Bullshit. I bought the hardware. I own it. I do not own the patents ON that hardware, perhaps. I don't own the IP of the bios code, but I OWN THE FUCKING HARDWARE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE CORRUPT LAWMAKERS SAY!
I can tear it apart, rip out the guts, change shit around, and yes, even add a chip if I so desire. I bought the fucking thing, they have no right to tell me what to do with my machine.
Same thing goes with software, etc. I may not have the right to redistribute the game across the internet, but I have the right to modify it (ala Counterstrike) and back it up for personal use, regardless of what my and your bullshit corrupt judges/politicians declare. You're only bound to a law when that law is legal.
Myth 1) You have no right to free music/movies/etc.
A: Yes, you do. Just not for 7-14 years. Now, this has been thrown off balance by illegal, unconstitutonal laws, bought and paid for with the money of grannies and welfare children. When a law is unconstitutional, you have no obligation to obey it. Why else do you think that several communities have been declaring themselves unwilling to abide by the patriot act? Same theory here.
Myth 2) Just because something is not in stock, doesn't mean you have the right to "steal" it.
A: If the RIAA doesn't want to sell me something I want at a reasonable price, damn right I'll "steal" it. Now, the pro-RIAA crowd will undoubtedly come back with shit like "well so does that mean that you can steal a BMW?"
No. But that's because a BMW is physical fucking property, and cannot be copied! If a BMW were able to be copied, would I do so, even if it were against the law? DAMN TOOTIN I WOULD.
You cannot protect your business model with artifical restraints, especially when your business model relies on information. You just cannot do it. You can legislate into oblivion, but as the saying goes, the more you tighten your grip...
Myth 5) The artists suffer if you don't buy their CD.
A: No, the fucks at the top suffer. I have every Iron Maiden CD on my hard disk. If I were to buy all of those - assuming I could find a copy among the stacks of Britney and 50 Cent - they'd see maybe 25 cents out of every cd. 24 x 25 cents = 6 dollars, for almost 2 decades worth of material.
Now, let's look at what I did - I went to a store, and I bought a IM tshirt @ 18 bucks. The majority of that is going to go to the band, not to some cigar chomping asshole in an ivory tower. In this day and age, CDs are nothing more than promotional tools, used to sell other stuff. The only ones who don't get the hint? Guess who.
Myth 4) The MP/RIAA members are poor, broke corporations who need your support to keep bringing you this material
A: The MPAA has nobody but itself to blame for decreased profit margins. They release shit, and their shit has been gettng more and more expensive every year. 100+ million for Chronicles of Riddick, a movie that only took in half that much? When it hits DVD, they might be lucky to break even! 25 million in acting fees for the talentless hacks in Gigli, a movie that made something like 5 million between DVD and box office reciepts?
If the industry wants to make more money, try taking some of that cash they use, and try these simple steps!
1. Reduce ticket and concession prices. 7 bucks for a matinee is robbery. I remember when it was 5.75. Let the industry keep the majority of ticket sales (as they already do,) and use all that fucking revenue you get from showing me sprite/fanta/scion/m&m commericals before movies to make your profit margins for the theaters! With all the advertising these fucks make us watch, the tickets ought to be free at this point if you make it in time to watch the ads!
2. Don't give individual stars 20+ million dollars to star in a 2 hour feature. Try to do the math. Unless you're dealing with a Lord of the Rings or similar style phenomenon, it's a big mistake to have one fifth your budget go to a single star, and another one fifth to go to your director. Yes, there will always be a need for blockbuster FX films, but EVERY FUCKING MOVIE doesn't have to be one. Smaller budget films with better stories and better scripts will make much higher profit margins than shitty eye candy, or at the very least, always make some form of profit! Of course, Hollywood doesn't want to hear that. They expect to put in 150 million and get back 200-300. They're not content to put in 1-15 million for a film, and get back 30-40! Chalk it up to greed.
3.Film people are about the only ones who don't take a paycut during a recession. Why not make them start? If they refuse, fine - say bye bye.
But what if the students do not *want* the top 40 shit that runs rampant on Napster? I listen to stuff that, while the big labels hold the rights, is not widely for sale on the pay services.
So yes, if you're an ignorant Britney Spears fan, maybe this is a windfall. But if you're more Blind Guardian than "Ooooh baby blind me with your cumshot bling bling weed money rims angst," then what?
I've owned 3 computers in my admittedly short lifespan. The one right now is a custom built, near top of the line beast that I put together with my own 2 hands.
The first two were Compaqs, and they are trash.
See, these computers had the cheapest possible parts in them. I had bought a 700 mhz PC right around the time that 1ghz was looking a-fucking-mazing.
Years later, after I learned how to build the damn things, I picked apart the old machine for scrap - not only was the chip locked in some sort of megavault/heatsink to avoid swapping; but they actually screwed me out of 10 gb of space - I had ordered 40 gb, they gave me 30.
My biggest complaint, however, is that the tech support people were the rudest, most arrogant assholes this side of Slashdot.(joke:D)
True story - my PC had been infected - again, before I learned about "reformatting" and "firewalls" - and I called up support. After 20 minutes on hold, I was informed my support contract was up. So, needing to fix this problem, out came another big sum of money from the folks' Visa.
After payment was made, and I was returned to a support guy, I was asked for the version of windows. I told him XP.
Well, since the PC came with 98, he informed me that he was not authorized to help me with my problem.
That's when I was done with Compaq forever.
However, their all in one units were pretty reliable, and I couldn't be more than happy with my new HP a-i-o. It prints (FAST), scans, copies, does photos above par with what I can get at those bullshit Kodak consoles, faxes, and reads from memory stick.
So yeah, the printers are nice. But fuck if I'll ever buy one of their desktops again - I find it amazing that some people pay close to 2000 bucks for a PC without getting a top of the line GPU. Sad.
Companies have two obligations - to make money, and to do so LEGALLY.
You can't make money for the shareholders outside the boundries of the law (Enron) or by screwing over your customers for very long though.
Unless, you know, you buy off enough officials so that the law fits your purposes. Then, you can screw the cust..erm, consumer all you want! The RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and other "fine american companies" have been doing this for years.
Pull your head out of your ass, and stop blindly worshipping at the altar of capitalism.
Steve Allison of Midway charges: "The guys bitching about this new trend are inching up on 35 years old, and they grew up on old-school gameplay. They're a very vocal bunch, but they're just not the market anymore."
BULLSHIT. The reason that "they're not the market" is because YOU'RE NOT PUSHING THE TITLES THAT APPEAL TO THEM!
I'm 18. I'm not an "old guy" who remembers the glory days of bloops and bleeps. But my first console was a NES, and I've owned almost every system since then (other than the real bombs...Sega CD, Jaguar, etc.)
Hey Steve: if you fucking asshats were to push a game like Psy Ops half as much as you push shit like (sport related term)z (insert year), then people would buy it! It's marketing! Enough zombifyed consumer-minded Americans will buy whatever you tell them to if you push it enough!
That goes for the entire industry too, not just Midway - if they pushed great titles like Prince of Persia HALF as much as the shit laden rehashes like Madden 2021, they would sell! Take out ads before movies, like you do with the shitty film tie ins! Take out ads on MTV and during football games, etc. It's not that they're not pushing it because it's not selling, it's that it's not selling because they aren't pushing it!
The inference I get from this, is that those who make their obscene fortunes off those who produce violent works are more than likely to turn a blind eye to anyone attempting to censor or otherwise hurt the ability of those people to keep producing said works.
You don't think this is EXACTLY what they're doing?
The REAL "thugs" don't have the money to buy GTA San Andreas, Madden 2021, or Lil Bow Wow's Anal Rape Simulator.
The people buying these FIFTY DOLLAR GAMES are by and large upper-lower to upper-middle class gamers of all races, buying these games to immerse themselves in this bullshit culture that, if they really had to live it, they'd be disgusted.
The real "thugs" aren't buying 50,000 dollar Lincoln Navigators with another 50,000 in aftermarket accessories, rims, and A/V equipment. Nor are they the ones buying the hideous looking and hideously overpriced apparel made by Fubu, et al. It's spoiled, affluent white kids. Which is what makes this all the more ridiculous.
Do you have a freaking brain tumor? You are comparing a guy - a crazy, fucked up, nutjob of a guy, to be sure, but still - with men who command others to kill for them.
Let's see - a chess match vs. killing in the name of money and power (either over other beings, or over an organization). If you can't see the difference, I don't know what to tell you.
In the end, some of BF's money would have been spent back into the US economy. He essentially took money from the Yugos, and gave it back to the US...(or he would have...) They should be THANKING him, not detaining him.
No, if I don't like it, I'll do whatever I damn well pleased, because you have my fucking money.
I would suggest you need to look at this a different way - DRM and enhanced copyright are all ways of an oligarch system trying to hang on for dear life. The market decides what the price will be, and right now, after years of illegal trusts, sweetheart deals, and payola, the market is saying that the value of what you produce is zero.
Sure, you can always lobby our gerbils on the hill to enforce your all-important artificial scarcity, you can always outlaw the technology that makes this fact so, but you can't change the reality of the situation.
Now, this means that you, not I, have a few choices - you can either keep producing what you produce, and hope that enough people find it so useful that they decide to buy the actual product, or you can keep crying and bitching and moaning that you don't make enough, and eventually go away. Meanwhile, someone else with more time and resources left to them will create something as good as your product, or better.
It used to be that money had to be there before something could be produced or created. It's not like that anymore! Music/Movies/Software is now easier than ever for those with a real love for the art to make and release. If you're in it for the money, chances are you'll end up failing.
I don't like country or rap (not to be confused with this gangsta shit), but I can respect the lyrics and content of some of this stuff. You can respect something without liking it.
But, when you get into talentless floozys like Britney Spears, who sell millions of records on the merits of her chest instead of that of her "music," then no, that can be called decidedly bad.
I can respect a writer who writes in a genre I don't care for, as long as the material is well put together. If, however, they write at a 3rd grade level, then yes - it is bad writing, taste and opinion be damned. Britney and her ilk are examples of that, and so are the majority of Clearchannel tripe bands.
If I'm not mistaken, the RIAA and their cronies (and yes, CC and Infinity are among them, don't fool yourself...) are the ones in trouble. I'm not the one with the business model that was shattered by some college kid with a computer. They are. Thus, it's THEIR responsibility to make sampling an artist's work a piece of cake.
Right now, the easiest way for me to sample what an artist can do (outside of the Overplayed Radio Single/s) is to hop on DC++ and get the song I want to hear. Or, if the artist has several discs out, maybe I'll hop on BT and get one to try out first.
Of course, the problem comes down to the fact that I can get an entire discography by any semi-known band/artist in the world in the time it takes me to get ready, hop in the car, go to the store, and come back with a disc...assuming they even HAVE the disc I want...which, given the stuff I listen to, they don't.
And it's not that I wouldn't like to support the artist. I'd happily send Iron Maiden a 20 dollar check. What I won't do, however, is give my 17 dollars per album to Sony, so they can then turn around and give IM 25 cents out of it, and use the rest to sue grannies and 12 year olds on welfare. So what did I do? I bought a t-shirt. Even if I had bought their entire discography, they see more money from that T than they would have from the dics! But let's not mention THAT, that would be "justifying piracy!"
Aside from the whole "free" deal, people download music because it is easier than going to the store. It is easier than dealing with the DRM restrictions of the pay services. It may be illegal, but keep in mind who designs these laws.
Fuck the copyright laws, I say. They chose to ignore and defile the laws that protected the public (public domain,) so I'm going to ignore and defile the laws that protect them. Tit for tat, the only difference being that one side has "the man" in its corner.
Unless the almighty RIAA starts a database where I can test out almost any song by any artist they own..erm..."signed" in a 30 second preview; unless iTunes starts carrying stuff like Blind Guardian, Manowar, and Malice Mizer, unless they can find a way to make their way of doing business more attractive than the way I'm currently getting my music - regardless of price! - I'll be p2p'ing for the forseeable future.
The burden's on them to save their model. Not on me to support it.
I call bullshit. The corporation hs no right to lie to the public. It's tantamount to perjury and/or slander. If I say you're a big fat liar who rapes children and slaughters women, I better be able to back that up, lest you take me to court and clean my clock.
If a corporation does it under the guise of "journalism," suddenly they don't have to tell the truth or check the facts, they only have to stay in line with the views of their owners (Rupert Murdoch/Fox, anyone?)
Capitalism doesn't trump the right of the public to a free and open press. At least, by law it doesn't. But those making the laws and amending them are most often those on the payroll, so...
The point of even having a press/media is to give the public the facts. How can you give people the facts when the facts often interfere with the bottom line, and you have advertisers to worry about, and you're owned by a wide ranging conglomerate that has multiple interests in several hot button issues? (Would you trust CNN or MSNBC to give you a fair look at the DRM/Piracy topic? You are a fool if so...)
Apple's iTunes store depends on their playing nice with the big labels. Apple needs the RIAA, the RIAA doesn't need them. How would it look to their sugar daddies at the RIAA if they demanded a review of this industry-funded legislation?
Of course, it's karmatic suicide to suggest that a fine organization like the people at Apple might actually be in a partnership with an evil entity like the RIAA, in the name of *gasp* money!
It seems that in every aspect, save for the TVs (which I hear are quite nice...) Sony is more about image than reliabilty or value.
Take the new PSP. Yeah, it looks sexy as hell, can play movies, music, and games. But no mp3 support? 2 hr battery life? So what am I left with? A portable ps2 that launches with a card game, a sequel to an FF game that didn't need one, and a bunch of ancient ps1 games? No thanks.
I know the "all in one" is the main selling point, but I have an iPod. I have a cell phone. I have a GBA, and I'm going to have a laptop soon. The N-gage had all in one functionality too, and look where that is.
And, on that note, Sony's name recognition isn't going to help it much - Nokia is the world's most well known cell phone maker, and that amounted to a pile of shit when the Ngage bombed. Why? Because it was overpriced, the games sucked, and nobody wanted to watch movies or listen to music on such a device.
Even the Playstation is heading downhill. It'll always sell as long as it has Final Fantasy, GTA, and Gran Turismo. But the hardware is both cheap and inferior, and the games as of late are lacking in quality. I can only think of 7-8 PS2 exclusives I'm really waiting for in the next year and a half, and of those, ONE is not a sequel. And the recent EA/XBL deal is going to throw a wrench into the PS2 workings even further.
So yeah. The PSP is nice looking, but there are better alternatives out there. The PS2 is all black and nifty and it plays dvds, but why should Sony care about making awesome games or hardware? After all, that money is better spent on building lavish estates for Paris Hilton to have record release parties at!
In short, Sony is pulling a Microsoft (dominance through marketing, not quality), Microsoft is pulling a PS1-era Sony (dominance through quality), and Nintendo is just sitting back and pulling an Apple. (Delivering great stuff to a niche market.)
The best idea I could give you is to just create a sister system, where you mirror all your data. Not cheap, but cheaper than getting a pro-grade solution.
The reason you won't find such things on the cheap is because the average person with a PC doesn't even know what a GB is. He simply goes into the store, the sly salesman says "oh, what do you need it for," and then says "well 60-80 gb should be all you ever need."
Now, contrast that to me - my friends shit when they hear I have a 250 gb drive and a 120 gb drive, as well as an extra 60 gb on a networked machine. They can't fathom ever needing that much space. I know that's probably a pittance by Slashdot standards, but it's true:(
a) chances are, not all those Democrats voted in the last election...
b) some of those attending (like myself) are undoubtedly able to vote for the first time ever.
c) some of those attending (like my mother) are "borderline" Republicans.
Now then, given the fact that Bush won by an extremely small fraction of votes, the movie only has to enrage around 1000 non-voters or borderlines to get to the polls. (The actual number is probably less, I don't claim to be entirely accurate.)
Of course, that assumes that Bush actually WON the election./tinfoilhat
Liberal media my stinky asshole. When a leftist makes an "assertion," it's "propaganda," but when a right winger makes an "assertion," it's "a statement of faith!"
Call me a troll if you want, I don't care much for karma when I speak the truth.
There's a double standard in this country - the right can say just about everything, do just about anything, and nobody can say shit. When the left dares to challenge it, they are deemed unpatriotic, ungodly heathens that must be evicted for the good of the father...erm...homeland.
Forgive me, that's exactly what I meant. If a writer/singer/etc wants to keep their idea to themselves, or the manifestation of their work to themselves, that's one thing - the second the public starts paying them and supporting them financially for such things, then it belongs to the public.
And the problem, really, is that the RIAA/MPAA isn't being FORCED to play by the rules of the public. One of two things would happen if such a thing were to happen -
1. They would make due with smaller (though still extraordinarily large) profits, stop paying single people 20 million for a 2 hr movie, and release fewer movies of higher quality...
or..
2. They would say "fuck it," and get out of business, and then people 10 times more creative than those who currently are pushed by "the machine" would help fill the void.
Either way, the public would win, which is more than we can say for the current system.
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I can tear it apart, rip out the guts, change shit around, and yes, even add a chip if I so desire. I bought the fucking thing, they have no right to tell me what to do with my machine.
Same thing goes with software, etc. I may not have the right to redistribute the game across the internet, but I have the right to modify it (ala Counterstrike) and back it up for personal use, regardless of what my and your bullshit corrupt judges/politicians declare. You're only bound to a law when that law is legal.
Myth 1) You have no right to free music/movies/etc.
A: Yes, you do. Just not for 7-14 years. Now, this has been thrown off balance by illegal, unconstitutonal laws, bought and paid for with the money of grannies and welfare children. When a law is unconstitutional, you have no obligation to obey it. Why else do you think that several communities have been declaring themselves unwilling to abide by the patriot act? Same theory here.
Myth 2) Just because something is not in stock, doesn't mean you have the right to "steal" it.
A: If the RIAA doesn't want to sell me something I want at a reasonable price, damn right I'll "steal" it. Now, the pro-RIAA crowd will undoubtedly come back with shit like "well so does that mean that you can steal a BMW?"
No. But that's because a BMW is physical fucking property, and cannot be copied! If a BMW were able to be copied, would I do so, even if it were against the law? DAMN TOOTIN I WOULD.
You cannot protect your business model with artifical restraints, especially when your business model relies on information. You just cannot do it. You can legislate into oblivion, but as the saying goes, the more you tighten your grip...
Myth 5) The artists suffer if you don't buy their CD.
A: No, the fucks at the top suffer. I have every Iron Maiden CD on my hard disk. If I were to buy all of those - assuming I could find a copy among the stacks of Britney and 50 Cent - they'd see maybe 25 cents out of every cd. 24 x 25 cents = 6 dollars, for almost 2 decades worth of material.
Now, let's look at what I did - I went to a store, and I bought a IM tshirt @ 18 bucks. The majority of that is going to go to the band, not to some cigar chomping asshole in an ivory tower. In this day and age, CDs are nothing more than promotional tools, used to sell other stuff. The only ones who don't get the hint? Guess who.
Myth 4) The MP/RIAA members are poor, broke corporations who need your support to keep bringing you this material
A: The MPAA has nobody but itself to blame for decreased profit margins. They release shit, and their shit has been gettng more and more expensive every year. 100+ million for Chronicles of Riddick, a movie that only took in half that much? When it hits DVD, they might be lucky to break even! 25 million in acting fees for the talentless hacks in Gigli, a movie that made something like 5 million between DVD and box office reciepts?
If the industry wants to make more money, try taking some of that cash they use, and try these simple steps!
1. Reduce ticket and concession prices. 7 bucks for a matinee is robbery. I remember when it was 5.75. Let the industry keep the majority of ticket sales (as they already do,) and use all that fucking revenue you get from showing me sprite/fanta/scion/m&m commericals before movies to make your profit margins for the theaters! With all the advertising these fucks make us watch, the tickets ought to be free at this point if you make it in time to watch the ads!
2. Don't give individual stars 20+ million dollars to star in a 2 hour feature. Try to do the math. Unless you're dealing with a Lord of the Rings or similar style phenomenon, it's a big mistake to have one fifth your budget go to a single star, and another one fifth to go to your director. Yes, there will always be a need for blockbuster FX films, but EVERY FUCKING MOVIE doesn't have to be one. Smaller budget films with better stories and better scripts will make much higher profit margins than shitty eye candy, or at the very least, always make some form of profit! Of course, Hollywood doesn't want to hear that. They expect to put in 150 million and get back 200-300. They're not content to put in 1-15 million for a film, and get back 30-40! Chalk it up to greed.
3.Film people are about the only ones who don't take a paycut during a recession. Why not make them start? If they refuse, fine - say bye bye.
So yes, if you're an ignorant Britney Spears fan, maybe this is a windfall. But if you're more Blind Guardian than "Ooooh baby blind me with your cumshot bling bling weed money rims angst," then what?
The first two were Compaqs, and they are trash.
See, these computers had the cheapest possible parts in them. I had bought a 700 mhz PC right around the time that 1ghz was looking a-fucking-mazing.
Years later, after I learned how to build the damn things, I picked apart the old machine for scrap - not only was the chip locked in some sort of megavault/heatsink to avoid swapping; but they actually screwed me out of 10 gb of space - I had ordered 40 gb, they gave me 30.
My biggest complaint, however, is that the tech support people were the rudest, most arrogant assholes this side of Slashdot.(joke :D)
True story - my PC had been infected - again, before I learned about "reformatting" and "firewalls" - and I called up support. After 20 minutes on hold, I was informed my support contract was up. So, needing to fix this problem, out came another big sum of money from the folks' Visa.
After payment was made, and I was returned to a support guy, I was asked for the version of windows. I told him XP.
Well, since the PC came with 98, he informed me that he was not authorized to help me with my problem.
That's when I was done with Compaq forever.
However, their all in one units were pretty reliable, and I couldn't be more than happy with my new HP a-i-o. It prints (FAST), scans, copies, does photos above par with what I can get at those bullshit Kodak consoles, faxes, and reads from memory stick.
So yeah, the printers are nice. But fuck if I'll ever buy one of their desktops again - I find it amazing that some people pay close to 2000 bucks for a PC without getting a top of the line GPU. Sad.
Companies have two obligations - to make money, and to do so LEGALLY.
You can't make money for the shareholders outside the boundries of the law (Enron) or by screwing over your customers for very long though.
Unless, you know, you buy off enough officials so that the law fits your purposes. Then, you can screw the cust..erm, consumer all you want! The RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and other "fine american companies" have been doing this for years.
Pull your head out of your ass, and stop blindly worshipping at the altar of capitalism.
BULLSHIT. The reason that "they're not the market" is because YOU'RE NOT PUSHING THE TITLES THAT APPEAL TO THEM!
I'm 18. I'm not an "old guy" who remembers the glory days of bloops and bleeps. But my first console was a NES, and I've owned almost every system since then (other than the real bombs...Sega CD, Jaguar, etc.)
Hey Steve: if you fucking asshats were to push a game like Psy Ops half as much as you push shit like (sport related term)z (insert year), then people would buy it! It's marketing! Enough zombifyed consumer-minded Americans will buy whatever you tell them to if you push it enough!
That goes for the entire industry too, not just Midway - if they pushed great titles like Prince of Persia HALF as much as the shit laden rehashes like Madden 2021, they would sell! Take out ads before movies, like you do with the shitty film tie ins! Take out ads on MTV and during football games, etc. It's not that they're not pushing it because it's not selling, it's that it's not selling because they aren't pushing it!
The inference I get from this, is that those who make their obscene fortunes off those who produce violent works are more than likely to turn a blind eye to anyone attempting to censor or otherwise hurt the ability of those people to keep producing said works.
The REAL "thugs" don't have the money to buy GTA San Andreas, Madden 2021, or Lil Bow Wow's Anal Rape Simulator.
The people buying these FIFTY DOLLAR GAMES are by and large upper-lower to upper-middle class gamers of all races, buying these games to immerse themselves in this bullshit culture that, if they really had to live it, they'd be disgusted.
The real "thugs" aren't buying 50,000 dollar Lincoln Navigators with another 50,000 in aftermarket accessories, rims, and A/V equipment. Nor are they the ones buying the hideous looking and hideously overpriced apparel made by Fubu, et al. It's spoiled, affluent white kids. Which is what makes this all the more ridiculous.
Let's see - a chess match vs. killing in the name of money and power (either over other beings, or over an organization). If you can't see the difference, I don't know what to tell you.
In the end, some of BF's money would have been spent back into the US economy. He essentially took money from the Yugos, and gave it back to the US...(or he would have...) They should be THANKING him, not detaining him.
I would suggest you need to look at this a different way - DRM and enhanced copyright are all ways of an oligarch system trying to hang on for dear life. The market decides what the price will be, and right now, after years of illegal trusts, sweetheart deals, and payola, the market is saying that the value of what you produce is zero.
Sure, you can always lobby our gerbils on the hill to enforce your all-important artificial scarcity, you can always outlaw the technology that makes this fact so, but you can't change the reality of the situation.
Now, this means that you, not I, have a few choices - you can either keep producing what you produce, and hope that enough people find it so useful that they decide to buy the actual product, or you can keep crying and bitching and moaning that you don't make enough, and eventually go away. Meanwhile, someone else with more time and resources left to them will create something as good as your product, or better.
It used to be that money had to be there before something could be produced or created. It's not like that anymore! Music/Movies/Software is now easier than ever for those with a real love for the art to make and release. If you're in it for the money, chances are you'll end up failing.
But, when you get into talentless floozys like Britney Spears, who sell millions of records on the merits of her chest instead of that of her "music," then no, that can be called decidedly bad.
I can respect a writer who writes in a genre I don't care for, as long as the material is well put together. If, however, they write at a 3rd grade level, then yes - it is bad writing, taste and opinion be damned. Britney and her ilk are examples of that, and so are the majority of Clearchannel tripe bands.
a) if they're damn fine musicians and not assholes, I'll buy the freakin CD.
b) if they're damn fine musicians + assholes, I'll dl their shit.
c) if they're shitty musicians, I won't listen, regardless of their status as an asshole
If I'm not mistaken, the RIAA and their cronies (and yes, CC and Infinity are among them, don't fool yourself...) are the ones in trouble. I'm not the one with the business model that was shattered by some college kid with a computer. They are. Thus, it's THEIR responsibility to make sampling an artist's work a piece of cake.
Right now, the easiest way for me to sample what an artist can do (outside of the Overplayed Radio Single/s) is to hop on DC++ and get the song I want to hear. Or, if the artist has several discs out, maybe I'll hop on BT and get one to try out first.
Of course, the problem comes down to the fact that I can get an entire discography by any semi-known band/artist in the world in the time it takes me to get ready, hop in the car, go to the store, and come back with a disc...assuming they even HAVE the disc I want...which, given the stuff I listen to, they don't.
And it's not that I wouldn't like to support the artist. I'd happily send Iron Maiden a 20 dollar check. What I won't do, however, is give my 17 dollars per album to Sony, so they can then turn around and give IM 25 cents out of it, and use the rest to sue grannies and 12 year olds on welfare. So what did I do? I bought a t-shirt. Even if I had bought their entire discography, they see more money from that T than they would have from the dics! But let's not mention THAT, that would be "justifying piracy!"
Aside from the whole "free" deal, people download music because it is easier than going to the store. It is easier than dealing with the DRM restrictions of the pay services. It may be illegal, but keep in mind who designs these laws.
Fuck the copyright laws, I say. They chose to ignore and defile the laws that protected the public (public domain,) so I'm going to ignore and defile the laws that protect them. Tit for tat, the only difference being that one side has "the man" in its corner.
Unless the almighty RIAA starts a database where I can test out almost any song by any artist they own..erm..."signed" in a 30 second preview; unless iTunes starts carrying stuff like Blind Guardian, Manowar, and Malice Mizer, unless they can find a way to make their way of doing business more attractive than the way I'm currently getting my music - regardless of price! - I'll be p2p'ing for the forseeable future.
The burden's on them to save their model. Not on me to support it.
Show me someone without an IT degree who can keep spyware off his PC without having to ask an expert. *waves* Hello.
If a corporation does it under the guise of "journalism," suddenly they don't have to tell the truth or check the facts, they only have to stay in line with the views of their owners (Rupert Murdoch/Fox, anyone?)
Capitalism doesn't trump the right of the public to a free and open press. At least, by law it doesn't. But those making the laws and amending them are most often those on the payroll, so...
The point of even having a press/media is to give the public the facts. How can you give people the facts when the facts often interfere with the bottom line, and you have advertisers to worry about, and you're owned by a wide ranging conglomerate that has multiple interests in several hot button issues? (Would you trust CNN or MSNBC to give you a fair look at the DRM/Piracy topic? You are a fool if so...)
Of course, it's karmatic suicide to suggest that a fine organization like the people at Apple might actually be in a partnership with an evil entity like the RIAA, in the name of *gasp* money!
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
There's plenty of reasons to buy software legit:
- If you want a manual.
- If you want tech support.
- If you want a warranty.
- If you want a rebate on the next version, should it have copy protection not easily breakable.
- If you want to play online (games), if you don't want to deal with cracks/exe's every time a new patch comes out for the buggy retail 1.0
Try before you buy if you ever do is something that these greedy pigs are going to have to live with, else they won't live much longer.
Gasp! I'm going to call the FBI! I think I may have found a potential terrorist! ;)
Take the new PSP. Yeah, it looks sexy as hell, can play movies, music, and games. But no mp3 support? 2 hr battery life? So what am I left with? A portable ps2 that launches with a card game, a sequel to an FF game that didn't need one, and a bunch of ancient ps1 games? No thanks.
I know the "all in one" is the main selling point, but I have an iPod. I have a cell phone. I have a GBA, and I'm going to have a laptop soon. The N-gage had all in one functionality too, and look where that is.
And, on that note, Sony's name recognition isn't going to help it much - Nokia is the world's most well known cell phone maker, and that amounted to a pile of shit when the Ngage bombed. Why? Because it was overpriced, the games sucked, and nobody wanted to watch movies or listen to music on such a device.
Even the Playstation is heading downhill. It'll always sell as long as it has Final Fantasy, GTA, and Gran Turismo. But the hardware is both cheap and inferior, and the games as of late are lacking in quality. I can only think of 7-8 PS2 exclusives I'm really waiting for in the next year and a half, and of those, ONE is not a sequel. And the recent EA/XBL deal is going to throw a wrench into the PS2 workings even further.
So yeah. The PSP is nice looking, but there are better alternatives out there. The PS2 is all black and nifty and it plays dvds, but why should Sony care about making awesome games or hardware? After all, that money is better spent on building lavish estates for Paris Hilton to have record release parties at!
In short, Sony is pulling a Microsoft (dominance through marketing, not quality), Microsoft is pulling a PS1-era Sony (dominance through quality), and Nintendo is just sitting back and pulling an Apple. (Delivering great stuff to a niche market.)
The reason you won't find such things on the cheap is because the average person with a PC doesn't even know what a GB is. He simply goes into the store, the sly salesman says "oh, what do you need it for," and then says "well 60-80 gb should be all you ever need."
Now, contrast that to me - my friends shit when they hear I have a 250 gb drive and a 120 gb drive, as well as an extra 60 gb on a networked machine. They can't fathom ever needing that much space. I know that's probably a pittance by Slashdot standards, but it's true :(
a) chances are, not all those Democrats voted in the last election...
b) some of those attending (like myself) are undoubtedly able to vote for the first time ever.
c) some of those attending (like my mother) are "borderline" Republicans.
Now then, given the fact that Bush won by an extremely small fraction of votes, the movie only has to enrage around 1000 non-voters or borderlines to get to the polls. (The actual number is probably less, I don't claim to be entirely accurate.)
Of course, that assumes that Bush actually WON the election. /tinfoilhat
Call me a troll if you want, I don't care much for karma when I speak the truth.
There's a double standard in this country - the right can say just about everything, do just about anything, and nobody can say shit. When the left dares to challenge it, they are deemed unpatriotic, ungodly heathens that must be evicted for the good of the father...erm...homeland.
You sure your alt isn't DickCheney?
And the problem, really, is that the RIAA/MPAA isn't being FORCED to play by the rules of the public. One of two things would happen if such a thing were to happen -
1. They would make due with smaller (though still extraordinarily large) profits, stop paying single people 20 million for a 2 hr movie, and release fewer movies of higher quality...
or..
2. They would say "fuck it," and get out of business, and then people 10 times more creative than those who currently are pushed by "the machine" would help fill the void.
Either way, the public would win, which is more than we can say for the current system.