Michael C. Sherrin

Disney is the Snow White license holder? Snow White is several centuries old, far pre-dating Disney and is as a result, public domain as a story and character. Disney would only hold the rights to its movie and possibly very specific character designs. This image, while first a spoof and likely fair use, does little to even copy Disney's specific Snow White image. Of course, because Disney sits atop a mountain of money, it can intimidate smaller companies with lawsuits for copyright and trademark infringement. But saying Disney owns a license on Snow White is disingenuous.

Seriously? Aside from picking just the top 5 Buffy moments is worse than Sophie's Choice, you left out some major moments that truly made Buffy great.

1. Buffy kills Angel
The most defining moment for Buffy's slayer career. She had to kill her love, even after he was cured and didn't know what was happening. This moment haunted her even through season 7.

2. Faith kills the Mayor's aide
Another turning point. Faith and Buffy have to decide what side of right and wrong they're on.

3. The Death of Joyce Summers
The most tear jerking, emotional moment like ever. For all the tragedy and pain in Buffy's life, her mother dies of natural causes. How's that for karma.

4. The Master Kills Buffy
So I'm morbid about death moments, but come on, they're emotional. Buffy's death in season one was all the more poignant when we didn't know if she'd actually be coming back for season 2. Add to the scar and constant reminder of her loss.

5. Pulled out of Heaven
Buffy already died once, so her second death had less impact (still probably rounds out the top 10). But when Buffy sings in the musical episode about being ripped out of heaven, the pain is more apparent and harsh than before. The brilliant musical episode climaxes with Buffy wanting to die again because being in heaven makes life too painful to live.

Love to hear other people's top 5's.

Michael Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

or once I agree with the MPAA. A la carte pricing would more likely
increase the price of cable and discourage risky shows from channels.

Right now, I get more than 200 channels for less than $100 - 50 cents
each. I only watch maybe 10 channels regular, so how much are those
worth to me? When I have to choose every channel based on price and
time watched, it adds a lot of work to me, the customer, without
adding any value to the end product. I might have a smaller total
bill, but I will pay more money for fewer channels.

Cable providers have to calculate the worth of every single channel
and manage millions of subscriber's channel choices, adding a lot of
overhead to what is now a simple service.

This also ignores the major business model of cable channels - they
are paid per subscriber. Cable companies pay Comedy Central several
cents for every subscriber of Comedy Central. More popular channels
demand higher pay. But once customers choose the channels, those
prices will skyrocket (based on the market) and will be passed on to
customers.

The First Amendment argument is some people are offended by one
channel and don't want it in their house. But they don't have to
order cable. Or they use the V-Chip. There are many ways to control
television from the home. We don't need FCC rules increasing the
price for us all.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

Yet. The keyword here is yet. Blu-Ray is still very young. DVDs are worth using because the drives and discs are cheap. When the price for Blu-Ray drops, I'll be more likely to move my dozen DVDs of movies to a Blu-Ray. It's too expensive to do it now, but that doesn't mean it never will be. Cars can make use of the interactivity in Blu-Rays as games and the next-next-gen video game consoles, at least HD ones, will want the 50+ GB Blu-Ray offers. But right now it's too expensive. That won't last forever.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

I don't think this round table solves the problem. EGM gives Metal Gear even more face-time in the 5-pages than a 2-3 page review might have. The result is probably something Konami likes more than a short review with a high number.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

I have to agree, you make no mention of fair use anywhere in this article even though it is vitally important when evaluating whether derivative works actually infringe. Fair use factors in the purpose of the derivative work (is it non-profit or educational) and whether it hurts the "potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Posting gameplay on YouTube is unlikely to hurt a game's sales (it could, in fact, help since it's promotional). Revealing cut scenes is touchier; spoilers have been sound to harm the potential market by the courts). YouTube pulls anything and everything a the first DMCA take down notice because they have to - the law doesn't allow time for the poster to challenge the take down notice arguing fair use.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

Couldn't they at least give us an explanation of their criteria? It's this best shows for young, hip cats who don't care what our parents or The Man likes? Of course, then why is Frasier there? This list has no logic but I'm sure Empire loves the page views.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

I enjoy these law columns, but this one doesn't seem to argue why piracy is wrong, just that it is and we shouldn't do it. To say that game developers can only make money from game sales is admitting game developers lack the ability to innovate when new technology or competition emerges. Game developers can explore new business models like ad-based games, subscriptions, sponsorships, etc.

Additionally, every pirated copy of a game is not a lost sale, like music, movie, and software companies assume. Much of the pirated copies of copyrighted content might never have turned into sales and never will. And of course, there is potential for promotion and publicity through piracy - even GTA IV got lots of publicity just from the fact it was available to download.

The truth is piracy is here to stay because it's so cheap and easy, not because it's right or wrong. Copyright holders need to look at Bittorrent and P2P as a competitor that they must innovate against and become a better business for it.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

There is actually two a capella Nintendo medleys I love. One I can only find on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/3my67p (Nintendapella) or on YouTube (http://tinyurl.com/4zchqj).

Hope all the a capella fans enjoy.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

I wouldn't be buying the game because of the achievements - it's a bonus. And the bonus is exclusive to one console, just like HOME integration will be on the PS3. It helps ease the choice of which console to buy for, just like preferring one controller, DLC, etc. The game is awesome, but which system can make it slightly more awesome. It's 99% the same experience on either system, so multi-platform owners have to figure out what the last 1% means. For me DLC and achievements are enough to go 360.

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Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/