Sony makes gamers promise they won?t sue with new mandatory Terms of Service agreement (Yahoo! News)

If you agreed to the most recent PlayStation Network ToS, you may have signed away your legal rights

When Sony's PlayStation Network went down for the count earlier this year, it did more than hurt the company's reputation and scare consumers ? it led to a litany of class action lawsuits. Consumers take their privacy very seriously, and the breach ? which exposed the accounts of millions of registered users ? could have been catastrophic. Thankfully, while customer information such as name, address, birthdate, and password was compromised, it appears as though the perpetrators weren't able to utilize the information for nefarious purposes. That's not stopping Sony from taking every available measure to cover themselves in the event of a relapse, and that includes mandating that anyone who uses the PSN is unable to levy legal action against the company.

In a new, mandatory Terms of Service update, Sony has included some fine print dictating that anyone who utilizes the network is entering an agreement with Sony to refrain from joining any class action suit against the company. The class action clause is designed to ensure that anyone who wants to take on the massive company will have to do so on an individual basis, in which case Sony ? with its corporate legal team ? would likely walk out the victor. The waiver portion of the agreement reads:

ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LEGAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION. THIS PROVISION DOES NOT PRECLUDE YOUR PARTICIPATION AS A MEMBER IN A
CLASS ACTION FILED ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 20, 2011.

However, there is a way to opt out of this somewhat sneaky agreement, but to do so you'll have to put pen to paper. The ToS states that anyone who does not wish to comply with the class action clause can write a letter to Sony stating as much. The fine print reads as follows:

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 15, YOU MUST NOTIFY SNEI IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO 6080 CENTER DRIVE, 10TH FLOOR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT/ARBITRATION AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PSN ACCOUNT NUMBER, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION.

There is no other way to absolve yourself from the waiver, even though a simple email or button prompt on the PlayStation 3 would have been much more convenient. It's in Sony's favor to make the process of opting out as time consuming as possible, but keeping your legal rights in check is more than enough reason to take the time to send a letter.

(Source)

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110916/tc_yblog_technews/sony-makes-gamers-promise-they-wont-sue-with-new-terms-of-service-agreement

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Who Killed 3-D?

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Science

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The state of the universe.By Daniel EngberUpdated Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, at 7:19 AM ET

The newest 3-D movies, including Captain America, are making less on the 3-D showings than 2-DThis time last year, there were whispers among film executives and industry-watchers that 3-D cinema had worked its way down a blind alley with its pockets full of cash. That summer, the format seemed like the answer to all of Hollywood's problems: shrinking ticket sales, video piracy, home-theater viewing. The studios had put out a run of record-smashing, premium-priced blockbusters: Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, Clash of the Titans, Shrek Forever After, and Toy Story 3?a half-dozen 3-D movies that earned more than $2 billion in domestic sales. Yet by the end of August 2010, the future of cinema was starting to look unsteady on its feet. Box-office returns from the next wave of 3-D films were disappointing. The revival needed reviving.

An analysis published in Slate last August showed that the patient might already have flat-lined. The profitability of 3-D cinema had dropped since the start of the vogue several years earlier, and more recent films were barely breaking even on their 3-D screenings. Now we've got another year's worth of data?12 months' more evidence that the medium is in peril. According to a New York Times business story from June, waning enthusiasm for 3-D has brought the vultures circling, with shares of DreamWorks Animation, the studio managed by Jeffrey "2-D films are going to be a thing of the past" Katzenberg, in free-fall. Shares of RealD, one of the big players in stereo projection technology, have also been in a tailspin, losing 70 percent of their value since May.

"Anyone would have realized he was dead, just one look at those staring eyes," says Grace Kelly's character in Dial M For Murder, the Hitchcock thriller that became one of the last mainstream 3-D features to be produced during an earlier cycle of boom and bust. By the time of that film's release in 1954, the first great fad for stereo cinema had perished without much ceremony. By all appearances, its 21^st-century descendent has met a similar fate.

Identifying the victim is easy, though. The trick is to find the culprit. Like Dial M's Inspector Hubbard, it's time to make a careful accounting of the evidence, to follow the trail of box-office numbers to their bloody end. It's been a year since 3-D first began to stagger, and we finally have some clues about what might have caused its demise. Let's line up the suspects and verify their stories against the facts. Who killed 3-D?

First things first: Check the body. Is it still warm, or has it locked up in rigor mortis? Last year, our answer was based on a simple calculation: For every movie that's released in both 2-D and 3-D, how does the revenue from the two compare on a per-theater basis? (In other words: Which format brings in more money?) When Avatar opened in 2009, it earned about $15,800 for every theater that showed the film flat, and about $26,800 for every one that showed it in 3-D. It's not unreasonable to suggest that the owner of an old-fashioned theater might have increased her revenue by $11,000?or 70 percent?by upgrading her equipment and showing Avatar in 3-D.

For all the Avatar hype, this wasn't an exceptional figure. Pretty much all of the 3-D films released in 2009 and early 2010 were earning from 50 to 100 percent more money from 3-D than 2-D on a per-theater basis. (Some movies, like Monsters vs. Aliens and The Final Destination, more than doubled their income.) The first clear sign of danger came the weekend of June 18, 2010. Toy Story 3 opened with $110.3 million in ticket sales, making it one of the most successful films in history. Yet the Pixar movie's 3-D screenings contributed relatively little to its dazzling profits. Their per-theater revenue was at minus-5 percent compared to 2-D showings?the first time in recent history that 3-D had sunk below the break-even point on a film's first weekend. Six weeks later, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore opened with $12.3 million in total sales, and a 3-D "bonus" of minus-10 percent. The monster profits from 2009 had all but disappeared by the end of the summer.

The health of the medium has only worsened. The studios have released more than two dozen major 3-D features since Cats & Dogs. A couple of those?Resident Evil: Afterlife and Tron: Legacy?seemed to benefit from 3-D showings, but the rest did not. About three-quarters of the last year's films saw negative returns from 3-D, and many landed far below the breakeven point. The newest Harry Potter and Kung Fu Panda movies, plus Captain America and Green Lantern, saw revenue adjustments of around minus-65 percent. In other words, their screenings at 3-D theaters were making just one-third as much money as regular showings.

The updated graph below shows almost every major 3-D release since the beginning of 2009. The ratio of 3-D revenue to 2-D revenue per theater is shown on the Y-axis, and the dotted red line represents the break-even point. The trend that was beginning to take shape last summer has deepened in the last few months. (Data exclude any film that opened at fewer than 1,500 locations, and films with "3-D" in the title, which only a fool would see on a flat screen.)

It might seem premature to suggest that stereo cinema has passed away, given that Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin will come out this fall, along with a stereoscopic movie from Martin Scorsese and a 3-D stoner comedy with Harold and Kumar. (We've also got the looming juggernauts of Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, tentatively set for 2014 and 2015.) Still, the downward trend in 3-D revenue numbers is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. If the medium isn't dead, it's mortally wounded.

OK, Inspector Hubbard, so whom should we blame?

1. Greedy theater chains.

The first and most obvious culprit would be the theater chains, which responded to the revival's early success by ratcheting up the 3-D premium. In the spring of 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported that AMC, Regal, and other major exhibitors were about to raise their prices by 20 percent or more, in the hopes of inflating the bubble even bigger than it was after Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.

Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Daniel Engber is a senior editor at Slate. He can be reached at .

Still from Captain America ? Marvel Enterprises.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923575/news/1923575/

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Why a Good Copywriter is Important ? Bliss Internet Marketing

Why a Excellent Copywriter is Important

From embedded computer systems to flatpack furnishings, all industries demand copywriters to explain, market and sell their goods. As the company becomes inundated with poor quality copywriters making generic copy, it is more and more important to hire a committed copywriter to accurately promote your items.

Copywriters that can write articles for ?10 an hour/report are turning into far more discoverable on the net. It really is now commonplace to find pay per click (PPC) advertisements which claim to supply ?2000 writers prepared to write copy for only ?15/h.? Go on eLance, oDesk or any other freelancing B2B net web site and virtually all copywriters will be bidding on work for very low-cost charges.

But certainly, low-cost is a desired top quality? The truth is, you get what you pay for. Several of these copywriters, really typically from foreign nations and, are not native English speakers. It is apparent from their style quite usually it is practically not possible to read! Yet it is possible to find native English writers providing the very same charges. Whilst they have the benefit of speaking and writing English, grammar and spelling is usually overlooked and the completed item is somewhat unprofessional.

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In reality, it really is not feasible to make a living in Britain writing copy for that low cost. They?ll either enhance their rates, leave the marketplace rapidly or in some circumstances take the swift route and plagiarise. There are many sites with plagiarism tools on-line and I would advocate making use of them if you hire such writers.

An ideal copywriter goes beyond great spelling and grammar they are skilled in a certain field. If I have a complex industrial pc system instructional documents written, I?d search for a specialist copywriter with engineering encounter comparable to the engineers who created and built that technological innovation. Not any writer can understand that detail of expertise for ?10 an hour.

Even advertising and marketing copy drastically benefits from a writer with a background in the same field. An electronics engineer will get pleasure from writing about uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), which will reflect in the copy. A generic copywriter won?t fully value the value of UPS and therefore will not be capable to write a strong press release they deserve.

If you need a lot of rolls of copy to bulk up your internet web site for Seo purposes and aren?t bothered whether it really is great or not, then go ahead and hire low cost copywriters. Nevertheless, a lot of less costly copywriting freelancers don?t value Seo or keyword optimisation. For anything else, I can?t tension adequate the advantage of a trained skilled copywriting enterprise. Skilled copy tends to make the distinction in between a sale and a loss a lawsuit and organization safety.

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Uncover Much more Product Copywriting Articles

Source: http://www.blissim.com/copywriting/why-a-good-copywriter-is-important/

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New York election: Has Obama lost the Jewish vote? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington ? Conservative provocateur Matt Drudge?s headline this morning on the election in NY-9 screamed:"Revenge of the Jews; Dem Seat Turns in NYC"

It was a fresh headline on this Washington Post article about the Republican win of a long-time Democratic seat in New York.

And in today?s Wall Street Journal, Dan Senor argues that the Democrats? special-election loss in New York City was a direct rebuke of President Obama?s Israel policy. Senor, who was the Bush administration?s top spokesman in Iraq, analyzes Obama?s ?Israel problem? in detail - and concludes that the president is hemorrhaging support among Jewish voters (who broke strongly for him in 2008).

If true, this could pose a serious threat: Jewish voters are a key voting bloc in critical swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania.

But the evidence is hardly clear-cut. Over at CNN?s religion blog, Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg is quoted today as saying that Obama?s recent drop in approval ratings among Jewish voters in NY-9 simply mirrored the drop in approval ratings among Democrats in general.

???Jewish voters are no different than all the voters in the district.??

And nationally, as recently as last June, Gallup found Jewish voters giving Obama a 60 percent approval rating. Among Jewish Democrats, support was at 83 percent. Notably, those numbers came in the wake of Obama?s May speech declaring that Israel?s 1967 borders should be the starting point for peace negotiations - a speech that drew criticism from some Jewish leaders.

Gallup concluded there was ?no evidence? that the policy speech had any significant impact on Jewish voters? attitudes toward Obama.

This would seem to suggest that Jewish voters - like Democrats overall - may have grown increasingly unhappy with the president after what was an indisputably rough summer (the debt-ceiling debacle, the S&P downgrade, bad jobs reports). But that doesn?t mean Obama has a unique problem with this bloc, or that he won?t necessarily be able to bring them around when the time comes.

Want more?

Read the Gallup reports here and here.

Watch House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) argue that President Obama has not been stalwart enough in his support for Israel.

Like your politics unscrambled? Check out DCDecoder.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20110914/ts_csm/409251

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Bogleheads :: View topic - "Common Sense Investing" -- A gem

"100% of the revenue from sales of this book will be applied towards promoting financial literacy through bit-sized videos, short books, the Bogleheads' wiki, and other educational projects."

"The Bogleheads have endearingly named themselves after John C. Bogle, the great champion of common sense investing. Join them online. You can find answers to common questions or books that are worth reading. You can always anonymously ask the Bogleheads discussion board--a group of friendly people that are amazingly generous with helpful feedback to people with genuine questions."

"For us, there is no better mentor than legendary mutual fund industry veteran, John C. Bogle."

"Start by tuning out all the TV shows and newsletters trying to sell you something."

"A good rule-of-thumb is that you'll need 25 times what you'll draw from your savings for 30 years of retirement."

"Invest money you'll need soon very conservatively, like in a money market fund or a bank CD--definately not in the stock market."

"A time-proven strategy for saving is to pay yourself first with that 15% automatically deposited."

"Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you'll be surprised how successful you can be."

"The benefits of starting to save and invest early are simply enormous."

"Sometimes your best investment strategy begins by paying off loans."

"Concentrating your portfolio in a few stocks maximizes your change of getting rich. Unfortunately, it also maximizes your chance of becoming poor." -- Wm. Bernstein quote

"If you are having trouble choosing what level of risk is right for you, I think a good starting place is the advice to own your age in bonds."

"Once the stocks and bonds decision is made, you can move on to the decision on what types of mutual funds you'll want to own."

"Correlations can change when viewed over different time-frames."

"Building an outstanding portfolio doesn't have to be complicated at all!"

"I believe that 98 or 99 percent of people who invest should extensively diversify and not trade. That leads them to an index fund with very low costs." -- Warren Buffett quote

"It is at least very difficult, if not impossible, to succeed at market timing over the long-run."

"For a recent 25-year period, John Bogle found that the vast majority of investors earned 5% less than the overall stock market return."

"Attempting to predict the future direction of the market is only the first of the two common timing mistakes. It's also incredibly tempting to invest in the most recent, top performing categories of stocks and bonds."

"John Bogle warns, 'Don't think you know more than the market. Nobody does.'"

"Simple random luck will make some people appear more brilliant than they really are."

"How about rebalancing every birthday: Is that market timing? No. It's an example of having a plan and sticking to it."

"Spend less time studying your investments and more time studying yourself. -- Jason Zweig quote"

"Market Return - Investor's Costs = Investor's Return."

"Over a period of 10 years, a mere 15% of the actively managed funds beat the market return."

"The grim irony of investing is that we investors as a group not only don't get what we pay for. We get precisely what we don't pay for."

"Unfortunately, some 401(k) plans do not offer any index funds at all. In that case, look for the largest, most diversified funds with the lowest fees."

"You generally want to hold bonds in a retirement account and stocks in a taxable account."

"Desired mutual fund attributes are low turnover, low cost, and widely diversified."

"Never underrate either the majesty of simplicity or its proven effectiveness as a long-term strategy for productive investing. Simplicity, indeed, is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle quote

"Your most important decision is your stock/bond ratio. It is essential that you own both."

"Any good-quality low-cost bond fund works fine. The type of bonds is far less important than the amount of bonds."

"Stocks are a long-term investment. There will be many bumps in the road: wars, recessions, high inflation, and stuff we haven't even thought of."

"International allocation for stocks commonly ranges from 20-50% of total stock value."

"Buy-and-hold, long-term, all-market-index strategies, implemented at rock-bottom cost, are the surest of all routes to the accumulation of wealth." -- Jack Bogle quote

"Successful investing involves doing just a few things right, and avoiding serious mistakes."

"Stay the course. Here's where it gets difficult for most of us."

"Stay the course means that once you've chosen your portfolio, only sell to rebalance and maintain your risk level. Never sell based on greed or fear."

"Within each category of mutual funds, expenses are the best predictor of future performance."

"In times of crisis a human instinct is: Don't just stand there! Do something!
The Boglehead principle is: Don't do something. Just stand there."

"For most everything in our lives, the usual advice is: Stay Informed.
The Boglehead principle is: Ignore the noise."

"The usual advice is: You get what you pay for.
The Boglehead principle is: We get to keep precisely what we don't pay for."

"For many things we do in life: There is a single best answer.
Bogleheads find this wisdom helpful: There are many roads to Dublin.

"Many of the books at the bookstore are meant to appeal to our bad instincts (greed and fear) and don't offer wise advice. I suggest you start with the books that are recommended by the Bogleheads."

"Find more simple portfolio ideas at the Bogleheads wiki: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_Portfolios "

"Expected returns are not a guarantee."

"Investing is a long-term proposition so it is pointless to watch the daily flutter of the stock market."

"View rebalancing as a legitimate way to execute a buy low and sell high strategy--compared to emotion-based timing decisions."

"The fewer companies that you invest with, the simpler your life becomes when you need to choose funds, do your income taxes, rebalance, or transfer money."

" www.FinancingLife.org includes free short online videos."

"I love reading John Bogle because his writing is simple, clear, and eloquent. His logic is compelling. He truly is the champion of common sense investing."

The Common Sense Strategy--10 Simple Rules: Develop a plan; start saving now; own the appropriate amount of bonds; diversify; never time the market; use index funds; keep costs low; minimize taxes; keep it simple; stick to your plan.

Source: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82369&start=0&mrr=1316017152

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Andy Whitfield dies of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; its rates have risen ...

Every four minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. In fact, there are more than half a million people in the United States living with, or in remission from, lymphoma, the most common form of blood cancer.

Each year, 1700 children diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer under 20 years in the United States. Lymphomas are divided into two main categories according to the app.

Each year, 1700 children diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer under 20 years in the United States. Lymphomas are divided into two main categories according to the app.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ? (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. The LLS mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of

Lymphoma Cancer Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the most common, but not a simple of easy kind of cancer, what killed 37-year-old actor Andy Whitfield, and that.

Source: http://whatstrendings.info/andy-whitfield-dies-of-non-hodgkins-lymphoma-its-rates-have-risen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=andy-whitfield-dies-of-non-hodgkins-lymphoma-its-rates-have-risen

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Washington Nationals vs NY Mets Live Stream MLB Baseball Game ...

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Baseball fans and supporters around the globe watch Washington Nationals vs NY Mets Live Stream todays match up. You can watch Washington Nationals vs NY Mets Live on PC match up from home with your family, if you do not have enough time to visit the stadium on some of the online site like Justin TV, Ustream, Sopcast Channels and many more sites that gives us Video Live Streaming, or visit ESPN.com for more updates on Washington Nationals vs NY Mets match up.

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