Not all the good die young. It seems the good Americans seem to die young, but for good metal there's always the viking lands. Check out The Haunted, At the Gates, or In Flames.
I'm not saying that there's no good music coming out of America these days, but there's not much good metal in the mainstream. However, for good underground/indie metal, check out Ferret Records. Not only are they non-RIAA (I buy many of my CDs from them), but they've got great bands like Remembering Never, Every Time I Die, Martyr AD, Terror, and From Autumn To Ashes. If you're a metal fan, or a hardcore kid(like me, but if you're a hxc kid you probably already know about ferret) you won't be disappointed.
Firstly, if all the cars were lined up back to back, that must mean at most there are two cars. I hope your job requires no form of technical writing, or else your employer is an idiot.
Secondly, assuming you mean front to back, my decision to pass said cars would depend on the speed. If all the cars were going 30 on I95 and there was an open passing lane, you bet your granny I'd pass them. It was Nietzsche who said "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
Thirdly, not only do I have good insurance, I have a perfect driving record. Why if I routinely speed do I not have a ticket? Two reasons, 1: probability, and 2: I am not an idiot, I don't weave, I speed in the left hand lane, at an acceptible speed, I keep good tires on my car, routinely inspect it for defects, and I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. When I was learning to drive, my dad took me to empty parking lots in bad weather and we practiced emergency braking and steering. I still go to backroads/empty parking lots and test my ability to react/handle my car. The nice thing about empty parking lots is you have nice uniform parking spots to guage distance so you can see how far you really should be behind the guy in front of you.
I have a 30 minute drive to and from work, and I listen to music while at work, and while at home, I easily listen to 50 songs before 9 AM, maybe if it were 400 songs I'd think about it.
But the subscription model may work, if I knew that I could reliably switch out any number of songs when I wanted to, I'd gladly pay $20/mo or more for such a service, and I think a lot of people would. But, you would have to assure me that all the songs I want are on there, and that I won't get a shitty download speed, and that I can switch out what and when I want to switch out.
Really and truthfully, it's what I do now, I buy CDs, add them to my collection, and listen to, we'll say 350 on an average day, then I swap them out and start anew the next day. Now, if you offered me a subscription for the same services, except on a central server, I'd gladly accept. In fact, it may be the most fair way to pay artists. $20.00 / 31 =(approx) $.64 / 24 =(approx) $.02 / 400 = $.00005 per song/hour/person. Meaning if someone has one of your songs on their playlist for one day, you've made $.0012, for one week - $.0084, a month - $.0372. That might not seem like much, but considering the average ARTIST might make $.50 per CD sold, and a CD is lets say 10 songs, all it takes is one person to keep your album on their playlist for a month and you've made.37 cents, more over, in two months, you've made more than you would have if they bought a CD.
To add on to the hypothetical situation, if 100,000 people download a hit single for a month day, that's $3,720 in a month, for one song. That's a yearly salary of $44,640 for recording one song, once. And that seems more than fair to me.
I've routinely listened to Taking Back Sunday's "tell all your friends" CD the entire way through for the past 6 months now, meaning from me alone, they would have made $2.23, more than four times what they probably made on the CD sale.
Ian McKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi)is major owner of Dischord, hence, they're still pretty DIY, and they can pretty much get away with whatever they want. More imporantly, PROOF that you can be signed to a label and not have to be a money grubbing hack like most bands.
No it's not, at one point, you're still depriving Best Buy of physical property in your analogy. If I live next door to a library, and at any point in time can go over, grab any book I want, and read it, is that theft? I didn't buy the book. More importantly, if 10,000 other people borrow the book, is it theft? Libraries have existed for hundreds of years, but you don't see authors complaining or suing library users.
Libraries are essentially analog file-sharing services. So if you're going to call file-sharing theft, you might as well call library use theft. Funny how college campuses have huge libraries and huge numbers of file sharers. The only difference between the two is that in order to store the books efficiently, the library uses a physical depository, while in order to store the music efficiently you use your hard drive.
In FACT, libraries were created with almost the exact same concept as p2p. Since many people could not afford to buy all the books needed for research or pleasure, the concept of a library was created so people could read information without having to buy a copy of the original. Does that mean people don't buy books, newspapers, magazines, or even movies any more? NOPE. The idea that file sharing is stealing is one planted in your head by the *AA propaganda machine, good to see you've thought this one out for yourself.
Your anology is flawed, by your own description you show why IP is vastly different than standard property...
The digital age has opened up a whole new realm of production and reproduction. While in the above example you would have to build birdhouse after birdhouse, you can now write a song or a computer program, and instead of worrying about how you will make enough to sell to everyone who might wish to buy one
So a roofer then should be able to build one roof and then retire, after all, if you're putting a roof on your house you should owe him royalties. Other roofers would just be giving away copies of his idea for free and limiting his ability to profit from his roofing abilities.
It's interesting how in the past twenty or so years, people who produce music are no longer known as performing artists and only known as artists. Could this be linked to the fact that most often they do not perform except for once in a studio? Think about it. Let's take someone who makes really crappy music, lets say the backstreet boys. All millionaires by now, how many weeks of the past 5 years have any of them been performing? The money rolls in while they sit and do nothing. Now, lets take a regular artist, a painter. If this artist makes a portrait of Saddam Hussein juggling all of his WMD, or in other words, standing still, does the artist paint the product once, then stand in front of the painting while it is on display collecting a quarter from every viewer? Or, does the artist have to keep painting, creating new products? So, why should musical artists expect to perform something once and then roll in the dough? Musical artists should be expected to PERFORM in order to make money. Earlier, someone referenced Fugazi, a shining example that bands CAN make money by actually performing. Look at the grateful dead(or now, the dead, if you prefer), sure CD sales help, but the majority of their income came from playing music.
"The Robin Hood who steals the product of one individual's freedom diminishes the creator's freedom by limiting the ways in which the creator may use it to benefit himself."
I hate these Robin Hood types, I developed a pretty good technique of sending people infected emails, and then once their computer is infected with a virus, charging them 50 dollars to remove the virus. These stupid Robin Hood types want to diminish my freedom by limiting the ways in which I can benefit myself. I mean, if people are willing to pay for the service, why should I suffer? I wrote a virus once, and I should be able to reap the rewards of it for the rest of my life without these anti-virus company THIEVES stealing my money.
Just because some people have been tricked into paying $20 for a CD doesn't make it right. The fundamental question here is wrong or right, and the RIAA and its respective artists are taking just as much advantage of the consumer as someone who were to write a virus and then charge for removal. People are just now becoming aware that there are other ways of acquiring music, and thus, breaking the paradigm that has existed for the past 70 or so years.
Once again, artists will have to go back to PERFORMING in order to make money, aww, cryin shame they'll have to work like the rest of us.
I don't know where you are, but in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore it IS possible to buy pirated DVDs on some street corners. DVD "protection" has been broken, and it is causing problems for the movie industry, hence the MPAA lawsuits.
You are correct in that as far as I know, no one has broken the Apple iTunes DRM without using the "analog hole". However, iTunes is YOUNG, give it time and I'm sure it will be broken just like every other DRM.
I'm just trying to "even the playing field", you attacked democrats and defended republicans, I in turn did the opposite. I will admit, many of my views are also held by democrats, but only slightly more than are held by republicans, libertarians, or any other political party. I vote the issue, not the party.
Onto the educatin issue, firstly, I hope the private schools teach your children slightly better spelling and grammar than you do... "have a lot to loose if they held accountable", or at least proofreading. All personal attacks aside, as someone who apparently takes an interest in your children's education, I commend you. However, you are the exception, rather than the rule. Punishing teachers for students are performing badly is a terrible idea, here's why.
As anyone with half a brain should know, education for children, especially at young ages, does NOT stop when they leave the classroom. A child's brain grows faster when it is young than at any other point in time, and this is the critical time in which to "plant the seeds of knowledge". Today's modern "conveniences" often leave parents neglecting their child's education. Numerous children are left to be self-educated or waste away in front of television, or even nothing at all. As such, many students enter school drastically behind what is considered average skill level. Children are now entering 7th and 8th grades barely able to read. Class sizes in public education number into the high 30s and 40s. It is a feat for any individual to attempt to keep in control 30 to 40 pre-teens, let alone instill knowledge in them. To make things worse, in an attempt to save money, many school districts are "mainstreaming" children with IQs below 70, putting mentally retarded children in the same classes as gifted children.
Schools that are overcrowded and have to serve a mentally diverse population of students do their best, but often cannot achieve the required scores for performance evaluations, but this is not the fault of the school. If a teacher does their best to lecture but the student falls asleep in class because he was up last night due to his parents arguing, how is this the teachers fault? If a teacher assigns homework, but a student has no lights, nor table, nor even pencil to do the homework how can the teacher be faulted for that child not grasping the concepts explained in the homework?
The main reason behind students performing poorly in standard evaluation tests is not poor teaching, but POOR PARENTING. If more parents were to take an active role in raising their children, scores I'm sure would jump through the roof. But it is very easy for a parent to say, "My kid ain't smart enough, and he don't do good on tests 'cause you ain't teachin him good".
I'm glad you play an active part in your child(ren)'s education, we need more people to do that. Next time, before requesting that we require better teachers, request that we require better parents.
Name one DRM scheme that hasn't been cracked/worked around in less than 18 months?
This is a matter of logistics. Even if the RIAA were to employ a massive workforce, lets say 5,000 people, to work solely on creating a strong DRM, there are easily that many people with interests in breaking that DRM, and they'll do it for free. DRM will never work, and it's in good part due to companie's own greed. Company A's DRM won't work with Company B's device, so no one buys the device or the songs, meanwhile my mp3 player plays MP3s quite nice, millions of people have loads of MP3s and the technology to create an infinite amount more (sound at all like the VHS vs Beta wars). How exactly is DRM going to stop those people? With projects like freenet coming of age, the RIAA will be out of options, and free trading WILL prevail, unlike DRM.
IANAL either, and I watch Law and Order too, but I also know that if a judge sets aside the verdict you can appeal the decision, and most often will. I also know that if a judge sets aside the verdict on a controversial case such as this, it will be seen as disregarding the people, and it will be PR hell, and since judges are elected...
That's what following distance and fast reflexes are for. 90 is perfectly reasonable on most highways, it's jackasses like you who slow everyone else down.
Speed Limits are there for a reason, because licensing requirements are WAY too lenient
You've obviously never been on a long hike before. What part of "every gram counts" did you not understand? There have been NUMEROUS times I've been hiking/camping/whatever, and wished my cell phone (which almost all hikers carry for safety and emergencies) could have SSH'd to my server.
When you carry everything you need to survive for days, sometimes weeks on your back, the minor inconvenience of using a cellphone keypad is far outweighed by the major inconvenience of having to find room for a keyboard and LCD screen, not to mention the extra POUND or so that these devices would weigh.
"Democrats were the driving force behind Jim Crow"..."Republicans really aren't that much better in this area... But they did free the slaves"
Read your history, the political parties during the late 19th/early 20th century were vastly different than the same political parties today. In fact, many of the views held by parties in that time period are almost directly diametrically opposed to the views held during this time period. Hence it is widely accepted now that democrats push civil rights stronger than do republicans.
"Republicans = vouchers, privatization and enforced performance standards for schools.
"
If you believe that privatization and enforced proformance standards are a good thing, you obviously haven't been near a school in years. Any teacher (public or private) will tell you that enforced standards are a terrible thing. Rather than focusing on teaching students how to learn, teachers often end up teaching students how to pass the standards tests. And, yes, this is why students educated in Asia tend to outperform those educated in America, while we're memorizing multiplication tables, they're learning the concept behind multiplication tables.
"* Taxation: Democrat governments generally equal tax increases, Republicans generally hold the line on tax rates or lower them."
This is true, but you're only stating the complicating action, not the effect of such action. In the past 25 years, the economy has performed vastly better under democratic presidents (Clinton most notably), than under republican presidents (Bush 1 & 2, especially Reagan). And I don't want to hear any of that "the president has nothing to do with the economy" bullshit. This is a speculative economy, much of our economy, especially are interest rates, adjust directly based on the stock market. The reality of the situation is; raising taxes is often a necessary evil in order to prevent negative effects. When dubya was elected, stock market fell, when his tax plan (which was completely ludicris) failed, stocks fell, the trend continues.
I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT, NOR AM I A REPUBLICAN I vote the issues, not the party, something many more Americans should do. However, I do have to say that in the past 25 or so years, democrats have had a much stronger track record than republicans. But that doesn't mean I'll vote democratic in the next election(but I definitely WON'T vote for dubya).
You're right on with the pink DVD player thing. While the pink DVD player thing wouldn't appeal to me, there would be thousands of 18 year old girls looking for it. Imagine if everything everyone ever created with duct-tape, super glue, drinking straws and christmas lights was archived on something like sourceforge.
I yearn for the day I can say "I need cupholder for my car that will fit a nalgene, oh wait, here's on in the net, lemme download/replicate/install it."
"What a load of crap. Try walking into any big company and suggesting that you should be able to run linux on your desk. "
I won't name names, but I work for an EXTREMELY large (and profitable) company as a developer. My first day one of the first questions they asked me was "Do you want a windows box, linux box, or Mac?". Just cause your company won't do it, don't assume others won't either.
"Bullshit. We need militay to defend against possible attackers. Also, we have a track record of REBUILDING a country we levied war against. Also the tax cust are needed because small and up businesses SHOULD NOT CARRY ALL THE WEIGHT of welfare and related services.
You have GOT to be kidding me. We've got an arsenal that exceeds overkill. You want to defend against possible attackers, don't kill civilians in an occupation that is not justified by the UN. Another great step in preventing these attacks would be to nothavesuch an offensive foreign policy. We're now finding out that the American people were lied to about WMD in iraq and an "iminent threat" to the US. We overspend by TRILLIONS to keep at bay phony enemies and fight phony wars. I'm sure the 243 dead US soldiers are glad that they've changed little to nothing for most US citizens, spare those who now protest against the war. But it's OK, our generation needed another Vietnam.
On rebuilding, I'll just say that we wouldn't have to rebuild Iraq if we hadn't wasted money bombing the shit out of civilian targets so Presidents Stuffyournose could have a higher approval rating
And onto the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time, Bush's tax cuts did NOTHING to help the economy, not for business owners, (especially not for small business owners), not for the common Joe, and not for anyone, with the exception of a few already wealthy elite upper-class citizens.
"AIDS would have been stopped, have they QUARANTEENED all known AIDS cases at onset. The GAY orginizations didnt like that at all. Then it went from gay disease to a regualr STD."
First of all, it's "QUARANTINE", way to show your ignorance. Secondly, and more importantly, AIDS was never a gay only disease, nope, not from the beginning. Many of the first diagnosed AIDS patients were straight women, and that's an incontrovertible fact. Shouldn't you be burning a cross or heiling somewhere?
Putting AIDS patients in quarantine would do nothing to stop the spread. As is the case with most STDs, people often don't know they have them until they've spread. THE ONLY WAY to prevent the spread of AIDS is with improved education and healthcare methods. You're a shining star of the miseducation of the common person with regards to AIDS. Because of pressure from conservatives like yourself, education about AIDS was delayed in many communities. In urban areas in the 80's many thought that AIDS was like a cold that would go away with time. Others tried such obscene methods as treating their genitals with bleach before intercourse or the long-standing-Judeo-Christian-favorite pull-out method. Not educating people ended up increasing the spread. In areas with functional healthcare systems and increased education incidents of AIDS are rising slower than in other areas. That's right, they're still RISING in most areas.
As long as people such as yourself continue to stigmatize the disease infection rates will continue to rise. Johnny football hero will be to afraid to get tested after he was too cool to use a condom, and he'll probably infect four or five girls before his little "secret" comes out.
I'm sure you've muttered under your breath about how GAY and POOR and LIBERAL I am by now. Just to let you know, I am none of the three, I just keep an open mind and LEARN before making a decision or forming an opinion. You want to see how much of a GAY disease AIDS is, go volunteer at your local AIDS clinic, I doubt bigotry such as yours could withstand the obvious reality that stares you in the face.
The concept that the ability to duplicate infinitely physical objects would result in "no jobs and no work" is a fallacy at best. The ability do duplicate these physical objects would result in a massive loss of jobs for those in the manufacturing industry, no doubt. However, there would be a nearly equal if not greater than equal increase (eventually) in the need for knowledge and service workers. Even if you could create a new computer every time a new technology comes out, you'd still need software developers to write the software, and someone to troubleshoot it when you get the latest outlook virus. In the same sense, we could shift a lot of jobs to industries such as the pharmaceutical industry and try and extend life or at least quality of life for humans.
The economy would need to be restructured, capitalism will probably not be the driving force any more, but I doubt the suicide rate will surge, for most people with deserving jobs already, there would be no need for drastic changes. The guy who dropped out of high school and now solders connections in the blender plant might be SOL, but that's the price paid for progress. Eventually the guy will find another job, even if its sweeping the floors, flipping burgers, or rotating tires.
Go ahead resist progress, hey, that always worked in the animal kingdom, oh wait....
Well, with the existing technology we can duplicate digital data without loss of quality. I think everyone can agree that a lot of the world (*cough*RIAA*cough*) wasn't ready for this. With the ability to duplicate three dimensional real objects would the world suddenly come to grips and adjust away from a capital, material-wealth based system into a system similar to that in Star Trek?
I know I sound like an uber-geek for saying this, even to the/. crowd, but this has future possibilitiesthat are pretty damn close to the replicator technology we saw in TNG. Imagine the possibilities of being able to create much needed objects after a disaster. Unfortunately, some rich businessman will sit on this technology until it becomes "profitable" to release it, and a few thousand people who would've benefited from its use are dead.
Anyone else see this whole lawsuit as step in the right direction. To me it seems that "the soldiers are fighting among themselves in the trenches". EMI and Universal suing Bertellsman, maybe the RIAA affiliates can sue each other into oblivian.
The RIAA's Days are numbered. They're desperate, and it's beginning to show. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if they lose one of the 911 lawsuits they've filed against uploaders, it'll be the death of them (it sets a legal precedent for a viable defense and/or dismissal). This fighting between member organizations is great. Hopefully virgin can sue columbia next, and then sony can go after time warner. How much in lawyer fees is this costing each company?
You know, the great thing about this is; if you legally purchased the itunes from apple, they might disappear or be deleted; but, if you illegally downloaded them off of kazaa, as long as you lie and say you ripped them and the CDs were stolen, you get to keep them. YAY RIAA, reward piracy. Asshats
Unfortunately the percentage cost to each of those 911 people is going to be higher for the defendants than the prosecutors...
I don't know about that. If all of the 911 people go to court, that'll cost the RIAA a buttload of lawyer fees, but it might not cost the people anything. The people, even with excellent lawyers might not stand that much of a chance, but remember, damages can't be paid past what the defendant can pay. IE, the 22 year old girl might have $3000 in net worth, the RIAA could only collect $3000 from her. BUT, if the girl gets a cheap lawyer or defends herself, she'll probably only be out an extra $1000 or so. Remember, the girl doesn't have to try too hard to win, she just has to go to court and she'll be costing the RIAA money. BUT since the RIAA has these high-paid lawyers, they'll be out a good chunk as well, chances are more than the $3000 they'll get from the girl.
Now, if ends up costing the RIAA money for a court case, and all 911 people go to court, it'll be a huge blow to the RIAA. Couple that with the ever-growing size of the boycott, which should skyrocket when the common citizen finds out about Gramps and little Suzie being sued, and you've got one hell of a hurtin' put on the RIAA.
Don't forget about odds and statistics here, they're stacked against the RIAA. Why? Because the legal system operates largely on precedents, meaning if something happens once, a lawyer can cite it again as reason why it should happen again. This means that if only ONE person is found not liable, that exhonerates a big giant group of people. So now the RIAA has to be on the defense, they have to make sure that 911 people are ALL found liable, if not, they may very well lose their ability to sue. And with protection from lawsuits, the average p2p user can upload all they want, after all, it is NOT a criminal offense to infringe upon copyrights.
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I'm not saying that there's no good music coming out of America these days, but there's not much good metal in the mainstream. However, for good underground/indie metal, check out Ferret Records. Not only are they non-RIAA (I buy many of my CDs from them), but they've got great bands like Remembering Never, Every Time I Die, Martyr AD, Terror, and From Autumn To Ashes. If you're a metal fan, or a hardcore kid(like me, but if you're a hxc kid you probably already know about ferret) you won't be disappointed.
I agree with parent & grandparent, that's the truth, not flamebait.
Firstly, if all the cars were lined up back to back, that must mean at most there are two cars. I hope your job requires no form of technical writing, or else your employer is an idiot.
Secondly, assuming you mean front to back, my decision to pass said cars would depend on the speed. If all the cars were going 30 on I95 and there was an open passing lane, you bet your granny I'd pass them. It was Nietzsche who said "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
Thirdly, not only do I have good insurance, I have a perfect driving record. Why if I routinely speed do I not have a ticket? Two reasons, 1: probability, and 2: I am not an idiot, I don't weave, I speed in the left hand lane, at an acceptible speed, I keep good tires on my car, routinely inspect it for defects, and I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. When I was learning to drive, my dad took me to empty parking lots in bad weather and we practiced emergency braking and steering. I still go to backroads/empty parking lots and test my ability to react/handle my car. The nice thing about empty parking lots is you have nice uniform parking spots to guage distance so you can see how far you really should be behind the guy in front of you.
I have a 30 minute drive to and from work, and I listen to music while at work, and while at home, I easily listen to 50 songs before 9 AM, maybe if it were 400 songs I'd think about it.
But the subscription model may work, if I knew that I could reliably switch out any number of songs when I wanted to, I'd gladly pay $20/mo or more for such a service, and I think a lot of people would. But, you would have to assure me that all the songs I want are on there, and that I won't get a shitty download speed, and that I can switch out what and when I want to switch out.
Really and truthfully, it's what I do now, I buy CDs, add them to my collection, and listen to, we'll say 350 on an average day, then I swap them out and start anew the next day. Now, if you offered me a subscription for the same services, except on a central server, I'd gladly accept. In fact, it may be the most fair way to pay artists. $20.00 / 31 =(approx) $.64 / 24 =(approx) $.02 / 400 = $.00005 per song/hour/person. Meaning if someone has one of your songs on their playlist for one day, you've made $.0012, for one week - $.0084, a month - $.0372. That might not seem like much, but considering the average ARTIST might make $.50 per CD sold, and a CD is lets say 10 songs, all it takes is one person to keep your album on their playlist for a month and you've made .37 cents, more over, in two months, you've made more than you would have if they bought a CD.
To add on to the hypothetical situation, if 100,000 people download a hit single for a month day, that's $3,720 in a month, for one song. That's a yearly salary of $44,640 for recording one song, once. And that seems more than fair to me.
I've routinely listened to Taking Back Sunday's "tell all your friends" CD the entire way through for the past 6 months now, meaning from me alone, they would have made $2.23, more than four times what they probably made on the CD sale.
Ian McKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi)is major owner of Dischord, hence, they're still pretty DIY, and they can pretty much get away with whatever they want. More imporantly, PROOF that you can be signed to a label and not have to be a money grubbing hack like most bands.
No it's not, at one point, you're still depriving Best Buy of physical property in your analogy. If I live next door to a library, and at any point in time can go over, grab any book I want, and read it, is that theft? I didn't buy the book. More importantly, if 10,000 other people borrow the book, is it theft? Libraries have existed for hundreds of years, but you don't see authors complaining or suing library users.
Libraries are essentially analog file-sharing services. So if you're going to call file-sharing theft, you might as well call library use theft. Funny how college campuses have huge libraries and huge numbers of file sharers. The only difference between the two is that in order to store the books efficiently, the library uses a physical depository, while in order to store the music efficiently you use your hard drive.
In FACT, libraries were created with almost the exact same concept as p2p. Since many people could not afford to buy all the books needed for research or pleasure, the concept of a library was created so people could read information without having to buy a copy of the original. Does that mean people don't buy books, newspapers, magazines, or even movies any more? NOPE. The idea that file sharing is stealing is one planted in your head by the *AA propaganda machine, good to see you've thought this one out for yourself.
Your anology is flawed, by your own description you show why IP is vastly different than standard property...
The digital age has opened up a whole new realm of production and reproduction. While in the above example you would have to build birdhouse after birdhouse, you can now write a song or a computer program, and instead of worrying about how you will make enough to sell to everyone who might wish to buy one
So a roofer then should be able to build one roof and then retire, after all, if you're putting a roof on your house you should owe him royalties. Other roofers would just be giving away copies of his idea for free and limiting his ability to profit from his roofing abilities.
It's interesting how in the past twenty or so years, people who produce music are no longer known as performing artists and only known as artists. Could this be linked to the fact that most often they do not perform except for once in a studio? Think about it. Let's take someone who makes really crappy music, lets say the backstreet boys. All millionaires by now, how many weeks of the past 5 years have any of them been performing? The money rolls in while they sit and do nothing. Now, lets take a regular artist, a painter. If this artist makes a portrait of Saddam Hussein juggling all of his WMD, or in other words, standing still, does the artist paint the product once, then stand in front of the painting while it is on display collecting a quarter from every viewer? Or, does the artist have to keep painting, creating new products? So, why should musical artists expect to perform something once and then roll in the dough? Musical artists should be expected to PERFORM in order to make money. Earlier, someone referenced Fugazi, a shining example that bands CAN make money by actually performing. Look at the grateful dead(or now, the dead, if you prefer), sure CD sales help, but the majority of their income came from playing music.
"The Robin Hood who steals the product of one individual's freedom diminishes the creator's freedom by limiting the ways in which the creator may use it to benefit himself."
I hate these Robin Hood types, I developed a pretty good technique of sending people infected emails, and then once their computer is infected with a virus, charging them 50 dollars to remove the virus. These stupid Robin Hood types want to diminish my freedom by limiting the ways in which I can benefit myself. I mean, if people are willing to pay for the service, why should I suffer? I wrote a virus once, and I should be able to reap the rewards of it for the rest of my life without these anti-virus company THIEVES stealing my money.
Just because some people have been tricked into paying $20 for a CD doesn't make it right. The fundamental question here is wrong or right, and the RIAA and its respective artists are taking just as much advantage of the consumer as someone who were to write a virus and then charge for removal. People are just now becoming aware that there are other ways of acquiring music, and thus, breaking the paradigm that has existed for the past 70 or so years.
Once again, artists will have to go back to PERFORMING in order to make money, aww, cryin shame they'll have to work like the rest of us.
I don't know where you are, but in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore it IS possible to buy pirated DVDs on some street corners. DVD "protection" has been broken, and it is causing problems for the movie industry, hence the MPAA lawsuits.
You are correct in that as far as I know, no one has broken the Apple iTunes DRM without using the "analog hole". However, iTunes is YOUNG, give it time and I'm sure it will be broken just like every other DRM.
I'm just trying to "even the playing field", you attacked democrats and defended republicans, I in turn did the opposite. I will admit, many of my views are also held by democrats, but only slightly more than are held by republicans, libertarians, or any other political party. I vote the issue, not the party.
Onto the educatin issue, firstly, I hope the private schools teach your children slightly better spelling and grammar than you do... "have a lot to loose if they held accountable", or at least proofreading. All personal attacks aside, as someone who apparently takes an interest in your children's education, I commend you. However, you are the exception, rather than the rule. Punishing teachers for students are performing badly is a terrible idea, here's why.
As anyone with half a brain should know, education for children, especially at young ages, does NOT stop when they leave the classroom. A child's brain grows faster when it is young than at any other point in time, and this is the critical time in which to "plant the seeds of knowledge". Today's modern "conveniences" often leave parents neglecting their child's education. Numerous children are left to be self-educated or waste away in front of television, or even nothing at all. As such, many students enter school drastically behind what is considered average skill level. Children are now entering 7th and 8th grades barely able to read. Class sizes in public education number into the high 30s and 40s. It is a feat for any individual to attempt to keep in control 30 to 40 pre-teens, let alone instill knowledge in them. To make things worse, in an attempt to save money, many school districts are "mainstreaming" children with IQs below 70, putting mentally retarded children in the same classes as gifted children.
Schools that are overcrowded and have to serve a mentally diverse population of students do their best, but often cannot achieve the required scores for performance evaluations, but this is not the fault of the school. If a teacher does their best to lecture but the student falls asleep in class because he was up last night due to his parents arguing, how is this the teachers fault? If a teacher assigns homework, but a student has no lights, nor table, nor even pencil to do the homework how can the teacher be faulted for that child not grasping the concepts explained in the homework?
The main reason behind students performing poorly in standard evaluation tests is not poor teaching, but POOR PARENTING. If more parents were to take an active role in raising their children, scores I'm sure would jump through the roof. But it is very easy for a parent to say, "My kid ain't smart enough, and he don't do good on tests 'cause you ain't teachin him good".
I'm glad you play an active part in your child(ren)'s education, we need more people to do that. Next time, before requesting that we require better teachers, request that we require better parents.
Name one DRM scheme that hasn't been cracked/worked around in less than 18 months?
This is a matter of logistics. Even if the RIAA were to employ a massive workforce, lets say 5,000 people, to work solely on creating a strong DRM, there are easily that many people with interests in breaking that DRM, and they'll do it for free. DRM will never work, and it's in good part due to companie's own greed. Company A's DRM won't work with Company B's device, so no one buys the device or the songs, meanwhile my mp3 player plays MP3s quite nice, millions of people have loads of MP3s and the technology to create an infinite amount more (sound at all like the VHS vs Beta wars). How exactly is DRM going to stop those people? With projects like freenet coming of age, the RIAA will be out of options, and free trading WILL prevail, unlike DRM.
IANAL either, and I watch Law and Order too, but I also know that if a judge sets aside the verdict you can appeal the decision, and most often will. I also know that if a judge sets aside the verdict on a controversial case such as this, it will be seen as disregarding the people, and it will be PR hell, and since judges are elected...
That's what following distance and fast reflexes are for. 90 is perfectly reasonable on most highways, it's jackasses like you who slow everyone else down.
Speed Limits are there for a reason, because licensing requirements are WAY too lenient
I'm telling you, eventually the court system or the people will get tired of this and prevent them from filing any more lawsuits. THEN WE WIN.
Let them keep going, all it takes is one judge to say "not liable" or enough courts to say "this is not a viable means" and WE WIN
Who will they sue when they can't sue the p2p or it's users?
You've obviously never been on a long hike before. What part of "every gram counts" did you not understand? There have been NUMEROUS times I've been hiking/camping/whatever, and wished my cell phone (which almost all hikers carry for safety and emergencies) could have SSH'd to my server.
When you carry everything you need to survive for days, sometimes weeks on your back, the minor inconvenience of using a cellphone keypad is far outweighed by the major inconvenience of having to find room for a keyboard and LCD screen, not to mention the extra POUND or so that these devices would weigh.
"Democrats were the driving force behind Jim Crow"..."Republicans really aren't that much better in this area... But they did free the slaves"
Read your history, the political parties during the late 19th/early 20th century were vastly different than the same political parties today. In fact, many of the views held by parties in that time period are almost directly diametrically opposed to the views held during this time period. Hence it is widely accepted now that democrats push civil rights stronger than do republicans.
"Republicans = vouchers, privatization and enforced performance standards for schools. "
If you believe that privatization and enforced proformance standards are a good thing, you obviously haven't been near a school in years. Any teacher (public or private) will tell you that enforced standards are a terrible thing. Rather than focusing on teaching students how to learn, teachers often end up teaching students how to pass the standards tests. And, yes, this is why students educated in Asia tend to outperform those educated in America, while we're memorizing multiplication tables, they're learning the concept behind multiplication tables.
"* Taxation: Democrat governments generally equal tax increases, Republicans generally hold the line on tax rates or lower them."
This is true, but you're only stating the complicating action, not the effect of such action. In the past 25 years, the economy has performed vastly better under democratic presidents (Clinton most notably), than under republican presidents (Bush 1 & 2, especially Reagan). And I don't want to hear any of that "the president has nothing to do with the economy" bullshit. This is a speculative economy, much of our economy, especially are interest rates, adjust directly based on the stock market. The reality of the situation is; raising taxes is often a necessary evil in order to prevent negative effects. When dubya was elected, stock market fell, when his tax plan (which was completely ludicris) failed, stocks fell, the trend continues.
I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT, NOR AM I A REPUBLICAN I vote the issues, not the party, something many more Americans should do. However, I do have to say that in the past 25 or so years, democrats have had a much stronger track record than republicans. But that doesn't mean I'll vote democratic in the next election(but I definitely WON'T vote for dubya).
You're right on with the pink DVD player thing. While the pink DVD player thing wouldn't appeal to me, there would be thousands of 18 year old girls looking for it. Imagine if everything everyone ever created with duct-tape, super glue, drinking straws and christmas lights was archived on something like sourceforge.
I yearn for the day I can say "I need cupholder for my car that will fit a nalgene, oh wait, here's on in the net, lemme download/replicate/install it."
"What a load of crap. Try walking into any big company and suggesting that you should be able to run linux on your desk. " I won't name names, but I work for an EXTREMELY large (and profitable) company as a developer. My first day one of the first questions they asked me was "Do you want a windows box, linux box, or Mac?". Just cause your company won't do it, don't assume others won't either.
I love how he says what a lot of us are saying, but people give it credence when he says it. Regardless, I LOVE THIS MAN.
"Bullshit. We need militay to defend against possible attackers. Also, we have a track record of REBUILDING a country we levied war against. Also the tax cust are needed because small and up businesses SHOULD NOT CARRY ALL THE WEIGHT of welfare and related services.
You have GOT to be kidding me. We've got an arsenal that exceeds overkill. You want to defend against possible attackers, don't kill civilians in an occupation that is not justified by the UN. Another great step in preventing these attacks would be to not have such an offensive foreign policy. We're now finding out that the American people were lied to about WMD in iraq and an "iminent threat" to the US. We overspend by TRILLIONS to keep at bay phony enemies and fight phony wars. I'm sure the 243 dead US soldiers are glad that they've changed little to nothing for most US citizens, spare those who now protest against the war. But it's OK, our generation needed another Vietnam.
On rebuilding, I'll just say that we wouldn't have to rebuild Iraq if we hadn't wasted money bombing the shit out of civilian targets so Presidents Stuffyournose could have a higher approval rating
And onto the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time, Bush's tax cuts did NOTHING to help the economy, not for business owners, (especially not for small business owners), not for the common Joe, and not for anyone, with the exception of a few already wealthy elite upper-class citizens.
"AIDS would have been stopped, have they QUARANTEENED all known AIDS cases at onset. The GAY orginizations didnt like that at all. Then it went from gay disease to a regualr STD."
First of all, it's "QUARANTINE", way to show your ignorance. Secondly, and more importantly, AIDS was never a gay only disease, nope, not from the beginning. Many of the first diagnosed AIDS patients were straight women, and that's an incontrovertible fact. Shouldn't you be burning a cross or heiling somewhere?
Putting AIDS patients in quarantine would do nothing to stop the spread. As is the case with most STDs, people often don't know they have them until they've spread. THE ONLY WAY to prevent the spread of AIDS is with improved education and healthcare methods. You're a shining star of the miseducation of the common person with regards to AIDS. Because of pressure from conservatives like yourself, education about AIDS was delayed in many communities. In urban areas in the 80's many thought that AIDS was like a cold that would go away with time. Others tried such obscene methods as treating their genitals with bleach before intercourse or the long-standing-Judeo-Christian-favorite pull-out method. Not educating people ended up increasing the spread. In areas with functional healthcare systems and increased education incidents of AIDS are rising slower than in other areas. That's right, they're still RISING in most areas.
As long as people such as yourself continue to stigmatize the disease infection rates will continue to rise. Johnny football hero will be to afraid to get tested after he was too cool to use a condom, and he'll probably infect four or five girls before his little "secret" comes out.
I'm sure you've muttered under your breath about how GAY and POOR and LIBERAL I am by now. Just to let you know, I am none of the three, I just keep an open mind and LEARN before making a decision or forming an opinion. You want to see how much of a GAY disease AIDS is, go volunteer at your local AIDS clinic, I doubt bigotry such as yours could withstand the obvious reality that stares you in the face.
" in a world with no jobs and no work."
The concept that the ability to duplicate infinitely physical objects would result in "no jobs and no work" is a fallacy at best. The ability do duplicate these physical objects would result in a massive loss of jobs for those in the manufacturing industry, no doubt. However, there would be a nearly equal if not greater than equal increase (eventually) in the need for knowledge and service workers. Even if you could create a new computer every time a new technology comes out, you'd still need software developers to write the software, and someone to troubleshoot it when you get the latest outlook virus. In the same sense, we could shift a lot of jobs to industries such as the pharmaceutical industry and try and extend life or at least quality of life for humans.
The economy would need to be restructured, capitalism will probably not be the driving force any more, but I doubt the suicide rate will surge, for most people with deserving jobs already, there would be no need for drastic changes. The guy who dropped out of high school and now solders connections in the blender plant might be SOL, but that's the price paid for progress. Eventually the guy will find another job, even if its sweeping the floors, flipping burgers, or rotating tires.
Go ahead resist progress, hey, that always worked in the animal kingdom, oh wait....
Well, with the existing technology we can duplicate digital data without loss of quality. I think everyone can agree that a lot of the world (*cough*RIAA*cough*) wasn't ready for this. With the ability to duplicate three dimensional real objects would the world suddenly come to grips and adjust away from a capital, material-wealth based system into a system similar to that in Star Trek?
I know I sound like an uber-geek for saying this, even to the /. crowd, but this has future possibilitiesthat are pretty damn close to the replicator technology we saw in TNG. Imagine the possibilities of being able to create much needed objects after a disaster. Unfortunately, some rich businessman will sit on this technology until it becomes "profitable" to release it, and a few thousand people who would've benefited from its use are dead.
Anyone else see this whole lawsuit as step in the right direction. To me it seems that "the soldiers are fighting among themselves in the trenches". EMI and Universal suing Bertellsman, maybe the RIAA affiliates can sue each other into oblivian.
The RIAA's Days are numbered. They're desperate, and it's beginning to show. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if they lose one of the 911 lawsuits they've filed against uploaders, it'll be the death of them (it sets a legal precedent for a viable defense and/or dismissal). This fighting between member organizations is great. Hopefully virgin can sue columbia next, and then sony can go after time warner. How much in lawyer fees is this costing each company?
Yay for the eventual rule of the people, and Keep up the good fight
Just curious, the x's stand for edge?
You know, the great thing about this is; if you legally purchased the itunes from apple, they might disappear or be deleted; but, if you illegally downloaded them off of kazaa, as long as you lie and say you ripped them and the CDs were stolen, you get to keep them. YAY RIAA, reward piracy. Asshats
Unfortunately the percentage cost to each of those 911 people is going to be higher for the defendants than the prosecutors...
I don't know about that. If all of the 911 people go to court, that'll cost the RIAA a buttload of lawyer fees, but it might not cost the people anything. The people, even with excellent lawyers might not stand that much of a chance, but remember, damages can't be paid past what the defendant can pay. IE, the 22 year old girl might have $3000 in net worth, the RIAA could only collect $3000 from her. BUT, if the girl gets a cheap lawyer or defends herself, she'll probably only be out an extra $1000 or so. Remember, the girl doesn't have to try too hard to win, she just has to go to court and she'll be costing the RIAA money. BUT since the RIAA has these high-paid lawyers, they'll be out a good chunk as well, chances are more than the $3000 they'll get from the girl.
Now, if ends up costing the RIAA money for a court case, and all 911 people go to court, it'll be a huge blow to the RIAA. Couple that with the ever-growing size of the boycott, which should skyrocket when the common citizen finds out about Gramps and little Suzie being sued, and you've got one hell of a hurtin' put on the RIAA.
Don't forget about odds and statistics here, they're stacked against the RIAA. Why? Because the legal system operates largely on precedents, meaning if something happens once, a lawyer can cite it again as reason why it should happen again. This means that if only ONE person is found not liable, that exhonerates a big giant group of people. So now the RIAA has to be on the defense, they have to make sure that 911 people are ALL found liable, if not, they may very well lose their ability to sue. And with protection from lawsuits, the average p2p user can upload all they want, after all, it is NOT a criminal offense to infringe upon copyrights.