Re: Not to blame, neccessarily. But you have to live in the real world.
Macharius Send a noteboard - 18/01/2012 08:55:59 PM
For the last few decades, publishers' attempt to stop piracy has been to attempt to make things more difficult for pirates. I listed some in my post above. There have been dozens of methods: CD keys. Code words to read in a manual. Special dongles to plug in while using the product. CDs that dissolve after a few days. MP3s that are hardcoded to your computer (making backing them up, or moving to a new computer, impossible), services where your computer must always be on, invisible background programs that secretly monitor your computer (don't laugh, Sony did it).
I'd like to add to this that some publishers' games are so restrictive that you HAVE to pirate the game just to make it playable in the first place.
Dragon Age, for example, is a single-player-only RPG that requires a persistent internet connection (lulz, wut? ). Several times during my play-through, my connection dropped and I wasn't able to play the game at all and was about ready to go and look for a pirated version just so I didn't have to deal with that asinine BS anymore.
English Wikipedia Anti-SOPA Blackout
- 17/01/2012 08:31:46 AM
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Yeah, man, because currently copyright holders have no recourse, am I right?
- 17/01/2012 11:47:35 AM
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"altering the infrastructure of the Internet so as to render RAFO virtually inaccessible"? 
- 17/01/2012 08:12:27 PM
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- 17/01/2012 08:12:27 PM
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I'll go ahead and ask before I get my panties in a bunch: do you understand these bills?
- 17/01/2012 09:09:22 PM
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I admit I have not looked into it much
- 17/01/2012 11:42:30 PM
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And yet you're still arguing the matter. 
- 18/01/2012 02:34:04 AM
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- 18/01/2012 02:34:04 AM
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I love you. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 03:41:03 AM
632 Views
heh, thanks. I usually find myself pushing minority opinions. Nice to be "appreciated" for once. 
*NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:01:10 AM
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*NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:01:10 AM
619 Views
Can i second the adulation?
- 18/01/2012 04:07:17 AM
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I too (three?) appreciate the common sense and reasonable explanations. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:12:59 AM
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Right, because the argument is not just over THIS bill but, apparently, over ANY bill.
- 18/01/2012 11:09:13 AM
988 Views
Alternatives to SOPA/PIPA have been proposed for months now. Please stop arguing this.
- 18/01/2012 05:42:10 PM
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Also, in the case of the OPEN Act, it has not "been proposed for months."
- 18/01/2012 07:28:15 PM
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"sensitive federal content"? Provide a source justifying this claim and it's relevance, please.
- 18/01/2012 05:59:47 PM
1005 Views
I would not have thought a source necessary.
- 18/01/2012 06:24:44 PM
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Okay, I'm with Aemon now.
- 18/01/2012 07:36:21 PM
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OK.
- 18/01/2012 10:16:16 PM
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should be interesting
- 17/01/2012 12:41:47 PM
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Could be; depends on a lot of factors.
- 17/01/2012 07:38:55 PM
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See, that's one of the biggest problems that people aren't understanding.
- 17/01/2012 09:31:38 PM
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So tell them that.
- 17/01/2012 11:54:19 PM
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Joel, I think I'm done with this unless you want to do some research.
- 18/01/2012 02:53:19 AM
892 Views
Research would tell me what is wrong with these bills and how a good bill should look.
- 18/01/2012 11:22:46 AM
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Could've done without the snide rejoinder, but, good.
- 17/01/2012 02:20:08 PM
864 Views
I love the black banner, like some kind of internet Holocaust.
- 17/01/2012 08:03:27 PM
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Are you aware that SOPA/PIPA has nothing to do with hackers and everything to do with copyright?
- 18/01/2012 02:08:56 AM
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There seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 01:08:22 PM
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Re: There seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 08:13:15 PM
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Re: There still seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 10:27:32 PM
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Re: There still seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 11:30:39 PM
959 Views
Just because the news does not mention something does not automatically make it non-applicable.
- 19/01/2012 04:08:58 PM
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Re: Just because the news does not mention something does not automatically make it non-applicable.
- 19/01/2012 10:39:40 PM
959 Views
If you re-read your last sentence it should be clear why this law is being pushed.
- 20/01/2012 09:12:29 PM
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Re: If you re-read your last sentence it should be clear why this law is being pushed.
- 21/01/2012 03:19:49 AM
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Er, what Ghav said.
- 18/01/2012 02:30:37 AM
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Sorry, protecting Pirate Bay and offshore gambling are not compelling counterarguments.
- 18/01/2012 11:38:08 AM
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Okay, another analogy:
- 18/01/2012 02:04:12 PM
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The devil is always in the details, and it seems clear the details need great revision.
- 18/01/2012 03:31:20 PM
902 Views
what they SHOULD do is stop taking money from proponents of sopa/pipa
- 18/01/2012 03:51:09 PM
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Yes, they should, but, once again, that approach will not prevent a new law.
- 18/01/2012 04:05:02 PM
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Re: The devil is always in the details, and it seems clear the details need great revision.
- 18/01/2012 04:27:30 PM
941 Views
If the US government wants to summarily block sites within the US, it already can and will.
- 18/01/2012 06:15:53 PM
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You know all this anti-SOPA bullshit is making me hope the bill passes.
- 18/01/2012 04:00:17 AM
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I would not go THAT far; it seems clear these bills have many objectionable provisions.
- 18/01/2012 11:41:23 AM
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Re: I would not go THAT far; it seems clear these bills have many objectionable provisions.
- 19/01/2012 01:57:46 AM
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Yeah, the extreme bias on both sides is why the bills will likely pass more or less as written.
- 19/01/2012 03:31:52 PM
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joel, you need to consider three things
- 18/01/2012 06:06:16 AM
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You need to consider that they WILL pass some legislation, and what you want it to contain.
- 18/01/2012 12:15:38 PM
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again, it's not about piracy, it's about protecting the mpaa/riaa business model at our expense
- 18/01/2012 03:34:32 PM
1072 Views
Yeah, see, that is the problem: "it's not about piracy."
- 18/01/2012 03:57:55 PM
911 Views
if piracy is such a problem then the mpaa/riaa need to PROVE their losses
- 19/01/2012 02:43:31 AM
931 Views
How do you expect anyone to prove what people WOULD HAVE bought if they could not just take it?
- 19/01/2012 03:57:24 PM
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A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP
- 18/01/2012 08:32:44 AM
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"As a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, I'm a sysadmin."
- 18/01/2012 12:47:16 PM
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Wikipedia has already convinced me
- 18/01/2012 03:26:01 PM
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Trying to stop this legislation without proposing an alternative is trying to stop ANY legislation.
- 18/01/2012 03:44:18 PM
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It isn't their job to propose legislation
- 18/01/2012 04:12:53 PM
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No, but they have as much RIGHT to do so as anyone else.
- 18/01/2012 05:31:55 PM
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Strike three.
- 18/01/2012 05:37:55 PM
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That is fine; that is what people SHOULD be doing.
- 18/01/2012 06:03:59 PM
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Things being better now than they would be under SOPA seems like a legitimate argument to me
- 18/01/2012 09:04:18 PM
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Against SOPA, sure; against ANY new law, no.
- 18/01/2012 10:46:48 PM
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About "proposing new legislation"
- 18/01/2012 04:45:08 PM
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So true
- 18/01/2012 05:08:45 PM
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Re: About "proposing new legislation"
- 18/01/2012 05:59:55 PM
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Hm, you should read my post one above about combatting online piracy.
- 18/01/2012 06:20:16 PM
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I would not recommend photocopying a book and handing it out on street corners.
- 18/01/2012 06:45:52 PM
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Not to blame, neccessarily. But you have to live in the real world.
- 18/01/2012 07:31:18 PM
885 Views
Re: Not to blame, neccessarily. But you have to live in the real world.
- 18/01/2012 08:55:59 PM
974 Views
I always liked the codewheels SSI provided with copies of their Gold Box AD&D games.
- 18/01/2012 10:07:40 PM
1096 Views
These are really different arguments
- 19/01/2012 12:05:10 AM
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TV is slightly different, because regional availability becomes a factor.
- 19/01/2012 04:18:58 PM
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Yeah, so I use Russian wikipedia for a day. Or German wikipedia, or French, or Italian... *NM*
- 18/01/2012 06:23:36 PM
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Or just hit stop right before the script runs. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 06:52:40 PM
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Or just disable Java. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 01:58:03 AM
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That's not as much fun though. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 02:13:44 AM
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Exactly, this way its kind of a game. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 02:20:37 AM
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I really don't see the fun in that. Wikipedia is just a tool, not a game. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 04:59:14 AM
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I don't know about those (except French), but none of the ones I ever used are remotely as good. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 08:13:47 PM
645 Views
Russian wikipedia is very good if you're not checking some obscure Western cultural phenomena.
- 19/01/2012 01:57:43 AM
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Or Answers.com, or even the actual sources that are often copy/pasted into Wikipedia...
- 19/01/2012 01:07:38 AM
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Re: Or Answers.com, or even the actual sources that are often copy/pasted into Wikipedia... *NM*
- 19/01/2012 01:34:46 AM
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Oh, no; now Congress will be inundated with complaints from lazy college students! 
- 19/01/2012 04:40:12 PM
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- 19/01/2012 04:40:12 PM
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13 previously unopposed senators now do not support SOPA.
- 19/01/2012 11:36:15 PM
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How does that "rebutt" what was a facetious post in the first place?
- 20/01/2012 09:24:27 PM
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