Slashdot Mirror
Open Source As Legal Time Bomb
Hwyman writes "TechWorld is reporting on the latest attack on open-source software by the Microsoft-backed Alexis de Toqueville Institution (ADTI). Many here will remember ADTI's previous assertion that Linux Torvald was NOT the true father of the Linux kernel. Taking the stance that OSS is in conflict with IP law, ADTI president Kenneth Brown states, 'After a brief glance at much open source software development, it becomes readily apparent that a number of open source practices directly conflict with best practices associated with protecting intellectual property.' With references like 'open sores software,' it's easy to believe that ADTI might be somewhat biased."
Does anyone really care what Microsoft's puppet says?
It will come as a surprise to no one that the AdTI, which attempts to portray itself as bipartisan, is actually 100% scum. The following is the text of an e-mail I sent to AdTI president Ken Brown (kenbrown@adti.net) not five minutes before I saw the Slashdot story:
u eville -institution
=== cut here ===
Subject: Oh, my.
How had I not hit this link yet?
http://www.answers.com/topic/alexis-de-tocq
It goes without saying that my opinion of you has suddenly -- and almost incredibly -- dropped several notches. Nothing you have to say in your defense will in the least matter. I will gladly -- and publicly -- continue to flame you, but believe me; nothing you write will ever sway me.
Until today, I thought you were merely "for sale." Now I know that you are reprehensible, and without redeeming value of any kind. Covert collusion with the tobacco corporations?
Hanging is too good for you.
Good day, and good riddance.
James Earl Jones: Tux... I AM your father.
Tux: Noooooooo!
Linus Torvald..
Umm... I would agree that Linux Torvald didn't create Linux, but Linus Torvalds did.
So the proposed solution is to sue the pants off of anyone involved with open source and take their money. Open source developers have a great defense against this: they have no money.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
I doubt if anyone takes these people seriously.
If anyone does, well, they're just not too bright to start with.
Fixed link.
Stupid slashcode.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
...'nuff said. While there may be those PHBs out there that will buy this stuff, I'm pleased that those that I've been speaking to lately (a lot more since I got a new job) don't really buy this stuff, and usually do take into account where these studies, reports, and FUD come from.
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
While they may be biased, and slant their findings, the concept of 'a problem' is valid.
Even if nothing ever comes to light from IP/patent problems, it can ( and is ) keeping some companies away from adoption of anything open source out of fear of lawsuits.
Remember, even if you win, the fight can easily cost you enough to put you out of business..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you're going to fund an anti-linux group, at least use your considerable assets, employees and financial, to make sure that people don't realize it's you. I mean come on MS, stop being so goddamn lazy, put some effort in to your work! The next time I expect to see ADIT on slashdot is when they expose a 15 page paper trail through 20 dummy corporations through which you've send them money.
Just another company crying about open source. Big deal.
We get "Micro$oft", they get "Open Sores", it's all good.
Reminds me of several schools of higher learning with 'Institute' in their names, changing to 'College' or 'University' because, as some said, 'Institute' sounded like a medical facility (for people a few beans short of a burrito.) Though I'd say they nerver heard of MIT, it's places like AdTI that seem to lend the theory some credibility.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I think they've been "Tocque"-ing up a bit too much.
Gotta love the M$ crap that keeps showing up everywhere. M$ is trying to start a flame war. Maybe they are scared of the penguin.
Linus Torvald..
Linus Torvalds
first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
Nobody wants to lose their job because they "gambled on an open source alternative and lost". It's going to take more court wins to substantiate the GPL and dismantle the threat of patents that have no basis. This is a smart move on the part of those who do not wish an "open source revolution".
I'm all for open source, but I can understand how companies are afraid to risk backing it if it means it could end up costing them more later. And sadly, I feel this can slow down adoption of open source software. But for companies with good lawyers who can see past the FUD and who take the risk and use OSS, I hope they are successful because they are paving the way for others.
Reading through some of their other positions, they seem like a group set up to astroturf for all the major big corporate interests -- banking (criticizing Argentina's successful debt renegotiation), cheap labor (pro-mass immigration), and "intellectual property".
But somehow it's too shoddy looking to be purely an invention of MS. Anyone know who's behind this group? Do they have a real agenda, or are they really an astroturf factory for big corporate interests?
If the AdTI were in any way objective, I would welcome their criticism. But, having seen their lies many, many times over the past couple of years, I know that it is hopeless. It is one thing to leverage criticism, but someone whose sole interest is to see the demise of Linux is not someone I am going to allow to influence -any- of my corporate decisions.
...Brown finds it "intriguing" that many open-source contributors work for large IT companies. "Every day, an untold amount (sic) of employees beholden to strict employee/invention/intellectual property agreements, in their spare time (and even during work-hours) freely give away ideas, code, and products to open source projects," he writes. This opens up questions around the legal ownership of contributions, and could even open an avenue for a "disgruntled employee" to give away company secrets by contributing them to open-source projects, the report argues. ...
Most employees are smart enough to choose projects that don't conflict with their work projects. And in many cases, when the project is related to their work duties, it benefits their customers by making it easier to complete projects (utility libraries, file readers/writers/translators, server applications).
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Let's see what happened in the last few days:
What's next? SCO will publish another inane series of press releases on its latest strategic re-deployment?
It's FUD, people. Nothing new here. Move along. Film at 11, and could the last person out of the building please shut down the lights? Thanks.
Sheeesh. They should have figured it out by now. What do they teach MBAs these days anyway?
Seriously, though, this is another attempt by a really worried company to smear the competition. A clue for Microsoft: it did not work for IBM. It won't work for you.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Lunis Torvaldios
Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
The only thing that's been proved here is that too much toke does indeed fry brain cells.
Unfortunately there is a point here. The non-traceability of the Open Source process leaves any given product open to contamination from copyrighted/patented IP. Most projects don't have tight checking of who did what, and they definitely don't know where the contributor got the input. That is an invitation for trouble. Worse, a project could have an "IP bomb" placed inside it by an agent of a less than scrupulous SCO, er... proprietary company that wants to stir up trouble later.
On the good side, it is a problem that is easily fixed. Traceability of the code base back to the contributor can be implemented, but it means some sort of centralized repository AND use of good tracking tools. IMO, no major distribution, and definitely no kernel, should leave the foundry without knowing who touched it.
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
is a thermonuclear warhead in the hands of the terrorists.
Our next report will reflect on offer new insights on orbital mechanics based on the unprecidented rotations obsrved in Mr. de Tocqueville's grave.
What's all this I hear about Open sores software? don't we have enough bad software out there? We have viruses and dirty worms, yuck. Some software has bugs in it. I'm sure that's not healthy. I think if we have open sores software, it will get infected and will die. I think we should put some ointment on open sores software and....
What? Open source software?
Never mind.
Yeah, I wish I could capture or kill all these "osama" processes hiding somewhere in my linux server. Good thing he didn't get root.
I wonder how many Windows-based zombies are in .gov.
Guess those^H^H^H^Hat ADTI-guy forgot to tell wallstreet!
It's Linus Torvalds NOT "Linux Torvald" What is wrong with slashdot?!?
TW
Television is dead. Long live That Weasel Television
...we aren't exactly reading about this at the most objective of tech web sites. ;)
Give someone a computer, some time, and some programming skills, and they can empower themselves for FREE - that is, without compensating anyone else that somehow manages to lay claim to what they've created. They can also decide to empower others by sharing what the've created. How can any law sanely deny someone what seems to me, to be such a fundamental freedom?
Posting this on Slashdot is just feeding the ADTI troll. Effective advocacy isn't about dealing with every troll lobbed your way. If these guys really had a legal time bomb they'd use it as a basis litigate. It isn't as though people today ever really show restraint when they think they have a cause (however dodgy) that will stand up in court.
sponsorships for funding of libel suits against such slanderers.
Recall what Mozilla firefox got for advertising!
And of course it'd be done thru EFF...
proceeds of the winning would of course go towards sponsoring FOSS works. In fact sponsorship of such a case might included what project you'd like your return percentage to go to...
...it really should be named the Alexis de FUDville Institute.
"Legal time bomb" my ass.
Whoa, Open Source not conducive to protecting IP rights? Well, at least they're finally catching on. Maybe next they'll realize that IP isn't real property - it's a privelege granted for a limited time by the government.
If there's one thing we need, it's more lawsuits.
Soviet Computer Hacker named Linyos Torovoltos
4 2056.2147.html
from the best idiocy satire page ever:
http://www.adequacy.org/public/stories/2001.12.2.
Is that if you have a problem with it, look under the hood. The keys are right there. Stop spewing stupid "theory" and have a look. Show us what's wrong. It's all there, look! Found anything? Keep looking. In fact, look until you find something...keep looking. Go for it! Found anything yet? No? Hmmm, I would suggest to keep looking actually. What's that, you're tired of looking? You would rather write an aricle about how you bet if you looked hard you would find something? Ok, the look!
Show us what's wrong. It's all there, look! Found anything? Keep looking. In fact, look until you find something...keep looking. Go for it! Found anything yet? No? Hmmm, I would suggest to keep looking actually. What's that, you're tired of looking? You would rather write an aricle about how you bet if you looked hard you would find something? Ok, the look!
Show us what's wrong. It's all there, look! Found anything? Keep looking. In fact, look until you find something...keep looking. Go for it! Found anything yet? No? Hmmm, I would suggest to keep looking actually. What's that, you're tired of looking? You would rather write an aricle about how you bet if you looked hard you would find something? Ok, the look!
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
What do we know about this guy anyway? He appears to be a lunatic with an axe to grind (and a with a sugardaddy who is glad to help with the grinding).
Since 1988, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has studied the spread and perfection of democracy around the world.
In this, we follow the principles of Tocqueville himself, while claiming no unique mandate to represent them. Among these liberal ideas are civil liberties, political equality, and economic freedom and opportunity.
What the fuck does a political organization have to say about who is the creator of Linux, or what software development practices open source has?
Isn't that like having Democrats speaking about relativity, or the Bush criticizing higher maths?
Why the hell is anybody paying them any atention?
Kevin Brown probably noticed that things had been a bit slow over at Groklaw lately (Obituary notices? Come on). So he tossed PJ and the gang some chum. Nothing wrong with that.
"best practices associated with protecting intellectual property"
Like frivolous patents, astroturf, monopoly lobbying, and, most important, funding the AdTI. Yep, Linux and most "open source" projects don't do any of that stuff.
--
make install -not war
Maybe I'm being a pedant (and it wouldn't be the first time), but how are we to trust the judgment of ADTI on the topic of licensing and IP when they aren't even aware of the difference between copyleft and public domain?
Public domain is pretty clearly defined under current IP laws, and just about the only thing it has in common with open source, free software, copyleft, etc. is the fact that all generally permit anyone to look and touch. In fact, public domain refers to who owns it and only implies the license terms (to the best of my understanding, it's basically "the public owns this and, as the owner, the public can do whatever they want with it"). Copyleft does not release ownership of IP to the public.
Then again, that's probably exactly what these clowns want the public to think it does...
As Linus wrote last year:
This person, "Linux Torvald" must NOT be the "true father" of the Linux kernel since "LINUS Torvalds" already is.
A while back, M$ pretty much ignored the Open Source community. It is odd how all of a sudden Open Source has become a "major threat". Why now?, if Open Source was "bad". Why they did not launch all these "legal" assults back in the early 90's? Could it be that the people in Redmond are losing market share?
I have heard bad stuff about that organization before, but I had no idea. For some reason, the whole thing remonds me of the HR lady at my work. She's scared of everything and doesn't have anything better to do than bitch and spread rumors.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
why the editors here still bother publishing ADTI FUD ? seriously, is this such a slow news day ?
we're all sick tired of knowing ADTI is just a bunch of lunatic FUDsters in M$ payroll and nothing they write is worth taking into account.
unless, of course, you put it on "it's funny. laugh" section
What ? Me, worry ?
.. The French Language is under investigation by the English Language on the grounds of it's allegedly unconsented appropriation of the word 'Rendezvous', now widely in use by French Speakers worldwide.
Webster Dictionary Inc, consultants to the Plaintiff, claim the word was in fact first used by English soldiers in 1455 to describe a 'place and time for meeting' on the battlefield.
How about: SItMtAdTIStFU (Slashdot Institution to Make the Alexis de Tocqueville Insitution to Shut the Fuck Up)
e.g.
i e= UTF-8&q=oracle+IBM+linux&btnG=Search+News
http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&
Or these days, typing pretty much any big name and linux into Google will turn up a load of press releases and other info.
Storm in a teacup.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
It's a travesty that this name is used by these nafarious folks at ADTI. The real Tocqueville was a philosopher and lover of freedom:
l le
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocquevi
Truely ashame that they should damage his name.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Best practices?
Like this?: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120
There are others . .
It seems they liked Kerry in the last election. A couple of quotes from the article:
... Mr. Kerry has put himself firmly in the camp of presidents from Reagan to Roosevelt, from Kennedy to Truman. These men insisted -- to a chorus of elite skepticism from both the left and right -- that, yes, democracy could triumph."
When President Bush first mused, just before his party's convention, that the war on terror might be unwinnable...
Seriously, how are republicans any different from democrats?
Brown finds it "intriguing" that many open-source contributors work for large IT companies. "Every day, an untold amount (sic) of employees beholden to strict employee/invention/intellectual property agreements, in their spare time (and even during work-hours) freely give away ideas, code, and products to open source projects," he writes. This opens up questions around the legal ownership of contributions...
There's no conflict with people contributing to open-source projects while employed by business firms. When you agree to assign IP to your employer as a condition of working for him, the employer becomes the legal owner of what you create. (Why is that so hard for everyone to understand?) The best companies have no problem contributing their code to the community because it benefits them in the end. Most big companies are wary of using open-source technology because they can't afford to be without support. The smartest ones know that they can anchor their own communities, especially around the more specialized and vertical software applications. The stupid companies are the ones asking "How am I going to protect my investment if I don't keep this stuff secret?"
because every day it sure seems like it
at least the mafia has morals
Because most law makers are interested in controlling power. People can't just go around haphazardly GIVING empowerment. And if they have something worthy, then someone wants to control it by whatever ridiculous means they can think of.
Rhetoric is a dangerous weapon and we should be cautious. If they say it often enough, people really will begin to believe it despite it being completely preposterous.
That would be as inconceivable as not permitting Indians to make their own salt!
This is one totally amateur looking website! Not sure what the hell it's all about even, but I can't take it seriously just because it looks like someone's 13 year old kid put it together in Frontpage.
I mean... the branding is weak, the layout is sub-par and uninteresting - the overall impression created by that page is just one of confusion!
Who are they, and what is the point they are trying to make? I can't even be bothered to find out, really, because the website makes me switch off before I get that far.
I can't take this kind of critical commentary seriously from anybody with such an amateur looking website, and theris isn't even up to the visual appeal of the average contemporary blog! Awful!
Organic free-range music... yum!
Just been reading the earlier post about the Sci Fi Hall of Fame additions and was surprised to find out that Ken Brown never made it.
he's writing some fantastic fantasy work these days - outta this world man!
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
They were on Irix up until a few years ago.
It's funny, but every time these bozos try to make noise, it grabs my attention less and less every time. It's like their attempts at a ruckus are getting quieter and quieter and...... It reminds me of Calculus when a LIMIT of ADTI approaches zero. It's still there, but it TENDS to zero.
With references like "With references like 'open sores software,' it's easy to believe that ADTI might be somewhat biased." its easy to believe that the summary of this arrticle might be somewhat biased.
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
A french think-tank consorting with an American monopoly.
I know it's just a bunch of really hardcore Republicans sitting in an office space in downtown Manhattan, pushing out marketing reports for the benefit of MSFT shareholders, but they chose the name for their think-tank. I don't know if the french name was supposed to be some kind of ruse to throw people off, or if it's supposed to lend it some kind of fucking credence.
I think it's the Illumaniti, and they're still trying to aquire power without having to leave the Motherland. Cheese-and-Wineland. Whatever. Christ knows living in Manhattan would be some kind of death sentence for a frenchman; just too far from Paris, you know?
Alexis is that you? Alexis de Toqueville from NH? If so, please call me. Remember that night after our last meeting when we went drinking afterward and ended up back in my suite? Well, I seem to have developed these open sores since then and I really think you need to be seen by a doctor...
Bill G from Redmond
These guys put out papers and postions that soon after will appear on republican talking points all over the media.
Give it a break! It's depressing that people just do not read, and end up blathering away in support of those they believe they oppose. And if you're referring to the latest main stream media forged documents, then you're really lost.
The IMF is mostly liberal in composition, as is any of the UN organizations, the CFR and countless other institutes (not "institutions" sic - one has to earn the right to be regarded as an institution, not self-declare like Ken Brown does) that do nothing but spend peoples money studying and pontificating.
Likewise, CIA, Dept. of State and countless other Federal departments are also as liberal as the news media in the US. To the point that being anything but a registered Democrat is a highly unwise career move. Anybody who has family members in these departments or works with them in business can verify this for you.
Microsoft's Democratic lobbying front, ADTI, is an exceptional example of relativism at work. Redefinition of open source, theft of other peoples hard work (under the guise of corporate redistribution, which is a progressive concept regardless of who the thief is and who is his victim), intellectual dishonesty and downright fraud and misrepresentation are all marks of a good progressive.
So please... unless you want to digress into useless political flamefests, just leave the political aspect alone. Those of us who actually read and trace where organizations get their funding know Ken Brown is:
1. a fraud without the credentials he claims. ken brown is a product of schools that teach high self esteem to low ability children. combine that with sociopathic tendencies and you have a perfect shill.
2. a leftist prostitute for Microsoft. shareholders, do your research. mr. brown's connections indicate it is time to run, not walk, from your microsoft stock.
3. only out there to push bogus PR to other leftists in the news media that are to fscking lazy to check their facts (about 90%, unfortunately)
Don't take my word for it. Do your own research or be a lazy-assed progressive parasite.
"'After a brief glance at much open source software development, it becomes readily apparent that a number of open source practices directly conflict with best practices associated with protecting intellectual property.'"
? collection=opensource_audio&collectionid=JohnConst antakisdrewRobertsRainwaterBlues&PHPSESSID=dbb37e7 61c339fb4da8e446132b483b0
Well hey, I am not so much concerned with the best practices associated with protecting "intellectual property" - I am more concerned with the best practices for creating and using and profiting from "intellectual property" - specifically copyrighted works. I think the GPL and other "copyleft" licenses, serve me quite well in these areas.
If these other three are maximised, what do I care if protection is not?
all the best,
drew
http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
--Mohandas Gandhi
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
If Alexis de Toquevill were alive and realized what these shitheads were doing in his name, he'd probably barf out his heart.
Here's a quote from the real Alexis de Toqueville about the tendencies of American's to help each other out:
"I must say that I have seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare; and I have noticed a hundred instances in which they hardly ever failed to lend faithful support to one another."
Sounds pretty different from the message of these bought-off scumbags.
I suspect the reason that no FOSS has been sued for patent infringement is that the patent holders fear that they would lose. IBM and Novell have bet the farm on FOSS. They have no choice but to make sure that open source survives.
By utterly crushing tSCOg, IBM is making it very clear that anyone who threatens the viability of open source is in serious trouble.
Jack Crack with some programming skills freely submits patches to the kernel. Why does this guy have to be subjected to this crap? What was his crime?
Kenneth Brown: "Every day, an untold amount (sic) of employees beholden to strict employee/invention/intellectual property agreements, in their spare time (and even during work-hours) freely give away ideas, code, and products to open source projects," he writes. This opens up questions around the legal ownership of contributions, and could even open an avenue for a "disgruntled employee" to give away company secrets by contributing them to open-source projects, the report argues.
He has no clue what he is talking about. Companies that hire OSS developers have contracts that state that all code written by that OSS developer for the software is released into the OSS world. Developers, companies, software managers have had this problem worked out for YEARS!
I'm glad that this stuff will only be interesting to geeks. Because they will see that it is just MS-funded propaganda and will only shed light on MS FUD tactics.
When the report is made public, I hope it is read and any good information can be used by OSS programmers and managers for future development. I mean, lets hear what they have to say and if there is anything reasonable, let's learn from it; but I doubt there will be much to learn.
As was pointed out in the OP, "open sores software" does give a clue to some bias. Did they think they would be able to maintain credibility after that? Even F/OSS advocates have learned that saying (writing) things like "M$" or "Windoze" has no place in a logical or professional debate.
SEO Firefox Extension
Why, that's as bad as "M$" and "Windoze".
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Alexis de Tocqueville must bespinning in his grave right now. The gentleman for whom this think-tank is named was a very forward-thinking member of the French nobility, right around the time that being of noble blood in France was hazardous to one's health. He is most famous for his comparison of Russia and the fledgling USA. He saw a lot of potential in the US, but believed that it's promise of democracy could be curbed by apathy, strengthening central governance, and a resulting tyranny of the strong over the smaller folk. That's pretty insightful for a French tourist in the 1800s! Given his observations, it seems likely that today he would believe that the use of patents, and shill-thinktanks to beat down the promise of OSS is exactly the type of thing that could lead to the nation's downfall. I'm sure he wouldn't want his name lent to such policies.
Lead developer, http://wisptools.net
Sort of true, but unfortunately patent law still applies in some countries.
So even if you come up with something on your own, if someone else has patented it, you can't use it.
This is true of not just software either. If you invent or otherwise design something that is patented, you can't legally use it. Even in the privacy of your own home. Yay.
Where did all the money go?
Because certainly AdTI cannot afford decent web site. This just shows that, the orginization does not really care about internet, software and technology overall.
Come on AdTI!
I challenge you to get a decent team of web designers and developers. Don't just stuff you pockets with the cash you get from Microsoft and Philip Moris. Spend some of it at least on some proprietory technology, which you are lobbying so much. Unless you want to pull off "el cheapo" and allow me to show you how great portal you can create with "Mambo" - this open source content management system would do your web site good.
If I were to win the lottery then just to amuse my Slashdot friends I promise to commission a study by the Alexis de Toqueville Institute which finds that small hairy dwarves who live in the sewer actually invented Linux. I will have Ken Brown include in the bibliography the ingredients label on a can of Lima beans as well as a second ADTI report which finds that the Law of Gravity is on a collision course with intellectual "property" law, and I will pay him extra if he agrees to entitle the report "The Secret Incestual Goat Fetish of My Immediate Family". How much do you think he will do it for, about 5 or 10 grand?
He makes it sound like open source suddenly gives disgruntled employees an avenue to hurt their former employer when none existed before. Let's evaluate the choice of a disgruntled employee:
A) Give IP to Open Source Project
B) Quit and work for the competition
C) Burn down employers building
Your results may vary, but you get the idea. Contributing IP to an open-source is hardly the best option for a vindictive person.
I'd put my text into gedit so's I could cut-and-paste it into Slashdot. Probably wrapped on the hyphen. Thanks for the catch! [I normally check my links for Slashdot posts, but since this was actually a paste of an e-mail, it didn't occur to me.]
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly... it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Minister of Propaganda
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
Actually, the first time I heard the phrase "open sores software" was from Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet.
I emailed him straight away to complain, and he blamed it on his editor. Then he went on to publish three or four more editorials flaming "open sores software" again.
He may have been responsible for Ethernet, but Bob Metcalfe is a lying, fudding sack of shit.
If you believe this crap I have a piece of land you should look at but you need a swim suit and some other gear. Do you honestly thing that Novell and IBM would have invested ANY money in linux after the SCO scam if there really was a problem? I don't think so. The truth is that in the future you will see a lot of changes in the biggest joke called patents. And this is all a good thing. Control of information is absolutelly a non democtaric measute and if you say that you have defeated communism how can you possibly still resort to pattents. Don't get me wrong I think that there should be registry of who created what but there is no way that anybody is supposed to have a say on what I cannot know about just because they make profit off of control of information. Sorry but this is actually worst than communism ...
Even if laws don't exist yet to kill Open Source, the laws are coming if they threaten the big corporations.
When this happens, the open source community in the developed world will continue what they're doing quietly. Their code development won't stop: it will just not be implemented into businesses in the developed world (i.e. any country where the lawyers have more money than the industrialists).
However in the developing world, corporate lawyers don't have enough money to retard the development of industries that have the potential of making bigger payoffs to the politicians than the corporate lawyers do. In other words, the open source programs will be adopted by businesses and industries in the developing world regardless of the quasi-legal roadblocks that Microsoft uses to prevent OS use by businesses in the wealthy countries.
In countries that are rich enough to allow businesses to have the resources to both pay off the politicians and buy legal copies of Microsoft applications, businesses will allow Microsoft to control the laws applicable to open-source programs. In countries where businesses can't afford to pay off the politicians and buy legal Microsoft aps, the local governments will refuse to allow Microsoft to use the government's legal structures for that company's sole gain because the local politicians know that in the long run they will get more money in pay-offs from business that are using open-source software than they will from Microsoft.
When you can grasp the pay-off structures, then you can understand the how the law will be interpreted and applied in most situations.
There is nothing majestic and omnipresent about the Law. Underneath all the rhetoric about justice and order, the law is merely a means to facilate the flow of money to those who control the application of violence in a society. If they feel that you are not sending enough money their way, then they will direct their control of violence your way. This is the fundamental guiding principle of how the world works.
This applies in the developed world even more than the developing world, but in developed countries these primal forces are better hidden through patents, copyrights, and academic consultants.
People should revese engineer MS crappy sotware and find ou all the ways of breaking their IP serial number locks and try to discredit their IP patents etc. They dont play fairm neither should anybody else, why be forced to give MS any money just because they have 92% of the computers out there. They lock everybody into their format, they abuse their position, they steal from the open source world and have the gaul to trash its concepts, they try to polliticaly destroy open source, sthe sooner MS is gone the better. I for one am determined to use thier products at an absolute minimum, and I think that it would be neat to crack their products and any sort of future hollywood/ms drm crap in the future. Soneday, we will get real open source hardware cheaply and we can tell all the computer industry that supports MS and DRM motherboards to get stuffed!
Just thought it should be noted that when you sit down with a computer and write software, it's not for free. No matter what, your time is worth something.
A lot of free software is subsidized by parents paying the bills for room & board of the programmer. Other free software is subsidized by companies paying salaries to people creating open source software on the company clock.
I'm not saying this is good or bad, just that writing software is never really free. Somebody is paying to feed and shelter that programmer.
It's kind of ironic that on their web site, right below the "open sores" story is a story about how great Jobs and Apple are. A large part of OS X is based on open source software. And a lot of the technologies that OS X is based on (window shadows, gcc, transparency, the PDF imaging model, Objective-C, OpenStep, etc.) were not invented or developed at Apple, and most of them weren't even invented or developed at NeXT.
Whether one thinks of Apple as a great innovator in some areas or not, the fact is that without open source, OS X would not exist.
Something I noticed from http://www.adti.net/background/mission.html
Paragraph 1:
ADTI: Since 1988, the Alexis de' Tocqueville Institution has studied the spread of perfection of democracy around the world.
BjL: Most open source pundits do not believe that perfection is something to be attained through democracy.
ADTI: In this, we follow the principles of Tocqueville himself, while claiming no unique mandate to represent them. Among these liberal ideas are civil liberty, political equality, and economic freedom and opportunity.
At the root, perhaps, is a populist belief in the basic goodness, perfectibility, and nobility of mankind and the human community.
BjL: I simply do not buy or agree with their seemingly objective, however quite positive self-assessment in paragraph two.
It is my experience the open source community tends to have an entirely antithetical epistemological structure to the to the structure expressed by ADTI.
It also seems to me as though the open source community does more to advance the 'human community' through their nearly postmodern approach to technology than ADTI does through stoically expressing their 'liberal' views as fact.
Lemme get in on this.
"Open sores software"
For instance:
Outlook [express] - Microsoft Dirty Needles
Ok, I've only got the one. anyone else?
True. Example: Inslaw's PROMIS. -kgj
-kgj
Likewise, somebody is paying for you to create your tautology and post it.
So what?
"So the proposed solution is to sue the pants off of anyone involved with open source and take their money. Open source developers have a great defense against this: they have no money."
Well there goes the argument you can make money off open source.
What I say "Free", I mean free from commercial interest, free from laws that remove our ability to empower ourselves. As you know, "free" doesn't always a translate into money.
These people are the type to start with an opinion (provided them by a company) and work to provide evidence to back that opinion. Not very scientific or trustworthy...
Power to the Penguin!
Brown's 2004 report alleged that credit for the origin of Linux should go to projects such as Minix, authored by Andrew Tanenbaum. That report drew criticism from many quarters, including Tanenbaum himself. "My conclusion is that Ken Brown doesn't have a clue what he is talking about," Tanenbaum wrote in a web posting at the time.
yup brown is an idiot - bring on the legal challenges - who is he actually trying to scare.
who does think he is anyway - my company doesn't own me and I am free to think and come up with ideas without the company saying they own it.
this could be applied to anything - if I think of someway to paint my garage in five minutes and then my company wants to use the idea for their buildings - are they going to claim they own the idea because when I thought of it I worked for them? companies don't own you - what a moron.
this guy sure likes mental masturbation a lot -
Remember, it is free as in freedom.
When RMS wrote his free Emacs program, he made money from it by selling copies for $150 each. It was still free software because people had the right to distribute and modify the software.
Other free software developers make money from selling support contracts for their software. Again, even though you are paying for it, it is still free software, because you have freedom.
Check out the Netcraft report on adti.net. Appartently they only hate certain open source software. Ha ha.
"Whoa, Open Source not conducive to protecting IP rights? Well, at least they're finally catching on. Maybe next they'll realize that IP isn't real property - it's a privelege granted for a limited time by the government."
Yeah the above is "insightful" when it's what you want to hear. Good thing this forum's standards are lower than a tabloids.
I have a much better question for you. Do you think that repeating the above over and over, will suddenly get society to start approving of your actions?
Especially when the audiance you're trying to convince have eyes and minds just as capable as yours.
They know that piracy is going on, and that it's in volation of copyright (that "limited time privelege")*
The problem is that some of you simply don't care, and that simply makes people wonder all the more. Who exactly are you trying to convince? Yourselves, or us?
*Some of them are, from what I hear, are even aware that IP is much broader than the slashdot crowd would have you believe. And ask themselves "When will they come after me"?
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly... it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
One man's (-1) is another man's (+5).
From the article:
Most worrying of all is the absence of litigation around open-source projects, Brown says.
Wow. If that's not an indictment of the thinking of these sorts of people, the nature of our society, and the assumptions behind what people say about IP, then I don't know what is.
If people aren't getting sued, then something must be wrong, eh? My god, what a depressing thought.
-Rob
All he has are allegations, no facts. He constructs his argument around the idea that "many open-source contributors work for large IT companies" and therefore there has to be a potential for copyright IP abuse, simple on the basis of statistical probability that such cross-over would have to occur. Nonetheless, he doesn't give any facts. None, zero. Then he goes on to point out that OSS is a ticking bomb before some serious court case will blow it up. Well, good news is that in court there would have to be some hard evidence and facts, allegations is not enough, not even close, especially in software cases where someone would have to show that copyrighted code was used, abused, etc. No code, no case, in my opinion, and no worry so far as the case with SCO shows, the case which is in big trouble for the lack of evidence.
IP was invented for the sake of lawsuits.
I used to dismiss this type of thinking as paranoid whining. However, as I get older I'm becoming more and more libertarian, and I'm now convinced that even the most well-intentioned congressmen just don't know when the fuck to stop. And then there are assclowns like Ted Stevens, who thinks the FCC ought to be able to regulate profanity on cable. Such hackery is bipartisan; Tipper Gore was notorious for this, and Hillary seems determined to carry on the good fight.
The frequent attacks on open-source as "communism" only hold true to the extent that RMS has more or less admitted that he'd like to outlaw closed-source software. And I've seen posters here claim that copyright is immoral and I should write software for the betterment of humanity. In the context of our current system, however, it's 100% compatible with capitalism. Everyone has a choice whether or not they want to contribute, or whether they want to use the products. If the software or business model is superior, it'll succeed because of that, not because the government is forcing anyone to use it. And if conventional software companies go bankrupt because of competition from the open-source movement, fuck 'em. The free market's a bitch. Learn to love it.
Or is this a well organize anti Linux troll?
Can somebody based in the US confirm if the information below is real:
From http://www.adti.net/form990/tax.menu.html:
Address:
Suite 151
Benning Street
West Lebanon
NH 03784
Or given them a call:
(603) 6496395
When I check the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=03784
I can't help it but note how empty it all looks.
All very fishy.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I've read your post and re-read it and read it yet again a 3rd time to see if there is a nugget of wisdom in there.
All I can say is that you must either be the smartest man on the planet or the dumbest.
I'm personally trying to figure out "...IP is much broader than the slashdot crowd would have you believe...". And then it occurs to me that you're so smart that you're playing dumb to try to troll more effectively.
At least I hope so.
With references like 'open sores software
Oh man, first they ignore us.
Now they're mocking and attacking in the same article... what's next?
A long time ago, the Spanish empire was worried about the Dutch independence movement. It could threaten the whole concept of how countries were run by their rightful, heavenly appointed rulers.
What keeps me going is my inertia.
Ultimately, what do big corporations like MS want? They want the extinction of OSS. Not only is this ridiculous, because it's pretty much the same thing as if you wanted to forbid writers to write books because they used sentences that could be found in other books (the exact same thing to some level, if you think about it), but it's eventually against their own interest too because it tends to reinforce what many institutions have been fighting them for: their monopoly position on the market.
I don't believe Bill Gates is stupid, but is he? MS has gotten in much trouble with courts pretty much all over the world for their commercial strategy and market monopoly, yet they want to kill one form of free competition that lives pretty much everywhere in the world? OSS should actually be seen by MS as a major opportunity to have enough competition around not to be accused of monopoly, yet keep the upper hand in the "commercial products" market, which will probably continue to exist no matter how much OSS grows in the future. So it almosts seems like MS (and others) is asking to get punished. I don't get it. They are going backwards... and that may very well play against them in the future.
I belive that the open source development model is so strong, and that it will become so prevalent amoung small to medium businesses (if it has not done so already) to solve their IT needs, that if there should arise a conflict between OSS and the current array of intelectual property laws, it will be IP that gives way, not OSS.
Yep, this fool did an interview on The Linux Show. You can find it in the archives for 13 July 2004: Announcement | Ogg Audio Quite a heated debate in the latter half. -- jhansonxi of MadPenguin.Org
I can't understand why anyone, except the unexpecting, would even take Brown or ADTI seriously at this point, given the ludicrous and obviously false statements that have been making.
Face it ADTI: you are nothing more than unethical Microsoft whores.
That's why people use it, ya ass pirate.
buggery
n. Vulgar
Sodomy.
bugger
n.
Vulgar Slang. A sodomite.
Ass pirat
n. Vulgar
The act of stealing and pounding booty.....damn pirates always want the booty.
Roman (the ass pirate in steeb) just [deleted] brad's ass
Scoxe was fairly quite for a long time, but recently they have been on a rampage.
Lemma see, McBride gives an interview (rare these days), O'Gara tries to start a rumor that sunw will buy scoxe, scoxe has a PR piece about openserver 6 being released eventually, scoxe releases another PR piece about their 5-star rating from VARBusiness (totally bogus btw, you buy those ratings), then we have AdTI back at it.
All that hot air in about two week? Also during the same week scoxe shares takes a price hit, and volume dries up?
Hmmmmm. . .
Just for a laugh, you should visit Ted Stevens' Senate homepage and enjoy the seizure-like movement of his flag gif. Truly lovely web-design. This is best on my Open Source browser, FireFox, but in IE it's just as ugly, if not as fast.
I think so anyway.
Back when AdTI posted the first Linux slaming article, posters on the yahoo scoxe message coordianted to track them down.
Seems they are operating from one of those PO Boxes that are made to look like a real address. That and a cell-phone, and a geocities web-site.
I don't think they have what you would call a staff either. It's pretty much all run by Ken Brown.
Isn't "best practices associated with protecting intellectual property" an oxymoron?
Alexis de Toqueville... sounds like a french
name (I am a french Canadian)
and in french, toque means fake!!!
I think we need more wackos like him that can't even get their own stories straight - and the end result is that all Microsoft sponsored PR will be lumped in the same category as him.
It's almost like that unfortunate (for SCO) time when the one kernel hacker they could find that said stuff kinda supporting their position was Jeff Merkey - and while he's a brilliant programmer, he's also kinda nuts (if I recall correctly - offering to sell peyote to help the 9-11 victims; claiming to fund lawsuits with gold mines he found; claiming to have a company genetically engineering peyote).
The more money Microsoft spends on The Alex The Toker foundation, Darl, and Merkey the better things are for Linux.
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.adti .net
Here's a quote from the original de Tocqueville:
Consider these quotes from the original de Tocqueville:
and I think this guy picked a very apt pseudonym for himself and his one-man institution.When your PHB comes to you with one of these reports in his hand after just having a meeting with someone pimping MS products, try saying something like this:
"It is nonsense. No-one is going to stop the development of Linux, and no-one is going to sue you for using it. Reports like that are what Microsoft salesmen use to scare dim-witted middle management with a poor IT department into buying their products. You're not the former, and I'm not the latter, so next time you talk to this guy politely tell him to stick his product and his report up his ass."
Another rant by the what's-his-name Institute of Lies, Damn lies, and Distortion proved that Linux is a legal time bomb ticking away.
Hark! Do you hear that Microsoft? That is the sound of your own mortality.. tick tick tick. Just as SCO were ground into the dust of history by the inevitable, implacable march of one billion cheerful penguins, so shall all who oppose the fearsome, dreadful might of Sharing Software, Free Communication and Collaboration, and Helping Your Neighbour!
http://www.freeswan.org/freeswan_trees/freeswan-1. 5/doc/exportlaws.html
quotes the international cryptography treaty (wassenar) defining public domain as:
"technology" or "software" which has been made available without restrictions upon its further dissemination."
This is different from the copyright definition, of course. The US equivalent, ITAR, as administered by EAR apparently uses a similar definition.
So it is just possible that ADTI, despite dealing in law and policy, is clueless enough to mistake a definition for narrow public policy purposes (dual-use information export regulation) for the definition related to the most pervasive form of legal restrictiion on speech in existence (copyright).
Naah.
The article is a troll. Ignore it.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Guys, the editorial quality here is going downhill. Please... hire editors who can actually, y'know, edit?
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
My eyes are burning! That's worse than a goatse link!
You missed a definition.
v. tr.
1. To practice sodomy with.
2. To damn.
Just shut up.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Watch in awe as I type in an unbroken URL:
c /d dddd/eeeee/fffff/ggggg/index.html
http://www.somefakewebsite.com/aaaaa/bbbbb/cccc
If you count, you'll notice that the URL is broken after the fiftieth character (the first 'd'). This will happen for any "word" more than fifty characters in length. Try it yourself and see!
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
The point is that it's not necessary to have a general impact on people, but an impact on the legal system. This means that anybody with enough money and stamina is likely to get a lever into the legal system and thus creating a bias that is in their favor.
In my opinion, any piece of software used in a governmental institution should be open source, since that code is paid for by the public. Therefore the public shall have access to it.
Only a few components (which mostly is data, not software) that covers personal privacy, intelligence and national security shall be protected, but still accessible on a need to know basis.
What can be done when it comes to organizations like the ADTI is actually to figure out if there are legal handles that can be used. With that I mean that a deep study of these organizations may reveal any tax evictions (no matter size) to be reported to the IRS, bribery and other activities.
No felony may be too small to actually report to our public servants. Even parking tickets in abundance will be annoying. The point is to let the legal system work for you.
OK, this post will probably put my Karma in "Evil" mode...
(REALLY EVIL MODE ON) Anything else that you can find out may also work. All those business reply mail cupons in magazines are also an idea if you run out of ideas. Only check a few (filling in all will raise suspicions) on each cupon and fill in their name and address. The amount of junk mail will be annoying. If enough people does this with everything from toothbrushes to concrete mixers then they will not be doing anything else then sorting mail. (otherwise they will running the risk of losing important messages). It's also important to avoid cupons covering pornographic material, since that can be illegal. Also avoid anything that is cash on delivery, since that may be illegal too...
Telemarketing targeting is also an annoyance that may be applied, but that is probably already taken care of by a do not call registration. Misdirected fax calls could be funny for a while (all restaurants in DC faxing their menu to the voice number).
If you are two persons, you can place calls to them, where the first person calls three times asking for a "Asok Beeblebrox" or something. They will certainly say that that person isn't available, and then the other person calls back saying he is "Asok Beeblebrox" asking if anybody has called and then sounding VERY annoyed when they didn't take a note... (this is probably on the fringe of legality, so don't pull off this too often...) A twisted version is to first ask for a real name and then when you get that person you will run the "Asok Beeblebrox" with him/her. This will move the annoyance from the switchboard to the core of the organization.
Well, that was EVIL... I felt that I had to be a little evil today... (REALLY EVIL MODE OFF)
To everybody else: Have a nice day! :-)
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I suspect ADTI is more opposed to GPL software than they are to BSD-licensed. After all, they can freely steal from the latter. (Nothing against FreeBSD, I use it myself.)
The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Give someone a computer, some time, and some programming skills, and they can empower themselves for FREE - that is, without compensating anyone else that somehow manages to lay claim to what they've created.
That's what patents are intended to stop.
Quote from the AdTI site.
In 1994, part of the Clinton administration's health plan proposed an increase in cigarette sales tax from 24 a packet to 99 a packet. Merrick Carey, then president of the AdTI, put a plan to Philip Morris whereby, for $30,000 a month, the Institution would conduct a campaign for them. The AdTI presented itself as a "bipartisan" economic think tank presenting an analysis of the Clinton plan, nowhere mentioning they were directly hired by Philip Morris to oppose the tax increase.
Put in italic and bold for the relevant section to stand out. In my own opinion what this company looks like and pertains to be, and especialy when you look at the above quote is a company who sells out to whoever gives them the most money. They almost freely admit to being paid pitbulls for whoever it is that needs a campaign fighting that they do not agree with. It's like one company paying another to cause libel. Not right!
Yeah, someone paid for me to sit and write software at home. Me. As I'd be paying for it wether I sit here, or in front of the TV, it's zero sum. OSS wins.
Who paid for you to post your tripe on Slashdot?
I remember when I was an engineering student at Melbourne university part of the contract for being enrolled was that any ideas or anything that you develop whilst a student is the property of the university. It seemed a pretty blanket coverage of your activities and seemed very unfair if what possibly unenforceable. Has anybody seen this sort of thing enforced?
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
I just wonder what Ken's qualifications in the field of law and especially IT-law are. Indemnification is not part of 'intellectual property' practice, it is part and parcel of IT-contracts. Indemnification is put into license agreements because it is a possible tool for users to get litigious third parties off their back. In practice it is an almost useless tool, but any lawyer worth his salt puts it into licence agreements. It has nothing to do with intellectual property law whatsoever though. And yes, I am a professional in the field of IT-related law.
-- Spelling and grammar errors tend to be a sign of erroneous thinking.
After the complete schelacking AdTI and Ken recieved the last time they tried this (is his book out yet?) why are we worried about this mob of nuts.
I enjoy writing software, I can and I will write software for other people to use how and when I want to, and nothing you do or say will stop me doing that.
hi,
5 /238257&from=rss).
Congrats on your research being discussed in detail at Slashdot (http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/2
I would like to Submit a study idea:
Can ADTI study how monopolies like Microsoft try to destroy innovation? It would be useful if ADTI focusses in its study on the tactics employed by monopolies to spread FUD by employing agents like ADTI.
Uhhuh, and because I use non-zero time to have sex, I should think of myself as a prostitute? In fact, nobody ever does anything for free! Wow.
Seriously, if you're writing software in your spare time, it's effectively free unless you're doing it as an alternative to paid work.
While some people like to consider all of their time worth money, the key thing to consider is what you might be doing instead of writing software (such as posting to slashdot).
Eurgh! Not to mention that the total size of the homepage is 480kB (yes, almost half a megabyte), because none of the thumbnail images seem to have been resized from their originals... making them look like shit too! Yeah, love those jaggies!
That shit would be a minute and a half upwards to download the homepage alone over a dial-up connection! It was even noticably slow (seemed to take more than 10 seconds) over my 750kb cable connection!
I guess that's reason to be happy it was posted on Slashdot, because their bandwidth useage must have just gone through the roof in the last 24 hours... muahaha! (Had to do server-refresh a few times just make sure I was seeing the most up-to-date version... LOL!)
Also, taking a look at the source code, you'll find they've invented a nice new <fooorm> tag, and my Firefox HTML Validator tells me that there are 3 errors and 142 warnings in their code.
I'd say it barely even qualifies to be called a web page! ;-)
Organic free-range music... yum!
Considering their anti-opensource stance, utilising the above-mentioned phrases such as "open-sore" and so forth, I find it incredible that the site's own title advocates the use of Mozilla Firefox: "Alexis de Tocqueville Institution: Best viewed using Mozilla Firefox".
Hypocrites, or just plain retarded?
Somehow, I am reminded of the to date larges IP issue in software ever: The GIF patent. And it was not an open source issue.
There is no logic in assuming that open source software is any more or less likely to infringe on a patent. With open source, at least you know what you are getting, and there is an accessible history of development - meaning that you are more likely to have a prior art defense - or show that there is nothing novel about whatever idea is in question.
Even though you have a patent it does not mean that patent is valid.
-- $G
You forget though that what started the Free Software Movement was AT&T stealing the freely donated IP of the programmers who turned Unix from a demonstration program into one of the most useful of OS's. I really belive that if AT&T had played nice we would never have seen Microsoft become such a monsterous monopoly. All that code was subsidized by the University system.
Before open source there was "donation software" concept. The fathers of open source can be considered those people i think...
From the Techworld article:
Most worrying of all is the absence of litigation around open-source projects, Brown says. "Certainly it is improbable (and mathematically impossible) to assume that no infringement is occurring," he writes. "Thus, we are left to conclude that infringement to date has largely been getting a 'pass'." Those involved must ask themselves when the litigation will arrive and what will trigger it, he argues.
Everyone knows that when the change for an event X to happen is [X] = 0.00000000 with an infinite number of more 0, it is still possible! Mathematically my arse!
Tristan
Sums it up nicely.
Welcome to the internet.
Lay off the crack.
It's been a long time.
/me wonders why the AC decided to delete the word "hose"...
Guess tat adti.....??
It's been a long time.
Three cheers for Andrew Tanenbaum - who has the balls to come out and say what needs to be said. Three cheers for outing another organization bent on "truth washing". It is too bad others who have the info on other situations keep their mouths shut - (HIV=AIDS, "Global Waming caused By Us", "Lets Kill Grandparents -Iraq War Is Good", "Most Prescription Drugs Don't Work", "Most MedicalTreatments Don't Work", "Cancer Caused By 100's of Corporations", "Architects, Planners Hate People"...and so on)
They should have named it Linus Torvalds Institution. Oh, wait
...the thirty hours or such lost the last time you realized the value of backups just a little too late? :)
Oh I was just being funny, yes there are lots of them. Most people don't even know about the sodomy.
I was just trying to get a laugh.
Well round our way he's known as whirling Alexis and we've hooked him up to a genarator
No but, yeah but, no but...
However, as I get older I'm becoming more and more libertarian
Are you sure it's you that is changing and not the USA?
Mod this troll down
How can an obviously biased group like the slash dot crowd call someone else biased.
Does this surprise anyone? M$ stock has been flat for over 3 years. M$ is betting the farm on Longhorn and unless the code base isn't as porous as it's previous products M$ is going to have a lot of negative and very critical reviews and recommendation by various analysts in a wide spectrum of sectors. Pair this with the continuing growth and acceptance of F/OSS. Even the U.S. Navy has formally announced a serious look into F/OSS. Governments are turning to F/OSS, Lenovo has a viable PC business in the fastest growing economy in the world at present - China (aka PRC) and IBM is sitting in the catbird seat to provide middleware and aid development.
/. knows they I'm a stanch F/OSS and Linux advocate. So, in all honesty - Linux has a fair distance to go to realize its full potential. But giving the time and amount of progress F/OSS and Linux has made, they community has done a stellar job IMHO. And the bigboys in Redmond know this all too well - they're not stupid - just suffering form a monoculture and denial.
M$ is finding that the status quo is not being accepted wholesale and many former allies are looking to vet their markets by giving serious thought to F/OSS and Linux - this continues to threaten M$ and they're running out of options for FUD. Not many people believe the FUD M$ spews - at least not anywhere near the numbers they used to.
Look, let's face it. M$ is going to attempt, at every opportunity, to smear the perception that F/OSS and Linux are inferior and uncapable. Anyone that has ever read any comments I have posted on
So expect more of the same from such as ADTI - they were paid and therefore must produce something anti-Linux. The only thing that I find well.., pathetic, is that ADTI claims are on the edge of being out and out ridiculous. And in my mind that goes to show just how desparate M$ is getting. M$ viewed F/OSS and Linux as a developers play toy and a non-starter. Now that this is clearly not the case M$ has for the last few years been on a FUD campaign. The "Open Source As Legal Time Bomb" stance is just another tactic along the same lines as the SCOX(E) attempt to thwart the growth of F/OSS and Linux - The is the "F" in FUD - its main focus is FEAR. M$ is the one that's feeling the fear - and uncertainty and doubt are growing in the ranks of Redmond and their likely to be former clientele.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Delay tactics for longhorn release.
Lame part is that it works.
All the world is a stage, indeed.
Getting old fast, Shit!
Linus Torvalds
GNU/ Linus Torvalds