The Matrix sequels which people bash on religiously, still broke box-office records, and sold quite well on DVD. V For Vendetta did well at the box office, and sold well on DVD.
So yes, studios still very much listen to these guys, and they should.
The major flaw with the Matrix sequels was the script, which had too much exposition. V For Vendetta proved they could take a lengthy graphic novel that is heavy on exposition, and not overload their movie with it. And from AICN's script review of Speed Racer, it will be a movie that focuses primarily on intense action sequences.
In case anyone forgot, Matrix Reloaded, horrid exposition and all, still happens to feature perhaps the most insane freeway sequence in the history of film. The State of California wouldn't let them film it on any of their highways because they said the script for that sequence was unfilmable, and it was guaranteed to kill people in the process.
I'd wager that any real student or lover of film is still very much interested in how these guys will continue to innovate in later movies, even if their previous films have flaws. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a perfect film. Even my absolute favorites still have glaring flaws.
Actually, I thought Waking Life was rotoscoped, like A Scanner Darkly, and rotoscoping is a very old technique. It may have been sped up through the aid of computers, but rotoscoping was invented in the 30's if I recall.
Portage, portage and portage. Or maybe a second-generation portage-replacement. Pkgcore and Pauldis are awesome.
USE flags are by far the greatest strength of Gentoo, and the packages within a portage tree can be source,.deb,.rpm or whatever. It doesn't matter. Seriously, the entire Linux world should consider a portage-style universal method of package delivery.
The FSF foundation is based on software, not hardware. The GPL v3 is a software license that seems more fixated on hardware issues than anything else.
The main proponents who are upset at TiVo are people who were hacking the TiVo hardware to avoid paying the monthly subscription, which I don't understand. Just build a MythTV box or something. TiVo released the source, and their profit model was based on a monthly subscription fee. They obeyed the law, probably brought more attention to the GPL, saw the merit of open-sourced software, and tried to make money as a business. I don't think any part of that is evil.
I believe the GPL v3 will be a HUGE turn-off from any corporation who wants to consider open-source software.
Which is more important for the FSF's goals, people getting free TiVo by hacking it, or the spread and perception of open-source software into the corporate world?
People are upset that TiVO is telling you what you can and can't do with the hardware, and last time I checked the big 3 cable companies (Comcast, Cox and TimeWarner) all offered DVR service with their cable box.
With Cox, I pay $5 a month extra for a DVR box as opposed to my normal box. I don't buy any hardware, and $5 a month is far cheaper than paying for TiVo service. I've had a HD DVR box for 4 years, and I've replaced it three times. Each time it hasn't cost me a penny, since Cox is responsible for it. A few years back when I was looking, if I had to buy a box it would have been $600-$700 a pop, and I'm sure glad I don't have to pay to replace those.
I don't believe it was necessary to buy the rights, but that all depends.
If you simply wish to base your movies on the public domain books, you don't need any rights. If you wish to incorporate any of the concepts or stylings of the Judy Garland version of the movie, then you do.
There is a third possibility that they wished to avoid any potential lawsuits. Whether or not MGM had legal right to sue this movie production, perhaps it was easier just to pay them a modest sum not to worry about it. A good example would be Winnie the Pooh.
AA Milne created Winnie the Pooh, and his family claims they own the rights to said characters. Disney owns the rights to their trademarked versions of Winnie the Pooh, but last time I checked Disney went one step further and claimed since their version was more well-known, thusly they should own all rights to the character. MGM could make the same argument for The Wizard of Oz. Very few people seem to know much about the book, or even that it differs greatly from the movie, but everyone recognizes the movie, and the iconic imagery from it.
Funny, I saw the entire trilogy on sale on HD-DVD for $60 the day it came out, making it $20 per movie, as opposed to $25 for the Blu-Ray versions of Pirates. A quick glance at Amazon shows this is still the case today.
I'm not sure why people have these really high list prices on movies, when inevitably they sell for considerably less. I love how brand new plain ol' DVDs will have an MSRP of $30 for a disc, or sometimes even a gawdy $35 for a two-disc special edition, and then it will sell for $15 or $20 on sale at Wal-Mart, Target, Fry's, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.
When discussing price I find it vastly more relevant to discuss what people actually pay, not some fictitious figure just thrown around.
That is the thing with EULA's. With a law, we assume it needs to be fair and consistent. Rules should be the same for software across the board, right, or it should make sense in some way. However, a software company can basically put whatever terms they want into a EULA and get away with it, because 99% of people never even read them.
If I were a programmer, I'd hide crazy stuff in the EULA just to see if people catch it.
"On the third Thursday of August, if you happen to be sleeping with your significant other, you must satisfy them no less than 2 times, and no more than 4 times, each time making them call out my name. If you are not engaging in such activities on that date, you may substitute a fan-fiction of no less than 1,500 words which must be posted to 3 separate social networking sites and USENET."
"Technical assistance will only be provided after we finger each other online.
The Windows XP license governs how many PCs it can be installed on, not the number of instances on that machine. The Vista license does differentiate, and you can only have one instance period.
And there is plenty of legal precedent to allow for backing up data you own legally so long as you don't distribute it, but there are people like the RIAA who would like to take away that right.
Any document can by copyrighted, and if you state on a document that you don't grant the right to duplicate said document, then it is a crime to do so.
Try taking a copy of your Harry Potter book down to Kinko's and ask them to photocopy a page.
As for liability for downloading a program, when you install a program, you are most often asked to agree to a EULA. When you click "I Agree" and next, you are making yourself liable.
The interface is a big factor. Console gaming is bigger than PC gaming right now, and adventure games don't do as well on the console. However, some are crediting the DS with bringing awareness back to the genre.
Closed email systems allow for read receipts, and I never understood why a standard for read receipts never caught on.
I've worked for three major corporations, and all of them have been big on read receipts to track email, where as people can say, "oh, I didn't check my voice mail yet" just as easily as they can say they haven't read their email yet. However with a read receipt, you can verify if that is true.
It isn't against the DCMA simply to delete something. Had he only deleted registry entries, no one would know or care.
However, this was merely one step in copying coupons and intentionally violating the terms of the site. I'm not sure the DCMA applies to coupons, and the DCMA can be over-reaching, but I don't really have much sympathy for this guy. If you're trying to make a case against the DCMA, this seems like a poor example to choose. Surely there are better ones?
The HD-DVD players have been on the market longer. If the cheaper price were a factor, they'd have the lead. People are buying the Blu-Ray players inspite of the higher cost, and the PS3 is a major reason Blu-Ray has taken a lead. People may forget, but the PS2 was a huge factor in DVD adoption over VHS. So you insist gaming consoles are a non-factor, when numbers suggest otherwise.
As for Bourne, I saw on a Blu-Ray release list, plus that studio is supposed to be backing Blu-Ray, but then this stuff changes all the time. I could be wrong.
I thought I saw it mentioned here in Slashdot that Target when Blu-Ray exclusive for movies. Perhaps I am mistaken, and I need to go Googling to find out for sure.
I never really bother with game demos, but I will make an exception here. There are far too few atmospheric games, far too few quality PC games, and I love to see people harken pack to PC classics like System Shock 1 and 2, which this would have been a sequel to if they had the rights.
People hate voice mail. It is easier to plan, revise and think-out email. People are nervous about speaking. E-mail leaves the ever-important trail to use against people later. You're already using the computer, so it seems like an extra effort at times to switch tasks to the phone.
And this is the biggest supposition on my part, but it seems that people "look forward" to getting email, where as they feel annoyed anytime the phone rings.
Microsoft slashed the price of their HD-DVD addon as soon as Target and Blockbuster decided to only carry Blu-Ray. (Technically Blockbuster stores that already have HD-DVD content can still keep it, but all new purchases will be Blu-Ray solely).
Supposedly, sales of Microsoft's uber-cheap HD-DVD player skyrocketed right after they slashed the price. I wonder if someone at Paramount saw a huge surge in HD-DVD player sales the past two weeks and based their decision solely on that factor. Sure the 360 add-on is cheap right now, but there are two things to consider. First, you really need a nice $400 console to begin with, and then a $179 add-on, versus a $500 or $600 PS3 so the price is basically the same. Second, even if you get the player cheap, what good is it if you won't be able to buy movies for it in the future?
The last big showdown was supposed to be two months back when The Matrix movies were all released exclusively on HD-DVD the same weekend as Pirates 1 and 2 being released exclusively on Blu-Ray. Pirates stomped all over HD-DVD. I'm sure I will come across as a fanboi here, but while competition is good, when it comes to formats, it is better to have one industry standard. Everyone who dumps big money into a format will be pissed if and when that format loses the war. We're only punishing consumers. Even with this switch, the vast majority of the studios are backing Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray offers more storage, Blockbuster is backing Blu-Ray, and so is Target.
All Paramount is doing right now is dragging this out longer than they need to. All the big summer blockbusters will be coming out around November or December, right? Of those big movie purchases that will decide the market in the pivotal holiday season, how many will be Paramount/Dreamworks movies? Transformers and Shrek 3.
Blu-Ray has Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter, 300, Ratatouille, Simpsons, The Bourne Ultimatum, All 4 Die Hard movies, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Fantastic Four 2, Surf's Up (never underestimate DVD sales on a kid's movie like this), Rush Hour 3, etc.
People forget that Blu-Ray had to come from behind, and is establishing a sizable lead, and after the holiday season, that lead should widen significantly. It should also be noted that Warner Brothers committed to release all their content on Blu-Ray as well eventually, so the Matrix movies will be getting Blu-Ray releases as well, which takes away one of the big current HD-DVD exclusives.
Wizards of the Coast said they are doing Forgotten Realms first, and only one setting a year. If I had to hazard a guess, Eberron would be next, and then Dragonlance. Ravenloft would likely be next in line, and they want want to do a new campaign setting. Oh, and don't forget Oriental Adventures/L5R. WotC has stated repeatedly they had no interest in bringing back Planescape or Dark Sun, but at best you can hope that in 6 years or so they might consider it given that none of this even begins to kick off until next year.
Honestly, I don't know. I'm seriously considering looking into a home-made Linux based media center PC, but right now XBMC on my hacked XBox, and my cable box provide everything I need without spending any money on building a new PC. Cox, my cable company only charges me $5 a month for DVR service, so I haven't felt the need to really look into any of that yet.
I love running emulators and apps, not to mention a media server on my TV via my XBox. Honestly, my main desire in a media center PC wouldn't be in recording HD cable shows for free, but rather adding apps to increase functionality.
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The Matrix sequels which people bash on religiously, still broke box-office records, and sold quite well on DVD. V For Vendetta did well at the box office, and sold well on DVD.
So yes, studios still very much listen to these guys, and they should.
The major flaw with the Matrix sequels was the script, which had too much exposition. V For Vendetta proved they could take a lengthy graphic novel that is heavy on exposition, and not overload their movie with it. And from AICN's script review of Speed Racer, it will be a movie that focuses primarily on intense action sequences.
In case anyone forgot, Matrix Reloaded, horrid exposition and all, still happens to feature perhaps the most insane freeway sequence in the history of film. The State of California wouldn't let them film it on any of their highways because they said the script for that sequence was unfilmable, and it was guaranteed to kill people in the process.
I'd wager that any real student or lover of film is still very much interested in how these guys will continue to innovate in later movies, even if their previous films have flaws. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a perfect film. Even my absolute favorites still have glaring flaws.
Actually, I thought Waking Life was rotoscoped, like A Scanner Darkly, and rotoscoping is a very old technique. It may have been sped up through the aid of computers, but rotoscoping was invented in the 30's if I recall.
Portage, portage and portage. Or maybe a second-generation portage-replacement. Pkgcore and Pauldis are awesome.
.deb, .rpm or whatever. It doesn't matter. Seriously, the entire Linux world should consider a portage-style universal method of package delivery.
USE flags are by far the greatest strength of Gentoo, and the packages within a portage tree can be source,
The FSF foundation is based on software, not hardware. The GPL v3 is a software license that seems more fixated on hardware issues than anything else.
The main proponents who are upset at TiVo are people who were hacking the TiVo hardware to avoid paying the monthly subscription, which I don't understand. Just build a MythTV box or something. TiVo released the source, and their profit model was based on a monthly subscription fee. They obeyed the law, probably brought more attention to the GPL, saw the merit of open-sourced software, and tried to make money as a business. I don't think any part of that is evil.
I believe the GPL v3 will be a HUGE turn-off from any corporation who wants to consider open-source software.
Which is more important for the FSF's goals, people getting free TiVo by hacking it, or the spread and perception of open-source software into the corporate world?
People are upset that TiVO is telling you what you can and can't do with the hardware, and last time I checked the big 3 cable companies (Comcast, Cox and TimeWarner) all offered DVR service with their cable box.
With Cox, I pay $5 a month extra for a DVR box as opposed to my normal box. I don't buy any hardware, and $5 a month is far cheaper than paying for TiVo service. I've had a HD DVR box for 4 years, and I've replaced it three times. Each time it hasn't cost me a penny, since Cox is responsible for it. A few years back when I was looking, if I had to buy a box it would have been $600-$700 a pop, and I'm sure glad I don't have to pay to replace those.
I don't believe it was necessary to buy the rights, but that all depends.
If you simply wish to base your movies on the public domain books, you don't need any rights.
If you wish to incorporate any of the concepts or stylings of the Judy Garland version of the movie, then you do.
There is a third possibility that they wished to avoid any potential lawsuits. Whether or not MGM had legal right to sue this movie production, perhaps it was easier just to pay them a modest sum not to worry about it. A good example would be Winnie the Pooh.
AA Milne created Winnie the Pooh, and his family claims they own the rights to said characters. Disney owns the rights to their trademarked versions of Winnie the Pooh, but last time I checked Disney went one step further and claimed since their version was more well-known, thusly they should own all rights to the character. MGM could make the same argument for The Wizard of Oz. Very few people seem to know much about the book, or even that it differs greatly from the movie, but everyone recognizes the movie, and the iconic imagery from it.
Funny, I saw the entire trilogy on sale on HD-DVD for $60 the day it came out, making it $20 per movie, as opposed to $25 for the Blu-Ray versions of Pirates. A quick glance at Amazon shows this is still the case today.
I'm not sure why people have these really high list prices on movies, when inevitably they sell for considerably less. I love how brand new plain ol' DVDs will have an MSRP of $30 for a disc, or sometimes even a gawdy $35 for a two-disc special edition, and then it will sell for $15 or $20 on sale at Wal-Mart, Target, Fry's, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.
When discussing price I find it vastly more relevant to discuss what people actually pay, not some fictitious figure just thrown around.
I'm dyslexic and tired, but thanks for correcting me regardless. I'm also pedantic, and prefer to get it right.
That is the thing with EULA's. With a law, we assume it needs to be fair and consistent. Rules should be the same for software across the board, right, or it should make sense in some way. However, a software company can basically put whatever terms they want into a EULA and get away with it, because 99% of people never even read them.
If I were a programmer, I'd hide crazy stuff in the EULA just to see if people catch it.
"On the third Thursday of August, if you happen to be sleeping with your significant other, you must satisfy them no less than 2 times, and no more than 4 times, each time making them call out my name. If you are not engaging in such activities on that date, you may substitute a fan-fiction of no less than 1,500 words which must be posted to 3 separate social networking sites and USENET."
"Technical assistance will only be provided after we finger each other online.
The Windows XP license governs how many PCs it can be installed on, not the number of instances on that machine. The Vista license does differentiate, and you can only have one instance period.
And there is plenty of legal precedent to allow for backing up data you own legally so long as you don't distribute it, but there are people like the RIAA who would like to take away that right.
Any document can by copyrighted, and if you state on a document that you don't grant the right to duplicate said document, then it is a crime to do so.
Try taking a copy of your Harry Potter book down to Kinko's and ask them to photocopy a page.
As for liability for downloading a program, when you install a program, you are most often asked to agree to a EULA. When you click "I Agree" and next, you are making yourself liable.
It is part of the agreement of the site. The terms of the site limit the coupons, and he circumvented that.
Vista's EULA takes virtualization into account, but RAID arrays only function as one copy.
The interface is a big factor. Console gaming is bigger than PC gaming right now, and adventure games don't do as well on the console. However, some are crediting the DS with bringing awareness back to the genre.
Closed email systems allow for read receipts, and I never understood why a standard for read receipts never caught on.
I've worked for three major corporations, and all of them have been big on read receipts to track email, where as people can say, "oh, I didn't check my voice mail yet" just as easily as they can say they haven't read their email yet. However with a read receipt, you can verify if that is true.
It isn't against the DCMA simply to delete something. Had he only deleted registry entries, no one would know or care.
However, this was merely one step in copying coupons and intentionally violating the terms of the site. I'm not sure the DCMA applies to coupons, and the DCMA can be over-reaching, but I don't really have much sympathy for this guy. If you're trying to make a case against the DCMA, this seems like a poor example to choose. Surely there are better ones?
Odd those Universal HD-DVD exclusives are on Blu-Ray release lists.
Good addition. I should have thought of that.
The logic doesn't hold for a number of reasons.
The HD-DVD players have been on the market longer. If the cheaper price were a factor, they'd have the lead. People are buying the Blu-Ray players inspite of the higher cost, and the PS3 is a major reason Blu-Ray has taken a lead. People may forget, but the PS2 was a huge factor in DVD adoption over VHS. So you insist gaming consoles are a non-factor, when numbers suggest otherwise.
As for Bourne, I saw on a Blu-Ray release list, plus that studio is supposed to be backing Blu-Ray, but then this stuff changes all the time. I could be wrong.
I thought I saw it mentioned here in Slashdot that Target when Blu-Ray exclusive for movies. Perhaps I am mistaken, and I need to go Googling to find out for sure.
I never really bother with game demos, but I will make an exception here. There are far too few atmospheric games, far too few quality PC games, and I love to see people harken pack to PC classics like System Shock 1 and 2, which this would have been a sequel to if they had the rights.
People hate voice mail.
It is easier to plan, revise and think-out email.
People are nervous about speaking.
E-mail leaves the ever-important trail to use against people later.
You're already using the computer, so it seems like an extra effort at times to switch tasks to the phone.
And this is the biggest supposition on my part, but it seems that people "look forward" to getting email, where as they feel annoyed anytime the phone rings.
Microsoft slashed the price of their HD-DVD addon as soon as Target and Blockbuster decided to only carry Blu-Ray. (Technically Blockbuster stores that already have HD-DVD content can still keep it, but all new purchases will be Blu-Ray solely).
Supposedly, sales of Microsoft's uber-cheap HD-DVD player skyrocketed right after they slashed the price. I wonder if someone at Paramount saw a huge surge in HD-DVD player sales the past two weeks and based their decision solely on that factor. Sure the 360 add-on is cheap right now, but there are two things to consider. First, you really need a nice $400 console to begin with, and then a $179 add-on, versus a $500 or $600 PS3 so the price is basically the same. Second, even if you get the player cheap, what good is it if you won't be able to buy movies for it in the future?
The last big showdown was supposed to be two months back when The Matrix movies were all released exclusively on HD-DVD the same weekend as Pirates 1 and 2 being released exclusively on Blu-Ray. Pirates stomped all over HD-DVD. I'm sure I will come across as a fanboi here, but while competition is good, when it comes to formats, it is better to have one industry standard. Everyone who dumps big money into a format will be pissed if and when that format loses the war. We're only punishing consumers. Even with this switch, the vast majority of the studios are backing Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray offers more storage, Blockbuster is backing Blu-Ray, and so is Target.
All Paramount is doing right now is dragging this out longer than they need to. All the big summer blockbusters will be coming out around November or December, right? Of those big movie purchases that will decide the market in the pivotal holiday season, how many will be Paramount/Dreamworks movies? Transformers and Shrek 3.
Blu-Ray has Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter, 300, Ratatouille, Simpsons, The Bourne Ultimatum, All 4 Die Hard movies, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Fantastic Four 2, Surf's Up (never underestimate DVD sales on a kid's movie like this), Rush Hour 3, etc.
People forget that Blu-Ray had to come from behind, and is establishing a sizable lead, and after the holiday season, that lead should widen significantly. It should also be noted that Warner Brothers committed to release all their content on Blu-Ray as well eventually, so the Matrix movies will be getting Blu-Ray releases as well, which takes away one of the big current HD-DVD exclusives.
Wizards of the Coast said they are doing Forgotten Realms first, and only one setting a year. If I had to hazard a guess, Eberron would be next, and then Dragonlance. Ravenloft would likely be next in line, and they want want to do a new campaign setting. Oh, and don't forget Oriental Adventures/L5R. WotC has stated repeatedly they had no interest in bringing back Planescape or Dark Sun, but at best you can hope that in 6 years or so they might consider it given that none of this even begins to kick off until next year.
Honestly, I don't know. I'm seriously considering looking into a home-made Linux based media center PC, but right now XBMC on my hacked XBox, and my cable box provide everything I need without spending any money on building a new PC. Cox, my cable company only charges me $5 a month for DVR service, so I haven't felt the need to really look into any of that yet.
I love running emulators and apps, not to mention a media server on my TV via my XBox. Honestly, my main desire in a media center PC wouldn't be in recording HD cable shows for free, but rather adding apps to increase functionality.