The really stupid part of this is that they've done it before with massive success. When DVDs first came to market they sold DVD players and discs by loading lots of special content on them, and no, just in case there's any entertainment execs reading this, trailers and scene selection do not classify as special content. This encouraged early adoption and led to the monster that is DVD entertainment today, there was a very clear answer to the question "why should I buy the DVD instead of the video?"
If they really want to make money and importantly maintain control over primary distribution they should improve the purchase experience of the physical media rather than DRMing it and annoying their only paying customers. Give out in the CDs things like rebates to concerts or posters or anything else that's hard for a pirate to reproduce. Make it clear that while it's possible to download the music it's impossible to get premium content without buying the CD. Another idea would be to distribute most of the tracks on the CD without DRM (word of mouth never hurt anybody) but add some kind of premium content that is DRMed (music videos, interviews with the band, hidden tracks or whatever).
Basically show people that there are three ways they can get the media they want, by buying the disc which will give them all kinds of goodies to play with, through iTunes or other legal download methods which will give them what they want with no frills (and possibly not obscure content) and piracy which will give them the same no frills content but with guilt, possible lawsuits and the risk of infection by trojans, viruses and spyware.
I had a similar problem with Half Life 2. I live in South Africa where bandwidth is scarce and expensive. I have internet access at work but not at home. I discovered after buying a legitimate copy of Half Life 2 that it needed me to download a 300MB file before it could authenticate. Annoyed I downloaded a pirated version which turned out pretty well because it didn't have an install for a start which made the whole process much easier. Apparently this means that I'll get banned if I try and play Counterstrike online even though I have a legitimate copy, but it doesn't matter since my computer will never be online to be able to play it. Nonetheless I'm never buying anything from Steam again, I have a philosophy that if you treat me like a criminal I stop patronizing you.
True, this is one the big reasons why I still smoke. When I'm stuck on an idea if I stay at my desk I'll think incircles for hours, but pretty much the minute I go outside and light up I suddenly think "wait a minute I can do it THIS way..."
Could someone please explain to me why FTL travel is impossible? Last time I checked 90% of the mass of the universe was unaccounted for except for via some extremely dubious assumptions and there seemed to be seriously large problems in things like string theory. Does everyone really assume that this is it, all science has been uncovered and that no future paradigm shifts can occur despite the holes in our standing theories?
This manifesto reminds me not so much of Dogme 95 as it does of Lord Kelvin. Agreed, we have no current viable theories that could give us FTL travel, but the assumption that it therefore is impossible seems both arrogant and naive.
As an example here's a quick question for the science gurus. Two quarks are able to communicate instantaneously, no light speed involved. We're able to teleport quarks. Considering these two possibilities why is FTL travel definitely off the table? How sure are we that this can't be projected into a macroscopic solution?
I also have one other major gripe. If this manifesto is meant to be complete how on Earth does the Singularity get let off the hook? It's by definition unknowable so surely it should not be allowed to be speculated on, or is it only scientific fallacies that must be prevented, logical errors are OK?
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Yet another reason why you should never give the normal user install rights on your network.
There's also another benefit, showing lawyers that there's money to be made suing large media companies can only be good for us.
Two wrongs making a right? Welcome to my world.
The really stupid part of this is that they've done it before with massive success. When DVDs first came to market they sold DVD players and discs by loading lots of special content on them, and no, just in case there's any entertainment execs reading this, trailers and scene selection do not classify as special content. This encouraged early adoption and led to the monster that is DVD entertainment today, there was a very clear answer to the question "why should I buy the DVD instead of the video?"
If they really want to make money and importantly maintain control over primary distribution they should improve the purchase experience of the physical media rather than DRMing it and annoying their only paying customers. Give out in the CDs things like rebates to concerts or posters or anything else that's hard for a pirate to reproduce. Make it clear that while it's possible to download the music it's impossible to get premium content without buying the CD. Another idea would be to distribute most of the tracks on the CD without DRM (word of mouth never hurt anybody) but add some kind of premium content that is DRMed (music videos, interviews with the band, hidden tracks or whatever).
Basically show people that there are three ways they can get the media they want, by buying the disc which will give them all kinds of goodies to play with, through iTunes or other legal download methods which will give them what they want with no frills (and possibly not obscure content) and piracy which will give them the same no frills content but with guilt, possible lawsuits and the risk of infection by trojans, viruses and spyware.
I had a similar problem with Half Life 2. I live in South Africa where bandwidth is scarce and expensive. I have internet access at work but not at home. I discovered after buying a legitimate copy of Half Life 2 that it needed me to download a 300MB file before it could authenticate. Annoyed I downloaded a pirated version which turned out pretty well because it didn't have an install for a start which made the whole process much easier. Apparently this means that I'll get banned if I try and play Counterstrike online even though I have a legitimate copy, but it doesn't matter since my computer will never be online to be able to play it. Nonetheless I'm never buying anything from Steam again, I have a philosophy that if you treat me like a criminal I stop patronizing you.
True, this is one the big reasons why I still smoke. When I'm stuck on an idea if I stay at my desk I'll think incircles for hours, but pretty much the minute I go outside and light up I suddenly think "wait a minute I can do it THIS way ..."
As an example here's a quick question for the science gurus. Two quarks are able to communicate instantaneously, no light speed involved. We're able to teleport quarks. Considering these two possibilities why is FTL travel definitely off the table? How sure are we that this can't be projected into a macroscopic solution?
I also have one other major gripe. If this manifesto is meant to be complete how on Earth does the Singularity get let off the hook? It's by definition unknowable so surely it should not be allowed to be speculated on, or is it only scientific fallacies that must be prevented, logical errors are OK?