and the number of idiots that currently would be driving at ($SPEEDLIMIT+5)
heh, in Michigan if you drive 5 over, you're going too slow. This is mainly due to the high number of idiots who choose to drive $SPEEDLIMIT+25. Want proof? Try driving the I-94 stretch from I-275 to Telegraph road, at say 5:00pm. There are only two speeds on the road, 0mph, and 95mph, anything in between causes accidents.
But I do agree with you, cell phones are dangerous. And although I'm not for a ban of cellular telephones in the car, I do think that those who talk and drive poorly should be cited for failure to maintain control, or possibly careless driving.
Isn't there a statute of time limitations in which you have to file suit against a trademark violation within a specific time. Otherwise, you can't claim infringement? Also, I thought non-profits couldn't old trademarks. Perhaps the underlining purpose of the Olympics is now known.
I think it's time we rid ourselves of the olympics. We have way too many other sports groups to keep this stupid shit around. I'd much rather watch the x-games, or when it comes out, XNFL.
Actually there was a guy in Olympia, Washington who's swimming pool company was named Olympic Swimming Pools. The IOC sued him. Although he did win the lawsuit, legal bills caused him to shut down.
The IOC is a bunch of real assholes. Personally, I don't watch the olympics, read about the olympics or even CARE about the olympics for that matter. Just keep me out of it.
Simply stated, I'd like to see some counter-suits caliming malicious prosecution. I mean, you can't get any farther from trademark violation.
What I want to know is why do small aircraft still use leaded gas.
Ever since the EPA put out new regulations governing the storage of aircraft fuel underground, we're going to see small aircraft using jet fuel soon.
And now, I'm not suggesting they're going to have jet engines. Jet fuel is very close to kerosene (aka diesel). And they've developed ignitionless aircraft engines designed to use the same fuel jets use. Only one problem,... heat.
You see, small aircraft engines are air cooled. I mean, they better be with all of the air coming at them. But when you get the extreme compressions of diesel into a small engine, you're forced to use liquid cooling. Thus requiring more equipment, thus more weight.
Sad part is, the aircraft industry is putting the most research into alternative fuels,... and will probably b the last to implement them.
I'm sorry for being to Katzian in my obviousness. But the major barriers to breakthroughs in efficient fuel technology is that our infrastructure is designed to get gasoline into cars. Not pig farts.
Refill stations don't want to install pumps, and pay for fuel that won't be used. Everybody is waiting for the next guy to eat the cost of making this stuff popular.
And in America, there is no market for it. Gas is cheap, a lot cheaper then a lot of other places. Simply put, we like our loud hot-rods. And we're not quick to trade them in for some electric car who's 0-60 is counted in minutes, not seconds.
Honestly, I think the governments of the world need to pour more research into integrating altenative fuels, and less into building bigger super computers crunching nuclear bomb test numbers for a war which will never happen.
In the Metallica case, I don't think they sampled the content of the files, but rather assumed by the file name that it was a copyrighted song.
If Napster banned these people based on filenames, then they should ban this offender. If they don't ban this offender, then the people in the Metallica case who were banned, should be reinstated.
Anymore, attacks are rarely through some exploit, but more by using a lot of bandwidth to shut the site down. DDOS coms to mind. For example, when yahoo got shut down, it was because DDoSers were costantly throwing search requests at it, and it finally buckeled. Honestly, you log everything, and then sort it out when you have to.
These look awesome. Unlike before when you could only put 80 minutes onto CD, you can now put roughly the equivilent of 8 CDs onto one disk.
You must be blind not to see the effect that Napster is having on how we listen to music. These players are the result of an explosion of mp3 popularity. Once things like this are widely deployed (still waiting for a car stereo version), we're going to see sales on this stuff (including CD-writing equipment) sky rocket.
You see, when ever I hear some artist cry about how Napster is stealing the food out from his children's dinner plates, I laugh my fucking head off. Because if you're independant enough to come up with your own opinions, you begin to understand that they are nothing but money grubbing thiefs. They don't care about their "intellectual property", or "artist's rights". All they care about is their green pocket liners.
It's sad, but technology like this, allowing you to put even MORE music onto a CD, will never make it into the music recording industry. It's just a way of selling more product for less.
And don't you start with the "holier than thou" attitude, calling me a pirate, or an intellectual property thief. Have you ever thought that maybe just because something is illegal does not necessarily make it immoral?
Keep everything in perspective. Metallica no longer produces good music. They don't need to. They're just selling a name now. And people are just now beginning to wake up and realize it. Hey, I agree, Metallica is a great band, they're just obsolete now. People have stopped buying their records, and Lars is pissed that he's not god anymore.
Honestly, I applaud these companies. They are pushing us into our new music revolution.
Unless you are in the deep south (which Washington DC is not), you need to heat that room of yours. And if you ARE in the deep south, you need to cool that room. I assume he does go into public places, thus he needs water for showers. And at $300/month, I doubt your utilities are included (of course, I don't know know where this room is).
And what about clothing? Even cheap clothing can stick it to your wallet (if you choose to BUY a wallet). I mean, you don't have a car, you must walk, and thus wear out tennis shoes quite regularly. And you have to clean those clothes. Are you going to buy a washer/dryer? Perhaps a bucket and a clothesline?
I mean honestly. We're getting into unibomber territory here.
p.s. I know I took this into a bit more detail then necessary, I just don't think it's practical. I make US$23k a year living in Southeastern Michigan, and I qualify for government assisted housing.:P
We continually cheer new PDAs because of their "neat" features such as ultra high ammounts of memory, or their wireless ability. But when it really comes down to what PDA you buy, isn't the data entry interface the most important thing? I mean, if I'm sitting in a class, in order for me to take notes on a PDA, I have to enter data as fast as it's being said. With enough time to still listen and understand the lecture so that I might ask questions.
Because until the user interface on a PDA is advanced, we can't expect it to grow to it's fullest potential.
My god. What does it take to convince these people that MP3 files are not illegal. The Mpeg Layer 3 format is freely usable by anyone. Just because something has an MP3 tag does NOT mean it is copyrighted material.
I don't know about anyone else, but I am utterly sick and tired of this mentality. For a while my ISP thought I was pirating music when I had a bunch of MP3 files in my html directory. I had to call them on the telephone and explain they were MP3 recordings of a friend of mine's band Neanderthal Mission, and that they were perfectly legal. Another example would be many of your IRC networks who prohibit MP3 channels, even legal ones because they "might be used for copyright infringment".
The point is that people need to WAKE up, and smell the shit they're throwing. MP3s are not always illegal. And until we can past that, we're just handing the RIAA all the power they want.
display in extenso the company's organigram but hide information on products
Since we're on the topic of Fast Food, I thought I'd put in a link to www.tacobell.com. They have menus, and even Nutritional Information about their food. I think they should be commended on that.
Another thing, is McDonalds' website has a locater. Handy for when you're doing those special installs for clients out in the middle of nowhere, and you need to know where the nearest Mickey Rara's is.
By the way, the People Eating Tasty Animals site is up (I dunno if anyone linked to this on a previous story), at http://mtd.com/tasty/.
The problem, detected by a security firm that works for the Justice Department
NETSEC, founded by two alumni of the National Security Agency and Department of Defense, provides computer emergency services to the Justice Department.
This is simply nothing more than a soft form of the word Echelon
No but seriously. What we're seeing here is Department of Defense working closely with the Justice Department. While you and some other people might think something along the lines of "big deal", I'd like to conjure up a few memories of each of these department's history.
First of all, in the United States, the military is not to be used in the policing of Americans. Their resources are off limits to police agencies, and their personnel are prohibited from engaging in law enforcement activity outside the bounds of their property (ie Military Police on Military bases).
And for very good reason is this division. First of all, look at the Branch Davidian incident in Waco, Texas. This was a USDOJ/USDOD joint activity. We're just now beginning to realize to what extent the DoD was involved.
I honestly think this is the beginning of a new policy where America's military will continue a mission of American policing. That is unacceptable, as the consequences are staggering.
I mean, is it just me, or is Janet Reno REALLY going against what America has stood for in the past two hundred years?
You know something. I find it very disgusting how so many people who advocate an anonymous internet when it comes to file sharing on Napster, and so forth, but the MINUTE they get spammed, they are all shouting about accountability and how we need better records of who is using the internt.
People, the internet is both accountable and anonymous. Basically, if you want to be anonymous, it's not that difficult to do so. And, if you want to be accountable, you can do that too. The point is, spammers will always fake headers in some way, and "illegal" mp3s will always move anonymously through non-logging proxies, and people will continue to put up webpages showing off their new Corvette, including exactly where it's parked at night, and where in the garage the keys are stored.
The only combat we have against Spammers, is the capitalist approach. Spammers would not be in business, if not for all of the nullheaded PR people who feel they need to mass-market the internet cheaply. And there is nothing expensive about loading up a bulk email program and sending mail to a half-million people.
At my company, we urge our marketing department to stay away from companies who want to send out spam on our behalf. And we've batted 1000 so far (thank god). I feel that we're doing our part by not supporting companies whose only product is unsolicited email. So if you ask me about the "big picture" of stopping SPAM, my answer is simply, stop paying them to do it.
So many of you self-proclaimed "do gooders" are out and about, saying, rather hypocritically I bet, that we're all pirates, and we're so evil, that we steal from musicians. Well, I completely disagree. I think our society is one which requires a large movement of people to change things.
I don't remember if Slashdot ran a story on this or not, but a week or so ago, the Federal Trade Commision concluded that music producers were engaging in price-fixing (forget the proper term, I'm sure someone will help me out). The FTC found that CDs cost TOO MUCH!
And Napster is what's going to make the prices go down. Remember back in the day, when VHS costed $100 per movie. That sparked a movement where people began copying their own videos. People, this is nothing more than history repeating itself.
Now we have videos for $14.95, or $19.95. Is it really worth $14.95 to have two VCRs, a bunch of cables, and the wasted time of copying VHS cassettes? I think not.
And now it's time for all of the music industry to follow suit. They need to lower prices. Piracy is a result of outrageous prices! If CDs costed $4.95 a piece, would we see as much piracy? NO!!!
And am I the only one who is sick and tired of music artists telling us bullshit like, "We don't have any control over the prices of CDs". I HATE THAT. Lars Ulrich sat there, and lied to our faces. You know it's bad when someone like Metallica cares so much about profits, that they are willing to lie, and try to get warm and fuzzy with their fans. Don't believe for a second. Artists have a lot more control than you think. They've just been locked into the "system" for so long, that they've lost sight of what's really important.
People we need to open our eyes. Artists who have embraced Napster are not going broke. If it weren't for Napster, I would have never bought my Offsping CDs! Let alone any of the large numbers of CDs I own now
If you ask me, I say keep running Napster, or Gnutella, as your taste preferes. And stop letting the criminal music industry tell you that you are a theif. Art should be free for everyone to enjoy!
I think the issue here is whether or not you passed the virus onto another computer you own.
I could plausibly see someone in some comp sci class writing a harmless virus, and studying how it replicates. A broad law could land this student into jail
So I guess the question isn't whether someone who intentionally damages other people's computers should be illegal, because we all know it should. The question should be, are we inhibiting innovation by making too broad of laws?
Tell them your situation, and that you would like to keep your work GPLed. If they insist that you work on it during work, and that they must retain copyrights, then simply fork your own program (assuming you haven't incorporated other GPLed code), make it so it only works for your company, and continue your GPLed version on your off-time.
These appears to me as being more like a version of OPAC for record companies. Everyone agrees on a price, and everyone gets to charge more for CDs, as a result of zero competition.
I think our current copyright laws contribute to the monopolistic practices of these companies. Basically, they have individual monopolies over the artists. And this is why the FTC's actions will be fruitless.
Essentially, if you want to buy a that new pop CD, you don't have a choice of who's CD you get. Meaning, you can't choose between producer A, and producer B.
And what's evn more strange is that feels perfectly normal! What if intellectual property laws were set up that does not allow an artist to give up their rights to music. Suddenly, there may be 5 different companies producing the new CD you're looking for. And with all this competition, prices go down, and people stop whining about piracy. Piracy is a result of price bloat!!! So instead of being reactive, we need to be proactive!
In my opinion, competition is good. Unfortunately, comporatism isn't into competition.
P.S. Did anyone catch the Tom Leykis show (talk radio) on Tuesday night concerning Metallica and Napster? Wondering where I can get a copy or maybe transcript of the show.
First off, applause to Jon Katz! He's an awesome force at work for our community, and I'm certainly glad he is on our side.
Second, I think we need to turn the majority of our focus to this interview with Metallica. We need to compose thoughtfull, and point-making questions. Our intentions should not be to make Metallica out to be some evil hypocritical band, but to show them that not only are their fans against these actions, but that such actions are totally destroying a digital goldmine that they can take full advantage of.
So I would like to urge everyone to think about some questions to ask Metallica. This is a rare opportunity for our community to be heard. We need intelligent questions to be posted. Don't hold anything back, but don't troll.
In fact, do what I'm doing right now. Put together some questions ahead of time. That way you can post them right in.
Equally, if not more importantly, we need INTELLIGENT MODERATION! Those who will be blessed with moderation points, I urge you to use them more wisely than ever! You are the ones who will ensure that those questions reflecting our community most are asked. YOU ARE THE KEY!
Lastly, we need to thank Metallica. Although, their recent legal actions have hurt our feelings. We need to remember that they are volunteering their time to listen to their fans. They're participating in online discussions, and subjecting themselves to a slashdot interview.
Slashdot Mirror
heh, in Michigan if you drive 5 over, you're going too slow. This is mainly due to the high number of idiots who choose to drive $SPEEDLIMIT+25. Want proof? Try driving the I-94 stretch from I-275 to Telegraph road, at say 5:00pm. There are only two speeds on the road, 0mph, and 95mph, anything in between causes accidents.
But I do agree with you, cell phones are dangerous. And although I'm not for a ban of cellular telephones in the car, I do think that those who talk and drive poorly should be cited for failure to maintain control, or possibly careless driving.
Not to mention it's good advice.
Trademarks only apply if the alleged violator is participating in the same business activity as the holder.
Many other sports organizations have to modify the rules of their games somewhat, or face prosecution from the Olympics.
I mean, aren't these the same people who were taking bribes?
Isn't there a statute of time limitations in which you have to file suit against a trademark violation within a specific time. Otherwise, you can't claim infringement? Also, I thought non-profits couldn't old trademarks. Perhaps the underlining purpose of the Olympics is now known.
I think it's time we rid ourselves of the olympics. We have way too many other sports groups to keep this stupid shit around. I'd much rather watch the x-games, or when it comes out, XNFL.
Actually there was a guy in Olympia, Washington who's swimming pool company was named Olympic Swimming Pools. The IOC sued him. Although he did win the lawsuit, legal bills caused him to shut down.
The IOC is a bunch of real assholes. Personally, I don't watch the olympics, read about the olympics or even CARE about the olympics for that matter. Just keep me out of it.
Simply stated, I'd like to see some counter-suits caliming malicious prosecution. I mean, you can't get any farther from trademark violation.
Plastic can be recycled.
Ever since the EPA put out new regulations governing the storage of aircraft fuel underground, we're going to see small aircraft using jet fuel soon.
And now, I'm not suggesting they're going to have jet engines. Jet fuel is very close to kerosene (aka diesel). And they've developed ignitionless aircraft engines designed to use the same fuel jets use. Only one problem,... heat.
You see, small aircraft engines are air cooled. I mean, they better be with all of the air coming at them. But when you get the extreme compressions of diesel into a small engine, you're forced to use liquid cooling. Thus requiring more equipment, thus more weight.
Sad part is, the aircraft industry is putting the most research into alternative fuels,... and will probably b the last to implement them.
I'm sorry for being to Katzian in my obviousness. But the major barriers to breakthroughs in efficient fuel technology is that our infrastructure is designed to get gasoline into cars. Not pig farts.
Refill stations don't want to install pumps, and pay for fuel that won't be used. Everybody is waiting for the next guy to eat the cost of making this stuff popular.
And in America, there is no market for it. Gas is cheap, a lot cheaper then a lot of other places. Simply put, we like our loud hot-rods. And we're not quick to trade them in for some electric car who's 0-60 is counted in minutes, not seconds.
Honestly, I think the governments of the world need to pour more research into integrating altenative fuels, and less into building bigger super computers crunching nuclear bomb test numbers for a war which will never happen.
In the Metallica case, I don't think they sampled the content of the files, but rather assumed by the file name that it was a copyrighted song.
If Napster banned these people based on filenames, then they should ban this offender. If they don't ban this offender, then the people in the Metallica case who were banned, should be reinstated.
Anymore, attacks are rarely through some exploit, but more by using a lot of bandwidth to shut the site down. DDOS coms to mind. For example, when yahoo got shut down, it was because DDoSers were costantly throwing search requests at it, and it finally buckeled. Honestly, you log everything, and then sort it out when you have to.
These look awesome. Unlike before when you could only put 80 minutes onto CD, you can now put roughly the equivilent of 8 CDs onto one disk.
You must be blind not to see the effect that Napster is having on how we listen to music. These players are the result of an explosion of mp3 popularity. Once things like this are widely deployed (still waiting for a car stereo version), we're going to see sales on this stuff (including CD-writing equipment) sky rocket.
You see, when ever I hear some artist cry about how Napster is stealing the food out from his children's dinner plates, I laugh my fucking head off. Because if you're independant enough to come up with your own opinions, you begin to understand that they are nothing but money grubbing thiefs. They don't care about their "intellectual property", or "artist's rights". All they care about is their green pocket liners.
It's sad, but technology like this, allowing you to put even MORE music onto a CD, will never make it into the music recording industry. It's just a way of selling more product for less.
And don't you start with the "holier than thou" attitude, calling me a pirate, or an intellectual property thief. Have you ever thought that maybe just because something is illegal does not necessarily make it immoral?
Keep everything in perspective. Metallica no longer produces good music. They don't need to. They're just selling a name now. And people are just now beginning to wake up and realize it. Hey, I agree, Metallica is a great band, they're just obsolete now. People have stopped buying their records, and Lars is pissed that he's not god anymore.
Honestly, I applaud these companies. They are pushing us into our new music revolution.
Unless you are in the deep south (which Washington DC is not), you need to heat that room of yours. And if you ARE in the deep south, you need to cool that room. I assume he does go into public places, thus he needs water for showers. And at $300/month, I doubt your utilities are included (of course, I don't know know where this room is).
And what about clothing? Even cheap clothing can stick it to your wallet (if you choose to BUY a wallet). I mean, you don't have a car, you must walk, and thus wear out tennis shoes quite regularly. And you have to clean those clothes. Are you going to buy a washer/dryer? Perhaps a bucket and a clothesline?
I mean honestly. We're getting into unibomber territory here.
p.s. I know I took this into a bit more detail then necessary, I just don't think it's practical. I make US$23k a year living in Southeastern Michigan, and I qualify for government assisted housing. :P
We continually cheer new PDAs because of their "neat" features such as ultra high ammounts of memory, or their wireless ability. But when it really comes down to what PDA you buy, isn't the data entry interface the most important thing? I mean, if I'm sitting in a class, in order for me to take notes on a PDA, I have to enter data as fast as it's being said. With enough time to still listen and understand the lecture so that I might ask questions.
Because until the user interface on a PDA is advanced, we can't expect it to grow to it's fullest potential.
My god. What does it take to convince these people that MP3 files are not illegal. The Mpeg Layer 3 format is freely usable by anyone. Just because something has an MP3 tag does NOT mean it is copyrighted material.
I don't know about anyone else, but I am utterly sick and tired of this mentality. For a while my ISP thought I was pirating music when I had a bunch of MP3 files in my html directory. I had to call them on the telephone and explain they were MP3 recordings of a friend of mine's band Neanderthal Mission, and that they were perfectly legal. Another example would be many of your IRC networks who prohibit MP3 channels, even legal ones because they "might be used for copyright infringment".
The point is that people need to WAKE up, and smell the shit they're throwing. MP3s are not always illegal. And until we can past that, we're just handing the RIAA all the power they want.
display in extenso the company's organigram but hide information on products
Since we're on the topic of Fast Food, I thought I'd put in a link to www.tacobell.com. They have menus, and even Nutritional Information about their food. I think they should be commended on that.
Another thing, is McDonalds' website has a locater. Handy for when you're doing those special installs for clients out in the middle of nowhere, and you need to know where the nearest Mickey Rara's is.
By the way, the People Eating Tasty Animals site is up (I dunno if anyone linked to this on a previous story), at http://mtd.com/tasty/.
Or write to them.
In America, we're often told that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Citizens are expected to know every law, regardless. Why not Judges?
The problem, detected by a security firm that works for the Justice Department
NETSEC, founded by two alumni of the National Security Agency and Department of Defense, provides computer emergency services to the Justice Department.
This is simply nothing more than a soft form of the word Echelon
No but seriously. What we're seeing here is Department of Defense working closely with the Justice Department. While you and some other people might think something along the lines of "big deal", I'd like to conjure up a few memories of each of these department's history.
First of all, in the United States, the military is not to be used in the policing of Americans. Their resources are off limits to police agencies, and their personnel are prohibited from engaging in law enforcement activity outside the bounds of their property (ie Military Police on Military bases).
And for very good reason is this division. First of all, look at the Branch Davidian incident in Waco, Texas. This was a USDOJ/USDOD joint activity. We're just now beginning to realize to what extent the DoD was involved.
I honestly think this is the beginning of a new policy where America's military will continue a mission of American policing. That is unacceptable, as the consequences are staggering.
I mean, is it just me, or is Janet Reno REALLY going against what America has stood for in the past two hundred years?
You know something. I find it very disgusting how so many people who advocate an anonymous internet when it comes to file sharing on Napster, and so forth, but the MINUTE they get spammed, they are all shouting about accountability and how we need better records of who is using the internt.
People, the internet is both accountable and anonymous. Basically, if you want to be anonymous, it's not that difficult to do so. And, if you want to be accountable, you can do that too. The point is, spammers will always fake headers in some way, and "illegal" mp3s will always move anonymously through non-logging proxies, and people will continue to put up webpages showing off their new Corvette, including exactly where it's parked at night, and where in the garage the keys are stored.
The only combat we have against Spammers, is the capitalist approach. Spammers would not be in business, if not for all of the nullheaded PR people who feel they need to mass-market the internet cheaply. And there is nothing expensive about loading up a bulk email program and sending mail to a half-million people.
At my company, we urge our marketing department to stay away from companies who want to send out spam on our behalf. And we've batted 1000 so far (thank god). I feel that we're doing our part by not supporting companies whose only product is unsolicited email. So if you ask me about the "big picture" of stopping SPAM, my answer is simply, stop paying them to do it.
So many of you self-proclaimed "do gooders" are out and about, saying, rather hypocritically I bet, that we're all pirates, and we're so evil, that we steal from musicians. Well, I completely disagree. I think our society is one which requires a large movement of people to change things.
I don't remember if Slashdot ran a story on this or not, but a week or so ago, the Federal Trade Commision concluded that music producers were engaging in price-fixing (forget the proper term, I'm sure someone will help me out). The FTC found that CDs cost TOO MUCH!
And Napster is what's going to make the prices go down. Remember back in the day, when VHS costed $100 per movie. That sparked a movement where people began copying their own videos. People, this is nothing more than history repeating itself.
Now we have videos for $14.95, or $19.95. Is it really worth $14.95 to have two VCRs, a bunch of cables, and the wasted time of copying VHS cassettes? I think not.
And now it's time for all of the music industry to follow suit. They need to lower prices. Piracy is a result of outrageous prices! If CDs costed $4.95 a piece, would we see as much piracy? NO!!!
And am I the only one who is sick and tired of music artists telling us bullshit like, "We don't have any control over the prices of CDs". I HATE THAT. Lars Ulrich sat there, and lied to our faces. You know it's bad when someone like Metallica cares so much about profits, that they are willing to lie, and try to get warm and fuzzy with their fans. Don't believe for a second. Artists have a lot more control than you think. They've just been locked into the "system" for so long, that they've lost sight of what's really important.
People we need to open our eyes. Artists who have embraced Napster are not going broke. If it weren't for Napster, I would have never bought my Offsping CDs! Let alone any of the large numbers of CDs I own now
If you ask me, I say keep running Napster, or Gnutella, as your taste preferes. And stop letting the criminal music industry tell you that you are a theif. Art should be free for everyone to enjoy!
I think the issue here is whether or not you passed the virus onto another computer you own.
I could plausibly see someone in some comp sci class writing a harmless virus, and studying how it replicates. A broad law could land this student into jail
So I guess the question isn't whether someone who intentionally damages other people's computers should be illegal, because we all know it should. The question should be, are we inhibiting innovation by making too broad of laws?
Tell them your situation, and that you would like to keep your work GPLed. If they insist that you work on it during work, and that they must retain copyrights, then simply fork your own program (assuming you haven't incorporated other GPLed code), make it so it only works for your company, and continue your GPLed version on your off-time.
I think our current copyright laws contribute to the monopolistic practices of these companies. Basically, they have individual monopolies over the artists. And this is why the FTC's actions will be fruitless.
Essentially, if you want to buy a that new pop CD, you don't have a choice of who's CD you get. Meaning, you can't choose between producer A, and producer B.
And what's evn more strange is that feels perfectly normal! What if intellectual property laws were set up that does not allow an artist to give up their rights to music. Suddenly, there may be 5 different companies producing the new CD you're looking for. And with all this competition, prices go down, and people stop whining about piracy. Piracy is a result of price bloat!!! So instead of being reactive, we need to be proactive!
In my opinion, competition is good. Unfortunately, comporatism isn't into competition.
P.S. Did anyone catch the Tom Leykis show (talk radio) on Tuesday night concerning Metallica and Napster? Wondering where I can get a copy or maybe transcript of the show.
Second, I think we need to turn the majority of our focus to this interview with Metallica. We need to compose thoughtfull, and point-making questions. Our intentions should not be to make Metallica out to be some evil hypocritical band, but to show them that not only are their fans against these actions, but that such actions are totally destroying a digital goldmine that they can take full advantage of.
So I would like to urge everyone to think about some questions to ask Metallica. This is a rare opportunity for our community to be heard. We need intelligent questions to be posted. Don't hold anything back, but don't troll.
In fact, do what I'm doing right now. Put together some questions ahead of time. That way you can post them right in.
Equally, if not more importantly, we need INTELLIGENT MODERATION! Those who will be blessed with moderation points, I urge you to use them more wisely than ever! You are the ones who will ensure that those questions reflecting our community most are asked. YOU ARE THE KEY!
Lastly, we need to thank Metallica. Although, their recent legal actions have hurt our feelings. We need to remember that they are volunteering their time to listen to their fans. They're participating in online discussions, and subjecting themselves to a slashdot interview.