And the third thing is going to be the security state's jackboot crushing their neck for subverting "lawful" surveillance of all human activity. In all likelihood the parents will be held equally responsible for their children's terrorist activity.

This has less to do with "shit head 20 somethings" then the modern trajectory of keeping tabs on your children in any and all circumstance. Compare the ideas presented in this story with the recent stories of parents getting Child Protective Services called on them for letting their children walk home unattended. This is just an extension to the idea that children (or young adults) can't be trusted to act properly on their own, and must be under parental--or failing that, state--surveillance at all times.

Somethings gone horribly awry in our society when we can't even trust a young adult to act according to traffic laws and this technology is simply a proxy for the idea that children/young adults need to be under constant supervision, lest they have the temerity to develop an autonomous identity.

How in the hell did civilization ever manage to develop as far as it has without children and young adults being under the constant watchful eye of parents or other authority figures? If you find yourself asking why people aren't more concerned with shit like the NSA's surveillance, look at stories like this, where people are encourage to distrust their own flesh and blood to be able to make responsible decisions! How much longer until we're deluged with stories about chipping children, much like we chip pets, in order to ensure they're safe at all times!

The security state flourishes in this country because we want so much to be safe that we'll give anything and everything for even a slight increase in the feeling that we (and our children) are safe from anything and everything, thanks to the valiant efforts of our security services and corporations.

Let's not pretend for a second that the companies pushing this technology give a flying fuck about the safety of your kids, they want more data, more control, more ways to encroach on areas that used to be free from opportunities for advertisement and the wholesale monetization of human existence. You don't need to know the exact location of your 20 year old kid, you don't need the peace of mind that they're not speeding and sowing chaos. You want it because you've bought into the idea that everything and everyone is out to get you and yours and only the crushing embrace of the modern security apparatus will grant it to you.

Congratulations, you know where your kid is at all times, and in the process crushed the humanity out of them in preparation for the cradle to grave security state surveillance they'll be subjected to.

Good fucking job America.

I know, but I couldn't be bothered to find out whatever the fuck they call it now. Grabbing an ethernet capture log is the important bit.

They should acquire Ubisoft. Consolidation will fix everything that is wrong with the games industry today! /s

So you're asserting that their gathering "full blown data telemetry of exactly how and when you use the product, collected behind the scenes and reported/sold based on whatever terms the company feels like today." Obviously you must have some proof of that. Maybe some Ethereal captures of data being sent off to some server someplace? No? You just noticed they track how many hours you played?

Where's the beef? Otherwise your tinfoil hat may be a bit too tight, or possibly built with the wrong polarity. I think their microwaves may inadvertently be frying your brain.

It's true! Gabe N. has a swimming pool filled with the data collected from your game playing. He even drowned some hookers in it. OPEN UP YOUR EYES!

Not to mention that getting around Steam requires little more than a single hacked DLL. Steam's DRM is bollocks, it doesn't stop anyone from anything. Steam's DRM is basically making it easy to keep all your games centrally located and easy to launch. Let's not mention the frequent sales and deep discounts; it's all a cynical ploy to destroy consumer freedoms.

Absolutely. The exception proves the rule, after all. Since some games have DLC which isn't just cut content tacked on after the fact, it stands to reason that all DLC is the same.

What other industry can you release an unfinished product and then charge for the finished bits?

"The 2016 Ford Focus doesn't have a radio or an air conditioner, but they should be available first quarter 2017 as upgrade packs."

Can't see too many suckers lining up for that great "deal."

Jim Sterling ranted about this. Basically, at some point the creative types who started a studio start to feel overwhelmed by the managerial aspects of running a company. So they bring in "professional management," many of whom from come industries entirely unlike the games industry. So some CEO who previously ran a shoe manufacturer gets brought on into a game studio and proceeds to enact policies that would, were making games anything like manufacturing, make things more efficient. Instead, these policies completely destroy the creativity of the team, and eventually the people who were making the great games move on to greener (money ain't the only green!) pastures, leaving a desiccated husk of a studio which continues to churn out garbage hoping desperately to move units based solely on the whatever brand recognition remains intact.

Whether or not you consider games to be art, creating games is undeniably a creative endeavor. When the bean counters move in with their metrics and demands for predictable results... well, shit like SimCity 2013 happens. If the new management is lucky enough to have a highly regarded franchise, expect them to churn out yearly increments of whatever they think works. You only have to look at the endless Battlefield and Call of Duty releases to see that reliable sales figures is more important than creating new and interesting games. Like OP said, a factory that produces widgets. Formulaic crap is the order of the day, and despite the fact that we all know it sucks, people still eat it up.

Neither did an easily replaceable battery or SD card slot. The S6 is a iPhone wannabe piece of trash. Can't wait to see how bloated with useless garbage this it is. Samsung is pants on head retarded.

Even worse, a clothes hanger!

That's a nice little rant you got going there, but the reason the airways are considered "commons" is because there is a finite amount of spectrum, which is ostensibly owned by the public. This limited bandwidth is auctioned off so that broadcasters are not stepping on each others toes and interfering with each others broadcasts. The 2.4Ghz band, for example, is set aside for WiFi, cordless phones (remember those!) and other consumer uses. Other areas are designated for TV broadcasts, AM radio, FM radio, Cellular, etc. If anyone could just blast their transmission on any band they could overpower and interrupt other broadcasts. In fact, that's exactly what pirate radio stations do. Set up a transmitter on some frequency and take over that frequency by overpowering whatever the "legitimate" user of that band is transmitting.

So what's the precedent for "blogger licenses"? I'm as wary of governmental overreach as the next guy, but I'm not seeing the slippery slope your describing here. The FCC "censorship of broadcast radio/TV" came about because of the status of the RF spectrum as publicly owned. It was determined that those using the public space to broadcast messages shouldn't be broadcasting "naughty" stuff. Sure it's puritan nonsense, but done in the same spirit as not having lewd messages on say, billboards or public signage. Unless you're imagining that the FCC is about to nationalize the telecommunications infrastructure I'm not sure where you think they're going to derive the authority to unilaterally censor the internet.

I don't think it's all that far fetched. Leasing is an increasing popular way to "buy" cars. I'd expect robots to be produced by companies who already only sell licenses to their products. Furthermore, arguably the most important part of a robot is going to be its programming, and software is already only ever sold under license. Ok, so you own the mechanical parts of the robot. Great, now try and load your own software on the bloody thing. If it's a huge pain in the ass to replace the OS on your cell phone (and increasingly seen as an abnormal thing to want to do) just imagine what a clusterfuck it'd be for a robot. Undoubtedly it'd locked down to the maximum extent in for security purposes, can't have the crackers pwning your robot, or breaking it by installing the wrong apps.

Looking at the current state of the software and mobile industries, I can hardly imagine a future where robots are under the control of anything but the manufacturers. And for your fridge example, what's the EULA going to look like on that SmartFridge going to look like down the road? People don't even care they don't actually own anything, the very idea of ownership has been watered down by the inexorable march towards everything being Intellectual Property.

...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock-smoking teabaggers.