I have an even simpler idea...why not require all U.S. citizens to install cameras that record every room in their home and around their property at all times? The video is stored in secure, government facilities and will only be accessed with a warrant or for national anti-terrorism efforts.
Think about all the benefits; you don't even need a phone to find where the bad guys are. If someone breaks into your house, there is now video evidence. Domestic violence? Video evidence. And it will only be used to protect you!
How could anyone possibly object? If you have an issue, you must have something to hide!
Re: Re: Is It Property, Or Isn’t It? -- But policing is EVERYONE's responsibility.
So, wait, are you saying neighborhoods are legally obligated to have guards stationed around your property and prevent trespassers? Odd, I've never seen that before.
Sure, if someone trespasses on your property you can call the police to help out, but if the police just happen to see someone on your property they probably aren't going to do anything. How do they know that person is unauthorized? Heck, it could be your buddy coming by.
Also, the majority of people will naturally accept that being beaten and robbed is a negative thing and has a moral response. Most copyright infringement is literally as "bad" as jaywalking, and in the vast majority of cases is completely victimless. The only people who truly believe copyright infringement is wrong are those who have been convinced it's wrong by swindlers trying to pin creator's woes on someone other than themselves.
Sorry if I'm not feeling pangs of sympathy for imaginary slights. Without modern copyright law people wouldn't even notice copyright infringement; you always notice getting beaten and robbed, regardless of the law. It's not a reasonable compromise, it's a paid-for racket that keeps rich men rich and benefits nobody but them.
First you'd have to prove some actual benefits to me for copyright before I'll buy your "compromise" is anything close to reasonable.
Re: Re: Out of the frying pan, into the fire(but now with self-righteous satisfaction as you roast)
In what economic theory is this true? "Hollywood Accounting Theory?"
Because actual economic theories would disagree, as would the law itself. And even if piracy were somehow considered stealing in economics, terminology alone would not miraculously change reality.
It would be more misleading if all the actual percentages weren't listed on the chart. A 2D pie chart would give virtually the same conclusion based on the numbers presented.
I'd be fairly shocked if someone thought: "Man, I was convinced that the 45.6% going to labels was bad, but then I realized it was a 3D pie chart and that the 45.6% actually looked closer to 46.7% compared to the rest, so my conclusion is now totally different!"
And when I choose not to buy something at all, $0 goes to the artist. So are you saying that someone who chooses not to purchase a good is stealing?
Because the uncomfortable fact is that money is only lost if the person would otherwise have purchased the product. Since actual evidence implies that those who pirate the most also purchase the most, the most logical conclusion is that, if anything, not pirating is stealing, not the other way around, because those who don't pirate spend less on content!
It's not an uncomfortable fact for anyone who understands basic economics. Ever heard of "advertising?" People generally don't pay for ads, they're given out for free, and companies spend billions producing them specifically to give them out for free. If $0 is going to the person creating the ad, why are they spending so much money creating them?
Oh, right, because ads make money by promoting a scarce good while utilizing a non-scarce good. This is literally Marketing 101. Yet copyright has managed to break this economic fact by trying to convert infinite goods into scarce goods, and then everyone seems to be shocked when people don't follow the rules.
People have been trying to regulate the economy forever, and the most common result is that the people that can influence the regulations get rich at the expense of everyone who can't. That's because economic principles simply don't care about laws other than how those laws try and bend them out of shape.
The sad part is that regulation is necessary for a thriving economy. Once the regulation becomes "beneficial" rather than punitive, however, it tends to shift money to those who are on the benefit side rather than punish those abusing the natural imbalances of the economic system.
And, surprise surprise, that's exactly what we're seeing.
Brian Graden, Fox network executive and mutual friend, commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film as a video Christmas card...Graden sent copies of the video to several of his friends, and from there it was copied and distributed, including on the internet, where it became one of the first viral videos...As Jesus vs. Santa became more popular, Parker and Stone began talks of developing the short into a television series.
So, um, they circulated their short to a guy who put it online and it became one of the first viral videos, and they decided to make it into a show because of its popularity. Saying that free internet circulation of their initial short was responsible for their success is absolutely a true statement, and nowhere does it say that such circulation was unauthorized as it was done by the very person they willingly gave it to. Why is it so difficult to read Wikipedia?
And you're right, it's their work, and they can do what they want with it. It's only going to reduce their overall viewership, end up making them less money, and increase piracy rates.
Or are you so naïve you believe that putting the episodes on Hulu Plus is going to make a bit of difference?
It shocks me that I can find out pretty much exactly how many people died from heart disease, cancer, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer's, diabetes, suicide, etc., but I can't find out how many individuals were killed in gun homicide by police in their official duties.
Seriously, though, without copyright to get rid of this obvious theft, how could EA justify continuing to make Mass Effect games? Obviously this free board game will negatively affect their completely different video game sales when people realize they can just download the board game and not have to play the video game!
That's because programmers seem to use the word "API" as a synonym with "SDK" a lot. The two are superficially related...an SDK is a specific implementation of an API for use by other developers...but the API is essentially what you'd be left with if you deleted all the code from the SDK and left comments and variable declarations behind.
Or maybe I don't understand it, and if my understanding is flawed, please let me know. But to use a code example, this is something you'd see in a (really crappy) SDK:
addtwoints(int x, int y) { // Add x and y to return an integer int z; z = x + y; return z; }
And this is the API for the same function: addtwoints(int x, int y) { // Add x and y to return an integer }
Sure, they both look like code. But anyone with even a shred of programming knowledge knows that second one doesn't actually do anything. They are also probably offended at my horrid example and are confused as to what crazy combination of syntax I'm using (it's been a while since I've touched anything based on the C language, sorry).
Again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what an API is.
That's what I was thinking. Mine are $10 with the military discount. Plus about $50 for the babysitter. And then gas money, and possibly the overpriced food.
And all that money gets me an experience worse than my living room with a 127" projector and surround sound. At least at home I can sit in pajamas on my comfy couch, pause if I need to go to the bathroom, rewind if I missed something, and I don't have to drive anywhere.
Pretty much the only reason I ever go to theaters is to watch a movie that just came out, and even that is happening less and less.
Topic() { introduction establish basic premise establish three primary discussion points define topic sentence paragraph one describe supporting point one describe any opposing viewpoints rebut opposing viewpoints paragraph two describe supporting point two describe any opposing viewpoints rebut opposing viewpoints paragraph three describe supporting point three describe any opposing viewpoints rebut opposing viewpoints conclusion restate thesis and how supporting points prove main argument wrap up argument and counter-arguments conclusion sentence }
Anyone using this format on a computer now owes me royalties for its use. If you need me I'll be on a college tour...high schools are for next year. Be back later with yacht.
Correct, secession was caused by slavery. The Civil War, however, was caused by secession. So saying that the Civil War was caused by slavery is provably false.
Why does that distinction matter? If it was slavery->secession->war isn't that the same as slavery->war? No, because the war wouldn't have started without the secession (or at least there's no evidence it would have). If the South had ignored Lincoln's election and continued on there would not have been a Civil War. If the North had simply allowed the secession there would not have been a Civil War. The secession was the key; the fact that it was caused by slavery does not make slavery the driving force behind the conflict (also, slavery was not the sole factor that led to secession, as there were also nationalist, political, religious, and expansionist factors; slavery was just the biggest contributing factor).
It may seem like a minor point, but when you have legal slaves in the North up to 1865, it seems that the "the North hated slavery and the South loved it, so they fought" argument falls apart pretty quickly. It also requires ignoring a huge amount of historical accounts, including quotes from Lincoln himself.
Granted, the Civil War wasn't fought over states' rights either. But the majority of contemporary historians agree that the spark of the Civil War was the secession of the Southern states and the creation of the Confederacy, regardless of why those states chose to go that route.
If you believe that, I doubt we're going to get anywhere.
My position is based on the work of contemporary historians, but hey, you're free to believe whatever you want. The South seceded because they wanted to preserve slavery; this is absolutely true. The war, however, was fought to end the secession, not to end slavery. If it were fought to end slavery, then slavery would have ended in the Union in 1861, when the war started and there wasn't a political reason to preserve it, rather than in 1865, when it actually ended.
So yes, slavery was certainly the primary factor leading to the civil war (along with conflicts over westward expansion) because that's the factor that led the south to secede, but Lincoln didn't start a war because the South had slaves, he started it because they quit the club. It was a war over control; the South wanted to control human beings, and wanted to keep their "traditional values" (no matter how sick those values), and the North wanted control over the "Union" and was willing to kill to preserve their power. Everyone has an ideology they use as an excuse, but it's naïve to think America fought against itself for anything other than power, plain and simple.
The North didn't have to fight; they could have abandoned the Southern states, let them secede, and gone on with their day. Everyone acts like it was inevitable, that the South forced the North to act. Bull. They could have let it go, and after a few years and a few inventions, plus a lot of education, slavery most likely would have died off in the South like it had been doing everywhere else in the civilized world. Instead, we fought a bloody war that has people divided over it 150 years later.
I'm not really defending the South. They could have avoided the war too by not freaking out when Lincoln became president, especially when he had said multiple times during his campaign that he didn't intend to end slavery. "Lost Cause" proponents tend to forget that the South didn't have to seceded...they chose to. But there's two sides to any fight and this was not a "good vs. evil" conflict as much as we'd like to villainize the Confederacy today.
Keep in mind that this is not about making private citizens or businesses do anything, it's about whether the flag should fly over a government building. I don't see that as a free speech issue.
But that's the conflict. It's a state building, and if the elected leaders of the state are following the intent of those they represent, that's exactly what a republic is designed to do. It's when the minority dictates what the majority can do that the basic principle of democracy breaks down. If you don't like it, move there and vote against the leaders who put up that flag. Otherwise, that's their business.
Sure, the majority isn't always right. But I trust the majority to generally follow the values of the people more than special interest groups with their own agendas. Sure, I like some of those agendas, but I don't like others, and I'd rather my vote actually mean something rather than be a "well, you voted, but this small group of people is going to override you because they say you're wrong."
Be careful what you wish for, because the interest groups' designs may align with you today, but when they don't (*cough* TPP *cough*), and you wonder why the government is ignoring the will of the people, well, now you know. It's because they know what's in your "best interest," your opinion be damned.
Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to ban it because a mass murderer featured it, so.....
And New Jersey and New Hampshire, which were part of the Union yet had legal slaves until 1865, would disagree with you. So would Abraham Lincoln, who said that if keeping slavery would prevent secession, he would keep slavery.
Slavery was certainly a huge factor in the Civil War, but slavery is what caused secession, not war. The war was fought because the South seceded, and the question became whether or not they had the right to do that.
This may seem like a minor distinction but it's important. Secession, and whether or not a state could choose to leave the United States, is 100% a state's rights issue. Slavery was the catalyst that forced the answer.
And the Union won, so the answer is that you can't secede, as the Supreme Court would reaffirm in 1869. But pretending those factors didn't exist because the Confederacy was pro-slavery and seceded due to slavery is pure fallacy and ignores a massive amount of context for the Civil War.
I don't either. I see it as a symbol of the South's history. Granted, some of that history is awful, but I don't think the U.S. flag should be throwing the first stone if we're talking about evil shit done in the name of a country.
But its history is different from its symbolism. Its history is fact. Its symbolism is opinion. And the latter differs from person to person.
To you the flag may symbolize hatred, racial prejudice, treason, and slavery. To someone else it may represent state vs. federal rights, oppression from government, freedom of speech, military and cultural pride, and state history. The slavery and racial aspect may not even be something that occurs to them.
I could make the same argument about the American flag. How dare you fly this symbol of racism, violence, and hatred! The U.S. practically wiped out an entire continent of people, has killed more foreigners per year on average than any other country in the world, is the only country to ever use atomic weapons in combat, and did so against civilian targets, and is currently killing children in foreign countries with drone strikes. Take down the flag!
See how silly that sounds? How it takes all the bad in a country's history and applies it to their flag? Every country in the world has things in their history they aren't proud of. That doesn't mean you have to erase the symbol of that country from the history books.
Keep in mind you're viewing the Civil War with a modern bias. For many people, especially in the southern United States, the issue has little to do with slavery and everything to do with whether or not the government can define your morals and override the social decisions of the states. From a modern perspective, the answer to this question is "Yes, of course they can," but for many people this is a major political issue that has virtually nothing to do with racism.
Switch this around. What if the Civil War was fought over the right to smoke Marijuana? What if we had "Weed" states in the South and "Clean" states in the North?
I'm not trying to minimize the horror of slavery, but that's only because I'm looking at it from modern eyes. The point is that the issue itself was secondary, and it was secondary for Lincoln. I'm sure Lincoln was anti-slavery (and he said as much elsewhere) but he would have abandoned abolition to prevent secession.
And that's what the fight was really about. Secession, and where the power lies. In the opinion of the North, the federal government ruled. In the opinion of the South, the states ruled, and the federal government broke ties. You can argue all day which is right and which is wrong but that's ultimately why over 620,000 men died in the Civil War; they were fighting for their "country" whether that was the Union or the Confederacy.
The South lost, a bunch of amendments were passed to solidify the power of the federal government, and today we have five unelected people determining a national social issue based on those amendments. Love it, hate it...that's the history, and that's the reality, and our current government is the result.
I get it. I hate racism and I believe homosexuals should be allowed to marry. But there are consequences when these things are resolved in the wrong way. I disagree with federal spying, extrajudicial drone killings, federal copyright law, civil asset forfeiture, police militarization...the list goes on and on. And if I want to move somewhere that doesn't have these rules or allow them my only option is to leave my country entirely. I can't just go to a state that fits my values because the federal government controls these policies for everyone.
So to actually answer your question, no, I don't believe it's appropriate for a state government to fly the Confederate flag. But I believe that they should have the right to choose whether or not they want to do so, and I reserve my right to ignore them. I don't believe in forcing my values on others, even when I find them awful.
That flag didn't kill anyone. Some psycho did, and there are plenty of psychos out there itching for a reason to kill. Label them as racists, label them as terrorists, they're all fundamentally the same...they're murderers, and we have ways to deal with them using our existing rules.
I don't know how to cure "murder." It probably isn't possible. But I do know what won't solve the problem...removing a flag from a statehouse. All you're doing is making more people angry and giving the symbol more meaning.
Seriously, for a site that spends so much time promoting free speech, no matter how awful, I'm honestly surprised that so many people want the flags taken down.
It's a 154-year-old symbol of the Army of Northern Virginia. Where you guys are getting 175 and 200 years is beyond me; the Confederacy didn't exist until 1861.
That's it. That's all the meaning the flag actually has...it's the flag of the Confederate Army's main fighting force.
You are free to disagree with slavery and the principles of the Confederate States of America. I sure do; I believe slavery was a reprehensible, disgusting practice, but I also recognize that it was practiced worldwide around the time that the American Civil War was fought, and existed in many places after. This includes New Jersey and New Hampshire until 1865...technically, per the executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Confederacy "ended" slavery two years earlier than the Union.
It's easy to be judgmental and look back at the "barbaric" past with a modern viewpoint. People will do the same to us (*cough* how did you justify extrajudicial drone killings? *cough*).
But the flag isn't the problem. There will probably be many people who do terrible things because they're racists and bigots who live in a black-and-white world filled with nothing but ignorance and hate. They were that way without an old army's flag, and hiding the flag away won't solve the problem.
This is simply an example of America in denial. We don't want to address the real problem...that racism, sexism, and bigotry are very much alive in our culture and that we may have to take a hard look at our own behavior. Instead we attack things we don't understand, like video games, music, the internet, and flags.
Ironically, that reaction is exactly what drives the very same bigots everyone here claims to be so disgusted with...ignorance. We tend to hate what we don't understand. Bigots exist because they have decided that it's "us vs. them" and categorized the "others" into something they don't understand and therefore would be better without. The way to solve this is to gain a better understanding of other people; of other races, genders, cultures, and beliefs.
So the next time you go on a crusade against this new "thing" that is "evil" try and remember that you're doing exactly the same thing racist fanatics do. Terrorists have labeled the U.S. (and other countries) as evil, the police have labeled minorities as evil, the list goes on and on. Think carefully before doing the same thing yourself. Nobody is immune to bias, and it's always harder to recognize your own bias than someone else's.
Re: "focusing on the business models that do work" -- OKAY, SO WHAT ARE THOSE, COLLEGE BOY?
You blather on jealous of Taylor Swift but YOU HAVE NO OTHER BUSINESS MODEL.
You mean like the business model where all the content here is free and can be freely replicated elsewhere? Yeah, that clearly doesn't work...
I've pointed out many times that GETTING NOTICED IS THE TOUGHEST PART. You have NO advice on how to do that.
You mean like releasing your content for free, which naturally increases exposure, thus leading to more fans, and eventually more money? This is pretty much this site's entire argument...selling things that are limited and not relying on copyright to make an unlimited good into an artificially scarce one because it's counter-productive. The purpose behind this argument is to help with getting noticed, which, as you said, is the toughest part.
No advice? That's literally this site's main point. Try reading this, this, and this, all of which discuss core concepts of Techdirt as it relates to business models. Considering these articles are part of the "New to Techdirt?" list at the bottom of the site I'm not sure how you could argue Mike doesn't present advice.
YOU DON'T CALL FOR TARGETING CORPORATIONS, just insist that piracy (neither corporations nor artists getting money) is good for artists!
[Citation needed]. That being said, and this is my opinion, piracy can be good for artists! You said it yourself, in fact, in the second part I quoted...getting noticed is the toughest part. If that is true, then "piracy" increases exposure. This is pretty much what advertising is, by definition.
Someone who doesn't know about your content, or doesn't know if they will like it, is unlikely to ever buy any of it. People generally don't spend money randomly (maybe frivolously, but generally they know or think they know what they're buying). A pirate doesn't pay, sure, but neither does the ignorant potential customer.
The difference is that pirate has been exposed to the content...the potential customer hasn't. We spend so much on advertising because it works, and the pirate is much more likely to buy the content in the future than the unexposed individual.
I know I'm wasting my time because you've already decided that copyright infringement is theft. You most likely believe that piracy is a lost sale, and that if the pirate weren't able to get something for free, they would have bought it instead. There's little evidence for this, and even in cases where it is true, it generally only applies to content that is already popular. Which doesn't help the people in your second paragraph.
Anti-piracy fanatics love to point out piracy rates and the couple of instances where loss of big piracy sites (usually temporarily) slightly increased sales rates for legal retailers. They like to ignore the strong correlation from multiple studies where the individuals who pirate the most content also tend to be the biggest spenders on content, because that doesn't fit their "Piracy is theft...you wouldn't steal a car!" narrative.
Now, what Mike has actually argued, and I agree with, is the piracy is generally a service issue, not a social one. Piracy rates tend to decrease in areas where legal alternatives approach the quality and convenience of pirate sites at a reasonable price. The actual number of sites that do this are very few (and I would argue all are strictly inferior to pirate sites, both in breadth of content and actual value in the product received, regardless of price).
He has stated, and I agree, that offering legal alternatives that do not fetter customers with frustrating restrictions or ridiculous pricing will reduce piracy rates to a few die-hards who refuse to pay for anything (and will never be customers regardless). Keep in mind that buying power per customer is not linear; I "pirated" a lot of anime during my college years because A) most of it wasn't available in the U.S. and B) I didn't have any money. It didn't really matter if it was cheap; I couldn't afford to spend cash on anime.
I did, however, become a huge fan during those years, and now I've bought a lot of anime. It's more convenient to buy and lets me maintain a nice collection. I promptly rip all of it off those useless pieces of plastic they ship it in for actual use (the DVDs never actually leave my shelf once ripped) but I've spent literally thousands of dollars on anime. If I hadn't been introduced and developed a liking for it during college, however, there's no way I'd have had the time to discover it now, and all that money would never have been spent.
The world is only black-and-white if you are a child, fanatic, or idiot. Which are you?
On the post: NSA Apologist Offers Solutions To 'Encryption' Problem, All Of Which Are Basically 'Have The Govt Make Them Do It'
Re: The debate they're avoiding
Think about all the benefits; you don't even need a phone to find where the bad guys are. If someone breaks into your house, there is now video evidence. Domestic violence? Video evidence. And it will only be used to protect you!
How could anyone possibly object? If you have an issue, you must have something to hide!
On the post: Dancing Babies, The DMCA, Fair Use And Whether Companies Should Pay For Bogus Takedowns
Re: Re: Is It Property, Or Isn’t It? -- But policing is EVERYONE's responsibility.
Sure, if someone trespasses on your property you can call the police to help out, but if the police just happen to see someone on your property they probably aren't going to do anything. How do they know that person is unauthorized? Heck, it could be your buddy coming by.
Also, the majority of people will naturally accept that being beaten and robbed is a negative thing and has a moral response. Most copyright infringement is literally as "bad" as jaywalking, and in the vast majority of cases is completely victimless. The only people who truly believe copyright infringement is wrong are those who have been convinced it's wrong by swindlers trying to pin creator's woes on someone other than themselves.
Sorry if I'm not feeling pangs of sympathy for imaginary slights. Without modern copyright law people wouldn't even notice copyright infringement; you always notice getting beaten and robbed, regardless of the law. It's not a reasonable compromise, it's a paid-for racket that keeps rich men rich and benefits nobody but them.
First you'd have to prove some actual benefits to me for copyright before I'll buy your "compromise" is anything close to reasonable.
On the post: Sony To Court: Of Course We're Allowed To Contractually Screw Over Our Artists
Re: Re: Out of the frying pan, into the fire(but now with self-righteous satisfaction as you roast)
Because actual economic theories would disagree, as would the law itself. And even if piracy were somehow considered stealing in economics, terminology alone would not miraculously change reality.
On the post: Sony To Court: Of Course We're Allowed To Contractually Screw Over Our Artists
Re: Is that a 3D pie chart?
I'd be fairly shocked if someone thought: "Man, I was convinced that the 45.6% going to labels was bad, but then I realized it was a 3D pie chart and that the 45.6% actually looked closer to 46.7% compared to the rest, so my conclusion is now totally different!"
Yeah, right.
On the post: Sony To Court: Of Course We're Allowed To Contractually Screw Over Our Artists
Re: Re: Re:
Because the uncomfortable fact is that money is only lost if the person would otherwise have purchased the product. Since actual evidence implies that those who pirate the most also purchase the most, the most logical conclusion is that, if anything, not pirating is stealing, not the other way around, because those who don't pirate spend less on content!
It's not an uncomfortable fact for anyone who understands basic economics. Ever heard of "advertising?" People generally don't pay for ads, they're given out for free, and companies spend billions producing them specifically to give them out for free. If $0 is going to the person creating the ad, why are they spending so much money creating them?
Oh, right, because ads make money by promoting a scarce good while utilizing a non-scarce good. This is literally Marketing 101. Yet copyright has managed to break this economic fact by trying to convert infinite goods into scarce goods, and then everyone seems to be shocked when people don't follow the rules.
People have been trying to regulate the economy forever, and the most common result is that the people that can influence the regulations get rich at the expense of everyone who can't. That's because economic principles simply don't care about laws other than how those laws try and bend them out of shape.
The sad part is that regulation is necessary for a thriving economy. Once the regulation becomes "beneficial" rather than punitive, however, it tends to shift money to those who are on the benefit side rather than punish those abusing the natural imbalances of the economic system.
And, surprise surprise, that's exactly what we're seeing.
On the post: Russian PSA: Quit It With The Selfies If You Want To Live
Maybe if she actually knew how to handle a gun she'd still be alive. Also, who gives someone a loaded, racked pistol for a picture shoot?
Guns don't kill people. Ignorant morons that use guns without learning basic safety rules kill people*.
* Before the anti-gun nuts get started, psychos will kill people regardless, as Russia's high murder rate even without guns shows.
On the post: South Park's Matt Stone To Silicon Valley: Screw You Guys, I'm Going Hulu
Re: Mythological Trey & Matt History...
And you're right, it's their work, and they can do what they want with it. It's only going to reduce their overall viewership, end up making them less money, and increase piracy rates.
Or are you so naïve you believe that putting the episodes on Hulu Plus is going to make a bit of difference?
On the post: FBI & Homeland Security Now 0 For 41 In Predicting Imminent Terrorist Attacks On The US
Re: Re:
On the post: Infringing Game A Tabletop Award Nominee Before Disqualification
That's the logic here, right?
On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Oracle v. Google Case, Leaving APIs Copyrightable And Innovation At Risk
Re: This case has taught me
Or maybe I don't understand it, and if my understanding is flawed, please let me know. But to use a code example, this is something you'd see in a (really crappy) SDK:
addtwoints(int x, int y)
{
// Add x and y to return an integer
int z;
z = x + y;
return z;
}
And this is the API for the same function:
addtwoints(int x, int y)
{
// Add x and y to return an integer
}
Sure, they both look like code. But anyone with even a shred of programming knowledge knows that second one doesn't actually do anything. They are also probably offended at my horrid example and are confused as to what crazy combination of syntax I'm using (it's been a while since I've touched anything based on the C language, sorry).
Again, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what an API is.
On the post: MPAA Targets New Anti-Piracy Ads... At People Who Already Paid To Go See Movies
Re: Re:
And all that money gets me an experience worse than my living room with a 127" projector and surround sound. At least at home I can sit in pajamas on my comfy couch, pause if I need to go to the bathroom, rewind if I missed something, and I don't have to drive anywhere.
Pretty much the only reason I ever go to theaters is to watch a movie that just came out, and even that is happening less and less.
On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Oracle v. Google Case, Leaving APIs Copyrightable And Innovation At Risk
Topic()
{
introduction
establish basic premise
establish three primary discussion points
define topic sentence
paragraph one
describe supporting point one
describe any opposing viewpoints
rebut opposing viewpoints
paragraph two
describe supporting point two
describe any opposing viewpoints
rebut opposing viewpoints
paragraph three
describe supporting point three
describe any opposing viewpoints
rebut opposing viewpoints
conclusion
restate thesis and how supporting points prove main argument
wrap up argument and counter-arguments
conclusion sentence
}
Anyone using this format on a computer now owes me royalties for its use. If you need me I'll be on a college tour...high schools are for next year. Be back later with yacht.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
Re: Re: About time...
Why does that distinction matter? If it was slavery->secession->war isn't that the same as slavery->war? No, because the war wouldn't have started without the secession (or at least there's no evidence it would have). If the South had ignored Lincoln's election and continued on there would not have been a Civil War. If the North had simply allowed the secession there would not have been a Civil War. The secession was the key; the fact that it was caused by slavery does not make slavery the driving force behind the conflict (also, slavery was not the sole factor that led to secession, as there were also nationalist, political, religious, and expansionist factors; slavery was just the biggest contributing factor).
It may seem like a minor point, but when you have legal slaves in the North up to 1865, it seems that the "the North hated slavery and the South loved it, so they fought" argument falls apart pretty quickly. It also requires ignoring a huge amount of historical accounts, including quotes from Lincoln himself.
Granted, the Civil War wasn't fought over states' rights either. But the majority of contemporary historians agree that the spark of the Civil War was the secession of the Southern states and the creation of the Confederacy, regardless of why those states chose to go that route.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
My position is based on the work of contemporary historians, but hey, you're free to believe whatever you want. The South seceded because they wanted to preserve slavery; this is absolutely true. The war, however, was fought to end the secession, not to end slavery. If it were fought to end slavery, then slavery would have ended in the Union in 1861, when the war started and there wasn't a political reason to preserve it, rather than in 1865, when it actually ended.
So yes, slavery was certainly the primary factor leading to the civil war (along with conflicts over westward expansion) because that's the factor that led the south to secede, but Lincoln didn't start a war because the South had slaves, he started it because they quit the club. It was a war over control; the South wanted to control human beings, and wanted to keep their "traditional values" (no matter how sick those values), and the North wanted control over the "Union" and was willing to kill to preserve their power. Everyone has an ideology they use as an excuse, but it's naïve to think America fought against itself for anything other than power, plain and simple.
The North didn't have to fight; they could have abandoned the Southern states, let them secede, and gone on with their day. Everyone acts like it was inevitable, that the South forced the North to act. Bull. They could have let it go, and after a few years and a few inventions, plus a lot of education, slavery most likely would have died off in the South like it had been doing everywhere else in the civilized world. Instead, we fought a bloody war that has people divided over it 150 years later.
I'm not really defending the South. They could have avoided the war too by not freaking out when Lincoln became president, especially when he had said multiple times during his campaign that he didn't intend to end slavery. "Lost Cause" proponents tend to forget that the South didn't have to seceded...they chose to. But there's two sides to any fight and this was not a "good vs. evil" conflict as much as we'd like to villainize the Confederacy today.
Keep in mind that this is not about making private citizens or businesses do anything, it's about whether the flag should fly over a government building. I don't see that as a free speech issue.
But that's the conflict. It's a state building, and if the elected leaders of the state are following the intent of those they represent, that's exactly what a republic is designed to do. It's when the minority dictates what the majority can do that the basic principle of democracy breaks down. If you don't like it, move there and vote against the leaders who put up that flag. Otherwise, that's their business.
Sure, the majority isn't always right. But I trust the majority to generally follow the values of the people more than special interest groups with their own agendas. Sure, I like some of those agendas, but I don't like others, and I'd rather my vote actually mean something rather than be a "well, you voted, but this small group of people is going to override you because they say you're wrong."
Be careful what you wish for, because the interest groups' designs may align with you today, but when they don't (*cough* TPP *cough*), and you wonder why the government is ignoring the will of the people, well, now you know. It's because they know what's in your "best interest," your opinion be damned.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to ban it because a mass murderer featured it, so.....
Slavery was certainly a huge factor in the Civil War, but slavery is what caused secession, not war. The war was fought because the South seceded, and the question became whether or not they had the right to do that.
This may seem like a minor distinction but it's important. Secession, and whether or not a state could choose to leave the United States, is 100% a state's rights issue. Slavery was the catalyst that forced the answer.
And the Union won, so the answer is that you can't secede, as the Supreme Court would reaffirm in 1869. But pretending those factors didn't exist because the Confederacy was pro-slavery and seceded due to slavery is pure fallacy and ignores a massive amount of context for the Civil War.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
Re: Re: From the "lets up the ante" party
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
Re: Same Issue, Different Context
I, as an American, would play it. Why not? It's history. We got our butts kicked. It happens.
Hell, half the Call of Duty games involve the U.S. getting blown up by somebody. Woop-de-do, it's a video game.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
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To you the flag may symbolize hatred, racial prejudice, treason, and slavery. To someone else it may represent state vs. federal rights, oppression from government, freedom of speech, military and cultural pride, and state history. The slavery and racial aspect may not even be something that occurs to them.
I could make the same argument about the American flag. How dare you fly this symbol of racism, violence, and hatred! The U.S. practically wiped out an entire continent of people, has killed more foreigners per year on average than any other country in the world, is the only country to ever use atomic weapons in combat, and did so against civilian targets, and is currently killing children in foreign countries with drone strikes. Take down the flag!
See how silly that sounds? How it takes all the bad in a country's history and applies it to their flag? Every country in the world has things in their history they aren't proud of. That doesn't mean you have to erase the symbol of that country from the history books.
Keep in mind you're viewing the Civil War with a modern bias. For many people, especially in the southern United States, the issue has little to do with slavery and everything to do with whether or not the government can define your morals and override the social decisions of the states. From a modern perspective, the answer to this question is "Yes, of course they can," but for many people this is a major political issue that has virtually nothing to do with racism.
Switch this around. What if the Civil War was fought over the right to smoke Marijuana? What if we had "Weed" states in the South and "Clean" states in the North?
I'm not trying to minimize the horror of slavery, but that's only because I'm looking at it from modern eyes. The point is that the issue itself was secondary, and it was secondary for Lincoln. I'm sure Lincoln was anti-slavery (and he said as much elsewhere) but he would have abandoned abolition to prevent secession.
And that's what the fight was really about. Secession, and where the power lies. In the opinion of the North, the federal government ruled. In the opinion of the South, the states ruled, and the federal government broke ties. You can argue all day which is right and which is wrong but that's ultimately why over 620,000 men died in the Civil War; they were fighting for their "country" whether that was the Union or the Confederacy.
The South lost, a bunch of amendments were passed to solidify the power of the federal government, and today we have five unelected people determining a national social issue based on those amendments. Love it, hate it...that's the history, and that's the reality, and our current government is the result.
I get it. I hate racism and I believe homosexuals should be allowed to marry. But there are consequences when these things are resolved in the wrong way. I disagree with federal spying, extrajudicial drone killings, federal copyright law, civil asset forfeiture, police militarization...the list goes on and on. And if I want to move somewhere that doesn't have these rules or allow them my only option is to leave my country entirely. I can't just go to a state that fits my values because the federal government controls these policies for everyone.
So to actually answer your question, no, I don't believe it's appropriate for a state government to fly the Confederate flag. But I believe that they should have the right to choose whether or not they want to do so, and I reserve my right to ignore them. I don't believe in forcing my values on others, even when I find them awful.
That flag didn't kill anyone. Some psycho did, and there are plenty of psychos out there itching for a reason to kill. Label them as racists, label them as terrorists, they're all fundamentally the same...they're murderers, and we have ways to deal with them using our existing rules.
I don't know how to cure "murder." It probably isn't possible. But I do know what won't solve the problem...removing a flag from a statehouse. All you're doing is making more people angry and giving the symbol more meaning.
Seriously, for a site that spends so much time promoting free speech, no matter how awful, I'm honestly surprised that so many people want the flags taken down.
On the post: South Carolina Massacre Results In Apple Going Flag-Stupid In The App Store
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That's it. That's all the meaning the flag actually has...it's the flag of the Confederate Army's main fighting force.
You are free to disagree with slavery and the principles of the Confederate States of America. I sure do; I believe slavery was a reprehensible, disgusting practice, but I also recognize that it was practiced worldwide around the time that the American Civil War was fought, and existed in many places after. This includes New Jersey and New Hampshire until 1865...technically, per the executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Confederacy "ended" slavery two years earlier than the Union.
It's easy to be judgmental and look back at the "barbaric" past with a modern viewpoint. People will do the same to us (*cough* how did you justify extrajudicial drone killings? *cough*).
But the flag isn't the problem. There will probably be many people who do terrible things because they're racists and bigots who live in a black-and-white world filled with nothing but ignorance and hate. They were that way without an old army's flag, and hiding the flag away won't solve the problem.
This is simply an example of America in denial. We don't want to address the real problem...that racism, sexism, and bigotry are very much alive in our culture and that we may have to take a hard look at our own behavior. Instead we attack things we don't understand, like video games, music, the internet, and flags.
Ironically, that reaction is exactly what drives the very same bigots everyone here claims to be so disgusted with...ignorance. We tend to hate what we don't understand. Bigots exist because they have decided that it's "us vs. them" and categorized the "others" into something they don't understand and therefore would be better without. The way to solve this is to gain a better understanding of other people; of other races, genders, cultures, and beliefs.
So the next time you go on a crusade against this new "thing" that is "evil" try and remember that you're doing exactly the same thing racist fanatics do. Terrorists have labeled the U.S. (and other countries) as evil, the police have labeled minorities as evil, the list goes on and on. Think carefully before doing the same thing yourself. Nobody is immune to bias, and it's always harder to recognize your own bias than someone else's.
Something to think about.
On the post: Taylor Swift Is Not The Savior Artists Need
Re: "focusing on the business models that do work" -- OKAY, SO WHAT ARE THOSE, COLLEGE BOY?
You mean like the business model where all the content here is free and can be freely replicated elsewhere? Yeah, that clearly doesn't work...
I've pointed out many times that GETTING NOTICED IS THE TOUGHEST PART. You have NO advice on how to do that.
You mean like releasing your content for free, which naturally increases exposure, thus leading to more fans, and eventually more money? This is pretty much this site's entire argument...selling things that are limited and not relying on copyright to make an unlimited good into an artificially scarce one because it's counter-productive. The purpose behind this argument is to help with getting noticed, which, as you said, is the toughest part.
No advice? That's literally this site's main point. Try reading this, this, and this, all of which discuss core concepts of Techdirt as it relates to business models. Considering these articles are part of the "New to Techdirt?" list at the bottom of the site I'm not sure how you could argue Mike doesn't present advice.
YOU DON'T CALL FOR TARGETING CORPORATIONS, just insist that piracy (neither corporations nor artists getting money) is good for artists!
[Citation needed]. That being said, and this is my opinion, piracy can be good for artists! You said it yourself, in fact, in the second part I quoted...getting noticed is the toughest part. If that is true, then "piracy" increases exposure. This is pretty much what advertising is, by definition.
Someone who doesn't know about your content, or doesn't know if they will like it, is unlikely to ever buy any of it. People generally don't spend money randomly (maybe frivolously, but generally they know or think they know what they're buying). A pirate doesn't pay, sure, but neither does the ignorant potential customer.
The difference is that pirate has been exposed to the content...the potential customer hasn't. We spend so much on advertising because it works, and the pirate is much more likely to buy the content in the future than the unexposed individual.
I know I'm wasting my time because you've already decided that copyright infringement is theft. You most likely believe that piracy is a lost sale, and that if the pirate weren't able to get something for free, they would have bought it instead. There's little evidence for this, and even in cases where it is true, it generally only applies to content that is already popular. Which doesn't help the people in your second paragraph.
Anti-piracy fanatics love to point out piracy rates and the couple of instances where loss of big piracy sites (usually temporarily) slightly increased sales rates for legal retailers. They like to ignore the strong correlation from multiple studies where the individuals who pirate the most content also tend to be the biggest spenders on content, because that doesn't fit their "Piracy is theft...you wouldn't steal a car!" narrative.
Now, what Mike has actually argued, and I agree with, is the piracy is generally a service issue, not a social one. Piracy rates tend to decrease in areas where legal alternatives approach the quality and convenience of pirate sites at a reasonable price. The actual number of sites that do this are very few (and I would argue all are strictly inferior to pirate sites, both in breadth of content and actual value in the product received, regardless of price).
He has stated, and I agree, that offering legal alternatives that do not fetter customers with frustrating restrictions or ridiculous pricing will reduce piracy rates to a few die-hards who refuse to pay for anything (and will never be customers regardless). Keep in mind that buying power per customer is not linear; I "pirated" a lot of anime during my college years because A) most of it wasn't available in the U.S. and B) I didn't have any money. It didn't really matter if it was cheap; I couldn't afford to spend cash on anime.
I did, however, become a huge fan during those years, and now I've bought a lot of anime. It's more convenient to buy and lets me maintain a nice collection. I promptly rip all of it off those useless pieces of plastic they ship it in for actual use (the DVDs never actually leave my shelf once ripped) but I've spent literally thousands of dollars on anime. If I hadn't been introduced and developed a liking for it during college, however, there's no way I'd have had the time to discover it now, and all that money would never have been spent.
The world is only black-and-white if you are a child, fanatic, or idiot. Which are you?
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