How would that prevent people from buying used games with the manual included?
it was supposed to prevent copied games. the logic being that xeroxing the manual was an insurmountable obstacle for your average floppy copier.
today you just crack the game's executable to jump over the call for the validity check/unlock code/nag screen so that the anti-copying mechanisms never come into play.
older games that you play in an emulator, like the SCUMMVM games (the old monkey island series) used to include scanned images of the code wheels that came with the manuals and worked like a kind of decoder ring to unlock the game.
i get that. that was also in 1994, prior to the internet reaching critical mass among consumers. in those days, television was king for promoting something. today, TV advertisements almost never reach me.
I'd like to also submit the fact that the MPAA organizations spend hugely on advertisements. Advertising for people that won't want to watch the movie.
i'll see your point, and raise you two:
1) there are films that i haven't seen simply because i have seen too many advertisements for them. as in, i can see any movie i want, for free, on the device of my choosing, and i still won't see it because my desire to see the film has been burned by the media blitz.
2) the one size fits all, marketed to within an inch of its life approach to film virtually guarantees that it will be pirated on a large scale. now i just go to my favorite torrent tracker, sort the list of films by their number of seeds, and start downloading.
maybe if the film establishment didn't throw money away, it wouldn't take a decade to recoup the investment made on a film like clerks.
Re: Re: Seems simple enough: a movie /advertised/.
Wouldn't the existence of a movie that's played in theatres to paying audiences not be an indication of this?
existence of a film doesn't prove it's "real". real films are made of film, which is real. smith's movie could be made of internet, which is not real.
What does the ad prove that the showing it was advertising did not?
the newspaper ad allows an old rich hollywood type to look in a paper and see a real ad (made of paper) for a real film (made of film) playing in a real theater (made of theater).
kevin smith's website (made of internet) for his film (possibly made of film, possibly made of internet) doesn't prove the film is real.
when you think about it, the logic is positively bullet proof.
At the end of the day, Smith is making a pittance in this manner.
smith must be making money or he wouldn't keep making films, right?
Unlike many filmmakers who are not as wealthy as Smith, they actually need to seek a greater return than Smith does with his hobby-style filmmaking.
a lot of releases spend as much on marketing as they do on the actual film. by not running ads, smith found a way to significantly cut his costs.
Also, though I haven't seen the film, I doubt it has many expensive bells and whistles and expensive talent.
again, that's how you cut costs. the lower your costs, the sooner you hit the break even point, and the easier it becomes to turn a profit.
lower costs are how you adapt your product to compete in an era of digital distribution.
he has the luxury of easy access to capital and enough of a rep so he doesn't get much real creative oversight.
"creative oversight" comes into play when you need a lot of money to make a film. again, lowering costs means you have to make fewer deals with the devil to make your film.
Smith had to earn his stripes making films using the conventional model.
smith started making films in the early 90's, before the web hit critical mass. the conventional model was really the only model. new film makers have access to all sorts of alternative methods of promotion, distribution, and financing.
today it's entirely possible to fund, create, promote, and distribute a film entirely outside of the film establishment. that means more film, and more choice for consumers which is always a good thing.
1) you support others buying new and 2) you can cheaply try out series and developers and become a fan who might buy new in the future.
awesome. but developers don't get any money directly from the used market.
the used market is a secondary market that game developers have zero incentive to participate in other than for PR purposes.
gamestop is basically a pawnshop. once game developers and console manufacturers go to purely digital distribution, gamestop will be an antique store, selling obsolete games and peripherals to collectors.
If it wasn't for GameStop, many developers wouldn't be getting my money. If you think I'm spending $60+ on a "chance", you're mistaken.
A series must now prove itself to me, and then will I support it. I can't stress enough of those who have sold their games making it advantageous to me to try out a title for as little as $4.99.
if you buy titles used, the developer doesn't get anything from the sale.
Oh, you mean like the non-commercial nature of file sharing? You mean how when someone shares a song, they arent doing it for financial gain?
using the internet to save money that rightfully belongs to a large corporation is piracy:
making a phone call through the internet to save on mobile minutes: piracy.
telecommuting instead of buying gas to drive to work: piracy.
And dont say "file sharers avoid paying for it so its a financial gain" because that would be exactly what these ladies are doing, and you just said that that doesnt count.
these are little old ladies at a bookstore, not punk teenagers on the internet. the two cases are completely different.
Putting together a consortium of political activists with the intent of impressing up on the politicians and the public the other side of things might be a step towards fixing the mess we've got.
I think where they may be looking is the old "bits in the middle", the infrastructure. Remember, when data transits from one point to another, the two ends are paid for, but the middle bits are supported only by what is paid at the ends.
this is always settled with a peering agreement. the reason that you pay to connect, and netflix pays to connect, is that those connections go somewhere. the somewhere part is taken care of with peering agreements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering_agreement#Peering_agreement
if the telcos didn't negotiate a decent peering agreement, how is that netflix's problem?
hay, my cousin's roomate's uncle got the flu vaccine and was subsequently abducted by aliens.
the vaccine is just a tagging system so the aliens know who to grab. they use bees to distribute it as well. i saw a documentary about it with this hot FBI agent in it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: blocked access to the Telex station?
Ha, American ISPs are more likely to copy China's current system than they are to help route around it.
all american telcos and ISPs will do what the american government tells them, even when it's illegal. just ask AT&T and verizon about their little eavesdropping project after 9/11.
that's what the article means by "government-level response".
The mongolians care very much about Chinese law, because if they screw up, they can go to jail, "training camps", or even end up dead. Yes, you can get the death penalty for helping people route around the great firewall of China.
millions of chinese practice falun gong despite it being officially banned by the chinese communist party. i don't think the chinese government has as much control as you think it does:
...i stopped reading the telex articles at "would require major ISP support"
that's sure as hell not happening.
it requires major ISP support from ISP's who are not complicit in censorship. FTFA:
"We like to envision this technology as a possible government-level response to government-level censorship," he says, with governments providing incentives for ISPs to install Telex.
as in, a major american ISP (like level3) can provide support for dissidents in countries with censored network connections by running telex.
Re: "Routing around" Youtube requires high bandwidth.
Who's going to pay for it, and how do you keep the high traffic hidden from a simple monitor?
tunnels are encapsulated+encrypted routes inside existing routes. you pay (or your school, corporation, or gov't pays) for your censored connection and your tunnel goes thru that. tor is a way to smuggle anonymized traffic through an existing network.
of course there's overhead, especially when you are tunneling through a protocol that isn't meant for sustained connections, like DNS. tor, i2p and all other anonymous networks are incredibly slow, but that basically means that you have to be patient.
streaming video (like youtube) probably isn't a good application for a tunnel. downloading files via a low bandwidth friendly protocol and saving them to a portable disk for offline viewing is probably a better approach.
bit torrent would be a great tool for collecting materials from a tunneled link. it lets you pull files from multiple sources at once, and with a good client you can manage the bandwidth usage and number of connections.
wget is a great tool for snarfing files and even whole websites for later review.
getting materials to and from the internet is just part of your anti-censorship toolkit. you'll also want to run a darknet to get collect and disseminate materials to people who don't have access to your tunnels, or who have access to different tunnels. pirates do this already, trading DVDs and portable hard drives IRL in order to save ratio. this works really well when you and your friend have hookups on different private trackers.
projects like the pirate box or the digital dead drop would be great darknet solutions for distributing and trading contraband materials. you can use block crypto on these devices if you are worried about the contents falling into the wrong hands.
"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?…The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
On the post: Printing Error Shows Flaw In 'Lock-It-Up' Video Game Business Model
Re: Re:
it was supposed to prevent copied games. the logic being that xeroxing the manual was an insurmountable obstacle for your average floppy copier.
today you just crack the game's executable to jump over the call for the validity check/unlock code/nag screen so that the anti-copying mechanisms never come into play.
older games that you play in an emulator, like the SCUMMVM games (the old monkey island series) used to include scanned images of the code wheels that came with the manuals and worked like a kind of decoder ring to unlock the game.
On the post: Kevin Smith Explains Why He Had To Waste $9,316 On Movie Ads That He Didn't Want Or Need
Re: Re: Re: Re: A possible explanation?
I'd like to also submit the fact that the MPAA organizations spend hugely on advertisements. Advertising for people that won't want to watch the movie.
i'll see your point, and raise you two:
1) there are films that i haven't seen simply because i have seen too many advertisements for them. as in, i can see any movie i want, for free, on the device of my choosing, and i still won't see it because my desire to see the film has been burned by the media blitz.
2) the one size fits all, marketed to within an inch of its life approach to film virtually guarantees that it will be pirated on a large scale. now i just go to my favorite torrent tracker, sort the list of films by their number of seeds, and start downloading.
maybe if the film establishment didn't throw money away, it wouldn't take a decade to recoup the investment made on a film like clerks.
On the post: Kevin Smith Explains Why He Had To Waste $9,316 On Movie Ads That He Didn't Want Or Need
Re: Re: Seems simple enough: a movie /advertised/.
existence of a film doesn't prove it's "real". real films are made of film, which is real. smith's movie could be made of internet, which is not real.
What does the ad prove that the showing it was advertising did not?
the newspaper ad allows an old rich hollywood type to look in a paper and see a real ad (made of paper) for a real film (made of film) playing in a real theater (made of theater).
kevin smith's website (made of internet) for his film (possibly made of film, possibly made of internet) doesn't prove the film is real.
when you think about it, the logic is positively bullet proof.
On the post: Kevin Smith Explains Why He Had To Waste $9,316 On Movie Ads That He Didn't Want Or Need
Re: Re: A possible explanation?
smith must be making money or he wouldn't keep making films, right?
Unlike many filmmakers who are not as wealthy as Smith, they actually need to seek a greater return than Smith does with his hobby-style filmmaking.
a lot of releases spend as much on marketing as they do on the actual film. by not running ads, smith found a way to significantly cut his costs.
Also, though I haven't seen the film, I doubt it has many expensive bells and whistles and expensive talent.
again, that's how you cut costs. the lower your costs, the sooner you hit the break even point, and the easier it becomes to turn a profit.
lower costs are how you adapt your product to compete in an era of digital distribution.
he has the luxury of easy access to capital and enough of a rep so he doesn't get much real creative oversight.
"creative oversight" comes into play when you need a lot of money to make a film. again, lowering costs means you have to make fewer deals with the devil to make your film.
Smith had to earn his stripes making films using the conventional model.
smith started making films in the early 90's, before the web hit critical mass. the conventional model was really the only model. new film makers have access to all sorts of alternative methods of promotion, distribution, and financing.
today it's entirely possible to fund, create, promote, and distribute a film entirely outside of the film establishment. that means more film, and more choice for consumers which is always a good thing.
On the post: Would We Have Art Without Copyright Law?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Partially Subverted
On the post: Gamestop Discovers The Streisand Effect; Gives OnLive Tons Of Free Publicity In Trying To Take Away Coupons
Re: Re: Re: Re:
awesome. but developers don't get any money directly from the used market.
the used market is a secondary market that game developers have zero incentive to participate in other than for PR purposes.
gamestop is basically a pawnshop. once game developers and console manufacturers go to purely digital distribution, gamestop will be an antique store, selling obsolete games and peripherals to collectors.
On the post: Gamestop Discovers The Streisand Effect; Gives OnLive Tons Of Free Publicity In Trying To Take Away Coupons
Re: Re:
A series must now prove itself to me, and then will I support it. I can't stress enough of those who have sold their games making it advantageous to me to try out a title for as little as $4.99.
if you buy titles used, the developer doesn't get anything from the sale.
On the post: Stop The Scourge Of Illegal 'Downwriting'
Re: Re: fair use.
using the internet to save money that rightfully belongs to a large corporation is piracy:
making a phone call through the internet to save on mobile minutes: piracy.
telecommuting instead of buying gas to drive to work: piracy.
And dont say "file sharers avoid paying for it so its a financial gain" because that would be exactly what these ladies are doing, and you just said that that doesnt count.
these are little old ladies at a bookstore, not punk teenagers on the internet. the two cases are completely different.
On the post: Will John Sununu And Harold Ford Jr. Agree To Pay Netflix's Broadband Bill Next Month?
Re: Re: Re: Fight lobby with lobby?
good luck fitting that on a bumper sticker.
On the post: Will John Sununu And Harold Ford Jr. Agree To Pay Netflix's Broadband Bill Next Month?
Re:
this is always settled with a peering agreement. the reason that you pay to connect, and netflix pays to connect, is that those connections go somewhere. the somewhere part is taken care of with peering agreements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering_agreement#Peering_agreement
if the telcos didn't negotiate a decent peering agreement, how is that netflix's problem?
On the post: Public Health Official Forced To Shut Up On Twitter, Blog For Daring To Speak Honestly
Re: They'll come
the vaccine is just a tagging system so the aliens know who to grab. they use bees to distribute it as well. i saw a documentary about it with this hot FBI agent in it.
On the post: As Governments Get Censorship Happy, New Technologies Popping Up To Route Around That
Re: Re: Re: Re: blocked access to the Telex station?
all american telcos and ISPs will do what the american government tells them, even when it's illegal. just ask AT&T and verizon about their little eavesdropping project after 9/11.
that's what the article means by "government-level response".
On the post: As Governments Get Censorship Happy, New Technologies Popping Up To Route Around That
Re: Re: Re:
millions of chinese practice falun gong despite it being officially banned by the chinese communist party. i don't think the chinese government has as much control as you think it does:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
On the post: As Governments Get Censorship Happy, New Technologies Popping Up To Route Around That
Re: Re: blocked access to the Telex station?
that's sure as hell not happening.
it requires major ISP support from ISP's who are not complicit in censorship. FTFA:
as in, a major american ISP (like level3) can provide support for dissidents in countries with censored network connections by running telex.
On the post: As Governments Get Censorship Happy, New Technologies Popping Up To Route Around That
Re: "Routing around" Youtube requires high bandwidth.
tunnels are encapsulated+encrypted routes inside existing routes. you pay (or your school, corporation, or gov't pays) for your censored connection and your tunnel goes thru that. tor is a way to smuggle anonymized traffic through an existing network.
of course there's overhead, especially when you are tunneling through a protocol that isn't meant for sustained connections, like DNS. tor, i2p and all other anonymous networks are incredibly slow, but that basically means that you have to be patient.
streaming video (like youtube) probably isn't a good application for a tunnel. downloading files via a low bandwidth friendly protocol and saving them to a portable disk for offline viewing is probably a better approach.
bit torrent would be a great tool for collecting materials from a tunneled link. it lets you pull files from multiple sources at once, and with a good client you can manage the bandwidth usage and number of connections.
wget is a great tool for snarfing files and even whole websites for later review.
getting materials to and from the internet is just part of your anti-censorship toolkit. you'll also want to run a darknet to get collect and disseminate materials to people who don't have access to your tunnels, or who have access to different tunnels. pirates do this already, trading DVDs and portable hard drives IRL in order to save ratio. this works really well when you and your friend have hookups on different private trackers.
projects like the pirate box or the digital dead drop would be great darknet solutions for distributing and trading contraband materials. you can use block crypto on these devices if you are worried about the contents falling into the wrong hands.
On the post: Stealing Isn't Saving, But Sharing Isn't Stealing
Re:
Fuck you, I would if I could.
if i could download a car, i would download thousands, crush them into cubes, and make big ugly house out of them.
On the post: The Absurdity Of Comparing Copying To Stealing
Re: Mike, there's a reason they use the word "stealing".
On the post: Lawyer Trying To Trademark Bitcoin Threatens Techdirt With Bogus DMCA Takedown
Re: Re: 18 USC § 512(f)
so ignorance of the law is no excuse, but delusion is a valid defense?
On the post: Zero-Sum Economics
Re: Re: Re:
this is our content:
stolen fairly and squarely.
steal it and we'll sue.
On the post: Making Sure Your Ass Is Covered
Re: Re: Re: No wonder you don't like "intellectual property"!
your dreams are real. your exclusive right to sell them is not.
Next >>