Outspending doesn't imply out-innovating. The most innovative solutions or ideas often result in (or are produced out of a need for) LESS spending.
Also, I've never considered it "innovation" when the primary business model is to copy other products' features and add a few pretty icons and obvious additions. I have yet to see a NEW idea come from Microsoft. I see a pattern of copying existing ideas, and integrating them closely with the OS so people ignore the original product since a good-enough version comes "free" with the OS.
Yes. Performance rights are licensed by the copyright holder (usually the publisher, rather than the creator or original performer). This is usually the responsibility of the venue and is often handledby a relatively broad license via BMI, ASCAP, etc, and covers any form of public performance of the collection of works licensed, whether it is performed live, or whether your are playing a CD over a public sound system in a commercial venue. For background music many commercial venues (stores, restaurants) contract out their background music and the contractor handles the licensing issues, so they are not aware of it. Churches can be especially bad about this (though non-commercial) although it is getting easier to manage and educate thanks to organizations such as CCLI.
It's often not the performer's responsibility, but I'm sure in many cases the venue doesn't know that or want to deal with it, so it falls back on the performer.
If you think this is unlikely, remember that if you make up a song and sing it without writing it down or recording it, you have no US rights to that song.
Dude, take your chill-pills and review the basic premise of copyright. It is the right to copy something. If you never write it down or record it, there is nothing to copy. Others can repeat your song-passed-along-verbally as much as they want without any promise of compensation to you. Conversely, you can sing any song you want (as long as you don't record it or write it down) no matter who holds copyright for no charge.
In the US the creator of the work holds the exclusive right to copy that work as soon as it is created. The can, of course assign that right to other parties. The established method for letting everyone else know that you created it and care about who copies it is to register that copyright. In other words, creation of a printed or recorded work automatically assigns copyright, however, if there is an argument over who created what (when), you must have registered that copyright in advance to settle a dispute.
Really, the episodes that have something to do with the main story are good (perhaps great), but the random episodes pretty much feel like "terrorist of the week" (you know, that thing we all hate Enterprise for, only substitute "alien" with "terrorist").
I think part of the craft of the writing of the show is the at-the-time-seemingly-random-event ("terrorist of the week") which several episodes later (or a whole season later) comes back up and reveals its tie-in to the main storyline. Best example: The nuclear warhead. Another strong example: The first episode with Zarek's rebellion definitely seemed like an isolated terrorist-of-the-week episode at the time, but it turns out those events were crucial to his involvement in the rest of the plot later, culminating in Baltar's election.
Market dynamics have been well-covered by the precious comments. Full agreement.
Another difference is the cost of equipment for modern productions. Today's productions load in more gear than ever. The gear is getting more complex (read: expensive) for more dazzling effects. Light and video systems especially, but sound has grown a lot more, too. Gone are the days when a couple hundred fixed par cans, a few risers, and a stack of amplifiers would make a concert. Effects don't come cheap, but audiences expect them more than they realize.
According to the Butterfly Effect, when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world it causes a chain reaction resulting in a hurricane in another part.
Observation: We have been having more and higher-intensity hurricanes in the US.
Observation: We violently oppose the destruction of wildlife habitats, and the conservation of species that might otherwise have gone extinct as victims of natural selection.
Conclusion: By protecting rare butterfly species and their exclusive environments we have increased the number of butterflies in the world, thus increasing the frequency and intensity of the hurricanes by the Butterfly Effect.
Yes outrageous, litte innovative work has come out of Microsoft since Clippy!
"It looks like you're trying to write an Operating System. Would you like to:
1) Create a new operating system?
2) Repackage your current operating system with new animated helpers?
3) Run the Operating System Wizard to purchase a little-known operating system and repackage it as your own? "
As I read this response I considered the original concept.
Cheap computing device
Small Screen
Radio communication with similar devices
Internet Access
Sounds like a cel-phone. Are we over-engineering the problem?
To hear gates railing against this it makes me want to ask "You think this is a bad idea, huh? Let's talk about Windows CE PDAs." How quickly would his tone change?
This country has two parties for a reason, and they need to keep each other in check.
George Washington must have been a prophet, and must be reeling now:
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."
also:
"There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume."
George Washington, farwell address, 1796. He makes a lot of other poignant observations in this address(foreign affairs, relation of religion & government, national debt) that we have completely gone the opposite way from.
A) Copyright infringement is not theft. It is usually a tort unless the person doing the infringing is selling the copied product. (IANAL)
I can't (and don't care to) argue this effectively one way or the other. It is very much related to point-of-view and semantics, in my observation.
B) You have been duped into believing that piracy = theft. This is what the RIAA/MPAA want you to believe. Its easier for the masses to grasp than the actual legal definition AND it plays into their game better.
Sorry to disappoint, but I am not duped. My views come from my own study of the industry and experience with copyright issues for recording projects I have done. I don't side with the RIAA by any means, but I know enough to be able to follow the money. I followed enough to know I couldn't make a decent career of it, myself.
In truth, the artists' cut of a recording is very small. The songwriter's cut is often split with the publisher, so their cut per copy is also tiny. Those are the two people that are hurt by piracy, and then only minimally. Artists see pretty much nothing until they repay their advance from the record company, and most chance for profits come from merchandise and appearances, in that order, with record sales a distant third in the income stream.
The net affect, which we agree on, is the impact of piracy on the artists is a lot less than the RIAA would have you believe. The Record labels are the biggest losers in the equation, so they raise the biggest stink.
Part of the price of that item is the royalty to the conceiver and creator of that item. The studio gets some, **AA gets some, the plastic manufacturer gets some, the cover printer gets some, and the creator gets a fraction too - that is their livelihood. While you are not stealing a CD - you are not depriving the retailer, plastic manuafacturer, or cover printer of livelihood, BUT you are depriving the original creator of their royalty. That is where the stealing happens in copying. It is why copyright laws were established, to protect the right of the creator of a work to earn a profit from its use for a period of time (I'm ignoring the problems created by mucking with the copyright length - that's a separate issue).
So, by that logic, Betamax VCRs must be able to play VHS tapes in France?
Different DRM versions are an electronic equivalent to mechanical format differences. You choose the player based on the format of the content you want to use. No different, in concept, with analog VCRs or digital music players.
Silly, IMNSHO. Don't legislate decisions which should be made by the MARKET.
Well, actually you could take the Adam/Eve postulate to "prove" evolution: If in the beginning there were only Adam and Eve, then how could it be that people today are as different as they are? After all, the genetic pool of humanity is clearly larger than the one of just two persons. Thus if all people are descendents from Adam and Eve, they must have evolved, thus proving evolution.:-)
That would be closer to speciation (not exactly - we don't call different races different species), not evolution. All are still Homo Sapiens. Evolution would start with Adam and Eve and end up with Homo Sapiens, Homo Simpson, and Homo SpeciesNotYetFeaturedInThisFilm.
Micro-evolution. No argument.
Environmental Adaptation - no argument.
Macro-Evolution. Still not convinced. Belief in macro-evolution without a record of species becoming new species is as much "belief" as it is science.
I will grant that apparent gaps in the fossil record could be due to the idea that fossils only exist at times where a cataclysmic event killed and buried the species in a way that would preserve them for later find. Other species could have existed in between the cataclysmic events that left no fossils.
Faith has been defined as being sure of what one hopes for and certain of what one does not see.
Without proof of existence of the species in the gaps, you are left to "faith" to accept that they existed without leaving hard evidence.
If what you say is true (unverified by/me), then you have mentioned the differentiating factor that will give the battle to HD-DVD/MS/etc.... Disney.
Consumers ultimately don't care what the format is or which Evil Corporation's pockets they fill. What they do care about is whether Timmy can play the new Winnie-the-Pooh game or Susie can print her Disney Princesses coloring pages. If these new titles and the re-re-re-release of Sleeping Beauty is only on HD-DVD then people will make sure they have the player that fills their children's demands for More of the Mouse.
Disney and MS agreeing on one format will make it difficult for any competing standard-candidate to last in the long run.
You won't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Let's See:
Large desert area... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check.
Lots of aliens... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check (terran, others subject to speculation).
Smuggling operations... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check.
I'm sure it's not the first story you have found that starts mid-stream and didn't connect a lot of the dots. Here's another:
- Why is Darth Vader so angry?
- How did Ben Kenobi come to live on Tatooine?
- What connection does Uncle Owen have to Luke's father?
- How did the Old Republic come into the hands of the Emporer?
- Where did Obi Wan disappear to when Vader killed him, and why did he let it happen?
- Why does Darth Vader wear a full mask/helmet?
Slashdot Mirror
Outspending doesn't imply out-innovating. The most innovative solutions or ideas often result in (or are produced out of a need for) LESS spending.
Also, I've never considered it "innovation" when the primary business model is to copy other products' features and add a few pretty icons and obvious additions. I have yet to see a NEW idea come from Microsoft. I see a pattern of copying existing ideas, and integrating them closely with the OS so people ignore the original product since a good-enough version comes "free" with the OS.
Yes. Performance rights are licensed by the copyright holder (usually the publisher, rather than the creator or original performer). This is usually the responsibility of the venue and is often handledby a relatively broad license via BMI, ASCAP, etc, and covers any form of public performance of the collection of works licensed, whether it is performed live, or whether your are playing a CD over a public sound system in a commercial venue. For background music many commercial venues (stores, restaurants) contract out their background music and the contractor handles the licensing issues, so they are not aware of it. Churches can be especially bad about this (though non-commercial) although it is getting easier to manage and educate thanks to organizations such as CCLI.
It's often not the performer's responsibility, but I'm sure in many cases the venue doesn't know that or want to deal with it, so it falls back on the performer.
...some Congressional Democrats and other experts fault the research...
The REAL problem the is not with another arms race, as they claim, but that someone proposed mounting these lasers on the heads of sharks!
If you think this is unlikely, remember that if you make up a song and sing it without writing it down or recording it, you have no US rights to that song.
Dude, take your chill-pills and review the basic premise of copyright. It is the right to copy something. If you never write it down or record it, there is nothing to copy. Others can repeat your song-passed-along-verbally as much as they want without any promise of compensation to you. Conversely, you can sing any song you want (as long as you don't record it or write it down) no matter who holds copyright for no charge.
In the US the creator of the work holds the exclusive right to copy that work as soon as it is created. The can, of course assign that right to other parties. The established method for letting everyone else know that you created it and care about who copies it is to register that copyright. In other words, creation of a printed or recorded work automatically assigns copyright, however, if there is an argument over who created what (when), you must have registered that copyright in advance to settle a dispute.
Really, the episodes that have something to do with the main story are good (perhaps great), but the random episodes pretty much feel like "terrorist of the week" (you know, that thing we all hate Enterprise for, only substitute "alien" with "terrorist").
I think part of the craft of the writing of the show is the at-the-time-seemingly-random-event ("terrorist of the week") which several episodes later (or a whole season later) comes back up and reveals its tie-in to the main storyline. Best example: The nuclear warhead. Another strong example: The first episode with Zarek's rebellion definitely seemed like an isolated terrorist-of-the-week episode at the time, but it turns out those events were crucial to his involvement in the rest of the plot later, culminating in Baltar's election.
precious=previous
Why weren't you the preview button??
Market dynamics have been well-covered by the precious comments. Full agreement.
Another difference is the cost of equipment for modern productions. Today's productions load in more gear than ever. The gear is getting more complex (read: expensive) for more dazzling effects. Light and video systems especially, but sound has grown a lot more, too. Gone are the days when a couple hundred fixed par cans, a few risers, and a stack of amplifiers would make a concert. Effects don't come cheap, but audiences expect them more than they realize.
According to the Butterfly Effect, when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world it causes a chain reaction resulting in a hurricane in another part.
Observation: We have been having more and higher-intensity hurricanes in the US.
Observation: We violently oppose the destruction of wildlife habitats, and the conservation of species that might otherwise have gone extinct as victims of natural selection.
Conclusion: By protecting rare butterfly species and their exclusive environments we have increased the number of butterflies in the world, thus increasing the frequency and intensity of the hurricanes by the Butterfly Effect.
Yes outrageous, litte innovative work has come out of Microsoft since Clippy!
"It looks like you're trying to write an Operating System. Would you like to:
1) Create a new operating system?
2) Repackage your current operating system with new animated helpers?
3) Run the Operating System Wizard to purchase a little-known operating system and repackage it as your own? "
As I read this response I considered the original concept.
Cheap computing device
Small Screen
Radio communication with similar devices
Internet Access
Sounds like a cel-phone. Are we over-engineering the problem?
To hear gates railing against this it makes me want to ask "You think this is a bad idea, huh? Let's talk about Windows CE PDAs." How quickly would his tone change?
This country has two parties for a reason, and they need to keep each other in check.
George Washington must have been a prophet, and must be reeling now:
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."
also:
"There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume."
George Washington, farwell address, 1796. He makes a lot of other poignant observations in this address(foreign affairs, relation of religion & government, national debt) that we have completely gone the opposite way from.
Same as installing anti-virus software on your computer...
... or paying into Social Security, for that matter.
A) Copyright infringement is not theft. It is usually a tort unless the person doing the infringing is selling the copied product. (IANAL)
I can't (and don't care to) argue this effectively one way or the other. It is very much related to point-of-view and semantics, in my observation.
B) You have been duped into believing that piracy = theft. This is what the RIAA/MPAA want you to believe. Its easier for the masses to grasp than the actual legal definition AND it plays into their game better.
Sorry to disappoint, but I am not duped. My views come from my own study of the industry and experience with copyright issues for recording projects I have done. I don't side with the RIAA by any means, but I know enough to be able to follow the money. I followed enough to know I couldn't make a decent career of it, myself.
In truth, the artists' cut of a recording is very small. The songwriter's cut is often split with the publisher, so their cut per copy is also tiny. Those are the two people that are hurt by piracy, and then only minimally. Artists see pretty much nothing until they repay their advance from the record company, and most chance for profits come from merchandise and appearances, in that order, with record sales a distant third in the income stream.
The net affect, which we agree on, is the impact of piracy on the artists is a lot less than the RIAA would have you believe. The Record labels are the biggest losers in the equation, so they raise the biggest stink.
Now I've gone all wordy.. Sorry 'bout that.
Part of the price of that item is the royalty to the conceiver and creator of that item. The studio gets some, **AA gets some, the plastic manufacturer gets some, the cover printer gets some, and the creator gets a fraction too - that is their livelihood. While you are not stealing a CD - you are not depriving the retailer, plastic manuafacturer, or cover printer of livelihood, BUT you are depriving the original creator of their royalty. That is where the stealing happens in copying. It is why copyright laws were established, to protect the right of the creator of a work to earn a profit from its use for a period of time (I'm ignoring the problems created by mucking with the copyright length - that's a separate issue).
Justify all you want.
Parent has good points.
Add to that the 10-minute smoke break every 20 minutes on Company time.
If slashdot is my chosen addiction, it is no different than a smoke-break or hanging out at the water cooler, is it?
So, by that logic, Betamax VCRs must be able to play VHS tapes in France?
Different DRM versions are an electronic equivalent to mechanical format differences. You choose the player based on the format of the content you want to use. No different, in concept, with analog VCRs or digital music players.
Silly, IMNSHO. Don't legislate decisions which should be made by the MARKET.
Well, actually you could take the Adam/Eve postulate to "prove" evolution:
If in the beginning there were only Adam and Eve, then how could it be that people today are as different as they are? After all, the genetic pool of humanity is clearly larger than the one of just two persons. Thus if all people are descendents from Adam and Eve, they must have evolved, thus proving evolution.
That would be closer to speciation (not exactly - we don't call different races different species), not evolution. All are still Homo Sapiens. Evolution would start with Adam and Eve and end up with Homo Sapiens, Homo Simpson, and Homo SpeciesNotYetFeaturedInThisFilm.
Micro-evolution. No argument.
Environmental Adaptation - no argument.
Macro-Evolution. Still not convinced. Belief in macro-evolution without a record of species becoming new species is as much "belief" as it is science.
I will grant that apparent gaps in the fossil record could be due to the idea that fossils only exist at times where a cataclysmic event killed and buried the species in a way that would preserve them for later find. Other species could have existed in between the cataclysmic events that left no fossils.
Faith has been defined as being sure of what one hopes for and certain of what one does not see.
Without proof of existence of the species in the gaps, you are left to "faith" to accept that they existed without leaving hard evidence.
2nd thought - on the positive....
MTV content is exclusively on this service. So that means I don't have to worry about running into it anywhere else. Yay! Less to filter!
Let's see... Microsoft + Justin Timberlake + MTV.
Which of those makes me want to run out and sign up?
Oh, right - NONE of them.
Forgive me for being underwhelmed.
If what you say is true (unverified by /me), then you have mentioned the differentiating factor that will give the battle to HD-DVD/MS/etc.... Disney.
Consumers ultimately don't care what the format is or which Evil Corporation's pockets they fill. What they do care about is whether Timmy can play the new Winnie-the-Pooh game or Susie can print her Disney Princesses coloring pages. If these new titles and the re-re-re-release of Sleeping Beauty is only on HD-DVD then people will make sure they have the player that fills their children's demands for More of the Mouse.
Disney and MS agreeing on one format will make it difficult for any competing standard-candidate to last in the long run.
Bad news, dude... the airplanes are still passing over your shack with their chem-trails.
Santa (and moon Rudolph, plus one unnamed)
For the un-named moon, I submit the suggestion... "Olive, the Other Reindeer."
Unless, of course, "That's not a moon..."
You won't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Let's See:
Large desert area... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check.
Lots of aliens... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check (terran, others subject to speculation).
Smuggling operations... Mos Eisley, check. New Mexico, check.
Sounds like a perfect location!
A fair enough question. I'm in the midst of re-reading now to refresh my memory, so I'll not presume to to speculate from foggy memory.
I'm sure it's not the first story you have found that starts mid-stream and didn't connect a lot of the dots. Here's another:
- Why is Darth Vader so angry?
- How did Ben Kenobi come to live on Tatooine?
- What connection does Uncle Owen have to Luke's father?
- How did the Old Republic come into the hands of the Emporer?
- Where did Obi Wan disappear to when Vader killed him, and why did he let it happen?
- Why does Darth Vader wear a full mask/helmet?