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Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus Formed
questionlp writes "News.com reports that three members from the House of Reps has formed a caucus that aims to stop piracy and make for stronger IP laws. One of the members of the caucus: helped author a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's 'innovation and security.'"
200 years after people stop raiding other people at sea, they try to put a stop to piracy. Next they'll be cracking down on cattle rustlers...
so free as in beer is like free as in campaign fund raising money from the riaa...
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
oh wait.....
One of the members of the caucus: helped author a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's 'innovation and security.'
Innovative colon usage. Speaking of which...
The goatse guy for president. Win one for the gaper!
Congressman Wexler has added to his holdings, having purchased a yacht to go along with his mansion.
Where is the Fair Use and Consumer Rights Caucus?
Oh yeah, there is none.
Please email all complaints to root@127.0.0.1 and the issue will be dealt with in due time.
Looks like Washingtons Representitive Adam smith has
won backhanders, i err mean "Funding" from M$ RIAA and the MPAA well done - your in the money...
Looks like they'll have to grab my freedom loving gentoo install from my dead fingertips.
Really though, how can they expect to stop a worldwide movement, not piracy, but the open source movement.
smells fishy to me...
You just know how innovative Micro$oft is being ...
- "It's the end of the world as we know it."
Contact Me (got tired of viruses emailing me).
a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's 'innovation and security.'
Turn it all off then. Vast portions of the Internet run on Linux, FreeBSD (even though it isn't GPL) and especially Apache. Maybe we should all pick a day and turn it all off, at least in the US it would probably bring traffic to a halt. THEN maybe they will reconsider making stupid laws regarding the choice of one's operating systems!
The Anti-Blog
These men have just become my three favorite people to hate, along with our non-president Bush.
Here's some addresses for you to do with as you please; normally I'd recommend writing them as I usually do, but their corrupt stupidity compels me to not care if you DDOS them, spam them, or whatever:
Rep. Robert Wexler
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Tom Feeney
Oh, and if you haven't already, try joining the EFF.
Corporatism getting way out of hand. It's getting scary as hell if you ask me.
...Let them do whatever they want to IP laws here. Shut down every server that hosts MP3s and DIVX movies. I'll just go to Korean / Dutch / Nigerian Servers and download the stuff. And I don't care what kind of copy protection they mandate. There's always a way through the analogue hole. Great waste of my tax dollars.
WHAT America's 'innovation and security'???
You mean Micro$oft?
-Is the meaning of life vanity, or is vanity the meaning of life?
In fact, Smith's main single contributor was Microsoft!
If The Simpsons have taught us anything it's that Caucases are nothing more than a bunch of poorly inked drawings who congo line around a mountain lodge yelling "caucas caucas caucas!"
Just like congress too.. always resting on their laurals.
peer-to-peer piracy was a crime under a 1997 federal law, but universities continued to treat file-swapping as a minor infraction of campus disciplinary codes. "If on your campus you had an assault and battery or a murder, you'd go down to the district attorney's office and deal with it that way," said Rep. William Jenkins, R-Tenn These guys are bashing p2p. I know lots of "shady dealings" go on over p2p, but so does legit file sharing. From the sounds of it they're pinning everything but the fall of man [and the're working on that]
-- Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
A Democrat leading the charge to outlaw Linux and open source AGAIN! I am saying this as a registered democrat before someone marks this as flamebait. And I note there is at least 1 republican involved in this my point there really is no diffrence between the major parties.
Just dont know what to do... EFF ACLU all good and well but there is no way in hell they can ever match the funds that MS MPAA RIAA et al have...
I guess its true if voting really made a diffrence it would be illegal.
What about my up time on Netcraft!!!!
This is a secret ploy to get all those 600+ day people to reboot. Well I'm not buying.
Men engaging in perversion with architecture are hardly qualified to complain about internet pornography.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
i think i'm a bit desensitized to news like this cause i hear noise about 'bringing down the pirates' on a daily basis, but have yet to see anything tangible really come about.
this is the 23489th time we've heard this, isn't it? anyone worried?
Voices given to...
The author
Members of Congress
Motion Picture Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
Conveniently absent are voices of typical users, any technologist, or even anything negative. So much for journalistic integrity.
Sigs are like bumper stickers.
Adam Smith 1700's: "Letting people choose how to spend their money is the way to stimulate the economy."
Adam Smith 2003: "But we can't let them choose Linux."
The United States needs to take the initiative and form an international coalition against piracy. By simply concentrating on domestic incidences, the government is failing to block 95% of the other pirated media which is downloaded from international servers. And because MILLIONS of Americans download illegally obtained media, from either foreign or domestic sources, how can the united states government possibly stop it ??
The U.S. Government should have prepared for this years in advance instead of waiting to make some makeshift committee.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
Great... This means that senators who really don't know anything about technology but are getting their advise from their supporters (like various big companies) will making the decisions. Have you seen the meets of these things on C-SPAN? They ussally have 6 "witnesses" from prespective "experts" in their field giving their advice and view points. Unfortunatly, these witnesses are choosen by the senators themselves. The all work for major companies or some type of advice group. People who have interests usally against anything good for the person and better for their own pocket books. I say NO! They should ban these things. They are so against democracy in my mind.
No.
We can stop this, you know. All this idiocy can end. Intuit's about-face proves that even the big powerful companies will listen when enough people speak up.
We need to write our senators, our mayors, our governors, our friends, our coworkers - even the president. The more loud we are, the less they will be able to deny what we're saying.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
In the absence of an opposing view, your representatives believe what they are told. Tell them differently.
/. a website we should be able to make a point in DC.
Be concise, polite, and specific. If we can
Contacting your Representative -- The Easy Way
Don't wait. Do it now or don't whine about it later.
from a grateful industry, straight in to a politicans pocket
"We're always grateful when members of Congress devote their attention to an issue as critical as the protection of copyrighted works," spokesman Rich Taylor said. "We look forward to working with this new body in the days and weeks to come, to help create an environment where a legitimate digital marketplace can thrive."
Shiver me fuckin' timbers, matey...they say they be crackin' down on piracy. Hoist the mains'l! We best make sure they not be preventing Cap'n Torvalds from doin' what he wants with his ship...
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Think, write, think, edit, think...then post.
No political system is perfect, but in my opinion, Linux gives us some of the greatest aspects of both Socialism and our "free market" economy.
Let's face it, Microsoft is scared because they don't feel they can compete. What could be a greater sign that Linux encourages competition? Just because Linus isn't the richest man on Earth, doesn't mean Linux doesn't aid our economy.
Not that this means all that much since none of the people who managed to cash out successfully after an IPO and therefore have the cash to start a PAC to represent our interests can be bothered to do so, and it's too late to do the Federal and state filings for this election cycle needed to allow such a group to legally raise and spend money in any case.
Remember that no amount of money spent on non-profit geek activist groups like EFF, etc. can be used to buy a politician because tax-deductible non-profits are forbidden to make contributions to political candidates.
For what it's worth, this will tell you who to vote against.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Once again, further proof that Congress is the opposite of Progress. On a more serious note:
"The concerns of the thousands of Americans whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property protection are not being fully debated or addressed,"
Uh-Huh. Seeing as Wexler wants to give the RIAA the right to hack your computer maliciously, I'd say the rights of the millions of Americans whose livelihood depends on having a functional computer are not being fully addressed. But they don't offer money, do they?
At any rate, it's obvious that they've been bought by the **AA. What else is new?
[...] three members [of] the House of Reps has formed a caucus that aims to [kill open source software and fair use in the name of "stopping piracy"]
Hurrah!
Up to now the RIAA/MPAA/Microsoft/etc.-corrupted congresscritters have been pretty much anonymous. When they weren't actually introducing a bill you couldn't tell them from the general crowd of congressional dupes.
Now we will have an explicit way to track the congressional ringleaders and target them for defeat - in primaries and general elections.
Hot DAMN!
(Ask anybody who helped take out Roberti, Roos, or Foley how a grass-roots movement works.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
- AOL-Time-Warner
s oft Corporation
He's taken money from the very people that his legislative plans will benefit. Can any sane, rational person honestly believe that this is not a conflict of interest? This is not right, and it's symptomatic of the legalized bribery that is the core problem of the American political system.ASCAP
MediaOne
Micro
Fox
RIAA
Sony
Walt Disney
Furthermore, the contributions from the PACs listed above don't constitute anywhere near the majority of his campaign funding. He's a democrat, and most of the PAC contributions are from labor unions. The larger part of his campaign expenditures were thus paid by organizations that purport to represent workers - sometimes also known as consumers. Despite this, he is acting as the lapdog of the content industry. As Mark Twain said, an honest politician is one that stays bought.
Wexler thus fails both the idealistic and pragmatic tests for honesty. I submit that he needs to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
Congress: Yo we should mix Baking Soda with some cocaine and sell it.
My Answer: If you were smart why not stop giving microsoft welfare and let open source grow.
as soon as the EFF Action Center writes a report... utilize their service to send your representatives a letter expressing exactly how you will feel and how you will vote. Keep an eye on it!
Remember, as always, strength in numbers. And don't forget to donate to them an the ACLU.
Join Tor today!
...seems to me that if you want to crack down on piracy, it'd be smart to encourage people to use something that's almost impossible to pirate. (I said almost).
I'm confused. This is like telling people that being caught not wearing a seat belt is illegal, but telling the cops they're not allowed to suggest you wear one.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Here is a map of the area of Florida that Wexler represents. If any of you live in this area please do us all a favor by writing and faxing Wexler about our concerns.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
"they don't feel they can compete."
Not true. They know perfectly well they can compete. They make pretty some good software (on alternate Thursdays) and they have a stellar marketing machine.
The problem is, it's just too much damn trouble and expense to compete - and it doesn't maximize ROI. Much easier and cheaper to legislate and litigate. Path of least resistance.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
But this sort of thing wouldn't happen if congress wasn't corrupt as hell. Amend the 22nd Amendment to equally apply to Congress. It's only fair.
The description really makes me wonder how non-attentive people can be. After all, how could anyone think that the Microsoft EULA was encouraging innovative thinking? heh. Just my little observation...
PS: After many years on Windows, I'd say the security comment is funny, but I'm too busy dying of laughter
My Systems
So where's the caucus to keep these "watchdogs" from over-abusing their powers, jailing kids who accidentally mention the words "Harry Potter" somewhere online, or threaten to shut down universities' internet connections during finals because one of the professors may have a file that might be illgal according to some law.
You know, protection from overbearing abuse, the rules that this country is based on... where's the caucus to protect people and their rights?
Since when did people only apply to people who were located in large office towers and made millions a year, scamming average people for all they are worth.
SecondPageMedia - Wha
The threat of communism
Morality in music lyrics
the possibility of backwards satanic messages in music
And now, in the 21century, free software is a "threat to America's 'innovation and security"
Good gawd! I'm willing to bet dimes to doenuts that stronger IP laws are a threat to innovation and security. So long as it's a crime to test and verify security mesures, and by chance propose to IMPROVE them.... we become guilty of creating a nation where innovation is a crime, and only criminals innovate.
So long as there is a open source moment, there is a motovation among comercial developers to create a product to compeat with something that is free. You don't even have to like any particular open source product to realize that. In fact, PROMOTES innovation if you are critical and strive to make improvement in products.
It looks like someone needs to start a thread on the subject how we can illistrate to congress that this is bullshit, in terms the average everyday joe can understand.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
When, as it often is (think Verizon v. the RIAA or DRM being forced on TiVos, MP3 players, and so forth), technology companies are at odds with media companies, it is pure fallacy to proclaim that it is the media companies' concerns that best represent American innovation (especially when this "innovation" is merely another teeny-bopper or an animated mouse from the last century).
Congress, I have long admitted, follows the money. But the money, in this case, is not with the IP companies but with the technology companies. Does Intel want to build chips with integrated DRM? Of course not; such a move is not inherently profitable. Does Verizon want to be responsible for its subscribers' piracy, or Panasonic for the exact digital copies made with their MP3 players?
Congress is behaving here as irrationally as the RIAA themselves (an organization so clealy ignorant and terrified of technology that they couldn't profit from it as the Apple iMusic store is now doing). IP controls go both ways; an incentive for innovation, when overly broad, stifles anything new. Intellectual property controls are certainly necessary, to some degree, but, as framed in the Constitution, to promote innovation in the arts and sciences, never to stop it.
With all the non-sense laws that our government comes up with regarding technology, wouldn't it make sense to form a group of knowledgable and experienced individuals to lobby against these laws?
;). We all know that our normal politicians can't get it right. I think we can!
I'm sure that slashdot can bring a real life political slashdot effect. Maybe it's something worth thinking about, or perhaps starting
- Howard Berman, Representative
- Barbara Boxer, Junior Senator
- Dianne Feinstein, Senior Senator
All three are 0wnz0r3d by the RIAA, MPAA, and Big Media.No, I didn't vote for Berman in the last election. I swallowed hard and voted for the Republican candidate, because he seemed to be genuinely concerned about eroding Fair Use rights.
I don't know what's going to happen when Berman, Feinstein and Boxer are up for re-election again. Usually the Republicans run Religious Right-sponsored, Orange County-friendly candidates at the Senatorial level here in California. I can't support someone like that. But Feinstein and Boxer make me sick. Berman does too, but I think he's gotten enough heat from geeks in his district (they do exist) to where he's not going to try anything so stupid as a "Son Of Berman Bill".
I live close enough to Hollywood to where it's a lot like living in Adam Smith's district in Washington State. This is a company town and Big Media is the company. Resistance, it seems. is futile.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
The site a100.ms.a.microsoft.com is running AkamaiGHost on Linux. FAQ Linux users include Rackspace Do you want to look for an SSL site at a100.ms.a.microsoft.com ? hm, that's nice. even Microsoft uses linux ;-)
(Moderators-I know what you are thinking. this has been a message of irony. goodnight)
Looks like the Crongressional Dip$hits are at it again.
Perhaps they'll decide to save on legislature time and just try to roll the DMCA and the Patriot Act into one and just go ahead and lock up anyone with any sort of recording device as a Terrorist Threat.
Ya ya ya... I have zero faith in our government to ever not have it's head so far up it's ass when dealing with anything that is even remotely related to the tech sector or individual rights as opposed to corporate self interests.
Somehow, I have a feeling I'm not alone there.
Anyway, time to toss some moolah to the EFF, because they're gonna need it.
Pass the hat.
Call it what it really is, a bunch of closed minded power hungry individuals that want to banish all the citizens rights, and freedoms, from the face of the earth.
Using the terms 'piracy or terrorist' to get the popuplation to go along with the scheme..
As long as it dosent effect *their* freedoms, or pocketbooks, of course.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Is M$ starting some sort of a campaign against Linux?
Or, is it just other's paranoia about U.S. security?There is no spoon or sig.
It's 2-1 so far. I expect that this freshman Republican is going to get an earful from the conservative intellectual elite which isn't crazy about piracy but does have a great respect for the original intent of the Constitution. If he stick's it's going to be against a lot of headwind inside his party.
Headline: "'Open Source' Hackers Shut Down Internet, Demand Control of Congress"
I can't imagine Congress ever outlawing Linux, but if there was anything that could bring that day closer, this is probably it.
... should have a little sticker on the side that says "Hollywood Inside".
i think its funny how a rep from wash, whose district includes ms headquarters, comes out in favor of ip laws and against linux. i wonder how much that cost balmer.
Now our corrupt government has taken over Iraq, so if you were looking for a place to go to to escape the U. S., where it is looking pretty grim, where I'm beginning to think before long our political injustices might actually exceed China, there's one less place to go to. I suggest China. Canada's in the clear now, but I predict that unfortunately it won't be for long, and that it will succomb to the dark side of Digital Restrictions Management just like Apple did.
The man with the beard.
The parties need to get their money from somebody, and that "somebody" is definitely not: The People.
Not everyone. The only congressman worth a damn, Ron Paul, gets 96.9% of his contributions from individuals. As a comparison, my congressman only gets 44% from individuals.
"Joining Wexler as co-founder of the caucus is Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who helped author a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's "innovation and security." Smith's Ninth District includes the Seattle surburbs near Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters."
Gee...anybody want to bet that Microsoft has given this guy campaign money? Anybody???
Oh and don't worry about him ruining everything else in the world...(from his website)
"Adam Smith led the effort to establish a pilot program at the National Defense University that will identify and find solutions to the DOD's technology needs."
Where the fuck is all this "illegal porn?" I don't even use p2p apps (unless you count usenet) because I don't care to have my already dogshit slow 56 surfing experience clogged by someone too stupid to use Free Agent - but I have tried p2p apps at various times and, every time I've let curiosity get me to the point I've installed one of these flaky pieces of crapware one of the first things I've tried (after giving up on finding the music I like in any decent quality) were search terms like "baby sex child fuck cum" - and yet I have never seen this allegedly "illegal" porn. Where the fuck is it?
I really don't believe the people who actually collect and trade that stuff are so stupid as to do so by opening up public shares on their computers - especially when it's well known how easily traced they are. "Illegal porn" is just another rhetorical tool of the IP lobby: if you use p2p you must be (not only) a pirate and a subversive... you're also most surely a child predator.
Death to all p2p users!
As long as they create an equally-sized, equally powerful Protecting the Individual's Content Rights caucus.
"assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's 'innovation and security.'" Congressman to aid : "find out all information on Linux and this GNU thing so I sound like I know what im talking about out there" Aid to Congressman : "ok I'll call Microsoft and find out what we think"
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/10/23/1247 236.shtml?tid=4
That RMS is the next Osama bin Laden? In that case, he's already got the foot-long beard down.. Now all he needs is a turban.
Adam Smith (L-ECON) would not be happy with Adam Smith's (D-WA) manipulation of the free market through the passing of artificial governmental regulation.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Will this be step one in net regulation like cable and phone? Will the FCC be assigning IP's?
JP
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?mode_u=on&mod e_w=on&site=www.whitehouse.gov&submit=Exam ine
When will you people grow up?
Copyright protection laws (including Anti-Piracy) are great for Free Software!
Is copyright law was enforced 100%, 80 percent of the world's computer users would have been Free Software users by now.
$600 for MS Office? I don't think so.
If you don't like paying for music- don't support corporate artists.
Form a band of your own, for daemon's sake!
I've been generating my own music (i'm a techno freak) for years. And guess what, ambient music is easy easy easy to make on your own.
Breaking rules is for kids, Making rules of their own is for adults.
The more you rant about Freedom and Piracy, the more power to the establishment to link Free Software and Piracy.
I didn't go to see the Matrix. I haven't bought a Music CD in 5 years. Grow up and Fight!
--- Nothing but Blood and Kosmos
So him being an idiot is why he is president?
Trickle-down intellectual property law?
Trickle-down freedom?
[cough]
These wankers give anti-piracy advocates a bad name.
We could have dealt with 9/11 and Iraq with nice diplomacy and all the other BS. Unlike the rest of the world, though, we don't negotiate with terrorists. You know why they used suicide attackers on 9/11 and Gulf War 2? Because they know we will never negotiate with them. We will not release terrorists from prison and let them terrorize the world again. We will not negotiate with despots who haven't had a legitimate, sovereign government in 12 years.
Quite honestly, I don't think Bush expects to make many friends with "cowboy" diplomacy. I really don't care if he does, either. The way I see it, the rest of the world has been sh*tting on America for a long time. Especially the EU. If you mess with America, you're going to die. If you get in the way, that's your own damn fault, we warned you too.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
Keep the public stupid and in the dark about the fact that Microsoft has slowed down the introduction of affordable 64 bit computing by at least 5 years. Do not tell the truth about how they are perverting html with proprietary code.
Microsoft is really starting to stink. Just look at what is happening in the rest of the world. One starts to see there is more to computing than Redmond USA.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
I suspect it's pretty hard to collect much money for a candidate that way while complying with all campaign finance restriction laws, especially from out of district or even non citizen contributors.
That the opposite of "pro" gress is "con" gress.
Yes, I know it's old, but probably 2 or 3 Slashdot readers haven't heard it before, so I repeat it for their benefit.
No you don't negotiate with terrorists, you just fund them, and supply them with arms.
As for the rest of your post, I hate to tell you this but America isn't that fucking important. Do you know how the rest of the world could bring the US to it's knees? Stop selling stuff to it. The US needs the world a shit load more than the world needs the US.
Both the RIAA and MPAA were positive about this. That means that it is a very bad thing.
Keynes 2003: "Smith! What I tell you about opening up your mouth, bitch? Who the hell stopped the Great Depression up in here, can you tell me that?"
Smith 2003: "I know, you did, you did!"
Keynes 2003: "'You did' whaaaat?"
Smith 2003: "You did... sir."
Keynes 2003: "Yeahhh. That's right. Now go pretty yourself up for the Linux geeks, baby. You best not let me catch you turning off the customers again, you get me?"
Note: I forgot who I was trying to offend here. I think I got everybody, though.
A scary thought I've had: a presidential ticket consisting of Feinstein and Boxer. Yiiiiy!!
Goes to show how disjoint public perceptions, the voters' choices, and lawmaking processes are, when people persistently re-elect blatantly anti-public-interest candidates like these two.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I live in his district. I campaigned furiously against him. Unfortunately, the Republicans felt that the campaign money was better spent elsewhere last time, and so all we could do was knock on doors and hand out flyers. We came within a few points, but it wasn't enough to unseat him. We'll get him next year.
He's also a strong supporter of Baghdad Jim from Seattle -- the representative who broadcast from Baghdad weeks before we invaded, saying there is nothing there that would interest us, and that Saddam was a really great guy, while badmouthing the president and otherwise spreading Hussein's propaganda. You should've seen the look on his face when an army vet told him to his face on TV camera that he was a lying, dirty traitor.
Anyways, if he keeps this up, he is going to offend everyone out there -- conservative and liberal alike. To me, he is just showing his true colors, and when you see that he only follows the money, you'll see that he is just another pathetic politician, and we need to replace him with someone with a conscience who actually stands for something.
It's funny that a guy that shares a name with the author of capitalism is so against freedom.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Remember that politicians are people. President Bush raised far more money than the Democrats in 2000 because he targetted middle income families, and didn't spend as much time as he normally would've contacting big businesses.
YOU do make a difference. The reason why the democrats are consistently coming out pro-big-business lately is because the grass-root democrats won't support them. Ask a democrat, "When is the last time you gave a buck to a candidate?" Then ask the same question to a republican. Which party do you think is eating from the hands of the constituency?
I'll admit, the Republican Party doesn't do what I wish they did 100% of the time, but they are aiming in the general direction. Deregulation, lowering taxes, beefing up our borders are all things I feel are important. You'll find me and millions like me are going to put a couple bucks into our republican candidates. That is going to sway them away from big business, and more towards our interests.
Washington State Republicans have broken completely from Boeing -- one of the reason why Boeing is leaving -- for this very same reason. They don't need their cash anymore. The republicans in WA are more than willing to pop out a $20 bill to support their own candidates as long as they do what the supporters want. (HINT: This next budget coming down is pretty much what we wanted. Expect a big republican win next year.)
As long as you are giving a buck or two to your candidate, and millions of you are doing the same, you will have bought their vote. You get to write a letter to them that starts: "Dear Representative, I gave $20 to your campaign last year, but I will be giving $50 to your opponent this time unless..." which always gets more attention than "Dear Representative, I am a whiny brat who will never give a dime to your campaign."
Remember, Big Business lives off of our buck. We can strangle them with boycotts if we so desire. (You ever notice how whimpy the business people get when they are faced with consumer outrage?) There is no way someone as dependent on our cash, and who can only turn a couple of percentage points on it for profit, can every compete with our cash going directly into the pockets of our representatives. We really do have the power. We really do control the game -- but only if we get in the ring and fight!
So if you want to start a "Fair Use Consumer Advocacy Group", give a couple of bucks to your favorite politician who is generally going in your direction, and tell them where you want them to go. Convince others to do the same. A couple of thousand dollars and a couple of hundred votes later, you will have them eating out of your hand. They will come to you and ask, "Which way should I vote to get your help in next year's campaign?"
If you don't know where to start, start small. Look for state representatives or city council members you want to support. Check out their record. Call them up and ask them how you can help. When you get to know them, and you begin to trust them, and they you, give them your money. Trust me, it works, and it is really simple. And as long as enough people are doing it, we'll keep the government in check.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
I am one of Adam Smith's constituents, and I am frankly pissed to see that this fool is saying the things he is. Since I am tired of getting worthless form letter from everyone I email, I am going to give him a call. Anything, you recommend to say? Thank you.
Art K.
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
The problem I have with this kind of argument is this: You want to labnel me as "liberal" or "conservative". Guess what? I'm one of those "middle of the road" people that extremists hate. I make decisions on my own.
:)
Yup I disagree with conservatives. I disagree with liberals. I agree with conservatives. I agreee with liberals. What this ammounts to is: I think Ann Coultier and Bill O'Reilly are idiots who make good arguments at times. Same with Bill Clinton and Barbara Streisand. Sometimes, though, they say stuff that actually amounts to an intelligence behind their ideologies. It's rare, but it happens.
Now, to go back on-topic...
What do I think of this action by these folks who are claiming that Open Source is a threat to National Security(tm)? Nothing. I clicked on the comments here to see what people are thinking about this matter on an intellectual level. NOT an ideological level.
So, some people are raising a raucus in Washington. This happens all the time. Heck, it wasn't a few years ago when Microsoft faced a fate worse than this. In all honesty, I think Open Source got off lucky politically speaking over the past dozen years or so. And I'm glad to see it. Proprietary software needed its kick in the pants. That's not to say the Free Software movement (and its corporate-friendly equivalent, Open Source) needs the occasional kick too. But for these folks to be taken seriously, more than well-paid lobbyists will be able to make a difference.
Ideology goes three inches and a neutrino's width with me. Case closed.
(P.S. back from 3 years away from Slashdot, BTW... hoo-yeah
--- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
I used to think linux wouldn't be a good choice for my multimedia cravings. Then I found the holy grail....mplayer
If you have mplayer, then you have an entertainment center. You have a VHS and DVD player and ripper. You have a DivX, 3viX, and XviD encoder. etc.etc.
It is quite impressive.
Of course, the gas plasma display will be supported if it's DVI. Your all-in-blunder is supported by gatos, but unfortunately the Acoustic Edge will never be supported because Phillips==ghey and they don't want their precious (crappy sounding) QSound IP to get out in the open.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
That's right, it's the fuck-you cyclical redundancy check. It makes sure you're legit by fucking you in the ass, and then taking a spectral fingerprint of the resulting high-pitched yelp.
Then they take your lunch money.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
Argh Mateys the first ping of me bow by some land luber trying to shut down me gnutela client, and im rollin me nmap cannons and pickin off the scurrvey bastard.
I SHALL RAIN DOWN MISSILES-IN-A-BUN ON YOUR PITIFUL CITY'S!
In order to become president, you need to win the electoral college. The electoral college is made up of one vote per representative or senator from each state.
Florida has a law that say they will send electors who support the candidate who gains the majority of the votes.
In the event that it is a close call, Florida state law says that there must be 1 and exactly 1 recount.
Bush won the initial count. It was close, so that didn't count. He won the recount. There was no evidence of foul play. Stupidity, yes, foul play, no. (Yes, there was evidence of foul play. But I will not mention them here, because it makes my blood boil).
Gore's team tried to legally challenge the vote. He first wanted only a few, heavily democratic regions recounted. The law says no. A judge, who was a liberal, said "Yes", without citing any laws. A judge above him held it up in court. The supreme court of Florida held it up as well. They are all liberals, and were very opposed to Bush. Some have even stated publically their distaste for Bush. This means they were not impartial in their decisions.
The Supreme Court said "You cannot change the state law after the election. Therefore, since the state law says that whoever wins the recount, wins the race. Therefore, Bush won the race.
Now, several things could've happened, which would have been very curious indeed, because they are legal, yet have never been done before.
1) The legislature is responsible for choosing and sending the electors to the electoral college. They gave the power to the people to choose. They could've taken it away, and sent whomever they wanted. The constitution says it is the legislatures who decide who to send, or how to choose who to send.
Bush told the legislature not to meet and not to overturn the law and choose electors. That would've been just too weird.
2) In the event that the legislature can't decide by a certain date who they will send, the election can be thrown to the house of representatives. The house of representatives would've decided who would be the next president if the Florida Secretary of State did not stamp the piece of paper that says Bush Won in time enough to send the electors to DC.
This is not just made up on the spur of the moment. This is the constitution. This is the way we all agreed it should be 200 years ago.
Why did the Supreme Court step in? Because it was the only organization that would've given the people a feeling of sincerity and impartiality. I think it was wrong for the Supreme Court to get involved, but it was only because of the Florida courts and their corruption and mangling of the law that it was necessary.
Now, your job is to go read the constitution. We live in a nation where we all made a deal with the government, and we laid out what they can and most certainly cannot do. We laid out how we choose who is in the government in no uncertain terms. Anyone who stands to defy that is a traitor to the constitution, and threatens the only thing that keeps us together and prevents a second civil war or worse. That deal cannot change unless by a specific process that we laid out. That deal is binding beyond the Supreme Court (the Supreme Court owing its existence to the document) and should the Supreme Court overthrow the document, the people will overthrow the Supreme Court.
Remember this: During that frightful time, there were people assembling for war. There were many who said that they had had enough of the courts overruling the constitution. They would gladly have taken up arms to overthrow the government, knowing full well that it would have cost them their lives.
Remember, we walk a fine line, and it is near another civil war, this time between conservative, God-fearing Christians, and socialist environmentalist degenerate wackos who want to overthrow our nation and freedom by subversion and sabotage. The only thing that prevents one from waging open warfare with the other is the constitution, which guarantees that
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
If you want people to listen to the EFF, start becoming memebers. Let EFF say that they represent a million people who would be very upset if a law that introduces stronger IP laws that affect fair use.
sri
Let's not forget Agent Smith circa 2199, "You are a plague, and we are the cure."
By reading this comment, you immediately waive any and all rights regarding it.
To: California Republicans
From: Pennsylvania Republicans
Subject: Senators
Feinstein isn't looney enough to be beaten. Boxer is. Find yourselves a "liberal Republican" like Arlen Specter is for Pennsylvania. A more or less rational pro-choice republican will beat Barbara Boxer to a bloody pulp.
It doesn't solve all your problems but it's a good start. The worst thing that can happen in a political system is for one of the two major parties to become largely irrelevant. Just look at New Jersey.
You ought to be able to buy a better government than that....
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
We'll just have to develop Linux overseas.
int main() {
printf("Hello world!\nGoodbye US fascist corporate police state!\n");
exit(0);
}
This discussions seems to be more or less wrapped up and writing your Congressman and / or voting different seem to be good options. So all that's left for me is to throw in some comment.
Everytime I read about Big 'Cons heavily influencing laws that undermine basic human rights and invalidating democratic structures, in order to grow bigger and bigger, I only wait for the awakening of magic in 2012.
It's as if everyone in power in this world read the shadowrun books and thought "wow, thats a great world to live in".
The US needs to reform their electoral and governmental system fast or they'll be run down the drain by all these corporate whores.
That's what bothers me most with the eff and aclu: they just take the conservative approach of "everything has to stay the way it is" instead of calling attention to the things that IMHO need serious fixin.
If you look at the eff's site, the news section is just full of battles in jurisdiction but on the legislation side of things, it's just "state has passed this, congress has passed that".
Where is the support for a legislative proposal that actually strengthens consumer/citizen/human rights?
Where is the proposal for a system that allows for more than two parties to gain power?
Where is the continous lobbying effort to keep the politicians in line with common sense?
Code is Speech. No to Censorship.
Sorry, I know I misread it at first glance, but it really does fit. They want to know everything you're watching and listening to, and it's pay-per-view.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
"...blamed P2P networks for spreading..."
I always thought that in US, in general the argumentation was, for example, "guns doesn't kill, people do". So how come when it comes to copyright infringement and such, it is always the tool that is the cause, and not people.
Or like our impeached, perjuring, unfaithful, whitehouse-bedroom-selling, beer-goggle-wearing, etc, etc, Ex-president... It seems a bit unfair to single Bush out for your wrath; he's clearly not the worst that's ever inhabited that office.
All in all, I'd say Bush at least is making an effort to rehabilitate himself, unlike some other unnamed Presidents, who went nowhere but down.
As for politicians in general, your cynicism may not be misplaced. Money does talk, as the saying goes...
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
From the article:
What about the concerns of millions of Americans whose livelihoods depend on free access to technology? Open source software creates jobs, because it creates the opportunity for someone with an idea to build a business without having to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in software. For instance, I have started a software development business that I would not have been able to afford to start without free software:
I am sure I could come up with a couple hundred thousand more if I really thought about it. The point is that I don't have the money for any of that. If things go well I plan to hire several developers over the next year or two. That's as many as ten jobs that wouldn't exist if it weren't for free software.
Seriously, the argument that free software is "A threat to America's innovation and security," makes about as much sense as the one that says that giving rich people a tax break will lead to more jobs. They neglect to mention that the vast majority of the jobs are with large companies that already pay almost zero taxes. Most of the tax cut goes to rich people who will stow it away so that they are richer rather than companies with any significant number of jobs or middleclass taxpayers who do the bulk of the consuming that drives the economy.
What these people need to do is get a clue. The record companies are going to go out of business if they keep doing things the way they have always done them. Since when is it good business to whine and moan until someone legislates away our freedom rather than innovating and coming up with a viable new way to make money? The reality is that these businesses have to change their way of thinking or they will die. The only real question is how much pain can they put the rest of us through before they do finally die. Can they successfully destroy the American way of life first? They're trying.
These sorts of articles are coming out faster and faster everyday. I never used to worry about it but now I am really starting to sweat. Its not just in the US where they are doing it. A lot of comments here say we will move offshore. Where are you going to go. ITs ahpopening in Australia and in Britain. While the majority of the population sleeps throuugh life, getting their news from sources that don't report things like this, they are tightening the screws. 1984 should be mandatory reading.
BTW Guns are not the answer. Peacefully protest is. Do you really think that the citizens of the US could beat the US Defence force.
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
I guess we always needed a luddite caucus. If you can't beat the Unibomber, join 'em, I suppose. Congressmen calling for the stunting of technology -- how quaint.
I suppose they would have opposed the invention of the piano roll, too -- and that victrola, what a threat! The audio tape, the video tape and now the P.C. Ironically, it was these technologies that made the companies that build these Congressmen's campaign warchests.
At the end of the day, the market does a far better job of deciding what technologies the world need than does the Congress. Amazing how supposedly "conservative" congressmen don't think twice about regulating industries they don't understand to protect the interests of businesses they do. Alas, the one being regulated by them is the one driving our economy.
Distinguishing between the technologies and those who exploit them wrongly is the identifying feature of these doofuses. These guys would ban credit cards as forms of lockpicking tools because they can be used to jimmy open some old doors. We already have laws making copyright infringement illegal -- we don't need new ones to make criminals of other people who don't infringe and who make useful, important technology, just because some special interest group doesn't want to be vigilant or change business models to one that can succeed in the twenty-first century..
Luddites unite! Since we are already going to double the debt in the next few years, why not also wreck the economy?
You mean like we didn't swap arms for hostages during the Reagan administration?
The U.S. has been nowhere near ruthless enough to eliminate the threat of terrorism. If you want to do it through violence, you have to be more violent than they are. Case in point: 20-odd years ago some terrorists kidnapped a few Soviet citiziens. The KGB promptly began mailing the terrorists their family members in installments. End of terrorist problem for the ol' U.S.S.R.
It's past noon, my friend. It's getting too late even for civil uprising. The lock-down is very nearly complete, and people are too dazed to realize it. If you wanted to organize a civil war, I don't think you could pull it together without getting yourself vanished long before you managed to get anything started. You couldn't use the net; you'd have to do it in basements and using local people, (And good luck finding enough like-minded neighbors willing to die for their country!)
The science of cell networks with physical go-betweens is long dead. People have been numbed into blithering stupidity. --A great many of them still believe that Bush is 'da man. (With the exception of the ecconomy. But so what? Bush will either rig another election, or the guy from the other side will get in. --Who also happens to be a Bonesmen this time around. Gee, no kidding?)
I hate to say it, but the ship is done for. It is now the time to get yourself out of America toot-sweet. 'Cuz in a few short years, French and German shells are going to be raining through American skies. --But not before Bush and his gang of psychopaths has turned the middle east into a firey cauldron and scooped up all native dissenters, such as yourself.
This is not a drill. Check out this site on American concentration camps. --A little alarmist, but there is a healthy dose of real info in there, too. Here are several others. . . Ashcroft plan Okanagon County And my 'favorite', which describes just how willing American soldiers are to break the Geneva Convention in Afghansitan when dealing with 'terrorists'.
Brutal. And for the most part, invisible. Seriously. Buy a mini-van and load up what you need, or ship your essential stuff, board a plane and get out. It's not as hard as it sounds, and hey, you might just live to see the end of the decade.
Cheers.
-FL
I have to vent my spleen here folks, bear with me a minute. I read the article and I have to say these people are worst nightmare jury that open source could imagine. I read the thread up and down, and none of you seem to understand what just happend here. This is an honest paradiem shift, and nobody in this community noticed it. It is very subtle but commands a broad range of guess what? (Crackdown) Bear with me a little more, Microsoft licensing SCO? What the heck is this all about? Man that opens up another can of worms. (Microsoft defends SCO until the death of IBM?)
The FCC relaxing ownership hold on TV Monolopies? -Pet gripe. (While ignoring the lesson of Clear-channel when radio ownership was 'relaxed'?)
I cannot tell you how many jobs that little jewel will cost all the time preserving the fat cats on top.
Thanks for listening to my spleen, my killer comment is: They are lumping open source software, Spammers, P2P and Anti-DRM people into the group known as "terrorists"
How does it feel to be labeled a Spammer.
I don't like it and you should not take it.
I am even going to go out on a limb here, and say I support Spamcop. Before the flames begin, I have not found a more effective solution for free or for money. Say what you want about server level solutions, They just dont work. Witness the debacle that AOL is going through.
Sorry for the extra mini-rant I promise the punchline is:
Write your Congress-critter, Or present me with ten thousand geeks who are willing to present a united front against a deadly foe and are willing to spend 50 bucks apiece to get a lobby group formed.
Um, America actually is that fucking important. You can wish for the downfall of America all you like, but realize it would mean worldwide economic catastrophe. There is not a Western economy (and I'm just assuming you live in the West) that could survive "not selling stuff to it."
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
but if you start attacking the very countries who supply you with all the goods and stuff you need, you have imposed a de facto embargo on yourself. Besides, there a 6 billion people on this planet and I can't really see American public opinion supporting attacking the rest of the world, however conservative you are. It always makes me laugh that you Americans conservatives like to tell everyone that you're the greatest, most compasionate, most law abiding, most God fearing nation on Earth, and that you are the only ones who know what freedom is like you invented the concept, all the while you intimidate, coerce and threaten everyone else into infringing their own citizens human rights just so you can sleep soundly in your beds, and have enough oil to drive your SUV's. American conservatives, you make me sick.
You can't win Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
Just like congress too.. always resting on their laurals.
No, you misspelled it. It's "Laurels," as a surprising number of interns are known by that name.
That is hilarious. Gee... if they stop selling to the US, who do they sell to? Oh, I guess they just starve.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
"The concerns of the thousands of Americans whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property protection are not being fully debated or addressed,"
They are already ignoring the concerns of the millions of americans who livelihoods don't depend on intellectual policy, why care about another few thousand?
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
It was extremely important to protect the oil fields, to prevent another enviornmental disaster like the first war, far, far worse than the impact of the Exxon Valdez.
It's not as if they knew where nuclear material was being kept, and it would have been impossible to "protect" it, as they hadn't, I mean DUH!, taken over that part of the friggin country yet.
Never mind that our feeble attempts to bring order are just making more enemies in Iraq.
You seem to not understand the volatility of the situation. It's not simple, and will be impossible to please everyone.
Never mind that those nations that supported us are now under attack from Al Queda terrorists.
That's the price you pay. The alternative is to submit to demands of terrorists, which is unacceptable.
Never mind that Saddam got away. Never mind that Bin Laden got away.
Idiot! These countries are big. Baghdad is a huge city, with over 5,000,000 people. You are extremely naive if you think it was even possible to prevent him from getting away. They came close to killing him, even may have, but most likely he got away.
Never mind that this administration has FAILED at every goal they have set for themselves in the war on terror.
Complete, fucking, idioacy. Afghanistan is no longer ruled by the Taliban, the government that al'Queda was a military branch of. Iraq is no longer ruled by Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator personally responsible for over a million deaths. There has not been a single successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Al'Queda is not gone, but it has been severely impacted. It's power will continue to crumble, and as more countries support efforts to eliminate them, it will go even quicker. After the ridiculously easy time U.S. forces had removing the Taliban and the Baath party in Iraq, both of which naysayers said would not be possible, beliggerant governments will think twice before opposing the U.S.
We got Sadyam huh-huht. Yee Haw! WE rock dude!
Grow up.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
By the way the article reads, and the attitude of a lot of non-geeks, it seems that everyone things that Open Source software cannot innovate. No innovations rise out of open source software. None, all Open Source software is a direct copy of Closed source and has only one intent of stealing sales of closed source software.
If you write software, or develop an algorithm, or whatever, and release it to the public without some sort of gain, then you are obviously a bad person. Imagine if a scientist worked very long and very hard on a cure for cancer, and found it. Then he released his findings to the world, with the stipulation that no one can profit off of it, not even the scientist himself. Pharmaceutical companies would be up in ARMS about this, and probably would form a lynch mob.
There are some people who just don't understand that some people do things for the betterment of everyone, not just the betterment of their bottom line.
We don't see almost no piracy in US waters because we have a very large and capable coast guard. Also, if a pirate vessel fires on a Coast Guard ship, that is an act of war and the Coast Guard can (and will) call for navy assistance in destroying the ship. However this is not the case everywhere. Pirate vessels still do operate in places like the caribbean isles and prey on rich yachts. It isn't all that common, but it does happen.
Now for the disclaimer. I haven't written either. That's because I'm in the US on a (TN) visa, and I don't believe it would do much good for a non-citizen to write (and it would be dishonest to pretend, even by omission, that I was a citizen). (My fiancée is a US citizen, and I will probably get citizenship eventually, but it will take at least five years after getting a green card.) I could, I suppose, send money to a representative, but (a) I don't believe that's right any more than it is right for corporations to do it and (b) I'd probably get arrested by Big Brother for government subversion by a foreign national ;-).
czth
The party's seem to take turns on who will throw up the viler candidate. If one candidate is bad enough, then people will vote for the other, and since the system is rigged so that there are only two significant parties (it's in the design of how votes are counted) that suffices.
Do you think I voted for Gore because I liked him? He was nearly as bad as Bush, and possibly even more into electronic surveilance. But Bush was enough worse, that I felt I had no choice. Well, Bush has been an overachiever even in my dismal view of him before the election, but this doesn't make Gore any better. We would genuinely do better from a random lottery than with either of these schemers.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I sent Senator Hillary Clinton's office a polite email of opposition to the latest extension of the copyright term (she may have been a candidate at the time). I got an autoreply asking for a campaign contribution. I never heard another word from her.
This guys mistake was not that he labeled anybody. He didn't say that you or any other /.er was a liberal. He was decrying the perception that many /.ers seem to assume that the GOP will always be opposed to liberty freedom and the forces of light, and that the Democrats are better.
/. who assume that anyone in bed with big business is a conservative, ignoring a great number of counterexamples, the most glaring being Senator Disney (D-SC). Heck, even Al Gore has gotten in bed with the RIAA, when he traded Tipper's pet record labeling scheme for effectively legislating DAT to death in the mid 80s.
To some extent he's right. There are a lot of people posting on
The real problem with this guys post was that he didn't RTFA. If he had, he'd have found that while two of the caucus's founders were Democrats, the third is from the GOP. This caucus is a bi-partisan group of the ill-informed and influenced. Speaking as one who has voted for members of both major parties and for several independents and at least once a strait-ticket for a third party, neither big-league party is going to be instinctively on-board with the OSS. There will be individuals on either side of the aisle who 'get it' and many more who get what their donors tell them. We've got to make sure we back the good guys and spank the baddies, and not let ourselves get distracted by left/right bickering.
if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
for the facts. i wonder how the editor missed that one.
This is *precisely* the point that needs to get through!
Instead of all the generic name-calling and accusations of "piracy!" - the only way anything useful will get accomplished is to look at the core of the issue.
"Is the current copyright situation in the U.S. workable in today's technological environment, or does it need some adjustment?"
As long as the elected representatives are busy collecting money from software makers and trying to please them, they'll just be trying to bend the existing copyright laws as far as possible in their favor.
Meanwhile, the rest of us might simply be wasting energy bickering over how far they can or can't bend those rules, instead of seeing if the framework itself is flawed. A fundamental change, such as "computer software will not be subject to copyright protection after a term of 5 years" might do *MUCH* more good. (Or perhaps not, but that's what needs debate!)
Why are the Democrats seemingly for this kind of legislation, and Republicans against? Usually Republicans are pro-business, but this is the sinful entertainment industry, so the rules that apply to other businesses don't apply here.
How ya like dat?
The problem is that the rules change when the entertainment industry is involved. Unlike other businesses, the entertainment industry doesn't suck up to conservatives because they see them as a bunch of sinful perverts, so they suck up to liberals, who, sadly, are bribable too. If we publicly funded campaigns, and banned campaign contributions as the form of bribery they are, Congress might be salvagable. Until them we will continue to have the best democracy money can buy.
How ya like dat?
Why? Tell me why the world has to have the US around. There are much bigger economic markets out there.
How about the rest of the world? Let's see China is the worlds biggest market, Europe is expanding, South East Asia is dragging itself out of the troubles it had. The US needs to understand that it cannot survive by pissing off the rest of the world.
Not making money, moving money to itself.
On security, ever thought about why US needs that much security? Which does not belong: Microsoft, secure software, unix/linux
Of course your will be done. How else...
-Is the meaning of life vanity, or is vanity the meaning of life?
Hm, after reading my post, I noticed that I tend to rant after a few beers. Come to think of it, I tend to rant *before* a few beers, too. Ah, such is my lot in life. ;^)
Yes, these arguments against OSS will make their rounds... too many well-funded players with vested interests, yada yada yada. But, I think this issue has been beaten to death already... besides I think this article scrolled off the main Slashdot page anyways.
--- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
There may be bigger *potential* markets out there (China, India), but there is not a bigger current market out there. Currently, the US accounts for a quarter of the world's GDP. If collapsing a quarter of the world's economy, and by extension, all of it, satisfies your smug Eurobrattiness, then feel free to continue hoping for it.
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
What a tremendous waste of time for this merry band of MS paid-off congress. Let us suppose for just one minute that their merry little band of nit-wits manages to make the GPL license illegal. Does this mean that Linux development is dead @WW? Does it mean that foreign governments who have adopted Linux will immediately purge their systems in favor of Windows? The real question is, "Does the U.S. Congress have any control over Linux as Linux is a globally dominate OS?" The answer is 'NO'. The exact same argument can be put to SCO! It is ludicras and idiotic to even dream there is commerical UNIX copyrighted code in the Linux kernel! Another good question to ask is, "Have we ever seen MS lobby the U.S. Congress over any other software related issue in the last 20 years such as they are doing now?" The answer is 'NO'. Microsoft has not made it a habbit of attempting to tear down other OS's in the U.S. Congress before. Could the United States Government stop Linux development? Absolutely not. Reading about this group and the SCO thing is like listening to animals being killed in a science lab to test the effects of some exotic hairspray. MS's time on this planet is numbered in days. Their reign will be over. And I'm as sick of reading and hearing their screams as I was sick of reading about Monica Lewinski and Bill Clinton. They might as well attempt to get legislation passed to ban water and air! It's just that childish and stupid.
And all are DEMOCRATS
Not all of them are, most are, but not all.
in this case, groups like AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, eBay and the RIAA--to exert political influence.
Sound's to me like there might be a revival of the CBDTPA, and from the way it looks, it looks like Micro$oft is in support of it, as well as the RIAA. The Conservative Republicans are probably against it right now, but, all it would take is for Micro$oft to bri^h^h^hLobby the Conservative Republicans, and that means Both Parties will support the CBDTPA "Or whatever it will be called next", and if that were to happen, ALL non Micro$oft operating systems will be Illegal because Micro$oft owns the patent on DRM in the OS.
The XXAA & Microsoft would get their way where they can eliminate ALL competition, once that happens, All Movies will go to a PAy-Per-View model, All music will go to a Pay-Per-Listen model, and Software will go to a Pay-Per-use License.
I wondor who spends more on drugs per year? The liberal hippies in government or the liberal hippies in the RIAA? Not like the republicans are any better, but still. If they spent less on their blow-to-rehab cycle we wouldnt be pirating music and movies because they would cost a hell of a lot less!
me = me ^ you; you = you ^ me; me = me ^ you; me&=root;