"Since the RIAA was able to show that there was distribution (the jurors bought it), they can seek statutory damages. They have no idea how many copies Ms. Thomas assisted in making"
I thought all they charged her with was DOWNLOADING the songs, not distributing them?
"Well, yeah, there is enough space on there for the current model we have for watching, but what if we change the model? What if instead of a season of television spanning 4 DVDs it just spans 1 blu-ray disk and is all in 1080p?"
You want to fit 13 hours of 1080p video (not to mention hi-rez audio) on one blu-ray disk? Not going to happen.
You could potentially fit an entire season at 480p on one Blu-Ray disk -- but then what's the point of the expensive player?
Well, the fact that industry insiders were saying that Fox and Warner were prepared to switch to HD DVD leads me to believe it's not some major conspiracy theory. Combine that with the big presentation Toshiba had prepared (with Warner, no less), and I do believe it was an 11th hour sweetheart deal offered by Sony that changed the landscape.
One key stat was that Harry Potter sold nearly as well on HD DVD as on Blu-Ray (55:45). I thought that, combined with HD DVD players far outselling BD players (PS3 not withstanding) would push Warner to HD DVD - and it looks like it almost did, but if Sony really did offer both Fox and Warner $500M each (whether it's cash or, more likely, promotional support like HD DVD did with Paramount), and HD DVD didn't/couldn't match it, then that's how the chips call. Money changing hands is business, no conspiracy theory needed.
"Apparently I was duped by a dumping strategy - clearly they knew their market position was about to slip off a cliff and they decided to flood the market with cheap players."
Actually, rumors are that Warner was going to go HD DVD exclusive along with Fox -- but that changed over the past couple of days when Sony paid Fox to stay with them, and then Warner followed suit, getting their own payout.
You really think you'll be able to convince the police to get the stolen laptop for you by providing some logs that they don't understand? I think a big part of the money you're paying is for their relationship with law enforcement and judges (for warrants).
Plus, the commercial version (with data wipes) allows you to blow away the entire harddrive, even if the bad guy installs a new copy of Windows on it. The code from the TPM chip installs the software back onto the OS automatically, it phones home, sees it's still stolen, and formats the drive. In essence, it gives the thieves a brick that they can't do anything with unless they install Linux/*BSD.
The article says it's Computrace's LoJack for Laptops. We looked into the corporate version awhile ago due to the remote-wipe feature.
If the laptop has the proper version of TPM, it will even automatically re-install itself if the thief reinstalls Windows. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, having the BIOS infecting the machine... If it's stolen though, it's a good thing.
"Maybe because everyone involved in an air plane crash usually dies. Automobile deaths are much less. "
Thank you for proving Bruce's theory exactly. You don't think that automobile deaths are that common, when in fact 119 people die on the roads every DAY. 43,443 people died on the roadways in 2005 alone, and this is only in the United States! Pretty sure airplane deaths are FAR less...
Well, while HD DVD does have some DRM in it, it's nowhere near as restrictive as Blu-Ray. For example, there's no Image Constraint Token (ICT), so you can actually watch HD DVD movies over component video (not sure if you can with Blu-Ray, maybe you can). Ironically, you need HDMI to upconvert SD DVD.
In addition, while Best Buy charges MSRP for disks, you can get them on Amazon for far cheaper -- most in the $19.99 range, but some in the $27.99 range.
While upconverting is nice, it's really nowhere near as good as an HD DVD, especially if you have a decent sound system -- it's not just picture that's improved, the audio is as well.
In addition, HD DVD isn't region coded, so you can buy a disk from anywhere in the world and watch it. Ironically, Silver Surfer will be available on HD DVD in a month or so from overseas, possibly just in time for honest US BD customers to watch it;)
"There is a direct, positive correlation between BMI and cardiovascular disease."
Apparently you've never taken a psychology course... Correlation does not imply causation.
The classic example is that there's a direct correlation between the sales of ice cream and incidents of violent crimes. Does that mean that ice cream makes people violent? No. Why not? Because correlation does not imply causation.
It may be changing, but it's still safe to say that most people do not have HD...
Using your numbers, let's say there's 75,000,000 households in the US (there's roughly 300,000,000 people in the US, so this seems like a reasonable number of households). 30% have HDTV, or 22,500,000 households. Of those, only 44% have HD content (crazy!), or 9.9 million households. That's it. That's a very tiny number.
(I still find it crazy that the majority of people with HDTV don't actually have HD content... But that's another story).
As for the "consensus" part of the thread -- I prefer HD DVD (and have a player) for a few reasons. First, there's less DRM than Blu-Ray. Second, there's no region coding on HD DVD so I can buy a movie wherever I want in the world and play it here. Third, I don't like how Sony rushed out a defective product just to keep people from adopting HD DVD (the Blu-Ray spec isn't even finalized yet -- all the current BD players, with the possible exception of the PS3, will not be able to play any of the new features that disks will begin to have at the end of the year. On the other hand, HD DVD has had these interactive features since day 1 - it's mandatory in the spec.
Oh, and Sony pissed me off with that whole rootkit thing.;)
I was talking about the lyrics though, not the actual recording... It's crazy that the RIAA doesn't allow people to post lyrics on sites because they think they should make money off of that as well.
This is the same argument that the RIAA is using against websites that post song lyrics -- they own the copyright and they want to make money off of the lyrics. While I disagree with the spirit of it, the letter of law says that the RIAA is right in that case.:(
Reminds me of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) scene where Shake is "The Drizzle." I'm paraphrasing here:
Master Shake: I can summon rainclouds to rain out the crime Meatwad: Right, so then they go inside and rob banks and kill people. Master Shake: Yeah, they could do that...
"First, listening to your neighbor's CDs is a passive act (inasmuch as you don't have to do anything to hear it), whereas piggybacking his WiFi is active, in the sense that you actively decided to get on his network."
WinXP can be configured ot automatically connect to a wireless network if it detects the AP broadcasting the SSID so it can be considered "passive." If your router is yelling, "Connect to me and surf the web!" then that is an active invitation and there should be no punishment. Your unlocked door analgy would be if you leave your door unlocked and stand on the front lawn yellwing, "Hey everyone, come inside my house and look around." I believe they call that an "Open house."
If you don't want someone on your network, then turn off the broadcasting. It's not hard, and in no way should someone be punished for it especially since a lot of places have free wifi hotspots and there's no way to differniate between a "good" and "bad" connection.
I posted this in another thread, but I'll reiterate it here. Does it really matter if you can burn a 15G disk vs a 25G disk, when harddrives are now 750G to 1TB? I mean really, an extra 10G is important?
It'll be interesting to see what Matrix does. It's being released on HD DVD this May. No BD release date, although it's rumored to be late this year, once the BD camp actually finalizes the spec (yes, they've been selling a product for a year that isn't even finalized yet. Go Sony *rolls eyes*)
Well, you can actually buy the Toshiba HD-A2 player from roughly $300, and it includes a mail-in rebate for 5 free movies. I know Amazon is selling it for that price.
In addition, Best Buy currently has a sale where you get the player for $399, you get 4 free movies from Best Buy (out the door), and then another 5 movies from Toshiba (mail in rebate, like in the old DVD days). So 9 movies, at $20 a movie = $180, making the player only $220. That's assuming that you usually buy movies, of course.
Actually the only other company to do the dual format player is LG -- a former BD exclusive CE company...
On the other hand, Samsung has come out and said that if consumers want an HD DVD standalone, that they'll make it. Onkyo and Meridian have also said that they will have HD DVD players and there's a Chinese company that said they'll have a cheap one ($200?) by the end of the year.
As for storage -- you really think there's that big of a difference between 15G and 25G, when drives are coming out to be 750G to 1TB? I just dno't see that really mattering. Yeah, dual layer puts BD at 50G vs 30G for HD DVD, but who uses dual-layer DVD-R/DVD+R? Nobody that I know of. And aside from the capacity, the two formats don't have that many differences from an end-user point of view. While Sony is still subsidzing the BD disk process (it costs more to manufacture the disks than HD DVD does), I wouldn't be surprised to see studios switch over to HD DVD to make more money.
Of course Warner Bros has said that they've come up with a dual-format DISK, called TotalHD. They're planning on selling those this summer, and the disk will have both an HD DVD and a BD side to it and they will live on the same physical media (I'm guessing you have to flip, but I don't remember offhand). So that throws yet another wrench into the mix.
Short answer is that buying into BD now is stupid, since the spec hasn't even been finalized yet -- all current standalone hardware is obsoluete since it doesn't meet the updated specs for BD-J and other things. Future disks will NOT work in current BD players, even with firmware updates (it's been confirmed that there are major hardware differences). The PS3 will probably work, but nobody is quite sure -- it hasn't been confirmed as far as I know.
Besides, HD DVD lets you easily rip movies with the Microsoft Xbox360 HD DVD add-on. For once, MS did something to our benefit;)
Point taken. However, I was referring more to the grandparent's post, where he said:
"Christ, It's not entirely difficult for someone that isn't phased by technology, but I know if I've kicked on my couch on a friday night with a beer, the last bloody thing I want to be doing is getting up, searching for my model of "insert new format player here" downloading the firmware, burning it to a disc, updating it, just to watch a movie I bought/rented."
Actually, all HD DVD players are required by the spec to have an ethernet port. Therefore, you won't need a PC to download the latest firmware for the player.
BD doesn't have the requirement, although I believe they're starting to require it now. No idea what that does for the current crop of players though...
Yeah, but should we really have basic articles like that on this site? Maybe we should have an algebra primer? 2x+4=12, show me how to solve for x. Or using your physicist example, should we have an article describing the coefficient of friction for us? No, because it doesn't really fit with the site.
Nobody's saying that the article isn't useful, but it's not a/. article.
Slashdot Mirror
"Since the RIAA was able to show that there was distribution (the jurors bought it), they can seek statutory damages. They have no idea how many copies Ms. Thomas assisted in making"
I thought all they charged her with was DOWNLOADING the songs, not distributing them?
"Well, yeah, there is enough space on there for the current model we have for watching, but what if we change the model? What if instead of a season of television spanning 4 DVDs it just spans 1 blu-ray disk and is all in 1080p?"
You want to fit 13 hours of 1080p video (not to mention hi-rez audio) on one blu-ray disk? Not going to happen.
You could potentially fit an entire season at 480p on one Blu-Ray disk -- but then what's the point of the expensive player?
Well, the fact that industry insiders were saying that Fox and Warner were prepared to switch to HD DVD leads me to believe it's not some major conspiracy theory. Combine that with the big presentation Toshiba had prepared (with Warner, no less), and I do believe it was an 11th hour sweetheart deal offered by Sony that changed the landscape.
One key stat was that Harry Potter sold nearly as well on HD DVD as on Blu-Ray (55:45). I thought that, combined with HD DVD players far outselling BD players (PS3 not withstanding) would push Warner to HD DVD - and it looks like it almost did, but if Sony really did offer both Fox and Warner $500M each (whether it's cash or, more likely, promotional support like HD DVD did with Paramount), and HD DVD didn't/couldn't match it, then that's how the chips call. Money changing hands is business, no conspiracy theory needed.
"Apparently I was duped by a dumping strategy - clearly they knew their market position was about to slip off a cliff and they decided to flood the market with cheap players."
Actually, rumors are that Warner was going to go HD DVD exclusive along with Fox -- but that changed over the past couple of days when Sony paid Fox to stay with them, and then Warner followed suit, getting their own payout.
Here's one source, but several insiders have said the same thing on AVS:
http://formatwarcentral.com/index.php/2008/01/04/warner-swayed-by-500-million-from-the-bda/
> who set them up the bomb?
You have no chance to survive, make your time.
Boom zig, boom zig.
You really think you'll be able to convince the police to get the stolen laptop for you by providing some logs that they don't understand? I think a big part of the money you're paying is for their relationship with law enforcement and judges (for warrants).
Plus, the commercial version (with data wipes) allows you to blow away the entire harddrive, even if the bad guy installs a new copy of Windows on it. The code from the TPM chip installs the software back onto the OS automatically, it phones home, sees it's still stolen, and formats the drive. In essence, it gives the thieves a brick that they can't do anything with unless they install Linux/*BSD.
The article says it's Computrace's LoJack for Laptops. We looked into the corporate version awhile ago due to the remote-wipe feature.
If the laptop has the proper version of TPM, it will even automatically re-install itself if the thief reinstalls Windows. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, having the BIOS infecting the machine... If it's stolen though, it's a good thing.
"Maybe because everyone involved in an air plane crash usually dies. Automobile deaths are much less. "
Thank you for proving Bruce's theory exactly. You don't think that automobile deaths are that common, when in fact 119 people die on the roads every DAY. 43,443 people died on the roadways in 2005 alone, and this is only in the United States! Pretty sure airplane deaths are FAR less...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
Well, while HD DVD does have some DRM in it, it's nowhere near as restrictive as Blu-Ray. For example, there's no Image Constraint Token (ICT), so you can actually watch HD DVD movies over component video (not sure if you can with Blu-Ray, maybe you can). Ironically, you need HDMI to upconvert SD DVD.
;)
In addition, while Best Buy charges MSRP for disks, you can get them on Amazon for far cheaper -- most in the $19.99 range, but some in the $27.99 range.
While upconverting is nice, it's really nowhere near as good as an HD DVD, especially if you have a decent sound system -- it's not just picture that's improved, the audio is as well.
In addition, HD DVD isn't region coded, so you can buy a disk from anywhere in the world and watch it. Ironically, Silver Surfer will be available on HD DVD in a month or so from overseas, possibly just in time for honest US BD customers to watch it
"There is a direct, positive correlation between BMI and cardiovascular disease."
Apparently you've never taken a psychology course... Correlation does not imply causation.
The classic example is that there's a direct correlation between the sales of ice cream and incidents of violent crimes. Does that mean that ice cream makes people violent? No. Why not? Because correlation does not imply causation.
Then you're in trouble, because MS is sorta supporting both, by way of their VC-1 codec...
It may be changing, but it's still safe to say that most people do not have HD...
;)
Using your numbers, let's say there's 75,000,000 households in the US (there's roughly 300,000,000 people in the US, so this seems like a reasonable number of households). 30% have HDTV, or 22,500,000 households. Of those, only 44% have HD content (crazy!), or 9.9 million households. That's it. That's a very tiny number.
(I still find it crazy that the majority of people with HDTV don't actually have HD content... But that's another story).
As for the "consensus" part of the thread -- I prefer HD DVD (and have a player) for a few reasons. First, there's less DRM than Blu-Ray. Second, there's no region coding on HD DVD so I can buy a movie wherever I want in the world and play it here. Third, I don't like how Sony rushed out a defective product just to keep people from adopting HD DVD (the Blu-Ray spec isn't even finalized yet -- all the current BD players, with the possible exception of the PS3, will not be able to play any of the new features that disks will begin to have at the end of the year. On the other hand, HD DVD has had these interactive features since day 1 - it's mandatory in the spec.
Oh, and Sony pissed me off with that whole rootkit thing.
"They just want to know if the media will last,"
:)
- coatings-starting-to-rot/
Apparently BD is having problems with that too
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/06/16/blu-ray-disc
So you can buy an expensive, rotting, DRM-laden format with region coding... or a cheaper, less-DRM, region free format (HD DVD). Hmm....
I was talking about the lyrics though, not the actual recording... It's crazy that the RIAA doesn't allow people to post lyrics on sites because they think they should make money off of that as well.
This is the same argument that the RIAA is using against websites that post song lyrics -- they own the copyright and they want to make money off of the lyrics. While I disagree with the spirit of it, the letter of law says that the RIAA is right in that case. :(
Reminds me of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) scene where Shake is "The Drizzle." I'm paraphrasing here:
Master Shake: I can summon rainclouds to rain out the crime
Meatwad: Right, so then they go inside and rob banks and kill people.
Master Shake: Yeah, they could do that...
"First, listening to your neighbor's CDs is a passive act (inasmuch as you don't have to do anything to hear it), whereas piggybacking his WiFi is active, in the sense that you actively decided to get on his network."
WinXP can be configured ot automatically connect to a wireless network if it detects the AP broadcasting the SSID so it can be considered "passive." If your router is yelling, "Connect to me and surf the web!" then that is an active invitation and there should be no punishment. Your unlocked door analgy would be if you leave your door unlocked and stand on the front lawn yellwing, "Hey everyone, come inside my house and look around." I believe they call that an "Open house."
If you don't want someone on your network, then turn off the broadcasting. It's not hard, and in no way should someone be punished for it especially since a lot of places have free wifi hotspots and there's no way to differniate between a "good" and "bad" connection.
You also have Galactic Civ II, as well as the expansion pack for Civ IV (Warlords).
Not a huge number, but they're out there if you look.
What turn based games were great 10-15 years ago?
I posted this in another thread, but I'll reiterate it here. Does it really matter if you can burn a 15G disk vs a 25G disk, when harddrives are now 750G to 1TB? I mean really, an extra 10G is important?
It'll be interesting to see what Matrix does. It's being released on HD DVD this May. No BD release date, although it's rumored to be late this year, once the BD camp actually finalizes the spec (yes, they've been selling a product for a year that isn't even finalized yet. Go Sony *rolls eyes*)
Well, you can actually buy the Toshiba HD-A2 player from roughly $300, and it includes a mail-in rebate for 5 free movies. I know Amazon is selling it for that price.
In addition, Best Buy currently has a sale where you get the player for $399, you get 4 free movies from Best Buy (out the door), and then another 5 movies from Toshiba (mail in rebate, like in the old DVD days). So 9 movies, at $20 a movie = $180, making the player only $220. That's assuming that you usually buy movies, of course.
Food for thought.
Actually the only other company to do the dual format player is LG -- a former BD exclusive CE company...
;)
On the other hand, Samsung has come out and said that if consumers want an HD DVD standalone, that they'll make it. Onkyo and Meridian have also said that they will have HD DVD players and there's a Chinese company that said they'll have a cheap one ($200?) by the end of the year.
As for storage -- you really think there's that big of a difference between 15G and 25G, when drives are coming out to be 750G to 1TB? I just dno't see that really mattering. Yeah, dual layer puts BD at 50G vs 30G for HD DVD, but who uses dual-layer DVD-R/DVD+R? Nobody that I know of. And aside from the capacity, the two formats don't have that many differences from an end-user point of view. While Sony is still subsidzing the BD disk process (it costs more to manufacture the disks than HD DVD does), I wouldn't be surprised to see studios switch over to HD DVD to make more money.
Of course Warner Bros has said that they've come up with a dual-format DISK, called TotalHD. They're planning on selling those this summer, and the disk will have both an HD DVD and a BD side to it and they will live on the same physical media (I'm guessing you have to flip, but I don't remember offhand). So that throws yet another wrench into the mix.
Short answer is that buying into BD now is stupid, since the spec hasn't even been finalized yet -- all current standalone hardware is obsoluete since it doesn't meet the updated specs for BD-J and other things. Future disks will NOT work in current BD players, even with firmware updates (it's been confirmed that there are major hardware differences). The PS3 will probably work, but nobody is quite sure -- it hasn't been confirmed as far as I know.
Besides, HD DVD lets you easily rip movies with the Microsoft Xbox360 HD DVD add-on. For once, MS did something to our benefit
Point taken. However, I was referring more to the grandparent's post, where he said:
"Christ, It's not entirely difficult for someone that isn't phased by technology, but I know if I've kicked on my couch on a friday night with a beer, the last bloody thing I want to be doing is getting up, searching for my model of "insert new format player here" downloading the firmware, burning it to a disc, updating it, just to watch a movie I bought/rented."
Actually, all HD DVD players are required by the spec to have an ethernet port. Therefore, you won't need a PC to download the latest firmware for the player.
BD doesn't have the requirement, although I believe they're starting to require it now. No idea what that does for the current crop of players though...
Yeah, but should we really have basic articles like that on this site? Maybe we should have an algebra primer? 2x+4=12, show me how to solve for x. Or using your physicist example, should we have an article describing the coefficient of friction for us? No, because it doesn't really fit with the site.
/. article.
Nobody's saying that the article isn't useful, but it's not a