pre-release DVDs for oscar consideration are a very common source for excellent quality digital versions of movies that are still in theaters. Sony is on the right track here, it is very sad that even people inside the industry are so careless or thoughtless as to allow their private copies to move rapidly to the piracy sites.
If every pre-release copy was watermarked, I suspect the only good copies you would see online would also be watermarked. After all, those copies aren't coming off of camcorders.
This is another one of those "the shoplifters are winning, let's just give up" stories, which is a total defeatist attitude.
As I mentioned before, I unfortunately used the word "would" when I really mean "could".
As for pulling the numbers out of my ass, sorry, but the numbers are very logically supported.
Overall system average is 131. 15% of all drivers go faster thsn 155. If you remove the speedy drivers from the deal, the average speed drops to 126. In that lower average speed, you have to consider trucks (which don't run much over 100), etc. You also have to consider that some sections have speed limits lower than 130, including areas in the 100-120 range, and construction zones as low as 60.
So while the system average speed is 131, the actual speed of cars is higher (to make up for slower trucks, this is an average after all), and still 15% of drivers go even faster, beyond 155.
Since speed limits and other passing safety issues are agressively enforced (including radar, cameras, etc), it is doubtful that significant numbers of people would greatly exceed the speed limits on a regular basis, so it is a fairly logical conclusion that the speeds in the unregulated sections would be higher than in other, controlled sections.
It is suggested on some sites that the average speed on unrelated sections approaches 150km/h.
No, I am not assuming everyone is respecting the speed limits everywhere else, because the average speed is only the AVERAGE speed.
The potential is that in the high speed sections, everyone is running over 80MPH, and on average people are running slower than 80MPH in the speed controlled sections.
Keep on going Mike, you are just looking bad because you can't accept that you are wrong.
There is always some potential for abuse. Every system has it. The question should be the potential good versus the potential abuse.
It has look since been proven that good wiretapping has huge potential good, and the potential abuse is very small next to it. In a free society, the public would not tolerate systematic abuses for very long, which would lead to a political uprising that would see changes in systems or significant penalties for abusers.
It would be a real shame if the potential to stop criminal activity was lost because of the often overblown fears of "abuse".
If you think that they are complaining, imagine what your average American with an overblown sense of entitlement would sound like complaining about this.
They use very agressive techniques, and some of those techniques include racial profiling. The issues are strong enough that many arabs choose not to fly through Israel, to avoid any potential issues.
rapid decompression of an airplane has all sorts of implications. Consider what happened to the Aloha Airways plane (one of the best examples), where a flight attendant was sucked out of the plane. Thankfully, the vast majority of passengers were belted in. It is also incredibly lucky that the plane did not snap in two.
It isn't just the decompression by itself, but also the incease of drag in the area of the hole, which can lead to progressive failure of the airframe, peeling panels off as the mounting rivets fail. There is also the potential for damage to control systems, as parts coming off my damage the aircraft.
Aircraft are perfect targets, because even in an emergency, the time to landing is long enough that the secondary effects of damage can come along and cause many more problems than just the initial blast.
The point isn't just to censor, it is also to monitor and locate dissidents and their followers. A site that is open and can be reached is pretty much just a honeypot, as the people that it attracts are marking themselves as dissidents as well.
Last time I checked, Techdirt wasn't available in China. Not sure if they opened it back up or not, I'll check in a couple of weeks to see.
Even if they haven't signed the rights away yet, allow this sort of production to get widespread exposure and distribution could negatively affect their chances to license in the future. Heck, a poorly made movie could negatively impact the public's perception of the game entirely.
It's a no brainer here. The people making the movie should have asked, they might have actually gotten support.
On an airplane you require only a relatively small explosion to do major damage, especially when the plane is pressurized at altitude. A small hole in the fusilage can lead to explosive decompression, which can tear the aircraft apart, injure passengers, etc.
It is why some people have suggested that this bomber chickened out or was poorly trained, because this size device at low altitude likely would not have taken the plane out. Had the device functioned properly with the plane at high altitude over the ocean, it could have been 100% fatal.
The true goal of terrorism is for a very small minority to hold the majority hostage. It's the schoolyard bully taken to the Nth degree.
Dementia, Mike is right only when you do a widescale average, and the numbers only look right when you think that the Autobahn has no speed limits.
As stated, 75% of the autobahn at any time has a speed limit of 130km/h or less. There is only 25% of the roadway that is open to whatever speed people like. 15% of all road users go exceptionally fast (over 155). Speed limits in Germany are aggressively enforced on the restricted sections. So most of the 15% going significantly over what would be the speed limit are likely doing it in the open areas.
So net, 25% of the roadways, 15% of the drivers. 15/25 = 60% of the drivers in the unrestricted areas go 155km/h or over (100MPH).
It's why I often object to the way Mike presents numbers, because he is very selective in how he treats them. In this case, he is giving only the 30,000 foot view, whereas when you get a little closer, you see there are two seperate sets of data. Looking only at the unrestricted parts of the roadway, he is very solidly wrong.
You are confusing issues, but you actual lead to the important point:
Plenty of "sharing" was tolerated in the past because of how slow that sharing was.
Example: You get a book, it takes you a couple of weeks to read it (spare time). A couple of weeks later you give it to a friend, who gets around to reading it a few months later, and then maybe passes it on to someone else. Even on a strict 2 week schedule, that book only gets 26 readers a year.
Now, take a digital copy of the book and put it online, and within a day, millions of people could have it, and maybe a month from now tens of millions of people could have read the book for free.
See the issue of scale?
It's the same as the good old "mix tape" situation. When recording was done real time, a 90 minute mix tape might take all day to make, and copies of the copy were of lower quality. Thus, even a dedicated mix tape make might only squeeze out a few tapes a week, not really a big deal. But with digital music, a single downloader can pretty much get every piece of newly released music on a weekly basis, and share that music with millions of other people.
Scale.
Nobody gives a crap out the onesies and twosies lost sales, those aren't even rounding errors. Widescale online piracy is millions of potential sales blown out the window. It's why copyright holders are agressively attemmpting to shut down some of the "fair use" loopholes, as they are being abused as source material for piracy.
You cannot do a system similar to Israel in the US because Americans seem to think they have endless rights. Some of the Israeli system is based on racial profiling. While in the US there is the issue of "driving while black", in Isreal the issue is "flying while Arab".
Further, Israelis require extensive background information on every flier, which is also retained, cross referenced, and checked over and over again.
Americans would never want to give up their freedom, would never be willing to accept the concepts.
Mike, a book that is passed from user to user isn't really pirated, because there is no duplication. Ebooks (and all piracy) create new copies where none existed. Your book example is just resale, with a zero price.
In theory, saying "use it as it best makes money" is a good idea, but in reality, it is often not as easy as all that.
One of the main reasons for fixing usage for a given frequency range is to assure that others are not affected by interference, incompatible devices, etc. There are certain areas of the spectrum dedicated to "whatever", but those are mostly for things like remote controls, baby monitors, and other devices where no warranties are made as to range and the like.
When you start talking about things like broadband wireless, the range and the power of the signals requires is significant. The more crowded the spectrum, the more issues come up. The end user devices might have to be more powerful, or require larger directional antennas to make them work properly, etc. You also have to look at the implications to other users in neighboring frequencies, as interference is possible.
There is much more to the game than just saying "more bandwidth", because bandwidth is in fact one of the scarcest resources.
To be honest, what disappointed me with CNN's article is that it didn't challenge any of the obviously bogus statements made in the article. We already covered the problems with Alexie's, but CNN also notes: "J.K Rowling has thus far refused to make any of her Harry Potter books available digitally because of piracy fears."
Mike, is it not true that Ms Rowling has refused to allow digital versions of her books? Is it not true that she is concerned about piracy?
There is no false statement, just perhaps her ignorance of what dedicated "fans" will do.
On the post: Sony Won't Support Its Own Movie For An Oscar Over Misplaced Piracy Fears
If every pre-release copy was watermarked, I suspect the only good copies you would see online would also be watermarked. After all, those copies aren't coming off of camcorders.
This is another one of those "the shoplifters are winning, let's just give up" stories, which is a total defeatist attitude.
On the post: Will France's Three Strikes Law Matter?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
As for pulling the numbers out of my ass, sorry, but the numbers are very logically supported.
Overall system average is 131. 15% of all drivers go faster thsn 155. If you remove the speedy drivers from the deal, the average speed drops to 126. In that lower average speed, you have to consider trucks (which don't run much over 100), etc. You also have to consider that some sections have speed limits lower than 130, including areas in the 100-120 range, and construction zones as low as 60.
So while the system average speed is 131, the actual speed of cars is higher (to make up for slower trucks, this is an average after all), and still 15% of drivers go even faster, beyond 155.
Since speed limits and other passing safety issues are agressively enforced (including radar, cameras, etc), it is doubtful that significant numbers of people would greatly exceed the speed limits on a regular basis, so it is a fairly logical conclusion that the speeds in the unregulated sections would be higher than in other, controlled sections.
It is suggested on some sites that the average speed on unrelated sections approaches 150km/h.
On the post: Time For 'Israelification' Of U.S. Airports?
Re: Re:
On the post: Will France's Three Strikes Law Matter?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The potential is that in the high speed sections, everyone is running over 80MPH, and on average people are running slower than 80MPH in the speed controlled sections.
Keep on going Mike, you are just looking bad because you can't accept that you are wrong.
On the post: New Zealand Decides To Spy On An Awful Lot Of Your Online Activity
Re: Re: Re: Re: Immoral argument
It has look since been proven that good wiretapping has huge potential good, and the potential abuse is very small next to it. In a free society, the public would not tolerate systematic abuses for very long, which would lead to a political uprising that would see changes in systems or significant penalties for abusers.
It would be a real shame if the potential to stop criminal activity was lost because of the often overblown fears of "abuse".
On the post: Time For 'Israelification' Of U.S. Airports?
Re: Re: Different situation
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23714853/
If you think that they are complaining, imagine what your average American with an overblown sense of entitlement would sound like complaining about this.
They use very agressive techniques, and some of those techniques include racial profiling. The issues are strong enough that many arabs choose not to fly through Israel, to avoid any potential issues.
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.
On the post: Finnish Indie Record Label Says It Won't Sign Any New Bands Unless The Gov't Stops Piracy
Re: Re:
On the post: Finnish Indie Record Label Says It Won't Sign Any New Bands Unless The Gov't Stops Piracy
On the post: Time For 'Israelification' Of U.S. Airports?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Different situation
rapid decompression of an airplane has all sorts of implications. Consider what happened to the Aloha Airways plane (one of the best examples), where a flight attendant was sucked out of the plane. Thankfully, the vast majority of passengers were belted in. It is also incredibly lucky that the plane did not snap in two.
It isn't just the decompression by itself, but also the incease of drag in the area of the hole, which can lead to progressive failure of the airframe, peeling panels off as the mounting rivets fail. There is also the potential for damage to control systems, as parts coming off my damage the aircraft.
Aircraft are perfect targets, because even in an emergency, the time to landing is long enough that the secondary effects of damage can come along and cause many more problems than just the initial blast.
On the post: How China's Attempts To Censor The Internet Are Failing
Last time I checked, Techdirt wasn't available in China. Not sure if they opened it back up or not, I'll check in a couple of weeks to see.
On the post: Nintendo Shuts Down Fan-Made Zelda Movie
Re:
It's a no brainer here. The people making the movie should have asked, they might have actually gotten support.
On the post: Time For 'Israelification' Of U.S. Airports?
Re: Re: Different situation
It is why some people have suggested that this bomber chickened out or was poorly trained, because this size device at low altitude likely would not have taken the plane out. Had the device functioned properly with the plane at high altitude over the ocean, it could have been 100% fatal.
The true goal of terrorism is for a very small minority to hold the majority hostage. It's the schoolyard bully taken to the Nth degree.
On the post: Will France's Three Strikes Law Matter?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
As stated, 75% of the autobahn at any time has a speed limit of 130km/h or less. There is only 25% of the roadway that is open to whatever speed people like. 15% of all road users go exceptionally fast (over 155). Speed limits in Germany are aggressively enforced on the restricted sections. So most of the 15% going significantly over what would be the speed limit are likely doing it in the open areas.
So net, 25% of the roadways, 15% of the drivers. 15/25 = 60% of the drivers in the unrestricted areas go 155km/h or over (100MPH).
It's why I often object to the way Mike presents numbers, because he is very selective in how he treats them. In this case, he is giving only the 30,000 foot view, whereas when you get a little closer, you see there are two seperate sets of data. Looking only at the unrestricted parts of the roadway, he is very solidly wrong.
On the post: CNN's Take On 'Book Piracy'
Re: Re: Re: Book Piracy
Plenty of "sharing" was tolerated in the past because of how slow that sharing was.
Example: You get a book, it takes you a couple of weeks to read it (spare time). A couple of weeks later you give it to a friend, who gets around to reading it a few months later, and then maybe passes it on to someone else. Even on a strict 2 week schedule, that book only gets 26 readers a year.
Now, take a digital copy of the book and put it online, and within a day, millions of people could have it, and maybe a month from now tens of millions of people could have read the book for free.
See the issue of scale?
It's the same as the good old "mix tape" situation. When recording was done real time, a 90 minute mix tape might take all day to make, and copies of the copy were of lower quality. Thus, even a dedicated mix tape make might only squeeze out a few tapes a week, not really a big deal. But with digital music, a single downloader can pretty much get every piece of newly released music on a weekly basis, and share that music with millions of other people.
Scale.
Nobody gives a crap out the onesies and twosies lost sales, those aren't even rounding errors. Widescale online piracy is millions of potential sales blown out the window. It's why copyright holders are agressively attemmpting to shut down some of the "fair use" loopholes, as they are being abused as source material for piracy.
On the post: Time For 'Israelification' Of U.S. Airports?
Further, Israelis require extensive background information on every flier, which is also retained, cross referenced, and checked over and over again.
Americans would never want to give up their freedom, would never be willing to accept the concepts.
On the post: New Zealand Decides To Spy On An Awful Lot Of Your Online Activity
Re: Immoral argument
This isn't more or less than being able to tap a phone.
On the post: Will France's Three Strikes Law Matter?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
How ever can you forgive me?
Again, in the sections absent speed limits, 60% of the people are doing more than 155... that fact isn't changing.
You love to play games with datasets, I caught you, and only an error in my phrasing gives you a victory.
Perhaps you can get a few of the duhheads to beat me down now?
On the post: CNN's Take On 'Book Piracy'
Re: Book Piracy
On the post: Unexpected, But Good: Justice Department Says FCC Should Free Up More Spectrum
One of the main reasons for fixing usage for a given frequency range is to assure that others are not affected by interference, incompatible devices, etc. There are certain areas of the spectrum dedicated to "whatever", but those are mostly for things like remote controls, baby monitors, and other devices where no warranties are made as to range and the like.
When you start talking about things like broadband wireless, the range and the power of the signals requires is significant. The more crowded the spectrum, the more issues come up. The end user devices might have to be more powerful, or require larger directional antennas to make them work properly, etc. You also have to look at the implications to other users in neighboring frequencies, as interference is possible.
There is much more to the game than just saying "more bandwidth", because bandwidth is in fact one of the scarcest resources.
On the post: CNN's Take On 'Book Piracy'
Mike, is it not true that Ms Rowling has refused to allow digital versions of her books? Is it not true that she is concerned about piracy?
There is no false statement, just perhaps her ignorance of what dedicated "fans" will do.
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