When anyone can easily and cheaply transmit books, movies, music, software, papers, pictures and any other digitized piece of information, the medium that they use becomes not like a marketplace, but like a public library.
In a library, the killer app (what you are paying your tax dollars for) is storing, organizing and retrieving the information in the library. The primary cost is not the acquisition of the data in the first place, but rather the overhead.
Now, how does one make money producing information so much of it is available for free and anything you make can be instantly retransmitted for essentially zero cost? There are a couple options:
- Build the library and charge for access.
- Make works on commission.
- Produce physical things and charge for them.
- Ask for donations.
That is it, AFAIK. Until the music and movie industries comes to grips with this they will be wasting time and effort as other companies build businesses around the reality of today.
Password Safe (on Windows) + Password Gorilla (On Linux) + rsync over ssh to sync the password database works quite well for me. If you have a decent router (wrt54g with tomato firmware for example) you can easily setup and use dyndns to get to home security regardless of what network you're connecting from.
I have a bunch of random 16-64 character passwords (depending on what the site will let me use) that involve upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, and I don't need to remember them all (just the password for the database).
Here is one possible business model for making movies without copyright laws.
Summary:
Without copyright laws, movies will have bad acting, lots of cheesy special effects, horrible plots, and be designed to get people out of their houses to enjoy the large explosions in a theater and buy snacks. Lots of them will be made to encourage people to go to theaters as much as possible, as well as to stay subscribed to rental services that don't have viruses.
Just like today, only at a fraction of the price.
Wall-of-text:
1. The year is 2019. Netflix (or some other rental service) needs more films to rent to subscribers, who pay netflix a monthly fee to quickly download or ship old and forgotten films (which they have easy access to) and shiny new ones (which have yet to be made). Netflix commissions several (2 or 3 people) filmmakers to make several films (2-12 over the next year) and gives them a small ($10,000 perhaps) stipend to come up with ideas.
2. The filmmakers come up with some outlines of stories for a particular film (generic horror movie 2, electric boogaloo for example). They use cheap cameras and computers (which they've likely already purchased themselves) to make a 5 minute short of each idea. Netflix decides which version they like (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.) and throw some more money at the filmmakers ($20,000 perhaps), along with a contract to product it by x date assuming the filmmakers are able to raise x amount of money ($70,000 perhaps) by that time.
3. Filmmakers work with some 'producers' who know people that own movie theaters. Thousands of movie theaters around the world who also need new films pay a couple hundred dollars each to help move the production forward. The producers gets a 10% cut of the raised money for their time and efforts.
4. Movie is made, likely has bad acting and cheesy special effects. Advancements in technology over the past decade (have I mentioned that it is 2019 in my business plan and that no inflation has taken place?) make it look like the live action transformer movie, only with (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.).
5. Some small local marketing is done by theaters. Netflix can advertise to it's own subscribers for free (duh) and offers 'limited edition' bree-vee-dee-pluses (or whatever we call discs in the future) signed by the film makers for a mere $200. Less devoted fans can buy regular discs in pretty boxes for $20 plus shipping and handling, which they will promptly put on their shelves and download the latest version directly from netflix (which is distributed by some p2p protocol that anyone can hook into and is easy for a 12 year old (or a nerd) to setup but most folks are lazy and pay the small monthly fee to have it work automagically).
6. People get excited about the movie and tell their friends via various online forums, blogs and whatnot. A leak makes it onto streaming video sites. It is of perfect quality, but the a few of the sites install some (trojan, worm, virus, etc.) into Windows boxes that visit (MS still has an iron grip on about 70% of consumer desktop computers). Most people, fearing loss of their computer to malicious programmers in some 3rd world nation like Nebraska opt to not visit.
People running Linux and OS 10.2019.1 make fun of people running Windows. People running Windows tell everyone else to get a job and stay off of their lawns.
7. Movie is released. Lots of people download it for free. Most of these people don't watch it, as it is crap. Some people watch it at home, others take their date out to the movie theater for a romantic night on the town to watch (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.). Movie theaters let people watch it for 'free' (they have to spend at least $5 in snacks or soda each, no outside food or beverages) and makes money off of popcorn and ghb (chloroform, although now legal, is considered inappropriate for the first date).
It might, although doing so would likely tear a hole in the space time continuum. Even if you accept the many-universes interpretation of quantum mechanics, a universe in which DNF exists as a playable game is just too improbable.
When you watch a movie, you are recording it with your mind. You can easily play back memorable parts at will, retransmit this information to others and with training you can memorize quite a bit of it (see Fahrenheit 451).
"Boobies" are always reasonable. They are quite easy to find on the Internet. The Internet is in most every community. Hence based on the standards of the community in your area, boobies are indeed acceptable.
This being said (with as much tongue in check as possible), just stop telling people what they can broadcast. It's none of your business, even if you did license them the airwaves they're using.
I went to junior college for two years, got an associates degree (basically a 2 year degree for IT Support), then moved to LA and played in a rock band for two years. This was very cheap and didn't cause me to go into debt, taught me many life lessons and interpersonal skills and was a ton of fun.
People should spend their youth doing what they want to do. If this means college, then great. If not, live your life and learn from that.
This is slashdot. We were some of the weakest, nerdiest, least physically active kids growing up. I started one fight when I was 13 and lost it horribly. Lesson? Learn to talk out problems.
What we really need to do is keep video games away from kids that like sports. Or perhaps just keep them away from sports altogether.
Well, what else are normal people going to do with the Internet then? People talk about what they're interested. For the most part this is rumor mongering and talking about who slept with whom.
I will be in the corner while my nerd rage at not being able to do this subsides.
Microsoft is staffed by people that do, among other things, throw chairs at people, describe open source as "cancer", and want to "$#%^&*@ kill Google". I'd say the poster isn't exaggerating that much.
I"m a bit puzzled at this...since these aren't national holidays...why were they off of work? Do we have so many Jewish people in congress that we have to shut down the government on these holidays?
I think that people like to take time off regardless of the excuse. In this case what's good for the Jew is good for the Goyim:>
I use Ubuntu 8.04 with Fluxbox on an eee pc 700, which isn't that much faster than what you've got. Booting takes a bit of time, but once you're in it's much faster than Gnome.
After reformatting, one of the first things I do is go to AVG's website and download some virus protection. I google, and, thanks to a shitty mouse or my stupidity, accidentally another legitimate website. Adware, crapware, and more all taint the once pure machine via IE. All because AVG returned a couple of sites that are no where near legitimate.
This assumes that they have an internal specification, rather than just telling n00bs to RTFCode.
In many cases this is better than reading the specification if other developers haven't done exactly what the specification says and deviated just a teensy weensy bit for the sake of (performance | expedience | being a n00b themself etc.) . Of course, if lots of people that can read the code do so and care about the specification, this may not be a problem (and is one of the strengths of open source development).
I know this has been said again and again, but it's like the music industry doesn't read slashdot;)
If Jill (Music Industry) gives an encryption key to Jane (a person using a DRM infested player that needs the key to play music) so that Bob the hacker (Who happens to be the same person as Jane) cannot spy on the music being played by Jane and copy it, Jane can still spy on the music and copy it because she is listening to it.
There is no way to solve this problem without banning all recording devices and computers that are not running software that is vetted by the government or some corporate entity every time they're turned on. Do you want to live in that world?
Slashdot Mirror
When anyone can easily and cheaply transmit books, movies, music, software, papers, pictures and any other digitized piece of information, the medium that they use becomes not like a marketplace, but like a public library.
In a library, the killer app (what you are paying your tax dollars for) is storing, organizing and retrieving the information in the library. The primary cost is not the acquisition of the data in the first place, but rather the overhead.
Now, how does one make money producing information so much of it is available for free and anything you make can be instantly retransmitted for essentially zero cost? There are a couple options:
- Build the library and charge for access.
- Make works on commission.
- Produce physical things and charge for them.
- Ask for donations.
That is it, AFAIK. Until the music and movie industries comes to grips with this they will be wasting time and effort as other companies build businesses around the reality of today.
Password Safe (on Windows) + Password Gorilla (On Linux) + rsync over ssh to sync the password database works quite well for me. If you have a decent router (wrt54g with tomato firmware for example) you can easily setup and use dyndns to get to home security regardless of what network you're connecting from.
I have a bunch of random 16-64 character passwords (depending on what the site will let me use) that involve upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, and I don't need to remember them all (just the password for the database).
Here is one possible business model for making movies without copyright laws.
Summary:
Without copyright laws, movies will have bad acting, lots of cheesy special effects, horrible plots, and be designed to get people out of their houses to enjoy the large explosions in a theater and buy snacks. Lots of them will be made to encourage people to go to theaters as much as possible, as well as to stay subscribed to rental services that don't have viruses.
Just like today, only at a fraction of the price.
Wall-of-text:
1. The year is 2019. Netflix (or some other rental service) needs more films to rent to subscribers, who pay netflix a monthly fee to quickly download or ship old and forgotten films (which they have easy access to) and shiny new ones (which have yet to be made). Netflix commissions several (2 or 3 people) filmmakers to make several films (2-12 over the next year) and gives them a small ($10,000 perhaps) stipend to come up with ideas.
2. The filmmakers come up with some outlines of stories for a particular film (generic horror movie 2, electric boogaloo for example). They use cheap cameras and computers (which they've likely already purchased themselves) to make a 5 minute short of each idea. Netflix decides which version they like (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.) and throw some more money at the filmmakers ($20,000 perhaps), along with a contract to product it by x date assuming the filmmakers are able to raise x amount of money ($70,000 perhaps) by that time.
3. Filmmakers work with some 'producers' who know people that own movie theaters. Thousands of movie theaters around the world who also need new films pay a couple hundred dollars each to help move the production forward. The producers gets a 10% cut of the raised money for their time and efforts.
4. Movie is made, likely has bad acting and cheesy special effects. Advancements in technology over the past decade (have I mentioned that it is 2019 in my business plan and that no inflation has taken place?) make it look like the live action transformer movie, only with (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.).
5. Some small local marketing is done by theaters. Netflix can advertise to it's own subscribers for free (duh) and offers 'limited edition' bree-vee-dee-pluses (or whatever we call discs in the future) signed by the film makers for a mere $200. Less devoted fans can buy regular discs in pretty boxes for $20 plus shipping and handling, which they will promptly put on their shelves and download the latest version directly from netflix (which is distributed by some p2p protocol that anyone can hook into and is easy for a 12 year old (or a nerd) to setup but most folks are lazy and pay the small monthly fee to have it work automagically).
6. People get excited about the movie and tell their friends via various online forums, blogs and whatnot. A leak makes it onto streaming video sites. It is of perfect quality, but the a few of the sites install some (trojan, worm, virus, etc.) into Windows boxes that visit (MS still has an iron grip on about 70% of consumer desktop computers). Most people, fearing loss of their computer to malicious programmers in some 3rd world nation like Nebraska opt to not visit.
People running Linux and OS 10.2019.1 make fun of people running Windows. People running Windows tell everyone else to get a job and stay off of their lawns.
7. Movie is released. Lots of people download it for free. Most of these people don't watch it, as it is crap. Some people watch it at home, others take their date out to the movie theater for a romantic night on the town to watch (zombies, explosions, some guy with a claw and a hat, etc.). Movie theaters let people watch it for 'free' (they have to spend at least $5 in snacks or soda each, no outside food or beverages) and makes money off of popcorn and ghb (chloroform, although now legal, is considered inappropriate for the first date).
A very good book about how democracy is horrible and corporeal punishment is awesome, indeed.
Democracy *is* horrible, it's just that all of the alternatives are so much worse that it looks good by comparison.
Since when is 'piracy' removing DRM for personal use?
If it were up to the movie studios, you'd be a pirate for not paying for content each time you consume it.
It will happen in 2009, I swear!
So it might make Duke Nukem real?
It might, although doing so would likely tear a hole in the space time continuum. Even if you accept the many-universes interpretation of quantum mechanics, a universe in which DNF exists as a playable game is just too improbable.
Why should he be allowed to record the movie?
Because you must record a movie to watch it.
When you watch a movie, you are recording it with your mind. You can easily play back memorable parts at will, retransmit this information to others and with training you can memorize quite a bit of it (see Fahrenheit 451).
I'm curious just how useful this will be. Is there any reason our military should buy this?
"Boobies" are always reasonable. They are quite easy to find on the Internet. The Internet is in most every community. Hence based on the standards of the community in your area, boobies are indeed acceptable.
This being said (with as much tongue in check as possible), just stop telling people what they can broadcast. It's none of your business, even if you did license them the airwaves they're using.
All of Slashdot is now a twitter sockpuppet. Including you and me.
<neo>Woah.</neo>
Am I the only one that thought of Library War after reading the summary? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshokan_Sens%C5%8D
Yes it can run Vista, and it's a dog in comparison to a stripped down Linux distro running Fluxbox (or your lightweight WM of choice).
I went to junior college for two years, got an associates degree (basically a 2 year degree for IT Support), then moved to LA and played in a rock band for two years. This was very cheap and didn't cause me to go into debt, taught me many life lessons and interpersonal skills and was a ton of fun.
People should spend their youth doing what they want to do. If this means college, then great. If not, live your life and learn from that.
This is slashdot. We were some of the weakest, nerdiest, least physically active kids growing up. I started one fight when I was 13 and lost it horribly. Lesson? Learn to talk out problems.
What we really need to do is keep video games away from kids that like sports. Or perhaps just keep them away from sports altogether.
Well, what else are normal people going to do with the Internet then? People talk about what they're interested. For the most part this is rumor mongering and talking about who slept with whom.
I will be in the corner while my nerd rage at not being able to do this subsides.
Microsoft is staffed by people that do, among other things, throw chairs at people, describe open source as "cancer", and want to "$#%^&*@ kill Google". I'd say the poster isn't exaggerating that much.
Most muggles don't know what the heck I'm talking about anyways, what's one more word thrown in for good measure? ;)
I"m a bit puzzled at this...since these aren't national holidays...why were they off of work? Do we have so many Jewish people in congress that we have to shut down the government on these holidays?
I think that people like to take time off regardless of the excuse. In this case what's good for the Jew is good for the Goyim :>
We're electing robots?
Yeah, last time we elected zombies, after robots we'll get to choose between ninjas and pirates.
I use Ubuntu 8.04 with Fluxbox on an eee pc 700, which isn't that much faster than what you've got. Booting takes a bit of time, but once you're in it's much faster than Gnome.
True Story:
After reformatting, one of the first things I do is go to AVG's website and download some virus protection. I google, and, thanks to a shitty mouse or my stupidity, accidentally another legitimate website. Adware, crapware, and more all taint the once pure machine via IE. All because AVG returned a couple of sites that are no where near legitimate.
No warning would have helped in that case.
Fixed.
This assumes that they have an internal specification, rather than just telling n00bs to RTFCode.
In many cases this is better than reading the specification if other developers haven't done exactly what the specification says and deviated just a teensy weensy bit for the sake of (performance | expedience | being a n00b themself etc.) . Of course, if lots of people that can read the code do so and care about the specification, this may not be a problem (and is one of the strengths of open source development).
I know this has been said again and again, but it's like the music industry doesn't read slashdot ;)
If Jill (Music Industry) gives an encryption key to Jane (a person using a DRM infested player that needs the key to play music) so that Bob the hacker (Who happens to be the same person as Jane) cannot spy on the music being played by Jane and copy it, Jane can still spy on the music and copy it because she is listening to it.
There is no way to solve this problem without banning all recording devices and computers that are not running software that is vetted by the government or some corporate entity every time they're turned on. Do you want to live in that world?
Most people don't want to be informed, they want something that entertains them or scares them.