I tried to tell you on your blog that you got the US copyright cut-off date wrong, but despite the deceptively inviting interface, your blog does not seem to accept comments.
All works in published _before_ 1923 are public domain in the USA. (At least, that's the date we use at Project Gutenberg, and I am sure that if we could slip in an extra year, we would.)
"Licenses presented to you after you have already purchased goods have never been upheld in court. If someone puts a license agreement inside a box of software, at the beginning of a movie, or at the center of my tootsie roll, it does not matter because that license is not valid."
You are confusing a "license agreement", which is a contract between you and the selling party, with a "license". A license is always valid, whether you agree with it or not. A license is namely a list of things that you are allowed to do, that you were forbidden (by law) to do without the license.
Ah, but I had talked with you about the letter spacing. This was shortly before the 2.0 release. Shortly after that release, I posted several bug reports and feature requests, but apparently you thought bugs.gimp.org was Slashdot, and started flaming me to a crisp. That's when I decided to post no more bug reports. Get back to me when you have completely withdrawn from bugs.gimp.org and let Dave and Raphael do all triage, because they are people persons.
Anyway, I wasn't responding to you, nor was I reporting a bug or requesting a feature, nor was I trying to help and improve GIMP. As far as I am concerned, I have done my bit. I was merely replying to a poster who seemed incredulous that there were problems with the text tool (which has, indeed, come a long way since 1.2).
I am one of those mythical creatures that the hordes of Photoshop-copying trolls who visit every GIMP related thread on Slashdot do not believe in, somebody who uses the GIMP professionally on a daily basis (and not against my will).
My biggest gripe with the text tool is if I move a text and then want to edit it some more, I need to select the text tool again, then click on the text layer, to be able to edit the text. (It takes two clicks, actually, but that may be a GTK+Win thing?)
None of this is actually wrong, but it goes against my normal mode of operation.
The first problem seems to be that where I click the text tool on the canvas, I expect to be the baseline of the text to be entered. The GIMP assumes it's the top of the bounding box. I guess this is not too bad; if I change font-size, it will grow away from or shrink towards the top of the bounding box. If you have to write text in a box, this may actually be quite handy.
The second problem is that I assume text should be movable without the text tool losing focus. Perhaps there is a modifier key that will accomplish this?
Also, whenever I want to pick a font, an error window pops up spewing out messages about missing fonts or some such. This is a GIMP for Windows thing I guess. Best location for those messages would be the Windows equivalent of/dev/null.
Finally, GIMP 1.2 had a filter that allowed you to adjust letter spacing. I found that very useful: my web Arials and Verdanas look almost exactly the same as those of my Photoshop using colleagues, but the spacing is always a little bit off. Not being a Unix/Linux user, I wouldn't know how to compile the old Free Type plug-in.
Free software is often written to scratch an itch the programmers might have. So was the GIMP. If you can use it, fine; if you cannot, fine too.
If you want to give it a different name, grab a copy off of cvs.gimp.org and distribute it under a different name. There's lots of people doing that on eBay. (Well, perhaps not lots, but both The GIMP and Project Gutenberg books have been sold on eBay under different names, presumably to draw attention away from the fact that you can get these items for free.)
When copyright terms get extended in E.U. countries, that usually does not happen retroactively. I wouldn't be surprised if existing patents do not suffer/benefit from any new rules.
Please go ahead. You Americans are already pushing hard to get software patents introduced into the E.U. (you didn't really think it is the European software companies who get to benefit from software patents, did you?), it would be nice if at least some of you joined the other side.
"the professional patent community is IGNORING you"
Duh!
When the maffia gets to rewrite the laws on organised crime, I am sure they are not going to pay much attention to the arguments of law enforcement officials.
"dismiss you as a 'bunch of communists?'"
Unlike in your fatherland (my guess: the USA), the EU allows people the freedom to organize in political parties of any colour. Perhaps to those on the 'other side' of the political spectrum, 'communist' is a dirty word, but generally it is not considered so.
BTW, troll girl, why are you meddling in foreign affairs? I don't want to deny you that right, far from it, even if I could; I am just curious as to your motivation.
Let me not get into your, er, let's call them 'arguments', as even the biggest software patent newby can punch holes in them. As long as you can sow uncertaintity with your half-lies, eh?
However, I would like to comment on your spelling. Not a very popular thing to do on the internet, as it may easily conflict with nettiquette, but I am certain that in this case it's relevant.
You see, Slashdot readers are generally not as bad at spelling as some claim they are. So when you decided, in your pitiful attempt to look 'wise' to the ways of the 'street', to capitalise words almost at random, this had almost exactly the opposite effect of what you intended. Instead of making you look like a real Slashdotter, it immediately unmasked the troll you are.
These may seem harsh words, but please realize that I am only uttering them in deep-felt concern for your financial well-being. Your American and Asian overlords are not going to be signing your fat paychecks for much longer when it becomes obvious that you can be seen through merely on the basis of the shape of the letters you choose to use.
"If you develop the solution to a specific problem, you should be protected from someone stealing it and profiting off of it."
Theft means that you take something away so that I can no longer use it. That is not the case with inventions--unless you mean to say that the patent system is stealing inventions from the public. That would be a bit of a stretch to defend, but describing the patent system as theft still makes a lot more sense than calling patent infringement theft.
See: the law even has a special word for not-theft: infringement. Making it sound like a crime weakens your argument.
"why should we take away the right of non-GPL giants to collect some fees for their work?"
You cannot take away what you do not have. Unless you referred to fees you are already collecting (you know: wages, copyright license fees, etc.). But nobody is taking those away from you.
In other words: what on earth are you going on about?
"the public domain [...] functions exactly as it does everywhere else"
How exactly would that be? AFAIK, in most Western European countries for instance, you cannot fully relinquish copyrights to the public domain. Not only are there moral rights that you will always retain, but also are there rights organizations that will simply ignore any PD dedication.
Slashdot Mirror
I tried to tell you on your blog that you got the US copyright cut-off date wrong, but despite the deceptively inviting interface, your blog does not seem to accept comments.
All works in published _before_ 1923 are public domain in the USA. (At least, that's the date we use at Project Gutenberg, and I am sure that if we could slip in an extra year, we would.)
Project Gutenberg has had a free ebook every day for 33 years now. Beat that!
"Licenses presented to you after you have already purchased goods have never been upheld in court. If someone puts a license agreement inside a box of software, at the beginning of a movie, or at the center of my tootsie roll, it does not matter because that license is not valid."
You are confusing a "license agreement", which is a contract between you and the selling party, with a "license". A license is always valid, whether you agree with it or not. A license is namely a list of things that you are allowed to do, that you were forbidden (by law) to do without the license.
Round ears good, pointy ears bad?
I think ESA is hoping to fly its own HTOL shuttle around 2015, so the Kliper might be seen as an unwelcome diversion of funds.
Personally, I doubt the Hopper is going to be ready by then, and ESA would do well to team up with Energia.
They had a test craft called BOR, which you can buy from Buran.ru. (They don't mention a price.)
The BBC has published an illustrated version of this game (Flash required).
Ah, but I had talked with you about the letter spacing. This was shortly before the 2.0 release. Shortly after that release, I posted several bug reports and feature requests, but apparently you thought bugs.gimp.org was Slashdot, and started flaming me to a crisp. That's when I decided to post no more bug reports. Get back to me when you have completely withdrawn from bugs.gimp.org and let Dave and Raphael do all triage, because they are people persons.
Anyway, I wasn't responding to you, nor was I reporting a bug or requesting a feature, nor was I trying to help and improve GIMP. As far as I am concerned, I have done my bit. I was merely replying to a poster who seemed incredulous that there were problems with the text tool (which has, indeed, come a long way since 1.2).
Which is not enough feedback.
(And for the few for whom it is enough feedback, GIMP provides a switch that will let you start without a splash.)
Ah, but does the GIMP need professionals?
"What's the problem with text layer tools?"
/dev/null.
I am one of those mythical creatures that the hordes of Photoshop-copying trolls who visit every GIMP related thread on Slashdot do not believe in, somebody who uses the GIMP professionally on a daily basis (and not against my will).
My biggest gripe with the text tool is if I move a text and then want to edit it some more, I need to select the text tool again, then click on the text layer, to be able to edit the text. (It takes two clicks, actually, but that may be a GTK+Win thing?)
None of this is actually wrong, but it goes against my normal mode of operation.
The first problem seems to be that where I click the text tool on the canvas, I expect to be the baseline of the text to be entered. The GIMP assumes it's the top of the bounding box. I guess this is not too bad; if I change font-size, it will grow away from or shrink towards the top of the bounding box. If you have to write text in a box, this may actually be quite handy.
The second problem is that I assume text should be movable without the text tool losing focus. Perhaps there is a modifier key that will accomplish this?
Also, whenever I want to pick a font, an error window pops up spewing out messages about missing fonts or some such. This is a GIMP for Windows thing I guess. Best location for those messages would be the Windows equivalent of
Finally, GIMP 1.2 had a filter that allowed you to adjust letter spacing. I found that very useful: my web Arials and Verdanas look almost exactly the same as those of my Photoshop using colleagues, but the spacing is always a little bit off. Not being a Unix/Linux user, I wouldn't know how to compile the old Free Type plug-in.
This is the third time you posted this today. It's getting old.
Describe an intuitive GUI.
You've made your point elsewhere in this discussion, no need to repeat it all the time.
Nobody is asking you to adopt the GIMP.
Free software is often written to scratch an itch the programmers might have. So was the GIMP. If you can use it, fine; if you cannot, fine too.
If you want to give it a different name, grab a copy off of cvs.gimp.org and distribute it under a different name. There's lots of people doing that on eBay. (Well, perhaps not lots, but both The GIMP and Project Gutenberg books have been sold on eBay under different names, presumably to draw attention away from the fact that you can get these items for free.)
So, how does this work? Do I e-mail you the bank account number where you'll send the money for my legal defense fund? Will you mail me a cheque?
"...open source community fight fire with fire"?
Perhaps because software patents don't work?
When copyright terms get extended in E.U. countries, that usually does not happen retroactively. I wouldn't be surprised if existing patents do not suffer/benefit from any new rules.
Please go ahead. You Americans are already pushing hard to get software patents introduced into the E.U. (you didn't really think it is the European software companies who get to benefit from software patents, did you?), it would be nice if at least some of you joined the other side.
"the professional patent community is IGNORING you"
Duh!
When the maffia gets to rewrite the laws on organised crime, I am sure they are not going to pay much attention to the arguments of law enforcement officials.
"dismiss you as a 'bunch of communists?'"
Unlike in your fatherland (my guess: the USA), the EU allows people the freedom to organize in political parties of any colour. Perhaps to those on the 'other side' of the political spectrum, 'communist' is a dirty word, but generally it is not considered so.
BTW, troll girl, why are you meddling in foreign affairs? I don't want to deny you that right, far from it, even if I could; I am just curious as to your motivation.
Dear troll girl,
Let me not get into your, er, let's call them 'arguments', as even the biggest software patent newby can punch holes in them. As long as you can sow uncertaintity with your half-lies, eh?
However, I would like to comment on your spelling. Not a very popular thing to do on the internet, as it may easily conflict with nettiquette, but I am certain that in this case it's relevant.
You see, Slashdot readers are generally not as bad at spelling as some claim they are. So when you decided, in your pitiful attempt to look 'wise' to the ways of the 'street', to capitalise words almost at random, this had almost exactly the opposite effect of what you intended. Instead of making you look like a real Slashdotter, it immediately unmasked the troll you are.
These may seem harsh words, but please realize that I am only uttering them in deep-felt concern for your financial well-being. Your American and Asian overlords are not going to be signing your fat paychecks for much longer when it becomes obvious that you can be seen through merely on the basis of the shape of the letters you choose to use.
"The US has people passionately campaigning for freedom - the OP's point stands."
So now it's your turn: which Americans are passionately campaigning for freedom?
"If you develop the solution to a specific problem, you should be protected from someone stealing it and profiting off of it."
Theft means that you take something away so that I can no longer use it. That is not the case with inventions--unless you mean to say that the patent system is stealing inventions from the public. That would be a bit of a stretch to defend, but describing the patent system as theft still makes a lot more sense than calling patent infringement theft.
See: the law even has a special word for not-theft: infringement. Making it sound like a crime weakens your argument.
"why should we take away the right of non-GPL giants to collect some fees for their work?"
You cannot take away what you do not have. Unless you referred to fees you are already collecting (you know: wages, copyright license fees, etc.). But nobody is taking those away from you.
In other words: what on earth are you going on about?
"the public domain [...] functions exactly as it does everywhere else"
How exactly would that be? AFAIK, in most Western European countries for instance, you cannot fully relinquish copyrights to the public domain. Not only are there moral rights that you will always retain, but also are there rights organizations that will simply ignore any PD dedication.