I'm pretty sure that those groups don't have much overlap. They seem to be polarized and linked opinions in terms of political party.

Nope, not the previous lethal cocktail anymore. We mostly get those chemicals from other countries--and other countries decided to ban selling them to us, because we use them in executions. It's been bad for our medical field, because they have a lot of potential for curing as well.

Selwyn Larcher agrees.

Good god! I can only imagine all the nefarious purposes that drug testing companies use my samples for when I get tested for a job! Why, maybe they're even trying to pull my DNA out of them and sequence it so they can sell it to who-knows-what evildoers! If only a tinfoil hat worked for that.

No. I give VAC explicit permission, and it does its job. No VAC, no online games worth playing.

VAC only runs when you are actively connected to a VAC-enabled server.

Yeah, I can't see Linux players being allowed on any servers for some games. "No VAC on Linux" is a reasonable statement. VAC-only games (I think CoD?) will therefore never make it onto the platform. Can you imagine if only one operating system didn't have cheat detection? Why not wave a big flag around saying "If you want to cheat, run Linux"?

There's a lot of players who actively choose VAC games over non-VAC games, even with full information about these countermeasures, because they want to lower the chances that they are playing against a cheater. Saying "I run Linux but please let me play your game" is like saying "I'm not willing to take a drug test but please hire me". Some places might. Some places never will.

Yes, and you can't trust the guys who do steroid testing in baseball, either. Who knows what they are doing with your precious bodily fluids?!

If you're in a poker tournament, and there's a guy standing behind your opponent telling you what cards he has, is that free speech as well?

Sounds good. It's nice that Free games are out there. However, after playing games that don't try to detect this stuff, I'm very happy to not only give VAC permission to check my stuff but also PAY for the privilege of playing against other people who do the same thing. I guess it's kind of like going to a restaurant with a dress code... sure, maybe it "infringes" on your "rights" to wear whatever you want, but there's people who choose to pay to be in a space where everyone follows the same restrictions. It gives a certain atmosphere. But hey, go ahead and cook bacon at home in your underpants, I'm not doing anything to stop you.

The guy who was filing the complaints commented on the site. So maybe he's a dick, sure. But if you're willing to give him good faith for his complaint--solely in the capacity that he honestly believes that the video oversteps fair use, and is violating copyright--then he did follow correct procedure.

He tried contacting the guy quite a few times (or so he claims), and after getting no response, he filed the takedown request personally, not through some automated thing. If he has good reason to honestly believe that his rights were violated, it wasn't even perjury. Strangely enough that's what I would do if I thought someone was violating my copyright.

Claiming fair use for informational purposes is really shaky ground. There's a lot of "I know it when I see it", and people like to stretch the definition on either side. I haven't seen the video so I don't know how long the clips are, but if they are too long then yes it's a violation, and I suspect that (much like with parody) there's a line between "informational purposes" and "openly hostile" that the law says you shouldn't cross. Does it cross the line? Hell if I know, but the guy sounds like he's at least justified in filing a claim. Whether a court would find it reasonable or not is up to them, but jackasses get to protect their own rights too.

> to verify that the VAC module was downloaded from the correct server...
 
...actually that sounds about right, if not that exactly then something close. I can totally see someone using a HOSTS file to screw around with a security system, it makes sense. In an ideal world, they would only upload very specific entries.

Many games require Steam to be running, usually because they use Steam services for online matchmaking or whatever. That's the game developers' choice though, they aren't obligated to do it.

Worth noting that VAC doesn't lock you out of running games or delete your account, it just prevents you from playing multiplayer on VAC servers. VAC is a voluntary-to-publisher service that Valve offers to creators of multiplayer games. If a publisher says "yeah, if someone cheats on a different game then we don't want them playing on our servers either", they can do that...it's pretty much the same as publicly shared email blackhole lists. If you have a problem with a publisher putting VAC in their games, complain about them and not Valve.

Many (most?) multiplayer games that let players run their own servers give an option of running a non-VAC one, or to connect directly to IP, whatever.

Seriously...even if Valve didn't run VAC, someone else would run an equivalent service (can you say Punkbuster?). All it takes is for one or two companies to say "hey we have this way to detect cheaters, why don't we share the steam keys of the cheaters we find and keep them from playing online on our servers", and there you go.

No questions here, but I'm impressed by the lifespan of a lot of your music. The soundtrack in Furcadia is still iconic of the game, and it's still going strong online about eighteen years later. It hasn't even fallen into 'old nostalgic retro game' territory.

Does it have the authority to mandate vaccines?

They might seem unrelated, but consider:
- If thieves know that a stolen smartphone is worthless, they will stop stealing them.
- However, they only know a stolen smartphone is worthless if ALL cell phones can be bricked if stolen.
- Much like being one vaccinated person in a country of unvaccinated people is actually pretty weak protection, it doesn't do you any good to have the only phone that bricks when stolen. By the time your mugger finds out it's worthless, you've already had it stolen at knifepoint.
- Police departments all over the country are calling cell phone muggings an epidemic. It's a HUGE trend. It has serious, real-world implications on public safety and health (being stabbed for your phone is unhealthy).

So yes, this mandate would absolutely improve public safety, and that is absolutely within the government's power to regulate.