Since I'm not a lawyer, as soon as I get home, I'll copy the songs to my audio cassette deck.* I may try burning some CDs, but I don't think Microsoft's DRM allows us to do that. Videocassettes* are another alternative for storage that I might try.
* (Compact Cassette - a 1970s-era technology that uses Analog tape storage to defeat digital copyright; compact cassette features CD quality sound with 20-22,000 hertz and 70 db dynamic range. Videocassettes have similar properties.)
- Don't pay at all. It's just music after all, and there's plenty of it available for free (either via radio or in the public domain). Just because the record companies are trying to shove shit into my ears doesn't mean I have to comply. I'll just keep my dollars in my pocket and listen to the free stuff.
- One company acquiesced and now sells songs without restrictions. - Another company said "screw you" and left Itunes.
So it will be interesting to see how all this turns out. In the end, I think it will be customer pressure that forces companies to either allow freedom, or else go bankrupt.
I don't really care what Microsoft's motive is, I only care that I have $1000 worth of songs that are now worthless. That's fraud.
If I was a lawyer, I'd file a class-action lawsuit for the benefit of the MSN Store's customers, demanding either a full refund, or the ability to download a perpetual license with no expiration date.
The BBC recently ran into this problem where they discovered old 1930s-era records with 30-line video stored on them. They knew what was on the records, but they didn't have the hardware required to play them. Museums have run into similar problems with old cylinder-shaped records, and more-recently, capacitance-encoded video records (RCA CED).
It's not enough to know what's on the thing; you also need the hardware to read the gadget, and that hardware is often unavailable due to its failure to succeed, or extreme age.
After the Roman empire fell, the only thing that survived was rock and paper... which meant text. Pictures were lost; music was lost; even marble statues failed to survive (they were used as building material). Thousands of years of music and art just disappeared.
I'm dead. Gone. I'm not going to care what happens. As far as I'm concerned, you can truck my body to the local electrical plant & throw it in, to help provide cheap electricity to warm people's homes.
>>>"the publishers want to have it both ways - at some times to insist on a strict interpretation of traditional copyright, and at others to insist that what you bought is a 'licence' rather than a CD or computer program, and they can restrict you even further than copyright allows."
I've found that assassination is an effective way to deal with dictators... including CEOs. The record execs have not reached that stage where they deserve to die, but if they continue "eating out" the substance of our citizens, harassing them with stupid court cases, then they will have crossed the line.
"From time to time, the blood of patriots and tyrants must be spilt to water the Tree of Liberty." - Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party, 3rd President of the United States
>>>"People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected pirates to a hotline, similar to TIPS. The police have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?"
TIPs didn't stop videogame piracy in the 80s or 90s, and it won't stop music piracy now.
As for the police, I assume you were joking when you said they fought the War on Drugs with skill. They LOST the war on drugs, same way they lost they War on Alcohol in the 20s and 30s. The politicians/police are just too dumb to realize it.
>>>"People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago."
Well then, supplement your CDs with sales of MP3 singles. The singles market is going through the roof, and if you provided your customers with a place to buy and download MP3 singles, you'd probably be a popular stop for the teen and 20-something market.
ADJUST to the needs of your customers. If they are demanding singles, don't hand them CDs. Give them singles; give them what they want.
You don't drive through Baltimore. You visit the Inner Harbor, enjoy a few drinks at Fells Point, and then leave. Basically, you stay close to the water where it's safe & well-policed. Ditto D.C.
And, New Jersey is not three times larger than Maryland. It takes about 3 hours to drive across Jersey (northward).... it takes almost 5 hours to drive from Maryland's shoreline to the western mountains. So I'd say Maryland has greater breadth, and about the same area as NJ.
In a country that is supposedly allows "freedom of thought", what does it matter what kind of entertainment I enjoy? Yes child porn is wrong, but what about other things like enjoying women playing with themselves?
>>>"Imagine trying to port GTA3 to the original Nintendo"
Now, now... it isn't that bad. Porting a Colecovision game to an Atari 2600 is more like porting Final Fantasy 7 to Nintendo64. Basically the same game, but with some graphical limitations (i.e. no bitmapped backgrounds).
I'd recommend the Commodore=64's Elite over Star Raiders. It's the same basic concept (defend yourself), but on a much more massive scale (hundreds of planets). After I discovered Elite I never played Star Raiders again.
>>>"Maybe if you people actually drove a few miles AWAY from the turnpike and parkway, and NYC in general and actually saw the rest of our state, you would see why we all think its great."
The southern part of New Jersey (low population) is nice. Ditto the portion bordering the Pennsylvania line. But the rest of it? Pass.
You joke, but some idiots have seriously proposed castrating pedophiles.
Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. If she has breasts and the ability to produce babies, she's not a child anymore, is she? (runs away from the Chris Hansen fan club).
Better that I get forced into the gutter and bang my head against the steering wheel (with blood running down my forehead) while the guilty driver gets off. Yeah, much better.
Everybody has a right to healthcare. They have a right to go to a doctor and say, "Please heal me," and the doctor will do his professional duty (same as we do our professional duty as engineers).
HOWEVER nobody has a right to raid their neighbors' wallets to pay the cost of the bill. That money belongs to THEM, not you. You have no right to steal it for your own benefit.
This post is not flamebait. My previous post was my OPINION, and I'm sorry if you disagree with my opinion, but that's no reason to incorrectly mod it.
If you're not going to do your job properly, then you should step down and cease being a moderator.
This is not flamebait. That previous post is my OPINION on the matter, and I'm sorry you don't like my opinion, but that's no reason to mod it as "flamebait".
If you're not going to do your job properly, then step-down and cease being a moderator.
Hello? If you want the Windows task bar in an up-down orientation, all you need to do is drag it there. Fixed. (This looks like a prime example of a Mac user criticizing Windows, even though he's doesn't really know how to use Windows.)
As for screen shape:
Try fitting a vertically-oriented document (like Word or Acrobat or Microsoft Reader) inside a wide screen. It's frustrating.
Slashdot Mirror
P.S.
Since I'm not a lawyer, as soon as I get home, I'll copy the songs to my audio cassette deck.* I may try burning some CDs, but I don't think Microsoft's DRM allows us to do that. Videocassettes* are another alternative for storage that I might try.
* (Compact Cassette - a 1970s-era technology that uses Analog tape storage to defeat digital copyright; compact cassette features CD quality sound with 20-22,000 hertz and 70 db dynamic range. Videocassettes have similar properties.)
You forgot Option 3:
- Don't pay at all. It's just music after all, and there's plenty of it available for free (either via radio or in the public domain). Just because the record companies are trying to shove shit into my ears doesn't mean I have to comply. I'll just keep my dollars in my pocket and listen to the free stuff.
Drive the companies into bankruptcy.
Actually Apple's Itunes already demanded DRM-free songs.
- One company acquiesced and now sells songs without restrictions.
- Another company said "screw you" and left Itunes.
So it will be interesting to see how all this turns out. In the end, I think it will be customer pressure that forces companies to either allow freedom, or else go bankrupt.
I don't really care what Microsoft's motive is,
I only care that I have $1000 worth of songs that are now worthless.
That's fraud.
If I was a lawyer, I'd file a class-action lawsuit for the benefit of the MSN Store's customers, demanding either a full refund, or the ability to download a perpetual license with no expiration date.
The BBC recently ran into this problem where they discovered old 1930s-era records with 30-line video stored on them. They knew what was on the records, but they didn't have the hardware required to play them. Museums have run into similar problems with old cylinder-shaped records, and more-recently, capacitance-encoded video records (RCA CED).
It's not enough to know what's on the thing; you also need the hardware to read the gadget, and that hardware is often unavailable due to its failure to succeed, or extreme age.
After the Roman empire fell, the only thing that survived was rock and paper... which meant text. Pictures were lost; music was lost; even marble statues failed to survive (they were used as building material). Thousands of years of music and art just disappeared.
>>>"It's for the ones left alive, so they have a sense of closure."
Like I care. I'm dead. The ones who are left alive have a far better deal than what I've got (non-existence).
I agree 100%.
I'm dead. Gone. I'm not going to care what happens. As far as I'm concerned, you can truck my body to the local electrical plant & throw it in, to help provide cheap electricity to warm people's homes.
>>>"the publishers want to have it both ways - at some times to insist on a strict interpretation of traditional copyright, and at others to insist that what you bought is a 'licence' rather than a CD or computer program, and they can restrict you even further than copyright allows."
I've found that assassination is an effective way to deal with dictators... including CEOs. The record execs have not reached that stage where they deserve to die, but if they continue "eating out" the substance of our citizens, harassing them with stupid court cases, then they will have crossed the line.
"From time to time, the blood of patriots and tyrants must be spilt to water the Tree of Liberty." - Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party, 3rd President of the United States
>>>"People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected pirates to a hotline, similar to TIPS. The police have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?"
TIPs didn't stop videogame piracy in the 80s or 90s, and it won't stop music piracy now.
As for the police, I assume you were joking when you said they fought the War on Drugs with skill. They LOST the war on drugs, same way they lost they War on Alcohol in the 20s and 30s. The politicians/police are just too dumb to realize it.
An oldie, but a goodie.
>>>"People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago."
Well then, supplement your CDs with sales of MP3 singles. The singles market is going through the roof, and if you provided your customers with a place to buy and download MP3 singles, you'd probably be a popular stop for the teen and 20-something market.
ADJUST to the needs of your customers.
If they are demanding singles, don't hand them CDs.
Give them singles; give them what they want.
Really?
Hmmm. I wouldn't think the NES had enough space to hold all the various missions.
You don't drive through Baltimore. You visit the Inner Harbor, enjoy a few drinks at Fells Point, and then leave. Basically, you stay close to the water where it's safe & well-policed. Ditto D.C.
And, New Jersey is not three times larger than Maryland. It takes about 3 hours to drive across Jersey (northward).... it takes almost 5 hours to drive from Maryland's shoreline to the western mountains. So I'd say Maryland has greater breadth, and about the same area as NJ.
In a country that is supposedly allows "freedom of thought", what does it matter what kind of entertainment I enjoy? Yes child porn is wrong, but what about other things like enjoying women playing with themselves?
Since when is "loose morals" an illegal act?
>>>"Imagine trying to port GTA3 to the original Nintendo"
Now, now... it isn't that bad. Porting a Colecovision game to an Atari 2600 is more like porting Final Fantasy 7 to Nintendo64. Basically the same game, but with some graphical limitations (i.e. no bitmapped backgrounds).
If I may interject:
I'd recommend the Commodore=64's Elite over Star Raiders. It's the same basic concept (defend yourself), but on a much more massive scale (hundreds of planets). After I discovered Elite I never played Star Raiders again.
I don't know why you're busting on Warlords? That was an awesome game for parties. 4 people trying to kill each other's castles.
Fun!
>>>"Maybe if you people actually drove a few miles AWAY from the turnpike and parkway, and NYC in general and actually saw the rest of our state, you would see why we all think its great."
The southern part of New Jersey (low population) is nice. Ditto the portion bordering the Pennsylvania line. But the rest of it? Pass.
Now Maryland... there's a nice state.
You joke, but some idiots have seriously proposed castrating pedophiles.
Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. If she has breasts and the ability to produce babies, she's not a child anymore, is she? (runs away from the Chris Hansen fan club).
Good point.
Better that I get forced into the gutter and bang my head against the steering wheel (with blood running down my forehead) while the guilty driver gets off. Yeah, much better.
Searching my bags is reasonable.
"Feeling me up" or "scanning me naked" is unreasonable.
"With the first freedom censured, the first liberty curtailed, the first link in the chain is forged..."
Everybody has a right to healthcare. They have a right to go to a doctor and say, "Please heal me," and the doctor will do his professional duty (same as we do our professional duty as engineers).
HOWEVER nobody has a right to raid their neighbors' wallets to pay the cost of the bill.
That money belongs to THEM, not you. You have no right to steal it for your own benefit.
This post is not flamebait. My previous post was my OPINION, and I'm sorry if you disagree with my opinion, but that's no reason to incorrectly mod it.
If you're not going to do your job properly, then you should step down and cease being a moderator.
This is not flamebait. That previous post is my OPINION on the matter, and I'm sorry you don't like my opinion, but that's no reason to mod it as "flamebait".
If you're not going to do your job properly, then step-down and cease being a moderator.
Uh.
Hello? If you want the Windows task bar in an up-down orientation, all you need to do is drag it there. Fixed. (This looks like a prime example of a Mac user criticizing Windows, even though he's doesn't really know how to use Windows.)
As for screen shape:
Try fitting a vertically-oriented document (like Word or Acrobat or Microsoft Reader) inside a wide screen. It's frustrating.