special class".
Actually, I think it says something about the girl scouts being more educational than many other organizations:) Boy scouts say "be prepared" but being told to constantly drink water is rather dangerous is rather interesting. Until recently, I don't ever recall being told that such a thing is possible (although it makes quite a bit of sense)
In reply to the troll, on the ot end of things. Most guys I know would get a kick out of going to girl scouts:P Think about it, he was the only guy, surrounded by girls. If anybody wants to date, guess who they'll choose (assuming they're strait of course)
The problem with copyright isn't that it restricts what you can do, it's that older stuff doesn't go into the public domain. Current copyright extends back 90 years, which means that I need to look at my great-grandparents before I can get anything. That's a little too far back.
In this case however MySpace is clearly an isp, so should be safe, Universal can argue that it's more than an isp, and it facilitates violations in the same way youtube does (zomg, they're posting videos, the doom!) They've gotten a lot more restrictive in recent years, and I think it's sad that they want so much control. I still use p2p, but I haven't gotten anything that I could buy off a shelf in over ten years:/
Actually I very rarely use the E-word for just repelling monsters, and the swarms of a's and q's are better avoided by other means (such as dancing away and throwing things at them).
Most commonly (unless I'm going illiterate) I use the Elbereth to keep things such as b's away from my stashes (mainly the gelotonous variety). Coming back to find your massive cache of scrolls has been eaten or dragged all over the map by intelligent monsters is not a pretty site. Especially the large box gets eaten by a b, b gets killed, G picks up the / o' death and you're currently playing with an incubus when you meet it. Unlikely, but it can happen.
The answer is easy, when asked about some odd random show, the kid replies they dont watch tv, and the conversation moves on. With the advent of cable people have moved on and no longer talk so much about some great show that was on tv short of major news events (which radio is good enough to keep up with).
I stopped watching tv a little over a year ago as well, I watch maybe 2 hours every five or six months, maybe 4 hours every two weeks if you include movies online and on dvd.
That is seriously one of the most amazing articles I've ever read O.O;
So let me get this strait (I'm a mild Magic geek on the side) the company that strays away from overly erotic art and has a firm policy of aiming for teens, and little kids with pokemon was a hippie free love commune?
No wonder "strip magic" tended to catch on on the side. For the unfamiliar, strip magic was a sub format of magic that required stripping as you lost, I dont remember still if it was life point related or not. Sadly, the format has faded away.
I've used wikipedia several times as a source document, but it's far more valid when you site it as an opinion piece rather than a heavily accurate source of information (unless a direct authoritive source is pointed out, I carry the same skepticism of public works)
Wikipedia is more like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, it's at times wildly innacurate, biased and informed on a wide variety of subjects, but is a hell of alot more interesting than reading the much more popular and authoritive Encyclopedia Brittanica, and has largely replaced it as the repository of all earthly knowledge and wisdom.
I'm a Minnesotan, so it's trippy to see this here:) I was paying closer attention to our "ban gay marriage" thing honestly.
Retailers have the right to refuse sale, for any reason, but adding a fine to minors makes things a little more fuggy. First of all minors do not have a right of contract, they can bail out freely. Things like alchohol and cigarrets are prohibited, but it's more giving minors access to them that's banned, not them using it. There's a similar policy with alcohol, but it turns different because of that muggy age between 18 and 21, where people ARE liable for using while underage.
This law is essentially unenforceable, and would have a nasty time if ever challeneged in court. Now if we persecuted retailers for selling to minors without clear parental permission, there might be some merit to it. That's another issue though, and something we dont want to see.
Honestly, it drives me crazy when services add porn blocking features. Alot of the work I do, both professional and volunteer, involves advocating for sexual health education, sexual violence prevention and even glbt activism.
I routinely get emails from my colleages caught by filtering software for "pornographic content". Partially it's just a hazard with working in this field, but the problem is you also want to get this information out to youth as well. And even the best filter has trouble distinguishing between "porn" and "educational content".
Similar attempts always come to the same conclusion, you really have to have filtering client side, not server side. On top of that I'm not talking about computer software either, but responsible parents. That way the parent can decide what they want their kids to see and not see, and if they're digging into these things the parent can take appropriate actions.
One thing to think about, would you rather youth have access to sexual health information? Or should it be censored? Didn't the schools mostly get rid of filtering software for this very reason? I'd say a parent or teacher looking over your shoulder is a great deterrent for the children.
I wont ever believe that a filter can distinguish between the two, especially since I've seen alot of porn taken off porn sites and actually USED for educational purposes. So much depends on context, and even young minds can be healtily educated when you're talking about when you're asking about exploitation and sexual violence.
Goddess... so many "get back to the kitchen" jokes... it's kinda tacky.
Most women play minor games because they want more time. I'd rather have an involving game that I can play for 10 minutes waiting for something else, or on a short break from working over some insanely involving difficult game that'll suck up hours and hours of my time.
These are more fun when you're taking a break from work, or doing something else.
There are exceptions, mmorpgs and rpgs with lots of small side quests you can do quickly (NOT WoW raids too time consuming) but more like things like side quests in D&D, Ragnarok Online (yeah it has a horrid grind, but it looks cute and you can do most quests aside from the big ones in under a half hour, or just do a little leveling), Adventure Quest, or nethack.
Fast games like solitare, tetris, minesweeper are quick short games you can tidy up on a break, riding the bus, etc... and I'll take those any day, it's nice to start and finish sometimes:)
This sounds almost exactly like the old problem the mpaa and the riaa had with "recordable tapes" and "vhs tapes" ages ago.
Since then they've put it off saying it's analog, so not perfect so fine, but it's digital so this is a giant case of deja-vu.
This has very little to do with downloadable content, and is a rehashing of old laws where fair use is established. What everyone should wait for is, will previous court rulings be preserved? Or will rights of people in the states be overridden in favor of the corporations?
The MPAA/RIAA might not be able to really stop free internet downloading completely, or the more major problem of cd-copying, or even people just recording shows off of tv/radio, but they can make all of these a royal pain to do with lots of legal red tape.
There's more to it than waiting in line, like other people have said this particular theatre might not be playing it (the place that might get it is a few blocks away)
According to fans waiting in line they had to do lots of soul searching after learning the movie might not be premiring there. It turns out that to even the fans waiting in line walking a few extra blocks to see Star Wars at some random megaplex instead of this theatre (where star wars premiered, and the stars have their footprints in the concrete outside) just completely isn't worth it. The new movies just arn't worth seeing that much, but waiting in line for it is a good investment of time, just because of their passion for sci-fi
All the way back when the source for Doom was released and put out under the GPL there was lots of discussion about freeing up the levels for the original Doom and sequals varients etc... Carmack also made it clear that he was trying to free up all of those things from various legal departments but couldn't pry them loose. Even though they couldn't free up the original graphics id software did try to make Doom as free as possible (aside from artwork)
Hasbro has made no efforts whatsoever to free up scrabble, wants to keep a tight grip on it, and control as much of their profit as possible. So comparing this to free-doom doesn't work so well. It's one company that wants their product to be pretty much free and distributed, versus one that wants it to be closed off for profits.
I'm curious how Mattel owns scrabble in other countries... wouldn't that mean that Hasbro doesn't have a truly solid claim to scrabble in the first place?
It's a little hard to believe, but the movie is actually one of Douglous Adam's last works.
One thing the movie wont be is an adaption of the books and radio play all over again, it's something fresh new and different in the Hitchhiker universe. I'm looking forward to it very much.
If you're curious about what the plans for the movie were, and the process heading up to it you might want to check out "A Salmon of Doubt" which compiles Adam's final works, along with several letters and coorespondencies leading up to this movie amoung other things
I'm going to be forever wondering what the story behind half a cat and the rhino will be though...
For a very long time Ragnarok Online ran massive free subscriptions, which greatly inflated it's numbers with macroing players running 2~100 accounts simultaniously. It still allows the free accounts to be created, and from what I've seen it doesn't control them at all.
Currently it's success is kind of muggy, and it'll vary greatly depending on your country (they sell out the game to sub companies world wide). It's also important to remember that in asia it is the most popular mmorpg of all time, so including it will distort the numbers of other games by quite a bit. All that pretty much means... they don't really provide very good data to keep track of.
This sounds kind of like those interactive love sim games that are really popular over in japan, and in certain crowds like the really geeky otaku type people
It's a little sad that the person that won sounds like the better action like plot. Isn't it weird that pretty much all of them had trouble thinking of "things without guns in them" and two were multiplayer.
We'll probably see more things like this here locally (romance type games), as an actual game, but the idea is kind of fun.
As for the game designers challenge... I'd love to see an iron chef style show based on that... but instead of pitching a slideshow, they'd have to make a rough version of the game (maybe with paper or whatever they can think of), but I'm a total fan of iron chef, so I get a little biased.
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Considering how things are going with the internet, 5 years might be practical. Don't forget, original authors can still make and sell their old works, they just lose the exclusive rights to the content. If there's an important character or image they use throughout their works it can be filed under trademark law. For example, let's take The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien died years ago, but his family continues to release works, the newer works would fall under copyright as recently released by the family, but the names and images of the fellowship would be protected under trademark law for future properties. At the same time, older books could be distributed freely thus freeing up more work for intellectual property. As it stands the internet is already working as a quick distribution mechanism, and everything gets loose rather easily, but if you reduce copyright to five years the factor of convenience kicks in. Why bother getting sued? Get things five years old or older. Also, artists would maintain copyright to things like director tracks, behind the scenes footage and the like by publication date. So by keeping older unreleased material and adding to the old, they can continue to profit as long as they release "new" content. Anyone can distribute the original work, but only the original author has access to the materials used to create it.
I stopped buying music from the RIAA ages ago, but it wont do anything to stop them. You know how they're continuously touting "numbers lost to piracy"? Any loss of profits to them is a loss to piracy, they wont acknowledge that maybe, just maybe millions of people stopped buying music from them because they started buying music from those tiny interesting bands that they like that they downloaded an mp3 from on the internet.
On top of this most people I know are so disgusted by the RIAA that they stopped buying music from them as well, with no mention of this by myself. And by most people I mean my aunts, my mother, my cousins, my friends from college and my little sister. I know maybe three people who still follow the bigger record labels, and I'm not sure about all of them.
The main thing that needs to stop is copyright law needs to be revisited, as it is and is overbloated, lasting too long and causing more trouble than it did years ago. Not being able to get anything unless it's over three generations old is a bit nuts. Even much of the music my grandfather listened too growing up is still under copyright. If you can't walk up to an average person, such as an aunt who knows nothing about the music industry, tell them "this is illegal" and they go "that's stupid" and they look at you like you just told them one of those laws along the lines of "Illegal to go down mainstreet with a duck on your head while carrying a squash", it needs to be fixed.
It has more to do with you being allowed to take apart anything (including a computer program) for educational purposes. The distinction comes from intent, if you're taking a program apart just to take the data, then it could be construed as a violation of the DMCA. If you're taking a program apart to learn how it works, and possibly to apply the same principle to another program (or to get your own data back from an overzealous program) you're doing it for educational purposes. Now this is only relevant if what you're taking apart is considered a protection schema. In this case it's taking apart a compression algorithm, with no encryption, only to show it's there. Nothing that's being used to protect anything is being bypassed, so it's totally in the clear.
This case isn't like that at all. Regardless of their supposedly transitory nature, post-its are a formal written record. You wrote it down on a piece of paper, so there is a record of the transaction. It's probably a messy scrambled record, but a written record regardless.
In contrast computer ram is closer to writing your financial records in sand, then scrambling to get it written on a laptop. As soon as the next wave washes in the evidence will be destroyed. Are you willingly destroying evidence? No, you're just using a highly volatile medium for temporary information, but the court thinks that information must be stored in full as well instead of as a transient copy. I personally think that electronic archiving laws are ridiculous, and in the long run the massive volume of data will be mostly static and hard to actually use.
Also considering the large amount of data that's sent through ram as a computer processes information the costs to do this by any means will be gigantic. And the ruling rather silly.
I type around 110 wpm but still use team speak when I can. The downside to typing is that you have to pause to switch from controlling your character to "typing mode" which can last even a second or three, but that time is better spent just focusing on the game. Generally outside group content I can type fast enough for everything to work pretty well, but it's horrid when I have to stop that just to explain something or give warning when I could be focusing ingame.
Wouldn't that be c @ c @ c k a @ r i c e? (Not totally sure what a far mer would be... I'm guessing another @, given the context a t, but that's a trapper)
The comp usa nearby, which is going out of buisness so cutting prices horribly (mostly junk, but I'm wondering about a few things every so often) has Vista on a 50% discount, and falling... They still have dozens of copies left, and they don't seem to be going away. Meanwhile, people are more people are interested in buying worn out fixtures than Vista. It's rather sad.
You havn't heard of Progress Quest have you?
Basically the idea is that you're entirely automated, and outside initial character generation you get no input whatsoever into the game. In fact the game is designed to minimize character interaction as much as possible.
Originally there was much cheating my editing character stats and that sort of thing (strength is ideal, as it allows you to carry more and you spend less time in town "selling", as you sell in large batch at once, 1000 snots is better than 100 snots per trip) as well as hacking character levels. Normal players are added to the Hall of fame; however, hackers and cheaters are found and added to the Hall of Infamy. It works rather well, and if you cheat, you get to join the "special class".
Actually, I think it says something about the girl scouts being more educational than many other organizations :) Boy scouts say "be prepared" but being told to constantly drink water is rather dangerous is rather interesting. Until recently, I don't ever recall being told that such a thing is possible (although it makes quite a bit of sense)
:P Think about it, he was the only guy, surrounded by girls. If anybody wants to date, guess who they'll choose (assuming they're strait of course)
In reply to the troll, on the ot end of things. Most guys I know would get a kick out of going to girl scouts
The problem with copyright isn't that it restricts what you can do, it's that older stuff doesn't go into the public domain. Current copyright extends back 90 years, which means that I need to look at my great-grandparents before I can get anything. That's a little too far back.
:/
In this case however MySpace is clearly an isp, so should be safe, Universal can argue that it's more than an isp, and it facilitates violations in the same way youtube does (zomg, they're posting videos, the doom!) They've gotten a lot more restrictive in recent years, and I think it's sad that they want so much control. I still use p2p, but I haven't gotten anything that I could buy off a shelf in over ten years
Actually I very rarely use the E-word for just repelling monsters, and the swarms of a's and q's are better avoided by other means (such as dancing away and throwing things at them).
Most commonly (unless I'm going illiterate) I use the Elbereth to keep things such as b's away from my stashes (mainly the gelotonous variety). Coming back to find your massive cache of scrolls has been eaten or dragged all over the map by intelligent monsters is not a pretty site. Especially the large box gets eaten by a b, b gets killed, G picks up the / o' death and you're currently playing with an incubus when you meet it. Unlikely, but it can happen.
The answer is easy, when asked about some odd random show, the kid replies they dont watch tv, and the conversation moves on. With the advent of cable people have moved on and no longer talk so much about some great show that was on tv short of major news events (which radio is good enough to keep up with).
I stopped watching tv a little over a year ago as well, I watch maybe 2 hours every five or six months, maybe 4 hours every two weeks if you include movies online and on dvd.
That is seriously one of the most amazing articles I've ever read O.O;
So let me get this strait (I'm a mild Magic geek on the side) the company that strays away from overly erotic art and has a firm policy of aiming for teens, and little kids with pokemon was a hippie free love commune?
No wonder "strip magic" tended to catch on on the side. For the unfamiliar, strip magic was a sub format of magic that required stripping as you lost, I dont remember still if it was life point related or not. Sadly, the format has faded away.
I've used wikipedia several times as a source document, but it's far more valid when you site it as an opinion piece rather than a heavily accurate source of information (unless a direct authoritive source is pointed out, I carry the same skepticism of public works)
Wikipedia is more like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, it's at times wildly innacurate, biased and informed on a wide variety of subjects, but is a hell of alot more interesting than reading the much more popular and authoritive Encyclopedia Brittanica, and has largely replaced it as the repository of all earthly knowledge and wisdom.
I'm a Minnesotan, so it's trippy to see this here :) I was paying closer attention to our "ban gay marriage" thing honestly.
Retailers have the right to refuse sale, for any reason, but adding a fine to minors makes things a little more fuggy. First of all minors do not have a right of contract, they can bail out freely. Things like alchohol and cigarrets are prohibited, but it's more giving minors access to them that's banned, not them using it. There's a similar policy with alcohol, but it turns different because of that muggy age between 18 and 21, where people ARE liable for using while underage.
This law is essentially unenforceable, and would have a nasty time if ever challeneged in court. Now if we persecuted retailers for selling to minors without clear parental permission, there might be some merit to it. That's another issue though, and something we dont want to see.
This is so going to trap those joggers nearby in their own little worlds. Running in circles all day long, running, running, running.
So can we at least attach some speakers too so they sound interesting as they jog by?
On a serious note... why do I have a weird feeling sales on "We are the Champions" are going to go up...
Honestly, it drives me crazy when services add porn blocking features. Alot of the work I do, both professional and volunteer, involves advocating for sexual health education, sexual violence prevention and even glbt activism.
I routinely get emails from my colleages caught by filtering software for "pornographic content". Partially it's just a hazard with working in this field, but the problem is you also want to get this information out to youth as well. And even the best filter has trouble distinguishing between "porn" and "educational content".
Similar attempts always come to the same conclusion, you really have to have filtering client side, not server side. On top of that I'm not talking about computer software either, but responsible parents. That way the parent can decide what they want their kids to see and not see, and if they're digging into these things the parent can take appropriate actions.
One thing to think about, would you rather youth have access to sexual health information? Or should it be censored? Didn't the schools mostly get rid of filtering software for this very reason? I'd say a parent or teacher looking over your shoulder is a great deterrent for the children.
I wont ever believe that a filter can distinguish between the two, especially since I've seen alot of porn taken off porn sites and actually USED for educational purposes. So much depends on context, and even young minds can be healtily educated when you're talking about when you're asking about exploitation and sexual violence.
M'kay... why is it posting me as an AC when I thought I thought I was logged in? Eww...
Goddess... so many "get back to the kitchen" jokes... it's kinda tacky.
:)
Most women play minor games because they want more time. I'd rather have an involving game that I can play for 10 minutes waiting for something else, or on a short break from working over some insanely involving difficult game that'll suck up hours and hours of my time.
These are more fun when you're taking a break from work, or doing something else.
There are exceptions, mmorpgs and rpgs with lots of small side quests you can do quickly (NOT WoW raids too time consuming) but more like things like side quests in D&D, Ragnarok Online (yeah it has a horrid grind, but it looks cute and you can do most quests aside from the big ones in under a half hour, or just do a little leveling), Adventure Quest, or nethack.
Fast games like solitare, tetris, minesweeper are quick short games you can tidy up on a break, riding the bus, etc... and I'll take those any day, it's nice to start and finish sometimes
This sounds almost exactly like the old problem the mpaa and the riaa had with "recordable tapes" and "vhs tapes" ages ago.
Since then they've put it off saying it's analog, so not perfect so fine, but it's digital so this is a giant case of deja-vu.
This has very little to do with downloadable content, and is a rehashing of old laws where fair use is established. What everyone should wait for is, will previous court rulings be preserved? Or will rights of people in the states be overridden in favor of the corporations?
The MPAA/RIAA might not be able to really stop free internet downloading completely, or the more major problem of cd-copying, or even people just recording shows off of tv/radio, but they can make all of these a royal pain to do with lots of legal red tape.
There's more to it than waiting in line, like other people have said this particular theatre might not be playing it (the place that might get it is a few blocks away)
According to fans waiting in line they had to do lots of soul searching after learning the movie might not be premiring there. It turns out that to even the fans waiting in line walking a few extra blocks to see Star Wars at some random megaplex instead of this theatre (where star wars premiered, and the stars have their footprints in the concrete outside) just completely isn't worth it. The new movies just arn't worth seeing that much, but waiting in line for it is a good investment of time, just because of their passion for sci-fi
All the way back when the source for Doom was released and put out under the GPL there was lots of discussion about freeing up the levels for the original Doom and sequals varients etc... Carmack also made it clear that he was trying to free up all of those things from various legal departments but couldn't pry them loose. Even though they couldn't free up the original graphics id software did try to make Doom as free as possible (aside from artwork)
Hasbro has made no efforts whatsoever to free up scrabble, wants to keep a tight grip on it, and control as much of their profit as possible. So comparing this to free-doom doesn't work so well. It's one company that wants their product to be pretty much free and distributed, versus one that wants it to be closed off for profits.
I'm curious how Mattel owns scrabble in other countries... wouldn't that mean that Hasbro doesn't have a truly solid claim to scrabble in the first place?
It's a little hard to believe, but the movie is actually one of Douglous Adam's last works.
One thing the movie wont be is an adaption of the books and radio play all over again, it's something fresh new and different in the Hitchhiker universe. I'm looking forward to it very much.
If you're curious about what the plans for the movie were, and the process heading up to it you might want to check out "A Salmon of Doubt" which compiles Adam's final works, along with several letters and coorespondencies leading up to this movie amoung other things
I'm going to be forever wondering what the story behind half a cat and the rhino will be though...
For a very long time Ragnarok Online ran massive free subscriptions, which greatly inflated it's numbers with macroing players running 2~100 accounts simultaniously. It still allows the free accounts to be created, and from what I've seen it doesn't control them at all.
Currently it's success is kind of muggy, and it'll vary greatly depending on your country (they sell out the game to sub companies world wide). It's also important to remember that in asia it is the most popular mmorpg of all time, so including it will distort the numbers of other games by quite a bit. All that pretty much means... they don't really provide very good data to keep track of.
This sounds kind of like those interactive love sim games that are really popular over in japan, and in certain crowds like the really geeky otaku type people
It's a little sad that the person that won sounds like the better action like plot. Isn't it weird that pretty much all of them had trouble thinking of "things without guns in them" and two were multiplayer.
We'll probably see more things like this here locally (romance type games), as an actual game, but the idea is kind of fun.
As for the game designers challenge... I'd love to see an iron chef style show based on that... but instead of pitching a slideshow, they'd have to make a rough version of the game (maybe with paper or whatever they can think of), but I'm a total fan of iron chef, so I get a little biased.