Slashdot Mirror

"If you were to make the choice between SIP and Skype for Linux, which one would you go for?"

IAX I guess...

if all of that stuff was legal down here. That is not so clear.

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

"And let's be honest, none of these students is actually producing anything that's inherently valuable, we're talking high school level papers here."

If that is so, change the law so that everything does not automatically get a copyright and the problem is solved. In fact, give everything an automatic copyleft instead and the problem is still solved and we get some other benefits as well.

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456
Come November - watch a novel being written in real time. Before then, chat about the idea.

Dude!

Toys that explode on the store shelves! What a top notch concept!

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456

"but do you think any player (including the iPod) can get away with allowing direct player-to-player copying without adding DRM?"

Sure, have the player look in the file itself for an appropriate CC license or similar and share those without wrapping in DRM. Doable? Not doable?

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456

So, if the contributors were not going to assign copyrights to the project, what rights or agreements would they have to have to allow the project to safely persue a dual license business model?

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Tings a nanowrimo novel with a CC BY-SA license.

Right, perhaps I erred and should have said any Free Software project with a copyleft license.

Can you pull that off with a dual license stratgegy and no assignments?

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456
Writing a novel in 30 days in an IRC channel? Can it be done? Come in watch in November 06. The result will be under a CC BY-SA license to boot.

Not that they would (would they?) but MS has enough money to pay some decent bands to make some CC BY-SA (copyleft type) music and allow that to be shared. Freely.

That would be one way to play hardball with the music boys.

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456
Novel writing as performance art?

"You didn't copy the book, so you didn't violate the copyright. The company you bought it from is guilty/liable, not you. Similarly, these grannies didn't copy the CDs they bought, so I don't see how they violated anyone's copyright."

In my country, the word is that they have made it illegal to possess such CDs and DVDs and there are large fines and jail terms to go along with it.

I think this is old news or at least a variation on such. I have heard of action in this field for years.

all the best,

drew
(da idea man)
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/258456

"'The new MySpace music store will feature vanilla MP3 downloads'

I guess that means Non-DRM'ed MP3..."

Nope, they left out the key word: ice...

Brilliant!

all the best,

drew
(da idea man)
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/85937

does anyone know of such small, low powered boxes with four distinct ethernet interfaces?

one for outside, one for inside, one for dmz and one for wireless.

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

Indeed,

I stopped trying to contribute to wikipedia after what I consider their brain dead policy resulted in my work being made to disappear.

I am from the Bahamas and I put up some pages covering topics relating to my home for which I could find no coverage.

Now, I made no attempt to write a scholarly article on the subject. My intention was to put something there with some basic information in the hopes that someone with more knowledge and ability could take the hint and improve it or replace it with a better version.

What do I find when checking back later to see if there is better info available? No information on the subject whatsoever. This is what I thought was brain dead!

The info I had put up was correct to the best of my knowledge. It is my opinion that such info on the subject was better than no info on the subject. It is also my opinion that such info on the subject is a better seed for improved info on the subject than no info on the subject. Plus, having your work "vanished" is discouraging.

So, that is my take on my experience with wikipedia and that is the result in my life when it comes to that experience.

I still like wikipedia and go there for info, but I am not giving them my time with helping on improvements as it seems that the way I work and the way they want work done doesn't mesh. If this is happening in more than isolated cases, they are missing out on a lot.

all the best,

drew
(da idea man)
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

"A patent, thus, is not meant as an inherent right for financial compensation for the inventor. A patent is a state-ordained monopoly, that excludes others of exploiting or using similar ideas, even when they have come up with those ideas independently by themselves, for a certain time-period."

Bingo, and this is why we need to stop talking like the free market can solve problems that arise in dealings with things protected by patents or copyrights.

So, if you are dealing in patent and copyright protected "items" - don't trot out free market slogans when people call for the government to step in and curb your abuses, etc.

"The big companies using software patents will be constantly trying to increase the size of their software patent empire, so the only way to compete with this is for other giant companies to enter a cold-war style arms race with other companies from which only super-powers will emerge victorious. This is a very anti-competitive environment and very destructive to innovation."

I read a comment earlier suggesting patent renewals where the renewal fee doubles (I think that was the suggestion) each year and for each patent. I then saw a link someone else provided to a .uk site discussing their renewal fee regulations which mentioned something about the fee being half if the patent allowed for anyone to get a license.

I think we should get rid of software patents alltogether, but while we still have them and for others, how about such a fee scheme where the fee goes to near zero if you commit that anyone can have a free license for the patent for the life of the patent so long as they don't bring a patent suit against you?

Low cost defensive patents for those that want them with few of the bad side effects?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamaian Nonsense

there are more site than just those there are http://www.stickam.com/, http://vsocial.com/, http://www.gofish.com/ http://grouper.comhttp//www.blip.tv/, http://eyespot.com/, http://www.bolt.com/, http://jumpcut.com/, http://ourmedia.org/, http://revver.com/ http://vimeo.com/, http://www.videoegg.com/, http://clipshack.com/, http://www.dailymotion.com/, http://castpost.com/, http://www.blinkx.com/ now what do u say about google video, youtube and the new yahoo one i say there is plent of them ou there for competitions tell us what one you like and if you thnk any of them compair to the three in the artical

"WAR ON LIGHTNING!"

Hasn't there been a war on white lightning for many years now?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

Honestly, but if you click too soon without a preview in slashdot, your wonderful ability with the language is on display for all to see and poke fun at...

I can live with that.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
I think you will find some mistakes in spelling, grammar and more at that link...

Yes, but will the tollerant tollerate the intollerant?

Just one of those things.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Seems some think I am trying to corner the market for novels... Imagine.

Let me add some thoughts here if I may.
To my mind, two things may or may not be legal here.

1. Someone in Russia buying a song from allofmp3.
          I will not comment on this.

2. Someone in the US buying a song from allofmp3 in russia and "importing" it to the US.
          I don't know if this is legal, but it seems that it would be as legal or illegal (assuming number 1 above was legal) as going to say http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and buying a book or CD or DVD that was unavailable in the US and having them ship it to you.

Would anyone care to discuss number 2 further?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Seems I am trying to corner the market in unfinished share-alike novels.

"But unless you're new to "Free Software" you know that the whole point is to compete with and hopefully end un-free software."

I am not new to Free Software, and while that may be the aim of RMS and the GPL, (I said may, so as not to have to argue that point) that is hardly the aim of every individual Free Software program.

Now, as to the distributors, who contends that all of the linux distributors are giving their distros away for free to corner the market.? I am not sure that even makes sense...

Yay, a hundred of us distros have cornered the software market worth $0.00 in revenue. Whee. Oh wait! What? You mean we really don't have the software market cornered? What? People can get the programs we distribute direct from the actual programmers? How can that be? I thought we had the market cornered...

Gotta love it.

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123

Seems I am trying to corner the market in unfinished novels.

http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

And the market in instructional videos and other markets as well.

Imagine that!

all the best,

drew

"But unless you're new to "Free Software" you know that the whole point is to compete with and hopefully end un-free software."

I am not new to Free Software, and while that may be the aim of RMS and the GPL, (I said may, so as not to have to argue that point) that is hardly the aim of every individual Free Software program.

Now, as to the distributors, who contends that all of the linux distributors are giving their distros away for free to corner the market.? I am not sure that even makes sense...

Yay, a hundred of us distros have cornered the software market worth $0.00 in revenue. Whee. Oh wait! What? You mean we really don't have the software market cornered? What? People can get the programs we distribute direct from the actual programmers? How can that be? I thought we had the market cornered...

Gotta love it.

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123

Seems I am trying to corner the market in unfinished novels.

http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

And the market in instructional videos and other markets as well.

Imagine that!

all the best,

drew

30MB MPEG4 (blendertestbuilds.de)

Update Oct 17: Here are some other mirrors and compressed versions made by the community!

24MB MPEG (BitTorrent)

9MB Xvid/Vorbis OGM

"Most home Internet use is in brief bursts -- an e-mail here, a Web page there."

'No because dialup is painfully slow, it has a very low burst speed. What many people want and are paying for $50 a month is high burst low total usage.'

See their quote which I referenced. I was on dialup for the longest. The best connection I ever got was 26,xxx and for an email here and a web page there, it was not all that bad. (Granted, not with todays fool web pages, but still.)

I used to run the tech side of a small ISP and I never said that they should not oversell, just that they should manage their bandwidth, and give users what they advertise as providing. (Not that we were all that advanced back when I was in the game.)

'But you would probably not be willing to pay for it.'

You may be right, but you never know. The sell for "broadband internet" was multimedia and streaming media iirc. Then when people want to do what was advertised, they complain and say it is gonna break the net infrastructure?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Some sort of copyleft type of novel - I don't know.

Cool, and if that is your attitude, kudos to you and I have no great beef with your choice.

That said, most who express a dislike of the GPL and love of the BSD license, seem to have no problem with someone taking BSD code and closing it off completely and yet do have a problem with someone putting code under the GPL. That I have yet to figure out.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/53984
You can blow "smoke rings" underwater?

"Most home Internet use is in brief bursts -- an e-mail here, a Web page there."

If all I need is to get an email here and a web page there, I can drop cable and go back to dialup. Right?

Come on guys, make up your minds, get you ad agencies on the right page.

'I expect to get just that. If that's not what I'm getting then don't call it that, and don't promise it!'

Bingo!!! Spot on. Oversell all you can, just manage your bandwidth well enough so that everyone gets what you advertised / agreed to when they want it.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145
Some funky stuff mixed in there...

"I'm shocked at your mistrust of the noble craft of FANTASTIC INTERNET PRIZES!!!"

It's like this. There is this hoodlum around here who doesn't have intarweb access and the nearest webshop is closed.

Still, somehow, he heard about the fantastic prize and came by and kidnapped my pet sea cucumber. Then he called me on his new-fangled cellular phone and made me do it.

Sorry, I am glad that the proper individual has claimed his prize. I, personally, would not know what to do with another prize. I win so many lotteries and such every week that I can barely keep up.

Plus, I was awarded the all time slashdot business plan and I am raking in the profits from that every day as well.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Some sort of copyleft type of novel - I don't know.

"Use a BSD style license if you want to distribute your code open source."

Uh, no thanks, I will use the GPL for my code. Why don't you use a BSD style license for yours though. Then, if it is not the non-GPL compatible version of the license, I can take what I want and include it in my GPL code. (You ought to be cool with that.)

Now, you could just use the original BSD license to prevent me from using your code in my GPL code, but what sort of game would you be playing then?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

The thing is, if you send them out blank, they magically might not be blank when introduced into evidence in court. That could pose a problem...

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
copyleft song contest in the works.

better burn fuzz on them first - don't leave them truly blank...

wwnnsnmsnm

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

[Please!, you F/OSS folks! Take pride in your skills! CHARGE - at least SOMETHING for your work! YOU are creating a supply that is outweighing demand - READ up on your ECONOMICS!!!]

I do charge for my work, good money too. If I am doing it for others.

When I do it for myself, not always. That said, the amount that I have saved versus PAYING for every last piece of code on each and every one of my boxes makes me come out ahead in any case.

Perhaps you might think a little deeper about economics yourself.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

Dude,

if you could just rewrite this in the classic four step outline, you may get the grant.

1.
2.
3. ???
4. Profit

I have taken the liberty of giving you the standard template and have even filled out parts 3 and 4 for you. Good luck. If you get the grant, I am available for sub-contracting in any number of key areas.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

[Oh, I've read it. I've release certain things under BSD, because when I give something away, I really give it away, not 'give it away but you've got to promise me shit in return.']

Ah, but when I release stuff under the GPL or under a CC BY-SA I am not giving it away, but then neither are you fully giving it away if you put it under the BSD, you would need to somehow put it in the public domain to really give it away.

So, you can distribute the software you create under terms way more restrictive than the GPL and that is cool, but if I distribute the software I write under the GPL, I am some sort of bad guy? I am not sure I follow.

(Sorry if I set up a straw man to fight unintentionally.)

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

I wonder if these same people would build on libraries or deploy on OSes that required them to pay a percentage of the revenue from their software "product"?

Hey, why not license your software such that the user has to pay a percentage of their revenue as a yearly license fee?

1. a. Don't write it unless you get a fair compensation for the labour involved.

1. b. Or unless you need to use the functionality to make your "life" better.

2. In the case of 1.b. - can you get done quicker starting with already written "Free Software" - if so, no problem.

See how easy this really is? (I know I am posting this in a reply to your post when it is really answering some of the posts further up the tree. Down the tree?)

You will see a lot of straw men being knocked over if you read many posts in this thread.

all the best,

drew
----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

[When I write a piece of open source code, that takes a bit of my time too and is sometimes boring. By RMS's logic, I should charge each user some sort of nuissance fee so that my time is better spent on more "productive pursuits" or somesuch.]

Nope, not a good parallel. You can easily charge a fee to the one asking you to write that piece of code and get closer.

Also, nothing stops you from charging for every "handover" that you make. (Or am I missing something?) Now, why would they pay for his autograph and not for a "handover" from you? Perhaps if you gave an autographed certificate of "handover" with each one you might stand more of a chance? I don't know...

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00

No problem.

One thing though. Since the markets in question already have the government deeply involved in them, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the government step in to fix problems that arise, there being no free market at work to fix the issues.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
Tings - a copyleft novel (first draft)

[Interesting Point, but I never said free market, because it's not a free market.]

If you check your post again carefully, I think you will see that I quoted you fairly accurately. You mention 'market forces' and also the "free market" (different paragraphs.)

Don't jump to too many conclusion about my hippie tendencies. I come from a family of several generations of business men and women. I have run my own business for many years now. I am not against businesses making profits. Not at all.

However, I do get a bit miffed when people call markets where the goods are protected by government granted monopolies "free markets." I get even more miffed when people selling such goods call on the government to "let the markets decide" when others call for the government to reign in their abuses.

[If you don't like the rules, your free speech allows you to lobby, protest, or heavan forbid not consume.]

Gotta love that free speech! Hey, perhaps I can even grow my own...

So, after all this... I like free markets. Goods protected by copyrights or patents do not take part in free markets. Do free market champions believe that the free market can come up with a better solution to the problem of funding innovators than the government granting of monopolies? If so, I have not seen them doing so widely. I am happy in many ways with the concept of copyrights and patents, just not with a lot of the current practice.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

[Remember, in a capitalist society, 'market forces' are meant to regulate the efficiency of the market.

What we are seeing now is the free market, trying to recorrect its inefficiency (loss of profits).]

There may be 'market forces', but, in areas where the "product" is protected by grants of copyright or patent, we certainly do not have the "free market" you refer to. This is not the "free market, trying to recorrect its inefficiency." These are markets where the goods have government granted monopolies protecting them.

Just food for thought.

all the best,

drew
----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

[I can't remember what they're called though.]

Ah, but they are so effective, they don't need to be called. They do the calling. ~;-)

all the best,

drew
---
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

"The intent of a law and what it actually allows are often totally separate things."

True, and:

The stated intent of a law and the true intent of a law are often totally separate things.

Another statement for your consideration.

all the best,

drew
---
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Some Bahamian Nonsense

"secondly it is unlikely to happen, as the largest companies and hence the largest lobbyists have only their self-interest of profits in mind,"

Indeed, but we could at least start calling them on it when they spout free market concerns when people call for government to reign them in in their abuses and almost none of their products are "free market" products to begin with. This is for those where this fact applies.

Also, finding ways to turn their natural tendencies against their natural tendencies could help.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Some Bahamian Nonsense for the enjoyment of all.

"Patent law is very bad for innovation and competiton and will thus only help to stifle an otherwise successful competitive free market capitalist economy."

The things is, things protected by copyright or patent laws don't participate in Free Market economies. They participate in economies based on government granted and government protected monopolies. This is by their very nature. Why is this so hard for the general public to see?

Do you not believe that the successful competitive free market capitalist economy can come up with a better solution to the payment for creative works than a government granted monopoly?

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/187924
Bahamian Nonsense

"It's hard to dispute empirical research... you dress for your audience or risk losing them."

You just have to be willing to lose them. You pays your money and you takes your picks.

If you have to change so much that you lose in order to win, you may as well not change and lose anyway. At least we will lose with your self respect.

So, when is it recommended for the clean cut, three pice suit set to don sandals and a ponytail wig to dress for such an audience?

all the best,

drew
--
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

"It's hard to dispute empirical research... you dress for your audience or risk losing them."

You just have to be willing to lose them. You pays your money and you takes your picks.

If you have to change so much that you lose in order to win, you may as well not change and lose anyway. At least we will lose with your self respect.

So, when is it recommended for the clean cut, three pice suit set to don sandals and a ponytail wig to dress for such an audience?

all the best,

drew
--
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

'the lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments.'

Assuming for the sake of argument that this is true, my response would be that if the clean cut, three piece suit set did more of the actual important work on the big projects, then they would be more visible and this would not be such a big problem.

Therefore, it is the clean cut, three piece suit set who are really holding back the uptake of Free Software in commercial environments.

Assuming what we did, what is wrong with the reasoning that followed?

all the best,

drew
--
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

'the lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments.'

Assuming for the sake of argument that this is true, my response would be that if the clean cut, three piece suit set did more of the actual important work on the big projects, then they would be more visible and this would not be such a big problem.

Therefore, it is the clean cut, three piece suit set who are really holding back the uptake of Free Software in commercial environments.

Assuming what we did, what is wrong with the reasoning that followed?

all the best,

drew
--
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145

Take a look at peercast as well.

And while you are at it, you may as well check freecast.

http://www.peercast.org/

http://www.freecast.org/

I have used peercast for years. I am still meaning to try freecast. One of the people involved in freecast hangs out in the #rivendell channel on freenode if you have any questions for him.

all the best,

drew

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
A link to "Tings" the first draft of a novel I wrote in November 05 and put under a CC BY-SA licence. (think copyleft)

[why not strike the problem at its root and weaken the copyrights of those who abuse them?]

Bam! Finally someone who sees what I see on this. (check my other posts.)

You price fix, you lose your copyrights. (If you are not gonna take them away completely, but just reduce the term, you should include a period right now when they are not enforceable. Immediate punishment as it were.)

As I have been saying for a long while, there are no free markets in goods protected by copyrights and patents.

(With the possible exception of copyleft only type goods.)

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
For instance, my BY-SA covered novel "Tings"

[however you're forgetting the ultimate "rule" of free-market economics: charge as high a price as people are willing to pay, not what's really fair.]

Hmmm, but when you are dealing in a product where the government is giving you a protected monopoly on said product, you are not talking free-market economics anymore.

And copyright is indeed a protected monopoly granted to you by the government. So, no free markets here.

all the best,

drew
-----
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123
A copyleft (ok, a BY-SA) book, just for you.

LOL indeed. I did and I liked it.

all the best,

drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/111123

http://ourmedia.org/ is setup for just such occassions. My video podcasts to a 100,000 people in the last month without complaint. CC friendly. And free.

"The funny thing is that the news companies just cant opt out of it...without making every other person that comes to their site sign up for an account or something similar that would effectively close the news site off to pretty much everyone and everything on the web."

robots.txt

http://www.searchengineworld.com/robots/robots_tut orial.htm

Are we claiming that google does not obey robots.txt?

all the best,

drew
------
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/58805

Cool, how about everyone require a signed agreement from reporters that the articles based on the interview be placed under a CC BY-SA license. AND that the copyright be shared between the reporter and the interviewee.

I mean, why should you talk to them unless they pay you? Unless they give you something else in return?

That could be a bit of fun don't you think?

all the best,

drew
------
http://www.ourmedia.org/user/17145