+$\infty$

Best quote ever.

I was going to post something about that statement maybe being valid in North America and Western Europe, but not for the bulk of the world's population, but it turns out that a few minutes' Googling hasn't given me anything to back my position up with...go figure.

OK, I only read the summary, and haven't followed the whole story that closely, but if these people were arrested in February, why are they not still in jail?

This is an interesting point, and I guess something I'd never taken the time to think about before. Now, I'm no economist, but it seems to me that with the advent of digital media and the easy reproduction of perfect copies, along with various and sundry online distribution channels, anytime a piece of music[*] is created, digitised, and makes its way to the Net, supply is for all intents and purposes instantly driven to infinity, thereby reducing the value of said piece to zero.

Now, I am of the opinion that the artists[**] who create the music I enjoy SHOULD be remunerated. So what means are available of doing this fairly?

As an aside, for those who have posted something about downloading as a form of pseudo-protest against overlong copyright terms (not the parent post), it seems to me that your argument is basically null if you're downloading anything that isn't older than whatever you consider to be "fair" copyright.

[*] In principle this applies to any digital media, but the ease with which a 5MB mp3 can be shared (cf. a 700MB movie), makes this argument particular relevant
[**] This includes the knob-twiddlers and producers who get great in-studio performances out of artists.

+5^$\infty$

This is the best comment I have ever read on Slashdot. A geek, showing humility, pointing out his (her?) deficiency in knowledge in a tech-related area, and asking the community for clarification. Awesome.

"And because it's thinner, it feels even nicer in your pants."

Oh God I read "felch beer" the first time...(ok, it was actually kind of hot)

Somebody's clearly not a Pythonista. (oh I know, it's an awful name)

Touché, sir. Point to you.

Actually, in an archetypal "index pointing" gesture, it looks more like my non-index fingers are pointing (through my palm) somewhere off to my right...maybe around 4:00.

You lived for FIVE YEARS with a hole in your diaphragm with your stomach pushed up through it and a collapsed lung?

5, Insightful? Really? REALLY?

Lots of glibness, lots of assuming, lots of erroneous "you don't need math", not so much helping. Yeesh.

Some people with very practical interests do rather well with OCaml.

Oh, I should know better than to reply to an AC, especially given that a week has gone by...but what the Hell, I give it a go. The initial comment was:

Kinda like when you tell a female who is having an affair with a married man: "You know he's never going to leave his wife." The reaction is usually denial and false hope. Some day, maybe years later, they realize the truth and move on. They didn't just were not ready to acknowledge it until they are ready.

My claim of chauvinism had to do with the implication that women, but not men, are prone to denying that their lovers won't leave the person they're cuckolding (viz. that men can be just as weak as women in the portrayed scenario). Let's see what it might sound like with this implication removed:

Kinda like when you tell someone who's having an affair with a married person: "You know they're never going to leave their spouse." The reaction is usually denial and false hope. Some day, maybe years later, they realize the truth and move on. They didn't just were not ready to acknowledge it until they are ready.

Now see? That's not so bad...you're free to fill in whichever sex you think best fits the statement as you read it, or not to.

And as for the actual content of your comment:

Standardised testing indicates that my reading comprehension is fine, thanks. Also, I don't have rabies. If you go and look at my comment history, you can assess the validity of your "scan a paragraph and look for the word women" claim.

Oops! Looks like I did exactly that. :)

Like "rabid shithead"?

If you have a look at what I wrote, I think you'll see that I subscribe more to the Everyone Bad philosophy.

This will have been pointless and you won't come back and look at it, but whatever.