The Economist said it recently and they were correct:
Copyright was never intended to be a property right. If you read the Founders (and not the MPAA/RIAA) you will come to the same conclusion. Control, not revenue. You can give it away and still hold the copyright.... Copyright is not about revenue. It's all about CONTROL. Nothing more.
Indeed. It's a bit much to say the least. I stopped caring about the idea when the original complaint contained "authors and estates"... I have been, and always will be, against anyone other than the original human creator getting any control over the copyright.
I mean, we all know copyright doesn't guarantee revenue. So what is the big malfunction with PG taking long-dead (used books possibly) stories and making them available to a new audience. And since the author/estate doesn't get any royalties for used book sales, their "kidnapping" argument is more specious than usual. At least they didn't say "stealing".....
That's actually very funny, but I suspect that you'll be modded as troll or flamebait before it's all over.:-/ Shame too, because it's the kind of humor we need around here.:)
Indeed, the PC had the capacity to be ahead, but in terms of already sold PCs, the gap wasn't so far. It was, as a platform, much more capable, but those PCs already in the pipe were not so powerful. Your point still stands though, but as we've seen even in the PC world, the plateau of realism has been the "chicken & egg" problem with PCs (and now it has shown up on consoles). Games can only get so "real" before people aren't as interested in the upgrade escalator if it's only going to give a smaller and smaller percentage of realism.
I mean, the leap from Wolfenstein 3D to Doom to Quake was considerable, noticeable, and quantifiable. The leaps from Crysis to Crysis 2 are more subtle, and less of a leap for the masses to see, and quite frankly, probably won't "wow" them like the leaps from sprites to 3D.
Which is why I think (and this is just my opinion) that Nintendo's strategy worked SO well this generation. Couple a unique control scheme to a less powerful console (and focus on the fun and casual), and clean up at the cash register. Is it a good long-term strategy? I don't know, but they seem to be doing alright, even with flat sales (the sales numbers couldn't be sustained anyway)... I mean, the DS, the Lite, the DSi, the DSi XL... now the 3DS (well soon)... they're not going for gigaflops. They're going for reasonably priced tried-and-true gameplay. Platformers, etc are their bread and butter.
Maybe the Wii2 will not be as successful, but I am not confident that the PS4 and XBox720 will be a huge leap in tech and realism either.
Nobody accused the music industry of being smart, logical, or able to formulate a business model. But, I'd like to point out that the 2009 sales dip might have something to do with the shitter the world economy is in...:)
It always applies. This simply does an 'end the round' to try and lock it in the courts while they violate rights... by the time it gets to the Supreme Court, it has already had the intended effect... and they can dismiss the order and not care.:)
And I am SO GODDAMNED tired of hearing the word "steal" when these assholes talk about infringement. Fuck off and die, MPAA/RIAA.
...or people who have to reinstall their OS because the registry bloat becomes unbearable. Indirectly, your mom, your family, and in turn most windows users, will have to reinstall at some point because the registry becomes a stringy mess. Sure there's a way to avoid the mess, but not installing/uninstalling programs shouldn't be an answer.:)
It's been improving (much needed I might add) since the registry was introduced, but it's got a ways to go... and the concept of the registry is something that really aggravates some users (not necessarily your family, of course.)
Quite true. the problem is not necessarily Americans' ignorance (collectively) of the Internet and how it works, or that the Internet should be included in free speech (and is merely the vehicle for free speech to exist, albeit in a flawed fashion these days). The problem is how the poll is worded. I imagine you're right on the money with the way it was asked, with quantifiers that seem "reasonable" to someone who is unsure about technology and its reach into everyday life. Some people fear the unknown (in this case the internet) and would be more than happy to shut the whole thing down because that whole "technology" stuff gives them the creeps.:)
Leave it to pollsters to skew the results by asking the "right" question to get the results they want. Rarely is anyone thinking critically enough to see beyond the implication of the specific question being asked. (what if he had the power to just shut it off if his popularity went into the crapper? or such things like that.)
Just like K said... "A person is smart. People are panicky and dumb.":)
It reminds me of the Dr. Who episode (the David Tenant series) where the doctor is aboard a space cruise liner called "The Titanic".... their analysis of humanity was suspect, having cannibalistic rituals after going to war with Turkey or something like that.
And Kylie Minogue looks fabulous for a 40 year old....:)
It has not, and never been about "giving it away for free." I never said that. ASCAP characterized the EFF/FSF and anyone else who didn't agree with their policy to perpetuate copyright until oblivion as people who were against copyright.
That's a lie. It's also a lie that copyright is a property right. It's also a lie that copyright guarantees revenue. It's also a lie that you understood the entire point of my post. Stop hijacking the argument about copyright as being something solely about money. And stop responding to things I never said as if I was endorsing it. None of the organizations that ASCAP rails about is advocating "everything is free"... just a sensible (key word there) copyright framework that the founders intended.
Go ask a person who bought one of your albums to buy it again because you need to pay your mortgage. That seems to be your argument. And it's a pretty piss-poor one.
Of course after this little tirade, ASCAP is getting heat from its members on crossing the line between what's good policy and what's just a plain out and out lie. ASCAP tried hardball with the EFF, and it has bit them in their fat asses. They are not talking about money for their members... which is where I think the debate would gravitate if that was indeed their core position. Evidence (mountains of it) has shown that ASCAP, RIAA, and MPAA are not concerned with members' rights and privileges. They are merely interested in lining their pockets. And judging by this latest ASCAP outburst, it seems they will stop at nothing to get it.
This isn't about entrenched opinions on what the Founders meant by "for a limited time". Even the Economist said copyright was about having control over your work. It was never meant to be a property right. Yet here we are. ASCAP should apologize and learn to stop resorting to the last-ditch style mudslinging that merely underlines the EFF's position in the matter. When losing, make shit up. When losing badly, insult the opponent.
I have a dual 2.0GHz (the one with PCI-X instead of PCI-e) that I threw two giant HDDs in and turned it into a file server (time machine backup server) as well as a media center for my PS3 and 360. I rip my movies to that HDD and watch them via the uPnP stuff on my game consoles (when the mood strikes me.) It's great for storing music collections, backups and other fun items.:) Be a digital packrat.
I still have Leopard on it, but that's just because it was the last OS I used before I re-purposed it. I could stick ubuntu on it later on, but there's nothing pressing me to do so just yet (I will eventually, I suspect.) It still sits in the cubbyhole of my super-cheap computer desk in my office, and I use the front USB port if I ever need to reboot it or anything (it's got an insane uptime...) heh. I use screen sharing in OSX to connect to it using my Mini or MBP. It serves up itunes to all my Macs (and mp3s/etc to my PS3/360)without any fuss or overly spastic noise.:) Well no more noise than any other tower PC I've had.
Additionally, the fact that there were deaths had something to do with the reporting. There are no reported deaths w/r/t the GM fire potential that I've heard...(the fact that it affects 1.5 million cars isn't the significant part.. it's how many really caught fire... the Ford cruise control module fires were covered very extensively due to the number of fires the faulty part caused.) Toyota stopped selling/manufacturing cars completely after it was determined there might be more to this than "retarded old people driving Toyotas". That would get press even on Mars.;)
If no one had died, and toyota hadn't been so flippant in the beginning (with all sorts of spin... even more than you'd typically expect from Toyota...) I think we'd never have seen so many reports on the matter. Toyota's been dinged for frame rusting issues and a major fiasco with quality back home in Japan, and this is just another in the long line of "time to attack #1" we see in world media all the time. If not Toyota, its Apple, or whatever. Part of what sells papers, I suppose. I'm not very pleased with the press anyway... because they seem to eager to accept the PR spin and not dig deeper into the root cause of these sorts of abuses and corporate hubris.
It's a fiasco. Whether it's toyota's fault of the drivers is what will be resolved as time goes on (or it may never be... who knows?) The fact that the media covered it so vigorously is directly related to how Toyota handled the problem.. the "blood in the water" sort of vibe even caught the press.
As the proud owner of a dodge ram with 155k and a jeep wrangler with 230K... I don't mind American cars. And it's not like I'm unique in my experience. If this has taught us anything it is that no car is perfect... not even Toyotas. YMMV, but to swear of American cars is as silly as me saying I'll never buy a Toyota. (Never say never.)
That's why the sample set is called into question even by the NTSA (so far). Additionally, these cars are computer-controlled in so many ways, the mechanical portion could possibly not reflect the issue since depressing the brake in modern cars isn't like the old days. I have no doubt that there are user errors in these complaints, particularly the rash of complaints after the recall, but the article's own mention of the data recorder being dodgy (apparently Toyota mentioned this at one time) and the sample set picked by the NTSA unfortunately skewing heavily towards the spiked complaints lot of cars leaves me at the very least scratching my head. And of course at the worst, it disturbs me.
There were some reports in Japan (I remember an article during this whole thing coming out about the inability of regular Japanese to bring these sorts of complaints to light regarding a corporation, and how unlike the US, these things are MUCH more difficult to bring up in Toyota's homeland) And the context of the sudden acceleration problem was the basis for the article. I sure wish I could remember where I read that... Google is my friend, but it's too early to bother right now.:)
And unlike Audi, Toyota behaved like a real jerk (in the strictest "corporate" sense) before it finally announced a recall. So some of the reputation damage was self-inflicted. How much of the total reputation damage is unclear, and how much is deserved is also just as cloudy.
Conspiracy theories aside (is your tinfoil hat on too tight?) I think you can attribute the government response to the issue as a ploy to prop up GM in tough times, but to say the government/GM/illuminati/bilderbergs/aliens/freemasons concocted the entire fiasco is a bit of a stretch... even for the level-headed *ahem* folks who frequent slashdot.:)
Mainly I feel the conspiracy isn't all that profoundly deep in this because that this is the government we're talking about after all... what other bunch of bumbling idiots like the government do you know have the gray matter to pull this sort of thing off? The government is evil in many ways... but in many ways its just a fat retard who eats paste... In other words, we're giving these mouth-breathers WAY too much credit.:)
TFA did mention that only the most recent vehicles were tested. Perhaps, just perhaps, these are the "also-rans" who are looking to cash in on a very real problem by "causing" it themselves.
Also after the recall was issued (for pedal problems, not just "floor mat" changes) the complaints suddenly spiked. Someone smelled blood in the water.:) I'm inclined to believe it is a bit of mechanical and software failure, since Toyotas are mostly drive-by-wire these days, it's very easy to have an issue crop up that wasn't picked up in real-world-testing.
Then there's the damning memos that showed Toyota was more inclined to cover up the problem than deal with it. I'm not saying that there aren't "user error" problems (a la Audi)... but there are variables in this case that aren't specifically adding up... not to mention you throw in Toyota's response early on and you've got the "more than meets the eye" sort of thing. *shrug* Toyota's rep is tarnished, at least in the short term, as a result of this. People forget over time, but right now Toyota's got a PR debacle of biblical proportions to deal with, and right or wrong, their arrogance has cost them some goodwill with their loyal customers.
Slashdot Mirror
The Economist said it recently and they were correct:
Copyright was never intended to be a property right. If you read the Founders (and not the MPAA/RIAA) you will come to the same conclusion. Control, not revenue. You can give it away and still hold the copyright.... Copyright is not about revenue. It's all about CONTROL. Nothing more.
Indeed. It's a bit much to say the least. I stopped caring about the idea when the original complaint contained "authors and estates"... I have been, and always will be, against anyone other than the original human creator getting any control over the copyright.
I mean, we all know copyright doesn't guarantee revenue. So what is the big malfunction with PG taking long-dead (used books possibly) stories and making them available to a new audience. And since the author/estate doesn't get any royalties for used book sales, their "kidnapping" argument is more specious than usual. At least they didn't say "stealing".....
If you want to be civil about it... be sure to give them cab fare. Otherwise you're just a complete prick.
That's actually very funny, but I suspect that you'll be modded as troll or flamebait before it's all over. :-/ Shame too, because it's the kind of humor we need around here. :)
What can I say? I love the old Camp Chaos "Monkey for President" cartoons. :)
Indeed, the PC had the capacity to be ahead, but in terms of already sold PCs, the gap wasn't so far. It was, as a platform, much more capable, but those PCs already in the pipe were not so powerful. Your point still stands though, but as we've seen even in the PC world, the plateau of realism has been the "chicken & egg" problem with PCs (and now it has shown up on consoles). Games can only get so "real" before people aren't as interested in the upgrade escalator if it's only going to give a smaller and smaller percentage of realism.
I mean, the leap from Wolfenstein 3D to Doom to Quake was considerable, noticeable, and quantifiable. The leaps from Crysis to Crysis 2 are more subtle, and less of a leap for the masses to see, and quite frankly, probably won't "wow" them like the leaps from sprites to 3D.
Which is why I think (and this is just my opinion) that Nintendo's strategy worked SO well this generation. Couple a unique control scheme to a less powerful console (and focus on the fun and casual), and clean up at the cash register. Is it a good long-term strategy? I don't know, but they seem to be doing alright, even with flat sales (the sales numbers couldn't be sustained anyway)... I mean, the DS, the Lite, the DSi, the DSi XL... now the 3DS (well soon)... they're not going for gigaflops. They're going for reasonably priced tried-and-true gameplay. Platformers, etc are their bread and butter.
Maybe the Wii2 will not be as successful, but I am not confident that the PS4 and XBox720 will be a huge leap in tech and realism either.
They're flat. Not dead. Try reading without a bias next time.
Nobody accused the music industry of being smart, logical, or able to formulate a business model. But, I'd like to point out that the 2009 sales dip might have something to do with the shitter the world economy is in... :)
It always applies. This simply does an 'end the round' to try and lock it in the courts while they violate rights... by the time it gets to the Supreme Court, it has already had the intended effect... and they can dismiss the order and not care. :)
And I am SO GODDAMNED tired of hearing the word "steal" when these assholes talk about infringement. Fuck off and die, MPAA/RIAA.
...or people who have to reinstall their OS because the registry bloat becomes unbearable. Indirectly, your mom, your family, and in turn most windows users, will have to reinstall at some point because the registry becomes a stringy mess. Sure there's a way to avoid the mess, but not installing/uninstalling programs shouldn't be an answer. :)
It's been improving (much needed I might add) since the registry was introduced, but it's got a ways to go... and the concept of the registry is something that really aggravates some users (not necessarily your family, of course.)
Quite true. the problem is not necessarily Americans' ignorance (collectively) of the Internet and how it works, or that the Internet should be included in free speech (and is merely the vehicle for free speech to exist, albeit in a flawed fashion these days). The problem is how the poll is worded. I imagine you're right on the money with the way it was asked, with quantifiers that seem "reasonable" to someone who is unsure about technology and its reach into everyday life. Some people fear the unknown (in this case the internet) and would be more than happy to shut the whole thing down because that whole "technology" stuff gives them the creeps. :)
:)
Leave it to pollsters to skew the results by asking the "right" question to get the results they want. Rarely is anyone thinking critically enough to see beyond the implication of the specific question being asked. (what if he had the power to just shut it off if his popularity went into the crapper? or such things like that.)
Just like K said... "A person is smart. People are panicky and dumb."
Well put. Let us filter our own news. I'm tired of being fed the news as if I'm not eating enough vegetables. :)
It reminds me of the Dr. Who episode (the David Tenant series) where the doctor is aboard a space cruise liner called "The Titanic".... their analysis of humanity was suspect, having cannibalistic rituals after going to war with Turkey or something like that.
:)
And Kylie Minogue looks fabulous for a 40 year old....
That's it! I forgot the name of Count Floyd's program...
There was also the lesser known "Dr. Tongue's 3D house of Pancakes" too...
The classic "Dr. Tongue's 3D House of Stewardesses" on Count Floyd's Nightmare theater... (or something like that.) :)
What a GREAT skit. I still love it...
It has not, and never been about "giving it away for free." I never said that. ASCAP characterized the EFF/FSF and anyone else who didn't agree with their policy to perpetuate copyright until oblivion as people who were against copyright.
That's a lie. It's also a lie that copyright is a property right. It's also a lie that copyright guarantees revenue. It's also a lie that you understood the entire point of my post. Stop hijacking the argument about copyright as being something solely about money. And stop responding to things I never said as if I was endorsing it. None of the organizations that ASCAP rails about is advocating "everything is free"... just a sensible (key word there) copyright framework that the founders intended.
Go ask a person who bought one of your albums to buy it again because you need to pay your mortgage. That seems to be your argument. And it's a pretty piss-poor one.
Of course after this little tirade, ASCAP is getting heat from its members on crossing the line between what's good policy and what's just a plain out and out lie. ASCAP tried hardball with the EFF, and it has bit them in their fat asses. They are not talking about money for their members... which is where I think the debate would gravitate if that was indeed their core position. Evidence (mountains of it) has shown that ASCAP, RIAA, and MPAA are not concerned with members' rights and privileges. They are merely interested in lining their pockets. And judging by this latest ASCAP outburst, it seems they will stop at nothing to get it.
This isn't about entrenched opinions on what the Founders meant by "for a limited time". Even the Economist said copyright was about having control over your work. It was never meant to be a property right. Yet here we are. ASCAP should apologize and learn to stop resorting to the last-ditch style mudslinging that merely underlines the EFF's position in the matter. When losing, make shit up. When losing badly, insult the opponent.
I have a dual 2.0GHz (the one with PCI-X instead of PCI-e) that I threw two giant HDDs in and turned it into a file server (time machine backup server) as well as a media center for my PS3 and 360. I rip my movies to that HDD and watch them via the uPnP stuff on my game consoles (when the mood strikes me.) It's great for storing music collections, backups and other fun items. :) Be a digital packrat.
:) Well no more noise than any other tower PC I've had.
I still have Leopard on it, but that's just because it was the last OS I used before I re-purposed it. I could stick ubuntu on it later on, but there's nothing pressing me to do so just yet (I will eventually, I suspect.) It still sits in the cubbyhole of my super-cheap computer desk in my office, and I use the front USB port if I ever need to reboot it or anything (it's got an insane uptime...) heh. I use screen sharing in OSX to connect to it using my Mini or MBP. It serves up itunes to all my Macs (and mp3s/etc to my PS3/360)without any fuss or overly spastic noise.
Additionally, the fact that there were deaths had something to do with the reporting. There are no reported deaths w/r/t the GM fire potential that I've heard...(the fact that it affects 1.5 million cars isn't the significant part.. it's how many really caught fire... the Ford cruise control module fires were covered very extensively due to the number of fires the faulty part caused.) Toyota stopped selling/manufacturing cars completely after it was determined there might be more to this than "retarded old people driving Toyotas". That would get press even on Mars. ;)
If no one had died, and toyota hadn't been so flippant in the beginning (with all sorts of spin... even more than you'd typically expect from Toyota...) I think we'd never have seen so many reports on the matter. Toyota's been dinged for frame rusting issues and a major fiasco with quality back home in Japan, and this is just another in the long line of "time to attack #1" we see in world media all the time. If not Toyota, its Apple, or whatever. Part of what sells papers, I suppose. I'm not very pleased with the press anyway... because they seem to eager to accept the PR spin and not dig deeper into the root cause of these sorts of abuses and corporate hubris.
That is controlled by a computer.
It's a fiasco. Whether it's toyota's fault of the drivers is what will be resolved as time goes on (or it may never be... who knows?) The fact that the media covered it so vigorously is directly related to how Toyota handled the problem.. the "blood in the water" sort of vibe even caught the press.
As the proud owner of a dodge ram with 155k and a jeep wrangler with 230K... I don't mind American cars. And it's not like I'm unique in my experience. If this has taught us anything it is that no car is perfect... not even Toyotas. YMMV, but to swear of American cars is as silly as me saying I'll never buy a Toyota. (Never say never.)
That's why the sample set is called into question even by the NTSA (so far). Additionally, these cars are computer-controlled in so many ways, the mechanical portion could possibly not reflect the issue since depressing the brake in modern cars isn't like the old days. I have no doubt that there are user errors in these complaints, particularly the rash of complaints after the recall, but the article's own mention of the data recorder being dodgy (apparently Toyota mentioned this at one time) and the sample set picked by the NTSA unfortunately skewing heavily towards the spiked complaints lot of cars leaves me at the very least scratching my head. And of course at the worst, it disturbs me.
There were some reports in Japan (I remember an article during this whole thing coming out about the inability of regular Japanese to bring these sorts of complaints to light regarding a corporation, and how unlike the US, these things are MUCH more difficult to bring up in Toyota's homeland) And the context of the sudden acceleration problem was the basis for the article. I sure wish I could remember where I read that... Google is my friend, but it's too early to bother right now. :)
And unlike Audi, Toyota behaved like a real jerk (in the strictest "corporate" sense) before it finally announced a recall. So some of the reputation damage was self-inflicted. How much of the total reputation damage is unclear, and how much is deserved is also just as cloudy.
Conspiracy theories aside (is your tinfoil hat on too tight?) I think you can attribute the government response to the issue as a ploy to prop up GM in tough times, but to say the government/GM/illuminati/bilderbergs/aliens/freemasons concocted the entire fiasco is a bit of a stretch... even for the level-headed *ahem* folks who frequent slashdot. :)
:)
Mainly I feel the conspiracy isn't all that profoundly deep in this because that this is the government we're talking about after all... what other bunch of bumbling idiots like the government do you know have the gray matter to pull this sort of thing off? The government is evil in many ways... but in many ways its just a fat retard who eats paste... In other words, we're giving these mouth-breathers WAY too much credit.
TFA did mention that only the most recent vehicles were tested. Perhaps, just perhaps, these are the "also-rans" who are looking to cash in on a very real problem by "causing" it themselves.
:) I'm inclined to believe it is a bit of mechanical and software failure, since Toyotas are mostly drive-by-wire these days, it's very easy to have an issue crop up that wasn't picked up in real-world-testing.
Also after the recall was issued (for pedal problems, not just "floor mat" changes) the complaints suddenly spiked. Someone smelled blood in the water.
Then there's the damning memos that showed Toyota was more inclined to cover up the problem than deal with it. I'm not saying that there aren't "user error" problems (a la Audi)... but there are variables in this case that aren't specifically adding up... not to mention you throw in Toyota's response early on and you've got the "more than meets the eye" sort of thing. *shrug* Toyota's rep is tarnished, at least in the short term, as a result of this. People forget over time, but right now Toyota's got a PR debacle of biblical proportions to deal with, and right or wrong, their arrogance has cost them some goodwill with their loyal customers.