Slashdot Mirror

L'effect de Smashdot, the server she is crunchy.

Alternate pic of The Tool.

This broadcast flag in no way acts in their interest. Presumably with no major television producers in Alaska we can assume it isn't what his constituents want as it doesn't benefit them in any way.

I agree with you; like I said, he gets the bridge to nowhere, he sneaks in the broadcast flag for someone else. It's the pork fat that greases the engines of democracy.

What I find even weirder (trans: more hypocritical) about this is that Stevens dissed on the broadcast flag in the January hearings. Stevens, we hardly knew ye.

Your fault, Alaska! Your fault!

I refer you to this article on "why market forces cannot correct DRM"

Further.. only in commodity type markets where there are substitute goods do people actually have the choice to "buy from another vendor". Copyrighted works are a monopoly market, and for this excercise the morality of this monopoly is not what is in question.. it's the way the market is. As such you do not have the option of buying the work from a vendor with less restrictions, there is only one vendor.

The problem with the ESRB ratings is that it merely WARNS of potentially offensive content. The government "conducted undercover surveys into whether underage gamers can buy M-rated games" because they know they can't trust parents to make the right choices when it comes to deciding what games their kids should be playing. Hell, they know that most parents don't even know what games their kids are playing.

Personally, I don't know why they are going through all of this song and dance. We will all be much healthier and happier when our only videogame choices are good, wholesome Christian Games

Yes, because as everyone knows, businesses being able to more effectively communicate and accurately target the right customers is the worst thing that can happen.

Really, marketing is not a dirty word...

Yeah, we've had Dog Shit Girl and The New York Subway Wanker (and another similar).

It's going to get more and more common. Everyone ought to read David Brin's The Transparent Society.

You don't get a license, you buy that INSTANCE of that CD & that music. There is no license necessary because you are not copying the music, so there is no contract, and no agreement (or license as you put it).

The thing that stops you copying that CD is copyright law, fair use simply reduces copyright to something more workable.

There is currently an attempt by Yahoo, Microsoft and others to define every incidental cache of each program as a 'copy' in the new SIRA bill in the US.
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/05/24h_to_stop_n ew_copy.html

They are doing this, because if they can define every little incidental use as a copy, then they can force a contract on you, and if they can force a contract on you for the incidental right to read pages on the internet, or the temporary copy of the data on your CD into ram as it plays the music, then they can force any term they like on you.

Seems to me there's a good mix of Shooting the Messenger, Ignoring Inconvenient Facts from the TFA and maybe even just a hint of Fanboyism here.

I would say that the networks should really start looking into it -- in about 20 years all the politicians are going to be people who lived through the shutdown of napster, the lawsuits, and the general stupidity.

why "just not buying" cannot correct DRM

modern DRM is a result of large scale collusion and/or caving by electronics manufacturers, standards groups, hollywood, the FCC, and many other private parties.

who do you boycott? all of them? well then be prepared to live in a cave, eat by candle light, and hunt for food again.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/26/google_cache_ is_lega.html

It was in question, and brought up before a court - now the court decision explicitly makes Cacheing legal. When someone uses language like the gp did in reference to the American legal system, they're generally referring to a court ruling, not a law.

No such court decision exists for Torrent files, to the best of my knowledge.

Over on Boing Boing, they've noticed that the Captain Copyright web page has stolen a couple of sections from Wikipedia without including the required attributions. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/02/captain_copyr ight_wi.html

If I look on Wikipedia and notice that a certain event occurred in 1905, I can state that the event occurred in 1905 and cite Wikipedia as my source. Only if you are directly quoting a section out of Wikipedia and not paraphrasing do you need proper attribution. Wishful thinking and a great source of ad revenue for Boing^2, but likely wishful thinking on their part.

As pointed out on Boing Boing, Captain Copyright is apparently blessed with the power of copyright immunity. Text on his website appears to be directly lifted from Wikipedia, and of course much of the iconography has been around since before the Captain himself. Maybe the Captain's alter ego is a pirate? Arrrrrr...

--
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton

As pointed out on Boing Boing, Captain Copyright is apparently blessed with the power of copyright immunity. Text on his website appears to be directly lifted from Wikipedia, and of course much of the iconography has been around since before the Captain himself. Maybe the Captain's alter ego is a pirate? Arrrrrr...

--
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton

Boing Boing helpfully points out (SFW) the similarity between the Captain Copyright logo and Slashdot regular goatse.cx (which I will not link).

Over on Boing Boing, they've noticed that the Captain Copyright web page has stolen a couple of sections from Wikipedia without including the required attributions. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/02/captain_copyr ight_wi.html

But never mind the hypocracy - what kind of teacher uses materials in class that did not come from an independant source? Don't they have pride in their profession? Ahem - won't somebody think of the children?

while the rest of your post is disingenous lobbyist-style garbage, i want to address this statement:

"You can license the official implementation of the format, or design your own unique and independent way of accessing that format from the ground up:"

Ok, I believe there's a place for both. And people do do both and that's fine. However if I'm a studio with the rights to a film and I only want to release on a specific format which contains DRM protection, that's my right.

yes, you have a right to release on a format with DRM protection, but by your own admission, they should have a right to pick the latter path in the quote you made from my earlier post and invent their own way of decrypting this drm without having to consult you. Hollywood is denying them that right! Do you not agree with this? the DMCA section 1201 should be repealed! until it is the market is not free

Now if people don't like the DRM format and buy fewer copies i've already shot this down, but here is another more authiritative post on why DRM cannot be corrected by market forces.

So the trick with DRM is to find a format that keeps honest people honest while respecting the legitimate rights of consumers and not unduly burdening them.
--a completely fallacious comment right out of the RIAA lobbyists handbook
if theyre honest they don't need to be kept honest , and by the way i'm well educated in computer science, the last half of that is not possible. You can not make DRM in terms of what you cannot do, you have to make the default be "deny", then outline what is allowed specifically. This is not acceptable for the entire worldwide market. There will always be swaths of millions who will be "unduely burdened", because the free market is not in operation.

Strictly speaking, shortwave's point of origin is traceable. Certain number stations are known to originate from specific locations, including Havana, the Yugoslav embassy in Washington DC, Albuquerque, and the CIA spy school. Origin doesn't matter though, it's the receiver that's clandestine.

BoingBoing posted about strange 5 digit spam last week.

Such messages also appear to be manifesting themselves as blog comment spam.

The numbers are always in 5 digit blocks too, just like the ones that another poster observed occuring here on slashdot.

This is either genuinely weird, or just someone playing an elaborate prank.

I for one am intrigued, as I've seen the link-free spam messages crop up in all sorts of weird places...

it seems to me that more and more people are devoted to the bottom-line these days, you can see that in the flood of "ends justifies the means" stories floating around. they just reinforce my feeling that people are awfully concerned with "what's in it for them" at all times, and now people can carry that over to posting online...they'll do it

You say that now, but if it were to actually happen to you I very much doubt that you'd rather die than be dependent on that drug.

Who are you to decide?

My God, are we all going to have to get tatoos which say 'Do Not Resuscitate' to keep you busy bodies out of our lives?

It's nice to see a company that selling music in a drm-unencumbered format. It's basically doing things right - instead of locking your customers in (after they've bought a track, they find out lots of players can't play it).

Also, eMusic supports indie artists. Really good to see, because some artists get less then half a cent per purchase from other online music stores.

This is how my usual Google trail goes, using a research session for my university course as an example.
First site:

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/19/cuba_switchin g_to_gn.html [boingboing.net]

Cuba switching to GNU/Linux
Cuba is switching away from Windows to GNU/Linux. I have to say that I was a little surprised when I was last in Cuba and saw many of the PCs running Windows.
Cuba's director of information technology, Roberto del Puerto, says that Cuba already has approximately 1500 computers running on Linux, and is working towards replacing Windows on all state owned computers.
Link [slashdot.org]
Which leads me to: http://linux.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org]
Tony Montana writes "According to several [yahoo.com] news [cio-today.com] sites [theinquirer.net] the government of Cuba is dumping Windows in favour of Linux. Cuba's director of information technology, Roberto del Puerto, says that Cuba already has approximately 1500 computers running on Linux, and is working towards replacing Windows on all state owned computers."
And the only link out of those that's still up is http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23300 [theinquirer.net], which contains only:
ONE OF the last bastions of revolutionary socialism, Cuba is to switch all its computers over to Linux to counter the influence of the Evil Capitalistic American lackey Microsoft.
According to the government daily, Juventud Rebelde, Roberto del Puerto, director of the state office of information technology, said his office was working on a legal framework that would allow the replacement of Windows through-out Cuba. Cuba already has 1,500 computers using Linux. Although what flavour is not clear.

More here [yahoo.com].

So all this plagiarised summarisation bullshit leads me only to http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050517/tc_afp/cubaco mputersitlinux [yahoo.com]
Sorry, the page you requested was not found.
And before I know it, 15 minutes are gone and all I've learned is that 1500 computers have been switched. Thank you plagiarism. And the beatiful irony of it all is that I'm contributing to it with this post!

First site:

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/19/cuba_switchin g_to_gn.html

Cuba switching to GNU/Linux
Cuba is switching away from Windows to GNU/Linux. I have to say that I was a little surprised when I was last in Cuba and saw many of the PCs running Windows.

Cuba's director of information technology, Roberto del Puerto, says that Cuba already has approximately 1500 computers running on Linux, and is working towards replacing Windows on all state owned computers.

Link

Tony Montana writes "According to several news sites the government of Cuba is dumping Windows in favour of Linux. Cuba's director of information technology, Roberto del Puerto, says that Cuba already has approximately 1500 computers running on Linux, and is working towards replacing Windows on all state owned computers."

ONE OF the last bastions of revolutionary socialism, Cuba is to switch all its computers over to Linux to counter the influence of the Evil Capitalistic American lackey Microsoft.

According to the government daily, Juventud Rebelde, Roberto del Puerto, director of the state office of information technology, said his office was working on a legal framework that would allow the replacement of Windows through-out Cuba. Cuba already has 1,500 computers using Linux. Although what flavour is not clear.

More here.

Sorry, the page you requested was not found.

And before I know it, 15 minutes are gone and all I've learned is that 1500 computers have been switched. Thank you plagiarism. And the beatiful irony of it all is that I'm contributing to it with this post!

sorta like the philip k. dick android that, ironically enough, seems to have escaped from the grasp of its makers...

Well that explains why Rupert Murdoch, the richest & most influential media owner in the world (owner of Fox and myspace.) has ended years of Clinton hating and started cosying up to Hilary Clinton.

Utterly fascinating - he's a powerful, ruthless, pragmatic man, normally the kind of person who gets along perfectly with the current republican administration - but it looks like the christian right's prediliction for censorship is starting to ruffle his feathers.

Anyway, for anyone unlucky enough to be using internet access in a library, I'm sure the circumvention techniques good for the great firewall of china will work inside the US as well. Maybe the BoingBoing guide to evading censorware will be useful too.

Oh - on a side note, check out the spoof Rupert Murdoch Myspace Profiles

I've seen at least a few of this guy's robots...

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/23/philip_k_dick _robot.html

They seem to do everything that makes this robot a big deal. Why is it considered only the second ever?

Hey, I just heard about these amazing things called Anagram Transit Maps. They're SOOOO cool... You guys should check 'em out... I think the main website for Anagram Transit Maps is http://boingboing.net/

or you have SO that does.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/03/playdoh_scent ed_colo.html

cologne that smells like playdoh.

Perhaps it is time to take back *our* Internet, and more importantly, *MY* Internet. While I am only a generic sysadmin, and not Vinton Cerf, I did help build the Internet in what it is today. I worked at ISPs, webshops, and software huts. I took care of Internet customers. I told everyone how useful the Internet was. I posted to Usenet, sent emails, published videos, toyed with mashups, and other things. I helped make the Internet work, even if only in a teensy tiny small way.

I want to continue to experiment with everything Internet. I want to post, and send email, and publish. A tiered Internet would not make that financially possible for me, if I have to have two or three colocations to publish my stuff. Or, by not being an approved corporation that is allowed to reach certain network endpoints, how do I reach my intended audience?

So I suggest that the Internet's users take back what is rightfully theirs, and ours, and more importantly to me, mine. We can build our own infrastructure, which some groups have already started doing. Go get some wireless gear. Learn about it. Go wardriving. Have fun at a Wi-Fi shootout. Know the geeks in the area. I think the best way to take back our Internet, is to own a larger piece of it. I think the only way this can happen, is if there are more of us interested in wireless networking -- enough of an interest to start taking this more seriously.

Boy do I wish I were a better salesman sometimes.

I guess it would focus the evil in one place.

This story from BoingBoing is pretty cool, if you're interested in how Best Buy actually makes money (and how they reward their salespeople for selling customers crap they don't need): http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/04/howto_decode_ the_num.html

Bloody gonna need to bootstrap from the transistors up to be 100% safe. Don't forget to hand assemble your own compiler. Sheesh!

I think the assumption is, if you can afford a £2000 laptop basically for the sole reason that it has 3G connectivity, you can damn well afford another SIM card and mobile plan for it.

Just be glad you can even change it. I think there are some laptops here in the States, either currently in production or in the pipeline, which are designed for data use on Verizon's EV-DO network; Verizon, of course, doesn't use 3G and doesn't use SIM cards. They use CDMA and each device has a hardcoded identifier, like a MAC address. If you get into a billing dispute with Verizon ... well, tough luck. (And that's not to mention that they have TOS restrictions that are outright ridiculous.)

In the case of EV-DO laptops, you have no choice but to get a separate service plan for them, unless you can find some way to clone them using the hardware address of another phone, which is technically legal but probably in violation of every agreement you've ever signed with your provider.

Just as soon as the RIAA uses the laws they already have.

Once they go after the President:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/prez-a-m usic-thief-according-to-riaa-167611.php
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/16/gw_bushs_ipod _contai.html

And they go after the serving military members who have illegal MP3's and videos.

THEN let them have their new laws.

I thought the "Ken Burns Effect" is the effect that popular US history documentaries have on US national archives. Like the Smithsonian giving Viacom's Showtime cable station a monopoly on access to the archives. Kinda like burning the public archives, without burning the money it makes a private corporation.

Not only did Bush invent the iPod, he also shuffled the shuffle.

from what I can gather from the "InterWeb"

http://www.lpco.ca/sambulte/about.aspx
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_co ntent&task=view&id=1058&Itemid=89&nsub
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/23/hollywoods_mp _loses_.html

she is a former MP for the liberals who got lots of funding from the hollywood, and was in favour of stronger copy right.

she lost her bid for re-election.

Under French law, fashion designs are considered to be protected intellectual property, but not under American law.

Claiming copyright in works that appear in RL-in-context pictures is of course utter BS. And there I think it is a matter of liberty and freedom of expression: I may not be able to claim the chicago bean as my own work, but I sure as hell should be able to take pictures of it.

Apparently you cannot take and publish a picture you take of certain Chicago buildings either because the designers of the buildings have a copyright on the design. So the French law is not that crazy compared to Amerikan Copyright law. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/06/chicagos_publ ic_scul.html

Please, tell me you are just trying to be funny. I would rather admit I am an idiot for not realizing a joke than believe you honestly mean that. Vista? Oh, you honestly don't know, do you Here, you need all the help you can get. http://lobby4linux.com/WordPress/?p=88 and http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/26/msft_tightens _the_tr.html If you still insist on using Microsoft Operating Systems after knowing this, then you have a home waiting for you in Cuba.

Anonymizer annouced plans to support Chinese citizens for free. With plans to change, dns, ip, etc. on a regular basis to avoid blocks. Who knows if it'll work. BoingBoing covered this the other day. There are probably many others, with good info available on FreeNet.

Actually, the Flying Spaghetti Monster created these in his own image. He only put us humans (and midgits) here to cause the global warming that enables these creatures to be fruitful and multiply. Ask any marinara biologist.

Pirates haven't really been around for many years...

Really? are you certain?

Also, 'cops' & 'blogs' are poor analogies for this discussion. No-one that I'm aware of is going around using those terms to further their litigation agendas.

Look, do most people think like you and consider 'copyright infringement' to be 'piracy'? Yes, it's a fact that they do. Is that good? IMHO, no. My point is that it plays into the hands of the **AA's. Maybe that's not important to most people. Fair enough. I prefer to make the distinction because I feel that it is important.

>Starforce coders laugh at the idiots in the warez scene,
>just like most people doing free software do.
>Let those imbeciles waste time cracking protections like
>Starforce while the rest of us spend our time doing
>something that is actually useful.

Something useful? What, like encouraging people to pirate non-DRM'd games like GalCiv2?

While I'm sure if there was money, Google would censor, I'm not sure there's enough profit in Iran to bother. (they're bowing down for China in return for access to a potentially huge market)

Its another American company that's profiting (illegally) from denying Iranians uncensored net access.

There's reports on the net that Adult diaper loving Secure Computing did not sell the software to Iranian ISPs, but given the actions of other US companies when faced with trade restrictions, I have trouble believing them.

Boingboing has a guide to evading cesonsorware

Should be useful to Iranians, as the US firm Secure Computing is the company censoring Iran.

on boing boing about the relative severity of shoplifting and downloading ...

...but not without precedent. (See also: Wil Wheaton And The Big Purple Beatdown.)

Yeah, but a British guy went down for hacking for using Lynx. Here's the article. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/27/jailed_for_us ing_a_n.html
And the BBC article is here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4195339. stm

We did a case study in one of my classes. Aparently the guy wanted to see if a site was legimate for the Tsunami funds at the Red Cross. Some system administrator freaked when he saw that there was a non-standard browser appearing in the event logs. So the sys-admin traced the IP and the cops broke down his door. Aparently using a text based browser to be safe can get you in trouble. They ceased his computer equipment and if memory serves me right he went to jail.

Where you believe the Lynx user or the Red Cross for hacking, there aren't much details. But one of the things that was pretty obvious is that Lynx is what tipped the sys-admin to calling the cops on him.