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when the copyright expires it's allowed to copy the work in question, but assum the work is on a copy protected media like a dvd, acording to the DMCA it's then still ilegal to use copy protection cracking software

Not necessarily unlawful. The DMCA (17 USC 1201) bans only circumvention acts and devices that attack "a work protected under this title" (that is, Title 17), namely a work under either a subsisting copyright or a subsisting mask work monopoly. Works whose copyrights have expired are no longer "work[s] protected under this title." This is why the Big Seven studios haven't released much (if any) public domain content on DVDs, because in that case, somebody would be able to lawfully make or import a circumvention device designed specifically to decrypt public domain works (which also happens to work on copyrighted works, wink wink nudge nudge). And no, encoding celluloid to MPEG-2 doesn't introduce enough originality to pass the 103(b) exclusion.

so how are we legaly sopoused to be able to copy a copy protected work even when the copyright has expired?

Without the Bono Act, the DMCA lacks teeth because the Mickey's Early Years DVD would contain public domain content, making DeCSS, QrPFF, and EfDTT legit.

Uhh... do you know what "regression testing" is? It's definitely not the same thing as verifying that backported features work.

A good definition is here.

Poster's Sig:
I have a theory it's impossible to prove anything, but I can't prove it.

Check out Gödel Incompleteness Theorem in your quest. I don't know if you were proving that anything interesting was unsolvable, but if you weren't then you're proof is by that nature interesting, and thus is unsolvable. This follows similar to the proof that all Natural numbers are interesting:

Consider numbers like prime numbers to be interesting, and any other number you like (maybe your favorite lucky number). Then, by the Well Ordering Principle there exists a minimum number that is un-interesting. This fact alone it atleast somewhat interesting, thus this number is now interesting. Thus there exists another number...

Therefore all Natural numbers are interesting.
[X]

Didn't the DMCA pass by voice vote, in the dead of night?

Yes, along with the Mickey Mouse Monopoly Extension Act.

Sure there are a small set of notes, and only so many ways you can arange any two notes in any tempo. After two notes, it is all in the arrangement, and composition.

The Yes! We have no bananas! case set the precedent that four notes is enough to get a songwriter sued in the United States. Given that there are only about 30,000 ways to combine four notes in the Western music theory (reply if you want a more detailed explanation of the math), it appears that the only reason songwriters haven't exhausted the melody space is that the big "all your right are belong to us" publishers have entered into cross-licensing agreements with one another. This is part of why you should write your legislators and request a repeal of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

...I got you babe...

The site's featured track is for the movie Groundhog Day, which repeatedly plays a song by Sonny and Cher (stage name of Salvatore Bono and Cherilyn LaPierre), both of whom have voiced support for perpetual copyright.

If you want to watch the movies dubbed on the site without the revenue from your DVD purchases supporting the political agenda of Hollywood, then for every dollar you spend on entertainment, make a matching contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (I'm a card-carrying member myself.)

[Alternatives to Slashdot:] Everything2.com

Everything 2 is more like Wikipedia than it is like Slashdot.
Read more: Is E2 just like Slashdot?

Juro5hin.com

You mean Kuro5hin.org. If you really want a first post, take your time; you have 20 seconds, after all.

By the way, if you cross K5 with a bit of E2, you get .5e.

Here in America, we like to say "American" instead of "USian".

I've seen it used here, and I thought it was a good way of shortening the word, did a bit of googling and came up with this entry on "USian".

Besides, like that link says, "American" doesn't always mean "Citizen of the United States".

To the point of selecting a "State", I found that the last option in that drop-down menu is a blank, but I don't know if it works, I don't like the idea of having my name recorded in some govt. database either. (So much for ranting about slashdotting the server.)

When is the code used in hardware no longer software?

When it's implemented as a netlist in silicon (e.g. from verilog or vhdl source code) rather than as instructions for

When it's eligible for mask work protection (17 USC chapter 9) rather than standard copyright.

Read the bill; an AC has posted the link to its text.

Probably referring to this. Specifically (ripped from site):

In 1971, as a freshman at Harvard University, Stallman became a hacker at the MIT AI Laboratory. In the 1980s, the hacker culture which was Stallman's life began to dissolve under the pressure of the commercialization of the software industry. In particular, other AI Lab hackers founded the company Symbolics, which actively attempted to replace the free software in the Lab with its own proprietary software. For two years, from 1983 to 1985, Stallman single-handedly duplicated the efforts of the Symbolics programmers to prevent them from gaining a monopoly on the Lab's computers.(Emphasis mine)

Me too, until I got a Cease and Desist order from the Tetris company!

As long as you don't call it TETRIS®, you should be fine. Games in and of themselves cannot be copyrighted, and falling tetrominoes aren't patented in the US or the EU. Call it something weird like BinaryBlocks Game or freepuzzlearena or something, and The Tetris Company will have no grounds for a trademark lawsuit. Sorry Henk...

If sed provides the essential capabilities for programming such a game, it probably satisfies the criterion for being Turing complete. It can be proven that any Turing-complete device can in principle do what any other Turing machine or computer can do.

Hence, it is probably possible to write an processor emulator in sed which can run an operating system and any software that exists in that operating system. It would only be a bit slow.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

An example of a combinatorial question is the following: What is the number of possible orderings of a deck of 52 playing cards? That number equals 52! (see factorial). It is the product of all the natural numbers from one to fifty-two. It may seem surprising that this number, about 8.065817517094 × 1067, is so large. That is a little bit more than 8 followed by 67 zeros. Comparing that number to some other large numbers, it is greater than the square of Avogadro's number, 6.022 × 1023, "the number of atoms, molecules, etc., in a gram mole".

Calculating the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed is the beginning of combinatorics. Let S be a set with n objects. Combinations of k objects from this set S are subsets of S having k elements each (where the order of listing the elements does not distinguish two subsets). Permutations of k objects from this set S refer to sequences of k different elements of S (where two sequences are considered different if they contain the same elements but in a different order). Formulas for the number of permutations and combinations are readily available and important throughout combinatorics.

Some very subtle patterns can be developed and some surprising theorems proved. One example of a surprising theorem is of [Frank P. Ramsey]?:

Suppose 6 people meet each other at a party. Some of those already know each other, some of them do not. It is always the case that one can find 3 people out of the 6 such that they either all know each other or that they are all strangers to each other.

The idea of finding order in random configuration gives rise to [Ramsey theory]?. Essentially this theory says (in mathematical language) that any random configuration will, if it is large enough, contain smaller configuration of a given type. For example if you try hard enough any pattern of stars can be found in the sky. It has been used to debunk claims that some patterns are especially meaningful.

See also: Finite Mathematics

HTH, HAND.

good cd -i.e. mitsui and TY - can be had for about a quarter a piece when bought in bulk (50-100packs)

Not with these proposed taxes. In Canada, the tariffs alone amount to CAD$1.23 per disc. And I have no reason to believe that the RIAA and its satellite organizations in other countries will stop at the border[1]; "harmonization" has lately been a buzzword in IP circles, especially with garbage such as the Bono Act and the WIPO Copyright Treaty (international DMCA).

[1] Strictly, this introduces a slippery-slope fallacy.

good cd -i.e. mitsui and TY - can be had for about a quarter a piece when bought in bulk (50-100packs)

Not with these proposed taxes. In Canada, the tariffs alone amount to CAD$1.23 per disc. And I have no reason to believe that the RIAA and its satellite organizations in other countries will stop at the border[1]; "harmonization" has lately been a buzzword in IP circles, especially with garbage such as the Bono Act and the WIPO Copyright Treaty (international DMCA).

[1] Strictly, this introduces a slippery-slope fallacy.

According to X.org, the first commercial release of the X-windows system was back in 1986. This was part of MIT's Project Athena which began in May 1983.

According to this page, Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released November 1985. It was announced in November 1983, clearly as a response to Apple's Macintosh OS.

However, according to the Wikipedia, Xerox Parc codified the WIMP paradigm (where the W stands for Windows) for their Xerox Star system released in 1981.

So, depending on how you slice it, the concept of 'windows' clearly predates MS's work on Windows and the term X-Windows refers to a product which was virtually the same age as the MS product.

That's all I got from googling around for 20 minutes. I Am Not A Historian.

I doubt this poster knows much about the world at all. (The use of the Bushesque term 'Netherlandian' says it all)

That term is closer to the truth than you may think. Netherlanders do not call themselves by any name that resembles "Dutch". To them, their country is Nederland (singular), and their language is Nederlands, which means "Netherlandish".

I doubt this poster knows much about the world at all. (The use of the Bushesque term 'Netherlandian' says it all)

That term is closer to the truth than you may think. Netherlanders do not call themselves by any name that resembles "Dutch". To them, their country is Nederland (singular), and their language is Nederlands, which means "Netherlandish".

It would be even more amusing to harness the collective power of the open source community to simplify this task. Create an online repository for text, divided up and numbered by page. Have 50 or so people buy the ebook, and let them "sign up" for 10 pages each. Their responsibility would be to copy their assigned pages into plain text, then upload the result to the repository. With a coordinated effort like this, an entire ebook could be replicated in under 30 minutes :)

Uh oh, I'd better shut up before they arrest me for discussing a circumvention method...

This reminds me the Copyrighting fire by Ian Clarke:

I was in the pub last night, and a guy asked me for a light for his cigarette. I suddenly realised that there was a demand here and money to be made, and so I agreed to light his cigarette for 10 pence, but I didn't actually give him a light, I sold him a license to burn his cigarette. My fire-license restricted him from giving the light to anybody else, after all, that fire was my property. He was drunk, and dismissing me as a loony, but accepted my fire (and by implication the licence which governed its use) anyway. Of course in a matter of minutes I noticed a friend of his asking him for a light and to my outrage he gave his cigarette to his friend and pirated my fire! I was furious, I started to make my way over to that side of the bar but to my added horror his friend then started to light other people's cigarettes left, right, and centre! Before long that whole side of the bar was enjoying MY fire without paying me anything. Enraged I went from person to person grabbing their cigarettes from their hands, throwing them to the ground, and stamping on them. Strangely the door staff exhibited no respect for my property rights as they threw me out the door.

What else out there continues to climb in price year after year?

Services. Because of the wage-price spiral, the price of labor (and thus the price of services) will increase over time. This is called inflation.

Labor is an input cost and makes up part of a product's Cost Of Goods Sold. Because the costs of labor tend to increase, the costs of goods produced with such labor will also increase, especially in mature industries where there is no Moore's law to drive down prices of a particular good.

Life plus thirty was never the law in the U.S.

True, but Disney's The Jungle Book was also released outside of the U.S. in at least one market with life-plus-30 law.

Nowadays, DVD region coding prevents Joe Sixpack from playing (say) U.S. Disney's Peter Pan DVDs in the U.K., where James M. Barrie's works are still copyrighted, and Disney has to absorb the royalty in the price of the Region 2 DVD.

Disney successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, shortly after the death of the eponymous congressperson. Before the legislation, copyright lasted for the life of the author plus 50 years; the new extension tacks on an extra 25 years, plus another 20 years for works of corporate authorship and works published before 1978.

Wondering why you missed it? Congress passed it with only a voice vote (so you'll never really know who voted for it) during the Kosovo War and the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal.

The next big date to watch, then, is 2019, when copyrighted works start hitting the public domain again. Until then, the freeze is on.

[GIMP] will surpass photoshop [in the prepress department]. just wait.

Not until the patents on prepress color processing run out. This could take several years, or even longer if the pharmaceutical industry manages to get some kind of Cherilyn LaPierre Patent Term Extension Act passed.

However, GIMP (or $100 Photoshop Elements if you must) would be ideal for college students doing web work or game work, as those activities don't require CMYK or any prepress color correction beyond simple Image > Colors > Levels... and tweaking the gamma.

I have Windows XP using ClearType, and I'm using a CRT. Everything is nice and smooth

That's because XP's ClearType reverts to traditional high-quality anti-aliasing on displays whose color components aren't misaligned, such as CRTs. ClearType as we know it is a display technology designed to hop on the phase carrier created by the misalignment of the red, green, and blue planes of a typical color LCD panel to triple the apparent horizontal resolution.

More information is available here and here; free software to do ClearType processing on bitmap images is available here.

they were a hybrid endianess where the native word was big endian but the words in a long-word were swapped.

Does this mean the designers "did it all for the NUXI?" (Apologies to Limp Bizkit.) (Read More about endianness)

Your kid can still watch Pinocchio, Pinocchio, Pinocchio 2, or The Lion King. Too bad Atlantis hasn't been dubbed yet. Also boycott Sonny and Cher because of the Bono Act that they both supported and that Di$ney helped push through.

Oh my God!! You want to put thousands of computers to factoring a large prime ?

For the record, grandparent probably meant either factoring a large candidate prime that has been tested a few times against Fermat's little theorem, or factoring a product of a small number of large primes.

The obligatory jokes about the country formerly known as East Germany and Konami's Dance Dance Revolution every time Slashdot posts a story about double data rate SDRAM are getting so old that they're already in the encyclopedia.

Hey.. that doesn't sound as stupid as I thought... any pro bono lawyers?

Never say "pro bono" in the context of copyright. I know it's officially short for "pro bono publico," or "for the public good," meaning that an attorney volunteers her time, but the word "Bono" brings to mind a certain Copyright Term Extension Act. There are other terms that denote working for free as in beer without connoting perpetual control of Mickey Mouse. (Read More...)

Mate, Turing complete. As in, Alan Turing. As in the father of computing.

Read the EULA. It says RUN FROM the STORAGE DEVICE.

The app is stored on a VNC box. The app is run from a VNC box. The output is displayed on the VNC box; the Ethernet cable becomes merely a fancy keyboard and display cable. It wouldn't take a lot of effort to convince a judge of this analogy; otherwise, Microsoft could go after anybody who uses a wireless mouse or wireless display.

I wish this wasn't true, but it is.

Unless somebody has been taking to court, it's neither true nor false. USA copyright and contract law are like Schrödinger's cat in this respect: a contract is neither enforceable nor unenforceable until it a judge collapses its wave function with a strike of the gavel.

Why is Blizzard trying to shut down servers that emulate Battle.net?

Servers that emulate Battle.net facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code.

Notice how they cleverly shift the argument from one of "Why did Blizzard (successfully) attempt to shut down this project?" to "Are you saying you support piracy?" This is what we call a strawman, boys and girls.

All they've done is piss off a bunch of people and possibly "prevent" a couple of copies of their games from being the target of copyright violation. Let's see... a couple fewer sales, or the loss of much goodwill? The really determined copyright violators will still find a way, then they'll make their methods known, so they're back to where they were in the beginning with fewer fans.

Yeah, great choice, guys.

pro bono

I know that this is short for "pro bono publico," which translates literally "for the public good," or more idiomatically "volunteer." However, in the minds of many readers, the actions of the late Sonny Bono have diluted this phrase into meaning "in favor of repeated copyright term extensions." Do not use the term "pro bono" in a copyright-related context until the copyright monopoly returns to a more reasonable duration.

Or maybe they just had to wait for a patent to expire?

Good thing the big drug companies haven't scrounged up $6 million a piece to donate to Congress to get the Cherilyn LaPierre Patent Term Extension Act passed.

(See also the work of her late partner Sonny Bono, the campaign contributions that led to that law, and the lawsuit to get it overturned.)

Its funny, that the image the petition is using as its logo is the Statue of Liberty, which is a United States object. Well, I suppose it came from france.

I see lots of ignorance about this subject, so let me quote the Statue of Liberty definition from Wikipedia:

The Statue of Liberty, more formally "Liberty Enlightening the World," stands in New York Harbor as a welcome to all--returning Americans, visitors, and immigrants alike.

The statue was intended as a centennial gift, and a sign of friendship between France and the United States. According to the National Park Service:

"Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design a sculpture with the year 1876 in mind for completion, to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence. The Statue was a joint effort between America and France and it was agreed upon that the American people were to build the pedestal, and the French people were responsible for the Statue and its assembly here in the United States. However, lack of funds was a problem on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In France, public fees, various forms of entertainment, and a lottery were among the methods used to raise funds. In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prize fights assisted in providing needed funds. Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such as colossal copper sculpture. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) was commissioned to design the massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework which allows the Statue's copper skin to move independently yet stand upright. Back in America, fund raising for the pedestal was going particularly slowly, so Joseph Pulitzer (noted for the Pulitzer Prize) opened up the editorial pages of his newspaper, "The World" to support the fund raising effort. Pulitzer used his newspaper to criticize both the rich who had failed to finance the pedestal construction and the middle class who were content to rely upon the wealthy to provide the funds. Pulitzer's campaign of harsh criticism was successful in motivating the people of America to donate.

"Financing for the pedestal was completed in August 1885, and pedestal construction was finished in April of 1886. The Statue was completed in France in July, 1884 and arrived in New York Harbor in June of 1885 on board the French frigate "Isere" which transported the Statue of Liberty from France to the United States. In transit, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue was re-assembled on her new pedestal in four months time. On October 28th 1886, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty took place in front of thousands of spectators. She was a centennial gift ten years late."

The statue is normally open to visitors, who arrive by ferry and can climb up into her crown, which provides a broad view of New York Harbor. A museum in the pedestal--accessible by elevator--presents the history of the statue. [The statue and island are closed in the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center.]

Extensive renovations were performed before the statue's centennial in 1986, including a new gold layer on the torch, which now shines over New York Harbor at night.

A smaller scale copy of the Statue of Liberty is placed in Paris, France, where it stands on an island in the river Seine, looking down the river, towards the Atlantic Ocean and hence towards its "larger sister" in New York.

It's called that because he helped write and sponsor the bill. It was lobbied heavily for by Disney, since their characters were approaching the public domain.

More info here.

No, it's Larry Niven's idea. See this Wikipedia article.

Then you have 100s of workers doing the actual mixing: none of them are going to be paid enough to keep their mouths shut.

The right hand knows not what the left hand is doing. The Coca-Cola formula is split up into about a dozen parts, and the people who do the mixing know only that we take x pounds of Merchandise 1, y pounds of Merchandise 2, etc. It's possible to count the number of people who know the official Coke formula on one hand, in unary. (Source: Poundstone, William, Big Secrets.)

Do people think that the owners of Coca-Cola nip into the local corner shop, buy a magic ingredient that they hide in a brown paper bag, then under cover of darkness they slip into the mixing plant and add it to the BILLIONS of litres of syrup produced each year?

Yes. The people who operate the mixers don't know what's in those "Merchandise #n" containers, and the people who create the Merchandises are under strict NDA. NDA violations are handled under trade secret law, which has a maximum penalty for infringement five times higher than that of copyright law and is more likely to result in jail time.

Coca-Cola is dominant because they use patents and trademarks and brand loyalty and strong distribution channels.

Correct, except for patents. There may be patents on the processes used at a given time to make Coca-Cola, but there's no patent on the formula because unlike copyrights, patents are not perpetual; they last only 20 years after filing.

Nah. They'll just go down the hall and ask the NT guys what they wish they would have done different when they swiped project Mica source from DEC to build NT. I swear, hasn't that company sold anything that wasn't stolen directly or blatantly plagerized? Oh yeah they have, now I remember... MS Bob.