I consider the X Universe by Egosoft games to be worthy successors, and improvements upon, Elite. Damn fine games, and while the original X: Beyond the Frontier is unplayable these days, X2, X3: Reunion, and X3: Terran Conflict are all supported and run fine on Vista, and can be bought on Steam.
I dunno, I've gotten a few people my age and younger into Zork (I'm 21) and a couple other text adventures (HHGTTG was a big favorite for people, and there's a lot of really high-quality and fun Inform ones out there). Plus, a lot of that crowd plays MUDs and MUSHes.
1. First of all, it isn't up to the judge to preemptively prohibit an affirmative defense.
It is, as a matter of court procedure, if he's going to rule it inapplicable anyway. That's why both parties must provide briefs of their arguments before arguments are made.
2. Second of all, whether or not fair use DOES apply is an issue of fact that is properly reserved for a jury to decide.
In many jurisdictions, this is not at all the case.
Either the judge is braindead, or he's setting the defense up for an appeal.
I know it's hard for Slashdot Aspie-wannabes to consider, but maybe he's smarter and more qualified than you are.
Seeing as how Sotomayor is supposed to have "empathy" and "understanding," I'm pretty sure she'd be favoring the "underprivileged" defendants, not the prosecutor.
No. What he is saying is that the ethical course of action, if you disagree with the RIAA's actions, is to not consume RIAA material. It's not that hard if you choose not to do it; I don't, because frankly I am just not bothered enough by them going after obviously guilty file sharers, but if you had any steel in your spine you'd find some principles and refuse to consume it.
Go for it. Personally, I like some RIAA artists, and will purchase their material if it is worth my money, but if you're against the RIAA, the only ethical thing you can do is boycott everything. No piracy, no purchasing. Vote with your feet, and you can't have it both ways.
It's not that Steam prevents piracy, it's that Steam makes the alternative less attractive. Is it hard to crack Steam? Hell no. But a lot fewer people bother with cracking Steam than torrenting-and-cracking any old game.
You won't get everyone to act honestly, but you can keep the honest people honest. Steam helps a lot with that.
He really has. DeMarco lives near my college, and was a guest lecturer for the semester in our Ethics course (and did a couple guest presentations in Project Management, where his books were used quite heavily). I was very impressed; he's clearly one of the smartest men I've ever met, and when I got back a paper that said "I don't agree with you at all, but you wrote an excellent paper defending it" I think it was probably the best day of my academic career.
If you can find a copy, DeMarco's Waltzing With Bears is an exceptional book, too. As is Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies. The dude is awesome, and his work is great.
I'm pretty sure that products on Steam would be considerably more expensive if they couldn't be assured that the numbers of pirates were kept very low by Steam. My company will be publishing two games on Steam in the upcoming eight months, and I've been talking to developers--more than one has said that they feel better about "budget-game" pricing because they know that they're actually going to get paid for their work.
I get a offer for Comodo through my domain registrar that's like $15/year. I don't use it, as I go through Thawte for my stuff because I always have and don't want to screw with changing it, but if you look around it's not hard to find browser-preloaded CAs at reasonable prices.
given AMD did not support the project well enough to keep Geode up to date
No. This is correctly pronounced "AMD had no financial incentive to refresh Geode because nobody, including the OLPC project, was buying enough to make it worthwhile for a company that is absolutely hemorrhaging money."
It's a company that comes off as being whiny about everybody who can make a popular web browser. They've had fourteen years to work, and they were eclipsed by Chrome in under a year.
So I like the idea of seeing them lose out. Schadenfreude, if you will. Think of it like the freetards and their Microsoft-hate if you like.
Slashdot Mirror
I consider the X Universe by Egosoft games to be worthy successors, and improvements upon, Elite. Damn fine games, and while the original X: Beyond the Frontier is unplayable these days, X2, X3: Reunion, and X3: Terran Conflict are all supported and run fine on Vista, and can be bought on Steam.
I dunno, I've gotten a few people my age and younger into Zork (I'm 21) and a couple other text adventures (HHGTTG was a big favorite for people, and there's a lot of really high-quality and fun Inform ones out there). Plus, a lot of that crowd plays MUDs and MUSHes.
1. First of all, it isn't up to the judge to preemptively prohibit an affirmative defense.
It is, as a matter of court procedure, if he's going to rule it inapplicable anyway. That's why both parties must provide briefs of their arguments before arguments are made.
2. Second of all, whether or not fair use DOES apply is an issue of fact that is properly reserved for a jury to decide.
In many jurisdictions, this is not at all the case.
Either the judge is braindead, or he's setting the defense up for an appeal.
I know it's hard for Slashdot Aspie-wannabes to consider, but maybe he's smarter and more qualified than you are.
It does not fly in the face of established precedent--if you read what the judge said, this was essentially stated--but yes, it can be appealed.
Seeing as how Sotomayor is supposed to have "empathy" and "understanding," I'm pretty sure she'd be favoring the "underprivileged" defendants, not the prosecutor.
No. What he is saying is that the ethical course of action, if you disagree with the RIAA's actions, is to not consume RIAA material. It's not that hard if you choose not to do it; I don't, because frankly I am just not bothered enough by them going after obviously guilty file sharers, but if you had any steel in your spine you'd find some principles and refuse to consume it.
Go for it. Personally, I like some RIAA artists, and will purchase their material if it is worth my money, but if you're against the RIAA, the only ethical thing you can do is boycott everything. No piracy, no purchasing. Vote with your feet, and you can't have it both ways.
It depends on the state, actually. Many states restrict questions of law to the judiciary, not to the jury.
And jury decisions, in many states where they have input on the law itself, can be appealed to--you guessed it--the judiciary.
But in general, the applicability is only the purview of the highest court you can get to review the case. Almost never does that include a jury.
And the **AA's even have a certain rightness to their cause.
This is pronounced "all the rightness of the situation," just so we're clear...
But multi-million dollar verdicts for sharing files vs the slap on the wrist the justice system hands out for serious violent crimes is silly.
This sounds like an argument for stronger sentences for violent crimes, not reducing fines for these torts.
I agree with Neeson that, circa 2010, sharing music is "fair use" under the ideals that is supposed to engender.
I'm guessing you don't even know what fair use is if you're willing to make such an insane claim.
It's not that Steam prevents piracy, it's that Steam makes the alternative less attractive. Is it hard to crack Steam? Hell no. But a lot fewer people bother with cracking Steam than torrenting-and-cracking any old game.
You won't get everyone to act honestly, but you can keep the honest people honest. Steam helps a lot with that.
He really has. DeMarco lives near my college, and was a guest lecturer for the semester in our Ethics course (and did a couple guest presentations in Project Management, where his books were used quite heavily). I was very impressed; he's clearly one of the smartest men I've ever met, and when I got back a paper that said "I don't agree with you at all, but you wrote an excellent paper defending it" I think it was probably the best day of my academic career.
Great dude.
If you can find a copy, DeMarco's Waltzing With Bears is an exceptional book, too. As is Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies. The dude is awesome, and his work is great.
I'm pretty sure that products on Steam would be considerably more expensive if they couldn't be assured that the numbers of pirates were kept very low by Steam. My company will be publishing two games on Steam in the upcoming eight months, and I've been talking to developers--more than one has said that they feel better about "budget-game" pricing because they know that they're actually going to get paid for their work.
I don't recall saying you shouldn't use it. I recall saying that I don't like Opera, and I would like it if they got screwed. :)
Not really, actually. Even on a netbook I do a lot of typing, and would want a real keyboard.
Plus, that doesn't look too Windows-friendly, and for desktop use I'm not much interested in Linux.
I get a offer for Comodo through my domain registrar that's like $15/year. I don't use it, as I go through Thawte for my stuff because I always have and don't want to screw with changing it, but if you look around it's not hard to find browser-preloaded CAs at reasonable prices.
If you don't have a CA-signed cert, the connection is not secure.
Well, they could use OpenID or something.
Not that I do, because OpenID is a huge hassle to deal with, but you could.
Safari is not one of the top three on Windows by any stretch. That top three is IE, Firefox, Chrome.
I thought that would be obvious to somebody who isn't mentally handicapped.
When the OLPC first came out, I probably would have bought one.
But these days, I can get a netbook, now, that better serves my needs without breaking the bank. It makes no sense for me to buy one.
And, from what I've heard, the only place Negroponte's heart was actually in was "how do I get a Nobel" territory.
given AMD did not support the project well enough to keep Geode up to date
No. This is correctly pronounced "AMD had no financial incentive to refresh Geode because nobody, including the OLPC project, was buying enough to make it worthwhile for a company that is absolutely hemorrhaging money."
Psst. I use Firefox and Chrome. I just don't like Opera.
What is it with all the Opera hate on Slashdot?
It's a company that comes off as being whiny about everybody who can make a popular web browser. They've had fourteen years to work, and they were eclipsed by Chrome in under a year.
So I like the idea of seeing them lose out. Schadenfreude, if you will. Think of it like the freetards and their Microsoft-hate if you like.
Safari on Windows is nonfunctionally bad, and a tiny slice of the total Safari share anyway. You sure you want to go that route?