"Or less propietary formats. avi/asf is pretty widely supported, helix (from realnetworks) is open. Quicktime depends too much on apple players that are not available for all plataforms, even when mplayer can cope with it i'm not sure how much will be left out.
While I don't mind AVI/ASF because I use Windows (and I like it thank you very much), I wouldn't call it open or less proprietary that QT in SWF. Oddly enough the Flash file format is open but SWF is tightly controlled by Macromedia. Helix is only the player. The real codec is still proprietary and it's still crap.
"After all, the company that makes the movie and the trailer want that us buy their product, or speak about it, or reccomend it to friends. The whole idea of the trailer is that the people have a hint on how it will be. Putting things in a way that make difficult to see for a lot of people is against the objetive of making a trailer."
Huh?!? Last I checked somewhere on the order of 98% of all connected desktop users can view SWF content. I'd say that would make it VERY easy for anyone to see. Perhaps you don't like being classified as a nobody by companies like Macromedia? That's a completely different beef though, and even then Macromedia makes a Linux compatible SWF plug-in.
The Reg, well Gartner really, is full of crap. Nowhere in the article or the Gartner report does it state which version of Longhorn they are referring to and it is highly unlikely that the desktop version of Longhorn will slip that far behind. I'm guessing they are referring to the Server version of Longhorn which is more likely because the Server versions have been slowly slipping behind the desktop releases. 2000 and 2003 Servers were all released after their desktop counterparts (2000 Professional and XP Professional respectively).
Not only that but these dates keep creeping every time the story is retold. Gartner puts the release of Longhorn (likely the Server version) at mid-2008 at the latest and 2006 at the earliest however The Register states Gartner puts the date as late as 2009 but doesn't mention whether it's early or late 2009. I'd call that highly suspect. The 2009 date The Reg is reporting comes from the end of the article where Gartner suspects that if Longhorn ships in 2007 the EOL for 2000 will get bumped a year but in the event that Longhorn is released in 2008/9 they believe MS will force customers to upgrade to Windows 2003 Server first. Earlier reports about the shipping date of Longhorn had it slipping from late 2005 to early- to mid-2006 then suddenly to no earlier than 2007.
In the meantime this fails to take into account a number of issues, not least of which is where is the desktop version in all of this? There are far too many if's and way too much on the line for MS to let Longhorn slip beyond 2007 at the latest and with the shape the OS was in during the PDC is it quite likely we will see Longhorn hit the shelves in 2006.
"I would imagine there are less than 20 routes in the world where maglev truly makes sense."
Actually I would imagine that the likelyhood of derailment would make this idea more popular, especially for passenger or chemical/biological waste transportation. My guess as to the reaon why this is not going to be cheap is the lost jobs for engineers and other railway personnel. Maglev trains practically drive themselves and if you need to stop a train you simply turn off a section or two of track. Personally I'd love to see Boston replace all their subway and commuter rail lines with maglev trains. They would be safer and faster.
"...Apple is almost single-handedly dragging the music industry, kicking and screaming, toward a better future."
Are they really though? I personally like purchasing music on CDs and ripping what I want, how I want. iTMS distributes AAC and MP3 files only and I prefer WMA on my computer. I am an audiophile and I don't see MP3s, hell even WMAs, as a "better future". I see the future as something bleak if this is truly the direction we are headed. At least with vinyl the pops and scratches were unique, almost quaint in their own little way. MP3s pitiful quality simply sucks.
'Although his own missile building days have come to an end, he believes he has proved his point - "that by using off-the-shelf technology in a suburban garage a terrorist can create a weapon against which there is no effective defence."'
Why would anyone need to prove this? Did this guy actually think people would stand up and thank him for demonstrating something that most people simply take for granted anyway? Not only that but "thumbing your nose" at government is not the wisest thing to do. If he ad not been such a wanker he would have likely gotten off with a slap on the wrist instead of the anal probe from the tax office.
Outlook clone perhaps, but no where near even an Outlook threat. First and foremost is the lack of a Windows version. Second, Evolution merely mimics some of the functionality of Outlook, not all of it and it lacks the same kind of integration that Outlook/Exchange offer medium and large corporations wanting to standardize on an e-mail, calendar and messaging suite can. Call me a troll if you wish but it seems to me that Evolution is only being used by those who would be better served with Thunderbird; sort of like the Outlook users who should really be using Outlook Express.
With all the talk about an audit trail and how trivial it is, I have to ask, where's the audit trail now? I've used both the old mechanical lever machines and pen and paper ballots, neither provided me with a receipt to ensure that my vote actually counted. It would be just as easy and trivial to "lose a few votes" as it would be to alter the little 1's and 0's in an e-voting machine.
Also, how does one reconcile differences between the number of people signing into their precincts and the total number of votes cast? I've always had to vote on numerous things at a time so it's certainly possible that I could simply not care enough about a particular position to bother voting for anyone at all.
Voting will never be completely tamper proof. In my opinion Cringley brings up a more interesting point about software development processes than anything truly insightful about e-voting machines.
I agree 100%. When I purchase computer equipment I decide what the best quality component is within reason then I search for the cheapest price on that comnponent. Sometimes I wait a generation or two to help drop the cost even more but I don't wait too long as the difference in price is often minimal if I can even get the component anymore anyway. I have a Dual Xeon PII450 system running on a Supermicro board and it has yet (knock on wood) to fail me. I've had friends systems burn through two or three motherboards because they bought cheap components (cost and quality).
That's essentially what they are doing. The AirPanel runs a modified CE OS and it uses TS to connect to the desktop. You can't run CE like you do a PocketPC, instead there is only one "app" on the AirPanel and that is RDC, TS in disguise. Bandwidth is the key factor in these machines not performing as well as they could. Until we get 10gbps connections, streaming video via wireless RDC is not going to happen. The idea is a good one, it's just not possible to implemnt it perfectly right now.
Gun manufacturers and ISPs aren't exactly the same thing here. It is plausible to expect ISPs to do more to stem the use of file sharing for illegal purposes on their networks. It is not plausible to expect gun manufacturers to make bullets that only kill bad people.
Actually they're doing both. Much of the.Net initiative is about managed code which will eliminate buffer overflows, thus eliminating security exploits. Longhorn will be built with a lot of managed code.
Palladium, however, is about extending this security at both ends. The internet is great but it suffers from being based around the notion of naive trust instead of verifiable, secure trust. While this worked in the eary days of the internet, it simply does not work now. With computers being connected via broadband and always connected to the internet, OSes and the way they communicate internally and externally have to begin to build a system whereby they can verify, and thus trust, those communicating with the system, whether it be via IM, e-mail or through VPN.
Simply put, the internet is no longer a hobby. It is quickly becoming as important a part of our infrastructure as electricity and roads, to name a few. To this end, there must be a way to ensure that communication via the internet is secure and can be trusted. Palladium is only one method to obtain this trust.
"So STFU about something you obviously know nothing about."
Pardon me? You know absolutely nothing about me, for example the fact that I have a Bachelor's degree in Recording Industry Management: Production and Technology emphasis. I'd say I know far more about the recording industry then you could possibly imagine. Before you respond, take your foot out of your mouth.
Actually, the only time I've seen an NT machine cause problems (beyond my own) was with a POS register at Best Buy. The system crashed during a sale and it had to be rebooted. I've never seen an ATM, airport/bus terminal, or other NT based systems display the BSOD. Sure, MS OSes could be the cause of these problems, but it is far more likely these days for it to be the hardware. Remember the hardware developers now have direct access to the source code for Windows CE and most of Windows NT/2000/XP embedded. While they need cannot change the source code without Microsoft's approval, they do have access to it and can determine where bugs in the OS are going to cause problems. The fact that they are not taking advantage of this is not necessarily Microsoft's fault.
How is this fucking insightful? Jesus, the mods are morons.
The RIAA is NOT in the distribution business, they are in the association business, hence Recording Industry Association of America. They represent the rights and needs of their members. Whether or not record labels go to digital distribution of music or not is not up to the RIAA, it is up to each individual member company.
Simply put, copyright protects five basic rights of the holder. One of those basic rights is distribution. Whether you call file sharing stealing or not, it still violates creators rights by denying them the ability to control distribution. In the case of the RIAA member companies, many creators have signed the distribution rights to their mechanicals over to the record labels. This means the record labels (the RIAA member companies) can distribute and sell the actual physical recordings. In many cases the creator still maintains the publishing rights which means they can sell the right to transcribe sheet music and allow alternate arrangements to be made.
The point is, file sharing might be sharing and not stealing but it is still distribution of intellectual property and it is illegal without a prior consent of the copyright holder, period. Whether people will or will not purchase music online is irrelevant because it is up to the copyright holder to determine how they will distrute music. If a few small musicians make a killing at this method of distribution, great, but not every artist has to follow their lead.
Personally I'd rather purchase the CD and rip the music however I choose. I hate MP3s and tend to not like listening to music on my computer anyway. I've taken some CDs to work and ripped them to my computer there but this is within my rights, in the US, under fair use. I'm not happy with compressed audio files and if I must listen to them I want to be able to control how they are made.
I also forgot to add that I am now using the MN-700 Firewall/Router from Microsoft and this uses a variant of the Windows CE OS. To date I have had no problems with the device crashing and it runs 24/7.
Is it the OS or is it the underlying hardware? I have an iPaq 37xx PocketPC Runnign Pocket PC 2002 and I have never had any problems with the device and I use it regularly. With Microsoft giving hardware developers access to the source code, it's getting next to impossible to blame MS for these problems. Granted the source code can't be changed without first consulting MS but the option it now there. Frankly, I don't know who to believe when it comes to these things. Phone developers blame MS, MS blames the phone deelopers. I'd have to give MS the benefit of the doubt though since my iPaq 37xx works perfectly.
...Microsoft didn't design the iDrive system, they only provided the underlying OS. That's like blaming Linus for a shitty UI design from KDE or Gnome. As for its stability, stop comparing a desktop based Windows OS to what would be placed in ar computer systems (presumably CE or XP Embedded). I'm always amazed when the OSS community whines about all the FUD put out by companies like Microsoft or SCO yet they turn around and generate the same, if not more, amount of bullshit FUD in return.
Netmeeting is no longer going to be a part of Windows. Windows and MSN Messenger are already performing much of what NetMeeting originally did. On a side note, does this mean Microsoft innovated with the IM clients? NetMeeting is a pretty old client app.
Exactly. Which is why the 12-year-old, the 15-year-old and the 66-year-old are being sued for copyright infringement. Oh, I'm sorry, you meant no corporate entity should be immune to the law, but individal citizens should be allowed to selectively choose which laws they will abide by and allow themselves to be prosecuted for. My mistake.
"Um, maybe college students with almost no disposable income shouldn't be a target market for $20 CDs, either."
Perhaps they should get a fucking job like I did while in college. Hey, what a concpet. Work for a living instead of moching off mom and dad.
"Here's a concept -- charge different amounts for different product. I.e., Mogwai and Ted Leo CDs should be offered for $5 each. Let the teen masses and the adult contemporary listeners (with their disposable dollars) pay $20 for an album."
This already sort of happens anyway. However I would like to know where you people buy your albums. The new Beatles - Let It Be... Naked [Limited Edition Bonus Disc] is only $11.99 at fye.com. For those who like newer music, two pop-stars, Alicia Keys and Britney Spears, have released new albums at $12.99 each. A quick perusal through fye.com put most albums between $9.99 and $14.99. Most of the really expensive $20 and up CDs were imports.
The point is, albums are not as expensive as many claim and if you only like one or two songs from the album then perhaps you should look elsewhere for music. I highly doubt every album you want to listen to has only one good song on it.
"Fortunately this will ultimately kill off the RIAA's price-fixing tactics. But goddamn it's an ugly death."
Nothing will kill off the RIAA. However, if you want to keep them from launching law suit after law suit, perhaps you should be looking for legitimate ways to get songs from their catalogs or look elsewhere for music. There are hundreds of thousands of independent and international labels that do not answer to the RIAA but it takes a little digging to find them.
Not all universities are public. Any university with a five or six figure yearly tuition fee is likely not public. Two where I live are Harvard and Boston University. I'm still paying Boston U. back and will be for quite some time.
Owning cars and riding the bus are both legal activities. Purchasing CDs is legal but distributing the music contained on them is not legal. If government were to legitimize distribution of content by anyone then there would be little or no reason to purchase the original.
"Is it the primary purpose of society/government/law to protect business?"
Not exactly but it is their responsibility to foster a healthy economy and promote jobs for its citizens. If a company is not doing well then the economy will be affected and jobs will be lost so in a way it is the primary purpose of the government and laws to protect businesses.
Slashdot Mirror
"Or less propietary formats. avi/asf is pretty widely supported, helix (from realnetworks) is open. Quicktime depends too much on apple players that are not available for all plataforms, even when mplayer can cope with it i'm not sure how much will be left out.
While I don't mind AVI/ASF because I use Windows (and I like it thank you very much), I wouldn't call it open or less proprietary that QT in SWF. Oddly enough the Flash file format is open but SWF is tightly controlled by Macromedia. Helix is only the player. The real codec is still proprietary and it's still crap.
"After all, the company that makes the movie and the trailer want that us buy their product, or speak about it, or reccomend it to friends. The whole idea of the trailer is that the people have a hint on how it will be. Putting things in a way that make difficult to see for a lot of people is against the objetive of making a trailer."
Huh?!? Last I checked somewhere on the order of 98% of all connected desktop users can view SWF content. I'd say that would make it VERY easy for anyone to see. Perhaps you don't like being classified as a nobody by companies like Macromedia? That's a completely different beef though, and even then Macromedia makes a Linux compatible SWF plug-in.
The Reg, well Gartner really, is full of crap. Nowhere in the article or the Gartner report does it state which version of Longhorn they are referring to and it is highly unlikely that the desktop version of Longhorn will slip that far behind. I'm guessing they are referring to the Server version of Longhorn which is more likely because the Server versions have been slowly slipping behind the desktop releases. 2000 and 2003 Servers were all released after their desktop counterparts (2000 Professional and XP Professional respectively).
Not only that but these dates keep creeping every time the story is retold. Gartner puts the release of Longhorn (likely the Server version) at mid-2008 at the latest and 2006 at the earliest however The Register states Gartner puts the date as late as 2009 but doesn't mention whether it's early or late 2009. I'd call that highly suspect. The 2009 date The Reg is reporting comes from the end of the article where Gartner suspects that if Longhorn ships in 2007 the EOL for 2000 will get bumped a year but in the event that Longhorn is released in 2008/9 they believe MS will force customers to upgrade to Windows 2003 Server first. Earlier reports about the shipping date of Longhorn had it slipping from late 2005 to early- to mid-2006 then suddenly to no earlier than 2007.
In the meantime this fails to take into account a number of issues, not least of which is where is the desktop version in all of this? There are far too many if's and way too much on the line for MS to let Longhorn slip beyond 2007 at the latest and with the shape the OS was in during the PDC is it quite likely we will see Longhorn hit the shelves in 2006.
"I would imagine there are less than 20 routes in the world where maglev truly makes sense."
Actually I would imagine that the likelyhood of derailment would make this idea more popular, especially for passenger or chemical/biological waste transportation. My guess as to the reaon why this is not going to be cheap is the lost jobs for engineers and other railway personnel. Maglev trains practically drive themselves and if you need to stop a train you simply turn off a section or two of track. Personally I'd love to see Boston replace all their subway and commuter rail lines with maglev trains. They would be safer and faster.
"...Apple is almost single-handedly dragging the music industry, kicking and screaming, toward a better future."
Are they really though? I personally like purchasing music on CDs and ripping what I want, how I want. iTMS distributes AAC and MP3 files only and I prefer WMA on my computer. I am an audiophile and I don't see MP3s, hell even WMAs, as a "better future". I see the future as something bleak if this is truly the direction we are headed. At least with vinyl the pops and scratches were unique, almost quaint in their own little way. MP3s pitiful quality simply sucks.
'Although his own missile building days have come to an end, he believes he has proved his point - "that by using off-the-shelf technology in a suburban garage a terrorist can create a weapon against which there is no effective defence."'
Why would anyone need to prove this? Did this guy actually think people would stand up and thank him for demonstrating something that most people simply take for granted anyway? Not only that but "thumbing your nose" at government is not the wisest thing to do. If he ad not been such a wanker he would have likely gotten off with a slap on the wrist instead of the anal probe from the tax office.
"...it truly is an Outlook killer."
Outlook clone perhaps, but no where near even an Outlook threat. First and foremost is the lack of a Windows version. Second, Evolution merely mimics some of the functionality of Outlook, not all of it and it lacks the same kind of integration that Outlook/Exchange offer medium and large corporations wanting to standardize on an e-mail, calendar and messaging suite can. Call me a troll if you wish but it seems to me that Evolution is only being used by those who would be better served with Thunderbird; sort of like the Outlook users who should really be using Outlook Express.
With all the talk about an audit trail and how trivial it is, I have to ask, where's the audit trail now? I've used both the old mechanical lever machines and pen and paper ballots, neither provided me with a receipt to ensure that my vote actually counted. It would be just as easy and trivial to "lose a few votes" as it would be to alter the little 1's and 0's in an e-voting machine.
Also, how does one reconcile differences between the number of people signing into their precincts and the total number of votes cast? I've always had to vote on numerous things at a time so it's certainly possible that I could simply not care enough about a particular position to bother voting for anyone at all.
Voting will never be completely tamper proof. In my opinion Cringley brings up a more interesting point about software development processes than anything truly insightful about e-voting machines.
I agree 100%. When I purchase computer equipment I decide what the best quality component is within reason then I search for the cheapest price on that comnponent. Sometimes I wait a generation or two to help drop the cost even more but I don't wait too long as the difference in price is often minimal if I can even get the component anymore anyway. I have a Dual Xeon PII450 system running on a Supermicro board and it has yet (knock on wood) to fail me. I've had friends systems burn through two or three motherboards because they bought cheap components (cost and quality).
That's essentially what they are doing. The AirPanel runs a modified CE OS and it uses TS to connect to the desktop. You can't run CE like you do a PocketPC, instead there is only one "app" on the AirPanel and that is RDC, TS in disguise. Bandwidth is the key factor in these machines not performing as well as they could. Until we get 10gbps connections, streaming video via wireless RDC is not going to happen. The idea is a good one, it's just not possible to implemnt it perfectly right now.
Sure. We give the ACLU the finger and put prisoners to work.
Gun manufacturers and ISPs aren't exactly the same thing here. It is plausible to expect ISPs to do more to stem the use of file sharing for illegal purposes on their networks. It is not plausible to expect gun manufacturers to make bullets that only kill bad people.
Actually they're doing both. Much of the .Net initiative is about managed code which will eliminate buffer overflows, thus eliminating security exploits. Longhorn will be built with a lot of managed code.
Palladium, however, is about extending this security at both ends. The internet is great but it suffers from being based around the notion of naive trust instead of verifiable, secure trust. While this worked in the eary days of the internet, it simply does not work now. With computers being connected via broadband and always connected to the internet, OSes and the way they communicate internally and externally have to begin to build a system whereby they can verify, and thus trust, those communicating with the system, whether it be via IM, e-mail or through VPN.
Simply put, the internet is no longer a hobby. It is quickly becoming as important a part of our infrastructure as electricity and roads, to name a few. To this end, there must be a way to ensure that communication via the internet is secure and can be trusted. Palladium is only one method to obtain this trust.
"So STFU about something you obviously know nothing about."
Pardon me? You know absolutely nothing about me, for example the fact that I have a Bachelor's degree in Recording Industry Management: Production and Technology emphasis. I'd say I know far more about the recording industry then you could possibly imagine. Before you respond, take your foot out of your mouth.
Actually, the only time I've seen an NT machine cause problems (beyond my own) was with a POS register at Best Buy. The system crashed during a sale and it had to be rebooted. I've never seen an ATM, airport/bus terminal, or other NT based systems display the BSOD. Sure, MS OSes could be the cause of these problems, but it is far more likely these days for it to be the hardware. Remember the hardware developers now have direct access to the source code for Windows CE and most of Windows NT/2000/XP embedded. While they need cannot change the source code without Microsoft's approval, they do have access to it and can determine where bugs in the OS are going to cause problems. The fact that they are not taking advantage of this is not necessarily Microsoft's fault.
How is this fucking insightful? Jesus, the mods are morons.
The RIAA is NOT in the distribution business, they are in the association business, hence Recording Industry Association of America. They represent the rights and needs of their members. Whether or not record labels go to digital distribution of music or not is not up to the RIAA, it is up to each individual member company.
Simply put, copyright protects five basic rights of the holder. One of those basic rights is distribution. Whether you call file sharing stealing or not, it still violates creators rights by denying them the ability to control distribution. In the case of the RIAA member companies, many creators have signed the distribution rights to their mechanicals over to the record labels. This means the record labels (the RIAA member companies) can distribute and sell the actual physical recordings. In many cases the creator still maintains the publishing rights which means they can sell the right to transcribe sheet music and allow alternate arrangements to be made.
The point is, file sharing might be sharing and not stealing but it is still distribution of intellectual property and it is illegal without a prior consent of the copyright holder, period. Whether people will or will not purchase music online is irrelevant because it is up to the copyright holder to determine how they will distrute music. If a few small musicians make a killing at this method of distribution, great, but not every artist has to follow their lead.
Personally I'd rather purchase the CD and rip the music however I choose. I hate MP3s and tend to not like listening to music on my computer anyway. I've taken some CDs to work and ripped them to my computer there but this is within my rights, in the US, under fair use. I'm not happy with compressed audio files and if I must listen to them I want to be able to control how they are made.
I also forgot to add that I am now using the MN-700 Firewall/Router from Microsoft and this uses a variant of the Windows CE OS. To date I have had no problems with the device crashing and it runs 24/7.
Is it the OS or is it the underlying hardware? I have an iPaq 37xx PocketPC Runnign Pocket PC 2002 and I have never had any problems with the device and I use it regularly. With Microsoft giving hardware developers access to the source code, it's getting next to impossible to blame MS for these problems. Granted the source code can't be changed without first consulting MS but the option it now there. Frankly, I don't know who to believe when it comes to these things. Phone developers blame MS, MS blames the phone deelopers. I'd have to give MS the benefit of the doubt though since my iPaq 37xx works perfectly.
...Microsoft didn't design the iDrive system, they only provided the underlying OS. That's like blaming Linus for a shitty UI design from KDE or Gnome. As for its stability, stop comparing a desktop based Windows OS to what would be placed in ar computer systems (presumably CE or XP Embedded). I'm always amazed when the OSS community whines about all the FUD put out by companies like Microsoft or SCO yet they turn around and generate the same, if not more, amount of bullshit FUD in return.
Netmeeting is no longer going to be a part of Windows. Windows and MSN Messenger are already performing much of what NetMeeting originally did. On a side note, does this mean Microsoft innovated with the IM clients? NetMeeting is a pretty old client app.
"Why should you be immune the the laws?"
Exactly. Which is why the 12-year-old, the 15-year-old and the 66-year-old are being sued for copyright infringement. Oh, I'm sorry, you meant no corporate entity should be immune to the law, but individal citizens should be allowed to selectively choose which laws they will abide by and allow themselves to be prosecuted for. My mistake.
"Um, maybe college students with almost no disposable income shouldn't be a target market for $20 CDs, either."
Perhaps they should get a fucking job like I did while in college. Hey, what a concpet. Work for a living instead of moching off mom and dad.
"Here's a concept -- charge different amounts for different product. I.e., Mogwai and Ted Leo CDs should be offered for $5 each. Let the teen masses and the adult contemporary listeners (with their disposable dollars) pay $20 for an album."
This already sort of happens anyway. However I would like to know where you people buy your albums. The new Beatles - Let It Be... Naked [Limited Edition Bonus Disc] is only $11.99 at fye.com. For those who like newer music, two pop-stars, Alicia Keys and Britney Spears, have released new albums at $12.99 each. A quick perusal through fye.com put most albums between $9.99 and $14.99. Most of the really expensive $20 and up CDs were imports.
The point is, albums are not as expensive as many claim and if you only like one or two songs from the album then perhaps you should look elsewhere for music. I highly doubt every album you want to listen to has only one good song on it.
"Fortunately this will ultimately kill off the RIAA's price-fixing tactics. But goddamn it's an ugly death."
Nothing will kill off the RIAA. However, if you want to keep them from launching law suit after law suit, perhaps you should be looking for legitimate ways to get songs from their catalogs or look elsewhere for music. There are hundreds of thousands of independent and international labels that do not answer to the RIAA but it takes a little digging to find them.
...asbestos pants are the new, hot (no pun intended) fashion for 2004.
Not all universities are public. Any university with a five or six figure yearly tuition fee is likely not public. Two where I live are Harvard and Boston University. I'm still paying Boston U. back and will be for quite some time.
Owning cars and riding the bus are both legal activities. Purchasing CDs is legal but distributing the music contained on them is not legal. If government were to legitimize distribution of content by anyone then there would be little or no reason to purchase the original.
"Is it the primary purpose of society/government/law to protect business?"
Not exactly but it is their responsibility to foster a healthy economy and promote jobs for its citizens. If a company is not doing well then the economy will be affected and jobs will be lost so in a way it is the primary purpose of the government and laws to protect businesses.