When lawsuits are brought against copyright violators, the plaintiff is oftentimes the label - NOT the RIAA. The RIAA is acting on behalf of the label. The label signed off on the promotion.
"To me, they're like the wal*mart of electronics stores. Sure, they've got pretty much everything, but they're constantly trying to sell you things. It's not about service with them, it's about getting every penny out of your pocket that they can. They have no soul to their spin."
I don't see how that's comparable to Walmart at all. Don't get me wrong - I'm up for a good bashing of Walmart as the next guy but my experiences at Best Buy have always been pushy salespeople who want me to get the protection plan and refuse to honor coupons. On the other hand, when you can find a Walmart worker, they're certainly not pushy and have little to no interest in being helpful. I don't enjoy shopping at either store (and so I don't) but I haven't found the shopping experiences very similar - other than they're both big box stores.
Come on! Could you give a spoiler alert next time??? I've had that game sitting on my shelf since the mid-90s and this weekend was going to be when I opened it up and started playing it. Of course, now it's ruined - thanks to you!
"For my own part, I wonder if I, myself, wouldn't be less unnerved if the demo character's race were randomly rolled, rather than fixed."
But what would be displayed on the box art? A UN panel where there was 1 of every possible race in the game, so no one gets the wrong idea that because there's a black guy shooting someone on the box art, that must mean the publisher thinks that all black guys shoot people?
We need a solution to this terrible problem you've found!!
(What is your problem? Why are you so unnerved by this? Did the Godfather unnerve you?)
"In that case, please enlighten me what kind of animal I must be, for I clearly can't be human."
It's pretty obvious he was making a generalization about the majority of people. Whether it's true or not is questionable but replies like yours do nothing to further the discussion.
"By statutorily authorizing schools to deal with these problems, it provides for a more fitting scholastic punishment for the bullies while freeing up the regular criminal justice system to deal with other crimes."
And moving the prosecution/punishment into a realm where there is an often inconsistent appeals process that guarantees no rights and is arbitrarily applied by the school board. No, this doesn't work in my opinion.
"One of the key checks on government power has always been the expense of monitoring its citizens. The ubiquity of information technology has caused a precipitous drop in the cost of monitoring. Consequently, the balance of power is shifting away from citizens and towards the government. Maybe that's what everyone wants, but if it isn't, we should be looking at either restricting the government's use of technology to spy on citizens (stronger privacy laws), or reducing the penalties associated with minor violations."
That's a great point. I do think that the citizen's ability to monitor (and communicate their feelings on) what the government is doing has also been greatly enhanced.
"Such a statement cedes an awful lot of power to a national government. Remember, until now people could get into Canada even having done bad things. The 60-year-old who got caught driving drunk back in 1980 and has already repaid society for it can't undo what he once did. If a Canadian company wants to hire him, or Canadian relatives want him to visit, what can they do? Lobby the government to start being more lenient?"
Only because up until now, the knowledge the the DWI wasn't readily available to the border patrol. As the article states - this was always the rule; the only thing that has changed is that they're actually enforcing it now.
It is short-sighted and foolish to only fight against a law/policy when it is enforced.
"I'm refuting the argument that MI:3 wouldn't have succeeded without Tom Cruise."
Mission: Impossible had nowhere near the brand recognition that Bond had when the first film came out. Tom Cruise is associated with it now. It's not clear that someone else could step into the main role for Cruise. There is an established history of new actors stepping into the role of Bond. M:I does not have that pedigree. I'm not saying it's impossible - but surely you can understand that Bond is quite different than M:I.
James Bond is just another brand. You've done nothing to refute that actors don't have a brand that people will always buy. Perhaps it's true that a bad movie is a bad movie but given a good movie with no star and a good movie with a star - the good movie with a star is going to do better.
""Perception": People see 600 - 800 dollars and no games. They see a huge Sony ego and laughable selling numbers. No one's buying it, no one wants one.
Reality: It can be bought here in the US for as little as 499 if you want the 20GB model, and if you're patient by summer we'll have a healthy injection of new games on the PS3. They even have more demos and movie trailers available in the PS3 network for free. Games are coming, and patience is key. I'm not an apologist. This is just how new consoles tend to work."
So the perception is that there are no games. And your reply to this (your "reality") is that there will be new games in the summer. First, the perception is that there are no good games currently available. Just because some good games may come out in the summer does not change the fact that the perception and the reality of PS3 games RIGHT NOW is accurate.
Anyway, my perception is that Sony is a terrible company that installs root kits on the computers of customers and files blanket lawsuits on legitimate companies in order to trounce consumer freedoms. I have the right of resale. Sony can take their lawsuits against lik-sang and stuff it. I will never buy a PS3.
"Accepting user poll ideas" does not imply that they are going to use user poll ideas. If you send me a block of cheese in the mail, I may very well sign for the package and ACCEPT it. Doing that, in no way, implies that I am going to eat the cheese. You did not make an important distinction with the language you used.
Furthermore, Nintendo is accepting user poll ideas and I think it is quite likely they will actually use a few of those ideas.
"If you have no comment, then why would you post anything at all? "
Excellent job trying to change what I said! I said, "I don't know the answer to those questions so I can't comment further." The point of the post was the questions previous to that statement, which you failed to answer.
"Do you need to remind people you have nothing to say? I mean, that's been obvious from the beginning."
I have not insulted you at all in this discussion. I have criticized your tone. You continue to resort to petty insults with no evidence or arguments to back up your insults.
"One does not be rude, or offensive (or in Slashdot's case, inaccurate) to change minds; one does these things to get attention. Once people are paying attention you can then make whatever point you want. Yes, it's cheap, and it annoys people (pretty much by definition), but when done correctly, it works. Now if only I knew how to do it correctly.."
I find this route disgusting. Why would you resort to such childish behavior?
"Quite a few words from someone who "can't comment"."
Not really; I had one sentence after I said I couldn't comment and it was prefaced with a hypothesis on your possible motives. Do you see something wrong with that?
"And yet this tirade garnered the most replies of anything I've ever posted to Slashdot."
And you think you've changed anyone's mind by being rude?
"Good point, I should have said you're pissing me off, cut it out."
Why bring your emotions into it at all? What is the end goal of posting to Slashdot? Are you trying to convince others of your correctness? I don't know the answer to those questions so I can't comment further. I will say that if you are trying to change an oft-repeated misunderstanding, discussing how seeing it is making you upset will have zero impact on changing the minds of others.
Here's some advice: even when you're right, saying something like that does not make your argument more convincing. I know Slashdot isn't known for being the most civil place but do we really need people saying things like that?
And what you said isn't even verifiable. How are you judging what makes an argument dumb? What metric are you using?
"Just like DVD, most people's first DVD player was a PS2. "
"All I said is that it COULD be true."
You presented it as a fact. I'm not sure what you mean by "Just like DVD", at the beginning of the statement but nowhere in your post did you come close to saying that your statement on the PS2 as first DVD player for most people was a guess or based on no factual evidence or research.
Look, rather than arguing over semantics, let's talk about the statement. Why do you believe that the PS2 was the first DVD player for most? Do you have any data to back that statement up?
The newest game "Legacy" was released by Bethesda and is terrible. You can't remap the keys and, as a left-hander, WASD movement doesn't really work comfortably for me. The graphics are pretty poor as well. Yes, don't hold your breath - the game is terrible.
"Because you don't want to spend years getting good enough at an instrument. By simplifying it down to button mashing, you can catch the patterns in a matter of days, or weeks if you have other things to do."
You missed my point. I noted that there are different time commitments in my original post. My point was that if you're actually allocating time for "practice" rather than just playing the game for pure entertainment [which was what the GP was suggesting], why not allocate that time to the real thing.
"such as the PS3 winning IGN's console of the year."
Except that's not what the PS3 won; it won "Best New Console"; which IGN described as an award that is basically considering what the console could do in the future - not what games are currently available for it. That's pretty different than being the best console. See for yourself
"Haven't parents already conceded their parenting responsibilities to the government?"
No, where are you even coming up with that idea.
"So if the government fails to educate the kids and don't turn them into responsible adults, it's not the parent's fault?"
What are you talking about?
"I think the government should put the responsibility where it belongs."
Yes, the responsibility should be in the hands of the parent - your proposal of making a requirement of how parents raise their children is putting the responsibility in the hands of the government because you are proposing a system where the government determines how children are raised; with parents merely acting as enforcers of the government's will.
You can keep your "requirements", thank you.
Also, if you want to discuss this, make a point. Two questions and an overly vague statement do not an argument make.
Slashdot Mirror
When lawsuits are brought against copyright violators, the plaintiff is oftentimes the label - NOT the RIAA. The RIAA is acting on behalf of the label. The label signed off on the promotion.
Come on! Could you give a spoiler alert next time??? I've had that game sitting on my shelf since the mid-90s and this weekend was going to be when I opened it up and started playing it. Of course, now it's ruined - thanks to you!
We need a solution to this terrible problem you've found!!
(What is your problem? Why are you so unnerved by this? Did the Godfather unnerve you?)
It is short-sighted and foolish to only fight against a law/policy when it is enforced.
James Bond is just another brand. You've done nothing to refute that actors don't have a brand that people will always buy. Perhaps it's true that a bad movie is a bad movie but given a good movie with no star and a good movie with a star - the good movie with a star is going to do better.
Anyway, my perception is that Sony is a terrible company that installs root kits on the computers of customers and files blanket lawsuits on legitimate companies in order to trounce consumer freedoms. I have the right of resale. Sony can take their lawsuits against lik-sang and stuff it. I will never buy a PS3.
Furthermore, Nintendo is accepting user poll ideas and I think it is quite likely they will actually use a few of those ideas.
Yeah, you didn't read the article.
And what you said isn't even verifiable. How are you judging what makes an argument dumb? What metric are you using?
AH! You are correct. I apologize. I do not have a good excuse for my mistake. I am a horse's ass.
Look, rather than arguing over semantics, let's talk about the statement. Why do you believe that the PS2 was the first DVD player for most? Do you have any data to back that statement up?
The newest game "Legacy" was released by Bethesda and is terrible. You can't remap the keys and, as a left-hander, WASD movement doesn't really work comfortably for me. The graphics are pretty poor as well. Yes, don't hold your breath - the game is terrible.
Read more carefully next time, thank you.
Try to get your facts straight.
1) Driving lik-sang.com out of business
2) Installing a rootkit on customer's computers
You can keep your "requirements", thank you.
Also, if you want to discuss this, make a point. Two questions and an overly vague statement do not an argument make.