StrangeSox

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:51 PM) I'm not certain how to calculate the loses. I think it is a fact that a lot of people would do without if they couldn't pirate a copy. That's an econ 101 conclusion and it makes their claims disingenuous.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:48 PM) Something should be done about piracy, it is unfair to content producers and will ultimately hurt consumers who value quality new content. It's very possible that you have this backwards--that people do not want to pay $20 for an album but would gladly pay, say, $5 or $10. The same for new movies. If the RIAA and MPAA hadn't been such dinosaurs and completely resisted digital supply going back to Napster, they wouldn't be in these positions.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:45 PM) I don't know that it's "unnecessary." Despite my hatred for the big media companies, they do have a legit gripe with overseas servers/domains pirating their stuff and posting it online for everyone to see for free. They possibly have a legitimate gripe. Their gripe does not support the extreme measures that SOPA/PIPA would put into place. Chris Dodd, now CEO of the MPAA, compared it favorably to Chinese control of the internet. They're crying poor because they (RIAA & MPAA) keep putting out terrible garbage that people don't want to pay retail for and conflate every download as a loss at full retail price. http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/01/12/how...he-u-s-economy/ http://techliberation.com/2006/10/01/texas-size-sophistry/ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-copyrig...s-con-congress/

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 12:13 PM) Whether it's open or not...I would have loved this in college and law school.....for the prices students currently pay for textbooks, they could buy a new ipad every year loaded with the books already on there... completely kills off the used book market.

You can find the indictment here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78786408/Mega-Indictment The logic they lay out makes sense but legally I have zero idea if they have a case. Also, you gotta laugh at the way things like "$500,000,000 in damages" are calculated. Yeah, you're really losing out on full retail price for every download!

that's pretty stupid.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:18 PM) I'd learn a new hobby then. This bill is gonna get passed with some form of foreign site blocking. They're doing the same s*** they did with online poker. They have no jurisdiction over an overseas website, so they attack the problem from the other end: killing off the demand for the site to exist. I sincerely hope that this completely unnecessary bill dies a quick death, but I doubt it will.

In related news, MegaUpload was shut down and their employees arrested.

PPP's 3rd annual TV News Trust Poll (percentage difference of people who trust each news source) Among Democrats and Independents, the situation is pretty much reversed. No one media source is completely trusted above all others, while Fox is generally distrusted. That chart illustrates the effect of a media narrative that's focused on repeatedly telling their conservative listeners that they shouldn't trust any media source that isn't explicitly pro-conservative.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 12:34 PM) Strangesox: http://www.theonion.com/articles/midwest-p...s-tollboot,484/ lol

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 11:43 AM) The solution to this problem is obvious...more strict voter ID laws. bomb Iowa

It's called "torrent the .pdf"

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 11:38 AM) Great, so the good ol, folksy, totally unrepresentative state that for some reason still gets to go ahead of every other state can't even get an accurate statement of their "Winner" 2 weeks afterwards, gives "Mittmentum" to a guy who didn't win, and we can all be proud in the fact that Iowa's caucus format is a sad excuse for an election and needs to go away. This just annoys the bleep out of me. They also lost a bunch of votes, so we'll never have any idea who really won. Go Iowa!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 11:24 AM) Why should I express any interest at all in Ari Fleischer's twitter account? Well it applies to a lot of the GOP rhetoric on taxation of the wealthy and how they supposedly bare some hugely unfair disproportionate burden, not just Ari. The main take-away is that the wealthy's share of the tax burden has risen slower than their share of income and any talk of record-high crushing taxation is simply dishonest.

Mark Thoma with a nice take-down of Ari Fleischer's latest tweets that lament the (supposed) increased share of the tax burden that the wealthy have taken on in recent decades.

Another article on the jobless claims number. Lowest in almost four years.

I'm pretty sure Tex has been trolling this topic since January 28th, 2010.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 09:21 AM) It's 2012, time for Soxtalk to get mobile. They can't implement tapatalk without a major board overhaul

New jobless claims plunge:

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 08:24 AM) And not voting nor contacting officials gets you nothing, which is the point. Then we agree!

The 1%er's might get a little more attention when they bother officials, which is exactly the same point.

Turns out Santorum won Iowa by 34 votes. This won't change the delegate outcome. http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/gop-ca...weeks-af/nGTb6/

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 18, 2012 -> 10:47 PM) Not necessarily. Voting is only one way to force politicians to do things. It's not like blacks just boycotted the polls to get the Civil Rights Act passed. This thing was gonna roll through Congress until Google etc. stepped up. It is basically one industry vs another, not a principled fight over freedom. By the way, Chris Dodd was comparing this favorably to how the chinese control the internet, lol.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 18, 2012 -> 10:51 PM) Newt Gingrich a centrist? Really guys? Practical maybe, but centrist? GTFOH. To be fair he said pragmatic. I think a better description would be opportunistic sociopath.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 18, 2012 -> 08:46 PM) His entire career prior to this Presidential run. The one where he was noted for being a giant ass, shut down the government and led impeachment charges?