Hmmm... Helm's Deep was pretty easy to compromise as well. A little gunpowder was all the Urukai needed to breach the walls and then they were able to sweep through the outer defenses. Gandalf was even certain that the move to Helm's Deep was a dumb one...and he hoped that it would hold long enough for him to get the outcasted riders of Rohan and return.
Windows is pretty bad by default, but any competent administrator can lock down Windows so its is secure enough to convince all but the most driven individuals to move on to easier targets.
Re: Re: Re: It is not about free, it is about value
it's expensive, what exactly am I paying for and why?
This is certainly even more true given loss of free use, DRM, and micropayments. It is almost like the industry wants to go to single-use (surprise, they do,) licensing so that they can charge you $1 for each use. At that point, you're buying entertainment you cannot enjoy, and it becomes useless. That is really the whole goal of DRM, as it doesn't prevent unauthorized copying, just unauthorized use. As soon as the company can figure out the carrot to get people to drop DVDs and CDs, they will switch to per-use licensing and jump on the gravy train for life.
In other words, they are taking our culture and manipulating it so that they can sell us our culture back to us on a per-use basis for greed alone.
Mr Adams might come after you for his royalities !!!!
With all due respect to Mr. Adams...he is probably quite happy where he is now, considering he has been dead for 12 years. His estate might come after you...but unless he has become a Zombie, he won't be bothering Richard.
My most favorite author in all the world, and that one paragraph means so much more to me than any other paragraph I've read before or since...It was, in fact, the longest joke grenade in my personal history...as I read that multiple times, and then five years later, swimming in a pool, staring down and a floating dollar bill in the pool, I got the joke. Ever since then, I've read his books on an almost yearly basis.
Or they can just blanket ban all video files to be safe.
Until other copyright holders come knockin'. Best to just have a blanket ban on Internet...safer that way. However, I guess ultimately that might be the goal, as they'll have less riots that way.
I weep for India...it is sad that greed beats out humanity every time. Eventually we as a collective are just going to have to stand up and tell them we aren't going to take it any more.
If we only had to worry about 3 times a reasonable estimate for the claims they make up for piracy I might still be allowed to play my old video games.
I agree...except that I still play my old video games. I bought them...when the company breaks their software them I download the fix from the internet and I am again able to play them. As far as I am concerned, DRM is a bug, and there are great people out there that, despite the worst intentions of the company, help the community by removing these bugs.
What is even cooler is that communities have sprouted up over games which have been abandoned, such as Neverwinter Nights, and those games are still being updated and fixed even after the company that owned them is out of business. Too bad they have to live in a quasi-legal realm, thanks to infinite-duration copyrights and stupid policies from vendors. The consumer is left holding the trashbag while the company skips town with their money...but there are ways of fixing it.
I'm not seeing what you're seeing. Apple has the lion's share of the market at the moment, and will probably command the market in terms of profit share. There's no signs of any such repeat happening at the moment.
Most of my friends have iPhones. I have family with iPhones, and I was genuinely interested in one. But two things kept me away from it...closed architecture which Apple vigorously defends, and no sideloading of applications, even though the SDK is "open", getting the application on the phone requires Apple and their whim is notorious. Sure, you can root an iPhone, until Apple comes up with the next patch and kills you off. I've had friends who have rooted their phone only to have the rugs pulled out from under them and have heard the sob stories.
After the discussion of Samsung here, and that Samsung sent the developers of an unofficial mod of Android (cyanogenmod) free phones to allow them to provide more support for their phones, I ditched my old phone and bought a Samsung Captivate, rooted it and installed cyanogenmod. Downloaded the SDK and started playing, and after having so much fun with the phone, I found out that Nooks ran android and went out and bought one of those too (I like reading books and was looking at a kindle to begin with.)
At this point, a Samsung 10.1 tablet is a little too expensive to justify, but I suspect sooner or later I'll have one of those too.
So, at least for me, I can understand why people are heading to Android in droves. 5 people I know personally have gone out and bought new android phones...I cannot think of anyone off-hand who has bought an iphone recently.
Google didn't start it, but they're more vigilant than FB about enforcing it.
I don't know about Google+ (still waiting for an invite to join the party,) but I have two accounts with Google/GMail, one which is my real name and which is a name of a character I have on a popular (but not that popular) MMORPG. I have yet to have that one removed from their server...and it is a single name. I suspect if he had a Google+ account, they might be a little more concerned, but he does have a ton of Docs on GoogleDocs and is quite active communicating with others in his Corporation.
If they want the recording industry to survive they should appoint er someone like Mike Masnick maybe.
I doubt Mike would want the job. The money is great, but having to sell your soul to get it just isn't worth it. The folks in charge of the RIAA, and the RIAA itself, have to tow the party line given to them by the majors...as they are in business to support the majors. If the majors don't like who they have in the chair, the majors will change it. We are thinking of RIAA as a separate and powerful organization, but really what they are now is just the lobbying arm of the majors. To make changes, you need to get rid of the CEOs of Warner, Sony, etc., and replace them with folks that are interested in modernizing the business.
They still do, just bought a 32GB MicroSD card for my phone and it came with an offer to download a movie for free. Movie was in .WMV format and DRM'd, and wouldn't play on either my phone or my Linux computer.
It's great to be able to sell them for $20 since they didn't have to pay anything to get the movies made
Does the $20 go to the artists, director, writer, etc., or does 99% of it go to the distributor and get dumped into Hollywood accounting? Why does the movie cost $20 when the distributors say that most of the cost is in distribution and they aren't paying the cost for medium. Seems like the cost is a little unreasonable given that the cost to the distributor is far less. If the $20 was going to make more movies, it would seem like a good idea, but with the money disappearing into hookers and blow, no thanks. (Then again, even though the trolls will say otherwise, my choice is, and has been to go without then to contribute to illicit activities of hookers and blow.)
No airline has to take you anywhere...unless they want to lose their common carrier status. Sure, they can deny transportation to legal travelers, but if they do so, then they deserve no federal funds, no access to public terminals, and no subsidies on fuel and right-of-way. They can load and unload at a private terminal, pay full price for their jet-fuel, and we don't have to bail them out when they go out of business.
the two that were caught by citizens didn't go threw a TSA checkpoint, so technically wouldn't count against the TSA
The two who were caught, as well as the dozen or more other people causing problems aboard airplanes were caught by the people the TSA likes to abuse. I believe the TSA is just upset that the general public is better at catching terrorists than they are, and are dishing out some retribution.
Being very good at something is not illegal. Using your market power from other products to influence the buying of consumers is.
True, but actually, it wasn't using the market power to influence, but force. You install Windows, you used Internet Explorer. You couldn't uninstall Internet Explorer and use Netscape. So in a way, they were forcing you to use Internet Explorer (especially when they imbedded Internet Explorer into other tools which didn't really need Internet Explorer, like Help and MMC.)
Google makes good stuff, which influences folks to use their stuff, but last time I checked, they didn't force anyone to use google docs if they used gmail or gtalk. I was influenced by their quality products to install and use everything I had, but at no time did they enforce me to install and use any of their products.
I am a cynic - I believe that governments targets companies that become too uppity. (Apple should be concerned as well).
I am confused...how has Google used its marketshare to hurt its competitors, vs. Apple, which is currently suing Amazon for using Appstore, and has sued competitors who have come up with generic platforms which use Apple software. As far as I have seen, Apple is using its marketshare to hurt competitors while Google is just offering platforms that work better than their competitors for little or no cost to the user.
I think the government has done what it always does...a body without a head...flailing at anything that it thinks needs to be flailed at (or what Microsoft wants them to flail at.)
Free coasters, and bird-scarers, and fun in the microwave. Oh, scratch that...they do mess up the microwave.
I still have some AOL coasters at home. They haven't messed anything up there yet...in a matter of fact, they have prevented messes. Just wish I could get one that holds my coffee cup from spilling in my car.
feinstein is one of the most anti-constitution folks being involved in this whole matter.
Yeah, I was just thinking that myself. A lot of good it will be to send an email to Herr Feinstein. Talk about clueless...she only knows what Disney tells her to know. I remember sending her a letter about DMCA, and how stupid and abused it will eventually be, and I got a letter back telling me that it was absolutely necessary to keep the businesses of the constituents in her state in business, and that there were plenty of things in the bill to reduce or eliminate all of my concerns. It was obviously a form letter, but it was also pretty obvious that a lot of people already wrote her with these concerns and she pretty much handwaived over the concerns without addressing any of them. And now, the DMCA is here, it is being abused and nothing in the DMCA reduces or eliminates those concerns we had.
At that point, I realized that Herr Feinstein doesn't care about people, and only cares about the money the few companies she caters to give her. I've voted against her every time, but someone here keeps electing her back in office.
With 7-11 eleven is it because the promise of Free Slurpees gets people into the store only to discover they are out of the "Free Slurpie" cups?
Didn't have a problem getting one at 06:00, early worm and all. The problem was that when I came back at 16:00 (and didn't want one,) I noticed that many of the same people were there. When I asked the clerk, he said that quite a few of them stopped by multiple times for free slurpees, and thus they were out of cups. I had thought that they would regulate the number of times you could get a free one...but I suspect the problem was they just were overwhelmed. I did see that even when people got free slurpees in the morning, they bought a lot of other stuff along with the free slurpee.
Interesting though...I went back a number of times in the afternoon and saw quite a few folks with large slurpees...though those days were abnormally hot and it could have just been coincidence.
I don't think anyone's going to get into legal trouble for falsely putting a copyright notice on a public domain photo, but do it the other way round and you could be in deep and expensive trouble.
Any person who, with fraudulent intent, places on any article a notice of copyright or words of the same purport that such person knows to be false, or who, with fraudulent intent, publicly distributes or imports for public distribution any article bearing such notice or words that such person knows to be false, shall be fined not more than $2,500. 17 USC § 506(c).
The problem is proving that the person had intent to defraud.
On the post: State Department Spent $1.2 Billion On An Asset Monitoring System... That Ignores All Non-Windows Equipment
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Of course
Hmmm... Helm's Deep was pretty easy to compromise as well. A little gunpowder was all the Urukai needed to breach the walls and then they were able to sweep through the outer defenses. Gandalf was even certain that the move to Helm's Deep was a dumb one...and he hoped that it would hold long enough for him to get the outcasted riders of Rohan and return.
Windows is pretty bad by default, but any competent administrator can lock down Windows so its is secure enough to convince all but the most driven individuals to move on to easier targets.
On the post: It's Not About 'Free,' It's About Sharing
Re: Re: Re: It is not about free, it is about value
This is certainly even more true given loss of free use, DRM, and micropayments. It is almost like the industry wants to go to single-use (surprise, they do,) licensing so that they can charge you $1 for each use. At that point, you're buying entertainment you cannot enjoy, and it becomes useless. That is really the whole goal of DRM, as it doesn't prevent unauthorized copying, just unauthorized use. As soon as the company can figure out the carrot to get people to drop DVDs and CDs, they will switch to per-use licensing and jump on the gravy train for life.
In other words, they are taking our culture and manipulating it so that they can sell us our culture back to us on a per-use basis for greed alone.
On the post: It's Not About 'Free,' It's About Sharing
Re: Re: Re: Nothing acttually costs anything, so...
With all due respect to Mr. Adams...he is probably quite happy where he is now, considering he has been dead for 12 years. His estate might come after you...but unless he has become a Zombie, he won't be bothering Richard.
My most favorite author in all the world, and that one paragraph means so much more to me than any other paragraph I've read before or since...It was, in fact, the longest joke grenade in my personal history...as I read that multiple times, and then five years later, swimming in a pool, staring down and a floating dollar bill in the pool, I got the joke. Ever since then, I've read his books on an almost yearly basis.
On the post: Indian Court Says Service Providers Are Liable For Users' Copyright Infringement
Re:
Until other copyright holders come knockin'. Best to just have a blanket ban on Internet...safer that way. However, I guess ultimately that might be the goal, as they'll have less riots that way.
I weep for India...it is sad that greed beats out humanity every time. Eventually we as a collective are just going to have to stand up and tell them we aren't going to take it any more.
On the post: An Exploration Into How Politicians Make Up Numbers; The Mythical 74,000 Jobs Lost By FAA Shutdown
Re:
I agree...except that I still play my old video games. I bought them...when the company breaks their software them I download the fix from the internet and I am again able to play them. As far as I am concerned, DRM is a bug, and there are great people out there that, despite the worst intentions of the company, help the community by removing these bugs.
What is even cooler is that communities have sprouted up over games which have been abandoned, such as Neverwinter Nights, and those games are still being updated and fixed even after the company that owned them is out of business. Too bad they have to live in a quasi-legal realm, thanks to infinite-duration copyrights and stupid policies from vendors. The consumer is left holding the trashbag while the company skips town with their money...but there are ways of fixing it.
On the post: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
Most of my friends have iPhones. I have family with iPhones, and I was genuinely interested in one. But two things kept me away from it...closed architecture which Apple vigorously defends, and no sideloading of applications, even though the SDK is "open", getting the application on the phone requires Apple and their whim is notorious. Sure, you can root an iPhone, until Apple comes up with the next patch and kills you off. I've had friends who have rooted their phone only to have the rugs pulled out from under them and have heard the sob stories.
After the discussion of Samsung here, and that Samsung sent the developers of an unofficial mod of Android (cyanogenmod) free phones to allow them to provide more support for their phones, I ditched my old phone and bought a Samsung Captivate, rooted it and installed cyanogenmod. Downloaded the SDK and started playing, and after having so much fun with the phone, I found out that Nooks ran android and went out and bought one of those too (I like reading books and was looking at a kindle to begin with.)
At this point, a Samsung 10.1 tablet is a little too expensive to justify, but I suspect sooner or later I'll have one of those too.
So, at least for me, I can understand why people are heading to Android in droves. 5 people I know personally have gone out and bought new android phones...I cannot think of anyone off-hand who has bought an iphone recently.
On the post: CoC's 'Victims Of Internet Piracy' Look More Like 'Victims Of Propagandist Exploitation'
Re: Don't read this. It is theft and putting me in debt.
You sir, have just won an internet. Good show.
And no, my sarcasm meter is working fine...I just created a derivative work without permission. Come at me bro.
On the post: What's In A Name: The Importance Of Pseudonymity & The Dangers Of Requiring 'Real Names'
Re: Re: I sympathize with this author, but...
I don't know about Google+ (still waiting for an invite to join the party,) but I have two accounts with Google/GMail, one which is my real name and which is a name of a character I have on a popular (but not that popular) MMORPG. I have yet to have that one removed from their server...and it is a single name. I suspect if he had a Google+ account, they might be a little more concerned, but he does have a ton of Docs on GoogleDocs and is quite active communicating with others in his Corporation.
On the post: Out With The Old... In With The Older At The RIAA
Re:
I doubt Mike would want the job. The money is great, but having to sell your soul to get it just isn't worth it. The folks in charge of the RIAA, and the RIAA itself, have to tow the party line given to them by the majors...as they are in business to support the majors. If the majors don't like who they have in the chair, the majors will change it. We are thinking of RIAA as a separate and powerful organization, but really what they are now is just the lobbying arm of the majors. To make changes, you need to get rid of the CEOs of Warner, Sony, etc., and replace them with folks that are interested in modernizing the business.
On the post: Once Again NY Expands 'Anti-Piracy' Laws Based On No Evidence
Re: Re:
They still do, just bought a 32GB MicroSD card for my phone and it came with an offer to download a movie for free. Movie was in .WMV format and DRM'd, and wouldn't play on either my phone or my Linux computer.
On the post: Once Again NY Expands 'Anti-Piracy' Laws Based On No Evidence
Re: Re: Re:
Does the $20 go to the artists, director, writer, etc., or does 99% of it go to the distributor and get dumped into Hollywood accounting? Why does the movie cost $20 when the distributors say that most of the cost is in distribution and they aren't paying the cost for medium. Seems like the cost is a little unreasonable given that the cost to the distributor is far less. If the $20 was going to make more movies, it would seem like a good idea, but with the money disappearing into hookers and blow, no thanks. (Then again, even though the trolls will say otherwise, my choice is, and has been to go without then to contribute to illicit activities of hookers and blow.)
On the post: TSA Confiscates Pregnant Woman's Insulin, Ice Packs
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Way too cynical for my blood...I'm out.
On the post: TSA Confiscates Pregnant Woman's Insulin, Ice Packs
Re: Re: Re:
No airline has to take you anywhere...unless they want to lose their common carrier status. Sure, they can deny transportation to legal travelers, but if they do so, then they deserve no federal funds, no access to public terminals, and no subsidies on fuel and right-of-way. They can load and unload at a private terminal, pay full price for their jet-fuel, and we don't have to bail them out when they go out of business.
On the post: TSA Confiscates Pregnant Woman's Insulin, Ice Packs
Re: Re:
The two who were caught, as well as the dozen or more other people causing problems aboard airplanes were caught by the people the TSA likes to abuse. I believe the TSA is just upset that the general public is better at catching terrorists than they are, and are dishing out some retribution.
On the post: Is Google Antitrust Investigation Simply A Repeat Of Wasteful Microsoft Antitrust Effort?
Re: Re: Re: Comparing two very different things
True, but actually, it wasn't using the market power to influence, but force. You install Windows, you used Internet Explorer. You couldn't uninstall Internet Explorer and use Netscape. So in a way, they were forcing you to use Internet Explorer (especially when they imbedded Internet Explorer into other tools which didn't really need Internet Explorer, like Help and MMC.)
Google makes good stuff, which influences folks to use their stuff, but last time I checked, they didn't force anyone to use google docs if they used gmail or gtalk. I was influenced by their quality products to install and use everything I had, but at no time did they enforce me to install and use any of their products.
On the post: Is Google Antitrust Investigation Simply A Repeat Of Wasteful Microsoft Antitrust Effort?
Re: Tall poppy syndrome
I am confused...how has Google used its marketshare to hurt its competitors, vs. Apple, which is currently suing Amazon for using Appstore, and has sued competitors who have come up with generic platforms which use Apple software. As far as I have seen, Apple is using its marketshare to hurt competitors while Google is just offering platforms that work better than their competitors for little or no cost to the user.
I think the government has done what it always does...a body without a head...flailing at anything that it thinks needs to be flailed at (or what Microsoft wants them to flail at.)
On the post: Is Google Antitrust Investigation Simply A Repeat Of Wasteful Microsoft Antitrust Effort?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Huh?
Free coasters, and bird-scarers, and fun in the microwave. Oh, scratch that...they do mess up the microwave.
I still have some AOL coasters at home. They haven't messed anything up there yet...in a matter of fact, they have prevented messes. Just wish I could get one that holds my coffee cup from spilling in my car.
On the post: Is Your Senator Using The Distraction Of The Debt Ceiling To Support The Feds Secret Interpretation Of Spying Laws?
Re: feinstein being chair = why we have problems
Yeah, I was just thinking that myself. A lot of good it will be to send an email to Herr Feinstein. Talk about clueless...she only knows what Disney tells her to know. I remember sending her a letter about DMCA, and how stupid and abused it will eventually be, and I got a letter back telling me that it was absolutely necessary to keep the businesses of the constituents in her state in business, and that there were plenty of things in the bill to reduce or eliminate all of my concerns. It was obviously a form letter, but it was also pretty obvious that a lot of people already wrote her with these concerns and she pretty much handwaived over the concerns without addressing any of them. And now, the DMCA is here, it is being abused and nothing in the DMCA reduces or eliminates those concerns we had.
At that point, I realized that Herr Feinstein doesn't care about people, and only cares about the money the few companies she caters to give her. I've voted against her every time, but someone here keeps electing her back in office.
On the post: 'When Stuff Is Free, We’re More Likely to Buy'
Re: With 7-11..
Didn't have a problem getting one at 06:00, early worm and all. The problem was that when I came back at 16:00 (and didn't want one,) I noticed that many of the same people were there. When I asked the clerk, he said that quite a few of them stopped by multiple times for free slurpees, and thus they were out of cups. I had thought that they would regulate the number of times you could get a free one...but I suspect the problem was they just were overwhelmed. I did see that even when people got free slurpees in the morning, they bought a lot of other stuff along with the free slurpee.
Interesting though...I went back a number of times in the afternoon and saw quite a few folks with large slurpees...though those days were abnormally hot and it could have just been coincidence.
On the post: Did The AP Claim Copyright On Public Domain NASA Pictures?
Re: Is it just Legal paranoia ?
The problem is proving that the person had intent to defraud.
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