While I think the ingenuity being shown on getting around the roadblocks AOL is throwing in the way, how much more difficult would it be to develop a new open messaging standard? Instead of trying to pry open a standard which while easily picked apart, keeps getting the door slammed on the workarounds?
I'm a bit sad to see it go. I haven't picked up many games for it, but it has had a few decent games. Soul Calibur, Soul Reaver, the NFL2K series, and Virtua Tennis. I hope Sega Sports continues the excellence on its new platforms, and that the other developers bring the best of their titles elsewhere.
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All we need are about five backhoes, and a good idea where the fiber links are along the border. Then we can be pretty sure nobody in France is connecting to much of anything;)
Wow, now that's a game I'd love to see an update of: Syndicate. While the game itself was fun and challenging, there was also nothing quite like coming home after a really frustrating day, equipping all four agents with as many miniguns as they could hold, and just going to town and blow everything to smithereens. I wouldn't want to make many changes to the gameplay, but update the graphics a little, maybe allow a POV from your agents... this could be sweet.
You forgot the Marathon series for Mac, some of the finest FPS for its time. There were many hours of saturating the network, and who knows how many failed tests because of those games on our campus. And if you thought SHODAN was a looney in System Shock, just wait until you meet Durandal.
Now, I can possibly see the reason why the US would block G4's from shipping because of their supposed power, but Japan blocking the PSX2 because of the encryption used on the memory cards? ROFL
Hey distributed.net, while we're waiting for OGR to get fixed, can we work on breaking the memory card encryption to show it's not really that strong?;)
Re:No such thing as too pessimistic here.
on
Victory in Holland
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· Score: 1
Reminds me of a quote I like to live by:
Of course, I'm a pessimist. Then when everything works out, I'm pleasantly surprised. (Slightly maligned from original source)
Anyway, it's good to see that most people there supported making up their own minds than letting some software do it for them.
South Park is going to be the most unlikely winner, since the movie itself got a lot of heat for being so offensive. If it does manage to win, however, I'm going to be incredibly impressed at the Academy for recoginizing it. I have to admit the song was damn catchy.
What I'm still waiting for is an animated feature to earn a Best Picture nomination. I really thought Toy Story might be able to pull it off this year, as it was an excellent movie. It's a little disappointing to only see animation only get Best Song nominations time after time (short category excluded of course, at least it's a start) I just hope that when one does finally get the nod, it's not a Disney. Good movies generally, but I'd rather see a real good story win than all the fluff.
I have to give some credit to the judge for pointing out stuff where the defensive arguements are a little shaky, and I guess there wasn't much we could do to stop this injunction for now. I guess once we have the time to go to court, and present some better arguements, and clarify some things, we could win, but for now I guess we're stuck.
But some stuff this judge wrote... I seriously wonder what he was smoking. For example:
Even assuming that some would use DeCSS only to view copyrighted motion pictures which they lawfully possessed, and thus arguably not infringe plaintiffs' copyrights, the record clearly demonstrates that the chief focus of those promoting the dissemination of DeCSS is to permit widespread copying and dissemination of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works,
Uh... I don't remember seeing anything anywhere saying stuff like "Grab this source code, build your own DVD copier!" or anything in a similar vein. Yes, the possibility for something along that lines is inherent, but we just wanted to make our own DVD player fer crying out loud.
Also, don't have the time to go find the actual quote, but I believe there was a line that said "Well yes, it's usable with Linux, but it's also useable with Windows, and they already have their own system." Your Honor, duh, it's source code. With a little wrangling, we can get it to run on whatever we want.
I think if this is the judge who is going to sit on a trial about this, I'm seriously worried, unless we either starts reading up on some facts, or else we make dang sure to educate everyone during the defense.
Can't help thinking about the movie when reading this. Think about what you could do if you hack someone's brain. Heck, just drop some false memories in there, and really freak them out.
Okay, so we now have just a few big-assed corporations that apparently controll what we're supposed to think, supposed to feel, supposed to understand. I can live with that.
However, are people going to really care where all this stuff is coming from? Maybe I'm making some really broad generalizations here, but I think people, in general, don't care too much where they get what they need. As long as the have a good job, a roof over their heads, plenty to eat, and are otherwise relatively happy, they're not going to care that half the stuff they use or read or watch comes from one broad source. As long as they stay happy in their own secure (ha!) world, they're not going to worry about it.
Reminds me a little of something I read in a Heinlein novel. There's the people who can think, the people who can't think, and the people who don't want to think. If you try to make those people who don't want to to start thinking, more than likely you're going to get clobbered so they can go back to their quiet, unthinking lives.
So, maybe things are going down the tubes. Maybe you want to point out to everyone that things are going that way. You're probably going to find that people don't really care, and just want to let the others do the thinking.
Well, just left work, grabbed our weekly student run newspaper, and right on the front page I read that RIAA has aimed their guns at us. While I'm one of the computer consultants for the campus, I don't handle most of the complaints besides whacking the people who send spam mails, but I'm wondering how bad it's going to get soon.
The question I raise is, how hard is RIAA going to push us? I can understand if it's sitting on one of our university owned machines, we'd have no problems erasing those no matter who put that up there, as that's our property. But what about servers which the students are running, regardless of what kind of bandwidth they take up? Are we going to be expected to watch each and every frigging packet on the network to make sure it's not copyrighted, or part of a copyrighted item? If that's what RIAA wants, they can blow it out their ass.
I can understand about them being worried, as they don't want to let it appear that they are not actively defending their copyrights. However, I also respect the fact that the students are free to use their own personal computers as they see fit, as long as they are not taking up too many resources. Now if they ask me where this IP is located that they have found objectionable, likely copyrighted material, I'll happily provide a physical location so that THEY can talk to the person, and find out if it's a true copyright violation. I don't have the authority to break into a personal computer on campus owned by a student. You get the police to do that yourself.
Okay, so apparently Napster is just a tool to distributes files, and doesn't necessarily cause copyright infringement. I can live with that, as I can resonably agree with that assumption. Now, you start using Napster to distribute files, and people start complaining that the network is unusable, and I watch the collusion light on your ethernet segment go nearly solid from all the usage. Do you really think I'm just going to sit here and tell you to have fun, or do you think I'm going to shut you down?
If you want to really get technical, let's look at the AUP we have here at Drexel...
1. All computer and network access is denied unless expressly granted. Access is generally granted by the Office of Information Resources and Technology in the form of computer and network accounts to registered students, faculty, staff, and others as appropriate for such purposes as research, education (including self-study), or University administration. [My italics]
Technically, we can bust you for playing the latest game over the network, unless you can somehow clain it's for research. But frankly, I'm not going to spend my time trying to look for every user who is doing something not covered under research, education, blah, blah, blah. I've got other things to worry about, and generally they don't use that much bandwidth to really be noticable. Feel free to ruin your GPA in your own way *grin*
But getting to where we really get on your case...
6. You may not engage in actions that interfere with the use by others of any computers and networks, that interfere with the supervisory or accounting functions of the systems, or that are likely to have such effects. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to, the placing of unlawful information on the system; the transmitting of data or programs likely to result in the loss of the recipient's work or system downtime; the sending of "chain letters" or "broadcast" messages to lists or individuals; any other use that causes congestion of the networks or interferes with the work of others.
That last part says it all. If we look at where our bandwidth is going, and for some reason you have a big lump of it, and you can't give us a good reason as to why you're using that huge lump of bandwidth, we're going to cut you off, plain and simple. Have a nice day.
We have the usual mentions of not using our network to transmit copyrighted material without permission, academic honesty and all that, but it really boils down to a matter of if you're making us notice you.
Maybe I've just been messing around with Cyberpunk and Shadowrun too much in the last few weeks, but this sounds to me like the beginning of one of the megacorps they always have in those games.
I'm guessing the FCC might want to take a look at this shortly, but are they really going to have much clout? Granted, the USA is each company's home base, but would they really want to look at how much content they can put onto their users? Also, what if they decide to keep their system closed? Not just the fact that if you want to use their cable modem service, you would have to use AOL, but if you'd want to see their programming (CNN, TBS, HBO, etc.) you'd have to accept THEIR cable service, THEIR internet service, and basically force you to accept all content from them?
I have to say that I'm damn scared about this. I think this merged company is going to have the clout where they make all the rules, and if the FCC doesn't like it, they'll just pull their services. While maybe we wouldn't mourn the loss of AOL, I think there would be a far greater outcry in the loss of services that Time Warner provides.
These days, it hard to tell who is responsible for copyright infringement. Hey, we've got people sending copyright software back and forth on our network, oh no, they're gonna shut down our whole network and sue the University!
In a similar vein, what if someone is using our network do distribute MP3's which they should not? Is it the network provider's fault that that person has the ability do distribute these files, or is the person distributing them the sole person to take responsibility?
With new methods for transmitting and distributing information being developed almost daily, I think the copyright groups are looking for ways to retain control, and for this I must agree with them. Copyright is important to help foster the growth of new ideas, and the ability to profit from them. Without this, people would have little motivation to develop new ideas, as it would likely be used by someone else, and they could claim all the work.
What needs to be done is for everyone to realize that for every tool made, there's going to be legal and illegal uses for it. What we need to do is go after those who do use the tool illegally, and make sure that what is illegal is clearly defined.
How far should Universities go?
on
Copyright!
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· Score: 1
I'm both a student and a computer tech here at Drexel, and I'm seeing both sides of the issues. Everyone is having fun sharing their files, warez, etc on our campus network. Technically, we can bust them for the sharing of copyrighted software, as the usage policy we have everyone read before getting an account states that the sharing of copyrighted material is illegal. However, I don't think we've done anything against anyone in recent time, unless their server started taking obscene amounts of bandwidth, and just asked for the attention. Should the University be responsible for regularly scrubbing their network to see if any illegal activity is going on, or is this a case where it can wait until a complaint is raised by some other authority? It's always a mess, and frankly I'm not even sure if on a University level it's even feasable to constantly monitor the network for stuff like this. Any thoughts?
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Yes, give us our DVDs with a nice pack of extras, make it something we want.
But no, don't take away our freedom to use the movie within our rights.
someone unleashes anthrax.vbs against Outlook users worldwide.
While I think the ingenuity being shown on getting around the roadblocks AOL is throwing in the way, how much more difficult would it be to develop a new open messaging standard? Instead of trying to pry open a standard which while easily picked apart, keeps getting the door slammed on the workarounds?
They're considering legislation we might like? When did they turn that cooling laser a few articles back towards Hell?
I'm a bit sad to see it go. I haven't picked up many games for it, but it has had a few decent games. Soul Calibur, Soul Reaver, the NFL2K series, and Virtua Tennis. I hope Sega Sports continues the excellence on its new platforms, and that the other developers bring the best of their titles elsewhere.
You may not make illegal copies of this comment. Illegality of copies is determined by the laws of Estonia-on-Avon, a small principality covering approximately one half acre somewhere in West Tenessee. A copy of these laws may be obtained by visiting Estonia-on-Avon, and asking Prince Bob to write down a copy for you. Punishment for illegal copies will also be left up to Prince Bob.
You may not reverse engineer this comment to attempt to discover the source code of this comment for use in your own products. If you wish to make modifications of this product, please contact us for further info. Infractions of this clause will lead to visit by a large man named Guido at late hours of the night.
All we need are about five backhoes, and a good idea where the fiber links are along the border. Then we can be pretty sure nobody in France is connecting to much of anything ;)
I can see it now. Computer with built in coffee warmer. Now that's how you make some serious cash.
Wow, now that's a game I'd love to see an update of: Syndicate. While the game itself was fun and challenging, there was also nothing quite like coming home after a really frustrating day, equipping all four agents with as many miniguns as they could hold, and just going to town and blow everything to smithereens. I wouldn't want to make many changes to the gameplay, but update the graphics a little, maybe allow a POV from your agents... this could be sweet.
Nah. I think this is more like the 18 wheeler hitting a Pinto from behind.
You forgot the Marathon series for Mac, some of the finest FPS for its time. There were many hours of saturating the network, and who knows how many failed tests because of those games on our campus. And if you thought SHODAN was a looney in System Shock, just wait until you meet Durandal.
I can see it now. Oscar night 2001 turns into a remake of the Gong Show. "Thank you, thank you, thanks to all my... " *GONG*
Hey distributed.net, while we're waiting for OGR to get fixed, can we work on breaking the memory card encryption to show it's not really that strong? ;)
Of course, I'm a pessimist. Then when everything works out, I'm pleasantly surprised. (Slightly maligned from original source)
Anyway, it's good to see that most people there supported making up their own minds than letting some software do it for them.
What I'm still waiting for is an animated feature to earn a Best Picture nomination. I really thought Toy Story might be able to pull it off this year, as it was an excellent movie. It's a little disappointing to only see animation only get Best Song nominations time after time (short category excluded of course, at least it's a start) I just hope that when one does finally get the nod, it's not a Disney. Good movies generally, but I'd rather see a real good story win than all the fluff.
But some stuff this judge wrote... I seriously wonder what he was smoking. For example:
Even assuming that some would use DeCSS only to view copyrighted motion pictures which they lawfully possessed, and thus arguably not infringe plaintiffs' copyrights, the record clearly demonstrates that the chief focus of those promoting the dissemination of DeCSS is to permit widespread copying and dissemination of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works,
Uh... I don't remember seeing anything anywhere saying stuff like "Grab this source code, build your own DVD copier!" or anything in a similar vein. Yes, the possibility for something along that lines is inherent, but we just wanted to make our own DVD player fer crying out loud.
Also, don't have the time to go find the actual quote, but I believe there was a line that said "Well yes, it's usable with Linux, but it's also useable with Windows, and they already have their own system." Your Honor, duh, it's source code. With a little wrangling, we can get it to run on whatever we want.
I think if this is the judge who is going to sit on a trial about this, I'm seriously worried, unless we either starts reading up on some facts, or else we make dang sure to educate everyone during the defense.
Can't help thinking about the movie when reading this. Think about what you could do if you hack someone's brain. Heck, just drop some false memories in there, and really freak them out.
However, are people going to really care where all this stuff is coming from? Maybe I'm making some really broad generalizations here, but I think people, in general, don't care too much where they get what they need. As long as the have a good job, a roof over their heads, plenty to eat, and are otherwise relatively happy, they're not going to care that half the stuff they use or read or watch comes from one broad source. As long as they stay happy in their own secure (ha!) world, they're not going to worry about it.
Reminds me a little of something I read in a Heinlein novel. There's the people who can think, the people who can't think, and the people who don't want to think. If you try to make those people who don't want to to start thinking, more than likely you're going to get clobbered so they can go back to their quiet, unthinking lives.
So, maybe things are going down the tubes. Maybe you want to point out to everyone that things are going that way. You're probably going to find that people don't really care, and just want to let the others do the thinking.
More ingredients! Time to make some new recipies for the Anarchists Cookbook!
The question I raise is, how hard is RIAA going to push us? I can understand if it's sitting on one of our university owned machines, we'd have no problems erasing those no matter who put that up there, as that's our property. But what about servers which the students are running, regardless of what kind of bandwidth they take up? Are we going to be expected to watch each and every frigging packet on the network to make sure it's not copyrighted, or part of a copyrighted item? If that's what RIAA wants, they can blow it out their ass.
I can understand about them being worried, as they don't want to let it appear that they are not actively defending their copyrights. However, I also respect the fact that the students are free to use their own personal computers as they see fit, as long as they are not taking up too many resources. Now if they ask me where this IP is located that they have found objectionable, likely copyrighted material, I'll happily provide a physical location so that THEY can talk to the person, and find out if it's a true copyright violation. I don't have the authority to break into a personal computer on campus owned by a student. You get the police to do that yourself.
If you want to really get technical, let's look at the AUP we have here at Drexel...
1. All computer and network access is denied unless expressly granted. Access is generally granted by the Office of Information Resources and Technology in the form of computer and network accounts to registered students, faculty, staff, and others as appropriate for such purposes as research, education (including self-study), or University administration. [My italics]
Technically, we can bust you for playing the latest game over the network, unless you can somehow clain it's for research. But frankly, I'm not going to spend my time trying to look for every user who is doing something not covered under research, education, blah, blah, blah. I've got other things to worry about, and generally they don't use that much bandwidth to really be noticable. Feel free to ruin your GPA in your own way *grin*
But getting to where we really get on your case...
6. You may not engage in actions that interfere with the use by others of any computers and networks, that interfere with the supervisory or accounting functions of the systems, or that are likely to have such effects. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to, the placing of unlawful information on the system; the transmitting of data or programs likely to result in the loss of the recipient's work or system downtime; the sending of "chain letters" or "broadcast" messages to lists or individuals; any other use that causes congestion of the networks or interferes with the work of others.
That last part says it all. If we look at where our bandwidth is going, and for some reason you have a big lump of it, and you can't give us a good reason as to why you're using that huge lump of bandwidth, we're going to cut you off, plain and simple. Have a nice day.
We have the usual mentions of not using our network to transmit copyrighted material without permission, academic honesty and all that, but it really boils down to a matter of if you're making us notice you.
Matrix 2 and 3 are going to be chock full of AOL ads ;)
I'm guessing the FCC might want to take a look at this shortly, but are they really going to have much clout? Granted, the USA is each company's home base, but would they really want to look at how much content they can put onto their users? Also, what if they decide to keep their system closed? Not just the fact that if you want to use their cable modem service, you would have to use AOL, but if you'd want to see their programming (CNN, TBS, HBO, etc.) you'd have to accept THEIR cable service, THEIR internet service, and basically force you to accept all content from them?
I have to say that I'm damn scared about this. I think this merged company is going to have the clout where they make all the rules, and if the FCC doesn't like it, they'll just pull their services. While maybe we wouldn't mourn the loss of AOL, I think there would be a far greater outcry in the loss of services that Time Warner provides.
In a similar vein, what if someone is using our network do distribute MP3's which they should not? Is it the network provider's fault that that person has the ability do distribute these files, or is the person distributing them the sole person to take responsibility?
With new methods for transmitting and distributing information being developed almost daily, I think the copyright groups are looking for ways to retain control, and for this I must agree with them. Copyright is important to help foster the growth of new ideas, and the ability to profit from them. Without this, people would have little motivation to develop new ideas, as it would likely be used by someone else, and they could claim all the work.
What needs to be done is for everyone to realize that for every tool made, there's going to be legal and illegal uses for it. What we need to do is go after those who do use the tool illegally, and make sure that what is illegal is clearly defined.
I'm both a student and a computer tech here at Drexel, and I'm seeing both sides of the issues. Everyone is having fun sharing their files, warez, etc on our campus network. Technically, we can bust them for the sharing of copyrighted software, as the usage policy we have everyone read before getting an account states that the sharing of copyrighted material is illegal. However, I don't think we've done anything against anyone in recent time, unless their server started taking obscene amounts of bandwidth, and just asked for the attention. Should the University be responsible for regularly scrubbing their network to see if any illegal activity is going on, or is this a case where it can wait until a complaint is raised by some other authority? It's always a mess, and frankly I'm not even sure if on a University level it's even feasable to constantly monitor the network for stuff like this. Any thoughts?