Appearances to the contrary, there are things on TPB that are indeed illegal.
Cases in point:
SimCity4 for windows The 3 ISO's for FFVII
Now, these files are prima facie illegal to download, so if anyone caught their routers red-handed touching and relaying the content, they are illegally distributing, unless they have sufficient disclaimers.
You're not allowed to do that. Slashdot threads are a collection of posts made by individual authors.
Therefore, one, or both, of the following will stop you.
1. The collection lacks sufficient originality, and is merely a collection 2. The thread is a derivative work owned by all the authors in common, and you, as un-sole copyright owner, don't have the legal power to GPL a slashdot thread.
Only the copyright owner can place ANYTHING under a license, GPL or not.
Actually on a serious note, derived works/fair use/licensing/copyright ownership are the other parts besides the GPL that can apply in any given case.
Case in point...a big debate awhile ago on the LKML about whether or not a binary kernel module was the same as binary firmware, about some LSM code.
Libraries still own every copy they have on their shelves.
And since the copies are physical, only one person at a time can check them out.
With a library, you have to wait for an item in high demand. With file sharing, the data is copied and more than one person can use it at the same time.
If their resources are low enough that they can't spare enough effort to lobby in the first place, then you have a cripple so weak that they can't even use a crutch.
If you have a DOE so weak that it can either lobby or research, but not both, which would you rather they do? Get themselves a boost, or do whatever research they still can?
Electricity is one of those forms of energy that's hard to store.
Sure, you could power your house on nothing but sunlight, but if you're off the grid, you either need to:
1. Stash all the energy somewhere until you need it 2. Confine your high power activities to the day time whenever the sun just darn well feels like shining.
It doesn't matter how ridiculous it would sound, becuase an employer can FIRE AT WILL.
A company can fire you for sending email to your wife to explain how late you will be working, and it doesn't even have to say so in court.
Termination at will means that if you try to protect your privacy, or even so much as suggest you deserve any, you can be fired if your boss should so fancy, especially if he interprets your desire for privacy as a challenge to the dominion he holds over the people under him.
With termination at will, you might as well be working in China.
Employers already have the legal right to read all of your email simply because you are using THEIR equipment to send it. They are effectively your ISP.
There is NOTHING legally that can stop an employer from reading your email except for a contract signed by them that says they won't do so, in which case even then it is merely a contract violation, or another law that expressly makes the emails privileged in some manner.
Everyone has omnipotent search and snoop authority over their own machines when it comes to email, employer or not. It's part of the propriety that comes with OWNING it.
In which case it's no longer a standard in the previous sense of the word.
If you exert your monopoly muscles and shove a proprietary extension down everyone's throat, your extension becomes a defacto standard.
Piggybacking a crapload of your own stuff onto a piddly flimsy skeleton that still follows the standard is indeed a major loophole....
I think that standards should themselves be considered a work covered by copyright law, and then GPL'ed or BSD'ed or something. That way, by making any modifcations, you are creating a derived work...etc...etc...
Rendering "correctly" on IE is a BAD sign, not a good one.
Have you forgotten the big fiasco about IE deliberately NOT honoring standards?
IE is, in short, a proprietary piece of shit that makes up its own rules, and I've heard many cases where web pages must be deliberately broken just so they can be spoonfed to IE.
Slashdot Mirror
Appearances to the contrary, there are things on TPB that are indeed illegal.
Cases in point:
SimCity4 for windows
The 3 ISO's for FFVII
Now, these files are prima facie illegal to download, so if anyone caught their routers red-handed touching and relaying the content, they are illegally distributing, unless they have sufficient disclaimers.
You just managed to cheese off the government.
*crosses his fingers and hopes something a little higher, like county or state, gets upset too*
Ever heard of AMD?
It's nice to see a /.'er recognize just how powerful the court system, and its judges, really are.
I just hope that the court system doesn't screw it up the way it's been doing with the RIAA's subpoena requesting rampage.
All I can say, is that the judge that handles any lawsuit on this had damn well better not screw it up.
You're not allowed to do that. Slashdot threads are a collection of posts made by individual authors.
Therefore, one, or both, of the following will stop you.
1. The collection lacks sufficient originality, and is merely a collection
2. The thread is a derivative work owned by all the authors in common, and you, as un-sole copyright owner, don't have the legal power to GPL a slashdot thread.
Only the copyright owner can place ANYTHING under a license, GPL or not.
Actually on a serious note, derived works/fair use/licensing/copyright ownership are the other parts besides the GPL that can apply in any given case.
Case in point...a big debate awhile ago on the LKML about whether or not a binary kernel module was the same as binary firmware, about some LSM code.
TechTV was bought and assimilated by G4.
Comcast would need to be working with G4 to screw over TechTV.
Libraries still own every copy they have on their shelves.
And since the copies are physical, only one person at a time can check them out.
With a library, you have to wait for an item in high demand. With file sharing, the data is copied and more than one person can use it at the same time.
Please disregard parent.
New information has since invalidated it. See uncle posts for links.
Apparently, not even TFA got it right.
Brazil did not appeal, only protested.
This difference may very well matter as far as ISO procedures are concerned.
I think that if that's the way it happened, it was a nice way not to fall for a possible stall tactic.
If their resources are low enough that they can't spare enough effort to lobby in the first place, then you have a cripple so weak that they can't even use a crutch.
If you have a DOE so weak that it can either lobby or research, but not both, which would you rather they do? Get themselves a boost, or do whatever research they still can?
One good thing that it appears they have going for them is that they are up-front about the rental aspect of it.
Is this the same TPM that's introduced by Intel's TXT?
Um...
wow...if someone's using TXT to enforce DRM, we're hosed.
Electricity is one of those forms of energy that's hard to store.
Sure, you could power your house on nothing but sunlight, but if you're off the grid, you either need to:
1. Stash all the energy somewhere until you need it
2. Confine your high power activities to the day time whenever the sun just darn well feels like shining.
Great...
If the DMCA safe harbor fails because the MAFIAA's legal department DoS's google's, we're screwed.
It doesn't matter how ridiculous it would sound, becuase an employer can FIRE AT WILL.
A company can fire you for sending email to your wife to explain how late you will be working, and it doesn't even have to say so in court.
Termination at will means that if you try to protect your privacy, or even so much as suggest you deserve any, you can be fired if your boss should so fancy, especially if he interprets your desire for privacy as a challenge to the dominion he holds over the people under him.
With termination at will, you might as well be working in China.
Tell me about it.
The first Spyro series was particularly annoying in this regard. Spyro had 3 voices for 5 different games.
He probably waived his right to appeal by settling.
White web pages don't change the difference in power usage of Google.
All it does is change the power usage of third parties who use Google on their OWN crt's.
Employers already have the legal right to read all of your email simply because you are using THEIR equipment to send it. They are effectively your ISP.
There is NOTHING legally that can stop an employer from reading your email except for a contract signed by them that says they won't do so, in which case even then it is merely a contract violation, or another law that expressly makes the emails privileged in some manner.
Everyone has omnipotent search and snoop authority over their own machines when it comes to email, employer or not. It's part of the propriety that comes with OWNING it.
In which case it's no longer a standard in the previous sense of the word.
...
If you exert your monopoly muscles and shove a proprietary extension down everyone's throat, your extension becomes a defacto standard.
Piggybacking a crapload of your own stuff onto a piddly flimsy skeleton that still follows the standard is indeed a major loophole.
I think that standards should themselves be considered a work covered by copyright law, and then GPL'ed or BSD'ed or something. That way, by making any modifcations, you are creating a derived work...etc...etc...
What's great about anonymous cowards like you is that it only takes one mod point to send your default-of-zero crap to minus-1 hell.
And what's great is that it's so obvious I only need to say it once.
Actually, no matter what extensions they write, they must remain compatible with the base standard.
If you break the standard in the process of adding an extension, then you are in violation of the standard.
Rendering "correctly" on IE is a BAD sign, not a good one.
Have you forgotten the big fiasco about IE deliberately NOT honoring standards?
IE is, in short, a proprietary piece of shit that makes up its own rules, and I've heard many cases where web pages must be deliberately broken just so they can be spoonfed to IE.