ajundra

From the page: It's difficult not to become even more cynical when you read stories like the following one. Sent in by Eric Goldman, it's about a state law in California that was mainly written by two lawyers: Joaquin Avila, a law professor from Seattle, and Robert Rubin, the "legal director" for the "Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. So, here's the interesting thing: since this state law has been put in place (seven years ago), the only lawsuits have been brought by Rubin's committee or Avila and they've made themselves over $4 million with a few more lawsuits pending and a bunch more threatened (again, all from either Avila or Rubin's committee).

What a great deal: write a law, and then be the only lawyers to use the law to make millions.

Interesting article. Read on...

great :)

very interesting results in this survey...


From the page: TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, today released the results of a snap survey on piracy.

The TIGA Piracy Survey compiles feedback from TIGA members and is designed to provide TIGA, the development community and Government with information on how UK developers view the piracy and its effects on their business.

TIGA's Piracy Survey demonstrates three principal findings:

Firstly, the majority of video games developers (60%) see piracy as a problem for their business and most also see this as a constant or increasing problem for their business going forward (90%). However most developers view the actual threat of piracy to their business survival as low (60%) with only 20% ranking the threat as medium and only 10% considering the threat to be high (10% had no view).

Secondly, when asked about the Governments plans to tackle piracy through slowing down or cutting off the broadband supply of pirates, developers had mixed opinions, with 50% agreeing this was a good idea and 50% disagreeing.

Finally, developers are pragmatic and proactive in finding solutions to deal with the threat of piracy. 50% said they are considering different ways of doing business as a consequence of piracy, with 75% of that 50% citing digital distribution, subscription based services and/or ad supported free games as the ways they would or could change their business models.

Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO stated: "The results of the TIGA piracy survey clearly demonstrate that UK developers are taking the initiative when dealing with the issue of piracy and looking for new ways of delivering content and communicating directly with their consumers. Developers are not complacent in dealing with this problem and are mostly seeking to find solutions for themselves rather than simply relying on the Government to solve the problem of piracy. This is testament to the pragmatic approach of the industry."

From the page: "The Theory: Though the theory varies greatly from religion to religion, most of them believe that there is a being or beings greater then anything else in the universe that created the earth. It is still generally accepted in western civilization that there is a god.

The facts: We find ourselves at another paradox, there is no way to prove or disprove any religion. Many believers in their religion will often say god is testing us as he has faked much of the things we see in history. Such as dinosaur bones being millions of years old. However skeptics usually point out other facts, such as the second you accept one religion you are literally rejecting thousands of others. Skeptics will also point to the overwhelming evidence that all so-called effects of prayer can be explained through mere coincidence. They will also point to errors in the Bible writings, and problems with the whole idea of heaven in general. Despite this evidence many people continue to worship their gods. Skeptics generally believe that religion was established for one of two reasons. Reason one because people were scared and looked for a way to say this life isnâ€t all you get. The second reason is that people were confused and tried to come up with an answer as to why and how all this stuff got here, so they came up with the ideas of gods. None the less following certain things from certain religions isnâ€t necessarily a bad thing. The one common thing you will find in all religions usually written in different words but with the same meaning: do unto others what you would want others to do to you. A fine motto to live by."

From the page: "In late 1989, three years before his death, Cage revisited the idea of 4'33" one last time. He composed One3, the full title of which is One3 = 4'33" (0'00") + GClef.svg. As in all number pieces, "One" refers to the number of performers required. The score instructs the performer to build a sound system in the concert hall, so that "the whole hall is on the edge of feedback, without actually feeding back." The content of the piece is the electronically amplified sound of the hall and the audience."

wicked :)