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Comment Re:Entitlement Mentality, again (Score 1) 500

by heavyion (#27066331) Attached to: A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial

Copyright encourages development by protecting a creative work from theft. The benefit to society comes in having wonderfully creative works that you can buy.

Man, you really don't understand how copyright works in the US. In exchange for creating a work, you are provided a time-limited monopoly on that work. At the end of the time period, the work falls into the public domain. The benefit to society is that works are created and become public-use after the creator has had a chance to reap some benefit.

Under copyright, you are not obligated to distribute or license said work (there are some minor exceptions regarding compulsory licensing for music, etc.) You may camp on it to your heart's content. However, at the end of the copyright term, you can't use force-of-law to prohibit others' use of the work. The benefit to society has nothing to do with "consumerism."

You did not answer either of my questions. I'll ask a different one, but the other two remain open. Where is the "benefit to society" when those who create choose to stop being creative because it is no longer profitable and protected from theft?

Comment Re:Entitlement Mentality, again (Score 1) 500

by heavyion (#27065865) Attached to: A Short Summary Following the Pirate Bay Trial

If this sounds extreme, consider the opposite side. A musician/artist/whoever has a backed-by-force-of-law monopoly on some work he did.

Absolutely! After all he/she created it!

Copyright is intended to benefit society by encouraging development of creative works (says so in the US Constitution, I can't say about it elsewhere.)

Copyright encourages development by protecting a creative work from theft. The benefit to society comes in having wonderfully creative works that you can buy.

So at some point, society is supposed to benefit. Exactly when does that happen if the originator of the work can camp on it for his entire lifetime plus 75 years?

It happens 75 years after the artist dies, as you said. Until then the work is not yours unless you pay for it! Perhaps 75 years is too long and should be shortened by law. But the law exists to protect the artist's rights to their creation, not some imagined "right" of society to their work.

You and I have been swindled out of our part of the bargain - the work is supposed to drop into the community for use by others. Extension of copyright has stolen that from us, and yes, you have been deprived of access to something, so "stealing" is appropriately used.

A simple question, what gives you the right to something I create? Another simple question, what incentive remains for me to create anything if you will only steal it and say you had a "right" to it from the beginning?

Comment Relax (Score 2, Informative) 672

by heavyion (#26575781) Attached to: Black Holes From the LHC Could Last For Minutes

maximum LHC center-of-mass energy (in a Pb-Pb collision): ~1.14e15 eV

cosmic ray flux at Earth's upper atmosphere: ~1 per km^2 per year with energy > 10^19 eV

Collisions 10,000 times more energetic occur multiple times every day over your head, and you're still here. Except now, we can finally reproduce them for study in the lab.

Comment Re:Somebody needs to remake... (Score 1) 381

by heavyion (#26267497) Attached to: Resurrecting Old Games, What Works?

So many of the Microprose classics could; SotS is certainly one (though some might argue that Shogun: Total War came close, to the second half at least.)

Agreed, except that it was missing the personal aspect of wandering around the countryside resolving encounters and political rivalries on an individual basis. You really risked your game if had no heirs. *sigh*

The remakes of Railroad Tycoon and Pirates! were excellent. Civilization is still going strong.

In addition to Sword of the Samurai, I'd like to see Covert Action redone; I quite enjoyed it.

Absolutely! The mini-game idea that the above games used so well seems to be returning. One can only hope the quality will be maintained.

Comment Re:So, EA has to do business your way? (Score 1) 336

by heavyion (#25706625) Attached to: Two New Class-Action Suits Against EA Over DRM

What gives YOU the RIGHT to something created by someone else?

The fact that they offered it to me in exchange for my money, and then they confirmed that offer by accepting my money. If they weren't giving up something as part of an exchange, then what gave them the right to my money?

Exactly, it's money. You trade your money for their product. You do not have a "natural right" to anything anyone else produces, only your own "products" and those for which you trade. You do not get a right to copy it and give it away to all your friends unless you are granted that right by the producer. I do have issues with producers' assertions that you may not copy something you have bought for your own archival purposes.

If there is an issue that interferes with your ability to use the product you have paid for in the future, then I am strongly on your side. After all, you paid for that ability. But the idea that you have some God-given right to anything anyone else makes is absurd and should be called such.

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