Mandy gets tough

[Rik]

Oh yes, I know that feeling.

[somanyholes]

Finally he admits to having no clue as to what he is talking about.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6814187.ece

[Rik]

The comments are good though.

[talos]

Thats good coming from a politician

[Rik]

It's amazing, coming from a politician.

[dujas]

Fairly balanced piece, still all talk and no details to mull over though. Quite disappointed he said "I was shocked to hear that as much as half of all internet traffic in the UK is for the carriage of unlawful content", when really there hasn't been anywhere near enough research into online piracy to throw out statistics like that.

[Rik]

He has to justify his righteous indignation somehow.  

[Technical Ben]

I think they tried a "play once" dvd some time ago. Or a once use paper dvd (guess we will be moved onto blue ray now).
That could be a better model for rental, as you do not have the hassle of retuning it, and the retal company do not have to worry about you replaying it either.

But I doubt it will happen.

The scariest one I've seen is on my psp. I see I can now purchase games online to download. Great! And games I love/loved from my childhood. However I get 1 download. My memory card cannot take more than 1 game. So if I loose it, or want to play on another game I cannot redownload. :/ I know in the past, if you lost a CD you lost it for good. But ever since the pc/cd copying came out it's been a good idea to protect (by backing up) your collections. I'm not taking that risk when a ps3/psp game costs up to and over £50!

So I have not bought any PSP games, not getting a ps3, and sold my Xbox360. I'm keeping Steam on the pc though, as it seems the best method. Might even try Itunes one day as they seem reasonable too.

[Rik]

Check Amazon as well, Ben, they often undercut iTunes.

[Supanova]

Quoting Mandleson's column

Provide customers with a good quality, cheap, safe and efficient experience, and they will ditch illegal downloading

HA!

[Rik]

That about sums up our reaction.

[gizmo71]

Check Amazon as well, Ben, they often undercut iTunes.

They don't often undercut "nearly new" from Amazon Marketplace though - and you end up with an actual CD from that!

[Rik]

Pedant.

[gizmo71]

Pedant.

That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day!

[Rik]

I must be slipping then. 

[john]

Here's an interesting article relevent to this thread.

[Ray]

Thanks, interesting article, John, there was something along similar lines in the latest copy of Computer Shopper as well. Further proof of what I've thought for a long time, most if not all Politicians haven't got a clue what they're talking about most of the time 

[Rik]

Makes sense. Detecting illegal traffic is next to impossible, whatever Mandy thinks.

[Ray]

It does indeed, Rik. 

[Colin Burns]

and who needs to download music when i can just listen to it for free on youtube 

[Supanova]

and who needs to download music when i can just listen to it for free on youtube 

Download a program called vdownloader, and you can rip the music directly off youtube vids 

[Simon]

That would be illegal though, wouldn't it?

[drummer]

That would be illegal though, wouldn't it?

Probably, but in the same way that uploading copyright material to YouTube probably is.

[Supanova]

That would be illegal though, wouldn't it?

I would imagine it's just as illigal as uploading it in the first place, but as it appears to youtube like any other browser buffering the data they can't track you down and the only person that gets hurt is the massive, soulless, 500% profit margine, artist exploiting record company.

[dujas]

Broadband tax 'to be made law'