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Comment Re:Better service.. (Score 2) 133

I look at the chart you linked and see significant, precipitous declines where the RIAA either ignored negative feedback or outright attacked customers:

Late '70s - disco was pushed on radio, tv, everywhere, and audiophiles (LP buyers) rejected it (the sale of hissing cassettes stayed flat unti CDs came along)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco

1990s - CD sales flatten as the loudness war gets really noticeable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

2001 - CD sales take a nose-dive after the Napster decision (Feb. 2001)
http://gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/napster.htm

2005 - CD sales make a tiny comeback, along with digital, then both plummet as the RIAA lawsuit campaign focuses on university students and the MGM v. Grokster decision comes down
http://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-years-later

Has the RIAA finally won the war against its customers?

Comment Re:My high school teacher was one -- Patented? (Score 1) 113

Thank you for that very interesting anecdote. Please repeat it each time someone argues in favor of software patents.

Pick any purely software patent, get a gang of patent lawyers to translate it to some human-comprehensible language (such as C, ADA, etc.), then have someone "skilled in the art" of programming run a program representative of the patent's claims, except run it using a group of high school math teachers with pencils and paper instead of using a "digital computer".

If it involves a GUI, just ask the nearest kindergarten class to bring crayons to mark dots on a big piece of paper on the wall.

Is this patented yet?

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