My problem with iTunes files is that movie-editing software doesn't accept them. Maybe iMovie does, but I use Adobe Premiere. Mp3's can be converted to wavs and vice versa, but anything I buy off iTunes (wma's suck too) can't be used. Thus, there are other uses for music than listening to them.
My first thought was similar... Well you should have just made sure you got the LOGIN and PASSWORD of the account. That's what I did when I bought my copy off of a friend of mine. You aren't paying for the key when you buy a used MMORPG you are paying for the account and who gives a @#$% if it violates Blizzard's EULA, because they are NOT going to care as long as they get their $20 a month somehow, from someone using that account! End of story.
My cousin sold his Ultima Online account over ebay without a hitch, so at first I thought this seemed kind of stupid. After reading the responses to the parent, though, I see that there is a problem with this system, at least from the purchaser of a used game.
Assuming this was purchased from an established store like Gamestop, it would be in the store's best interest to get this resolved; find the seller or refund the purchase. A permanent solution, however, will be difficult to find.
Unfortunately for would be used-WoW-buyers, nothing will change unless Blizzard decides to change the account system, which would be expensive. More importantly, should Blizzard want people to resell copies of games?
In the short run, no. Every copy of WoW resold represents a lost sale for Blizzard. Sounds familiar? It should. That's the mantra of record executives who blame file sharing for the drop in sales.
The record companies may be overzealous in their quest to purge the world of music piracy, but the concept applies much better to Mmorpg's.
What we need to remember is that Blizzard is counting on two types of revenue. The first is from people who buy the game. They're swept up by the women with big tits on the box cover, game magazine reviews, etc. The second type of revenue is the account revenue, which directly correlates to user satisfaction.
Bringing back the music industry analogy...there are two important counter-arguments to the music industry's claims.
1.) Filesharing helps increase sales of music by exposing listeners to more music.
2.) People wouldn't download the music they do if it weren't free, so the loss in sales is imaginary.
In the long run, reselling a game will increase revenue from accounts. If the used buyer likes the game, he may play it forever, bringing in more revenue than a player who buys the game and doesn't even get an account. This is like the "filesharing helps music sales" argument.
Also, people who would buy a used copy of the game wouldn't necessarily buy the game at retail price. But buying a game is a greater economic decision than buying a music cd, so we can assume that a few people would buy the game if used copies aren't available.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Blizzard's business model. How much of their revenue comes from sales of the game vs. account subscription? How many subscribers do they have and for how long do they expect to keep theses subscribers. What is the cost of making a retail copy vs. having a subscriber? We don't know, but how they handle this situation might be telling.
Long before the DMCA was passed, video game companies were suing people for modding their games. They were right to do so, because these people were often affecting sales. That said, Ms. Pac Man was created for Nintendo by "hackers" and was far more successful than the original Pac Man.
From a business perspective, cheats and exploits that affect purchases should be stopped. If I go on counterstrike and some fag is wallhacking and cheating, I might decide I don't want to play this game any more. I'm not going to buy the sequels or other titles from this company. I don't think that "this might ultimately affect the legality of cheat devices" because those can only increase sales, (and have already been the subject of unsuccessful and expensive litigation) but the sharing of exploits is probably under scrutiny.
So by your logic, if somebody leave's their car unlocked it's legal for me to steal it? After all they should of 'properly configured' the locks.
I'm on your side, but a better analogy would be to take the car for a ride. Still not a good analogy though, because I could be using my internet while some fag was outside using it. It would be slower, but still usable. Unless they reconfigured it so that I couldn't use it at all. That might be like stealing my car, or maybe changing the locks to my house....who does that?
If he is smart he bought as many of these hot items as he could and would be selling them on Ebay for a profit. Or holding some back for people that would pay him more.
Most likely, the guy "buying" the PSPs for Best Buy doesn't "own" them, and he would get fired if he sold them on Ebay. If he held back so people would pay more, that would reflect badly on the whole Best Buy chain. It's called profiteering, and big corporations don't need to do it to make their money.
Spammers are like door to door salesmen of 20th century. In the beginning, people treated them politely and bought their goods. But after they started to get annoying, people started to like them less and less. There are still door to door salesmen, but not as many as there used to be; at some point, their profitablity vs. abundance graph plateaued. Putting a lock on your door will stop a door to door salesmen only if you keep the door locked. The real trick is to not buy whatever garbage they're selling.
Haven't you seen those advertisements on TV for "Scent Stories"?
Please daddy, I want to smell the story where you were stuck in an elevator again. You know, the one where you were with a group of fat people who had just eaten Indian food....
How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:4, Funny)
Get a firewall, block all inbound and outbound traffic, unplug your ethernet cable and shut off your computer. It's that easy to protect yourself.
Re:How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
I think you can probably even skip the first couple steps.
Re:How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward
True, but having the additional steps is what makes it a +5 funny post. "Unplug your ethernet cable" would probably be modded troll.
This is a perfect example of why modding is a bad idea. The first person wrote a joke. The second person did not get the joke, and treated it with a serious answer in the form of a joke.
After the final post, somebody modded the first post down, and the response post to +5. Kind of ironic.
Luke: Looks like I'm going nowhere... I have to go finish cleaning those 'droids.
Aunt Beru: [after Luke leaves] Owen, he can't stay here forever, most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him.
Uncle Owen: Well, I'll make it up to him next year, I promise. By the way, I signed us all up for boring dialogue class. You think he'd like to come?
Aunt Beru: What makes you think he'd like a boring dialogue class? Maybe you want to go, but I sure don't, and Luke's got enough cheesy dialogue as it is. The last thing he needs is boring dialogue.
Uncle Owen: That's what I'm afraid of.
Aunt Beru: What?
Uncle Owen: Huh?
Aunt Beru: You said you were afraid of something.
Uncle Owen: I don't remember what we were talking about. These memory pills don't work for shit.
Aunt Beru: That's because they're not memory pills. The first one was viagra. The second was ecstasy.
Uncle Owen: Oh, I just thought it hurt because it's old and diseased.
Aunt Beru: Want to make a sex tape in nightvision?
I liked the Super Mario Brothers movie, and that's something I have to live with.
But a nintendo studio could have more uses than making crappy movies. For example, they could make crappy cutscenes for crappy videogames. And they could make their own crappy commercials that make their crappy videogames seem better than they really are.
Despite the uses, it will probably be managed poorly, and become a huge money pit.
I don't really care about the service itself, but I find it funny that someone can simply say, "hey, there's this service you can use, a couple news sites liked it, and I like it, you should like it too" and it gets accepted.
Sometimes it would actually be better if more people did this instead of writing their own crappy reviews. "As a computer programmer I found the Da Vinci code to be very fast paced and exciting...plus no mention of Microsoft!"
But this site is meant to put a tech spin on everyday news, not give you links to the "Christian" spin on tech news.
Slashdot Mirror
My problem with iTunes files is that movie-editing software doesn't accept them. Maybe iMovie does, but I use Adobe Premiere. Mp3's can be converted to wavs and vice versa, but anything I buy off iTunes (wma's suck too) can't be used. Thus, there are other uses for music than listening to them.
My first thought was similar...
Well you should have just made sure you got the LOGIN and PASSWORD of the account. That's what I did when I bought my copy off of a friend of mine. You aren't paying for the key when you buy a used MMORPG you are paying for the account and who gives a @#$% if it violates Blizzard's EULA, because they are NOT going to care as long as they get their $20 a month somehow, from someone using that account! End of story.
My cousin sold his Ultima Online account over ebay without a hitch, so at first I thought this seemed kind of stupid. After reading the responses to the parent, though, I see that there is a problem with this system, at least from the purchaser of a used game.
Assuming this was purchased from an established store like Gamestop, it would be in the store's best interest to get this resolved; find the seller or refund the purchase. A permanent solution, however, will be difficult to find.
Unfortunately for would be used-WoW-buyers, nothing will change unless Blizzard decides to change the account system, which would be expensive. More importantly, should Blizzard want people to resell copies of games?
In the short run, no. Every copy of WoW resold represents a lost sale for Blizzard. Sounds familiar? It should. That's the mantra of record executives who blame file sharing for the drop in sales.
The record companies may be overzealous in their quest to purge the world of music piracy, but the concept applies much better to Mmorpg's.
What we need to remember is that Blizzard is counting on two types of revenue. The first is from people who buy the game. They're swept up by the women with big tits on the box cover, game magazine reviews, etc. The second type of revenue is the account revenue, which directly correlates to user satisfaction.
Bringing back the music industry analogy...there are two important counter-arguments to the music industry's claims.
1.) Filesharing helps increase sales of music by exposing listeners to more music.
2.) People wouldn't download the music they do if it weren't free, so the loss in sales is imaginary.
In the long run, reselling a game will increase revenue from accounts. If the used buyer likes the game, he may play it forever, bringing in more revenue than a player who buys the game and doesn't even get an account. This is like the "filesharing helps music sales" argument.
Also, people who would buy a used copy of the game wouldn't necessarily buy the game at retail price. But buying a game is a greater economic decision than buying a music cd, so we can assume that a few people would buy the game if used copies aren't available.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Blizzard's business model. How much of their revenue comes from sales of the game vs. account subscription? How many subscribers do they have and for how long do they expect to keep theses subscribers. What is the cost of making a retail copy vs. having a subscriber? We don't know, but how they handle this situation might be telling.
There is the option to buy tracks and keep the forever just like iTunes.
aside from listening to them and putting them on ipods, itunes files are pretty worthless.
"supposed to remind you of the vigors of life"
Grass does not grow for you to cut it.
Long before the DMCA was passed, video game companies were suing people for modding their games. They were right to do so, because these people were often affecting sales. That said, Ms. Pac Man was created for Nintendo by "hackers" and was far more successful than the original Pac Man.
From a business perspective, cheats and exploits that affect purchases should be stopped. If I go on counterstrike and some fag is wallhacking and cheating, I might decide I don't want to play this game any more. I'm not going to buy the sequels or other titles from this company. I don't think that "this might ultimately affect the legality of cheat devices" because those can only increase sales, (and have already been the subject of unsuccessful and expensive litigation) but the sharing of exploits is probably under scrutiny.
At first I thought it was going to be a play-by-play of some terrorist organization that took over a train station for a while. Sweet.
Then I thought it was the story of a hacker who was so good he accidentally hacked into a track control and realized he had great power.
Then I found out what it really was about...
Lame-O
I'll take Bill Gates chicken scratches over this any day.
and I'm not sure many "kids" can afford to purchase their own DS unless of course a parent is willing to dish out the money to keep them quiet.
You don't have children, do you?
So by your logic, if somebody leave's their car unlocked it's legal for me to steal it? After all they should of 'properly configured' the locks.
I'm on your side, but a better analogy would be to take the car for a ride. Still not a good analogy though, because I could be using my internet while some fag was outside using it. It would be slower, but still usable. Unless they reconfigured it so that I couldn't use it at all. That might be like stealing my car, or maybe changing the locks to my house....who does that?
If he is smart he bought as many of these hot items as he could and would be selling them on Ebay for a profit. Or holding some back for people that would pay him more.
Most likely, the guy "buying" the PSPs for Best Buy doesn't "own" them, and he would get fired if he sold them on Ebay. If he held back so people would pay more, that would reflect badly on the whole Best Buy chain. It's called profiteering, and big corporations don't need to do it to make their money.
Right on. The NYT reporter might have a brain, but the person who titled this article obviously isn't too bright.
I would have said that, but my karma is terrible and nobody listens to me anymore.
Spammers are like door to door salesmen of 20th century. In the beginning, people treated them politely and bought their goods. But after they started to get annoying, people started to like them less and less. There are still door to door salesmen, but not as many as there used to be; at some point, their profitablity vs. abundance graph plateaued. Putting a lock on your door will stop a door to door salesmen only if you keep the door locked. The real trick is to not buy whatever garbage they're selling.
You can have the biggest library in the world, but it won't last forever.
a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandri
Don't you mean Guido?
they're called media centers, and someday they'll be mainstream
Haven't you seen those advertisements on TV for "Scent Stories"?
Please daddy, I want to smell the story where you were stuck in an elevator again. You know, the one where you were with a group of fat people who had just eaten Indian food....
How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:4, Funny)
Get a firewall, block all inbound and outbound traffic, unplug your ethernet cable and shut off your computer. It's that easy to protect yourself.
Re:How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:5, Funny)
I think you can probably even skip the first couple steps.
Re:How many times do I have to tell you? (Score:1, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward
True, but having the additional steps is what makes it a +5 funny post. "Unplug your ethernet cable" would probably be modded troll.
This is a perfect example of why modding is a bad idea. The first person wrote a joke. The second person did not get the joke, and treated it with a serious answer in the form of a joke.
After the final post, somebody modded the first post down, and the response post to +5. Kind of ironic.
Well done, mods.
Also, adding Paris Hilton as a spokesperson couldn't hurt...unless the whore market goes into recession again.
7) Ben Affleck's career
Aunt Beru: Where are you going?
Luke: Looks like I'm going nowhere... I have to
go finish cleaning those 'droids.
Aunt Beru: [after Luke leaves] Owen, he can't stay here forever, most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him.
Uncle Owen: Well, I'll make it up to him next year, I promise. By the way, I signed us all up for boring dialogue class. You think he'd like to come?
Aunt Beru: What makes you think he'd like a boring dialogue class? Maybe you want to go, but I sure don't, and Luke's got enough cheesy dialogue as it is. The last thing he needs is boring dialogue.
Uncle Owen: That's what I'm afraid of.
Aunt Beru: What?
Uncle Owen: Huh?
Aunt Beru: You said you were afraid of something.
Uncle Owen: I don't remember what we were talking about. These memory pills don't work for shit.
Aunt Beru: That's because they're not memory pills. The first one was viagra. The second was ecstasy.
Uncle Owen: Oh, I just thought it hurt because it's old and diseased.
Aunt Beru: Want to make a sex tape in nightvision?
Uncle Owen: Okay. But I get the Jawa first.
I don't really use my phone at all, and I hardly use my cell phone.
I liked the Super Mario Brothers movie, and that's something I have to live with.
But a nintendo studio could have more uses than making crappy movies. For example, they could make crappy cutscenes for crappy videogames. And they could make their own crappy commercials that make their crappy videogames seem better than they really are.
Despite the uses, it will probably be managed poorly, and become a huge money pit.
I don't really care about the service itself, but I find it funny that someone can simply say, "hey, there's this service you can use, a couple news sites liked it, and I like it, you should like it too" and it gets accepted.
Sometimes it would actually be better if more people did this instead of writing their own crappy reviews. "As a computer programmer I found the Da Vinci code to be very fast paced and exciting...plus no mention of Microsoft!"
But this site is meant to put a tech spin on everyday news, not give you links to the "Christian" spin on tech news.
I'll never be happy until you change the phrasing...
In tech savvy Japan, conversing with robots is for the elderly.
It's like those billboards that tell you that "God is Protecting You". It only reaches those who want to be reached.
But it doesn't reach people in prison, and they certainly want to be reached.
I dare you to assassinate a corporate puppet.