I'm not sure what you want to see the shareholders do or think, unless it is perhaps "that money is being wasted on lawsuits" which is probably not a foregone conclusion.
If I held shares in a company with a dying business model I'd probably be too stupid to sell. But assuming I woke up with a few brain cells one morning, I'd realise that the RIAA labels no longer have the monopoly (or duopoly or whatever) they once enjoyed and that if they weren't strong enough to face the tiny indie labels head-on, they're not strong enough to survive.
The majors should end their war on the internet, end their war on P2P and internet radio. Even though they won the war on internet radio in the US, there are lots of other places in the world. And no matter how many computer-free grandmas and mentally retarded twelve year old children they sue, P2P will not go away, especially since it is SO EASY to not get sued.
If you use Morpheus you can uncheck a box and you won''t automatically share your downloads. This is a good thing not only from a legal perspective, but from the viewpoint that the majors have radio and empty-v. Indies only have P2P. Seed your share folders with indie music!
If you want the top 40, just plug your radio into your computer and sample for a couple hours, and you can make MP3s from the whole damned top 40, free and legal. Well, I guess it's legal but even if it isn't there's no way they can catch you, and no way to stop you short of taking their stuff off the air.
I have MP3s I made from cassettes I recorded off the radio years ago. When I have company over people kind of do a brain fart when the MP3 comes to a part of the song where the tape got ate.
I don't know, Mr. Beckerman is a lawyer and I'm not, and what's more he's incredibly respectable AFAIC, but it seems like the RIAA isn't actually claiming that the fact that he ripped them makes them unauthorized, but the fact that they're in his "shared" folder makes them unauthorized.
Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs' recordings into the compressed.mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies...'"
Again, IANAL. Lawyers most likely use the word "and" in a different way than you would use it in an "IF/ELSE" statement in a program. After all, the SCOTUS says that "limited time" in reference to copyright terms means whatever Congress says it means.
I absolutely guarantee that this will be the last music purchase I make from any RIAA backed artist unless they start recognizing fair use
My indie friends will be happy to hear that! I haven't bought any RIAA music in years. I get my professionally recorded and duplicated (with case and cover art) CDs straight from the band at their shows. Not only are they superior to the RIAA crap in every way, they're cheaper too, $5-$10 each.
I agree. As to the taxes, I don't think they should come automatically out of your bank account, but I have no problem with deducting income tax from my paycheck. It should be voluntary, however.
But government is more about less choice for people.
Meet my friend Mike. The link is to an old K5 story about a pig farmer (Mike), a nerd (me), a couple other rednecks, and explosives. No hookers in that one though.
No, they're "secret" precicely because they're in disguise. The words I highlighted make it clear that the phrase can be used in different ways in different contexts; e.g. the word "sometimes", which you seem to conviniently gloss over.
If he's a cop pretending to not be a cop, he's keeeping the fact that he's a cop secret. He's secret police.
If you are my age, back when you were saying "love it or leave it" I was saying "change it or lose it". If you think the US isn't a police state, you haven't had any run-ins with the police.
Ask a black man; he would know better than my whate ass.
They're police, they're secret, I don't give a rat's ass what wikipedia says.
Some people are way too anal. Jees, my ten dollar alarm clock is accurate enough for me, as are the cheap wall clocks, none of which ever differ by more than a minute.
I have to set my clocks twice a year anyway. I don't have time to worry about what time it is.
Fark 'em. Stick a fark in 'em. they're done. And speaking of that farkin' NSFW, my farkin' slashdot journal entry from Friday was NSFW. And come to think of it, yesterday's was probably on topic too, as Fark can kiss our Asses, asses, all fall down.
Microsoft can trademark "windows" but that can't stop the glasiers from using it. Hell, Hormel made up the word "Spam" and look at them.
As Bugs Bunny used to say before his unfornunate accident, "what a bunch of maroons". WTF! Whoa, next somebody will trademark THAT!
-mcgrew
PS- If you're wondering WTF happened to dat kwazy wabbit, I hate him. Hehehehehehe!
Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state [, like drugs, prostitution, or gambling]. Secret police forces are typically associated with totalitarian regimes, as they are often used to maintain the political power of the state rather than uphold the rule of law.
So no I'm not =P
How do you know their unrepresentative?
Because the President's "approval rating" is less than 30% and Congress' is even lower than his. If Congress and the President represesented us, their approval ratings would be above 50%.
With all this improvement, why haven't we gotten to the point where I can buy a 20 GB hard for $20?
Give it another few years. You can get a 10gb hard drive housed in a computer fof fity, including monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Used, of course, but you know what they say about begging and choosing.
While we're reminiscing about the good old days of refrigerator sized hard drives that would only hold a single three minute MP3 and pocket calculators that needed a whole building to house and took an army of engineers to run, you kids might want to know what it's like to grow up with computers (written 2005); or rather, have computers grow up with you.
Now be nice and don't make any "soviet Russia" jokes about this comment, ok?
Hey, the girls I hang around with are clean! And some of them run Linux. And once I made a beowolf cluster of them when I needed some guy's ass kicked.
It's dangerous mixing nerds, hookers, and alcohol. Things explode.
Moonshine is made of corn, not grass you dumb city slicker! Come out here to corn country and we'll show you some drinkin'! We used to have a festival here in Springfield called Lincolnfest, but the yuppies that ran things discontinued it when everybody started calling it "drinkin' fest")
CHORUS Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug, Make you want to holler hi-de-ho Burns your tummy, don'tcha know. Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug.
Grape wine in a Mason jar, Homemade and brought to school By a friend o' mine after class. Me and him and this other fool decide that we'll drink up what's left. Chug-a-lug, so we helped ourself. First time for everything Mm, my ears still ring
CHORUS
4-H and FFA on a field trip to the farm Me 'n' a friend sneak off behind This big old barn where we uncovered a covered-up moonshine still And we thought we'd drink our fill And I swallered it with a smile BBBBBBBBBB I run ten mile
CHORUS
Jukebox 'n' sawdust floor, Sump'n' like I ain't never seen And I'm just going on fifteen But with the help of my finaglin' uncle I get snuck in For my first taste of sin. I said "Lemme have a big old sip" OOOOOOOOH, I done a double back flip
CHORUS
-Roger Miller (He had more corn than one o' those millionaire farmers with the bigassed combine, monster truck and satellite dish that sucks on the government's teat)
It would mean that we're not cannibalizing our food supply to make it,
If corn were the most efficient way to produce ethanol then it wouldn't matter. Say for instance that hemp were legal, and it was more efficient (actually it is more efficient INMN, but bear with me here. Substitute whatever crop is MOST efficient if you care to research, which I don't).
The land now used for growing corn would be used for growing hemp. Whether that land is used for corn, hemp, or sawgrass it's land. It doesn't matter if the corn's turned to fuel or not grown at all, that's corn that's not going to feed any people or cattle.
The world produces sufficient quantities of food to keep everyone on earth well fed. Hunger is now a political problem, not a scientific or agricultural one. Hunger, like racism, is a tool of the rich.
He suggests that such biobatteries might be ideal for powering devices inserted in the body, such as insulin pumps or pacemakers.
So you're going to give up part of your kidney for a pacemaker or insulin pump? When they've already solved the rejection problems in far less invasive ways?
Wake me up when these devices are on the shelf. I'll be dead, but by then they should still be able to revive me.
When Reagan started his war on "drugs" (which was actually only a war on reefer) you'd go to your dealer and ask "got any weed?"
"No, man, it's dry. Want some coke?"
often, less reputable dealers will lace shitweed with PCP, crack, heroin, or other drugs just so they can sell it
Employers are all drug-testing now. Pot stays in your system for a month, cocaine only for a few days. I know people who have become addicted to crack, because they wanted to smoke and were afraid of the drug tests. The government lied about pot, why should they believe hem about crack?
The "liberal media" is a lie perpetrated by the "Liberal media". Note that the Bono Act that extended copyrights to forever was passed by a 100% vote in both houses, as was the DMCA.
I found it telling that when the Greens ran Nader for President, they could not have gotten enough electoral votes to win even if every state whose ballot they were on voted "Green", while the Libertarians were on the ballot in 49 states, but the media slobbered all over the Greens but gave the Libertarians nary a mention. Odd, that, isn't it?
We have only one viable party in the US, the Corporate Republicrats. Its two wings, the Republicans and the Democrats, are more alike than various factions of the old Soviet Communists or the Nazi parties.
If you disagree, which of the two wings should I vote for that wants sane copyright lengths, a DMCA that strips copyright from any work that has DRM, repeal of all forfeiture laws, and legalized gambling, drugs, and prostition?
So what? If they search your car and find drugs they can keep pthe car, even if your case doen't go to trial. You lost that right long ago in their war on some drugs. The US has become a police state.
...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Except after your 4th amendment rights aren't violated when they search your car and they find a little baggie of pot under the back seat. They take the car! No trial, nothing. Even if you go to trial on the drug charge and are found not guilty, they still keep the car.
A few years ago the newspapers reported that there was a soldier who was pulled over for driving a used car while black in some little redneck state down south. They searched the car and found cocaine in the door panels. He was arrested and his car confiscated. It turned out that he had bought the car three weeks earlier, and the cocaine came with the car. Nobody knew how it got there. The soldier was released without any charges being filed- but he never got the car back.
So much for that part of the 5th amendment.
They're not "undercover cops" or "plainclothes policemen". Call a spade a spade - they're God damned Secret Police, no different than the Communist KGB or the Nazi's Secret Police. If "crimes" like drug possession, gambling, and prostitution weren't crimes there would be no reason or excuse to have Secret Police.
So now you have a "crime" that's a civil matter and you forfeit property without compensation or trial. Thank you, "Partnership for a Drug Free America". I hope your God damned children become needle junkies you fucking assholes, because drug laws make their becoming junkiest MORE likely. Marijuana doesn't lead to harder drugs, marijuana LAWS leas potsmokers to harder drugs.
How far does this slippery slope slide? I love my country, I hate its government. Perhaps one day my descendants will again have a representative government, rather than the one party plutocracy it has become.
I can't argue with that logic. I guess I'm enforcing my right to smoke pot by smoking pot, and my right to bang hookers by banging hookers. But if I get caught I'll still go to jail, unless I exersize my 2nd amendment rights and get killed.
You have to die fform something, but I'm not going to exersize my 2nd amendment rights against the governmen all by myself.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure what you want to see the shareholders do or think, unless it is perhaps "that money is being wasted on lawsuits" which is probably not a foregone conclusion.
If I held shares in a company with a dying business model I'd probably be too stupid to sell. But assuming I woke up with a few brain cells one morning, I'd realise that the RIAA labels no longer have the monopoly (or duopoly or whatever) they once enjoyed and that if they weren't strong enough to face the tiny indie labels head-on, they're not strong enough to survive.
The majors should end their war on the internet, end their war on P2P and internet radio. Even though they won the war on internet radio in the US, there are lots of other places in the world. And no matter how many computer-free grandmas and mentally retarded twelve year old children they sue, P2P will not go away, especially since it is SO EASY to not get sued.
If you use Morpheus you can uncheck a box and you won''t automatically share your downloads. This is a good thing not only from a legal perspective, but from the viewpoint that the majors have radio and empty-v. Indies only have P2P. Seed your share folders with indie music!
If you want the top 40, just plug your radio into your computer and sample for a couple hours, and you can make MP3s from the whole damned top 40, free and legal. Well, I guess it's legal but even if it isn't there's no way they can catch you, and no way to stop you short of taking their stuff off the air.
I have MP3s I made from cassettes I recorded off the radio years ago. When I have company over people kind of do a brain fart when the MP3 comes to a part of the song where the tape got ate.
-mcgrew
I don't know, Mr. Beckerman is a lawyer and I'm not, and what's more he's incredibly respectable AFAIC, but it seems like the RIAA isn't actually claiming that the fact that he ripped them makes them unauthorized, but the fact that they're in his "shared" folder makes them unauthorized.
.mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies...'"
Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs' recordings into the compressed
Again, IANAL. Lawyers most likely use the word "and" in a different way than you would use it in an "IF/ELSE" statement in a program. After all, the SCOTUS says that "limited time" in reference to copyright terms means whatever Congress says it means.
I absolutely guarantee that this will be the last music purchase I make from any RIAA backed artist unless they start recognizing fair use
My indie friends will be happy to hear that! I haven't bought any RIAA music in years. I get my professionally recorded and duplicated (with case and cover art) CDs straight from the band at their shows. Not only are they superior to the RIAA crap in every way, they're cheaper too, $5-$10 each.
-mcgrew
Some slippery slopes are offtopic.
I agree. As to the taxes, I don't think they should come automatically out of your bank account, but I have no problem with deducting income tax from my paycheck. It should be voluntary, however.
But government is more about less choice for people.
Meet my friend Mike. The link is to an old K5 story about a pig farmer (Mike), a nerd (me), a couple other rednecks, and explosives. No hookers in that one though.
No, they're "secret" precicely because they're in disguise. The words I highlighted make it clear that the phrase can be used in different ways in different contexts; e.g. the word "sometimes", which you seem to conviniently gloss over.
If he's a cop pretending to not be a cop, he's keeeping the fact that he's a cop secret. He's secret police.
If you are my age, back when you were saying "love it or leave it" I was saying "change it or lose it". If you think the US isn't a police state, you haven't had any run-ins with the police.
Ask a black man; he would know better than my whate ass.
They're police, they're secret, I don't give a rat's ass what wikipedia says.
Funny yet insightful! How to mod, how to mod.
Some people are way too anal. Jees, my ten dollar alarm clock is accurate enough for me, as are the cheap wall clocks, none of which ever differ by more than a minute.
I have to set my clocks twice a year anyway. I don't have time to worry about what time it is.
Next on slashdot: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Hallmark of the nerd?
-mcgrew
-
Fark 'em. Stick a fark in 'em. they're done. And speaking of that farkin' NSFW, my farkin' slashdot journal entry from Friday was NSFW. And come to think of it, yesterday's was probably on topic too, as Fark can kiss our Asses, asses, all fall down.
Microsoft can trademark "windows" but that can't stop the glasiers from using it. Hell, Hormel made up the word "Spam" and look at them.
As Bugs Bunny used to say before his unfornunate accident, "what a bunch of maroons". WTF! Whoa, next somebody will trademark THAT!
-mcgrew
PS- If you're wondering WTF happened to dat kwazy wabbit, I hate him. Hehehehehehe!
I wish I had mod points. Your comment is informative, insightful, and interesting. And it's not even full of typos like mine was!
Let's change YOUR emphasis to MY emphasis:So no I'm not =P
How do you know their unrepresentative?
Because the President's "approval rating" is less than 30% and Congress' is even lower than his. If Congress and the President represesented us, their approval ratings would be above 50%.
They sure as hell don't represent MY views.
... does it run Linux?
Linux will run on anything from a wristwatch to a beowolf cluster of supercomputers. So yes, it will run Linux. It will not, however, run Windows.
-mcgrew
With all this improvement, why haven't we gotten to the point where I can buy a 20 GB hard for $20?
Give it another few years. You can get a 10gb hard drive housed in a computer fof fity, including monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Used, of course, but you know what they say about begging and choosing.
-mcgrew
While we're reminiscing about the good old days of refrigerator sized hard drives that would only hold a single three minute MP3 and pocket calculators that needed a whole building to house and took an army of engineers to run, you kids might want to know what it's like to grow up with computers (written 2005); or rather, have computers grow up with you.
Now be nice and don't make any "soviet Russia" jokes about this comment, ok?
-mcgrew
someone tell me that these will NOT be manufactured by Sony!
Exploding cellphones are only funny on "Will it blend" and MythBusters
Sony - the only company that installs rootkits on its exploding batteries!
-mcgrew
Must... resist... must not... bite... this trolll... OH FUCK IT!
By the time you die of a heart attack, you've either reproduced or you're not going to. Evolution is about fucking, you stupidly rediculous troll.
-mcgrew
And you better hope they have no Open Sores.
Hey, the girls I hang around with are clean! And some of them run Linux. And once I made a beowolf cluster of them when I needed some guy's ass kicked.
It's dangerous mixing nerds, hookers, and alcohol. Things explode.
-mcgrew
No, kidney cells were patented in 1874 by I.P. Freelie.
-mcgrew
It would mean that we're not cannibalizing our food supply to make it,
If corn were the most efficient way to produce ethanol then it wouldn't matter. Say for instance that hemp were legal, and it was more efficient (actually it is more efficient INMN, but bear with me here. Substitute whatever crop is MOST efficient if you care to research, which I don't).
The land now used for growing corn would be used for growing hemp. Whether that land is used for corn, hemp, or sawgrass it's land. It doesn't matter if the corn's turned to fuel or not grown at all, that's corn that's not going to feed any people or cattle.
The world produces sufficient quantities of food to keep everyone on earth well fed. Hunger is now a political problem, not a scientific or agricultural one. Hunger, like racism, is a tool of the rich.
-mcgrew
Especially one as dubiously useful as this.
He suggests that such biobatteries might be ideal for powering devices inserted in the body, such as insulin pumps or pacemakers.
So you're going to give up part of your kidney for a pacemaker or insulin pump? When they've already solved the rejection problems in far less invasive ways?
Wake me up when these devices are on the shelf. I'll be dead, but by then they should still be able to revive me.
Recalling a time when legislatore weren't for sale. When they start writing respectable laws, I'll respect the law.
-mcgrew
"No, man, it's dry. Want some coke?"
The "liberal media" is a lie perpetrated by the "Liberal media". Note that the Bono Act that extended copyrights to forever was passed by a 100% vote in both houses, as was the DMCA.
I found it telling that when the Greens ran Nader for President, they could not have gotten enough electoral votes to win even if every state whose ballot they were on voted "Green", while the Libertarians were on the ballot in 49 states, but the media slobbered all over the Greens but gave the Libertarians nary a mention. Odd, that, isn't it?
We have only one viable party in the US, the Corporate Republicrats. Its two wings, the Republicans and the Democrats, are more alike than various factions of the old Soviet Communists or the Nazi parties.
If you disagree, which of the two wings should I vote for that wants sane copyright lengths, a DMCA that strips copyright from any work that has DRM, repeal of all forfeiture laws, and legalized gambling, drugs, and prostition?
-mcgrew
They're not "undercover cops" or "plainclothes policemen". Call a spade a spade - they're God damned Secret Police, no different than the Communist KGB or the Nazi's Secret Police. If "crimes" like drug possession, gambling, and prostitution weren't crimes there would be no reason or excuse to have Secret Police.
So now you have a "crime" that's a civil matter and you forfeit property without compensation or trial. Thank you, "Partnership for a Drug Free America". I hope your God damned children become needle junkies you fucking assholes, because drug laws make their becoming junkiest MORE likely. Marijuana doesn't lead to harder drugs, marijuana LAWS leas potsmokers to harder drugs.
How far does this slippery slope slide? I love my country, I hate its government. Perhaps one day my descendants will again have a representative government, rather than the one party plutocracy it has become.
-mcgrew
Apparently the value of Vista is not readily apparent
Neither is the value of used cat litter.
the cost of tourism flights could drop significantly and most people would STILL never be able to afford it in a million years.
I can't argue with that logic. I guess I'm enforcing my right to smoke pot by smoking pot, and my right to bang hookers by banging hookers. But if I get caught I'll still go to jail, unless I exersize my 2nd amendment rights and get killed.
You have to die fform something, but I'm not going to exersize my 2nd amendment rights against the governmen all by myself.