Urheberrecht und Remakes?

Im Rahmen der Berichterstattung darüber dass die Gema Lizenzgebühren für abgedruckte Liedtexte von Martinsumzügen fordert schreibt "Der Westen" in einem weiteren Artikel unter
http://www.derwesten.de/nachrichten/im-westen/Gema-will-an-Martinsliedern-verdienen-id3927978.html folgendes:

Grundsätzlich gilt, dass das Urheberrecht 70 Jahre nach dem Tod des Komponisten erlischt. Womit Kopien der traditionellen, volkstümlichen Martinsliedern wie „Sankt Martin“ eigentlich kostenfrei wären.

Eigentlich. Denn Christian Krauß, Geschäftsführer der VG Musikedition, gibt zu: „Von Sankt Martin gibt es sieben neue Bearbeitungen von Künstlern jüngeren Datums.“ Für die dann also wieder Gebühren fällig werden.

Ich dachte spontan: Kein Wunder dass man sich heute vor Remakes und Cover-versionen kaum retten kann... Ich frage mich wie das eigentlich mit Weihnachtliedern ist. Die werden ja pausenlos von irgendwelchen Kūnstlern nachgesungen. Erlischt da die Gebührenpflicht dann nie? Oder gilt das nicht, sondern nur wenn mann etwas entsprechend neu als eigene Version rausbringt?
Jedenfalls schon ne tolle Sache für die Gema: solange ein Song nur mindestens alle 70 Jahre neu aufgelegt wird fliessen die Lizenzgebühren weiter...

Das ganze Urheberrechtssystem ist krank und nicht mehr zeitgemäß. Die Gema und co. In der derzeitigen Form sind eine Geisel der Menschheit, der Künstler und der Kunden und gehören abgeschafft.

Für den Innenminister sind wir alle Terrorverdächtige!

Bei Spiegel-Online lese ich folgendes:

Der Innenminister forderte Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger dringend auf, ihren Widerstand gegen die heimliche Überwachung von Terrorverdächtigen aufzugeben - das berichtet die "Rheinische Post" unter Berufung auf einen Brief de Maizières an die Justizministerin. "Angesichts der aktuellen Gefährdungslage halte ich es für nicht vertretbar, dass den Strafverfolgungsbehörden der gebotene Zugang zu Bereichen hochkonspirativer Kommunikation von Terrorismusverdächtigen verweigert wird", heißt es dem Bericht zufolge in dem Brief.

Nur noch mal zur Klarstellung: Bei der Vorratsdatenspeicherung (oder auch Mindestspeicherfrist im Neusprech) handelt es sich um die verdachtsunabhängige, anlaßlose Speicherung der Internet-Kommunikation aller Bundesbürger für 6 Monate. Daraus folgere ich dass Herr De-Maiziere alle Bundesbürger als "Terrorverdächtige" bzw. "Terrorismusverdächtige" ansieht. Tolles Weltbild! Schönen Dank Herr De-Maiziere!

Tod durch Deospray - Vater verklagt Deohersteller

Auf spiegel.de kann man heute den Artikel "Tödlicher Rausch aus der Dose" lesen.

Natürlich ist es tragisch, wenn ein junger Mensch auf diese Weise stirbt, aber was mich nervt ist was da schon wieder an Forderungen hochkommt. Mittlerweile bin ich sogar schon so konditioniert. Der Verbotsforderungs- und Aktionismus-Wahn ist inzwischen so gross, dass wann immer ich eine solche Überschrift lese als erstes daran denke was jetzt wieder alles verboten werden soll oder was für wahnwitzige Gerichtsverfahren losgetreten werden. In diesem Fall rechnete ich damit dass der Vater Verbote aller Art fordert - und es findet sich auch bestimmt ein Politiker der medienwirksam in die gleiche Kerbe schlägt.

Aber sehen wir es realistisch: Wieviel von den Dingen die fast jeder im Haushalt hat sind bei falscher Benutzung gefährlich: Nagellackentferner, Kleber, Eddings, Reinigungsmittel, Küchenmesser, Hammer... die Liste ist lang. Soll jetzt auf jeden Hammer explizit draufstehen, dass dieser nur in Zusammenhang mit Nägeln verwendet werden darf und eine unsachgemäße Verwendung das eigene Leben oder das von Mitmenschen gefährdet?

Und selbst wenn wir diese Warnhinweise hätten würde das ja höchstens den Hersteller des "Mordinstruments" rechtlich absichern. Davor dass trotzdem Menschen den Gegenstand misbrachen schützt dies nicht. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass ein 14-jähriger Junge nicht weiss, dass es ungesund sein muss wenn man an einem Deospray schnüffelt (welche in der Regel bereits mit dem "entflammbar"-Logo versehen sind). Soviel Intelligenz setze ich vorraus - und das tut hoffentlich auch unsere Justiz, denn sonst haben wir hier wirklich bald amerikanische Verhältnisse. Obwohl das manche wohl gerne hätten, wie folgendes Zitat aus dem Spiegel-Artikel zeigt:

"Nachtigall hat bei der Staatsanwaltschaft Konstanz Strafanzeige gegen den Hersteller des Sprays und den Discounter gestellt - wegen fahrlässiger Tötung"

Mein Beileid den Hinterbliebenden - aber jetzt auf diese Art Genugtuung zu finden indem man versucht einen Schuldigen zu finden ist Unsinn. Der Grund für das Verhalten des Jungen - welches zu so einem tragischen Ereignis geführt hat - ist mit Sicherheit komplexer und lässt sich weder einfach erklären noch mit Verboten lösen.

Brille: Herrmann

Heise.de berichtet heute im Artikel "Bayerns Innenminister fordert "saubere Rechtsgrundlage" für Vorratsdatenspeicherung" folgendes:

Mit der bayerischen Gesetzgebung, etwa der im Landesparlament verabschiedeten Regelung zur Online-Durchsuchung, sieht sich der Innenminister auf einem guten Weg zu einen sensiblen Umgang mit dem Spannungsverhältnis von Sicherheit und Freiheit. Im vergangenen Jahr sei die bayerische Regelung zur Online-Durchsuchung kein einziges Mal zur Anwendung gekommen, sagte Herrmann. Von einer Massenanwendung solcher Instrumente oder gar einem orwellschen Überwachungsstaat könne keine Rede sein . Den "will auch wirklich keiner hier"

Wenn ich sowas höre reichts mir schon wieder. Herr Herrmann,  nur weil ein rechtlich umstrittenes Abhörinstrument noch nicht verwendet wurde wird es doch nicht weniger bedenklich dass es überhaupt existiert! Und selbst wenn es stimmt dass keiner in der Regierung einen orwellschen Überwachungstaat will, wer garantiert denn dass alle zukünftigen Machthaber das genauso sehen?

Wenn uns die Geschichte eines gelehrt hat, dann dass Macht früher oder später missbraucht wird. Deshalb ist es wichtig, dass zu grosse Machtbefugnisse wie eben diese extreme Eingriffsmöglichkeit in die Privatssphäre unschuldiger Bürger gar nicht erst aufgebaut werden.

ELENA ab jetzt, Auskunftsrecht dann in 2 Jahren

Folgender Satz steht auf meiner aktuellen Einkommensbescheinigung:

"Ihre Daten wurden entsprechend der gesetzlichen Vorgaben an die ELENA-Speicherstelle übermittelt.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter http://www.das-elena-verfahren.de. Sie haben das Recht, von der ELENA-Speicherstelle Auskunft über gespeicherte Daten zu verlangen."

Schön, dass ich das Recht habe. Und davon Gebrauch machen würde ich auch erstmal gerne. Wenn sich mir schon die Vorteile des neuen ELENA-Systems nicht erschliessen dann will ich mich doch zumindest von der Transparenz des Verfahrens überzeugen. Dann lese ich jedoch auf der offiziellen Webseite:

"Im ELENA-Verfahren besteht ab 2010 für den Teilnehmer ein Anspruch auf Auskunft über die zu seiner Person gespeicherten Daten. Eine Auskunft ist vor 2012 aber nicht realisierbar, da der Abruf durch die abrufenden Stellen erst ab 2012 möglich ist."

Super Aktion! Ich habe also Anspruch, kann davon aber keine Gebrauch machen? Wie soll das denn funktionieren? Klingt als lief das Ganze mal wieder so schnell schnell. Hauptsache erst mal Daten zentral sammeln. Datenschutz und Transparenz haben wir auch... irgendwie... irgendwann, erstmal nicht so wichtig.

more complicated than neccessary - silent fail

After watching fefe and Erdgeist bash stupid APIs on the 26C3, I decided to also write/rant about such topics that I came across in the past. So here's the first one, from quite a while ago already...

Solaris-Code reentrant

I think you can safely say that most code these days should be multithread-aware, even if it doesn't feature threads itself. Older API-calls easily cause trouble since they are by design not reentrant - or at least their implementation isn't.

I understand that the programmer has to ensure his code is thread-safe. He has to know to call the right reentrant-variants of syscalls whenever possible. But what I experienced on Solaris really left me baffled.

Seems like on Solaris (at least V2.8 for SPARC), if you want to have certain system-library calls behave correctly in a multithreaded environment, you have to set the compiler(!) flag "_REENTRANT". Yes, you as a programmer have to tell the system header-files that you want them that you are planning to use them in a multithreaded environment!

But the best part: If you don't set that flag, you probably won't notice right away. I noticed when the errno-variable was always 0 in that case. So basically, it fucks up your error-handling - which you will only notice when things actually go wrong.

and again: games crippled for german market

I knew already when I wrote my last post that I soon will put up another one that deals with cut games. And here it is...

I'm really getting sick and tired of the shit going on here. Most games that are just a bit violent are getting a rating of 18+ already. While I could easily live with that, I still don't understand it. And games that actually should be 18+ (and usually are in pretty much all other countries) are either banned from the market or have to be released in a "special german-only" version that sometimes is then 16+ instead, or still 18+.

And it's that what's grinding my gears! How far those "modifications" sometimes go is taking on ridiculous porpotions. I already ranted about a really bad example before: Wanted. Here are a few recent examples:

- Wolfenstein (2009): Rating of 18+. The amount of blood has been minimized. You're not fighting Nazis anymore, but some organisation they call "Wölfe" (wolves). All Nazi-references have been replaced.  So that's how Germany is coming to terms with its past...

- Assassin's Creed 2: Rating of 16+, pretty much all blood from the game has been removed, one whole mission has been removed. I'm not sure yet why, but since the game is released today we'll know soon.

Update: Official sources now state that the german version is 100%uncut and still 16+. It seems that one mission is not included that the PEGI-rated version featured but it considered a bonus-mission, so no main one. Blood is included, only turned off by default. Way better than I hoped. Thanks Ubisoft!

- Modern Warfare 2: you can not shoot civilians

Those "special versions" surely aren't cheap for the developer/publisher. So of course you don't get the games any cheaper, even though there's less content. You have to pay the full prize nonetheless.

Often enough, those "special versions" take away alot of the spirit of a game, remove certain elements of a game completely and temper with the design of a game's gameplay or its story.

I'm quite surprised publishers and developers are still putting up with all this shit from us germans. I guess we should feel really flattered that we seem to still be such an important market that they even give in and release special versions for our market, just so that they are still allowed to sell they games here.

I thought the gaming-industry is a multi-billion dollar international industry... so they should have some influence, some "arguments" on their side. And they should flex their muscles at least a little bit.

EA recently tried giving that topic more public attention (see here - german only)  That's what I would like to see more often. And not just from one publisher, but from all of them!

I've been thinking... what would actually happen if the publishers of a massively-hyped game like "Assassin's Creed 2" simply said: "You know what? if you tell us our game can't be released in your country the way it's being released in all the other countries, then we won't be releasing it in your country." I wonder if politics would actually notice the outcry that might follow...

but I don't know. Perhaps I'm over-estimating the power of the gamers and geeks. Maybe all that'll happen is that the game-stores in Germany will feel the effect since the people who want to have the game would simply import it... something that german politicians and regulators don't like to see, of course. Well, it's certainly not the gamers' first choice... but we're often left with no other option.

Why is it that gamers are the ones who seem to be restricted most in living their hobby? I can't think of any other legal activity/hobby that gets similarely controlled and instrumentalized.

Leave me alone! You're not my parents! I'm working hard for my money and if I'm old enough to be held responsible personally for all my actions, I also want the freedom to buy and play whichever legal games I want to purchase!

I simply want the full gaming-experience

Christmas is getting closer and this is the time of the year where lots of new, great games are released or at least announced. And everytime, I happen to run into the same problems when I'm thinking about getting those games... because I want them as "original" as possible.

1. original language

To be honest, I hate dubbed versions of anything, no matter if movies, tv-series or games. I always prefer the original, prefer to see the piece of work as intended by its creator(s). And that is especially true for computer-games, where the quality of the german translations can vary immensely - more than when it comes to movies or tv-series. But even if the german version is really well done, some things simply get lost, may it be word-plays that only work in the original language or simply the original voice-acting, which is usually done with a bigger budget and thus more professionally.

2. original content

But I'm not satisfied with just the original language. I want the original content too. And that includes all the violence, gore, sex or whatever else "bad" the creators might've come up with. I don't want a castrated version of a game where ppl don't bleed, civilians can't be shot or complete enemy armies consist of "robots" instead of humans and bleed "black motor-oil" instead of red blood. If I buy a certain type of game, I want to see chopped-off limbs and puddles of blood. While of course those things are not neccessary and I am certainly not craving for them, the creators of games put those in there for a reason, as part of the whole experience.

But enough of that - I could rant on about this way longer, but that would be material for another post. Instead let's head back to the topic of this one...

So what I really want to know before buying a game is 3 things:

1. Will the version released in germany feature the original-language?
2. Will the version released in germany be cut/cencored/modified in any way?
3. Will an import version be region-locked?

Those things are important, because thanks to the EU, I'm free to import games in the version I want to have from pretty much anywhere in the world - and in case of the UK, it's often even cheaper than buying them here instead. The problem is: It's very hard to get this information before the game is actually released and the first user-experiences start spreading through the net. Before that, it's usually just rumors that you hear...

I'm at a point right now where I really find it way easier to simply not bother anymore and just order my stuff via Amazon UK. I don't mind a perhaps missing german translation at all and I can be very sure that the game is get is uncut - and that it won't suddenly be unavailable on the market anymore because it got banned.

That's all I want... if I pay a lot of money for a game, I want the full gaming-experience out of it. And to be honest, with Germany's addiction to translate everything and to censor/ban/cut games - even 18+-ones -, it's really not fun anymore to buy games here. You sometimes do feel like a criminal if you're a gamer like me...

ghosting on Samsung TV over HDMI

Just as I wrote the article about everything working so well with my new Bluray-capable laptop and my Samsung TV, I actually stumbled over a problem that I didn't notice much at first or didn't investigate:

When watching movie-material over HDMI, I sometimes have "ghosting" issues. It only seems to happen when I use HDMI, and is most noticable when playing video-files with alot of dark areas. I'm not sure what the reason for it is or what component is responsible, but I will keep investigating.

It could be a number of things: the TV itself, maybe the HDMI-cables, the A/V receiver, the laptop's graphics card, etc.

The same videofiles play fine on the internal laptop-display and on an external TFT monitor hooked up over HDMI->DVI. So I kinda doubt it's the player software itself, probably not the gfx driver either - unless it has special options / handling of HDMI-signals. That could be the case of course, considering HDCP and all.

Right now my guess is that it's the TV though. Probably not even a fault or error, but rather simple a setting-issue or a slight incompatibility with the HDMI-source. I'm still hoping that I can solve it by switching off all the "image-enhancement" options of the TV. I tried a few of those already, without any success though.

Another reason might be the HDMI-connection. I don't know if cable quality has an effect or not, but I will try using a different HDMI-cable and omitting my A/V receiver and connect the laptop with the TV directly. At least it will give me an idea where the problem might be.

Another cause could be frequency/synching issues. I was happy to see that I could set 1080p/24 as display mode and it even worked on my TV, but maybe that's a problem nevertheless. BUT: I already tried other 1080p outputs, both 60hz and 50hz, with no noticable difference.

Ohwell, what can I say... "nice new digital world!"? or perhaps my usual complain: "Why can't things simply work?"

Firefox unsafe?

Some news I read make me angry, others make me laugh... and then there are those who would make me laugh if it weren't so very sad... or at least make me shake my head.

One of those I read today. It was not the article itself who make me feel that way but the content / information it referred to. There's one thing that disturbed me about the article itself too though: how generalising it's heading was, implying a result of a specific company's study as commonly known truth while the study itself is ANYTHING but fair and unbiased. But I'll come back to that in the end of my post.

The article referred to a study conducted by "Bit9", who found Mozilla Firefox the "most unsafe application of 2008". That itself sounds rediculous enough. The reason was that this year, 10 critical errors were detected in Firefox. They weighted programs more severely the more they are used. And since Firefox is pretty wide-spread, it's more understandable it ended up that high in the list. I could now put up reasons like why it is always stupid and nonsense to simply judge the security of programs just by the number of errors, without regarding how fast fixes for those errors are released, how severe the possible or actual consequences of those errors are and how easily those errors are abusable by others. The one thing that left me baffled and speechless at first was the line near the end of the article, that was clearly added later on as an "update", saying (translated from german): "The study of Bit9 refers only to products that aren't automatically kept up-to-date via Microsoft's automatic update-service. A comparism with the Internet Explorer is therefore not fisable"

WTF?? What kind of study is this? We are putting together a list of the most unsafe Windows-applications but applications by Microsoft are not taken into account? What value does such a study have? NONE, exactly! You can't use these results since they are unrealistic, biased and simply not true! With the recent Zero-day exploit for the IE in the wild right now, how can you even regard a statistic like that as useful in any way? Non-Microsoft applications often have their own update-services integrated, especially Firefox. And that one is surely patched way quicker than the IE if a critical error arises. It is like conducting a study about which cars are most unsafe, but omitting cars made by Mercedes from the statistics completely since their cars have regularely scheduled service intervals every year paid for by the company itself (that's not the case of course for Merc, but you catch my drift).

I wonder if Bit9 was paid off by Microsoft or if they are just that ignorant without seeing any money for it. Either way, I hope there are no "officials" somewhere actually giving a crap about that study and use it as a base for their decisions. Look at the facts and at reality around us in the networking-work, and you'll have your truth.

And to the author of the news-entry at Spiegel Online: Your heading was misleading, if not wrong. It said "Firefox most unsafe application of 2008". It should've said at least "Study finds Firefox most unsafe application of 2008". Or even more closer to the truth: "Study finds Firefox most unsafe non-Microsoft windows application of 2008".

first you have to get angry

Today was a special day for me. Personally, it was a very good day and I actually wanted to write a nice blog-entry about it. But after coming home, I made the mistake to read the news. And what I did read did stirr me quite alot! So that's how I got the name for this post. I had to remember the movie "Network", where the news-anchor got mad and started ranting on live television. And he said those words (free from my mind, probably not word by word): "first, you got to get angry! You got to get up and say "Goddamit! My life has value!"

Once more, there were bad news about the planned introduction of certain law in Germany, giving the executive autorities more and more power to conduct surveillance and undermine the freedom of the people. I could vomit when I read and hear about the arguments presented by the officials, seeing how ignorant and stupid those are! Do they really expect us to believe all this bullshit? I DON'T feel threatened by international terrorism! I'm not scared at all, especially not enough to let my personal rights and freedom be restricted! We didn't have a single fucking attempt of terrorism in our country! (and don't tell me about the one that was prevented! That's a complete scam and just comparing those guys to the "super-terrorists" you always want to protect us from is an insult to our intelligence). So what the hell are we supposed to be afraid of? So many many many more people die in this country every year from smoking, heart-attacks or car-accidents. Noone ever screams for more stricter laws then. So why terrorism? Because it's a fake brand you can put on everything you want to get passed?? Or how about this: Child pornography. Also used very frequently by politicians. It's convinient. If you are against laws to help prevent it, you are FOR it, right? Bullshit! The laws don't prevent it. They don't grab the problems by their sources, but only aim for the effects. All those activities would only help solve incidents AFTER those happened... if at all! Do you think those "criminals" are stupid enough to walk into your traps?? They are the ones with criminal energy, they will find a way around.

So solving the problem is not the goal, I suppose. How else you explain why politicians instead of helping remove the sources for international terrorism, they only want to take care of the possible results. More cameras will make it more likely you can identify terrorists after the bomb exploded but won't stop the bombs from exploding. Censoring websites will make it harder for interested people to get child porn, but won't stop the creation of it. The hypocratism makes me wanna puke!

No sirs, I do not feel unsafe! I am willing to take the 1:100000000 chance to be a victim of a terrorist attack, like I am willing to take the way higher risk to die whenever I enter a car or an airplane! I am NOT willing to have my personal rights and freedom restricted for a little bit more safety!

....

I live in a pretty save, secure country. Even in a save, secure region. And I am glad about that and happy. I have to admit I actually feel proud when I look at other countries in the world and I can really see the advantage of the institutions of our system. I understand we need those to live a comfortable life. But do we really need to temper with that system? Do the politicians honestly believe in the bullshit they are proposing to a level they actually wanna put them into laws? Or is their desire another, darker one. Those are the two options: Either they simply don't know about the usefulness and possible implications for the future of our democracy, or they do know very well and the results they tell us about are not the goals they are after. Those are the 2 reasons, and none of them is making me feel any better...

So, I am angry! Very much! And I wish more people in this country would be informed enough to get angry aswell... or to at least question the decisions of our elected leaders. NO, I don't feel represented by my leaders in this particular manner. I feel the opposite. I feel threatened, incriminated and my freedom endangered!

....

I can already feel how times start to change. When writing texts like this now, I already have to ask myself: Will I end up on a list because I wrote this? Will I be put under surveillance? Will my appartment be searched and my computer infected by a trojan to collect "evidence"?

I am not a terrorist or an opportunist. I love this country. I have nothing but the purest respect for other people's lives, privacy, dreams and desires. And I have nothing but disgust and disrespect for those amongst us who lust for power and control over others, and for that purpose don't mind using false propaganda to undermine the very foundations of our democracy (as much of it as is left) just to increase their influence and distract us from their own incompetence while at the same time preparing our infrastructure for the abuse by future totalitary regimes - something that might very likely happen.

At times like that, I do wish certain people could experience the pain while they bring onto others! Especially our elected leaders, I sometimes wish they would be target of their own flawed laws, or directly experience the results of the decisions they made by themselves... I believe then and only then will they actually be able to step over their own arrogance and realise the mistakes they made. The problem is, that will hardly happen. And if ever, then the results will hit others - most likely the poorest and weakest first, as always...

To finish this, I wanna end with 2 quotes by Benjamin Franklin. Though both of them have been said so long ago, they did not loose any of their truth, wisdom or relevance until today. If anything, those are even more true and important now than they have ever been:

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either."
"The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice."

Image taken from Wikipedia and © its respective owner(s)

The problems with translations

We germans localize and translate almost everything. Above all movies, of course. But also games. Both things have a drawback for me: I prefer the original language versions, well, if those are in english that is. But also Animes and Japanese games I prefer watching in the original version, with either german or english subtitles then.

I am by far not an enemy of my german native language, but I keep noticing that alot of translations these days must've been done by ppl who are not really into the background of the shows/movies/games/etc that they are translating. I mean, how stupid do you have to be to translate "Dungeons and Dragons" literally word by word? Such things are inexcusable!

Another example: The recent Batman movie. Joker holds Rachael outside the window with one hand and Batman says "Let her go!", with Joker replying "bad choice of words". Well, I've honestly never seen the original language version yet, but when I saw the dubbed version of that scene I immediately knew that that was the wordplay they originally did. And what did the german Batman say? "Lass sie frei!". "Let her free?" WTF is that? "Lass sie los!" Would've fit perfectly, even lipsync, and all that with preserving the word-play...

Ohwell, the good thing is that nowadays, you get DVDs and Blurays that have the english language track on them and thus give you a choice. And you get two languages instead of one. Very nice indeed!

With games however, you don't always have that choice. And what's even worse: It's really hard to find out what kinds of choices you will have prior to when the game is released. But that is usually one of my biggest questions before I decide on buying a game: "Will it be localized? How is the german translation? The voiceacting? Will I be able to switch to the original-language? Is it included on the german/european disc?". Or for JRPGs: "Will the original japanese language still be available?" - I don't really care if german or english subtitles then.

Those facts normally influence where I'll order a game. Here or in the UK. I prefer ordering stuff in Germany, but sometimes I simply can't. Worst example: Burnout Revenge / Paradise. The demos supported multiple languages, chosen by the one you set on your console. But the full game released in Germany didn't feature the english language anymore, but instead french and another one that I forgot. So when I inserted the game and my console was set to english, the game thought "ohwell, I don't have english available, so I guess I'll start up with the next best language close to that one: french". Yep, so I had to play the game in german - which sucked for Burnout - and for that I even had to change the language of my console! Well, I learned from that incident and when Burnout Paradise was coming out, I checked messageboards online first and ended up buying the UK version... perfect!

Mass Effect was another example. One of my most highgly expected games ever and it got pretty clear that they will make a german-only release for Germany of course, since the amount of voice-acting simply wouldn't allow putting more than one language on that disc. That was fine too. I knew about it beforehand, and even though the german version was actually quite good, I still ended up getting it from the UK again. And I was happy.

But not that the Force will be unleashed very soon, I am still trying to figure out if the german version will be featuring the english voiceacting or not. The german voices suck compared to the original english ones (Darth Vader!). Quite a long time ago already, I preordered the UK version. But of course I'd prefer buying the game here in Germany - also since I'll probably have it a day or two earlier than having it ship to here from the UK. But I can't cancel my order unless I'm absolutely sure I'll get english voiceacting when I buy the game here.

So , to sum up my rant: I love german, and I think it's quite nice that we get localized version of games and movies. I'm not that egoistic to demand that we should stop translating everything. I know many many ppl here are really glad we get almost everything localized. But all I am asking for is a simple way to find out which language / subtitle tracks a game will feature when it comes out. And that - preferrable - before it comes out! But I find it quite hard to get that information. If at all, you don't usually get it from the official distributor, but from other user in messageboards or from websites specialized in games.

iPhone - iHadBadLuck

Ok, after all the hype about the new iPhone 3G coming out, I gave in to the temptation last weekend and got one of the new iPhones myself. Even the 16G version. Well, the choice was easy since it was the very last one they had in the store at the time I got there. Was a quite impulsive decision from my side, but after chatting with a friend who got the 8G version and geeking out about it, I wanted one too.



First Impression

I have to say I'm impressed by the device. It's definitely well-done, looks stylish and has a usability that I've never seen before! The new GPS and UMTS support surely is a plus, and with the right mobile contract, I can actually get online and check e-mail, chat and surf the web pretty much everywhere I am... and with the iPhone, surfing on a mobile phone is actually working and fun!

The iPod itself is nice too. I don't wanna go too much into the features and what I thought of them, let me just say that I was very happy and pleased with the device and it's features. I'm having my difficulties trying to get myself acquainted to the iTunes-Software - that you sadly are forced to use if you wanna do anything with your iPhone. But I can live with that.


First Problem

It all could've been perfect. I could still sit here writing this happily with my iPhone next to me, listening to music. But sadly, I had back luck: On the same day I got the iPhone, it started showing bright spots/areas on the left side of the display. Wasn't that noticeable in the beginning but it kept getting worse - up to a point where it really annoyed me. So I returned the faulty device today. So until the device is sent back to Apple and I get a replacement from them next week, I will have to live without an iPhone - kinda disappointing. The fact that according to the T-Mobile employee, I am the very first customer they know with this specific problem doesn't really cheer me up either. At least they were really nice in the store and took the device back without any discussion and were really helpful. I just hope they will work as reliable getting my replacement - and that that one will be flawless... at least for the upcoming 2 years that I have warranty for it.

I don't regret my decision to get the new iPhone at all. I really like it and I think it has the potential to become a steady "companion" that I will always carry with me, and I will finally have everything I need with me: cellphone, music-player, web-browser, e-mail client, IM and even games and a few other gimmicks.

So even though I categorized this under "rants", I am not in a bad, "ranting" mood. I'm looking forward to getting a perfectly working device very soon. If I won't, THEN you will definitely read the one or the other rant here.

Mass data storage - for the content industry after all?

I'm actually surprised this is my first post about this topic: freedom, security, data-mining, content-industry... summed up: privacy

I have my own opinion about all these things and I'm very liberal, if not even left concerning those. I do believe in the right for pricavy and informational self-determination of the individual. I think noone - not the government, the police and certainly not the content-industry should have the right to invade my privacy and spy on me without reasonable suspicion. I don't think the government or any affiliates should be allowed to preemtively collect sensible-information like fingerprints or DNA-data of innocent citizens. Not for the purposes of crime-prevention, nor anything else - and definitely not for "protection against terrorism".

That said, I guess my attitude towards things like mass-surveillance or fingerprints are more than clear. It's not surprising that I got furious when I read the following article (sorry, german only): http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28146/1.html

Not too long ago, the german parliament passed a bill that now requires the ISPs to keep data about all internet-traffic stored and available for 6 months! The critics were silenced with the usual "this will help the police and the crime-rate will go down and ... it will help against terrorism!". Always a nice argumentation: make the ones being against the law responsible for murder, child-rape and terrorist-attacks. The doubts and worries of the people who also see the drawbacks of such mass-surveillance, like the commissioner for privacy protection, Peter Schaar, were dismissed with arguments like "the access to this data will be highly restricted and only possible with jurisdictional approval through a court-order, so the possibility for abuse will be minimal".

Why to have such mass data mining and storage of all internet-traffic anyway? Good question. I know the EU requires countries to have these methods in effect, and I honestly am not well-informed enough to really know why the EU wants that - I have my theories but I don't wanna sound too paranoid.

I know one big lobby though that has always had a big interest in that data: The content industry. They were the ones to cry out the loudest that it's so difficult to retrieve the connection information from the providers in order to identify and sue people illegally sharing copyright-protected material. Back then, the providers only had to keep the data for 24 hours - so the content industry had to be quick to address the ISP to hold the data longer, since it might be evidence. Now, they can look at it much more relaxed. But there's still one problem: In order to get insight into these data-files, they have to address the jurisdictional system and prove that there was indeed an illegal act. While proving that (or at least stating it in a way to make it sound believable enough for a court) is not that difficult, it certainly takes time and involves alot of additional effort from the prosecution... especially when you think about how many many mass-complaints are filed by the content-industry these days.

And that's where the article I linked to comes in... something noone could've thought of is actually happening now: the attorneys are completely overloaded. The jurisdiction simply can't handle all the cases. And so the attorney generals thought of a solution: "Why not simply give the content industry direct access to the data instead? That would take the work off the jurisdiction."

... so we actually arrived where the Content Industry wanted to be at all along. They will be able to approach the ISPs directly and simply start suing whoever they like, based on the information found in the data recorded by the ISPs. Without having to consult a court, without having an initial suspicion, without evidence.

And it might not end there. Who knows what's next? Maybe they can soon access the data without having to address the ISPs? Maybe other groups of interest might want to have similar access aswell? Why not? It's all about keeping us safe and secure, isn't it? And if you don't have anything to hide, then you have nothing to fear, right?

image taken from and © www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de

Finished Ninja Gaiden II

Ok, normally it's not really something that special if I finish a game. I tend to finish most games I get - at least once. But if you actually finish a game like Ninja Gaiden, it's alittle special and you can be proud.

I did finish it at the lower of the 2 difficulty-settings, ok. And I have to admit overally it was quite easy most of the time. Only the one or the other boss-mob gave me troubles sometimes, but most of them were easy. It's a very good game and I enjoyed playing it alot... except for the final boss! Why? Because you had to finish him with the bow! I never liked the bow. I love the game. It's fast, the combos are smooth and you hardly ever feel slow or cornered. Ryu twirls and flies around and you never feel like you can't control where he's headed and what he's doing. Very good responsiveness, high speed, that's how I love games! But when you use the bow, you don't feel fast anymore. You're slow, standing, aiming. A sitting duck, having to wait til your bow is fully charged so you can release one arrow and hopefully hit the right spot in time. It takes away the key element of the playing-style of the game, that's why I never use the bow. I prefer the shuriken since you can just throw those while moving and doing your combos.

And if that wouldn't be annoying enough, the final boss has to be fought a total of 3 times, that right after a previous boss-mob and even adding a final boss mob to the very end for a whopping chain of 5 boss-fights, all without savepoint or shop to restock. Looking back afterwards, it wasn't too hard to do either - since the mobs before and after the annoying fights are actually doable with melee-action, but the arrow-part is very annoying because there's alot of luck involved and there's a high learning-curve involved - at least there was for me, who never had to rely on the bow much before that.

But I'm proud I finished the game, and it was alot of fun indeed! So much I'll surely go for the higher difficulty setting soon... very much doable, just some boss mobs I'm not looking forward to. But I can live with a game that' 95% fun and 5% annoying - I just wished they wouldn't have put the most annoying part at the very end.

image taken from and © www.ign.com

Rant: No online order status information

It's time for a rant now. And I created an additional category for that even, because I know more will follow.

I do rant at times. I'm not someone takes things too seriously. And I don't go overboard if I should get angry - ok, unless it concerns comp stuff not working correctly, I can become a monster then - but nevertheless I wanna write about things that annoy me, simply because I think it's unneccessary and can be done better.

Anyway, this rant is about companies that simply don't inform their customers at all about the status of their orders. Can it be that hard to simply keep customers updated about when they can expect their delivery? When it was processed or sent out? I understand that there can be delays or availability-shortages, that's fine. But: I wanna know! And without having to contact them first!

Kudos to Amazon! They are best-practice when it comes to that! I order quite a bit there and most of the deliveries were really fast and on time. And I was always informed about the few that weren't, even if it was just a delay of one or two days. Those mails are automatically sent out I'm sure, but that's all I'm asking for.

I had bad experiences with other companies where I ordered stuff and waited for a week or more hoping for my ordered items to arrive. And when I contacted them, I got told "Sorry, there are availability-problems." Is it that hard to tell me that right away? I also had companies before that didn't answer my contact e-mails at all!

Well, so much for my rant. As I said, I really don't ask for too much. I won't make a scene right away just because a delivery is alittle late. I'm quite tolerant, but I hate being left in the dark - especially when I'm looking forward to the ordered stuff, what I usually do.

I will always favor Amazon in the future, simply because I have had no bad experiences yet. Perfect record, and that after so many deliveries, even from the US or the UK.