Please lose the icon before you get in trouble
on
RFC for Spammers
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· Score: 2
According to Hormel Foods' SPAM Trademark Policy, "We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term." Hormel just doesn't want SPAM Luncheon Meat to be confused with UCE.
So what icon should we use? I'd suggest an overflowing mailbox.
way too many distros run stuff like portmap by default
Red Hat is taking the initiative of disabling services in the default installation of Red Hat Linux 7.1. If you're worried about l4m3rz getting in through WUFTPd, use PureFTPd instead.
most stores don't return opened software because of piracy issues.
Could a fellow argue that when you buy software from the store, all parties involved (including the retailer) agree to the terms printed on the box, which include "end user gets full refund if end user does not agree to the full EULA, even after the box is opened"? Of course, I am probably talking out my rear end.
The First Amendment does not say you can say whatever you want. It says the government cannot regulate what you say.
The government regulates and enforces private contracts. Therefore, contracts are Federal private law. The First Amendment is unalienable under Federal law.
But all of this is offtopic because the article does not mention the United States.
If people didn't want to live under the restrictions of the declaration (whatever they may be), then said people simply should not have signed.
I understand, but offtopic hypothetical: If you don't agree with the terms of the only contract that the monopoly provider of an essential service provides, what is your recourse?
Linux has to come bundled with software too. Would you like to run a plain kernel? I would think not. The OS itsself does nothing. It's the software that does the work.
So why can't Microsoft come up with something better than command.com (not nearly as powerful as even old-skool sh), MS Paint (no antialiasing, no filters), or Notepad/Wordpad (no regexp searching, no programmability, no M-x tetris)? Why can't they match bash, GIMP, or Emacs? MS doesn't even include a compiler for Christ's sake.
Just as logical to ban TCP/IP from windows and make you buy/download the upgrade!!!
Except this is almost what Microsoft does with its Windows 2000 operating systems. Win2K Professional is./configured at compile time (or perhaps even run time; I forget which) to handle fewer maximum concurrent TCP connections than Win2K Server or Win2K Advanced Server.
On average, the price of each new version of Windows or Office doubles
Windows 95 full: $150. Windows 98 full: $150. Windows ME full: $150. The freedoms offered by Free Software: Priceless®.
Windows pricing hasn't doubled; you're just becoming more and more accustomed to free software.
Compilation of large packages has to be supervised
on
Eazel Come, Eazel Go?
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· Score: 2
Just run a compile script and get on with your life.
And come back after dinner and a movie to see that the compile stopped with an error three minutes after you had left. Compilation of large packages has to be supervised.
Likewise, you can use a pirated copy of Qt and develop on a pirated copy of Solaris. There's no band of clowns running around demanding 'show us the source' because you won't show them proof that you paid for your copy of Qt. It's very unlikely that Trolltech themselves will be bugging you(unless you become a big success, and in that case you just buy a Trolltech shrinkwrapped box after the fact). It's far easier and cheaper to put out a Shareware title for *n?x for reasons like this. There isn't a big $2000 startup cost before you can sell the first copy. And Trolltech doesn't have as many bands of zealots out there forcing you to 'open the source' if you don't have a Qt recipt. (they do if you're a big enterprise, but here we're talking about small groups/individuals churning out closed-source shareware).
Btw, what's up with Delphion moving to a non-Free service?
Delphion will be adding new services and charging at least $75 per month (out of consumer price range) per user. The U.S. patent collection will remain available for free under a New York Times-style deal, although it will probably be more complex than simply $url =~ s/www/archive/
According to Hormel Foods' SPAM Trademark Policy, "We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term." Hormel just doesn't want SPAM Luncheon Meat to be confused with UCE.
The lawsuit claims that Roxio is infringing on Gracenote's patents
Any conforming implementation of the CDDB protocol will infringe Gracenote's patent on hashing a CD's table of contents. Look at U.S. Patent 6,061,680 and foreign counterparts. (N.B.: Legalese 'record' != vinyl. 'Record' is short for 'phonorecord,' a copy of a sound recording.) This patent is on shaky ground, as it was filed in July 16, 1999, when a working CDDB system (i.e. prior art) was presumably already in wide public use.
That said, it seems to me that this case hinges on CDDB proving that freedb have simply copied their database.
The CDDB database was originally released under the GNU General Public License. The FreeDB people originally seeded FreeDB with a snapshot of CDDB from back when it was under the GPL. Because there is no language in the GPL allowing an author to revoke it unilaterally, FreeDB is in the clear copyright-wise.
Of course, nothing you see on Slashdot is legal advice.
By his OWN definition, what Stallman is pushing is Free Software
One word: Trademark. RMS was the first to use the term in commerce; therefore, he should get to dictate what it means. It's too bad the FSF didn't apply for some sort of trademark on FREE SOFTWARE.
You mentioned copyleft but not viral copyleft. I'd suggest the GNU Lesser GPL with an additional disclaimer to the effect: "The GNU Lesser General Public License does not give you any trademark rights in the name ______. However, permission is granted to distribute unmodified copies of the Software under the name ______."
He only mentioned parallel, which would not include USB.
Just to clear this up: I'm referring to interfaces that connect directly to a workstation (such as LPT parallel, RSxxx serial, SCSI, and USB) as opposed to interfaces that connect to a network (FireWire, FC/AL, and Ethernet). Printers for the consumer market tend to lack PostScript in favor of raw bitmap printing using an undocumented protocol.
RDRAM is also known as Rambus-DRAM. Can't get much more nom-centric than that.
Except you can't buy "RAMBUS brand" RDRAM. I couldn't even find a link on rambus.com to any retailers selling RDRAM sticks themselves; the "Where to Buy" page mentions only systems that use Rambus memory.
A technology development company gains more credibility if it has a "house brand" of hardware. If Rambus wanted a credible claim on SDRAM technology (as opposed to a Lawsuit Company reputation), it could have sold "RAMBUS brand" DDR SDRAM.
shoot, if a printer is networkable and speaks postscript, are the tools for printer configuration that ship with linux not good enough already?
Last time I checked, a CMYK (i.e. color) laser printer cost well into four figures, too much for a home consumer's budget. Many of the CMYK inkjet printers are often called "GDI" printers (i.e. Winprinters), which means they connect through a parallel port and speak not PCL, not PostScript, but a proprietary language whose only primitive is horizontal strips of pixels one print-head tall. This is why you need (1) Ghostscript to render PS files to bitmaps, and (2) the printer driver to send the bitmaps to the printer. Printer makers often neglect to specify the interface from the computer to the printer, making it hard to develop (2).
Sure, it's nice to say that a company should "make things". However, the business model that Rambus (and Lucent, et al) uses is not necessarily flawed. A company dedicated to pure tech research can probably churn out ideas much faster than one also burdened with actually implementing those ideas.
Well, if Rambus wanted not to have a perception of "a company whose product is lawsuits," it could have structured its business model more like Transmeta's. A company gains a lot more respect if its trademark is the PRIMARY trademark on a widely used product. Transmeta achieves this by contracting work out to fabs and then putting the TRANSMETA CRUSOE name, not some fab's name, on the end product.
By licensing these patents to manufacturers, a Rambus or Lucent can focus on improving the technologies they already have and creating new ones along the way.
But by putting its own name on the product, it potentially gains more street credibility with the "information wants to be free" crowd.
Slashdot Mirror
According to Hormel Foods' SPAM Trademark Policy, "We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term." Hormel just doesn't want SPAM Luncheon Meat to be confused with UCE.
So what icon should we use? I'd suggest an overflowing mailbox.
Delphion is effectively dead for casual use; long live USPTO. Here's a link to the patent on a .gov site.
For me, the compelling app is the digital TV set top box (Hopefully, fully HDTV capable). Combine that with Tivo-like functionality
HDTV is encrypted in such a way that GGM owners can restrict recording of a program, and with that capability, who (other than PBS) won't?
just as much as I can copy under fair use?
It depends on how much money you have to give to the judge. Fair use under United States copyright law is defined vaguely by 17 USC 107 but severely limited in practice by 17 USC 1201. However, only nine people know what fair use really is.
way too many distros run stuff like portmap by default
Red Hat is taking the initiative of disabling services in the default installation of Red Hat Linux 7.1. If you're worried about l4m3rz getting in through WUFTPd, use PureFTPd instead.
most stores don't return opened software because of piracy issues.
Could a fellow argue that when you buy software from the store, all parties involved (including the retailer) agree to the terms printed on the box, which include "end user gets full refund if end user does not agree to the full EULA, even after the box is opened"? Of course, I am probably talking out my rear end.
The First Amendment does not say you can say whatever you want. It says the government cannot regulate what you say.
The government regulates and enforces private contracts. Therefore, contracts are Federal private law. The First Amendment is unalienable under Federal law.
But all of this is offtopic because the article does not mention the United States.
If people didn't want to live under the restrictions of the declaration (whatever they may be), then said people simply should not have signed.
I understand, but offtopic hypothetical: If you don't agree with the terms of the only contract that the monopoly provider of an essential service provides, what is your recourse?
DISCLAIMER: nothing you see onI'd use Winamp, but it doesn't play videos.
The VidAmp plugin for Winamp lets you watch .avi and .mpg (through WiMP's MCI drivers) and .mov (through the drivers in an installed copy of QuickTime).
Linux has to come bundled with software too. Would you like to run a plain kernel? I would think not. The OS itsself does nothing. It's the software that does the work.
So why can't Microsoft come up with something better than command.com (not nearly as powerful as even old-skool sh), MS Paint (no antialiasing, no filters), or Notepad/Wordpad (no regexp searching, no programmability, no M-x tetris)? Why can't they match bash, GIMP, or Emacs? MS doesn't even include a compiler for Christ's sake.
non-proprietry formats such as MP3
MP3 is NOT non-proprietary; it's patented. The token non-proprietary free audio standard isn't MP3; it's Ogg Vorbis.
Just as logical to ban TCP/IP from windows and make you buy/download the upgrade!!!
Except this is almost what Microsoft does with its Windows 2000 operating systems. Win2K Professional is ./configured at compile time (or perhaps even run time; I forget which) to handle fewer maximum concurrent TCP connections than Win2K Server or Win2K Advanced Server.
#ifdef WIN2K_SERVER
#define TCP_MAX 1024
#else
#define TCP_MAX 64
#endif
This is apparently done to discourage small businesses from running a server on the workstation OS.
On average, the price of each new version of Windows or Office doubles
Windows 95 full: $150. Windows 98 full: $150. Windows ME full: $150. The freedoms offered by Free Software: Priceless®.
Windows pricing hasn't doubled; you're just becoming more and more accustomed to free software.
Just run a compile script and get on with your life.
And come back after dinner and a movie to see that the compile stopped with an error three minutes after you had left. Compilation of large packages has to be supervised.
Likewise, you can use a pirated copy of Qt and develop on a pirated copy of Solaris. There's no band of clowns running around demanding 'show us the source' because you won't show them proof that you paid for your copy of Qt. It's very unlikely that Trolltech themselves will be bugging you(unless you become a big success, and in that case you just buy a Trolltech shrinkwrapped box after the fact). It's far easier and cheaper to put out a Shareware title for *n?x for reasons like this. There isn't a big $2000 startup cost before you can sell the first copy. And Trolltech doesn't have as many bands of zealots out there forcing you to 'open the source' if you don't have a Qt recipt. (they do if you're a big enterprise, but here we're talking about small groups/individuals churning out closed-source shareware).
Btw, what's up with Delphion moving to a non-Free service?
Delphion will be adding new services and charging at least $75 per month (out of consumer price range) per user. The U.S. patent collection will remain available for free under a New York Times-style deal, although it will probably be more complex than simply $url =~ s/www/archive/
Of course, when forged headers are used (as is mostly the case) you rely on the cooperation of the ISP to obtain the users identity.
Or use SpamCop to parse the headers and automatically route the spam to the abuse department of the ISP where it originated.
According to Hormel Foods' SPAM Trademark Policy, "We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term." Hormel just doesn't want SPAM Luncheon Meat to be confused with UCE.
The lawsuit claims that Roxio is infringing on Gracenote's patents
Any conforming implementation of the CDDB protocol will infringe Gracenote's patent on hashing a CD's table of contents. Look at U.S. Patent 6,061,680 and foreign counterparts. (N.B.: Legalese 'record' != vinyl. 'Record' is short for 'phonorecord,' a copy of a sound recording.) This patent is on shaky ground, as it was filed in July 16, 1999, when a working CDDB system (i.e. prior art) was presumably already in wide public use.
That said, it seems to me that this case hinges on CDDB proving that freedb have simply copied their database.
The CDDB database was originally released under the GNU General Public License. The FreeDB people originally seeded FreeDB with a snapshot of CDDB from back when it was under the GPL. Because there is no language in the GPL allowing an author to revoke it unilaterally, FreeDB is in the clear copyright-wise.
Of course, nothing you see on Slashdot is legal advice.By his OWN definition, what Stallman is pushing is Free Software
One word: Trademark. RMS was the first to use the term in commerce; therefore, he should get to dictate what it means. It's too bad the FSF didn't apply for some sort of trademark on FREE SOFTWARE.
You mentioned copyleft but not viral copyleft. I'd suggest the GNU Lesser GPL with an additional disclaimer to the effect: "The GNU Lesser General Public License does not give you any trademark rights in the name ______. However, permission is granted to distribute unmodified copies of the Software under the name ______."
He only mentioned parallel, which would not include USB.
Just to clear this up: I'm referring to interfaces that connect directly to a workstation (such as LPT parallel, RSxxx serial, SCSI, and USB) as opposed to interfaces that connect to a network (FireWire, FC/AL, and Ethernet). Printers for the consumer market tend to lack PostScript in favor of raw bitmap printing using an undocumented protocol.
RDRAM is also known as Rambus-DRAM. Can't get much more nom-centric than that.
Except you can't buy "RAMBUS brand" RDRAM. I couldn't even find a link on rambus.com to any retailers selling RDRAM sticks themselves; the "Where to Buy" page mentions only systems that use Rambus memory.
A technology development company gains more credibility if it has a "house brand" of hardware. If Rambus wanted a credible claim on SDRAM technology (as opposed to a Lawsuit Company reputation), it could have sold "RAMBUS brand" DDR SDRAM.
shoot, if a printer is networkable and speaks postscript, are the tools for printer configuration that ship with linux not good enough already?
Last time I checked, a CMYK (i.e. color) laser printer cost well into four figures, too much for a home consumer's budget. Many of the CMYK inkjet printers are often called "GDI" printers (i.e. Winprinters), which means they connect through a parallel port and speak not PCL, not PostScript, but a proprietary language whose only primitive is horizontal strips of pixels one print-head tall. This is why you need (1) Ghostscript to render PS files to bitmaps, and (2) the printer driver to send the bitmaps to the printer. Printer makers often neglect to specify the interface from the computer to the printer, making it hard to develop (2).
Sure, it's nice to say that a company should "make things". However, the business model that Rambus (and Lucent, et al) uses is not necessarily flawed. A company dedicated to pure tech research can probably churn out ideas much faster than one also burdened with actually implementing those ideas.
Well, if Rambus wanted not to have a perception of "a company whose product is lawsuits," it could have structured its business model more like Transmeta's. A company gains a lot more respect if its trademark is the PRIMARY trademark on a widely used product. Transmeta achieves this by contracting work out to fabs and then putting the TRANSMETA CRUSOE name, not some fab's name, on the end product.
By licensing these patents to manufacturers, a Rambus or Lucent can focus on improving the technologies they already have and creating new ones along the way.
But by putting its own name on the product, it potentially gains more street credibility with the "information wants to be free" crowd.