The one thing that chaps my ass more than anything about this whole copy protection business is that even though all this software has protection, we STILL can't return software to the store. Sure some places will let you, sometimes for a fee, but for the most part software is a no-returns item.
This is something that really gets me about the games industry. The practice is unfair and I think should be illegal (it might already be), we can be sold a product that doesn't work despite the box saying it will and have no recourse to refund. I will have checked (and understood, many will not) the minimum requirements but the game could still not work because of the copy protection or worse (bad programing). I should be entitled to a refund but the shop will not take it back. It also means that the EULA is worthless (so companies should not be able to hide behind it) as I made an agreement with the shop not the game publisher. It would be interesting to see someone powerful take a game back to the store saying that they had disagreed with the EULA, if they didn't take no for an answer, it might be fun to see the whole EULA nonsense scuppered.
I remember buying the game 'Sacred', the game worked for a few days then an update/patch (that fixed some faults and is required for online play) came out that borked it. After hundreds of people complained on the official forum that the game would not work, the makers initially just gave the "Make sure you drivers are up to date" line. Only a couple of weeks later when this (of course) hadn't worked and we had provided system profile information did the maker actually find a fault with the copy-protection and some DVD drives and then release a patch for the patch. The worst thing was that I had no way of taking the game back to the store, that and it wasn't really that good in the end.
The only system I have seen that I find somewhat agreeable is (perhaps suprisingly) Steam. The disc doesn't have to be in the drive and I have had no trouble reinstalling after an upgrade and reformat, but it is slow.
Sorry, I have to point out that this defence could also be used for child pornography. Yes kiddy porn gives them gratification without them actually kidnapping a child themself, but for the film to be made some child would have to have been violated. The viewer is just (financially) encouraging the makers to violate children. IIf I am honest cant see how this law is a that bad a thing. People often ask "Where do you draw the line", IMHO any film that is intended for one's gratification should have the line drawn at what is legal. If it is legal to do, it should be legal to film and distribute.
Dont be too suprised about this law, in a democracy a law that is the pushed under the banner of "banning Violent porn films after the murder of a girl" is going to get passed, no politician is going to get in the way of that one. Although, this does make me wonder, how many censors are serial killers, considering they get to see all of the really bad (good) stuff.
[In response to] - Tape recorders didn't kill music industry. No, they didn't. Then again, tape recorders--in terms of piracy (which is what we're really talking about when we talk DRM--require that I know you and live nearby you. They require that I be able to hand you the physical copy. This is still a problem with CDs.
In the UK the music Industry claimed that they were destroying the industry, not due to tape-to-tape recording but recording radio broadcasts of music. They argued this to such a successful extent that it is illegal to record radio broadcasts in the UK. I sometimes hear DJs joking about the slogan "Home taping is killing music".
I understand your point was specifically about tape-tape copying, but it is worth noting that FUD very much like the FUD from the music industry today, was present in the 80's and was ultimately wrong. More interestingly, no changes to the hardware we brought were ever made or enforced (that I could tell), tape recorders with radios were very prevalent and nothing was done to stop recording the radio by messing with what we brought, which is different to today when the industry is successfully getting electronics firms to break their devices in order to prevent copying.
And (like the parent), I will provide my answer/opinion to the submitters question -
Point 1 - I buy CD's (so I can always re-rip if my HD goes down or I dont like the format they are in) and I dont just copy or download illegal content, partly becuase if I did then when I moan about DRM I have no leg to stand on. If the public didn't copy so much (they aren't copying as much as the RIAA claims but I think we all know friends who have large stacks of 'formerly' blank CD's and areas of their hard drives with music they didn't buy) then DRM wouldn't be an issue. In a sense we have only ourselves to blame.
Point 2 - Don't punish the legal customer with DRM when they are the ones buying the CD, especially if the illegal alternative is no DRM. All you are doing is making the illegal version more attractive by decreasing the real value (usefulness) product you are selling. I will happily strip protection off of content that I have a permanent license for, I am not going to distribute, I just want to convert the format or move the content to a new computer (if I get one).
Point 3 - If DRM is going to be the future, then lets be honest about it. No longer are we buying, we are renting, reduce the prices, allow us to bring the CD back for a replacement and everything else that goes along with hiring not purchasing. Tell me *exactly* which devices I can and cannot play my CD in. Saying "some devices" is not good enough, if my CD does not play in my player, I cannot return the CD (shops will only accept physically damaged goods) and I will not buy a new player.
Point 4 - As we are still officially buying our products, you can't hide behind a EULA (I dont think you should ever hide behind it, but that is another argument), if I take my CD or PC game home and disagree with the EULA, I cannot take the media back to the shop for a refund (see point 3). I brought the media from a shop, my financial agreement is with them not the producer of the media.
Point 5 - Even if one accepts the principle of DRM, there should still be limits to its scope. Creating processes that run when the CD is not being played, installing rootkits, requiring an internet connection (especially an insecure one) and anything else that grossly impinges on my privacy are outside the juristiction of a music company and they damage my PC. That is too far.
What about 2 cores for the OS (one for the system idle process and the other for the working processes
A core for an idle process? I am not an expert in OSes, I thought that the idle process just gave the CPU something to do while it waited for a working process (the idle just allowed the working to butt-in, whenever somethin came along). Wouldn't creating a core just to do nothing be hardware bloat at its most obsurd? Or am I showing my ignorance, just a bit too openly.
HL2 was infamously delayed but unlike other postponed and hyped games (cough, *Daikatana*, cough), it really was worth it. This site is full of stories of producers releasing games before the developers want it to happen. I am glad Valve still has the right priorities.
Incidentally I have just played through HL2 again and was reminded just how great it was (I kept finding ways to do things that I didn't notice before), now I am off home to get Ep1.
I guess one of the benefits are that as the domain would cost so much more, it is more difficult from someone to cybersit. No average joe can stump up $1m (or however much) to grab google.biz, just in order to get them to payup for the site (and it makes it less profitable to do anyway). My biggest concern is that ICANN knows that Google et al are going to buy the google name for every TLD simply to prevent confusion and domain squatting, so what is to stop ICANN just making a new TLD every couple of years and then charging through the nose for the right to take a name on that TLD? it would be like a license to print money. I never think that the regulator should also be the body that profits from that system it regulates.
No it really was honest, many US terms are known here in Britain due to your TV programs but some of the more obscure ones that dont get mentioned on TV aren't. It always helps to know these things, lest I one day make a big mistake.
Really, what for? Is this an American popular culture term? I haven't come across it before, other than this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105977/ TV series.
I have to say that you are probably right, characters from games such as HL2 & BG2 are just not going to get in a Japanese game, but 'herogeek' Gordon Freeman with only his crowbar & gravity gun would be a character I would want to see.
Surely it couldn't do Valve any harm to have their main man in a Nintendo game (more exposure in Japan can't be bad?). Maybe we should petition Gabe to ask for the Freeman to be in SSBB.
IIRC Radiohead didn't even release a single from their album 'Kid A' (or maybe it was Amnesiac), which is an action that massively damages sales (due to the lack of a song getting much airplay and TV play if it isn't a single). And due to what members of the band have often said, I am willing to believe that they really do care about something other than the money.
imagine how much of a pain it would be if we had more than one dominant video format
That would be terrible, lets hope the technology corporations dont try and have two competing High Definition video media formats when they could just have one.
Are you sure? It was my understanding that the moon affects the level of the tides, not the mean sea level, which is far more a product of the Earths gravity and dependant sea water pressure/density.
and this should compensate for the ice melting.. although I always wonder what's the big deal, since icebergs are 90% submerged anyway, and ice takes more space than water (cause of the air bubbles)
Yes all those scientists must have missed that one, eh?, I am glad there are informed people like you in world to set them straight. You are assuming that all the ice is in the seas, which it is NOT. A large amount sits on land in the form of Ice Shelves, there is enough to cover an entire contient (Antarctica) as well as most of Greenland and Canada, not to mention all the ice in Glaciers. As all this melts (and there is enough in Antarctia to contain 90% of the worlds fresh water) it wil flow into the sea and the sea level will rise, that is 'the big deal'.
But don't worry I am sure Mr President will give you a big pay rise for that wonderfully dismissive comment on the effects of climate change.
Wow, I am impressed that you had the guts and decency to post an article about your employers that doesn't entirely defend them without restorting to anonymity. I sympathise with your impending doom, because I dont reckon they will blame anyone other than the person at the end of the phone.
Once again though I am reminded about why I use slashdot - there is always someone academically knowledgable (for the smart stuff) or with insider knowledge that can add so much to a story.
Perhaps you might want to read the comments before you start trolling, very few people are defending him, some are defending his parents. And how exactly my statement "I hate the spammer" translate to me acting like he is a poor victim I will never know.
Good comment, I totally agree, interest in something is important to the effectiveness to develop in that something. Algebra was a poor example because it was just the first thing I could think of, it could be extended to Maths I suppose, over my lifetime I did no more work at Maths than other people who went to the same primary schools and had the same teachers but around 11-12 yrs old, other people seemed to hit a 'ceiling' and I found it easy to understand and always wondered why people "asked such obvious questions" in class. I simply had a better aptitude for the more abstract concepts in the subject, perhaps even the subject itself and I dont think I was much more interested (especially at the time) than other people.
This reminds me of the story of the person who was the youngest to enroll at Oxbridge (I cant remember Oxford or Cambridge) she had been heavily taught Maths by her dad before school and outside school during her school days, she was accepted at 13, then disappeared months later with her boyfriend having now been exposed to a world where you weren't doing Maths every spare moment of your life IIRC. Her's is the example of too much effective practice, one still needs a life.
Because, as TFA stated, Davis Wolfgang Hawke did not turn up at the trial and cannot be found (at least by AOL), but they do have reciepts that he had purchased gold at the time, they believe in order to survive litigation more effectively.
As much as I hate the spammer, I have to credit him that he was bright enough to know how to commit a lucrative crime. People who work average pay jobs but start profiting from fraud or theft, often expose themselves as they start turning up to work in Ferraris and buying big new houses, they just shout to the world "I am making too much money somehow". Patiently buying gold is a smart way to work, you just have to know when to quit so you can spend your cash, away from the scene of the crime. I guess DWH has done just this.
Personally, I can see the logic in hunting in the parents garden, as it seems he was living there when he was aquiring the gold. But isn't it more likely he has just taken them wherever he has gone?
Absolutely right our genes aren't just there for show. We were all at school and were shown new sports/skills/concepts at the same time as our classmates, yet we all know that some of us found one, or some of these things easier than others. I can remember our sixth form school rugby team, I had played and trained outside school for a couple of years, yet there were a couple of my friends who just joined the team and just seem to pick up the skills. Conversely I always couldn't understand how some people just didn't get algebra, despite them doing far more homework than me. There are of course many other factors to the ability of a sportsman such as the will to win, composure under pressure and (especially for something like Rugby) athleticism. These atributes are pretty much irrelevant for Maths but there are I imagine (as I know some) many builders who fail maths and have no understanding of pythagoras and yet only a couple of years later they are constantly putting it into practice, perhaps the difference in the manner of training (real use over abstract) is the difference here. While regular effective practice is essential for sport but there will always be those who have a head start via DNA. Michael Jordan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_jordan, arguably the greatest sportsman was noted for the way he trained and at one point didn't even make his school team, so didn't have much of an edge that his talent may have given him, but being left out of that team has often been cited as his motivation, he started getting up early to train, he worked much harder and that was his edge. A bit of genetics gave him only a chance he had to work for the rest. Much of this can be reflected in the relative success stories of some schools for some sports/subjects in similar areas, some instituions have long histories of success in one area, as pupils come and go genetics must be irrelevant so the methods used by the teachers and perhaps (for boarding schools) the culture of the school must play a more major part in the development of the individual sportsman rather than genetics. But basically TFA is mostly stating the obvious, I tried for a couple of years to play the violin, but took two attempts to pass 1st grade and never ever understood time signatures/rythmns, I learned how to use the tool, but could not gain an worthwhile understanding of music.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be interesting to see someone powerful take a game back to the store saying that they had disagreed with the EULA, if they didn't take no for an answer, it might be fun to see the whole EULA nonsense scuppered.
I remember buying the game 'Sacred', the game worked for a few days then an update/patch (that fixed some faults and is required for online play) came out that borked it. After hundreds of people complained on the official forum that the game would not work, the makers initially just gave the "Make sure you drivers are up to date" line. Only a couple of weeks later when this (of course) hadn't worked and we had provided system profile information did the maker actually find a fault with the copy-protection and some DVD drives and then release a patch for the patch. The worst thing was that I had no way of taking the game back to the store, that and it wasn't really that good in the end.
The only system I have seen that I find somewhat agreeable is (perhaps suprisingly) Steam. The disc doesn't have to be in the drive and I have had no trouble reinstalling after an upgrade and reformat, but it is slow.
Sorry, I have to point out that this defence could also be used for child pornography.
Yes kiddy porn gives them gratification without them actually kidnapping a child themself, but for the film to be made some child would have to have been violated. The viewer is just (financially) encouraging the makers to violate children.
IIf I am honest cant see how this law is a that bad a thing. People often ask "Where do you draw the line", IMHO any film that is intended for one's gratification should have the line drawn at what is legal. If it is legal to do, it should be legal to film and distribute.
Dont be too suprised about this law, in a democracy a law that is the pushed under the banner of "banning Violent porn films after the murder of a girl" is going to get passed, no politician is going to get in the way of that one.
Although, this does make me wonder, how many censors are serial killers, considering they get to see all of the really bad (good) stuff.
. . . AOL is off the hook.
I have to admit I really couldn't tell.
In the UK the music Industry claimed that they were destroying the industry, not due to tape-to-tape recording but recording radio broadcasts of music. They argued this to such a successful extent that it is illegal to record radio broadcasts in the UK.
I sometimes hear DJs joking about the slogan "Home taping is killing music".
I understand your point was specifically about tape-tape copying, but it is worth noting that FUD very much like the FUD from the music industry today, was present in the 80's and was ultimately wrong. More interestingly, no changes to the hardware we brought were ever made or enforced (that I could tell), tape recorders with radios were very prevalent and nothing was done to stop recording the radio by messing with what we brought, which is different to today when the industry is successfully getting electronics firms to break their devices in order to prevent copying.
And (like the parent), I will provide my answer/opinion to the submitters question -
Point 1 - I buy CD's (so I can always re-rip if my HD goes down or I dont like the format they are in) and I dont just copy or download illegal content, partly becuase if I did then when I moan about DRM I have no leg to stand on.
If the public didn't copy so much (they aren't copying as much as the RIAA claims but I think we all know friends who have large stacks of 'formerly' blank CD's and areas of their hard drives with music they didn't buy) then DRM wouldn't be an issue. In a sense we have only ourselves to blame.
Point 2 - Don't punish the legal customer with DRM when they are the ones buying the CD, especially if the illegal alternative is no DRM. All you are doing is making the illegal version more attractive by decreasing the real value (usefulness) product you are selling. I will happily strip protection off of content that I have a permanent license for, I am not going to distribute, I just want to convert the format or move the content to a new computer (if I get one).
Point 3 - If DRM is going to be the future, then lets be honest about it. No longer are we buying, we are renting, reduce the prices, allow us to bring the CD back for a replacement and everything else that goes along with hiring not purchasing. Tell me *exactly* which devices I can and cannot play my CD in. Saying "some devices" is not good enough, if my CD does not play in my player, I cannot return the CD (shops will only accept physically damaged goods) and I will not buy a new player.
Point 4 - As we are still officially buying our products, you can't hide behind a EULA (I dont think you should ever hide behind it, but that is another argument), if I take my CD or PC game home and disagree with the EULA, I cannot take the media back to the shop for a refund (see point 3). I brought the media from a shop, my financial agreement is with them not the producer of the media.
Point 5 - Even if one accepts the principle of DRM, there should still be limits to its scope. Creating processes that run when the CD is not being played, installing rootkits, requiring an internet connection (especially an insecure one) and anything else that grossly impinges on my privacy are outside the juristiction of a music company and they damage my PC. That is too far.
I am not an expert in OSes, I thought that the idle process just gave the CPU something to do while it waited for a working process (the idle just allowed the working to butt-in, whenever somethin came along).
Wouldn't creating a core just to do nothing be hardware bloat at its most obsurd?
Or am I showing my ignorance, just a bit too openly.
He will answer tomorrow. . . . .
If there is one
Cool. People just giving me games. I will give it a go.
Thanks
HL2 was infamously delayed but unlike other postponed and hyped games (cough, *Daikatana*, cough), it really was worth it.
This site is full of stories of producers releasing games before the developers want it to happen. I am glad Valve still has the right priorities.
Incidentally I have just played through HL2 again and was reminded just how great it was (I kept finding ways to do things that I didn't notice before), now I am off home to get Ep1.
I guess one of the benefits are that as the domain would cost so much more, it is more difficult from someone to cybersit. No average joe can stump up $1m (or however much) to grab google.biz, just in order to get them to payup for the site (and it makes it less profitable to do anyway).
My biggest concern is that ICANN knows that Google et al are going to buy the google name for every TLD simply to prevent confusion and domain squatting, so what is to stop ICANN just making a new TLD every couple of years and then charging through the nose for the right to take a name on that TLD? it would be like a license to print money. I never think that the regulator should also be the body that profits from that system it regulates.
No it really was honest, many US terms are known here in Britain due to your TV programs but some of the more obscure ones that dont get mentioned on TV aren't. It always helps to know these things, lest I one day make a big mistake.
Thanks, I am so lazy at work.
I have to say that you are probably right, characters from games such as HL2 & BG2 are just not going to get in a Japanese game, but 'herogeek' Gordon Freeman with only his crowbar & gravity gun would be a character I would want to see.
Surely it couldn't do Valve any harm to have their main man in a Nintendo game (more exposure in Japan can't be bad?). Maybe we should petition Gabe to ask for the Freeman to be in SSBB.
IIRC Radiohead didn't even release a single from their album 'Kid A' (or maybe it was Amnesiac), which is an action that massively damages sales (due to the lack of a song getting much airplay and TV play if it isn't a single).
And due to what members of the band have often said, I am willing to believe that they really do care about something other than the money.
Oh well
It was my understanding that the moon affects the level of the tides, not the mean sea level, which is far more a product of the Earths gravity and dependant sea water pressure/density.
Yes all those scientists must have missed that one, eh?, I am glad there are informed people like you in world to set them straight.
You are assuming that all the ice is in the seas, which it is NOT. A large amount sits on land in the form of Ice Shelves, there is enough to cover an entire contient (Antarctica) as well as most of Greenland and Canada, not to mention all the ice in Glaciers. As all this melts (and there is enough in Antarctia to contain 90% of the worlds fresh water) it wil flow into the sea and the sea level will rise, that is 'the big deal'.
But don't worry I am sure Mr President will give you a big pay rise for that wonderfully dismissive comment on the effects of climate change.
Wow, I am impressed that you had the guts and decency to post an article about your employers that doesn't entirely defend them without restorting to anonymity.
I sympathise with your impending doom, because I dont reckon they will blame anyone other than the person at the end of the phone.
Once again though I am reminded about why I use slashdot - there is always someone academically knowledgable (for the smart stuff) or with insider knowledge that can add so much to a story.
Perhaps you might want to read the comments before you start trolling, very few people are defending him, some are defending his parents. And how exactly my statement "I hate the spammer" translate to me acting like he is a poor victim I will never know.
Yeah we need some hi-res Google Earth photos, we could turn it into a battleships clone.
Good comment, I totally agree, interest in something is important to the effectiveness to develop in that something.
Algebra was a poor example because it was just the first thing I could think of, it could be extended to Maths I suppose, over my lifetime I did no more work at Maths than other people who went to the same primary schools and had the same teachers but around 11-12 yrs old, other people seemed to hit a 'ceiling' and I found it easy to understand and always wondered why people "asked such obvious questions" in class. I simply had a better aptitude for the more abstract concepts in the subject, perhaps even the subject itself and I dont think I was much more interested (especially at the time) than other people.
This reminds me of the story of the person who was the youngest to enroll at Oxbridge (I cant remember Oxford or Cambridge) she had been heavily taught Maths by her dad before school and outside school during her school days, she was accepted at 13, then disappeared months later with her boyfriend having now been exposed to a world where you weren't doing Maths every spare moment of your life IIRC. Her's is the example of too much effective practice, one still needs a life.
Because, as TFA stated, Davis Wolfgang Hawke did not turn up at the trial and cannot be found (at least by AOL), but they do have reciepts that he had purchased gold at the time, they believe in order to survive litigation more effectively.
As much as I hate the spammer, I have to credit him that he was bright enough to know how to commit a lucrative crime. People who work average pay jobs but start profiting from fraud or theft, often expose themselves as they start turning up to work in Ferraris and buying big new houses, they just shout to the world "I am making too much money somehow". Patiently buying gold is a smart way to work, you just have to know when to quit so you can spend your cash, away from the scene of the crime. I guess DWH has done just this.
Personally, I can see the logic in hunting in the parents garden, as it seems he was living there when he was aquiring the gold. But isn't it more likely he has just taken them wherever he has gone?
I understand
[/lie]
Absolutely right our genes aren't just there for show.
We were all at school and were shown new sports/skills/concepts at the same time as our classmates, yet we all know that some of us found one, or some of these things easier than others. I can remember our sixth form school rugby team, I had played and trained outside school for a couple of years, yet there were a couple of my friends who just joined the team and just seem to pick up the skills. Conversely I always couldn't understand how some people just didn't get algebra, despite them doing far more homework than me.
There are of course many other factors to the ability of a sportsman such as the will to win, composure under pressure and (especially for something like Rugby) athleticism. These atributes are pretty much irrelevant for Maths but there are I imagine (as I know some) many builders who fail maths and have no understanding of pythagoras and yet only a couple of years later they are constantly putting it into practice, perhaps the difference in the manner of training (real use over abstract) is the difference here. While regular effective practice is essential for sport but there will always be those who have a head start via DNA. Michael Jordan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_jordan, arguably the greatest sportsman was noted for the way he trained and at one point didn't even make his school team, so didn't have much of an edge that his talent may have given him, but being left out of that team has often been cited as his motivation, he started getting up early to train, he worked much harder and that was his edge. A bit of genetics gave him only a chance he had to work for the rest.
Much of this can be reflected in the relative success stories of some schools for some sports/subjects in similar areas, some instituions have long histories of success in one area, as pupils come and go genetics must be irrelevant so the methods used by the teachers and perhaps (for boarding schools) the culture of the school must play a more major part in the development of the individual sportsman rather than genetics.
But basically TFA is mostly stating the obvious, I tried for a couple of years to play the violin, but took two attempts to pass 1st grade and never ever understood time signatures/rythmns, I learned how to use the tool, but could not gain an worthwhile understanding of music.