That's more equivalent to buying a DVD which has seen several owners and has scratches.
Same thing will eventually happen to the physical copy of the game as well. It will break due to age and use eventually. And then you must buy another copy.
Our economic system is not capable of handling this shift. Without some form basic income, you'll end up with a lot of untalented average to low intelligence pissed off population.
The service jobs will increasingly be replaced by robots. How many receptionists or secretaries do you know these days? Robots are coming on very fast. Their costs are very low ($15k a year with the ability to"work" 20 hours a day and with SLA's- basically never be sick. No Payroll taxes. No benefits.
We will be in the ironic midst of plentiful cheap goods and yet lack any money to buy them.
But if you invest $10,000,000 to make the first coffee table, then you are going to want to make at least $10,000,000 back.
And if you invested $30,000,000 in three other failures, then you are going to price this game to make $40,000,000 or go bankrupt.
That investment is people's salaries, rent on the buildings, power bills, computer and desks.
Once you get past that base cost, sure, the extra copies are "free".
I think the publishers are cheating, swindling, weasels who want us to pay 5 times for the exact same content. And we have a right to scream and shout about it and try to convince people not to buy the products.
But try to be realistic about the real costs to make these games.
The article says to avoid learning disparate skills like dancing and tennis at the same time.
it says something like "learn several moves of a dance style interleaved... that way you will integrate the different moves and learn the dance faster overall".
If things don't blow up, most people will live in conditions we consider to be poverty with regard to food, water usage, and vacation today.
However, there will be a lot of electronic entertainment and it's possible that via direct input to the brain we'll have the experience of great vacations and fine food which would mitigate that.
We'll have so many people crammed on the planet that a decent lifestyle will be impossible unless we find a way to directly manufacture food from energy.
If things do blow up... We'll be mostly dead from bio warfare Or actual warfare disrupting food transportation resulting in the death of billions. Or a small scale nuclear war with similar effects. Or a mass dieoff when the oceans finish collapsing, some kind of virus kills our monoculture crops, and we just can't produce enough food and distribute enough water to keep things going.
And it's increasingly likely the future will be as predicted in the 50's. An eternity of the boot of the rulers on the face of humanity without end as the weapons become good enough and the social control systems become effective enough that revolution is no longer possible.
A weak government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few. A strong government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few. Societies that start off with anti concentration laws and customs avoid it a while longer but sooner or later it still happens.
Look up the "Iron Law of Oligarchy". It pretty much ends with revolution or oppression and then revolution fairly consistently. It's like the folks who are wealthy and powerful just don't know when to quit pushing for more.
I think it goes beyond the money to make legislators aware to the amount of money to flat out give to the legislators. The legislators are aware of the issue and know it's wrong but they get $200k plus a good shot at a job voting the wrong way or nothing if they vote the right way. It only takes a few years to corrupt any of them.
Clearly- I take a darker view on this than you. It's going to take a massive movement by the people (tea party and OWS are possible first signs of this movement) to change things. It may be too late.
Going to move on but thanks for the interesting responses.
A weak government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few.
Look up the "Iron Law of Oligarchy". It pretty much ends with oppression or revolution fairly consistently.
I think it goes beyond the money to make legislators aware to the amount of money to flat out give to the legislators. The legislators are aware of the issue and know it's wrong but they get $200k plus a good shot at a job voting the wrong way or nothing if they vote the right way. It only takes a few years to corrupt any of them.
Clearly- I take a darker view on this than you. It's going to take a massive movement by the people (tea party and OWS are possible first signs of this movement) to change things. It may be too late.
Going to move on but thanks for the interesting responses.
And the government writes the regs that way because the concentration of wealth in the top 1% allows them to pay / bribe "the government" to write the regs that way.
Small business people have no hope to oppose the wealthy and larger corporations unless the concentration of wealth at the top is reduced to be closer to small business owners.
Bush Sr and Clinton had some respect for it.
It pretty much went out the window with Bush Jr.
Obama has no spine so it doesn't really matter there.
The congress is bought and paid property (and members of) the top 1%. They write the laws to satisfy themselves and their wealthier masters, not the citizens any more.
It only seems that way because you are already here.
Let's put it this way- would you support a return to the 72 hour weeks and 12 year old child labor we had in the 1920's?
Without the government laws we have today, we would return to those days. And "exempt" status is being abused to return to that status now.
Simply restricting exempt workers to those who supervise 3 or more workers would probably tighten the market by 1% to 2%.
It is ALL a relative game. The reason things are so harsh right now is because 1% of the population is taking 24% of the wealth while they took 9% back in the 1980's.
They only have 1 or 2 cell phones, 6 or 7 houses, 6 or 7 cars. When the 15% went to the rest of the populace instead, the money went into a higher demand for goods.
If this trend continues- by 2050, this group of people will be taking in 75% of the countries income. Clearly things must stop before then. And if it doesn't- they'll also be paying over 75% of the income taxes if there is any kind of personal deduction at all.
No, I was referring to the EITC. I looked around and it looks like my poor friend may have been misinformed by the library.
The IRS shows no change in the EITC for this year. She had been told it was cancelled starting this year and her taxes on her $12,000 annual income would go up by about $500 by the free tax preparation service at the library.
Thanks, Hard to get a better gig in my current situation. It was nice until they overcommitted to an impossible schedule.
But the pay is good, health care good, fully vested in vacation (which can be taken in 1 or 2 day bits right now- it's just longer chunks that are frowned on), retirement package is unbeatable- as I said I'll be "set" in 3 years.
It's more of a work life balance. Finding a place with 40-45 hour weeks.
--- Let me put it this way.. if these trends continue, by 2040 they will have 75% of the nations income. At that point- since they took most of the income, they would pay even more of the income tax even if their income tax rate fell even further.
--- And let me put it another way.... If you take home a FOURTH of the nation's income, and everyone doesn't really pay taxes on the first 6k of their income, then you will pay a THIRD of the total taxes.
--- Had an error in my post above. The gas tax on the poor is 1.6%, not 5%. And it's still.000185% on the top 1%.
--- And FYI, the top 1% is really just a cover for the top.5%. The bottom half of the top 1% are basically poor compared to the top.5%.
$380k per year income. (bottom of the top.5%) Millions to Multi millions per year in income (top of the top.5%) http://www.lcurve.org/
They pay for more in absolute dollars but they pay a far lower tax rate. When you add in fixed taxes and license fees, the difference is even more dramatic.
Top 400 familes pay about 17.5% total tax load. The top 2.67% pay about 23% total tax load The folks at 60% to 80% pay about 40% total tax load. The folks at 20% (poverty) pay about 25% total tax load.
To the wealthy, $3.70 in gasoline taxes for a tank of gasoline is basically a 0% rate. To the poor, $3.70 in gasoline taxes is about 5% of their weekly income.
Same for cigarette, phone taxes, booze, sales tax, etc.
Property tax appears in your rent or in your mortgage. It runs from about 5% for the poor (but lower as they share housing) to about 3% for the middle class to about 2% for the wealthy.
I.e. A $1000/year property tax bill embedded in their rent for a poor person is a huge chunk of their income. A $30,000 tax bill for the top 2.67% is about 2%.
The poor spend most of their income on taxable purchases. The wealthy do not. So an 8% sales tax load hits the poor for 8% of their income while it hits the wealthy for under 1%.
The media owned by the wealthy has really been pushing the propaganda that the lower 50% of income earners pay no taxes.
But the more accurate statement is the bottom 50% pay low or no federal income taxes ( tho that changes big time this year now that hte earned income tax credit has been removed) while the wealthy pay a much lower percentage of their income as taxes.
It is accurate to say they pay more taxes in absolute dollars. But did you realize if the tax bill for running the country was divided evenly, it works out to over $11,000 per citizen? More like $33,000 per working person. And that's ignoring social security taxes.
If companies were prevented from overworking their employees, unemployment would immediately drop steeply.
That is the original reason for time and a half. To generate higher employment.
If you required straight time pay for every hour worked by exempt employees over 50 hours, it would cut unemployment immediately.
Likewise, if you required that exempt employees must supervise at least 3 other employees, you would end the abuse to the "exempt" status which has grown over the last few decades. There was a time when exempt employees were all mostly management.
It wasn't the only cause but it was a combination of lack of training, not working over 60 hours a week, and then taking 7 days of vacation in a row.
I'm saving very hard. I'm looking forward to the day I am safe and don't care. I won't quit. I'll just stop putting out the effort while remaining positive and pleasant.
I play a Cyclopedia based system myself. Game is 18 years old.
However, I have lots of house rules... such as... Hit dice keep going (so a 25th level fighter might have 150 hit points without other house rules). Armor gives some hit point bonuses (like mmorgs) bringing that up to about 180. A mage has about 120.
Which means the monsters average 30 points of damage a round. Since they miss about a third of the time, that means they hit for about 40 points of damage.
I modified the deflect rules (deflects are 5,8,11, or 14 hp).
I added spells which have negative saving throw modifiers. So a killing spell cast by a 25th level magician hits for about 80 points and has a -12 saving throw modifier.
Have two sessions a month- 12 players. Plus special merged holiday games. About 60% hack and slash and 40% roleplaying. They long ago got tired of running dominions.
The sheer amount of equipment accumulated over the years is an issue so I instituted a rule that equipment had a level and monsters six levels higher were immune to the equipment.
Some folks are married- some folks have kids. They adventure "in game" only about a week a month- being retired most of the rest of the time.
The cool times are when the players are completely connected to the world and reacting emotionally to things that only exist in my game. When they worry about awakening a "made" creature. When they talk about the timeless time before time began. When they negotiate with sylvan folk for memories.
The main group is now in the third year of a quest I declared impossible (it was put there as an example of something more powerful groups gave up at- no intention to ever run it) They are about 60% done and likely to finish in 8 to 10 more months. It's going to change the game world permanently.
If you were to combine weapon speed initiative with the turn system in the boardgame "Thebes", you would have a great system.
The problem is that in the real world, weapons are about reach and who attacks first because just about any weapon can kill you in the real world, even a "churchkey".
The faster person hits first in a killing blow and that's it. There are no hit points.
That reality also leads to massive fatalities in the real world unless everyone mostly cowers and tries to avoid being hit.
There is armor- and it helps. But people still die a lot and very fast. Not the best way to make a great campaign.
1974 - First edition 1989 - Second edition 2000 - Third edition 2008 - Forth edition 2012 - Fifth edition 2015 - Sixth Edition 2017 - Seventh Edition 2018 - Eight Edition 2018 - Special Summer Edition 2018 - Special Fall Edition 2018 - Special December Edition 2018 - Special Late December Edition 2018 - Special Christmas Edition 2018 - Special End of the Year Edition 2018 - Special Last Day of the Year Edition 2018 - Special Afternoon of the Last Day of the Year Edition 2018 - Special Late Evening Edition 2018 - Special Close to Midnight Edition 2018 - Special special special special -D&D Singularity-
Why is it immoral to distribute the contents of your post:
(i.e.) "And that's the crux of the matter. Until somebody actually shells out for a license you can't say for certain if they would."
Oh horseshit, that's not at all relevant. The true crux is the immoral and illegal decision to take something without reimbursing the owner. That they *wouldn't* have purchased it anyway doesn't mean a damn thing. Don't think it's worth purchasing? Don't rip it off.
It appears to me that your core belief resolves to this: If I don't want to pay for it, I shouldn't be punished harshly when it's found I ripped it off.
Pretty shoddy moral grounds. (i.e.)
It's illegal because we said, "for the public good, a limited period of copyright shall be provided to induce creation of new works". We can say something different if we want. Right now- corporations are paying big money to say something different which is much more restrictive. Many people disagree the corporations and government are behaving morally. So the only reason I can see for you to say it is immoral is that you are flatly asserting it. You have no basis or justification for the morality claim.
Extending the copyright to the duration it is at is no longer benefiting society but benefiting a few members of society. And if anything- long copyright periods appear to be destroying the creation of new works in multiple ways.
I support a reasonable copyright period. About 14 or fewer years with a one time (14 more years) expensive reup fee ($500grand plus) so most works would fall in to the public domain and then could be used to create new works.
Slashdot Mirror
That's more equivalent to buying a DVD which has seen several owners and has scratches.
Same thing will eventually happen to the physical copy of the game as well. It will break due to age and use eventually. And then you must buy another copy.
Not everyone is qualified to be an astronaut
Or a doctor etc.
Our economic system is not capable of handling this shift. Without some form basic income, you'll end up with a lot of untalented average to low intelligence pissed off population.
The service jobs will increasingly be replaced by robots. How many receptionists or secretaries do you know these days? Robots are coming on very fast. Their costs are very low ($15k a year with the ability to"work" 20 hours a day and with SLA's- basically never be sick. No Payroll taxes. No benefits.
We will be in the ironic midst of plentiful cheap goods and yet lack any money to buy them.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/10/technology-explains-drop-in-manufacturing-jobs
"Manufacturing employment has fallen by one-third over the past decade. "
Okay you're right...we make more stuff.. but the trend is fewer jobs.
Ah.. so when you resell the car, the trunk should lock, the A/C should stop working, and the gas mileage should drop from 27mpg to 21mpg.
We want to keep the "premium" car experience to first purchasers.
I agree they are being jerks.
But if you invest $10,000,000 to make the first coffee table, then you are going to want to make at least $10,000,000 back.
And if you invested $30,000,000 in three other failures, then you are going to price this game to make $40,000,000 or go bankrupt.
That investment is people's salaries, rent on the buildings, power bills, computer and desks.
Once you get past that base cost, sure, the extra copies are "free".
I think the publishers are cheating, swindling, weasels who want us to pay 5 times for the exact same content. And we have a right to scream and shout about it and try to convince people not to buy the products.
But try to be realistic about the real costs to make these games.
I second that! Standing may be uncomfortable - especially when you are exhausted- but you are awake and attentive longer than if you were sitting.
The article says to avoid learning disparate skills like dancing and tennis at the same time.
it says something like "learn several moves of a dance style interleaved... that way you will integrate the different moves and learn the dance faster overall".
A hundred years from now,
If things don't blow up, most people will live in conditions we consider to be poverty with regard to food, water usage, and vacation today.
However, there will be a lot of electronic entertainment and it's possible that via direct input to the brain we'll have the experience of great vacations and fine food which would mitigate that.
We'll have so many people crammed on the planet that a decent lifestyle will be impossible unless we find a way to directly manufacture food from energy.
If things do blow up...
We'll be mostly dead from bio warfare
Or actual warfare disrupting food transportation resulting in the death of billions.
Or a small scale nuclear war with similar effects.
Or a mass dieoff when the oceans finish collapsing, some kind of virus kills our monoculture crops, and we just can't produce enough food and distribute enough water to keep things going.
And it's increasingly likely the future will be as predicted in the 50's. An eternity of the boot of the rulers on the face of humanity without end as the weapons become good enough and the social control systems become effective enough that revolution is no longer possible.
I think you missed the entire robber baron era.
A weak government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few.
A strong government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few.
Societies that start off with anti concentration laws and customs avoid it a while longer but sooner or later it still happens.
Look up the "Iron Law of Oligarchy". It pretty much ends with revolution or oppression and then revolution fairly consistently. It's like the folks who are wealthy and powerful just don't know when to quit pushing for more.
I think it goes beyond the money to make legislators aware to the amount of money to flat out give to the legislators. The legislators are aware of the issue and know it's wrong but they get $200k plus a good shot at a job voting the wrong way or nothing if they vote the right way. It only takes a few years to corrupt any of them.
Clearly- I take a darker view on this than you. It's going to take a massive movement by the people (tea party and OWS are possible first signs of this movement) to change things. It may be too late.
Going to move on but thanks for the interesting responses.
I think you missed the entire robber baron era.
A weak government also leads to a strong concentration of power in the hands of a few.
Look up the "Iron Law of Oligarchy". It pretty much ends with oppression or revolution fairly consistently.
I think it goes beyond the money to make legislators aware to the amount of money to flat out give to the legislators. The legislators are aware of the issue and know it's wrong but they get $200k plus a good shot at a job voting the wrong way or nothing if they vote the right way. It only takes a few years to corrupt any of them.
Clearly- I take a darker view on this than you. It's going to take a massive movement by the people (tea party and OWS are possible first signs of this movement) to change things. It may be too late.
Going to move on but thanks for the interesting responses.
I agree with you on the government regs.
And the government writes the regs that way because the concentration of wealth in the top 1% allows them to pay / bribe "the government" to write the regs that way.
Small business people have no hope to oppose the wealthy and larger corporations unless the concentration of wealth at the top is reduced to be closer to small business owners.
Bush Sr and Clinton had some respect for it.
It pretty much went out the window with Bush Jr.
Obama has no spine so it doesn't really matter there.
The congress is bought and paid property (and members of) the top 1%. They write the laws to satisfy themselves and their wealthier masters, not the citizens any more.
It only seems that way because you are already here.
Let's put it this way- would you support a return to the 72 hour weeks and 12 year old child labor we had in the 1920's?
Without the government laws we have today, we would return to those days. And "exempt" status is being abused to return to that status now.
Simply restricting exempt workers to those who supervise 3 or more workers would probably tighten the market by 1% to 2%.
It is ALL a relative game. The reason things are so harsh right now is because 1% of the population is taking 24% of the wealth while they took 9% back in the 1980's.
They only have 1 or 2 cell phones, 6 or 7 houses, 6 or 7 cars. When the 15% went to the rest of the populace instead, the money went into a higher demand for goods.
If this trend continues- by 2050, this group of people will be taking in 75% of the countries income. Clearly things must stop before then. And if it doesn't- they'll also be paying over 75% of the income taxes if there is any kind of personal deduction at all.
Okay-- it's the "Making Work Pay" tax credit. $400 a year. It is cancelled as of this year.
No, I was referring to the EITC. I looked around and it looks like my poor friend may have been misinformed by the library.
The IRS shows no change in the EITC for this year. She had been told it was cancelled starting this year and her taxes on her $12,000 annual income would go up by about $500 by the free tax preparation service at the library.
From here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=233839,00.html
Tax Year 2012 maximum credit:
$475 with no qualifying children
It looks like her taxes will still be lowered by $475 if she makes up to $13,980.
Thanks,
Hard to get a better gig in my current situation.
It was nice until they overcommitted to an impossible schedule.
But the pay is good, health care good, fully vested in vacation (which can be taken in 1 or 2 day bits right now- it's just longer chunks that are frowned on), retirement package is unbeatable- as I said I'll be "set" in 3 years.
It's more of a work life balance. Finding a place with 40-45 hour weeks.
I see how you get that. You misunderstood the numbers or what I'm saying...
While paying a tax rate of 18% for the wealthiest americans
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/07/25/the-400-richest-americans-pay-an-18-tax-rate/
and a tax rate of 24% for the top 1% of americans
http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/10/25/beyond-the-1-percent/
The share of federal taxes they pay is 36%.
They reason they pay a lower rate but a higher share of taxes is that they take much more than their share of the countries income.
The top 1% has 40% of the nation's wealth and takes home 24% of the entire countries income. They took just 9% in the 1970's.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/03/334156/top-five-wealthiest-one-percent/?mobile=nc
---
Let me put it this way.. if these trends continue, by 2040 they will have 75% of the nations income. At that point- since they took most of the income, they would pay even more of the income tax even if their income tax rate fell even further.
---
And let me put it another way....
If you take home a FOURTH of the nation's income, and everyone doesn't really pay taxes on the first 6k of their income, then you will pay a THIRD of the total taxes.
--- .000185% on the top 1%.
Had an error in my post above. The gas tax on the poor is 1.6%, not 5%. And it's still
--- .5%. The bottom half of the top 1% are basically poor compared to the top .5%.
And FYI, the top 1% is really just a cover for the top
$380k per year income. (bottom of the top .5%) .5%)
Millions to Multi millions per year in income (top of the top
http://www.lcurve.org/
Correction on the gasoline tax. .5% (not 5%). vs 0%.
They pay for more in absolute dollars but they pay a far lower tax rate.
When you add in fixed taxes and license fees, the difference is even more dramatic.
Top 400 familes pay about 17.5% total tax load.
The top 2.67% pay about 23% total tax load
The folks at 60% to 80% pay about 40% total tax load.
The folks at 20% (poverty) pay about 25% total tax load.
To the wealthy, $3.70 in gasoline taxes for a tank of gasoline is basically a 0% rate. To the poor, $3.70 in gasoline taxes is about 5% of their weekly income.
Same for cigarette, phone taxes, booze, sales tax, etc.
Property tax appears in your rent or in your mortgage. It runs from about 5% for the poor (but lower as they share housing) to about 3% for the middle class to about 2% for the wealthy.
I.e.
A $1000/year property tax bill embedded in their rent for a poor person is a huge chunk of their income.
A $30,000 tax bill for the top 2.67% is about 2%.
The poor spend most of their income on taxable purchases. The wealthy do not. So an 8% sales tax load hits the poor for 8% of their income while it hits the wealthy for under 1%.
Google "who pays state taxes" and also look here http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table3
The media owned by the wealthy has really been pushing the propaganda that the lower 50% of income earners pay no taxes.
But the more accurate statement is the bottom 50% pay low or no federal income taxes ( tho that changes big time this year now that hte earned income tax credit has been removed) while the wealthy pay a much lower percentage of their income as taxes.
It is accurate to say they pay more taxes in absolute dollars. But did you realize if the tax bill for running the country was divided evenly, it works out to over $11,000 per citizen? More like $33,000 per working person. And that's ignoring social security taxes.
If companies were prevented from overworking their employees, unemployment would immediately drop steeply.
That is the original reason for time and a half. To generate higher employment.
If you required straight time pay for every hour worked by exempt employees over 50 hours, it would cut unemployment immediately.
Likewise, if you required that exempt employees must supervise at least 3 other employees, you would end the abuse to the "exempt" status which has grown over the last few decades. There was a time when exempt employees were all mostly management.
It wasn't the only cause but it was a combination of lack of training, not working over 60 hours a week, and then taking 7 days of vacation in a row.
I'm saving very hard. I'm looking forward to the day I am safe and don't care. I won't quit. I'll just stop putting out the effort while remaining positive and pleasant.
Looks to be about three years.
You buy one of several packages.
They calculate sales tax and maintain the tables to keep it correct in all states.
It really should be the federal and state govt job tho.
They should have a site your computer system can access to get the sales tax.
I play a Cyclopedia based system myself. Game is 18 years old.
However, I have lots of house rules... such as...
Hit dice keep going (so a 25th level fighter might have 150 hit points without other house rules). Armor gives some hit point bonuses (like mmorgs) bringing that up to about 180. A mage has about 120.
Which means the monsters average 30 points of damage a round. Since they miss about a third of the time, that means they hit for about 40 points of damage.
I modified the deflect rules (deflects are 5,8,11, or 14 hp).
I added spells which have negative saving throw modifiers. So a killing spell cast by a 25th level magician hits for about 80 points and has a -12 saving throw modifier.
Have two sessions a month- 12 players. Plus special merged holiday games. About 60% hack and slash and 40% roleplaying. They long ago got tired of running dominions.
The sheer amount of equipment accumulated over the years is an issue so I instituted a rule that equipment had a level and monsters six levels higher were immune to the equipment.
Some folks are married- some folks have kids. They adventure "in game" only about a week a month- being retired most of the rest of the time.
The cool times are when the players are completely connected to the world and reacting emotionally to things that only exist in my game. When they worry about awakening a "made" creature. When they talk about the timeless time before time began. When they negotiate with sylvan folk for memories.
The main group is now in the third year of a quest I declared impossible (it was put there as an example of something more powerful groups gave up at- no intention to ever run it) They are about 60% done and likely to finish in 8 to 10 more months. It's going to change the game world permanently.
If you were to combine weapon speed initiative with the turn system in the boardgame "Thebes", you would have a great system.
The problem is that in the real world, weapons are about reach and who attacks first because just about any weapon can kill you in the real world, even a "churchkey".
The faster person hits first in a killing blow and that's it. There are no hit points.
That reality also leads to massive fatalities in the real world unless everyone mostly cowers and tries to avoid being hit.
There is armor- and it helps. But people still die a lot and very fast. Not the best way to make a great campaign.
1974 - First edition
1989 - Second edition
2000 - Third edition
2008 - Forth edition
2012 - Fifth edition
2015 - Sixth Edition
2017 - Seventh Edition
2018 - Eight Edition
2018 - Special Summer Edition
2018 - Special Fall Edition
2018 - Special December Edition
2018 - Special Late December Edition
2018 - Special Christmas Edition
2018 - Special End of the Year Edition
2018 - Special Last Day of the Year Edition
2018 - Special Afternoon of the Last Day of the Year Edition
2018 - Special Late Evening Edition
2018 - Special Close to Midnight Edition
2018 - Special special special special -D&D Singularity-
Why is it immoral to distribute the contents of your post:
(i.e.)
"And that's the crux of the matter. Until somebody actually shells out for a license you can't say for certain if they would."
Oh horseshit, that's not at all relevant. The true crux is the immoral and illegal decision to take something without reimbursing the owner. That they *wouldn't* have purchased it anyway doesn't mean a damn thing. Don't think it's worth purchasing? Don't rip it off.
It appears to me that your core belief resolves to this: If I don't want to pay for it, I shouldn't be punished harshly when it's found I ripped it off.
Pretty shoddy moral grounds.
(i.e.)
It's illegal because we said, "for the public good, a limited period of copyright shall be provided to induce creation of new works". We can say something different if we want. Right now- corporations are paying big money to say something different which is much more restrictive. Many people disagree the corporations and government are behaving morally. So the only reason I can see for you to say it is immoral is that you are flatly asserting it. You have no basis or justification for the morality claim.
Extending the copyright to the duration it is at is no longer benefiting society but benefiting a few members of society. And if anything- long copyright periods appear to be destroying the creation of new works in multiple ways.
I support a reasonable copyright period. About 14 or fewer years with a one time (14 more years) expensive reup fee ($500grand plus) so most works would fall in to the public domain and then could be used to create new works.
Free mickey mouse. It's time.