If you're traveling in an enclosed tunnel, even a virtual one, how much air is there in front of you that you have to push? Is it finite or does it just keep on increasing as you travel forward? How much inertia does all that air have? Now consider that behind you, there's a similar volume of air that you need to pull along
And if you made the tunnel long enough to wrap right round the earth, the air you push in front would go right round the tube and push the train from from behind. You could switch the engine off and just coast and it would keep going forever!
If it were much more difficult to produce food, you couldn't have this type of society, because nobody would be able to have enough extra food to just give to people for playing games.
Or to adjudicate in disputes, communicate with god(s), keep those nutters from the next village away from our goats...
Thanks, but I think most of us have worked out that the agrigultural revolution had some far-reaching consequences.
A friend and I have distilled a great deal of liquor
Yes, it shows. Did you read the link? If you know what the foreshot is (and what to do with it) then you fall into the category of knowing what you're doing.
But since you didn't mention that, and by your smug and ungrammatical comment, it appears that you know just enough to be dangerous.
For all the handwaving and buzzwords in the application, it converts code written in language foo into language bar. That's a compiler. Now if they want to patent (copyright's possibly more appropriate?) their specific individual implementation of a compiler, then let them get on with it. If they want to patent compilers as a concept they can stuff it and I don't think they have a hope.
Your other examples are all for markets which are not dominated by an oligopoly of five behemoths.
Since similar things have happened in markets that had little or nothing to do with copyright (cement and oil spring to mind) I'd say the problem is more likely due to lack of competition.
There is no begrudging them payout for the work they put in to the creation
What's that mean? They should be paid by the hour at predetermined rate? Sounds suspiciously Marxist to me.
distribution is not creation.
Never said it was.
If all other possible alternative incentive systems are more egalitarian and don't create any one-hit billionaires, then that's the price society has to pay.
And petty insults are more at the level of elementary school.
I know you are but what am I?
Turnitin is making money off the student's labor without any recompense.
If I win a bet on a football game, do I owe the team a cut? If I'm one of the data points an actuary uses to calculate insurance rates, does he owe me anything? And before anyone responds that those aren't cvopytright cases, neither is this. In fact the second is pretty close, if you think about it.
Neither the observation that term papers are non-rivalrous goods, nor a claim of necessity makes this practice either moral or lawful.
I never said it did. What it does is to shoot your wallet stealing analogy down in flames.
Cobalt is a commodity, how much use would that be marooned on an island?
Nice try. Cotton is a commodity, but you can't eat it. Pork bellies are a commodity, but you can't make a shirt of them (you could try...).
Could it be that commodities are inherently useful other than as a medium of exchange to get something else, but only for specific purposes? I think it could.
If you take money out of my wallet, I don't have the money any more; if Turnitin have a copy of your essay they haven't deprived you of anything.
Are you one of the students behind the lawsuit? Your logic is certainly the level I'd expect at a highschool debating club.
Copyright encourages artists to speculate: to work hard for little or no pay, with no guaranteed sales, in the hope of winning big after the fact.
Is that a bad thing? Isn't that what inventors do? Or people who found businesses? Or people who go through long programs of education or training?
This is necessary if you believe that it's really important for a "one hit wonder" to be able to retire, and live the rest of their life on their short period of creative genius.
If that one hit really is so big - like it's the best book in the whole world ever and everyone is willing to sell a kidney to buy one - then politics of envy aside, what's your motivation for begrudging the author a handsome payout? Surely if a billion people are willing to pay ten bucks for it, it's contributing more to the sum of human happiness than if a hundred think it's worh a fiver?
Plumbers don't collect royalties in perpetuity on my pipes, and I don't see them complaining that they can't make a living.
If a plumber could be in two places at once and/or pipework lasted forever, that would probably change. But really, you're comparing apples and oranges here. One is predictable and tangible, the other open ended and intangible. I can write a statement of work for a plumbing job, but I couldn't do that in any meaningful way for a novel (and I wouldn't want to read it anyway since I'd know the ending).
Nothing in copyright law prevents the service from checking their papers against others for plagiarism. But it does (or should) prevent the service from STORING copies
If it doesn't store big brother Bill's term paper from 2006, how is it going to be able to compare it to his little brother Larry's in 2010?
Perhaps Fidel could switch the land that produces his cigar tobacco over to food production? Anyone know offhand what the opportunity cost (in loaves of bread) of a cigar[ette] is?
That's the whole point. If they can make $30 million more by NOT paying you, then guess what? They should fire you! You're not worth the $30 million.
But the CEO & his cronies who'll pocket that as a bonus are worth every penny!
Don't take me for a communist - there was a time when big bosses only got the big bucks when they built a successful firm. Successful in the long term, not just the next quarter. Or am I being nostalgic?
Slashdot Mirror
Or to adjudicate in disputes, communicate with god(s), keep those nutters from the next village away from our goats ...
Thanks, but I think most of us have worked out that the agrigultural revolution had some far-reaching consequences.Yes, but 99% of everything is bunk.
How topical - what with it being exactly a bit less than six years since he died and nearly precisely two since the movie HHGTTG was released.
But since you didn't mention that, and by your smug and ungrammatical comment, it appears that you know just enough to be dangerous.
Look at it like this: if the Star Wars franchise is the Roman Catholic church, then who is Jar Jar Binks? The antichrist? Or just Martin Luther?
Ummm, the fi is short for fiction.
Even if it's not illegal, it'd be a pretty stupid thing to do unless you know exactly what you're doing. You could end up quite literally blind drunk.
For all the handwaving and buzzwords in the application, it converts code written in language foo into language bar. That's a compiler. Now if they want to patent (copyright's possibly more appropriate?) their specific individual implementation of a compiler, then let them get on with it. If they want to patent compilers as a concept they can stuff it and I don't think they have a hope.
Nuke them from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.
George, what are you doing? I was only joking!
Could it be that commodities are inherently useful other than as a medium of exchange to get something else, but only for specific purposes? I think it could.
Which are worse?
Philistines who only know the 'Hovis' bit?
Pretentious black turtleneck wearers who think 4'33" is really saying something.
If you take money out of my wallet, I don't have the money any more; if Turnitin have a copy of your essay they haven't deprived you of anything. Are you one of the students behind the lawsuit? Your logic is certainly the level I'd expect at a highschool debating club.
im in ur t00bz watch1ng ur v1dz
Perhaps Fidel could switch the land that produces his cigar tobacco over to food production? Anyone know offhand what the opportunity cost (in loaves of bread) of a cigar[ette] is?
Don't take me for a communist - there was a time when big bosses only got the big bucks when they built a successful firm. Successful in the long term, not just the next quarter. Or am I being nostalgic?