Thursday, March 29, 2007

Mafiaa

Ok, so news like this makes me grin. While I understand that downloading copyrighted music is a civil offense, I really think suing your customers is a stupid business strategy. Although, I also think adding "Don't even think about pirating this you evil person you!" messages to CDs, and liner notes, and guilt trip clips before movies is just as insulting to the consumer, especially since you only see these after you've handed over your money, placing you firmly in the classification of paying customer.

However, even once we get over these issues, the way the RIAA primarily, and to a lesser extent the MPAA, are going about these lawsuits is ridiculous, and in many cases fraudulent. They threaten people with lawsuits to get upfront settlements, file anonymous lawsuits by the hundreds, and even tried to scold a college for not keeping IP address assignment logs because "Don't they know they are important?". Well, they may be important to the RIAA, but to the college they hold no special value, and consume valuable & expensive resources to keep around, so the logical choice is not to keep them unless they have a specific need for them.

I'm all in favor of people fighting back on these lawsuits, whenever they have the means to do so. Progress is finally being made too. With several cases having forced the RIAA to pay the defendant's legal fees, this may embolden lawyers to offer their services in exchange for any fees they can recover if they win, which would help more people get qualified representation. In another case, the defendant, who was ruled against on the main issue, has successfully gotten the court to question the ridiculous per song damage figures spouted by the RIAA.

Lastly, if you haven't already heard the joke, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) should join together to form the Music and Film Industry Association of America (MAFIAA).

Thursday, January 25, 2007

OTM Extensions

There will of course be lesser used variations of the OTM interval.

The MTO interval is for when a device is un-impressive at first, but you later discover something about it that really changes your opinion of it. This will be a very subjective measurement, and therefore be much more difficult to quantify and measure.

There will also be a MTOTM interval, measuring the time from getting an un-impressive device, discovering something cool about it, and then deciding that the device is still pretty lame afterall.

This Post has an OTM rating of 2 days.

So, in conversation today, we created the OTM rating scale for new technology. This is how long from the time of purchase it takes for your opinion of the item to go from Ooh! to Meh! This should be a required statistic listed for all new devices. This was discovered while playing with a POS at work. (That's Point-of-Sale, keep it clean!) I discovered an unlocking lever on the monitor, and said Ooh! I then played with it, and discovered that it was already at the best position, the others were horrible, prompting a Meh!. We then observed that it took about two seconds to go from Ooh to Meh, and the OTM rating was born!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Christmas Decorations

Ok, I realize that the whole "Christmas is over-commercialized" thing is itself commercialized at this point, and that nobody cares anymore, but I just want to note it down somewhere, because I say I'm going to every year.

Last night, August 28, was the first time I saw Christmas stuff for sale in a store. Granted it was Big Lots, but they had a decent amount of it out, near the generic fall, and Halloween decorations. They also had the stocking instruction sheets that diagram hot to lay it out on the shelves, so it wasn't just a case of having happened upon some extras they were trying to unload.

So, that's what, only 4 months of shopping time now?

Saturday, July 01, 2006

EULA'S

I avoided bringing up the Sony/BMG rootkit fiasco back when it was big news The reasons were 1) it's a decently technical subject, and if you understand what I'm talking about, you probably also already knew what is going on, and 2) many people more technically proficient, knowledgeable, or eloquent than I have already said quite a bit about it. I do want to mention the issues inherent in the horrible EULA that accompanies these CDs, and other computer software. I dislike these one sided agreements where terms get dictated, and you have only a binary yes/no choice, usually after you've already paid for the item. Software isn't the only place these are found though, not by far. Admission tickets to almost anywhere are pretty bad, parking garage claim tickets, etc. Here is the exact text from the back of a ticket from our recent trip to the zoo.

"This ticket is issued to Holder as a revocable license which may be revoked at management's discretion for any reason including Holder's acting in a disorderly manner or otherwise violating the rules or regulations of the Zoo. The Zoo shall not be required to issue an exchange or refund for any reason including inclement weather. Holder voluntarily assumes all risk and danger of personal injury and all hazards, which are related in any way to Holder's visit. The zoo and its officers, directors, employees and agents are neither responsible nor liable for any injuries, expenses, claims, or liabilities resulting from or related to Holder's visit and Holder expressly releases each of those persons from any claims arising there from. Holder grants permission to the Zoo and its designees to utilize Holder's image, likeness, actions or statements in connection with any live or recorded video, photographic display or other transmission or reproduction without payment, inspection, or review by Holder. Holder agrees not to transmit, distribute or sell (or aid in transmitting, distributing or selling) any description, account, picture, video, audio or other form of reproduction of the visit for which this ticket is issued. Pets are not allowed inside the Zoo."

So, this license says that no matter what, they don't have to give me my money back. No matter what happens I've agreed not to hold them responsible. They can take as many photos/videos of me as they want and use them any way they want, and I don't get to see them first, or even be notified of it. Finally, I'm not allowed to even show my vacation photos, especially not on the Internet. I can't tell you what I saw, or what they have at the zoo, I can't give you my review of it, etc.

Typical all for me, none for you treatment. Do celebrities get special tickets? That can't afford (and don't allow) their likeness to be given away this freely. What if I don't agree to these terms? Am I out my money? These are the kind of things a lawyer somewhere thought up, and it gets shoved down your throat, and most people probably never even read the back of the ticket.

It's these kind of invisible, legally binding contracts we enter into so many times per day, usually without ever knowing it that bug me. America is already lawsuit crazy enough that the zoo feels the need (or the zoo's lawyers feel the need) to limit their liability, and while we are at it, let's throw some other things into the contract. Now if we get a bad review, we have legal grounds to sue. Not that we would, just in case, you know, we needed to.