Why the hell should software ever be able to fuck up the hardware that badly?
Self destruct mechanisms should be the ONLY exception......oh wait this is a greedy company we're talking about isn't it? You know, the same one that half-bricked the consoles it banned from XBL so that even offline features broke?
Microsoft's been doing this a lot lately (a lot being relative to their past conduct).
It's good that they're doing good and paying down their negative karma, but sometimes I wonder if people are deliberately infecting their sources with GPL'ed code just to make them cough it up once it gets published. A windows 7 tool getting fingered for a GPL violation so quickly makes me think that the exposure had a bit of inside help.
Time will tell.
Kudos to Microsoft though if their efforts are sincere.
I also think it serves as a bit of a social firewall to keep the "ins" and the "outs" just the way they are.
I suspect that lots of people are subtle on purpose so that only the select few they want in on the message actually understand it, deliberately leaving the socially impaired outsiders clueless.
Microchip manufacture is a capital intensive operation and when you've sunk metric craptons of cash into R&D the last thing you need is some two-bit competitor peeling your research and undercutting you by being able to skip out on the research you paid for.
One thing I think can curb IP law abuse is:
Tax royalties. Have the feds take off a bit from the top and invest the proceeds in the National Science Foundation or something.
Heck, even giving the USPTO a bit of it might help them hire more examiners.
Any company that wants the feds to be their IP guard dogs should at least throw some kibble in the bowl.
Seriously, that's the closest "fingerish thing" to the spacebar and everywhere I've seen touch-typing classes they teach you to use your thumb to hit the spacebar.
I think part of the problem is that to be a judge you have to work your way up through the sharktank of lawyerdom first, where your primary obligation is to go for your client by every trick in the book that isn't unethical or illegal.
Boom, suddenly you are a custodian of justice itself. Big change. Almost like if the worlds best boxers were suddenly hired as referees at the Golden Gloves.
Maybe if we hired judges that were trained AS JUDGES instead of career lawyers we might have some sense.
Slashdot Mirror
That's just old fashioned motion blur.
Exactly.
Either that or defectively designed.
Why the hell should software ever be able to fuck up the hardware that badly?
Self destruct mechanisms should be the ONLY exception... ...oh wait this is a greedy company we're talking about isn't it? You know, the same one that half-bricked the consoles it banned from XBL so that even offline features broke?
That would be "corporate dicksucking greedy assholes"
They know damn well what they are doing, it just happens to not be in the best interests of the nation.
Calling them asshats is an insult to the REAL morons who would probably scream bloody murder quite loudly if they found out how things really worked.
Then it seems the patent office isn't competing hard enough for the talent it needs.
Considering all the bullshit patents coming out there's obviously a deficiency of some sort.
If the PTO is making a profit, then perhaps more of the fees need to go into the paychecks of the examiners instead of the treasury.
Microsoft's been doing this a lot lately (a lot being relative to their past conduct).
It's good that they're doing good and paying down their negative karma, but sometimes I wonder if people are deliberately infecting their sources with GPL'ed code just to make them cough it up once it gets published. A windows 7 tool getting fingered for a GPL violation so quickly makes me think that the exposure had a bit of inside help.
Time will tell.
Kudos to Microsoft though if their efforts are sincere.
Immediate conflict of interest.
Which may have been your point though.
You may have noticed me use the word "firewall" to describe the situation ;)
I also think it serves as a bit of a social firewall to keep the "ins" and the "outs" just the way they are.
I suspect that lots of people are subtle on purpose so that only the select few they want in on the message actually understand it, deliberately leaving the socially impaired outsiders clueless.
Yes they did, but as a practical matter, no they didn't because you can't prove it in court...which is the only way they'd ever be stopped anyway.
They'll go on and patent and copyright the shit out of what they snitched from you and then shred and burn the paper so that nobody can stop them.
Not even you, being drunk off your ass the previous night, will likely be wise to the fact that you just got ripped off big time.
Hire more examiners and make sure a good part of them have degrees.
How do we pay them?
How about a royalty tax? ...and that includes on the ridiculous settlements exacted by patent trolls.
I'd say in that case that MS needs to grow a pair and cert-flunk any application that needlessly requests admin privileges.
So...stereoptyping is a heuristic and not an algorithm.
No, they'd just go after all their clients by raising premiums.
If heavy users really are the problem then just throttle the suckers.
Use something like Linux's CFS process scheduler with bandwidth and whoever's used the least gets first crack when they want more.
The heaviest users will burn out their allowances and get sent to the back of the line rather quickly.
Greed: Wanting more than you need.
If you want to be rich so that you don't have to go hungry, that's not greed.
If you want to be rich just so that you can one-up someone else, that IS greed.
Motive matters.
Microchip manufacture is a capital intensive operation and when you've sunk metric craptons of cash into R&D the last thing you need is some two-bit competitor peeling your research and undercutting you by being able to skip out on the research you paid for.
One thing I think can curb IP law abuse is:
Tax royalties. Have the feds take off a bit from the top and invest the proceeds in the National Science Foundation or something.
Heck, even giving the USPTO a bit of it might help them hire more examiners.
Any company that wants the feds to be their IP guard dogs should at least throw some kibble in the bowl.
"legislating from the bench" is actually what a common law legal system is all about.
If you're talking about a civil law system then by all means you'd be correct.
Anyone who thinks that judges don't "legislate from the bench", please study these following landmark cases:
Roe v. Wade
Marbury v. Madison
Brown v. Board of Education
etc...
These binding precedents have just as much legal force coming from the pen of a judge as they would have coming from the pen of a congress critter.
She admitted liability, case closed.
One may as well have confessed to murder in Texas.
There's no such thing as guessing too high on the greed-o-meter.
But I have a spacebar you insensitive clod!
Seriously, that's the closest "fingerish thing" to the spacebar and everywhere I've seen touch-typing classes they teach you to use your thumb to hit the spacebar.
Super Mario Galaxy?
Good luck enforcing said laws when you're up against a faceless corporation that can drag you out in court.
Mod parent up.
I think google made the right call to comply here.
If they hadn't china would have had them thrown out and leave the search vacuum to be filled with someone who could do a lot worse than Google.
Someone knowing that I look at miles of furry porn is one thing.
Someone knowing my bank account number is another.
The government isn't the ONLY entity capable of misusing my personal information.
I think part of the problem is that to be a judge you have to work your way up through the sharktank of lawyerdom first, where your primary obligation is to go for your client by every trick in the book that isn't unethical or illegal.
Boom, suddenly you are a custodian of justice itself. Big change. Almost like if the worlds best boxers were suddenly hired as referees at the Golden Gloves.
Maybe if we hired judges that were trained AS JUDGES instead of career lawyers we might have some sense.