There is another purpose to reposting an entire article. It allows the slashdot thread to live on in the archives. Have you ever searched Slashdot and found a 6 month old thread, only to find the linked to article doesn't exist anymore. I hate when that happens. And, because the article is being reposted for comment purposes, the Fair use argument is not as slam dunk as you make it out to be.
Didn't even attempt to find out who Greenspun is, huh? Check out his resume. He is a Ph.D. in Comp Sci and teaches Comp Sci courses in MIT. Do you happen to teach Comp Sci at MIT?
Yes, "several artists" have made that assertion. But what are these people doing with million dollar houses and tons of cars. They are making some money, despite what is usually pushed as being fact.
Professor Eugene Volokh, legal scholar and former computer programmer, has an
interesting post about the similarities between intellectural property and traditional property.
To summarize:
Property has two components, right to use and a right to exclude others from using. It is similar for both property and intellectual property.
Property is a limit on the freedom of others. (for example, you don't have the right to sleep in my backyard).
Traditional property--"If people have the right to exclude others from their land, they'll have more incentive to invest effort in improving the land." Intellectual property--"giving people the right to exclude others from new works or inventions will give people an incentive to invest effort in creating and inventing."
Rivalrous and unrivalrous uses. This is the concept that is probably the most different between traditional property and intellectual property. To wit, if you take apples from my apple tree, I have lost the ability to sell that apple. But that is not true if you copy a MP3 from my hard drive. Volokh gives an example that shows the effect of nonrivalrous uses. Imagine a water well which has enough water such that everyone in the neighborhood can take water from it without siphoning it dry. Since drilling a well takes time and money, many in a neighborhood will rely on someone else to dig a well for them, and pay a fee for that service. But if others take from the well without paying, it discourages people from digging a well to begin with.
Give up this hugely profitable and innovative business just because some company is going to file a lawsuit? Music is practically the core of Apple's strategy lately, and they can't give it up no matter what it costs them.
Get a clue. They've sold approximately 10 millions songs, which means revenue of about $10 M. Apple computer has a revenue of about $1.5 billion, so music is only a small fraction of their revenue.
Why the RIAA is only going atter those who share makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense. You get rid of the supply, there'll be no demand. Of course, the RIAA doesn't quite realize that, while they can shut down sharers in the US, they can't do the same throughout the world.
The point is, the people being sued may not have stolen anything at all and not intended to help anyone steal. I have a fairly large CD collection, yet I'd say that at least 20% of my disks have scratches on them. I have copies of those disk that I downloaded of the web. Perfectly legal. I am too lazy to rip my CDs, I have too many CDs and not enough time. I download entire discographies from eMule. Once again, perfectly legal.
I've never understood the theory that it is easier to download than it is to rip. I have CDs that were so scratched they were unplayable. But they have been rippable. It's a lot easier to rip than it is to download each of 15 songs on a CD, not to mention the differences in encoding quality, and making sure the song you get is from the album and not from the radio.
It's more practical to offer bonus tracks on cassette cause you can fit more stuff on them. I remember that "kiss me kiss me kiss me" from the cure for example included a bonus track that was not included on the cd because there just wasn't room on the CD
Another example is III Sides to Every Story by Extreme. There is a song on the cassette version that is not on the CD version. Unfortunately, even the Extreme best of CD doesn't include that song, so, AFAIK, you can't get that particular song on CD.
For me, the math was simple. $35/month for always on Cable modem vs. $15-20 for ISP + $14 for extra phone line. When the difference is only $5, you'd be silly not to get a cable modem, even if you just need to download a couple patches a month. When telecommuting is factored into the equation, cable modem becomes a no-brainer.
IE's market share is huge and is tying people to Windows.
I think you got things backwards here. You make it seem like the reason people don't use OS X or Linux is because of IE. Wrong. The reason IE's market share is huge is because of Windows. I don't think people give a crap what browser they use. IE is there, it works, and they don't need to download anything. Therefore they use it.
Ask any photographer why digital cameras have special "flourescent light" settings and why film cameras often use a special filter for flourescent lights.
Not quite true. Flourescent bulbs come in a variety of different color temperatures. Incandescent bulbs are typically around 2800 K. You can get flourescent bulbs at around 3000K, at 4100 K, and at 5000K (close to daylight, which is 5500K). There are also many specialty bulbs (such as Ott-Lite) that give "true color" from flourescent bulbs. It is practically impossible to get true color from incandescent bulbs.
Not that I'm anti-Mozilla (I use it as my primary browser, though I keep IE for IE specific sites). But I wanted to make sure that no one forgets about Eudora, which has a free (well, sponsored by innocuous ads) email program.
Piracy against the RIAA is still ilegal, but considering the way that the RIAA screws everyone (the artists included), it's understandable.
Piract against the Movie Industry is again ilegal but it can be rationalized when you consider some of the dodgy things they want to try and pull against the consumers.
This type of reasoning can be applied to everything that is bought and sold. Shady tactics of new and used car dealers, markups on retail items, $6 for a cup of beer at a baseball game, etc. Should everything be stolen then?
There are plenty of games where you have the challenge of having to start over each game and try to do better. The most obvious examples are sports games. Yeah, you can play most games in season mode, but the also have single game mode which would be the same as having to start over Pac Man again. Can't beat the Rams in MAdden 2003, try a lower ranked team. Another example is fighting games. Most of them have opponents that get harder as you get along. So you can challenge yourself in arcade mode to see if you can beat all the fighters without continuing.
Heck, even a game like Unreal Tournament 2003 has an element of that type of game play. You play a level and see if you can win.
On the other hand, I was playing Grand Theft Auto III for the first time this weekend, and it was occurring to me that that is the first game I've seen in the console world that IMHO even the Dreamcast couldn't have adequately handled. (Yes, it has a Grand Theft Auto II but I've heard it's not the same at all.) Granted, the vast majority of the gameplay is perfectly doable on a Commodore 64 class machine, and much of it was indeed done, but for the driving physics, which are a huge portion of the game, contributing to its fun. Nothing much until the Playstation 2-class machines (including PCs) could have done that.
You're kidding right? The driving physics of most driving games are much more sophisticated than GTA3. E.G., Gran Turismo, an older PS2 game, has a more sophisticated driving engine.
But if I were to ditch this system, it would be like shutting down the gates to a dozen little worlds: The Infocom* adventures, and the early Ultima games (including Warren Spector's early masterpiece Martian Dreams), and oddities like Hidden Agenda.
Why not just copy the discs to the hard drive of a new computer or a CD-ROM? There are plenty of companies around that will even do that for you.
I don't know about typology tests. I've taken several, and I get a different result each time. (I've gotten ISTP, ISTP, or INTP). It seems that I am strongly in the I and T categories, but the other two vary.
It may not have been before. But it is now, with IBM's counterclaims (including accusations of Lanham Act (trademark) violations and patent infringement).
I don't know where you've been looking, but I never see any of that. Not even here.
You've got to be kidding. It happens all the time here. If someone asks a question about moving from Win to Linux, he will get flamed with comments like "if you don't know what distro to get [or whatever simple question was asked], Linux is not for you."
The thing is that the description in the patent isn't what matters. It is the claims that matter. If you read the description, the patent contemplates a system where antique dealers have computer terminals and people bring in items to sell. The inventor didn't contemplate people owning their own digital cameras and placing the items up for sale themselves. But that is not what the jury determines. The jury determined that the following claims were infringed:
8. A market apparatus for use with a posting terminal apparatus, said posting terminal apparatus having means for creating a digital image of a good for sale, means for creating a data record of said good for sale, a tracking number printer means, a tracking number scanner means and means for communicating to said market apparatus, said market apparatus comprising:
a communications means for communicating with the posting terminal apparatus;
a post/de-post communications handler operably connected to said communications means, said communications handler receiving a data record of a good for sale from the posting terminal apparatus, said communication handler detecting a predetermined posting terminal apparatus identification code from the posting terminal apparatus and verifying from said code that the posting terminal apparatus is an authorized user of said market apparatus;
a storage device operably connected to said post/de-post handler, said storage device adapted to receive and store said data record of a good for sale, said data record containing an image of said good for sale and a textual description of said good for sale;
a presentation mapping module operably connected to said storage device and a wide area communication network, said presentation mapping module providing via said wide area communication network an interface to said market apparatus for a participant, said presentation mapping module providing said participant with access to said data record textual description and said image of said good for sale;
a transaction processor operably connected to said wide area communication network and said storage device, said transaction processor adapted to receive a purchase request and payment means from said participant, clear said purchase request and payment means and if said payment means clears then transfer the ownership of said good for sale by modifying said data record of said good for sale to reflect the new ownership of said good for sale by said participant; and
a notification means operably connected to said transaction processor said notification means notifying the posting terminal apparatus in response to said transaction processor transferring ownership of said good for sale denoting with a finality of transaction said new ownership of said good.
15. A market apparatus for use with a posting terminal apparatus, said posting terminal apparatus having a digital camera for creating a digital image of a good for sale, a record maker module for creating a data record of said good for sale, a tracking code printer, a tracking code scanner and a posting terminal communication interface for communicating with said market apparatus, said market apparatus comprising:
a communication interface for communicating with the posting terminal apparatus;
a post/de-post communications handler operably connected to communication interface, said communications handler receiving a data record of a good for sale from the posting terminal apparatus, said communication handler detecting a predetermined posting terminal apparatus identification code from the posting terminal apparatus and verifying from said identification code that the posting terminal apparatus is an authorized user of said market apparatus;
a storage device operably connected to said post/de-post handler, said storage device adapted to receive and store said data record of a good for sale, said data record containing an image of said good for sale and a textual description of said good for sale;
Slashdot Mirror
There is another purpose to reposting an entire article. It allows the slashdot thread to live on in the archives. Have you ever searched Slashdot and found a 6 month old thread, only to find the linked to article doesn't exist anymore. I hate when that happens. And, because the article is being reposted for comment purposes, the Fair use argument is not as slam dunk as you make it out to be.
Didn't even attempt to find out who Greenspun is, huh? Check out his resume. He is a Ph.D. in Comp Sci and teaches Comp Sci courses in MIT. Do you happen to teach Comp Sci at MIT?
Yes, "several artists" have made that assertion. But what are these people doing with million dollar houses and tons of cars. They are making some money, despite what is usually pushed as being fact.
To summarize:
Get a clue. They've sold approximately 10 millions songs, which means revenue of about $10 M. Apple computer has a revenue of about $1.5 billion, so music is only a small fraction of their revenue.
See this page for a peek at the amnesty form the RIAA wants you to fill out.
It makes perfect sense. You get rid of the supply, there'll be no demand. Of course, the RIAA doesn't quite realize that, while they can shut down sharers in the US, they can't do the same throughout the world.
In the Barnes & Noble in the local mall, they have a setup where they can (theoretically) play samples from every CD they sell.
I've never understood the theory that it is easier to download than it is to rip. I have CDs that were so scratched they were unplayable. But they have been rippable. It's a lot easier to rip than it is to download each of 15 songs on a CD, not to mention the differences in encoding quality, and making sure the song you get is from the album and not from the radio.
Another example is III Sides to Every Story by Extreme. There is a song on the cassette version that is not on the CD version. Unfortunately, even the Extreme best of CD doesn't include that song, so, AFAIK, you can't get that particular song on CD.
For me, the math was simple. $35/month for always on Cable modem vs. $15-20 for ISP + $14 for extra phone line. When the difference is only $5, you'd be silly not to get a cable modem, even if you just need to download a couple patches a month. When telecommuting is factored into the equation, cable modem becomes a no-brainer.
I think you got things backwards here. You make it seem like the reason people don't use OS X or Linux is because of IE. Wrong. The reason IE's market share is huge is because of Windows. I don't think people give a crap what browser they use. IE is there, it works, and they don't need to download anything. Therefore they use it.
Not quite true. Flourescent bulbs come in a variety of different color temperatures. Incandescent bulbs are typically around 2800 K. You can get flourescent bulbs at around 3000K, at 4100 K, and at 5000K (close to daylight, which is 5500K). There are also many specialty bulbs (such as Ott-Lite) that give "true color" from flourescent bulbs. It is practically impossible to get true color from incandescent bulbs.
Not that I'm anti-Mozilla (I use it as my primary browser, though I keep IE for IE specific sites). But I wanted to make sure that no one forgets about Eudora, which has a free (well, sponsored by innocuous ads) email program.
This type of reasoning can be applied to everything that is bought and sold. Shady tactics of new and used car dealers, markups on retail items, $6 for a cup of beer at a baseball game, etc. Should everything be stolen then?
Heck, even a game like Unreal Tournament 2003 has an element of that type of game play. You play a level and see if you can win.
You're kidding right? The driving physics of most driving games are much more sophisticated than GTA3. E.G., Gran Turismo, an older PS2 game, has a more sophisticated driving engine.
Why not just copy the discs to the hard drive of a new computer or a CD-ROM? There are plenty of companies around that will even do that for you.
Both sides have requested a jury trial. There will be a jury. Juries are not limited to criminal cases.
The HDTV FAQ should also come in handy. And also check out Antenna Web for further information on HDTV reception.
I don't know about typology tests. I've taken several, and I get a different result each time. (I've gotten ISTP, ISTP, or INTP). It seems that I am strongly in the I and T categories, but the other two vary.
It may not have been before. But it is now, with IBM's counterclaims (including accusations of Lanham Act (trademark) violations and patent infringement).
You've got to be kidding. It happens all the time here. If someone asks a question about moving from Win to Linux, he will get flamed with comments like "if you don't know what distro to get [or whatever simple question was asked], Linux is not for you."
Seriously though, the market for this is tiny, so why should Best Buy or Circuit City stock it?