Paying for something, being allowed to listen to it, not being allowed to keep it, and the person you got it from being allowed to change the rules for its further use*... Sounds, as far as I can tell, like renting. I wouldn't be interested in that, especially not at roughly the same price as I'd buy a cd**, I don't think too many others would either, and I guess someone figured that out and decided to call it "buying" anyway.
*No, it's not retroactive, unless you suddenly have to pay more for the time you've already used it, or something like that. The original deal can be that you can play the music on five computers, and then they change that to three so on two of the computers you've copied it to it doesn't work anymore, but that means that you can only play the music on three computers from now on. It doesn't mean that you never heard the song on those two computers.
**Which I stopped doing years ago anyway, when the price touched 30USD (in Norway), but hey...
Here (Norway), the cheapest chain I can think of sells cds at $25. I can't say that I know that's really the cheapest one, though, because I kicked the habit sometime in the late nineties when cds reached ~$30 (there are still some chains selling them at that price, I think) and haven't bought a cd since. 'Hey,' I thought, 'this thing costs almost two hundred bucks, and I don't even know if it's any good. And I'm not a store listening person. So nah.'
That's legally risky.
What I would like to do is to bring someone like this gentleman and have him eat the battery, but the following is cheaper (one ticket less). It will work best for I-have-to-take-work-calls-in-theatres-because-I'm- Special-and-we-might-miss-a-sale people, because they could lose business from it.
Bring a cd player, with speakers, and a recording of obvious and preferably disgusting toilet sounds. Play them loudly every time a call is accepted, so the person at the other end thinks they're talking to someone taking a poop.
The only thing the guy can do is say that they're in a movie theatre and there's a weirdo with toilet sounds on a cd player, and that sounds like a lie.
Alternatively, get the whole audience to join in on simulating a sweaty, hairy, grunting, eager sex session, and they're not taking a break although they're on the phone. If it's in the Bible Belt and you can make it sound like an all-male orgy, all the better.
And what happens when someone sends spam appearing to be from a competitors site, in order for them to be attacked?
That's fraud, or something. IANAL. I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea that a spammer gets convicted for fraudorsomething in return for inconveniencing a different spammer.
Also, why would this need to take a server down? Just keep sending emails at 10 second intervals. Not a big traffic peak, but a lot to wade through to get to the real orders.
Start punishing any business that advertises via spam and you'll set up straw companies and mailboxes in Bermuda and bank accounts in Tibet and quite a fancy money laundering scheme from which you'll pay for spamvertisements for all your competitors? Would the spam from all those competitors turn out to have been paid for by the same bank account, or would a separate scheme be set up for each competitor? Or would you pay in cash while wearing a false moustache or possibly a Donald Trump mask?
Michael Jackson was, I remember, voted best entertainer of the past thousand years. I'm sure most people are qualified to judge that one, and don't, like, just vote for someone they like right now or whatever.
Anyway, try it yourself. Ask random MS users to name a single piece of software that runs on linux. I'll predict that, with very few exceptions, most of them will be unable to come up with anything at all. They have never looked, and they never will.
I use MS, and I'm fairly random.
I probably don't know the name of any software that runs on Linux, no.* I'm sure they're there, though. If I used Linux, I'm sure I could find word processors, spreadsheets, calculators, media players, IM clients, FTP clients, notation programs, audio editing programs, graphics programs, a Livejournal client and so on. I'm also sure that if I went to Belgium I would be able to buy food there, even though I do not know the name of any Belgian shops at this time.
There are some specific titles I do want, though.
There's no World of Warcraft, at least yet. There's no Europa Universalis, Victoria, Baldur's Gate, Civ3 (or Civ2, IIRC), Knights of the Old Republic or, I think, Half-Life. You can, with fiddling and inconvenience, run Starcraft, but I'm supposed to start my car by turning the key. I'm not supposed to kick the exhaust pipe and prod the spark plugs, keep a close look on the engine while driving to make sure it doesn't suddenly drive me into a cliff, and when I stop turn the engine components off by hand.
For all I know, I can emulate Windows on Linux and run any Windows software I want. (Actually, that Starcraft thing was a Windows emulator, wasn't it...) My computer isn't as young as it was, say, six months ago, though, and slow enough as it is running these things on the OS they were written for.
*On second thought; OpenOffice, Opera, Neverwinter Nights.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be difficult to _avoid_ a headshot. Give me slow, lumbering, walking mosquitos any day...
*No, it's not retroactive, unless you suddenly have to pay more for the time you've already used it, or something like that. The original deal can be that you can play the music on five computers, and then they change that to three so on two of the computers you've copied it to it doesn't work anymore, but that means that you can only play the music on three computers from now on. It doesn't mean that you never heard the song on those two computers.
**Which I stopped doing years ago anyway, when the price touched 30USD (in Norway), but hey...
Here (Norway), the cheapest chain I can think of sells cds at $25. I can't say that I know that's really the cheapest one, though, because I kicked the habit sometime in the late nineties when cds reached ~$30 (there are still some chains selling them at that price, I think) and haven't bought a cd since. 'Hey,' I thought, 'this thing costs almost two hundred bucks, and I don't even know if it's any good. And I'm not a store listening person. So nah.'
Hence... "Software piracy"
Arr.
Bring a cd player, with speakers, and a recording of obvious and preferably disgusting toilet sounds. Play them loudly every time a call is accepted, so the person at the other end thinks they're talking to someone taking a poop. The only thing the guy can do is say that they're in a movie theatre and there's a weirdo with toilet sounds on a cd player, and that sounds like a lie.
Alternatively, get the whole audience to join in on simulating a sweaty, hairy, grunting, eager sex session, and they're not taking a break although they're on the phone. If it's in the Bible Belt and you can make it sound like an all-male orgy, all the better.
And what happens when someone sends spam appearing to be from a competitors site, in order for them to be attacked?
That's fraud, or something. IANAL. I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea that a spammer gets convicted for fraudorsomething in return for inconveniencing a different spammer.
Also, why would this need to take a server down? Just keep sending emails at 10 second intervals. Not a big traffic peak, but a lot to wade through to get to the real orders.
...And "Anonymous Coward" is better?
Careful, there. You nearly had us slashdot Slashdot.
How about lots and lots of fake spam offering pirated cds? Let the RIAA taste blood and go after them... =)
Start punishing any business that advertises via spam and you'll set up straw companies and mailboxes in Bermuda and bank accounts in Tibet and quite a fancy money laundering scheme from which you'll pay for spamvertisements for all your competitors? Would the spam from all those competitors turn out to have been paid for by the same bank account, or would a separate scheme be set up for each competitor? Or would you pay in cash while wearing a false moustache or possibly a Donald Trump mask?
Detectable over GPS? Oh my.
Michael Jackson was, I remember, voted best entertainer of the past thousand years. I'm sure most people are qualified to judge that one, and don't, like, just vote for someone they like right now or whatever.
Join!
IJGMC...
You're not telling me that the Wisconsin Elephant Exchange has gone down? Drat.
I use MS, and I'm fairly random.
I probably don't know the name of any software that runs on Linux, no.* I'm sure they're there, though. If I used Linux, I'm sure I could find word processors, spreadsheets, calculators, media players, IM clients, FTP clients, notation programs, audio editing programs, graphics programs, a Livejournal client and so on. I'm also sure that if I went to Belgium I would be able to buy food there, even though I do not know the name of any Belgian shops at this time.
There are some specific titles I do want, though. There's no World of Warcraft, at least yet. There's no Europa Universalis, Victoria, Baldur's Gate, Civ3 (or Civ2, IIRC), Knights of the Old Republic or, I think, Half-Life. You can, with fiddling and inconvenience, run Starcraft, but I'm supposed to start my car by turning the key. I'm not supposed to kick the exhaust pipe and prod the spark plugs, keep a close look on the engine while driving to make sure it doesn't suddenly drive me into a cliff, and when I stop turn the engine components off by hand.
For all I know, I can emulate Windows on Linux and run any Windows software I want. (Actually, that Starcraft thing was a Windows emulator, wasn't it...) My computer isn't as young as it was, say, six months ago, though, and slow enough as it is running these things on the OS they were written for.
*On second thought; OpenOffice, Opera, Neverwinter Nights.