I have this cold chill down my spine, telling me that perhaps Hitler was right about the 1000-year-Reich, but was just off by a few decades. After all, total surveillance will finally allow the government to fulfill what seems to be its chief purpose anyway - maintaining the status quo indefinitely.
Unlike the US the German Constitution is designed to keep the status quo and prevent people from overthrowing the government or the system it's based on. If someone were to overthrow it while the government is good he'd most likely make it worse (i.e. military dictatorship), if the government went bad they'd do everything in their power to stay in power, no matter what the laws say now. Therefore we don't want laws that enable people to overthrow the government since any government worth overthrowing won't let these laws intact anyway.
Disney didn't for many of his works, yet he very clearly derived from pre-existing works.
Disney wasn't trying to obscure his inspirations.
Basicly every possible sequence of notes has already been produced, so no more music can be written now?
Notes aren't the only thing to a piece of music and even with similar notes there can be other factors that make a song completely different. Orchestration is a big one, for example. Also I think the proof that every song has been written applies only if four or six arbitrary notes are sufficient to establish a strong similarity which in practice won't be the case.
Even before the internet you could press your CDs and record without going to a major label. However, the major labels keep getting new slaves. I've heard an indie musician attribute that to a get-rich-quick mentality, people want fame, they want everything done for them. A label will do publishing, marketing and more for them but in return leave them with almost no money. I suppose it comes down to everyone's favourite P.T. Barnum quote.
So in effect, all metric measurements are based upon physical properties of various substances, as measured on a temperature scale that is purely theoretical (you can't actually MEASURE anything at 0 kelvin, and you never have a 0-gauss [another measurement] magnetic field).
Yes but you can extrapolate from other measurements and both of these values are absolutes which means the zero is defined by physics and not some arbitrary melting point or whatever was used for the zero in Fahrenheit. If you didn't know any units you could still calculate the second by using these absolutes in your calculations.
In fact, when Mean Time was invented, the duration of a swing of a specific pendulum one metre in length on the earth's surface was defined to be one second. As you can see, this becomes quite a paradox.
That's how they were defined back then but the values have been refined to be based on universal constants. Now it's based on the universal constant of the speed of light in a vacuum. Slowing down light claims nonwithstanding (IIRC that wasn't in a vacuum) that's a constant you can measure and convert to whatever system you use.
If an alien species needed to convert our units to theirs they could work much better with the definitions of the SI units than, say, the imperial system.
I think services like architecture are in the middle - along with creating commissioned work - it's a one-time service which is technically a copyable creation (such as blueprints), but which are really only useful to one person and therefore have a one-time benefit as well.
Actually blueprints can get licensed to many people. Not everyone needs a specifically designed house, licensing a prebuilt plan is most likely cheaper because the architect can split his fees over a larger number of customers.
You didn't agree to anything because there was no need to, the law already put those limitations in place so a contract restating them would be redundant.
Missed the digital revolution, eh? Creative endeavors have never in history been as cheap as they are now.
Not really. Seen the budgets of the average Hollywood flick or EA game? These aren't the kind that three people with a camera/computer can make. Music is feasible with a small team but music isn't the only thing covered by copyright.
There has never been as much high-quality low to zero budget movies as there are now. Nor games (which are moving over to service structures anyway). Without copyright it would be even easier to share models and footage to create entirely new works, ushering in a new era of rapidly evolving content.
Have you actually looked at the market? Games changing over to services? Maybe MMORPGs but those are hardly the only games and their market doesn't look like it can hold more than WoW and one or two competitors.
All of the big budget works would go away. We'd be left with what people are willing to make for free and looking at opensource games those seem to be mostly "let's make a clone of game X!".
Then perhaps artists should do the equivalent of voting with their wallets and just not work for those cartels? The cartels don't make their IP themselves, the artists they exploit have to agree to work with them in first place. Without artists working for them all the big copyright cartels would fall apart.
As that would mean the record companies would have far less money to push 'their' material, and far less control of distribution channels, and far less financial resources to spend on payola, that would mean that non-RIAA artists got a far larger share of the radio/cd-tax/other royalty money, and a far greater exposure.
Without copyright they'd get more royalties? Last I checked copyright is what allows them to collect those royalties in first place, without copyright noone would even pay those royalties, to the RIAA or independents.
I'd rather use Blender than that POS Milkshape. Sure, Milkshape is sufficient for pushing a vertex here or there but that's it, if you're trying to do anything resembling complexity you're looking at a nightmare. Try adding an edgeloop to a mesh or something, that takes forever.
Well then how about making a game where you're fighting America for a change? We get enough games where you fight the "evil commies" and even if you fight the Amis you're playing some "patriotic American" yourself and just fighting against the corrupt government.
If you keep telling people about that soon NASA will be forced through a lawsuit to dangle a huge "Do not look into laser with remaining eye" warning sign from the satellite.
He said CO2 is a factor, not the only factor (discard the black and white thinking!). However in our current situation CO2 is the biggest factor for a rise in temperature.
I know, I know, it's counter to the popular Religion of Man-Created-Climate-Change, but maybe, just MAYBE there's something else at work? I mean, the magnetic field, solar cycles, and lots of other things should be factored in there, too...
They are factored in. They aren't sufficient to explain the changes we are seeing.
Slashdot Mirror
I have this cold chill down my spine, telling me that perhaps Hitler was right about the 1000-year-Reich, but was just off by a few decades. After all, total surveillance will finally allow the government to fulfill what seems to be its chief purpose anyway - maintaining the status quo indefinitely.
Unlike the US the German Constitution is designed to keep the status quo and prevent people from overthrowing the government or the system it's based on. If someone were to overthrow it while the government is good he'd most likely make it worse (i.e. military dictatorship), if the government went bad they'd do everything in their power to stay in power, no matter what the laws say now. Therefore we don't want laws that enable people to overthrow the government since any government worth overthrowing won't let these laws intact anyway.
I think they mean that you have to give your real name and address to the email service, not that you can only have one email address in total.
They, uh, .... make laws? Have a democratically elected government?
Disney didn't for many of his works, yet he very clearly derived from pre-existing works.
Disney wasn't trying to obscure his inspirations.
Basicly every possible sequence of notes has already been produced, so no more music can be written now?
Notes aren't the only thing to a piece of music and even with similar notes there can be other factors that make a song completely different. Orchestration is a big one, for example. Also I think the proof that every song has been written applies only if four or six arbitrary notes are sufficient to establish a strong similarity which in practice won't be the case.
Even before the internet you could press your CDs and record without going to a major label. However, the major labels keep getting new slaves. I've heard an indie musician attribute that to a get-rich-quick mentality, people want fame, they want everything done for them. A label will do publishing, marketing and more for them but in return leave them with almost no money. I suppose it comes down to everyone's favourite P.T. Barnum quote.
So in effect, all metric measurements are based upon physical properties of various substances, as measured on a temperature scale that is purely theoretical (you can't actually MEASURE anything at 0 kelvin, and you never have a 0-gauss [another measurement] magnetic field).
Yes but you can extrapolate from other measurements and both of these values are absolutes which means the zero is defined by physics and not some arbitrary melting point or whatever was used for the zero in Fahrenheit. If you didn't know any units you could still calculate the second by using these absolutes in your calculations.
In fact, when Mean Time was invented, the duration of a swing of a specific pendulum one metre in length on the earth's surface was defined to be one second. As you can see, this becomes quite a paradox.
That's how they were defined back then but the values have been refined to be based on universal constants. Now it's based on the universal constant of the speed of light in a vacuum. Slowing down light claims nonwithstanding (IIRC that wasn't in a vacuum) that's a constant you can measure and convert to whatever system you use.
If an alien species needed to convert our units to theirs they could work much better with the definitions of the SI units than, say, the imperial system.
He meant guilders. Those things are quite obsolete now that we have the Euro.
I think services like architecture are in the middle - along with creating commissioned work - it's a one-time service which is technically a copyable creation (such as blueprints), but which are really only useful to one person and therefore have a one-time benefit as well.
Actually blueprints can get licensed to many people. Not everyone needs a specifically designed house, licensing a prebuilt plan is most likely cheaper because the architect can split his fees over a larger number of customers.
You didn't agree to anything because there was no need to, the law already put those limitations in place so a contract restating them would be redundant.
"many kinds of work cost a lot of money."
Missed the digital revolution, eh? Creative endeavors have never in history been as cheap as they are now.
Not really. Seen the budgets of the average Hollywood flick or EA game? These aren't the kind that three people with a camera/computer can make. Music is feasible with a small team but music isn't the only thing covered by copyright.
There has never been as much high-quality low to zero budget movies as there are now. Nor games (which are moving over to service structures anyway). Without copyright it would be even easier to share models and footage to create entirely new works, ushering in a new era of rapidly evolving content.
Have you actually looked at the market? Games changing over to services? Maybe MMORPGs but those are hardly the only games and their market doesn't look like it can hold more than WoW and one or two competitors.
All of the big budget works would go away. We'd be left with what people are willing to make for free and looking at opensource games those seem to be mostly "let's make a clone of game X!".
Then perhaps artists should do the equivalent of voting with their wallets and just not work for those cartels? The cartels don't make their IP themselves, the artists they exploit have to agree to work with them in first place. Without artists working for them all the big copyright cartels would fall apart.
and it DEPRIVES them of many of their sources of inspiration (at least legally)
Then be more creative, don't just take what inspires you verbatim.
As that would mean the record companies would have far less money to push 'their' material, and far less control of distribution channels, and far less financial resources to spend on payola, that would mean that non-RIAA artists got a far larger share of the radio/cd-tax/other royalty money, and a far greater exposure.
Without copyright they'd get more royalties? Last I checked copyright is what allows them to collect those royalties in first place, without copyright noone would even pay those royalties, to the RIAA or independents.
Metric or imperial pianists?
The only other negative thing I have to say about it is "every material known to man" ain't! It has, what, 8 or 12 materials?
That's where UV mapping and the image material come into play.
I'd rather use Blender than that POS Milkshape. Sure, Milkshape is sufficient for pushing a vertex here or there but that's it, if you're trying to do anything resembling complexity you're looking at a nightmare. Try adding an edgeloop to a mesh or something, that takes forever.
Well then how about making a game where you're fighting America for a change? We get enough games where you fight the "evil commies" and even if you fight the Amis you're playing some "patriotic American" yourself and just fighting against the corrupt government.
Next thing we know you're going on about how all these PS2 games don't work on your IBM Personal System/2.
If you keep telling people about that soon NASA will be forced through a lawsuit to dangle a huge "Do not look into laser with remaining eye" warning sign from the satellite.
I think you mean French lawyers.
He said CO2 is a factor, not the only factor (discard the black and white thinking!). However in our current situation CO2 is the biggest factor for a rise in temperature.
Well, we all know decreases in piracy are the real reason for global warming because pirates are cool so less pirates means a warmer planet.
I know, I know, it's counter to the popular Religion of Man-Created-Climate-Change, but maybe, just MAYBE there's something else at work? I mean, the magnetic field, solar cycles, and lots of other things should be factored in there, too...
They are factored in. They aren't sufficient to explain the changes we are seeing.
Also we know that God created oil for us to burn, how else did it get there?
Oil is made when hell is through with a soul and throws it into the recycling bin. Which explains why there's so much oil beneath heathen soil.
I have and the proper response would have been "Perhaps he was dictating?".