Go out and find artists selling their music themselves and buy from them. I do that for a few of them. This way I know THEY are getting the money - ALL of it. Also one of them even suggests you make MP3 copies of the CD as a "backup". I have refused to buy CD's from the typical channels as well as buying, renting videos/DVD's due to the DeCSS bullsh*t! As far as I am concerned the MPAA and the RIAA can go F*ck themselves!
Here is another option that is BETTER! I got a program called Steambox Ripper. It will allow you to convert.ra,.ram files to.wav. These guys reverse engineered the Realnetworks encoding scheme and wrote a decoder for it.
SO, if the hackers out there in Linux land were to reverse steambox Ripper to see how they are decoding the realfiles they could write a better player for the realnetworks files or/and have it convert the files . streaming mp3 or whatever. They could probably get it to do the streaming files as well I would think. Which is something that Steambox doesn't do though.
Instead of using a gun to do his enforcement he is using lawsuits. He is just a PUNK!
These mega-million $$$ artists have no legititmate gripe! MP3 is HELPING them sell albums. For those whose music SUCKS, there albums aren't selling. MP3 is THE perfect way to evaluate music. If you like it MOST people go out and buy the album(s). If you find an MP3 that sucks you know not to bother buying the album. MP3 is good for consumers, it helps them from wasting money on sh*ty music. The only ones that should probably be b*itching the most about MP3 are the artists who's albums are not selling because people don't like the MP3's they have heard.
Yeah, the law is clear that the "man" is outright out to control the internet, peoples rights, our privacy, etc.. etc...
It is going to come down to two classes of people: 1) The sheep and lemmings - your average Joe on the street. 2) The rest of us - "hackers" and "freedom fighters".
If you don't stand up and fight for your rights or what you belive in - you fall into catagory #1! - PERIOD!
In the U.S., if I remember right, we became who we are because we got sick and tired of being controlled, being told what to do and how to do it.(no offense to the folks in the U.K.). The uprisings against DeCSS and the likes of the corporate control and government controls like DMCA and UCITA are just an extention of that. Those that are fighting this stuff, not only in the U.S. but around the world are standing up saying "We have had enough, we won't take any more!" This is all just a non-violent way of fighting a revolution. Look at it this way no one is getting mamed, injured or killed!
So those that are tired of the control and being told what and how to do things and the way you can do it - NEED to fight these things.
When I was in UASAF in Germany a friend of mine worked for "Inside Plant" (the on base phone sysems group). On a couple Friday nights after the SP's had been out parting late we would sneak into the tunnels in the basement of their barraks. We found he Bundespost phone closet and my friend had gotton ahold of a phone box key from a guy who worked for "outside plant" (another part of the on base phone systems group. Of course we opend the pone box and with the aid of a linemans buttset we explored the intracacies of the German phone sysem!:^) Fun stuff!
On lunch hours it was fun to use test equipment with speed dialers on them to "re-route" friends on base phone calls to the OB/GYN clynic on base!:^)
Well NASA were consultants on the movie. They had approval power over everythnig. But also Bruce DePalma Brian's brother was seen MANY times on the set. More than likely much of the Physics stuff Bruce had some say in possbily. But right after the press viewings Brian Depalma just dissapeared, and wouldn't talk to anyone. Now we know why! He was burying his head in the sand for making such a piece of Cr** movie!
I sympathize with your goals here, but really, dream on. One thing I've come to realize over the years is that "schemes" that aim to turn law or finance to the benefit of the little guy generally are ill-conceived.
Unfortunately The world is going this route. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. And the rich will always be able to crush the poor. The big corporations will be able to get whatever they want despite what the little guy wants or feels is fair. If anyone thinks that our current political system in the U.S. will do a damn thing to support the little guy they are living in a dream world. NO amount of votes or phone calls or letters to political figures will change the golden rule "Those who have the gold, make the rules". The only way outside of revolution to change that is to convince big companies that the law or rules will hurt them. At that point the big company can put thier Gold up to try and make a rule. We as little people just do not have what it takes to change anything. Even if everyone of us were to vote against every political joker on capitol hill we would still lose out. Why? because there is a long line of dumb a$$ politicians waiting in line to get their shot. Legislation = Policy makers + Big companies.
Here is something to chew on, this will really make you wonder.
The richest 20 percent of U.S. families own roughly four-fifths of the country's entire wealth. High up in this privileged category are the to 5 percent of families-the "very rich," who own more than half of all property. Richer still-with wealth into the tens of millions-are the 1 percent of families that qualify as "super rich" and possess about one-third of this nation's privately held resources. And capping the wealth pyramid, the one dozen richest individuals have a combined net worth approaching $150 billion. This equals the total property of 1 million "average" families, including enough people to fill the cities of Alexandria, Virginia; Akron, Ohio; Anchorage, Alaska; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Scary huh? Anyone on/. have that kind of money? I didn't think so. This shows you what kind of chance we have in ever winning. It's a winner-take-all society folks. The only way you are a "winner" is if you have lots of wealth, (wealth being defined as "Wealth - the total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts.") and Very good schooling and in the right "groups".
I feel that if we as "geeks" ever want to get anyhing done we will have to do it "underground". The world as we know it is becoming more and more anti-geek. I forsee a time in the future where just being a geek will be a criminal offense. Because we will be considered, criminal hackers, pirates - warez d00dz, and such. Regardless of what we actually are.
Just think about what I have said before just flying off the handle.
Gabriel/TSS! "Take your average person, then realize that half the people in the world are dumber than THAT!" - George Carlin
Hate to break it to you, but what use to operate out of Area 51 is not there any more. Things have been moved to a little base in Utah and part of it moved to a little base in the midwest. Area 51 was getting to much attention and to many people "darring" to get "TO CLOSE". That's the facts man.
You could also argue that boycotting all forms of watching movies unfairly hits a lot of other people, like ushers at theaters, the girl behind the videostore counter ("sorry, have to cut you, business is bad") and so on.
But how many peole are being unfaily hit by the MPAA's actions? Will we as users of alternative operating systems say "ok, stick a fork in us, were done." We are unfairly being being stopped from using a product we purchased (DVD's). If the people that may be "cut" as you put it know why "business is bad". I am sure in turn they will yell and scream about being unfaily being cut because the major company is unfairly treating others. Lets face it Life is not Fair. We have the right to fight injustice in a peaceful manner even if that means "voting with our dollars". To large corporations that is the single biggest thing that hurts, Lost profits. What do you think the shareholders of those companies will do when profits are way down. They will want to know what is wrong. When they are told "no revenue". Don't you think those shareholders will start demanding the heads of some corporate executive if things are not fixed pronto?
If we all stop buying DVDs they'll need to consider what would happen if the format actually failed entirely due to their evil efforts.
I don't see this happening either, DVD is to entrenched right now. It is to popular. It would take a HELL of alot to kill DVD at this point.
I have stopped all movie going, renting of movies, purchasing of CD's (exept for the ones I buy directly from artists), I also sent emails to these MPAA jokers telling them exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it. I have also told them I am publicly advocating a TOTAL boycott of their products. Let them come over and read the threads here a/. and see if they think I or anyone that is taking this position is kidding.
Yes the MPAA and it's subsidiaries have LOTS of moeny. But like I said wait till their quarterly earnings take a nose dive. Wall street is not very forgiving and neither are shareholders.
Best offense is a Total BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, Hit them were it counts. And I don't mean in the groin, well, this is hitting them in the groin. So make them FEEL it.
I think the biggest thing anyone can do is boycott. Not just Buying DVD's but going to see any movies, buying videos,renting videos, buying CD's etc.. Look at it from the point of View that Martin Luther King Jr. did. He was a VERY smart and wise man. Look how his methods changed the civil rights movement. He preached that by using non-violence and civil disobedience you could change things. Read Thoreu's "On Civil Disobedience" and/or read how Ghandi used Civil Disobedience to fight for what he belived in. By posting the DeCSS and CSS sourc code everywhere, by wearing it on a tshirt by passing out printed copies, THIS is a form of civil disobedience. If you feel strongly enough about this injustice by the MPAA maybe engaging in some form of civil disobedience is needed.
Boycotting was just one of MLK's methods, boycotting local merchants was a part of MLK's protests. By denying the MPAA revenue it will hurt them in the pocketbook. THIS is where we need to hit them. We can show up in force at that court hearings and protest in front of movie theaters but ultimately as long as we go see the movies, buy the DVD's etc.. they still have control. They still are getting our money. We need to vote with our dollars$$$$! Imagine what would happen if hundres of thousands if not millions of people stopped going to see the movies, stopped buying DVD's, stopped buying Videos, and music CD's. Would not this send a loud and clear message to the MPAA. We also need to tell everyone we can tha the purpose behind DeCSS and the CSS source is not about pirating DVD's, but about being able to WATCH the DVD's we bought with out hard earned money. And that by censoring DeCSS/CSS for the purpose of creating players, the MPAA is denying our right to WATCH said DVD's on our operating system of choice! The MPAA is trying to (in a way) tell us in order to watch their DVD's we must use the OS THEY authorize player software for. They are taking our freedom of choice away. Last I looked the U.S. was not yet a communist country!
At the same time I think we need to get the message out to individual music artists to go out and try to sell their music on their own. ALso support musicians that are dong this. There are quite a few in europe doing this. I support some of these musicians. I myself will only buy their music directly through them. This way THEY get every dollar and they have the control over their carrer, not some corporate entity.
It's time we said ENOUGH! But we must do it peacefully. Not by hacking web pages and engaging in actions the rest of the world will see as "a bnuch of babies throwing a tantrum". But by using examples from people in the past who brought about change by letting be known "we have had enough". And did so non-violently.
Ah, the hell with them all. I say fight fire with fire! If a cop/fed etc.. shows up to your door - shoot first and answer questions later!:^) That'l teach em! Just remember: "Crime wouldn't pay if the government ran it!"
"This may come as a shock to you, but M$ is using a proprietary protocol for their player. It would be *very* difficult (and illegal) to reverse engineer this protocol. Making a client therefore is not an option."
You know what, at this point I think it should be TO HELL with wether it's illegal. Hell M$ is doing so much illegal stuff it's not funny. I think some folks GOOD at reversing should reverse winmedia player figure out the protocol and write a open source version of it (queitly of course). Then spread it AND the source as fast as possible before M$ knows what hit them. Then if M$ changes something in the protocol at least the source will be there for others to hack the new version of the protocol and then re-relase the player. I am begining to think we will have to use some of M$'s own tactics to fight them.
I think it will be fairly obvious not a darn thing is really going to happen to M$ in the outcome of the DOJ trial. I have NO, NONE, ZIP, ZILCH confidence in the U.S. legal system anymore. It has more laws protecting the rights of the accused than the victims anymore. And being WE as the general public are the victims of M$'s law breaking monopoly we basically have NO rights.
The only thing we can do I feel is to fight fire with fire. If M$ can control the protocols used on the internet, that's one less thing that alternative OS's like Linux can use. You ALL have to read and take to heart what is in the Halloween documents. Think about it. This type of move (real audio --> win media player) is jsut one of the steps described.
We have to be millions of voices crying out. If we have to yell and scream. If anyone has influence for making business decisions or have influence over those that do, bring out the monopolistic practices and boycott any company, website or any place of business/e-business that is "buying into" no open standards. Yes, real Player/server may suck, it may be expensive. But if I had to pick the lesser of two evils I would pick Real. At least there is a player for Linux! We can't say the same for M$! And very few are using MP3 or Qt fro streaming anything.
Think long and hard about what is happening and what will/could happen. And mak your own decisions.
Anyone who listens to Art Bell, PLEASE send LOTS of email and faxes telling him he needs to raise hell about this! He uses the G2 player for all his streaming audio and video for his radio show. Sounds like it's time for competition to Broadcast.com. Someone who will use Real Audio not Winblows garbage! (www.artbell.com) (for contact information)
I think your right on the money on this. This was definately aimed at the windows crowed. I think the reason they concentrated so heavily on the installation and desktop stuff is that these were some weak points on linux. When I "talk up" Linux most times I hear from windows users "but isn't it hard to install?" and "how easy to use is the desktop?". I think for getting windows users to try Linux and possibly completely switch these reviews are good. It gets them to at least TRY Linux. After using one distro and get comfortable using Linux they may decide they want a more reliable or more powerful version of Linux. And that's where we as the Linux community come into play. We can give them REAL world use answers to which distro they might want to try next. Now most of us will are particularly slanted towards one distro or another. This is ok! That's becuase we have a CHOICE! There are more Linux distros than ever and we have a choice which one to use. heck there are some I know that try a new distro every month. I think this is not a bad idea though. This gives you the chance to try each distro and see which you like best. I think the CNET review is good for the targeted audience. It will help them make the decision which distro to try first. While the review may not be as "fair" or "well done" as we would like as the Linux community. Look at it this way, at least the major players are starting to say more about Linux and do better reviews of it.
If you happen to use ANY of the comments given to this posed question you should give the credit in your bibliography and/or within your paper or that's plagurism and unethical. Thought I would point this out since you are taking an Ethics course.
Me I have two weeks left on my Business ethics course. (sounds like an oxymoron to me...):^)
Our local station here continuly had a little box that would show up at the bottom of the screen that had a phone number you could call for Y2K information. They even had a "Y2K" call in center set up in the local studio.
The movie was ok fiction. But it was to hokey to me. Most of the hokiness has already been stated in other posts.
I am just waiting to see how many people go into mass panic and the this movie makes a self fulfulling prophecy. Bank runs, grocery store runs etc...
We can all then blame NBC!:^)
Art Bell intervied David Isreal the executive producer of the movie and Art Bell's words were "It scared the hell out of me".
But, Not ONE of the candidates is worth a shit! They are all backed and march to the orders of their party. Be they Democrat or Republican. You might as well combine the two parties as they basically are doing the same thing, screwing the American public! I say we need a third party, the Open Source Party! Lead by Linus!:^)
I think you are right on the moeny about your analysis of The judges downplaying of Linux. As much as we in the Linux community want Linux to be Number 1, and hate when Linux is "dissed". We have to take a punch or two for the beterment of the future of IT. If M$ was not slamed as hard as they were and pretty much gets away with all this, don't you think they will leave the court room swinging? If M$ isn't "hurt", I think the first orders from Redmond would be "destroy Linux, IBM, Compaq, Caldera et all at all costs!" Think about it, that's exactly what will happen. Your looking at a company that will do ANYTHING to keep and hold their strangle hold on the computing industry. Look at their track record. And their latest software destruction of Visio was a shame. Viso was a great product, but now you can pretty much toss it out the window (no pun intended). M$ will make the program WORSE. And I would be willing to bet that they make the "new" file format for M$ Visio not compatable with the older (V5.0 and back), jsut so you would HAVE to buy their version.
Myself I am glad that the judge said what he did about Linux for the beterment of the computing industry.
First off. If a criminal wants to get a gun they will get one. You could ban all guns on the face of the earth and criminals will still get them! They only people gun control laws hurt are law abiding citizens who have a 2nd amendment RIGHT (in the USA) to keep and bear arms! And no I am not a member of the NRA, YET! But, with all the boneheads running around screaming "we need more gun control" I think it's time MORE people joined the NRA. If I wanted to I could probably easily find someone on the street that would sell me a hand grenade. Oh how about we ban ALL knives, lots of people are killed with knives to. Or how about we ban all automobiles, more people are killed in auto accidents than with guns every year. Oh here's a good one that would be REAL popular prorbaly right about now, lets BAN all cigarettetes. Look how many people are suing the tobacco companies because a loved one died from smoking. Do you have a clue yet? If not K-Mart has six packs of clues on sale this month for $.99 a six pack, you might want to visit them. Guns don't kill people! People kill people! How about we ban people.
If you put a loaded.44 magnum out on the sidwalk all by itslef and people walk by, will it kill someone? I doubt it. It would take a PERSON picking it up and shooting it to kill someone.
Being from Colorado and think that Columbine was a terrible tradgedy, gun control is NOT the answer. Parents need to get a hold on their childrens lives. Children are out of control these days. heck I was one of the "outcasts" all through school, but I didn't flip out and shoot up my school. That's because my parents knew how to be parents. Many parents these days don't get involved with their children.
Second. If don't think it would be easy for someone to get their hands on a nuke your clueless again! The instructions for building an atomic bomb have been out on the internet for a LOOOOONG time. Also if you tried you could probaly purchase a nuke from the former russia. They are hurting so much for money and with the mafia having lots of control there you could probably get your hands on one if you really tried.
The best thing that could be done is if every person did their own independant CBA (Cost Benifit Analysis). Show the costs of upgrading or using Win2K where your company currently uses NT,95,98 etc.. Then show the cost of going to Linux. Include the cost of the OS, the licensing, costs for applications etc..
In the case of going to Win2K you have to look at the cost of re-purchasing just about if not ALL the applications (this probably will include re-purchasing the licenses for them) currently being used. As current version won't work with Win2K. Then you will need to put in the "new" licensing for Win2K. Oh don't forget the time and effort to do the upgrade for all serves and desktops within the company. Then the time to train people how to use it (if needed).
For Linux you won't have it so bad. The cost of the OS. No cost for licensing. The cost of some applications. (Star Office, ApplixWare or WP or some such thing). The time and effort to convert. and you will have to include the time and effort to train users though.
These are just some of the things to consider. But there would be more involved. But if enough people that work for companies that are heavily entrenched in M$ products did up some GOOD CBA's on Win2K and say Linux and submitted them to the upper suits I think that more awareness would be brought out on this. To the suits and the ban counters cost is everything. It all comes down to the bottom line $$$$$$$$ and profit.
The unfortunate thing is the "crackers" will be ALL OVER the W2K boxes. Look at the M$ Windows track record on security.:^) I would say the more W2K boxes that end up on the Internet the more bloated and run down it will become. Heck M$ already did this to the PC OS market.
"I say fuck em, and let a damn comet smash into the damn planet and bring on the wrath of god. "
Be careful what you wish for. There is already pictures of THREE objects heded for Earth. NASA knows where they will hit already. 1 in Siberia, 1 in B.C. (British Columbia) and 1 off the coast of the coast of Africa. They are talking November 3rd by the year 2003.
Slashdot Mirror
I used Plain old Winzip 7.0 under Win98 and it pulled out the PDF just fine.
.zip file!
isn't good old inginuity great!
Thanks to the AC who gave us the info about it being just a
Go out and find artists selling their music themselves and buy from them. I do that for a few of them. This way I know THEY are getting the money - ALL of it. Also one of them even suggests you make MP3 copies of the CD as a "backup". I have refused to buy CD's from the typical channels as well as buying, renting videos/DVD's due to the DeCSS bullsh*t! As far as I am concerned the MPAA and the RIAA can go F*ck themselves!
Gabriel/TSS!
Here is another option that is BETTER! I got a program called Steambox Ripper. It will allow you to convert .ra, .ram files to .wav. These guys reverse engineered the Realnetworks encoding scheme and wrote a decoder for it.
SO, if the hackers out there in Linux land were to reverse steambox Ripper to see how they are decoding the realfiles they could write a better player for the realnetworks files or/and have it convert the files . streaming mp3 or whatever. They could probably get it to do the streaming files as well I would think. Which is something that Steambox doesn't do though.
Gabriel/TSS!
All Dre is, is nothing more than a gangster.
Instead of using a gun to do his enforcement he is using lawsuits. He is just a PUNK!
These mega-million $$$ artists have no legititmate gripe! MP3 is HELPING them sell albums. For those whose music SUCKS, there albums aren't selling. MP3 is THE perfect way to evaluate music. If you like it MOST people go out and buy the album(s). If you find an MP3 that sucks you know not to bother buying the album. MP3 is good for consumers, it helps them from wasting money on sh*ty music. The only ones that should probably be b*itching the most about MP3 are the artists who's albums are not selling because people don't like the MP3's they have heard.
Gabriel/TSS!
The law is clear on this --
Yeah, the law is clear that the "man" is outright out to control the internet, peoples rights, our privacy, etc.. etc...
It is going to come down to two classes of people:
1) The sheep and lemmings - your average Joe on the street.
2) The rest of us - "hackers" and "freedom fighters".
If you don't stand up and fight for your rights or what you belive in - you fall into catagory #1! - PERIOD!
In the U.S., if I remember right, we became who we are because we got sick and tired of being controlled, being told what to do and how to do it.(no offense to the folks in the U.K.). The uprisings against DeCSS and the likes of the corporate control and government controls like DMCA and UCITA are just an extention of that. Those that are fighting this stuff, not only in the U.S. but around the world are standing up saying "We have had enough, we won't take any more!" This is all just a non-violent way of fighting a revolution. Look at it this way no one is getting mamed, injured or killed!
So those that are tired of the control and being told what and how to do things and the way you can do it - NEED to fight these things.
Gabriel/TSS!
When I was in UASAF in Germany a friend of mine worked for "Inside Plant" (the on base phone sysems group). On a couple Friday nights after the SP's had been out parting late we would sneak into the tunnels in the basement of their barraks. We found he Bundespost phone closet and my friend had gotton ahold of a phone box key from a guy who worked for "outside plant" (another part of the on base phone systems group. Of course we opend the pone box and with the aid of a linemans buttset we explored the intracacies of the German phone sysem!
On lunch hours it was fun to use test equipment with speed dialers on them to "re-route" friends on base phone calls to the OB/GYN clynic on base!
It Must have been funded by the US Government.
Well NASA were consultants on the movie. They had approval power over everythnig. But also Bruce DePalma Brian's brother was seen MANY times on the set. More than likely much of the Physics stuff Bruce had some say in possbily. But right after the press viewings Brian Depalma just dissapeared, and wouldn't talk to anyone. Now we know why! He was burying his head in the sand for making such a piece of Cr** movie!
Gabril/TSS!
I sympathize with your goals here, but really, dream on. One thing I've come to realize over the years is that "schemes" that aim to turn law or finance to the benefit of the little guy generally are ill-conceived.
/. have that kind of money? I didn't think so. This shows you what kind of chance we have in ever winning. It's a winner-take-all society folks. The only way you are a "winner" is if you have lots of wealth, (wealth being defined as "Wealth - the total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts.") and Very good schooling and in the right "groups".
Unfortunately The world is going this route. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. And the rich will always be able to crush the poor. The big corporations will be able to get whatever they want despite what the little guy wants or feels is fair. If anyone thinks that our current political system in the U.S. will do a damn thing to support the little guy they are living in a dream world. NO amount of votes or phone calls or letters to political figures will change the golden rule "Those who have the gold, make the rules". The only way outside of revolution to change that is to convince big companies that the law or rules will hurt them. At that point the big company can put thier Gold up to try and make a rule. We as little people just do not have what it takes to change anything. Even if everyone of us were to vote against every political joker on capitol hill we would still lose out. Why? because there is a long line of dumb a$$ politicians waiting in line to get their shot. Legislation = Policy makers + Big companies.
Here is something to chew on, this will really make you wonder.
The richest 20 percent of U.S. families own roughly four-fifths of the country's entire wealth. High up in this privileged category are the to 5 percent of families-the "very rich," who own more than half of all property. Richer still-with wealth into the tens of millions-are the 1 percent of families that qualify as "super rich" and possess about one-third of this nation's privately held resources. And capping the wealth pyramid, the one dozen richest individuals have a combined net worth approaching $150 billion. This equals the total property of 1 million "average" families, including enough people to fill the cities of Alexandria, Virginia; Akron, Ohio; Anchorage, Alaska; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Scary huh? Anyone on
I feel that if we as "geeks" ever want to get anyhing done we will have to do it "underground". The world as we know it is becoming more and more anti-geek. I forsee a time in the future where just being a geek will be a criminal offense. Because we will be considered, criminal hackers, pirates - warez d00dz, and such. Regardless of what we actually are.
Just think about what I have said before just flying off the handle.
Gabriel/TSS!
"Take your average person, then realize that half the people in the world are dumber than THAT!"
- George Carlin
Hate to break it to you, but what use to operate out of Area 51 is not there any more. Things have been moved to a little base in Utah and part of it moved to a little base in the midwest. Area 51 was getting to much attention and to many people "darring" to get "TO CLOSE". That's the facts man.
You could also argue that boycotting all forms of watching movies unfairly hits a lot of other people, like ushers at theaters, the girl behind the videostore counter ("sorry, have to cut you, business is bad") and so on.
/. and see if they think I or anyone that is taking this position is kidding.
But how many peole are being unfaily hit by the MPAA's actions? Will we as users of alternative operating systems say "ok, stick a fork in us, were done." We are unfairly being being stopped from using a product we purchased (DVD's). If the people that may be "cut" as you put it know why "business is bad". I am sure in turn they will yell and scream about being unfaily being cut because the major company is unfairly treating others. Lets face it Life is not Fair. We have the right to fight injustice in a peaceful manner even if that means "voting with our dollars". To large corporations that is the single biggest thing that hurts, Lost profits. What do you think the shareholders of those companies will do when profits are way down. They will want to know what is wrong. When they are told "no revenue". Don't you think those shareholders will start demanding the heads of some corporate executive if things are not fixed pronto?
If we all stop buying DVDs they'll need to consider what would happen if the format actually failed entirely due to their evil efforts.
I don't see this happening either, DVD is to entrenched right now. It is to popular. It would take a HELL of alot to kill DVD at this point.
I have stopped all movie going, renting of movies, purchasing of CD's (exept for the ones I buy directly from artists), I also sent emails to these MPAA jokers telling them exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it. I have also told them I am publicly advocating a TOTAL boycott of their products. Let them come over and read the threads here a
Yes the MPAA and it's subsidiaries have LOTS of moeny. But like I said wait till their quarterly earnings take a nose dive. Wall street is not very forgiving and neither are shareholders.
Best offense is a Total BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, Hit them were it counts. And I don't mean in the groin, well, this is hitting them in the groin. So make them FEEL it.
I think the biggest thing anyone can do is boycott. Not just Buying DVD's but going to see any movies, buying videos,renting videos, buying CD's etc.. Look at it from the point of View that Martin Luther King Jr. did. He was a VERY smart and wise man. Look how his methods changed the civil rights movement. He preached that by using non-violence and civil disobedience you could change things. Read Thoreu's "On Civil Disobedience" and/or read how Ghandi used Civil Disobedience to fight for what he belived in. By posting the DeCSS and CSS sourc code everywhere, by wearing it on a tshirt by passing out printed copies, THIS is a form of civil disobedience. If you feel strongly enough about this injustice by the MPAA maybe engaging in some form of civil disobedience is needed.
Boycotting was just one of MLK's methods, boycotting local merchants was a part of MLK's protests. By denying the MPAA revenue it will hurt them in the pocketbook. THIS is where we need to hit them. We can show up in force at that court hearings and protest in front of movie theaters but ultimately as long as we go see the movies, buy the DVD's etc.. they still have control. They still are getting our money. We need to vote with our dollars$$$$! Imagine what would happen if hundres of thousands if not millions of people stopped going to see the movies, stopped buying DVD's, stopped buying Videos, and music CD's. Would not this send a loud and clear message to the MPAA. We also need to tell everyone we can tha the purpose behind DeCSS and the CSS source is not about pirating DVD's, but about being able to WATCH the DVD's we bought with out hard earned money. And that by censoring DeCSS/CSS for the purpose of creating players, the MPAA is denying our right to WATCH said DVD's on our operating system of choice! The MPAA is trying to (in a way) tell us in order to watch their DVD's we must use the OS THEY authorize player software for. They are taking our freedom of choice away. Last I looked the U.S. was not yet a communist country!
At the same time I think we need to get the message out to individual music artists to go out and try to sell their music on their own. ALso support musicians that are dong this. There are quite a few in europe doing this. I support some of these musicians. I myself will only buy their music directly through them. This way THEY get every dollar and they have the control over their carrer, not some corporate entity.
It's time we said ENOUGH! But we must do it peacefully. Not by hacking web pages and engaging in actions the rest of the world will see as "a bnuch of babies throwing a tantrum". But by using examples from people in the past who brought about change by letting be known "we have had enough". And did so non-violently.
I have actually written some of my best code while drinking beers not any sort of caffinated drink!
Ah, the hell with them all. I say fight fire with fire! If a cop/fed etc.. shows up to your door - shoot first and answer questions later! :^) That'l teach em! Just remember: "Crime wouldn't pay if the government ran it!"
"This may come as a shock to you, but M$ is using a proprietary protocol for their player. It would be *very* difficult (and illegal) to reverse engineer this protocol. Making a client therefore is not an option."
You know what, at this point I think it should be TO HELL with wether it's illegal. Hell M$ is doing so much illegal stuff it's not funny. I think some folks GOOD at reversing should reverse winmedia player figure out the protocol and write a open source version of it (queitly of course). Then spread it AND the source as fast as possible before M$ knows what hit them. Then if M$ changes something in the protocol at least the source will be there for others to hack the new version of the protocol and then re-relase the player. I am begining to think we will have to use some of M$'s own tactics to fight them.
I think it will be fairly obvious not a darn thing is really going to happen to M$ in the outcome of the DOJ trial. I have NO, NONE, ZIP, ZILCH confidence in the U.S. legal system anymore. It has more laws protecting the rights of the accused than the victims anymore. And being WE as the general public are the victims of M$'s law breaking monopoly we basically have NO rights.
The only thing we can do I feel is to fight fire with fire. If M$ can control the protocols used on the internet, that's one less thing that alternative OS's like Linux can use. You ALL have to read and take to heart what is in the Halloween documents. Think about it. This type of move (real audio --> win media player) is jsut one of the steps described.
We have to be millions of voices crying out. If we have to yell and scream. If anyone has influence for making business decisions or have influence over those that do, bring out the monopolistic practices and boycott any company, website or any place of business/e-business that is "buying into" no open standards. Yes, real Player/server may suck, it may be expensive. But if I had to pick the lesser of two evils I would pick Real. At least there is a player for Linux! We can't say the same for M$! And very few are using MP3 or Qt fro streaming anything.
Think long and hard about what is happening and what will/could happen. And mak your own decisions.
(whew!)
Gabriel/TSS!!
"The Truth is a Virus!!"
TIME FOR A BOYCOTT!!!
Anyone who listens to Art Bell, PLEASE send LOTS of email and faxes telling him he needs to raise hell about this! He uses the G2 player for all his streaming audio and video for his radio show. Sounds like it's time for competition to Broadcast.com. Someone who will use Real Audio not Winblows garbage!
(www.artbell.com) (for contact information)
I think your right on the money on this. This was definately aimed at the windows crowed. I think the reason they concentrated so heavily on the installation and desktop stuff is that these were some weak points on linux. When I "talk up" Linux most times I hear from windows users "but isn't it hard to install?" and "how easy to use is the desktop?". I think for getting windows users to try Linux and possibly completely switch these reviews are good. It gets them to at least TRY Linux. After using one distro and get comfortable using Linux they may decide they want a more reliable or more powerful version of Linux. And that's where we as the Linux community come into play. We can give them REAL world use answers to which distro they might want to try next. Now most of us will are particularly slanted towards one distro or another. This is ok! That's becuase we have a CHOICE! There are more Linux distros than ever and we have a choice which one to use. heck there are some I know that try a new distro every month. I think this is not a bad idea though. This gives you the chance to try each distro and see which you like best. I think the CNET review is good for the targeted audience. It will help them make the decision which distro to try first. While the review may not be as "fair" or "well done" as we would like as the Linux community. Look at it this way, at least the major players are starting to say more about Linux and do better reviews of it.
Just my $.03 worth (inflation you know).
BTW
:^)
If you happen to use ANY of the comments given to this posed question you should give the credit in your bibliography and/or within your paper or that's plagurism and unethical. Thought I would point this out since you are taking an Ethics course.
Me I have two weeks left on my Business ethics course. (sounds like an oxymoron to me...)
Gabriel/TSS!
Our local station here continuly had a little box that would show up at the bottom of the screen that had a phone number you could call for Y2K information. They even had a "Y2K" call in center set up in the local studio.
:^)
The movie was ok fiction. But it was to hokey to me. Most of the hokiness has already been stated in other posts.
I am just waiting to see how many people go into mass panic and the this movie makes a self fulfulling prophecy. Bank runs, grocery store runs etc...
We can all then blame NBC!
Art Bell intervied David Isreal the executive producer of the movie and Art Bell's words were "It scared the hell out of me".
This is an OLD item. I had seen this over a year ago.
Nothing new here. Come on guys lets put up CURRENT stuff. Not sutf that is over a YEAR old.
But, Not ONE of the candidates is worth a shit! They are all backed and march to the orders of their party. Be they Democrat or Republican. You might as well combine the two parties as they basically are doing the same thing, screwing the American public! I say we need a third party, the Open Source Party! Lead by Linus! :^)
Ah, someone else caught the same thing I did.
I think you are right on the moeny about your analysis of The judges downplaying of Linux. As much as we in the Linux community want Linux to be Number 1, and hate when Linux is "dissed". We have to take a punch or two for the beterment of the future of IT. If M$ was not slamed as hard as they were and pretty much gets away with all this, don't you think they will leave the court room swinging? If M$ isn't "hurt", I think the first orders from Redmond would be "destroy Linux, IBM, Compaq, Caldera et all at all costs!" Think about it, that's exactly what will happen. Your looking at a company that will do ANYTHING to keep and hold their strangle hold on the computing industry. Look at their track record. And their latest software destruction of Visio was a shame. Viso was a great product, but now you can pretty much toss it out the window (no pun intended). M$ will make the program WORSE. And I would be willing to bet that they make the "new" file format for M$ Visio not compatable with the older (V5.0 and back), jsut so you would HAVE to buy their version.
Myself I am glad that the judge said what he did about Linux for the beterment of the computing industry.
Boy are you clueless and lack intelligence!
.44 magnum out on the sidwalk all by itslef and people walk by, will it kill someone? I doubt it. It would take a PERSON picking it up and shooting it to kill someone.
First off. If a criminal wants to get a gun they will get one. You could ban all guns on the face of the earth and criminals will still get them! They only people gun control laws hurt are law abiding citizens who have a 2nd amendment RIGHT (in the USA) to keep and bear arms! And no I am not a member of the NRA, YET! But, with all the boneheads running around screaming "we need more gun control" I think it's time MORE people joined the NRA. If I wanted to I could probably easily find someone on the street that would sell me a hand grenade. Oh how about we ban ALL knives, lots of people are killed with knives to. Or how about we ban all automobiles, more people are killed in auto accidents than with guns every year. Oh here's a good one that would be REAL popular prorbaly right about now, lets BAN all cigarettetes. Look how many people are suing the tobacco companies because a loved one died from smoking. Do you have a clue yet? If not K-Mart has six packs of clues on sale this month for $.99 a six pack, you might want to visit them.
Guns don't kill people! People kill people! How about we ban people.
If you put a loaded
Being from Colorado and think that Columbine was a terrible tradgedy, gun control is NOT the answer. Parents need to get a hold on their childrens lives. Children are out of control these days. heck I was one of the "outcasts" all through school, but I didn't flip out and shoot up my school. That's because my parents knew how to be parents. Many parents these days don't get involved with their children.
Second. If don't think it would be easy for someone to get their hands on a nuke your clueless again! The instructions for building an atomic bomb have been out on the internet for a LOOOOONG time. Also if you tried you could probaly purchase a nuke from the former russia. They are hurting so much for money and with the mafia having lots of control there you could probably get your hands on one if you really tried.
The best thing that could be done is if every person did their own independant CBA (Cost Benifit Analysis). Show the costs of upgrading or using Win2K where your company currently uses NT,95,98 etc.. Then show the cost of going to Linux. Include the cost of the OS, the licensing, costs for applications etc..
In the case of going to Win2K you have to look at the cost of re-purchasing just about if not ALL the applications (this probably will include re-purchasing the licenses for them) currently being used. As current version won't work with Win2K. Then you will need to put in the "new" licensing for Win2K. Oh don't forget the time and effort to do the upgrade for all serves and desktops within the company. Then the time to train people how to use it (if needed).
For Linux you won't have it so bad. The cost of the OS. No cost for licensing. The cost of some applications. (Star Office, ApplixWare or WP or some such thing). The time and effort to convert. and you will have to include the time and effort to train users though.
These are just some of the things to consider. But there would be more involved. But if enough people that work for companies that are heavily entrenched in M$ products did up some GOOD CBA's on Win2K and say Linux and submitted them to the upper suits I think that more awareness would be brought out on this. To the suits and the ban counters cost is everything. It all comes down to the bottom line $$$$$$$$ and profit.
The unfortunate thing is the "crackers" will be ALL OVER the W2K boxes. Look at the M$ Windows track record on security. :^) I would say the more W2K boxes that end up on the Internet the more bloated and run down it will become. Heck M$ already did this to the PC OS market.
Can you say BO2K for Win2K!
"I say fuck em, and let a damn comet smash into the damn planet and bring on the wrath of god. "
Be careful what you wish for. There is already pictures of THREE objects heded for Earth. NASA knows where they will hit already. 1 in Siberia, 1 in B.C. (British Columbia) and 1 off the coast of the coast of Africa. They are talking November 3rd by the year 2003.
See:
http://www.enterprisemission.com/bismark.htm