Anyone that lives in Chicago for more than a couple years comes to know that most Chicago musicians are, how shall we say it, um "touched" or maybe bat-shit crazy would be a better term. ;-)
EA throws the ban hammer around a lot. Given how many different "bugs" have gotten people banned from all of EA online stuff, it is hard to believe that they are all really bugs.
On top of that I know multiple people that have gotten ban threats via personal messages from official EA accounts on systems like Twitter simply because they said they didn't like the fact that they needed to install Origin and be logged in, in order to play a game like Mass Effect 3 in single player mode.
Finally, who the hell designs a system where an email list system can even touch the system that controls account bans? That is either purposely done or EA is employing the dumbest DBAs and programmers in the world.
"I'm confused. Weneedhelp said a contractor should "Do good work... period... end of story", and you imply that's wrong and claim "a good contractor does what he's hired to do". How are these two things different? Who hires someone to not do a good job?"
Actually a lot of contractors are hired by people who want a cheap job. Quality comes in second at best in many, many cases.
The modern one hit wonder doesn't come from the album era, they come from the singles era of the 50's and 60's. There are dozens of artists that had a single Top 40 hit and then nothing else. Some may have charted elsewhere, such as Top 100 or genre specific charts, but not the Top 40.
There are basically one hit wonders going back to the 1800's and probably even earlier, mainly various opera composers and singers that were very popular for a single piece and then never really heard of again.
Regarding Toy Story 3, you should compare it to the original Toy Story.
Toy Story(1) released 1995 had a budget of $30 million, about $42 million in 2010 dollars. It took in about $362 million, about $518 million in 2010 dollars.
Toy Story 3 released in 2010 had a budget of $200 million. It took in about $1.063 billion dollars.
Is Toy Story 3 really 5 times better than Toy Story(1)? Particularly considering it on took in twice the money at the box office?
This is similar to a number of niche non-english songs who's popularity spreads around the world. The internet just makes this happen much faster than it used to.
A classic "pre-internet" examples include Du Hast by Rammstein. Catchy tune that almost everyone under a certain age has heard multiple times.
Back in the day this type spread happened almost exclusively via dance clubs. Now it happens via YouTube and the critical mass is reached much more quickly. Due to the time compression it has a noticeable effect on digital sales.
I have backed about 20 Kickstarter campaigns over the past two years or so. I have probably looked at over a hundred of them.
There are two reasons I support a project.
First, is of course interest. This not only includes general interest in the project/product topic, but also the details. For example I prefer to have my games on Windows. So if you are targeting only iOS I will probably not take a second look, even if you add Windows support later.
Second, and I think even more important, is communication. In particular telling people exactly what it is you need the money for. For example explaining that while everything is designed there are a lot of up front setup costs to print or fabricate things. While a cool video is nice, if it doesn't tell me what the money is going to be used for that just shows me you don't have a good plan.
Also related to communication, you also need to make updates frequently throughout the campaign. It doesn't have to be every day, but it needs to be at least every few days, a week at the most. When I find something interesting that is 40 days into a 60 day campaign and there has been only one or two updates, I tend to move along, because it means to me that the people behind things are not really committed to the campaign.
There is one other thing that will turn me off a campaign. That is ridiculous support tiers. So for $25 I get an alpha version of the computer game, but not the final version. not interested. To get the t-shirt I need to pledge $150, goodbye.
Don't forget to include the company, or any subject, that an article was about. Because if the subject of the article didn't exist the magazine wouldn't have been able to write the article and make money. Thus any and all subjects of articles should be getting paid by the magazine publisher.
Just think about how that would change the world of politics. Any time a politician was mentioned in an article they would get paid by the publisher. You would suddenly see a dramatic decrease in political coverage.
One possible reason is related to fixed costs. It costs Amazon a set amount to sell a book regardless of is size, i.e. credit card processing costs. Above a certain price Amazon can cover those costs while giving away a higher percentage. This could all be done by breaking out all the costs, but the math and accounting are easier if you just ballpark it.
"Can anyone actually name a song of the Radiohead album that did the name any price thing on, without looking it up? I doubt it."
I paid for In Rainbows and I can't name a song title from it. But then I probably can't name 95%+ of the almost 11,000 songs that I have n my archive. 90%+ of which are of CDs that I purchased.
This type of shoot and ask questions later happens a lot, and not just related to copyrights. It is a reaction by law enforcement organizations to the fear that they might get accused of not catching someone early enough and more or worse crimes get committed. So they clamp down immediately and then try to dismiss any repercussions.
Basically they don't do the work up front and gather evidence to support any actions, because that would be difficult.
A classic example is the case of Operation Sundevil raiding Steve Jackson Games in 1990 and seized computers containing upcoming cyberpunk roleplaying game materials, because it had a "stolen" E911 file that turned out to be available to the public for $13.
Three years later Steve Jackson won in court, but in the meantime the game company almost went under because many man years worth of product work was on the seized computers that the government wouldn't give back.
I think that the libel suit is appropriate, if for no other reason than to get the truth out and the page taken down.
Others have mentioned the potential damage something like this could do for future job prospects, but there is something even more near term. If you want to get into a prestigious middle or high school(private, charter, magnet and others) these days something like this page could damage your attempts.
These attitudes do something even worse than drive people to piracy. It drives people to other providers and other types of entertainment. Such that their potential customers will soon have no interest in what they produce.
New players using things like YouTube and TwitchTV are going to start eating away at their bottom line, unless they make their content just as easy to obtain.
This is really what Lean principles are all about, and companies that follow them profit handsomely. The whole idea is to provide value to your customer. That value includes all kinds of things, of which price is only a part of the whole.
In the vast majority of cases if you provide a good value to someone they will pay you for it. Those people that refuse to pay, either do not value your goods or will never pay you, and thus are not your customers in the first place. So don't waste your time and efforts on your non-customers, because no matter what you do it will not increase you revenues. You should focus all your attention on your actual customers and what they value, so that they will gladly give you their money.
Seeing as the Supreme Court has reversed its own decisions a number of times over the years on some pretty important topics, I wouldn't count on them getting it right on everything.
Re: Re: WOW what a POS Ray Charles must have been.
$500,000 is nowhere near enough to be set for life. Unless you wish to remain single and live close to poverty for the rest of your life.
Given average rates of return on conservative investments the best you could expect to get annually is 2%-4%. So that gives you $20,000 per year before taxes.
But lets say you get a full 10% return after taxes so you have $50,000 per year. That may seem like a decent amount, but it doesn't take into consideration two things. Skyrocketing medical costs and inflation.
On the medical side of things someone in their 40's or 50's can easily need to pay $10,000 to $12,000 a year for good medical insurance. And this is just for one person. Insuring a family of four as an individual can easily top $20,000 per year.
On the inflation side, if you follow historic trends, that $50,000 per year will only be worth $40,000 in ten years. In twenty years it will be the equivalent of only $30,000.
People just don't realize how much money you would really need to live decently for the rest of your life. Most financial planners these days say you need 1 to 2 millions dollars to retire, and that assumes you are also getting medicare and social security.
So while $500,000 is a nice chunk of change the best it does is by you a nice house these days. It will not support you and your family for the rest of your life. Unless of course you are only going to live another 5 years or so.
The truly scary part about "border searches" is that the Border Patrol has jurisdiction, and works under these types of rules, anywhere within 100 miles inland of the border. Thus you get things like tactical checkpoints popping up in places like Austin Texas because it is less than 100 miles from the coast.
This 100 mile band around the border covers something like 70%+ of the population of the country.
Being a 12+ year reader of and participant in the ArsTechnica forums, I know who Peter B. is, and you have basically been trolled. Kind of.
In the ArsTechnica forums Peter is known for taking contrary, and often unpopular, points of view and pushing them to the extreme. Often he will take things to an extreme. While this can sometimes be thought provoking, it mostly just draws people out to comment on how his point of view is wrong.
Now usually his baiting is kept in the forums, but occasionally makes its way into an article. Which is usually good for generating comments and traffic when picked up by other sites.
In the end though it is mostly Peter pushing buttons and seeing how people will react, for the LOLs. And with this one boy have people reacted.
On the post: Richard Marx And How Not To Act In The Internet Era
Crazy Chicago Musicians
On the post: Redditor Points Out The Flaws In SimCity's Online-Only DRM, Gets Banned By EA For His Troubles [UPDATED]
On top of that I know multiple people that have gotten ban threats via personal messages from official EA accounts on systems like Twitter simply because they said they didn't like the fact that they needed to install Origin and be logged in, in order to play a game like Mass Effect 3 in single player mode.
Finally, who the hell designs a system where an email list system can even touch the system that controls account bans? That is either purposely done or EA is employing the dumbest DBAs and programmers in the world.
On the post: Contractors Lining Up Against Free Speech
Re: Re: Re: Contractor
"I'm confused. Weneedhelp said a contractor should "Do good work... period... end of story", and you imply that's wrong and claim "a good contractor does what he's hired to do". How are these two things different? Who hires someone to not do a good job?"
Actually a lot of contractors are hired by people who want a cheap job. Quality comes in second at best in many, many cases.
On the post: The Internet Didn't 'Kill' Carly Rae Jepsen's Career
Re: Re: Re: The power of the internet
There are basically one hit wonders going back to the 1800's and probably even earlier, mainly various opera composers and singers that were very popular for a single piece and then never really heard of again.
On the post: Hollywood Still Resisting The Idea That Cheaper, Better Films Is The Way To Beat TV
Re: Maybe cheaper doesn't lead to better?
Toy Story(1) released 1995 had a budget of $30 million, about $42 million in 2010 dollars. It took in about $362 million, about $518 million in 2010 dollars.
Toy Story 3 released in 2010 had a budget of $200 million. It took in about $1.063 billion dollars.
Is Toy Story 3 really 5 times better than Toy Story(1)? Particularly considering it on took in twice the money at the box office?
On the post: Gangnam Style Shows What Can Happen When You Don't Lean On Copyright
The internet makes this happen faster
A classic "pre-internet" examples include Du Hast by Rammstein. Catchy tune that almost everyone under a certain age has heard multiple times.
Back in the day this type spread happened almost exclusively via dance clubs. Now it happens via YouTube and the critical mass is reached much more quickly. Due to the time compression it has a noticeable effect on digital sales.
On the post: USTR: By Making People Testify About TPP Text They Cannot See... We're Being Transparent
Transparent Process
On the post: A 'Too Polished' Kickstarter Video Is No Substitute For Connecting With Fans
Communication is Key
There are two reasons I support a project.
First, is of course interest. This not only includes general interest in the project/product topic, but also the details. For example I prefer to have my games on Windows. So if you are targeting only iOS I will probably not take a second look, even if you add Windows support later.
Second, and I think even more important, is communication. In particular telling people exactly what it is you need the money for. For example explaining that while everything is designed there are a lot of up front setup costs to print or fabricate things. While a cool video is nice, if it doesn't tell me what the money is going to be used for that just shows me you don't have a good plan.
Also related to communication, you also need to make updates frequently throughout the campaign. It doesn't have to be every day, but it needs to be at least every few days, a week at the most. When I find something interesting that is 40 days into a 60 day campaign and there has been only one or two updates, I tend to move along, because it means to me that the people behind things are not really committed to the campaign.
There is one other thing that will turn me off a campaign. That is ridiculous support tiers. So for $25 I get an alpha version of the computer game, but not the final version. not interested. To get the t-shirt I need to pledge $150, goodbye.
On the post: Under Logic Of German 'Pay To Link' Proposal, If A German Publication Wastes My Time, I Can Send Them A Bill
Re:
Just think about how that would change the world of politics. Any time a politician was mentioned in an article they would get paid by the publisher. You would suddenly see a dramatic decrease in political coverage.
On the post: The Indie Ebook Scene Is Growing: Here's Over 170 Authors Who've Sold More Than 50,000 Copies
Re: Re: Re: Math
On the post: Is It A Problem If People Only Discover A Musician Because They Have A Cool Kickstarter?
Re:
I paid for In Rainbows and I can't name a song title from it. But then I probably can't name 95%+ of the almost 11,000 songs that I have n my archive. 90%+ of which are of CDs that I purchased.
On the post: Real Estate Listing Services Use Questionable Copyright Claims In Attempt To Block Criticism Of Agents
Re: Value of realtors
The question is how do you tell a good Realtor from a bad one. Just like with mechanics, doctors, dentists, hairdressers, etc.
On the post: Congress Begins To Wonder Why ICE & DOJ Censored A Popular Hip Hop Blog For A Year
Not Just IP Related
Basically they don't do the work up front and gather evidence to support any actions, because that would be difficult.
A classic example is the case of Operation Sundevil raiding Steve Jackson Games in 1990 and seized computers containing upcoming cyberpunk roleplaying game materials, because it had a "stolen" E911 file that turned out to be available to the public for $13.
Three years later Steve Jackson won in court, but in the meantime the game company almost went under because many man years worth of product work was on the seized computers that the government wouldn't give back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._United_States_Secret_Service
h ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sundevil
One good thing did come out of Operation Sundevil, the founding of the EFF.
On the post: Does It Makes Sense To Charge Kids & Their Parents With Libel For Online Bullying?
This Can Be Damaging Sooner Than You Think
Others have mentioned the potential damage something like this could do for future job prospects, but there is something even more near term. If you want to get into a prestigious middle or high school(private, charter, magnet and others) these days something like this page could damage your attempts.
On the post: Hollywood Still Trying To Kill The Golden Netflix Goose
Worse Than Piracy
New players using things like YouTube and TwitchTV are going to start eating away at their bottom line, unless they make their content just as easy to obtain.
On the post: Stardock CEO Wants To Maximize Sales, Not Stop Piracy
Lean Principles
In the vast majority of cases if you provide a good value to someone they will pay you for it. Those people that refuse to pay, either do not value your goods or will never pay you, and thus are not your customers in the first place. So don't waste your time and efforts on your non-customers, because no matter what you do it will not increase you revenues. You should focus all your attention on your actual customers and what they value, so that they will gladly give you their money.
On the post: Viacom Didn't Actually 'Win' Against YouTube, But The Appeals Court Ruling Is Still Dangerous
Re:
On the post: Ray Charles' Foundation Sues His Own Children In Copyright Fight
Re: Re: WOW what a POS Ray Charles must have been.
Given average rates of return on conservative investments the best you could expect to get annually is 2%-4%. So that gives you $20,000 per year before taxes.
But lets say you get a full 10% return after taxes so you have $50,000 per year. That may seem like a decent amount, but it doesn't take into consideration two things. Skyrocketing medical costs and inflation.
On the medical side of things someone in their 40's or 50's can easily need to pay $10,000 to $12,000 a year for good medical insurance. And this is just for one person. Insuring a family of four as an individual can easily top $20,000 per year.
On the inflation side, if you follow historic trends, that $50,000 per year will only be worth $40,000 in ten years. In twenty years it will be the equivalent of only $30,000.
People just don't realize how much money you would really need to live decently for the rest of your life. Most financial planners these days say you need 1 to 2 millions dollars to retire, and that assumes you are also getting medicare and social security.
So while $500,000 is a nice chunk of change the best it does is by you a nice house these days. It will not support you and your family for the rest of your life. Unless of course you are only going to live another 5 years or so.
On the post: Court Suggests Politically Motivated Border Searches May Be Unconstitutional
This 100 mile band around the border covers something like 70%+ of the population of the country.
On the post: Glory Be To The Window Seat: A Bizarre 'Spiritual' Defense Of The FAA's Airplane Gadget Ban
You Got Trolled
In the ArsTechnica forums Peter is known for taking contrary, and often unpopular, points of view and pushing them to the extreme. Often he will take things to an extreme. While this can sometimes be thought provoking, it mostly just draws people out to comment on how his point of view is wrong.
Now usually his baiting is kept in the forums, but occasionally makes its way into an article. Which is usually good for generating comments and traffic when picked up by other sites.
In the end though it is mostly Peter pushing buttons and seeing how people will react, for the LOLs. And with this one boy have people reacted.
Next >>