Miscellaneous > The Lounge
A Google PC?
worker201:
Somebody needs to split this thread.
I just got a great idea to reduce piracy simply and efficiently. Make optical media expensive. Right now, you can get cds for less than a dollar. When the only cost involved in music piracy is that low, there's almost no reason to not do it. Make the discs $5 each. The only thing a cd is good for is music anyway - if you need to back up files, get a portable hard drive. Of course we all know that the reason cds are so cheap in the first place is that the costs were driven down in order to sell cd burners. Anyway, the whole music/film industry is truly fucked up as it is, and I doubt that raising the price of optical disks would unfuck it.
Calum, you mentioned the possible loss of paid music due to hard drive failure. I feel I should point out that iTunes has a way around this. With a single click, you it will check your drive for a song you purchased. If it doesn't find it, it will redownload it for you, at no cost. This system also protects you from interrupted or corrupt downloads - simply delete the busted file and get another one.
The problem I have with iTunes is that it tends to reset itself whenever you do any kind of firmware install. When my graphics logic board was replaced, iTunes treated it as if I had a new computer. I had to reauthorize that computer to play my purchased songs. You can only do this 5 times, and I have now used up 3, all with the same computer. So there's that to deal with.
I still think that per-item licensing is not the way to go with this sort of thing. A bulk license would be better. Like royalty-free images. I was thinking about a bulk license payment that would be made up front by the content distributor, and then amortized by the consumer. So I pay 10,000 to distribute a program, and then charge people $1 to buy it, or $10 to register for free downloads. Eventually, my licensing costs would be covered, and the people who downloaded the stuff could do whatever the hell they wanted with it.
These are the kind of questions that have to be answered. There is a ton of independent and foreign tv, movies, games, and music that is just waiting for an audience. Whoever gets a hold of it can answer these questions in a way that is more equitable and makes more sense than the current paradigm.
piratePenguin:
Looks like there won't be a Google PC, ah well.
Aloone_Jonez:
This is a good thing as it probably would've been shit anyway, it would've been shit hardware running a shit OS similar to Linspire.
Calum:
--- Quote from: worker201 ---When the only cost involved in music piracy is that low, there's almost no reason to not do it. Make the discs $5 each. The only thing a cd is good for is music anyway
--- End quote ---
i have to disagree. first of all, who makes the money from this? people who do not deserve it. also, in a free market, anybody upping the price of this media will simply be undercut by others and go quickly bankrupt. Also, i am a musician and i create CDs to sell using blank media. I am not breaking any law and i consider cheap blank CDs to be a helpful technological aid (a necessity?) for me to make affordable CDs of my own music. Why should i pay extra for a bunch of script kiddies downloading music illegally to burn to CDs?
--- Quote ---- if you need to back up files, get a portable hard drive.
--- End quote ---
no. i'll continue to use my CD writer, one of the reasons i got it, actually. I think having more than one way of doing something is very helpful in a world where everybody is different. Also, what's the difference in cost between a portable drive (which could and will eventually fail at any moment) and a pack of CDs? I know which one i would rather buy. Also, my local supermarket doesn't sell hard drives.
--- Quote ---Of course we all know that the reason cds are so cheap in the first place is that the costs were driven down in order to sell cd burners.
--- End quote ---
not because they're cheap shitty bits of plastic then, no? if what you say is correct, then who is subsidising cheap CDs now that it's 20 years later?
--- Quote ---Anyway, the whole music/film industry is truly fucked up as it is, and I doubt that raising the price of optical disks would unfuck it.
--- End quote ---
me too. this i agree with.
--- Quote ---Calum, you mentioned the possible loss of paid music due to hard drive failure. I feel I should point out that iTunes has a way around this. With a single click, you it will check your drive for a song you purchased. If it doesn't find it, it will redownload it for you, at no cost. This system also protects you from interrupted or corrupt downloads - simply delete the busted file and get another one.
--- End quote ---
cool idea. i presume the list of downloaded files resides on the server then? This is actually a very good idea. I am not aware that iTunes is available for fedora though, so that's me out of the running for the use of this scheme.
--- Quote ---The problem I have with iTunes is that it tends to reset itself whenever you do any kind of firmware install. When my graphics logic board was replaced, iTunes treated it as if I had a new computer. I had to reauthorize that computer to play my purchased songs. You can only do this 5 times, and I have now used up 3, all with the same computer. So there's that to deal with.
--- End quote ---
this is just one of the many idiotic things that will prohibit legitimate users from getting what they deserve, while at the same time unscrupulous script kiddies will be happily cracking this sort of thing and getting away with murder.
--- Quote ---I still think that per-item licensing is not the way to go with this sort of thing. A bulk license would be better. Like royalty-free images. I was thinking about a bulk license payment that would be made up front by the content distributor, and then amortized by the consumer. So I pay 10,000 to distribute a program, and then charge people $1 to buy it, or $10 to register for free downloads. Eventually, my licensing costs would be covered, and the people who downloaded the stuff could do whatever the hell they wanted with it.
--- End quote ---
yep, excellent. this is what i was trying to describe above, i think.
piratePenguin:
--- Quote from: Aloone_Jonez ---This is a good thing as it probably would've been shit anyway, it would've been shit hardware running a shit OS similar to Linspire.
--- End quote ---
Or Windows?
http://pack.google.com/
Google are doing a pretty good job of taking care of Windows computers (something Microsoft should be doing), I'd say they wouldn't do a bad job with their own multimedia/internet OS.
--- Quote from: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/make-your-computer-just-work.html ---
So you bought a new PC for yourself or a relative during the holidays. There was the initial excitement about its speed and the nice screen
--- End quote ---
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