Okay, so you 'expressed your individuality' by dressing like every other goth kid in high school. Guess what, you dressed a certain way to fit in with your peers. Congrats, you're just like everyone else. I bet you read Gaiman and Lovecraft too, right?
Don't worry, I did it too. After a year or two I realized the irony of the situation and found great humor in it.
If you want more of society to accept the wisdom of having armed citizens around, you'll have to convince us that there's some method of keeping them in the right hands - which clearly did NOT happen today. Answer this question: Did the shooter obtain his weapons legally?
If the answer is no, then the current system for legally obtaining firearms has NOTHING to do with the tragedy that took place this morning.
And black market firearms dealers are affected by legislation?
Face it, guns exist, and if someone really wants one they can get one. The government can't just say 'No more guns!' and magically poof away all existing firearms.
I'm curious to know how many violent crimes committed with firearms are done so with legally registered weapons, and how many with black market weapons.
If the majority is black market, then all the legislation in the world won't matter.
their 8.5 million users doesn't include trial accounts, or accounts that are lapsed. I'm not sure how they calculate overseas numbers, but internet cafes usually pay for blocks of accounts to cover their concurrent users. I'm sure the number generated is at least ballpark accurate.
5. Consent to Monitor. WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE GAME. AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY ADDON, MOD, HACK, TRAINER, OR CHEAT, THAT IN BLIZZARD'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE GAME INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, MINES, OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH THE GAME. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, THE GAME MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER
Since it's disclosed in the license agreement you see when you install the game, is it still considered spyware? You are informed of it's presence and choose to continue installing/playing the game. It's not obfuscated. In fact it's in BOLD CAPS I believe.
But if it is a CRIMINAL offense, why havn't you reported them to the local authorities? Aren't you an accomplice to this CRIMINAL act if you fail to?
I beta'ed LII for about 3 weeks. One of the worst games I've ever played. The idea of taming dragons and castle seiges sounded really cool, but the levelling was just atrocious.
This is an interesting case, in that most players of WoW will completely back what Blizzard is trying to accomplish. We don't like bots, and we don't like the people that make them. We support Blizzard trying to shut Glide down, because it's only purpose is to detract from the game we pay to play.
However, many of us will disagree on the specifics of Blizzards case. (Copyright infringement) That part is what most of us debate. We agree with the ends, but are discussing the legitimacy of the means.
The issue here is that the people who developed Glide apparantly don't have WoW accounts, and obviously don't need WoW accounts to keep selling their software. Blizzard has no EULA/ToS leverage on them at all, so they're trying to make the software illegal.
A Horrible analogy: Imagine if selling cocaine was legal, but using it is illegal. This would mean that the only people law enforcement could target was the end users, but couldn't touch the dealers. You can imagine in that situation that law enforcement would find any loophole they could to charge the dealers with anything. (Tax evasion anyone?)
Blizzard is in logically the same situation, but dealing with contractual breach instead of legal.
AAC is NOT DRM'ed. FairPlay is a DRM scheme wrapped around the AAC files. Apple's DRM specifications have as much to do with AAC as my choice in breakfast cereal.
Since digital music introduces economies of scale that should reduce song prices, why are they increasing? Perhaps because the new files are higher bitrate, requiring more storage space and bandwidth? Or perhaps because EMI wanted more money per track sold to counter the increased risk of unprotected files?
IIRC, the surcharge is only applied to per-track purchases. If you buy an album there is no increased cost.
Who controls the format is everything. If the dominant format is controlled by Microsoft, they can pressure competitors by making it not work on thier shit. Windows Media is already crap under OSX. I would say that The fact that MS owns that format has a LOT to do with that.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, so you 'expressed your individuality' by dressing like every other goth kid in high school. Guess what, you dressed a certain way to fit in with your peers. Congrats, you're just like everyone else. I bet you read Gaiman and Lovecraft too, right?
Don't worry, I did it too. After a year or two I realized the irony of the situation and found great humor in it.
SILENCE! I concur!
Don't look at me, I voted for Kodos.
If the answer is no, then the current system for legally obtaining firearms has NOTHING to do with the tragedy that took place this morning.
And black market firearms dealers are affected by legislation?
Face it, guns exist, and if someone really wants one they can get one. The government can't just say 'No more guns!' and magically poof away all existing firearms.
Agreed. Unfortunately, people like this shooter ignore the rules, and innocent people die.
To stop a guy with a gun, you need a gun. You can't just say "Hey, that's not a good thing to do!" and hope for the best.
I'm curious to know how many violent crimes committed with firearms are done so with legally registered weapons, and how many with black market weapons.
If the majority is black market, then all the legislation in the world won't matter.
their 8.5 million users doesn't include trial accounts, or accounts that are lapsed. I'm not sure how they calculate overseas numbers, but internet cafes usually pay for blocks of accounts to cover their concurrent users. I'm sure the number generated is at least ballpark accurate.
Since it's disclosed in the license agreement you see when you install the game, is it still considered spyware? You are informed of it's presence and choose to continue installing/playing the game. It's not obfuscated. In fact it's in BOLD CAPS I believe.
But if it is a CRIMINAL offense, why havn't you reported them to the local authorities? Aren't you an accomplice to this CRIMINAL act if you fail to?
I beta'ed LII for about 3 weeks. One of the worst games I've ever played. The idea of taming dragons and castle seiges sounded really cool, but the levelling was just atrocious.
Perhaps the troll posts are generated procedurally?
okay, clarification: the private server didn't affect any of NCSoft's paying customers. :P
This is an interesting case, in that most players of WoW will completely back what Blizzard is trying to accomplish. We don't like bots, and we don't like the people that make them. We support Blizzard trying to shut Glide down, because it's only purpose is to detract from the game we pay to play.
However, many of us will disagree on the specifics of Blizzards case. (Copyright infringement) That part is what most of us debate. We agree with the ends, but are discussing the legitimacy of the means.
Then the asshat installing it on a government computer is liable, not blizzard.
HAHAHAHAHahahahaha....
Sorry, carry on.
Private server is different. You're not affecting other players in your own little world, and that isn't considered cheating.
The fact that you're running the server software illegally is another matter.
The issue here is that the people who developed Glide apparantly don't have WoW accounts, and obviously don't need WoW accounts to keep selling their software. Blizzard has no EULA/ToS leverage on them at all, so they're trying to make the software illegal.
A Horrible analogy: Imagine if selling cocaine was legal, but using it is illegal. This would mean that the only people law enforcement could target was the end users, but couldn't touch the dealers. You can imagine in that situation that law enforcement would find any loophole they could to charge the dealers with anything. (Tax evasion anyone?)
Blizzard is in logically the same situation, but dealing with contractual breach instead of legal.
Umm, they could enforce the EULA by terminating your account. Thats it. Who gives a fuck who/what clicked the button?
Are YOU going to take them to court just to reinstate a $15/mo account? Good luck with that cat defense.
Keep in mind that against EULA != Against the law. All Blizzard can do is cancel the account. There is no legal backing to that.
AAC is NOT DRM'ed. FairPlay is a DRM scheme wrapped around the AAC files. Apple's DRM specifications have as much to do with AAC as my choice in breakfast cereal.
Microsoft doesn't control AAC, that would make them pretty worried.
Higher quality tracks not worth more to you?
IIRC, the markup only applies to individual tracks. Full albums carry no markup for the new format.
IIRC, the surcharge is only applied to per-track purchases. If you buy an album there is no increased cost.
DRM != Format
Who controls the format is everything. If the dominant format is controlled by Microsoft, they can pressure competitors by making it not work on thier shit. Windows Media is already crap under OSX. I would say that The fact that MS owns that format has a LOT to do with that.