Posted on 12/23/2006 5:51:48 PM PST by IncPen
Exactly. First example: the Walt Disney Corporation. For decades now the employees of Walt Disney have been reaping wild profits off of intellectual property they had no hand in creating. Almost all of the creators of the classic Disney characters are dead, yet these corporate types still leech off of ideas that they never had anything to do with. How? By paying/bribing Congress to extend copyright protection well beyond any reasonable duration. Why should Michael Eisner have made millions off of Mickey Mouse, which he neither created, bought, nor had anything to do with the popularity of? Return copyright to the original 7 years set by the Founding Fathers (or even to the life of the originator), and all of this mess would go away. Instead, copyright leeches are trying hard to use the force of government to make money off of ideas they never had anything to do with in the first place...
Have eyou ever tried to get a license fee for music? I was trying to make a DVD for my daughters basketball team. It was to include 3-4 different songs. After contacting ASCAP, I found out that I would have to secure a license from each label, and in turn the attorneys of each recording artist.
In the end, it simply was too confusing. I WOULD have paid for it. I am in the copyrighted content business, and I felt it would only be right and proper. It would have been a good example for the kids and their parents.
However, getting the rights to the music for 15-20 DVDs was simply not worth the effort.
Make the fees reasonable and easy to secure, and most people will do the right thing.
Exactly. First example: the Walt Disney Corporation
If the church of the medieval monks had enough clout to outlaw the printing press, because it threatened an end run around their monopoly on hand copied books, that would not have make it right.
Sometimes the law reflects good. Sometimes it reflects greed.
This seems to be a pretty clear case of the latter.
It won't be free, costs are passed to the consumer.
No, when you buy a computer from now until Mar, you get a free Vista CD/DVD in the mail. I would use it for the home PC for gaming.
Can someone provide a concise translation of this for the right-brained?
Thanks
"The major movie studios and recording companies...."
well..there's opportunity for other business companies.....
The additional cost to me was in the cost of the supplies I used to prepare the documents for submission and the stamps. That's it.
Well, I'll install it, and if it improves my gaming, I'll be happy, but if it bollix's up other things, I will either remove it, or download hacks to fix it. Micro$oft hasn't been able to do any real damage with WGA for XP, anyone with a pirated version can bypass all of their controls in minutes.
If I'm not mistaken, Vista won't be unleashed on the populace before the middle of January. After Christmas, notebooks and desktops should be dirt cheap. I'd stick with XP and buy now. Two of my former coworkers were beta-testing it and one loved it, but he had 4 gigs of RAM to power it. The other one hated it. The demo I saw didn't enthrall me. It seemed to me that it was much ado about nothing...
The problem is that the hardware manufacturers will need to build their hardware in such a way for it to work with Vista. By doing so, unless you get drivers to work with your OS, and those damned rules of "protection" are built in to the hardware, you won't be able to use the hardware with any OS not approved by MS!
I think that I might buy a few spare "bare bones" systems for parts. I think that XP will be the last MS OS that I purchase for my own personal use.
Mark
I meant that pirated XP can circumvent WGA very easily.
I nearly have enough old components for a second computer, I'll make that Linux.
That's all well and good, as long as you don't need to use certain applications that require Windows to run. A situation like that is akin to having a wonderful camera, but no film available for it.
Mark
Well, I am glad you clarified that; however, even if that is not what you intend, the end result could very well be the same.
Seemingly you are smart enough to be attuned to the market and willing to adjust your products to suit the market.
What market? If my property rights are not protected—if someone can take my work and give it to others without compensating me for it—then there is no meaningful market to speak of. (market n: "a meeting together of people for the purpose of trade by private purchase and sale.")
But you seem to be under the impression that you have the same rights as the record companies, the mainstream news outlets or the film and video production companies in regard to copyright issues. I'd suggest you look up the DMCA, or the 'Sonny Bono Act' to see what a few well placed millions will buy these days.
You seem to be under the impression that I should dislike big, bad media corporations because they have managed to get laws passed to protect their rights. As it happens, my books are published by one of those corporations. If they lose, so do I.
Perhaps the companies have more rights under the law than I do. But tell me, what rights do I retain when the "file sharers" distribute my work without compensating me?
Finally, I'd offer the observation (again) that the rise of Napster, file sharing, etc. is the unintended- and natural- consequence of a perversion of market efficiency by greedy producers of IP who are now enjoying their just desserts. And that that is undeniably a Good Thing.
Undeniably a Good Thing? Thus far you have not given me any reason to think so.
Apparently you believe that the producers of IP are greedy and therefore merit some kind of comeuppance for their greed. But who really are the greedy parties here? It seems to me that no one is greedier than those who expect to enjoy the work of others without paying for it.
review
Where have you been? Macs can run Windows apps either with (Bootcamp or Parallels) or without Windows (Crossover Mac).
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