Stallman would prefer it if there were no copyright, including on his own creations.
Really? I'd like to see your source for this assertion. Stallman's idea of Free Software requires some sort of control and enforcement of software licenses. If copyright didn't exist, Free Software would be difficult.
Stallman places copyright notices on all of his own web pages. That doesn't seem like the act of someone who is opposed to copyright.
But suddenly, some time later, through some fickle whim of societal dynamics, your application or song becomes a huge hit. Mind you, your product was not bad of course...but is it really thousands times better than countless those which, while good or even much better, will remain obscure?
Did that event suddenly made the time you've spent worth thousands time more?
Doesn't seem like a relevant question, as the same applies to physical objects. Normally, a rock with a couple of plastic googly eyes glued to it would be worthless. But if some quirk of society happens to strike at the right time, your Pet Rock is suddenly valuable. This happens all the time - a $2 piece of fabric might be worth $2,000 if you are a hot fashion designer, and be worth less than the cost of materials otherwise.
There's no right or wrong about it, that's just how the world works.
I'm not the one shouting about principles, I'm just explaining the situation with DRM on DVDs.
The thread started with screaming about DRM and principles, so in context, your comment reads as support for that.
I imagine most people are pragmatic. DRM is an annoyance, but if it's trivially easy to work around, then why cut yourself out of something out of principle if you can just work around it?
Exactly. I'm not sure why you would post this to a thread about sacrificing practicality for principles, though.
Yes, DVDs have region coding, and CSS protection. However, these are trivially easy to crack, unlike the protections on BDs.
Right, so this is where the hypocrisy kicks in. DRM sucks! Evil limitations on consumer rights! But if it's easy to crack, then no problem, I'll spend money on protected media.
If you're shouting from the rooftops about your principled objections, you would stand on those principles, no matter how hard or easy it is to bypass the copy protection.
I say it as a collector: I don't really want to collect things that are transient in a way that makes them a huge money hole. Back in the day of VHS tapes, I bought a bunch of VHS tapes. When DVDs came out, I bought a bunch of DVDs
It's a rare person who bought movies on VHS rather than renting them. Serious collectors and movie buffs bought Laserdiscs in those days.
Yes, but calling it "digital tape" would be meaningless nonsense, just like the term "analogue tape." No matter what kind of data is stored on it, it's just magnetic tape.
There's greater profit to be made on making a lower quality product and then marketing it to hell to get the sales numbers, rather than making the product right to begin with and then letting the reputation your business gains from earning consumer trust increase sales.
In other words, it's not easier to make a superior product. It's much easier to create an inferior product, and spin it as being superior. If it was easy to make a superior product, more companies would be doing it.
hat exactly is Amazon supposed to do here? unless it's something clearly illegal like kiddie porn their model is not to take sides and let people sell their content
What the fuck are you talking about? Very recently, Amazon has delisted the entire offerings (both print and electronic) of a major publisher because they disagreed with their pricing on Kindle ebook titles. Amazon has also threatened to delist the entire catalog of other publishers who disagree with their Kindle pricing.
Given the above behavior, what is to stop Amazon from delisting all VDM publications? It's not like VDM is even close to being in the league of the publishers that have already been threatened. I think your view of Amazon is entirely too charitable.
No, it's just that with a press corps that overwhelmingly identifies with the Democratic party, the excesses of Republicans are more likely to be investigated and reported on.
What a load of horse shit. Whichever party is currently in power is much more likely to be investigated and reported on by the media.
Just when you think you've seen everything from Microsoft they go and outdo themselves. They really are a bunch of obnoxious motherfuckers, who wouldn't know quality or taste if it slapped them in their monkey-dancing faces.
Slashdot Mirror
Stallman would prefer it if there were no copyright, including on his own creations.
Really? I'd like to see your source for this assertion. Stallman's idea of Free Software requires some sort of control and enforcement of software licenses. If copyright didn't exist, Free Software would be difficult.
Stallman places copyright notices on all of his own web pages. That doesn't seem like the act of someone who is opposed to copyright.
But suddenly, some time later, through some fickle whim of societal dynamics, your application or song becomes a huge hit. Mind you, your product was not bad of course...but is it really thousands times better than countless those which, while good or even much better, will remain obscure? Did that event suddenly made the time you've spent worth thousands time more?
Doesn't seem like a relevant question, as the same applies to physical objects. Normally, a rock with a couple of plastic googly eyes glued to it would be worthless. But if some quirk of society happens to strike at the right time, your Pet Rock is suddenly valuable. This happens all the time - a $2 piece of fabric might be worth $2,000 if you are a hot fashion designer, and be worth less than the cost of materials otherwise.
There's no right or wrong about it, that's just how the world works.
What's the deal with the monospaced font, asshole? Why would you deliberately make your text less readable?
The article says that Seth Green is involved,
I'm going to go with "immeasurable dread."
I'm not the one shouting about principles, I'm just explaining the situation with DRM on DVDs.
The thread started with screaming about DRM and principles, so in context, your comment reads as support for that.
I imagine most people are pragmatic. DRM is an annoyance, but if it's trivially easy to work around, then why cut yourself out of something out of principle if you can just work around it?
Exactly. I'm not sure why you would post this to a thread about sacrificing practicality for principles, though.
Yes, DVDs have region coding, and CSS protection. However, these are trivially easy to crack, unlike the protections on BDs.
Right, so this is where the hypocrisy kicks in. DRM sucks! Evil limitations on consumer rights! But if it's easy to crack, then no problem, I'll spend money on protected media.
If you're shouting from the rooftops about your principled objections, you would stand on those principles, no matter how hard or easy it is to bypass the copy protection.
I say it as a collector: I don't really want to collect things that are transient in a way that makes them a huge money hole. Back in the day of VHS tapes, I bought a bunch of VHS tapes. When DVDs came out, I bought a bunch of DVDs
It's a rare person who bought movies on VHS rather than renting them. Serious collectors and movie buffs bought Laserdiscs in those days.
But that is the point. You (as a customer) are the antithesis of what they want. The want people to keep re-buying things all the damn time, i
How is he the antithesis of what they want, when he said he re-bought stuff several times? Sounds like a good customer to me.
Then there's iTunes and Amazon to contend with, that save you the trouble of ripping and tagging, but aren't compatible with all devices.
They what? You'd be hard pressed to find a modern device that isn't capable of playing tracks downloaded from iTunes or Amazon.
Yes, but calling it "digital tape" would be meaningless nonsense, just like the term "analogue tape." No matter what kind of data is stored on it, it's just magnetic tape.
(after saying "what's analogue tape")
Uhhh, what's "analogue tape"? I thought it was called magnetic tape.
bingo. Ok, ok, I'm 53.
Aren't you a little too young to be playing bingo?
There's greater profit to be made on making a lower quality product and then marketing it to hell to get the sales numbers, rather than making the product right to begin with and then letting the reputation your business gains from earning consumer trust increase sales.
In other words, it's not easier to make a superior product. It's much easier to create an inferior product, and spin it as being superior. If it was easy to make a superior product, more companies would be doing it.
The easiest way is to make a superior product,
Say what? Making a superior product is not easy, it's very difficult.
Not all countries have Kindle with free web browsing, and not everybody even in supported countries can afford Kindle.
If they can't afford a Kindle, then how can they afford the outrageous prices of these VDM titles, plus shipping?
hat exactly is Amazon supposed to do here? unless it's something clearly illegal like kiddie porn their model is not to take sides and let people sell their content
What the fuck are you talking about? Very recently, Amazon has delisted the entire offerings (both print and electronic) of a major publisher because they disagreed with their pricing on Kindle ebook titles. Amazon has also threatened to delist the entire catalog of other publishers who disagree with their Kindle pricing.
Given the above behavior, what is to stop Amazon from delisting all VDM publications? It's not like VDM is even close to being in the league of the publishers that have already been threatened. I think your view of Amazon is entirely too charitable.
No, it's just that with a press corps that overwhelmingly identifies with the Democratic party, the excesses of Republicans are more likely to be investigated and reported on.
What a load of horse shit. Whichever party is currently in power is much more likely to be investigated and reported on by the media.
but that's not gonna fucking happen either.
Don't be so pessimistic! If you save your allowance, get a part-time job and cut back on buying snack foods, it could happen sooner than you think.
Actually, I saw one guy wearing a baseball cap in one of the videos. He appeared to be wearing it quite safely though, so I guess it's OK.
Apple v. HTC (2010, USA) [swpat.org] (including multi-touch prior art)
Since when did the Apple vs HTC litigation have anything to do with multi-touch?
Maybe somebody @ MS is a Bernhard Goetz [wikipedia.org] kind of a guy.
I'm not clicking on that link. I know slashdot claims it goes to wikipedia, but I still fear it's all just going to end with more distended anuses.
and twice in one day!
What!? Can you say that again, I didn't hear you the first time!
Just when you think you've seen everything from Microsoft they go and outdo themselves. They really are a bunch of obnoxious motherfuckers, who wouldn't know quality or taste if it slapped them in their monkey-dancing faces.
They're just pointing out how Chrome steals your privacy to further Google's datamining and pleasuring their advertisers.
While also saying that IE has better security and suggesting that you should use IE instead. How is that not saying you should switch to IE?
And that picture of me in the shoebox where I'm sucking smoke...
Far out, man. How did you squeeze yourself into that shoebox?