What’s clear is that, even if I’ll do nothing more than post something on Sunday saying that I’m in no state to post anything else, I’ll still respect my posting rules at the end of this week, because I have one more “slot” left for something personal. In fact, I could say that I have now stuck to those rules for five whole years, since the blog was originally started on April 6, 2007 and there won’t be any real need to post anything else until then, two posts per week possibly meaning even one on Saturday and one on Sunday, after all, so on April 7 and 8.
But… This time I really think this is it. I’ve had bad times before, struggled, was at the very limit of these rules I set for myself, but I still knew that I’ll somehow manage to stick to them and then even recover slightly, which was exactly what happened. But now I really don’t think I can do it anymore. I don’t think I can do much of anything anymore. It’s just been too long, there are even more things I’m noticing these days, in fact the latest being yesterday, and whatever little energy I have left I’m trying to put into these protests, so there’s nothing left for writing.
Speaking of protests, there is one against fracking today and another against ACTA tomorrow, and I’ll be trying to go to both. But since today’s protest seems to be planned to include a march to the presidential palace, where it could get ugly, I probably won’t stay long. Besides, I suddenly found myself quite visible and extremely uncomfortable last week, during the first protest on this issue, and the same crowd will be there today as well, most likely trying to use the same tactics to get everyone visibly involved, so I may be walking out of there even before the start of the march, because I certainly won’t put myself through anything like that again.
I have to put everything into perspective and don’t try to push myself past the limit, and at this point I’m just about there already. There are lots of very important issues, including both of these, but I have to see what I can participate in and to what extent, and tomorrow’s protest should be somewhat easier to handle, so I’d rather just stick around for a while today and then leave early in order to still have enough left in me to perhaps get slightly more involved tomorrow than drain myself completely today and then end up not going tomorrow at all. Besides, it looks like it’s going to rain today as well, so I’ll consider it quite enough that I’ll attend at all. Many others will most likely be put off by it anyway.
Being around people that I’m not already close to would be enough to frighten me on its own, so really don’t need it right now, when I’m frightened even without adding something like this to it… But I’ll do my best and see what happens, taking whatever time is left in between to lick my wounds. So, yes, there will be nothing left for writing or anything else, but there you have it. I’ll do my best to be there at least for a short while today, then tomorrow as well, and then I hope that I’ll also be able to go buy some things at the start of next week. What, if anything, will be left of me after that is anyone’s guess.
On a slightly different note, last night’s, or in fact this morning’s, dreams were so scary that by the time I woke up I could hardly even breathe anymore. I’m still very shaken by them, especially since they connect directly to what I noticed yesterday and to some extent to my worst fear, for obvious reasons. And I fear that I’ll do yet another stupid thing soon because of this. Or, more exactly, I’m quite sure I’ll do it, been struggling to put it off for quite some time now, but I hope that I’ll manage to still hold on to some shred of restraint at least until after I’ll also get those things that I need to get next week, because there’s no way I’ll manage anything at all anymore after doing something like this.
So, yes, just in case someone failed to notice it already, I’m a disaster waiting to happen here. Exactly what form it’ll take, I can’t know at this point, but the clock’s ticking and there’s nobody to stop it. Or, more exactly, the one who could certainly won’t. At this point, nobody else could do anything that’d have any significant impact on it anymore. Then again, it’s been so long since I last felt close enough to anyone for that person to be able to do something about anything like this that I think I even forgot that it could be possible… But that’s just it. It’s not possible, is it?
There would be another reason to be frightened that I didn’t even mention here, but I’ll leave that for some other time because it’s not an immediate concern right now. Not that it’ll make any difference whether I write it here or not, but… I guess I’m trying to pretend that it doesn’t exist while I still can. Have quite enough on my plate right now even without it and it does seem that I’ll be able to put off doing something about it for at least a few more weeks without the problem, if it actually exists, getting noticeably worse, so that’s exactly what I plan to do.
For now, I’ll leave it at that and try to get ready to leave. Still have around one hour until I’ll need to walk out the door, but getting at least somewhat ready for something that I expect to drain me so much is anything but easy, not to mention that doing pretty much anything gets rather noticeably more difficult when even breathing’s a problem, wouldn’t you say?
What is becoming clear is that I’m biting off more than I can chew with this list, since there are too many details to consider and my ability to express myself is certainly not getting any better. Still, I started it and now I have to find a way to get to the end, even if that’ll require focusing only on the more technical side of being fair towards the consumers now and leaving the part supposed to ensure a higher degree of fairness for developers, as well as the issue of DRM, for a third post that I’ll add to this series later.
Even so, I’m sure that there will be plenty of issues and loopholes that I’ll fail to cover in the list below, as there have been in the section included in the first post from this series as well, so in case anyone’s reading, do point them out if you spot them and tell me how you’d fix them. The whole thing is very much a work in progress anyway, so I will be making changes if I’ll find ways to improve on what I currently have, the final goal being to put together a list that’ll cover all the relevant aspects reasonably well.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If and when I’ll have the whole list, including whatever changes I’ll see fit to make to what you’ll see in these initial posts, I’ll probably put all of it in another post and then see what else could be done with it. For now, however, I need to write the second of what currently seem to be three parts and, since you’re here, you should probably be reading it. Just keep in mind that, if you care to help in any way, you should actually be looking for flaws and potential loopholes and pointing them out.
2) All software products that are sold must benefit from proper support, otherwise they will immediately become freeware. More specifically:
2.1) All software products except those meant specifically to test or modify a particular operating system feature:
2.1.1) Must, on release, function properly on all fully updated versions of the operating system(s) listed as being supported that have originally been released six months to three years previously.
2.1.2) May or may not immediately function properly on a version of a supported operating system released less than six months before the software product in question. However, if such functionality is not available on release day, a patch that fully enables it must be issued within 90 days.
2.1.3) Must be tested on any new version of a supported operating system released up to three years after the the software product in question. If the software product fails to function properly on the new operating system, a patch to fix the issue must be released within 90 days.
2.2) The maximum amount of time allowed to develop a patch meant to fix verifiable reported bugs and other known issues that have a significant negative impact on the software product’s functionality under conditions that the customer wasn’t specifically notified may have such effects prior to purchase, counting from the day the first verifiable report regarding the issue in question was submitted, is:
2.2.1) 30 days for major security flaws.
2.2.2) 90 days for issues known to cause the software product to completely cease functioning as intended.
2.2.3) One year for any other issues.
2.3) If the developer(s) currently contracted to provide such support become(s) unable or unwilling to provide the required fixes within the time limits listed at points 2.1.2), 2.1.3), 2.2.1), 2.2.2) and 2.2.3), the distributor(s) that still desire(s) to sell the software product:
2.3.1) Will be granted up to 90 additional days to find other ways to fulfull these requirements if the existing relevant contract(s) between the distributor(s) and the developer(s) in question have been breached by the developer(s) and this happens no more than five years after the original release of the software product.
2.3.2) Must find other ways to meet the original deadlines, without being granted any additional time, if there was no breach of contract by the developer(s) and/or this happens more than five years after the original release of the software product.
3) In order for the existing support to be readily available and easily accessible for all users of the software product:
3.1) All patches that fix flaws must be offered as free and direct downloads, without requiring any verification or the use of any software other than a generic browser. Other methods of obtaining such patches may be offered, but only in addition to, and not instead of, the direct download.
3.2) Patches that add content and/or functionality that wasn’t included in the software product on release day, such as plug-ins, expansions, DLCs, etc., may require verification and/or payment only if:
3.2.1) They are released more than 30 days after the software product itself. All patches released within the first 30 days are considered to be fixing flaws, regardless of their actual content.
3.2.2) They do not also fix flaws of the original software product that can’t be fixed otherwise. If a patch that adds content and/or functionality and isn’t available in a way that respects point 3.1) also fixes flaws, a separate patch that fixes the same flaws, even if without adding any new content and/or functionality, must be made available in a way that respects point 3.1).
This should be it for now. Toyed with the idea all week and couldn’t come up with anything that seemed anywhere near good enough, but today it’s Sunday and I had to post something, so I’ll have to settle for this. As I said in the beginning, I know I’m missing things and leaving loopholes, but at the moment this seems to be the best I can do, in good part because I just can’t express what I mean to say in a way that’ll seem to make sense for others as well. For example there’s an obvious loophole at point 2.3.1) that I know how to get rid of, but can’t figure out how to say it, especially since that part sounds particularly bad as it is. Not that laws, regulations, contracts and other such things are meant to sound good, of course, and in fact they often are difficult to understand for those who don’t specialize in them, but I’m not one of those and, if you’re reading this, probably neither are you…
Just over a year and a half ago, I was launching this site. The original plan was to post statistics after one year, but I simply forgot at the time and then decided to wait another year instead. However, since Google Analytics is being changed, usually for the worse, just like pretty much any other Google property, I changed my mind again, afraid that the old version will no longer be accessible and posting such statistics will become harder, or even that some data may be lost. As a result, what you’re getting are some quick statistics for the first year and a half, so between September 21, 2010 and March 20, 2012.
For some comparison, you have the much more detailed final statistics for the old site, covering the nearly three and a half years before getting my own domain, as well as those for the first two years at that location. Not that it should matter or interest anyone in any way, especially considering the small number of visits, but I’m adding the links for reference, just in case.
* Actually, the operating system was unknown for 1.41% of last month’s visits, but I couldn’t list that in fifth place.
In the end, I’ll also add the full visitors, visits and pageviews graphs for this period. The records for visitors and visits in one day are still those set on August 16, 2009, namely 169 and 180, respectively. The only difference since the last such post is the pageviews record, which got to 289 on June 5, 2011.
If I’ve more or less given up on the thought of increasing the difference a year or so ago, I’ve been managing to keep the number of personal posts steadily at five less than the non-personal ones for several months now, usually by writing one of each per week and a few times by writing two personal ones in one week and two non-personal ones the next, but this is not the case anymore. Wrote two personal posts last week and simply can’t make up for it now, and I’m quite certain that I won’t do it next week either, so I’m down to only two “slots” for personal posts at any one time, since I’m determined to have them make up less than half of the total number.
Certainly had things to write about this week, but you can see for yourselves that all I managed was basically half of one post. I meant to write that entire list of demands at once, thought I had it pretty well in mind when I put down the basic ideas Wednesday night, after thinking about it for two days, but then everything ground to a halt when it came to actually writing it, as even what little you see there took me two days to manage. The rest of it is, as usual, very clear in my mind but at the same time basically impossible to put into words in any way that’d make much sense for anyone who may happen to be reading.
Still, until last evening I certainly meant to put some effort into a non-personal post today, only resorting to a personal one if I’ll see that it’s getting close to midnight and I’m nowhere near finished. However, I eventually realized that it wasn’t a matter of struggling for hours to get through the first couple of paragraphs but then find that the rest is slowly starting to come together, as it often happens, but the simple fact that I didn’t have it in me. After all, one of the things I mean to post is on the topic of overpopulation and anyone who knows anything about me should know how easily I get carried away when it comes to that, not to mention that this time I already have most of it, albeit in Romanian, but I can’t bring myself to even start writing that…
But this certainly comes as no surprise. The more I tried to write, the harder it got, and this has been going on for years, so reaching the very limit of the rules I set for myself and noticing that I’m about to run out of ways to avoid breaking them was the obvious outcome. I even slowed down with my story since the start of the month, not that I had any pace to speak of before either, but that failed to make what I do still manage to write any easier or any better, the only difference being that there’s less of it.
I just can’t do anything without her, all right? Granted that I’m not sure if I’d manage to do anything if we’d somehow be back together either, because then I’d be focusing on her as much as possible and therefore either lack the time and energy to get much else done or not even care to try anymore, but at that point all these other things wouldn’t exactly matter anymore. But, of course, they already don’t, no matter how much I may try now and then to tell myself that I really want to do one thing or another. What I need and want is to be with her again and for us to be, if not necessarily truly happy, at least completely content with the relationship and with each other, as in not have any significant reasons to be unhappy with how things are going. All of these other things, even the causes I’m really struggling to fight for, they’re all meaningless without that…
It’s been six and a half years! I’ve already been suffering for more than twice as long as the relationship lasted, did all I could think of, or at least what little I was capable of doing, all this time, but all that happened is that now it’s even worse. Not just obviously not considering ever giving me another chance or even talking to me, but also putting me on ignore wherever she could as of a few months ago, hiding or even deleting some of the things I found after her behavior made me start searching far more often and more thoroughly than I had been until then…
I don’t know… Spent the last few minutes holding my head in my hands and going through several other things that I felt like adding here, but there’s no point and they either don’t make all that much sense when put into words or the sense they do make is quite different from what I’d actually be trying to express by writing them. Then again, there should be no need to add anything more, should it? The issue’s the same it’s been for all of these six and a half years and I keep getting worse in every way with each day that passes.
I guess I’d better stop while I still can make some sort of sense at least on personal issues. I mean, this post is already the sort that’s as much a magnet for trolls as it is for people who may mean well but unfortunately find themselves saying things despite clearly lacking the capacity to even understand what it’s all about. So I guess I’d better go and see whether I can fix myself something to eat, since I’m alone again today, though eating, and especially fixing something to eat, constantly made me feel even worse ever since she left. It’s not as bad as getting in bed, when the loneliness is even more overwhelming, if I may use the term, but… Yes, I’d better stop here. Tried to explain and couldn’t find the way to put something that should be perfectly obvious into words.
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.
