Most good scientists recognize the value of skepticism. It is a very good idea to prove the existence of something, instead of waiting for it to be merely disproven.
This is no different. P2P is a new paradigm, something new and different. It's important to show that it has legitimate uses, instead of simply accepting that these uses exist.
The point? That this is the right thing to do, not a sad commentary on anything at all...
Ahh the logical lengths we go to in order to protect our conscience.
I fail to see how the fact that you can replicate something easily doesn't mean it can't be stolen. I'm assuming that you don't walk into Books-a-million and steal books of the shelf, as that's material. Would you, however, go into books a million and photocopy every book in the place and make copies of that to give to anyone who wanted one?
This works out fine as long the author of the book is perfectly ok with that outcome. However, as any good economist will tell you, people respond to incentives. The incentive to produce music/books/whatever is that you can fabulously wealthy doing it. While some people do it for the love of music, writing, painting, or whatever their artistic pursuit is...the majority do it because it is a way of paying the bills.
As a software developer i'd be extremely disturbed if I essentially work for free. Look at the so called "open source business model." The idea is that you give away the product in order to sell support. Fine, but applying that sort of logic to music or books doesn't hold up. Is Stephen King supposed to help me learn to read?
The simple fact is that YOU or your friends can't or won't produce the music you want to listen to. If everyone was capable of producing their own music, the music industry doesn't exist and this isn't happening. However, we depend on these people to supply us with the music we want. In order to do that we provide an incentive called money. So yes, you are stealing, even if your not stealing the original..just a copy.
I WILL argue that Napster actually creates overall wealth. Falling back on a economic argument, napster reduces the price of music which frees up more money for all of us to spend (thus creating wealth), but I won't argue that it does it by stealing.
I was involved in a game that has been severely affected by this lawsuit.
Not directly mentioned, but it has completely made sales my our title impossible.
That said, I think your missing the broader picture. VERY VERY few of the games in question where direct rip-offs, but rather extensions of the originals. Theres a very hard question tied up in this, "What constitutes a 'rip-off'"?
The measurement is very hard. Is simply replacing the graphics enough? Clearly the inclusion of a particle physics system changes the game in some way. While the game is still similiar, it's not exactly the same. At what point do we cross this line?
Compare unreal to quake, for example. Is it fair to call Unreal a 'rip-off' of quake? Is it a derivative work? Are they completely unrelated?
My point is, that the line is nearly impossible to draw accurately. Derivative works are very important. The ability for anyone to improve on a basic concept is important.
Lets apply this to another genre, the Web. What if I take a webpage design (we'll use slashdot as an example), and change the design a bit..add some functionality. Am I slashdot ripoff because I started with their site? Or have I IMPROVED on the Slashdot design enough to make it my own?
Hard question to answer, and this settlement seems to lend credence to the idea that a company can own broad sweeping copyrights on entire models of gameplay, not specific games. That's dangerous, and not something to be taken lightly.
First, many judges in the lower courts are quite wary of making any sweeping changes inconsistent with previous rulings. The most important thing at this level is consistency of rulings. At a higher level (on appeal) the courts, because there are fewer adverserial courts, are given (loosely, given by tradition) control to make the sweeping constitutional interpetations you describe.
I think this is an expected, and fair ruling at this level. These are issues destined for a higher court, and I fully expect the fight to go all the way to the top. Where in my opinion, the RIAA will also prevail.
This is by far the most sane comment I've ever read on Slashdot..congratulations.
I've been told for quite awhile that I am a good programmer, and I've even had the results to show it. However, as my career has progressed i've ran into a few individuals (all over the age of 40, coincedentally) who have had a profound impact on me. It's been humbling.
Recently, as I began a new job, i've had the absolute pleasure of working with an "old" timer from IBM who has truly changed my outlook on coding. I've become a much stronger engineer as a direct result of him, and that's awesome. If everyone I worked with was below 30, I just don't think this sort of perspective could be shared with me. It's a tremendously valuable thing.
The problem is that this is a integer based format (AFAIK). One of the things that the article proposes is going to be a nice 32 bit decimal format (the IEEE one) which becomes important as it allows math to take place at the subpixel level. That means better polygonal alignment and less artifacting for everyone:)
Enj
Re:My theatre was NOT so quiet....
on
Lo-Tech Cinema
·
· Score: 1
No joke...
I saw it on a Sunday Afternoon..just a small smattering of people (all adults)...and it did a great job of freaking me out. It's the only movie I can recall that I had to convince myself was fake. While watching it my rational side kept saying it was fake, but dammit they did such a convincing job with it that I just couldn't be totally SURE, what a great job.
Re:The best part of BWP..
on
Lo-Tech Cinema
·
· Score: 1
Actually, I noticed while watching it that the giggling tended to be a very nervous giggling, people convincing themselves that it all was just a movie. I still had trouble driving home at night that night...just a real well done piece of movie making.
DirectX 8 is being billed as the main migration step towards farenheit. Keep in mind that project Farenheit won't be the actual name of the API, it's still being billed as DirectX, just another version.
The very reason that D3D is looking more Gl'ish is that SGI really has had good input into Direct3d particularly with the upcoming Version 7.
Slashdot Mirror
Most good scientists recognize the value of skepticism. It is a very good idea to prove the existence of something, instead of waiting for it to be merely disproven.
This is no different. P2P is a new paradigm, something new and different. It's important to show that it has legitimate uses, instead of simply accepting that these uses exist.
The point? That this is the right thing to do, not a sad commentary on anything at all...
Ahh the logical lengths we go to in order to protect our conscience.
I fail to see how the fact that you can replicate something easily doesn't mean it can't be stolen. I'm assuming that you don't walk into Books-a-million and steal books of the shelf, as that's material. Would you, however, go into books a million and photocopy every book in the place and make copies of that to give to anyone who wanted one?
This works out fine as long the author of the book is perfectly ok with that outcome. However, as any good economist will tell you, people respond to incentives. The incentive to produce music/books/whatever is that you can fabulously wealthy doing it. While some people do it for the love of music, writing, painting, or whatever their artistic pursuit is...the majority do it because it is a way of paying the bills.
As a software developer i'd be extremely disturbed if I essentially work for free. Look at the so called "open source business model." The idea is that you give away the product in order to sell support. Fine, but applying that sort of logic to music or books doesn't hold up. Is Stephen King supposed to help me learn to read?
The simple fact is that YOU or your friends can't or won't produce the music you want to listen to. If everyone was capable of producing their own music, the music industry doesn't exist and this isn't happening. However, we depend on these people to supply us with the music we want. In order to do that we provide an incentive called money. So yes, you are stealing, even if your not stealing the original..just a copy.
I WILL argue that Napster actually creates overall wealth. Falling back on a economic argument, napster reduces the price of music which frees up more money for all of us to spend (thus creating wealth), but I won't argue that it does it by stealing.
Which is exactly what Sony is planning with their broadband network..twit.
I was involved in a game that has been severely affected by this lawsuit.
Not directly mentioned, but it has completely made sales my our title impossible.
That said, I think your missing the broader picture. VERY VERY few of the games in question where direct rip-offs, but rather extensions of the originals. Theres a very hard question tied up in this, "What constitutes a 'rip-off'"?
The measurement is very hard. Is simply replacing the graphics enough? Clearly the inclusion of a particle physics system changes the game in some way. While the game is still similiar, it's not exactly the same. At what point do we cross this line?
Compare unreal to quake, for example. Is it fair to call Unreal a 'rip-off' of quake? Is it a derivative work? Are they completely unrelated?
My point is, that the line is nearly impossible to draw accurately. Derivative works are very important. The ability for anyone to improve on a basic concept is important.
Lets apply this to another genre, the Web. What if I take a webpage design (we'll use slashdot as an example), and change the design a bit..add some functionality. Am I slashdot ripoff because I started with their site? Or have I IMPROVED on the Slashdot design enough to make it my own?
Hard question to answer, and this settlement seems to lend credence to the idea that a company can own broad sweeping copyrights on entire models of gameplay, not specific games. That's dangerous, and not something to be taken lightly.
First, many judges in the lower courts are quite wary of making any sweeping changes inconsistent with previous rulings. The most important thing at this level is consistency of rulings. At a higher level (on appeal) the courts, because there are fewer adverserial courts, are given (loosely, given by tradition) control to make the sweeping constitutional interpetations you describe.
I think this is an expected, and fair ruling at this level. These are issues destined for a higher court, and I fully expect the fight to go all the way to the top. Where in my opinion, the RIAA will also prevail.
The disks were discovered missing after a post-fire inspection according to the other reports i've seen.
This is by far the most sane comment I've ever read on Slashdot..congratulations.
I've been told for quite awhile that I am a good programmer, and I've even had the results to show it. However, as my career has progressed i've ran into a few individuals (all over the age of 40, coincedentally) who have had a profound impact on me. It's been humbling.
Recently, as I began a new job, i've had the absolute pleasure of working with an "old" timer from IBM who has truly changed my outlook on coding. I've become a much stronger engineer as a direct result of him, and that's awesome. If everyone I worked with was below 30, I just don't think this sort of perspective could be shared with me. It's a tremendously valuable thing.
The problem is that this is a integer based format (AFAIK). One of the things that the article proposes is going to be a nice 32 bit decimal format (the IEEE one) which becomes important as it allows math to take place at the subpixel level. That means better polygonal alignment and less artifacting for everyone:)
Enj
No joke...
I saw it on a Sunday Afternoon..just a small smattering of people (all adults)...and it did a great job of freaking me out. It's the only movie I can recall that I had to convince myself was fake. While watching it my rational side kept saying it was fake, but dammit they did such a convincing job with it that I just couldn't be totally SURE, what a great job.
Actually, I noticed while watching it that the giggling tended to be a very nervous giggling, people convincing themselves that it all was just a movie. I still had trouble driving home at night that night...just a real well done piece of movie making.
Actually, it's still very much alive:)
DirectX 8 is being billed as the main migration step towards farenheit. Keep in mind that project Farenheit won't be the actual name of the API, it's still being billed as DirectX, just another version.
The very reason that D3D is looking more Gl'ish is that SGI really has had good input into Direct3d particularly with the upcoming Version 7.
Nick