I try to not support them at all, I only bought 10 cds in over a year and a half, where I used to buy that sort of quantity in a week or two, and no that hasn't led to me downloading music, I don't want to give the RIAA the satisfaction of harassing me. Even that amount has me a little disappointed in my own weakness. I just wish I didn't have to feel so guilty about supporting artists that I really love. It's unfortunate, music shouldn't be this political.
Unfortunately, even if everyone on slashdot boycotted the RIAA, it still wouldn't be that much of an effect, we're just a few thousand nerds compared to the millions that buy most of the music. We're not the mainstream and we don't support the mainstream artists. Meanwhile, the rest of the world doesn't have the morals and the will that we have, and to be honest, neither do all of us. It's a vicious cycle, and it's not going to stop soon. They've brainwashed the masses, paid off the powers that be, and those who have dissenting views are either ignored and/or sued, even if it's their own customers. It's futile and disgusting, and at the core it's downright sad. To be even more honest, downloading music isn't the answer either, it's bolsters interest in the artists, and it gives the RIAA a target to sue. Boycotting is the best solution we've got, but it isn't THE answer.
The reason you don't steal from big businesses is because all other customers are affected. A small store must raise it's prices to balance out the stolen items. Now everyone else must pay for that stolen item.
Yes, we all know the rule, but this is gross overcharging. The Dutch would be paying for theoretical stolen goods. That's like charging customers for stolen sweaters that haven't been ordered yet and it's impossible to know how much they're overestimating. The Dutch are probably also picking up the tab for crimes committed in other countries and if they're going to be paying for all recordable media, that means they're paying the recording industry for goods they may have no intent whatsoever of using for music. 90% of removable flash media ARE USED FOR CAMERAS! The Dutch goverment will reap what they sow when the majority of MP3 players come from outside of the country and they lose that tax money, and they deserve it because they're gladly bending over to the recording biz and letting them rape their citizens.
ps: sorry for being so graphic, but today more than ever the RIAA, etc have me completely infuriated.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
·
· Score: 3, Informative
But these taxes aren't going to the cops, they're going to the recording industry, who are just strongarming the average user into paying a unjust fee. If I buy an Ipod, I pay the high price of the Ipod, I pay this extremely high tax, and THEN I pay Itunes for DRM'ed music that the music industry says isn't charging me enough. I'm just disgusted by their tactics and I'm not the only one. Their actions are turning many people against them and it's giving people the mindset that they might as well pirate the music because the music industry's recent tactics make them less worthy of our honest consumer dollars.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
addendum: I shouldn't say another piece of music. What I should say is; another piece of RIAA owned music. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite and charge the innocent independent artists for the sins of the RIAA and their various counterparts.
Re:Just a proposal, hopefully...
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Is it just me or does it seem as if this is gonna give the dutch citizens the feeling that they're entitled to pirate music. I know if I lived there this would upset me so much that I'd never have the urge to buy another piece of music in my life. How does the RIAA, et al. get this sense of granduer that they're "owed" all this money. They're charging innocent customers for the sins of others and I know my views are not original towards them (especially here on/.) but they have gotten ridiculously out of hand.
From what I gather, they're only charging for the mp3 player, not the add on memory. How can they charge you for the Compact Flash or whatever expandable memory that you may or may not buy at anytime in the future. Which brings us back to square one, buying a player with minimal on board and just buying add on memory at a future date. If not this way, then like everyone else says, they're gonna buy it from somewhere else. Nobody is going to be willing to pay almost double the cost to buy a 60gig Ipod.
I always wanted to see a movie version of the "Knightfall" storyline, where Bane breaks Wayne's back and Azrael runs ass crazy as his successor. I know it'd be hard to get such a deep storyline into one film, but it was such a great and groundbreaking comic book story at the time with good emotion that I always thought if done right it could become one of the best batman movies out there...I can still dream I guess.
I'm not trying to belittle any one issue, what I'm trying to say is that there are so many issues that one doesn't have the possibility to grow as large as they used to. Especially, to a person who has another issue: If my main issue is PETA, then abortion is a smaller issue to me. If a stew has only 3 ingredients, those three ingredients have a chance to stand out more. If the stew has 200 ingredients, all of fairly equal parts, the ingredients cancel each other out and you can't really taste most things over the others.
Where is the sense of outrage? I dunno, pass me another beer.
I think one of the problems is that so many different groups are yelling about so many little things (prayer in school, janet jackson's nipple, peta, abortion, etc.) that they drown each other out. This makes them easily ignored since you can't answer all of their calls, so you needn't answer many of the calls at all. Especially one directed against the powers that be, they'll conveniently decide not to hear those calls that are being voiced against them. When protest really worked is when large groups screamed about few topics (Suffrage, Racial Inequality, the Vietnam War).
Now too many people are worried about their smaller causes that it's impossible for the "little people" to gather up a big enough roar, which leaves the big dogs to have all the say and bulldoze their way into having these ways that are considered blatantly corrupt.
How about this: Instead of paying the gov't tax dollars to plunder natural resources, we decide where our "surplus" income goes to? What if the tax form included a checklist where you decided yea or nay on things like social security, defense spending, paying back national debt, NASA's budget and so forth?
The problem with this is a lot of important programs will be underfunded.
Perfectly healthy people could end up not caring about disability, and that leaves disabled people without enough money for their healthcare. Rich people wont care about Social Security (they fund a significant amount of it currently) because they'll never need it, so your mom won't have that money to fall back upon when she retires if a few years.
Little, yet important programs that you never think about get no money because no one will think they're worthy (music in schools, homeless iniatives, public libraries, could be anything).
Not to mention the extra work of having to read a thousand+ page book every tax period that explains all the programs you'll be voting on, I'm sure after you've done all your taxes and deductions, (adding line C to line E, subtract section 12) you wont be wanting to have to read about and pick from thousands of programs so you can choose which deserves your money.
That's why privatizing space missions is clearly the answer. Our government has dropped the ball and it's time for some enterprising corporation(s) to pick it up and run with it. I look forward to seeing what more open-minded people can come up with (if they can get past all the red tape).
I find that in the cities where i've lived (San Diego, Atlanta), that even when the highways are gridlocked, there really aren't viable alternatives on surface streets. They're either too far off the route or they're also crowded. So even with a system like this, I don't know that the alternate routes would be that much better a solution, you're still spending close to the same amount of time on the road. It's either gridlocked on the highway or you're gridlocked on the city streets. Maybe better mass transit is the answer.
Slashdot Mirror
here in Washington (the real one -- the one with trees and mountains)
You do realize that Washington DC was founded almost a hundred years before Washington State
Whedon's Grocery List will be shown at 12:07am so that we may show baseball. Sorry for the inconvience.
I try to not support them at all, I only bought 10 cds in over a year and a half, where I used to buy that sort of quantity in a week or two, and no that hasn't led to me downloading music, I don't want to give the RIAA the satisfaction of harassing me. Even that amount has me a little disappointed in my own weakness. I just wish I didn't have to feel so guilty about supporting artists that I really love. It's unfortunate, music shouldn't be this political.
Unfortunately, even if everyone on slashdot boycotted the RIAA, it still wouldn't be that much of an effect, we're just a few thousand nerds compared to the millions that buy most of the music. We're not the mainstream and we don't support the mainstream artists. Meanwhile, the rest of the world doesn't have the morals and the will that we have, and to be honest, neither do all of us. It's a vicious cycle, and it's not going to stop soon. They've brainwashed the masses, paid off the powers that be, and those who have dissenting views are either ignored and/or sued, even if it's their own customers. It's futile and disgusting, and at the core it's downright sad. To be even more honest, downloading music isn't the answer either, it's bolsters interest in the artists, and it gives the RIAA a target to sue. Boycotting is the best solution we've got, but it isn't THE answer.
Urectum?! U damn near killed 'em!
The reason you don't steal from big businesses is because all other customers are affected. A small store must raise it's prices to balance out the stolen items. Now everyone else must pay for that stolen item.
Yes, we all know the rule, but this is gross overcharging. The Dutch would be paying for theoretical stolen goods. That's like charging customers for stolen sweaters that haven't been ordered yet and it's impossible to know how much they're overestimating. The Dutch are probably also picking up the tab for crimes committed in other countries and if they're going to be paying for all recordable media, that means they're paying the recording industry for goods they may have no intent whatsoever of using for music. 90% of removable flash media ARE USED FOR CAMERAS! The Dutch goverment will reap what they sow when the majority of MP3 players come from outside of the country and they lose that tax money, and they deserve it because they're gladly bending over to the recording biz and letting them rape their citizens.
ps: sorry for being so graphic, but today more than ever the RIAA, etc have me completely infuriated.
But these taxes aren't going to the cops, they're going to the recording industry, who are just strongarming the average user into paying a unjust fee. If I buy an Ipod, I pay the high price of the Ipod, I pay this extremely high tax, and THEN I pay Itunes for DRM'ed music that the music industry says isn't charging me enough. I'm just disgusted by their tactics and I'm not the only one. Their actions are turning many people against them and it's giving people the mindset that they might as well pirate the music because the music industry's recent tactics make them less worthy of our honest consumer dollars.
addendum: I shouldn't say another piece of music. What I should say is; another piece of RIAA owned music. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite and charge the innocent independent artists for the sins of the RIAA and their various counterparts.
Is it just me or does it seem as if this is gonna give the dutch citizens the feeling that they're entitled to pirate music. I know if I lived there this would upset me so much that I'd never have the urge to buy another piece of music in my life. How does the RIAA, et al. get this sense of granduer that they're "owed" all this money. They're charging innocent customers for the sins of others and I know my views are not original towards them (especially here on /.) but they have gotten ridiculously out of hand.
From what I gather, they're only charging for the mp3 player, not the add on memory. How can they charge you for the Compact Flash or whatever expandable memory that you may or may not buy at anytime in the future. Which brings us back to square one, buying a player with minimal on board and just buying add on memory at a future date. If not this way, then like everyone else says, they're gonna buy it from somewhere else. Nobody is going to be willing to pay almost double the cost to buy a 60gig Ipod.
It's a tax on ALL mp3 players
I'd just buy a MP3 player that has low onboard memory, but that takes removable memory. Voila! Less than 5 bucks o' tax, infinite memory.
Nothing better than a man trying to feed a cat to an ATM machine
I always wanted to see a movie version of the "Knightfall" storyline, where Bane breaks Wayne's back and Azrael runs ass crazy as his successor. I know it'd be hard to get such a deep storyline into one film, but it was such a great and groundbreaking comic book story at the time with good emotion that I always thought if done right it could become one of the best batman movies out there...I can still dream I guess.
Can you find the 'File Transfer' function, because i can't. Is it disabled in this early version?
I'm not trying to belittle any one issue, what I'm trying to say is that there are so many issues that one doesn't have the possibility to grow as large as they used to. Especially, to a person who has another issue: If my main issue is PETA, then abortion is a smaller issue to me. If a stew has only 3 ingredients, those three ingredients have a chance to stand out more. If the stew has 200 ingredients, all of fairly equal parts, the ingredients cancel each other out and you can't really taste most things over the others.
You don't want those UMD's to come accidentally shooting out at that height.
Just don't forget to pause, so you can pull the chute.
I think one of the problems is that so many different groups are yelling about so many little things (prayer in school, janet jackson's nipple, peta, abortion, etc.) that they drown each other out. This makes them easily ignored since you can't answer all of their calls, so you needn't answer many of the calls at all. Especially one directed against the powers that be, they'll conveniently decide not to hear those calls that are being voiced against them. When protest really worked is when large groups screamed about few topics (Suffrage, Racial Inequality, the Vietnam War).
Now too many people are worried about their smaller causes that it's impossible for the "little people" to gather up a big enough roar, which leaves the big dogs to have all the say and bulldoze their way into having these ways that are considered blatantly corrupt.
Star Wars: The Raping of the Force's Corpse
The problem with this is a lot of important programs will be underfunded.
Perfectly healthy people could end up not caring about disability, and that leaves disabled people without enough money for their healthcare. Rich people wont care about Social Security (they fund a significant amount of it currently) because they'll never need it, so your mom won't have that money to fall back upon when she retires if a few years.
Little, yet important programs that you never think about get no money because no one will think they're worthy (music in schools, homeless iniatives, public libraries, could be anything).
Not to mention the extra work of having to read a thousand+ page book every tax period that explains all the programs you'll be voting on, I'm sure after you've done all your taxes and deductions, (adding line C to line E, subtract section 12) you wont be wanting to have to read about and pick from thousands of programs so you can choose which deserves your money.
It's simply not the answer.
please elaborate
That's why privatizing space missions is clearly the answer. Our government has dropped the ball and it's time for some enterprising corporation(s) to pick it up and run with it. I look forward to seeing what more open-minded people can come up with (if they can get past all the red tape).
and it's amazing how many of them end up on slashdot.
I find that in the cities where i've lived (San Diego, Atlanta), that even when the highways are gridlocked, there really aren't viable alternatives on surface streets. They're either too far off the route or they're also crowded. So even with a system like this, I don't know that the alternate routes would be that much better a solution, you're still spending close to the same amount of time on the road. It's either gridlocked on the highway or you're gridlocked on the city streets. Maybe better mass transit is the answer.