Thursday, February 10, 2005
Wisky Tango Foxtrot ALERT
I just read this article here and I can't believe my eyes. What the fuck is wrong with the U.S. justice system if shit like this can happen? I'll tell you what? It has been pulled too far to the right, corporations own the U.S. and U.S. policies. What was the war in Iraq? 20 years of planning by right wing econo-nazis. They wanted a tight fist on their oil supply, and they got it, as a bonus they also got lucrative re-building contracts. Is it me or should the country that blows shit up, not be able to make money off of the rebuilding of the shit they blew up? Seems a little like the fox watching the hen house. "Hey, our economy is sucking soo much ass right now, what should we do??", "Let's blow up some shit ass country half way around the world and make them pay us to rebuild them!" "Sounds like a plan to me, let's get on it, it sounds like a win-win situation to me!"
So back to the article. These guys are being sued by a game maker because they have found ways to change the textures that are used in the games. They then exchange these images over the internet with instructions on how to overwrite the existing textures. Techmo says that they are "losing" or "hurting" because of this. So how are they losing or hurting, well let's see; a user buys a copy of the game. (money in techmo's pocket) the user plays the game (techmo isn't making much money off of this). the user gets bored of the game (techmo is very happy, bored users mean, users are willing to buy new games) User finds way of changing the textures in the game to make the scantily clad female volleyball players to appear nude (techmo has a heart attack, how could a user deface such a family oriented game like this?) User is no longer bored, user enjoys playing again, hell maybe even puts a few extra deposits in the spank bank along the way (Techmo is very unhappy, users are no longer bored, so users are less willing to spend money on new game). User shares this with their friends over the internet (Techmo is raging mad, now even more users are enjoying the game that they bought, must begin lawsuit immediately) So as you can see, techmo has absolutely everything to lose here and the user has everything to win, which means the system is not right, we need to oppress the little man and make him bored and unhappy so that he is a good consumer. If you couldn't tell I was being just a little sarcastic. What these users have done is no different then you or I painting our cars after we have bought them or modifying our garage door opener to open a little faster or slower. This lawsuit is ridiculously ludicrous and frivilous. However, the guys may still end up losing because these kinds of lawsuits are not about right or wrong but who has the most amount of money which Techmo surely has plenty. But further why do these even exist? The DMCA or the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is bascially a law that was written with the copywright holders interest in mind only. As a matter of fact it (DMCA) was almost entirely penned by various trade organizations representing major copyright holders like the RIAA and the MPAA. Never was the common man thought, never was there a fight put in for fair use, only token nods to get the bill passed.
So back to the article. These guys are being sued by a game maker because they have found ways to change the textures that are used in the games. They then exchange these images over the internet with instructions on how to overwrite the existing textures. Techmo says that they are "losing" or "hurting" because of this. So how are they losing or hurting, well let's see; a user buys a copy of the game. (money in techmo's pocket) the user plays the game (techmo isn't making much money off of this). the user gets bored of the game (techmo is very happy, bored users mean, users are willing to buy new games) User finds way of changing the textures in the game to make the scantily clad female volleyball players to appear nude (techmo has a heart attack, how could a user deface such a family oriented game like this?) User is no longer bored, user enjoys playing again, hell maybe even puts a few extra deposits in the spank bank along the way (Techmo is very unhappy, users are no longer bored, so users are less willing to spend money on new game). User shares this with their friends over the internet (Techmo is raging mad, now even more users are enjoying the game that they bought, must begin lawsuit immediately) So as you can see, techmo has absolutely everything to lose here and the user has everything to win, which means the system is not right, we need to oppress the little man and make him bored and unhappy so that he is a good consumer. If you couldn't tell I was being just a little sarcastic. What these users have done is no different then you or I painting our cars after we have bought them or modifying our garage door opener to open a little faster or slower. This lawsuit is ridiculously ludicrous and frivilous. However, the guys may still end up losing because these kinds of lawsuits are not about right or wrong but who has the most amount of money which Techmo surely has plenty. But further why do these even exist? The DMCA or the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is bascially a law that was written with the copywright holders interest in mind only. As a matter of fact it (DMCA) was almost entirely penned by various trade organizations representing major copyright holders like the RIAA and the MPAA. Never was the common man thought, never was there a fight put in for fair use, only token nods to get the bill passed.
