Doesn't that then make them downloadable content? Of course it does!
You don't get to change the meaning of words to suit your own needs.
Calling these micro-transactions is actually far less accurate, since 'micro' means small, and is generally used to mean very small. The whole point here is that the price of these DLC items can't legitimately be described as very small, and in fact are grossly high for the value provided.
"What I AM SAYING is that all of you are cheering on the very organization that CAUSED the problem to being with!"
So what? The fact that they're making meaningful progress to improve the situation should be cheered. The FCC have copped plenty criticism for their past failings and nobody here has forgotten that, but according to you we should just keep on slamming them even though they have changed tack and made things better. Is that how you treat people too? That's pretty weird...
"Molotive cocktails, pipe bombs, cross bows, poison gas and many others things work well too and are even easier to obtain than a gun."
Not sure about the laws around crossbows, but there are quite restrictive laws in place regulating poisons and explosives, and the mass killing that take place with those are orders of magnitude less than with guns. Maybe there's a connection there...
"First, no one that I know would pull out their weapon without having a target in mind, as it makes you an instant target for the bad guy."
BS. If you go looking for an active shooter, you don't do it with your weapon still concealed. That would be absolutely insane.
"Second, everyone that I know takes the carrying of a gun really seriously, the consequences of shooting the wrong person are horrible,unless you're a cop."
"Taking it seriously" while talking with your mates is quite different to actually being confronted by someone with a gun when you're looking for an active shooter. If you both decide the other is a threat, the situation could escalate very very rapidly.
"...and what, pray tell, makes you such an expert that you can say what I and others are "Likely" to do?"
Right back at ya. You don't know better than anyone else how someone you don't know will react. Your acquaintance with some gun owners is irrelevant.
"Just because you may panic at the sound of a backfire does not mean that any other person will."
Considering that likelihood that nobody you know has ever been in a life-or-death situation with their gun, you have no idea how competently they will react. Practicing at a shooting range falls a long way short of military or police training for situations like this.
"But according to reports, by the time one of the individuals with a gun was aware of the shooting, the SWAT team had already responded. Concerned that police would view him as a “bad guy” and target him, so he quickly retreated back into the classroom."
Smart guys like this are probably why you never hear about a shooter being taken down by an armed bystander. The "more guns on site" solution so often proposed after these events has the potential to make things even worse. You have multiple people walking around with guns looking for someone else with a gun. The potential for these armed "defenders" to start shooting at each other or be shot at by cops is huge.
Re: But you're okay with Facebook's arbitrary insane pages of unfounded legalese that says it can grab any and all content it hosts?
"But you're okay with Facebook's arbitrary insane pages of unfounded legalese that says it can grab any and all content it hosts?"
Funny, I don't remember reading that anywhere in the article. That suggests it might be something you just imagined.
"Yet again, you simply advocate for a mega-corporation rather than users."
Not a thing that happened.
"And show that you're rabidly anti-copyright."
Pointing out that something is not copyright law is anti-copyright?!
"Facebook is a permitted entitry that must serve the public or be taken apart..."
Interesting how you like to accuse damn near everyone of having an entitled gimme-gimme attitude, and yet you are demanding this private company serve the public to your satisfaction or be shut down. Hypocrite much?
"...and does not get to dictate all terms."
Actually that's exactly what it gets to do if you use Facebook. What it can't do is force you to actually use Facebook.
When large, influential companies lie to the public about the reasons for their commercial decisions, people should care. Amazon can stock and sell whatever they choose as you say, but they can't falsly claim it's for their customers' benefit and expect not to be called on it.
"The confidence in police dropping is in no small part in a shift of much of the US towards a "me" mentality, where people break the law all the time and don't expect to be held accountable."
That's a pretty big claim to make with absolutely nothing to back it up, not even some examples that might give us half a clue about this supposed rampant criminality you're referring to.
"Law enforcement are left in the unhappy situation of enforcing laws that people refuse to respect - because their personal needs are way more important than societal peace and harmony."
If there are laws that a significant proportion of the populace don't respect, then the problem is with the law (and the lawmakers), not the people. Bad laws are the antithesis of "peace and harmony". But again you provide no examples of these personal needs clashing with the law.
"That last came to a head in New York in the early 70s, and Los Angeles in the 80s with street gangs who felt they had impunity to operate."
Street gangs only represent a small fragment of society, and it's ridiculous to claim their attitudes have spread to society in general.
"The population at a whole seems to have caught this point of view, and the result is a society where the rules just don't seem to apply."
About the only thing I can think of where you might be right is widespread copyright infringement, but you couldn't possibly think that topic has a place in a discussion about the dangers supposedly faced by frontline police officers...
"Dissatisfaction with the police comes in no small part from the lengths police have to go to try to enforce the rules, and the nasty things that happen when they get carried away or frustrated while doing it."
First, police should not have to "go to lengths" to try to enforce rules, they should operate under reasonable constraints that try hard to minimise that amount of force used and harm caused. And second, cops that "get carried away or frustrated while doing it" should not be cops! There should be no place in civil society for law enforcement officers that have low levels of self-control or tolerance. These are things that they should be better at than the average person.
Re: This is what I have been saying for several years now
"It is only a matter of time where the party in charge of the government will have enough info on the other party to keep them from making a serious run for their office."
This is the vital fact that needs to be hammered home to those people who don't think government surveillance is such a big deal, because they've done nothing wrong, and terrorists! Even if you're never directly affected by government surveillance, if it keeps going unchecked eventually it will be used in ways that completely undermine the idea of a democratic government. It's just human nature, and there are plenty of historical examples. This is actually something worth hundreds of people of people dying at the hands of terrorists, because the end result could be hundreds of millions living under a far worse form of government than we have now.
"The vast majority of it comes in as links from more specialized sites."
But those aren't searches, which is what the RTBF nonsense is about. For the average interwebs user, if they can't Google it, it might as well not exist.
"What happens if French law makes you take it down, and U.S. law decides taking it down is a violation of freedom of speech and tells them to put it back up?"
Luckily US law can't do that. Google can't be forced to show anything they don't want to. That would be a violation of freedom of speech.
"The part you are forgetting is that the victims are also the perpetrators."
Forgetting? That fact has been mentioned many times, because it's the fact that makes this all so stupid. How exactly can you be both victim and perpetrator?
"Why is it OK for a teen to do it to themselves but put an adult in jail when they are a part of the crime?"
Are you serious?! The whole point of these laws is to prevent adults from abusing and/or exploiting minors. Two consenting teens of the same age swapping pics between themselves is not abuse or exploitation.
What is it exactly that you think deserves punishment here? Are you trying to disguise a moral judgement as a legal one?
"I doubth anyone on scene was qualified to say for certain that its a bomb or not."
You've looked at the photo right? You don't have to be "qualified" to know that's not a bomb, but the science teacher who saw it first was probably one of the best people on the scene to make a judgement call, and he's the only adult coming out of this mess looking alright.
It's not an outrage borne of a single indecent. This weapons-grade stupidity is being demonstrated by school officials and LEO's on a painfully regular basis. It's like they've all decided mental scarring is a good education technique. See teen sexting and armed terrorism drills for other examples.
"A briefcase that starts beeping out of nowhere could easily be misinterpreted as a bomb in a moment of panic."
A moment of panic that should immediately be followed by logic and common sense overwhelming that panic, just before a wave of inner embarrassment for leaping to a stupid assumption based on watching too many movies, and promising not to tell anyone about your brief bout of stupidity.
"Of course, it is a snippet that in full and accurate context might prove otherwise."
But is obviously didn't, since they released him without charge and apologized.
"For a site that regularly rails against perceived denials of due process, it seems out of place to present an article that lambastes in the crudest of ways the opinion of an individual who advocates investigating first."
Nice try, but no. This site regularly rails against perceived denials of legal due process. It does not say the public shouldn't voice an opinion based on the available info.
On the post: Train Simulator 2016 And How We've Reached The Crest Of The Dumb DLC Wave
Re: Re: Re: Re: Deja Vu
No it doesn't, that's just your anti-Techdirt bias inventing a strawman argument.
On the post: Train Simulator 2016 And How We've Reached The Crest Of The Dumb DLC Wave
Re:
Are they downloadable? Yep.
Are they content? Yep?
Doesn't that then make them downloadable content? Of course it does!
You don't get to change the meaning of words to suit your own needs.
Calling these micro-transactions is actually far less accurate, since 'micro' means small, and is generally used to mean very small. The whole point here is that the price of these DLC items can't legitimately be described as very small, and in fact are grossly high for the value provided.
On the post: Train Simulator 2016 And How We've Reached The Crest Of The Dumb DLC Wave
Re: Re: Re:
True, but the cost of rare physical objects is completely irrelevant in a discussion about the cost of infinitely reproducible digital files.
On the post: Predictable: The Fragmented Media Will Give Us All Our Post-Oregon-Shooting Outrage Blankets
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, I was thinking that as I typed. Let's just say I was meaning what police training should be.
On the post: Paramount Pictures Thinks A Discussion Of GhostVPN Is Really A Pirate Link To The Movie Ghost
Re:
On the post: Hey, Remember How Net Neutrality Was Supposed To Destroy The Internet?
Re: Re: Re: Such a non-sequitor
So what? The fact that they're making meaningful progress to improve the situation should be cheered. The FCC have copped plenty criticism for their past failings and nobody here has forgotten that, but according to you we should just keep on slamming them even though they have changed tack and made things better. Is that how you treat people too? That's pretty weird...
On the post: Jim Jefferies 'Official' Clip Of His 'Gun Control' Routine Taken Down Thanks To Copyright
Re: Re:
Not sure about the laws around crossbows, but there are quite restrictive laws in place regulating poisons and explosives, and the mass killing that take place with those are orders of magnitude less than with guns. Maybe there's a connection there...
On the post: Predictable: The Fragmented Media Will Give Us All Our Post-Oregon-Shooting Outrage Blankets
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
BS. If you go looking for an active shooter, you don't do it with your weapon still concealed. That would be absolutely insane.
"Second, everyone that I know takes the carrying of a gun really seriously, the consequences of shooting the wrong person are horrible,unless you're a cop."
"Taking it seriously" while talking with your mates is quite different to actually being confronted by someone with a gun when you're looking for an active shooter. If you both decide the other is a threat, the situation could escalate very very rapidly.
"...and what, pray tell, makes you such an expert that you can say what I and others are "Likely" to do?"
Right back at ya. You don't know better than anyone else how someone you don't know will react. Your acquaintance with some gun owners is irrelevant.
"Just because you may panic at the sound of a backfire does not mean that any other person will."
Considering that likelihood that nobody you know has ever been in a life-or-death situation with their gun, you have no idea how competently they will react. Practicing at a shooting range falls a long way short of military or police training for situations like this.
On the post: Predictable: The Fragmented Media Will Give Us All Our Post-Oregon-Shooting Outrage Blankets
Re: Re: Faming the guilty
Smart guys like this are probably why you never hear about a shooter being taken down by an armed bystander. The "more guns on site" solution so often proposed after these events has the potential to make things even worse. You have multiple people walking around with guns looking for someone else with a gun. The potential for these armed "defenders" to start shooting at each other or be shot at by cops is huge.
On the post: John Oliver Would Like You To Replace Your Bogus Facebook Copyright Privacy Statement With His Own
Re: But you're okay with Facebook's arbitrary insane pages of unfounded legalese that says it can grab any and all content it hosts?
Funny, I don't remember reading that anywhere in the article. That suggests it might be something you just imagined.
"Yet again, you simply advocate for a mega-corporation rather than users."
Not a thing that happened.
"And show that you're rabidly anti-copyright."
Pointing out that something is not copyright law is anti-copyright?!
"Facebook is a permitted entitry that must serve the public or be taken apart..."
Interesting how you like to accuse damn near everyone of having an entitled gimme-gimme attitude, and yet you are demanding this private company serve the public to your satisfaction or be shut down. Hypocrite much?
"...and does not get to dictate all terms."
Actually that's exactly what it gets to do if you use Facebook. What it can't do is force you to actually use Facebook.
On the post: Amazon Bans Sale Of Competing Apple TV, Chromecast Devices To 'Avoid Customer Confusion'
Re: really..
When large, influential companies lie to the public about the reasons for their commercial decisions, people should care. Amazon can stock and sell whatever they choose as you say, but they can't falsly claim it's for their customers' benefit and expect not to be called on it.
On the post: Court Smacks Prosecutors For Refiling Identical Charges In Hopes Of Keeping Evidence From Being Suppressed
Haven't they all got better things to do?
On the post: In The Post-Ferguson World, Cops Are Now Victims And It's The Public That's Going To Pay The Price
Re: Excelllent piece
That's a pretty big claim to make with absolutely nothing to back it up, not even some examples that might give us half a clue about this supposed rampant criminality you're referring to.
"Law enforcement are left in the unhappy situation of enforcing laws that people refuse to respect - because their personal needs are way more important than societal peace and harmony."
If there are laws that a significant proportion of the populace don't respect, then the problem is with the law (and the lawmakers), not the people. Bad laws are the antithesis of "peace and harmony". But again you provide no examples of these personal needs clashing with the law.
"That last came to a head in New York in the early 70s, and Los Angeles in the 80s with street gangs who felt they had impunity to operate."
Street gangs only represent a small fragment of society, and it's ridiculous to claim their attitudes have spread to society in general.
"The population at a whole seems to have caught this point of view, and the result is a society where the rules just don't seem to apply."
About the only thing I can think of where you might be right is widespread copyright infringement, but you couldn't possibly think that topic has a place in a discussion about the dangers supposedly faced by frontline police officers...
"Dissatisfaction with the police comes in no small part from the lengths police have to go to try to enforce the rules, and the nasty things that happen when they get carried away or frustrated while doing it."
First, police should not have to "go to lengths" to try to enforce rules, they should operate under reasonable constraints that try hard to minimise that amount of force used and harm caused. And second, cops that "get carried away or frustrated while doing it" should not be cops! There should be no place in civil society for law enforcement officers that have low levels of self-control or tolerance. These are things that they should be better at than the average person.
On the post: GCHQ's Karma Police: Tracking And Profiling Every Web User, Every Website
Re: This is what I have been saying for several years now
This is the vital fact that needs to be hammered home to those people who don't think government surveillance is such a big deal, because they've done nothing wrong, and terrorists! Even if you're never directly affected by government surveillance, if it keeps going unchecked eventually it will be used in ways that completely undermine the idea of a democratic government. It's just human nature, and there are plenty of historical examples. This is actually something worth hundreds of people of people dying at the hands of terrorists, because the end result could be hundreds of millions living under a far worse form of government than we have now.
On the post: French Regulating Body Says Google Must Honor Right To Be Forgotten Across All Of Its Domains
Re:
But those aren't searches, which is what the RTBF nonsense is about. For the average interwebs user, if they can't Google it, it might as well not exist.
On the post: French Regulating Body Says Google Must Honor Right To Be Forgotten Across All Of Its Domains
Re:
Luckily US law can't do that. Google can't be forced to show anything they don't want to. That would be a violation of freedom of speech.
On the post: Sexting Teens Sentenced To A Year Without Cellphones And All The Warrantless Searches They Can Be Subjected To
Re:
Forgetting? That fact has been mentioned many times, because it's the fact that makes this all so stupid. How exactly can you be both victim and perpetrator?
"Why is it OK for a teen to do it to themselves but put an adult in jail when they are a part of the crime?"
Are you serious?! The whole point of these laws is to prevent adults from abusing and/or exploiting minors. Two consenting teens of the same age swapping pics between themselves is not abuse or exploitation.
What is it exactly that you think deserves punishment here? Are you trying to disguise a moral judgement as a legal one?
On the post: Here's The Ridiculous Texas Law That Allows Law Enforcement To Pretend A Digital Clock Is A Hoax Bomb
Re:
You've looked at the photo right? You don't have to be "qualified" to know that's not a bomb, but the science teacher who saw it first was probably one of the best people on the scene to make a judgement call, and he's the only adult coming out of this mess looking alright.
On the post: Here's The Ridiculous Texas Law That Allows Law Enforcement To Pretend A Digital Clock Is A Hoax Bomb
Re:
It's not an outrage borne of a single indecent. This weapons-grade stupidity is being demonstrated by school officials and LEO's on a painfully regular basis. It's like they've all decided mental scarring is a good education technique. See teen sexting and armed terrorism drills for other examples.
"A briefcase that starts beeping out of nowhere could easily be misinterpreted as a bomb in a moment of panic."
A moment of panic that should immediately be followed by logic and common sense overwhelming that panic, just before a wave of inner embarrassment for leaping to a stupid assumption based on watching too many movies, and promising not to tell anyone about your brief bout of stupidity.
On the post: NYPD Union Prez Patrick Lynch: Only Police Are Qualified To Judge The Actions Of Police
Re:
But is obviously didn't, since they released him without charge and apologized.
"For a site that regularly rails against perceived denials of due process, it seems out of place to present an article that lambastes in the crudest of ways the opinion of an individual who advocates investigating first."
Nice try, but no. This site regularly rails against perceived denials of legal due process. It does not say the public shouldn't voice an opinion based on the available info.
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