Again, speaking as a musician (amateur), I have to disagree. While sampling or other use of previous works CAN be creative at times, it rarely is. A good example is the KLF in the early 90s, took a Whitney Houston song and basically just recorded it straight with only a few effects applied. If most people heard the song, they would have thought it was Whitney Houston with some odd effects. This was not creative. However, the KLF didn't do this to be creative. They did this as a kind of joke. (Think about what KLF means: Kopyright Liberation Front).
Most of the time, people who just lift complete verses or "hooks" from other easily recognizab;e songs are pretty much like ambulance chasing lawyers. They are hoping to ride on the coat tails of the previous song's success. This is also when you tend to have song being contested as "illegal". However, if you get permission FIRST, or use older less popular material and only take very short samples, it's much harder to be branded "illegal".
Finally, I'm not sure who did it, but the recent hit (within the past five years) tht lifted the ENTIRE bass line and drums from the Police's hit "Every Breath You Take" is a perfect example of this total lack of creativity. ANYONE could loop a sample from a hit song that has no vocals and then sing and rap over it with different lyrics. Is tht creative? Absolutely not in any way shape or form.
Resident Evil? Come on!!! That blew chunx!! Try again. Personally, I think the Andromeda Strain and 2001 a Space Odyssey got it right the first time and they didn't have any video games to "inspire" them.
This means that the Federal government is riding roughshod over at least some portion of the people/states, which is not an "of the People, by the People, for the People" thing to do.
The current dismal administration aside, I do believe that sometimes you have to drag peoplpe kicking and screaming to progress. If some backwards bible-thumpers from the southern U.S. don't want the theory of evolution taught to their kids in school, then they need to be superceded by the government. It's people like them who keep America from progressing to a state where no religion is recognized (the ideal). It's a lot like when you have a friend or relative who has a drug habit. They may not like it, and their friends will tell tham that you're a bastard for trying to pull them out of their addiction, but it's good for them. That's the whole point. Some things are good for the citizens and need to be enforced. Uncensored internet access for people at public libraries and in schools is good for people. Screw what the religious fools of this nation may think! If they want to live with their myths and superstitions, it's time to roll over them and march forward to progress. After all, it's people with a similar mindset that resulted in 9/11. I equate the kind of American christian who think their way is the only way with the Taliban. I don't have a problem with religion as long as it's kept a personal choice and not inflicted on others. The problem is that many sects and denominations REQUIRE that you inflict your beliefs on others. That's what needs the steam roller. Now.
...that movies based on video games suck 100% of the time? I'm being completely serious here. Name one movie based on a video game that didn't suck. Just one. I dare you.
To support what the_mad_poster said but in a slightly different way...
Don't download copyrighted music from the net. Buy used CDs from online retailers instead. If you spent as much time doing a search for decently priced used CDs as you do looking for "free music", you'd find that CDs are cheap and getting cheaper.
Case in point; my Dad wanted to get a few songs from the 70s and 80s to listen to that don't get played on the radio much. (We're talking top 40 schlock here, not obsure stuff). One of his friends at work pointed him to a scam that make s you pay a "lifetime" membership to download the Limewire client. It turned out that this wouldn't work for him at all and after I explained the whole copyright issue (Like it or not, it's the law right now so you are better off abiding by it unless you want to be made an example of. Pick your battles.) he understood why downloading copyrighted music from the net (without the artist or label's permission) for free isn't ethical.
I then took the trouble of showing him the most mainstream online sources for purchasing used CDs. It turned out that the very songs he wanted were available on complete albums for as little as $1.99 per CD. It may not compete with legitimate downloads from the Apple iPod Store but it's not a bad deal either. He really did get the issue after I took the time to explain it and I showed him that his previous notion of $15 per CD is no longer true unless you want the very latest hits. He has no interest in newer music.
Once you have the disc you want, then you can rip it to whatever format you want for YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE. This does not include file sharing. MP3s or Vorbis files on CD-R are the electronic equivalent of cassette tapes and that is the way I use them. For those of us who need to have a soundtrack to our lives (You know who you are. You listen to music nearly every waking minute of the day because music is the most important thing in life.), CD-Rs stuffed with MP3 or Vorbis files are an inexpensive godsend compared to the Apple iPod. Once the iPod or devices like it come down to earth in terms of pricing, then maybe it would be time to consider a switch.
But, I repeat: -Downloading music from the net that you don't have permission to download is not ethical. -Uploading music to the net that you don't have permission to distribute is not ethical.
If you really want to distribute music, then get into distributing music from performers who have given you their permission. Speaking as a musician myself, I have to say that no matter if I was a number one hitmaker or just a one hit wonder, I would stipulate that my music be given away for free after a period of seven years. There is only so much money a person needs to make off of a creation. After a certain point, it's just greedy to expect more cash to flow in without any more real work.
But who regulates private organizations. Remember there are a lot of private organizations that would LOVE to regulate your life and they don't have your best interests at heart. The KKK, White Aryan Resistance and the Project for the New American Century come to mind.
That doesn't really tell you WHY you need to do that. When I saw it, I assumed it meant that there was a bad link or something. Not that they were sending people linked from Slashdot.org to/dev/null. The Slashdorks really need to take more responsibility for the Slashdot effect. They cause the problem, they should at least admit to that instead of having these cryptic messages saying that you need to paste the link or click through. How lame is that?
THAT attitude is what typifies the problem with Americans. You and most Americans have no humility. It's one thing to be quietly good at something, and another thing to go bragging about how "great" you are whether it's true or not. That's what Europe and the U.K. know. They know how to be quietly superior. Most "Amuricans" are just hot dogs who THINK we are successful. Face it. If the U.S. dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow, there would be a collective "Oh my god!" and then back to business as usual for the rest of the world in a few days.
I have yet to run into a page that I can't use in Mozilla that is of any value me. Now... I know I'm not the barometer for the average user, but I'm not that quirky either.
Actually he probably does. The United States is barely out of it's pimple faced teen years, whilst England and Europe are exiting their greying midlife crises.
...and what Microsoft is going to try and copy. It has NOTHING to do with DRM and everything to do with convenience:
With an iPod, you can theoretically take ALL of your music with you.
If you have a library DRM managed files on a PC that are licensed to only play on that machine, you are stuck with that PC being the house for your music. You can't carry it with you in any convenient way. But the iPod escapes this connundrum by actually BEING the library in a portable format.
The only problem with the iPod is that if you take it with you, then your family can't access the music library because you have it. If WiMax or something like it ever takes off and Apple keeps on top of things like they usually do, this could be resolved by making the library centralized but accessible by multiple wireless players that have license keys on the library system. However, the beauty of the iPod is that it's all self contained including the DRM. At least from the RIAA's perspective. This is why Apple was able to negotiate deals. As soon as you open up the possibility of multiple access, the RIAA gets edgy.
On the topic of platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) vs. popularity of piracy, I have to side with the folks who say that the Windows platform is where the most piracy happens. This is because MS promotes piracy by not being serious about their licensing. See a future journal entry about my solution for the piracy problem. Linux/BSD users have no need to pirate software since the apps they need are free of charge. They also tend to be fairly conscious about copyright. I know I am. As anti-corporate as I am, I still think that under the current laws (flawed as they may be) companies have the right to get paid for products they sell. All of my Ogg Vorbis are rips from CDs, old vinyl, cassette. Basically, my Oggs have replaced cassettes.
This kind of crap really bothers me. The first few times it was done, it was funny, ha ha. But now this kind of shit is just as annoying as all of the "cowboy neal" and "in soviet russia" stuff, just not as funny. However, here is my real problem with it. Spike and others seem to think it's OK as long as they smooth everything over with a little cash. Bullshit! When are people going to wake up and realize that sometimes, money just isn't worth being made a fool of? The problem here is that most people have been conditioned to basically bend over when offered a decent amount of money. This needs to end. There MUST be some way of pointing out to people that it is not a good thing to check the essence of your being at the door and do just about anything that will scar your dignitiy for cash. un-America needs to get its dignity back. What a travesty.
Why not make people retype the entire kernel in vi, then you'd REALLY have an elite distro! The 3 people using it would be gods!
There's an OS you have to type in by hand? Cool! If there is a harder way to do something that I will gain more knowledge from, then I want to be doing that. It's the best way to learn a topic thoroughly.
...in this comment earlier this week, Gartner's claims are ridiculous. Today's article is even closer to what I was saying before. Just like with my car analogy in the above linked comment, if you want to, you CAN buy a car without a car stereo and Bose has no right to force you to buy one with their stereo preinstalled. Nor does Kenwood or Mitsubishi. The fact that Microsoft seems to want all PCs shipped with Windows as the default OS is fairly criminal if you ask me. It should be an option among many OS offerings. The same goes for applications. A customer should be able to tell your PC vendor I want , with the following applications. The applications should extend beyond just web, mail and office functions. It should include CAD, Semi-pro and Pro level audio and video software, Scientific applications, etc... The fact of the matter is that 75-80% of the sutomers are still going to choose Microsoft products because it's all they know or barely understand. But, more intelligent users will have more options and by extension, people who would have previously chosen MS might choose an alternative. How's that for a way to break up the MS monopoly?
With that said, let me also say that I've been working with Sun's iPlanet Directory server since they acquired it from Netscape. It's used for our iPlanet mail suite. In a word, it sucks ass. The intial migration from Netscape Directory server 3.x to iPlanet's directory server was a nightmare. The documentation on the schema layout for mail was non-existent. (Still is as far as I know) There were no migration tools. I just had to dump the Netscape Directory server data to a huge text file. iPlanet support then told me to go through this file by hand and edit or remove any of the lines that didn't apply or had the wrong format. !!!! WTF!? I spent months of late nights pushing the file back and forth between OpenVMS and Solaris just so my boss could use DCL and EDT to make most of the changes needed. The migration actually took me about a year and a half and there is still detritus floating around the LDAP directory. I now have a better understanding of the user account portion of iPlanet's schema, but no thanks to Sun. iPlanet sucks. I can only hope that Redhat will do a better job with what they've acquired.
One last bit to my rant: Sun STILL has portions of the old Netscape administration tools in the iPlanet suite. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that they still kind of work. Enough to damage LDAP data. According to their support they told me to NOT use those tools. THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL INCLUDED!!!!??? Crap. Pure crap.
We have a few major issues with this particular study.
1. If there were PCs bundled with a free copy of BeOS Personal Edition, would Gartner be saying the same thing? Probably not as this is completely politically motivated.
2. Microsoft can't and shouldn't make the decision about what OS all PCs ship with. The PC vendor should. To put it another way, should Bose be able to tell you what brand of stereo you can have installed in your new car by default? No. Same thing.
3. This is NOT a Linux specific issue. This is a user problem. Just because some people have no problem with going out and buying PCs that come with Linux and then overwriting it with pirated copies of Windows, does not have anything to do with the Linux community. If Microsoft really WANTS to solve this problem, then they should require unique ID numbers for every installation of Windows that will ID that copy. Then they should diable Windows on any systems with duplicate IDs until the legitimate user complains. When that user complains, Microsoft should then fine them for being irresponsible with their ID and charge them for a new ID to replace the now invalidated one. Do I think this is good? Yes. Because people will get fed up when they realize that Microsoft wants to charge them for every copy of Windows on every machine. People still don't get this and think piracy is OK. If piracy becomes a hassle, it will die. This will also push more people to other OSes unless they really think that the Microsoft way is worth the cost. Finally, no volume license keys for anyone. But... MS makes too much money from all the people who get hooked on their products through illegitimate channels. So none of this will ever happen. They'll give the OS away free before they ever let anyone take their customers away.
Slashdot Mirror
Again, speaking as a musician (amateur), I have to disagree. While sampling or other use of previous works CAN be creative at times, it rarely is. A good example is the KLF in the early 90s, took a Whitney Houston song and basically just recorded it straight with only a few effects applied. If most people heard the song, they would have thought it was Whitney Houston with some odd effects. This was not creative. However, the KLF didn't do this to be creative. They did this as a kind of joke. (Think about what KLF means: Kopyright Liberation Front).
Most of the time, people who just lift complete verses or "hooks" from other easily recognizab;e songs are pretty much like ambulance chasing lawyers. They are hoping to ride on the coat tails of the previous song's success. This is also when you tend to have song being contested as "illegal". However, if you get permission FIRST, or use older less popular material and only take very short samples, it's much harder to be branded "illegal".
Finally, I'm not sure who did it, but the recent hit (within the past five years) tht lifted the ENTIRE bass line and drums from the Police's hit "Every Breath You Take" is a perfect example of this total lack of creativity. ANYONE could loop a sample from a hit song that has no vocals and then sing and rap over it with different lyrics. Is tht creative? Absolutely not in any way shape or form.
Resident Evil? Come on!!! That blew chunx!! Try again. Personally, I think the Andromeda Strain and 2001 a Space Odyssey got it right the first time and they didn't have any video games to "inspire" them.
The current dismal administration aside, I do believe that sometimes you have to drag peoplpe kicking and screaming to progress. If some backwards bible-thumpers from the southern U.S. don't want the theory of evolution taught to their kids in school, then they need to be superceded by the government. It's people like them who keep America from progressing to a state where no religion is recognized (the ideal). It's a lot like when you have a friend or relative who has a drug habit. They may not like it, and their friends will tell tham that you're a bastard for trying to pull them out of their addiction, but it's good for them. That's the whole point. Some things are good for the citizens and need to be enforced. Uncensored internet access for people at public libraries and in schools is good for people. Screw what the religious fools of this nation may think! If they want to live with their myths and superstitions, it's time to roll over them and march forward to progress. After all, it's people with a similar mindset that resulted in 9/11. I equate the kind of American christian who think their way is the only way with the Taliban. I don't have a problem with religion as long as it's kept a personal choice and not inflicted on others. The problem is that many sects and denominations REQUIRE that you inflict your beliefs on others. That's what needs the steam roller. Now.
...that movies based on video games suck 100% of the time? I'm being completely serious here. Name one movie based on a video game that didn't suck. Just one. I dare you.
To support what the_mad_poster said but in a slightly different way...
Don't download copyrighted music from the net. Buy used CDs from online retailers instead. If you spent as much time doing a search for decently priced used CDs as you do looking for "free music", you'd find that CDs are cheap and getting cheaper.
Case in point; my Dad wanted to get a few songs from the 70s and 80s to listen to that don't get played on the radio much. (We're talking top 40 schlock here, not obsure stuff). One of his friends at work pointed him to a scam that make s you pay a "lifetime" membership to download the Limewire client. It turned out that this wouldn't work for him at all and after I explained the whole copyright issue (Like it or not, it's the law right now so you are better off abiding by it unless you want to be made an example of. Pick your battles.) he understood why downloading copyrighted music from the net (without the artist or label's permission) for free isn't ethical.
I then took the trouble of showing him the most mainstream online sources for purchasing used CDs. It turned out that the very songs he wanted were available on complete albums for as little as $1.99 per CD. It may not compete with legitimate downloads from the Apple iPod Store but it's not a bad deal either. He really did get the issue after I took the time to explain it and I showed him that his previous notion of $15 per CD is no longer true unless you want the very latest hits. He has no interest in newer music.
Once you have the disc you want, then you can rip it to whatever format you want for YOUR OWN PERSONAL USE. This does not include file sharing. MP3s or Vorbis files on CD-R are the electronic equivalent of cassette tapes and that is the way I use them. For those of us who need to have a soundtrack to our lives (You know who you are. You listen to music nearly every waking minute of the day because music is the most important thing in life.), CD-Rs stuffed with MP3 or Vorbis files are an inexpensive godsend compared to the Apple iPod. Once the iPod or devices like it come down to earth in terms of pricing, then maybe it would be time to consider a switch.
But, I repeat:
-Downloading music from the net that you don't have permission to download is not ethical.
-Uploading music to the net that you don't have permission to distribute is not ethical.
If you really want to distribute music, then get into distributing music from performers who have given you their permission. Speaking as a musician myself, I have to say that no matter if I was a number one hitmaker or just a one hit wonder, I would stipulate that my music be given away for free after a period of seven years. There is only so much money a person needs to make off of a creation. After a certain point, it's just greedy to expect more cash to flow in without any more real work.
But who regulates private organizations. Remember there are a lot of private organizations that would LOVE to regulate your life and they don't have your best interests at heart. The KKK, White Aryan Resistance and the Project for the New American Century come to mind.
You're all wrong. The open source versions will be eGnaml and Kamal (I have big mountain cat!).
That doesn't really tell you WHY you need to do that. When I saw it, I assumed it meant that there was a bad link or something. Not that they were sending people linked from Slashdot.org to /dev/null. The Slashdorks really need to take more responsibility for the Slashdot effect. They cause the problem, they should at least admit to that instead of having these cryptic messages saying that you need to paste the link or click through. How lame is that?
Heheheh... THAT'S the spirit. I know you KNOW what I meant, but you get 10 points for style.
Becauth thilly!!!! It'th not a vowel!!! ;P
THAT attitude is what typifies the problem with Americans. You and most Americans have no humility. It's one thing to be quietly good at something, and another thing to go bragging about how "great" you are whether it's true or not. That's what Europe and the U.K. know. They know how to be quietly superior. Most "Amuricans" are just hot dogs who THINK we are successful. Face it. If the U.S. dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow, there would be a collective "Oh my god!" and then back to business as usual for the rest of the world in a few days.
Whoa whoa whoa!!! Dude... I'm on your side. Check out my JE about piracy.
You'll note I said "of any value to me". I don't use Windows, so that site has no value. :)
I have yet to run into a page that I can't use in Mozilla that is of any value me. Now... I know I'm not the barometer for the average user, but I'm not that quirky either.
...I must ask. What the hell is a "honstepuck"? It sounds a little strange. Which leads me to... what is a "honste" in the first place???
You're right. It works on about 99.998% of the pages on the net. That 1/1000th of a percent makes a huge differemce doesn't it?
Actually he probably does. The United States is barely out of it's pimple faced teen years, whilst England and Europe are exiting their greying midlife crises.
...and what Microsoft is going to try and copy. It has NOTHING to do with DRM and everything to do with convenience:
With an iPod, you can theoretically take ALL of your music with you.
If you have a library DRM managed files on a PC that are licensed to only play on that machine, you are stuck with that PC being the house for your music. You can't carry it with you in any convenient way. But the iPod escapes this connundrum by actually BEING the library in a portable format.
The only problem with the iPod is that if you take it with you, then your family can't access the music library because you have it. If WiMax or something like it ever takes off and Apple keeps on top of things like they usually do, this could be resolved by making the library centralized but accessible by multiple wireless players that have license keys on the library system. However, the beauty of the iPod is that it's all self contained including the DRM. At least from the RIAA's perspective. This is why Apple was able to negotiate deals. As soon as you open up the possibility of multiple access, the RIAA gets edgy.
On the topic of platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) vs. popularity of piracy, I have to side with the folks who say that the Windows platform is where the most piracy happens. This is because MS promotes piracy by not being serious about their licensing. See a future journal entry about my solution for the piracy problem. Linux/BSD users have no need to pirate software since the apps they need are free of charge. They also tend to be fairly conscious about copyright. I know I am. As anti-corporate as I am, I still think that under the current laws (flawed as they may be) companies have the right to get paid for products they sell. All of my Ogg Vorbis are rips from CDs, old vinyl, cassette. Basically, my Oggs have replaced cassettes.
This kind of crap really bothers me. The first few times it was done, it was funny, ha ha. But now this kind of shit is just as annoying as all of the "cowboy neal" and "in soviet russia" stuff, just not as funny. However, here is my real problem with it. Spike and others seem to think it's OK as long as they smooth everything over with a little cash. Bullshit! When are people going to wake up and realize that sometimes, money just isn't worth being made a fool of? The problem here is that most people have been conditioned to basically bend over when offered a decent amount of money. This needs to end. There MUST be some way of pointing out to people that it is not a good thing to check the essence of your being at the door and do just about anything that will scar your dignitiy for cash. un-America needs to get its dignity back. What a travesty.
There's an OS you have to type in by hand? Cool! If there is a harder way to do something that I will gain more knowledge from, then I want to be doing that. It's the best way to learn a topic thoroughly.
...in this comment earlier this week, Gartner's claims are ridiculous. Today's article is even closer to what I was saying before. Just like with my car analogy in the above linked comment, if you want to, you CAN buy a car without a car stereo and Bose has no right to force you to buy one with their stereo preinstalled. Nor does Kenwood or Mitsubishi. The fact that Microsoft seems to want all PCs shipped with Windows as the default OS is fairly criminal if you ask me. It should be an option among many OS offerings. The same goes for applications. A customer should be able to tell your PC vendor I want , with the following applications. The applications should extend beyond just web, mail and office functions. It should include CAD, Semi-pro and Pro level audio and video software, Scientific applications, etc... The fact of the matter is that 75-80% of the sutomers are still going to choose Microsoft products because it's all they know or barely understand. But, more intelligent users will have more options and by extension, people who would have previously chosen MS might choose an alternative. How's that for a way to break up the MS monopoly?
No. But, I will state for the record that I did not inhale.
You said that wrong. Let me help:
I, for one, welcome our new LDAP overlords!
With that said, let me also say that I've been working with Sun's iPlanet Directory server since they acquired it from Netscape. It's used for our iPlanet mail suite. In a word, it sucks ass. The intial migration from Netscape Directory server 3.x to iPlanet's directory server was a nightmare. The documentation on the schema layout for mail was non-existent. (Still is as far as I know) There were no migration tools. I just had to dump the Netscape Directory server data to a huge text file. iPlanet support then told me to go through this file by hand and edit or remove any of the lines that didn't apply or had the wrong format. !!!! WTF!? I spent months of late nights pushing the file back and forth between OpenVMS and Solaris just so my boss could use DCL and EDT to make most of the changes needed. The migration actually took me about a year and a half and there is still detritus floating around the LDAP directory. I now have a better understanding of the user account portion of iPlanet's schema, but no thanks to Sun. iPlanet sucks. I can only hope that Redhat will do a better job with what they've acquired.
One last bit to my rant:
Sun STILL has portions of the old Netscape administration tools in the iPlanet suite. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that they still kind of work. Enough to damage LDAP data. According to their support they told me to NOT use those tools. THEN WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL INCLUDED!!!!??? Crap. Pure crap.
...that Gartner isn't in Microsoft's pocket.
We have a few major issues with this particular study.
1. If there were PCs bundled with a free copy of BeOS Personal Edition, would Gartner be saying the same thing? Probably not as this is completely politically motivated.
2. Microsoft can't and shouldn't make the decision about what OS all PCs ship with. The PC vendor should. To put it another way, should Bose be able to tell you what brand of stereo you can have installed in your new car by default? No. Same thing.
3. This is NOT a Linux specific issue. This is a user problem. Just because some people have no problem with going out and buying PCs that come with Linux and then overwriting it with pirated copies of Windows, does not have anything to do with the Linux community. If Microsoft really WANTS to solve this problem, then they should require unique ID numbers for every installation of Windows that will ID that copy. Then they should diable Windows on any systems with duplicate IDs until the legitimate user complains. When that user complains, Microsoft should then fine them for being irresponsible with their ID and charge them for a new ID to replace the now invalidated one. Do I think this is good? Yes. Because people will get fed up when they realize that Microsoft wants to charge them for every copy of Windows on every machine. People still don't get this and think piracy is OK. If piracy becomes a hassle, it will die. This will also push more people to other OSes unless they really think that the Microsoft way is worth the cost. Finally, no volume license keys for anyone. But... MS makes too much money from all the people who get hooked on their products through illegitimate channels. So none of this will ever happen. They'll give the OS away free before they ever let anyone take their customers away.
There would be much rejoicing. NEXT!