My daughter recently played 'Rock band' or 'Guitar Hero' or whatever the PS3 version game is over at a friends house. When confronted with her wanting to get a PS3, I made a compromise.
Instead of purchasing a very expensive game console and game, I purchased her a real guitar, amp, and Guitar Pro (she already has a computer). Total was about a third of the cost of a PS3 and now her friends come over and play the real thing. (Usually while I am at work, and no request has been made for drums yet.)
She watches YouTube for Guitar and Piano lessons, and is actually doing very well. (All parents say that, I know.)
Bottom line? Cheaper to learn the real thing, but it was the game that got her started; thank goodness I didn't have to buy THAT.
"The man created it. it's his. he has a reasonable right to decide what use is made of it."
He made a memorial for public display, was paid for it. That's work for hire according to all the 'big content people.'
stop trying to convince us that theft is accapetable.
Aside from the fact that you need a spell-checker 'acceptable,' the memorial is still there, nobody stole it.
That's like the original architect and builders of the World Trade Center towers trying to claim that all of the media outlets in the world owe them money for documentaries related to the attacks on said towers.
And felt the song was just.
unlucky for me, I was signed up with MUST.
Now I can't play my music, or even sing a chord
because here in Taiwan, MUST is the overlord.
I tried playing for coins, which people tossed at my feet.
MUST came along and told me to get off the street.
I can't earn any money, without first paying MUST,
Tell me, dear reader, do you think that is just?
Far in the future, we will be sitting around in our rocking chairs having a good laugh at all the trouble the content companies went through to get paid.
Of course, my bank account will be close to empty because I sat through thirty years of CSI being beamed directly into my brain and being charged $3,000 an episode for the privilege. (Adjusted for inflation, of course.)
I will look at my long-obsolete ten terabyte media server with longing for the good old days when I watched such things on a flat-panel television, then I will try to remember what television was, and that I needed my glasses to watch it, then I will settle back and watch a news flash beamed into my head...Iran just released all the political prisoners taken captive during the demonstrations following the 2009 election.
2009? Oh yes, I remember that year. We had elected representatives to Congress! ZAP! Another message comes into my head..."You are not allowed to think about free democratic society. This warning courtesy of the Corporate States of America."
2009? Oh, yes, that's when every country in the world signed that ZAP! treaty ZAP! that gave corporations everything ZAP! they needed ZAP! to stamp out consumer choice. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! "We're sorry, but your thought process has strayed to freedom. This is not allowed. You will be terminated. ZAP!
"There's a lot of built in artificial scarcities in the system, and opening up the flow of information changes that."
This reminds me of something else...
Like Music and Movies online (filesharing) They made money as long as they had scarce goods. (A cd or dvd.) Once filesharing took off, that scarcity went away. Is it any wonder why the MAFIAA sues everything in sight?
Anyways...
There is also an artificial scarcity built into test records. They COULD give you a copy of an MRI on a DVD for little or no cost in a standard format, but they WANT you to pay $300.00 a copy, plus courier costs. Then, if you want a SECOND opinion...
I would like to be able to carry my medical records around on a flash drive. I WANT to go get a second opinion without having to go through fifty pages of privacy act notices and then having to make another appointment because I missed some minute initial block on page 36.
I would LOVE to be able to hand a flash drive over to my doctor and say...Here ya go doc, what do you think?
Could you imagine your CHEM tests, laid out in a nice neat spreadsheet, so a doctor could look over ten or fifteen years of physical data just by moving a mouse, (or a touchpad, or ideally a big old 46" flatpanel touchscreen?)
Look out, local hospital, the days of the $12.00 acetaminophen pill are numbered. Especially when a person can go to the local Wally-world and get 1200 for $12.00. (couldn't resist)
As far as the fart thing goes, the oldest person in the world should get the royalties. After all, they have the prior art. Now when that person dies, for the next 95 years (assuming that copyright isn't extended and made retroactive before the end of the term) that person's estate gets the royalties. Nuff said.
Now for the conspiracy part:
The reasons that music prices are so low (hear me out) is that music is everywhere. It's 'in the air' so to speak. What happens if the INDUSTRY gets their way in raising public performance fees is that people will stop playing it. Restaurants in Australia (saw the article here) used to paying $390 a year in fees suddenly get a bill for $18,000 a year will stop playing the music. Fewer people playing the music means that it becomes more scarce, and they can charge more for it.
This may take a generation or two, but by that time they will have the technology to listen to a random persons' thoughts and charge their account for having a song stuck in their head.
On the bright side: I suggest that the RIAA be turned into a nationwide police force. I'll call them the FBMI or Federal Bureau of Music Investigators.
If a song is played in public - such as a car going down the road blaring music that can be heard for five blocks, they should have the right to pull that person over and bill them for public performance. This will lead to quieter neighborhoods, except if they happen to pull over a gangbanger with a loaded TEC-9 in the car.
Would have worked in her case. She would have gotten a letter from the telco, saying that she was sharing files on an internet connection she didn't have.
The second letter might have piqued her interest, and she probably would have went looking through the house in case there was some anonymous computer sharing random files.
The third strike? Cut off the internet connection to the computer she didn't have.
Except, when she got a computer, she couldn't get an internet connection because she was on a blacklist of 'copyright scofflaws' and would wonder why. She probably wouldn't be able to fly, either, because the TSA would have picked up her name from the 'copyright scofflaw' list, branded her a terrorist (Because we all know that file-sharing leads to terrorism,) and put her name on yet another list which punished her for something she didn't do.
Do you even smell the crap you are shoveling? These increases make it so even fewer of the paying customers that the labels are looking for will hear the music they are trying to sell.
Couple that with the Music Industry's attempts to get radio stations to pay more money to the 'artists' and even fewer people will hear the music.
Congrats actually go to the Industry for plugging more ears with their greed - torrents have nothing to do with it.
What you call when a person's skin starts turning various shades of green, the ears and nose grow to point, all the hair falls out, and they get a sudden sensitivity to sunlight and the urge to hide under bridges.
Hurry before the Troll Catchers (TM) come and get you.
Now that I'm done with that, I will just say congrats to Mike for coining a phrase that is in widespread usage. (I didn't know you coined the phrase until now, so the kudos are well-deserved if not just because they were self-given.)
Anyways, do you think you should patent, trademark, or copyright the term so that you can extort Barbara for some dough? Just kidding.
I am glad that The Streisand Effect (P.P. TM (C)) took hold, I may not be a fan of her music, but I loved to see her house.
Hollywood will just change the terms of their licensing agreements with Cablevision to either jack up the price, or remove Cablevision's rights to record the shows remotely via contract.
Don't believe me? - See CSS-LA vs. Kaleidescape or WGA vs Kindle. (not real cases but you get the drift.) If the content industry can't win in court, they will just change the rules.
I won't be affected by this ruling, simply because I record all of my stuff at home and watch it later. I even have a 4TB server to help with that. I just feel sorry for those people who aren't as technically inclined.
Hollywood did try and take away that right in Sony Vs. Universal and later with trying to ramrod CBDTPA through congress and later with the FCC. I am glad that those cases won, though.
Grandstanding = Politicians protecting us from ourselves
So really, what was the problem with the 'Erotic Services' section anyway? I personally have never used it, but what was the deal?
I'll tell you the deal...They were protecting us from ourselves. Just like politicians were 'protecting' the American people from alcohol when they enacted the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
It is funny to watch, though. The only thing that would make the show better is for one of these wing-nut politicians getting caught with a prostitute (especially that female AG that was raising her part of the fuss.)
Sure, it's an infamous year. We all know what happened in September, but let me relate to you what happened to me in July.
My previous camcorder died a gruesome death while I was in Florida on vacation. I decided to go with a Sony Hi8 camcorder and added a high-capacity RCA Lithium battery to go with it. Charged both batteries that night, and the next day me and the family went to the Space Museum.
About a third of the way through, the Sony InfoLithium battery died, so I switched over to the RCA battery (which was supposed to work with the camcorder, even had the model listed on the packaging of the battery.) So, I slapped it in, and the camera gives me a warning. "Sony InfoLithium batteries only." And shut down.
I was not pleased.
That was the last time I bought anything retail that had the Sony name on it. There may have been electronics purchased that had Sony parts in them, (thank goodness it wasn't any of my laptop batteries,) but no Sony brand-name stuff for me.
TheSkyRider - happily boycotting SONY Since 7-11-2001.
Just a side note for all the newbies out there: 2001 is when the SSSCA, later known as the CBDTPA, started to circulate. You might know this as the 'Fritz Chip" law. If Sony (along with the rest of the entertainment industry) had gotten their way back then, this blog article wouldn't exist today...
If the MPAA had their way, VCR's would actually have been made without the 'record' button, making them VCP's or Video Cassette Players. Then they would have been Very Happy (TM)
I was being sarcastic - don't pick up the phone and call the MPA, MPAA, IFPI, or Web Sheriff on me. Seriously, though. Do you think the MPAA would call sharing of their propaganda 'theft?'
"I bet all content will be 'purchased' online, books will be banned for fear of someone loaning a book to a friend, so that friend could read the content for free."
Don't forget the facial-recognition software tapped into your webcam so that a 'friend' can't read it over your shoulder.
Anyways, if this holds true, there are thousands more pirates on college campuses than previously thought. They are set up outside every college bookstore, looking to 'buy' students' used textbooks.
On the post: Elderly Classic Rock Musicians Don't Like Music Video Games
In defense of 'games'
Instead of purchasing a very expensive game console and game, I purchased her a real guitar, amp, and Guitar Pro (she already has a computer). Total was about a third of the cost of a PS3 and now her friends come over and play the real thing. (Usually while I am at work, and no request has been made for drums yet.)
She watches YouTube for Guitar and Piano lessons, and is actually doing very well. (All parents say that, I know.)
Bottom line? Cheaper to learn the real thing, but it was the game that got her started; thank goodness I didn't have to buy THAT.
On the post: Doubleplusungood: That Copy Of 1984 On Your Kindle Is Now Gone
AP Headlines calling it Piracy
I wonder if any of the profits from this 'Piracy' went to terrorists.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/03/us-attorney-general-piracy-funds-terr or.ars
On the post: Sculptor Sues Postal Service Over Stamp With Photo Of His Sculpture
Work for Hire
He made a memorial for public display, was paid for it. That's work for hire according to all the 'big content people.'
stop trying to convince us that theft is accapetable.
Aside from the fact that you need a spell-checker 'acceptable,' the memorial is still there, nobody stole it.
That's like the original architect and builders of the World Trade Center towers trying to claim that all of the media outlets in the world owe them money for documentaries related to the attacks on said towers.
Does the sculptor get paid for every person that visits the memorial or for every photograph taken of it? I didn't think so. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=korean+war+memorial
Oops, somebody better warn Flickr.
On the post: Doubleplusungood: That Copy Of 1984 On Your Kindle Is Now Gone
Ray Bradbury
Unfortunately, you'll have to pick another title. As reported here on Techdirt, Ray Bradbury hates the internet and will never release digital copies.
"Burn em to ashes, then burn the ashes."
On the post: Taiwanese Collections Society Tells Singer He Can't Post His Own Music
I wrote a song..
unlucky for me, I was signed up with MUST.
Now I can't play my music, or even sing a chord
because here in Taiwan, MUST is the overlord.
I tried playing for coins, which people tossed at my feet.
MUST came along and told me to get off the street.
I can't earn any money, without first paying MUST,
Tell me, dear reader, do you think that is just?
Feel free to spread that around.....
On the post: Consumer Group Wants ACTA Discussions Stopped Until Consumer Rights Are Represented In Negotiations
One day,
Of course, my bank account will be close to empty because I sat through thirty years of CSI being beamed directly into my brain and being charged $3,000 an episode for the privilege. (Adjusted for inflation, of course.)
I will look at my long-obsolete ten terabyte media server with longing for the good old days when I watched such things on a flat-panel television, then I will try to remember what television was, and that I needed my glasses to watch it, then I will settle back and watch a news flash beamed into my head...Iran just released all the political prisoners taken captive during the demonstrations following the 2009 election.
2009? Oh yes, I remember that year. We had elected representatives to Congress! ZAP! Another message comes into my head..."You are not allowed to think about free democratic society. This warning courtesy of the Corporate States of America."
2009? Oh, yes, that's when every country in the world signed that ZAP! treaty ZAP! that gave corporations everything ZAP! they needed ZAP! to stamp out consumer choice. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! "We're sorry, but your thought process has strayed to freedom. This is not allowed. You will be terminated. ZAP!
On the post: Why The Healthcare Industry Doesn't Want Electronic Medical Records
Kinda like...
This reminds me of something else...
Like Music and Movies online (filesharing) They made money as long as they had scarce goods. (A cd or dvd.) Once filesharing took off, that scarcity went away. Is it any wonder why the MAFIAA sues everything in sight?
Anyways...
There is also an artificial scarcity built into test records. They COULD give you a copy of an MRI on a DVD for little or no cost in a standard format, but they WANT you to pay $300.00 a copy, plus courier costs. Then, if you want a SECOND opinion...
I would like to be able to carry my medical records around on a flash drive. I WANT to go get a second opinion without having to go through fifty pages of privacy act notices and then having to make another appointment because I missed some minute initial block on page 36.
I would LOVE to be able to hand a flash drive over to my doctor and say...Here ya go doc, what do you think?
Could you imagine your CHEM tests, laid out in a nice neat spreadsheet, so a doctor could look over ten or fifteen years of physical data just by moving a mouse, (or a touchpad, or ideally a big old 46" flatpanel touchscreen?)
Look out, local hospital, the days of the $12.00 acetaminophen pill are numbered. Especially when a person can go to the local Wally-world and get 1200 for $12.00. (couldn't resist)
On the post: ASCAP Now Claiming That Your Mobile Phone Ringing Is A Public Performance
I smell a conspiracy here....
Now for the conspiracy part:
The reasons that music prices are so low (hear me out) is that music is everywhere. It's 'in the air' so to speak. What happens if the INDUSTRY gets their way in raising public performance fees is that people will stop playing it. Restaurants in Australia (saw the article here) used to paying $390 a year in fees suddenly get a bill for $18,000 a year will stop playing the music. Fewer people playing the music means that it becomes more scarce, and they can charge more for it.
This may take a generation or two, but by that time they will have the technology to listen to a random persons' thoughts and charge their account for having a song stuck in their head.
On the bright side: I suggest that the RIAA be turned into a nationwide police force. I'll call them the FBMI or Federal Bureau of Music Investigators.
If a song is played in public - such as a car going down the road blaring music that can be heard for five blocks, they should have the right to pull that person over and bill them for public performance. This will lead to quieter neighborhoods, except if they happen to pull over a gangbanger with a loaded TEC-9 in the car.
On the post: Woman Who Owned No Computer, But Got Sued By The RIAA, 'Settles'
Three strikes
The second letter might have piqued her interest, and she probably would have went looking through the house in case there was some anonymous computer sharing random files.
The third strike? Cut off the internet connection to the computer she didn't have.
Except, when she got a computer, she couldn't get an internet connection because she was on a blacklist of 'copyright scofflaws' and would wonder why. She probably wouldn't be able to fly, either, because the TSA would have picked up her name from the 'copyright scofflaw' list, branded her a terrorist (Because we all know that file-sharing leads to terrorism,) and put her name on yet another list which punished her for something she didn't do.
Great country, the USA.
On the post: Playing Music In A Nightclub Just Got Ridiculously More Expensive In Australia
Sigh
Do you even smell the crap you are shoveling? These increases make it so even fewer of the paying customers that the labels are looking for will hear the music they are trying to sell.
Couple that with the Music Industry's attempts to get radio stations to pay more money to the 'artists' and even fewer people will hear the music.
Congrats actually go to the Industry for plugging more ears with their greed - torrents have nothing to do with it.
On the post: Should ICANN Dump The Idea Of Generic Top Level Domains?
I'm pretty sure...
On the post: Streisand To Publish An Entire Book Detailing The Malibu Home She Once Wanted To Keep Very, Very Secret
The Jim Rob Jones Effect
Hurry before the Troll Catchers (TM) come and get you.
Now that I'm done with that, I will just say congrats to Mike for coining a phrase that is in widespread usage. (I didn't know you coined the phrase until now, so the kudos are well-deserved if not just because they were self-given.)
Anyways, do you think you should patent, trademark, or copyright the term so that you can extort Barbara for some dough? Just kidding.
I am glad that The Streisand Effect (P.P. TM (C)) took hold, I may not be a fan of her music, but I loved to see her house.
On the post: Obama Administration Sides With Technology Over Hollywood In Cablevision Case
It doesn't matter...
Don't believe me? - See CSS-LA vs. Kaleidescape or WGA vs Kindle. (not real cases but you get the drift.) If the content industry can't win in court, they will just change the rules.
I won't be affected by this ruling, simply because I record all of my stuff at home and watch it later. I even have a 4TB server to help with that. I just feel sorry for those people who aren't as technically inclined.
Hollywood did try and take away that right in Sony Vs. Universal and later with trying to ramrod CBDTPA through congress and later with the FCC. I am glad that those cases won, though.
On the post: Craigslist Caving Shows The Perils Of Self-Policing... Or The Perils Of Grandstanding Politicians?
Grandstanding = Politicians protecting us from ourselves
I'll tell you the deal...They were protecting us from ourselves. Just like politicians were 'protecting' the American people from alcohol when they enacted the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
It is funny to watch, though. The only thing that would make the show better is for one of these wing-nut politicians getting caught with a prostitute (especially that female AG that was raising her part of the fuss.)
On the post: Sony Pictures CEO: Nothing Good Has Come From The Internet
2001
My previous camcorder died a gruesome death while I was in Florida on vacation. I decided to go with a Sony Hi8 camcorder and added a high-capacity RCA Lithium battery to go with it. Charged both batteries that night, and the next day me and the family went to the Space Museum.
About a third of the way through, the Sony InfoLithium battery died, so I switched over to the RCA battery (which was supposed to work with the camcorder, even had the model listed on the packaging of the battery.) So, I slapped it in, and the camera gives me a warning. "Sony InfoLithium batteries only." And shut down.
I was not pleased.
That was the last time I bought anything retail that had the Sony name on it. There may have been electronics purchased that had Sony parts in them, (thank goodness it wasn't any of my laptop batteries,) but no Sony brand-name stuff for me.
TheSkyRider - happily boycotting SONY Since 7-11-2001.
Just a side note for all the newbies out there: 2001 is when the SSSCA, later known as the CBDTPA, started to circulate. You might know this as the 'Fritz Chip" law. If Sony (along with the rest of the entertainment industry) had gotten their way back then, this blog article wouldn't exist today...
On the post: MPAA Shows How Teachers Should Record Movies By Camcording Their TVs
Re: Re: #32
On the post: Movie Screening Phone Bans Reach Ridiculous Levels
camcording law?
On the post: BBC Presents MPAA Propaganda On Movie Piracy, Claims It's 'Fully Balanced'
Re: Torrent
On the post: BBC Presents MPAA Propaganda On Movie Piracy, Claims It's 'Fully Balanced'
Torrent
On the post: Copyright Lobbyists Threaten To Sue Book Renting Firm In Finland
Re: 10
Don't forget the facial-recognition software tapped into your webcam so that a 'friend' can't read it over your shoulder.
Anyways, if this holds true, there are thousands more pirates on college campuses than previously thought. They are set up outside every college bookstore, looking to 'buy' students' used textbooks.
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