Quote:Region encoding is okay on its face. It prevents cheap importers from undercutting the prices of local distributors. Its not worse than tariffs on imports.
Region Encoding is a bad idea, and tariffs are a quite different issue. This would be listed as parallel imports, and you still pay tarrifs on them if any unless they are smuggled goods. Parallel imports are legal in many countries. Also I frequently bounce between the US and europe, should I buy 2 players? An illegal region free player? Just not buy movies? The last one is what I'm actually doing but i still get DVDs as gifts.
Quote:And anyone who thinks that eliminating tariffs on imports is a good thing had better take a good long look at themselves the next time you complain about outsourcing manufacturing to Mexico or customer service to India.
A different and much more complex issue.
Quote:Many people, especially on the internets, think the purpose of DRM is to stop piracy.
It isn't.
To be fair that is the usual reason given.
Quote:The purpose of DRM is to stop casual piracy. To make it more annoying to pirate a piece of software than to pay the regular price. The idea is to make Joe Sixpack who can't tell the difference between a crack and a torrent pay for their stuff. And there have been a lot of successes in this.
Like the DRM on bioshock? or the DRM on microsofts plays for sure site? DRM systems have so far only been a sucsess for those that sell them, and a catastrophe for civil liberties.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/
Quote:Witness Valve's "Steam" network, which has been enourmously successful despite being essentially a gaint piece of malware whose only purpose is to prevent you from playing games. Witness also X-Box live or any similar stuff. They all make money.Steam and Xbox live are content distribution systems, their purpose is to cut out some of the middlemen and so drive down costs. If it wasn't for reliability issues and forced patching I would love steam. Ussualy games go from developer to publisher to retailer, sometimes with a few more steps before it arrives at the customer, and the big publishers take a big cut of the profits and try to lock smaller ones out of the market. Steam bypasses this and goes from publisher directly to customer for the most part. It also gathers data that na be used for marketing and to make better sequels. the DRM in steam is more of an afterthought.
Quote:The trick is to make the DRM virtually unnoticeable to the average viewer. And most of them won't notice it. Oh god, it takes ten second rather than five for my movie to start! Most of them will be out of the room making popcorn while this happens.
if DRM was virtually unnoticeable it wouldn't be a problem.however DRM is quite noticeable. It also used to be that you had rights to the stuf you bought, with the DCMA if the DRM would block those rights then you lose the right. Which is backwards, if the DRM blocks your rights you lose the DRM.
also libraries, schools and similar institutions have other rights and responsibilities than normal people, but they suffer from the same DRM.
Quote:Now, there have been hiccups in the process, which there are bound to be. But just because there have been a few strains on the system dones't mean the idea itself is inherently wrong.
There is a few stains and then there is broken beyond belief. Intelectual property law, especially copyright law needs a major overhaul. possibly a return to where it was at 1900, but an update would be better.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."