nah, if it was, we could get our pointy sticks and go stab 'em repeatedly for this sort of thing and it would actually solve the problem. (pointy sticks includes anything up to and including proper spears and arrows, mind.)
to be fair, WINE is often a pain in the arse and/or eats multi-player functionality. lots of people aren't up to sorting that sort of thing out, and some things simply don't work through it.
also, if it's cheap enough it becomes an 'and' rather than an 'or'. worth remembering. (the Wii did this for a lot of people, apparently. as do most handhelds. despite their games being overpriced for what you get compared to even the already generally overpriced standard console games.)
actually, while that is true, if it drops low enough i believe he ends up either qualifying for government assistance (meaning the government starts having to pay his expenses) or they have to revoke his residency and deport him, taking him outside of their jurisdiction.
I'm not actually a lawyer or anything, so there's probably some way around that when the courts are involved, but that's the outcome for people who run out of money here (as private citizens.)
something the current government here Cannot afford to have happen, just by the by, given their constant hate campaign against people who have ended up on the various assistance programs...
not that he'd ever be able to collect on a ruling against them in NZ to that effect, or get a case heard in the US with any hope of a fair outcome that wasn't appealed to a higher court.
seriously, have you not been WATCHING the actions of the US government for the last few years?
you know, the part where they're not above torturing their OWN CITIZENS without trial?
ANYONE with a brain would fight extradition to the US. guilty or innocent.
Hell, were i innocent and the government apparently keen on sending me there to face charges for things that didn't even happen and/or weren't illegal anyway, i'd be starting a bloody Rebellion had i the resources. I'd have better odds of surviving the experience with my life, liberty, livelihood and property intact.
(think this is hyperbole? might be, might be not. sure as hell isn't anywhere near as much so as it looks at first glance though.)
nah. most of the time that's not the Cause. it's just the reason it's not been Fixed.
(example: it's amazing how much of the economic issues of any country can be put down to a combination of using a national or super-national currency (rather than one per city-region) and insisting on treating the Nation as a (the) meaningful economic entity, (which it Isn't. economically, you've got the city-region (or a couple of types of equivalent entities which don't have a city in them) and then... the entire world. ) both of which result in false feedback on economic conditions and thus incorrect actions in response.)
there are, of course, exceptions. (the whole IP and transparancy issue(s) is pretty much pure corruption.)
i'd actually say that the riders and the party system are your two biggest issues.
the party system makes getting rid of those who take the bribes almost impossible (and it's massively worse in countries where the concept of a party whip is an actual thing. ... ... though most of them, correspondingly, also have less of the bribery issue in the first place because you have to convince the party leadership (more than one person) in order to change Anyone's vote. though a two party system is still a disaster. )
i'd hardly call 'self interested humans with either no idea what they're doing/on about or an evil plan' a Fringe group. it pretty much describes the vast majority of politicians and corporate leadership... and more than a few of everyone else too. *ponders* which Would make them responsible for at least Most ills that befall society... though libertarian's are really only a subset of that.
i have no idea if that meets your challenge for bonus points or not, especially given the angle i came at it from :P ... but it does fit my usual style, so all good.
book publishers seem to be a bit of a mixed bag. there's a number that are quite happily Embracing the technological change and doing quite well out of it.
... given that the entire article had NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT, of course he did.
it was about warehousing and distribution. which are marginal costs so far as the product the consumer buys is concerned (even if setting them up is a fixed cost). MAKING the thing is a fixed cost and, as mentioned every other bloody time this comes up, is IRRELEVANT to the price per item to the consumer. it is the amount your over all PROFITS per item have to overcome for the product line/business to have been worth the effort. it's a different layer of calculation. there's per item profit (sale price per item - marginal cost per item) and then there's your product's profit ( (per item profit * items sold) - fixed cost of product ) then there's your business's profit (though i'm not sure if the last two are usually separated) which is the total of the profits and losses of all products less whatever other expenses your business incurs in it's running (overhead i guess? taxes? whatever.)
they're all numbers. they're all money going in and out. they're all Different Things.
Techdirt is, generally speaking, talking about the First one. morons like You keep trying to claim that somehow magically translates into the second and by implication the third. the only one that MATTERS is the third. the second is relevant to that, but if one thing makes a loss on the second level to allow another thing to make a greater Gain on that level the third level increases.
the constant attempt to apply a fixed percentage of the second level's costs as an excuse for the excessively high prices per infinitely (or near) reproduce-able item at the first level leads to over-pricing dropping the number of sales per item dropping the income per product but not the cost, thus dropping the profit and dropping the profit of the over all business, which is the one you should CARE about.
even so, what it tells you in a pure free-market environment is that price Y is a rip-off.
still, most people are willing to put up with such differences Right up until they higher price is a more significant portion of their cost of living than they can justify/afford for the item in question.
generally, the problem isn't that imports are cheaper. it's that the local price is set too high for the local market, leading to people looking for alternatives, meaning that the extra Hassle of imports is worth it.
or it seems that way to me.
(similar deal with buying from a local shop vs an online store, actually. )
... not that that's a bad thing when they're Not legitimate and/or the biggest problem is them having far too easy a time pulling off a lot of crap they shouldn't. (which is also a common problem in 'democracies'. hint: representative democracy, isn't.)
On the post: How Not To Build A 21st Century Trade Agreement: In Secret
Re: Oh, but it is 21st century
On the post: How Not To Build A 21st Century Trade Agreement: In Secret
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On the post: OUYA: Android Based Game Console Takes Kickstarter And The World By Storm
Re: "Open" chipset
standard, out of the box 'everyone knows how this works or it would be completely useless' sort of deal?
(total uneducated guess here.)
On the post: OUYA: Android Based Game Console Takes Kickstarter And The World By Storm
Re: Nay sayer, technogeek
your point still mostly exists though.
On the post: OUYA: Android Based Game Console Takes Kickstarter And The World By Storm
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On the post: Megaupload Extradition Hearing Postponed Until At Least Spring Of 2013
Re:
I'm not actually a lawyer or anything, so there's probably some way around that when the courts are involved, but that's the outcome for people who run out of money here (as private citizens.)
something the current government here Cannot afford to have happen, just by the by, given their constant hate campaign against people who have ended up on the various assistance programs...
On the post: Megaupload Extradition Hearing Postponed Until At Least Spring Of 2013
Re: Re:
On the post: Megaupload Extradition Hearing Postponed Until At Least Spring Of 2013
Re: Re: Re:
...
...
what the fuck kind of moron are you?
seriously, have you not been WATCHING the actions of the US government for the last few years?
you know, the part where they're not above torturing their OWN CITIZENS without trial?
ANYONE with a brain would fight extradition to the US. guilty or innocent.
Hell, were i innocent and the government apparently keen on sending me there to face charges for things that didn't even happen and/or weren't illegal anyway, i'd be starting a bloody Rebellion had i the resources. I'd have better odds of surviving the experience with my life, liberty, livelihood and property intact.
(think this is hyperbole? might be, might be not. sure as hell isn't anywhere near as much so as it looks at first glance though.)
On the post: Petition With 90,000 Signatures Of People Worried About TPP Hand Delivered To USTR Negotiators
Re:
On the post: Petition With 90,000 Signatures Of People Worried About TPP Hand Delivered To USTR Negotiators
Re:
(example: it's amazing how much of the economic issues of any country can be put down to a combination of using a national or super-national currency (rather than one per city-region) and insisting on treating the Nation as a (the) meaningful economic entity, (which it Isn't. economically, you've got the city-region (or a couple of types of equivalent entities which don't have a city in them) and then... the entire world. ) both of which result in false feedback on economic conditions and thus incorrect actions in response.)
there are, of course, exceptions. (the whole IP and transparancy issue(s) is pretty much pure corruption.)
On the post: Lamar Smith Looking To Sneak Through SOPA In Bits & Pieces, Starting With Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force
Re: Re: Re: Lamar Smith - on the take
the party system makes getting rid of those who take the bribes almost impossible (and it's massively worse in countries where the concept of a party whip is an actual thing. ... ... though most of them, correspondingly, also have less of the bribery issue in the first place because you have to convince the party leadership (more than one person) in order to change Anyone's vote. though a two party system is still a disaster. )
On the post: A Floating Island Of Nerds... Or Just Evidence Of A Broken Immigration System?
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though.. this is the US.
it's probably a free trip to a gulag outside the US's official borders as an 'enemy combatant' instead ...
meh. hire a boat, have it delivered to the ship. sail to somewhere less made of suck for the first leg of your trip home.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Remember
i have no idea if that meets your challenge for bonus points or not, especially given the angle i came at it from :P ... but it does fit my usual style, so all good.
On the post: The Warehousing And Delivery Of Digital Goods? Nearly Free, Pretty Easy, Mostly Trivial
Re:
but yeah. point.
On the post: The Warehousing And Delivery Of Digital Goods? Nearly Free, Pretty Easy, Mostly Trivial
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it was about warehousing and distribution. which are marginal costs so far as the product the consumer buys is concerned (even if setting them up is a fixed cost). MAKING the thing is a fixed cost and, as mentioned every other bloody time this comes up, is IRRELEVANT to the price per item to the consumer. it is the amount your over all PROFITS per item have to overcome for the product line/business to have been worth the effort. it's a different layer of calculation. there's per item profit (sale price per item - marginal cost per item) and then there's your product's profit ( (per item profit * items sold) - fixed cost of product ) then there's your business's profit (though i'm not sure if the last two are usually separated) which is the total of the profits and losses of all products less whatever other expenses your business incurs in it's running (overhead i guess? taxes? whatever.)
they're all numbers. they're all money going in and out. they're all Different Things.
Techdirt is, generally speaking, talking about the First one. morons like You keep trying to claim that somehow magically translates into the second and by implication the third. the only one that MATTERS is the third. the second is relevant to that, but if one thing makes a loss on the second level to allow another thing to make a greater Gain on that level the third level increases.
the constant attempt to apply a fixed percentage of the second level's costs as an excuse for the excessively high prices per infinitely (or near) reproduce-able item at the first level leads to over-pricing dropping the number of sales per item dropping the income per product but not the cost, thus dropping the profit and dropping the profit of the over all business, which is the one you should CARE about.
can you follow the logic?
it's not that bloody hard.
On the post: Will The Failures Of SOPA & ACTA Highlight The End Of The MPAA & RIAA's Disproportionate Influence On Policy?
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On the post: Will The Failures Of SOPA & ACTA Highlight The End Of The MPAA & RIAA's Disproportionate Influence On Policy?
Re: That's a tougher sell.
even so, what it tells you in a pure free-market environment is that price Y is a rip-off.
still, most people are willing to put up with such differences Right up until they higher price is a more significant portion of their cost of living than they can justify/afford for the item in question.
generally, the problem isn't that imports are cheaper. it's that the local price is set too high for the local market, leading to people looking for alternatives, meaning that the extra Hassle of imports is worth it.
or it seems that way to me.
(similar deal with buying from a local shop vs an online store, actually. )
On the post: Hackable Irish E-Voting Machines That Cost 54 Million Euros Sold For Scrap: 9 Euros A Piece
this probably isn't it.
oh well.
(though there's talk of setting up ONLINE voting at some point... because THAT'S not open to rampant abuse :-S)
On the post: Hackable Irish E-Voting Machines That Cost 54 Million Euros Sold For Scrap: 9 Euros A Piece
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On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
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