Yeah, I'm sure this is actually the situation.

Honestly malls are thriving where I live, and I go regularly to extremely large crowds. I know it's a trend worldwide, but if all I knew was my local city, I would have no idea.

If you think the demand isn't there, you're out of touch. It's certainly true that many consumers are choosing digital content, but it's largely driven by it not having inconvenienced them so far too.

Everyone I'm seeing who lost the 3DS and Wii U stores, or lost access to all the games in their account, or even people who purchased media they can't download and access again is realizing how big this problem is.

Phone controls are trash though, touch screen is never good.

I mean, except it's not a conspiracy. The death of physical media is an actual tragedy because digital media is nowhere near as free.

It's to the point where much of the media I love is actually not available legally and officially for physical ownership, in some cases becoming actual lost media physically, and not available for purchase or even download anymore.

Companies absolutely want to control the consumption of media in more restrictive ways that they can control, it's not a conspiracy, it's the actual truth.

DRM, always online, digital only, subscription services - they are all designed to remove you further and further from being an owner.

Everything from video games, music, movies...all entertainment media is moving in this direction and it's an actual tragedy.

Do you know every law in your country / state / province? Honestly you're going to be ignorant of some law, somewhere, especially laws you've never heard of or thought of as a concept.

This is part of what mens rea was supposed to address, but I guess everyone likes to prosecute for the sake of being punitive.

I mean, even Google AI says it's not bad, and in concept I kinda agree. I've had bacon donuts before and it was legit

Pony Island is super creepy, love it

I took out a loan, but the service request was in my partner's name. It's my phone, but now I'm getting crazy crypto spam WhatsApp stuff in her name, along with home security spam and other spam I never got before. Since it's coming to my phone, in their name, either or both companies sold me / us out and we were getting calls within days.

You got voted down, but this is absolutely real. I speak multiple languages, but none with the nuance and clarity of context as I do English. I communicate with folks all across the world that are all English speakers, however, the variance in comprehension is so drastic that at times we're really not using the same language, even if we're using some of the same words.

If you emigrate to a country, it's a reasonable expectation that you'll learn the language. The United States doesn't technically have an official language, English is just de facto, but from a practical standpoint it's absolutely occupying that role, and will in perpetuity.

I can absolutely agree with the premise that being frustrated with language barriers isn't racism, it's an actual real and realized impediment to understanding.

Actually technically covers require royalties, whether they're on a CD, or performed at someplace seedy.

They're not the time honored tradition you think they are.