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Slashback: SCO, COPA, AllofMP3, Navier-Stokes, and More
IBM speaks about the SCO suit.. MasterOfGoingFaster brings to our attention Groklaw's detailed analysis and complete transcript of IBM's 10-point response to SCO's claims that Unix code showed up in Linux. From the article: "We've listened to SCO for more than three years tell its side of the story, and the media printed its every word. IBM, when asked to comment, invariably said nothing. Now it tells the court in detail how truly wronged it has been by The SCO Group, and why the court should bring this wrong to an end by granting IBM's motion for summary judgment on SCO's contract claims."
Another angle on COPA. segphault writes to point out an Ars Technica article that discusses in depth the ACLU-vs.-DoD COPA case. The article includes an interview with plaintiff Aaron Peckham, a free speech advocate and the creator of the popular Urban Dictionary web site. Peckham says that if the Internet censorship law were to go into effect, Urban Dictionary might have to shut down or move overseas.
AllofMP3 followups. Two pieces of news after Visa shut off AllofMP3.com. ColinPL writes, "According to Ars Technica, the IFPI lobbied Visa to reject payments from AllofMP3.com. The plan worked, and an IFPI spokesperson said the plug was pulled in early September. AllofMP3.com has resumed its public relations blitz, claiming Visa and MasterCard's decision to discontinue its relationship has no legal justification." And bjoeg writes, "Today Tele2 (a large Danish telco and ISP) received judgment from civil court to block their customers' access to AllofMP3.com. Tele2 has appealed the verdict, and for now access to the site is still open."
Navier-Stokes solution withdrawn. nherm writes, "So I finally decided to take a look at the solution of the millennium problem on the Navier-Stokes equation (previously discussed on Slashdot) and found that the entry on arXiv.org says 'This paper is being withdrawn by the author due to a serious flaw.' So I suppose that the rest of us still have a chance on it? From the arXiv.org page I found this interesting weblog entry with some comments on the issue, pointing to another weblog entry: 'I would not be surprised to learn later that her work, even if flawed, has led the way to helping solve this long-standing problem.'"
A librarian's guided tour of Wikipedia. tiltowait writes, "With the potential rise of Citizendium and the continued media circus surrounding Wikipedia's foibles, it's a good time to review the current state of Wikimania and consider what these disruptive technologies mean for the future of 'authoritative' information sources. If you've ever wanted for a general overview of Wikipedia or needed something to point to when asked, 'Wikipedia? Isn't that just a bunch of lies?' then the 1-hour screencast titled 'Why Wiki?' is for you. The online video is my perspective on the pros and cons of Wikipedia and how it stacks up to traditional publication formats."
The iPod's 5th anniversary. This one should perhaps be filed under "SlashWAYback." buddhaunderthetree writes, "Five years ago today Slashdot was introduced to the iPod and the reviews were mixed to say the least. CmdrTaco set the tone when he opined, 'No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.' Many of the 1044 comments that followed weren't much more enthusiastic. If anyone had dared to predict that in 5 years the iPod would have 70% of the mp3 player market, they would have been derided as an Apple zombie. Here's the original thread: Apple Introduces iPod."
Should be Here
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slashdot has slashdotted itself.
Can anyone get to that link?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If some of the zealots/fanbois/doomsdayists/next-big-thingers would go back and read those comments. Then think about how melodramatic, self-righteous, and - most importantly - certain so many of the posters were, and how wrong and silly they look now.
/. works... ...but odds are against it.
Then (and this is the hard part), they should THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND before they proclaim how their pet tech will take over the world, their hated enemy will crash and burn, everyone will be dead in ten years, etc.
Seriously.
Compare that discussion with pretty much any discussion these days on this site that runs more than 50 or so comments. Reads pretty much the same, doesn't it? Now, I suppose it's possible that this time, we're all much smarter, and our opinions really do dictate the way the world outside
(Never mind me, I'm old, I'm drinking, and I've been building blades via a RIB interface through an RDP connection all day)
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Many of the 1044 comments that followed weren't much more enthusiastic.
/. search is useless), and while floating around at 5 I saw 15 posts and most were actually positive about it. Sure there were plenty that dissed it, but the mods sure seemed to think it was a decent device that day. Unless you somehow imagine the Apple fanbois outnumbered the Apple-haters that day. Doubtful 5 years ago. Perhaps certain segments of the Slashdot community wagged their heads but I wouldn't say they were representative of the whole.
I just browsed through that original article (link was busted, had to google it since
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
The fact that AllofMP3 is so wildly popular with the masses (heck, even my father and mother use it) should be a clear indication to artists and, god forbid, the music industry that DRM free, affordable, portable music is what people want... and they will pay for it, even if they are offered it for free via P2P.
I stopped downloading music via P2P when I found AllofMP3, and I now pay for it happily. Save me the bullshit about it still being "theft" ad nasuem. The fact is, I am willing to pay for music at a reasonable price in a format I want. I am not willing to pay for music any other way. As such, if I am not able to pay for my music in the format I want, I won't buy it. There is absolutely NO loss of sale either way. I won't buy it if I can't get it the way I want it, period. End of story. This is not a negotiable point. The sooner the RIAA and the rest of the music industry gets this through their heads, the sooner they'll be raking in cash again as people flock to "legitimate" quality online music distribution.
Actually the IBM trial (not likely to be needed) has been put back so Novell can go first. When Novell started it was a slander of title case. Between Novell's counterclaims and SCO dragging Suse into it, the Novell case will decide who actually owns any copyrights that may actually exist. We also have the fact that Novell told SCO to drop their case against IBM, as the asset purchase agreement says they are entitled to do. The other thing is that Novell may get a freeze on all of the money that SCO has, immediately bankrupting SCO. So, a judgement in the Novell case is likely to moot most of the SCO v. IBM case.
Bottom line: SCO v. IBM will never get to trial. My guess is that the bankruptcy trustee will give IBM and Novell everything they ask for. SCO is SO dead.
Shortly after I Visa shut off service for Allofmp3.com I discovered you can still pay with Visa it is just a pain. You buy an XROST Prepaid iCard with your Visa and apply the card to your account. It isn't too bad. This is more of a barrier to new users who are just curious. Existing users who love the service can just put in a $50 payment every few months.
While Mencken's quote "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public" is probably more true today than ever, your examples leave a little bit to be desired. NVidia, while their refusal to GPL their Linux drivers is annoying, is most certainly a leader in 3D graphics technology. AMD is also most certainly a leader in CPU design, as their CPUs have been outperforming Intel's for some time now until the recent release of the Core 2 series. As for the iPod, it definitely has its faults, but it gave people what they wanted: a music player that worked the way they expected it to. Not many others have managed to please so many people with their user interfaces on portable units.
I have read this opinion many times on Slashdot. But it is dead wrong. The word 'Pirate' has been associated with illicit copying for over four hundred years.
Here are some examples, via the Oxford English Dictionary:
"Banish these Word-pirates (you sacred mistresses of learning) into the gulfe of Barbarisme."
Thomas Dekker, The Wonderfull yeare, 1603.
"The public curiosity was imperfectly satisfied by a pirated copy of the booksellers of Dublin."
Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life and Writings, 1790.
"Some dishonest Booksellers, called Land-Pirats, who make it their practise to steal Impressions of other mens Copies."
J. Hancock, Brooks' String of Pearls, 1668.
"Its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates."
Daniel Defoe, A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born Englishman, 1703.
"If you publish the latter in a very cheap edition so as to baffle the pirates by a low price{em}you will find that it will do."
Lord Byron, in a letter of 1822.
As the ISP said an effective block of allofmp3 would cost in excess of $15 mio, court actually listed a series of acceptable solutions to the problem.
So Tele2 has now implemented one court suggestion, blocking www.allofmp3.com in DNS. They know, and IFPI knows, that it can easily be bypassed (hosts file, using DNS at another ISP, TOR etc).
The judgement can have implications for all of EU, since the case has been run as en EU law case. So if the ISP loses the appeal, IFPI will use this to go to other countries to have ISPs shut down allofmp3.
The most bad about all this is, that the content of allofmp3.com is not illegal in Russia where it is hosted, so you could say it is censorship.
Penny got her PhD when she was 21, has held a post at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, was offered a MacArthur grant the first year they came out (but turned it down), and is extremely well respected in her field. Virtually all of the top mathematicians in the U.S. know her or know her work in the field of partial differential equations. She's quite brilliant. Withdrawing a paper is no big deal.
A lttle more on AllofMP3.
A court in Kopenhagen (Fogderetten) has now delivered its verdict (Oktober 25 2006) between IFPI and the Danish ISP Tele2, where IFPI wanted to force Tele2 to block AllofMP3.
This court verdict (21 pages PDF in Danish) is quite suprising, not that it forces Tele2 to block access to Allofmp3.com, but rather how the verdict does it. Among other things the court says (transladed to english below):
The court finds .... that also the temporary fixation of the work in the form of electronic impulses, that goes on in the routers while transmitting the data packets over the internet, is covered by the 2 in copyright law.
This means that the court ruling finds that Tele2 are unlawfully making copies while routing their customers communication. So they are not directly forced to block information from Allofmp3.com, they are found to be making "pirate copies" when doing their job of directing communication on the internet, that is what a router does, and internet cannot function without it. This basicly means that this court has forbidden the internet in denmark, since an ISP can be held responsible for its customers communication. This goes also for modern mobile communication too, since a mobile phone also can be used to unlawfully communicate otherwise allredy published and not stamped with secrecy information. It is a lot like if the old telephone company had been held responsible for what its customers said on the phone. Tele2 has appealed this ruling.