You've never read a Bungie post before, have you? They've always been just barely serious, dating back to the Marathon days.
Their post is more about keeping information about the leak off of their OWN BOARDS. In fact, if you actually read the post they almost come off more concerned about screenshot spoilers. Not that they aren't concerned about piracy, etc., but that is always a problem. They just didn't expect the spoiler problem since normally for software the leak doesn't happen until everyone who wants to could purchase it.
and about that.. if I'd write anonymously somewhere about the leak, or the game, how would they know it's me?
Yeah, because they couldn't possibly be referring to posts on their OWN boards.
Bungie != Microsoft. Bungie has finished the game and turned it over for distribution. It is completely out of their hands. But that doesn't mean they want the closely guarded secrets in the game coming out before EVERYONE has a shot of finding them, and there's no reason to expect them to allow it on their own boards.
Slashdot effect of "a few tens of thousands of hits" usually occurs within the first hour, so what? 20000 hits/hour? 30000/hour?
Ok, I'm making up the slashdot number from your statement, but it leads to my point: it's usually the high number of simultaneous requests in a limited time frame that kill a server, not a high number of sequential requests over a long period time.
Pennies are valid currency for all bills under US law.
Contempt seems to be different from normal areas of the law. It certainly doesn't seem hampered be Freedom of Speech, since you can be found in contempt for saying quite a few things which you might actually be defending the right to say in public and for which you may even win the overall case.
In light of GTA 3's amazing sales and appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers, it was no surprise that the next offering in the series, "Vice City", quickly earned staggering pre-order sales of close to 4 million nationwide; (Source.)
I'm not going to swear 4 million is completely accurate, but even if it's off by 50% it's still 2 million.
Don't get me wrong, it's an impressive feat for Halo 2. But it will be interesting to see the next GTA's pre-sale numbers. On the one hand they may be lower from just more competition in general, but the sheer number of 15-turned-17 year olds that can now buy it without mommy should drive the number up a bit.
It's pretty obvious they think the law would come after them. The question is, what law? Does ESPN have to pay someone every time they mention Bradshaw or Bledsoe? What if some TV show or movie has a sports fan that mentions them? Just what the hell law is it that gimps games like this?
It seems more likely games early on agreed to something stupid and now no one wants to go to court over it and risk publicity, whether or not they think they'll win. I can grant you they need to license logos, stadium looks, and current players, but not being able to use something that turns up in almanacs is just asinine.
First, are you talking the XBox version or PS2? I don't think PS2 has the same soundtrack options, but whichever you mean it's not fair to judge one by the other. I don't know about 2K5, but 2K4 works fine for me on the PS2.
Oh, yeah, that and the fantasy teams like the '89 Calgary Flames lose much of their luster when their names get replaced with "C. Center" and "R. Defenseman"
Have you ever unlocked old teams before? It's almost always like this for all sports games. I'm pretty sure games sign contracts with the player unions (NHLPA?) for likeness and name rights, so if they aren't active players they don't even try.
If you think this is bad, you should see ESPN NFL 2K5. They include 'scenarios' like the Immaculate Reception and The Drive, and they don't even name the players:
"Trailing the Raiders 7-6, with 22 seconds left, the Steelers' QB fired a desperation pass to the RB. The ball hit his hands just as the Raiders' FS laid a crushing hit on him from behind. The ball ricocheted to Steeler RB, who caught it and ran it in for a TD in a play that game to be known as "The Immaculate Reception""
"The Broncos QB led them on a 13 play, 98 yard, 5 minute epic drive that ended with a TD pass with only 37 seconds remaining. With the extra point, the game was sent ot overtime, where Denver stopped the Browns on the first possession, and kicked a 33-yard FG for the win. "The Drive" cemented the Bronco QB's legacy as one of the greatest come from behind quarterbacks in the history of the game."
I mean, are these just historical facts, even if they were NFL games? Why can't they name Bradshaw, Harris, Bledsoe, etc.? Ridiculous.
And yes, audiophiles do quite a bit of blind testing. Or at least scientist audiophiles do.
If you can really tell the difference in a double blind test, you could probably win a million dollars from the Randi Foundation. Their mission is partly to debunk unscientific claims, which I'm pretty sure includes (for them) being able to distinguish sound differences from different "power supplies, power cords, interconnect cables, and speaker cables". One interesting take on 'sound improvement' is here. An interesting followup directly related to supposed cable differences is here.)
So the real issue isn't being amazed at Mac/Linux not requiring drivers for this card, but why Windows is so damn broken by design that it does require them.
Anyone who is amazed by Windows being broken needs to get out more often, and is also most likely to be surprised by Mac/Linux working easily.
WoW Beta has been on Mac since at least March when I got in on phase 2. For the record, it's run pretty well on my 1.25 Powerbook w/ 512MB. Also it has steadily gotten better every update. Furthermore, they are very proactive on their message boards in responding to Mac-based problems and comments.
Blizzard has always released their games for both platforms, but this may be their most concentrated cross-platform effort yet. There's an article about how both Win and Mac benefit from OS X's XCode here.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in.
"Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?" Lucas said. "Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was.
"But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. Because you're then thinking you're comparing apples to apples, when you're not. You're comparing apples to oranges. I'm saying it's not fair to the artist."
Part of Star Wars' charm was that while the special effects were advanced for the time, they were NOT excessive to any degree beyond being how they directly supported the plot. The extra things running around Mos Eisley, windows in Bespin... it just started being more distractive than immersive. The only two I absolutely agreed with were putting in the Jabba scene (yeah, it wasn't done well, but it did actually help establish Han a little more) and fixing the Hoth shots so you couldn't see AT-ATs through the actual instrument panel. (I'd never noticed before on small TV's, but almost a must for a high-quality DVD on large TVs.)
Don't get me started on Guido shooting first, that completely changed Han's daring go-for-it attitude as a lawless smuggler out only for himself. Having them shoot at the same time I can accept logically. Han decides to shoot, Guido sees it in his eyes and shoots as well. Of course, Guido missing makes little sense at 3 feet, but if he had hit him it would have been a pretty short movie. What really bugs me about this change was that it was never "I wanted to do this, but I couldn't", it was "I've changed my mind about how much of a lawless guy Han was at the beginning, thus weakening his story arc as he progressed to a caring person."
Huh, guess I got myself going. Anyway, I guess I'll go hit the local antique and pawn shops to see if anyone's ignorant mothers have turned in the laserdiscs of the originals...
What, exactly, this is I do not know, but it wouldn't surprise me if this means "When the military buys a commercial satellite pass over a suspected terrorist camp and forbids the satellite company from reselling the image (which seems reasonable, otherwise there would be a huge market in 'see what the DoD is taking pictures of' industry), no one can file a FOIA request to access that image".
Huh. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I read it to mean that footage showing environmental hazards could be removed from the record simply by the government purchasing one copy.
Yes the people thinking this would cut into weather or traffic or whatever are overreacting, but unless it is rewritten to some extent that it is a time delay (e.g. can't be sold for 10 years), then it is a powerful method of covering up information from the American people.
This is what I meant by 'when'. It was announced in May,1984, to much acclaim but In July of 1984, the home videogame division of Atari was purchased by Jack Tramiel. Although the Atari 7800 was ready to go, licensing negotiations had to begin again because the Tramiels did not agree with some of the existing arrangements negotiated by Ray Kassar. It was around this time that the videogame market crashed, and retailers cut orders for videogames across the board. By the end of 1984, the industry was left with only Atari, Coleco, and Mattel turning out new product for their old systems, with no new console on the horizon. Atari spent the next two years working out the details, and the 7800 was finally ready to go in 1986
By that time Nintendo released their 'Famicon' with an extensive-ish library, compared to the 7800's later release with only 3 titles. Of note:
Graphically, the 7800 was an excellent machine for its time, rivaling and even surpassing the NES and Sega Master System in some respects. Its weak point was sound, since it utilizes the same old sound chip from the 2600. Programmers got around this limitation however, by adding the 5200's POKEY sound chip directly to certain cartridges. Arcade ports for the system were excellent, but it just didn't have the marketing behind it to overcome the Nintendo juggernaut.
So basically bad timing and poor direction. The machine itself was good for the time, but the crash had already happened and only one could survive it, and Nintendo did it by getting to market first.
The 7800 flopped because of when it came out and poor marketing. However, it could play 2600 games so they might as well go with that and have more game options/better graphics.
I have yet to discover any bible passage that, taken in context, contradicts any other.
Mt.27:5
"And he [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
Acts 1:18
" Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out."
----
2 Sam.6:23
"Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death."
2 Sam.21:8
"And the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul."
----
1 Tim.2:8
"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands."
Mt.6:5-6
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly."
----
Gen.7:17
"And the flood was forty days upon the earth."
Gen.7:24
"And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."
JibJab dismissed its suit against Ludlow today. As part of the settlement of the case, JibJab will remain free to continue distributing the "This Land" animation without further interference from Ludlow.
Slow down, Beavis. JibJab asked EFF to step in on their behalf, and would have been financially committed to the fight if they turned down the settlement, which would have been a battle of words and old records:
According to EFF, the initial copyright term was triggered when Guthrie sold his first versions of the song as sheet music in 1945. The copyright on the song then ran out when Ludlow failed to renew its registration in 1973. Ludlow believes its copyright -- initially filed in 1956 and renewed in 1984 -- remains valid and disputes EFF's claims.
It is correct to say this hasn't settled anything outside of JibJab's case itself. In the case of 'This Land', what this actually accomplishes is now a large company could use it and be prepared to attack with EFF's finding's. It is a victory in the sense that the EFF helped accomplish what they were engaged for - JibJab can use the song without getting sued. Just because that falls short of what some would like to see doesn't nullify it.
Two consenting same-sex adults enter a windowless room (no A/C) with a Linux box, smartcard programmer, DVD burner, XBOX mod chip, copy of DeCSS, a DSL connection, a black Sharpie marker, and a copy of LOTR:ROTK.
They exit the room four hours later, flushed and smiling.
How many different crimes have been committed?
You forgot to mention which state they are in. Some states still have more old, puritanical laws on what consenting adults can do than other states do.
Which is why I can't go back to Georgia, but that's probably a little off-topic.
Part of the big deal is that if you can burn them onto a CD then you can pull them into iTunes yourself to get them on an iPod. Any Real argument that they need this so that their customers can get music on iPods just went out the window.
And the 'inconvenience' argument is out the window - Real could also sell un-DRM'ed MP3's and AAC files without being hypocrites.
Besides, the iPod is Apples product. This entire thing is like Chrysler bitching that Ford wheel wells are too small for Chrysler's wheels and Ford should change their design by their own expense. {Yeah, not a perfect analogy, but hopefully my point that a company's product is their own gets through. EVERY company has a monopoly of their own product; they are only considered an industry monopoly if the product is practically unavoidable.)
Every time you want to view a new Real stream, you have to download RealPlayer version x+1.
Their player is bloated with ads and doo-dad components you'll never use and can't get eliminate, so the interface is cluttered. It's like poking a tiny hole in a full-page newspaper advertisement, and trying to watch TV through it.
Their free player is also crippled beyond repair. You can't save streams unless you buy their software, and that is complete bullshit.
Today's Real streams run like technology straight out of 1994. They're bloated, tinny, and pixelated. They're vastly outcompeted by every other format.
Their software won't stop f***ing harassing you. It spews links to itself all over your desktop, your start menu, your quick-launch bar, and your notification area. It nags you constantly to upgrade to a more recent version or buy the full version. It keeps installing its beyond-useless agent in your MSCONFIG startup, and won't go away.
Man, even Real is better on OS X. I use RealOne Player daily in OS X for a radio show and never get harassed by the program. Technically, the stream is available in all streaming formats, but that was the one I clicked first and is hasn't given me any troubles yet.
Now that I think about it, I'm skewing the numbers in their favor, aren't I? Guess I'll use iTunes tomorrow. Way to make me think that through, Real.
Apple doesn't have to support their use of it that way
But, they would, wouldn't they? If someone downloads something the says it will work with an AEx, and they can't/won't help when it doesn't, who do you think that that person will call? And when the Apple support person starts asking what iTunes says, and the person responds they don't have iTunes, how can that support call possibly end well?
It's one thing to sit here and say Apple wouldn't be responsible for a non-approved setup, and be technically correct. That doesn't mean that all people that try it would be smart enough to accept that. This is very similar to the Real/iPod deal; even if they don't support it they now have to be aware of it and evaluate all future versions with this in mind.
Of course, it's probably simpler since, unlike the iPod, people who aren't using this with iTunes have zero reason to update it in any way.
just give a discount if there is a governor that is set to 80? What good would this thing do? What if I live in rural Pennsylvania, but take a trip through Michigan to see my sister? Do I have to submit an affidavit that when I was traveling 70mph it was legal?
Slashdot Mirror
At first, I thought maybe the new Child's Play movie already needed financial help.
You've never read a Bungie post before, have you? They've always been just barely serious, dating back to the Marathon days.
Their post is more about keeping information about the leak off of their OWN BOARDS. In fact, if you actually read the post they almost come off more concerned about screenshot spoilers. Not that they aren't concerned about piracy, etc., but that is always a problem. They just didn't expect the spoiler problem since normally for software the leak doesn't happen until everyone who wants to could purchase it.
and about that.. if I'd write anonymously somewhere about the leak, or the game, how would they know it's me?
Yeah, because they couldn't possibly be referring to posts on their OWN boards.
Bungie != Microsoft. Bungie has finished the game and turned it over for distribution. It is completely out of their hands. But that doesn't mean they want the closely guarded secrets in the game coming out before EVERYONE has a shot of finding them, and there's no reason to expect them to allow it on their own boards.
Quick - someone call EMF! If they redo Unbelievable as Unbeleaguerble, maybe they can get the next exclusive deal after U2 and make a huge comeback!
(If anyone wants to get them started, the original lyrics are here.)
You aren't dividing for time.
/week) * (1 week / 168 hours) = 2976 hits/hour
(500,000 hits
Slashdot effect of "a few tens of thousands of hits" usually occurs within the first hour, so what? 20000 hits/hour? 30000/hour?
Ok, I'm making up the slashdot number from your statement, but it leads to my point: it's usually the high number of simultaneous requests in a limited time frame that kill a server, not a high number of sequential requests over a long period time.
Pennies are valid currency for all bills under US law.
Contempt seems to be different from normal areas of the law. It certainly doesn't seem hampered be Freedom of Speech, since you can be found in contempt for saying quite a few things which you might actually be defending the right to say in public and for which you may even win the overall case.
Yes, technically they did comply, but they made it as difficult as possible for everyone involved.
Isn't this contempt of court? Like showing up to pay a fine with pennies in a jar?
In light of GTA 3's amazing sales and appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers, it was no surprise that the next offering in the series, "Vice City", quickly earned staggering pre-order sales of close to 4 million nationwide; (Source.)
I'm not going to swear 4 million is completely accurate, but even if it's off by 50% it's still 2 million.
Don't get me wrong, it's an impressive feat for Halo 2. But it will be interesting to see the next GTA's pre-sale numbers. On the one hand they may be lower from just more competition in general, but the sheer number of 15-turned-17 year olds that can now buy it without mommy should drive the number up a bit.
It's pretty obvious they think the law would come after them. The question is, what law? Does ESPN have to pay someone every time they mention Bradshaw or Bledsoe? What if some TV show or movie has a sports fan that mentions them? Just what the hell law is it that gimps games like this?
It seems more likely games early on agreed to something stupid and now no one wants to go to court over it and risk publicity, whether or not they think they'll win. I can grant you they need to license logos, stadium looks, and current players, but not being able to use something that turns up in almanacs is just asinine.
First, are you talking the XBox version or PS2? I don't think PS2 has the same soundtrack options, but whichever you mean it's not fair to judge one by the other. I don't know about 2K5, but 2K4 works fine for me on the PS2.
Oh, yeah, that and the fantasy teams like the '89 Calgary Flames lose much of their luster when their names get replaced with "C. Center" and "R. Defenseman"
Have you ever unlocked old teams before? It's almost always like this for all sports games. I'm pretty sure games sign contracts with the player unions (NHLPA?) for likeness and name rights, so if they aren't active players they don't even try.
If you think this is bad, you should see ESPN NFL 2K5. They include 'scenarios' like the Immaculate Reception and The Drive, and they don't even name the players:
"Trailing the Raiders 7-6, with 22 seconds left, the Steelers' QB fired a desperation pass to the RB. The ball hit his hands just as the Raiders' FS laid a crushing hit on him from behind. The ball ricocheted to Steeler RB, who caught it and ran it in for a TD in a play that game to be known as "The Immaculate Reception""
"The Broncos QB led them on a 13 play, 98 yard, 5 minute epic drive that ended with a TD pass with only 37 seconds remaining. With the extra point, the game was sent ot overtime, where Denver stopped the Browns on the first possession, and kicked a 33-yard FG for the win. "The Drive" cemented the Bronco QB's legacy as one of the greatest come from behind quarterbacks in the history of the game."
I mean, are these just historical facts, even if they were NFL games? Why can't they name Bradshaw, Harris, Bledsoe, etc.? Ridiculous.
So, their interview process consisted of you optimizing their code and them telling you you wouldn't fit in?
Huh. Nothing fishy about that.
And yes, audiophiles do quite a bit of blind testing. Or at least scientist audiophiles do.
If you can really tell the difference in a double blind test, you could probably win a million dollars from the Randi Foundation. Their mission is partly to debunk unscientific claims, which I'm pretty sure includes (for them) being able to distinguish sound differences from different "power supplies, power cords, interconnect cables, and speaker cables". One interesting take on 'sound improvement' is here. An interesting followup directly related to supposed cable differences is here.)
So the real issue isn't being amazed at Mac/Linux not requiring drivers for this card, but why Windows is so damn broken by design that it does require them.
Anyone who is amazed by Windows being broken needs to get out more often, and is also most likely to be surprised by Mac/Linux working easily.
WoW Beta has been on Mac since at least March when I got in on phase 2. For the record, it's run pretty well on my 1.25 Powerbook w/ 512MB. Also it has steadily gotten better every update. Furthermore, they are very proactive on their message boards in responding to Mac-based problems and comments.
Blizzard has always released their games for both platforms, but this may be their most concentrated cross-platform effort yet. There's an article about how both Win and Mac benefit from OS X's XCode here.
Lucas on colorizing the three stooges.
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in.
"Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?" Lucas said. "Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was.
"But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. Because you're then thinking you're comparing apples to apples, when you're not. You're comparing apples to oranges. I'm saying it's not fair to the artist."
Part of Star Wars' charm was that while the special effects were advanced for the time, they were NOT excessive to any degree beyond being how they directly supported the plot. The extra things running around Mos Eisley, windows in Bespin... it just started being more distractive than immersive. The only two I absolutely agreed with were putting in the Jabba scene (yeah, it wasn't done well, but it did actually help establish Han a little more) and fixing the Hoth shots so you couldn't see AT-ATs through the actual instrument panel. (I'd never noticed before on small TV's, but almost a must for a high-quality DVD on large TVs.)
Don't get me started on Guido shooting first, that completely changed Han's daring go-for-it attitude as a lawless smuggler out only for himself. Having them shoot at the same time I can accept logically. Han decides to shoot, Guido sees it in his eyes and shoots as well. Of course, Guido missing makes little sense at 3 feet, but if he had hit him it would have been a pretty short movie. What really bugs me about this change was that it was never "I wanted to do this, but I couldn't", it was "I've changed my mind about how much of a lawless guy Han was at the beginning, thus weakening his story arc as he progressed to a caring person."
Huh, guess I got myself going. Anyway, I guess I'll go hit the local antique and pawn shops to see if anyone's ignorant mothers have turned in the laserdiscs of the originals...
What, exactly, this is I do not know, but it wouldn't surprise me if this means "When the military buys a commercial satellite pass over a suspected terrorist camp and forbids the satellite company from reselling the image (which seems reasonable, otherwise there would be a huge market in 'see what the DoD is taking pictures of' industry), no one can file a FOIA request to access that image".
Huh. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I read it to mean that footage showing environmental hazards could be removed from the record simply by the government purchasing one copy.
Yes the people thinking this would cut into weather or traffic or whatever are overreacting, but unless it is rewritten to some extent that it is a time delay (e.g. can't be sold for 10 years), then it is a powerful method of covering up information from the American people.
This is what I meant by 'when'. It was announced in May,1984, to much acclaim but
In July of 1984, the home videogame division of Atari was purchased by Jack Tramiel. Although the Atari 7800 was ready to go, licensing negotiations had to begin again because the Tramiels did not agree with some of the existing arrangements negotiated by Ray Kassar. It was around this time that the videogame market crashed, and retailers cut orders for videogames across the board. By the end of 1984, the industry was left with only Atari, Coleco, and Mattel turning out new product for their old systems, with no new console on the horizon. Atari spent the next two years working out the details, and the 7800 was finally ready to go in 1986
By that time Nintendo released their 'Famicon' with an extensive-ish library, compared to the 7800's later release with only 3 titles. Of note:
Graphically, the 7800 was an excellent machine for its time, rivaling and even surpassing the NES and Sega Master System in some respects. Its weak point was sound, since it utilizes the same old sound chip from the 2600. Programmers got around this limitation however, by adding the 5200's POKEY sound chip directly to certain cartridges. Arcade ports for the system were excellent, but it just didn't have the marketing behind it to overcome the Nintendo juggernaut.
So basically bad timing and poor direction. The machine itself was good for the time, but the crash had already happened and only one could survive it, and Nintendo did it by getting to market first.
(Full details: here.)
The 7800 flopped because of when it came out and poor marketing. However, it could play 2600 games so they might as well go with that and have more game options/better graphics.
I have yet to discover any bible passage that, taken in context, contradicts any other.
Mt.27:5
"And he [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
Acts 1:18
" Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out."
----
2 Sam.6:23
"Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death."
2 Sam.21:8
"And the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul."
----
1 Tim.2:8
"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands."
Mt.6:5-6
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly."
----
Gen.7:17
"And the flood was forty days upon the earth."
Gen.7:24
"And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."
JibJab dismissed its suit against Ludlow today. As part of the settlement of the case, JibJab will remain free to continue distributing the "This Land" animation without further interference from Ludlow.
Slow down, Beavis. JibJab asked EFF to step in on their behalf, and would have been financially committed to the fight if they turned down the settlement, which would have been a battle of words and old records:
According to EFF, the initial copyright term was triggered when Guthrie sold his first versions of the song as sheet music in 1945. The copyright on the song then ran out when Ludlow failed to renew its registration in 1973. Ludlow believes its copyright -- initially filed in 1956 and renewed in 1984 -- remains valid and disputes EFF's claims.
It is correct to say this hasn't settled anything outside of JibJab's case itself. In the case of 'This Land', what this actually accomplishes is now a large company could use it and be prepared to attack with EFF's finding's. It is a victory in the sense that the EFF helped accomplish what they were engaged for - JibJab can use the song without getting sued. Just because that falls short of what some would like to see doesn't nullify it.
Two consenting same-sex adults enter a windowless room (no A/C) with a Linux box, smartcard programmer, DVD burner, XBOX mod chip, copy of DeCSS, a DSL connection, a black Sharpie marker, and a copy of LOTR:ROTK.
They exit the room four hours later, flushed and smiling.
How many different crimes have been committed?
You forgot to mention which state they are in. Some states still have more old, puritanical laws on what consenting adults can do than other states do.
Which is why I can't go back to Georgia, but that's probably a little off-topic.
Part of the big deal is that if you can burn them onto a CD then you can pull them into iTunes yourself to get them on an iPod. Any Real argument that they need this so that their customers can get music on iPods just went out the window.
And the 'inconvenience' argument is out the window - Real could also sell un-DRM'ed MP3's and AAC files without being hypocrites.
Besides, the iPod is Apples product. This entire thing is like Chrysler bitching that Ford wheel wells are too small for Chrysler's wheels and Ford should change their design by their own expense. {Yeah, not a perfect analogy, but hopefully my point that a company's product is their own gets through. EVERY company has a monopoly of their own product; they are only considered an industry monopoly if the product is practically unavoidable.)
Man, even Real is better on OS X. I use RealOne Player daily in OS X for a radio show and never get harassed by the program. Technically, the stream is available in all streaming formats, but that was the one I clicked first and is hasn't given me any troubles yet.
Now that I think about it, I'm skewing the numbers in their favor, aren't I? Guess I'll use iTunes tomorrow. Way to make me think that through, Real.
Apple doesn't have to support their use of it that way
But, they would, wouldn't they? If someone downloads something the says it will work with an AEx, and they can't/won't help when it doesn't, who do you think that that person will call? And when the Apple support person starts asking what iTunes says, and the person responds they don't have iTunes, how can that support call possibly end well?
It's one thing to sit here and say Apple wouldn't be responsible for a non-approved setup, and be technically correct. That doesn't mean that all people that try it would be smart enough to accept that. This is very similar to the Real/iPod deal; even if they don't support it they now have to be aware of it and evaluate all future versions with this in mind.
Of course, it's probably simpler since, unlike the iPod, people who aren't using this with iTunes have zero reason to update it in any way.
just give a discount if there is a governor that is set to 80? What good would this thing do? What if I live in rural Pennsylvania, but take a trip through Michigan to see my sister? Do I have to submit an affidavit that when I was traveling 70mph it was legal?