This whole business model is flawed. If the US wants to make money and 'enforce intellectual property' rights in countries where people may earn $200, then you have a very very bad and unsustainable business idea. This is why you have no choice but to resort to enforcing these policies through the law, fines, jail, etc.
The average man on the street in Guangdong or Suzhou doesn't care about and doesn't know anything about DVD region locking, the mafiaa or any of the stuff we have to deal with. You expect this dude to pay US$25 for a DVD? Good luck with that.
And to think that any of these countries really care? They have bigger problems to deal with, sanitation, water, air quality, pollution, electricity, etc.
People, you seem to forget google is yet another huge corporate behemoth whose main aim is to make money and make shareholders happy. If that means oppressing people and aiding repressive regimes, that's what they will do.
Don't forget, google has huge development centers in India and they need the presence there. They can't afford to p*ss off the Indian govt. If that means handing over your IP address, SSN, name, password, DoB, and medical history to the govt, they would do it.
Why do people insist on jumping to vista when we all know how flaky any microsoft product is until SP-1 at least. And then cry about "this hardware doesn't work and that BSOD's". If you really want Quicktime to work stick with XP.
"India was four positions down on last year to 44th, suffering from weak infrastructure and a very low level of individual usage of personal computers and the internet.
China was knocked to 59th place, nine positions down, with information technology uptake in Chinese firms lagging."
Why is this surprising in any way? India and China offer cheaper workforces, and hundreds of thousands of skilled techies. For every techie out there, there's probably one million people who don't need or use anything more complex than a cellphone. I can just imagine poor Mr. Wong sitting out there by his paddy fields furiously bidding on e-bay, transferring ten thousand yuan between his online bank accounts, chatting away on skype, paying his taxes online and purchasing an apartment on the web.
Technology penetration doesn't mean much to most people. It is just a yardstick used by the 10% of the world which is considered "first-world". I mean, broadband penetration means nothing to you when you're at Wat Ba Pong monastery in northern Thailand or out in the paddy fields of India.
What's so surprising about this move? Google like any other company aims to make money. Like I've been saying all along, this "don't be evil" mantra is an elaborate ploy to make them look like angels and ask no questions.
Remember how we supported microsoft against IBM a few decades ago when IBM was considered the oppressor and microsoft the liberator?
If it hurts their bottom line, they will toe the line. Google has a huge dev center in Bangalore, and many other cities in India. If they screw with the government, they are in for it. That's the bottom line. That's why they are bending over backwards and opening their thighs for the cops.
IBM is not the only company to squeeze others for their profit. They killed Amdahl out of greed. They've done that in the software and hardware business many times over. It's not like IBM is an angel.
For those of you who remember, it was not too long ago when Microsoft was the champion of freedom and IBM was the tyrannical oppressor.
Microsoft is often bashed about this very same practice, squeezing PC makers to ship machines pre-installed with windows "otherwise....", however, don't forget the hundreds of other companies that resort to similar unethical behavior.
That said, SCO asked for it. They are getting shafted and they only have themselves to blame. This time, I am all for IBM. When it comes to fscking with open source and Linux, take no prisoners and spare no quarter.
Yes sure it's gonna replace JPEG. I think heard a colossally humongous cloud of oinks from up above.
The very fact that it is from mirco$haft, and they hold patents on it, and they strictly control how it is licensed, itself is a huge nail in the coffin. Now if they'd simply published the spec as an open standard and allowed anyone to use it without restrictions, then we'd have a different story.
Personally I'd be very glad if this falls flat on its silly HD face. We already have JPEG2000, maybe it's time to take another look at it, or improve it. This is not the time for yet another proprietary 'new' "standard".
While I agree that burying elementary school kids in homework is bad, they must be given some homework, maybe not every day, but assignments which are to be done in 3-4 days or a week. It prepares them for their higher classes.
Anyway most elementary school kids I've seen are glued to the computer or TV the whole time they're not in school. I hardly see any of these kids play these days. A little homework is better than being a couch potato.
Eliminate homework, and we're going to see a lot more dumb kids around.
As an ex-wordpress user, this just points out one among the many changes and improvements they need to make. Security is important, but if the fundamental framework itself is weak, nothing else is going to matter too much. Wordpress is crippled in that it simply can't take a digg or heavy slashdot hit. Check out any wordpress site that's been dugg to front page, chances are 99% it's going to be dead in minutes.
Yeah I know we're drooling over the resolution and quality of HD, but as a matter of principle, why note vote with your wallet and don't buy a single HD/BR movie? Or is it OK for us to be treated like criminals, in the hope that we accept such treatment?
I know for sure that I won't be buying any HD/BR media, ever, till this DRM mess is sorted out.
And how long do you think it will be before this could happen? Google just needs what they consider a critical mass before they decide they can play god. Long back in the DOS days, when wordstar was king, microsoft was forced to play nice.
What microsoft was to IBM back then, google is to microsoft today. They are already showing their true colors with their shenanigans in South Carolina. With google fanboyism rivaling apple fanboyism, people tend to forget google is yet another large corporate organization who's out there to make money.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that the medicine is cheap and patentless. Pharmaceutical companies today are not interested unless they can make big profits, specially for something like cancer drugs.
This behavior is already taking its toll on developing countries like China and India. I understand that it is very hard to find Aspirin in India since it's cheap to make and the drug companies make very little money from it. Instead, they make aspirin variants for cardio patients which are slow release drugs, bump up the price by 1000% and make a killing.
Patents in medicine are killing people, and preventing quick access to life saving medicine. This is being addressed by some countries like Thailand, where they broke a patent for a HIV treatment drug since the patent holder was intent on ripping off the country. http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_ind ex.cfm?DR_ID=42580
I pity those poor deluded fools who're buying this DRM infested shite. Till the day HD/BR is totally crax0red like DVD's, they won't get a penny from me. If they want to dictate what I can and cannot do with stuff I buy with my hard earned money, RIAA/MPAA can keep your HD/BR.
Shilling has been happening since they opened shop. Nothing new here. You and I know eb*y doesn't care two hoots about how many shills they get. The only way to protect our butts is to bit only what you think you can afford and not a penny more. The rating system is completely screwed. If I give someone a negative rating because he's a shill, I'm sure to find one for me the next morning, even if I haven't bought/sold anything yet.
The guy should just do what muslix64 did. He should release this stuff a anonymosly on some forums and post his code on megaupload or some place like that. So screw the {MP|RI}AA and the messed up US legal system.
35K is not even a slap on the wrist. It's pocket change for Cingular, and this will only encourage them to do more nasty stuff like this since they can get away with nothing. How about a $350 million fine instead?
Why would I even consider buying HD/BluRay when they're choked to the throat with oppressive DRM? Vote with your wallet if you really care. More power to people like Jon and muslix. For the majority of the populace DVD delivers excellent quality and is more than sufficient.
Just look at the quality of Nokia phones over the past few years. They have been getting worse with each iteration. My Nokia from 1997 was a cheap low end model, but was built like a tank and has taken all kinds of abuse. A mid range nokia model today feels so flimsy, it's designed to break in a year or two tops.
Whatever stuff they come up with, you can be sure it will only appear in military grade models or $1000+ phones.
And anyone who supports apple with their restrictive DRM nonsense, only allowing playback on Apple hardware, and only at medium-low bit rates, needs to have their head examined. Compare this music with anything you rip from a CD at high bit rates, say VBR between 192-320kbps. If you tell me you don't hear a difference, you're stone deaf.
Say apple goes up in flames tomorrow, your iPod stops working after a year due to age. What are you going to do with your $2000 (now worthless) music you "purchased" from apple? Good luck with your DRM infested crap.
Don't assume for a moment I'm an apple basher. I'm a microsoft basher with 200% more vehemence. The same applies to their 'plays for sure' which 'sure doesn't play' on their very own baby, the rat-turd zune. Way to go, media industry. And thanks microsoft for the incredible amount of thought you put in to DRM. You're so dense, I hear there's huge surges of gravity around Redmond, and signs of black hole formation.
Slashdot Mirror
This whole business model is flawed. If the US wants to make money and 'enforce intellectual property' rights in countries where people may earn $200, then you have a very very bad and unsustainable business idea. This is why you have no choice but to resort to enforcing these policies through the law, fines, jail, etc.
The average man on the street in Guangdong or Suzhou doesn't care about and doesn't know anything about DVD region locking, the mafiaa or any of the stuff we have to deal with. You expect this dude to pay US$25 for a DVD? Good luck with that.
And to think that any of these countries really care? They have bigger problems to deal with, sanitation, water, air quality, pollution, electricity, etc.
Buhwahahahahaha!
People, you seem to forget google is yet another huge corporate behemoth whose main aim is to make money and make shareholders happy. If that means oppressing people and aiding repressive regimes, that's what they will do.
Don't forget, google has huge development centers in India and they need the presence there. They can't afford to p*ss off the Indian govt. If that means handing over your IP address, SSN, name, password, DoB, and medical history to the govt, they would do it.
Why do people insist on jumping to vista when we all know how flaky any microsoft product is until SP-1 at least. And then cry about "this hardware doesn't work and that BSOD's". If you really want Quicktime to work stick with XP.
The article says:
"India was four positions down on last year to 44th, suffering from weak infrastructure and a very low level of individual usage of personal computers and the internet.
China was knocked to 59th place, nine positions down, with information technology uptake in Chinese firms lagging."
Why is this surprising in any way? India and China offer cheaper workforces, and hundreds of thousands of skilled techies. For every techie out there, there's probably one million people who don't need or use anything more complex than a cellphone. I can just imagine poor Mr. Wong sitting out there by his paddy fields furiously bidding on e-bay, transferring ten thousand yuan between his online bank accounts, chatting away on skype, paying his taxes online and purchasing an apartment on the web.
Technology penetration doesn't mean much to most people. It is just a yardstick used by the 10% of the world which is considered "first-world". I mean, broadband penetration means nothing to you when you're at Wat Ba Pong monastery in northern Thailand or out in the paddy fields of India.
What garbage. We all know what would have happened if you or I had done what the Dunn woman did. Locked up for years without hope.
What's so surprising about this move? Google like any other company aims to make money. Like I've been saying all along, this "don't be evil" mantra is an elaborate ploy to make them look like angels and ask no questions.
Remember how we supported microsoft against IBM a few decades ago when IBM was considered the oppressor and microsoft the liberator?
If it hurts their bottom line, they will toe the line. Google has a huge dev center in Bangalore, and many other cities in India. If they screw with the government, they are in for it. That's the bottom line. That's why they are bending over backwards and opening their thighs for the cops.
IBM is not the only company to squeeze others for their profit. They killed Amdahl out of greed. They've done that in the software and hardware business many times over. It's not like IBM is an angel.
For those of you who remember, it was not too long ago when Microsoft was the champion of freedom and IBM was the tyrannical oppressor.
Microsoft is often bashed about this very same practice, squeezing PC makers to ship machines pre-installed with windows "otherwise....", however, don't forget the hundreds of other companies that resort to similar unethical behavior.
That said, SCO asked for it. They are getting shafted and they only have themselves to blame. This time, I am all for IBM. When it comes to fscking with open source and Linux, take no prisoners and spare no quarter.
Yes sure it's gonna replace JPEG. I think heard a colossally humongous cloud of oinks from up above.
The very fact that it is from mirco$haft, and they hold patents on it, and they strictly control how it is licensed, itself is a huge nail in the coffin. Now if they'd simply published the spec as an open standard and allowed anyone to use it without restrictions, then we'd have a different story.
Personally I'd be very glad if this falls flat on its silly HD face. We already have JPEG2000, maybe it's time to take another look at it, or improve it. This is not the time for yet another proprietary 'new' "standard".
While I agree that burying elementary school kids in homework is bad, they must be given some homework, maybe not every day, but assignments which are to be done in 3-4 days or a week. It prepares them for their higher classes.
Anyway most elementary school kids I've seen are glued to the computer or TV the whole time they're not in school. I hardly see any of these kids play these days. A little homework is better than being a couch potato.
Eliminate homework, and we're going to see a lot more dumb kids around.
As an ex-wordpress user, this just points out one among the many changes and improvements they need to make. Security is important, but if the fundamental framework itself is weak, nothing else is going to matter too much. Wordpress is crippled in that it simply can't take a digg or heavy slashdot hit. Check out any wordpress site that's been dugg to front page, chances are 99% it's going to be dead in minutes.
Yeah I know we're drooling over the resolution and quality of HD, but as a matter of principle, why note vote with your wallet and don't buy a single HD/BR movie? Or is it OK for us to be treated like criminals, in the hope that we accept such treatment?
I know for sure that I won't be buying any HD/BR media, ever, till this DRM mess is sorted out.
Photos of Pam Jones or she ain't real!
How about the US be blacklisted for asshole-ishness? Surely the RIAA represents the whole country, right?
And how long do you think it will be before this could happen? Google just needs what they consider a critical mass before they decide they can play god. Long back in the DOS days, when wordstar was king, microsoft was forced to play nice.
What microsoft was to IBM back then, google is to microsoft today. They are already showing their true colors with their shenanigans in South Carolina. With google fanboyism rivaling apple fanboyism, people tend to forget google is yet another large corporate organization who's out there to make money.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that the medicine is cheap and patentless. Pharmaceutical companies today are not interested unless they can make big profits, specially for something like cancer drugs.
d ex.cfm?DR_ID=42580
This behavior is already taking its toll on developing countries like China and India. I understand that it is very hard to find Aspirin in India since it's cheap to make and the drug companies make very little money from it. Instead, they make aspirin variants for cardio patients which are slow release drugs, bump up the price by 1000% and make a killing.
Patents in medicine are killing people, and preventing quick access to life saving medicine. This is being addressed by some countries like Thailand, where they broke a patent for a HIV treatment drug since the patent holder was intent on ripping off the country.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_in
I pity those poor deluded fools who're buying this DRM infested shite. Till the day HD/BR is totally crax0red like DVD's, they won't get a penny from me. If they want to dictate what I can and cannot do with stuff I buy with my hard earned money, RIAA/MPAA can keep your HD/BR.
Looks like the only people they surveyed were Gates and Ballmer. I have a thing or two to tell the surveyors if they care to listen.
Here
Shilling has been happening since they opened shop. Nothing new here. You and I know eb*y doesn't care two hoots about how many shills they get. The only way to protect our butts is to bit only what you think you can afford and not a penny more. The rating system is completely screwed. If I give someone a negative rating because he's a shill, I'm sure to find one for me the next morning, even if I haven't bought/sold anything yet.
The guy should just do what muslix64 did. He should release this stuff a anonymosly on some forums and post his code on megaupload or some place like that. So screw the {MP|RI}AA and the messed up US legal system.
35K is not even a slap on the wrist. It's pocket change for Cingular, and this will only encourage them to do more nasty stuff like this since they can get away with nothing. How about a $350 million fine instead?
Why would I even consider buying HD/BluRay when they're choked to the throat with oppressive DRM? Vote with your wallet if you really care. More power to people like Jon and muslix. For the majority of the populace DVD delivers excellent quality and is more than sufficient.
What happened to that headline? Oh wait, we're expected to lay down and take it up the ass, quietly.
Just look at the quality of Nokia phones over the past few years. They have been getting worse with each iteration. My Nokia from 1997 was a cheap low end model, but was built like a tank and has taken all kinds of abuse. A mid range nokia model today feels so flimsy, it's designed to break in a year or two tops.
Whatever stuff they come up with, you can be sure it will only appear in military grade models or $1000+ phones.
And anyone who supports apple with their restrictive DRM nonsense, only allowing playback on Apple hardware, and only at medium-low bit rates, needs to have their head examined. Compare this music with anything you rip from a CD at high bit rates, say VBR between 192-320kbps. If you tell me you don't hear a difference, you're stone deaf.
Say apple goes up in flames tomorrow, your iPod stops working after a year due to age. What are you going to do with your $2000 (now worthless) music you "purchased" from apple? Good luck with your DRM infested crap.
Don't assume for a moment I'm an apple basher. I'm a microsoft basher with 200% more vehemence. The same applies to their 'plays for sure' which 'sure doesn't play' on their very own baby, the rat-turd zune. Way to go, media industry. And thanks microsoft for the incredible amount of thought you put in to DRM. You're so dense, I hear there's huge surges of gravity around Redmond, and signs of black hole formation.