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Free Software Inflates BSA's Piracy Claims
crazney writes: "According to this article in The Age, the BSA do not count the effect of free software when calculating piracy rates. The article suggests that free software has made piracy statistics look worse and hence encourages governments to create harsher laws ... Could someone pass The BSA a cluebat?"
primvm postvm (aka first post aka fp). This post claimed for first posts. The contents of this post is subject to the Gnu General Public License (GPL) avaiblabe at www.gnu.org
That suggests there is salvageable grey matter there. Might I suggest a LART?
I once found this on the BSA homepage; I fortunately saved it on my harddrive, but I can't for my life find the link again on their homepage. They probably have removed it...
Anyway, I was both terrified and chocked when I read the message! I've included it below for you to read and judge for yourself:
----8<----8<-----8<-----
Free and open source software harms consumers by negatively impacting both the local and national economies. Fewer legitimate software sales results in lost tax revenue and decreased employment. Free software greatly hinders the development of local software industries. If software publishers cannot market their products in the legitimate market, they have no incentive to continue developing programs. Many software publishers simply won't enter markets where the free software rates are too high because they will not be able to recover development costs.
By spending money on free software, which is often manufactured by organized criminals, customers also are inadvertently stifling the growth potential of the economy and contributing to the loss of tax revenue and employment. In 1998, free software caused losses amounting to nearly $1 billion in taxes, 109,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in lost wages in the United States.
Though the national free software rate dropped slightly in 1998, free software continues to be a widespread problem for communities across the country, as evidenced by the rise in free software rates of 21 states, which caused the loss of $2 million in wages and salaries, over 56,000 jobs and over $500 thousand in tax revenue. Eight states have free software rates over 40%, and 29 states-more than half the states in the country-have free software rates above the national average of 25%.
Intellectual Property Rights
Software is considered intellectual property-the same as books, music and scientific developments, to name a few. One of the main groups of free software victims is the software developers who, through copyright laws, try to protect the integrity of what is rightfully theirs. Innovation relies on incentives, and when the creators of software programs are denied fair reward for their efforts, there is no motivation to put in the time and resources to develop newer and better products.
Higher awareness of the negative impacts of free software and stronger protection of intellectual property are essential for guarding the software and other digital works that are the driving forces of our economic prosperity in the digital age.
To find out more about the BSA organization, click www.bsa.org.
----8<----8<-----8<-----
-Guy Montevideo (Finn called him my "father") who was silent now, even as the programs he had devised crawled around us, leeching loads of processing time as they lifted bank accounts from all over the world into this dimension. The others could not see...he slunk away from Finn, and began to speak.
"You don't know what it's like-how I've been these past months. I was stuck in Faustus, the complex, after you turned me in. I didn't kmow what else to do. I made it look like I was committing suicide, and hurtled myself into the network. In here, I had complete control-I could change things there so I wouldn't be detected."
As these words spilled out from Montevideo's lips, I again felt the ache of familiarity, as it was when I first saw Finn. I knew something was wrong with his story...
"I have been-alone down here. For some time, you know?" Guy's voice cracked a bit-his eyes seem to focus on nothing in particular as he paced nervous across the park's dirt path. "But I've made myself a nice place, don't you think? Don't you think people would love to make a home down here? That's how it could be. Not just for the wealthy, either, for everybody! I could be in charge, and I mean, I've invested so much in this place, and it just keeps getting better..."
The eerie approximation of sunlight stretched across our visual field, a tacit example of the control that Guy exercised over his creation. Although breathing was not necessary in this dimension, Guy's chest pounded up and down as his lungs tried to drink in the airless atmosphere. Finn again moved closer...
"I saved your body, Guy! That's right!" Finn pleaded further, trying to touch Guy, although an invisible barrier prevented him from doing so. "You're a coma patient in a hospital far away! They'll never find you! Now Guy, just please, come back to reality."
"Bubba, you don't understand. I AM reality."
Immediately, the memory space that Finn occupied in the digital universe was marked for reuse, and the bits that made up his consciousness in the void were quickly shifted over to another task. The mind that had forged the blueprints of CONSCIOUSNESS-TRANSFER was unceremoniously extinguished. If Montevideo had truly worked alongside Bubba Finn for so long, how could he take him apart in such a manner?
As it was with the Man in the Red Hat before him, Finn's conscious mind was destroyed, leaving only data with no reference points. Without the power of his unique intepretation, the brain's data became nothing more than noise.
Another stood directly in harm's way. "Machiney? Guy? What just happened? Who was that dude?" Joel Cross, my host geek, emerged from behind a virtual bench. Joel trusted me; he allowed me to take my first steps into the human world. Without him, I might have never known the joys of Lik-M-Aid, or the mysterious mouth-pressings of Cora. I would not allow Montevideo to take him from me.
"I worked so hard on this place." Montevideo bellowed at my form. "It's so much better than anywhere else. You can't wreck it, and you can't stop me. Everyone is going to want to come here, you stupid piece of shit!" He spoke painfully, as if every microsecond wasted addressing me was sucking the life out of him.
He began to change, very slowly. His physique became even more defined, as his shirt disappeared...the tint of his flesh became a pale red, and he seemed to grow taller by about six inches. His fists clenched horizontally under his chin, and his elbows swung out, forming perfect 45-degree angles. Thunder and rain undulated out of Montevideo's form and imposed itself into the digital environs, spreading away from him in concentric circles.
"See how I can do that?" Montevideo was screaming now. "I could be sharing this with everybody! Soon they'll be forced to come here, when they realize that they don't have any money...nothing to lose. Then they'll finally see!" I ignored this outburst and concentrated nearly all my efforts on delving into his code...
"Guy! Guy! Calm down, what are you doing, dude?" Joel stood up, his form unaltered by the digital thunderstorm (the module for fluid dynamics/water effects was obviously unfinished). As he drew closer to Montevideo's form, I sifted through his furiously obfuscated code, searching for the bits that kept him in control of this realm. The code split into functions like a mountain stream sluicing into a thousand tiny rivulets...I had to find the one that lead to the top of the mountain. A million empty echoes of Guy slid across my CONSCIOUSNESS-BUFFER, distorted reflections like funhouse mirrors...where was his information hiding?
"Joel! You-you like it here, don't you? You want to live here forever, right? We can see that it's the best! Bubba didn't understand, but he was too old, didn't have the vision. This ATM thing doesn't know either. He tricked you. And now he's trying to kill me. "
Joel was said nothing-fear had gripped his tongue-I believe he realized at that very point that Guy was dangerously insane.
"Joel, you gotta believe me. I've been in the real world. I'm not a machine. And I know-that the real world SUCKS!" The storm evaporated in a microsecond, and Montevideo walked towards Joel, hands outstretched, selling his point. "They don't appreciate people like us out there. Call us geeks, laugh at us, then hire us to fix their fucking computers. You gotta be understanding me, man..." His voice slowed to a desperate croak at the end, as if the air had been completely sucked out of his lungs.
"Joel, why won't you FUCKING talk to me?" The weather effects started to oscillate now, slapping back and forth between sun and storm every few seconds. Guy's huge arms reached out, collapsing my host geek into the ground. Guy's aim was not to kill him-he could simply write him out of memory to do that. He wanted to convert my host geek to his way of thinking, and violence was the next step.
"What is it? Oh God, what do you want?" my host geek's voice had never betrayed such terror.
"What do I want? I just want you to fucking understand that this is the best place for you! Not back where you came from. This IS the real world!" I paged through dead-ends and long circles-Montevideo was still coming from nowhere.
"Okay, I'm not going anywhere! Let me go, please!" Montevideo was now pressing a steel-toed boot against Joel's head.
"You get used to this place! You fucking get used to it, you hear me? I don't wanna have to"
LIKE FUNHOUSE MIRRORS...
We were pulled together again, Guy and I, but this time, I had his ass. As I moved my undefined form closer to his muscled husk, it started to take shape. Just like Guy, without the muscles, the complexion, and all that thundergod posing.
I got him there, and I remembered up to a point. I knew the Project was going to off me, and I really hadn't finished my life quite yet. I was going to shoot my mind into their network. Problem there: Bubba's stuff was airtight-sticking the memories and stuff in a digital environment. But well, I had never fully tested the software that allowed for movement within the network...just in case, I kludged together some stuff to wrap my brain around-a web spider, therapist bot, various other shit. ...I made one last trip to the ATM.
After that, I was planning on faking my suicide and dumping my brain into the Project Faustus network next...details missing from this point on...
"You are totally fucked up!" spit the huge, muscled Guy. "You are not Guy Montevideo!" I had to get out of here with Joel-he had marked both of us as unnecessary processes-only a matter of time before the big machines chewed us up.
"Joel-when we get outta here, if you can move, I want you to go to the generator room-I'm placing an image of it in your memory now!" I yelled at Joel as Guy turned his thunderstorm into a full-fledged maelstrom. Yank the generators. I cannot stress this enough. YANK THE GENERATORS!"
"I'll do it, machiney! Fight the man!" Joel echoed as I shunted our consciousnesses out of the network, which was a lot like taking a turn at 45 miles per hour. Whiteness was the last thing I saw...
"Please, come back! This place is the best. I will show you. Please, just let me..."
--
My throat cracks with dryness as I pull the air into my lungs. I'm hooked up to a hundred beeping machines.
A nurse comes in silently, engrossed in her clipboard. She glances up at me and nearly flips out.
"Mr. Montevideo! You're up! Well, your anonymous benefactor is sure gonna be happy! I'll get a doctor in right now to look at you..."
"How long have I been under?" I manage to ask before she's completely out the door.
"Oh, I'd say about six months..."
Next week: Epilogue!
I am a sentient ATM.
bah those BSA figures have always been wrong. I mean not everyone that has a pirated program installed on their computer would necessary buy it if he couldnt get warez version. If all those billions that are lost acording to their figures were true most companyies would be bankrupt by now.
The BSA is exactly that, a Business Software Alliance. It doesn't serve the end user, it serves the corporations, the difference between this and other 'agencies' is that it makes no attempt to hide this. The BSA supports draconian measures like the DMCA, they'd probably like even stricter legislation. They represent corporate greed, they 'blackmail' companies into paying for huge site licenses to cover all the workstations and then some, or face a 'software audit' in which they'll no doubt find some violations. Have a 100 machine site license and a hundred machines, but just bought that new desktop for the boss? Lost the paperwork for the server in the corner?
Tobacco companies fund studies that find that Ciggarette smoking is less dangerous than playing golf in a thunderstorm, the BSA fudges facts to make Pirates seem like the scum of the Earth. The music industry and the 'software' industry have yet to realize that inflated prices lead to inflated piracy. Personally, i'm of the mind that if you make money with software, you should purchase that software. Some companies are alright with this as well, think of the thousands of script kiddies with their pirated versions of photoshop, they were never going to buy it in the first place.. Adobe cares about that printshop, or the graphics design place.. and most of these places wouldn't touch a pirated version of Photoshop with a ten-foot pole. They don't need the BSA to police them, at best the BSA makes a huge hassle, people decide that paying thousands of dollars a year to Microsoft for a site license is insane and switch to something free, many times open-source. Their draconian policies and scare tactics have probably won more converts than a slick red hat ad.
--
Insert Witty Sig Here
I think I read it in some /. comment a while ago - Shouldn't people be encouraging the BSA (as long as they're not lying)? The reason everyone uses proprietary data formats and protocols is because 90% of the world runs on warez copies of MS Office or whatnot. If people had to pay for that cr&p, joe public wouldn't think it's such a good deal anymore.
"We ask respondents to choose from a very long list of specific software titles, reporting which ones they regularly use. This means we identify Microsoft Word versus, say, WordPerfect," says Metafacts principal analyst Dan Ness.
Open-source competitors are not included as alternatives, he says.
So, do they assume that because x% of users say they don't have a licenced copy of one of Word/WordPerfect/etc, then some percent of this percentage MUST have an unlicenced copy of one of the above? What about people who just don't use Word Processors, or Spreadsheets, or whatever? Seems to be some fishy maths going on here! The article doesn't clarify what's going on.
... given that the BSA has defined piracy as "downloading software without paying for it" before. Having a bit of a narrow view on the world, aren't we?
Of course, software (and everything else) should be payed for. Nobody should give something of value away and not charge for it -- you're underselling if you do, and that's unfair to the good people who are trying to make a profit here. How else are we going to have a healthy ecosystem of goods and services?
In these tight times, citizens should not be harming the economy that way. All those ways in which a good transaction is still wasted today! People playing music for their friends, without purchasing records. Walking in parks with just trees and no shops. Reading books without advertising. Come on people, these models are just not viable anymore.
We should teach people that giving things away is stealing from the economy. It's simply unethical.
All generalizations are false, including this one. (Mark Twain)
This one came from K5, not the BSA's web site!
"Could someone pass The BSA a cluebat?"
:)
Okay, here you go.
It is amazing that this can happen. We could lose most of our rights as consumers because of this, based on no real facts. I only hope a judge will see through the lies in court when cases start coming to them.
It looks like these laws will go through though; you never hear headlines in the regular press about any of this sort of stuff - no-one is going to go against it that has any real clout (i.e. FSF are, as far as I can see, impotent).
We'll see if it really does affect things the way /. are saying it will though - are they going to arrest every open source user / contributer? I think that'll be hard to push in court. Though I suppose it won't be possible anyway if DRM stops it being installed / downloaded in the first place...
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
that they didn't factor in Open Source. It would have lessened their argument, and it's bad enough as is. Besides, piracy figures from the BSA and similar bodies have always been - at most - one notch above reading tea-leaves.
Black holes are where God divided by zero
-
Congratulations to all those who work on free software. You now considered to be most likely a criminal. Don't bother calling the FBI, the FBI will probably call youBy spending money on free software, which is often manufactured by organized criminals, customers also are inadvertently stifling the growth potential of the economy and contributing to the loss of tax revenue and employment.
DeeK
MAN! That was one sweet troll!
Not very believable, but just annoying enough to piss off enough zealots.
The "organized criminals" part was the best.
Mad props, boyeeeee
Seems like BSA followed usual business plan:
stage 1: Post biased annual piracy statistics in media
stage 2: ???
stage 3: PROFIT!!!
Harsh. If you purchase a product then the very least you should do is purchase the correct number of licences. This is the nature of commercial software after all.
Have a 100 machine site license and a hundred machines, but just bought that new desktop for the boss? Lost the paperwork for the server in the corner?
Then you're one hundred percent in the wrong. When you're an organisation you should be keeping detailed records (after all you probably do when it concerns money owed to you).
You can't use lazyness and sloppyness as an excuse for violating a licence. Whatever that licence is.
If someone used that excuse as a reason for violating the GPL, I doubt it would wash - so why do you think it should the other way?
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
The actual piracy rates are a wild guess as it is. Its based on the number of applications they expect to sell. Since piracy has been around for at least as long as computers, this figure has never been calculated from a static value.
While it is true that they ask people what software they use, a lot of people genuinely don't know. They'll say Word when they have StarOffice
> Could someone pass The BSA a cluebat?
Would a cluebong do instead?
I suspect the BSA is run by rampant free market ideologues. If you pressed them about their philosophy, they would probably say something like that open source software is a threat to the free enterprise system and mostly copies commercial software; while open source may not be illegal, maybe it should be.
Don't expect to be able to reason with those people. Oppose their claims with facts whereever you can, and expose the irrationality and inefficiency of their model of software distribution.
Im sorry, the article mentions Napster as a source of software?!?! Not only does napster not exist anymore, but it never shared software....
The BSA's primary interest is it's own bottom line and the continued employment of it's staff. This is more important to it than the profits of BSA members.
Thus the BSA will generate stories and statistics that ensure it's continued existance.
BSA is not that different from many commercial organisations.
I don''t think they didn't know about freeware. If you've seen your fair share of arguments, you'd know that people often like to use truth, in thier own demented way. My fist thought on this was that they intentionally left those stats in just to have thier own corporate way.
This message was brought to you by the death of 30 brain cells.
Could someone please use the cluebat on the BSA?
Humorless sig goes here.
Have someone inform BSA that the FSF office is actually using pirated word processors for all their work. Let them ask for an audit, and try to force the matter. Immediate self-lart, with lots of publicity for both parts!
In Murphy We Turst
All the laws against piracy actually benefit the Open Source community. Now the companies are starting to realize how expensive commercial software is, when they actually need to start paying the full price for all the seats. This is just what we *need*. One might even hypotethize that MS doesn't want BSA to be too strict, in order to prevent mass migration to greener pastures.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
and you will come to the following conclusion :
open source = no profit (most of the time)
piracy = no profit
since
no profit = no profit
it follows
open source = piracy
The BSA is largely based on what is called biased-interpretation statistics and false software sales projections. Piracy is/has been in the world of computer for as far back as I can remember (pre-286 days). The largest problem is that how can a group such as the BSA base some piracy satistics when there was never a time when piracy wasn't around. So it is a guess, right? Exactly.
.NET Server, MS Exchange, SQL server are only getting it for the brag-factor. What about all those people that use Photoshop for a normal image viewer? Those people wouldn't go out and pay $500 for photoshop, they just have it since its the in-thing! I mean, what's a better deal than when its free? Of cousre, why not get the most over-powered/bloated piece of software if its free (windows-user mentality)?
Furthermore, the BSA only projects how many boxes of a product might be sold or they rely on surveys in which people anonymously tell them that they have certain pieces of software and then they tell them if they are pirated or not. The problem is that most people out there downloading
The point is, if the BSA wants to skew statistics, they will. They are an organization supported by business so they will always approach this subject with a slant.
In the article they mention that Open-source solutions were not on their "list" of applications that people use; that actually makes sense - those apps are not produced by BSA-affiliated entities, so the BSA isn't interested in apps people use that aren't the IP of one of their gang.
What I would like to know is if the Open-source s/w is being lumped into those dollar estimates, what price value do they give to, say, Star Office?
Since that app isn't on their list, how can they lump it in with the values given? I would have guessed that Star Office would occasionally get the MS-Office box checked erroneously, but they are careful to mention that the applist is VERY specific, so how can this happen?
Just wondering, since this doesn't seem to make sense.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
"I suspect the BSA is run by rampant free market ideologues."
This is very humorous.
One could argue the same about RMS: he so believes in the baser nature of human beings, and the naturally seductive nature of a free market, that he must specifically prohibit people from acting how people would naturally act, without the restrictions of his license.
If he didn't believe in the idea of a "rampant free market", he wouldn't think there was such need for protection from "our baser human natures".
It's amusing how much Objectivist philosophy infests both of the self-selected "sides" in this debate. The only thing that they *don't* agree on is "who gets to be Henry Reardon".
8-).
Call me dumb, no really, go ahead I dont care, but what's a cluebat?
Does anyone know of a good product to track software licenses and software configurations per machine? i.e. Some kind of centralized database of all the software products and all the machines you have and where the software is installed to track license numbers. I know it's a pain in the ass and very complex to track compared to open source software, but we need to do it. I just thought I'd ask before I have to write something. What I've found on the web by searching have been less than stellar open source products. I'd even be willing to try a commercial product if it is any good.
I am deeply against this type way of pushing a point. Everyone send them just 1 email to let them know this is wrong. 1 email in your protest. The computer people should stand up once and a while and show them our power too. Expose the frauds!
What if someone with some free time and willing to donate some work would put a website that:
1 - calculated OOS installed based (using their same methods or the ones that'd fit us best)
2- estimated a price similar to one of closed source alternative in other plataforms, that achieved the same tasks
3 - calculate estimated total sales in a BSA likewise fashion
We would then be able to say:
* How much money corporations and customers are saving by using OSS
How much productivity is OSS contributing to the US economy
* How much taxes is OSS producing (based to the fact that 35% of all savings turn into Income Tax + all the indirect taxes collected due to the 65% remaining income beign either used for consumption or investment)
Someone could contribute another posibles good uses of these figures, to fight back BSA arguments and better inform our politicians and the media.
unfinished: (adj.)
The BSA is NOT a government agency, they have no real abilities outside of having a fleet of overpaid lawyers and a buttload of money to blackmail or assult a company with. remember these words... the Business Software Alliance is Nothing but another Company.
And this company is paid to make money for the companies that pay them. Of course they are lying about how much piracy is happening. Of course they publish false and misleading information about the amount of money lost due to piracy. Of course they include linux, BSD, Open BeOS, Samba, Open office, Abiword, Gimp and everything else that is 100% free AND popular in their numbers. It inflates them and makes the lies they publish previousally look even better.
Remember the Business Software Alliance is nothing more than a paid extortion racket. If they threaten your company you should never let them in without a judge-signed search warrant.
They ARE NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY! Unlike OSHA who is, they have ZERO legal power and ZERO rights above what you have. Fight the bastards and make them spend their money to get in your building, and then be sure to sue for lost revinue, destruction of property, and public defamation.
Thank you, This post is brought to you by the Council to stop freeware piracy. "Remember every time you pirate a freeware program you hurt...Ummm... well you hurt someone!"
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
stage 1: Post biased annual piracy statistics in media
stage 2: ???
stage 3: Imagine a beowulf cluster of these
doesn't quite work.
Just to be off topic.
Food is the #1 killer in the UK. Well, high fat and energy foods, a poor diet and lack of exercise.
Basically MacDonald's &co...
Don't worry about people smoking in public places, worry about the cheep? junk food that they promote to kids, worry about the KFC opening up around the corner. There far more lightly to kill you than smoking. (per capita)
This information is based upon UK death rates, heart disease coming out #1, followed by cancers.
Also,
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
a different type of clue. When somebody is lost you give a clue, In case of BSA like entities you take the clue, stick it on the Baseball Bat and whack it hard on the thick head, if you are very lucky the clue will go inside, if you are just lucky then you will be successful in breaking the head.
:-)
But if you are unlucky, and bat comes rebounding at you and you will be sued becoz of encouraging terrorism in the digital world
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Also,
Food is highly additive, ask someone how hard it is giving up a few calories a day. This isn't just psychological, hormones? are produced by fat cells that make you feel hungry, going on a diet is like trying to starve your-self to death!.
and finally..
Fluoride in toothpaste and added to water.
The fluoride in tooth paste and water replaces some of the calcium in your bones, over a period of time (10's of years) you bones can become brittle, this problem is most significant for women after the menopause as they start loosing bone mass.
This only becomes a problem if you fluoride intake is too high, the problem is if you swallow a pea sized blob of tooth paste then you've probably taken too much Fluoride, most people have far to much fluoride in there diet and some people may suffer from brittle bones in the future because of it.
This information is based on a 5 year old report(no link) and common knowledge, there have been no large scale trials over 40 or so years with today's level of fluoride, and yet they keep putting it in the water.
Sorry, you have your terms and law all mixed up. I can't blame you, the RIAA have been saying this sort of crap for years.
Simply because a peice of music is Copyright, it does not automatically mean that it is illegal to download that peice of music over the internet. Many smaller artists offer their music for download, either because they do not have a record contract, or as a teaser to intice you to buy their album. See mp3.com The music is still copyright; the creator automatically assumes copyright of anything the create. Allowing you to download their copyright material does not automatically remove their claims to copyright; if you take that music and attempt to pass it off as your own, you are in breach of copyright still, and the copyright holder can sue you.
Just be sure not to fall in the RIAA's trap of mis-using words and terminology in future. Its bad practice, and easily leads to confusion of an argument (Which is what the RIAA are aiming for, at a guess).
The BSA is NOT a government agency, they have no real abilities outside of having a fleet of overpaid lawyers and a buttload of money to blackmail or assult a company with.
With said fleet of lawyers and buttload of money, they can obtain court orders against other companies suspected in violation of software license and request the use of armed peace officers/LEOs in assisting in software audits.
Support or oppose their position, this image of the BSA is one they use in reality and like to keep fresh in the mind of both willful violators and those frantically searching for the software license to that copy of Excel 3.0, lost in the fourth move in seven years.
Fear is a great motivator.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
That's debatable. What isn't debatable is that the vast majority of their income is derived from the huge fines etc that they levy even if their victim then buys a site licence.
The motivation is all wrong: the BSA (and in Oz, the BSAA) stand to make more from hurting people than from helping software companies.
Here in Oz at least, when they send an audit demand, the correct answer is `ummm...' followed by some hurried quick checking. If the checking ain't too disastrous, you proceed to `OK, send your guys around when you're ready' - you see, the EULA gives them the right to audit, not the right to force you to audit.
If they do bother to come around, you make everything as difficult as possible, e.g. by only allowing them to audit a machine when the user is present (privacy regulations, you see), then arranging for a skeleton staff when they do arrive so that the minimum number of computers are available for checking, and make finding out who `owns' a computer as difficult as possible. Meanwhile, all the time, so sorry, wish we could hurry things along a little but can't break these rules.
Depending on your situation, you should be able to cut them down to six computers a day or less. Over 3 working man-weeks to audit a hundred-screen shop. Make them earn their fines. And keep harping on about your reliable Linux servers, your bulletproof OpenBSD network machines, and how you're testing Linux Terminal Server technology for your desktops and wondering whether it's worthwhile cutting over to it...
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
1) They don't need a warrant or anything like it. While I don't neessiarly think they need something like a search warrant, they should ahve to present a case to a judge showing that they have sufficient reason to believe that you do indeed have pirated software. Also, they should be limited (as in the case of a search warrant) to auditing the software packages they have evidence are pirated and nothing else.
2) You have to pay for it. When the audit happens, your people have to prove to them that you have paid for your software. This costs money. They should be required to reimburse you for all staff time spent doing the audit. After all, they are the ones that want it done.
3) There needs to be a reasonable age limit on software they can audit. I'd say no more than four yeats. You just can't keep records forever, after awhile they need to be destroyed to make space. I work for a university department that isn't too big (say 100-150 people total) and four years of our finincial records occupies a filing cabnet, several huge binders, and a number of boxes.
Also, I don't know what they BSA accepts as "proof" but I feel that it needs to be whatever kind of record your company keeps (within reason). So if you have POs that show orders for the software, they need to accept that. Many software does not come with adiquate physical documentation of a liscence and for large orginazition there are no reciepts other than the PO papework often.
Basically, from what I've read about BSA audits, I just feel they have too much authority. They should need to go to a judge, present convincing evidence that you have pirated software. All the software they want to audit must not be more than four years old. Then the judge issues an order for an audit, limited ot the software they presented a case for. Then, the BSA orders teh audit, and pays the costs. They are then reqired the accept the documentation your present, so long as it is reasonable (ie not handwritten notes).
So if an employee reported that their company was pirating Windows 98 the BSA would have to take their sworn statement to a judge, the judge would then allow an audit for Windows 98 only. If then during the course of the audit the company produces credit card recipts proving they indeed purchased all their copies, the matter is over and the BSA has to go away, after reimbursing them for audit costs.
If a system like this was the case, I'd have no real trouble. They couldn't then use audits as bully tactics and would only be able to go after people they had some reason to believe were breaking the law. I do think it's only fair given our country's presumption of innonce laws.
A fuckstick looks more like yourself.
Credits: anonymous
"Mmmm... this feels good..." I sighed.
"Shhh!" hissed Hemos. "We don't want Mark to come in here!"
True. Having Hemos's 16 year-old brother walk in on us at that moment would not be good. I didn't think he'd be too cool with finding his 12 year-old brother lying naked with me, holding my 11 year-old dick in his hands. But, in all fairness, my hands were eagerly playing with Hemos's dick and balls at that moment, too.
Hemos's mom and dad had gone to the drive-in, leaving his big brother in charge. In our favor, leaving Mark in charge pretty much guaranteed that we weren't to bother him, and in turn, he'd leave us alone unless we were making too much noise or breaking something. Well, we were being careful to keep quiet because we very much wanted to be left alone.
We were in Hemos's twin bed, snuggled under the covers with our underwear pushed down to the foot of the bed. The only illumination in the room came from the faint sliver of light that crept in under his bedroom door. Even in the shadows I could make out the shape of my friend; about my height, but heavier. (Hell, I was such a skinny runt that everyone was heavier than me.) Hemos had a crew-cut of white-blonde hair, and was only starting to sprout some pubic hair. But, you had to feel for it because what little pubic hair he possessed was as blonde as the short hair on his hea and could not yet be seen by even a minimal distance.
And, I was happily feeling for it, running my hands all over Hemos's slightly larger erection and fondling his larger testicles while he courteously stroked my dick. I could tell that he didn't possess the same enthusiasm for cockplay as I did, unless you count his appreciation for the attention devoted to his member. And I knew that my willingness to satisfy his sexual urges was one of the few reasons he even had me sleep over at his place. But, I didn't let that stop me from finding pleasure in the handling of his meat.
I'd recently had an "introduction", of sorts, to seeing what someone could do with a man's dick with their mouth. While spending the night with my Uncle Jerry a couple weeks before, while I watched in secret, I was treated to a visual display of the intensity and unabashed pleasure that my uncle had obviously enjoyed having another man suck on his cock. From that moment on, I had a yearning that I needed to satisfy. With who was my only question.
I guess it was time to find out.
"I... heard that sucking on it feels even better than playing with it." I ventured.
In the darkness, I could feel a slight jerk of revulsion in Hemos's body.
"Put a dick in your mouth?" he croaked.
"Well, " I countered, my heart pounding with anxiety, "I think adults do it all the time."
"Well, I'm not gonna do it!" Hemos hissed. "That's homo stuff!"
"Yeah." I sighed disappointedly, while still playing with Hemos's dick. "I guess it is."
As I stroked his shaft in a steadier, milking rhythm, I could sense Hemos's breaths getting quicker. His manipulations of my dick began to falter as I could feel his body tense beside me. His hips rocked slightly in time with my pumping of his cock, and I cradled his balls tenderly in my other hand. When any attentions to my own dick has completely ebbed, I knew what was about to happen, so I picked up the pace just a bit more while lending a touch more pressure in my grip. Finally, Hemos's breath caught in his throat, and he turned his face fully into his pillow to stifle the moans that broke free as his cock pulsed and throbbed in a dry orgasm within my hands. I continued to massage him and didn't release him from my grasp until his member had gone fully soft.
"Man," sighed Hemos dreamily after finally catching his breath. "You are so good at that, CmdrTaco."
At least I had something to be proud of, I guess, as my friend gently withdrew himself from me and rolled onto his back.
Even though I was only eleven, the irony of Hemos's words and actions were not lost on me. My sucking on him would have been a "homo" thing, but beating him off was okay. Go figure. Within the few moments I had spent mulling over the irony of the thoughts, Hemos had drifted off to sleep. I slipped out from under the covers and down to the cool floor so I could masturbate without shaking the bed. As I toyed with my own dick, I imagined Hemos's cock in my mouth, wondering if the chance would ever really come. Finally, my own climax washed over me, and I got back into the bed.
I don't sleep real well to begin with, and even worse when I'm not in my own bed. And now, with the thoughts of a dick so close to me, as well as the vivid memories of secretly seeing man-to-man cocksucking pleasure floating through my prepubescent, sex-filled brain, I was not about to fall asleep anytime soon. Lying awake until around 11:30, I finally decided that I needed to do something to satisfy my hungers, or I'd never be able to let it rest. The trick was in finding the guts to follow through.
I knew that whenever Hemos fell asleep, he pretty much stayed asleep. So, since he was sleeping soundly, lying on his back, I took a deep breath and gingerly ducked my head under the covers and scooted down as much as I could to the foot of the bed. That put my head right at Hemos's hip level. I raised my head and upper body to help create a tent over his crotch. Sniffing around, I found the faint scent of young penis flesh. I inhaled deeply, both in the love of the scent, and in an attempt to slow my pounding heart. I opened my mouth wide over the area where I sensed Hemos's dick to be, and lowered my mouth squarely over his soft cock and balls until I could feel his sparse pubic hairs tickling my cheek. I finally had a dick in my mouth! I just wasn't sure what I'd do if Hemos woke to find his "homo" friend in this situation.
I remained like that for a long moment, partially in fear of trying anything more, and partly to savor the moment. I carefully let my tongue start to explore his tender penile flesh, enjoying the texture. Then came the excitement that welled within me as his cock began to respond to my attentions and harden in my warm and wet mouth! Butterflies seemed to explode in my stomach and drown out my heartbeat as I felt his dick get to its full size in my mouth. Concentrating in that dark environment, I found myself beginning to identify the shape of his member by taste. The shaft actually seemed to taste different than the head, and the thin skin of his scrotum seemed to harbor another distinct flavor.
I started to softly suck on Hemos's dick, becoming fascinated at how it just seemed to, well, 'fit' in my mouth... how the head lent itself to the back of my tongue, and how the shaft rested between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. My excitement was so great that my own recently satisfied dick was responding again, inviting me to play. I was sucking a cock, and I was in heaven!
However, within seconds, Hemos seemed to get restless. In fear, I quickly pulled my mouth away from Hemos's candy stick and held still. The covers rustled, and pulled back.
"Whatcha doin'?" mumbled Hemos.
"I... uh... was trying to find my shorts down here," I lied, starting to fumble near our feet. Well, partial lie, because it was a good idea to do so, anyway, and now was as good a time as any.
"Oh, yeah," said Hemos. "Get mine, too, willya?"
"S-sure" I stammered, relieved.
I located the two items of clothing and scooted back up towards the head of the bed. Thankfully, our underwear were pretty easy to distinguish since Hemos wore boxers, and I wore briefs. We both fumbled to put them on in the dark, and then settled back into the bed. I lay stiffly on my back, still harboring some fear that my friend discovered more than he let on, but Hemos simply rolled onto his side, facing away from me, and promptly went back to sleep.
And, here I was again, so close to my fantasies, yet still so far.
And very much awake.
After hearing the clock in the hallway chime midnight, I finally got up to go to the bathroom. Figuring it was late enough not to be an issue, and since even if Hemos's parents were home that they would be in their own bedroom downstairs, I didn't bother to slip on my pants for the short trip down the hall. I walked softly to the bedroom door, and then stepped out into the hallway, illuminated dimly by a bare-bulb night light. I walked past big brother Mark's door to the bathroom at the end of the hall and turned on the light as I shut the door.
Peeing into the toilet, I looked up at my reflection in the large mirror and smiled slyly to myself. I actually sucked on a dick, even if for only a moment! At that moment I was Rob Maldo, secret agent double-O-seven, who could sneak in and suck a dick, and sneak away without being caught!
I flushed the toilet and switched out the light as I headed back down the hall. Slipping past Mark's door once again, the door flew open, and a hand covered my mouth while a muscular arm snapped around my waist and drew me into the room. Squirming in the arms of Hemos's athletic older brother was a waste of effort, and he only squeezed harder until I settled down.
"You'll keep quiet if you know what's good for you,' growled Mark into my ear. "You gonna be quiet?"
I nodded. Mark let go of my mouth and reached over to close his bedroom door, the other hand and arm still holding me firmly with my feet off the ground. I heard something click, and recalled, and not without a certain amount of childish fear, that Mark had a lock on his door.
The room had a yellowish glow from the large lava lamp next to Mark's bed. He took me over to the bed and tossed me face down onto it, kneeling next to me. I thought briefly about trying to get up and run, but to where?
When I felt Mark's hands on me again, I was determined to fight him off, but I was no match for him as he flipped me onto my back and straddled me, sitting squarely on my upper chest, his knees pinning my shoulders and my arms locked between his legs. I gazed up at his lean, muscled torso, his stern blue eyes under a tussled mane of reddish-blonde hair. I could feel the soft fabric of his boxers against my chin.
"Can't get up, can ya?" he said, grinning down at me, all snide and victorious.
I struggled a bit, more out of obligation, but knew it was no use. Mark was just too big for me.
"Whatsamatter?" huffed Mark. "You too weak to fight? Or, maybe you just like laying there, sniffing dicks?"
I started squirming a bit harder, but Mark's legs only clamped tighter. At least he had scooted down a bit, and was no longer suffocating me with his weight on my chest.
"Yeah! Maybe you're a homo-boy who just likes sniffing dicks. Maybe you wanna sniff my big dick?"
I didn't care for where this was going, and I wasn't too comfortable with the tone of Mark's voice. But, I was also not being given much of a choice in the matter. Especially when Mark reached into the fly of his boxers and pulled out his cock.
"Here you are, homo-boy... a nice, fresh big-man dick!" grinned Mark fiendishly. "Ain't it a beaut?"
He held it out for me, then leaned forward and started to rub his cock on my face, tracing my cheeks and nose with the bulbous head. His testicles soon followed his dick through the opening, until they were dangling on my chin, the coarse pubes tickling my lips. Their faint musky scent began to fill my nostrils.
"CmdrTaco's just a little dick-faced homo-boy, ain't he?" sneered Mark, sliding his cock across my face. "I saw you in there, your head under the covers. What were you doing? Giving my little brother a blow job?"
I didn't answer. I was at once shocked at the thought of having been discovered, and confused by Mark's remark. I then guessed that he meant sucking a dick was called a 'blow job'. But... you're not blowing, you're sucking, and-
"You were, weren't you, you little homo!"
It was obvious what had happened; that Mark had looked in on us to find my head under the blankets. I thought I had sensed a miniscule change in the light, but assumed that to be part of my excitement. That must have been what woke Hemos up so suddenly.
"So, maybe you aren't just dick-faced, " he said, rubbing his cock on my face again. "Maybe you're a dick sucker!" He leaned forward, mashing his hairy ball sack into my nose, then pulling back to trace my features again with his member. But, even as Mark taunted me, treating his cock as a threatening weapon, there was something else happening.
He was getting a boner.
And as I closed my eyes, I could feel his cock thickening against my face. I could sense the heat of his hardening dick directly on my flesh. And, I found I was enjoying the sensations of this older cock against my face. There would soon be no way of hiding the fact that I was getting excited, too.
"So, dick-sucker-CmdrTaco... you're gonna suck my dick, now."
My eyes sprung open to see Mark's fully erect cock pointing at my face. While it wasn't huge (I had already seen 'huge' with my Uncle Jerry), it was still big enough to scare me.
And excite me to no end.
"Open wide, homo-boy."
Without another moment of hesitation, or taking my eyes off of Mark's sleek tool, I opened my mouth as wide as I could and watched as he leaned down and slid that beautiful cock into my waiting mouth. I then settled my tongue against the bottom half of his shaft while I could feel the upper half press against the roof of my mouth. Its texture was soft, yet hard; smooth, yet distinct.
"There," he sighed. "Now, you have a real dick to suck on. Now, get started, suck-boy!"
It was so much bigger than Hemos's young dick, I wasn't sure if I could get enough suction worked up to suck on it. It was then that I found out what sucking a cock is really all about: friction.
Mark held the base of his dick to guide himself and started to pump into my mouth, sliding his dick in and out of my salivating lips. He would slip in precariously between my teeth until he was near to choke me, then pull back out until the base of the bulbous head was just close to popping free from my lips, held in place by the suction of my mouth. Then he... we... would do it all over again... over and over... and gloriously over again.
"Oh, you are good, CmdrTaco," he moaned softly. "You suck cock real good."
I don't know about that; it seemed he was doing all the real work. But, I wanted it to be good. I wanted to have this dick in my mouth. And I wanted it again and again. I was definitely enjoying the oral sensations as his near-adult dick worked back and forth in my hungry mouth, and I wanted so much to please him so he would want my mouth again.
Mark placed his other hand on the top of my head to steady me as his thrusts became a little more erratic. His breath quickened, and I could sense that he was trying hard not to ram himself all the way down my throat and choke me. He was making little grunts with each thrust, and I could feel his dick turn to stone in my mouth when, in a mix of fear and excitement, I suddenly recalled what would happen next.
"Oh, baby... oh, fuck..."
Mark's movements got all quick and jerky. I was almost afraid to breathe.
"OHHHH!!!" he moaned, pulling out of my mouth and letting loose with a burst of white goo that seemed to splatter all over as he pumped his dick with his fist. My head still held firmly in his other hand, the warm liquid flew partly into my still open mouth, and all over my nose and eyebrows. I swallowed briefly, not sure whether to gag or hope for more, tasting fully the salty and musky liquid, then opened my mouth once more as Mark stuck his creaming cock back in and worked the thick fluid throughout my young mouth.
I sucked until Mark went soft and withdrew his spent dick. He smiled down at me, obviously proud of what he had done. He finally got off of me (good thing since I thought my arms were going to fall off) and stood there for a moment, an interesting picture with his hands on his hips, and his drained cock and balls hanging out of the fly of his plaid boxers. I just lay there with his juices clinging to my skin, wanting to do it all over again.
Mark bent down and picked up a t-shirt, and proceeded to wipe the remainder of his goo off my face. Finished with that, he tossed the shirt into a hamper and walked over to his bedroom door to unlock it as he tucked his manhood back into his underwear.
"You better get back into Hemos's bed before mom and dad find you here," he said softly.
I reluctantly got off Mark's bed and walked to the door. As I was about to exit, he reached out to stop me briefly.
"You liked that, didn't you, homo-boy?"
I nodded, not sure where he was going with this inquiry.
"Your first taste of cum?"
I shrugged, then nodded again.
"If you're good, maybe I'll let you suck my dick again some time, CmdrTaco. Now, get your ass out of here before I kick it."
I stepped out of the room and felt the door close harshly behind me. I could still taste traces of Mark's cum in my mouth, could still sense the friction of his cock on my tongue. I smiled in remembrance.
I was hooked.
- posted by poopbot: for all your crapflooding needs
mzSg6ojXVv Post #682
"There's also the recognition that there are some barriers to entry at the desktop level and support issues are important. "
Like people who pirate software worry about support from software makers!!!! duh!
Are any free software companies BSA members? Why would the BSA account for software created by non-members?
Now that business auditor integrity is being questioned by congress post-Enron, I'd love to see the BSA's practices put under the microscope. These guys are enforcing copyright law, and are supported by their very members. I'd hardly call the BSA an impartial auditor. It wouldn't suprize me if BSA members pressure the BSA for "results" or threaten to not support ($$$) the BSA.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered trolling community when recently Slashdot confirmed that, after several changes were made to production Slashcode, wide posts account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all Slashdot posts. Coming on the heels of the latest verions of IE which make page-widening more difficult, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. the wide posts that we love are collapsing into the narrow posts that we are used to, as further exemplified by the lack of Slashbots complaining about difficulty reading Slashdot's articles.
You don't need to be a Klerck to predict PWP's future. The hand writing is on the wall: PWP faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for PWP because PWP is dying. Things are looking very bad for PWP. As many of us are already aware, PWP continues to be defeated by users with thresholds of 1 or higher. Mod points flow like a river of blood. Klerck's PWP-bot posts are the most endangered of them all, having been filtered early on because of their uniformity.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
PWP leader Klerck states that there are 7 wide posts in the average Slashdot article. How many non-wide crapflood posts are there? Let's see. The number of crapflood versus wide posts on Slahdot is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7*5 = 35 non-wide crapflood posts in every Slashdot article. Tacosnotting posts on Slashdot are about half of the volume of crapflood posts. Therefore there are about 17 tacosnotting posts per article. A recent article put Goatse.cx trolls at about 80 percent of total troll posts. Therefore there are a hell of a lot of homosexual trolls. This is consistent with the number of Goatse.cx Slashdot posts.
But Slashdot is only part of the picture. Due to the troubles at Slashdot, negative revenue and so on, the site will soon go out of business and many users will flock to alternative weblogs, where PWP is almost completely unknown. Trollaxor.com, the popular troll hangout, is also dying, its corpse sodomized in yet another Greek bath house.
All major surveys show that PWP has steadily declined in the scope of all troll posts. PWP is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If PWP is to survive at all it will be among Blog faggot using outdated versions of Slashcode. PWP continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, PWP is dead.
- posted by poopbot: lovely snot! wonderful snot!
1ks6gyDcMT Post #683
Credits: on by
crapfloods and trolling and raping small kittens
nice wider pages and wanking with mittens
turd report packages tied up with strings
these are a few of my favorite things
grits covered portman and ASCII art doodles
ACs and CLITers and Katz sex with poodles
wild trolls that fly with plus five mod scoring
these are a few of my favorite things
when the ban hits, when I can't post, when I'm feeling sad
i simply remember my favorite things
then i don't feel so bad
Rob Malda chugs penis in fan fiction slashes
taco snot over my nose and eyelashes
BSD dying and that goatse ring
these are a few of my favorite things
grits covered portman and ASCII art doodles
ACs and CLITers and Katz sex with poodles
wild trolls that fly with plus five mod scoring
these are a few of my favorite things
when the ban hits, when I can't post when, I'm feeling sad
i simply remember my favorite things
then i don't feel so bad
- posted by poopbot: the bot formerly known as pwpbot
NfrqP13VrR Post #685
The clue bat is for hitting, not passing.
What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:
I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.
Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'
As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.
And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!
Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:
'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'
Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?
We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and copyright of posters to Slashdot by gathering together their postings and publishing them en masse to further his twisted and manipulative journalistic agenda.
Sick, disgusting antichristian perverts, the lot of them.
In addition, many of the Linux distributions (a 'distribution' is the most common way to spread the faggots' wares) are run by faggot groups. The Slackware distro is named after the 'Slack-wear' fags wear to allow easy access to the anus for sexual purposes. Furthermore, Slackware is a close anagram of claw arse, a reference to the homosexual practise of anal fisting. The Mandrake product is run by a group of French faggot satanists, and is named after the faggot nickname for the vibrator. It was also chosen because it is an anagram for dark amen and ram naked, which is what they do.
Another 'distro,' (abbrieviated as such because it sounds a bit like 'Disco,' which is where homosexuals preyed on young boys in the 1970s), is Debian, an anagram of in a bed, which could be considered innocent enough (after all, a bed is both where we sleep and pray), until we realise what other names Debian uses to describe their foul wares. 'Woody' is obvious enough, being a term for the erect male penis, glistening with pre-cum. But far sicker is the phrase 'Frozen Potato' that they use. This filthy term, again found in the secret homosexual 'Sauce Code,' refers to the solo homosexual practice of defecating into a clear polythene bag, shaping the turd into a crude approximation of the male phallus, then leaving it in the freezer overnight until it becomes solid. The practitioner then proceeds to push the frozen 'potato' up his own rectum, squeezing it in and out until his tight young balls erupt in a screaming orgasm.
And Red Hat is secret homo slang for the tip of a penis that is soaked in blood from a freshly violated underage ringpiece.
The fags have even invented special tools to aid their faggotry! For example, the 'supermount' tool was devised to allow deeper penetration, which is good for fags because it gives more pressure on the prostate gland. 'Automount' is used, on the other hand, because Linux users are all fat and gay, and need to mount each other automatically.
The depths of their depravity can be seen in their use of 'mount points.' These are, plainly speaking, the different points of penetration. The main one is obviously
More evidence is in the fact that Linux users say how much they love `man`, even going so far as to say that all new Linux users (who are in fact just innocent heterosexuals indoctrinated by the gay propaganda) should try out `man`. In no other system do users boast of their frequent recourse to a man.
Other areas of the system also show Linux's inherit gayness. For example, people are often told of the 'FAQ,' but how many innocent heterosexual Windows users know what this actually means. The answer is shocking: Faggot Anal Quest: the voyage of discovery for newly converted fags!
Even the title 'Slashdot' originally referred to a homosexual practice. Slashdot of course refers to the popular gay practice of blood-letting. The Slashbots, of course are those super-zealous homosexuals who take this perversion to its extreme by ripping open their anuses, as seen on the site most popular with Slashdot users, the depraved work of Satan, http://www.eff.org/.
The editors of Slashdot also have homosexual names: 'Hemos' is obvious in itself, being one vowel away from 'Homos.' But even more sickening is 'Commander Taco' which sounds a bit like 'Commode in Taco,' filthy gay slang for a pair of spreadeagled buttocks that are caked with excrement. (The best form of lubrication, they insist.) Sometimes, these 'Taco Commodes' have special 'Salsa Sauce' (blood from a ruptured rectum) and 'Cheese' (rancid flakes of penis discharge) toppings. And to make it even worse, Slashdot runs on Apache!
The Apache server, whose use among fags is as prevalent as AIDS, is named after homosexual activity -- as everyone knows, popular faggot band, the Village People, featured an Apache Indian, and it is for him that this gay program is named.
And that's not forgetting the use of patches in the Linux fag world -- patches are used to make the anus accessible for repeated anal sex even after its rupture by a session of fisting.
To summarise: Linux is gay. 'Slash -- Dot' is the graphical description of the space between a young boy's scrotum and anus. And BeOS is for hermaphrodites and disabled 'stumpers.'
FEEDBACK
Well, the only reason I know all about this is because I had the misfortune to read the Linux 'Sauce code' once. Although publicised as the computer code needed to get Linux up and running on a computer (and haven't you always been worried about the phrase 'Monolithic Kernel'?), this foul document is actually a detailed and graphic description of every conceivable degrading perversion known to the human race, as well as a few of the major animal species. It has shocked and disturbed me, to the point of needing to shock and disturb the common man to warn them of the impending homo-calypse which threatens to engulf our planet.
Doesn't it give you a hard-on to imagine your thick strong poker ramming it's way up my most sacred of sphincters? You're beyond help, my friend, as the only thing you can imagine is the foul penetrative violation of another man. Are you sure you're not Eric Raymond? The government, being populated by limp-wristed liberals, could never stem the sickening tide of homosexual child molesting Linux advocacy. Hell, they've given NAMBLA free reign for years!
Thank you for your kind words of support. However, this document shall only ever be posted anonymously. This is because the 'Open Sauce' movement is a sham, proposing homoerotic cults of hero worshipping in the name of freedom. I speak for the common man. For any man who prefers the warm, enveloping velvet folds of a woman's vagina to the tight puckered ringpiece of a child. These men, being common, decent folk, don't have a say in the political hypocrisy that is Slashdot culture. I am the unknown liberator.
We shouldn't hate them, we should pity them for the misguided fools they are... Fanatical Linux zeal-outs need to be herded into camps for re-education and subsequent rehabilitation into normal heterosexual society. This re-education shall be achieved by forcing them to watch repeats of Baywatch until the very mention of Pamela Anderson causes them to fill their pants with healthy heterosexual jism.
Well, it just goes to show that even the holy Linux 'sauce code' is riddled with bugs that need fixing. (The irony of Jon Katz not even being able to inflate his scrotum correctly has not been lost on me.) The Linux pervert elite already acknowledge this, with their queer slogan: 'Given enough arms, all rectums are shallow.' And anyway, the PS2 sucks major cock and isn't worth the money. Intellivision forever!
For one thing, whilst Linux is a cavalcade of queer propaganda masquerading as the future of computing, NT is used by people who think nothing better of encasing their genitals in quick setting plaster then going to see a really dirty porno film, enjoying the restriction enforced onto them. Remember, a wasted arousal is a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church. Clearly, the only god-fearing Christian operating system in existence is CP/M -- The Christian Program Monitor. All computer users should immediately ask their local pastor to install this fine OS onto their systems. It is the only route to salvation.
Secondly, this message is for every man. Computers know no colour. Not only that, but one of the finest websites in the world is maintained by a Black Man . Now fuck off you racist donkey felcher.
Although there is nothing unholy about the fine heterosexual act of ejaculating between a woman's breasts, squirting one's load up towards her neck and chin area, it should be noted that Perl (standing for Pansies Entering Rectums Locally) is also close to 'Pearl Monocle,' 'Pearl Nosering,' and the ubiquitous 'Pearl Enema.'
One scary thing about Perl is that it contains hidden homosexual messages. Take the following code: LWP::Simple -- It looks innocuous enough, doesn't it? But look at the line closely: There are two colons next to each other! As Larry 'Balls to the' Wall would openly admit in the Perl Documentation, Perl was designed from the ground up to indoctrinate it's programmers into performing unnatural sexual acts -- having two colons so closely together is clearly a reference to the perverse sickening act of 'colon kissing,' whereby two homosexual queers spread their buttocks wide, pressing their filthy torn sphincters together. They then share small round objects like marbles or golfballs by passing them from one rectum to another using muscle contraction alone. This is also referred to in programming 'circles' as 'Parameter Passing.'
And PHP stands for Perverted Homosexual Penetration. Didn't you know?
Well, I don't know about terraforming Mars, but I do know that homosexual Linux Advocates have been probing Uranus for years.
*sniff* That brings a tear to my eye. Thank you once more for your kind support. I have taken faith in the knowledge that I am doing the Good Lord's work, but it is encouraging to know that I am helping out the common man here.
However, I should be cautious about revealing your name 'Cerberus' on such a filthy den of depravity as Slashdot. It is a well known fact that the 'Kerberos' documentation from Microsoft is a detailed manual describing, in intimate, exacting detail, how to sexually penetrate a variety of unwilling canine animals; be they domesticated, wild, or mythical. Slashdot posters have taken great pleasure in illegally spreading this documentation far and wide, treating it as an 'extension' to the Linux 'Sauce Code,' for the sake of 'interoperability.' (The slang term they use for nonconsensual intercourse -- their favourite kind.)
In fact, sick twisted Linux deviants are known to have LAN parties, (Love of Anal Naughtiness, needless to say.), wherein they entice a stray dog, known as the 'Samba Mount,' into their homes. Up to four of these filth-sodden blasphemers against nature take turns to plunge their erect, throbbing, uncircumcised members, conkers-deep, into the rectum, mouth, and other fleshy orifices of the poor animal. Eventually, the 'Samba Mount' collapses due to 'overload,' and needs to be 'rebooted.' (i.e., kicked out into the street, and left to fend for itself.) Many Linux users boast about their 'uptime' in such situations.
If only indeed. You can help our brave cause by moderating this message up as often as possible. I recommend '+1, Underrated,' as that will protect your precious Karma in Metamoderation. Only then can we break through the glass ceiling of Homosexual Slashdot Culture. Is it any wonder that the new version of Slashcode has been christened 'Bender'???
If we can get just one of these postings up to at least '+1,' then it will be archived forever! Others will learn of our struggle, and join with us in our battle for freedom!
I am compelled to document the foulness and carnal depravity that is Linux, in order that we may prepare ourselves for the great holy war that is to follow. It is my solemn duty to peel back the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wire brush of enlightenment.
I could make an arrogant, childish comment along the lines of 'Every time someone asks for 2.0, I won't release it for another 24 hours,' but the truth of the matter is that I'm quite nervous of releasing a 'number two,' as I can guarantee some filthy shit-slurping Linux pervert would want to suck it straight out of my anus before I've even had chance to wipe.
I sincerely hope you're Natalie Portman.
What the fuck?
Well bugger me!
Fuck right off!
IMPORTANT: This message needs to be heard (Not HURD, which is an acronym for 'Huge Unclean Rectal Dilator') across the whole community, so it has been released into the Public Domain. You know, that licence that we all had before those homoerotic crypto-fascists came out with the GPL (Gay Penetration License) that is no more than an excuse to see who's got the biggest feces-encrusted cock. I would have put this up on Freshmeat, but that name is known to be a euphemism for the tight rump of a young boy.
Come to think of it, the whole concept of 'Source Control' unnerves me, because it sounds a bit like 'Sauce Control,' which is a description of the homosexual practice of holding the base of the cock shaft tightly upon the point of ejaculation, thus causing a build up of semenal fluid that is only released upon entry into an incision made into the base of the receiver's scrotum. And 'Open Sauce' is the act of ejaculating into another mans face or perhaps a biscuit to be shared later. Obviously, 'Closed Sauce' is the only Christian thing to do, as evidenced by the fact that it is what Cathedrals are all about.
Contributors: (although not to the eternal game of 'soggy biscuit' that open 'sauce' development has become) Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, phee, Anonymous Coward, mighty jebus, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, double_h, Anonymous Coward, Eimernase, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward. Further contributions are welcome.
Current changes: This version sent to FreeWIPO by 'Bring BackATV' as plain text. Reformatted everything, added all links back in (that we could match from the previous version), many new ones (Slashbot bait links). Even more spelling fixed. Who wrote this thing, CmdrTaco himself?
Previous changes: Yet more changes added. Spelling fixed. Feedback added. Explanation of 'distro' system. 'Mount Point' syntax described. More filth regarding `man` and Slashdot. Yet more fucking spelling fixed. 'Fetchmail' uncovered further. More Slashbot baiting. Apache exposed. Distribution licence at foot of document.
- posted by poopbot: information likes to be narrow
q3WLR6hrh1 Post #686
Free Software = Communism (Defined by M$)
Communism = Crime (defined by senator McGarthy)
Crime = Piracy (defined by BSA)
Therefore Free Software = Piracy
Just like Axe make makers don't take into account the effect of an axe murder? I thinking I'm beginning to see...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Investigator: Mr. Kruger, do you have current legitimate licenses for every single software title on each and every computer you own or use?
...then shut the f*ck up, go away, and take the BSA with you!
Bob Kruger: Uhh.. well, we uh..."
Investigator: Mr. Kruger, have you or anyone else currently in the employ of BSA ever used software for which you did not possess a valid legal license?
Bob Kruger: Bblblb-b-b-plplpppht blub..blubb...
Investigator:
Vortran out
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
Since stiffer laws that give them more control is their goal, of course they will inflate things to promote THEIR viewpoint..
They have a clue.. and pretty damned effective..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think it's naive to think that software piracy isn't rampant. People STEAL copies of software from work for home, STEAL software from computer labs, "BORROW" copies of software from friends. I think we should all admit that software piracy among people who have "no real need" for the software and "wouldn't purchase the software anyway" is pretty damn common, and that that same thinking is used to justify downloading copyrighted music. While the BSA may be fumblating numbers the real statistics probably wouldn't be as pretty.
As a "rampant free market ideologue" (Libertarian), I will be the first to point out that you have confused the meaning of free-market economics (i.e. capitalism), which implies the absence of government interference (coercion) in the market, with a hypothetical regulation, imposed through coercion, which happens to favor one particular group over another. Capitalism does not necessarily imply profit but only the absence of coercion in the market. Free market economics is grounded in voluntary cooperation, not coercion (which is the definining prerequisite of any government). Hence, open source software falls squarely into the category of free-market enterprise, and in fact, to a greater degree than any software vendor which relies on patent law to sustain a business model. (Patent law, you may be surprised to know, is contrary to the true principles of free market economics, because it is derived from coercion.)
See free-market.net if you are interested...
After all, the BSA is just Microsoft's "Brownshirts", little more than their own private little extortion and stormtrooper division.
MS does not acknowledge competition that is not like them (closed). Therefore, neither will the BSA.
In the wake of the current corporate accounting scams, why aren't the RIAA/MPAA/BSA members being called to task for the $BILLIONS they claim in public FUD in "losses" to "piracy", yet they NEVER EVER put these in their financial statements...
Methinks the IP lobby needs to either PROVE these losses or be sued for fraud.
Corporatism != Free Market
Software development isn't cheap. Anyone can tell you that. Programmers make quite a bit more money than I do.
And I can definitely see your point of view. Since I now use entirely free software, I don't have to worry about copyright anymore. But copyright is an issue with proprietary software. For the most part, it isn't right to pirate software (such an awful term) because copyright is the law and these industries are honest in basing their business on the law. But there is a rather large ethical exception to this, in my opinion.
Its when developers use copyright as a means to force upgrades. Believe it or not, people don't always upgrade their software because of some compelling feature or improvement in the software. Some people are being charged an arm and a leg just to remain compatible with everyone else. Thankfully, some clear-minded people have decided to use free software in the infrastructure of the internet. But we still have the same problem in other areas. People upgrading to the next version of Word so that they can read the files they recieve. And what about in third world countries. It sounds like they can not even install a proprietary operating system, simply because the price is not adjusted to their economy. No wonder piracy is such a large problem there. I see no ethical problem here, either.
Also there is the matter of the technical divide. I honestly don't know a lot about it, but it seems that the difference between the haves and havenots is also one of technology. Now computer prices have gone down quite a bit, but software seems to have not have. Is it legitamate to pirate the software in this case? I'm not really certain.
Also, there's the problem of when your friend wants to borrow your Windows CD because he lost his or he has to reinstall the OS that came with his computer. If I'm not mistaken, some software licenses won't allow you to resell the software, or disassemble it. At this point, its no longer an issue of copyright but of control.
The law it seems is relatively well defined compared to the ethical issues copyright raises. So if you want argue against piracy on ethical grounds, there has to be more than "look at all the hard work and expense they put into this software." And it should be noted that free software removes all these ethical problems since the effects of copyright are reversed.
When software was a luxury, things were a lot more excusable. But people need softwarwe. If they can't afford it, they will take it. And a system that says "if you can afford the software, pay, if not, just take it" wouldn't work either (who decides?).
(I hope no one takes this an in depth analysis because its all off the top of my head, and I'm rather baffled by these problems, personally)
as long as they're not lying
where did you get your 90%?
remember 57,3% of all numbers are made up.
and 50% of all statistics are lies.
First, I have always felt that the BSA's piracy claims were such CRAP. Where do their 'estimates' come from? They run a number of 'surveys' that are full of loaded questions and they include media counts from pirate shops that have been raided, making the assumption that since the illegal copies exist, someone will use it.
Second, another often over-looked issue with software piracy which affects the survey results is (and this is NOT an excuse, just a statement of reality) that may of the individuals that use software illegally, would NOT use it any other way. They just could not justify the purchase. They either use it so ill often that it is not worth owning or it is just too expensive and they the could never afford to buy it.
If the BSA thinks piracy is bad (and it is) and they know a driving force in piracy is the high cost of software, why are they not pushing their members to reduce the cost of software so that it is more affordable? That would increase sales and make up for the (suspect) claimed losses from piracy.
One of the reasons is, by having vastly inflated piracy numbers that they use to bully the government into making tougher laws and businesses with which to threaten with big lawsuits, they can continue to justify the high cost of software.
It is the old catch-22, it cost so much cause of all of the stealing, they are stealing it cause it cost so much!
I have to use this cause I can't afford a real sig...
They don't need a clue. They've demonstrated that they'll take any liberty toward advantage, ethical or not. The GOVERNMENTS need the cluebat. They seem to suck down that swill by the bucketfulls. It's time for them to ignore the crap that the BSA, RIAA, or any other alphabet industy group prepares for their ingestion.
About their estimate of the "demand" for software:
- "PC shipments by state were estimated from a detailed review of the employment and population of each state and market research that surveyed the PC penetration rate of each state."
- "These estimates of software applications [...] were allowed to vary slightly by state. They were then applied to the state PC shipment estimates to form state-specific software demand estimates."
About their estimate of the "supply" of software:- "This data was compiled only for software applications that were studied in the "2000 BSA Global Software Piracy Study". [...] The resulting shipment data was uplifted to reflect shipments for the entire software industry."
The difference between "supply" and "demand" is defined to be the "piracy".For the retail value of the software (the larger number often quoted by the media) they added 22% on top of that.
Overseas Invasion
Excerpt:
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I payed Linus the full price of $0 for every copy of Linux I've ever installed!
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
The strong bit is kinda a myth, it makes your teeth brittle so that they crumble away.
I think the floride replaces some of the calcium outer layer of the tooth, producing a composite.
the floride boney stuff being 'harder' and the calcium boney stuff being 'stronger'
I know people who have teeth that crumbled away, like me for-instance.
Ok, well this doesn't have much to do with the actual topic, I just though I needed a place to vent this information. I was watching G4 TV (video game channel) today, and for their 'Players' series (which intereview celebrities about video games), they went to Asia Carerra's house. For those who don't know, Asia Carerra is a master of the copulating arts (or a pornstar if you want to be a d*ck about it*). Well, apparently Asia is very much into PC gaming and running her own website. And when I saw running her own website, I mean I think she's actually the sysadmin. In her gaming room were 4 PC's and a massive bookshelf with books on linux, unix, tcp/ip, photoshop, apache, etc... She even creates her own Unreal Tournament skins in photoshop. Now damn...i'm impressed. How come I've never heard of this before, particularly being a member of the geek kingdom? And just to make this thread relevant, how does the BSA deal with people owning multiple copies of a game and not using all of them? So, what counts as use; does a sale count as use or does the game need to be used, for it to be use. Use use use.
Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive.
So long as they aren't being used at the same time. I don't have the exact details with me but I've read the MSOffice licence and they have it worded so that if someone purchases Word for work they can also install it on their home machine.
In addition to the above good answer, I'd videotape each machine audit over the BSA[A] tech's shoulder, capturing what s/he types, and what's on the screen. You'd need it for the courtroom, if it came to that. Plus, it adds hassle factor.
Of course, the legality of whether you can tape varies by jurisdiction, IANAL etc, but I believe in my town you're entitled to tape your own conversations.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
On the one hand, Microsoft attacks free software (mainly because it's bad for Microsoft's business plans, so it seems.) On the other hand, while free software has a strong hold in certain sectors -and a bid for certain desktop uses- Microsoft continues to aggressively price upward their offerings to businesses.
They're driving IT departments toward free software. Self-defeating in other words, particularly considering today's economy and business climate, where IT budgets are not faring well.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
"software piracy fell $US1 billion to $10.97 billion due to a "decline in software prices making the benefits of original software more compelling against the risks of software piracy and the effects of a worldwide economic slowdown", the groups say"
You mean that bringing the price of a product down more in line with its real value makes people more likely to buy it? Unbelievable.
The religious keeper of the web page The Premature Death of Rockstars argues that rock stars do not live as long as the general population. He states that the average age at death of rock stars is 36.9 and 75.8 for the general population. What is wrong with this use of these statistics? This is an illustrated example of lying with statistics.
From the slashdot story (well, actually the link) about tech riddles.
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
I never understood how exactly the numbers are figured. Piracy obviously doesn't cause as much financial loss as is reported. For example, some 14 year old pirates 3DStudio Max to create 3D graphics in his basement. There is no way this kid could afford this software at all, yet they are reporting this as a 'loss'. It's not a loss at all... they didn't lose a sale, heck they never would have got his money in the first place! How can companies claim to lose money on something they wouldn't have sold anyway.
Another example: video game piracy. Once mod chips / mod plugs came out, Sony reported tons of losses due to software piracy. Here again, a lot of those sales they wouldn't have made. How many people downloaded and burned games "just because they could". Half the (games/music/software.. you pick) would still be sitting on the shelf at the piraters local retail store regardless of whether or not they pirated it.
Coronary heart disease statistics
Eating habbits and desiese
It's hard to get straight figures about food, smoking is easy because it's an easy target.
Here's what i found on food
Diet
One reason why CHD rates are high in the UK is because the average diet is so unhealthy. In particular fat intake - especially of saturated fat - in the UK is too high, and fruit and vegetable consumption is too low.
The percentage of food energy derived from total fat in the UK diet is falling only gradually. It was about 42% in the mid 1970s and is now around 39% but the type of fat eaten has changed: the percentage of food energy derived from saturated fat falling from around 20% to about 15%.
The fall in saturated fat consumption is reflected in changes in the types of food consumed. For example, since the mid 1970s the consumption of whole milk has fallen by 74% and butter by 76%.
However not all recent dietary changes have been beneficial. Since the mid 1970s consumption of potatoes (other than chips) has fallen by 40% and bread by 22%. The consumption of fresh fruit has risen by 43% but vegetable consumption has not increased.
UK dietary statistics also show marked social class and regional differences in the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, with people on lower incomes, and those living in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England eating considerably less than those on higher incomes or living in the South.
Smokers account for 111,000 deaths
CVD (cardio vascular desiese) accounted to 260,000 deaths (some of whome were smokers).
CHD by itself is the most common cause of death in the UK. One in four men and one in five women die from the disease. CHD caused over 140,000 deaths in the UK in 1997
an article on fluride in water etc
There's quite a bit of stuff on Fluorosis &co out there if you look
Here's a cracker
Materials and dosages:
Calcium Citrate and Magnesium (Nature's Life, Garden Grove, CA 92841) containing Calcium (Citrate) 1000 mg, Magnesium (Oxide) 667 mg) 2 tablets with 1 capsule of Potassium 99 mg (Nature's Way Products, 10 Mountain Springs Parkway, Springville, Utah 84663) - 99 mg Potassium amino acid chelate
In addition, nutrients may be supplemented with a good multivitamin preparation (which must contain choline and inositol, and very low - or no - iron). The best one I have turned up is "Green Multi" from Nature's Life, Garden Grove, California 92841. Because the organophosphates diminish absorption of nutrients while increasing the requirement for them, both this preparation, plus the calcium/magnesium and potassium mentioned above, can be dissolved in the mouth - absorbing through the mucous membranes of the mouth. Individual supplements can be taken as desired - such as vitamin E (an antioxidant), vitamin A (to help protect vision), copper (which phosphorus binds to), zinc (balances copper), and B complex (balanced - the only balanced formula I know of is "Balanced B-Complex Formula" from General Nutrition Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222). Vitamin C is also useful, although I don't recommend dissolving that in the mouth. The teeth (and bones) are under sufficient stress as it is - both from the corrosive effect of the phosphorus, and from the storage of fluoride which makes teeth and bones brittle. Dissolved Green Multi dissolves through the skin, too.
All fluorine exposure should be avoided - which may be difficult considering water supplies are being increasingly fluoridated. Fluoride absorbs through the skin as well as via mouth, making hot tubs and swimming pools places to add to the body's already excessive fluoride.
I Troll no more
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Our company got an audit request from them one time. I saw the reply before it went out and, stripped of the mumbo-jumbo, it said basically: "As our computer systems contain information that is classfied and we have our own auditing system, there's no way in hell that you'll ever so much as set foot in our building, much less audit our systems."
They got a lawyer to harass us. We got a lawyer to harrass them and they never even attempted to get a real court order. The audit thing was basically a form letter they send to everyone. They have no evidence of piracy taking place and they can't get any kind of court order without it, and they damn well know it. All they can do is make threats.
If someone tries to audit your systems, call a lawyer. First thing.
Globally, it says, software piracy fell $US1 billion to $10.97 billion due to a "decline in software prices making the benefits of original software more compelling against the risks of software piracy and the effects of a worldwide economic slowdown", the groups say.
I wonder, if Windows XP Professional was $50 US (Hell if it was even $75 US) instead of $299 how much that would cut BSA's piracy figures by?
Calculus Brown
Puttin the Funk back in mathematics!
Ok, check me on this:
Let's theoretically say that I have a pirated copy of some overpriced commercial software which the company charges $20,000 for.
I have a copy of it because I happened to see it on a website and someone said "That software is pretty cool, you should have a look at it".
So I download it, have a look at it, shrug, and throw it on a CD somewhere and stick it on the shelf.
Whatcha wanna bet that this instantly gives the BSA marketing department another $20,000 to add to their tally of "the evil that piracy does"?.
Capitalism is the investment of capital (read money) in a business in exchange for equity (read ownership). Capitalism can flourish even in heavily regulated states such as Nokia in Finland, or even in state Capitalism such as many of the red army owned factories in China. Indeed, Capitalism can have some real failures in wide open economies such as the current Russian Republic, the US in the 1920s or even the current US if their is not a working rule of law.
The truth behind the troll
All those things they don't wan't you to know about flouride and junk food
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Free software folks should applaud the BSA's efforts to do draconian enforcement of their "intellectual property". Since most users who "pirate" proprietary software can't afford to pay, strict enforcement will drive them to Linux and other free software. In areas where it is not good enough, folks in the third world have brains and more time than money, so they will be highly motivated to help make it better.
The fact that you don't see such points made that often on Slashdot suggests to me that most of the Slashdot crowd is more interested in the "free beer" aspect than the "free speech" aspect of free software/open source.
Politicians see a lot of pressure groups with axes to grind and corporate backing to pay their bills, and they know exactly how much to trust their numbers.
Of course the BSA doesn't exactly rely on its numbers to make its case. They rely on other numbers in campaign contributions as well. But thats a whole 'nother ball game.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
Skeletal Fluorosis - A crippling bone disease caused by excessive consumption of fluoride
This is what I mentioned in my troll.
and the best yet Unicef wow i didn't know unicef had an anti fluride campain
I still havn't found clear stats on deaths caused McD's &co. or the name of the hormone/enzime or whetever released by fat cells that makes you hungry.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
actually you are incorrect. I did some contract work for the BSA last year and yes, they ARE as draconian as some other posters have suggested. I quit the job because I was so sickened by the audacity of their belief of power over software license holders. They should be checked and analyzed at every turn so they don't push things too far. They are equally as bad as the MPAA. And, BTW, Microsoft lobbyists are the biggest voices in BSA if that tells you anything...
However, within three days M$ would mysterically 'see' your difficulities and offered you a 5 years lock-in contract in order to waive your legal responsibility of using unlicense software. Great, you don't need to face that 2 years jailing and $5000 fine for each unlicensed software used. How nice they are...but wait, how did M$ know my situation, where did they get our information?
What the hell do you think the BSA is??? It's the Business Software Alliance, made up of companies like Adobe and Microsoft. Of course whatever the BSA discovers will be forwarded on to the affected companies. Jeez, talk about needing a cluebat...
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
"The DMCA was designed to promote a safe and legal online world while advancing the dynamic change that is synonymous with the Internet."
"dynamic change", as opposed to what, hmmm, static change?
Redundant pricks.
SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
Apparently, she was saving enough people from parking tickets that the city's transportation revenue was starting to feel the effects...
Remember, no good deed goes unpunished.
It would be interesting to find out the statistics of the BSA webservers regarding the OS and browser used. BSA must be aware of the amount of Freeware OS and browser traffic they have. Would they want this to be audited? Could the BSA servers worldwide become /.ed?
...The BSA web server runs on free software (Apache/BSD) Ask Netcraft.
If it's good for them, it's good for you...
Piracy was around before the 8086 days.
I use to won an Amstrad with games that were on tape i use to use my tape recorder to make copies for my friends.
...I think you'd have to have signs up warning people, at least here in Oz, but they could be _small_ signs. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
If the majority of audits are that difficult, it will become uneconomical for them. It's got nothing to do with the sucker(s) that they rope into doing the actual audits. You can't go into a job like that with a clean heart anyway.
The harping lets them know that if they come down hard on you, you're out of there.
You might make a point of mentioning at the last moment that if you do jump ship, one of the Linux publications (e.g. SlashDot, but no need to be specific) has expressed interest in writing up your story.
If done right, this motivates them to tread lightly. If botched, you'd better start planning that article, 'coz it's gonna be a doozy.
One of the things about Open Source is that very little is done in a corner. Certainly it will make a mark if (maybe post-writeup) the policy is adopted by a significant number of corporations worldwide. Kind of like OneMillionDads but for software.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
(borrowing, or buying & returning, lots of CDs to rip is just not as practical).
You reckon? If I assume a 512kbps connection (better than most available in my country)
CD = 74 minutes ~= 74Mb MP3'd
74Mb * 1024 = 75776 Kbytes * 8 = 606208 kbits
606208 / 512 = better than best case transfer: 1184 seconds, or roughly 20 minutes.
Ripping and encoding a single CD takes all of ten minutes, and since the major bottleneck while
ripping is the CD drive speed, you have processor time left over to be encoding the tracks while
it rips. I know there are better connections than 512k in the US, but I doubt they're the status quo. So 10 minutes per CD, where you can potentially buy or rent multiple CDs, or a 20 minute download, per CD, if you get close to top speed?
No, I think it's much much more practical to rip the CDs.
For the record, you can turn a linux box into a background-ripping machine with the right software... I had my machine set up to look up CDDB (or freeddb? I forget) for any CD stuck in the drive... if it identified as an audio CD, it started ripping immediately, and queued the tracks for MP3 compression at 192kbps. This was for the purposes of MP3'ing my existing CD collection.
This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
Or are they like our regular religious callers, returning to base for doctrinal drenchings after each visit?
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
The government agencies use free software from GNU yet from sources that guarantee performance. Procurement forms entered my desk space for free software with buys on guarantees from one particular company. Such desk existed at U.S.SBA. The buys ranged from fifty thousand on up to one million to guarantee performance of the software from the Free Software Foundation. The procurement did not buy the software because the software is free yet did buy limited future contracts to insure features of the Free Software Foundation work on government systems. Nonetheless, the company is listed GSA. The procurement smelt like the backdoor to ye ole pirate outhouse.
So you are saying good will is unethical and the red cross is unethical, donating blood (or anything else) is unethical.
Fine, if that's where capitalism is heading I declare myself communist.
- Voice of Ambience -
If my company wants me to work in my own home, with my own computer equipment, they better hell provide the softrware I need to do my work.
So far all companies have done so.
The argumrnt that one is forced to pirate Word because one needs to bring work home is complete bunk.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.