...the levy is collected by the CPCC. They distribute the money to songwriters, music publishers, recording artists, and record companies.
Which leads me to ask, how was it distributed to individuals 'represented' bt the CPCC? Evenly? By playtime? How do they know who ripped what? Crystal ball?
So every sucky marginal 'artist' is given the same as every platinum record type? Hmm. Did I ever tell you I was an musical artist? Ya I play a kazoo, that's it, a kazoo. And I snap my fingers. Send me my check. =D
"....Michael Krepon... argues that developing space weapons is a surefire way to launch a new space weapon race."...Whether or not developing space weapons is a surefire way to launch a new space weapons race does not answer the question as to whether or not space weapons are necessary.
Exactly, such development is not only desirable from a military stand point, it's inevitable.
Study the last few conflicts the US has engaged in. Real-time information and effective use of same has made all the difference. Anything that dispels the fog of war is a serious force multiplier and cannot be ignored by a commander. That is to say, you can bet that any technical nation that imagines the US to be a potential rival (ohh China, India, Russia, EU?) has a robust ECM/ASAT program in the works and is working out ways to reduce the effectiveness of our own tools and reduce our advantage. ASAT systems, GPS jammers, commlink jammers. Blinding the enemy has ALWAYS been a goal for a military commander just as he seeks to keep his own intelligence assets alive and functioning.
Iraq had many armored vehicles with effective guns, but did not know where the US hardware was while we knew exactly where they were.
Heck, the first targets were command and control, radar, SAM, aircraft... Making ASAT weapons only extends the strategy, it's nothing new. If your adversary has surveillance systems in orbit, they need to be blinded/silenced.
These will be developed. Certainly by rivals as a check to our power. The US will develop these weapons too - for the capability and for the understanding of how to better protect our own systems from attack.
Aside, any bets on how many chinese black-hats wear Red Army uniforms? Might be easier to count those that do not, heh.
-me
"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an
election."
-Otto Von Bismarck
Granted, these will certainly not store anything like cookies, but I gaurantee that if they become used, Akamai or Doubleclick or , heh, BodyCount (tm) will collect brick-and-mortar visit data, at first, and sell it. Easy to drop scanners at pedestrian choke points.
Which of these companies will be a 3-letter agency shell company? Or will they just give the collection companies an offer they can't refuse? Not right away, but inevitable if implimented laws offering protections or no.
Perhaps those who would impliment such a system would do it for the best of intentions, but every tool with the potential for abuse by the governament has been abused by the government eventually. Tools like those described in the article are a fascists wet dream and we accept them at our peril.
...you can hear all kinds of rants against democracy on religious-themed radio shows...
Exactly. And note that this statement would be true in the Bible-belt as well as in the Isamic theocratic state of your choice. Never mind that we live in a constitutional Representaive Republic which happens to be a deocratic form of government. Those who would control a society frequently make an alliance with the religious leaders to for a mutualy suporting power structure. Bottom line is these guys all want temporal power. All else is a route to that and to stomp out the opposition.
Question the King and you're excommunicate since he's chosen-by-god(tm) and of course the king would promptly kill them and collect their property. Pretty effective domestication - the controling structure is in the religious beliefs - and if you take the Jesuits at the their word (Give us a boy and we will return you a man, a citizen of his country and a child of God. http://www.goethals.org/edujes.htm), well even big brother would admire that particlar sentiment(http://www.online-literature.com/view.ph p/1984/21?term=love%20big%20brother)
While old Greece did have a democratic form of government it meant a few Citizens electing the ruler who then exercised dictatorial powers. And they had a very different notion of individuality and an individuals role in society. Subordinate to the whole. Rome, more Oligarchy than democracy, also had a very different conception of an idivuals role. Both were very different from our understanding, in spite of simialr words (but different meanings/underlieing assumptions) Christianity was a key ingredient altering Roman society (since greece was a subjugated country 0- to Rome. Rome revered Greek traditions and sought to preserve it's culture; Rome was pretty utilitarian on it's own.) But that wasn't enough to explain contemporary understanding of a Liberal Democractic State (Liberal in the classical sense, not the current derogatory)
A reader of the Dorsai series might notice the intersting parallel between Dicksons splitting of human culture into three Achetypical cultures - the martial Dorsai, the religious Friendlies, and the mystic Exotics. Dunno if he was thinking about this - if not, a surprising coincidence.
Slashdot Mirror
Which leads me to ask, how was it distributed to individuals 'represented' bt the CPCC? Evenly? By playtime? How do they know who ripped what? Crystal ball?
So every sucky marginal 'artist' is given the same as every platinum record type? Hmm. Did I ever tell you I was an musical artist? Ya I play a kazoo, that's it, a kazoo. And I snap my fingers. Send me my check. =D
-me
Study the last few conflicts the US has engaged in. Real-time information and effective use of same has made all the difference. Anything that dispels the fog of war is a serious force multiplier and cannot be ignored by a commander. That is to say, you can bet that any technical nation that imagines the US to be a potential rival (ohh China, India, Russia, EU?) has a robust ECM/ASAT program in the works and is working out ways to reduce the effectiveness of our own tools and reduce our advantage. ASAT systems, GPS jammers, commlink jammers. Blinding the enemy has ALWAYS been a goal for a military commander just as he seeks to keep his own intelligence assets alive and functioning.
Iraq had many armored vehicles with effective guns, but did not know where the US hardware was while we knew exactly where they were.
Heck, the first targets were command and control, radar, SAM, aircraft... Making ASAT weapons only extends the strategy, it's nothing new. If your adversary has surveillance systems in orbit, they need to be blinded/silenced.
These will be developed. Certainly by rivals as a check to our power. The US will develop these weapons too - for the capability and for the understanding of how to better protect our own systems from attack.
Aside, any bets on how many chinese black-hats wear Red Army uniforms? Might be easier to count those that do not, heh.
-me
"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election." -Otto Von Bismarck
Which of these companies will be a 3-letter agency shell company? Or will they just give the collection companies an offer they can't refuse? Not right away, but inevitable if implimented laws offering protections or no.
Perhaps those who would impliment such a system would do it for the best of intentions, but every tool with the potential for abuse by the governament has been abused by the government eventually. Tools like those described in the article are a fascists wet dream and we accept them at our peril.
Exactly. And note that this statement would be true in the Bible-belt as well as in the Isamic theocratic state of your choice. Never mind that we live in a constitutional Representaive Republic which happens to be a deocratic form of government. Those who would control a society frequently make an alliance with the religious leaders to for a mutualy suporting power structure. Bottom line is these guys all want temporal power. All else is a route to that and to stomp out the opposition.
Question the King and you're excommunicate since he's chosen-by-god(tm) and of course the king would promptly kill them and collect their property. Pretty effective domestication - the controling structure is in the religious beliefs - and if you take the Jesuits at the their word (Give us a boy and we will return you a man, a citizen of his country and a child of God. http://www.goethals.org/edujes.htm), well even big brother would admire that particlar sentiment(http://www.online-literature.com/view.ph p/1984/21?term=love%20big%20brother)
While old Greece did have a democratic form of government it meant a few Citizens electing the ruler who then exercised dictatorial powers. And they had a very different notion of individuality and an individuals role in society. Subordinate to the whole. Rome, more Oligarchy than democracy, also had a very different conception of an idivuals role. Both were very different from our understanding, in spite of simialr words (but different meanings/underlieing assumptions) Christianity was a key ingredient altering Roman society (since greece was a subjugated country 0- to Rome. Rome revered Greek traditions and sought to preserve it's culture; Rome was pretty utilitarian on it's own.) But that wasn't enough to explain contemporary understanding of a Liberal Democractic State (Liberal in the classical sense, not the current derogatory)
What is generally ignored is the enourmous influence the Germanic tribes that captured and ruled Rome for quite some time. THEY shared our notion of humans as an indiviual. (Ref. From Plato to Nato http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684 827891/qid=1123186439/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/104- 0271561-7217508?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 )
A reader of the Dorsai series might notice the intersting parallel between Dicksons splitting of human culture into three Achetypical cultures - the martial Dorsai, the religious Friendlies, and the mystic Exotics. Dunno if he was thinking about this - if not, a surprising coincidence.