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Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next
Renegade:
The US basically has no manufacturing anymore, and IP is the only remaining industry there, so it makes sense for this kind of push to make IP holy and untouchable, etc. etc.
+1 for the recent ACTA silliness emboldening the gaming industry.
At the moment, it looks like the IP mafia isn't content to simply have their rights -- they want to control YOUR rights and how you use anything they produce.
This is extremely dangerous.
Next, you'll buy a game, but need to pay extra for a 2-player option, more for a 3-player option, etc. Each player will need their own account, so you can't just let anyone play on YOUR computer/console with the game that YOU bought. No more inviting friends over, unless they've ponied up.
Again, this is EXACTLY the same issue that Richard Stallman brought up in his essay/story, "The Right to Read".
Dan had learned that each book had a copyright monitor that reported when and where it was read, and by whom, to Central Licensing. (They used this information to catch reading pirates, but also to sell personal interest profiles to retailers.) The next time his computer was networked, Central Licensing would find out. He, as computer owner, would receive the harshest punishmentâfor not taking pains to prevent the crime.
Of course, Lissa did not necessarily intend to read his books. She might want the computer only to write her midterm. But Dan knew she came from a middle-class family and could hardly afford the tuition, let alone her reading fees. Reading his books might be the only way she could graduate.
--- End quote ---
IP does not exist. It is invented. It is a control mechanism. You cannot "own" an idea. The moment you share an idea, the world is richer for it, and you are none the poorer. I'd posted a quote by Thomas Jefferson in another thread -- same thing here:
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
--- End quote ---
The fallacy of ideas as property is the core problem. As long as people cling to that, there will be conflict.
But the business community is drunk on the idea of "infinite growth", which is simply an illusion.
And apparently the gaming industry is drinking from the same cup now.
This can only end badly unless some fundamentally flawed principles are reversed.
Carol Haynes:
We are still the ones voting for these people. These who did and tried, will try again, will hide it under other bills, etc.
-rgdot (February 07, 2012, 02:44 PM)
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There is truth in that but also it hides a fallacy - it doesn't matter who you vote for they are all bought and paid for - if not by big business and corporations then by their own party structure where they are compelled to vote against their conscience and their constituents on pain of losing their livelihood. And it doesn't really matter which 'democratic' country you are in.
The simple truth is democracy is dead - it doesn't exist - it has ceased to be - it is no more - it fucking snuffed it (to parapharase a well known sketch).
Actually that assumes that all the historical propaganda about democracy was ever true - anywhere. Democracy was born in Greece (Athens actually) but even then it wasn't what most people today understand by the term. With the best will in the world where has democracy got Greece to today?
In the UK 100 years ago we had a 'constitutional democracy' - but it was also true that over 50% of the UK population had no right to vote. Now everyone has the right to vote but unless people are prepared to vote for a government of independent candidates they have no choice on who they vote for and even less choice on the policies they are voting for (which automatically reverse once the election is over anyway). Add to that many laws are passed down or overridden by EU law which isn't in any sense democratic and where exactly is the democracy the 'alliance' is supposed to be exporting to undemocratic countries?
rgdot:
What you are saying is true but the defeatism won't improve anything either. By saying and thinking what you posted they have really won, our apathy (or similar sentiment) is and has become their greatest weapon. And also, we can not keep on living thinking that all of us can be bought and there is no chance of "true democracy".
Renegade:
Add to that many laws are passed down or overridden by EU law which isn't in any sense democratic and where exactly is the democracy the 'alliance' is supposed to be exporting to undemocratic countries?
-Carol Haynes (February 07, 2012, 07:42 PM)
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NAILED IT!
The question then is, exactly who is your new dictator?
wraith808:
The fallacy of ideas as property is the core problem. As long as people cling to that, there will be conflict.
-Renegade (February 07, 2012, 07:14 PM)
--- End quote ---
I think that this is a case of no one going to the middle. You have one side that thinks that ideas cannot and should not have ownership, and others that think that they have to hold onto it with both hands. IMO, neither is correct. When we say that you cannot own an idea, then the characters that we have grown up with become meaningless. That's when despite the wishes of Bill Watterson, when he decides not to make any more Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, someone else makes cheap rip-offs for the money... or even worse, they do it while he's publishing his.
I understand the concept of what you're saying (probably) isn't advocating this, but isn't this the same thing that a lot of our protests against PIPA and SOPA are about? The abilities that these laws give rather than in many case the truths of what would come about even if passed?
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