Epiphany is a good browser. I started using it a while ago because I found that it didn't lock up when browsing Slashdot whilst Firefox 2 did (both on Ubuntu platform). I've recently ended up using Konqueror as I have a Kubuntu install this time round and I find it similarly faster than Firefox.The odd thing is, I didn't have any extensions in Firefox at the time, either. Anyway - Epiphany is very good and I suspect quite a lot of Gnome users use it.
Badly skewed sample - people who care about are likely to have bought a 3G phone or data package, those who don't will not. You need to look at how many people are buying 3G phones.
I've bought a few things from there but most of the mainstream stuff is under the WMA category and therefore not of interest to me. They are also attempting to create more of an online listening site than a shop which I don't like. They keep all of the music you buy in a "locker" which you can stream from again and again. There's no way to remove it if you only want a download. Also an absolute PITA to download more than a handful of tracks as they don't offer any sort of combined download tool for Linux. After scrolling through three pages and downloading music one link at a time I gave up and decided to wait for someone who offered a more shop-style interface.
Magnatune are the best I've ever come across in terms of user experience. Of course you can't get a Basement Jaxx album off them but unlike most independent little groups there's actually stuff on there that's really good. Ehran Starks was particularly worth getting but there's a lot more, too.
When did having an IQ of over a 160 make one a genius? If that's the case then I'm a genius too (scored 163 when I was 20). I have empirical evidence that an IQ 160+ does not prevent one thinking or doing stupid things (that empirical evidence, rather sadly, being my life:).
I'm certain I once heard genius defined as an IQ of 180 or higher, though to be honest, IQ is not a good measure of intelligence for common understandings of the word.
Not since iTunes broke Linux compatibility. Count me in as another customer sitting here with a pile of cash waiting them to actually let me buy from them. And more competition in the market is a good thing, anyway.
I also seriously doubt the author is basing his argument on any comprehensive and carefully carried out actual research. DRM free music has been selling very well is the impression I'm getting. And I have £80 right here to purchase music files as soon as Amazon or whoever actually opens up their catalogue in the UK.
You're modded funny, but it would make us more secure. Imagine people knowing everything that was discussed and brokered in the Government, listening to all the meetings with lobbyists. These people represent you, why shouldn't you know what they're doing?
For every person that writes a letter there are 500-1,000 who don't and the people in government and in the media know this. When someone does something that's mistaken, better they receive a few letters explaining why, than everyone remain silent.
If you object to something - speak! And trust, me you'll feel better for having done something
The only way to really "own" an idea it to never tell anyone. Once a piece of "intellectual property" is released into the wild, the only to control it is to infringe on the rights of other people.
You're confused - you're talking about patents (owning ideas). Copyright has to do with specific representations of those ideas. Someone writes a story about a boy wizard at school, that exact combination of words is copyrighted. But you're free to right your own story about a boy wizard at school.Stopping that would infringe on people's rights. Copyright does not do this. Unless you're telling me that you would have independently come up with the same representation of an idea then you're not demonstrating how copyright has infringed your rights.
So exactly how many iterations do you think it would take for Peter Jackson to go from selling his home videos to raising the $430 million dollars up front it would require to produce the Lord of the Rings trilogy?
As an aside, not that the argument requires more counter-points, you're shifting the basis of the market to one in which the consumer (you) bare the risk. After all, if everyone gets together to pay into the "We'd Like a LotR Trilogy" fund, that's $430 million you're not going to get back if the films are crap. Don't you prefer the risk to be on the producers' side rather than the customers?
I listen to contemporary art music, and the films I most enjoy are those by the auteurs. This is all produced by state arts subsidies and private patronage...I stand to lose nothing with the end of copyright
How lovely for you, I'm happy to have been able to support your interests with my taxes. In the meantime, some of us quite enjoy the odd Hollywood blockbuster or music video or album or novel that someone could afford to produce only because copyright law enabled them to choose how they wanted to sell the work. Because that's what copyright does - it lets people choose how to sell their work. It does not fix a price or determine terms and conditions or any other enforced way of doing business, it just expands the content producer's options. The rest is negotiation with the public over cost and terms. If we don't like either, we don't buy, but at least negotiation is possible. Without the possibility of negotiation there are only going to be two options to an artist - produce and pray or don't produce.
It is frequently argued that there might be just too much artistic production now, leading to a feeling of disorientation because one simply cannot keep up with it all.
Really? And this contributes what to the debate? Are you arguing that there is too much artistic production? Are you saying that the state should limit the amount of literature that is produced, or movies, or songs because it's too confusing for our little brains? That is bollocks. Sounds like some sort of Orwellian Hell. People can make their own choices.
It's all academic, it's not going to happen. All we can do is influence the implementation of the principle of copyright, e.g. argue for shorter copyright terms, refuse DRM and advocate watermarks. These are practical things. Wanting to abolish copyright law in favour of all arts being state-funded is just a misguided pipe-dream.
However, watermarking may well be sufficient to deter a lot of piracy. The major sharer types may not be deterred by watermarking, but they wouldn't be deterred by DRM either, but watermarking does make the product vastly more appealing to legitimate customers so it's a win there. And maybe I'm wrong about the deterrance to more serious piraters. After all, break the DRM and you're done. How do you ever know for certain that you actually caught all of the watermarking?
Personally, I really want watermarking to take off (especially in movies) because I don't buy DRM but there's a lot of good content out there I'm very keen to buy wants it's available.
I should add that with the current level of disillusionment with the major parties in the US amongst its population, the best way to market yourself would be as a maverick outsider set on reform and a return to the "real" values of the party.
I hate to break this to you, but Obama is on the payroll. There's an article here about the corporate funding of the candidates. It doesn't link to actual figures, I'm afraid, but it's a copy of an article that first appeared in a large British newspaper (the Independent) and I'd be very surprised if they'd printed something as wildly sue-able as false information like this.
Just have - bought an Athlon X2 5200 has my latest CPU and chose it over any Intel processor because I think I should buy according to what will have a positive effect generally as well as personally. Though to be honest, it's also an excellent chip.
My recommendation to people who feel this way about 3.5edition is to take a look at Malhavoc Press's Iron Heroes supplement. It somehow manages to be both compatible with the core system and produce an incredibly different feel, slightly old-school feel at the same time. Strongly recommended and the first thing I thought when I read some of the details about the new 4th Edition D&D is that it sounded like they'd ripped off more than a couple of ideas from IH. Really, definitely worth a look. (Actually two looks, seeing as the superficial presentation and art is nowhere near as nice as the WotC stuff).
That's a great point. I don't like the region coding idea either. It's meant to curb piracy, but I question its effect in today's world, especially with blu-rays.
Actually, the point of the region coding was not piracy, but profit. It enabled different pricing models to be artificially maintained in a global economy. I.e. The people of the UK will put up with higher prices than those of India, etc.
hopefully, as DRM takes root, one small benefit will be that there is less region code crap.
I doubt it. If anything it will get worse, see first point above. Secondly, it will enable studios to start shifting to a pay-per-view model if it takes root. No more owning the movie, you hire again and again and again. Studio's dream, our nightmare. All the more reason to reject DRM now while we can and we're a generation that knows what would be lost.
And the compulsory DRM on Blue Ray. And the higher technology licensing costs than HD-DVD for everyone including small time studios that can less afford it.
But seriously, this summary is just a loaded invitation to people who like to say "told you so" and tired Monty Python jokes. HD-DVD has lots of discs out there, more on the way, it's not going to vanish any time soon. And over the next year, we'll see dual-format players become common which changes everything in that there will be little discincentive to releasing your movie on either format.
Someone on Slashdot has allowed themselves to be persuaded to a different point of view? I'm, well... surprised. One might almost suspect open-mindedness and a lack of need to prove oneself.:)
Seriously, a good discussion. Thank you.
Regards,
-H.
And that's why we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. You have no idea what mainstream consumers actually want.
Not to have to download and install new firmware to a DVD player, not to find that their player doesn't support all the features on a newer disc, to be able to play a DVD purchased from anywhere without worrying about region locking. Sounds like he had a pretty good grasp of what mainstream consumers want, actually.
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Epiphany is a good browser. I started using it a while ago because I found that it didn't lock up when browsing Slashdot whilst Firefox 2 did (both on Ubuntu platform). I've recently ended up using Konqueror as I have a Kubuntu install this time round and I find it similarly faster than Firefox.The odd thing is, I didn't have any extensions in Firefox at the time, either. Anyway - Epiphany is very good and I suspect quite a lot of Gnome users use it.
Badly skewed sample - people who care about are likely to have bought a 3G phone or data package, those who don't will not. You need to look at how many people are buying 3G phones.
I've bought a few things from there but most of the mainstream stuff is under the WMA category and therefore not of interest to me. They are also attempting to create more of an online listening site than a shop which I don't like. They keep all of the music you buy in a "locker" which you can stream from again and again. There's no way to remove it if you only want a download. Also an absolute PITA to download more than a handful of tracks as they don't offer any sort of combined download tool for Linux. After scrolling through three pages and downloading music one link at a time I gave up and decided to wait for someone who offered a more shop-style interface.
Magnatune are the best I've ever come across in terms of user experience. Of course you can't get a Basement Jaxx album off them but unlike most independent little groups there's actually stuff on there that's really good. Ehran Starks was particularly worth getting but there's a lot more, too.
When did having an IQ of over a 160 make one a genius? If that's the case then I'm a genius too (scored 163 when I was 20). I have empirical evidence that an IQ 160+ does not prevent one thinking or doing stupid things (that empirical evidence, rather sadly, being my life
I'm certain I once heard genius defined as an IQ of 180 or higher, though to be honest, IQ is not a good measure of intelligence for common understandings of the word.
Not since iTunes broke Linux compatibility. Count me in as another customer sitting here with a pile of cash waiting them to actually let me buy from them. And more competition in the market is a good thing, anyway.
And astonishes us.
I also seriously doubt the author is basing his argument on any comprehensive and carefully carried out actual research. DRM free music has been selling very well is the impression I'm getting. And I have £80 right here to purchase music files as soon as Amazon or whoever actually opens up their catalogue in the UK.
You're modded funny, but it would make us more secure. Imagine people knowing everything that was discussed and brokered in the Government, listening to all the meetings with lobbyists. These people represent you, why shouldn't you know what they're doing?
For every person that writes a letter there are 500-1,000 who don't and the people in government and in the media know this. When someone does something that's mistaken, better they receive a few letters explaining why, than everyone remain silent.
If you object to something - speak! And trust, me you'll feel better for having done something
Number 1 is fine. Students *should* be well-informed about policies that affect them.
You are right about number 2.
... can we get a screenshot?
You're confused - you're talking about patents (owning ideas). Copyright has to do with specific representations of those ideas. Someone writes a story about a boy wizard at school, that exact combination of words is copyrighted. But you're free to right your own story about a boy wizard at school.Stopping that would infringe on people's rights. Copyright does not do this. Unless you're telling me that you would have independently come up with the same representation of an idea then you're not demonstrating how copyright has infringed your rights.
So exactly how many iterations do you think it would take for Peter Jackson to go from selling his home videos to raising the $430 million dollars up front it would require to produce the Lord of the Rings trilogy?
As an aside, not that the argument requires more counter-points, you're shifting the basis of the market to one in which the consumer (you) bare the risk. After all, if everyone gets together to pay into the "We'd Like a LotR Trilogy" fund, that's $430 million you're not going to get back if the films are crap. Don't you prefer the risk to be on the producers' side rather than the customers?
How lovely for you, I'm happy to have been able to support your interests with my taxes. In the meantime, some of us quite enjoy the odd Hollywood blockbuster or music video or album or novel that someone could afford to produce only because copyright law enabled them to choose how they wanted to sell the work. Because that's what copyright does - it lets people choose how to sell their work. It does not fix a price or determine terms and conditions or any other enforced way of doing business, it just expands the content producer's options. The rest is negotiation with the public over cost and terms. If we don't like either, we don't buy, but at least negotiation is possible. Without the possibility of negotiation there are only going to be two options to an artist - produce and pray or don't produce.
Really? And this contributes what to the debate? Are you arguing that there is too much artistic production? Are you saying that the state should limit the amount of literature that is produced, or movies, or songs because it's too confusing for our little brains? That is bollocks. Sounds like some sort of Orwellian Hell. People can make their own choices.
It's all academic, it's not going to happen. All we can do is influence the implementation of the principle of copyright, e.g. argue for shorter copyright terms, refuse DRM and advocate watermarks. These are practical things. Wanting to abolish copyright law in favour of all arts being state-funded is just a misguided pipe-dream.
However, watermarking may well be sufficient to deter a lot of piracy. The major sharer types may not be deterred by watermarking, but they wouldn't be deterred by DRM either, but watermarking does make the product vastly more appealing to legitimate customers so it's a win there. And maybe I'm wrong about the deterrance to more serious piraters. After all, break the DRM and you're done. How do you ever know for certain that you actually caught all of the watermarking?
Personally, I really want watermarking to take off (especially in movies) because I don't buy DRM but there's a lot of good content out there I'm very keen to buy wants it's available.
I should add that with the current level of disillusionment with the major parties in the US amongst its population, the best way to market yourself would be as a maverick outsider set on reform and a return to the "real" values of the party.
I hate to break this to you, but Obama is on the payroll. There's an article here about the corporate funding of the candidates. It doesn't link to actual figures, I'm afraid, but it's a copy of an article that first appeared in a large British newspaper (the Independent) and I'd be very surprised if they'd printed something as wildly sue-able as false information like this.
Just have - bought an Athlon X2 5200 has my latest CPU and chose it over any Intel processor because I think I should buy according to what will have a positive effect generally as well as personally. Though to be honest, it's also an excellent chip.
Actually, I have a formal question for the developers: Have you ever read Monte Cook's Iron Heroes supplement and are there any similarities?
My recommendation to people who feel this way about 3.5edition is to take a look at Malhavoc Press's Iron Heroes supplement. It somehow manages to be both compatible with the core system and produce an incredibly different feel, slightly old-school feel at the same time. Strongly recommended and the first thing I thought when I read some of the details about the new 4th Edition D&D is that it sounded like they'd ripped off more than a couple of ideas from IH. Really, definitely worth a look. (Actually two looks, seeing as the superficial presentation and art is nowhere near as nice as the WotC stuff).
Actually, the point of the region coding was not piracy, but profit. It enabled different pricing models to be artificially maintained in a global economy. I.e. The people of the UK will put up with higher prices than those of India, etc.
I doubt it. If anything it will get worse, see first point above. Secondly, it will enable studios to start shifting to a pay-per-view model if it takes root. No more owning the movie, you hire again and again and again. Studio's dream, our nightmare. All the more reason to reject DRM now while we can and we're a generation that knows what would be lost.
And the compulsory DRM on Blue Ray. And the higher technology licensing costs than HD-DVD for everyone including small time studios that can less afford it.
But seriously, this summary is just a loaded invitation to people who like to say "told you so" and tired Monty Python jokes. HD-DVD has lots of discs out there, more on the way, it's not going to vanish any time soon. And over the next year, we'll see dual-format players become common which changes everything in that there will be little discincentive to releasing your movie on either format.
Someone on Slashdot has allowed themselves to be persuaded to a different point of view? I'm, well... surprised. One might almost suspect open-mindedness and a lack of need to prove oneself.
Seriously, a good discussion. Thank you.
Regards,
-H.
Not to have to download and install new firmware to a DVD player, not to find that their player doesn't support all the features on a newer disc, to be able to play a DVD purchased from anywhere without worrying about region locking. Sounds like he had a pretty good grasp of what mainstream consumers want, actually.
*applauds*