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User: EzInKy

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  1. Re:Brand MSN, Just like Brand X, Only Less Stuff on Microsoft Creates Static With New Webcast Feature · · Score: 1

    That strikes me as utterly walking into a law office and screaming, "Sue me!" .. but then, Microsoft has enough money to fight or even intimidate, but it seems completely pointless. It's hard to believe MSN could be so blatant, normally there's some craftyness to their attempts to lose money, but this... geez.

    How is this any different than "ksuxless plays more music than ksuxmore" spots that radio stations themselves run? These "if you you like them you'll love us" type of ads are nothing new.

  2. Re:What BMI will say on BMI Reports All-Time Profit High Despite Piracy · · Score: 0

    Um, no. Copyright is defined in the Constitution. It grants the creator of the work thr right to control how and when the a copy of the work is created and distributed.

    The Constitution does not define copyright, it grants Congress the power to define it.

    If this right did not exist, there would be drastically less incentive to create, and the public domain would become void of artistic works. The problem is that the original terms of copyright have been extended far beyond the point of any usefulness.

    You are right, that is the basic problem. Congress itself has made the public domain void of artistic works by extending the length of copyright terms without even requiring something as trivial as a yearly renewal to maintain the monopoly they have granted.

    When you say "if the public decides" you are ignoring the fundamental protection from the tyranny of the majority that the constitution affords us all.

    Unjust laws that are obeyed don't get changed.

  3. Re:Stupid GPL on Does Shareware X-Chat for Windows Violate the GPL? · · Score: 1

    Absolutely it's hard to understand. Those users still have the freedom to use the original source if they want. But you have now forced the person who enhanced the original source to give away their freedom to keep their work private.

    TRUE Freedom is giving away the source without attaching communistic idealogy to that freedom.


    It is actually pretty funny when those who are unwilling to pay the price to distribute GPL'd code with their own resort to calling what is really a pure capitalistic license communistic. You want code? You pay code. How much simpler could a barter system be?

  4. Re:Two points on Liberated Games Launches · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I see a lot of people linking to abandonware sites. Abandonware is still copyright violation, and its status in that respect is no different from zero-day warez (only the arguments and justifications surrounding it are slightly different).

    The purpose of copyright protection is to increase the amount of works available to the public. Abandoned software can fade into obscurity and become lost forever. Congress not requiring an anual renewal of copyrights was a diservice to the public. Personally, I don't care if "the mouse" is forever copyrighted as long as Disney renews its copyright forever. But don't let works fade away because the creator becomes disinterested.

  5. Re:DoJ: Preserving the Status Quo or Your Money Ba on Justice Dept. Raids Homes of File Swappers · · Score: 1

    Once upon a time, conditions like these would start mass emigrations. When the world was still largely unexplored, people packed up, moved out, and started their own countries.

    But where can the persecuted flee today?


    Remember, it is Congress who has the authority to set copyright law, not the **AAs. And, just as in your example of prohibition, when enough people get pissed the laws will be changed when those that are pissing them off are voted out of office.

  6. Re:Yay... on University Tests Legal File Downloading System · · Score: 1

    Why don't you people get it? Thieving is not a civil right, especially not using the tax-money payed bandwidth of your university.

    Oh he gets it all right, he gets it enough to know to stay as far away from the RIAA as possible. It would be just plain idiotic to go anywhere near an organization that chose to screw potential customer with lawsuits before choosing to work with them.

  7. Re:Yay... on University Tests Legal File Downloading System · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And people wonder why record labels have been unwilling to try selling music online. When they do, people still criticize them.

    Only because they earned that criticism by their refusal to adapt to technological change. Many people have already delegated the former powerful record labels to the dustbins of history that include the carraige makers of the nineteenth century. They had their chance and the screwed up by choosing to sue people rather than offer a solution that would benefit all.

  8. Re:Good idea on University Tests Legal File Downloading System · · Score: 1

    The problem is that it keeps the RIAA alive. A few years ago that would've been a good thing but not today after their years of refusal to give up their control of music distribution.

  9. Re:KDE vs. GNOME on KDE 3.3 Officially Released · · Score: 1

    No, it's more like carpenters complaining about hammers that have a builtin coin-slot and electroshocker. Whenever you want to use one of these you must insert a coin first - or you'll be buzzed.

    And the commercial developers who are using the QT hammer won't be buzzing their users if they don't hand over a coin for their wares? Seems all Troll Tech is saying is "you make money, I make money." What can be more fair than that?

  10. Re:KDE vs. GNOME on KDE 3.3 Officially Released · · Score: 1

    KDE also look a lot better than GNOME. I think that KDE is the best GUI environment for UNIX (besides Aqua). However, it is not the best for developers since they cannot create commercial application for it without paying TrollTech.

    So you are saying that if you want to use Troll Tech's code to make money you have to pay Troll Tech money.

    Isn't that what capitalism was all about?

  11. Re:This might be nice... on KDE 3.3 Officially Released · · Score: 1

    Guess I'll add a me too to that. I had just switched my g/f from Gentoo to Debian because she kept mucking up config files and told her that some of her software would be "old" because of Debian's notoriously slow releases. I was almost floored when KDE 3.3 popped up when I typed startx.

  12. Re:redhat on Writing Software for Worldwide Distribution Proves Difficult · · Score: 1

    It's the cost of doing business internationally. You wouldn't build a manufacturing plant in another country without investigating applicable local laws for zoning, environmental impact, building codes, why would you release software internationally without doing similar checking?

    Because a manufacturing plant is usually located in one spot making it subject to one set of local laws while software can be used globally and finds itself up against a myriad of often conflicting regulations.

  13. Re:Distributing should NOT be heald against SCO on IBM Files for Partial Summary Judgement vs SCO · · Score: 1

    I'm just saying that if the GPL is interpreted to give them no way to act legitimately while defending IP claims over improperly-inserted code, it puts at risk code that companies did not INTEND to release, and thus inhibits adoption of the GPL by companies otherwise inclined to do so.

    I can see where it would be safer for a company to stay all the way out than it would be for them to get halfway in. All the way out means any of their code found in OSS would have had to been inserted in some neferious way. That still doesn't rule out the said company itself being behind the infringement.

  14. Re:Even if they offer a "download" on IBM Files for Partial Summary Judgement vs SCO · · Score: 1

    I've been arguing with my Linux using friends for a long time that Linus should change the license to a truly free one. One free of the viral restrictions of the GPL. That license is the BSD license. Think about it people. I personally call out Linus on the table. What about it you herring eating freak? are you gonna make sense for once, or not? Change the license. Get away from the communistic GPL. Stallman bugs you, why don't you bug him back?

    The GPL says for the price of allowing the distribution of your small contribution you are entitled to distribute everyone else's contributions. That's like paying $1 and receiving $1,000,000 in return. Seems like a pretty profitable arrangement to me.

  15. Re:Distributing should NOT be heald against SCO on IBM Files for Partial Summary Judgement vs SCO · · Score: 1

    Now the GPL advocates might want to argue that, nevertheless, the victim of such theft must now either free the code or stop distributing and lose all GPL rights. But IMHO that's a bad idea.

    Since you are defining non-licensed distribution of code as theft, then it would also be a bad idea to allow someone to steal others code by not following the GPL. Besides, it could also lead to many other companies "accidentally" placing code under a free license only later to claim it back thus disrupting the whole Open Source development model.

  16. Re:SP2 incompatible on Microsoft Lists SP2 Incompatibilities · · Score: 1

    This is most likely a problem with your macrovision-enabled DVD playback software, and most likely is unrelated to sp2

    If it worked before sp2 was installed and quit working after sp2 was installed then it seems obvious sp2 broke it.

  17. Re:And who is to blame??? on TransGaming Tagging Downloads to Combat Piracy · · Score: 1

    In fact, the license says upfront why they provide the CVS and that they would prefer that people not use it to distribute binaries, etc.


    Gentoo did not distribute binaries, it provided an ebuild to compile the CVS code from source. Yet it too received a "warning" from Transgaming. That's when I said f* 'em and cancelled my subscription. Before that I would have been more than happy to throw two, three, maybe even four times the subscription price their way to support getting my favorite games working on Linux.

  18. Re:Yippie! on FTC Bars Popup Backdoor Ads · · Score: 1

    OK, I agree that SOME limited government regulation is required. Are you seriously comparing popup ads to a poisoned water supply or contaminated food?

    Yes.

  19. Re:Stop playing solitaire on my dialysis machine on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules · · Score: 1

    Heart monitors, definately NOT running Windows.


    Wanna bet? Here is a description for a system similar to the one our hospital uses.

    "Flexible -- the Infinity Gateway applications can "speak" with systems that employ different communication protocols, including HL7, ASTM, and Windows WinAPI"

    I even saw the "XP" logo when the machine was rebooted after a lock-up.

  20. Re:opensource on Tech Employment Drops Sharply In 2004 · · Score: 1

    You're reply mentions two of the biggest factors affecting employment of programmers...commodization and monopoly. The later reduces the number of companies needing developers and the former reduces the total number of developers needed to create a product. Unlike a factory that needs labor to continue to reproduce hardware widgets after they are perfected software widgets do not have this requirement.

  21. Re:opensource on Tech Employment Drops Sharply In 2004 · · Score: 1

    Though you're wrong because your view is short sighted, your point is still interesting and does not deserve to modded flame bait.

    When thousands of companies depend on one supplier to create and maintain their software then you have one potential employer, while thousands of companies depending on thousands of other companies to create and maintain their software then you have thousands of potential employers.

  22. Re:Even Gentoo works on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    The GUI I mentioned, for instance. Where did you find out about Kpackage, guitoo or porthole (none of which I'd ever heard of)? Searching the Gentoo forums, I suppose, but assume I couldn't figure out the right keywords to search for.

    The filesystem in /usr/portage is organized by categories. For example, porthole is located in /usr/portage/app-portage/porthole. A description of the program is in the ebuild. So, though it is nice to be able to:

    1) Launch app
    2) Click on category
    3) Click on app
    4) Read description

    It is still just as easy to:

    1) cd /usr/portage
    2) cd category
    3) cd app name
    4) nano app.ebuild

  23. Re:Even Gentoo works on Exploring Linux Desktop Myths · · Score: 1

    Maybe someone needs to make a nice clicky version of that. :-P One thing I think is missing is a nice searchable GUI interface for the portage stuff... There probably even IS one, but who the heck knows where to look? :)

    KDE 3.3's Kpackage supports Portage. I had to comment the "DO_NOT_COMPILE" in the ebuild to play with it. And there is also guitoo and porthole. But you can use just about any graphical file manager to see what's available (/usr/portage/) and what's installed (/var/db/pkg).

  24. Re:Gee... I wonder why that is.... on Australia to Get Software Patents and Anti-Circumvention Laws · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe it has something to do with making money as opposed to not making money. Remember, a company that has IP can generate jobs and make money for the government in the form of taxes. Removing IP and you just dropped the bottom out of that market, which may be profitable for developing countries.

    IP is only an issue if you make it an issue, which Australia seems want to do. But still there is hope for Europe and Asia who may yet still realize how much of a technological lead can be realized if they stick together and ensure their developers can create without having to fear being sued for something as silly as allowing a user to click once.

  25. Gnome isn't too big, nor is it ugly... on Feature Preview of Gnome 2.8 · · Score: 1

    ...as some posters seem to claim. It actually can be made to look quite nice and really is no bigger than it needs to be to perform the tasks for which it was designed. The only real problem I have with it is the way it identifies some applications in its menus with generic terms such as "web browser" and "editor" instead of the actual name of the program.

    Why does it do this? If all applications were identified this way a user could end up not knowing which item to click to launch the correct program. If the idea is to make it easy for new users, wouldn't a submenu system make more sense...such as Net-Browsers and entries for available choices?