82,000, but I take your point. It's a little bigger in population than I thought, which is what I meant. It's still nowhere near the top 5 for population, though.
I disagree about the 'violent culture', though. There's plenty of countries that have a -lot- more violent culture than ours, and you don't see school massacres there, either. There are countries that have basically been at war for their entire history. Maybe those countries just don't have time to think about killing themselves, though.
I'm not claiming that video games turn people into murdering psycopaths more than anything else does. It's just 1 piece of the puzzle. "Familiarity breeds contempt." If people (children are people too!) are overly familiar with violence from watching movies and playing games, they are less likely to shy away from it when they feel they need to take action.
Violent games don't -create- psychopaths, but they help remove society's taboos. Without the exposure to violence, they'd -might- do something else instead of murdering the entire school. Suicide, drugs, paint something... Who knows.
The point is that people are saying 'video games -don't- do that' when the fact is, everything contributes.
Putting up a stop sign won't prevent all accidents, but it -does- prevent some, even if only by warning those that speed through anyhow that they are doing something dangerous.
I have nothing against ratings, and preventing adult-rated items from being sold directly to children. I -am- against preventing the parent from buying them for the child. It's up to a parent to raise the child, not society. If all the warnings in the world don't help the parent make the decision, laws aren't going to either.
Video games came up quickly and under the radar. There was nothing in place to help mold them. The years of complete freedom has led to a fanatical reaction in the other direction, and this is not unexpected. Eventually all of this nonsense will die down and a compromise will be reached. Until then, and after, the fanatics are free to talk about how much they dislike violent games.
Fakt: It is easy to label a parent 'negligent' after their child commits a mass murder.
Fakt: It is easy to say someone was an outcast after they commit mass murder. NOBODY is going to say 'he was such a good friend' because they will be watched closely afterwards for the same behavior.
Fakt: Everyone that kills people is angry or crazy, not just children.
Fakt: Everyone that kills because they are angry goes after those they are angry at.
Fakt: Taking a gun and shooting someone is not a gut instinct. It's a learned action.
Fakt: Learned actions are easier and more impulsive if they are more familiar.
Fakt: Today's video games are more violent than ever, and many involve actually being the character that pulls the trigger, and even looking out of its eyes, and pretending to really be there.
COULD there be a connection with the video games after all, and the games not be completely irrelevant? -gasp-
I'm confused. Are you blaming the developer or the law in Germany for forcing the developer to change their product for a single country that really isn't that big?
There's not enough money in the budget to rework all the AI and cutscenes to make sense in Germany, and if they make it for Germany from the start, they won't make as much money in the other countries.
On the other hand, a friend pointed out to me today that you never hear of school-massacres from countries other than the US. Is it because we don't pay attention to world-wide events, or is it because it just doesn't happen as often? Does it not happen because of 'stupid' laws like these?
Violent video games have been around less than a single generation and it's almost impossible to know what impact they actually have on growing minds, and already-grown minds. Violent movies have been around a lot longer, and we don't even know what effect they have. Don't get me started on 'theatre' that's been around for centuries.
I'm totally against censorship in my country, but other countries can do -whatever they want.-
The only way to 'process' the stream is to record it, even temporarily, to the memory of a computer.
You can't work on data without putting it in memory at some point. This is even more so with data that is being analyzed, because it needs to deal with pieces of the data, not just the current position of the live stream, which is only milliseconds long to a computer.
That's because the sentence actually starts in the title, and not the body of the post. I hate it when people do that because it's almost always confusing. If you post doesn't deserve a title, maybe it doesn't deserve to be posted at all.
Anyhow, the whole 'unreloadable gun' thing... Wow. What a nightmare. It's hard to think of more dangerous things than a gun that can only be unloaded by firing it.
Back in early beta, Saga of Ryzom had an amazing skill/magic system. It let you combine different costs and effects together to create your own spells or skills. Everything was going great until someone figured out how to combine skills so that healing a large enough group of people actually gave more mana than it cost, and healed them, too. They rewrote the entire system a few months later, ruining the entire game.
For those that didn't play, it would be like:
Fire effect - needs 10 cost Mana cost - provides 6 cost Health cost - provides 4 cost
And you'd lose some mana and health, and cast a fire spell. There were different levels of the effects and costs, so you could chain it together how you liked. You could have multiple effects and costs and really have some nice custom spells. You could even have of the same type of cost, like mana, so you'd have 2 and 4 to make 6, instead of just using an 8 and wasting 2.
Obviously, I really miss this system and wish someone else would make a game with it.
Someone has obviously been told not to call them bugs, and was looking for another word. They chose 'easter eggs' with having any bloody clue what they were saying.
Obviously, it isn't an 'easter egg' if the developers did not put it there on purpose. And if they did, they would indeed remove any exploitable ones before shipping.
That aside, the whole 'change the code live' thing is a programmer's wet dream. As such, there's probably a reason it's not very common. Like, oh, it's a nightmare to actually use. Updating a cute little Lua script is easy, updating a library or even a big nasty lua script is not easy at all.
This true about a lot of things, and not just Pen & Paper RPGs. Consoles and PC Games have provided another avenue to get certain entertainment needs rather than the 'real thing'. RPGs, Wii Bowling, Strategy Games (replacing board games), the plethora of 'puzzle' games on Reflexive and Gamehouse... People used to have to go through a lot more hassle to sooth those urges.
Now they can have a quick game with only a few minutes setup, instead of having to get people together and agree on a game, etc, etc.
It's just progress. People used to have to listen to the radio for news and entertainment, but then TV came along. And now video games. Something will likely replace them as well, in the future. I personally suspect it'll be a movement towards VR and integrating reality with the VR. A pair of sunglasses that let me play video games with my hand motions would be awesome, and incorporating real-world stuff into it also would be awesome.
What about SecondLife-in-real-life, where you could build a 3d sculpture in the subway, and others that are hooked in could see it as well. Or design your plain red t-shirt to have an animated design.
I'd pay good money for that, and that kind of tech is -not- that far off.
Even more on-topic... With those glasses, your Pen & Paper RP sessions would take on new life as Eric really did look like 'Eldarar the hedgewizard' and Susie really -is- a troll, and casting a spell at her looked a bit dangerous. You keep all your rules and acting, and the details and special effects could be handled by the system.
I better stop. I want that really bad now, and it'll be years before we see it. -sigh-
And the rest of us aren't impressed with those who feel everyone set up an RSS feed, regardless of their actual needs. Even as a geek, I just recently found RSS easy enough to deal with that I starting watching feeds. (Google's Reader app is nice and I can see it anywhere.)
The majority of people on the internet don't even -know- what RSS is, but they know what email is, and when you say 'mailing list' they know what they're getting into.
That's not even getting into securing the information. A mailing list only goes to who you send it to. An RSS feed is either unsecured, or a hassle.
The problem with feature bloat is that those features were added because some people wanted them. For me, Adblock, Noscript, and the download statusbar are necessary firefox plugins. For others, an RSS reader is necessary, but they don't care about ANY of my needs.
How do you pick?
Firefox solved this by having plugins. You just add what you want to the 'basic' browser.
So far, Safari is -not- what I need. Even down to things like the shortcut keys. IE/Firefox/Opera all let you type 'google' and hit ctrl-enter to turn it into 'http://www.google.com'. Safari and Konqueror do not, and I haven't figured out how to make either one do it.
Konqueror also has some major issues rendering Slashdot, including cutting off the ends of peoples' posts. I didn't see that particular problem on Safari when I looked, though.
Apple fanatics complain bitterly when a ported app doesn't fit in with all their other apps, but when Apple ports an app, they do the -exact same thing- and it's supposedly okay. Safari looks and behaves nothing like the rest Windows.
Ah, I meant license changes in general, not necessarily GPLv2 to GPLv3. I worked on a project that was initially a license that didn't say what they really wanted it to, then switched to a non-commercial license. They later switch again to the GPL, I believe. Because they had obtained full rights to the code, it was an easy transition, even with people that would have been hard to contact.
As for the GPL... I don't like it. I think the LPGL is a -much- more fair license and still does what it was supposed to: Guarantee improvements to the code stay in the community.
No, you got it exactly right. I'm surprised you haven't been modded down yet for it, though. Every time I say that, someone replies with 'Yahoo shouldn't help evil!' and 'if those people didn't want to be evil, they shouldn't work for a company that deals with evil countries!' and 'it's better to sacrifice yourself than someone else' even though it probably wasn't the employees IN China that even got to make the decision.
Yahoo's in an impossible position. If they leave China, they've abandoned people. If they stay in China, they've abandoned people. (To censorship, in both cases.)
With a FOSS project as huge and old as the Linux kernel, it may not even be -possible- to track everyone down. Some will be deceased, or simply missing. Heck, there might even be some in the witness protection program, for all we know. There's just too many people from too many different backgrounds to expect to contact everyone or their relatives for permission.
And that's just assuming all of them WILL consent.
For newer FOSS projects, it's not as hard. Of course as much time hasn't gone by, but there's a trend now to have the devs sign the code over to the project, so that further permission is not necessary. The devs don't have to give up any of their rights to the code, they just have to grant unlimited rights to the code for the project. I haven't heard anything about Linux attempting to get this now, but I wouldn't be surprised if the plans were already in the works.
Why not? It's a challenge, not a true 'deadline'. Think of it as an episode of 'Monster House' where they get to keep the tools if they get the nearly-impossible project done on time. There's -always- work to be done afterwards to finish it off, but the work is complete as far as they were contracted.
It's not 'have a fully functional data center filled with customers.' It's only 'build it.'
I haven't kept up with the site as I get them with my GameTap subscription.
I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't respond to some of your issues so far.:( I like the re-use of the office, Sybil's, etc... But they went too far with it. Too many things were static.
I didn't have a single graphical issue, though... Definitely felt well-done on the programming side.
As for the Wii version... Is that a definite? I was thinking about buying the PC DVD to support them, but I'm -much- rather have a Wii version.
I think Telltale did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the original Sam & Max, as well as the cartoons. (Which were a little different from each other, even so.)
My only complaint is that by the third game, I already felt like it was the same game all over again... And by the 6th... Well, there's a place for consistancy, but the plot of 6 episodes is not that place.
For those who haven't played it, allow me to ruin the plot of all 6 episodes:
Find out something odd is happening. Find out you need (obscene amount of money) to buy a home-made gadget from the store. Get around some obstacles with items you pick up. Earn obscene amount of money in a dumb way. Buy item. Use item to advance plot. Get around more obstacles.
That's it. The details differ a -little- in each episode, and the scenery and dialogue (firefox says that's spelled wrong. Bad firefox!) vary wildly, but I got sick of the 'plot' real quick.
It's like Scooby Doo. Every single episode had the same plot, but just the details differed.
The artists don't 'make no money'. They make minimal money that barely covers costs, but they also gain world-wide advertising and promotion. How many bands do you know that have figured out how to promote themselves locally, let alone world-wide? They all have agents for that, so they can concentrate on the music.
Don't get me wrong... The RIAA is raping everyone. But the artists don't get 'nothing' from it. If they did, they wouldn't have signed that contract in the first place and wouldn't have the contractual obligations.
I disagree. If it means -any- inconvenience for most people, they won't bother. Don't believe me? Take a look at the highway today. Notice all the trash? That was put there by all the assholes that can't be bothered to throw it away properly, at -no- cost to them. It's just slightly inconvenient to take it home. The $500 fine for littering doesn't even dissuade them. (Florida law, may differ elsewhere.) And don't even get me started about cigarette butts that can cause fires that kill people and destroy lives of others.
W. T. F. How the hell did you manage to put all those words in my mouth?
The people in Yahoo that made the decision not to give the information were -not- the people in that would have been going to jail for it, I'm sure. They probably weren't even -in- China.
How is it more 'moral' to sacrifice people you know to save people you don't?
And lastly, I wish the world were as black and white as you paint it. There is no 'support or do not support oppressive regimes' crap. We -could- abandon all those people in China and just pull Yahoo, Google, and every other company that has any -hope- of helping those people out. Or we could work with what we have and slowly change things for the better. You can't hold a gun to China's government's head and get them to change overnight. You have to keep applying safe amounts of pressure and eventually get them to see the light. This means that we will occasionally have to do distasteful things.
The only way to avoid 'supporting oppressive regimes' is to lock ourselves in a bubble and refuse to talk to -any other country.- It doesn't matter how enlightened they are, there will always be something about their government we don't agree with. It's not as if we are squeaky clean, either. In fact, I don't even need to mention our atrocities, as everyone already knows about them and -does nothing.- You are supporting an oppressive regime merely by living, no matter what country you are in.
You've made another assumption... That the landfill operators have -any- idea what's in the garbage bags before they accept them. And afterwards, they have no idea who it came from.
I agree, if you can somehow force the majority of the population to recycle, things would be better. So far, in the past few decades, we've failed at that. How is this any different?
I fully expected to see nothing but the 'RIAA shouldn't get to use our tax dollars' posts and I wasn't even going to read the comments. I'm glad to see that at least some people have more sense than that.
If my PC was stolen, and I saw it at a flea market, I'd -expect- the police to do something about it. Laws are laws and those who break them should have to face the consequences.
Am I perfect? No.
But publicly flaunting your lawlessness? They, and the people who buy from them, should be ashamed.
You are making the assumption that people will actually take advantage of this. It's much more likely that most people will continue as they are doing and everyone will still have to pay for it, used or not.
Did you even read what I wrote or the summary? We aren't talking about loss of profits for Yahoo (even though that would be a consequence), we are talking about employees of theirs going to JAIL under the same oppressive regime that is forcing them to hand over the info. This isn't '4 squares and cable' jail like the US has. This is 'enemy of the country' jail. The very same kind of jail the reporter was thrown in for violating the law in the first place.
How does Yahoo's violating the law help? It doesn't, it only changes who goes to jail immediately. In all likelihood, the 'protected' reporter will be caught as well, and nothing has been helped.
Get your head out of your ass. This isn't as simple as 'if we shout loud enough, the government has to understand.' They DO NOT CARE. They have gotten their ways for centuries and have the firepower to keep getting their way for a long time to come.
Pick your battles. Getting innocent people jailed or killed to save someone that knowing broke the law is NOT going to help.
Slashdot Mirror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ population
82,000, but I take your point. It's a little bigger in population than I thought, which is what I meant. It's still nowhere near the top 5 for population, though.
I disagree about the 'violent culture', though. There's plenty of countries that have a -lot- more violent culture than ours, and you don't see school massacres there, either. There are countries that have basically been at war for their entire history. Maybe those countries just don't have time to think about killing themselves, though.
I'm not claiming that video games turn people into murdering psycopaths more than anything else does. It's just 1 piece of the puzzle. "Familiarity breeds contempt." If people (children are people too!) are overly familiar with violence from watching movies and playing games, they are less likely to shy away from it when they feel they need to take action.
Violent games don't -create- psychopaths, but they help remove society's taboos. Without the exposure to violence, they'd -might- do something else instead of murdering the entire school. Suicide, drugs, paint something... Who knows.
The point is that people are saying 'video games -don't- do that' when the fact is, everything contributes.
Putting up a stop sign won't prevent all accidents, but it -does- prevent some, even if only by warning those that speed through anyhow that they are doing something dangerous.
I have nothing against ratings, and preventing adult-rated items from being sold directly to children. I -am- against preventing the parent from buying them for the child. It's up to a parent to raise the child, not society. If all the warnings in the world don't help the parent make the decision, laws aren't going to either.
Video games came up quickly and under the radar. There was nothing in place to help mold them. The years of complete freedom has led to a fanatical reaction in the other direction, and this is not unexpected. Eventually all of this nonsense will die down and a compromise will be reached. Until then, and after, the fanatics are free to talk about how much they dislike violent games.
When did we adopt newspeak? Oh well...
Fakt: It is easy to label a parent 'negligent' after their child commits a mass murder.
Fakt: It is easy to say someone was an outcast after they commit mass murder. NOBODY is going to say 'he was such a good friend' because they will be watched closely afterwards for the same behavior.
Fakt: Everyone that kills people is angry or crazy, not just children.
Fakt: Everyone that kills because they are angry goes after those they are angry at.
Fakt: Taking a gun and shooting someone is not a gut instinct. It's a learned action.
Fakt: Learned actions are easier and more impulsive if they are more familiar.
Fakt: Today's video games are more violent than ever, and many involve actually being the character that pulls the trigger, and even looking out of its eyes, and pretending to really be there.
COULD there be a connection with the video games after all, and the games not be completely irrelevant? -gasp-
I'm confused. Are you blaming the developer or the law in Germany for forcing the developer to change their product for a single country that really isn't that big?
There's not enough money in the budget to rework all the AI and cutscenes to make sense in Germany, and if they make it for Germany from the start, they won't make as much money in the other countries.
On the other hand, a friend pointed out to me today that you never hear of school-massacres from countries other than the US. Is it because we don't pay attention to world-wide events, or is it because it just doesn't happen as often? Does it not happen because of 'stupid' laws like these?
Violent video games have been around less than a single generation and it's almost impossible to know what impact they actually have on growing minds, and already-grown minds. Violent movies have been around a lot longer, and we don't even know what effect they have. Don't get me started on 'theatre' that's been around for centuries.
I'm totally against censorship in my country, but other countries can do -whatever they want.-
The only way to 'process' the stream is to record it, even temporarily, to the memory of a computer.
You can't work on data without putting it in memory at some point. This is even more so with data that is being analyzed, because it needs to deal with pieces of the data, not just the current position of the live stream, which is only milliseconds long to a computer.
That's because the sentence actually starts in the title, and not the body of the post. I hate it when people do that because it's almost always confusing. If you post doesn't deserve a title, maybe it doesn't deserve to be posted at all.
Anyhow, the whole 'unreloadable gun' thing... Wow. What a nightmare. It's hard to think of more dangerous things than a gun that can only be unloaded by firing it.
Back in early beta, Saga of Ryzom had an amazing skill/magic system. It let you combine different costs and effects together to create your own spells or skills. Everything was going great until someone figured out how to combine skills so that healing a large enough group of people actually gave more mana than it cost, and healed them, too. They rewrote the entire system a few months later, ruining the entire game.
For those that didn't play, it would be like:
Fire effect - needs 10 cost
Mana cost - provides 6 cost
Health cost - provides 4 cost
And you'd lose some mana and health, and cast a fire spell. There were different levels of the effects and costs, so you could chain it together how you liked. You could have multiple effects and costs and really have some nice custom spells. You could even have of the same type of cost, like mana, so you'd have 2 and 4 to make 6, instead of just using an 8 and wasting 2.
Obviously, I really miss this system and wish someone else would make a game with it.
Someone has obviously been told not to call them bugs, and was looking for another word. They chose 'easter eggs' with having any bloody clue what they were saying.
Obviously, it isn't an 'easter egg' if the developers did not put it there on purpose. And if they did, they would indeed remove any exploitable ones before shipping.
That aside, the whole 'change the code live' thing is a programmer's wet dream. As such, there's probably a reason it's not very common. Like, oh, it's a nightmare to actually use. Updating a cute little Lua script is easy, updating a library or even a big nasty lua script is not easy at all.
This true about a lot of things, and not just Pen & Paper RPGs. Consoles and PC Games have provided another avenue to get certain entertainment needs rather than the 'real thing'. RPGs, Wii Bowling, Strategy Games (replacing board games), the plethora of 'puzzle' games on Reflexive and Gamehouse... People used to have to go through a lot more hassle to sooth those urges.
Now they can have a quick game with only a few minutes setup, instead of having to get people together and agree on a game, etc, etc.
It's just progress. People used to have to listen to the radio for news and entertainment, but then TV came along. And now video games. Something will likely replace them as well, in the future. I personally suspect it'll be a movement towards VR and integrating reality with the VR. A pair of sunglasses that let me play video games with my hand motions would be awesome, and incorporating real-world stuff into it also would be awesome.
What about SecondLife-in-real-life, where you could build a 3d sculpture in the subway, and others that are hooked in could see it as well. Or design your plain red t-shirt to have an animated design.
I'd pay good money for that, and that kind of tech is -not- that far off.
Even more on-topic... With those glasses, your Pen & Paper RP sessions would take on new life as Eric really did look like 'Eldarar the hedgewizard' and Susie really -is- a troll, and casting a spell at her looked a bit dangerous. You keep all your rules and acting, and the details and special effects could be handled by the system.
I better stop. I want that really bad now, and it'll be years before we see it. -sigh-
And the rest of us aren't impressed with those who feel everyone set up an RSS feed, regardless of their actual needs. Even as a geek, I just recently found RSS easy enough to deal with that I starting watching feeds. (Google's Reader app is nice and I can see it anywhere.)
The majority of people on the internet don't even -know- what RSS is, but they know what email is, and when you say 'mailing list' they know what they're getting into.
That's not even getting into securing the information. A mailing list only goes to who you send it to. An RSS feed is either unsecured, or a hassle.
The problem with feature bloat is that those features were added because some people wanted them. For me, Adblock, Noscript, and the download statusbar are necessary firefox plugins. For others, an RSS reader is necessary, but they don't care about ANY of my needs.
How do you pick?
Firefox solved this by having plugins. You just add what you want to the 'basic' browser.
So far, Safari is -not- what I need. Even down to things like the shortcut keys. IE/Firefox/Opera all let you type 'google' and hit ctrl-enter to turn it into 'http://www.google.com'. Safari and Konqueror do not, and I haven't figured out how to make either one do it.
Konqueror also has some major issues rendering Slashdot, including cutting off the ends of peoples' posts. I didn't see that particular problem on Safari when I looked, though.
Apple fanatics complain bitterly when a ported app doesn't fit in with all their other apps, but when Apple ports an app, they do the -exact same thing- and it's supposedly okay. Safari looks and behaves nothing like the rest Windows.
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/acid/
Yes, yes they did. Well, okay, that was the previous version of Safari. But since it's still based on KHTML, I assume it didn't regress.
Ah, I meant license changes in general, not necessarily GPLv2 to GPLv3. I worked on a project that was initially a license that didn't say what they really wanted it to, then switched to a non-commercial license. They later switch again to the GPL, I believe. Because they had obtained full rights to the code, it was an easy transition, even with people that would have been hard to contact.
As for the GPL... I don't like it. I think the LPGL is a -much- more fair license and still does what it was supposed to: Guarantee improvements to the code stay in the community.
No, you got it exactly right. I'm surprised you haven't been modded down yet for it, though. Every time I say that, someone replies with 'Yahoo shouldn't help evil!' and 'if those people didn't want to be evil, they shouldn't work for a company that deals with evil countries!' and 'it's better to sacrifice yourself than someone else' even though it probably wasn't the employees IN China that even got to make the decision.
Yahoo's in an impossible position. If they leave China, they've abandoned people. If they stay in China, they've abandoned people. (To censorship, in both cases.)
With a FOSS project as huge and old as the Linux kernel, it may not even be -possible- to track everyone down. Some will be deceased, or simply missing. Heck, there might even be some in the witness protection program, for all we know. There's just too many people from too many different backgrounds to expect to contact everyone or their relatives for permission.
And that's just assuming all of them WILL consent.
For newer FOSS projects, it's not as hard. Of course as much time hasn't gone by, but there's a trend now to have the devs sign the code over to the project, so that further permission is not necessary. The devs don't have to give up any of their rights to the code, they just have to grant unlimited rights to the code for the project. I haven't heard anything about Linux attempting to get this now, but I wouldn't be surprised if the plans were already in the works.
Why not? It's a challenge, not a true 'deadline'. Think of it as an episode of 'Monster House' where they get to keep the tools if they get the nearly-impossible project done on time. There's -always- work to be done afterwards to finish it off, but the work is complete as far as they were contracted.
It's not 'have a fully functional data center filled with customers.' It's only 'build it.'
I haven't kept up with the site as I get them with my GameTap subscription.
:( I like the re-use of the office, Sybil's, etc... But they went too far with it. Too many things were static.
I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't respond to some of your issues so far.
I didn't have a single graphical issue, though... Definitely felt well-done on the programming side.
As for the Wii version... Is that a definite? I was thinking about buying the PC DVD to support them, but I'm -much- rather have a Wii version.
I think Telltale did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the original Sam & Max, as well as the cartoons. (Which were a little different from each other, even so.)
My only complaint is that by the third game, I already felt like it was the same game all over again... And by the 6th... Well, there's a place for consistancy, but the plot of 6 episodes is not that place.
For those who haven't played it, allow me to ruin the plot of all 6 episodes:
Find out something odd is happening.
Find out you need (obscene amount of money) to buy a home-made gadget from the store.
Get around some obstacles with items you pick up.
Earn obscene amount of money in a dumb way.
Buy item.
Use item to advance plot.
Get around more obstacles.
That's it. The details differ a -little- in each episode, and the scenery and dialogue (firefox says that's spelled wrong. Bad firefox!) vary wildly, but I got sick of the 'plot' real quick.
It's like Scooby Doo. Every single episode had the same plot, but just the details differed.
Sibling post has a point. Let me add, though:
The artists don't 'make no money'. They make minimal money that barely covers costs, but they also gain world-wide advertising and promotion. How many bands do you know that have figured out how to promote themselves locally, let alone world-wide? They all have agents for that, so they can concentrate on the music.
Don't get me wrong... The RIAA is raping everyone. But the artists don't get 'nothing' from it. If they did, they wouldn't have signed that contract in the first place and wouldn't have the contractual obligations.
I disagree. If it means -any- inconvenience for most people, they won't bother. Don't believe me? Take a look at the highway today. Notice all the trash? That was put there by all the assholes that can't be bothered to throw it away properly, at -no- cost to them. It's just slightly inconvenient to take it home. The $500 fine for littering doesn't even dissuade them. (Florida law, may differ elsewhere.) And don't even get me started about cigarette butts that can cause fires that kill people and destroy lives of others.
W. T. F. How the hell did you manage to put all those words in my mouth?
The people in Yahoo that made the decision not to give the information were -not- the people in that would have been going to jail for it, I'm sure. They probably weren't even -in- China.
How is it more 'moral' to sacrifice people you know to save people you don't?
And lastly, I wish the world were as black and white as you paint it. There is no 'support or do not support oppressive regimes' crap. We -could- abandon all those people in China and just pull Yahoo, Google, and every other company that has any -hope- of helping those people out. Or we could work with what we have and slowly change things for the better. You can't hold a gun to China's government's head and get them to change overnight. You have to keep applying safe amounts of pressure and eventually get them to see the light. This means that we will occasionally have to do distasteful things.
The only way to avoid 'supporting oppressive regimes' is to lock ourselves in a bubble and refuse to talk to -any other country.- It doesn't matter how enlightened they are, there will always be something about their government we don't agree with. It's not as if we are squeaky clean, either. In fact, I don't even need to mention our atrocities, as everyone already knows about them and -does nothing.- You are supporting an oppressive regime merely by living, no matter what country you are in.
You've made another assumption... That the landfill operators have -any- idea what's in the garbage bags before they accept them. And afterwards, they have no idea who it came from.
I agree, if you can somehow force the majority of the population to recycle, things would be better. So far, in the past few decades, we've failed at that. How is this any different?
I fully expected to see nothing but the 'RIAA shouldn't get to use our tax dollars' posts and I wasn't even going to read the comments. I'm glad to see that at least some people have more sense than that.
If my PC was stolen, and I saw it at a flea market, I'd -expect- the police to do something about it. Laws are laws and those who break them should have to face the consequences.
Am I perfect? No.
But publicly flaunting your lawlessness? They, and the people who buy from them, should be ashamed.
You are making the assumption that people will actually take advantage of this. It's much more likely that most people will continue as they are doing and everyone will still have to pay for it, used or not.
RTFS.
Did you even read what I wrote or the summary? We aren't talking about loss of profits for Yahoo (even though that would be a consequence), we are talking about employees of theirs going to JAIL under the same oppressive regime that is forcing them to hand over the info. This isn't '4 squares and cable' jail like the US has. This is 'enemy of the country' jail. The very same kind of jail the reporter was thrown in for violating the law in the first place.
How does Yahoo's violating the law help? It doesn't, it only changes who goes to jail immediately. In all likelihood, the 'protected' reporter will be caught as well, and nothing has been helped.
Get your head out of your ass. This isn't as simple as 'if we shout loud enough, the government has to understand.' They DO NOT CARE. They have gotten their ways for centuries and have the firepower to keep getting their way for a long time to come.
Pick your battles. Getting innocent people jailed or killed to save someone that knowing broke the law is NOT going to help.