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Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player
An anonymous reader writes "German PC-Welt magazine reports that Microsoft used an illegal copy of SoundForge 4.5 (Google translation) for editing Wave files shipped with Windows Media Player. You can check that yourself by opening any file in the [Windows location] \Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav\ folder in notepad or other editors of your choice and looking at the last line. There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called 'Deepz0ne' who happens to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium."
"Do as we say, not as we do."
Optimist's response: Maybe they were waiting for their activation code. Pessimist's response: They knowingly stole it. Realist's response: Even Microsoft has no use for MS Sound Editor.
It's ok, though, because Microsoft has indemnified everybody (except embedded Windows users), so just be happy this didn't happen in some terrible operating system without a big, strong, virile company like Micorsoft backing it...
www.eFax.com are spammers
I want to shake the hand of the guy who forgot to license it properly.
Where is the BSA when you need them? :)
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
That what you get when some jr. programmers make the adjunct software in a company where it takes forever to purchase anything!
MS is the leetest crew out there. They are just giving greetz to their friends at RAD
-GRAViTY pwns j00!
In case the linked JPG goes down, mirrored here: http://img41.exs.cx/img41/9093/winwarez.jpg
Just confirmed it.. ahh that makes me feel much better since I use warezed versions of microsofts development tools myself
First sentence in the translated article:
...
Already times on the idea come
Really want makes me the article to read.
Heads are going to roll in building 50 at Microsoft (the location of their media player devs) when this goes around. So, is this the true representation of Microsoft DRM in action? ;-)
Might the witness bring forward Exhibit A: "LISTB INFOICRD 2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5 " Sonic Foundry... I hereby admit to the court that I am indeed guilty on charges of being an accessory to theft and those of receiving stolen goods. Might my remorse and honesty be taken into account at the time of sentencing. 'plex
Rich Gentlemen Hide - The Existential Comic
Actually, the tool required to see the code would be a hex editor, not a regular text editor like Notepad.
Odd, the tool "required" on my laptop was notepad. It did the job just fine.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
...although, when you think about it, who knows what stolen code might be in Microsoft's software? What with it being "closed source" and all...
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
So when does it stop being 'opinion' that big companies don't give a shit about anyone else's "IP rights".
We bash MS, and get MS defenders countering with idiocy that makes it seem like it's all a battle of opinion over whether MS is a big bad company or simply misunderstood, or whether MS is a monopoly, or just highly talented, whether MS doesn't give a shit about IP rights while enforcing their own or they're just working within a business realm that they need to survive.
Sorry, It just keeps going on and on like this. MS using pirated software to develop & promote their media player. Indefensible from a company that professes to rely so much on IP, unless they're nothing but greedy hypocrites.
I'm going with the "nothing but greedy hypocrites" thanks
But moment once who or which is " Deepz0ne "? (no meaning)!
Tell me about it! I have that problem all the time, man.
Methinks machine translation is still in its infancy.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
Already times on the idea come, one with Windows XP installed WAV file with the editor to open? That makes nevertheless nobody - Microsoft will have imagined, nevertheless innumerable WAV files on the computer and those lie are to to listen to and to do not look at there.
Off-topic me all you want, but what's the point of providing a Google translation of these things. It's like posting an article and expecting no one to RTFA.
Oh, wait...
Okay, my bad... I had to turn word wrap on to see it. :)
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
So... how is it working as a sound file editor at Microsoft ?
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Maybe it's a public relations stunt to counter Linux. Microsoft are trying to appeal to the 1337 market.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
That was in response to the developers of SoundForge using a warzed copy of windows.
Sound Forge 4.5 isn't GPL software. Basically, someone in Microsoft used a pirated version of some sound-editing software to make a sound file for Windows XP, and the evidence of the piracy is in the metadata of the WAV file. It just proves that they pirated some proprietary software to make a sound file, not that they ripped off GNU source code and put it in Windows.
It's a big deal because Microsoft, along with the BSA, comes down quite hard on companies where even nominal amounts of illegally licensed software are used. Those companies will now have the same defense that Microsoft currently has: Sometimes mistakes happen.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Eval purposes only. Shame shame shame. They still probably have the extension associacted with system info.
Um, those programs use BSD licensed code, not GPL'd code, so your claim is not valid.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
did you see the big monty python foot next to the headline there big fella?
hover over it with your pointer... go ahead, i'm waiting
see what the pop up text says?
it says "It's funny. laugh."
do you understand the fucking concept? do you really?
because i don't think you do
i assert to you that unfunny negative asocial "article appropriateness" trolls like yourself second guessing the editors can do, and are perhaps doing, more damage to slashdot than any editor with a trigger happy post button ever can
capisce asshole?
learn to laugh
no, really: learn to fucking laugh
HA HA HA
>:-/
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I dont think that's news, I remember someone telling me (who worked at M$) that they had anything and everything available, apps wise, with keygens and serial numbers included with a note "Please uninstall when you are done with it"
The problem here is that M$ has that big wall infront, made of their corporate lawyers, so doing and audit on them would be next to impossible.
Not to mention that this is not surprising, usually biggest proponents of something are biggest hypocrites of the same thing as well, in this case anti-piracy.
We all know he's a he. Women have better things to do with their time than crack software.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Actually it is a good little story. Microsoft keeps going on about being solidly against piracy and 'actively' going after it (or so they like to make people think). But now it's obvious their own people aren't immune to piracy and they've made hypocrites of themselves. Pretty funny.
Please stop celebrating.
This is an easy one for Microsoft. They'll just say they used an outside contractor for the work in good faith, and had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.
Along those lines, I was thinking that maybe the sound editing was outsourced. We all know that their photography is stock stuff; witness all the MS ads picturing Apples. It is conceivable, though not necessarily true, that this work was done by an outside agency.
Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
You are 0wn3d, you bloody hypocrites!
You assume that the illegal software was used at Microsoft.
But this isn't some vast MS conspiracy here, nor I'm sure does it represent the tip of a huge warez-using portion of MS iceberg.
YOU DENY IT! Why do you deny it? Who said that there was a huge warez-using portion of MS iceberg, hmmm? The article didn't mention it. You seem awful defensive!
What kind of name is fzammette? Is that some sort of 'cover' or 'alias'? Why do you post under an alias, fzammette? Who do you work for? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR!
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Yes, those damn systemverzeichnis! We all get very fuendig when dealing with them.
For listening to MP3s the Windows codec was correct, but it offered only limited Encodierungsfunktionen
Its a well known industry fact that lack of Encodierungsfunktionen causes loss of sound quality.
Then one sees first only letter salad
Mmmm ASCII salad. Goes great with chicken and a glass of red wine so I'm told.
That might only in talking moon for the Windows the Media Player responsible person
Ummm... moon wha?
The statement of Microsoft is still pending, times sees, what says Microsoft for this.
It's true! German Yoda does exist! And he's working for a PC magazine. I knew it!
She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
And how many times has Microsoft's lapdog BSA audited some one, found a piece of Microsoft warez that some employee had pirated and fined the hell out of the company for it? That's what makes this newsworthy.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Who needs the linked JPG? Just go to the directory in question: $WINDOWS\Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav
...Maybe those who don't have/use Windows might need the Jpeg?
This just in:
According to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple: "The most common format of audio files on an windows system is 'warezed'." He appears convinced Apple will lead the way in Digital Rights Management and also believes Apple will steal a march on Microsoft in making the digital home a reality because Microsoft "doesn't have the volumes". "There is no way that you can get there with Microsoft. The critical mass has to come from the iPod, or a next-generation video device"
There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called "Deepz0ne" who happen to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium.
No, that's just Bob Deepzone (pronounced Deep-ZONE-ay). He works in the MS audio department.
Why is it that you believe MS should be allowed to do this, but that they are allowed to fine or have imprisoned people who violate MS's rights?
MS stole code, they've done it before, and they're doing it now. Given how Ballmer likes to pretend he's some sort of champion of individual IP-holder's rights, he shouldn't have a problem making this "error" right.
Instead, it's more likely this will take a lawsuit.
What makes this newsworthy is the same thing that makes Limbaugh's drug use news. It's not so much that he's a druge addict (although there is a group of the public who likes public scandal), but it's that he condemns other drug users to jail, but demands leniency for himself.
If MS wants a pass on this, then they should lighten up, remove XP activation bullshit, whatever. Otherwise, to hell with them.
>> just...wow...I thought big M would have been smart enough to remove that.. if they had they probably woulda gotten away with it too..
You forgot "if it wasn't for those nosy kids and their stupid dog."
It doesn't prove that. For all you know, they could have purchased the sound from a sound gallery, or the guy doing the editing bought a fake copy of Sound Forge.
Lately on Slashdot, we know that's possible, we've seen enough examples of people ripping off software so they could resell it under a different name.
For now, I'll give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.
...Or some guy just liked using his cracked copy of SF, and brought it into work to use.
Before you go running off all bitter and self-righeous, you might want to consider the difference between the coporate management and the average joe schmuck employee.
This isn't MS being hypocrites, it is an employee breaking company policy and bringing in outside sofware.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Microsoft and the BSA presumes violations before any proof is found, why should I presume any differently?
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Just for kicks, do a content search on all *.wav files on your drive, searching for the string 'deepz0ne'.
You may run across more hits. That doesn't necessarily mean that the author of the software they came with used a cracked copy of SoundForge.
For example, the Digital Eel game "Dr. Blob's Organism" demo has the deepz0ne string in "powerdn.wav", but doesn't have it in any of the others. That makes me think they probably just grabbed a sound effect off of a (presumably) royalty-free sound effects library (CD/DVD/online), and that particular sound effect happened to be authored or modified in a warez version of SoundForge.
Similarly the mediaplayer sounds... whose are they, really ? Were they authored/modified by an MS Employee ? If not - where does MS's responsibility come in ? Do -you- check every asset you acquire in good faith belief to see if they may have been touched by a cracked piece of software ?
Seriously... how is a company, _ANY_ company, doing something like this remotely funny?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
For now, I'll give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.
Why? they dont give it to anyone else. i say give them a taste of their own medicine.
With all the BILLION$ of dollars M$ has they can't even pony up the money for Sound Forge?
Have you tried getting management to buy the software required for a project? At times it's damn near impossible. You have a deadline and your request is moving at the speed of bureaucracy. Finally you say *fuck it* and get the damn software. This becomes a vicious circle when management asks, "Oh you didn't need us to buy this software before why do you need it now? Just do what you did before."
I'm not saying this is good or bad, this is just the way it happens. Management holds no accountability because it's their job to be a dumb ass. Being a dumb ass isn't illegal and saves the company money. They didn't pirate the software, some peon did.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Have you ever heard of outsourcing?
I have seen several examples over the years where it was obvious that the developers used unlicensed tools. The one that I remember the most was a game called Settlers 2. One of the directories had a crack for Scitech Display Doctor that was left on the distribution cds.
The guy who started Sonic Foundry and was the original writer of the SoundForge program got his start at Microsoft. A lot of his work for MS wound up in the multimedia code for Windows 3.11 and Windows95.
Fine way to thank him, MS. I hope Sony takes MS to the cleaners over this.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
That senator who said physical damage should occur to anyone's computer that had illegal software/music/movies on it? And does anyone remember when they found some JavaScript on his site that was used without permission?
Good times.
Well, actually it IS a big deal when they are saying "Use our stuff, not that opensource rabble's stuff, because our stuff is free of copyright and other IP violations, but you can't be too sure with open source". Plus their argument that open source has a dodgy pedigree, but closed source does not.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
A couple days ago was one of the college tourneys on Jeopardy. The winner was a Comp Eng/Comp Sci major from Carnegie Mellon. His final Jeopardy wager? $1337
That, in my opinion, is complete and utter bollocks. As a professional sound engineer and media producer, I've been using sound forge almost daily for almost a decade. It has always been pretty much the most versatile, powerful sound editor available.
You are confusing multitracking software with a sound editor. Vegas solves a whole bunch of problems that Sound Forge isn't designed to touch. Likewise, Vegas or other software like Protools can't hold a candle against Sound Forge when you are performing the tasks that Sound Forge was designed to do. That is why Vegas and Sound Forge are so well integrated with each other. They are pretty much two complementary parts of the same package.
Furthermore, I used to work at microsoft, and can attest that Sound Forge was in use there during the period that 4.5 was the current version.
Not sure I understand the original story. From the translation, it seems that MS just created the sound files using some tool in the market (GNU or freeware or priced, it is irrelevent). Whats next, MS boot image JPG was created with IrfanView?
Does this mean that every file I've created with my (legal) copy of Sound Forge, registered to me, gets distributed with my name embedded in it? What other programs do this? I already know that MS Office docs do -- but I never suspected Sound Forge of something like this.
Software authors/distributors should be required to disclose exactly what personal information is distributed in files which are created with that product. As much as I like to stick it to M$, Sonic Foundry, now Sony, is the one I'm concerned about here.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
The animated gif file for "made for IE" logo that Microsoft used for websites back in the 90s was made with an unregistered shareware program. (I don't remember the name of the program. It was about 1996-97 or so.)
Maybe they need to look at how hard it is to purchace software within Microsoft. "Not invented here" is no excuse.
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Isn't it possible that it's actually legal because they DID own a license for it? That's one of the reasons BitTorrent and ROM sites aren't killed right away: The files are provided for those who have legal rights to the data, but they needed it in another form (i.e. on a computer) or in another location (for torrenting)
Not that your point about metadata isn't valid, but this isn't a typical metadata problem. The WAV format doesn't directly provide for strings indicating the program that created the audio. There is a "text" chunk in which you can put such information, but WAV files don't have to have such a chunk and they don't have any standard interpretation. Information about the file is usually placed before the audio data too. This stuff could be a text chunk placed at the end, but I suspect that it is actually included in the audio data chunk - a few odd sample values at the end will be undetectable to the ear. I can't tell for sure though without examining the WAV file, which I don't have since I don't have MS Windows. Maybe somebody could post a link to one of the files and we could find out.
Visit here:
:-D And see if they actually respond to them.
http://www.bsa.org/usa/report/
Say microsoft referred you...
fill it out, and send.
Then tell your friends.
Lets slashdot the BSA about this one? See if we can break a record on the number of reports the BSA ever recieved about something.
On a hunch I converted my entire MP3 collection into waves and ran a search for 'deepz0ne'.
And guess what, all the Mettallica tracks were made with a pirated copy of Sound Forge. Bastards!
Murphy(c)
Yes, Microsoft is liable and will have to pay Sony (if their employee was the one responsible). However having an employee do something they shouldn't is VERY different from willful infringement.
The problem is people seem to be blaming Microsoft as though they willfuly ripped off Sonic Foundry (now Sony) to save some money. Please, Sound Forge is like $250, it's nothing to them. More likely, whoever was responsible for it, maybe not even an MS employee (they may have contracted this out) just liked SF and used it instead of whatever app they had licensed.
Still their responsibility to pay for it, but don't pretend it was them being evil. They don't monitor the every move of their employees.
Interesting counter question: How many OSS Windows apps are compiled using a warezed version of Visual Studio?
Nobody has to use a Warezed version of Visual Studio. Between the .NET SDK, and the Visual C++ 7.1 Toolkit, and the PlatformSDK, you can download all the tools you need to build (including the optimizing C compiler) for free.
Even if you have a legal copy of Visual Studio you should be doing your automated build process with the free tools anyway.
Isn't it entirely possible that they asked an external firm to put together a few sounds to be used? And then Microsoft bought the sound bites from them?
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
There is no difference. Repeat after the BSA. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. Your joe schmuck employees == your corporate managment == your entire company.
When it's Microsoft's precious "IP" in question, there are no excuses. This is not speculation, this is not opinion, this is a trail of tears weaving back and forth across the country with literally thousands and thousands of people and business, big and small, who lost a few of their holograms, that can vouch.
When Microsoft has its pet army of jackbooted thugs (the BSA) "auditing" the daylights out of you (or your elementary school, or your police station, or your old folks home) they don't buy this excuse. It doesn't matter if you bought those 5 computers used and the seller didn't give you the stickers. It doesn't matter if some 2 week contractor who didn't even speak English warezed Office _and_ stole a box of white out, it's still your business' problem, guilty until proven innocent, "Civil and Criminal Penalties," $500,000 for each count, etc etc... You're still staring down the barrel of a devastating lawsuit or a "relicensing" on extremely favorable terms...
So yes, duh, absoloutely PLEASE run off and for the record we are not nearly bitter or self-righteous enough.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying, "Well, we consider this a valid liscencse enforcement practice, so I guess we have to put up with it. We're just glad noone ran 'strings' on our TCP/IP stack for 'Regents of the University of California.'"
Bye!
SeqBox
One wonders if the nororious (now) distribution of the material created with the stolen program, and the (arguable) profit which Microsoft made by its distribution of the output from the stolen work, could raise significant fincial liability...?
That shoudl be the paultry $150,000 for copyright violation at least.
SoundForge should, at least, be able to call a BSA audit on Microsoft...
Oh, I just got a warm fuzzy at imagining Microsoft having to submit to a BSA audit. After all, if they think it's good for us, isn't it good for them?
I wonder what the bounty would be, and how fast we can flood the BSA with "tips"? After-all, we *have* the evidence distributed ever-so-widely... 8-)
What you want to bet that the BSA wouldn't do their jobs *this* *time*?
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
You see it's like this: (this is purely fictional)
Let's say the RIAA, led by Hilary Rosen, sued 13 year-old kids for thousands for copy infringement.
Then later on, we found out that Ms. Rosen's son had hundreds of BetaMax copies of video rentals in her home.
It is not outrageous, because her son infringed on copyrights. It is outrageous that Ms. Rosen holds some unknown kid to some higher standard than her own son. It would show that the copyright is not what she cared about, only suing 13 year-olds for thousands.
When someone 'downloads' a 'cracked' copy of a 'program', it often comes 'bundled' with a 'user name' and 'registry key' combination that 'unlocks' the 'program', like the annoying letters and numbers you need to get MS Office to work when you install it legally.
It's very likely that SoundForge includes the 'user name' that was used to 'register' it with any files created with it, which is what the original post was complaining about. In this case, the 'warez monkey' at 'M$' probably used a 'key' created by 'DeepzOne', so SoundForge 'thinks' that 'DeepzOne' is the 'warez monkey's' 'user name'. It's unlikely that 'DeepzOne' actually modified the way SoundForge saves files. No one is alleging that the 'cracker' actually works for 'M$'. They just think it's ironic that 'M$' employees are 'warez monkeys'.
Note that this is just stuff I 'heard' about 'cracked programs', and none of this is from 'first hand experience' with 'illegal activities'.
Microsoft pirates software -- this is news?
.21) -- it removed the stolen code.
Roughly ten years ago, Microsoft was found, in a court of law, to have knowingly stolen code from Stac Electronic's popular "Stacker" whole-disk compression utility, and used it in their DoubleSpace utility. That's the reason for Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 (I think it was
Stac won the lawsuit, but it was too late -- the damage had already been done, and Stac went out of business. The 800-pound gorilla won again.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
I used to use SoundForge4.5 Radium release (having since bought SF5 and 6) and I checked out some old files that I sampled in to 4.5.
In wmpaud5.wav on WinXp the last bytes are: LISTR INFOICRD 2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5;Sound Forge 4.0In my samples from 4.5 I had: LIST0 INFOICRD 2000-01-09 ISFT Sound Forge 4.5
And on 5.0 and 6, there appears no plain text meta info.
If Microsoft is let off the hook on this, then I would hazard that it could be used against them in a prosecution of someone else.
Interesting counter question: How many OSS Windows apps are compiled using a warezed version of Visual Studio?
All the OSS Windows projects I've worked on (like the one I'm hacking right now) have gone to significant lengths to be compatible with MINGW32.
This is actually quite handy, because it means I can cross-compile from Linux. (Yup, I'm writing Windows code, but compiling it with a Linux compiler and testing it with WINE... ain't OSS great?!)
Yep, you can do that. But then you'll spend so much trying find a usable set of runtime libraries in that mishmash, and then figuring out whether you're actually licensed to redistribute them, you'll end up wishing you hadn't. (Each of the SDKs is cleverly packaged with different incompatible and irregular subsets of the Windows runtime libraries, just to make it so hard to figure out that you'll run out and buy their non-free development tools out of frustration.)
Plus, if you use any outside code at all, it will almost invariably assume that you have the MS IDE environment to build it. You're then faced with rewriting the build process for that code from scratch.
The "metadata" is in a LIST INFO chunk following the data chunk. To my knowledge, this is not part of the WAV standard. I don't find it in the Microsoft multimedia Standards Update. I think that such LIST INFO data may be a holdover from the Electronic Arts IFF format on which RIFF (of which WAV is a subpart) is based.
That's true, but we should remember what that "several millions of dollars" actually costs. It's easy for people who have not been raped like that to not really understand. It's not just that the company has to pay a lot of money. It's that the company becomes insolvent, even after they raid the pension plan. That means people lose their job and a large portion of their life savings. Many times people who lose their job go on to lose their house, get divorced and have all sorts of other bad things happen to them before they get on with their lives. Raping small companies, like the BSA does, does really bad things to real people. It's more than money, it's people's lives they screw with.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I used to support adobe apps for a living - I know for a fact Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign and Framemaker containg information similar to this (usually only the user profile name though).
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
"All I did was piss people off by pointing out how stupid and inefficient they were "
Yeah, can you believe some people get pissed off when you call them idiots?
Don't they realize how *smart* you are?
Sheesh. Cannot believe these people!.
Windows Media Player also has a bunch of stolen QuickTime code, and rumor is Apple was about to sue MS for upwards of 1 billion dollars back in 1997, but then Steve Jobs saw and opportunity and stepped in. He told MS that Apple would drop the issue, if MS agreed to 5 years of continued development of Office for Mac. Plus about $150 million in cash. MS happly complied.
So this isn't the first time.
"SHIT! Now we have to go and buy SonicFoundry!"
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
They don't monitor the every move of their employees.
They save that precious gift for their users.
There is only one way to tell how rampant Microsoft's piracy practices are....
Search Microsoft's offices and sieze all computers as evidence. After they are inspected, they can be returned unharmed with no damage done.
We must protect the intellectual property that drives our economy. Any minor inconvenience this causes Microsoft is certainly well justified.
Yes; but the BSA, which is dominated by Microsoft, has no sympathy for that argument when a company is "audited" and found to be in violation of its licenses, when it's quite plausible that he company merely is poor at record keeping and most likely has actually paid for the licences; or left unused copies of software installed on machines when swapping hardware around, and so on. They still get the whole cavity search, perp walk and massive fine (or compulsory purchase to avoid such) treatment.
Oh fer christ sakes quit being so melodramatic; the case was about a hashing patent [that stac bought]. Essentially Stac claimed to own any algorithm that looks up matches in LZ compression in O(1) time and won on that basis. The code was not the same or even similiar, in fact, totally different algorithms, only similarity was run-time efficiency.
Do you have a specific example of Limbaugh condeming drug use? Actually, I think he has always been mute on the subject, which may be telling in and of itself.
I have no quotes. Do you know of a Limbaugh transcript archive?
He has ragged on Mayor Marion Berry and Robert Downey, Jr. for their drug use. He's a huge hypocrite. He defends marriage against gays due to the rationale that marriage is devised to raise children, ignoring gays *with* children, and the fact that he's been married 3 times (and is either in the middle of, or over with, his third divorce), and has no kids.
This is the problem with legislating morals. You can get anyone to say, "yeah, sure, people shouldn't do that" (like "people shouldn't copy MS software"), but when the loudest proponents of laws enforcing morals (like Limbaugh or MS) break those laws (which is inevitably going to happen), they hoot and holler reasons why they are immune.
It's one of the most disgusting things I've ever encountered. How many people have been heavily fined, or have been put in jail for personal drug use? For violating IP laws (including against MS)? Now when MS (or Rush) violates the laws, they should be subject to the exact same harsh punishment (actually, the entire laws should be wiped from the books, or at least rewritten more rationally and prisoners granted clemency).
Otherwise, you are just using "conservative" stereotypes.
Limbaugh *is* a conservative stereotype.
You mean "pseudo-code", right?
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Because they're idiots and you're not?
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Does "thou shalt not steal" ring any bell :) ?
Yes, but so does "of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession" (Lev. 25:45). Yup, you have a biblical right to enslave tourists' children. Or, in other words - not everything the Old Testament says is suitable as a handbook of modern morality.
More to the point, blanket statements like "thou shalt not steal" are only meaningful if you define "steal". Let's not have the whole "is copyright infringement theft" flamewar again, please - just please acknowledge that even among people who do consider copyright infringement to be theft, most people would at least consider the possibility that purchasing one copy of Windows and installing it on two computers is not exactly in the same (im)moral league as bank robbery.
Some image editing apps forget to update the tiny thumbnail in the meta information that's used by windows explorer to extract thumbnails (if present).
Which is pretty cool if people cropped the picture or added black bars to protect the "innocent".
Also, digital cameras add EXIF info containing date, time, make and model of camera, lighting conditions and settings, etc. It can freak people out when they send you a picture and you tell them "hmm.. it looks to me like a picture from a Canon Powershot A6, did you use the nightshot mode?".
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy - so, who's going to report them first? :P
Does "thou shalt not steal" ring any bell :) ?
Yes, it's a mythological doctrine, and an overly simplified generalization. So is it wrong to steal a gun from a criminal? Would it be wrong for Africa, or any Government to steal the formula of an AIDS vaccine from America if they were charging too much for it?
At least as far as Word is concerned (the only Office app other than Outlook that I use much at all), go to File -> Properties and you can change/remove the author details.
I assume that they're in there as it's often very useful indeed to be able to track down the original author of a document - after all, they're the one that should know the most about the subject. In the context of business especially this can be critical when trying to discern exactly what was specified, or what was meant by a particular part of the document, etc, and why (often the most critical if you're in a CYA situation).
It's not like the information is hidden, though - it's even visible via explorer. I don't use OpenOffice much, but I'd be amazed if it didn't do similar. Open sauce it may be, but it's still a useful feature.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Except that the passage you mention is not about morality. It's about civil laws of the Israelite people of antiquity. Theologians (Christian ones, anyway -- don't know about Jewish theologians) generally divide the Old Testament laws into three kinds:
Of these, only the first is held by Christians to be binding on non-Jews. Thou shalt not steal is in this moral category, whereas social or civil laws are not binding for non-Jews, nor can they be applied to non-Jewish peoples.
I agree with your other reasoning, though, namely that you have to define "theft" before making blanket statements like that of the grandparent post. I am just calling into question your argumentation that not everything the Old Testament has to say about morality can be applied to modern morality. What you referred to is not about morality, but about civil laws.
Database engine for analyzed or annotated text
This reminds me... in case anyone didn't know how much of a scumbag Jack Valenti is:
Mr. KASTENMEIER. Jack, let me ask you. Do you consider yourself and your family infringers when you engage in [videotaping TV shows]?
Mr. VALENTI. I consider myself and my family believing what the plaintiffs in this lawsuit said and they said publicly, they have said it to the press, they have said it to the lawyers, they have said it to the courts. They do not intend to file any actions against homeowners now or in the future. I mean, that is obvious and they have said that publicly, Mr. Chairman, so I believe them. As far as I am concerned, I am going to continue taping because the plaintiffs have said they aren't going to do anything to me. I am not committing any crime. They know that.
Mr. KASTENMEIER. That wasn't my question.
Mr. VALENTI. Do I consider myself an infringer?
Mr. KASTENMEIER. When you engage in such practice.
Mr. VALENTI. Yes, sir, I do. I am taking somebody else's copyrighted material without their consent and I know damn well I am infringing. But as far as court action or anything else, I am safe. First, it is not a criminal act. Again, the opposition would tell you video, police, and criminals. They show an astonishing lack of the copyright law. They know good and well that that is not a criminal infringement unless you do it for profit. But on the other hand the plaintiffs have said they are moving against anybody in the homes. There is no problem, but 1 know and everybody else knows they are infringing.
(Valenti's testimony)
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)