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  • May 08, 2012 @ 05:15am

    Re: Too many blades

    Sounds like a good answer to the wrong question. No, 5 blades are not necessary. The Onion provides all the answers and the question.

  • May 08, 2012 @ 05:10am

    I also belong to the double edge master race for at least 20 years, but not really for the cost: for convenience and efficiency. They are better. A three day beard destroys two multi-blades.

    I recently checked the prices of razors for the common sucker, due to an article saying they are the most commonly stolen article in supermarkets:
    8o ...

  • Feb 17, 2012 @ 05:52am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: slight exageration

    Paying all that for the right to copy my own CDs is just a robbery, then.
    The photocopy part seems quite clear: it applies to any book you get from anywhere. Everybody pays for the right to make copies of books without fuss.
    In this case the levy seems fair. The reference to cassettes applies here: never heard of anyone harassed for cassettes and the authors got a little, maybe. If the idea is pay this and let's stop the crap, I'm fine. Especially when money goes to artists period. It sickens me editors screaming in the name of artists when most of what they are doing is creaming the artists.
    If it's just stolen from a fair use I go oil the machine gun.

  • Feb 16, 2012 @ 08:52pm

    Re: Re: slight exageration

    Stop lying. $100 (82 ?) for 2TB, here in Australia.

    Lucky you!

    Delusional still. NAS boxes are sold with no drives. The customer puts their own drive(s) in. Will there be a tax official in attendance?

    NAS boxes?!??

    Hollywood is going to legally allow "piracy to your hearts content at home" -- yeah right. You need to take a tranquilliser and have a good lie down.

    This is not Australia. Believe it or not there is life outside the empire.

    And you imagine that the author's share is going to be divided up fairly? You are clearly grossly unfamiliar with the existing practices of collection societies.

    A compensa??o equitativa de autores, e de artistas, int?rpretes ou executantes, ? inalien?vel e irrenunci?vel, sendo nula qualquer cl?usula contratual em contr?rio.

    O montante global da compensa??o equitativa ? distribu?do pelas entidades
    representativas dos titulares de direitos, na propor??o de 40% para os autores, 30% para os artistas, int?rpretes ou executantes e 30% para os produtores de fonogramas e de videogramas.

    Unless they use DRM: then they get zilch.

    Your faith is touching. Too bad it is not founded on reality.

    Is founded on reading the law project. See above. Try google translate and good luck, kind Sir.

  • Feb 16, 2012 @ 07:15pm

    Re: Re: slight exageration

    Good question. I think it's based in radio airplay, for music. Anyway it's defined by the association charged with it. Another good aspect of the law is that it says only one association will be in charge. I guess that means the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores and good ridance to the "other," some lawyers mafia.

  • Feb 16, 2012 @ 06:55pm

    slight exageration

    The figures above are 50% approx. exagerated in absolute value. In relative value by more than 100%. A 1TB these days costs 140 ?. The more hefty fees apply to multimedia external drives whose usage is clearly for copies.
    It's hard to say, but for what I understood these "taxes" imply piracy to your hearts content at home.
    Taxes: 5% of the tax go to the government, 20% max for the association managing the redistribution, the rest for authors and editors in fixed proportions. The authors share CANNOT be waived in any form, to avoid pressure from the editors (this one deserves a standing ovation) Peter Green has to reload the shotgun ;)
    Now for piracy: the part refering to photocopiers means you can safely take a book from a library to a shop to photocopy, authors and editors are compensated by the tax on equipement and 2 cent per page of copyrighted works: no more police raids into shops. I assume, wrongly perhaps, that the hard disk etc work the same way: copy to your hearts content at home. Sounds fine to me, frankly, especially knowing that the money is going to the authors.
    I understood the law as a stop the crap thing, cops have better things to do. I might be wrong. The whole concept, charge the equipment and consumables to almost everyone (there are some exceptions in the law) sounds forward looking. If I use torrents, well, the authors get their share.