"there is no indication anywhere that giving people unlimited free access to stuff "
Nobody's pushing this as a solution. Stop lying.
The funny thing is, we already have access to unlimited free stuff! It is out there right now on torrent sites, p2p applications and even the passing of physical drives from friend to friend. And yet people still are buying a ton and your highest spending customers are the ones most accessing this unlimited free stuff! Therefore the solution should automatically be on how to use the free stuff to make MORE money! How can you maximize this unlimited resource to your advantage.
Unfortunately, it appears that the show went in the other direction and did the cliche and totally bogus storyline that digital downloads are a form of organized crime costing billions.
Digital downloads ARE costing us billions. Have you seen the prices on iTunes!?! :)
I knew we had gone completely off the deep end when we got to the point where a company thought it was a good business model to link individual DVD players up to the net and were STILL sued.
At what point has things become so fucked up in copyright that people believed this setup was a valid business model option of streaming in the digital age. And the movie companies STILL fought it. It is frankly ludicrous.
The future of innovation. Having lawyers and business models that try find a legal way to do something, whether viable and sane or not.
Canada and the US have the longest shared border in the world. At any time I can cross that imaginary line with little problem physically. However, suddenly when it becomes trying to cross it digitally for content, roadblocks are thrown up everywhere.
As a Canadian, I have face similar problems attaining media in the past because of insanely stupid digital licensing restrictions. Amazon MP3 isn't available here for instance. Hulu and most US websites like comedy central's block Canadian IPs. I have quite a few friends who pay for American proxy connections just to watch stuff and there are many websites dedicated to getting around the problem.
There should be ZERO reason for this. These are all problems that shouldn't exist and highlight the lack of insight these companies have for the Internet. No wonder people are driven to piracy to just find content.
The funny thing is, vinyl is the one format I still collect! And I am not just talking about the old flea market or antique store vinyl (which I still do look around for) but many new bands still release vinyl in modern times: NIN, Tool, Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Kid Cudi, The White Stripes etc. I have a bunch of vinyl from my Dad that I grew up with in the 80's, and I still collect new stuff that comes out as a hobby. The latest I am looking forward to is the Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk that is coming out next month. I love the sound of vinyl, but I still have an huge collection of CDs all ripped for portability.
What he thinks was lost is wrong. It has now broken free of the old limitations. The old limitations are what was killed, not the love of music.
Let me know how that goes. Also, let me know if you left the same messages concerning The Hollywood Reporter, which is saying the same thing I said.
Thanks Mike for talking about the Hollywood Reporter. I have never gone to their site before but it is a good site that I will be regularly checking out.
Let's face it, the subsection of people effected that want to hack for legitimate reasons and use the PSN are small.
There are three main groups affected by this:
The first big ones that use the Other OS options, like the Airforce, are probably not having people game on those systems and likely not affected at all by the PSN if they want to hack to install their own software.
The seconds ones that are simply hacking for piracy/cheating methods are likely the second biggest group. I don't have much of an issue with people getting kicked off the PS network for that.
The final group, the ones that will be most legitimately effected by this are people of both game legitimately and use the PSN network and wanted to install another OS or homebrew that wasn't piracy/cheating related.
It somewhat sucks that that last subsection gets caught up for the trouble of Sony's decision in the first place to remove the other OS option. But if you want to play in Sony's network you have to abide by their rules.
If you don't like it, don't buy Sony products in the first place. Especially where company decisions like these are hardly new. Don't buy into a closed system and expect to have it both ways.
I have little sympathy for those people that get caught up in this. Let's face it, in the end this will have little hurt on Sony financially, limit the amount of cheaters on the network, and really have no effect on the regular users.
"This link doesn't actually prove that, it only serves up Michael Geist's opinion, which to now surprise is against their decision."
That is false.
Von Finckenstein opening statement:
"All ISPs advertise their rates, bandwidth caps and the additional usage charges that apply. Consumers can shop around for the plan that best meet their needs. Internet services are now sold like other public utilities, such as water, gas and electricity. As we reported in our most recent Communications Monitoring Report, Canadians used on average 15.4 gigabits per month in 2009. Most users therefore fall well within the caps currently set by the Large Distributors and would not be charged more unless their monthly usage increased dramatically."
Which Michael Geist goes on to counter the many false points:
"The practical reality for most Canadians is that there are very limited choices - typically the duopoly of cable and DSL - with plans that mirror one another. "
Very true statement. In my area you get Bell or Rogers who's plans are pretty much the same, and Teksavvy, who for Bell's prices offers 200GB cap. Without the independent ISP I would have no choice, and this is the same for pretty much everyone else.
"Second, the frequent comparison of Internet services to utilities such as electricity or gas is misplaced. Electricity and gas are consumed - as you use it, it disappears. Bandwidth does not disappear once used. Moreover, Von Finckenstein conveniently omits the fact that pricing for electricity and gas are regulated in virtually every province in Canada. For electricity, there is a range of regulatory regimes that control both wholesale and retail prices. For natural gas, the prices on transportation and distribution are regulated and the commodity cost of gas changes in response to markets. "
So the CRTC is comparing Internet services to Gas and electricity utilities which are far from analogous.
"Third, Canadians should be very uncomfortable with the CRTC's notion of "heavy users" and the reports that 15.4 GB represents an average user. If we are to set the standard of heavy users based on 2009 data, the majority of users will be classified as heavy users (and find themselves paying for overages) before long. As MP Peter Braid noted during the hearing, policies should be forward looking and it feels like the CRTC's reference point for Internet usage is stuck looking back in the rear view mirror."
And this kicker. This is setting up everyone to be locked down in low cap plans with ridiculous overages or overpriced high cap plans. Choose your poison.
"Considering that Bell Canada's "low bar" is low but reasonable (25gig on small plans, 75-100gig on fast plans) and that they do sell "overage" at a reasonable price (doubly the fastest plan's bandwidth for about $10 a month) it isn't particularly out of line. A low bar would be a cap of 2 or 3 gig a month, which would trap almost everyone." That's bullshit. $2/GB is not at all reasonable when the actual costs are around 2 cents / GB or around 10-100 times the actual costs. And notice the low users don't get cheaper plans either. This is pure greed. And all this based on Bell's information and word. What a joke.
This is not a non-story, it is a long line of examples of Apple's increasing lock down of their products. Many people repair phones, swap old batteries, and replace broken components. No different than doing so with computers and laptops. Before the iPhone I repaired my Blackberry quite often and there are many others as well. The iPhone was by no means a watershed moment for taking apart phones.
First, the problem was I never had to buy some geeky tool to disassemble my phone. The screws used by every other major manufacturer were pretty much Phillips or Torx. I have been using the same precision set of tools since I was a kid. The move to new screws is just another roadblock Apple throws up for no other reason then to prevent people from opening up their phone and doing their own repairs: another example - integrated batteries on Macbooks and over engineered cases on iMacs (much more difficult to swap drives these days).
Second, they are changing the screws on the phone when they repair it. So if there was something I wanted to repair under warranty they would be now putting up another roadblock.
If I had done a warranty repair recently and they replaced the screws and I hadn't noticed (more than likely), I would have been pissed. A couple of days ago I dropped my iPhone 4 in a puddle outside work by accident. Luckily I was able to get it inside and take off the back case and remove the battery because the screen stopped working and I couldn't power it down. I used my same old trusty set of precision tools, took off the back, removed the battery connection (screwed in by the way) and proceeded to take the phone apart and dry it out. I got out all the water, and the phone after reassembling works perfect. Now if they had those stupid new screws and I hadn't known, I would have had a dead phone. Instead I was able to use my existing industry standard tools to fix my own phone. Big warning flag for me.
That is why this is not a non-story. Every year Apple pushes the envelope of what they lock down. Step by step, they make it harder for regular people to do simple repairs and funnel more and more people to Apple stores where they can make a buck off you. Apple products, Apple store, Apple screws, Apple Apps etc. further and further down the lock down hole making it harder for people to switch or repair phones. I like Apple products, but if they continue to do these sort of things, my iPhone 4 will be the last Apple product I buy.
You can add me to this as well. Dumped Rogers instead of Bell (I dumped Bell for Rogers a while back) but now I am a happy TekSavvy member. I will never pay Bell another red cent.
" Why are they tactically playing directly into Assange's hands?"
Because they simply do not understand the Internet. There is a huge gap in the understanding of the modern digital world between the modern generations (80's to today) and the generation in power in the government. It is like trying to explain the combustion engine to someone who lives with horse carriages. They simply can't wrap their heads around the concept. And as our world advances, those older generations will be left behind more and more. The same can be applied to RIAA/MPAA etc. These new concepts are totally alien to most in power.
"Again, obviously, there are many other factors that go into such ratings, but it does seem rather telling that so many of the countries that have very publicly hid behind bogus claims to avoid publicly discussing an agreement that will impact many people, are somehow viewed as more corrupt than in the past. "
I think this entire article needs the old correlation doesn't imply causation reminder first. Just because you put the "obviously" part doesn't make that statement, or article, any less of a stretch. It isn't really THAT telling that the ACTA negotiations had any significant effect at all on the corruption perception index.
From the new article:
"Of course, other factors are measured to determine the corruption perception index (CPI), and may be that the dark ACTA negotiating process has influenced, might not."
The American team used a combined set of observations: One 11-year-long set consisted of 122 measurements made by the team, while the other set was 4.3 years long and consisted of 119 measurements published by the consortium.
[The Swiss group] used only their own observations, but they expanded their published data set from what the U.S. group included in its analysis to a length of 6.5 years and 180 measurements.
So, the American study had 241 observations over at least 11 years and the data is peer reviewed and published. The Swiss apparently are refuting that by ignoring half the data and adding 61 data points from 2.2 years that haven't been peer reviewed. Obviously they're a reputable group, but I'll wait for them to look at *all* of the data available to them, preferably published data, before just taking them at their word. Doubly so for a negative finding since alpha (chance of a false positive) tends to be a lot smaller than beta (chance of a false negative).
This will "eliminate" the lost sales. Now that the infringer is no longer downloading, those files can no longer be counted as lost sales, and therefore the loss sales numbers will stop. Boom, no more losses to the industry and the billions will return! People will start buying things like in the old days. It will be easy to enforce since it is dealing with computers, everyone will surely be guilty, and the punishment fits the crime!
Well this is the third one of these ridiculous bills. I don't think anyone doesn't see through the insane digital lock provision as well as others. And knowing that the PMO directly is looking to satisfy the US pretty much guarantees this bills death. Although not outrightly spoken, there is an anti-American mindset that runs in Canada. Whenever something like this shows up, where the Americans are pushing something, it tends to cause a backlash. Considering how the last two bills went, and how after the copyright consultations were completely ignored, I imagine this bill will go for the same ending.
However that doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels. I have already wrote and sent a letter to my MP, the opposition and the PM (though as if he really cares), and have been informing everyone I know about the bill and to do the same. Many of my friends and family are now involved. I hope all Canadians will do the same.
As well, in general, I appreciate every day that we have someone like Michael Geist who brings these issues both to the light and in a way that everyone can understand. Without his knowledge and organization of the resistance to these changes, I couldn't imagine where Canadians would be right now.
Re: Re: re-read the report
Nobody's pushing this as a solution. Stop lying.
The funny thing is, we already have access to unlimited free stuff! It is out there right now on torrent sites, p2p applications and even the passing of physical drives from friend to friend. And yet people still are buying a ton and your highest spending customers are the ones most accessing this unlimited free stuff! Therefore the solution should automatically be on how to use the free stuff to make MORE money! How can you maximize this unlimited resource to your advantage.
Billions!
Digital downloads ARE costing us billions. Have you seen the prices on iTunes!?! :)
Re: Cable TV is obsolete
Don't knock Ancient Aliens! The best comedy show the History channel ever had!
Re: Digging up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b97zJxKEqAk
Re:
I knew we had gone completely off the deep end when we got to the point where a company thought it was a good business model to link individual DVD players up to the net and were STILL sued.
Re: Re: An innovative Startup?
At what point has things become so fucked up in copyright that people believed this setup was a valid business model option of streaming in the digital age. And the movie companies STILL fought it. It is frankly ludicrous.
The future of innovation. Having lawyers and business models that try find a legal way to do something, whether viable and sane or not.
The longest shared border
As a Canadian, I have face similar problems attaining media in the past because of insanely stupid digital licensing restrictions. Amazon MP3 isn't available here for instance. Hulu and most US websites like comedy central's block Canadian IPs. I have quite a few friends who pay for American proxy connections just to watch stuff and there are many websites dedicated to getting around the problem.
There should be ZERO reason for this. These are all problems that shouldn't exist and highlight the lack of insight these companies have for the Internet. No wonder people are driven to piracy to just find content.
(untitled comment)
Re: Re:
What he thinks was lost is wrong. It has now broken free of the old limitations. The old limitations are what was killed, not the love of music.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
(untitled comment)
There are three main groups affected by this:
The first big ones that use the Other OS options, like the Airforce, are probably not having people game on those systems and likely not affected at all by the PSN if they want to hack to install their own software.
The seconds ones that are simply hacking for piracy/cheating methods are likely the second biggest group. I don't have much of an issue with people getting kicked off the PS network for that.
The final group, the ones that will be most legitimately effected by this are people of both game legitimately and use the PSN network and wanted to install another OS or homebrew that wasn't piracy/cheating related.
It somewhat sucks that that last subsection gets caught up for the trouble of Sony's decision in the first place to remove the other OS option. But if you want to play in Sony's network you have to abide by their rules.
If you don't like it, don't buy Sony products in the first place. Especially where company decisions like these are hardly new. Don't buy into a closed system and expect to have it both ways.
I have little sympathy for those people that get caught up in this. Let's face it, in the end this will have little hurt on Sony financially, limit the amount of cheaters on the network, and really have no effect on the regular users.
Re:
That is false.
Von Finckenstein opening statement:
"All ISPs advertise their rates, bandwidth caps and the additional usage charges that apply. Consumers can shop around for the plan that best meet their needs. Internet services are now sold like other public utilities, such as water, gas and electricity. As we reported in our most recent Communications Monitoring Report, Canadians used on average 15.4 gigabits per month in 2009. Most users therefore fall well within the caps currently set by the Large Distributors and would not be charged more unless their monthly usage increased dramatically."
Which Michael Geist goes on to counter the many false points:
"The practical reality for most Canadians is that there are very limited choices - typically the duopoly of cable and DSL - with plans that mirror one another. "
Very true statement. In my area you get Bell or Rogers who's plans are pretty much the same, and Teksavvy, who for Bell's prices offers 200GB cap. Without the independent ISP I would have no choice, and this is the same for pretty much everyone else.
"Second, the frequent comparison of Internet services to utilities such as electricity or gas is misplaced. Electricity and gas are consumed - as you use it, it disappears. Bandwidth does not disappear once used. Moreover, Von Finckenstein conveniently omits the fact that pricing for electricity and gas are regulated in virtually every province in Canada. For electricity, there is a range of regulatory regimes that control both wholesale and retail prices. For natural gas, the prices on transportation and distribution are regulated and the commodity cost of gas changes in response to markets. "
So the CRTC is comparing Internet services to Gas and electricity utilities which are far from analogous.
"Third, Canadians should be very uncomfortable with the CRTC's notion of "heavy users" and the reports that 15.4 GB represents an average user. If we are to set the standard of heavy users based on 2009 data, the majority of users will be classified as heavy users (and find themselves paying for overages) before long. As MP Peter Braid noted during the hearing, policies should be forward looking and it feels like the CRTC's reference point for Internet usage is stuck looking back in the rear view mirror."
And this kicker. This is setting up everyone to be locked down in low cap plans with ridiculous overages or overpriced high cap plans. Choose your poison.
"Considering that Bell Canada's "low bar" is low but reasonable (25gig on small plans, 75-100gig on fast plans) and that they do sell "overage" at a reasonable price (doubly the fastest plan's bandwidth for about $10 a month) it isn't particularly out of line. A low bar would be a cap of 2 or 3 gig a month, which would trap almost everyone." That's bullshit. $2/GB is not at all reasonable when the actual costs are around 2 cents / GB or around 10-100 times the actual costs. And notice the low users don't get cheaper plans either. This is pure greed. And all this based on Bell's information and word. What a joke.
(untitled comment)
That's awesome. Why don't they just tell him to go retrieve the Voyager spacecraft while he's at it.
Re:
First, the problem was I never had to buy some geeky tool to disassemble my phone. The screws used by every other major manufacturer were pretty much Phillips or Torx. I have been using the same precision set of tools since I was a kid. The move to new screws is just another roadblock Apple throws up for no other reason then to prevent people from opening up their phone and doing their own repairs: another example - integrated batteries on Macbooks and over engineered cases on iMacs (much more difficult to swap drives these days).
Second, they are changing the screws on the phone when they repair it. So if there was something I wanted to repair under warranty they would be now putting up another roadblock.
If I had done a warranty repair recently and they replaced the screws and I hadn't noticed (more than likely), I would have been pissed. A couple of days ago I dropped my iPhone 4 in a puddle outside work by accident. Luckily I was able to get it inside and take off the back case and remove the battery because the screen stopped working and I couldn't power it down. I used my same old trusty set of precision tools, took off the back, removed the battery connection (screwed in by the way) and proceeded to take the phone apart and dry it out. I got out all the water, and the phone after reassembling works perfect. Now if they had those stupid new screws and I hadn't known, I would have had a dead phone. Instead I was able to use my existing industry standard tools to fix my own phone. Big warning flag for me.
That is why this is not a non-story. Every year Apple pushes the envelope of what they lock down. Step by step, they make it harder for regular people to do simple repairs and funnel more and more people to Apple stores where they can make a buck off you. Apple products, Apple store, Apple screws, Apple Apps etc. further and further down the lock down hole making it harder for people to switch or repair phones. I like Apple products, but if they continue to do these sort of things, my iPhone 4 will be the last Apple product I buy.
Re: the results are in YOU WONT PROFIT form throttling
Digital Divide
Because they simply do not understand the Internet. There is a huge gap in the understanding of the modern digital world between the modern generations (80's to today) and the generation in power in the government. It is like trying to explain the combustion engine to someone who lives with horse carriages. They simply can't wrap their heads around the concept. And as our world advances, those older generations will be left behind more and more. The same can be applied to RIAA/MPAA etc. These new concepts are totally alien to most in power.
(untitled comment)
I think this entire article needs the old correlation doesn't imply causation reminder first. Just because you put the "obviously" part doesn't make that statement, or article, any less of a stretch. It isn't really THAT telling that the ACTA negotiations had any significant effect at all on the corruption perception index.
From the new article:
"Of course, other factors are measured to determine the corruption perception index (CPI), and may be that the dark ACTA negotiating process has influenced, might not."
(untitled comment)
The American team used a combined set of observations: One 11-year-long set consisted of 122 measurements made by the team, while the other set was 4.3 years long and consisted of 119 measurements published by the consortium.
[The Swiss group] used only their own observations, but they expanded their published data set from what the U.S. group included in its analysis to a length of 6.5 years and 180 measurements.
So, the American study had 241 observations over at least 11 years and the data is peer reviewed and published. The Swiss apparently are refuting that by ignoring half the data and adding 61 data points from 2.2 years that haven't been peer reviewed. Obviously they're a reputable group, but I'll wait for them to look at *all* of the data available to them, preferably published data, before just taking them at their word. Doubly so for a negative finding since alpha (chance of a false positive) tends to be a lot smaller than beta (chance of a false negative).
Only Real Solution...
It surely will work.
/sarcasm
:p
Re: 3rd Strike?
However that doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels. I have already wrote and sent a letter to my MP, the opposition and the PM (though as if he really cares), and have been informing everyone I know about the bill and to do the same. Many of my friends and family are now involved. I hope all Canadians will do the same.
As well, in general, I appreciate every day that we have someone like Michael Geist who brings these issues both to the light and in a way that everyone can understand. Without his knowledge and organization of the resistance to these changes, I couldn't imagine where Canadians would be right now.
More comments from Ben >>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Ben.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt