I don't know if you live in California or not, but I do. I hate the fact that Governor Davis and his appointed underlings have done next to nothing of value in office. With the amount of taxpayer money that gets drained by the State, doing no good for anyone, I'd say that these types of issues are a huge problem here in California.
I personally care more about this than mideast wars for the time being. The government of the state I live in blowing money like this is far more likely to affect my life than Israelis and Palistinians fighting in the immediate future.
If we are stealing from networks by not watching advertisements, along the same lines we must also be stealing from the advertisers themselves by not buying the advertised products. I mean, it costs advertisers money to run ads, so they are losing money whenever we don't run to the store and buy whatever is advertised. They don't see any return on their investment this way. Since I doubt anyone does this, everyone must be an evil terrorist/communist/pirate/thief out to destroy American business.
However, along the same lines, whenever I play the lottery, and I lose, the state is stealing money from me. After all, it costs me money to buy a ticket. When I don't see a return on that investment, I've lost money. The same goes when I lose in Vegas, or a stock I own goes down the toilet.
Rather than this point of view, how about accepting that advertising is a gamble? There is never a guarantee people are going to watch your ads. There is never a guarantee people are going to buy your products. It is all a gamble on the part of advertisers. Just like when you gamble or play the stock market, there are risks. You could actually lose money!
If networks want to start making more money, maybe perhaps they should rework their business models. Maybe it would help if they did not produce CRAP. There is so much crap on TV that I don't even have any sort of TV subscription (cable or otherwise). I pay for the movies and shows (through purchase or rental) I actually WANT to watch when they come out on DVD. It actually works out to be cheaper than cable for me.
Another thing they could do is also cut the pay of all the gibbering idiots that they pass off as "talent." I'm sure the cast of "Friends" would "manage" if they cut their pay down to $1,000,000 a season.
More Best Buy Screwups...
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Worst Buy
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· Score: 2
A few weeks ago I went to Best Buy looking for some speakers. I'm happy with non-high end stuff, so I was hoping Best Buy would be the place to go for something in the price range I was looking for. I found a set of decent speakers that were advertised on sale in a display. The display also had a reciever on it. The reciever did not have a price listed, and though I doubted that it was included, I decided to ask, just incase it was a clearance of an older year's model, or whatever. I began asking one salesperson about the speakers and reciever. As I was mid-sentence asking a question about them, she leaves for no clear reason. So I ask another salesperson. Finally, I ask if this advertised price includes both the reciever and the speakers, and he says, "Yes" rather quickly. So I have him ring me out. The whole time he is trying to sell me the "extended warranty" which I have to decline like 5 times in a row.
When I got home, I checked in the store ads and online, and found that the speaker set and reciever were NOT not supposed to be sold together, and that I should have paid double for what I got in total.
I wonder how Best Buy stays in business when the employees are complete morons like I dealt with. I'm not saying ALL Best Buy employees are morons, but it seems like quite a few don't really care about anything except selling the extended warranty from what I've experienced, and what I've heard from others.
Vivendi Rep: If the open source code is being used by someone other than the creator for a profit, then it is illegal under the DMCA.
Is he trying to say that Open Source is inherantly illegal under the DMCA because many open source lisences allow for this very thing? Or am I misunderstanding?
Vivendi Rep: The basis upon this charge lies on the idea that BNetD will eventually begin using their software, that they did not create, in order to make a profit. Though they have not used it yet for a profit, Vivendi believes that they would have or will use it in the future for a profit.
This is a load of crap. The Bnetd team is doing this out of their own free time as hobbyists, and released their code under the GPL so that anyone could use it for free. There is absolutely no evidence that anyone involved with Bnetd ever seriously wished to make money off of it. Bnetd has been around for ~4 years, I believe.
Vivendi Rep: No. We feel as though the intellectual property of the Battle.net coders has been stolen by the BNetD project. As far as I know, there are no publicity aspects involved in the suit against BNetD. It is a legal issue that needs to be cleared up and this is the way that we can do that.
It is a fact that Bnetd was created through reverse engineering, not stolen code. Truth be told, Battle.net is apparently not very complex, and it only took a matter of time to get a clone working just through packet sniffing.
Vivendi Rep: We feel the restrictions against the theft of intellectual property will be cleared up in this suit, and will lead to a more clear idea of what is and what isn't internet piracy for the general public. In general, Blizzard is being used as a "first time" suit for this kind of piracy, and we want the public to understand that what is going on with the BNetD project cannot be done without legal ramifications under the DMCA.
Or do you just want the public to understand that they are stuck with crappy Battle.net, and that Blizzard doesn't care that their customers find added value in a server protocol that allows them to have an alternative way of playing online?
Vivendi Rep: Yes. The fact that it is not only pirated server software but also pirated game software will do nothing but hurt BNetD in the courts.
Again with the Bnetd being "pirated." Additionally, it is as if Bnetd is directly responsible for all the pirates out there. There are probably many more pirates on Battle.net using "stolen" CD keys than playing on Bnetd servers.
I've bought Blizzard titles in the past, and although I was sort of looking forward to Warcraft III, I will not be buying or playing any more Blizzard titles unless Vivendi/Blizzard does a complete 180 on this.
Evangelion is certainly not the best anime series.
Evangelion sucks. Really.
At the beginning it was a great mecha-action show with excellent characterization.
Then they destroy everything. Viewers are made to "hate" the characters they've gotten to know. The characters don't develop, they regress.
A load of B.S. philosophy that was obviously intended to maliciously bash western religion was made the center point of the show. None of it makes much sense any way you put it.
Then, in typical Gainax fasion, they save money with low-budget crap (such as elevator rides and still frames), using "tricks" to make it seem "artistic."
And the only good thing about "End of Evangelion" is that it is a nice thing to show before another movie. It is so crappy and depressing that it will always make the movie shown after seem 1000 times better.
If you want a GOOD "artistic" anime with philosophical themes, then I suggest Lain. It is much better, lets you know what to expect at Episode 1, and actually makes much more sense.
For some reason he could not tell from the previews that this movie, Collateral Damage, or Kung Pow for that matter, weren't going to be very good at all. Then he sees it and is disappointed, and writes an article to tell us something we already knew.
There is a Cowboy Bebop movie called "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" which takes place in the story continuity somewhere before the two last episodes of the TV show.
As you said, the ending of the show is final. Bebop wasn't designed to be a long running franchise.
IANAL, but this one will have to be taken to court. I believe, however, that this probably won't change the "legal" status of the PS2. This Linux development kit is an optional add on for the Playstation 2. The PS2 was still designed primarily as a game console, and will always be used primarily as a game console. The Linux kit is for hobbyists. I'm sure this is what a Sony lawyer would argue should the issue come up.
I think the only thing that will top the maelstrom of parents and the religious right screaming about all the sex, violence, and religion in Evangelion, will be the fans screaming a disbelieving "What the hell is this?!" when they air the last two episodes.
OR the fans screaming, "I hate you, Gainax!" when they air the alternate ending, End of Evangelion.
There is plenty of good anime. However, I'm not sure how much of that would really be very successful on American television.
For Example:
I don't think showing Love Hina would survive through the censorship ringers. If every panty shot and accidental incident of the male character walking in on the females while they are naked is removed, there wouldn't be that much to put on air.
Nadesico is just full of parody and references to other anime. I don't think most American viewers would appreciate the show within the show, Gekigangar 3, very much.
InuYasha is probably too heavily based on Japanese mythology. Plus, while it is an excellent series, it has lots of violent fighting that would probably be destroyed by censors.
And showing Evangelion would probably make Toonami the target of every religous, human rights, parenting, whatever group in the country unless they edited it so much that it wouldn't be the same series.
....
Though there is probably plently of lucritive opportunity for someone to start a tentacle pr0n channel on Pay-Per-View. (Joke)
Typically, I've seen a few types of editing of anime when they make a US version, especially for TV. Here are just a few:
Crappy 80's Hack and Slash: We saw this with "Robotech" and "Voltron," where huge portions of things were hacked out. In the case of Robotech, they combined multiple series, that had no relation to one another, into one. Thankfully, most people remember Robotech for the sections that were really Macross.
Pointlessly stupid cultural editing: This includes changing the names of characters to sound more American, and attempting to remove all hints that the characters were originally supposed to be Japanese, living in Japan, etc, even though it is obviously Japanese animation. God forbid that little Timmy realizes that there are other cultures out there that aren't American.
Pointless Censorship This is mainly what Toonami has to deal with. Typically, people feel the need to edit out "Bad Stuff". However, it always seems that people FAIL at this. An example is that there was a drink that was supposed to be sake in an episode of DBZ, and they ended up making it milk or something. This is all fine and good, but this is a series that features huge muscled guys blowing eachother up with high powered energy attacks. I guess it is important that we sheild Junior from alcohol, but showing him acts of superhuman violence and fights that span several weeks worth of episodes is OK.
I think the complaint here is really that he believes his school takes the results generated by Turnitin as being perfectly accurate. A lot of people seem to hold the belief that if a conclusion is reached by means of computers, then that conclusion must be true, since they see computers as being incapable of "human" error.
Naturally, this belief is false, since software is created by humans, has bugs, etc. While it might be very rare, I'm sure Turnitin's system is capable of giving out "false positives" when it comes to figuring out if a paper has been cheated on.
Just because the advocates of the GPL and Free Software in general are not advocates of every single cause out there does not mean that they don't believe in the rights of the advocates of causes that do not pertain to software.
From the comments I've read, it seems that it is about 50/50 when taking into account reasonably informed opinions.
However, it seems as if the DOJ is going to ignore the arguments against MS by the public, discounting the majority of even the well structured arguments as being "Bill Gate Sucks!" posts.
This is very disappointing, especially since many of the anti-MS comments seem to be the most informed, pointing to past cases involving MS basically laughing at decisions and penalties imposed on them.
I think it is blatantly obvious that there is a huge influence under Dubya's administration to basically render the finding of guilt absolutely useless. Repeatedly I hear stories of "pressure" being placed on the Judge to go along with the DOJ's settlement. I think it is fairly sickening that the balance of power between the Executive and Judicial branches are failing in this way.
In the case of a restaurant, you get exactly what you see on the menu before paying for it, at exactly the price on the menu. When you order it, you are inherantly entering a "work for oder" type of contract where the restaurant agrees to give you a product as described in the menu, and you agree to pay the price listed on the menu for that item.
In the case of a DVD and software, you pay for it before seeing the legal terms. To see the legal terms, you must open it. Most retail outlets will not give full refunds when you return opened goods for any reason, especially software and anything that you could have feasably copied before returning it. That means that I can't return a product and say, "I don't agree to the lisence within" without complaining to the manager, nagging them, and generally wasting my time.
And honestly, I've never seen anything more than the standard FBI warning on any DVD I've watched. You know, the one that it is for personal use only. I can't redistribute copies, etc. Nowhere has it said, "Do not bypass region encoding" or "Do not play on a non-MPAA sanctioned player."
Honestly, I really think that for any of these "contracts" and lisence agreements to be binding, they should be available for you to view on the box, or somewhere clearly accessible at the retail outlet before puchase.
Re:Personal Copyrights
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SSSCA Hearing
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· Score: 2
Yes, there is a problem with this. You will be probably be forced to pay a lisencing fee to enact the government sponsored DRM on your own media if you don't want copies spread around.
With the SSSCA, the MPAA and RIAA can probably put independent publishing of media out of reach of most people. This is an added bonus for them, because this is what they've been afraid of the whole time they've been pushing this stuff. They really want to crush any way that an artist or film maker can get their film out to the public that is not through their cartels.
Congress pushes these laws because they have sold out to these companies. They only care about the campaign contributions (and other things) they get. They don't care about your rights in the long run. Not anymore.
There's nothing that says you have a right to hack my stuff so you can see it on your OS.
Assuming that I go to the store and shell out money for a DVD, for example, I should be able to do whatever I please with it. I should have the right to use what I bought however I want for personal reasons. That includes breaking encryption so that I can watch it on a computer running OS of choice. So long as I do not redistribute it, why does the MPAA care what I do with it?
I believe I do have an inherant right to do whatever I want with my property, when I use that property for personal use.
By paying of Congress to push the SSSCA, Disney and their pals want to have leverage over hardware makers so that they can make sure that technology will always be compatible with their business models, even if it means harming the US Tech Industry. Such a thing is unheard of in a free market. By passing this law, Congress will essentially be saying that The RIAA and MPAA have a right to always be in business, no matter how poor their business models are, and that the RIAA and MPAA have more rights than any other industries, including the technology industries. I suppose that this will also mean that the RIAA and MPAA have more rights than an average citizen.
This sort of thing is what will destroy the US Economy, sooner or later, because it will destory the free market the US Economy was based on.
If the media companies and the technology companies want to do this on their own, that is fine. Congress is overstepping its bounds by trying to push it legally. The free market will dictate if it is successful or not.
The rise of Southeast Asia as an economic powerhouse is likely emminent. This is just another reason why.
Congress is DESTROYING our free market by passing draconian laws in support of corporate interests and giving out corporate wellfare. This type of thing will stifle innovation, and give big corporations an excuse NOT to find new business models. When the SSSCA fails to make the RIAA and MPAA as much money as they hoped, they'll just lobby for another stupid law even worse than that. Pretty soon you'll have congress passing laws that give them the power to force you to buy a new computer/dvd player/whatever whenever they arbitrarily feel like it, in order to "save the entertainment industry."
This will either lead to the following.
1. People comply, and eventually spend so much of their money on new lisences, fees, etc. imposed by congress to benefit megacorps that it forces the average US family into poverty. No longer able to afford any more, the entire US economy will collapse, and the USA will become a third world country with 99% of the population so poor they can barely afford food and shelter and 1% of the population extremely rich. I'd hope that American people would have another revoltion before that happens, though.
2. People are disobedient, and they start buying Asian equipment on the black market, set up rogue ISPs, etc. Money will get funelled out of the US economy, and into the Southeast Asian economy. American companies will start to lose a lot of money, at a very fast rate. Throwing those in jail who are caught will not help. Enforcement will be bribed by some people to ignore the fact they are circumventing the SSSCA and its kin. Corruption will get worse. Eventually, The entire US tech industry and entertainment industry will collapse, and the US will be put into a secondary status, a former shell of the superpower it once was.
If similar laws are forced upon all of our our trading "allies" in the Western world, the same effects might be seen there. Or if they don't pass these laws, they just won't trade with the US anymore, seeing as how everything now has DRM that is not needed or wanted there.
Either way, it will enable Southeast Asian companies to totally dominate the market. China will quickly become the economic and military powerhouse of the World, leaving the USA in its dust if these types of laws are continued to be allowed to pass. Why I say military as well, is because if the US economy gets destroyed, we probably won't be able to afford our military any more.
The alternative is to let a pure, free market dominate. If companies can't find new business models, they will go out of business. Tough. However, people will have choices. Companies will make money by working hard on making their products worth paying for. This is how the US Economy became the #1 economy in the world. Now politicians who are corporate whores are ruining this free market. It will ruin our Economy in the long run.
But I guess that is to be expected. History pretty much shows that once corruption is so wide spread in a government like it is today, that you know you're probably on the way down.
ESR is being an optomist. While I agree that this is a possibility, I don't see it happening soon. There are a few reasons why.
1) These PCs must be everywhere. There are cheap PCsnow that you can get. Someone mentioned that you can get cheap PCs w/o Windows at WalMart. That is all and good, but these types of boxes must be available everywhere, from every manufacturer. I doubt we'll see Dell advertise a $350 box without Windows anytime soon.
2) There has to be an operating system to replace Windows on these boxes that is cheap. Linux is not it. This probably would be a great place for BeOS to have stepped in. I always envisioned BeOS as being the ideal non-MS OS for the average user. Unfortunately, they no longer exist. Another unfortunate aspect is that there needs to be an OS that essentially will need to have a monopoly on these boxes. Of course, it could be an Open Source OS.
3) The said operating system needs to have a few good applications for it. One would be a fully standard compliant web browser. Another would be a word processing program with features roughly equivalent to MS Word. There are some other necessary apps, like perhaps a simple image editing program, email client, media player, etc. Basically, programs to cover all the bases.
4) There will always be people who still buy computers that price in the thousands. These are people who need and want more powerful PCs. I doubt most gamers would care for the $350 PC. I think that the number of people willing to pay thousands for a superior PC is still high enough. If the economy gets worse, however, this might change.
I'm sure there are non-piracy pundits out there who will write off Bnetd as having a real legitimate use and say it is just a tool designed to facilitate piracy. This is false.
As I stated in the last article regarding this issue, I know the original creator of Bnetd well. He did not create it to facilitate piracy, but rather he started the project because Battle.net at the time was even more unreliable than it seems to be now. Also, Bnetd enables people to have their own private ladders. I guess a third reason is that he was bored during finals week one term.
Sure, there are people who are going to use this for piracy purposes. On the other hand, people just log into Battle.net with stolen/barrowed/cracked CD keys keys anyway. Additionally, people who are playing the WarCraft 3 Beta right now are most likely people who are going to buy it when it appears in the store. I doubt any serious player is going to really want to play a buggy beta that won't be updated.
Also, I don't believe it is right to shut down something if it facilitates pirates, so long as that is NOT the purpose of the software. CD Burners facilitate piracy more than Bnetd ever does.
As was suggested previously, things would be much simpler if Blizzard released their own version of a private Battle.net server for personal use. It could include the oh so secret CD key checker. Hell, it could even include ad banners that somehow send their clickthrough data to Blizzard periodically. I think this would make a large number of people who use Bnetd right now happy.
Well, I bought an N64 and it was worth it for the few AWESOME games that there were for the system. The best of which were the Zelda games for it.
And honestly, most of the Zelda series is better than FF7 or FF8 in my opinion. Even though FF7 and Resident Evil were basically the "killer apps" for the PS1, Zelda 64 was a more enjoyable game.
What irks me is that people complain about Nintendo's tendancy to release lots of Mario and Zelda games. Then they go and rave about how the newest Resident Evil, Metal Gear, or Tekken is so great for Sony's console.
Which isn't to say that these games AREN'T great. I've got a PS2 and a Game Cube, and I enjoy games on both systems.
One of my roomates was responsible for the work (mainly analyzing the packets) that brought bnetd to life several years ago. In fact, the news was on Slashdot at the time, IIRC. He gave the project to someone else, and no longer has anything to do with bnetd.
Incidentally, he told me he recieved a cease and desist order from Blizzard when the news got out about his work. He also says he ignored it, and nothing happened. However, this was before the DMCA existed, IIRC, so now Blizzard has the teeth to follow through.
So Blizzard has been after bnetd before. This is nothing new.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know if you live in California or not, but I do. I hate the fact that Governor Davis and his appointed underlings have done next to nothing of value in office. With the amount of taxpayer money that gets drained by the State, doing no good for anyone, I'd say that these types of issues are a huge problem here in California.
I personally care more about this than mideast wars for the time being. The government of the state I live in blowing money like this is far more likely to affect my life than Israelis and Palistinians fighting in the immediate future.
However, along the same lines, whenever I play the lottery, and I lose, the state is stealing money from me. After all, it costs me money to buy a ticket. When I don't see a return on that investment, I've lost money. The same goes when I lose in Vegas, or a stock I own goes down the toilet.
Rather than this point of view, how about accepting that advertising is a gamble? There is never a guarantee people are going to watch your ads. There is never a guarantee people are going to buy your products. It is all a gamble on the part of advertisers. Just like when you gamble or play the stock market, there are risks. You could actually lose money!
If networks want to start making more money, maybe perhaps they should rework their business models. Maybe it would help if they did not produce CRAP.
There is so much crap on TV that I don't even have any sort of TV subscription (cable or otherwise).
I pay for the movies and shows (through purchase or rental) I actually WANT to watch when they come out on DVD. It actually works out to be cheaper than cable for me.
Another thing they could do is also cut the pay of all the gibbering idiots that they pass off as "talent." I'm sure the cast of "Friends" would "manage" if they cut their pay down to $1,000,000 a season.
When I got home, I checked in the store ads and online, and found that the speaker set and reciever were NOT not supposed to be sold together, and that I should have paid double for what I got in total.
I wonder how Best Buy stays in business when the employees are complete morons like I dealt with. I'm not saying ALL Best Buy employees are morons, but it seems like quite a few don't really care about anything except selling the extended warranty from what I've experienced, and what I've heard from others.
Is he trying to say that Open Source is inherantly illegal under the DMCA because many open source lisences allow for this very thing? Or am I misunderstanding?
Vivendi Rep: The basis upon this charge lies on the idea that BNetD will eventually begin using their software, that they did not create, in order to make a profit. Though they have not used it yet for a profit, Vivendi believes that they would have or will use it in the future for a profit.
This is a load of crap. The Bnetd team is doing this out of their own free time as hobbyists, and released their code under the GPL so that anyone could use it for free. There is absolutely no evidence that anyone involved with Bnetd ever seriously wished to make money off of it. Bnetd
has been around for ~4 years, I believe.
Vivendi Rep: No. We feel as though the intellectual property of the Battle.net coders has been stolen by the BNetD project. As far as I know, there are no publicity aspects involved in the suit against BNetD. It is a legal issue that needs to be cleared up and this is the way that we can do that.
It is a fact that Bnetd was created through reverse engineering, not stolen code. Truth be told, Battle.net is apparently not very complex, and it only took a matter of time to get a clone working just through packet sniffing.
Vivendi Rep: We feel the restrictions against the theft of intellectual property will be cleared up in this suit, and will lead to a more clear idea of what is and what isn't internet piracy for the general public. In general, Blizzard is being used as a "first time" suit for this kind of piracy, and we want the public to understand that what is going on with the BNetD project cannot be done without legal ramifications under the DMCA.
Or do you just want the public to understand that they are stuck with crappy Battle.net, and that Blizzard doesn't care that their customers find added value in a server protocol that allows them to have an alternative way of playing online?
Vivendi Rep: Yes. The fact that it is not only pirated server software but also pirated game software will do nothing but hurt BNetD in the courts.
Again with the Bnetd being "pirated." Additionally, it is as if Bnetd is directly responsible for all the pirates out there. There are probably many more pirates on Battle.net using "stolen" CD keys than playing on Bnetd servers.
I've bought Blizzard titles in the past, and although I was sort of looking forward to Warcraft III, I will not be buying or playing any more Blizzard titles unless Vivendi/Blizzard does a
complete 180 on this.
Evangelion is certainly not the best anime series.
Evangelion sucks. Really.
At the beginning it was a great mecha-action show with excellent characterization.
Then they destroy everything. Viewers are made to
"hate" the characters they've gotten to know.
The characters don't develop, they regress.
A load of B.S. philosophy that was obviously intended to maliciously bash western religion was made the center point of the show. None of it makes much sense any way you put it.
Then, in typical Gainax fasion, they save money with low-budget crap (such as elevator rides and still frames), using "tricks" to make it seem "artistic."
And the only good thing about "End of Evangelion"
is that it is a nice thing to show before another movie. It is so crappy and depressing that it will always make the movie shown after seem 1000 times better.
If you want a GOOD "artistic" anime with philosophical themes, then I suggest Lain.
It is much better, lets you know what to expect at Episode 1, and actually makes much more sense.
My biggest problem: How can they fit into a two hour movie a show that takes 6 weeks to finish a fight?
For some reason he could not tell from the previews that this movie, Collateral Damage, or Kung Pow for that matter, weren't going to be very good at all.
Then he sees it and is disappointed, and writes
an article to tell us something we already knew.
There is a Cowboy Bebop movie called "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" which takes place in the story continuity somewhere before the two last episodes of the TV show.
As you said, the ending of the show is final.
Bebop wasn't designed to be a long running franchise.
IANAL, but this one will have to be taken to court.
I believe, however, that this probably won't change the "legal" status of the PS2. This Linux development kit is an optional add on for the Playstation 2. The PS2 was still designed primarily as a game console, and will always be used primarily
as a game console. The Linux kit is for hobbyists.
I'm sure this is what a Sony lawyer would argue
should the issue come up.
I think the only thing that will top the maelstrom of parents and the religious right screaming about all the sex, violence, and religion in Evangelion, will be the fans screaming a disbelieving "What the hell is this?!" when they air the last two episodes.
OR the fans screaming, "I hate you, Gainax!" when
they air the alternate ending, End of Evangelion.
There is plenty of good anime. However, I'm not sure
how much of that would really be very successful on American television.
For Example:
I don't think showing Love Hina would survive through the censorship ringers. If every
panty shot and accidental incident of the male
character walking in on the females while they
are naked is removed, there wouldn't be that much
to put on air.
Nadesico is just full of parody and references to other anime. I don't think most American viewers
would appreciate the show within the show, Gekigangar 3, very much.
InuYasha is probably too heavily based on Japanese
mythology. Plus, while it is an excellent series,
it has lots of violent fighting that would probably
be destroyed by censors.
And showing Evangelion would probably make Toonami the target of every religous, human rights, parenting, whatever group in the country unless they edited it so much that it wouldn't be the same series.
....
Though there is probably plently of lucritive opportunity for someone to start a tentacle pr0n channel on Pay-Per-View. (Joke)
Typically, I've seen a few types of editing of anime when they make a US version, especially for TV. Here are just a few:
Crappy 80's Hack and Slash:
We saw this with "Robotech" and "Voltron," where
huge portions of things were hacked out. In the case of Robotech, they combined multiple series, that had no relation to one another, into one. Thankfully, most people remember Robotech for the sections that were really Macross.
Pointlessly stupid cultural editing:
This includes changing the names of characters to
sound more American, and attempting to remove all
hints that the characters were originally supposed to be Japanese, living in Japan, etc, even though it is obviously Japanese animation.
God forbid that little Timmy realizes that there are other cultures out there that aren't American.
Pointless Censorship
This is mainly what Toonami has to deal with.
Typically, people feel the need to edit out "Bad Stuff". However, it always seems that people FAIL at this. An example is that there was a drink that was supposed to be sake in an episode of DBZ, and they ended up making it milk or something. This is all fine and good, but this is a series that features huge muscled guys blowing eachother up with high powered energy attacks. I guess it is
important that we sheild Junior from alcohol, but
showing him acts of superhuman violence and fights that span several weeks worth of episodes is OK.
I think the complaint here is really that he believes his school takes the results generated by Turnitin as being perfectly accurate. A lot of people seem to hold the belief that if a conclusion is reached by means of computers, then that conclusion must be true, since they see computers as being incapable of "human" error.
Naturally, this belief is false, since software is
created by humans, has bugs, etc. While it might
be very rare, I'm sure Turnitin's system is capable of giving out "false positives" when it comes
to figuring out if a paper has been cheated on.
Microsoft has shown it has been able to stall cases in a court of law for quite a long time.
Hopefully 3 years is enough.
Just because the advocates of the GPL and Free Software in general are not advocates of every single
cause out there does not mean that they don't believe
in the rights of the advocates of causes that do not
pertain to software.
However, it seems as if the DOJ is going to ignore
the arguments against MS by the public, discounting
the majority of even the well structured arguments
as being "Bill Gate Sucks!" posts.
This is very disappointing, especially
since many of the anti-MS comments seem to be the
most informed, pointing to past cases involving MS
basically laughing at decisions and penalties imposed on them.
I think it is blatantly obvious that there is
a huge influence under Dubya's administration
to basically render the finding of guilt
absolutely useless. Repeatedly I hear stories of "pressure" being placed on the Judge to go along with the DOJ's settlement. I think it is fairly
sickening that the balance of power between the
Executive and Judicial branches are failing in
this way.
In the case of a restaurant, you get exactly what you see on the menu before paying for it, at exactly the price on the menu. When you order it, you are inherantly entering a "work for oder" type
of contract where the restaurant agrees to give you
a product as described in the menu, and you agree
to pay the price listed on the menu for that item.
In the case of a DVD and software, you pay for it before seeing the legal terms. To see the legal
terms, you must open it. Most retail outlets will
not give full refunds when you return opened goods
for any reason, especially software and anything that you could have feasably copied before returning it. That means that I can't return a product and say, "I don't agree to the lisence within" without complaining to the manager,
nagging them, and generally wasting my time.
And honestly, I've never seen anything more than
the standard FBI warning on any DVD I've watched.
You know, the one that it is for personal use only.
I can't redistribute copies, etc. Nowhere has
it said, "Do not bypass region encoding" or
"Do not play on a non-MPAA sanctioned player."
Honestly, I really think that for any of these "contracts" and lisence agreements to be binding, they should be available for you to view on the box, or somewhere clearly accessible at the retail
outlet before puchase.
Yes, there is a problem with this. You will be
probably be forced to pay a lisencing fee to enact
the government sponsored DRM on your own media if you
don't want copies spread around.
With the SSSCA, the MPAA and RIAA can probably put
independent publishing of media out of reach of most people. This is an added bonus for them, because this is what they've been afraid of the whole time they've been pushing this stuff. They really want to crush any way that an artist or film maker can get their film out to the public that is not through their cartels.
Congress pushes these laws because they have
sold out to these companies. They only care
about the campaign contributions (and other things) they get. They don't care about your rights
in the long run. Not anymore.
I disagree with one of your points.
There's nothing that says you have a right to hack my stuff so you can see it on your OS.
Assuming that I go to the store and shell out money
for a DVD, for example, I should be able to do
whatever I please with it. I should have the right
to use what I bought however I want for personal
reasons. That includes breaking encryption so that
I can watch it on a computer running OS of choice.
So long as I do not redistribute it, why does the MPAA care what I do with it?
I believe I do have an inherant right to do
whatever I want with my property, when
I use that property for personal use.
By paying of Congress to push the SSSCA, Disney
and their pals want to have leverage over hardware makers so that they can make sure that technology
will always be compatible with their business
models, even if it means harming the US Tech Industry. Such a thing is unheard of in a free
market. By passing this law, Congress will
essentially be saying that The RIAA and MPAA have
a right to always be in business, no matter how
poor their business models are, and that the
RIAA and MPAA have more rights than any other
industries, including the technology industries.
I suppose that this will also mean that the RIAA
and MPAA have more rights than an average citizen.
This sort of thing is what will destroy the US
Economy, sooner or later, because it will destory
the free market the US Economy was based on.
If the media companies and the technology
companies want to do this on their own, that is fine. Congress is overstepping its bounds by
trying to push it legally. The free market will
dictate if it is successful or not.
Congress is DESTROYING our free market by passing
draconian laws in support of corporate interests and giving out corporate wellfare. This type of thing will stifle innovation, and give big corporations an excuse NOT to find new business models. When the SSSCA fails to make the RIAA and MPAA as much money as they hoped, they'll just lobby for another stupid law even worse than that. Pretty soon you'll have congress passing laws that give them the power to force you to buy a new computer/dvd player/whatever whenever they arbitrarily feel like it, in order to "save the entertainment industry."
This will either lead to the following.
1. People comply, and eventually spend so much
of their money on new lisences, fees, etc. imposed
by congress to benefit megacorps that it forces
the average US family into poverty. No longer
able to afford any more, the entire US economy
will collapse, and the USA will become a
third world country with 99% of the population
so poor they can barely afford food and shelter
and 1% of the population extremely rich.
I'd hope that American people would have another
revoltion before that happens, though.
2. People are disobedient, and they start buying
Asian equipment on the black market, set up rogue
ISPs, etc. Money will get funelled out of the
US economy, and into the Southeast Asian economy.
American companies will start to lose a lot of
money, at a very fast rate. Throwing those in
jail who are caught will not help. Enforcement
will be bribed by some people to ignore the
fact they are circumventing the SSSCA and its kin.
Corruption will get worse. Eventually, The entire US tech industry and entertainment industry will collapse, and the US will be put into
a secondary status, a former shell of the superpower it once was.
If similar laws are forced upon all of our
our trading "allies" in the Western world,
the same effects might be seen there. Or if
they don't pass these laws, they just won't
trade with the US anymore, seeing as how
everything now has DRM that is not needed
or wanted there.
Either way, it will enable Southeast Asian companies to totally dominate the market.
China will quickly become the economic and military
powerhouse of the World, leaving the USA in its
dust if these types of laws are continued to
be allowed to pass. Why I say military as well,
is because if the US economy gets destroyed, we
probably won't be able to afford our military any
more.
The alternative is to let a pure, free market
dominate. If companies can't find new business
models, they will go out of business. Tough. However, people will have choices. Companies
will make money by working hard on making their
products worth paying for. This is how the
US Economy became the #1 economy in the world.
Now politicians who are corporate whores are
ruining this free market. It will ruin our
Economy in the long run.
But I guess that is to be expected. History
pretty much shows that once corruption is so
wide spread in a government like it is today,
that you know you're probably on the way down.
ESR is being an optomist. While I agree that this is a possibility, I don't see it happening soon. There
are a few reasons why.
1) These PCs must be everywhere. There are cheap PCsnow that you can get. Someone mentioned that you can get cheap PCs w/o Windows at WalMart. That is all and good, but these types of boxes must be available everywhere, from every manufacturer. I doubt we'll see Dell advertise a $350 box without Windows anytime soon.
2) There has to be an operating system to replace
Windows on these boxes that is cheap. Linux is
not it. This probably would be a great place for
BeOS to have stepped in. I always envisioned
BeOS as being the ideal non-MS OS for the average
user. Unfortunately, they no longer exist.
Another unfortunate aspect is that there needs
to be an OS that essentially will need to have
a monopoly on these boxes.
Of course, it could be an Open Source OS.
3) The said operating system needs to have a few
good applications for it. One would be a fully
standard compliant web browser. Another would be
a word processing program with features roughly
equivalent to MS Word. There are some other
necessary apps, like perhaps a simple image
editing program, email client, media player, etc.
Basically, programs to cover all the bases.
4) There will always be people who still buy
computers that price in the thousands. These are
people who need and want more powerful PCs.
I doubt most gamers would care for the $350 PC.
I think that the number of people willing to pay
thousands for a superior PC is still high enough.
If the economy gets worse, however, this might change.
Bnetd is not, and never has been, a piracy tool.
It is unfair to shutdown bnetd to stop pirates.
I'm sure there are non-piracy pundits out there
who will write off Bnetd as having a real legitimate
use and say it is just a tool designed to facilitate
piracy. This is false.
As I stated in the last article regarding this issue,
I know the original creator of Bnetd well. He did
not create it to facilitate piracy, but rather he
started the project because Battle.net at the time
was even more unreliable than it seems to be now.
Also, Bnetd enables people to have their own private ladders. I guess a third reason is that
he was bored during finals week one term.
Sure, there are people who are going to use this
for piracy purposes. On the other hand, people just log into Battle.net with stolen/barrowed/cracked CD keys keys anyway.
Additionally, people who are playing the WarCraft
3 Beta right now are most likely people who are
going to buy it when it appears in the store.
I doubt any serious player is going to really want
to play a buggy beta that won't be updated.
Also, I don't believe it is right to shut down
something if it facilitates pirates, so long as
that is NOT the purpose of the software. CD
Burners facilitate piracy more than Bnetd ever
does.
As was suggested previously, things would be much
simpler if Blizzard released their own version of
a private Battle.net server for personal use.
It could include the oh so secret CD key checker.
Hell, it could even include ad banners that somehow
send their clickthrough data to Blizzard periodically. I think this would make a large
number of people who use Bnetd right now happy.
And honestly, most of the Zelda series is better than FF7 or FF8 in my opinion. Even though FF7 and Resident Evil were basically the "killer apps" for the PS1, Zelda 64 was a more enjoyable game.
What irks me is that people complain about Nintendo's tendancy to release lots of Mario and Zelda games. Then they go and rave about how
the newest Resident Evil, Metal Gear, or Tekken is so great for Sony's console.
Which isn't to say that these games AREN'T great.
I've got a PS2 and a Game Cube, and I enjoy games
on both systems.
One of my roomates was responsible for the work (mainly analyzing the packets) that brought bnetd to
life several years ago. In fact, the news was on Slashdot at the time, IIRC. He gave the project to
someone else, and no longer has anything to do with
bnetd.
Incidentally, he told me he recieved a cease and desist order from Blizzard when the news got out about his work. He also says he ignored it, and
nothing happened. However, this was before the DMCA existed, IIRC, so now Blizzard has the
teeth to follow through.
So Blizzard has been after bnetd before. This is
nothing new.