It's $2. I normally hate these sort of schemes (was bad-mouthing Warner just the other day for a similar plan). But at $2, that's actually not a bad deal at all for the convenience.
Studios continue to charge again and again for the same media
I would agree with you if they were trying to charge $10 or $20 for this. But $2 for the added convenience is a pretty trivial cost. The amount of time I would spend ripping 20 DVD's is way more valuable to me that the $40 I could pay them to do it. And, since vudu is already available on my Xbox and vudu handles the quality, I don't have to worry about any conversion issues there.
Actually, at $2 a pop, I might use it if it's fast, decent quality, and available in a centralized place on my Xbox 360 (like Netflix). Would be a handy place to stream DVD's on my Xbox without having to deal with discs. Of course, those are a lot of "ifs" and it would need to work pretty much exactly like Netflix's streaming on my Xbox.
I can see that being useful for titles not available for Netflix streaming (again, assuming that it's as simple as and of similar quality to Netflix). $2 a disc is a trivial cost to me for that added convenience.
I would put the city governments in D.C. and Detroit up against Chicago any day. Anytime the mayors and council members of cities on the edge of bankruptcy are driving around in brand new Mercedes, you know something untoward is going on.
For one thing, you would lose the moral high ground of being able to say you were doing it for the good of your people, not just for the profits of selling the knockoff. For another thing, this would probably violate a stack of trade agreements.
Well, I think you've made a good case for why the government should be doing its own R&D and not relying on Pfizer. But I bet if you asked the Indian government to put their money where they mouth is, you would be greeted with silence. It's that way even in the U.S. Everyone bitches about drug prices, but then they turn around and elect politicians who have no damned intention of funding drug development through the government.
Well apparently the academic institutions, small biotechnology companies, and NIH are motivated by profit too, or they would be putting the drugs into the public domain, wouldn't they?
I know I'm going to burn karma for saying this (wouldn't be the first time), but do keep in mind that the R&D costs for developing these drugs is paid from the profits these companies make. Now, maybe governments themselves should be doing the development instead of for-profit companies, maybe the drug company profits are too high, and maybe Bayer were dicks to charge that much for a drug in a poor country. But if you're going to keep the system as-is, you had think long and hard before you just start ripping patents left-and-right. It may be politically popular, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.
If you're going to say "X company doesn't get to patent its drugs" you need to come up with a replacement for the money that X company put into its research and development. If the government wants to serve its people this way, that's fine, but they also have an obligation to pony up the money for their own R&D program (and not one that just does knockoffs of existing drugs). Because without that profit motive from those patents, the drug companies sure aren't going to be developing anything new.
This is going to be one of those issues that ties many liberals in knots. On the one hand, they like the idea of fighting corporate greed and collusion price-fixing, on the other hand they're big on romanticizing local mom-and-pop stores (like many of the bookstores that will be hurt by online competition). But it seems to be the inevitable direction that things are going, not just for bookstores, but for a LOT of other types of retail store. If you're a retail bookstore these days and you can't answer the question "What do you offer that Amazon doesn't/can't?" then you're probably in trouble. And if price-fixing by government mandate is your only hope, you're in a LOT of trouble.
I have to admit that I much prefer the online experience myself. But it's not just the price that attracts me, but the selection. I just bought a pair of great shoes in my weird size online that I could have never in a million years found locally. Similarly, I can find books through Amazon which would never be stocked in any of my local bookstores (which all seem to be 90% Harry-Potter-Twilight and 10% over-priced-coffee-shop these days). But your mileage may vary.
It's been that the big ISP's and cellular companies have fought these municipal initiatives tooth and nail, including suing and getting their legislative slaves to pass laws outlawing them. A quick search tells the real story.
China can neither confirm or deny that the U.S. contracting out almost all its intelligence work now to third-party private contractors like Google, Stratfor, etc. makes it a lot easier to steal classified intelligence and code from you dumb yankees.
Everyone knows who the big names are who are likely to make it to the final four. It's predicting how things will go at the middle and bottom, where teams are much more likely to be evenly matched, that's really hard.
It's one thing to use genetic engineering to fight disease and obvious medical problems. But using something with such dangerous potential to advance a social agenda which society can't even agree on is going way too far. It's dangerous enough to screw with Mother Nature even when the objective is crystal clear. Screwing with something as dangerous as genetic engineering and altering humans en masse is insane for an objective this murky (not to mention the fact that it would violate every university's or hospital's ethics policies in about a million ways).
First, do no harm--even if you think it's for a good cause.
First of all, Jewish isn't a race, moron (and don't say anti-Semitic either, because the Palestinians are Semites too). Secondly, the Palestinians and Jews are both descendents of the same people who claimed that land thousands of years ago (before the Zealots came to prominence and decided to take on the aforementioned Roman Empire). And the Israelis have been oppressing the Palestinians VERY hard since the 67 war. They've been stealing their land, walling them off, and building settlements that they KNOW are on Palestinian land. And that's fine, but they shouldn't come crying for the U.S. to back them up when they're picking a fight and they damn well know it.
Would you wait for a nuke to be launched at your hometown before taking action?
Are you intentionally paraphrasing George Bush's "We don't want our wake-up call to be a mushroom cloud" speech in 2003 are are you truly unaware of how funny what you just said was?
And the CIA has been supplying weapons and support to the Green movement trying to overthrow the government in Iran and Israel has been assassinating their scientists. See, it cuts both ways.
Every Israeli is require to serve in the military (or equivalent public service). And when those soldiers finish basic, they do it on top of Masada. Pretty powerful message. Better to take on the Roman Empire and be completely wiped out than to compromise, even in the slightest.
If Israel wants to jump off the cliff and start a war, that's their business. If they would rather all die than to compromise with the Palestinians or Iranians in any way, that's their call. Build all the provocative settlements on Palestinian land you like, put up more walls to ghettoize them even more, kill all the Iranian nuclear scientists you like. Keep being pricks all you want.
But this American doesn't want to follow them off the cliff that they seem DETERMINED to jump off of. I don't want to see my President start World War III out of some foolish bullshit belief that Israel is looking out for ANYONE else but Israel, that we're BFF's. Find another way to get the Jewish vote, Mr. President.
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It's $2. I normally hate these sort of schemes (was bad-mouthing Warner just the other day for a similar plan). But at $2, that's actually not a bad deal at all for the convenience.
Studios continue to charge again and again for the same media
I would agree with you if they were trying to charge $10 or $20 for this. But $2 for the added convenience is a pretty trivial cost. The amount of time I would spend ripping 20 DVD's is way more valuable to me that the $40 I could pay them to do it. And, since vudu is already available on my Xbox and vudu handles the quality, I don't have to worry about any conversion issues there.
Actually, at $2 a pop, I might use it if it's fast, decent quality, and available in a centralized place on my Xbox 360 (like Netflix). Would be a handy place to stream DVD's on my Xbox without having to deal with discs. Of course, those are a lot of "ifs" and it would need to work pretty much exactly like Netflix's streaming on my Xbox.
I can see that being useful for titles not available for Netflix streaming (again, assuming that it's as simple as and of similar quality to Netflix). $2 a disc is a trivial cost to me for that added convenience.
This will teach you to launch a suicide attack on our entertainment industry, you monster!
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia can do whatever they like as long as they keep that sweet, sweet crude coming. I've got an SUV to fill.
I would put the city governments in D.C. and Detroit up against Chicago any day. Anytime the mayors and council members of cities on the edge of bankruptcy are driving around in brand new Mercedes, you know something untoward is going on.
What has the world come to?
For one thing, you would lose the moral high ground of being able to say you were doing it for the good of your people, not just for the profits of selling the knockoff. For another thing, this would probably violate a stack of trade agreements.
Well, I think you've made a good case for why the government should be doing its own R&D and not relying on Pfizer. But I bet if you asked the Indian government to put their money where they mouth is, you would be greeted with silence. It's that way even in the U.S. Everyone bitches about drug prices, but then they turn around and elect politicians who have no damned intention of funding drug development through the government.
Well apparently the academic institutions, small biotechnology companies, and NIH are motivated by profit too, or they would be putting the drugs into the public domain, wouldn't they?
I know I'm going to burn karma for saying this (wouldn't be the first time), but do keep in mind that the R&D costs for developing these drugs is paid from the profits these companies make. Now, maybe governments themselves should be doing the development instead of for-profit companies, maybe the drug company profits are too high, and maybe Bayer were dicks to charge that much for a drug in a poor country. But if you're going to keep the system as-is, you had think long and hard before you just start ripping patents left-and-right. It may be politically popular, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.
If you're going to say "X company doesn't get to patent its drugs" you need to come up with a replacement for the money that X company put into its research and development. If the government wants to serve its people this way, that's fine, but they also have an obligation to pony up the money for their own R&D program (and not one that just does knockoffs of existing drugs). Because without that profit motive from those patents, the drug companies sure aren't going to be developing anything new.
This is going to be one of those issues that ties many liberals in knots. On the one hand, they like the idea of fighting corporate greed and collusion price-fixing, on the other hand they're big on romanticizing local mom-and-pop stores (like many of the bookstores that will be hurt by online competition). But it seems to be the inevitable direction that things are going, not just for bookstores, but for a LOT of other types of retail store. If you're a retail bookstore these days and you can't answer the question "What do you offer that Amazon doesn't/can't?" then you're probably in trouble. And if price-fixing by government mandate is your only hope, you're in a LOT of trouble.
I have to admit that I much prefer the online experience myself. But it's not just the price that attracts me, but the selection. I just bought a pair of great shoes in my weird size online that I could have never in a million years found locally. Similarly, I can find books through Amazon which would never be stocked in any of my local bookstores (which all seem to be 90% Harry-Potter-Twilight and 10% over-priced-coffee-shop these days). But your mileage may vary.
It's been that the big ISP's and cellular companies have fought these municipal initiatives tooth and nail, including suing and getting their legislative slaves to pass laws outlawing them. A quick search tells the real story.
China can neither confirm or deny that the U.S. contracting out almost all its intelligence work now to third-party private contractors like Google, Stratfor, etc. makes it a lot easier to steal classified intelligence and code from you dumb yankees.
Everyone knows who the big names are who are likely to make it to the final four. It's predicting how things will go at the middle and bottom, where teams are much more likely to be evenly matched, that's really hard.
It's one thing to use genetic engineering to fight disease and obvious medical problems. But using something with such dangerous potential to advance a social agenda which society can't even agree on is going way too far. It's dangerous enough to screw with Mother Nature even when the objective is crystal clear. Screwing with something as dangerous as genetic engineering and altering humans en masse is insane for an objective this murky (not to mention the fact that it would violate every university's or hospital's ethics policies in about a million ways).
First, do no harm--even if you think it's for a good cause.
First of all, Jewish isn't a race, moron (and don't say anti-Semitic either, because the Palestinians are Semites too). Secondly, the Palestinians and Jews are both descendents of the same people who claimed that land thousands of years ago (before the Zealots came to prominence and decided to take on the aforementioned Roman Empire). And the Israelis have been oppressing the Palestinians VERY hard since the 67 war. They've been stealing their land, walling them off, and building settlements that they KNOW are on Palestinian land. And that's fine, but they shouldn't come crying for the U.S. to back them up when they're picking a fight and they damn well know it.
Would you wait for a nuke to be launched at your hometown before taking action?
Are you intentionally paraphrasing George Bush's "We don't want our wake-up call to be a mushroom cloud" speech in 2003 are are you truly unaware of how funny what you just said was?
And the CIA has been supplying weapons and support to the Green movement trying to overthrow the government in Iran and Israel has been assassinating their scientists. See, it cuts both ways.
Israel is determined to start one.
FTFY
Every Israeli is require to serve in the military (or equivalent public service). And when those soldiers finish basic, they do it on top of Masada. Pretty powerful message. Better to take on the Roman Empire and be completely wiped out than to compromise, even in the slightest.
If Israel wants to jump off the cliff and start a war, that's their business. If they would rather all die than to compromise with the Palestinians or Iranians in any way, that's their call. Build all the provocative settlements on Palestinian land you like, put up more walls to ghettoize them even more, kill all the Iranian nuclear scientists you like. Keep being pricks all you want.
But this American doesn't want to follow them off the cliff that they seem DETERMINED to jump off of. I don't want to see my President start World War III out of some foolish bullshit belief that Israel is looking out for ANYONE else but Israel, that we're BFF's. Find another way to get the Jewish vote, Mr. President.
Robosexuals are people too! And also robots!
Then I just flash her with a new personality.
She will when we find a way to jailbreak her.
You think we're helping you after what you did to our Baldwins?!?!?