Cav's Place

While the final goal is obviously a resource-based economic model, at which point digital copies will be treated as what they actually are, namely an inexhaustible resource, and therefore made freely available to every single person in the world, there’s a lot of work to do before we can get there, so we need to think of the intermediate steps as well. For the entertainment industry, or at least for the part of it that produces content that can be distributed digitally, the Content Creators’ Association would be such a step, but it’d be too difficult for it to be the first one, so what we need is an intermediate step before the intermediate step, if you will.
While I also have a rough idea about what we should demand from the other components of the digital entertainment industry, this post will focus on the short-term demands from the software industry. This is because, unlike music or movies, software can usually only bring revenue through direct sales and donations, which restricts me from demanding an entirely new business model right away. As such, the list I’m working on is an attempt to make the process fairer for both customers and developers while at the same time giving the industry as a whole time to prepare for the next step, which would be, as I said, the Content Creators’ Association.
Since these demands must take the current situation into account much more, the details must also be much more specific. As a result, the full list is, to some extent, still a work in progress, but the first part, which you’ll find below, deals with availability and pricing, which are the problems that must be tackled first in order to fix the relationship between customers and distributors. The issue of DRM and various other issues having to do with the relationship between developer and customer, and between developer and distributor, will be detailed in the next post in this series.

1) Digital versions of all software that’s not intended to be released for free must be readily available and very easy to purchase in fair conditions worldwide. With the possible exception of the countries and sovereign territories where the products or practices in question are specifically banned:
1.1) There may be no geographical restrictions when purchasing digital versions of software. If such restrictions exist, the products are considered to have been released for free in the countries or territories in question.
1.2) The digital release date for any software product must be the same worldwide. A variation of at most one day may sometimes be allowed, but only if fully justified by time zone differences.
1.3) Any company that sells digital versions of software and accepts payments from more than one country or sovereign territory needs to offer the exact same prices before taxes regardless of the customer’s location. The only allowable exception to this rule is for countries and territories justifiably seen as poor, which may benefit from discounts.
1.4) Customers must be able to pay for software through the method of their choice. To this end, in each country or sovereign territory, the digital version of each software product must be sold by at least one store that accepts:
1.4.1) Direct payments and charging a store account from any type of debit card, credit card and digital wallet known to be in use in the area, as well as through payment order and wire transfer from any bank officially operating in the area.
1.4.2) Payments made by SMS, through any mobile operator officially operating in the area. It is not a requirement to allow direct payments by SMS, but charging a store account must be possible through this method as well. If a minimum amount that may be paid through SMS is specified, it may not be greater than 10 EUR before taxes.
1.4.3) The use of at least one type of prepaid card, whether issued by the store itself or by a third party, which can easily be purchased with cash anywhere in the country or territory in question. If the card may only be used to make purchases from a single store, it is permitted to only accept charging a store account from it, but if it may be used at other stores as well then it must be treated as a debit card, allowing customers to also use it for direct payments. The cheapest such prepaid card available may not cost more than 10 EUR before taxes.
1.5) Any additional fees associated with using any of the payment methods listed at points 1.4.1), 1.4.2) and 1.4.3) must be specified clearly before the payment is finalized and may not exceed 1 EUR for payments of at most 20 EUR and 5% of the value of the payment for those that exceed that amount. If the fees charged by third party operators exceed this limit, the difference must be paid by the shop or the software industry as a whole, not by the customer.
1.6) To fairly reflect the reduced costs of digital distribution, if hard copies of a software product are also being sold, the digital version of that same product must be sold for no more than half the price of the hard copy if the latter costs no more than 20 EUR and for at least 10 EUR less than the hard copy otherwise. This applies to the regular prices for both versions, so clearly labeled sales and promotions are excluded.
1.7) All productivity software products priced at more than 50 EUR must offer separate licenses for non-commercial use without any loss of functionality. Such a license must cost no more than 50 EUR if the license for commercial use costs no more than 100 EUR and no more than half the price of the commercial use license otherwise.

As I said, this is only the first part of the list and I’m quite aware that even it has quite a few loopholes, usually doesn’t list penalties and likely also misses a few other issues related to availability and pricing that need to be covered, so do not hesitate to leave comments if you have anything to add or change. I’m hoping to add the second part next week, but may edit this at a later time as well.

Went to the third protest against ACTA yesterday, but was disappointed by what I found there and eventually left, frozen, a little more than an hour and a half after the start of the protest. Still, it is something for me that I managed to go, not to mention that I also did my best to keep up with the few who were trying to shout and sing, so I did my part and do plan to go again next time, on March 31. Whether I’ll stay or not will depend on how many others show up and what happens, but I’m quite sure that I’ll at least go and have a look.

If you want any details about yesterday, I’ll say that I left just past 4 PM and therefore rushed all the way there, since I thought that I might normally need more than one hour to make it, if I’ll have puddles to go around due to the melting snow. However, I perhaps rushed a little too much, arriving at 4:50, so ten minutes before the announced start time, and finding only three or four others there. As a result, I wandered around for a few more minutes, then sat on a bench and waited until, almost exactly at 5 PM, a few familiar faces arrived, one of them very loudly asking where were all the others and then calling one of the organizers to ask what’s going on.
Things did get somewhat better a bit later, but we peaked at slightly more than 50 people, perhaps 60 at most, around 6 PM, after which the number started dropping, only a little more than 40 being left when I also walked away, slightly past 6:30. Still, while well below the 2000 that attended the first protest and even the 150 that attended the second, 50 or 60 people are still more than the roughly 20 that tended to show up at protests around here before this year, so the worse problem was the lack of involvement, most splitting off in groups of five or so each and simply chatting with each other, few shouting or singing anything. That made it even more awkward for me to be among said few, feeling increasingly out of place as time passed, since saying or doing anything made me stand out so clearly even among what already was a very small group.
In the end, though I was originally thinking of staying until 7 PM, when another protest was supposed to merge with this one, I made my way out almost 30 minutes earlier, as I said, partly because I was too cold and largely because of this lack of involvement. The fact that someone asked me to pick up a sign and stand where I’ll be seen better certainly didn’t help either, and might have been enough to make me leave even without the other issues, but by then I was already getting ready to go and it actually made me stay for a couple of minutes more, so it won’t look like I’m running away immediately after refusing.

If you want some pictures, you have some from the ground and some from above, though I have to specify that there was some mixing of issues even while I was there and, as I already said, another protest was supposed to start in the same place at 7 PM, not to mention the one that’s scheduled to take place there each day after 8 PM, plus that some people from the ongoing protest that takes place across the street from that location were also coming for a “visit” just as I was leaving. As a result, while the pictures taken later may show somewhat more people, they don’t reveal how many people attended this particular protest, but only those of them who stayed among the others.

Yes, I’ve been playing Morrowind again recently. The last save was from May 19, 2008, but I still knew exactly what I was on my way to doing, recalling very clearly that a part of why I gave up on the game at that moment was that I didn’t feel like crossing the map for that particular thing. The other part was that I was fed up with the constant respawns and the fact that, after figuring out exactly what I had to do to level up with full efficiency, I realized that I basically had to choose between that and actually playing the game and I didn’t feel like mindlessly performing repetitive actions for who knows how long.
Well, while I couldn’t tell you exactly why I picked it back up now, especially since I’m currently stuck in five other games and Morrowind was the one I thought I’ll be least likely to pick back up this year, those repetitive actions were, oddly enough, why I kept playing it. They kept me busy while requiring no thinking, allowing me to just use them to sort of suspend any processes inside my mind and therefore delay what clearly seems like another major breakdown until after tomorrow’s protest against ACTA. And now I’m so close to managing that while at the same time almost done with improving my character’s attributes and therefore able to actually restart playing, so it all worked out quite well.
Now I couldn’t tell you what will happen after the protest and the breakdown that is clearly coming and only getting worse because I delayed it for so long, but I’ll probably continue playing it at least for a while. I’m also hoping to get back to writing somewhat more as well, because you see that I haven’t posted anything here in over a week and my story suffered as well, as looking for ways to delay said breakdown meant that I even gave up on the idea of a daily word quota and therefore added even less to it than what little I was pushing myself to add so far.

Yes, this is basically just written because I want to stick to two posts per week and therefore had to post something today, seeing as I certainly won’t be doing anything of the sort tomorrow, considering that I’ll have to put every shred of energy left into attending that protest. I just hope that I’ll somehow manage to stick around there at least for a couple of hours, though the recent negative developments, including one that could be said to be directly related to this, certainly make it even more difficult than it would normally be.
One way or another, you’ll be getting another post on Sunday. If I’ll still be able to, I’ll tell you how the protest went and perhaps go into more detail about my week, but at this point is seems quite likely to simply be a brief note mentioning that I’m having this breakdown that I’m trying to delay until then. Either way, it almost certainly will be a personal post, so I’ll once again need to make up for it by writing two non-personal ones, most preferably next week.

February is over and it’s time for Black March to begin! Let’s show these international corporations that try to spy on and control our behavior in order to preserve a rotten and outdated copyright system that we can live without them, but they can’t continue to exist without us! Let’s show them that the more they try to force their will upon us, the more we will fight back and the worse off they’ll be! Let’s show them that the more money they try to make, the more they’ll actually lose!
Remember: The protest’s aim is to prove to these corporations that we can survive without them, so this is not a simple call not to legally purchase any content that such an international corporation holds the rights to, but one to completely avoid obtaining any such content for the entire month of March. Yes, this means that “pirating” any such content needs to be equally avoided, because this is the only way to show them that we don’t actually need them, so don’t start any file-sharing application unless you’re certain that all the content that will be transferred will be legitimate, don’t visit any “pirate” sites, don’t even watch any copyrighted content on YouTube! Stick to what you already have and wait at least until April to get anything else.

On the other hand, keep in mind that this is not a movement against content creators, and perhaps not even against all distributors, but strictly against those international corporations that try to push through laws like ACTA, SOPA and others like them. So if you have any money to spare this month, if you can afford to do so, you could donate to those who create quality content, be it software, music, books, movies or anything else of the sort, and make it available for free. You could look for and make purchases from authors who make a living by selling their works but at the same time accept that those who can’t afford them or are simply not yet certain enough for a purchase should also be allowed to enjoy them freely. And you could also look for independent content creators who have clearly expressed their opposition to such laws and purchase something from them, perhaps discovering a hidden gem or two while you’re at it.
There is no point in making all pay for the crimes of a few, so keep in mind both parts of this movement. Hurt those who want to hurt us for their own petty interests, but at the same time try to support those who provide enjoyment and entertainment, those who create and share, and still manage to be reasonable about it. See content creators and small, local distributors as being in between us and the large international corporations that are bent on being our enemies, look carefully to figure out which side they support and return the favor, if you are able to do so, to those who are on ours. The only way to win this is if we work together with them, promoting, supporting and defending each other, as an army of Davids against a squad of Goliaths.

Yes, it’s been this long. As of today, assuming that my calculations are correct, I have not only suffered after her longer than the relationship lasted, but more than twice longer. So I’m passing yet another “milestone” that I didn’t think I’ll make it to, that I most likely should never have made it to, and the situation is now not merely no better, but actually worse than before, seeing as she put me on ignore wherever she could as of a few months ago…
But let me check those calculations one more time, in writing this time, just to be sure. Not that a day or two would make much of a difference, but let’s see: If I am to consider the calculations for the previous such “milestone” to be accurate, then I first need to go three years, including one leap year, from December 13, 2008. Since there have been no leap years since then, that in fact means that I’ll have to go three years and a day after that, so not until December 12, but until December 13, 2011. Next, starting from the next day, December 14, I have to add two 31-day months. Since December and January are just that, that gets me right to February 13, 2012. And adding 15 more days on top of that will get me all the way to yesterday, February 28. So yes, if I didn’t somehow get it wrong now as well, as of today, February 29, 2012, I have suffered after her for more than twice longer than our relationship lasted. And it hardly was a short relationship, as you can see…

What’s next? I have no idea… All I know is that I’ll always love her and won’t stop hoping for a miracle, even if this hope is merely the false hope I’m required to create for myself because I couldn’t survive without it and I am, after all, still alive. And I also have to hope for that miracle, instead of either the miracle or death, because I have suffered far, far too long for death to be a welcome conclusion anymore. If I would have died within the first year after she left, or at most within a year and a half, then we’d all have been better off, but I was too much of a coward to kill myself then and afterwards it stopped being a suitable solution, so I wouldn’t even want it anymore.
All of this’d be worth it without as much as a second thought if we’ll end up back together someday and spend the rest of our lives, but no less time than we spent apart, together after that, both of us being fully content with our relationship and in good health. Actually being truly happy with how things are going would be even better, of course, but simply being content, as in not having any significant reasons to feel unhappy with our relationship or with each other, would be quite enough for me. And since the only thing I couldn’t accept even for her would be to have children around, considering my views regarding ovepopulation, this means that I have to keep hoping that she isn’t and won’t be involved with any, and particularly that she won’t have any herself. As long as this is the case, I’m at least left with that theoretical chance that I need to hold on to simply because I’m still alive, because I couldn’t survive without this hope.

At first I didn’t mean to mention this here, since it’s an entirely different issue, but I’m going to edit the post and add it too. I’m talking about the fact that I spent a good part of the day, or more exactly a good six hours, working on a reply that ended up having some 3750 words but may not matter in the least, and I can quite clearly say that I had yet another reason to feel particularly bad. But, of course, ending up sorely disappointed is exactly what happens when I somehow fail to expect the worst every single time.
My fault, of course, for allowing the good first impression and my resulting hopes to get the better of me and somehow fail to see it coming. I mean, why would it matter that she also admitted that the “moral” and “ethical” measures couldn’t be sufficient to solve the overpopulation problem in time? My views are obviously infuriating, frightening and appalling, I deserve to be locked up for them and the world would be better off without me and those like me. Which is, of course, the typical reaction, even from those who claim to also be worried about or even trying to solve this issue, but I somehow failed to expect it this time.
So this would be the other reason to be particularly unhappy today, after having my hopes of finally finding someone around here who doesn’t only seem pretty nice overall but is actually able to think strictly rationally about this issue and see what needs to be done about it dashed so thoroughly. And what made it even worse was that, after adding the fact that we seemed to very much agree on the importance of the issue to what had been a pretty good first impression, I was even starting to allow myself to hope that I had unbelievably stumbled upon a potential “real life” friend, quite a few years after the last time I thought this about someone and a full decade after I last had such a person in my life, even if very briefly.
But I guess I now simply need to make sure that I won’t be caught unprepared yet again, starting by making sure that I won’t allow myself to hope that we’ll somehow work this out, despite taking all that time to write that reply. Past this, my level of confidence in humankind’s ability to solve the worst problems it itself creates is already back to its normal value, namely only very marginally above zero, and the fight goes on, for this and any other truly worthy causes. And a translation of a good part of that e-mail should be turned into a post, perhaps as early as next week, so it wasn’t all for nothing even if nothing will be left of it otherwise.
(In case the person I’m talking about stopped by again and is reading this, well, there you have it. Just being perfectly open and honest, as always. And I did try to leave out any potentially identifying information.)