If I remember correctly, Hormel (the makers of SPAM) actually did this with regards to the appropriation of their trademark to refer to unsolicited commercial email. They basically said, "Look, we'd rather you not use our trademark in a negative light, but we don't want to be dicks about it so we're granting permission anyway."
As with many things, you get out of it what you put in. All of these opportunities are still there, but if you don't choose to pursue them they won't pursue you.
College is a fantastic opportunity for learning, but it's not as strictly required anymore.
The constitution does not limit the freedom of the populace to do anything.
It gives the federal government specific powers, lists specific rights that the federal government is not allowed to infringe upon, and then specifically declares that anything not mentioned is a right reserved by the states and the people.
Of course, everyone just ignores the constitution these days. The federal government acts like it has unlimited power to do whatever it wants. And for the most part, the courts have agreed.
What reform would you envision that made it acceptable? Personally, I'd like to see a 10 or 15 year limit on copyright lifespan. That would make it a lot more palettable than it is now, for me.
You don't have to try that hard.
NOAA's website accepts URLS of the form "weather.gov/zip" where "zip" is your zip code.
Save yourself some typing, be lazy!
Or, if you can't get the fruit, pop on over to thinkgeek and get the tablets.
Besides, in order to make lemonade you also need sugar. If life's giving you lemons, I doubt it's also giving you sugar. Maybe the best option is to just throw them at someone. That can at least be pretty satisfying!
I agree completely.
Step 1: CYA
From there, educate yourself and others on free alternatives if cost is a factor. If it's a small enough company, you should have no problem going to the owner or manager or whoever the head person is and explaining the repricussions of getting caught pirating software. It often leads to loosing the company. However, make sure not to be threatening. You don't want to imply blackmail here.
I ran into a similar situation at my old job. The company had about 50 people and I was the head IT guy. I was sometimes even instructed (usually by sales-folk) to install software that I knew was illegal. I refused every time and stated my reasons. It didn't make me the most popular IT guy, and I know that there was at least one other that would install the illegal software, but it at least kept my conscience clear and my ass covered.
I think the biggest thing is to find free alternatives if possible. If not, make your displeasure well known. If instructed to break the law.... well, that's up to you but I'd probably start looking for another job if my current employer knowingly told me to break the law.
I like the way you think. It would be great if they could offer the song files in the same way that Rifftrax does. Even better would be, you pay $1 for the click track and put your CD of the song in and the game rips it for you.
However, the game data is more than just the click track. Each song is split into several tracks so that the game can realistically model the sound when a player misses a note. CDs and tracks from iTunes aren't separated into bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals, drums and backup tracks.
You can still play a guitar hero type game with a one-track song, but a lot of the verisimilitude is missing the moment you miss a note and don't receive audio feedback.
In order to get the multi-track version of a song, you either need to get it from the original producer or cover it yourself. For indie bands and in-house stuff, this isn't much of a problem. For mainstream songs, you need to cut a deal with the song owner, i.e. the label.
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code. -- Dave Olson
