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Robaque

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Robaque ,

You could share this sublemmy’s pinned post, or the megathread it links to:

lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/10901

rentry.co/megathread

Robaque ,

Recognising mass-immigrantion as non-ideal can be valid if coming from a place of compassion. But with this perspective, mass-immigration is seen as a symptom of wider socioeconomic problems (or non-societal factors such as natural disasters), not as a problem in itself that needs to be “fixed” by sending immigrants “back home”.

Furthermore, seeing immigration as a cause for socioeconomic problems only comes from a place of racism, ascribing negative expectations to people according to their country of origin / culture / ethnicity. It is clear that you stand with this camp from how you phrased what you think “the left” thinks:

“Immigration is good from any country in the world and if you have any reservations what so ever you’re racist”.

It implies that a person’s country of origin plays a factor in whether or not they can be considered a “good” immigrant. That’s racist.

Robaque ,

How many racisms does one have to do before they can be considered “far right” enough to be called a nazi?

Robaque ,

So… are we gonna pretend that colonialism played no part, and continues to play no part (via capitalism), in today’s “material conditions”?

Robaque ,

Look, I’m always down for learning more about history, but who’s “Nigeria”? To who was “Nigeria” selling slaves to? Modern states are never representative of specific / homogeneous cultures, let alone individual peoples, let alone societies from before the state was even formed. After skimming a few wiki articles, it’s clear that the region has had its own fair share of struggles against authorities, slavery, and racism, even before European colonisation, some of which continue currently.

Still, none of this reached the scale of european colonisation / “the scramble for Africa”, and the continued political and economic influence and control that ‘the West’ continues to hold and wield (neocolonialism / recolonisation). I know nowhere near enough about critical theory, but I’m sure these processes can be understood as a form of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation (I wasn’t able to find a freely available copy, but this article seems like it could be a relevant, interesting read: Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization of the Orisha Religion in Africa and the New World (Nigeria, Cuba and the United States).)

Regarding Syria, “my approach” would be simply to support more movements / projects like Rojava (which is clearly not something that ‘western’ political powers are interested in doing). As an anarchist I don’t think liberation from state authority can be achieved through state authority.

Robaque ,

Ah, fuck, I usually at the very least skim things before I share but this time I just assumed from the title… my bad, the article has nothing to do with this topic.

Still, my general point is that European colonialism in Africa can’t be considered a “solved” issue, because of capitalism’s (and ‘western’ capitalists’) roles in continuing to exploit its natural resources and perpetuating systemic wealth inequalities. I think that profling populations by nation/culture is a fundamentally flawed way of approaching the difficulties of (mass) immigration, plus it’s an even more dangerous road to go down. Whatever the qualities of cultures and hegemonies that persist in whichever regions, populations aren’t homogenous, and states fail to represent their peoples.

Of course, there are many factors and actors involved in the many social instabillties / conflicts plaguing the world, and anything I might value as an anarchist (e.g. open borders and mutual / humanitarian aid) would be nonsensical to apply as government policies. I don’t have a ‘counter’ solution to propose.

lf all this is “thought terminating” in the sense that I’m unwlling to go down the path of ‘pragmatism’ in which peoples’ worth is profiled and measured and weighed, then so be it. As I see it, that kind of thinking as part of problem, not the solution.

Robaque ,

Oh I don’t doubt that those in power are complicit in the exploitation (I disagree with calling it feudalism, however). Ridding themselves of responsibility by blaming colonialism sounds akin to Israel deflecting criticism by claiming anti-semitism.

The statist perspective is unable to properly address these inequalities and injustices because it cannot reject the hierarchical power structures that caused them in the first place. Foreign intervention is just colonialism 2.0, but the more “reactive” alternative is just leading to a situation where measuring immigrants by their worth as ‘skilled workers’ and ‘ease of integration’ is pragmatic. I’m not gonna deny that there’s a kind of sense to this, because that’s exactly what makes it so worrying. At least with the old racist pseudoscience we can point and laugh at how nonsensical it was.

Robaque ,

Fix the laws?

Good joke!

Robaque ,

Peertube?

Robaque ,

Is noone else gonna point out the absurdity that if the guy had been 1 year older, legally speaking there would’ve been nothing wrong?

The problem here is the grooming (which I think it’s worth noting that adults can be victims of as well), the abuse of power dynamics, and particularly in this case the exploitation of another’s inexperience for personal gratification.

But the article instead focuses on how the kid was “affected” by the teacher’s “criminal actions”, but then essentially just describes the kinds of consequences caused by the social stigma of student-teacher relationships. But this also happens in university, where it also carries negative social consequences, but not legal ones.

My point is simply that the legal system is a flimsy caricature of morality/ethics, and in articles like these it really shows.

Capitalism Can't Solve Climate Change (time.com)

And the IEA, for its part, expects China to continue to be the sole meaningful over-achiever. It recently revised upwards by 728 GW its forecast for total global renewables capacity additions in the period 2023–27. China’s share of this upward revision? Almost 90 percent. While China surges ahead, the rest of the world...

Robaque ,

Capitalist realism mindset

Robaque ,

Extreme capitalism stifles and suffocates innovation and preservation.

It’s an inherent contradiction of capitalist competition. Somehow everyone is supposed to be competitive but noone is supposed to win for capitalism to “work”. Otherwise it’s considered a monopoly and “anti-competitive”.

Ironically this requires collaboration.

Robaque , (edited )

We’re in the age of the technofeudalists

Robaque ,

Ever heard of libertarian socialism? It’s the OG kind of libertarianism and is great for those who aren’t all that into cognitive dissonance.

Robaque ,

Finally a good use for LLMs

How do conspiracy theorists get all of their coveted secret government information if it's meant to be hidden and the government would never hand it over?

It’s a curious thing. I’m not dismissing any of their claims, but I find it a bit interesting that they can so easily uncover everything that the government doesn’t want you to know when it’s hidden for a reason.

Robaque ,

*isn’t :)

Robaque ,

Lol sorry I shoulda specified where it was

This Website Tracked Hate Crimes in India. Then the Government Took It Offline (www.wired.com)

India, the world’s largest democracy, prepares to kick off its election season in just a matter of weeks. But activists and experts worry that the government is cracking down on platforms and internet service providers to silence critical voices, and tighten its grip on the information ecosystem....

Robaque ,

Horseshoe theory strikes again

Robaque ,

What do you think communism means?

Robaque ,

Well, you’re not using the typical meaning of the word.

Communism is really just a “stateless, moneyless, classless society”, built on the principle of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. “Egalitarian” gets thrown around too but is considered inadequate by some for often meaning an equality of sorts between classes rather than the abolition of class.

“Commie” is just a derogatory word for “communist”. The distinction you’re making isn’t really meaningful.

Stalin and Mao were Marxist-Leninists. Perhaps they truly believed that a “vanguard” party controlling a totalitarian “socialist” state was the best way to reach communism. History of course proved them wrong - the way that they structured their states and economies unsurprisingly resulted in state capitalism.

Idk enough about Orban but he strikes me to be the same as Putin, a totalitarian capitalist.

Why has the world gone to shit?

In the last 5 to 10 years everything seems to suck: product’s and services quality plummeted, everything from homes to cars to food became really expensive, technology stopped to help us to be something designed to f@ck with us and our money, nobody seems to be able to hold a job anymore, everyone is broke. Life seems worse in...

Robaque ,

Capitalism, etc.

Robaque ,

I hope this is a lightbulb moment for you

Robaque ,

Social democracy isn’t really socialist…

Anyways it’s just good to know that FOSS is built upon anarchist principles (of course, this doesn’t mean every FOSS project is anarchist) and is a great example of free association in practice. It helps demystify anarchism and communism.

Also what “delusions” are you talking about? Marxist-leninist ones?

Robaque ,

Of course capitalism operates in a lot of gray areas, it’s how it seems freer than it actually is. “I need food” isn’t always a problem, but it is one often enough to be systemically problematic. Abandoning one’s hopes and dreams because one must be “realistic” is the norm.

Robaque ,

They don’t exist

Robaque , (edited )

When you talk about communism, are you talking about marxist-leninist / socialist states, or communism the idea(l) itself? Also how familiar are you with anarchism?

It seems that in the same way, people in this discussion have defined that communism is the mechanism for being generous and being willing to contribute to society.

You’re not far off, but yes that is more or less all that “communism” is:

a classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership, follows the maxim “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

There is no prescription for how this may be achieved or how it might operate. Marxist-leninists want to reach it with a vanguard party and a socialist state, and this reflects how they see revolution as an event. Anarcho-communists instead see revolution as a process, and praxis takes the form of grassroots movements, aiming to bring about the necessary social change, building systems of free association from the ground up.

Robaque ,

Maybe he could even do a little VR prison tour

Robaque , (edited )

In my experience a lot of italian (particularly “news”) websites basically say “accept cookies or sign up for our paid subscription”

Robaque ,

It’s not about stealing data, it’s about not letting Zuck gain influence and control of the fediverse.

Robaque ,

police beating stick

Ahhh, the wonderful ambiguities of english grammar

Robaque OP , (edited )

Not quite what you’ve asked for ik lol, but I copied the transcript and formatted it a bit in case you’d like to skim read it.

INTROEarlier this year, People Make Games published a huge investigative documentary about Disco Elysium and the allegation that the intellectual property rights to the game and its successor were stolen from its original creators. Last week they were nominated for Best Creator of the Year by The Game Awards. That’s the same show that awarded Disco Elysium in 2019. Their nomination reminded me of the mixed experience I had watching the documentary and I want to take this opportunity to argue that, even though their video on Disco Elysium is among the highest quality, highly ambitious pieces of investigative videogame journalism out there, it also falls short at places that matter a lot, and I think it doesn’t do the game, its creators, or their channel justice.

RECAPThe video by People Make Games investigates the ownership conflicts around Disco Elysium. They interview the accused CEO and ZA/UM majority shareholder (that’s the studio that made Disco Elysium), current ZA/UM employees, and three founding creators of the game, including the creative lead, Robert Kurvitz. Helen, Rostov and Robert were fired from the studio when Ilmar Kompus, through means of highly questionable legality and with the help of the known financial fraudster Tõnis Haavel, acquired a majority share in ZA/UM and, probably behind Kurvitz’ back, also created a new company that holds the intellectual property rights for the Disco Elysium successor. Now, Kurvitz is in the process of losing the rights to his life’s work, while we are losing the prospect of ever playing a worthy Disco Elysium Successor. The more accurate version of this is obviously their video itself, which you should definitely check out. It does a great job at mapping the situation and for most of its parts, I have nothing but praise for it.

WHAT WENT WRONGSo, what went wrong? Let’s frontload the more obvious observations: The video was way harder on Kurvitz for wanting to create a Disco Elysium successor outside of the grasp of financial criminals, than it was on those financial fraudsters themselves. Not a fraction of the genuine anger that Chris showed towards Kurvitz for wanting to leave a horrible environment was directed at those who created that environment in the first place.
The video concludes with Kurvitz being displayed as a bully, as being “outrageous” and “massively disrespectful”, while the person who certainly is among the single most destructive people in the whole gaming industry gets away as unscathed as his allies, without any kind of moral verdict. In the first interview with Kompus, the CEO and majority shareholder, Chris patiently lets him tell his own story of how a franchise worth millions and the lifework of passionate artists just kinda ended up in his hands, and how he, in his newly acquired position of power, had to fire Robert, Rostov and Helen for workplace toxicity and their lack of contribution. I will go into these apparent reasons later, but this was at a time when Chris was already told how, shortly before the firing, Kompus and his criminal friends misused company funds (that were supposed to finance the sequel) to increase their own shares in the studio. It was also at a time when he already knew that improper workplace conduct was used as a reason for firing Kurvitz right after he started asking questions about shady proceedings in the company and demanded insight into essential financial documents. How is it then that Chris, without any sense of irony, repeats Kompus’ claims to Kurvitz and then gets genuinely angry at him for denying these allegations of toxicity? Why does he find that “outrageous”, but not actual crimes, or Kompus dismissing them? Especially since a lot of the concrete allegations against Kurvitz are either not confirmed by the rest of the staff or, in the case of alleged sexist behaviour, outright dismissed by its supposed victim. “Stop using my name and gender to advance your agenda. It has nothing to do with standing up for women – it uses gender in a deeply cynical matter for personal gain.” Now, Kurvitz did leave some damage behind when he distanced himself from the studio after publishing the base game in 2019. Many of the current ZA/UM employees that were interviewed had their qualms with Kurvitz for leaving them pretty much alone with the Final Cut, for being unclear to them about the studio’s future, and ultimately for being willing to leave them behind while he tried to realize his dream for the Disco Elysium successor. “What he tends to do with the next project is to work on it for the next seven years and for that he is going to need three people, two writers and Rostov as the artist.” Leaving behind people who trusted Kurvitz’ leadership and who put their heart and overtime too into Disco Elysium just as much as he did, is unfair and reckless. The ZA/UM employees have all right to be disappointed and angry. Kurvitz did apologize for that in some extent in the video and acknowledges his privilege of being able take time off when others couldn’t. And like Chris, I too would have liked Kurvitz to apologize in a less abstract way; however, I also understand that the documentary will be used in court to document every single one of his personal shortcomings ever to use them against him. So I think it is essential to ask: What exactly did Kurvitz distance himself from? Why did he desire a break from the previous corporate structures to create a new environment for the Disco Elysium sequel, even before he knew about all that shady stuff going on? One reason was to regain creative freedom. Kurvitz and Rostov were demoted from their respective creative lead positions in writing and art. These roles have been gradually wrestled away from them, and Kurvitz did not want his project and the world he created to be at the complete mercy of the new directors. One other reason were the working conditions. Kurvitz, together with his friends and colleagues, all suffered under the relentless crunch that was ordered by investors and the executive level. Working extreme overtime for years without breaks have left them with permanent damage to their mental health, leaving them burnt out, in mental institutions, disabled, in rehab, or at least in therapy. Additionally, Helen, and I’m sure it was the case for many others too, was also deprived of other basic worker’s rights through illegal employment tactics. So I was left to wonder – why is none of that considered “bully behaviour”, “toxicity” or “not always pleasant”, but Kurvitz fleeing from that environment is? The video has a tendency of just naturalizing power exerted by the side of capital, be it inhumane workplace conditions or shady financial practices that rob artists of their past and future work. For example, is it really so hard for Chris to say a simple thing like “financial criminals are not good people”, like he quotes here from Kurvitz’ letter? In a letter that he thinks is “outrageous” and “massively disrespectful” because it distracts from what he perceives as the problem at hand. But I wonder what really distracts from the problem at the core of all of this, from the crimes that poisoned the whole studio and brought all that misery to both Kurvitz and all other workers at ZA/UM in the first place. In the letter that Chris quoted and that you can read fully in the PMG video, Kurvitz wrote about “Exiting the Vampire Castle”. And while it works perfectly fine as an intuitive metaphor for a group of creatives wanting to leave the grasp of finance capital, it is also the title of an essay by Mark Fisher who coined that phrase. I recommend you read it in full, even though some parts have aged badly. I will however quote one paragraph: “The first law of the Vampires’ Castle is: individualise and privatise everything. While in theory it claims to be in favour of structural critique, in practice it never focuses on anything except individual behaviour. Some of these working-class types are not terribly well brought up, and can be very rude at times. Remember: condemning individuals is always more important than paying attention to impersonal structures. The actual ruling class propagates ideologies of individualism, while tending to act as a class.” And isn’t it a prime example of this class solidarity that you see surrounding the studio’s financial affairs. It’s an enormous feat by the team of PMG to have broken it down so clearly. Which is why I cannot comprehend why they chose for the rest two thirds of the video to focus exclusively on Kurvitz’ personal shortcomings. It’s disproportional. I get that Chris can’t exactly force a statement about the shareholder situation from the current employees because their livelihoods are on the line and they just saw three of their former colleagues getting fired after poking their noses into their bosses’ affairs. But it is still not only disproportionate, but also two separate things. You just cannot weigh Kurvitz being a jerk and taking time off against the major financial fraud that would have happened completely independent of Kurvitz’ personality disposition anyways. And yet the video ends with “well, neither side is innocent”, “it’s complicated”, and most importantly a suddenly very emotional “Kurvitz is a horrible person”, which concludes the video and retroactively shapes its whole vibe.

(cont.)

Robaque OP , (edited )

DISCO ELYSIUM 2I’m just asking them to redirect a tiny bit of that anger they feel for Kurvitz towards the intrigues that made sure that we might never get a worthy successor to Disco Elysium; the game that singlehandedly convinced me that our culture industry might once in a blue moon produce something that is actually… good. And not just neuron activation 10-hour gaming session slash escapism good, but genuinely valuable. It saddens me that this vast world of Elysium that has been nurtured in its creator’s heads for two decades was only able to take its first infant steps before it may now be shut down for good. Disco Elysium, Kurvitz wrote, was always meant to be just a small introduction to the world of Elysium, and I fear that we will not see it expanded ever again, or that its successor will be made under people who legally own Disco Elysium, but not the grand, cosmic scale and the thousand-year long history of Elysium that, for most of its parts, still only exists in its creators’ heads. Disco Elysium worked because they made sure that this vast world spirit was expressed in all of the game’s tiniest parts. And that is why Disco Elysium 2 just won’t work without Robert, Helen and Rostov – because they are major part of the iceberg whose tiny tip we see in Disco Elysium. The remaining ZA/UM employees, I am sure, are amazing, talented people, but even exceptional writers like Argo Tuulik can’t make up for the fact that Disco Elysium’s philosophy, history and, most exceptionally, its political rigor and willingness to offend will definitely not make a comeback in the polished commodity that this kind of successor would be. “So far, we’ve only managed to show you a tiny, insignificant corner of it: the district of Martinaise in Revachol West, on Insulinde. I cannot begin to tell you how introductory it is. (“Disco Elysium” means “I learn Elysium”). It’s small. A matchbox world. It’s all we had money for.”

THE BLIND SPOTI want to make one more point before we wrap it up, maybe the most essential of them all. I already talked about the asymmetry of having such a strong and emotional moral verdict about Kurvitz’ person but nothing of the sort for Kompus and his allies. But why exactly isn’t there one? Let’s listen to the video’s conclusion about the legal situation: “Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely appreciate that this is something that needs to go through the courts, and if anything illegal happened, as Robert and the others believe, that has to be made right. Has Disco Elysium been stolen from some of its original creators? That’s a question we are hopefully gonna see answered in court at some point. Although, even then, I do worry there’ll never be an entirely satisfying answer. If something illegal is proven to have happened, that’s one thing. But what if that’s not the case? How are you meant to feel if no laws were broken, but Kurvitz and Rostov didn’t fully understand what they’d given away?” Before I try to answer this question, I want to emphasize that there shouldn’t be a chance for what Kompus & co. did to be legal. Kompus claims that Kurvitz approved of the sale of shares and the creation of the IP company, which would make it legal. However, when Chris asks Kurvitz, he denies giving his approval and having had any knowledge of it at all. And when he asked Kompus for proof - an email, a letter, any paper trail, anything, he says that there is none. So why does Chris make it sound like there’s a good chance of all of this being completely fine and legal? Why does the video end in such an open way where there’s no conclusion except, of course, Kurvitz being a jerk? But, let’s get back to what Chris proposes as a conclusion. “Has Disco Elysium been stolen from some of its original creators? That’s a question we are hopefully gonna see answered in court atsome point. Although, even then, I do worry there’ll never be an entirely satisfying answer. If something illegal is proven to have happened, that’s one thing. But what if that’s not the case? How are you meant to feel if no laws were broken, but Kurvitz and Rostov didn’t fully understand what they’d given away?” Yes, what then? What if the court decides that all of this was legal? Are Kurvitz and co. to blame then, because they were a bunch of brokies who didn’t have the capital to fund their own game and thus predictably fell prey to the schemes of the economically powerful? Who now didn’t steal but legally claimed their life’s work? Would that outcome just be a very normal, politically neutral mishap without any need for further scrutiny or even moral deliberation? All of this is really funny to me. People Make Games regularly takes strong stands against classism in the videogame industry (“Videogames have a class problem”) but then seems to just brush off the clearly class-based conflict at the core of this situation. Because what do they think creates classism if not the sheer right of economic power, in all of its court-sanctioned legality? Why do they so willingly hand over the responsibility to judge the situation to the mechanisms that created it in the first place? Do they say that it is okay to claim an artist’s lifework if you have capital and the ability to manoeuvre it through the enigmatic loopholes of financial regulations? These structures are exactly what facilitates class power, or, if you prefer: the right of the economically strong. Ilmar Kompus can be so relaxed and smug because he knows that what he did might actually lie perfectly within the rules of the game, or at least within its equally legal grey zones. And somehow for PMG, this potential legality seems to relieve him of any personal accusations like the ones they attacked Kurvitz with. Instead, the video proposes that the courts will judge this case and that if anything illegal happened, it will be made right. As if their whole channel didn’t revolve around scandals in the videogame industry that were in most cases perfectly legal but still outrageous. It would have been insulting to end these videos with “well, the courts will figure it out”, because they clearly didn’t. Why did they always take a stand there, but only now delegate their ability to judge to the system that enabled figures like Kompus and Haavel in the first place? If you surrender your moral verdict to the laws of financial capital, you are simply on the side of capital, on the side of the economic strongmen who bully the people who make games.

LUCKY FINDI had basically finished this video when I stumbled across a blog post by Martin Luiga, another ZA/UM founding member and temporary ZA/UM employee. And despite him admitting that he is not on good terms with Kurvitz, he writes… this: “In short, Robert was fired from the company whose heart and seed he was due to claims of ‘creating a toxic workplace environment’. Having worked at the company remotely in the summer of 2021 I can say things were truly not all right at the company, but I would say it is much more plausible that the toxic environment was created instead by the upper management and then blamed on Robert. I have seen a similar situation before. The idealist workaholic does not pay attention to people’s psychological needs much as the conspirator does and thus, he will at most times be outplayed. It reminds me of the Stalin and Trotsky situation, in which Trotsky felt relatively safe due to his high intellect, hard-working personality and being loved by the people, while not paying attention to the relations with other Communist Party members, while Stalin knew that those were the most important relations. Of course we also know that these same Communist Party members paid very dearly for falling prey to that smooth criminal. The price that Trotsky had to pay was of course the Abel’s price. He had something better than the others. Namely, talent and love. This is ultimately why he had his head bashed in. What happened to Robert was what happens to most talented people that get any recognition in our age — he got manipulated by psychopaths. Robert trusted the people that got him fired completely before they got him fired. He thought they were his friends.”

OUTROIf you can bear another deep dive, I highly recommend this video by Stushi who had very similar qualms with the PMG investigation and goes into it in more length than I did. I linked it in the video description. There you can also find Kurvitz’ Outro, the Mark Fisher essay and Luiga’s Blog post. Another link obviously leads you to the PMG documentary. I want to end this video by emphasizing that I am still a huge fan of their channel. They do amazing work and I think I watched every single one of their videos. Their Disco Elysium documentary too is, as I said, an enormous achievement of investigative videogame journalism and you should definitely watch it. And even though I disagree with the conclusion of that particular video, I still genuinely hope that they win the Creator Award and that next time, they will be as hard on criminals and the structures that enable them as they are on the People who Make Games.

Pinned comment:Note that the video is deliberately and openly biased and that you are very free to disagree. In any case, let me know what you think! If you want to vote for PMG on the Games Awards Discord, you can do it here: discord.gg/thegameawards

Robaque ,

Yeah it is worth looking into why certain new “standards” get adoped and others don’t.

Standards don’t ever get designed just to be the new universal standard, right? There’s gotta be some kind of improvement in mind, whether iterating on previous designs or otherwise. I’d say that in many cases the improvement is the focus for the developer, not the delusion of creating the next big “standard”.

It’s better for “standards” to develop naturally as happens in FOSS rather than for them to be imposed by authorities that will resist changing them once they become outdated, or companies that don’t care either way and will follow the profit of least resistance.

Robaque ,

Which is why they often suck, no? Took years for USB to really find its footing, and now with all the EU legislation setting USB-C I feel like it’s gonna become frustratingly outdated eventually.

Robaque ,

*disorganisation :D

Robaque ,

Average lemmy.world user

Robaque ,

If you do that you’re stealing their labor

Robaque ,

Accidentally read petition as putin lol

At what age and how do you tell children about the truth of Christmas?

I’m writing this as someone who has mostly lived in the US and Canada. Personally, I find the whole “lying to children about Christmas” thing just a bit weird (no judgment on those who enjoy this aspect of the holiday). But because it’s completely normalized in our culture, this is something many people have to deal...

Robaque ,

I was kinda on the opposite end of the spectrum lol. I remained steadfast in engaging with the Santa Claus mythos until a pretty late age despite my parents staight up telling me they were the ones getting me presents, and despite knowing that all evidence pointed to them telling the truth, lol.

Robaque ,

Wait did they just solve science or smthn?

Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube from the grave by helping users bypass its ad-blocker-blocker (www.windowscentral.com)

Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube from the grave by helping users bypass its ad-blocker-blocker::Windows Phone to the rescue. A lot of YouTube users want to know how to get around the new annoying YouTube pop-up telling viewers to disable their ad-blocker.

Robaque ,

Yes and no. Cool project but I gotta be honest I’m not a big fan of Louis Rossman / FUTO’s "open source but not free " stance.

Robaque , (edited )

I mean it’s not NewPipe’s fault that Google Play hosts malware.

Based on what Louis Rossmann said it does seem the more restrictive licence comes from a place of good intentions:

[11:19] If you download this application and you decide that you want to modify the source code so you can run a build that’s a little bit more amendable to your use case on your phone, we have no problem with that. However if you modify the source code of this application to insert advertisements trackers or malware in it and then try to redistribute our application with maare ads or trackers in it in a deceptive way we will come after you. That is why we have a license that is not as permissive as NewPipes’.

But idk if that’s also what the license actually means legally-speaking. I’m no expert but section 4 seems pretty dubious:

FUTO TEMPORARY LICENSE:This license grants you the rights, and only the rights, set out below in respect of the source code provided. If you take advantage of these rights, you accept this license. If you do not accept the license, do not access the code. Words used in the Terms of Service have the same meaning in this license. Where there is any inconsistency between this license and those Terms of Service, these terms prevail. ### Section 1: Definitions - “code” means the source code made available from time, in our sole discretion, for access under this license. Reference to code in this license means the code and any part of it and any derivative of it. - “compilation” means to compile the code from ‘source code’ to ‘machine code’. - “defect” means a defect, bug, backdoor, security issue or other deficiency in the code. - “non-commercial distribution” means distribution of the code or any compilation of the code, or of any other application or program containing the code or any compilation of the code, where such distribution is not intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. - “review” means to access, analyse, test and otherwise review the code as a reference, for the sole purpose of analysing it for defects. - “you” means the licensee of rights set out in this license. ### Section 2: Grant of Rights 1. Subject to the terms of this license, we grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to access and use the code solely for the purposes of review, compilation and non-commercial distribution. 2. You may provide the code to anyone else and publish excerpts of it for the purposes of review, compilation and non-commercial distribution, provided that when you do so you make any recipient of the code aware of the terms of this license, they must agree to be bound by the terms of this license and you must attribute the code to the provider. 3. Other than in respect of those parts of the code that were developed by other parties and as specified strictly in accordance with the open source and other licenses under which those parts of the code have been made available, as set out on our website or in those items of code, you are not entitled to use or do anything with the code for any commercial or other purpose, other than review, compilation and non-commercial distribution in accordance with the terms of this license. 4. Subject to the terms of this license, you must at all times comply with and shall be bound by our Terms of Use, Privacy and Data Policy. ### Section 3: Limitations 1. This license does not grant you any rights to use the provider’s name, logo, or trademarks and you must not in any way indicate you are authorised to speak on behalf of the provider. 2. If you issue proceedings in any jurisdiction against the provider because you consider the provider has infringed copyright or any patent right in respect of the code (including any joinder or counterclaim), your license to the code is automatically terminated. 3. THE CODE IS MADE AVAILABLE “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED GUARANTEES AS TO FITNESS, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR OTHERWISE. IT IS NOT BEING PROVIDED IN TRADE BUT ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS ON OUR PART AND IS NOT MADE AVAILABLE FOR ANY USE OUTSIDE THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. ANYONE ACCESSING THE CODE MUST ENSURE THEY HAVE THE REQUISITE EXPERTISE TO SECURE THEIR OWN SYSTEM AND DEVICES AND TO ACCESS AND USE THE CODE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. YOU BEAR THE RISK OF ACCESSING AND USING THE CODE. IN PARTICULAR, THE PROVIDER BEARS NO LIABILITY FOR ANY INTERFERENCE WITH OR ADVERSE EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM OR DEVICES AS A RESULT OF YOUR ACCESSING AND USING THE CODE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE OR OTHERWISE. ### Section 4: Termination, suspension and variation 1. We may suspend, terminate or vary the terms of this license and any access to the code at any time, without notice, for any reason or no reason, in respect of any licensee, group of licensees or all licensees including as may be applicable any sub-licensees. ### Section 5: General 1. This license and its interpretation and operation are governed solely by the local law. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the local arbitral tribunals as further described in our Terms of Service and you agree not to raise any jurisdictional issue if we need to enforce an arbitral award or judgment in our jurisdiction or another country. 2. Questions and comments regarding this license are welcomed and should be addressed at chat.futo.org/login/. Last updated 7 June 2023.

Robaque ,

Communism isn’t inherently authoritarian you ignorant fool

Robaque ,

Your reading comprehension seems to have failed you

Samsung joins Google in RCS shaming Apple (www.theverge.com)

Samsung has released a new video in support of Google’s #GetTheMessage campaign which calls for Apple to adopt RCS or “Rich Communication Services,” the cross-platform protocol pitched as a successor to SMS that adopts many of the features found in modern messaging apps… like Apple’s own iMessage.

Robaque ,

On macs, only with image capture, which is very subpar

No wonder they make people pay so much for extra storage loool

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