Pearlman is on to something. Though, his plan will effectively create a monopoly, a single system for distribution of music. He even proposes that the major music labels should be bought by computer manufacturers.
I believe I have a better plan. It is a simple add-on to the Creative Commons NC-license which says something like: "You may use this commercially if you pay X % in royalties to the copyright holder trough the Open Music Service". The Open Music Service collects royalties worldwide and gives it to the copyright owners.
The goal is that anyone may start their own online music store and sell music at whatever price they seem like (royalties always beeing in percentages). A completly free market for music distribution in which the artists gets paid. Likewise, artists would simply have to make a contract with the Open Music Service and "click" you are distributed world wide.
Q: Why would people pay for music they may download for free? (AKA "competing with free") A: Because it is more convient to go to a site dedicated to music you like and pay 5 cents for a download than to search trough the p2p networks. The dedicated site may even help you find new music you like, something the p2p networks can't do on their own.
I also believe this to be more realistic than Pearlmans suggestion as you don't need the major labels to start with. Just get the self-distributing artists and some indie labels to sign on (they would definetly get more income with this system) and you have an established alternative.
That's the barebones. As I've been working on this idea for over a year, there is of course more. Actually, I've been meaning to start a company based on the idea, but haven't gotten very far. If you want to get involved, please drop me a line.
IDF doesn't have smart people working for them ...
on
Israeli Army Frowns on D&D
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
After all, these people have some of the best clinical and occupational psychologists in the world working for them.
Really? Doesn't seem so to me. Some possible theories why the IDF is skeptical of roleplayers (TFA says D&D, but seem to refer to RPGs and LARPs in general):
- RPGs do have a bad image due to some Christian fundamentalists spreading FUD. The same Christians are avid supporters of Israel and Zionism so maybe the IDF actually believed these guys.
- there's a higher percentage of left-leaning among roleplayers than among the general population. This may also be the case in Israel. Beeing a roleplayer thus makes you more likely to be exposed to leftists. This is indeed a security issue.
- roleplayers are more individualistic and creative and thus less likely to accept orders without questioning.
- the IDF are prejudiced. Psychologists have a tendency to view everything trough psychologist-glasses. This makes "escapism" a bad thing.
- some idiot deceided this some years ago and nobody has corrected it since due to hiearchy issues.
I thought all new phones had MP3 tunes and a bluetooth and IR link. No need to pay anyone for beeing individaul. But then again I'm Norwegian. We invented GSM, the Finns and Swedes took the profit and we all pioneered the whole SMS craze.
By simply rewriting the dictionary so that words now mean the opposite of what they did before, we can solve all the world's problems! War, famine, poverty, disease...
Best of all, since I have patented this method of problem solving, it is now an Open Standard; this means it is free for anyone (who I choose not to sue) to use!
Could I pay to avoid this "premium content". Wikipedia's NPOV-policy is superior to most other encyclopedias. Not all articles are as good as they ought to be, but compared with an encyclopedia which is full of BS that it portrays as "objective" I prefer wikipedia. Read Wikipedia's article on terrorism and compare with any other "objective" source. If you also read the talk page you are probably far better informed than most of the general public.
Though, I do not worry about Google taking over Wikipedia only because they donated a few servers. If there are talks between Wikipedia and Google about Google taking over, I'll worry, but I see no reason to do so now.
May I observe, my fellow countryman, that you are confusing "houses of parliament" with "branches of government (power)"?
I've read it over and over again and couldn't understand how exactly parent has confused houses of parliament with branches of government. Maybe you should read it again too?
Modern democratic states divide the power between three (at least in theory) independant branches:
Actually, only some do. All have three branches, but not all have three independent branches. Look it up.
The ongoing boycott of Amazon ended nearly 2 1/2 years ago.
Re:Ironically, that story isn't true
on
New Standard Keyboard
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
...which they were saying "The market always chooses the best option."
Right on track you are. That's the real issue: does markets always choose the best tech? Or does tech-development follow paths which are chosen more or less accidentaly. There are stronger cases for this than the qwerty-story with a simple example's beeing the best.
Take a hypothetical story of a 10 year-old trying to deceide whether he should buy a X-BOX or a PS2. They're at approx the same price in the shop he visits and for some reason he chooses XBOX (he likes the green X). Then his friend is also to buy a game console. If the friend buys an XBOX he could borrow games from the first buyer whereas with a PS2 he has to buy all his games himself. What kind of console will these guys' classmates probably buy? The whole class is quite soon in a lock-in on XBOX. Does this make XBOX better than PS2?
Transfer this scenario into companies deceiding which console they should produce games for and you have a theory of economic behaviour. There are of course many more factors at work, but still there is some truth in this theory.
Slashdotter's may also notice that Liebowitz and Margolis has some interesting claims:"The pair also take aim at the VHS-Beta story. VHS won that battle, they say, because it could tape for twice as long, something consumers clearly wanted. Similarly, they note that DOS computers caught on because they were markedly less expensive than Apple's."(from the WSJ link above)
The availability of more videos (and porn) on the VHS format didn't affect VHS's market victory? Microsoft's market tactics had no effect on the lock-in on DOS and later Windows?
They also argue: "What's more, while today's personal computers can easily be reprogrammed to the Dvorak layout, few people do."
I wonder why? You may also use Firefox instead of IE, use a mail program which doesn't spread viruses as default behaviour, etc.
So which serious objective tests between the two keyboards have there been?
Not objective, but at least to be taken seriously. Anti-Dvorak Crusaders Keytime
I, and most peoiple I know who have acquired pirated material, got it from file sharing apps and IRC. Are these really considered "organised" crime gangs?
No. Organized crime gangs are the one responsible for almost all music, movies, games and software sold in Eastern Europe, SE Asia and Latin America, who earns billions without paying a dime to the copyright owners. The real pirates, not the filesharers.
Depends on what kind of web-pages we're talking about. Browsing news or forums with a mobile is pointless due to screensize, but I use my mobile on the net quite often. It is quite useful for things like bus schedules, cinema programs for tonight, finding the nearest ATM or gas station. But then again I live in Scandinavia...
Given a choice of spending other people's money (your's, the taxpayer) or going with a group that has no formal organization that can take legal responsibility when systems break down, the bureaucrats will always chose buying the service from another large organization.
Why can't commercial Linux vendors do this? Has MS patented "beeing another large organization"?
This can't happen because great software is mostly the result of great individual programmers.
Microsoft has the funds to buy their work, talents, and focus for its exclusive use in Windows.
And everyone knows that Linux and Open Source developers work for free (beer) in their sparetime.
Doesn't everyone believe in global warming? What they discuss is whether it is man-made or not.
There's also a difference between whether the changes in temperature we experience today are manmade and whether continuing and increased relase of CO2 into the atmosphere would cause global warming. It's my impression that most climatologists agrees that at some point it will.
I believe you are wrong. Video phones are starting to take off in Denmark trough the 3G network here. People will of course turn it off whenever they prefer, but otherwise it is just the next step after MMS (multimedia messages). Also there are plenty of commercial uses for video phones(news services, porn, gaming, etc). Holograms would just be one further step.
Though you might be right and the whole thing is just a flop, but so far it doesn't seem so. Most people I've talked to want a 3G phone these days.
Perhaps we need to get a bunch of donations and run a commerical during prime time reality tv equating spam to terrorism?
Though I wouldn't equate spam with terrorism (it doesn't kill people), a TV commercial campaign could actually have an effect. My guess is that it is the most uneducated internet-users who actually buy from spammers, so TV would be a better medium too reach them through.
As pointed out by others, Firefox stability is a valid story for Slashdot. One guy having trouble with Firefox isn't, but if there's a huge group of people having troubles it's a story. Maybe the editors deceided to post the story after the n'th request. You wouldn't know.
I for one are having many weird problems with Firefox (like this one ). Still, it's my favorite browser.
As for posting to the mozilla forums, I usually don't get any help there. There are too few people to help out there and too many stupid questions. (Like people who deceide that it is important to inform forum members that Firefox s**ks, because they can't use it on a site with far from standards-compliant html).
I'm not aware of any treaties that cause any one country to enforce another country's patent. If you are aware of one, I'd be interested to learn about it.
There are discussions concerning this both in TRIPS and FTAA (ALCA), but as the talks aren't finished no worry so far.
At a cost of a few thousand dollars per country (just to file an application, actually getting a patent can run tens of thousands of dollars per country), this typically only happens for inventions that are believed to be very important.
The process you describe is what I also tried do describe, but with some bad wording and less details. Though, the costs vary from country to country, so it isn't always so expensive as you describe. As for "believed to be very important", that is of course to the bottom line. If there's a market for your product the bottom line is usually well served by filing for a patent, which was my point. Joe Inventor cannot afford to file his patent in other countries, but MS can and will.
Each country has its own patent laws, and they apply only to that country. They also only restrict the sale and production in that country. So if something is only patented in the US, any company outside the US can manufacture and sell it anywhere but the US. Any companies trying to sell it in the US would be subject to US law, and could be sued.
No country does or is expexted to respect other countries IP laws, but the US has put political pressure on other countries to make their own laws more like its own
It's not that easy. International treaties regulate and coordinate patents among countries. If something is patented in the US the patent can easily be exported to other countries, though they usually have to pay a fee for each country. Normally, the patent is filed in any country where you can expect competition (that's anyone but the really poor ones). So the example of something beeing patented only in US isn't likely.
The details here do vary as not every country is a member of WIPO, but with the TRIPS treaty every member of the WTO would have to respect other countries' IP laws (to a degree). Though, not many countries are willing to make their IP laws more like the American, since even most economists (that I've encountered) agree that they suck. European ones are more usually the model.
But I guess it would take a while before I see the regulare slashdotter crowd at an anti-WTO rally
Seattle Software Party... You mean something like having some people go out in the streets and protest against governments protecting large corporations with "unfair" laws?
Slashdot Mirror
Pearlman is on to something. Though, his plan will effectively create a monopoly, a single system for distribution of music. He even proposes that the major music labels should be bought by computer manufacturers.
I believe I have a better plan. It is a simple add-on to the Creative Commons NC-license which says something like: "You may use this commercially if you pay X % in royalties to the copyright holder trough the Open Music Service". The Open Music Service collects royalties worldwide and gives it to the copyright owners.
The goal is that anyone may start their own online music store and sell music at whatever price they seem like (royalties always beeing in percentages). A completly free market for music distribution in which the artists gets paid. Likewise, artists would simply have to make a contract with the Open Music Service and "click" you are distributed world wide.
Q: Why would people pay for music they may download for free? (AKA "competing with free")
A: Because it is more convient to go to a site dedicated to music you like and pay 5 cents for a download than to search trough the p2p networks. The dedicated site may even help you find new music you like, something the p2p networks can't do on their own.
I also believe this to be more realistic than Pearlmans suggestion as you don't need the major labels to start with. Just get the self-distributing artists and some indie labels to sign on (they would definetly get more income with this system) and you have an established alternative.
That's the barebones. As I've been working on this idea for over a year, there is of course more.
Actually, I've been meaning to start a company based on the idea, but haven't gotten very far. If you want to get involved, please drop me a line.
After all, these people have some of the best clinical and occupational psychologists in the world working for them.
Really? Doesn't seem so to me. Some possible theories why the IDF is skeptical of roleplayers (TFA says D&D, but seem to refer to RPGs and LARPs in general):
- RPGs do have a bad image due to some Christian fundamentalists spreading FUD. The same Christians are avid supporters of Israel and Zionism so maybe the IDF actually believed these guys.
- there's a higher percentage of left-leaning among roleplayers than among the general population. This may also be the case in Israel. Beeing a roleplayer thus makes you more likely to be exposed to leftists. This is indeed a security issue.
- roleplayers are more individualistic and creative and thus less likely to accept orders without questioning.
- the IDF are prejudiced. Psychologists have a tendency to view everything trough psychologist-glasses. This makes "escapism" a bad thing.
- some idiot deceided this some years ago and nobody has corrected it since due to hiearchy issues.
- the IDF are idiots
Probably a combination of some of the above.
No, you should probably go for the Fridgefox instead! No more spyfood and annoying pop-up vegetables.
I thought all new phones had MP3 tunes and a bluetooth and IR link. No need to pay anyone for beeing individaul. But then again I'm Norwegian. We invented GSM, the Finns and Swedes took the profit and we all pioneered the whole SMS craze.
By simply rewriting the dictionary so that words now mean the opposite of what they did before, we can solve all the world's problems! War, famine, poverty, disease...
Best of all, since I have patented this method of problem solving, it is now an Open Standard; this means it is free for anyone (who I choose not to sue) to use!
I'm afraid there's some prior art.
Could I pay to avoid this "premium content". Wikipedia's NPOV-policy is superior to most other encyclopedias. Not all articles are as good as they ought to be, but compared with an encyclopedia which is full of BS that it portrays as "objective" I prefer wikipedia. Read Wikipedia's article on terrorism and compare with any other "objective" source. If you also read the talk page you are probably far better informed than most of the general public.
Though, I do not worry about Google taking over Wikipedia only because they donated a few servers. If there are talks between Wikipedia and Google about Google taking over, I'll worry, but I see no reason to do so now.
Shouldn't that be the other way around?
May I observe, my fellow countryman, that you are confusing "houses of parliament" with "branches of government (power)"?
I've read it over and over again and couldn't understand how exactly parent has confused houses of parliament with branches of government. Maybe you should read it again too?
Modern democratic states divide the power between three (at least in theory) independant branches:
Actually, only some do. All have three branches, but not all have three independent branches. Look it up.
The ongoing boycott of Amazon ended nearly 2 1/2 years ago.
...which they were saying "The market always chooses the best option."
Right on track you are. That's the real issue: does markets always choose the best tech? Or does tech-development follow paths which are chosen more or less accidentaly. There are stronger cases for this than the qwerty-story with a simple example's beeing the best.
Take a hypothetical story of a 10 year-old trying to deceide whether he should buy a X-BOX or a PS2. They're at approx the same price in the shop he visits and for some reason he chooses XBOX (he likes the green X). Then his friend is also to buy a game console. If the friend buys an XBOX he could borrow games from the first buyer whereas with a PS2 he has to buy all his games himself. What kind of console will these guys' classmates probably buy? The whole class is quite soon in a lock-in on XBOX. Does this make XBOX better than PS2?
Transfer this scenario into companies deceiding which console they should produce games for and you have a theory of economic behaviour. There are of course many more factors at work, but still there is some truth in this theory.
Slashdotter's may also notice that Liebowitz and Margolis has some interesting claims:"The pair also take aim at the VHS-Beta story. VHS won that battle, they say, because it could tape for twice as long, something consumers clearly wanted. Similarly, they note that DOS computers caught on because they were markedly less expensive than Apple's."(from the WSJ link above)
The availability of more videos (and porn) on the VHS format didn't affect VHS's market victory? Microsoft's market tactics had no effect on the lock-in on DOS and later Windows?
They also argue: "What's more, while today's personal computers can easily be reprogrammed to the Dvorak layout, few people do."
I wonder why? You may also use Firefox instead of IE, use a mail program which doesn't spread viruses as default behaviour, etc.
So which serious objective tests between the two keyboards have there been?
Not objective, but at least to be taken seriously.
Anti-Dvorak Crusaders
Keytime
Or use Adblock
I, and most peoiple I know who have acquired pirated material, got it from file sharing apps and IRC. Are these really considered "organised" crime gangs?
No. Organized crime gangs are the one responsible for almost all music, movies, games and software sold in Eastern Europe, SE Asia and Latin America, who earns billions without paying a dime to the copyright owners. The real pirates, not the filesharers.
One of the definitions of insanity is exhibiting the same behavior again and again but expecting a different outcome each time.
Also known as gambling...
I want this one now!
Depends on what kind of web-pages we're talking about. Browsing news or forums with a mobile is pointless due to screensize, but I use my mobile on the net quite often. It is quite useful for things like bus schedules, cinema programs for tonight, finding the nearest ATM or gas station. But then again I live in Scandinavia...
There's an easy fix for this problem. Add a button for Save as Word*. Even stupid/lazy users can handle that.
/openoffice/share/config/symbol.
*Use this macro collection For buttons, create your own from one of the buttons in
Given a choice of spending other people's money (your's, the taxpayer) or going with a group that has no formal organization that can take legal responsibility when systems break down, the bureaucrats will always chose buying the service from another large organization.
Why can't commercial Linux vendors do this? Has MS patented "beeing another large organization"?
This can't happen because great software is mostly the result of great individual programmers. Microsoft has the funds to buy their work, talents, and focus for its exclusive use in Windows.
And everyone knows that Linux and Open Source developers work for free (beer) in their sparetime.
Doesn't everyone believe in global warming? What they discuss is whether it is man-made or not.
There's also a difference between whether the changes in temperature we experience today are manmade and whether continuing and increased relase of CO2 into the atmosphere would cause global warming. It's my impression that most climatologists agrees that at some point it will.
IANAC
I believe you are wrong. Video phones are starting to take off in Denmark trough the 3G network here. People will of course turn it off whenever they prefer, but otherwise it is just the next step after MMS (multimedia messages). Also there are plenty of commercial uses for video phones(news services, porn, gaming, etc). Holograms would just be one further step.
Though you might be right and the whole thing is just a flop, but so far it doesn't seem so. Most people I've talked to want a 3G phone these days.
Perhaps we need to get a bunch of donations and run a commerical during prime time reality tv equating spam to terrorism?
Though I wouldn't equate spam with terrorism (it doesn't kill people), a TV commercial campaign could actually have an effect. My guess is that it is the most uneducated internet-users who actually buy from spammers, so TV would be a better medium too reach them through.
As pointed out by others, Firefox stability is a valid story for Slashdot. One guy having trouble with Firefox isn't, but if there's a huge group of people having troubles it's a story. Maybe the editors deceided to post the story after the n'th request. You wouldn't know.
I for one are having many weird problems with Firefox (like this one ). Still, it's my favorite browser.
As for posting to the mozilla forums, I usually don't get any help there. There are too few people to help out there and too many stupid questions. (Like people who deceide that it is important to inform forum members that Firefox s**ks, because they can't use it on a site with far from standards-compliant html).
I'm not aware of any treaties that cause any one country to enforce another country's patent. If you are aware of one, I'd be interested to learn about it.
There are discussions concerning this both in TRIPS and FTAA (ALCA), but as the talks aren't finished no worry so far.
At a cost of a few thousand dollars per country (just to file an application, actually getting a patent can run tens of thousands of dollars per country), this typically only happens for inventions that are believed to be very important.
The process you describe is what I also tried do describe, but with some bad wording and less details. Though, the costs vary from country to country, so it isn't always so expensive as you describe. As for "believed to be very important", that is of course to the bottom line. If there's a market for your product the bottom line is usually well served by filing for a patent, which was my point. Joe Inventor cannot afford to file his patent in other countries, but MS can and will.
Each country has its own patent laws, and they apply only to that country. They also only restrict the sale and production in that country. So if something is only patented in the US, any company outside the US can manufacture and sell it anywhere but the US. Any companies trying to sell it in the US would be subject to US law, and could be sued.
No country does or is expexted to respect other countries IP laws, but the US has put political pressure on other countries to make their own laws more like its own
It's not that easy. International treaties regulate and coordinate patents among countries. If something is patented in the US the patent can easily be exported to other countries, though they usually have to pay a fee for each country. Normally, the patent is filed in any country where you can expect competition (that's anyone but the really poor ones). So the example of something beeing patented only in US isn't likely.
The details here do vary as not every country is a member of WIPO, but with the TRIPS treaty every member of the WTO would have to respect other countries' IP laws (to a degree). Though, not many countries are willing to make their IP laws more like the American, since even most economists (that I've encountered) agree that they suck. European ones are more usually the model.
But I guess it would take a while before I see the regulare slashdotter crowd at an anti-WTO rally
Since they joined the WTO.
Seattle Software Party...
You mean something like having some people go out in the streets and protest against governments protecting large corporations with "unfair" laws?