It doesn't exactly help that OEMs often aren't keen on open sourcing their drivers.
Many times they actively obstruct linux, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was at the palm greasing beckoning of MS.
Sure I'm being pessimistic, but then again we are talking about a company that wound up in federal court over antitrust violations as well as taking its sweet time before ambushing tom-tom.
I wouldn't let my employees coup and take over, in fact, I would can anyone who even suggested it, union protection be damned. I could easily fake it as a performance issue.
And since according to work-for-hire I own all the code anyway, any of my peons who don't like my decisions can either suck it up and kiss my ass, or go out into the cold and try to do it themselves from scratch, without getting my legal department on their behinds for "copyright infringement" or "breach of non-disclosure agreement". Being powerful really rocks, and I love being in charge, especially when I get to milk my workers for all their worth and then can them when they are of no use. Bonus points if I'm rich enough to keep my congress critters in my pocket keeping the laws off my back.
I am, of course, being sarcastic, but often there's a lot more to software development than simply doing a good job as a software engineer.
MS is a playah and is willing to do dirty sneaky deals with OEMs to get their shit pushed.
Ubuntu, as FOSS, rightly stays away from such tactics, and unfortunately runs afoul of the fact that the majority of computer sheeple really couldn't give a clue about patents, open source, and whatnot.
Linux's technical strengths are also economic weaknesses.
What would help IMHO is for linux to have advocacy, a marketing department, and general user friendliness polishes.
But nothing except legal action is going to correct the fact that microsoft simply holds most of the IP cards, as proven by their ambush against TomTom which in theory could lock linux out of the flash-drive market, as well as any other device that exposes it's data with VFAT internally.
Trouble is...it's not economical to plant new ones and wait for them to grow.
Not without government subsidies to put a stop to the ever prevalent whine: "What's in it for me?"
It's far cheaper to raze and burn a forest and loot all the wood as fuel and then leave it for dead than it is to take proper care of it.
Of course, replanting becomes economical when wood becomes scarce, but by then the greedy bastards responsible for the shortage in the first place are long gone, having already laughed their way to the bank.
Giving parents the right to confiscate (read: search and seize) property from their kids, EVEN if they bought it with their own hard earned money, implies that children have no property rights at all.
I would rather have 9 competitors sharing a patent like dogs over a bone than have one monopoly using that patent as a stick to oppress the customer with.
And your unaltruistic attitude of "I don't give a fuck if my ideas could save the world, either cough up the dough or die" is precisely why we have problems.
As long as humans care about themselves more than the common good, they will happily exploit the altruism of others without reciprocating (i.e., defecting/cheating).
Altruism is funny though, in that it requires the "immediate and total cooperation from everybody at once" that is oft cited in why anti-spam measures won't work.
The problem is that if even one human is inherently selfish, that ruins the utopia for everyone. Hence, nobody can afford to be an altruist. One person does it out of greed, and everyone else either follows suit to cover their ass, or gets screwed to hell.
In short, I don't think that a "bill of rights" is actually going to solve anything in the long run.
Even today, the REAL "bill of rights" is getting stomped on post 9/11. Honestly, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it has.
People who pirate are no better than spammers, in that they do whatever they can get away with and simply don't even care if what they do is legit or not, and wouldn't give a damn even if the companies were willing to be nice about it.
The RIAA protection racket is shameful, but I don't exactly have a lot of sympathy for the rare occasions where they actually nail someone red handed.
If the pirates were patriots against the oppressive Redcoat Industry Association of America, I'd be on their side.
I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but The PIRATE bay probably knew damn well that the torrents they hosted were being used to commit infringement. Note that I did not say TPB was infringing.
I'm not sure what swedish law says but where I come from, we call that aiding and abetting, being an accessory, etc.
Mind you, I'm pissed as hell that the judge failed to recuse himself, but strictly by the facts of the case, I would, as a juror, vote TPB as guilty of being an accessory to copyright infringement.
If I was the prosecutor for the case, I would 1. Get the charges straight and nail TPB for what they actually did (accessory to copyright infringement) 2. Use the wilfull facilitation to get a search warrant for the tracker logs. 3. Use the tracker logs to find out if any of the IPs are managed by swedish ISPs, and get search warrants for said ISP's IP assignments 4. Use the IP assignments to get warrants for whoever was using those IPs at the time.
If the prosecutor had done it this way, they'd have a much more solid case.
Adjust as needed to account for differences between swedish and american law.
Just learn to plant 3 flags at a time...and when you're climbing the cliffs, don't stay out too long without warming up. Go below 27 degrees and you faint.
Slashdot Mirror
Verizon wilfully obstructed a police investigation when there was an emergency with someone in imminent danger.
Clap some of the loons in iron.
goodluckwiththat
Seriously, getting lawyers knocked out of the DOJ?
You're reaching into a political hornet's nest.
It would take a watergate to get them out.
If the company holds copyright over the code, then no you can't actually do that.
Your idea is wonderful in theory, but it currently ignores the practical reality of how much of a clusterfuck IP law is today.
You mean google is BORK BORK BORK
It doesn't exactly help that OEMs often aren't keen on open sourcing their drivers.
Many times they actively obstruct linux, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was at the palm greasing beckoning of MS.
Sure I'm being pessimistic, but then again we are talking about a company that wound up in federal court over antitrust violations as well as taking its sweet time before ambushing tom-tom.
I wouldn't let my employees coup and take over, in fact, I would can anyone who even suggested it, union protection be damned. I could easily fake it as a performance issue.
And since according to work-for-hire I own all the code anyway, any of my peons who don't like my decisions can either suck it up and kiss my ass, or go out into the cold and try to do it themselves from scratch, without getting my legal department on their behinds for "copyright infringement" or "breach of non-disclosure agreement". Being powerful really rocks, and I love being in charge, especially when I get to milk my workers for all their worth and then can them when they are of no use. Bonus points if I'm rich enough to keep my congress critters in my pocket keeping the laws off my back.
I am, of course, being sarcastic, but often there's a lot more to software development than simply doing a good job as a software engineer.
That's kinda the same issue you get when you have a gazillion threads fighting over the same core.
Should databases schedule? Give each client a slice of time to have exclusive access to the database?
Just throwing this idea into the ring, I'll let the gurus dissect it mercilessly.
It's simply a ball size competition.
MS is a playah and is willing to do dirty sneaky deals with OEMs to get their shit pushed.
Ubuntu, as FOSS, rightly stays away from such tactics, and unfortunately runs afoul of the fact that the majority of computer sheeple really couldn't give a clue about patents, open source, and whatnot.
Linux's technical strengths are also economic weaknesses.
What would help IMHO is for linux to have advocacy, a marketing department, and general user friendliness polishes.
But nothing except legal action is going to correct the fact that microsoft simply holds most of the IP cards, as proven by their ambush against TomTom which in theory could lock linux out of the flash-drive market, as well as any other device that exposes it's data with VFAT internally.
See: Iron Triangle
Clue: Laws are written by legislators that are in bed with the people with money and power.
We, the Land of the Free, have been overrun by corporate powermongers who IMHO are doing ten times worse than King George ever did before 1776.
It is.
Trouble is...it's not economical to plant new ones and wait for them to grow.
Not without government subsidies to put a stop to the ever prevalent whine: "What's in it for me?"
It's far cheaper to raze and burn a forest and loot all the wood as fuel and then leave it for dead than it is to take proper care of it.
Of course, replanting becomes economical when wood becomes scarce, but by then the greedy bastards responsible for the shortage in the first place are long gone, having already laughed their way to the bank.
my point exactly.
The law needs to recognize parental sovereignty and just get the hell out of the home.
Giving parents the right to confiscate (read: search and seize) property from their kids, EVEN if they bought it with their own hard earned money, implies that children have no property rights at all.
This is what makes the RIAA so outrageous.
They want to have a wet-dream of pay by the minute for you RENTING your own stuff, and transfer fees for putting it on your devices.
This is, by definition, rent seeking.
Hey, I just noticed something...The RIAA doesn't have much real competition does it?
What if the RIAA had to fight with a rival for its dough?
"When a congress friendly monopoly does it, it's not illegal"
-- ni, er...Microsoft
Shuddap...don't give them IDEAS man!
I would rather have 9 competitors sharing a patent like dogs over a bone than have one monopoly using that patent as a stick to oppress the customer with.
Not to mention planned obsolescence
MS is its own prior art!
This is exactly the point I was trying to make.
I see toshiba pulling rambus style shenanigans here.
There ought to be a law against patent trolling
then datacenters simply need nuclear plant style evaporative cooling towers.
And your unaltruistic attitude of "I don't give a fuck if my ideas could save the world, either cough up the dough or die" is precisely why we have problems.
As long as humans care about themselves more than the common good, they will happily exploit the altruism of others without reciprocating (i.e., defecting/cheating).
Altruism is funny though, in that it requires the "immediate and total cooperation from everybody at once" that is oft cited in why anti-spam measures won't work.
The problem is that if even one human is inherently selfish, that ruins the utopia for everyone. Hence, nobody can afford to be an altruist. One person does it out of greed, and everyone else either follows suit to cover their ass, or gets screwed to hell.
In short, I don't think that a "bill of rights" is actually going to solve anything in the long run.
Even today, the REAL "bill of rights" is getting stomped on post 9/11. Honestly, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it has.
People who pirate are no better than spammers, in that they do whatever they can get away with and simply don't even care if what they do is legit or not, and wouldn't give a damn even if the companies were willing to be nice about it.
The RIAA protection racket is shameful, but I don't exactly have a lot of sympathy for the rare occasions where they actually nail someone red handed.
If the pirates were patriots against the oppressive Redcoat Industry Association of America, I'd be on their side.
But unfortunately, their motives just plain suck.
I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but The PIRATE bay probably knew damn well that the torrents they hosted were being used to commit infringement. Note that I did not say TPB was infringing.
I'm not sure what swedish law says but where I come from, we call that aiding and abetting, being an accessory, etc.
Mind you, I'm pissed as hell that the judge failed to recuse himself, but strictly by the facts of the case, I would, as a juror, vote TPB as guilty of being an accessory to copyright infringement.
If I was the prosecutor for the case, I would
1. Get the charges straight and nail TPB for what they actually did (accessory to copyright infringement)
2. Use the wilfull facilitation to get a search warrant for the tracker logs.
3. Use the tracker logs to find out if any of the IPs are managed by swedish ISPs, and get search warrants for said ISP's IP assignments
4. Use the IP assignments to get warrants for whoever was using those IPs at the time.
If the prosecutor had done it this way, they'd have a much more solid case.
Adjust as needed to account for differences between swedish and american law.
Just learn to plant 3 flags at a time...and when you're climbing the cliffs, don't stay out too long without warming up. Go below 27 degrees and you faint.