Slashdot Mirror
World Intellectual Property Day
Dotnaught writes "The Business Software Alliance wants everyone to know that today is World Intellectual Property Day, 'an initiative to educate young people about how intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity.' To mark the occasion, CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S."
VERY apporpriately ...
Slashdot is not going to like this one bit.
The Creation of Spam Sig Opt Out
I've spent lots of time, maybe too much, pondering the phenomena of the free iPod sig. At 4:13 pm on Saturday, March 19th I had a moment of clarity that put things in perspective. People with free iPod sigs are useless. This was a startling discovery. I had previously been aware that they are both annoying and spammers, but it had never occurred to me that they would also be useless.
Allow me to explain for the non-pyramid scheme spamming users who still read this site. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who upon seeing a "'free' iPod" sig gets as angry as when I see a homeless person who is obviously able to work harassing cars and washing windshields in a busy intersection for liquor money. These people, spammers and beggars are the scum of the earth. They smear your windshield with their dirty halfassed non-attempt at cleaning and put out their grubby palm for a handout all at the same time.
People with free iPod sigs are the windshield washers of slashdot. They put up useless groupthink compliant babbleings or piss-poor mirrors to slashdotted sites to ingratiate themselves with equally stupid moderators. Their hope is to get modded up and fool some equally pathetic other user into joining their spammer pyramid scheme. But pyramid scheme participants have something in common with black market human brains. They are pretty stupid. Intelligent people are smart enough to work a real job to pay for their toys or at least know that it is not appropriate to spam on a site where every 5th story is about the scourge of spamming. As a general rule smart people don't join pyramid schemes.
Here-in lies the largest problem with free iPod spammers: they are stupid. They post stupid things. They add nothing to the discussion. With their every useless spam sig post this site slides further and further into the toilet. Of course not having a spam sig is by no stretch of the imagination the sign of an intelligent, valuble poster, but having a spam sig is almost always the sign of an utter retard. I could post examples but I think just causal browsing of slashdot is enough to demonstrate that what I have said is true. To drive the point home though, check out http://developers.slashdot.org/. Notice how in the stories that didn't make it to the home page there is not_a_single_spam_sig. not one. I rest my case.
How do we fight the scourge of 'free iPod' spammers? In the past I have gone through the site methodically replying to free iPod spammers as AC, reminding them that spammers suck. I frequently included my own fake sig which read like:
--
Free iPod sigs are spam. You are a retard.
This approach was somewhat satisfying and kind of effective. The downside is that my IP address is now banned from posting anonymously, and will probably be banned from posting logged in soon. In the time I have had to sit by and watch as retard spammers ruin this site I have had the opportunity to think of another way: my Final Solution. I have created this account, Spam Sig Opt Out, for use as a filter against the increasing torrent of spammers that this site has attracted. To use this filter, simply add Spam Sig Opt Out as a 'friend' and set the 'foes of friends' modifier to -6 in your preferences. Feel free to report users with spam sigs in my journal. With every addition this site gets more readable. It may be too late to save this site from the spammers, but that doesn't mean we have to read their garbage.
list of spammers
Hmmm....
WIPD (whipped).
Sounds about right.
Not even subtle.
Oh well.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
It was just recently reported that 6 of those cities events were cancelled by an injunction filed by national porn chain, Copy Night.
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
So, who wants to be the first to give us a list of all those wonderful inventions that would have never been invented if it wasn't for the copyright law?
Intellectual Property?
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!!
This is what I was thinking about when I woke up this morning. I wonder if they Celebrate this is Russia or the Ukraine too.
Obama = Socialism.
CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S.
Cool! Does that get-together include a CD/DVD swap session?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
has anyone here seen the online ads where they ask if you want to get back your old employer by reporting them to the BSA?
This guy is way out there
In order to celebrate, my team members and I are going to each write a line of code, and then go clone a cd or two.
Software, particularly OSS, is very different. Much of the value in software is derived from all the testing etc that is done to prove the software and flush out the bugs. I have heard of this being compared to the "stone soup" story. Throw out any (sometimes crappy) software and let people give you feedback. Copyright only protects the interests of the authors - not of those who do all the testing etc. Often the value added by the testers etc is many times the value added by the original authors.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
A person I know wanted to celebrate WIPD by legally purchasing music from Allofmp3.com. Deal w/ it biatches!
The BSA.... aren't they the ones that terrorize small businesses and threaten to audit their software licenses? (And without a glimmer of a search warrant, either.)
I Celibrated by downloading some music and a couple movies.
*Cheers*
Amazing! This is almost exactly the opposite of Software Freedom Day!
Strange, I thought "CopyNight" referred to the legendary obscene things people do on the Xerox after returning drunk from the office Xmas party...
...
The far more creative method of human thinking is to express ideas to as many people as possible and have those people alter and improve upon the original. One person sitting in a box alone will come up with boring ideas (unless they are crazy).
Don't mod me up.
Microsoft History Month?
Anyone have links to warez, appz, crackz, passwordz, mp3z, moviez, anything else I can pluralize with a z?
Aww crap, should have submitted this through 3 proxies lest the **IA ask for me.
By signing up with allofmp3.com. Wish I had done it sooner, it's absolutely fantastic.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
World Intellectual Property Day Was My Idea!
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
"What are the guidelines for CopyNight?
...
There's no cost to using the CopyNight name.
* It has to be free - no admission and no membership dues. Make it as inclusive as possible.
"
How about making content available on those terms too ?????
Let's celebrate!
There's so much to celebrate.
Laws that allow others to lock their ideas away so no one can use them.
Laws that allow organised price fixing.
Laws that allow people to own ideas that should belong to everyone. Everything down to your own DNA has some form of IP on it.
Rejoice world.
Gimme a break!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
WIPD is a protest-magnet, and the CopyNight people have simply used WIPD's big-money marketing of the event against them. It will be interesting to see if WIPD is "quietly" discontinued next year.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Can we also have a "jail BSA executive day" as well?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Should I... uh... stop downloading Sahara, or what?
Now I have Bawls dipping from my monitor.
Woohoo!!!
/. brings me this!
... for me to poop on.
/not afraid of Triumph.
Just when I thought I had nothing to celebrate today,
This is great news
32 different companies filed law suites stating that this was infact a violation of something they had patented earlier.
Well if you had posted this sooner, I would have grabbed a few things on the way out of the office today!
-Valiss
See star and crescent.
I've seen a DVD or two with an overly-long commercial at the beginning that likens copying movies to stealing cars or purses, etc.
All that's missing from the BSA now is some sort of analog to this.
Using patented algorithms (as obvious as some are) is like...
unixkb.com -- articles on practical Unix issues.
Personally, I would love to see a worldwide Libre (Free) Software Developer Appreciation day. The authors of free software have given all of us so much, that some thanks and recognition would seem to be the least we could do for them.
Notice how they made it DURING EXAMS?
That way, all those free-spirited, pirates will be too busy studying their asses off to give a hoot about it. "intellectual property day". LOL.
>
> WIPD is a protest-magnet, and the CopyNight people have simply used WIPD's big-money marketing of the event against them. It will be interesting to see if WIPD is "quietly" discontinued next year.
I've got a feeling this is going to be like a lot of those WTO protests, where about 50 idiots in suits show up, along with 50 agents provocateurs, so that the remaining 4,000 dissidents can have the ever-lovin' shit beaten out of them for the entertainment of the local news media.
WIPD is a protest-magnet, and the CopyNight people have simply self-identified themselves for targeting by RIAA observers who will hand over pictures of their faces to the FBI for face-recognition scans and further investigation.
If I were head of RIAA or MPAA, I'd covertly fund an organization like CopyNight. What better way to identify threats? *cracks knuckles, reclines in chair, cackles evilly*
Yes we do! Every day when we buy DVDs, software and games for the price they actually suppose to cost.
You mean all that innovation that comes from 1-Click software patents, the Happy Birthday song, Winnie the Pooh, etc.
If you look at the Constitution, copyright covers: "[o]nly the writings and discoveries of authors and inventors...and then only to the end of promoting science and the useful arts."
Original ideas should not become commodities that are transferred to purchasers and assignees - which is the problem with all the examples above.
This is your first post ever. Did you created an account just to post this shit? That's pathetic.
We already have a World Cancer Day and a World AIDS day, why shouldn't we have a World Intellectual Property Day too? I'd like to give my support to all the victims of Intellectual Property and I'm sure a lot of other people would too.
You are absolutely not american, or just plain, unAmerican.
If so, you can't possibly understand... and I pity you for that.
please remove me
We have to recognize, and incorporate into our dialogue, that these concepts are better termed IP conventions; ie, things which are adopted because they are convenient in practice.
Only then will we be able to cogently argue against them when they cease to be convenient for the public as a whole, and decide how to adjust them to maximize their convenience.
Isn't that taken straight from the leaflet for the Hitler Youth?
Now they're 70 years plus life.
Corporations don't die, so that makes them even longer.
Talk about stifling innovation...
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Google is known for changing their logo for every obscure holiday. But to their credit google is not acknowledging this "holiday."
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
To celebrate this day, I am going to steal fouteen avatars from teenagers on LiveJournal-based journal sites, and laugh at them when I tell them what law says I can't steal the icon.
Funny how that works.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. License a man to fish using your technology and you eat for the rest of his life.
We'll never be able to deny IP rights as long as we call them rights. After all, denying someone their rights is wrong by definition.
We have to recognize, and incorporate into our dialogue, that these concepts are better termed IP conventions; ie, things which are adopted because they are convenient in practice.
I suggest we call them what they are, limited personal copyrights. Because corporations aren't in the Constitution, so they have no rights other than those lawyers have pretended they do [note, judges and justices are classified in with lawyers, and representatives are mostly lawyers].
People don't like lawyers, although they're usually good in bed IMHO. At least women lawyers.
People don't think 70 years is limited, and that makes the point. So every time you talk about IP, talk about LPIP or Limited Personal Intellectual Property. Changes the whole debate right there.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Testing software is like proofreading/editing a book.
Some programs, small utilities, etc can be *perfect* external testing help. Perhaps a short story (or a slashdot post -- not this one) can be perfect without others participating in creation process.
Then there are massive software solutions that are beyond the capacity of a single skilled developer. For example, Linux. To get something like that right in one lifetime you need a team. Sort of like creating an encyclopedia.
I have no idea why you think copyright is outdated just because it works for books so well. Frankly, it seems to work for software too.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
"We must continue our shared public-private efforts to deter piracy and promote intellectual property rights in every corner of the globe. Our children's ability to learn, create and innovate must be protected now and in the decades ahead."
A classic maneuver; stating two unrelated topics in the same paragraph deceiving lay readers into drawing nonexistent conclusions between them. This is especially prevalent with statistics, where correlations between two data sets are often shown (which do exist), but where any actual connection between the two is purely happenstance. For example: "After using product X for 2 weeks Rob's weight dropped 25 pounds." At first glance Rob's use of product X and his weight seem to be related, but their not. The real reason for his weight drop was he stopped having his hourly burrito during that time period.
- Piracy and children have nothing in common, and this man's an asshole for even implying such a connection exists.
an image of a group of smiling lawyers serving subpoenas to a Kindergarten class on their front page.
This is an excellent time for citizens to learn about the GPL. The GPL is one of the most recognized forms of intellectual property support, and it is good if the average citizen understands and respects the law.
Sadly, many people - including those responsible for IP within large corporations - do not know enough about the GPL.
I patented it first!
The Business Software Alliance wants everyone to know that today is World Intellectual Property Day
Yes - they WANT everyone to know that. But since I Trademarked "World Intellectual Property Day" - they will be required to pay me (inserts pinky in mouth) one-million dollars - ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
This is your boss. You're working free for the month of May.
After all "Bot's output just wants to be free".
P.S.: apologies for the very US-centric map which makes Toronto appear not to be on dry land - I'd welcome pointers to any usable (public domain or Creative Commons) maps that include Canada. - David
What a surprise, they don't want to pay for intellectual property either.
intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity
Except it doesn't foster innovation or creativity, its all about making money - usually by slightly amoral means.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Interesting. Please share your definition of "rapid" with the rest of us.
Some might then suggest that this contradicts my original argument, since now calling something a convention makes it more attractive. However, I never said that calling anything a convention makes it less attractive then when it is called a right; rather, I was trying to emphasize that calling something a convention would help it to be viewed in a saner, more pragmatic manner.
In the case of IP, they would be taken less seriously; in the case of F/OSS, more seriously.
I feel the current system is not good enough. More thought should go into this. Just to give two exaples - the lawyer who patented the wheel and some attempts by people in the west to patent traditional knowledge known for generations in India.
intellectual property is such a horrific stain on humanity. I do my best to circulate my work because I believe by not 'owning' it, people will get better access to it. I further believe it to be superior to what my competitors can make, which means to me that whatever is made proprietary has more chance of being inferior, because it needs to be protected. What is good will be used, what is bad must be pushed. Those who _are_ good need not fear being copied because all they would need to do is expose the perpetrators and gain the user base of imposters when the originators obliterate the copy snake.
//de ~ 9cimi
World Intellectual Property Day eh? From our good friends at the BSA (oh, how appropriate the acronym, but I digress).
:)
How about ingrown-toenail day? BSOD day? Stomach ulcer day? Patent appreciation day?
It's a regular party.
Wow. Sounds like fun.
If you're a square.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
"Original ideas should not become commodities that are transferred to purchasers and assignees - which is the problem with all the examples above."
And I want to develop a drug that cures cancer. Who's going to fund it? You? Obviously not? Government? Do you really want the government getting into the drug making business? That leaves people with both the will and the money. Guess who those are? Still not you?
Maybe what you really ment to say is that much like term limits for politicians. You'd like the same for IP.
Isn't BSA infringing on "Boy Scouts of America" ?
I misread this as "World Intellectual Poverty Day" twice, until I finally got the message. Must be freudian dyslexia or something...
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
Wasn't yesterday "Bite the hand that feeds you by turning your boss to the BSA Day?" Gotta love the BSA!
Obviously, this argument is limited, but it's only meant to point out the absurdity of the "forever and a day copyright" capitalist-hating aristocratic-asslicking anti-democratic money-fucking pigs like Valenti, Bono, et al.
Bottom line: intellectual property is not property; it's a government-sponsored monopoly. It has LIMITED support in the U.S Constitution. It has much stronger support in Europe, where they still have the royalty from whose authority both patents and copyrights descended - the "capitalism needs IP" argument is simply an after-the-fact fairy tale. Any American who believes in Very Strong IP is a traitor to Our Values, plain and simple.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
You have the right to remain silent!
Well I for one intend to celebrate by reposting this ....
A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights
If they said there was no incentive to do good things unless the government could choose your religion ... or they said there is no
incentive to grow food, unless farmers
could rip up your garden ... most people would
see these as the awful values that they are.
But if they say that there is no incentive to
make beneficial or creative works without the
power to restrict what people copy (copyrights),
then all too many people just take it on
faith. They don't even question it, as if
incentive makes rights, as if society would fall
apart without them. But just as much of the
Renaissance happened without copyrights so
should the information age.
Calling copyrights "intellectual property" is intellectually dishonest. The moral and historical foundation of property derives from mutual respect and the fact that not everybody can posses something at the same time. The foundation of copyrights derives from kings who granted publishers monopolies in return for not publishing bad things about the monarchy. Copyrights are about control, censorship, and not a free market property. In fact, they cheapen property rights by treating things that have natural limits in supply such as food, shelter, and medicine like information that does not.
Worse, is how people who copy are slandered with names such as "thief" and "pirate", as if copying was akin to boarding a ship and murdering people. They are even accused of stealing food out of the mouths of starving artists. Yet these verbal assaults hide a cold and calculated lie, the one that says "copyrights benefit creative people". The truth is that for every artist or writer that has made it "big", there are unmentioned thousands whom copyrights haven't helped a bit, hindered, or even destroyed. Some are even barred or sued from sharing their own creations in public, while others die with the world never truly knowing their artistic genius as the mass media drowns them out. Most creators are far better off sharing and distributing their creations freely to make a reputation for themselves. Copyrights not only cause them to be drowned out in a sea of hype, but do so deceptively.
However, these aren't the only problems related to copyrights. They are just a sample of many that are constantly blown off, glossed over, or ignored. Like the failures of Hollywood culture, the failures of big media to offer quality material, the failures of the market to offer competitively priced books for college students while tabloids are dirt cheap, and massive anti-trust behavior in the software industry to name a few. Their hypocritical pleas like, "how will we make money without copyrights?" is like a mobster asking "how will I make money with out victims to extort?"
The burdens of imposing copyrights might have been bearable a quarter century ago when the biggest issue was copy machines. But today in the information age there is no technical distinction between copyright content and free speech content. Information is so easy to copy and manipulate, there can be no "middle ground". Our society must make a choice: Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy will either have to intruded or protected. Our speech, writing, and free expression will either have to be abridged or unabridged. Any institution that has the power to control one, must have the power to control all. Copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root!
Consider parallels to other periods of transition like the industrial revolution:
History teaches that during the 1800's there were many people who believed that the entire meaning and purpose of the industrial revolution was to leverage inventions like the cotton gin to expand their plantations for unlimited growth and profit. Ironically just the opposite was
Copyright law used to be about promoting innovation. Now its about perpetuating monopolies on something truly unique and valuable to the human race - knowledge. Copyright nowadays brings to mind lawyers and lawsuits, not innovation.
The very fact that bodies such as the MPAA and RIAA are suing their customers left and right is a clear indication that copyright law as it stands has failed. Any chance of loosening it up for the benefit of consumers?
and they also substantially reduce the use of trade secrets by encouraging full and enabling disclosure of solutions with the public.
First, some background...
The problem with patents is similar to the problem with software.
Insufficient or innefficient allocation of resources are responsible for the vast majority of bugs in both. Give a programmer 1 day to do something that he requires 1 week to do and see what happens (especially when the programmer cannot say 'no' due to job insecurity reasons).
There are non-techies that are calling for all software to be abolished because of the problems caused by buggy software. Their laziness prevents them from spending even 1 hour of reading to discover that hardware is useless without software.
This is not unlike uninformed people calling for all software patents to be abolished because of the problems caused by innappropriately issued patents. Their laziness prevents them from learning about the fundamentals purpose and benefit of patents, the rules and criteria required for patents to get issued, and so on. Like the non-techies who fail to see the benefit of software, these people have no clue about the benefits of patents--which explains why they are not asking for the root cause of bad patents to be fixed (they just want all patents to be gone).
To us, it is obvious that software provides benefits that outweigh the problems they cause. This is the case with patents once we educate ourselves. Software is not the enemy--software bugs and their true reason for existence are the enemy. This is also the case with patents.
Many (but not all) people calling for the destruction of all patents don't know even the most fundamental facts about patents, which can be corrected by reading a good book on the subject for an hour.
For example, they don't even know that in order for patents to get granted, it *MUST* provide full and *enabling* details of the invention so that an "average person skilled in the art" can re-create the described invention. This means that correctly issued patents serve their purpose and even obsoletes the need for any reverse-engineering! And patents also discourage the use of trade secrets!
In other words, the inventors CANNOT hide the most beneficial aspects or complex solutions from the public and still get their patent issued (their issued patent will become invalid if this is discovered to be the case).
Also, most people don't know that patent examiners almost ALWAYS and ROUTINELY REJECT initial patent applications because they have an incentive to do so. This typically means some bullshit and irrelevant reason is stated as the reason for rejection and the inventor has to expend more time & legal fees to respond. This usually deters amateurs or lazy people from continuing with the patent process.
But if the inventor tries to follow up, the exact opposite problem occurs due to insufficient time given to the examiner: exisitng prior art is not found and (assuming the patent meets other criteria) the patent is granted. This is exactly the same as a programmer requiring 1 week to do something properly is only given 1 hour. The results are similarly bug-ridden.
Lets find a way to fix the bugs.
ps
How many inventions wouldn't exist today if inventors and their investors did not have the financial or public recognition incentive provided by the patent system? Trivial inventions would survive without the patent system. But how about inventions that require massive financial risk and years of effort?
I think they should be considered rights, since people have created these things that the public finds useful. Having created them should give you more of a right to them than, say, squatting on them as you do with real estate.
Having said that, perhaps we should give these rights only to natural persons, not corporations.
What keeps me going is my inertia.
You should never mix up the spelling of "celebrate" and "celibate". Never, never, never.
Copyright promotes innovation because others are forced to come up with original concepts. Without IP, people would just simply latch onto the current big thing and release a flood of copies.
R&D would slow to a trickle, because companies would rather take code/algorithms from other people's products than design their own.
April 26 is the anniversary of Chernobyl. 3.2 million casualties.
Now THAT's worth remembering.
Well done! You win the STATING THE BLEEDING OBVIOUS award for stating the bleeding obvious. All applaud!
...Don't Copy That Floppy!!!
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
About the only condition I would think is justified, is that Disney should not be allowed to pretend that THEY wrote the story (i.e., they shouldn't be allowed to commit fraud).
Except Disney writers often replace the story completely, just using the same character names. Just look at the travesty of Collodi's novel that was Disney's Pinocchio (1940). Disney fixed the story problems in the 2002 live-action remake it distributed, which unfortunately suffered from bad casting (Benigni was way too old to play a little wooden boy) and a bad English dub.
If you buy music from allofmp3.com, none of that money goes to the artists.
That's why you follow up by tipping the artist directly at allofpaypal.com, short-circuiting the vulture-capitalist labels.
I had an interesting experience while in the hosptial wating room yesterday.
A typical soccer mum sits across from me yapping into her phone to one of her kids.
The conversation went something like this...
Mum "Yes Johnny you will be going to visit your grandmother, now can i get you some videos to watch?"
Johnny "something something something"
Mum "Oh you can't download movies that's ILLEGAL"
Me in my head "Gee i wonder where she got THAT idea from"
Johnny "something something something"
Mum "No, music is ok, it's only illegal to download movies"
Me in my head "WEEEEEEEEEEE"
Thankyou.
Only 2.25 hours left for World Intellectual Property Day in my timezone, and I have 90 minutes left on this Sin City download...and the server's busy! Why, God, Why?!
They're claiming that this is a celebration of intellectual property RIGHTS.
... and all of the other many, many God-given RIGHTS we end-users have in abundance ... need to exercise vigorously and not be fooled by their propaganda into thinking we don't have ... and will fight to the death to keep.
That is so cool, folks. Okay then, let's do celebrate. Let's celebrate our:
- fair use copying rights
- compulsory license copying rights
- the first sale doctrine
- our rights to use circumvention of technological copy control measures because they are not effective or because the circumvention is intended to ensure interoperability
- the GNU license and the ability of software developers to choose that free license and enforce the continued freedom of their software against companies that try to steal free software and hide it in their proprietary products...
I'm cloning an audio CD as we speak, exercising my rights. And they will never, ever stop me from doing so. Join me, please celebrate.
DVD Jon, party on, dude. The BSA has created a holiday in your honor!
They should be called "grants". Because that's what they are. Everyone knows the government doesn't "grant" rights. But it does grant copyrights, and patents.
Copy Grants, and Patent Grants... gubment cheese.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
I've got an MP3 of the radio ad that the article talks about. It's called "New York Software Truce". If you can't find it online, reply to this post and I'll send you a copy. Googling the title returns a lot of articles talking about it, at least.
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
'nuff said folks.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
Interesting point. But also remember that until the WTO protests, most regular people knew nothing about the WTO or globalization. The protests did get attention, and they have even forced the WTO to broaden the scope of discussion
My feeling is that if nobody protested the WIPD, nothing would happen. But by raising the notion that not everyone believes in the validity of the WIPD's message, the CopyNight people may wake up a few regular citizens who might not otherwise care.
Then again, I may just be seeing the glass half full.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
One problem with intelectual property is that more often than not, more than one person will have the same idea. Not only do you get a monopoly on your ideas and work, you also have a monopoly on MY ideas and work.
World Intellectual Bah Humbug Day... I hate the RIAA, the MPAA, SCO, and Microsoft. May all four organizations go directly to hell.
The last three movies I've bought or rented all had a commercial at the front about a guy stealing someone's purse. The statement was 'You wouldn't steal a purse, so don't steal a movie'.
Then there was the FACT warning that you can't fast forward past.
Both my wife and I feel that this is bullshit - We're legally renting or buying these movies, yet we have to sit through this?
We are about to start looking into downloading DVD Rips from the Internet, not because we don't want to pay for our entertainment, but because we're sick and tired of being forced to watch this crap. We're hoping that the rips won't include this.
j/k, Me and the Pope are HY because we were forced to by Government. My relationship with the BSA exists only because I opened a box that inside said, "Because you opened this box you agreed to march in lock-step on 04/27"
there is a very well written political statement in german language on the blog http://www.netzpolitik.org/index.php?p=707 about the day with lots of links. quite interesting for everyone who can read german.
I care, I really, really care. So, I need a pin-on ribbon to show that I care. Let's fold floppy disks, better yet, Mag Tape, and wear them as a ribbon showing that we care. I will put it next to my $100 bill ribbon showing that I care about taxes....
They have an appropriate acronym.
Fascism rules OK, it seems.
hahaha! Well, this initially got blocked by slashdot's lameness filter, which is extremely appropriate. I had a lot more haha's, which was justified in this instance. IP Appreciation Day? iPAD? How lame is this? Well, it's about as lame as the lameness filter. Way to go slashdot, for supporting iPAD's stupidity! Alright, now I need some coffee to stop being lame myself. IP appreciation day...hahaha.
BDR Gear
Outdoor gear, MREs, and more!
wrote this interesting piece on the subject.
Copyright and patent protection are like narcotics on a societal scale- useful and effective in small doses for limited times, but addictive and inducing delusional behavior if used for extended periods.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I think I know who this poster is..
Sounds an awefull lot like...
Steve!!!!
On the surface David, it looks like you're someone who wants their hands on everything for free. If you want to replace this system -or any system of ANYTHING- you're going to have to replace it with something better. Maybe it's true what you say that the copyright system has its roots in evil but that isn't good enough. WHY?! Because man we don't live in the Past. We're in the Here, the Now. My first copyright I was real poor. I wrote a small instructional booklet that I would later market in the National Enquirer Classifieds. My wife & I were separated. Her and my 2 kids lived with her Mom. I talked her out of her share of our income tax return that year to pay a professional printer close to $400.00 to help me in the pre-print re-write and printing of several hundred initial booklets. The first one off his press, WOW, I was really proud of it. And we walked over to the Mall in Richmond VA to get some film for his camera to take pictures of me to use in the marketing as I needed. I was hopeful of getting my family back together on its feet. I showed my booklet to the saleslady. WOW. She liked it so much she asked to show it upstairs, or at least that's what I THOUGHT SHE WAS GOING TO DO. The b^tch took my booklet to the upstairs COPIER and brought it back... Since then I've become an inventor. I've gotten my websites copyrighted mostly, but not for Copyright protection as I realize that is an illusion. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PROTECTION FROM A WIRED SOCIETY. I copyrighted my sites because I released several of my inventions there and I wanted legal Proof of Invention, using my Copyrights as "documentation", what's called a "Record of Invention". And even that didn't save me. Oh, it would IF I had money to hire a lawyer and contest the rip-offs, which I don't because I'M STILL POOR. And my family had the wonderful experience of learning to buy their clothes at the Goodwill Store because I pursued my course. Oh yeah, we also became the buying poor who buy stuff at flea markets and yard sales. Seems to me that your long diatribe there would put the World's creative people in my shoes, living my life, and staying poor. I don't think you're going to be successful selling that LIFE PROSPECT TO ANYONE. But, like I said, if you had a better system where people still got paid, might would work. However, for that to happen you'd have to GET ALL THESE CREATIVE, IDEA-RIDDLED PEOPLE TO AGREE WITH YOU "ACROSS THE BOARD". How are you going to accomplish that?! Do you have ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO SELL PEOPLE ON ANYTHING?! I fixed an engine that runs on 2 energies (hot/cold energy riding in on two inert elements of steam & liquified air) instead of one (gasoline, diesel, fossil fuel), a non-polluting engine. After 21 Months of telling it freely, word of mouth has refused to kick in, AND THE VERY IDEA OF AN ENGINE THAT DOES NOT POLLUTE IS SO CONTRARY TO WHAT PEOPLE CAN DIG DOWN INTO THEIR SOULS TO ACCEPT THAT IT SEEMS LIKE IT WILL NEVER BE PICKED UP AND BUILT. I can't do it because I'm on disability, never getting paid for my creations (at least not yet eh?). I MAY HAVE JUST AS WELL SLIPPED FROM MY MOM'S WOMB YESTERDAY. But, I'm learning. I have what I imagine to be my last great invention. I combined some aspects from 16 years of inventions to put together an engine that accomplishes an over-gravity force. A "Space Engine" that overcomes Gravity, reaches Earth orbit without needing to hurl people at 18,000 mph for "Escape Velocity"... and once such a craft (yes, I've designed the craft also) gets out far enough to be free of Earth's gravitational field it should go EXTREMELY FAST. Possibly close to Light Speed. But this time I've put a modest price tag to it instead of freely printing it online. After a few months, nothing. Imagine, an engine that could raise a person's car above an earthquake or tsunami, an engine that -attached to each floor of a building- would yield a building that no earthquake could bring down because it would be floating. EACH FLOOR WOULD BE INDEPENDENTLY FLOATING INSIDE A PAPERLIGHT FRAMEWORK, MAKI
How about things that would have been invented, or followed through with. How many great concepts have been quashed because components/etc would infringe upon existing copyrights (or worse, patents)
That would be the MPAA's "PiRacY: It'S a CrImE" commercial. It is a poor attempt to toy with people's emotions using logically and legally false ideas to make them look like the good guys, most visible is the "copyright infringement VS theft" argument which as continually been debunked.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
How about a "World Copyright Reform Month" instead? I think it would help in educating people with the problems and conflicts involved in current copyright laws VS creativity (length, corporate control, etc), and viable alternatives, including the Creative Commons licensing/Founder's Copyright system.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
That this obscenity is being celebrated during spring break and elementary schoolers are not being force-fed today videos of how "evil" is IP violation
You mean like Pinnochio? Snow White? The Little Mermaid? Only rather than just retelling the story, Disney is an evil empire that completely mutilates them. The best example of this is The Little Mermaid, which was originally written by Hans Christian Anderson. You might have heard of his other stories: The Tortoise and the Hare, or The Emporer's New Clothes.
Actually, if I recall correctly, The Tortoise and the Hare was an ancient greek fable, not originally by Andersen. Certainly not a work by Disney, though. The Emperor's new clothes was an original story, though, and quite a good one.
Notice something in common between them? They all have a moral. I've heard several different takes on the moral to The Little Mermaid, "Don't throw your life away for a man", "Don't try to be something you're not". One thing's for sure: the little mermaid was supposed to die at the end of the story.
The mermaid tale is a folktale that Andersen adapted: in some versions, the mermaid becomes sea-foam, in others, sparkles on the waves. In those tales, her sacrice is ultimately rewarded, even though she is forced to pay the price (her life) that was agreed upon. In those stories, the mermaid "dies", but not forever; she pays a terrible price, but her good deeds do not go unrewarded. Disney's adaptation was an oversimplification, but not a totaly misrepresentaion of the happy ending in many such folk tales. The mermaid does "live on" as a happy sparkle upon the water: just not a mortal life. That said, it is a gross oversimplification, and was done just to appease the audience.
I would sumit the Jungle Book has as bad, or worse, distortions.
In the Disney movie, the movie ends right as Mowgli joins the human village: completely avoiding the unpleasant truth of the later evens of the book.
In Kipling's book, Mowgli temporarilly lives among men: and deems them corrupt, and unworthy. He completely destroys their entire village: sends wolves with torches in their tails to run through the fields, and burn the crops, drives elephants to tear the houses down, and joyously sings the songs of "Letting In the Jungle Against You" against the villagers. When he is done, there is no sign left that there was ever a village there.
Not exactly PG rated stuff.
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AC
It is heavenly delightfull to Eastern ears to hear
decadent westerners fight over things without substance. Lao-Tzu forsaw this one way to defeat enemy without fight is to cause them to be internally conflicted so that they could not fight. We go into space soon. Technology to do so efficiently is space elevator which needs nanotube and associated tech. Nanotube will never be successfully developed by west in time, as parts of it will always be in meaningless and time wasting court battles as the greeedy decadent western bandit
barbarians fight each other. Meanwhile we Chinese will take great leap forward. By time financially surviving running dogs of western capitalist imperialism get ready to make elevator, we will have several built. We will also have some battlecruisers in space already assembled. We will then own space. Then we will build giant mirror to generate solar power. That is solar military power. We will not let any other country have a space elevator. Since we will own the high ground, we will use our solar power for military. It will be great fun to burn western cities. All the legal files from all the wasted court cases will be great fire fuel. Capitalists guard their paper with great zeal, so many capitalist will be consumed just like they treated so many of their employees and their consumers. When your grandchildren read this, they will read it in the new world language...Chinese. This will be true for other areas as well. We care nothing for your false gods and soon to be fallen idols
If someone is poking you in the eye or inserting a large hot poker up your arse you might just consider having no replacement for it better.
Alternatively you might be one of those people who would rather have the poker replaced by a chainsaw or something.
The point being nothing is sometimes better than what currently is and sometimes nothing is the best thing you could have (especially from the selection at hand).