Bay 12 Games Forum

Just for the sake of argument, I think I would be okay with a copyright system like the one I'm about to outline, until somebody here points out the obvious flaws I've failed to notice.

The two I find most obvious:
- 10 years is not nearly enough. Many artists are only "discovered" long after the creation of their work, many even after their death. There would only be a copyright if you "break through" immediately. This would work with some commercial driven art or computer games, but is not really applicable to music, literature etc, where something may only become relevant after decades.
And what about ongoing work, would Toady lose copyright of DF 10 years after he started creating it?

- You use the word "derivative" quite often, but "derivative" is difficult to define in that context. In fact almost all art is in some way derivative of something. The way that infringes upon copyright varies. In music often experts are needed to tell if a work is derivative enough to infringe on copyright, if it's not blatantly obvious as in cover versions or extensive sampling. In literature it is often the use of characters or names that is copyrighted.

Quote from: da_nang on July 01, 2013, 03:35:51 am

Clearly the US wants to be an enemy with everyone.

Take care not to forget that everyone's doing it, and last i checked international relations aren't that bad. I haven't seen anything beyond lip service from Europe either.

Not everyone is doing it. The US are and the UK is, the UK maybe even to a worse extent than the US.
Sure, everybody has spies, but this extent of surveillance is unprecedented. And what makes it really bad is that they are spying on allies and fellow EU members. I'm sure Russia and China would do it if they could, but at this point we don't know what they are capable of.

It's true that there isn't that much of a reaction from the EU or individual EU countries so far. But there will have to be consequences. The EU is reconsidering the planned free trade agreement with the US. There is a lot of talk about it here, but it looks like politicians are not really sure what they are dealing with and how to react. Nobody wants to really piss off the US, and probably nobody can either, since the US doesn't care too much about relatively powerless allies. The involvement of the UK hasn't made the thing any easier, so a unified EU response seems unlikely.

I had that once with a D-Link router. I thought it was interference, because the place had terrible cellphone reception too. But after reading Telgin's post, it did start after using more than one wireless device, so maybe they are just crappy like that sometimes.

If you are wondering how I know all of this, get your head out of the gutter, I learned about it through my now ex-roommate trying to sell me on the concept. Repeatedly. Despite the fact that it never actually worked out for him.

The guy who told me about this gets a lot of drinks thrown in his face too. 

I have no idea...

Yeah, I got that you were kidding.

I think hearing the language helps a lot, try to watch movies/tv and such in English.

Simply speaking the language is the best way of course. I don't actually speak English that often, and when I do I need some time to adjust, but over a conversation it gets a lot easier. So try to find a nativer speaker you can talk to regularly, that should help.
If you study at a university or even live near one, it should be easy to find some English speaker, who may want to learn your language, and you can help each other practice.

Some of these maps seem odd indeed.
- There is no national smoking ban in schools in Germany, but there are subnational smoking bans in public buildings and workplaces, which include all schools. (even bars sadly)
- work- and education laws against discrimination exist, quite a lot actually, just not in the constitution
- where do they get numbers for what an "unemployed minimum wage worker" receives per day? We don't have a minimum wage. But welfare does not only include money you actually get handed, it can include your rent and many material benefits, so it's difficult to come up with an average fixed number.
- teacher's education is seperate from the bachelor/master system and requires special training, so it does not really equal a bachelors degree
- minimum drinking age 15-17 is not accurate, you can drink beer and wine from 14 on under parental supervision, purchase beer and wine from 16 and hard alcohol from 18 on.

Overall these maps don't say much, some places in Africa look as "good" as Europe, which doesn't really provide an accurate picture of reality.

My only ethical concern about polyamory/polygamy is that it has traditionally been reserved for the ruling class.

That's not really true. Islamic law allows a man to have up to 4 wives, if he can economically support them. The ethical problem is more the traditional one-sidedness of the whole thing, genderwise.

There have been cases where muslim immigrants exploit the welfare system to get around the financial requirements. They are legally married but have also married other women in religious ceremonies. These women then claim to be single mothers who don't know the father of their children, which results in them getting child support from the state, to the extent that they receive enough money to no longer be even eligible for welfare. It's a bit of a dilemma, if you legalize that, the father would have to pay for the children, which he probably couldn't, so they would live on welfare anyway.