This was mentioned in the early 90's by Rodney Anonymous, singer for the now-defunct-and-sorely-missed Dead Milkmen. He said he liked to listen to Butthole Surfers while watching "The Grind".
WUSB - How? And more importantly, WHY?
on
USB Going Wireless
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· Score: 4, Interesting
OK, I've got a (hypothetical) PC with WUSB printer, external hard drive, MP3 player, MIDI controller, and mouse. The only thing is, so does my roommate, and his is 2 feet from mine. So, it seems like either there must be some sort of setup involved (like telling the device which PC it's looking for) in which case the just-plug-it-in-and-it-works aspect of USB is negated, or else you're in for lots of high-speed device conflicts.
And on the tinfoil-hat tip, what's to keep Uncle Sam from driving by on the street with a WUSB equipped laptop and scanning all my files on that WUSB external drive? If my cable modem is WUSB, what's to keep the govt from just watching everything I do online ever?
And why, if I might ask, is this necessary? Is the 2 seconds you spend pluggin the cord into the device really that important? Is it really that hard to plug the thumbdrive into an actual USB slot? I mean, we don't complain about plugging our headphones into our walkmans. You plug them in, it takes.5 seconds and then you're done. With the above multiple-device/multiple-PC scenario, it seems like it might be considerably more trouble to configure the devices themselves then to just plug 'em in and not worry about it. Are we really that lazy? Do we really need wireless *everything*?
Oh just wait. You can bet law enforcement will find all kinds of neat-o keen uses for RFID technology. For instance, every felon getting one subdermally courtesy of the US government!
"The worker is being squeezed between a rock and a hard place. Outsourcing, insourcing, technology increasing productivity reducing need for workers. Soon there will be nothing left."
Tru dat. And stocking is next. Then all there'll be left is maintenance, security, and those useless 16-year-olds listlessly slouhcing their way down the aisles. Oh, and greeters. If they don't automate that.
I seriously think we're heading for time when we'll see so many people out of work from retailing that it could keep the retailers from making money, despite all the automation and RFID in the world. I mean, people like the Walton family aren't gonna buy millions of packages of toilet paper to make up for all the customers they've lost because so many people are out of work because of them and everybody else like them whittling away at their workforce. They're already seeing their profits drop, I think that drop could become much more precipitous.
"Produce a product that anyone else can copy and you'll soon go bankrupt. That's capitalism."
Amen to that. The music industry opened up this pandora's box in the first place when they got greedy and decided to make us all buy our record collections again on CD. Be careful what you wish for.
I was just considering a variation on this - you make a bunch of white noise mp3's, say a few thousand, and name them to resemble popular songs. Let the RIAA sue you. Let them fall flat on their face.
And then let the countersuits begin. Malicious prosecution, defamation, mental anguish...
Easy, they're both conflicts, arguably wars (as much as the "war on drugs" or the "war on poverty"). One is the military going after, well, whoever they go after these days. Another is the RIAA going after filesharers. The point, I think, was that the RIAA has been kicking more ass and taking more names than the military has (and no, I'm not trying to diss the military). But when you think about it, those numbers really aren't significant because there's probably waaaaaay more filesharers in America than members of an Iraqi resistance or Quada cell.
Well God knows, time was you could actually hear good music for free on the radio. But the RIAA took care of that already.
But that's beside the point. I'm assuming you know the difference between MP3 and PCM. How can you say that one is "re-getting" something when the two codecs are so dissimilar? Is one "re-getting" something when you buy a CD of something you taped off the radio? No, because you are buying it in a different and superior format. And yes, I now own *dozens* of CD's that I wouldn't were it not for P2P. I can't speak for anybody but myself.
You know what I wonder? I wonder how many of you "stealing-is-stealing" people have had dual cassette decks.
ah, but stormie, you are doing exactly what they want you to do - focusing on the moral aspect of the situation rather than the economic one.
It's been said but it bears repeating: The RIAA isn't in this to do the right thing, to prove that they are innocent lambs being ruthlessly exploited by sinister college students and minimum-wage-earners. Becuase if they were they wouldn't be settling - they'd stick it to 'em. The RIAA is engaged in this course of lawsuits only because they are convinced they're losing money to file-swapping, and they have to make it up somehow. It's just a revenue stream to them; nothing more, nothing less.
They obfuscate this as much as possible by spinning the moral aspects of the situation and painting themselves as the victims of depraved criminal activity. Unfortunately those such as the major media and yourself choose to play into this. All I can say, as somebody with years of experience with the industry, as the former chief engineer at a grammy-winning studio, and as an award-winning composer/singer/songwriter with hopes and dreams of people buying my CDs in stores one day soon, is that if the fucking record industry wants to talk about fucking morals they can fucking bring it.
Seriously. You are talking about one of the most corrupt, immoral, heartless and ruthless industries humankind has ever seen. You're talking about people who have ripped off their artists since the 1920's, have engaged in "payola" since the 1950's, have gotten and kept their artists hooked on drugs to make them easier to manipulate, have colluded with the Mafia and other organized crime, and is now in the grip of an anti-competitive frenzy so nauseatingly banal as to make polka music seem exciting.
The reason they're suing is for money. But they're not scared of P2P for financial reasons. The reason they hate P2P is they're terrified of people getting to hear good music, and then demanding good music from major labels, who've proven repeatedly they don't know the first thing about how to produce any.
... will we even *have* domain names in 100 years? If so, will they still be bound by the same structure of www/ftp/whatever.sitename.TLD? Will the internet even exist in the same way that we know it today?
Remember where automotive technology was 100 years ago? How much good would a 100-year warranty have done you on a 1904 model-A?
I think we're vastly overestimating the constancy of the internet. I'm sure it will still be around, but I'd be surprised if it's still called "the internet". I'd be likewise surprised if it still used present-day naming conventions.
That's almost exactly what happened to me when me+roommates first ordered a cable line. Since we were stupid enough to tell them we'd be using more than one machine on the line they automatically put us down for the "home networking package", where the cable modem is built right into a router that comes with - according to the tech - *every* port blocked except 80. No ftp, no P2P, no nuthin. Not even smtp clients, webmail only. Unless, of course, you wanted to place an order for "business services".
That was about when I told him to cancel our order, take his equipment and leave the premises. Took seven more visits by the same company before our internet actually worked (but that's another story)
You're the one equating brand loyalty with zealotry. Please, keep making my point for me.
"Brand loyalty is alive and well...I could go on and on"
Brand loyalty does still exist, but not nearly to the extent that it did when everybody who graduated public high school could actually read. People from the "greatest generation" are some of the best consumers ever! They research their product options, consider them carefully, and choose rationally. The pregnant 16-year-old high-school-dropout down the block from me, however, is going to buy whatever clothes her friends buy. The 22-year-old college sports star is going to buy whatever SUV his friends buy. Remember cabbage patch kids? Remember beanie babies? Those products had ZERO quantifiable merit - except for popularity. The only reason that people clawed each others eyes out to get one was that, well, everybody *else* is clawing somebody's eyes out to get one. Mob rule rules these days, and it's only getting stronger.
"People (who you seem to regard as fickle and inferior"
Yeah? Is that what I think? Thanks for telling me, it's always nice to know what I think. We'll return to this later.
"Nice stab at the Republicans"
They earned it with the sweat of their brow.
"they've been at least as good as any other political party at doing what they said they'll do."
You appear to be either very naive or very evil. Probably the former, as this statement is *demonstrably* untrue. Please don't make me embarass you in front of your friends here. This probably isn't the best place for a protracted and ugly debate on politics. And besides, are we really going to change each others minds? Seriously. Drop this now.
"*** Something about how Mag-Lites are marked up, over-sold items that really aren't worth it... "
Wow, you can't even be bothered to quote what I actually said. Do you think people didn't already read it? Do you think nobody noticed your cute little paraphrase there?
Because, despite whatever you wish I said, what I actually did say was NOT that Maglites aren't worth it. They definitely are.
I said their price point makes them a luxury item - and that results in much greater profitablity of their product. As opposed to their product just being a good idea and making money because, somehow, magically, good things are rewarded, well, because the Supply Side God says so. It doesn't have to make sense, right?
Wrong. If you're on slashdot you should be smart enough to know that math that doesn't add up is BAD MATH. And you should also know bad math has no place in a system whose ostensible goal is to be efficient and functional.
And if there's one thing I think God really hates, it's bad math.
ObDisclosure: I Own A Maglite. (tm) I never said they weren't good products. They are. I said that their profitability as a product is a direct result of their (very high) price. Try to twist it all you want, my friend, but that's what I said and the zeroes and ones got my back.
Next time, take off the rose-colored blinders before you read my post and try responding to what I actually said instead of what you *wish* I said. You did *read* my post, didn't you?
Now, I've been honest with you, so give me one honest answer: How hard is to build a fsking flashlight anyway? Oh my god, the flashlight actually *works*, it's a veritable miracle... Because the product actually, you know, *works* and, you know, like, *doesn't break* it must be worth the ridiculously inflated price...
This line of reasoning just shows how conditioned we've become as consumers to products apparently made of burro dung. Which, if you'll be good enough to return to my original post (and maybe, just maybe, actually read it), was all I was saying in the first place.
And can you please quantify just what a "good feel" to a flashlight is? It's a tube. It's got batteries, a bulb, a switch, and some little strips of metal. It "feels" like a
I would cheerfully submit to strip-searching prior to casting a paper ballot rather than be forced to give my vote to a machine that may or may not count it, that will give no verification of whether it has done so or not, and that's owned by a company whose president's stated objective, in his own words, is to deliver as many votes as possible to the GOP.
Well, as they say in the industry, there's no percentage.
Why would the powers that be want to make it work? It goes like this:
1) convince the entire nation that we're more evenly divided amonst ourselves than we ever have been (they've already done this). 2) as much as possible, obfuscate and confuse the voters about the election result. 3) As long as it's just a couple hundered votes either way, the election WILL go the GOP. (couple hundered votes in one state I should say, 2000 presidential election had a victory margin for Gore of half a million popular votes. Half a MILLION.)
In other words, they want it to be too close to call, cuz then they get to throw it to themselves.
it's been said, but it bears repeating... piracy of some sort has always played a positive role in free markets.
The more expensive things are, the more people steal. If nobody shoplifted, chewing gum would be $10. If nobody installed pirate software, it would be ludicrously expensive. The current black market in cigarettes, due in no small part to the price increase brought about by recent sin taxes, is thriving to the point where it's supposedly one of al-quaida's main income streams. And it's probably kept cigarettes from becoming even more expensive then they already are.
piracy is a legitimate market force and a very effective regulator of price for a couple reasons. Retailers understand this - you think they install those four to five figure security systems so they can bust you stealing a CD? A VCR even? They install them to reduce the impact of piracy, so they can raise their prices.
"Most companies really like it when you come back to them for future purchases"
True. Which is why you have to make sure the customer has no other options than to buy your product. (cough, cough, MONOPOLY)
And besides, conusmer loyalty is a myth. Nobody cares anymore. My experience is that it's more important to most people to buy whatever is fashionable/popular than to buy the best product for their needs. People buy cheap crap that breaks and they go back the next day and buy from the same company again. Look at Ford Explorers. Look at Big Mac's. Look at Nike. Look at the GOP. It doesn't matter how bad the product is, if everybody else is doing it we are like lambs to the slaughter. Like lemmings.
"If you can make your product that much better with a reasonably small amount of cost, then why not?"
If you could create something from nothing, wouldn't everybody? If getting something for nothing was as easy as trying hard the world would be a very different place. But you can't. You never get something for nothing. Sure, you might be able to shave a little off the top with lots of ingenuity, but that won't be cost-effective either - ingenuity is *expensive*.
Somebody much wiser than myself once said that neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed, only exchanged. I think he was onto something. If the price tag is cheaper it's because the product is cheaper, not because the company is better. It's because you're buying the lowest common denominator.
"MAG-Lite flashlights are extremely well made. People buy them, and the company is succesful, because they made a great product, as opposed to just another flashlight."
No, people bought them because police officers, plumbers, and other working professionals in need of a professional-grade flashlight used them conspicuously until the public (or often, the public's wife) wondered why *they* didn't have flashlights that nice, at which point the public demanded them, at which point the market was flooded with cheap mag-lite clones.
And the company is succesful because the price point for maglites, in the context of the flashlight marketplace, makes it a luxury item. Maglites cost more than they have any right to considering they're an aluminum tube, a switch, and a bulb assembly. Maglites are probably succesful for the same reason SUV's are - the markup is so huge.
Oh, you have a degree in... the industry? See, mine's specifically for audio engineering. Which is why I was Chief Engineer for a year and a half at a Grammy-award-winning studio. Don't really understand how this is germane to the subject but since you brought it up...
The right to sell sheet music is held by the publisher. This is exactly what I said. Try reading the post before you start running off at the mouth.
I did forget about ascap and the like, you are correct there. But you can't deny that there are plenty of instances where the authors/publishers sign over publishing rights as part of the deal. And you also can't deny that there have been situations where labels, managers or publishers have sued artists for performing their own songs live.
As per copyright, true, it technically is copywritten as soon as it is created, with one catch - you have to be able to prove it was created on a certain date. And the "poor-man's-copyright" of the sealed postmarked envelope with the master inside usually won't hold up in court. So yeah, you pretty much do have to register it with the library of Congress if you want your copyright to hold up in court. You can choose not to, but if somebody steals your stuff and then *they* send it to the LOC... guess who the courts are gonna side with? Not you.
And if you don't watch your posture, that chip on your shoulder will give you scoliosis.
Slashdot Mirror
"10-foot satellite dish"
In many communities this would be illegal.
This was mentioned in the early 90's by Rodney Anonymous, singer for the now-defunct-and-sorely-missed Dead Milkmen. He said he liked to listen to Butthole Surfers while watching "The Grind".
OK, I've got a (hypothetical) PC with WUSB printer, external hard drive, MP3 player, MIDI controller, and mouse. The only thing is, so does my roommate, and his is 2 feet from mine. So, it seems like either there must be some sort of setup involved (like telling the device which PC it's looking for) in which case the just-plug-it-in-and-it-works aspect of USB is negated, or else you're in for lots of high-speed device conflicts.
.5 seconds and then you're done. With the above multiple-device/multiple-PC scenario, it seems like it might be considerably more trouble to configure the devices themselves then to just plug 'em in and not worry about it. Are we really that lazy? Do we really need wireless *everything*?
And on the tinfoil-hat tip, what's to keep Uncle Sam from driving by on the street with a WUSB equipped laptop and scanning all my files on that WUSB external drive? If my cable modem is WUSB, what's to keep the govt from just watching
everything I do online ever?
And why, if I might ask, is this necessary? Is the 2 seconds you spend pluggin the cord into the device really that important? Is it really that hard to plug the thumbdrive into an actual USB slot? I mean, we don't complain about plugging our headphones into our walkmans. You plug them in, it takes
Oh just wait. You can bet law enforcement will find all kinds of neat-o keen uses for RFID technology. For instance, every felon getting one subdermally courtesy of the US government!
"The worker is being squeezed between a rock and a hard place. Outsourcing, insourcing, technology increasing productivity reducing need for workers. Soon there will be nothing left."
Tru dat. And stocking is next. Then all there'll be left is maintenance, security, and those useless 16-year-olds listlessly slouhcing their way down the aisles. Oh, and greeters. If they don't automate that.
I seriously think we're heading for time when we'll see so many people out of work from retailing that it could keep the retailers from making money, despite all the automation and RFID in the world. I mean, people like the Walton family aren't gonna buy millions of packages of toilet paper to make up for all the customers they've lost because so many people are out of work because of them and everybody else like them whittling away at their workforce. They're already seeing their profits drop, I think that drop could become much more precipitous.
And *that's* when things will get interesting.
When they're broke - everybody. Sure their selection sucks ass, and most of their merchandise is shoddy, but they are cheap cheap cheap!
When I can afford to shop anywhere else I do. When I got $15 to last 2 weeks, I shop at Wal-Mart.
Any logic sufficiently advanced will be indistinguishable from faith.
"Produce a product that anyone else can copy and you'll soon go bankrupt. That's capitalism."
Amen to that. The music industry opened up this pandora's box in the first place when they got greedy and decided to make us all buy our record collections again on CD. Be careful what you wish for.
I was just considering a variation on this - you make a bunch of white noise mp3's, say a few thousand, and name them to resemble popular songs. Let the RIAA sue you. Let them fall flat on their face.
And then let the countersuits begin. Malicious prosecution, defamation, mental anguish...
"How are the two related?"
Easy, they're both conflicts, arguably wars (as much as the "war on drugs" or the "war on poverty"). One is the military going after, well, whoever they go after these days. Another is the RIAA going after filesharers. The point, I think, was that the RIAA has been kicking more ass and taking more names than the military has (and no, I'm not trying to diss the military). But when you think about it, those numbers really aren't significant because there's probably waaaaaay more filesharers in America than members of an Iraqi resistance or Quada cell.
But hey, you asked.
right the fuck on. Thanks for saying what I was thinking.
Sure.
As long as you return the one you don't want.
Well God knows, time was you could actually hear good music for free on the radio. But the RIAA took care of that already.
But that's beside the point. I'm assuming you know the difference between MP3 and PCM. How can you say that one is "re-getting" something when the two codecs are so dissimilar? Is one "re-getting" something when you buy a CD of something you taped off the radio? No, because you are buying it in a different and superior format. And yes, I now own *dozens* of CD's that I wouldn't were it not for P2P. I can't speak for anybody but myself.
You know what I wonder? I wonder how many of you "stealing-is-stealing" people have had dual cassette decks.
"guilty"
ah, but stormie, you are doing exactly what they want you to do - focusing on the moral aspect of the situation rather than the economic one.
It's been said but it bears repeating: The RIAA isn't in this to do the right thing, to prove that they are innocent lambs being ruthlessly exploited by sinister college students and minimum-wage-earners. Becuase if they were they wouldn't be settling - they'd stick it to 'em. The RIAA is engaged in this course of lawsuits only because they are convinced they're losing money to file-swapping, and they have to make it up somehow. It's just a revenue stream to them; nothing more, nothing less.
They obfuscate this as much as possible by spinning the moral aspects of the situation and painting themselves as the victims of depraved criminal activity. Unfortunately those such as the major media and yourself choose to play into this. All I can say, as somebody with years of experience with the industry, as the former chief engineer at a grammy-winning studio, and as an award-winning composer/singer/songwriter with hopes and dreams of people buying my CDs in stores one day soon, is that if the fucking record industry wants to talk about fucking morals they can fucking bring it.
Seriously. You are talking about one of the most corrupt, immoral, heartless and ruthless industries humankind has ever seen. You're talking about people who have ripped off their artists since the 1920's, have engaged in "payola" since the 1950's, have gotten and kept their artists hooked on drugs to make them easier to manipulate, have colluded with the Mafia and other organized crime, and is now in the grip of an anti-competitive frenzy so nauseatingly banal as to make polka music seem exciting.
The reason they're suing is for money. But they're not scared of P2P for financial reasons. The reason they hate P2P is they're terrified of people getting to hear good music, and then demanding good music from major labels, who've proven repeatedly they don't know the first thing about how to produce any.
No, but you do get one free when you order "Love Is"...
... will we even *have* domain names in 100 years? If so, will they still be bound by the same structure of www/ftp/whatever.sitename.TLD? Will the internet even exist in the same way that we know it today?
Remember where automotive technology was 100 years ago? How much good would a 100-year warranty have done you on a 1904 model-A?
I think we're vastly overestimating the constancy of the internet. I'm sure it will still be around, but I'd be surprised if it's still called "the internet". I'd be likewise surprised if it still used present-day naming conventions.
That's almost exactly what happened to me when me+roommates first ordered a cable line. Since we were stupid enough to tell them we'd be using more than one machine on the line they automatically put us down for the "home networking package", where the cable modem is built right into a router that comes with - according to the tech - *every* port blocked except 80. No ftp, no P2P, no nuthin. Not even smtp clients, webmail only. Unless, of course, you wanted to place an order for "business services".
That was about when I told him to cancel our order, take his equipment and leave the premises. Took seven more visits by the same company before our internet actually worked (but that's another story)
You're the one equating brand loyalty with zealotry. Please, keep making my point for me.
"Brand loyalty is alive and well...I could go on and on"
Brand loyalty does still exist, but not nearly to the extent that it did when everybody who graduated public high school could actually read. People from the "greatest generation" are some of the best consumers ever! They research their product options, consider them carefully, and choose rationally. The pregnant 16-year-old high-school-dropout down the block from me, however, is going to buy whatever clothes her friends buy. The 22-year-old college sports star is going to buy whatever SUV his friends buy. Remember cabbage patch kids? Remember beanie babies? Those products had ZERO quantifiable merit - except for popularity. The only reason that people clawed each others eyes out to get one was that, well, everybody *else* is clawing somebody's eyes out to get one. Mob rule rules these days, and it's only getting stronger.
"People (who you seem to regard as fickle and inferior"
Yeah? Is that what I think? Thanks for telling me, it's always nice to know what I think. We'll return to this later.
"Nice stab at the Republicans"
They earned it with the sweat of their brow.
"they've been at least as good as any other political party at doing what they said they'll do."
You appear to be either very naive or very evil. Probably the former, as this statement is *demonstrably* untrue. Please don't make me embarass you in front of your friends here. This probably isn't the best place for a protracted and ugly debate on politics. And besides, are we really going to change each others minds? Seriously. Drop this now.
"*** Something about how Mag-Lites are marked up, over-sold items that really aren't worth it... "
Wow, you can't even be bothered to quote what I actually said. Do you think people didn't already read it? Do you think nobody noticed your cute little paraphrase there?
Because, despite whatever you wish I said, what I actually did say was NOT that Maglites aren't worth it. They definitely are.
I said their price point makes them a luxury item - and that results in much greater profitablity of their product. As opposed to their product just being a good idea and making money because, somehow, magically, good things are rewarded, well, because the Supply Side God says so. It doesn't have to make sense, right?
Wrong. If you're on slashdot you should be smart enough to know that math that doesn't add up is BAD MATH. And you should also know bad math has no place in a system whose ostensible goal is to be efficient and functional.
And if there's one thing I think God really hates, it's bad math.
ObDisclosure: I Own A Maglite. (tm) I never said they weren't good products. They are. I said that their profitability as a product is a direct result of their (very high) price. Try to twist it all you want, my friend, but that's what I said and the zeroes and ones got my back.
Next time, take off the rose-colored blinders before you read my post and try responding to what I actually said instead of what you *wish* I said. You did *read* my post, didn't you?
Now, I've been honest with you, so give me one honest answer: How hard is to build a fsking flashlight anyway? Oh my god, the flashlight actually *works*, it's a veritable miracle... Because the product actually, you know, *works* and, you know, like, *doesn't break* it must be worth the ridiculously inflated price...
This line of reasoning just shows how conditioned we've become as consumers to products apparently made of burro dung. Which, if you'll be good enough to return to my original post (and maybe, just maybe, actually read it), was all I was saying in the first place.
And can you please quantify just what a "good feel" to a flashlight is? It's a tube. It's got batteries, a bulb, a switch, and some little strips of metal. It "feels" like a
I would cheerfully submit to strip-searching prior to casting a paper ballot rather than be forced to give my vote to a machine that may or may not count it, that will give no verification of whether it has done so or not, and that's owned by a company whose president's stated objective, in his own words, is to deliver as many votes as possible to the GOP.
"Why can't yopu make that work in the US ?"
Well, as they say in the industry, there's no percentage.
Why would the powers that be want to make it work? It goes like this:
1) convince the entire nation that we're more evenly divided amonst ourselves than we ever have been (they've already done this).
2) as much as possible, obfuscate and confuse the voters about the election result.
3) As long as it's just a couple hundered votes either way, the election WILL go the GOP. (couple hundered votes in one state I should say, 2000 presidential election had a victory margin for Gore of half a million popular votes. Half a MILLION.)
In other words, they want it to be too close to call, cuz then they get to throw it to themselves.
it's been said, but it bears repeating... piracy of some sort has always played a positive role in free markets.
The more expensive things are, the more people steal. If nobody shoplifted, chewing gum would be $10. If nobody installed pirate software, it would be ludicrously expensive. The current black market in cigarettes, due in no small part to the price increase brought about by recent sin taxes, is thriving to the point where it's supposedly one of al-quaida's main income streams. And it's probably kept cigarettes from becoming even more expensive then they already are.
piracy is a legitimate market force and a very effective regulator of price for a couple reasons. Retailers understand this - you think they install those four to five figure security systems so they can bust you stealing a CD? A VCR even? They install them to reduce the impact of piracy, so they can raise their prices.
"Most companies really like it when you come back to them for future purchases"
True. Which is why you have to make sure the customer has no other options than to buy your product. (cough, cough, MONOPOLY)
And besides, conusmer loyalty is a myth. Nobody cares anymore. My experience is that it's more important to most people to buy whatever is fashionable/popular than to buy the best product for their needs. People buy cheap crap that breaks and they go back the next day and buy from the same company again. Look at Ford Explorers. Look at Big Mac's. Look at Nike. Look at the GOP. It doesn't matter how bad the product is, if everybody else is doing it we are like lambs to the slaughter. Like lemmings.
"If you can make your product that much better with a reasonably small amount of cost, then why not?"
If you could create something from nothing, wouldn't everybody? If getting something for nothing was as easy as trying hard the world would be a very different place. But you can't. You never get something for nothing. Sure, you might be able to shave a little off the top with lots of ingenuity, but that won't be cost-effective either - ingenuity is *expensive*.
Somebody much wiser than myself once said that neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed, only exchanged. I think he was onto something. If the price tag is cheaper it's because the product is cheaper, not because the company is better. It's because you're buying the lowest common denominator.
"MAG-Lite flashlights are extremely well made. People buy them, and the company is succesful, because they made a great product, as opposed to just another flashlight."
No, people bought them because police officers, plumbers, and other working professionals in need of a professional-grade flashlight used them conspicuously until the public (or often, the public's wife) wondered why *they* didn't have flashlights that nice, at which point the public demanded them, at which point the market was flooded with cheap mag-lite clones.
And the company is succesful because the price point for maglites, in the context of the flashlight marketplace, makes it a luxury item. Maglites cost more than they have any right to considering they're an aluminum tube, a switch, and a bulb assembly. Maglites are probably succesful for the same reason SUV's are - the markup is so huge.
Um, it does.
Maybe you went to school in a different country, but where I grew up we're all pretty aware that it's hard to have capitalism without competition.
Oh, you have a degree in ... the industry? See, mine's specifically for audio engineering. Which is why I was Chief Engineer for a year and a half at a Grammy-award-winning studio. Don't really understand how this is germane to the subject but since you brought it up...
The right to sell sheet music is held by the publisher. This is exactly what I said. Try reading the post before you start running off at the mouth.
I did forget about ascap and the like, you are correct there. But you can't deny that there are plenty of instances where the authors/publishers sign over publishing rights as part of the deal. And you also can't deny that there have been situations where labels, managers or publishers have sued artists for performing their own songs live.
As per copyright, true, it technically is copywritten as soon as it is created, with one catch - you have to be able to prove it was created on a certain date. And the "poor-man's-copyright" of the sealed postmarked envelope with the master inside usually won't hold up in court. So yeah, you pretty much do have to register it with the library of Congress if you want your copyright to hold up in court. You can choose not to, but if somebody steals your stuff and then *they* send it to the LOC... guess who the courts are gonna side with? Not you.
And if you don't watch your posture, that chip on your shoulder will give you scoliosis.