Is MLB somehow claiming that watching what happens and writing it down is some kind of novel concept that they can patent?
No they are claiming that compiling all the statistics creates a work that they can copyright. Most likely anybody can use the statistics, they just can't get access to them by the MLB's compiled database.
If the US government were interested in the long term future of the US economy there would already be two crash programs in effect: one to reduce the nation's debt,
Easy, dissolve social security. Half the US debt is owed to the US government.
and another to reduce dependence on oil, the latter starting with both a significant increase in tax on gas station pump prices right now (with much of the increase being spent on development of renewable energy sources - wind, wave, geothermal, solar, nuclear) and an aggressive program of public education aimed at decreasing domestic fuel consumption. These are the only actions that could make a positive difference.
Increasing taxes has a backlash against the controlling party, making it a political issue that is resolved by the opposing party promising to reduce oil prices and being elected in.
Now an invasion of Iraq does several things: 1. Creates higher gas prices, such that the free market pushes for renewable energy 2. Creates a lightning rod to focus terrorist activities away from the US mainland. 3. If democracy holds on in Iraq, and spreads in the region, establishes Bush's place in history as the man who brought freedom to the Middle East (don't discount ego) 4. Slows down China's economic growth (taxes only slow down the US economy, higher oil prices hurts everybody) 5. Make's the president's friends rich
As much as we want to believe those in power are idiots, they aren't. They know how to manipulate the masses and play the system to their own political and personal ends.
But in the long run, they won't find other jobs. The whole point of automation (and outsourcing) is that the companies using the automation pay less out in wages. When every company does this, there are no other domestic jobs being created - even the jobs creating automation get automated or outsourced. There is less consumer income and thus lower sales and less need for production capacity - it's a vicious cycle.
Yes its a vicious cycle, if people remain stagnant and do not innovate. The same arguement you make was given 150 years ago with steam powered looms, 100 years ago with the assembly line, 50 years ago with outsourcing clothing manufacturing, and 25 years ago with outsourcing electronics. Each time what happened is the new goods created new job opportunities. Computers used to be final products, high cost & high margin. Then through technology and outsourcing, computer prices came down. Computers were cheap enough, that people wanted to use them for different purposes, and hence a boom in software which created more jobs than were lost. Do you think there would be so many internet businesses if computers weren't so cheap they were in everybody's home? Think about how many programs are made for the home user. Family tree maker, video games, calorie counters, baseball card organization, etc. That's alot of different programs, made by people working in jobs that would not have existed if only businesses could afford computers.
Companies need to understand that eliminating jobs and paying lower wages is eating their seed corn. No one company can decide to buck the tide, though, because in the short term the other companies will eat them up. Unfortunately, the only way to make progress is through regulation. Corporations must be taxed on importing low-paid labor, whether through visas, outsourcing, or importing finished goods, and must be made to share the profits of automation with displaced workers.
What about technology, how do you tax corporations on developing better technology to reduce workers, and should you even do it?So long as the quality of life of people is improving, why should $ matter? Look around your house, you think people in the 50's who may have had an inflation adjusted higher salary could afford all those things?
Perhaps that particular idea isn't practical, but some radical strategy is needed - profit from automation must not be concentrated in corporations or by and by corporations will own everything.
That comes through competition, which drives margins down. So long as we ensure strong competition through regulation, the free market drives prices down for the consumer to enjoy. Yes at a personal/local level there may be economic loss, but ultimately productivity gains produce a net benifit to the overall economy. A good example of the reverse happening is in the oil business. Higher oil prices are giving a local boon with more jobs at the expense of the overall economy.
You may be right, but while the grocery store saves $8 an hour times however many cashiers they used to employ, what do the RFID chips cost? What do the RFID readers cost? What kind of increased costs do you have maintaining this system?
First businesses are greedy. They wouldn't invest money if the system doesn't save them money in the long run. Maybe the RFID and cashiers are a wash, but the savings could come in other forms, such as better inventory management - less inventory, easier tracking, less lost product, ensuring items that expire earlier are sold first, etc.
How is my life better off if I can just walk out of the grocery store and everything is automatically paid for? It saves me 2-10 minutes, on average, of waiting in line.
The benifits of improved productivity outweight the short term limited loss of jobs:
reduces the cost for the grocery store to run it's business...given strong competition results in lowering of prices. employs 1 person with "more valuable" skills to maintain Lower prices for consumers means the ability to spend that money on other goods and services, creating jobs in other areas Releases labor to pursue more valueable job opportunities
This is totally an accounting game. By now, they know how much damage Hot Coffee did.
Yes it's an accounting game. They set that money aside so that the issue doesn't hang like a cloud over the company for an indefinate period of time. The worst thing in the stock market is uncertainty. In this case you tell your investors, worst case is $30 million dollars, take your lumps and move on. There is still the possibility that some angry parent or bored lawyer decides to sue over the Hot Coffee mod. Over time the risk of such problems decreases so you slowly release the money back. The stock market isn't just accounting, it's also psychology.
Re:They have to offer different elements now...
on
The U.S. Arcade is Dead?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I think arcades can be saved once they realize that they need to have content that can't be reproduced at home.
They have for a long time. Yu Suzuki described in an interview how when he designs games for the arcade, he specifically looks at integrating unique hardware to add to the experience. Originally this philosophy created games that could charge a premium (eg 75cents to play "Afterburner" in the moving cockpit). Now with consoles and computers being so powerful, that's pretty much all you see in arcades. The problem is that games in themselves are not enough to attract an audience. You can drive 20 minutes to go to the arcade to play a game that costs $1 or just play something that may not be quite as entertaining at home free. Where you do see arcades still thrive is at Dave & Busters or Gameworks type places where you get food, get beer, and play some motorcycle racers. The games aren't necessarily the money makers, but they provide entertainment to keep people in the bar buying liquor which is.
Incidentally - why does everybody feel the need to list the TV programmes they like to record? It's like music stories - with those people always seem to like to post the "artists" they like. Why? It's a waste of space.
Sometimes to get grass root efforts going to support the shows/music they like. I never saw "Firefly" when it first came out, but I saw enough people on/. praising it that I thought I would give it a try and loved it.
I don't know if it was originally planned like this, but it's kind of ironic how this is referenced in Episode IV. When Luke and Han arrive at the prison cell, Leia says "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?". Since all stormtroopers are clones of the same person, they would all be the same height.
Like many other things, I'm sure it wasn't. If you look at the OT there were troopers of different heights, different voices (handwaved away by GL as multiple clone sources). You also have the scene where two of the troopers are chatting about some new speeder, doubtful that was part of their clone training.
It's easy to watch people die in Evil Dead, but terrible to watch it happen in Saving Private Ryan (which oddly, has about the same amount of gore).
Kinda how we don't care about Arnold shooting up rent-a-cops who just happen to work at EvilCorp. He's just some poor guy getting minimum wage, waiting until his shift is over so he can go home to his run-down apartment and spend time with his wife and kid. And we cheer when he gets a shotgun blast to the chest just cause he pointed his flashlight and said "stop" to the hero who was breaking into the top secret lab.
Don't even get me started on the contractors working on the second death star, not to mention the adminstration staff on the first death star. Probably just some guys thinking they had a cushy government job watching the clock and filing paperwork for prisoner transfers to cellblock 1138. Hell, even the stormtroopers were probably guys who just graduated highschool, and needed money to go to college and see the galaxy.
In the end it's true - "Good, Bad... I'm the one with the gun"
That is what I call a total farce, and it couldn't have happened if the election had been conducted using a simple sheet of paper with a handwritten X scrawled next to the chosen candidate.
Because it doesn't change the problem with the idiots. The ones who only put a "/" instead of an "X", does that mean they meant to vote for the candidate, or did they start and change their mind halfway through? (hanging/dimpled chad type problem) or the ones who thought "X" meant they didn't want that candidate, or the ones who just circle the candidate
I think the whole "information overload" thing boils down to a lot of people who didn't learn "how to learn". If you learned how to discover new information in the most general sense, and on your own, the internet is not a source of frustration or overload -- it's a repository of all those things it doesn't make sense to store in your head. For people who need to be spoon fed every fact -- heck yeah, they'll be overloaded, but so what?
I agree, further this is a generational thing. Children typically don't suffer from information overload because they learn how to best utilize the tools at their disposal. Growing up they have a base of experience on how to prioritize and maximize information. This is most evident in the use of technology, as it changes so quickly. They demonstrate greater productivity because they aren't constrained by how things used to be. For example while older people are used to just calling for all situations, children have learned to maximize the text message function. Instead of calling 5 people for a get together, they just send out a message to all 5. They even develop a text message language for faster communication, which would mystify those not familar with it.
Take note of this: The laws should be shaped according to what the people want/deem illegal
For this to truly work you need to have an interested population. If only half the citizens are voting, then you have about 1/4 of the population deciding what is best for everybody. What people want can change very quickly, as the majority are following sheep. For example, if you look at US history there is a cyclical pattern of religious revival, where a significantly vocal portion of the population moves towards "christian morality". The current systems make it difficult for groups such as the religious right to impose their will on a national level even if they manage to get a majority. (eg most people support teaching creationism) Remember, part of the function of government is to protect the rights of the minority from the whims of the majority.
Unfortunately in my case, the build up in my system was so slow that it wasn't immediately obvious that the medications were the problem, and I had to deal with the effects for quite some time until switching meds cleared things up.
I had a similar case, where I had a slow allergic response to medication. The medication caused my immune system to start destroying my red blood cells. I was taking the medication for a month, just feeling more and more tired. I even would have blackouts that I thought were just heat exhaustion since they occurred while playing sports. Eventually I realized something was really wrong when I blacked out walking up a flight of stairs. Wound up in the hospital two weeks while they stabilized me. Scary to think how close to death you can be without realizing it.
That our governments allow corporations under current law is proof simple that
the politicians are in their pockets:
Which demonstrates one of the weaknesses of democracy - it only works if there is an educated and interested populace.
Those in power wish to remain in power, in democracy it means they must campaign to become re-elected. Ideally votes would be based on service to the citizens. However, with apathetic citizens, it becomes who gets the most ads on TV/newspapers/etc to rally an interested minority (rather than majority) of the population. Of course politicians will cater to those who can get them re-elected. If getting elected is about TV commercials, then those who supply the money will get preferrential treatment.
'What seems to set Japan apart from other countries is that few Japanese are all that worried about the effects that hordes of robots might have on its citizens.
Maybe because they are too busy dealing with Godzilla, Mothra, and all those other giant radioactive monsters.
You are probably too young to remember much about the Cold War, but I grew up in the Reagan Era, and yeah we did have incredibly paranoid discussions like "Well the Soviets are targetting the nearby airforce base but luckily we are greater then 11.7 Kilometers from ground zero."... Seriously!
At least in the 80's we didn't have to watch those "educational" films about what to do in case of nuclear attack.
Yes it is very dangerous. Look at the backlash of fans when EA introduced QB vision into Madden 2006. It transformed part of the game to require more skill by the player.
And only for large developers?
Look at SWG. The original "sandbox" style MMO was different than the loot n level gameplay of most MMOs. It did have it's strong supporters, but for a large developer the user base was too small to justify. A smaller developer can get away with alot more in the non-mainstream space than a large developer.
Game developers should spend less money in ads and more in innovation. It's a win win situation.
Tell that to the makers of "Beyond Good and Evil" and "Psychonauts."
Wait, it is costly to sue a big company? Might that be due to the laws created in your state? Might that be due to the lawyers in control of the operation of the law?
No, you can take them to court without an attorney.
The system isn't by the People for the People any more.
Name me a time and system that truly was by the People for the People? All systems are founded by the wealthy & powerful.
The system isn't by the People for the People any more.
Simple to read makes it more difficult to enforce consistantly. Unless you specifically address things you wind up with more and more loop-holes.
Where the fuck did you get the idea that IP was for promoting progress and not profit?
The US Constitution
I would like to see it. IP is for PROFIT
No IP is to grant exclusive rights to the creator. It is up to them to decide if they want to profit, prevent others from profiting (sit on an idea), or give it away free to the world
Your little candyland, everything should be free hippy wonderland is a myth. It would require a huge paradigm shift in the world's cultural outlook on resources and their distribution. The instant somebody wants more than they need your idea breaks.
Where did I say everything should be free? I'm a firm believer in the idea of legal protections for IP. At the same time those protections should be granted for a limited time
Deal with the world as it is and you will get much farther than playing the woulda, shoulda, coulda game of spouting your socialistic mantra as a truth.
This is how the world is 1) New ideas come from the free exchange of existing ideas 2) Realization of ideas requires investment
IP was created for the benefit of the wealth of society, not the profit of the individual. It recognizes that the creation of new ideas is maximized if there is a large pool of existing ideas to leverage from, as well as protections guaranteed so that people can realize return on investment. That is why exclusivity is granted (for indiviual Return), however only for a limited time (to increase the pool to leverage from).
I don't think games from "way back in the 90's" should now be free because you think we should only buy games released in the last 6 months. I don't think The Matrix dvds, Harry Potter books or Pearl Jam cds should now be lisenced and released on public domain.
Why not? After 10 years, sufficient time has passed for the companies to recover their costs and make a little extra. Remember the purpose of IP is to promote progress, not guarantee profit.
Slashdot Mirror
Is MLB somehow claiming that watching what happens and writing it down is some kind of novel concept that they can patent?
No they are claiming that compiling all the statistics creates a work that they can copyright. Most likely anybody can use the statistics, they just can't get access to them by the MLB's compiled database.
If the US government were interested in the long term future of the US economy there would already be two crash programs in effect: one to reduce the nation's debt,
Easy, dissolve social security. Half the US debt is owed to the US government.
and another to reduce dependence on oil, the latter starting with both a significant increase in tax on gas station pump prices right now (with much of the increase being spent on development of renewable energy sources - wind, wave, geothermal, solar, nuclear) and an aggressive program of public education aimed at decreasing domestic fuel consumption. These are the only actions that could make a positive difference.
Increasing taxes has a backlash against the controlling party, making it a political issue that is resolved by the opposing party promising to reduce oil prices and being elected in.
Now an invasion of Iraq does several things:
1. Creates higher gas prices, such that the free market pushes for renewable energy
2. Creates a lightning rod to focus terrorist activities away from the US mainland.
3. If democracy holds on in Iraq, and spreads in the region, establishes Bush's place in history as the man who brought freedom to the Middle East (don't discount ego)
4. Slows down China's economic growth (taxes only slow down the US economy, higher oil prices hurts everybody)
5. Make's the president's friends rich
As much as we want to believe those in power are idiots, they aren't. They know how to manipulate the masses and play the system to their own political and personal ends.
But in the long run, they won't find other jobs. The whole point of automation (and outsourcing) is that the companies using the automation pay less out in wages. When every company does this, there are no other domestic jobs being created - even the jobs creating automation get automated or outsourced. There is less consumer income and thus lower sales and less need for production capacity - it's a vicious cycle.
Yes its a vicious cycle, if people remain stagnant and do not innovate. The same arguement you make was given 150 years ago with steam powered looms, 100 years ago with the assembly line, 50 years ago with outsourcing clothing manufacturing, and 25 years ago with outsourcing electronics. Each time what happened is the new goods created new job opportunities. Computers used to be final products, high cost & high margin. Then through technology and outsourcing, computer prices came down. Computers were cheap enough, that people wanted to use them for different purposes, and hence a boom in software which created more jobs than were lost. Do you think there would be so many internet businesses if computers weren't so cheap they were in everybody's home?
Think about how many programs are made for the home user. Family tree maker, video games, calorie counters, baseball card organization, etc. That's alot of different programs, made by people working in jobs that would not have existed if only businesses could afford computers.
Companies need to understand that eliminating jobs and paying lower wages is eating their seed corn. No one company can decide to buck the tide, though, because in the short term the other companies will eat them up. Unfortunately, the only way to make progress is through regulation. Corporations must be taxed on importing low-paid labor, whether through visas, outsourcing, or importing finished goods, and must be made to share the profits of automation with displaced workers.
What about technology, how do you tax corporations on developing better technology to reduce workers, and should you even do it?So long as the quality of life of people is improving, why should $ matter? Look around your house, you think people in the 50's who may have had an inflation adjusted higher salary could afford all those things?
Perhaps that particular idea isn't practical, but some radical strategy is needed - profit from automation must not be concentrated in corporations or by and by corporations will own everything.
That comes through competition, which drives margins down. So long as we ensure strong competition through regulation, the free market drives prices down for the consumer to enjoy. Yes at a personal/local level there may be economic loss, but ultimately productivity gains produce a net benifit to the overall economy. A good example of the reverse happening is in the oil business. Higher oil prices are giving a local boon with more jobs at the expense of the overall economy.
You may be right, but while the grocery store saves $8 an hour times however many cashiers they used to employ, what do the RFID chips cost? What do the RFID readers cost? What kind of increased costs do you have maintaining this system?
First businesses are greedy. They wouldn't invest money if the system doesn't save them money in the long run. Maybe the RFID and cashiers are a wash, but the savings could come in other forms, such as better inventory management - less inventory, easier tracking, less lost product, ensuring items that expire earlier are sold first, etc.
How is my life better off if I can just walk out of the grocery store and everything is automatically paid for? It saves me 2-10 minutes, on average, of waiting in line.
The benifits of improved productivity outweight the short term limited loss of jobs:
reduces the cost for the grocery store to run it's business...given strong competition results in lowering of prices.
employs 1 person with "more valuable" skills to maintain
Lower prices for consumers means the ability to spend that money on other goods and services, creating jobs in other areas
Releases labor to pursue more valueable job opportunities
This is totally an accounting game. By now, they know how much damage Hot Coffee did.
Yes it's an accounting game. They set that money aside so that the issue doesn't hang like a cloud over the company for an indefinate period of time. The worst thing in the stock market is uncertainty. In this case you tell your investors, worst case is $30 million dollars, take your lumps and move on. There is still the possibility that some angry parent or bored lawyer decides to sue over the Hot Coffee mod. Over time the risk of such problems decreases so you slowly release the money back.
The stock market isn't just accounting, it's also psychology.
I think arcades can be saved once they realize that they need to have content that can't be reproduced at home.
They have for a long time. Yu Suzuki described in an interview how when he designs games for the arcade, he specifically looks at integrating unique hardware to add to the experience. Originally this philosophy created games that could charge a premium (eg 75cents to play "Afterburner" in the moving cockpit). Now with consoles and computers being so powerful, that's pretty much all you see in arcades.
The problem is that games in themselves are not enough to attract an audience. You can drive 20 minutes to go to the arcade to play a game that costs $1 or just play something that may not be quite as entertaining at home free. Where you do see arcades still thrive is at Dave & Busters or Gameworks type places where you get food, get beer, and play some motorcycle racers. The games aren't necessarily the money makers, but they provide entertainment to keep people in the bar buying liquor which is.
Incidentally - why does everybody feel the need to list the TV programmes they like to record? It's like music stories - with those people always seem to like to post the "artists" they like. Why? It's a waste of space.
/. praising it that I thought I would give it a try and loved it.
Sometimes to get grass root efforts going to support the shows/music they like. I never saw "Firefly" when it first came out, but I saw enough people on
I don't know if it was originally planned like this, but it's kind of ironic how this is referenced in Episode IV. When Luke and Han arrive at the prison cell, Leia says "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?". Since all stormtroopers are clones of the same person, they would all be the same height.
Like many other things, I'm sure it wasn't. If you look at the OT there were troopers of different heights, different voices (handwaved away by GL as multiple clone sources). You also have the scene where two of the troopers are chatting about some new speeder, doubtful that was part of their clone training.
It's easy to watch people die in Evil Dead, but terrible to watch it happen in Saving Private Ryan (which oddly, has about the same amount of gore).
Kinda how we don't care about Arnold shooting up rent-a-cops who just happen to work at EvilCorp.
He's just some poor guy getting minimum wage, waiting until his shift is over so he can go home to his run-down apartment and spend time with his wife and kid. And we cheer when he gets a shotgun blast to the chest just cause he pointed his flashlight and said "stop" to the hero who was breaking into the top secret lab.
Don't even get me started on the contractors working on the second death star, not to mention the adminstration staff on the first death star. Probably just some guys thinking they had a cushy government job watching the clock and filing paperwork for prisoner transfers to cellblock 1138. Hell, even the stormtroopers were probably guys who just graduated highschool, and needed money to go to college and see the galaxy.
In the end it's true - "Good, Bad... I'm the one with the gun"
That is what I call a total farce, and it couldn't have happened if the election had been conducted using a simple sheet of paper with a handwritten X scrawled next to the chosen candidate.
Because it doesn't change the problem with the idiots. The ones who only put a "/" instead of an "X", does that mean they meant to vote for the candidate, or did they start and change their mind halfway through? (hanging/dimpled chad type problem) or the ones who thought "X" meant they didn't want that candidate, or the ones who just circle the candidate
I think the whole "information overload" thing boils down to a lot of people who didn't learn "how to learn". If you learned how to discover new information in the most general sense, and on your own, the internet is not a source of frustration or overload -- it's a repository of all those things it doesn't make sense to store in your head. For people who need to be spoon fed every fact -- heck yeah, they'll be overloaded, but so what?
I agree, further this is a generational thing. Children typically don't suffer from information overload because they learn how to best utilize the tools at their disposal. Growing up they have a base of experience on how to prioritize and maximize information. This is most evident in the use of technology, as it changes so quickly. They demonstrate greater productivity because they aren't constrained by how things used to be.
For example while older people are used to just calling for all situations, children have learned to maximize the text message function. Instead of calling 5 people for a get together, they just send out a message to all 5. They even develop a text message language for faster communication, which would mystify those not familar with it.
Take note of this: The laws should be shaped according to what the people want/deem illegal
For this to truly work you need to have an interested population. If only half the citizens are voting, then you have about 1/4 of the population deciding what is best for everybody. What people want can change very quickly, as the majority are following sheep. For example, if you look at US history there is a cyclical pattern of religious revival, where a significantly vocal portion of the population moves towards "christian morality". The current systems make it difficult for groups such as the religious right to impose their will on a national level even if they manage to get a majority. (eg most people support teaching creationism)
Remember, part of the function of government is to protect the rights of the minority from the whims of the majority.
Unfortunately in my case, the build up in my system was so slow that it wasn't immediately obvious that the medications were the problem, and I had to deal with the effects for quite some time until switching meds cleared things up.
I had a similar case, where I had a slow allergic response to medication. The medication caused my immune system to start destroying my red blood cells.
I was taking the medication for a month, just feeling more and more tired. I even would have blackouts that I thought were just heat exhaustion since they occurred while playing sports. Eventually I realized something was really wrong when I blacked out walking up a flight of stairs.
Wound up in the hospital two weeks while they stabilized me. Scary to think how close to death you can be without realizing it.
That our governments allow corporations under current law is proof simple that the politicians are in their pockets:
Which demonstrates one of the weaknesses of democracy - it only works if there is an educated and interested populace.
Those in power wish to remain in power, in democracy it means they must campaign to become re-elected. Ideally votes would be based on service to the citizens. However, with apathetic citizens, it becomes who gets the most ads on TV/newspapers/etc to rally an interested minority (rather than majority) of the population.
Of course politicians will cater to those who can get them re-elected. If getting elected is about TV commercials, then those who supply the money will get preferrential treatment.
The password to the WOPR computer in the movie "War Games" was "joshua"
No "Joshua" was the login, no password
Always amazed me.... what's the friggin' point of having a weak password for a machine capable of controlling nuclear missiles?!?
It was a backdoor for the programmer to get back into the system, it wasn't supposed to be there.
'What seems to set Japan apart from other countries is that few Japanese are all that worried about the effects that hordes of robots might have on its citizens.
Maybe because they are too busy dealing with Godzilla, Mothra, and all those other giant radioactive monsters.
I'd rather play "Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare"
Strange game. There are no WMD's.
You are probably too young to remember much about the Cold War, but I grew up in the Reagan Era, and yeah we did have incredibly paranoid discussions like "Well the Soviets are targetting the nearby airforce base but luckily we are greater then 11.7 Kilometers from ground zero." ... Seriously!
At least in the 80's we didn't have to watch those "educational" films about what to do in case of nuclear attack.
So, tell me again why they're getting rid of the Hubble telescope?
Because it might make more financial sense to put up a new space telescope
So innovation is now dangerous?
Yes it is very dangerous. Look at the backlash of fans when EA introduced QB vision into Madden 2006. It transformed part of the game to require more skill by the player.
And only for large developers?
Look at SWG. The original "sandbox" style MMO was different than the loot n level gameplay of most MMOs. It did have it's strong supporters, but for a large developer the user base was too small to justify. A smaller developer can get away with alot more in the non-mainstream space than a large developer.
Game developers should spend less money in ads and more in innovation. It's a win win situation.
Tell that to the makers of "Beyond Good and Evil" and "Psychonauts."
Wait, it is costly to sue a big company? Might that be due to the laws created in your state? Might that be due to the lawyers in control of the operation of the law?
No, you can take them to court without an attorney.
The system isn't by the People for the People any more.
Name me a time and system that truly was by the People for the People? All systems are founded by the wealthy & powerful.
The system isn't by the People for the People any more.
Simple to read makes it more difficult to enforce consistantly. Unless you specifically address things you wind up with more and more loop-holes.
AOL now 5% less evil!!!
Where the fuck did you get the idea that IP was for promoting progress and not profit?
The US Constitution
I would like to see it. IP is for PROFIT
No IP is to grant exclusive rights to the creator. It is up to them to decide if they want to profit, prevent others from profiting (sit on an idea), or give it away free to the world
Your little candyland, everything should be free hippy wonderland is a myth. It would require a huge paradigm shift in the world's cultural outlook on resources and their distribution. The instant somebody wants more than they need your idea breaks.
Where did I say everything should be free? I'm a firm believer in the idea of legal protections for IP. At the same time those protections should be granted for a limited time
Deal with the world as it is and you will get much farther than playing the woulda, shoulda, coulda game of spouting your socialistic mantra as a truth.
This is how the world is
1) New ideas come from the free exchange of existing ideas
2) Realization of ideas requires investment
IP was created for the benefit of the wealth of society, not the profit of the individual. It recognizes that the creation of new ideas is maximized if there is a large pool of existing ideas to leverage from, as well as protections guaranteed so that people can realize return on investment.
That is why exclusivity is granted (for indiviual Return), however only for a limited time (to increase the pool to leverage from).
I don't think games from "way back in the 90's" should now be free because you think we should only buy games released in the last 6 months. I don't think The Matrix dvds, Harry Potter books or Pearl Jam cds should now be lisenced and released on public domain.
Why not? After 10 years, sufficient time has passed for the companies to recover their costs and make a little extra. Remember the purpose of IP is to promote progress, not guarantee profit.