This is going to be off-topic, but this is important enough to repeat ad nauseam.
The OP is right. You know why? Because ultimately, the RIAA, MPAA, recording studios, publishers and other middle-men don't care one iota about what is legal and what is illegal. All they care about is to extract as much money as possible from you. That's it. There's nothing else. I can guarantee you that if anyone figured out a way to know exactly how many people are watching or listening to a copyrighted product, they'd charge you for it. And if they couldn't charge you for it, they'd try to change the laws so that you'll be forced to pay them.
If the NY Times could figure out a system by which they'd know who is reading which copy of their newspaper, who is peeking over shoulders to read it and who hands it to someone else, they'd use that system to charge everyone who takes a look at their property. The only thing that's stopping them is that this is currently not feasible. The MPAA and RIAA are just lucky that their product migrated to digital format much sooner, and are therefore at the forefront of the copyright movement.
Don't kid yourself - whether or not any of this stuff is illegal or not has absolutely no bearing on whether companies will try to make it illegal not to pay for it. That's why these discussions are important: we need to figure out what is necessary to preserve a thriving culture, and what can be fenced off to provide income to those who produce it. Because if we don't, we'll end up paying for everything everytime we get in contact with it.
I had been looking for some hard data on these things, but was unable to find them. However, I'd argue that the links you provide actually say that they have a high recidivism rate.
The CS Monitor link only talks about the first 3 years after release. Contrast that with the RCMP study, which shows recidivism as high as 77% for people who molested boys outside their family circle. Note that the time frame analyzed is much larger - 15-30 years as opposed to just 3. Total recidivism rate for child molesters was 61%, as opposed to 82% for non-sexual criminals. It's true that it is lower than for non-sexual criminals, but I'd also argue that comparing child molesters to property offenders (graffiti? vandalism?) and "regular" violent offenders is underestimating the impact of child molesters.
Here's the main reason why child molesters are so dangerous: child molesters create more child molesters. Vandals, people who get into fights and killers don't. Preventing a single molestation from happening can save not only that one person, but also its future victims, and their victims.... Child molesters present long-term risks to society unlike any other criminal.
There is a difference between prose that sets the setting, and prose that's just filler. I gave up reading fantasy novels long ago, because most of them had several paragraphs of describing the same. damn. characters. and. settings. Wild barbarian. Old, white-bearded wizard. Scary orcs. Etc. Etc. Etc. I've blown through more than one 700 page fantasy book in one sitting because exposition and description was about 90% of the text. Forget subtle character development or scene setting, things were delivered in neat paragraphs. Some longer than a page.
Master story-tellers know which elements of their story help their audience understand the point of the story. Hacks simply describe things. Details may be an artistic choice, but they definitely drive what I think of the artist. Sometimes, less is indeed more.
In other words: Just because the media write about it doesn't mean it's true.
Or, just because your anecdote is true doesn't mean that the overall picture is false.
There are about 10 million people who managed to score a Wii. Including me (local target, walked in the day they got their shipments, which is Sundays, I believe). However, judging from eBay numbers, demand is still vastly higher than supply. Since eBay is as close to a perfect global market as we can get, those numbers are our best indication of just how big demand is. I'm going to say that your experience was the exception.
No? Didn't think so. You wouldn't know an innovative and fun game if it came to your room and gave you a blowjob. For the record, Psychonauts is available for $15 on XBox Live. Go download it and ponder with sadness how a game like this was anything but a smashing success. I like to blame people like the OP for this.
Oh..... I think I know where user SIIHP went. Seems he made a new handle. Let's see - we have here accusations of lying, temper tantrums, insults and multiple variations of "I never said that". Sounds right on the money. Awesome. I have my internet entertainment back.
I'm wondering how long it'll take you to post at -1 again?
I tried to purchase the JetSet Radio soundtrack. At $40 bucks, I thought it was a rip-off - especially since I had the game. Maybe one of the torrent sites has it.
I'd like to make a distinction between violent games causing a specific area in a brain to lit up or dim, and violent games turning kids into sociopathic mass murderers.
I always thought that was the real meat of the discussion, not whether playing Burn Out causes me to think about ramming cars into the railing during my next commute. The difference between fantasy and reality, you know?
Here's something else I'd like to point out: Youtube merely puts out in the open what people think at home. Stupidity that used to be restricted to friends and family is now out in the open for all to see.
Tell me, what does "obtains actual knowledge of any facts or circumstances described in paragraph" mean in a court of law? Is it "obtains" as in "reads them"? As in"stored them on a computer"? As in "stored in memory"?
I don't profess to be a lawyer, so I don't really know the answer to this. However, I've seen enough legal decisions in the past where a perfectly common sense sentence targeted on hardcore criminals was twisted to include consensual sex, basic computer operations and daily life. I don't trust lawyers, judges or juries to always come to the right decision, and I suspect there'll be plenty of cases where this law will be abused.
If you can't imagine the scenarios.... I hope they'll never happen to you.
I consider the price I pay a subsidy for Slysoft R&D. In essence, I'm paying them to continue their decryption work. I could donate to free software, but a lot of them don't even have a donate button.
... I need to buy Slysoft's ripping software: http://www.slysoft.com/. Y'all can take your premium DVDs and shove it. I'd rather pay someone more for tools to protect my property than pay less in extortion money.
Just for kicks, I clicked through your posts, all the way back to what started this. For this, I had to wade through 2 additional "I was unfairly modded down" posts before I got to the post you thought was modded unfairly. All I can say is... you deserved every last one of your troll ratings.
To wit: 1) There was no information of any kind in that initial post. Unless you count "You're stupid!" as informational. 2) It led off with a spelling correction. Spelling corrections, especially when used in the context of determining IQ, are karma killers. With good reason - they contribute nothing and are designed to insult. 3) You invoked group-think. Accusing nerds on Slashdot is like accusing cats of being herd animals - it flies in the face of observation. Not to mention that you conveniently accused everyone who disagreed with you of group-think. That indicates that it is merely a cop-out to avoid facing the fact that you're plain wrong. 4) You brought an entirely irrelevant fact into the discussion - the user's sig. 5) Finally, your solution to your perceived problem is idiotic. IQ has nothing to do with whether guidelines are read or even adhered to. I suspect that you think that's an appropriate solution just because you scored above 100 on some IQ test, and think that that makes you special.
Here's something else: my post should be modded to -1 for being off-topic. Do I care? No. Why? Because I know that: 1) Karma is just a number that means nothing - people modded me up when I was posting at 1, and people modded me up when I had been modded down to -1. 2) On average, I contribute more than I flame. I know that a -1 mod here and there does nothing to my Karma.
Here's a suggestion: realize that your initial post was completely and utterly useless, and mods were correct in telling you so. Realize that the only way out of Karma hell is to contribute useful commentary. I suggest to start by reading the article, providing links in your posts, avoiding insults, etc.
True or not, if it makes for a good juicy story, people will believe it droves.
If that's the case, our problem is not that anonymous bloggers can say anything they want, but that an uneducated, gullible segment of the population believes what it wants to believe. I'd rather work on this.
Why are we listening to blogs in the first place? If what the blogger says is true, does it matter if it's the old mayor? If it isn't true - why keep on reading it?
I think your point can be summarized as such: there are certain industries so vital to a nation's survival that they should always exist within the national borders. The classic case for this was always the machine tool industry, and as such, has been heavily subsidized by a number of nations. I do think we can add manufacturers of BIOS, networking equipment and other IT-related industries to it.
I don't think that it is a bad idea to watch for potential worst case scenarios, and to quietly prepare for them. At the same time, minimizing the likelihood of those worst case scenarios should be at the forefront - and yes, it is going to be difficult to reduce them to zero, or even keep them stable. I realize that my comment completely oversimplifies the task, but I do think that in terms of priorities and advertisement, the "make friends" approach needs to be at the forefront. Its payoffs alone necessitate that.
I browse at -1, and I can tell you, people sitting at -1 generally deserve every flamebait/troll tag they got. There are a few exceptions, and occasionally, I even see a fun mod battle going on (from +5 to -1 and back in a few hours). But quite frankly, bad mods are the exception. And if your Karma is so precious to you that you'd rather post anonymously than risk that +1 bonus, you've got other issues. Not to mention that it's easily remedied by a few insightful posts in non-political topics.
I agree with pretty much your entire post, except for the last paragraph. If you do not even know who your enemy is and whether anyone is attacking you, the only way to ensure your safety is to tie everyone's well-being to yours. This requires deep economic and social ties between individuals and corporations in the different countries. If cutting into American GDP by releasing various pandemics on its soil backfires because people in your country don't have jobs anymore, you're gonna think twice about doing that.
Low-grade, untraceable and deniable attacks are a fact of life with electronic communications. We can either make sure that everyone has a stake in the overall health of the world economy, or we can start a wonderful cycle of isolationism, paranoia and "us vs them" attitude. Personally, I know which way I tend.
As far as I understand, the attack was instigated by various pro-Kremlin organizations like Nashi. While they're officially independent, they regularly get discreet support from high-level Kremlin politicians and bureaucrats. Considering the amount of thuggery and shady operations that are consistently tied to these organizations, it wouldn't surprise me that one or other botnet was used in the process. However, this in no way diminishes the support that this attack has had from the Kremlin. On the contrary, it exemplifies how Putin and his KGB cohorts are running domestic and foreign operations.
Wow. You completely managed to disregard common usage, as evidenced by wikipedia entries, dictionary entries, AF, Navy and generic mil documents. The fact that the top 4 out of 5 google returns were in that context was merely the icing on the cake. I guess ignorance is a state of mind for some people.
Post by BlakeyRat: Wow, I've never seen so much smug in a single post outside of a Prius owner's forum. Does it hurt? Post by BearPaw: Wow, I've never seen so much smug in a single post outside of a Prius owner's forum.
Um. Wow. Separated at birth? Conjoined twins? Multiple Personality disorder? Prius haters have a hive-mind? Inquiring minds want to know.
The first five hits in Google for Force Multiplier are directly referring to combat operations, with the exception of the article talking about Wesley Clark - who just happens to be a General.
It seems to me that I'm perfectly aware of its proper usage. It also seems to me that some people delight in using $5 words when a nickel word would have been perfectly sufficient, or to claim credibility by using professional jargon in every-day discussions.
Slashdot Mirror
This is going to be off-topic, but this is important enough to repeat ad nauseam.
The OP is right. You know why? Because ultimately, the RIAA, MPAA, recording studios, publishers and other middle-men don't care one iota about what is legal and what is illegal. All they care about is to extract as much money as possible from you. That's it. There's nothing else. I can guarantee you that if anyone figured out a way to know exactly how many people are watching or listening to a copyrighted product, they'd charge you for it. And if they couldn't charge you for it, they'd try to change the laws so that you'll be forced to pay them.
If the NY Times could figure out a system by which they'd know who is reading which copy of their newspaper, who is peeking over shoulders to read it and who hands it to someone else, they'd use that system to charge everyone who takes a look at their property. The only thing that's stopping them is that this is currently not feasible. The MPAA and RIAA are just lucky that their product migrated to digital format much sooner, and are therefore at the forefront of the copyright movement.
Don't kid yourself - whether or not any of this stuff is illegal or not has absolutely no bearing on whether companies will try to make it illegal not to pay for it. That's why these discussions are important: we need to figure out what is necessary to preserve a thriving culture, and what can be fenced off to provide income to those who produce it. Because if we don't, we'll end up paying for everything everytime we get in contact with it.
I had been looking for some hard data on these things, but was unable to find them.
However, I'd argue that the links you provide actually say that they have a high recidivism rate.
The CS Monitor link only talks about the first 3 years after release. Contrast that with the RCMP study, which shows recidivism as high as 77% for people who molested boys outside their family circle. Note that the time frame analyzed is much larger - 15-30 years as opposed to just 3. Total recidivism rate for child molesters was 61%, as opposed to 82% for non-sexual criminals. It's true that it is lower than for non-sexual criminals, but I'd also argue that comparing child molesters to property offenders (graffiti? vandalism?) and "regular" violent offenders is underestimating the impact of child molesters.
Here's the main reason why child molesters are so dangerous: child molesters create more child molesters. Vandals, people who get into fights and killers don't. Preventing a single molestation from happening can save not only that one person, but also its future victims, and their victims.... Child molesters present long-term risks to society unlike any other criminal.
Thanks for the comments. I'll check them out.
There is a difference between prose that sets the setting, and prose that's just filler. I gave up reading fantasy novels long ago, because most of them had several paragraphs of describing the same. damn. characters. and. settings. Wild barbarian. Old, white-bearded wizard. Scary orcs. Etc. Etc. Etc. I've blown through more than one 700 page fantasy book in one sitting because exposition and description was about 90% of the text. Forget subtle character development or scene setting, things were delivered in neat paragraphs. Some longer than a page.
Master story-tellers know which elements of their story help their audience understand the point of the story. Hacks simply describe things. Details may be an artistic choice, but they definitely drive what I think of the artist. Sometimes, less is indeed more.
Or, just because your anecdote is true doesn't mean that the overall picture is false.
There are about 10 million people who managed to score a Wii. Including me (local target, walked in the day they got their shipments, which is Sundays, I believe). However, judging from eBay numbers, demand is still vastly higher than supply. Since eBay is as close to a perfect global market as we can get, those numbers are our best indication of just how big demand is. I'm going to say that your experience was the exception.
No? Didn't think so. You wouldn't know an innovative and fun game if it came to your room and gave you a blowjob. For the record, Psychonauts is available for $15 on XBox Live. Go download it and ponder with sadness how a game like this was anything but a smashing success. I like to blame people like the OP for this.
Oh..... I think I know where user SIIHP went. Seems he made a new handle. Let's see - we have here accusations of lying, temper tantrums, insults and multiple variations of "I never said that". Sounds right on the money. Awesome. I have my internet entertainment back.
I'm wondering how long it'll take you to post at -1 again?
I guess I should have specified that I did that search when the game came out. I take it that was before your time.
I tried to purchase the JetSet Radio soundtrack. At $40 bucks, I thought it was a rip-off - especially since I had the game. Maybe one of the torrent sites has it.
I'd like to make a distinction between violent games causing a specific area in a brain to lit up or dim, and violent games turning kids into sociopathic mass murderers.
I always thought that was the real meat of the discussion, not whether playing Burn Out causes me to think about ramming cars into the railing during my next commute. The difference between fantasy and reality, you know?
Somebody mod this guy up.
Here's something else I'd like to point out: Youtube merely puts out in the open what people think at home. Stupidity that used to be restricted to friends and family is now out in the open for all to see.
Tell me, what does "obtains actual knowledge of any facts or circumstances described in paragraph" mean in a court of law? Is it "obtains" as in "reads them"? As in"stored them on a computer"? As in "stored in memory"? I don't profess to be a lawyer, so I don't really know the answer to this. However, I've seen enough legal decisions in the past where a perfectly common sense sentence targeted on hardcore criminals was twisted to include consensual sex, basic computer operations and daily life. I don't trust lawyers, judges or juries to always come to the right decision, and I suspect there'll be plenty of cases where this law will be abused. If you can't imagine the scenarios.... I hope they'll never happen to you.
I consider the price I pay a subsidy for Slysoft R&D. In essence, I'm paying them to continue their decryption work. I could donate to free software, but a lot of them don't even have a donate button.
... I need to buy Slysoft's ripping software: http://www.slysoft.com/. Y'all can take your premium DVDs and shove it. I'd rather pay someone more for tools to protect my property than pay less in extortion money.
Just for kicks, I clicked through your posts, all the way back to what started this. For this, I had to wade through 2 additional "I was unfairly modded down" posts before I got to the post you thought was modded unfairly. All I can say is... you deserved every last one of your troll ratings.
To wit:
1) There was no information of any kind in that initial post. Unless you count "You're stupid!" as informational.
2) It led off with a spelling correction. Spelling corrections, especially when used in the context of determining IQ, are karma killers. With good reason - they contribute nothing and are designed to insult.
3) You invoked group-think. Accusing nerds on Slashdot is like accusing cats of being herd animals - it flies in the face of observation. Not to mention that you conveniently accused everyone who disagreed with you of group-think. That indicates that it is merely a cop-out to avoid facing the fact that you're plain wrong.
4) You brought an entirely irrelevant fact into the discussion - the user's sig.
5) Finally, your solution to your perceived problem is idiotic. IQ has nothing to do with whether guidelines are read or even adhered to. I suspect that you think that's an appropriate solution just because you scored above 100 on some IQ test, and think that that makes you special.
Here's something else: my post should be modded to -1 for being off-topic. Do I care? No. Why? Because I know that:
1) Karma is just a number that means nothing - people modded me up when I was posting at 1, and people modded me up when I had been modded down to -1.
2) On average, I contribute more than I flame. I know that a -1 mod here and there does nothing to my Karma.
Here's a suggestion: realize that your initial post was completely and utterly useless, and mods were correct in telling you so. Realize that the only way out of Karma hell is to contribute useful commentary. I suggest to start by reading the article, providing links in your posts, avoiding insults, etc.
If that's the case, our problem is not that anonymous bloggers can say anything they want, but that an uneducated, gullible segment of the population believes what it wants to believe. I'd rather work on this.
Why are we listening to blogs in the first place? If what the blogger says is true, does it matter if it's the old mayor? If it isn't true - why keep on reading it?
I think your point can be summarized as such: there are certain industries so vital to a nation's survival that they should always exist within the national borders. The classic case for this was always the machine tool industry, and as such, has been heavily subsidized by a number of nations. I do think we can add manufacturers of BIOS, networking equipment and other IT-related industries to it.
I don't think that it is a bad idea to watch for potential worst case scenarios, and to quietly prepare for them. At the same time, minimizing the likelihood of those worst case scenarios should be at the forefront - and yes, it is going to be difficult to reduce them to zero, or even keep them stable. I realize that my comment completely oversimplifies the task, but I do think that in terms of priorities and advertisement, the "make friends" approach needs to be at the forefront. Its payoffs alone necessitate that.
I browse at -1, and I can tell you, people sitting at -1 generally deserve every flamebait/troll tag they got. There are a few exceptions, and occasionally, I even see a fun mod battle going on (from +5 to -1 and back in a few hours). But quite frankly, bad mods are the exception. And if your Karma is so precious to you that you'd rather post anonymously than risk that +1 bonus, you've got other issues. Not to mention that it's easily remedied by a few insightful posts in non-political topics.
I agree with pretty much your entire post, except for the last paragraph. If you do not even know who your enemy is and whether anyone is attacking you, the only way to ensure your safety is to tie everyone's well-being to yours. This requires deep economic and social ties between individuals and corporations in the different countries. If cutting into American GDP by releasing various pandemics on its soil backfires because people in your country don't have jobs anymore, you're gonna think twice about doing that.
Low-grade, untraceable and deniable attacks are a fact of life with electronic communications. We can either make sure that everyone has a stake in the overall health of the world economy, or we can start a wonderful cycle of isolationism, paranoia and "us vs them" attitude. Personally, I know which way I tend.
As far as I understand, the attack was instigated by various pro-Kremlin organizations like Nashi. While they're officially independent, they regularly get discreet support from high-level Kremlin politicians and bureaucrats. Considering the amount of thuggery and shady operations that are consistently tied to these organizations, it wouldn't surprise me that one or other botnet was used in the process. However, this in no way diminishes the support that this attack has had from the Kremlin. On the contrary, it exemplifies how Putin and his KGB cohorts are running domestic and foreign operations.
Ah - I completely missed that. I indeed thought the last line was a sig. :)
Wow. You completely managed to disregard common usage, as evidenced by wikipedia entries, dictionary entries, AF, Navy and generic mil documents. The fact that the top 4 out of 5 google returns were in that context was merely the icing on the cake. I guess ignorance is a state of mind for some people.
Post by BlakeyRat:
Wow, I've never seen so much smug in a single post outside of a Prius owner's forum. Does it hurt?
Post by BearPaw:
Wow, I've never seen so much smug in a single post outside of a Prius owner's forum.
Um. Wow. Separated at birth? Conjoined twins? Multiple Personality disorder? Prius haters have a hive-mind? Inquiring minds want to know.
And yet....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_multiplier
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/force+multiplier
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/10/green.htm
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/jfq_pubs/4012.pdf
http://https//www.maxwell.af.mil/au/2025/volume3/chap15/v3c15-1.htm
The first five hits in Google for Force Multiplier are directly referring to combat operations, with the exception of the article talking about Wesley Clark - who just happens to be a General.
It seems to me that I'm perfectly aware of its proper usage. It also seems to me that some people delight in using $5 words when a nickel word would have been perfectly sufficient, or to claim credibility by using professional jargon in every-day discussions.