"...forums like Facebook serve as the modern-day equivalent of the public square for a lot of communities."
Is there a way to identify these communities? Just trying to avoid areas of mass stupidity where Facebook somehow supplanted actual news outlets.
Those who feel Facebook is in the position of being a modern day times square have obviously never heard of a troll before.
Enjoy.
Unless they've discovered a way to insert retinal implants without our knowledge, I can only assume Amazon is referring to e-book sales here.
Therefore, the analogy of a "fat coffee table book" is a fucking stupid one, unless they start selling Kindles the size of coffee tables.
What's with the scare quotes? Of course the thumb prints are for tracking purposes. What else could they possibly be good for? A collage?
And how many more Snowden events need to go down before you realize those quotes are pretty valid today?
When it comes to collecting data today...ANY fucking data, you can rest assured it's being used for more than the "advertised" purpose.
Don't be ignorant about it. It's how we got here.
I don't want 2-3Gps. I have to pay $10 per gigabyte. I don't want to lose thousands of dollars a few minutes of some app going haywire.
Well, thank you for pointing out the two main issues here. Greedy providers that abuse caps for revenue, and apps that suck your data plan dry not by going "haywire" but by design.
This is also why competition is absolutely essential, and enough of it. Otherwise, you merely end up with a price fixing consortium hell-bent on raping every consumer.
Aibo: "I want more life, fucker!"
Uh, someone should have probably told him/her/it that we now live in a disposable society.
It's also become rather obvious that the disposal rate mirrors our attention spa...woah, is that the new iPod in a different color?!?...
They'd never be so bold as to add tracking to duck duck go! But for performance and "other stuff" they will be adding analytics.
This is the largest delusion anyone could have about any corporation operating today.
Good luck with that shit. You're gonna need it.
Rightsholders keep pushing the fact that we're buying a personal use license to the media when we buy a CD/DVD/etc, so why is making a mere copy for personal use unlawful in any way?
You can't have it both ways, greedy bastards.
I'm more struggling with the fact that in the day and age of streaming music and humans walking around with devices that hold thousands of songs that physical media is still seen as this much of a issue.
Shit, the industry itself will likely abandon the pressing of physical media within the next decade. What does it fucking matter?
There's a simple solution. Artists, prepare to give away your music for free, or ask for a nominal DRM-free fee (ala Louis C.K. model) You and your promoters can and will still make plenty of money off other promotions and tours, and we can eliminate this bullshit argument of loss of revenue due to ripping.
If they don't like this idea, then fuck 'em. They're not going to eliminate what they deem as illegal music distribution. Hell, they practically support it today with YouTube, which is where I go to listen to a song and download it for free. The posting of entire albums there makes me think they really don't care all that much, so have fun arguing over a tax on media that won't generate shit in return.
If I request that the authors and musicians perform their same old song once more, and they do in fact show up, then they can expect to get paid again. If I play the damn recording that I paid for on equipment that I paid for in an establishment that I rent, decorate and heat, then they can fuck the hell off.
So, artists should only get paid for live entertainment. Got it.
Just curious what's a reasonable amount to charge for any recorded works then? Would $500 a CD be reasonable for a budding artist? I mean, it might be a while before they can eat again if they're not touring for food 360 days a year.
(Believe me I'm on your side, let's both remember these legal actions and reactions are mainly for the lawyers that created them.)
If I buy a CD and play it in my home, how many others may be in the same room listening before I need to pay a fee? If a company buys a CD and plays it at their place of business, who else may be in the room listening before they need to pay a fee?
I do not know the answer buy my personal opinion is "as many as I want" unless as a business the main reason why customers are paying me is to listen to those specific songs, in that case I am re-marketing them.
In the case of a business, you're playing music for the same reason the artist is making it; to entertain others.
Don't want to pay for that entertainment? Fine, let your customers do whatever they want to do in your store in silence.
And it doesn't matter if our personal opinions match here. All that matters is the "logic" a lawyer needs.
"How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?"
Dunno. How many times do you want to get paid for serving the same stupid meals?
Sure, we all hate the MAFIAA, but it's rather odd how you feel capitalism is suddenly a one-way street.
It does not matter if they are good or not. If people will buy them, then they will sell them. Same thing with movies. If the people go to watch the movie then the studios will create movies that get people in the seats. It does not matter one iota if the movie is "good" or not.
Fantastic. So it's a race to the bottom then?
Not sure who's winning that race faster, millions of idiots who actually pay money for some director to toss shit on a screen, or the celebrities clamoring to be recognized for said steaming pile of screenwork.
Perhaps Leo doesn't want the Oscar after all.
This attention to quality above quantity would also explain today's pop "artists" as well.
I am so bloody sick and tired of the lame and mindless "reboots" Hollywood keeps churning out.
Sprout a god damned brain and adapt some of the millions of well-written books to the screen, already!
Person who demands originality from Hollywood trips and falls over a large book of irony instead.
Smooth.
This is Cuba's answer to the internet?
This is like the US Military calling the Nerf toy company to answer ISIS.
Windows will be around for another 25 years? Oh God please no....
Don't worry. There's an app for that, I'm sure.
Yep.
Yesterday it was a chain that connected A to B.
Today it's a modified ethernet cable running a custom protocol designed in Korea connecting software component A that was designed and built in Germany, tested in Sweden and validated by Japan. Software component B was reverse engineered and written by Joe in a shed.
The chain was probably easier to work with.
Correction: The chain did not create jobs.
All of this other bullshit did.
All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin
