5 years isn't enough IMHO, for the reasons already mentioned by others.
Here's my idea. 5 (or maybe 10, I don't really know) years from the date of creation, plus X from when (if?) the work becomes commercially available.
X would be determined once as an average across industries which are based on selling copyrighted material.
I'd like to see is a graph of profit from sale of something as a function of time. I couldn't find one but I imagine it would look not unlike a graph of decay of radioactive material: starting high, and then falling at a decreasing rate. Dropping the copyright when the profit decreases in half is probably too harsh, so X would be set at the time when Rate of Change gets to a certain low* value.
This, in my view, should result in copyright lasting as long as people specifically look for the average item, and would expire when the only profit is from people accidentally bumping into stuff.
*absolute? Maybe there's a better way to mathematically express this point...
>People care what their device DOES , not what their device is POWERED by.
Unless they need some specific applications only availible for that OS.
Yes, I can see your point. People want to get things done, and don't really care how. But if something will help them do it better, they would chose it over the other option.
The OS is a key part of the package which provides the users with what they want. If the OS doesn't matter, but functionality does, what provides that functionality? The OS, then the applications. If this weren't the case, everybody would still be using the first version of DOS or something. The applications need the features of the OS to provide their own functionality, and in the case with Smartphones the OS has to be packed with all the features or separate apps. Unless your suggestion is to only provide the users with a kernel and let them compile their own dialers, message composers and PIM apps.
Back in the day the phones had their own OSs, and most people had no idea what they were. No MS comes in, and says that their OS provides better functionality. People care, because it potentially does more, better.
Shut the fuck up already. Every cellphone-related story has a few idiots like you bitching about modern technology, while ignoring the fact that every major phone manufacturer has an extensive lineup of budget phones with black&white or greyscale screens and almost no extra (useless) features. They aren't going to turn into Windows Mobile smartphones overnight. Go buy a $60 new phone and quit complaining.
I have a Zen Xtra, and for me the combination of NOMAD Explorer and MediaSource does the job. Far from perfect, but just enough to move the files or play music through the computer speakers with all the EAX goodness.
There is a plugin for winamp called "NomadZen Plugin" which allows you to browse, search, and play the music from the player in the same way you would with local content, although it seems to be somehow streaming the files to itself. Uploading/downloading also should work. It's available on SF I think.
I tried Notmad, and it seemed like a very nice POS (piece of software), but the trial version was somehow crippled, and I had no way to pay for it.
Anyway, I don't really have a problem with the crappy bundled software, as there isn't much organization to do: just drop the music there once and forget about it.
We need the EPA so that people learn to rely on government as much as possible. This way, when the government says "No" or declines to do something, everyone remains the sheep they were trained to be.
I don't think that BMW v. Gore is about actual damages per case (song), but rather that total punitive damages shouldn't be calculated by multiplying the damage caused by one violation by the number of violations:
The Alabama Supreme Court did, however, rule in BMW's favor on one critical point: The court found that the jury improperly computed the amount of punitive damages by multiplying Dr. Gore's compensatory damages by the number of similar sales in other jurisdictions. Id., at 627. Having found the verdict tainted, the court held that "a constitutionally reasonable punitive damages award in this case is $2,000,000,"
The text I borrowed this from is here, although I don't know how complete it is.
The term black hole is of very recent origin. It was coined in 1969 by the American scientist John Wheeler as a graphic description of an idea that goes back at least two hundred years, to a time when there were two theories about light: one, which Newton favored, was that it was composed of particles; the other was that it was made of waves. [...] John Michell, wrote a paper in 1783 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in which he pointed out that a star that was sufficiently massive and compact would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape: any light emitted from the surface of the star would be dragged back by the star's gravitational attraction before it could get very far.
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time, Chapter 6: Black Holes.
Slashdot Mirror
Apple doesn't care about making a good product, it's only a way to achive control and win. They'd be selling canned shit if it would make them money.
Which music player has 70-80% market share?
How many drawings per minute can you make on your keyboard?
It's still lame. And Taco was right.
Instead of telling everyone how they can publish/distribute their stuff, it could instead be made legal to crack their encryption.
5 years isn't enough IMHO, for the reasons already mentioned by others.
Here's my idea. 5 (or maybe 10, I don't really know) years from the date of creation, plus X from when (if?) the work becomes commercially available.
X would be determined once as an average across industries which are based on selling copyrighted material.
I'd like to see is a graph of profit from sale of something as a function of time. I couldn't find one but I imagine it would look not unlike a graph of decay of radioactive material: starting high, and then falling at a decreasing rate. Dropping the copyright when the profit decreases in half is probably too harsh, so X would be set at the time when Rate of Change gets to a certain low* value.
This, in my view, should result in copyright lasting as long as people specifically look for the average item, and would expire when the only profit is from people accidentally bumping into stuff.
*absolute? Maybe there's a better way to mathematically express this point...
>People care what their device DOES , not what their device is POWERED by.
Unless they need some specific applications only availible for that OS.
Yes, I can see your point. People want to get things done, and don't really care how. But if something will help them do it better, they would chose it over the other option.
The OS is a key part of the package which provides the users with what they want. If the OS doesn't matter, but functionality does, what provides that functionality? The OS, then the applications. If this weren't the case, everybody would still be using the first version of DOS or something. The applications need the features of the OS to provide their own functionality, and in the case with Smartphones the OS has to be packed with all the features or separate apps. Unless your suggestion is to only provide the users with a kernel and let them compile their own dialers, message composers and PIM apps.
Back in the day the phones had their own OSs, and most people had no idea what they were. No MS comes in, and says that their OS provides better functionality. People care, because it potentially does more, better.
Sorry I didn't spellcheck.
"Please stop sinning while I'm singing!"
Do we now judge the government and its actions by how bad they are?
Here it is already, a wooden XBOX
Shut the fuck up already. Every cellphone-related story has a few idiots like you bitching about modern technology, while ignoring the fact that every major phone manufacturer has an extensive lineup of budget phones with black&white or greyscale screens and almost no extra (useless) features. They aren't going to turn into Windows Mobile smartphones overnight. Go buy a $60 new phone and quit complaining.
I use Windows...I have no problems.
Once you've developed your fabulous new invention that stops noise directly at the boundary of my property please get back to me.
Dude, it's called a wall.
Buy more. Now that everybody else is selling their cards, buy more, cheaper. Next week, when the Congress passes a similar law, sell!
Let me sum this up in four easy, complete, steps:
1) Buy low
2) Congress passes law
3) Sell high
4) Profit!
He's just showing off his /. subscription.
I have a Zen Xtra, and for me the combination of NOMAD Explorer and MediaSource does the job. Far from perfect, but just enough to move the files or play music through the computer speakers with all the EAX goodness.
There is a plugin for winamp called "NomadZen Plugin" which allows you to browse, search, and play the music from the player in the same way you would with local content, although it seems to be somehow streaming the files to itself. Uploading/downloading also should work. It's available on SF I think.
I tried Notmad, and it seemed like a very nice POS (piece of software), but the trial version was somehow crippled, and I had no way to pay for it.
Anyway, I don't really have a problem with the crappy bundled software, as there isn't much organization to do: just drop the music there once and forget about it.
> If you can't be up front with your price, you aren't worth my time.
;-)
If you need to see the price before purchasing, you can't afford it.
We need the EPA so that people learn to rely on government as much as possible. This way, when the government says "No" or declines to do something, everyone remains the sheep they were trained to be.
> Actually Time Travel by itself is impossible.
Yeah, almost like it's impossible for objects heavier than air to fly
My wife, on the other hand, always complains that I'm part pig.
Just kidding of course, I don't have a g/f let alone a wife!
That's only because they forgot to randomize first!
The text I borrowed this from is here, although I don't know how complete it is.
> have every customer jailed
Those getting sued aren't their customers. That's the point. And the "customers" aren't getting jailed...
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time, Chapter 6: Black Holes.