They need to develop better DRM. The new Pokemon games had a very interesting and effective DRM system in that when a pirate dumped the game pack into a ROM image, the game would allow you to play it, but it would no longer reward EXP to pokemon at all (that was their piracy technology). Very effective.
exactly. coming up with better DRM protection is a more feasible solution to piracy rather than capping net usage. capping net usage in my opinion is inhuman.
The real answer is that the US doesn't have the infrastructure to have a functioning communications network without caps discouraging the causal user.
Actually, they do... they just don't want to admit it so that they can charge obscene amounts of money.
Link
This report also reveals that AT&T's profit margin (before their new-fangled cap) was about 90%.
If they're making that much money, they can spare some to upgrade their 'overburdened' networks, which actually aren't.
[Edited by AdmiralThrawn, 3/16/2011 7:39:46 PM]
The real answer is that the US doesn't have the infrastructure to have a functioning communications network without caps discouraging the causal user.
Actually, they do... they just don't want to admit it so that they can charge obscene amounts of money.
Link
This report also reveals that AT&T's profit margin (before their new-fangled cap) was about 90%.
If they're making that much money, they can spare some to upgrade their 'overburdened' networks, which actually aren't.
[Edited by AdmiralThrawn, 3/16/2011 7:39:46 PM]
Firstly, why would they spend the money, regardless? It is counter-intuitive when they can make more money without spending any.
Secondly, the Stop the Cap blog you posted is arguing more on my side than against me.
"evidence continues to arrive illustrating the company’s planned usage limits are more about protecting their U-verse video business than actually controlling “heavy users.”"
They are working with what is known to be a finite asset, and are giving priority to their own product lest competing products use more of their finite asset.
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Thirdly, you can argue that there is no endemic bandwidth shortage at all in the US--because we have vast untapped resources--but that's merely an exercise in sophistry; an untapped resource may as well not exist for the effect it has.
It's a meaningless argument, because for the consumer there is most definitely a shortage.