Bank inthe 1980s, we had the Gaming Crash. Atari and Coleco had worn out games with side upgrades of their respective systems. Nintendo, a card company, decided to enter the gaming market in the same indirect manner. Armed with Gunpei Yokoi, a tinkerer and mainly the Nikola Tesla of games, and smart sense, they marketed their game console as an entertainment system. The key here is that they sold a separate toy to kids which was the ROB system to entice kids to play. They soon created a gaming market that far exceeds what Atari and Coleco ever did.
The point of this story is that game bans just don't work. Trying to tell the entire nation what their social values should be is destined to fail. Let's hope that as gaming matures into an accepted medium of entertainment, it also finds its stride in dealing with authoritarian overreach.
You’re having trouble telling the difference between what a legal governmental system is compared to an economic system. Capitalism does not hold people legally in a contract, the governmental legal system does. And by contrast, the Govt is not a commerce system.
Um, no. I can tell the difference just fine. The economic system in place is capitalism in America where the source of tension in corporations is the tension of the worker and employer in how much value they produce for a company. The excess value translates to profits so long as it is more than the work put into the company.
Capitalism is highly exploitative and in my view, it produces a very combative system of haves and have nots. You might not agree, but that doesn't make me schizo just for noticing that as Machinima lays off more workers and makes contacts in perpetuity, it creates more tension for producers to create more, which seems to be the source of the problem.
Democracy has nothing to do with Capitalism. Socialist France is a Democracy. Communist China is starting to practice Capitalism.
You seem interested in creating strawmen here... Democracy, as explained above, can be usurped by the capitalist system which leads to income disparity. Why is it that the income inequality gap is wise than any other time in history? Why do you think we have elected officials that take bribes for campaign donations while our civil rights are destroyed? Why do you think workers have very little say in their politics, which translates to no voice in federal government? It has to do with the disparity that the economic system fosters, a rugged individualism which is nothing more than a utopian version of a cowboy tale. Democracy appears when everyone has an equal voice in their politics and capitalism world to usurp that for the needs of the select few.
The person signed a contract, of his own Free Will, locking him into the terms of the contract run by the legal system. Not having a lawyer look at the contract before he signed it was stupid on his part. No one forced him to sign it. The terms of the contract are based in the legal system, not the commerce system.
Let's put this into ideological terms that you should be able to follow...
The person is contracting out his labor for the services he provides. Machinima takes that labor and gets paid from it. The contract as written is the tool to enforce that. However, as a society, we agree that any type of indentured servitude is a bad thing. We don't like to think of ourselves as serfs or peasants who have little knowledge but are able to sell our labor at someone else's benefit.
Which is the point I'm making. There is a growing tension between the producers of content here and the financier who is paid in excess by exploiting the producers for more content at a cheaper price than before.
Because you know what happens if you can get more work out of producers than they put in? Well, your profit margins and your bonus will be pretty great.
The rule of law is decided by the people we elect. That's what a modern democracy is all about.
I have no idea how my argument is schizo but ok... That's a really weird way to make claims on an argument you don't want to understand.
The basic issue (as I see it) is that Machinima has gotten powerful enough to exploit others in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. The YouTube system is filled with false infringement claims, money hungry studios and plenty of studios that look for ways to make money quickly and pay the producers less.
To me, it's a very bad business model that invites tension between the producer and financier. You might not agree but it's really not about the other forms of governance that may succeed or not. It's about the perverse incentives that this story is laying out for all to see.
What else do we have? Communism has been tried many places and in many versions and failed every time. The moderate socialism in place in some parts of Europe has some improvements, but other detriments.
Actually, if you look at the economic history of Socialism they are pretty successful. From 1917 to 1980, Russia went from a nation rife with a civil war, foreign invasions and internal problems to the second super power. We also can't forget that Mao did a lot of good for the Chinese . Right now, Latin America has a lot of co-ops and is growing stronger while Iceland has become a source for inspiration in terms of democratic socialism.
The key to it all is democracy and allowing all people to have a voice no larger how small. The US, being the oldest democracy, needs a lot of changes implemented in order to create a democracy that actually listens to its own people. It also needs to do away with cheap labor in regards to slavery and "right to work" laws. Also, there needs to be ways that the masses can speak to representatives about what they want in their democracy.
There is indeed a lot to fix and the system we have doesn't do that. So it's time to create laws that can begin to take these powers of the people and magnify them.
That seems to correspond with my recent notions that perhaps the core problem is the system that produces these large monopolies that people have to work in. It may just be the capitalist system that disproportionately rewards the rich and powerful over the small and weak.
Why do you always rant on Capitalism? Just curious to the seeds of this.
I'm doing a lot of study into the history of feudalism and capitalism and I'm beginning to understand that the systemic failures of capitalism rub off on everything else. When you look at how capitalism is the new mercantilism, how the rich use every incentive to keep their advantage and disrupt new businesses as well as how the government is rigged against the little guys... Well... You begin to see it as a failure of capitalism.
I searched to find the good parts of copyright. Yet, as more evidence comes out, copyright looks worse and worse. It's a part of the capitalist system and my own view is that it shouldn't be. Yet it seems to have continued to grow into a life of its own that deprives artists of income and keeps very rich labels and corporations in business over the artists that try their best to opt out of the system.
And as you say Capitalism is evil (even though everything is built upon it in some form or another), what is the fix?
I don't think capitalism is evil. I just think it's the root of the problems. Think about the large problems that are about to come down on the entire world economy that have yet to be fixed.
Corporations get a lot of power and they're run predominantly by rich people. And our debt is held by China with little investment in infrastructure and living wage jobs here in the US.
We have a judicial system that is two tier where Aaron Schwartz is judged harsher than Large banks while drug laws are used to the lives of our citizens.
I mean, I can go on and on, but the basic rule here is that the haves create rules for the have nots and that's a problem. So through all of my research, it seems that the problem is our system that is coveted by others.
what is the fix?
Well, that's where I currently want to research and hopefully make a book about. The fix is an upgraded democracy. It is a recognition of the problems we have and getting to the root causes of the issues and fixing them. For example, we don't need a two party system. We need to get rid of the Electoral college and promote the popular vote at the least. We need proportional representation in the House and Senate (maybe make it little larger in both the House and Senate so more people are represented through proportional voting)
And while I agree with Lessig that we should strike at the root, I don't think the root cause is money in politics. I think we need a recognition that our Constitution needs fixing every 20 years for each new generation and a lot more democracy to take away the plutocracy.
Getting that requires a lot more Aarons and Lessigs and others that are committed to a stronger public sphere than what is currently available. Being able to create classes for teaching, new business opportunities outside of McDonalds and new opportunities requires being able to change the world.
I just think it can be done by recognizing that democracy is the key to our future success.
OK communism does work in small groups with a common idea and goal.. Thats proven in some cases and totally crashes in others. So I will be happy to agree that in theory you can extrapolate it a mass society (say state or country).
Dude, with 400+ employees, Valve takes on and exceeds at almost everything they do far more than the hierarchical EA that has horrible customer relations, subpar games and digital distribution, and more support for the CEO than they do the games they produce. It's a company that is breaking the status quo left and right by just allowing people to work as they see fit.
But the big thing you seem to gloss over in your love of Russian Communism is that the average "worker" or normal person it was an absolute failure at providing even the most basic needs (Food, Clothes, Heat, House)... and before you start ranting this was based on propaganda and false, I think I will point out I will trust the words of my Grandmother about life in Russia under the Communist over any rants other wise, and I will trust what I saw in Russia, Poland and Eastern Germany after the fall (about 2 months after everything finally stopped kicking). Crappy built buildings, crap cars, crap everything basically except the pieces owned by the "special" leaders...
No, I just didn't want to get into all of the discussion about it and say that it went through a lot of wars, which made it incredibly good at gun making and industrialization. As I said, it didn't focus on the microlevel politics that freed the workers from exploitation. If you want the long version, just listen to this where Richard Wolff goes into the details of where Russia failed and why based on the economics.
Communism is absolution of private property, not exploitation of it.
While must people make remarks about Communism, I find them highly lacking after studying the economic history of Russia from 1917 -1980.
The short version is this: Russia went from a defeated country to the second most powerful one in the worlds with just a focus on the macrolevel economics. In other words, it was a state capitalist society where the workers still were exploited by bureaucrats instead of private markets (think about if the government had all the power to create movies instead of Hollywood).
A true challenge to the system and the true Communism is actually going to be done with coops such as those in Austin, TX or VA.
Think about the potential that comes from more coops. You have local communities working on various projects such as local goods and services. Say that Google comes in to give fiber and a union keeps it updated and maintained through higher taxes on the businesses that stay in the area. You have less need to figures on job creation and can instead work on higher wages as the community sees fit.
The Communism that you're pointing to seems to be one that comes from those critical of other forms of markets but doesn't learn the lessons of what that truly means.
But you're liable for all "infringements" that occur.
It's a raw deal trying to deal with the YouTube system on your own and dealing with the multiple corporations that are likely to get peeved if you have no knowledge you've crossed them.
Adam Smith only stated the Invisible Hand once. He felt strongly that the state(government) should intervene when monopolies arise. Most people knew that monopolies create a cancer to society.
My problem arises in how the state is taken over by corporate interests. Loosely translated, that would be fascism or what we call crony capitalism.
The capitalist system promotes this type of information dissymetry immensely.
For one, there are few regulations on how to gain better conditions for any of the producers of content. Just recently, Machinima laid off workers even though it's getting bigger. As I see it, this system is one rife with exploitation of workers and free laborers similar to how feudalism exploited serfs who grew wheat for a plot of land that they gave to a church.
The better alternative would be if the producers had a say in what Machinima was doing and how the contacts went every six months instead of a one time signing into perpetuity type deal.
Capitalism as a kinder gentler version of feudalism still doesn't mean people want two tiers of justice, and ever more laws saying how much citizens who aren't rich are criminals while those at the to are immune from harm.
Maybe I'm alone but I don't think the human rights abodes gets to the root of the problem. Chris Dodd is a red herring here. He's just a Patsy.
Why in the world would anyone want to take down Kim?
The answer is surprisingly simple... He was competition. The system allows for the one with the greatest assets to use them against their enemies. Steve Jobs supported sharing when he had no power. Now that Apple is miner one, he ruled as a dictator, exploiting labor in third world countries, fostering horrible management practices on employees, and creating a company that is now worse than Microsoft in the 90s.
He was willing to use patent law against Palm just to keep his advantage over them in a classic Prisoner's dilemma that any person should recognize. And just to add more, Steve Jobs also told Obama that he wasn't going to move manufacturing jobs into the US. Honestly, how do you tell our sitting president, one of the supposedly most powerful people in the world, that you aren't going to do what's on the best interests of the nation? The only logical reason would be that you take orders from someone other than the public.
I think the problem here is not the corruption, or even the human rights abuses. That's just a symptom.
The problem is with capitalism. You have a system that exploits workers, artists, politicians, and anyone weaker to create vast amounts of wealth for a select few people.
Workers get very low wages for their work in movies. Artists get screwed out of millions through the Performance Rights Organizations, one-sided contacts, vast amount of licenses to acquire and destruction of their venues. The politicians give these rich people vast amount of incentives for lower wage jobs just to get money for re-election. And the public gets screwed because they aren't focused on the vast amount of pressures that only affects them in passing.
It's incredible that as you connect the dots, you see that our system allows a small people to get very rich by breaking a ton of ethics rules. The only way to really fix it would be to recognize what Iceland did and follow its example in punishing those at the top who got there through dubious means.
YouTube, ie Google, makes money off the venture capitalists that give money to Machinima. When I read the story, I think it was $500 million or another large number that I can't recall. YouTube can indeed tell Machinima to knock off the BS since they pay a lot for it's upkeep as a financier for smaller artists.
On the post: Report Suggests China May Lift Console Gaming Ban
We learned this lesson before...
The point of this story is that game bans just don't work. Trying to tell the entire nation what their social values should be is destined to fail. Let's hope that as gaming matures into an accepted medium of entertainment, it also finds its stride in dealing with authoritarian overreach.
On the post: Two More Politicians Claim Video Games Are The Real 'Problem'
Re: Re: Re: Your bias is showing
On the post: TuneCore Fires Last Remaining Founder, Gets Into Ridiculously Petty Fight With Jeff Price
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who flipped?
On the post: TuneCore Fires Last Remaining Founder, Gets Into Ridiculously Petty Fight With Jeff Price
Who flipped?
How about any recent incluxes of cash from investors?
I see this as a way that the RIAA has eliminated their competition through dubious means.
There are way too many problems with this story that just don't make sense when Occam's Razor warns of sabotage (IMO).
On the post: Police Department Rewards Officer Caught By An Online Pedophile Sting With Full Retirement Benefits
All the more evident...
One rule for the rest of society...
Get out the popcorn, there may be a riot soon when people figure out the game is rigged.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Re: Re: Capitalism is the core issue
Um, no. I can tell the difference just fine. The economic system in place is capitalism in America where the source of tension in corporations is the tension of the worker and employer in how much value they produce for a company. The excess value translates to profits so long as it is more than the work put into the company.
Capitalism is highly exploitative and in my view, it produces a very combative system of haves and have nots. You might not agree, but that doesn't make me schizo just for noticing that as Machinima lays off more workers and makes contacts in perpetuity, it creates more tension for producers to create more, which seems to be the source of the problem.
Democracy has nothing to do with Capitalism. Socialist France is a Democracy. Communist China is starting to practice Capitalism.
You seem interested in creating strawmen here... Democracy, as explained above, can be usurped by the capitalist system which leads to income disparity. Why is it that the income inequality gap is wise than any other time in history? Why do you think we have elected officials that take bribes for campaign donations while our civil rights are destroyed? Why do you think workers have very little say in their politics, which translates to no voice in federal government? It has to do with the disparity that the economic system fosters, a rugged individualism which is nothing more than a utopian version of a cowboy tale. Democracy appears when everyone has an equal voice in their politics and capitalism world to usurp that for the needs of the select few.
The person signed a contract, of his own Free Will, locking him into the terms of the contract run by the legal system. Not having a lawyer look at the contract before he signed it was stupid on his part. No one forced him to sign it. The terms of the contract are based in the legal system, not the commerce system.
Let's put this into ideological terms that you should be able to follow...
The person is contracting out his labor for the services he provides. Machinima takes that labor and gets paid from it. The contract as written is the tool to enforce that. However, as a society, we agree that any type of indentured servitude is a bad thing. We don't like to think of ourselves as serfs or peasants who have little knowledge but are able to sell our labor at someone else's benefit.
Which is the point I'm making. There is a growing tension between the producers of content here and the financier who is paid in excess by exploiting the producers for more content at a cheaper price than before.
Because you know what happens if you can get more work out of producers than they put in? Well, your profit margins and your bonus will be pretty great.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Capitalism is the core issue
I have no idea how my argument is schizo but ok... That's a really weird way to make claims on an argument you don't want to understand.
The basic issue (as I see it) is that Machinima has gotten powerful enough to exploit others in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. The YouTube system is filled with false infringement claims, money hungry studios and plenty of studios that look for ways to make money quickly and pay the producers less.
To me, it's a very bad business model that invites tension between the producer and financier. You might not agree but it's really not about the other forms of governance that may succeed or not. It's about the perverse incentives that this story is laying out for all to see.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Re: Re: Capitalism is the core issue
Actually, if you look at the economic history of Socialism they are pretty successful. From 1917 to 1980, Russia went from a nation rife with a civil war, foreign invasions and internal problems to the second super power. We also can't forget that Mao did a lot of good for the Chinese . Right now, Latin America has a lot of co-ops and is growing stronger while Iceland has become a source for inspiration in terms of democratic socialism.
The key to it all is democracy and allowing all people to have a voice no larger how small. The US, being the oldest democracy, needs a lot of changes implemented in order to create a democracy that actually listens to its own people. It also needs to do away with cheap labor in regards to slavery and "right to work" laws. Also, there needs to be ways that the masses can speak to representatives about what they want in their democracy.
There is indeed a lot to fix and the system we have doesn't do that. So it's time to create laws that can begin to take these powers of the people and magnify them.
On the post: Anonymous Hacks US Sentencing Commission Website, Grabs Sensitive Files And Demands Legal Reform
Re: Re:
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Re: Why sign with Machinima?
On the post: Bad Week For Carmen Ortiz: Admits To Botched Gang Arrest As Congress Kicks Off Swartz Investigation
The government doesn't give a care about screw ups. She'll get a raise for that.
On the post: Human Rights Lawyer Explains Why He's Working For Kim Dotcom: Exposing American Corruption
Re: Re: Systemic Corruption
I'm doing a lot of study into the history of feudalism and capitalism and I'm beginning to understand that the systemic failures of capitalism rub off on everything else. When you look at how capitalism is the new mercantilism, how the rich use every incentive to keep their advantage and disrupt new businesses as well as how the government is rigged against the little guys... Well... You begin to see it as a failure of capitalism.
I searched to find the good parts of copyright. Yet, as more evidence comes out, copyright looks worse and worse. It's a part of the capitalist system and my own view is that it shouldn't be. Yet it seems to have continued to grow into a life of its own that deprives artists of income and keeps very rich labels and corporations in business over the artists that try their best to opt out of the system.
And as you say Capitalism is evil (even though everything is built upon it in some form or another), what is the fix?
I don't think capitalism is evil. I just think it's the root of the problems. Think about the large problems that are about to come down on the entire world economy that have yet to be fixed.
The banks are still taking large risks (Article)
Corporations get a lot of power and they're run predominantly by rich people. And our debt is held by China with little investment in infrastructure and living wage jobs here in the US.
We have a judicial system that is two tier where Aaron Schwartz is judged harsher than Large banks while drug laws are used to the lives of our citizens.
I mean, I can go on and on, but the basic rule here is that the haves create rules for the have nots and that's a problem. So through all of my research, it seems that the problem is our system that is coveted by others.
what is the fix?
Well, that's where I currently want to research and hopefully make a book about. The fix is an upgraded democracy. It is a recognition of the problems we have and getting to the root causes of the issues and fixing them. For example, we don't need a two party system. We need to get rid of the Electoral college and promote the popular vote at the least. We need proportional representation in the House and Senate (maybe make it little larger in both the House and Senate so more people are represented through proportional voting)
And while I agree with Lessig that we should strike at the root, I don't think the root cause is money in politics. I think we need a recognition that our Constitution needs fixing every 20 years for each new generation and a lot more democracy to take away the plutocracy.
Getting that requires a lot more Aarons and Lessigs and others that are committed to a stronger public sphere than what is currently available. Being able to create classes for teaching, new business opportunities outside of McDonalds and new opportunities requires being able to change the world.
I just think it can be done by recognizing that democracy is the key to our future success.
On the post: Human Rights Lawyer Explains Why He's Working For Kim Dotcom: Exposing American Corruption
Re: Re: Re: Re: Systemic Corruption
Dude, with 400+ employees, Valve takes on and exceeds at almost everything they do far more than the hierarchical EA that has horrible customer relations, subpar games and digital distribution, and more support for the CEO than they do the games they produce. It's a company that is breaking the status quo left and right by just allowing people to work as they see fit.
But the big thing you seem to gloss over in your love of Russian Communism is that the average "worker" or normal person it was an absolute failure at providing even the most basic needs (Food, Clothes, Heat, House)... and before you start ranting this was based on propaganda and false, I think I will point out I will trust the words of my Grandmother about life in Russia under the Communist over any rants other wise, and I will trust what I saw in Russia, Poland and Eastern Germany after the fall (about 2 months after everything finally stopped kicking). Crappy built buildings, crap cars, crap everything basically except the pieces owned by the "special" leaders...
No, I just didn't want to get into all of the discussion about it and say that it went through a lot of wars, which made it incredibly good at gun making and industrialization. As I said, it didn't focus on the microlevel politics that freed the workers from exploitation. If you want the long version, just listen to this where Richard Wolff goes into the details of where Russia failed and why based on the economics.
On the post: The Unintended Consequences Of The Copyright Alerts System
Re:
On the post: Human Rights Lawyer Explains Why He's Working For Kim Dotcom: Exposing American Corruption
Re: Re: Systemic Corruption
While must people make remarks about Communism, I find them highly lacking after studying the economic history of Russia from 1917 -1980.
The short version is this: Russia went from a defeated country to the second most powerful one in the worlds with just a focus on the macrolevel economics. In other words, it was a state capitalist society where the workers still were exploited by bureaucrats instead of private markets (think about if the government had all the power to create movies instead of Hollywood).
A true challenge to the system and the true Communism is actually going to be done with coops such as those in Austin, TX or VA.
Think about the potential that comes from more coops. You have local communities working on various projects such as local goods and services. Say that Google comes in to give fiber and a union keeps it updated and maintained through higher taxes on the businesses that stay in the area. You have less need to figures on job creation and can instead work on higher wages as the community sees fit.
The Communism that you're pointing to seems to be one that comes from those critical of other forms of markets but doesn't learn the lessons of what that truly means.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: shame
It's a raw deal trying to deal with the YouTube system on your own and dealing with the multiple corporations that are likely to get peeved if you have no knowledge you've crossed them.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Capitalism is the core issue
My problem arises in how the state is taken over by corporate interests. Loosely translated, that would be fascism or what we call crony capitalism.
The capitalist system promotes this type of information dissymetry immensely.
For one, there are few regulations on how to gain better conditions for any of the producers of content. Just recently, Machinima laid off workers even though it's getting bigger. As I see it, this system is one rife with exploitation of workers and free laborers similar to how feudalism exploited serfs who grew wheat for a plot of land that they gave to a church.
The better alternative would be if the producers had a say in what Machinima was doing and how the contacts went every six months instead of a one time signing into perpetuity type deal.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re: Capitalism is the core issue
On the post: Human Rights Lawyer Explains Why He's Working For Kim Dotcom: Exposing American Corruption
Systemic Corruption
Why in the world would anyone want to take down Kim?
The answer is surprisingly simple... He was competition. The system allows for the one with the greatest assets to use them against their enemies. Steve Jobs supported sharing when he had no power. Now that Apple is miner one, he ruled as a dictator, exploiting labor in third world countries, fostering horrible management practices on employees, and creating a company that is now worse than Microsoft in the 90s.
He was willing to use patent law against Palm just to keep his advantage over them in a classic Prisoner's dilemma that any person should recognize. And just to add more, Steve Jobs also told Obama that he wasn't going to move manufacturing jobs into the US. Honestly, how do you tell our sitting president, one of the supposedly most powerful people in the world, that you aren't going to do what's on the best interests of the nation? The only logical reason would be that you take orders from someone other than the public.
I think the problem here is not the corruption, or even the human rights abuses. That's just a symptom.
The problem is with capitalism. You have a system that exploits workers, artists, politicians, and anyone weaker to create vast amounts of wealth for a select few people.
Workers get very low wages for their work in movies. Artists get screwed out of millions through the Performance Rights Organizations, one-sided contacts, vast amount of licenses to acquire and destruction of their venues. The politicians give these rich people vast amount of incentives for lower wage jobs just to get money for re-election. And the public gets screwed because they aren't focused on the vast amount of pressures that only affects them in passing.
It's incredible that as you connect the dots, you see that our system allows a small people to get very rich by breaking a ton of ethics rules. The only way to really fix it would be to recognize what Iceland did and follow its example in punishing those at the top who got there through dubious means.
On the post: YouTube Stars Fighting YouTube Networks Over Their Contracts
Re: Re:
YouTube, ie Google, makes money off the venture capitalists that give money to Machinima. When I read the story, I think it was $500 million or another large number that I can't recall. YouTube can indeed tell Machinima to knock off the BS since they pay a lot for it's upkeep as a financier for smaller artists.
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