The Continuing Decline Of Western Civilization ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C'est Fou In a continuation of beat-up the French day, ArsTechnica has an article on the proposed new copyright reform laws in France, which are scheduled to be voted on Dec. 23. It makes DRM mandatory, criminalizes production of any software that could be used to circumvent DRM, and will impose jail time and fines on anyone who just uses a DVD playback device not approved by the producer. Also, it criminalizes open source. C'est impossible! you cry. Non, c'est vrai. France's version of the MPAA has said it will sue anyone who continues to publish their own source code for free. Have have nothing else to add, as my mind is boggling. add to the discussion - 0 entriesposted by tcdowc - 10:41 pm - 12.09.05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've had it with the FCC and their doucebaggery. So the FCC has been having meetings, kicking around the idea of a la carte cable programming, basically only pay for the channels that you watch. I'm sort of split on this idea, cause it could mean a big loss of jobs if niche companies get pushed out of business, but maybe that won't happen at all. But then I read this article, and I'm royally pissed. Where the fuck do these people get off? The big cable companies don't like the a la carte thing, mostly because it will cost them mass money to retool (AT&T and other telecoms dig it, they want into cable). So they've decided that maybe they should just start offering family safe cable instead, because that's what the FCC is really after here, not consumer choice but getting rid of MTV and HBO so that our souls are safe from the devil's minions (won't someone think of the children?), and Comcast and Time Warner want to make nice so the FCC agrees to the split up of Adelphia. All of which means no unedited movies over PG-13 on the movie channels, FOX's entire line-up goes away, and we get left with Touched By An Angel, Crossing Jordan, and The 700 Club. They'll probably can The View, we might get to keep Regis, and no more day-time soaps. If we're lucky, this will be followed by mandatory school prayer and the banning of all music recorded after 1950, with the exception of some country and 'Wind Beneath My Wings'. If the list of whose first against the wall when the revolution comes keeps growing so quickly, I'm gonna have to borrow China's wall. You think this won't happen? Yeah, there were a lot of things I thought wouldn't happen back in 1999. add to the discussion - 0 entriesposted by tcdowc - 9:13 pm - 12.09.05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maradona would probably approve. You probably haven't been exposed to Machinima, which are movies produced using games (typically FPS, like Counter-strike). It's done with scripting, or by using an observer as a camera who records what he sees, with actors playing the game. The most popular to date is the serial comic Red vs. Blue, which is done in Halo (now Halo 2 I think). That's going to change, or so it appears, with the critical acclaim being heaped on a new short about the riots in France. Laboriously created in The Movies, a movie studio sim, The French Democracy follows the stories of three young dark-skinned Frenchmen who join the recent riots. Created in response to media reports of the riots, which over-generalized the reasons behind them (according to the creator), the film is surprisingly moving, given the odd animation movements and the very poor translation (done by the creator himself). You can download it here. add to the discussion - 0 entriesposted by tcdowc - 8:26 pm - 12.09.05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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