On 8/04/2015 6:27 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
I think that "IT types" have "plenty of money" where that is defined as owning a decent house and a non-prestige car that's in reasonable condition. If "plenty of money" is defined as a house in Toorak and a Mercedes then few people on this list would qualify.
Still a bit broad. I can't say I ever got to that point. IT worker with some management role perhaps, sure. Non management, I dunno...
Also you have all those annoying anti-piracy messages at the start which you can't fast-forward. A real benefit of piracy is avoiding the annoying anti- piracy messages! So true, was cursing some of those last night while watching a DVD (which we legitimately own). What I would like to see media companies do is:
- Make content available at a reasonable price in a reasonable time frame. Movie and TV are such a global phenomenon that delaying releases in different areas encourages piracy as people outside the initial release area try and keep up with the rest of the world - Game of Thrones being a classic example (I don't watch this myself, but it is a commonly cited example). Some networks are waking up and scheduling global releases of TV episodes within 24 hours of initial screening. And on the ABC, we have had simulcast releases of major Dr Who episodes with the UK, for those who want to get up early on a Sunday morning. :) - Speaking of TV, stop treating your viewers like crap with not sticking to the schedule, and the way ads are handled now, as well as putting ads into credits of shows and movies. Keep that up, and we might as well close down all TV stations and turn the spectrum over to broadband, since people will move to online services instead. As for Foxtel, it's a poor value proposition, paying for a lot of crap for a couple of channels of interest. - Cinema versus DVD/Blu-Ray release is an ongoing source of frustration. My partner doesn't handle cinemas well, so we're effectively forced to wait months to see major movies - i.e. when the disc version comes out. The bigger the movie, the longer the waitI don't know about others, but I personally see cinema and home viewing as complimentary experiences. On the rare occasions I do get to the cinema, it's a bit of a special or social event, whereas home viewing is a time to unwind and take in the movie. Having seen the DVD would not stop me making a social trip to the cinema to see the same movie at a later date. - DRM is an ongoing bugbear. Note to the media conglomerates - once you removed DRM from music, I started buying tracks online. Now please lower the cost of Australian releases to match overseas releases. And please remove DRM from movies as well, I'm happy to buy unencumbered copies. ebooks still have this scourge, though the convenience does mean I purchase the occasional ebook. - Speaking of ebooks, it is annoying that of a series, only some of the ebooks can be purchased in Australia, others can't. What on earth are the publishers doing? Another example of treating customers like shit. I've got a few incomplete sets, or sets that are part electronic and part paperback. - And many interesting TV series or movies never even make it to Australia. We have Google, Facebook and instant messaging, we know shows are out there. Why not make them available to us?
When it comes to Bluray, there are other problems. A disc may work fine one day and then won't work again, ever, unless the player can get an update from the Internet to make sure it is /legal/ .... that is horrid too. Well if you can't even own it then why bother buying it?
There is so much wrong with DMCA, but when it comes to video content from the Internet in legal forms, well there is plenty available without needing to pirate anything. Youtube has more video than you could ever watch. Also there are a variety of services with free video like blip.tv. I've been meaning to blog about the free video services but I haven't had enough time to watch enough video.
I even believe there are some who have copies of that other OS what was it called .....; anyway they have not paid for it apparently. My own view is that Microsoft has traditionally priced it's OS too high, but when you think about all the years of update support (patching), then the price seems to be reasonable. But using pirated Windows is not right, it is far more risky than using a proper legitimate version and not worth the risk. One of the payment options for Office that I've seen was about $10 per month. Presumably they were planning on getting about the same through regular sales. $10 per month would cover the cost of ongoing patching after about 20,000 sales.
Mark Russinavich has even mentioned that MS may open source Windows! They are a new business these days. It may never happen, but it has been discussed and it just might. Why would they do that when they can keep taxing us? Every Linux system I have ever purchased new came with a Windows license. Why would MS want to open source Windows when they can keep making me pay for software I never use?
This software philosophy, what's it called 'open-source' ?; why it's just encourages such an attitude ! I think that Microsoft should re-enable full support for XP, but with a reasonable once off new payment, or a very low subscription cost. Ending XP support doesn't seem like a smart business decision on it's own as people will keep paying for it. But given that people who are forced to stop using XP just pay for a newer version of Windows it makes sense.
I would consider myself to be a bit of a libertarian, we have far too much regulation and government control over people. Libertarians aren't actually interested in less government control. Most of the policies that libertarians want REQUIRE a significant amount of government control. It's impossible to have the degree of inequality that they have in the US without having some sort of police state.
What libertarians want is less government control of rich people, that includes allowing the Music And Film Industry Association of America to control the way we use computers.
Give us a fair price for almost anything and we'll happily pay it, if we can afford it. Don't squash us with DMCA or other abhorrent measures.
We need to show them that the DMCA can't work.
-- 73 de Tony VK3JED/VK3IRL http://vkradio.com