People may not contribute as much money to the foundation, but maybe they'll be more inclined to contribute more code. It's easy to give some IP back to a non profit, it's hard to give IP to AOL.
First there was napster, which was shut down through the courts, so people made kazaa (ok, I'm skipping a few steps) which is harder to shut down through the court system, so The Man decided to go after individual users... so kazaa made it harder for them to do that...
It's just going to go on and on and on.
To bad kazaaa can't patent the communication protocol, and not license it to RIAA... <SARCASM>Maybe we should enact a law to explicitly enforce these patents</SARCASM>
As I understood it the lawsuit was not to penalize microsoft, but to restore competition. Just a flat out monetary fine wouldn't really have done that.
Oh yeah... this is now the *only* reason I resepct my state's government!
I work for an educational software company... and I've never heard of anyone asking for linux versions of any of our products. If you want companies to make linux versions, you need to get on the ball and ask for them... hint hint...
... and as the people of Australia have already found out, these kind of stories should be kept secret from slashdot for you entire country's connection sake.
It's different becaus the US can only use that information in the search of terrorism. (or at least that's how it will be eventually with the way things are going!)
After that happens, look for the ever broadening scope of terrorism...
Murder? You make people afraid... TERRORIST! Armed Robbery? TERRORIST! Speeding? TERRORIST! Jaywalking? TERRORIST!
So first I buy the dvd of the fellowship, then I buy the extended version... then I buy the dvd of the Two Towers, and then I buy the extended version.
And THEN when all 3 are released, I buy the trilogy... and then the special extended version of that!
Man these guys got it good. Maybe I should smarten up and just wait.
It would be enforceable where it was needed to be enforced.
The only time this law would matter is when a copyright holder is suing someone for using their copyrighted material. If the work was older than 50 years, and the author didn't pay the $1 in the 50th year, then they have no case because of this law. Right now the courts determine who has the copyright on works in these cases, so it can be done, and that wouldn't change.
Well you see... they've been selling free software, so how could they possible have any revenue from it?
I bet if we look at their spending, there will be free software in there. No company would be dumb enough to sell free software, so that must be an accounting irregularity too!
We may have been able... but we weren't willing! Is our only chance for space expoloration countries who think they have to prove something to the rest of the world?
I do have the slightest understanding of how these games work. I also know that they're extremly complex pieces of software that are very hard to throughougly QA since there are SO many things that can be done in-game.
I didn't see anything that led me to believe the baddies didn't do anything that someone with "god" powers in the game could do. Did you read the description of what was happening? It sounded more like they got god/admin/developer/whatever access, and not that someone was manipulating the underlying database. It didn't sound like they teleported EVERYONE, just the people they happened to come accros, the slashdot story made it seem that way tho.
Nobody's stupid enough to allow an up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-select-start sequence in the client to grant table-level control of the database... at least I hope not.
I hope not too, but it looks like something did go wrong! It doesn't matter so much WHAT the method was, but that there was a method, and since we don't know how, it could easily have been done entirely in the game client, and that was my point. If you want a more realistic flaw... Maybe they were able to overflow a chat buffer somewhere by typing in a long message.
Ubisoft is calling it a hack, of course they will to save face... but what if it's just a bug or flaw in the game. What if they did all this through the game client? Is exploiting one of these flaws in a game against the law?
What if I'm playing EQ, and I find a spot in a zone where mobs can't get to. Then I kill things from there. I'm exploiting a bug to become more powerful. Is that the same?
What if I'm playing, and find out if I crouch and jump at the same time I can kill anyone I want? It's obviously cheating, but is it ILLEGAL for me to exploit that?
What if these guys found out if you hit the Ctrl-alt-f3-f4 keys while running north gave them these powers? Then is what they did illegal?
What if these guys used a special piece of software that ran the game in a special mode? Is that illegal? I mean, EVERYONE uses software (your OS) to run the game in a "special" mode (namely, a mode that works properly). Is this worse than exploiting the bug through the normal game interface?
Is this only a problem because is affected other people?
(Remember... big difference between illegal, immoral, and just plain annoying)
Real simple, the in-game actions these people did caused real world finacial harm to the game developers. I saw at least one post stating that people canceled their subscriptions, in part, because of this.
Not to mention the tarnished reputation, which is also worth damages.
Not to mention that breaking a law is illegal, whether you hurt some one or not.
The mere act of creating a creative work grants it some copyright protections. So unless we're not letting the government create anything, I don't see how we can avoid it.
Viruses should put EULA's on them! I mean how many times do you see them posted to bugtraq, or disected and discussed. This is a clear violation of the copyright the author has on the code!
Of course, I'd love to see that author try to sue someone over it.
Cracker: He stole my virus. Judge: I award you $1000 in damages, and 20 years in jail.
Slashdot Mirror
People may not contribute as much money to the foundation, but maybe they'll be more inclined to contribute more code. It's easy to give some IP back to a non profit, it's hard to give IP to AOL.
First there was napster, which was shut down through the courts, so people made kazaa (ok, I'm skipping a few steps) which is harder to shut down through the court system, so The Man decided to go after individual users... so kazaa made it harder for them to do that...
It's just going to go on and on and on.
To bad kazaaa can't patent the communication protocol, and not license it to RIAA... <SARCASM>Maybe we should enact a law to explicitly enforce these patents</SARCASM>
hey sco ... STFU
As I understood it the lawsuit was not to penalize microsoft, but to restore competition. Just a flat out monetary fine wouldn't really have done that.
... this is now the *only* reason I resepct my state's government!
Oh yeah
I work for an educational software company... and I've never heard of anyone asking for linux versions of any of our products. If you want companies to make linux versions, you need to get on the ball and ask for them... hint hint...
um... maybe I'm missing something
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/
I thought Lucas was into the development, but sony was actually running it. So they definatly could screw it up still.
It's different becaus the US can only use that information in the search of terrorism. (or at least that's how it will be eventually with the way things are going!)
After that happens, look for the ever broadening scope of terrorism...
Murder? You make people afraid... TERRORIST!
Armed Robbery? TERRORIST!
Speeding? TERRORIST!
Jaywalking? TERRORIST!
So first I buy the dvd of the fellowship, then I buy the extended version
And THEN when all 3 are released, I buy the trilogy... and then the special extended version of that!
Man these guys got it good. Maybe I should smarten up and just wait.
If another patent describes your patent with a slight modification, then your's isn't non-obvious.
Ever hear the term patent-pending? It's cheap & easy to file something along the lines of "I intend to file a patent on X" ...
From one of the articles:
"The fact that these appear to be transposed from Unix System V into Linux I find to be very damaging."
Sounds to me like it could easily also mean
"The fact that these appear to be transposed from Linux into Unix System V I find to be very damaging to SCO"
Who's to say the copy was one-way! If it was 2-way, isn't SCO required to GPL their stuff?
I would assume there would have to be a provision that stated WHEN the $1 could be paid.
Perhaps something like "From the 48th to the 50th anniversary of the first creation of the work".
Most copywritten material ISN'T worth $1. Corporations can't afford to pay $1 for everything.
If it's not worth a buck, then it has no economical value, and by taking the copyright away from them, they don't lose anything.
You're right... it's not a solution TO THAT PROBLEM. It's not meant to be a solution TO THAT PROBLEM.
It IS a solution to the problem of works being unavailable because the copyright owner can't be found.
It would be enforceable where it was needed to be enforced.
The only time this law would matter is when a copyright holder is suing someone for using their copyrighted material. If the work was older than 50 years, and the author didn't pay the $1 in the 50th year, then they have no case because of this law. Right now the courts determine who has the copyright on works in these cases, so it can be done, and that wouldn't change.
Copyright protect the small guy too. It's more the act of doing *something*, not the associated cost that makes this a good idea.
Well you see... they've been selling free software, so how could they possible have any revenue from it?
I bet if we look at their spending, there will be free software in there. No company would be dumb enough to sell free software, so that must be an accounting irregularity too!
We may have been able... but we weren't willing! Is our only chance for space expoloration countries who think they have to prove something to the rest of the world?
Go China!
I do have the slightest understanding of how these games work. I also know that they're extremly complex pieces of software that are very hard to throughougly QA since there are SO many things that can be done in-game.
t sequence in the client to grant table-level control of the database... at least I hope not.
I didn't see anything that led me to believe the baddies didn't do anything that someone with "god" powers in the game could do. Did you read the description of what was happening? It sounded more like they got god/admin/developer/whatever access, and not that someone was manipulating the underlying database. It didn't sound like they teleported EVERYONE, just the people they happened to come accros, the slashdot story made it seem that way tho.
Nobody's stupid enough to allow an up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-select-star
I hope not too, but it looks like something did go wrong! It doesn't matter so much WHAT the method was, but that there was a method, and since we don't know how, it could easily have been done entirely in the game client, and that was my point. If you want a more realistic flaw... Maybe they were able to overflow a chat buffer somewhere by typing in a long message.
Acutally... that's kind of insightful.
Ubisoft is calling it a hack, of course they will to save face... but what if it's just a bug or flaw in the game. What if they did all this through the game client? Is exploiting one of these flaws in a game against the law?
What if I'm playing EQ, and I find a spot in a zone where mobs can't get to. Then I kill things from there. I'm exploiting a bug to become more powerful. Is that the same?
What if I'm playing, and find out if I crouch and jump at the same time I can kill anyone I want? It's obviously cheating, but is it ILLEGAL for me to exploit that?
What if these guys found out if you hit the Ctrl-alt-f3-f4 keys while running north gave them these powers? Then is what they did illegal?
What if these guys used a special piece of software that ran the game in a special mode? Is that illegal? I mean, EVERYONE uses software (your OS) to run the game in a "special" mode (namely, a mode that works properly). Is this worse than exploiting the bug through the normal game interface?
Is this only a problem because is affected other people?
(Remember... big difference between illegal, immoral, and just plain annoying)
Real simple, the in-game actions these people did caused real world finacial harm to the game developers. I saw at least one post stating that people canceled their subscriptions, in part, because of this.
Not to mention the tarnished reputation, which is also worth damages.
Not to mention that breaking a law is illegal, whether you hurt some one or not.
We should have a constant for each 3d company that we can multiple their benchmarks agains...
...
Maybe nvidia is 0.80 and ATI is 0.90
so then 100fps on a geFrorce card, is really 80 fps, and it would be 90 on an ATI...
The mere act of creating a creative work grants it some copyright protections. So unless we're not letting the government create anything, I don't see how we can avoid it.
Viruses should put EULA's on them! I mean how many times do you see them posted to bugtraq, or disected and discussed. This is a clear violation of the copyright the author has on the code!
Of course, I'd love to see that author try to sue someone over it.
Cracker: He stole my virus.
Judge: I award you $1000 in damages, and 20 years in jail.