This does constitute a Conflict of Interest and unless the entire the Swedish legal system has become corrupted by the Entertainment Industry its a far gone conclusion that in appeal the four Pirate Bay guys will have their convictions reverse and the judge from the first case will be investigated and face being disbarred. If true, this will be a huge setback for the entertainment industry and proof which everyone can see that they can't be trusted. They called what the Pirate Bay did was illegal, yet they go and do something like this. What this trial was, in the US, we call a "Show Trail".
There is one big reason why Blu-Ray isn't selling .. DRM.
All those tens of thousands of HDTV early adopters who are probably still paying for HDTVs costing $10,000 or more are not going to go out and buy new HDTVs with HDMI ports just so they can enjoy HD movies which they were promised when they bought those HDTVs in the first place.
The MPAA is their own worst enemy, they promised these people content, then screw them over by saying they need to buy a whole new TV just to watch movies in HD. That is wrong, unethical and makes no sense. DRM doesn't stop pirates, never has, never will, but it does stop customers from enjoying products. The movie and music industries are just going to have to live with the reality that there is piracy, and they need to focus on shutting down the large organized crime syndicates who make huge profits from the counterfeit DVD/CDs and not some John/Jane Doe who downloads a movie/song via P2P. Yes, the economy is a contributing factor, but DVD and CD sales have been dropping for quite a while before the economy turned bad.
Get rid of HDCP and the requirement to have an HDMI port on your TV to enjoy full 1080i/p resolution and then maybe people will start buying more Blu-Ray discs. As it is all those millions of HDTV early adopters don't want to buy a brand new TV to enjoy the HD content Big Media promised them was coming if they did buy an HDTV early.
HDCP+HDMI = Screwed Over Consumers
That is why Blu-Ray isn't doing well, any other argument is ignoring the truth.
I knew that Second Life was going to have a very hard time staying alive after online gambling was banned in the US.
From what I understand the ban is causing quite a bit of chaos in the world economy, not just in Second Life but in the real world. The US cannot ignore the problem for much longer. The Right Wing Christian Fascists who run the country right now could find themselves out of a job come November 4th when Obama wins. I'm certain he'll have the ban reversed when the World Trade Organization brings it up again. The US is not long the world power it used to be, other nations that were once below us are starting to rise up and gain power and wealth. Its a new reality, we aren't the center of the world anymore and its high time Washington finally woke up and realized it.
Sometimes I wonder if these people even want to make any money at all. If Microsoft does this and it starts messing up and deleting tracks that people ripped from CDs they own or videos they created themselves then I'll have to say that the Zune is doomed. Ok, its already dead, but it will be gone much faster than its currently fading. The harder you locking something down the more its going to upset users and this has the potential of making the Zune absolutely useless.
Recently the FCC issued a statement which pretty much warned other US ISPs from doing this sort of thing while they get set to wrap up their probe of Comcast. Comcast's sneaky stunt of putting people who support them in FCC meetings and keeping others out has made the FCC a bit upset. We'll likely see a ban by the FCC on the kinds of activities Comcast is doing before the end of the year. Which means any ISP which is doing the same as Comcast should worry at this point.
This whole article smells of cable industry propaganda to me. There is NO reason why the cable companies can't do this with existing technology and without extra cost. None what so ever. Don't believe these corporate approved lies.
If these game developers really were Christians they would never had pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue. They would have prayed for God to punish them. Hypocrites! This is why I don't trust religion or the Christian church. There are other reasons such as their mindless loyalty to the Republican Party, which has nearly ruined this nation and turned it into a Christian Fascist state.
I thought that the new MPEG4 audio format was supposed to significently improve upon the audio quality of compressed digital music. The only limitation was insufficient processing power to play MPEG4 audio, but that was a few years ago and today we have that CPU powee. So where did that next-gen audio compression technology goto? I know Apple's MP4 isn't the same specification, or is it. I was told it was a derivative of MPEG4 built using the Quicktime Audio format.
The keys to improved audio compression should a high frequency rate which determines the sampling rate-per-second (44.1MHz is Audio CD quality), and the data should be recorded at a higher bit sampling rate. Average MP3 audio is 16-bit, some are 24-bit. The higher the bit sampling rate is the higher the amount of audio data can be captured per second. Compression algarythms which chech for sound ranges above human hearing can remove this from the recordingm filters can remove other external sounds, thus you get higher compression along with a high quality recording. Or at least that's how an ideal audio compression format is supposed to work.
The DMCA has to go. Its not doing any good to protect legitimate copyright holders and is giving the real criminals the weapon they need to stifle competition and exercise so called rights they really have.
This is what is classically called "Bait and Switch" and it is very illegal. Best Buy has gotten away with it for a while but if a detective posing as a shopper comes in the store they are in deep Bantha Poodoo.
This very issue is what eventually lead to the downfall of Betamax. Betamax was a better technology but because Sony controlled the licensing and pricing of the technology the Porn Industry went with the cheaper open format that was VHS.
SL is built off an older version of the Havoc Engine. its not designed to have the graphics of FEAR, WoW or Guild Wars. The content in SL is built by the people who own land in the virtual world. They are the ones responsible for the misalligned textures and bad design. There are planty of places in SL where good design can be seen.
Maybe we can start to finally put this whole mess behind us.
A suggestion to the RIAA, build your own P2P service and put ALL of your music on it including a lot of the hard to find stuff. Offer a low monthly subscription fee and let others on the network also share music files. You'd have the largest online library of musc in existance which is what you had when Napster was still around. Look at the opportunity you lost. Now you have a second chance to make it right.
The main company which makes "real world" money from in-game money and items is IGE. A majority of their workforce is in China and S. Korea. IGE's practices are in violation of both Blizzard's and SE"s license agreements. This technically makes it an illegal activity but neither company has been able to complete stop them for long.
SE implimented many countermeasures which has limited how IGE's Gil Farmers ability to make money. They have been limited to flooding he Auction Houses with items and driving down prices to make them sell faster. IGE is also branching off into Power Leveling for money. Twice in last three months SE has banned over2,000 users accounts for using 3rd party chatting tools.
I think it is wrong to tax in-game money. Getting in-game money for WoW and FFXI is against the EULA, but it would work wiith something like Second Life where its virtual money can be bought with real money and can be exchanged for real money.
All the more reason why the DMCA needs to be abolished. It was originally intended to be used as a way to protect the rights of intellectual property owners but its become a tool for greedy corporations to curcumvent and even eliminate competitiors. All the reports I've seen about the DMCA so far have shown that the law is being severely exploited for underhanded purposes. This weapon neeeds to be taken out of their hands.
When the Democrats take over Congress this November write your Democratic Congressan or Congresswoman and let them know you want the DMCA Abolished.
Yes, if something were to happen to the keys for that DRM the company that impliments such a thing would be in serious trouble. Many companies have gone out of business because they lost all of their documents due to a server crash, fire, or natural disaster. Adding DRM only makes it worse.
This does constitute a Conflict of Interest and unless the entire the Swedish legal system has become corrupted by the Entertainment Industry its a far gone conclusion that in appeal the four Pirate Bay guys will have their convictions reverse and the judge from the first case will be investigated and face being disbarred. If true, this will be a huge setback for the entertainment industry and proof which everyone can see that they can't be trusted. They called what the Pirate Bay did was illegal, yet they go and do something like this. What this trial was, in the US, we call a "Show Trail".
Its the DRM Stupid!
There is one big reason why Blu-Ray isn't selling .. DRM.
All those tens of thousands of HDTV early adopters who are probably still paying for HDTVs costing $10,000 or more are not going to go out and buy new HDTVs with HDMI ports just so they can enjoy HD movies which they were promised when they bought those HDTVs in the first place.
The MPAA is their own worst enemy, they promised these people content, then screw them over by saying they need to buy a whole new TV just to watch movies in HD. That is wrong, unethical and makes no sense. DRM doesn't stop pirates, never has, never will, but it does stop customers from enjoying products. The movie and music industries are just going to have to live with the reality that there is piracy, and they need to focus on shutting down the large organized crime syndicates who make huge profits from the counterfeit DVD/CDs and not some John/Jane Doe who downloads a movie/song via P2P. Yes, the economy is a contributing factor, but DVD and CD sales have been dropping for quite a while before the economy turned bad.
Get Rid of HDCP and We'll Talk
Get rid of HDCP and the requirement to have an HDMI port on your TV to enjoy full 1080i/p resolution and then maybe people will start buying more Blu-Ray discs. As it is all those millions of HDTV early adopters don't want to buy a brand new TV to enjoy the HD content Big Media promised them was coming if they did buy an HDTV early.
HDCP+HDMI = Screwed Over Consumers
That is why Blu-Ray isn't doing well, any other argument is ignoring the truth.
Repercussions of the Online Gambling Ban
I knew that Second Life was going to have a very hard time staying alive after online gambling was banned in the US.
From what I understand the ban is causing quite a bit of chaos in the world economy, not just in Second Life but in the real world. The US cannot ignore the problem for much longer. The Right Wing Christian Fascists who run the country right now could find themselves out of a job come November 4th when Obama wins. I'm certain he'll have the ban reversed when the World Trade Organization brings it up again. The US is not long the world power it used to be, other nations that were once below us are starting to rise up and gain power and wealth. Its a new reality, we aren't the center of the world anymore and its high time Washington finally woke up and realized it.
When will these people learn?
Sometimes I wonder if these people even want to make any money at all. If Microsoft does this and it starts messing up and deleting tracks that people ripped from CDs they own or videos they created themselves then I'll have to say that the Zune is doomed. Ok, its already dead, but it will be gone much faster than its currently fading. The harder you locking something down the more its going to upset users and this has the potential of making the Zune absolutely useless.
No, it is wrong
If you break the law trying to enforce the law you are twice as guilty as those who violate the law you are trying to enforce, period.
FCC Won't Allow It.
Recently the FCC issued a statement which pretty much warned other US ISPs from doing this sort of thing while they get set to wrap up their probe of Comcast. Comcast's sneaky stunt of putting people who support them in FCC meetings and keeping others out has made the FCC a bit upset. We'll likely see a ban by the FCC on the kinds of activities Comcast is doing before the end of the year. Which means any ISP which is doing the same as Comcast should worry at this point.
Hell NO!!! Getting kill in a FPS pisses us off, makes us focus harder so we can frag the hell out of the bastard who shot us down!!!
Lies
This whole article smells of cable industry propaganda to me. There is NO reason why the cable companies can't do this with existing technology and without extra cost. None what so ever. Don't believe these corporate approved lies.
If they really were Christians
If these game developers really were Christians they would never had pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue. They would have prayed for God to punish them. Hypocrites! This is why I don't trust religion or the Christian church. There are other reasons such as their mindless loyalty to the Republican Party, which has nearly ruined this nation and turned it into a Christian Fascist state.
Re: MP3 & MPEG4
I thought that the new MPEG4 audio format was supposed to significently improve upon the audio quality of compressed digital music. The only limitation was insufficient processing power to play MPEG4 audio, but that was a few years ago and today we have that CPU powee. So where did that next-gen audio compression technology goto? I know Apple's MP4 isn't the same specification, or is it. I was told it was a derivative of MPEG4 built using the Quicktime Audio format.
The keys to improved audio compression should a high frequency rate which determines the sampling rate-per-second (44.1MHz is Audio CD quality), and the data should be recorded at a higher bit sampling rate. Average MP3 audio is 16-bit, some are 24-bit. The higher the bit sampling rate is the higher the amount of audio data can be captured per second. Compression algarythms which chech for sound ranges above human hearing can remove this from the recordingm filters can remove other external sounds, thus you get higher compression along with a high quality recording. Or at least that's how an ideal audio compression format is supposed to work.
DMCA
The DMCA has to go. Its not doing any good to protect legitimate copyright holders and is giving the real criminals the weapon they need to stifle competition and exercise so called rights they really have.
Bait and Switch
This is what is classically called "Bait and Switch" and it is very illegal. Best Buy has gotten away with it for a while but if a detective posing as a shopper comes in the store they are in deep Bantha Poodoo.
Yes
This very issue is what eventually lead to the downfall of Betamax. Betamax was a better technology but because Sony controlled the licensing and pricing of the technology the Porn Industry went with the cheaper open format that was VHS.
I see a pattern here.
Re: so funny
SL is built off an older version of the Havoc Engine. its not designed to have the graphics of FEAR, WoW or Guild Wars. The content in SL is built by the people who own land in the virtual world. They are the ones responsible for the misalligned textures and bad design. There are planty of places in SL where good design can be seen.
Re:
You bet ya me matey, we pirates gotta stick together.
Arrrr!
About Time!
Maybe we can start to finally put this whole mess behind us.
A suggestion to the RIAA, build your own P2P service and put ALL of your music on it including a lot of the hard to find stuff. Offer a low monthly subscription fee and let others on the network also share music files. You'd have the largest online library of musc in existance which is what you had when Napster was still around. Look at the opportunity you lost. Now you have a second chance to make it right.
Re:
The main company which makes "real world" money from in-game money and items is IGE. A majority of their workforce is in China and S. Korea. IGE's practices are in violation of both Blizzard's and SE"s license agreements. This technically makes it an illegal activity but neither company has been able to complete stop them for long.
SE implimented many countermeasures which has limited how IGE's Gil Farmers ability to make money. They have been limited to flooding he Auction Houses with items and driving down prices to make them sell faster. IGE is also branching off into Power Leveling for money. Twice in last three months SE has banned over2,000 users accounts for using 3rd party chatting tools.
I think it is wrong to tax in-game money. Getting in-game money for WoW and FFXI is against the EULA, but it would work wiith something like Second Life where its virtual money can be bought with real money and can be exchanged for real money.
Abolish the DMCA
All the more reason why the DMCA needs to be abolished. It was originally intended to be used as a way to protect the rights of intellectual property owners but its become a tool for greedy corporations to curcumvent and even eliminate competitiors. All the reports I've seen about the DMCA so far have shown that the law is being severely exploited for underhanded purposes. This weapon neeeds to be taken out of their hands.
When the Democrats take over Congress this November write your Democratic Congressan or Congresswoman and let them know you want the DMCA Abolished.
DRM + Document Files = Screw Business
Yes, if something were to happen to the keys for that DRM the company that impliments such a thing would be in serious trouble. Many companies have gone out of business because they lost all of their documents due to a server crash, fire, or natural disaster. Adding DRM only makes it worse.