Given the content of one of yesterday's posts on this very blog, are we supposed to shed some tears about the injustice of Fox treating Warner the way Warner treats others? cf: Fark, irony tag
These problems are not new. An awful lot of the plaints I see over on Amazon remind me of what happened when I bought Half-Life 2. I installed my legally-purchased copy, brought it up, and spent the next several hours locked in mortal combat with Steam, while my copy told me it was "updating....updating....updating..."
THAT was the last PC game I have bought. Obviously, game players AND manufacturers have learned absolutely NOTHING in the intervening years.
Prohibition, in the twenties, generated a lot of skepticism about nonsensical laws.
Three Words: War on Drugs
DMCA, which has taught a whole generation of American youth (and some of us elders) not to give a damn about what greedy corporations say are their so-called "rights" and bought the US Senate to enforce it.
Every politician, businessman, and advocate on the planet who pushes some oppobrious scheme (censorship, gun control, DMCA, etc.) *never* expects to suffer from being on the wrong end of the consequences of the scheme they push.
Taking a position is precisely the point of filing an amicus curiae brief.
It's a pity lawyers can't be summarily disbarred for "bad faith and demonstrable incompetence." Jones Day as a firm would be out on the streets inside an hour.
They haven't put mine up yet, though, and it was submitted two days ago.
Here's the email I sent them before learning the reviews were back up:
I am NOT pleased with your company's decision to delete the reviews of Electronic Arts' DRM-infested "Spore" simply because so many of them were negative. It calls into question Amazon's status as an intermediary through which to buy products and effectively destroys the integrity of the review system.
If you don't like negative comment, don't invite it by allowing customers to give honest reviews, even reviews of why we won't buy a lousy product.
Put the reviews back, or lose a LOT of business. Your option.
Common failure mode among content providers, actually.
People need to remember that game publisher's staffs are, by and large, not game players. Most book publishers' staffs are not people who read for pleasure. And most movie studios are not staffed by movie fans.
All of the above are (mostly) staffed by people to whom this is a job, a business, a way to pay the rent. It's not what they do for fun.
So of course they're pretty much blind to the negative effects of DRM on their product unless and until the public comes up and hits them with a clue-by-four, which doesn't happen nearly often enough.
EA/MPAA/RIAA/publishers aren't listening because they are selling their overpriced DRM-crippled [beep] to people who live in a different conceptual universe.
"The top line is the value you give. The bottom line is the value you get. Companies that worry about the top line never have to worry about the bottom line." -- "Top Line" Analog Science Fiction, February 1, 1982
My family usually gets together for a "movie evening" at least once a week. My brother has an over-300-movie Netflix queue and there's always something nobody's seen, and frequently no one's heard of.
The result has been some amazing surprises and the virtual extinction of theater visits for movies. To give but one example, Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" astonished us all with both high and low comedy, along with a marvelously tender and heartwarming story. And that's only the most memorable of over two dozen non-latest-Hollycrud-blockbusters we've seen in the last few months.
If I want a (shudder) mainstream staple (like the abysmal Mummy 3), I can rent that at the local supermarket these days for a buck while I'm picking up the milk.
The first rule of business, since long before the time of Sargon the First until recently, has been: "Caveat Emptor": Let the buyer beware.
However, under a legal system which gives the various players in the Corptocracy almost godlike power over the consumer, the new "first rule" has become "Carpe Emptor": Seize the buyer.
In other words, try to lock your customers into YOUR stuff and to hell with the viability of the market as a whole. It hasn't worked yet, but that doesn't stop idiot market-droids from trying.
In the May, 1963 issue of Analog there was a story titled Philosopher's Stone by Christopher Anvil wherein he made pretty much the same point.
In the course of the story, we find out that the British are essentially conquering the universe by handing out peerages to the people who are actually in the trade of bringing new inventions into common use. There are compensations required for the people who actually come up with the ideas, including money, royalties, etc. but the really big rewards go to the people with the perseverance to put the ideas to work.
On the post: As Expected, Warner Agrees To Fork Over Tons Of Cash To Fox For Watchmen
Nothing less than just deserts for Warner
On the post: Ubisoft's Passive-Aggressive Decision To Drop DRM
Perhaps an analogy would help
To put it in game terms, the perpetrator, whether it's DRM or murder, gets the first move ... one move: committing the DRM/crime.
Then the perp's opponents(crackers/cops) get all the moves they want to crack the DRM/solve the murder.
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
On the post: Sega Apparently Learned Nothing From EA's Spore-DRM Mistakes
Obviously no-one learned from Half-Life 2
THAT was the last PC game I have bought. Obviously, game players AND manufacturers have learned absolutely NOTHING in the intervening years.
On the post: Study Reveals Shocking News: People Ignore The Speed Limit
Not a new phenomenon
Three Words: War on Drugs
DMCA, which has taught a whole generation of American youth (and some of us elders) not to give a damn about what greedy corporations say are their so-called "rights" and bought the US Senate to enforce it.
On the post: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Now Blogging His Opposition To Press Restrictions He Set Up
This Is News?
On the post: Prince: So Close, Yet So Far
Appropriate Quotation
Eric Flint, "The Philosophical Strangler", Baen Books, 2001
On the post: Lebanon Claiming Only It Owns Hummus, Falafel, Tabouleh And Baba Gannouj
Pay Up!
Please send the money to P. O. Box 419, Lagos, Nigeria
01-753-87-3853
On the post: Video Game Execs Freak Out Over Used Game Sales
Re: Games don't wear out?
It runs both Master of Orion and Master of Magic just fine.
On the post: Video Game Execs Freak Out Over Used Game Sales
Re:
On the post: Jones Day Afraid Of Letting Judge See Public Citizen, EFF Briefs In Its Bogus Trademark Lawsuit
Re: Huh?
Taking a position is precisely the point of filing an amicus curiae brief.
It's a pity lawyers can't be summarily disbarred for "bad faith and demonstrable incompetence." Jones Day as a firm would be out on the streets inside an hour.
On the post: NBC Proud That It Made It More Difficult For People To Watch The Olympics
Re: Its pretty simple . . .
On the post: Did Amazon Delete Spore Reviews? [Updated]
Looks like reviews are back.
Here's the email I sent them before learning the reviews were back up:
On the post: EA Ignored The Warnings; Now Getting Slammed For Spore's DRM
Common failure mode among content providers, actually.
All of the above are (mostly) staffed by people to whom this is a job, a business, a way to pay the rent. It's not what they do for fun.
So of course they're pretty much blind to the negative effects of DRM on their product unless and until the public comes up and hits them with a clue-by-four, which doesn't happen nearly often enough.
EA/MPAA/RIAA/publishers aren't listening because they are selling their overpriced DRM-crippled [beep] to people who live in a different conceptual universe.
On the post: Maximizing Profits Doesn't Mean Screwing Your Customers
Christopher Anvil put it best:
On the post: Blockbuster CEO Is Still Confused By The Long Tail
Mr.Reyes, what YOU want to see doesn't matter.
My family usually gets together for a "movie evening" at least once a week. My brother has an over-300-movie Netflix queue and there's always something nobody's seen, and frequently no one's heard of.
The result has been some amazing surprises and the virtual extinction of theater visits for movies. To give but one example, Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" astonished us all with both high and low comedy, along with a marvelously tender and heartwarming story. And that's only the most memorable of over two dozen non-latest-Hollycrud-blockbusters we've seen in the last few months.
If I want a (shudder) mainstream staple (like the abysmal Mummy 3), I can rent that at the local supermarket these days for a buck while I'm picking up the milk.
Viva Netflix!
On the post: MPAA Still Clueless; Claims Anti-Piracy Is Why Dark Knight Had A Huge Opening
Spending money on anti-piracy efforts is actually good.
On the post: And You Thought The Next Generation Video Standards Battle Was Over?
Re: Re: The Motto of Modern Business
On the post: And You Thought The Next Generation Video Standards Battle Was Over?
The Motto of Modern Business
However, under a legal system which gives the various players in the Corptocracy almost godlike power over the consumer, the new "first rule" has become "Carpe Emptor": Seize the buyer.
In other words, try to lock your customers into YOUR stuff and to hell with the viability of the market as a whole. It hasn't worked yet, but that doesn't stop idiot market-droids from trying.
On the post: Ideas Are Easy... Execution Is Difficult
As usual, science fiction got here first. :)
In the course of the story, we find out that the British are essentially conquering the universe by handing out peerages to the people who are actually in the trade of bringing new inventions into common use. There are compensations required for the people who actually come up with the ideas, including money, royalties, etc. but the really big rewards go to the people with the perseverance to put the ideas to work.
On the post: 'Autonomous' Driving Could Turn The Old-Fashioned Kind Into A Hobby
Re: Re: Thrill of driving... Bah! Humbug!
1. For some of my runs, I'd have to use THREE different bus lines. Waiting in between for a bus.
2. Have you *ever* tried to carry a bunch of packages on a bus?
3. Buses are **SLOW**, and make a lot of stops in between destinations, which makes them slower.
4. I can tell my car what to do. Have you ever tried to do the same to a bus driver? ... and lived?
Next >>