AOL Pulls Nullsoft's WASTE

dmehus writes "America Online, parent company of Nullsoft, has pulled what it views as a controversial project called WASTE from Nullsoft's servers. This is not the only time it has stepped in to Nullsoft's doings. It had quickly taken down Gnutella, developed by Nullsoft co-founder Justin Frankel, and shut down an MP3 search engine. CNET's News.com has more details." For those not keeping track, WASTE was only recently released.

Comments

Re:GPL - Source Posted

[sgarrity]

"exactly how can AOL plan to pull that?"

They can't. Dave Winer has posted the source.

I've got a copy of the install if someone wants to host it.

WASTE

[I(rispee_I(reme]

WASTE is an encrypted filesharing network, since the article did not make it clear. It is also, in the same vein as gnutella, an open protocol.

Re:waste copy

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, it was initially released under the GPL, so there are already mirrors out there that keep WASTE alive... One example: http://www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

This was only to be expected

[zxSpectrum]

But, seeing as it's GPLed:

Waste-source

Please, mirror the file instead of using this as sole source. I have no opportunity to set up BitTorrent here, and I have maximum transfer per month constraints. I will pull the file after 1GB is transfered.

Re:This was only to be expected

[blibbleblobble]

Please, mirror the file instead of using this as sole source.

Okay

Do we have agreement on what the MD5 should look like for these files, before everyone starts hosting any file they find with a "waste.zip" filename?

Mirrors!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.sifnt.net/waste.zip
http://forums.wina mp.com/showthread.php?threadid=1 37077
http://www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co. uk/wast e-setup.exe
http://slackerbitch.free.fr/waste/was te-source.tar .gz

Mirrors of source and binaries

[Anonymous Coward]

A couple of mirrors:

http://www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

http://slackerbitch.free.fr/waste/

mirror of the source

[mog]

Here is a mirror of this fully legal, GPL software. Do with it as you will.

My mirror

[jonathan_atkinson]

Get the source here.

--Jon

Already on sourceforge.

[jonathan_atkinson]

I noticed someone has already set up a SourceForge project for WASTE.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/waste/

Now go and help out! I want a cleanly building Linux port.

--Jon

PULLED

[zxSpectrum]

The file is now gone. Please mod this up so my server survives.

Use Dave Winers offer to download instead, or one of the other sources: waste.zip

Re:only 2 possibilities

[Daniel Phillips]

1. AOL are the copyright holders...

You're wrong, Nullsoft are the copyright holders, or were at the time of the release. Nullsoft is owned by AOL, but is nonetheless a separate legal entity.

It all comes down to whether Justin had the right to release the code under the GPL, and from the sounds of things, he does. We shall see.

/*
WASTE - main.cpp (Windows main entry point and a lot of code :)
Copyright (C) 2003 Nullsoft, Inc.

WASTE is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

WASTE is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with WASTE; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/

Re:Wait a minute...they can't do that!

[ssimpson]

Yep, certainly was. I guess the AOL lawyers have finally found a strategy to try and put the genie back in the bottle.

Of course, the following disagree ;)

http://www.sifnt.net/waste.zip
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid =1 37077
http://www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wa st e-setup.exe
http://slackerbitch.free.fr/waste/waste-source.t ar .gz
http://edwards.servehttp.com:969/waste/
http://scriptingnews.userland.com/2003/05/30#Whe n:2:48:46PM
http://www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://www.virtuelvis.com/temp/waste-source.tar. gz
http://www.blibbleblobble.co.uk/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/gems/home/was te.zip
http://www.cleanstick.org/jon/junk/waste-source. tar.gz

And add to that my mirror http://www.samsimpson.com/waste-source.tar.gz

MD5 Sums.....

[TeddyR]

Well here are the MD5 sums of the files as downloaded by me from the original site [and verified with several other ppl who downloaded it from the original site].... if anyone has a different md5sum then they should look closer at their copy of the files....

e3609e352afba37683c47ce60f9086bb waste-setup.exe
5645d0378b5bca6d2cf337686dca9a4d waste-source.tar.gz
554cfa7350333aa4e6eb3b6e24201 d80 waste-source.zip

Re:Contracts?

[wfmcwalter]

Did the NullSoft buyout contract specify that they had to keep them on for a decade?

Very possibly ('though probably four or five years, not a decade) - buyout contracts often do, to prevent the "human capital" from taking their stock and running. The carrot to folks is that they get lots of new options, which vest annually so long as they remain.

Once the deal is signed, both sides often try their best to wiggle out. The stock options aren't paid out if the employee quits early, so the company tries to get the employee to quit. CEOs become directors of empty divisions with no staff and no mission, stuff like that. The company can't be _too_ blantant about it (i.e. make the CEO unblock toilets all day) as that's constructive dismissal, in which case the employee can leave with the stock (after lots of legal squabbling, of course). Equally, mr small-company-entrepreneur type wants to get the stock and bug out (either to his next startup or to Hawaii) and doesn't want to be a drone for the next half decade. So he _tries_ to get constructively dismissed. Fired for gross misconduct (not showing up, punching out his boss, etc.) won't work - so he has a bad attitude, doesn't bathe, says dumb things to the media, produces product that makes his employer uncomfortable, founds the aryian-spaceship-league, whatever. So a war of attrition is fought.

Naturally, I don't know the terms of the nullsoft acquisition, but it may be this is Frankel's (et al) idea (or at least in his mind). I figured this was the case when Gnutella came out (AOL were _never_ going to be happy with that) and WASTE is even more AOL-unfriendly (heck, it's got a chat client - who needs AIM?).

Someone should write a book about the constructive dismissal stories that fill Silicon Valley - Sculley sending Jobs to his own office building to do nothing (Jobs cracked rather quickly). I heard of some guy coming to work dressed in a full frogman suit (including flippers and mask) and walking down in the corridor when customers were around - company dress code said "no shorts, wear shoes" - if they'd changed it to read "no bodyglove swimming attire" just for him, then that would have been the constructive dismissal he sought.

Re:MD5 Sums..... and now for the rest...

[TeddyR]

[note : there should NOT be any spaces in the links.... ./ adds spaces]
Magnet links:

magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:RNADB73OZV4J56PYURKSJBOK QU YU25RO.3YIAXBOM3XGWON5QSA6TVIJUAXJHZI54FQ3LMVY&dn= waste-setup.exe

magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:SNMD7MSXP3QI6MY5IOF4DKUE VK UD2Y4G.6YKR7VR2TWYNPUUBOVGY5ROGMSPTA7ZZSGTECUA&dn= waste-source.tar.gz

magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:M6HCJRTWID2MLW2EOHL2GUK7 O2 MGJLTT.CCTSJVMC4RQC67TVJDISXHS6KEXKQIRMNM2SHCI&dn= waste-source.zip

Ed2k links:

ed2k://|file|waste-source.zip|261175|d9eff5442b2 f4 ab391487c21f9998679|/

ed2k://|file|waste-source.tar.gz|214730|f5d0dbda 5e 7eb7a9774c7650fa306383|/

ed2k://|file|waste-setup.exe|173589|5f2e6a0160b4 14 10d413a965560071e2|/

The Crying of Lot 49

[Hayzeus]

Amybody else get the reference? W A S T E

We Await Silent Tristero's Empire

From The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, a covert postal service (my first domain was 'waste.com', so named for the same reasons)

Re:GPL

[blixel]

I have source code available on this web site.

Scratch that. I now have a mirror of the site.

Re:GPL - Source Posted

[Anonymous Coward]

I asked a lawyer friend of mine and yes the "reasonable" test does seem to be important. It seems quite reasonable for folks to assume that the software was being released under GPL.

The law in question deals with both apparent authority and inherent authority. The basic idea of apparent authority is that if the principal "cloaks" the agent with apparent authority to enter into a contract, even if he doesn't give the agent actual authority, then the principal will be liable for contracts entered into by the agent.

Inherent authority by contrast allows an agent to cloak himself in a principal's authority and to enter the principal into a binding contract.

To quote Learned Hand's opinion in Kidd v. Thomas A. Edison, Inc, 1917:

"The very purpose of delegated authority is to avoid constant recourse by third persons to the principal, which would be the consequence of denying the agent any latitude beyond his exact instructions. Once a third party has assured himself widely of the character of the agent's mandate, the very purpose of the relation demands the possibility of the principal's being bound through the agent's minor deviations."

(I am quoting from my friend's e-mail, not the actual opinion.)

So on this basis it would seem that software posted to the company website for download under a GPL would seem to bind the principal.

On the other hand, AOL did act very quickly to take the software off of the website. A court might feel that this was sufficient to nullify the rights granted under the GPL to those who downloaded the software. Or a court might feel that it was AOL's internal responsibility to assure proper security procedures to prevent unwanted posting of software under GPL terms, and that the rights granted under the GPL to recipients cannot be revoked.