The difference in this example is that you're not paying for the enforcement of my parenting.

Then 72% of US Adults shouldn't buy the games for their children.

Live is a portal that provides the following:
- Targeted Advertising, which makes Microsoft money
- Media purchasing avenue (Games, Videos, Add-ons, etc), which makes Microsoft money
- Multiplayer functionality around games which make Microsoft Money
- Subscription Fee, which makes Microsoft money

Only cost that has no/little return is from people who play multilayer constantly and somehow avoids seeing any of the advertisements.

This is really just a profit grab. I can't really blame them since they don't have to compete with anyone for their existing install base, but it does irk me.

Perhaps I'm understanding this wrong, but wouldn't "One Eight the Size" make a lot more sense? Having something 'times smaller' would suggest a difference in size being multiplied, and not fixed size.

Tell me about it. "I couldn't care less" and "I could care less" is a perfect example of this. It sounds simply moronic to use "I could care less" at the times that people do, but people do so often and don't even realize what's wrong.

Funny... I was just hearing from George Lucas that the server shot first.

How is the OP insightful? Content copying has never been anything like today, in either scale or accuracy.
 
There's simply no comparison between the triviality of copying&distribution of media with pre- and post- internet era. Millions of people can download an unauthorized song, movie, video game (etc) within the first 24 hours of release and suffer a zero quality loss. In very old times, there was simply no method to create exact replications-- and until [relative] recently, there has not been a distribution method anything like the internet.

While there may be a few people who are demanding millions for their independently generated music, artists themselves are generally looking for enough money to pay for their life + support a family. Just because someone doesn't write their novel because they have to get a job to feed their child does not mean they don't have passion. This whole thinking of "Everything of passion should be for free" is absurd when survival in any modern civilization requires a job that pays the bills.

And no, the current top-50 RIAA propped artists are not a true reflection of creative people in the world.

How is it not working? People violating the law are being caught and fined as appropriate. The problem/complaints seem to stem from it working too well. Also according to the article, people who were not violating the law were not given tickets. To quote: "more than 41 percent of the total recorded incidents were rejected. Although most were still violations of state law, they were considered very close calls or were due to such reasons as vehicles stopping a short distance over the stop bar that did not pose a traffic hazard, vehicles moving out of the way of an emergency vehicle, plates that were unidentifiable and weather related issues."

In inclement weather, or other situations in which the speed limit is too high to drive safely, then it's the drivers responsibility to low down to safe speeds. If the driver couldn't react (for whatever reason) and stop for a red light, then they were going too fast under the circumstances. The Green->Yellow->Red timings are not arbitrary, and are based on good weather conditions and acceptable reaction time expectations. If you can't stop for a red light, you'll not stop for a pedestrian. In short, they are going too fast and deserve the ticket.

This is simply "Demo that costs money, and still has other DRM". When you buy a game, you're buying a demo in which you have to buy the real game after. And in order to tie the download content to the demo you just bought, you need an authentication system. Likely online activation.

The only thing Rod is saying is that game companies should double-dip to ease the DRM impression.

There's nothing wrong with "comparing things with other things of a much greater magnitude", it's only valid when you're talking about similar enough subjects. And unless you're suggesting that the books have sentience, or that the slaves do not, it's a horrible analogy.

Why the heck is this modded funny?

Check out the video at around 5:30. The biggest difference is that this one isn't friction based.

What a 'simple' yet ingenious idea.