Yes, it is what is allowing the download (indirectly). the presence of the DRM gives Steam enough justification to get permission from the copyright holders to permit the downloads. Without the DRM the companies would say no.
I download audiobooks from a site under contract with our public library system. They're mostly DRM'd WMA. Each file is one 70min disc in length. I prefer 3-5 minute tracks for the times I accidentally bump the advance button on my cheap player. The player could handle the DRM'd WMA appropriately, syncing through WMP and all. But, being spoken word, I also would like to resample and shrink the files so I can load more on the player at one time.
So, I wrote a script (erm, batch file) to use FairUse4Wm to strip the DRM, use mmconvert to switch them to MP3, re-encode at near minimum quality level MP3, then use MP3Splt to divide them up into tracks of the length I want. After I download the books, I just run the script on the download folder, come back later and the day and upload them to the player. I have a modified script for MP3's I download from LibriVox.org, where I obviously get to skip the DRM stripping.
Now, sure I could take those files and share them via P2P. But I don't. I have a cheap old PC with small harddrive and delete the things when I'm done listening to them. Some books permit burning to CD and keeping for perpetuity. I don't do that either. What I do is make the files more convenient for my own use, on a media platform where I'm already permitted by license to put the media. BUT, I'm circumventing DRM. I could claim fair use which may hold here, but right now I need the FairUse4WM tool which is illegally distributed as a circumvention tool. Sure, I could code my own version of the tool, but that would in all liklihood fail miserably.
DRM restrictions prevent me from using media legally obtained in a way that is convenient to me. That provides an incentive for me to pursue legally questionable means to circumvent that inconvenience.
actually it is. if you don't remember the command for whatever, you're screwed. Or you have to search for it. With a GUI you have visual cues and get to use the sense that humans have become most accustomed to using when searching (sight). Eventually, you may have to resort to a Google search, but at least you have a chance of finding it before firing off your 'how the hell do i X' search string.
wow. what's worse. that they flubbed this attempt at landing the female demographic, or that the chief marketing officer for Dell, responsible for "dell.com, brand strategy, core research and analytics, and overall marketing agency management" is a woman and flubbed the attempt at landing the female demographic in the way they did?
Do titles without TTS functionality make it unmistakably clear prior to purchase? What if you bought one where it worked, then one day it stopped working (i.e., the Random House remote disabling), thus devaluing your product after payment based on expectation of function?
They are essentially devaluing your product in a way that was deceptive if they did not make such behavior clear up front. That would seem to warrant some sort of consumer recourse. (money back for any disabled book, etc.) Obviously you should be able to get your money back for any book you buy from now on that was not clearly labeled as 'non-TTS' but was in fact so flagged.
just make sure to keep it in the same folder as the 'mother's maiden name', 'birth city', and 'make and model of first car' files. Wouldn't want to have to hunt for those.
not banned at work. good for moving data filed from acquisition equipment to networked PC's now that USB mass storage is policy-banned. doesn't create a pile of used CD-Rs for small files (because I invariably forget to uncheck 'finalize CD' one time through or another) and isn't as awfully slow as CDRW.
yeah, I always thought that was kind of interesting about Greek mythology. the afterlife just SUCKED. I mean, isn't the whole point of a religion promising an afterlife to give the plebes something to look forward to while they slave away for their rich masters and religious leaders?
you won't be read by 1% of the internet. maybe....0001%? if you're good.
Look at the Stephanie Myers (Twilight) effect. She's not exactly a great writer (Stephen King called her out for being a hack) but she's laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure there are some amazing writers out there who I will never learn about. It's all luck of the draw.
last I checked, fuel cells can run off of things other than pure hydrogen. Methanol comes to mind. People are looking at diesel (military at JP8) but sulfur is the big killer there. New low sulfur diesel may just be ok in a fuel cell. Either way, the idea that you need compressed hydrogen is a bit off.
Clean coal = using coal with less mess. It ain't a zero emissions vehicle, but it sure is better than the alternative. The US has tons of coal. We're going to burn it. At least with some R&D we may get new plants that put a lot less crap in the air than current coal plants.
I live near Baltimore and work near DC. The perfect mass commuting opportunity? Not bad, but not quite.
My neighbor works in downtown DC. He drives to BWI station (5-10min tops), picks up the MARC train to Union Station (40min), transfers to a metro (10min), and walks from the station to his office (5 min) . Works really well. door to desk ~1hr. driving/parking would be insane for costs as well as getting in and around.
I work outside the DC beltway. right now, door to door is about 35-40min there, 45-60min home. The last mile is the kicker. I'd walk to a nearby bus station, and after 3 transfers, get to within a block from work after ~2-2.5hrs. Also, trying to find the best way to get there seems hit or miss. web sites give you tables, but right now if i say 'from A to B by 8am', the MTA site sends you to Google maps' public transit search. told me it would take 4.5 hours to get from BWI to work. Has me bus north into baltimore first. why? google doesn't include the WMATA informaition that would get me into BWI, train to greenbelt, then bus to near work. (MTA site wants me to believe that's a 9hr trip via Baltimore, too.) that bus ride should be 10 min, but it involves DC beltway, so could be 30 minutes.
So, if you're ending in the city, i think it can work. but if it doesn't, not having that car to get you to your final destination can make it tough. And people need an easy way to find out the best mass transit option for them. The last mile problem doesn't seem to be limited to telecom.
I'm waiting for the Microsoft Knowledgebase article explaining the incompatibility and showing you how to fix the problem by using the Save As function and selecting the.XLSX type.
I agree. I can't count the number of times I peek at my facebook homepage and see someone mention that they're looking for something, wondering how something works, or where to get more information about something. If I was at work, trying to do a tech review on a particular subject, and I could 'update my active status' to say 'anyone out there familiar with X?' and actually get a set of valid responses, it would make my job easier. if there was a way for me to see other people's queries, I'd probably take time to comment. (tapping into that same energy pool that has me commenting here.) The key would be getting the right group of people using the tool. The same question posted above would be useless with my Facebook friends. Maybe less useless for linkedin, but most people I know there don't keep that site up for status notifications. twitter's just never taken off with people I deal with, even though facebook's getting closer and closer to that functionality. I could see similar benefit for linux. post a status message "ack... what the heck's an ndiswrapper? links please?" and maybe get a response faster than googling.
When outrage over outsourcing started grabbing front page headlines, it was frequently mentioned that the U.S. no longer actually produces anything, and that its chief output was 'intellectual property'. So why is anyone surprised that the government has frequently been catering to the whims of the IP industries? DMCA for starters. Current administration proposing secret ACTA treaties to promote copyright. Congress failing to impose limits on patents, define fair use, etc.
Psssst... most think tanks are funded by someone to do 'research' to promote a particular agenda. You think it coincidence that this scare story came out right when the public is starting to get an inkling of a notion about metered internet service?
Slashdot Mirror
no no no... sharing is only okay when the information is of value to someone else
Yes, it is what is allowing the download (indirectly). the presence of the DRM gives Steam enough justification to get permission from the copyright holders to permit the downloads. Without the DRM the companies would say no.
you still think that was an accident? Everyone who logged in that day has had their 'unique id' logged and is now on the Epic Games watchlist.
I download audiobooks from a site under contract with our public library system. They're mostly DRM'd WMA. Each file is one 70min disc in length. I prefer 3-5 minute tracks for the times I accidentally bump the advance button on my cheap player. The player could handle the DRM'd WMA appropriately, syncing through WMP and all. But, being spoken word, I also would like to resample and shrink the files so I can load more on the player at one time.
So, I wrote a script (erm, batch file) to use FairUse4Wm to strip the DRM, use mmconvert to switch them to MP3, re-encode at near minimum quality level MP3, then use MP3Splt to divide them up into tracks of the length I want. After I download the books, I just run the script on the download folder, come back later and the day and upload them to the player. I have a modified script for MP3's I download from LibriVox.org, where I obviously get to skip the DRM stripping.
Now, sure I could take those files and share them via P2P. But I don't. I have a cheap old PC with small harddrive and delete the things when I'm done listening to them. Some books permit burning to CD and keeping for perpetuity. I don't do that either. What I do is make the files more convenient for my own use, on a media platform where I'm already permitted by license to put the media. BUT, I'm circumventing DRM. I could claim fair use which may hold here, but right now I need the FairUse4WM tool which is illegally distributed as a circumvention tool. Sure, I could code my own version of the tool, but that would in all liklihood fail miserably.
DRM restrictions prevent me from using media legally obtained in a way that is convenient to me. That provides an incentive for me to pursue legally questionable means to circumvent that inconvenience.
no, the theory was right. in practice, it failed.
the cake is a lie!
actually it is. if you don't remember the command for whatever, you're screwed. Or you have to search for it. With a GUI you have visual cues and get to use the sense that humans have become most accustomed to using when searching (sight). Eventually, you may have to resort to a Google search, but at least you have a chance of finding it before firing off your 'how the hell do i X' search string.
wow. what's worse. that they flubbed this attempt at landing the female demographic, or that the chief marketing officer for Dell, responsible for "dell.com, brand strategy, core research and analytics, and overall marketing agency management" is a woman and flubbed the attempt at landing the female demographic in the way they did?
no, she really doesn't mind.
Do titles without TTS functionality make it unmistakably clear prior to purchase? What if you bought one where it worked, then one day it stopped working (i.e., the Random House remote disabling), thus devaluing your product after payment based on expectation of function?
They are essentially devaluing your product in a way that was deceptive if they did not make such behavior clear up front. That would seem to warrant some sort of consumer recourse. (money back for any disabled book, etc.) Obviously you should be able to get your money back for any book you buy from now on that was not clearly labeled as 'non-TTS' but was in fact so flagged.
just make sure to keep it in the same folder as the 'mother's maiden name', 'birth city', and 'make and model of first car' files. Wouldn't want to have to hunt for those.
not banned at work. good for moving data filed from acquisition equipment to networked PC's now that USB mass storage is policy-banned. doesn't create a pile of used CD-Rs for small files (because I invariably forget to uncheck 'finalize CD' one time through or another) and isn't as awfully slow as CDRW.
yeah, I always thought that was kind of interesting about Greek mythology. the afterlife just SUCKED. I mean, isn't the whole point of a religion promising an afterlife to give the plebes something to look forward to while they slave away for their rich masters and religious leaders?
you won't be read by 1% of the internet. maybe... .0001%? if you're good.
Look at the Stephanie Myers (Twilight) effect. She's not exactly a great writer (Stephen King called her out for being a hack) but she's laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure there are some amazing writers out there who I will never learn about. It's all luck of the draw.
last I checked, fuel cells can run off of things other than pure hydrogen. Methanol comes to mind. People are looking at diesel (military at JP8) but sulfur is the big killer there. New low sulfur diesel may just be ok in a fuel cell. Either way, the idea that you need compressed hydrogen is a bit off.
Clean coal = using coal with less mess. It ain't a zero emissions vehicle, but it sure is better than the alternative. The US has tons of coal. We're going to burn it. At least with some R&D we may get new plants that put a lot less crap in the air than current coal plants.
I live near Baltimore and work near DC. The perfect mass commuting opportunity? Not bad, but not quite.
My neighbor works in downtown DC. He drives to BWI station (5-10min tops), picks up the MARC train to Union Station (40min), transfers to a metro (10min), and walks from the station to his office (5 min) . Works really well. door to desk ~1hr. driving/parking would be insane for costs as well as getting in and around.
I work outside the DC beltway. right now, door to door is about 35-40min there, 45-60min home. The last mile is the kicker. I'd walk to a nearby bus station, and after 3 transfers, get to within a block from work after ~2-2.5hrs. Also, trying to find the best way to get there seems hit or miss. web sites give you tables, but right now if i say 'from A to B by 8am', the MTA site sends you to Google maps' public transit search. told me it would take 4.5 hours to get from BWI to work. Has me bus north into baltimore first. why? google doesn't include the WMATA informaition that would get me into BWI, train to greenbelt, then bus to near work. (MTA site wants me to believe that's a 9hr trip via Baltimore, too.) that bus ride should be 10 min, but it involves DC beltway, so could be 30 minutes.
So, if you're ending in the city, i think it can work. but if it doesn't, not having that car to get you to your final destination can make it tough. And people need an easy way to find out the best mass transit option for them. The last mile problem doesn't seem to be limited to telecom.
"and expect her to understand why they are important."
I think we just learned where the real problem lies.
I'm waiting for the Microsoft Knowledgebase article explaining the incompatibility and showing you how to fix the problem by using the Save As function and selecting the .XLSX type.
where are my mod points when I need them.
Is there prior art for Pryor's art? (what is the first document case of Salami Slicing)?
Listerine?
I agree. I can't count the number of times I peek at my facebook homepage and see someone mention that they're looking for something, wondering how something works, or where to get more information about something. If I was at work, trying to do a tech review on a particular subject, and I could 'update my active status' to say 'anyone out there familiar with X?' and actually get a set of valid responses, it would make my job easier. if there was a way for me to see other people's queries, I'd probably take time to comment. (tapping into that same energy pool that has me commenting here.) The key would be getting the right group of people using the tool. The same question posted above would be useless with my Facebook friends. Maybe less useless for linkedin, but most people I know there don't keep that site up for status notifications. twitter's just never taken off with people I deal with, even though facebook's getting closer and closer to that functionality. I could see similar benefit for linux. post a status message "ack... what the heck's an ndiswrapper? links please?" and maybe get a response faster than googling.
IP abuse, it's all we got left.
Psssst... most think tanks are funded by someone to do 'research' to promote a particular agenda. You think it coincidence that this scare story came out right when the public is starting to get an inkling of a notion about metered internet service?