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Mac OS X Intel Kernel Uses DRM

An anonymous reader submits "Several people have discovered that the new Intel kernel Apple has included with the Developer Kit DVD uses TCPA/TPM DRM. More specifically, it includes "a TCPA/Palladium implementation that uses a Infineon 1.1 chip which will prevent certain parts of the OS from working unless authorized."

1,399 comments

  1. Damn Microsoft! by Geekenstein · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hate those bastards! I knew they were going to try and sneak this crap past us! They were plo...oh wait, did you say Apple?

    Wow! Spectacular use of technology Steve! You're my hero!

    1. Re:Damn Microsoft! by gordgekko · · Score: 5, Funny

      The DRM makes the OS runs snappier!

      --
      You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
    2. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Baricom · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.

      I may have to rethink that strategy now.

      (And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.)

    3. Re:Damn Microsoft! by KillShill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      nah don't worry about switching. all commercial vendors of os's will use drm. so strap yourself in, enjoy your new found freedom; the freedom to know you can't do anything about it.

      there just won't be a public backlash this time. it'll creep in slowly.

      how to make amphibians edible through the use of high temperature h2o.

      the GNU philopsophy will save us all... if it weren't for the fact that they are a bunch of pinko terrorists.

      not that i'm saying we should give up by any means except that i just don't see this going away like the BS "test the waters" cpu serial # scandal a few years ago.

      so many companies have invested heavily in digital -end user handcuffs that it's very improbable that they will give up easily. and the media certainly won't be telling the public anything negative, that much you can count on.

      i would like to donate to the eff, except i don't want to be put on a list of terrorists. the only way to even have a remote chance of beating this nonsense (criminal and unethical behavior) is to educate the public at a greater rate than the "mainstream media" can "educate" them.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    4. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.

      I may have to rethink that strategy now.

      (And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.)


      Hmmm... no Apple, no Microsoft, and no bearded hippies...

      Have you heard of OS/2?

    5. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hit the nail on the head. I wonder how all those Apple apologists will respond.

      Or maybe I don't. They did, after all, manage to convince themselves that Intel processors are 'l33t' after years of saying how crappy they are. All at the drop of a hat (dropped by Steve Jobs). I'm sure this will be no different.

    6. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Erm, I don't think this is quite what you think. Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does (which I appreciate; I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not). I think this is just Apple's already-known plans to prevent the OS from not running on anything they haven't sold as a Mac. In other words, you have to buy a computer from Apple to run their OS. Which makes sense -- Apple is a hardware company primarily and makes its money mostly from the computer sales.

    7. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      30% Insightful
      40% Flamebait
      30% Funny

      ...what the fuck?

    8. Re:Damn Microsoft! by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

      (And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.)

      Isn't that the best way to learn? Using it on a daily basis.

      I won't say Linux because, despite the vast improvements the last years, it takes some patience.

      But if you'd rather take it as they (MS, Apple) hand it to you by all means. Just don't complain that there aren't alternatives... As the old saying - the cost of freedom isn't free.

    9. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Evil+Adrian · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "digital -end user handcuffs"

      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      Honestly, how can you blame companies for trying to protect their profits when thousands of people are ripping them off every day?

      Honestly, you should be mad at the pirates, without whom we wouldn't have this problem.

      --
      evil adrian
    10. Re:Damn Microsoft! by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 1, Interesting

      And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.

      Are you sure? Why don't you give (Ku)|(U)buntu a try? You might be pleasantly surprised...

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
    11. Re:Damn Microsoft! by KillShill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the copyright infringers didn't put the DRM in the machines. trying to prevent people from copying on a computer is like preventing fish from getting wet.

      you'll more than likely piss off the users/fish far more than you'll prevent copying.

      but that's not even relevant to this issue.

      how is paying for mac os x and installing it on an x86 computer you already own, copyright infringement? paying for the software obviously means that the vendor has complete control over what you do with it.

      it's a sad world we live in... because we're all responsible for our ills, in one way or another.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    12. Re:Damn Microsoft! by pAnkRat · · Score: 1

      He, who has no time to invest in a better and more efficient way of working,
      is like a man claiming he has no time to eat...

      --
      we need an "-1 Plain wrong" moderation option!
    13. Re:Damn Microsoft! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      You know, as much as it reeks, you have to admit that if people weren't copyrighting things, there'd be no need for piracy.

      Honestly, how can you blame individuals for trying to protect their access to data when copyrighters are ripping them off every day?

      Honestly, you should be mad at the copyrighters, without whom we wouldn't have this problem.

      The copyrighters right to copyright is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. It was supposed to be something merely for enhancing individuals access to data by encouraging others to produce more of it.

    14. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really doubt that companies are putting DRM in soft/hardware because there's a "need" for it. My guess is that it's to have better control of the machines that it's on/in.

      Also, I can blame companies for trying to protect their profits when people are ripping them off because they charge way too damn much.

      Don't be mad at the pirates. They only copy because it's too expensive to buy and companies don't pay enough.

    15. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 4, Insightful
      you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      Nah, if "content providers" weren't such greedy bloodsucking parasites, then there'd be no need for DRM.

      how can you blame companies for trying to protect their profits when thousands of people are ripping them off every day?

      Because those companies didn't actually EARN those profits by providing a desired good or service at a price that buyers were willing to pay? Like what would happen in a _real_ capitalistic market instead of a government-mandated one.

    16. Re:Damn Microsoft! by xenocide2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On the other hand, Apple treats developers somewhere between equally bad as MS and worse. Think of all the nifty features in OSX, and most of them started life as third party products that Apple decided to reimplement and give away with the next version of OSX. At least Microsoft has the benevolence of buying somebody out for their new features.

      The only real reason Apple doesn't have to treat its customers like thieves is that you already paid them through your own asshole for the hardware. I'm not sure what else the Infineon chip is good for aside from preventing operating systems not on the Palladium congress from running.

      --
      I Browse at +4 Flamebait

      Open Source Sysadmin

    17. Re:Damn Microsoft! by omeomi · · Score: 1

      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does (which I appreciate; I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not).
       
      So making Logic Pro users carry around a little USB dongle with their laptops is an example of how Apple doesn't treat customers like scum?

    18. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Baricom · · Score: 1

      I work with a *NIX almost every day, in one form or another. While I'm no guru, I'd like to think I'm capable enough to keep a basic web server running.

      The part that really causes me grief is the GUI and the hardware configuration that goes along with it. I have no idea what graphics card is in my computer, and I shouldn't need to care - Windows and OS X both seem perfectly capable of deducing that on their own, so why can't Linux?

      I think Linux is an incredible server OS, but it's lacking as a desktop OS for now. I have incredible faith that the FOSS hackers are going to fix that eventually; the question is whether it'll happen before this laptop bites the dust and I have to figure out where to spend my money next.

      Tell you what - when Video Professor offers me a "free just pay shipping and handling" lesson for Linux, that's probably when I'll admit it's ready for the mainstream.

    19. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      That's the same way I feel when a cop wants to search me illegally or otherwise hassles me. Or when my employer wants to make me take a drug test even though I don't even so much as smoke cigerettes or drink alchohol and my job involves me sitting at a desk reading and writing things of little consequence.

      Yep. I just think to myself "This sucks, but I don't need to be angry at the police or employers for violating my rights or my privacy. I need to be angry at the weekend pot smokers who make it necessary for people to infringe on my privacy or violate my constitutional rights".

      And when the cops shoot a black man for having a candybar in his pocket or shoot an unarmed non violent black man four dozen times at close range, I just think "It sucks, but if black people weren't out there killing every person they come across, these police wouldn't have to senselessly murder any of them".

      Seriously man... Get real.

    20. Re:Damn Microsoft! by melikamp · · Score: 1

      I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not Hey, I'm not honest, but I still totally hate the assumption that I'm not. Go figure...

    21. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Drakino · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ugg. How many times does it have to be said?

      THESE ARE DEVELOPER MACHINES AND DO NOT REPRESENT HARDWARE THAT APPLE WILL SHIP.

      There. Apple has said many times they don't plan on using a BIOS in the shipping products, and have hinted at EFI. But the first developer machines have a BIOS, so everyone ignores Apple and assumes it will have a BIOS. Apple has a huge investment in driving forward with 64bit with all the marketing they have done, and yet everyone expects PowerMacs with the same Pentium chips in the developer machines that aren't 64 bit.

      Nowthis DRM thing comes up. Will Apple do similar in shipping hardware? It's hard to say. But right now, noone here can say yes or no for sure (unless your sitting at Apple's HQ working on the new products right now). I myself wouldn't be suprised if they do indeed put some kind of protection on, as the Mac OS has always had some kind of odd hardware requirement that prevents it from easially just running on a clone PowerPC box.

      Just settle down and wait until real products ship. Because if you have OS X 10.4.1 for Intel, you either have the hardware to run it on due to your developer program, or you pirated the ISO image off some torrent site and have it illegially.

      Yeah, sure, OS X will probably be runnable on a non Apple box some day. But guess what, it's likely to be a hacked up solution that kinda sorta works, and leaves you wasting time that could have been spent earning money to just buy a $500 Mac Mini. For me, my Apple hardware is a big reason I moved to OS X. Running OS X on my Dell just wouldn't be the same.

    22. Re:Damn Microsoft! by fsterman · · Score: 0, Troll

      Troll

      --
      Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
    23. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Technician · · Score: 1

      I hate those bastards! I knew they were going to try and sneak this crap past us! They were plo...oh wait, did you say Apple?

      No, it's there so you can play your subscription content. Think i-Tunes. The copy you paid for will play on your machine, but will not on your kids friends machine. It enables the ablilty to play encrypted content that you paid for. It has nothing to stop you from playing your CD full of MP3's.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    24. Re:Damn Microsoft! by themoodykid · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't care how snappy it is. If your OS is having the "runs", you've got bigger issues.

    25. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      You pay just as much or more in the end trying to secure a Windows machine properly. And I don't see Apple hacking its OS so thirdparty stuff won't run; the only case I've heard of where they did that was to disable Menu Extras, but I've never had an issue with that. Still, for those that do, you can get a little app called Menu Extra Enabler for free that will fix that, and Apple never disabled that.

      You can also uninstall anything you want to remove -- don't like Apple's browser? You can remove it and select a different default. And so on.

      And yes, Apple knows that since you're using its software, you had to buy its hardware. That's the entire point of my original message.

    26. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Quixote · · Score: 3, Insightful
      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      This is laughable, to say the least. Companies want DRM not because of rampant piracy, but because the technology is advancing so fast, they can't predict where the future lies; and they want to be able to make money regardless of which way the technology turns.

      Tell me something: is photocopying of books (by poor students, usually) not piracy? Then why don't copier makers have DRM? Where's the DRM for FM radio? People used to make copies of broadcast songs quite rampantly.

      Any fool who thinks DRM is about "stopping piracy" is nothing but a pure fool who's had too much Koolaid.

    27. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does

      No, Apple has its own ways of treating its customers like scum. NIH and such.

      Surely you didn't intend to imply that Apple doesn't treat its customers like scum, because that would make you such the naif.

    28. Re:Damn Microsoft! by falkryn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Uh, dude, it's not 1999. Most respectable distros do all for you now anyhow (detect your vid card, sound, etc.) You might only get in a little trouble if your hardware is say a month or two old. And yes, laptops can be more annoying. Really, I find at this point linux hardware detection to be far better than windows (for the simple reason that the last installment of a consumer windows is rather old at this point.)

      Case in point, I have this dell d610 latitude here I'm borriwing. On it I have windows XP pro, and SUSE 9.3. I cleaned installed windows, but unfortunately did not have the dell resource cd. That meant having to go to dell's site, pick and manually install the missing drivers. One problem being though that one of the missing drivers was the NIC. Another problem being that because the laptop was non-US, I couldn't get the specific hardware components of the model based on my serial, so the list included a lot of extraneous drivers I didn't know whether I needed or not.

      Solution? Boot into SUSE, which worked out of the box, including wireless, check my hardware specs, download the right drivers to a shared FAT32 partition, and now Windows is happy...

      Granted desktop Linux is _not_ perfect, but seriously the situation you describe is from a largely bygone past. (unless you're a sadist, and want to run some uber-l337 do it yourself distro to prove how awesome and c00l you think you are ;-)

    29. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does

      Assuming you are talking about Windows copy-protection... Apple has turned a blind eye to OS piracy, because with such a small installed base, it's better for everyone to have everyone on a reasonably current OS.

      But recently Apple announced huge revenue from Tiger upgrades. MacOS is becoming a profit center in it's own right and not just paying it's way as it did in the past. As hardware revenues inevitably decline, Apple will look more and more to software like OS X and iLife to keep the Mac profitable. And eventually they will have to consider copy-protection to protect this revenue stream.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    30. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Adding to the other reply to your anti-linux rant: who detected all the complex hardware for your server? Windows? MacOS? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? George Bush? I am sure you will pick one of these ....

    31. Re:Damn Microsoft! by KingJoshi · · Score: 1
      The part that really causes me grief is the GUI and the hardware configuration that goes along with it. I have no idea what graphics card is in my computer, and I shouldn't need to care - Windows and OS X both seem perfectly capable of deducing that on their own, so why can't Linux?

      Because Apple only sells few different video cards on their systems. They have great control over it and it's not difficult to have drivers when you have such control over the machines. It's not like people do configurations on Macs as they to PCs.

      For Windows, you have 3rd party support. VIA, ATI, Nvidia, etc all create drivers for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. And those usually come installed with the system. Windows is painful to install fully if you lose driver CDs. Sometimes network cards aren't supported, only basic video is supported and you have to scour the company that made the video card's site to get more than 640x480. There is tons of problems and it's just are hard as on Linux.

      But of course, people rarely deal with that because it comes set up. And soon as you buy a new video card, you use the CD with the drivers and forget about it.

      So you complain about Linux and don't switch. Even though there are many systems that would work perfectly once set up and more stuff are recognized for Linux than Windows. And since you don't switch, Linux doesn't get the same level of 3rd party support. This cycle is a bitch.

      But I can't say much. I have a dual-boot on my dell laptop. And though I used to use Linux a lot, now I pretty exclusively run Windows. It is just easier to use as a desktop (especially on a laptop).

      --
      In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
    32. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      I was rather suprise by umbuntu myself. NOT pleasantly however. I installed it to it's own hardrive yet it overwrote the boot sector on another drive in the system, without a clear means to undo it.
          It assigned filetypes to files on a seemingly random basis and provided no way to change it's assignments and I couldn't use some of them from umbuntu because of this (excuse me but HOW is a *.iso file application/mp3 ?!?!? or rather how is just half of them at random?!?)
          I'd advise holding off on Umbuntu untill it's out of beta.
          The 32bit version might be better, but the amd64 install was an excersise in futility and unpleasant suprises.
          Mandrake is what I've usually found to be easiest to use, not that I've tried to many distros.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    33. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does (which I appreciate; I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not).

      And you would be referring to...?

      I think this is just Apple's already-known plans to prevent the OS from not running on anything they haven't sold as a Mac. In other words, you have to buy a computer from Apple to run their OS.

      Legally, you've had to buy a computer from Apple (or one of their licensed dealers) to run MacOS since the end of the cloning era.

    34. Re:Damn Microsoft! by seanadams.com · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only real reason Apple doesn't have to treat its customers like thieves is that you already paid them through your own asshole for the hardware.

      That bit in your contract about the "per anum" fee may have been a typo.

      I'm an Apple user, and I've always paid through the nose...

    35. Re:Damn Microsoft! by trawg · · Score: 1

      I think I heard somewhere that freedom costs a buck oh five. Although I think that was US currency.

    36. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      Maybe. But Apple also knows how angry people are that Microsoft, their arch-competitor, now wants to snoop into your computer and look for anything they don't like, and that people don't like being treated like thieves. There is also a high margin on Apple hardware. To run the OS in the first place, you must have paid quite a bit for hardware, so they knkow that they already got quite a lot from you.

      So, knowing how people feel about what MS does is an incentive to not repeat those mistakes, and the fact that you already gave them quite a lot of cash is another.

    37. Re:Damn Microsoft! by identity0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Mac fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of one of the new Macs (a 1.6terahz G6 w/256 Gigs of RAM and OS X Manx) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 700 Meg rip of Braveheart from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. And there's a popup screen telling me "Don't Steal Movies" the entire time.

      At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Mac, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.

    38. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ill+dillettante · · Score: 1

      This is spot on. I would be surprised if anyone even at apple knows what features are going to ship.

    39. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ugg. How many times does it have to be said?

      THESE ARE DEVELOPER MACHINES AND DO NOT REPRESENT HARDWARE THAT APPLE WILL SHIP.

      There's a word for people like you: a useful idiot.

      Sure, Apple has coded up this DRM implementation for fun and has no intention of using it. Apple and Jobs has sold you out... get over it. They jumped to Intel to get this Trusted Computing stuff and now they are using it.

      You can put your hands over your ears and sing lalalalalala, but it won't change anything. The message that has to go out from here is simple and the same one that should go out to any software/hardware company that involves itself with this anti-customer bullshit: Don't buy Apple. If their sales drop because of this action, then perhaps they'll listen... but if idiots like you continue to defend their actions with ever more ludicrous excuses that won't happen.

    40. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Justin205 · · Score: 1

      That's Ubuntu, not Umbuntu.

      And... How were you planning on booting if it didn't write a bootloader (I think Ubunbtu uses grub) to the master boot record? If you were planning to swap drives, then maybe you should have taken out the drive you didn't want touched?

      And for the mime type association, that's not (wholey) the fault of Ubuntu - the mime-types are handled by the desktop environment, Gnome in plain Ubuntu. If you tried normal Ubuntu, then maybe you should try Kubuntu. It uses KDE, not Gnome, and I find KDE's mime-type handling system to be easier to manage, personally.

      --
      "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
    41. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      I'm referring to Microsoft's invasive phone-home strategy (which causes all kinds of grief to legitimate users) and invasive scans just to install updates (I license software, I don't want snooping in my machine, you got my money and that's the only business that is yours; all your updater needs to know is version numbers of the OS and installed updates).

      And yes, you're right about the clones, but the thing I'm saying is that the kernel changes are being done so that you can't build your own clone because then they wouldn't get any money from the sale of the hardware the OS is run on.

    42. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      You pay just as much or more in the end trying to secure a Windows machine properly.

      Excuse me? Both my firewall and my av software were free.

      And I don't see Apple hacking its OS so thirdparty stuff won't run; the only case I've heard of where they did that was to disable Menu Extras, but I've never had an issue with that.

      Sure - "DOS ain't done til Lotus don't run". Got any recent examples of MS doing this? (Third party stuff being broken by the new security measures in XP SP2 doesn't count, as it shouldn't have been working in the first place)

      You can also uninstall anything you want to remove -- don't like Apple's browser? You can remove it and select a different default. And so on.

      True, I can't uninstall IE or WMP, etc - but equally I don't have to use them if I don't want to. Sure, they take up disk space, but I have a 60GB drive, they use a tiny fraction of that. In the consumer arena, I've not seen a drive smaller than about 40GB on sale for a long time (discounting the ~37GB Raptor, but that's only barely a consumer drive)

    43. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      I can understand the Illegal Search by the Cop (as I've been made to under-go such a thing myself,) but as to the drug testing, unless you did not agree to such a thing when you started your job, well, it's kind of like having to deal with a Non-Compete clause. You agreed to it.

      I haven't been in the work-force long (I'll be 20 in 30 days. Email me for my address so you can send me a Pipe Bomb^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpresent for my birthday), but I got my first Job at 16, and they required Drug Testing, and I'm fairly sure it was a pretty standard procedure by then.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    44. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Sj0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hey, I don't shop at stores that force me to leave my bag at the door either.

      companies that want to treat me like a criminal by default can munch my taint.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    45. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      Are people angry at this? And if so, how has it hurt Microsoft? I think history has shown that treating the entire computer as a dongle had a far greater affect on consumers than copy-protection.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    46. Re:Damn Microsoft! by vought · · Score: 0
      I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Mac fanatics...my freelance gig in front of one of the new Macs (a 1.6terahz G6 w/256 Gigs of RAM and OS X Manx)....from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. And there's a popup screen telling me "Don't Steal Movies.... At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Mac, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.

      Worst. Troll. Ever.

    47. Re:Damn Microsoft! by russellh · · Score: 1

      I think this is just Apple's already-known plans to prevent the OS from not running on anything they haven't sold as a Mac.

      Very likely. But one wonders whether it will be able to be emulated in 20 years. Apple ][s will still be working then, and probably the mac classics, but not much else.

      --
      must... stay... awake...
    48. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Linus+Torvaalds · · Score: 1

      don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.

      What's with the "learn it well enough"? You point using the mouse, you click on icons, you type using the keyboard. All the usual GUI notions are in place - scrollbars, toolbars, windows, menus, etc. It's not some esoteric interface only the specially-trained can use. Stick a live CD in the drive and give it a spin for a few hours.

    49. Re:Damn Microsoft! by DeathPenguin · · Score: 1

      >>i would like to donate to the eff, except i don't want to be put on a list of terrorists.

      Uhhh, the whole point of subscribing to the EFF is to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Freedom isn't free, so quit being a cheap bastard and donate NOW before your delusion becomes reality.

    50. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does

      Care to give an example of how MS is treating us like scum? Maybe I'm just used to being mistreated, but I really can't work out what you're talking about here.

    51. Re:Damn Microsoft! by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It depends on what you are paying for. If you are paying for a license to use the software that has caveats/rules attached, and you agree to them, then you live by them (unless you are as unethical as some of the big software companies seem to be sometimes). If the license say that you can only use the OS software on a machine exclusively manufactured by Mac, and you agree to the license, then too bad, so sad, that is what you agree too. And if the result of you not accepting the agreement is that you can't use the software (the OS), you can use a different OS. There are serveral out there now.

      This is business. Mac spent the time and money to develop a pretty decent OS (by all accounts) to run specifically on a given platform. They probably don't want it getting a bad name by not running correctly when people try to run it on other platforms it wasn't optimized for.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    52. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 1

      "And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis."

      pfft

      Looks like Linux will support DRM soon anyway.

      --
      I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
    53. Re:Damn Microsoft! by DenDave · · Score: 1

      This sounds reasonably plausible, however, I do think that the media industry have done their deed insofar as all commercial platforms will have "fritz" technology in them. The question is not about the technology though, it is about how it will be implemented. From the reading of tfa, it actually sounds good, a kernel that can guarantee me that, if properly implemented, no unauthorised code will be run! Gee, isn't this what we want? Oh, and for those of us who do want to our 'thang' we can always go linux or darwin and hack at the kernel diffs...

      It's okay, it's not great but then we should realize the world sucks and 1984 was a shit load cooler than 2005.

      --
      -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
    54. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "Honestly, you should be mad at the pirates, without whom we wouldn't have this problem."

          OK this is Slashdot and you seem to be arguing somewhat in favour of DRM (meaning I would be fully justified in a flame attact) but I will put the beast back in the bottle and just offer up a few random questions.

      1 .When Hollywood makes films do they pay owners for using footage of the outside of their buildings? I don't believe this is usually the case so why should it be illegal to make footage of their footage? It would seem a building costs far more to product than some tape.

      2. Is there a method to stop people from using publically accessable information (via the internet)while maintaining people's right to privacy? What I mean by this is once it hits the internet it may be illegal but without question it is publically available. There seems to be no way to partially monitor the Internet to protect content (since anything you do not monitor will instantly be the choice of downloaders.) This power seems to represent a direct threat to democracy.

      3. One cannot fax their automobile, email their home, or download a copy of their stereo. Physical and non-physical are different so why is the law trying to argue they are the same when obviously there are observable differences that need to be taken into account.

      4. Is it reasonable to expect every piece of information a human being runs across should first be validated to see if it is "legal" to use? Is it reasonable and psychologically healthy to dangle Big Macs in front of dieting fat people and expect them not to eat them because of some theoretical immorality?

      5. Does the scientific method suggest that stopping the spread of certain kinds of information is a better method to truth?

      6. Does it make sense to keep source code closed when it represents the only way you have of validating the code doesn't have spyware?

      7. Did music and art exist before the RIAA/MPAA? If they disappeared would art end?

      8. Perhaps there is a cost by not having DRM and trying to control the Internet but that's the situation at the moment and guess what... the world did not end. On the other hand, are we prepared to begin a new war on drugs (downloading) that cannot be won and will only result in even more people in prison and the court system... and will use billions of taxpayer dollars to fund this war annually. Does it seem fair to expect the taxpaper to subsidize actors making 30 million a film?

      9. Is it impossible for movie, software and music companies to devise new business models?

      11. Is it possible that free software and ideas are in threat of being wiped outed since companies can afford to patent them out of existence?

      12. uhmm.... I'm getting tired typing and need to go to sleep now. One last point. Is it possible that in fact it is the companies that are trying to "own" our common culter are the ones that are immoral?

      Ok I know all these points are not great but some of them are-- and put together they make for a formidable problem. Seriously if you can answer some of these questions for me I might change my views. Believe me. I used to believe they were in the right but no more.

          If anyone is evil here it is the companies that are trying hijack the legal system.

    55. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You kids are so cute when you're ignorant. It's often hard to find jobs these days that don't require drug testing before you can even be hired. This doesn't stop anyone from using drugs, which isn't any of the employer's business unless it is negatively impacting their work performance anyway, but it does create a hassle for the vast numbers of us who want to work and like poppy seed muffins.

    56. Re:Damn Microsoft! by shmlco · · Score: 1
      Because those companies didn't actually EARN those profits by providing a desired good or service...

      That explains why so people go to movies, buy dvds and cds, and download so many songs and movies. They're undesirable and no one wants them...

      It all makes sense now.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    57. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You pay just as much or more in the end trying to secure a Windows machine properly.

      Total additional cost "securing" my Windows machines: $0.

      And I don't see Apple hacking its OS so thirdparty stuff won't run [...]

      I don't see Microsoft doing it either.

      You can also uninstall anything you want to remove [...]

      Try removing every trace of Quicktime from OS X and see how well everything works. I suggest you back up first.

    58. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      I'm referring to Microsoft's invasive phone-home strategy (which causes all kinds of grief to legitimate users) [...]

      Except for the vast bulk of legitimate users it doesn't, because so few of them upgrade their computers at all, let alone enough to trigger any reactivation sequence.

      [...] and invasive scans just to install updates (I license software, I don't want snooping in my machine, you got my money and that's the only business that is yours; all your updater needs to know is version numbers of the OS and installed updates).

      Invasive scans ?

      See, for the vast majority of legitimate customers, Microsoft's "invasive" methods of checking whether or not you actually paid for their product aren't really invasive, nor are they inconvenient. They're simple, easily justifiable and quick.

      Microsoft, unfortunately, don't have the same luxury that Apple does - where every legitimate customer needs to have a big hardware dongle to run their software.

      Of course, the alternative to those "invasive" scans is some sort of DRM - going down the same "hardware dongle" path Apple has always been on - but I'm guessing you wouldn't be particularly happy with that idea either...

      And yes, you're right about the clones, but the thing I'm saying is that the kernel changes are being done so that you can't build your own clone because then they wouldn't get any money from the sale of the hardware the OS is run on.

      Legally, you can't do that _now_. The difference between the current situation and a future one using DRM is _zero_ from the perspective of legal usage.

    59. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      Welcomd to slashdot. Home of opinionated mods and poor spelleng. :)

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    60. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Squozen · · Score: 1

      They don't do it to their OS anymore, sure. They do it to their websites instead... right, Opera owners?

    61. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
      I'm not sure what else the Infineon chip is good for aside from preventing operating systems not on the Palladium congress from running.

      Isn't it the lack of that chip that prevents OSes that do use it from running? (I.e., a device to keep OS X/x86 from running on non-Apple hardware, rather than a device to keep non-Apple OSes from running on Apple hardware.)

    62. Re:Damn Microsoft! by stoborrobots · · Score: 1
      And yes, you're right about the clones, but the thing I'm saying is that the kernel changes are being done so that you can't build your own clone because then they wouldn't get any money from the sale of the hardware the OS is run on.

      Legally, you can't do that _now_....


      Really? I don't see that anywhere in the Apple Single Use License Agreement...

    63. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      but as to the drug testing, unless you did not agree to such a thing when you started your job, well, it's kind of like having to deal with a Non-Compete clause. You agreed to it.

      I don't know... in more civilized law systems some rights are upheld EVEN if you signed them away.

      That's why they are called "unalienable", you know.

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    64. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except for the vast bulk of legitimate users it doesn't, because so few of them upgrade their computers at all, let alone enough to trigger any reactivation sequence.

      Are you kidding? Legitimate users are the only ones it interferes with. Pirates just use Corporate Edition and don't deal with all that bullshit.

      Hell, I know lots of people who own XP because it came with their computer, and they still wipe it and throw a copy of corporate on there because the product activation/windows update bullshit screws up their system from time to time.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    65. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      From the OS X EULA:

      2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
      A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. [...]
    66. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually I've experienced the same thing, he's not a troll.

    67. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Seumas · · Score: 1

      but it does create a hassle for the vast numbers of us who want to work and like poppy seed muffins.

      You spelled "crack" wrong. :)

    68. Re:Damn Microsoft! by identity0 · · Score: 4, Informative

      It looks like some people don't know a classic Slashdot joke when they see one.

      Don't they teach you new whippersnappers anything these days? Or do I have to explain the origin of the "No wireless. Less capacity than a Nomad. Lame." and the "and then it was like, beep beep beep..." joke to you, as well? :)

    69. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      (And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.)

      Please explain - why is learning a modern Linux distro more time consuming than learning OS X?

    70. Re:Damn Microsoft! by pellenys · · Score: 1

      > Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does I disagree. I'm currently trying to convince Apple that my iBook has a fault, which was due to their repair centre putting it in a vice and bending it. Of course they're now branding the iBook's new floppiness as cosmetic...

    71. Re:Damn Microsoft! by evilspoons · · Score: 1

      Many systems allow you to choose in the BIOS what hard drive you want to boot as primary. I encountered the same problem with a Fedora Core (3 I believe...) beta... it ate my Windows boot loader even though I just wanted to be able to set the bios to boot off of my secondary 10GB HDD when I wanted Linux instead of Windows. Oh yeah, then it didn't work *at all* with my graphics card, a run-of-the-mill AGP Geforce 6800. The 2d driver interface for nVidia cards is unified! I told the setup I have a 6800! Why the hell can't it figure that out on its own?

      I agree with the earlier statement that Linux is NOT ready for prime-time desktop usage.

    72. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ickoonite · · Score: 1

      My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.

      I may have to rethink that strategy now.


      *sigh*

      Why? Why? I realise that to ask this is to break something of a taboo amongst the Linux faithful here, but why must operating system choice be dependent on politics rather than actual user need?

      I do of course appreciate that it is prudent to ensure that you will have the freedom to use your machine as you see fit, but it is hardly the case that Apple is going to be the Trojan horse that sneaks 1984 upon the world. Not under Steve Jobs, anyway. A computer that doesn't do what you want won't sell very well - word gets around (and, to be honest, if the worst did come to the worst, then some hacker would be right there releasing a crack for it).

      At present, iTunes is the only place where DRM comes into play, and it is trivially bypassed (burn to CD, re-rip). It's a pain in the arse, yes, but some form of DRM is, unfortunately, necessary at this stage in the information-based economy's development. If you really think that licensors (be they record companies, film studios, software developers, or a whole load of other 'information' producers) are going to hand their product over unencumbered, giving the client carte blanche to, potentially, give that product to every other person on the planet, you are, quite frankly, delusional. The same goes for all the other information-wants-to-be-free idiots on here. Grow up, guys. Get real.

      Apple will be using DRM solely to ensure that Mac OS X is running on Macs, rather than generic Intel boxen. It will almost certainly be in the final release, and they won't change their stance on this just because some Slashdot geeks don't like it. It will not affect any other element of the operating system, nor the user experience in any way. If it does, an army of extremely volatile users will, with any luck, unleash a fiery hell.

      Make the switch. If you're on Windows, there really is nothing keeping you there - trust me. It's very hard to precisely elucidate what the difference is, to quantify it, but it is staggering the difference it makes to day-to-day tasks, as well as the more enjoyable aspects of computing. Windows makes me want to break things when I use it now, although, thinking about it, it always did. (For more, see here, where I conclude that one of the best things about the Mac (for Slashdot geeks, anyway), is that you get time back for hacking that you want to do, rather than hacking to make the goddamn thing work.)

      Don't let an irrational fear of DRM ruin what could be a very productive switch - I would go so far as to say 'life-enhancing', for the amount of time, etc. that it frees up. It is, of course, prudent to be aware of the issues concerning DRM and what problems it can cause. But you really have to accept it in some form - and accept the fact that of the two platforms (i.e. Windows and Mac), Apple offers you the far more palatable option, Microsoft's stance on DRM (through WMA, etc.) having been made depressingly plain years ago.

      iqu :)

    73. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IT was proved that what happened to Opera was a mistake, not malicious activity. The CSS used was to fix a bug in the rendering of the page on an older version of Opera, it just happens that it was fixed in the release and it came to light within a couple of days. MS fixed it, move on. Im sure any webdevelopers has had pages break after a browser upgrade.

    74. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      I can choose which drive to boot from with my current bios, no need to fiddle with the hardware, and that was the plan. I was expecting Ubuntu(dunno why i always think an m belongs there, personal glitch) to ask how I wanted to handle that, it never did, just went merrily along and toasted a totaly different drive's bootsector. At the very least it could have detected the winxp boot sector and gave me a dual boot option like other distro's, considering how sizable a chunk of people(using linux) dual boot it's downright stupid (or extreemly arrogant) not to at least offer it outside of a server oriented distro. They didn't even provide a warning or a notice, my first clue was the next time I booted the system and couldn't get to anything but ubuntu.
          I was however unaware that the mime-type scramble was likely a gnome thing(a very stupid one imho, I could understand if it guessed wrong on an obscure file type, or at least had all the *iso's as mp3's, but some at random?!?!?!). To be honest while there are times I prefer kde, gnome is usually my choice (I like having the option of both to tell the truth).
          And as I said, this was with the amd64 version, it's possible some of these mistakes were from being so new. But if your going to put out beta software you should lable it as such. Those two mistakes alone are enough to make me wait a while before risking my system on something beta at best again.

      Myroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    75. Re:Damn Microsoft! by unigolyn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Blah blah Konfabulator blah.

      Apple did NOT rip off Konfabulator. Arlo Rose labors under the delusion that he invented desktop widgets, which he did not. DesktopX was out years before Konfabulator was even conceived.

      Now, what other features did Apple rip off hapless developers? Spotlight? Exposé? The dock? The Finder?

    76. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Greg_D · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ah, but here's my experience: for the past year, I used Linux as a desktop exclusively, mostly because of all the programming tools. I've bounced around between them.. starting with Fedora Core 3, then to SuSE, then Ubuntu Warty, then Fedora Core 3 for x86_64, then to Ubuntu Hoary, then to Fedora Core 4, then to Mepis, back to Ubuntu, back to Mepis.

      Why was I doing this bouncing? The repositories all blow. That's right, ALL of them. They're nice on getting some things to work, but if you're stuck in any one of their repositories, then you might as well be stuck in the mud, because either they'll have software on the repository that needs software that isn't, or the software on the repository will be so woefully out of date that other flavors of the same parent distro have passed you by a long time ago in one way or another. And depending on which library you need to replace, replacing one with a newer binary might totally screw up your existing configuration.

      And the help... the Mepis guys tell ya that if you need help to go to the IRC channel... so I do... because Streamtuner and xmms weren't working together after an install and an update from the repository. I ask how I can fix it, they tell me to ditch xmms and use RealPlayer, which works, but then Realplayer totally ignores my volume settings in KDE. This kind of crap is commonplace.

      Then there's the issue of speed. Speed of booting is faster in Windows by a factor of 10. Speed of loading up a program is much faster as well. I repartitioned my drive and put Win XP back on, and was shocked at how fast it was. No more waiting 5-10 seconds for firefox to load. Even with all the shell extensions I slapped onto Windows to make it closer to the KDE and Gnome desktops I was accustomed to, it's still much faster. And sure, using something like Blackbox would cut down on time... a bit... in Linux, but Blackbox is a window manager, and I want a desktop environment that is pleasing to the eye and non-annoying. I have transparency, drop shadows, window shading, an objectbar, konfabulator, and multiple other programs running, and nothing was harder to install than by downloading a file and double clicking an icon. My desktop still runs faster and smoother, and the only thing I'm missing in Windows is good ole kill -9. And the only thing I needed to download extra libraries for was... the Gimp.

      Sure, Linux does a better job with some things, like having the latest drivers with the latest distro, but most copies of Windows are OEMs that come with machines with the drivers pre-loaded. Files in the repository ARE easier to get to than having to go to a bunch of websites to download them for Windows. The desktop is more configurable without having to replace system files to do it.

      However, Linux right now is just not even in the same galaxy as Windows or OSX when it comes to giving a user what they need to be productive with minimum hassle, and the people who have the organizational power and clout to make it into something that can compete refuse to do so. Why? Dunno. Maybe because they deal with so many other geeks who use the same desktops and configure the same files everyday that they never have the time or the care to deal with the issues making Linux a lame duck in the race. I'd love to scrap Windows, OSX, and any other OS that requires DRM. After all, I did it once before, but until I see some improvement that puts Linux's desktop in the same realm as the other two, I'm sticking with Windows and will relegate my Mepis partition to tinkering. And lemme tell you, it was a pain in the butt to shift files from ReiserFS to FAT32 to NFTS until I was able to clear a drive to reformat the ReiserFS to NTFS and then move them all back again... twice.

    77. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about this:
      - Macs are widely used by music makers and artists - those who create content:
      What if the DRM enabled
      OS wants to "copy-protect" all media
      on the hard disk, including the media the user have created by himself or herself. In other words, you create a song with Logic and you can use it in the computer you created it and nowhere else, in other words, you can't share it (despite you created it) to your music friends or to your audience _unless_ you are an authorized MS music developer paying 10000 USD fee per year to MS to get your music signed. You don't own your stuff anymore. Corporations will own you and everything you do. Is this happening now? Propably not yet, but do you expect the current situation to be the end - no way, if you give your little finger to the devil, you will lose your entire arm. This far fetched sounding issue may be the future if things go wrong. A further glimpse to the dark side: what if it would be someday illegal to share music you have created by yourself unless you pay a very big fee to some big corporation to make yourself authorized music maker. What if your computer wouldn't even play your own recordings unless you are an authorized music developer. Why would they like to do that? To get well earning indie artists out of the way and to get the money to them through their commercial artists instead of course. Someone could do a scifi story from this in the style of 1984...

    78. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      Honestly, how can you blame companies for trying to protect their profits when thousands of people are ripping them off every day?


      Instead of just blindly saying "pirates are bad" and then handcuffing everyone, even the law abiding people who make them money, they should examin _why_ people pirate. Obviously there is the "pay vs. free" thing, but there are other factors for why people pirate stuff.

      A lot of piracy is at least partly down to the pirated material being "better" than the originals in many ways - take TV shows for example. Why do people download them from torrents instead of watching them on TV? Certainly for me, the reason for doing it is that I have to wait well over 3 months after the original air-date for most stuff to get shown here in the UK. I.e. the illegal distribution method is a lot better than the legal one.

      Another example: I buy music CDs. Once I have bought them then they get ripped to MP3 so I can easilly get at the music without sorting through stacks of CDs and the CDs themselves only get used on my personal CD player and in the car. So if I buy a CD that's "copy protected" which won't let me do this, it's useless to me, whereas the MP3s of the same CD I can download work fine. I.e. the illegal copies allow me to do what I need (and should be able to do with something I've legally bought), and thus are "better".

      A large proportion of people _want_ the legal version of something, but they're not going to buy it if the illegal version is so much better. The producers should look at this and rather than stamping out the illegal competition through restrictions they should improve their own systems so that they "outcompete" the illegal stuff.

    79. Re:Damn Microsoft! by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      DRM doesn't hurt the pirates (just search for anything that's DRM'd, if it's popular enough (like OSX) it will have been broken), but instead hurts people like me who don't know how to break the DRM, and aren't willing to download it from p2p (I don't want to download a virus by mistake thankyou, plus it's illegal). I was excited by Apple moving to x86. Now I guess I'll have to move to Linux if I want my freedoms.

    80. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't kid yourself. DRM is only partially about preventing copyright infringement.
      A major part of it, perhaps THE major part of it is about creating new business models by eliminating the ability of users to use their fair-use rights.

      For example, most cable HD boxes have DVI connectors that are NOT compatible with the DVI inputs on computer monitors... instead of being able to use your PC monitor as a HDTV.

      Why? Because they don't want people using their PCs as video recorders even though people have every legal right to do so.

      Why? Because they want you to use THEIR PVRs, for which you have to pay a monthly fee.

      DRM methods are always being broken, yet the industry still insists on them. Are they stupid? No. They absolutely know that so-called "pirates" will easily find a way around it.

      DRM will only stop the people who are NOT interested in copyright infringement... the casual consumers trying to use their fair-use rights, fair-use rights that the industry fought against and hates...

      DRM is really intended to extract more money for the everyday user... the industry wants a pay-per-view society.

      --
      This space available.
    81. Re:Damn Microsoft! by falkryn · · Score: 1

      About your last statement, sadly, I have to agree there. I'm a pretty thorough-going unix bigot, but on the laptop (not including my powerbook running OSX), windows just works better for me now. Especially once you install stuff like the ssh client (the _real_ ssh), cygwin, and your other free standards (firefox, tbird, etc), and the sort-of free things like konfabulator, plus the ability to run pretty much any commercial app you want, the advantages, for a desktop, become clear. Plus, though like I said, SUSE runs pretty decently on the laptop, once it's actually running, windows just runs better overall (apc and all that).

      That said, I've come to a personal compromise here at my work, one station running linux with fluxbox or whatever (to be able to nicely hold all those xterms), and one running windows for your more 'desktopish' type things.

      Windows may still suck at a lot of things, and I'm exceedingly grateful to have a career in unixland instead of windowsworld, but admittedly there are some areas where it's really half decent.

    82. Re:Damn Microsoft! by bersl2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously. Donate, grandparent poster.

      We'll both get dragged away by the Gestapo. Together. Like old times. It'll be fun!

      OK, maybe that was a little bit over the top. But you get the point: if that is your reason for not donating, then the terrorists^Wpoliticians have already won.

    83. Re:Damn Microsoft! by wh00dini · · Score: 0

      Yes just sit around and wait, you'll see, they will be forthcoming and honest. I mean come on they are a multi-billion dollar business, we can trust them. . . can't we?

    84. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Squozen · · Score: 1

      That's Ubuntu, not Ubunbtu.

    85. Re:Damn Microsoft! by gilesjuk · · Score: 1

      They don't?

      Then why do they sue people making pre-annoucements about their products, sue people who leak versions of their OS (these are customers of theirs since they have purchased an Apple computer).

      They're just as bad as Microsoft, if they really "cared" they would have used AMD, since their processors are much better.

      Seems like the only computing platform that give you freedom is open source. Apple are changing their OS to suit their music resale market and restricting how customers can use their OS. It's not just Microsoft you need to worry about.

    86. Re:Damn Microsoft! by rokzy · · Score: 1

      >For Windows, you have 3rd party support. VIA, ATI, Nvidia, etc all create drivers for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

      ATI only supports XP now.

    87. Re:Damn Microsoft! by falkryn · · Score: 1

      See my other post below. I agree with some of your points.

      It's dissappointing to me as a unix bigot and formerly a strong propenent of the linux desktop. In some ways the linux desktop(s) have really come so far in many ways, in terms of features and ooo-ah factors certainly surpassing windows at this point, but parallel to that, all sorts of problems have come in. On fairly modern hardware windows XP can running screaming fast. Same can't always be said of the more full-featured DEs out there in linux nowadays. And it's not just speed. I've tried to help one of my coworkers run first FC3, now FC4 on his box to learn linux. Looking at the hoops I've had to have him jump through to have it do what he wants it to do, I could understand why someone would just give up and stick with windows instead.

      Maybe a reason linux on the desktop doesn't seem to get the priority that many of us might like, is that for many if not most unix folk like myself, all we really need to get our work done effectively is a window manager that can hold a whole bunch of xterms (and to me, there's really nothing wrong with that). Looking at my setup here at work right now, this is what I see, a windows box running firefox, thunderbird, gaim, konfabulator, and wmp streaming in some audio. Maybe if I want I could fire up a game, maybe watch some videos. On my other side, a linux box with a lotta xterms open, one with pine, others ssh'ed to a bunch of boxes, and gaim. Maybe I'd fire up firefox. But the purpose and strength of each machine is pretty clear to me now. One is for the desktop and general purpose computing, the other is to get my actual work done.

    88. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you know you can DONATE ANONYMOUSLY....

      That's right! Just mark it as an anonymous donation. If you want to know the many methods of donating anonymously, just look it up on the net or ask Slashdot .... I'm certain many people will point the way for you.

    89. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but Apple gets you into parties like these. Open source gets you this.

    90. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure, unless you believe the doctrine of first sale applies. I don't "license" my computer; I buy it. Any information on it or with it is mine just like the hardware is, because I never agreed to any kind of license at the time of purchase.

      And before you try to tell me "but that's not how it works," I say fuck "how it works." The scum who think up these fake "licenses" can cram them up their ass! They can claim that EULAs exist and are valid all they want, but it doesn't make it true.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    91. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Baricom · · Score: 1

      At your recommendation, I downloaded and burned a Kubuntu LiveCD. The first problem I noticed was that it took over five minutes to boot, not counting the time to push the buttons to pick my keyboard, etc. I can forgive that problem because presumably uncompressing and bootstrapping from the CD is the cause of the delay.

      The next problem I ran into is not having network access. After manually adding a route for my local network, I discovered that my router didn't have DHCP on, so I tried to configure the network manually. I found Control Center fairly easily, but when I tried to add the DNS servers, it kept giving me a "must type alias" error, along with the most irritating glass breaking sound I've ever heard. Of course, since the servers showed up in the list, I have no idea if it "took" or not.

      The default gateway didn't, however - I typed it in, but each time I did and switched tabs, I found the IP address disappeared without any explanation. I had to bring up Konsole and add a default route manually. Even then, I couldn't hit anything outside the local network, and I'm sure the router isn't the cause of the problem.

      Like any good geek who doesn't know what they're doing, I tried to RTFM. When I clicked Help in the K menu, however, the window refused to open - the taskbar button showed up for about 15 seconds before disappearing. I killed the help process (remember, a typical OS X or Windows user won't have a clue how to do this) and restarted Help, which seemed to do the trick. However, when I tried to search, it asked me to build an index. No problem - Windows does the same thing. When I did, however, the search button remained grayed out, and it took about a minute to find the button labeled "index status" or something like that that simply said, "htdig failed" with no other explanation.

      After all this, I rebooted the LiveCD, only this time I enabled DHCP on the router, thinking I probably missed a step in the configuration. It still didn't work.

      There were a few things Kubuntu managed that my previous forays into Linux GUIs hadn't - it recognized a SD card, Memory Stick, and USB key without any trouble, and it's kind of cute and easy on the eyes.

      On the other hand, this was a LiveCD. LiveCD are supposed to provide a perfect user experience to demonstrate the best Linux has to offer. I'll give it another try in a couple of days, but for now I'm going to stand by my earlier statement that Linux isn't anywhere near OS X and Windows in readiness for the desktop.

    92. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ravenn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... we're all responsible for our ills, in one way or another.

      No, I'm being held responsible for someone else's ills. That's the bit that gets to me. I'm being presumed guilty before I even buy a computer, and therefore restricted in the use of my own property.

      I have to deal with speed limits being lowered to deal with idiots who speed, bag searches at supermarkets because of idiots who shoplift, and even more intensive screenings at airports because of morons who want to use innocents for their own personal socio-political stupidity. Now I'm also being restricted in my personal hobby interest and profession?

      I think I'll be sticking to Linux, where groups like Debian will remove software because it comes under a license that's too restrictive.

      --
      Of all the things you can accomplish by screwing up your face and swearing into a dark room, sleep is not one of them.
    93. Re:Damn Microsoft! by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      Why? Why? I realise that to ask this is to break something of a taboo amongst the Linux faithful here, but why must operating system choice be dependent on politics rather than actual user need?

      I want an OS that will run on hardware without artificial constraints (which is what DRM is) and I want an OS that I can uninstall programs I don't use (IE). There, two non-political reasons to not want to use Windows and MacOS.

    94. Re:Damn Microsoft! by biglig2 · · Score: 1

      pskill from www.sysinternals.com will provide you with process killing goodness.

      --
      ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
    95. Re:Damn Microsoft! by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      Wait, you mean I can't currently play my subscription content on a Mac? Wow, because I'm able to play it on my Windows computer. Mac's must really suck... oh wait. I can? Then stfu. And I know I'll get modded down because I (sarcastically) said something bad about Macs (I know that Macs can play Itunes content, please don't mod me down).

    96. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Dude, I don't know what to tell you. If you really had all the problems you described (and it seriously stretches the bounds of credibility, but I'm feeling magnanimous so I'll go with it) by all means stick with Windows.

      Yeah, I know that the root cause of your problems was likely that you're just too stupid to fuckin' breathe, and I'm all too aware that you have just as many problems with Windows (quite likely more, in fact). However, I also know that like most double-digit IQ mouth breathers, you'll accept and ignore all problems with Win while raucously condemning anything you don't like about another system, making shit up to complain about if need be, all the while ignoring that in most of the areas you're complaining about Windows is even worse.

      It's a sad thing, but there's hope. Someday you'll reach puberty, and if you learn to wash your hair and speak without stuttering you might even get to talk to a girl, and then you won't need to mindlessly worship the cult of MS to feel validated.

      Hang in there, brother.

    97. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ash-Fox · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually such technology does exist, as there was for a time 'anti-photocopy' school books being sold in Poland, however due to the huge increase in costs in the school books, teachers, school educators went a long with alternative books that didn't have this protection.

      So.. They (the publishers) stopped using the technology since it was too expensive and not making money.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    98. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Naah. Poppy seeds and crack come up positive on complketely different tests.

      He spelled "heroin" wrong.

    99. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Think of all the nifty features in OSX, and most of them started life as third party products that Apple decided to reimplement and give away with the next version of OSX

      Yeah, Heaven forbid that innovative software could actually be reimplemented by third parties and offered for free to consumers. I mean, next thing you know they might actually make a whole OS by taking ideas here and there and start offering it for free ! Imagine the havoc on poor little OS developers worldwide !

      Good thing that our modern democracies have invented software patents, so we can prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening....

      </sarcasm>

      Thomas -

    100. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sneak this crap in? Come on. Of course Apple is going to protect their property. The reason there are fewer problems running OS X then other OS's is Apple controls the hardware and software. You've always had to buy an Apple computer to run an Apple OS, so nothing is different now.

    101. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mocenigo · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The message that has to go out from here is simple and the same one that should go out to any software/hardware company that involves itself with this anti-customer bullshit: Don't buy Apple.

      There's no doubt that the poster you are replying to has missed something. But it seems to me that you also miss something. Apple is a hardware manifacturer. Why should you be able to buy Apple's OS and run it on other hardware, if it is NOT intended for that use? It is not like having an obscure data format for your data, a la Microsoft. It is not giving up the right of accessing your data the way you want. Apple is a hardware manifacturer and they have an OS for their hardware. The OS is there to drive customers to their hardware. Only a part of the development costs comes from OS sales, the bulk of their money comes from hardware.

      Now, you would like to have Apple continue to develop their OS but you want to strip them of their main income source by allowing the OS to be installed on non-Apple hardware. It seems to me that the word ``idiot'' can at this point applied also to you, not as an insult, but in the ethimologic meaning: from the greek ``that cannot see'' (i-diot, then the word entered latin, old french, and finally came to english).

      You propose to boycott Apple until they agree to give up on income, so that you can use their products in a way they are not envisioned. Sure, bankrupt firms develop their software actively...

      Learn programming and start contributing to GNOME development instead, and do not complain, please, if Apple has some features you are not able to implement...

    102. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are other reasons to switch to Apple, you know... unless you'd rather party with these guys.

    103. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Hymer · · Score: 1

      So... You are seriously telling us that a switch from MS to Apple is less painfull than a switch from MS to Linux ??
      That is a joke isn't it ?
      I've just been there... a shift from Windows to OS X is as much pain in the ass as a shift from Windows to Linux for a normal user...
      I think your "problem" is not the OS, it is Office or propably something from Adobe... and you're just hiding behind the OS problems...

    104. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kyrre · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu ask before it overwrite your boot sector. I am 100% sure of it, I did an install last monday. You should not blame Ubuntu for you being to lazy to read the message above the selection. Also most people would like to install Grub on their MBR, since they don't even know what it is. That is the reason overwrite is the default selection.

      Ubuntu is a very good distro. I would not know anything about file Gnome MIME-types since I use the shell for all my file operations, so that point might be valid. But it certainly would not be a show stopper.

    105. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ImaLamer · · Score: 1

      And when the cops shoot a black man for having a candybar in his pocket or shoot an unarmed non violent black man four dozen times at close range, I just think "It sucks, but if black people weren't out there killing every person they come across, these police wouldn't have to senselessly murder any of them".

      Wow, you must live in a very nice place. I'm sure you'll respond and say it's very "diverse", however by your logic you'd be dead by now. Oh, how I love when people complain and contribute to societies problems. Of course I see your error in judgement quickly with:

      "This sucks, but I don't need to be angry at the police or employers for violating my rights or my privacy. I need to be angry at the weekend pot smokers who make it necessary for people to infringe on my privacy or violate my constitutional rights".

      It is as if "weekend pot smokers" asked for laws condemning their behaviour/sins and no one else's. A fair look at who funds "anti-pro-marijuana" legislation and you'll see the network of law enforcement and punishment execution institutions combining their efforts with the likes of the American beer companies.

      Besides, why should you or do you think that you deserve more Constitutional rights than someone who likes to smoke pot or is Black? It seems to me that until people like you stop demonizing people we can't get back to more important things like freedom.

    106. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Flaming+Foobar · · Score: 1
      It looks like some people don't know a classic Slashdot joke when they see one.

      Classic and troll, yes. Classic and joke, no.

      --
      while true;do echo -e -n "\033[s\n\033[u\134_\033[B";done
    107. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PakProtector · · Score: 1
      but as to the drug testing, unless you did not agree to such a thing when you started your job, well, it's kind of like having to deal with a Non-Compete clause. You agreed to it.

      I don't know... in more civilized law systems some rights are upheld EVEN if you signed them away.

      That's why they are called "unalienable", you know.

      I hope you are not seriously suggesting we live under a civilised system of law in the United States of America?

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    108. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      ATi supports windows 2003 just fine here...

      Of course they don't support windows 2000 and older OSes, I mean their support years have ended at Microsoft now anyway, plus I don't even know anyone with windows, that has a OS installation that is older than XP.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    109. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Infernal+Device · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You missed the point - he was speaking ironically.

      No one group deserves more Constitutional Rights than anyone else under any circumstances. We're all supposed to be equal under the law. It's just that we've set up a system where some people are more equal and others are less equal.

      I consider drug tests and drm and all the other assorted crap to be punishment for someone else's inability to control their own urges in a manner that's socially responsible. Actually, it's way more complicated than that, because I don't consider pot smokers to be all that harmful to society, in general.

      Nonetheless, we keep getting saddled with the stupid laws because someone in Washington gets their dander up when some well-funded "public interest group" pays them to and it occurs no matter which side of the political fence our "honorable" representatives take, because a) the public has limited understanding, b) it looks and sounds good, or c) it's for the children.

      Sorry, started ranting.

      Washington has become divorced from reality in a very real way. Most of our Representatives and Senators can't connect with the people they're affecting beyond any superficial manner, regardless of their personal wealth. It may not even be possible, considering the number of people they're supposed to be representing. The only thing they're sure of connecting with are fat checkbooks and sleazy fuckers like RIAA or TCPA, who have a vested interest in limiting the rights of consumers.

      --
      "My God...it's full of trolls!"
    110. Re:Damn Microsoft! by grahamtriggs · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not always... they bought iTunes for instance.

      I think you have to accept that in some cases, the product they are imitating wasn't done all that well, or their prefered implementation is that much closer to the OS, or may be affected by long term strategy (think Intel switch), that it may have seemed an easier alternative to just implement from scratch.

    111. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      As someone who used to work at a Pizza joint where he was almost always the only person not on drugs while working, and as someone who now works at a Pizza Joint where no-one is doing drugs while working, I can tell you that it makes a hell of a lot of difference.

      The place I'm at now is much busier but far less stressful, because everyone is working harder (or more efficiently, since they're not stoned to Cloud Nine, they work out to be pretty much te same thing.)

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    112. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 1

      I was actually referring to Italy, in fact (where vexatory clauses in contracts can be ruled as illegal even after they have been specifically signed).

      I just forgot the Sarcasm tag :-)

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    113. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the cost of freedom isn't free

      No, it costs a buck o' five.

    114. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ajs318 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No person is an island. All the benefits of all human endeavour belong to all of humanity.

      If I write a piece of software which can improve someone else's lot, I have a duty to the rest of the world to make that software available to them. If that means I can't sit on my arse all day making money just selling that programme, then so be it.

      If you light your {unlit} candle from my {lit} one, does my room get any darker? Will my candle last any less long? I have lost nothing, you have gained something. So it goes with computer software. The effort in replicating software already written is comparable to the effort in sticking the end of a wick in a flame. Yes, somebody wrote that software in the first place; but they were going to write it anyway, whether or not anybody paid them for a copy. I lit that candle {which, by the way, was a non-trivial effort involving a flint and steel, tinder and kindling -- matches have not been invented in this figure of speech} because it was dark, not because I thought I could make money charging people for a light. How could there be anything fair or right about denying someone something which would cost me nothing to do, knowing that but for me they might fall in the dark with an unlit candle in the house?

      Somewhere in a parallel universe, there was a person a bit like Bill Gates who wrote a whingeing "open letter to hobbyists" a bit like this one. At the following week's meeting of their computer club, a resolution was passed calling for the troublemaker to be hauled into the Gents' toilets and given a Bloody Good Kicking {probably a couple of head-flushes with seat-whacks too for good measure, and to prevent the casualty from losing consciousness before satisfaction was achieved}. Thenceforth, on that planet, a law was passed, and it said this: That the author of a computer programme has exactly one right in respect of that programme, and that is the right to be identified as its author, for as long as any living person remembers any true fact about the person or the programme; and that everybody has the right to distribute the source code of any computer programme ever written, with or without modifications and whether or not accompanied by an executable version, so long as they did not try to change the original author's name.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    115. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      Ah. That's the problem. I'm CSS 3.0 Compliant, and you were using an older, deprecated, form of <sarcasm>.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    116. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean blue ink really costs that much more than black ink?

    117. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Interesting aside - last night my flatmate wandered in while I was talking to another geek friend about the TCA, Windows DRM^H^H^HVista and related matters.

      This guy is no techie (christ, he asked me to help him hook his monitor up last week), but he listened in and asked us to explain exactly what Trusted Computing was. We sketched out the very basics - media files dialling home before play, your rights/viewing-licence agreement changing after purchase at the whims of the content producer, other theoretically possible restrictions that DRM allows for, files refusing to play on non-trusted platforms and your PC dynamically downsampling future DVDs if it detects your monitor isn't Trusted.

      At the end of the five-minute conversation (again, attempting to inform rather than frighten) the guy was more pissed off than I've ever seen him - practically kicking furniture and swearing he'd never buy a bit of TCA-compliant electronics. Ever.

      As I said, while this guy isn't stupid, he's not even remotely technical. And when he appreciated the actual, real-life restrictions Trusted Computing would place on him he was angry.

      There is hope for these people, if they can be educated before the fight is over.

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    118. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Technician · · Score: 1

      They are building armor for pay content and trying to make it transparant to the end user. Files backup, restore and work as long as the restore is not on someone else's machine.

      The next generation of downloadable movies, news, pictures, etc. may have restrictions such as you can view online, but not swipe a copy, you can buy a copy, but it'll only work on your machine. You can send a classified document you created to a co-worker and they can read it, but not forward it, or cut and paste it, or save it. The file would be encrypted. The encryption would be tied to the hardware of the creater and reciepient. 3rd parties would not have the keys to decrypt for viewing, forwarding, etc.

      This is for e-mail, documents, and pay content.

      Old hardware will not be compatible with the new encryption.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    119. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, because a troll could never be funny.

    120. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      "Copy protected" CDs can be defeated using a combination of a slow drive {24 speed or less; the slowness isn't the critical thing, but it seems that a feature was silently incorporated into more modern drives to make them artificially incompatible with some discs} and CDParanoia. I bought a CDS200-protected CD once, for the hacker challenge factor more than the music; and was disappointed to find that it ripped first time.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    121. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that this has nothing to do with copyright infringement. If apple let people buy os x and install it on any intel pc then it would create them alot of problems. First off they would have to provide support for non apple intel's which would equal to them having to spend a lot of money employing these people and having os x tested on as much hardware as they can. It would also mean that due to the fast amount of hardware that it will be running on MS lovers will be telling everyone how crap the apple os is because it has this problem or that problem. Personally i think we should leave apple to keep producing great hardware and the amazing os that runs on it and to concentrate their time on making sure that they work seamlessly together.

    122. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Hymer · · Score: 1

      My friend... you are one of those persons who will wake up one morning and realize that you can't use your PC (or MAC) if you don't pay a monthly fee.
      Your are of course right a tool (in this case a computer) must fit the need (not the flavour), but DRM may (or should I say will) eliminate any computer system without DRM support.
      DRM may (and will be) used for controlling how, where and when software and data should be used.
      If there is a way to control, use or misuse a system it will be exploited, either by criminals, greedy corporations or, in the worst case, the government. We have seen it before and we will see it again...

    123. Re:Damn Microsoft! by squoozer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You have got to be a troll. I can't honestly believe any grown adult (I presume you are an adult as you appear to work) would hold such a narrow minded view of the world.

      I wouldn't normally lay into someone expressing their opinion on a public forum but I believe you, and the thousands like you, who adopt the view given to them by the media are stealing the rights and freedoms of the thinking people.

      The mass media has the sole goal of making as much money as possible and will attempt to achieve that by any (legal) means. This means that they are not necessarily out to protect your best interests even if they appear to be. Therefore you have to make a judgement call about how much you can trust their information.

      Several years ago I gave up television the only mass media I really partook in, I never read newspapers and only really listened to music radio, and the change in my world view has been amazing.

      It took time and I only realize it now but I am no longer paranoid. I actually it find quite scary to listen to many of the sheeple now-a-days. They have been whipped up into a frenzy about terrorists and see evil round every corner. You might argue that I have become insular and lack a world view but I still get a daily dose of news from the Internet and am knowledgeable of world affairs. The difference is my intake is more controlled and it is easier to ignore the hyperbole.

      As an example take your comment about weekend pot smokers. Why is there wide spread paranoia about them? I believe that it is almost entirely mass media induced. The media need something to scandalize the masses about so they pick something new, because sheeple all suffer from neophobia, and something that a weak portion of society enjoys, because they have no voice with which to defend themselves.

      There is little evidence that pot has any negative effects beyond those caused by the tabacco it is often smoked with and the studies that do show it has an effect only appear to indicate that extremely heavy usage is harmful (IIRC somewhere in the region of 20 joints a day). Over here in Europe we don't have the same paranoia of pot and drug tests are almost unheard of in civilian jobs. Amazingly the world hasn't come to an end and our productivity hasn't dropped through the floor. So I ask you: why are you employers insisting on drug tests? Could it perhaps be a form of control? Something to help make you ascribe to their world view?

      I'm not saying that there is a big conspiracy. I don't believe there is. I think it is human nature. People will always want to dominate people whether they realise it or not and grouping together under a common banner is a good way to achieve that end. The problem is that it causes wide spread exclusion and the victimisation of minority groups. Once gangs, clubs, parties, etc begin to form and grow it is easy to view people that don't subscribe to the same world view as evil or wrong which is the mistake I believe you are making.

      The pot smokers and "black people" are still people they just don't agree that your world view is right. I suggest that you learn to live with the fact that the universe doesn't have a concept of right and wrong and try and accept the people around you because surprisingly most aren't actually out to get you. I hope that you think about what I have said. We can create a relaxed world where we get along it just takes a little understanding.

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    124. Re:Damn Microsoft! by I'm+Don+Giovanni · · Score: 0

      "Erm, I don't think this is quite what you think. Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does (which I appreciate; I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not)."

      Wow, you must get pissed off everytime you exit a store and have to pass through the scanners. Or everytime you go to a movie and have to present a ticket. Etc, etc, etc.

      --
      -- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
    125. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      "Copy protected" CDs can be defeated using a combination of a slow drive {24 speed or less; the slowness isn't the critical thing, but it seems that a feature was silently incorporated into more modern drives to make them artificially incompatible with some discs} and CDParanoia. I bought a CDS200-protected CD once, for the hacker challenge factor more than the music; and was disappointed to find that it ripped first time.

      Yes - I'm aware of the deficiencies in the copy protection systems and I haven't had to return a CD because it was un-rippable _yet_. However, because of the _intent_ of the copy protection, my point still stands:

      1. Paying customers should not have to jump through hoops in order to rip a CD for their personal use.
      2. Less technical people won't know how to jump through those hoops, so the _only_ solution for them is to illegally copy the music.
      3. Some of the copy protection systems prevent you from legitimately _playing_ (not ripping) a CD on a computer, personal CD player, car CD player, etc. In that case the only solution is to illegally download the music and burn your own CD of it.
      4. Having spent 10 - 15 ukp for a CD (which IMHO is overpriced) there is no way that I'm going to buy the same music again in a different format. The music industry goes out of their way to make it known that we are buying the _content_ of a CD, not the CD itself. But then they try and prevent us using the content we paid for on a different medium.

      As it is, they have taken a problem (piracy) and by trying to prevent it have ended up making it worse by making sure that customers who have previously bought content legally have no choice but to download it illegally.

      Most people will go for the legal option if it's reasonably priced and usable. If you start making the legal option far to expensive and/or useless to the customer then there's nothing the customer can do but either do without the content or acquire it illegally.

    126. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Listen to your conscience and mod parent up.

      'nuff said.

    127. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, you would like to have Apple continue to develop their OS but you want to strip them of their main income source by allowing the OS to be installed on non-Apple hardware. It seems to me that the word ``idiot'' can at this point applied also to you, not as an insult, but in the ethimologic meaning: from the greek ``that cannot see'' (i-diot, then the word entered latin, old french, and finally came to english).

      Prompous fool with an etymology dictionary on his shelf.

      You propose to boycott Apple until they agree to give up on income, so that you can use their products in a way they are not envisioned. Sure, bankrupt firms develop their software actively...

      This is completely ridiculous. The only way Apple can "protect" their operating system from being run on other hardware is to include Trusted Computing? How far will you twist and turn to avoid the truth? How about the fact that Apple makes its money from people buying its systems for the lack of hassle? You mean if Apple just included a simple BIOS check, aunty Doris might purchase a PC clone with Windows XP on, download a hacked version of OSX (with the check removed) from P2P, install it and gloat over Jobs' loss of cash and lack of vision in not implementing a "Trusted computing" infrastructure that would have prevented this.

      How deluded are you? If you seriously think this is purely to control the distribution of OSX, then Apple zealots are more witless and crazed than I thought. You talk of "profits"... and then ignore the fact that Apple is making most of its money on iTunes and possibly its forthcoming video versions... all of which will be big future users of TCPA once it is established.

      I'll say it again: Don't buy Apple until they guarantee that TCPA hardware will not be included in their machines. I'll go further: make sure that everyone knows what Apple's game is, and *why* they shouldn't buy it... and don't listen to Apple zealots who will make endless excuses for why their beloved Apple would never do something so evil.

      That cannot see indeed.

    128. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you missed the irony.
      he is using those as counter examples and contrasts iwth the overly simplistic "its all teh fualt of the pirates"
      by choosing an example of "weekend pot smoker" he deibrately chose an acceptable responsilble harmless section of the recreational drug using demoagraphic.
      ie some people harmong no one being tarred with south amrican drug cartels and the misery of millions and the disporportionate response the state and capitalist apparatus takes and the effect it ahs on our freedom.

      please read more carefully.

    129. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      I hope you are not seriously suggesting we live under a civilised system of law in the United States of America?

      Why not try it? Heck, it might even work....

    130. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the difference between civilization and Slashdot Libertarianism - the latter places contract law above all, and holds that there really are no inalienable rights at all. Seth Finkelstein wrote a good essay about it called Libertarianism Makes You Stupid.

    131. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Spacejock · · Score: 1

      I took the Sony DVD burner out of my PC two days ago and put it in an external case. (It's old, it's slow, and I've had a faster DVD burner in the machine alongside this one for the past six months... I just wanted to reduce the heat in the machine, because these things get warm.)

      Anyway, Windows XP told me I'd made 'substantial changes' to my PC, and I had 3 days to reactivate it. This is the third time in two years - and what happens when they EOL it like Win98 and refuse to hand out unlock codes? I'm no pirate, but if that ever happens I'll be trawling the web for a piece of code to let me use my PC again.

    132. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 0

      I'm on your side. Good troll, good joke.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    133. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      If it does, an army of extremely volatile users will, with any luck, unleash a fiery hell.

      I'm not sure what gives you that idea. If nothing else, the core of the remaining MacOS userbase has demonstrated they're prepared to stick with Apple through pretty much anything.

      (For more, see here, where I conclude that one of the best things about the Mac (for Slashdot geeks, anyway), is that you get time back for hacking that you want to do, rather than hacking to make the goddamn thing work.)

      I don't get it. What is all this "hacking" I'm supposed to have to do to get Windows to "work" ? I take a stock Windows XP (or, preferably, Windows 2003) installation, make a handful of very minor tweaks and I get a system whose combination of performance, stability and functionality I find unmatched amongst any of the alternatives (with a fairly heavy workload for a desktop machine).

      I've used a lot of platforms and interfaces _extensively_. I don't have any trouble with Windows not "working". Quite to the contrary, after years of experimentation across many different systems I've found it to be the best environment to work in.

      But you really have to accept it in some form - and accept the fact that of the two platforms (i.e. Windows and Mac), Apple offers you the far more palatable option, Microsoft's stance on DRM (through WMA, etc.) having been made depressingly plain years ago.

      I'm not quite sure I see an appreciable difference. Both provide the necessary vehicle for content providers to be as generous or restrictive as they want. If you want to blame someone for difficulty accessing "intellectual property", put that blame where it belongs and not on the software developers. Shooting the messenger will not help fix the root problem.

    134. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cortana · · Score: 1

      First of all, the manufacturer is Apple. Mac is the product.

      Second of all, if were to buy a Mac, then unless I signed such a contract at the time, then the EULA means precicely fuck all. I bought it, I can fucking well do what I want with it!

    135. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Lars+T. · · Score: 1
      Total additional cost "securing" my Windows machines: $0.

      Reading the EULA: Priceless.

      Try removing every trace of Quicktime from OS X and see how well everything works. I suggest you back up first.

      Tell us more.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    136. Re:Damn Microsoft! by gilesjuk · · Score: 1

      Computers just aren't cool full stop. I don't care very much for Apple trying to make them so.

      They're just appliances like TVs, DVD players etc.

      If you want to be cool, buy a dull computer and spend the money you save on some nice clothes.

    137. Re:Damn Microsoft! by jurt1235 · · Score: 1

      Then again, I do not need shiny great looking hardware, I just need a good OS to run on my blend as cheap as possible it is fast enough anyway hardware. If they just release OS X for the generic hardware, maybe with a limitted driver set so they do not have that pitfall, I am willing to try it out. I think that goes for a lot of people.

      --

      My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
    138. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Think of all the nifty features in OSX, and most of them started life as third party products that Apple decided to reimplement and give away with the next version of OSX.

      I'm pretty sure is was earlier than OS X, too. IIRC there were some features that entered at the control panel level in as early as MacOS 8.0. (I mainly has used 7.5.x and 8.0 before swtiching to x86 linux.)

    139. Re:Damn Microsoft! by gonk · · Score: 1

      You can send a classified document you created to a co-worker and they can read it, but not forward it, or cut and paste it, or save it.

      You mean I'd have to take a picture of the screen with my camera or write the words down on a piece of paper to steal it?

      robert

    140. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      It did not. I repeated the install after discovering the problem and looked carefully for any options concerning the boot sector or anything even remotely related, it did not at any point give me the option of not overwriting the boot sector or dual booting.
          Aslo I was specifically watching for that step in the install as I've installed other distro's that default to hda0 and wanted to be shure to put the disto and bootloader on the correct drive. I was able to select the drive for the distro, but no drive or multiboot options were given with respect to the bootloader, nor even an option not to install a bootloader.
          The specific version with the faulty behaviour is "Version 4.10 (AMD64/EM64T Edition)" according to the install disk itself.
          Perhaps you have a later or earlier version or the 32bit version that tells you it's going to overwrite the boot sector of another hdd than the one it's being installed to or even lets you avoid it, but not 4.10 for amd64.
            Also I'm not shure how you come to the conclusion :"Also most people would like to install Grub on their MBR, since they don't even know what it is." HUH?!? If they don't know what it is how can they have a preference. And if they did why would they want all thier existing software and data suddenly rendered unreachable?
          The default should be dual boot unless going into a clean machine. Linux distro's have been able to detect windows xp partitions for some time now.With windows dominance on the desktop assuming that no one installing your os would want to keep access to thier windows partition/hard-drive is simply arrogance or stupidity that doesn't belong in a distro that apears to marketting itself to the masses (or would like to think so). I sincerely hope these errors are just because amd64 is new for them and they forgott to lable 4.1/amd64 as beta.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    141. Re:Damn Microsoft! by smchris · · Score: 1

      You kids are so cute when you're ignorant.

      Yes, I'm always in awe at how well the Reagan era brainwashed them.

      "Children, remember to leave your rights at the front door."

      "YES, TEACHER! :)"

      Was there a first grade primer about the little corporation that could do anything to you?

      Glad I only had to worry about the commies and the H bomb when I was a kid.

    142. Re:Damn Microsoft! by dhasenan · · Score: 1

      Did you sign a contract with Apple regarding the use of their software? If not, the EULA's no better, and possibly worse, than a verbal agreement.

    143. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Scum · · Score: 1

      Actually,

      I've a couple of manuals for software which are copy protected from photocopying - black ink on red paper. It just comes out as a horrible grey smudge on most photocopiers.

      And I'm sure there's colour photocopiers out there which will stop you doing perfect copies of certain kinds of green printed paper.

    144. Re:Damn Microsoft! by GreatSouledSam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That seems to be a trend in computing. Praise Apple for pulling the same sneaky underhanded moves that Microsoft gets pummeled for...not that Microsoft doesn't deserve pummeling mind you. I shall continue to steer clear of both. Ubuntu!

      --
      ---------- I have prepared a response. Ahem. Fuck. You.
    145. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Ugg. How many times does it have to be said?

      THESE ARE DEVELOPER MACHINES AND DO NOT REPRESENT HARDWARE THAT APPLE WILL SHIP.


      This is about the kernel, not the hardware.

      Really, if we take this attitude, we're forced to conclude that NOTHING about the developer platform can be counted upon to be in the commercial product. That's completely absurd. No, not everything will be in the commercial product, but it's not like they deliberately build the developer platform to be completely different from what they eventually release to the public.

      Common sense tells us that if there's DRM support in the OS X on Intel kernel, there's at the very least a chance that it'll be in the shipping product.

      If we're going to make noise over it, we damn well ought to do it as soon as we have first inkling of it, not when it's already too late. You don't wait until your neck is in a noose to hire a lawyer.
      --
      You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    146. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have got to be a troll.

      Dude, man.... you missed the entire point of his post. Honestly, that's just sad. And after that bit about the "thinking people"?? oooh... sorry, but congratulations, you're a moron. Note to self... don't use irony on slashdot..

    147. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      For me, my Apple hardware is a big reason I moved to OS X. Running OS X on my Dell just wouldn't be the same.


      I know, I know. Those multi-button mice are a bitch aren't they.
    148. Re:Damn Microsoft! by schuster · · Score: 1

      I think this is just Apple's already-known plans to prevent the OS from not running on anything they haven't sold as a Mac.

      That's exactly what I think. And besides, if you accept that a mac is both the hardware and software then it's not like they're being particularly invasive.

      --
      --- Don't ever trust a woman until she's dead- B.B. King
    149. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FictionPimp · · Score: 1

      Your exactly correct. The purpose of this is to prevent OSX from running on PC's that do not have this chip. Not the other way around. SOmeone should mod you up.

    150. Re:Damn Microsoft! by eclectic4 · · Score: 1

      Oh please. There is still no activation or serial for Mac OS. Never has been. So if that was your hang up, then why would you continue to use M$'s OS? Because you like copy protection in their OS?

      And remember, this is only for the hardware. It keeps their business as they are a hardware company that uses it's OS to lure people. It's not OS copy protection. I know this was a troll post, but I had to respond...

      --

      "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
    151. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Dutch_Cap · · Score: 1

      I wonder if not watching television impairs one's sense of irony.

    152. Re:Damn Microsoft! by SlamMan · · Score: 1

      Yeah it is. Actually read this one.

      --
      Mod point free since 2001
    153. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft have also implemented things themselves to deliberately destroy competition, even going so far as to steal source code to do it. One excellent example of this was Stacker, whose technology MS admitted to stealing after fighting in court long enough to bankrupt their smaller competitor. They've also worked hard to ensure that their products won't work with those from competitors, and also to stop competitors products working with their stuff. Add to this "pretend buyouts" that they pull out of later after having examined the other company's products and business plans, subsequent to which they launch their own near identical service, and you have all the makings of a truly benevolent company. Some examples:

      Windows 3.X constantly being altered to ensure that it would not work properly on DR-DOS.

      The same strategy was used to stop Lotus 1-2-3 from running in windows. This led to a saying in MS, "Windows isn't done until Lotus won't run".

      After failing to purchase Blue Mountain Arts, new versions of Outlook Express mysteriously started junking their digital greetings cards, while the Web TV product blocked all EMAIL of that type. Of course, Microsoft's own new greeting cards product that they produced after the buyout failed worked perfectly with both services.

      To prevent SAMBA from working properly, MS changed Windows/NT 4's communications protocol in a service pack. The fact that this could be changed with a registry setting was rapidly removed from MS' online info, as were all existing references to SAMBA.

      After negotiating a buyout with a small startup called TV Host, discovering everything about both the product and business plan, MS then pull out of the deal and launch their own version.

      When Be Inc. was trying to get dual-bundling deals for their OS, Microsoft prohibited vendors from doing so on pain of losing their OEM pricing for Windows.

      Need I go on to show that far from being a benevolent "buy them out to get their tech." company, MS have in fact used very unfair tactics to crush smaller competitors on numerous occasions. That's why they got convicted of monopoly abuse in the US and EU, and are being investigated for it in Japan.

    154. Re:Damn Microsoft! by hammackj · · Score: 1

      I use a Mac primary now, but I do own a Dell and I have never had any issues when I reformat it and install XP pro(Legal). I think people just use this excuse to whine about Microsoft.

      -hammackj

    155. Re:Damn Microsoft! by katty+kat · · Score: 1

      "No question now, what had happened to the face of Apple. The Mac Zealots outside looked from Apple to Microsoft, and from Microsoft to Apple, and from Apple to Microsoft again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

      Quote from "Server Farm" by George Orwell

    156. Re:Damn Microsoft! by dreemernj · · Score: 1
      how is paying for mac os x and installing it on an x86 computer you already own, copyright infringement?

      They are protecting their image. If Mac OS X were allowed to run on all X86 computers the limited drivers and instability because of it would make Apple look bad. I bet M$ would love the chance to force users to use a very narrow field of hardware. They could just program their OS specifically for it and not have to be compatible with tons of different stuff.
      --
      1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
    157. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tuxforever · · Score: 0

      So this DRM stuff will actually help Linux...good call. I searched far and wide for a DRM-less music store, because I loathe DRM (I am constantly swapping files between computers and portable music players - why deal with the drm bs?). I bet there are plenty with my same opinion. Now a DRM OS? No thank ya, linux for me!

    158. Re:Damn Microsoft! by dargon · · Score: 1

      > Second of all, if were to buy a Mac, then unless I
      > signed such a contract at the time, then the EULA
      > means precicely fuck all. I bought it, I can
      > fucking well do what I want with it!

      I think the police might take issue with you taking that computer and using it to bash in someones skull. ;)

    159. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cHiphead · · Score: 1

      There is a pizza joint in Gainesville where everyone ISN'T high? WTF? SHENNANIGANS!

      Cheers.

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    160. Re:Damn Microsoft! by elgaard · · Score: 1

      >You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people
      >weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      I have heard people from the media industri say they need DRM to stop us from taping a movie on TV a saturday night and watching it the sunday afternoon, thereby forcing us to buy the DVD or pay for a stream.

    161. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Icicle509 · · Score: 1

      Please, that was excruciatingly difficult to read, and I didnt even get a rise out of it.... Check your spelling and grammar next time for christsake.......

    162. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cortana · · Score: 1

      I had hoped it was not necessary to append "... within the bounds of the law" to the end of my sentence. :)

    163. Re:Damn Microsoft! by pruss · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't upholding a right that you signed away be an infringement on your freedom to enter into contracts (not one of the standard listed freedoms, but a very important one--the ability to make promises is what made humans an interesting animal, Nietsche wrote)?

      Of course, some contracts are non-enforceable, e.g., those for slavery. So there are limits even there.

    164. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TheLetterPsy · · Score: 1

      I think you must have missed the tags . . .

    165. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Taladar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Newsflash:
      Researchers discover: Some people are willing to pay more for a product then others...

    166. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try to spell your italisized words korectly next time.

    167. Re:Damn Microsoft! by lowmagnet · · Score: 1

      Except that good web deveopers code to standards instead of serving up different items via browser sniffing.

      --
      Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
    168. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're new here, right?

    169. Re:Damn Microsoft! by linwoes · · Score: 1

      Apple has always been an appliance company. Because of this the CPU of the machine is of little consequence. What processor is your NAS running? Are you worried if they stamp the disk so if it is removed an error occurs? If we take, just for a minute, my conjecture that PCs will become appliances just like your router, is it not good the the hardware and software can decide that each is as expected? I could only wish that my router had some DRM in it to prevent malicious hackers from up loading new FW through some hole. I don't want to think about the guts of my home PC, and I espically don't want to worry about the guts of my parents PC. I do want to look at the guts of my development hardware, but really PCs are played out. I believe that as digital media becomes more and more popular the home will contain a bunch of appliances that can talk wired or wirelessly. Apple, through luck, stubburn-ness, or amazing vision, has always been an appliance and I think the DRM will help them not dilute their product into the mold of PCs where the software runs on some hardware. Apple I believe is working toward a hardware/software symbiosis. Anyway just a rant

    170. Re:Damn Microsoft! by rob123 · · Score: 0

      I can remove Quicktime, the application, from my system very easily by dragging it to the trash and emptying it.

      Quicktime the framework I can't easily remove because it's part of the OS. This isn't like Microsoft stopping you uninstalling IE or WMP. It's a well documented API that handles media content for the OS. Most media apps will use it. Even Realplayer uses quicktime.

      The fact that you can remove the application is different to the microsoft problem because users can have a choice of what media player they have installed. They can remove Quicktime player and replace it with VLC or MPlayerOSX.

    171. Re:Damn Microsoft! by generic-man · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To play movies full-screen in Windows Media Player out of the box: ALT-ENTER

      To play movies full-screen in QuickTime Player out of the box: CMD-F (and pay $30) (and pay $30 for the next version) (and $30 more for the version after that)

      Yeah, Apple's a saint among corporations.

      --
      For more information, click here.
    172. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Typical Jobs. A tiny Microsoft, he is. Well, Stevo, you can keep your computer. Any thoughts I had about swapping are over.

    173. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn. That's a hefty fuckin' fee!

    174. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 73 · · Score: 1
      I had hoped it was not necessary to append "... within the bounds of the law" to the end of my sentence. :)

      But now that you have, one of those "bounds of the law" is copyright law. Copyright law says that you CAN'T just do whatever the fuck you want to with the software on your computer. You are free to leave it there or delete it, not copy it to some other computer. Get it, no RIGHT to COPY it. Just like I don't have the right to bash someone's head in with my osborne...
    175. Re:Damn Microsoft! by radiojock · · Score: 1

      Jeez, cry me a river...

        When did DRM turn in to a violation of the constitution? This is about control, Mr. $teve wants to be able to control where his OS goes. Yes people are gonna figure out how to flash their bios and get the TPM to work etc. Do you remember that apple got pissed off when people figured out how to get OS10.3 on a biege g3? or worse on a *gasp* clone? I'm sure that you and all of your pot smoking cop friends will be able to download 10.xxx from whatever source you want and install it..

      People are getting miffed because apple is making money on open sourced software, and controlling where it goes. I for one am not a huge fan, but I also realize when you start allowing people to install an OS willy-nilly, you will have problems, remeber, most people in the world are morons.

      So go cry me a river you sack of poop...

    176. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      1) Rehash tired old joke
      2) .....
      3) PROFIT!!!!!

      I fail it.

      --
      -- Using the preview button since 2005
    177. Re:Damn Microsoft! by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny
      In Soviet Russia, tired old joke rehash YOU.

      -Eric

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    178. Re:Damn Microsoft! by larkost · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You don't license your hardware, but you do license your software. To put another spin on it, do you think it would be alright to buy copy of the latest Harry Potter book, copy out the text, and start selling your own printed versions? Notice I am not talking about loaning your book to that person, but actually making a copy. You are always free to loan your computer (and the software on it) to a friend.

    179. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Metasquares · · Score: 1

      You have? Where can I pick up one of these 1.6 THz Macs that everyone seems to have?

    180. Re:Damn Microsoft! by BostonPilot · · Score: 1
      When Hollywood makes films do they pay owners for using footage of the outside of their buildings? I don't believe this is usually the case so why should it be illegal to make footage of their footage? It would seem a building costs far more to product than some tape.

      Actually, they do. I've been told in photography classes that you can't take a picture that includes a building unless you get permission. Apparently the architectural firms own copyright to the likeness of the building. Do I think that's stupid? Yup.

      On the Fight Club DVD, they talk about the end scene where they blow up some buildings - totally done in CG - having to be buildings that the studio owned. I guess you can get into trouble for blowing up the likeness of someone else's building?

      Personally I think it might be time for copyright to go away, or at least drastically morph so that most information becomes free.

    181. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I generally agree with you, but there is a marked difference between what Apple did with Konfabulator and Dashboard and what Linux/*BSD does.

      It is as if Konfabulator made a fancy and unique kind of new car stereo, then Apple copied their design and used their immitation to sell more of their cars.

      Linux copies the new car stereo design (usually with only partial success), but then gives the whole car away for free.

    182. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to deal with speed limits being lowered to deal with idiots who speed, bag searches at supermarkets because of idiots who shoplift, and even more intensive screenings at airports because of morons who want to use innocents for their own personal socio-political stupidity. Now I'm also being restricted in my personal hobby interest and profession?

      Well gee, I guess we wouldn't need ANY laws at all, were it not for those pesky few that break them?

    183. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TERdON · · Score: 1
      Also I'm not shure how you come to the conclusion :"Also most people would like to install Grub on their MBR, since they don't even know what it is." HUH?!? If they don't know what it is how can they have a preference. And if they did why would they want all thier existing software and data suddenly rendered unreachable?

      Most people really WOULD like to have Grub on the MBR. Less problems that way than installing it in one of the partitions (especially as THAT for sure would be able to render data unreadable...). What also is true though, is that most people would like it setup for dualboot if there is another OS installation available, giving them a bootup menu where you can choose between the different OSes you have installed at bootup.

      --
      I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
    184. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cajunfj40 · · Score: 1

      Dilemma. Your post has lots of interesting bits concerning the mass media and how it's whipped a lot of people into a frenzy and how it's "much ado about nothing". It also is written as a response/attack on another post which is insightful in it's dry sarcasm. (Seumas' post)

      I'll leave them both modded "Normal" and hope others read both in their entirety. So far neither one of you is a troll, and I don't expect you to be.

    185. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I can remove Quicktime, the application, from my system very easily by dragging it to the trash and emptying it.

      And I can remove Internet Explorer, the application, from my system very easily by dragging IEXPLORE.EXE to the Recycle Bin and emptying it, although I generally find pressing the "delete" button on my keyboard is more efficient than flailing about with a mouse.

      Quicktime the framework I can't easily remove because it's part of the OS. This isn't like Microsoft stopping you uninstalling IE or WMP. It's a well documented API that handles media content for the OS. Most media apps will use it. Even Realplayer uses quicktime.

      Internet Explorer the framework-equivalent I can't easily remove because it's part of the OS. This is just like Apple stopping you removing Quicktime. It's a well-documented API that handles HTML rendering for the OS. Most programs that render HTML use it. With the exception of one or two which use an alternative like Gecko or whatever Opera's rendering engine is called.

      The fact that you can remove the application is different to the microsoft problem because users can have a choice of what media player they have installed. They can remove Quicktime player and replace it with VLC or MPlayerOSX.

      This is identical to the situation on Windows, where - amazingly enough - users also have the choice of which web browser they have installed. They can remove IEXPLORE.EXE (though there's absolutely no point doing so) and replace it with Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, etc.

    186. Re:Damn Microsoft! by schiefaw · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That is some act! What do you call it? The Aristocrats!

      --
      Angleyne: You can't bend that girder - it's unbendable! Bender: Well I don't know anything about lifting, so that ju
    187. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 1

      Italian laws have a series of rather strict guidelines of what clauses are considered vexatory (since the "seller" demands too much power).

      You have to sign two times on most contracts: one for the bulk of the contract, and one under the "I specifically agree to clauses n. 3,7,67" part.
      (you guessed it, insurance contracts have 90% clauses repeated in the second part: almost all the clauses are vexatory :-) )

      This is however taking a risk for the seller, since a customer (or more likely a customers association) can appeal against those clauses, and often win.

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    188. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mw13068 · · Score: 1
      And no, don't say Linux...

      No, I say GNU/Linux. That way you're helping to acknowledge the GNU Project, that has been working against things like this for over twenty years.

      And you don't have time to learn to use a system that doesn't steal your freedom? Man, you must be busy... :)

    189. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kannibal_klown · · Score: 1
      Then why do they sue people making pre-annoucements about their products, sue people who leak versions of their OS (these are customers of theirs since they have purchased an Apple computer).


      I like Apple products as much as the next guy. However, I don't look at the company with rose-colored glasses like some zealots. They're in it to make money.

      However, with the whole sue people making pre-annoucements about their products thing... they were like 75% in the right. The real problem was it was a David v Goliath scenario.

      The information most-likely came from a someone who knew what they were talking about; the leak was too correct and specific. So, everyone who knew anything had signed an NDA at some point. This leak violated the NDA which means they needed to can their ass.

      Unfortunately, the poor blogger didn't want to turn in his contact, so they tried turning the screws on him to find out who they needed to fire (or sue). This was really bad PR.

      They were rightfully concerned. If some guy gave some tech info to a blogger, who's to say he hasn't or won't decide to sell some info to company B?

      Their reasons were good, it's just that they went a little too far to get the blogger to give up the name. If this wasn't Apple vs the blogger, but a small Apple Software developer it would be no big deal.
    190. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And just when I thought that the only problem with Macs was the lack of some mouse buttons.

    191. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Kjella · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have another person who have fallen for the FUD and no longer believes you can own a copy - you either own the copyright, or you license it. The copyright, the right to make copies, has always been protected by copyright law. If you sell me a Harry Potter book (the copy), you do not need to have a license agreement with me.

      Licensing has nothing to do with the right to make copies. It is about controlling how and what you do with your copy, and to avoid consumer rights we recieve by a sale. For example, to only allow playback on approved devices to limit features (disable fast forward), collect player royalties, enforce artifical market barriers (zones)
      or to tie licenses to specific hardware or activation schemes to prevent resale, or to remove the rights you normally would have under fair use and other laws.

      Anything that isn't lent, rented or leased, I consider sold. You sell me CDs, DVDs, iTMS songs and Windows XP. Not the copytight, the copy. That is my personal philosophy at least. The law is bought.

      Kjella

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    192. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Approaching.sanity · · Score: 1

      It's an apple, you meant "crisper"

      --
      RTFA again for the best results.
    193. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 0
      I don't know... in more civilized law systems some rights are upheld EVEN if you signed them away.

      That's why they are called "unalienable", you know.

      Knock off the condescending crap. I'm pretty sure things like employment contracts and limited non-compete clauses are quite legal in your country too.

      In other words, your high horse is a pony.

    194. Re:Damn Microsoft! by benjcurry · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I find it odd that even though I am the most responsible, competent and intelligent person at my job (and humble too!), I have to hide the fact that I occasionally smoke marijuana, while the boozing party hounds get to come in bragging about how drunk they were last night. Nice!

    195. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 64nDh1 · · Score: 1
      Hee hee. I get it, now you're being ironic, right?

      If not you seriously need to start a petition to get a new HTML standard that will make text lean like italics, only to the right instead of the left, that way you'll know it's ironic or even sarcastic.

    196. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ZorinLynx · · Score: 1

      This is precisely why I completely dumped windows once XP came out and I found about all this crap.

      I don't need my computer requiring "reactivation" just because I change hardware.

      Before they implemented this, MS was simply annoying. Afterwards they became "big brother", constantly watching what you do with your machine and requiring you to check in with them if you make too many changes.

      Fuck that. My machine, my rules. Go away Gestapo Microsoft.

      (and before anyone defends MS, saying how easy it is to reactivate, etc... It's the PRINCIPLE. Even if reactivation is just clicking a button it's STILL big brother checking up on you. Same point applies.)

    197. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MouseR · · Score: 1

      My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products

      So, to get this right, you planed to moved to Mac OS X simply because you could easily steal a copy?

      Perhaps that's why Apple waited to long to move onto Intel. Now, they have a chance of a wider audience with, perhaps, not too much of a risk to being bled to death.

      When you have ~3% world market share, you can't afford to loose 30% of it to software pirates.

      As far as using the DRM stuff to restrict use of material you own, I wouldn't worry too much. Case to the point is iTunes. It's still the most flexible DRM schème thus far.

      Apple could spare to ignore any illegal copies of Mac OS X before because, at least, they'd be guaranteed they were being used on their own machines, so they made some money on the hardware level at some point. Take away the hardware and it's a complete loss of profit (yes, Apple is in for the profit).

      If you value your time like I do (parents tend to do so very dearly), then calculate all the administrative hassles you spend yearly on your system(*) and multiply by what you value your time at. Even at minimum wage, it's still worth a copy of Mac OS X at retail price.

      (*) make that any viral/trojan/spyware workouts, driver installations, brother-in-law servicing or what have you

    198. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 1

      Try to pass an agreement on videotaping workers in italy, and you'll see the flames ablaze.

      Casinos after _years_ of struggle, and with *everyone* knowing that croupiers stole money, only managed to have the HANDS videotaped, without the real possibility to identify people.

      Just because it is written and signed does not mean it is legal: EULAS are mostly inapplicable under most european law systems. But they are there nonetheless.

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    199. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      Well, I suppose that this is only a philsophical difference, but here's my question: if the law says it's true, and the courts say it's true, and the EULAs say it's true, and the companies say it's true, and the legal experts all say it's true . . . then it what meaningful way is it not true?

    200. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ShyGuy91284 · · Score: 1

      Very true. Just yesterday a friend of mine said he didn't really download any music online until recently when he started just because the ads against it pissed him off.

      --
      In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
    201. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Gudlyf · · Score: 1
      "A lot of piracy is at least partly down to the pirated material being "better" than the originals in many ways..."

      Yeah, I think I heard the key reason was the pirated stuff being priced a lot better. :-P

      --
      Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
    202. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NineNine · · Score: 1

      I'll leave them both modded "Normal" and hope others read both in their entirety. So far neither one of you is a troll, and I don't expect you to be.

      Actually, you can't mod anything in this discussion since you just posted a comment.

    203. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      i would like to donate to the eff, except i don't want to be put on a list of terrorists.

      If you truly feel that way, you're not only a tinfoil guy, but an un-fucking-believable moron. Good God, are people really witholding money for reasons as inane as that?!?

    204. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mikeytwice · · Score: 1

      That's not a very good yardstick to judge potheads by; I get stoned before work constantly to no detriment, and I pulled a 3.88 at my uni while smoking pot and taking acid all the time... As long as the individual gets the job done, what does it matter what he or she eats, smokes, drinks, looks like, or fucks?

    205. Re:Damn Microsoft! by roadrunnerro · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that you can't copy software in any way - you can't add a RAID mirror, make an image of a filesystem or make a backup CD of the install kit.. (all protected actions under fair-use...)

      Who do you work for again?

    206. Re:Damn Microsoft! by squoozer · · Score: 1

      Cheers, while I was fairly sure Saumas' post was more dry wit than troll I felt that it expressed widely held world views which I find troubling. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that I have heard such views expressed with honesty and conviction. I too hope that both are read as I feel they portray two very different world views that are becoming more separated with every passing day.

      I intended it more as a rebuttal of the given world view than an attack on Seuma personally.

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    207. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ChaosCube · · Score: 1

      Use Linux. Although, it does take some time to learn to use it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.

      --
      BDR Gear
      Outdoor gear, MREs, and more!
    208. Re:Damn Microsoft! by vertinox · · Score: 1

      Any fool who thinks DRM is about "stopping piracy" is nothing but a pure fool who's had too much Koolaid.

      I was always thought DRM was about making you pay twice for something you already own.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    209. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In korea, only old people rehash jokes.

    210. Re:Damn Microsoft! by roadrunnerro · · Score: 1

      not quite - they get their popularity from the fact that most 3rd party stuff _works_ with Windows.

    211. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What will you do when ALL the stored ask you to leave the bad at the door?

    212. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I think I heard the key reason was the pirated stuff being priced a lot better. :-P

      If you'd bothered to read my post you would've seen the bit which said that I download TV shows off bit torrent because that way I can get them at their air date instead of 3 - 6 months later when the UK TV stations bother to show them. Cost is not a factor - there just isn't any legal way to get them.

      As for music, yes - I "illegally" download music... and then I delete the downloaded copies and if I like them I buy the CD. The only thing the music industry is losing there is that I don't buy CDs I don't like, and as a result I buy more CDs in total since I can identify the ones I do like before spending money. So I guess the parts of the music industry that produce crap might not be happy.

    213. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Wildkat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well I for one do not agree with your world view but maybe its BECAUSE I am a full grown adult. When I was a teen, pot smoking seemed like a fun, harmless thing. My employer for the last 19 years (Army) takes a hard line on drug use and I have o problem with that. See, I dont like the idea of the guy next to me with a gun being stoned - or drunk for that matter. As my daughter approaches teen dating years I developed a dim view of most young men and an even dimmer view of any with cars or motorcycles. Age does things like that to you.

      But none of that stops you from starting a company and putting a big sing on the door saying "Help wanted - dope smokers welcome!" Well nothing except the extra attention you would get from the police but even that could work out if you lowered your local crime rate. It might work out that your employees are so gratefull for your keeping out of their personal lives tht they never once come to work impared. Or they could come to work impared, get hurt and sue you out of existance for failing to prevent them from hurting themselves.

      This is exactly what the open source community has done with DRM and now we all have a choice between one product with DRM and one without. Most people will see the good of DRM free software and not abuse it to blatantly rip off other people hard work. Some will not. Im talking going beyond fair use to selling soneone elses work as your own. We will see which will survive long term. I would rather have the DRMless software but I understand the need to protect IP.

      The open market will decide if your "Pot Smokers Friendly" business will survive and thrive and in an ideal world the open market would decide the DRM issue. I say ideal because I think the media companies iron grip on content will give DRM an unfair advantage but they still might lose.

    214. Re:Damn Microsoft! by coolGuyZak · · Score: 2, Funny
      Or when my employer wants to make me take a drug test even though I don't even so much as smoke cigerettes or drink alchohol and my job involves me sitting at a desk reading and writing things of little consequence.

      Aww, come on. Slashdot's not really that bad, is it?

    215. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      Nah, if "content providers" weren't such greedy bloodsucking parasites, then there'd be no need for DRM.

      So . . . wanting to make a profit on what you invested in makes you a bloodsucking parasite . . . I see. In case I am misreading you, can you be more specific about what your criteria are for being a bloodsucking parasite?

      I don't think many people would pay for anything if they could get it all for free with no consequences and no effort. Actually, it doesn't matter what I think -- there is no evidence to suggest that people will pay for anything they can obtain for free, unless they are hoodwinked into it. There is plenty of evidence that shows that they will steal. DRM is partially a move to add effort to the cost of gaining something illegally, the lawsuits companies are levying against software, music, and movie pirates are about adding consequences. Together, companies hope that these two forces will cause more people to buy their product.

      Because those companies didn't actually EARN those profits by providing a desired good or service at a price that buyers were willing to pay? Like what would happen in a _real_ capitalistic market instead of a government-mandated one.

      It is not the company's duty to satisfy its customers. As long as the customers are still willing to pay for some service the company provides or do without it, it's fine for companies to continue as they are. Note that the alternatives are:

      1) Pay the company for the service
      2) Pay some other company for the service
      3) Render the service to yourself
      4) Don't have the service

      Stealing is not supposed to be an alternative in a capitalist marketplace.

      All capitalistic markets are protected by the government. The reponsibility of the government in the free market is to prevent laws from being broken so that property owners are secure in knowing that their property cannot be stolen. With this in mind, the US government, far from being too restrictive to copyright breakers, is actually being unforgivably lenient (they should be dealt with like any other theives). See Characteristics of Capitalist Economies for more on these issues.

    216. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I'll be sticking to Linux, where groups like Debian will remove software because it comes under a license that's too restrictive.

      However, some like myself, would say that Debian itself is to restracitve... the whole social contract idea is fine... but honestly I want something that works and could care less about its social contract. If I want Firefox I want Firefox, I don't want Debian's Gecko Based Browser.

    217. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This has been disproven several times.

      There were two features that were not 'paid for' that Apple developed that the community bitches about.

      Both were well under development in Apple's internal labs before the 'third party' developer took up the cause. Both were designed by folks that either worked at Apple in the past and knew about these developments, or contracted with Apple and had access to people that were developing these.

      Its also well known that Apple can sit on an idea for years. The Piles / Heaps folder is one of these (and has been reported because of a patent)...I have a feeling if someone introduced this as a third party hack, Apple will get off their ass and release it in a better form. And then the developer will scream that Apple stole their idea. And the community will believe them.

      Me? I've thought about developing this hack and it is implemented towards my way of cluttered thinking.

      But all in all, people that read that Apple has stolen innovator's ideas have no clue.

      Anonymously yours,

      The Coward

    218. Re:Damn Microsoft! by schtum · · Score: 3, Funny

      I for one welcome our tired, rehashed overlords.

    219. Re:Damn Microsoft! by SlamMan · · Score: 1

      Bullocks. Good web developers create good output. If putting up a different copy of a page works around problems a large portion of your market has, then thats what you have to do. You have the standards page for people who can use it, and the jacked up one for people who need it.

      --
      Mod point free since 2001
    220. Re:Damn Microsoft! by geoffspear · · Score: 1
      You're justifying pirating music based on the music companies reaction to piracy of music.

      They only started using copy protection on CDs because of widespread piracy. You can bet your ass that if, as you suggest, the music companies looked into the causes of piracy before starting to use copy protection, they wouldn't have found that people were pirating their music because of copy protection. Try again.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    221. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mo+Bedda · · Score: 1

      You are making the assumption that DRM is only going to be used prevent copyright infringment. I doubt it will be.

      While I am not allowed to copy a book, I am allowed to read it and give it away or resell it. I am allowed to read it as many times as I like. None of that may be possible with DRM.

      Software makers and content producers like the idea of making you pay each time you access their content. Want to read your Word files this month? Better pay your Office subscription price. Want to watch that new DVD again? Better cough up some more money for another viewing. Industries have been drooling over the prospect of pay per use software and pay per play radio/movies for a long time. This is how they are attempting to implement it. And, this is just a step along the way.

      You may not be able to loan your computer to a friend once you need to verify your identity using the fingerprint scanner built into your machine against your REALID just to get the thing to boot. Afterall, we need to keep pirates and terrorists from using computers, listening to music, or watching movies. I know I feel safer already.

      Once REALID is implemented, they could build readers into computers and media players, simply scan who is in proximity to the device, and bill you based on that. Afterall, your license only covers you. Those ten people who walked by your open car window, didn't pay to hear that music. Your roommates didn't pay to watch that new movie with you. Either you will pay or they will pay, because your license didn't cover public performance.

      The notion that when you purchase a CD or DVD you are only buying a license to do whatever the copyright holder will allow you to do is fiction. That is why they have to create technology to enforce it rather an using the law. The DMCA gives them enough law to prevent you from breaking their system, but did not by itself turn their fiction into reality.

    222. Re:Damn Microsoft! by takeya · · Score: 1

      So uh, what becomes of "It just works" ??

      Mac OS X86: It just works. So long as you fork over adequate cash.

    223. Re:Damn Microsoft! by prell · · Score: 1

      I'd bet $50 that this "DRM" is just to make sure you're using Apple-branded hardware.

      I get the feeling Apple will be treated with scorn by many people if they don't release a general-purpose, "anything goes" hardware-adapting version of OS X. Why is it incumbent upon Apple to do this? If Apple is so good at making user-level software, maybe we should just trust them to make their own decisions and not frame their activity from whatever socioeconomic platform we might claim to believe in. Granted, Steve Jobs' announcement that Apple would move to Intel was presented in a confusing manner.

    224. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is everyone forgetting?? I remember about 4-5 years ago Microsoft investing A LOT into apple. Form what i remember, they basically saved the company. Now, how many people with PCs would dump Windows if they could install OSX instead? I don't know anyone that would not switch immediatly. Wouldn't be too good for Windows now, would it?

    225. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 7-Vodka · · Score: 1

      roffleskates.
      Look up something called sarchasm.

      --

      Liberty.

    226. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PCeye · · Score: 1

      ...Except in Nebraska.

    227. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      There's a word for people like you: a useful idiot.

      Actually, that's three words, but who's counting ;)

    228. Re:Damn Microsoft! by araemo · · Score: 1

      if the law says it's true,
      What law? I've never seen a law that regards contracts you cannot read before paying for them.

      and the courts say it's true
      No, actually, the courts have not said anything on this subject yet.

      and the EULAs say it's true, and the companies say it's true
      I've got a bridge to sell you if you'd like it, I swear I own it, see? This contract says I own it, and I'll sell it to you!

      and the legal experts all say it's true . . .
      Legal experts are not the law. they can give you an educated guess at how the courts will apply a given law, but until there is case law on a particular subject, it's very hard for them to be 100% correct.

      then it what meaningful way is it not true?
      Oh, just the whole idea of the power of law in a democracy coming from the people.</idealistic>

      Just because "everyone" tells you it's true doesn't mean it is.

    229. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mocenigo · · Score: 1
      The only way Apple can "protect" their operating system from being run on other hardware is to include Trusted Computing?

      I did not say that.

      How far will you twist and turn to avoid the truth?

      I am not twisting anything.
      We are discussing here the fact that the presence of this chip can be used to lock the Mac OS on Apple hardware. Apple said this. I also mentioned that this is only one way of achieving this, only one of many different ways.

      How about the fact that Apple makes its money from people buying its systems for the lack of hassle?

      Please reformulate this sentence in English... why should Apple NOT be allowed to make money from hardware sales?

      You mean if Apple just included a simple BIOS check, aunty Doris might purchase a PC clone with Windows XP on, download a hacked version of OSX (with the check removed) from P2P, install it and gloat over Jobs' loss of cash and lack of vision in not implementing a "Trusted computing" infrastructure that would have prevented this.

      No, I am not saying this. Anyway, it is clear to me that YOU want to use Apple's fruits of labour without having to support Apple's development. In other words, to me you are angry just because you fear you would not be allowed to be a thief.

      There's a different problem. What other uses that infineon DRM chip may have. But you say something quite wrong:

      How deluded are you? If you seriously think this is purely to control the distribution of OSX, then Apple zealots are more witless and crazed than I thought. You talk of "profits"... and then ignore the fact that Apple is making most of its money on iTunes and possibly its forthcoming video versions... all of which will be big future users of TCPA once it is established.

      Apple currently makes money from hardware, not from iTunes and iPods. Please check the facts. iTunes and iPods are giving them mindshare (at the moment), and I do not have your crystal ball.

    230. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Soviet Corea, only tired, old people rehash hot grits!

    231. Re:Damn Microsoft! by prell · · Score: 1

      Employers give drug tests because employees take drugs on the job.

    232. Re:Damn Microsoft! by lp-habu · · Score: 1
      I don't know... in more civilized law systems some rights are upheld EVEN if you signed them away.

      That's why they are called "unalienable", you know.

      Which unalienable right do you think might have been signed away? And anyway the question of whether one can give up an unalienable right is open; there are arguments on both sides. "Unaliienable" simply means it can't be taken away, not that it can't be given away.
    233. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      They only started using copy protection on CDs because of widespread piracy. You can bet your ass that if, as you suggest, the music companies looked into the causes of piracy before starting to use copy protection, they wouldn't have found that people were pirating their music because of copy protection. Try again.

      Piracy _was_ a problem before they started copy protecting CDs. However, their response is only going to increase the amount of piracy, not reduce it. That's because it only takes a few people to get around the copy protection before the content becomes available illegally (so you've automatically failed there since copy protection isn't 100% effective), but in copy protecting the material you've also prevented legitimate users from using the product legitimately. So now not only have you get the original pirates still copying the content, you just added a bucket-load of previously legit users to the "pirate" category since the only way they can get the content in a format that's useful to them is by pirating it.

      Not to mention that there's an aweful lot of evidence that suggests the illegal distribution of music can actually _increase_ sales since you get people like me doing "try-before-you-buy", so people producing good content are probably benefitting.

    234. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1
      The reponsibility of the government in the free market is to prevent laws from being broken so that property owners are secure in knowing that their property cannot be stolen.

      Go back and read the Constitution. Copyrights were not introduced in order to create a new kind of "property" that could be "stolen".

      Any property-like features associated with copyrights were a windfall benefit side effect of the particular method used to promote creation of more content. Property-like features are a means to an end, not an end in themselves, and copyright infringement is not the same as theft.

      Therefore, the government's primary interest should NOT be to try to protect individual copyright holders from every last instance of illicit copying. If anything, the government's role should be creating an environment where the maximum amount of content is being produced, regardless of how much infringement is included in that environment. Sentencing teenagers to hard time over illicit copies of bubblegum pop songs is almost certainly not the best way to achieve that goal.

    235. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      can you be more specific about what your criteria are for being a bloodsucking parasite?

      Someone who insists that they need special "laws" to protect a business model that would not be viable in a normal free market.

      I don't think many people would pay for anything if they could get it all for free with no consequences and no effort.

      Right, and that's the nature of a free market. Honest business people would take a look at that market and say: "Can't make money in that market. Better find something else to do that can." A greedy businessperson says: "Better use my contacts in the legislature, get a few laws passed put arbitrary restrictions what people can do with their own private property, and make money off of resultant artificial scarcity."

      It is not the company's duty to satisfy its customers.

      Yes it is. If a company can't convince customers to buy its products or services at a certain price level, then it should either change its products or services or change its price level. It is NOT the customer's duty to buy at that price level, and it is certainly not the company's "right" to force the customers to buy at a certain price level. And if the company doesn't understand that, then they should go out of business.

      Stealing is not supposed to be an alternative in a capitalist marketplace.

      And as has been often quoted, "copyright infringement" is not stealing, neither literally nor legally (patent infringement is not "stealing" either). So your remarks & emotional responses about "thieves" are completely misplaced.

      I'd suggest you redirect your ire toward people who think it's OK to have special laws passed to protect their nonviable business models by violating your private property rights.

    236. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Well I for one do not agree with your world view but maybe its BECAUSE I am a full grown adult. When I was a teen, pot smoking seemed like a fun, harmless thing. My employer for the last 19 years (Army) takes a hard line on drug use and I have o problem with that. See, I dont like the idea of the guy next to me with a gun being stoned - or drunk for that matter. As my daughter approaches teen dating years I developed a dim view of most young men and an even dimmer view of any with cars or motorcycles. Age does things like that to you."

      Well, note that he said "for most job". I, for one, agree with you that a strict drug policy is necessary for jobs that require you to be able to responsible handle weapons (i.e. policemen, soldiers,...) or are otherwise responsible for a lot of lifes around them (airplane pilots for example). That said, requiring drug tests for, say, janitors, is ridiculous and makes no sense at all.

    237. Re:Damn Microsoft! by geoffspear · · Score: 1
      conjecture and anecdotes don't constitute "an aweful [sic] lot of evidence".

      Why would you buy something if you already have a perfectly good free copy?

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    238. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MPHellwig · · Score: 1

      In there initial form, laws where an agreement of a society.
      You didn't need to agree but the consequence was that you got banned or slaughterd (outlawed).

      The agreements where in the form of: don't kill me - I won't kill you.

      Today's laws are more complicated, mostly unnecessary and sometimes not in the best interest of the society as a whole.
      Of course it gets impossible to uphold the law.

    239. Re:Damn Microsoft! by prell · · Score: 1

      I believe you're exactly who companies who do copy protection do not care about; I'm sure they're more than happy to let you do what you want. Copy protection is solely to try and prevent theft; not to try and prevent you from getting the most out of what you buy/watch/etc. Theft comes with a dirty conscience and, I would imagine, might be the most vociferously defended since that's actually the activity that's under attack. I honestly don't care much about copy protection, and I won't until it gets in the way of me doing something I morally approve of. Then I'll crack it.

    240. Re:Damn Microsoft! by araemo · · Score: 1

      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.
      Well, I debate the "need" now anyways, given that those who meaningfully impact the sales of legit DVDs will not be impacted by copy protection, since they mostly operate in countires where most of the playing devices sold also do not have copy protection. All copy protection can be defeated, it's fundamental to the technology involved. Once it has been broken once, non-encumbered devices can be used to play the now-unencumbered media.

      Honestly, how can you blame companies for trying to protect their profits when thousands of people are ripping them off every day?
      Oh noes! Thousands! a whole 0.0001% of their market. So why ruin everything for the other 99.9999% of the market? I know more people 'pirate' than merely thousands, but I would say 'ripping off' is only applicable if the copyright holder is losing money/face in the deal, so thousands is probably accurate. ;P

      Honestly, you should be mad at the pirates, without whom we wouldn't have this problem.
      No, we'd probably still have this problem anyways, given the behavoir of the MPAA/RIAA et al. since the early 20th century. When any new technology that has a chance of changing their business model comes out, they first attempt to make it completely illegal.

      Then, when step #1 fails, they buy up all the manufacturers and simply make it illegal to produce/sell it without them getting a cut.

      I fully expect that no matter WHAT, the MPAA/RIAA/et al. would have developed DRM anyways. Just the POSSIBILITY that their stuff could be copied would make them wake up in cold sweats until everything is DRMed.

    241. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 1

      I don't know about the language subtlenesses of english, but in italian "to alienate" is equivalent to "to sell", not to "to take away".

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    242. Re:Damn Microsoft! by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      You have an interesting point. When you buy a new pc, many times the vendor includes something in the box that says you must agree to the EULA to use the computer. At work we had several dells come in with this sort of wording. What if I buy a computer that includes Windows, but play to install a linux distro or a BSD on it? I've had to agree to a microsoft eula for software I don't even want. Now it may only be legal if i actually use windows to do that, but thats not what the documenation with the computer says. I'm not sure what the law is in this case.

      I've always wondered how this would apply to using a windows driver in a wrapper in linux or bsd to use a piece of hardware. Since the software was intended for windows environments, how does the license apply for the driver?

      If apple were to use the DRM only for the operating system, I don't see a big problem with it. How is this different than the old Mac ROMS?

    243. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmmmmm Munched taint.....mmmmmmm

    244. Re:Damn Microsoft! by prell · · Score: 1

      Wait, Macs are cheap. Right? They are cheap. I mean, if you take the bare minimum of what could technically be called a "laptop," you might be able to get a brand new one for less than $999, but I bet it wouldn't be as awesome as an iBook, and I bet it wouldn't come with grade-A, no-questions-asked, no-problem-we'll-send-it-overnight-via-Airborne customer service.

      And if you want to talk about disrespecting developers, look no further than the Win32 API, my friend. That is a fucking spider nest. I'm sure Microsoft is trying to improve upon it (unless .NET really isn't going to make it into Windows), but for now it is just abhorrent. OS X's Cocoa, on the other hand, is a delight to program under. And perhaps most importantly, OS X is just a beautiful platform to develop for. Windows isn't, really; they don't even provide a good GUI library; it's all manual nuts-and-bolts stuff (unless you use MFC, which even Microsoft has officially recommended against).

      I would bet that the disrepsect you're referring to is Dashboard. I'm sure you notice how close it is to Konfabulator. I acknowledge that, but I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes stuff. It's not something that I worry about because Apple has done so much to gain my respect.

    245. Re:Damn Microsoft! by lp-habu · · Score: 1
      I stand corrected. The meaning in English is:

      inalienable - adjective
      unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor : freedom of religion, the most inalienable of all human rights.

    246. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      I also use a free firewall and AV app for my rarely-used Windows box, but most people don't. They use what comes with their machine, and that's not free -- it starts blackmailing you for protection money after X weeks or a year or whatever.

      MS may have improved regarding not screwing with competitors' apps, but the fact is, they have done so in the past and that willingness to mess with competitors' business is a huge black mark on their record. I'm not willing to trust them given their past record and their newfound desire to snoop into MY COMPUTER. MY COMPUTER, get your hands off it!

      And I prefer to be able to remove whatever the hell I want to remove, if I decide I want the disk space back rather than having to have an app installed that I don't want and will never use.

    247. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Why would you buy something if you already have a perfectly good free copy?

      1. Because I want a legal copy
      2. Because I want a physical copy (i.e. a CD)
      3. Because a good artist deserves some money

      You obviously have a pretty low moral standard if you'd rather get a good product for free illegally when it's available for a reasonable price legally.

    248. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Over here in Europe ... our productivity hasn't dropped through the floor.


      But, to be fair, it's not like you were starting very high above the floor. Of course, I doubt you'll see this response, as it's now August and you and the rest of Europe are now off on holiday.
    249. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Assumption that I'm a thief and making me jump through hoops instead of just letting me work.

      Refusing to let me uninstall apps I don't want.

      Refusing to abide by ratified W3C standards so I get people whining that my site doesn't work with their piece of crap browser and then stewing when I tell them to click on the link that's right there on the page that validates the page as good HTML.

      Constantly trying to foist needless upgrades on people that aren't necessary and just result in more headaches for me in tech support, like item 1 above does.

      Actively interfering with my ability to choose what OS I might want to use on a computer that I buy on the rare cases I might want to buy a whole new PC from some big company.

      Actively (in the past) interfering with competitors' software that they decide they don't like and then not coming up with a satisfactory excuse for why.

      Stupid and frivolous lawsuits.

      Monopolistic tactics (convicted of it).

      Weaseling out of the punishment that they should be forced to induce.

      I'm sure there's a zillion more. Those are the big ones.

    250. Re:Damn Microsoft! by jamesmrankinjr · · Score: 1

      I suggest that you learn to live with the fact that the universe doesn't have a concept of right and wrong and try and accept the people around you because surprisingly most aren't actually out to get you. I hope that you think about what I have said. We can create a relaxed world where we get along it just takes a little understanding.

      You were doing good until you got here.

      You just spent several paragraphs making a moral argument, then try to claim morality does not exist. Well, if that's so, then a universe in which black people and pot smokers are arbitrarily persecuted is no more bad than a universe where everyone is relaxed and gets along with one another.

      Moral relativism is a philosophy that is impossible for human beings to espouse consistently.

      Peace be with you,
      -jimbo

    251. Re:Damn Microsoft! by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 1
      You hit the nail on the head! Apple is a nasty, monopolistic company too. They're just not as good at is as Microsoft.

      While I'm not a fan of "Free Software", I can't imagine why some folks simply hate Microsoft so much that they consider Apple to be one of the "good guys" just so Microsoft has a tiny sliver of competition.

    252. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Little+Grey · · Score: 1

      The two examples you gave do not represent what's happening here. Photocopying a textbook and taping a song off the radio are both means of copying an analog source to an analog destination. Both copies will most likely be of low to average quality, with a large reduction in quality after each successive copy. Copying things in the digital age (of which we are now a part) is a little different. How many photocopies could you make of photocopies before it's just illegible? How many copies of that song off the radio could you make before the tape is just full of static? Well that drawback doesn't exist with MP3s and MPEG4s. The file can be copied thousands, millions of times with no loss of quality. So for you to jump to the conclusion that DRM has "nothing" to do with piracy is a little short-sighted.

    253. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1
      It is to be noted that copying a recording (or a book or a play manuscript or simply by performing a musical without paying the authors (within the copyright's lifetime, of course), etc.) is not theft, i.e. you are not taking a physical item from someone else and depriving them of their possession of it. While you may certainly steal a recording by stealing the physical medium on which it is stored, or by removing the original after the copy, a simple copy operation is not theft.

      It is often (not universally), however, illegal to copy a recording (or book or play manuscript or perform a musical (within the copyright's lifetime, of course), etc.). The reason for this is that various governments of the world, acting as a proxy for the people they govern, have decided that, while naturally one can copy an idea or collection of words and symbols without restriction, in the interests of the greater good, there should be an artificial barrier to copying said ideas, to allow the creator of those ideas to have an artificial monopoly on the copying of those ideas. This monopoly exists for a limited time, so as to prevent the artificial barrier itself from inhibiting creativity (via preventing unanticipated/unauthorized derivative works). So, effectively, the natural ability to copy any idea is forestalled until a later date, in the interest of allowing the artist to collect a living off of his or her creativity, in the hopes that this artist will be able to create more art. So, in essence, copyright is a balance between the natural right to copy and the desire to encourate creative works by making them themselves profitable and offering the art producer control over how their art is used for a time (the whole point of the GPL and other FOSS code licenses).

      The morality question is much thornier. On the one side, prohibiting a natural right (i.e. copying an idea) is balanced against the hope of encouraging creativity in areas which, under a totally laissez-faire economy, would be possibly less productive (since, for example, the artist would need to support their work via other means, or may not get started at all). Additionally, if you hold copying, say, a book to be immoral now, is it still imooral after the copyright has expired (an arguably arbitrary date)? Finally, if you take it to the extreme, you copy a book to get it into your brain (like reading a play is a copy into the audience's brains), then letting someone borrow your book or reading a book from a library is immoral!

      In short, copyright violation is not theft. It's so very much more complicated than simply calling it "theft", since the original owner isn't deprived of anything!

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    254. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      I believe you're exactly who companies who do copy protection do not care about; I'm sure they're more than happy to let you do what you want.

      You're missing my point - I am a fairly law-abiding person, they make money out of me. However, if they break the CDs I buy with "copy protection" so I can nolonger rip them onto my computer, play them in my car, etc then they have automatically lost me as a customer - they have made the legal product useless to me whilest the illegally distributed content is still useful. i.e. the manufacturer has forced me into illegally copying something I would normally have paid for.

      Copy protection is solely to try and prevent theft

      No, copy protection stops copyright infringement, not theft - the "copy protection" on CDs doesn't stop me breaking into my local music store and stealing a bunch of CDs.

      Then I'll crack it.

      As a paying customer, why should you have to jump through hoops cracking copy protection? And probably more to the point, how many people are going to put hours into cracking some copy protection on something they legitimately paid for rather than just downloading the freely available illegal version? Yeah you're probably right that breaking the law probably doesn't do much for your conscience, but I for one would have a reasonably clear concience if the manufacturer had forced me into illegally copying their material instead of buying it.

    255. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      I've heard of cases like this in which tech support decides to be idiotic. Find their "Customer Service" number -- they have authority that tech support doesn't and can override the mistakes that tech support makes. Alas, I don't have the number on hand, but I recall reading this on macintouch.com.

      Good luck!

    256. Re:Damn Microsoft! by krunk7 · · Score: 1

      Employers give drug tests because employees take drugs on the job.

      The problem with this notion is that a man who smokes a joint on Sunday evening will flunk his drug test, whereas a man who gets stupid drunk Sunday night and shows up with a hangoever on Monday morning will not.

      Considering that the man who smokes the joint probably just got a good nights sleep and the one who is severly hung over is putting himself and his coworkers at a much greater risk, you don't think this is a slightly fubarred policy with unnecessary infringement of the pot smokers rights to do whatever he wishes with his weekend?

      Also of note: the Sunday joint smoker will fail his analysis on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs, Fri and possibly the next monday as well. . . even if he doesn't injest any more during that period. Whereas the drunkard can get tanked every single night and be constantly hung over at work.

    257. Re:Damn Microsoft! by eck011219 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sarchasm: the gaping social abyss created between people who can detect irony and those who can't.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    258. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      Erm, since when does iTunes have anything to do with the OS other than the fact that iTunes runs on the MacOS? It's a self-contained application.

      The stupid lawsuit you refer to is thankfully being appealed, though I'm still not sure what it has to do with the fact that they've publicly stated that their OS is going to be restricted to Apple hardware! And then it's a surprise when they actually describe how they're doing it?

      I don't know about their "what processors to use" debate, but AMD and Intel processors can both run the same stuff. You'd have to ask them why they didn't go with AMD, but that's not the issue this story is about.

      If you don't like how iTunes works, then don't use it. Nobody's making you use it. It does however also play MP3s and OGG files (with plugin) or whatever else you want (with plugin). So what's stopping you from using the file format you want?

    259. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Bimo_Dude · · Score: 1
      I call BS:

      ...Army) takes a hard line on drug use and I have o problem with that. See, I dont like the idea of the guy next to me with a gun being stoned

      Somebody who refers to a weapon as a "gun" is not in the Army. Having been in the Army, I would agree that it is not good having somebody in your unit stoned, but not everybody is in the Army, nor does everybody carry a weapon. People who do not have jobs that can put others at risk should be free to do what they want in their own time, including smoking a J.

      btw... IANAPS.

      --
      "Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
    260. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      I can think of one thing the original owner is deprived of, specifically, the profit that might be gained from selling that which is produced by the use of his idea. It's true, it's not as simple as calling it theft, but it's also not as simple as calling it "not theft."

      PS. There is no such thing as a natural right, or really a right at all. There is only that which people cannot take away from you because you or someone else can prevent them from doing so by some force.

    261. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      Yeah, damn them all to hell for providing minor version upgrades for FREE and then actually charging for major upgrades just like most other software companies out there! $30 isn't that bad for a major update! Who's makin' you upgrade, anyway? You don't have to upgrade beyond the major version of QT that comes with your OS if you're offended by actually having to pay for X.0 updates!

    262. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      Enforceability of EULAs. The author of this link is a lawyer, though not providing legal advice (naturally).

      True or not, they are enforceable, which is what I was trying to lead you to with my post. It doesn't matter whether EULAs mesh with your ideals if you can be punished for breaking them. That EULAs are not valid in your understanding of the world will not be a working defense if you are ever dragged into court over the same.

      Note: I am assuming with this post that you live in the US or some other country with similar contract laws; if not, forgive my Amero-centrism, but let me also ask the question, why are we having this debate?

    263. Re:Damn Microsoft! by RenatoRam · · Score: 1

      Understood. In all the italian legal texts the action of selling, giving away for free, and similar is always called "to alienate" (alienare), actually.

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    264. Re:Damn Microsoft! by generic-man · · Score: 1

      Great list.

      Now show me how Apple has behaved any less assholistically.

      About the only thing on your list Apple isn't guilty of is "Assumption that I'm a thief and making me jump through hoops instead of just letting me work." Mac OS X isn't validated for copy protection reasons, but if it hits the x86 space without DRM (as some Apple zealots have opined) then I'm sure it will be activated.

      "Refusing to let me uninstall apps I don't want." Microsoft foists IE on you, like it or not; Apple foists Safari/WebKit and QuickTime on you. That would be fine if Safari weren't buggy and prone to security holes (albeit never-exploited holes) and QuickTime weren't $30 nagware.

      "Refusing to abide by ratified W3C standards blah blah blah" Safari has layout quirks, as do IE and Firefox.

      "Constantly trying to foist needless upgrades on people that aren't necessary and just result in more headaches for me in tech support, like item 1 above does." You must be joking if you think Apple is innocent of this.

      "Actively interfering with my ability to choose what OS I might want to use on a computer that I buy on the rare cases I might want to buy a whole new PC from some big company." Ever try to buy a Mac, with first-party support, running anything but Mac OS X?

      "Actively (in the past) interfering with competitors' software that they decide they don't like and then not coming up with a satisfactory excuse for why." Just ask their "competitors" who have been deprived of income from their $25 utility programs that Apple incorporated into the OS.

      "Stupid and frivolous lawsuits." DMCA

      I'm going to leave off the extra legal blathering since neither you nor I know anything about the law.

      --
      For more information, click here.
    265. Re:Damn Microsoft! by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      Well, let's see here. If I add you to my statistical sampling, that would make one pothead in slightly over 30 who can function while stoned.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    266. Re:Damn Microsoft! by OreoCookie · · Score: 1

      I think I'll be sticking to Linux, where groups like Debian will remove software because it comes under a license that's too restrictive.

      So if/when a large portion of the Internet requires DRM will you simple no longer participate?

    267. Re:Damn Microsoft! by linzeal · · Score: 1

      As someone who smoked pot on my daily commute to work in Silicon Valley for 5 years, what is your point? I would of pry rammed my vehicle into a school bus if I had not been stoned on those wonderous 2 hour commutes going 45 miles. At work it is the same old shit as well, I'm not suggesting people go out and eat a lid of weed baked in brownies before they give a sales presentation but this country was built on drunks at work and I think it would be a step up if we had better drugs than martinis in the boardroom.

    268. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cortana · · Score: 1

      And I wouldn't dream of breaking the law. The law, however, says nothing about forcing me to cowtow to an arbitary set of conditions set by the publisher that attempt to restrict how I use my own property, after my business with the publisher is concluded.

    269. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The new apple ad says, " Once you switch you can never go back "

    270. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cortana · · Score: 1

      I also find it interesting that you introduced the topic of software piracy into this discussion. A guilty conscience, perhaps?

      Finally, copyright presumably comes from the idea that the right to produce copies of a work are exclusively reserved to the copyright holder of that work, until the copyright expires.

      It is not true that I have no right to copy it. I can make backups, obviously i must "copy" to install and therefore use it, and I can make other ephermal copies as are created during the normal running of the program (eg, a copy in RAM).

      I agree with the sentiment of the other comment that replied to yours. I suggest you try shilling for the copyright cartels somewhere else.

    271. Re:Damn Microsoft! by hoeschen · · Score: 1

      My 486-based Windows Me machine does this in 22 seconds. And it hasn't crashed since the day I turned it on over 42 years ago.

    272. Re:Damn Microsoft! by justins · · Score: 1
      They can claim that EULAs exist and are valid all they want, but it doesn't make it true.

      Similarly, asserting they are not valid does not make that true, either.

      Any information on it or with it is mine just like the hardware is

      What made you believe that? It's so obviously false that I have to wonder. Even if that computer is full of free software, it's obviously not true. That information comes with certain legal obligations, like it or not.

      because I never agreed to any kind of license at the time of purchase.

      Since a few of the people who modded this idiocy up are presumably free software fans, I should point out that if this attitude were actualized as law, it would doom free software as we know it, as well as commercial software. There's a reason the FSF created a GPL which relied on copyright, rather than just releasing everything into the public domain.
      --
      Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
    273. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Elranzer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah but do the tired old jokes run Linux?

    274. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What he's referring to is the difference between a supplier in a monopoly market, and one in a competitive market. Copyrights are Government-granted monopolies on things that "cannot in nature, be the subject of property". The wholesale market for each DVD or CD title is a non-free market with only one allowed vendor.

      That people continue to buy CDs and DVDs indicates desirability of goods, but NOT that the market is free, that the market is as efficient as a free market, or that the vendors have had to actually compete for customers' business.

    275. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MKalus · · Score: 3, Informative

      You don't realize Sarcasm very easily, do you?

      --
      If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
    276. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      I am afraid that I won't be able to convince you and don't care enough to try. Fortunately, the people making the decisions realize that it's important to have some kind of incentive to produce all kinds of goods, not just the physical ones, and for that reason will continue to view copyright infringement as a form of theft.

      For all the activism and "free ideas" rhetoric that is spouted here and elsewhere, the thing I find most interesting is that there has been no movement that I can perceived to eliminate these things from the law, and my prediction is that, as selling ideas becomes more and more important, there will be more and more heat and light produced by people who want ideas to be free. When you are not the one who owns something, it is natural that you will try to take it. However, those in power and those with the ideas will continue to recognize the importance of treating them as property. This is just another evolution in our understanding of property, just as was the evolution in allowing land to be owned, and before that, allowing any kind of ownership at all.

    277. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FortranDragon · · Score: 1

      You could just use an Applescript: tell application "QuickTime Player" to present movie 1

      If Applescript is more than you want to handle you could just drop the movie file onto your iTunes library and play it fullscreen that way (depending on the movie type). Don't forget about VLC, MPlayer, etc., too.

      So, damn Apple ;-) for using a carrot and forgetting to use a stick in a modest effort to drum up some revenue to help fund continued Quicktime development.

      --
      "All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
    278. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when the cops shoot a black man for having a candybar in his pocket or shoot an unarmed non violent black man four dozen times at close range, I just think "It sucks, but if black people weren't out there killing every person they come across, these police wouldn't have to senselessly murder any of them".


      And after making such a blatant racist statement this post was modded insightful? WTF? Oh, wait, slashdot is only read by white folks, I remember now.

    279. Re:Damn Microsoft! by andersbergh · · Score: 0

      Debian does supply Firefox, but not the branded art.

    280. Re:Damn Microsoft! by justins · · Score: 1

      You know he was kidding, right?

      --
      Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
    281. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (And no, don't say Linux - I don't have enough time to learn it well enough to use it as a desktop machine on a daily basis.)

      Time to learn as much about Linux as you know about Windows: 1 hour.
      Less than that if you're smart.

      Your problem lies elsewhere.

    282. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Odd - when Microsoft does it, it gets them an anti-trust investigation...

    283. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1
      I can think of one thing the original owner is deprived of, specifically, the profit that might be gained from selling that which is produced by the use of his idea.

      Very true. I shouldn't have thrown that line in there at the end. I just kind of tacked it on quickly and hit "submit" and, in hindsight, it was a stupid thing to do, as it totally distracted from the point I was trying to make. :)

      Merely depriving someone of profit that they would have were people able to exercise their natural abilities (better word? Your last point is merely a semantic argument really, that I'll address later). For instance, someone could construct a business model based on people paying you for air, but both you and I would agree that this hypothetical person is a fool. One could even pass legislation providing ownership to air like one can own land, thus enabling such a business model (and, in fact, it might even make sense in some situations (artificial environments, for example, like in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)). However, both you and I would likely agree that (at least here on earth), in the absence of such artificial barriers to air access, the person is a fool, and that legislation giving air "ownership" is not in the general good! Thus, with this counterexample, I think I've shown that providing additional profit by prohibiting natural abilities is not a good test of whether something is "theft" (or even moral, I'd argue).

      It's true, it's not as simple as calling it theft, but it's also not as simple as calling it "not theft."
      True. Depriving someone of property is also an action one can naturally make with no prohibition. However, due to the physical nature of it, it is quite obviously wrong (although you can forgo your possession of something for a time by, for example, lending it to someone; borrowing is also not theft, though it does deprive them of their possession).
      There is no such thing as a natural right, or really a right at all. There is only that which people cannot take away from you because you or someone else can prevent them from doing so by some force.
      Well, you're half-right anyway, from my view. You have natural abilities (e.g. copying and breathing) regardless of whether you're exercising them. And people can prevent you from exercising these abilities by force (the ultimate backing of law). "Rights" are very hazy, I agree. Is the "abilities" nomenclature better?
      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    284. Re:Damn Microsoft! by fbartho · · Score: 1

      They are renaming it. First it will be Computer... they say its because the "My" in "My Computer" "My Documents" etc was confusing/redundant... but OBVIOUSLY, the real reason is that they are moving towards "Our Computer" or "Their Computer" or "Not Your Computer"

      --
      Gravity Sucks
    285. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obligatory 1984 reference:

      'Do you remember,' he went on, 'writing in your diary, "Freedom is the
      freedom to say that two plus two make four"?'

      'Yes,' said Winston.

      O'Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb
      hidden and the four fingers extended.

      'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?'

      'Four.'

      'And if the party says that it is not four but five--then how many?'

    286. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1
      Merely depriving someone of profit that they would have were people able to exercise their natural abilities (better word? Your last point is merely a semantic argument really, that I'll address later).

      Dangit, that's not even a sentence! I'm really on a roll with this proofreading thing this morning. That should read:

      Merely depriving someone of profit that they would have gained were people prohibited from exercising their natural abilities (better word? Your last point is merely a semantic argument really, that I'll address later) is not a sufficient test for "theft" nor of "morality" (the latter is my assertion and somewhat tangential; the former is directly related to the topic at hand).
      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    287. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Luigi30 · · Score: 1

      Only in Korea.

      --
      503 Sig Unavailable

      The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
    288. Re:Damn Microsoft! by bemenaker · · Score: 1

      I see the sense of humor is weak with this one....

    289. Re:Damn Microsoft! by BRonsk · · Score: 0

      Given that there is no such thing as modding a post "Normal", I assume the grandparent was talking about Meta-Modding both posts.

    290. Re:Damn Microsoft! by swv3752 · · Score: 1

      Do you have the right to resell the HP book?

      Do you have the right to quote passages for a review?

      The big problem many of us have is that copyright is not an unlimited right. Copyright is granted for a limited time to recompense the author.

      --
      Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
    291. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Gudlyf · · Score: 1

      *sigh*... Sadly, my emoticon was lost on you. :`-(

      --
      Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
    292. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      In the first example, I agree, legislating the necessary restrictions for the sale of some arbitrary product is probably a bad idea. In the case of air, it's especially troublesome because I already have air, and I need it to live. On top of that, the producers aren't even producing anything, they're just bottling it and selling it to me!

      The difference is that here on Earth, there are many types of "air" when compared with the example, which, once produced for the first time, only cost a very little bit to reproduce. However, don't you think the original producer of a new type of air, or music, or idea, has some rights to it, at least for a while (as in our current copyright system)? Let me put it to you this way: if I ever have a great idea and I am prohibited from selling the results of the idea without everyone else legally being able to steal them from me, then I will simply not release the idea at all. Perhaps that is selfish of me, but honestly the very idea that people could take what I worked for for free without my permission burns me up like nothing else. I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

      PS. It's been really nice talking with you so far . . . it seems like some of these guys on here have no idea why copyrights and patents might possibly be a good idea. You seem to at least understand them, even if you don't agree.

    293. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course it's possible to play movies in full-screen on the Mac using other programs or QuickTime interfaces. That Apple doesn't include such capabilities for free seems very greedy of them.

      I mean, even Windows Media Player for Mac lets you play movies in full-screen (CMD-4) without charge. Apple doesn't need a tip jar to "fund continued QuickTime development" when they keep charging (and getting!) $130 for point releases and $500 for bottom-of-the-line computers.

    294. Re:Damn Microsoft! by generic-man · · Score: 1

      It's a movie player*. How the hell is $30 "not that bad" for a movie player? VLC and Mplayer put out products that can do full-screen for less than $30.

      It's also a $30 upgrade on top of Tiger, already a $130 upgrade. Talk about being kicked when you're down.

      * It's also a framework blah blah HD blah blah H.263, 4, whatever, but that doesn't matter to folks like me who just want to watch video clips.

      --
      For more information, click here.
    295. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tolkienfan · · Score: 1
      Actually that's not entirely true.

      Many software licenses (ignoring the issue of whther they are valid for the moment) actually prevent anyone else from using the software - even when it remains on only one computer.

      So no, while you can lend your hardware to someone else, you may not be entitled to allow them to use the software.

    296. Re:Damn Microsoft! by deesine · · Score: 0


      I suggest that you learn to live with the fact that the universe doesn't have a concept of right and wrong

      It would be great if you could make an argument against universal absolutes without declaring one yourself :/

      --
      damaged by dogma
    297. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 1

      Don't worry; I'm sure they'll be licensing the hardware too soon.

    298. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'm just waiting for the day when someone installs Windows and it says "Microsoft's Computer".

    299. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tolkienfan · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Good post.

      I'd also like to add that, originally, copyright gave a limited monopoly on "publishing". Copying from your own copy of a book was not covered by the law - and at the time, the extent of protection was 7 years

      You are actually entitled to do many things, like reverse engineering (excpting where the DMCA is involved), and making copies of small amounts for various purposes (like education), without any permission from the copyright owner

      What most software vendors do, is force you to agree to a "license agreement". Agreement as in contract, which is used to actually restrict you further than copyright alone would.

    300. Re:Damn Microsoft! by bryce1012 · · Score: 1
      Actually, it doesn't matter what I think -- there is no evidence to suggest that people will pay for anything they can obtain for free, unless they are hoodwinked into it.
      WinZip.
    301. Re:Damn Microsoft! by |/|/||| · · Score: 1

      ...a kernel that can guarantee me that, if properly implemented, no unauthorised code will be run! Gee, isn't this what we want?
      Close. Add the ability to flag executables as "authorized" to run as trusted on my own computer and you have what we, the users, want. In fact, nothing less is tolerable. I will not give the slightest bit of support to any trusted OS that does not have this critical feature. In fact, I feel that it is my duty to slander them far and wide.

      So, will OSX86 allow me to decide what code is trusted and what code is not? As far as I can tell, it will not - so fuck those bastards. I was considering a switch to Apple once win2k isn't feasable any more, but not now. I'm giving them the same one finger salute that I'm giving MS.

      Sit 'n spin, Jobs.

      --
      [javac] 100 errors
    302. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It originally said just: "fuckwit", but then I realised what I really wanted to write and forgot to update the start.

    303. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Have+Blue · · Score: 1

      It's not unreasonable to assume that internal undocumented implementation details will change in the release version. Apple only guarantees that the devkits will run code in a software environment identical to that which will be shipping.

    304. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Entropius · · Score: 1

      Bad analogy.

      Even without any license at all, I can't copy software and sell it. Copyright law prevents that, with or without any contract.

      If I buy a piece of software, I am allowed to do anything with it I want ... within the bounds of the law, and one of the things that's not within those bounds is to copy it and start selling it.

      What people object to is blind, overly restrictive license agreements: buying a piece of software and then later finding out that "You agree that this software can only be run on our hardware, while wearing a pink fedora." Nothing in copyright law prevents me from buying a copy of Windows XP, for instance, and then running it on a quantum supercomputer with an x86 emulator.

      There's a very clever clause in the GPL that says something to the effect of "You can obviously use this software without agreeing to this license, since you've not signed it and aren't bound to it." The drafters of the GPL apparently support, as I do, an end to post-sale (i.e. EULA) license agreements that *take away* from your rights.

      The GPL then goes on to say: "If you agree to the terms of this license and agree to do certain things, you may copy the software." This is NOT taking away from your rights: this is giving you extra rights to do certain things (copying) which would otherwise be forbidden.

      Personally, I think all sorts of post-sale licenses that take away from rights are wrong. We've already shown that purely IP products (CD's) can be "sold, not licensed" just fine. I'm not permitted *by law* to copy and sell a new CD (with no need for a contract telling me I can't), but I can do anything else I please with it. Why can't this work with software? I should be able to buy a copy of Tiger, or of Starcraft, and I can do any damn thing I please with it, as long as it's not restricted by law.

    305. Re:Damn Microsoft! by hosecoat · · Score: 0

      rock on man, rock on.

    306. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      So why not use vlc and mplayer? If you want to use the feature, pay the licensing fee. If you respect the GPL, as most Slashdotters do, and companies' right to publish their source code as open source and expect others' modifications to also be published, then you also need to respect payware. No one is forcing you to pay the fee; no one's stopping alternate players from working.

      This MacUpdate: Search for full-screen players also reveals a variety of full-screen players, some free and some not.

      VLC's pretty good. I use it. If you're aware of VLC, then I assume you have too? I don't see a problem ...

      And it's not just a movie player. It's a movie editor as well. We have a license for it (we're an imaging-based research lab) and we use it quite a bit for movie editing. It may not be as powerful as some other editors out there, but indeed $30 is a good deal for what you get.

    307. Re:Damn Microsoft! by spun · · Score: 1

      Moral relativism is a philosophy that is impossible for human beings to espouse consistently.

      It's not impossible, you just have to understand semantic levels. On the universal level, there is nothing that is good or bad. There is nothing outside the infinite with which to measure and judge the infinite. All morals are created inside the infinite, by circumstances inside the infinite.

      For any given subset of the infinite, there is an absolute morality that applies to that subset. That morality may not apply to other subsets of the infinite. So morality is absolute for a given subset but relative between subsets.

      Hope that clears things up.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    308. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about the fact that Apple makes its money from people buying its systems for the lack of hassle?

      Please reformulate this sentence in English...

      There's nothing wrong with that sentence. People buy Apple hardware specifically because they *don't* want the hassle of dealing with a PC.

      why should Apple NOT be allowed to make money from hardware sales?

      Who said they shouldn't?

      No, I am not saying this.

      Yes, you are. Your entire argument is based around the idea that without using TCPA, Apple is doomed to have their magnificent operating system ripped off.

      Anyway, it is clear to me that YOU want to use Apple's fruits of labour without having to support Apple's development. In other words, to me you are angry just because you fear you would not be allowed to be a thief.

      I want the fruits of Apple's labour? Do you seriously think I'm slobbering over the prospect of downloading a warez OSX to run on my PC? You're a fucking idiot... I already said that Apple could include a BIOS check for all I care. I've no interest in running OSX... merely in ensuring that TCPA stays out of consumer hardware.

      Apple currently makes money from hardware, not from iTunes and iPods. Please check the facts. iTunes and iPods are giving them mindshare (at the moment), and I do not have your crystal ball.

      Apple makes money from hardware, and lots of money from iPods and iTunes (especially considering that its iTunes stuff is almost pure profit, even after the record companies take the lion's share). Apple is a media company these days... if you wish to rewrite the financial facts of the matter, fine, but it leaves your argument rather empty.

    309. Re:Damn Microsoft! by InvalidError · · Score: 1

      The public will educate itself once DRM starts breaking stuff and get in the way of most of what Joe Sixpack usually does.

      After this happens, the publishers will get an educative round of their own when sales start to suffer from restricted fair use while the costs of handling complaints flare up.

      It is only at that point that the content industry might realize that the cost of DRM outweights the benefits... but they could decide to put up with reduced DRM'd sales as a matter of principle.

      DRM will polarize the market towards extremes... either fully locked-up and secure (give or take some transient buffer overflow exploits) or fully open. I wonder how much of an impact DRM and TCPA will have on GNU and other's uptake.

    310. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'civilised' is a perfectly legit spelling of the word.

    311. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "So if/when a large portion of the Internet requires DRM will you simply no longer participate?"

      That would be one of two honorable courses of action available - the other being to join the fight to cripple or destroy the DRM portions of the internet.

      The DRM-Advocates/Information-Terrorists are hijacking the civilised world. If law enforcement will not act, then the citizens have an obligation to defend themselves.

    312. Re:Damn Microsoft! by benjcurry · · Score: 1

      Haha! You're full of shit. Have fun!

    313. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mnemonic_ · · Score: 1

      What a shame that not one bit of you story is true.

    314. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Genom · · Score: 1

      Potential profit - profit one *might* gain - is not a right, nor is it even a solid fact, and certainly not an entitlement. Laws should not protect something that *might* be. They should protect (or create) things that *are*.

      If I create a piece of artwork, a book, etc... I *should* indeed be able to sell it if I choose to. Additionally, as the creator, I should be able to decide what price I believe to be fair. I am permitted to *attempt* to profit from it.

      If the work is not purchased at the price I set, I may have set the price too high, or my work may simply not be good. I am not in any way *entitled* to any profit I did not make. It doesn't matter how much I *might* have made. What matters is how much I did make.

      One could argue that if a law is necessary to protect one's "potential profits", that one should instead be examining their business model, pricing, or content, rather than attempting to purchase laws that protect a failing business model/product.

    315. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Geez... Ideas are not property under any legal definition. You can't patent an idea (only methods, etc.), and you can't copyright an idea (only particular expressions). Learn something about the actual law before you spout off about it.

      And you might want to get some therapy for your "property" fetish. It's giving you a big case of creeping featurism.

    316. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NiceGeek · · Score: 1

      "I should point out that if this attitude were actualized as law, it would doom free software as we know it, as well as commercial software."

      Incorrect...if copyright/EULAs were abolished there would be NO NEED for the GPL anymore.

    317. Re:Damn Microsoft! by |/|/||| · · Score: 1
      What parts of the internet will require DRM? Buying media? I don't buy DRM'd media, so that's not a problem. What else? Will I need a "trusted" OS to read slashdot? To send and receive email? To do searches? If so then fuck that noise. I'll participate in whatever "alternate" internet springs up in response to such repression.

      --
      [javac] 100 errors
    318. Re:Damn Microsoft! by CptNerd · · Score: 3, Funny


      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of tired old jokes...

      --
      By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
    319. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 1
      The thing is, you've sort of answered your own point by equating alcohol and dope. Yeah, I don't want a stoned driver in a bus nor do I want a drunk driver. There's some equivalence.

      Now, why is dope illegal and alcohol legal?

    320. Re:Damn Microsoft! by arootbeer · · Score: 1

      No, this is like buying the latest Harry Potter book, and then wanting to make a copy of it so you can put the original in your fire safe (so one day you can sell the first run copy for One Million Dollars), and your copier isn't allowed to copy the book.

      To counterpoint, though: Licenses generally allow the software to be installed in any number of places, as long as only one user is using the software at a time. Does anyone know whether the Mac OS _license_ allows the user to install the software on anything that's not specifically Macintosh hardware?

      If so, then that's something else to complain about, and this issue is not.

    321. Re:Damn Microsoft! by A.K.A_Magnet · · Score: 1

      Damn man don't sound so realistic in your sarcasms, I'm too high to make a difference. Damn pot smokers. Sorry for the down mod, you're up again.

    322. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cbreaker · · Score: 1

      I think that's funny too. While I don't smoke, I have done so on numerous occations while growing up and I find that Alcohol is a much worse drug then pot. It really messes you up and if you take too much, you actually vomit. Talk about bad stuff.

      Yet, because it's got the stamp of approval of the law, it's totally socially acceptable. It's even okay in many workplaces to come in late or not at all because of a hangover. "Aww, boss I drank WAY too much at that party, I need to take the day out." "Okay Joe, no problem, hope you feel better."

      Ohh, but weed is a "gateway" drug.. yea, my ass. If you had tendencies to do other drugs you'd have done it without weed. I think the only reason it might be more "gateway" then alcohol is because it's illegal - once you do one illegal drug, why not try others? If it were legal, that would no longer be the case.

      Oh well.

      --
      - It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
    323. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Savantissimo · · Score: 1

      The original creator has the right to choose whether or not to publish or disclose his or her ideas. Once he or she has conveyed the work to others, however, the force needed to prevent others from doing he same is a privilege, not a right.

      Society acting in its own interest will limit those privileges to the minimum required to encourage creation and publication. Any excess privilege is state-enforced theft from every individual who is forced to pay for what is the natural property and heritage of humankind.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    324. Re:Damn Microsoft! by minniger · · Score: 1

      Quicktime "Pro" is more than just a movie player. It does format conversions and capture.

      Why not take a look at the product page?

      It's not that you can't get the functionality with applescript or some programming. It's just that for $30/(major release) I can do it with no effort. My time is worth a hell of a lot more than $30/(time it write something by hand).

      Don't get me started about VLC and MPlayer. If they are all you have on linux then they are great. On OSX? $30 is dirt cheap for the QTPro functionality.

    325. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're utterly and completely incorrect - that is why you are unable to convince him.

      Do you really believe that protections are needed today to encourage creation and creativity?!? When I look out over the landscape that is the internet - everybody and his mother seems to be a content publisher these days. People will create to create - to express themselves - without any protections at all. Indeed, many will intentionally unprotect their work either for altruistic reasons, to gain exposure and distribution, or both.

      The fools bargain that is copytight is no longer needed in its present form. The only restrictions that are still necessary are those that prevent one from claiming credit for what they did not produce. And I seriously doubt that many of the "illegal" downloaders of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are going around telling people they wrote, directed and produced it and the proof is the pixelated AVI in their possession.

      I'm sorry - equating the protections of corporate interests with ensuring freedom of commerce is a farce and insulting to those that knoe otherwise. They are free to produce what they like, but *nobody* has the *right* to vast wealth. If you can pull it off, good for you. But asking that the government protect your monopoly over information at the expense of the commons and the rest of society...

      Selling ideas is a proposition on the very borderline of decency. There are ways that it may be done honorably, but one stands so close to vulgarity in the very notion that when they then try to prevent those they manage to sell to from doing what they wish with the information they have [foolishly] paid for - certainly then the line has been crossed.

      The "future" for those that choose to deal in information is VALUE-ADDED. Have you never heard those words? I know the trend has become value-removed and people have accepted it. Now corporations want to enforce it with the protection of the law, and apparantly with your moral support. Instead of adding value to information sales that make the first sale more desirable.

    326. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kponto · · Score: 1

      The law is bought.


      Or is it licensed?

      --
      This too, will end.
    327. Re:Damn Microsoft! by BillyBlaze · · Score: 1
      You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

      Absolutely false! Look around you - it's plainly obvious that DRM does nothing at all to stop piracy, and never will. This is because if you distribute content to a billion people, and one in a million have the ability and desire to offer it for piracy, that's a thousand different versions on the P2P network of the day. The analog hole dictates that there will always be that one in a million, and probably many more.

      DRM is about preventing fair use, and nothing more. Piracy is merely an excuse. Piracy is actually one of the best things to happen to the music industry, because it gives the industry an easy way to convince idiots like you that DRM is something other than a direct attempt to usurp your legal rights.

    328. Re:Damn Microsoft! by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 1

      On the plus side, since Apple is involved now, it's less likely that MS will get to be in control of the whole system. As much as I really don't like the idea of TCPA chips being involved with the Macintosh at all, competition with Microsoft may be a good thing.

      --
      ± 29 dB
    329. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 1
      You make something hard for someone to get - like playing a music file with a player of their choice, you will lose them to the murky world.

      They'll ask their geek pal why it won't play. He'll introduce them to any number of hacking and cracking tools, or maybe tell them about where they can get it without paying for it.

      Oh, and you pissed them off as a customer. Now, how much love do they have for you now? How much are they going to respect you next time they want to get hold of an album? How much have you shifted their moral compass away from "reward the artist" to "fuck you, I'll have it for free".

    330. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      That's how it's (almost) always been, and probably how it will (almost) always be.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    331. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Reverend528 · · Score: 1
      Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does (which I appreciate; I'm honest, but I don't like the assumption that I am not). I think this is just Apple's already-known plans to prevent the OS from not running on anything they haven't sold as a Mac.

      Obviously you're not an ipod owner. I was unlucky enough to win an ipod mini as a door prize to a campus event. There was a problem with the firmware and I tried to download a recent copy to replace it. Unfortunately, their firmware restoration software only works with windows (2000 or XP) and OS X, neither of which I have access to. If I could download a copy of the firmware, i could easily restore it, but they make it quite challenging to get a hold of the firmware because users were hacking it to put in custom icons. So, in order to protect their firmware-driven business model from the horrible hax0rz who were patching their firmware with hello kitty icons, apple has decided to treat everyone as a criminal, making the firmware impossible to download, even for people with legitimate uses.

    332. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Wildkat · · Score: 1

      A "weapon" is the little 9mm thingy. A "gun" as in "main gun" is the 120mm work of art at the front o a tank. I am far more worried about the guy next to me in a tank than the guy next to me with an Only Chaplains and their assistants do not carry a weapon. It really doesnt matter though because I dont want the guy taking care of my food, pay or supplies stoned, drunk or otherwise not 100%. I used to mock crew rest for aircrew and HET drivers but when I was climbing on to that 20 ton het with 68 tons of tank in the back I sure wanted to know when that guy last had a good 8 hours. But back to DRM - I WANT DRM on the software that controls my heart monitor. I dont care if the software that plays music has DRM. Its all about context.

    333. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bag searches at our local Best Buy ended rather abruptly years ago. I still have monkeys try to search my things when I go to other Best Buys, Fry's Electronics, etc. but I usually just blow past them unless I want to return something later (Fry's legendary "rental" system).

      But I tend to use my local BB more often than other stores, even with their higher prices, simply because they have given up on bag checks. I'm willing to bet legal force was used, because there are plenty of lawyers in this area who really don't have much else to do these days...

      Throw a fit. Eventually they'll stop. Complain loudly to every media outlet that'll listen. See how long it takes for "store policy" to fall under consumer pressure.

    334. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1

      On top of that, the producers aren't even producing anything, they're just bottling it and selling it to me!

      Very true, and that is a hole in the example itself, but not in the underlying concept. I believe that the point--merely because it is profitable to inhibit natural abilities is not sufficient proof of the exercise the natural ability being theft (let alone immoral). Both of us could name other examples of bad business models that don't need propping up via legislation. ;) [maybe this point wasn't clear because of my lack of proper proofreading.]

      However, don't you think the original producer of a new type of air, or music, or idea, has some rights to it, at least for a while (as in our current copyright system)?

      "Rights" is a very vague word here, as I discussed previously. For example, in this context, the creator of a work certainly has some rights, e.g. "bragging rights". Nobody can really take those away. However, to turn the question around and restate it: why should the creator of an idea be allowed to prevent others' free exercise of their natural abilities (here, copying)?

      Let me put it to you this way: if I ever have a great idea and I am prohibited from selling the results of the idea without everyone else legally being able to steal them from me, then I will simply not release the idea at all.

      Again, the word "theft" isn't applicable here. What you're saying is that you won't release your ideas unless you can prevent other people from exercising their natural abilities (which is limiting their freedom). More correctly, you're saying:

      [My rewriting of your statement] Let me put it to you this way: if I ever have a great idea and am unable to prevent others from exercising their natural ability to copy this idea, I will simply not release the idea at all.

      That is the correct statement. If someone copies your idea, you still have the idea and may implement it. This is patently not true in the case of theft--you no longer have an item which you can sell or use! It's just that, with ideas, others can also implement them and potentially derive profit from their competing implementation. I also would wager that this blanket statement isn't always true. I bet that if you, for example, came up with a great idea to, say, end terrorism or world hunger, you'd probably release it to the world in the interest of the greater good.

      It is worth noting that I also would rather not let my ideas (computer code, in this case) simply be used as others wish. Well, that's not true. I don't mind them using some code pretty much as they please. I release that code under the BSD license. With other code, I think that the idea is good enough to warrant people having to give back to me, and I publish that under the GPL and LGPL. It is somewhat selfish, yes. Were we all complete humanitarians, capitalism would collapse and we'd all live in nirvana, each serving each others' needs. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon. ;)

      However, that last paragraph is, at best, tangential. The core of what I'm saying is that, when you boil it down, copyright infringement is not theft. It shares some similarities with theft, but copyright is entirely artificial, created for the hope of greater good (whether it achieves this in its current form is a debate for another day ;), whereas theft is natural (due to the fact that there can only be one of any particular item). Copyright violation and theft violation are both illegal, however, and arguably immoral (theft especially). Copyright's existance is based on the idea that we (the government) will prevent people from exercising their natural ability to copy an idea or work for a limited time, in order to allow the creators the ability to gain additional profit from and/or control their works for this limit

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    335. Re:Damn Microsoft! by BillyBlaze · · Score: 1

      Luckily that won't happen, because, unlike in the music industry, there is competition in the retail market.

    336. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It looks like some people don't know a classic Slashdot joke when they see one.
      No, we know what it is. That's why it was modded down. It may be funny to you but it's old and tired to others.
    337. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Savantissimo · · Score: 1

      How about the right to be secure against unreasonable searches? The right to regulate one's own mental state by any means, (which is a collary of the right to think however one pleases)? The right to control one's own bodily fluids? The right not to be discriminated against on the basis of unreliable tests for activities that are unproven to correspond with ability to do the job? The right to human dignity?

      I can't believe what bootlicking lackeys Americans have become. Free country - my ass! If a prospective employer wants you to give a urine sample, oblige them - but throw it in that loathsome petty tyrant's face!

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    338. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure whether you refer to the iPod updater files, but let's see...

      Is this what you need?

      Apple - iPod - Download

      I think the restriction to 2K/XP/OSX has to do with what kernels the OSes run on. 2K and XP have an entirely different kernel than 98/ME do.

    339. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kb7oeb · · Score: 1

      But you could digitize either and then every copy would be second generation quality

    340. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But this is more like saying "You can only read Harry Potter in these areas, even though you bought it, for in other areas the pages will be blank".

    341. Re:Damn Microsoft! by raddan · · Score: 1

      Holy shit, man, sarcasm?

    342. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kb7oeb · · Score: 1

      The point is if you are the average person wanting to play a quicktime movie full screen you have to pay for the pro version even if you will never use any of the pro features.

    343. Re:Damn Microsoft! by lp-habu · · Score: 1

      Which search is unreasonable?
      Regulating your mental state by any means (where is that listed?) does not include infringing the rights of others.
      Who's restricting your right to control your bodily fluids?
      You have no right not to be discrriminated against.
      You have no right to dignity (or respect from others). You have to earn it.

    344. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Dutch_Cap · · Score: 1

      I believe his view constitutes that morality is subjective. This does not support or counter his own ideas of what is moral in any way. However, the idea that one can force one's morals on another person is often based on the belief that morals are dictated by some outside source in the real world. The absence of such a source thus invalidates this view.

    345. Re:Damn Microsoft! by HermanAB · · Score: 1

      No, you don't necessarily license the software. In North America, each state has a "Sale of Goods Act" or some such, which defines things. The typical result is that "If it looks like a sale, flies like a sale and quacks like a sale, then it is a sale". I recommend that you find your state's law and read it.

      --
      Oh well, what the hell...
    346. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kb7oeb · · Score: 1

      How about the ugly Aqua theme? You can't uninstall that and apple went as far as suing a guy who came up with a theme changer. I used to be a big mac fan but I got tired of Apple's crap

    347. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So your point would be that Apple ripped it from DesktopX not Konfabulator. Okay. Point accepted.

    348. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      Everyone and their mother is a creator. The thing is, most people don't give a rats ass about what you've created. As soon as people begin to take an interest in what you create though, someone is going to try and copy you and undercut you using your own work. Every single publisher online is using copyright and I assure you they see the bennefit of it. Yes, these protections are needed to encourage protection and creativity.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    349. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      Right, the creator is not entitled to profit. Likewise, the consumer isn't entitled to the product.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    350. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tallman68 · · Score: 1

      As anyone who's seen Team America knows, it costs $1.05

      "Freedom costs a buck-O-five"

    351. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Brownian+Motion · · Score: 1
      It is not about the kernel. Did anyone read the damn thread?

      THE KERNEL IS FINE! Darwin (the kernel) compiles and runs fine w/o TPM.

      Rosetta - binary translation software used to run PPC code on Intel chips , software not written by Apple - requires TPM to run.

      It turns out that Apple has not yet ported all the pieces of the GUI yet to native intel code, in specfic the ATSServer is not, a service which handles fonts for the GUI.

      No TPM => No Rosetta => no PPC code emulation => no ATSSERVER => No GUI. Stock OS X also won't boot, as it is geared to boot directly into the GUI. THE KERNEL DOES NOT REQUIRE TPM. There is a kext (kernel extension) that handles this.

      So, since Rosetta won't launch w/o TPM, the GUI won't boot w/o it. At least until Apple ports the ATSSERVER , I can't imagine they'll ship Intel Macs with it being emulated.

      This is important: Aside from Rosetta, which is not written by Apple, No code in OS X requires TPM. Well, aside from the kext that adds the TPM functions that Rosetta needs.

      So for now, no reason to panic, but you'll want to keep an eye to see if the kext is used by anything else.

    352. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please ban these industry trolls.

      Seriously, all the *real* readers of slashdot believe that copyright infringement is just that, infringement, not "theft", because it has been illustrated, time and time again, that P2P apps and widespread dispursement of copyrighted materials is a good thing for copyright holders - for example, Big Champagne using P2P stats to determine consumer reactions to popular music and the BSG phenomenon where ratings increased due to positive word-of-mouth from early adopters, ie, downloaders.

      So don't give me that "theft" bullshit ever again. If I walk into a store, take a DVD or CD without paying, I'm stealing. Downloading a copy is merely infringement, and for anyone who cares, this absurd length of copyright protection (what is it now, however long the lawyers at Disney can extend Steamboat Willy?) is neither Constitutional or moral. The Constitution clearly states that copyrights would be enforced for a "limited time", which is now greater than the average life expectancy - and since terms such as "lifetime" have been determined legally to extend only to about 25 years, how the hell can a "limited time" extend for 80+?

      Copyright holders - STFU. You sold more records than ever in 1998, during the peak of file sharing. Read Adam Smith - either compete against MP3's and Divx or shove it up your asses, you fascist pigs.

    353. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Buran · · Score: 1

      Apple sued people who copied the design for use in Windows. However, you can get theme changers quite easily. Like [unsanity] ShapeShifter. There's no problem with modifying the theme as long as you don't port it elsewhere. I can and have used themes that are quite different from Aqua, and there's no legal worry about doing so.

    354. Re:Damn Microsoft! by oscarmv · · Score: 1

      Well, technically you buy the computer, where first sale applies fully, and it just so happens that it comes with a license of OSX for it, with all the caveats etc.

      As for standalone OSX, it's not sold but licensed. Happens with all commercial software, really.

      Obviously, that doesn't mean that the whole situation doesn't suck :(

    355. Re:Damn Microsoft! by geoffspear · · Score: 1
      Yes, I understand that. You're explaining one reason why someone might pirate something now, after they started copy protecting the CDs.

      But what percentage of pirated music do you think even comes from copy protected CDs, let alone CDs that are owned by the people downloading the music? How do you account for all of the music that was downloaded before there were any copy protected CDs at all, and music downloaded today that came from CDs that have never been copy protected?

      The whole argument is completely specious and intellectually dishonest.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    356. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I try to keep that in mind when I order my new PowerMac.

    357. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hardly. People like to snoop. I am sure they get off on the power that they have over other people. It is not entirely economic driven, people are drawn to power and control, that is human nature.

    358. Re:Damn Microsoft! by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      What is your source? That may be MSFT idea about how to use a computer but where is your source that Apple will prevent you from using the content "you" created in whatever manner you wish?

      Come on now, we currently can use iTMS songs (which are DRM protected) however we see fit in personal media projects inside the iApps like iMovie and iDVD.

      Stop spreading FUD and making up shit like that.

      Given that purchased songs can be used freely, what give you the idea they would do anything like you suggest? MSFT may want to but based on Apple's behavior thus far, I cannot see how you can say Apple will.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    359. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      I honestly don't care much about copy protection, and I won't until it gets in the way of me doing something I morally approve of. Then I'll crack it.

      And because of stupid laws (DMCA), you will have broken the law.

      Trust me, Copy Proction and DRM aren't just to stop piracy. Or at least not what is currently piracy.

      "Piracy" as a term is somewhat of a moving target. It used to be that you could buy a program and install it on as many of your computers as you wanted, so long as it was only in use on one at a time.

      Then they decided that it could only be installed on a single machine, but you could make backup copies of your media in case it was damaged. You now have to buy a copy of the software for every machine it's installed on, else it's piracy.

      Then they decided that you don't need backup copies, so they implemented copy protection. If your original copy is damaged, you have to buy another, else it's piracy.

      Now they are beginning to lock down software to a particular machine (eg, Activation). Not too far away is the declaration that if you get a new computer, you have to get new sotware. If you reuse your old copy, it's piracy.

      Eventually, we'll be seeing applications that you not only buy, but then have to pay each month (or year) to use. If you don't do this, it's piracy.

      The noose has been tightening for quite a while now. The whole point of this is for the media companies to make more and more money. That concept in and of itself is fine; it's what companies exist for. But they're not doing it and a true and fair capitalist fashion. They're having legislators constantly adjust the laws of the land so that you must submit to whatever current "business plan" they have devised, otherwise you're breaking the law.

      Take this example: Chevy decides that now, rather than sell you a car, they're only going to start leasing them. You have to pay a monthly lease payment, but you're also going to have to pay per mile driven as well. And the car will only activate for you. No one else can drive it, because they want that person to lease a car of their own. In a normal market, everyone would say "Screw you!" and head over to Toyota. Unfortuneately Chevy has gotten the politcians to pass a new law that says that you have to drive Chevy cars (or another car with approved liscensing with Chevy) on the highways, otherwise you're pirating transportation. Do we consider this OK and fair? I mean, they're only trying to make as much profit as they can? And it's the law? What's wrong with it?

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    360. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 1

      What will you do when ALL the stored ask you to leave the bad at the door?

      I believe the idea is that if enough people are pissed off about the idea of bag-checks, the market would be ripe for a store to come along that didn't treat its customers like criminals. Provided they marketed themselves as such, the could probably reap a tidy profit--provided they aren't innundated with shoplifters. :)

    361. Re:Damn Microsoft! by I8TheWorm · · Score: 1

      Wait... so capitalism... works?

      --
      Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
    362. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ceriel+Nosforit · · Score: 1

      I'll confirm that. I've got a license for XP Pro, and still use the pirated corporate edition. Only thing that bugs me is that my own key won't work with this version.

      --
      All rites reversed 2010
    363. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 1

      Those who can - do. Those who can't - are stuck with whatever DRM dross Redmond, or Cupertino care to provide.

      Good luck on your rethinking...if you are avoiding Microsoft and Apple - that only leaves:

      FreeBSD, Linux - and a stable of lesser known (and probably less easy to use - versus a Unix/clone anyway) OSs.

      I would spend the time finding a good Linux distro that does what you need. Sorry - I had to say it. I can't fathom another solution (maybe OS2 - but that is old, and IBM is no longer supporting it).

      I would be interested to see what you find - I could be wrong (I am not omnipotent after all).

      --

      Lodragan Draoidh
      The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
    364. Re:Damn Microsoft! by brokencomputer · · Score: 1

      umm you can play movies fullscreen for free in DVD Player on OS X.

    365. Re:Damn Microsoft! by I8TheWorm · · Score: 1

      I agree with quite a bit of what you said. You see, I'm a dad too. Not only that, my oldest is a 15 year old girl, who I wish would eat way too much, develop bad skin, and stop brushing her teeth. None of those seem reasonable, so I get to deal with teenage boys all the time. Most of them seem nice, but I was a teenage boy once, and I know the usual drill.

      Here's an interesting thing about me... I've never done any drugs, unless you count alcohol or properly prescribed medicines. Admittedly, the only reason I never smoked pot was the fear of disappointing my parents. I don't think they would have been disappointed in my smoking pot, but the possibility of being picked up by the police would be a completely different story.

      I find drug testing horribly invasive. However, as a contract programmer, when I say no, I risk not working at all. I do point out that I think drug testing is an invasion of privacy, hoping that notion will catch on. Sometimes I don't get the gig, sometimes they let me slip in anyway. It seems the larger the company, the more often I don't get the gig. To me it's a matter of principal that, earlier in my career, I gave in to. But at this point in my career, I don't mind a little downtime. Besides, it almost guarantess I won't be working for large corporations anymore, which is fine with me.

      I like to remind employers (usually after I have the gig) that the contract we've signed entitles them to 40 hours of my time per week, or 1960 hours a year. If they would like to dictate how I spend the rest of my hours in the week/year, then we'll need to renegotiate our contract, as they're making an attempt to change their terms.

      Now, if an employer has reason to suspect an employee is under the influence of drugs or alcohol at work, then by all means, test them right away. But if someone likes to do whatever it is they do on Saturday night, a company shouldn't have any say whatsoever. If that person winds up in jail over it, and that jail time affects their work schedule, then it's time to decide wether it's worth it to keep them on the payroll.

      --
      Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
    366. Re:Damn Microsoft! by justins · · Score: 1
      Incorrect...if copyright/EULAs were abolished there would be NO NEED for the GPL anymore.

      You really haven't thought this through at all.

      This is just an absurd thought experiement, but still. If software copyrights were somehow abolished, very little would change on the commercial software side as compared to today. Large software firms would protect their software with various activation schemes, like they do today. A lot of software would be copied anyhow, as it is today. Getting software from the vendor would still be a lot easier and more convenient than leaching it via ftp or something, and serial numbers and activation schemes would still be a lot more effective than fear of copyright law in preventing "illicit" software trading.

      In that same hypothetical, what happens to GPLed software? Now that there is nothing to keep them from doing it, Microsoft and whoever else can take whatever GPLed code they like and use it however they like. There's no longer anything enforceable that says they need to give anything back or follow any of the GPL's restrictions. I'm guessing this is something that would make an awful lot of GPL-using software authors unhappy.

      You not only need copyright, but you need to abandon this silly "I never read the EULA so its terms shouldn't bind me" mentality. By that logic one could circumvent the GPL by... not reading it. (and let's be honest, most people don't even SKIM that monstrosity all the way through, let alone read it) Is that a legal situation anyone here really wants?

      Of course not.
      --
      Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
    367. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Savantissimo · · Score: 1

      "Which search is unreasonable?"
      The search of your urine for drug metabolites. Also, I know that employers are not yet bound to respect all the rights of the Constitution, 14th Amendment or no, but in Georgia, for instance, one can be cut off from the unemployment benefits which one has already paid for if one refuses to take a pre-employment drug screen. Other laws make it clear that the piss tests are conducted with State connivance and thus are subject to the limitations of the Bill of Rights.

      "where is that listed"
      See the Ninth Amendment to the US Constitution. It is a natural right not enumerated in the Constitution. For proof of its validity, assume the contrary of the primary right - that people has no right to think whatever they please. You can see where that leads, can't you? (If not, then I might as well be talking to the proverbial wall.) Since some thoughts and indeed ways of thinking are unavailable without drugs, and those thoughts and ways of thinking are within the natural rights of man, therefore the drugs needed to achieve those mental states are likewise protected. I am aware that the US courts disagree with me. Our difference of opinion is due to the fact that I am right and they are wrong.

      "does not include infringing the rights of others"
      Taking drugs such as marijuana, morphine, or MDMA does not infringe the rights of others any more than meditating or eating chocolate.

      "Who's restricting your right to control your bodily fluids?"
      The employers in the US with encouragement and sometimes requirement of the US and state governments.

      "You have no right not to be discrriminated [sic] against." Obviously false, and in any event unresponsive to what I wrote. The outcome of the drug test has no bearing on an applicant's ability to do the job. Off-the-job use of the Valium, the drug most commonly flagged in piss tests, may even improve abilities on the job. Try again.

      "You have no right to dignity" Bullshit. You have the right to maintain the dignity which all human beings are presumed to have; you have the right not to be forced to accept humiliation in order to secure the basic necessities of life.

      *

      I will endeavor to ignore further trolling from lp-habu.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    368. Re:Damn Microsoft! by shmlco · · Score: 1
      wholesale market for each DVD or CD title is a non-free market with only one allowed vendor

      Newsflash: For any given branded product there is only one source. Only Ford makes Ford cars. Only Apple makes Apple computers. Only U2 makes U2's music.

      You are however, free to buy a Chevy, a HP PC, or someone else's music. Or to make your own for that matter.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    369. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude. I don't watch TV, but you won't catch me admitting that in public.

      Why not? Well, because of people like you...

    370. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Bimo_Dude · · Score: 1
      Ok. You got a point there :)

      It's been a long time, and I was only thinking in the narrow-minded ways of the infantry where they made us chant:
      *Hands on M16* - this is my weapon
      *Hands on crotch* - this is my gun
      *Hands on M16* - this is for killing
      *Hands on crotch* - this is for fun

      Now that I've stopped being pedantic, I'll agree with you 100% about DRM - it is all about context.

      --
      "Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
    371. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      I can think of one thing the original owner is deprived of, specifically, the profit that might be gained from selling that which is produced by the use of his idea.

      You can't deprive somebody of something they didn't have to begin with. It _is_ as simple as calling it "not theft".

      To take the point a little further, what would you call somebody who thinks they somehow _deserve_ to get money from people who wouldn't ordinarily want to do a financial transaction with them? I heard some pretty bad names directed by right-wingers at "welfare mothers", but "welfare mothers" have nothing on how much has been sucked out of the economy by "intellectual property" owners.

    372. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Golias · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      all your old rehash joke are belong to us!

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    373. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      Every single publisher online is using copyright and I assure you they see the bennefit of it.

      They see the benefit of it for _themselves_. They don't care whether it provides a net societal benefit or not.

      Yes, these protections are needed to encourage protection and creativity.

      No they aren't. People will naturally be creative & problem-solvers. Artificial restrictions on the transfer of information serve only to put limits on peoples' creativity & ability to solve problems.

    374. Re:Damn Microsoft! by lp-habu · · Score: 1

      Touchy. Also clueless.

    375. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 1

      If Apple has a right to use DRM to prevent stuff from working on OUR computers, why don't we have a right to run software on or make modifications to OUR computers to make such software run.

      The DMCA allows companies to restrict how we use OUR computers and makes it ILLEGAL for us to use OUR computers as we wish.

      Why do they have rights, but we don't? Why are they considered within the kaw, but we are considered criminals?

      Why is it illegal to hack a computer you BOUGHT or shoftware you BOUGHT (licensed, eh? do you sign anything at Best Buy, etc? Can you get the refunds the EULA promise? No - but you are required to uphold your end of the bargain, but they aren't rwquired to uphold their end - why is it so asymmetrical?)

      --
      Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
    376. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Further underscoring the shallow, art-fag nature of all Mac users. Pathetic.

    377. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      Agreed.

    378. Re:Damn Microsoft! by StarmanDeluxe · · Score: 1

      Oh, come on. They're protecting their investment, here. The purpose of this is to keep OS X from being used on non-Apple-built computers. That's not going to impede you from doing anything you'd normally want to do on an Apple computer.

    379. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 1

      First, Mach is the name of the kernel. Darwin is the name of the BSD layer which runs basic functions in OS X.

      The /. summary mentioned that the kernel, and I would have to assume that kernel support would be necessary in order to have any piece of hardware enabled. Are you saying that Rosetta talks directly to the hardware and bypasses the kernel?

      --
      You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    380. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ickoonite · · Score: 1

      It appears that you have somewhat misunderstood me - the phrase I used was "actual user need". Both the reasons you cite - rather than being such needs - are in fact simply emblematic of the heavily politicised groupthink that still runs deep on Slashdot, no matter how much I may agree with the feeling associated with the second point.

      With tongue inserted firmly in cheek, I might ask that you respond again to my question and considering your choice of operating system without imposing artificial constraints.

      Without wishing to start an is-Apple-a-primarily-a-hardware-or-a-software-comp any debate (it is), it should be patently clear why Apple is adding these "artificial constraints" into Mac OS X. For the sake of clarity, though, I will elucidate: it's to stop cheap bastards like yourself (if I infer correctly; if not, and you have no interest in Mac OS X whatsoever, then I apologise) getting a "free ride", so to speak, and running Mac OS X on Dell boxen without paying the hardware tax which subsidises the cost of operating system development. We know that no-one can currently compete with Microsoft in the proprietary operating system arena, and by taking this course of action, Apple is making sure it isn't trying. Not to say that they won't, of course, but it is surely wise to attack from a position of strength, not weakness.

      If Apple actually starts to use seriously fascist Microsoft-style DRM on the iPod and in iTunes, a very legion of iPod users around the globe will doubtless be more than a little pissed off. But consider the fact that they have, at the moment, a situation that the music industry really ought to be happy with (half a billion songs must somewhat sweeten the fat cats' attitude towards the whole thing) and so no reason to make it more restrictive. Apple has not inconsiderable power now, because it has sold this many songs. The only country whose music companies are unhappy with iTMS's "insufficient" protection is Japan (which is why there is no iTMS Japan), and the cynic in me wonders whether that is more to do with a patriotic Sony-style "not invented here" syndrome than anything else.

      All of which is why I'm not too worried about the prospect of there being some form of DRM in the Mac OS X kernel - in fact, if I were a shareholder, I'd be asking questions if they weren't doing something to keep Mac OS X special.

      iqu :)

    381. Re:Damn Microsoft! by squoozer · · Score: 1

      I am not saying that no employers should use drug screening but instead that we should take a rational approach. Having someone running around with a gun smacked out of his mind on god knows what is a far cry from having that same person stocking shelves in the local supermarket or cutting code for some fancy new webapp.

      Where one person is responsible for the lives of many others (pilot, bus driver, surgeon that sort of thing) drug screening (including alcohol) seems prudent. It is a new tool that we can use to lower risk. It should not however be used as a means of control.

      A business doesn't need to be "pot friendly" to not pry into the personal lives of it's employees. If the employee is able to perform their job function to 100% of their ability so what if they smoke pot at the weekend. If it impares their ability then sure sack them on the spot if not though then why does the employer want to know? Is it perhaps because it makes the employee easy to get rid off when they are not wanted anymore?

      There are plenty of other things that a company might want to know about. What if the employee is particularly promiscuous. (S)He could easily come down with something nasty and have to take a great deal of sick leave. Should the company force the employee to reveal details of their sex life while attached to a lie detector?

      As for taking a dim view of most young men I feel sorry for you. You were once a young man (I presume) and I am sure most adults took a dim view of you even when you didn't deserve it just like you are taking of them now. While not every teenage boy is a saint most aren't evil personified either. They are regular young people and should be treated with the same respect you would expect them to treat you with until you know different. Have you ever considered that the reason they rebel is because you take the view you do?

      Just because you got older it doesn't mean you have to abandon your ideals. Perhaps in a few years when my kids grow up and reach that age I will agree with you but I doubt it.

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    382. Re:Damn Microsoft! by humina · · Score: 1
      "What will you do when ALL the stored[sic] ask you to leave the bad[sic] at the door?"

      Shop online.

      --
      check out the best blog ever:
      http://oehlberg.com
    383. Re:Damn Microsoft! by athakur999 · · Score: 1

      You don't have to imagine it, just load up any Slashdot comments page.

      --
      "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
    384. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Seumas · · Score: 1

      I don't condone pot or alcohol (but I don't particularly even care, either), but as long as they're not stoned or drunk when they come to work, I couldn't really care less. You can either perform your job well or you are incompetent. That's all there is to it.

      Such behavior may point to a longer term and more serious problem of responsibility that I, as an employer, would be concerned about even if it was just on your own time, but I'm talking in those cases about driving a bus working in a hospital or doing maintenance on military machinery.

      If you do your job well and your job doesn't involve serious risk to other people, I don't really care what you do on your off time.

    385. Re:Damn Microsoft! by avocade · · Score: 1

      "... your rights/viewing-licence agreement changing after purchase at the whims of the content producer ..."

      ... something Apple is already doing with the iTMS; stripping away rights slowly but surely.

      If we're ever going to get a broad public front against these shady business, we need tangible proof, something Apple has been kind as to offer. We must prove that this technology is really hurting consumers and privacy in the long run, otherwise Joe Schmuck will simply just deal with it. And we shouldn't allow him to throw away our collective freedom because of laziness.
      --
      avocade.com
      In a free and open internet, who needs Windows
    386. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go look up "logical fallacies" on Wikipedia and educate yourself. Seriously man... Spare us the stupidity.

    387. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And exactly what prevents you from sticking an "Apple (tm) inside" label on the PC box before installing it? They don't say "labelled by Apple", right?

    388. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ickoonite · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure what gives you that idea. If nothing else, the core of the remaining MacOS userbase has demonstrated they're prepared to stick with Apple through pretty much anything.

      Hence my "with any luck"? :P

      No, but seriously, the Mac user base is changing. Granted - the Mac faithful will put up with almost anything, but there are a hell of a lot of new users (the power geek type, especially) who will be far less inclined to acquiesce to such an imposition. If Apple gets shitty, they will vote with their wallets, and given that its been quite a growth area (especially for the PowerBook), any sensible company (*) is going to bear this in mind.

      (* Apple is a sensible company.)

      What is all this "hacking" I'm supposed to have to do to get Windows to "work"?

      The use of the term "hacking" was unfortunate in that context - I had Linux more in mind at that point, but fact is that Windows is no better. In fact, it's probably worse, because your average idiot is supposed to be able to use it as well.

      In any case, I can only presume you are delusional. To address a couple of points which I found particularly amusing:

      ...make a handful of very minor tweaks...

      Such as situating it behind a router so that it is not directly connected to the Internet, because, heaven forbid, if you don't, the machine will reboot within about 5 minutes and keep doing so for all eternity until fixed by someone who understands such things, installing a virus checker (at extra cost, both financially and to system resources) and ensuring that it is kept up-to-date, configuring a firewall (no longer necessary by default on SP2 installs, but you said "stock"), installing and configuring a spyware checker, downloading patches beyond number, updating all your previously purchased software because it doesn't work with SP2 (this is somewhat superfluous, but I'm putting it in anyway, because SP2 borked a lot of stuff)...

      I could go on, but I sense that you know the story already, implicit as it was in your parenthesised "or, preferably, Windows 2003". You know how bad Windows XP is, and it goes without saying that Windows 2003 is not a solution for most users. We're talking about desktops here (you say so yourself). Anyway, as should be readily discernible, the above list does not constitute "a handful of very minor tweaks".

      ...performance, stability and functionality...

      Stability has got much better in Windows 2000/XP, granted. But performance-wise, it is still very poor, especially as regards caching, where Windows severely lags behind Linux or Mac OS X, or most any other OS you are to mention. It chugs. Badly. And as to functionality, it is again sorely lacking. Things that I have come to rely on - like Spotlight and PDF output from any application on Mac OS X or a decent CLI (obviously a feature of any UN*X) - are totally absent from Windows. And the Start Menu blows.

      Moving on to matters of DRM, it should be clear that Apple's offerings are less restrictive. Download a song and (IIRC) burn it onto 7 CDs, play it on 5 other computers, etc. Microsoft WMA-based offerings seem bound to require periodic resynching to make sure you aren't doing anything naughty, that your licence is still valid, and always seem to take the form of a subscription-based service, with extra fees for the "privilege" of burning to CD. Granted, Apple has restrictions in place, but without them, they would be unable to licence content from the major labels and, whether you like it or not, this is what the majority of the population wants to listen to.

      I agree, of course, that it is the content providers who are ultimately responsible for the restrictions imposed, and my intention was not to blame software developers (certainly not at the programmer level, anyway), but that is peripheral to the issue at hand - whose offering imposes more restrictions on what you can actually do.

      iqu :)

    389. Re:Damn Microsoft! by taharvey · · Score: 1

      There is little evidence that pot has any negative effects...

      Uh, wrong. There is good and mounting evidence.

      Mental Illness

      Cannabis link to mental illness strenghtened

      The link between regular cannabis use and later depression and schizophrenia has been significantly strengthened by three new studies.

      Marijuana Use Increases Risk of psychiatric illness Cannabis link to depression

      This study suggests that girls who use cannabis as teenagers are more likely to develop anxiety or depressive disorders.

      Psychotic symptoms more likely with cannabis

      Marijuana in adolescence and early adulthood increases the likelihood of psychotic symptoms in later life.

      Study suggests marijuana abuse increses risk of depression

      Subjects diagnosed with cannabis abuse at the start of the study were four times more likely to experience depressive symptoms.

      Marijuana makes blood rush to the head

      Smoking marijuana can affect blood flow in the brain so much that it takes over a month to return to normal. And for heavy smokers, the effects could last much longer, a new study suggests.

      Child Development

      Marijuana use in pregnancy damages kids learning

      Children born to mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy may suffer a host of lasting mental defects.

      Dope-smoking dads double risk of cot death (SIDS)

      Dope-smoking dads double the risk of cot death, a survey in California has revealed.

      Maternal marijuana use during lactation and infant development at ...

      THC concentrates in the mother's milk and is absorbed and metabolized by the nursing infant.

      Reproductive effects

      The Effects of Marijuana on the Endocrine System

      Marijuana directly effects the endocrine system causing:

      reduced sperm counts, sperm deformations, shrunken testes size, degenerates the seminiferous tubules, halves testosterone levels, decreases libido, causes the accumulation of breast tissue in men, causes anovulation, causes an acute reduction in prolactin, reduces adrenocortical reserve causing reduced ability to respond to stress, inhibits growth hormone, and depresses thyroid activity.

      Cannabis, cannabinoids and reproduction

      Marijuana inhibits implantation and increases miscarriage rates. Marijuana use during or after birth may impair reproductive behavior of children when they reach adulthood.

      Study finds marijuana use in rats stops reporduction Research Survey: Common Ancestors

      Marijuana suppresses the production of luteinizing hormone in rats by stimulating the production of stress hormones. "It turns out that marijuana is a stressor, which might explain a lot of its effects on the brain and on people"

      Marijuana firmly linked to infertility

      Scientific American Tue, 12 Dec 2000

      General Heal

    390. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A nice collection of assertions. Lets examine them.

      Everyone and their mother is a creator.

      Well, everyone's mother is a creator. I don't know about your statement. Perhaps it is correct if we include the production of excrement and hot CO2 in the definition. For the purposes of *this* discussion, I assumed we mean the "creation" of ideas. And in that case, I have met plenty of individuals that are nothing more then consumers.

      The thing is, most people don't give a rats ass about what you've created.

      This is probably true. Also true is that I don't give a rat's ass about 99% of the "creations" made by other people. I think that this is equally important.

      As soon as people begin to take an interest in what you create though, someone is going to try and copy you and undercut you using your own work.

      How do you mean undercut? Claim credit for it? Well that is illegal, and I have made no dispute about that. Distribute it to others, maybe even make some money doing so? Not a problem with me. The fact that I am not smart enough to promote my own works for my financial benefit does not give me the right to start making arbitrary rules about what people can do with my ideas. If it is that much of an issue, I can keep these ideas to myself. According to you, society will not feel too much of a sting because most people don't give a rat's ass about it.

      Every single publisher online is using copyright and I assure you they see the bennefit of it.

      Sorry, no. To agree with this statement would be to ignore the countless authors that have deliberately placed their work into the public domain. And when this was prohibited in the US, those who have done everything short of it.

      *Many* internet publishers use copyright. I am sure many don't see the benefits of it, either to them or society. I'm sure that there are many that simply tack "Copyright 2005 Joe Jackass" onto their work without even realizing that they are no longer required to do so.

      Yes, these protections are needed to encourage protection and creativity

      You have not proven this, or even a shadow of this, with your collection of assertions. You also have not addressed any of the other points that were made.

    391. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Magic5Ball · · Score: 1

      If I buy a computer pre-installed with Linux, do I own that information (Linux)?

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    392. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Wildkat · · Score: 1

      Perhaps in a few years when my kids grow up and reach that age I will agree with you but I doubt it.

      Ah, there is the rub. When I was 18 (just barely) I dated a girl who was 16. I though her parents were "cool" for letting us date. Now I think they were idiots because for all the love we professed and how much we enjoyed each others company the number one thing on my mind (and hers much of the time!) was getting her undressed and getting my hands on her nuaghty bits. Because I was a young man once I know EXACTLY what young men think when they look at a pretty girl. Heck, I still think those things when I look at a pretty woman! All good adult fun but all different when its MY daughter they are looking at.

      I never thought I would care more about quality of schools over quality of bars but thats how I pick a place to live now. EVERYTHING is different when its YOUR kids.

    393. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 1
      That's not what we're saying at all. It has little to do with the pre-copy protection era. The people copying pre-protection are probably still doing so or not bothering at all.

      The point is that the people who were honest are those that will be those who suffer from anti-copying mechanisms.

      This is the era of digital copying. Not analogue where a 20th generation copy would be unwatchable. It takes one guy to break the protection and it will be out there, spread across a number of digital formats. Clamp down on FTP sites, people will just trade CDs with their friends at workplaces or schools.

      Now, I'm not addressing the moral questions of copying. I'm stating fact as I see it. A lot of people don't care about the morals of copying. So, it's pretty important for the industries that those who are on the borders are kept sweet.

    394. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      Employers give drug tests because employees take drugs on the job
      Huh? And just how do drug tests distinguish between on-the-job drug use and home use?
      Employers give drug tests because they can and/or the fed. gov't requires them to.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    395. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tricorn · · Score: 1

      No, it's sold. I bought a copy. It came in a box. I OWN that copy. It's an "authorized copy" under copyright law. I can use that copy in any way that doesn't violate the listed rights of a copyright holder, which includes running it on a computer. I don't need further permission from anyone to use it. If I want to "read it", run it through a disassembler, I can do that as well. I can't send copies of that disassembled version around to other people, of course, but I can tell them what I found out (just as I can tell you who dies in Harry Potter without violating copyright). I can modify the software in order to get it to work.

      If I modify my copy of OSX to change the terms it presents in the installer, to remove anything I find objectionable, then click on I Agree to the modified terms, how do you think that would stand up in court? What if I add some terms such as "You have the right to make copies of this software and sell them"? What if, instead, I give the machine a counteroffer: "If you agree that these terms are ridiculous and they should all be null and void, continue to leave the "I Agree" button where it is and I'll click it, OK?"

    396. Re:Damn Microsoft! by arminw · · Score: 1

      ...True or not, they are enforceable....

      There is another element to a contract. That is unabiguously identifying who the parties or a contract are. This is why, for important contracts we have offical witnesses, called a notary, attesting to the true identity of the parties to a contract. For most contracts a signature is sufficient identification. If the ID cannot be proved in each specific case, then that contract is not valid since it is unknown who the parties to the contract are. Furthermore in most jurisdictions there are conditions as to who is qualified to enter into contracts. Any "contract" with a ten year old would likely not be enforceable. Since clicking a mouse does not establish WHO did the clicking it must be assumed that the owner of the computer did. If the owner denies that, then how can a court establish whether he is lying unless there is a witness. Unless large sums of money are involve it quickly becomes impractical to ferret out the truth. Of course when (if) the trusted computing thing becomes commonplace, along with biological ID determination, EULA's will become enforable.

      --
      All theory is gray
    397. Re:Damn Microsoft! by nek · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's just too bad Windows Media Player for Mac completely sucks ass. Ever tried to skip ahead in a movie? It takes like 5 seconds for the video to catch up. Moronic. And the fact that when you close the player window it quits the program? Eew.

    398. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Fareq · · Score: 1

      these days, software EULAs generally say only one user on only one computer, and limit one activation (if you reinstall, they don't guarantee you'll be allowed to use it).

      I have some software for which I have 10 licenses... and the terms are rediculous I may install on up to 10 computers provided that I am the only person that ever uses any of those 10 computers.

      Or, better, how about the EULA for the copy of Windows XP that comes with the computer: Only one computer. When the OEM installs the software, the license is "bound" to that computer. If you stop using that computer, you can not "unbind" the license -- and so are not permitted to use it on a different computer. You must repurchase.

      You can get a super-discounted copy of Windows XP with any "non-peripheral" hardware. For instance, a video card. But then, your license of Windows XP is bound to that video card -- you can install that copy on only one computer ever, and that computer must retain that video card for all time. If you separate the video card from the machine, you will no longer have all the parts required to have a valid license.

      The software doesn't try to technologically enforce that restriction, but read the EULA. It's in there.

    399. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Yes, you own your copy of Linux.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    400. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tricorn · · Score: 1

      You're right that the GPL relies on copyright, and that if copyright on software were abolished then companies could use GPL source code in their products and not be required to release their modifications. That doesn't mean they can't release the source. The BSD model still works (and would continue essentially unchanged with no copyright).

      However, copyright does exist, and you don't need to agree to the GPL in order to get a copy of GPL software and use it. The GPL simply doesn't apply to you. Don't know about it? Fine! But then, you don't know that you are allowed to copy it, modify it and distribute it, so you are bound by simple copyright law (which is not a license, it's a law, so you don't have the choice of accepting it). So by not accepting the GPL, you're not allowed to do any of the things it lets you do that are otherwise prohibited by copyright law. Accepting it doesn't prevent you from doing anything you couldn't do already, and that's an important point. The GPL is offering consideration for consideration (some rights to their copyrighted work in exchange for some rights in your copyrighted work), and you can turn it down freely without losing something you already have.

    401. Re:Damn Microsoft! by arminw · · Score: 1

      ...until the copyright expires...

      Of course when (if) this trusted computing becomes common place or required by law, copyright effectively NEVER expires. Furthermore, all of the records of our society will effectively disappear without a trace for historians to research even only a hundred years from today. There is no digital equivalent of the Sumerian clay tablets or even the dead sea scrolls. Even if the information were inscribed on a durable medium, it'll be all encrypted and the keys most likely will not be there nor the methods for applying those keys to the data. Our history basically for better or worse will be lost to the generations yet to come.

      --
      All theory is gray
    402. Re:Damn Microsoft! by arminw · · Score: 1

      .... I can do any damn thing I please with it, as long as it's not restricted by law.....

      You basically can. Those EULA's are not contracts nor law. Most reasonable EULA's recognize this. You can install a copy of XP on your super-computer, as long as you erase it from your old not-so-super computer first. There is nothing that MS and all their lawyers can or would do to prevent you from doing that. In the case of XP however, MS may not give you a new activation code however.

      --
      All theory is gray
    403. Re:Damn Microsoft! by justins · · Score: 1
      The BSD model still works (and would continue essentially unchanged with no copyright).

      Yes, with the newer BSD license that's true, since all the clauses of the license become nonsensical in the absence of copyright. With the older BSD license you were requiring people to mention the original copyright holder in the software's documentation (the "advertising clause"), you would lose that.

      Nobody seems to have cared about the advertising clause so I guess it's largely a moot point.

      However, copyright does exist, and you don't need to agree to the GPL in order to get a copy of GPL software and use it. The GPL simply doesn't apply to you.

      Nonsense. Distribute commercial software which includes GPLed code, use the "but I never agreed to the GPL" excuse, and see if the FSF sues you.

      But then, you don't know that you are allowed to copy it, modify it and distribute it, so you are bound by simple copyright law (which is not a license, it's a law, so you don't have the choice of accepting it).

      Abiding by the publisher's restrictions on how the work may be handled is part of copyright law, it's not as if they're two separate things which can be agreed to at will.
      --
      Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
    404. Re:Damn Microsoft! by TheGavster · · Score: 1

      A comparison between copying the text of a book and distributing it and installing a piece of software on hardware other than that which the software company mandates is invalid. Installing OSX on a whitebox x86 machine is more akin to copying the text of that Harry Potter book into another book, for you to read (perhaps larger type, smaller formfactor, etc). You're not causing a loss for the manufacturer; JK Rowling got 1 book worth of royalty, and you got 1 book worth of reading pleasure. Likewise, when you install OSX on a whitebox PC, Steve Jobs gets 1 OSX sale and you get 1 computer running a shiny OS.

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
    405. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To put another spin on it, do you think it would be alright to buy copy of the latest Harry Potter book, copy out the text, and start selling your own printed versions?

      No, but it is perfectly legal in the US (although I understand not in AU or UK) to print out copies of Harry Potter and give them away.

      Copyright was meant, at least here, to prevent commercial copying. I bought it, I own it. I signed no license to use any software; I either bought a computer with the software on it, or I bought a box with software in it.

      Nothing in US law gives a publisher the right to restrict use of what I've bought, except that I cannot sell or broadcast it.

    406. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tricorn · · Score: 1

      At least with air, something is actually being consumed, even if in the context of the Earth it is a practically unlimited resource (as far as breathing is concerned, that is - the "right" to pollute the air is one that is currently bought and sold by companies). A better example would be the right to view a sunset. My viewing of a sunset doesn't affect anyone else in any way. Even if I close my eyes, those light rays weren't going somewhere else. A law granting exclusive rights to "The Sunset Company" wouldn't make viewing a sunset "theft", even though viewing it without permission means they're being "robbed of their profits".

    407. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

      Microsoft charged you the $30 when you paid $200 for their OS. And, when they release Vista, you'll pay for it again. Exactly the same as Apple.

      Wait, no... even worse than Apple, because you're still paying for Media Player, even if you use Quicktime. Unless you bought one of the new limited media version that I've never seen for sale anywhere.

      Play it in VLC, fullscreen.

    408. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kb7oeb · · Score: 1

      I could have swore apple sued the kaleidoscope guy when he made a theme changer for 10.0 or 10.1 saying he was using undocumented API or something but I haven't been able to find any old articles about it.

    409. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tricorn · · Score: 1

      Reasonable copyright and patent terms are a bargain with society. The problem is that the bargain has become too one-sided. When that happens, respect for the bargain degrades. Since that bargain includes a restriction on what would happen naturally (the ability to copy something), trying to restrict it when there is no respect for it is going to be problematic (as we've seen).

      With regard to your feeling of "burns me up like nothing else" - take it in a different context (which is not to say that in the current context, there's anything wrong with it, just that it isn't universally "natural"). A world of plenty (say, robots or nanotechnology produces everything we need to survive in comfort). Everyone else releases all of their creativity with no expectation of explicit return. You've used plenty of their creativity, some of your work is certainly based on some of it. You still put in just as much effort. Do you still feel really burned that once you release something, anyone is free to do with it what they will?

    410. Re:Damn Microsoft! by squoozer · · Score: 1

      Wow I wish I had mod points now +1 informative. Saying that though while I was aware of some studies showing negative effects the ones I had seen all used rats or humans that used large amounts of the substance. I certainly remember seeing people at university that could hardly talk due to smoking pot all day. Since cleaning themselves up they have pretty much returned to normal although in some cases that took many years. While the evidence might be quite compelling I would ask what the risks are when compared to alcohol and tabbaco both of which are legal and widely accepted. Many it's worse maybe it's not I don't know but the evidence I have seen so far doesn't make me think that it is as bad as it is made out to be by the popluar press. I will have a read of a few of those links and attempt to make a more scientific judgement. Just skimming the titles though makes me nervous. Lucky I didn't inhale :o)

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    411. Re:Damn Microsoft! by macbigot · · Score: 1

      This kind of drivel makes me tired. Steve Jobs stood up there and explained that Apple is a HARDWARE company, and the the new version of the OS (built to run on Intel) would be designed to run only on hardware that Apple produces. How else is that supposed to be accomplished without exactly this kind of DRM? These people just like to complain. Trolls. Anyway, to shorten the rope on this thread -- it's entirely possible that someday, Apple may license their OS for installation on 'white boxes'; but it would be silly for them to do so right out of the gate because they have no experience at that. Let them do what they know how to do well, and then branch out from there. There is no conspiracy.

      --
      Just another veteran of the platform wars. It's a great time to be a fan of tech.
    412. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can match a 12" iBook's hardware and warranty, get a 14" widescreen, get handed a free inkjet printer, and save two hundred and fifty dollars with a PC laptop.

      A printer, a 2" bigger screen, and enough cash left over to buy an iPod mini makes up for a lot of missing "awesome".

    413. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      You don't license your hardware, but you do license your software. To put another spin on it, do you think it would be alright to buy copy of the latest Harry Potter book, copy out the text, and start selling your own printed versions?

      Well, it is far to early to tell what Apple will do with this DRM hardware. It may be reasonable and it may not be. Your analogy may be very flawed. Books and computers are both bought, not licensed. Both contain intellectual property, but that comes contained in the book or computer and no license is signed before it is purchased and brought home. How would you feel if you bought a Harry Potter book that was shrinkwrapped and upon opening the first page there was a license the book claimed you agree to by reading the book that says you won't write any critical reviews of the book? That is half of the issue here. Thus far, DRM has not been disclosed to the purchasers and they have not been given any chance to agree or not agree to any terms.

      The second part is how would you feel if you found out the book was a new, high-tech book and the ability was built in to make all the pages display ads for three minutes every time you opened it, before allowing the text to appear. What if you knew it could refuse to display the text whenever you went outside the country? What if all this was controlled by a secret key that was not given to you with the book, but held by the publisher? What if they did not tell you this when you bought it, but you subsequently found out they could turn it on whenever they wanted?

      The issue is Apple is including a hardware device that may or may not come preloaded with half key pairs to which you are not given access. It is just like buying a car, but having it come with a remote shut-off switch owned by the car company. That is fine if you are leasing, but this is not a leased car or computer. This is something bought and paid for and still subject to remote controls by Apple.

      Now, just to take a step back here. First, this is only on a developer machine that is leased, not purchased. Second it only is called by the PPC emulator. Third, we don't have any idea what Apple plans to do with this hardware or if they plan to ship it with pre-installed keys.

    414. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Majestix · · Score: 1

      Wow... ...you just convinced me to stop killing every person i come across. I've been reformed. And i owe it all to slashdot. My co-worker will actually live long enough for us to get to know one another. Thank goodness i saw the light before being senselessly murdered by the police... ...i'm going to go home now...but wait, how will the police know i've reformed?

      --
      --- I was far from home, and the spell of the Eastern sea was upon me. -Lovecraft-
    415. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NRP128 · · Score: 1

      Amen...

    416. Re:Damn Microsoft! by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Agreed.

      This matter is already settled law. It has been for over 200 years, and is clearly spelled out in the US Constitution.

      And our move from an industrial economy into a more knowledge based economy is only going to make this the all more important. So you're right, the laws in this capacity are going to become stronger... not weaker.

      I have seen no compelling argument yet that people are entitled to free music, free software, or even free pr0n and as such the government should change the laws to support this.

    417. Re:Damn Microsoft! by NRP128 · · Score: 1

      NOt even government mandated. the current media market is a capitalist market spun out of control. They grew to the point where they are borderline monopolistic, protected only because there are other companies "competing" even though they're doing the exact same thing under a different corporate entity.

      If the media system was truly capitalist, as i feel it will be once the RIAA and MPAA are abolished and online music/movies REALLY take off, the artists will sell straight to distribution hubs. Radio play and concerts will determine markets, as well as free music given away on bands' websites. I wish i could expand this thought further but i'm going to have to let it go at that...

    418. Re:Damn Microsoft! by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

      No, he is Free to take that computer and bash in someones skull. Anyone is.

      Only problem is that society feels Free to take you into custody afterwards, so that you cannot pursue your "hobby" anymore.

      That is because most members of society don't deem it to be fun to get their heads smashed in.

      --
      # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
    419. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For if a thing is not diminished by being shared with others, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned and not shared.

      -- Aurelius Augustinus (4th century)

      Consider a world where all of human creativity was available to any human. Any book, and painting, any film, any music. Any educational material, all of history. All that stands between humanity and that vision, is the petty tyranny of those who wish to put an unreasonable price tag on their minuscule contribution to that edifice, and the dark forces that conspire with them, frightened that with all the information before them, humanity will make its own choices that do not involve being manipulated by the brokers of information, the real wellspring of power.

    420. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MadAhab · · Score: 1

      Will I see pictures of Natalie Portman?

      --
      Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
    421. Re:Damn Microsoft! by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

      So if/when a large portion of the Internet requires DRM will you simple no longer participate?

      That is a valid option. If most of cyberspace has become a corporate prison, why go for involuntary slavery? Freedom can than be obtained by leaving cyberspace.

      But not today, the last battle hasn't been fought. When my blood stains the earth and my body lies limp, only then will I give up the Internet.

      Besides, there are things like Freenet. When greed and lust for control wins, the brave will provide Freedom through "Samizdat" (self-publishing).

      --
      # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
    422. Re:Damn Microsoft! by tricorn · · Score: 1

      I said you don't need to agree to the GPL in order to get a copy of GPL software and use it. I never said you could then go ahead and modify it and distribute it without agreeing to the GPL. Distributing GPL software without agreeing to the license is a copyright violation, not a "license violation". It can't be a license violation if you never agreed to the license. The copyright holder (which is not necessarily the FSF) won't be suing you because you violated the terms of the license. They'll probably give you the OPTION of agreeing to abide by the license in exchange for dropping the copyright infringement lawsuit, however.

      Copyright law doesn't say anything about a publisher restricting how the work may be "handled". Copyright law gives certain very specific exclusive rights to the copyright holder. The copyright holder can give permission to others to exercise those rights, and (under normal contract law) require consideration in exchange for those (limited) rights. The only things the GPL allows you to do were already exclusive rights of the copyright holder - the copyright holder had the exclusive right to distribute source code and derivative works, and grants you SOME of those exclusive rights (the right to distribute the source code as long as you do so under specific terms, and the right to distribute derivative non-source works (i.e. binaries) as long as you do so under certain other specific terms). If you reject the GPL, you in no way lose any rights that you would have had anyway, including the right to run the program.

    423. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Brownian+Motion · · Score: 1

      Mach is the microkernel. Darwin contains Mach + the BSD layer. I should have been a bit more correct in my terminology,

      As I stated: there is a kext (kernel extension) which is loaded to add the TPM stuff to the kernel. It's optional code that is loaded, check /System/Library/Extensions on an OS X box to see what kinds of kexts are typical. Most of them are drivers.

      Rosetta talks to this kext before it launches.

    424. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because MS (90% of the market) are a monopoly, whereas Apple (4% of the market) aren't. Anti-trust is wholly about regulating the behaviour of monopolies and cartels; if you don't fall into either category, then the anti-trust regulators won't be interested in you.

    425. Re:Damn Microsoft! by bot24 · · Score: 1

      I was watching a movie, on the Mac, and it was like "beep beep beep beep beep beep" and then, like, my movies were encoded with DRM. And I was like... It devoured my movies. They were really good movies.

    426. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      slashdot?

    427. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      No they aren't. People will naturally be creative & problem-solvers. Artificial restrictions on the transfer of information serve only to put limits on peoples' creativity & ability to solve problems.

      So you are arguing that without copyright, there would be MORE content overall?

      Tell me, how does me preventing you from using MY creation prevent you from creating your OWN creation?

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    428. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      You don't license your hardware, but you do license your software.

      You do not license a book or a song. Not unless you are making and distributing new copies or engaging in a public performance. You do not need any licence at all to read a book or play a CD. You do not need any license at all to put the music you bought onto your iPod.

      BY LAW you do not need any license at all to install and run software. This is explicitly spelled out in Title 17 Section 117 of US law, and explicitly spelled out in EU law, and under the law of virtually every country on earth.

      In short, you only need a license for software if you are creating and distributing new copies or if you are engaging in public performance.

      You. Do. Not. Have. To. Accept. Any. EULA. Offer.

      Note the last letter in EULA, Agreement. If you do not Agree then no Agreement exist, no End USer License Agreement exists. You are not bound by any Agreement that does not exist.

      Of course if you decline an EULA then you obtain nothing the EULA offers. So what? EULAs generally offer you absolutely nothing you'd ever need or even want. You do not need any license at all to install and run software.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    429. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Because Apple only sells few different video cards on their systems. They have great control over it and it's not difficult to have drivers when you have such control over the machines."

      This isn't the reason for the ease with which OS X detects not only graphics cards, but all the hardware on a Macintosh, including stuff not made by Apple themselves. It is instead due to Open Firmware (actually designed by Sun originally, but parts were later adopted by Apple, and I believe IBM also use it on some machines).

      Unlike the aged PC BIOS that tells Windows and Linux developers very little about all except a very small subset of the hardware that a modern PC carries, Open Firmware supplies a device tree that can be queried both from within OS X and outside it (you can boot into Open Firmware itself if required without loading OS X at all). However, this only works if a device is compatible with Open Firmware, and it is this compatibility requirement that results in graphics hardware in particular appearing for Macs rather later than they do for PCs, despite PowerMacs for example having a standard PCI bus.

      Note that some of Open Firmware's capabilities are also present in the Extensible Firmware Interface that Intel and others are trying to replace BIOS with. EFI will therefore make hardware detection and driver installation a lot easier for all operating systems -- indeed, as with Open Firmware, one can actually install some drivers into EFI itself instead of having them in the OS.

    430. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Macgrrl · · Score: 1

      I don't need to imagine it, it's here already...

      --
      Sara
      Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
    431. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      Right those dark forces and the artists, software engineers, and musicians who need a paycheck to live are preventing this wonderful (socialist and impossible) vision from happening. How can I program great programs if I cannot get paid for the software I produce!? Do you have an answer for that question!? No one is going to pay for software that they can download for free, no matter how great the software is. What, do you expect me to work a day job programming in-house databases for some company and then slave away at night on my magnum opus? No. No, this is completely wrong.

    432. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Then I'll crack it.

      Under Trusted Computing that will in general require ripping open a microchip - most likely the CPU - and physically extracting the key. Oh... by the way... these are boobytrapped self destructing microchip explicitly designed to be secure against the owner. Perhaps you've seen the IBM Thinkpad "Man in Black" commercial where they explicitly advertize that the systems are locked down with a chip that self destructs if you attempt to extract it. Of course in the commercial they are advertizing it as protecting you against hackers and viruses, but in the Trust chip technichal specification it explicitly says it is designed to be secure against the owner as well.

      I honestly don't care much about copy protection, and I won't until it gets in the way of me doing something I morally approve of.

      I think you need to look a little farther ahead. In the short run there are going to be hassles with crippled Trusted Computing software and Trusted Computing files and Trusted Computing websites, problems that can only be solved by physically ripping a microchip (good freaking luck). In the longer run there is the Trusted Network Connect system (TNC). The TNC system is documented on the front page of the Trusted Computing Group website. Microsoft has issued a press release that they are supporting this system under the name Network Access Protection. Trusted Network Connect is a system that can deny you any internet access at all unless you are running a compliant and locked down computer. Game Over.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    433. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      If we managed that world, I would love to give everything away for free. I don't think we will see that within our lifetimes though. But isn't it a nice thought? Thanks for your insight.

      I had not thought of the possibility that the bargain has become one sided. Do you think that as more competition comes to the software industry in the form of Mac moving to Intel that the rights will begin to shift back to consumers? I think we should also bear in mind that the software industry is still very young -- thirty years ago it was all but nonexistant -- and we still may be going through the growing pains of the early years.

    434. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      It is impractical to ferret out the truth, which is why users are being forced to endure DRM nowadays (since we can't prove who's stealing our stuff, let's just restrict everyone until they no longer are able -- gotta break a few eggs to make an omlette right?).

      When I said enforceable, I meant ideally enforceable (as in, they are legally binding), not practically enforceable (as in, if you lie, you can still get caught). Just to clear that up.

    435. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I want Firefox I want Firefox, I don't want Debian's Gecko Based Browser.
      Mozilla.org forces Debian to only provide a slightly-differently-branded Firefox. Debian would like to provide you with a package with full Firefox branding, but the Firefox guys would sue them. So Debian gives you Firefox with a few icons changed.

    436. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What, do you expect me to work a day job programming in-house databases for some company and then slave away at night on my magnum opus? No. No, this is completely wrong."

      1. Yes, this is what I expect you to do if your employer does not/will not support your "opus" and you can find no other emplyer to do so.
      2. No, this idea is NOT completely wrong.

      Plenty of people have encountered this situation before, have done exactly what you proclaim to be so wrong, and have prospered for the extra work and diligence. Einstein worked as a patent clerk while developing his theory of relativity, for one. Find me one movie star or musician that did not have to work at some crap job or shit gig to make ends meet or to gain exposure before becoming famous. And, as a Mac OS X user, I have found plenty of OSS apps that have been developed in the author's free time, that could have made the author a bit of scratch, but instead are doled out for free, just because the auther believes the app to be useful and worth distributing.

    437. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Of course Apple is going to move to EFI. They need EFI for the explicit Trusted Computing(DRM) boot sequence support.

      The reason Apple is adding this DRM hardware system syupport is because without it Apples will be entirely locked out of any network with the new Trusted Network Connect (TNC) system routers. The TNC system is documented on the front page of the Trusted Computing Group's website, and Microsoft has issues a press release that they are implementing the system. Whithout this hardware DRM support Apple computers would then be unable to run on corporate networks, and in several years they may be unable to get any internet access at all.

      Apple is doing this because they are going to get locked out of the market if they don't, steamrolled by the Trusted Computing push.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    438. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kelnos · · Score: 1
      ... plus I don't even know anyone with windows, that has a OS installation that is older than XP.
      Congrats, you know one now. With an ATI graphics chipset, coincidentally.

      (Hint: corporate users. Corporate support from MS for Win2k doesn't run out until 2010 or so.)
      --
      Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
    439. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1
      Right those dark forces and the artists, software engineers, and musicians who need a paycheck to live are preventing this wonderful (socialist and impossible) vision from happening.

      See, now I'm sad. Because up until this point, we were having a great conversation. And now you've gone sarcastic and soured the whole batch of milk. "Dark forces" indeed.

      What "socialist and impossible vision" am I talking about? I BLOODY WELL AGREED WITH YOU THAT PATENTS AND COPYRIGHT ARE GENERALLY ON TRACK. Unless you were referring to copyrights and patents as socialist (which they are in a way, since in a truly free economy, plays and such are free for all to copy, with no restrictions).

      How can I program great programs if I cannot get paid for the software I produce!?

      Again, where did I claim that you could not get paid for the programs you produce?

      NEXT TIME YOU REPLY, PLEASE AT LEAST BE CONSIDERATE ENOUGH TO READ THE POST. Crumbs. Now I've done got my panties in a twist.

      [END OF THREAD] *ZOT*

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    440. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1

      Much better than my meagre illustration. Bravo. It even makes a great sig:

      Sir or Madam: The Entity known as God (a subsidiary of Holiness, Inc.) has coyrighted Her masterpiece, known as "The Sunset". The sale of your painting of "The Sunset", an unauthorized reproduction, is in violation of Her copyright of "The Sunset" and you are to appear in court on the following date....
      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    441. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      iTunes can play movies full screen, without requiring a QuickTime Pro license. Out of the box.

    442. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      So you are arguing that without copyright, there would be MORE content overall?

      Yes. It would be incremental, and not tracked via a global registry, but removing the strangehold that IP "owners" have over the engineering market would greatly increase innovation.

      Tell me, how does me preventing you from using MY creation prevent you from creating your OWN creation?

      Do you honestly think that anyone can create anything significant that isn't based on something somebody else has already thought of? Can you think of _any_ useful invention that was made entirely from scratch?

      What's the first thing you would think of doing to me if you learned that I had created a product that was based on yours, but with improvements? Try to stop me (or at least try to extort money from me), right? Isn't that a direct example of retarding my creativity?

      The entire history of human technological, scientific & cultural progress is based the free accumulation & distribution of information. IP laws, by their inherent nature, directly oppose the type of information flow that encourages human progress.

    443. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      And our move from an industrial economy into a more knowledge based economy is only going to make this the all more important. So you're right, the laws in this capacity are going to become stronger... not weaker.

      Then I suggest you prepare for a future where the U.S. & other "First Word" economies have fallen stagnant and collapsed into a pale shell of their former selves, while countries who ignore or at the most pay lip service to IP laws like China completely dominate the global economy.

      You should study a little U.S. history. One of the main reasons that the U.S. became such an economic powerhouse is because it "stole" a LOT of industrial technology from Europe, over and above the European countrys' protests about "patented technology". The same situation is setting itself up again, except that the U.S. & its friends are going to be on the losing side.

    444. Re:Damn Microsoft! by arminw · · Score: 1

      ....which is why users are being forced to endure DRM nowadays....

      If the disaffection with DRM gets widepread and big enough, someone will always see an opportunity to make systems and content that allow them to earn some good money by making these DRM free. Even now there are good places where one can get pretty nice music in standard DRM free formats. Even if laws are passed against DRM free systems and materials, they will still be available to those who truly want such. The Internet is global and only a dictatorial, absolute power world government could ever hope to control it to the point of preventing anyone who really wants to get what they want when they want it from the net. The DMCA of the USA doesn't prevent anyone from downloading the tools from outside the US to decrypt and backup their purchased DVD movies for example.

      The failed war on drugs and failed prohibition have shown that if a large number of people want something enough, there is no way to keep it from them. Keep old, DRM free computers and software around, for they may become very valuable some day. Users of the future may have a TC DRM enabled computer for certain needed things and another TC DRM free machine of other purposes no longer allowed by the powers that be. The content creators not only want to make copyright permanent, but also want to be able to control who uses what when and where and how often. When people realize these kinds of restrictions, many will opt to buy unrestricted content, providing these creators with a good source of income.

      I am reasonably certain that if the music from the iTunes music store were not encumbered by DRM, the number of downloads from there would not be significantly less than the 500+ million done so far. As it is, that DRM satisfies the content companies and is fairly benign for most users and relatively easy to swallow because the whole experience is so good and convenient..

      --
      All theory is gray
    445. Re:Damn Microsoft! by hao2lian · · Score: 1

      The fact that people are reacting to this news is idiotic. How did /not/ expect Apple to go with a relatively hard-to-crack hardware solution to lock in their hardware? They make a respectable amount of money from their hardware business and anybody who's not a hippie would realize that that's worth protecting zealously. Everybody who says "Apple betrayed us" or "I'm not going to buy Apple stuff anymore" or tries to be glib about Apple vs. Microsoft is just deluding themselves in the first place. Apple will always try to lock you into their hardware until it no longer makes business sense. Get over it and get another OS.

      --
      Pelé!
    446. Re:Damn Microsoft! by James_Aguilar · · Score: 1

      First of all, I don't keep track of who I'm replying to, only of what I read in the immediate post. I guess this is why the news format of keeping the entire history in each post is good. Please consider the post I made as one in which the one I was replying to was the first I had spoken to you in, because that is how I perceived it, even though I was incorrect. If you can't accept that, I suppose it's only the internet, but I would rather that you did.

      So, just to clear it up further, when I read the GGPP, I read just another guy who wants to get rid of the unreasonable pricetag and make everything available to everyone. So, if you consider that I did not know it was the same you I was talking to, I must assume that if everything is available to everyone, it must be at no cost, because no one can afford to pay the upkeep for everything, and if everyone is paying for everything (i.e. no descriminating market/conception of scarcity), that is socialism (again, taken outside of the context of our previous conversation). Most of the guys that have responded to me today have thought "unreasonable cost" == "any cost at all," and the way I read your post, you were just another one.

      In any case, you are right, EOT is wise now. "The only thing worse than beating a dead horse is getting on one." And I am embarrassed, but I guess that in a heated subject like this that is unavoidable. I'm no image of perfection -- and I guess that is a cop-out too.

    447. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      You are now arguing patents, which is an entirely different field than copyright. Please get your terms straight before continuing with this line of discussion. I don't mean to be short but I have no intention of defending a position I have not taken.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    448. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      I'm talking "intellectual property", which covers both copyrights & patents. The concepts I'm arguing are applicable to both, although the examples may differ.

    449. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Apple already doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does"

      Haven't been out much lately, eh? In 2005, the Apple-light vs. MS-dark meme is wearing just a bit thin.

      Seriously, it all depends on whether the retail MacTels feature the chip. On a loaner dev machine it makes sense for a lot of reasons, but for Christ's sake, leave it OUT the retail ones.

      And yes, I've already seen real posts by zealots which 'are glad Apple is using DRM'. They're the same guys that were mocking the rest of the planet when Longhorn was supposed to feature TCPA.

    450. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      No, they are two very different domains and not interchangeable at all. The fact that you view them as interchangeable is one of the reasons that IP laws are so fucked up in the first place

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    451. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      As a slightly more direct argument about copyright, I will also add that "cultural innovation" is not that different from scientific & engineering progress - most of it is highly dependent on previous cultural developments.

      A lot of innovation comes from people trying variations something already existing or synthesizing multiple existing things together to form something new. Even things which are considered to be "absolutely unlike anything ever done before" are defined by a deliberate attempt to avoid being "unlike anything every done before".

      So the same arguments I used for scientific & engineering progress are completely applicable to cultural innovation as well. Placing control over the accumulation & distribution of cultural "data" into the hands of a well-monied subset of the population will only slow the pace, variety & distribution of "cultural innovation".

    452. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      The implementations are different, but the primary instrument of control is the same: allowing IP owners to override the private property rights of their "customers".

    453. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      No, it's not the same. There is an entirely different set of rules governing such things, Again, pick one or the other for the discussion.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    454. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Trelane · · Score: 1

      C'est bon. No problem. I got a little impassioned myself. ;)

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    455. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ruiner13 · · Score: 1
      "Sure, Apple has coded up this DRM implementation for fun and has no intention of using it. Apple and Jobs has sold you out... get over it. They jumped to Intel to get this Trusted Computing stuff and now they are using it.

      You can put your hands over your ears and sing lalalalalala, but it won't change anything. The message that has to go out from here is simple and the same one that should go out to any software/hardware company that involves itself with this anti-customer bullshit: Don't buy Apple. If their sales drop because of this action, then perhaps they'll listen... but if idiots like you continue to defend their actions with ever more ludicrous excuses that won't happen."

      So you'd rather get your panties in a bunch speculating about a product that doesn't exist yet, and won't for another year. You'd rather spread FUD about a nonexistant product and tell people to boycott Apple. How is that productive? If when the Macintels come out, they do have restrictive DRM, by all means start shouting. Right now you're just looking like a paranoid loon and if I had mod points right now I'd do my part to make your post go away. You just sound like a troll.

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    456. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      The RULES only describe implementation.

      The CONCEPT of overriding private property rights for the benefit of the IP owners are the same between the two domains. If you can't see this, then your arguments aren't going to be that relevant no matter which domain you're arguing about.

    457. Re:Damn Microsoft! by zeketp · · Score: 1

      If you can't find away around paying the $30 (use another player? Make one yourself in Xcode and Interface Builder? (Which rarely requires actual coding (drag objects, link 'em, save, compile, done))) then you deserve to pay for it.

      --
      Last Post!
    458. Re:Damn Microsoft! by crankynick · · Score: 1

      I think pirating of OS's and major software is something that Microsoft (and Apple to a lesser extent) have done to themselves. By bundling sotware into their machines at point of sale to preserve their monopoly, they've effectively taught the average end user that software is free - if you don't see the price, there isn't one, right? So the home user becomes resistant to paying for upgrades to their OS and standard applications. Now, their bodgy business model requires DRM to protect it. Where's the surprise in this?

    459. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Actually when photocopied, the pages came out entirely black. I think it was some special paper coating or something.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    460. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Have you tried the omegadrivers?

      http://www.omegadrivers.net/

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    461. Re:Damn Microsoft! by StormKrow · · Score: 1

      The instances of pirating would be vastly reduced if it weren't for the corporate crooks doing the REAL piracy. Charging $300 for a piece of software a college kid needs for their class or offering the "student version" for $150, but "doesn't quite do the same thing, but it's just enough to get by", version.

      or

      The MPAA telling someone that owns a copy of a film that they can't make a back-up of a movie the end consumer PAID for, paid for the rights to use in any way they see fit, with the exception of public exhibition.

      or

      The RIAA telling someone they can't make an MP3 copy of a song they purchased for use on their portable device, or a copy of a song they own the media yet are too lazy to convert it to MP3 format...(I can't count the number of times I've been too lazy to rip one of my albums for my MP3 player, so I've gone out and downloaded a copy and saved myself the trouble.) Admit to even searching for online music downloads and the "industry" would label you a pirate.

      There are too many instances where the copyright holders have been victims of their own success. Many publishers are successful today BECAUSE of piracy, (don't tell me you've never copied a DOS 3.22 disk)...Slipknot? I heard Spit 4 years before they ever signed a record deal. Telling people they can't make backup copies of titles they own is going to drive some people to "distribute" these works if for no other reason than spite.

      Protect their profts? Don't make me laugh. 90% of the works pirate would NEVER be purchased even if there were a surefire way the one could prevent priacy. If some 15 y/o living with his mom and his step-dad wanted $600 to go buy the latest version of Photoshop, they'd laugh at him. Or some college kid isn't going to buy a software package they're going to use once and never use again...(or at the most recreationally).

      Secondly, these "lost profits" these companies try to sell the public and government are fictional numbers. They're based on numbers of people suspected to have a pirated copy + numbers of people who own a computer their title will run on. They compare that number to the actual units sold and that's where they get their "lost profits" number. 90% of that number is a pure fabrication. (Counterfit copies coming from China not withstanding) They're not losing ANYTHING because the people who have those pirated copies wouldn't have purchased their POS software to begin with.

      Let's say for a minute that even if piracy was 100% preventable. Let's say that piracy has been 100% eliminated tomorrow. The number of units sold today compared to those tomorrow would vary in the most smallest of amounts. So I pose the question to those companies, "Shouldn't you be more profitable now that piracy has been eliminated, shouldn't your net worth be going up? Why are this quarter's figures the same as last quarter's figures? Your profits should've gone up, what happened to all those lost profits?"

      'nuff said.

      --
      Who cares about the ozone layer?...thanks to CFC's I can write my name......IN CHEESE!!!
    462. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      how is paying for mac os x and installing it on an x86 computer you already own, copyright infringement? paying for the software obviously means that the vendor has complete control over what you do with it.
      Oh crap, were you sleeping through Be OS? How about NeXTStep?

      There's no viable market for a 2nd commercial x86 OS. Producing an OS that will run on any x86 hardware, and pricing it so you can make money on it ($200+), will just yield one thing: Rampant, unyielding piracy.

      Apple makes hundreds off every computer they sell. They don't make a whole lot off OS sales, in part because they price it under the competition. Hell, in order for them to make up that money lost on computer sales, they'd have to price OS X for more than the competition charges. If you increase the cost, it's just going to drive up piracy.

      So Apple is locking OS X so that it only runs on their hardware. Want to run OS X? Gotta buy a Macintosh. It's no different a situation than it is right now. If you don't like it? Don't buy a Macintosh.

      It's a sad world we live in, where people routinely steal other people's products, and then blatantly whine about the products they're prevented from stealing.
    463. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      The Darwin Kernel is still open source, and will likely have that DRM in the source as well. Besides, the DRM is likely to only ensure that it boots on an Apple x86 machine, no more. Besides, look at Apple's history, when have they ever used serial numbers for their OSes? Never.

    464. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      My point was most people don't have a preference if they don't have a clue(on anything). you implied they would because they didn't have a clue, wich makes NO sense, how can you have a preference for x over y if you don't even know about x or y?

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    465. Re:Damn Microsoft! by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      You could be right about MS but I don't think the same applies to Apple. Apple have always been a "complete solution" seller - you buy a box that has everything in (hardware + OS), so there isn't exactly a "free" bit there, you're buying everything. MS on the other hand, is a software producer and other manufacturers bundle the software. Because the computer is, say a Dell, and the software is Microsoft, it may well be seen as "free software" rather than a single package like Apple do.

      I've got to say though that I think Apple's use of DRM is about the only sane one I've seen - they want to keep the "complete solution" idea and stop people running (a possibly legit copy of) OS X on non-Apple hardware. I.e. they want to stop Apple going the way that IBM went with the original PC. I think that's a fairly sane idea, keeps support costs down (noone phoning up complaining "I've installed OS X on my random combination of hardware and it doesn't work") and preserves the "just works" experience you get with Apple today, where they've already tested it on all combinations of hardware they sell so they know it works, unlike a Windows system where there are so many random hardware combinations that they can't be tested.

      Truth of the matter is though that Apple probably don't care about the people who might have the knowledge to crack the DRM, they're just trying to keep the general public from using OS X on random hardware coz they're the people who will cause trouble when it breaks.

    466. Re:Damn Microsoft! by crankynick · · Score: 1

      I agree with your point about Apple's total solution (though I still think it's relevant that the sofware is still apparently 'free') - however, Apple's irritating habit of selling updates to OSX once a year mitigates this to an extent. To stay up to date, you have to purchase software, and this is well known. By doing this, they're actually putting a real value on their OS. Microsoft, however, only has themselves to blame.

    467. Re:Damn Microsoft! by DenDave · · Score: 1

      Well I must argue that Apple has a distinct advantage over the "competitor", namely that the core of it all is open source. you have the option to review and change it to suit your needs. Once osx becomes a mainstream x86 item, I do beleive that a community will evolve and thrive to make it a more palatable product. Whether Apple incorporates it into OSX in subsequent releases remains to be seen. For my own part, I am confident in my linux skills for the "geekin" out part and for the rest my mac does a good job of playing music and editing my snowboard vids...

      --
      -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
    468. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mocenigo · · Score: 1

      Yes, you are. Your entire argument is based around the idea that without using TCPA, Apple is doomed to have their magnificent operating system ripped off.


      Absolutely not. TCPA is ONE way of achieving this, and until now, we have NO evidence whatsoever that it will be used for anything else. There is clear evidence that it will be used to lock the OS to apple hardware.
      And, NO I am not tweaking the financials. The bulk of the income still comes from hardware sales.

    469. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Xyde · · Score: 1
      Try removing every trace of Quicktime from OS X and see how well everything works. I suggest you back up first.

      Don't be stupid, removing quicktime from OS X similar but even worse then removing IE from windows. Systemwide JPEG decoding, GIF, and most other formats would die, sound playback would die in everything - probably most API calls to anything to do with sound would fail. It's not an application like it is on windows - it's the system framework for ANYTHING even remotely media related. Windows probably wouldn't work too well with DirectShow, DirectSound, VFW, and whatever DLLs is used for image decoding removed either.

    470. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Xyde · · Score: 1
      To play movies full-screen in QuickTime Player out of the box: CMD-F (and pay $30) (and pay $30 for the next version) (and $30 more for the version after that)

      If you open the movie in iTunes, there is a fullscreen button and playback controls (stop/pause/ff/rw/seek) easily accessible. In iTunes preferences there is the option to automatically playback video in the main screen, a seperate window, or in full screen. If you buy quicktime pro just for fullscreen playback well...as they say...a fool and his money are soon parted.

    471. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Borx · · Score: 1

      Osama Bin Laden, Alan Greenspan, Owen Beber to you. There! Now you are on the watch list of possible terrorists anyway, as I have been since it's inception I'm sure.

      Now, back to the subject at hand. You seem to be the closest to anybody so far to replying to the DRM post with anything pertinent. Can you elaborate as to what you think the real effect of this will be for the end user?

    472. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kyrre · · Score: 1

      It was not him that implied that users that have no clue want their MBR, it was me. The reason for this statement is of course that a clueless user installing Ubuntu would like to boot Ubuntu after install. If they don not install GRUB on MBR many new users would be unable to boot into Ubuntu. So in a way a new user do indeed prefer to have GRUB on their MBR.

      I am curious; Why do you not want GRUB on your MBR?

      You are right. I have the 32-bit edition of Ubuntu. If there is no MBR option on the 64-bit Ubuntu install you have discovered a bug. Please do the communtiy a favour and report the bug.

    473. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cajunfj40 · · Score: 1

      That was the dilemma, mod or post. I chose to leave the mod alone at "normal" and post a comment, rather than mod one or the other down. Unfortunately, sometimes there just isn't enough choice in the moderation system. There's no "-1 missed the point +1 insightful anyway" mod that I know of, other than not modding and just posting a response.

      Thanks for the reminder, though. Not everyone remembers that bit about mod vs. post.

    474. Re:Damn Microsoft! by cajunfj40 · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, despite the good points you drew, it looked to be a rather spirited response to a literal interpretation of a sarcastic post. I agree that some people espouse Saumas' sarcastic comments as actual beliefs, and I find that horrible. I think he had a nice dry comment, with the tag at the end giving away the sarcasm. I could have modded it flamebait, but for that tag at the end. It looked like you had missed the sarcasm completely, taking it as flamebait. As you didn't really shred him and you did provide several interesting/insightful points, I didn't count you as a troll. Thus I posted, rather than modding.

      Catch you later,
      -cajunfj40

    475. Re:Damn Microsoft! by sheldon · · Score: 1
      Then I suggest you prepare for a future where the U.S. & other "First Word" economies have fallen stagnant and collapsed into a pale shell of their former selves, while countries who ignore or at the most pay lip service to IP laws like China completely dominate the global economy.


      Impossible. For China to succeed while paying lip service to IP laws, they need the "First World" countries to create IP.

      Without IP laws, there would be no creation to begin with.

      You should study a little U.S. history. One of the main reasons that the U.S. became such an economic powerhouse is because it "stole" a LOT of industrial technology from Europe, over and above the European countrys' protests about "patented technology".


      Yep. But we didn't allow Americans to steal from Americans did we?

      You should go read up on French history before advocating the elimination of Copyright.
    476. Re:Damn Microsoft! by 7-Vodka · · Score: 1

      haha nice

      --

      Liberty.

    477. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 1

      Oh yes? Based on what?

      I may dislike DRM, but frankly I'd rather present it as neutrally as I can and see what other think (hey, I could be the one being unreasonable here) than scare them with horror stories and end up with both of us agreeing, and both being completely wrong/selfish/unjustified.

      I value the correctness of my opinions over what I actually believe, and if someone's prepared to argue differently I'll either spot a flaw in their argument which proves me right, or change my mind in the end and agree with them.

      Although I forgive you your skepticism, because I'm told this is a freakishly unusual mindset on /.

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    478. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 1

      Oh, I'm sorry, I just checked your posting history - I didn't realise I was responding to a troll.

      Y3a? Fuxx0rZ j00, cunT\/\/1T! I t3ll t3h 7ru7H! Jo0 suxx0rZ teh c0Ck, 5hith3aD!!!!111!!!!1!!1!1!111!

      Better?

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    479. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 1

      Exactly. This came out after he'd pretty well impressed upon us his anti-current-DRM-policies stance, and was he was asking questions about exactly what was possible.

      As an aside, the other (geek) friend of mine raised an issue I'd never even considered before, and didn't know the answer to:

      If DRMed files dial home to establish the "right" to play them, is there any DRM system that allows (or explicitely doesn't allow) the content-provider to actually subsequently modify the file before you view it?

      For example, (marginally allowable) if a news report was peercast, then later information came in that indicated it was incorrect, could the content-producer "push" an updated version as a condition of the licence being granted, or would he just have to blanket-deny all licences for version 1, and only permit licence verification for version 2?

      Or even (unacceptable) would such a system allow content-producers to literally rewrite history? Imagine George Lucas being able to not only stop the distribution of "old" versions of Star Wars, but actually being able to reach inside your collection and "improve" the one you've already bought?

      Like I said, it seems a relatively trivial extension of existing DRM capabilities I already know about - is it already feasible, or are we safe (so far)?

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    480. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely not. TCPA is ONE way of achieving this, and until now, we have NO evidence whatsoever that it will be used for anything else.

      Apart from the stunningly obvious one that this is expensive hardware that fully implements TCPA... and you, apparently, think that Apple will include it only to control the boot process. Apple apologists really are pitiful. No wonder you have such a bad rep.

      And, NO I am not tweaking the financials.

      Yes, you are. Apple's manin financials are now based around DRMed music and its trappings.

      The bulk of the income still comes from hardware sales.

      Come back when you start using your iPod as word processor rather than listening to iTunes music... and then you might have a point.

    481. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is that productive?

      Yeah, we should all wait until Apple has designed and shipped its new "Dells with dongles" and then complain. No sense making your views known early when it can make a difference... why not just wait until it's too late.

      if I had mod points right now I'd do my part to make your post go away.

      Well, of course you would dear. You don't like people criticising Apple.

    482. Re:Damn Microsoft! by confused.brit · · Score: 1
      Ever tried clicking 'no' to the EULA on a software install?

      Dunno about on Macs or Linux, but on Windows it just quits then and there....

      --
      Sigs are for wimps
    483. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ruiner13 · · Score: 1
      "Yeah, we should all wait until Apple has designed and shipped its new "Dells with dongles" and then complain. No sense making your views known early when it can make a difference... why not just wait until it's too late."

      Or perhaps when the final kit gets shipped to developers, and not a hacked up PC box. I guarantee they are going to have at least a few months where the final product (if even just a hardware preview) is shipped out for final testing. The dev boxes out right now are so far from what the final versions are going to be they will have to have more testing. If there is DRM active at that point, I gurantee people will make it known, NDA or not.

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    484. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      In any case, I can only presume you are delusional.

      Ah, I should have figured you'd just be as much of a hypocrite as the average /. drone, even after a comment like "I realise that to ask this is to break something of a taboo amongst the Linux faithful here, but why must operating system choice be dependent on politics rather than actual user need?".

      Such as situating it behind a router so that it is not directly connected to the Internet, because, heaven forbid, if you don't, the machine will reboot within about 5 minutes and keep doing so for all eternity until fixed by someone who understands such things, [...]

      False.

      [...] installing a virus checker (at extra cost, both financially and to system resources) [...]

      I've never used an active virus scanner on any of my Windows systems.

      and ensuring that it is kept up-to-date, configuring a firewall (no longer necessary by default on SP2 installs, but you said "stock"), [...]

      This is neither "hacking", nor "tweaking", it's common sense tasks that must be done on every platform.

      installing and configuring a spyware checker, [...]

      Never needed on of those either.

      [...] downloading patches beyond number, [...]

      Just like you do on every other OS, with an automated process ?

      updating all your previously purchased software because it doesn't work with SP2 (this is somewhat superfluous, but I'm putting it in anyway, because SP2 borked a lot of stuff)...

      Not really. Proportionally no worse than your average new version of OS X or Linux.

      SP2 didn't break anything on any of my Windows systems. 10.4, OTOH, required a few things to be updated, as have numerous Linux updates.

      You know how bad Windows XP is, and it goes without saying that Windows 2003 is not a solution for most users.

      Actually I could quite happily use XP. There's little functional difference between the two and, if anything, 2003 requires _more_ tweaking than XP to get it into a usable state for a desktop machine.

      Anyway, as should be readily discernible, the above list does not constitute "a handful of very minor tweaks".

      Here's the _tweaks_ I do to an XP install to make it usable:

      * Create a non-Admin user account.

      * Revert to the Windows Classic theme.

      * Use TweakUI to make similar Taskbar buttons group together, but not collapse into a single button.

      * Change some Start Menu settings - number of applications in the recently used list, display My Documents as a menu, etc.

      Applying updates, enabling a firewall (still not on in OS X by default, IIRC), etc are generic actions you have to perform on every platform.

      Stability has got much better in Windows 2000/XP, granted. But performance-wise, it is still very poor, especially as regards caching, where Windows severely lags behind Linux or Mac OS X, or most any other OS you are to mention. It chugs. Badly.

      Maybe you should try using it on a system with decent hardware that isn't memory-starved.

      I've tried using OS X with a similar workload to my Windows PCs - on significantly more powerful Macs - and it simply can't do it. The whole thing just becomes to unresponsive to use without frustration. Linux+GNOME or KDE has fewer performance problems, but then I have to put up with the niggling inconsistencies of using them.

      Things that I have come to rely on - like Spotlight and PDF output from any application on Mac OS X or a decent CLI (obviously a feature of any UN*X) - are totally absent from Windows.

      Funny, things I have come to rely on like good performance, a decent file manager, keyboard shortcuts for task-switching that don't suck and quick, simple access to network resources are totally absent from OS X.

      And the Start Menu blows.

      It's _leagues_ ahead of that UI train wreck called the Dock.

      Microsoft WMA-based offerings seem bound to

    485. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ArtStone · · Score: 1

      Nah, if "content providers" weren't such greedy bloodsucking parasites, then there'd be no need for DRM.

      So Michael Jackson (who owns half interest in the Beatles catalog) is a greedy bloodsucking parasite?

      --
      Final 2006 "Proof of Global Warming" US Hurricane Count -> 0
    486. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you really trying to claim that they included this hardware temporarily... in these "dev boxes that are totally unlike the ones that will ship" (a deeply bizarre notion... since they are meant to prepare developers for what will be in the released version, or what's the point)? That Apple spent time designing and integrating this system just for the purposes of making a test release?

      How much further can you twist this before even your Apple zealot brain finally breaks under the strain of too much double-think? Is there a limit to your delusion?

    487. Re:Damn Microsoft! by twelveinchbrain · · Score: 1

      In Korea, only old people rehash tired jokes.

      --
      Not Found
      The requested URL /signature.html was not found on this server.
    488. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ickoonite · · Score: 1

      I shall respond to your points using the order in your post, as follows:

      If your first comment is intented as humour, it fails to amuse. Having experienced the joy of a freshly infected Windows XP box firsthand, I find it hard to acquiesce to your terse dismissal, especially given that my statement is essentially irrefutable. Connect a "stock" Windows XP box to the Internet (and we can argue about the semantics of "stock" as much as you desire, but I am, for these purposes - given that it forms the majority of machines that we are considering - specifically Windows XP 5.1 sans SP1 and SP2), and it will get infected with a speed that is quite disarming. I must say when I first witnessed it myself, I was more than a little surprised. Could Windows really be this shit, I thought? The swiftly-delivered answer was, as the savvy will realise, "Yes, of course it can."

      Of course, you will retort - validly - with the point that if a firewall is enabled before connecting, no such problem will arise, but given that most users* haven't got a fucking clue what a firewall is (and more to the point, why should they have such a clue?), how do you expect them to enable this feature. In any event, I have a particularly low opinion of user mode firewalls in any event, but I will detail that below.

      (* i.e. the ones that become spam zombies because they don't secure their machines, because they don't know how, because it's not easy or because it's a hassle...)

      Your point about active virus checkers is valid and hence mine about the cost to system resources is partially retracted. However, the financial and temporal costs of purchasing, installing and configuring a virus checker remain, and it is important not to forget that definitions subscriptions are kept up-to-date.

      I would disagree with the suggestion that enabling a firewall is commonsense procedure on anyrequire the use of a firewall. Out of the box, there are no services enabled on Mac OS X; Linux obviously varies from distribution to distribution, but the same pattern is followed. Perhaps we might credit the nice people over at OpenBSD for their efforts.

      The issues with firewalls should, of course, be obvious, but if we allow in this case that "stock" means Windows XP SP2 or more recent, the main problem is one of complacency developed by users. Firewalls restrict legitimate traffic, and as such, inevitably encourage the user simply to allow all traffic, either through prompting or by disabling the firewall itself. Far better, surely, to built a bucket without holes than to ask the user to do a job of patching it up.

      You say that you do not consider anti-spyware software necessary. In fact, of course, you will either have to install Mozilla Firefox or a spyware checker, although given the software which prevails on the web today, it would be prudent to install both. It is worth nothing that the default browsers that both Linux and Mac OS X include are not subject to the same "feature enhancements" that is Internet Explorer.

      As to patches, I will say only that Windows XP has had far more and that they are in some cases of a ridiculous size (consider SP2, for example).

      Moving on...

      Actually I could quite happily use XP. There's little functional difference between the two and, if anything, 2003 requires _more_ tweaking than XP to get it into a usable state for a desktop machine.

      As to this, you are going to have to make up your mind. You made it clear in your previous post that you would run Windows 2003 over Windows XP, but you now seem keen to suggest the latter. You will forgive my confusion, but I consider the point important and feel you should clarify.

      Your point about non-admin accounts betrays a disturbing lack of knowledge about actual Windows usage. If you have ever tried to actually use non-Microsoft software on a non-admin account, you will perhaps understand

    489. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      Don't be stupid, removing quicktime from OS X similar but even worse then removing IE from windows.

      Actually it's about the same - which is why I use it as an example - both are extensively used shared components on their respective platforms.

    490. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      If your first comment is intented as humour, it fails to amuse. Having experienced the joy of a freshly infected Windows XP box firsthand, I find it hard to acquiesce to your terse dismissal, especially given that my statement is essentially irrefutable. Connect a "stock" Windows XP box to the Internet (and we can argue about the semantics of "stock" as much as you desire, but I am, for these purposes - given that it forms the majority of machines that we are considering - specifically Windows XP 5.1 sans SP1 and SP2), and it will get infected with a speed that is quite disarming. I must say when I first witnessed it myself, I was more than a little surprised. Could Windows really be this shit, I thought? The swiftly-delivered answer was, as the savvy will realise, "Yes, of course it can."

      Your entire rant is, of course, completely irrelevant, as all products connected to a hostile network with a known vulnerability are equally as likely to be exploited - the only issue is the matter of how long. Naturally, the product with 95% market share will be (on average) exploited long before the product with less than 1% market share. Similarly aged versions of Linux and Solaris will also be - inevitably - exploited in time.

      Interesting that so few people refer to Linux and Solaris - in general - as "shit" because if you take a 5-year-out-of-date version of both and connect them unprotected to a hostile network they will inevitably be exploited. Merely another outlet for your hypocrisy, I see.

      Similarly, any OS X exploits will work quite well on versions of OS X that are unpatched against them. I'm curious as to why this doesn't mean OS X is "shit", however.

      However, the financial and temporal costs of purchasing, installing and configuring a virus checker remain, and it is important not to forget that definitions subscriptions are kept up-to-date.

      I have never purchased a virus scanner. Occasionally - maybe once a year (can't remember the last time I did it) - I will run one of the free on-line scanners over my machines out of sheer curiosity, but they are yet to detect any viruses on any of my Windows PCs.

      Fortunately most viruses, worms, trojans and other forms of malware are stopped dead by a non-Admin account.

      Far better, surely, to built a bucket without holes than to ask the user to do a job of patching it up.

      When someone does that, you might have a point. While software continues to be written by people, however, you do not.

      It is worth nothing that the default browsers that both Linux and Mac OS X include are not subject to the same "feature enhancements" that is Internet Explorer.

      I am interested in your idea that any piece of browser software is bug free. Please tell me more.

      As to patches, I will say only that Windows XP has had far more and that they are in some cases of a ridiculous size (consider SP2, for example).

      Ever looked at the size of the patches for a fresh Red Hat 9 install ? Or a Solaris MU ? Giving Apple their annual $129 is a handy way to avoid those large downloads, but perhaps not the best in terms of economics.

      Your point about non-admin accounts betrays a disturbing lack of knowledge about actual Windows usage. If you have ever tried to actually use non-Microsoft software on a non-admin account, you will perhaps understand the pain.

      I have been using Windows NT daily from a regular user account since early 1996.

      Your point about memory usage/caching is simply invalid - Windows's inability to properly use memory as cache is well-known - 1GB RAM is generally a shameful waste on Windows XP. No further comment required.

      Funny how the most often levied complaint against Windows' VM is its *generosity* in dedicating memory to caching and propensity for swapping out running code to do so.

      Your response to my point about functionality betrays another area in which you might do well to reacquaint yourself with the...er...compet

    491. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1

      Free markets work pretty well at efficiently allocating resources to meet societal demand, and when given enough time.

      Unfortunately, complete laissez-faire capitalism has a bad positive feedback mechanism where people who more resources also have more ability to collect more resources, so you end up with the end result of a small number of rich people and a huge percentage of the population struggling to stay alive by feeding on the crumbs of the rich people.

      For a good, healthy society you need some kind of neutral, non-single-human-controlled systemic-mechanism for (hear the rich people gasp in horror) wealth distribution - preferably back to the lowest rungs of the economic classes. (I prefer to think of this as bubble-up economics, the opposite of trickle-down economics.)

      (Before the anti-welfare activists go apoplectic, I'll mention that I think it would be a BAD idea to hand the money out to everyone like the current welfare system - but there are quite a few other avenues to redistribute wealth without having the same bad effects.)

      If you've got an economic system like that, then you'll have enough dynamic upward class mobility that the unfortunates at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder will have hope that they can climb higher, and you'll have a continual flow of new minds coming from below engaging with the economic engine.

    492. Re:Damn Microsoft! by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      Impossible. For China to succeed while paying lip service to IP laws, they need the "First World" countries to create IP.

      Without IP laws, there would be no creation to begin with.

      Total B.S.

      People have been creating intellectual works like crazy throughout human history, all in the total absence of IP laws, and _without_ access to our humongous scientific/engineering knowledge & easy distribution of information.

      The _only_ things that IP laws have done is permit a monied subset of society to try to retard & exploit cultural & scientific innovation & progress. Society would be MUCH better off without those parasites.

      Yep. But we didn't allow Americans to steal from Americans did we?

      Sure we did - rich Americans stole ideas from poor ones all the time, and often used the IP laws to do it.

      You should go read up on French history before advocating the elimination of Copyright.

      Do you have anything particular in mind? The entirety of French history is a bit much for me to automatically know what you are talking about.

    493. Re:Damn Microsoft! by David+Rolfe · · Score: 1

      How old are you?

      I ask because this whole thread you've only seemed petulant.

      I guess the other option is that you are willfully ignorant, inexperienced, or naive.

      The creative commons existed for thousands of years before the Statue of Anne came about in 1710. Your bickering with Modquark seems to incessantly ignore this historical fact. Our founding fathers, having known of the relatively contemporary statute above, wrote that Congress shall have the power to grant temporary monopolies to authors to promote the sciences and arts. This small concession against otherwise protected property rights was granted to induce inventors and publishers to invent more and publish more than they would with lifetime copyrights (as in Britain). There it is -- the only reason we have copyright in this country is to encourage science and art to flourish.

      I don't think the extreme extensions to the term of these artificial monopolies have helped the arts to flourish. I would argue that granting protection of 'life+70' (the current term, up from our first term of 14 years in the 1800s) only inspires creators to create once, or inspires large holding companies to collect and hold many, many of these one-time creations. The Big Five (the companies that own the companies that form the MPAA and RIAA: Sony, TW, GE, Disney, News Corp.) have a universal and homogenizing effect that harms the arts; if you will agree that the majority of art and science is evolutionary and not entirely revolutionary and divinely unique.

      Huh, all of that without even touching on how copyrights affect real natural rights and property rights. Anyway, if the Founders knew that the sharing of an idea left both parties illuminated and neither diminished, why do you keep insisting that that's not the case? Why do you insist the sharing of ideas is stealing of potential sales? Where do you get the idea there is a right to be paid for ideas?

      These three questions are irrelevant to the current U.S. code regarding copyrights (which, loosely, prevent the reproduction and distribution of works in a non-transitory medium).

      --
      Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
    494. Re:Damn Microsoft! by David+Rolfe · · Score: 1

      You said: "Without IP laws, there would be no creation to begin with."

      This is a lie. Why did you say it?

      I'll excerpt what I said to another poster:
      The creative commons existed for thousands of years before the Statue of Anne came about in 1710. Your bickering with Modquark seems to incessantly ignore this historical fact. Our founding fathers, having known of the relatively contemporary statute above, wrote that Congress shall have the power to grant temporary monopolies to authors to promote the sciences and arts. This small concession against otherwise protected property rights was granted to induce inventors and publishers to invent more and publish more than they would with lifetime copyrights (as in Britain). ...The only reason we have copyright in this country is to encourage science and art to flourish.

      --
      Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
    495. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmmm, a Beowulf cluster of tired petrified jokes with hot grits in their pants.....

    496. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      What I wanted was dual boot. My first preference would have been for it to be installed on the SAME hard drive as the distro itself (since I can press one fkey durring the bios bootup to choose boot device) or failing that to have the sense to do the obvious and check for other os's and add them to the boot menu in grub (or lilo or whichever they want to use). Or at the very least allow me to tell it what os's are where and add them in like distro's have been doing for many years now.
          I simply found it to be broken. I'm told the complete misshandling of file types is likely gnome and not ubuntu, but the complete misshandling of dual-boot and the mbr isn't.
          I'm sorry but handling the mbr that way on disk that's already formatted is simply irresponsible.
          Essentially installing ubuntu rendered most of my data and software unaccessable without doing things most joe's wouldn't know how to do.
          They seem to be targetting the masses here, but you won't succede in that if the first thing you do is wreck Joe's computer(joe won't know how to restore his mbr).
          IIRC this was the first 64bit release, and I'm pretty shure there's been one since, so I'm hoping they iron out the problems. Untill they get the critical ones fixed this is still a beta distro at best IMHO.
          I have some hope for them, but they are not there as of 4.1. I intend to eventually try the 32bit ver on a seperate system and see if it's more mature, I shure hope so.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    497. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      For one thing you can simply patch the software to bypass it or even to change the EULA to say anything you like.

      Secondly, can using your software - including clicking on whatever buttons you like strictly on your own computer - can that establish a contract? Going on some online service and communicating a contract with them... yeah that can make some sense as creating a contract between the two parties. But clicking a EULA just with yourself and with your computer... if that does somehow magically establish a contract with someone else, well what if you change the text of your ELUA on your computer and clicking that... does that establish those new contract terms as binding on you and upon that other party? LOL

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    498. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kyrre · · Score: 1

      GRUB should handle dual booting just fine. At least for me Ubuntu detect Windows XP and Debian which then are added to the GRUB menu. One also gets memtest86.

    499. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ickoonite · · Score: 1

      Naturally, the product with 95% market share will be (on average) exploited long before the product with less than 1% market share.

      Like IIS vs. Apache.

      As to Linux distributions, it is fair that some older distributions (Mandrake springs to mind) were - how shall we put this - somewhat "relaxed" with regard to security matters, enabling far more services than might be considered prudent. It is thus perhaps fair to say that desktop-oriented Linux distributions that were available at the time of Windows XP's initial release were in some (perhaps many) cases not as secure as they perhaps could be; server-oriented distributions (i.e. your Windows 2003 equivalent) were never like this though. And neither was OS X, where there has always been a secure-by-default attitude to enabling services. Windows XP (to say nothing of earlier versions) shipped, on the other hand, with RPC listening on the Internet interface. I need not say more.

      As to virus scanners, during my tenure as a Windows user I never once ran a virus checker. I personally was competent enough not to need one, but the fact remains that for most users, such software is a prerequisite on that platform, partly because of its prevalance and partly because of poor design (ActiveX, Windows Scripting, Microsoft Office macros, etc.).

      It is of course correct that a user-level account will stop most malware, etc. in its tracks, but given that Windows makes user level accounts so difficult to work with (no generic OS X or, lately, Linux-style sudo prompting), this is not a particularly practical solution.

      It appears you misunderstand my comment about firewalls. My bucket analogy was intended to suggest that services should perhaps not listen on the Internet interface, given that, as you say, software is still very much subject to human error. Of course it is alas so often the case on Windows that one does not have the granularity of control needed to specify what interfaces a service listens on.

      From a security point of view, Internet Explorer was perhaps Microsoft's biggest mistake. ActiveX was/is like a cruel joke. I'll leave the browser comments at that.

      If we're going to get into a pissing contest about knowing the competition, note that I have been using Windows for over 10 years, with experience in all versions from Windows 3.0 to ME, NT 3.1 to XP SP2 (including a miscellany of UAEs, GPFs and all manner of BSODs). I know Windows, which is why I feel more than qualified to make the statements above and below.

      The point about dragging and dropping across Alt-Tabbing is retracted, although if memory serves, this is a recent addition (Windows 2000 or XP). Exposé, however, does not require the use of a mouse.

      The CLI is one of the things that makes UN*X great - if you use it a little, you will come to understand this. Mac OS X would be useless eye candy were it not for the UNIX base and the CLI that that provides. Windows lacks this, and as a consequence, is ironically now more GUI bound than the Mac (especially for configuration, etc.).

      And the Start Menu still sucks.

      Zeroconf rocks. Really, it does. It brings the "Just Works" philosophy to networking. Printer manufacturers, for one, recognise this, which has made setting up networked printers pretty much a matter of plugging them in to the network.

      Your defence of Windows is certainly interesting - you actually try to argue that there is something worthy about it. Most have already accepted that this is not the case but endure it as they need it for some reason or another. But as someone who has had extensive experience on Windows and who has then switched, I can only say that if you know how to use OS X properly (i.e. get as well acquainted with it as you are with Windows), it will only make your life easier.

      In the meantime, enjoy the struggle.

      iqu :|

    500. Re:Damn Microsoft! by MagnusDredd · · Score: 1

      The only place I disagree with your response is that having anti-virus on a windows machine is critical. This is generally not free, unless you've got a pirate copy of Norton AV or McAfee AV laying around. This is not critical on OSX, but is a good idea for catching things like Word macro viruses (I work in education).

      However to the other point...

      I have removed Quicktime from OSX, and the GUI, and damned near everything else. What was left was a command-line only version of the OS that we used at a school to reimage the machines. Apple Software Restore (included _for free_ application for reimaging machines) has been a scriptable CLI app for some time. The OS weighed in at around 160 or 170 Megs. It included network support, and reimaging support and not much else. Two of the logins had custom shells that were imaging scripts. Serving the image was an apache web server box on campus....

      I have an disk image of it around here somewhere...

      I don't think I could do the same thing with XP, and I don't know anyone who could.....

    501. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      May I ask which version of ubuntu you were using. all 4.1 for amd64 had listed in it's grub boot was various ubuntu kernal options (including smp on a single processor system?!?!).
          I suspect 4.1 for amd64 was released fairly incomplete.
          I might try again later, but 4.1 was such a pain to deal with I hesistate to do so soon.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    502. Re:Damn Microsoft! by kyrre · · Score: 1

      I use Hoary 5.04. 4.1 Is quite dated, almost a year old. You should check out Hoary.

    503. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      A year? wow. I assumed they sent the latest version when they did the mailings (no broadband here). well I just might try it sooner then. I now know not to trust it with a my mbr and have a quick fix handy.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    504. Re:Damn Microsoft! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      Like IIS vs. Apache.

      Ah, the typical Slashbot is nothing if not predictable.

      It is thus perhaps fair to say that desktop-oriented Linux distributions that were available at the time of Windows XP's initial release were in some (perhaps many) cases not as secure as they perhaps could be; server-oriented distributions (i.e. your Windows 2003 equivalent) were never like this though.

      I think you'll find several of the "server-oriented distributions" (eg: RHEL) shipped with some services on.

      Not that default configuration is something that matters a great deal, in that market.

      Incidentally, I don't prefer Windows 2003 because it is a "server" or any differently configured out of the box, I prefer it because it's faster and more responsive.

      I personally was competent enough not to need one, but the fact remains that for most users, such software is a prerequisite on that platform, partly because of its prevalance and partly because of poor design (ActiveX, Windows Scripting, Microsoft Office macros, etc.).

      Firstly, we're not discussing "most users", we're discussing *my* usage of Windows.

      Secondly, there's very little - if anything - design-related that makes Windows more susceptible to viruses. A handful of default configuration settings, certainly, but nothing in the _design_.

      It is of course correct that a user-level account will stop most malware, etc. in its tracks, but given that Windows makes user level accounts so difficult to work with (no generic OS X or, lately, Linux-style sudo prompting), this is not a particularly practical solution.

      Actually this facility does exist, and has for years - the problem, as always, is getting developers to use it.

      As I said, I've been using Windows from a regular user account for years. I've not bumped into any hassles that have a significant effect on day to day usage.

      It appears you misunderstand my comment about firewalls.

      Not at all. The difference between simply not listening on an interface and having a firewall block any traffic to an interface is largely semantics.

      From a security point of view, Internet Explorer was perhaps Microsoft's biggest mistake.

      So "everyone" (KDE, GNOME, OS X) having since gone down exactly the same design path must cause you a lot of grief, I assume ?

      If we're going to get into a pissing contest about knowing the competition [...]

      Only if you want to. Since you seem intent on ad-hominem style attacks on my knowledge of the targets of my comments, I find it necessary to point out your error.

      I know Windows, which is why I feel more than qualified to make the statements above and below.

      Strangely enough, so do I.

      The point about dragging and dropping across Alt-Tabbing is retracted, although if memory serves, this is a recent addition (Windows 2000 or XP).

      So was Expose. So is the whole OS X platform, by that measure, but you seem quite happy to talk about it like it's been around showing Windows up since the mid 90s.

      Exposé, however, does not require the use of a mouse.

      It certainly does to make it useful (doubly so in the context of a discussion about "drag & drop).

      The CLI is one of the things that makes UN*X great - if you use it a little, you will come to understand this.

      I spend most of my day interacting with the unix commandline in the process of adminning dozens of servers. I can't say I've ever felt the need for it with my _desktop_ tasks.

      Mac OS X would be useless eye candy were it not for the UNIX base and the CLI that that provides.

      On the contrary, OS X would still retain 99% of its usefulness and value for 99% of its userbase if the CLI weren't available. OS X may have a growing userbase from unix backgrounds, but the vast bulk of them are the Mac faithful who have been poo-pooing CLIs for over twenty years.

      Windows lacks this, and as

    505. Re:Damn Microsoft! by ruiner13 · · Score: 1
      See, you fucking paranoid bastard:

      http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/04/ 1338205&tid=118&tid=158&tid=3

      Jumping to conclusions a bit?

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    506. Re:Damn Microsoft! by fbartho · · Score: 1

      Actually that "Anonymous Developer" is a liar or is wrong. There is a TPM chip in the devkits and OSXx86 requires it to be functional to install. I have seen the errors that occur. Now this TPM chip is not neccessarily being used as DRM instead being used in part to verify the integrity of files. It does have the added effect of making it difficult for any person to install the OS on a machine without the chip.

      wiki TPM

      hacking forum for darwin/OSXx86

      --
      Gravity Sucks
    507. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The DRM in a photocopier is quite simple. It costs more to photocopy a whole book than to buy the book. Academic textbooks are also pricier than normal books precisely because they are generally small run books that will be used by multiple students (in academic libraries for note-taking if not actually photocopied).

      Broadcast songs are levied by copyright agencies at a higher rate than the royalty paid when you buy a CD. At some point audio and video casettes were also levied (no idea if they still are).

      Ditto library books (authors get a royalty on borrowing).

    508. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Criton · · Score: 1

      DMCa needs to repeeled and the paper it's printed on recycled into toilet paper .As it has been very damaging to the US IT industry killing competition.

    509. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Criton · · Score: 1

      If TC is used to prevent copying it will hurt hardware sales badly people will advoid TC enabled products that do not allow this feature to be disabled. If TC is used for anti priacy of OSX like windows WPA in XP this really could hurt sells of macs as servers as one of the selling feature of mac OS is you can get a mac server up and running agian with an image on another harddrive or even an ipod. I can get a mac that suffered an HD crash or even had a motherboard fialure running again in 30 minutes try that with a windows XP machine with out cracking the WPA. Remeber the backlash over broadcast flags in HDTVs sells suffer and the FCC removed the requirment from advocacy groups and manufactures or the one over the P3 PSN intel had to remove that feature sells were dropping like a rock. As for commercial OS's linux and BSD are not the difficult and kludgy OSes they once where you can do everything including open MS office files in them. Don't be just a fish be a shark and let them know when they do something to annoy you.

    510. Re:Damn Microsoft! by Criton · · Score: 1

      Same here if a bussiness mistreats me in someway I take my bussiness elsewhere. Forcing a bag search on me everytime would definetly make me shop elsewhere and I'd tell my friends and family to adviod this store.

  2. Jobs and Gates: Two Sides of the Same Coin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's all about control with these pricks. Don't ever think otherwise.

    1. Re:Jobs and Gates: Two Sides of the Same Coin by cranktheguy · · Score: 0

      and so it begins... this is the first step toward our culture being locked down.

      --
      yeah, that's about it
    2. Re:Jobs and Gates: Two Sides of the Same Coin by KillShill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      are you ignoring the last 2 centuries of copyright nonsense and patents? the ever increasing copyright limits? our culture has been locked down in ways people can't even grasp at the moment.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    3. Re:Jobs and Gates: Two Sides of the Same Coin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, because we've had personal computers for centuries.

    4. Re:Jobs and Gates: Two Sides of the Same Coin by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

      It's a little different because up until now we've had the option of breaking the law. Imagine how different the world would be if civil disobedience were impossible.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  3. Who's more evil? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So who became more evil Apple or Microsoft?

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    1. Re:Who's more evil? by datafr0g · · Score: 1, Funny

      Apple!

      Microsoft have always been evil! :)

      --
      "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
    2. Re:Who's more evil? by plasmacutter · · Score: 1
      I would have to say microsoft right now, theyre doing much more to screw everyone.

      HOWEVER... I'm looking very nervously at the knife apple seems to be holding above my back right now, and am under no illusions despite my love for the current osX platform.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    3. Re:Who's more evil? by i_should_be_working · · Score: 1

      The lesser of two evils -- is evil. -- Seymour (Sy) Leon

      Today's quote at the bottom of /.'s page. Custom made for this article?

    4. Re:Who's more evil? by dustmite · · Score: 1

      But all people have little bits of "evil" in them - nobody is totally good. Are you suggesting we should reject everyone? That doesn't seem practical. Likewise for companies --- all companies have at least little bits of "evil" in them (they are run by people after all) --- are you suggesting we stop buying from companies altogether? WTF - the entire free market system would collapse completely.

    5. Re:Who's more evil? by el_womble · · Score: 1

      I don't think Apples decission to use DRM is evil so much as unamerican. In fact the whole Apple philosphy seems wholy un-american.

      I'm going to tread carefully with this because, as a rule I like both America and Apple, this is a theory I'm trying out, not flame tinder.

      Americans, quite rightly, demand choice. You guys, perceive it as representative of freedom. Choice makes things both cheaper, because of market forces of competition, and more expensive because of the market forces of economies of scale. Look at Starbucks, you walk in wanting a coffee, you walk you having with a tall, skinny, low foam mocha with wings and sprinkles.

      But this is exactly what Apple is not about. Apple are not about choice at all, they are about freedom from choice. You walk into an Apple store and you come out with an Apple. There are a few choices for the masses, but essentially those choices are Mini or iBook. If they were a coffee shop they would sell the best coffee in the world in a variety of bone china cups with an option of milk.

      The funny thing about Apple is that despite selling the best coffee in the world, people buy the coffee for the cups. Until recently, MicroCoff caused Apple cups to dissolve. Apple have now 'fixed' that 'problem' by buying they're cups wholesale from the same place as everyone else. This made the coffee cheaper, and may mean that less people get burned on the move, but the cups are generally agreed by everyone in the cup industry as being a step backwards. But Apple are worried that people won't want their coffee any more, and just come in to buy the cups - so they've put a lock on the cups.

      Now is this evil? If they were selling choice before, and they had taken that choice away I would say yes. They fact is that they are just trying to maintain the status quo. Is it a slippery slope? Only if the dicks at MicroCoff think that locks are the reason Apple are allowed to sell they're coffee for a premium, and not because the coffee is better.

      --
      Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
    6. Re:Who's more evil? by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      Google!

      Oh no, wait...

                -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    7. Re:Who's more evil? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amazon?

    8. Re:Who's more evil? by I'm+Don+Giovanni · · Score: 0

      What fool modded this as "Insightful"? I see nothing "insightful" about one's posing just the question, "So who became more evil Apple or Microsoft?"

      Besides that, the word "evil" has really lost all meaning on slashdot, for how casually it's thrown about around here. Neither Apple nor Microsoft is "evil".

      --
      -- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
    9. Re:Who's more evil? by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

      So who became more evil Apple or Microsoft?

      I used to think that Apple was the blonde athlete who ran into the Congress Hall during the Two Minutes Hate and smashed Big Brother's video screen to dust, freeing the grey-skinned slaves who sat before it.

      But apparently I was wrong. Apple is The Man on the screen, keeping us all under his thumb with digital restrictions.

      Fortunately for Apple, thoughtcrime will soon be impossible. With DRM on every Apple computer, there will come a day when my computer will tell me that the 1984 video is unauthorized and unplayable.

      Oh Apple, how I love your DRMed Intel machines. Apple is doubleplusgood!

    10. Re:Who's more evil? by MartinB · · Score: 1
      Bzzt - inaccurate analogy alert.

      Here's a more accurate one:

      You walk into Starbucks wanting a coffee, you walk out with a Starbucks coffee with a few options about size, milk style, flavouring and topping.

      You walk into an Apple store wanting a computer, you walk out with an Apple computer with a few options about size, tech specs, monitor style, pre-installed s/w (iLife) and accessories.

      If they were a coffee shop they would sell the best coffee in the world in a variety of bone china cups with an option of milk.


      Sounds more like Tea to me...
      --

      The only thing you can accurately describe as "Scotch" is a sticky tape made by 3M. And it's

    11. Re:Who's more evil? by i_should_be_working · · Score: 1

      No. geez, I was just making an observation. I never even expressed my opinion. The quote at the bottom of /.'s page seemed pertinent to the post I was replying to. That's it. that's all.

      If you don't like the quote, go argue with /., or better yet, Seymour (Sy) Leon.

    12. Re:Who's more evil? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      So who became more evil Apple or Microsoft?

      I used to think that Apple was the blonde athlete who ran into the Congress Hall during the Two Minutes Hate and smashed Big Brother's video screen to dust, freeing the grey-skinned slaves who sat before it.


      Close- That's Apples representative. Her name is Lenina Crowne.

  4. Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had thought that it was widely known that OS X won't run on anything not sold by Apple as a Mac.

    1. Re:Isn't this expected? by phoenix.bam! · · Score: 1

      You just wrote possibly the most insightful post this story will see. thank you so much.

    2. Re:Isn't this expected? by oxaooo · · Score: 1

      I was hoping that since apple was moving to intel architecture that that would open up the emulator market. I guess not.

    3. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Schiller (a VP) has already stated that the OS will not be usable on generic computers, and why would it? Unlike other OS makers, Apple primarily sells hardware. It would be against their whole business plan to become a generic OS maker.

      Hence my comment.

      However, I am hopeful that now that standard motherboards are used, costs may be lower which means that Macs may cost less in the future than they do now. However, of course, I don't know whether that will happen.

    4. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just wrote possibly the most insightful post this story will see. thank you so much.

      And it's already modded troll. In order to see anything useful on this story it looks like you'll pretty much have to read it at -1.

    5. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      is that a good thing for end users or a bad thing?

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    6. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      but why is their business model of any concern to people who purchase os x (to run on a non-mac x86 computer)?

      clearly, it's in their best interest to let people run os x on any computer, but officially state they won't get any support for it. that way people can try it out and use it and apple could still continue making closed systems that they profit from.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    7. Re:Isn't this expected? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mod parent up.

      All the rest of you that are in a tizzy, slow down and think about it for just a second. How did you think they were going to prevent OS X from running on non-Apple Macs? Magic? Voodoo? Asking nicely?

      Besides, it gives the 3r33t h4xx0rs something to fiddle with and crack. They'd be bored otherwise. :P

    8. Re:Isn't this expected? by Xenoflargactian · · Score: 0

      Yeah. Why is that marked troll? It's a valid point, very relevant to the topic of discussion.

      I can't see any real reason to do so. Will the mods give an explanation?

    9. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      Why would it be in their best interest? If you could buy just the software and not the computer, that'd mean they'd lose quite a lot because they wouldn't be able to sell computers. It's actually in their best interest to make sure they still sell hardware.

    10. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      I don't think it's either. You aren't being mistrusted the way Microsoft chooses to snoop on peoples' computers; it's just looking for specific hardware. Apple has always had a philosophy of allowing the user to do what they want without the OS getting in the way, whenever possible.

    11. Re:Isn't this expected? by MoneyT · · Score: 2, Interesting

      clearly, it's in their best interest to let people run os x on any computer, but officially state they won't get any support for it. that way people can try it out and use it and apple could still continue making closed systems that they profit from.


      Because quite frankly, people are fucking idiots.

      HP iPods are unsupported by Apple. They clearly state this. They are constantly revieving complaints that HP iPods aren't being supported.

      Apple doesn't cover user stupidity in Apple care. This is also clearly stated, and yet they continue to recieve complaints about this as well.

      Non-Apple RAM is not supported by Apple, if the memory turns out to be the cause of a problem, then you need to buy new memory if you want Apple techs to probe deeper into the problem, and no Apple will not install third party stuff. This is clearly stated, and yet again, is another complaint source.

      Apple does not support transfering music from the iPod, this is again clearly stated. Care to guess what Apple recieves about this?

      Apple does not do repiar or waranty work and service for any third party products, and yet you would be amazed at the number of people that come into the stores looking for Apple to fix their third party product.

      Simply put people are stupid and don't understand the concept of something being an unsupported hack. As far as they are concerned, it has X company name on it, so no matter what they do with it, X company should support it.

      This is even further compounded by the fact that Apple continualy emphisises it's "Whole Widget" philosophy where you go to one company for your hardware and software problems.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    12. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      hasn't hurt microsoft and the other billion software making companies any.

      osx is THE integral part of the "experience", and the hardware only facilitates it. clearly what you're saying is that want to sell you the hardware too, even though your current hw is enough to run the os (as will be the case with x86 macos)

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    13. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've always wondered why Apple was allowed to do this. If it were Microsoft, the anti-trust vultures would be all over them.

    14. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      That's because Microsoft doesn't sell systems. Redhat doesn't sell systems. The OpenBSD people don't sell systems. And so on. Apple does. For all other OSes you have to provide a computer separately, or optionally you might buy the OS along with a computer, but the OS maker didn't make that machine.

    15. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      and what about the population that has a high school level of reading comprehension and above and clearly understands that apple doesn't support the product?

      another way to go would be to include in every package a piece of paper with 100 point fonts "DON'T CALL APPLE FOR SUPPORT IF YOU USE THIS PRODUCT IN AN UNAUTHORIZED WAY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO USING IT ON A COMPUTER THAT ISN'T MADE BY APPLE" etc etc.

      well anyway.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    16. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      All true, although I should clarify a few of your points:

      Apple may not warranty HP iPods, but you can still go to their site for troubleshooting. They just won't perform physical hardware repair or replacements.

      Also, they won't void your warranty if you use someone else's RAM, but they will sometimes remove it if you send in your system for repair, and advise you to replace it with Apple RAM if the RAM turns out to have caused your problems. For this reason, you should remove the extra RAM before sending in a computer if you didn't get it from Apple.

      They don't support transfering files from an iPod, but it's not that hard to find software that will do it.

      There's no company out there that is going to support third-party products... that one is just dumb.

    17. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      that's what i just said. that post was completely redundant.

      apple can start making money just by selling the Software and selling hardware for people who want it but not making it mandatory. that way the people who want the best "experience" can buy both sw and hw from apple but people who just want the software can choose just that and it'll work on their computers.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    18. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure what you're trying to say there. Doing that wouldn't help them keep selling the hardware that they primarily exist to sell. You are confusing Apple with your more typical company that makes its living selling software and has no interest in making sure you use particular hardware with their stuff.

    19. Re:Isn't this expected? by name773 · · Score: 1

      actually, i think that buying non apple ram is a pretty smart move. cheaper and still functional. i mean, how special can the apple ram be? they probably order the same chips from the same manufacturer as at least one other ram reseller.

      i doubt they'll put in something to make sure you use apple ram too. if they did that i'd just start laughing

    20. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the Mac TPM was pure speculation, there were several hundred posts here suggesting alternate theories: custom chipsets, custom firmware, etc. Reality is slowly seeping in that MacIntels will be Dells with a dongle attached.

    21. Re:Isn't this expected? by X_Caffeine · · Score: 1

      Thank you Cpt Obvious. Of course everyone knows that. What we've been wanting to know is, how?

      --
      // I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
    22. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      But Apple is not going to do that because they know they will lose profit by no longer guaranteeing that the user will have to buy Apple hardware if they want to use Apple software. They've been at this for years and would have made it platform-independent long before now if they knew they could still keep making as much money; OS X has been internally Intel-capable for a long time now.

    23. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple blames any hardware problem on third party RAM if present, even when every test under the sun says it is a good stick. I got bitten by the infamous iBook video problems. When I sent it in, they returned it to me telling me that the third party RAM was causing the problems. They removed it, put in a little baggy for me, and shipped the computer back unrepaired. They said all the problems went away when they took the third party RAM out. Bullshit. It came back to me just as broken as I sent it. I had to send it off again and they finally replaced the logic board.

      The memory stick that Apple claimed was faulty despite passing every memory test I could think of, is chugging happily along in my ThinkPad right now.

    24. Re:Isn't this expected? by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Right.

      What is not so widely known is that it is ILLEGAL (in the USA) to:

      a) BUY a PC
      b) BUY a copy of OSX
      c) Make "b" run on "a".

      You heard me - against the law to do it in the privacy of your own home, like sodomy in Texas.

      And don't think for a second that Apple is above invoking this stupid law (not the sodomy one)

    25. Re:Isn't this expected? by name773 · · Score: 1

      dude, just give it up. apple would make a killing selling os x for use on normal hardware, and their loyal fan base would still buy apple hardware.

      maybe they don't want to or can't write all those drivers for the plethora of hardware that people would then be able to use. although if they did it might look something like this:

      os x illegitimate edition
      specially tailored to the unwashed masses

      ok, maybe not. but it would be kind of funny if they did. (to me anyway)

    26. Re:Isn't this expected? by KillShill · · Score: 1

      yeah i guess so.

      just wishful thinking that they could change their business model and become more profitable by selling their os to lots more people.

      it may happen one day, just not in the foreseeable future.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    27. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      when Apple does it, it's a good thing

      when Microsoft does it, it's a bad thing

      Why? Blame it on the Steve Jobs reality distortion field

    28. Re:Isn't this expected? by Kompressor · · Score: 1
      There's no company out there that is going to support third-party products... that one is just dumb.

      True, to an extent. Some companies, however, do support third-party hardware. For a fee. And they make quite the tidy profit from that, too. Most people (joe sixpack, not ubergeeks like us) are quite willing to pay between $50 and $200 to a company to get a computer problem fixed. Just look at Dell's new Helpdesk support, or GeekSquad. People pay for that level of service, and it is quite readily available.

      I agree, though, no manufacturer in thier right mind will provide this level of service for free on a system that only cost $300. They used to be able to (Dell used to support pretty much anything, as long as it was hooked to a Dell computer, but that was when they could make profit on the system itself.) These days the profit margin is in the add-ons, not the system.

      Disclaimer: I do work for Dell.

      --
      kmem russian roulette: Aquillar> dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/kmem bs=1 count=1 seek=$RANDOM
    29. Re:Isn't this expected? by name773 · · Score: 1

      my dad had an eone (you know, the crt imac ripoff), and the power supply went, so i took out the ram and put it in a clamshell ibook he got for free (after checking the clock rating of course). works like a charm. i also upgraded the apple hard drive that was making a lot of noise to a newer larger (30gb vs. 10) hard drive and a cdrw (although the bezel from the apple drive didn't fit so there's a bit of a "gash" in the side, but it works fine). it now dual boots os9 and gentoo.

      imagine if i sent that thing in :)

    30. Re:Isn't this expected? by name773 · · Score: 1

      and a very expensive case

    31. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      It seems that everyone doesn't judging from the surprised tone of the story summary and many of the other posts in the comments.

    32. Re:Isn't this expected? by a.different.perspect · · Score: 1

      I modded it troll because I'm a fucking troll and I got mixed up. Okay?

    33. Re:Isn't this expected? by Baddas · · Score: 1

      Sell it for a 300% markup. Two birds/one stone. It becomes cheaper to buy the hardware and OS together, and for people willing to pay the premium, it's a viable way to get a great OS.

    34. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      So write letters to the government. You're a citizen, from the sound of it, just like I am. You have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Do so. Doing nothing but complaining about the issue will not help. I do write in from time to time and at least one bad law or bill that I've written in about has died, in part from complaints from the public. Laws are also sometimes enacted as a result of public action.

      Don't be so surprised when a law relevant to a given situation gets used in that situation, even if it is a bad law (which I do think it is). And corporations, in the end, don't pass laws. The government does.

    35. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      They would make money doing that, yes. And they have chosen not to; they have likely done research showing that it would be detrimental to them to stop tying the OS to the hardware. "Just give it up"? What kind of company would do something that would lose them quite a lot of their revenue?

      They don't want to lose hardware sales AND they don't want to worry about the zillions of configurations out there that currently cause a lot of headaches for Windows and Linux developers and users.

    36. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      But see, that's the thing. They've (almost certainly) done research on whether doing that would boost revenue. And if it would boost revenue for them, wouldn't they be announcing that they will do it? Instead they've announced the contrary. Looks to me like they're pretty sure they're doing the right thing for their business.

    37. Re:Isn't this expected? by braines · · Score: 1

      What you propose makes some sense, to most people, but misses the entire point of what Apple computer has been doing since Steve came back. Apple actively DESIGNS both the hardware AND the software. Design culture is a strange, often essoteric thing but it what makes Apple an appealing company. They wouldn't be a very good software company I would actually say Apple also actively designs its business side of things too: There might be something else going on with the intel switch. Microsoft is pushing some DRM 'trusted comptuer' BS and will have some junk in their new Longhorn that will 'distrust' files made on a computer with no DRM. Apple might be trying to sidestep any cross compatability issues of 'Microsoft Office Files' and even things like Email by including some of this garbage in their computers. Frankly I don't like it and I wish they would lead a charge against DRM rather than helping sneak it in in acceptable doses. But with the iPod out there, they wouldn't dare dismantal DRM. Time to trade that pirate flag in and dust off the ol' Red White and Blue I guess. YEAH Patritoism rulz.

    38. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      I would imagine that they have thought of that and don't think it would be positive to the rest of their plans. Otherwise they'd have said that there would be a version that would work on other systems. (It would also be a support nightmare -- just look at the mess there is now with the infinite configs you get on Windows and the accompanying problems. I don't blame them for not wanting to deal with that).

    39. Re:Isn't this expected? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      All the rest of you that are in a tizzy, slow down and think about it for just a second. How did you think they were going to prevent OS X from running on non-Apple Macs? Magic? Voodoo? Asking nicely?

      By saying, "fuck you" to anyone who calls up for support and doesn't have a correspondingly registered Apple brand PC in their database.

      Why should Apple care if you pay for, or even "steal" for that matter, a copy of OSX if it isn't going to generate any more costs for Apple?

      The number of people who do not need support but could afford to pay whatever the premium for Macintel hardware is probably small enough that ignoring them would be cheaper than all of the tangible and intangible costs associated with DRMing OSX to the branded hardware in the first place.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    40. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What kind of company would do something that would lose them quite a lot of their revenue?

      When where the CEO is surrounded by an exceptionally strong, world famous reality distortion field?

    41. Re:Isn't this expected? by poopdeville · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, this is true. However, it was widely assumed that differences in architecture would keep OS X from running on commodity hardware. Instead, the story indicates that Apple will use DRM to achieve this end. This is far more onerous, because it may limit the rights of legitimate customers.

      --
      After all, I am strangely colored.
    42. Re:Isn't this expected? by Iax · · Score: 1

      Because apple likes making their money on their HARDWARE which is usualy priced much more than a comparable PC. So if users could run the os and everything else on the cheaper computer, why would they buy the more expensive apple hardware?

    43. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dont worry dewd. modified isos of osx with equivelant darwin replacements will make it work on regular x86
      i soooooooo cant wait!

    44. Re:Isn't this expected? by Linus+Torvaalds · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How did you think they were going to prevent OS X from running on non-Apple Macs? Magic? Voodoo? Asking nicely?

      By not writing drivers for 99% of the hardware out there?

      Apple doesn't have to do a thing to prevent people from running OS X on non-Apple Macs. They don't have to - it'll be extremely inconvenient to do so already, because drivers don't magically appear out of nowhere just because the chip is manufactured by Intel.

    45. Re:Isn't this expected? by numark · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just as an aside, the Texas sodomy laws were invalidated just over two years ago in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Continue debating away from this point on.

      --
      Want Slashdot headlines on your site? Try SlashHead
    46. Re:Isn't this expected? by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      You missed the point. It may be cheaper and functional, but Apple won't support it. And every time some idiot goes for cheaper and functional (OS X on knockoff hardware) when they have a problem, they're comming back to Apple and they'll bitch when Apple says that they won't support third party products.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    47. Re:Isn't this expected? by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      The point was, people are idiots and it doesn't matter what Apple's "official" policy is, no matter how big it's written, they ignore it and then bitch when Apple enforces it. Simply put, OS X on generic hardware means Apple supports it or Apple gets a bad rap.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    48. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, Intel chipsets have ~70% marketshare, your 99% figure is plainly wrong.

    49. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3r33t ??? That's not even a word!
      You were probably aiming at l33t, right? ;)

    50. Re:Isn't this expected? by Halo1 · · Score: 1
      When the Mac TPM was pure speculation, there were several hundred posts here suggesting alternate theories: custom chipsets, custom firmware
      Those were quite uninformed given that Apple has publicly stated nothing will prevent you from running plain Windows on their machines. That would not be possible with stuff like that.
      --
      Donate free food here
    51. Re:Isn't this expected? by shmlco · · Score: 1
      "But Apple is not going to do that because they know they will lose profit by no longer guaranteeing that the user will have to buy Apple hardware..."

      Thank you for that insightful look at Apple finances. Or were you at one of Apple's board meetings?

      Because we all know the profit margins on electronics are much higher than those of a single plastic cd/dvd rom.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    52. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      I had thought that it was widely known that OS X won't run on anything not sold by Apple as a Mac.

      Yep, that's what Apple said on day one.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    53. Re:Isn't this expected? by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      Microsoft has been found to be a monopoly. Under US law this changes some of the rules, and not in microsofts favor (not that you can tell by results, but theoretically speaking at least).

      Mycroft (not a lawyer, not employed by MS APPLE or the DOJ, etc.)

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    54. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      BUY a copy of OSX

      That's where you're not quite getting it. You don't buy a copy of OS X, you buy a license to use OS X. That license has certain restrictions, one of which is that you only run the copy you have on Apple hardware.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    55. Re:Isn't this expected? by Linus+Torvaalds · · Score: 1

      Hint: there is more hardware in a computer than just the CPU.

      Intel certainly doesn't have ~70% of the market share for northbridge, southbridge, usb, sound, ethernet, wireless, firewire, etc.

      It doesn't matter if the CPU is compatible, you need more than the CPU to get a functional OS X installation. That requires drivers. Drivers that Apple will only be writing for the specific hardware they ship with.

    56. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3r33t ??? That's not even a word!

      I think he's using the Asian dialect of 1337-speak.

    57. Re:Isn't this expected? by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
      ...custom chipsets, custom firmware

      Those were quite uninformed given that Apple has publicly stated nothing will prevent you from running plain Windows on their machines. That would not be possible with stuff like that.

      Even custom chipsets that are compatible with existing chipsets but that have Extra Features that OS X requires, or custom firmware that's compatible with existing firmware but that provides Extra Features that OS X requires?

      (Not that this is what Apple plans, but I don't see it as technically impossible to build machines that could run Windows and that are the only machines capable of running some other OS. Do {BeOS,Solaris,etc.} run on all the PCs that Windows supports?)

    58. Re:Isn't this expected? by Methuseus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except that with Mac OS running on Mac hardware only, they can control about 90% of what everything does and there will be very few bugs with a specific motherboard/pci card combination.

      If they release the OS itself they won't have that same control over the hardware, so they have no guarantees that the software will work as intended, in any capacity.

      I honestly think Apple is very smart in this. It avoids a lot of support calls asking "where do I find this control panel?" because they put it one place. In the Windows world the control panel can be here, there, everywhere, depending on who built the software image for the computer that day.

      Basically, if Apple sells Mac OS by itself, they will lose their well-known reputation of "it just works." And don't say that "it's unsupported" saves them from this. Customers will still complain and call the tech support number when they're trying to install OS 10.5 on their HP and it doesn't work because the OS doesn't like that particular motherboard.

      If you say they won't, try working tech support or a technician's bench in Best Buy or CompUSA or something.

      --
      Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
    59. Re:Isn't this expected? by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
      Not that this is what Apple plans

      Or, at least, not that it's what they necessarily plan. I've no idea what goop will be inside Macintels (other than an x86-compatible processor of some sort, as per the Universal Binary Programming Guidelines, which contain the string "x86" in a number of places).

    60. Re:Isn't this expected? by tuomoks · · Score: 1

      "You just wrote possibly the most insightful post this story will see. thank you so much." Have to agree to that !! And I like it - " I had thought that it was widely known that OS X won't run on anything not sold by Apple as a Mac." Same with AIX, MVS, NKS ( you may know it as Tandem or Guardian ), etc.. If the manufacturer binds something (SW) to some some HW - I can take or leave. If they pretend to be something else - I'll run !! Linux and maybe BSD are the only ones that don't have those bindings - new platforms coming every day ASSUMING that some of these "IP" rights don't kill that freedom. ( just IMHO )

    61. Re:Isn't this expected? by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
      apple can start making money just by selling the Software and selling hardware for people who want it but not making it mandatory

      Apple are already making money; they don't have to start doing so. :-)

      There are those who would argue that they'd make more money by selling OS X for (a possibly-but-not-necessarily-improper subset of) generic PCs, and there are those who would argue that they'd make less money. Of the latter, there are those who would argue that they'd make so much less money that they couldn't continue to develop OS X.

      I suspect a large number of arguments on all sides of that issue are speculative and based more on how people thing Apple's business works than on how it actually does work. Plenty of people can convincingly prove - to themselves, at least, that Apple'd sell copies of OS X-for-generic-PCs by the bazillion (and not piss off Microsoft so badly that they said "no Office for you!") and reduce the number of sales of Macintoshes only by X%, or that if Apple sold OS X-for-generic PC's they'd {piss Microsoft off and lose Office,sell only a small number of copies to people who already have Macs and want something cheaper,sell a lot of copies and blow almost all the revenue on supporting OS X on J. Random PC, etc.} - but whether the numbers in their arguments are realistic or merely produced ex recto is another matter.

    62. Re:Isn't this expected? by Squozen · · Score: 1

      Limit our rights how? We already have to use Apple hardware to run OS X.

    63. Re:Isn't this expected? by Pecisk · · Score: 1

      It is tired argument. You don't OWN a copy of OS X. You own rights as licensee to USE it on your box according to license. Don't like it? Don't use it.

      Repeat after me - when you buy Windows or OS X, you don't OWN it. It is quite difference with Linux, where you really own it. (Just to point out differences between EULA and GPL).

      --
      user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    64. Re:Isn't this expected? by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      Previously this has been because of real hardware incompatibilities. Now it will be because of an artificial constraint (MacOS might run fine on other computers, if it wasn't for the DRM). To a lot of people, there's a big difference (see DVD region encoding which is often railed against).

    65. Re:Isn't this expected? by Mocenigo · · Score: 1
      When the Mac TPM was pure speculation, there were several hundred posts here suggesting alternate theories: custom chipsets, custom firmware, etc. Reality is slowly seeping in that MacIntels will be Dells with a dongle attached.

      And how would an apple machine with a custom chipset any different?
      It would be in fact EASIER to modify the (open source) kernel to avoid checking the DRM chip instead of modifying it to work on a different architecture. In both cases the software installation and update mechanism can check if the machine is Apple's or not.
      Apple chose the road of less effort to make it difficult to run their OS on other hardware. A road that allows them to use off-the-shelf hardware components more easily, BUT this does not mean that apple hardware will be like "Dells hardware with a dongle attached". There are many different PC brands and luckily only a few have poor build quality as Dells. Look at their use of integrated graphics on final products, or at the extremely poor and faulty laptop screens - 30% of the screens of Dell laptops sold to universities and schools, in my experience, develop white spots within a few months due to poor assembly and quality checking: not the same with Apple.

    66. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No you don't own Linux.

    67. Re:Isn't this expected? by MrHanky · · Score: 1

      It's not going to help. How do you think those in government financed their absurdly expensive campaigns? By collecting stamps from their received letters, or from bribes^Wdonations from wealthy industries? Let's try to imagine how the DMCA got there in the first place.

      Sorry, but your democracy is there only to force people to suck it up, whatever comes from above. After all, it's the will of the people, and if it isn't, well, then it's the people's own responsibility anyway.

      But don't worry, you're not alone. The WTO makes sure your laws will be shared, by the same democratic means, with the rest of the world.

    68. Re:Isn't this expected? by OneDeeTenTee · · Score: 2, Informative

      Will the mods give an explanation?

      Probably not, posting in a story you modded posts in negates the mod points you gave. (Unless you're extra tricky.)

      --
      Stop the world; I need to get off.
    69. Re:Isn't this expected? by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      Olympus digital cameras have a panoramic mode that only works with Olympus-branded XD and SmartMedia cards; even though the memory chips inside those cards are exactly the same as the ones in FujiFilm-branded XD cards and generic SmartMedia cards.

      I don't doubt that this can be rectified by cunning use of the dd command.

      The problem is that technology has moved faster than politics. Now the technology is there allowing this sort of abuse {denying you the right to use your own property as you think fit; unlawfully preventing fair competition} but the politics is not in place to prevent it. The solution won't be an easy one; and you can bet it will be the people who have been getting away with doing something wrong for a long time who will be the ones complaining the loudest.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    70. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      EULAs are of dubious legality. Requiring people to agree to a license simply to use a purchased product was clearly not the intention of copyright law. Copyright is supposed to control distribution, not incidental copying necessary to use a product.

      Most courts in the US agree with me on this issue. The DMCA makes EULAs enforcable again because circumventing a copyright protection mechanism is illegal, regardless of whether what you do after breaking the DRM is illegal otherwise.

    71. Re:Isn't this expected? by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      There's one thing I can't quite get with this hunger site. If they can afford to give away a little bit of money just because I click on their website, why the hell can't they give away that money if I don't click on their website and so save them a small amount of money on outbound bandwidth, the more expensive kind? I won't be made to feel guilty for someone else's cruelty. {"You could have had an extra few grains of rice today, but AJS didn't click on our advert, so you're not."}

      It's like my mother when I was younger ..... Eat it up, there are starving children ..... So what the chuff was she doing putting that food on my plate, knowing full well I was not going to eat it, instead of sending it out there to the starving children who would have eaten it -- except that they were a long way away and the food was {through no fault of my own} now cooked, and would be spoiled before it could be got to them?

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    72. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Supreme Court struck down the Texas sodomy law in November 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/26/scotus.sodomy/ Geez, keep up.

    73. Re:Isn't this expected? by Halo1 · · Score: 1
      There's one thing I can't quite get with this hunger site. If they can afford to give away a little bit of money just because I click on their website, why the hell can't they give away that money if I don't click on their website and so save them a small amount of money on outbound bandwidth, the more expensive kind?
      Because their sponsors pay them based on ad impressions.
      --
      Donate free food here
    74. Re:Isn't this expected? by snuffdiddy23 · · Score: 1

      Sure was, and by not being able to pirate the OS they really mean not being able to pirate the OS to non-Apple hardware. In all likelihood all intel builds of OS X will work on all intel macs for perpetuity without a serial number, like all client versions of OS X. It just means PC users are not getting a free ride.

    75. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Limit our rights how? We already have to use Apple hardware to run OS X

      You are assuming this DRM can only be used for one thing. Very Big Assumption. Especially for The company who is responsible for bringing DRM to the masses in the first place (with iTNS/FairPlay), and with close ties to the movie industry. Not to mention that TPM is a strange way of achieving the Mac hardware lock-in.

    76. Re:Isn't this expected? by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 0

      No he doesn't - I'm sure MS and/or BillG have enough nouse to have profitted from Apple's recent stellar stock performance, but there's no big, declared percentage ownership.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    77. Re:Isn't this expected? by cortana · · Score: 1

      When I buy a copy of OS X, I buy a DVD with data on it. The only contract I have entered into is the standard one we all enter into when we buy something: money in exchange for goods.

    78. Re:Isn't this expected? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      By saying, "fuck you" to anyone who calls up for support and doesn't have a correspondingly registered Apple brand PC in their database.

      Yea that will stop them. Except for the fact that OS X is considered very reliable and easy to use. So most people will never need to call Apple for support. I know I haven't, and my mom even calls me way less for computer problems (So far the total number was 2 because 1st she had been putting the computer to sleep for 6 months and there was an application in the background running slow. Second when she got a new printer she needed a driver off the internet.) when I got her a used iMac from ebay.

      Why should Apple care if you pay for, or even "steal" for that matter, a copy of OSX if it isn't going to generate any more costs for Apple?
      There is a long term cost issue. Back in the 90s Apple decided to license Mac Compatible systems and it nearly killed them. And releasing OS X for all intel platforms will most likely really kill them. First by making them run on PCs you will step on Microsoft's feet. Microsoft and Apple while competitors they have an agreement Microsoft will make applications like office for the Mac as long as Mac doesn't leave their nitch market of making an OS for their system. Apple doesn't want to start a full OS war with Microsoft because apple could quite possible loose and it is not about anything technical. Third it is an image thing, with OS Xs it just works philosophy running on a cheap sub $200 PC could make OS X look really bad. Because the cheapo systems have hardware that is so 3rd party that they need drivers for many of the most basic things for some level of performance (Which wont be for OS X), The hardware my be very unreliable making OS X look bad. (Just like how one of my friend hates linux because when I put it on his system it was reporting errors about the Harddrive controller, vs windows which just paused for a second and continues on, he felt that linux just wasn't working and still wont believe me that the hardware is bad.) Loosing product respect is a big cost for apple.

      The number of people who do not need support but could afford to pay whatever the premium for Macintel hardware is probably small enough that ignoring them would be cheaper than all of the tangible and intangible costs associated with DRMing OSX to the branded hardware in the first place.

      Well figuring that Apple is needing to redesign their whole architecture around for these new chips adding DRM is not much more of a cost to them vs. having to reto-fit DRM in their existing models. Plus I think you underestimate how many people don't need Mac OS Support. It is a very intuitive OS and even if Avarage Joe Smo who has been using a Mac for a few years and loves OS X and learnes the next version will run on any PC he may just get a Cheapo wallmart system and buy OS X and run the installer on it. You underestimate how far a person can get in using a computer until they really get themselves stuck on some simple thing.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    79. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      Guess again, counselor.

      If you don't believe me, violate the terms of the license agreement, tell Apple Legal that you've done so, and you can have a judge explain it to you.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    80. Re:Isn't this expected? by cortana · · Score: 1

      So I can make new laws up just by filing a lawsuit against someone? Cool! I guess I should sue Tony Blair for being a socialist prat then!

    81. Re:Isn't this expected? by Council · · Score: 0, Redundant
      Why should Apple care if you pay for, or even "steal" for that matter, a copy of OSX if it isn't going to generate any more costs for Apple?


      When I sit there with my $500 paycheck considering whether or not to buy a Mac Mini, I'm doing it largely because of OS X. If it were available outside the Mac line, I would not buy a Mac, and I would pay Apple less.

      I'm not trying to speak for the masses in economic terms; I'm relating my personal thought process. Though I'm sure there it's not an uncommon one.

      (note: I should be modded -1 redundant because this point has been made many times in the past and should be considered a trivial component of the overall argument. Or is this a deceptive attempt to rope the power-drunk mods into falling for reverse psychology and modding me up? Am I revealing all this in the hopes of being modded down ironically? Are you outwitting me or playing right into my hands? You may never know!)
      --
      xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
    82. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Expand that, when you buy DVDs, CDs, pay for PPV on cable or satellite, etc.. You don't own anything other than the right to enjoy the content of that media within the context defined by it's license. If you wish to own anything, I suggest you start creating it yourself.

    83. Re:Isn't this expected? by hackstraw · · Score: 1

      What is not so widely known is that it is ILLEGAL (in the USA) to:

      a) BUY a PC
      b) BUY a copy of OSX
      c) Make "b" run on "a".

      You heard me - against the law to do it in the privacy of your own home, like sodomy in Texas.


      Its commonly known that when governments make crimes out of things that are not crimes it only discredits their authority in the eyes of its citizens. Sure it may invoke fear in those that don't think for themselves, but for the rest of us, we just know which laws are valid and enforceable, and we follow those.

    84. Re:Isn't this expected? by TheDauthi · · Score: 1

      Whew.
      For a moment there, I was worried about the sodomy one....
      What? Why is everyone looking at me so funny?

    85. Re:Isn't this expected? by CausticPuppy · · Score: 1

      What is not so widely known is that it is ILLEGAL (in the USA) to:

      a) BUY a PC
      b) BUY a copy of OSX
      c) Make "b" run on "a".


      Technically, yes. OSX has upgrade pricing-- every copy of OSX sold is either bundled with a mac, or is sold to somebody who will be upgrading their existing Mac OS on their Mac. There's no such thing as a full standalone Mac OSX license; every boxed copy of the OS is, by definition, an upgrade for a prior version of the OS.

      So, if you don't already own a legit copy of OSX (which is impossible if you don't own a Mac), then yes, it is illegal to buy and install an upgrade license to an operating system that you don't already have a license for.

      --
      -CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
    86. Re:Isn't this expected? by Goo.cc · · Score: 1

      Wasn't the sodomy law struck down?

    87. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      So I can make new laws up just by filing a lawsuit against someone?

      You really work hard at missing the point, don't you sparky?

      There's no new law required here. If you buy a license to use OS X, you're bound by the terms of that license if you use the product.

      I guess I should sue Tony Blair for being a socialist prat then!

      I'm all for suing socialist prats, but you'll have to come up with a better pretext than that.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    88. Re:Isn't this expected? by dhasenan · · Score: 1

      I have two or three Windows licenses (which I'm not using); I signed no contract regarding them.

      When I buy a book, I can do whatever I want with the book, so long as I don't produce and sell a derivative work or copies of the same work. There's no law in place that allows the publisher to demand that I read the book only while not wearing glasses, or only in Kansas. If there were an end-user license agreement included in the book that said that, no court would uphold it.

      What's different about using software? Besides the DMCA, that is.

    89. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      Why don't you try actually reading some of those news items about their financial reports, which they PUBLICLY DISCLOSE? You don't have to be at a board meeting of a public company to know stuff like this. You just need to open your eyes and read.

    90. Re:Isn't this expected? by cortana · · Score: 1
      There's no new law required here. If you buy a license to use OS X, you're bound by the terms of that license if you use the product.
      Bullshit. If I buy a copy of OS X (or any software, any data, any THING) then I can do whatever I want with my property, within the bounds of The Law.

      Copyright law says I can't turn around and start selling my own copies. Copyright law doesn't say that I should cowtow to the every whim of the person I bought the software from.
    91. Re:Isn't this expected? by Dylan+Zimmerman · · Score: 1

      Interestingly enough, it was only same-sex anal and/or oral sex ("sodomy" sounds like such a euphemism) that was prohibited by the law. It was even specified to only apply to same-sex encounters. All of the oppositely sexed couples could do pretty much whatever they wanted to do.

      Of course, at this point my comment is officially nowhere near the topic of the article.

      I suppose I don't see the problem with OS X requiring a TCPA chip to run. After all, it isn't like they're doing anything to prevent other operating systems from running, they're just blocking the non-open parts of their OS from running on generic hardware. There are even developers who say they've installed Windows xp on their dev boxes, so competing operating systems don't even need to be recompiled. All this does is limit how much Apple can compete in the market.

      If they were going for OS dominance, this would be shooting themselves in the foot. Of course, they don't sell just an operating system. They sell the environment as a whole, including hardware. If you don't like their hardware, then feel free to buy some different hardware and run the open parts of OS X (mostly Darwin) on that box.

    92. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's an artificial constraint, but if you read up elsewhere in this comment thread, I've explained repeatedly to people who seem to not understand why this is done.

      But it's a universal constraint, not a stupid region-based one that restricts trade and price discriminates. I can take my Mac to Australia and it'll still work fine and not care where it's located. And so it should.

    93. Re:Isn't this expected? by prell · · Score: 1

      So should it be legal to do anything you want in your home? Like beating your kids?

    94. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      And so they shouldn't considering Apple exists primarily to sell hardware, although they are branching out more into software (and non-OS stuff usually does require serial numbers, which isn't intrusive and ridiculous like Microsoft's crap).

    95. Re:Isn't this expected? by justins · · Score: 1
      All the rest of you that are in a tizzy, slow down and think about it for just a second. How did you think they were going to prevent OS X from running on non-Apple Macs? Magic? Voodoo? Asking nicely?

      "Try to prevent," you should say. Do you really think whatever scheme they use will survive more than a few months of scrutiny?
      --
      Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
    96. Re:Isn't this expected? by noahm · · Score: 1
      Repeat after me - when you buy Windows or OS X, you don't OWN it. It is quite difference with Linux, where you really own it. (Just to point out differences between EULA and GPL).

      No, you most definitely do not own Linux just because you install it or downloaded it. If you contribute source code to it, you own that particular little bit of source code, but that would have been the case anyway (i.e. you automatically own the copyright on anything you produce, unless you sign away the ownership of it to somebody else). Just like with OSX, you are licensed to use Linux. It's just the the Linux license grants you lots more freedoms that the OSX license. You cannot violate the terms of the Linux license any more than you can violate the terms of the OSX license without breaking the law.

      noah

    97. Re:Isn't this expected? by marktwen0 · · Score: 1

      Could be wrong, but I believe that some court decisions have overturned the laws that outlawed sodomy in Texas...in case anyone's wondering. BTW, the rangelands of West Texas have been chosen both by Amazon's founder and a Morman offshoot sect espousing polygamy with child brides as the place for them to buy property on which to do their respective things, in case anyone's looking.....

    98. Re:Isn't this expected? by sapped · · Score: 1

      Surely it should at least be legal to do anything in your home which involves nothing more than your body (or other consenting adults' bodies) and anything you have bought.

    99. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem here is what we mean by "own." If own means "owns the copyright to," then you are partially correct. However, copyright is a limited monopoly on distribution, not on use or anything else. As long as I'm not distributing something, I can do whatever I want with it as long as the copy I have was authorized by the copyright holder. So I do own Linux.

      You're confusing a distribution license (GPL) with a use license (EULA). I don't have to agree to the GPL to use Linux, it only imposes conditions upon copying. EULAs, which try to impose conditions upon simple use are legally unenforceable and non-binding in most jurisdictions. I recommend ignoring them and their ridiculously restrictive clauses.

      If you have a legal copy of Windows or OS X, you do own it. What you don't own is the copyright; and copying the software without permission is copyright infringement.

    100. Re:Isn't this expected? by rthille · · Score: 1

      Well, there is the question of whether or not 'shrinkwrap licenses' are enforceable. As I remember, there have been conflicting rulings on that. I think the EFF has some information on it.

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
    101. Re:Isn't this expected? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus Christ, never post again.

    102. Re:Isn't this expected? by jaypaulw · · Score: 1

      It may be widely "known," but that doesn't mean it has been substantiated.

      I have been trying to follow this closely and I haven't seen anything definative to prove to me that apple has ruled out selling the OS seperately.

    103. Re:Isn't this expected? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      All that you would have to worry about would be to get a supported Intel CPU and a motherboard with a supported chipset, and possibly a supported video card. The rest of the stuff should pretty much Just Work because there are already drivers for it. Just as if I took my PCI network card, sound card, PCI 56k modem, and Firewire/USB 2.0 card and put it into a PPC PowerMac, they would just work too. The only problems I would forsee would be pretty minor ones, like maybe the PS/2 ports wouldn't work, and stuff like that.

    104. Re:Isn't this expected? by Buran · · Score: 1

      Uhm ... yes, it has. This was big news when the Intel switch was announced.

      MacNN | Apple VP: Mac OS X will not boot on regular PCs

      They'll sell the OS separately, as they do now, but it won't be usable on PCs.

    105. Re:Isn't this expected? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      You really work hard at missing the point, don't you sparky?

      There's no new law required here. If you buy a license to use OS X, you're bound by the terms of that license if you use the product.


      That's only if EULA's attached to software are a legal, binding document. Right now they are kind of a grey area - can you really hold someone to the terms in a EULA when all they did was remove some shrinkwrap? It's not like a regular contract where both people sign on it. Atleast in the US, they have yet to be tried in a court of law.

    106. Re:Isn't this expected? by shadow_slicer · · Score: 1

      Wrong. You OWN a copy of OS X. You can't legally make copies of OS X (aside from personal use), but you do OWN that copy.

      Now they also provide a EULA that has extra restrictions on what I can and can't do with the copy I OWN. Even if I don't accept the EULA, I still OWN the copy because I bought it. So based on copyright law, I can legally do whatever I want (except for certain activities prohibited by the DMCA) with my property.

    107. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      I can do whatever I want with my property,

      The software isn't your property.

      Copyright law doesn't say that I should cowtow to the every whim of the person I bought the software from.

      Contract law says you're bound to the terms of the license.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    108. Re:Isn't this expected? by cortana · · Score: 1
      The software isn't your property.
      That's strange... I bought it. It is mine.

      Please don't oversimplify what I am trying to say. I realise I don't own the copyright of the software. When I say "my property", I refer to the copy of the software that I bought, and that I now own, along with the right to use it in any way I see fit.
      Contract law says you're bound to the terms of the license.
      Show me. The only contract I enter into is that which details the exchange of my money for a copy of their software. Any bullshit EULA that may be supplied will be used as kindling or toilet paper, depending on whether I am cold or need a shit at the time.
    109. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      Any bullshit EULA that may be supplied will be used as kindling or toilet paper, depending on whether I am cold or need a shit at the time.

      If you want to test it, knock yourself out: tell Apple legal that you intend to violate the terms of the license, and you just might learn something.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    110. Re:Isn't this expected? by cortana · · Score: 1

      I have better things to do than pissing away my life's savings in a series drawn out court battles purely to prove to corporate apologists like you what every sane and right-thinking person can deduce from common sense--or are you offering to fund my defence? Furthermore, I'm under no obligation to inform Apple, or anyone else, what I do with my property.

    111. Re:Isn't this expected? by peacefinder · · Score: 1

      Unlike other OS makers, Apple primarily sells hardware. It would be against their whole business plan to become a generic OS maker.

      Yeah, I thought this would be obvious as well. The fact that they have achieved the limitation via DRM is only slightly alarming. (If that.) They have stated that they won't object to someone buying their hardware and running some other OS on it. If they stick to that, it completely undercuts the "DRM stole my hardware" argument.

      The only other situation in which the DRM might stand in the way of the purchaser is if the OS fails to run on unsupported hardware... but that's not a licensed use anyway.

      Of course, the hardware-level DRM might enable something more restrictive later or at a higher level, but if that happens the only surprise will be that Apple got there first.

      Apple is in a very strong position here. They have an OS product that is widely acknowledged to be of superior quality. Currently, they sell it bundled with hardware for a profit. But if the PC hardware business should become unprofitable or if Apple, for whatever reason, decides to cease being a hardware company, they can release their source whenever they want to. Once their OS and applications fully support x86 and have a decent installed base, freeing the code would be a realistic strategy for them to deliver a mortal blow to Microsoft's OS monopoly.

      (Personally, I think that's a big strategic incentive for The Switch.)

      --
      With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
    112. Re:Isn't this expected? by lucas+teh+geek · · Score: 1

      Because we all know its harder to pirate electronics than it is a single plastic cd/dvd rom.

      --
      TIAEAE!
    113. Re:Isn't this expected? by jcr · · Score: 1

      are you offering to fund my defence?

      Why would I do that? You're the one who's wrong.

      So, I see that you have no intention of putting your money where your mouth is.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Crack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I predict, just like every other software protection mechanism, will be defeated with simple patches that disable the checks.

  6. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did I log onto bizzaro slashdot today? Isn't microsoft supposed to be the bad guy?

    1. Re:WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that in order for you to have logged into Bizarro Slashdot, you would have had to log on, Anonymous Coward!

      Signed,
      Smarter Anonymous Coward

  7. sigh by spiderworm · · Score: 0

    Why do I feel like I'm being choked by a friend?...

    1. Re:sigh by fireman+sam · · Score: 1

      "Why you little..."

      Argg

      --
      it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
    2. Re:sigh by s/nemisis · · Score: 1

      "Why do I feel like I'm being choked by a friend?..."

      Is Wayne Brady going to have to choke a bitch?!? -Dave Chappelle

      --
      -=gabe2=- macbook dual 2.0
    3. Re:sigh by pAnkRat · · Score: 1

      We definetly need an "(+1) correct Simpson quote" modifier.

      --
      we need an "-1 Plain wrong" moderation option!
    4. Re:sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FWIW: Parent's quote is by Wayne Brady himself on the Dave Chappelle show in the same episode (or perhaps the lead-in to) when the show was jokingly renamed the Wayne Brady show.

      "If you don't smoke this, we're going to have a problem." -Wayne Brady to Dave Chappelle on the Dave Chappelle show.

    5. Re:sigh by a.different.perspect · · Score: 1

      Yes, we daffenittlay do.

  8. Hands up all the surprised people by lakeland · · Score: 1

    I mean c'mon, light DRM has been associated with apple's products for a long time now. This will make it harder to run apple on non-apple hardware, and harder to pirate movies (so apple can say to hollywood: sign with us and we'll respect your rights.) There is little incentive on apple getting the DRM watertight.

    In the unlikely event that they do manage it, I'll just avoid buying their hardware. I imagine the x86 version of pearpc will run at almost native speeds if there are any apple apps I want to run.

    1. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by rritterson · · Score: 2, Informative

      You forget that pearpc requires you to buy a copy of OSX. Assuming Apple makes x86 OSX require a handshake with the DRM to work, pearpc will cease to work. That's ignoring the fact that an x86 emulator running on x86 would be more than a little redundant. (that's all pearpc is- a CPU/architecture emulator)

      The PPC version, of course, will work, albeit slowly. Really, you're just back to where you started.

      --
      -Ryan
      AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
    2. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Feyr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      iirc, intel's drm is based on a supopsedly "hacker proof" chip that has an rsa keypair in it.

      everyone know how those uncrackable chips fared... well every time they tried to do something like this. it failed miserably.

      i know what you'll say. "microsoft managed it with the xbox". which is bogus, microsoft's problem is the complete opposite as this one. microsoft is trying to prevent unsigned code from running on "their" hardware.

      apple is trying to prevent their code from running on "unsigned" hardware. that implies the private key is in the paladium chip so it can "sign" a token sent by the OS. that's the worst case senario, and it will just take a few months to reverse engineer and distribute apple's private key along with pearpc (yes, you can read the key from that suposedly secure chip).

      another possible implementation is that the chip just sends an "apple" id. maybe s string of text or something like that. that's even easier to circumvent.

      don't be fooled by their marketing, pearpc will work just fine, albeit maybe illegally in the US (and canada soon). thanks to the DMCA

    3. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by KillShill · · Score: 1

      or they can stop being dicks and let the market decide what they want to do with purchased copies of os x and on what machines to run them on.

      yeah it's not going to happen but whatever.

      DRM is never in the favor of the end user. that's a lesson every person buying anything electronic needs to learn. the sooner the better.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    4. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > i know what you'll say. "microsoft managed it with the xbox". which is
      > bogus, microsoft's problem is the complete opposite as this one.
      > microsoft is trying to prevent unsigned code from running on "their"
      > hardware.

      This situation isn't a lot different except they will allow unsigned code (WinXP or Linux) to boot instead of OSX. But once loaded it is a variant of the same thing, don't allow any unsigned code into ring0. And it wouldn't be all that much of a stretch for them to go total X-Box and lock any unsigned OS out.

      But I sure hope you are right about it being cracked soon because if it isn't we are hosed. The initial posts here confirm that the Apple fanboys are more than willing to drink the Kool-Aid if Apple is serving it up.

      Which means Microsoft will be forced to push up the rollout of similar lockdowns for Shorthorn because if they don't Apple will have all the video over net business locked up and Hollywood won't let Bill play.

      And of course while they are at it they can lock out bootleg Windows licenses forever, win-win for them. And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it. The Dell and HPs will all be locked to the copy of Windows married to their TCPA module during manufacturing. And when the non-crazed Apple Fanboy civil libertarians complain they can, with a totally straight face, claim they HAD to.

      Thank you Steve Jobs. Fucktard.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    5. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by timbloom · · Score: 1

      I really don't want people running OS X on any old PC. What makes the Mac so nice is how much control Apple has over the components of their machines. Contrary to what many people around here will think, this is a good thing. Apple knows the specs of the machine you are running its OS on, so they can program specifically for that and not work around problems that off the shelf PC parts may have.
      If you run outside of those specifications you're going to run into problems Apple does not want to have to remedy. I don't blame them, it keeps support costs down and problems to a minimum. Which all allows Apple to throw more money into R&D. If OS X was to run on off-the-shelf PC hardware by design Apple wouldn't be able to throw as much money at emerging technologies or OS X would be far more expensive than it is now.

    6. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by burns210 · · Score: 1

      or they could live in reality and try and you know, make money rather than doing what armchair CEOs tell them to do without having thought it through.

      The third-party drivers, the custom hacks, the support costs, the loss of the 'just works' experience... Mac as a brand, Apple as a company, could not survive that transition. Maybe they will someday(soon?) but not this day and not tomorrow and most likely not the day after that.

    7. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by lakeland · · Score: 1

      apple doesn't (or, at least, shouldn't) care about geeks running osx on their boxes. If apple codes for the boxes they produces then it is up to the geeks to emulate that hardware.

    8. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Stelminator · · Score: 1

      so, if I want to replace a video card, RAM, hard drive, monitor, I should be out of luck because Apple says "too bad"? um, fuck that.

      R&D? so, you actually like the idea of hardware-based DRM? I guess you'd never want to make a backup of a DVD either.

    9. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by name773 · · Score: 1

      "And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it."

      i happen to be more fond of those after buying a fancier motherboard and realising that it wasn't really worth it for me.

    10. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it. The Dell and HPs will all be locked to the copy of Windows married to their TCPA module during manufacturing.

      This silly conspiracy theory is getting tiring. Why would Dell & HP prevent paying customers from running Linux or DOS or whatever the fuck they wanted to run? Both companies sell Linux and brag about how much money it makes them.

      Their vendors would just build the DRM checks into the HD-DVD software or whatever they were trying to protect. Linux just wouldn't get those features, not be "outlawed" or whatever.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    11. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by monkbent · · Score: 2, Informative
      And of course while they are at it they can lock out bootleg Windows licenses forever, win-win for them. And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it. The Dell and HPs will all be locked to the copy of Windows married to their TCPA module during manufacturing. And when the non-crazed Apple Fanboy civil libertarians complain they can, with a totally straight face, claim they HAD to. Thank you Steve Jobs. Fucktard.

      Uh, Apple has already said you could install Windows (and obviously Linux) on their machines. In fact, it's already been done. http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/25/ 1920224&tid=190&tid=118&tid=3.

      This is a lock for the software, not the hardware. So I'm having trouble making the logical leap to Dell and HPs being unable to run Linux.

    12. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jam3s · · Score: 0

      >>"that's the worst case senario, and it will just
      >>take a few months to reverse engineer and
      >>distribute apple's private key along with
      >>pearpc"

      Why would it be distributed with pearpc? Isn't the idea behind PearPC to emulate the Mac (PPC) Architecture so that we can run OS9/OSX on it?

      If you are already running Intel hardware and intending to run an operating system designed for Intel, why would you go to the trouble of emulating current Mac Hardware (PPC) in order to run the software?

      Or are you just talking shite as you have no idea what this is all about?

      How will reverse engineering "unlock" a private key? I am no cryptological expert, but if it was as simple as a bit of reverse engineering, wouldn't the XBOX be cracked now, and all the homebrew software be distributing their software, with the signed Microsoft "Private Key".

    13. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by joib · · Score: 1


      And of course while they are at it they can lock out bootleg Windows licenses forever, win-win for them. And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it. The Dell and HPs will all be locked to the copy of Windows married to their TCPA module during manufacturing.


      I don't think world domination will be that easy for MS. For once, must "larger than mom and pop" businesses reimage their PC:s anyway; they'd scream bloody murder if only the original OEM Windows would work. So if you can put some arbitrary Windows image on a DRM PC, certainly it should then also be possible to install Linux. Also, I guess that at least for servers the Linux market is big enough that vendors cannot afford to let it go down the drain due to some draconian DRM scheme.

      Secondly, if MS somehow implements a foolproof anti-piracy scheme, the 3rd world would switch to Linux in a heartbeat. There's no way most 3rd world people can justify paying $100 for a Windows licence. Still MS has as big a market share over there as anywhere else, thanks to piracy. They're counting on those countries getting richer and eventually being able to afford real Windows licenses (at that point the foolproof anti-piracy scheme might make sense to catch those who pirate even though they have lots of disposable income).

    14. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > Uh, Apple has already said you could install Windows (and obviously
      > Linux) on their machines.

      These preview boards are just generic Intel kit. Of course they can run Windows. And they might allow it on the first batch of production machines. Right up until the original poster proves to be right and it can be cracked. Then step one in resecuring the system is to lock out the ability to boot Windows/Linux where one can poke around with the hardware. Much harder to get a grasp on what is happening if you can never get a debugger or test program to run in ring0. And from Apple's pov (and from the Apple fanboys it appears) the only purpose of Apple hardware is to run OSX so it isn't a problem to exclude everything else. We have even seen the game lamer fanboys make the same arguments defending the lockdown of the xbox.

      Let that mindset get traction in the general public and who could possibly object when the tcpa chips were married to a Windows license at point of manufacture and wouldn't boot anything else. Why of course you could special order a motherboard with an empty chip or none, but only a pirate would do that so lets put you on a watch list. Or even better, since the ol Microsoft exclusion game they promised TWICE in federal court to cease and desist from is still going strong how about they simply not allow MB makers to make some of a line without the Windows chip. Or even none at all. Nope, if you want to be a Microsoft Premium Partner and get get the co-market dollars you ship a Windows licensed (only) TCPA chip on every motherboard.

      And of course Dell and HP would still be selling SERVERS able to run whatever a paying customer wanted. Yup, if you want RHEL or SUSE they will marry that to a TCPA chip and have it to you tomorrow. But where do devels come from in that world and where do they develop?

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    15. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > i happen to be more fond of those after buying a fancier motherboard
      > and realising that it wasn't really worth it for me.

      Well in my case I'm running a fancier MB that was made in Taiwan. Gigabyte GA-K8VNXP. Very studly board. :)

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    16. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      This will make it harder to run apple on non-apple hardware, and harder to pirate movies

      Not all dvd decryption involves "pirating movies". some of it involvse this thing called fair use.

      fair uses of dvd's include: removing those "not permitted" things preventing you from skipping commercials, backing your dvd up to guard against loss or damage, or transcoding the DVD to something more efficient to save shelf space.

      according to copyright law, one should be able to do these things, and DRM providers are simply using the DMCA as a "loophole" in the law and then standing by whistling innocently as people complain.

    17. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > This silly conspiracy theory is getting tiring. Why would Dell & HP
      > prevent paying customers from running Linux or DOS or whatever the fuck
      > they wanted to run? Both companies sell Linux and brag about how much
      > money it makes them.

      Simple. Same reason you can't buy a PC from Dell without an OS except for a couple of Optiplex lines they target at the corporate users who already have site licenses. And even for those they have to toss FreeDOS in the box to make Microsoft happy.

      Now imagine a world where Microsoft requires a locked TCPA chip to boot a future version of Windows. Basically they will speak unto Dell thusly: "If you want to sell Windows you will stick this chip on each and every motherboard. And if you don't want to pay the whitebox chopshop price for licenses you will join our co-op marketing program which requires you stick this chip on ALL motherboards you sell. No exceptions. Hey bitch, you already give Intel the same 100% loyalty so now you serve TWO masters. Starting today you no longer sell Dells, you sell Windows Workstations with Intel Inside and if you don't like that I have the same contract manufacturers you job your actual work out to ready to make em for me direct and a bunch of Indians ready to roll on deploying an ecommerce site to sell them through."

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    18. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by monkbent · · Score: 1
      You're right! Just like you couldn't run linux on PPC macs!

      Oh, wait ... http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/

      Seriously, I see your point - if everyone was running OSX on non-Apple hardware, Apple would need to do something. But even if it is pirated, I don't think Apple will care. The slashdot types that are running a hacked version of OSX were never going to by an apple box anyways (and there aren't that many of them).

      A prediction: OSX will be cracked to run on white boxes within 6 months of release. And Apple won't do a thing, because, outside of slashdot, no one will care.

    19. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > Seriously, I see your point - if everyone was running OSX on non-Apple
      > hardware, Apple would need to do something.

      You are right that Apple couldn't care less if OSX runs on some geek's Dell. But to make that possible will mean finding a way to defeat TCPA and HOLLYWOOD will care about that. These are the same bastards that are mandating encrypted video as close to the CRT's electron guns (LCD controller, etc) as they can get it. They don't want the next generation of HiDef content to EVER be viewed without them being paid and will move heaven and earth to get that. Microsoft can just skulk along behind that movement and achieve everything IT wants, which is to maintain their monopoly and find ever more revenue sources to keep the stockholders happy and BillG's ego stoked... oh and to crush their enemies, see them driven before them and to hear the lamentations of the women.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    20. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > oh and to crush their enemies, see them driven before them and to hear
      > the lamentations of the women.

      Oh yea, since there aren't enough FS/OSS women to count I guess the above average gay population in the slashdot community will have to play the lamenting women part if we actually lose the coming "Gotta DRM the precious IP or the Terrorists Have Won" war.

      [ducking the incoming mod bombs.... a borderline tasteless gaybaiting joke and calling Holy Steve a fucktard in one thread... Just a bit pissed tonite.]

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    21. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geeez, +5 Insightful trolling?

      Apple prevents MacOS X to run on non-Apple hardware, how people can be surprised or even upset by that? They have always said so, and they are making it happens, and we all know the reasons why. (Hint, it has to do with selling Macs and keeping MS Office on Mac by not competing with MS on generic x86 hardware.)

      You seem to be upset that Apple and Microsoft are not letting you run a bootleg copies of their OS. Boohoo, cry me a river.

      As for locking out unsigner code on Macs and PCs, I will belive it when I see it. I find it quite a stretch of the imagination to go from locking the OS to the hardware you sell, to locking all unsigned code out on a PC.

    22. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RSA keypairs never hacked? Say that to Direct TV, which as of this day has yet to be cracked. And it will never be unless someone spends hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not tens of millions) to reverse engineer the smart cards, then all it would take is changing out the cards again.

      Imagine all Apple computers having a unique RSA keypair. Almost completely impervious to hacking attempts. And once the keys become cracked, what happens? All Apple computers need to be "repaired" at an Apple dealer near you. Remove the chip, pop in the replacement, and you're good to go.

      Too bad I'm late to this topic, because this won't get modded up, but it's worth a shot.

    23. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it.

      Wrong way round, I suspect - everything will be able to run Linux, but those machines running Linux won't be able to run the code required to access the protected content.

      MS et al can only force this sort of thing through with the backing of the media companies and their lobbying, and the media companies don't give two shits about Linux. Hell, you may even see Linux versions of the apps and neessary supporting code (closed source, of course). The media companies won't want to miss out on the potential revenue if the OS gets a large enough install base.

    24. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      And of course while they are at it they can lock out bootleg Windows licenses forever, win-win for them. And if not outright outlaw Linux, at least make sure only generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan run it.
      Assuming your scenario comes true, I guess the generic whitebox motherboards from Taiwan will still run both Linux and bootleg Windows licenses, because they are available without any TCPA.
      Dell and HP will lose the share of the geek market they have now (which I suspect is small enough anyway). Small shops that build PCs on the whitebox motherboards will grab some marketshare from half-geeks that don't insist on building their own, but still want to use Linux.

      The only real danger would be legislation that mandates a form of TCPA that blocks Open Source operating systems. Watch out for that and support the EFF if necessary.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    25. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 1

      "everyone know how those uncrackable chips fared... well every time they tried to do something like this. it failed miserably."

      So, you're saying that because in the past they've tried to do it and it's failed, we should stop worrying they might succeed the next time? If at stake is the freedom of information, the autonomy of our own posessions and the terms of participation in the entirety of future popular culture? Yeah, sounds like something we can safely ignore.

      FYI (and IIRC) there's never been anything like the current DRM schemes, let alone one that's already failed. We now have a concerted attack from the combined forces of the operating system monopoly[1], the hardware oligarchy[2], the media player/telecomms companies[3] and the entire popular media industries[4].

      If DRM like this becomes widespread before people wake up to it you won't really be able to buy a machine that doesn't have TC build in, and even if you can you'll be forced to use a non-mainstream OS with it. And when you re-learn all your skills and convert to your non-mainstream OS, you still won't be able to play music on it. Or watch movies. Or HDTV. In fact, you'll find it hard to participate in "mainstream" culture at all.

      Just because it didn't work last time doens't mean the idea is impossible. It's just like chess - when your king's in check it's easy to get out of it... unless your opponent has set up his other pieces just right, and then it's checkmate, and you're screwed.

      FWIW I'm not normally quite this pessimistic, but this laissez-faire "fuck it, and it'll all turn out ok" attitude is just uninformed - read up on it, and you'll see what the stakes are and how serious it can be.

      "don't be fooled by their marketing, pearpc will work just fine, albeit maybe illegally in the US (and canada soon). thanks to the DMCA"

      Oh, right, that's ok. Good job nobody's ever been prosecuted under the DMCA, eh? We really dodged a bullet there. Oh, and IIRC here in the EU we currently have the EUCD (European Union Copyright Directive) going through (might even have gone through, now) - it's basically our version of the DMCA. But that's ok, because merely behaving illegally never stopped anyone[5], especially high-profile, known-instigator, cash-poor public volunteer projects like PearPC, right? They'll be fine...

      Footnotes:

      [1] Microsoft (and associated minor players like Apple), covering 90%+ of the home/office desktop market.

      [2] Intel/AMD, and anyone who wants to be compatible with them. So... every hardware manufacturer, pretty much.

      [3] If they want anything they produce to work on the next-gen Trusted Computing PCs.

      [4] The MPAA and RIAA, who between them produce the overwhelming majority of our popular culture.

      [5] Ok, Microsoft aside. For strict accuracy that sarky aside should have been "Merely behaving illegally never stopped anyone who can't afford to purchase pet congressmen, fund presidential election campaigns or simply throw money at the case until the plaintiff runs out of money", but that would rather have spoiled the flow. ;-)

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    26. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 1

      Now imagine a world where Microsoft requires a locked TCPA chip to boot a future version of Windows. Basically they will speak unto Dell thusly: "If you want to sell Windows you will stick this chip on each and every motherboard. And if you don't want to pay the whitebox chopshop price for licenses you will join our co-op marketing program which requires you stick this chip on ALL motherboards you sell. No exceptions. Hey bitch, you already give Intel the same 100% loyalty so now you serve TWO masters. Starting today you no longer sell Dells, you sell Windows Workstations with Intel Inside and if you don't like that I have the same contract manufacturers you job your actual work out to ready to make em for me direct and a bunch of Indians ready to roll on deploying an ecommerce site to sell them through."

      You reckon?

      Considering that Dell has already made clear its desire to bundle OSX with its systems.. if Microsoft did propose such hard terms for Dell, what makes you think that they would not make Apple an offer that they just can't resist?

      How much does Apple make from those hardware currently? At best a stately 20%, that's 400 bucks for a top of the line workstation, woah, I'm SO juicing in my pants right now... NOT.

      If they make just 50 bucks from each license they sell to Dell, and probably restrict Dells to some terms where they are unable to compete with Apple inhouse hardware based on some stylistic factor or something... THAT my friends, is what will make Steve, his wife, his daughter, and a whole lot of others, cream their collective underpants.

    27. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by halleluja · · Score: 1
      apple is trying to prevent their code from running on "unsigned" hardware. that implies the private key is in the paladium chip so it can "sign" a token sent by the OS. that's the worst case senario, and it will just take a few months to reverse engineer and distribute apple's private key along with pearpc (yes, you can read the key from that suposedly secure chip).

      No need.


      Add cgi binary to httpd on apple DRM'ed machine and serve keys across the web, http://drm.pearpc.org/ takes couple of minutes.


      Nobody's gonna sue me for distributing keys..

    28. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by halleluja · · Score: 1
      Nobody's gonna sue me for distributing keys..
      keys=signed tokens
    29. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by commander+salamander · · Score: 1

      I think you exaggerate a bit too much. I just took receipt of a Dell PowerEdge 750 1u server. It had no OS, not even FreeDOS. The only thing on the hard drive was a small diagnostic partition.

      And don't try to tell me MS can build an assembly channel that's more efficient than Dell's. Other companies have been down that road before, and mostly ended up as charred rubble (similar to WalMart's competitors in the retail space).

      --
      Is this rock and roll, or a form of state control?
    30. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Theaetetus · · Score: 1
      But I sure hope you are right about it being cracked soon because if it isn't we are hosed. The initial posts here confirm that the Apple fanboys are more than willing to drink the Kool-Aid if Apple is serving it up.

      Just as a question... this changes what? OSX right now has hardware DRM of a sort... it won't run on anything non-OF. You have to buy a Mac to run it. However, you can duplicate the CDs, install on more than one machine, etc.
      This appears to be the exact same thing - you'll have to buy a Mac to run OSX. However, we've seen people duplicating the DVD image, and provided this acts the same way regarding not scanning the network for serial numbers, it's the same exact thing.

      This isn't a Kool Aid issue, this is Apple doing exactly what they said on day one: "Even though we're moving to Intel, OSX will not run on non-Apple hardware". How else did you think that would happen? Everyone knew that there would be a chip on the Mobo identifying itself as Apple.

      And when the non-crazed Apple Fanboy civil libertarians complain they can, with a totally straight face, claim they HAD to. Thank you Steve Jobs. Fucktard.

      If only this were Fark so that I could put up an image of a crazy-eyed conspiracy theorist.

      Here's a hint - rational discourse has no place for someone saying "fucktard".

    31. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by timbloom · · Score: 1

      Actually, all of those are supported as upgrades. Granted, Apple's specs are a little higher with things like RAM. But I'm really talking about the 1000s of different chipsets made for each part of the computer. Supporting so many of these things makes windows bloated and slow.

    32. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by jay2003 · · Score: 1

      that implies the private key is in the paladium chip so it can "sign" a token sent by the OS

      Even if the chip is uncrackable, the binaries need to have the public key for the chip embedded in them to validate the chip's private key. The public key is certainly hidden but once it's found, modifying the binary to use a different public key that corresponds to a well known private key baked into a replacement kext will circumvent the hardware lock.

    33. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Stelminator · · Score: 1

      Ok, well, you can obviously tell I don't have a mac. Thanks for correcting me on that.

      I tend to think what makes windows slow is bloatware, not the availability of drivers. This is the same thing that slows down the larger Linux distros, and even OS X, too. Junk laying around that you don't need shouldn't be there.

      As for different chipsets, if you're talking about the motherboards and such, I didn't think that made much of a difference to the software running on them. As for drivers for any other PCI card etc., well, I don't know, that should be up to the vendors of said cards anyway.

      It's just too bad Apple charges so much for the same crap with their name on it. They even design for the look instead of function which means stuff breaks easier. Oh well, if I knew they were going to build good cheap machines that would run any OS (short of something designed for sparc), I'd consider it.

    34. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      But I sure hope you are right about it being cracked soon because if it isn't we are hosed.
      Yeah, we're so hosed if we can't rampantly pirate everyone's product at whim. Man, that's horrible.

      I mean, hey, I may have actually to replace my old PC with a new PC in order to run some new software. Oh my fucking god, that's so horrible. That's so different than what I've been doing the past 20 years.

      You're talking about stealing someone else's work. I don't know about you, but I work hard to earn my keep. I certainly don't like it when a little fanboy bitch living in his mom's basement stabs me in the back and steals my work. I go downright apocalyptic when you little yapping lapdogs start whining about how my employer has taken steps that make it harder for you to steal my work.

      Get off your fat ass, move out on your own, and for god's sake get a real job - working at that record store is rotting your brain.
    35. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      Now imagine a world where Microsoft requires a locked TCPA chip to boot a future version of Windows.

      You mean like Apple is doing? In both cases the TCPA chip is a copy-protection dongle and does nothing to prevent you from running an alternate OS.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    36. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      rational discourse has no place for someone saying "fucktard".
      Only a fucktard, such as yourself, would say such a thing.
    37. Re:Hands up all the surprised people by dododge · · Score: 1
      Simple. Same reason you can't buy a PC from Dell without an OS except for a couple of Optiplex lines they target at the corporate users who already have site licenses.

      Completely bare workstations may be difficult. They do however sell workstations with Linux preloaded. They aren't cheap desktops, but they are desktops.

  9. Gentlemen, start your debuggers by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Funny

    The first person to crack this DRM implementation will win a free story about it on Slashdot!

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    1. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by QuantumG · · Score: 1

      The way to "crack" this DRM is to rewrite the parts of the code that are "protected" by it. Or, ya know, just do some hardware hacking so you can grab a copy of the unencrypted code in memory.. not that it's easy or anything.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by interiot · · Score: 1
      1) Like other people said, Apple said they're locking their OS to only run on Apple hardware. So this isn't really a surprise.

      2) It also won't be a surprise when somebody hacks it and gets Apple's OS to work on other Intel hardware.

      My issue with this is: Apple seems to always be focused on having a high-quality user experience. Part of the reason they can do that is that they can target specific sets of hardware (much like how console games increase user-friendliness by targetting a single main configuration).

      If you run an Apple OS on different hardware, you have to do some work to get it to work. And you obviously don't expect everything to work 100% perfectly. That's all Apple has to do, they don't really need to DRM things. They just have to make it clear that you'll have a degraded user experience if you run it on other hardware, and they warned you, and that quality issues you may see aren't their fault. If you want to experiment, use the Mach kernel or Linux directly. If you want a nice user experience, use official Apple hardware.

    3. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by HeroreV · · Score: 1

      But DRM is just ever so much funner.

    4. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by zoodoo · · Score: 1

      It's harder to crack hardware DRM than to crack software DRM, so I wonder how long it would really take.

    5. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much for the re-run a week later? ;)

    6. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by Spiked_Three · · Score: 1

      "win a free story"

      Correction: they will probably have the story run 3-4 times, as usual.

      --
      slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
    7. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by rob123 · · Score: 0

      AND another copy of that story the next week!

    8. Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by dhasenan · · Score: 1

      Why hardware hacking? Just get a Mactel, put Linux on it, and install OS X in a virtual machine. You'll be able to log everything that the installer tries to do.

      Of course, actually implementing a method to circumvent the DRM might not be so easy. You could modify a VM to do it, but then you'd be stuck running the OS in a VM. So you'd probably have to implement the fix either by modifying the install package or possibly by altering your BIOS.

  10. I find it funny... by Cheapy · · Score: 1

    The ad underneath the story is for AMD :)

    --
    Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
    1. Re:I find it funny... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it funnier that you never heard of AMD's DRM: Presidio. Coming next year!

    2. Re:I find it funny... by KillShill · · Score: 1

      thankfully, intel came out with their DRM ahead of schedule.

      the fact is, amd has to implement this crap to stay competitive (not forgetting that they are a member of the TCPA). the ultimate thing is, this is something NO CUSTOMER (i.e. end user) wants and it only wastes die space and increases costs which the end users have to pay for.

      it's a lose lose proposition.

      i wonder if hollywood is worth all of this.

      far more people play games now than watch movies. i only see the disparity growing in the future.

      well, the best of luck to those DRM ***holes. you'll need it when/if the public ever wakes up.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
  11. Zealotry by NitsujTPU · · Score: 5, Funny

    More specifically, it includes "a TCPA/Palladium implementation that uses a Infineon 1.1 chip which will prevent certain parts of the OS from working unless authorized."

    Oh no, my two sources of zealotry are colliding. Eeek! It can't be evil if Apple does it, right... but DRM is always evil, right? /. I need you! Tell me what to think!

    1. Re:Zealotry by Durf · · Score: 1

      You're caught between a rock and a hard place there . . . I recommend focusing on anti-SCO screeds for the next few months until all this blows over.

    2. Re:Zealotry by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      It's simple. I have the answer in a hidden bank account in Nigeria, but Prince MBUTU Nirobe cannot transfer you the answer until you forward USD 1000 as an offer of good faith, and to establish a business relationship...

  12. Apple is the bestest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft, start your copi...ah er... nevermind.

  13. Mach Overide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Alter OSX code at runtime. It only works on PPC at present, however.

  14. duh by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1, Informative

    how did you think Apple was going to keep their OS on the computers they make?

    just think of it as a way to identify apple made computers for the OS, no different than a different architecture.

    --



    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    1. Re:duh by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Now that it's obvious they're just using the same cheap commodity hardware everyone else is, TCPA is the only way they can keep Macs as what they've always been: multi-thousand dollar dongles for Mac OS.

      --
      I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
    2. Re:duh by Pete+Brubaker · · Score: 1

      Ditto. This is newsworthy?

      You are right. Compare this to game consoles, should I be mad that my PlayStation game wont work in an Xbox?

      --
      What's a sig? Pete Brubaker
    3. Re:duh by misleb · · Score: 1

      Multi thousand dollars? LIke the iMac, Mac Mini, and iBook? All under $1000.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    4. Re:duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      should I be mad that my PlayStation game wont work in an Xbox?
      Bearing in mind that the Xbox {Celeron} and PlayStation {Sony RISC processor} games almost certainly originated from pretty much the same source code, you could be forgiven being a little bit annoyed.
    5. Re:duh by thesandtiger · · Score: 1

      how did you think Apple was going to keep their OS on the computers they make?

      "Hi, this is Lisa from Apple - we just wanted to call and say that we'd really, rilly, REALLY appreciate it if you wouldn't run OSX on a generic x86 box. You won't? Promise? Cross your heart? No, our lawyers say we can't do the 'needle in your eye' thing anymore. Ok! Awesome! Thanks so much! Have a great evening!"

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
    6. Re:duh by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but by the time you add a monitor, keyboard, reasonable amount of RAM, a hard disk faster than 4200 RPM, and a proper two button mouse . . . :)

      --
      I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  15. And this is surprise because... by Pecisk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't get it - Apple's hardware has always been close system as you can get from PC type computer. So of course they can be 'accidentaly' early addopters of Palladium. Don't like it? Choose another vendor.

    --
    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    1. Re:And this is surprise because... by hemanman · · Score: 1

      Already did... went back to selfassambled PC's, much cheaper, faster and hell, as soon as a week after the initial release of Mac OS X for Intel, it will run that too :-)

      -H

    2. Re:And this is surprise because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're full of it, dude.
      Apple HW never was particularly closed, that's why I run Linux on all of my Apple HW. And yes, I won't buy any more Apple products now that they switch to x86. DRM just enforces my decision.

    3. Re:And this is surprise because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, but we real Mac users still won't let you into our parties. Not until you prove you're the real thing.

      Until then... you've got buddies of your own to hang out with.

    4. Re:And this is surprise because... by hemanman · · Score: 1

      Hehehe, no, I plan to use Longhorn on that, nothing nerdy... oh, wait...

      -H

    5. Re:And this is surprise because... by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      I don't get it - Apple's hardware has always been close system as you can get from PC type computer. So of course they can be 'accidentaly' early addopters of Palladium. Don't like it? Choose another vendor.

      After my knee jerk reaction I came to the same conclusion. The other conclusion I also came to is that the system will be designed to run in the presence of that chip, but the presence of that chip won't prevent the computer from running anything else. For this reason running Linux, MS-Windows or any other OS on this hardware is still possible.

      The real question, given history of security measures being cracked, is how long will it take for someone to break this? Quite honestly I wouldn't look forward to this, since Apple makes money off the hardware and to a certain extent this would probably result in "killing the hand that feeds you" when it comes to the OS.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    6. Re:And this is surprise because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, douche caboose.

  16. It won't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone will figure out a way to trick it or get around it or strip the need for authorization from the goodies. Someone will make a copy on an unprotected system and flip it to the internet for wide distribution.

    This DRM stuff is just a foolish waste of time and money.

  17. Suprised... by rcbarnes · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Honestly, I really am. I expected Apple to hold off on anything that looks like TC until Microsoft could release it first. They have spent so many years establishing a 'good guy'/counterculture/'free thinker' image that it seems foolish to rush in and be the first to build something so patiently corporate. They definitely couldn't hold off on this 'technology' forever, since their business plan seems to revolve around becoming the world's premier digital content provider, but I just expected them to place cooperate image above preparation for that switch in the near future (with MS Vista coming out so 'soon,' just begging to take the flack for 'destroying any digital rights we have left'). Then again I'm not Jobs, and so far, he's done a damn good job with Apple's image, so I'm sure it's a calculated risk.

    --
    "Fight for lost causes. You may discover they weren't."
    1. Re:Suprised... by KillShill · · Score: 1

      ok, it's good for apple the company.

      how is this useful for current users and potential future users?

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    2. Re:Suprised... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So were you asleep at the wheel when the iPod/iTunes came out with massive DRM? Just wait until that reaches all the way into your hardware. Apple's not a nice company at all. Just ask the FreeBSD people.

    3. Re:Suprised... by timbloom · · Score: 1

      Personally, I don't see Apple adopting it that widely into the OS. I see them basically using it as a way to verify you really are on an Apple-branded box and leaving it at that.

    4. Re:Suprised... by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      I expected Apple to hold off on anything that looks like TC until Microsoft could release it first.

      It makes a lot more sense for Apple than Microsoft: Total control over hardware & software, no legacy installed base, significant revenue from media rather than just software.

      Microsoft will support TPM (or any other chip that people put on mobos), but they don't really have any business reasons to push it. If their hardware customers don't use it, it doesn't really affect them.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    5. Re:Suprised... by da_matta · · Score: 1

      I agree with you that image-wise it would've probably been a good thing. But would probably be too big a risk to let somebody else establish themselves as the de-facto "trusted digital content delivery platform" that they want to be in the first train.

      It's a shame really, that the situation is what it is. Industry will spend billions (that they could use making a better content and service) to a technology that won't probably significantly reduce piracy. Most likely it will just make piracy more professional and more profitable.

      But to get back to your point, I guess you can see why the content owners are more or less panicked about this "evil internet thing and the evil customers doing rampant piracy". And the alternatives of the "more DRM"-mantra are too radical for them to make unless/before they have to. So in order to be a player in the digital content business, Apple needs the DRM. And it's always easier to get the market share in the first round of the fight.

    6. Re:Suprised... by rcbarnes · · Score: 1

      The FreeBSD people? Hell, they were nice to them compared to the Konquerer/KHTML devs... At least they bragged about the powers of the code they stole and gave passing mention of it (I noticed it in someone's install process "Installing BSD, but it sucked 'till we gave it magic pixie dust powers" or something like that).

      --
      "Fight for lost causes. You may discover they weren't."
  18. I give it a week... by mellonhead · · Score: 1

    After a certain kid in Norway gets his hands on it.

    1. Re:I give it a week... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DiKKy Hearties?

  19. DRM in Longhorn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is probably the only feature I don't want Microsoft to copy from Apple in Longhorn :)

    And at the same time it's probably the only feature Apple fanboys won't be porud of saying "OS X had this for years"! Yeah? Well, screw you!

  20. Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Durandal64 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apparently Apple's DRM kernel extension only gets involved when Rosetta is executing code. In other words, if you're running native code, there's no checking. But apparently some critical parts of the kernel are still being executed by Rosetta. And reimplementing the `AppleTPMACPI.kext' in a completely harmless manner (such that it always returns a "Yes go ahead" signal) is an option. As is replacing it at runtime via mach_override.

    These boxes aren't even for sale yet. I'm sure that it'll be cracked before that even happens.

    1. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by wyldeone · · Score: 1

      The problem for getting OSx86 to run on commodity hardware right now is that an essential part of the display server has not be ported, and thus runs through rosetta. However, the kernel boots fine, and people have been able to get OSx86 to work on commodity hardware in console mode.

      --
      In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
    2. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      Hmm. My interpretation is that this only means that Apple hasn't finished their TPM implementation yet. The trusted boot features of TPM could prevent replacing the kernel code.

      Also, it would be rather embarassing if production OS X/Intel was running partially in emulation. Shades of System 7.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    3. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 1
      However, the kernel boots fine, and people have been able to get OSx86 to work on commodity hardware in console mode.

      But if that's all you want then you can just download and run Darwin with X11. The valuable parts of MacOS X isn't the underlying operating system, it's the display server.

    4. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      But apparently some critical parts of the kernel are still being executed by Rosetta.

      Huh? If the kernel is using rosetta then why did Apple tell everybody it wasn't?

      http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5736190-2.html

      However, Apple said Rosetta can't run several types of code: ... kernel extensions; applications that depend on kernel extensions ...
    5. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Durandal64 · · Score: 1

      It's not about console mode being "all anyone wants." It's about progress and understanding. In other words, there is nothing at the lower levels interfacing with TPM. It's only for Rosetta-executed code, and that means non-kernel-extension code.

      I wonder, is it possible that TPM can only work with one type of machine language, and that is why Apple only applies it to PowerPC code? After all, there's no reason the designers would have had to make it work with multiple kinds of binary.

    6. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Durin_Deathless · · Score: 1

      If it only happens when Rosetta comes up, then maybe this wasn't Apple's call. PERHAPS the people at Transitive decided that this was the way to do it, and since they have the best PPC emulator for x86 Apple felt compelled to jump?
      Just a theory.

      --
      You should use AdiumX on your Mac.
    7. Re:Don't get your panties in a bunch. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I think Apple applies Rosetta simply because they know what they have to protect - the GUI. The kernel et al are not only available for intel anyway, a lot of it is under some sort of open source license.

      It's the gui that makes OS X. Hence that's what apple protects.

      At any rate, I am disturbed by the use of TPM. I know it'll be hacked within months, but it's still wrong to use it. I'll probably not buy a Mactel if it contains any form of "trusted computing".

  21. No big surprise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple's already done two Evil things:

    1) sold DRM-encrusted music

    2) sued a blogger (blogging is to "journal"ism, as open source is to software, don't you get it Steve?)

    This is what happens when Apple gets successful: they get stupid. Last time it happened, it nearly killed the company.

    I hope it doesn't kill it this time. I sure do like my powerbook. But most of the work I do on it runs fine under FreeBSD or Linux, so I'm not exactly "locked in" no matter how hard Steve tries.

    C'mon Steve. Don't be evil.

  22. Memories? by a.different.perspect · · Score: 1

    Because the last time you made a "friend" who'd never spoken to you or given any encouragement to the notion that you had a personal relationship with them, her boyfriend strangled you?

  23. DVD Jon - We need you! by Logicdisorder · · Score: 0

    I am sure our man DVD Jon will be on the case dealing with this DRM madness.

    Next thing you know Apple will be putting IE back into OSX!

    Word to your mutha :P

    --
    "The most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose." - James Baldwin, American author
    1. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucktard.
      It's *because* of people like DVD Jon that we are being forced into hardware protection like this.

    2. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Logicdisorder · · Score: 1

      You gutless fuck! If you are going to call someone a fucktard have the balls to put you name by it!

      --
      "The most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose." - James Baldwin, American author
    3. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because of people like DVD Jon we are able to watch dvds under linux, asshat.

    4. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is your name again?

    5. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Logicdisorder · · Score: 1

      Logicdisorder BITCH!

      --
      "The most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose." - James Baldwin, American author
    6. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What is your name again?"

      "Logicdisorder BITCH!"

      hahah. Wrong, BITCH! You no longer have a name, according to your parents. To them, you're just "that bum" that lives in their basement.

    7. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by Nermal6693 · · Score: 1

      Does it really matter what his parents call him? When he see him online, he's Logicdisorder, and we can look up his posts by that name. His "real" name is irrelevant.

    8. Re:DVD Jon - We need you! by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      Do you realize that nothing is preventing you from installing Linux on the Intel macs?

      You don't need DVD Jon unless you want him to deliberately condone piracy by running an OS you are not licensed to run.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  24. Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rosetta needs the TPM and not the kernel.. ATSServer needs Rosetta to start.. No Rosetta -> No ATSServer -> No gui

    1. Re:Actually... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Interesting
      In other words, one will be able to install and run Mac OS X on any Intel box, just not run any software compiled for PPC on it?

      No big deal then. I'd expect them to port all the code to x86 by the time they release those things anyway, and other software vendors will surely follow soon.

    2. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, you think they just forgot to port ATSServer? That a piece of the system that is critical to the entire GUI just wasn't high enough on their priority list, but that every other piece of the system is?

    3. Re:Actually... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      And why the hell would Apple release a Darwin kernel that calls commercial third-party software?

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    4. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why the hell would Apple release a Darwin kernel that calls commercial third-party software?

      Uh, to make it all work?

      It's a user-space daemon. It's not evil at all.

    5. Re:Actually... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1
      And why the hell would Apple release a Darwin kernel that calls commercial third-party software?

      Uh, to make it all work?

      So how would it work, if you don't have access to said commercial third-party software?
      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    6. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't Apple license the Rosetta technology from someone? Could this be a copy-protection scheme left over from that developer?

  25. Mmm, bet that crow's delicious. by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Of course, the Apple aplogist brigade will say they've always said that DRM and Treacherous Computing were A-OK with them.

    --
    I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
    1. Re:Mmm, bet that crow's delicious. by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 0

      Oh fuck off. Your 20 years of inferiority complex makes everything you spew forth read the fucking same. If you had a life you wouldn't envy people who had girlfriends or used Macs or drove BMWs.

      Get some decent clothes, get a girlfriend and get a fucking life.

      And have a fucking shower while you're at it, you stinking cunt.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    2. Re:Mmm, bet that crow's delicious. by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 1

      Nice. Look who's talking. And can the tired comparison of Macs to BMWs. It's bullshit and you know it.

      --
      I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  26. Duh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple is less evil than DRM is evil. Don't you remember the whole iTunes DRM thing? It was proven to be non-evil by Apple enthusiasts. Extrapolating from that, I think it's safe to say that you should have a pro-Apple opinion no matter what. Now, if it were discovered that Apple donated large sums of money to the Bush administration, you would find yourself in quite a pickle...

  27. Apple's DRM strategy by Thu25245 · · Score: 1

    1. Release beta version with DRM to prevent installation on non-Apple machines
    2. Watch people crack it
    3. Repeat 1-2 until 2 fails
    4. Release final version
    5. Profit, of course.

    1. Re:Apple's DRM strategy by szo · · Score: 1

      "3. Repeat 1-2 until 2 fails"

      Then it's going to take about a 100 times more than longhorn...

      --
      Red Leader Standing By!
  28. Could be "(relatively) benign copy protection" by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

    My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.

    I may have to rethink that strategy now.


    Not to be argumentative, but how do you know Apple won't be using "(relatively) benign copy protection"? I remember all the griping around Slashdot regarding iTunes/iPod DRM, but in retrospect it's clear most of Apple's paying customers, and even most Slashdotters, find those restrictions rather reasonable. I don't see why Jobs would jeodardize this huge transition by suddenly going overboard with DRM.

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
    1. Re:Could be "(relatively) benign copy protection" by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      I remember all the griping around Slashdot regarding iTunes/iPod DRM, but in retrospect it's clear most of Apple's paying customers, and even most Slashdotters, find those restrictions rather reasonable.

      Most slashdotters are willing to accept the DRM because they realize it was forced upon Apple (or so we thought anyway) by the RIAA, and that Apple went with the least amount of DRM possible. No-one but Apple is forcing Apple to include DRM in it's MacOS. So they aren't the victim here.

    2. Re:Could be "(relatively) benign copy protection" by weileong · · Score: 1

      *putting tinfoil hat on*

      One of the reasons for the prevalence of Windows was piracy. MS execs have been quoted on record as saying things like how they'd prefer pirated MS software to be used rather than competitors' software - because that prevents any competitor from getting strong enough to ever challenge MS. They can always come in and squeeze for more money later (as is the case now w.r.t. XP activation).

      MS, having taken advantag of this, is clearly very aware as to whether anyone else is going to try it on them. Hence, their *very* disproportionate response when some Japanese OEM wanted to bundle BeOS with their PCs, and when J L Gassee offered BeOS *free* to any OEM who wanted to adopt it. MS wouldn't let it - they wouldn't even risk anyone getting a toehold in the field.

      Consider MacOS.

      It was never really a problem when it only ran on PPC. But now it's coming on to x86, it can become an alternative. To Windows. Whether or not users pay money for it or not, MS does NOT want any other OS out there. FreeBSD was - no offence intended, but this is the truth w.r.t. desktop penetration - a sideshow, Linux's model is too strong to challenge (but they're doing it anyway) and they're throwing in whatever spanners they can to slow it down.

      But MS has leverage on Apple.

      Office.

      Apple must know that - perhaps not yet, perhaps never - they are NOT ready to "take on" MS in the OS field. And they need Office. If MS Office did not exist for MacOS - forget the alternative word processors, spreadsheets, etc. - Apple will take the kind of hit that may well literally force them into becoming a consumer electronics company for real, and sell only iPods. The iPod is a hit but it's not yet the majority of Apple's revenues.

      An easily piratable Mac OS, leaving aside the loss in revenues (which is debatable - are the kind of people who are willing to pay for a Mac *really* going to go buy a fugly Dell and install OS X on it?), is offensive to MS to a lethal (lethal to Apple!) degree.

      Hence - non-piratable OS X.

      It will be very interesting to see the extent of the DRM protection. E.g., if it becomes clear that the DRM prevents OS X from running on non-Apple hardware, but NOT multiple Apple machines (i.e. there's no enforcement to test/check that "one licensed copy of OS X per Mac" vs. someone being able to buy a non-"family pack" OS X and installing it onto as many Mac Intels as he/she likes), then it looks like evidence this is a "let's not piss off Microsoft" move to me.

  29. DRM by lemist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now it all makes sense. The switch from IBM to Intel has nothing to do with speed, heat, or anything else anyone has suspected. It's control. Apple (and the RIAA) knows that it basically has a monopoly of the online music business and that people accept FairPlay as a DRM method. Most people think that Apple, much like Google, can do no harm and people won't revolt or get angry over extensive use of restrictive technology. The next move into consumer entertainment, as many suspect, is online movie distribution. Apple got it "right" with music, so why not with movies?

    The move to Intel is all about controlling consumers. And don't label me as paranoid. This is a strategically advantageous move. Apple knows that if they can get the movie industry to trust Apple and only allow online distribution through Apple's online store then Apple will have something others dont. If the rumors are false, and Apple lets the next OS run on all PC hardware, anyone who wants to get the highest quality movies (H.264, anyone?) must buy the Intel Mac OS or Apple hardware.

    This move makes sense for both companies. Microsoft, despite its "evil nature," will not lock out the huge customer base who don't want DRM'd processors. Apple, on the other hand, has no problem doing this - after all, Apple likes to be "exclusive." And if they're launching a new OS anyway, why not start it off this way?

    Again, I'm not trying to be paranoid, I just think that this development really brings a new understanding to the switch from IBM to Intel.

    --
    "Anything that's invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things" - Douglas Adams
    1. Re:DRM by TheSpoom · · Score: 1

      I would mod you up if I had the points. Very believeable theory...

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
    2. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Apple is concerned about being left behind in a TCPA world, as IBM didn't plan on implementing it I don't think.

    3. Re:DRM by wwahammy · · Score: 1

      I'm not seeing what advantage they get by doing this. They have to rewrite a ton of software and cause incompatibilities/performance degredation for their native software. Why couldn't they just use Palladium or something similar on the PowerPC platform?

    4. Re:DRM by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      I think there's merit to this theory -- A few years ago, Microsoft seemed to be shitting bricks over a potential AOL/TimeWarner or Sony closed media box. (In fact that was the main conspiracy theory explaining the XBox.)

      Movie Executives (a group which Steve Jobs is a member of) are always harping on how "insecure" the PC platform is. This puts MS and Intel in a position of appeasement, where they invent bullshit technologies like encrypted monitor cables so that Hollywood will grace them with HD-DVD software.

      Positioning the Mac as a "secure PC" could be a huge tactical advantage for Apple. But ultimately a temporary one, because Apple is relying on commodity parts that were originally designed for the WinTel market.

      The move to Intel is all about controlling consumers.

      Well, Apple has always had a very firm grip on it's userbase. The move to Intel is more about the future economics of PC hardware (remember Bill Gates' free PC prediction?), because Apple had every bit of control needed on PowerPC.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    5. Re:DRM by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      Most people think that Apple, much like Google, can do no harm and people won't revolt or get angry over extensive use of restrictive technology.

      Actually, I would hazard a guess that most people think nothing of the sort. Sure, most people here think that, but the slashdot readership is a small fraction of the total computer using public, and most people simply don't think about that sort of thing.

    6. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Score:5, Non Sequitur

    7. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, they switched because IMB couldn't supply the speed increases they wanted and the DRM is to make sure OS X only works on Apple hardware.

    8. Re:DRM by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      I beleive that Apples' move to x86 happened because a number of different reasons, all of them debatable. What's important is that, once they decided to do the switch, they chose the x86 implementation that suit them best.
          In that context, you can bet that Intel having a DRM roadmap clearly laid out (and already unveiling, back to the hatred CPUID incident which still exists on Pentium CPUs), was a major point in favor of Intel on Apples' eyes.

          I never bought that AMDs' lower production capabilities were the reason Apple chose Intel. See, it doesn't matter if AMD offers better performing CPUs, with better technology, or with lower power consumption. Hell, it doesn't even matter if they're cheaper. What matters is that Intel makes easier for Apple to lock down the software to their hardware and, as you said, move DRM to a hardware level. This is essential for Apple, whose primary buissnes was always selling computers as a whole; a tightly integrated hardware/software solution for people who want their systems to just work. You can say anything about Apple, but even Apple haters agree that when you buy an Apple computer, it works. No hassles, no configuration nightmares, etc. They don't want OSX to become the new Windows. Controlling media with hardware DRM is just the cherry on top.

    9. Re:DRM by i_should_be_working · · Score: 1

      This guy has similar views. Both sound plausible.

    10. Re:DRM by Ibanez · · Score: 1

      You know what they say about assumptions, right?

      There is hardly enough supporting evidence. Are you planning on replacing Cringley when he retires?

      Do you REALLY think that that is the only reason?

      Blake

    11. Re:DRM by Okonomiyaki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That theory has been kicked around a little already and it seems to make sense on the surface but it ignores no less than three very important points.

      1) Installed base. If Apple intends to promote a movie download service that only runs on Macintels, it's going to flop big time and worse than just flopping, it's going to really piss off people who bought PPC hardware in the past couple of years.

      2) Transion time frame. Apple will begin the transition to Intel next year but it won't be selling Intel boxes exclusively until 2007. That means the announcement of a service that requires an Intel box would have to wait until then or risk killing hardware sales. Somebody else will be doing it before that.

      3) iTMS model? Assuming they intend to follow the same model with their movie store, where selling movies is really just a way to move a different product (video iPod, set-top box, etc), they'll want to sell movies to Windows users as well as Mac users just as they do with music now. They'll also need to allow users to move their purchased movies to another device which may or may not contain the same DRM.

      Anyway, they don't need hardware DRM to open a movie store. They have a perfectly good software based DRM for music so something similar should be enough to make the movie industry happy.

    12. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A movie isn't music. There's a huge difference between loading a pod up with music files and playing them over those crappy earbuds than loading up on movies and watching them. Unless the media file is tied to a computer and some output from it to a moderately sized screen whats the point of paying for it, d/ling it and watching a locked file instead of just buying/ripping a dvd? The only thing apple got right with itunes was selling lower quality sounding files to the idiot masses because mp3's were all the rage but "illegal" based on what the media was saying. No joe user you don't want those "illegal" files buy ours! Look at those self important people who use our ipod, don't you want to be cool like them??

    13. Re:DRM by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The switch from IBM to Intel has nothing to do with speed, heat, or anything else anyone has suspected. It's control.

      Nonsense. Apple was leaving billions a year on the table because IBM wasn't supplying the parts that Apple needed. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to add hardware DRM to the PPC or to an Apple motherboard than it is to shift the entire product line a different processor.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    14. Re:DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What in the world makes people like you think Apple couldn't have gotten all the DRM it wanted on PowerPC? I'm sorry, but this kind of "analysis" is just incredibly dumb. If Apple wanted DRM hardware, IBM would be happy to toss it in. It wouldn't be hard for them to do.

      The most likely reason for this is just what it appears to be: a way for preventing Intel OS X from running on anything but Apple hardware. We'll see if Apple ends up adopting everything that would make the movie industry happy -- but no matter what they do along those lines, it has nothing (NOTHING!) to do with the reasons for the switch to Intel.

    15. Re:DRM by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny
      And don't label me as paranoid.

      Don't fear. The moderation "-1 Paranoid" has not yet been implemented on Slashdot.
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    16. Re:DRM by bhalo05 · · Score: 1

      Don't fear. The moderation "-1 Paranoid" has not yet been implemented on Slashdot.

      Actually, some would argue "+1 Paranoid" would be more adequate.

    17. Re:DRM by 33degrees · · Score: 1
      1) Installed base. If Apple intends to promote a movie download service that only runs on Macintels, it's going to flop big time and worse than just flopping, it's going to really piss off people who bought PPC hardware in the past couple of years.
      Indeed; given the installed base of PPC macs (which is going to be around for a long time), apple would be shooting themselves in the foot if they rolled out any kind of functionality that required TCM. To me, it's pretty clear this has been put into place to prevent developers from leaking OSX for intel, and as such may not even need to be in the final product if apple finds other ways of locking the OS to their systems.
    18. Re:DRM by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
      Actually, some would argue "+1 Paranoid" would be more adequate.

      And still others would argue for "+1-1 Paranoid". This system will benefit all users equally, as the mods will get confused and thus waste their points.

      Or, even better, it could evaluate the bonus based on other rankings. For instance, if the post has a "funny" "troll" or "flambait" moderation, the points would count positive. "Insightful" & "Interesting" would mod down.

    19. Re:DRM by cosmic_0x526179 · · Score: 1
      Apple (and the RIAA) knows that it basically has a monopoly of the online music business and that people accept FairPlay as a DRM method.

      Something to remember in all of this is that the paradigm between the iPod and iTMS could evolve into a paradigm that we now experience between inkjet printers and ink carts. Eventually the iPod (which is currently perceived as the costlier of the pair) will end up being (almost) a throwaway. Inkjet printers started out expensive (much more so than the carts). Now they are almost give-aways to lock you into that manufacturers carts. I think the music devices are heading that way. When it happens, Apple will license FairPlay (the player side of it) to other companies on a royalty basis and continue to rake in the cash from the iTMS downloads.

      --
      This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
    20. Re:DRM by Okonomiyaki · · Score: 1

      You don't get it. If I buy a song from the iTMS, I can play that song on my desktop, my laptop, my iPod, my home stereo via airport express, or anything that can read a CD-R. If I buy a movie, I should be able to watch it on my desktop (moderately sized screen), my laptop (a little smaller), my video iPod (small screen? coming soon?), my TV (various sizes available at an electronics store near you) via airport express++ (coming soon?), or anything that can read a DVD-R.

      You can quote Saint Jobs all you want regarding the small screen but when it's just one of many choices, or when the iPod is just a way to transport a video file from your computer to any TV, the point becomes moot.

    21. Re:DRM by jZnat · · Score: 1

      No, but the "+1 Tinfoil Hat" is in alpha testing right now.

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    22. Re:DRM by feijai · · Score: 1

      I think the grandparent is partly right, and jcr (and Felton) is partly wrong. Hollywood may be settling on Intel's DRM scheme, and Apple wants to make sure it doesn't get left in the cold. That is undoubtedly a major factor in the switch.

  30. Not to be an Apple apologist... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 0, Redundant
    I'm not trying to apologize on behalf of Apple or anything, and this move is making me think a bit harder about what I'm going to do when I need a new computer in the next year or two.

    However, Baricom said:

    My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.
    Well...if you think about it, they never really needed DRM for their OS before. Basically, using PPC was their DRM. Now, they kind of have to do it, don't they? Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor and that will cannibalize Apple's hardware sales.

    Like I said, I'm not being an apologist...just explaining their reasons.

    Like I said, this move might cause me to reconsider my choices for my next computer. Part of it will depend on whether or not the DRM gets in the way of things any more than running on PPC gets in the way of things (which for me, it doesn't).

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
    1. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by Evil+Adrian · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Well...if you think about it, they never really needed DRM for their OS before. Basically, using PPC was their DRM. Now, they kind of have to do it, don't they? Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor and that will cannibalize Apple's hardware sales.

      Most people on this site feel that protecting your profits is unreasonable and immoral, if you haven't noticed...

      --
      evil adrian
    2. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by name773 · · Score: 1

      "Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor"

      that would rock. imagine how overpriced that hardware must be for apple to refuse the added sales this could bring

      or for all you conspiracy theorists, maybe apple is bending to microsoft's desire for less competition in some shady sort of back-handed deal

    3. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by vought · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Well...if you think about it, they never really needed DRM for their OS before. Basically, using PPC was their DRM. Now, they kind of have to do it, don't they? Otherwise someone will hack OS X to work on any machine with an Intel processor and that will cannibalize Apple's hardware sales.

      There are other reasons for using the TPM. I'm sure someone with a vivid imagination will come up with more reasons, but here are a couple I came up with when I read the article title:

      • As mentioned, OS X for Intel could concievably be modified to run on commodity hardware, denying Apple deserved money for the software and hardware income streams of their business. The TPM helps them avoid piracy.
      • You could concieveably use any licensed media on any TPM-equipped Mac simply by signing into your account.
      • An added layer of defense against viruses and malware.
      • Enforcing iWork and Final Cut/Logic/etc. licenses while adding some easy machine-to-machine portability to those same products.

      I don't think Apple is overly agressive when it comes to licensing and DRM. If anything, they'll likely follow their tradition of using products like this to not only render accesible new content, but to provide new features.

      As with USB, Apple is employing a new technology that will cause some disruption to be sure, but it'll also help to overcome the inertia that comes with the commodity PC/Windows market.

      People who scream about the DRM sky falling are being shortsighted. The TPM provides for much more than copyright enforcement - it also provides a way to avoid entering serial numbers, inadvertent per-CPU licensing transgression, and could make finding stolen products easier.

    4. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by deaddrunk · · Score: 1

      What would happen to Mac Office do you think if Apple dared to try such a thing?

      --
      Does a Christian soccer team even need a goalkeeper?
    5. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      What would happen to Mac Office do you think if Apple dared to try such a thing?

      It would make Microsoft a lot of money.

    6. Re:Not to be an Apple apologist... by deaddrunk · · Score: 1

      It would also lose Micrsoft a lot of money through not having a lock on the platform. If they let Apple get away with it then others will dare.

      --
      Does a Christian soccer team even need a goalkeeper?
  31. Note to Steve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Note to Steve.

    I am coming over to kick your ass!

    ~ Woz

    1. Re:Note to Steve by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

      I imagine the Woz would be deeply disappointed by all this TCPA/TPM DRM nonsense.

      Has anyone interviewed him about it yet?

  32. Before you freak out... by Y-Crate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, what did anyone expect?

    Apple does not want OS X installed on every generic PC out there. If Mac sales die tomorrow, Apple and OS X go with it. And no, they wouldn't open all the source after the liquidation and you would be stuck with Linux and Windows on the desktop. With both options being crap (for differing reasons).

    I would absolutely love for OS X to be sold for any machine with an Intel or AMD chip inside, but it's just not going to happen because Apple is not positioned to do so and survive.

    Fortunately, Apple has never even hinted at taking a route other than having OS X run on their machines and their machines only. Any disappointment should be tempered with the knowledge that they have had their cards on the table on this for some time. I don't think there was any question of another outcome.

    Apple is not screwing anyone over, they are just continuing what they have done for the past 21 years (even the brief period of Mac clones only involved the OS running on approved hardware).

    Perhaps things will change sometime down the road with Apple making further inroads into consumer electronics and successfully diversifying their business. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. The seamless integration between hardware and software is at the very core of the Mac experience.

    It's unfortunate that OS X is going to stay on one set of hardware, but it is just the way it has to be for the time being.

    1. Re:Before you freak out... by Jestrzcap · · Score: 1

      I probably just dont understand the business well enough but if Apple could sell 5 million copies of OS X for (generic) Intel system, why wouldnt they? Is -all- of their money made off of the hardware? How does selling lots of copies of OS X equal Apple losing money? I'm not saying you're wrong, but please clairify, I'm genuinely interested.

      --
      "I have great faith in fools: Self confidence my friends call it." ~Edgar Allan Poe
    2. Re:Before you freak out... by Y-Crate · · Score: 1

      If Apple sold 5 million copies of OS X, it might help alleviate the shock of losing their desktop hardware business entirely.

      The fact of the matter is however, the odds are that they would not reach the critical mass in OS X sales to offset the losses incurred by the termination of the desktop hardware division in a timely enough fashion to stem their losses in any appreciable way.

      Building marketshare is not one of the easier tasks a company can attempt. It takes time and effort. Despite the pent-up demand in the techie community for a vendor-independant version of OS X, the unwashed masses could not be expected to adopt the new operating system in large enough numbers within a time frame that would avoid Apple burning through its savings on the chance that they would survive in the end.

      Rapid, widespread adoption would help, but they can't count on it happening. They've got a good thing going right now, and the importance of the hardware/software integration factor to the Mac community at large, cannot be over-stressed.

      I'm hopelessly exhausted, but I hope that made sense and helped clarify things somewhat.

    3. Re:Before you freak out... by Senjutsu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I probably just dont understand the business well enough but if Apple could sell 5 million copies of OS X for (generic) Intel system, why wouldnt they? Is -all- of their money made off of the hardware?

      The vast bulk of it. 80-90% if I recall correctly.

      How does selling lots of copies of OS X equal Apple losing money?

      You're assuming they'd sell lots of copies. That's a big assumption. Certainly their current level of OS license sales couldn't sustain the company, so even if we assume that everyone who uses OS X now were to buy a copy of "Generic Intel OS X", they'd need to expand their sales share significantly.

      What the "Why don't they just sell it for generic boxes like Microsoft does and make $$$" crowd forgets is that Microsoft doesn't actually make a lot of money off of people walking in to Circuit City and buying a box copy of Windows. The vast majority of people view installing an OS as being more complicated than building a rocket ship from scratch using only a stick of gum and some 2x4's; the hobbyist market who is comfortable with this sort of thing isn't big enough to sustain a company of any significant size.

      No, the real money is in OEM licensing to large volume hardware manufacturers. If Apple sold OS X for generic Intels, everyone would be able to undercut them on hardware prices, so forget about that business. And the walk-in market isn't nearly big enough to sustain them. So unless they could secure a number of OEM deals with the Dells and HPs of the world, they'd be bankrupt within the year. And Microsoft has historically done everything in their power to prevent even insignificant companies like Be from getting their OS shipping pre-installed from the OEM. You'd better believe they'd pull out all the stops to keep Apple out of that market.

    4. Re:Before you freak out... by Jestrzcap · · Score: 1

      Follow-up question?

      So they wouldn't be able to charge as much for hardware as they do currently. Any reason why they couldn't lower their prices and be another Dell, but with a different OS (and hardware really)? Does the hardware cost them more than Dell's hardware (since it is made specifically for Apple, I could understand the answer to this being yes).

      --
      "I have great faith in fools: Self confidence my friends call it." ~Edgar Allan Poe
    5. Re:Before you freak out... by tmasky · · Score: 1

      Adding onto parent..

      Would Apple actually have the resources and drive to get decent hardware support for non-Apple gear?

      Is this possibly a simple resource issue for Apple?

    6. Re:Before you freak out... by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      The math for the situation is fairly simple. Apple makes a nice profit on their hardware, on average a few hundred dollars. Let's say the average price of a Mac is $1700 and the average margin is 25%. In the case Apple makes about $425 in profit per machine. Selling a million machines in a quarter would mean they make about $425m in profit.

      Now assume they stop selling Macs and only sell the OS. Let's assume they sell it for the $129 they currently do and have a 50% margin on it. That is roughly $65 per copy of the OS sold. That is almost a seventh of the profit from their hardware sales. Now you could argue that more people would buy the OS alone if they could run it on any old PC so they could make up for the loss of hardware revenue. Their costs would increase for OS development however since they would need to support every bit of crap hardware under the sun. If they didn't no one would bother buying the OS.

      A second problem is the one of piracy. Why buy OSX when it is a torrent site away? Microsoft has managed to survive mass piracy of Windows out of sheer sales volume. Windows ships on millions of PCs every quarter, and is likely looking at a single pirated copy per 20 OEM copies of the OS sold. Even a $25 OEM copy of Windows makes Microsoft some money, it even saves them money as most OEM contracts put the onus of support on the head of the OEM and not Microsoft.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    7. Re:Before you freak out... by joib · · Score: 1

      Now that they're switching to x86 I guess that they would be able to produce hardware at more competetive prices. Not as cheap as Dell, since Dell is a very streamlined operation which sells huge numbers at small margins; every step of the chain is incredibly lean. No way Apple can match that.

      But I don't think they need to match it either. Apple customers pay for the sleek design and hardware that just works, no crappy chips with even crappier drivers etc. By controlling the hardware (and having some sort of official Apple approved peripherals list) they can give their users the same experience that they have given so far on powerpc, but slightly cheaper due to x86 economics. This way they can also sell at slighly higher margins than Dell.

    8. Re:Before you freak out... by Senjutsu · · Score: 1

      Dell sells more volume than Apple, so in the short term at least they'd have a pricing advantage thanks to that. Additionally, Apple's distinguishing hardware feature is their industrial design, which costs quite a bit more than pumping out variations on the generic beige tower design. Both of these factors, together with the razor thin profit margins that the Dells and e-Machines and what not sell at, guarantee that Apple's hardware prices are higher than the competitions.

      Couple that with the fact that as long as their hardware costs more, the die-hard OS X fans will prefer to buy a cheap box and install their own, the fact that the masses will stick with the cheap thing they know rather than the expensive thing they don't, and the vastly increased costs Apple faces in trying to pump out drivers for ever random hardware device on the planet that a purchaser of Generic Intel OS X might want to use it with, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

    9. Re:Before you freak out... by Coryoth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So unless they could secure a number of OEM deals with the Dells and HPs of the world, they'd be bankrupt within the year.

      HP was selling HP iPods there for a while (stopped recently - it was dumb idea), but obviously Apple is willing to license other vendors to sell stuff... so while you might not see OS X whitebox edition, you might see HP featuring MacOS X. There may be a few laptop vendors like Toshiba interested as well. I have a feeling Dell is too cosy in their arrangements to do any such thing.

      The point is that Apple doesn't have to release OS X into the wold for us to see OS X on non-Apple hardware: they just have to hammer out license deals with other vendors. Presumably any such deal would involve said vendor being responsible for support. I doubt HP or Toshiba could significantly undercut Apple on hardware, especially if Apple has control over the license agreement on how the vendor gets to use OS X.

      I'm not sure this is really likely, but it is definitely possible. It would be interesting to kno who Apple is having talks with...

      Jedidiah.

    10. Re:Before you freak out... by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      "No, the real money is in OEM licensing to large volume hardware manufacturers."

      Funny that, isn't it.

      Like the old salesman's adage: 'Sell to the classes, live with the masses. Sell to the masses, live with the classes'.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    11. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Now assume they stop selling Macs and only sell the OS. Let's assume they sell it for the $129 they currently do and have a 50% margin on it. That is roughly $65 per copy of the OS sold.

      I'm sorry, did you just say the incremental cost per copy of a piece of software was $65?

      Obviously nobody here can listen to you anymore, because you've just proved that you're complete fucking moron. Honestly, when you have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about, can't you just shut the fuck up? What defect in your brain makes you insist on mouthing off?

    12. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I'm sorry, did you just say the incremental cost per copy of a piece of software was $65?

      I can think of examples that support what Graymalkin was saying. Perhaps your experience in this field is too limited to make an intelligent assessment.

      What defect in your brain makes you insist on mouthing off?

      Clearly a question you can answer yourself.

    13. Re:Before you freak out... by syousef · · Score: 1

      Apple is not screwing anyone over, they are just continuing what they have done for the past 21 years

      You just contradicted yourself.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    14. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they sell the OS for $129, I would expect that they are making about $128.80 profit on each unit sold. Assuming it comes on two discs.

    15. Re:Before you freak out... by laurieknight · · Score: 1

      The real point is, OSX IS going to end up on thousands of PCs. The only question is, will Apple take license fees for all of those copies or are they going to force people to get pirate versions?

    16. Re:Before you freak out... by eclectic4 · · Score: 1

      "How does selling lots of copies of OS X equal Apple losing money?

      You're assuming they'd sell lots of copies. That's a big assumption."

      And let's not forget, a large part of OS X's attractiveness (outside os its useability) is it's seamless hardware coupling since Apple designs and supports it. It's a total solution. Once OS X is being run on Bob's homemade machines, it's less attractive, Apple won't support the hardware, and Apple's #1 philosophical edge (total solution, control over all aspects from software to hardware in all of it's products) is gone.

      Nope, never going to happen. Ever. It's what makes Apple Apple, and no one should want that to be different.

      --

      "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
    17. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so why don't they just not sell bulk orders to wholesalers and only offer the OS as retail through their stores? people are still not going to want to build their own PCs and they'll come to Apple to get a 'Mac' just as before. your argument doesn't hold water because it gives its own solution.

    18. Re:Before you freak out... by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Try this analogy:

      Apple sells a Mac, on average, for $1k
      Apple has something like a 27% profit margin, or $270 per Mac

      If Apple were to sell a boxed copy of OS X, at $129, and get a 40% margin of $52, they'd need to sell 6 times as many copies to 'break even', every year. Or put succintly, if they have 4% market share now, they'd have to have 25% marketshare overnight to make any money on OS X (over selling Macs).

      Now compare to Dell. Take the same $270 per Mac. Let's assume Dell sells an average PC of $1k as well; but according to Motley Fool, they have a profit margin of 6%, or $60 per machine. If Apple wanted to match Dell, guess what?

      They'd need 5x as much marketshare again, or about 25%... and guess what marketshare Dell has? Yeah, something like 20% to 25%. Apple doesn't exactly have some magic button to get overnight marketshare. They have to work their way, gradually, and they have to make a profit doing it.

    19. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Oh my, I would so like to use OS X, but it isn't worth spending $500 to buy a Mac. They're forcing me to pirate it instead!

      Ok, ok, we'll sell OS X for generic PCs.

      Oh my, I would so like to use OS X, but the $129 they're asking for it is just absurd. They're forcing me to pirate it instead!

      There isn't much profit in trying to sell to thieves and cheapskates.

    20. Re:Before you freak out... by laurieknight · · Score: 1

      You didn't understand my point. There are thousands of people out there who would be /quite happy/ to splash out £75 for a copy of OSX to multi-boot their home PCs. I am one of those people. Most of those people will not splash out £1000 for a new PC for that purpose. I am one of those people. Many of those thousands of people /will/ download a pirate copy of OSX and Apple will lose those sales. I am probably one of those people. If Apple give me two choices; Pay £1000 for a new machine and get OSX Don't even try OSX and hackers give me a third option; get free OSX and run it on your existing hardware What am I going to chose? There really should be a fourth choice, apple should sell me a copy of OSX that I can install on my home PC. If they don't they have no-one to blame but themselves for that lost sale. Its a little like the RIAA giving me the 'choice' of buying a 'non CD' with DRM that stops me ripping music I've payed for to MP3 so I can use it on my MP3 player and play it on my PC. The alternative choice is not having the music I want. P2P gives me the choice of downloading an MP3 of the music I want, which I can then use as I want. All the time legitimate ways of doing things are made harder than illegitimate ways of doing things, then people will do things the bad way! :) If you think this is wrong then see what you can do to change basic human nature, you'll be fighting against a couple of millenia of evolution!!

    21. Re:Before you freak out... by Jord · · Score: 1

      If only I had not used up my mod points yesterday...

      Hopefully someone else will see this post and mod it up appropriately.

    22. Re:Before you freak out... by lp-habu · · Score: 1

      You have no natural right to what you want. Sorry. You don't have it and you never will.

    23. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah. So they've found programmers, graphic designers, etc. who will work for free. Tell me, where do I get these?*

      *No, F/OSS isn't the answer. How many developers have some other job to pay the bills? Yeah, I thought as much...

    24. Re:Before you freak out... by amichalo · · Score: 1

      is -all- their money made off of the hardware?

      The vast bulk of it. 80-90% if I recall correctly.

      Please check your facts.

      You will see that the last quarter, Apple earned $1.565B on desktops and portables, $1.103B on iPods, $345M on software, $266M on other HW, and $241M on music.

      I will leave it as an exercise to you to review the 10-k filings and apply the gross margins for each category to the earnings to answer the question "Is -all- of their money made off of the hardware?", but those calculations are not required to see that it is not 80-90%.

      --
      I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
    25. Re:Before you freak out... by shrubya · · Score: 1

      those calculations are not required to see that it is not 80-90%

      Umm... according to YOUR facts, Apple earns $2924M from hardware (Macs, iPods, periphs) and $586M from software (OS, Apps, iTMS).

      2924 / (2924+586) = 83.30%

      Alternately, if we skip iMusic to focus on Mac sales:

      1565 / (1565+345) = 81.94%

      Also, dunno about OSX, but the margins on Macs & iPods are definitely better than the margins on iTMS.

      Whatever way you look, Apple is a hardware company.

    26. Re:Before you freak out... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      Does Dell actually research or design any of their own hardware? Do they design or research their own OS?

      What many people fail to notice is that the hardware sales subsidize the development of the OS and the hardware design.

      Just because the development machines are pretty generic, don't assume that the shipping machines won't include all sorts of nice features that you would have to pay extra for after market on other PCs.

      Dell spends the majority of their R&D budget on cost cutting measures.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    27. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      quote: "I would absolutely love for OS X to be sold for any machine with an Intel or AMD chip inside, but it's just not going to happen because Apple is not positioned to do so and survive."

      Apple is making more from a single OSX sale then a MacMini with the same OSX on it. I realy hope HP or DELL clones are in the works but only if they sell a complete OSX line and not just OSX as 'n option.

      mvg
      Bonte

    28. Re:Before you freak out... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      What you don't understand is that Apple is not interested in being in the software business. They are a hardware company which creates software to provided added value to the product they sell.

      Here is another option, wait until you have to upgrade your machine and buy an intel mac and run any OS you want on it.

      DYI's can go to hell as far as I'm concerned because they literally ruined the PC industry by sucking all of the R&D money out of the business leaving us with an endless sea of clones.

      You are a hardware head and I'm interested in software and don't give a fuck about hardware as long as it runs the software I want to use.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    29. Re:Before you freak out... by Jerry+Coffin · · Score: 1
      ...talking about Apple:
      Is -all- of their money made off of the hardware?

      Pretty close. From their most recent 10Q, their sales numbers are (in millions of US dollars):

      Macintosh 1494 iPod 1014 peripherals and other hardware 280 Software 134

      I've skipped a few irrelevant categories like services. Software currently accounts for just over 8 1/2% of Apple's overall sales. These are quarterly, not annual, numbers. There are undoubtedly seasonal variations that don't show here, but I wouldn't expect software to do a lot better at other times of the year (rather the contrary -- in percentage terms, I'd expect that near holidays, nearly everything else loses percentage to the iPod).

      --
      The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

      --
      The universe is a figment of its own imagination.
    30. Re:Before you freak out... by toddestan · · Score: 1

      DYI's can go to hell as far as I'm concerned because they literally ruined the PC industry by sucking all of the R&D money out of the business leaving us with an endless sea of clones.

      You are a hardware head and I'm interested in software and don't give a fuck about hardware as long as it runs the software I want to use.


      Well, if you don't care about hardware then I would think you would like the endless sea of clones. Sure, they may be boring, but they are cheap and fast.

    31. Re:Before you freak out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      those calculations are not required to see that it is not 80-90%

      2924 / (2924+586) = 83.30%


      I'm sorry, I have to do it...

      POwNED!!111oneoneone

    32. Re:Before you freak out... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      "Well, if you don't care about hardware then I would think you would like the endless sea of clones. Sure, they may be boring, but they are cheap and fast."

      In my experience, cheap and "good" do not usually go together.

      I'm not all about the hardware in a DIY-sense but I am interested in innovation which is completely absent in your "sea of clones" scenario. Funny how selling a bag of horseshit really cheap does not make it smell any better eh? Some people are driven by price whereas others are driven by the value proposition of a product. I care about quality of hardware in that it assures that I don't have to worry about the hardware because it "just works".

      I think you also missed the point that the hardware sales are what keep the price of OS X down from what it would have been if they did not sell hardware.

      Do you remember the last days of NeXT? Do you remember how much a copy of NeXTStep cost for Intel?

      Maybe you should think out side of your "box" and consider the business implications and how a company is supposed to survive by giving their technology away.

      If Apple could obtain 10% or more of marketshare "and" piracy of software dissapeared, then perhaps your dream could come true. Unfortunately, the OS pirates have brought this upon us all.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    33. Re:Before you freak out... by SleepyHappyDoc · · Score: 1

      No, the real money is in OEM licensing to large volume hardware manufacturers. If Apple sold OS X for generic Intels, everyone would be able to undercut them on hardware prices, so forget about that business. And the walk-in market isn't nearly big enough to sustain them. So unless they could secure a number of OEM deals with the Dells and HPs of the world, they'd be bankrupt within the year. And Microsoft has historically done everything in their power to prevent even insignificant companies like Be from getting their OS shipping pre-installed from the OEM. You'd better believe they'd pull out all the stops to keep Apple out of that market.

      All depends on your point of view. If Apple develops some killer app for Mac OS only (iFlicks would be my guess, if it was sufficiently compelling, perhaps incorporated PVR functionality like XP Media Centre, or maybe something else we haven't even thought of), and enough people come yanging to Dell wanting Mac OS preinstalled on their new Dell, Dell would certainly explore the option of licensing Mac OS. Enough people asked for Red Hat on Dell servers, and now it's an option. I doubt anti-trust officials would look kindly on Microsoft punishing a major OEM for shipping another OS, anyways.

      But, my point is, if there's a killer app that customers want enough, they'll buy Mac. If I was really devious, I would think of this as a long term plan for Apple to get out of the hardware business, sticking to iPods, iMoviewatcherthingies, maybe some Mac Minis, Mac OS for generic hardware, and media delivery. Given the general animosity towards Microsoft in a lot of places, their own monopoly position restraining them, and Apple's already considerable desktop OS experience (longer than Microsoft's), they could be a serious competitor in ten to fifteen years.

      --
      Stasis is death. Embrace change.
    34. Re:Before you freak out... by Logger · · Score: 1

      There are thousands of people out there who would be /quite happy/ to splash out £75 for a copy of OSX to multi-boot their home PCs.

      Ok. How many thousands? Tens of thousands? (maybe) Hundreds of thousands? (very unlikely)

      Let's take the high estimate: 99,999
      Revenue: 99,999 * $130 = $12,999,870

      What would the cost of that $13M be? Odds are, not a single one of those computers would work out-of-the-box with what will be the released version.

      As is, OS X is missing necessary plug 'n play discovery software. Remember they are on a controlled platform. Implementing plug 'n play to work properly is much easier there. Now they are in the wild. The OS will be running on untested hardware.

      Let's swag some variables

      Cost of an engineer (Apple's cost not what the engineer takes home): $350,000/yr

      1) They will have to develop more sophisticated plug 'n play detection software.

      3 engineers (maybe more) * 1 yr * $350k = $1.05M

      2) They will have to develop many more drivers

      15 engineers (definitely a lot more) * 1 yr * $350k = $5.25M

      3) Pray that they get 3rd Party hardware companies to deliver more drivers

      2 marketing dudes * 1yr * $350k = $700K

      4) Do tons more regression testing to verify that the OS works in a uncountable number of configurations.

      6 engineers * 1yr * $350k =~ $2.1M

      That $13M cost them $9.1M, for a profit of $4 million. That assumes high sales and low costs. Those number would likely be not so favorable, so that $4 million positive could easily go negative.

      That does not take into account any potential loss this would have to existing Mac hardware sales. It could devistate them, even turning $4 million in the positive into a huge, huge negative.

      That is a MEGATON of risk, with a micro-prospect of reward.

      Per another post I saw. Under the right circumstances, as Apple, I would consider licensing the OS. But I would never release it into the wild.

  33. EVIL! by piecewise · · Score: 1

    wait. this means i won't be able to break the license that comes with the OS to do stuff i wanna do? unconstitutional!

    --
    The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
    1. Re:EVIL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      apple user, right?

      "But steve said it's ok and steve wouldn't lie!"

      welcome to the pc world where changing things has made it what it is. Now go play with your overpriced shiny box.

  34. Join the rebellion! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Don't just test the waters, download the Windows 2000 source floating around P2P networks now!

    1. Re:Join the rebellion! by Magic5Ball · · Score: 1

      Even if you could get the incomplete source to compile without the important missing bits, it would soon become obsolete as it won't have any kind of support for new hardware.

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    2. Re:Join the rebellion! by Paul+Freedman · · Score: 1

      Read the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8: To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries --- In principle you don't own it just because you can google it.

    3. Re:Join the rebellion! by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

      For all practical purposes: If I have it on my harddrive, given that THEY (from the tinfoil hat chapter) don't know about it and I can manipulate it, then I own it.

      Not that I really need anything that is not Free Software.

      --
      # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
  35. Time to ditch Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn Micro$hit! Time to ditch Apple.

    1. Re:Time to ditch Apple by pentalive · · Score: 1

      Getcha non DRM Macintoshes here!!!

      http://www.sunrem.com/

      obdisclaimer- I don't work for them.

    2. Re:Time to ditch Apple by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      So WTF are you going to replace it with? A machine that only runs MSFT windows and linux instead of one that would run OS X, linux and windows?

      Which one offers more choice?

      Did anyone take away your choice of hardware platform? No, you still have it.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  36. Kernel..I thought it was Darwin ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are apple going to break away from open source then ? Seems pretty dumb.

    I'm already planning to move away from Apple when they go Intel.

  37. MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would, but I just wasted my last mod point on the damned gaming router story. :(

    1. Re:MOD PARENT UP by Durf · · Score: 1

      "Copied from somebody's weblog in 1998" . . . Did this thing originally come from Kottke, or was he copying it too in that post?

    2. Re:MOD PARENT UP by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      I believe that is the original iteration; I could be wrong though....

  38. Not in the kernel by annodomini · · Score: 5, Informative

    The headline states "Mac OS X Intel Kernel Uses DRM". According to TFA, it's Rosetta (the PPC emulator, which isn't written by Apple) that uses DRM, not the kernel of the OS itself: We've discovered that the Rosetta kernel uses TCPA/TPM DRM. Some parts of the GUI like ATSServer are still not native to x86 - meaning that Rosetta is required by the GUI, which in turn requires TPM. In fact, we already know that the kernel doesn't use DRM and can run on any Intel box you want, because it's open source and can be downloaded here. It's the GUI that Apple wants to be locking in to their hardware, not the kernel. I suspect that they probably will make something other than Rosetta check the TCPA chip, but that's not what is going on right now.

  39. Errm...OSX is no walk in the park either by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    if you're coming from M$ Windows. As a matter of fact, I'd say it's not a whole lot easier (if at all) to use than the default "desktop" install of Redhat or Suse Linux. The only advantage you'd have over Linux is the ability to walk into a store and buy shrinkwrapped software and even that's not entirely easy for Mac owners since a lot of stores don't carry Mac titles either.

    1. Re:Errm...OSX is no walk in the park either by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
      The main advantage OS X has is consistency (if you discount Mail.app which is a UI travesty). The same shortcuts work in every application. Drag and drop works everywhere. Everything can export PDFs, and most things can import them.

      You might get something similar on *NIX if you stick to a pure GNOME or pure KDE desktop environment, but most people end up with applications from both. Worse, many Linux distributions give them the same theme, destroying the visual clue to the user that they are going to behave differently.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  40. No need to crack by Ray+Alloc · · Score: 0

    Just format the damn drive, and install Linux on it.

    1. Re:No need to crack by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Oddly enough, even though you're a troll, your post brings up an interesting question: The Darwin kernel is Free Software. According to the headline, the kernel is the part that implements the DRM. Given this, shouldn't it be trivial to get the source code, remove the DRM bits, add some code to lie to programs requesting authorization (i.e., fake the DRM), and go merrily on your way?

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    2. Re:No need to crack by Reivec · · Score: 1

      Darwin is BSD based, thus there is no obligation for apple to share that part of the code. If they need to hide their code to protect "trade secrets" and all that, there is nothing to stop them.

    3. Re:No need to crack by Technician · · Score: 1

      Oddly enough, even though you're a troll, your post brings up an interesting question: The Darwin kernel is Free Software. According to the headline, the kernel is the part that implements the DRM. Given this, shouldn't it be trivial to get the source code, remove the DRM bits, add some code to lie to programs requesting authorization (i.e., fake the DRM), and go merrily on your way?

      Umm sure unless you want to play some DRM content. It's like buying a DVD player with no DRM. All your DRM (encrypted) DVD's no longer play. I guess if you want to be limited to playing just your friends home cam DVD's you'll be fine.

      The DRM is for playing purchased media.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    4. Re:No need to crack by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      but can't you just program the kernel to tell the media player program "yeah, sure the DRM is fine. carry on!"

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    5. Re:No need to crack by Technician · · Score: 1

      but can't you just program the kernel to tell the media player program "yeah, sure the DRM is fine. carry on!"

      Um.. sure unless the key for your copy is in the hardware. It's like the access card on a Dish TV box, a cable box, or the firmware in a DVD player. The media is encrypted and sent. The key is tied up in firmware. Just flipping a bit to tell it to play won't work unless you also have a working decryption program with working keys for the file. On download on demand media, the file will be encrypted using your key hash. Then the file can be played on your machine using your key. It won't play elsewhere because the key for decryption is missing. There is no bit that says it's ok to play. There is the problem with the wrong key can't decrypt the file for playing. That's how DRM works.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    6. Re:No need to crack by foonf · · Score: 1

      This is an interesting idea. I know that for a while people have been using custom kernels built from the free Darwin source to get OS X to run on older pre-G3 PowerMacs, for instance. So at least now it seems to be possible.

      They have probably considered the possibility and taken steps to ensure that using a non-approved kernel image isn't possible.

      --

      "(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
    7. Re:No need to crack by Randseed · · Score: 1
      You should be able to. My understanding is that the chip has a "certified" cryptographic key. Some hash of the software is sent to the chip, played with, and gets an approval. Or some bullshit. (IT should be obvious that I'm not clear on how this works.)

      But I don't need to be. I don't see quite how this is anything more than a stumbling block to supremely piss people off.

      Now, as far as OSX is concerned, I honestly might buy it and try it. Unfortunately, it won't run on any of my Intel hardware. So regardless of whether Apple is mainly in the hardware business or not, they just lost a sale. They're failing to see that they can directly compete with Microsoft ad tap into the huge market of people with x86 PCs.

    8. Re:No need to crack by Jay+Random+the+Other · · Score: 1

      Failing to see? Yeah, it's dead easy to compete directly with Microsoft in the OS business. That's why NextStep put MS out of business, which is why Steve Jobs never went back to Apple, and now owns 40% of the world's wealth.

      (The other 60% belonging mostly to IBM, because if a pipsqueak startup like NeXT can dethrone MS, obviously the biggest, baddest corporation in IT can do even better with OS/2.)

    9. Re:No need to crack by mrchaotica · · Score: 1
      Now, as far as OSX is concerned, I honestly might buy it and try it. Unfortunately, it won't run on any of my Intel hardware.
      I rationalized it by getting an iBook. I needed a new computer, and I woudn't have to feel bad about not being able to upgrade since it was a laptop anyway. Plus, as a Linux user I wouldn't be screwed if I didn't like Mac OS (as opposed to trying to fall back to Windows).

      Anyway, it turns out it was worth buying hardware for -- it's great. In fact, I just had my dad get a new iMac (despite the fact that it's not upgradable). Surely you could scrounge up enough for a Mac Mini, or something?

      Of course, considering this article I might have to switch back to Linux in the future. I sure hope Apple doesn't become more evil than it already is! : /
      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    10. Re:No need to crack by Ray+Alloc · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but in spite of the harrassment I am the object of by /.'s moderators, I am NOT a troll, just someone who speaks his mind.

  41. and just for a few fleeting moments by damonsmith · · Score: 1

    apple were cool.

  42. Im willing to bet... by gcnaddict · · Score: 1

    Im willing to bet that that idea wasnt considered by apple until you (parent post) wrote about it here :P

    --
    Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
    1. Re:Im willing to bet... by VON-MAN · · Score: 1

      Well, it was the very first thing i thought of seeing the title. Or are did your sarcasm tags fell of?

  43. good thing for end users? Uh... by ShimmyShimmy · · Score: 1

    No, this is obviously bad for end users. Consider two cases:

    Case A: There are no restrictions.
    As an end user, you can always (A) buy a PC and run M$/FreeBSD/Linux, (B) buy an Apple and run Mac OSX. But, without restrictions, you can also (C) buy an Apple and run M$/FreeBSD/Linux on it, or (D) buy a PC and run Mac OSX on it.

    Now, Case B: Apple sets hardware restrictions.
    You now cannot (D) buy a PC and run Mac OSX. There is no added benefit for you as an end user.

    With that out of the way, I suppose it is Apple's decision, as it is their OS (well, their GUI), although it is a faggoty decision.

    Based on how the iPod works (or doesn't work, ie can't copy songs from an iPod to a computer), one could have seen this coming from a mile away, but how possible would it be to get around this? It didn't take long for xPod to come along. Any chance of a cracked Mac OS X anytime soon?

    --
    Partial Credit: The Engineer's Best friend
    "Well, the bridge didn't fall all the way down!"
  44. Can the OS authenticate the TCPA chip? by jay2003 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From what I've read, the windowing system is using a kext to validate the hardware. The kext could be replaced with a fake one that replies anything. The real question is can software authenticate the TCPA chip through the kext. To do so, the chip would have have a private key embedded in it that was chained to a public key embedded in the OS.

    I don't known anywhere near enough to know if TCPA supports this. Apple would be the only user of the OS authenticating the hardware I can think of so it's possible TCPA leaves out this feature. There are plenty of uses for the hardware authenticating the OS but the other way around is rare since most software vendors want to run on as many types of hardware as possible.

    1. Re:Can the OS authenticate the TCPA chip? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      The real question is can software authenticate the TCPA chip through the kext. To do so, the chip would have have a private key embedded in it that was chained to a public key embedded in the OS.

      I think this is possible, but you can just patch the OS, replacing the vendor's public key with your own.

  45. Peach/Cherry OS? by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    'nough said.

    Well, actually, you can get it to run on some PPC clones out there, last I heard.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  46. Awwww crap. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like I'll need to start buying mod chips for my Apple hardware too now. :-/

  47. I hope this is for hardware check only. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While I don't advocate all out piracy, it is very cool how Apple has always been lenient about allowing copies of their software without keys and such. The only bit not like that is QuickTime (perhaps for licensing reasons?). It's handy that you can just pop over to a friend's house and install the latest version on their system for them if they are having problems and not have to worry about serial numbers or for software update to stop functioning. Sure, technically that's against the rules, but it all comes around in the end. That friend is now much more likely to eventually go buy the next version, or upgrade to a new machine and (effectively) purchase the next rev of the OS legitimately. I think that flexibility there is a wonderful thing and I hope this DRM stuff doesn't lock that out.

  48. If this is true... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this is true FUCK You apple. For the longest time i loved you because you were all about fair use. Never before have i been requested to activate or anything. The fairplay drm for itms is pretty damn nice considering you got the labels on board. You showed us that a company didn't want to extend its long arm up the ass of the people and could do good and everyone could benefit.
    disclaimer: i had a "few" tonight... but sometimes lack of restraint is what's needed!

  49. Conform dammit! by poind3xt3r · · Score: 1

    So much for Think Different

    1. Re:Conform dammit! by name773 · · Score: 1

      i totally want a picture of a whole bunch of people listening to ipods with the same default earphones and a little apple logo (they put their logo on everything) with the words "think different" in the corner.

  50. Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you analyzed the mach_kernel binary file on the Developer Kits, you would see that the kernel is vastly different than the Darwin 8.2 that Apple released as open source. For one thing, it automatically calls the oah750 daemon (better known as Rosetta) every time that it finds a non-universal PPC executable.

    Before the kernel uses Rosetta to execute the PPC application (i.e. ATSServer in the case of starting a GUI), it calls the TPM kernel extension and checks the private keys in the TCPA chip. This is the only thing, as far as is apparent, that prevents Mac OS X from flawlessly running on a non-Apple system.

  51. Oh do stop panicing by threaded · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Oh do stop panicing, this will be cracked, and easily, if it has not already been done.

    I am beginning to think companies put these copy protection things in the hardware for a variety of reasons:

    1) They get free advertising with the protests.
    2) They get free advertising when it is cracked.
    3) They get free advertising when they chase the crackers.
    4) They get free advertising when they chase the cracks' distributors.

    And maybe it gives the content providers a warm fuzzy feeling.

    1. Re:Oh do stop panicing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally, I'm not panicking. As much as I find stories like this interesting, I use Linux on my own machines which makes things like this a non-issue.

      Honestly, people who care about the principle about things likes this should not bother with loyalty to big corps. Their principle is to maximize profits, that's it. Anything they do that might seem good willed is meant to cultivate that "Warm Fuzzy Feeling" which is a marketing ploy meant to maximize profits. I know, because I do extra things for my own customers to culitvate that because it equals repeat business.

      I'll bet the poster to whom I'm replying is probably right in some cases when it comes to those reasons, and probably dead on with the statement " gives the content providers a warm fuzzy feeling".

      Anyone using proprietary systems railing against DRM based on some principle, are wasting their breath.

    2. Re:Oh do stop panicing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh do fuck off, cracking DRM is a DMCA violation and I refuse to be criminalized. The issue is that the DRM is there to begin with, it shouldn't be which makes morons like yourself a big part of the problem!

    3. Re:Oh do stop panicing by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Oh do fuck off, cracking DRM is a DMCA violation and I refuse to be criminalized.

            Only in the US...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:Oh do stop panicing by quarkscat · · Score: 1

      "Oh do stop panicing, this will be cracked, and easily, if it has not already been done."

      Well, lets see. The new Intel processor & chipset that Apple will be using BOTH have TC/DRM capabilities. Ever try to use a 32-bit logic analyzer on a Wintel motherboard between the processor and the southbridge chip? Apple will make use of the Intel roadmap for 64-bit processors, and many of the data circuits will be on inner layers of the motherboard. Those persons capable of hacking the hardware DRM will own some very expensive hardware.

      The real test for the extent to which Apple will impliment DRM will be whether they switch from OpenBoot, as used on todays PPC hardware, to Intel's EFI BIOS replacement. Intel can basically offer Apple the entire system chipset -- EFI, processor, south & north bridge chips, and their built-in video controller. Apple can make use of the Intel "solution" to lower hardware prices while increasing system speed (and profit margins).

      The boot process may look like the following:

      (1) EFI contains S/Ns of motherboard & chips
      (2) EFI validates hardware function/configuration
      (3) EFI checks date/time against stored values
      (4) EFI generates private RSA key
      (5) RSA key passed to TC chipset
      (6) EFI loads OS bootstrap
      (7) OS bootstrap compares kernel checksums against stored values, then loads OS
      (8) OS validates stored checksums for applications
      (9) OS validates media files for permissions
      (10) OS uses private RSA key to unlock media file

      The DRM capabilities of the Intel solution will allow Apple to control not only applications and the various purchased media files, but will also permit iron-clad trial period or rental media control. As a content provider/distributor, why wouldn't Apple want to make content media easy for the consumer to use, and very difficult/impossible for the consumer to abuse? In what way would Apple not benefit their bottom line, as well as gain acceptance from the **IA for any/all content distribution?

      Apple generally does what is best for Apple, rather than what is best for their customers. But you can be assured that they will do so with such panache that most of their customers will not mind. And their customers will definitely like higher performance hardware for a cheaper price, as usual.

    5. Re:Oh do stop panicing by sm00f · · Score: 1

      hah, nice thinking there, that reminds me of a lot of people i know in the "biz" (adult online) that intentionally let passwords get leaked out to passwords sites for a few days then kill them for extra traffic :)

  52. Nah... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Just abusing copyrights and patents and otherwise impinging upon certain rights of other to protect your profits is unreasonable and immoral.

  53. Awww. by Graymalkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone here has been waiting for OSX-x86 ISOs to hit torrent sites so they can run OSX on their whitebox PCs. As has been seen many times before, not every ADC member holds up their end of the bargain with regard to their NDA. Knowing this full well it was rather obvious Apple would have to take some sort of action to keep their OS from being widely pirated within days of the first dev kits being delivered.

    There's a lot of hand waving here about companies removing people's rights and slippery slope arguments along the lines of "if they do X they will eventually do Y for reason Z". This entirely ignores the fact that Tiger-x86 is probably the hottest thing to hit torrent sites in a long time. It was bad enough when developer releases of Tiger for PowerPC were making the rounds and people were making stupid assessments of the system months before release. The development kits and pre-release copies of OSX are meant to be in Mac developer hands, not Joe Dork down the street on his PC.

    It is not a particular right to run OSX on anything but a Mac, the OSX EULA that you have to agree to in order to install the system specifically states that. Apple locking OSX onto Macs means they can continue to sell the machines with a straight face. No one would bother to buy a Mac if they could just grab a copy of Tiger and slap it on their PC at home. Apple would have little incentive to continue Mac development if there were no Macs being sold.

    --
    I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    1. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      So your argument is that Apple cannot survive on its own merits and has to rely on locking you into their hardware in order to stay afloat?

      When the first Intel-based macs start hitting the shelf in a year or so, I wonder if they're still going to charge twice as much for what is basically a slower version of a PC.

    2. Re:Awww. by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      I don't give a crap about all that.. I like apple's hardware because it's good.. but they could have used other techniques to do this than a TCPA style TPM. They have drawn my ire for using this technique. I ask you, how long before they start putting it to other uses locking down their OS like microsoft is incorporating into longhorn? How long before they start using it to "voluntarily comply" with the RIAA/MPAA's vast desire to prevent you making fair use of your own media, like importing your cd's to itunes in a codec and bitrate of your choice, or for personal remixes using sound studio? This is the reason I pulled a reverse-osbourne and bought a G5 now. I suggest you stop thinking about how they may be hurt and start looking for the foot they may be hurling toward your bum at this very second.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    3. Re:Awww. by KillShill · · Score: 1

      just a little aside...

      if you want to be bound by eula's, you'd have to do it universally. if you've ever read any microsoft eula or anything even remotely like it, you'll find that 99% of it is complete and utter crap. the kinds of restrictions they put in those things makes one want to claw ones eyes out over the sheer stupidity and absurdity of it.

      as far as i'm concerned, anything in a eula is automatically void. software vendors don't have rights to tell people what to do and how to use their software (other than distributing it en masse but that's covered under copyright law....)
      after the purchase.

      a eula is not a contract. well of course unless you buy into the deceit that is.

      1 a : a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties; especially : one legally enforceable b : a business arrangement for the supply of goods or services at a fixed price c : the act of marriage or an agreement to marry
      2 : a document describing the terms of a contract

      clearly, a contract is agreed upon BEFORE the transaction not after. it doesn't make sense. even after that is satisfied, other common sense issues come up. frankly i'm surprised any decent judge could ever stipulate that all eula's are valid, regardless of the terms included.

      we live in absurd times .

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    4. Re:Awww. by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      You're making a bad argument and one I specifically described. What happens when Apple does something? They haven't done something. Reacting as if they have done something is silly. There's a lot of rabid speculation going on and no real facts are being presented. If they allow the RIAA to tell me I can't rip a CD into iTunes I'll be pissed. As of right now they're just keeping copies of OSX from running on any old PC. I'm not too pissed about this, in fact I'm not at all.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    5. Re:Awww. by polyp2000 · · Score: 1
      --
      Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    6. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the first Intel-based macs start hitting the shelf in a year or so, I wonder if they're still going to charge twice as much for what is basically a slower version of a PC.

      They will if they think they can get away with it.

    7. Re:Awww. by happyemoticon · · Score: 1

      No, silly. First of all, "Apple cannot survive on its own merits" is a wacky, distortive rhetorical question with several tacit assumptions. First, it assumes that businesses survive because of merit. Exhibit A: BeOS. Secondly, it assumes that those who are worthy would do better on an 'even' playing field (which itself assumes that such a thing exists; it does not). You think vendor lock-in is a nasty game? Microsoft does the same thing, sort of. They just use salesmen and lawyers instead of engineers to ensure that every PC worth mentioning ships with Windows. Thirdly, it implies that OS X is anything but the bee's knees. I'll let you figure that one out when you're removing viruses and spyware.

      In regards to your second gastric eruption, it ain't that big of a difference between two AMD-64s with top notch RAM and a good graphics card and a PowerPC in terms of price. this one is just a single, and it costs 3 grand.

    8. Re:Awww. by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      I'm not either. In fact i'm rather glad.

      I have learned from experience though to be paranoid. I've seen this kind of maneuvering before. I want to stick with apple, and have bought a brand new g5 to soothe my paranoia and wait this out to my satisfaction. However, I feel that familiar feeling, like the one you get that your girlfriend "may" be cheating on you.

      But this same maneuvering has been done by hollywood over and over.

      Remember the DMCA? they just wanted to use it to "produce new innovative digital media". The next thing we know third party printer cartridges, linux dvd players, and cd rippers are illegal, and then they ramp it up further by lobbying as if fair use didn't exist at all.

      Microsoft is doing it too.. they snuck tpm's into most popular makes of computers, and now theyre implementing restrictions based off it for longhorn.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    9. Re:Awww. by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      A EULA is not void because you think it sucks. Software is not sold to you, its use is licensed to you. There's no transfer of ownership. A license can say all sorts of things, most of the time licenses disclaim responsibility for anything the software might inadvertently do or not do. You've always got the option of rejecting a license, in which case usage is not granted to you. You break a EULA and the software vendor sues you, they are probably going to run unless the stipulation broken was onerous or illegal. A stipulation that you had to punch a nun to use the software would not hold up in court. One saying you couldn't post decompiled source to your website probably would however.

      By using a bit of software with a EULA, that use is a tacit agreement to the license. Even if you ripped the executable out of an installer file and never clicked through a license agreement you can still be bound by a EULA. Just because my car doesn't have bullet-resistant windows doesn't mean you can hop in and drive it around without my consent just because you had a baseball bat.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    10. Re:Awww. by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
      Remember the DMCA? they just wanted to use it to "produce new innovative digital media". The next thing we know third party printer cartridges

      Which might be nothing more than just opportunism on the printer maker's part, i.e. it's not necessarily "bwahahaha, we'll make sure the DMCA passes so we can stop those nasty third-party printer cartridge makers", it could be "hey, cool, our lawyers think we can use this 'DMCA' thing against those nasty third-party printer cartridge makers". (BTW, as far as I know, few if any movie or music studios make printers, so that use of the DMCA was probably not anticipated by Hollywood, much less being a goal of Hollywood. :-))

      I.e., the lesson to draw from the third-party printer cartridge maker case isn't necessarily "They were out to Get Us", it might just be "even if some law isn't being done to Get You, it might later be discovered to be useful for Getting You and be used to do exactly that" (which is perhaps a more useful lesson; unintended consequences might be harder to predict than intended consequences, if you don't realize you should look for them).

      linux dvd players

      I suspect Hollywood doesn't care much about Linux DVD players in general; if they care at all, they probably think that, in theory, Linux DVD players might be a little nice if it means they sell some more DVDs to Linux geeks.

      What bothers them are DVD players that can be modified not to Follow The Rules (no skipping commercials, no copying unencrypted movies onto DVDs and selling them extra cheap, etc.). They'd probably be far more upset by a hackable DVD player (even if it's not open-source and thus harder to hack) for Windows than a closed-source secure "plays-by-the-rules" DVD player for Linux (I think at least one exists).

    11. Re:Awww. by Budenny · · Score: 1
      "No one would bother to buy a Mac if they could just grab a copy of Tiger and slap it on their PC at home..."

      So, what we have to do is make them buy hardware they don't want, so they can run an OS they do. That way we will make friends and influence people and...increase our market share to previously unknown levels, and keep our shareholders happy indefinitely?

    12. Re:Awww. by Budenny · · Score: 1

      This is just wrong, at least in Europe. It is not the way the law is. Post sale restrictions on use are unlawful under competition law. You can see why: once you allow them, you will be allowing linked sales and all kinds of other undesirables. There is no way any EULA which forbids you to run bought software on the machine of your choice will hold up in court. Which is why it has never been tested. Calling it a license doesn't make any difference.

    13. Re:Awww. by Vo0k · · Score: 1

      clearly, a contract is agreed upon BEFORE the transaction not after.

      Sorry, but lawyers are paid to be smarter than that. Accepting the EULA -is- the final step of the transaction. Even though you paid for a box with Microsoft software in it at the cash register, even though you got the bill, paid the money and said "good-bye" to the shopkeeper, you haven't finished the purchase. With anything else, consumer electronics, food, cars - you did. Not with software. Not until you clicked "I Agree". And if you don't, you have full right to return the software for a full refund, essentially cancelling the process of transaction.

      --
      Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
    14. Re:Awww. by plasmacutter · · Score: 2, Insightful
      What bothers them are DVD players that can be modified not to Follow The Rules (no skipping commercials, no copying unencrypted movies onto DVDs and selling them extra cheap, etc.

      ...and this is the problem. They should not be allowed to tell dvd vendors not to skip commercials or allow decryption. It's everyone's right under fair use doctrine to skip commercials and back up or personally manipulate media in their homes. Not all decryption is for piracy, and there are already laws in place which severely punish pirates with hefty jail sentences and life long destitution.

      this was their plan however. Claim "exciting new media products" then remove fair use forcibly from the people. Hollywood claimed It didn't want to do that, yet faced with the reality of being able, went ahead and did it anyway.

      do you honestly think apple so infallible? they're laying out 10 miles of road when they only need 1, do you think they're not going to travel those next 9 miles? I believe they eventually will succumb to this temptation, but I am still holding out for benevolence here.

      if they choose to abuse this power, as everyone has before them (except george washington), I don't want that discovery to cost me the rather hefty price of one of their systems.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    15. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      And if you don't, you have full right to return the software for a full refund, essentially cancelling the process of transaction.

      Think again.

      Remember that pesty "no open box" policy? That indicates that the transaction actually IS completed at the store, otherwise you could quickly return it for money, which you are not allowed to do.

    16. Re:Awww. by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      I guess people wanting OSX to run on commodity PCs haven't been watching the computer industry for very long. The dominant player in a market has inherent advantages over all challengers. Many of these advantages are based on logical fallacies but are advantages none the less.

      The market dominator can easily cut margins to lower prices in the face of competition. Windows costs $200 for a spanking new copy of Windows XP Home. If Apple released OSX for $129, Microsoft could easily drop the price of Windows down to $90 to keep from losing sales. The market dominator also has the ability to strongarm customers into avoiding the competition. "Gee eMachines, it would be a shame if Windows XP's OEM price for you went up a little bit, that would kill your margins wouldn't it?" says Microsoft. There's also the herd mentality of nontechnical consumers. They couldn't tell you what an OS was, they just want to download their AOL and send some e-mails. Trying to tell them there's alternatives to Windows will be met with "What is Windows?"

      Part of the reason OSX is such a desirable OS is because it only has to support a limited hardware base from a single manufacturer. A driver writer at Apple can pull up all of the specifications for some chip used in some particular revision of the eMac to get something working right. That isn't really a possibility when the multitude of PC configurations that exist. There's little reason to put that sort of effort into the endeavor when there's going to be far less money to be made than selling Mac hardware with the OS.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    17. Re:Awww. by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

      They should not be allowed to tell dvd vendors not to skip commercials or allow decryption. It's everyone's right under fair use doctrine to skip commercials and back up or personally manipulate media in their homes.

      I agree - and I think Hollywood has no reason other than "we want to be allowed to pry your eyeballs open and force you to watch the commercial for the next movie we're putting out" for controlling what the DVD code interpreters are allowed to do.

      I don't necessarily assume that they explicitly wanted to keep people from making personal copies for their own use. (I wouldn't absolutely rule it out, but I wouldn't definitively conclude that it's the case, either.) I do assume they wanted to keep people from making copies en masse and weren't sufficiently bothered by the fact that the solution they chose to that problem also meant that you couldn't copy the DVD onto a server or make personal re-edits or transcode it for your mobile phone or.... Perhaps the fact that you couldn't do that is an intentional feature, or perhaps it's a consequence that they simply didn't care about (or care enough about).

      and there are already laws in place which severely punish pirates with hefty jail sentences and life long destitution.

      You're not assuming perfect rationality on the part of Hollywood executives - i.e., "there already exist laws to punish pirates, and they'll eventually be found and successfully prosecuted if they pirate enough copies for it to matter, so we don't need a technical solution to this problem" (if the second of those premises is true), rather than "sorry, I don't care, I'm Too Scared of the Bad Pirates, I want every single mechanism I can imagine in place"?

      do you honestly think apple so infallible?

      Do you honestly think I stated any opinion one way or the other about what Apple would do? I was just noting problems with the examples being given. (Frankly, I'd prefer to have a DVD player that could be told to squelch the ads. I'm not at all surprised Hollywood wanted to prevent that, however.)

      they're laying out 10 miles of road when they only need 1

      If TCPA was a canned solution that they didn't have to develop, maybe it's more a case of "they needed 1 mile of road, and they could either rent the road-construction hardware and lay out that 1 mile, or buy a Roll-O-Road(TM) and just unroll it, but they only sell Roll-O-Road in 10-mile units".

      do you think they're not going to travel those next 9 miles?

      I don't know one way or the other.

      I believe they eventually will succumb to this temptation

      Which means that this isn't necessarily an Evil Plot From Day One. It could be someething between that and what I said the print cartridge case was, i.e. they know that there are other capabilities they can get from the TCPA hardware (whereas the printer makers might not have intended the DMCA to be used as a club against third-party cartridges, but might have realized after the fact that it could - or might have switched to a protection scheme designed to fall under the DMCA once the DMCA came out and they realized they could use it), but they don't currently have any intent to use them now - which doesn't mean they won't later have that intent.

      I.e., don't assume that Evil Intent is completely present from Day One - and bear in mind that it is, in some ways, irrelevant whether it is, as the availability of mechanisms that can be used for Evil Purposes, while it doesn't guarantee that they will be so used, means that they might be so used later, even if the people who put them in didn't intend to so use them from Day One (or even explicitly didn't intend to use them when they first put them in).

      (A world in which They're Not All Out To Get You is perhaps, in some ways, more dangerous than a world in whic

    18. Re:Awww. by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      You're not buying the software itself though. The compiled binary on a disc is simply a representation of a product made by an original author; much in the same way a printing of a book is a copy of some original manuscript. The box contains (or is) a license to use the software in whatever manner specified in the body of the license or under what can be reasonably construed as fair use. Making a backup copy of the distribution media or using spreadsheet software as a database would however be fair use. Cracking a bit of software to run in a way the license specifically forbids probably would not be fair use. Again it goes back to the specific stipulations of the license.

      You're equating a EULA with a shrinkwrap license. A shrinkwrap license says that simply opening the box is an agreement to abide by the license. A EULA (specifically OSX's) is most often the sort that needs to be manually agreed to. When you install OSX it presents you with the product's EULA. You have the option at that time to disagree with the license, pack up the software, and tell Apple you want a refund. You don't agree to the license when you purchase the product, only when you install it. Shrinkwrap licenses would not hold up well in court, click through ones however would. You have the option to click through the license without reading its stipulations. If you break the license that you agreed to abide by you are liable for whatever damages the court levies on you.

      If a software vendor sold a product for education use at a discount, the concept of no license protections would allow businesses to pay the education price for commercial use. The same thing happens if software is free for personal use but requires a fee for commercial use. The vendor has no protections against the predatory actions of cheapskates and freeloaders without being able to enforce a usage license. Fair use does not include using the software without paying for it because simply because you are a tightwad.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    19. Re:Awww. by Vo0k · · Score: 1

      Oh, but the "No open box policy" is a clear violation of EULA.
      Or maybe the other way around?

      --
      Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
    20. Re:Awww. by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      I beg to differ on this philosophy. a "shrinkwrap" license has also been called a "clickwrap license". Can you guess why? You're presented the eula at install. The problem is you've already paid by the time you get to install, and policies both for online and offline retailers are specific in banning returns. You were forced to pay before you knew all the terms, the contract should be void, and any court decisions to the contrary even in the U.S. demonstrate either the incompetence or the sheer volume of bribery going about in our judiciary.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    21. Re:Awww. by weicco · · Score: 1

      > Accepting the EULA -is- the final step of the transaction. Even though you paid for a box with Microsoft software in it at the cash register, even though you got the bill, paid the money and said "good-bye" to the shopkeeper, you haven't finished the purchase.

      In Finland (if I remember correctly) it is required by law that customer know every restriction about product _before_ he/she buys the product. When the money has changed hands the product is yours and no other restrictions can be included afterwards. This concerns cases where the seller is a company and the buyer is a normal person, between companies things are totally different.

      If some of my fellow Finlanders knows better (since I'm not a lawyer), please correct me and I stand corrected.

      --
      You don't know what you don't know.
    22. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      not Joe Dork down the street on his PC

      Ummm, so that would be you speaking from experience?

      Honestly, I've read several of your posts now, and I'm trying to figure out what planet you live on, because on mine most people feel they have to be able to construct a coherent thought before they proclaim themselves expert on something.

      I suppose you could just be stupid...

    23. Re:Awww. by Budenny · · Score: 1

      I do not think that is the way European competition law works. Don't know about anywhere else. The reason is, that linked sales are always anti-competitive, and this is why post sale restrictions are not enforceable. You cannot, for instance, sell a CD and forbid people to play it on any other player than one made by a given company. You cannot forbid people to use your drill bits on other drills. You can of course have any sort of market segment oriented pricing you choose to have, and you can sometimes make it technically impossible to use your product with other people's - but that has nothing to do with your ability to restrain post sale use by law or contract. This is why this aspect of EULAs has never been tested in the courts. It will be struck down as soon as it is. The contract will be unenforceable because it will be anticompetitive behaviour on the part of the supplier.

    24. Re:Awww. by invisigoth · · Score: 1

      I'll agree that MS is largely a hegemony.

      However, your assertion that OSX has fewer viruses, spyware, and malware because it's somehow magically better is utter BS. It has less of these items because its market share is lower and for no other reason. I can assure you that if Apple's market share were to approach 50% it would have just as many viruses, because it would it become a profitable venture. And profits are what these bastards seek now. Virii are no longer the domain of script-kiddies, but organized criminals and the mafia.

    25. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always said Finland is a country of wise people. Too bad there's not many more alike...

    26. Re:Awww. by che.kai-jei · · Score: 1

      you said: have little incentive to continue Mac development

      this assumes macs are developing.
      if by that you meant that deliberately releasing lower performing crippled locked down hardware for extortionate prices is development then yes, you are correct, apple will see little incentive to continue deliberately releasing lower performing crippled locked down hardware for extortionate prices.

    27. Re:Awww. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dual amd64 makes a g5 look like an etch a sketch, kiddo.

      i run dual 970fx at work.

    28. Re:Awww. by toddestan · · Score: 1

      In regards to your second gastric eruption, it ain't that big of a difference between two AMD-64s with top notch RAM and a good graphics card and a PowerPC in terms of price. this one is just a single, and it costs 3 grand.

      Lets see. That AMD system includes a top of the line graphics card, 2GB of memory, and 500GB disk of disk space for cheaper than the PowerMac 2.7Ghz with its graphics card from 2002, measily 512MB of memory, and 160GB of disk space. So yeah, I agree - Apples are overpriced. And I could even beat the price on the AMD system by building my own.

    29. Re:Awww. by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 1

      How do you come to the conclusion that the transaction isn't finished? Are you simply saying that the transaction isn't over until you're out of the return period?

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
  54. Future of Apple vs. Microsoft by The+Angry+Artist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    DRM now or DRM later?

    --
    If you're reading this, stop it.
  55. The bastards! by green+pizza · · Score: 1

    It's worse than you think...

    Apple won't let me run Mac OS X 10.3 on anything other than my Apple-brand PowerPC hardware!

    Seriously, though, what did you expect?

  56. Won't help with a free kernel by phooka.de · · Score: 1

    This will only delay things a bit. It can't take long for someone to swap the kernel under the hood to an unencumbered Darwin.

    1. Re:Won't help with a free kernel by Moderator · · Score: 0

      It's hard enough to change the kernel to Darwin under regular OSX, what makes you think the Intel version will be any easier?

      --
      The World is Yours.
    2. Re:Won't help with a free kernel by demon · · Score: 1

      Darwin itself won't be encumbered. It'll just provide the facilities for the higher layers to access the TPM unit, I'm guessing, and if those facilities aren't present, the higher layers will probably say "Uh... what's this? I'm not running on this. Go away, kthxbye." I'm sure Apple has spent a little time thinking of solutions to questions just like this.

      --

      Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
      Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
  57. Re:good thing for end users? Uh... by name773 · · Score: 1

    it would totally rock if they cracked it

    how's the driver support?

  58. minor edit by seanadams.com · · Score: 1

    add "presuming this bit about palladium is true" and change "is" to "will be" and "OSX" to "OSX/x86"

  59. A new sticker on the box "Mac Compatible"? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    What .com will be the first to offer a "Mac compatible" PC? How long in a clean room?

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  60. You haven't been paying attention. by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Using firmware that nobody could legally copy has long been grudgingly accepted, but Apple crossed the line with DRM.

    1. Re:You haven't been paying attention. by Buran · · Score: 1

      DRM makes sure that software/content can't be used in such a way that the manufacturer doesn't want done. Apple's already said that they won't allow OS X to run on anything other than their own hardware. This has been known for a long time now. If Apple is going to use Intel boards and video cards and so on, that would open the way for people to use commodity boxes to run Apple's OS. They're using DRM to make sure that doesn't happen.

      I haven't been paying attention? Looks like all the coverage of the Intel switch hasn't been read too closely ...

    2. Re:You haven't been paying attention. by name773 · · Score: 1

      i think the issue /.ers have with this is the drm. apple was supposed to be cool and stuff with their less popular platform and ripping off open source projects and all, but the whole hardware drm thing (people seem to accept the itunes drm because it's easy to crack and not too strict) really came as quite a shock. like full force drm, not just a rom that says "this is an apple computer" or whatever.

    3. Re:You haven't been paying attention. by Buran · · Score: 1

      Did you (the proverbial "everyone" you) really expect them to not do something that "blocks parts of the OS from running without permission" after they stated the OS will only run on APPLE HARDWARE?

      Y'all need to go look up WHAT DRM IS FOR. Of course they're using it for this!

  61. So much for another "theory" on Intel by msobkow · · Score: 1

    I find it interesting that despite everyone's worry that Apple was moving to Intel for the sake of Intel's DRM chips (Another Theory on Apple's Move To Intel), it's an Infineon chip being used to enforce the DRM. Even more amusing is that it's the Rosetta emulation software that is using the DRM, not the kernel itself.

    Personally I think it's a good move for Apple. It lets them lock down their proprietary components without impacting the open source core of the system.

    It also provides a "how to" example of lock-down that isn't dependant on the kernel itself for implementation. You don't need to pay for and install an entire OS upgrade ala Microsoft just to lock down one component running on the system (e.g. a media player.)

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  62. This IS a surprise though. by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

    They have many other and MORE EFFECTIVE means of controlling where their OS goes than use of a TCPA style TPM.

    They could, for instance, embed some necessary structures for boot in ROM.. or even encrypt it.. and that would not carry the TREMENDOUS TACIT THRAT to user rights that using palladium would. If theyre using it for this now.. what happens when this stuff comes out.. you think they won't start branching it out to other things.. like "voluntary compliance" with powers that be to prevent you from backing up your own cd's with itunes?

    how about that nasty trick M$ is trying to pull with vista/longhorn which is designed to prevent emulation?

    if they're willing to pull this instead of using some other means, where are they going to stop.

    Needless to say, i'm now very glad I followed my gut and bought the g5 when I did. I at least get 4-5 more years of freedom without having to tinker with config files like I did with linux.

    After that.. I sincerely hope linux will be up to the job, because I personally will be holding apple up to a microscope for the next half decade. one step out of line and they lose a customer for life.

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    1. Re:This IS a surprise though. by tobybuk · · Score: 1

      >> prevent emulation

      Please explain, I've missed this one

    2. Re:This IS a surprise though. by plasmacutter · · Score: 1
      it invovles a new standard for windows to replace "Device ID" which involves driver and hardware signing.

      a fairly good breakdown on it can be found here.

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  63. I have just 4 words... by hacker · · Score: 1

    Just four words:

    I told you so! (and these posts were almost 2 months ago)

    1. Re:I have just 4 words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have 4 other words that actually may be more relevant:

      "I... Love... This... COMPANYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!"

  64. IBM <3 DRM by Kaseijin · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The switch from IBM to Intel has nothing to do with speed, heat, or anything else anyone has suspected. It's control.
    IBM were founding members of TCG and the first to sell TPM-restricted PCs. Do you really think Apple had to go to Intel to get Fritzed?
  65. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because we all know Linux is so much fucking better than OS X. Idiot.

  66. Not all of them... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Some of the pirates do it because the companies (and others) have effectively declared war on the rest of us, and it's one way of fighting back.

  67. Yep its happenin again by under_clocker · · Score: 1

    Thats the answere prepiatry os...
    I think this is a bad move by apple they should not try to copy microsoft. If everyone who had a pc could dump windows and run mac os the world would be a better place overnight. LESS STUPID PEOPLE.

    1. Re:Yep its happenin again by vga_init · · Score: 1
      If everyone who had a pc could dump windows and run mac os the world would be a better place overnight. LESS STUPID PEOPLE. I'm not quite sure it works this way. I've met a lot of people in the Mac community that are very, very, very stupid when it comes to computer concepts. The same goes to Windows users, or any operating system for that matter.

      The chief concern here is being free to control how your computer is run.

    2. Re:Yep its happenin again by under_clocker · · Score: 1

      Ya know I agree with that. Its pretty astute to say that we should have freedom of choice when it comes to os. But I work in with broad band tech support and Im gonna tell ya mac users have more going on. MY ex-boy friend used to bash macs... I thought that was stupid because a computer is a computer. He was stupid, Its probably good that I kicked him to the curb.

  68. How is the TPM used? by SiliconEntity · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know a great deal about TPMs, I have a computer with a TPM. They are very common. Many high end laptops and desktops have TPMs. Here is an up to date list of systems that have TPMs. They include manufacturers such as HP, IBM, Acer, NEC, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Samsung. You've probably heard of some of them. It's easy to get a computer with a TPM. Probably in a few years it will be hard to get a computer without one.

    What does a TPM do? Essentially it is just a crypto chip. It can hold keys, and sign and encrypt data with them. It's completely passive. It never takes control of your system or does anything invasive. It doesn't even monitor the bus or snoop on data flows. It merely hashes, signs and encrypts data, on request from the CPU.

    How is it used for DRM? It can't be done today. They way it would be used, sometimes in the future, is to ship the chip with a unique key pre-installed in it, and with a certificate from the manufacturer on that key. Then the BIOS and OS get enhanced to do a "trusted boot" in which every software component gets its hash reported to the TPM. This allows the TPM to send out a crypto-signed "attestation" about the software configuration on the computer. It is signed by the built-in key, and that key is known to be a legitimate TPM key by virtue of the certificate that was created at manufacture time.

    This lets a remote server verify that you're running a genuine version of Media Player or iTunes and not some hacked thing that will strip the DRM and put it out on the net. Your system can report its software configuration and that attestation can't be forged, because you don't control a TPM key that has a cert on it from a TPM manufacturer.

    It's a complicated system, and no part of it exists today. Manufacturers don't ship TPMs with pre-installed keys, and they don't issue certificates. Nobody wants to touch that stuff with a ten foot poll. I know, I've tried to get a computer with a certified TPM for research purposes, but they're just not available.

    How would Apple use a TPM to keep the OS from running on non-Apple PCs? This is the $64 question, but I haven't seen much information about it. If they just look for the presence of a TPM, that won't help much - see above for all the computers out there that have TPMs.

    My guess is that it is more likely that the mechanism Apple will use or is using to keep from running on non-Apple hardware is not the TPM. They will probably use a custom chip. The TPM is extremely standard, the Trusted Computing Group has hundreds of pages documenting it. It would be crazy to twist that standard.

    Rather, I'm guessing that Apple uses the TPM for crypto purposes, possibly with an eye towards eventual DRM if and when the necessary massive infrastructure ever gets built. Due to its unique position as designer of both the computer and the software, Apple might even be in a unique position with regard to rolling out some form of TPM based DRM, just as they were among the first to create a commercially successful DRM system in iTunes. My speculation is that Apple is not using the TPM to stop hackers porting its software, they're using the TPM because it's useful. It just happens that the hackers don't have many systems with TPMs.

    If so, then, it is merely accidental that the use of the TPM is a road block for experimenters determined to run the Apple software on non Apple PCs. It's possible that if they looked at the list they would find some computers lying around that had TPMs in them, and if they tried on those computers, the TPM software would work fine. Maybe the OS would then run in its current form. It sounds like it's worth a try, anyway.

    1. Re:How is the TPM used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what does TPM stand for anyway?

      Trusted 'Puter Maintenance?
      The Phantom Menace?
      Turkey-Poodle Medley?

    2. Re:How is the TPM used? by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How is it used for DRM? It can't be done today. They way it would be used, sometimes in the future, is to ship the chip with a unique key pre-installed in it, and with a certificate from the manufacturer on that key. Then the BIOS and OS get enhanced to do a "trusted boot" ...

      The BIOS part is the one I am slightly worried about. As soon as mainboards come with a BIOS that insists on booting only an "attested" OS, Open Source users will have a problem. Something to look out for when buying hardware in the future.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    3. Re:How is the TPM used? by Spiked_Three · · Score: 1

      Pretty insightful and informative, thanks.

      The fact is Hollywood and LA are all craving DRM like ice water in hell. Who ever is the first OS to get an un-cracked DRM to market and into the hands of consumers stands a good chance of become Hollywood's and LAs OS of choice. This is a serious threat to Microsoft if they can pull it off before Microsoft does.

      Hell, for that matter, if the OSS crowd would stop whining, look at the good reasons for DRM and implement DRM in Linux in a way favorable to Hollywood, then it could quite possibly become a real threat. I guarantee the thought of that has Gates, Ballmer and Jobs shaking.

      --
      slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
    4. Re:How is the TPM used? by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 3, Informative

      In your case, you are not running the full monty yet (a TCPA-compliant Longshorn), which is why it seems so harmless. I'm not as optimistic as you are about what's coming down the pike. To me, Trusted Computing is like having an M-1 tank on your doorstep. Sure, it's going to be fairly harmless if there are no keys to open it, but the keys will come someday, and you won't be allowed to hold them.

      You claim:

      It can hold keys, and sign and encrypt data with them. It's completely passive. It never takes control of your system...

      Sorry, there's a little bit more to it, unfortunately. From the TCG's own FAQ,

      ... security processes ... are protected through the secure TCG subsystem.

      Access to data and secrets in a platform could be denied if the boot sequence is not as expected...

      Features include ... attestation of machine configuration when booted...

      It sounds simple enough, but there is a whole realm of implications that will someday come home to roost.

      (Beware when reading the TCG's own FAQ, by the way, as they adopt a deceiving "don't blame us, we're not the ones pulling the trigger" position. So, they gloss over some of the juicy possibilities a BIOS writer or an application writer will likely exploit from the technical specs.)

      To begin with, the first application that boots up, typically the BIOS (probably UEFI but any other choice really), if written to do so can refuse to allow any application to start which isn't signed by one of the keys securely stored in the TPM. The BIOS will check the TPM for a matching key for the OS, and if it matches, will allow it to start. Conversely, if the key doesn't match (for example, a bootleg OS), the BIOS can just stop right there. Keep in mind, this is the BIOS handling this, not the TPM, but, unlike even the M-1 tank, there is no way to tamper with the TPM to change the keys.

      Now, once a trusted OS is able to start, it can decide pretty much autocratically what other applications can start, once again using the keys locked down by the TPM to check if they are legit or not. So, programmatically, the TPM doesn't make the decision to lock you out of using non-vendor applications, but it's just as well as if it did, because the OS writer can easily use the TPM's secure, untamperable storage to enforce it. (Note that the motherboard supplier can cooperate with the OS writer to initialize the TPM with the appropriate keys right out of the factory (if they wanted to). It's irrelevant if there are no keys in there right now. The tank is still there, pointing at your door, waiting for its keys to arrive.)

      Other applications, if they are also signed by the TPM, may be granted the privilege (by the OS) to start and, specifically, to lock down data, such as video, in order to provide DRM functionality. If that decision is made, there is no way you will see that video through any other application unless the application governing the data allows otherwise. That data can basically be owned entirely by the application vendor, not you (as different from what the TCG claims, because no one's going to enjoy watching encrypted video gibberish. You can technically "own" the gibberish, but you still can't watch the video...). You may have a choice to delete a video, for example, but not to view it unless that vendor allows it. It is a backdoor way of implementing the media (DVD, CD, etc.) equivalent of the broadcast flag, if the app writer and OS vendor cooperate to that effect.

      Unsigned applications may be allowed to start too, and the TCG spec says that this is in the "user's" control, but let's face it, it's really in the OS vendor's control because they control the machine all the way from bootup. There isn't a little switch on the TPM chip to allow you to override your OS' choice in the matter. Still, it's possible that

    5. Re:How is the TPM used? by curious.corn · · Score: 1

      Well, aren't we all today at the mercy of the vendor. TCP as you say does allow BIOS level OS lockdown (oh, wouldn't Microsoft just Love that... even better than the confidential licence that killed Be) but today we're already screwed by proprietary closed source drivers and unspec'd formats that so much impedes the Linux on the Desktop experience. Also, once the file is on your disk how can it force the OS to prevent access from unauthorized programs, Spotlight flags? Listen, as an admin I'd love a system that did some sort of ultimate runtime Tripwire on my servers; as a user I'd thoroughly hate it... But... complicated systems have many points of failure, people don't tolerate excessive DRM as iTMS demonstrated and most importantly, when there's no way out just forget about it and move along: CD sales continue plummeting, why? Is it P2P or the fact that you can get 3 recent DVDs for the price of one CD? when goods become an overpriced piece of stinking crap consumers walk away, it's not that we have infinite disposable income...

      --
      Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
    6. Re:How is the TPM used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is it used for DRM? It can't be done today. They way it would be used, sometimes in the future, is to ship the chip with a unique key pre-installed in it, and with a certificate from the manufacturer on that key.

      Yes, but you said it right there-- Apple could easily embed their own certificate with their own private key and have the bootloader from the kernel validate that certificate using the TPM during boot. That would require someone replacing that part of the OS X kernel with a patch in order to boot it on any non-Apple hardware.

      Sure, it's possible to do such a thing, (any software can be cracked with a powerful enough debugger) but tying the OS to the TPM chip will at least make it a lot harder.

    7. Re:How is the TPM used? by acaspis · · Score: 1
      the first application that boots up, typically the BIOS (...) can refuse to allow any application to start which isn't signed by one of the keys securely stored in the TPM.

      You don't need a TPM for this (see the Xbox, for example). It is safe to just put an unprotected public key in the bios and use it to check the signatures that come with the applications.

    8. Re:How is the TPM used? by ebatsky · · Score: 0

      why cant you just flash the bios with a cracked version and then if needed crack os/apps?

    9. Re:How is the TPM used? by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
      Manufacturers don't ship TPMs with pre-installed keys, and they don't issue certificates. Nobody wants to touch that stuff with a ten foot poll. I know, I've tried to get a computer with a certified TPM for research purposes, but they're just not available.

      Actually, the ones shipped with IBM (now Lenovo) laptops (at least) do have the pre-installed keys. However, you have to ask for the certificate at the time of purchase. The secure key is always used on the TPM chip, to generate the keys used to authenticate & encrypt the binaries/etc that go into it. Other than that, your post was spot on.

    10. Re:How is the TPM used? by makomk · · Score: 1

      It is safe to just put an unprotected public key in the bios and use it to check the signatures that come with the applications.

      No it isn't. The Xbox encrypted the BIOS image stored in flash. Without that, there's nothing to stop someone unsoldering the flash chip, reading out the BIOS, and reflashing it with a modified version.

    11. Re:How is the TPM used? by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
      The TPM boot protocol is burned permanently into ROM on the bios. It cannot be replaced. However, machines equipped with TPM do have the option to disable TPM after the flashable part of the BIOS has been verified by the TPM chip. It works sort of like a "chain of trust".

      The boot ROM verifies the BIOS. If the bios chooses to, it can verify the bootloader. The bootloader then must verify the kernel, and the kernel is responsible for verifying everything else. If you don't want it to work, you stop the verification at some point, and the entire system becomes untrusted.

      The GGP was telling the truth when he said the TPM chip is used passively. It doesn't actively do anything to your system, only what you ask it to. The spec itself (interesting read, btw) details how it works, and other than the boot ROM, TPM is completely disabled if you don't use it. My ThinkPad R51 has a bios option specifically for that. (It will remain off until TPM goes into mainline Linux, after which I will be using it to verify my boot sequence).

      Basically, TPM is like a hammer. It has many good potential uses. However, we shouldn't get pissed off at the manufacturer when someone smashes a window with it. We should get pissed off with the user. (Hah. using /. groupthink against itself!)

    12. Re:How is the TPM used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Keep in mind, this is the BIOS handling this, not the TPM, but, unlike even the M-1 tank, there is no way to tamper with the TPM to change the keys.

      Blatant falsehood. The TCG spec absolutely promises that the physical operator of a machine can reset the TPM, clear all keys, and generate a new key. The TPM can never prevent you from installing a third-party operating system, or booting into an untrusted system. Now, Mac OS X may refuse to boot if the system is not trusted, but that's not quite the same thing as the OS vendor completely controlling your computer.

    13. Re:How is the TPM used? by acaspis · · Score: 1
      No it isn't. The Xbox encrypted the BIOS image stored in flash.

      Granted, the Xbox has that extra protection.

      But none of these technologies claims to protect against hardware tampering. The advertised goal of TCPA is to protect against software attacks (viruses, keyloggers etc). As a side effect, it also makes it impractical for end-users to run unsafe applications (or unauthorized operating systems).

      Even without the bios encryption, the Xbox could have prevented users from running Linux too easily (without modding the hardware).

    14. Re:How is the TPM used? by acaspis · · Score: 1
      The TCG spec absolutely promises that the physical operator of a machine can reset the TPM, clear all keys, and generate a new key.

      Sure, but in a world with TCPA fully deployed, clearing your TPM key would mean opting out of the digital world.

      You'd lose the media and software that you licensed for that particular computer.

      You'd lose your own documents (or maybe only have access to lower quality "export" formats).

      You'd lose access to the net (because your ISP would not recognize your computer anymore).

      AC

    15. Re:How is the TPM used? by pentalive · · Score: 1


      Sure, But the BIOS can be setup not to load any OS that is not signed, Then the OS can check each executable before they are loaded. The TPM chip does not have to "control" the system by itself.

      When this is implemented you won't be able to run a non-trusted OS becuase that OS could be breaking copyright. You won't be able to run any non-trusted programs because they could also be breaking copyright.

      Programs would have to be signed at compile time by an entity that ensures they can't be used to break copyrights. This means that you cant run your own programs because you can't sign them.

      For Linux users this means you can't re-compile your kernel because if it was trusted before once you re-compile it it will become non-trusted (you could have added copyright breaking code into the kernel). You Gentoo Linux users will be really out of luck. What is the use of having the source code if you can't make changes and re-compile?

      Today's TPM needs to be stopped before it becomes tomorrows TPM. I hear the TPM apollogists saying "TPM is just a chip" but the stated goal of trusted computing is to prevent copyright infringement. To do that they will need tomorrows BIOS enables OS enhanced TPM. Then you have a choice,,, Software Freedom (free as in Speech) or Internet and Digital Media use.

      P.S. "We will just break TPM" does not sound like a good answer to me, laws like DCMA can be enacted to make it illegal to own a machine with no TPM or broken TPM.

    16. Re:How is the TPM used? by SiliconEntity · · Score: 1

      I know a lot more about the TPM than what is in any FAQ; I've read every page of the spec and have written software to talk to the chip, okay? Let me point to one place you are going wrong:

      To begin with, the first application that boots up, typically the BIOS (probably UEFI but any other choice really), if written to do so can refuse to allow any application to start which isn't signed by one of the keys securely stored in the TPM. The BIOS will check the TPM for a matching key for the OS, and if it matches, will allow it to start. Conversely, if the key doesn't match (for example, a bootleg OS), the BIOS can just stop right there. Keep in mind, this is the BIOS handling this, not the TPM, but, unlike even the M-1 tank, there is no way to tamper with the TPM to change the keys.

      First of all, there is no interest in general purpose PCs to stop them booting other OS's. That would reduce sales, and strange as it may seem, businesses actually like to grow their sales, not shrink them. Intel makes money off of Linux and they are never going to stop making machines that can run it! So put your mind to rest on this issue.

      The problem with what you describe is that you could patch the BIOS to disable this check of the TPM, if you didn't want it to have these limitations. What's that you say, you can't patch the BIOS on a TCG box? Then in that case, the BIOS wouldn't need the TPM to do this check, would it, because it could just have the keys right there in the BIOS. An unpatchable BIOS already has the power to do a restricted boot, and the TPM would be superfluous.

      In short the TPM is not there to keep the machine from booting other software. It does provide important functions, such as remote attestation and the ability to lock encrypted data to the machine configuration. That latter feature means that it can be set up so if you boot a different OS (WHICH IS ALLOWED!) then data that was encrypted under the previous OS can't be decrypted now. That does have DRM implications, but the details are totally different from the misleading picture that you described.

      It's frustrating to talk about this because the TPM is powerful in its way, but it is a very specific sort of power. Most of the fears about it are completely wrong in their details, although not perhaps wrong in fearing the power of the chip. If people have valid fears but for incorrect reasons, what should I say to them? I try to correct the errors but then people accuse me of whitewashing because I deny the apocalyptic claims ("the TPM is root on your computer").

    17. Re:How is the TPM used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blatant falsehood. The TCG spec absolutely promises that the physical operator of a machine can reset the TPM, clear all keys, and generate a new key.

      You are need to recheck your facts. The TCG spec states that the PrivEK CANNOT be cleared and reset to a new key. The spec does permit TPM makers to include an optional command to clear the PrivEK, but in a way that would effectively destroy the chip permanently.

    18. Re:How is the TPM used? by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 1
      Well, aren't we all today at the mercy of the vendor

      To a certain extent, but it was never as restrictive and potentially annoying as what they are planning. Soon, I predict it will be illegal to sell computers without a TPM (and it will be on-chip, invisible and unremovable, like the Cell). When someone richer than God in Redmound proclaims "Consumers have too many choices," you see this facile conclusion and you know that it basically justifies some upcoming scheme to reduce your choices in a self-serving way.

      once the file is on your disk how can it force the OS to prevent access from unauthorized programs

      It doesn't have to. A DRM file would be stored encrypted. The only way to decrypt it is to use the trusted application that it is mated to. Such an application typically won't offer the option to decrypt a DRM file. Therefore, if it wants to quit playing a song after 5 listens, they can enforce that. Without the key from the vendor to unlock it, a DRM file is just a pile of gibberish. I'm not saying the OS will stop you from listening to an unencrypted file you already have. That decision is up to the vendor. There are a lot of decisions that can be made by the vendor (such as encrypting the filesystem) that can dramatically impact the freedoms and flexibility you have come to expect.

    19. Re:How is the TPM used? by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 1
      I know a lot more about the TPM than what is in any FAQ; I've read every page of the spec and have written software .... okay?

      If you are the expert you say you are, then it should be obvious to you that the preceding attestation is insecure. :)

      ...there is no interest in general purpose PCs to stop them booting other OS's.

      Here, you are not supporting your argument on a technical basis (e.g. Intel writes the BIOS, therefore Intel decides if Linux can boot), but a social one (e.g. Intel likes Linux, really we do *blink* *blink*).

      Intel makes money off of Linux and they are never going to stop making machines that can run it!

      Is that a promise? Sign here. Well, that's not where I was going with this, but I have no quarrel with that as a goal.

      The problem with what you describe is you could patch the BIOS to disable this check of the TPM

      That depends on how picky the boot ROM wants to be about the BIOS it checksums. If you are saying that in some current crop of systems it's not going to resort to being picky, that is something I might be led to believe. But, that's something that may be changed in the future, without a public announcement, if, say, MSFT requires it from Dell as part of some pact. In fact, come to think of it, they had announced a strategy to lock Linux out of PCs a while while back.

      And there are other restrictions that the BIOS may have to fulfill before it can even start, but I won't get into those.

      In short the TPM is not there to keep the machine from booting other software....

      I don't [have to] doubt your [presently] good intentions about that. MSFT, who has bought Gator/Claria, and other spyware vendors will have their own plans for it. They are also in the business to make money. I won't describe the horrid things they are capable of doing with this because I don't want to give them any ideas :)

      ...That does have DRM implications, but the details are totally different from the misleading picture that you described.

      You are once again focusing on what the most immediate systems do, while ignoring the capabilities other people will use it for, especially a couple of years from now. I'm more interested in what the full capabilities are, and where this is going. Are we unwittingly enabling a 1984 type of future for ourselves? If so, maybe the name of Sapiens Sapiens should be reconsidered.

    20. Re:How is the TPM used? by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 1

      The TCG spec absolutely promises that the physical operator of a machine can reset the TPM, clear all keys...

      And how does the user perform these things, with jumper pins? By tapping in morse code on the plastic sticker on the chip? (...Spitballs?)

      The user will have to try to access this functionality through the BIOS or the OS. The TPM doesn't drive the video or keyboard. So, it's academic: if the BIOS writer decides not to pass the capability along to the user, then, what are the user's options? 1) Sit and obediently watch the ads 2) The landfill.

      Now, of course, you're going to reply "but this wouldn't be compliant with the TCG spec! You're not claiming that they might *gasp* deviate from the spec, are you?" Two words: "Embrace and Extend." (And don't reply just to tell me that that's three words.)

      When you read specs by self-interested industry groups, you can't forget that they enjoy defining words, such as "user" differently from how you would. They may conveniently assume that the "user" is the chip buyer, not the end user, as far as their own implementation is concerned. As ridiculous as it sounds, any vague terms in the spec are considered fair game, and that's the way they like it. That way, they can violate the spec and still insist that they are 100% compliant, whether it be Java, USB 2.0 or TCG.

  69. Haha! Losers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank god I dumped Apple after IBM dumped them.

    So much for the hardcore Apple loonies talk of "cheap fast x86 Macs"

    Next year Apple will be selling overpriced DRM laden x86 boxes.

    Haha!

    1. Re:Haha! Losers by dustmite · · Score: 1

      Thank god I dumped Apple after IBM dumped them.

      Yeah! You really stuck it to 'em, by sticking with the Wintel platform that ... uh, oh wait ... will also be DRM'd in the near future.

      Did you really think Intel put in DRM just for Apple? WTF.

  70. Did you not see it comming? by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 1

    *cough* itunes, drm, turning up the heat slowly, more restrictions soon, told you so *cough*

    I liked my powerbook, but now it's time to say fuck you Apple, enough is enough, and part ways it seems.

    --
    Beep beep.
    1. Re:Did you not see it comming? by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      I liked my powerbook, but now it's time to say fuck you Apple, enough is enough, and part ways it seems.

      I hardly think your opinion is going to carry much weight with the true Apple fans. You see, you admit in your sig to running Linux on a Powerbook, so in their eyes you're already some kind of filthy deviant.

      You may as well have said, "I'm a convicted pedophile and I'm not happy with Apple's stance on DRM". Except in that case, there's probably less chance of an angry mob with burning torches turning up at your house.

  71. luxury! by sum.zero · · Score: 1

    tell it to the windows logic users (~25%) that apple end of lifed when they aquired the company.

    sum.zero

    1. Re:luxury! by TheFlamingoKing · · Score: 1

      For real! So the cost for us to use Logic went up from $999 to about $3999 in a day. Jeez...

  72. Not really applicable by lokedhs · · Score: 1
    I just read the article. Ignoring the fact that since it is about the PowerPC, some of the information in it may not be applicable, it contains the following paragraph:
    Make the original function writable. By default, the page containing the original function's code will not be writable. Attempting to overwrite the instruction would result in process termination. The solution is straight-forward: use Mach's vm_protect() routine to mark the page writable.
    It is quite possible that in a DRM'ed OS you won't be able to call vm_protect() to control the protection status of certain memory pages. Certainly not the ones containing the DRM code.

    I'm not saying that a Palladium-style DRM OS can't be defeated, but it will be done in a way similar to the way game consoles DRM is broken: usually by exploiting bugs in the code. The alloying thing about that is that the crackers need to play catchup with an endless stream of OS updates that plugs these holes.

    The other solution is a hardware patch. I'm sure these will appear too, but it may take time. How long did it take for the Game Cube? 3 years? A personal computer typically has a shorter life time than that.

    1. Re:Not really applicable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People are missing the point here.

      You cannot make your OS image authorize the hardware because someone can modify the OS image _before it is loaded_ to disable these checks. So, it is always technically feasible to produce binary patches to make OSX run on unauthorized hardware.

      What you may not be able to do, if Apple does it "right", is get hardware DRM to authenticate this patched OSX so that it will be able to get authorized as a "genuine Apple OSX system" which means you might not be able to use iTunes or what have you as a network service.

    2. Re:Not really applicable by lokedhs · · Score: 1
      What you say is true as long as the OS image isn't encrypted.

      Whether it's technically feasible to do so depends on the performance of the DRM hardware.

      I do agree, however, that at this point it seems unlikely that it will be. However, some key parts might be. The obvious part will be the "media authorisation code", but other parts of the OS may also be encrypted. We really don't know exactly what the implementation will look like.

    3. Re:Not really applicable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yes, I hadn't thought of encrypting the OS image because I do not see how it is feasible to distribute to end-users with host-specific encryption keys. You'd really have to do something evil like a networked install agent that gets a personally encrypted (and watermarked?) image from the vendor for your authenticated, genuine host.

      And even then, I do not see anything like encrypted RAM being used in the near future, so the plaintext will be available somewhere on the hardware, e.g. vulnerable to logic analyzers on the memory bus. We'll probably see tamper-resistent, ROM+RAM+CPU distribution "cartridges" becoming economically viable before anybody makes a truly secure general-purpose PC!

      I tend to think the only technical approach which is marketable now is the path where effective use of user-visible features requires hardware-based authentication of the hardware+softare combination with remote networked services. But, I think people will be busy attacking those protocols for interoperability from non-Apple platforms just as much as anyone would be worrying about whether they can run Apple software on unauthorized hardware... and there might be interesting legal battles in this area in the future based on interop and/or anti-monopoly principles.

    4. Re:Not really applicable by lokedhs · · Score: 1
      Ah yes, I hadn't thought of encrypting the OS image because I do not see how it is feasible to distribute to end-users with host-specific encryption keys. You'd really have to do something evil like a networked install agent that gets a personally encrypted (and watermarked?) image from the vendor for your authenticated, genuine host.
      Yes. This is possible. However, at this point I don't believe they will do this. It really is more pain than it's worth. And after all, why would Apple want to do it? No other PC manufacturers will be allowed to make OSX machines anyway, and if people want to create a hack, well they most likely wouldn't lose a sale anyway and they may actually gain another user.
      And even then, I do not see anything like encrypted RAM being used in the near future, so the plaintext will be available somewhere on the hardware, e.g. vulnerable to logic analyzers on the memory bus. We'll probably see tamper-resistent, ROM+RAM+CPU distribution "cartridges" becoming economically viable before anybody makes a truly secure general-purpose PC!
      There is really little need to create a fully encrypted system at this point. Practically the only driving force is the **AA lobby. However, as the network becomes more and more ubiquitous the demands for secure computing will go up, at which time we may very well see a fully encrypted system. When this arrives, it will hopefully be for the benefit of the user, not some almighty big brother. I'm not holding my breath though. However, in the near future (a few years ahead) I don't see much to worry about.
      and there might be interesting legal battles in this area in the future based on interop and/or anti-monopoly principles.
      Yes, I agree here. The **AA lobby is pushing DRM through legislation. The other side will have to do the same in order to keep everything balanced.
  73. Excited! by poptones · · Score: 1

    Seriously. I know it's politically incorrect to say this here and I'm sure this post is just going to get flamed to a crisp, but I am excited by the prospects of a DRM that might actually work and I am not at all surprised to see Apple taking the lead here.

    There are a lot of reasons DRM will be a good thing for our culture but since all anyone really cares about is getting a free ride on hollywood I won't even bother to go into it here. If you want to read my arguments you can hit the comments on the various "free culture" posts at lessig's blog or... well, if you even care why I think DRM is a fantastic thing for computing that's pretty much your *only* chance to find out why.

  74. switching by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    My whole plan was to switch away from Microsoft to Apple due to the (relatively) benign copy protection in OS X and other products.

    I may have to rethink that strategy now.

    I was planning on making my next computer a Mac as I refuse to get anything like WindowsXP which requires activation so now if I do I guess I'll have to get a G4 Powerbook. And I was hoping the price of an Intel Powerbook would be lower than they are now. When I'm ready to get one I just hope the Intel's will be announced if not released as I'm thinking they will cause the prices of the G4s to drop.

    Falcon
  75. Re:hold the phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe this isn't going to be os x built in drm, maybe it is just to keep the developer macintel x from ending up on half of the world's computers before the real deal comes out.

      Of course, that's what Apple will say. And iTunes DRM is only there to make it sound better!

  76. See, this is not Microsoft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See, this is not Microsoft...

    Where are the guys that always scream when something is done in Redmond?

    Are you going to do the same when Apple does it?

    Or when Linux implements it?

  77. Does not prevent Linux/BSD from running on Mac H/W by Dark+Coder · · Score: 1

    Relax.

    TPM is not about openness or restrictive use of H/W. Only about authorization of OS to enable certain SW components.

    TPM only enables resident OS to enforces whether it should run or not (all or parts of it; most likely parts of it).

    Having Linux and TPM, together, is only useful if you are making commercial distros (albeit a very restrictive one).

    So, try not to get your panty in a bunch -- Intel-based H/W manufacturer ain't going to make machines if it ONLY runs on a specific operating system. Low profit margin in an already thin-operating margin/market. OS provider MUST shell out $$$ to deploy this TPM-based HW.

    The only danger I see down the road, is pulling a lefthook (after widespread TPM deployment) is hooking the Hard Drive to TPM. Its profound ramification, I leave to your imagination.

  78. Correction - Re:Gentlemen, start your debuggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The first person to crack this DRM implementation will win two free stories about it on Slashdot!

  79. Seriously.... by ribo-bailey · · Score: 0

    I'm so getting tired of computers.

  80. Who needs a debugger? by btarval · · Score: 1
    Perhaps the easiest way to by-pass this would be to simply use a VM emulator like Xine or VMware; and just simply add in the appropriate code to mimic what the hardware chip is doing.

    It's difficult to see a way to restrict this approach; but perhaps I'm missing something.

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
    1. Re:Who needs a debugger? by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      The hardware chip is doing public-private key encryption. If you can mimic this, there's much more profitable endevors available to you than getting OS X running on your Dell.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    2. Re:Who needs a debugger? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps the easiest way to by-pass this would be to simply use a VM emulator like Xine or VMware; and just simply add in the appropriate code to mimic what the hardware chip is doing.

      Presumably you mean Xen rather than Xine... and yes, you are missing something. The operating system simply will not run with the trusted hardware -- since the gatekeeper part of the OS will be encrypted and only decrypted with the keys hidden away inside the hardend TCPA hardware. Naturally, you as the lowly peon who paid for the machine will not have access to this key. That will be reserved for Lord Jobs, and he will allow those serfs who obey orders and pay a suitable tax will be permitted to "rent" part of "your" computer for a short time.

      It's difficult to see a way to restrict this approach; but perhaps I'm missing something.

      I'll say... you've missed the last few years of TCPA discussions during which every single thread contains at least one person who thinks they've spotted the "virtualiser" flaw in Trusted Computing that all the engineers missed.

    3. Re:Who needs a debugger? by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      That would be illegal in any jurisdiction where English Common law applies. As the rightful owner of the hardware, you would be privy to any secret embodied inside it -- and entitled to use reasonable force to obtain it.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    4. Re:Who needs a debugger? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would be illegal in any jurisdiction where English Common law applies.

      Do you have a source for this? Besides, even if that were true... you don't buy software these days. You buy a license to use it. The same will be true of PCs too.

    5. Re:Who needs a debugger? by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      You physically own the disc or whatever other article on which the software is stored. Therefore, you are privy to the software; it is not secret from you {though you may be bound to keep it secret from others}.

      You'll have a job enforcing it, though.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  81. All the mod points are going to pro-apple posts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As expected. Pro-apple slashdot readers only mod up pro-apple posts. The unbiased slashdot reader will much rather use their mod points on more interesting news. There is no reciprocity, just like with the Islamists.

    I hate cults.

    1. Re:All the mod points are going to pro-apple posts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuck you, pussy ass. "oh wah... there are people out there who like their computers and have come to respect the products a company makes and i'm all miffed cuz i'm stuck with this horseshit pc so i'm going to troll slashdot when i'm done wanking off to pix of brad pitt." fuckin' knob.

    2. Re:All the mod points are going to pro-apple posts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a difference between liking their computers and company and blindly following off a cliff.

  82. Just out of curiosity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is DRM considered so "BAD"?

    1. Re:Just out of curiosity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      repost as non-ac and somebody will answer. Or just surf EFF.

    2. Re:Just out of curiosity... by anubi · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Well, imagine you hired somebody and you told him to do something. You want him to do it.... NOW!

      Now, imagine you hired somebody and you told him to do something, but now, instead of just doing it, he insists on getting permission from someone else before he will do what you tell him to do. This leaves someone else in complete power of whether or not you can get this guy to do what you hired him to do in the first place...

      Its yet another layer ( possibly dozens of layers ) of additional negotiation that has to be played out before things can happen.

      There are many businesses out there who are running on razor-thin profit margins as they try to remain economically competitive. Adding yet more layers of nonproductive negotiation will require cutting finances somewhere else, and often nothing is left but salary and benefits.

      On top of that, DRM enables somebody else to control whether or not the infrastructure you already paid for and installed will be permitted to continue to function. Would you want a toilet which insisted on "phoning home" and getting permission to accept a load?

      Believe it or not, there are many people out there which have a so-called "business" education that are completely unaware of the business risks of having somebody else at the switch which controls whether or not the business can function.

      We are trying our damndest to protect their ass.

      Its like trying to make sure your neighbors don't erect highly flammable houses in fireprone areas. Just as firemen know a fire in a neighborhood threatens all the houses, this DRM thing can easily get out of control and threaten all of us.

      There are some of us who know there is no reason at all to pay someone else over and over and over again for work that's already been done. But we also realize using DRM to enforce that paradigm is quite doable, and there are a helluva lot of people out there which will jump at the chance to lure us all into this cat trap.

      Me and a lot of other people here have been trapped before, and know what this kind of cat trap looks like and what it does.

      Once that door slams shut behind you... err, well forget about a lot of stuff you used to take for granted.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    3. Re:Just out of curiosity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmmm, not liking the idea of people having to hook up there media center PC's to the internet or stand alones just to watch a dvd.

    4. Re:Just out of curiosity... by anubi · · Score: 1
      Yes... and you never know when, like the Circuit City DIVX disks, the server granting permission for the DRM-encumbered systems gets shut down, rendering everthting needing its permission to continue to function - useless.

      Just one little phrase in the EULA holds the software company who coded that DRM harmless, yet even in the case of abandonware, current DMCA law still considers one trying to salvage his investment to be a criminal.

      We little guys best stay out of this and leave this kinda stuff for the big guys who can afford to finance the proper legal teams, as DMCA law forbids solving the problem on the technical level.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  83. Re:Does not prevent Linux/BSD from running on Mac by Dark+Coder · · Score: 1

    Oops.

    I meant to say "OS Provider MUST shell out $$$ to deploy a HW that authenticates OS."

    TPM-based motherboard is just an add-on and mostly a no-op for today's OSes.

  84. copyrights by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    The copyrighters right to copyright is not protected by the U.S. Constitution

    The U.S. Constitution Online
    http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article1
    Section 8 - Powers of Congress
    ...
    To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

    Falcon
    1. Re:copyrights by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      by protected. I mean like the First Amendment. Congress can't pass laws eliminating First Amendment rights, but it can eliminate copyrights and patents by passing a law. They have the power to give Copyright only for promoting the Progress of Science and useful Arts. Eliminating copyrights and patents reqires no such test.

    2. Re:copyrights by stoborrobots · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The copyrighters right to copyright is not protected by the U.S. Constitution
      ...
      Section 8 - Powers of Congress

      Yep - that would be the ability of the US Congress to control whether or not the copyrighters have a right to copyright. Note that it provides congress with a power, it does not provide the people with a right.

      Importantly, it has the clause "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" - once copyright is no longer filling that role, it should not be in place...
    3. Re:copyrights by mavenguy · · Score: 1
      Nitpick:

      Parsing terms from Art. I, Section 8, clause 8, into the current implementations of Copyright and Patent,

      Copyright
      1. science
      2. authors
      3. writings

      Patent
      1. useful arts
      2. inventors
      3. discoveries
    4. Re:copyrights by Shalda · · Score: 1

      Importantly, it has the clause "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"

      Right, but in Eldrich the Surpreme court struck down that clause as being irrelevant fruity language. The ruling pretty much states that as long as copyright terms are technically finite, Congress has unfettered discretion in setting copyright law.

    5. Re:copyrights by hey! · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Article 1. Sec 8.:

      The Congress shall have power ...[snip]...

      To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

      The Constitution grants congress its powers. Congress has, theoretically, no powers that are not granted directly or by implication in article 1 or by a subeseuqent amendment. So far so good. But like "Thou Shalt Not Kill", there's countless ways to pull out loopholes by means of clever interpretation. The problem with this is how to interpret the relationship between "To promote the progress of science and useful arts," and "by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries". L. Lessig has argued that the power being granted should be read thus:

      Congress is empowered to promote the progress of science and useful arts, provided that it is by means of granting authors and inventors exclusive rights to their works for a limited term.

      I think this is reasonable. However, sometimes too much expertise means you can't see the forest for the trees. The SC reads it more like this:

      Congress is empowered to secure for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. The purpose for which this Constitution grants this power is to promote the progress of science and useful arts.

      Notice that this reading expands Congress's powers in a dramatic way. By reducing the preamble to a mere commentary, Congress's use of copyrights and patents becomes an unlimited power to control ideas and expression. For example, if they can create a fundamental property right to ideas if they are so inclined ideologically, even if it could be conclusively demonstrated that this would actually retard progress. They can grant copyright extensions, even though it is clearly counterproductive to incent people to produce work they've already done. This also castrates the term limitation. They could set the term limit to a million years, even though this clearly does nothing to promote anything.

      You can't escape the fact this clause is very poorly written from a standpoint of clarity, although it fits nicely into the rhetorical structure of A1.

      Personally, I find the presence of constitutional appendages like "to promote the progress" very suspicious. It suggests to me that the rights/powers in question are ones most people agree on in principle, but disagree on in details. I think that the framers knew there were potential problems with this clause, but they had bigger fish to fry like preventing the President from levying taxes and raising armies on his own authority. So, they weasled out by putting some vague qualifications on it and hoping the details could be worked out later. The other famous preamble (er apppendix?) is of course "a well regulated militia..." in the second amendment. This is another mistake. To some people it sounds like a limitation on the right granted; to others it's just a bit of commentary on why the right is granted. I doubt this disagreement is new. I can imagine that a fat cat Federalist merchant would imagine a "well regulated militia" very differently than a "blood of patriots" Jeffersonian agriculturalist.
      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:copyrights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It provides Congress with a LIMITED power, to be used only for the PUBLIC good.

      Furthermore, the public's right to freedom of speech and of the press (which copyright infringes upon) is both inalienable and explicitly protected by the First Amendment. The "compatibility" of copyright/patent with the First Amendment is rationalized only by the "more public good than harm" argument; if there is gross abuse of copyright to screw the public, then that defense of copyright falls to bits.

    7. Re:copyrights by BillyBlaze · · Score: 1

      To people who think the "to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts" phrase is commentary instead of limitation, I'd like to point out that that power of congress is the only one that mentions a broader goal before giving the specifics. The other enumerated powers simply list the specific power, not to what purpose it should be used. To me, this is clear evidence that that broader goal was very important to the framers.

    8. Re:copyrights by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      by protected. I mean like the First Amendment

      Ok, I stand, er sit, corrected. Copyright isn't a fixed right guarantied by the Constitution or an amendment, instead the constitution allows congress to set the limits of copyrights and patents.

      Falcon
    9. Re:copyrights by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Importantly, it has the clause "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" - once copyright is no longer filling that role, it should not be in place...

      I admit I was wrong in saying people have the right to copyrights when instead congress has the right to setup and put limits on them as well as patents. As they are now copyrights don't fill the role of promoting the arts and science but it's not because they don't work it's because congress has lengthened them beyond reason. Going back to Jefferson's 14 years with one 14 year extension will put the role of copyrights back on track.

      Falcon
    10. Re:copyrights by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Personally, I find the presence of constitutional appendages like "to promote the progress" very suspicious. It suggests to me that the rights/powers in question are ones most people agree on in principle, but disagree on in details. I think that the framers knew there were potential problems with this clause

      Originally Thomas Jefferson was against copyrights and patents and it took James Madison and others to show him that they could be of benefit.

      Falcon
  85. Other Software... by charlie763 · · Score: 1

    I don't really care if I'm not able to run OS X on other hardware. I'm only concerned with being able to run other software on Apple hardware. The kernel can use as much DRM as it likes so long as the hardware does not use any while running another OS.

    I enjoy their hardware, but am not a large fan of their OS. That's why I'm writing this from my PowerBook running Ubuntu.

    --
    Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
  86. I thought this way by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 2, Funny

    how did you think Apple was going to keep their OS on the computers they make?

    javascript:void(osx.g_sDisableAppleCheck='all')

    :X

  87. I would say BeOS or the Open Source version of it by jd · · Score: 1
    But I've not seen much in the way of progress from that quarter reported in a while. I'm generally leery of recommending software if I'm not seeing progress.


    (BeOS would have otherwise been a good choice, as it is closer to the Mac philosophy than any other system I've seen.)


    So long as you install some solid helper applications (Webmin is often a good start) and a comprehensive GUI (KDE, rather than FVWM, for example), a good office suite (Open Office 2 is getting there) and a good collaborative environment (eg: OpenGroupware) then Linux is reasonably usable for anyone used to the Apple Mac or Windows.


    Only reasonably? Well, you have to remember that the philosophies are quite different and therefore there will always be some perspective shift required. You also have to remember that a great many of the packages I listed are in beta for the next release - and Open Source is arguably always "beta" as there is always something under development in any package, even if the bulk of it is stable.


    The only two other options I can think of are plying modders with beer until they produce a mod-kit for OS-X that removes DRM, or plying the SheepShaver developers with beer until they add OS-X support. Then it won't matter any more.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  88. MOD PARENT UP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This probably is (1) what everybody is feeling (2) no apple apologist will admit (3) no unbiased slashdot reader bothers to say.

  89. And How long before they expand beyond mobo check? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously. How long before they start expanding this new copy protection tool they have into other parts of the system just like microsoft or worse?

    Can you honestly say you trust them so blindly?

  90. Not any more than before by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    There's been PPC hardware released that was non-Apple and it lacked Apple's firmware too, plus Apple didn't pull the PPC emulator that will run on Intel for PPC OS X applications out of thin air. All Apple needs to do to maintain status quo is to modify EFI in some way that makes running OS X impossible without it.

  91. The old and the new by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

    The first time Apple did this, the OS looked at a few certain bytes of ROM, and if they didn't say "APPLE ][", it wouldn't run. If it did, it'd run. If it ran and it wasn't Apple hardware, the manufacturer was infringing the copyright (ironically, owned by Microsoft) and Apple went after them. If they were outside the US, the importers were sued, and sometimes Apple sued the makers on their home ground. Apple successfully fought off the Apple II clones this way.

    What they are doing now is much the same on one hand, but on the other very different.

    However, they're not just limiting this to the OS and hardware. They're making it possible to run or not run DRM based material. There is only one reason for this. They intend to produce machines which, just like Microsoft based machines, allow complete pay-per control. This is the intended end point. Without the DRM in the software, the machine won't run it. With the DRM in the software, only machines with the proper hardware will run it. The only way around it will be to have both hardware and software without it, and soon neither will be produced.

    Sure, there'll be work arounds. There'll also need to be work arounds to prevent any such machine connected to the net from phoning home and tattling that it's being abused.

    Of course I'm paranoid. I've been watching them do this stuff for 25 years.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
    1. Re:The old and the new by nsayer · · Score: 1
      The first time Apple did this, the OS looked at a few certain bytes of ROM, and if they didn't say "APPLE ][", it wouldn't run.

      This led to the Apple v. Franklin lawsuit, which Apple lost.

      The concept behind the final decision was that you could not use a copyright to "gate" a monopoly position in another market. More recently, this decision was a foundation for the recent decision concerning the company making chips to put in aftermarket ink and toner cartridges. The printer manufacturer (I don't remember the name) was not allowed to claim infringement because the copyrighted material was used to effectively grant a monopoly on cartridge manufacturing to the printer company despite the fact that there was no other barrier to interoperability.

  92. DRM in Linux! Hurry! by wbren · · Score: 1

    I just hope the Linux kernel developers get their hands on this amazing technology quickly! I don't want to keep using out-dated, inferior, non-DRM technology that doesn't "just work".

    --
    -William Brendel
  93. I call BS on you by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

    if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM

    Piracy or not piracy, there is no need for DRM, given that it won't be effective in restricting pirates' abilities to do as they like. They would implement it anyway: just look at everything that is being done to restrict your freedom in the name of the greater good.

    how can you blame companies for trying to protect their profits when thousands of people are ripping them off

    I wouldn't blame them for protecting themselves, but this is not what they're doing. First, their profits are skyrocketing, mainly thanks to P2P; just look at recent studies proving this. Second, nobody's ripping them off: sorry man but I will not take this bullshit anymore. If Joe User downloads stuff that he would not buy if his life depended on it, he's not ripping anyone off.
    Even in a scenario where companies were actually suffering because of teh evil P2P haX0rz (which is SF), such measures as DRM would essentially equate to solving the problem of pollution by asking people to switch their lights off about 1/10th of a second earlier than usual. But we would all know the causes of pollution lie elsewhere.

    Honestly, you should be mad at the pirates, without whom we wouldn't have this problem

    As I have shown, there is no problem. And I'm mad at sheeple like you who think this world would be good and just if not for these damn pirates, and who don't realise the need to act now, to fight against the ones trying to turn your house into a jail and your life into a privilege.

    --
    Global warming is a cube.
    1. Re:I call BS on you by qubex · · Score: 1
      If Joe User downloads stuff that he would not buy if his life depended on it, he's not ripping anyone off.

      I am fed up of these overly simplistic economic analyses that totally miss the point.

      Consider video-editing software: You have (e.g.) Movie Maker that is available free with Windows. Then you have a $100 package called Super Movie Maker produced by Company A Ltd. Finally you have a professional $999 package called Ultra Movie Maker made by Company B Inc.

      Lets say that Movie Maker ($0) doesn't meet your needs but that you can't afford $999. What would you do? You could go and buy the $100 Super Movie Maker and contribute $100 to Company A. Alternatively, you could download Ultra Movie Maker free from some Warez site.

      So, you see, by making Ultra Movie Maker available for free, the warez site hasn't cost Company B any revenue (because you couldn't afford to spend $999) but it has cost Company A $100 in revenue. So just because "Joe User" couldn't afford the program he downloads for free doesn't mean this doesn't cost anybody any money. It destroys the clientele of the smaller firms.

      Am I against DRM? Yeah, sure I am. But at least lets get our facts straight because there is no point bullshitting each other.

      --
      "Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it."
    2. Re:I call BS on you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! But it is more insidious than you think. Think bigger. For example, there is a large industry which takes people on tours around the artic. But people can still today buy a previously used boat, or even worse, have one willed to them from relatives. These people who dare take their boats to the artic for the scenery are depriving the amusement industry of profit. These scenery pirate self-tours destroy the clientele of the smaller tours. That's why I'm all for drilling in the artic refuge.

    3. Re:I call BS on you by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 1
      As I have shown, there is no problem. And I'm mad at sheeple like you who think this world would be good and just if not for these damn pirates, and who don't realise the need to act now, to fight against the ones trying to turn your house into a jail and your life into a privilege.


      Pirates are criminals plain and simple. Although the use of DRM can't be entirely blamed on them, they play their part. I'm sick of people asking me for a free copy of something that I paid money for. I'm sick of not being able to get a bus after 8pm since the bus company stopped the service because kids were attacking the buses with stones. I'm sick of having to go through so much security at airports because idiots want to smuggle or blow shit up. I'm sick of the local park being locked up at 6pm because people would drink and tear the place up. I'm sick of having difficulty getting a cab because I live in a bad area.

      See the pattern developing here?

      Although evil corporations may have ulterior motives for using DRM, large scale piracy gives them the ammunition they need to justify this to the public and government. Yes the public needs to be more aware of the cost of piracy and , the terrible effects that DRM can have. Justifying piracy isn't a good way to do this.
      --
      -- Using the preview button since 2005
    4. Re:I call BS on you by qubex · · Score: 1

      My point is that piracy disrupts the whole price-structure of the software industry: instead of buying a cheap alternative, you pirate an expensive package for free. It's the small software companies that lose out.

      --
      "Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it."
  94. Think of the children! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the copyright were not extended over and over and over, I might just buy into your rant. But we have to think of the children. How will they grow in a cultural void where no works are in the public domain? What about the children of the poor, who cannot buy a piece of culture they legitimately own?

  95. Re:FP! by fr0dicus · · Score: 2, Funny

    DRM could be put to valid uses, such as stopping first posters...

  96. dev preview intel mac by crashelite · · Score: 1

    it looks so empty with out the HUGE G5 heat sync :)

    --
    (yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
  97. no they won't by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 1

    It'll be a lot more than one. There will be at least a half-dozen repeats.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  98. I think that's still obvious by dustmite · · Score: 1

    So who became more evil Apple or Microsoft?

    Wow ... Spoken like someone who knows absolutely nothing about Microsoft's history. Your question betrays an incredible depth of (perhaps willful) ignorance.

    We related to companies in much the same way we relate to the people in our lives: we don't regard any as being "totally good" or "totally evil", rather, we regard people as being somewhere inbetween, with varying proportions of "good" and "evil". Some people are mostly good but occasionally bad; these people we (rightfully) tend to forgive when they do an occasional bad thing, and as long it's not too bad we keep those people in our lives. Other people though are sometimes good but mostly bad, and this type of person we avoid. We relate to companies in the same way, and it makes perfect sense to do so. There is nothing hypocritical about it, as the astroturfers on slashdot desparately try to imply, when we appear to treat different companies by different standards --- just like there is nothing hypocritical about it if you forgive your, say, mostly-good girlfriend when she occasionally loses her temper with you, but you don't forgive someone who always treats you like crap for doing the same thing. Not only is this perfectly normal, it makes perfect sense too.

    There's no such thing as a totally good or totally evil person or company. So what normal people seek out is those people/companies who are "mostly good".

  99. Re:Damn Microsoft! And ? by tuomoks · · Score: 1

    And people protecting their rights when companies ( corporations, individuals, gov., ) try to make the access to information difficult or even impossible ? And if THEY are mad on pirates why don't THEY go after them ( those terrible pirates, maybe terrorists? ) - why bother all and everyone ? You know - real pirates exist ( even in software world. ) Might that be too difficult or might there be some other reasons ? Where do you think it is easier to get the money - some real crooks or from big public ? This subject is so old..

  100. Bitch, Piss, Moan, or.... by solios · · Score: 1

    ... the first REAL challenge the juarezkiddiez have had in years? :-)

    Ready, set, go.

    Seriously - Apple operating systems run on Apple-approved hardware ONLY, plzkthks. Has been, will be. We're back to roms but this time we know (to some extent, anyway?) what's in the damned things.

    1. Re:Bitch, Piss, Moan, or.... by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

      Why bitch, piss, moan? You are a potential customer for them having own money.

      When Mactel ships, if it's not some FUD and you are pissed to this kind of lockout, buy another brand and install whatever OS works best in it and suits your needs.

      Wonder which exact reason Apple is easily leaking this story and put DRM before Longhorn (Vista?) ships? They trust to their users being sort of "cult member" forgetting Apple is a company and they are customers.

      Very same reason Amiga has... Nevermind ;)

  101. OK, SO NOW IT'S OKAY BECAUSE IT'S APPLE??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of you people amaze me! So, now DRM protection is OK because it's Apple who is embracing it!!? This is ridiculous, get real! This thing will eat you alive.

    1. Re:OK, SO NOW IT'S OKAY BECAUSE IT'S APPLE??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Couldn't agree more.

  102. ...just as Phil Schiller said. by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1
    More specifically, it includes "a TCPA/Palladium implementation that uses a Infineon 1.1 chip which will prevent certain parts of the OS from working unless authorized."

    Or, to quote Apple's VP of Marketing from a CNet article, "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac." (Scroll to the end of the article text.)

    Anybody in the audience to whom this comes as a Sudden Surprise, only now provoking them to be pissed off at Apple, apparently missed that article (or anything quoting it).

  103. ... and lickable, too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and lickable! Mmm, tasty!

  104. Who's responsibility? by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

    "we're all responsible for our ills, in one way or another."

    Well... Kinda. To paraphrase Billy Joel, 'We didn't start the fire...' Most of use didn't implement these sorts of things or control the general direction. There's simply too much for one human brain to handle - and most humans aren't real technically minded to begin with.

    All we can do is begin to address and redress already existing ills as we discover them. I believe we are only responsible if we know about it and do nothing.

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  105. This article is mistaken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's actually RDF in the kernel, not DRM.

  106. you were warned by pbjones · · Score: 1

    it was reported very early that using Intel did not mean cheap PCs from Apple. Their business model says they must control both hardware and software, so DRM chip(s) are expected. IMHO the main stated reason, stated by Steve, is tied to power consumptions, not cost.

    --
    There was an unknown error in the submission.
    1. Re:you were warned by skingers6894 · · Score: 1

      You are right. Not once did Steve Jobs promise "cheaper" macs as a reason for moving to Intel - just cooler (style and temperature :-)) ones.

  107. yawn by pbjones · · Score: 1

    Infineon is the company name, not the chip name. If Infineon deals with Apple the way they deal with my company, Apple will switch to someone else in after a short time. Did 3 Infineon execs get locked up in Germany?

    --
    There was an unknown error in the submission.
  108. MOD PARENT UP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Insightful.

  109. Re:FP! by BetterThanCaesar · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    But if no one posted first, then no one could post second, or third, and there'd be no posts at all.

    --
    "Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
  110. Its technology - use it positively by dirkx · · Score: 1
    While I can see the fear, uncertainty and doubt with respect how big-evil co would use this - think about it from a technology perspective for a moment.

    What we're getting here is an on board tamperproof(ish) crypto processor.

    Exactly the thing you always wanted to safely put your ssh keys into, to have your X509 cert tied to, to lock your own VPN's into. And because it is not some separate chip card - and relatively fast compared to that - it propably can be used in much more secure modes; voiding the need to have things like passwords or unencrypted private keys in memory.

    And one worry less for when things get stolen or taken over.

    Given a few bright hackers won't be long before openssl, firefox and what get augmented with this chip as their storage areas.

    Dw

  111. Imagine Bush's "Free Speech Zones" on the Internet by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting
    When the proposed move to Intel was first announced, I suspected this might be the case and therefore asked in my comment about what role DRM would play. Though I didn't elaborate on it, the tip off was the "Roadmap" being more "interesting". It's a shame that Apple is heading that way. However, it's still possible for a more enlightened move from Apple's management.

    I still think the problems raised by DRM are greater and more severe than those it purports to fix. Obviously, fair use and doctrine of first sale are the first to disappear. But also, common carriage is at risk, and if DRM gets into routers and switches then it will be possible to make the Internet into the same mess the telecommunications network is in.

    The nature of DRM and the clumsy attempts we have seen so far also indicate that there is great potential for human rights abuse, too. There is of course the ability to monitor who is interacting with whom, the DRM software has to track this to work. There is also the ability to block or censor communications. After all, restricting access or dissemination is what DRM is all about. And that directly affects both the right to free speech and the right to peaceably assemble -- after all what can be published or organized without the Internet or the Web these days, without them you're shut off.

    --
    Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
  112. Salute by Blackbird_Highway · · Score: 1

    I for one, welcome our new Apple DRM overlords!

    --
    By the perception of illusion, we experience reality
  113. Amen, brother... by Mack+Damon · · Score: 1

    This will never (I'm saying never) be a ploy to keep you from sharing your iMovies with your family without paying royalties. This insures the OS stays on the platform it was designed for.

    I can't wait til the hack comes that gets OSX on commodity hardware.....then the bitching that will follow about how it's not stable, doesn't work with some bizarre image editing software that's open source...blah blah.

    Some people in this thread want to "borrow" a lawnmower to try it our for a haircut. That's the analogy here, folks.

    While the l33t crowd is trying figure out how to make CoreImage work on their Chaintech PC video card, I'll be getting hundreds of hours of productive work done on my mac, regardless of the CPU.

    --
    pucker up, buttercup
    1. Re:Amen, brother... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      I remember people telling me that MacOSX would "never" be availible on x86 hardware.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  114. Re:FP! by ajs318 · · Score: 1

    Yes, but what about if nobody could post AC until at least one logged-in user had made a post? That way, in order to get a first post, you would have to risk your precious karma.

    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  115. DVD kid by javiercr · · Score: 1

    Can we get the DVD kid (Jon Johansen) to start working on this ASAP?

  116. Re:FP! by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 1

    I blame the parents and the decline of spirograph.

    --
    -- Using the preview button since 2005
  117. remote attestation is an official feature of TPM by free2 · · Score: 1

    If you read the TCG official docs, you'll see that remote attestation (signed hashes of the hardware and of the bootloader can be encrypted and then checked by the OS or sent through the internet) is an official feature of TCG/TPM/TCPA.

  118. Ah, don't worry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Intel "Switch" is Dark Steve's last attempt at pushing his 1960's-cum-1990's technology to us.

    I have alerted him to the new tech that many of us are bringing "back from the future," and he ignores us.

    Enjoy the DRM. The only thing Apple has in its bag is the Music colelction in the store. This crap is not going to translate well to the new stuff -- crystal, quantum, optical and amino-acid-based computing technologies.

    Not-so-big-hint: Every Hu-man on this planet owns an "amino acid-based computer..." Think! Think! Hey, wait!

    Game Over,

    Shantar ("Steve Klingsporn")
    Galactic Federation
    Keep your eyes on the clouds... ;o)

  119. Simple.. Apple doesnt mind its users stealing OSX by CdBee · · Score: 1

    Its amazing how many more seeds there were for OSX Panther on eMule and BT trackers just after PearPC made their first usable release.



    Apple isn't particularly worried about its users committing copyright infringement - even today OSX doesn't force the user to register it online or authenticate. However I bet they are worried that their OS would be widely pirated by Windows users who want the experience without paying for it, as to a hardware company that's suicide.

    --
    I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
  120. mod parent up! + 5 funny!! by typidemon · · Score: 1

    haha

    1. Re:mod parent up! + 5 funny!! by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
      mod parent up! + 5 funny!!

      Dude... Gary wasn't trying to be funny. He's a few cubes down pulling out his hair while screaming "I'm FREAKIN OUT dude!"

  121. Switching Linux Distros by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have been switching distros the same way you did. Then I have discovered FreeBSD. Now I am happy. Default installation only instales stuff that you really, really need, then it is up to you to install and configure apps you want and need.

    Have a look at your .xinitrc file. Last time I looked it was about 800 lines long in RedHat. Try to understand what it does. I couldn't figure out how to add some simple feature into that. MY .xinitrc (on my FreeBSD 5.4) file is onle line long and I understand perfectly what it does. I have created it by myself. Just load Handbook, find chapter "installing KDE" and follow a screenful of simple instructions.

    Mean, lean, simple and coherent. And there are some 12460 ported applications.

    1. Re:Switching Linux Distros by falkryn · · Score: 1

      Your X install, include your .xinitrc shouldn't be any different across *nixes (so long as the same x.org or xfree release is being used, and even there, it's stayed fairly consistent). It's just that RedHat does a lot more for you by default than FBSD does.

      Personally, FBSD is one of those things I really wanted to like, but time and time again left dissapointed. That said, it's a *nix, so it certainly has it's good qualities ;-)

    2. Re:Switching Linux Distros by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      "Personally, FBSD is one of those things I really wanted to like, but time and time again left dissapointed. That said, it's a *nix, so it certainly has it's good qualities ;-)"

      Have you tried PC-BSD? http://www.pcbsd.org/
      I'm not claiming it's any competition for windows, but it's fast approaching the friendliness of a lot of linux distros.

      I was quite impressed. They seem to have made some major progress, and seem to be working and releasing at a brisk pace, and most things either "just work" or are configurable with a GUI.

      Again, I'm not saying it's as polished as windows or even some of the more user-friendly linux distros, but it's worth a look. For many it may be a friendly enough desktop to consider as a combo desktop/personal server, with the *BSD server goodness mitigating some of the friendliness issues remaining.

      I'm a linux-user with medium skills with linux, and had tried FreeBSD a couple times, but the initial learning curve was so steep to get a working and configured desktop that I couldn't afford the time investment.

      I'm now happily multi-booting 2 linux distros, windows, and PC-BSD, and have enough of a leg-up to be able to explore and learn at an acceptable (to me) rate. My g/f even had me replace her linux/KDE desktop with PC-BSD, which shocked me...she's not a geek or even especially interested in OSs. She told me she just liked PC-BSD because it "felt more stable".

      I hope the folks at PC-BSD keep up the great work they're doing in making FreeBSD easier for people not already well-versed in *BSD/UNIX to get a start with.

      Hopefully that will help them through that critical initial period until they've gained enough experience, so they'll stick with it.

      As to TCPA/TC, my past /. posts on that subject have made my feelings quite clear. It's *my* computer, I'll say what happens, thankyou.

      If it ceases to be possible for this state of affairs to continue, then I have other interests and places to spend my money. Maybe some more vintage guitars/amps and EFF donations. :) Their loss.

      Just my $0.02

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  122. apple beats microsoft by pintomp3 · · Score: 1

    yet again. apple brings us features that microsoft plans to use in longhorn before ms can put it out. and you thought it ended with desktop searching.

    1. Re:apple beats microsoft by omry_y · · Score: 1

      you call this a feature?!
      I`d say its more of a erutaef.
      (the exact opossite).

      --
      Omry.
  123. Re:Imagine Bush's "Free Speech Zones" on the Inter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good points. But as long as everyone keeps burying their heads in the sand and pretending the way the world is headed is just fine when it clearly isn't then we have a massive problem.

    People have to start taking action against this bullshit.

  124. eh, except they both buy out and not buy out by BoxedFlame · · Score: 1

    MS very often crushes companies for no good reason, remember the anti-trust case? Convicted in a federal court for doing it should sort of tip you off that they do it. Apple however has bought out people several times, with the prime example being iTunes.

  125. As a customer of Apple I restrain from commenting by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

    I noticed we don't have right to speak against Apple or some guys/gals with direct or indirect commercial contacts with Apple jumps into discussion and calls us:

    1) Ignorant
    2) Zealot
    3) Clueless
    4) Lifeless

    I admit I am a big mouth on Slashdot, but it doesn't mean I have to get harassed by unethical people can't even tell about the companies they work for, the contracts they have with Apple and how close they are to Apple workers themselves.

    I "switched" to Mac after struggling with x86, Wintel and never ending lack of Linux desktop for 10 years but I must say I expected the developers for this elite platform being a bit more elite and having own way of thinking.

    Mactel costed me getting banned from 3-4 channels, giving up (deleting) 2-3 open source projects I donated to and having a bad taste in my mouth about my "switch".

    Enough damage.
    "Think different" you know ;)

    Ps: In 24 hours some zealot with lots of "developer" karma will find an explanation to this fascist choice of technology.

  126. well by gullevek · · Score: 1

    seems I will save money and buy myself an G5 PowerMac before they disappear. And hope & pray that it doesn't break down to soon.

    With Windows Vista saying: You can't do shit on your own PC and Apple saying: You can't do shit on your own Mac, I probably have to return to Linux or try to live with what I have forever ...

    [a lot of angry words here about DRM crap]

    So I need to wait for a cracked Apple Kernel then? Holy moly ... life sucks really bad.

    --
    "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
  127. Mod parent +1 Slashbot by Professor+S.+Brown · · Score: 0

    What do you mean 'or so we thought anyway'? This place needs a '+1 Slashbot' moderation for bellends such as yourself who fail to see the hypocrisy of calling 'joe sixpack' a 'sheep' yet mindlessly tow the Slashdot line.

    iTMS would not exist without DRM, full stop. Maybe in some ridiculous Linux-hippy dream world, but not in real life. It is possible the new DRM will be used for something other than stopping you from running OSX, but seeing as OSX doesn't contain any form of DRM anywhere at all (besides iTMS) I think its pretty unlikely. They give you DRM-free CD ripping software, DVD ripping software, DVD player that happily plays its own rips of your HD, screen-capture software that captures DVD player content...blah blah...Apple doesn't like DRM. Do you see?

    --
    Shitram Brown, PhD
    Professor of Mathematics
  128. Mac OS X piracy by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 1
    See, here's where I see the issue:

    Knowing this full well it was rather obvious Apple would have to take some sort of action to keep their OS from being widely pirated within days of the first dev kits being delivered.


    Why should they? I work on an app that's cross platform - Linux, alpha on Mac OS X and a Win32 port in the works. Having access to the latest Mac OS X for free on my normal desktop without having to scrounge some 400MHz gutless laptop to do builds on would massively improve my ability to work on the Mac OS X support. As it is, I just don't find it worth the effort, so it's mostly a couple of contributors who have Apple hardware doing the work.

    I don't understand why Apple isn't handing out CDs of the early builds to developers in a way that'd make AOL look frugal. Surely they want to maximise exposure and get more developers trying it and using it now? There would be a lot of user installs too, but that'd only last as long as that version stayed current - by 10.6 or 10.7 those users might well be eyeing a Mac for an upgrade.

    Personally, I'd *kill* for a Xen port of Mac OS X for developers, so I didn't even have to reboot from my normal productive working environment into Mac OS X ... but I don't see it happening in a hurry.
    1. Re:Mac OS X piracy by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      I think we don't see Apple handing out pre-release discs for everyone's PC specifically because it is MacOS as opposed to PCOS. MacOS is intended to run on Macs. There's little money to be made in selling operating systems. About two million copies of Tiger have been sold since April, that is about a quarter billion dollars in revenue if you don't count any sort of discount pricing (student etc.). The revenue for the quarter was about three and a half billion with more than a million Macs sold and about six million iPods. Selling Macs and iPods made Apple far more money than selling copies of their OS.

      Giving out developer copies of the OS willy nilly isn't going to get them anywhere. It might expose a bunch of people to the OS but isn't any sort of guarantee they're going to develop for it. In the end you have a bunch of people with developer copies expecting the OS to run on their PCs and getting thuroughly upset when the shipping product does not. There's also far more hassle involved allowing any old developer PC to run the OS. There would need to be a huge effort writing drivers for the multitude of hardware combinations on developers' desks. If there was a requirement for developer PCs to resemble the Mac dev kits...it would pay off just to buy a Mac dev kit and work from there.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    2. Re:Mac OS X piracy by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 1

      You make a good point about drivers. It's one I'm pretty sure I've made in response to others before, but it entirely slipped my mind today. We need only look at Darwin/x86 to see what a dismal base they'd be starting from on the driver front.

      I'm not really convinced re the rest of your argument. Explicitly beta OS releases (with things like a boot-up message saying "This is a beta-quality demo. The full version of the OS will not run on your PC." might still be useful.

      It's all well and good to tell folks to buy the Apple dev kit, until you look at the price tag. It's nothing for a developer who considers the Mac an important platform, but it'll prevent anybody who wants to check it out and see what possibilities there are from trying it out. In fairness, unless a developer has used a cross-platform toolkit like Qt they won't learn much without spending a lot more than that (in time, if nothing else) anyway.

      Given the driver issue, I imagine a general release would be out. I still maintain that a XenU version would be very interesting, since only geeks and developers would want to run it anyway, given the most likely limited graphics support and the need for a Linux host OS, but it'd help get them more exposure among linux/UNIX developers.

    3. Re:Mac OS X piracy by argent · · Score: 1

      About two million copies of Tiger have been sold since April, that is about a quarter billion dollars in revenue if you don't count any sort of discount pricing (student etc.).

      Let's say the margin on a Mac or an iPod is about 40% (that's a widely quoted figure), so earnings (well, EBIT) on the 3.5 billion was ... let's call it a billion and a half.

      How many copies of Tiger would have been sold if anyone in the US with a PC could have bellied up to the bar and bought one and taken it home and run it on their PC? 10 million? 20 million? 50 million? Windows XP sold 17 million copies in the first 2 months in 2001. PC sales have increased 50% since then, so I don't think 20 million in the first quarter would be unreasonable... considering that's 2 million Tiger sales to 2.5% of the PC market.

      That would mean you're talking revenues of 2.5 billion. Now the margin on desktop Windows is allegedly 86%, and this is just back-of-the-envelope stuff, let's say Apple does as well. That's 2 billion dollars EBIT even if Apple doesn't sell a single Mac or ipod, *and* sells Tiger for $130.

      XP Home actually retails for $200, and Apple could certainly sell Tiger Intel for that... which would raise all those numbers by about 50%, or about twice as much earnings from software sales as they made from hardware.

      Now that's assuming that generic OS X on Intel would sell 10 times as many copies as it does now, but it also assumes Apple doesn't make another penny from the Mac, the iPod, iLife, iWork, or anything else... just Tiger. I could easily see another billion income (not revenue) just from their other software...

      I don't think this is an impossible or even improbable scenario. Risky, yes, so I'm not surprised Apple's apparently not risking it. But hardly outrageous.

    4. Re:Mac OS X piracy by argent · · Score: 1

      We need only look at Darwin/x86 to see what a dismal base they'd be starting from on the driver front.

      Not necessarily. I've run drivers in Mac OS X using the "legacy" BSD driver APIs instead of Apple's IOKit: the old Adaptec SCSI drivers from NetBSD. There's some shortcomings, for example the BSD API doesn't support sleep the way Apple does it, but they do work.

      I don't know how hard it would be to convert these drivers to run under IOKit, but there's a huge pool to start with.

  129. Pour sulfuric acid on them and watch their guts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >hardware DRM using Infineon 1.1 chip

    Well, get some sandpaper and sulfuric acid to remove the top covering and then an electron microscope to explore the innard traces.

    There was a university student here in Hungary, who did this as PhD task and mapped all the circuitry in C64's CPU and many more, including the original Pentium. He created a cheap, but well equipped IC "torture chamber".

    Once you have the circuit drawn out, you can easily create a perfect software emulator for it, mostly using automatic tools. That Infineon 1.1 chip is tiny and probably has less trannies than a 386 or even a 286 CPU. Easy to reverse engineer. And if you do it in Russia it is not even illegal, plus they will give you some medal for defeating the evil imperialists.

  130. Is this the end of "Open With..."? by Jacob+Haller · · Score: 1
    Some suggest that Apple intends to restrict each file to its original app.

    Honestly, how many Apples have Word, Excel, etc. files on them? How many Apple users use Textedit, Pages or older Appleworks software with these? And why would Apple give Microsoft control of those files? Locking down Word files to Word, Excel files to Excel, etc. would only hurt Apple.

    It's worth asking what this *is* for ... and what this *could* affect.

    (If worst comes to worst, I'll keep this machine. indefinitely.)

  131. Win/win for non-crippled systems by picz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If it weren't for Microsoft tolerance of bootlegged Windows and MS Office, their dominance wouldn't be as clear. "Pirated" software is good for sotware companies. Their products get exposed to a vast amount of people. People that work at companies. People that make decisions about what software to buy for their business.

    So if Apple goes TCPA and MS follows, then the only non-crippled system left is Linux (sorry BSD guys, your OS is still hostile)

    That might be good news. And my current iBook might be my last Apple.

    --
    ------- Look mum! I have posted another Slashdot comment! --------
  132. Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by delire · · Score: 1


    Both OSX and Windows are rented operating systems. One rents them as a service, from the vendor. Think of all the other things you've rented in your life (a car, TV, apartment) and the restrictions surrounding use of those. When you 'buy' a copy of OSX, you are actually signing a lease to use it for an undisclosed period of time, with restrictions, in full knowledge you will likely upgrade. When you upgrade, as so many people did with Tiger, that is simply considered to be another installment.

    Non-rental operating systems, like Linux and the *BSD's, legally allow you to do as you would like to with your music, share, distribute, modify.

    1. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by rjw57 · · Score: 1

      OS X has an Infinium driver == evil.

      Linus has an Infinum driver == good.

      I see. I must be new here.

      --
      Rich
    2. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by delire · · Score: 1


      I think you mean 'Linux'.

      Of course, Linux will also power gigantic warrior class mechs fitted with microwave cannons - of course it will. Similarly Linux (if ever you can sum it's parts) will likely support all possible forms of DRM, and why shouldn't it. However at no point will it make TC or DRM mandatory. As Linus said, it is not his concern what people do with Linux, they must however have the choice.

      If you don't like Devil fucking with your fun stuff, don't compile him. The choice is simple. Who own's your computer anyway?

    3. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by argent · · Score: 1

      Both OSX and Windows are rented operating systems.

      Because they use copyright law to enforce a compulsary license? So does Linux, so does BSD (though that license has been pretty watered down by now). Anything that's not in the public domain does that.

      If you're talking about the actual terms, well, there's ways to use an open-source "unrented" operating system and impose additional terms on the whole system you buy. There's Linux-based systems that do that. Heck, OSX is built that way... when you boot OSX you start by booting Darwin/XNU, and OSX runs on top of that... so millions of prople are already playing restricted-use media a non-rented OS...

    4. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by delire · · Score: 1

      Because they use copyright law to enforce a compulsary license?
      No. Because people pay cash for the right to use OSX, and with that comes certain restrictions. I pay to rent a truck, and with that comes certain restrictions. I can, however, buy a book protected by copyright, but I then own that book; I can immediately resell that book, or read it and then give it to a friend. Ironically, I can also do this with music CD's and records - both being objects.

      You get the idea.

      Some operating systems go one step further, allowing for the right to modify and make multiple copies before redistribution. Some however, like OSX use an archaic model based on per unit product (not service) 'sales' and go to absurd lengths to protect what is otherwise an innately replicable and manipulable medium, all towards the ends of centralising revenue at the expense of the user. I couldn't give a damn about a BSD derivative 'under the hood' of OSX if the rest comes with handcuffs. Last thing I want (having used OSX extensively of late) is an OS that comes with a EULA like a museum exhibit.

      This will be laughed at in years to come. "People actually paid for that?"
    5. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by argent · · Score: 1

      Because people pay cash for the right to use OSX, and with that comes certain restrictions.

      You can't enter into a contract after purchase, and you can't enter into a contract if you haven't seen the terms of that contract. Except for the case of clickthrough license in an online purchase, where you have an opportunity to read the license before use, the basis of the EULA is copyright law, not contract law... either by restricting your right to copy the code to computer memory before using it (the legal fiction I mentioned), or by explicit clauses in copyright law in the nation you live in.

      I couldn't give a damn about a BSD derivative 'under the hood' of OSX if the rest comes with handcuffs.

      Then you don't actually care if the OS is rented or bought, because either way the software you need to run to play the music you bought can come with handcuffs. The existence of OSX is proof of that.

      This will be laughed at in years to come. "People actually paid for that?"

      I'm afraid that, to the contrary, this will be remembered as the end of the golden age.

    6. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by Budenny · · Score: 1
      It just isn't so, is it, as a matter of law, at least in Europe? You buy a copy, and may then do what you want with it, subject to copyright law. The EULA is never going to be construed by any court as a rental contract because it so plainly is not one. Neither will post sales restraints of this kind ever be enforceable, because they are an invitation to extend a dominant position in one area to a dominant position in another.

      This is the legal position. But it is probably also right. You will not actually want this sort of thing to be lawful, if you think about it. Do you really want a world in which post sales restraints could close down hardware manufacturers by forbidding the use of Windows on their products, though it runs perfectly? Or in which post sales restraints prohibit the use of any browser other than Explorer? Or in which you can only use Gillette razors with Gillette razor blades? Or Kodak cameras with Kodak film? Or some printers with the manufacturer's own ink? This is why competition law prohibits them. And this is why the only recourse is what Apple seems to be intending: making it technically impossible.

    7. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      If it was rented, you would be required to upgrade. Nobody is forcing you to upgrade.

      You can also upgrade OS X from any previous version of OS X. Can the same be said for Windows? No.

      Is there a time limit on how long you can use the OS? No.

      All this enforces is that you purchase hardware for which this software is "licensed" to operate with. If you realized that this software is being subsidized by hardware "sales", you would not have a problem with it.

      Is Apple preventing you from installing other OSes on their platform? No.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    8. Re:Of course, OSX is rented, not bought. by MadAhab · · Score: 1
      Of course they watered down the BSD license! It was getting used so much they were bound to run out if they didn't. You'll see; one day you'll be using the GPL, the next, you'll need twice as much to get high.

      Uh duh. I checked /usr/src/COPYRIGHT and it looks like it's still full strength. Just not intended for internal use.

      --
      Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
  133. View of Mac from a non-Mac user. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know about most people, but I have a screaming computer in front of me. One of the new dual core Athlons, to be exact. This thing can decimate anything Apple has to offer hardware-wise and it even makes Intel's latest offering cry home to mommy.
    Now I like choice. I love choice. I enjoy being able to use any kind of x86 OS my heart desires. I simply don't have that choice on a Mac. And when I look at a mac, I feel like I'm being forced to pay for hardware I don't want just to get OSX.
    If OSX is all that and more as Mac enthusiasts claim, I wonder how much damage Apple could do to Microsoft's market share if they were to take the plunge and go x86(not the half-breed x86 they're working on now, but a run of the mill machine that windows runs on). I'll bet a lot more people would be willing to hop on board the OSX bandwagon if they had the option of doing it without having to pay 3 times more for half the hardware.

  134. time to boycott apple by keisangi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    unforgivable the first move was already unacceptable, now this is too much. they deserve mass boycott for this. everyone should switch to linux.

    1. Re:time to boycott apple by demon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, be serious now. It's their OS. They want to keep it on their hardware, for several reasons (which I think have been hashed out sufficiently). The technology is available (in the form of TCPA) to do it. And really, I think this is the most sensible, legitimate use of this technology that I've heard of. Really, what'd you think they were going to do - cross their fingers and hope? I think it's pretty clear Jobs & Co. have thought about this long and hard. So no, I don't think this is boycott-worthy.

      --

      Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
      Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
    2. Re:time to boycott apple by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
      Guess what? You can run linux or BSD or any OS you want on mac hardware. Where is you loss of freedom?

      The freedom of DIY? That was never a guaranteed freedom in the first place and one that I have no interest in exercising.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    3. Re:time to boycott apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think being boycotted by people stealing is what Apple wants anyway.

    4. Re:time to boycott apple by KillShill · · Score: 1

      actually that line of thinking is very disasterous in the long run for the end users (they used to be called customers but people who read too quickly might think i've used the repugnant "word" consumer) because even when something is in your hands, after having paid for it, it is still THEIRS (the manufacturer).

      when i buy a piece of software (which is not going to happen forever, i'm getting sick of the way i'm being treated) i expect that that copy is now mine. the manufacturer only has the rights which copyright grants them, in other words they have zero above and beyond that.

      people who own xboxs/ps2/gc's/other computers wrongfully think that the machines still belong to the manufacturer. they forget that they paid for the hardware, the cpus, video, sound, drives. they think it is illegal and immoral to access the hardware for which they paid. the "console" manufacturers have brainwashed people into thinking that after the sale, the manufacturer still has a say over what i do with my machine. this is clearly immoral and illegal (for all decent definitions of illegal). so long as i don't violate copyright, they have zero, read that again, ZERO rights/say in what i do with it.

      let me repeat that since speed readers might have missed it the first time, ZERO, NONE, NADA, ZIP, (running out of synonyms).

      this is disgusting. just sell the damn stuff and let end-users buy them. if the business model doesn't work, try another. yeah commerce is hard but if you get it right, you are rewarded with many billions of dollars.

      the quote that people sometimes use, forgive me if i paraphrase it wrongly "it's not the government's job to enact laws to help you continue making money ". it's a mess i know but i couldn't find the exact quote.

      it's just so damn depressing trying to get people to stand up for themselves. these are things which you bought and are your right to use in any way you see fit and those who obstruct your path to that freedom, well... you can finish this sentence in your own minds.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    5. Re:time to boycott apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah and look where most of this shit is happening: the USA. The US government doesn't give a shit about any country or any person. The govt cares about some fucked up ideal mixed up with a thirst for absolute power and world domination all passed off in the name of freedom and justice. Heh, makes this Apple DRM thing sound pretty small potatoes when you look at the big picture.

  135. Re:duh -- Keep Hollywood and the RIAA happy, Apple by walter_f · · Score: 1

    Keeping Hollywood and the RIAA happy - that's more like the main reason to do this.

    Apple, yesterday: "Think different."
    Apple, from now on: "Mainstream, but as the champs of it."

    And of course, DRM on the coming Macs will also be doing Pixar a favour. :-(

    My sympathies to Mr. Gandhi, Rev. King, Mr. Picasso, Mr. Einstein and others as it looks like their names have been misused in an Apple ad campaign.

  136. To paraphrase the Switch Ad: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once you go Linux, you'll never want to go back.

    Leave your Apple world, it's just not worth it!

    Sneeking little ad-ons and back doors into software is the problem with commercial software.

    Hi, I'm an apple user, and I paid next years top of the line prices,
    for last years second rate hardware components.

    Macs still do not offer Dual Layer DVD burners as a Standard option, but e-machines does - and e-machines sells really low price boxes.

    Go LINUX!

    1. Re:To paraphrase the Switch Ad: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Macs still do not offer Dual Layer DVD burners as a Standard option

      What the fuck are you talking about, retard? Look at the G5s on the Apple Store site. They all come with dual-layer drives.

  137. And this is surprising why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did anyone not really expect this?

  138. Can this be used to improve security? by vhogemann · · Score: 1

    I mean, can this prevent stack overflow sploits, and other methods of raising some process privileges from working?

    It would be interesting to see a method to "hardlock" user permissions, and access to the sistem. This can be very usefull, indeed.

    Of course it's a way to prevent access to protected areas, like DVD-Burning, or any other API Apple don't want hackers to be messing with. Or to prevent OSX from running on "unnautorized hardware", but let's concentrate on the positive side of this stuff...

    Now... since this thing operates on kernel level, and if Darwin (the OSX kernel) is OpenSource, is there any chance that the source for DRM stuff will be released as OpenSource too?

    --
    ---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
    1. Re:Can this be used to improve security? by rjw57 · · Score: 1

      Now... since this thing operates on kernel level, and if Darwin (the OSX kernel) is OpenSource, is there any chance that the source for DRM stuff will be released as OpenSource too?

      Probably, Linux's Infineon driver is.

      --
      Rich
  139. Now I will never buy a Mac... by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 1

    You know, I was actually slightly thinking about buying a Mac. I figured, if the prices drop enough when they switch to Intel, I can buy one and run Mac OS X and Linux (probably Gentoo) on it. But I am absolutely not ever buying an Intel Mac for myself, just because the next logical step after restricting the OS from booting on "non-trusted" BIOSes is restricting the BIOS from booting "non-trusted" OSes, like, oh, say, Linux.

    I will build my own CPU out of TTL chips and wire-wrap if it comes down to it, but I'm never accepting a computer where Trusted Computing is used against me. (Frankly, it's an awesome idea to include the chip, but only if it is used for user-requested cryptography. Using it against the user is BAD!)

    1. Re:Now I will never buy a Mac... by TomHandy · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, I'm missing the "logical" part of the next logical step you proposed. What does putting in some controls to prevent their own OS from running on someone else's hardware have to do with them putting in controls to prevent other OS's from being installed on their own hardware? The whole point is generally to ensure that people keep buying their hardware (so they don't become a software-only company). If someone wants to buy a Mac and install another OS on it (even wiping out OS X completely), they wouldn't care. In Apple's entire history, I don't think they've ever released any sort of technology like what you propose (it's always been possible to install and use other OS's on Macs). They have, however, historically done a variety of things in hardware and software to prevent their OS from being installed and non-Apple hardware.

    2. Re:Now I will never buy a Mac... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, I'm missing the "logical" part of the next logical step you proposed. ... The whole point is generally to ensure that people keep buying their hardware (so they don't become a software-only company).

      What you're missing is the rest of the story. The real impetus for the push toward DRM comes not from OS & hardware vendors, but from media cartels such as the RIAA, MPAA, who on one hand will give free screenings of movies and broadcast their music over FM radio, yet remain paranoid that someone somewhere could enjoy the fruits of their labors without paying for it.

      Having the DVD player software automatically downsample the picture if the OS detects a non-DRM monitor seems like it could only be intended to prevent ripping, and thereby to maintain the cartels' hard-won dominance over the traditional channels of content distribution.

      But if I'm wrong, and hardware/software companies are truly conspiring to create systemic weaknesses which can only be overcome by purchasing DRM'ed hardware, then this amounts to a scam which should be outlawed, if it isn't illegal already.

  140. Another torrent, by XiSO claims to remove DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3363864 looks interesting, downloading now

  141. stickers! by nuckin+futs · · Score: 1

    stickers that say don't run our OS on non apple computers. ;)

  142. Time to spread some FUD of our own... by ThinkingInBinary · · Score: 1

    (This is a bit offtopic, but still related to Trusted Computing...) You know, I think the whole Trusted Computing thing has gone on long enough with the industry spreading FUD about how it will enable "an enhanced, market-driven dynamic media distribution paradigm shift" (e.g., lots of fancy buzzwords meaning that we aren't allowed to share media anymore). We should start spreading equal FUD, saying that "Foobar chipset computers will keep you from sharing media with your friends." Realisticly, when used by M$, TC will extend to include banning P2P programs as best as they can and enforcing blanket restrictions on what you can do with media. People will hear this and think, "I'm not buying *that* piece of shit! It won't run KaZaA and all those lame spyware-ridden P2P apps! How will I *ever* get music without downloading it from some *other* person who *did* buy the CD?!" In other words, they will call BS like we have all been doing. Any thoughts?

  143. No cheese, Gromit! Not a bit in the house! by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 1

    more complicated than building a rocket ship from scratch using only a stick of gum and some 2x4's

    Gromit, that's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!

    Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese...

  144. Darwin reflects *shipped* product. by argent · · Score: 1

    If you analyzed the mach_kernel binary file on the Developer Kits, you would see that the kernel is vastly different than the Darwin 8.2 that Apple released as open source.

    The software shipped with the developers kits isn't any of the released software, so there's no reason to assume that the released version of Darwin would match it. Apple didn't release the source to Darwin 8.0 when developers got Tiger, but rather when it shipped.

    1. Re:Darwin reflects *shipped* product. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Darwin releases have predominantly been lagging behind the major Mac OS X releases. There was one exception with Panther, but that really hurt the internal Apple guys. They lost a lot of sleep doing that and I don't think they'll ever do it again.

  145. Hands in the ears? by poptones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Damn, talk about irony! The entire "free software" community has had its fists buried so deeply in its ears over this issue for years now it is doubtful we can make a meaningful recovery of the ground that has been lost.

    You try to pretend TCPA and DRM can be killed at birth and you are wrong. You try tto pretend DRM cannot be made to work and you are wrong. The same technology that protects HOLLYWOODS data can protect YOUR dat and MY data. DRM will allow computing to move into a new paradigm where conversations can be reasonably assured of being completely ephemeral OR where "data" can be moved from point A to point B with the relative security and geographic displacement of a physical object. But people lie and copy and cheat and forge and so to do this requires a *trusted platform* - a system you and I can both agree has been verified for honesty by a disinterested third party to our exchange.

    If you don't want to buy DRM media then don't buy it. But insisting someone is trying to "take your rights away" because they are asserting *their* rights is, at best, disengenuous.

    The open source community at large needs to take off the tinfoil hats and start doing some real development on these platforms. Like it or not DRM is coming and if you sit out the party no one is going to listen to you complain that everyone else already got all the cake and ice cream.

    1. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't want to buy DRM media then don't buy it.

      In ten years, when I can't purchase a PC without TCPA... when I can't connect to the internet unless my PC is "Trusted"?

      But insisting someone is trying to "take your rights away" because they are asserting *their* rights is, at best, disengenuous.

      They are taking away the ownership and control over the computer that you have paid for. The rest of your post is specious, in the extreme. It doesn't occur to you that Free software and Trusted Computing (in the form the TCPA takes) do not mix... even slightly since the platform denies the very foundation on which Free software is built (note: I didn't say "open source").

      Your message about "coming like it or not" is simply nonsense, and the worst kind of consumer sheeple horseshit.

    2. Re:Hands in the ears? by pentalive · · Score: 1


      To: Poptones
      From: Microsoft and the Trusted Computing Group

      Subject: Thank You

      Thank you for your support, Your check is in the mail.

      Signed
      Bill

    3. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you honestly believe that hardware implementations are immune from any sort of bad activity? The second a workaround becomes available all of your perceived protection will shatter. Unless they create completely new hardware on all fronts with DRM, using completely new interfaces that are shielded to RF, they will never have this.

    4. Re:Hands in the ears? by BillKaos · · Score: 1
      The open source community at large needs to take off the tinfoil hats and start doing some real development on these platforms. Like it or not DRM is coming and if you sit out the party no one is going to listen to you complain that everyone else already got all the cake and ice cream.
      A quick proof:

      Most of Open Source is based on the GPL, a Copyleft license

      The spirit of the Copyleft movement is to ease the sharing and copying of information, trying to avoid some nasty effects of Copyright.

      Clearly, actual use of DRM technology is to restrict and control the distribution of information, discouraging to distribute it by any other people that is not the owner of such information.

      Today's use of DRM is incompatible with the CopyLeft movement, thus Open Source should not embrace it.

      I hope this fact will remain true

    5. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just love how DRM is bad and all, until Apple does it then its OK. You Apple apologists make the rest of us sick.

    6. Re:Hands in the ears? by Ogerman · · Score: 1

      The open source community at large needs to take off the tinfoil hats and start doing some real development on these platforms.

      This is simply not possible. DRM is fundamentally about shared -- but hidden -- encryption keys. DRM software cannot be Open Source because then you'd be able to see the keys or extract them from the datastream. The only way for DRM to "work" is to have a complete chain of hardware and software for which users have no control over. For example: hardware which will only operate and exchange DRM keys with cryptographically signed software. That software cannot be Open Source and it cannot run on an Open Source operating system kernel. (otherwise, you could just probe memory and find the secret key) There is no middle ground here. It's physically impossible to implement DRM in Open Source software.

      Having that said, some technologies, such as TCPA, are indeed dual purpose. Let me give you an example. If the user -- rather than the hw/sw vendor -- controls the encryption keys, he/she can password protect his/her data or cause the hardware to run only binaries that he/she has signed. This is not DRM; it's just a form of hardware-based data security. Of course, TCPA can also be used for evil -- when vendors have their own keys hardwired into the chips and the user cannot access them. This use of TCPA allows for all the bad stuff: hardware that will only run a certain vendor's OS, media that will only play on certain "trusted" hardware and software, etc.

    7. Re:Hands in the ears? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      OK, fill me in in non-marketspeak. In what way will DRM help me, the end user that I cannot easily achieve with a traditional method. I'm all ears here. What is the benefit to me (I am aware of a number of drawbacks).

      The same technology that protects HOLLYWOODS data can protect YOUR dat and MY data.

      I aim my camcorder at the TV, boom I have hollywood's data. Even easier I just do a screen capture. If I can see it, read it, hear it, etc. so can a machine and a machine can duplicate it. Consider me completely unimpressed by the concept of trying to secure data from the person I'm giving it to.

    8. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell are you talking about?

      How can DRM benefit the free software world? If you add crypto signatures to hardware, what benefit will it give you that implementing it in software won't?

      Give a straight and simple answer to that, otherwise you're just spewing empty rhetoric.

    9. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You try to pretend TCPA and DRM can be killed at birth and you are wrong."

      Actually, many of us are afraid they can't be killed at birth because of the enormous corporate support behind them.

      "You try tto pretend DRM cannot be made to work and you are wrong."

      No, we are afraid that it can be made to work, and that's why we try to stop it. This is because the only way it can be made to work (assuming you have a technical understanding of computers) is by usurping control from the computer owner, and granting it to the company or group of companies that "own" the protocol/hardware spec. Even then it can be theoretically bypassed, but only by leaking encryption keys from the companies in charge or by actually disassembling the ICs in your computer (something beyond the abilities of almost all users).

      "The same technology that protects HOLLYWOODS data can protect YOUR dat and MY data. DRM will allow computing to move into a new paradigm where conversations can be reasonably assured of being completely ephemeral OR where "data" can be moved from point A to point B with the relative security and geographic displacement of a physical object. But people lie and copy and cheat and forge and so to do this requires a *trusted platform* - a system you and I can both agree has been verified for honesty by a disinterested third party to our exchange."

      What you forgot to mention is that all of this "trust" is being granted to the DRM system's owner. That is, everything works as you say if and only if the DRM system's operators are trustworthy. Do you really trust a group of large corporations to decide which of your future actions are legitimate and which are not? Do you trust them to protect your personal data? We don't, and that's why we oppose DRM.

    10. Re:Hands in the ears? by cbr2702 · · Score: 1
      DRM will allow computing to move into a new paradigm where conversations can be reasonably assured of being completely ephemeral OR where "data" can be moved from point A to point B with the relative security and geographic displacement of a physical object. But people lie and copy and cheat and forge and so to do this requires a *trusted platform* - a system you and I can both agree has been verified for honesty by a disinterested third party to our exchange.

      This is completely possible without DRM, involving only actions by the end users. If I use pgp or gpg to encrypt an email to you, the insecurity of the computers between us is completely irrelevant.

      --


      This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
    11. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that ironically, as more time goes on Slashdot is more and more turning into a MacSlash clone. IMO they never should have introduced apple.slashdot.org, all it did is invite these kind of trolls who, thanks for the trolls being the new majority, are rated at +5.

      Really. It's surprising how any thread about Apple will turn into an "Apple is infalliable" thread. What's worse, is that threads about Linux or BSD often turn into, "what the hell are you using that for? Get a Mac."

      Guys. If we were in love with Apple as you are, I'm sure that's what we'd do. Until then, Steve Jobs is not the pope, and speaking against him should not be not heretical.

    12. Re:Hands in the ears? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the grandparent was a DRM apologist. I'm sure he was defending it long before this Apple connection came up.

    13. Re:Hands in the ears? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      First I'd like to note that TCPA, or more accurately Trusted Computing, is exactly what we are talking about here.

      That software cannot be Open Source and it cannot run on an Open Source operating system kernel.

      False.

      (otherwise, you could just probe memory and find the secret key)

      False.

      It's physically impossible to implement DRM in Open Source software.

      False.

      In fact Microsoft is playing up the fact that their Trusted Software Stack is going to be Open Source, and the applications can be Open Source as well.

      Trusted Computing defeats the GPL. It generally makes the source code useless. If you attempt to modify and recompile the source then the Trust chip denies the software the encryption keys it needs to read encrypted data files. If you attempt to modify and recompile the source then the Trust chip attests to any internet connections that you are running invalid software and the connection can and will be rejected.

      You can modify and run this Open Source software, but it won't work. It won't be able to read data files and internet connections will be denied

      As for trying to read keys from memory, the critical keys never exist outside the Trust chip! Aside from that, the new Vemory Virtuization system denies any other software the ability to read the memory at all. Even the Operating System is physically incapable of read the application's RAM. This kees any keys secure, it keeps data secure, and even the software itself can be encrypted and secure.

      One technology that I have seen discussed is that this Memory Virtualization system might even encrypt the RAM iself. If so then the unencrypted information would never exist outside the CPU. The data would be encrypted and decrypted on the fly for each transfer between main RAM and the CPU's on chip cache. To be absolutely clear, I have not yet confirmed whether the current specifications include this particular technology.

      some technologies, such as TCPA, are indeed dual purpose

      TCPA, or more accurately this Trusted Computing system, is no more value neutral and dual purpose than a nutricious apple with a poison pill is value neutral and dual purpose. Advertizing the vitamins in a poison-pill-apple does not and cannot justify the poison pill, does not and cannot justify a poison pill apple. It actually justifies a normal apple, an apple without the poison pill...

      TCPA can also be used for evil -- when vendors have their own keys hardwired into the chips and the user cannot access them.

      All Trusted Computing chips are required to have a vendor-generated key hardwired into them. They are required to keep this key and other keys secure AGAINST the owner. The specification explicitly says the chips are designed to be secure against the owner. The Trust chips are boobytrapped to self destruct if the owner attempts to get at their own keys. The IBB Thinkpad "Man in Black" TV commercial even advertized the fact that these chips self destruct if you attempt to remove them.

      If the user -- rather than the hw/sw vendor -- controls the encryption keys, he/she can password protect his/her data or cause the hardware to run only binaries that he/she has signed.

      Sure, that would be a nutricious apple without the poison pill. That would be genuine security for the owner, not capital 'T'-Trust. The owner may trust that system (lowercase 't' trust), but it would not be Trusted Computing. Other people could not Trust it to enforce things like DRM.

      An owner can get all of the advertized benefits and security from an identical system where he *IS* allowed to know the master keys to his own computer. One suggestion is for the owner to get a printed copy of his key when he buys the system.

      The response to Trusted Computing is simple.
      I want my key.
      No key, no sale.


      Unfortunately they rufuse to allow you to buy the good security system where you do know your key. It would not be Trusted.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    14. Re:Hands in the ears? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      No, notice that he wanted some assurance that a conversation could be "completely ephemeral". He wants your computer to enforce his DRM scheme against against you. He wants to deny you control of your own computer, that you cannot tell your computer not to delete the data. He also wants the "security" of pretending that information is some sort of "physical object" that you cannot modify or copy.

      And of course all of his stpuid ideas completely fall apart if you unscrew the case on your computer and rip open your Enforcer chip and read out your private key.

      The goal here is to make it really hard for you to get your key out of your chip by making it a boobytrapped self destructing chip. And all of us are going to suffer as they ram this crap down our throats and try to enforce it.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    15. Re:Hands in the ears? by JadeNB · · Score: 1
      But people lie and copy and cheat and forge and so to do this requires a *trusted platform* - a system you and I can both agree has been verified for honesty by a disinterested third party to our exchange.
      Where are we going to find a mutually trusted third party? I'm serious. So far manufacturers have decided whom they will trust, and who is most convenient for them. Where is the mutual trust in this situation?
  146. -5 WRONG!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple has said many times they don't plan on using a BIOS in the shipping products,

    Just a quick question.

    where has Apple ever said anything like th above.

    So far the only thing apple has said is that they will swith to Intel.

    Everythign else has been rumors and conjecture.

    Please site an Apple source for the above.

  147. Quality, it's job, uh, #783. by argent · · Score: 1

    First, it assumes that businesses survive because of merit. Exhibit A: BeOS.

    The OS that was released half-finished on hardware that was half-finished, and that was sustained by sales of incomplete betas? The OS that uses the worst object-oriented language in existence as a core part of its API? The OS that was never released with production quality TCP/IP support, at a time when the Internet was becoming key? The OS that was supposed to be small and fast and sleek and yet required more hardware and a faster processor than any of its competitors (yes, even Windows NT and UNIX) just to boot?

    It's only by comparison with "classic" Mac OS (which has also finally got what it deserved... some seven years later than originally scheduled) that BeOS looks good.

    1. Re:Quality, it's job, uh, #783. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The OS that was released half-finished on hardware that was half-finished, and that was sustained by sales of incomplete betas?

      Hey, that sounds like Mac OS X. It wasn't until 10.2 it lost that beta feeling.

    2. Re:Quality, it's job, uh, #783. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah - 10.2 and 10.3 ran great but had no beta feeling to them. At least 10.4 brought that feeling back with a vengeance!

      *grumbles about 3 revisions of Tiger and Apple still hasn't fixed the frequent kernel panic on my stock hardware, clean install, that turned a $129 purchase into a useless piece of shit*

    3. Re:Quality, it's job, uh, #783. by argent · · Score: 1

      Compared to BeOS, Rhapsody DR1 (with half the interface Apple-style toolbar and half still using NeXTstep's big-blocks-of-stuff) was closer to production quality.

      Mac OS X started out with a solid kernel and a bunch of solid apps. BeOS started with nothing but a design and Be was learning as they went. It's really impressive how far they got but they were definitely pre-doomed worse than the Amiga (which at least had a working computer and operating system at launch).

  148. Signing a contract doesn't make it legal by jesterzog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can understand the Illegal Search by the Cop (as I've been made to under-go such a thing myself,) but as to the drug testing, unless you did not agree to such a thing when you started your job, well, it's kind of like having to deal with a Non-Compete clause. You agreed to it.

    This isn't true. Contracts can contain illegal terms, and if they do then they're invalid. An obvious example would be if an employer inserted a clause saying they could kill you if your performance fell below a certain level. If an employee signed their life away like that for whatever reason, it's irrelevant. The contract clause is illegal, and any employer that followed through on it would be in a lot of trouble.

    There are legal protections on the content of employment contracts to stop employers from demanding unreasonable conditions from their employees, current or future. It's also why we have things like minimum wage. Some rights can be given up in a contract, but others can't.

    Whether a drug-testing clause is or isn't okay would depend on your local legislation. Some governments would definitely consider it a breach of personal rights, and would disallow an employer from deciding who to hire based on their acceptance of submitting to a drugs test. Chances are there would sometimes be exceptions with this, however. It might be acceptable, for instance, if it's an obvious safety issue on the job, and/or if there's reasonable cause for suspicion that you're taking drugs. An employer might have to provide convincing evidence for suspicion, however, regardless of what a contract states.

    Personally I don't think that nearly enough is done to stamp out ridiculous and illegal clauses in contracts. This is exactly the same reason why we have hopelessly one-sided terms of service on shrink-wrapped software. There's very little, if any, penalty for putting in highly dubious or illegal clauses and then pressuring someone to agree to them.

    1. Re:Signing a contract doesn't make it legal by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      Personally, I agree with nearly everything you've said, except for the bit about killing if productivity falls below a certain level.

      If someone's stupid enough to sign a contract that lets their employer kill them, that person needs to be removed from the gene pool at once lest they spread their idiocy around too much.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    2. Re:Signing a contract doesn't make it legal by Herbmaster · · Score: 1

      You read all your software EULAs, don't you? Of course you do.

      --
      I'm not a smorgasbord.
    3. Re:Signing a contract doesn't make it legal by jesterzog · · Score: 1

      Be careful not to confuse idiocy with desperation. Employment law is there (among other reasons) to prevent employers from taking advantage of people who are desperate for work, and from making a hiring decision based on whoever consents to give up the most fundamental rights to the whim of the employer. You can't sign someone into lifetime slavery, either, even if they consent to it because you'll "protect their family" or some-such promise.

      A lot of people will sign anything if they're desperate, especially if they don't think it'll get to a point where the employer can carry out such a threat. Weighing out a salary versus human rights appears to be a rational decision. It doesn't make it fair and it doesn't make it legal contract.

  149. Erm... Linux also has this... by rjw57 · · Score: 1

    This is terrible. There is another OS kernel with a TPM driver now as well. We'd all better stop using this 'Linux' thing as well.

    --
    Rich
    1. Re:Erm... Linux also has this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A
      |_A

    2. Re:Erm... Linux also has this... by rjw57 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You sir are a troll who either is incapable of recognising sarcasm or incapable of noting that supporting a piece of hardware doesn't mandate one use it :).

      --
      Rich
  150. Seriously... by ninja_assault_kitten · · Score: 1

    Does anyone really expect software controls to prevent anyone from pirating this? Unless each DRM chip has a secure checksum of the kernel to validate tampering and be unique to each installation (and break updates), how can anyone expect this to stick?

    Granted, I don't know anything about the Intel DRM technology, but I don't see how it can work long term.

    1. Re:Seriously... by oledoody · · Score: 1

      well if apple does that and I can't port OSX to a tough book...apple better get into the sub notebook catagory fast...because 12 inch iBooks and G4s don't cut it the way Panasonics Tough book do. That sucker is 2.2 lbs! this one comes with a dvd at 2.8lbs

  151. DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1

    Here I am, releasing Trusted Linux. Here's the GPL-ed kernel, and because it's GPL here's the source to the DRM component that's linked with the GPL-ed kernel. Now none of you buys download the source to the DRM code and modify it, y'all hear, that would be naughty.

    It's even hard to see how you'd get away with DRM in an open-source kernel, since if everything in the kernel except DontTouchMeImTheDRMCode() is available in source, the opportunities for bypassing DontTouchMeImTheDRMCode() DRM are unlimited.

    The time to panic is when 10.4.7 or so is released on the new Intel Macs and Darwin 8.7 doesn't show up on Apple's website. Right now we should be in pre-panic mode.

    The Apple Panic Alert level is: [A Nice Hot Cup of Tea].

    1. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by Spiked_Three · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't follow you? If your crypto cant withstand its source being looked at, it isnt crypto, it's crap. I can show you source for public private key stuff all day long and it doesnt make it any less secure.
      I'm not sure but I believe the DRM stuff is cryptographically bound - ie, just bypassing a check is not going to get you to what you want. If that is all it takes to get around the DRM then man, I need to go patent something real quick .... brb

      --
      slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
    2. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1

      I don't follow you?

      DRM is not like regular crypto.

      If your crypto cant withstand its source being looked at, it isnt crypto, it's crap.

      That's right. That's the fundamental reason why Hollywood wants hardware DRM, because DRM turns into crap as soon as its exposed to the air.

      Good crypto depends on having a good algorithm and making sure that the attacker doesn't have access to either the plaintext or both the ciphertext and the key needed to decipher it. The problem with DRM is that either the recipient is also the attacker, so the recipient has the ciphertext and the key... all you can do is protect the algorithm... or the recipient is a piece of hardware owned by the attacker under the attacker's physical control and you have to keep the attacker from copying the plaintext... while you're simultaneously showing it to them.

      This is a hard problem. Actually, it's an insoluble problem if the attacker is determined. All you can do is make it hard enough for the non-determined attacker by doing things like obfuscating the algorithm or obsessively monitoring more and more output stages to try and make sure that any copy the attacker can make is of low enough quality that they don't bother... while at the same time letting them listen to and/or look at a copy that's good enough that they'll actually buy it.

      When the attacker controls the operating system the DRM module is running on, they can bypass the DRM by observing the key manipulations and reproducing them, by intercepting the decrypted stream from a decryption device, or by intercepting the decrypted stream between the application and the device driver. If the application monitors the device driver, you can perform a man-in-the-middle attack so that neither the application nor the device driver knows that it's being observed. If the stream between the application and the device driver is encrypted, you can modify the application to extract the unencrypted intermediate stream, or a replayable encrypted intermediate stream, or the token required to authorize the stream...

      Unless you put the DRM in the playback device (video card, audio card, etc) itself, and the application simply acts as a blind intermediary for the authentication process just as if it were a router or switch between the computer and the DRM authorizer (music or video store), you can't allow the user unrestricted access to the operating system kernel as you would have in an open-source OS.

    3. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Trusted Computing defeats the GPL. Microsoft is hyping the fact that their Trusted Software Stack will be open source, and the DRM applications can be open source as well. The source code is useless.

      you can modify the application to extract the unencrypted intermediate stream

      If you try to modify and/or recompile the source then the Trust chip generates a different hash for the software and refuses to give it the proper keys to read the data files. The Trust chip also reports the software is unknown and incompatible in any internet communications and communications will be rejected.

      You can run the modified software just fine, but it won't work. It can't read the files and cannot connect to internet the servers.

      When the attacker controls the operating system the DRM module is running on, they can bypass the DRM by observing the key manipulations and reproducing them

      Under Trusted Computing you do not control the operating system. If you alter it then you again are denied the keys you need and any communications are denied.

      intercepting the decrypted stream between the application and the device driver

      You are denied access to the RAM. Even the Operating System itself will be denied access to the application's RAM. The cables to the I/O devices will even be encrypted. There was a story just a few days ago about the next Windows OS using monitors with special crypto chips.

      you can perform a man-in-the-middle attack

      Only if you have a genuine Trusted Computing key and the crypto certificates to authenticate it. These keys can only be obtained by ripping one out of a genuine Trust chip embedded in a genuine Trusted device. These chips are booby trapped to self destruct if you attempt this. It is possible, but difficult. However every device uses a different key. If you try to rip one key and use it in multiple devices they will detect it and place the key on a revokation list and it drops dead. So you need to purchace an additional genuine device and physically extract a new key from a boobytrapped self destructing chip for each computer/device you want to liberate. And you need to be extremely careful never to leak the fact that you are able to do anything you aren't supposed to be able to do, or they will again identify the key and place it on a revocation list and again make your system drop dead.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    4. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1
      If you try to modify and/or recompile the source then the Trust chip generates a different hash for the software and refuses to give it the proper keys to read the data files. [...] You can run the modified software just fine, but it won't work. It can't read the files and cannot connect to internet

      That's a violation of the GPL:
      6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

      The GPL grants you the right to modify and use the software without restrictions. If some component does not allow this, you can not distribute that component as part of the software. You can not legally include any part of a TPM system that is as strong as you describe in a GPL-ed kernel.

      This does not apply to Mac OS X, so Panic Is Still An Option there, but it does apply to a GPL-ed kernel.

      Though I really doubt Apple could survive the backlash that would result from applying the kind of intrusive monitoring and obsessive certification of EVERY driver and kernel component necessary to prevent someone from using one to backdoor the kernel and replace the secure environment after boot.
    5. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      However the recipient DOES receive a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program. Nor does the licensor impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of those rights.

      You have every right to change the software however you like... but if you break the software and it mis-reads certain files, oh well. If I give you ordinary (non-Trusted) JPEG or MPEG software and you screw around with it and it can't correctly read certain pictures and movies any more, that's your fault. If I give you a printer driver and you screw around with it and it can no longer property talk to your printer, well that's your fault. If you changes a web browser program and other people's webservers do not like the data you're sending and don't want to talk to it any more, oh well.

      And another thing is that all of TPM code and all of the lockdown can lie entirely outside of the GPL code. A Trusted Operating system can hash ANY and ALL exectuables as they load, and then the OS can transparantly pipe any ordinary read/write operations through crypto using that hash as part of the key. The software is GPL and does not touch the TPM system, but it can only read existing files when it is run on top of that Trusted OS. Trusted servers on the internet will reject any communications from it unless it is running on top of that Trusted OS. One copy of that software running on the Trusted OS will only be able to talk to another copy of itself also running on that Trusted OS.

      This is a major part of the reason for a new 3.0 version of the GPL, and a lot of work is going into this exact issue. So far I have absolutely no idea how they intend to resolve this problem, and as far as I can see there is no way to cleanly and completely fix it. I hope I'm wrong, but I am truely stumped. There doesn't seem to be any way to resolve it when ANY software can be run on top of a Trust-enforcing host... even EXISTING GPL software can be moved onto a Trust-enforcing host in this way and any data files created in this way will only be readable in this way, and internet connections can always ask the host OS for the hash of a program associated with a connection and reject the communications if they want.

      Trusted Computing is incredibly insidious.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    6. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1

      You have every right to change the software however you like... but if you break the software and it mis-reads certain files, oh well.

      This is not a matter of the software being broken, this is a matter of the software being written in such a way that it can not be modified by the user. That violates provision 6 of the GPL.

      and then the OS can transparantly pipe any ordinary read/write operations through crypto using that hash as part of the key

      But the code that does that has to be GPL so it can always be subverted to save off the plaintext, or feed false information to the crypto code.

      This scheme is also bad crypto, because it depends on a key that can't be changed without changing the algorithm, becomes invalid if you have to distribute a bug-fix because that changes the hash.

      Trusted Computing is incredibly insidious.

      So is the GPL, and this is the first situation I've run into where that may actually be a good thing.

    7. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      the software being written in such a way that it can not be modified by the user

      You *can* modify it. It still runs just fine. You can possibly even create your own files that your new version will be able to read. You may even set up your own servers that will be willing to talk to it. However you are going to have a very very hard time (a.k.a. impossible) managing to read any existing data files or being accepted by any existing servers. You have been given all of the rights that the GPL says you must receive. It just isn't going to be very useful.

      You've got a nomral GPL program, you're just running it on stupid hardware that makes interoperability all but impossible.

      Cutting even closer to the edge, part of the program could be an interpreter. Any file it loads and interprets would no more need to be GPL than source code would need to be GPLed simply because you ran it through the GCC compiler. Some an encrypted data file could be a non-GPL interpreted script. That encrypted script would be unavilable for any modified version you tried to make, pretty well nuking whatever the software was supposed to be able to do.

      >and then the OS can transparantly pipe any ordinary read/write operations through crypto using that hash as part of the key
      But the code that does that has to be GPL


      Huh? Are you suggesting that if you are capable of running a GPL program on top of Windows, that somehow Windows magically becomes GPL?

      feed false information to the crypto code

      EThe moment you change any of the software involved the Trust chip denies you the key you need. It doesn't matter what you feed in anywhere if the Trust chip is in the wrong state.

      This scheme is also bad crypto, because it depends on a key that [] becomes invalid if you have to distribute a bug-fix because that changes the hash.

      Good insight, but there are workarounds. The application can deposit its key with the Operating System, or the application could have some stub program for the sole purpose of passing keys. Then you patch the software, then the OS or the stub program checks some authentication file crypto-signed by the original software author, then the OS or the stub program transfers the key back to the new version of the program.

      As a side note, the OS can deposit *ITS* key with the BIOS. If you patch the OS then the BIOS then checks that it was an authorized patch and supplies the key back to the altered OS. The new OS can then use that key to recover any application keys that were deposited with the old OS.

      None of this authentication and key passing actually implicated the program or the GPL. You have every right and ability to patching and modify the program in any way you like. The authentication file is merely data for an entirely different program, the OS or the stub. It tells that program who it should pass its key to. If it happens to pass the key back to the patched program then that program can re-encrypt that key with its new key and save it on the harddrive and you can't read it. That key is just data. The GPL does not apply to data that you happen to read and write using a GPL program. That key lets your software decrypt certain existing data files. If you alter the software and can't get that key, well the altered software will still be able to read and write any new files that you create... it just won't be able to read and write any of the existing encrypted files that they do not want you to be able to read. You can modify the software and it runs just fine, it's just pretty well useless now.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    8. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1

      You have been given all of the rights that the GPL says you must receive.

      I still think this is simply sophistry.

      Are you suggesting that if you are capable of running a GPL program on top of Windows, that somehow Windows magically becomes GPL?

      No.

      You wrote "and then the OS can transparantly pipe any ordinary read/write operations through"...

      If you're running on a GPL kernel, the software in the OS that performs this operation has to be GPL.

      I don't know what Windows has to do with this. The GPL doesn't say anything about what a non-GPL operating system you happen to be running GPL software on is allowed to do.

    9. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      I still think this is simply sophistry.

      Well I certainly won't complain if a court agrees with you, it is clearly violating the spirit of the GPL. I just can't see how it violates the text.

      But setting aside that issue...

      >>"and then the OS can transparantly pipe any ordinary read/write operations through"...

      If you're running on a GPL kernel, the software in the OS that performs this operation has to be GPL.


      Who said we were running on a GPL kernal? I said this method could be used to effectively defeat the GPL even if there is no TPM code in the GPL code itself. If the software is GPL and you run it on Windows and Windows hashes it to generate a key then that key can be used to decrypt files and to authenticate over the internet. Any attempt to modify it will deny you the key.

      If you try to run it on some other OS... say Linux... then you will be unable to get the key and be unable to decrypt any existing files and your internet connection attempts can be rejected. It'll run, but it won't be particularly useable.

      Unless of course the Linux does have TPM support... which in fact it now does. Then the program may fully function on Trusted Linux if the authors decide to put Trusted Linux on the approval list. If you modify the software or modify Linux then it again pretty well drops dead.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    10. Re:DRM in a GPL kernel, and When Should We Panic? by argent · · Score: 1

      Who said we were running on a GPL kernal?

      Well, um, I did. :)

      Sorry, I missed the change of subject.

      Any situation where you redistribute GPLed software in a way that prevents people from effectively modifying it has the same problems with provision 6. You are applying additional restrictions on the use of the software.

      The idea that you can modify the software but you can't use the modified version as a functional replacement for the original software, without that being "an additional restriction"? Was that restriction in the GPLed source you received? No. Is it a restriction? Yes. Then you can't distribute GPLed code that implements this.

      Linux has TPM support, and that TPM support can be used for many things (for example, you could use it to secure your own computer), but there's no way to use it for DRM without violating the letter of the GPL.

      If you want to play music or videos that are owned by publishers who demand strong DRM, then you'll need to be running Windows or a dedicated player running a non-modifiable operating system, or you'll have to convince them that the benefits of using a weaker DRM scheme outweigh the hypothetical (and I believe imaginary) advantages of strong DRM.

      Personally, I think the least painful solution to the problem of running strong DRM on user-modifiable software is to simply not do it. Embed the whole thing in the video card and just use the software as transport.

  152. DRM is *not* wanted or USEFUL for people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But insisting someone is trying to "take your rights away" because they are asserting *their* rights is, at best, disengenuous."

    Oh really? I assert the right to swing my fists into the air wherever I please? Oh, sorry about your jaw, but I am asserting my right.

    Hollywood is asserting its right to use their copyright anyway they please. Oops...you can only watch that movie in the manner that they choose? So sorry, but they are merely asserting their right.

    DRM is not useful to you or me because we don't really have anything worth protecting aside from our bank account #. Pretend all you want, but those pictures of your mummy aren't worth DRM'ing.

    DRM isn't neither desirable nor inevitable. Please look up DiVX if you doubt me. The best thing we can do is refuse to use DRM, and break it as much as we can and introduce other people to the joy of fair use. For example, I've shown all of my relatives and friends how to use DVDShrink. It makes their DVD's much more useful and makes a Netflix subscription actually worth the money.

    Sorry if I won't let Hollywood's fist slam into my jaw. I'm just that way.

  153. Wrong, wrong wrong by Toby_Tyke · · Score: 1

    Microsoft will be forced to push up the rollout of similar lockdowns for Shorthorn because if they don't Apple will have all the video over net business locked up and Hollywood won't let Bill play.

    Wrong, wrong wrong. Content providers will never, ever, target the Mac to the exclusion of windows. Windows has over 90 per cent of the desktop market. No matter how good the DRM on the Apple may be, I think most content providers would rather sell to the larger market. Hell, even apple don't just target the Mac (itunes).

    --
    "I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
    1. Re:Wrong, wrong wrong by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > Content providers will never, ever, target the Mac to the exclusion of
      > windows.

      Of course not. But they understand the situation and will play their role. Microsoft already proposed this same thing as the "Palladium" initiave and were rightly flamed to a crisp by the civil libertarians and the anti-trust types. So now they found a "Useful Idiot" to put a nicer face on the same evil.

      This is all a planned campaign. Microsoft is still eager to implement TCPA/Palladium but the idea is to be 'forced' into doing it. Classic "Please don't toss me in that briar patch!" gambit. Of course in the end the plan is that Jobs and Apple gets discarded like a used condom and Microsoft Ubber Alles. NOBODY ever deals with Microsoft and comes out ahead in the end. Steve's Ego won't allow him to even consider the possibility of course.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
  154. You're not looking ahead far enough... by argent · · Score: 1

    microsoft's problem is the complete opposite as this one. microsoft is trying to prevent unsigned code from running on "their" hardware.

    The question is... once they have the DRM support, what will they do with it?

    FairPlay that actually works?

    Make sure you have good backup copies of your iTMS music on audio CD or (cough cough) otherwise. Not so you can warez it, but so you can keep playing it on your PPC Mac if iTunes switches to requiring Intel DRM support to decode iTMS tracks.

    Also: if they're actually planning on supporting strong DRM (hint: Video), they're going to have to think about closing the Darwin source.

  155. Oh well.. by jav1231 · · Score: 1

    Guess I'll use my G4 Apples as long as possible then switch back to Linux full-time when the Apintel's come out. Unless...someone comes up with a way to recompile the kernel without Big Brudduh!

  156. Its been done! by Beautyon · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the .nfo:

    Release: Apple MacOS X Tiger *x86* *PROPER*
    Type: OS
    Format: ISO
    Archives: 47x50mb
    Date: 08/2005
    System requirements: Intel Pentium 4 w/HT/1GB RAM/10GB+ HD

    R E L E A S E N O T E S
    Thanks to the guys at phe*NIX who released a non-working copy. Too bad we at XiSO had the OSX x86 DVD for a few weeks now, working hard on disabling the Infineon/Trusted Computing module which is present onboard of the "developer" Apple-Intel boxes. As some of you have heard, Rosetta, Apple's binary translation software used to convert PPC binaries to x86 bytecode at runtime is a primary user of this Trusted Computing module, and since majority of OSX Intel apps are actually PPC bins, not much of the OS is usable without this binary converter working. So we patched that, as well as a check during boot for "supported hardware". Enjoy!

    I N S T A L L N O T E S
    1. Burn to DVD using your favorite burning software.
    2. Enjoy this fine release from XiSO.
    3. This has been extensively tested on various hardware configurations, but you WILL NEED a SSE2+ enabled CPU to run this on. Also, this has *NOT* been tested, and not expected to work on AMD CPU's.

    http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3363864

    That was quick.

    --
    ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
    1. Re:Its been done! by javaxman · · Score: 1
      http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3363864

      That was quick.

      That's fascinating, really, but... there are 0 downloads and a bunch of posts ( notably one from a user "XISO" ) saying that this is a fake... let me know how that works out for you ;-)

    2. Re:Its been done! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It works, took a long time to download. It booted fine with a Pentium 4 2.4ghz. 1 gig of ram.

      WOOOOOhoooo... This is great...

    3. Re:Its been done! by fbartho · · Score: 1

      well I'm gonna download it, especially since it was posted at 1pm - ish gmt, Today... so there wouldn't be that many completed downloads.

      --
      Gravity Sucks
    4. Re:Its been done! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great. Link to a screenshot, Mr. AC. Otherwise, I'll assume you're just as big a liar as all those who claimed to be running OSX on a Dell a week or so after the announcement.

    5. Re:Its been done! by javaxman · · Score: 1
      well I'm gonna download it, especially since it was posted at 1pm - ish gmt, Today... so there wouldn't be that many completed downloads.

      no, really, I mean it, let us know how it works for you. If this thing works, I fully expect to see a slashdot story "OS X Intel cracked"... actually, I expect to see that story at *some* point, it's just a matter of when and what sort of hardware it works on.

  157. It's all about the distraction by fabu10u$ · · Score: 1
    IBM were founding members of TCG and the first to sell TPM-restricted PCs. Do you really think Apple had to go to Intel to get Fritzed?
    If they rolled out a new platform that broke compatability with all the old stuff, and the only thing that really changed was the addition of TPM, don't you think the media would latch on to the real reason Apple's doing this? "So how do we distract them?... Oh yeah, with 64-bit Powerbooks!*"

    ---
    * i.e., that actually have a battery life and don't light the user's capri pants on fire

    --
    They say the mind is the first thing to ... uh, what's that saying again?
    1. Re:It's all about the distraction by Alsee · · Score: 1

      broke compatability with all the old stuff... the addition of TPM

      You missunderstand. Adding the Trust system does NOT prevent anything old from working. Essentially all existing software will work just fine on a new DRM-enforcment computer and all of the old files are still usable on a new DRM-enforcment computer and all of the old websites are viewable just fine using a new DRM-enforcment computer.

      The Trusted Computing plan is to make the users of normal computers suffer, to encourage them to buy the new locked down machines. The new Trusted software may be DRM-crippled on a new machine, but it doesn't install or run at all on a normal old computer. The new Trusted media and data files may be DRM-crippled on a new machine, but they are unreadable at all on normal old computer. The new Trusted websites may be DRM-crippled and prohibit any pop-up blocking and ad-blocking on a new computer, but the websites will be unviewable at all on a normal old computer. In a few years you may need to be running an approved locked down system to get network access from the new Trusted Network Connect routers, but you will be denied any network connection at all by these new routers if you have a normal old computer.

      Which is why Apple is deplying the Trust system in their new computers. If they didn't then they'd get steamrolled by the Trusted Computing rollout. Apple computers would be locked out and unusable on the new corporate networks, and in a few years they could be denied any internet access at all.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  158. Sodomy in Texas by NekoXP · · Score: 1

    Hasn't been illegal for over a year :)

    Neko

  159. TPM not needed to prevent white box Macs by toby · · Score: 1
    it was rather obvious Apple would have to take some sort of action to keep their OS from being widely pirated

    Nobody seems to have figured out that there are much more difficult things to solve before OS X can "run everywhere": There are no drivers for 99% of the white box hardware out there. This has always been the #1 reason, IMHO, why nobody should have expected a shrinkwrap OS X.

    Why would Apple want to get into the same driver morass that M$ is in? If there is a driver problem with Windoze, it looks like a M$ problem, whether it is or not. Hence the certification program. But that doesn't really make life any easier: Imagine the nuisance value for an O/S vendor having to certify and keep track of 100,000 random device drivers... Software support is hard enough just in a niche (for example, imagine Dantz's headaches supporting Retrospect and the endless combinations of host/adapter/drive!) But an O/S vendor has to support every permutation to some degree, or at least give an appearance of caring.

    Apple's big win in this area was (like Sun, SGI, and dozens of other high end vendors) was controlling both the hardware design and the O/S, so they only had to support a relatively tiny set of hardware, and they had perfect access to its specifications and often designed it themselves anyway. That perfect integration is not available to generic O/S vendors like M$ - and the difference in end product has always been stark (for those who bothered to compare).

    --
    you had me at #!
  160. Not in my case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "You don't buy a copy of OS X, you buy a license to use OS X"

    I didn't GIVE apple my money, I gave them a license to use my money in a way I've specified. It was all on the EULA I wrote on the check when I bought my Mac. I even wrong on the check "by accepting this check you agree to use this money only in the following ways".

  161. Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by werdna · · Score: 1

    how is paying for mac os x and installing it on an x86 computer you already own, copyright infringement?

    You didn't pay for the software, you paid for a license with respect to the software. Your subsequent reproduction, distribution or derivation from the software is only permitted to the extent it is within the scope of your license. If the license doesn't permit you to install it on an x86 computer you already own, you have engaged in copyright infringement.

    Section 117 of the Copyright Act won't help you unless you are an owner of the copy you possess. But read the fine print -- you didn't buy the copy, which was retained by apple, you bought the media on which the copy is stored. Legal title to the copy remained with Apple, so Sections 117 and 109 of the Act don't apply.

    Damn, that sucks, but that's the way it is. . .

    And oh, by the way, if you continue to sit tight and do nothing about this sucky state of the law, it will only get worse. The 8th Circuit is now deciding whether shrink-wrap contracts can permit a waiver of fair use, a decision already made by the Federal Circuit in an earlier case.

    Pretty soon, you will have nothing left..

    1. Re:Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by Sloppy · · Score: 1
      You didn't pay for the software, you paid for a license with respect to the software.
      What you're saying, just isn't true for MacOS. You can walk into a retail store and buy MacOS. You hand over money and walk out of the store owning a copy of the software, without signing anything or agreeing to anything. Your use of it is regulated purely by copyright law, and nothing else.

      I have worked for a company that does license software -- the customer signs a license agreement and hands over a check, and then they are supplied a copy of the software which they can use in accordance with the terms of the license. But MacOS is not distributed that way; MasOS is sold. All you have to do is visit any CompUSA and you will see this.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    2. Re:Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by tricorn · · Score: 1

      What fine print? I own an "authorized copy" of the software. True, I don't "own the software" in the sense that Apple does - they have the copyright, not me. A publisher can't sell me a book and claim that I only own the paper and ink, but somehow they retain all other rights to the words on the page, and I can't read it unless I agree to do so wearing rose-colored glasses. Selling me "the media that it is stored on" IS selling me a copy. I own that copy. I can use it. I don't need any further permission to do so.

      Do what a lawyer suggested when opening a package that says "opening this package signifies that you agree with the following terms": cross out each line, initial each crossing out, then open it.

      For installer click agreements, fire up a debugger and modify the text of the agreement before you click I Agree (because white-out on the screen is so annoying). Or click on I Disagree, then go and do anything that copyright lets you do, such as modify your copy to make it run even if you click on I Disagree (or even just change the text of the I Agree button to I Disagree). Clicking on I Disagree shouldn't be able to take away any rights you already had, which included the right to the product you bought. The advertisement said it did this and that and the other, so if it doesn't, aren't they guilty of false advertisement?

    3. Re:Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by werdna · · Score: 1

      What you're saying, just isn't true for MacOS. You can walk into a retail store and buy MacOS . . .

      Sorry, you are simply mistaken, at least under applicable case law. State contract law will govern the nature of this transaction, and the vast majority of cases support the enforceability of the shrink-wrap and click-wrap provisions. Please carefully review your EULA today, and advise if you still think you own the copy.

    4. Re:Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by kelnos · · Score: 1
      If the license doesn't permit you to install it on an x86 computer you already own, you have engaged in copyright infringement.
      Actually, you've engaged in breach of contract, not copyright infringement.
      --
      Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
    5. Re:Good fantasy, but that isn't the law. . . by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      True, but Apple also sells 5-user OS X packs that are no different from any other box copy except for a different license agreement printed inside.

  162. DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by argent · · Score: 1

    What does it mean to have TPM support in a GPL-ed kernel?

    It means a software component can securely extract keys from hardware.

    Does it mean that it can securely do anything with the keys? When the kernel can (for example) wrap tpm_read() with code that copies everything it reads for later replay? Or trap to an invisible code tracer on tpm_open()? Or just start saving everything that the program write()s so the program itself becomes a cracker for whatever DRMed content you're trying to protect?

    There's lots of things you can do with TPM in an open-source kernel, but DRM isn't one of them.

    1. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by rjw57 · · Score: 1

      What does it mean to have TPM support in a GPL-ed kernel?

      Pretty much what it means in a non-GPL kernel. TPM != DRM in much the same way as Ethernet != TCP/IP. One could have a propriety networking stack working over Ethernet just as easily on Linux as on Windows.

      What TPM can do is something like 'am I running on the same kernel as I was compiled on' or 'is this version of Linux using this kernel' or 'sign this bit of data and squirrel it away so only I can get to it'.

      All of the DRM stuff would be built on top of the TPM driver, not part of it. What would be interesting is a 'dummy' TPM driver which can be controlled from user-space. Then one could see what is going on :).

      --
      Rich
    2. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by argent · · Score: 1

      One could have a propriety networking stack working over Ethernet just as easily on Linux as on Windows.

      Well... that depends on how Linus is feeling about the GPL that week. Linus has said that certain kinds of non-GPL kernel components are allowed, but it's not always clear what those are: there's certain calls that are known to be non-OK, and certain kinds of components that are pretty much blesses, but there's a certain amount of uncertainty involved. After the Sveasoft incident, I suspect that proprietary network code (other than device drivers) in a GPLed kernel would be hard to justify.

      All of the DRM stuff would be built on top of the TPM driver, not part of it.

      Understood. My point is that if you have the source to the TPM driver, or if you have the source to any of the code that the DRM application uses to communicate to the TPM driver (and you would... the system call interface at least) the DRM would not be any stronger, when you come down to it, than the same code running on a system where the DRM was entirely in user-space.

    3. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by rjw57 · · Score: 1

      Well... that depends on how Linus is feeling about the GPL that week. Linus has said that certain kinds of non-GPL kernel components are allowed, but it's not always clear what those are

      But we're talking about a stack here. Extending your point it would appear that Linux can decide what packets you can send over your network - i.e. you cannot download any non GPL applications! The point here is that a driver can exist irrespective of what use is made of it. You can use all of Linux's drivers to make and distribute non-free content.

      In the case of networking, Linux gives you a userspace API for directly modifying the packets sent over the network. You can use that API for whatever non-free things you want (Linux explicitly excludes userspace from the GPL in its license).

      My point is that if you have the source to the TPM driver...the DRM would not be any stronger, when you come down to it, than the same code running on a system where the DRM was entirely in user-space.

      Except that, to take the case of crypto signing, the private key never leaves the chip so one cannot, by any software means, get access to it. A pure-software implementation would have to contain the private key somewhere.

      Think of it like the difference between passive and active smart cards. A passive smart card only contains data and so can be copied by simply reading all the data and burning it into a new card. An active card, OTOH, has the ability to do crypto with some private key locked into the card and which would require physical disassembly and examination under a microscope to extract and copy. This is stronger since an attacker must physically obtain the card and break it in order to copy it.

      No system will ever be perfect. It is just a case of creating enough layers to deter enough people.

      --
      Rich
    4. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by argent · · Score: 1

      But we're talking about a stack here.

      As far as the GPL is concerned, it doesn't matter what the component is, it only matters how the component interacts with a GPLed program. In particular, the GPL reqires that anything that is linked to a GPL program is covered under the GPL. Linus has specifically listed the exceptions that he allows.

      In the case of networking, Linux gives you a userspace API for directly modifying the packets sent over the network. [...] Linux explicitly excludes userspace from the GPL in its license

      That's fine, but then this isn't a kernel component any longer. I'm not concerned with the behaviour of non-kernel components because unless they're protected by kernel components (as they are in Windows NT) they can always be shimmed.

      to take the case of crypto signing, the private key never leaves the chip

      But we're not talking about crypto signing here, we're talking about DRM. To be useful for DRM the crypto chip would have to (a) be powerful enough to perform the decryption itself and have a protected path to the output device, or (b) pass a key to a component outside the crypto chip but still protected by the DRM software that can perform the decryption and pass the result over a protected path to an output device.

      If neither of these cases hold, the DRM is no more secure than DRM implemented entirely in userspace.

      Now, DRM implemented entirely in userspace can be strong enough to deter enough people for it to serve the economic purpose of DRM... The success of the iTunes Music Store demonstrates that it doesn't even have to be as strong a DRM as would be possible to implement in userspace to do that job... Fairplay is actually a relatively easy system to compromise.

      And that brings us back to my point: implementing DRM in a GPL-ed kernel would be futile, because it would not be any harder for someone to write a "click-and-go" tool that would defeat it than it would be for someone to do the same thing for DRM implemented entirely in an application.

      That is, it's not that the DRM would be futile from the point of view of the publisher who simply wants to encourage sales and reduce unapprooved sharing, it's that moving the DRM into a GPL-ed kernel would be futile from the point of view of the publisher who wants something stronger than that.

    5. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by rjw57 · · Score: 1

      That's fine, but then this isn't a kernel component any longer.

      Correct. In an exactly analagous manner the DRM isn't a kernel component but the hardware tasks 'required' are. The point of a stack is that the APIs between layers are well defined and that propriety components can be layered in. Your entire computer is a stack with the GPL-d kernel sitting between the BIOS (most likely propriety) and, e.g., Acrobat Reader (propriety).

      The thing to come away with here is that just because the hardware driver for TPM is in the kernel it doesn't mean that a userspace DRM implementation which uses the driver needs to be GPL.

      But we're not talking about crypto signing here, we're talking about DRM.

      You are spectacularly uninformed about the bread and butter of DRM :).

      Your point appears to be that any hardware device can always be emulated and such an emulated device can be dropped into a GPL kernel to pass whatever important bits of info might be required back to userspace. This is of course true to first order. The problem with the trusted computing model is that the whole stack is involved.

      In order to emulate the entirety of a TPM one has to be able to emulate the BIOS's interaction with the chip (roughly equivalent to extracting its 'private key') as well as, possibly, the kernel or perhaps even the DRM app itself. The Trusted Computing platform was designed explicitly to involve all levels in the modern machine stack even below the kernel so that the entire stack has to be replaced before true emulation is possible.

      The problem with TCPA is not that it is particularly hard to emulate 'enough' but that your own hardware can betray you. Suppose you emulate a TPM so that all your userspace applications see your software-chip. All fine and dandy but what about your latest new TPM aware graphics card? It requires that all video above 320x240 requires a TPM signature to display. Unfortunately your graphics card talks directly to the hardware TPM chip, not the kernel's. Your emulated TPM now becomes worthless.

      --
      Rich
    6. Re:DRM in a GPL-ed kernel? See also, "futility". by argent · · Score: 1

      The thing to come away with here is that just because the hardware driver for TPM is in the kernel it doesn't mean that a userspace DRM implementation which uses the driver needs to be GPL.

      The "thing to come away with" is that any part of the DRM implementation that isn't operating at a level below the lowest level that you have source code access to can be trivially compromised.

      Your point appears to be that any hardware device can always be emulated and such an emulated device can be dropped into a GPL kernel to pass whatever important bits of info might be required back to userspace.

      No, that's not my point at all. You're focussing on one of the possible attacks that I mentioned in a whole list of separate attacks, and any scheme that you can come up with is subject to most of those attacks.

      The problem is that any components that are performing the decoding can be compromised in detail and the decoded stream can be extracted, unless the entire stack (from the BIOS and TPM hardware, the kernel (incloading all loadable drivers), and the application environment) is locked down and not subject to modification by the attacker.

      You don't need to emulate the TPM if you can reach in to the CODEC and extract the decoded bits between the time it decodes the stream and the time it passes them on to the graphics or sound card.

      That's why Windows Media Player uses kernel components to prevent you from compromising Windows Media Player itself or the data streams that it's operating on.

      Microsoft has a whole database of software that's its IRM knows about and that a publisher can lock out, so that any IRM-aware application will refuse to display the document if any of that software is running.

      If the NT kernel was open source (let alone GPLed) this whole environment could be compromised and spoofed at any point, so that (for example) the kernel components could be given a fake view of the running programs that never showed you SekritPatchTool. This kind of mechanism is a common part of rootkits, and could trivially be applied here.

      If it was GPLed, then not only would you control the environment of any kernel components that are used to establish that the application is running in a secure environment, you have the source code to them as well.

      And this whole secure execution environment is absolutely required by strong DRM. Anything less makes your DRM no stronger than one implemented entirely in user space.

      but what about your latest new TPM aware graphics card?

      I've already addressed this. If the decoding and DRM is implemented in the graphics card, then the rest of the computer is just a conduit between the server containing the plaintext and the card, and so it doesn't matter what the OS and applications are. The whole DRM system would then be running at a level below the lowest level the attacker has source code to.

      If the card only requires a signature, then it doesn't matter... you've compromised the data and stripped the DRM off it, so you just call it "my movies from last week's holiday" and re-sign it as if you were the author. Now the graphics card is happy to play it.

  163. False sense of entitlement by lowe0 · · Score: 1

    So? That doesn't mean that the people who aren't willing to pay for it are somehow entitled to it anyway. If the product is not worth the asking price, then say "no" and walk away.

    1. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      That doesn't mean that the people who aren't willing to pay for it are somehow entitled to it anyway.

      Sure it does - normally, those people would be _entitled_ to do whatever they want with their own private property - including making copies of it to give to other people. "Intellectual property" laws do what they do by violating people's normal private property rights.

      If the product is not worth the asking price, then say "no" and walk away.

      You're talking free market terms, but are completely failing to take into account (or willfully ignoring) that by creating _artifical_ scarcity, "intellectual property" laws distort the pricing levels of the products from where they normally be if buyers & sellers were participating in a true free market.

      If a seller can't make a buck in a free market, then why in the hell should the buyers be forced to give up their private property rights to support those sellers' failed business models?

    2. Re:False sense of entitlement by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      What property rights do the buyers have if they didn't buy the product to begin with? I don't want to pay X hundred dollars for some good pro audio software, but that doesn't mean I have the right to make a copy of it from my friends disk for use in my recording business because I never paid for it.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    3. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      What property rights do the buyers have if they didn't buy the product to begin with?

      They bought a disc. The disc is their private property. They should be able to do anything they want with it that doesn't hurt anyone else. That includes making copies of that disc and handing them out to anyone they want.

      I don't want to pay X hundred dollars for some good pro audio software, but that doesn't mean I have the right to make a copy of it from my friends disk for use in my recording business because I never paid for it.

      Yes you WOULD have that right, because that disc is your personal property. "Intellectual property" laws prevent you from exercising your private property rights.

    4. Re:False sense of entitlement by shmlco · · Score: 1
      "... with their own private property..."

      The only problem is that the words in a book, the music on a cd, and the images on a dvd are not your personal private property. You purchased the rights to enjoy that copy, not to reproduce it.

      All rights belong to the authors, musicians, producers. You know, the people who actually spent their time, efforts, talent, and dollars creating the work.

      And personally, I tend to respect the rights of those who actually able to create such work than I am the "rights" of a parasite who's unable to do any of those things but still thinks he's entitled to whatever it is he wants.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    5. Re:False sense of entitlement by shmlco · · Score: 1
      If a seller can't make a buck in a free market..

      And btw, if everyone is "entitled" to copy anything they want to everyone else, how is the author, artist, producer, or programmer supposed to "make a buck in a free market" when there are no buyers?

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    6. Re:False sense of entitlement by lowe0 · · Score: 1

      So you don't believe that making a copy hurts the original author, by reducing the work's sales potential?

      Mind you, I don't believe the drivel that every unlicensed copy is a lost sale, but certainly the opposite end of the spectrum - that copying does no harm to the author - is incorrect as well.

    7. Re:False sense of entitlement by henni16 · · Score: 1

      I don't want to pay X hundred dollars for some good pro audio software, but that doesn't mean I have the right to make a copy of it

      But there is a chance that some other vendor steps in, makes another pro audio software and sells it to you cheaper.
      For example, seeing the success of the Harry Potter books I would expect to have more than one movie for each book by now:
      productions competing to get their version out first, selling their version cheaper, saying why I should pay (more) to watch/buy their version, etc
      - if there really were a free market, that is..

    8. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      So you don't believe that making a copy hurts the original author, by reducing the work's sales potential?

      The keyword in your statement is "potential". I could potentially win the lottery, but I'm sure not going to sue someone for buying a winning lottery ticket on the basis that they've deprived me of future lottery winnings that I will somehow, inevitably receive.

      Using the "losing potential sales" argument is just a justification for making money off artificially-imposed control over other peoples' private property.

      certainly the opposite end of the spectrum - that copying does no harm to the author - is incorrect as well.

      That's because you're stuck with the notion that the author somehow "deserves" to get money, regardless of whether a free market would award them that money for providing a given goods or service. Give up on that notion & let the free market decide what the value of something is.

    9. Re:False sense of entitlement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, if you weren't going to buy it anyway, you are justified in getting it for free?

    10. Re:False sense of entitlement by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      Competeing productions are free to produce any and however many fantasy wizards comming of age movies they want. However, Harry Potter is the creation of the author, and as such the author has rights to those characters.

      The characters and specific elements of the story are the code of the story if you will. The finished book is the compiled program.

      Vendor B doesn't have a right to Vendor A's code. Nor does production house B have a right to A's characters.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    11. Re:False sense of entitlement by henni16 · · Score: 1

      I actually thought about addressing that point in my other post:
      I am not saying that authors haven't the right to the characters or that they shouldn't get money for every movie being made.
      But I believe that it is wrong that there are exclusive movie rights that can be sold.
      I am actually interested in how the music industry deals with stuff like that (not that that is a free market..):
      Can a lyric/song writer prohibt a band for covering one of his songs or performing them on stage after he granted someone else the right to do so?
      I doubt it but I don't know.
      I know he gets royalities for cover versions and public performances, but could he actually prohibit such a performance (maybe because he doesn't like the interpret(ation))?

      The characters and specific elements of the story are the code of the story if you will. The finished book is the compiled program.
      I am with you as long as "copying the source"=="copying or plagiarizing the book". But the movie (rights) would be..?
      I don't think that comparison really fits the issue I have..
      (one could say "movie rights"=="allowing someone to build a program interoperating with A's code" or something like that..)

      To get/stay somewhat offtopic:
      Vendor B doesn't have a right to Vendor A's code.
      But I think A might even have the right to produce the exact same (binary) code as B:
      don't they usually point to comments a.s.o. in software copyright cases because they have to show that the code was copied, not rewritten?

    12. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      The only problem is that the words in a book, the music on a cd, and the images on a dvd are not your personal private property.

      Yes they are. IP laws just prevent you from exercising all of your private property rights.

      You purchased the rights to enjoy that copy, not to reproduce it.

      That's just a legal fiction that the *IAA organizations want to make a reality, but unless you've signed a contract with the seller, that disc/book is your own private property & you would be able to do anything you want with it - if it weren't for IP laws.

      All rights belong to the authors, musicians, producers.

      The only right they have is the right to try and sell their goods & services. If nobody is willing to buy it at the price they are offering, then their goods/services weren't worth that much.

      That's one of the annoying things about a free market: the seller doesn't get to decide how much the buyer is going to pay for the goods & services. IP laws distort the normal valuation that a free market would otherwise determine.

      You know, the people who actually spent their time, efforts, talent, and dollars creating the work.

      I could spend a lot of time, effort, talent & dollars carving a completely banal sculpture out of a mountain. That doesn't mean that I can force people to pay me if they happen to catch sight of it while they're driving along the road.

      Similarly, just because somebody spends a lot of effort writing a song or book doesn't mean that they are _entitled_ to be able to force people to pay any more than they would in a normal business transaction. They have to offer a desired good or service at a price that people are willing to pay. And (unless they've convinced their customer to sign a contract), once they've sold their product or provided the service, they should not expect to continue to get money unless they _keep_ producing.

      Normal craftspeople understand that if they want to keep on getting paid, they have to keep making product (or providing service). What's so special about musicians/authors that they have to be given special privileges under law (privileges which permit them to restrict other peoples' normal private property rights) in order to make a living? I don't see anything special about what they produce (and I make my living developing software).

      Society would be much healthier without IP laws. People could do what they want with their private property, learn what they want, use what they learned, without worrying that they're going to have their lives ruined by a litigious control-freak who thinks they "deserve" more money than a free market would give them.

    13. Re:False sense of entitlement by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      As far as covering songs, yes and no. Copyright has some very loose grey areas in the arena of performance. That's why college a capella groups get away with what they do. But performance is different from recording. The moment a group goes to record and or distribute, then things change and rights must be negotiated, even for interpreted covers.

      am with you as long as "copying the source"=="copying or plagiarizing the book". But the movie (rights) would be..?
      I don't think that comparison really fits the issue I have..
      (one could say "movie rights"=="allowing someone to build a program interoperating with A's code" or something like that..)


      Movie rights would be direct derrivative work using actual code from the original coder.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    14. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      how is the author, artist, producer, or programmer supposed to "make a buck in a free market" when there are no buyers?

      Figure out a good or service at a price that people are willing to pay for - just like every other normal craftsperson on the planet.

      Programming is easy - you write programs for people. People pay you when you write programs for them. I'm a CAD developer at a large electronics firm - they pay me to write code, and I earn a pretty comfortable living without demanding that I have absolute control over the code that I'm generating.

      I would imagine that musicians/actors could perform for money, just like they've been doing for millenia.

      I'm sure authors/producers can find their own niches - as long as there's a demand for entertainment, there will be a niche for people who can provide it - although that niche might not be in the large, corporate-controlled form that our society is used to.

      That's the fun thing about a free market - you don't need some "central planning bureau" to tell everyone how they're supposed to make a living. People compare their skills against demand, and find themselves a niche to make a living - all without government intervention.

    15. Re:False sense of entitlement by shmlco · · Score: 1
      Bullshit. Books, music, movies, games, and so on are not necessities, and you are in no way, shape, or form "forced" to buy them at any price. You are completely free to decide they aren't worth it, and vote with(out) your dollars.

      You are in fact free to go to the library, listen to the radio, watch television, rent a disc from Blockbuster, and play chess (or checkers in your case). You are also free to create your own works (if possible), and you're also free to seek out alternatives from people willing to give their work away for free, if that's their choice.

      The point you seem unwilling or unable to grasp is that all of this stuff requires an unfront investment in time, talent, energy, and dollars that needs to be recouped, and no one is going to make that investment if they're unable to do so and if their market decides en masse to steal their work the second it's released. Just because the first disc costs a buck, and the second costs a buck, doesn't mean that it didn't take $100 million to produce.

      Such work is the property of those who create it, and their property rights, and their wishes, should be respected. Just as I (probably) would respect yours if you wrote some software and released it under the GPL.

      Society would be much healthier if more people respected the rights of others, and worried more about their responsibilities than whatever it is they think they're entitled to today.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    16. Re:False sense of entitlement by shmlco · · Score: 1
      I suppose I'm supposed to go around reading aloud the book I wrote in the hopes people will pay me for that. And of course, the entire cast of The Matrix will need to put on a play or three in order to get paid.

      BS. The fact is that the "information wants to be free" crowd is nothing more than a bunch of cheap parasites who'd steal whatever it is that isn't locked down, and that they think they could get away with. They are, after all, "entitled" to it.

      Information is not free. Information doesn't just magically appear out of thin air. Information takes time, talent, effort, and dollars to create. It requires an investment. Our constitution recognizes that fact.

      And until food is free, housing is free, medicine is free, education is free, transportation is free, and so on, most information (books, movies, games, software, music) is NOT going to be free.

      Sure, some people may have other jobs and can afford to give their work away for nothing, but by and large this is not some Star Trekian uptopia.

      Recognize that fact. Deal with it.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    17. Re:False sense of entitlement by lowe0 · · Score: 1

      Under such a model, creative professionals would have to add to their risk analysis the serious risk of rampant copying. As a result, when making pricing decisions, they'd have to price the product higher in order to recoup the desired return on their time and money. Assuming that (as you keep repeating) the currently artificially inflated prices will be lowered, the return from creative work is less likely to recoup its cost (including opportunity cost).

      Now, there are ways around this dilemma - you can offer software as a service rather than a packaged product (which is how I make my living), you can have an ironclad license agreement that will hold up in court with significant penalties for redistribution, of you can just work for someone who is willing to front the entire cost of development (my fiancee, a graphic artist, makes her money from this one). However, if the law does not provide a level of protection which the owner of a creative work considers sufficient, then I think it's up to the owner to step in with technology such as DRM to reduce the risks of unauthorized duplication. To me, that's a good thing - instead of relying on the law, get solid technology and use it to protect your own interests. Consumers have the freedom to choose whether your system is too draconian to accept, or whether they're willing to deal with the restrictions in order to gain access to what you're offering.

    18. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      Under such a model, creative professionals would have to add to their risk analysis the serious risk of rampant copying. As a result, when making pricing decisions, they'd have to price the product higher in order to recoup the desired return on their time and money. Assuming that (as you keep repeating) the currently artificially inflated prices will be lowered, the return from creative work is less likely to recoup its cost (including opportunity cost).

      Or they'd have to figure out how they can repackage the product or service in a way that people would be willing it to purchase it regularly at a particular price level. I have only vague ideas of what the market might look like, but that's really the point: if you let a free market work those issues out, evolutionary feedback will cause a good solution to occur. If you try and manage the market, then you are engaging in central-control economics - which, at the best, is going to be inefficient, and at the worst will let the people in charge loot the economy at the overall expense of society.

      Now, there are ways around this dilemma - you can offer software as a service rather than a packaged product (which is how I make my living)

      Yeah, I do software for service as well.

    19. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      Bullshit. Books, music, movies, games, and so on are not necessities, and you are in no way, shape, or form "forced" to buy them at any price. You are completely free to decide they aren't worth it, and vote with(out) your dollars.

      I am also completely free to point out that the price of those products is being set artificially high by IP laws instead of being allowed to be set by a free market, that those IP laws violate _MY_ (and yours) basic property rights, and IP laws discourage innovation in our society, preventing us from being as competitive economically with countries that ignore IP laws. Our society would be much better off without IP laws.

      The point you seem unwilling or unable to grasp is that all of this stuff requires an unfront investment in time, talent, energy, and dollars that needs to be recouped, and no one is going to make that investment if they're unable to do so and if their market decides en masse to steal their work the second it's released. Just because the first disc costs a buck, and the second costs a buck, doesn't mean that it didn't take $100 million to produce.

      Oh, I understand all that just as well as you do, and probably better. I just don't think it's relevant.

      In a free market, it doesn't matter how much effort you put into making something. It only matters at what price people are willing to buy. If you try to sell a product at a price that people aren't willing to buy, then your product isn't worth that much, no matter how much time & effort you put into it.

      If someone tries to make a business out of selling things at a price too high, then that's called a BAD BUSINESS MODEL - and such a business, like the dot.coms, will eventually go out of business.

      If you spent $100Mil to develop something that can be copied easily, then the free market sez: "You chose unwisely." People don't _deserve_ to make money just because they worked hard or spent a lot of money. They have to create stuff that people want to buy, and sell it at a price they are willing to pay.

      If I spent a lot of time & effort breaking big rocks into little rocks with a sledgehammer, and then somehow (good lobbyist?) got a law passed saying that people HAD to buy little rocks for $100 a piece, would you say that I have a right to sell little rocks for $100? Because that's the same type of reasoning that IP proponents are using.

      Such work is the property of those who create it, and their property rights, and their wishes, should be respected. Just as I (probably) would respect yours if you wrote some software and released it under the GPL.

      About the only "respect" I would require from you would be to ask that you tell people where you got the code, i.e., don't pretend you wrote it. Other than that, I wouldn't feel that I have any right to tell you what to do with your own private property - and if I really wanted to do that, then I'd make you sign a contract with me spelling out all the terms up front before handing over my code.

      Society would be much healthier if more people respected the rights of others, and worried more about their responsibilities than whatever it is they think they're entitled to today.

      I completely agree, although not in the way you mean.

      I think people should respect the private property rights of others, and to make a living by providing goods or products at a price people are willing to pay. Creative people who think they somehow "deserve" to get more money than any other craftsperson are just being greedy.

    20. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      I suppose I'm supposed to go around reading aloud the book I wrote in the hopes people will pay me for that. And of course, the entire cast of The Matrix will need to put on a play or three in order to get paid.

      Just because YOU can't figure out a way for authors & entertainers to make a living doesn't mean that free market won't. It just means that you're not smart enough.

      BS. The fact is that the "information wants to be free" crowd is nothing more than a bunch of cheap parasites who'd steal whatever it is that isn't locked down, and that they think they could get away with. They are, after all, "entitled" to it.

      I believe that is the IP owners who are claiming they are "entitled" to more money than people would otherwise be willing to give them. Apparently, they're not willing to make a living by continually working for it - they want special laws that let them milk each creative work for much more than it was actually worth.

      Information is not free. Information doesn't just magically appear out of thin air. Information takes time, talent, effort, and dollars to create. It requires an investment. Our constitution recognizes that fact.

      The Constitution "recognizes" that the government should try to promote the Arts & Sciences for the general good of society. It doesn't say _anything_ about giving a free handout to artists "because they've got to work SOOOO hard", or letting big businesses get control over that kind of work & use IP laws to discourage innovation in our society.

      And until food is free, housing is free, medicine is free, education is free, transportation is free, and so on, most information (books, movies, games, software, music) is NOT going to be free.

      Gods, another ignorant who doesn't believe the world existed before "modern" society.

      There has been music/performances/writing going on through recorded human history, WITHOUT IP protection, and in societies where all that food/housing/medicine/education/transporation/so on was MUCH harder to get than it is now.

      Society doesn't _need_ IP laws for that stuff to happen. IP laws just get in the way of that kind of stuff happening. There would a LOT more distributed & diverse culture occuring if IP laws didn't exist.

      Of course, rich people who want to build global media conglomerates to control a lot of that information might be annoyed, but I'm sure society can get along quite well without them.

    21. Re:False sense of entitlement by shmlco · · Score: 1
      Let's say that you spend $100 gathering materials and bake bread. Let's say that I spend $100 gathering information, and write a book.

      Why is it that you are allowed to sell your bread, but I am apparently not allowed to sell my book?

      Why can you steal and enjoy my book because you don't like my price, but I can't steal and enjoy your bread because I don't like your price? Remember, both have the same upfront costs.

      Answer this one if none of the above: Why you so special that you are automatically entitled to the results of my work?

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    22. Re:False sense of entitlement by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 1
      Why is it that you are allowed to sell your bread, but I am apparently not allowed to sell my book?

      Go ahead and sell your book, for whatever you can get for it. If you want to keep getting money, you'd better be prepared to sell more books, just like I would have to keep baking bread to keep getting paid for them.

      I wouldn't expect to sell a piece of bread & then expect to get paid every time it changed hands, got eaten, used as fertilizer & turned back into grain. Only a greedy person would expect that.

      Why can you steal and enjoy my book because you don't like my price, but I can't steal and enjoy your bread because I don't like your price?

      Are you talking about stealing books, or copying them? Because it's not the same action, no matter how much you try to bend the language.

      Why you so special that you are automatically entitled to the results of my work?

      Sorry, first you have to explain why you think you're so special that you can override my private property rights.

      If I buy that book from you, it becomes my property. In a normal market situation, that would be the end of it - I could do whatever I wanted with my private property, and it would be none of your damn business.

      IP laws violate private property rights, pure and simple - and there had better be a better reason than "I deserve more money!" to justify overriding people's private property rights.

    23. Re:False sense of entitlement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Copyright has some very loose grey areas in the arena of performance. That's why college a capella groups get away with what they do. But performance is different from recording. The moment a group goes to record and or distribute, then things change and rights must be negotiated, even for interpreted covers.

      This is completely incorrect. Performance royalties are covered through tracking by "the big three." Namely, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (it's complicated, but is well-explained here).

      Covers are under mechincal royalty licenses, and cannot be controlled. Once a song has been published (which remains the writer's perogative), then a cover song can be made using the government-mandated royalty rate (currently it's, I believe, $.08 per copy for songs under five minutes, or $.0155 per minute per copy for song covers over five minutes, whichever is greater). Artists cannot, in fact, block covers of their songs for any reason. You can read more about making cover songs here.

      The only way a cover could be blocked is if it's being translated into another medium (by that I mean synced to video, in which case the original artist must be compensated through a completely negotiable licensing agreement).

      Really, the entire system is insane.

    24. Re:False sense of entitlement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh dear, you're an idiot with a limited grasp of economics and right wing loony to boot, but in that you sound like most of our politicians - following an ideology but with no idea what the consequences will be, aside from the fact that they won't be the ones who have to live with the consequences.

      The free market has also produced many BAD solutions.

      If there is nothing to stop anyone duplicating something for free, there is NO POSSIBLE MARKET. Classic free market economics dictates that the price should fall close to the cost of production as goods become commoditized - but it still works on the model that there is some cost of production - even if I was to 'steal' your R&D/song, there would be a cost to me in implementing or manufacturing it. It doesn't cover the situation where I can use a general purpose magic copying machine to produce something at ZERO cost that it took you $5000 to produce. It is an economic singularity. The 'laws of economics' don't apply afterwards. Now there would be some defence against this if we accept either strong copyright - i.e. that an artist can sue someone for illegally distributing their work - or strong DRM that will prevent the same outcome. What I don't think works is telling the artist that they should give their work away for free because there is no way they can prevent it from being stolen. Oh, they might say, in that case I'll go back to flipping burgers / accountancy / supporting buggy software or whatever else it might be that might provide them with a living.

      And while I'm at it, why not try and write some software that provides the functionality people require and doesn't have any bugs in it - ie. a console game - where's the service revenue in that? (I work for a software house - we see support and bugs as stuff that costs us money, not makes us money).

      Or will we have to suffer a future where all games are online subscription based games because no one can make money selling the things?

  164. *GASP!* by jpellino · · Score: 1

    "Apple has included with the Developer Kit DVD uses TCPA/TPM DRM. More specifically, it includes "a TCPA/Palladium implementation that uses a Infineon 1.1 chip "

    Yes, but does it have Full LRF Support?

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  165. Sodomy has been legal in Texas for awhile . . . by werdna · · Score: 1

    The United States Supreme Court struck down the Texas sodomy statutes in 2003 on privacy grounds, so fear not.

    Maybe there is still a chance for technology?

    1. Re:Sodomy has been legal in Texas for awhile . . . by chochos · · Score: 1

      Maybe they invalidated the sodomy law so that the other law (not installing OSX on a PC) can be valid? because after all, the effect of that law feel like... well...

  166. drug testing by JimBobJoe · · Score: 1

    but I got my first Job at 16, and they required Drug Testing, and I'm fairly sure it was a pretty standard procedure by then.

    On a slightly different but related note, pre-employment/random drug testing is, essentially, a fetish unique to the United States. It's unheard of outside of the US.

    Weirdly, the people who are most aghast at the idea of drug testing are people in other Anglo-Saxon nations (like New Zealand, Australia and Canada.) It remains a mystery why Americans were so milquetoast in how they dealt with drug testing, whereas other nations thought it was entirely unacceptable.

    1. Re:drug testing by PakProtector · · Score: 1

      Like many other things, such as the absurdly high drinking age, I consider it to be a mainly (or nearly purely) American Problem.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    2. Re:drug testing by benjcurry · · Score: 1

      Same thing with the recent GTA San Andreas thing...it's an indication of where our (Americans') mind is: Hey, who mixed a naked human body with my racist killing spree??? I'm livid! I love GTA. :)

  167. IHBT. IHL. by daniil · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I didn't read your post properly the first time and (mis-)took it for the usual "I don't want to start a holy war here..." troll. And then my head exploded, and now there are tiny bits of skull bone and brain tissue all over the room. Luckily, it turns out i can manage just as well even without a brain.

    --
    Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
  168. duality... by wild_berry · · Score: 1

    You are Schrodinger's Cat AICM* knowledge of your position and velocity simultaneously.

    *: And I Claim My

  169. Interesting, but not really my point by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 1

    The point was that if you're a Windows user, you've got to learn the ropes of OSX just like you'd have to do with Linux. UI consistency issues aside (and I agree with you there), it's not a 5 minute or even a 5 hour task to become comfortable with the new way of doing things. Personally, I don't think a lifelong Windows user would find either Linux or OSX that much easier to learn than the other. They're both "different enough" from Windows that you'd have to spend a fair amount of time getting used to things.

    Cheers,

  170. Why do you people care?! by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 2, Insightful
    This is *APPLE* OSX will only run on APPLE hardware. Did you get that?

    Let me repeat OSX WILL ONLY RUN ON APPLE HARDWARE!!!

    Ok? Got it? If you really wanted OSX as much as you purport you would have bought a mac mini.

    Oh I know $500 for a computer costs too much, and you just want to steal OSX and run it on you klone or dell.

    Honestly go back to your Linux, and fight over your KDE or GNOME nonsense, and how Linux is loosing out just as Unix did wthat that CDE vs Windows nonsense, when infact it just canabalized the unix market in the 80-90s.

    As for the DRM, what did you expect? Apple would just flood the market? Since you probably have never download or installed Darwin, I guess you have never noticed just how device driver poor it is, or just how un linux it is.

    So put up or shut up, go buy a mac mini, or just keep plodding along with your x86, since you are too cheap to get a named OEM peice of hardware.

    Sheesh.

    1. Re:Why do you people care?! by be-fan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Ok? Got it? If you really wanted OSX as much as you purport you would have bought a mac mini.

      Question: why in the world would I want to spend $500 on a crappy Mac Mini when I've got an Athlon X2 sitting on my desk? My computer is pretty fast, but its still not fast enough for some of the stuff I run. Why on earth would I want to downgrade so much?

      On the other hand, I'd happily pay Apple $200 (or whatever they're charging for OS X these days) every upgrade cycle to run OS X on my computer. It's not about cheap, it's about choice!

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:Why do you people care?! by PenGun · · Score: 0

      Your X2,heh, and mine too will eat any Mac that comes out in the next year or two. Possibly longer if Intel keeps screwing up.

        Mod score 2 insightful ... mwhahahahah.

          PenGun
        Do What Now ??? ... Standards and Practices !

    3. Re:Why do you people care?! by argent · · Score: 1

      why in the world would I want to spend $500 on a crappy Mac Mini when I've got an Athlon X2 sitting on my desk?

      Because you can't run Mac OS X on your Athlon X2?

      I mean, that's a simple bloody question. You know the answer. Whether you believe that OS X is worth the "Mac Tax" or not is beside the point, you know why you might want to pay it.

      If you don't want to pay it, don't pay it, but don't pretend you don't understand what it's all about.

      Mac OS X costs $130, which is less than Windows XP. Now, most generic PCs are sold with little or no margins, so you can consider the sales cost to be comparable to the production costs. Apple gets pretty good margins, so you can look at the "Mac Tax" to figure out what else they are making on the box. That's about $150-$200 on the mini (depending on whether you insist on the comparable PC having EXACTLY the specs of the mini, or you count things like extra USB ports or the ability to upgrade the video against the mini), so you could expect OS X for generic intel (if Apple sold such a thing) to cost at least $300 for Apple to avoid taking a loss... assuming their sales of OS X intel were comparable to the loss of sales of Mac minis.

      You can perform similar calculations on other models, and come up with what Apple would need to sell OS X for if it's going to be a good business decision for them, IF they sell as many copies of OS X as they do now, AND their other costs stay about the same. It's not likely to be as low as $200.

      Whether the total sales would go up or down or stay the same, that's another question. I've heard arguments all three ways, and I don't know enough to say which ones I believe. I would LIKE to believe sales would go through the roof and make Bill Gates cry...

    4. Re:Why do you people care?! by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 1
      Then sell your Athlong thing and get a G5.

      Oh wait you dont want a fast machine to run OSX, what am I thinking.

      Honestly you make no sense what so ever, please do yourself a favor and keep running linux, because if you ever did get a copy of osx the next thing you would be doing is crying about Aqua, and how its not X11 with 11,000,000 window managers, or how there is no KDE Gnome wars.

    5. Re:Why do you people care?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For them to make up the money they'd lose by not selling you hardware, the OS would be north of $500 a copy. Would you still buy it?

      Or would you simply pirate it like most of the yapping little dogs in this discussion? Most of them aren't even contemplating purchasing it, they're simply fuming about how DRM may prevent them from pirating it.

      Apple wants to maintain their business model despite the switch in processors. If you don't like it, too fscking bad, Apple needs to maintain profitability. It's been conclusively proven time and again that there is zero market for a 2nd commercial generic x86 OS.

      And remember, a commercial OS doesn't mean you can visit the company's website and download an .iso image of the software free of charge. That's not commercial - that's communist.

    6. Re:Why do you people care?! by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Your comment makes no sense. Why would I want to sell my Athlon? It's a dual-core 2.2GHz Athlon64 (with 1MB of cache on each chip) with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB disk. It's an all-SATA, all-PCI Express, dual network ports, Firewire, and a nice, quiet case (Antec P180). You can't even buy an equivalent G5, certainly not for the $1300 I spent building it.

      I'm really into compiler programming, and Apple doesn't make sell an equivalent processor for me. The G5's integer throughput is pretty bad (its long pipeline puts it closer to a P4 than an Athlon in efficiency). To get even near the same performance for the code I run on a G5, I'd have to move up to the 2.7GHz watercooled model, and even then, the relatively small 512KB cache hurts performance on integer code.

      On the other hand, I love OS X, and would gladly give Apple my money. But I refuse to live with inferior hardware to do it.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    7. Re:Why do you people care?! by be-fan · · Score: 1

      You're forgetting that Apple ships a new OS every 12-18 months. Meanwhile, a person upgrades their Mac once every several years. Like I said, I'd be willing to pay $200 a year to keep getting the newest versions of OS X. After just one upgrade cycle, that blows away the margin lost from me not buying a Mini.

      My point is that the original poster made a very stupid statement. He asked: "if you liked MacOS X so much, you would have bought a Mini". The Mini is completely useless to me. It just doesn't have the horsepower to run the things I run. I don't care if its more expensive for me to just buy the software than it is to get the Mini. I don't want to have to run such a nice OS on such a POS box.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    8. Re:Why do you people care?! by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Did you read either my post or the post I replied to? This isn't about "Apple should sell OS X standalone" or "I want to pirate OS X". It's about: "I think Apple's hardware is crap and I'd gladly pay extra to run the software on a platform of my choice". The OP implied that the only reason for someone who likes OS X to want to run it on a generic PC, instead of buying a Mini, is because they are cheap. That's just not true. Even if I could get a G5 for the same price I paid for my Athlon, I wouldn't do it.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    9. Re:Why do you people care?! by argent · · Score: 1

      I'd be willing to pay $200 a year to keep getting the newest versions of OS X.

      Me too, if I could run it on a Thinkpad. I hate the Powerbooks.

      But...

      I liked Mac OS X so much that I traded my at-the-time decent P4-1.7 for a used Powermac 7500 and a G3/400 upgrade card and a Radeon 7000 to run it on. Because that's all I could afford.

      So while you complain about the mini I'll be over here playing the world's smallest violin. I just upgraded to a mini and couldn't be happier.

      And while I suspect that Apple could make more money selling OS X for generic PCs for $200 or $300, I don't expect them to. But... who knows what the heck Steve Jobs will do, the man just loves keeping people guessing. These days I suspect he works for the thrill of freaking people out more than the money.

  171. Can't distract the already inattentive by Kaseijin · · Score: 1
    If they rolled out a new platform that broke compatability with all the old stuff, and the only thing that really changed was the addition of TPM, don't you think the media would latch on to the real reason Apple's doing this?
    I think there would be about as much compatibility-breaking and media-latching as there was when IBM, Dell, etc. started selling TPM-burdened systems, i.e. effectively nil.
  172. Commercial software by drcheesebeer · · Score: 1

    People just don't seem to get it. This commercial monopolistic behavior will become the demise of the commercial software industry. I can understand the need to make a living off of a trade, but this is getting out of control. As the global population becomes more tech savvy, there will be unprecedented backlash from such moves. I adamantly refuse to purchase software or hardware that will limit my rights through use of DRM. Software companies: Get over it. If you don't, your time has already come and gone.

  173. DRM? No Thank You. by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

    It is funny, but not ha-ha funny. The whole reason that many people enjoy using computers so much is the feeling of control.

    Each of us can choose our operating system, our programs, and our data. If so motivated, anyone sitting in front of a keyboard could learn to program, and choose the development environment they enjoy most.

    But with DRM, those feelings of power and control are over. Even as the owner of a PC, you no longer control your machine. You have to ask (and receive) permission to run your own files.

    Personally, I refuse to become an electronic vassal. So long as there remain alternatives that allow me complete access to my PC, then I choose those, no matter how beautiful or functional the DRM solutions are. If that means I have to abandon both Windows and OS X, then so be it.

    1. Re:DRM? No Thank You. by oledoody · · Score: 1

      OK...sure sure, freedom, yeah I like that too. but. My wife has one of these tiny 2.2lb .4 inch thick Panasonic Tough Books. Best screen ever. It's the one that use to be only had in Japan..nice shinny very VERY small and beautiful. Great solid computer. In fact it's the best notebook out there for so many reasons. If I could run OSX on that baby, life would be so much easier on the road, AND I would probably sell my PBG4, as nice as it is. Apple may make good harware, but there are way better hardware options out there in the notebook catagory. Just a fact. I just hate windows and love OSX. I've got no time to f*#@K with open source OSs. I'm sure Apple's aware of how good that Tough Book is, because they couldn't touch it's size. That's why they switched to Intel.

  174. Damn Sin! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Instead of just blindly saying "pirates are bad" and then handcuffing everyone, even the law abiding people who make them money, they should examin _why_ people pirate. Obviously there is the "pay vs. free" thing, but there are other factors for why people pirate stuff."

    Original sin. Oh, right. Right and wrong doesn't exist. Oh well, good luck with that problem.

  175. Damn, but you're full of shit. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    i would like to donate to the eff, except i don't want to be put on a list of terrorists. the only way to even have a remote chance of beating this nonsense (criminal and unethical behavior) is to educate the public at a greater rate than the "mainstream media" can "educate" them.

    Is it difficult to be that full of shit? Do you sometimes feel a pressure building up behind your eyeballs, threatening to fountain brownly forth from them?

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  176. Try not to think of this as groupthink. by coolGuyZak · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Note that it provides congress with a power, it does not provide the people with a right

    Yes, but that power is being abused... It says copyright for limited times... If I can pass retroactive copyright bills (Copyright Act of 1976, Copyright Term Extension Act) then can one really say that term is limited? (Note: the Copyright Act of 1976 had it's good parts).

    Importantly, it has the clause "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" - once copyright is no longer filling that role, it should not be in place...

    Rebuttal: How does a software patent (amongst other things) promote science? Art? What about content which is still copyrighted, but not "profitable"? It will be locked up, and eventually age until it's destroyed. (See the story behind Eldred vs. Ashcroft).

    And, to bring this post somewaht more back to the OP topic... When the media protected by DRM finally does enter the public domain, how will we access it and make it freely accessable to everyone? If the publisher doesn't create a DRM-less copy, we'll have to devise tools to crack the DRM, and if that DRM is still used by copyrighted media... WHOOPS! Just broke the DMCA!

    1. Re:Try not to think of this as groupthink. by r_a_trip · · Score: 1

      Forget the wholesome ideas your founding fathers had, America. They have been squandered as a ritual sacrifice for the God Mammon.

      Your rights, right now is to ensure the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. The US constitution is already breached by the DMCA and the PATRIOT act. You have no Freedom left, but the "freedom" to serve the GREED of the rich.

      I have empathy for you over there. Europe is on the same course of civil destruction.

      --
      # touch universe # chmod +rwx universe # ./universe
  177. Damn Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watson.

  178. Re:remote attestation is an official feature of TP by acaspis · · Score: 1
    If you read the TCG official docs, you'll see that remote attestation (signed hashes of the hardware and of the bootloader can be encrypted and then checked by the OS or sent through the internet) is an official feature of TCG/TPM/TCPA.

    But signed with which key ?

    As the OP mentions, TPMs currently don't ship with a pre-installed key.

  179. No, it has nothing to do with a license. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Whoa, sailor. The publisher of Harry's delightful Hogwarts adventures doesn't license anything. They sell a book to me. Their remedies against me if I decide to go sell my own copies have fuck-all to do with any license that exists between the publisher and the book purchaser; it's a civil wrong or, on a larger scale, a criminal offense. There was no contract.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
    1. Re:No, it has nothing to do with a license. by derflammenhund · · Score: 1

      You're missing out on an important analog here: Yes, you purchased the book. No, you do not have the right to do what you will with its contents. The copyright holder (in this case, probably the publisher) still gets to tell you what you can and can't do with your precious printed word. This is why we have plagiarism; because the party with the right to control copy gets to control copying of its intellectual property. This is exactly the same as buying a computer and being able to do what you will with it. Yes, you can hit the computer with a brick. You can sell it and its contents to another person. But you can not spindle, fold, mutilate, or otherwise break the agreement you entered into with regard to the software. The only difference between computer software and a copy of a book is that there's a piece of paper that has to explain what copyright law means as applied to software because people apparently don't believe that illegally copying/distributing/using software is the same as illegaly copying/distributing/using written literature.

  180. Do you run either?! by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 1

    Some how Im guessing no.

  181. Anonymous Electronic Payments by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

    The only way to anonymously donate money is to put some paper money into an envelope and mail it to its destination.

    With the advancements in DNA PCR technology, make sure you do not use your saliva to moisten the glue on the back of the envelope. In fact, it is better if you handled the cash and the envelope while wearing latex gloves too.

    Now, let us move to the electronic realm. The parent post says that you can make an anonymous donation on the net. Sadly, no such technology exists.

    There is no on-line method in which you can trade money anonymously. With paper money, the recipient gets the cash and nothing else. You disclose absolutely no personal information.

    Current on-line systems are much to chatty. They also disclose your name, your account, your e-mail address, and leave a paper trail anyone could follow.

  182. Whose comment were you reading? by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Aside from the first example, none of those are laws; they're inconveniences foisted on people who have done nothing wrong as an attempt to make criminals' lives more difficult, by making everyone else's more difficult.

    So yeah, we wouldn't need colon searches at the airport if it weren't for the aforementioned morons.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
    1. Re:Whose comment were you reading? by Pollardito · · Score: 1
      So yeah, we wouldn't need colon searches at the airport if it weren't for the aforementioned morons.
      no they've gone and done it, someone steals a few punctuation marks and we all have to pay the price
  183. Bag searches? by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Whoa, bag searches at supermarkets? What's up with that? I've never heard of such a thing. Are you talking about the occasional annoying moment when the clerk forgets to remove the tattle strip and you get the "STEP BACK, CITIZEN! YOU HAVE ACTIVATED WAL-MART'S HAPPY INVENTORY SYSTEM!" message boomed from the loudspeakers?

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  184. It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X rock. by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If OS X had to run on a gazillion different combinations, that fact would be a major point it making it less reliable and less stable. BECAUSE THE OS IS SOLD TO RUN ON ONLY A FEW HARDWARE OPTIONS, IT"S EASIER TO WRITE AND TEST AND Q/A THE DAMN THING! That is part of the success of OS X and what makes it run so geat. Of course Apple wants the hardware sales, but controling the hardware is critical too. I would not want an OS X that could run on Compaqs to Dells to A Opens to your custom PC because then I wouldn't get uptimes of 90 days (rebooting only for security updates that touch the Kernel, etc).

    LOOK AT SOLARIS. Ask anyone who needs a Solaris box to stay up for critical stuff (not FTP server, talking about critical stuff at the core of a company / government / hospital) and it will be on one on Sun's servers, it will NOT be Solaris for Intel. Big metal + Tested Metal = Solaris uptimes of years if need be. Small metal + Tested Metal = OS X I know and love.

  185. Awww.-Human Nature. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "There's a lot of hand waving here about companies removing people's rights and slippery slope arguments along the lines of "if they do X they will eventually do Y for reason Z". This entirely ignores the fact that Tiger-x86 is probably the hottest thing to hit torrent sites in a long time. It was bad enough when developer releases of Tiger for PowerPC were making the rounds and people were making stupid assessments of the system months before release. The development kits and pre-release copies of OSX are meant to be in Mac developer hands, not Joe Dork down the street on his PC."

    People don't care if Apple stays in business or not. It's all about gratifying self. If their actions eventually put Apple out of business? So what? Blame Darwin or something. Nobody wants to pay people for their hard work (unless it's them. Damn Outsourcing!). Everyone's talking a good game but don't listen to their words. Watch their eyes. Actions will always speak louder than words.

  186. good bye Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Mac gave up and I was just in the process of deciding between buying another Mac or a PC(Athlon 64 X2) and running Linux. I don't support companies that have anything to do with DRM so this helped me make the decision for a Linux PC. Thanks, Apple.

    1. Re:good bye Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet you're the type guy who had bought a few thousand bucks worth of Mac software... NOT.

  187. I don't care, as long as by mdarksbane · · Score: 1

    This doesn't bother me at all, as long as they are using to prevent OS X from running on other systems, not preventing linux from running on macs.

    Which, from the sound of the guys who claim to have gotten Windows and linux working on the developer machines, is the case.

    I don't know why everyone's freaking out about this. I have plenty of OEM discs that won't install a system other than the model they were made for.

    It's just a way to check for a system's "Mac-ness" since the hardware is otherwise standard.

  188. Where is DVDJon when we need him? by logik3x · · Score: 1

    Please crack OSX.x86 !

  189. Re:IBM 3 DRM by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
    IBM uses their TPM modules to enhance security, not to create DRM. Think about it: What does IBM sell? Servers. Business Machines. Why would they give a rats ass about Joe Blow downloading copyrightd music off the internet?

    Sure, it can be used to seal corporate memos and such... but I'd consider that part of "business". TPM is a tool, not a restriction. Unlike palladium, it only provides basic cryptology functions. So, while it can be used to implement TC, it's main purpose is alot less devious. It can be used to run a "trusted" operating system (e.g. the one you originally built), and thus make more static guarentees concering, say password authentication. In addition, you don't have to worry about compromising your private keys, either... They can all be stored in a safe manner on your HDD.

    Concerning IBM and TPM, I'd say its ok to remove your tinfoil hat. It it were Apple or MS and TPM, different ballgame.

  190. Just stop by jeweekes · · Score: 1

    I think we should stop buying. I don't mean stop buying Microsoft, or Apple, etc... No, I mean we should just stop buying new software or hardware. We have all the power we need, and all the software we need. MS Office has not improved in years, and neither has any other software. Moore's Law is just an outdated general observation, and the biggest improvement in recent years on any computer is that you don't need a driver for USB storage devices! Maybe if we just stop then some worthwhile innovation MIGHT just happen for us to start buying again. Just my 2 cents worth.

  191. The Apple Desktop: Now for Copyright Owners by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1

    Apple seems to always be focused on having a high-quality user experience.

    Agreed. That is why many here on Slashdot are having a hard time with hardware DRM on Apple's Intel machines.

    Really, can you think of one reason why a user would want DRM on his or her machine?

    By adding the Infineon 1.1 chip to its motherboards, Apple is telling the world that it is now making machines for copyright holders, not for users.

    1. Re:The Apple Desktop: Now for Copyright Owners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, can you think of one reason why a user would want DRM on his or her machine?

      So the company that sells it doesn't go out of business in 6 months when Microsoft realizes they've become a direct competitor and proceeds to stomp the living snot out of them?

  192. what, me worry? Welcome to M$ domination. by twitter · · Score: 0
    Apparently Apple's DRM kernel extension only gets involved when Rosetta is executing code. In other words, if you're running native code, there's no checking.

    That's really poor reasoning. First, "Native" code can require the Paladium code to work. Second, Apple using M$'s Paladium is a sign of the end times!

    Really, aren't you just a little worried to see Apple sucking up to M$'s treacherous computing initiative? Dumbass lawmakers will give lip service to this as a "responsible attempt to control piracy" or some other BS and then make anything that does not use it against the law. You know, like no more free software unless it's crippled by some piece of shit from M$.

    This is bad, very bad.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  193. ESR Quote by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 1

    I had the opportunity to talk with ESR a couple of years ago and asked him what he thought about Palladium, and to quote: "Palladium is Dead".

    --
    If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
  194. Three Letters by stinerman · · Score: 1

    PGP
    or
    SSH

  195. Are you for real? by amichalo · · Score: 1

    And when the cops shoot a black man for having a candybar in his pocket or shoot an unarmed non violent black man four dozen times at close range...

    Is that really what you think? Really? Even if you read a story about cops shooting an unarmed person who had a candy bar in their pocket...do you really think that is the begining and end of the story? You don't think there is any additional information missing that might explain why someone who makes a career out of law enforcement would just go murdering innocent candy bar eaters with no provocation? Do you REALLY think that?

    I think the grandparent is right. Without infringers of copyrights, there would be no reason to spend R&D dollars to electronically deter infringement - it would be a waste of money.

    --
    I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
    1. Re:Are you for real? by bemenaker · · Score: 1
      Actually, yes, I live in Cincinnati, go read about the race riots in 2001. Three black men were shot killed that summer, not one had a weapon on them.

      The big industries would try to DRM no matter what, pirating has always existed, and always will, and it is not nearly as big as a lose as they want you to believe. Check the facts, they are there, you just have to dig.

  196. Hardware DRM isn't invincible. by donkstuff · · Score: 1

    Alot of people are really worked up over hardware DRM. I think that if it becomes reality, people will eventually find some way around it, hardware side. Just look at all the modchips available for Xbox, PS2, etc. Those all let you get around hardware protection in some way. I don't see why or how TCA/DRM on PC's could be that hard to circumvent either. Modchips would move from consoles over to computers.

    --
    :(){ :|:& };:
    Paluminum.net
  197. Our reason for drug testing by tacokill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am a small employer. The reason we have pre-employment drug screens has absolutely nothing to do with me or my company's opinion of them.

    Our insurance rates are cheaper if we do them.


    It is a VERY simple cost/benefit anaylysis. We save money by requiring drug tests. Not in productivity or anything like that. Just our insurance rates.

    I suspect we are not the only ones who are faced with this choice.

    1. Re:Our reason for drug testing by bemenaker · · Score: 1
      As I have already posted, this is the ONLY reason anyone does drug screens. Noone cares as long as you don't come to work fucked up.

      Just too many slush-heads out there still can't figure that out. Guess staying sober all your life takes something out of ya. :)

    2. Re:Our reason for drug testing by squoozer · · Score: 1

      I fully understand you reason for drug testing but doesn't it just seem wrong to you? While I am not saying this is the case here I think the employee would feel like the employer distructs them which get the relationship off to a bad start. A distrustful emploee is likely to not be loyal meaning higher staff turn overs and lower productivity because they don't believe in the same ideals as the company. In the end you may be worse off than if you hadn't done the screening and taken the hit on the insurance cost. Having said that I think I would probably end up doing the same if the difference in rates was large enough.

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    3. Re:Our reason for drug testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And all it cost you is violating basic human privacy and treating your employees like an enemy. A cost/benefit analysis is never a good reason to do something immoral.

    4. Re:Our reason for drug testing by tacokill · · Score: 1

      The difference is large enough that it's a no-brainer. I agree that taking a principled stance is nice -- in theory. But you have to choose your battles and battling the insurance industry over this issue is not one I am going to undertake.

      Does it suck? Yes. Do I hate it? Yes. Do I comply with it? Absolutely.

    5. Re:Our reason for drug testing by tacokill · · Score: 1

      Tell your insurance industry. Like I said before, taking a principled stance is nice -- in theory. Until it hits you in the pocketbook.

      Look, I would LOVE to snub my nose at this and say "screw that, it's wrong". But the price for doing so is very high in this case. And running a company using selective cost/benefit analyses is just....bad business. EVERYTHING in business is a cost/benefit analysis. If you don't think so, then you don't own a business.

      I can argue with it. I can disagree with it. Hell, I can hate it. But it doesn't change reality. And in reality, my company gets much cheaper insurance rates by implementing a pre-employment drug screen. So we do pre-employment drug testing.


      And just for the record, I think you are grossly overexaggerating the impact of this on employees. We don't treat our emps like an enemy and we sure as hell aren't "violating their human rights". Get real. This isn't genocide and anyone who doesn't agree with it is welcome to seek employment elsewhere.

    6. Re:Our reason for drug testing by thatguywhoiam · · Score: 1
      The difference is large enough that it's a no-brainer. I agree that taking a principled stance is nice -- in theory. But you have to choose your battles and battling the insurance industry over this issue is not one I am going to undertake...Does it suck? Yes. Do I hate it? Yes. Do I comply with it? Absolutely.

      Ergo, you have no principles.

      I'm sorry - these beliefs are not something you can apply when it is convenient. Do the right thing, stop the tests and treat your workers like adults.

      I do sympathize - but if you can't 'fight the insurance industry' then you have to ask yourself some hard questions.

      --
      If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
    7. Re:Our reason for drug testing by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Insurance companies don't make such decisions on a whim, either. They make them based on the bottom line for various risk factors, which in turn are derived from actual events -- not merely accidents caused by intoxication, but also the likelihood of lawsuits generated by said accidents.

      If your insurance company gives you better rates when you drug-test employees, it's because they've learned that they are less likely to have to *pay a claim* when there are no drug users in the workplace.

      Insurance companies truly don't give a shit about drug use one way or the other; they care about their own profit margin, which goes to hell when they have to pay too many claims.

      Like you said -- it boils down to cost/benefit analysis.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    8. Re:Our reason for drug testing by Criton · · Score: 1

      US insurance companies are well known the world over to be scams ran by religous conservative asshats . This might sound trollish but it is true. The ecomonics in europe are no different insurance companies there also do such studies but they are unbiased some thats lagrely unheard of in the US anymore.

  198. "DRM" used to be the PPC chip by amichalo · · Score: 1

    So Apple is using the Palladium chip for DRM of their OS. Big Deal.

    Before the Intel switch, the "DRM" for OS X and before was the PPC architecture. Because the kernel and OS were only compiled for those architectures, it was effectively a DRM because you could only run the software on a computer supplied by the SW vendor (Apple).

    Same thing here, but because the x86 processor is more widely available, Apple is supplimenting DRM by using a "DRM chipset".

    Nothing has changed from an "Access to the Apple OS" point of view.

    --
    I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
  199. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by Rew190 · · Score: 1

    Absolutely. Macs are sort of the gaming consoles of the computer world.

  200. Everyone calm down and rtfa by Paradox · · Score: 1

    Everyone seriously needs to calm down and carefully read what the article is saying.

    The development release of OSX86 uses the features already present in the hardware to keep itself from being spread to other machines. Currently, all it does is prevent installs. It does not mean that the completed versions will use the DRM for anything (although it is certain they will expose it).

    Further, it's not immediately obvious if Mac OS X can really be restrained by this kind of DRM because of tools exploiting certain aspects of Mach-O's binary structure.

    It is disappointing, yes. But this is not a "Sky-Is-Falling" event. It's not even particularly surprising. We knew that Apple would use this to some extent. If all they use it for is their DVD player and their FairPlay DRM decoding module, then we know exactly who is calling the shots on the use of this kind of DRM (You have three guesses, and here's a hint, it's not Apple).

    --
    Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
  201. refuse... resist by SethJohnson · · Score: 1



    bag searches at supermarkets

    Tell the person asking to search your bag at the supermarket that you refuse to allow this invasion. Store employees have no right to search your belongings. At best they can call the police and accuse you of shoplifting. You don't have to even stay at the store waiting for the police to arrive. The security guards have no right to hold you, either. Security guards can only act intimidatingly and yell at you. If they order you to come to some back office, just say "no" and leave. If they have an off-duty cop rented to guard the store, though, all bets are off.

    Seth

    1. Re:refuse... resist by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      If you ignore an order from an officer, you are taking your life in your hands.

      Plus, the store will make sure to plant something on you if they call the cops. If you're guilty it makes no different. If you're not, it prevents them from looking stupid.

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  202. Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by Elranzer · · Score: 1

    When you buy a Gamecube game, you shouldn't be pissed off that it will not run on your PlayStation2. For example, if you're primarily a PS2 gamer but just can not live without playing the new Zelda game, even though it's the only Gamecube game you really want to play, you might use the same logic you should be able to play it on YOUR hardware (the PS2) because you bought it and you own it. Sorry but you'll have to crack down and buy a Gamecube to play it.

    Same thing with Mac OS X. Get over it, the only point of the DRM is so it only runs on Mac hardware. Mac OS X doesn't even ask for a serial key when installing, so they're not all that concerned with pirating, just keeping their software on their hardware. There's no conspiracy to lock down your music or video (why would they make iTunes and iDVD?) and there's definitely no conspiracy to limit your freedom through DRM here. STFU and realize the Mactel DRM is not here to bring on Orwellian oppression on your cheap ass.

    Mac software, Mac hardware. Gamecube software, Gamecube hardware. It's not going to run on your 1337 AMD box made out of cheap spare Dell parts from your basement. If you want Mac OS X, you're going to have to buy a G4, G5 or wait for the *real* elite computer: the Intel Mac.

    You might say "well Apple would make more money if they just sold the OS for any x86 system." Well sorry, but Apple isn't going to run out of business just because they lost your sale. They already make billions a year in profit with their mere 3% market share, and it's only going to go up when the Mactels come out. Don't even pretend you were going to buy it anyway if they *did* release it for any x86 machine. You were probably going to just wait for a torrent release of it, and you'd probably come up with some valid logic why that's OK too. Please, that kind of thinking is for Microsoft OS's, Apple deserves a little better.

    1. Re:Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by Frenchman113 · · Score: 1

      Troll... If Microsoft manufactured their own hardware and locked Windows to it, they'd probably have gone out of business ages ago.

    2. Re:Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by dslbrian · · Score: 1

      Well sorry, but Apple isn't going to run out of business just because they lost your sale. They already make billions a year in profit with their mere 3% market share

      Actually I think they are still in business because of the iPod, not because of their 3% market share.

      Don't even pretend you were going to buy it anyway if they *did* release it for any x86 machine.

      Actually I had considered getting a x86 based Mac if/when they do come out, however this DRM revelation has nixed that idea. If they put this in the OS fundamentals, it is only a matter of time before it starts creeping up into the apps and eventually my data.

      Apple like Sun has a habit of coupling their nice OS with slow proprietary hardware and then attaching a premium price sticker on it. It would have been nice to put the OS on generic hardware because locking it to their hardware is very limiting, and it defeats the point of having cheap commodity hardware. Are they going to lock down the drives, ram, CD, DVD, etc? If you blow out a DVD drive can you only use a certified Apple DRM-compliant replacement at a couple hundred dollars each?

      Please, that kind of thinking is for Microsoft OS's, Apple deserves a little better.

      Hah, I don't know why you think thats true - Apple is as money centric as Microsoft, if not more. Its too bad for them really, its not a big deal for me to put another OS on my x86 hardware since I have several choices. Whereas I would have liked to have another choice (and yes I have the money to buy legit copies too!), now I don't even need to consider it any more. So yes they did lose my sale, and if they can survive without it good for them, because I can survive without their DRM.

    3. Re:Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by Doctor+Memory · · Score: 1

      Instead of like IBM, who manufactured their own hardware and didn't lock it to any specific software, and who still enjoy a lion's share of the market they created...

      --
      Just junk food for thought...
    4. Re:Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by KILNA · · Score: 1

      Ummmmm... they did that with x-Box and sold the hardware at a LOSS, and are already going for x-Box 2.

      --
      Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
    5. Re:Same Arguments, Same Flawed Logic by hao2lian · · Score: 1

      That's only because Microsoft was going at a completely different task than Apple when they first started. Microsoft was marketing heavily to businesses, whereas Apple wasn't. Apple could afford to lock in their users to their hardware because their users wouldn't have any pressing concern to not be locked in, whereas a business would shy away from lock-in like that.

      --
      Pelé!
  203. I wouldn't by loadquo · · Score: 1

    Not for any paranoid hating TCP reasons. But if I wanted to boot my computer off a recovery CD or something I wouldn't want to restrict myself to modern kernels/ones that I had certified trusted.

    But then I don't have much valuable data so probably different situations.

    1. Re:I wouldn't by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
      While this plays a larger role on servers... it can help deflect hack attempts as well. For instance, it can prevent your box from getting root-kitted, as all loadable modules would have to be certified before the kernel loads them. Furthermore, it can be used with webservers, to validate SSL/TLS. It can be used with checksums, trusted certificates, VPN... tons of stuff. Of course, all of this requires that both sides of the equation "know" each other. It's a far better solution than current methods.

      I don't know too many details about how to set up certification in *nix as the support for TPM is largely experimental. However, it'll be hot once I learn how it all works. :)

      My basic point, though, is that focusing only on the DRM aspects of TPM is building a straw man to incinerate in a flame war. This speaks nothing of Palladium, which uses a far more active & agressive system to accomplish the same goals. (Eg. palladium was largely designed around DRM, and cannot be user-disabled nearly as easily as TPM).

  204. So now we know. by jafac · · Score: 1

    The PPC->Intel shift didn't have one damn thing to do with IBM chips, and it wasn't Apple using strongarm tactics on IBM.

    It was all about the likes of Sony and the other music industry players strongarming Apple.

    "Protect our IP with DRM, or we'll sell our songs to your Windows competitors at half price, and kiss your pretty iPod sales good bye."

    Call it "Revenge of the buggy-whip manufacturers."

    --

    These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    1. Re:So now we know. by bnenning · · Score: 1

      There's two problems with that theory. First, there's no reason Apple couldn't bolt on DRM to PowerPC. Second, the majority of active Macs will be PPC until at least 2008, probably longer, so I don't see Apple restricting iTMS to x86 anytime remotely soon. Regardless of DRM issues, Apple is still in urgent need of competitive laptop CPUs (and the "low-power" 970FX is not it), so Occam's razor still holds.

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
    2. Re:So now we know. by jafac · · Score: 1

      Apple could have shipped Intel-based laptops (and, I suppose mini and iMac too), and continued with PPC for server and workstation platforms where PPC would be more appropriate. If their "switch" ju-ju is really all it's cracked up to be, dual CPU-platform strategy would actually be best, more long-term flexibility.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    3. Re:So now we know. by argent · · Score: 1

      First, there's no reason Apple couldn't bolt on DRM to PowerPC.

      In fact the Infineon chip in the developer Macs uses the LPC bus, and the 970 supports that out of the box.

      Regardless of DRM issues, Apple is still in urgent need of competitive laptop CPUs

      Freescale's got one in the pipe, though.

  205. Re:Simple.. Apple doesnt mind its users stealing O by Frenchman113 · · Score: 1

    Lets see... well, then they should stop being a fucking hardware company!

  206. iTunes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    iTunes plays full-screen Quicktime movies for free.

  207. Does this really come as a surprise...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this really come as a surprise to anyone but the Mac iDiots living inside their reality distortion field? Apple has always tried to squeeze as much money as possible and screw its clients into proprietary schemes (they love getting the shaft), so this was pretty obvious. In fact, I mentioned this on Slashdot about a year ago. Obvious result? Branded a troll and flamed by 300 clueless iDiots. Oh well, there's a reason why Apple has 2% of the PC market...

  208. MOD PARENT UP by drDugan · · Score: 1

    This is the reality folks.

  209. Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How did you explain their side of the argument?

    Let's assume (perhaps falsely) that the RIAA/MPAA aren't literally Satan's spawn. They have a good reason for wanting DRM: they spend a lot of money to make music/movies. They'd like to get paid for that, and the current environment makes it easy for people to get the full benefit of their work without paying for it.

    You know all this, so I'm not going to explain any further, but the question is, did you explain this to your friend? It's easy to get people angry when you explain only one side of the story. And if you want to use him as an example you have to be extra-careful to present their side as persuasively as possible, because you're obviously coming to this with a bias.

    Look, I agree that the DRM they want to use is too restrictive. But the absolutely-no-DRM environment is also not completely fair to them. So the attitude of simply getting angry at them for proposing an alternative is just wrong. The proper attitude is closer to, "Gee, neither situation is tenable, let's figure out what's genuinely fair."

    1. Re:Objectivity by BillyBlaze · · Score: 1

      The DRM and no-DRM environments are both equally fair to the industry, because an equal amount of mass piracy occurs in both. The DRM environment, however, is not fair to the consumer, because the legal rights of Fair Use and First Sale have been removed, not directly by an act of Congress, but by a technical measure imposed on us by a non-competitive market.

    2. Re:Objectivity by MacJedi · · Score: 1

      Why is the absolutely-no-DRM not completely fair to them as well? I'm not trolling, just genuinely curious.

      --
      2^5
    3. Re:Objectivity by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They'd like to get paid for that, and the current environment makes it easy for people to get the full benefit of their work without paying for it.

      Ah, but the problem is, that's not his fucking problem. What is his problem is having to wait a few hours to listen to the latest music because his internet connection is temporarily down. Or not being able to listen to it in his car without an "authorized" piece of hardware.

      There are a hundred ways DRM could be the cause of future customer aggrivation. And in their mind, all these problems with piracy are not their problem, because they were good little consumers and coughed up their hard-earned dough.

      Something I learned early on in business: it can take millions of dollars to get a new customer, but a single stupid mistake to lose them forever.

    4. Re:Objectivity by HiThere · · Score: 1

      I don't care about the motives of the RIAA. I care about their actions. By my definitions, they are evil, not the greatest evil in the world, but up there and trying for top spot.

      I have not and do not copy even CDs illegally. I don't intend to. I also don't buy any more. And I now neither purchase nor see movies. (I've left myself an out, there, however. If I decide I want to see a movie I first donate twice the ticket price to the EFF, and then I can see the movie.)

      Before the RIAA&MPAA got the computer manufacturers to do this they were corrupting the legislators, and that was what originally got my back up about them. They may not have any hand in the computer DRM, and I would blame them as accessories anyway. It's the kind of thing they would do. I'll need evidence that they are innocent before I absolve them.

      When it comes to the computer manufacturers...there it gets a bit stickier. Finding a computer without DRM has gotten a bit harder. And I'll need one that I can run a decent OS on. Fortunately, that includes, as it's predominant example, Linux. Perhaps the new Cell chips will be decent computers? Perhaps I'll need to import one from Europe or the far east? Perhaps I'll have to have a local white-box shop put one together. Certainly I'll willingly pay a premium to use a CPU that doesn't have DRM...but getting the chips to support it may be a bit tricky.

      Perhaps things won't turn out as badly as I fear. Even though I'd pay a premium to have a CPU without DRM, having the capability in the CPU doesn't automatically mean it's enabled, or not controlled by the owner (me), so it may not be a mandatory feature. And if they just want to keep their bloody content away from me, that's fine by me. That won't cost me ANY value, as I've been boycotting them for nearly a decade now.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    5. Re:Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 1

      It's not fair to them in the sense that they're playing by an old set of rules. They used to price their sales under the assumption that you could not easily make copies. If your friends wanted one, they'd have to go to the store and buy it.

      The rules have changed, but they haven't changed their pricing model. When you buy a CD from them, you're implicitly (but not explicitly) agreeing that for $12 you're getting the right to play it, and sell it, and transfer it to your iPod, but not to send out free copies over the Internet.

      Like I said, that's all implicit, in that it used to be true because P2P didn't exist at all. They wish to continue playing by the old rules, because they thought it worked well for them and for you. Nobody particularly complained about the fact that the implicit contract forbid them from making backup copies because it simply wasn't possible to do it.

      So you're welcome to claim that the absolutely-no-DRM is fair to them, in that you're just exercising rights that you always had but didn't exercise because the technology wasn't available. They're looking to change the contract to make the implicit explicit, via DRM.

      I'm not saying that DRM is necessarily the right answer for that, and you read the grandparent post closely you'll see that I'm not calling for DRM but rather just for balance to see their point of view. DRM is clearly overly restrictive, but my point is not to promote DRM but rather to say why DRM was created in response to an unfair situation.

      One alternative to adding DRM, for example, would be to change the price. They assumed that they could sell you a $12 CD, and if your friend wanted it (or any part of it) they'd get $12 from that friend, too. If you believe that the no-DRM model is fair to them, then they could raise prices.

      That doesn't actually work. Higher prices would encourage more downloading, causing even higher prices, until eventually they decide to sell one copy for $200,000. Let the music listeners of the world get together to pitch in for it, and then throw it out in the Internet for free.

      There are a number of other ways it could go. They could stop spending quite so much producing and promoting albums, for example. What one really wants is neither DRM nor no-DRM, but some brilliant new model which makes DRM unnecessary. I haven't got it.

      At any rate, to recap: the no-DRM model isn't completely fair to them because they spend money to create and promote albums, and in the limit case they sell exactly 1 CD for $12 and everybody else downloads it. That doesn't seem fair, does it?

    6. Re:Objectivity by jZnat · · Score: 1

      They could get all the money they wanted if they jumped on the bandwagon and provided pay-per-download music and movies, but they refuse to change their current business model, and that's fucking them over.

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    7. Re:Objectivity by skubeedooo · · Score: 1
      And then there is the third side of how it could actually benefit the end user. I know that at least some of my friends would quite like the idea of paying a monthly subscription to a music service allowing them to listen to any music they like, under the condition that they don't get to keep it. Basically like radio but being customized to exactly the music you want and without the adverts. Supposing this service was affordable (£20/month?), i reckon it would be quite attractive. And since most people (that i know) don't spend that much on music anyway, it actually benefits both the customers and the suppliers.

      Of course, not everybody wants this kind of licence, some prefer a buy once keep forever model, but there is nothing to say that companies won't offer this AS WELL. I mean, this is why we have free markets - companies compete to provide the best product at the lowest cost.

      I realise it might sound a bit like Orwellian doublespeak to say that DRM can benefit the consumer, but I think it is a similar situation to insurance - if you agree to answer their questions then you can end up getting a cheaper policy. Of course some customers lose out; in car insurance it is the young male drivers whereas in digital media it will probably be linux users. That's bad for me, and probably many others here, and I truly hope that there are ways to bypass it, but I think the doomsday scenario that geeks forecast will turn out to be plain wrong.

    8. Re:Objectivity by not-enough-info · · Score: 1
      The proper attitude is closer to, "Gee, neither situation is tenable, let's figure out what's genuinely fair."
      Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. This isn't an ideal world.
      --
      ---k--
      </stupid>
    9. Re:Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 1

      Pay-per-download also implies a DRM model, which I think is no more acceptable to the great-grandparent poster than any other DRM.

      You could do DRM-free pay-per-download, which many Slashdot posters seem to prefer, but if it's DRM-free it'll rapdily turn into free downloads.

      They were reluctant to do pay-per-download because they wanted to see the DRM on it first. Now that the model is proving successful (whether the DRM helps or hinders that is up for debate), you'll find that an awful lot of stuff is available on iTunes.

    10. Re:Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Another thing you should have learned in business is that your business partner's problem is also your problem. The **AAs are your partners: you buy things for them. Claiming that their problems are theirs alone is self-defeating, because it leads precisely where you're suggesting: they'll stick the most restrictive DRM they can on it, and suddenly their problem becomes your problem.

      So rather than just getting angry and saying, "Hey, you're trying to take away my fair use rights, I demand everything that's coming to me and screw what's fair to you," you treat them as the enemy, which encourages them to treat you as the enemy.

      I think that if the Slashdot community took the attitude of trying to come up with a fair solution, the **AAs could be convinced to embrace it. You offer them a point at which they can be happy and you can be happy, and they'll go exactly where you're saying: happy customers buy more stuff.

      Maybe there isn't a better solution than, as the great-grandparent post suggests, just getting people angry. It doesn't really fight DRM, of course, but it gives you a great opportunity to scream about it on Slashdot.

    11. Re:Objectivity by cowscows · · Score: 1

      So what's the problem then? The media conpanies will try and hoist this annoying DRM crap on us, we'll all get pissed off, and they'll lose us as customers. Someone else will happily step in and offer us unencumbered media to fill this huge, lucrative void.

      Maybe Apple and MS will try and shove it down our throats. If it's as bad as some people are saying it will be, then consumers will respond by taking their business elsewhere. It wouldn't be the first time companies have made bad decisions and lost the market.

      I thought we're supposed to hate the RIAA, and them going out of business would be a good thing for consumers and the artists too. Let them strangle themselves if they want. Musicians aren't going to stop making music, they'll just find another way to distribute it to us. Life will go on.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    12. Re:Objectivity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's assume (perhaps falsely) that the RIAA/MPAA aren't literally Satan's spawn. They have a good reason for wanting DRM: they spend a lot of money to make music/movies. They'd like to get paid for that, and the current environment makes it easy for people to get the full benefit of their work without paying for it.


      I disagree that sufficient justification exists to curtail the liberties of legitimate computer users.

    13. Re:Objectivity by Alsee · · Score: 1

      It comes down to one fundamental point.

      I buy a computer. My property. Do I or do I not have the right to uncrew the case on my computer and rip my chips open and look at them under a microscope and read out my key?

      End Of Story.

      If I have the right to look at my own property under a microsocope then the entire Trusted Computing system falls apart and all of the DRM vanishes.

      The TRusted Computing gimmic is that they are trying to foist these ne Trust chips on everyone, and to lock out anyone without a Trust chip. In fact the Trusted Computing Group and Microsoft have issued press releases on a new Trusted Network Connect system that can deny you any internet access at all unless you have a Trust chip and you're running an approved and unmodified Operating System and approved and unmodified software. The Trust chip is designed to keep secrest against it's owner, designed to be secure against it's owner. Designed to be boobytrapped and selfdestructing if you attempt to look at it under a microsocope and read out your own key. Of course all that means it that it's a pain in teh ass to manage to read out your key. It just meas you need to do a bit of work to figure out how and you need a decently equipped college lab to do it. Do I or do I not have the right to use a decently equipped lab and read MY KEY out of MY CHIP in MY COMPUTER, or not? And If I do, I am then going to proceed to assist my million closest friends in obtaining THEIR keys out of THEIR computers as well.

      I demand everything that's coming to me

      I demand ownership of my own computer and I demand my basic property rights over MY PROPERTY.

      and screw what's fair to [the **AA]

      Excuse me?!?!!!! WTF?

      How's this for fair: People who do NOT commit copyright infringment do not face prison, and anyone who DOES commit copyright faces prosecution for copyright infringment. In fact I'd say the legal penalties are more than fair in favor of copyright holders. I'd say they are downright excessive.... but I won't even quibble over that.

      I say what is fair is to pass the DMCRA, it simply says that innocent noninfringing people do not face prison.

      It's the copyright lobby with unfair and entirely unreasonable demands. They effectively want to abandon copyright law. They don't want to bother prosecuting infringers. They don't want wast time on little annoyances like whether something is infringement or not. They don't want to bother with annoyances like whether something is a perfectly legitimate and Constitutuionally founded Fair Use. No, instead of that they want to criminalize technology itself, they want to criminalize abilities. They want to throw you in prison if you have the ability to commit infringment. That also means you go to prison if you have the ability to use something in a perfectly legitimate class project.

      you treat them as the enemy, which encourages them to treat you as the enemy.

      Pardon me, but that's bullshit. The reason I "treat them as an enemy" is they they are attacking me. They bought themselves a law that says INNOCENT AND NONINFRINGING PEOPLE GO TO PRISON, and now they want to seize control of MY COMPUTER with a fucking boobytrapped chip designed to be secure against me and desiged to treat me as the enemy. They want my computer to treat me as the enemy.

      Go ahead, tell me I'm being unreasonable. Explain to me exactly how the DMCRA is unreasonable when essentially all it says is that innocent noninfringing people not be imprisoned.

      And with the DMCRA then a company can simply go into businedd purchacing these computered designed to treat owners as the enemy, they can use a proper lab to rip the key out of the Trust chip, and they can then resell these compters to people along with the master key to control their computers. People will then NOT go to prison if they use their mas

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    14. Re:Objectivity by pennystinker · · Score: 1

      Ok, let's get this straight: the RIAA/MPAA is a front organization designed to represent a particular set of businesses. These businesses make their money by selling access to controlled copies of stuff RIAA->music/CDs/etc. and MPAA->Movies/DVDs/etc. Their sole purpose is to defend a business model. Of course this business model flows money back (to varying degrees) to the actual talented individuals who made the stuff we wanted to buy in the first place.

      Pirating exists because this existing business model does not play well with today's available technology and distribution channels.

      Now, in olden days(TM) this situation would just be called "competition" (RIAA/MPAA and the companies they represent vs. modern technology) and companies would have to rise to meet the challenge or die. But today this is just an opportunity for one side (the DRM cartel) to buy the law to preserve their way of life.

      I say "let them die". Don't buy their CDs or watch their movies. Listen/watch stuff from artists who are learning to adapt to the new realities and PAY THEM DIRECTLY!

      You might say: "But this way of doing things will never result in the making of '[Some big budget film]' because the economics wont work."
      To this I say: "The business models to make '[Some big budget film]' will eventually come about because there is a market for it. But if you think that the only way to that end is the preservation of a rights-strangling cartel, then so be it: feel free to give up your rights, they have an unquenchable thirst for your rights. They will just buy more laws and more governments until you have no rights at all. They won't even have to advertise anymore, you'll be compelled to buy products because they say so (ok, I'm off the deep end here). But I'll keep working with artists businesses that are adapting and providing what I want on MY terms."

    15. Re:Objectivity by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the new Cell chips will be decent computers?

      The Cell chip is dell documented as having hardware DRm enforcement, and I'll lay 10-to-1 odd that it is an exact implementation of the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Platform Module specification.

      a computer without DRM

      Oh there's no problem getting a computer without the new hardware DRM enforcement system. As you mentioned later you can simply buy any new compliant system and leave the Trust chip shut off.

      The problem is that any computer that is not Trusted Computing compliant, any computer that does not enforce DRM, any such computer will become increasingly unusable. New software will not install and will not run on a non-Trusted system. The new media files and other data files will be unreadable on a non-Trusted computer. The new websites will be unviewable on a non-Trusted computer.

      And to top it all off the new Trusted Netwrok Connect system (Microsoft calls it Network Access Protection) can and will deny you any internet access at all unless you have a strictly locked down trusted compliant system. Of course they an't roll out such a system today, almost no one has a Trusted machine yet. You can expect Trusted Network Connect starting to become mandatory somewhere between 2010 and 2015.

      They don't care if you use a non-Trusted computer without DRM. They don't care if you sell non-Trusted compters that do not enforce DRM. Such computers will be increasingly locked out of the new software and new files and websites and network protocals, and ultimately locked out of the internet itself.

      You're perfectly welcome to refuse DRM and DRM hardware... they invite you to be as free as you want so long as you are locked in a prison cell isolated from everone and everything. You can choose to wear DRM handcuffs in public, or live free in a prison cell.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    16. Re:Objectivity by Geoff-with-a-G · · Score: 1

      To summarize,

      Grandparent poster: "Why don't we come up with a better alternative, rather than foolishly demanding completely free access to their work product, which they're never realistically going to give us? Maybe if we came up with a workable way for them to continue providing us the content we want and making money doing so, they would do the smart thing and choose our better way?"

      Parent poster: "Not my problem. Fuck them."

      Well, I guess you had to see that one coming.

    17. Re:Objectivity by jdbo · · Score: 1

      > . And if you want to use him as an example you have to be
      > extra-careful to present their side as persuasively as possible, > because you're obviously coming to this with a bias.

      I think that the point of his story was that non-technical people could be persuaded to his side of the argument without having to be educated thoroughly regarding the technical details.

      And honestly, unless he was making sh** up (or otherwise willfuly obfuscating), why should the onus be on him to present the RIAA/MPAA's side of the story? They're certainly not going to present "the opposing opinion".

      There's a difference between "fair" and "balanced". A story can be fair (i.e. factual w/o distorting) and still have an implicit judgment for one side or the other; a "balanced" story weights the presentation such that both sides have the appearance of equally plausible truth, even when one side is arguing bollocks.

      Even if the reality is somewhere towards middle, it may not be AT the middle; why pretend that it is?

    18. Re:Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 1

      I agree with you totally and absolutely. The RIAA and MPAA suck; let them die. Don't buy their stuff. Buy stuff from indie artists.

      I just need to stick in one more item: don't download their stuff, either. Not buying it is standing up for artists outside the system. Downloading it anyway is just hypocritical.

    19. Re:Objectivity by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 1

      Actually, that's pretty much how I explained it - "Digital music allows the unrestricted copying of files, and gives people the ability to perfectly duplicate songs pretty much without degradation."

      He wanted to know what the difference is between that and copying/sharing your own CDs (which also theoretically allow for "perfect" copying), and I couldn't really give a good answer, apart from unimportant aspects like the speed at which you can do it and the (minimal) media cost of a physical CD.

      In fact, there's nothing different that I could see between P2P MP3 swapping, and large-scale copy-and-pass-the-CD-on schemes organised through a website. Oh, the music costs pence instead of being totally free, but it's unrestricted and still preferable to paying through the nose for it.

      "The MPAA/RIAA are worried that people will copy films and songs rather than pay for them, and the only way around it that they see is to prevent the unrestricted copying of un-DRMed media."

      He immediately wanted to know why they couldn't distribute music using a DRM scheme that allowed exactly your existing "Fair Use" rights (he didn't know the term, but that was what he was groping for).

      I explained that you could then (for example) burn a DRMed track onto CD, rip it again and distribute it DRM-free, but he didn't accept that as enough reason to take control "of his PC, that he'd bought", away from him.

      Basically (summarising), he was happy in principle with DRM that protected the *AA and also enshrined his existing fair use rights.

      Given that these aren't perfectly compatible, he wasn't prepared to compromise on his rights just so that the *AA could protect their profits.

      His view was that it was their problem, and their issue to solve - they had no right to further restrict his life and his equipment because (paraphrasing again) their business model was obsolete.

      Smart guy.

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    20. Re:Objectivity by jfengel · · Score: 1

      It sounds like you did a good job of explaining both sides of the story.

      He immediately wanted to know why they couldn't distribute music using a DRM scheme that allowed exactly your existing "Fair Use" rights

      And I think that's the way they're going. This is, more or less, what Apple's iTMS allows. Now, that is asking him to compromise some of his rights, in that he can't immediately play the AACs on his iRiver, for example. But he can back them up and even share them with his friends, playably, using Apple's sharing features.

      The RIAA's business model IS obsolete, but that's precisely it: they're going to change their business model. They feel that they can't make maximal profit by selling you totally un-DRMed CDs, and so they're going to go out of that business.

      The new business model is selling heavily DRM'ed music, exactly as Apple does. I can't say if it's a good model or not. Maybe there are enough who will say, "I'm never buying DRMed music," and they'll actually go out of business in the new model, too. Personally, I'm guessing not, since many people are content with the basic rights Apple allows. It strikes many people as fair, though that's partly because the CD hole allows them an out.

      (Though there's a serious format war coming up as publishers choose up sides with DRM models. Apple has the lead, but people will be reluctant to lock themselves into the iPod on a large scale, so an alternative will spring up (perhaps from Apple themselves). Or perhaps Apple will open the format up enough to allow other manufacturers.)

      What will happen to your Fair Use rights then? I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say. It's possible that they'll say that they're selling you the bits, not the music; you may back up and share the bits, but not the music. It doesn't give you the right to play it on your iRiver, any more than you get the right to run Photoshop on your Mac when you buy it for your PC. But that's a complete guess; I'm totally unversed in the legal theory.

    21. Re:Objectivity by NaDrew · · Score: 1
      And to top it all off the new Trusted Netwrok Connect system (Microsoft calls it Network Access Protection) can and will deny you any internet access at all unless you have a strictly locked down trusted compliant system. Of course they an't roll out such a system today, almost no one has a Trusted machine yet. You can expect Trusted Network Connect starting to become mandatory somewhere between 2010 and 2015.

      They don't care if you use a non-Trusted computer without DRM. They don't care if you sell non-Trusted compters that do not enforce DRM. Such computers will be increasingly locked out of the new software and new files and websites and network protocals, and ultimately locked out of the internet itself.


      Don't you think this will result in the evolution of an alternate, non-Trusted Internet? Or rather, the original non-Trusted Internet will remain and the new, Trusted Internet will be reserved for those with Trusted network connections.

      Good lord, GWB will actually have been right...
      --
      Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
    22. Re:Objectivity by Alsee · · Score: 1

      The short answer is sure, you and me and a handfull of other people are perfectly free to run tin-cans and string between our houses and build an independant internet. With nothing on it. Oh joy.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  210. Even with driver problems, it still rocks. by argent · · Score: 1

    I switched to Mac as soon as I was able to install Mac OS X 10.1 on a Powermac 7500 with an upgraded CPU (first a 240 MHz pre-G3 processor, then a Sonnet Crescendo G3/400). I had to use XPostFacto to even get it to load, then find a third-party floppy driver, a third-party patch for the disk burning framework to get the CDROM to work, and just generally screw around on and off for over a week to get it to work.

    It was a lot harder than just about anything I've installed on Wintel hardware... certainly harder than anything I've gone on to actually use. And it still rocked enough to keep me using it and eventually upgrading to the first *new* computer I've bought for myself in 10 years.

    I would not want an OS X that could run on Compaqs to Dells to A Opens to your custom PC because then I wouldn't get uptimes of 90 days

    Here's uptimes of three of the generic Wintel boxes I run FreeBSD on:

    DL360# uptime
    10:57AM up 298 days, 16:10, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.06, 0.06
    DL320# uptime
    10:57AM up 326 days, 18:33, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
    CLONE# uptime
    10:58AM up 715 days, 14:32, 11 users, load averages: 0.02, 0.02, 0.00

    About the only ones that aren't this good are ones that aren't on a good UPS.

    Surely Apple can do as well as a group of open-source volunteers... especially considering they've hired Jordan and are using FreeBSD code in the Mac OS X kernel. :)

  211. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by h2d2 · · Score: 1

    What the fuck are you implying? My Windows XP has recorded uptimes of 5+ months... and it works in a GAZILLION hardware configurations... So what?

    But I commend your sneekiness: oh, Apple has to use DRM, because to keep the OS so great it has to limit it to run on only their own optimized hardware, but Microsoft, those dirty bastards are goign to do it only for the profit$"

    NICE!

    --
    Mozilla stole tabs from NetCaptor. So what? Right?
  212. It's easy by pentalive · · Score: 1

    Just because Apple used DRM to protect their OS does not make them that bad... DRM itself is eeeevil and will alway be.

    If DRM/Palladium becomes prevalent, the time will come where DRM must be enabled to get onto the Internet. DRM will be required to play music or show movies.

  213. What should I do? What would you do? by ChainsawJackson · · Score: 1

    I will never buy a Windows machine, never. I like Macs and OSX, Linux is not my cup of tea. With all this supposed DRM talk, and taking into account the other facts surrounding the switch to Intel, would you buy a MAC now or wait and why?

  214. Re: Ubuntu by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 1

    I found Ubuntu's install quite powerful, as it needed to be to handle my weird setup. But using LILO instead of grub is an option that was too well hidden for me, I wasn't aware grub is unwilling to boot from a former dos partition, I had to juggle things till grub booted to LILO to get to th' olde OS..

    In your case, it probably should have made a backup of the boot sector, to allow restoring it. In my case, it detected the other old win OS, so Ubuntu tries to do dual boot, at least sometimes.

    I wasn't even aware you could choose OS from bios.. It is not an option for people with just one HD, is it?

    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  215. what makes me mad by suezz · · Score: 1

    is that people should be a lot more pissed off about all the drm being shoved down our throats.

    I know my digital rights and I don't need them managed.

    DRM is just bad, bad, bad.

  216. The TCPA Concept by wintermute1974 · · Score: 1
    From Page 58 of Secure: The Silicon Trust Report :

    Basically the TPM has the following tasks:
    • Monitoring the trustworthiness of the platform it is bound to.
    • Providing strong authentication mechanisms for identifying the platform.
    • Providing secure storage for the users keys and secrets.
    • Providing additional cryptographic services to applications.
    By "platform" the author means your PC.

    This is great news. Now our PCs will not trust us.
  217. Damn you! (Re:Damn Microsoft!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    You know... as much as it sucks, you have to admit that if people weren't pirating things, there'd be no need for DRM.

    You know... as much as music and movies suck, I have to admit that I don't care if I can freely copy them or not. If you truly believe that amusement media should be free (that is, has no value), then you shouldn't care if you can copy it or not. If you want it, then it has value and you should pay up. The act of copying it (beyond the limits of fair use) proves that it's value is higher than you're willing to admit publicly, and perhaps privately too. Seriously, arbitrary revaluation doesn't justify 2-bit thievery (or 192-bit). Yes, I'm concerned about hardware locks being added to my kernel. But it's because I believe one day a buggy release will lock me out of something really important in my system (not iTunes) and I'll be on the sidelines until the fix is released. And it will be because media-addled children in mobs like this wouldn't be deterred from stealing their fix by any less invasive means. Thanks in advance, assh*les.

  218. OT: Bag searches (was Re:Damn Microsoft!) by Urchlay · · Score: 1
    I have to deal with... bag searches at supermarkets because of idiots who shoplift

    Actually, unless the person searching bags is an on-duty police officer, you don't have to deal with this. Just keep walking.

    If the person doing the searches really thinks you're shoplifting, maybe they'll follow you out into the parking lot, tackle you, and call the police... but (a) they have to be damn sure you're stealing (to avoid lawsuits and assault charges), and (b) even if the $7/hr monkey thinks you're stealing, he doesn't get paid enough to get off his duff and follow you out the door.

    Now, it may be different where you live. I have walked right past these bag-search people hundreds of times, and not once have there been any consequences (of course, I wasn't shoplifting, either).

    (Disclaimer: I live in the US. This may not apply where you live. Also, I Am Not A Lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. The above is not legal advice.)

  219. don't worry by cahiha · · Score: 1

    Didn't you know? Apple invented DRM, just like they invented the GUI. It's an Apple innovation. They're going to try and sue everybody else over it.

  220. Because I care about OS X. by argent · · Score: 1

    I care about Apple putting DRM support in the OS X kernel because I don't see DRM support in the kernel being a good thing for the future of OS X as a general purpose desktop. If they just use it for copy protection of OS X itself, that's one thing. If they go on to use it for increasing the strength of the "honor system"-level DRM in iTunes, or for some potential "iTunes Video Store", that's another.

    I don't want to play music or watch videos on my Mac enough to make it worth the kinds of restrictions that something comparable to Microsoft's IRM would require.

  221. So what you're saying is... by sheldon · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has far more talented developers than Apple or Sun, because they are capable of writing an OS that stays up for more than 90 days on a wide variety of hardware from Dell, to Compaq, to shit I put together myself?

    Whatever.

    I've never liked Apple. This move just reconfirms why I can't stand the company and their draconian vision of hardware.

    1. Re:So what you're saying is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are right. Enjoy windows, where you must allow the OS to generate a unique hash code of your PC, and dial out every time you want to update your computer.

    2. Re:So what you're saying is... by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Which is no different than what Apple does.

      Oh wait, yeah, it is. Microsoft still let's me buy my own hardware.

  222. Get a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This:
    >The copyright, the right to make copies, has always been protected by copyright law. If you sell me a Harry Potter book (the copy), you do not need to have a license agreement with me.

    Is the silliest thing I've read on this board in a long time. The publisher is the owner of the copyright. You do not own the copyright to a Harry Potter book when you plunk down some cash and buy a copy. You are in fact buiying one copy of the book and not the ownership of the content. You can read it, lend it to a friend, donate it to a library or do whatever you want with the book. The BOOK, not the words. You can't republish it, sell the movie rights or license a bunch of Harry Potter Taco Bell commemorative cups.

    And no, the "right to make copies" has not always been protected by copyright law. Check with the SCOTUS's recent Grokster ruling as a recent high profile example.

  223. On the otherhand by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 1
    before people fly off the handle on media rights, perhaps we ought to wait until it ships?

    If anything its to prevent people stealing the OS. Until Steve abandons hardware (again) Im sure his duty to the stock holders to to protect that hardware investment.

    1. Re:On the otherhand by argent · · Score: 1

      before people fly off the handle on media rights, perhaps we ought to wait until it ships?

      I'm not flying off the handle. I'm simply explaining why I care about the existence of DRM software in the Mac OS X kernel.

      I'm actually kind of disappointed with Apple. They could have done a lot better job of it. For example, they could put the check in the video drivers (even make it also depend on some Apple OpenGL extension that only worked in a GenuineApple computer, if the video card could be made to "see" the Infineon chip), so that you could only run accelerated on a real Mac... turning piracy into "crippleware" marketing.

  224. Solaris is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice example, especially knowing that Solaris is basically dead. On the other hand, HP has ported HP Service Guard high availability cluster management software (that is used on enterprise class HA computer systems) for Linux.

    1. Re:Solaris is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is Open Solaris on SPARC and x86/AMD/AMD64 dead too?

  225. Re:Simple.. Apple doesnt mind its users stealing O by sartin · · Score: 1

    Lets see... well, then they should stop being a fucking hardware company!

    At which point Apple will have to worry about piracy because they are a software company.

  226. You're right by sheldon · · Score: 1

    Apple doesn't treat customers like scum the way Microsoft does.

    you're right... Apple is far worse and always has been.

    1. Re:You're right by Buran · · Score: 1

      I think an explanation is in order, since popular opinion, here and many other places, seems to be quite the opposite. In fact, this very topic has been beaten to death elsewhere in this article's comments.

    2. Re:You're right by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the people claiming otherwise should justify their position rather than repeating the sounds of the echo chamber?

      If I have a choice between a company which sells both a proprietary OS on top of proprietary hardware... or one which sells a proprietary OS which runs on open standards based hardware. There's no contest... I'll go with the option that gives me the most flexibility in my purchasing choices of hardware.

      Apple is a throwback to everything that was wrong about the computing world in the 1980s. Just because popular opinion on slashdot cheers for a return to those bad old days, doesn't make them right.

    3. Re:You're right by Buran · · Score: 1

      While a fair enough argument, there are many people who like having a more powerful OS that doesn't get in the way that allows Unix/Linux applications to run with a minimal headache while at the same time running stuff like Photoshop. I honestly haven't felt that the hardware is causing me any problems, either -- it's not as non-upgradeable as many think and I haven't had many problems finding repair parts to fix things -- for either Macs OR PCs.

      What's wrong or right depends on individual users -- and a good many people don't like being treated like criminals by the software they bought. I can't say I blame them. Choosing to not deal with the Wintel mess is a very valid choice for people to make should they wish to, just as running free OSes on commodity hardware is a valid choice too.

    4. Re:You're right by sheldon · · Score: 1

      What's wrong or right depends on individual users -- and a good many people don't like being treated like criminals by the software they bought.

      So let me get this straight. If I buy the upgrade to MacOSX 10.10 which runs on Intel hardware which is virtually identical to my box at home with the exception of a DRM chip locking me out...

      I'm not being treated like a criminal?

      Oh heck, let's go back to the days when MacOS ran on Motorola 68000 processors. There was an add-on to the Amiga which would let it run MacOS, but you had to have the MacOS ROMs. Apple refused to sell these to people, unless they were in exchange for damaged ROMs. Why? Because you hadn't bought their hardware, so you were therefore evil.

      This crap has been going on for a long time.

      I think there are perfectly valid choices to made in regards to one platform or another based upon technical needs.

      But to claim one is more "moral" then the other, shows a clearly juvenile thought process.

    5. Re:You're right by Buran · · Score: 1

      So don't buy your stuff from a company whose primary business is in hardware with software on the side. And if you think it's juvenile to have a set of morals, which can and do vary from person to person, fine, go ahead. But you'll find that suddenly everyone in the world is a wailing baby who won't shut up... other than yourself, I'm sure.

      We all have our reasons why we will do one thing over another, and I have objections to my own computer sending information about what I have on it and what I made it out of to some third party, so I don't use Microsoft's stuff. That's my right.

      Morality can be, among other things, one of these two:

      "Teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior" (it is not good or correct to nose into someone's business uninvited, nor is it polite, good, or correct to assume that someone is an evil asshole without proof), or

      "Conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior" (the aforementioned actions are not considered right or just by society as a whole).

      But if you buy Apple software, part of the bargain is that you must run it on Apple's hardware, and consequently it's designed to ensure that. You are free to not enter into the bargain by making the purchase, but don't complain when companies act to protect their investments. Where's the harm to you?

    6. Re:You're right by sheldon · · Score: 1

      You are free to not enter into the bargain by making the purchase, but don't complain when companies act to protect their investments.

      So why is it ok for you to whine on and on endlessly about Microsoft, but I can't point out the evil of Apple's ways? What I'm pointing out here is your bloody hypocrisy and your inconsistency even in putting action to your own supposed morals.

      If you don't like the product that Microsoft makes, then don't buy it. But please quit trying to rationalize your decision by claiming you are doing so for moral grounds, when you are so obviously willing to abandon your supposed morals to make Apple happy.

    7. Re:You're right by Buran · · Score: 1

      Why is it hypocritical to have a problem with invasiveness but not with needing to use certain hardware with a given piece of software? Has it not occurred to you that I like Apple's hardware and like the fact that they don't feel the need to be intrusive and feel it's a fair trade along with how much I like their software? It's as simple as that. That's not hypocritical. That's just the fact that I have different opinions than you do.

    8. Re:You're right by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Once again... oddly hypocritical.

      It's ok for you to sell your soul to Apple and buy their hardware and software. But somehow it's wrong for the millions of the rest of us to buy Microsoft because we just want things to work well together.

      Don't attack me for having a differing opinion. You're the one whining about Microsoft and calling them evil.

    9. Re:You're right by Buran · · Score: 1

      Hey, I'm not attacking you, and I'm not whining. I can state my opinions if I wish and that doesn't make them any less valid than anyone else's.

      I think it's more unfair for me to be called a "whiner" and looked at negatively because I don't feel that it is OK to treat me with suspicion without proof that I've done nothing wrong and because I would rather use different equipment than you do.

      But hey, this is Slashdot, anyone who disagrees with you has to automatically be an idiot, a whiner, a hypocrite, or what-have-you, right?

  227. Truthfully... by ross_winn · · Score: 1

    This isn't news and it hasn't been for some time. Just like the invention of the CD, the VCR, and the Abacus; this will neither cause nor cure piracy. It will make it harder, but it is getting pretty hard already. DRM is a reality for all of us, it isn't going away, and hopefully the implementation will be as painless as possible. I do think that Apple version will be less painful than the Windows version, but neither is going away.

    --
    Ross Winn "not just another ugly face..."
  228. I just want to run one place... by argent · · Score: 1

    Nobody seems to have figured out that there are much more difficult things to solve before OS X can "run everywhere"

    Personally, I don't care where else it runs, but I want it to run on a Thinkpad. The Thinkpad hardware is so far ahead of the 'books that it's practically a tragedy that Apple didn't continue their relationship with IBM Japan after the PB2400.

  229. Real reason for drug tests by bemenaker · · Score: 1
    Before you go off spouting complete and utter bullshit, try learning the facts. There is one reason, and only one reason, that the overwhelming majority of drug screens are performed. Do you have a clue as to what it is? Have you ever owned your own business, if you did, you already know the answer. Ever buy health insurance for you company? DIDN'T THINK SO!!!!

    Here's the big secret: YOU GET A HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM DISCOUNT FOR DRUG SCREENING!!!!!!

    It wasn't until that started happening that drug testing showed up. In spite of all of Nancy's commercials, it was the insurance premium break that brought on drug testing. Most companies don't care. If you show up sober, they don't care. That is why companies don't do real randoms.

  230. I'd laugh if he got DRM in years before Microsoft. by crovira · · Score: 1

    That would be a real hoot. If Apple offered a solution for the home 'blessed' by "the industry" while Microsoft's languishing in the office with a whole bunch of boxes that people are scared to upgrade.

    Apple, a company with its feet firmly in both camps, would finally have an advantage over a monopolist by siding with the oligopolists. (I don't have a lot of respect for the DRMers, but, they will have their way.)

    Personally, I don't care about DRM as long as its the iTunes type so I can write the things to DVD's once or twice.

    I've got close of 800 CDs and over 400 vynil albums. 60GBs of music files. That's a sh*t load of CDs', LPs and a couple of DVDs. (It took me over a week to RIP 'em all in. I don't want to spend my vacation RIPping CDs.)

    I've also learned the importance of free air delivery around my hard disks after a bad summer when I had four of 'em seize up on me. (I've learned the importance of backups the hard way.)

    I never want to go through that again.

    As for DRM. I'm okay with that as long as Apple doesn't get stupid and try to region code me and my backups. (I don't download a lot of stuff.)

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  231. and I'm concerned about this because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so this prevents linux or freebsd or netbsd or openbsd from working in what way??

    The sooner they lock their OS down (microsoft included) to stop piracy, the sooner they can lose any hope of attaining any market dominance and retaining market share.

    I don't know about most folks, but I know 10 or more people (relatives, friends, associates) who are running pirate OS installs. I can tell you with a 100 percent certainty that they would be happy using linux with firefox and open office if someone showed them ow or it was sufficiently difficult to use a copy of windows.

    So this is an important step in decreasing their business. apple doesn't realize that they aren't microsoft...and already they think its a good idea to lock down their os when microsoft onluy recently announced that their updates wouldn't get sent to pirate copies...meaning that they still want pirate copies out there...but they hope to get people to go legit by not updating them.

    all of this is great news for the free operating systems of the world.

  232. Joe Six-pack doesn't care AS LONG AS by crovira · · Score: 1

    things don't break in his hands.

    He's been dealing with "hard copy" all his existance (when he didn't have a choice) so he's not going to mind DRM as long as he can do what he's been doing all his existance.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  233. It still works that way. by crovira · · Score: 1

    If I want to cut my own copy of something I compose, even though its 'identical' to something I just heard, as long as I don't try to make money, they don't have boo to say about it.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
    1. Re:It still works that way. by tolkienfan · · Score: 1
      1. Some of the things that have changed:
      The copyright term. This is currently around 90 years (a bit more than the original 7), and subject to future lobbying. Don't ever expect Mickey Mouse TM to ever drop into the public domain.
      Copyright now covers, in addition to books, movies, music, software, and more or less anything written.

      2. Whether someone may say "boo", depends on many factors. Some have more consideration than others:

      1. Commercial consideration. Copying something for non-commercial purposes suffers less copyright protection.
      2. Amount of the work as a whole which is copied. This is perhaps more important than the above point. If you duplicate an entire book, and hand it out for free, that's almost certain to be infringement - even though it's non-commercial.
      3. Protectablilty. Whether the content is actually protectable. Many parts of works are not actually protectable under copyright law.
      4. Access to original material. Lack of access to the copyrighted material is an affirmative defense. You actually have to have copied the material. Seperately creating a work, no matter how similar, is not copyright infringement. Of course, it's hard to prove you didn't copy something, and the level of similarity is good evidence.
      5. Parodies are given less regard under copyright law - even for commercial purposes.

      So, it's true that if you independantly create a work, you are not infringing copyright. But if you have access to it, and your own work is strikingly similar in large part, then you could find it hard to prove you didn't copy it.

  234. Up next: virtual machines made illegal. by Pinback · · Score: 1

    Soon VMs will be on the radar, 'cause you might break DRM in there!

  235. untrue Re:drug testing by retiarius · · Score: 1

    i would like to believe this, since although i'm
    a u.s. citizen (californian / san franciscan)
    i find these other lands more progressive in
    many ways, in addition to being quite enjoyable.

    however, this semi-retired author underwent his first-
    ever random drugtest in australia as a plain tourist,
    at a roadblock in the coonawarra wine region near easter holiday.
    they don't do that regularly in napa valley,
    last time i checked. maybe since they are on
    half-hour time there near melbourne they do funny things ...

    yet, also, a certain major new zealand hotel has a
    breathalyzer built-in for convention-goers, where they
    clearly take the idea of "designated driver" seriously.
    perhaps i don't stay in enough stateside hotels, but
    i've never seen that setup here. here's to "when in rome..."
    and all that rot!

  236. Everything gonna be as usual by sogod · · Score: 1

    relax. the bad guys will continue to do with drm h/w what they did with copywrited s/w, in one way or another, provided the Mac carrot is really good. They will not do that only if there is no real value behind the new OS. Just the new bad market of s/w emulators of h/w components will be involved somethow in one way or another. More importantly, LInux will catch up pretty soon, especially in the most essentual killer features of new Mac OS X. There is a chance that Linux distros will implemented some key features even better than Tiger does now. What is the most yammie now, will be everywhere in the whole versatility, it's not locked inside one OS or another, or even could be cross-OSed some via Open Source code. The single menace is very generic patents ONLY! But you cannot kill new idea built on the shoulder of the oversaturated old one. Bottomline, we definitely gonna see all great features of Tiger in free OSes. Why we should cry like babies if our favourite things are not wrapped into one particular brand (Mac, or whatever). Again, cross-applications on the OS level, or over this level will do the trick pretty soon, if the DESIRED feature(s) is/are in REAL DEMAND. Just wait. Don't negate the value of time and persistence. It's just impossible to have something really good in one spot in in the hands of one particular company/brand. It's not how the world works. Linux-based .MONO could be even more widespread than .NET in Microsoft world in the not very distant future, earlier or later, and even more enriched etc. Again, patens could be real menace. BUT NOT FOR THE LONG RUN! Nobody is locked into somebody's good/evil will, even if it's really big production group of suppliers and/or brain factories. Demand is the key. So, if you desire something now and cannot get it in the way you want now, just wait you will get something ever better and in the better way. If it's not free now, it will be tomorrow (not necessarily literally). Mac had almost died in the past because of the way she acted. Remember, she was the best, at least much better and stronger than M$. Now the history can repeat itself. Who knows, may be there is some intentional hole left by Apple to avoid repeating the history this time. Whatever, if we're not focused on some particular brand name, idea, or combinations of ideas in one or another market package, everything gonna be just fine for the long run. Everything gonna be in the way, the majority of customers wants. But there is some inertia in this process. Just be patient, and all gonna be just fine.

  237. You learn something new every day by foreverdisillusioned · · Score: 1

    I always assumed they had sarcasm in Europe, but now I know otherwise. Or perhaps you're actually from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse?

    Joking aside, kudos for the insightful post.

  238. Tape drives are another sore point... by argent · · Score: 1

    Software support is hard enough just in a niche (for example, imagine Dantz's headaches supporting Retrospect and the endless combinations of host/adapter/drive!)

    It would have been better for Apple to support the standard UNIX tape interface instead. Then we wouldn't need to use Retrospect... we could use existing UNIX backup software from "dump" and "tar" up through "Amanda" and "BRU".

  239. I will join the boycott when they take away... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
    The freedom of choice of OSes to install on the shipping machines or if they DRM encumber creation of my "own" files.

    I see no evidence of either coming from Apple at least.

    I see a lot of FUD being spread around here.

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  240. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it will NOT be Solaris for Intel
     
    No, it will not be Solaris for Intel. It will be Linux/FreeBSD for Intel.

  241. The irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I find it ironic that I haven't seen anyone mention a real comparison between all that stuff and the RIAA. In Canada, you will pay about $5 for a single(1 song on cd). If I download the song for free and burn it on a cd, guess how much of that money goes to the music companies? Over fifty percent(50%) per cd bought in bulk. They charge 21 cents per cd. I would like to know, do they intend to give me that money back when I use it to back up my data? I use cds mainly for backing up data such as save files and word documents. If this kind of situation starts popping up in computers and dvd players and such, why shouldn't I just pop it open and remove the copy protection myself? If it breaks I have been able to repair most things faster and cheaper than taking them someplace else to be repaired. Case in point would be one of our old computers, the company we were told to take it to said there was nothing they could do to fix it, short of putting in a new($150) hdd and reinstalling the os for a grand total of about $300 and 2 weeks. My repair took a week and a half(just after school and about 12 hours total, for a young teen with no training on how computers work) and cost less than a buck(one floppy was all I needed). So why should I take anything that the companies say at face value? All the copy protection crap is is just a way to control people. What If I make my own DVD of home movies and nothing will play it because its a burned dvd so according to the companies, it must be pirated? Copy protections should NEVER be in hardware and they should NEVER have to connect to anything else to report what is going on.

  242. IBM is a member of the Trusted Computing Group by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple could have used TPM without switching to Intel.

  243. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Solaris uptimes of years if need be
     
    How cute. Any sysadmin who has experience of enteprise class computer systems understands that uptime does not matter. People who administrate the most critical computer systems in this world understand that it is needed to have maintenance breaks a couple of times a year. Why? Because they keep their OSs up to date installing security patches, kernel patches and such. Maintenance breaks - where you shut down the services and reboot - are needed to make sure that the patches work and are not doing any damage. Who would want to recover from a crash just to see that the OS/services are not able to boot up properly because nobody has cared to reboot the server in 5 years?!

  244. standard interface? SCSI has always been there by toby · · Score: 1

    Apple has always supported SCSI, so those options are all available, AFAIK. Including Amanda. From comments on that page, the inconvenience with traditional UNIX archive tools on OS X is generally that they haven't handled resource forks and Finder info - which is where Retrospect comes in (not to mention Retrospect's searching interface is good for nontechnical users).

    --
    you had me at #!
    1. Re:standard interface? SCSI has always been there by argent · · Score: 1

      Apple has always supported SCSI, so those options are all available, AFAIK. Including Amanda.

      If you look at that page you will see that it says "--without-server" on the configure line. What this means is that the server (the part that actually uses the tape drive) is not compiled on these boxes. Just the client is. You can't run Amanda as a server on Mac OS X because Mac OS X doesn't support the UNIX tape device.

      This has nothing to do with supporting SCSI.

      It has to do with supporting the UNIX API for tape drives, whether they're SCSI, SMD, IDE, Floppy-tape, or anything else.

      Supporting resource forks and finder info is the least of the problem. There are versions of Tar and Pax that have extensions for Apple's extra file attributes, and for UFS partitions you don't even need that. The bigger problem, the fact that Mac OS X has abandoned UNIX tape support, remains.

  245. Huh?! by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    No, I think your analogy is flawed.

    If I buy a book, I can set fire to it, write in it, read it backwards, or whatever. By analogy, I can do what I want with software, within certain limits, because I signed no gorram license. Just as "within certain limits" with books doesn't extend to include copying and distributing, neither does it include copying and distributing the software. Funny how that works, isn't it?

    Once I have bought a piece of software, I am well within my rights to reverse-engineer it, or use it for purposes for which it was not designed.

    It's kinda funny how you assumed that my crowing about the right of first-sale was some sort of defense of copyright violation. 'Cause it wasn't.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
    1. Re:Huh?! by derflammenhund · · Score: 1

      I don't think it is.
       
      I admit I might have read too much into your post, but the fact remains that the book is a physical medium, the words are still copyright-protected intellectual property and you don't have the right to do anything with them without permission.
       
      Software -- physical media = disc, copyright-protected IP = contents of said disc.
       
      They're exactly the same. Printed ennumerated license or not.
       
      Destroy (set fire to it, write on it, if you can get your disc drive to read it backwards, do that with it, whatever) or resell the media all you want, the contents remain not yours just the same.

      I also feel it necessary to add that the only reason I bothered to retype all this is because of that last sentence you added. Yeah, fine, this isn't meant for you, but there are people spouting off everywhere who don't seem to understand anything; your post just came as a convenient flagpole. Sorry, or something.

  246. Colon theft! by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 1

    Oh no---they'll be looking through all of our clauses which are grammatically, but not logically, complete!

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  247. Limits of TCPA by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

    Virtualization cannot defeat remote attestation, but Rosetta isn't using that.

    Virtualization cannot defeat sealing either. Sealing is usually used with data, but you could also seal code (it's not clear how the code would get installed). However, if the system allows a kernel debugger, then you can probably dump the code after it has been unsealed.

    Virtualization can easily defeat "is the TPM there?" kind of checks, which may be what Rosetta is doing. In fact, it would be even easier to just write a different kext that exposes the same API, but always reports that the TPM is there.

  248. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1
    This myth must stop here and now.

    The majority of the PC market which is capable of running modern OSes like XP or Linux with Gnome/KDE with any degree of usability is hardware from the Pentium 3 and newer. Nobody is going to bother to support pre-PCI based technology anyway and drivers for the old creaky hardware is not the cause of 99.9% of stability issues anyway.

    Most stability issues are caused by poorly written and tested bleeding edge drivers for "new" hardware.

    Anything older than a Pentium 3 is irrelevent for any of the current OSes anyway and Anything below a Pentium 4 or Athlon are irrelevent for any new OSes emerging today.

    If you look at the hardware landscape of today, there is very little diversity out there compare with the Pre-Pentium 3 era.

    Now compare that with the diverse set of motherboards Apple has to support if you look at the G3 iBooks, G3 Towers, G4 towers, the older G4 Titanium Powerbooks all the way through to the various revisions of the Aluminum powerbooks and the G5 machines. That is a lot of different configurations to support there folks not to mention the various third-party gfx and sound cards.

    The reason why Apple's OS is stable is because all drivers including third-party supplied drivers undergo rigorous tests for memory leaks and race conditions using the robust testing tools Apple provides every developer in the Developer tools. Now look at the anemic debugging tools MSFT supplies with Visual Studio.

    I remember downloading drivers for my NVidia card when I was a PC user and they were buggy as hell.

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  249. THIS is why the INTEL SWITCH!! by riversky · · Score: 1

    I posted a long time ago that they would add hardware DRM and put the software keys at the core of the OS. Intel provides this with a chip that makes a software crack almost impossible. This will lock content to the machine(s), probably the iMovie store and other products coming will use this. Apple uses a lot of open standards stuff but they are moving farther and farther away from open source! Anyone who thinks differently is kidding themselves. Apple is the most closed company in computing. Especially to their developers in terms of notice of changes or new features.

    1. Re:THIS is why the INTEL SWITCH!! by argent · · Score: 1

      I posted a long time ago that they would add hardware DRM and put the software keys at the core of the OS.

      That's certainly possible, and I am concerned about it, but they're using an Infineon chip, not Intel... surely that chip could have been used in a PowerPC system... the Power PC supports the LPC bus they use.

  250. Anonymous Physical Payments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember that the serial numbers on bills are theoretically trackable. I haven't heard of it actually being done on a large scale (as opposed to, say, ransom payments on cop shows), but the technology to log each bill's number as it leaves the ATM and again when it reenters the bank system is so easy that no self-respecting paranoid should assume it's not there.

  251. Simple... by sheldon · · Score: 1

    If you want to program... you should get a job as a waiter and program in your off work hours.

  252. Apple is Just a Business by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

    Just like any other, they will do whatever they have to do ot make maximum profits.

    The idealism that the Steves showed in the 70's and 80's went away. Those young hippy throwbacks grew up, cut their hair and now have children and families to care about. (Except Woz of course, he is still and will always be the man because he understand that you can be both successful and idealistic) They can't risk losing it all anymore.

    Apple is just another corporation (Albeit one with some pretty cool technology), it's not Heaven's embassy on earth.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  253. Here's another hint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot has no place for rational discourse.

  254. Could they be doing it to force it only on Macs? by rdean400 · · Score: 1

    I recall when the intel announcement was made the Apple contact said that they would take steps to make sure that OS X only runs on genuine Macs. Could this facility be part of that?

  255. In Direct Violation of The Bill of Rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can one of my more enlightened fellow American citizens please explain to me how this technology is not in direct violation to my Constitutional Rights as an American citizen?

    Let me start with the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights within the Constitution of the United States of America? And if reading such documents boars you or you are citizen of another country I'll provide it here:

    Amendment IV

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
    -

    Now I am not a lawyer, but I don't need to know a dead language to interpret this paragraph. It is straight forward and plan and literal.

    This technology automatically preforms a search - determines if the document is "legal" without probable cause and seizes any document it determines "illegal" by disallowing access to it or otherwise restricting the normal usage of the document either in time or the fullness of it's content. All without a warrant or authority of law and with no guarantee of the absolute accuracy of the technology.

    Furthermore, it defies my Constitutional Rights by assuming that I will commit a crime by it's very presence in environment in which I live eradicating a presumption of innocence. It preforms a judgment upon my actions and my possessions and "convicts" me by restricting my full access to documents in my possession without "public trial, by an impartial jury" without confronting the witness and without assistance of council as spelled out under the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights within the Constitution of the United States:

    Amendment VI

    In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defiance.
    -

    This is not to mention that it is on very shaky ground when it comes to being in violation of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights within the Constitution of the United States of America:

    Amendment I

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
    -

    If this does not abridge my freedom of speech, and my own personal press then the Constitution is just a collection of useless words.

    And if this technology is adopted by all manufactures and incorporated into all available products to the common public, by intentionally restricting my access to all available content, products and services it constitutes a situation of servitude in opposition to the Thirteenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights within the Constitution of the United States of America:

    Amendment XIII

    Section 1.

    Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

    Section 2.

    Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
    -

    Now I am just a citizen in the bottom tier of the "middle class" with a GED education but, by all that I know and love of my country this technology is not only blatantly evil and illegal and the potential for it's misuse heinous - it is also blatantly treasonous. If the conspirators were humane beings, I would say give them a tr

  256. When DRM goes wrong. My own experience. by Phoenixhunter · · Score: 1
    I got out and buy a replacement mini-PCI card for an IBM T40. Heck it even says it works with the T40 (paid a premium). So I pop it in, put the screws back in, power it up, and....

    ERROR 1802 Unauthorized network card is plugged in -Power off and remove the miniPCI card.

    I ended up having to upgrade the BIOS (which wasn't indicated ANYWHERE), and I found out I had lucked out, because if the network cards hadn't been on that list supported with the BIOS update, I would have had to resort to trying hacks to the BIOS.

    Moral of the story:

    Short: Problem with DRM is that it is evil. Long: DRM that is unnecessarily inflexible will ultimately restrict users to the point that they will begin to hate technology.

  257. There is a distinct possibility this was done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... to make sure Apple isn't competative with M$. I am sure M$ told Apple that if their OS worked on all PCs, M$ would pull the Mac versions of the office product.

  258. Re:It's the reduction of choice that helps OS X ro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Windows XP has recorded uptimes of 5+ months

    Not much for installing those reboot-required critical updates in a timely manner, are we?

  259. MOD PARENT UP by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

    This was never a "classic Slashdot joke," even though some iterations of it have been funny, by referring to the troll. But it began as a pure troll, copied from somebody's weblog from 1998 and posted anonymously to every Mac-related discussion. Its posting became pervasive enough that people posted jokes about it -- e.g. comments about the time it takes to copy a 17M file. I'm not sure just updating the reference points in the troll are enough to make this funny, that's certainly debatable, but in any case the grandparent above (who wrrote "worst troll ever) was accurate, whether or not the post counts as "funny."

  260. I welcome Apple protecting my right to copy! by macjim · · Score: 1

    For mac users this is both expected, and good news. It's always been easy to back up a mac drive and make your own startup disc. The last thing we want is some diabolical "authentication" procedure like winXP has to make it harder for ordinary users, while still not stopping ye leet hakerz. Apple said when announcing macintel that the OS would only run on mac hardware, whether it's done with custom components or DRM makes no difference. Keep your right to make and use lots of copies of your OS!

  261. User Stupidity? by Macgrrl · · Score: 1

    Apple doesn't cover user stupidity in Apple care.

    I once had a guy bring in a PowerBook 180c for repairs, the power systems were fried, it was 2 weeks old. He wanted it replacedunder warranty. Then he showed me the power cable. He'd considered the transformer on the end of the cable too bulky, so he'd cut it off and fitted a standard 3-pin plug to the end. 240v straight into the PB, no filtering.

    I had an extremely difficult time explaining that there was no way Apple would cover this under warranty, regardless of the fact that it was 2 weeks old.

    --
    Sara
    Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
  262. Desktop Linux by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

    > Uh, dude, it's not 1999. Most respectable distros do all for you
    > now anyhow....

    No, it's worse now. Lets take RHEL4, RedHat's latest and shinest stable release. Other distributions have different bugs, but all stable releases seem to have about the same quantity it seems. Unstable releases like Fedora are even worse of course.

    Download something to the desktop with Firefox. Bet you don't see it do you. Now navigate to the Desktop directory with Nautilus and do a refresh. Oh, there it is, in both places now.

    Now try attaching an external drive. Firewire isn't supported at all and if you build it yourself are as likely to lock the machine as get a drive to work. USB is documented NOT to work but I sometimes get lucky.

    Printing has been random ever since Cups appeared in the Linux world. Sometimes things print, then they stop, start working again. No rhyme or reason. Some print jobs just disappear into thin air.

    Launch gnomemeeting. Watch it hang when you test audio. OSS or ALSA, doesn't matter. Video works for me if you build a custom kernel. Guess after all these years the bttv driver is still not 'enterprise ready'. xmms, mplayer and such work just fine btw.

    Of course you don't get 3D because the X.org drivers for ATI hardware still cause random lockups (not just X, push the reset button time because ssh doesn't work) so that support is wisely compiled out since I know I have been seeing this bug since at least 2000.

    The reason I say things are worse than they were in 1999 is that before most stuff was primitive but once you wrestled it into shape it Just Works. Now we have fscking registries and stuff that are opaque blobs. Now you install an app and accept it as normal to have to log out and back in before it will run.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
  263. Re: This Apple is Rotten to the Core by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    =P

  264. Bravo! by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    Hot damn. That may well be the funniest AC post I've seen on Slashdot in over a year. There may be hope for us all yet.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  265. Re:IBM 3 DRM by Alsee · · Score: 1

    I will agree with you the moment IBM permits me to know my key. If you are familiar with the technical details, I want at a minimum to know my PrivEK (Private Endorcement Key). Knowing your PrivEK is the minimum sufficient to maintain full control of your computer, however including a mechanism for the owner wo securely obtain his RSK (Root Storage Key) as well would be a huge help. That sort of secure RSK mechanism is trivial to accomplish, just encrypt the RSK using the PubEK before exporting it from the chip.

    No, IMB's chips are exactly compliant with the Trusted Computing Group's specification and explicitly designed to be secure against the owner. The chips are explicitly boobytrapped to self destruct if you attempt to get at your keys. Hell, the IBM ThinkPad "Man in Black" TV commercial explicitly cites the self destruct nature of the chips! If you want I could probably dig up a link to the commercial online.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  266. Re:what, me worry? Welcome to M$ domination. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Moderators: Please note that "twitter" is a known fanatical sycophant whose obnoxious offtopic rants are legend here on Slashdot. It doesn't matter what the topic is, he'll find a way to scrape in some pointless Microsoft bashing. While nobody expects us to love Microsoft in any way, his particularly tepid style of calling anyone he replies to "troll" or "liar" or "fanboy" because he happens to disagree with whatever they're saying is well documented and should not be rewarded. If anything, twitter is the type of person that should not be part of the open source/free software community. He is an anathema to all that is good about free software.

    I'm posting this so that you (the moderator) have some context to consider twitter and not mod him up whenever he posts his filler preformatted rants about installing Knoppix or Mepis or whatever that unfortunately get him karma every single time and allow him to continue posting his trademark toxic crap (read on) day in and day out. You may consider this a troll - I consider it community service. And I ain't kidding.

    If you're a /. subscriber, I invite you to look through some of his posting history. I guarantee that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that is more "out there" than twitter. You'll also probably notice he's got quite an AC following. Don't just read his posts, make sure you go through the replies.

    To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this post out. This is an article about email disclaimers. The parent of the post is complaining about the ads in the linked page and so on, and twitter actually goes off on a rant to blame it on Microsoft and recommend Lynx, because "is teh free".

    Here's another. In this post twitter not only calls the OP a troll but attempts to "tell it like it is" while making some vague argument about "GNU". Yes, if you're confused, you're not alone. The reply (modded +4) proceeds to simply destroy his bogus argument. You will notice he did not reply. This is what some people call "drive-by advocacy". A sort of I'll just leave you with my thoughts here and move on to the next flamebait kind of deal. In fact, he almost never replies because he knows that his fanatical arguments simply do not hold up to any sort of discussion. It's not that he's chosen the wrong cause - he's just going at it in a completely wrong way.

    Here's that drive-by advocacy and FUD in motion: twitter goes on about some topic and then drops the usual "oh and M$ is teh evil" because "WMP phones home" or some such. Called on his FUD, he then claims that WMP stores every song and movie you've ever played in a file, somewhere. Pressed further, he just sort of slithers out of sight, his FUD-spreading complete. This is not about some Microsoft technology that nobody likes anyway; it's about lying for the sake of lying. Way too many of his posts are exactly like this one.

    More? Just read though this post and the subsequent replies. I guess this stands on its own. Or these two. Or this one. Or this one.

    Still not convinced? This is what twitter considers "humour" while going about his daily "M$" routine.

    M

  267. Re:duh -- Keep Hollywood and the RIAA happy, Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah, sure, the most obvious and useful reason is not the right reason.

    retard.

  268. Re:TPM blocks recovery CDs by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 1

    it can help deflect hack attempts as well

    But you have to have physical access to the box to insert a CD and reboot it. Some highly secure operating systems don't allow the CD tray to be opened on a running system by a non-privileged user, so they'd better have a lot of time if they don't want someone to notice....

    Then, if the box needs the recovery CD because it crashed, your only choice may be to wip the entire disk and reinstall. Also, if someone's cheap DVD drive ate your only signed install CD, you may succeed in locking yourself out. :)

    This is similar to the hard disk password that most people didn't set, because they were more afraid of themselves, that they would forget the password and lose their data than the off-chance that someone would try to steal their lame computer.

  269. Re:IBM 3 DRM by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
    I will agree with you the moment IBM permits me to know my key. If you are familiar with the technical details, I want at a minimum to know my PrivEK (Private Endorcement Key).

    If you are familliar with the details, you would know that no one will know your private key. It is destroyed after being burned into the ROM. IBM does not store the private keys. They store public certificates to validate that key, and even then, only upon customer request.

    One of the fundamental caveats within the TPM spec is that no one should know your key. Not even you. Why? Because if it is known, then it can be comprimised. And if it can be comprimised, then it is insecure. One might argue that this is security through obscurity, but it's also the foundation of asymmetrical crypto (well, that and hard math).

    According to the documentation, the PrivEK is used solely for attestation. This is important for several things, for example "trusted SSL/TLS" & single-sign on validation. Basically, you want to make sure that you are communicating with an uncompromised box before giving it control.

    Pretend, for a moment, that I am an unscrupulus person. If IBM were to give me my PrivEK (or if I were to obtain yours), couldn't I leverage my knowledge of cryptology & the TPM spec to create a TPM emulator? It would pretend to be the chip, and then expose the information which was trying to be protected. E.g. Attestation becomes useless.

    This happens somewhat frequently with certificates even now. That is why we have CRLs... Keys become compromised, particularly when machines containing secure information are hacked. It is much harder to steal a key that you can't possibly have access to.

    Knowing your PrivEK is the minimum sufficient to maintain full control of your computer, however including a mechanism for the owner wo securely obtain his RSK (Root Storage Key) as well would be a huge help

    First, since PrivEK is only used to validate the TPM chip to other computers, you are surely misinformed. In a distopian future, the most PrivEK could do is prevent you from connecting to the Internet.

    Second, the storage root key has no reason to leave the chip, encrypted or not. It is stored in non-volatile memory, and can be regenerated at will. Any place where it can be read by the CPU is less secure than its tamper-resistant case.

    Finally, if you want to "maintain full control of your computer", all you have to do is disable the chip. (The laptop I am posting this from has a disabled TPM chip in it.)

    It does bring up an interesting point, however... How do you transfer keys between computers? I'm guessing some mutation of the lockbox problem. I'll have to spend some time looking at the docs to figure that one out.

    No, IMB's chips are exactly compliant with the Trusted Computing Group's specification and explicitly designed to be secure against the owner. The chips are explicitly boobytrapped to self destruct if you attempt to get at your keys.

    Really? The way I like to think of it is that the chip will self destruct if someone else tries to get at my keys. I don't need to see them, so long as they exist and work. Hell, from a security perspective, it's better if I don't know them, or have them stored elsewhere, as I have already shown above.

  270. Re:Simple.. Apple doesnt mind its users stealing O by mr100percent · · Score: 1

    And what, become a software company? Compete with Red Hat, Microsoft, Amiga, Debian, Fedora, IBM and God knows who else?

    No, let Apple stay the way it is. Do you want BMW to just sell engines?

  271. Re: Ubuntu by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

    Most bios's now support choosing boot device order, some also support choosing it without having to go into the bios setup.
        My last two mb's have a list of hotkeys that include one to choose boot device. That was my intent, install everything on one hdd and press TWO keys to cause the bios to goto the ubuntu drive when I wanted to boot into that.

    Mycroft

    --
    https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
  272. A good home for viruses. by Gordon+Bennett · · Score: 1

    Nice to see a desktop OS built mostly on Open Source use DRM to protect its code.

    Those Intel chips are great for virus writers to obfuscate then execute code. Superb! I can now have the full Macindows experience!

  273. Re:TPM blocks recovery CDs by coolGuyZak · · Score: 1
    Some highly secure operating systems don't allow the CD tray to be opened on a running system by a non-privileged user, so they'd better have a lot of time if they don't want someone to notice....

    This may come as a surprise to you, but there's not much you can do to stop someone from twiddling if they have physical access to the system. It is up to you to make sure that your server room or home is storing your computer in a secure manner.

    TPM is not designed to prevent a physical compromise. However, it is designed with a tamper-resistent casing. Any attempts to retrieve the restricted keys from within the chip will usually result in its destruction.

    Something else to consider: most hacking attempts don't have physical access to the server or computer in question. This is where the TPM can work successfully. And yet another thing: You don't need a CD to transfer data to a computer.

    Then, if the box needs the recovery CD because it crashed, your only choice may be to wip the entire disk and reinstall. Also, if someone's cheap DVD drive ate your only signed install CD, you may succeed in locking yourself out. :)

    If the box needs a recovery CD, then you can assign PCR checksums and store those locally on the recovery disk itself. If you are running a secure system, then you should be wise enough to keep several copies (and probably a few images) of recoverly CDs. You should also be wise enough to keep backups of your entire filesystem. Hence, such things shouldn't matter in the long run.

    Assuming that something catastrphic occurs, and you no longer have any signed install disks, you can always disable TPM in the bios, install the new system, then re-enable the bios. Also, because TPM uses a "chain of trust" to validate everything during the boot sequence, you could disable the checks in the bootloader and do the same thing... or don't load/turn off the kernel driver.

  274. Keyboard and Mouse Kits by vsarunas · · Score: 1

    It would be nice (and cheaper) if Apple would bundle the MightyMouse with wired or bluetooth keyboard.

  275. That's why they call it a rebellion. by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as "our rebellion." Is it only in the third person - "their rebellion" - that it becomes illegal.

  276. Ephemeralality by cbr2702 · · Score: 1
    No, notice that he wanted some assurance that a conversation could be "completely ephemeral". He wants your computer to enforce his DRM scheme against against you. He wants to deny you control of your own computer, that you cannot tell your computer not to delete the data. He also wants the "security" of pretending that information is some sort of "physical object" that you cannot modify or copy.

    Yes, some of these are completely contrary to what makes sense for the computer. But a conversation can be made partialy ephemeral. Have a look at this "off the record" plugin for gaim : http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/ . You can have a conversation where:

    Anyone can forge messages after a conversation to make them look like they came from you. However, during a conversation, your correspondent is assured the messages he sees are authentic and unmodified.

    Having the actual data be removed from your computer, however, does require DRM. So he cannot be completely satisfied.

    --


    This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
    1. Re:Ephemeralality by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Appologies if I'm being redundant, but I want to clarify:

      Yes, some of these are completely contrary to what makes sense for the computer.

      Well what he wants makes a warped sort of sense under the entirely unreasonable assumption that you do-not/can-not get your key out of the TPM and that your computer is controlled by the TPM.

      Unfortuantely Trusted Computing is a very real threat and very difficult to fight. It will simply be handed out built into every new computer and most of the public will be oblivious. Anyone who does not "opt-in" is going to get seriously screwed over.

      -

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      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  277. Hallelujah! by poptones · · Score: 1

    After two days of flames SOMEONE finally asks a productive question!

    That is the point I am trying desperately to convey: we already trust people of OUR choosing. When you run linux who are you trusting? It starts at the kernel team and branches all the way to the packager of the distribution. There are hundreds of people we are trusting when we run a binary distribution of linux OR EVEN compile it ourselves from source. This is a point that was made repeatedly in the early days but most seem to have overlooked as the community has grown to include a great many who are not inspired by the technical issues but more by an anti-corporatist zeal.

    I use ubuntu. I trust Mark Shuttleworth to build an organization of trustworthy people because he appears to me as someone who shares my ideals. I do not think twice of inserting the latest ubuntu distribution, booting and installing it.

    There is no reason at all we cannot have an "open and trusted" method of creating and distributing *open source* software. Just as you are free to hack your kernel to your heart's content so too could you be this free with a DRM enabled distribution - just so long as the core "engine of trust" remains untainted. If you want to hack the engine you could be free to do that as well, but only in a sandbox - beyond that your system would be denied a signature of trust until your changes are made part of a "trusted" kernel and updated from a mutually trusted source. That "engine of trust" could as well be distributed by Mark Shuttleworth as Microsoft, and we could all play a role in its evolution just as we do today with the countless other open source programs. If you want to submit changes, then submit them and they will be peer reviewed just as linux does now with the kernel - in fact it would make sense to put it there. Allow ubuntu and redhat and anyone else with the desire and the means to foster a 'trusted platform" and we can ALL enjoy cake and ice cream at that party.

    Thanks for asking such a great question. You have renewed my faith in (ahem) "this community."

  278. Re:FP! by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

    > DRM could be put to valid uses, such as stopping first posters...

    Digital Retard Mitigation, yes...

  279. Re:IBM 3 DRM by Alsee · · Score: 1

    the most PrivEK could do is prevent you from connecting to the Internet.

    Snicker.
    The most Sarin gas can do is prevent you from breathing.
    Especially if software reqires an internet connection for a Trusted Installation process.

    And if you doubt it could actually happen, I answered someone else on that exact issue here. It is a very serious possibility. The Trusted Computing Group has the Trusted Network Connect specification on their front page and Microsoft has issued a press release that they are implementing it.

    If you are familliar with the details

    Yes. I am a programmer and I have read the TCPA Main TCG Architecture v1_1b.pdf spec from cover to cover, all 1604k of it. I've also read countless other documents and info.

    private key. It is destroyed after being burned into the ROM.

    I am 99.44% certain the PrivEK is stored in flash.

    It does bring up an interesting point, however... How do you transfer keys between computers?

    The spec permits an optional Maintanence procedure, so there may or may not be an option to do it depending upon the chip itself.

    If the option exists, the spec prohibits this process except to move to an identical model of chip from the identical manufacturer. If the manufacturer goes out of business then your data is irretrievably lost along with your computer when you upgrade to a new syste. If they cease offering that model of TPM chip in new computers then your data is irretrievably lost along with your computer when you upgrade to a new system.

    If the option exists, the spec requires that you MUST go through the manufacturer. You contact the manufacturer with a special encrypted blob from the source chip and the identity of the destination chip. The manufacturer has to enforce all sorts of restrictions. The encrypted data gets exported from the source chip and the source chip is (digitally)destroyed. The data is uploaded to the new chip with the manufacturer crypto and activated.

    If the process is allowed at all, the primary consideration is to prohibit the owner from having both computers active. The initial computer must be (digitally) destroyed before the the new computer can be activated. The design priority is to ensure that the system always "fail-safes" to total and irretrivable data destruction.

    It is very easy to follow all of the priorities and requirements and implications throughout the TPM spec if you just keep one thing in mind... Just imagine the number one design priority is to enforce DRM on a music file and to ensure that there can never be two usable copies of it. They are being generous in allowing you some possibility to MAYBE migrate your music and stuff to a new computer when you upgrade... maybe.

    There's actually a funny point along these lines. Trusted Computing will not prevent a computer from being infected by a virus, and it will prevent that virus from copying your music files... but the DRM music software will probably have some feature to move that music to another computer and deactivate it on this one... so what the Trust system enforces is that if a virus "steals" your music that it really does "steal" it and destroy the copy on your computer as it gets moved to the hacker's computer. You see it's ok if your music files get stolen, but we have to ensure that no one can steal from the RIAA. If you want your music back then you have to buy a new copy... then it's ok because you've paid for your copy and you've paid for the copy the hacker stole... all of the copies are paid for and everything is okey-dokey. Just a hysterical aspect of Trusted Computing. It ensures that if your files are stolen that they really are stolen and gone. It protects the DRM and the corporate DRM interests above the owner of the computer and owner of the files.

    One of the fundamental caveats within the TPM spec is that no one should know your key. Not even you. Why? Because if it

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  280. Re:TPM blocks recovery CDs by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 1

    Assuming that something catastrphic occurs, and you no longer have any signed install disks, you can always disable TPM in the bios, install the new system, then re-enable the bios.

    If your BIOS allows the TPM to be disabled, how does an untrusted installer program retrieve the trusted key that signs the OS that is to be installed?

  281. Re:When DRM goes wrong. My own experience. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep the posts coming jackass, I have a lod of mod points to use unfortunately for you.

    Karma's a bitch. Next time don't be an ass and you won't have a problem.

  282. Re:remote attestation is an official feature of TP by Alsee · · Score: 1

    I don't know if manufacturers are shipping certificates yet, but I am almost 100% sure that the chips are shipping with keys... the PrivEK (Private Endorcement Key). The computers being shiped say they have chips compliant with the TPM spec, and according to the spec such chips have to come a PrivEK. Do not mistake the PrivEK with the RSK (Root Storage Key). The chips do not ship with RSK's, nor are they supposed to. The RSK keys are generated when you first activate the chip. The RSK is then effectively bound to the PrivEK that came with the chip.

    Remote Attestation relies on the PrivEK.

    -

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  283. Re:remote attestation is an official feature of TP by acaspis · · Score: 1

    Interesting. But if I understand correctly, the PrivEK is useless without the matching PubEK.

    So if manufacturers are not providing the endorsement certificates either to the user or directly to the media companies, it doesn't matter if there is a PrivEK. The only thing you can do with the chip is reset it to generate a new PubEK/PrivEK pair. That's still useful for securing your own computer, or for a corporate security infrastructure, but not for DRM.

    AC

  284. Re:remote attestation is an official feature of TP by acaspis · · Score: 1

    Oh wait, the TPM spec version 1.2 says:

    • "The TPM has the EK generated before the end customer receives the platform"
    • "Subsequent attemps to either generate an EK or insert an EK must fail."
    • (about clearing) "The clear must not affect the EK".

    So we are screwed.

  285. Re:remote attestation is an official feature of TP by Alsee · · Score: 1

    Any chip with a PrivEK by definition has a PubEK (Public Endorsement Key). They are really two halves of a single key. I usually neglect addressing the PubEK becuase the chip does not keep your PubEK secret from you. The PubEK is effectively the unique ID number for tracking you and your computer.

    The PubEK and PrivEK are tied together by some deep mathematics. If you know the PrivEK you can immediately calculate the PubEK. If you know the PubEK it would take you thousands or millions of years to figure out the PrivEK.

    It is this link that enforces the Remote Attestation system. The PubEK is public information and you can send it to someone else. The PrivEK is locked inside the chip. Anyone with the PubEK can send a message that only the chip can read, secure against the owner. The chip then proves that it did read that message. That secret message then becomes a foundation for the rest of the security and for reporting exactly what hardware you have and reporting exactly what software you're running.

    So we are screwed.

    Yep, unless the mainstream news starts picking up on the story and the public rebells against it. I am not very optimistic, but I'm trying. :/

    -

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  286. Specious Bollocks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, that is just bollocks, bollocks and more bollocks.

    In terms of physical goods, that is true. That's because someone can always produce cheaper inferior goods by using cheaper materials or pumping chickens full of growth hormones and water, or making ill-fitting over-sized clothes. But the physicality of the goods themselves enforces the market.

    In fact, in the old days when music came on vinyl, and was thus physically protected, you would get whole albums of cheaper 'sound-a-like' and instrumental covers of hits.

    The problem is that you are arguing for a real capitalistic market without provinding any method of enforcing it. At the same time the Open Source community has been more vigourous in terms of cracking copy protection than in developing an Open DRM standard against Apple and Microsoft's closed systems - say one that would actually allow enforcement of Creative Commons licencing rather than fancifully hoping someone's going to read the thing.

    In short, if there is no DRM and no agencies breathing down their neck, people will copy. There's people at work that think I'm a mug for buying software or music - and these are people who certainly can afford it.

    I'm not disagreeing that music hasn't been overpriced (a CD in the UK is now cheaper than in 1985. That is cheaper than the 1985 price, not even including inflation) but that is like saying it's OK to steal BMWs because anyone who has one can afford it.

    And I resent the fact that I can't play around with footage from DVDs that I've bought - but I do understand why.

    Let's face it, if people hadn't engaged in massive piracy and just ripped their OWN CDs for their own private use, there would be no debate.

  287. Twitter: Life and times of a petulant cock-gobbler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Twitter, you're a petulant cock-gobbling sycophant to Linux Torvaldyos! Quit taking DP from ESR and RMS's feculent cocks and why don't you try to stop sucking quite so much? Get out of your parents' basement and see the real world - maybe then you'll see how pathetic you sound, with your neverending stream of bullshit about how Microsoft is stalking you. Wasn't it you who said that Microsoft believes your insane ranting is actually a threat to them, so they PAY PEOPLE to reply to you on Slashdot? No sir, I don't get any money. I do it for the love. Someone has to go up against your paranoid whining. So get back in your cage and shut the fuck up already.