Mwongozi was one of many readers to note that "the NY Times is reporting Justin's resignation from Nullsoft, and more details can be found in his weblog. One has to wonder whether this has anything to do with the WASTE fiasco."
Not Yet...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Informative
He is thinking about resigning: he hasn't yet. And, yes, if he does, it will be because of the Waste thing, and the Gnutella thing, and probably a whole lot of other things.:)
Winamp 3 is dead, version 2.91 is the latest version.
They really need to update their webpage so it defaults to the Winamp 2 area.
justin's blog ... probably gonna be slashdotted
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 3, Informative
June 2 2003 @ 10:03pm For me, coding is a form of self-expression.
It's probably the form I'm most effective at.
Everything I code is arguably owned by the company.
The company controls what I do with my code [in the past, it seemed I had freedom, but it turns out all of that was not really the case--rather, I was somehow avoiding the control illicitly (for 4 years)]
The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have.
This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav.
I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer.
I have nothing but respect for the company--I've just come to realize that it is time to do something different.
May 31 2003 @ 3:00pm or so Moving my.plan here. Finger has been firewalled on genghis for weeks since the (lame) network rebuild, so it's hosed.
The last few days have been, erm, interesting, it will be, erm, interesting to see how they end up panning out. But I'm feeling pretty good, though like usual feeling misunderstood. I'll try to clear it up next week.
At Ian's suggestion been listening to Slint a bit. Good shit. So funny that one of the guys from Slint is now in Zwan, and Zwan sucks so hard. Well, they rule as musicians, but their songs suck. I don't want to listen to christian rock.
Winamp 2.92 will have CD ripping support, with support for OGG. OGG VBR at 0.0 sounds pretty decent, listenable, at like 60kbps. I'm pretty impressed with it.
Yesterday driving home I listened to Lamb - Zero a couple times. Such a good song. So simple. Mmmm.
Re:Long Decline Anyway
by
kavachameleon
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· Score: 3, Informative
WIMP=WMP=Windows Media Player. Kind of a derogatory term for it.:-) Hit up MS's site for more info if you need it.
He hasn't resigned...
by
johnhennessy
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· Score: 5, Informative
Read the article. It says that he can't stick the current situation much longer, but at no point does he say that he has resigned.
-- [ Monday is a terrible way to spend one seventh of your life. ]
Frankel resignation does relate to WASTE
by
Shadows
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· Score: 1, Informative
"One has to wonder whether this has anything to do with the WASTE fiasco."
Frankel, 24, announced his intentions late Monday, less than a week after a file-sharing program called Waste was posted and then pulled from the Nullsoft Web site.
"The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have," he said in his Web log. "This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav (sic). I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer."
Looks like WASTE is..
by
EinarH
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· Score: 5, Informative
still available for download, including source, over at deviantart.com...
Strange they haven't pulled it off the web.
Disclaimer:
This post is of course provided as "AS IS". And I do NOT encourage any copyright enfringement.
--
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
Re:One doesn't have to wonder...
by
Anti+Frozt
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· Score: 5, Informative
IIRC, at the time that WASTE was developed, Nullsoft was owned by AOL/Time Warner. This would mean that anything created by employees of Nullsoft had to be cleared with AOL.
Therefore, it couldn't be produced under the GPL unless AOL said so. Most employment contracts specifically state that any thing or idea created, conceived, developed, etc. while employeed becomes property of the employeer (in this case, AOL/Time Warner)
-- In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
The previous entry in his blog is even more interesting:
Winamp 2.92 will have CD ripping support, with support for OGG. OGG VBR at
0.0 sounds pretty decent, listenable, at like 60kbps. I'm pretty impressed
with it.
'bout damn time. Hopefully his leaving won't change Nullsoft's plans to provide real OGG support. I still can't get it to pick up very low bitrate HTTP Vorbis streams via a straight.m3u ala XMMS.
WinAmp 2.92? I'm using WinAmp 3.0c -- am I in the future or something?
No, WinAmp 2.92 is newer than the current Winamp 3 release. Winamp 3 was more of an experiment that pretty much failed and they are scrapping it for the most part. They are taking some of the Winamp 3 features and adding them to 2. This new version is tentatively going to be called Winamp 5 (2 + 3), and to be released end of summer 2003. This is what I read on the message boards a while ago, their plans may have changed.
I'm kinda pissed that Winamp 3 for Linux pretty much disappeared. The alpha version, though really buggy, sounded much better than XMMS. Hopefully they will release a Linux player some time in the future, but I don't see it happening.
-- #!/
/. Mishap again
by
MmmmJoel
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· Score: 5, Informative
Justin has not resigned as/. has prematurely concluded. The NY Times article only says he plans to, which we could all come to the same conclusion by reading the blog. There is no additional information in the NY Times article and both parties have declined to comment. There is no indication that the NY Times had access to anything further than what we already knew.
Yes, it is probably inevitable, but this writeup is wrong as so many others have because some/. rogue reads something, draws a different conclusion, and the/. editors don't pick up on it.
Re:Justin Frankel
by
vasqzr
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· Score: 2, Informative
It's not offtopic. If you hadn't just gotten a computer in the last 2 years, and hung around channels like #c and #coders, you'd know what I'm talking about. He was one of the guys who helped write something cool, and they were bought up by a big company and thats almost like a dream come true.
I remember the conversations about WinAmp and Mp3's back in the mid 90's:
"I just compressed a Rob Zombie song down to 3mb, it took 25 minutes on my Pentium 166"
"Why the heck would you want to do that? It'd take a half hour to download it over my 56k modem!?"
"Well it's this cool format called MPEG Layer 3, and a bunch of us are trading music files. Anyone know where you can find some Pearl Jam?"
Re:I cannot beleive that he is too upset...
by
jat850
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· Score: 2, Informative
Said person reads their employment contract very carefully, and if they are suspicious of any such clauses, they either a) renegotiate the contract or b) don't work for that employer.
Can't be too careful with things like that nowadays.
-- the blood has stopped pumping, and he's left to decay
the me that you know is now made up of wires
Your getting paid to write software, then they own that and can kill it if they like to do so.
Its called a job and it sucks:)
Re:Its a job.
by
LynchMan
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· Score: 2, Informative
So True. I have been on many a project that I have invested years of work, research, coding, blood, sweat, and tears on only to have it cancelled at some point. Yeah it sucks, but I still have a job. Do I go an get 'revenge' and leak the source. No.
If you were being paid, it belongs to the company and it is up to them what to do with it, not you. You can ask if they will open soure it, but it is up to them. I cannot imagine how one would keep their job if they did this - not to mentioned being attacked by the former company's legal squad.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for open source and GPL, but be honest about it, not vengeful.
Re:Waste Reborn?
by
snuffdiddy23
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· Score: 2, Informative
An unauthorized copy of Nullsoft's copyrighted software was briefly posted on this website on or about Wednesday May 28, 2003. The software was identified as "WASTE" (the "Software") and includes the files "waste-setup.exe", "waste-source.zip", "waste-source.tar.gz" and any additional files contained in these files.
Nullsoft is the exclusive owner of all right, title and interest in the Software. The posting of the Software on this website was not authorized by Nullsoft.
If you downloaded or otherwise obtained a copy of the Software, you acquired no lawful rights to the Software and must destroy any and all copies of the Software, including by deleting it from your computer. Any license that you may believe you acquired with the Software is void, revoked and terminated.
i took that to mean "grab waste-source.tar.gz!!!! it's on!!!!" after reading this article.
Re:Suprisingly he lasted this long
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
"When AOL bought out Nullsoft, I was sure he would leave"
Generally, the terms of a buyout would require that the "principles" keep working there for some period of time (1-5 years). So, he probably had no choice in the matter.
Note that he was working on things like WASTE and not WinAmp. That may have been to encourage AOL to release him from his employment contract.
Justin Frankel
by
Trent+Polack
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· Score: 3, Informative
Well, you gotta give the guy some credit. I went through Nullsoft's site the other day, and there are just a whole lot of cool little programs that Nullsoft put out. Among them all, Winamp and the Nullsoft installer system are probably my favorite.
I give it up to Justin for being a good guy, and giving a lot of cool little utilities to the programming community.
Re:One doesn't have to wonder...
by
harlows_monkeys
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· Score: 2, Informative
The test is whether the other party to the deal in good faith believed that the employee had the authority, or should have known that something was amiss
It's obvious upon examing the source that something is amiss: the source includes RSA code that is under a license that is NOT compatible with the GPL. That should make people suspicious about the legitimacy of the release.
Non-compete clauses
by
glrotate
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· Score: 2, Informative
IANALBMSOI (I am not a lawyer but my signifigant other is) and in many states non-competes aren't worth the paper their printed on. One has a right to earn a living that cannot be contractualy waived.
For those that don't have NYTimes accounts....
by
Jontu_Kontar
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· Score: 2, Informative
Re:One doesn't have to wonder...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Nah. Typically, when AOL buys a company they give everyone (or at least everyone they want to keep) new employment contracts to sign that make them employees of AOL rather than their previous employer.
I speak from experience.
Re:"everything i code is owned by the company"
by
Rary
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· Score: 3, Informative
Generally, these contracts go much further than that. It is the case, for example, with my own contract that any code I write on my own time, using my own equipment, for my own use, based entirely on my own ideas, belongs to the company I work for.
If I have a spark of creativity one Saturday afternoon whilst drinking a beer on my deck, and it's such a good idea that I think I can quit my job and start a company based on the idea, I will have to get my employer's permission to use that idea, or else cut them in on the profits, because the idea, legally, belongs to them.
I'm pretty sure that applies to our friend Justin as well. Welcome to the world of Corporate Domination of our Very Existence.
--
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
There are two builds of Winamp, 2.0 and 3.0. 2.0 builds are based on the old version which nearly everyone uses with the old style interface and it's latest build is 2.91. 3.0 builds are based on a new style interface but can use the old style interface. The new style interface is similar to Sonique in that it can take any form ie. round, square or oblong etc. I'm sure there are other differences however I've not used the 3.0 builds so I wouldn't know. I've to many skins for the 2.0 builds to bother with the 3.0 version. Check out deviant art's website for a visual idea of the difference.
Re:Why did he have to release it at nullsoft.com?
by
Jellybob
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· Score: 2, Informative
He may well have a contract that says anything he develops is the property of AOL - meaning that he wouldn't be allowed to publish it anywhere without their consent.
Re:Anything to do with Waste...
by
Gloume
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· Score: 3, Informative
Like Nullsoft?
Re:Long Decline Anyway
by
pacc
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· Score: 4, Informative
Apart from skins in winamp 2.0 you should know that AOL has put it's mark on that too.
Since winamp 2.61 there are some support for "content management" for microsoft.wma files. You should install winamp 2.60 copy the plugins/in_wm.dll file to replace the one shipped with winamp 2.91, otherwise you won't be able to convert your.wma files to wav using diskwriter.
Re:queue the llama noises
by
LloydSeve
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· Score: 3, Informative
Justin Frankel's Website
Here he talks about his wanting to resign from the company due to recent cencorship against his products..
It's not about contracts, etc.. it's just about the fact that he isn't allowed to express himself freely doing what he loves.
Here is some more comments about his leaving...
Re:Long Decline Anyway
by
arkanes
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· Score: 2, Informative
The 2 series is still being actively developed. 2.91 is the latest version of 2, not just a maintenance release. 3 is kind of dead in the water for exactly the reasion you mentioned (although Wasabi is a very cool idea).
MOD PARENT DOWN!
by
WeeBull
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· Score: 1, Informative
Someone modded the parent "Insightful"?!?!? It's bad advice at best, a sackable offense at worst!
Who is AOL? Who has to approve? [...] An employee working for AOL releases code under the GPL (not talking about things done on his own time) it's under the gpl, he is a representative of the company.
You, Sir, are wrong. What's more, you're a moron. If you'd done any research, such as, say, read the recommendations on the GNU pages, you'd know that you're spewing utter rubbish.
GNU advices, among other things, that in order to release code under GPL, even WRITTEN ON YOUR OWN TIME, you should get a statement from your employer saying that they claim no ownership of the code.
If you write code ON COMPANY TIME, then guess what, hotshot, THE COMPANY OWNS IT. You can't do squat other than write it and debug it. You have NO RIGHTS to decide how it's licensed. You may make suggestions to your boss, who can talk to his boss who can... you get the idea.
Understand that the decision to release anything under GPL is a COMMERCIAL decision. We (coders, geeks, slashdotters, whatever) tend to view it as a philosophical decision, but it's not.
Re:Long Decline Anyway
by
Jugalator
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· Score: 2, Informative
Most people either use WIMP, XMMS or an old version of Winamp.
Yes, but those "old versions of Winamp" (the 2.x series) is still under development. It has had a lot of useful bugfixes and improvements, some pretty major. Take a look at the Winamp 2.9 release notes for example, to see what I'm talking about.
-- Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
losing millions?
by
peter303
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· Score: 4, Informative
The purchase of a company usually has a retention clause saying you dont get all your money until you have worked X years. X ranges from one to five years. The purpose is (1) the company's assets are often its creative people and (2) to train successors. It is unclear if he is losing some of the purchase money due to his independent streak.
The pruchase was in stock currency, so its value declined with AOL Time Warner stock price. Could have been worse considering other dot.coms.
Correct, in my experience
by
The+Tyro
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· Score: 2, Informative
Non-compete clauses used to be common in medical contracts, and most physicians will attempt to get them removed from the contract during negotiations.
It's usually not a serious bone of contention, because the unspoken reality is this: non-competes, particularly geographic ones (ie. you cannot practice within a 60-mile radius) are generally viewed negatively by the courts, and do not hold up.
As for programmers... that might be a different story.
-- Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Re:One doesn't have to wonder...
by
gmhowell
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· Score: 3, Informative
The fact that neither of these terms have shown up in the discussion thus far indicate how little business training most slashbots have. See, sometimes, there's value to an MBA. If nothing else, we're more conversent with lawyer-ese than most programmers.
(And in case you were wondering what all this means, basically, anyone who downloaded the software might have it free and clear. AOL, via Nullsoft, via authority of Justin, may have to abide by the original terms, GPL.)
-- Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Re:One doesn't have to wonder...
by
gmhowell
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· Score: 2, Informative
I didn't realize you were an MBA... I could definitely use some of your help if you are interested.
You've got email and AIM. Drop me a line.
The situation is even more damning than you imply. The trick is that AOL didn't have to give any authority ot Null and/or Justin in the first place. Justin's job title was CEO of Nullsoft. The software appeared on Nullsoft's site, probably placed there by Justin himself. Having that job title makes it *look* like things were legit on his end. Anyone who dl'ed that software probably thought that it was on the up and up.
Of course, there are tons of 'ifs'. The first is that everyone dl'ing that software knew that nullsoft releases had been pulled in the past, so it's possible that this one would be as well. There's the RSAREF question, but if I remember the GPL correctly, the non-offending portions of code are still a-okay. There's also whether or not a judge would deem that the GPL is a legit contract. In MD and VA, it should be (shrinkwrap licenses are law, even if they haven't yet appeared in court). Also, there's little or no consideration. In any contractual arrangement, each party has to give a little to get a little. Except for the previously pulled Nullsoft software, none of these issues has anything to do with the legitimacy of Justin offering the code for download.
This is one of the reasons companies have PO systems. Someone with real authority has to okay a purchase. In my company, there's only two signatures that count without another signature. All contracted employees agree to personally indemnify the company against contracts they entered into that the company didn't okay. Any non-contracted employee knows better, and would be fired for signing another other than a UPS delivery. Even in the former case, we are not really safe. Let's say some doctor ordered a new fangled blood-widget tester for $10,000. The company would *still* have to pay for it (most likely). The only thing the contract does is make clear that we can take it out of the employee's (doctor's) ass. It doesn't change the fact that Weyland Yutani entered into what they thought was a legitimate agreement.
Of course, there's one more thing (isn't there always?) in that even apparant authority doesn't work with stolen goods. Let's say Weyland sold us a stolen blood-widget machine. Even though we acted in good faith, we can't keep the stolen goods. But, we can go after Weyland instead of the employee. This does bear on the Justin/AOL/Nullsoft issue, just because of the weirdness of computer code, legally speaking. If AOL/Nullsoft is working on some code to sell that is similar to WASTE, they could make the argument that Justin cost them sales, and perhaps retract the code. But, if they have no plans to do anything with the code (given what has happened with earlier Justin projects, I'd argue this is more likely) and just wants to sit on it, or avoid some legal exposure, they've got a weaker case.
Sadly, there is no 'trumping' action in any of this. Were it to end up in court, some judge would juggle all these myriad legal doctrines, and decide which weighs the most today and in this case. Honestly, AOL should have fired him last time around if they are truly concerned about it.
I've got no answer to the situation. I just thought I'd edumacate some folks. Perhaps if they understood some of these things, they'd know why their bosses are 'such dickheads'.
-- Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Re:It's just DOT COM-ism
by
sleeper0
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· Score: 2, Informative
when you buy a company with stock, part of what you buy is a term of service with key contributors. This is so important folks like CEO's don't bail the day after the deal leaving you holding the bag with a company you cant run or a product that still needs work.
thats what applies in this situation. I'm not talking about options that employees are awarded at market value as part of a typical compensation package (though i'm sure he had these too).
We're talking about a financial transaction to buy a company. You cant buy a company with 1 million of your own options priced at your current market value... That would be close to trying to buy a company with no money at all. Instead they use real stock, one that has an actual cash value (something that an option at current market price doesnt have). But that doesnt mean they can't put provisions on its release, which is where the vesting comes in.
Slashdot Mirror
He is thinking about resigning: he hasn't yet. And, yes, if he does, it will be because of the Waste thing, and the Gnutella thing, and probably a whole lot of other things. :)
Winamp 3 is dead, version 2.91 is the latest version. They really need to update their webpage so it defaults to the Winamp 2 area.
June 2 2003 @ 10:03pm
.plan here. Finger has been firewalled on genghis for weeks since
For me, coding is a form of self-expression.
It's probably the form I'm most effective at.
Everything I code is arguably owned by the company.
The company controls what I do with my code [in the past, it seemed I had
freedom, but it turns out all of that was not really the case--rather, I
was somehow avoiding the control illicitly (for 4 years)]
The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have.
This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav.
I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer.
I have nothing but respect for the company--I've just come to realize that
it is time to do something different.
May 31 2003 @ 3:00pm or so
Moving my
the (lame) network rebuild, so it's hosed.
The last few days have been, erm, interesting, it will be, erm, interesting
to see how they end up panning out. But I'm feeling pretty good, though like
usual feeling misunderstood. I'll try to clear it up next week.
At Ian's suggestion been listening to Slint a bit. Good shit. So funny that
one of the guys from Slint is now in Zwan, and Zwan sucks so hard. Well, they
rule as musicians, but their songs suck. I don't want to listen to
christian rock.
Winamp 2.92 will have CD ripping support, with support for OGG. OGG VBR at
0.0 sounds pretty decent, listenable, at like 60kbps. I'm pretty impressed
with it.
Yesterday driving home I listened to Lamb - Zero a couple times. Such a good
song. So simple. Mmmm.
WIMP=WMP=Windows Media Player. Kind of a derogatory term for it. :-) Hit up MS's site for more info if you need it.
Read the article. It says that he can't stick the current situation much longer, but at no point does he say that he has resigned.
[ Monday is a terrible way to spend one seventh of your life. ]
From the Miami Herald article:
Strange they haven't pulled it off the web.
Disclaimer:
This post is of course provided as "AS IS". And I do NOT encourage any copyright enfringement.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
IIRC, at the time that WASTE was developed, Nullsoft was owned by AOL/Time Warner. This would mean that anything created by employees of Nullsoft had to be cleared with AOL.
Therefore, it couldn't be produced under the GPL unless AOL said so. Most employment contracts specifically state that any thing or idea created, conceived, developed, etc. while employeed becomes property of the employeer (in this case, AOL/Time Warner)
In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
'bout damn time. Hopefully his leaving won't change Nullsoft's plans to provide real OGG support. I still can't get it to pick up very low bitrate HTTP Vorbis streams via a straight .m3u ala XMMS.
hang brain.
Justin has not resigned as /. has prematurely concluded. The NY Times article only says he plans to, which we could all come to the same conclusion by reading the blog. There is no additional information in the NY Times article and both parties have declined to comment. There is no indication that the NY Times had access to anything further than what we already knew.
/. rogue reads something, draws a different conclusion, and the /. editors don't pick up on it.
Yes, it is probably inevitable, but this writeup is wrong as so many others have because some
It's not offtopic. If you hadn't just gotten a computer in the last 2 years, and hung around channels like #c and #coders, you'd know what I'm talking about. He was one of the guys who helped write something cool, and they were bought up by a big company and thats almost like a dream come true.
I remember the conversations about WinAmp and Mp3's back in the mid 90's:
"I just compressed a Rob Zombie song down to 3mb, it took 25 minutes on my Pentium 166"
"Why the heck would you want to do that? It'd take a half hour to download it over my 56k modem!?"
"Well it's this cool format called MPEG Layer 3, and a bunch of us are trading music files. Anyone know where you can find some Pearl Jam?"
Said person reads their employment contract very carefully, and if they are suspicious of any such clauses, they either a) renegotiate the contract or b) don't work for that employer.
Can't be too careful with things like that nowadays.
the blood has stopped pumping, and he's left to decay
the me that you know is now made up of wires
Your getting paid to write software, then they own that and can kill it if they like to do so. Its called a job and it sucks :)
i took that to mean "grab waste-source.tar.gz!!!! it's on!!!!" after reading this article.
"When AOL bought out Nullsoft, I was sure he would leave"
Generally, the terms of a buyout would require that the "principles" keep working there for some period of time (1-5 years). So, he probably had no choice in the matter.
Note that he was working on things like WASTE and not WinAmp. That may have been to encourage AOL to release him from his employment contract.
Well, you gotta give the guy some credit. I went through Nullsoft's site the other day, and there are just a whole lot of cool little programs that Nullsoft put out. Among them all, Winamp and the Nullsoft installer system are probably my favorite.
I give it up to Justin for being a good guy, and giving a lot of cool little utilities to the programming community.
Trent Polack
www.polycat.net
It's obvious upon examing the source that something is amiss: the source includes RSA code that is under a license that is NOT compatible with the GPL. That should make people suspicious about the legitimacy of the release.
IANALBMSOI (I am not a lawyer but my signifigant other is) and in many states non-competes aren't worth the paper their printed on. One has a right to earn a living that cannot be contractualy waived.
You can get a similiar story at CNET.
http://www.quinnware.com
Nah. Typically, when AOL buys a company they give everyone (or at least everyone they want to keep) new employment contracts to sign that make them employees of AOL rather than their previous employer.
I speak from experience.
If I have a spark of creativity one Saturday afternoon whilst drinking a beer on my deck, and it's such a good idea that I think I can quit my job and start a company based on the idea, I will have to get my employer's permission to use that idea, or else cut them in on the profits, because the idea, legally, belongs to them.
I'm pretty sure that applies to our friend Justin as well. Welcome to the world of Corporate Domination of our Very Existence.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
There are two builds of Winamp, 2.0 and 3.0.
2.0 builds are based on the old version which nearly everyone uses with the old style interface and it's latest build is 2.91.
3.0 builds are based on a new style interface but can use the old style interface. The new style interface is similar to Sonique in that it can take any form ie. round, square or oblong etc. I'm sure there are other differences however I've not used the 3.0 builds so I wouldn't know. I've to many skins for the 2.0 builds to bother with the 3.0 version.
Check out deviant art's website for a visual idea of the difference.
He may well have a contract that says anything he develops is the property of AOL - meaning that he wouldn't be allowed to publish it anywhere without their consent.
Like Nullsoft?
Apart from skins in winamp 2.0 you should know that AOL has put it's mark on that too.
.wma files. .wma files to wav using diskwriter.
Since winamp 2.61 there are some support for "content management" for microsoft
You should install winamp 2.60 copy the plugins/in_wm.dll file to replace the one shipped with winamp 2.91, otherwise you won't be able to convert your
Tip courtesy of apachez
Justin Frankel's Website Here he talks about his wanting to resign from the company due to recent cencorship against his products.. It's not about contracts, etc.. it's just about the fact that he isn't allowed to express himself freely doing what he loves. Here is some more comments about his leaving...
The 2 series is still being actively developed. 2.91 is the latest version of 2, not just a maintenance release. 3 is kind of dead in the water for exactly the reasion you mentioned (although Wasabi is a very cool idea).
GNU advices, among other things, that in order to release code under GPL, even WRITTEN ON YOUR OWN TIME, you should get a statement from your employer saying that they claim no ownership of the code.
If you write code ON COMPANY TIME, then guess what, hotshot, THE COMPANY OWNS IT. You can't do squat other than write it and debug it. You have NO RIGHTS to decide how it's licensed. You may make suggestions to your boss, who can talk to his boss who can ... you get the idea.
Understand that the decision to release anything under GPL is a COMMERCIAL decision. We (coders, geeks, slashdotters, whatever) tend to view it as a philosophical decision, but it's not.
Karmawhoring links:
- GNU Coding Standards: Keeping Free Software Free
- GNU Coding Standards: Accepting Contributions
- FAQ: Assign copyright
Consider yourself ejucaited.Most people either use WIMP, XMMS or an old version of Winamp.
Yes, but those "old versions of Winamp" (the 2.x series) is still under development. It has had a lot of useful bugfixes and improvements, some pretty major. Take a look at the Winamp 2.9 release notes for example, to see what I'm talking about.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
The purchase of a company usually has a retention clause saying you dont get all your money until you have worked X years. X ranges from one to five years. The purpose is (1) the company's assets are often its creative people and (2) to train successors. It is unclear if he is losing some of the purchase money due to his independent streak.
The pruchase was in stock currency, so its value declined with AOL Time Warner stock price. Could have been worse considering other dot.coms.
Non-compete clauses used to be common in medical contracts, and most physicians will attempt to get them removed from the contract during negotiations.
It's usually not a serious bone of contention, because the unspoken reality is this: non-competes, particularly geographic ones (ie. you cannot practice within a 60-mile radius) are generally viewed negatively by the courts, and do not hold up.
As for programmers... that might be a different story.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Let me add a bit to your lexicon:
apparent authority
ostensible authority
The fact that neither of these terms have shown up in the discussion thus far indicate how little business training most slashbots have. See, sometimes, there's value to an MBA. If nothing else, we're more conversent with lawyer-ese than most programmers.
(And in case you were wondering what all this means, basically, anyone who downloaded the software might have it free and clear. AOL, via Nullsoft, via authority of Justin, may have to abide by the original terms, GPL.)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I didn't realize you were an MBA... I could definitely use some of your help if you are interested.
You've got email and AIM. Drop me a line.
The situation is even more damning than you imply. The trick is that AOL didn't have to give any authority ot Null and/or Justin in the first place. Justin's job title was CEO of Nullsoft. The software appeared on Nullsoft's site, probably placed there by Justin himself. Having that job title makes it *look* like things were legit on his end. Anyone who dl'ed that software probably thought that it was on the up and up.
Of course, there are tons of 'ifs'. The first is that everyone dl'ing that software knew that nullsoft releases had been pulled in the past, so it's possible that this one would be as well. There's the RSAREF question, but if I remember the GPL correctly, the non-offending portions of code are still a-okay. There's also whether or not a judge would deem that the GPL is a legit contract. In MD and VA, it should be (shrinkwrap licenses are law, even if they haven't yet appeared in court). Also, there's little or no consideration. In any contractual arrangement, each party has to give a little to get a little. Except for the previously pulled Nullsoft software, none of these issues has anything to do with the legitimacy of Justin offering the code for download.
This is one of the reasons companies have PO systems. Someone with real authority has to okay a purchase. In my company, there's only two signatures that count without another signature. All contracted employees agree to personally indemnify the company against contracts they entered into that the company didn't okay. Any non-contracted employee knows better, and would be fired for signing another other than a UPS delivery. Even in the former case, we are not really safe. Let's say some doctor ordered a new fangled blood-widget tester for $10,000. The company would *still* have to pay for it (most likely). The only thing the contract does is make clear that we can take it out of the employee's (doctor's) ass. It doesn't change the fact that Weyland Yutani entered into what they thought was a legitimate agreement.
Of course, there's one more thing (isn't there always?) in that even apparant authority doesn't work with stolen goods. Let's say Weyland sold us a stolen blood-widget machine. Even though we acted in good faith, we can't keep the stolen goods. But, we can go after Weyland instead of the employee. This does bear on the Justin/AOL/Nullsoft issue, just because of the weirdness of computer code, legally speaking. If AOL/Nullsoft is working on some code to sell that is similar to WASTE, they could make the argument that Justin cost them sales, and perhaps retract the code. But, if they have no plans to do anything with the code (given what has happened with earlier Justin projects, I'd argue this is more likely) and just wants to sit on it, or avoid some legal exposure, they've got a weaker case.
Sadly, there is no 'trumping' action in any of this. Were it to end up in court, some judge would juggle all these myriad legal doctrines, and decide which weighs the most today and in this case. Honestly, AOL should have fired him last time around if they are truly concerned about it.
I've got no answer to the situation. I just thought I'd edumacate some folks. Perhaps if they understood some of these things, they'd know why their bosses are 'such dickheads'.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
when you buy a company with stock, part of what you buy is a term of service with key contributors. This is so important folks like CEO's don't bail the day after the deal leaving you holding the bag with a company you cant run or a product that still needs work.
thats what applies in this situation. I'm not talking about options that employees are awarded at market value as part of a typical compensation package (though i'm sure he had these too).
We're talking about a financial transaction to buy a company. You cant buy a company with 1 million of your own options priced at your current market value... That would be close to trying to buy a company with no money at all. Instead they use real stock, one that has an actual cash value (something that an option at current market price doesnt have). But that doesnt mean they can't put provisions on its release, which is where the vesting comes in.