Exactly the problem here. Until digital distribution was available, most of the music being purchased prior to that came from a select few artists. The record store would carry material from maybe 100 artists or so (rough estimate). They simply couldn't carry music from 10,000 different bands there, due to size constraints. 1% of the artists making 99% of the money.

The amount people spend on music hasn't really changes by that much of a factor - it's just that there's more available artists now. The other 9900 artists that weren't popular enough to get in the record industry are now getting heard. They're just starting to get a cut now, via spotify or whatever

If the concern is "taken out of context", then equip every officer with video cameras - record as much as possible. They already do this (or should) with the dashboard cams - if there's a discrepancy in the videos and worried about people trying to pull a James O'Keefe style stunt on ACORN by editing videos, then surely the video showing the real story eliminates that chance.

But we know that's a bullshit excuse. Dashboard cams "mysteriously" have malfunctions, or they're forgotten to be turned on. Other video recordings from bystanders are confiscated or destroyed. It's not because of "context", it's because the cops know damn well they're about to do something that they're not supposed to. Yes, I'd be annoyed too if someone set up a camera in my cubicle to record me too, and the "if i'm doing nothing wrong" argument wouldn't be any consolation. But if my co-workers were stealing supplies, vandalizing equipment and randomly shitting on other people's desks, you can be your ass that the management would put install some video cameras to figure out how to weed out the culprits. If bad cops shit on your freedoms, and even the good cops won't rat them out (blue shield), then it's time to install some video cameras. Anyway, I know you're not in disagreement here on overall recording of cops, but the "videos could be used out of context" doesn't weigh in as strong as "cops have been abusing their power for too long" in my opinion.

Better yet, eliminate the subsidies on food we have now. There's no good reason why a big mac meal should cost as much as a rice / noodle bowl, or a large salad or a much healthier equivalent. There's virtually no subsidies for veggies and healthy food - the majority of the subsidy share goes towards feed grains (resulting in cheaper prices in beef, not including actual cattle subsidies, which were about $227 Million in 2010), and corn (where a huge chunk goes towards HFCS, arguably worse than sugar).

The beef subsidies irk me the most - if there's an obesity 'epidemic' in the United States, then why the hell is the government artificially lowering the price of one of the most unhealthy meats there is? Fatty foods don't have to cost less than healthy foods here, and they shouldn't. Put all beef subsidies towards broccoli farming and we'll see a lot less obesity.

Fair enough - single player seems like it shouldn't be required. But from what I read about it, your single player character is tied into your account (same char when switching between multi player and single player). Sort of like an MMO - maybe done for hacking / cheat prevention - if all your character data is saved online on Blizzard's servers, then it makes hacking your character a lot harder, or near impossible.

I'm not saying the DRM isn't annoying for single player, but a 10-second check from my stable internet connection before playing a marathon session isn't going to make me stop purchasing the game, and neither is a few hours of downtime on launch day. But that's the alarmist reaction I'm seeing in "insightful" comments peppered on this thread.

Yes, it sucks if you have little or no internet, and I sympathize with you then. But I'd willing to bet 95%+ of the posters here have DSL / cable / better and just like to bitch about any and all DRM

"DRM Sucks!!11! Not going to buy"
+5 Insightful

Really mods? Not seeing anything terribly insightful here...
I don't care too much to the DRM myself, but if it's part of the requirements - then meh, i'll install it. And so will the other 2 million people that ordered this game. Some other possibly relevant details :
- non invasive DRM / tied to the client. You're logged in but it doesn't seem like an additional program is running. Integrated better than steam, or origin (which stay active when you exit the game, somewhat annoying)
- Almost always works. I'm not sure how many "9s" I can say that it's constantly up or working, but from experience with SC2, Diablo 2 and other other games, battle.net is almost always up. Not working on launch day? Well I'll cut them some slack on the release day of the product, with 2 million or so people trying to play. The track record at Blizzard is pretty good, and i'm sure that after another 24 hours or so, all issues there will be resolved (if they aren't already). Compare that with Assassin's Creed 2 - didn't they have like 3 consecutive weeks of login / drm issues?
- Single player tied into the multiplayer. I haven't played this game yet, but I'm pretty sure that when you're playing single player, your character information and leveling and whatnot is tied into multiplayer. If that's the case, it's not truly "single player" in the sense that you're constantly progressing more like an MMO, where your data isn't kept on client side.
- Hacks / cheats. Remember the old diablo, when everyone had their "whale armor of the gods +99" and hacks ran rampant? Same for starcraft, and most multiplayer games. If DRM helps reducing hacking (or eliminate it altogether, then bring it on.

I'm not sure why slashdot hates the DRM here so much. There's a very absolutist position stance taken by many... that *all* DRM is inherently evil and they'll never buy any game with DRM. I can perhaps sympathize with those that don't have steady or constant internet connections - maybe if you're living in the country or with 3rd world infrastructure you can't play this game as a result. But if you have a steady internet connection, then quit whining about *all* DRM. Some is bad (Ubisoft), and some is barely noticable (Blizzard), it's not so black & white.

And every 2 months for the last 10 years or so, someone always has to reassure that "Hey piracy isn't technically theft - theft only occurs when the owner is deprived of their possessions - this is copyright infringement". Perhaps in an attempt to justify or rationalize piracy, though that may not be your intention. Yes yes... we *know* it's not stealing or theft already. That doesn't make it ok or justify this by any means whatsoever.

Saying theft is not the same as piracy, is like saying lying is not the same as telling a story and omitting important details - it's a feeble attempt to make your actions seem less immoral even though you know what you're doing is wrong. If your wife asks you what you did last night, and you only say "went to the movies", and later she finds out you did some blow and went to the strippers well I bet she won't be happy with that. Oh but hey, you weren't *technically* lying because you didn't say you didn't go - you just omitted that detail in your story- so that makes it all better right?

Yes, copyright infringement technically isn't theft. But it might as well be, and it should carry the same penalty and weight because it's close enough to theft - and it's exactly the same for the person doing the stealing (only the owner is affected more through theft than through piracy). Pirating a $10 movie should carry roughly the same penalty as stealing $10 worth of goods from a convenience store. And don't give me that "but you're not depriving the owner of anything!" argument either, else I might have to rant again.

Nah, trust me, move as soon as you can, it's not nearly as bad as it seems here. We certainly don't like Harper & the conservative government - but the level of crazy in the conservatives here doesn't even come close to a Bachman / Santorum level.

There have been numerous conservative scandals in the news in the last year or so, but I've still yet to hear a fellow Canuck say "That's it! I'm sick of this country - I'm moving to America!"

Speaking of reacting to situations, what if a nearby driver cuts you off or makes a bonehead move that almost results in an accident with your vehicle? Can we expect some sort of autonomous honking combined with some robotic middle finger deployment? It would be nice if I didn't have to express my own road rage - that would look a little silly coming from the passenger or back seat.

"In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of magical xylophone? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder. "

If you're anything like comic book guy, (and I am myself a bit) then that could also be one of the big peeves you have with the show. Every 5 minutes in the show I could /facepalm about something that doesn't make sense, or some poor decision made by one of the main characters. But my wife loves the show, so I'll continue to watch it for a while. I find the premise doesn't make a lot of sense, the technical accuracy is off, and the characters seem to continue to make poor decisions. But maybe the show is more fantasy than science fiction and geared towards a female audience (as suggested earlier in this thread) - The show seems to be more based on character relationships and the ongoing sexual tension between the doctor and the companion and philosophical / ethical conundrums. Perhaps it really shouldn't be classified as a sci-fi show then, despite seeming to be like one (along the same principle of how some people might classify Star Wars as sci-fi just because it's in space with lasers and aliens, though it's not sci-fi at all).

"I'm sorry, you cannot continue watching your regularly scheduled programming until you view the following message from our sponsors / message from our government"

How long before this is implemented? With PVR now, you can skip through ads, much to the disdain of advertisers. If you don't have that right now, at least you can change the channel or leave the room or something during a commercial. With this technology, maybe you'll be forced to actually watch the commercials now...

Except that if you don't watch those mandatory commercials (which will eventually be integrated with this technology somehow), you won't be able to watch TV.

Piecework works for a few industries here and there - but mostly manual labor or tedious repetitive work where it's easy to set a quota. I used to be a treeplanter and I had no problem with the payment system there - you work harder, you get paid more (paid per tree). Seems pretty fair to me.

Piecework would be a nightmare for any sort of IT work. Most projects run over budget, and take much longer than expected, and there's all sorts of problems that happen. This would be true for most industries or jobs where there's really no easily measurable quantity based system. On top of that, most people would prefer a more consistent salary every months. Most north americans have lots of things purchased on credit (mortgage, car lease, TVs etc..) - they can't risk having some months where they get paid significantly less than others (even if it might mean more payment in other months that equate to the same annual salary)

I'm not sure whether you actually mean that, or whether your comment is a humor attempt based on your user name

Perhaps they're told they're given something to help with their alcoholism, and the red pill they're given does nothing. Would that be sufficient science for a double blind trial? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but maybe that's sufficient here for an analysis. The people taking the placebo only need to be told that they're being given some medication that will help with their alcoholism (or given some story to basically account for the placebo effect).

The other alternative I could see is that they're given some other slightly mind-altering substance (like a tylenol 3 or oxycontin or something). The patient then knows he's on something but may not realize it's not acid. This would me more convincing for the patients, but this has problems too - maybe the alternate mind altering substance actually plays a part in reducing alcoholism too.

This article made me think a little about the whole morality and justice aspect to the purpose of lulzsec / anon / any internet vigilante group. Are they truly doing this thinking they're the robin hood or batman - dispensing justice for others that can't find it themselves? Vigilantes of the internet? Or just troublemakers looking to stir up trouble, but doing this as a way to feel justified.

If it's a crime that benefits yourself (i.e. gathering mob protection money, burglary, blackmail) like in the parent analogy - then I would think there's a higher chance the criminal would work with authorities to benefit himself with a reduced sentence. But what if you truly believe that what you're doing isn't a crime, or that you're truly doing something for the world? For example if you're a captain of a ship and work for greenpeace, and you basically harass fisherman & oil tankers during your daily routine (or something like that) - and you're arrested, interrogated and told you'll be given a reduced sentence if you rat your friends out - would you do it? I would think that this captain is less likely to rat out friends than a criminal, because he thinks he's making the world a better place

So to me, it kind of questions the integrity of the members of these online "movements". Are they doing this because they truly believe they're making a difference in the world and dispensing justice? Or are these the type of people that just like watching shit go down - the kind that would be writing malicious viruses for no profit if these groups didn't exist? Obviously, the actions of one individual aren't representative of the whole movement - but it makes you wonder how much "good" he thought he was doing by running lulzsec if he was willing to compromise his own principles to save his ass.