Copyright law is about balancing ownership rights and public interest.
Not in the USA. According to their constitution, copyright is a mere means (a 'carrot' to be dangled in front of authors' noses, if you wish) to ensure innovation. According to that constitution, there is no 'ownership right' of creative works.
Re:Stealing bad music?
on
TMBG on DRM
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· Score: 1
Downloading is not stealing. Stealing is taking something so that somebody else can no longer use it.
Something that occurred to me is that if Scaled Composites can get Mach 3 out of tire rubber, think of what speed a Ferrari could reach if they put a scoop on front of the car to take in all the rubber that's typically on the track! And no more pit stops either!:-)
There's something I should add here: TEI is indeed a fine format, and its XLITE version seems to be covering the same sort of ground that the DP formatting guidelines do.
However, there are currently no widespread viewers that can do something useful with the image entities the figure element requires (useful like: displaying the image). So, we'd either need to roll our own version of TEI (which pretty much negates having a standard in the first place, although the TEI-C seems very much in favour of such an approach), or convert the TEI(XLITE) documents to HTML.
The latter is much harder to do (currently) than creating an HTML version in the first place. There are several (perhaps dozens) of such tools that will take a PG formatted text and help you turn them into a basic HTML file.
Not true. The Kingdom of the Netherlands also comprises Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, but under one king (well, queen at this point in time) they are three different countries.
Of the 100 most recent etexts posted from Distributed Proofreaders to PG (DP is the main supplier of texts), 46 come in an HTML version. I would not be surprised if a large part of the remaining texts did not have any special needs to begin with.
These are indeed, AFAIK, technologies that are being considered.
The markup can be stored as ASCII text and edited with a simple text editor.
That is a rather optimistic view. XML, AFAIK, was never intended to be human-writable. (Despite the fact that most TEI tagging seems to be done by hand with a simple text editor.)
I you checked the volunteer mailinglist of Project Gutenberg, you would see that every now and again somebody waltzes in and says: "Why don't you do such and so? It's easy! You guys must be idiots for not doing it my way."
Neglecting the fact that such people rarely have the decency to find out if this discussion has already been held, and what the arguments were, list members will then ask the question:
"If it's so easy, why don't you show us how its done?"
That will usually shut up the it's-easy-sayers.
There are of course those who act, rather than talk. Those people have built the PG website, the PG database, the Distributed Proofreaders environment, all the 'easy' little things that are required to keep PG's library double in size every 18 months.
Next time you say "it's easy", try to have a system in place that shows you know what you are talking about.
P.S. I realize you did not say PG are idiots. Quite the contrary. However, such emotional outbursts are often the next step in the mode of discussion of those who think others should fullfill their desires at no cost and immediately. That's why I put it in the example.
There are plans to use a base storage format that is going to use some XML flavour.
PG will then store the text in both the base format and the minimum required format for a certain type of content (for instance, maths books, IIRC, are already posted in TeX, and music in Lillypond formats). The server will hopefully acquire automatic conversion to HTML, PDF and whatever people desire later.
Setting such a system up is not trivial, that's why it is taking a while.
Torrents, ISOs and what have you are linked through the PG site. You can also order a gratis copy of CD or DVD if you like (please consider making a donation in that case).
There used to be a special library archive format (Green thingy something), but I don't see it on the site anymore?
Another interesting site that should be mentioned is GutenTalk, because it also offers hand-crafted HTML versions if they are available, rather than just machine generated ones.
Myself, I don't really like reading off a static CRT, but I guess sitting on the couch with a notebook could work. If you have a notebook, you may want to try yBook.
PDAs usually come with their own readers, or reader programs are easy to get for them. I prefer Weasel on my Palm Zire, but also have the Plucker HTML viewer installed, for content that more or less requires it.
The only means you can exert influence is by voting. So do so.
The FFII has a list of MEPs and how they voted on software patents. Also, the ministers involved are generally attached to a certain party. Make sure you don't vote for that party.
Copyrights do not protect works, they protect authors. The largest part of works are destroyed by copyright, as nobody but the author may preserve the works, and the author is by no means obliged to do so.
Also, we are talking software patents here. Software is generally less than trivial, and for every invention you as a lone inventor make, IBM has a thousand that you violate. How much do you want to bet that you're going to license a falsely claimed patent after all?
Unlike what Slashdot parrots, ZoekMP3 sued BREIN, not the other way around. IIRC (I may certainly be mistaken), BREIN started bullying several MP3 links pages, usually with the desired effect. ZoekMP3 wanted a pre-emptive verdict that what they were doing is legal, and received just that from the Haarlem court.
On their web site, BREIN tries to spin the story in true Scientology-fashion as a Big Win. "However," they continue, "there are still a few reasons to appeal".
According to Webwereld.nl, Tim Kuik of the BREIN Foundation said "The parliament should also outlaw the downloading of music, just like buying other illegally offered goods is also forbidden."
If anything, BREIN is adaptive. Two days after the verdict, they started offering a course in how to lock the upload part of your children's P2P tool.
Don't worry, us Europeans will probably never master beginning a sentence with lower-case letters. That's an intellectual achievement that you folks will still be able to be proud of a hundred years from now.
You cannot do professional print design work without CMYK. Simply not possible. RGB colorspace is completely different - it represents a different set of colors, including many colors that cannot be printed on paper (especially with the 4 standard process inks), and omitting many that can. You can send an RGB file and let your output device translate it, but you will get flat and lifeless color compared to what you'd get with proper CMYK processing.
The monitor you use to run Photoshop on uses RGB. These precious CMYK colours of yours that cannot be represented in RGB have to be translated to an RGB approximation before you can edit a single pixel.
Believe it or not, sometimes professionals actually do know what they're talking about and aren't just blowing smoke
Slashdot Mirror
I just wanted to repeat this, that's how important (and right) it is! Thank you.
Not in the USA. According to their constitution, copyright is a mere means (a 'carrot' to be dangled in front of authors' noses, if you wish) to ensure innovation. According to that constitution, there is no 'ownership right' of creative works.
Downloading is not stealing. Stealing is taking something so that somebody else can no longer use it.
Something that occurred to me is that if Scaled Composites can get Mach 3 out of tire rubber, think of what speed a Ferrari could reach if they put a scoop on front of the car to take in all the rubber that's typically on the track! And no more pit stops either! :-)
Getting your name on the side of the SpaceShipOne for two launches might be cheaper. :-)
Michael Jackson is of course the world famous beer expert.
There's something I should add here: TEI is indeed a fine format, and its XLITE version seems to be covering the same sort of ground that the DP formatting guidelines do.
However, there are currently no widespread viewers that can do something useful with the image entities the figure element requires (useful like: displaying the image). So, we'd either need to roll our own version of TEI (which pretty much negates having a standard in the first place, although the TEI-C seems very much in favour of such an approach), or convert the TEI(XLITE) documents to HTML.
The latter is much harder to do (currently) than creating an HTML version in the first place. There are several (perhaps dozens) of such tools that will take a PG formatted text and help you turn them into a basic HTML file.
Not true. The Kingdom of the Netherlands also comprises Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, but under one king (well, queen at this point in time) they are three different countries.
Of the 100 most recent etexts posted from Distributed Proofreaders to PG (DP is the main supplier of texts), 46 come in an HTML version. I would not be surprised if a large part of the remaining texts did not have any special needs to begin with.
These are indeed, AFAIK, technologies that are being considered.
That is a rather optimistic view. XML, AFAIK, was never intended to be human-writable. (Despite the fact that most TEI tagging seems to be done by hand with a simple text editor.)
I you checked the volunteer mailinglist of Project Gutenberg, you would see that every now and again somebody waltzes in and says: "Why don't you do such and so? It's easy! You guys must be idiots for not doing it my way."
Neglecting the fact that such people rarely have the decency to find out if this discussion has already been held, and what the arguments were, list members will then ask the question:
"If it's so easy, why don't you show us how its done?"
That will usually shut up the it's-easy-sayers.
There are of course those who act, rather than talk. Those people have built the PG website, the PG database, the Distributed Proofreaders environment, all the 'easy' little things that are required to keep PG's library double in size every 18 months.
Next time you say "it's easy", try to have a system in place that shows you know what you are talking about.
P.S. I realize you did not say PG are idiots. Quite the contrary. However, such emotional outbursts are often the next step in the mode of discussion of those who think others should fullfill their desires at no cost and immediately. That's why I put it in the example.
PG has a very strict policy that it will not publish works that have been refused by all other publishers. :-)
There are plans to use a base storage format that is going to use some XML flavour.
PG will then store the text in both the base format and the minimum required format for a certain type of content (for instance, maths books, IIRC, are already posted in TeX, and music in Lillypond formats). The server will hopefully acquire automatic conversion to HTML, PDF and whatever people desire later.
Setting such a system up is not trivial, that's why it is taking a while.
Torrents, ISOs and what have you are linked through the PG site. You can also order a gratis copy of CD or DVD if you like (please consider making a donation in that case).
There used to be a special library archive format (Green thingy something), but I don't see it on the site anymore?
Another interesting site that should be mentioned is GutenTalk, because it also offers hand-crafted HTML versions if they are available, rather than just machine generated ones.
Myself, I don't really like reading off a static CRT, but I guess sitting on the couch with a notebook could work. If you have a notebook, you may want to try yBook.
PDAs usually come with their own readers, or reader programs are easy to get for them. I prefer Weasel on my Palm Zire, but also have the Plucker HTML viewer installed, for content that more or less requires it.
Try http://manybooks.net
Not exactly what you were looking for, but they have a large chunk of PG's texts in zText (Weasel's) format.
PG does accept other formats, gladly.
However, it insists on at least a plain vanilla version of a text, as that format has proven to be the most durable and accessible.
So next time you post a text version to PG, make sure you post HTML and PDF versions alongside.
(Do read the rules for HTML in the PG FAQ first, though.)
The only means you can exert influence is by voting. So do so.
The FFII has a list of MEPs and how they voted on software patents. Also, the ministers involved are generally attached to a certain party. Make sure you don't vote for that party.
Copyrights do not protect works, they protect authors. The largest part of works are destroyed by copyright, as nobody but the author may preserve the works, and the author is by no means obliged to do so.
Not for all costs...
Also, we are talking software patents here. Software is generally less than trivial, and for every invention you as a lone inventor make, IBM has a thousand that you violate. How much do you want to bet that you're going to license a falsely claimed patent after all?
Unlike what Slashdot parrots, ZoekMP3 sued BREIN, not the other way around. IIRC (I may certainly be mistaken), BREIN started bullying several MP3 links pages, usually with the desired effect. ZoekMP3 wanted a pre-emptive verdict that what they were doing is legal, and received just that from the Haarlem court.
On their web site, BREIN tries to spin the story in true Scientology-fashion as a Big Win. "However," they continue, "there are still a few reasons to appeal".
According to Webwereld.nl, Tim Kuik of the BREIN Foundation said "The parliament should also outlaw the downloading of music, just like buying other illegally offered goods is also forbidden."
If anything, BREIN is adaptive. Two days after the verdict, they started offering a course in how to lock the upload part of your children's P2P tool.
Don't worry, us Europeans will probably never master beginning a sentence with lower-case letters. That's an intellectual achievement that you folks will still be able to be proud of a hundred years from now.