I'm don't understand how you turned 1124 registered voters into 1124 registered employees of MSFT but I do understand that such senseless zealotry is probably not healthy. If I ever started hallucinating and seeing the word Microsoft in every pro-MSFT article I read I'd go see a doctor before the talking penguins come and get me.
That said why is anybody on slashdot surprised? American voters are the same people who voted in a suspected criminal (whitewater) , known philanderer and liar into a second term of presidency. American voters gave Clinton the highest approval rating in 6 years when it turned out he had been lying about a sexual indiscretion as well as obstructing justice to prevent the disclosure of said indiscretion. This is the same group of people that surveys have shown [a significant portion i.e. over 25%] have difficulty understanding the entire contents of the average newspaper (even though newspapers are written at a 6th grade level) and cannot properly fill out a job application due to lack of understanding. This group of people are the ones who have come to take it for granted that computers crash, consider linux users as geeks and freaks with a major case of sour grapes and believe BillG is the reason they are on the Internet (after all without MSFT there would be no Windows(tm) or Internet Explorer(tm) and everyone one knows you need them to get on the web).
My suggestion to slashdot readers is to calm down and realize that the average citizen actually believes ads, marketing and spin thus just because you are informed or intelligent enough to seperate the fact from the BS does not mean everyone else can or does.
3. I am going to become your only Internet connection and if you click no, your system will be screwed because our programmers were not prepared for this eventuality and assumed you'd say yes.
I had to reinstall windows on a friend's computer because for some strange reason (at least on the machine I tried to install AOL 5.0 on for a friend) AOL 5.0 corrupts the msmouse.vxd file. You can test this easily by trying to install AOL 5.0 on a Windows machine and after it crashes have the machine boot at prompt you before performing each task on bootup.
After this occured the machine would always freeze upon booting unless booted in safe mode. Since I had no idea how to edit the msmouse.vxd file or even how to tell what was wrong (plus my friend was getting hysterical) I reinstalled Windows.
PS: In my opinion AOL deserves this lawsuit. Such an intrusive feature was bound to affect so many interactions and cause so many different problems that it was impossible for there not to be some problems. That said their QEs and QAs could have done a more thorough job of testing the software before releasing it.
Hi Signal, I submitted the story and I disagree with your post. Yours is a case of ignoring the message because you do not like the messenger. The primary reason you give for disliking ZDNet seems to be Jesse Berst who isn't even a reporter but an opinion columnist this is similar to disregarding news from CNN (which is the premier news service in the world and watched in over 100 countries) because they have a show with Johnny Cochran as a host. I primarily read ZDNet because they report more Windows bugs and security leaks faster than any other mainstream Tech news provider (not before Bugtraq but they aren't mainstream), they are good at reporting industry trends and Dvorak's opinions are interesting. Up until i started reading Slashdot I had never heard of Jesse Berst and after I read one of his articles I realized he didn't know his head from a hole in the ground and stopped reading his opinion pieces (Linus as hardware man of the year?!?). So dismissing ZDNet because of Jesse Berst is not only an illogical decision but also robs you of hearing different views on the technology industry beside linux r00lz, MSFT sUx that fills the threads on Slashdot. The main reason I submitted the story was because I though it was neat that Playstation 2 would run linux as well as web appliances from Intel and National Semiconductor. On slashdot I've read discussions on Lineo and Transmeta several times but didn't know about Sony, Intel or National Semiconductor and their work on using embedded linux. Therefore I thought it would be nice to hear the views of informed hardware people on these developments. Thanks for your time:)
i can't understand why the DOJ needs to take action? This smacks of a double standard to me by slashdot readers (similar to the how slashdotters agree with the sale of the linux.net sale but railed against the seriousdomains.com auction) For a a forum that is constantly complaining about government intrusion into our lives, slashdotters seem to see nothing wrong with using the government as a personal attack dog when the mood suits them.,br>I am against involving the DOJ in this for several reasons.
The reason the DOJ got involved in the browser wars is because MSFT used their position as the maker of Windows(tm) to force OEMs to preload Internet Explorer and charged higher licensing fees to those that disagreed until they toed the line. I have not seen or heard of any OEM being forced not to preload Real Player by MSFT and thus I cannot see how the browser wars are a good precedent for involving the DOJ. The giving away of IE is also different from the distribution of Windows(tm) Media player for free because besides the fact that they gave away IE to undercut Netscape, it can be argued rightly that in the industry today it is regular practice to give away content viewers to gather eyeballs so as to charge an arm and a leg for content creators/server software. This seems to be the business model of Real and Apple...should we launch a class action lawsuit against them for giving away software and thus stopping me from charging for my Carnage Player, I hope the answer is no.
Secondly involving the government in every little tiff in the software industry can only be a bad thing. The animosity of Sun reached distasteful levels during the MS-DOJ case and several statements made by Scott McNealy during the case are clearly products of envy. It would be sad indeed if the software industry is reduced to calling on the government for help every time a market leader emerges like angry school children paying the school bully to beat up the smartest kids in class.
I also dislike the premptive strike nature of the above post as displayed by this line.. With the recent explosion of broadband access, streaming media is going to become increasingly pervasive. Allowing any one company to dominate the field would be a disaster. This seems to indicate that it is OK for the DOJ to punish MSFT for having better technology technology than the rest of the current industry. Streaming media support is NOT an issue to anyone I have ever spoken to about a computer purchase and I am very sure that the current industry landscape will change before it ever does. Asking for an attack on MSFT now by the DOJ is premature and is only justifiable by twisted anti-MSFt logic. Why not ask the DOJ to sue Winamp or ICQ (wow just realized AOL owns both of them) since once computers become cheap enough and high bandwith is ubiquitous they are set to dominate their fields also?
Finally the entire above post smacks of an intense feeling of sour grapes and misconceptions. It seems that the poster is implying that Windows Media is so good that MSFT should be forced to share... (I'd rather they shared IE first, because I'm tired of Netscape's bugginess) but does not realize this has never been a reason for the DOJ to get involved in an issue. MSFT is allowed to develop cool software for Windows after all Windows is their principal product and they should make it as attractive as possible by writing cool apps for it. What is illegal is forcing people to use their product or else. Instead of bitching to the DOJ about issues that do not concern them maybe the richer Linux community (VA, Andover, Redhat) can fund research into open codecs or work on free (as in beer and speech) media players, servers and file formats. Instead of bitching to the government maybe the answer lies within us as a community.
I would nominate konstant. His posts are always insightful and sometimes funny as well. What is especially interesting is that he is in a unique position of being a MSFT employee who has triple digit karma on slashdot.
I don't know where you're from but in the U.S. free speech isn't all or nothing. There are areas not protected by free speech laws e.g. obscenity (which is relative and thus difficult to define), libel, slander and provocative speech. Let's also not forget the infamous shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
In life nothing is black and white unless it's a cartoon in a newspaper. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by an "ethical squatter" but I can comment on the linux.com sale. Linus owns the trademark, he can permit it be used as he sees fit as long as he indicates it is occuring with his permission. He risks losing it if he let's it used without taking any action (like Xerox and Frisbee) but as long as he acknowledges that it has occured all is well.
The judge added that if Mitnick would "tell the government how to read" the files, then the government would turn over the files in decrypted form.
Mitnick's lawyers immediately objected to this condition on the grounds that it would force him to waive his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to obtain evidence he needed and that he had a legal right to see. The judge rejected this point and repeated her ruling.
It seems that the right not to incriminate yourself is solely testimony based from what I have read. So your writings can be used to incriminate you in a court of law...even if they are private (i.e. a journal). It seems the government is treating the files like property (i.e. it can be searched/seized) instead of testiomony.
Maaan I read slashdot way too much. Here goes this has already been talked about in previous LinuxOne stories. The website that claims to have bought $500,000 of software looks like a gaudy high school kid's site and is run by a webmaster with a hotmail account. A slashdot reader has called the number on the website before and woken the website's owner out of bed (it's his home #). That doesn't sound like someone who has $500,000 to pay for software, now does it?
Motley Fool ran a story debunking them a while ago that was posted on slashdot...the references to waking up the owner of the powersource site appeared in a slashdot post before they appeared on motley fool.
I'm sorry but I don't agree with you. This is a post from craig on this thread about the Q spammer. I like your bit of deductive reasoning though: Even though several thousand people read slashdot if 1 person admits to posting a disruptive post he must be guilty of all of them. That's a pretty big assumption. PS: Try reading Trolltalk sometime and then you'll realize how large a troll community slashdot has.
It doesn't matter what you feel or perceive but what lawyers can make a judge feel or perceive. And i'm sorry to tell you this but a lay judge will accept that the MPAA has been substantially exposed to piracy by DeCSS (which will impact revenues in millions of $$$... similar to the claims agains kevin mitnick or the melissa virus writer) while it be difficult to convince the judge that it costs anything to edit the HTML and delete an a href tag. if you can't see this then you are as short-sighted as the rest of slashdot and the lawyers who made such ill-advised arguments in a court of law.
At this point in the proceeding, the harm to the Defendants is truly minimal. They will simply have to remove the trade secret information from their websites... On the other hand, the current and prospective harm to the Plaintiff... will be irreperable
This is the part that really, really annoys me. What this says is that DVD CCA's right to have their ass covered by the law when they made a booboo and picked a weak encryption scheme, and god forbid it lets make fair use of a recording medium we purchases, is more imporant than our (I am a defendant) right to disseminate information freely.
Okay here goes....I really can't stand reading slashdot whenever the discussion is about a legal argument because the posts that rave and rant about what geeks think is legal or right get moderated up while constructive argument about our legal position is not. Take the above post for instance...this is a 4 insightful??? First of all the purpose of an injunction is to prevent harm to a party in a legal dispute by the actions of the other party. This is a similar concept to bail...(i.e. a suspect in a child slaying less likely to get bail than a suspected burglar)... That said there was only one way this injunction could go. All the raving, ranting and spewing of rhetoric in the world cannot change the fact that it costs nothing to link/unlink to DeCSS but the potentially costs MPAA a considerable amount in piracy costs. Before anyone gets their 1st Ammendment flamethrowers out try this analogy on for size
...Imagine a situation where a guy just breaks up with his girlfriend and decides to put her phone # on a webpage with descriptions of a sexual nature of the things that they did. She has a right to sue and seek an injunction on him to remove to offending webpage while the case is yet to be tried. Following the arguments of most slashdotters with regards to the injunction (including the above post), the ex-boyfriend's freedom of speech overruns her right to privacy (after all the stories posted on the site are true and the girlfriend's phone number is freely available from the phone book). Thankfully most judges are not the typical slashdot reader and will move to protect a victim of harm until the case is tried.
Now on to my main gripe about the way this case is being handled by the Defendant's lawyers and also the mindset of slashdot readers saying that the encryption was weak is not an argument that will hold up in any court of law. The judge rightfully pointed that any safeguards can be broken by a clever enough theif. Saying that the encryption should have been stronger sounds too much like a burglar saying it was Ok to break in because there was no steel door protecting the house. The argument should have been and should be focused on what exactly is fair use with regards to DVDs and the nature of the licence. Are they selling permission to watch the DVD and if so does this mean if it get's scratched all we need is a proof of purchase to get another one or are they selling the entire contents of the DVD? Either way this case will not stop the proliferation of DeCSS code on the web and the MPAA is fighting a losing battle.
I expected this would happen but in the scheme of things it is trivial. An injunction occurs when there is a great disparity in the cost to one party than the other. The cost of removing a link from a website to a website operator is $0. The cost to the DVD industry each day software to defeat their encryption is freely available on the Internet is considerable. Even the most tech-savvy judge would have had to grant an injunction to the MPAA. On the other hand the judge said it's Ok to link to sites that link to the DeCSS so just all we have to do is point at sites outside the courts jurisdiction that link to DeCSS.
I'm pretty dissappointed that from the look's of the judge's opinion the main case of the Defendants was that 40-bit encryption is weak. Who's dumb idea was that? Arguments like that imply guilt...the same way that saying "They didn't have bars on their windows" is not a good argument for any case that involves breaking and entering even if you are in the right. I hope this just means that this was what primarily caught the judge's eye instead of being a principal point in the Defendant's defence because if it is we are screwed.
I am interested in the click-through licence issue. Since the licence prohibited reverse engineering, we either have to argue that the laws of Norway supersede the contract or that that the licence clicker was not the reverse engineer. Either way it's going to be fun to see what happens.
PS: I like the judge's ruling that CSS shouldn't lose it's status as a trade secret by being posted on the Internet because this implies that if you can get the secret on the net you're home free... sounds like the "Wet Feet, Dry Feet" Cuban refugee problem all over again if he hadn't said that. That would have been an extremely dangerous precedent to set.
The reason she had to reinstall windows is because for some strange reason (at least on the machine i tried to install AOL 5.0 on for a friend) AOL 5.0 corrupts the msmouse.vxd file. You can test this easily by trying to install AOL 5.0 on a Windows machine and after it crashes have the machine boot at prompt you before performing each task on bootup.
After this occured the machine would always freeze upon booting unless booted in safe mode. Since I had no idea how to edit the msmouse.vxd file or even how to tell what was wrong (plus my friend was getting hysterical) I reinstalled Windows.
Also if you read the December 23rd online issue of the Washington Post where this story first broke you'll notice that the article qoutes several ISP's help desks as being swamped by calls from people who tried to install AOL 5.0. it would be a simple matter for the AP writer to call an ISP and get a story from them. On the other hand journalists famous for creating imaginary victims to humanize a story.
PS: It seems shitty code is contagious (Netscape 4.7...)
I remember reading this in on December 29th in the online issue of the Washington Post . It kind off pissed me off because I had to reinstall Windows on a friend's machine several times because I advised her to upgrade from AOL 3.0 to AOL 5.0, and for some strange reason it corrupted the msmouse.vxd file each time we tried to install it. We had to reinstall Windows and each app one by one before we discovered that AOL 5.0 was the problem. Ironically I discovered the Washington post story that evening while browsing the web. I'm amazed it's taken this long to get posted on Slashdot. Here's the header for the Washington Post story, can't provide a link because it's been archived.
AOL 5.0 UNPLUGS OTHER INTERNET PROVIDERS Article 27 of 510 found ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER Friday, December 24, 1999; Page E01 Section: Fast Forward Word Count: 936 Iris Rache, a 68-year-old real estate agent from the District, may describe herself as a technology neophyte, but until last month she had few problems juggling her three online services--America Online for personal e-mail, RCN Corp.'s Erols as a backup and a residential-property database service for work. But then she upgraded her AOL software to the new 5.0 version.
I don't have to look any further than my suburban white friends who call their girlfriends bitch and ho behind their back in front of others to see the seed of NWA's assault on America. Of course, I also think these kids are kind off stupid for modelling themselves after ghetto youth but that's another discussion. We also have them to thank for starting the revolution that brought the words bitch and ho to TV and radio. That said, I love NWA. Songs like Fuck the Police and Niggaz 4 Life resonate within me and voice feelings that myself and several thousand others feel.
Why do I call myself a n***** U ask me/ Because the police alway s harrass me
As a young, black male who has been handcuffed in the back of a police car for being in lost in a predominantely white southern U.S. county, been tailed on the interstate several times for no reason by police (I had out of state tags but so what?) and have had police officers write me tickets for paperwork violations before scrutinizing my paperwork (and thus having to rip up tickets) the music of NWA speaks to me of my experiences. I don't listen to most of their other songs but I know for a fact that the scenarios depicted in She Swallowed It and Just Don't Bite It are not unusual in several economically-depressed neighborhoods in America. I guess NWA's main fault is exposing America's rotten underbelly that most middle/upper class American's would rather ignore. Of course, introducing little Johnny to profanity is also another nail in their coffin. I remember when NWA first came out they were trying to make a political statement and in several interviews said "All we're doing is describing our environment.", maybe instead of censuring (this is not a typo) them society should have tried to find out why so many of it's members felt so disenfranchised and should have done something about it.
The Win2K box wasn't hacked it went down from the load and Microsoft claimed it was due to electri cal storm interference, then refused to put the machine back up. The Win2K box wasn't hacked because nobody got a chance it was slashdotted.:) PS: They did put it back up again but took it down soon after the machine's guestbook got hacked
It isn't human nature because besides a survival instinct there isn't much that is exclusively human nature. Most of the things we assume are human nature are actually the results of generations of cultural programming and nothing else. Currently American society (the media, high school, teenage culture) is intensely anti-intellectual and acts like female intellectual pursuits do not exist. When females have no prominent geek role models, are actively discouraged from being geeky, and are taught to value looks over brains, it is not a surprise that there are few geek grrls out there. My only gripe is that this should not be blamed on something as nebulous as human nature (which is a lie, travel to other countries and you'll rethink several of the concepts you assumed were human nature as American/western nature) but instead the real culprits, the media and society in general. Blaming human nature keeps us from aknowledging the truth and thus stops us from initiating changes to rectify this imbalance. This will be extremely difficult because it will not only require changes in the current educational system but also changes in the way women are viewed by society in general.
PS: I'm a guy and your post struck me as ignorant and sexist...get a girlfriend or some female friends and gain some perspective. PPS: Read this article on the women gamers site on why techie women think there are less women in technology than males. PPPS: I'm listening to old NWA mp3s and they were the bomb...I'm about to go get two of their CDs from CDNow (still boycotting Amazon and they are $1 cheaper):)
TDK tests have estimated 70 years for their CD-Rs, Pioneer CD-Rs are rated at 100 years, while this independent site states that life expectancies range from 75 - 200 years based on the color of the disk (green (cyanine) disks last up to 75 years, gold (phthalocyanine) last up to 100 years and platinum last up to 200 years).
On pioneer's site they have DVD-R's for sale and describe them as having 100 year life expectancy.
Hey chill out, I remember being online and reading slashdot when passport.com went down (yes I know it was Christmas day), and reading the article and all the threads when Micheal Chaney paid the bill. I remember that his post when he paid had "Merry Christmas, Microsoft" on it. I was actually surprised it took that long for 1 of us to pay it because several people (myself included) went to the NSI payment site to verify if it was down but for hours nobody paid it until Micheal Chaney did. Upon reflection it seems very telling upon the character of slashdot readers (during Christmas) that it took that long for one of us to pay it...(it's not like we suspected MSFT wouldn't reimburse the check). Here's the offending ZDNet and C|Net articles that made everyone start calling him a money hungry opportunist. Quotes... ZDNet : Microsoft said it would refund Chaney the $35, although Chaney hinted his bailout of the world's biggest software company was worth more. "Microsoft is under no legal obligation to repay the $35 to me, and it doesn't really matter to me if they do or not. If they do... I would ask that when they make out a check they consider how much revenue would have otherwise been lost had this been down for another day or two, "
C|Net: As for Microsoft's promised check, Chaney said he plans to frame it. "I'm not going to cash it," he said, "unless it's a huge amount." Pointing out the value of restoring service to millions of Microsoft customers and the preservation of advertising revenues, Chaney suggested that his Christmas charity is arguably worth more than a simple thanks. "In a perfect world, I wish they'd take that into account," he said. "But I'm not relying on it. It's their choice."
What he claimed is that he felt what he did was worth more than a $35 check and a thank you..He pointing out that he saved a multi-billion $ corporation's most popular Internet service (yes, Hotmail provides the most hits to MSN.com via the cute little logout redirection trick) from at least 24 hours of outage maybe more and that is worth more than a thank you and $35. I've seen his web-page he's a regular hack just like me (i'm probably worse off since i'm still in school) and I would have done the same thing, the least they could do was give a little extra (rebate check, free software, extra $$$). If that's greed to you then I say not giving a reward would have been the height of ingratitude and corporate penny pinching from a company who's CEO can afford to burn a million dollars a day from now till he dies and still will die a billionairre.
Damn. I was hoping they'd take a storyline from the animated D&D show from the eighties. I'll see it anyway.
You're kidding right? The D & D cartoon is very, very far away from AD&D my friends and I played and enjoyed. This cartoon is as disconnected from D & D that captured the hearts of geeks everywhere as the goofy looking PG-13 Spawn movie is disconnected from the emmy award winning, R rated Spawn cartoon or comic book. The cartoon sucked and was a poor mirror of the game that kept my friends and I engrossed for hours on end (ThAC0, hit dice, bastard swords...it brings a tear to my eye remembering those times), if the movie is anything like the animated series then it should be avoided like the plague. On the other hand if it is actually a realistic depiction of D & D (e.g. the game Baldur's Gate) then it should become a geek treasure (sorta like the Matrix) watched the evoke memories of simpler times when an 18 on a 20d was all that saved you from a harsh, horrifying end.
Okay is it me or did the slashdot article not tell us who the defendants were? Before we get all knee jerk-y and pissed, how do we know they are not genuine bootleggers being sued and instead of hackers like the DeCSS folk? According to this C|NET article, they were advertising the software on their website as DVD cracking software...This Wired article names sites like krackdown.com and dvd-copy.com which sound like piracy sites to me. It seem they advertised the DeCSS software as DVD copying software. I expect this to be fodder for the DVD-CCA's lawyers next week.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm don't understand how you turned 1124 registered voters into 1124 registered employees of MSFT but I do understand that such senseless zealotry is probably not healthy. If I ever started hallucinating and seeing the word Microsoft in every pro-MSFT article I read I'd go see a doctor before the talking penguins come and get me.
That said why is anybody on slashdot surprised? American voters are the same people who voted in a suspected criminal (whitewater) , known philanderer and liar into a second term of presidency. American voters gave Clinton the highest approval rating in 6 years when it turned out he had been lying about a sexual indiscretion as well as obstructing justice to prevent the disclosure of said indiscretion. This is the same group of people that surveys have shown [a significant portion i.e. over 25%] have difficulty understanding the entire contents of the average newspaper (even though newspapers are written at a 6th grade level) and cannot properly fill out a job application due to lack of understanding. This group of people are the ones who have come to take it for granted that computers crash, consider linux users as geeks and freaks with a major case of sour grapes and believe BillG is the reason they are on the Internet (after all without MSFT there would be no Windows(tm) or Internet Explorer(tm) and everyone one knows you need them to get on the web).
My suggestion to slashdot readers is to calm down and realize that the average citizen actually believes ads, marketing and spin thus just because you are informed or intelligent enough to seperate the fact from the BS does not mean everyone else can or does.
3. I am going to become your only Internet connection and if you click no, your system will be screwed because our programmers were not prepared for this eventuality and assumed you'd say yes.
I had to reinstall windows on a friend's computer because for some strange reason (at least on the machine I tried to install AOL 5.0 on for a friend) AOL 5.0 corrupts the msmouse.vxd file. You can test this easily by trying to install AOL 5.0 on a Windows machine and after it crashes have the machine boot at prompt you before performing each task on bootup.
After this occured the machine would always freeze upon booting unless booted in safe mode. Since I had no idea how to edit the msmouse.vxd file or even how to tell what was wrong (plus my friend was getting hysterical) I reinstalled Windows.
PS: In my opinion AOL deserves this lawsuit. Such an intrusive feature was bound to affect so many interactions and cause so many different problems that it was impossible for there not to be some problems. That said their QEs and QAs could have done a more thorough job of testing the software before releasing it.
Hi Signal, :)
I submitted the story and I disagree with your post. Yours is a case of ignoring the message because you do not like the messenger. The primary reason you give for disliking ZDNet seems to be Jesse Berst who isn't even a reporter but an opinion columnist this is similar to disregarding news from CNN (which is the premier news service in the world and watched in over 100 countries) because they have a show with Johnny Cochran as a host. I primarily read ZDNet because they report more Windows bugs and security leaks faster than any other mainstream Tech news provider (not before Bugtraq but they aren't mainstream), they are good at reporting industry trends and Dvorak's opinions are interesting. Up until i started reading Slashdot I had never heard of Jesse Berst and after I read one of his articles I realized he didn't know his head from a hole in the ground and stopped reading his opinion pieces (Linus as hardware man of the year?!?). So dismissing ZDNet because of Jesse Berst is not only an illogical decision but also robs you of hearing different views on the technology industry beside linux r00lz, MSFT sUx that fills the threads on Slashdot.
The main reason I submitted the story was because I though it was neat that Playstation 2 would run linux as well as web appliances from Intel and National Semiconductor. On slashdot I've read discussions on Lineo and Transmeta several times but didn't know about Sony, Intel or National Semiconductor and their work on using embedded linux. Therefore I thought it would be nice to hear the views of informed hardware people on these developments.
Thanks for your time
This smacks of a double standard to me by slashdot readers (similar to the how slashdotters agree with the sale of the linux.net sale but railed against the seriousdomains.com auction) For a a forum that is constantly complaining about government intrusion into our lives, slashdotters seem to see nothing wrong with using the government as a personal attack dog when the mood suits them.
The reason the DOJ got involved in the browser wars is because MSFT used their position as the maker of Windows(tm) to force OEMs to preload Internet Explorer and charged higher licensing fees to those that disagreed until they toed the line. I have not seen or heard of any OEM being forced not to preload Real Player by MSFT and thus I cannot see how the browser wars are a good precedent for involving the DOJ. The giving away of IE is also different from the distribution of Windows(tm) Media player for free because besides the fact that they gave away IE to undercut Netscape, it can be argued rightly that in the industry today it is regular practice to give away content viewers to gather eyeballs so as to charge an arm and a leg for content creators/server software. This seems to be the business model of Real and Apple...should we launch a class action lawsuit against them for giving away software and thus stopping me from charging for my Carnage Player, I hope the answer is no.
Secondly involving the government in every little tiff in the software industry can only be a bad thing. The animosity of Sun reached distasteful levels during the MS-DOJ case and several statements made by Scott McNealy during the case are clearly products of envy. It would be sad indeed if the software industry is reduced to calling on the government for help every time a market leader emerges like angry school children paying the school bully to beat up the smartest kids in class.
I also dislike the premptive strike nature of the above post as displayed by this line.. With the recent explosion of broadband access, streaming media is going to become increasingly pervasive. Allowing any one company to dominate the field would be a disaster. This seems to indicate that it is OK for the DOJ to punish MSFT for having better technology technology than the rest of the current industry. Streaming media support is NOT an issue to anyone I have ever spoken to about a computer purchase and I am very sure that the current industry landscape will change before it ever does. Asking for an attack on MSFT now by the DOJ is premature and is only justifiable by twisted anti-MSFt logic. Why not ask the DOJ to sue Winamp or ICQ (wow just realized AOL owns both of them) since once computers become cheap enough and high bandwith is ubiquitous they are set to dominate their fields also?
Finally the entire above post smacks of an intense feeling of sour grapes and misconceptions. It seems that the poster is implying that Windows Media is so good that MSFT should be forced to share... (I'd rather they shared IE first, because I'm tired of Netscape's bugginess) but does not realize this has never been a reason for the DOJ to get involved in an issue. MSFT is allowed to develop cool software for Windows after all Windows is their principal product and they should make it as attractive as possible by writing cool apps for it. What is illegal is forcing people to use their product or else. Instead of bitching to the DOJ about issues that do not concern them maybe the richer Linux community (VA, Andover, Redhat) can fund research into open codecs or work on free (as in beer and speech) media players, servers and file formats. Instead of bitching to the government maybe the answer lies within us as a community.
I would nominate konstant.
His posts are always insightful and sometimes funny as well. What is especially interesting is that he is in a unique position of being a MSFT employee who has triple digit karma on slashdot.
I don't know where you're from but in the U.S. free speech isn't all or nothing. There are areas not protected by free speech laws e.g. obscenity (which is relative and thus difficult to define), libel, slander and provocative speech. Let's also not forget the infamous shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
In life nothing is black and white unless it's a cartoon in a newspaper. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by an "ethical squatter" but I can comment on the linux.com sale. Linus owns the trademark, he can permit it be used as he sees fit as long as he indicates it is occuring with his permission. He risks losing it if he let's it used without taking any action (like Xerox and Frisbee) but as long as he acknowledges that it has occured all is well.
The judge added that if Mitnick would "tell the government how to read" the files, then the government would turn over the files in decrypted form.
Mitnick's lawyers immediately objected to this condition on the grounds that it would force him to waive his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to obtain evidence he needed and that he had a legal right to see. The judge rejected this point and repeated her ruling.
It seems that the right not to incriminate yourself is solely testimony based from what I have read. So your writings can be used to incriminate you in a court of law...even if they are private (i.e. a journal). It seems the government is treating the files like property (i.e. it can be searched/seized) instead of testiomony.
IBM seems to be set to render Sun irrelevant to the future of Java...They are making the right Linux moves as well as good moves in the Java & XML front. I can't wait to get a IBM's JDK on my linux box. :)
Oh happy day...
Maaan I read slashdot way too much.
Here goes this has already been talked about in previous LinuxOne stories. The website that claims to have bought $500,000 of software looks like a gaudy high school kid's site and is run by a webmaster with a hotmail account. A slashdot reader has called the number on the website before and woken the website's owner out of bed (it's his home #).
That doesn't sound like someone who has $500,000 to pay for software, now does it?
Motley Fool ran a story debunking them a while ago that was posted on slashdot...the references to waking up the owner of the powersource site appeared in a slashdot post before they appeared on motley fool.
Sorry bad link, this is Trolltalk.
I'm sorry but I don't agree with you. This is a post from craig on this thread about the Q spammer.
I like your bit of deductive reasoning though: Even though several thousand people read slashdot if 1 person admits to posting a disruptive post he must be guilty of all of them. That's a pretty big assumption.
PS: Try reading Trolltalk sometime and then you'll realize how large a troll community slashdot has.
It doesn't matter what you feel or perceive but what lawyers can make a judge feel or perceive. And i'm sorry to tell you this but a lay judge will accept that the MPAA has been substantially exposed to piracy by DeCSS (which will impact revenues in millions of $$$... similar to the claims agains kevin mitnick or the melissa virus writer) while it be difficult to convince the judge that it costs anything to edit the HTML and delete an a href tag. if you can't see this then you are as short-sighted as the rest of slashdot and the lawyers who made such ill-advised arguments in a court of law.
- At this point in the proceeding, the harm to the Defendants is truly minimal. They will simply have to remove the trade secret information from their websites... On the other hand, the current and prospective harm to the Plaintiff... will be irreperable
This is the part that really, really annoys me. What this says is that DVD CCA's right to have their ass covered by the law when they made a booboo and picked a weak encryption scheme, and god forbid it lets make fair use of a recording medium we purchases, is more imporant than our (I am a defendant) right to disseminate information freely.Okay here goes....I really can't stand reading slashdot whenever the discussion is about a legal argument because the posts that rave and rant about what geeks think is legal or right get moderated up while constructive argument about our legal position is not. Take the above post for instance...this is a 4 insightful???
First of all the purpose of an injunction is to prevent harm to a party in a legal dispute by the actions of the other party. This is a similar concept to bail...(i.e. a suspect in a child slaying less likely to get bail than a suspected burglar)... That said there was only one way this injunction could go. All the raving, ranting and spewing of rhetoric in the world cannot change the fact that it costs nothing to link/unlink to DeCSS but the potentially costs MPAA a considerable amount in piracy costs. Before anyone gets their 1st Ammendment flamethrowers out try this analogy on for size
...Imagine a situation where a guy just breaks up with his girlfriend and decides to put her phone # on a webpage with descriptions of a sexual nature of the things that they did. She has a right to sue and seek an injunction on him to remove to offending webpage while the case is yet to be tried. Following the arguments of most slashdotters with regards to the injunction (including the above post), the ex-boyfriend's freedom of speech overruns her right to privacy (after all the stories posted on the site are true and the girlfriend's phone number is freely available from the phone book). Thankfully most judges are not the typical slashdot reader and will move to protect a victim of harm until the case is tried.
Now on to my main gripe about the way this case is being handled by the Defendant's lawyers and also the mindset of slashdot readers saying that the encryption was weak is not an argument that will hold up in any court of law. The judge rightfully pointed that any safeguards can be broken by a clever enough theif. Saying that the encryption should have been stronger sounds too much like a burglar saying it was Ok to break in because there was no steel door protecting the house. The argument should have been and should be focused on what exactly is fair use with regards to DVDs and the nature of the licence. Are they selling permission to watch the DVD and if so does this mean if it get's scratched all we need is a proof of purchase to get another one or are they selling the entire contents of the DVD? Either way this case will not stop the proliferation of DeCSS code on the web and the MPAA is fighting a losing battle.
I expected this would happen but in the scheme of things it is trivial. An injunction occurs when there is a great disparity in the cost to one party than the other. The cost of removing a link from a website to a website operator is $0. The cost to the DVD industry each day software to defeat their encryption is freely available on the Internet is considerable. Even the most tech-savvy judge would have had to grant an injunction to the MPAA. On the other hand the judge said it's Ok to link to sites that link to the DeCSS so just all we have to do is point at sites outside the courts jurisdiction that link to DeCSS.
I'm pretty dissappointed that from the look's of the judge's opinion the main case of the Defendants was that 40-bit encryption is weak. Who's dumb idea was that? Arguments like that imply guilt...the same way that saying "They didn't have bars on their windows" is not a good argument for any case that involves breaking and entering even if you are in the right. I hope this just means that this was what primarily caught the judge's eye instead of being a principal point in the Defendant's defence because if it is we are screwed.
I am interested in the click-through licence issue. Since the licence prohibited reverse engineering, we either have to argue that the laws of Norway supersede the contract or that that the licence clicker was not the reverse engineer. Either way it's going to be fun to see what happens.
PS: I like the judge's ruling that CSS shouldn't lose it's status as a trade secret by being posted on the Internet because this implies that if you can get the secret on the net you're home free... sounds like the "Wet Feet, Dry Feet" Cuban refugee problem all over again if he hadn't said that. That would have been an extremely dangerous precedent to set.
PPS: Gotta go code, on a Friday night *sigh*
The reason she had to reinstall windows is because for some strange reason (at least on the machine i tried to install AOL 5.0 on for a friend) AOL 5.0 corrupts the msmouse.vxd file. You can test this easily by trying to install AOL 5.0 on a Windows machine and after it crashes have the machine boot at prompt you before performing each task on bootup.
After this occured the machine would always freeze upon booting unless booted in safe mode. Since I had no idea how to edit the msmouse.vxd file or even how to tell what was wrong (plus my friend was getting hysterical) I reinstalled Windows.
Also if you read the December 23rd online issue of the Washington Post where this story first broke you'll notice that the article qoutes several ISP's help desks as being swamped by calls from people who tried to install AOL 5.0. it would be a simple matter for the AP writer to call an ISP and get a story from them. On the other hand journalists famous for creating imaginary victims to humanize a story.
PS: It seems shitty code is contagious (Netscape 4.7...)
I remember reading this in on December 29th in the online issue of the Washington Post . It kind off pissed me off because I had to reinstall Windows on a friend's machine several times because I advised her to upgrade from AOL 3.0 to AOL 5.0, and for some strange reason it corrupted the msmouse.vxd file each time we tried to install it. We had to reinstall Windows and each app one by one before we discovered that AOL 5.0 was the problem.
;
Ironically I discovered the Washington post story that evening while browsing the web. I'm amazed it's taken this long to get posted on Slashdot. Here's the header for the Washington Post story, can't provide a link because it's been archived.
AOL 5.0 UNPLUGS OTHER INTERNET PROVIDERS
Article 27 of 510 found
ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER
Friday, December 24, 1999
Page E01
Section: Fast Forward
Word Count: 936
Iris Rache, a 68-year-old real estate agent from the District, may describe herself as a technology neophyte, but until last month she had few problems juggling her three online services--America Online for personal e-mail, RCN Corp.'s Erols as a backup and a residential-property database service for work. But then she upgraded her AOL software to the new 5.0 version.
I don't have to look any further than my suburban white friends who call their girlfriends bitch and ho behind their back in front of others to see the seed of NWA's assault on America. Of course, I also think these kids are kind off stupid for modelling themselves after ghetto youth but that's another discussion. We also have them to thank for starting the revolution that brought the words bitch and ho to TV and radio. That said, I love NWA. Songs like Fuck the Police and Niggaz 4 Life resonate within me and voice feelings that myself and several thousand others feel.
- Why do I call myself a n***** U ask me/ Because the police alway s harrass me
As a young, black male who has been handcuffed in the back of a police car for being in lost in a predominantely white southern U.S. county, been tailed on the interstate several times for no reason by police (I had out of state tags but so what?) and have had police officers write me tickets for paperwork violations before scrutinizing my paperwork (and thus having to rip up tickets) the music of NWA speaks to me of my experiences. I don't listen to most of their other songs but I know for a fact that the scenarios depicted in She Swallowed It and Just Don't Bite It are not unusual in several economically-depressed neighborhoods in America.I guess NWA's main fault is exposing America's rotten underbelly that most middle/upper class American's would rather ignore. Of course, introducing little Johnny to profanity is also another nail in their coffin. I remember when NWA first came out they were trying to make a political statement and in several interviews said "All we're doing is describing our environment.", maybe instead of censuring (this is not a typo) them society should have tried to find out why so many of it's members felt so disenfranchised and should have done something about it.
The Win2K box wasn't hacked it went down from the load and Microsoft claimed it was due to electri cal storm interference, then refused to put the machine back up. The Win2K box wasn't hacked because nobody got a chance it was slashdotted. :) PS: They did put it back up again but took it down soon after the machine's guestbook got hacked
It isn't human nature because besides a survival instinct there isn't much that is exclusively human nature. Most of the things we assume are human nature are actually the results of generations of cultural programming and nothing else. Currently American society (the media, high school, teenage culture) is intensely anti-intellectual and acts like female intellectual pursuits do not exist. When females have no prominent geek role models, are actively discouraged from being geeky, and are taught to value looks over brains, it is not a surprise that there are few geek grrls out there. My only gripe is that this should not be blamed on something as nebulous as human nature (which is a lie, travel to other countries and you'll rethink several of the concepts you assumed were human nature as American/western nature) but instead the real culprits, the media and society in general.
:)
Blaming human nature keeps us from aknowledging the truth and thus stops us from initiating changes to rectify this imbalance. This will be extremely difficult because it will not only require changes in the current educational system but also changes in the way women are viewed by society in general.
PS: I'm a guy and your post struck me as ignorant and sexist...get a girlfriend or some female friends and gain some perspective.
PPS: Read this article on the women gamers site on why techie women think there are less women in technology than males.
PPPS: I'm listening to old NWA mp3s and they were the bomb...I'm about to go get two of their CDs from CDNow (still boycotting Amazon and they are $1 cheaper)
They seem to own a whole bunch of Electronic program guide related patents here are the ones I found:
US05630119: System and method for displaying program listings in an interactive electronic program guide
US5870150: Television guide reader and programmer
US5886746: Method for channel scanning
TDK tests have estimated 70 years for their CD-Rs, Pioneer CD-Rs are rated at 100 years, while this independent site states that life expectancies range from 75 - 200 years based on the color of the disk (green (cyanine) disks last up to 75 years, gold (phthalocyanine) last up to 100 years and platinum last up to 200 years).
On pioneer's site they have DVD-R's for sale and describe them as having 100 year life expectancy.
Hey chill out, I remember being online and reading slashdot when passport.com went down (yes I know it was Christmas day), and reading the article and all the threads when Micheal Chaney paid the bill. I remember that his post when he paid had "Merry Christmas, Microsoft" on it. ... I would ask that when they make out a check they consider how much revenue would have otherwise been lost had this been down for another day or two, "
.He pointing out that he saved a multi-billion $ corporation's most popular Internet service (yes, Hotmail provides the most hits to MSN.com via the cute little logout redirection trick) from at least 24 hours of outage maybe more and that is worth more than a thank you and $35. I've seen his web-page he's a regular hack just like me (i'm probably worse off since i'm still in school) and I would have done the same thing, the least they could do was give a little extra (rebate check, free software, extra $$$). If that's greed to you then I say not giving a reward would have been the height of ingratitude and corporate penny pinching from a company who's CEO can afford to burn a million dollars a day from now till he dies and still will die a billionairre.
I was actually surprised it took that long for 1 of us to pay it because several people (myself included) went to the NSI payment site to verify if it was down but for hours nobody paid it until Micheal Chaney did. Upon reflection it seems very telling upon the character of slashdot readers (during Christmas) that it took that long for one of us to pay it...(it's not like we suspected MSFT wouldn't reimburse the check).
Here's the offending ZDNet and C|Net articles that made everyone start calling him a money hungry opportunist.
Quotes...
ZDNet : Microsoft said it would refund Chaney the $35, although Chaney hinted his bailout of the world's biggest software company was worth more. "Microsoft is under no legal obligation to repay the $35 to me, and it doesn't really matter to me if they do or not. If they do
C|Net: As for Microsoft's promised check, Chaney said he plans to frame it. "I'm not going to cash it," he said, "unless it's a huge amount." Pointing out the value of restoring service to millions of Microsoft customers and the preservation of advertising revenues, Chaney suggested that his Christmas charity is arguably worth more than a simple thanks. "In a perfect world, I wish they'd take that into account," he said. "But I'm not relying on it. It's their choice."
What he claimed is that he felt what he did was worth more than a $35 check and a thank you.
Damn. I was hoping they'd take a storyline from the animated D&D show from the eighties. I'll see it anyway.
You're kidding right? The D & D cartoon is very, very far away from AD&D my friends and I played and enjoyed. This cartoon is as disconnected from D & D that captured the hearts of geeks everywhere as the goofy looking PG-13 Spawn movie is disconnected from the emmy award winning, R rated Spawn cartoon or comic book.
The cartoon sucked and was a poor mirror of the game that kept my friends and I engrossed for hours on end (ThAC0, hit dice, bastard swords...it brings a tear to my eye remembering those times), if the movie is anything like the animated series then it should be avoided like the plague. On the other hand if it is actually a realistic depiction of D & D (e.g. the game Baldur's Gate) then it should become a geek treasure (sorta like the Matrix) watched the evoke memories of simpler times when an 18 on a 20d was all that saved you from a harsh, horrifying end.
Click here
Okay is it me or did the slashdot article not tell us who the defendants were?
Before we get all knee jerk-y and pissed, how do we know they are not genuine bootleggers being sued and instead of hackers like the DeCSS folk?
According to this C|NET article, they were advertising the software on their website as DVD cracking software...This Wired article names sites like krackdown.com and dvd-copy.com which sound like piracy sites to me. It seem they advertised the DeCSS software as DVD copying software. I expect this to be fodder for the DVD-CCA's lawyers next week.