I work for a company that is about to purchase quite a few Notebook computers, all of them will have Windows on it. We do not use Windows. We are also buying faster Hard Drives for these computers.
Would it be legal for use to (before we turn it on) replace the factory installed hard drive (with Windows on it) and sell the hard drives, along with the Windows XP Stickers on Ebay ?
We purchased one notebook already and it did not have any "License Agreement" paperwork. Apparently this comes up when you turn on the computer, but we had already replaced the hard drive, so we agreed to nothing.
BTW - anyone want to buy an 80GB 4200rpm notebook drive (IDE) with Window XP Home on it (along with the sticker)?
I have a Neo mp3 car player that does exactly what this patent covers, I bought it in 2000.
What good is the current patent system to our society (in reguard to computer science)?
For instance, this patent should be stricken by just looking at any ordinary file cabinet. The things these stupid patents cover benefit neither science nor the arts.
Windows is too much of a cash cow for Microsoft to be taking this long between releases - Microsoft is simply stalling until the Antitrust settlement is up, rather than actually change their business ethics. Here is a snip from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_antitrust_c ase
Microsoft's obligations under the settlement, as originally drafted, expire on November 12, 2007. [13] However, Microsoft later "agreed to consent to a two-year extension of part of the Final Judgments" dealing with communications protocol licensing, and that if the plaintiffs later wished to extend those aspects of the settlement even as far as 2012, it would not object. The plaintiffs made clear that the extension was intended to serve only to give the relevant part of the settlement "the opportunity to succeed for the period of time it was intended to cover", rather than being due to any "pattern of willful and systematic violations". The court has yet to approve the change in terms as of May 2006.[14]
The extension will only cover "communications protocol licensing" - if it ever gets approved.
Your argument is irrelevant because the United States does not need to "encourage" software development (in whatever twisted way you are thinking) because it will get developed reguardless if there is incentive or not, and yes it will evolve into something better and better just like everything else.
What people forget is the fact that the U.S. Constitution was setup to discourage anyone trampling the rights of anyone else - you are free to do whatever...EXCEPT kind of thing - read the first 2 sections of "Common Sense" for a refresher.
We no longer need to take away "the right to use whatever ideas we want" (Patent System) for the progress of Computer Science.
Just because someone can possibly profit from taking away everyone elses right is irrelevant !!!
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
We no longer need to encourage "inventors" anymore (in the software field), the Free/OSS Development model is proof of that. Thus, the patent system no longer promotes the progress of Science (in the area of Computer Science) and should be struck down - at least for software patents anyway.
- Where are they whenever there is a CIFS meeting ??
- Where did they go once ODF was being finalized ??
- Why don't they let the Mono guys present at Windows Conferences ??
If Microsoft wants interoperability they must realize that interoperability does not mean everyone else bending over backwards for them. It means working with other Companies/Individuals to ensure that EVERYONE benefits from it, not just Microsoft.
Forget the default search engine, I think they should go after Microsoft for defaulting to MSN as the default home page. Not only does Microsoft get all the traffic by default when people launch Internet Explorer, but they also place Ads on the page.
So, not only are they making a new business off of their current monopoly, but they are making quite a bit of money just on the ads. I mean, who would bother with MSN if they weren't forced into going there in the first place.
You are not too far off - except on the wrong side of the ocean...
I have always contended that the only reason there has not been a new release of Windows is the fact that Microsoft is going to try to avoid any Antitrust regulation.
The Antitrust penalties were started in November of 2002, and normally would be for 10 years.... However, Microsoft Lawyers cried until they dropped it to 5 years. So if they wait to release Vista until Nov. 2007 they probably will do (and will do) anything they want reguardless if it abuses their monopoly power.
Of course once Vista is released there will probably be another Antitrust suit brought against them, but it takes what 5-8 years before anything gets settled.
Anyway, Microsoft is a maximum profit company. The only reason not to release a new version of Windows every 2 years is to stall.
The ONLY reason I can think that "Vista" has not been released yet is because the "probation" period of the DOJ settlement is due to expire (probably) in November 2007.
Microsoft is a maximum profits kind of company and Windows is one of their Cash Cows. If it wasn't due to the fact that until Nov 2007 they have to somewhat play by "fair" rules, there would have already been at least 1 newer version of windows, I mean it has been over 4 YEARS !
Microsoft is just playing the stall game to keep itself in the media, trying to keep the public view on Windows and not GNU/Linux or whatever. Mark my words, the next version of Windows (Vista) will be released mid-Nov 2007, just in time for Christmas 2007. And yes it will probably include their own media player, web browser, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Photo Editor, Desktop Search, Kitchen Sink, etc.
I was not referring to the small "pittance" that Congress gave "users" to the archiving of a computer program. I am talking about the gross misuse of Copyright Power that Proprietary Software companies (and now RIAA and MPAA) use to add "licenses" to restrict the users of their programs.
Remember there are 3 states of Copyrights - Fair Use, Regulated Uses and Un-Regulated uses.
Fair Use is the ability to redistribute certain parts of the copyrighted work into other works, such as quotes, etc.
Regulated Use covers things such as making a copy and redistributing it to someone else - thus the original publishers have this right, and anyone they would grant (license) to have this right.
Un-Regulated uses are anything that you would want to do to that copyrighted work that is not "Re-Distributing" it.
Today, "copyright owners" considers everything in digital form (computer programs, music files) to be "Regulated" because in order to use the work you must make a copy of it first (wether knowingly or not). Thus they (beleive they can) add a separate License (above and beyond Copyright Law) to restrict what you can actually do with the work.
This is a gross misuse of what the Copyright Law was intended to do.
Further information can be found at "http://lessig.org/"
Congress needs to ammend the copyright law to allow ANY distribution to yourself.
Although this may kill most "Software Licenses" since most of them rely on the "Distributing from the CD to your computer" (or "Distributing from the Hard Drive to the Memory") to add ungodly amounts of restrictions "over and above" copyright law.
I know RMS may not be too popular because of his stern disposition, but I find that he chooses his words very carefully and is very articulate. Note that he does reference "Society" quite often and many people mis-understand him because of this. To actually get where he is "coming from" you may want to read the first section of "Common Sense".
If you have VMWare-tools installed in the guest Operating System (aka the virutal pc) then you can simply drag and drop files between your Host OS and the Virtual OS.
Either way I can't help wondering if this is a good thing since
if Suse or Ubunto or some other linux dist suddenly becomes popular
overnight, will they get nailed for bundling 100s of apps with it?
Will a judge know (or care) of the difference between open source
and MS when it comes to bundling freeware in a distribution?
Microsoft is a monopoly, they have an extremely strong market share - I mean heck you cannot even buy a computer from a large reseller without windows (Anti-trust anyone). The problem they have is when they bundle ANYTHING with windows they immediately have a majority share in the market - This is a gross mis-use of their monopoly power, and something that needs to be prevented for a free market to flourish.
IMO - the U.S. justice department is totally dropping the ball here. Microsoft IS stiffling innovation and nothing is being done about it in the U.S.
Back to your statement, it is not illegal for anyone to add applications to their product - unless of course they use their monopoly power to control an entire industry to use their product over any of it's competitors.
there is too much money spent on marketing and promotion to recoup expenses
Please give me a freakin break - they have money coming in from everywhere, it is almost as if you hum one of their songs you must pay them.
Anyway, $1 a song is extrememly too much money for a digital file - they do not pay for anything physical, and the price for servers/bandwidth is minimal. If the RIAA was serious about an online store I would say a good price point would be about a quarter per 5MB song, this would translate to over $3 for most albums, more than enough to recoup ANY of their costs (maybe even give over half of it to the artists too).
And as for their marketing, please - if you run a non-RIAA owned radio station you must PAY to play a song - even though you are in fact marketing their crap.
I have NO sympathy for the RIAA/MPAA/Whatever - they are ripping the American People off and are taking away our liberties while they do it. Please mod me down, I have karma to spare....
- No DRM - Ability to choose format (OGG, MP3, FLAC, etc) - Different Prices for different quality - Ability to access it on any Operating System - No exorbarant prices - $1 per song is Way too much !
Welcome to allofmp3.com
Not only does this site do all of this, but it also has quite a nice library of albums to choose from. Plus the prices are based on the file size - the only sane way to do it.
FWIW - the average price for a song is 5-10 CENTS !!
In the real world, if you create a good product or provide good information, you have the opportunity to make lots of money.
If the Internet was similar to the real world, all Internet Providers would be paying content producers money for the information the Internet Provider's customers use.
Unfortuately, with the Internet - it is opposite. Say you have a really good site and you gather quite a bit of traffic, unfortunately you pay your Internet provider by the megabytes of traffic your visitors use. A good slashdotting could bankrupt you - all because your providing good information.
If you want to listen to an excellent interview of how the Internet came to be how it is today, Nerd TV's interview with Brester Kahle (Internet Archive Founder) is definately worth a listen.
I have successfully deployed GNU/Linux networks, both servers and workstations. If you are at all serious about deploying a large amount of GNU/Linux Workstations the first thing you should do is replace the Windows Servers.
It is much easier integrating a Unix type workstation if you use Unix type servers. It is trivial to have nfs mounted/home directories, especially when you use LDAP for the User Database. If you attempt to deploy Unix type workstations in a Windows Network enviornment you will ALWAYS be fighting with the servers.
You are missing the point, all of the responses you gave are physical objects that require maintenance (i.e. elevator vendors, etc.). Software you get in a binary form is a "black box" - no one but the vendor CAN fix it, where as every example you gave is pretty much an open market. Your heater doesn't work and the person you hired can't fix it, simply call someone else with more know-how, etc.
The bottom line is Proprietary Software makes monopolies by nature, which accounts for all of the crappy support by EVERY proprietary software vendor - they KNOW you cannot get support elsewhere.
And all you'll get paid for telling a business that they can trust their daily operations, payroll, inventory, messaging, and public web presence to a machine you found on the street, running software that no one in the office knows how to maintain is... $0.00.
or you can explain how they can spend thousands of dollars on software that no one except Microsoft knows how it really works, no one except Microsoft can actually fix any bugs, no one except Microsoft knows exactly what information the software sends back to them, no one except Microsoft knows of all of the backdoors available, etc.
Alternatively, all you really need to do is to read the EULA aloud to the owner of the company, they will soon see why they should NOT choose any Microsoft product.
All of these studies fail to mention the #1 reason knowledgable people actually use GNU/Linux systems, freedom.
Microsoft Small Business Server Basic - $500 with Microsoft Computers you need a CAL for every user or computer: Client Access License for Small Bus. Server - $90 each
Red Hat Linux ES 4 with 1 year subscription $350 Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 with 1 year subscription $269
So for a 50-user network you are looking at about $5000 with MS Small Bus. Server compared with the prices above for a GNU/Linux Server (or you can simply download your own favorite Distro and use that).
If you purchase any computer with Windows pre-installed (any computer from a retailer) you will soon notice there are already Ads on it.
I just bought one for a school from Dell - it had 5 different dialup access companies software on it, it had "trial" versions of software from Corel, Symantec, Intuit, etc. Every program was basically a trial program (and this was with Windows XP PROFESSIONAL).
Furthermore, after uninstalling said programs, there were COMMERCIALS that popped up after I restarted the damn thing about 3 times. This commercial was for the full version of Quicken and was a full motion video!
Needless to say, after seeing that the drive was repartitioned, reformatted and Windows was reinstalled (along with Ubuntu of course).
Also, upon further thinking - to keep the settings consistant for each user as they use different machines, simply redirect the "Application Data" directory within the profile for each user to somewhere in their home directory. This way there program settings will follow them without actually having to use roaming profiles.
To redirect folders, simply use Active Directory's Group Policy Objects, or use the older System Policy Editor to create an ntconfig.pol file to place in the netlogon directory of your Domain Controllers. (I also have a custom template for the System Policy Editor to use with Samba on my website.)
Slashdot Mirror
I work for a company that is about to purchase quite a few Notebook computers, all of them will have Windows on it. We do not use Windows. We are also buying faster Hard Drives for these computers.
Would it be legal for use to (before we turn it on) replace the factory installed hard drive (with Windows on it) and sell the hard drives, along with the Windows XP Stickers on Ebay ?
We purchased one notebook already and it did not have any "License Agreement" paperwork. Apparently this comes up when you turn on the computer, but we had already replaced the hard drive, so we agreed to nothing.
BTW - anyone want to buy an 80GB 4200rpm notebook drive (IDE) with Window XP Home on it (along with the sticker)?
I have a Neo mp3 car player that does exactly what this patent covers, I bought it in 2000.
What good is the current patent system to our society (in reguard to computer science)?
For instance, this patent should be stricken by just looking at any ordinary file cabinet. The things these stupid patents cover benefit neither science nor the arts.
Windows is too much of a cash cow for Microsoft to be taking this long between releases - Microsoft is simply stalling until the Antitrust settlement is up, rather than actually change their business ethics. Here is a snip from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_antitrust_c ase
Microsoft's obligations under the settlement, as originally drafted, expire on November 12, 2007. [13] However, Microsoft later "agreed to consent to a two-year extension of part of the Final Judgments" dealing with communications protocol licensing, and that if the plaintiffs later wished to extend those aspects of the settlement even as far as 2012, it would not object. The plaintiffs made clear that the extension was intended to serve only to give the relevant part of the settlement "the opportunity to succeed for the period of time it was intended to cover", rather than being due to any "pattern of willful and systematic violations". The court has yet to approve the change in terms as of May 2006.[14]
The extension will only cover "communications protocol licensing" - if it ever gets approved.
Your argument is irrelevant because the United States does not need to "encourage" software development (in whatever twisted way you are thinking) because it will get developed reguardless if there is incentive or not, and yes it will evolve into something better and better just like everything else.
What people forget is the fact that the U.S. Constitution was setup to discourage anyone trampling the rights of anyone else - you are free to do whatever...EXCEPT kind of thing - read the first 2 sections of "Common Sense" for a refresher.
We no longer need to take away "the right to use whatever ideas we want" (Patent System) for the progress of Computer Science.
Just because someone can possibly profit from taking away everyone elses right is irrelevant !!!
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"
We no longer need to encourage "inventors" anymore (in the software field), the Free/OSS Development model is proof of that. Thus, the patent system no longer promotes the progress of Science (in the area of Computer Science) and should be struck down - at least for software patents anyway.
- Where are they whenever there is a CIFS meeting ??
- Where did they go once ODF was being finalized ??
- Why don't they let the Mono guys present at Windows Conferences ??
If Microsoft wants interoperability they must realize that interoperability does not mean everyone else bending over backwards for them. It means working with other Companies/Individuals to ensure that EVERYONE benefits from it, not just Microsoft.
FWIW there is a very good page on EFF's website about the ins and outs of student blogging.
And another one from Scholastic Administrator is also interesting.
Also, in case you are wondering; yes I do work at a school part time as a NetAdmin.
Forget the default search engine, I think they should go after Microsoft for defaulting to MSN as the default home page. Not only does Microsoft get all the traffic by default when people launch Internet Explorer, but they also place Ads on the page.
So, not only are they making a new business off of their current monopoly, but they are making quite a bit of money just on the ads. I mean, who would bother with MSN if they weren't forced into going there in the first place.
You are not too far off - except on the wrong side of the ocean...
I have always contended that the only reason there has not been a new release of Windows is the fact that Microsoft is going to try to avoid any Antitrust regulation.
The Antitrust penalties were started in November of 2002, and normally would be for 10 years.... However, Microsoft Lawyers cried until they dropped it to 5 years. So if they wait to release Vista until Nov. 2007 they probably will do (and will do) anything they want reguardless if it abuses their monopoly power.
Of course once Vista is released there will probably be another Antitrust suit brought against them, but it takes what 5-8 years before anything gets settled.
Anyway, Microsoft is a maximum profit company. The only reason not to release a new version of Windows every 2 years is to stall.
The ONLY reason I can think that "Vista" has not been released yet is because the "probation" period of the DOJ settlement is due to expire (probably) in November 2007.
Microsoft is a maximum profits kind of company and Windows is one of their Cash Cows. If it wasn't due to the fact that until Nov 2007 they have to somewhat play by "fair" rules, there would have already been at least 1 newer version of windows, I mean it has been over 4 YEARS !
Microsoft is just playing the stall game to keep itself in the media, trying to keep the public view on Windows and not GNU/Linux or whatever. Mark my words, the next version of Windows (Vista) will be released mid-Nov 2007, just in time for Christmas 2007. And yes it will probably include their own media player, web browser, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Photo Editor, Desktop Search, Kitchen Sink, etc.
I was not referring to the small "pittance" that Congress gave "users" to the archiving of a computer program. I am talking about the gross misuse of Copyright Power that Proprietary Software companies (and now RIAA and MPAA) use to add "licenses" to restrict the users of their programs.
Remember there are 3 states of Copyrights - Fair Use, Regulated Uses and Un-Regulated uses.
Fair Use is the ability to redistribute certain parts of the copyrighted work into other works, such as quotes, etc.
Regulated Use covers things such as making a copy and redistributing it to someone else - thus the original publishers have this right, and anyone they would grant (license) to have this right.
Un-Regulated uses are anything that you would want to do to that copyrighted work that is not "Re-Distributing" it.
Today, "copyright owners" considers everything in digital form (computer programs, music files) to be "Regulated" because in order to use the work you must make a copy of it first (wether knowingly or not). Thus they (beleive they can) add a separate License (above and beyond Copyright Law) to restrict what you can actually do with the work.
This is a gross misuse of what the Copyright Law was intended to do.
Further information can be found at "http://lessig.org/"
Congress needs to ammend the copyright law to allow ANY distribution to yourself.
Although this may kill most "Software Licenses" since most of them rely on the "Distributing from the CD to your computer" (or "Distributing from the Hard Drive to the Memory") to add ungodly amounts of restrictions "over and above" copyright law.
You can implement read-only usb drive access with a policy using either Group Policy Objects or the Windows System Policy Editor. The registry key is:
c ePolicies
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevi
Value is:
WriteProtect - REG_DWORD of 1 or 0 (1 = read-only)
I am going to update my policy template for the NT4 System Policy editor soon (in a few days) - You can download it at
http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poliedit.html
I highly encourage everyone to listen to a speech given by Richard Stallman on Software Patents.
Audio TranscriptI know RMS may not be too popular because of his stern disposition, but I find that he chooses his words very carefully and is very articulate. Note that he does reference "Society" quite often and many people mis-understand him because of this. To actually get where he is "coming from" you may want to read the first section of "Common Sense".
On the origin an design of Government in GeneralIf you have VMWare-tools installed in the guest Operating System (aka the virutal pc) then you can simply drag and drop files between your Host OS and the Virtual OS.
It is that simple.
Microsoft is a monopoly, they have an extremely strong market share - I mean heck you cannot even buy a computer from a large reseller without windows (Anti-trust anyone). The problem they have is when they bundle ANYTHING with windows they immediately have a majority share in the market - This is a gross mis-use of their monopoly power, and something that needs to be prevented for a free market to flourish.
IMO - the U.S. justice department is totally dropping the ball here. Microsoft IS stiffling innovation and nothing is being done about it in the U.S.
Back to your statement, it is not illegal for anyone to add applications to their product - unless of course they use their monopoly power to control an entire industry to use their product over any of it's competitors.
Please give me a freakin break - they have money coming in from everywhere, it is almost as if you hum one of their songs you must pay them.
Anyway, $1 a song is extrememly too much money for a digital file - they do not pay for anything physical, and the price for servers/bandwidth is minimal. If the RIAA was serious about an online store I would say a good price point would be about a quarter per 5MB song, this would translate to over $3 for most albums, more than enough to recoup ANY of their costs (maybe even give over half of it to the artists too).
And as for their marketing, please - if you run a non-RIAA owned radio station you must PAY to play a song - even though you are in fact marketing their crap.
I have NO sympathy for the RIAA/MPAA/Whatever - they are ripping the American People off and are taking away our liberties while they do it. Please mod me down, I have karma to spare....
Forget itunes, real, Winblows Media Center, etc.
What does everyone want in an online music store:
- No DRM
- Ability to choose format (OGG, MP3, FLAC, etc)
- Different Prices for different quality
- Ability to access it on any Operating System
- No exorbarant prices - $1 per song is Way too much !
Welcome to allofmp3.com
Not only does this site do all of this, but it also has quite a nice library of albums to choose from. Plus the prices are based on the file size - the only sane way to do it.
FWIW - the average price for a song is 5-10 CENTS !!
In the real world, if you create a good product or provide good information, you have the opportunity to make lots of money.
0 4&ext=mp3
If the Internet was similar to the real world, all Internet Providers would be paying content producers money for the information the Internet Provider's customers use.
Unfortuately, with the Internet - it is opposite. Say you have a really good site and you gather quite a bit of traffic, unfortunately you pay your Internet provider by the megabytes of traffic your visitors use. A good slashdotting could bankrupt you - all because your providing good information.
If you want to listen to an excellent interview of how the Internet came to be how it is today, Nerd TV's interview with Brester Kahle (Internet Archive Founder) is definately worth a listen.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/player/?show=0
I have successfully deployed GNU/Linux networks, both servers and workstations. If you are at all serious about deploying a large amount of GNU/Linux Workstations the first thing you should do is replace the Windows Servers.
/home directories, especially when you use LDAP for the User Database. If you attempt to deploy Unix type workstations in a Windows Network enviornment you will ALWAYS be fighting with the servers.
It is much easier integrating a Unix type workstation if you use Unix type servers. It is trivial to have nfs mounted
You are missing the point, all of the responses you gave are physical objects that require maintenance (i.e. elevator vendors, etc.). Software you get in a binary form is a "black box" - no one but the vendor CAN fix it, where as every example you gave is pretty much an open market. Your heater doesn't work and the person you hired can't fix it, simply call someone else with more know-how, etc.
The bottom line is Proprietary Software makes monopolies by nature, which accounts for all of the crappy support by EVERY proprietary software vendor - they KNOW you cannot get support elsewhere.
or you can explain how they can spend thousands of dollars on software that no one except Microsoft knows how it really works, no one except Microsoft can actually fix any bugs, no one except Microsoft knows exactly what information the software sends back to them, no one except Microsoft knows of all of the backdoors available, etc.
Alternatively, all you really need to do is to read the EULA aloud to the owner of the company, they will soon see why they should NOT choose any Microsoft product.
All of these studies fail to mention the #1 reason knowledgable people actually use GNU/Linux systems, freedom.
Dell's price with their servers is:
Microsoft Small Business Server Basic - $500
with Microsoft Computers you need a CAL for every user or computer:
Client Access License for Small Bus. Server - $90 each
Red Hat Linux ES 4 with 1 year subscription $350
Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 with 1 year subscription $269
So for a 50-user network you are looking at about $5000 with MS Small Bus. Server compared with the prices above for a GNU/Linux Server (or you can simply download your own favorite Distro and use that).
If you purchase any computer with Windows pre-installed (any computer from a retailer) you will soon notice there are already Ads on it.
I just bought one for a school from Dell - it had 5 different dialup access companies software on it, it had "trial" versions of software from Corel, Symantec, Intuit, etc. Every program was basically a trial program (and this was with Windows XP PROFESSIONAL).
Furthermore, after uninstalling said programs, there were COMMERCIALS that popped up after I restarted the damn thing about 3 times. This commercial was for the full version of Quicken and was a full motion video!
Needless to say, after seeing that the drive was repartitioned, reformatted and Windows was reinstalled (along with Ubuntu of course).
Also, upon further thinking - to keep the settings consistant for each user as they use different machines, simply redirect the "Application Data" directory within the profile for each user to somewhere in their home directory. This way there program settings will follow them without actually having to use roaming profiles.
To redirect folders, simply use Active Directory's Group Policy Objects, or use the older System Policy Editor to create an ntconfig.pol file to place in the netlogon directory of your Domain Controllers. (I also have a custom template for the System Policy Editor to use with Samba on my website.)