Re:Not so funny when/if the seller commits suicide
on
Online Revenge
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If Amir kills himself, the guy who posted the photos might feel bad about it. But face trial? What law has he broken?
A wrongful death civil suit from the guy's family. There is a chance if they show what the buyer did was extraordinarily malicious, a jury could find him at fault for provoking the death. Not saying that it is right, just that it could happen.
because pirates are renowned for the quality control.
There is a huge market for high quality pirated merchandise in countries that can't afford the high prices for authorized copies. In Malaysia you buy pirated copies in shops at the mall like normal, and they offer low ($0.50) and high ($2.00) quality, and even let you preview the copy to make sure it's up to your standards.
There are three basic components to controlling masses of people. These are religion, Television/Media, and placation.
The 3 components are Fear, Solidarity, and Distraction. (of which you give examples of the latter two) Hardline dictators control with fear - Kidnap a few people, torture the outspoken and the majortiy will be quiet. Iraq was controlled by the Sunni minority in this way. W is trying to control the US in this way with fear of terrorism. Religious leaders/Fanatics control with Solidarity (nationalism, religious zealotry) - Even sports is a good example. People will unite and cheer, riot, beat, kill for something as arbitrary as "their" sports team. Stable governments control with distraction. The romans used gladitorial games, modern countries use television and media. However, if there is a significant goverment failing over extended periods, such distractions aren't enough. In the Iraq War because of it's length, people are coming to grips more and more with what is really going on.
Look at it another way. A very small cabal of neocons got their boy electected, got themselves into positions of power and took over a country and all it's natural resources with the full consent of the US population. These people (less then a 100 really) "controlled" the US population into waging a war for their beneift/profit/ideology/god.
What's even more scary is the way the system is setup, it gives legitimacy to such control. As long as people think they were given the chance to participate, they will accept the outcome, no matter how outragious (in many other countries the 2000 election would lead to civil war). Democracy with an apathetic voting populace is ripe for control by the outspoken minority. When you only need 25% of people voting for you to win, you cater to special interest blocks like the Christian Coalition who can rally significant blocks of the populace.
It's not obvious to me that those are the only two choices. That you either have private hustlers and swindlers or the government (IMHO, public hustlers and swinders). When these services are provided by a market - a real market, not the bastardized thing we have in healthcare today - there's market discipline. That discipline gets applied every single time that a customer decides whether or not to purchase.
We in fact had this market, when you could order heroin with syringe and all from the Sears catalog. In a free market, you'll have people flock to those who will relieve symptoms rather than treating disease.
FWIW, snake oil salesmen would have a much more difficult time surviving today. On their way out of Dodge, a simple phone call would make it difficult for them to do much damage in the next town down the road. In other words, Snake Oil salesmen might last for a short time, but eventually their market would dry up. Because news of their incompetence will travel faster than they can.
You overestimate the masses, just look at the booming unregulated herbal remedy market.
True. But, I don't get to stop paying the first person (gov't). AND the first person can demand rate increases to dry up any cash flow that I might want to use on a more effective provider. Call that whatever you want, but it's not market discipline. Personally, when someone extracts money from me and uses it for something that I don't want, I tend to call it theft. There is nothing economically productive about theft
Its called the price for organized society. I don't want to pay for the war in Iraq, but I can't withhold my taxes. I can however affect the underlying goverment structure that lead to the decision through protest, and voting.
So I pay someone. The first company I used was pretty good, but their rates kept going up. So I tried someone else. They sucked. I'm now with a guy who is *really* good at this and he's cheap!
The problem with some areas such as medicine, is you may not get a second chance. Can always go back to the days of the snake oil salesman, or where "doctors" just prescribe heroin for whatever ails ya.
The problem with the above services that you mention is that there is one and only one provider of competency and they force you to pay them: the federal government.
Nothing is stopping you from hiring a second person to review your food, medicine, etc.
Overall, even with all the faults that SWG had at launch, it still was really one of the most innovative MMORPGs out there.
SWG was great and innovative, but ultimately it fell under the weight of it's license. Even if it wasn't rushed, and was launched in a non-beta state it still would have failed. The gameplay itself was more like Second Life than EQ, which in turn reflected in it's population (both personality and numbers). SOE was looking for WoW type player numbers, so they tried to completely change the gameplay to be like the more popular EQ/WoW phat loot level grind. SOE is learning that you can't change the personality of an MMO midstream, they ended up alienating the die hard fans and haven't really been able to attract new people.
When's the last time your employer recognized someone with real talent? The only people I ever see on these annual awards are butt-kissers.
The ones I see on the awards are the ones who organize and save millions of dollars. Something simple putting together a little script that save manufacturing engineers a few hours a week is worth more to a company than an inspired program you worked on for 2 years with very little practical application.
Academia is where brilliance is recognized, the business world is where performance get recognized.
Well that's one way of looking at it. Contrast with Rosa Parks in '55 and what it allowed
That's an example of the failure of local governments to maintain the public stigma. Blacks were freed nearly 100 years before that event, yet through underhanded means (eg the Wormley Agreement) the oppressive southern stae governments set the stage for the public to accept segregation and Jim Crow laws.
There's alaways a way of looking at what's fucked up and pointing the finger. I prefer to focus on the good stuff that's everywhere. And maybe it ain't going fast enough, and maybe it goes backwards sometimes, but if on top of all of that I have to be pointing at everything and go "It's fucked up", well what's the fucking point of being here at all ???? So I don't look at it that way. This tool is a good step forward. Period. Stay happy =)
I think it's great there are attempts to subvert such repression, but for the fire wall to be torn down will require a revolutionary shift in Chinese government overall. In the analog case of the Berlin Wall, this occurred because of economic depression leading to more liberal leadership. Unfortunately, given the massive amount of trade the west done with China, such economic pressure doesn't exist yet. It's great to say "good step forward," but at the same time we should look at the failure of foreign policy and commercial interests (eg MS, Google) to place pressure on China to change. There are things that can be done openly on our end, to help tear down the firewall.
One of the goals here, though, is to eventually make the wall ineffective. That equates with punching so many holes through or digging so many holes under the wall that it eventually makes no sense to maintain the wall.
It doesn't matter how many holes you punch, repressive governments use fear to keep the majority in line. Governments can never directly control 100% of the population. By making an example out of a minority of people, the majority will fall into line like sheep. Then the key is isolating those who do not fall in line through public stigma (control of education, patriotism, etc). Look at how many people far for accepting repressive laws in the name of fighting terrorism and ensuring global freedom.
It's all about the people being able to call bullshit on their government when necessary, and to find out what the facts are, not the lies the government wants you to believe are facts.
It's hard enough to do that in "open" western democracies.
It's not graphics that are the number one factor, it's gameplay. There's no debate here
There is a debate. Graphics are the number one factor in picking up a new game. By the time the player gets to the gameplay, the it is already off the shelf and paid for.
The only people who say "How are the graphics" are going to be buying "EA *SPORT GAME* 20XX" every 9 months, anyway. So, they don't know what they're talking about
However those types of people are the majority of consumers. Doesn't matter if they know what they want [good gameplay], what they are asking for is better graphics, interactivity, breast physics, new rosters, etc.
Lets get another Fallout or a Starcraft. The graphics can be a generation or two behind as long as it's fun to play!
And with great gameplay it still may not sell, so big companies are reluctant to fund such development.
Anyone else just not that impressed with Manga and Anime in general? I feel that I'm doing an injustice to my geek heritage, but I just don't appreciate it like some do.
Can't you see how NGE completely changed anime! It brought a new and inspired story line of a teenage kid with social problems battling aliens in a giant robot... innovative ideas that had never been examined before! Err wait... I guess I'm with you, anime is just like any other genre/media, there are a few great pearls of human insight, but in general its mass marketed garbage.
Science isn't about the "truth," it is about models that explain a set of data. Doesn't matter if their model is real, it explains and predicts a set of behavior. Once data is discovered that contradicts the model, scientists work on reformulating it.
If that's the case, then I'm copyrighting the American Revolution, in my new book, "McGraw Hill: Reflections on American History."
*YAWN* You're making the mistake "The Holy Blood and Holy Grail" did. If you're going to sell any books and make millions on movie rights you gotta jazz it up a little. Call it "The Minuteman Memorandum." A secret document from George Washington to Benjamin Franklin detailing the plans for the Freemasons to establish a country which they could completely control. This document sparked Franklin's trips to Europe to gather support from masons there for the new country, and set the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The main plot of the book would be a thriller, about a man who discovers a copy of the document in the possessions of his great great grandfather (also a mason), when they sell off the family's colonial home. But THEY know about the document and would stop at nothing to keep the secrets, secrets which would undermine the very foundations of western government from being revealed. As the plot develops things about the secret conspiracy are revealed: the integration of masonic ideals into the Constitution, masonic symbols used throughout government (the cover of the book can be the unfinished pyramid), how foreign policy is geared towards increasing the global influence of the Freemasons.
Hmmm... wait maybe I will write the book, and you can't sue me;)
don't claim to have all the answers but I think that it involves something like paying people in the US a living wage, increasing the wages on "jobs Americans don't want" to the point where Americans would want them, stop migrating jobs out of the US, stop increasing the national debt, ie stop giving tax cuts with money you don't have. Americans will have to accept that it costs money to maintain our society, country, and way of life. It certainly does not involve smugly saying that if they are not qualified, they get paid "like shit."
"Poverty" in the US is luxury in many parts of the world. That's why immigrant workers come to the US to make money, and even send money back home to help their families. The idea that jobs like fast food are "menial" is more a reflection of arrogance developed by the general luxury those in the US live in. Visit a 3rd world country sometime and see what true poverty is. Economically, trade deficits reflect the economic disparity between the US and other countries, and is not a significant problem so long as it does not outpace GDP growth; the national debt, is mostly smoke and mirrors as half that money is owed back to the US goverment (its like claiming you're in debt because you bought a meal with part of your movie budget), and a significant portion of the rest to individual Americans.
Americans will have to accept that it costs money to maintain our society, country, and way of life.
The more important metric is not how much money you make, it is standard of living. While income has not grown as quickly, the standard of living for people still has gone up. In part because of automation, outsourcing, and creation of low paying jobs.
Artificially raising the cost of goods and services doesn't fix the problem, it makes it worse, because you sap away capital from other parts of the economy.
I'm more afraid that the governments of the world will learn to like the technology... if everyone can be happy just via stimulation of certain parts of brain, no-one will ever oppose the government...
No the government will ban this technology as "many women and young girls, as well as young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese [Deep Brain Stimulation] dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise"
Dude, we've been hearing that sorry refrain for over 35 years. Gee, I think the know-nothing neocons have been more or less successful with regard to energy consumption for the society at large.....
Yeah but at what price? Just because the money we pay at the pump has remained relatively low (until Bush screwed things up), doesn't mean there hasn't been a high price paid by society overall. We pay for the effects of pollution with our health, insurance premiums, and environmental changes. We also pay the price through foreign policy. The only purpose of Gulf War 1 was to maintain stability in the region to keep low oil prices. Do you think the US would really spend several hundred billion dollars "bringing freedom" to Iraq if there were no oil there?
Rather than encouraging a diversification in energy sources, politicians have worked to maintain an artificially low market price for oil. That causes skyrocketting prices each time there is the slightest bit of instability. That's not to say the left is totally innocent of blame, as they have stifled nuclear power, domestic oil exploration, and refining capacity increases.
There is to my knowledge no legal barrier to alternative energy sources, it's just a difficult problem to solve
EPA regulations, tax breaks, import tariffs, energy policy, research funding, foreign policy, etc. are all ways the politicians have their hand in "encouraging" whatever they think is best.
At the same time, the patent problem is a legal problem by definition, and thus MUST be solved by politicians. There's also I think no social inertia to overcome to solve this problem. The average joe doesn't care about the patent law in the US.
Yup, which is very scary. At least with oil you can watch TV and see the obvious correlation with gas prices and how it's affecting your pocketbook. With IP it's not so obvious what the price impact on the consumer is from patent collectives cornering the market.
On the contrary; maybe having the economy dragged to a standstill is the only way to let the politicians realize the folly of the 'everything's patentable' world. If it would lead to change, the temporary stagnation might be worth it.
Just like skyrocketting oil prices have convinced politicians on the need for alternative energy sources. Sure an economic standstill works, but it's horribly painful for everybody (except for those who are profiting short-term). What is really needed is an education effort on IP reform. Not just for the politicians, but for the public at large, so they can elect forward thinking leaders.
Slavery is merely the practice of an individual business using workers they don't pay. Freedom doesn't mean everyone's free. (Society always chooses to deny freedom to some people, like criminals and the insane, so clearly there is nothing inherently wrong with slavery.)
I'll take the flamebait. The flaw in your analogy is that thosee enslaved have no choice, with DRM the consumer has the choice whether or not to purchase. Nobody forces you to buy a DRM CD, you make the decision whether or not listening to the music is worth paying for and accepting the limitations.
I like the idea of a big DRM sticker.. Maybe I'll make my own and go stick them on the CDs myself!
It would be nice if the government mandated a sticker for DRM, a la "explicit content" warnings. The main reason is DRM limits the rights of the consumer which are guaranteed under copyright law (the law works both ways). If business choose to create a crippled product they should be free to do so. However, it then becomes the companies responsibility to fully explain such limitations to the customer before purchase.
I'm against government involvement in forcing or preventing DRM use, that is something that should be up to the free market. I do believe that government should mandate full disclosure so the market can appropriately decide what they want.
Slashdot Mirror
If Amir kills himself, the guy who posted the photos might feel bad about it. But face trial? What law has he broken?
A wrongful death civil suit from the guy's family. There is a chance if they show what the buyer did was extraordinarily malicious, a jury could find him at fault for provoking the death.
Not saying that it is right, just that it could happen.
because pirates are renowned for the quality control.
There is a huge market for high quality pirated merchandise in countries that can't afford the high prices for authorized copies. In Malaysia you buy pirated copies in shops at the mall like normal, and they offer low ($0.50) and high ($2.00) quality, and even let you preview the copy to make sure it's up to your standards.
There are three basic components to controlling masses of people. These are religion, Television/Media, and placation.
The 3 components are Fear, Solidarity, and Distraction. (of which you give examples of the latter two)
Hardline dictators control with fear - Kidnap a few people, torture the outspoken and the majortiy will be quiet. Iraq was controlled by the Sunni minority in this way. W is trying to control the US in this way with fear of terrorism.
Religious leaders/Fanatics control with Solidarity (nationalism, religious zealotry) - Even sports is a good example. People will unite and cheer, riot, beat, kill for something as arbitrary as "their" sports team.
Stable governments control with distraction. The romans used gladitorial games, modern countries use television and media. However, if there is a significant goverment failing over extended periods, such distractions aren't enough. In the Iraq War because of it's length, people are coming to grips more and more with what is really going on.
Look at it another way. A very small cabal of neocons got their boy electected, got themselves into positions of power and took over a country and all it's natural resources with the full consent of the US population. These people (less then a 100 really) "controlled" the US population into waging a war for their beneift/profit/ideology/god.
What's even more scary is the way the system is setup, it gives legitimacy to such control. As long as people think they were given the chance to participate, they will accept the outcome, no matter how outragious (in many other countries the 2000 election would lead to civil war).
Democracy with an apathetic voting populace is ripe for control by the outspoken minority. When you only need 25% of people voting for you to win, you cater to special interest blocks like the Christian Coalition who can rally significant blocks of the populace.
It's not obvious to me that those are the only two choices. That you either have private hustlers and swindlers or the government (IMHO, public hustlers and swinders). When these services are provided by a market - a real market, not the bastardized thing we have in healthcare today - there's market discipline. That discipline gets applied every single time that a customer decides whether or not to purchase.
We in fact had this market, when you could order heroin with syringe and all from the Sears catalog. In a free market, you'll have people flock to those who will relieve symptoms rather than treating disease.
FWIW, snake oil salesmen would have a much more difficult time surviving today. On their way out of Dodge, a simple phone call would make it difficult for them to do much damage in the next town down the road. In other words, Snake Oil salesmen might last for a short time, but eventually their market would dry up. Because news of their incompetence will travel faster than they can.
You overestimate the masses, just look at the booming unregulated herbal remedy market.
True. But, I don't get to stop paying the first person (gov't). AND the first person can demand rate increases to dry up any cash flow that I might want to use on a more effective provider. Call that whatever you want, but it's not market discipline. Personally, when someone extracts money from me and uses it for something that I don't want, I tend to call it theft. There is nothing economically productive about theft
Its called the price for organized society. I don't want to pay for the war in Iraq, but I can't withhold my taxes. I can however affect the underlying goverment structure that lead to the decision through protest, and voting.
So I pay someone. The first company I used was pretty good, but their rates kept going up. So I tried someone else. They sucked. I'm now with a guy who is *really* good at this and he's cheap!
The problem with some areas such as medicine, is you may not get a second chance. Can always go back to the days of the snake oil salesman, or where "doctors" just prescribe heroin for whatever ails ya.
The problem with the above services that you mention is that there is one and only one provider of competency and they force you to pay them: the federal government.
Nothing is stopping you from hiring a second person to review your food, medicine, etc.
Overall, even with all the faults that SWG had at launch, it still was really one of the most innovative MMORPGs out there.
SWG was great and innovative, but ultimately it fell under the weight of it's license.
Even if it wasn't rushed, and was launched in a non-beta state it still would have failed. The gameplay itself was more like Second Life than EQ, which in turn reflected in it's population (both personality and numbers). SOE was looking for WoW type player numbers, so they tried to completely change the gameplay to be like the more popular EQ/WoW phat loot level grind.
SOE is learning that you can't change the personality of an MMO midstream, they ended up alienating the die hard fans and haven't really been able to attract new people.
When's the last time your employer recognized someone with real talent? The only people I ever see on these annual awards are butt-kissers.
The ones I see on the awards are the ones who organize and save millions of dollars. Something simple putting together a little script that save manufacturing engineers a few hours a week is worth more to a company than an inspired program you worked on for 2 years with very little practical application.
Academia is where brilliance is recognized, the business world is where performance get recognized.
Shush!
Well that's one way of looking at it. Contrast with Rosa Parks in '55 and what it allowed
That's an example of the failure of local governments to maintain the public stigma. Blacks were freed nearly 100 years before that event, yet through underhanded means (eg the Wormley Agreement) the oppressive southern stae governments set the stage for the public to accept segregation and Jim Crow laws.
There's alaways a way of looking at what's fucked up and pointing the finger. I prefer to focus on the good stuff that's everywhere. And maybe it ain't going fast enough, and maybe it goes backwards sometimes, but if on top of all of that I have to be pointing at everything and go "It's fucked up", well what's the fucking point of being here at all ???? So I don't look at it that way. This tool is a good step forward. Period. Stay happy =)
I think it's great there are attempts to subvert such repression, but for the fire wall to be torn down will require a revolutionary shift in Chinese government overall. In the analog case of the Berlin Wall, this occurred because of economic depression leading to more liberal leadership. Unfortunately, given the massive amount of trade the west done with China, such economic pressure doesn't exist yet.
It's great to say "good step forward," but at the same time we should look at the failure of foreign policy and commercial interests (eg MS, Google) to place pressure on China to change. There are things that can be done openly on our end, to help tear down the firewall.
One of the goals here, though, is to eventually make the wall ineffective. That equates with punching so many holes through or digging so many holes under the wall that it eventually makes no sense to maintain the wall.
It doesn't matter how many holes you punch, repressive governments use fear to keep the majority in line. Governments can never directly control 100% of the population. By making an example out of a minority of people, the majority will fall into line like sheep. Then the key is isolating those who do not fall in line through public stigma (control of education, patriotism, etc). Look at how many people far for accepting repressive laws in the name of fighting terrorism and ensuring global freedom.
It's all about the people being able to call bullshit on their government when necessary, and to find out what the facts are, not the lies the government wants you to believe are facts.
It's hard enough to do that in "open" western democracies.
It's not graphics that are the number one factor, it's gameplay. There's no debate here
There is a debate. Graphics are the number one factor in picking up a new game. By the time the player gets to the gameplay, the it is already off the shelf and paid for.
The only people who say "How are the graphics" are going to be buying "EA *SPORT GAME* 20XX" every 9 months, anyway. So, they don't know what they're talking about
However those types of people are the majority of consumers. Doesn't matter if they know what they want [good gameplay], what they are asking for is better graphics, interactivity, breast physics, new rosters, etc.
Lets get another Fallout or a Starcraft. The graphics can be a generation or two behind as long as it's fun to play!
And with great gameplay it still may not sell, so big companies are reluctant to fund such development.
Anyone else just not that impressed with Manga and Anime in general? I feel that I'm doing an injustice to my geek heritage, but I just don't appreciate it like some do.
Can't you see how NGE completely changed anime! It brought a new and inspired story line of a teenage kid with social problems battling aliens in a giant robot... innovative ideas that had never been examined before!
Err wait... I guess I'm with you, anime is just like any other genre/media, there are a few great pearls of human insight, but in general its mass marketed garbage.
This Is What Scientists Actually Believe!
Science isn't about the "truth," it is about models that explain a set of data. Doesn't matter if their model is real, it explains and predicts a set of behavior. Once data is discovered that contradicts the model, scientists work on reformulating it.
Hopefully they'll film it again at my alma mater.
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you?
I prefer the way women handle my "pop-ups."
If that's the case, then I'm copyrighting the American Revolution, in my new book, "McGraw Hill: Reflections on American History."
;)
*YAWN* You're making the mistake "The Holy Blood and Holy Grail" did. If you're going to sell any books and make millions on movie rights you gotta jazz it up a little.
Call it "The Minuteman Memorandum." A secret document from George Washington to Benjamin Franklin detailing the plans for the Freemasons to establish a country which they could completely control. This document sparked Franklin's trips to Europe to gather support from masons there for the new country, and set the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The main plot of the book would be a thriller, about a man who discovers a copy of the document in the possessions of his great great grandfather (also a mason), when they sell off the family's colonial home. But THEY know about the document and would stop at nothing to keep the secrets, secrets which would undermine the very foundations of western government from being revealed. As the plot develops things about the secret conspiracy are revealed: the integration of masonic ideals into the Constitution, masonic symbols used throughout government (the cover of the book can be the unfinished pyramid), how foreign policy is geared towards increasing the global influence of the Freemasons.
Hmmm... wait maybe I will write the book, and you can't sue me
don't claim to have all the answers but I think that it involves something like paying people in the US a living wage, increasing the wages on "jobs Americans don't want" to the point where Americans would want them, stop migrating jobs out of the US, stop increasing the national debt, ie stop giving tax cuts with money you don't have. Americans will have to accept that it costs money to maintain our society, country, and way of life. It certainly does not involve smugly saying that if they are not qualified, they get paid "like shit."
"Poverty" in the US is luxury in many parts of the world. That's why immigrant workers come to the US to make money, and even send money back home to help their families. The idea that jobs like fast food are "menial" is more a reflection of arrogance developed by the general luxury those in the US live in. Visit a 3rd world country sometime and see what true poverty is.
Economically, trade deficits reflect the economic disparity between the US and other countries, and is not a significant problem so long as it does not outpace GDP growth; the national debt, is mostly smoke and mirrors as half that money is owed back to the US goverment (its like claiming you're in debt because you bought a meal with part of your movie budget), and a significant portion of the rest to individual Americans.
Americans will have to accept that it costs money to maintain our society, country, and way of life.
The more important metric is not how much money you make, it is standard of living. While income has not grown as quickly, the standard of living for people still has gone up. In part because of automation, outsourcing, and creation of low paying jobs. Artificially raising the cost of goods and services doesn't fix the problem, it makes it worse, because you sap away capital from other parts of the economy.
It was the excuse given for the passing of the first drug laws restricting Opium in San Francisco
I'm more afraid that the governments of the world will learn to like the technology... if everyone can be happy just via stimulation of certain parts of brain, no-one will ever oppose the government...
No the government will ban this technology as "many women and young girls, as well as young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese [Deep Brain Stimulation] dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise"
Dude, we've been hearing that sorry refrain for over 35 years. Gee, I think the know-nothing neocons have been more or less successful with regard to energy consumption for the society at large.....
Yeah but at what price? Just because the money we pay at the pump has remained relatively low (until Bush screwed things up), doesn't mean there hasn't been a high price paid by society overall. We pay for the effects of pollution with our health, insurance premiums, and environmental changes. We also pay the price through foreign policy. The only purpose of Gulf War 1 was to maintain stability in the region to keep low oil prices. Do you think the US would really spend several hundred billion dollars "bringing freedom" to Iraq if there were no oil there?
Rather than encouraging a diversification in energy sources, politicians have worked to maintain an artificially low market price for oil. That causes skyrocketting prices each time there is the slightest bit of instability. That's not to say the left is totally innocent of blame, as they have stifled nuclear power, domestic oil exploration, and refining capacity increases.
There is to my knowledge no legal barrier to alternative energy sources, it's just a difficult problem to solve
EPA regulations, tax breaks, import tariffs, energy policy, research funding, foreign policy, etc. are all ways the politicians have their hand in "encouraging" whatever they think is best.
At the same time, the patent problem is a legal problem by definition, and thus MUST be solved by politicians. There's also I think no social inertia to overcome to solve this problem. The average joe doesn't care about the patent law in the US.
Yup, which is very scary. At least with oil you can watch TV and see the obvious correlation with gas prices and how it's affecting your pocketbook. With IP it's not so obvious what the price impact on the consumer is from patent collectives cornering the market.
On the contrary; maybe having the economy dragged to a standstill is the only way to let the politicians realize the folly of the 'everything's patentable' world. If it would lead to change, the temporary stagnation might be worth it.
Just like skyrocketting oil prices have convinced politicians on the need for alternative energy sources. Sure an economic standstill works, but it's horribly painful for everybody (except for those who are profiting short-term).
What is really needed is an education effort on IP reform. Not just for the politicians, but for the public at large, so they can elect forward thinking leaders.
So, you're saying that Steve Jobs should have stated that Google, a non-existant company, was the enemy?
;)
Yes, if he truly was a visionary
Slavery is merely the practice of an individual business using workers they don't pay. Freedom doesn't mean everyone's free. (Society always chooses to deny freedom to some people, like criminals and the insane, so clearly there is nothing inherently wrong with slavery.)
I'll take the flamebait. The flaw in your analogy is that thosee enslaved have no choice, with DRM the consumer has the choice whether or not to purchase. Nobody forces you to buy a DRM CD, you make the decision whether or not listening to the music is worth paying for and accepting the limitations.
I like the idea of a big DRM sticker.. Maybe I'll make my own and go stick them on the CDs myself!
It would be nice if the government mandated a sticker for DRM, a la "explicit content" warnings. The main reason is DRM limits the rights of the consumer which are guaranteed under copyright law (the law works both ways). If business choose to create a crippled product they should be free to do so. However, it then becomes the companies responsibility to fully explain such limitations to the customer before purchase.
I'm against government involvement in forcing or preventing DRM use, that is something that should be up to the free market. I do believe that government should mandate full disclosure so the market can appropriately decide what they want.