Only it wasn't necessarily RFKJr who initiated it.
the only real impact (...) on the election is pulling a few percentage points of the vote away from the Republican candidates. Plainly partisan political influence on an upcoming election, in other words, with something pretty close to bribery to boot when it comes to offering other positions within government in exchange for dropping out.
This is the same script Trump used to get him to drop out and while offering a non-elected position. How was he to know it was illegal? It's an exact copy of the only government experience he's ever had!
It's going to be fun (or rather "fun" with all the air quotes) watching SCOTUS come back around on Chevron Deference when it's GOP administrative rulemakers holding back a Dem Congress through 2027-2028.
Is it too late to get Mental Gymnastics into the 2028 Olympics? John Roberts has an easy gold waiting for him.
It is an “oh well, never mind” scenario if they weren't making any significant money off those customers in the first place. The profits from physical games were going everywhere except Sony, minus some trivial (on a per-game basis) licensing fees the publishers pay.
Capturing even a small % of customers who switch to digital only pays for that many times over.
Customers != Dollars
This is in no way a defense of Sony (or Microsoft, since they seem to be moving in the same direction), but discs are not the long-term answer. Even the highest capacity blue-rays can't fit a lot of AAA games completely these days, so some kind of download is still necessary.
Indie games, retro games, and other lo-fi titles that don't need 8k texture packs will be appropriate for physical distribution for generations, so it's bad to kill it completely, but it's still a closed system.
Any closed system with DRM acts as a gatekeeper, whether it's on a disc or not. Consoles could, theoretically, decide tomorrow that the disc you put in contains a game that is no longer valid to be played on that platform. Physical distribution creates pressure to keep prices reasonable, but not much else.
Only DRM-free, offline storage is good for art preservation and anything resembling true ownership. Consoles haven't had that in decades.
Most people will use Conversation Focus without hitting the monthly limit.
Who will be using those features the most, Meta?
Locking arbitrary on-device features behind a paywall for no discernible reason: Shitty move from a shitty company.
Locking accessibility on-device features behind a paywall for no discernible reason: EVIL move from an EVIL company.
From the censorship, to the weaponization of DoJ, to warmongering, to 'government choosing winners and losers' in the marketplace, to a million other things, the playbook is consistent:
Accuse others of doing [$THING] you know full well they aren't, but that you plan to do, so that when you get around to doing [$THING], it's normalized, and you're only "balancing the scales."
If AI (or really, almost any new technology) were really so helpful, useful, and in-demand, why do all these companies insist on making it opt-out instead of opt-in?
If there were any legitimate value to most users, they would seek it out without having it shoved down their throats.
And we'll get to go through this all again in a few years when there's a President who interprets the TikTok law about foreign media ownership to require the Saudis to divest.
Maybe it's just a strawman, but imagine a world where there is a jackbooted officer on every corner, and all homes were made of glass - curtains are outlawed, of course. You have to check out and check in at every place you visit.
Crime would, in theory, be way down. But is that a world anyone actually wants? Zero privacy, zero freedom. Does the vendor of any opaque object get smeared as someone who supports child abuse, or worse?
Freedom for the sake of freedom should be every bit as important to policymakers. When the ratchet only turns one direction, that's how we end up in an authoritarian police state.
Anyone who willfully and repeatedly uses "the truth" is guilty of interfering with Donald Trump's reelection chances.
And we should all be cheering it on.
Imagine thinking a federal judge is just a fancy-robe-wearing intro-to-law tutor who isn't so much "rejecting your suit completely" as much as "redlining a first draft."
"Please believe our carefully crafted press release that's been approved by the legal department rather than the off-the-cuff remarks we made when we didn't think anyone was listening."
Strong State and national SLAPP laws would be good, but if we really want to stop all this bullshit, what we need is personal liability for abuse of official powers. Cops and AGs get away with this all the time because - at worst - they just have to write a check from somebody else's bank account (taxpayers).
Courts don't want to get involved in "political" disputes, especially when a sizable portion of the populace backs the abuse, but somebody needs to be the adult in the room.
We’ve seen ample indication that streaming executives have learned absolutely nothing from history
Not surprising given that most streaming services outside Netflix and Amazon are just the same old traditional pay-TV companies with a fresh coat of paint.
Paramount, Disney, Max [or whatever it's called this week], Discovery, etc. Steaming isn't exactly a new business as much is it's just a pivot from getting retransmission fees from cable companies to going direct to consumer. They certainly had to build up the infrastructure to do it, but at the end of the day, all they did was cut out the middle man. The momentum is strong to keep doing what they've done for 50+ years.
Only it wasn't necessarily RFKJr who initiated it.
This is the same script Trump used to get him to drop out and while offering a non-elected position. How was he to know it was illegal? It's an exact copy of the only government experience he's ever had!It's going to be fun (or rather "fun" with all the air quotes) watching SCOTUS come back around on Chevron Deference when it's GOP administrative rulemakers holding back a Dem Congress through 2027-2028. Is it too late to get Mental Gymnastics into the 2028 Olympics? John Roberts has an easy gold waiting for him.
It is an “oh well, never mind” scenario if they weren't making any significant money off those customers in the first place. The profits from physical games were going everywhere except Sony, minus some trivial (on a per-game basis) licensing fees the publishers pay. Capturing even a small % of customers who switch to digital only pays for that many times over. Customers != Dollars
This is in no way a defense of Sony (or Microsoft, since they seem to be moving in the same direction), but discs are not the long-term answer. Even the highest capacity blue-rays can't fit a lot of AAA games completely these days, so some kind of download is still necessary. Indie games, retro games, and other lo-fi titles that don't need 8k texture packs will be appropriate for physical distribution for generations, so it's bad to kill it completely, but it's still a closed system. Any closed system with DRM acts as a gatekeeper, whether it's on a disc or not. Consoles could, theoretically, decide tomorrow that the disc you put in contains a game that is no longer valid to be played on that platform. Physical distribution creates pressure to keep prices reasonable, but not much else. Only DRM-free, offline storage is good for art preservation and anything resembling true ownership. Consoles haven't had that in decades.
Who decides what the "geometry" of a gun even is? What if I'm trying to 3D-print a pop tart with a few bites taken out of it?
It's not just this.
From the censorship, to the weaponization of DoJ, to warmongering, to 'government choosing winners and losers' in the marketplace, to a million other things, the playbook is consistent: Accuse others of doing [$THING] you know full well they aren't, but that you plan to do, so that when you get around to doing [$THING], it's normalized, and you're only "balancing the scales."
If AI (or really, almost any new technology) were really so helpful, useful, and in-demand, why do all these companies insist on making it opt-out instead of opt-in? If there were any legitimate value to most users, they would seek it out without having it shoved down their throats.
And we'll get to go through this all again in a few years when there's a President who interprets the TikTok law about foreign media ownership to require the Saudis to divest.
Maybe it's just a strawman, but imagine a world where there is a jackbooted officer on every corner, and all homes were made of glass - curtains are outlawed, of course. You have to check out and check in at every place you visit. Crime would, in theory, be way down. But is that a world anyone actually wants? Zero privacy, zero freedom. Does the vendor of any opaque object get smeared as someone who supports child abuse, or worse? Freedom for the sake of freedom should be every bit as important to policymakers. When the ratchet only turns one direction, that's how we end up in an authoritarian police state.
Anyone who willfully and repeatedly uses "the truth" is guilty of interfering with Donald Trump's reelection chances. And we should all be cheering it on.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." AGFL is illiterate, then.
When the public servants view the public as servants, we've lost our way.
Imagine thinking a federal judge is just a fancy-robe-wearing intro-to-law tutor who isn't so much "rejecting your suit completely" as much as "redlining a first draft."
To be fair
It wasn't just the logo. The biker exclaimed, "Fucks' sake, what are we doing?" which is also the company motto, apparently.
I can't wait for every document shredding company to be swept up in every mail fraud case. 🙄
"Please believe our carefully crafted press release that's been approved by the legal department rather than the off-the-cuff remarks we made when we didn't think anyone was listening."
Meanwhile, others on Substack are downplaying the importance of T&S altogether.
Oh shit! Why didn't anybody ever think of just banning the bad stuff and keeping the good stuff? T&S must be so simple!Strong State and national SLAPP laws would be good, but if we really want to stop all this bullshit, what we need is personal liability for abuse of official powers. Cops and AGs get away with this all the time because - at worst - they just have to write a check from somebody else's bank account (taxpayers). Courts don't want to get involved in "political" disputes, especially when a sizable portion of the populace backs the abuse, but somebody needs to be the adult in the room.