Of course this ceases to work once the companies get greedy and start stating song x was copied y times with song x would have sold y times and therefore they should get y times the retail store price of the cd.
Don't use the same variable to refer to different things.
x=name of song
y=nr of times song is copied
statement with y=100 000 and x="Jailhouse Rock":... companies get greedy and start stating "Jailhouse Rock" was copied 100 000 times, with song "Jailhouse Rock" would have sold 100 000 times and therefore they should get 100 000 times the retail store price of the cd.
Recording companies do tend to name their perceived lost profits that way. Which of course is bogus, because of the 100 000 people who did copy the song, only 1-2% (if not less) might have wanted it enough to spend money on it.
Condensed statement sans variables: Number of copies/downloads is not the same as amount of lost sales.
So where did I mess up the variables?
I actually like the concept of the tax much more than the alternatives. It accepts that fair use includes a certain amount of copying and sharing, while at the same time reimbursing the recording industry. So it could be a win-win situation (if you accept that the artist/recording companies do have a right to make money of their product). It could be a kind of music flatrate for everyone. Of course this ceases to work once the companies get greedy and start stating song x was copied y times with song x would have sold y times and therefore they should get y times the retail store price of the cd.
But as every good american citizen knows Europe and especially the Scandinavian countries are communists. Just have a look what happens every time someone in the US suggests lower the inequalities and improve social legislation. Affordable/Free education, healthcare, worker protection, environment, progressive taxation, minimum wages... your pick. While the dishwasher to millionaire myth sometimes happens, even the dishwasher has a long way down ahead of him if he looses his job or gets ill.
I'm not sure if these "very realistic" scenarios help explaining the problem, or label those concerned as nut-jobs.
In my opinion it boils down to asking yourself a few questions like "Are you proud of EVERYTHING you did from your early teen years till now?" "Did you ever do anything that could be misinterpreted?" "Is there anything in my past I wouldn't want my boss, mum, mother in law, neighbor, employees etc. to see?"
No one will ask questions or give the benefit of doubt if the story is more interesting otherwise. You might never know why you didn't get the promotion, why your girlfriend went of with someone else, why the people working under you don't respect you etc. Only very few will ask you if you might have been the designated driver, if that the nude picture was only for someone you really loved, if you knew that friends friend that shows up on a lot of pictures with you was a thief and so on.
People will form an opinion of you based on stuff that the internet never forgets and you might never find out.
I seriously hope this is trolling. Do you honestly believe everyone should have full access to all drugs in all combinations? Worse than giving everybody root access to the one and only server your company depends on and not keeping backups or handing out knifes and loaded hand guns to toddlers.
We are not talking about harmless stuff with minor consequences here, prescription drugs are often very dangerous if used in the wrong way or combinations.
Do you honestly believe you and Joe Sixpack understand enough about ALL the drugs available to make an informed decision? I doubt that.
What do you need an embargo for? Why not simply add an import tax for all products according to the amount of CO2 (and possibly other pollution) produced in manufacturing and transportation of said product.
It would provide a reason to build cleaner factories and energy because the "dirty factory" product wouldn't be cheaper anymore.
Far more easier said than done, because countries like China would find themselves at a competitive disadvantage and fight it with teeth and claws. Maybe if it would be introduced in a very modest way first and later raised according to a fixed schedule. It would allow time for building new factories and upgrading existing ones along with a reason to do so.
Or at least force them to print the amount of pollution on the end product compared to similar products and let the consumer at least have a choice (probably won't help much cause we are fixed on cheap).
In my personal happy place we would have an organization to which people could report security vulnerabilities to. The responsible company would be contacted and given some fixed period of time (eg. three weeks, plus maybe a bonus week if they provide a good reason) to respond and fix it. After that the information is published and the company faces charges of gross negligence if bad things happen to them and their data.
This would provide some interesting metrics (number of failures, severity, dumbness, response time,...) and force companies to act. You could even come up with a rating system through this.
Also all security breaches concerning customer date should be required by law to be made public.
Not going to happen anytime soon, but one can dream...
Basically because getting sacking politicians people voted for (probably indirectly, but who knows) from office if they turn out to be idiots is rather difficult. "Promoting" them to EU commissions is a good way to get rid of them and not only done in Italy but also in Germany (Oettinger anybody?).
These books were given to me with the words "one of the few books that will be understood better when read under the influence of drugs".
Though I haven't tested this for myself, I can say the book made a lot more sense when I read it in bed with a fever exceeding 40C/104F.
That thing is more strange, lazily written, inconsistent and more fucked up than everything else I have read.
Oh and while I'm at it: I would have liked to see Sergej Lukianenko on the list
I would assume that creating a 3 D Image from this technology is quite possible (though not trivial). In "field conditions"( the military is sure to love this gadget) it might not be necessary or feasible to have 3D. But if your planning for surveillance it might be worth the time to set up an array of these.
Bad news for conspirationists though: Tinfoil hats will be very easy to spot and to be taken care of. Might want to invest in a radar detector though.
Even if I had known about this, I would probably have pretended not to have ever heard about it. Rule 34 probably is active (or will be soon) too.
Mmmh that might even be a more interesting game too.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course this ceases to work once the companies get greedy and start stating song x was copied y times with song x would have sold y times and therefore they should get y times the retail store price of the cd.
Don't use the same variable to refer to different things.
x=name of song
... companies get greedy and start stating "Jailhouse Rock" was copied 100 000 times, with song "Jailhouse Rock" would have sold 100 000 times and therefore they should get 100 000 times the retail store price of the cd.
y=nr of times song is copied
statement with y=100 000 and x="Jailhouse Rock":
Recording companies do tend to name their perceived lost profits that way. Which of course is bogus, because of the 100 000 people who did copy the song, only 1-2% (if not less) might have wanted it enough to spend money on it.
Condensed statement sans variables: Number of copies/downloads is not the same as amount of lost sales.
So where did I mess up the variables?
What a fitting fortune cookie: Williams and Holland's Law: If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by statistical methods.
Maybe the Matrix shared it's data with them. *cough*
whatever it is, it's probably sticky and hip people wouldn't like to be seen near it
I'm being 100% serious :P
sigh
I actually like the concept of the tax much more than the alternatives. It accepts that fair use includes a certain amount of copying and sharing, while at the same time reimbursing the recording industry. So it could be a win-win situation (if you accept that the artist/recording companies do have a right to make money of their product). It could be a kind of music flatrate for everyone. Of course this ceases to work once the companies get greedy and start stating song x was copied y times with song x would have sold y times and therefore they should get y times the retail store price of the cd.
I'm happy to see that there are some people here who still read the classics. Swift had such a wonderfully dark sense of humor.
But as every good american citizen knows Europe and especially the Scandinavian countries are communists. Just have a look what happens every time someone in the US suggests lower the inequalities and improve social legislation. Affordable/Free education, healthcare, worker protection, environment, progressive taxation, minimum wages... your pick. While the dishwasher to millionaire myth sometimes happens, even the dishwasher has a long way down ahead of him if he looses his job or gets ill.
You could just replace 2. with receive "campaign funding from interested parties" and skip directly to the profit part.
I'm not sure if these "very realistic" scenarios help explaining the problem, or label those concerned as nut-jobs.
In my opinion it boils down to asking yourself a few questions like "Are you proud of EVERYTHING you did from your early teen years till now?" "Did you ever do anything that could be misinterpreted?" "Is there anything in my past I wouldn't want my boss, mum, mother in law, neighbor, employees etc. to see?"
No one will ask questions or give the benefit of doubt if the story is more interesting otherwise. You might never know why you didn't get the promotion, why your girlfriend went of with someone else, why the people working under you don't respect you etc. Only very few will ask you if you might have been the designated driver, if that the nude picture was only for someone you really loved, if you knew that friends friend that shows up on a lot of pictures with you was a thief and so on.
People will form an opinion of you based on stuff that the internet never forgets and you might never find out.
I seriously hope this is trolling. Do you honestly believe everyone should have full access to all drugs in all combinations? Worse than giving everybody root access to the one and only server your company depends on and not keeping backups or handing out knifes and loaded hand guns to toddlers.
We are not talking about harmless stuff with minor consequences here, prescription drugs are often very dangerous if used in the wrong way or combinations. Do you honestly believe you and Joe Sixpack understand enough about ALL the drugs available to make an informed decision? I doubt that.
burned.
actually 16.5 % would do
unless it's black...
Are you sure this specific demographic would eat pudding? Think of all the carbs, lactose and unsaturated fats (at least if it's real pudding).
What do you need an embargo for? Why not simply add an import tax for all products according to the amount of CO2 (and possibly other pollution) produced in manufacturing and transportation of said product.
It would provide a reason to build cleaner factories and energy because the "dirty factory" product wouldn't be cheaper anymore.
Far more easier said than done, because countries like China would find themselves at a competitive disadvantage and fight it with teeth and claws. Maybe if it would be introduced in a very modest way first and later raised according to a fixed schedule. It would allow time for building new factories and upgrading existing ones along with a reason to do so.
Or at least force them to print the amount of pollution on the end product compared to similar products and let the consumer at least have a choice (probably won't help much cause we are fixed on cheap).
In my personal happy place we would have an organization to which people could report security vulnerabilities to. The responsible company would be contacted and given some fixed period of time (eg. three weeks, plus maybe a bonus week if they provide a good reason) to respond and fix it. After that the information is published and the company faces charges of gross negligence if bad things happen to them and their data.
...) and force companies to act. You could even come up with a rating system through this.
This would provide some interesting metrics (number of failures, severity, dumbness, response time,
Also all security breaches concerning customer date should be required by law to be made public.
Not going to happen anytime soon, but one can dream...
And I always thought the intelligent part would be to either a) not fall or b) fall and not hit the ground [HHGTTG]
I'm pretty sure you could not use it ever again. They would have to build a new one from scratch for the next detonation.
I'd guess in case of a large enough emp blast, there might be some more pressing problems to attend to.
The Germans did it with Oettinger, most noteworthy for his "interesting" interpretation of the english language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrEQ8Ovw-Q
Basically because getting sacking politicians people voted for (probably indirectly, but who knows) from office if they turn out to be idiots is rather difficult. "Promoting" them to EU commissions is a good way to get rid of them and not only done in Italy but also in Germany (Oettinger anybody?).
These books were given to me with the words "one of the few books that will be understood better when read under the influence of drugs". Though I haven't tested this for myself, I can say the book made a lot more sense when I read it in bed with a fever exceeding 40C/104F. That thing is more strange, lazily written, inconsistent and more fucked up than everything else I have read.
Oh and while I'm at it: I would have liked to see Sergej Lukianenko on the list
I would assume that creating a 3 D Image from this technology is quite possible (though not trivial). In "field conditions"( the military is sure to love this gadget) it might not be necessary or feasible to have 3D. But if your planning for surveillance it might be worth the time to set up an array of these.
Bad news for conspirationists though: Tinfoil hats will be very easy to spot and to be taken care of. Might want to invest in a radar detector though.
Even if I had known about this, I would probably have pretended not to have ever heard about it. Rule 34 probably is active (or will be soon) too. Mmmh that might even be a more interesting game too.