I was in your shoes until I got the email that Uverse is available for my home a couple weeks ago. My install is scheduled for next week. I can't wait to cancel the Comcast, that phone call will be very satisfying. (I am going to give them a chance though; 'every channel, premium movie channels, foreign channels, EVERYTHING, for life, at the price of their most basic service', then I won't cancel my TV service... internet would still be Uverse though...)
I am slightly curious to see if Comcast will improve its service now that it has a competitive market to deal with instead of a monopoly, and in a way I hope that they do. After all, if the companies rolling out fiber put them out of business, then we'll be back to the same bad situation we were in for the last decade, just with a different tyrant.
Wow, with hostility like this coming from the lead designer, then I suppose it is in fact a good thing that you have nothing to do with the marketing and billing.:-P
Second, Flying Labs is self financed. They have plenty of cash and aren't going to have the problems Vanguard did.
Not enough cash apparently, otherwise why involve Sony at all?
Nothing Sony will ever touch my computer. Sony, in any form, has a terrible track record. Whether it is rootkits, proprietary formats that die from their own strangling DRM requirements, overpriced electronics, boffed publishing, or holier-than-thou decisions on what PS games are permitted to be published stateside; they are bad news. SOE will be the Jonah of this pirate ship me thinks.
First of all, analogies are perfectly valid forms of argument.:-P
Secondly, you have an excellent point. A software maker has a right to determine how the consumer uses the product. There are no laws against this at the moment (although IMO there should be), but perhaps this will change in the future.
This would also explain the lackluster sales behind Halo 2 and Shadowrun on the PC, as well as the real culprit, Vista.
In reality, the ingenuity of a small group of fans will allow the product to reach a wider audience than before. To argue that allowing a product to be more convenient and better suited to the marketplace is a bad thing, smacks of bigotry. Product limitations such as the one implemented by these games is also arguably anti-competitive and monopolistic.
To use one of your hated analogies: There is no law against rubbing garbage on yourself. However, what's so bad about people wearing closepins on their noses when they want to visit you?
It's fairly easy to replace downed or damaged transmission lines. The real vulnerability in a power distribution system are the transformers, all of which are easily destroyed and extremely difficult to replace. So attack proof powerlines are nice, but really doesn't solve the problem in the bigger picture.
Hear hear. The idea of copyright was to protect and allow property rights holders to profit from their work before it entered the public domain and therefore became impossible to profit from. I wholeheartedly agree that 7 years is plenty of time to recoup costs and make profit in this day and age.
The problem is, it's somewhat socialist to prevent someone from profiting on their work indefinitely. This goes against our free market ideologies. When is enough profit enough?
Personally, I think 7 years is plenty long enough. Try to get a small business startup loan for a business plan that doesn't show a profit after 5 years. Same thing goes for movies and music. They make most of their money in the first year or two, so why the need to continue withholding it from the public in the name of greed?
I canceled our Comcast about 8 or 9 months ago because they started putting ads in the guide menu. Let me know when they discontinue this behavior and I might consider getting cable again.
Or perhaps someone could make an adblock addon for these cableboxes?
I'm sorry you got moderated as a troll, because I wholeheartedly agree with you. Particularly, the pay for client and subscription con. I didn't start WoW until the client came down to $20, because I could justify it as the first month's subscription cost.
I also agree on the necessity to design for lower end machines. I think the reason WoW is as popular as it is is mainly a function of how it can run on such a wide range of machines.
Lastly, as much as I hate spyware and invasive anti-cheat programs...what good are they if they don't use them? Why do I still get spammed in-game tells in WoW for real money seller websites? My WoW chat window is fast turning into resembling my yahoo email inbox...
Agreed. Prison time for copyright infringement? Insane. Considering this guy did not violate copyright for profit(according to article all cracked soft was distributed for free), I can't understand why the criminal courts are even involved...it should only be a civil issue. If this guy was selling the cracked software that's another story.
It's another case of how big corporate cartels (read MPAA/RIAA/BSA) bypass the supposed democracy we have in the US by buying off our "representatives" in government. If the people of the US were truly being represented by their elected officials, the DMCA would never have passed, and it would be repealed with prejudice today if it had...
Everyone dances on his grave now...but who stood up to him while he was alive?
Still, we can take some delight in knowing that if there is a hell, it has a new wing dedicated to him. It probably is just a TV and a DVD player, but all the discs are scratched or the wrong region.
Since you claim that all violence, both that which is perpetrated by terrorists or by soldiers is equal, then our decision on whose behavior to denounce must come to a personal choice.
I don't know about you, but if I had to choose, I don't think I would pick an islamo-fascist government or a violent gang of thugs over my own government. It may not be perfect, but the standard of living here sure beats the hell out of the middle east.
Wow...you claim moral high-ground by denouncing my post and claim me as a foe, while calling me an asshole.... Well, at least I know that no matter what I do to offend you, you will treat me, your foe, better than you treat your friends....afterall, you're morally obligated to.
I'm not positive, but the wording on most of the conventions and protocols seems to suggest that the party in violation of the conventions is the one responsible for the results of those violations.
In other words, by not wearing uniforms and mingling within the civilian population, the "terrorists", "enemy combatants," (whatever buzzword you wish) are not only violating the conventions(despite not being signatories), but are also responsible for collateral damage caused by said behavior.
I don't know if they forfeit the protections garnered by the conventions when they violate the protocols, but I would find it difficult to enforce laws on a party that doesn't play by those laws.
Regardless, the US adheres to strict rules of warfare that severely impede our progress on the battlefield. To say that the US and Bush are evil for supposed violations, and then, to say nothing of the enemy's behavior is reprehensible.
Johnson and Kennedy come foremost to mind regarding the questions you ask above.
On a side note the Geneva conventions are "quaint" and "obsolete," particularly when applied to warfare with cultures that don't recognize said conventions. Also, there are a lot of conventions and protocols that fall under the catch all term of "Geneva Conventions," and not all of them are readily applicable to warfare with "terrorists."
I'd also say it's sad commentary that Slashdotters are so willing to mod up anti-Bush rhetoric, without support for those mis-guided conclusions.
Then again, everyone likes a scape-goat just as much as they like a panacea.
Not necessarily. BMW's cost a lot more than a Hyundai does, so naturally their revenue would be higher. However, BMW's expenses are also a lot higher I would imagine. Revenue is not profit.
I'd also rather compare BMW to Toyota which has revenue in the trillions or Honda which has revenue around 86 billion...Hell just combine the two.
It also doesn't change the fact that most people driving BMW's are pompous jerks.;-P
You realize that the Gamecube (which is the same generation as the PS2) also costs less than a Wii right?
Furthermore, a quick look at the list of games being developed for the PS2 shows that it is already a dead system anyway. Sony priced themselves out of the market, and for years wankers at the SCEA have been sabotaging their own market share by blocking releases of Japanese games in the US. Sony is reaping what they sowed.
IANAL, but Copyright Misuse is related to Unclean Hands if I'm not mistaken, and the RIAA/MPAA's pursuit of legitimate non-law enforcement"pre-texting" is about as unclean as it gets, not to mention this "drift-net" and "extortion" strategy.
Wonderful letter, but now lets hope the judge thinks so too.
Agreed. In fact it was the NoScript extension that caused me to move from the darkside(IE) in the first place.
In fact, I would posit that if you are unable to understand the simple operation of NoScript, then you probably wouldn't be using Firefox in the first place.
The "Law" you are saying doesn't exist, is property and contract law. By agreeing to the TOS (which you must do to play) you are entering into a binding contract which sets forth the terms that are listed in the TOS. If you violate the TOS, you are in breach of contract and subject to both criminal and civil penalties. In the case of "selling an account," you are selling something that does not belong to you, as I explained in the first post. As another poster also implied, this is called fraud, and there is a law against it. I suggest reading the definitions of contract and property in a legal dictionary or in your local or federal statutes.
To put it in simple terms, by your line of reasoning, I should be able to sell a house that I am renting. The house never leaves the land it is on, and I'm just selling "access" to the property, etc.
This is not to say that WoW's TOS is a law, but rather it is a contract protected by centuries of contract law.
Access to the account is also solely at the discretion of Blizzard.
You are not understanding the basic principle of Blizzard's TOS. Section 8 clearly states that "Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void."
The information "never leaving Blizzards servers" is also irrelevant.
Actually, selling something that you don't own, without the express permission of the owner is quite illegal. WoW's TOS explicitly declares that user accounts and any and all virtual property is the property of Blizzard.
So until Blizzard releases ownership of these accounts and the virtual property held by them, declaring income from the sale of said account or property would be tantamount to admitting theft or fraud, or whatever the offcial law is against selling someone else's property without their consent. Therefore, taxing of this "income" is irrelevant.
I see your point, but online games which are based on skill rather than experience/play-based rewards have their disadvantages too.
I use to play Puzzle Pirates for quite awhile. I spent several months grinding(pillaging) and saving to buy all the stuff I could want. However, Puzzle Pirates really has two tiers of items, things that are really expensive, and things that are only attainable by winning contests of skill against other players. That second category was something I was never able to win, not once. So after 6 months of trying to get a damn parrot for my pirate, and watching the same people win parrots over and over again, I gave up.
It's the difference between winning an Olympic medal and buying a Leer Jet. Even the common man, if he saves all his pennies can eventually get a Leer jet, but only the truly gifted will ever win an Olympic medal. I don't know about you, but I play games to be the guy who can get the medals. This might also be why I find no entertainment in playing FPS's online...
Slashdot Mirror
I was in your shoes until I got the email that Uverse is available for my home a couple weeks ago. My install is scheduled for next week. I can't wait to cancel the Comcast, that phone call will be very satisfying. (I am going to give them a chance though; 'every channel, premium movie channels, foreign channels, EVERYTHING, for life, at the price of their most basic service', then I won't cancel my TV service... internet would still be Uverse though...) I am slightly curious to see if Comcast will improve its service now that it has a competitive market to deal with instead of a monopoly, and in a way I hope that they do. After all, if the companies rolling out fiber put them out of business, then we'll be back to the same bad situation we were in for the last decade, just with a different tyrant.
Good luck with that.
Not enough cash apparently, otherwise why involve Sony at all?
Nothing Sony will ever touch my computer. Sony, in any form, has a terrible track record. Whether it is rootkits, proprietary formats that die from their own strangling DRM requirements, overpriced electronics, boffed publishing, or holier-than-thou decisions on what PS games are permitted to be published stateside; they are bad news. SOE will be the Jonah of this pirate ship me thinks.
First of all, analogies are perfectly valid forms of argument. :-P
Secondly, you have an excellent point. A software maker has a right to determine how the consumer uses the product. There are no laws against this at the moment (although IMO there should be), but perhaps this will change in the future.
This would also explain the lackluster sales behind Halo 2 and Shadowrun on the PC, as well as the real culprit, Vista.
In reality, the ingenuity of a small group of fans will allow the product to reach a wider audience than before. To argue that allowing a product to be more convenient and better suited to the marketplace is a bad thing, smacks of bigotry. Product limitations such as the one implemented by these games is also arguably anti-competitive and monopolistic.
To use one of your hated analogies: There is no law against rubbing garbage on yourself. However, what's so bad about people wearing closepins on their noses when they want to visit you?
Surely someone in your office can put one of these together. http://www.pagerealm.com/tc2k/
It's fairly easy to replace downed or damaged transmission lines. The real vulnerability in a power distribution system are the transformers, all of which are easily destroyed and extremely difficult to replace. So attack proof powerlines are nice, but really doesn't solve the problem in the bigger picture.
The problem is, it's somewhat socialist to prevent someone from profiting on their work indefinitely. This goes against our free market ideologies. When is enough profit enough?
Personally, I think 7 years is plenty long enough. Try to get a small business startup loan for a business plan that doesn't show a profit after 5 years. Same thing goes for movies and music. They make most of their money in the first year or two, so why the need to continue withholding it from the public in the name of greed?
Or perhaps someone could make an adblock addon for these cableboxes?
I also agree on the necessity to design for lower end machines. I think the reason WoW is as popular as it is is mainly a function of how it can run on such a wide range of machines.
Lastly, as much as I hate spyware and invasive anti-cheat programs...what good are they if they don't use them? Why do I still get spammed in-game tells in WoW for real money seller websites? My WoW chat window is fast turning into resembling my yahoo email inbox...
It's another case of how big corporate cartels (read MPAA/RIAA/BSA) bypass the supposed democracy we have in the US by buying off our "representatives" in government. If the people of the US were truly being represented by their elected officials, the DMCA would never have passed, and it would be repealed with prejudice today if it had...
Everyone dances on his grave now...but who stood up to him while he was alive?
Still, we can take some delight in knowing that if there is a hell, it has a new wing dedicated to him. It probably is just a TV and a DVD player, but all the discs are scratched or the wrong region.
I don't know about you, but if I had to choose, I don't think I would pick an islamo-fascist government or a violent gang of thugs over my own government. It may not be perfect, but the standard of living here sure beats the hell out of the middle east.
Wow...you claim moral high-ground by denouncing my post and claim me as a foe, while calling me an asshole.... Well, at least I know that no matter what I do to offend you, you will treat me, your foe, better than you treat your friends....afterall, you're morally obligated to.
In other words, by not wearing uniforms and mingling within the civilian population, the "terrorists", "enemy combatants," (whatever buzzword you wish) are not only violating the conventions(despite not being signatories), but are also responsible for collateral damage caused by said behavior.
I don't know if they forfeit the protections garnered by the conventions when they violate the protocols, but I would find it difficult to enforce laws on a party that doesn't play by those laws.
Regardless, the US adheres to strict rules of warfare that severely impede our progress on the battlefield. To say that the US and Bush are evil for supposed violations, and then, to say nothing of the enemy's behavior is reprehensible.
On a side note the Geneva conventions are "quaint" and "obsolete," particularly when applied to warfare with cultures that don't recognize said conventions. Also, there are a lot of conventions and protocols that fall under the catch all term of "Geneva Conventions," and not all of them are readily applicable to warfare with "terrorists."
I'd also say it's sad commentary that Slashdotters are so willing to mod up anti-Bush rhetoric, without support for those mis-guided conclusions.
Then again, everyone likes a scape-goat just as much as they like a panacea.
I'd also rather compare BMW to Toyota which has revenue in the trillions or Honda which has revenue around 86 billion...Hell just combine the two.
It also doesn't change the fact that most people driving BMW's are pompous jerks. ;-P
Furthermore, a quick look at the list of games being developed for the PS2 shows that it is already a dead system anyway. Sony priced themselves out of the market, and for years wankers at the SCEA have been sabotaging their own market share by blocking releases of Japanese games in the US. Sony is reaping what they sowed.
Wonderful letter, but now lets hope the judge thinks so too.
In fact, I would posit that if you are unable to understand the simple operation of NoScript, then you probably wouldn't be using Firefox in the first place.
Apparently accessing the copy of the game client in RAM using another program infringes upon their rights. Also known as the Blizzard chilling effect.
To put it in simple terms, by your line of reasoning, I should be able to sell a house that I am renting. The house never leaves the land it is on, and I'm just selling "access" to the property, etc.
This is not to say that WoW's TOS is a law, but rather it is a contract protected by centuries of contract law.
You are not understanding the basic principle of Blizzard's TOS. Section 8 clearly states that "Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void."
The information "never leaving Blizzards servers" is also irrelevant.
So until Blizzard releases ownership of these accounts and the virtual property held by them, declaring income from the sale of said account or property would be tantamount to admitting theft or fraud, or whatever the offcial law is against selling someone else's property without their consent. Therefore, taxing of this "income" is irrelevant.
Last time I checked, all hexagons had six sides...
I use to play Puzzle Pirates for quite awhile. I spent several months grinding(pillaging) and saving to buy all the stuff I could want. However, Puzzle Pirates really has two tiers of items, things that are really expensive, and things that are only attainable by winning contests of skill against other players. That second category was something I was never able to win, not once. So after 6 months of trying to get a damn parrot for my pirate, and watching the same people win parrots over and over again, I gave up.
It's the difference between winning an Olympic medal and buying a Leer Jet. Even the common man, if he saves all his pennies can eventually get a Leer jet, but only the truly gifted will ever win an Olympic medal. I don't know about you, but I play games to be the guy who can get the medals. This might also be why I find no entertainment in playing FPS's online...