That's why I buy instead of license. It amazes me that so many people think they're saving a lot of money licensing music from online stores like iTMS or streaming from Netflix. We're talking fucking pennies at most (and sometimes not even that), and they have an agreement while I just have a receipt. (aside rant: And then the idiot hipster kids call me a luddite. Come look at my fileserver and lack of DRM if you think I'm a luddite. Downloading content under a license, as opposed to buying media, is not a technical advancement, you fools. The only "technology" here is corporations programming people to do what they want.)

You are able to BUY a movie? How much do you pay for said movie? Even if you go to your local store and grab a DVD off the shelf you are still not the OWNER of the property. You are LICENSED to use it within certain limitations. To BUY a movie, at least the rights to the movie, you most likely need to get a contract and spend quite a bit of money on it.

And to repeat my argument, people ignore it, - it is not your created work you do not hold any rights to it. When you pay a company for the CD/DVD to use it you also enter an agreement - no signature is requried (again refer to Don Shekely attorney). For those that say "hah i got you zomgn00btard, I don't buy, I just download it from my bit torrents"....great you are stealing. And if you think you are not, I dare you to go to the RIAA and sign in an affidavit that you download their content from torrents that are not authorized by the copyright holders. I double dare you to then put down in an affidavit that you upload those torrents to other people so they can get copies of the software. Until you are willing to do that - all your arguments are moot. - In lamens terms - Put up or shut up.

The courts disagree with you. Read some articles by attourney Don Shekley. Shrink wraps are held up in court. They have been, and until there is some law against it, they will be. And it is not just in this medium it's in any medium. Someone may have ripped the song - by itself - and removed the TOC from the meta-data, but that does not mean their contract is invalid it just means someone pulled the contract out - someone who was not authorized to do so. At best, if you could proove you are a moron who has his head in a hole and has no idea about contract law - you might get sympathy...but last I heard, receiving stolen property -- even if you did not know it was stolen -- still gets you on the bad side of a judges ruling.

You can call whatever you want last I heard the sandwhich vendor could care less how you eat it as long as you buy their product. Then again - only one person can consume the entire sandwhich - more then one person can use a burned copy of some software. Also -as for a sandwhich places TOC... McDonalds has a no shoes, shirt, pants no service sign.

Also - and again you fail to reply to this argument - don't buy it if you don't like their standards. is it really that hard? So many people state "this movie sucks, that song sucks, this program company sucks and I won't pay for it"....yet they turn around download it and use it. Thats hypocracy and it's theft. If you don't like their agreements don't consume their products - unlike food, you won't die if you don't have that movie, song, application.

As for the OP who said "I didn't sign anything" - grow up, shrink wraps, EULAs, TOCs have been held-up and will continue to be held-up in court. So the "but i never signed anything on paper" is well pointless. Considering technology is what it is, people on this board should be the last to say "no paper, no pen = no contract".

Hi Kettle, I'm Pot.

Since the original person I was replying to was making fun of MS I was talking about MS not IBM or Intel. But in your sad attempt to jump on the bashing bandwagon you neglected to infer that information...you fail.

I must not, would you please explain to me what sarcism means?

We have a huge and expensive government. The white house, arguably, is the most powerful single entity (congress by law is more powerful, but that requires agreement - the president only has to agree with himself). And they can't get e-mail setup either 1) before (they had over a month) or 2) during. How long does it take to setup an e-mail account?

As for that, if they are using gmail for non-secure e-mail then it should not be a huge deal. As long as they realize this e-mail account is for work, not personal reasons. The difference between this and sarah palin is that she had a work e-mail they do not have one. They are not using this just for the hell of it, they are using this because they do not have another option.

1) If you are making a backup then you are OK, but face it, this crap started because too many people distribute movies on the net so people don't have to shell the money out. In all honesty if they came to your house and you could show them a 1:1 ratio every dvd/cd backup with the original, they would apologize and leave your house. Chances are it would be a ratio of 100:1 pirated:legit.

2) Modifying the movie, and the extra's, violates the TOC. Just like any contract, if you do not like it then do not sign for it and do not use the product. If you like the product that much then use it how they asked you to use it.

I don't know why these issues are so hard to understand. Don't steal, and don't violate their TOC. If you think the movie sucks and is not wtflol worth the money then don't buy it, don't watch it. Wait for it to come out on TV and you can have it for free (not really since there is advertising) or borrow the movie from a friend. There are plenty of ways to watch a movie/hear a tune which doesn't require you to steal it or modify the DVD.

[rant]

Well, my last TV a Sony Trinitron, I bought around 97 to 99 (not sure exactly) and kept it until last year when my g/f got an LCD (I also have an LCD and we don't need more then two tv's in the house). So unless it breaks I plan on keeping this sucker for a LONG LONG time. I will make the costs

Other then that, anotehr reason to get LCD over PLASMA are burn-ins. For those who play console games - this is a no brainer - unless you want to have perm burn-ins. For those that do not - you will still get burn-ins. I had a Panasonic Viesta (think thats the model) and after 8 months the top left blue box that appears when you turn the tv on or switch input types (it hangs out for about 5 seconds) burned in. This is a feature of the tv and pops up rarely - but it burned in. Other things that burned in - the little play triangle from a dvd player....which I rarely use. Also another image that only appears for a few seconds.

When I called Panasonic and asked them why a feature of their tv burned in, the tier 2 technical rep said "I cannot confirm or deny this is a feature of the TV". For crying out loud, it *IS* a feature of the TV, and it is one that *cannot* be turned off! Luckily for me I had circuit city extra warranty. I went to them they gave me store credit and I got an LCD. I play COD4 all the time and so far no burn-ins.

The difference between plasma and lcd is that LCD does not use true black and white - the only time I notice that are in very dark scenes (night) and you get the white haze. It doesn't bother me

For those that DO go for a plasma, my recommendations:

1) Do not play games or use features that linger
2) Once per week load up a picture (memory stick JPG, playstation/xbox stream from your computer, etc) of pure white. Let that sit for about 10 minutes. Yes it's annoying, but Panasonic says this will remove any ghosting. According to Panasonic ghosting is prelude to image burns which can be remedied.
3) Do not put anything that is repetative on your tv for long. So avoid playing video games, or hanging out on your dvd/cable menu screens (e.g. DVR screen setups, cable tv channel guide, etc)

Or - just do the smart thing (and environmentally friendlier thing) and by an LCD. You may not recoup the costs in a short period of time...but whats an extra couple hundred bucks when you are considering the environmental factors. If everyone went for the environmental reasons, and took that small loss of money then our kids/grandkids will have a better life....and you will have a better product.

[/end rant]

John F. Nash would agree this is not the best way to handle things.

I understood the joke, it wasn't funny - not even in a dry humour kind of way. Some people just might take it as a serious comment though on the "Yea that would be cool and I would get one." Similar to the space tomato seeds given to schools in the early 90's.

So you are happy that 5000 of your fellow geeks, US living citizens, and humans are out of a job?

G....G....

Considering most of us have never been to Antarctica I am sure we would still have a hard time relating to this. We would need a more common reference point - and since more people have been to the great lakes then to antarctica that is a good choice.

Martian Water: Now only $1,000 a liter!

That would be an incredibly cheap price to pay for a sample from another planet. Considering the costs of storage, and transport yea that would be VERY cheap. The demand would be incredibly high and would not cover the shipping and handling costs.

wrong

....then someone/thing took a poop in it.

You always come closest to unattainable things while you're still striving to reach them.

A friend in college once told me (paraphrase) "If you think you can only get an 80...you will probably get a 70. If you think you can only get a 100...you will probably get a 90. Always think you can get a 110."