Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement.
I don't see this happening. Youtube may have a lot of copyrighted materials, but user-created videos have exploded.
Just a few of the smaller but popular examples:
Chocolate Rain -- 25,053,011
Leave Britney Alone -- 21,145,310 (and most of Chris Crockers other videos have an average of 2 million views)
Charlie the Unicorn -- 25,680,981
And of course, the king... Evolution of Dance, with 90,944,416 views.
I can see it now: the information they learn from this study ends up in their sales manuals on how to upsell customers and make them purchase more than what the needed/wanted.
Just grap a USB adapter from a vendor like Lik Sang and you can use your Guitar Hero Guitar or DDR dancepad on the PC, making it more like the original that they're cloned from.
...I'm not seeing anywhere where it says that RealPlayer will come bundled with future versions of Firefox, only that Firefox will come with Real Products.
Of course, if it DOES come to pass I give it two days before someone comes out with a Firefox Extension called "RealRemover"
It's likely just a youth thing, I mean when's the last time you saw the average American young person reading Hemingway or Faulkner? Nope, they're reading the text of the newest Pokemon game from the screen of their Game Boys.
Besides, the last remaining member of the sole Japanese Literary Club left in Japan was assimilated by Haruhi Suzumiya anyway...
Oh yeah, once you figure out the new bootloader, it dual boots like a champ.
You can either use the command-line based bcedit.exe, or use VistaBootPRO which is ridiculously easy to use. Another option is to use the startup repair utility that comes on the Vista CD, and it'll recover WinXP's boot.ini and also configure it to use Vista's bootloader.
What does "Free" speech mean? Does Free mean the right of anybody to say anything anywhere at anytime? The Supreme court has said no.
Exactly.
From Schenck v. United States, 49 U.S. 47 (1919):
The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
(nevermind the fact that the war could be unethical; we're still at war nonetheless)
See also imminent lawless action, which replaced the "clear and present danger" test, which would also definitely apply to this case. Some leaks, when published, would definitely cause a problem that law enforcement could not contain within reasonable time. Therefore, publishing leaks would definitely fall under imminent lawless action, making it illegal.
Having just watched the conference and reading the/. comments, I really don't think that there's anything else I can add to the subject of the games (though Warioware still impresses me to no end), but after hearing about the built-in speaker in the "wii-mote" I'm left with one question: will there be any kind of headphone support?
I don't know about most of you guys, but I grew up listening to "that's too loud, turn it down!" from my mother while I was playing video games, and after moving out I have to put up with basically the same thing from the neighbors at my apartment. It's pretty much gotten to the point where I'm accustomed to playing video games, watching TV/movies, and listening to music while wearing headphones.
So where does the idea of a remote speaker leave people like me? I would like to get the full experience of the game, but I may not be able to hear the remote's speaker over my headphones. And if I could, would it be loud enough to disturb my roommate/neighbors? Could there be in-game options to route all sound through the TV speakers or the headphones, like there is with XB Live?
Wait a second... an MMO on the PSP? Think of the potential for this... Gold farming anywhere, on the go! Lose your job or fail in college while you're actually there now!
Then there's the issue of the reduced battery life when the wi-fi switch is on. Anytime I've wanted to play online with my PSP I've always found myself becoming attached to the nearest wall unit via an umbilical charging cable, which I feel sort of defeats the purpose of a handheld unit. The party mechanics of the game also somewhat dooms the concept to failure, as it can sometimes take an hour to find a good party, and then they'll want to play for no less than two hours. By then, a PSP user's battery would likely be dead... or worse yet, would go dead during a big fight. If there was a way to make the game more playable in 20min-1hr fixes, it'd work. But the 4-5 hour stretches that the game tends to demand? I really don't think that's viable. If I'm going to sit at my desk, chained to the PSP's charging cable, then I'll just play it on my PC.
Oh it's very fair to compare it, because any reader, whether it be from a purchased subscription, one that came free from a discount card, or one that came from a free subscription via freebizmag.com... is still a reader. In fact, publishers make their money using this logic.
See, magazines make very little money by just selling subscriptions. But take any magazine you own and turn it around, and you'll probably see an advertisment there. A company paid a lot of money for that advertisement, as did any of the other companies who purchased ads for that particular issue. When choosing the pricing for ads, the publishers use the circulation as a bargaining chip, because they can get away with higher marketing fees with a magazine that has a circulation of, say... 2 million readers. Now, never mind how they got their readers... a reader is a reader, and the more readers they have, the more marketing dollars they generate.
A bit off topic, but GMR's downfall was due to it being handled by Ziff-Davis media and not EB itself (as Gamestop does with Game Informer). That, combined with EB separating the GMR subscription from it's AdvantEDGE card program led to it's demise.
You're also assuming that every store does that.
EB DOES have a strong and well-developed customer service program, but what you just mentioned is bad policy from someone that ignores it. I wouldn't shop at that store either.
I think we're starting to see the common ground here. You like those guys because they've treated you fairly, and you'll go back to them. You've got customer loyalty. Many people like EB for the same reasons. It's all based on how the customer views themselves as being treated.
As for the prices, I just called my store and got the following prices (in USD):
Metal Gear Solid 3 - 10 Prince of Persia 2 - 15 Star Ocean 3 - 15
In total, that'd be $40 (about $50 CAD). So, you really would have gotten a fair trade by going to either store but there would still be a $10 variant. Losing $10 would seem like a good idea if the place you went to provided good customer service, but it wouldn't be sound from an economic standpoint.
But you know what, saying that EB would never sacrifice profit is a generalization and is entirely off the mark. As a whole, they may, and I won't argue that. But I as a manager I pride myself for my store's level of customer service. I often go the extra mile to make sure that the customer is taken care of, and it has been discussed on corporate calls lately that taking care of the customer is a huge priority in our business.
I honestly don't see the point in continuing this conversation any further though, we're not getting anywhere and we're obviously not going to change each other's mind so let's just agree to disagree.
Re:One man can make a (bad) difference
on
GameStop buys EB
·
· Score: 1
Wow, that was pretty insightful, thanks.
I've tried to remain optimistic about this, and perhaps a little too optimistic at times, but I did think about one thing. I've mentioned before that I've worked with both EB and Gamestop. Well, my term at Gamestop ended due to me quitting because of them trying to take me down because of theft on the manager's part. Now, I'm the manager of an EB. I wonder if they'll take the fact that I'm non-rehirable by Gamestop into consideration when the EB staff is assimilated by Gamestop.
Regardless of whether or not it was a cheap tactic, it was effective and proved the fallacy made in the statement. As for trade in prices, that's just smart business.
Let me explain. A game is released, and if it is popular and not getting traded in xa store will give a higher trade value because they want to encourage people to trade it in. Over time, it isn't financially sound to keep giving the same high value for a game because eventually demand for the game will decrease and they'll be sitting on a bunch of games that they bought back that aren't going anywhere. It makes no sense whatsoever to give a customer $20 for a copy of a two-year old game that they already have fifteen copies of that's just going to sit on the shelf. It's just like negotiating with a vendor over cost, because the company sets the price that they want to pay for the item, and the vendor (in this case the consumer) either agrees to it declines the transaction. Some trade in prices are low simply because we don't want that product, plain and simple. Even then, companies like EB and GS still have trade-in specials that'll increase the values of non-sports titled games to $5, $10, or even $15 sometimes.
Granted, I'll definitely admit that some trade in prices aren't fair. I've told customers before they'd get more for something on Ebay, and I've even told someone to give it to a friend so they can enjoy doing something nice for someone, but companies can't give $15-20 for every game every time and expect to stay afloat selling Madden 2002 for $30.
I think you missed something in the context. The guy was complaining that the EB near him was giving $5 for any game, I was telling him that it wasn't true, and as an example the store I work at (as well as the other stores in the same district) is giving $30 for Jade Empire, therefore either making his statement false or stating that the store near him isn't giving the correct amount for trades.
I just called my store and got a quote of $30 trade-in for Jade Empire on the XBox. I don't know if other regions have differing trade-in policies, but that's the first I've ever heard of it. Even the website advertises higher prices than that.
Debunking a few things
on
GameStop buys EB
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I'd like to address some of the concerns people are having with this merger.
1) Their customer service is going to change. - Not entirely true. I've worked at both EB and Gamestop, and EB has a strong and well-developed program in customer service and sales training while Gamestop has almost none (as of 2000). Once both companies sit down and analyze each other's practices it'd be logical to assume that EB's method of training will be incorporated. This is also backed by the fact that EB employees make more annually than Gamestop employees, and EB still turned a higher profit last year.
As for the matter of the return policy, it changed because of copyright laws, not some corporate mandate.
2) It's going to affect the used games market. - It should affect it at all, honestly. Rather, it should help stabilize it. There is a huge glut on the market as far as used product goes. Trade in prices are dictated by the amount the company has already vs the rate at which it's selling. That's why sports games trade in at such a low rate: once the current version comes out, previous versions get traded in at a huge rate and it devalues. Both companies rely on trades, so if trades stifled they would definitely addresss it, therefore it's safe to assume the prices would drop too.
Btw, the $44.99 game likely had a trade in price of $25 to $35. This is how retailers like EB and Gamestop make profit. Average cost of a game is around $47. Companies like this can't keep their lights on just by selling hardware (which they sometimes lose money on) and new software. The profit margins from preowned is what keeps these companies afloat.
Plus, with discount programs available, a preowned version of a new release being priced at $40 is actually a good deal sometimes (especially with BOGO sales).
3) Gamestop is going to close stores in malls with multiple locations. - Again, this is not entirely true. Right now, an EB is open because it's getting business. If Gamestop closes a store because it is too close to another, it's a perfect opportunity for a competitor, say... Gamecrazy to move right in because they know that store gets traffic. As it stands, there are actually malls in America that have three EB stores in them, and they all get good traffic. I know there will be closings, but there will be many more openings.
4) Prices will go up. - But they may go down. Prices are dictated by cost vs profits. Right now, the bulk quantity that EB and Gamestop purchase at gets a resulting cost of about $47 a game, as I mentioned earlier. Now, with some 3000+ stores in the US (more in Europe and Asia) Gamestop can now purchase games in a higher quantity, meaning a higher bulk discount and more profit from the $49.99 price point. If anything, it'd be an incentive for prices to stay where they are and more incentive to have sales on games.
As an EB employee, I'm very optimistic about this merger. If nothing else, I at least made a quick 1k off of stock sales;)
He brings up a good point here, I've also heard some complaints about lint or dust that was trapped under the screen. Actually, I've got about four pieces of dust on my PSP's screen. You would think that these would be assembled in a clean room, but I guess not.
There may be some merit to this claim. The article starts with "Everyone can pretty much agree that Soul Calibur II was a big disappointment."
Now, with an average ranking of 92% for the PS2 version (from gamerankings, with Gamepro themselves giving it a perfect score), that doesn't seem like that big of a disappointment to me.
If it does turn out to be a joke though, it'd be a shame... I really like the character design of the circular-bladed femme-fatale. The models for Mitsurgi and Taki look great too. Here's hoping that the joke is the part about the game being exclusive to the PS2, and not the game's existence.
However IGN, Gamespot, and Gamefaqs all have pages dedicated to the title, so it's not looking to good right now...
Slashdot Mirror
Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement.
I don't see this happening. Youtube may have a lot of copyrighted materials, but user-created videos have exploded.
Just a few of the smaller but popular examples:
Chocolate Rain -- 25,053,011
Leave Britney Alone -- 21,145,310 (and most of Chris Crockers other videos have an average of 2 million views)
Charlie the Unicorn -- 25,680,981
And of course, the king... Evolution of Dance, with 90,944,416 views.
Could it be Best Buy?
I can see it now: the information they learn from this study ends up in their sales manuals on how to upsell customers and make them purchase more than what the needed/wanted.
Joking, of course... but it could still happen.
Just grap a USB adapter from a vendor like Lik Sang and you can use your Guitar Hero Guitar or DDR dancepad on the PC, making it more like the original that they're cloned from.
...I'm not seeing anywhere where it says that RealPlayer will come bundled with future versions of Firefox, only that Firefox will come with Real Products.
Of course, if it DOES come to pass I give it two days before someone comes out with a Firefox Extension called "RealRemover"
*copy*
*paste*
Besides, the last remaining member of the sole Japanese Literary Club left in Japan was assimilated by Haruhi Suzumiya anyway...
An awesome idea, and the page has definitely been bookmarked... but I should have figured "Manglish" also translated to "Engrish"
From the cover: "She cares about it being tall"
I assume that we'll see many fun times happen, for long time.
You can either use the command-line based bcedit.exe, or use VistaBootPRO which is ridiculously easy to use. Another option is to use the startup repair utility that comes on the Vista CD, and it'll recover WinXP's boot.ini and also configure it to use Vista's bootloader.
...is knowing to vote "Cowboy Neal" on everything.
Exactly.
From Schenck v. United States, 49 U.S. 47 (1919):
The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
(nevermind the fact that the war could be unethical; we're still at war nonetheless)
See also imminent lawless action, which replaced the "clear and present danger" test, which would also definitely apply to this case. Some leaks, when published, would definitely cause a problem that law enforcement could not contain within reasonable time. Therefore, publishing leaks would definitely fall under imminent lawless action, making it illegal.
Having just watched the conference and reading the /. comments, I really don't think that there's anything else I can add to the subject of the games (though Warioware still impresses me to no end), but after hearing about the built-in speaker in the "wii-mote" I'm left with one question: will there be any kind of headphone support?
I don't know about most of you guys, but I grew up listening to "that's too loud, turn it down!" from my mother while I was playing video games, and after moving out I have to put up with basically the same thing from the neighbors at my apartment. It's pretty much gotten to the point where I'm accustomed to playing video games, watching TV/movies, and listening to music while wearing headphones.
So where does the idea of a remote speaker leave people like me? I would like to get the full experience of the game, but I may not be able to hear the remote's speaker over my headphones. And if I could, would it be loud enough to disturb my roommate/neighbors? Could there be in-game options to route all sound through the TV speakers or the headphones, like there is with XB Live?
The PSWii...
Wait a second... an MMO on the PSP? Think of the potential for this... Gold farming anywhere, on the go! Lose your job or fail in college while you're actually there now!
Then there's the issue of the reduced battery life when the wi-fi switch is on. Anytime I've wanted to play online with my PSP I've always found myself becoming attached to the nearest wall unit via an umbilical charging cable, which I feel sort of defeats the purpose of a handheld unit. The party mechanics of the game also somewhat dooms the concept to failure, as it can sometimes take an hour to find a good party, and then they'll want to play for no less than two hours. By then, a PSP user's battery would likely be dead... or worse yet, would go dead during a big fight. If there was a way to make the game more playable in 20min-1hr fixes, it'd work. But the 4-5 hour stretches that the game tends to demand? I really don't think that's viable. If I'm going to sit at my desk, chained to the PSP's charging cable, then I'll just play it on my PC.
Oh it's very fair to compare it, because any reader, whether it be from a purchased subscription, one that came free from a discount card, or one that came from a free subscription via freebizmag.com... is still a reader. In fact, publishers make their money using this logic.
See, magazines make very little money by just selling subscriptions. But take any magazine you own and turn it around, and you'll probably see an advertisment there. A company paid a lot of money for that advertisement, as did any of the other companies who purchased ads for that particular issue. When choosing the pricing for ads, the publishers use the circulation as a bargaining chip, because they can get away with higher marketing fees with a magazine that has a circulation of, say... 2 million readers. Now, never mind how they got their readers... a reader is a reader, and the more readers they have, the more marketing dollars they generate.
A bit off topic, but GMR's downfall was due to it being handled by Ziff-Davis media and not EB itself (as Gamestop does with Game Informer). That, combined with EB separating the GMR subscription from it's AdvantEDGE card program led to it's demise.
Sad thing too, GMR really did rock.
Deal! *shakes hands*
You're also assuming that every store does that. EB DOES have a strong and well-developed customer service program, but what you just mentioned is bad policy from someone that ignores it. I wouldn't shop at that store either.
I think we're starting to see the common ground here. You like those guys because they've treated you fairly, and you'll go back to them. You've got customer loyalty. Many people like EB for the same reasons. It's all based on how the customer views themselves as being treated.
As for the prices, I just called my store and got the following prices (in USD):
Metal Gear Solid 3 - 10
Prince of Persia 2 - 15
Star Ocean 3 - 15
In total, that'd be $40 (about $50 CAD). So, you really would have gotten a fair trade by going to either store but there would still be a $10 variant. Losing $10 would seem like a good idea if the place you went to provided good customer service, but it wouldn't be sound from an economic standpoint.
But you know what, saying that EB would never sacrifice profit is a generalization and is entirely off the mark. As a whole, they may, and I won't argue that. But I as a manager I pride myself for my store's level of customer service. I often go the extra mile to make sure that the customer is taken care of, and it has been discussed on corporate calls lately that taking care of the customer is a huge priority in our business.
I honestly don't see the point in continuing this conversation any further though, we're not getting anywhere and we're obviously not going to change each other's mind so let's just agree to disagree.
Wow, that was pretty insightful, thanks.
I've tried to remain optimistic about this, and perhaps a little too optimistic at times, but I did think about one thing. I've mentioned before that I've worked with both EB and Gamestop. Well, my term at Gamestop ended due to me quitting because of them trying to take me down because of theft on the manager's part. Now, I'm the manager of an EB. I wonder if they'll take the fact that I'm non-rehirable by Gamestop into consideration when the EB staff is assimilated by Gamestop.
Regardless of whether or not it was a cheap tactic, it was effective and proved the fallacy made in the statement. As for trade in prices, that's just smart business.
Let me explain. A game is released, and if it is popular and not getting traded in xa store will give a higher trade value because they want to encourage people to trade it in. Over time, it isn't financially sound to keep giving the same high value for a game because eventually demand for the game will decrease and they'll be sitting on a bunch of games that they bought back that aren't going anywhere. It makes no sense whatsoever to give a customer $20 for a copy of a two-year old game that they already have fifteen copies of that's just going to sit on the shelf. It's just like negotiating with a vendor over cost, because the company sets the price that they want to pay for the item, and the vendor (in this case the consumer) either agrees to it declines the transaction. Some trade in prices are low simply because we don't want that product, plain and simple. Even then, companies like EB and GS still have trade-in specials that'll increase the values of non-sports titled games to $5, $10, or even $15 sometimes.
Granted, I'll definitely admit that some trade in prices aren't fair. I've told customers before they'd get more for something on Ebay, and I've even told someone to give it to a friend so they can enjoy doing something nice for someone, but companies can't give $15-20 for every game every time and expect to stay afloat selling Madden 2002 for $30.
I think you missed something in the context. The guy was complaining that the EB near him was giving $5 for any game, I was telling him that it wasn't true, and as an example the store I work at (as well as the other stores in the same district) is giving $30 for Jade Empire, therefore either making his statement false or stating that the store near him isn't giving the correct amount for trades.
I just called my store and got a quote of $30 trade-in for Jade Empire on the XBox. I don't know if other regions have differing trade-in policies, but that's the first I've ever heard of it. Even the website advertises higher prices than that.
I'd like to address some of the concerns people are having with this merger.
;)
1) Their customer service is going to change.
- Not entirely true. I've worked at both EB and Gamestop, and EB has a strong and well-developed program in customer service and sales training while Gamestop has almost none (as of 2000). Once both companies sit down and analyze each other's practices it'd be logical to assume that EB's method of training will be incorporated. This is also backed by the fact that EB employees make more annually than Gamestop employees, and EB still turned a higher profit last year.
As for the matter of the return policy, it changed because of copyright laws, not some corporate mandate.
2) It's going to affect the used games market.
- It should affect it at all, honestly. Rather, it should help stabilize it. There is a huge glut on the market as far as used product goes. Trade in prices are dictated by the amount the company has already vs the rate at which it's selling. That's why sports games trade in at such a low rate: once the current version comes out, previous versions get traded in at a huge rate and it devalues. Both companies rely on trades, so if trades stifled they would definitely addresss it, therefore it's safe to assume the prices would drop too.
Btw, the $44.99 game likely had a trade in price of $25 to $35. This is how retailers like EB and Gamestop make profit. Average cost of a game is around $47. Companies like this can't keep their lights on just by selling hardware (which they sometimes lose money on) and new software. The profit margins from preowned is what keeps these companies afloat.
Plus, with discount programs available, a preowned version of a new release being priced at $40 is actually a good deal sometimes (especially with BOGO sales).
3) Gamestop is going to close stores in malls with multiple locations.
- Again, this is not entirely true. Right now, an EB is open because it's getting business. If Gamestop closes a store because it is too close to another, it's a perfect opportunity for a competitor, say... Gamecrazy to move right in because they know that store gets traffic. As it stands, there are actually malls in America that have three EB stores in them, and they all get good traffic. I know there will be closings, but there will be many more openings.
4) Prices will go up.
- But they may go down. Prices are dictated by cost vs profits. Right now, the bulk quantity that EB and Gamestop purchase at gets a resulting cost of about $47 a game, as I mentioned earlier. Now, with some 3000+ stores in the US (more in Europe and Asia) Gamestop can now purchase games in a higher quantity, meaning a higher bulk discount and more profit from the $49.99 price point. If anything, it'd be an incentive for prices to stay where they are and more incentive to have sales on games.
As an EB employee, I'm very optimistic about this merger. If nothing else, I at least made a quick 1k off of stock sales
He brings up a good point here, I've also heard some complaints about lint or dust that was trapped under the screen. Actually, I've got about four pieces of dust on my PSP's screen. You would think that these would be assembled in a clean room, but I guess not.
There may be some merit to this claim. The article starts with "Everyone can pretty much agree that Soul Calibur II was a big disappointment." Now, with an average ranking of 92% for the PS2 version (from gamerankings, with Gamepro themselves giving it a perfect score), that doesn't seem like that big of a disappointment to me. If it does turn out to be a joke though, it'd be a shame... I really like the character design of the circular-bladed femme-fatale. The models for Mitsurgi and Taki look great too. Here's hoping that the joke is the part about the game being exclusive to the PS2, and not the game's existence. However IGN, Gamespot, and Gamefaqs all have pages dedicated to the title, so it's not looking to good right now...