Christ the NRA must be out en force tonight. Hardly off-topic - it even discusses the topic of this discussion. How much more on-topic is needed here?:-P
Some people don't buy the games. Some people, while being able to afford them easily, still download them off the net for pennies and burn them to DVDs. Sony is losing a LOT of money from those people, and can't recoup it from everyone else (otherwise PS2 games would cost nearer $100). Mod chips hurt sony, hurt consumers, and hurt the market. Insisting they are a good thing is a very selfish notion, when it's so incredibly obvious they only help pirates, and the 4 people in the UK who make their own games.
Any time you're agreeing with the italians on a legal matter, you know you're on the wrong side:-P
Ever thought why your PS/2 was so cheap? Because Sony subsidize the price, and recoup the cost through the games you buy. If mod chips were legal, Sony would have to raise the price of their consoles to cease losing money on pirated games. Making mod chips illegal keeps prices down, which is fairer on everyone.
When something's use is almost entirely illegal, of course it makes sense to ban it. Comparing mod chips to cars is ridiculous. Comparing it to the "Bank Robber Special" car released by GM, with armour-plated sides and bullet-proof windows, specially designed to out-run any police car on the road, and with rotating license plates and oil-slick shooter. We're not talking a generic chip, but a specialised chip designed SOLELY to defeat console's built-in protection.
Comparing it to a knife is also ridiculous, unless you compared it to the "Back Alley Mugger" knife, sold by CrackAddicts, Inc., with collapsible ceramic blade to aid non-detection in metal detectors, in-built fingerprint removal cloth, and specially designed to puncture police stab-jackets. That product is solely intended for crime, not for cooking, and so is more in-line with your analogy.
Comparing it with computers in general is also horrificly naive, seeing as computers are multi-purpose tools, and not designed purely and 100% to circumvent protective technology. Comparing it to a computer that only had ROM, which was filled with all sorts of credit-card generators and hacking tools, lists of email addresses and brute-force dictionaries would be more like it. It's not general purpose, and its intended use is criminal.
If what you were saying was true, it would be legal to own a nuclear weapon and pack of rabid wolves with AK-47s ties to their faces. It clearly isn't, so the law has set precedent that a device who's purpose is solely illegal is in itself illegal, whether it's being used or not.
Why don't you include firearm-related murder in your statistics? Surely, if you want to be objective, you would have...
Seeing as doctors can save lives as opposed to just kill things, comparing the two is absolutely ridiculous, and shows a struggling argument grasping at the last strains of viability.
Anyway, "well-regulated militia" doesn't mean everyone gets to own a gun if they want to. What's "well-regulated" about that? A bunch of accountants in the mid west aren't going to be able to protect themselves against a government if it wanted to kill them. How can you defend such a ridiculously anachronistic point of view?
Here's something else to think about - if guns make people so untouchable, howcome the nazis rolled across europe. They were fighting armies and navies, and still they won. Surely by your logic, they would have been offed by the first gun owners club they came across...
There are legitimate uses for a sharpie and a shift key. Mod chips, by their very nature, are designed to circumvent locks in place to protect the creator's business model. If they didn't have those, we'd be charged $600 for a PS/2, to cover costs of people not buying games, or importing from other markets.
It's not just their money they're protecting, but ours.
If you were within 30m of them to begin with. If you think that's a privacy concern, you need help. I mean, you can hear someone's ringtone further than that - are they privacy concerns too??
Yeah - it's really fun when a stoned pilot decides to visit your BBQ by crashing in your yard.
If you're in a position where you can seriously kill a bunch of people, you need to be regulated. There needs to be an official acknowledgement of your fitness to fly. What works for you might not work for anyone else. That's why they don't offer members of the general public to fly commercial jets.
Only on/. can an off-topic post about a Microsoft vulnerability of a completely, 100%-different nature be modded as "3, interesting". "+5, Expected anti-MS bullshit" more like.:)
I hate to say it, but it's your fault for not blowing his head clear across the street, with your new NRA-endorsed Magnum "Thief Fucker" handgun. As we say at the clubhouse, "GUNS FOR BABIES! SHOOT BLACK PEOPLE! I LOVE THE KLAN! FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!" etc.
It's still the market leader, by a long shot. I appreciate this is slashdot, and you're bound by law to slag off anything Microsoft has ever done (or anything you hypothesize they ever will), but you can't honestly say this isn't being just as unfair to other manufacturers, can you?
They are both things that cost tens of thousands of dollars to get your hands on. Though, if the nVidia driver code got out, it would cost them a whole heap more. A better analogy would be between the driver source code, and blueprints of every Ford car for the last 6 years, with detailed instructions on how to make them in your front room.
I'm all for open source drivers too, but considering it's like Ford giving away free cars, it's a lot to ask (and especially as only a few percent of desktop users would even know what to do with them). You can't have a tiny percentage of a market dictating huge, business-model-shifting policy decisions to the suppliers.:)
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Christ the NRA must be out en force tonight. Hardly off-topic - it even discusses the topic of this discussion. How much more on-topic is needed here? :-P
That's a great attemt at trying to justify an ad-hoc MS bashing. good work.
Obviously, but text messages are fine in cinemas :)
Not being rude, but that's what home insurance and non-stupid friends are for :)
Some people don't buy the games. Some people, while being able to afford them easily, still download them off the net for pennies and burn them to DVDs. Sony is losing a LOT of money from those people, and can't recoup it from everyone else (otherwise PS2 games would cost nearer $100). Mod chips hurt sony, hurt consumers, and hurt the market. Insisting they are a good thing is a very selfish notion, when it's so incredibly obvious they only help pirates, and the 4 people in the UK who make their own games.
Ever thought why your PS/2 was so cheap? Because Sony subsidize the price, and recoup the cost through the games you buy. If mod chips were legal, Sony would have to raise the price of their consoles to cease losing money on pirated games. Making mod chips illegal keeps prices down, which is fairer on everyone.
Comparing it to a knife is also ridiculous, unless you compared it to the "Back Alley Mugger" knife, sold by CrackAddicts, Inc., with collapsible ceramic blade to aid non-detection in metal detectors, in-built fingerprint removal cloth, and specially designed to puncture police stab-jackets. That product is solely intended for crime, not for cooking, and so is more in-line with your analogy.
Comparing it with computers in general is also horrificly naive, seeing as computers are multi-purpose tools, and not designed purely and 100% to circumvent protective technology. Comparing it to a computer that only had ROM, which was filled with all sorts of credit-card generators and hacking tools, lists of email addresses and brute-force dictionaries would be more like it. It's not general purpose, and its intended use is criminal.
If what you were saying was true, it would be legal to own a nuclear weapon and pack of rabid wolves with AK-47s ties to their faces. It clearly isn't, so the law has set precedent that a device who's purpose is solely illegal is in itself illegal, whether it's being used or not.
Seeing as doctors can save lives as opposed to just kill things, comparing the two is absolutely ridiculous, and shows a struggling argument grasping at the last strains of viability.
Anyway, "well-regulated militia" doesn't mean everyone gets to own a gun if they want to. What's "well-regulated" about that? A bunch of accountants in the mid west aren't going to be able to protect themselves against a government if it wanted to kill them. How can you defend such a ridiculously anachronistic point of view?
Here's something else to think about - if guns make people so untouchable, howcome the nazis rolled across europe. They were fighting armies and navies, and still they won. Surely by your logic, they would have been offed by the first gun owners club they came across...
It's not just their money they're protecting, but ours.
alcohol and well-known medications are all drugs... they can all affect people for the worse. That's why they're called drugs, not candy.
Well, thanks to the NRA any redneck yahoo can buy a gun and shoot you with it already - a plane dropping from the sky is your least concern ;)
Well, a cellphone on silent is no interruption to anyone, so that would be a bit unfair...
If you were within 30m of them to begin with. If you think that's a privacy concern, you need help. I mean, you can hear someone's ringtone further than that - are they privacy concerns too??
If you're in a position where you can seriously kill a bunch of people, you need to be regulated. There needs to be an official acknowledgement of your fitness to fly. What works for you might not work for anyone else. That's why they don't offer members of the general public to fly commercial jets.
And how to run over civilians... aaah the glory days.
maybe they like playing by the rules? :-P
I was waiting for the first gun nut to take offense to that. you're slipping!
Unless you attach $60,000 to that letter, it's not going to do squat. welcome to the new, improved democracy of corporate america.
You should try the tijuana turkish baths, then... ;)
Only on /. can an off-topic post about a Microsoft vulnerability of a completely, 100%-different nature be modded as "3, interesting". "+5, Expected anti-MS bullshit" more like. :)
this was a joke, btw. hehehe
Slashdot is losing even more objectivity as time goes on. This discussion is one of them. thanks for clearing that up ;)
It's still the market leader, by a long shot. I appreciate this is slashdot, and you're bound by law to slag off anything Microsoft has ever done (or anything you hypothesize they ever will), but you can't honestly say this isn't being just as unfair to other manufacturers, can you?
Glad it got your attention. ;)
I'm all for open source drivers too, but considering it's like Ford giving away free cars, it's a lot to ask (and especially as only a few percent of desktop users would even know what to do with them). You can't have a tiny percentage of a market dictating huge, business-model-shifting policy decisions to the suppliers. :)