Heck, vote pretty much anyone who isn't a democrat or a republican. And remember that a smaller government can also be a good thing, because there's less for big companies to bribe, and less corruption in general.
You're missing the biggest government intervention in the economy of all: the entire idea of corporations as people. Personally, I'm in favour of intervention in the specific cases of antitrust, minimum wage, and economic disaster relief. And copyright and patents, as they were originally concieved of.
And they've shifted into a higher gear since Judge Jackson's ruling too. Its like they're determined to either cement their empire or set things up so that America's IT industry completely collapses if they get shut down. Of course, we know that's not going to happen, but they can still do lots of damage...
Ok, I agree, but WTF does this have to do with the article? The download costs much more than just buying the CD, both in terms of time and money. There are already mechanisms getting set up for paying artists directly, through things like Micropayments and the Street Performer's Protcol.
What would be really cool would be if a bunch of Slashdot users helped them with this. After all, they are being much more polite than just filing a lawsuit, and more effective, too. What would be really cool would be if they had a quarter of the song, or something, then it cut off and was replaced with the band telling the listener to go buy the CD.
Could this be why Free Software is so much better than proprietary stuff? More experienced programmers are running around loose and the ones with only a degree (pretty much) wind up writing the proprietary code?
Seriously, why don't some programmers who managed to save a good chunk of cash while they were working get together and set up a company that makes a policy of hiring more experienced programmers?
Well, yes, but it still produced a lot of development and interesting ideas in mathematics. It isn't as useful as it could've been, but as Fermat said, the margin wasn't big enough. One of the first uses of time travel (I'd hope) would be getting him to tell us WTF he was talking about. ^_^
Comments in the sides of textbooks can also prove to be very informative. A well-known example is Fermat's Last Theorem, which was written in the margin of his copy of a mathematics text on the pythagorean theorem. Who knows what could come of a more widely accessable version of this?
Given Slashdot's history, probably posts about Natalie Portman and hot grits, but we can hope...
Judging by the number of politicians selling out, I'd say its fairly low. High supply, comparatively low demand, all that economics stuff. But they are in positions of power, and they do have to get re-elected, so that must raise it some... I'd say that stock options would do just fine. ^_^
I think that what Apple's done with OSX is really cool. However, I wouldn't consider using it in a million years. I am unfortunately a member of the small percentage of the population that cannot look at Aqua without feeling like taking a bite out of my computer screen (it looks SO much like candy).;-)
Seriously, I think it is going to wind up being a good thing. At the very least it will help dispell the myth that Unix systems aren't usable as desktop machines. Now, if Jobs will only allow skinning... (Last I'd heard, he wouldn't even consider it)
Slashdot, of course. Everyone knows that they're at the center of all these conspiracies (being owned by evil corporate VA and all). Taco is corrupting us by posting bad stories, and all these YRO stories are just a smokescreen...
Wait a minute... How do I know you aren't asking this to draw us out into the open?
Hold on... I hear someone knocking at my door...
(The author is not responsible for any adverse effects or trolls caused by the low level of seriousness in this post)
Ummm... IIRC, Sun's been behaving badly ever since they released Java and started setting up the licenses to try and discourage people from writing their own compilers/interpreters. Their president or CEO, don't remember which, has made a number of anti-privacy statements. I fail to see why people consider Sun to be a friendly company. I've heard few good things about them.
Well, yeah. Do you have any idea how much censorware blocks Peacefire.org and eff.org? Most claim that both sites contain every variety of bad material, from graphic violence to graphic sex. And are used for demonic rituals besides.
Although, for some wierd reason, when the local high school (I'm in Canada) half-heartedly implimented filtering software to make a particularly irritating admin shut up, it blocked eff.org but not Peacefire. Go figure.
I must say that this works quite well, having been given this duty for a year during high school. Especially if the penalty for misuse was a permanent ban from the library computer system and a call to their parents. Although the parents supporting this system would probably sue the library for not stopping their children before it happened.
And the final problem with this. You cannot update the fsck-ing hard disk. If you do, since most of the major OEMs are now not permitted to actually give you a Windows install disk, you have to go buy another operating system (or download one). The other option would be buying another disk from the OEM, and we can all predict how quickly the prices on those will rise, can't we? Locked-in demand, only one source of supply... Either Microsoft gets more money or the OEM does. Either way, you have to pay at least twice for something you should already own.
Yes, but it also adds up to less control. Remember that seems to be all that the RIAA and the MPAA are interested in these days. Remember also how badly they treat artists. IMHO, the best possible resolution of this entire affair would be the major record labels dying out. Possible, too. Remember that, as a result of the trial publicity, people are starting to get interested in online music...
The DMCA is not about copy protection; it is about controlling what YOU can do with digital technology.
And this is why Judge Kaplan should have repealed its as unconstitutional. Hopefully, one of the appeals courts will recognize the gigantic conflict of interest and declare the DMCA unconstitutional.
But RAMBUS wasn't granted a reasonable and valid patent. The things they'd patented had been used in SDRAM far before they filed their patent application. There's mounds of prior art, and these companies are folding because they see no advantage to fighting a legal battle.
-RickHunter
Re:Given how cheap DVD drives are, does this matte
on
Copying A DVD To A CD?
·
· Score: 1
I'm afraid I don't know where to find the treaty texts, but OpenLaw DVD/DeCSS Forum FAQ list has more info. according to this, its uncertant whether or not the various international treaties that prevent regional divisions and so on apply to a technological measure like region coding. However, I can't see why it wouldn't, as technological measures are even harder to bypass...
Of course, many countries have shown a willingness to violate treaties when it benefits them. (The USA's recent anti-missile work is a prime example) But in this case, New Zealand has already outlawed region coding, and players that don't support it are (IIRC) the most popular.
Some of the info on this page seems somewhat out of date or contradicted by slightly more recent sources, but its generally pretty good. The only thing I caught that they ignore is that DeCSS was original written for Windows because Linux and FreeBSD did not yet support the filesystems used on DVDs.
-RickHunter
Re:Given how cheap DVD drives are, does this matte
on
Copying A DVD To A CD?
·
· Score: 1
Just off the top of my head, a short list:
Someone who, for some odd reason, wants to make a backup copy and can't afford a DVD-writer and blank DVDs. Or the gear to make a bit-for-bit copy.
Someone who wants to watch a legally purchased DVD on a machine that doesn't have a DVD drive. (Old laptop on an airplane, possibly?)
Someone who wants something only available on DVD, but doesn't have a DVD drive of their own. So they get a friend to copy it onto CD, and get ALL copies back from that friend.
Someone who wants to get around illegal region locking schemes or other assorted annoyances that are built into "licensed" DVD players? (Again, possibly getting a friend to make the copy)
Yes, and as far as I know, you can still copy something you've bought onto another media for your own personal use. Despite what the MPAA wants you to think, (as far ask I know, unless someone can provide links otherwise) currently when you pay money for a DVD, you've bought a copy of the movie on that DVD. Its yours. You can do what you like with it (as bounded by copyright law and now the POS known as the DMCA). To try and claim anything else, unless it was clearly printed on the outside of the case along with all the terms that would be applied, is something known as post-sale disclosure. Which is (still, AFAIK) illegal.
So using this program to copy your copy of that movie from a DVD to a CD so you can watch it in a machine without a DVD drive is fine.
Actually, you DO own the copy of the movie you've purchased. There are numerous legal precidents supporting this, and I don't think that even the DMCA has directly changed that. If the MPAA claims otherwise, its something called "post-sale disclosure" and is also illegal. Read The Software Conspiracy for more details.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm... Lets see... Wasn't GCC and its libraries built from the ground up in the way you describe? And the related assembler and loader....
-RickHunter
Heck, vote pretty much anyone who isn't a democrat or a republican. And remember that a smaller government can also be a good thing, because there's less for big companies to bribe, and less corruption in general.
-RickHunter
You're missing the biggest government intervention in the economy of all: the entire idea of corporations as people. Personally, I'm in favour of intervention in the specific cases of antitrust, minimum wage, and economic disaster relief. And copyright and patents, as they were originally concieved of.
-RickHunter
And they've shifted into a higher gear since Judge Jackson's ruling too. Its like they're determined to either cement their empire or set things up so that America's IT industry completely collapses if they get shut down. Of course, we know that's not going to happen, but they can still do lots of damage...
-RickHunter
Ok, I agree, but WTF does this have to do with the article? The download costs much more than just buying the CD, both in terms of time and money. There are already mechanisms getting set up for paying artists directly, through things like Micropayments and the Street Performer's Protcol.
-RickHunter
What would be really cool would be if a bunch of Slashdot users helped them with this. After all, they are being much more polite than just filing a lawsuit, and more effective, too. What would be really cool would be if they had a quarter of the song, or something, then it cut off and was replaced with the band telling the listener to go buy the CD.
-RickHunter
Could this be why Free Software is so much better than proprietary stuff? More experienced programmers are running around loose and the ones with only a degree (pretty much) wind up writing the proprietary code?
Seriously, why don't some programmers who managed to save a good chunk of cash while they were working get together and set up a company that makes a policy of hiring more experienced programmers?
-RickHunter
Well, yes, but it still produced a lot of development and interesting ideas in mathematics. It isn't as useful as it could've been, but as Fermat said, the margin wasn't big enough. One of the first uses of time travel (I'd hope) would be getting him to tell us WTF he was talking about. ^_^
-RickHunter
Comments in the sides of textbooks can also prove to be very informative. A well-known example is Fermat's Last Theorem, which was written in the margin of his copy of a mathematics text on the pythagorean theorem. Who knows what could come of a more widely accessable version of this?
Given Slashdot's history, probably posts about Natalie Portman and hot grits, but we can hope...
-RickHunter
Judging by the number of politicians selling out, I'd say its fairly low. High supply, comparatively low demand, all that economics stuff. But they are in positions of power, and they do have to get re-elected, so that must raise it some... I'd say that stock options would do just fine. ^_^
-RickHunter
No, it was business that paid Al Gore to do the above. ;-)
-RickHunter
I think that what Apple's done with OSX is really cool. However, I wouldn't consider using it in a million years. I am unfortunately a member of the small percentage of the population that cannot look at Aqua without feeling like taking a bite out of my computer screen (it looks SO much like candy). ;-)
Seriously, I think it is going to wind up being a good thing. At the very least it will help dispell the myth that Unix systems aren't usable as desktop machines. Now, if Jobs will only allow skinning... (Last I'd heard, he wouldn't even consider it)
-RickHunter
Slashdot, of course. Everyone knows that they're at the center of all these conspiracies (being owned by evil corporate VA and all). Taco is corrupting us by posting bad stories, and all these YRO stories are just a smokescreen...
Wait a minute... How do I know you aren't asking this to draw us out into the open?
Hold on... I hear someone knocking at my door...
(The author is not responsible for any adverse effects or trolls caused by the low level of seriousness in this post)
-RickHunter
Ummm... IIRC, Sun's been behaving badly ever since they released Java and started setting up the licenses to try and discourage people from writing their own compilers/interpreters. Their president or CEO, don't remember which, has made a number of anti-privacy statements. I fail to see why people consider Sun to be a friendly company. I've heard few good things about them.
-RickHunter
Well, yeah. Do you have any idea how much censorware blocks Peacefire.org and eff.org? Most claim that both sites contain every variety of bad material, from graphic violence to graphic sex. And are used for demonic rituals besides.
Although, for some wierd reason, when the local high school (I'm in Canada) half-heartedly implimented filtering software to make a particularly irritating admin shut up, it blocked eff.org but not Peacefire. Go figure.
-RickHunter
I must say that this works quite well, having been given this duty for a year during high school. Especially if the penalty for misuse was a permanent ban from the library computer system and a call to their parents. Although the parents supporting this system would probably sue the library for not stopping their children before it happened.
-RickHunter
And the final problem with this. You cannot update the fsck-ing hard disk. If you do, since most of the major OEMs are now not permitted to actually give you a Windows install disk, you have to go buy another operating system (or download one). The other option would be buying another disk from the OEM, and we can all predict how quickly the prices on those will rise, can't we? Locked-in demand, only one source of supply... Either Microsoft gets more money or the OEM does. Either way, you have to pay at least twice for something you should already own.
-RickHunter
...Despite the fact that a good number of the companies pushing for this probably have American branches and/or parent companies...
-RickHunter
Yes, but it also adds up to less control. Remember that seems to be all that the RIAA and the MPAA are interested in these days. Remember also how badly they treat artists. IMHO, the best possible resolution of this entire affair would be the major record labels dying out. Possible, too. Remember that, as a result of the trial publicity, people are starting to get interested in online music...
-RickHunter
The DMCA is not about copy protection; it is about controlling what YOU can do with digital technology.
And this is why Judge Kaplan should have repealed its as unconstitutional. Hopefully, one of the appeals courts will recognize the gigantic conflict of interest and declare the DMCA unconstitutional.
-RickHunter
But RAMBUS wasn't granted a reasonable and valid patent. The things they'd patented had been used in SDRAM far before they filed their patent application. There's mounds of prior art, and these companies are folding because they see no advantage to fighting a legal battle.
-RickHunter
I'm afraid I don't know where to find the treaty texts, but OpenLaw DVD/DeCSS Forum FAQ list has more info. according to this, its uncertant whether or not the various international treaties that prevent regional divisions and so on apply to a technological measure like region coding. However, I can't see why it wouldn't, as technological measures are even harder to bypass...
Of course, many countries have shown a willingness to violate treaties when it benefits them. (The USA's recent anti-missile work is a prime example) But in this case, New Zealand has already outlawed region coding, and players that don't support it are (IIRC) the most popular.
Some of the info on this page seems somewhat out of date or contradicted by slightly more recent sources, but its generally pretty good. The only thing I caught that they ignore is that DeCSS was original written for Windows because Linux and FreeBSD did not yet support the filesystems used on DVDs.
-RickHunter
Just off the top of my head, a short list:
-RickHunter
Yes, and as far as I know, you can still copy something you've bought onto another media for your own personal use. Despite what the MPAA wants you to think, (as far ask I know, unless someone can provide links otherwise) currently when you pay money for a DVD, you've bought a copy of the movie on that DVD. Its yours. You can do what you like with it (as bounded by copyright law and now the POS known as the DMCA). To try and claim anything else, unless it was clearly printed on the outside of the case along with all the terms that would be applied, is something known as post-sale disclosure. Which is (still, AFAIK) illegal.
So using this program to copy your copy of that movie from a DVD to a CD so you can watch it in a machine without a DVD drive is fine.
-RickHunter
Actually, you DO own the copy of the movie you've purchased. There are numerous legal precidents supporting this, and I don't think that even the DMCA has directly changed that. If the MPAA claims otherwise, its something called "post-sale disclosure" and is also illegal. Read The Software Conspiracy for more details.
-RickHunter