Gotta wonder how that whole revolution thing's been working out in the USA. Seems like you just traded in 'ancesters owned a lot of land or fought well in wars' and the HoS's favour for the ability to screw people over, lie through one's teeth, look good on tv, and give and take bribes as a prerequisite for assuming exactly the same role...
Of course, NZ conveniently just did away with the whole concept of an upper house all together. In theory the governor does most of the same job. in practice they say a few formal lines around election time
Re: Re: Re: copyright ... is this thread yet dead?
Of course, just to make life fun, it's a recursive loop.
Most of their* behaviour just makes people hate them and/or makes it harder for people to follow the legitimate rout, leading to more piracy. (Though I'll admit it's more complected than that in most cases, in the case of computer games it's often very direct in just that manner.)
The main problem with copyright, really, is greed. No matter where it starts, the two create a positive feedback loop, and copyright that's out of balance is, at Best, ineffectual, and at worst tends towards the tyrannical. At least once corporations and the incredibly wealthy get hold of it.
the fun part being that they pay you, rather than you paying for extras or whatever.
that's a two for one right there, on the order of 'if you take your enemy's supplies, they're worth twice as much, because not only do you now have them, your enemy doesn't.' ... to heavily paraphrase Sun Tzu. (i think he actually says 3 or 4 times as much, but i can't be bothered checking right now, and no one said anything about wars, but whatever.)
actually, the USA regularly gets screwed over by this more than a lot of actual monarchies seem to. (to be fair, they're constitutional monarchies with a parliamentary democracy, but still)
but yeah, the USA is a bureaucratic republic. possibly a bureaucratic oligarchy, too.
Gotta give you points for actually making sense. People on that side of things rarely do.
Still, i can't help thinking there's something fundamentally wrong here. Probably it is the nature of the exclusivity granted, who ends up in possession of that exclusivity, and their behaviour in relation to it.
At least your response makes sense once one assumes the exclusivity is a good thing. That's a a marathon's worth of steps ahead of most arguments made from a similar position, even if many here disagree with the basic premises.
Though does your logic take into account the perpetual legal creep the corporations keep pushing that keeps making the 'pie' bigger?
Greed and Idiocy. no further explanation required for in excess of 60% of stupid human decisions.
(number totally made up on the spot because i needed one for the line, also possibly foolishness or ignorance should replace Idiocy, but it usually Looks more like Idiocy, and only listing one is snappier. I'm also not the Spanish Inquisition.)
So far as i can tell, politicians usually only seem to listen to genuine public outcry (rather than lobbyists and their analogs) when said outcry is hopelessly misguided.
That or at the point of armed uprising with the army refusing to do anything about it
(this is discounting those times that said outcry is against their opponents and/or happens to line up with what they wanted to push Anyway, of course)
... If my observations are any indication, ANY politician, given half a chance, considers any public consultation that doesn't either agree with him or consist entirely of the opinions of those pumping money into his campaign fund is invalid.
*ponders* so that means, if a monkey poops in Utah, it does not own the rights it would need to then fling that poop, and as such can be sued for doing so? *laughs*
dunno about the states, but in NZ you can get a visa debit card at... 15 i think? might be 16. need to be 18 for a credit card.
that said, the visa debit card comes with a nice warning saying 'this card may not be accepted by some shops or websites, as unlike a credit card it does not prove that one is 18 or over' ... or something to that effect.
not that i've had anything reject it yet... on the other hand, i don't buy anything that would require such a check. (i was a little worried about my CoH account, which i thought cared that one was an adult or required parental consent, but apparently it doesn't care. mind you, i did Create it with a credit card, so maybe that only checks once..)
or, you know, you could just use proper sausages, which are, oh, at least twice the thickness of 'american hotdog' sausages, or wieners, or whatever you want to call the stupid things. (they're also about 2/3rds the length)
they only way you can choke on Those is if you don't bite through the skin properly, and if you've got that issue it's still attached to the solid part in your mouth, which you can reach in and pull on to clear the blockage... without making yourself puke. and that situation almost never shows up in the first place, and certainly not with small children, because the things are too big to swallow without chewing.
not that sausage is a good idea health-wise anyway... it's as bad as spam. possibly worse. how much of the meat in a sausage is actually meat rather than fat, breadcrumbs, and soy? well, if you go to an actual butcher who's any good, a fair amount. all of it if they're particularly good. buy it from a supermarket all nicely packaged up? very little indeed.
so, yeah, this all goes to show that a) the US patent office is lame, and b) sausages are evil.
On the post: UK Lords Pass Digital Economy Bill, Now Look To Rush It Through Commons
Re:
Of course, NZ conveniently just did away with the whole concept of an upper house all together. In theory the governor does most of the same job. in practice they say a few formal lines around election time
On the post: Google, Facebook Sued Because Without Some Random Patent No One Would Ever Access A Social Network From A Mobile Phone
Re:
On the post: FCC Scammed Out Of Millions In Telco Scam
Re: Re: Ryan
(apparently many bands agree with you, and are doing their best to do just that
On the post: Where's The Outrage Over The Gov't Brushing Mass Privacy Violations Under The Rug?
Re: Re:
On the post: RIAA Takes The Cake: Equates File Sharing To Children's Fairy Tale
Re: Re: Re: copyright ... is this thread yet dead?
Most of their* behaviour just makes people hate them and/or makes it harder for people to follow the legitimate rout, leading to more piracy. (Though I'll admit it's more complected than that in most cases, in the case of computer games it's often very direct in just that manner.)
The main problem with copyright, really, is greed. No matter where it starts, the two create a positive feedback loop, and copyright that's out of balance is, at Best, ineffectual, and at worst tends towards the tyrannical. At least once corporations and the incredibly wealthy get hold of it.
Or so it appears to me.
*that is, the RIAA and the like
On the post: Transmedia Storytelling... With A CwF+RtB Twist
Re: Connections and RtB
that's a two for one right there, on the order of 'if you take your enemy's supplies, they're worth twice as much, because not only do you now have them, your enemy doesn't.' ... to heavily paraphrase Sun Tzu. (i think he actually says 3 or 4 times as much, but i can't be bothered checking right now, and no one said anything about wars, but whatever.)
On the post: US Government Working With Pharma Companies To Raise Drug Prices In Other Countries
Re: Good luck with that last bit
On the post: Latest ACTA Text Seems To Conflict With Hard Fought New Language On Damages In Patent Reform Bill
Re: WTF ...
but yeah, the USA is a bureaucratic republic. possibly a bureaucratic oligarchy, too.
it's certainly not really a democracy.
On the post: RIAA Takes The Cake: Equates File Sharing To Children's Fairy Tale
Re:
Still, i can't help thinking there's something fundamentally wrong here. Probably it is the nature of the exclusivity granted, who ends up in possession of that exclusivity, and their behaviour in relation to it.
At least your response makes sense once one assumes the exclusivity is a good thing. That's a a marathon's worth of steps ahead of most arguments made from a similar position, even if many here disagree with the basic premises.
Though does your logic take into account the perpetual legal creep the corporations keep pushing that keeps making the 'pie' bigger?
On the post: Justice Department Decides To Break Up E-Voting Company
Re:
(number totally made up on the spot because i needed one for the line, also possibly foolishness or ignorance should replace Idiocy, but it usually Looks more like Idiocy, and only listing one is snappier. I'm also not the Spanish Inquisition.)
On the post: Indiana County Decides Not To Charge Redbox After Public Outcry
Re:
So far as i can tell, politicians usually only seem to listen to genuine public outcry (rather than lobbyists and their analogs) when said outcry is hopelessly misguided.
That or at the point of armed uprising with the army refusing to do anything about it
(this is discounting those times that said outcry is against their opponents and/or happens to line up with what they wanted to push Anyway, of course)
On the post: South Australia Attorney General Demands $20,000 From Web Commenter Who Called Him A Crook
Re: Michael Atkinson is off the deep end
On the post: Utah Wants To Own State Microbes; May Demand Royalty On Any Products Developed
Re: Re: If....
On the post: Indiana Prosecutor Threatens Redbox With Criminal Charges If It Doesn't Remove R-Rated Movies
Re: Re: Re:
that said, the visa debit card comes with a nice warning saying 'this card may not be accepted by some shops or websites, as unlike a credit card it does not prove that one is 18 or over' ... or something to that effect.
not that i've had anything reject it yet... on the other hand, i don't buy anything that would require such a check. (i was a little worried about my CoH account, which i thought cared that one was an adult or required parental consent, but apparently it doesn't care. mind you, i did Create it with a credit card, so maybe that only checks once..)
On the post: Time To Redesign The Hotdog... But Watch Out For Patents
they only way you can choke on Those is if you don't bite through the skin properly, and if you've got that issue it's still attached to the solid part in your mouth, which you can reach in and pull on to clear the blockage... without making yourself puke. and that situation almost never shows up in the first place, and certainly not with small children, because the things are too big to swallow without chewing.
not that sausage is a good idea health-wise anyway... it's as bad as spam. possibly worse. how much of the meat in a sausage is actually meat rather than fat, breadcrumbs, and soy? well, if you go to an actual butcher who's any good, a fair amount. all of it if they're particularly good. buy it from a supermarket all nicely packaged up? very little indeed.
so, yeah, this all goes to show that a) the US patent office is lame, and b) sausages are evil.
On the post: Man Creates Useful City Parking iPhone App... And City Doesn't Get Upset
Re:
either they would promptly start charging you for Not parking, or...
it really wouldn't change anything.
On the post: Activision Kills Fan Game Project, Despite Fan License Granted By Previous Rightsholders
Re: Damnit.
Good job Activision
On the post: Brazil's Catholic Church Sues Columbia Pictures For Destroying Jesus Statue In 2012... In Violation Of Its Copyright
Re: Re:
On the post: Yes, Twitter And Facebook Can Make People More Productive
Re: Time Bandit
On the post: French Court Says IP Address Does Not Identify A User
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Grammah Correction Specialist
of course, the other two out of three are pretty much Wrong...
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