He argues that a product is more functional if you can do more with it. Clearly the implication of benefit is for the users.
That's all fine and dandy, except that his reason for why OSS wins is that developers can do limitless things with the software! I'm sorry, but users don't give a damn if limitless development/developers could happen to a product. They want to use it now.
He almost touched upon my biggest issue with OSS when he mentioned that development is done to "satisfy a developer's itch." I agree with that, which is where the problem comes from. Feature bloat. Everyone wants to be the guy to add the coolest new gadget/widget/feature. Not too many people like fixing bugs/memory leaks. Likewise, I'd rather write my own code then peer-review your feature (which I never liked anyway).
It's the same old argument:
#1: OSS is better because if there's something wrong you can fix it. Unfortunately the average user can't. He's just as dependant on someone else - only this time they're anonymous.
#2 OSS is better because everyone can examine the code and make sure it's "up to par" in terms of security, efficiency, privacy etc. Unfortunately, you have to people with strange interests to scour those things for free.
He hasn't revealed any insight, except that he was frustrated by not getting his own features into his company's software.
It's not about distribution!! Let me say it again, it's NOT ABOUT DISTRIBUTION.
It's about *promotion*. Why is Britany Spears or whoever people downloaded like crazy on Napster? Because she's all you ever hear about!! Why *isn't* Joe-Schmoe's Garage band being downloaded like crazy? Because you've never heard of it. Odd.. they're both available in this tradition-smashing new internet distribution chanel we call Napster/mp3/gnutella/whatever.
A lot of these artists want to be compensated for their work - with MONEY *gasp*. That means they need to get and audience!
The question is - what is the better way to gain a following? Pay money to promote your music, and then charge ridiculous amounts for the music, or give your music for "micropayments", and hope you win a huge audience in a touchy-feely free-intellectual marketplace?
The record companies are pissed because their business model is the former, while pirates are trying to shove them into the latter (while not compensating them at all by the way).
If you don't like the way RIAA bands do business - then take your business elsewhere. End of story.
Analogy: If you don't like the way GM makes/promotes/sells cars, don't buy one. But if you try to undermine GMs business model - you deserve to be sued.
Well, in Canada they have a tax on CDRs as well...
What a crock. If they're going to tax media to cover the loss incurred from pir8s, then doesn't that make pirating okay? They get their money anyways? Maybe entertainment costs should just become part of income tax, and then we can all watch movies, and listen to music for Free! Then they should do the same to gas prices!
From each according to their abilities, to those according to their needs!!
I was commenting on the abundance of articles and quickies that get reposted - which seems to be generating quite a bit of discussion in general, and with this batch in particular.
Thanks for wasting your moderator points on me though.
That's the bottom line when it comes to music distribution. For the metaphorically impared, what I mean is this:
Aspirin is fantastic, I want it, as do many other people. As long as pharmacies offer aspirin at a reasonable price, quality, and convenience, I have no need to find a black-market drug dealer. By the same token, if you could buy pot at the drug store, why would you go to a dealer, or grow your own?
It's the same for music, except that the (music industry/record store etc.) doesn't carry cheap/good/convenient music - thus I'm forced, no, I'd rather go get it illegally.
That leads to two conclusions regarding piracy: - people will pirate music until: 1) They get better value from legal means 2) They are too many deterrents
Talal's best view was that the industry needs to add value to the digital music experience.
Someone please give us a method of intergrating services like this into napster (or any of it's various and independent derivitives). I would gladly throw the equivalent of virtual pocket change at whatever band strikes my fancy online. I will not be purchasing any more CD's ever.
I'm sure artists would be glad to know they're worth your pocket change.
Perhaps they should just sit by the subway station with a hat out?
Hmm, maybe that's the real definition of the "Street Performer Protocol"
First of all, I'm glad that no one has reported being ripped off yet.
But the idea of chamaeleons has always interested me. I remember back in grade 9 or something I wrote a cheesy QBasic program that mimicked the old Novell login screen (the one with the blue background and huge IBM in white blocks). It looked just like you were logging in, but then it would report some falsified network error and request that you try another machine.
Granted, initially it was running from my account, but after getting the first account saved in a handy-dandy text file, I ran it from there. I'm sure if we had better sys-admins they could've tracked me.. but oh well... I remember getting the typing-teachers password about 8 times in a row as they tried to figure out what the network error was!
I'd rather find a security breach in a MS product and have them release a patch, then to find a breach in some free software and be told "Fix it yourself - that's the beauty of it."
Companies love the fact that they can hold MS responsible for their products. (Accountable to the market, if not the EULA).
If I spilled coffee (even on purpose) on a library book, and then returned it to the shelf would I be:
a) altering the contents to promote coffee without the authors consent b) misrepresenting the author c) breaking copyright law d) adding to the value of the book for coffee-lovers? e) shaking from the caffeine and a little too worked up about this whole issue? (Kahuna)
Just yesterday everyone thought it was the fairest thing in the world for someone to take eBay's content, which was posted to a public forum, and manipulate it for display on their own site.
Now everyone is up in arms about Deja taking their comments, which were posted to a public forum, and manipulating them by linking in ads.
The issue is reselling. By gathering up eBay's content, and manipulating it to display on your own site, you are in violation of copyright.
If on the other hand, you simply "wrap" ebay's content with your own (i.e put ebay in a frame under your own site) that shouldn't apply, (a la public domain).
This seems to make the issue seem a lot more like the iCraveTV controvery. For those that don't remember, iCraveTV was re-broadcasting TV channels. Their argument was that the signals were PD, and they were not being changed.
It seems that these forms of meta-browsing would be analogous of re-broadcasting an edited TV signal (remove ads etc.)
Under this light, it doesn't seem quite like "Free advertising for eBay" anymore.
Driving big honkin' cars seems to be a North American problem. One thing that strikes me whenever I go to Europe is the match-box cars that they drive (Fiat, citroen, VW-rabbits:-)
We've been spoiled by cheap gas for too long, and we seem to have a car culture that calls for big luxury vehicles. Maybe this is because we drive further.
As far as fuel prices are concerned, think of them as a tax on polluters.
Would you buy a wrench that said "Works only on Ford"?
No, but I would buy a Ford that said: "Also lets you use those really cool new wrenches!" Which I think is a much better analogy. --Just cuz it's proprietary doesn't mean it's not innovation.
Slashdot Mirror
He argues that a product is more functional if you can do more with it. Clearly the implication of benefit is for the users.
That's all fine and dandy, except that his reason for why OSS wins is that developers can do limitless things with the software! I'm sorry, but users don't give a damn if limitless development/developers could happen to a product. They want to use it now.
He almost touched upon my biggest issue with OSS when he mentioned that development is done to "satisfy a developer's itch." I agree with that, which is where the problem comes from. Feature bloat. Everyone wants to be the guy to add the coolest new gadget/widget/feature. Not too many people like fixing bugs/memory leaks. Likewise, I'd rather write my own code then peer-review your feature (which I never liked anyway).
It's the same old argument:
#1: OSS is better because if there's something wrong you can fix it. Unfortunately the average user can't. He's just as dependant on someone else - only this time they're anonymous.
#2 OSS is better because everyone can examine the code and make sure it's "up to par" in terms of security, efficiency, privacy etc. Unfortunately, you have to people with strange interests to scour those things for free.
He hasn't revealed any insight, except that he was frustrated by not getting his own features into his company's software.
Cry me a river.
According to Mark Twain, a German-influenced programming language might look something like this:
...statements...
..statements..
whi {
} le (condition)
and
if x 5 {
} >=
I believe the controversial term is "free," which in this case I believe means "no cost."
I'm quite that this "belief" will not show up on any platform, regardless of what tech their website is using.
That's right, because if someone at MS doesn't have proper coding skills, it's all Windows' fault.
That's such crap.
It's not about distribution!! Let me say it again, it's NOT ABOUT DISTRIBUTION.
It's about *promotion*. Why is Britany Spears or whoever people downloaded like crazy on Napster? Because she's all you ever hear about!! Why *isn't* Joe-Schmoe's Garage band being downloaded like crazy? Because you've never heard of it. Odd.. they're both available in this tradition-smashing new internet distribution chanel we call Napster/mp3/gnutella/whatever.
A lot of these artists want to be compensated for their work - with MONEY *gasp*. That means they need to get and audience!
The question is - what is the better way to gain a following? Pay money to promote your music, and then charge ridiculous amounts for the music, or give your music for "micropayments", and hope you win a huge audience in a touchy-feely free-intellectual marketplace?
The record companies are pissed because their business model is the former, while pirates are trying to shove them into the latter (while not compensating them at all by the way).
If you don't like the way RIAA bands do business - then take your business elsewhere. End of story.
Analogy: If you don't like the way GM makes/promotes/sells cars, don't buy one. But if you try to undermine GMs business model - you deserve to be sued.
Well, in Canada they have a tax on CDRs as well...
What a crock. If they're going to tax media to cover the loss incurred from pir8s, then doesn't that make pirating okay? They get their money anyways? Maybe entertainment costs should just become part of income tax, and then we can all watch movies, and listen to music for Free! Then they should do the same to gas prices!
From each according to their abilities, to those according to their needs!!
</sarcasm>
It should have been called:
C~1
Offtopic? Hardly.
I was commenting on the abundance of articles and quickies that get reposted - which seems to be generating quite a bit of discussion in general, and with this batch in particular.
Thanks for wasting your moderator points on me though.
Drug dealers don't sell aspirin.
That's the bottom line when it comes to music distribution. For the metaphorically impared, what I mean is this:
Aspirin is fantastic, I want it, as do many other people. As long as pharmacies offer aspirin at a reasonable price, quality, and convenience, I have no need to find a black-market drug dealer. By the same token, if you could buy pot at the drug store, why would you go to a dealer, or grow your own?
It's the same for music, except that the (music industry/record store etc.) doesn't carry cheap/good/convenient music - thus I'm forced, no, I'd rather go get it illegally.
That leads to two conclusions regarding piracy:
- people will pirate music until:
1) They get better value from legal means
2) They are too many deterrents
Talal's best view was that the industry needs to add value to the digital music experience.
I don't see why not - they already have the auto-crash feature for every other web-site.
I just don't think there are enough of us to justify a standard for stereo-compression.
Stereo-pairs should only have to be ever-so-slightly bigger than a single image/video, since the 2nd is < insert big percentage > redundant.
Maybe we should bug the guys that make DepthCharge
Someone please give us a method of intergrating services like this into napster (or any of it's various and independent derivitives). I would gladly throw the equivalent of virtual pocket change at whatever band strikes my fancy online. I will not be purchasing any more CD's ever.
I'm sure artists would be glad to know they're worth your pocket change.
Perhaps they should just sit by the subway station with a hat out?
Hmm, maybe that's the real definition of the "Street Performer Protocol"
This thing looks really slick, emulating the Windows CE user interface quite closely.
/. community condoning, let alone forgiving someone for lack of innovation is quite laughable.
I know others have picked up on this. (even faster than they picked up on Taco's QT/Diablo2 double-standards)
But the
I guess we'll have to start calling it:
PE Bio$y$tem$
then develop a free gene sequencer..
It could be called Free-PE, or GNUPE.
I have 4 free PCI slots............
...and if you checked out the site you'd see that you can only put one in at a time.
First of all, I'm glad that no one has reported being ripped off yet.
:-)
But the idea of chamaeleons has always interested me. I remember back in grade 9 or something I wrote a cheesy QBasic program that mimicked the old Novell login screen (the one with the blue background and huge IBM in white blocks). It looked just like you were logging in, but then it would report some falsified network error and request that you try another machine.
Granted, initially it was running from my account, but after getting the first account saved in a handy-dandy text file, I ran it from there. I'm sure if we had better sys-admins they could've tracked me.. but oh well... I remember getting the typing-teachers password about 8 times in a row as they tried to figure out what the network error was!
Don't believe everything you (think you) see
(ONly barely On topic, I know)
I have a strong feeling that Peter isn't the only Penguin-lover that's having difficulty finding a mate.
What!?!?
I'd rather find a security breach in a MS product and have them release a patch, then to find a breach in some free software and be told "Fix it yourself - that's the beauty of it."
Companies love the fact that they can hold MS responsible for their products. (Accountable to the market, if not the EULA).
> I'll stick with ABC. World News Tonight is great, Nightline is excellent, and they're in league with Disney, not with the devil.
Disney is the devil
If I spilled coffee (even on purpose) on a library book, and then returned it to the shelf would I be:
a) altering the contents to promote coffee without the authors consent
b) misrepresenting the author
c) breaking copyright law
d) adding to the value of the book for coffee-lovers?
e) shaking from the caffeine and a little too worked up about this whole issue? (Kahuna)
I find this hilarious.
Just yesterday everyone thought it was the fairest thing in the world for someone to take eBay's content, which was posted to a public forum, and manipulate it for display on their own site.
Now everyone is up in arms about Deja taking their comments, which were posted to a public forum, and manipulating them by linking in ads.
This is just free advertising for your posts!
Geez...
Forget all these department store analogies.
The issue is reselling. By gathering up eBay's content, and manipulating it to display on your own site, you are in violation of copyright.
If on the other hand, you simply "wrap" ebay's content with your own (i.e put ebay in a frame under your own site) that shouldn't apply, (a la public domain).
This seems to make the issue seem a lot more like the iCraveTV controvery. For those that don't remember, iCraveTV was re-broadcasting TV channels. Their argument was that the signals were PD, and they were not being changed.
It seems that these forms of meta-browsing would be analogous of re-broadcasting an edited TV signal (remove ads etc.)
Under this light, it doesn't seem quite like "Free advertising for eBay" anymore.
Driving big honkin' cars seems to be a North American problem. One thing that strikes me whenever I go to Europe is the match-box cars that they drive (Fiat, citroen, VW-rabbits :-)
We've been spoiled by cheap gas for too long, and we seem to have a car culture that calls for big luxury vehicles. Maybe this is because we drive further.
As far as fuel prices are concerned, think of them as a tax on polluters.
C'mon now. Magneto couldn't have been the Hollywood bad guy! He didn't seem British at all...
Would you buy a wrench that said "Works only on Ford"?
No, but I would buy a Ford that said: "Also lets you use those really cool new wrenches!" Which I think is a much better analogy. --Just cuz it's proprietary doesn't mean it's not innovation.