Method 2 is about as plausible as socialism. It depends on everyone wanting to play fair. It ain't gonna happen. Not in this world. It doesn't even work with material -- ask any store what their "shrinkage" is. With products that people KNOW can be duplicated for free, there will NEVER be widespread respect for copyright.
So all that's left is method 1.
Incidentally, anyone who uses terms like IP (intellectual property), just has an axe to grind. There's no such thing as IP in any code of law. There's copyright law, trademark law, patent law, and trade secret law; but these things are completely unrelated. IP is term invented by monopolists who want to confuse stupid people, so that they don't know what their actual rights are with respect to things like software, music, and technology.
The United States is rapidly becoming the most embarassing nation on Earth.
Let's review:
A pitifully lame patent office.
200 year copyright terms.
The US's last election was rigged (at least the Florida portion of it was) and no one cared.
The lying-est politicians ever known.
A constitution that has no meaning, because not a single line of it hasn't been overruled.
An obesity epidemic that is among the world's most severe.
There's a lot more, but I think that's enough for now.
I'd bitch about the US more, but my own country (Canada) is trying to become the US as fast as it can. Who's the bigger loser -- the loser, or the loser who looks up to him? Oy, what a world.
Anyway, patents suck ass. Any potential they had for encouraging innovation has long since been swept away in a tide of greed and corruption. It's time for patents to go.
So THAT'S why so many people in California and British Columbia have sterling engines and solar panels on their roofs! It's because of a government conspiracy to steal money from people! There's obviously no way that it would be because it actually saves them money on power.
I love republican conspiracy theorists. They manage to find clouds in every silver lining.
Here's an idea I got from my college days: live near your work/school, and walk/bicycle everywhere. You never have to buy fuel AT ALL. Aside from the fact that you save about $4000/year in gas, insurance, repairs, car payments, etc (imagine getting a $4000/year raise...), you'll also be healthier, and you'll get to laugh almost daily at stupid jerks who bitch about their cars and about gas prices. It's awesome!
Yeah, you just described the Canadian government perfectly. Oh wait, you were talking about Australia?
Seriously -- welcome to the beauracracy. Every multi-tiered business, every government, every organization that actually requires organization; they all work this way. It's the sad, pathetic result of budgets.
I've heard of organizations that don't tell their sub-organizations what their budgets are. They just let them request money, and as the money gets used up they make it harder to request more. It's a nice idea, but ultimately just leads to more complex and annoying ways of gaming the system.
Java is actually pretty open, and it is indeed a standard.
The JCP (Java Community Process) provides some degree of community control over Java itself.
Java has no patents encumbering it.
Although Sun's JVM isn't Free, it is open source.
With Java, you have choice in where you get your VM: Sun's JVM, IBM's JVM, Jikes, GCJ, Kaffe, etc.
Sun's benevolent dictatorship of Java means that Java is a standard -- that's what the Microsoft settlement is all about: keeping Java standardized (Java is FAR more standardized than C++). Sun dictates the standard. Just because it isn't an ANSI or ISO standard doesn't mean it isn't a standard. And just because ANSI or the ISO say something is standard, doesn't mean it is. C++? Hah! No real standards there.
So all in all, Java is pretty open, and is definitely a standard.
Maybe game developers and publishers should take a hint about what the sweet spot for pricing is.
Why are business-types so colossaly stupid? The success of used games should indicate that selling games for two thirds of what they cost now would dramatically increase their sales. Instead of complaining, they could just take advantage of that trend. Losing 33% of your per-game revenue is irrelevant if you double total sales -- and since per-unit production costs are negligble, that's a pretty reasonable scenario.
Seriously -- PeopleSoft are the worst hacks out there. They can't develop anything worth crap. Concepts like "Standard Compliance" or "Usability" are completely lost on them.
On of the best thinsg you can do is take a martial arts class and learn how to break-fall.
Violent attacks usually start with a clothesline from behind -- you fall on your face, crushing your nose and breaking some teeth. Then you're in so much pain that you can't fight back. This goes for muggings, rapes, and good old-fashioned assaults. But if you can break your fall, you're in a much better position to defend yourself.
Violent crime has been decreasing throughout the entire western world for decades. In fact, Texas is one of the only places in the western world where violent crime isn't decreasing. Interesting, no?
Speaking as a Canadian, and paying 15 fucking percent sales tax where I live, I can assure you that sales taxes are the LAST thing any reasonable economy should implement. It drives off tourism, makes price-gauging more difficult, and is virtually impossible to eliminate once it's in place.
I'd happily pay a bunch of extra income tax and deal with higher prices, if it meant eliminating the PST and GST.
I'm as Canadian as they get, actually. I don't drink swill -- it's Granville Island brewery or nothing (at least as far as beer goes).
Frankly, I'm surprised any Canadian drinks beer at all, given that we have such outstanding wineries in BC, superb Alberta vodkas, and even a home-grown bourbon.
Are you sure you aren't a little bit backwards there? The USPTO was only killing American business. All the EU is doing is making sure that America wont be alone in the technological dark ages when the rest of the world has surpassed them technically.
There are these great free patches that fix a Windows PC right up. You can get them at redhat.com, mandrake.com, debian.org, and several others. We should be giving people THOSE patches, rather than Microsofts' fix-more-problems-than-they-solve patches.
There IS a simple, permanent answer -- ban lobbying and campaign contributions. In fact, ban the mere possibility of impropriety; politicians shouldn't be allowed to accept any gift of any kind from anyone. Harsh, yes. But power must only come along with responsibility and accountability.
Once political power isn't for sale, businesses will have no more leverage with politicians. Voting will mean something again. TRUE representative democracy can take hold.
American democracy has already been taken away -- your current president was put in office by the Supreme Court, not the American public.
Besides, Democracy died the day "lobbying" was conceived of. Voting is meaningless now -- all that matters is how much money you can offer your representative.
Ontario has those too, although they're used differently. They are placed in regular intervals leading up to intersections. Most intersections still don't have lights, stop signs, or anything like that (at least in rural Ontario); apparently scoring the road in this way is cheaper than some alternative means of keeping drivers alert near intersections.
Just more proof that terrorists are stupid in the head. A persistent and maintained DDoS over a few weeks could hurt the US a lot more in the long run than any foolishness involving airplanes.
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So all that's left is method 1.
Incidentally, anyone who uses terms like IP (intellectual property), just has an axe to grind. There's no such thing as IP in any code of law. There's copyright law, trademark law, patent law, and trade secret law; but these things are completely unrelated. IP is term invented by monopolists who want to confuse stupid people, so that they don't know what their actual rights are with respect to things like software, music, and technology.
- A pitifully lame patent office.
- 200 year copyright terms.
- The US's last election was rigged (at least the Florida portion of it was) and no one cared.
- The lying-est politicians ever known.
- A constitution that has no meaning, because not a single line of it hasn't been overruled.
- An obesity epidemic that is among the world's most severe.
There's a lot more, but I think that's enough for now.I'd bitch about the US more, but my own country (Canada) is trying to become the US as fast as it can. Who's the bigger loser -- the loser, or the loser who looks up to him? Oy, what a world.
Anyway, patents suck ass. Any potential they had for encouraging innovation has long since been swept away in a tide of greed and corruption. It's time for patents to go.
I love republican conspiracy theorists. They manage to find clouds in every silver lining.
Here's an idea I got from my college days: live near your work/school, and walk/bicycle everywhere. You never have to buy fuel AT ALL. Aside from the fact that you save about $4000/year in gas, insurance, repairs, car payments, etc (imagine getting a $4000/year raise...), you'll also be healthier, and you'll get to laugh almost daily at stupid jerks who bitch about their cars and about gas prices. It's awesome!
Seriously -- welcome to the beauracracy. Every multi-tiered business, every government, every organization that actually requires organization; they all work this way. It's the sad, pathetic result of budgets.
I've heard of organizations that don't tell their sub-organizations what their budgets are. They just let them request money, and as the money gets used up they make it harder to request more. It's a nice idea, but ultimately just leads to more complex and annoying ways of gaming the system.
- The JCP (Java Community Process) provides some degree of community control over Java itself.
- Java has no patents encumbering it.
- Although Sun's JVM isn't Free, it is open source.
- With Java, you have choice in where you get your VM: Sun's JVM, IBM's JVM, Jikes, GCJ, Kaffe, etc.
- Sun's benevolent dictatorship of Java means that Java is a standard -- that's what the Microsoft settlement is all about: keeping Java standardized (Java is FAR more standardized than C++). Sun dictates the standard. Just because it isn't an ANSI or ISO standard doesn't mean it isn't a standard. And just because ANSI or the ISO say something is standard, doesn't mean it is. C++? Hah! No real standards there.
So all in all, Java is pretty open, and is definitely a standard.Why are business-types so colossaly stupid? The success of used games should indicate that selling games for two thirds of what they cost now would dramatically increase their sales. Instead of complaining, they could just take advantage of that trend. Losing 33% of your per-game revenue is irrelevant if you double total sales -- and since per-unit production costs are negligble, that's a pretty reasonable scenario.
"Vigilante executions aren't unconstitutional -- maybe the part where you actually kill person is, but the whole thing is not."
Sounds stupid? That's what I thought, jack-ass.
Seriously -- PeopleSoft are the worst hacks out there. They can't develop anything worth crap. Concepts like "Standard Compliance" or "Usability" are completely lost on them.
Violent attacks usually start with a clothesline from behind -- you fall on your face, crushing your nose and breaking some teeth. Then you're in so much pain that you can't fight back. This goes for muggings, rapes, and good old-fashioned assaults. But if you can break your fall, you're in a much better position to defend yourself.
Violent crime has been decreasing throughout the entire western world for decades. In fact, Texas is one of the only places in the western world where violent crime isn't decreasing. Interesting, no?
I'd happily pay a bunch of extra income tax and deal with higher prices, if it meant eliminating the PST and GST.
Where was the NRA when the Patriot Act was passed? Oh, that's right -- off polishing their guns instead of defending liberty. Like usual.
Frankly, I'm surprised any Canadian drinks beer at all, given that we have such outstanding wineries in BC, superb Alberta vodkas, and even a home-grown bourbon.
Now, American bourbons on the other hand, are some damn fine potables.
Are you sure you aren't a little bit backwards there? The USPTO was only killing American business. All the EU is doing is making sure that America wont be alone in the technological dark ages when the rest of the world has surpassed them technically.
There are these great free patches that fix a Windows PC right up. You can get them at redhat.com, mandrake.com, debian.org, and several others. We should be giving people THOSE patches, rather than Microsofts' fix-more-problems-than-they-solve patches.
You've clearly forgotten about fair use rights. Don't worry, it's a common mistake made by all freedom-hating people.
Unless you've got a cheque in your hand, don't bother. Refer to sig.
Once political power isn't for sale, businesses will have no more leverage with politicians. Voting will mean something again. TRUE representative democracy can take hold.
As long as prices are high, piracy increases. Why should music be any different from anything else? :P
Besides, Democracy died the day "lobbying" was conceived of. Voting is meaningless now -- all that matters is how much money you can offer your representative.
HAH! I kid.
Ontario has those too, although they're used differently. They are placed in regular intervals leading up to intersections. Most intersections still don't have lights, stop signs, or anything like that (at least in rural Ontario); apparently scoring the road in this way is cheaper than some alternative means of keeping drivers alert near intersections.
Just more proof that terrorists are stupid in the head. A persistent and maintained DDoS over a few weeks could hurt the US a lot more in the long run than any foolishness involving airplanes.