Most contracts aren't even readable. The artists don't realize that the contract often stipulates they don't get paid until they make a profit (which rarely happens).

QUOTE: "The royalty rates granted in every recording contract are very low to start with and then companies charge back every conceivable cost to an artist's royalty account. Artists pay for recording costs, video production costs, tour support, radio promotion, sales and marketing costs, packaging costs and any other cost the record company can subtract from their royalties. Record companies also reduce royalties by "forgetting" to report sales figure, miscalculating royalties and by preventing artists from auditing record company books." http://www.gerryhemingway.com/piracy2.html

Only about 20% of copying happens over the net. The majority comes from swap parties between friends as they copy MP3s or AACs from one drive to another. (Yes there's a source for this. It was published here on /. but I can't find the article.)

Wow.
I am shocked.
(yawn)
Windows has always been behind the curve. It didn't get a decent GUI until it blatantly copied the Mac OS in 1995 (trashcan, shutdown procedure, shortcuts tied to the desktop). Didn't get decent preemptive-multitasking until 10 years after the Commodre Amiga in 1985. Didn't have a web browser until 1996, Now it gets "dynamic ticks" almost six years after Linux. Wow. Surprise. Shock.

Microsoft has never been about innovation. It's about *watching* other innovators and then copying the idea. It's the "embrace" part of their EEE motto.

>>>because you keep acting like an immature child instead of a mature adult

Even if we assume that's true Mr. AC, it's no reason to moddown my original post. While I can certainly understand why some might not like my view, that's no reason to slap me across the face with a -1 hit.

Oh and as for "acting immature" I would assume you mean when I tell people to fuck off. BUT I only do that to people who insulted me first..... Someone calls me an "idiotic asshole" and I don't think they deserve to be treated with anykuind of respect. YOU are one of those people.

GPS wasn't even a NASA project.

Please justify NASA's existence. What on earth have the trillions of dollars spent since 1980 accomplished? Pretty pictures. A few minor changes in science textbooks ("Saturn has dozens of rings not just two big ones"). Anything else? The money would be better spent feeding the hungry, creating more jobs at home, studying the earth's climate, or simply paying down the insane ~$190,000 per American home government debt. (Add another $100k for personal mortgage/credit card debt.)

I think that almost anyone can become a programmer. What they lack is the ability to put-up with the mind-numbing boredom that programming represents, just as many people lack the ability to listen to a teacher drone in a classroom about math or science or english verb tenses. Many people would rather be doing something else. (Just like right now I'd rather be watching a movie instead of coding..... oh wait, that is what I'm doing. Well technically I'm doing both.)

Well I've worked both private and public, and there's a definite difference. The public sector is "easier" with less workload and no deadlines. And yes the pay is better (was the highest-paying job I ever had). Had I stayed I could have retired at 60 and received a big fat pension for the next 30-40 years sucking money from blue-collar taxpayers (who can ill-afford the burden).

In the USA of the late 1800s they didn't need a law to make unions legal. They already had the right to assemble peacefully and exercise the right of free speech or free press to put-out their union protests/complaints. The GP poster made it sounds like law came first to legalize unions. No. The unions came first through the inalienable natural rights of being human (read the Declaration of Independence some time) including the right of free expression, free speech, free assembly, free press, and so on.

Non-relevant to the original organization of the unions in the late 1800s USA. They didn't need a law to makr unions legal. They already had the right to assemble peacefully and exercise the right of free speech or free press to put-out their union protests/complaints.

>>>Because they work at a place, same as anybody else?

No because government workers already have a mechanism to stop abuse by the politicians: Their vote. And the vote of their neighbors when they hear about mistreatment.

The union is un-necessary and in fact has tipped the balance too far (bus driver getting retirement at 55; basically ~30 years pay for not working). Even socialist "new deal" president FDR said unionizing government jobs made no sense. It isn't necessary.

- 1

And once again some douchebag thinks modpoints are meant to be used to Punish posts he doersn't like. Go suck a rotten egg. If you disagree use the Reply button not the "- 1 punish this poster" button.....

I think that almost anyone can become a programmer. What they lack is the ability to put-up with the mind-numbing boredom that programming represents, just as many people lack the ability to listen to a teacher drone in a classroom about math or science or english verb tenses. Many people would rather be doing something else. (Just like right now I'd rather be watching a movie instead of coding..... oh wait, that is what I'm doing. Well technically I'm doing both.)

By that logic building drones & blowing them up in wars is "good" for the economy too. The truth is that spending money on items that will be destroyed (or abandoned to rust) is no more helpful than smashing windows to create jobs for glassmakers. It's the Broken Window Fallacy..... or the Cash for Clunkers fallacy.*

*
* I took advantage of this "deal". My new low MPG car is actually a worse polluter than my old high MPG car according to greenercars.org. Way to go Congress. Nice job bozos.

>>> I enter life at the tail end of it falling, then in the 80's it doubled as a percentage of GDP..... Then in the 90's we got good jobs with the debt was falling

You clearly have NO idea what you're talking about. Look at the treasury.gov website. The public debt has never fallen..... not since the 1940/50s under Truman/Eisenhower. The public debt went up in the 60s and 70s because of the war and the oil crisis. Went up in the 80s and 90s too. There is not one single instance on treasury.gov that the debt went down in the 70s or 90s (as you falsely claim).

I refuse to be censored by /. moderators. I HAVE an opinion and I'm not xchangign just becaus you're a Dmocrat that hates free specch.

What on earth have the trillions of dollars spent since 1980 accomplished? Pretty pictures. A few minor changes in science textbooks ("Saturn has dozens of rings not just two big ones"). Anything else? The money would be better spent feeding the hungry, creating more jobs at home, studying the earth's climate, or simply paying down the insane ~$190,000 per American home government debt. (Add another $100k for personal mortgage/credit card debt.)