Thankfully though, Music is not region encoded, so I can import music from Europe and Japan and not have any difficult playing the CD on my system or ripping it to listen to in lossless for archival purposes. Sadly, this is not always the case with video games. Yes I can import games if I want to play the Japanese version - IF it is for the Nintendo DS or Playstation 3. But most of the time if I want to import a game (that the US branch of various companies refuses to localize) for Xbox 360 or Wii, I have to modify my system, voiding the warranty and making everyone assume I modified it because I am a pirate. So what happens here? I have a few imported DS games and tons of imported CDs but am at the mercy of various US publishers to localize, translate and release games from Japanese that I am interested in. (Although with xbox 360 it is up to the company who releases the game whether or not they want to region code it). The problem with the way companies are adapting to the systems of online piracy is that when we move to a system dominated by Itunes and other digital download services, the content is limited by region. Thus I need to have a Japanese credit card or Japanese Itunes card with associated address to sign up for an account and purchase Japanese Itunes exclusive games. In that instance, the companies are making it so difficult for me to support the content creators that its no wonder I download the same content. On the other hand, the Anime industry has realized that American consumers want to watch Japanese aired Anime on the same day as it airs in Japan with English subtitles and various sites have sprung up, such as Crunchyroll, where you can pay a monthly fee to get access to HD streams of new release anime with subtitles and support the content creators at the same time. This is the sort of adaptation these companies should be looking into rather than limiting the reach of their products by region.

I am aware of what granting summary judgment means thanks. But throughout my law school career we've read a few cases where summary judgment has been overruled. A grant of summary judgment is pretty serious, especially as here it sounds to be in favor of the plaintiff. I bet it is more that the trial judge has little idea of the difference between previous cases and bittorrents and thus said "oh yeah this is the same thing lets just get it out of the court so I can go back to cases about things I understand".

Well even if it was enforceable, ISOhunt can always appeal the grant of summary judgment and perhaps the appeals court will reverse and call for an actual trial.

I don't know about anyone else but every person I know who uses drugs on a regular basis is a complete moron and doesn't have anything better to do than getting doped up and hanging out and talking with their friends for hours about nothing. I fail to see how this will be useful for anyone else because I doubt you would want to sit around and read a novel while you are high whether its from drugs or some brain simulation. Now won't you kids get off my lawn so I can sit here peacefully and read a book on my vacation.

Everyone should know that you have to pay an early termination fee if you get a 2 year contract with your free phone. That is how things work and if you don't want to pay it, put up with the phone you have for another 2 years (or less hopefully unless you JUST UPGRADED). More than likely if you are able to get by with your phone for any length of time you can also get by just as well for another year and a half before splitting to another provider that will shaft you just as much with the same sorts of fees.

Its about time the Australian government realized that games are not just for kids anymore. Its no more objectionable to have a game that is made for adults than it is to have a movie made for adults, yet some countries think there is a difference. I doubt Aliens v. Predator has anything I haven't seen before in my games that would otherwise scandalize me as a well-adjusted adult. We have had extreme violence in movies for years, there is nothing significantly different in games other than increased cathartic release.

Really? I mean sure I bought Garnier Fructis shampoo based on TV ads but with something like that you have to find it a significant upgrade to become the sort of addicted customer they really want. I certainly wouldn't buy a car based on the commercials they show on TV or pick my insurance based on a commercial let alone choose where I buy electronics, what type of HDTV to buy or what brand of laptop to buy based on a commercial. Anything over a certain price enters the realm where anyone with half a brain is going to do moderate research online before purchasing rather than impulse buying based on a TV commercial.

Uh I've been playing 360 games on my SDTV since launch and never once found text impossibly small. Perhaps developers of RPGs make the text more readable specifically because the games are so text-heavy but I don't find it bad. Although I do play 3 feet from my TV usually. Do action, fps, racing, or other non-rpg genres have much smaller text or are people just developing bad eyesight?

The problem is louder commercials don't make me more likely to buy stuff based on hearing it. They make me angry and likely to say "well if you are going to be like that maybe I won't buy your stuff." Of course the point is moot for most of America who watch TV on Hulu or even better off other online avenues where commercials are already removed by the time the program reaches the individual.

I agree, and loud is relative. The people who spend every night at clubs or concerts without hearing protection are going to have many more hearing problems than people who listen to moderately loud music on headphones frequently. Although I think the biggest problem is the majority of the population is listening to those terribly cheap ear buds that come with players and think they should be able to cancel out all the sound around them. They ARE NOT noise canceling headphones and were not developed for that purpose.

Or you could always buy a headphone amp to increase the output volume from the device when it is not enough to give you a decent volume out of your headphones. Are they going to ban headphone amps as well? I used to use one when my earlier player didn't have enough juice to power my Sennheiser EH350s but thankfully the Zune has a more powerful output that is sufficient. Still if my player was too quiet I would just boost the volume with an amp and go back to my usual volume. Of course I don't play my music at crazy loud levels.

Its not like google runs a message board where people post these rapidshare links and is being sent notices to run the message board better and remove infringing links. If that were the case then google and microsoft both would be advised if not required to remove those links if they want to avoid a suit. Google, on the other hand, simply runs a web site that searches other web sites and finds keywords without discrimination between keywords that are linked to rapidshare links and keywords that aren't. I fail to see how it is google's responsibility to comply with a takedown notice although it would be nice to have the forums with rapidshare links no longer showing up in google.

Except I didn't need the court to suggest to me it might be legal to rip my music off CDs I purchased to whatever format I choose. If some law made it illegal then there is something wrong with the law.