Well, in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, there used to be a company that did contract telephone work for all kinds of companies. They did telemarketing for all kinds of businesses, they also did tech support for T-Mobil and for Microsoft (or at least, for MSN and Hotmail). Still, even though a BC accent is indistinguishable from a Washington or Oregon accent. (or the one California guy I know), they couldn't tell anybody they weren't in the USA or Americans would get very mad. The standard instruction if somebody asks where you are located, was to tell them "Pacific Northwest, Near Seattle". Technically true;) I never did get why they were there. Not only is our minimum wage not THAT low even with the historically low Canadian dollar, they were located in a mall, which I can't imagine offers cheap rent compared to a floor on in an office building...
The point is that an EULA isn't available at time of purchase. Therefore, none of the "fine print" is legally valid in the slightest. The only consideration is what the ads and salesmen say. If you buy an Office Suite that says it has a spreadsheet, and when you install it you find the spreadsheet doesn't work, this finding says that the EULA that says "This software was retroactively not sold for a particular purpose" is void. So, they're entitled to a refund because the sale was under false pretenses. (The box lied about the features, and they bought conditional on it having those features). The court also ruled that the other clause "You cannot get a refund under any circumstances" was void.
Ubuntu and other OSS discs are not included because the purpose of the disc is to install the software, and if you get a defective disc I imagine you can get a replacement or a refund, so therefore, they are fit for the purpose they are sold for. If you were advertising your Ubuntu discs as having a feature they don't, however, then you would be required to give a refund, even if it's not damaged, because it wasn't fit for the purpose you sold it for.
I hope somebody steals your car and goes for a joyride, then dumps it a ditch, and the police say "Well, we know who it was because they posted a clip of themselves on youtube, but you have it back, nothing was stolen, get the fuck out of here!"
You can reassign players and create new players and teams. So they're only out of date if you're lazy. The real reason you shouldn't buy them used is they are shit and the AI is awful, so multiplayer is the only redeeming feature. But, even before this "used games can't play multiplayer" scheme, used EA sports games can't play multiplayer because they turn off the servers when the new version launches.
Umm, the console market was once open. From Atari up until the Genesis and the SNES, third party developers could make games without paying a license fee if they wanted, they just didn't get the API manuals;) Sega and Nintendo tried to lock them out unsuccessfully, and when they sued, they got thrown out of court. The Sega v. Accolade judge even threatened them with penalties over their abuse of the legal system. Until the DMCA, third-party compatibility was a right! Under the DMCA it's still technically legal to crack an iPad or a Wii or a 360 to run home-brew applications. However, it's highly illegal to describe how to do so. (We're talking you'd get less jail time for stealing an iPad than you'd get for installing your own software on an iPad you bought legally!) What needs to happen is that Nintendo and Apple and Microsoft and Sony need to be totally brutalized legally, they need to be bankrupt over this travesty. Because while not strictly-speaking illegal, they are bundling schemes, and those are anti-trust violations. The quintessential example of an illegal bundling scheme is if Ford tells you you can only put Rand maps in your car, and no other brand of maps. Nintendo is telling you you can only play Nintendo-branded games, Microsoft is telling you you can only play Microsoft-branded games, etc. It's no different. They try to say it's different because it's a technical restriction, not a legal restriction. You're legally free to try to play an unlicensed game, there's no contract they made you agree to. It's just that technically their DRM will not allow it, so "technically" it's a problem with the game, not a restriction they've placed on you. That's bullshit.
Ummm, they already do terminate multiplayer support on last years games when the new ones launch. For example, when Madden 2010 launched, they were supposed to be terminating Madden 2009, except public outrage made them extend support for a few more months. But 2008 and earlier are all long dead. This new scheme is likely just backlash against the public for protesting the 2009 termination.
I also like how Mass Effect 2 has a character who sells videogames, used mostly, and laughs about how the developers don't get a cent for their hard work, and he makes a killing! He then offers to sell you a "member card" good for discounts on all your game purchases, "Used only, of course, hahahah!" That's why I vowed to stay clear of Bioware games. If they want to be petty douches, I can be petty too...
Who the fuck said multiplayer only? Mass Effect 2 did this for single player. Charge $20 if you want the full single player campaign. (Pirates get it all free). They even put a sleazy used-game salesman on the Citadel who laughs about how the developers don't get a cent of his sales. But those files weren't on the disk, they were an additional 1GB (!) you had to download separately. They could have been on the disk, since they were available at launch. But they weren't. There were some single-player "DLC" packs that came free, recently, that were revealed to be on the disk already, when somebody noticed that this huge "DLC" pack was only a couple of KB. I don't remember the game, though.
It's average for a US public school story. Remember, there have been girls permanently expelled from entire school districts, over a bottle of ibuprofen. ZERO TOLERANCE. "No drugs doesn't mean illegal drugs, it means no substances with an effect on your body!" Except all the caffeine from the Coke-owned vending machines that line the halls. Or, technically, any kind of food, since anything you ingest has SOME kind of effect on body chemistry.
Or, for that matter, the times that principals have strip searched girls and found them hiding the dreaded asprin in their panties, and the courts have ruled in their favor, child is permanently banned from all schools, principal has done nothing wrong. If you have cramps, tough it the fuck out, aspirin is a gateway drug. Or that one principal who lined up every girl in skirt, and made them all lift them to prove they were wearing appropriate panties. Nothing wrong with that. Like in prisons, the law says that the principal can do ANYTHING if the purpose can be argued to be to enforce order among the inmates.
Slashdot is a corporate asset, too. Does Slashdot have a license from Games Workshop to be using their trademarks "Warhammer" and "Games Workshop"? No, they do not. I guess you think they have an equally reasonable case for a permanent injunction barring Slashdot from mentioning them, too? You must also think they should shut down IGN.com. They reviewed Warhammer Online, and totally used Games Workshops trademarks to do so! They probably even used some copyrighted images in the review!!!!!!! Holy shit, you yourself used the word "Warhammer", you better cease and desist right this second.
But, being that this is about a Trademark, GW has to sue regardless of merit or else risk losing the Trademark.
Ford is Ford's trademark. That's why whenever Consumer Reports reviews any Ford vehicle, Ford MUST sue. After all, they used the word "Ford" in the article, right? And they also probably also used the trademarked name of the vehicle itself! Such flagrant and wholesale theft of their brand name! Oh, lets look at a Best Buy flier. LG Televisions! LG is LG's trademark! I guess LG has to sue Best Buy now or lose their trademark! Idiot.
What's new is that this is a double bill. Current bell customers have a 60GB bandwidth cap, and have to pay if they go over it. This new fee is for their copper phone lines, which will also have a connection and bandwidth fee. So, now it works, you pay $60 for $60gb, and $0.10/gb after that. Now, it will hopefully be the same $60 for the first 60GB, but now when you go over, you have to pay your overage fee on the bandwidth you used, plus the overage fee on your copper line. Even though it can't be saturated, because as they advertise "All the bandwidth is yours, never shared, always full speed!"
This is a per-gigabyte charge on their phone lines. Teksavyy and Primus have their own backbone connections, Bell does NOT provide them with bandwidth, except over their phone lines.
No. This is for the copper lines, not for their internet backbone. This is double billing. Before, customers had to pay per gigabyte of traffic through Bell's internet backbone. Now, they also have to pay for that to go through Bell's phone lines. And, additionally, non-Bell DSL providers that use a dry loop now have to pay per-Gigabyte usage fees for the copper lines, even through it's THEIR hardware, and they have to get their own backbone, it doesn't touch Bell's hardware.
Your numbers are nonsense. The tide doesn't work by a little cube of water moving downwards, once. It's a flow. You might as well say that wind turbines, by "dem numberz" generate 0 power, because the average height of the atmosphere is fixed, therefore, it can do no work. These are tidal as in having to do with ocean currents. Those don't flow a few minutes a day, then stop. The ocean is always moving. And, these things generate 500 kilowatts at peak, about 5000 times what your made up bullshit indicates. And, the currents most places are pretty steady. I'd bet the average power output over the day is at the absolute minimum, 250 kilowatts.
Re:It's part of monopoly/anti-trust laws
on
Flash Is Not a Right
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Yes, Nintendo and Sega both used to have rules for the NES and SMS. They were ruled illegal, and Game Genie and Accolade were allowed to make Nintendo and Sega games/peripherals without a license. A judge even threatened to take Sega's trademark away for flagrant abuse of the court. (The Sega would only boot games where the first bytes were "SEGA" and so third party games also needed that, and Sega sued for trademark and copyright violation for copying "SEGA") Of course, the DMCA did a full 180 on copyright and trademark law, and you're right, writing third party software, and making third party peripherals, is now one of the most illegal things in the USA. Of course, the DMCA has exceptions for reverse engineering for third-party compatibility. But good fucking luck finding a judge who will rule based on the law instead of based on the bribes Apple and Nintendo and Microsoft and Sony all give him.
There's an open source game called Vega Strike that's meant to capture the feel of Privateer / Elite. I don't think it does well, but it's nowhere near complete. It's a bit too much simulator, not enough game for my tastes. Though, being both OS and mod-able, there are mods to adjust all sorts of things with it, including turning it into Star Wars, Star Trek, and Wing Commander: Privateer;)
I'll add to your list of remakes that should be:
-A Real Masters of Orion 3, instead of that "Lets add a lot of depth so it's better lol" POS made by Infograms (AKA "We bought Atari's name so we're not associated with shit anymore, but maybe we should have also stopped making shit?")
-A Real Star Control 3, designed by the original team (they want to but can't get the trademark back)
-Masters of Magic II. I hear a MoM-a-like is in the works by Stardock, though they couldn't secure the name.
Risk mitigation implies you believe there is a legitimate risk, which scares voters, which scares politicians. And, after the fact, it's way easier to say "We had know way of knowing X could happen resulting in Y damages" than "We had a contingency plan in place, so X only resulted in Z damages". No matter how much smaller Z is than Y, people will hate you more for it. Because you knew it could happen, therefore, you LET it happen, you are a villain! But if you were "caught totally unawares", you're the victim. Hell, you're the hero if you even slightly mitigate the damages.
It's been like that for a while. Most of the "X caught looking at porn" for the past few years have been bikini shots, or even more clothed than that! I think that the US media considers any picture of a women to be pornographic.
I had a computer like that. The electronics in the videocard or something put out a LOT of noise, and the sound card wasn't very shielded. The noise depended on the color balance all across the screen. Move a mostly white window across a mostly black desktop? You could hear the sound change as it moved. You could even hear the mouse cursor move. The high pitched noise was kinda close to the whiny sound text makes on CSI;)
I remember, like 15 years ago, a Byte Magazine special issue "The Future of Computing!" Said that 16 TB holographic CDs were only "5 years out";) We were also supposed to have algae-based RAM that was so large, and fast, plus non-volatile, so we wouldn't even need both an HD AND RAM, just one thing. Plus we'd also have quantum CPUs made out of doped diamond, that doesn't need a heatsink because diamond semiconductors don't get less efficient with heat, and can go a lot hotter without damage. AND HOVERCARS.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, there used to be a company that did contract telephone work for all kinds of companies. They did telemarketing for all kinds of businesses, they also did tech support for T-Mobil and for Microsoft (or at least, for MSN and Hotmail). Still, even though a BC accent is indistinguishable from a Washington or Oregon accent. (or the one California guy I know), they couldn't tell anybody they weren't in the USA or Americans would get very mad. The standard instruction if somebody asks where you are located, was to tell them "Pacific Northwest, Near Seattle". Technically true ;) I never did get why they were there. Not only is our minimum wage not THAT low even with the historically low Canadian dollar, they were located in a mall, which I can't imagine offers cheap rent compared to a floor on in an office building...
It costs the taxpayer more than that. It makes the privately owned prison a boatload of cash, though.
The point is that an EULA isn't available at time of purchase. Therefore, none of the "fine print" is legally valid in the slightest. The only consideration is what the ads and salesmen say. If you buy an Office Suite that says it has a spreadsheet, and when you install it you find the spreadsheet doesn't work, this finding says that the EULA that says "This software was retroactively not sold for a particular purpose" is void. So, they're entitled to a refund because the sale was under false pretenses. (The box lied about the features, and they bought conditional on it having those features). The court also ruled that the other clause "You cannot get a refund under any circumstances" was void.
Ubuntu and other OSS discs are not included because the purpose of the disc is to install the software, and if you get a defective disc I imagine you can get a replacement or a refund, so therefore, they are fit for the purpose they are sold for. If you were advertising your Ubuntu discs as having a feature they don't, however, then you would be required to give a refund, even if it's not damaged, because it wasn't fit for the purpose you sold it for.
I hope somebody steals your car and goes for a joyride, then dumps it a ditch, and the police say "Well, we know who it was because they posted a clip of themselves on youtube, but you have it back, nothing was stolen, get the fuck out of here!"
Man, the site isn't even real. But good work, I had no idea you could get life in prison for having sex if you know you have crabs...
Selling lice = boring. Selling line ONLINE = new high tech invention! Works for patents, so it should work for Slashdot stories, too.
You can reassign players and create new players and teams. So they're only out of date if you're lazy. The real reason you shouldn't buy them used is they are shit and the AI is awful, so multiplayer is the only redeeming feature. But, even before this "used games can't play multiplayer" scheme, used EA sports games can't play multiplayer because they turn off the servers when the new version launches.
Umm, the console market was once open. From Atari up until the Genesis and the SNES, third party developers could make games without paying a license fee if they wanted, they just didn't get the API manuals ;) Sega and Nintendo tried to lock them out unsuccessfully, and when they sued, they got thrown out of court. The Sega v. Accolade judge even threatened them with penalties over their abuse of the legal system. Until the DMCA, third-party compatibility was a right! Under the DMCA it's still technically legal to crack an iPad or a Wii or a 360 to run home-brew applications. However, it's highly illegal to describe how to do so. (We're talking you'd get less jail time for stealing an iPad than you'd get for installing your own software on an iPad you bought legally!) What needs to happen is that Nintendo and Apple and Microsoft and Sony need to be totally brutalized legally, they need to be bankrupt over this travesty. Because while not strictly-speaking illegal, they are bundling schemes, and those are anti-trust violations. The quintessential example of an illegal bundling scheme is if Ford tells you you can only put Rand maps in your car, and no other brand of maps. Nintendo is telling you you can only play Nintendo-branded games, Microsoft is telling you you can only play Microsoft-branded games, etc. It's no different. They try to say it's different because it's a technical restriction, not a legal restriction. You're legally free to try to play an unlicensed game, there's no contract they made you agree to. It's just that technically their DRM will not allow it, so "technically" it's a problem with the game, not a restriction they've placed on you. That's bullshit.
Ummm, they already do terminate multiplayer support on last years games when the new ones launch. For example, when Madden 2010 launched, they were supposed to be terminating Madden 2009, except public outrage made them extend support for a few more months. But 2008 and earlier are all long dead. This new scheme is likely just backlash against the public for protesting the 2009 termination.
I also like how Mass Effect 2 has a character who sells videogames, used mostly, and laughs about how the developers don't get a cent for their hard work, and he makes a killing! He then offers to sell you a "member card" good for discounts on all your game purchases, "Used only, of course, hahahah!" That's why I vowed to stay clear of Bioware games. If they want to be petty douches, I can be petty too...
Who the fuck said multiplayer only? Mass Effect 2 did this for single player. Charge $20 if you want the full single player campaign. (Pirates get it all free). They even put a sleazy used-game salesman on the Citadel who laughs about how the developers don't get a cent of his sales. But those files weren't on the disk, they were an additional 1GB (!) you had to download separately. They could have been on the disk, since they were available at launch. But they weren't. There were some single-player "DLC" packs that came free, recently, that were revealed to be on the disk already, when somebody noticed that this huge "DLC" pack was only a couple of KB. I don't remember the game, though.
It's average for a US public school story. Remember, there have been girls permanently expelled from entire school districts, over a bottle of ibuprofen. ZERO TOLERANCE. "No drugs doesn't mean illegal drugs, it means no substances with an effect on your body!" Except all the caffeine from the Coke-owned vending machines that line the halls. Or, technically, any kind of food, since anything you ingest has SOME kind of effect on body chemistry.
Or, for that matter, the times that principals have strip searched girls and found them hiding the dreaded asprin in their panties, and the courts have ruled in their favor, child is permanently banned from all schools, principal has done nothing wrong. If you have cramps, tough it the fuck out, aspirin is a gateway drug. Or that one principal who lined up every girl in skirt, and made them all lift them to prove they were wearing appropriate panties. Nothing wrong with that. Like in prisons, the law says that the principal can do ANYTHING if the purpose can be argued to be to enforce order among the inmates.
Slashdot is a corporate asset, too. Does Slashdot have a license from Games Workshop to be using their trademarks "Warhammer" and "Games Workshop"? No, they do not. I guess you think they have an equally reasonable case for a permanent injunction barring Slashdot from mentioning them, too? You must also think they should shut down IGN.com. They reviewed Warhammer Online, and totally used Games Workshops trademarks to do so! They probably even used some copyrighted images in the review!!!!!!! Holy shit, you yourself used the word "Warhammer", you better cease and desist right this second.
Ford is Ford's trademark. That's why whenever Consumer Reports reviews any Ford vehicle, Ford MUST sue. After all, they used the word "Ford" in the article, right? And they also probably also used the trademarked name of the vehicle itself! Such flagrant and wholesale theft of their brand name! Oh, lets look at a Best Buy flier. LG Televisions! LG is LG's trademark! I guess LG has to sue Best Buy now or lose their trademark! Idiot.
What's new is that this is a double bill. Current bell customers have a 60GB bandwidth cap, and have to pay if they go over it. This new fee is for their copper phone lines, which will also have a connection and bandwidth fee. So, now it works, you pay $60 for $60gb, and $0.10/gb after that. Now, it will hopefully be the same $60 for the first 60GB, but now when you go over, you have to pay your overage fee on the bandwidth you used, plus the overage fee on your copper line. Even though it can't be saturated, because as they advertise "All the bandwidth is yours, never shared, always full speed!"
This is a per-gigabyte charge on their phone lines. Teksavyy and Primus have their own backbone connections, Bell does NOT provide them with bandwidth, except over their phone lines.
No. This is for the copper lines, not for their internet backbone. This is double billing. Before, customers had to pay per gigabyte of traffic through Bell's internet backbone. Now, they also have to pay for that to go through Bell's phone lines. And, additionally, non-Bell DSL providers that use a dry loop now have to pay per-Gigabyte usage fees for the copper lines, even through it's THEIR hardware, and they have to get their own backbone, it doesn't touch Bell's hardware.
Your numbers are nonsense. The tide doesn't work by a little cube of water moving downwards, once. It's a flow. You might as well say that wind turbines, by "dem numberz" generate 0 power, because the average height of the atmosphere is fixed, therefore, it can do no work. These are tidal as in having to do with ocean currents. Those don't flow a few minutes a day, then stop. The ocean is always moving. And, these things generate 500 kilowatts at peak, about 5000 times what your made up bullshit indicates. And, the currents most places are pretty steady. I'd bet the average power output over the day is at the absolute minimum, 250 kilowatts.
Yes, Nintendo and Sega both used to have rules for the NES and SMS. They were ruled illegal, and Game Genie and Accolade were allowed to make Nintendo and Sega games/peripherals without a license. A judge even threatened to take Sega's trademark away for flagrant abuse of the court. (The Sega would only boot games where the first bytes were "SEGA" and so third party games also needed that, and Sega sued for trademark and copyright violation for copying "SEGA") Of course, the DMCA did a full 180 on copyright and trademark law, and you're right, writing third party software, and making third party peripherals, is now one of the most illegal things in the USA. Of course, the DMCA has exceptions for reverse engineering for third-party compatibility. But good fucking luck finding a judge who will rule based on the law instead of based on the bribes Apple and Nintendo and Microsoft and Sony all give him.
There's an open source game called Vega Strike that's meant to capture the feel of Privateer / Elite. I don't think it does well, but it's nowhere near complete. It's a bit too much simulator, not enough game for my tastes. Though, being both OS and mod-able, there are mods to adjust all sorts of things with it, including turning it into Star Wars, Star Trek, and Wing Commander: Privateer ;)
I'll add to your list of remakes that should be: -A Real Masters of Orion 3, instead of that "Lets add a lot of depth so it's better lol" POS made by Infograms (AKA "We bought Atari's name so we're not associated with shit anymore, but maybe we should have also stopped making shit?")
-A Real Star Control 3, designed by the original team (they want to but can't get the trademark back)
-Masters of Magic II. I hear a MoM-a-like is in the works by Stardock, though they couldn't secure the name.
Risk mitigation implies you believe there is a legitimate risk, which scares voters, which scares politicians. And, after the fact, it's way easier to say "We had know way of knowing X could happen resulting in Y damages" than "We had a contingency plan in place, so X only resulted in Z damages". No matter how much smaller Z is than Y, people will hate you more for it. Because you knew it could happen, therefore, you LET it happen, you are a villain! But if you were "caught totally unawares", you're the victim. Hell, you're the hero if you even slightly mitigate the damages.
No, it's just you.
It's been like that for a while. Most of the "X caught looking at porn" for the past few years have been bikini shots, or even more clothed than that! I think that the US media considers any picture of a women to be pornographic.
I had a computer like that. The electronics in the videocard or something put out a LOT of noise, and the sound card wasn't very shielded. The noise depended on the color balance all across the screen. Move a mostly white window across a mostly black desktop? You could hear the sound change as it moved. You could even hear the mouse cursor move. The high pitched noise was kinda close to the whiny sound text makes on CSI ;)
I remember, like 15 years ago, a Byte Magazine special issue "The Future of Computing!" Said that 16 TB holographic CDs were only "5 years out" ;) We were also supposed to have algae-based RAM that was so large, and fast, plus non-volatile, so we wouldn't even need both an HD AND RAM, just one thing. Plus we'd also have quantum CPUs made out of doped diamond, that doesn't need a heatsink because diamond semiconductors don't get less efficient with heat, and can go a lot hotter without damage. AND HOVERCARS.