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Slashback: Rumination, Apologies, Kisses
View the meal from which the soundbite was extracted! Jim Tyre writes: "When Slashdot reported on the preliminary injunction against Napster, and then on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' stay of that injunction, a missing piece was the actual ruling by the lower court, since it was an oral ruling from the bench, and a transcript had not yet been made available. C|Net now has the transcript here, and it makes for good reading for those interested in what the court's thinking was, not just the result."
On second thought, I'd rather not dance. Andreas writes: "As reported by the Heise Newsticker The German company CMG, which threatened to sue over the use of their registered name SAMBA, has stepped down from their plans. Nice to see at least some kind of clueness."
The article is in German, but the fish renders it quite intelligible.
If you want a kiss from CmdrTaco, you must be this big ... ClubNation writes: "Empeg have released their MP3 car player download software under the GPL. Before now you could only get an i386 binary for Linux, but now the source should build on pretty much anything with GCC or another good Posix C++ compiler with STL. I've heard on the empeg BBS that it builds out of the box on PPC and someone's working on a native Mac version.
You can get the code from their Web site or from their Geek Site which is also pretty cool and has a photo of CmdrTaco and Hemos in the photo album!"
And even though companies like Aiwa and Kenwood are selling MP3 head-units, the Empeg has one of the coolest industrial designs I've seen in anything for a long time. When I am a bazillionaire, I will put the Mark XXII in my Escort;)
So, in layman's terms, what might these projects be? Robert McMillan writes: "Linux Magazine has an interview with the brand new CEO of MandrakeSoft, Henri Poole. In it, he says that Tucows has apologized to his company about the Penguin Payola controversy. Poole also hints at some new open source projects that MandrakeSoft will be sponsoring in the next year and talks about what former CEO Jacques Le Marois will be doing now."
And now it's time for a mini, mini, mini review: invisik writes: "I got my NIC (New Internet Computer) yesterday. It's definitely a Linux box, running Netscape Navigator (browser only) 4.73, in 800x600 (can't change it). Connects easily to their ISP, your ISP, or your ethernet connection (DHCP or static IP). Has some utilities to make life easier, telnet, ssh, citrix, vnc, IRC clients. Also some games, solitaire, etc, etc. Speed is good, it doesn't really have much running on it to bog it down, though. And there's a little red light that flashed when it seen network activity--pretty cool. Not too bad for $199 if you really need some decent connectivity to your office (ssh/citrix/telnet) which I'd guess most other Internet terminal-type devices lack ..."
I'd think having the source would be great if you buy the player, and want to encode with something else besides MP3 later on (I've forgotten the name of the mp3 replacement /. has stories on from time to time).
You could also change the menus around, and really tweak the whole system however you liked!! If only you could do that with every product you buy...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Indeed, 'nature abhors a vacuum,' and 'some things are too good to last.' Napster served an important and positive market function by responding to a new media and demand. It stimulate market interest in soft copies of a vast resource of older music that existed below the threshold of profitablilty. Now that the corporate world (and thus the legal world) have taken attention to this new frontier, Napster will fade away and the Columbia Music type services will pave-over this once wild eutopia.
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
It's far too late to complain about that. I had people complaining about all the clueless newbies when I got on the Net in 1988. Face it - it's september all year round now.
That's your job, to educate. I've rescued many people from AOL, and gotten them onto free services or with real ISPs. But sometimes they are too far gone, and don't want to abandon their AOL e-mail address. Sort of like the way old prisoners become attached to the prisons they are in.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
You could probably repackage the iMac as a network computer for $325... maybe call it the iSore.
MJP
Don't try that "protecting the children" shit you people use to keep the tits and bad words off my TV. --Seanbaby
The makers of this heinous product have given the common criminals of the world a fairly powerful method of drug storage and distribution. Ziplocs not only keep the drug in, but also keep out moisture! They help you to avoid being caught by limiting the odors that the drug emits. They can be used as a protective device when smuggling drugs in your intestinal tract!
It's about time they were sued for contributory drug trafficking. Either A) They'd lose, and we'd no for sure that freedom is dead or B) They'd win, and we'd have proved the absurdity of the Napster suits. A manufacturer or programmer should be held liable for direct damage from the product. (Ziplocks coated with benzene before packaging would kill people, and it'd be there fault, but it would be your fault if you stored crack in it.) Likewise, Napster should be responsible if their software is actually a virus, but not if other people violate the law. What happened to the common carrier concept?
The way telephone companies preserve their rights and avoid liability is by not censoring anything. As soon as they do, they become liable for anything they don't censor. By simply carrying any sound, they aren't forced to be police. That's what the police are for.
Sue ziploc!! together we will win the battle against stupid lawsuits (or possibly just get lots of cash from ziploc).
Q:Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A:All my autopsies have been performed on dead peop
What i really wonder about where this box is concerned is if the bios can be convinced to boot the 4 megs of flash.
I mean, since it includes netscape and realplayer, it's probably Cyrix MediaGX or Geode based. So it's pretty plain jane stuff.
The "4 megs EEPROM" is probably some sort of linear disk-on-chip. I have access to programmers for those sorts of things at work, and 4 megs is plenty to boot a minimal (say, router & mp3) system.
Does anybody have info on the guts and the bios?
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
Historical point? In the early days Xerox was like Napster. They got a percentage of every copy made. It wasn't until the Japanese started making cheap copy machines that Xerox dropped that. See Dealers Of Lightning".
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
The judge in this case is not given a responsibility to decidde ethics, only law. Our current law does not recognize the ethical value of destroying large corporations...
In smaller cases, internet copyright infringement has already shut down smaller businesses. And the RIAA's entire point is that people are downloading songs/albums that they would have bought otherwise. That is the issue that the judge must rule on.
Fair use does not permit you to copy an entire work. Read "The letter U and the numeral 2: Fair Use and copyright." by the band Negativland. Tone Loc was sued by Van Halen for the use of a guitar riff from "Jamie's Crying". Just a riff! Not the whole song.
But it looks as though we might as well be debating the existance of God...
Actually, at the prices good computer speakers go for nowadays, I get the little bookshelf stereos and hook them up. At $200, they're pricey, but less than the Bose acoustimass....
Add ihn the Auto DJ feature or a good playlist, it's better than a CD player at parties....
Oracle is going to keep reinventing the "Network Computer" until people decide to actually start buying them, aren't they?
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Possession of legal software such as Napster should only be punished when a crime is proven to have been committed.
logan
From the ruling:
This is a bad sign: clearly Judge Patel has never actually used Napster.
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Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
In the case of Slim Jims, they are used frequently for legal purposes. It would be difficult to argue that 99.97% of Slim Jim use is illegal. A lot of criminals do use them, but it doesn't make up the overwhelming majority of use in the same way that Napster is overwhelmingly used for illegal purposes.
Napster does have a legal use, but very, very, very (very, very) few always use it legally and that's unlikely to change.
--
"I have a good idea why it's hard to verify programs. They're usually wrong." --Manuel Blum, FOCS 94
One shoplifter is a criminal.
A hundred shoplifters is a jail.
A thousand shoplifters is a prison.
A nation of shoplifters- is a new law.
Politicians forget this at their peril. Judges? Judges don't need to understand it- it's not really their place to change the rules so ostentatiously. The politicians are the ones who have to be aware of situations like this.
Expect it to continue to be a hot topic-for-the-common-man and great potential-vote-getter. Already politicians are looking askance at the RIAA side for making absurd claims (such as that the Home Recording Act means nothing and conveys no permissions to copy). Add to this the amount of cheap positive publicity available to politicians aligning themselves with that 'nation of shoplifters', many of whom may be perfect selfish one-issue voters, and there's little chance the rules will remain the same.
Considering the quantity of beer consumed by college students, pleading poverty doesn't hold a whole lot of water though. It also doesn't excuse copywrite violation, music isn't a necessity and the radio is free as are most local bands if you bother to go to the bars where they play.
> On that note, where's the ability to read email?
Er, stick a paper clip in the CDROM hole. Take out the CD. Put in whatever bootable CD you want (Linux, windows, BSD, ProDOS-86...). Intentionally or not, they've allowed the things to be easily hackable.
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"Whatever happened to fair use?"
-- Duff-Man
Particularly troubling is the Court's assertion that a personal computer does not constitute a home audio recording device. This could raise the issue of recording MP3's for personal use could come under fire. Besides that, since a PC can be (and commonly is) used to record audio, I think it falls well into the definition of a Home Audio Recording Device. If you doubt it's common, why does Windows include Sound Recorder??
That one comment is enough to make me a bit wary of the Judge's technical understanding of what is at stake in the Napster trials.
All of that said, I do think Napster et al will have a hard time showing that their primary purpose is noninfringing -- they shot themselves in the foot by advertising thier capacity to allow users to infringe. I think it would be in thier best interest to show why someone who legally owns a song (i.e. on CD) would download rather than rip an MP3. I think that case could be made: with my DSL, I can download a song much faster than I can rip and encode!
--
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
You know I had a thought about Imac's earlier and your post reminded me of it...
6 (or 7) years ago my high school (which I was a junior in way back then) finally upgraded their computers to something a bit more modern and bought newer macs to replace their aged aple IIe's. These PC's were one unit (monitor and cpu/inards in one box) and only had a keyboard that could conenct to them (they even lacked network ports). They also only had a CD-rom drive and floppy...
The thought is besides the support for USB (which had yet to be invented then) and the fact they had a floppy (which was required for the schools use, becuase of those tiny 500 Mb HD's mostly) they were just like Imacs without the funky colored cases... So why was the Imac a 'new' concept...? Funky colors? Lack of that floppy? USB?
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see those as being soemthign that make the Imac new and not the same old thing made current...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Just wanted to say, I've found when visiting non-english sites that FreeTranslation works better than the Fish. http://www.freetranslation.com for those interested.
For the last time, PIN Number and ATM Machine are redundancies!
I don't think any of them are ... what you would call without flaw.
The judge specifically denies the validity of the evidence claiming Napster harmed record sales; he also denies the validity of the evidence claiming Napster helped record sales. This evidence was not part of his decision.
You're the biased one, my friend. You misread that one quite badly.
--
It's a
-- Danny Vermin
In answer to your question, my original half-assed idea would be that, if you'd developed a product after ripping off GPL code, but added proprietary extensions to that code, you might want to distribute your derivative product as freeware, to build up a user base who could then be locked in. But you'd want to do so anonymously, so that the FSF could never prove it was you that had distributed it (proprietary derivative works for internal use are OK). So you could pay a fee to the GPLNet gateway (me) and we'd do your dirty work, untraceably. The revenue model doesn't really work, but nor does FreeNet's.
But the really important point here is the violation of my property rights. I didn't mind this spam in the past, but they've now stolen something that belongs to me. I hold VA Linux, the owner of this site, responsible.
-- the most controversial site on the Web
What musicians should do is start placing ads in the songs and charging advertisers for 'ears' -
That's Right! Just give the music away (with a small fee for cd's and physical media) but start each number off with a smartly targeted advert for a meal at McDonalds or whatever, paid for by McD, make it short enough that reaching for the advance button isn't worth it - and bury the ad in the song somewhere unexpected, so you've just d/l'd the latest Metallica track and say 1.25 minutes in the music fades a little and Lars comes on with a pitch for Spencers Gifts or something...... That oughta please everyone. Well, at least folks would have to go thru the trouble of editing it out and leaving a abrupt inexplicable transition so that it's obvious something was cut.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
The "Linmdoem" pages here should provide more than enough info on the subject.
:)
google is always your friend.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
...it's only good for Internet surfing. If they add StarOffice, you hook up a USB printer (if Linux supports them, I'm not sure, and I'm too lazy to look) and it'd be perfect as a machine for granny. They've got 490MB still left on their system CD, so it's feasable...
...wait a second...this smells fishy. Aren't they breaking GPL somehow? I know it sounds weird, but they don't give you a system SOURCE CD! RMS will be furious if he finds out about this! ;-)
All in all, that NIC is a neat idea! It even has a NIC, so you can hook up your cable modem to it as well! (Get it, the NIC has a NIC...har har har?)
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Toora Loora Toora Loo Rye Aye
Uh-huh. And a POSIX SCSI cable, I suppose?
Hint: POSIX only does Unixy standards. Language specs are generally ANSI, ISO, or both.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Slim Jims.
They were created so car theives could pop your door lock. Theives invented them, and their primary purpose was to break and enter/grand theft.
Legal. Why? Because there was a legal use; So police, emergency personel and the average schmo could unlock his car without keys.
That's the way it has worked in meatspace, and the way it should stay on the 'net.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Yes, thanks for the correction. I was typing quicker than I was thinking. The Xerox sales force got some fractional percentage of the sale price of the machine for each copy made on that machine. Each machine had a counter, and every month some guy in a crisp white shirt would "read the meter".
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Are you sure about this? I just bought a Slim Jim and tried opening someone's car door with it, and it just gets all mushed up and stuff. And it doesn't even taste good anymore. Perfectly good wasted of a buck, if you ask me.
Maybe I should have let it sit out in the sun for a week to get harder or something.
- Mike
It seems really cool... but surely there are better uses then a car!
Hell, with a 200MMX, I could use one that fit's in a drive bay! (Tho' if I could pay for one, I could pay for a better processor....)
Or how about a stereo??? How many mp3 devices are there for a stereo setup?
Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
but I want more then they offer"
Let's be a bit more complete, eh? Case, ram, etc?
8G HD, Quantum (discontinued), new: $41
Monitor, Komodo, 15", bought new with rebate: $99
M571 mobo, Alladin, SS7, new: $27
32M PC66 SDRAM, used but tested: $34
AMD K6-II 475, used but tested: $25
Cheap mid-tower: $40
Sales Tax (Michigan): $15.96
_______________________
Total: $281.96
You can do a bit better if you pick and choose.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Mine arrived Friday. Very cool: Netscape with Flash, Realplayer. It uses a PCTEL software modem, a PCnet ethernet chip, SoundPro sound chip, SiS 5597 chipset and an SiS 7001 USB chip. The boared is a mini-ATX with a 100 Watt power supply; the case is about the size of a phone book.
The coolest part is the 4MB EEPROM - it is configured as /dev/hdb1 and the CDROM is mounted as /dev/hda. You can access the BIOS on boot-up with "delete". Setting up a dial-up connection or a LAN connection is easy. It should be trivial to replace the CD-ROM with a hard drive, but there is no room in the case.
You boot up into Netscape and remain there. The NIC uses the Blackbox window manager, but it just displays a pretty graphic in the root window - no right or left click choices to make except re-start browser.
With only 190 MB of stuff on the CDROM itself, it would be easy to add programs you want, change default values, etc., and burn a new CD-ROM. There may be some copyright issues with the NIC software, however. You should even be able to make a DOS bootable CD and load DOS-based games (Quake anyone?).
I was able to boot DemoLinux on it, but without the drivers, The sound, modem asnd ethernet wouldn't work. It would be pretty easy to hack DemoLinux to include the drivers and produce a full Linux with StarOffice.
I was able to open an xterm from my main box on teh NIC and display X apps on it remotely. It does suffer from font server problems, however. IF the video is capable of 1024x768 @ 72 Hz, it could make a great X Terminal.
I hope to have some pics up at the Peninsula Linux Users Group website before long.
What if the Hokey Pokey _is_ what it's all about?
It's definately a Linux box, running Netscape Navigator ...
Cool. Now that I have a Java webserver, I'll start working on my IPO ;)
It's as mean as kicking a puppy, but I couldn't help myself.
PDHoss
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Writers get in shape by pumping irony.
That Glad, makers of Ziplock(tm) baggies, doesn't have a list of places where you can buy drugs in their baggies.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
You know, I'd pay $199 just for a nethack terminal.
--
Sony did NOT invent VHS. They invented the Betamax, which had higher quality than JVC's format. (and yes, I've done side-by-side testing, so don't try to refute the facts)
As for small Ziploc bags, their great for storing all the little figures that come with Shogun, a game no geek household should be without.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
That "bong" is spelled 'bhong' just for starters, and were designed in times when cannabis was legal. And furthermore, their primary use is for the smoking of tabac and other herbal smoking mixes. Also, in many places and states the selling of bhongs is illegal as well as possession. Here in Richmond, owning a bhong is punishable by a $500 fine. Used or not used.
The one inch square bags are also excellent for the storage of various herbs etc...
But the debate rages in another direction:
Napster from it's initiation was designed for the piracy of music, advertised itself as "The Place" to steal music, and then covered their pages and FAQ's with lines about how the recording industry can't stop them etc...
If ziplock baggies had a big starburst on the front of the package stating "Now keeps Pot 30% fresher!" and had a logo of a little Joint hanging out in his ziplock "pad", they'd probably run into some problems with the law.
Slim Jim's are not advertised as "The quickest way to Drive Off your Dream Car", neither are Paper Clips advertised for picking locks on desks, coffee filters are not advertised as the best hash filter you'll find. Even the darn horoscopes in 7-11 are not audacious enough to advertise "Glass Case makes ideal crack pipe!".
Anything can be used to commit a crime in one way or another but they do not advertise them as such because they realize that there will be repercussions. Why did Napster take off while Gnutella has lingered in the "What's that?" bin?? Because they not only based their service around the theft, they provided easy to follow instructions and tech support. That does make them accomplices.
Look at L0phtcrack... Is that advertised as the latest greatest hacking utility?? Do they have instructions for attaching to port 139 and getting the Sam DB?? No, it is a security utility for checking your own orginizations passwords. (So they say... L0phtcrack and NetBus are the best computer programs since grep and more...)
The real truth of this is that a nation of shoplifters are mad at the security guard for busting them. I bet alot of the same people bitch about not getting paid for shareware, etc... (The rest either have no thoughts worth stealing [i.e. 99.9% of the world] or believe in free software and wonder if some big company is stealing from his code.) Even those in the last category should frown on Napster for the way they "protect" copyrights etc...
If Napster had tried to copyright "A file sharing system based on a database of user files across the internet" this forum would be full of rabid protest. Now it's just a bunch of kids who don't want their cookie jar taken away.
The problem with Napster is not function, but form.
~Jason
Put an end to the post office! That's who delivers my seeds! http://www.hempqc.com
I don't think the judge is biased in the narrow sense, but rather in the larger sense in that she is a conservative (not in the sense of 'Republican') who will simply interpret the law according to previous cases and the current laws--without regard to larger issues, such as constitutional limits on the powers of copyright, or examination of how these laws are getting out of hand. And that's not all a judge's role is, in fact. Judges can and have made larger, more sweeping, statements. But Patel isn't of that mold, I suspect. Here's a pretty key statement, in my opinion:
"I cannot essentially sit by [because the infringement is hard to justify], and plaintiffs are entitled to enforce their copyright rights and not have them infringed just because the nature of the technology is such that it's too hard to identify."
This is a fairly sweeping statement. Basically, this would allow the copyright-holders to enforce their copyrights against anything. Including the net as a whole. This is another area where the judge is not, in my opinion, considering the implications of the current state of copyright law. Also, no consideration anywhere is made of the good that the Napster service provides to the community in general. Again, a conservative and narrow view, focused on money and profit, because that's the traditional focus of this kind of case. That's not entirely Patel's fault, of course.
Another thing that interests me is the fact that intent is considered, quite explicitly, by Patel. I didn't realize that the intent of the creators of a device could have such a large part to play in the legal fate of that device. If Napster had been created in all innocence of infringement issues, would it have a stronger defense? Or can intent merely be used as ammunition for the plaintiffs? It's hard, at this point, to imagine innocence or in fact almost anything being a viable argument, based on intent, for the defense. Which again is more of a systemic issue--one that Patel is not that concerned with, in my opinion. Naturally this brings up some of the weaknesses of the judicial system in general, but I won't address that here.
So, what's next? If difficulty-of-enforcement is no defense, what networks are safe? The only real defense that the net itself has is that it is distributed, that it is really really big (in terms of numbers using) and that it was around for quite some time before an suits were brought against it (which would give it some defense in the intent stakes, and make it seem more like a victim of late-coming abusive users than a collaborator in copyright infringement). But any new network is it real trouble, because it doesn't have any of those defenses, and proving innocence of intent will be almost impossible. So, the copyright rulings have an additional chilling factor on technological development as well as the already-existing one on free speech; cf. cases concerning parody in particular. It would seem that the only real hope is for some titanic ruling (such as one against the entire Internet) that dramatically shows up the deleterious effects of the current 'IP' laws, and thus brings about a radical shift in direction. I'm not holding my breath.
The final page of the transcript, showing Patel's exchanges with the attorneys, supports the above view. Patel (and I suspect she is in the mainstream of American judicial opinion here) considers Napster (and probably any other new thing that comes along and facilitates copyright infringement) to be a genie let out of the bottle. And she considers it the responsibility of Napster, the company, to put it back in the bottle. In other words, any new thing that is created that can be used to infringe copyright is going to be forced, judicially, to deal with that use or cease operation. That may sound reasonable at first, but look at it more closely and think again. Copyright infringement is very easy to do these days, due to the massive efforts put in by interested parties to extend the concept of copyright. What this ruling, and the laws that made it possible, essentially do is give to the major interested parties (MPAA, RIAA, etc.) the power to veto new technologies.
('Hey look, I've created a device that can duplicate anything! An end to poverty! An end to hunger! An end--what? You're representing who? What do you mean, an injunction?')
The NIC sounds good for a lot of thing, but has two big problems, IMO:
...
... hmmm.
1) If I'm going to have a little hang-on-network / sit on counter Anything Box, I greedily want it to play DVDs.
2) The resolution. If it can't do XGA, I dunno if it's worth it. It's just not an 800x600 world any more
It's still very tempting as a public terminal for the common room in my apt, so my two roommates can check their email from it
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
It's good to see Oracle still working on NCs. This kind of specialized device really is the way of the future. When the American consumer culture grows up and starts thinking, Oracle will be there waiting.
Think NCs are too limited to be useful? How come your TV doesn't also cut your grass? Exactly.
--Jeff
This is an absolutely awesome MP3 system for the car. It is custom built to fit neatly into a standard stereo port, plug in to your speakers, draw power, etc. Very nice job, even includes a cool little remote and some neat software for display on the little LCD.
I wonder what the use of the software is without the player. I mean, are you really gonna spend the thousands to make your own, or what? Of course, I'm always all for GPLing everything in sight, but is this really that important? There is no indication that I know of that the company is open to outside modifications of their code.
You must be easily frightened.
Many people don't want a multi-purpose, do-all, end-all device. It is often a valid idea to dedicate a box to a single function (firewall for instance). If my mom only wants to access email from home, why buy an $800.00 box that can do more than she wants when a $200.00 box will suffice?
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Would suing over the SAMBA name seem so clueless in Germany?
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Hmm... All we need is a NIC running a GNU mp3 player stapeled to my dashboard and WHAMO!
Instant car mp3 player.
Kalrand
-the voice of reason
As to the fourth factor, plaintiffs have produced evidence that Napster use harms the market for the copyrighted work in at least two ways, and we've had a number of studies, and I will spell out in the order the problems with some of those studies. I don't think any of them are, you know, what you would call without flaw.
I think that this is good proof of the judge not paying ay attention to Napster in this case. Everything I have seen from this case has involved the judge being already prejudiced, and attacking napster. Every study that has shown that Napster depletes music sales has been paid for by the RIAA. Napster does increase music sales, and the RIAA is ust trying to obfuscate the facts with their pre-paid judge. Napster, until they get an honest, objective judge, doesn't stand a chance.
There. Anyone in the current legal battles reading this? Anyone?
If you people would bother to read the RIAA response to Napster's stay request, you'd see the clear difference.
Take the Xerox lawsuit. They were sued because they aided in the duplication of copyrighted printed materials. Same with the Sony lawsuit - their VHS technology allowed the reproduction of television transmissions, and allowed the duplication of copyrighted casettes.
The difference being - Sony and Xerox sell a consumer good. At the point of sale, their involvement in the use of the product ends. They don't have a wire going into their boxes from their headquarters feeding it copyrighted stuff - they just say "Here you go, do what you want."
Napster, on the other hand, is involved during the entire process. They own the client, and they own the servers that allow the sharing of files. If they would've been more like Gnutella where client connects to another client with no middleman servers, RIAA probably wouldn't have as strong of a case. Instead, they opened themselves to liability by incorporating a business solely to aid in the distribution of copyrighted materials.
I am a musician (quite well known, so posting anonymously) and I am sick to the depth of my stomach of these criminals stealing my art and depriving me of my rightful rewards.
How would Commander Taco and Cow-Boy Neil like it if I stood outside their house giving away free crowbars to any passing criminal, so they could break into the 'geek compound' ?
Napster is exactly the same.
In the UK there is a law against 'going equipped' to comitt a crime. Posession of illegal software like napster should be punished, and punished severely. Nothing less than a custodial sentance will send the message - Music Piracy == COMMON THEFT.
The OS is on CD-ROM. Why wait when you can start market penetration, and release a patch? Sounds sort of like most games of late, doesn't it?
Sure... pick the market segment most technologically able and with the lowest income, and then whinge about the fact that they don't buy your music.
'OK... I just won't bother eating for a week, then I can buy myself a CD.'
yay.
I've got a network testing/development lab, and a
:-)
$200 little box that goes "ping" sounds amazingly useful. Does anybody know if it'll run without a keyboard (at least after it's first configured)? Can you give them static IP addresses, or do they always need DHCP?
I've got other ways to solve the problem - half a dozen doorstop Pentium60 boxes, but they take a lot of rack space, need keyboards and mice, make noise, and occasionally want to have monitors on them, and I've got enough other things to do with them that a couple of NICs would be a real asset. (Also, they're cheap enough I might be able to buy them on the "cheap parts and junk" budget instead of the "more bureaucracy required" budget
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Well, according to this portion of the census, the median net worth of all households is about $38k, but for those under 35 years, it's under $6k. There aren't any age/DPI statistics that I can find, but the age/income charts seem to agree with the net worth statements noting that in households headed by 15-24 year olds, the average income is $23,564, but in $25-34 year olds, it's $40,069. This would seem to imply that people over the college age make more money than people in college.
Remember that the "HUGE" amount of money somebody is making in college probably is fractional to what their future salary will be, and while $1k/month is a huge allowance, it's nothing compared to the salary of a college grad, especially for college grads who go to schools where $1k/month allowances are common.
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Got a NIC in the first shipment. Added a bash shell hack the first night. Posted screenshots to the website the first night. (http://www.bestkungfu.com/nicfit)
/. thread was gonna happen on it. Gee, I love when I'm right (too easy to predict /. these days)
It's a cute little box, and for the price, quite reasonable. Try to build a thin client cheaper, and you'd be hard pressed. Yes, you could add a harddrive, but WHY?
Runs Linux, quite nicely. It's a homebrew, not based on anyone else's distro. This from the horse's mouth...
The 4 meg is an IDE flash disk, and it's a little daughterboard. You could remove it and use it elsewhere (hint hint)
The guys at Thinknic are GREAT... and they have been VERY very supportive and more on the mailing list(s). Everything we could wish for and more.
As for the GPL, they ARE going to release source... already asked for it, and it's been assured to me they will be taking care of it. In fact, I told them that a
Tonight I cracked the root password for the box, so I not only own one, I 0wN one. (grin)
Personally, I want to see additional CD and flash stuff developed for it. It's happening now... check out the mailing lists for more details (egroups.com)
Larry has a hit on his hands. I can see lots of people and companies buying these. Custom CDs will be used by companies, making upgrading a breeze. Schools, hotels, libraries, other public places will benefit from a cheap and useful terminal that won't be easily broken.
Summary: Recommended. Highly. Cheap and good.
Help achieve Liberty in your lifetime - join the Free State Project - http://www.freestateproject.org
Well, if your college days were anything like mine, a keg of beer cost less than my average bartab these days. Remember $6 cases of beer. and $8 1.75 liter bottles of vodka? When I was in college it wasn't even a decision, 3.5 liters of vodka, or one cd. The vodka was crystal palace, not grey goose or vox. the "good" gin was beefeater, not sapphire. And appleton estate for rum? nah, the best we ever had was the trusty captain. I'm also quite certain that our champagne was never PJ, Moet, Dom or Cristall. And don't forget frat parties... depending on which school I pick, they were either 100% free, or about $3, all you could drink. If I drank my current beverages in college quantity, my checking account would give out long before my liver did. Remember that when you're saying that the ability to get plastered == the ability to afford cds.
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Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea. As a internet connected "appliance" for people like my grandparents (who are vaguely interested in this "newfangled internet thing") or those who have no real need or desire for a PC, but wish to get email and browse the web.
On that note, where's the ability to read email? You'd only be able to use web based email as far as I can tell with this. That seems like a mistake. How much more difficult would it have been to add the ability to use NS Communicator and have one piece of functionality added? It wouldn't have added much overhead, space, or difficulty, so far as I can tell.
Any ideas why they didn't include something of that nature?
To be honest, I've never had much success with Mandrake (I've tried to install their distro both by FTP and from a CD image numerous times and always had it fail for some non-user-related error (a crash, a failed dependency, something). However, they most unheralded project which they currently support and use has got to be Supermount. The new author (forget his name) has managed to update the patches all the way up to 2.3.99pre5, and those patches should work with the latest 2.4.0test kernels as well.
What does supermount do? Basically, it virtually mounts your filesystems and then monitors the drives to see whether or not they should be really mounted. This means that you can mount the floppy drive as supermountfs, stick in a floppy, access the drive, remove the floppy, stick in a new floppy, access the drive, etc. etc. Basic removeable media flexibility, just like other OSs. It's something that Linux desperately needs to allow it to compete in the desktop market, and it isn't a kludge like autofs.
I've used it for quite some time with no problems, but Mandrake continues to help maintain this when it needs to and their distro has included it for quite some time. I may not be able to use Mandrake, but at least I can use some of their efforts.
I use netscape 4.73 to surf the web, and I can't say I find it to be 100% reliable. The same can be said about just any browser I suppose, but is someone not familiar with computers going to figure out how to pop open a terminal and type 'killall -9 netscape'? Other than that, I'm bout ready to buy one myself!