'"Is," "is." "is" -- the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.' -- Robert Anton Wilson
On second thought, just imagine Ballmers face when he finds out it was their FUD-spreading, SCO-funding, competitor-buying ideas that brought True Freedom to software.
Microsoft, of all places may have stumbled upon magic open source patent protection:
(B) If you bring a patent claim against any contributor over patents that you claim are infringed by the software, your patent license from such contributor to the software ends automatically.
Any comments on what might happen if we change the wording from patents and claims affecting said software to all software patents held by the contributor? Get IBM to contribute one line of code in your project, and happily ever after, or would it lead to Global Thermopatent War?
The best part is that this story plays nicely with one opinion about such institutions, popular here and there - that working for TSA appeals to people who need to compensate for their emotional insecurity.
While the invasion of privacy is conveniently forgotten about. If someone sees you naked then jokes at your expense, is it your really insecurity if you get upset?
Are you sure the other guy didn't joke to hide his own insecurity (thus proving your point)?
OTOH sizeable number of people would never call WoW "fun".
That's because WoW is actually several games bundled together.
- Quest & Farm - this is actually work, if you think about it, and you need to do a lot of this to get to the interesting part - Economy - Buy low, sell high, and you can avoid some or all of the above after a while; the auction house is basically economic PvP, with your progress measured in cash flow - Kill the dragon with your friends - most fun for most people, progress measured by your equipped items; probably most successful because you show off your progress at all times - E-Peen Hunting - all of the above: achievements, non-combat pets, mounts, titles, etc. Basically collecting random stuff you can show off.
And then there are the people who make their own games in it. Most people don't see past the farming part.
You can't say you're entitled to have that copy and have any legitimate basis for that claim, regardless as to the cost to the business.
And you are in no way, shape or form, in any hypothetical or actual fashion, entitled to tell me what I can or can not do with my computer, and what subset of the base 256 representation of pi I can or cannot download with the internet connection I paid for. It cost money to create it? Tough shit. Sue the guy who uploaded it. If you can't find him, that has nothing to do with me.
Also, if the number of pirates is as high as these companies suggest (which would also mean that there are also many people who agree in principle, but don't do it for whatever reasons), shouldn't that invalidate any laws against it in a democracy by default? Think about it: how many people breaking the law does it take to change it, if the majority of the population is at least neutral to their cause?
If you think the examples are absurd in this context, you're right. But in 15 years, we'll remember this as the dark ages where corporations roamed the tubes hunting for dead people, and have not yet adapted their business models to reflect the inherent freedom of the internet. Or we'll remember this as the good old times, when you could modify the OS on your computer without going to jail for non-compliance with the Computing Device Copyright Infringement Monitoring Act. Which one of these lies ahead of us? You choose. We all do, day by day.
My proposed solution: a) extend Fair Use to the whole of the internet for personal use (even Hungary has that fercrissake), b) slap on an optional and reasonable Entertainment Fee/Tax to designated connection plans, to be distributed among the content creators based on measurements, and possibly c) zero tolerance among those who opt out, with fines based on the tax, not $2M for an album.
I find the discussions about which part of the mental masturbation is more "real" interesting.
Hint: if it costs you nothing that I copy your game, you didn't lose jack shit. If you don't like it, make your game more entertaining than the pirated version.
You can play World of Warcraft on a nearly unlimited number of free private servers with the client you download from Blizzard for free; you can even roll your own. But in terms of quality, they're at most marketing for the real thing.
If Blizzard wanted, they could make it impossible for the private server developers to keep up. Nobody would bother to reverse engineer an encrypted protocol that changes with every patch. What do they do instead? They add content to their own and swim in the money it generates.
I loved the part where the submitter felt the need to clarify that Telekom Austria is a telecommunications company. Now if only he could tell us which country it's in...
No, rape is exploitative to women. Women being presented in an "only an object" light, however, is not. While it can be viewed as a form of prostitution, marrying rich men is legal as well, yet nobody complains about that.
Supply and Demand. Make your own porn with more romance and love stories in it, and see how it sells.
Slashdot Mirror
But all that involves a lot of work. Facebook got popular because it made it easy.
Would you be particularly friendly to a foreign nation coming in and telling you how to run your government? Just curious.
Depends on who their predecessor was, what that "how" is, and whether they'd leave willingly.
The US enforcing democracy would have been universally welcomed by Hungary in 1956.
Add in the biblical ever-burning bush, and they'll have to make breathing illegal!
'"Is," "is." "is" -- the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.' -- Robert Anton Wilson
The elites want total control. The patent system is but a small part of their game plan.
The more power you have, the less you know about reality: people lie to you to avoid punishment or to gain favors.
There is no plan, just infinite ignorance.
In science vs media,
On second thought, just imagine Ballmers face when he finds out it was their FUD-spreading, SCO-funding, competitor-buying ideas that brought True Freedom to software.
I think it's worth any fallout.
Microsoft, of all places may have stumbled upon magic open source patent protection:
(B) If you bring a patent claim against any contributor over patents that you claim are infringed by the software, your patent license from such contributor to the software ends automatically.
Any comments on what might happen if we change the wording from patents and claims affecting said software to all software patents held by the contributor? Get IBM to contribute one line of code in your project, and happily ever after, or would it lead to Global Thermopatent War?
The Windows donations still account for more than half.
The best part is that this story plays nicely with one opinion about such institutions, popular here and there - that working for TSA appeals to people who need to compensate for their emotional insecurity.
While the invasion of privacy is conveniently forgotten about. If someone sees you naked then jokes at your expense, is it your really insecurity if you get upset?
Are you sure the other guy didn't joke to hide his own insecurity (thus proving your point)?
News at 11.
OTOH sizeable number of people would never call WoW "fun".
That's because WoW is actually several games bundled together.
- Quest & Farm - this is actually work, if you think about it, and you need to do a lot of this to get to the interesting part
- Economy - Buy low, sell high, and you can avoid some or all of the above after a while; the auction house is basically economic PvP, with your progress measured in cash flow
- Kill the dragon with your friends - most fun for most people, progress measured by your equipped items; probably most successful because you show off your progress at all times
- E-Peen Hunting - all of the above: achievements, non-combat pets, mounts, titles, etc. Basically collecting random stuff you can show off.
And then there are the people who make their own games in it. Most people don't see past the farming part.
You can't say you're entitled to have that copy and have any legitimate basis for that claim, regardless as to the cost to the business.
And you are in no way, shape or form, in any hypothetical or actual fashion, entitled to tell me what I can or can not do with my computer, and what subset of the base 256 representation of pi I can or cannot download with the internet connection I paid for. It cost money to create it? Tough shit. Sue the guy who uploaded it. If you can't find him, that has nothing to do with me.
Also, if the number of pirates is as high as these companies suggest (which would also mean that there are also many people who agree in principle, but don't do it for whatever reasons), shouldn't that invalidate any laws against it in a democracy by default? Think about it: how many people breaking the law does it take to change it, if the majority of the population is at least neutral to their cause?
If you think the examples are absurd in this context, you're right. But in 15 years, we'll remember this as the dark ages where corporations roamed the tubes hunting for dead people, and have not yet adapted their business models to reflect the inherent freedom of the internet. Or we'll remember this as the good old times, when you could modify the OS on your computer without going to jail for non-compliance with the Computing Device Copyright Infringement Monitoring Act. Which one of these lies ahead of us? You choose. We all do, day by day.
My proposed solution: a) extend Fair Use to the whole of the internet for personal use (even Hungary has that fercrissake), b) slap on an optional and reasonable Entertainment Fee/Tax to designated connection plans, to be distributed among the content creators based on measurements, and possibly c) zero tolerance among those who opt out, with fines based on the tax, not $2M for an album.
If the pirate would have purchased
How do you distinguish between an imaginary downloader who would have paid for the game and one who wouldn't have?
Until you can prove that your imaginary friends are more real than mine, we have nothing to talk about.
Doesn't work for a game like WoW
Some people have ideas though.
I find the discussions about which part of the mental masturbation is more "real" interesting.
Hint: if it costs you nothing that I copy your game, you didn't lose jack shit. If you don't like it, make your game more entertaining than the pirated version.
You can play World of Warcraft on a nearly unlimited number of free private servers with the client you download from Blizzard for free; you can even roll your own. But in terms of quality, they're at most marketing for the real thing.
If Blizzard wanted, they could make it impossible for the private server developers to keep up. Nobody would bother to reverse engineer an encrypted protocol that changes with every patch. What do they do instead? They add content to their own and swim in the money it generates.
I loved the part where the submitter felt the need to clarify that Telekom Austria is a telecommunications company. Now if only he could tell us which country it's in...
All the other words in the summary are buzzwords.
most porn is exploitative of women
No, rape is exploitative to women. Women being presented in an "only an object" light, however, is not. While it can be viewed as a form of prostitution, marrying rich men is legal as well, yet nobody complains about that.
Supply and Demand. Make your own porn with more romance and love stories in it, and see how it sells.
Let me get this straight: nothing happened for a year and a half, and that's news?
Let me rephrase the argument for you: Holy shit male politicians have dicks! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!
Actually, Tesla was talking about the Nokia N900, but the submitter never heard about that one.
Agreed. Basically if it runs on electricity, Tesla has a hand in it.
I'd say there is no fundamental difference between power lines and broadband cable, and should be treated almost exactly the same.
And what magic codec handling library do you call on a smartphone?