Walsingham

What about jewelry? At least you make things which you can give away as presents.

Then in the spirit of general amity, allow me to call you a troll.

Interesting post, Asol. But in a way haven't you hit on something larger there? Our culture panders to whoever consumes. But what defines how much you consume and of what? Answer that and maybe we'll know where we're headed? I don't know.

Numbers, old boy. You really should read all my posts before trying to nail me to a door. I already conceded most points. Although I don't concede there's anyting greedy about wanting to get paid for brainwork. I was discussing this further yesterday and the following point clarified. Make of it whhat you will. You have two classes of offenders currently. One group is basically a normal person who occasionally utilises piracy. The other group of persons organises and encourages piracy to make money. The problem is that our legal system can only prohibit behaviour, and since most behaviours of the latter are also those of the former. trouble is that the former are also much more fragile and easily caught than the latter. To hit the latter you need intelligence driven targeted law enforcement. Something neither SOPA or PIPA really deliver. Particularly since much of the actual law enforcement happens abroad.

Isn't that an anarchist's view of all law, though?

As a point of clarification I'm still of the opinion that there should be equality of opportunity, and equality of reward. I'm also a big fun of taking an enlightened view of what contribution people can make through being different and hving different strengths. I'm just implacably against wallpapering over differences, and of trying to bull**** people about what people really can do. Because I think it's a huge ****ing granite obstacle to diminishing prejudice.

The exploding octopus was in "Bride Of The Monster" Apologies. I lookedit up on Youtube and must have got distracted by Servo. Actually, come to that, could you make a 'Creeper'? Incredibly slow, and incredibly quiet, but almost impossible to kill and totally deadly.

About once a year I get angry enough to smash my keyboard with my tiny fists. Hence my decision to now use cheaper keyboards and replace them. I actually prefer the slightly clunky feel, and there's no point the keyboard being faster than my own human reactions, so gaming isn't an issue.

Hurrah for justice by lynchmob!

Two handed style? WTF? Are you completely insane? I demand I be given axes to back up the swords, then at least I can throw the occasional axe. Need some low level character fire support up in here. Or throwing knives or something. Surprised to see I'm not already dead.

Whereas I've known a couple of extremely tough female soldiers (by our wimpy Territorial standards, anyway ). But the point is they were undeniably different. Denying distinct differences in attitude and approach, emotion, and physical shape is tantamount to being a flat earther. Except that the earth has the good grace to appear flat.

As much as I'm mocking you right now, you gotta love that hat.

This post seems pretty silly now that congressmen are running away from this bill in droves. As I said, given the scale of the protests and resistance, the chances of it passing were slim and the odds of it surviving legal scrutiny were even slimmer. So maybe the US isn't quite like China after all. Of course I was exaggerating a lot Really, I don't even think SOPA/PIPA would be the end of Internet like many seem to - if there were corporations taking down wikipedia instead of wikipedia taking down wikipedia, the backlash would be crazy. The things I really think are worrisome are other stuff, regarding surveillance and the judicial system. You'll have to forgive me for trolling a bit for trying to provoke a response regarding civil rights in general. But that discussion would really be a bit OT and it can't be interpreted as anything else than a compliment to this forum that no one took my bait I think the appropriate term for what you were doing was 'being mendacious' rather than 'trolling'.

No. Just no.

Wot? No Ghosts?

I concede the point about the potential for abuse. The problem as I see it is that they are essentially attempting to solve two problems with one rock. As I've remarked in other threads the existing concept of justice permits no intelligent distinction between persons who occasionally transgress and those whose entire lives are spent transgressing. A law is set up to prohibit a given behaviour common to both, and cathes only the former because unlike the latter they aren't as skilled.

I feel I'm maybe missing part of your point, but time is limited so I'll forge ahead. Intellectual property has to be treated as property and protected or the production of that substance will wither. Surely this is a simple dynamic. What we are talking about here is the way property moves, and you are suggesting that it must move freely. However, distributing material which YOU have generated yourself is different from material which others have generated. OK, lost my thread now. Back to work.

Bill Murray needs more Bill Murrays.

When you try to imagine these things getting actioned, it helps to picture a boardroom full of senior staff who have no clue whatsoever what is being said, and a bunch of junior staff who don't know why they're saying it.

Dragon Age Origins had DRM? I don't recall any obtrusions when I installed it...or was it a silent but deadly killer or something? Well I know I can't play it now. Bioware must know that my copy was activated, and it hasn't been activated elsewhere. Yet I don't even get the courtesy of a reply when I ask for support. Seriously. What ****ing company doesn't even send a "**** you" or a "we're sorry you" to customer correspondence? God, it makes my blood boil.

I for one certainly care what is used. I simply won't buy any Ubisoft products I've had so much of a problem with their DRM. Bioware annoyed the crap out of me with their whole customer control strategy, but I'm more sanguine about their performance otherwise.

If I come in then I say we should 'do' that witch near the bridge. And the subsequent barney in the docks. Because I'm a wordkiller, you see?

Like Tigs I agree that for social purposes people have to be treated equally. But at an engineering coal-face level they simply aren't. Physically the point is glaringly obvious, psychologically it's more subtle but sometimes more pronounced. Perhaps it's more constructed than predestined. But try and (for example) manage two single sex teams identically and you're going to get very divergent results.

Probably because people being sexy in anime are usually crying. Those wacky wacky Japanese.