I dare say the EMP pulse from that mini-nuke (or was it a railgun?) would be bad news for any hard drives in the vicinity, no matter who made their read-write heads...
Suuure. And how are they going to make that stick? "Sign this document or we... um... won't let you quit!" Or even better, "Sign this document or we'll fire you! Er..."
As for this sort of thing being "moral", all I can say is that you and I have a wildly differing definition of moral behavior if your definition includes having to agree not to work for two years because people who aren't paying you anything told you not to.
So... someone who's spent the last however many years designing new hard drive technology is supposed to throw that experience away and get a job at McDonalds or something for the next two years?
Why don't you just all sign yourselves into voluntary slavery. Oh sorry, it seems that you already have...
What's funny about it? When I was about 6 or 7, my grandparents gave me a 13-volume encyclopedia from the 1920's (i.e. about 50 years out of date), and for several years I loved to just open a volume at a random point and start reading. I can only imagine what it would be like to be that age again and have unlimited access to a regularly updated encyclopedia.
Japan, for one;) Many Commonwealth countries (of which my home country is one) don't let you change your last name easily, in that you need to go through the deed poll process for it, which is a royal pain. To give an example of somewhere even stricter, in Japan (yes, again;) you're not allowed to change your name at all - first, last, whatever, once your parents register your name at birth, that's it. You're stuck with it.
Here's a page on him. While the "talented artist" guff doesn't have anything to do with his skill as a surgeon, there is one very telling point on that page: "Over 800 physicians have entrusted their own eyes to Dr. Wang for LASIK surgery since 1997."
Always try and find a doctor that other doctors go to for treatment.
Because under the laws of my home country, I'm allowed to take the last name of my wife - and it's a hell of a lot easier to live in Japan if people can't tell you're a foreigner just by your name.
But Sveasoft's offer restricts your GPL rights in that if you obtain a "pre-release" version from them (whatever that may be) and post the source code publically, you can no longer obtain source code from Sveasoft for future versions - even if you obtain binaries under Section 3(c) of the GPL, which is a breach of the license.
Sveasoft can't give you 'more' rights or 'less' rights for any code that they didn't write. A dual license is irrelevant - it simply can't apply, as Sveasoft have no right to apply any license other than the GPL to code released under the GPL for which they are not the copyright holder. If you're talking about code written by Sveasoft itself, then that's a different matter, but the original poster was talking about everything in the firmware distribution.
Please note that Sveasoft do not allow you to download the source to their pre-releases, and thus are using the method outlined in subsection (b), in that they offer the source code to you separately from the binary distribution. Thus, anybody receiving that binary distribution from Sveasoft can, instead of distributing the source themselves, tell those receiving the binaries from them to pay $49 and get the source from Sveasoft, in accordance with subsection (c), as long as they themselves are not charging for the redistributed binaries.
Read the GPL. There's no provision in there for 'beta' code or 'pre'-releases or 'non-public' releases. If they're distributing it to third parties (and I'd be surprised if anyone thought that buying a subscription to Sveasoft's forums made them an employee of the company), then the GPL applies. End of story.
However, here's the catch: The GPL requires that the people who get the software must also be given the GPL as a license option that they may apply to the copy they just got. (The redistributor can offer any other license they want too, but they have to give the striaght-up unmodified GPL as another option if they do.) Therefore, only one person needs to pay the fee, and then, they can post the code for free download.
Absolutely incorrect. The distributor can't relicense code that they don't own; the only license they can offer that software under is the GPL. Dual/multi licensing is only available as an option to the copyright holder.
You're both simplifying the situation. From the Sveasoft forums:
We release two versions of firmware at Sveasoft, public and pre-release.
Subscribers can redistribute public versions of firmware to anyone they choose to without any change in their subscription rights. When you redistribute public firmware you must offer both source code and binaries or you violate the GPL license. Other than this caveat you can redistribute whenever and to whomever you choose.
The policy for pre-release firmware is different. You can also choose to redistribute pre-release firmware under the GPL. You must also offer both source code and binaries as with the public releases. Should you choose to redistribute pre-release versions however, your subscription rights terminate and you will not have access to the Sveasoft forums or future firmware pre-releases afterwards.
This potentially conflicts with the GPL in two ways: 1) It's possible for people distributing GPLed software to give a location where the source can be obtained instead of providing the source themselves. This is explained in section 3(c) of the GPL: 3. c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) So, in other words, people redistributing Sveasoft's firmware don't have to provide the source code themselves as long as they don't distribute it commercially, and as long as they tell everybody they're distributing it to about Sveasoft's offer to provide source code. I wouldn't say that Sveasoft are being dishonest, but they're not really being up front about the receiver's rights under the GPL, either.
2) Sveasoft make a distinction between pre-release and public release versions of the firmware. This is probably based on the idea that you do not have to provide source code if you're distributing software purely within your own organization (i.e. not publically distributing it). However, that right is not clearly defined in the GPL, and indeed section 6 states that: 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License. In my opinion, Sveasoft's artificial distinction between pre-release and public release firmware comes into conflict with this section.
Of course, IANAL, blah blah blah, and the only people whose opinions count in regard to this are the copyright owners of the software Sveasoft are distributing, of which I am not one.
OK, maybe this guy's a dumbass (just use 'Timothy' for everything and he should be OK), but it's a real problem, particularly in cases where you can't control what name is used.
I live in Japan. For foreigners resident in Japan, the main source of identification is your passport. Using your passport, you register with the local government office and receive an alien registration card, which then gets used for official situations. Now, when I got married, the last name on my passport changed. Also, as Japanese law doesn't allow people to use names in Kanji for official documents if their passport name is not in Kanji (i.e. you're not from a country that issues passports in Chinese), I used a 'feature' of the alien registration card to add what's called a 'use name' in addition to the name from my passport, which is my new last name written in Kanji, my first name in Katakana and no middle name (my name on my passport is first, middle, last).
As a result, I now have the following: 1) A bank account registered in my new name in English. 2) Two bank accounts registered under my use name in Japanese. 3) A government pension book registered under my use name in Japanese. 4) A driver's license with my new name in English and my use name in Japanese. 5) An official seal (a large carved stamp that takes the place of your signature) registered under my use name in Japanese. 6) Tax records under my use name in Japanese. 7) An alien registration card showing my new name in English and my use name in Japanese. 8) A university diploma showing my old name, written in Japanese.
When my wife and I had our first child, the city office refused to register me as the birth father under my new name, as my wife's family register (that is treated as the official record of the marriage) had my old name on it (last+first+middle, written in Japanese for extra confusion points). So, I had to ask them to rewrite her family register to show my use name in Japanese (but they complained that it wasn't my "real name" and added my middle name written in Japanese, for yet more confusion points), then register me as the birth father under that name.
Yeah, I thought so too at first, but then I went to Apple's site. On the right-hand side, it says "iPod your BMW.", so I guess 'iPod' is a verb. Maybe Taco and Hemos have just been speaking some sort of future English all along. They're time travellers from the year 2100AD, trying to fit in with our primitive society, and the only ones in our time advanced enough to communicate in their language are Apple...
...the stupid masses who (a) are stupid and thus are willing to dig through an all-Flash website and probably to put down their cash for a game on the basis of how cool it looks, and (b) are a mass, which means there's a lot of them.
Sorry, but I think their marketers are probably doing their job...
Slashdot Mirror
I dare say the EMP pulse from that mini-nuke (or was it a railgun?) would be bad news for any hard drives in the vicinity, no matter who made their read-write heads...
if his pink-slip included a non-compete clause
Suuure. And how are they going to make that stick? "Sign this document or we... um... won't let you quit!" Or even better, "Sign this document or we'll fire you! Er..."
As for this sort of thing being "moral", all I can say is that you and I have a wildly differing definition of moral behavior if your definition includes having to agree not to work for two years because people who aren't paying you anything told you not to.
Can you say "corporate whore"? I knew you could...
So... someone who's spent the last however many years designing new hard drive technology is supposed to throw that experience away and get a job at McDonalds or something for the next two years?
Why don't you just all sign yourselves into voluntary slavery. Oh sorry, it seems that you already have...
...ina few years time, CT and Co. are going to need that much computing power to keep track of all the dupes...
That's where the X-Prize comes in - rocket-powered homesick albatrosses.
The reason it wouldn't work with Linux SPARC binaries is that Sun isn't going to be supporting that, which you'd know if you'd read the article.
What's funny about it? When I was about 6 or 7, my grandparents gave me a 13-volume encyclopedia from the 1920's (i.e. about 50 years out of date), and for several years I loved to just open a volume at a random point and start reading.
I can only imagine what it would be like to be that age again and have unlimited access to a regularly updated encyclopedia.
Japan, for one ;)
Many Commonwealth countries (of which my home country is one) don't let you change your last name easily, in that you need to go through the deed poll process for it, which is a royal pain.
To give an example of somewhere even stricter, in Japan (yes, again;) you're not allowed to change your name at all - first, last, whatever, once your parents register your name at birth, that's it. You're stuck with it.
Here's a page on him.
While the "talented artist" guff doesn't have anything to do with his skill as a surgeon, there is one very telling point on that page: "Over 800 physicians have entrusted their own eyes to Dr. Wang for LASIK surgery since 1997."
Always try and find a doctor that other doctors go to for treatment.
Because under the laws of my home country, I'm allowed to take the last name of my wife - and it's a hell of a lot easier to live in Japan if people can't tell you're a foreigner just by your name.
Yeah, 'cause everyone knows those giant bison and mammoths and shit were only knee-high...
;)
(Sorry, just pulling your chain
I think I mentioned somewhere else in this thread that IANAL ;)
I'm not really a programmer either, but does an SE count?
But Sveasoft's offer restricts your GPL rights in that if you obtain a "pre-release" version from them (whatever that may be) and post the source code publically, you can no longer obtain source code from Sveasoft for future versions - even if you obtain binaries under Section 3(c) of the GPL, which is a breach of the license.
Sveasoft can't give you 'more' rights or 'less' rights for any code that they didn't write.
A dual license is irrelevant - it simply can't apply, as Sveasoft have no right to apply any license other than the GPL to code released under the GPL for which they are not the copyright holder.
If you're talking about code written by Sveasoft itself, then that's a different matter, but the original poster was talking about everything in the firmware distribution.
Thank you. You saved me the time of explaining that myself.
Please note that Sveasoft do not allow you to download the source to their pre-releases, and thus are using the method outlined in subsection (b), in that they offer the source code to you separately from the binary distribution.
Thus, anybody receiving that binary distribution from Sveasoft can, instead of distributing the source themselves, tell those receiving the binaries from them to pay $49 and get the source from Sveasoft, in accordance with subsection (c), as long as they themselves are not charging for the redistributed binaries.
Read the GPL. There's no provision in there for 'beta' code or 'pre'-releases or 'non-public' releases.
If they're distributing it to third parties (and I'd be surprised if anyone thought that buying a subscription to Sveasoft's forums made them an employee of the company), then the GPL applies. End of story.
However, here's the catch: The GPL requires that the people who get the software must also be given the GPL as a license option that they may apply to the copy they just got. (The redistributor can offer any other license they want too, but they have to give the striaght-up unmodified GPL as another option if they do.) Therefore, only one person needs to pay the fee, and then, they can post the code for free download.
Absolutely incorrect. The distributor can't relicense code that they don't own; the only license they can offer that software under is the GPL. Dual/multi licensing is only available as an option to the copyright holder.
You're both simplifying the situation. From the Sveasoft forums:
We release two versions of firmware at Sveasoft, public and pre-release.
Subscribers can redistribute public versions of firmware to anyone they choose to without any change in their subscription rights. When you redistribute public firmware you must offer both source code and binaries or you violate the GPL license. Other than this caveat you can redistribute whenever and to whomever you choose.
The policy for pre-release firmware is different. You can also choose to redistribute pre-release firmware under the GPL. You must also offer both source code and binaries as with the public releases. Should you choose to redistribute pre-release versions however, your subscription rights terminate and you will not have access to the Sveasoft forums or future firmware pre-releases afterwards.
This potentially conflicts with the GPL in two ways:
1) It's possible for people distributing GPLed software to give a location where the source can be obtained instead of providing the source themselves. This is explained in section 3(c) of the GPL:
3. c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
So, in other words, people redistributing Sveasoft's firmware don't have to provide the source code themselves as long as they don't distribute it commercially, and as long as they tell everybody they're distributing it to about Sveasoft's offer to provide source code. I wouldn't say that Sveasoft are being dishonest, but they're not really being up front about the receiver's rights under the GPL, either.
2) Sveasoft make a distinction between pre-release and public release versions of the firmware. This is probably based on the idea that you do not have to provide source code if you're distributing software purely within your own organization (i.e. not publically distributing it). However, that right is not clearly defined in the GPL, and indeed section 6 states that:
6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.
In my opinion, Sveasoft's artificial distinction between pre-release and public release firmware comes into conflict with this section.
Of course, IANAL, blah blah blah, and the only people whose opinions count in regard to this are the copyright owners of the software Sveasoft are distributing, of which I am not one.
OK, maybe this guy's a dumbass (just use 'Timothy' for everything and he should be OK), but it's a real problem, particularly in cases where you can't control what name is used.
I live in Japan. For foreigners resident in Japan, the main source of identification is your passport. Using your passport, you register with the local government office and receive an alien registration card, which then gets used for official situations.
Now, when I got married, the last name on my passport changed. Also, as Japanese law doesn't allow people to use names in Kanji for official documents if their passport name is not in Kanji (i.e. you're not from a country that issues passports in Chinese), I used a 'feature' of the alien registration card to add what's called a 'use name' in addition to the name from my passport, which is my new last name written in Kanji, my first name in Katakana and no middle name (my name on my passport is first, middle, last).
As a result, I now have the following:
1) A bank account registered in my new name in English.
2) Two bank accounts registered under my use name in Japanese.
3) A government pension book registered under my use name in Japanese.
4) A driver's license with my new name in English and my use name in Japanese.
5) An official seal (a large carved stamp that takes the place of your signature) registered under my use name in Japanese.
6) Tax records under my use name in Japanese.
7) An alien registration card showing my new name in English and my use name in Japanese.
8) A university diploma showing my old name, written in Japanese.
When my wife and I had our first child, the city office refused to register me as the birth father under my new name, as my wife's family register (that is treated as the official record of the marriage) had my old name on it (last+first+middle, written in Japanese for extra confusion points). So, I had to ask them to rewrite her family register to show my use name in Japanese (but they complained that it wasn't my "real name" and added my middle name written in Japanese, for yet more confusion points), then register me as the birth father under that name.
The "jeweled dagger" part of that description is bollocks. It's actually a bare blade (i.e. no fittings) with white paper wrapped around the hilt.
iPods do not have Ogg Vorbis support, making them evil. They should never be purchased.
There, happy now?
Yeah, I thought so too at first, but then I went to Apple's site.
On the right-hand side, it says "iPod your BMW.", so I guess 'iPod' is a verb.
Maybe Taco and Hemos have just been speaking some sort of future English all along. They're time travellers from the year 2100AD, trying to fit in with our primitive society, and the only ones in our time advanced enough to communicate in their language are Apple...
...the stupid masses who (a) are stupid and thus are willing to dig through an all-Flash website and probably to put down their cash for a game on the basis of how cool it looks, and (b) are a mass, which means there's a lot of them.
Sorry, but I think their marketers are probably doing their job...