And, more importantly, they have a huge measure of control over air radio and what they play as a simple matter of geography and operational costs. A terrestrial radio station simply cannot afford to operate playing only music that nobody has ever heard of, and that means they are effectively forced into the RIAA racket.
The reason that is so important is that without that they have almost nothing to offer talent in the first place. Few bands ever get signed without being able to scrape together some cash to record at least a professional demo tape, and it is not at all unheard of for bands with large local followings to record and sell full albums. What the RIAA members actually offer these bands that they cannot otherwise accomplish is large scale marketing and distribution, and the internet makes it increasingly easy to do both without their help. If they can't keep a stranglehold on radio, they can't offer the only services they provide which are actually worth the costs.
I actually know a guy through my dad (who used to own some music venues) who managed to go about a decade as a working musician playing shows and selling semi-DIY albums fronting a local rock band, and even now he makes pretty good money doing it part-time. My understanding is that the band was signed at one point, but ended up being dropped from the label (and released from contract) before they could release anything. That was 30 years ago. If he'd been able to promote and sell online, one can only imagine how much bigger it could have been.
The glitch in your argument is that few people outside of Biblical literalists and creationists actually believe that the universe requires a different model if God is present. In fact, many Biblical non-literalists who believe that scripture is comprised of moral and spiritual, but not necessarily historical, Truth believe the exact opposite.
You say that "Evolutionists" are afraid to lose their jobs if the science is debunked... could it also be that Creationists are afraid to lose theirs?
And I'm sick of your self-righteous bitching. you're a slow driver, some people are irresponsible, NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP.
And you're right, there is a "damn good" reason for most speed limits, a lot of towns, especially small ones containing roads between larger towns, use them as a way of raising money for the town without increasing local property taxes. It's easy really, they just lowball the speed limits, ticket any non-residents (since they don't write the paychecks) who are passing through, and voila! free money.
"Can we please bring some common sense into this ? If we know a guy shot some children, then gets arrested with powder on his hands, but without a gun, that does not mean the witnesses who saw him shoot lied. It merely means we're short a gun. That would be a VERY good reason to search the neighbourhood for said gun (especially if the next door neighbour is a Jew hating theocratic massacrer like the Iranian government)."
And by "bring some common sense into this" I assume you mean "make an extremely inaccurate analogy which makes any argument against it appear to be an argument in favor of murdering children." And way to go pointing the finger at Iran, and not any country that was on even remotely friendly terms with Iraq; I applaud your great work loading arguments and questions.
I also can't help but notice that you did not mention even a single car in your analogy...
Actually, it is a common turn of phrase to say that friends and family members "survive" the deceased no matter how they died.
Read an obituary sometime, I'm sure you'll find something like "Bob is survived by his wife and three children."
But if you'd rather bash some guy over his choice of words than actually know what you're talking about, then go right on ahead and ignore commonly used alternative definitions.
Yeah, like... um... all of their other things they've made! Those all suck!
Somehow, I find it hard to take seriously the criticism that all a company has ever done is create the most popular search engine on the internet and become one of the biggest computing companies on the planet. That's like saying that, aside from Windows and Office, MS hasn't ever really done anything... even if it is true, so fucking what?
For reference, all Apple's ever really done is the iPod and iPhone, which would be nothing if not for their fanbase of people who love shiny but technologically flimsy devices.
So... return the game. Target will exchange your actually defective copy with shiny new one that hopefully works, They just have to crack open the case so that you won't be able to turn around and get a refund for it rather than an exchange (incidentally, a rule intended to combat piracy). I work at Target's service desk, so don't worry that I might not be right... and if they do hassle you, then get a manager because they shouldn't.
Incidentally, you and your friend have the worst luck ever. I've registered TWO retail purchases on Steam (HL1 and HL2) and neither I nor anyone I know has ever had that problem.
Yeah, but then the Animal Liberation people will really vote Obama... "Doing drugs AND setting fire to animal testing facilities? He's our kind of guy!"
"it may not be as profitable a market as other platforms,"
Actually, the most profitable works are almost always low-budget independents. Games, like movies, pretty much have a set sale price regardless of production costs, and also like movies the biggest hits usually have an astronomical budget that can only be offered by big publishers. Sure the vast majority of low budget indies are simply going to flop, but every now and then you get Mad Max or the Blair Witch Project or Star Wars and pretty much every dollar you make on the thing is pure profit; just how much do you really think it cost to make Doom?.
Yeah, it makes me want to just quit on humanity and start offing idiots (like Ayn Rand and her "ethical" followers) before I go down in a blaze of glory and kerosene.
Because if they don't, their political opponents will, and they will use this difference oif position as leverage.
US churches are, despite laws and tradition supposedly preventing this, highly political organizations which wield a great deal of clout at both the local and federal level. The Evangelical movement, in particular, has become perhaps the single largest and most influential voting bloc in US history, and has aligned itself very strongly with the Republican Party and neo-conservative politics.
I think it can be fairly said that the heat generated by a datacenter, no matter how large or powerful, probably just doesn't compare to the heat generated by sustained nuclear fission.
Neither is actually possible, but they CAN choose not to enforce any portions the old one which they don't feel are worth enforcing. Contract law pretty clearly prevents any party from changing the terms of a contract after all parties agree to it without everyone's consent.
Incidentally, it would be interesting to see if there are any all new provisions (not just loosened or stricken ones, they are able to enforce the EULA as lightly as they please) to the new one which in fact wouldn't apply to people who agreed to the old one instead.
Buffet is not the sole shareholder in BH, and as such he (and more to the point the legal team) are bound by law to fight tooth and nail against any possible decrease in profits. Corporations are all sociopathic, the ones that last are just the few that can balance that against the risk of self-destruction.
"PC gaming has been predicted to die every year for the last ten"
And every year for the last ten, somebody has predicted the release of Duke Nukem Forever and Chinese Democracy. The only people who really believed that also think that adding up sales of all console titles and comparing them against PC title sales is a reasonable idea.
"That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever read on slashdot"
GP is perhaps less crazy than you think. Warren Buffet (the 2nd wealthiest man in the world, in case you didn't know) has frequently claimed that he pays, if not a lower dollar amount, a significantly lower percentage of his income in taxes than his secretary and other employees because of a major discrepancy between capital gains and income taxes; to his credit, he believes this to be wrong and advocates serious tax law reforms to at least fix glaring holes like that one.
By and large, tax fraud is a crime of wealth because the poor simply don't have enough money to either accomplish it or seriously gain from it.
"Why bring up libertarianism at all, then, if you agree this isn't something the government should handle?"
Because most libertarians pretend that only governments can effectively censor or otherwise repress people.
"What's stranger is that you contradict yourself without realizing it:"
No, I said that voting and political pressure are EASIER, which they are.
"Corporations can only threaten in a manner similar that consumers can--withholding patronage."
Ever heard of blackballing? Run afoul of one corporation, never work for another. They may not be able to imprison, but they can starve.
You seem to think I need to be proposing that somehow the government can or should solve this, and I'm not. My point is that repression happens, frequently, without any sort of government action. The libertarian myth is that governments are inherently evil and serve only to subjugate and interfere with business through "excessive" taxation, and that we would all be better off dismantling it and allowing unbridled capitalism to work it's magic and create a better world. I say myth because, frankly, that's jut not how it works.
"Officers from the gang and fugitive units, as well as several districts, hit three-deckers and apartment buildings all over the city, looking for people who had defaulted on warrants for crimes including shoplifting, rape of a child, and assault and battery with a deadly weapon."
After a few years of violence marring what is otherwise a fun event, they decided to crack down on people who are committing actual crimes in order to lessen an annual spike in violent crime. That's nothing like arresting protesters in advance of a political event, not least because the people being arrested aren't protesters... and the event isn't at all political. While I appreciate your point, it isn't much helped by an example of police actually doing their jobs.
Your second example was a bit better, but I think it's worth noting that the protesters in that story are all anti-war demonstrators and hardcore liberals. And it is difficult to begin a scathing report on police abuse with "To their credit, the Denver police showed restraint in managing some peaceful large-scale protests".
Slashdot Mirror
And, more importantly, they have a huge measure of control over air radio and what they play as a simple matter of geography and operational costs. A terrestrial radio station simply cannot afford to operate playing only music that nobody has ever heard of, and that means they are effectively forced into the RIAA racket.
The reason that is so important is that without that they have almost nothing to offer talent in the first place. Few bands ever get signed without being able to scrape together some cash to record at least a professional demo tape, and it is not at all unheard of for bands with large local followings to record and sell full albums. What the RIAA members actually offer these bands that they cannot otherwise accomplish is large scale marketing and distribution, and the internet makes it increasingly easy to do both without their help. If they can't keep a stranglehold on radio, they can't offer the only services they provide which are actually worth the costs.
I actually know a guy through my dad (who used to own some music venues) who managed to go about a decade as a working musician playing shows and selling semi-DIY albums fronting a local rock band, and even now he makes pretty good money doing it part-time. My understanding is that the band was signed at one point, but ended up being dropped from the label (and released from contract) before they could release anything. That was 30 years ago. If he'd been able to promote and sell online, one can only imagine how much bigger it could have been.
The glitch in your argument is that few people outside of Biblical literalists and creationists actually believe that the universe requires a different model if God is present. In fact, many Biblical non-literalists who believe that scripture is comprised of moral and spiritual, but not necessarily historical, Truth believe the exact opposite.
You say that "Evolutionists" are afraid to lose their jobs if the science is debunked... could it also be that Creationists are afraid to lose theirs?
And I'm sick of your self-righteous bitching. you're a slow driver, some people are irresponsible, NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP.
And you're right, there is a "damn good" reason for most speed limits, a lot of towns, especially small ones containing roads between larger towns, use them as a way of raising money for the town without increasing local property taxes. It's easy really, they just lowball the speed limits, ticket any non-residents (since they don't write the paychecks) who are passing through, and voila! free money.
"Can we please bring some common sense into this ? If we know a guy shot some children, then gets arrested with powder on his hands, but without a gun, that does not mean the witnesses who saw him shoot lied. It merely means we're short a gun. That would be a VERY good reason to search the neighbourhood for said gun (especially if the next door neighbour is a Jew hating theocratic massacrer like the Iranian government)."
And by "bring some common sense into this" I assume you mean "make an extremely inaccurate analogy which makes any argument against it appear to be an argument in favor of murdering children." And way to go pointing the finger at Iran, and not any country that was on even remotely friendly terms with Iraq; I applaud your great work loading arguments and questions.
I also can't help but notice that you did not mention even a single car in your analogy...
Actually, it is a common turn of phrase to say that friends and family members "survive" the deceased no matter how they died.
Read an obituary sometime, I'm sure you'll find something like "Bob is survived by his wife and three children."
But if you'd rather bash some guy over his choice of words than actually know what you're talking about, then go right on ahead and ignore commonly used alternative definitions.
"In both cases, it's disinformation which promotes acting on "gut feelings" and ignorance."
So... they're all Republicans?
Yeah, like... um... all of their other things they've made! Those all suck!
Somehow, I find it hard to take seriously the criticism that all a company has ever done is create the most popular search engine on the internet and become one of the biggest computing companies on the planet. That's like saying that, aside from Windows and Office, MS hasn't ever really done anything... even if it is true, so fucking what?
For reference, all Apple's ever really done is the iPod and iPhone, which would be nothing if not for their fanbase of people who love shiny but technologically flimsy devices.
WHOOSH!!!
It was funny. Laugh.
So... return the game. Target will exchange your actually defective copy with shiny new one that hopefully works, They just have to crack open the case so that you won't be able to turn around and get a refund for it rather than an exchange (incidentally, a rule intended to combat piracy). I work at Target's service desk, so don't worry that I might not be right... and if they do hassle you, then get a manager because they shouldn't.
Incidentally, you and your friend have the worst luck ever. I've registered TWO retail purchases on Steam (HL1 and HL2) and neither I nor anyone I know has ever had that problem.
Yeah, but then the Animal Liberation people will really vote Obama... "Doing drugs AND setting fire to animal testing facilities? He's our kind of guy!"
So because objectivism != anarchy Ayn Rand wasn't an idiot? That doesn't even make sense.
Sorry, but trying to make a "moral" argument for unfettered selfishness and pursuit of personal gain makes you an idiot in my book.
"it may not be as profitable a market as other platforms,"
Actually, the most profitable works are almost always low-budget independents. Games, like movies, pretty much have a set sale price regardless of production costs, and also like movies the biggest hits usually have an astronomical budget that can only be offered by big publishers. Sure the vast majority of low budget indies are simply going to flop, but every now and then you get Mad Max or the Blair Witch Project or Star Wars and pretty much every dollar you make on the thing is pure profit; just how much do you really think it cost to make Doom?.
So are they. Apparently you've never been to Buffalo.
Yeah, it makes me want to just quit on humanity and start offing idiots (like Ayn Rand and her "ethical" followers) before I go down in a blaze of glory and kerosene.
I choked a little reading that. That's too fucking funny.
Because if they don't, their political opponents will, and they will use this difference oif position as leverage.
US churches are, despite laws and tradition supposedly preventing this, highly political organizations which wield a great deal of clout at both the local and federal level. The Evangelical movement, in particular, has become perhaps the single largest and most influential voting bloc in US history, and has aligned itself very strongly with the Republican Party and neo-conservative politics.
I think it can be fairly said that the heat generated by a datacenter, no matter how large or powerful, probably just doesn't compare to the heat generated by sustained nuclear fission.
Neither is actually possible, but they CAN choose not to enforce any portions the old one which they don't feel are worth enforcing. Contract law pretty clearly prevents any party from changing the terms of a contract after all parties agree to it without everyone's consent.
Incidentally, it would be interesting to see if there are any all new provisions (not just loosened or stricken ones, they are able to enforce the EULA as lightly as they please) to the new one which in fact wouldn't apply to people who agreed to the old one instead.
In two words? "Fiduciary Duty".
Buffet is not the sole shareholder in BH, and as such he (and more to the point the legal team) are bound by law to fight tooth and nail against any possible decrease in profits. Corporations are all sociopathic, the ones that last are just the few that can balance that against the risk of self-destruction.
"PC gaming has been predicted to die every year for the last ten"
And every year for the last ten, somebody has predicted the release of Duke Nukem Forever and Chinese Democracy. The only people who really believed that also think that adding up sales of all console titles and comparing them against PC title sales is a reasonable idea.
But alas, it shrinks your penis, lessens appetite, and drains your wallet.
The paranoid delusions are a real hoot, too.
"That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever read on slashdot"
GP is perhaps less crazy than you think. Warren Buffet (the 2nd wealthiest man in the world, in case you didn't know) has frequently claimed that he pays, if not a lower dollar amount, a significantly lower percentage of his income in taxes than his secretary and other employees because of a major discrepancy between capital gains and income taxes; to his credit, he believes this to be wrong and advocates serious tax law reforms to at least fix glaring holes like that one.
By and large, tax fraud is a crime of wealth because the poor simply don't have enough money to either accomplish it or seriously gain from it.
Don't be silly, Google *loves* URLs. Well, at least certain ones. http://www.google.com/ is awesome, as are http://www.blogger.com/ http://www.gmail.com/ http://www.youtube.com/ and http://www.froogle.com/ just to name a few!
"Why bring up libertarianism at all, then, if you agree this isn't something the government should handle?"
Because most libertarians pretend that only governments can effectively censor or otherwise repress people.
"What's stranger is that you contradict yourself without realizing it:"
No, I said that voting and political pressure are EASIER, which they are.
"Corporations can only threaten in a manner similar that consumers can--withholding patronage."
Ever heard of blackballing? Run afoul of one corporation, never work for another. They may not be able to imprison, but they can starve.
You seem to think I need to be proposing that somehow the government can or should solve this, and I'm not. My point is that repression happens, frequently, without any sort of government action. The libertarian myth is that governments are inherently evil and serve only to subjugate and interfere with business through "excessive" taxation, and that we would all be better off dismantling it and allowing unbridled capitalism to work it's magic and create a better world. I say myth because, frankly, that's jut not how it works.
From the first:
"Officers from the gang and fugitive units, as well as several districts, hit three-deckers and apartment buildings all over the city, looking for people who had defaulted on warrants for crimes including shoplifting, rape of a child, and assault and battery with a deadly weapon."
After a few years of violence marring what is otherwise a fun event, they decided to crack down on people who are committing actual crimes in order to lessen an annual spike in violent crime. That's nothing like arresting protesters in advance of a political event, not least because the people being arrested aren't protesters... and the event isn't at all political. While I appreciate your point, it isn't much helped by an example of police actually doing their jobs.
Your second example was a bit better, but I think it's worth noting that the protesters in that story are all anti-war demonstrators and hardcore liberals. And it is difficult to begin a scathing report on police abuse with "To their credit, the Denver police showed restraint in managing some peaceful large-scale protests".