Most entertaining conspiracy theory I've heard in the last five hours... of course the only OTHER conspiracy theory I've run across today involved the Illuminati... so the competition isn't really what you'd call fierce.
There's also the part where the DoJ was claiming that the records were unavailable. While I'm not expecting every DoJ schmuck to know about Prism's records, it could do a real number on their claims that they didn't the evidence didn't exist.
Given that the FBI's passed intelligence to companies in the recent past, it wouldn't surprise me if "in the interests of maintaining American influence", that the CIA and NSA had in fact deliberately passed information to Corporate America. That said, you're probably 100% right about exactly how they passed intell.
Yeah, initially I'd assumed Amazon's payout would be a lot more stingy.
I'm guessing, because they aren't printing anything, and won't be paying to edit the material, their overhead will be low enough, not to worry about the costs.
The money laundering comments are somewhat warranted, though. While anyone can run a business into the ground as long as the money holds out. People are responding to the sense that there's something really off about this situation.
There's just enough evidence to make the laundering suggestion plausible. Is it a nice thing to do? No, but I think in this case we're past that.
Yeah, in all seriousness, I don't know if I've just been supremely lucky, or I'm already the exact kind of ruthless bastard that law schools are looking for.
But, most of the lawyers I've met and interacted with have been genuinely decent people.
I'm sorry, can I just say, lay off the lawyers. At least as a whole? I mean, I get the lawyer jokes, and general distaste when it comes to attorneys, particularly the ones that get media attention...
But, for every John Steele, or Charles Carrion, or Joseph Rakofsky, there are as many as one, to one and a half laywers who aren't trying to figure out how to gain cosmic power through bathing in the blood of virgins. Well, you know, yet.
If EA was smart, they wouldn't have tried always on DRM again after Spore... or after seeing Ubisoft take it on the chin over and over because of their DRM. They might have looked at UBIsoft's DDOS attacks, and said, "no, this isn't really a good idea", and yet, here we are again.
Yeah, San Andreas has you working for either the CIA, or some covert ops spookworks at one point. GTA4 has some plotline with someone in the DoJ, though I never finished either game. I'm not sure about the rest of the series.
Well, Mass Effect 3 wasn't released on Steam, for one thing, so asking them for a refund would be... a little weird.
And, yeah, there were some people asking for refunds, over it, or threatening to boycott EA/Bioware/Origin/whatever as a result.
That said, it didn't reach the same levels as this one did. In large part because ME3 (mostly) the game it claimed to be. There were some really idiotic or flat out misleading statements in the lead up and advertising, but nothing quite like what we had with War Z.
The game claimed to have 100 player servers, when it launched with server population caps of 50, it claimed to have multiple maps ranging from 100 - 400 square km each. It shipped with one, that they claimed was 100 square km, but, from people actually examining it, it looks like it's most likely a little under 10. It claimed to have private servers, that wasn't functional. It claimed to have a skill system, that didn't exist at all. (I know the article covered these, but still.)
To put this in perspective, with Mass Effect 3, the best analogy would be if all the stuff that was on the box was still there, but the game itself contained only what we saw in the demo.
Rather hilariously, after the game went on sale on Steam as a "foundational release", there were still notifications in game saying that features were still part of an alpha state, and would be subject to change.
As much as I loathe what Bioware did with ME3, they did deliver the game they said they would. It was just, like all writing from Bioware, terminally idiotic.
I suspect it's the former. If Cooper had known he was CEO of these shells, he could have just liquidated them and closed up shop if he really had cold feet.
Re: Re: Here we go again, distancing evil NSA from friendly Google.
Most entertaining conspiracy theory I've heard in the last five hours... of course the only OTHER conspiracy theory I've run across today involved the Illuminati... so the competition isn't really what you'd call fierce.
Re:
Shouldn't take too long. The FBI just needs to cook up a new terrorist plot, and find a fall guy first.
Re: Re: Re: The Phones
There's also the part where the DoJ was claiming that the records were unavailable. While I'm not expecting every DoJ schmuck to know about Prism's records, it could do a real number on their claims that they didn't the evidence didn't exist.
Re: Re: Now imagine MPAA getting Google's log of your history!
Where they're going, they don't need browser histories.
Re:
Given that the FBI's passed intelligence to companies in the recent past, it wouldn't surprise me if "in the interests of maintaining American influence", that the CIA and NSA had in fact deliberately passed information to Corporate America. That said, you're probably 100% right about exactly how they passed intell.
Re: NSA may take the blame for the "Naughty Nine'
Nah,the NSA's the largest intelligence agency in the world, by employment numbers, we don't have the prison space to just lock 'em all up. :p
Re: Re: DNI Clapper misstated facts to Congress
Wait, did the DNI just call the NSA witless?
Re:
The... wait, what?
Re: 35% Commission
Yeah, initially I'd assumed Amazon's payout would be a lot more stingy.
I'm guessing, because they aren't printing anything, and won't be paying to edit the material, their overhead will be low enough, not to worry about the costs.
Re:
Maybe it's not a title, maybe he legally changed his first name to Professor...
Re:
The money laundering comments are somewhat warranted, though. While anyone can run a business into the ground as long as the money holds out. People are responding to the sense that there's something really off about this situation.
There's just enough evidence to make the laundering suggestion plausible. Is it a nice thing to do? No, but I think in this case we're past that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Contant Bickering????
Yeah, in all seriousness, I don't know if I've just been supremely lucky, or I'm already the exact kind of ruthless bastard that law schools are looking for.
But, most of the lawyers I've met and interacted with have been genuinely decent people.
Re: Re: Contant Bickering????
I'm sorry, can I just say, lay off the lawyers. At least as a whole? I mean, I get the lawyer jokes, and general distaste when it comes to attorneys, particularly the ones that get media attention...
But, for every John Steele, or Charles Carrion, or Joseph Rakofsky, there are as many as one, to one and a half laywers who aren't trying to figure out how to gain cosmic power through bathing in the blood of virgins. Well, you know, yet.
Re:
If EA was smart, they wouldn't have tried always on DRM again after Spore... or after seeing Ubisoft take it on the chin over and over because of their DRM. They might have looked at UBIsoft's DDOS attacks, and said, "no, this isn't really a good idea", and yet, here we are again.
Re: again...
No, this is just Teri Buhl.
Re: Re:
Hitman: Blood Money certainly made it to stores... though the point there wasn't to overthrow the government, just assassinate the president.
And, that probably was going to be the plot of Condemned 3, if the second game's sales hadn't doomed the franchise.
More vaguely, Splinter Cell: Conviction is about going after the government, if not specifically assassinating government figures.
Re:
Yeah, San Andreas has you working for either the CIA, or some covert ops spookworks at one point. GTA4 has some plotline with someone in the DoJ, though I never finished either game. I'm not sure about the rest of the series.
(untitled comment)
What did John Steele do originally to rise to infamy? Other than being really bad at being a lawyer, I mean.
Re:
Well, Mass Effect 3 wasn't released on Steam, for one thing, so asking them for a refund would be... a little weird.
And, yeah, there were some people asking for refunds, over it, or threatening to boycott EA/Bioware/Origin/whatever as a result.
That said, it didn't reach the same levels as this one did. In large part because ME3 (mostly) the game it claimed to be. There were some really idiotic or flat out misleading statements in the lead up and advertising, but nothing quite like what we had with War Z.
The game claimed to have 100 player servers, when it launched with server population caps of 50, it claimed to have multiple maps ranging from 100 - 400 square km each. It shipped with one, that they claimed was 100 square km, but, from people actually examining it, it looks like it's most likely a little under 10. It claimed to have private servers, that wasn't functional. It claimed to have a skill system, that didn't exist at all. (I know the article covered these, but still.)
To put this in perspective, with Mass Effect 3, the best analogy would be if all the stuff that was on the box was still there, but the game itself contained only what we saw in the demo.
Rather hilariously, after the game went on sale on Steam as a "foundational release", there were still notifications in game saying that features were still part of an alpha state, and would be subject to change.
As much as I loathe what Bioware did with ME3, they did deliver the game they said they would. It was just, like all writing from Bioware, terminally idiotic.
Re:
I suspect it's the former. If Cooper had known he was CEO of these shells, he could have just liquidated them and closed up shop if he really had cold feet.