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from the live-by-the-sword,-die-by-the-sword dept.
Disney's attempt to prevent Redbox from buying its discs for rental and resale may have blown up in the House of Mouse's face. The Hollywood Reporter describes how District Court Judge Dean Pregerson sided with Redbox to shoot down a Disney-mandated injunction. In addition, Pregerson contended that Disney may itself be misusing copyright law to protect its interests and its own forthcoming streaming service.
If you're unfamiliar with the backstory, Redbox didn't have a deal in place to procure Disney DVDs and Blu-rays for its disc rental kiosks. So, the company simply bought the discs at retail, often snagging combo packs that include a DVD, Blu-ray and a download code for the movie as well. Redbox would then offer up the discs for rental, and sell on the codes at its kiosks for between $8 and $15.
Such a move enraged Disney, which includes language in its packaging and on the website demanding that users must own the disc if they download a copy. But this is where Pregerson began to disagree, saying that Disney cannot dictate what people do with copyrighted media after they have bought it. Specifically, that there's no law, or explicit contract term, that prevents folks from doing what Redbox did with Disney discs.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/22/disney-redbox-lawsuit/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:22AM (3 children)
You can continue being a fool, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Our world is filled with computers, and it is absolutely insane that people don't care that most of them are essentially black boxes. Who cares about privacy, anonymity, freedom, independence, or education? Not you, apparently, or at least not very much.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:42AM (2 children)
You're being too general.
I'm not paranoid about corporations, game companies, etc., learning what games I play, my scores, or what video I watch. Not at all. There's no significant threat inherent in such activities, and in fact, they can tune themselves to me better with that kind of information, which helps me out. I don't want tampon and baby food ads, I want ads for mech games, test gear, etc. I want book suggestions for programming and SF. And those are the things I get. This is very much a good thing.
The actual threat comes from the government. The government has the power to use information as a bludgeon — and they sometimes do so. So that's the front I keep an eye on. The XBox isn't a significant risk factor there. Not at all. What are they going to do, arrest me because I watched Avatar in 4k, or beat you down to a nub in a pinball game? No, sorry, the XBox is just what it appears to be - a way for companies to mine my fondnesses for games and hidef video, something I am entirely willing for them to do in the game and media genres that interest me.
OTOH, A smartphone - or any phone, really, as the government can monitor everything you say on any phone you use - presents a considerably higher risk, if your lifestyle has such risks inherent in it. So does a general purpose computer with data on it other than your high scores or what movie you last watched.
In all of this, there's a balance between reasonable care and dEh CrAzY; the trick is not to fall into the trap of the latter. Worrying about the XBox is pretty far into the "lost your mind" zone.
But if you must, live in a cave, build a fire with sticks, communicate by whispering, and eat bugs.
They can't get you then.
Or... can they???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @01:52AM (1 child)
You don't need to be paranoid, because they have a history of abusing people. If the user does not control the program, the program controls the user. Surely you're at least intelligent enough to realize that these proprietary devices can do far more than just spy on your choice of games and such. Why would they stop there when they control the device completely?
More importantly, proprietary software is inherently evil because it denies users their freedoms. Proprietary software is utterly antithetical to independence, education, and freedom. Since I actually care about those things, I do many of the same things that Richard Stallman does to avoid proprietary software.
How do you know this? They are always spending massive amounts of money to find ways to make money from your information, and they will use those methods even if it harms you as long as they can get away with it. I do not have any confidence in your ability to predict every possible abuse, so that's one very, very small reason (in comparison to other issues present here) I err on the side of caution.
Which can retrieve all of the information that these devices can retrieve. But you apparently believe that these devices which are almost entirely out of your control limit themselves to merely spying on your choice of games and other such trivialities, so I suppose it doesn't matter.
It is easy to avoid proprietary game consoles. No one has to live as a hermit to do so, so it's hardly crazy.
I don't buy devices that don't respect my freedoms, whether the device in question is an XBox or a cellphone. Game consoles may not be the worst devices imaginable, but the fact that other things are worse does not mean they are not bad.. I support privacy, freedom, education, and independence on principle. Even if it could be guaranteed that these devices would not abuse me in other ways, I would still refuse to buy them.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:16AM
Honestly, you're beating a dead horse. You're also very far over on the paranoid side of things.
Be that as it may, you do it your way, I'll do it mine. I'm having a lovely life, but thanks for your concern. :)