During the pandemic, Internet Archive very publicly announced they were relaxing their one physical copy per digitally loaned copy.
I think of they had maintained their 1:1 CDL method, the publishers would still be uncomfortable to be the one to sue first, especially since there was a decent argument and IA would have been pretty sympathetic.
Their pandemic policy was effectively not substantially different from a shadow library., and just set up a slam dunk case for the publishers.
I think if they hadn't abandoned the CDL modern during the pandemic, they could have kept it going indefinitely. Even if it wasn't likely fair use, it might have been. More than that, it would have been bad press for the publisher to make the first move.
Abandoning CDL during the pandemic was just waving a red flag and giving the publishers a slam dunk case.
I think if IA had just held the line with CDL, they could have over time just effectively established a precedent. Lost opportunity.
Yep, can confirm. I used Xubuntu primarily for years, and never had an account on the official XFCE forums or Git, because why would I? I'm just a user, the software is very stable, and stuff tended to just work.
Just started using Thunderbird again a couple of months ago. Like it! I never really stopped liking it, just stopped using it because all the webmail interfaces and "appification".
Was just trying to get K-9 Mail working on my phone again (after years of using umpteen different apps) and it's not as smooth as I remember.
The developer of another game distributed by WB, Fist Puncher, commented on the Ars Technica story about this.
Found it, it's the "Promoted Comment" now.
therealmattkain I'm one of the creators and developers of Fist Puncher which was also published by Adult Swim on Steam. We received the same notice from Warner Bros. that Fist Puncher would be retired. When we requested that Warner Bros simply transfer the game over to our studio's Steam publisher account so that the game could stay active, they said no. The transfer process literally takes a minute to initiate (look up "Transferring Applications" in the Steamworks documentation), but their rep claimed they have simply made the universal decision not to transfer the games to the original creators.
This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users' libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which will all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it. We could just rerelease Fist Puncher from our account, but we would likely receive significant backlash for relaunching a game and forcing users to "double dip" and purchase the game again (unless we just made it free).
Again, this is really just disappointing. It seems like more and more the videogame industry is filled with people that don't like and don't care about videogames. All that to say, buy physical games, make back-ups, help preserve our awesome industry and art form. March 7, 2024 at 12:51 am
I stopped distro hopping around a decade ago, and just use default Ubuntu LTS releases. No shade from me.
I'm not going to pretend that Ubuntu is the coolest, hippest, trendiest distro around, but it's good enough, stake enough, and gosh darn it I'm just used to it.
It's been years since I used a private tracker (pre-Netflix), but your experience seems to mirror mine.
I'll expand on the quality angle for video, I'm going to be watching on my tablet, anything beyond 720p is going to be marginal at best. I also wear glasses, so reality rarely reaches 4K. For music I appreciate FLACC, but I'll be hard pressed to notice the difference between that and a 128kbps MP3 I encoded 25 years ago most of the time.
Still, a well seeded deep collection is something I miss. Public trackers are fine for popular stuff, but trying to load my wife's MP3 player with musicals is proving the limits of public trackers.
On the other hand, running a seedbox is a bit more involved than a VPN. In order to maintain ratios, keeping a seedbox is highly recommended from what I recall.
I'm with you.
I sort of petered out distro-hoping 10-ish years ago, I've just used boring old Ubuntu LTS ever since. All the Unity/Gnome/KDE, Snap/Flatpak and systemd stuff I've successfully ignored.
I have no doubt that there are "better" distros out there, but Ubuntu works.
I think Samsung subs in their own "Gallery" software on their phones. Other manufacturers may as well.
That is exactly the XKCD I pictured.
It's the exclusive deals that fuel the fragmentation. If you could watch the same content on any streaming service, you wouldn't need to subscribe to a half dozen (or turn to piracy).
Of course that's exactly why Netflix, Prime, Apple, et al started making their own exclusive content that they totally control.
Probably, but I think that every month that CDL went unchallenged was slowly building a precedent. I wonder if they had stuck to CDL if we'd still be waiting for the publishers to blink.