If I could, say, purchase episodes of Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy, BBC news, SNL, and a Frontline or Nova here and there
We already do, in a sense through the ratings system. If the ratings for Futurama and Family Guy (probably my two favorite fox shows these days) are so low that the network is going to cancel them, you can bet they won't survive on a pay-per-view basis either.
.. he does have a point, in that commercial TV is supported by.. surprise surprise, commercials!! Commercial advertisers pay money to networks with the expectation that people will see the commercials. If that doesn't happen then the advertisers don't get a return on their money. The advertisers aren't paying for a commercial to simply run, they're paying for a commercial to be run and for people to see it. That's why networks charge more for a timeslot during the Superbowl or during popular programs. Sure, they know not everyone watching a program will see the commercial, but they can be sure a good percentage will. For a device to come around that makes this truly common.. now that's when it becomes dangerous enough to be attacked. The RIAA never cared enough about a few people swapping.wav files or.mp3's over irc... but Napster, Napster became a threat. Advertisers put up with VCRs, because even with those you're still getting a fair amount of the commercial. But a device where you don't even know what commercial aired? The commercial that is paying for the program? It should be no surprise advertisers aren't thrilled about that. And if these devices become popular? Should be no surprise again that they go on the attack. Network TV isn't commercial free, it's not supposed to be. Comments about whether or not this would be a good thing aside, the networks and channels like Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi, Food channel, History Channel.. none of these would survive without people actually watching the commercials that run. Or does everyone look forward to every channel running PBS-like pledge drives?
This is the same argument that comes up when people complain about banner ads in websites. Commercial TV needs either advertising, or else they have to become a pay channel like HBO. Slashdot needs to run advertisements to survive or just become a pay site. So does Salon.
All of them are supported by advertising, advertising which requires viewers for it to work. Saying that PVR users are thieves is... a little extreme, and somewhat silly, but to strip commercials completely out of programs is being a little dishonest.
The United States Federal Government couldn't win against MS in it's own country! Here is a real reading of your scenario:
The federal government didn't lose the case, they merely dropped it when Microsoft started giving gifts to politicians, ramped up their lobbying efforts, and a more "business-friendly" administration was elected.
It seems to me that there are two components to an offense: the offender, and the offendee. Why should the offender be compelled to censor his verbiage, and the offendee not expected to control his emotional reactions?
You're right. The next time I walk down the street and give a black guy with the cheery greeting, "How's it going, nigger?" I'll give him your lecture on the necessity of controlling his emotional reactions if he he gets huffy.
What if a single individual professor does this for his own machine?
Then that counts as a violation, and the university takes the full hit of the audit cost. The audits are paid for by successful BSA busts, so they try to make it as hard for a large organization to be in full compliance as possible.
Their store receipt should be sufficient. Additionally, they should not have to produce them to the BSA or Microsoft unless one of them has evidence that they are pirating software. They need a court order and then it should be the police that come to your door, not the BSA.
Usually it's the police AND the BSA that come to your door. The police can't run the audit themselves, they have no training in what to do. The only thing they would really be able to do is confiscate all your equipment and paper for perusal off-site. I'd rather take the police/BSA in-house combination instead.
What makes you certain that I copied the software? Why should you have the right to diturb my business to investigate? Are you goin to compensate me if you find that all terms have been respected?
Actually, the BSA does reimburse the businesses they audit if they are in compliance. The problem is that you need a huge amount of paperwork in order to comply, and if just one computer is missing that paperwork.. then you're screwed.
Uhhh... One simple program or one shit-hot computer he's got there. If only I had [less than] 5 second compiles at college, I'd never have had time to fill the server
I've done better than that. If the program is nicely modular, and if this isn't a value set in a header that's included by every source file, then a change like this doesn't require a full recompile. Most likely compiling one out of many source files and relinking the executable.
They may also have meant that they started the compilation 5 seconds after the last version was finished.
60 days may be very little time, but its not an impossible feat to install linux.
Install, not convert, install. Installation is just a tiny fraction of the time that would be needed to "convert" the school district to Linux. You'd have to see if that educational software that has already been bought will run well under wine, you'd have to retrain the staff, they'd have to learn new software for teaching... all in the middle of the school year? Linux would be a steep enough learning curve during the summer.
I'm not sure if Debian and Suse have something similar (probably), but if you're using Redhat, you can set up one machine as a kickstart install server for automated installations. Just plug the computer into the network, insert a boot disk, and turn the power on. Come back a half hour later, the computer it booted and ready to use. Much like Solaris's Jumpstart but more powerful.
wouldn't Microsoft's bundling of the PC and license prove the school system right in this case?
Unfortunately not. When it comes to bundling, Microsoft likes to have it both ways. They like to claim they have an OEM license that stays with that exact PC for the life of the PC, but still they won't accept that for license auditing terms. They contradict themselves in so many ways.
If people were smart enough, they would just download open source software, examine the code and compile it themselves.
Man, what a huge backwards step that would be for society. One of the biggest reasons for using a computer in the first place is that it is supposed to make tasks easier. You have more power with a word processor than with a typerwriter (or pen and paper). Turbotax makes filing simple tax returns very easy and efficient. Online card catalogs are easier to search than traditional ones.. the list goes on. Yet you would ask that all the time savings not only be lost, but that everyone should be worse off with computers than they were beforehand. Now.. you could just be trolling, but there are people with this inexplicable attitude.
Do you bake all your own food yourself? Did you assemble your own car? Your own house? Why should those be any different?
Not installing the spyware costs them like a few pennies at most, but you being on their network improves it and helps them attract like 50-100 more users.
Users only cost them money. Users generate no revenue by themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
We already do, in a sense through the ratings system. If the ratings for Futurama and Family Guy (probably my two favorite fox shows these days) are so low that the network is going to cancel them, you can bet they won't survive on a pay-per-view basis either.
.. he does have a point, in that commercial TV is supported by.. surprise surprise, commercials!! Commercial advertisers pay money to networks with the expectation that people will see the commercials. If that doesn't happen then the advertisers don't get a return on their money. The advertisers aren't paying for a commercial to simply run, they're paying for a commercial to be run and for people to see it. That's why networks charge more for a timeslot during the Superbowl or during popular programs. Sure, they know not everyone watching a program will see the commercial, but they can be sure a good percentage will. For a device to come around that makes this truly common.. now that's when it becomes dangerous enough to be attacked. The RIAA never cared enough about a few people swapping .wav files or .mp3's over irc... but Napster, Napster became a threat. Advertisers put up with VCRs, because even with those you're still getting a fair amount of the commercial. But a device where you don't even know what commercial aired? The commercial that is paying for the program? It should be no surprise advertisers aren't thrilled about that. And if these devices become popular? Should be no surprise again that they go on the attack. Network TV isn't commercial free, it's not supposed to be. Comments about whether or not this would be a good thing aside, the networks and channels like Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi, Food channel, History Channel.. none of these would survive without people actually watching the commercials that run. Or does everyone look forward to every channel running PBS-like pledge drives?
This is the same argument that comes up when people complain about banner ads in websites. Commercial TV needs either advertising, or else they have to become a pay channel like HBO. Slashdot needs to run advertisements to survive or just become a pay site. So does Salon.
All of them are supported by advertising, advertising which requires viewers for it to work. Saying that PVR users are thieves is... a little extreme, and somewhat silly, but to strip commercials completely out of programs is being a little dishonest.
The federal government didn't lose the case, they merely dropped it when Microsoft started giving gifts to politicians, ramped up their lobbying efforts, and a more "business-friendly" administration was elected.
You're right. The next time I walk down the street and give a black guy with the cheery greeting, "How's it going, nigger?" I'll give him your lecture on the necessity of controlling his emotional reactions if he he gets huffy.
Then that counts as a violation, and the university takes the full hit of the audit cost. The audits are paid for by successful BSA busts, so they try to make it as hard for a large organization to be in full compliance as possible.
Experian
Ohh... if only AT&T was a member of the BSA. They already own the Death Star
That's what the Scientologists told me!
And never will be. Never can be.
Usually it's the police AND the BSA that come to your door. The police can't run the audit themselves, they have no training in what to do. The only thing they would really be able to do is confiscate all your equipment and paper for perusal off-site. I'd rather take the police/BSA in-house combination instead.
Actually, the BSA does reimburse the businesses they audit if they are in compliance. The problem is that you need a huge amount of paperwork in order to comply, and if just one computer is missing that paperwork.. then you're screwed.
Ease up, he was just karma whoring.
I've done better than that. If the program is nicely modular, and if this isn't a value set in a header that's included by every source file, then a change like this doesn't require a full recompile. Most likely compiling one out of many source files and relinking the executable.
They may also have meant that they started the compilation 5 seconds after the last version was finished.
BTW, Alias|Wavefront's Maya runs on Linux. And Gimp isn't a drop-in replacement for photoshop, but it's a servicable one.
Install, not convert, install. Installation is just a tiny fraction of the time that would be needed to "convert" the school district to Linux. You'd have to see if that educational software that has already been bought will run well under wine, you'd have to retrain the staff, they'd have to learn new software for teaching... all in the middle of the school year? Linux would be a steep enough learning curve during the summer.
Unfortunately not. When it comes to bundling, Microsoft likes to have it both ways. They like to claim they have an OEM license that stays with that exact PC for the life of the PC, but still they won't accept that for license auditing terms. They contradict themselves in so many ways.
But things do just get more expensive. That's inflation.
Well... system and network admins don't really need strong English skills. It's not like he's writing reports all day..
I hope not! I've got a refund coming!
Wow! I'm so glad I can walk into the local government offices and start hauling away 'my' computers. :)
Man, what a huge backwards step that would be for society. One of the biggest reasons for using a computer in the first place is that it is supposed to make tasks easier. You have more power with a word processor than with a typerwriter (or pen and paper). Turbotax makes filing simple tax returns very easy and efficient. Online card catalogs are easier to search than traditional ones.. the list goes on. Yet you would ask that all the time savings not only be lost, but that everyone should be worse off with computers than they were beforehand. Now.. you could just be trolling, but there are people with this inexplicable attitude. Do you bake all your own food yourself? Did you assemble your own car? Your own house? Why should those be any different?
Users only cost them money. Users generate no revenue by themselves.