The entertainment industry has always churned out a ton of crap; for every Lord of the Rings, they make at least 10 steaming piles like Battlefield Earth, Gigli, and Alien Vs. Predator. Ever watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? Someone, somewhere, paid good money to see those movies in the theater. They've been a sequel mill forever, too... Friday the 13th, anyone?
People aren't going to the theaters because they can watch movies at home without the hassle of traffic, lines, astronomical ticket and concession prices, and assholes with cell phones. It's just part of an ongoing shift that started with VHS.
Considering that Warner Australia is one of the plaintiffs, I'd imagine they used native sharks in suits to send the complaints. Also, the U.S. government managed to foist certain portions of the DMCA on the aussies under the guise of "normalizing copyright law," so they have an equivalent to use in threatening emails.
The Pirate Bay's complaint schtick doesn't work very well when it's an Australian ISP being sued under Australian copyright law by the local sock puppet for the music cartel. If Australian copyright law is anything like U.S law, it'd be the internet equivalent of covering yourself in honey and smacking a bear in the face with your belt.
What about when their annoying DRM scheme is preventing a purchaser from taking an action that no reasonable person would believe to be illegal, like trying to play one of these crippled CDs in a car stereo? The message that sends me is "we don't care if we screw some of our customers over, so long as we get ours."
In fact tighter restrictions could actually cause Sony Music to lose sales in certain demographics, such as "people who have MP3 players" which at last count is a decent market.
Add "people with car stereos" to that list. Just a few days ago, I was explaining to my brother that DRM was the reason why a brand-new CD he had purchased would not play in his car stereo. The funny thing is, he had no trouble ripping the CD and then burning a new disk to play in his truck. Because of the copy protection, he was forced to make a copy.
Then you have people like me whose PC doubles as an entertainment center. I have a collection of around 400 CDs, all of which are ripped to my hard drive. I find it a more convenient format, and it saves wear and tear on my originals. I also like to burn mix CDs so I don't have to fool with changing disks while I'm driving. The only reason I'm still willing to buy from Sony music is that (so far) they haven't come up with a copy protection scheme that EAC can't rip.
BTW, that was not meant as flamebait, what made you think so?
I suspect that this has something to do with it:
Leftists have aligned themselves with Islamofascist theocracies that are the direct antithesis of their purported values
That strikes me as being flamebait, and I'm far from being a "leftist." While you might not consider your sig to be part of your message, people are going to take it into consideration in their replies to you.
IANAL, but I'm not so sure about that... even if the MPAA has actually authorized these assholes to distribute movies bundled with malware, they still haven't authorized the recipient to make a copy of the movies in question. It might be entirely possible that, in this instance, they can have their cake and eat it too.
Don't get me wrong, I find the ban very troublesome. It still strikes me more as a case of religious favoritism, however, since a cross or a star of david would still be allowed.
I don't know that I'd characterize it as "forced secularization;" the law still implicitly permits the wearing of crosses, it just says they can't be "large."
My first thought when trying to picture ads in my games was "Nike: the official shoe of the Imperial Cross-training Team. Made with authentic Wookie slave labor!"
Seriously though, my problem with ads in games is that they're not likely to stay subtle and discrete. Banner ads started off that way, and now we have the seizure-inducing blinking animated banner ad and the intensely annoying unblockable floating ad. Maybe I'm just being excessively cynical, and maybe this time the marketers won't run amok... but I doubt it.
Another thing that occurred to me is that ads in games open up another vulnerability on the censorship front. Don't like the fact that a game features graphic violence, revolves around carjacking, has hookers, shows pixellated boobies, allows gay Sims, or has some of Carlin's "seven forbidden words" in the dialog? Lean on the sponsors to drop their support for the game.
Out of morbid curiousity, I did a search for "goatse." I came across this page and thought I'd share: http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ Some of the reaction shots are hysterical.
Rampant advertising is the reason I gave up on TV and rarely go to see a movie in the theater. If games start getting that bad, they'll lose me as a customer.
They went to all the trouble of tracking down the cargo capacity of a Super Star Destroyer, and yet they missed the existance of the Loronar FSCV (Field Secured Container Vessel.) They carry cargo in force field spheres 800 meters in diameter, and strings of 20 or more force spheres are not uncommon.
Unless they've got filters in the air circulation system, which would seem to me to be the most logical possibility. Even if they don't, they doubtless have their habitats compartmentalized.
Replace "Neimoidian" with "Ferengi" and they'd read about the same way. Then you have the violent Klingons, the logical Vulcans, the secretive Romulans, the brutal Cardassians, and so on. It holds true for a lot of sci-fi that I've read. What it comes down to is that it's a lot easier for writers to paint with the broad brush than it is to try and convey the same kind of complexity we see in human society.
He could have, except Uncle Owen was obviously vehemently opposed to the idea. I'd imagine that somewhere along the line, Obi-Wan made the tactical error of explaining what had happened to Luke's parents. Picture the conversation:
"Oh no, Anakin's not dead; he's just calling himself Darth Vader these days. Says it's all my fault, the ungrateful little bastard. When I think of all the time I spent training that lad... speaking of which, I should get started teaching Luke. I know just where I went wrong the last time."
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The entertainment industry has always churned out a ton of crap; for every Lord of the Rings, they make at least 10 steaming piles like Battlefield Earth, Gigli, and Alien Vs. Predator. Ever watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? Someone, somewhere, paid good money to see those movies in the theater. They've been a sequel mill forever, too... Friday the 13th, anyone?
People aren't going to the theaters because they can watch movies at home without the hassle of traffic, lines, astronomical ticket and concession prices, and assholes with cell phones. It's just part of an ongoing shift that started with VHS.
Considering that Warner Australia is one of the plaintiffs, I'd imagine they used native sharks in suits to send the complaints. Also, the U.S. government managed to foist certain portions of the DMCA on the aussies under the guise of "normalizing copyright law," so they have an equivalent to use in threatening emails.
They were doing both; "Archie's Hub" was DC++, a second site called Torrent Web had the BitTorrent links.
The Pirate Bay's complaint schtick doesn't work very well when it's an Australian ISP being sued under Australian copyright law by the local sock puppet for the music cartel. If Australian copyright law is anything like U.S law, it'd be the internet equivalent of covering yourself in honey and smacking a bear in the face with your belt.
It was just a joke... evidently not a good one.
Let's hear it for the 2x4.
What about when their annoying DRM scheme is preventing a purchaser from taking an action that no reasonable person would believe to be illegal, like trying to play one of these crippled CDs in a car stereo? The message that sends me is "we don't care if we screw some of our customers over, so long as we get ours."
Then you have people like me whose PC doubles as an entertainment center. I have a collection of around 400 CDs, all of which are ripped to my hard drive. I find it a more convenient format, and it saves wear and tear on my originals. I also like to burn mix CDs so I don't have to fool with changing disks while I'm driving. The only reason I'm still willing to buy from Sony music is that (so far) they haven't come up with a copy protection scheme that EAC can't rip.
The story on the lawsuit is here.
Makes sense... thanks for the explanation.
IANAL, but I'm not so sure about that... even if the MPAA has actually authorized these assholes to distribute movies bundled with malware, they still haven't authorized the recipient to make a copy of the movies in question. It might be entirely possible that, in this instance, they can have their cake and eat it too.
Don't get me wrong, I find the ban very troublesome. It still strikes me more as a case of religious favoritism, however, since a cross or a star of david would still be allowed.
I don't know that I'd characterize it as "forced secularization;" the law still implicitly permits the wearing of crosses, it just says they can't be "large."
Hunter: The Reckoning was one of the White Wolf storyteller series of paper RPGs.
Seriously though, my problem with ads in games is that they're not likely to stay subtle and discrete. Banner ads started off that way, and now we have the seizure-inducing blinking animated banner ad and the intensely annoying unblockable floating ad. Maybe I'm just being excessively cynical, and maybe this time the marketers won't run amok... but I doubt it.
Another thing that occurred to me is that ads in games open up another vulnerability on the censorship front. Don't like the fact that a game features graphic violence, revolves around carjacking, has hookers, shows pixellated boobies, allows gay Sims, or has some of Carlin's "seven forbidden words" in the dialog? Lean on the sponsors to drop their support for the game.
Out of morbid curiousity, I did a search for "goatse." I came across this page and thought I'd share: http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ Some of the reaction shots are hysterical.
Product placement can get obnoxious as well; think of movies where entire scenes are played out in front of Coke machines.
Rampant advertising is the reason I gave up on TV and rarely go to see a movie in the theater. If games start getting that bad, they'll lose me as a customer.
"Kind, this chronic is. Save some seeds, I will."
They went to all the trouble of tracking down the cargo capacity of a Super Star Destroyer, and yet they missed the existance of the Loronar FSCV (Field Secured Container Vessel.) They carry cargo in force field spheres 800 meters in diameter, and strings of 20 or more force spheres are not uncommon.
Unless they've got filters in the air circulation system, which would seem to me to be the most logical possibility. Even if they don't, they doubtless have their habitats compartmentalized.
Replace "Neimoidian" with "Ferengi" and they'd read about the same way. Then you have the violent Klingons, the logical Vulcans, the secretive Romulans, the brutal Cardassians, and so on. It holds true for a lot of sci-fi that I've read. What it comes down to is that it's a lot easier for writers to paint with the broad brush than it is to try and convey the same kind of complexity we see in human society.
"Oh no, Anakin's not dead; he's just calling himself Darth Vader these days. Says it's all my fault, the ungrateful little bastard. When I think of all the time I spent training that lad... speaking of which, I should get started teaching Luke. I know just where I went wrong the last time."