C'mon, guys, have a heart! The movie studios have made a dime in profit, ever. Just ask anyone who made a deal to get paid a percentage of net profit. They always make sure there's absolutely no net.
Bought an Epson Action Laser 1500 back in 1993. Shortly after getting it, I tried to print and got an awful smell. Turns out my toddler had inserted a 5.25 inch floppy disk in the paper slot, and the printer fed it through until it got to the hot part, and the diskette melted.
I disassembled as much as I could, I pried, I clawed, I whined, and I was sure the printer was garbage.
New cartridges cost me about $200, but last for 1,500 to 2,000 pages, and I've been a happy camper for about thirteen years. It still works great!
A personal nightmare of an effort to get a legally purchased song onto my PDA/MP3 player.
The incredible lack of concern for legal or moral constraints by companies applying DRM, such as Sony's "We don't care that we open your computer to crackers and crash your operating system if you try to remove it" rootkit.
Parental controls also don't work well to block unseemly commercials. We don't watch much of anything anymore without recording it first so we can zip through the commericals. We also use a TV Guardian, which I highly recommend.
At any rate, cable-a-la-carte may become moot if TV signals start getting shipped via TCP/IP. It could all be a-la-carte.
It wouldn't matter if the case for agrressive perjury charges could be made so strongly that it convinced everyone.
It will never be tried because too many lawyers make too much money from work that would be culpable.
But if we just change the legal system and and change the incentives in the compensation system for all lawyers, then it could work. Let's get started!
How much has Diebold, et al, spent on political "campaign contributions"?
I find it interesting that as much as U.S. Representatives love to hold hearings to puff themselves up, none of them have even brought up the subject of investigating such anti-democratic efforts.
"All they would need to do is include some form of paper trail or..."
Uh, so I vote and get a paper receipt, and a paper receipt prints out and drops into a locked box. Lots of others do the same. I look at my receipt, and it says I voted for Joe, which matches the icon I tapped. So I ask the poll attendant, "I'd like to see your copy of my vote, please, to confirm that it's correct." They say, "Oh, no, no one can open the locked boxes until we get them all to the election commission's office."
So how does that help anything? How can the public be sure the votes haven't been tampered with?
I know! We can get together everyone who voted, and have them write out on paper who they voted for, and then manually count them to compare to the electronic results! That's great!
Of course, we can skip all this because everyone who works for the electronic voting machine companies and everyone who touchs the voting computers are incapable of doing anything dishonest.
The lawyers just want to maximize billable hours. First they'll bill time for "defending" their client. Then when the client calls to tell them to quit, they'll bill for that time also.
Probably won't get arrested, but might be subject to the losing end of a lawsuit, depending on whether or not you "should have known better". If you're a network engineer, and you don't restrict the access, you might very well be liable. If someone rides the WiFi of a household where no one understands the security issues, they'll probably get a pass. Unless they're so rich they should have hired someone. Unless they did hire someone and they told them not to worry. Unless someone else...
Perhaps it's damaged brains that leads to cell phone use, instead of the other way around.
At any rate, just leave the issue in the hands of the prison authorities... they can eliminate cell phones if the prisoners exhibit too much brainial deficiency.
On the post: Surprise! The War On Movie Piracy Isn't Working
Poor studios...
C'mon, guys, have a heart! The movie studios have made a dime in profit, ever. Just ask anyone who made a deal to get paid a percentage of net profit. They always make sure there's absolutely no net.
On the post: Epson Stops E-Tailers From Selling Off-Brand Ink Cartridges
Happy Epson'er
Bought an Epson Action Laser 1500 back in 1993. Shortly after getting it, I tried to print and got an awful smell. Turns out my toddler had inserted a 5.25 inch floppy disk in the paper slot, and the printer fed it through until it got to the hot part, and the diskette melted.
I disassembled as much as I could, I pried, I clawed, I whined, and I was sure the printer was garbage.
New cartridges cost me about $200, but last for 1,500 to 2,000 pages, and I've been a happy camper for about thirteen years. It still works great!
On the post: Senator Refuses iPod; Fears It Might Influence His Pro-RIAA Views?
Politicians love loopholes...
Someone sell IPac a used (a couple of minutes, at least) iPod for $1. Then IPac can give him a give that's under every threshold.
On the post: Apparently Verizon Didn't Learn The Cost Of Overly Aggressive Spam Filters
Best solution to date:
On the post: Skype Waiting To Pounce On iTunes
Sounds like...
On the post: FCC Commissioner Wants To Push For DRM Just 'Cause She Likes It
Re: Shrinks the market?
I will never, ever, buy another product with DRM.
I reached this position for 2 reasons:
On the post: Now, Martin Says Family Tiers Are Kinda Boring
and commericials...
Parental controls also don't work well to block unseemly commercials. We don't watch much of anything anymore without recording it first so we can zip through the commericals. We also use a TV Guardian, which I highly recommend.
At any rate, cable-a-la-carte may become moot if TV signals start getting shipped via TCP/IP. It could all be a-la-carte.
On the post: A Little Hiccup With The Comments -- Our Apologies
Compensation!
I demand a refund of everything I've paid Tech Dirt!
On the post: Sketchy New Mobile Firm Does Sketchy Reverse Merger
Xero?
On the post: Should We Charge Ridiculous Patent Filers With Perjury?
Perjury charges won't work as a solution
It wouldn't matter if the case for agrressive perjury charges could be made so strongly that it convinced everyone.
It will never be tried because too many lawyers make too much money from work that would be culpable.
But if we just change the legal system and and change the incentives in the compensation system for all lawyers, then it could work. Let's get started!
On the post: Could Antigua Use Free Music To Retaliate Against The US?
Odds
I'm giving 2-1 odds that Antigua won't set up file-sharing to retaliate for the online gambling prohibition.
Place your bets on my web-site, of course.
On the post: Yet Another Expert Points Out That Copy Protection Doesn't Work
Re: I'm sick and tired of Techdirt
Tech Dirt gets new readers all the time, and this may be new to them.
Plus, this is an important issue, and I, for one, want to stay current on what's happening. Including who's promoting DRM and who's panning it.
On the post: How Dare You Actually Want Secure And Valid Elections?!?
How much?
How much has Diebold, et al, spent on political "campaign contributions"?
I find it interesting that as much as U.S. Representatives love to hold hearings to puff themselves up, none of them have even brought up the subject of investigating such anti-democratic efforts.
On the post: Satellite Radio Firms Don't Realize Mobile Phones Are Simply Pocket Computers
Re: Freedom
Treo 650 I love it. Reason #53: Any audio you want as a ringtone.
My ringtone is a recording I made of myself saying, "Answer the telephone!"
On the post: Voter Group Sues To Block Diebold's Latest Miraculous Recovery
All they need to do?
"All they would need to do is include some form of paper trail or..."
Uh, so I vote and get a paper receipt, and a paper receipt prints out and drops into a locked box. Lots of others do the same. I look at my receipt, and it says I voted for Joe, which matches the icon I tapped. So I ask the poll attendant, "I'd like to see your copy of my vote, please, to confirm that it's correct." They say, "Oh, no, no one can open the locked boxes until we get them all to the election commission's office."
So how does that help anything? How can the public be sure the votes haven't been tampered with?
I know! We can get together everyone who voted, and have them write out on paper who they voted for, and then manually count them to compare to the electronic results! That's great!
Of course, we can skip all this because everyone who works for the electronic voting machine companies and everyone who touchs the voting computers are incapable of doing anything dishonest.
On the post: Why Laywers Don't Work In Marketing: A YouTube Case Study
A cynical view
On the post: Can Medical Facts Be Patented?
Think BIG
Think of all the patents GOD could get!!
I wonder who his attorney is?
On the post: Are You Liable If Someone Does Something Illegal On Your WiFi?
Civil, not criminal
On the post: Forget Porn, Your Boss Is Now Worried About Basketball, Apparently
Will it never end!?
I just got all my employees to quit playing Solitaire, and now online basketball? What's next?!
I may have to sink to actually hiring competent people with integrity and work ethic. And those people cost waay too much!
On the post: When Mobile Phones (Could, Maybe If It Benefits Us) Maim
Cell phones and damaged brains...
Perhaps it's damaged brains that leads to cell phone use, instead of the other way around.
At any rate, just leave the issue in the hands of the prison authorities... they can eliminate cell phones if the prisoners exhibit too much brainial deficiency.
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