Though to be honest I'd rather have my phones/internet go through a 3rd party. Yet another layer the government would have to go through that way.
you mean like AT&T letting the NSA collocate their wiretap operations in their switching facilities? it was totally illegal and congress got retroactive immunity for the telcos that participated in the program.
that sounds like a lot of money, but it's not for IBM.
they probably found $20 mil in the couch cushions in one of the executive suites.
i hope that BPL and wimax can actually deliver competition to telco and cable broadband. residential broadband is a market in serious need of competitors.
passing laws will make things worse, not passing laws will make things worse. things are bad because there is no competition in the market, but encouraging competition just makes things worse too. just how do we stop things from getting worse?
writing letters to coin operated congress critters isn't going to work. voting doesn't appear to have helped. just what are we supposed to do then? pray? sacrifice a goat? say pretty please?
the comcasts and the at&t's of the world have explicitly stated that they want to charge extra for services to work properly on their networks. how do we stop this from happening when there are only two providers (cable and telephone) for high speed internet access?
first i tried to get inside the pig pen on my TV, and broke my TV, thanks a lot rockstar games, now i need a new TV.
then i went to the play pen and paid a bunch of money to the strippers and killed one to get my money back and there was all this talk about "murder" and "assault" and "the death penalty". thanks again rockstar games, now i need a lawyer too.
and to top it all off, neither the pig pen, nor the play pen, accept pay pal. it took me an hour to figure out why giving them my email address wasn't enough to solicit a lap dance. it was pretty embarrassing.
there really should be some sort of law to protect people like me from making these kinds of mistakes.
with the amount of money that hollywood pumped into the democratic candidates' coffers, you'll be lucky if they let mike or any other copyright reformer within a mile of the white house.
i wish i could just pay a reasonable fee every month to download and distribute whatever i want. the studios can continue to use media sentry and the like to snoop on me and call my ISP, but as long as my license is up to date the ISP can tell them they have no claim.
the problem is determining the price of such a license.
the industries would like the bidding to start at current prices for physical media and go down slightly, and downloaders would like the price to start at free and go up slightly.
i would gladly pay for a get out of jail free card, not because i am worried about getting busted, but because it would be so much more convenient to just use large public trackers like TPB rather than using private trackers or tunneling BT traffic thru relays since that's so slow.
cory doctorow talks a lot about how big changes in media and distribution are made by essentially infringing until you are big enough to cut a deal, and then cutting some sort of deal:
YouTube, 2007, bears some passing similarity to Napster, 2001. Founded by a couple guys in a garage, rocketed to popular success, heavily capitalized by a deep-pocketed giant. Its business model? Turn popularity into dollars and offer a share to the rightsholders whose works they're using. This is an historically sound plan: cable operators got rich by retransmitting broadcasts without permission, and once they were commercial successes, they sat down to negotiate to pay for those copyrights (just as the record companies negotiated with composers after they'd gotten rich selling records bearing those compositions).
even the most hardened pirates like myself realize that some sort of deal has to be reached so that we get unrestricted access to the media that we want while the industries involved get something to pay the rights holders.
i think the fundamental disagreement is at where the bidding starts. the consumers want the bidding to start at free (libre and gratis), and the industries want the bidding to start at the current price structure with a bunch of restrictions.
at some point this will result in some sort of compromise, the question is how much damage will these industries do to themselves and their consumers before an agreement is made.
Give me broadband net access with basically unlimited bandwidth when I ask for it (fire hydrant), AND no fees when I don't use it and I am sold....metered bandwidth is exactly what we need to convert Internet access from a luxury like cable TV to a basic commodity like water.
you want to pay *less* to a telecommunications company? i want to be the first non-catholic pope. you know what, i'll get my wish before you get yours.
cable and telco bills always go up. you can't pay less. that's physically impossible. that's *never* going to happen.
moto wants out of the ridiculous exclusive handset market but it can't. so they are destroying the business so they can't default on their exclusive agreements.
then they can say that it was an "honest mistake".
in the future, "used" games will just be older, discounted titles like on gog: http://www.gog.com
old games for sale online with no DRM.
this works great for PC games and will work for next generation consoles with hard drives and it's not like the used game business is full of sound business savvy: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/31/
hard drive based players (flash included) and digital delivery are the future. dvd was the last successful physical video format and if the industry knows what's good for it blu-ray will be the last physical format period.
Re: You brought music into this so here my two cents worth
the copyright argument is based on two unreasonable expectations:
1) that all content should be shared freely
2) that all artists will be compensated for all content that they create.
it is not reasonable to expect someone to work for nothing. it is also not reasonable to expect to be paid well for everything you create.
therefore, you have to do some stuff for free and do some stuff to make money.
there are also two universal truths that cannot be escaped:
1) your content will be shared without your authorization and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do to stop it
2) no matter how much or how little you think your content is worth, it's at least twice what the market is willing to pay
free riding is an inevitable, inescapable, unequivocal certainty. you can use it to your advantage, or fight it to your detriment. the choice is obvious.
Do you have any idea how many hours and in some cases years are invested in learning to play, writing music, editing music, recording music?
why did you bother? if it's because you love music, then it was a good investment. if you did it to get rich, you wasted your time. those days are gone.
the rich rockstar ship is sinking. no one is forcing you to get on a lifeboat... but it's a really good idea.
Should the band not be able to make the determination that they want to be paid for their music and not be required to hire a company to produce goods for them? Should a band be forced to go on tour to earn a living, what if they want to spend that time with their friends or family? It should be the band that ultimately determines which business model works for them.
no one is forcing you to do anything. you can try all that stuff and fail if you want. or you can embrace free and do something that has a chance at succeeding. or you can get a grownup job like the rest of us. the choice is yours.
you want to be a star? then sacrifice. you want a family and a house and to be secure? then get a real job.
the reason that your parents talked you out of trying to be a professional musician is that it's not a stable life and you are not guaranteed money or success. that's why so many of us have jobs that we hate, because it's safer and it pays the bills.
i'm sorry that the world has stopped buying CD's and that your master plan needs an overhaul, but that's the reality that you and many others are facing.
losing the ability to get any work done whatsoever when your Internet connection goes down is irritating and costly.
if your business critical applications are delivered via the internet, then that internet connection is also business critical and should be treated as such. instead of redundant internal servers, your resources would be focused on redundant internet connections. cloud computing doesn't eliminate the need for infrastructure, it just changes the nature of that infrastructure.
the idea that a modern office worker can continue to work during a network outage is largely a myth. a groupware, file server or other server outage will put most corporate types out of commission anyway and will still cost time and money.
... or is 'cloud computing' a distinct step backwards to the bad old days of dumb terminals running every process off a central server, only with 'over the Internet' tacked on to make it look fresh and innovative?
there are two ways to run computers: completely centralized (dumb terminals) and completely decentralized (peer to peer). there are myriad advantages and disadvantages to both. neither is more advanced than the other.
all developments in computing are a swing of the pendulum in either the centralized or decentralized direction.
On the post: Online Carpooling Service Fined For Unregulated Transportation
Re:
ontario is in canada.
though in all honesty, pickupPal should have checked with the transportation laws first and have already had a loophole ready for such a situation.
so every website has to check all of the laws in every country in the world before going live? that sounds fairly prohibitive.
perhaps what website operators should do is incorporate through a series of shell corporations and tax havens so they cannot be sued or shut down.
On the post: Please Stop Telling Us How Many Emails Fit Under A Broadband Cap
Re: Re: I... can't... stop... laughing!
you mean like AT&T letting the NSA collocate their wiretap operations in their switching facilities? it was totally illegal and congress got retroactive immunity for the telcos that participated in the program.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/att_spy_room_do.html
yeah, third party telco is a great defense against government surveillance.
On the post: Apparently BPL Isn't Quite Dead Yet
$10 mil from IBM
they probably found $20 mil in the couch cushions in one of the executive suites.
i hope that BPL and wimax can actually deliver competition to telco and cable broadband. residential broadband is a market in serious need of competitors.
On the post: A History Lesson For Those Advocating Network Neutrality Laws
then how do you fix the problem?
writing letters to coin operated congress critters isn't going to work. voting doesn't appear to have helped. just what are we supposed to do then? pray? sacrifice a goat? say pretty please?
the comcasts and the at&t's of the world have explicitly stated that they want to charge extra for services to work properly on their networks. how do we stop this from happening when there are only two providers (cable and telephone) for high speed internet access?
On the post: Virtual Strip Club In GTA Doesn't Violate Trademarks Of Real Strip Club
i was really confused
then i went to the play pen and paid a bunch of money to the strippers and killed one to get my money back and there was all this talk about "murder" and "assault" and "the death penalty". thanks again rockstar games, now i need a lawyer too.
and to top it all off, neither the pig pen, nor the play pen, accept pay pal. it took me an hour to figure out why giving them my email address wasn't enough to solicit a lap dance. it was pretty embarrassing.
there really should be some sort of law to protect people like me from making these kinds of mistakes.
On the post: Don't Worry About MPAA's Congrats To Obama
Re: Hey Mike
On the post: Italian Authors Want A 'You Must Be A Pirate' Tax On All DSL Connections
blanket licences are good....
i wish i could just pay a reasonable fee every month to download and distribute whatever i want. the studios can continue to use media sentry and the like to snoop on me and call my ISP, but as long as my license is up to date the ISP can tell them they have no claim.
the problem is determining the price of such a license.
the industries would like the bidding to start at current prices for physical media and go down slightly, and downloaders would like the price to start at free and go up slightly.
i would gladly pay for a get out of jail free card, not because i am worried about getting busted, but because it would be so much more convenient to just use large public trackers like TPB rather than using private trackers or tunneling BT traffic thru relays since that's so slow.
On the post: Coffee Shop Advertising Via Its Free WiFi ID
people don't pay attention to SSID's
On the post: Will Others Now Line Up To Get Paid From Google?
paying up is how it's done
YouTube, 2007, bears some passing similarity to Napster, 2001. Founded by a couple guys in a garage, rocketed to popular success, heavily capitalized by a deep-pocketed giant. Its business model? Turn popularity into dollars and offer a share to the rightsholders whose works they're using. This is an historically sound plan: cable operators got rich by retransmitting broadcasts without permission, and once they were commercial successes, they sat down to negotiate to pay for those copyrights (just as the record companies negotiated with composers after they'd gotten rich selling records bearing those compositions).
http://craphound.com/content/Cory_Doctorow_-_Content.html
even the most hardened pirates like myself realize that some sort of deal has to be reached so that we get unrestricted access to the media that we want while the industries involved get something to pay the rights holders.
i think the fundamental disagreement is at where the bidding starts. the consumers want the bidding to start at free (libre and gratis), and the industries want the bidding to start at the current price structure with a bunch of restrictions.
at some point this will result in some sort of compromise, the question is how much damage will these industries do to themselves and their consumers before an agreement is made.
On the post: AT&T Jumps Into The Metered Broadband Game
Re:
you want to pay *less* to a telecommunications company? i want to be the first non-catholic pope. you know what, i'll get my wish before you get yours.
cable and telco bills always go up. you can't pay less. that's physically impossible. that's *never* going to happen.
you always pay more. always. forever.
On the post: FCC Just Couldn't Stop Voting
competition?
locking out competitors is how the telecommunications game is played. all this competition talk is just crazy.
what's next? customers service that serves customers? health care that actually cares about people's health?
woo look at me i'm a crazy person. i say things that are crazy!
On the post: Reminder: Google Is An MP3 Search Engine Too
google copies content all the time
no one cares about that for some reason.
don't get me wrong, it's a great feature and i don't want it to go away, it just illustrates how arbitrary this whole piracy thing is.
On the post: Is Motorola Trying To Ban Reselling Phones?
you miss the point
then they can say that it was an "honest mistake".
On the post: Video Game Exec Claims Used Games Defraud The Industry
PA called this years ago
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/30/
in the future, "used" games will just be older, discounted titles like on gog:
http://www.gog.com
old games for sale online with no DRM.
this works great for PC games and will work for next generation consoles with hard drives and it's not like the used game business is full of sound business savvy:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/31/
On the post: Predicting Blu-ray's Troubles Didn't Take A Crystal Ball
physical formats are dying
bill gates even said so about blu-ray years ago: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/10/14/news/13474.shtml
hard drive based players (flash included) and digital delivery are the future. dvd was the last successful physical video format and if the industry knows what's good for it blu-ray will be the last physical format period.
On the post: Free Riding Isn't A Bug, It's A Feature
Re: You brought music into this so here my two cents worth
1) that all content should be shared freely
2) that all artists will be compensated for all content that they create.
it is not reasonable to expect someone to work for nothing. it is also not reasonable to expect to be paid well for everything you create.
therefore, you have to do some stuff for free and do some stuff to make money.
there are also two universal truths that cannot be escaped:
1) your content will be shared without your authorization and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do to stop it
2) no matter how much or how little you think your content is worth, it's at least twice what the market is willing to pay
free riding is an inevitable, inescapable, unequivocal certainty. you can use it to your advantage, or fight it to your detriment. the choice is obvious.
Do you have any idea how many hours and in some cases years are invested in learning to play, writing music, editing music, recording music?
why did you bother? if it's because you love music, then it was a good investment. if you did it to get rich, you wasted your time. those days are gone.
the rich rockstar ship is sinking. no one is forcing you to get on a lifeboat... but it's a really good idea.
Should the band not be able to make the determination that they want to be paid for their music and not be required to hire a company to produce goods for them? Should a band be forced to go on tour to earn a living, what if they want to spend that time with their friends or family? It should be the band that ultimately determines which business model works for them.
no one is forcing you to do anything. you can try all that stuff and fail if you want. or you can embrace free and do something that has a chance at succeeding. or you can get a grownup job like the rest of us. the choice is yours.
you want to be a star? then sacrifice. you want a family and a house and to be secure? then get a real job.
the reason that your parents talked you out of trying to be a professional musician is that it's not a stable life and you are not guaranteed money or success. that's why so many of us have jobs that we hate, because it's safer and it pays the bills.
i'm sorry that the world has stopped buying CD's and that your master plan needs an overhaul, but that's the reality that you and many others are facing.
On the post: Cloud Computing Has To Be About Openness And Ease; Not Locking Developers In
Re: Re: Is It Just Me...
if your business critical applications are delivered via the internet, then that internet connection is also business critical and should be treated as such. instead of redundant internal servers, your resources would be focused on redundant internet connections. cloud computing doesn't eliminate the need for infrastructure, it just changes the nature of that infrastructure.
the idea that a modern office worker can continue to work during a network outage is largely a myth. a groupware, file server or other server outage will put most corporate types out of commission anyway and will still cost time and money.
On the post: Cloud Computing Has To Be About Openness And Ease; Not Locking Developers In
Re: Is It Just Me...
there are two ways to run computers: completely centralized (dumb terminals) and completely decentralized (peer to peer). there are myriad advantages and disadvantages to both. neither is more advanced than the other.
all developments in computing are a swing of the pendulum in either the centralized or decentralized direction.
On the post: Spectacularly Bad Ideas In Response To The Financial Crisis
Re: Back to basic?
why do you hate america? go back to canada, hippie, we don't need your kind here.
what we need to do is find a country with good credit and invade them like switzerland or something.
On the post: Where Did All My Comments Go?
oh noes!!!1!
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