What I don't really understand about this is that apparently the US companies who make their money off these immaterial rights tend to oppose the new lucrative markets and obstruct availability in fear off losses whereas that is what causes the losses. I am a big fan of a few select American TV Shows. I have absolutely no legal means within reason to access these programs. I would happily pay a monthly subscription to my favorite shows (Community, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Mythbusters, Justified, Breaking Bad, Grimm, Adventure Time, Justified, Game of Thrones and a few more) all platforms that I know of (Hulu, Netflix) are not available in my home country of Germany. iTunes is out of the question (probably geo-restrictions apply to this as well). So I would gladly pay a good deal of money to get quality access to these shows but the "copyright" prevents me from giving these people my money. I could spend money on the DVD box sets if they are eventually released but usually I will watch the episodes once and that's it so I'm not really in the market for plastic discs. I am the threat these people always refer to but I am precisely part of the solution only they refuse to cater to the markets available.

For once I don't really care what reason (irrational or not) led to this decision. Nuclear power is a senselessly complicated and dangerous technology that has seen it's time and we're now moving on. I for one welcome our omnipresent energetic overlords.

Sign up now for the iSIM 4GB, store more contacts than ever. Access 4G networks. Only 99.99$/month on top of your old plan.

To me that kinda sounds like they're just pushing for a new SIM form factor so they can have a say in designing the internals of the new card. The first thing I thought was "hey brilliant now we can store user location data on an encrypted part of the SIM card that no user has access to". I'd also think they would probably introduce some kind of proprietary technology or design dogma that no other manufacturer can live up to or integrate without actually asking Apple for permission or license (think ultra-flat SIM holder). Creating in turn an Apple specific type of SIM-card to further lock down market segments. Maybe I'm just paranoid but then again that is why I don't own any of their products.

I'd very much tolerate USD prices since it's usually cheaper. I buy all my physical video games from the UK because the conversion rate saves me about 20-30% for new games (Portal 2 Xbox360 - German Amazon 55€ - UK Amazon 42€) even after the German VAT is added. Also I don't have to deal with the terrible dubbed versions. If the points were any cheaper to set off the differences I'd be ok but that's not the case. 2000 MSP cost about 25USD (17€) as far as I know. In Germany 2000MSP cost 24€ (34USD). Basically I pay 30% more for the same games on XBL and it's the same files transferred through the same pipes. If you really want to have an international "virtual" currency you'd have to adjust it across borders to make it fair. Granted there are some taxes incurred but those are not even close to justifying this discrepancy.

I am in the process of selling my Wii and thus had to format the memory, back up my savegames and also remove my WiiWare shop account. I realized while doing this that I still "own" 400 points. The least expensive purchases in the Wiiware store are 500 points so I couldn't use those points no matter what without forking over some more cash. Is there a real life equivalent where a company can take my money, convert it into some fantasy credits system and refuse to pay out the excess once I close the account? I know there are some store-credit policies for returns in place with some retailers but I don't see the legal basis for holding a customers money hostage even if it's just a couple of dollars. Especially in a non-physical scenario. I can understand that a retailer doesn't want to hand out cash for failed purchases but in the online world all I'm doing is to convert virtual legal tender into some makebelief play money with which to buy goods. How am I not allowed to revert this transaction? If I have a bank account with an amount non-withdrawable from an ATM (in Germany we don't have single notes) I can always walk into the bank and demand the change upon closing the account. Why is it that video game companies are allowed to keep money that I paid them for services they never intend to fulfill? If I have store credit with a company I can always ask them to give me back my money if I paid for it with my real money. Is this a loop hole or are we just to stupid/convenient to call them out on their bullshit?

I read the title and thought it'd be about some epic micro-brewery beer competition. Religion ... spoiling your fun wherever you go since .. uhm wait yeah there's ongoing discussions about that.

Look here, several other thoroughly researched articles of the highest value to all of us:

How Jeremy Clarkson has a 10 inch dick
How Katie Price's tits could explode during her diving holiday
or
That Skinny Women really don't want to get fat

m( - Facepalm emoticon

*scnr*

They re-released several abandonware adventure games after corresponding with the original programmers. They even got source code and permission to use all the assets for freeware release. I agree with most other posts here that you should try contacting the original developers first (might take some digging, try to get a hold of the original production manager). If they refuse you can still salvage most content and rename the characters to stay out of trouble. Most other projects don't make that effort of asking and are then shot down right at the finish line (look at basically every fan remake out there). Maybe you can also ask the people that did Zak McKracken 2 (zak2.org) they probably got some advice on how to handle someone else's IP w/o getting screwed.

with Business Advanced Touch features.

That's what I'm talking about. It's not like there are no alternatives but it's become the Internet Explorer of ePayment. It's the first thing most people see and never bother to look any further.

Wow you're getting more and more sympathetic with every sentence. You got anything less important to do than splitting hairs on Slashdot? Just asking.

Don't you have students to teach or something?

Btw. it's totally fine to mention Nazis in Germany. Just don't be one.

I'm from Germany getting lambasted by a grammar Nazi.

In my defense, albeit obviously w/o merit, I've grown to ignore spellcheck because I switch so often between German in English applications and English in German applications that the thing usually just doesn't know what it's talking about anyway. I'll try especially hard not to fuck up from now on, just for you.

From my experience with Paypal this will be an outright desaster for many people. You can't get a hold of any human being through their shit telephone system. There is nothing except pre-fab email replies. They lock accounts for no apparent reason and refuse to explain themselves. They steal money from their account holders by blocking accounts and not creating opportunities to dispute that. They've stolen money from foobar http://www.foobar2000.org/, the Xorg Foundation http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.xorg/42548 and as we all clearly see Wikileaks http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100124/1846137886.shtml

Paypal is a lame excuse of an idea that went right of the window. They try to act like a bank but don't take the responsibility that comes with it. They screw several countries out of taxes because they're situated in Liechtenstein (at least for Europe) which doesn't pay anything. They provide the service of adding another layer of menu forms to a credit card purchase. They don't provide actual added value to most resellers and are currently used as an extortion tool for Ebay customers. On top of that they are a major target for phishing and skimming attacks, cross site scripting and abuse.

Who in their right mind would do business with them? Oh I forgot you have to. In case you've wondered I've had my share of problems w/ Paypal. They refused to let me balance my PP account from my bank because they are too fucking stupid to get a non-automated verification system for new bank accounts. So while my account was in transfer because of a merger they send the "verfication" (a ridiculous transfer of random cent values) to the wrong sort code and subsequently refused to correct their mistake or let me (who had done nothing but provide them with updated proper bank data) verify the account any other way. In short: Paypal sucks, I've closed my account there and won't be coming back. Ever.

If that is the kind of servce they provide to their paying customers imagine how brilliantly developers will find working w/ them.