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I think the only proper reaction to such an idiotic figure would have to be this one

That said I'm personally all for this, as the more complete idiocy and court wasting the *.A.As do the more likely we are to wake up the average Joe from their slumber and get them to realize what a total fucking joke the copyright system has become. I mean for the love of Pete Walt Disney's first works are STILL under copyright and the man has been a corpse for longer than many of us have been on this earth.

Now how in the hell does that promote "progress of the arts and sciences"? Answer: it doesn't, it is simply a way for a "leecher class" to make eternal checks off locking up the entire culture of a race. How many works have already been lost simply because nobody could legally make a copy and the copyright holders couldn't figure out a way to "monetize the IP" and just let it rot?

As someone who has tried dealing with the minefiled that is copyrights (had an idea with an engineer friend of mine to have "DOSbox...on a stick" where we would take rare old DOS games and have them preprogrammed to run on a USB stick, no muss, fuss, or hassle, run the games anywhere on any hardware) I can tell you that many of the "IP" is forever locked in a maze of dead companies and murky rights and the few we actually found would rather the games be lost forever than to get less than 80% or 6 figures for a game that frankly wasn't even a third stringer, which means that by the time the copyrights on these early games expire in another 80 years or so all copies will have long since been lost forever.

How does this enrich us as a culture? How does this help us preserve our history? We need to go back to the original 25 years and have a "use it or lose it" clause where if you don't sell a product for three years after release it goes PD so that we aren't losing our history as what is happening now. And it isn't just games, rare old bootlegs and artist's early demo releases before they made it big, early show and movies that some now defunct studio couldn't figure out how to monetize ALL of these things are being lost on a daily basis because of nothing but sheer greed by the leecher class and it needs to end.

Lenin says "a capitalist will gladly sell you the rope with which to hang him" and let's hope the greed of these leechers will help to destroy the bloodsucking business they've created. Because as it is our entire culture is being locked behind paywalls and anything the lecchers can't figure a way to make buckets of cash on is left to die, and it is frankly disgusting and wrong.

And sorry about the length, but as a musician who hopes to make a living plying his trade I find the leechers a disgusting drain and barrier to access to the world. I uploaded the singles from my last 2 bands to P2P and I'll upload this newest one as soon as we get it mastered as we want you to hear us and hopefully come to the shows, by a shirt, hell we'll even put your name in the raffle to win one of our guitars if you buy the CD (which will have a link to download the entire album in MP3 as well as some not released tracks in the liner notes) and I have NO doubt that like my last two bands we'll make damned good money by treating people right instead of dealing with the lechers. Personally the sooner that whole payola system DIAF the better.

Look it is actually very simple why Windows gets more bugs. Most bugs are made by criminals, and criminals like most predators are naturally lazy. they want to get as much as they can for as little work as they can. They target Windows because as someone who actually works on the things 6 days a week I can tell you that is where the stupid people are by a loooong shot.

Doesn't make Windows bad, I have machines that have been running nearly a decade with no bugs, just retired my Win2K after a decade bug free, etc. but for every person like me that follows best practices you probably have 100,000 that will blindly click on anything, never read a EULA, will happily click through any UAC or virus warning, as long as you offer them something they want, or spook them.

Most of the bugs I see, and I usually get to see them all, but a good 90% of the infections that cross my desk can be divided into TWO categories. The "ZOMG! U got teh viruz ZOMG! Run this "is_not_bugz.exe" to kill teh viruz ded! ZOMG!" or the "Want to watch this hot porn FOR FREE? Well you can! All you have to do is load our "is_not_bugz_iz_codec.exe" to see the hot action NOW!"

In both of those cases the vaunted Linux security would do exactly jack and squat since the user is actively helping the malware and as long as the user has the right to install then there is nothing you can do. Repos wouldn't help because they would ignore you for the malware writer, an AV can only do so much if the user is working against it. Frankly MSFT could develop the perfect security model tomorrow and as long as Sally Dipshit is allowed to install and Horny Hank Hugeass is willing to ignore all warnings to get a chance at free titties? You're still fucked.

So just be glad you're a niche Linux guys, because look at all the bugs coming out for Android. Where goes the masses goes the stupid and the bugs along with them. All you can do is give them "the look" and keep them off your PCs.

Sugar, egg and peanut butter does not turn into a cookie when you bake it. It turns into FIRE .

Odin get's my vote :)

Can I call bullshit please? Y'all want to know that "magic secret" as to why even with all that money floating around Linux don't get hacked, and Windows does? Here you go...

Uuuhhhhh....I really hate to burst your reality bubble there, bud, but there is a reason why all the Linux servers aren't getting pwned and the Windows desktops are. It is because they have these things called server admins and they are usually pretty damned smart. They are also really anal retentive when it comes to anything security related. With good reason, after all they are getting paid the big bucks to be. Meet Glenn. Say hi Glenn (I'm busy, go away) not a very social creature, Glenn is a Linux server admin. He spends most of his time on security websites and learning about the latest nasty when he isn't testing a new tweak on the test server to see if he can get an extra .05% performance under load. In his free time he enjoys black hat conferences, which his employer is happy to pay him to attend.

Now we are going to meet an average Windows desktop user. Meet Velma. say hi Velma (Hi Y'all!) isn't she sweet? Little Velma works at the local insurance agency. They love her there because she can take one look at a customer and without looking up a shred of paperwork say something like this "Hi Bob! How's your oldest girl? You know she's about ready to get her learner's permit so I've already looked up the most affordable coverage for her. Does she have really good grades? She can get an extra discount if she does" and so on. Little Velma is really good at generating sales. She is sweet and friendly and always knows your name and remembers all about your family. Everybody loves little Velma.

/cue ominous music/......But we here in the PC business have a nickname for little Velma, one that she don't know about but is well earned it is....the disaster area! Dum dum dum! That is because little Velma is the trusting kind of sort, and on a computer that equals danger. Let's watch as little Velma interacts with her friendly neighborhood PC repairman, a big but lovable biker looking chap known on the net as hairyfeet.../feet/Now Velma, we have talked about this. you shouldn't mess with email attachments, I don't care who they are from. And if it is a .zip that you have to put a password to open it is a virus and you shouldn't touch it! /Velma/ But my bff Kim sent me this! See there is her name and everything! I'm sure it will be safe! /feet/Velma look, it is an executable and NOT happy puppy pictures! Do NOT run that! /Velma/ Oh, you worry too much. My bff Kim wouldn't send me anything bad. (inputs password, runs .exe, porn popups start flooding the screen while the network gets pounded) ooops. /feet/ .......

And now you have seen an actual demonstration of why Linux is safe on servers. It is safe on servers because it is administered by guys like Glenn, say goodbye Glenn (I'm busy!) and does NOT have any Velma types mucking it up. Say goodbye Velma (Bye Y'all!). If you were to let Velma and all her friends loose on Linux if they didn't break them immediately they would become spambots in no time. It is because the malware writers have already figured out how to use a sinister concept called social engineering to target Velma and her types VERY effectively. Glenn isn't very social (Bite Me!) and is a naturally cynical creature and therefor social engineering really isn't an effective tool on his type. This is why Linux can enjoy the freedom to operate on some many servers across America without the constant malware like poor Velma gets. Tune in next week when we meet Bob, the Windows network admin, also known as the "where the hell is the damned disk?" guy.

Bingo! Give that man a ceeegar! As a PC repairman I have managed to cut down my users infection rates by a good 80-85% by changing their habits. Autoupdates enabled, Firefox instead of IE, ABP installed, updated Comodo AV/Firewall installed, but I can't get it any lower than that. Why? PEBKAC, that's why.

I have actually sat beside a user and said "Don't open that. It is a password protected .zip file sent by email. It is a virus" and had the user go "Ohhhh you worry too much! This is from my BBF Kim! She wouldn't do anything like that!" and guess what? She opened it, infected her PC with one of those lovely rogue AV programs and drug the whole network down to a crawl as it pounded the hell out of the other PCs looking for exploitable boxes. Needless to say dealing with those users I wear this face pretty much daily.

Dealing with the PEBKACs I can tell you that Linux would NOT help in those cases! I even tried it once, put a "must click on everything that has porn in the title!" user on PCLOS just to see if it would help. He had the whole machine borked so bad it wouldn't boot in under 3 days. How? He decided he didn't like Synaptic and instead Googled "Linux programs" and installed a bunch of shit from Freshmeat and ended up in dependency hell.

With Windows 7, Comodo, and Firefox I have managed to seriously cut down the infection rate of my stupidest customers, but in the end stupid is as stupid does. All the best security in the world won't help the dancing bunnies problem if your user wants to see the bunnies. No matter how foolproof you design you WILL find out there are always bigger and better fools.

Well I would argue that Vista, Win7, and to a lesser extent XP in limited user mode, is "OS safe' but the second you let the seething wall of dumbass loose upon them all the security in the world wouldn't help. Think of it this way- What makes Linux a 'safer OS'? Does it have safer default security? No argument there, but i would argue what truly makes Linux a more secure Environment is that the legions of blackhats out there know that Linux users are generally more IT savvy, more capable of working through even complex IT problems, and are FAR more security wise.

Now picture the "march of the morons" you would get if there TRULY were a "year of the Linux desktop". Suddenly Linux developers are hit by a 50 foot tidal wave of stupid, as things that NEVER should have been a security issue, as "what moron would just jump through hoops and hand out data like that?" become an every single day occurrence. Morons running as root, or handing out their root password to pretty much ANY app for ANY reason, as you said posting their IP address to Facebook, just a total natural disaster of dumbass.

I would argue because the Linux developers haven't ever had to deal with the truly mind numbing level of stupid that quite a few of my Windows customers can come up with (I needed to move the machine and just yanked and now there are wires hanging out and junk. Is that bad?) and would quickly be abandoning Linux for BSD or Plan 9 or pretty much ANY OS that the morons didn't like, and the few developers that were left would have this face permanently etched, along with ulcers the size of Texas.

Be smart Linux guys, and let MSFT keep the great unwashed masses of stupid. Trust me, after working with them for nearly 15 years you do NOT WANT them on your OS.

Is a poke really communication?

I'm thinking of people who send random pokes to their contact lists all the time, without any actual communication meaning to them.

Moreover... poking on Facebook only actually works if the person has added you as their friend.

If you went to court to get a no-contact order against someone else, why the heck would you add or keep them as your friend on facebook?

Everything status update, every message you post shows up as a communication to all your friends... so you're actually initiating contact with them!

In the case of two friends it might be completely meaningless. In the case of someone with a restraining order against the other: what do you think? Look if you're so careless that you "accidently" communicate, in any way, with someone which has a restraining order against you, then I hope the judge hands out at least one implied facepalm.

As a Windows repairman, I'll let you in on a little secret: You wanna know why Windows gets exploited and Linux don't? You really wanna know why? The answer is simple: PEBKAC, that's why. Linux guys just aren't gonna run email spam attachments, Hot_Lesbos.mp3.sh, or any of the other truly fucking dumb things Windows users will do. Since I believe in good story telling examples, I'll tell you a true story. Meet Velma.

This is little Velma, who works at an insurance company. Say hi Velma (Hi Y'all!) isn't she sweet? Everybody just loves little Velma. But here in the Windows repair biz we have a name for little Velma, and it is....dum dum dum....The disaster area! Because you see, little Velma has a BFF Kim, who is what we in the Windows repair biz call a "click whore" in that she will click on ANYTHING. Spam attachments, dubious screensaver programs, adware, you name it Kim will click it. And Velma trusts her BFF Kim, because they go on vacation together and anything bad from kim must be a trick, because Kim wouldn't do that. So lets see an actual interaction between the gruff but lovable local repairman hairyfeet and Velma, shall we?

/feet/ Velma, that is a password protect email attachment. That is a virus, do NOT open and run that! /Velma/ Ohh...you worry too much. It is from my BFF Kim, see here name on there? And it says it is happy puppy pictures. Who doesn't like puppies? /feet/ Velma it is telling you to turn off the AV before running and the file is happy_pup.jpg.exe. Do NOT turn off the AV and run that or you will bone the machine! It is a bug! /Velma/ Ohhh you....go drink some decaf. My BFF Kim would never do that to me.../turns off AV, runs program. Porn popups start spewing and network crashes/ /Velma/....Oops.....but it must be a trcik! My BFF Kim wouldn't do that! /feet/..........

And there you have it, an actual infection of an actual Windows user. Could MSFT have done anything to stop it? Short of giving Velma a thin client with no install capability no. And don't worry, Linux guys! If you manage to lure Velma and all her PEBKAC friends to your OS, I'm sure your friends at the Russian Business Network and their friends in China and Nigeria will be cooking up "Happy_pup.jpg.sh" with nice easy to follow instructions so Velma and her friends can turn Linux into a virus laden whore, just like Windows! Won't that be nice?

Ahhh.....You are making a classic mistake, did you catch it? Here it is if you didn't-you see Velma is your BOSS when you are working for her, and if you tried that kind of shit you would be fired! Let me tell you another true story. Yes I like stories, because I'm southern and that is how we do things dang it!

This is another true story illustrating your catch-22 told to me by my friend Glenn the server admin. He actually had to go over his bosses head(risking losing a seriously good paying job) to the regional director, which was a serious no-no in that company, after having this conversation with his PHB- "You have NO RIGHT to tell me who I can and can't correspond to, do you hear me? I AM YOUR BOSS and you will let through my emails from Melissa right this minute or I WILL fire you!"

Now lucky for Glenn the regional director turned out to know a thing or two about computers and had more importantly seen the papers on the spread of the Melissa worm. If he hadn't, then Glenn would have been out of a good paying job. You see the catch with dancing bunnies is the user WANTS the bunnies. Not only will they NOT thank you for blocking the bunnies, they will actually fire your ass if they can. This is why security doesn't work. It doesn't work because your friends at the RBN and their friends in China and Nigeria have long since figured out how to make the bunnies attractive. And for the Windows home user THEY are the boss and they WILL fire your ass if they can't see the bunnies.

So in the end all you can do is make this face and clean up the mess, along with cashing the check, of course. It is a capitalist country, after all ;-)

You are talking about servers which have these things called Linux administrators, or Guru if you will, that actually read security bulletins, patch on time, have IT experience, etc. This makes them a lot harder target than Velma.

Everybody, meet Velma. Say hi Velma-(Hi Y'all!)

Working in PC repair and sales since the days of Win3.xx, when dinosaurs roamed the earth as my oldest puts it, I have found Velma to be a VERY typical Windows user. She rarely if ever patches because it scares her that it might "break" something, if it wasn't for me should would be running the Norton that expired in 2004 for an AV, and worst of all, like WAY too many of my customers, she has a serious weakness. In Velma's case it is her BFF Kim. You see, her BFF Kim is what some of us in the biz call a "click whore", in that she will click on ANYTHING. Spam attachments, chain letters, you name it. And Velma will ALWAYS trust her BFF Kim no matter what to tell her. Now please enjoy an ACTUAL account of my working with Velma-

/Me/Velma, that is a password protected zip file. It is even telling you to turn off the AV before opening! It is a Virus, do NOT open that!
(Velma) Ohh...You worry too much. It is from my BFF Kim! She wouldn't send me anything bad! See, it says "happy puppy pics!" Isn't that nice?

/Me/ Velma, it isn't pics. Pics end with .jpg. That is Happ_Pup.exe! That is a virus! Do NOT run that! (Velma) Oohhh...drink decaf, it'll be fine! See it has Kim's name on it and everything! /Velma turns off and ignores AV warnings, runs .exe, popups start sprouting everywhere and the network crashes from all the activity/

(Velma) Whoops. But it MUST be a trick, because my BFF Kim wouldn't do that! /Me/.....

NOW do you see why Linux "security" wouldn't be worth a bucket of warm spit if Linux got all the Velmas of this world? If you ever do manage to get Velma and Kim and all their little buddies onto Linux your good friends at the Russian Business Network and their friends in China and Nigeria would be sending "Happ_Pup.sh" along with easy to follow instructions on how to run it. And Velma and Kim WOULD run it, no matter how many times you told them not to. It is simply the dancing bunnies problem and short of forcing Velma and all her kind to run locked down thin clients with no rights at all to their own machines Linux will NEVER fix it. Sorry.

I just wanted to say, for what it is worth thanks Mr. Beckerman. Having to deal with corps that are SO greedy that their people can get up in court and say with a straight face that you can't rip your own CD to your iPod because you didn't cut them another check, must be depressing and a PITA. I bet when you read their arguments half the time you have this face just from having to deal with all the weasel wording and corporate codewords for "we want more money!".

So for myself and all the other guys that just want to keep our DVDs on our cheap fat HDDs without breaking the law, or simply be able to use the product that we paid for without jumping through hoops like I have to do pretty much daily because their DRM schemes don't support my 64bit OS, thanks. I personally don't see how you don't keep from pulling your hair out from dealing with all the corporate weasels. It must be like being surrounded by clones of the PHB from Dilbert all day. So thanks for keeping up the fight. Maybe one day Steamboat Willie and that stupid mouse will be out of copyright and we can start to look at building sane copyright laws again.

It isn't just the training. If it were with the constant news of the latest nasty even hitting the MSM they would be at least a little cautious. The problem is you have WAY too many like Velma. You see, for Velma life outside the PC is all flowers and candy. Everybody thinks she is cute, and always have a smile for her and a "great to see you" and life is just happy puppies and sunshine.

You will just never convince a trusting sort like Velma that life inside the PC is full of nasties who would want to hurt her or give her a bad day. Especially if something is from her BFF Kim, who is one of the "click on anything you send her, has more viruses than a Bangkok whore scratching her crotch" types, because she KNOWS Kim. Kim is her friend. Kim wouldn't do anything bad to her, and if something bad comes from Kim it MUST be a trick, because "Kim just wouldn't do that!".

It is a classic case of the Dancing Bunnies, which is a disease very common in Windows and sadly there is NO known cure. You can put up 400 UAC dialog boxes, you can make them run as restricted users, and jump through a dozen hoops. If it is Velma and she thinks it is from Kim, or if it is the "hot pron" guy and he thinks it is a new sex vid, or the teen is convinced that it is the new Britney Spears song they WILL bypass all your security barricades and bone the machine. There is nothing you can do but clean up the mess.

Linux will NOT solve the dancing bunnies problem because the users WANT the bunnies. The RBN and the scammers in China and Nigeria simply haven't targeted Linux because they know the Velmas are running Windows. Put the Velmas on Linux and their "BFF Kim" would be sending them "happy puppies.sh" with step by step instructions on how to run it that they WILL follow. So Linux users, be glad that you don't have the Velmas of this world. Drop down on your knees and thank Linus and RMS that the Velmas think your OS is "weird" and won't use it. Because I don't care how good your security is, let Velma and all her little trusting friends on it, let the RBN and their friends in China and Nigeria figure out that Velma is now on Linux, and your days of being malware free will officially be history. Because you will never teach Velma and her friends not to click on that. All you can do is giver her the face and break out your repair tools.

Don't you worry, Linux user! I'm sure if the day comes that you manage to get Velma(I needed to move the machine, so I just yanked and now there are wires hanging out. Is that bad?) and all her little friends moved over from Windows I'm sure your friends at the Russian Business network will be able to design new and easy to use Linux viruses that Velma and all her friends can use to turn Linux into a virus laden hunk of malware.

It is inevitable due to the fact of a strange phenomena that goes by the weird name of PEBKAC, or the alternate name of ID10T error. this is why putting an occasional Velma(God I hope she ain't as bad as the real Velma) like your wife on Linux is safe. She is safe because she not only has you there as tech support to do all the nasty CLI stuff that may come up, but also because your friends at the Russian Business Network and their associates in Nigeria and China know that there are about 100,000 Velmas on Windows out there for every possible tuxVelma. After all as of 2006 Windows XP had over 400 million users and guys like me releasing even more on new machines being built every day.

So be glad you have your wife on Linux. I bet that means you have very few occasions to use this face which guys like me pretty much have permanently attached. BTW the Velma story was completely true. That is why Linux won't be safe from the Velmas of the world. Because it doesn't matter how many times you warn her, if Velma thinks something is from her bff Kim(who is one of those chain letter sending, click on anything you email her types) then she will ignore you and keep right on going. A classic case of The Dancing Bunnies problem, which you see way too often in the Windows world.

Uuuhhhhh....I really hate to burst your reality bubble there, bud, but there is a reason why all the Linux servers aren't getting pwned and the Windows desktops are. It is because they have these things called server admins and they are usually pretty damned smart. They are also really anal retentive when it comes to anything security related. With good reason, after all they are getting paid the big bucks to be. Meet Glenn. Say hi Glenn (I'm busy, go away) not a very social creature, Glenn is a Linux server admin. He spends most of his time on security websites and learning about the latest nasty when he isn't testing a new tweak on the test server to see if he can get an extra .05% performance under load. In his free time he enjoys black hat conferences, which his employer is happy to pay him to attend.

Now we are going to meet an average Windows desktop user. Meet Velma. say hi Velma (Hi Y'all!) isn't she sweet? Little Velma works at the local insurance agency. they love her there because she can take one look at a customer and without looking up a shred of paperwork say something like this "Hi Bob! How's your oldest girl? You know she's about ready to get her learner's permit so I've already looked up the most affordable coverage for her. Does she have really good grades? She can get an extra discount if she does" and so on. Little Velma is really good at generating sales. She is sweet and friendly and always knows your name and remembers all about your family. Everybody loves little Velma.

/cue ominous music......But we here in the PC business have a nickname for little Velma, one that she don't know about but is well earned it is....the disaster area! Dum dum dum! That is because little Velma is the trusting kind of sort, and on a computer that equals danger. Let's watch as little Velma interacts with her friendly neighborhood PC repairman, a big but lovable biker looking chap known on the net as hairyfeet.../feet/Now Velma, we have talked about this. you shouldn't mess with email attachments, I don't care who they are from. And if it is a .zip that you have to put a password to open it is a virus and you shouldn't touch it! /Velma/ But my bff Kim sent me this! See there is her name and everything! I'm sure it will be safe! /feet/Velma look, it is an executable and NOT happy puppy pictures! Do NOT run that! /Velma/ Oh, you worry too much. My bff Kim wouldn't send me anything bad. (inputs password, runs .exe, porn popups start flooding the screen while the network gets pounded) ooops. /feet/ .......

And now you have seen an actual demonstration of why Linux is safe on servers. It is safe on servers because it is administered by guys like Glenn, say goodbye Glenn (I'm busy!) and does NOT have any Velma types mucking it up. Say goodbye Velma (Bye Y'all!). If you were to let Velma and all her friends loose on Linux if they didn't break them immediately they would become spambots in no time. It is because the malware writers have already figured out how to use a sinister concept called social engineering to target Velma and her types VERY effectively. Glenn isn't very social (Bite Me!) and is a naturally cynical creature and therefor social engineering really isn't an effective tool on his type. This is why Linux can enjoy the freedom to operate on some many servers across America without the constant malware like poor Velma gets. Tune in next week when we meet Bob, the Windows network admin, also known as the "where the hell is the damned disk?" guy.

Not to be daft, and certainly not to promote a pro-patent view on /. but isn't this pretty much the exact purpose of a patent rather than the vague bland ones that seem to be making the way in droves? I say if you develop some tricky algorithm to make phones "work faster" than you should be allowed to patent it, and flog it off to the carriers.

If you ask me, it's the IBM Patent space Patent patents that we should all be worrying about. It someone invents something, power to them. If you patent something that is simply there to make it harder for others to be creative - THAT is when we should be writing to our collective members.

Why can't people just use their common sense when it comes to patents?