Full qoute: "Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
In this particular speech, he meant to say that where there's water, there's oxygen to be extracted.
Really? The part about canals strongly indicates he had no clue what he was talking about. He linked the water to canals, and talked about breathing without any mention of extracting oxygen. Is the extraction claim your own speculation or did he explain what he meant afterwards?
Generally unions provide legal help, pay unemployment benefits (everyone gets the "barely enough to get by"-part from the state, unions give out maybe 2/3rds of what you were paid for a few months) and lobby to counter lobbying by big companies, keeping laws sane. Income differences are low compared to the US, but I wouldn't say unions are the main reason for that. Firing an employee is the same regardless of whether he's a union member or not. One month's notice.
All in all I have a hard time understanding the US distaste for unions. There are probably fairly large differences between european and US unions I don't know about.
The inconvenient truth that Gore fails to mention is that about 10,000 years ago, the Earth was so warm that citrus fruits were growing in what is now northern Germany.
What the hell? The last ice age was just ending 10 000 years ago. Northern Germany wasn't covered by glacier then but it had just receded north. Did someone in the senate claim there were citrus fruits back then?
The same logic could be applied to any kind of entertainment that is not making the media companies money. Hey, how about broadening the blank media tax to a "spare time tax"? For every hour you're not sleeping or working, you pay, say one dollar to Sony?
I can't download zips at work, but would the linked application still work for mapping out how widespread the infection still is more than a year after the initial spread?
If nothing else, it would make for pretty pictures to show in court.
Hey, your comment actually made me RTFA. Congratulations!
The proposed settlement requires Sony BMG to clearly disclose limitations on consumers' use of music CDs, bars it from using collected information for marketing, prohibits it from installing software without consumer consent, and requires it to provide a reasonable means of uninstalling that software.
From the summary, I thought this was about the rootkit, not the DRM functionality it was meant to protect. Why does the settlement require things that the law already requires? If the above is just a clarification of how the law was interpreted in this case, this might really have serious implications for the current crop of DRM. iTunes' DRM limits use to Apple products, PCP limits content playback to licensed hardware, Vista (probably) doesn't come with clear disclosure of what the DRM does etc.
Hell, I bet not one DRM'd cd/dvd or DRM-limited piece of hardware has any visible warning label spelling out what restrictions it imposes compared to what the customer might reasonably expect.
Yes. The damages of $750 up to 125k per count of infringement were supposed to be that horrendous to discourage the practice. $125k per infringement would be a more reasonable punishment, not only because $150 is probably not worth the trouble of collecting, but because a single user rootkitting a Sony server would never get away with only a $150 fee.
The Uranus Experiment. The porn industry would probably have an extra 150k lying around to send up an actress with him. According to his blog, he's married but hey - you have to have some priorities.
So, can someone less lazy set up an online petition?
Whew! According to this list Vista does nothing at all! Hey, this is a great list!
Of course, in the real world Protected Video Path actually does something. Quoting from Wikipedia:
In order to prevent users from copying DRM content, Windows Vista provides process isolation and continually monitors what kernel-mode software is loaded. If an unverified component is detected, then Vista will stop playing DRM content, rather than risk having the content copied.
So, with Windows XP (or whatever non-Vista OS I choose to use) I can run software that outputs any content I have at the resolution the content is stored in. To any display device, storage device, whatever device I choose to use.
Ok, who do you propose pays for the infrastructure and maintenance?
My point here is that the costs for the manufacturer and distributor don't factor into what I'm willing to pay for something. There are products that are not manufactured at all bacause the costs would be too high compared to what the end user is willing to pay. If the convenience of having a coat to keep me warm in winter is worth $100, I won't pay $200 for it to cover the costs of transportation etc. A product is profitable if the value of convenience to the end customer is higher than the cost of making it and getting it to the customer.
Content providers tend to argue something like this: The customer is willing to pay $20 for a Beatles CD containing 20 songs. The cost of infrastructure for letting him download one song is $1 and we lose $2 / song on piracy. Ergo, the customer should pay $4 per song.
What I'm willing to pay didn't change; it's still $1 per song. The claimed costs are enough to make selling the music unprofitable. Don't sell then.
I'll pay for convenience, but there is no way I will pay extra for infrastructure or lack of commercials. The infrastructure is a cost for the distributor, not added value for me. The lack of commercials is the default state. I would expect content to be cheaper or free if financed by commercials.
There are two ways to get me to prefer legal downloads to illegal:
a) A subscription service that starts downloading an episode when it's available, so I can watch it whenever I get home / have the time, as opposed to checking a website and setting it to download hours before I can watch it. This would have to be available within 24 hours from airing on TV, otherwise I've already downloaded it.
b) Free, advertising-supported downloads without any DRM. Having an official reelase with guaranteed quality from a trusted source would outweigh the hassle of advertising to me. Sure, someone would strip the commercials and release that, but 90% of viewers would still watch the official version.
The OS'es running on the prototypes is probably meant to show that there are functioning processors made using the new process, as opposed to a couple transistors in a lab. A kind of proof this isn't just vaporware to boost stock prices.
Any lawyer would interpret that purely as the physical goods you get when you buy the game and NOTHING else.
"permanently transfer all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement" - A lawyer who thinks rights and obligations are purely physical isn't going to get my money... The relevant right is the following:
1. Grant of a Limited Use License. If you agree to this License Agreement, computer software (hereafter referred to as the "Game Client") will be installed onto your hardware. If your hardware meets the minimum requirements, the installation of the Game Client will enable you to play the Game by accessing your account with the Service (your "Account").
If I transfer this right to someone else, I assume he would be able to use the account that was formerly mine. What's the alternative; would he get a new account?
Norwegian Consumer Council goes after MS too
on
Norway Outlaws iTunes
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I'm just watching BBC World, where a guy called Torgeir Waterhouse from the Norwegian Consumer Council talks about this. When asked about competitors like Microsoft and the Zune, he said they are all illegal under Norwegian law. They only went after iTunes first because it's largest.
Re:So all those EU built phones will be open?
on
Norway Outlaws iTunes
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It probably is illegal in Norway already. It used to be in Finland, but the law was recently (as in a few months ago) changed to allow bundling of service and phone. People seem to think they get cheaper phones, when in fact they pay it off (and substantially more) in monthly fees.
Estonia's land area is smaller than 41 of the 50 US states. It has a lower population tha 40 of the 50 US states. Maybe it would be wise to consider the challenges in deploying a cellular service to a massive country vs. to a tiny country.
How many of these 50 states have better cell phone coverage than Estonia? Why would this not scale to a larger country with more inhabitants?
I thought the whole point of ActiveX was to be incompatible with anything but Microsoft products. Apparently their Embrace-Extend-Extinguish strategy worked a bit too well.
Anyone know what this is all about - they must still be aiming to support old ActiveX stuff, right?
Slashdot Mirror
Full qoute: "Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
In this particular speech, he meant to say that where there's water, there's oxygen to be extracted.
Really? The part about canals strongly indicates he had no clue what he was talking about. He linked the water to canals, and talked about breathing without any mention of extracting oxygen. Is the extraction claim your own speculation or did he explain what he meant afterwards?
Generally unions provide legal help, pay unemployment benefits (everyone gets the "barely enough to get by"-part from the state, unions give out maybe 2/3rds of what you were paid for a few months) and lobby to counter lobbying by big companies, keeping laws sane. Income differences are low compared to the US, but I wouldn't say unions are the main reason for that. Firing an employee is the same regardless of whether he's a union member or not. One month's notice.
All in all I have a hard time understanding the US distaste for unions. There are probably fairly large differences between european and US unions I don't know about.
I thought he was Hagrid?
I was actually trolling, but thanks for the clear and informative answer!
The inconvenient truth that Gore fails to mention is that about 10,000 years ago, the Earth was so warm that citrus fruits were growing in what is now northern Germany.
What the hell? The last ice age was just ending 10 000 years ago. Northern Germany wasn't covered by glacier then but it had just receded north. Did someone in the senate claim there were citrus fruits back then?
Does it let you watch blueray movies with any HDTV you want?
The same logic could be applied to any kind of entertainment that is not making the media companies money. Hey, how about broadening the blank media tax to a "spare time tax"? For every hour you're not sleeping or working, you pay, say one dollar to Sony?
I can't download zips at work, but would the linked application still work for mapping out how widespread the infection still is more than a year after the initial spread?
If nothing else, it would make for pretty pictures to show in court.
This site has maps of the spread of the rootkit. It looks like they were sold in the US and western Europe, with stray copies spread around the wordl.
Hey, your comment actually made me RTFA. Congratulations!
The proposed settlement requires Sony BMG to clearly disclose limitations on consumers' use of music CDs, bars it from using collected information for marketing, prohibits it from installing software without consumer consent, and requires it to provide a reasonable means of uninstalling that software.
From the summary, I thought this was about the rootkit, not the DRM functionality it was meant to protect. Why does the settlement require things that the law already requires? If the above is just a clarification of how the law was interpreted in this case, this might really have serious implications for the current crop of DRM. iTunes' DRM limits use to Apple products, PCP limits content playback to licensed hardware, Vista (probably) doesn't come with clear disclosure of what the DRM does etc.
Hell, I bet not one DRM'd cd/dvd or DRM-limited piece of hardware has any visible warning label spelling out what restrictions it imposes compared to what the customer might reasonably expect.
Yes. The damages of $750 up to 125k per count of infringement were supposed to be that horrendous to discourage the practice. $125k per infringement would be a more reasonable punishment, not only because $150 is probably not worth the trouble of collecting, but because a single user rootkitting a Sony server would never get away with only a $150 fee.
When you said 'flip-up' I thought you were talking about the E70. A hybrid of that and the N800 should be a decent shape for a gaming phone.
American English seem to be taking over...
The Uranus Experiment. The porn industry would probably have an extra 150k lying around to send up an actress with him. According to his blog, he's married but hey - you have to have some priorities.
So, can someone less lazy set up an online petition?
There's a reason it vibrates.
Porn to me, replicates what happens in real life..
:(
Speak for yourself
HD DVD: Works the same as Windows XP
Blu-ray Disc (BD): Works the same as Windows XP.
Whew! According to this list Vista does nothing at all! Hey, this is a great list!
Of course, in the real world Protected Video Path actually does something. Quoting from Wikipedia:
In order to prevent users from copying DRM content, Windows Vista provides process isolation and continually monitors what kernel-mode software is loaded. If an unverified component is detected, then Vista will stop playing DRM content, rather than risk having the content copied.
So, with Windows XP (or whatever non-Vista OS I choose to use) I can run software that outputs any content I have at the resolution the content is stored in. To any display device, storage device, whatever device I choose to use.
Ok, who do you propose pays for the infrastructure and maintenance?
My point here is that the costs for the manufacturer and distributor don't factor into what I'm willing to pay for something. There are products that are not manufactured at all bacause the costs would be too high compared to what the end user is willing to pay. If the convenience of having a coat to keep me warm in winter is worth $100, I won't pay $200 for it to cover the costs of transportation etc. A product is profitable if the value of convenience to the end customer is higher than the cost of making it and getting it to the customer.
Content providers tend to argue something like this: The customer is willing to pay $20 for a Beatles CD containing 20 songs. The cost of infrastructure for letting him download one song is $1 and we lose $2 / song on piracy. Ergo, the customer should pay $4 per song.
What I'm willing to pay didn't change; it's still $1 per song. The claimed costs are enough to make selling the music unprofitable. Don't sell then.
I'll pay for convenience, but there is no way I will pay extra for infrastructure or lack of commercials. The infrastructure is a cost for the distributor, not added value for me. The lack of commercials is the default state. I would expect content to be cheaper or free if financed by commercials.
There are two ways to get me to prefer legal downloads to illegal:
a) A subscription service that starts downloading an episode when it's available, so I can watch it whenever I get home / have the time, as opposed to checking a website and setting it to download hours before I can watch it. This would have to be available within 24 hours from airing on TV, otherwise I've already downloaded it.
b) Free, advertising-supported downloads without any DRM. Having an official reelase with guaranteed quality from a trusted source would outweigh the hassle of advertising to me. Sure, someone would strip the commercials and release that, but 90% of viewers would still watch the official version.
The OS'es running on the prototypes is probably meant to show that there are functioning processors made using the new process, as opposed to a couple transistors in a lab. A kind of proof this isn't just vaporware to boost stock prices.
Any lawyer would interpret that purely as the physical goods you get when you buy the game and NOTHING else.
"permanently transfer all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement" - A lawyer who thinks rights and obligations are purely physical isn't going to get my money... The relevant right is the following:
1. Grant of a Limited Use License. If you agree to this License Agreement, computer software (hereafter referred to as the "Game Client") will be installed onto your hardware. If your hardware meets the minimum requirements, the installation of the Game Client will enable you to play the Game by accessing your account with the Service (your "Account").
If I transfer this right to someone else, I assume he would be able to use the account that was formerly mine. What's the alternative; would he get a new account?
Full text of the EULA.
I'm just watching BBC World, where a guy called Torgeir Waterhouse from the Norwegian Consumer Council talks about this. When asked about competitors like Microsoft and the Zune, he said they are all illegal under Norwegian law. They only went after iTunes first because it's largest.
It probably is illegal in Norway already. It used to be in Finland, but the law was recently (as in a few months ago) changed to allow bundling of service and phone. People seem to think they get cheaper phones, when in fact they pay it off (and substantially more) in monthly fees.
Estonia's land area is smaller than 41 of the 50 US states. It has a lower population tha 40 of the 50 US states. Maybe it would be wise to consider the challenges in deploying a cellular service to a massive country vs. to a tiny country.
How many of these 50 states have better cell phone coverage than Estonia? Why would this not scale to a larger country with more inhabitants?
I thought the whole point of ActiveX was to be incompatible with anything but Microsoft products. Apparently their Embrace-Extend-Extinguish strategy worked a bit too well.
Anyone know what this is all about - they must still be aiming to support old ActiveX stuff, right?